The colony occupies the submerged foundation of a pre-flood parking structure in the lower Underworld, approximately fourteen meters below the current waterline. It resembles coral in the way a photograph of a person resembles the person — structurally analogous, fundamentally different. The organism is colonial, sessile, and bioluminescent. It has been growing on the concrete since before the structure was submerged, based on the growth patterns relative to the waterline history. This is not possible, because the structure was submerged in 2147 and the colony's basal layer has been carbon-dated to approximately 2080. It was growing on a parking garage that was, at the time, dry and above ground.

When threatened — and we use the word loosely, as our interactions have included physical sampling, chemical exposure, and acoustic disruption — the colony does not die, retreat, or defend. It reverses. Individual polyps undergo a process visually identical to transdifferentiation, reverting through what appear to be earlier developmental stages until they reach a form resembling a planula larva. The larvae then re-settle and begin growing again. The entire cycle takes approximately seventy-two hours. We have triggered it four times. Each time, the colony returns to a state indistinguishable from its pre-disturbance form.

Samples removed from the colony die within hours. No exception. The organism cannot survive separation from the main body. In situ, it appears to be effectively immortal. We have found no upper limit to its reversal capacity. The basal layer — the oldest part of the colony — shows no senescence markers. It is, by every measure we can apply, the same age it was when we first sampled it six years ago.

Dr. Amara Johansson-Diallo has proposed that the organism does not experience time in a linear fashion. This is not a scientific statement. She knows this. She put it in the report anyway.