Vendeks, short for vendekobiology, are small and primitive organisms that inhabit the novo-vacuum, an accidentally created artificial universe with radically different natural laws. They are composed of quantum graph structures and are therefore unfathomably small, about 10-33 meters across. They occupy virtually all of the novo-vacuum's volume and comprise the basis of all structures within
Etymology
The term "vendek" is an abbreviation for "vendekobiology," derived from "microbiology." The "vendeko-" prefix is an informal SI prefix meaning "10-33 of something," and is most likely derived from the Greek term for "eleven," since 10-33 is the same as 1000-11.
Description
Vendeks are not a single species. Rather, the term encompasses a wide variety of organisms that may or may not be related to each other, and share only their size and complexity in common. In this way, it is rather like the term "microbe." However, vendeks share a number of common traits.
Anatomy & Physiology
Vendeks are simpler even than single-celled matter-based organisms. They are essentially self-replicating "polymers" only a few hundred Planck lengths across. They are complexes of quantum graph structures and consist of several distinct regions of space, each with its own separate graph structure and therefore laws of physics.
Reproduction
Vendek reproduction is exceedingly simple. For the most part, they simply make more of themselves out of surrounding vendeks. Others can be produced by xennobes, the novo-vacuum's version of multicellular life.
Sustenance
Since the novo-vacuum has no consistent laws of physics and consists instead of Planck-scale patches of different possible sets of laws, it has no mass or energy to speak of, and therefore the vendeks do not "eat" in any meaningful way. They do not appear to take in anything analogous to nutrients, although different kinds of vendeks seem to do better in different conditions. Rather, it appears that their emergence and continued existence is an innate property of the novo-vacuum.
Ecology
Vendeks make up everything within the novo-vacuum - in a sense, it could be said that space itself is alive there. Since the novo-vacuum is a sphere around 600 light-years across, the vendek population is inconceivably large, probably in the region of 10155 individuals.
Large quantities of vendeks can form more complex organisms called xennobes, which are 10-27 meters in size or larger. In xennobes, vendeks are roughly analogous to cells or organs. Xennobes use vendecs to sense their environment by sending out two-way vendec "probes," or communicate by sending out one-way vendecs.
More advanced xennobes use vendecs to build technology. Such structures can be quite large, and some can be used to perform highly complex technical feats. They cannot, however, be made to leave the novo-vacuum, because they would then collapse into the sterile, stable vacuum of normal spacetime.