Threads (Draad)

Shortly after the first Lights had built themselves bodies from short matter, they realized they would need an easy way to repair any damage done to them. They had not discovered blocking fields yet, so they were constantly being bombarded with matter as they traveled through the universe. They came up with the Draad, given the name Threads by Jack, a device which would crawl over their lattices repairing any damage found.

The Lights had not yet invented anything. The universe consisted of the Lights, a huge amount of short matter, and energy. They also had no real understanding of how anything worked. They had observed things happening, but were still figuring it all out. Some of the Lights had observed that some types of short matter liked to stick to the bodies they had made, some would coil up when touching their bodies and others would stretch out. They manipulated a few atoms of these types of short matter into the first threads. They had no computers or any kind of circuitry in them. They simply expanded and contracted, making them move across the Lights lattice. If they entered a crack or divot in the lattice, enough of the sticky atoms would make contact with it to fill part of the damaged area.

A the eons passed, the Lights bodies began to take on a lumpy appearance from all the matter that had been filling any damaged areas. Every million years or so, some would take time to reshape their bodies and properly repair the damage. Most thought they needed a better way to repair themselves, but had to wait until the first light circuits were invented. With the light circuits they were able to build a system which could control the threads movements, as well as when and how damage would be repaired. At that point, the first reusable Threads had been created.

When the Lights saw how easily damaged organic life forms were, they modified the threads to help keep them alive when they were being rounded up for corrections. Even though the Strings were careful to not hurt any life form they captured, injuries could easily happen before those life form were sedated. Eventually threads were adapted to have the ability to repair anything the Lights needed repaired.