A pinprick of light appears, a dimensionless singularity. There might have been innumerable singularities but a single one will do. Like a fabulous seed, this first timeless, dimensionless singularity contains all the information the universe will need for its entire existence and its diverse manifestations - logically including human and other intelligence. Some might name it God. It is the beginning of everything.
Time is born and the cosmic clock starts ticking.
The singularity explodes into Time, spouting the limitless energy of the electromagnetic field into existence. This energy, light, stands out in an infinity of non-being. There is no outer resistance but in the explosion there is attenuation. As the light field expands to fill the universe of time, it attenuates, it stretches the field. Every trillionth of a trillionth of a human second, the onrush pauses as the attenuation brakes and resists the headlong expansion.