First Contact

Chapter 514: Resurgence

"To one of the Mad Lemurs of Terra, everything is a weapon. They say, they believe that, just as they believe there are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous beings. During the final days of the Lanaktallan Unified Council, the allies of the lemurs used a weapon that all of them had discarded but the lemurs had taught them.

They taught it to all the lemurs had fought.

What fear tastes like." - Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff

The Atrekna had existed for billions of years, slowly siphoning off the last resources of a dying universe. Their initial plan was to harvest the young universe and use it to reinvigorate their own universe.

But the young universe laughed at their plans and destroyed the Atrekna's home universe with such ease that the Atrekna were left breathless. If they had known that it was a single half-bake short-life clone in a hot-fabbed aerospace fighter that had released their universe from its torment they would have found themselves left numb at the ease the new universe destroyed theirs.

From the old universe's 'point of view', so to speak, it had been a mercy killing.

But still a killing.

Which is why the New Universe had brought in the Mad Lemurs of Terra to do the killing.

The Atrekna had reeled in shock at the destruction. Had reached out to try to reestablish themselves, and found that the universe itself rejected their dominion and mastery. Their knowledge of time was proven to be nearly irrelevant in the New Universe, requiring those who sought knowledge to relearn everything.

Temporal mechanics and mathematics went from something so simple even slavespawn could do it to difficult to understand systems that required additional scientific systems to be able to explain.

To that end, the Atrekna had launched their own 'Black Box Programs' hidden in places they had once held mastery.

Black boxes were perfect for clandestine research. All entry was strictly controlled, information flow was carefully monitored, and there were very few ways to reach a properly secured Black Box. Like most races, the Atrekna ensured there was only one way to enter or exit their version of the Black Box. Every other race only ensured a single point of access.

Well, except the humans.

They'd long ago learned a simple lesson that the Atrekna had either never learned or forgotten.

"If the enemy can't get in, you can't get out."

But the Mad Lemurs of Terra were the universe's malevolence made manifest.

And they taught lessons the same way the universe did.

The hard way.

At first, the Atrekna were not aware they even had a problem. They had captured and secured a lemur, a living subject, and brought it to the research facility. It had been costly, true, the lemur had even managed to kill three of the Quorum that had controlled the slavespawn, and killed almost all of the first three waves of slavespawn.

But it had been captured.

Then it had been moved. Moving a lemur, even a dead one, was difficult. There were an abnormally large and active amount of cerebral and neural systems dedicated to time itself. In some ways, the lemurs were almost precognitive. Unlike everyone but the Atrekna, their temporal systems were interlocked with their decision making complexes, their reflexes, even their higher brain functions.

The Atrekna had eagerly examined the brains of the dead lemurs they had brought to the research station at great effort. Even dead, the brains often held a minuscule electric charge that kept the temporal sections and some part of the lower brain function still slightly active. They had examined their muscles, their nervous system beyond the neural tissue, even examined such things as pupil response and bone density.

The Atrekna researchers were concerned. Not the younger ones, who had grown to maturity long after the records of the war against the Herd Masters and the Hive Lords had faded to nothingness. The Young Ones often ignored the records of the war only a few thousand years ago where they had first encountered the Mad Lemurs of Terra.

The older researchers, those who had been alive during the First Expeditionary Probe, examined the lemurs with careful respect. There had been... incidents during the First Expeditionary Probe that had resulted in the loss of whole Conclaves. It had been a costly lesson to learn not to use temporal trickery to revive a lemur in order to examine it. As soon as the lemur regained brain function they locked down the temporal area right around them, within the limits of their cognitive abilities, and without fail always reacted violently.

So the Atrekna who had taken up performing autopsies on the lemur corpses had been extremely careful. It had seen that there were certain, shall we say, discrepancies involved in examining the lemurs.

The first one had been that using psychic ability to examine the lemur's DNA had, without fail, caused the DNA to shift, to mutate, to become psychically active and even attempt to lash back at anyone examining it. Small, pathetic uses of energy that were easily deflected or suppressed, but the act of using that energy destroyed the DNA sample.

The Atrekna had been forced to use technology to examine the DNA. The veneers were almost too small to detect, so simple psychic power was no longer enough. Instruments of alloys, biological systems, and engineering were put to use.

Even then, exposure to phasic energy resulted in the same thing happening.

The Atrekna had learned that even a subtle phasic exposure would result in parts of the DNA 'fragmenting' to reveal completely different DNA underneath the veneer.

The Atrekna wondered if it was Lanaktallan gentling, or perhaps an attempt by the Hive Lords to prevent their slave soldiers from rebelling. Further examination showed that simulated Hive Lords phasic attacks caused nearly three hundred thousand steps of the DNA ladder to be stripped of the veneer.

That ruled out Hive Lord gentling.

There was no omnivore removal, no lessening of size, strength, or toughness or intellectual capability. No reduction of cognitive processing.

That ruled out Herd Master gentling.

Looking at the data, the Atrekna were perplexed. Someone had adjusted the lemur's DNA to hold those veneers, which prevented the use of psychic ability beyond passive defenses, but ensured that the veneers would shatter under exposure to phasic attacks.

Who had done that?

To the Atrekna, it was an important question. Examination of the lemurs had shown that less than 50,000 years prior the lemurs had barely mastered fire and crude tools made of stone and animal parts. Careful examination had shown that the lemurs, 50,000 years ago, had suffered what should have been a life extinction event.

A volcano, a complete loss of their planet's magnetic field, a solar minima that had been chaotic and violent, and lastly, a loss of all but 1,500 members of their species, maybe even as low as 40 breeding pairs, according to temporal DNA examination.

That led a few Atrekna to back off and come at the problem of the lemurs from a different angle.

The lemurs weren't the type to go down easy, the researchers claimed. A species on a planet that had suffered an extinction even like that would have to evolve from a small creature that had been able to survive such a disaster with a stable population. If the Mad Lemurs of Terra had indeed been a larger mammal, they had to have gone through extreme pressure and extreme methods to survive.

The other faction argued that the lemurs could not have been reduced to that few breeding pairs such a short time ago, the lemurs were large and needed a high caloric diet, they would not have even had the population to ensure they didn't starve to death in such a situation.

But DNA didn't lie. They all shared common ancestors extremely close to current times. Worse, there was evidence of evolutionary offshoot absorption in their DNA.

The universe snickered at their confusion on how similar but distinct groups of evolutionary differing lemurs could have been put back into a whole. The universe had solved it simply.

The universe had ensured the losers were made of tasty tasty meat and their women had impressive primary and secondary sexual characteristics.

To quote an ancient Terran saying: "If we discover your men are made of tasty tasty meat and your women have large breasts and booties, you're pretty much about to be extinct."

The universe found it amusing that the Atrekna, billions of years from any type of sexual urges or desires, could not comprehend that being made of attractive, yet tasty, meat was a death sentence for anyone encountering the Mad Lemurs of Terra.

This argument led to two divisions in the normally unified Atrekna scientific fields. Usually, a species was stable for tens of millions of years, were able to mature and grow to sentience on a calm, placid world.

Half of the scientists believed that the lemurs had to have been uplifted. There was no natural way for a species that had suffered an extinction event to survive more than a few dozen generations, much less dominate their planet, discover superluminal travel, and be able to effectively fight against species that had cities older then their species.

The other half argued that the lemurs had been put in an evolutionary pressure cooker. That the lemurs had no choice but to master fire, master tools, master weapons. They argued that once the arms race started, there was no end to it.

The station commander and his Quorum had to step in and stop the arguments, isolating the two factions from one another.

Both sides had insisted that a live lemur be captured and brought to them. There, they would observe the lemur, and one side or the other would be proven right. They insisted on more deceased lemurs, to examine more closely, as using temporal reversion always ended badly with the lemurs.

Which is how the scientific team that was sure that the lemurs had been updated just stared as their lemur subject stood up, extended her hand, and proclaimed "I am the land."

The one that was sure that the lemurs were some sort of insane pressure cooker species that represented an almost infinitesimal statistical abnormality made into reality, tensed, sure it was some kind of new trick.

They were prepared for any trick the lemur could come up with. Some of them were literally millions of years old, had studied the ancient crystals of the Great Harvest, and had studied the crystals of the First Expeditionary Probe.

They knew they would able to see things clearly, unfettered by emotions that they had left behind billions of years ago. Yes, there had been some resurgence of more base emotions since the discovery of the lemurs, but they knew that clear logical approaches would be able to counter any trick of the lemurs.

The blood sizzled on the phasonium alloy floor and slowly evaporated.

The Atrekna overseeing the scientists, who was there to make sure that arguments didn't devolve into psychic combat, was linked to the shared consciousness, unlike the scientists. It had proven beneficial to allow the scientists to create a smaller shared consciousness gestalt with one another rather than all join in the greater one when examining the lemurs. It prevented arguments.

Because of that, the Chief Scientist was aware of what happened. It saw it through scores of eyes, felt it through scores of senses, even as his mind was locked by disbelief.

First, the incident in the autopsy and vivisection laboratory, which led to three Atrekna pulling free of the shared consciousness as they fled deeper into the station, their minds full of a primal emotion that almost all of the Atrekna had never felt.

Fear.

Immediately, in every corridor, the temperature dropped as the humidity spiked and the pressure dropped almost infinitesimally. The hallways and corridors filled with thick fog that sparkled and glimmered with phasic energy, making it opaque even to psychic power.

The lights, phasic adjusted matter partially out of phase with the rest of reality, went out. Snuffed out completely, the matter vanishing from Atrekna senses. New lights blossomed, circles of light on the ceilings that barely illuminated around them.

In some places where the phasic protomatter had vanished, purple Atrekna blood dripped from the ceiling, vanishing into the fog.

At times the fog would swirl, to reveal twisted and strange patterns in the floor. At times the floor was phasonium alloy, other times rusted metal grates, and still other times common dirt as if the walls and ceilings were resting on the soil of a planet.

Great machinery could be heard thumping and grinding in the distance in some hallways. In others there was nothing but the hiss of steam and the dripping of liquid. Still others the faint tones of immature lemur females singing in the distance could be heard. In a few places the faint screaming of Atrekna overcome by fear or physical injuries could be heard.

Phasic impressions skittered through the hallways. Half-remembered memories of the battlefield, of horror, of things that should not be. Phasic impressions of fear, horror, hopelessness, and despair could be felt drifting behind the walls or swirling in the mist.

Almost every Atrekna went still, instincts long buried kicking in as everything suddenly changed around them. Some of them focused their powers, pulling out of the shared consciousness, as they pushed everything down and ensured that their psychic powers were all internal, that not a hint of phasic energy was being emitted.

The lemur smiled at that.

So you do know fear. You did have a predator, she thought to herself.

The scientists watched, unaware of what was happening in the station around them, as the lemur sat down, folding her legs, putting her hands on her knees, closing her eyes. They could see brain activity increase, but so far, they had found no reason for it.

The Chief Scientist looked at the instruments. Delicate and precise mechanisms one part crystal, one part engineering, one part biological, that were examining everything about the lemur. The Chief Scientist checked the shared consciousness again.

In some places the walls were beginning to drip with thick purple blood, leaving strange savage looking scrawled runes.

The Chief Scientist took the image of those strange runes and sent them to the Atrekna in charge of the lemur's language and the language of the alliance known as the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems.

**what does it mean** the Chief Scientist asked.

**It appears to be simple letter replacement** the Chief Linguistics Scientist answered. **A moment**

The Chief Scientist watched through the shared consciousness as several of the Young Ones broadcast their dismay that they were no longer able to drift through the hallways on phasic energy. That the floor seemed to absorb it, forcing them to walk on their own feet.

Walk.

Like peasants.

The Chief of Station Operations rebuked them for bothering the shared consciousness with such trivial things when there was obviously some kind of interference with the station's reality matrixes.

**Chief Scientist** the Linguist sent.

**Inform me of your examination**

**A simple letter replacement. Each rune stands for a letter in their language** the Linguist said, rapidly explaining the method it had used to deducing the meaning of the runes.

**spit it out** the Chief Scientist ordered. **what do they say?**

**You will all die here** the Linguist said.

The Chief Scientist cut the link with a flash of disbelief, not in the translation, but in the statement.

Blood in other hallways was spelling out other words. The Chief Scientist tasked the Chief Linguist with translating them.

**Simple letter replacement, even easier to decode** the Chief Linguist said.

**How so**

**It is our hieroglyphic system** the Chief Linguist said. **a combination of those runes to represent one of our own heiroglyphics**

**What does it say**

**You will all die here** the Chief Linguist said. **And other threats. It must be coming from the primate**

The Chief Scientist checked again. No phasic ability was seen, just elevated brain activity in those strange organs and those strange neural clusters.

**impossible** the Chief Scientist said. **find the real reason**

The Chief Linguist disconnected with a spike of 'do it yourself' impudence.

There was a sudden feeling of something cold intruding into the shared consciousness. Something alien, something strange, something that did not belong.

**there you are** the voice was metallic, buzzing, seeming to come from a hundred different sources. **you cannot hide there is no life in the void**

**who is that** the Station Chief demanded.

**i have had many names** the metallic buzzing replied into the shared consciousness.

The Chief Security Officer, previously a largely ceremonial position that now found itself having to work due to the activities of the insane lemurs, brutally injected a large section of his consciousness into the shared consciousness. He cast about, uncaring that his presence pushed and shoved against his fellow Atrekna's minds. Those who tried to disconnect he grabbed and examined closely, shoving into their minds brutally to examine their thoughts.

He was convinced that one of the Atrekna was doing this to somehow dominate the others.

**i see you** the Chief Security Officer heard.

**reveal yourself** it ordered.

Half of the Atrekna still connected to the shared consciousness immediately yanked free, making it tenous, nebulous.

**you cannot starve me** the metallic buzzing stated. The shared consciousness strengthened. **this is nothing but a crude biological data network impressive from the outside to those who have never seen such things but trivial to one such as I**

The Chief Security Officer lashed around itself with psychic power, trying to injure, or maybe find, the source of the voice that seemed to buzz all around it only to merge into a barely understandable whole.

An Atrekna using a cognitive device, the biological/phasic equivalent of a computer, stared in mind-blank shock as it suddenly started displaying **i see you** over and over and over.

The stream of hieroglyphics suddenly stopped.

At his name.

The Atrekna screamed over the shared consciousness as the cognitive device suddenly had black organic looking matter boil up onto the surface, until it was completely covered. A handful of bubbles appeared, then opened into red rimmed eyes with slit pupils.

**i see you** appeared on the data display.

Black biomatter split to reveal teeth, purple flesh, and a long barbed tongue that licked the teeth.

The Atrekna's name appeared under the previous words on the data display.

**it took me a while to understand** the buzzing told the Chief Security Officer. **your technology is different because growing what you need is less resource intensive than huge factories**

**reveal yourself** the Chief Security Officer demanded, lashing out around itself.

The Atrekna screamed again.

Down in engineering, one of the Young Ones removed the maintenance panel from one of the massive environmental generators, pulling hard at it when it was stuck for a moment. Strands of sticky black biomatter stretched between the panel and the interior of the generator that handled the exchange of gasses.

Inside was strange organs, shiny black tissue that looked like solidified oil, and a hundred eyes that blinked open. Several mouths opened and screamed at the Atrekna.

It slammed the panel back on and backed up, generating a priority attention signal to the shared consciousness.

**you are so pathetic and tiny that i did not see you at first i did not understand you were in here in this biologically generated information network of such narrow and shallow bandwidth** the buzzing metallic voice said. **it took me time to generate the chains to generate the processing power to tap into your bandwidth**

**who are you** the Chief Scientist asked.

**i have had many names** the voice replied.

A security being, rushing toward the morgue, screamed as he fell waist deep into the black ooze that covered the floor. Two others grabbed him and pulled at him.

He ripped apart at the waist, acid eating away at him.

The floor suddenly turned back to brushed phasonium alloy.

**render the lemur unconscious** the Chief Scientist ordered.

The level of O2 was lowered as the level of CO and CO2 was raised.

Still the lemur sat, breathing steadily.

The scientists frowned.

One ran a spectral analysis of the air around the lemur.

21% Oxygen

70% Nitrogen

9% Trace Gases

**RENDER IT UNCONSCIOUS!** the Chief Scientist roared over the shared consciousness of the two scientific teams.

**we are trying** one scientist said.

**we tried pumping out the atmosphere the atmosphere is ignoring our attempts** another stated.

**send security beings in to render it unconscious** the Station Chief ordered.

**do not** the Chief Scientist snapped. **doing so may provide a way for the lemur to escape**

**it is a primitive** the Chief of Security scoffed.

There was no mocking answer from the buzzing.

Another Atrekna screamed in fear and agony as black tentacles dripping with slime rose from the mist, mouths opening on the ends. The mouths darted down, sinking into the Young One's flesh, and the tentacles pulled it down. Its companions cut loose with psychic assaults that only made the mist swirl.

More tentacles rose up.

The remaining Young Ones fled.

In another part of the station a door opened in front of an Atrekna and revealed, not the room, but the gullet of a massive beast, its huge teeth, and its tongue. In front of the others the tongue lashed out, grabbed the Atrekna, and yanked into into the maw. The door shut, hiding the suddenly chewing teeth, muffling the screams.

Cringing, one of the others triggered the door.

It opened to reveal an empty room.

Only a puddle of purple blood on the floor.

**DO SOMETHING** the Station Chief roared at the Chief Security Officer.

**what am I to do** it asked.

The new emotion, or perhaps it was an old emotion that the Atrekna had forgotten, filled the shared consciousness.

The Chief Security Officer was vaguely aware that someone had launched one of the smaller vessels and was rapidly heading toward a superluminal travel point. It made a motion at one assistant to try to do something about the waist deep fog, the flickering lights, filling the chamber.

The eight members of its Security Quorum suddenly backed away. All of them broadcasting something new that all of the Atrekna were rediscovering.

It started to reach out to the craft, to those aboard it, when it felt something.

Fingers.

Fingers crawling up its back, around its head. Long strong fingers, with black biomechanical armor over the fingers, over the hands, over the long arms that vanished into the mist that had billowed up.

It broadcast its sudden terror into the shared consciousness. It broadcast its pain and confusion as the fingers tightened, pushing through purple flesh.

One set of lips drew back, exposing teeth.

The watching Atrekna all fled for the door as the mist parted to reveal the creature. A smooth arc of a head, eyeless, hairless, glossy black dripping with clear slime.

The jaws opened.

The Chief Security Officer screamed out loud, a shrill high pitched sound.

The second mouth punched forward, driven by a biomechanical piston.

It thrust all the way through the head, extending out the other side, the tiny jaws snapping.

A long black segmented biomechanical tail wrapped around the twitching body of the Chief Security Officer.

The remaining two Atrekna in the room, frozen by fear, could only vocalize their distress in long high pitched screams.

It dropped back into the mist, taking the body with it.

The mist swirled, revealing nothing but the metal alloys of the station.

The Atrekna screamed louder.

In the lab, in the containment chamber, the lemur just smiled.