First Contact

Chapter 571: Interlude

The stellar system had been 'sunk' into the subspace foam, slowed in time, for almost a year outside of the stellar system. Inside the system, it was far longer. Centuries had passed and the Atrekna had built fleets of bioweapons, warships, and autonomous war machines. When resources ran low they made temporal copies of the old resources to replace them. The sun was turned red as its resource consumption was throttled and the stellar mass lifted to provide resources over and over. Gas giants were mined over and over, being taken from the past as a copy to replace the gas giant mined of everything the Atrekna needed.

[The Universe Disliked That]

From that system they launched attacks on other systems that had crossed the system's path. To an outsider it looked like the Atrekna were attacking planets and systems at random, making planetfall through some type of mat-trans or under stealth. Each system they took, they sunk into the subspace foam, removing it from the greater universe and using temporal shifting to harvest the system.

[The Universe Will Remember That]

The Atrekna were getting established, preparing to use the dozens of systems they rapidly took over as a springboard to take over the entire galactic arm in little more than a century or two. The Atrekna were as excited as beings of nearly pure logic could be. The universe was a vast trove of resources that only they could truly understand. Full of over-excited particles, chronotrons that appeared in a sparkling spray whenever timelines collapsed upon each other, and particles that popped into existence seemingly willy-nilly.

They knew, as it was only logical, that there was nothing that could stand in their way.

True, there were several feral species that could temporarily resist the Atrekna, but time was on the Atrekna's side. While time would weaken those species, the Atrekna would find a way to overcome and then enslave them. To twist their genetics to the use of the Atrekna, even if it was just as a food source for the more useful slavespawn.

The most vexing of the feral species, a highly aggressive primate descended from lemurs, had already been wiped out through archeoreversion. While their allies still held firm to their lemurs doctrine and weapon systems, the Atrekna knew that without the highly aggressive lemurs, the Atrekna would grind down the other species until they were smooth, bring them into the fold as servants.

Like all of the resources, every species belonged to the Atrekna.

[The Universe Disliked That]

With over a hundred systems under their control, systems that were either empty or could not resist them, the Atrekna knew it was time to start expanding again. While less than a year had passed on the outside, centuries of preparation had passed for the Atrekna. Growing more slavespawn, building more war machines. Breeding more Atrekna.

True, the Young Ones were the most anxious to go out and conquer, but the Old Ones and the Ancient Ones could not fault their logical eagerness. The Old Ones and the Ancient Ones understood that the area they had widely been taking over was empty of life and had to be reseeded.

The great war engines of the previous conflict had sterilized world after world, but that had not prevented the Atrekna from reaching back and restoring the planet to the glory of Atrekna occupation.

The Atrekna felt cold logical satisfaction as they began bringing forward Atrekna from the time of the first war against the Hive Lords and the Herd Lords. The Atrekna brought forward were content to see that the Atrekna had returned to the universe to harvest its bounty.

The Atrekna turned their eyes toward the base of the spur and toward the far end of the spur.

The Hive Lords old territory lay to the coreward. Where the Hive Lords had created vast larders to feed the vast appetites of their queens. Toward the spinward areas of the spur was untapped territory that apparently the Hive Lords had built another vast empire.

Despite whatever fictions the other races believed, the Atrekna knew that the Hive Lords would not, could not, coexist with other races when they fed on not only meat, but on thought, just like the Atrekna.

They had destroyed the Hive Lord's Janissary, the Atrekna would destroy the Hive Lords.

The Atrekna began choosing targets, further into what the primitive ferals called "the Long Dark", heading spinward. Each system was targeted, sunk into the subspace foam, the sun turned red, and then conquered and harvested repeatedly. At times they came across solitary Ancient Machines that fled, fought to the death, or followed their original programming and bowed to the Atrekna.

The Atrekna began expanding coreward. Choosing uninhabited systems first. Or systems not easily protected. Again, the Atrekna would sink the system 'down' to speed up the passage of time relative to outside the system, turn the stellar mass into a cool red giant, then harvest the system and its inhabitants.

They were rebuffed in places. The loss of Hesstla was particularly grating as something had happened there to make it so it could not be utilized. The Atrekna began scouting carefully, the fact they had to skulk and sneak around grating to them, for systems that were unprotected by the feral fleets.

They had not forgotten that the feral fleets had destroyed the Old Universe as well as the Great Resource Site.

The Young Ones wanted to hurry up, take more worlds, subjugate more species, and the Old Ones and Ancient Ones were content to let them try so they could observe the Young One's failures and analyze them.

The loss of one of their most advanced research stations was grating. They had received some data.

The research teams had captured a live lemur. They watched the video, watched the phasic recordings, watched the temporal recordings.

They watched with cold logical horror as the lemur brought the dead to life, summoned nightmare creatures, and turned the very machinery of the space station against the Atrekna. The Atrekna conferred.

It was not phasic energy, although the lemur had been flush with it. It was some other form of control over matter and energy. A form that allowed the lemur to create biological matter, living creatures, and control mechanical systems.

The Ancient Ones were silent as the Young Ones claimed that the recordings had to be in error. That it had to be some trick. The Atrekna were the masters of space, time, and biological science, not some jumped up lemur with less than two hundred thousand years between massive biological changes.

The Old Ones argued with the Young Ones. Something had destroyed the space station. Something had enabled lemurs to be able to fight the Atrekna face to face. Something had made the lemurs different. Something had destroyed the New Prime System. The Old Ones argued with the Young Ones that the lemurs were dangerous, perhaps beyond the Atrekna's experience.

The Young Ones argued that the Old Ones and the Ancient Ones were being too careful. That following the Plan for Dominance and Survival set down by the Great Elder Thinker Dalvanak was a waste of time and energy.

The Young Ones wanted to be more aggressive. The Ancient Ones wanted to follow the Dalvanak Doctrine. The Old Ones wanted to consolidate their gains.

The Elder Thinker Dalvanak was summoned before a Great Conclave. Nearly a thousand of each of the factions stared down from comfortable seats as the Elder Thinker drifted into the middle of the floor, looking up and around him.

The Young Ones noted with disgust that Dalvanak was maimed. Half of his feeding tentacles had been ripped from his face, leaving behind a disturbing gap as well as twisted scar tissue across his face. It disgusted the Young Ones that Elder Thinker Dalvanak had allowed a lemur to grab his feeding tendrils and tear them away during the first attempt to liberate Hesstla from the ferals and return it to a proper breeding system.

The Ancient Ones, many who had faced the guns and terrible power of the Hive Lord and the Herd Lords, simply noted the disfigurement and moved on, realizing it meant that Dalvanak had faced the lemurs themselves and so knew the taste of their war fury.

The Old Ones respected the Elder Thinker, the architect of the plan that had been successful so far.

Dalvanak lifted his hands, causing some hisses of disgust from the Young Ones as they saw he was missing part of his left hand, and pulled back his hood. More disgust as the scar tissue from where a lemur had grabbed his head to provide leverage, tearing away a bloody hunk of Atrekna flesh along with the feeding tendrils.

He stared at them, dropping his hands to his waist.

More hisses came as the gathered audience realized what they were seeing.

Dalvanak wore the loose iridescent robe that the Atrekna had worn since time immemorial, psuedocloth that enhanced their phasic abilities as well as easily identified them to their fellow Atrekna and their slave creatures. He wore the soft slippers worn by every Atrekna, with the phasic enhancement so it did not lose its grip even on the most slick of surfaces and even enabled the Atrekna to walk across surfaces that were held only by surface tension.

He also wore a belt around his waist.

The belt snarled and growled at everyone who reached toward it to examine it. It was a synthetic woven belt with Substance W attachments on it as well as pouches and containers.

On his hip was an object that none of them recognized. The object growled and snarled.

One Young One touched it with a thread of psychic energy, refusing to be cowed by a mere physical object before his peers.

DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME, SQUIDWARD! the object roared out.

The Young One convulsed as the roar overwhelmed his psychic defenses. Before he could recover two of his peers stunned his brain and grabbed him, both planning on using him to implant their larvae into.

**Query: Object definition** one of the Old Ones asked.

Dalvanak let his contempt for the gathering color his robe as well as his thoughts as he answered. **M9A17 Magnetic Accelerator Pistol, Confederate Armed Services standard issue**

The very description was dripping with malice.

**Query: Location of Acquisition** another Old One asked.

**Lemur's Cold Dead Hand** Dalvanak answered.

**Query: Origin of phasic and psychic countermeasures**

**Presence of lemur engaged in mortal combat** Dalvanak sneered. **Phasic/Psychic imprinting instinctive for lemur species including phasic/psychic death imprint upon geographical spaces**

**Query: Reason for continued possession over possession of Atrekna personal defense devices**

Dalvanak slowly drew the pistol from its holster, the purple light burning in the dim red light of the room. **High effectiveness matrix** Dalvanak tilted the weapon and examined it, almost as if he was seeing it for the first time. **Weapon is capable of penetrated Substance W as well as phasic shielding at a significantly higher penetration factor than crystalline shard weapons**

One of the Young Ones scoffed, rising. **Shard pistols have proven the most effective weapon for billions of years. Your toy was made by primitive lemurs**

Dalvanak gave the equivalent of a shrug. **Yet these pistols have killed powerful Atrekna**

The Young One sneered as it rose up and floated down to come to rest in front of Dalvanak. **You would have us believe a weapon as small as that, foolishly using both linear accelerators and ring accelerators, is superior to a crystalline shard weapon**

Dalvanak looked at the pistol, then back at the Young One. **Yes**

The Young One brought up powerful inertial dampener shielding as well as thick phasic shielding. **Defend yours...**

Dalvanak raised the pistol, the purple light turned dark blue. There was a loud THA-WACK as a streak connected the end of the pistol's barrel to the Young One's chest. The phasic shielding and inertial barrier shattered.

The Young One's chest exploded into small gobbets of flesh and fluid. The upper torso and head were flung away, the robe disintegrating, the legs standing naked for a long moment.

The gathered audience stared as the legs folded and collapsed.

**Yes** Dalvanak said, putting the pistol back in the holster.

The entire audience had felt the sudden surge of malevolent rage that had spiked when Dalvanak had fired the weapon. It had clawed at them, torn at them, battered them. Like a primal scream from an enraged creature in mid-leap upon a startled and defenseless prey creature.

**Query: Acquisition of weapon** an Ancient One asked.

**Close quarters combat with lemur species member** Dalvanak held up his maimed hand. **Lemur species member bit off part of my hand** he wiggled his remaining feeding tentacles. **Ripped away my face** he touched his head. **Tore a handful of flesh from my skull** he tapped the pistol. **Then suddenly dropped dead as his brain shut off**

**Query: Origin of effect that ceased lemur species member neurological functions**

Dalvanak gave another shrug. **End result of archeoreversion attack. This one was lucky**

**Query: Results of Temporal Research efforts** an Ancient One asked.

**Conclusion: Caution is to be observed in all temporal efforts** Dalvanak replied. **Archereplication causes chronotron cascade ripples observable up to fifteen thousand light years upon replication. System securing methods cause chronotron and graviton flares and ripples observable up to two hundred thousand light years upon system descent**

There was some shock that rippled across the audience.

**Additional Data: Temporal actions by our species causes temporal fluctuations in feral lemur species timeline effects** Dalvanak said. He shrugged again. **Prior to second phase of my plan the chance of the lemur species return within five thousand years was miniscule**

**Query: Statistical chance of lemur species return at present**

Dalvanak shrugged. **Inevitable**

That got more shock. Less than six months ago they had determined it would take the lemurs nearly five thousand years to return even if the Atrekna did not attack and eliminate the remaining lemurs.

**Query: Timetable of lemur return** An Ancient One asked. He was old enough that he remembered fighting against the Hive Lords and Herd Lords.

**Answer: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. The lemurs are a fire that spreads** Dalvanak said. He looked down at the pistol and touched it. **The lemurs are more than they appear**

**Elaborate** the Ancient One commanded.

**Investigative Result: Lemurs of today exist today and tomorrow. Lemurs of yesterday will return tomorrow. Lemurs have returned today with more coming tomorrow from yesterday.** Dalvanak looked up at the gathered beings. **The paradox is obvious in its simplicity**

**Elaborate** another Ancient One commanded.

**Unable to comply** Dalvanak stated.

There was silence a moment.

**Query: Reasons for not joining communal overmind** A Young One demanded to know.

Dalvanak was silent a moment, his long sensitive fingers trailing over the butt of the pistol at his waist as he considered his answer.

**Close proximity to lemur aggressor has caused sentience adjustments in this one** Dalvanak said, watching as small slavespawn came in and licked up the misted parts of the Young One and slightly larger ones devoured the other remains, cleaning the floor. **Possibility of harm to overmind statistically likely**

The Young One sneered, standing up. **I will join with your mind. Prove your fears are primitive and unworthy of an Atrekna**

**Caution is not fear** an Ancient One said. The Ancient One had once worn crystalline armor and faced the unending tide of Herd Lord armies.

The Young One sneered at the Ancient One as it floated down to hover in front of Dalvanak. **Join your thoughts with mine**

**Complying** Dalvanak answered.

Everyone leaned forward to watch carefully. The two minds would be wide open to one another, just as if they had joined the communal mind or the overmind. They watched Dalvanak's thick psychic mental blocks disengage, his thought shield opening, his mental barrier lowering, the carefully constructed tower of iron will unbarring its gates, and the core intellect fortress lowering its defenses.

The Young One eagerly joined Dalvanak's thoughts, rushing forward so that he could prove to the others that Dalvanak was gong senile and that was the reason he was having such trouble researching such a simple and common scientific discipline as temporal sciences.

The gathered Atrekna saw the Young One's mind touch Dalvanak's.

The Young One screamed, a gurgling sound of primal agony and suffering. Its feeding tentacles plunged into its own eyes. Its hands came up, grabbed its lower jaw.

And tore it free of its head.

The Young One began beating at its own skull as it fell to the ground and began writhing.

Finally its back arched, it trembled, and collapsed.

The psychic energy released by the Young One's death spread out.

The gathered Atrekna shut their defenses against absorbing any of the psychic energy.

Dalvanak merely stared at the body, then looked up. **Query: Any others**

There was only silence.

After a few moments Dalvanak turned and floated from the chamber. He made his way to the spaceport, boarding his twisted craft of biological and mechanical systems fused together. It rose silently, leaving the atmosphere, oriented, and was gone in a smeared streak.

The Convention broke up, uncharacteristically silent.

One of the Ancient Ones reviewed Dalvanak leaving. The ship, strange and twisted to the Ancient One's eyes, had been broadcasting on a single electromagnetic frequency. It examined the data, found that the lemur lexicon allowed it to decipher part of it.

It was the howling of primitive instruments, but over and over the same phrase had been repeated in the lemur audible communication.

The Ancient One wondered what it meant, and why Dalvanak had chosen to listen to the lemur screaming out the same words over and over.

LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!