Chapter 514: Resurgence (1/2)

”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.

ᚤᛟᚢ ᚹᛁᛚᛚ ᚨᛚᛚ ᛞᛁᛖ ᚺᛖᚱᛖ

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.