"Stare too long into the eyes of a dead Mad Lemur of Terra...
"...and its dead eyes stare back into you." - Dalvanak the Maimed One, Founder of the Cult of the Defiled One
The planet was dead.
Not the biosphere. Biospheres are notorious resilient and keep right on ticking even if they undergo radical change. Not the planet itself, that just rotated merrily along its path just as it had for a billion years. Not the atmosphere, it still could support life. Not the smaller insects and animals, those just went along with their dim business without really a pause once the bonanza of food decayed.
No, it was the population that was dead.
Killed early in The Big C3 by a Lanaktallan bioweapon before the Confederacy even knew they were at war. The population had not had the luxury, like other planets, where veryone merely died as the populations had been infected with a fast acting virus that should have just rendered the Terrans easily pliable and docile. No, this was an unlucky to be one that fought against the infected, to descend into a whirling nightmare of infected versus uninfected or living versus dead that lasted nearly two years before the last shot was fired.
The Lanaktallan had been unhappy with the bioweapon test and had moved on to the next inhabited system to test another weapon there.
To the Lanaktallan, 9.4 billion Terrans destroying each other in a frenzy of the "Green Flu" was a profound disappointment.
For the first year the planet stunk of dead flesh and rotting blood as there were too many bodies for the scavengers to take care of.
Then the biosphere had done its work and the remains had largely been devoured by the microscopic and the newly fattened scavengers.
Now, the planet was empty of everything but bones and the remnants of a space faring species.
Sometimes it was visited. Not by the species that was wiped out. Not by their allies.
No, those were involved in a fight for their very survival.
What came was different. It was new.
The Universe wasn't sure if it liked it yet.
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The Elder One was gray skinned, taller than the Atrekna on either side, its fingers longer. It was used to hovering on a disc of phasic energy and moving about by a mere application of thought and will.
Instead, here, on this planet, it walked on its own two feet.
Other Atrekna would have been insulted by the injury to their pride.
The Elder One had heard the warnings. That there were Mad Lemurs who remained mobile and aggressive after death lurking all about the planet. That the Lemurs of Death were adept at hiding in shadows and empty places and ambushing an unwary Atrekna. That the Lemurs of Death were attracted to channeled phasic energy, drawing them in for tens of kilometers.
The Elder One had not reached its status by ignoring the wisdom and advice of those who had been present in an environment it had not.
The Elder One had to admit, privately, that the Terran Tomb World was frightening. Even after being trapped, alive but dead, dead but still alive, in Hellspace for all of that time, the Terran Tomb World held a certain terror.
After all, after a few dozen millennia the Elder One had realized that the torment of Hellspace would simply continue forever and had resigned itself to that fact.
Now that it had escaped Hellspace and had tasted freedom, the idea of a Lemur of Death ambushing him and eating him alive was even more horrifying that it had been when he was been infected with the ennui of a million years of life before Hellspace.
The buildings were strange and unknowable. The Elder One had seen dozens of species destroyed by the Atrekna and every time form followed function for the buildings, the buildings all made sense when examined from the building species' point of view.
These buildings were chaotic. Even a simple store was full of decorations and signs and displays that seemed to be nothing more than entertainment or confusing information. The stores were not properly separated by material but instead seemed to be a confusing jumble.
The Elder One noted with interest just how celebrated death was. Artificial skeletons of Mad Lemurs of Terra were everywhere, often engaged in actions both fright inducing and comical. Combined with the skeletons of slain Mad Lemurs, it made the place even more scary. The fact that the Mad Lemurs seemed to be celebrating the dead, the supernatural, and strange powers was not lost of the Elder One.
It was painful to walk on its own two feet, but the Elder One was accompanied by two Atrekna that it had only taken a glance to be careful and respectful around.
One was completely nude, barring the bandoleer it wore with Atrekna and Mad Lemur skulls on it, carrying a spear with a knife rich with phasic energy acting as the spearhead. The other was wrapped in pieces of hyperalloys, with wings made of blades of hyperalloys, phasic power flowing off of it. Both reeked of Mad Lemur phasic energy, their eyes glowed a dark red.
The Elder One had considered the fact that his two escorts had faced the Mad Lemurs of Terra in mortal combat and survived. The naked one did nothing to hide scars from its encounters, savage tattoos of burnt wood and crude ink forced into the flesh highlighting the tattoos.
They were silent as they walked along with the Elder One, who could sense no communal mind, no linked together thoughts.
A low moan got its attention, and a thumping sound drew its gaze.
A Lemur of Death was pressed against a window, its white eyes looking at the Elder One, its jaws, full of yellowed teeth slimed with black goo, gnawed at the macroplas and it thumped with dull witted excitement.
"It may or may not break through the transparent barrier," the winged one stated with its, no, her voice.
"Want. Some. Candy?" the other stated in a high pitched voice in the language of the Mad Lemurs of Terra, twirling the spear and staring almost eagerly at the Lemur of Death.
"Not now. We have been tasked with escorting this one. Hunt on your own time for we have very little time as it is," the winged on stated.
"Come. Get. Come," the nude one stated.
The trio kept walking down the street, staying in the middle. Debris blew around their feet, including an emergency bulletin sheet that read THE DEAD WALK that the Elder One slowed down to stare at.
The Elder One expected a tone of terror and loss in the words on the sheet, in the phasic impression, but instead there was an almost gleeful feeling behind the stoicism and determination.
The Elder One mused on the words and the phasic impressions that were still on the emergency bulletin sheet as it turned and walked between the two escorts across a large paved lot.
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A Lemur of Death lurched out from behind a mass transit vehicle, its arms out, giving a low moan as it opened its mouth full of sharp bone protrusions.
The nude one twisted and thrust with its spear, the blade sinking into the skull with a scraping sound. The Lemur of Death's hands came up to grasp the staff of the spear as its mouth opened further and it took a half step forward, pushing the nude one backwards. The nude one twisted the spear and pushed harder, the blade sinking in further. The arms dropped, the hands relaxed. The nude one pulled the spear free and twirled it to fling the blood from the blade as the Lemur of Death collapsed to the ground.
The nude one crouched down, digging in the pockets of the dead lemur. It pulled free a bracelet, a ring, two chits, and pulled a handful of macroplas cards from a leather folder. It stood up, moved over to the Elder One, and pressed them into the Elder One's hands.
"You will need these to solve the riddles in the Great Treasure Vault," the winged one stated as the nude one turned away wordlessly to look over the vehicle strewn parking lot with red eyes.
The Elder One considered what had just happened as they continued toward the building. The Elder One pulled the bracelet on, put the ring on one finger, impressed by the thickness of the lemur's digits. It looked back at the disabled Lemur of Death.
There had been no warning. His finely honed phasic and psychic senses had not detected the Lemur of Death even when it had moved in for the attack. Even stabbed in the brain it had still attempted to kill. It had wanted the three Atrekna. It had been aware of them yet there had been no phasic signature, no warning of malevolent intent.
As they moved into the massive multi-story building the Elder One considered what it had seen. How fast the nude one had reacted, it's reaction speeds measured in only a few tenths of a second, an seemingly impossible speed for physical reactions to a barely perceived threat.
The Elder One nodded to itself.
Yes, the Disciples of the Maimed One were indeed reforged into New Atrekna by this malevolent universe. The Maimed One indeed had discovered a font of wisdom, the Elder One determined.
The next part was tricking the mechanical barriers inside the doors. It involved passing the bracelet over the scanner, allowing the ring to be scanned, ducking under a spoked wheel, carefully moving around ever watchful robotic guardians, then sprinting down a hallway to hide in a room as the robotic guardians went by with flashing red lights and whooping sirens.
Once it was clear they moved, by foot, up to a staircase that moved on its own, carrying the trio up to the third floor.
A conveyance on rails thundered by, multiple cars chained together. The corpses of lemurs were in the car, a macabre scene where the trembling and shaking lemur skeletons looked excited by the travel. Like the rest of the treasure vault building, the conveyance tracks were decorated with things designed to cause fear and apprehension.
The Elder One examined the feelings that the decorations caused. Anxiety, apprehension, concern for one's life, heightened alertness.
The obvious celebration of death and horror and the supernatural seemed to strangely clash with the high technology and advanced science of the very things used to celebrate.
The Elder One approached a table, which had been set out in the open, with a chair on either side. On the table was set a glass bottle in a bucket of frozen H2O with a glass on either side of the bucket.
In one chair, clad in a splendid gown of scintillating white material studded with gems and pearls, with a long train behind it, was a single Atrekna. Its skin was grayish purple, tattooed here and there with savage tattoos. A chunk of its cranium flesh had been torn away but had healed into a scarred divot. It was missing two of its feeding tentacles, exposing part of its mouth. It lifted a hand missing two fingers.
Dalvanak the Maimed One.
The Elder One noted that the bladed one and the nude one stopped as the Elder One continued forward.
"Elder One," Dalvanak said, his voice a raspy and grinding thing. He, and the Elder One had been informed that Dalvanak was a he because he had decided he was a he, motioned at the chair. "Sit. Your feet must ache."
"I thank you," the Elder One said, pulling the chair out and sitting down. The Elder One felt relief to be no longer walking.
Dalvanak waved at the bottle. "I have managed to wrest this bottle of liquid refreshment from a treasure vault, tricking and bypassing the robotic guardians of the Mad Lemurs. It was considered most valuable and is best served cold in a glass of leaded crystal shaped by fire."
The Elder One nodded. "I am thirsty."
Dalvanak picked up the bottle, carefully breaking the seal. Before the Ancient One could ask why Dalvanak had the bottle pointed toward the conveyance tracks the stopped suddenly exploded from the neck of the bottle and flew into the air, propelled by a foamy gout of white alcohol laden liquid.
"HUZZAH!" quite a few Atrekna voices shouted.
Dalvanak nodded, then poured the liquid into the two glasses. "Choose, Elder One, to satisfy your paranoia."
The Elder One reached forward and grabbed the one in front of it. If Dalvanak wanted him dead, a simple spear thrust from the nude savage Atrekna would have done the trick.
The liquid was crisp tasting, an alcohol bite to it, and the bubbles tickled the Elder One's palate.
Still, it was refreshing.
"You have sought me out, today, on the day of my cat's quinceañera," Dalvanak stated solemnly, folding his hands together over the carved leaded crystal glass. "Why?"
The Elder One thought for a long moment.
"To seek wisdom of how the New Universe has changed in the time I have been imprisoned in the burning remains of the hyperatomic plane," the Elder One stated, sipping the glass at the end of his speech. His vocal cords hurt almost as much as his feet.
Dalvanak nodded slowly, his red eyes thoughtful. "I would hear the wisdom you gained through torment during your imprisonment in what is now called Hellspace."
The Elder One nodded. "A trade?"
Dalvanak lifted his remaining feeding tentacles in a motion of amusement. "Trade assumes each has something the other desires with the perceived value of the resource they are willing to exchange."
"Then what?" the Elder One asked, frowning.
"My wisdom is available to all who would listen," Dalvanak said, signifying happiness.
"I would listen," the Elder One said.
"First, share with me the wisdom I will be allowing you to spread among those who follow me," Dalvanak stated.
The Elder One considered Dalvanak's words.
The conveyance clattered by and suddenly the Elder One was concerned by its appearance, almost as if the grinning lemur skulls were mocking him.
"I faced the Herd Lords and the Hive Queens in epochs past," the Elder One stated.
"Yes," Dalvanak said simply.
"We are the masters of time," the Elder One stated. "The Hive Queens, not Lords, Queens, were the masters of phasic combined thought. The Herd Lords were the masters of biology and the unending tide of life."
Dalvanak merely nodded.
"With some consideration, I have determined why the Mad Lemurs of Terra still will be the architects of our defeat and destruction despite the fact they were xenocided by our archeobiological reversion attack," the Elder One stated. "Our Triumvarite was the Lords of Flesh, the Lords of Thought, the Lords of Time, yet the Mad Lemurs of Terra shall bring us all low with what they have established dominion over."
Dalvanak merely cocked his head.
"The Mad Lemurs of Terra are the Lords of Death," the Elder One stated.
Dalvanak nodded then gestured around the table. "Here, in one of the great treasure vaults of one of their Tomb Worlds, where a holiday to celebrate death was happening, your words are as obvious as unshielded thought to a larvae."
The Elder One blinked several times. His vision was slightly tinged with colors he didn't remember.
"Yet, your ability to create new wisdom for yourself despite what the communal mind insists speaks that you are ready to receive wisdom," Dalvanak said. The Elder One noted that Dalvanak seemed to get slightly larger.
The conveyance shuddered to a stop and a gate popped open even as a restraining bar raised on one of the conveyance cards. Lemur laughter filled the room, booming malevolent laughter overlaying the shrieks of savage joy of immature lemurs. Artificial skeletons danced and capered around the gate.
The Elder One felt fear suddenly fill it. It didn't know why. The shadows seemed full of secrets that whispered and chuckled to themselves at its ignorance. Its limbs and feeding tentacles tingled pleasantly and it took another drink of the bubbly liquid.
"You are ready to receive our wisdom and understand just how profound your realization actually was," Dalvanak said. He motioned.
The nude one grabbed the Elder One even as the winged one swept forward. The Elder One was shocked by the raw strength of the nude one, the corded muscle that easily held him. How the hand over his third eye prevented him from lashing out with phasic power.
"We have such sights to show you," Dalvanak said, lifting up a small glass vial full of tiny red and black biting insects. He stood up and followed the nude one as he wrestled the Elder One over and threw the Elder One into the seat.
The winged one grabbed the Elder by the feeding tentacles, pulling its head back. It tore open a can that snickered "You'll regret this!" and poured the contents down the Elder One's throat.
"Such sights indeed," Dalvanak said as the nude one slammed the bar down and the winged one buckled a strap at the Elder One's lap.
Dalvanak dumped the insects over the Elder One's head, making sure some went down the back of the Elder One's robe.
The conveyance lurched into motion even as the Elder One began to scream in pain and fear.
Dalvanak turned away. "It is my desire that the Elder One survives this trial as it did its imprisonment in the burning hyperatomic plane."
"Free. Candy," the nude one stated in its coarse voice, pointing at the car as it whirled down a spiral that got tighter and tighter as it approached the bottom.
The Elder One was screaming in terror as the visions began.
"Indeed, my friend, indeed," Dalvanak said. He looked at where the conveyance was going through a double loop the loop. "At least we provided the candy before we threw the Elder One in the van."