It had not been easy, but the Atrekna had done it.

Before, it had never required so many attempts, required so much effort, required so much sacrifice and so many resources.

In the tens of billions of years of the Atrekna's life cycle, starting with dominating their own planet, then their genesis system, then their local cluster, then their galaxy, then their entire universe, never had they had such difficulties.

Normally, throughout their eternal history, they were able to shift an entire solar system of beings to examine. Speeding up and slowing down and even reverting time. Later, once it was discovered that their temporal powers were sapping their universe's life, they would move an entire planet, even a city, and examine any enemy or potential food source by the millions.

Not this time.

The new universe was resistant to their efforts. The further back one attempted to reach, the more power was required, until it was virtually impossible for the Atrekna to harness enough power to reach any further back. Prior, in their own universe, no matter how far back one reached it required the same amount of power.

Moving forward did not guarantee that one would experience the outcome one had moved too once time had progressed normally.

The tactic of finding the timestream that allowed only the Atrekna to be victorious, sending forward a Conclave or a Convocation to manipulate the time stream to ensure the proper results occurred, was no guarantee that the proper results could be shepherded.

Previously even the least statistical likelihood could be manipulated into occurring.

The new universe struggled and fought against such things.

Normally, the Atrekna could look forward, backward, to the side, and see thousands, millions of branching timelines, select the one they wished to ensure was the primary temporal string, and then reach into the other temporal branches to loot them for resources.

Here, the web of branching timelines only extended a limited distance back or forward. Timelines too alike, too identical, collapsed into one another without even a hint, possessing an almost automatic error checking and consolidation system. Time forward became hazy and indistinct and a major occurrence could cause entire branches of possible futures to collapse into neighboring timestreams. Time back collapsed into a single point, with the alternate timelines spun around the core line, until they matched closely enough and plunged into the timeline.

In their former universe, they would select the most profitable outcome for the Atrekna and ensure that was the one that came to pass, even selecting preferred historical temporal branchings to ensure that it was the Atrekna who got what they want.

Wars were won before they were fought as the carefully shepherded timelines collapsed as the Atrekna wished them to, ensuring Atrekna dominance in their universe.

But the New Universe was different.

The chronotrons were not only active, but the Atrekna considered them hyperactive. They not only influenced one another, but other particles, permeating everything.

It had been over a billion years since the Atrekna had discovered any amount of chronotrons 'in the wild' in numbers enough to examine.

The Atrekna were surrounded by energy, the type of energy they alone had been privy to in their old universe, that they alone had been able to control during the Great Harvest of the new universe a billion years ago.

Phasic energy, which had long ago wound down to only a slight static discharge between two dead dimensions rubbing against two dead universes, was a wild ravening cascade of energy in the New Universe.

The Atrekna discovered that it was quite easy to attempt to control and harness more phasic energy then the one making the attempt could actually control.

All of the abundance of power should have made what they wanted to do child's play.

Yet they had not been able to do it.

Yes, they had been able to lock down the primitive primate's genesis system, by using their own protective system against them. It was related to their entropic fortress they had left behind in the Old Universe, and quite easy to manipulate.

An attempt at using the artificially created singularities to destroy the system that they were designed to protect had failed miserably. After eight such attempts, and nearly twenty-four fatalities, they had given that up.

Next was an attempt to capture a system in a temporal dislocation. While it was often successful in the Old Systems, where the Atrekna had first established themselves in the New Universe, attempting the same strategy with the Feral Race were unsuccessful.

The Feral Race seemed to be temporally locked, as well as able to conflate the past, future, and present, to build on all of them.

It was an exercise in frustration to the Atrekna.

Capturing cities was next. Easily accomplished in the Old Systems.

Except where the Feral Race was present in any number. Those stubbornly refused temporal isolation and removal.

In recent battles, the Atrekna had discovered that it was possible to temporally disrupt the Feral Race, but constant energy had to be expended, it required constant oversight.

In the cataclysmic battle that the Atrekna had determined had resulted in the destruction of the Old Universe, the Atrekna had discovered that temporal manipulation was resource intensive in a geometrically ascending rate according to not only the Feral Race's temporal weaponry, but according to the number of Feral Race present.

After the battle, as the cascading tsunami of temporal resonance had roared out of the death throes of the Old Universe, the Atrekna had been scattered.

They had slowly regrouped in several Old Systems. They had reached out to gather their old harvests.

And found their harvest storage destroyed.

They had attempted to take control of their Old Systems, and in many cases, found themselves rebuffed by the Feral Race and their weapons.

Worse, the Feral Race seemed to show up at any system the Atrekna seized, entering it with weapons and shields ready, cleared for combat, and gleefully engaging in slaughtering the Atrekna and their slavespawn until the system was in their possession.

The De-Evolution Recursion Method had, at first, produced less than optimal results. If anything, the Feral Race had become even more frenzied, had become thick and rich with phasic energy, but also more aggressive, violent, and capable of withstanding the Atrekna.

When the Old Universe had collapsed, the De-Evolution Recursion Method, nearly spend and abandoned by the Atrekna as a failure, had roared to life. Reenergized by the temporal resonance cascade, it had struck at the Feral Race.

Almost all of the Feral Race had gone extinct.

At first the Atrekna rejoiced. That potential timeline had been the one they had been working to ensure occurred.

But not all of the Feral Race had died.

The battle for what the natives called "Laglun-3 " had proved that. A single member of the Feral Race had required more effort to hold in place than shifting the entire star system, if it had been unprotected, would have required.

The Atrekna twisted their feeding tentacles into knots trying to figure out how to ensure that the Feral Race was eliminated.

The younger ones, who had been hatched after the Great Harvest, kept inquiring why the Atrekna did not use their normal tactics of ensuring only the proper timeline was energized and made prime.

When they were told the New Universe did not work that way, they had scoffed. They had hundreds of thousands of years, millions of years, of experience. This universe was almost identical to their old one, just more energetic.

But the Young Ones failed just as the Elders had.

On another world, a single Feral had rebuffed and destroyed an entire Quorum. System after System were falling to combat teams of a dozen Ferals. Fleets moved through the dark silence of space, searching out any Atrekna held systems, and swooping down to liberate the system.

Worse, as shown on Laglun-3 and other systems, a single Feral Race member could completely disrupt plans and destroy shadowy decades of work as those Atrekna working to ensure a past branching timeline became dominant were cast back to the present and those working to ensure a future timeline either dissolved or were rejected into the dominant timeline.

The Atrekna's most powerful weapons, the manipulation of timestreams, alternate timelines, temporal branch collapse, and temporal conjuctions, temporal and spacial shifting, and temporal replication were next to useless.

The Feral Race did not lessen during repeated battles, they did not even remain parity like the Atrekna, but they increased in power, resources, and remembered the previous tactics.

The latter was the worst. They somehow brought knowledge from the previous recursion into the current and future recursions.

The Atrekna had no choice.

They began expending effort and resources.

It had taken a hundred battlefields. Dozens of Atrekna had died in the attempts.

But they had finally done it.

They had taken a living Feral Race captive.

Only a single one.

They had been forced to use physical methods. A ship slightly out of temporal phase. Slavespawn to attack and capture. The ship to move the Feral Race member through spacial dimensions to what the Atrekna had prepared.

It was an older theory. Normally crafted from temporal, phasic, and pure energy, they had to emulate the primitive species of the New Universe and utilize actual mass to create the holding area.

The Young Ones, who were hatched and survived to adulthood after the Great Harvest, who had not been sent to engage the Feral Race as they still possessed the ability to generate larvae, scoffed at the Ancient and Elder One's preperations.

It was a single Feral, a primitive, a primate. Why would it need an entire Convocation to oversee it.

The Ancient and Elder Ones, not willing to risk the Young Ones, who were mainly valuable for their ability to create new Atrekna, simply responded that this was the way that had been determined to have the highest chance for success.

They did not tell the Young Ones that the Feral Race member blocked and disrupted their ability to examine future temporal branches and choose the choices that would make the most acceptable temporal branch be the one to come about. That because it involved the member of the Feral Race, it was as if chaos itself was on its side.

The Elder and Ancient Ones were forced to meditate, to examine genetic memory, looking for any scientific or philisophical knowledge that might help with the problem of the Feral disrupting their ability to choose the correct actions to ensure the most acceptable timeline came to be.

One, millions of years old, found it, deep within genetic memory.

Chaos Theory.

There was mathematics, logical structures, to chaos. While the theories and philosophies were there, the hard mathematics were not.

But the Atrekna were confident they could once again rediscover such theories.

Unfortunately, by the time the Feral had reached the 'examination facility' that orbited a neutron star, they had not managed to create the mathematics they had once possessed.

It was galling to admit, but they no longer knew how to produce such massive ships as the ancient shipyards had been capable of producing. Irreplaceable hyper-valuable shipyards.

That the Feral Race had blown up without a single thought.

How the Feral Race disregarded the Law of Sustainability and the Law of a Resource Finite Universe made the Atrekna burn with a cold fury.

Rather than attempt to disable the ship fabrication yards and seize the valuable resources, the Feral Race had ignited the gas giants and destroyed them, losing valuable mass and matter, not to mention the more valuable and esoteric sub-quantum particles.

The Atrekna often deduced that the Feral Race seemed intent on destroying all matter, energy, space that they could not control.

It was insane.

The universe was finite. Destroying those resources lessened all, even the Feral Race, but the Feral Race seemed not to care.

They had to know what drove such an insane species.

How had they managed to become sentient? How did they gain sapience? How did they develop technology? Who had given them the secrets of superluminal travel? Who had given them the secrets of advanced metallurgy? Who had prevented them from destroying themselves during their encounter with the Great Industrial Filter? Who was their benefactor? Where had their benefactor gone? What was their plans?

What was a dick and how would one eat it?

All of those questions were burning in the minds of the Atrekna that observed the Feral Race member as it was unloaded from the crude spacecraft, carried by slavespawn through the corridors of the 'facility', and then vomited up from the sacklike belly of the slavespawn that had been crafted to have a belly full of chemicals that would put the Feral Race member into a deep dreamless sleep.

**It will take [hours] for the specimin to awaken** one stated.

**Negative** another, who had only four feeding tentacles to the other's six stated coldly.

The others paid attention.

A Feral Race member had grabbed his feeding tentacles and tore them from his face with one yank of their hands.

**That mixture can keep a slavespawn in hibernation for [eons]** another stated.

**Watch** Four said. **We are here to learn. Let this be your first lesson**

As the conversation finished the Feral suddenly coughed, liquid ejected from their lungs out their feeding orifice and the two small breathing orifices above the feeding orifice. It coughed again, a simple diaphram spasm to clear the lungs.

Several Atrekna noted the power that entailed, to disgorge thick liquid from what they could tell were large lungs.

Another bout of coughing, during which the Feral got on its hands and knees, its held held low, as it coughed so hard its back arched. It retched several times, bringing up more of the fluid, then suddenly vomited.

The Atrekna noticed the velocity and volume of the vomit and deduced it had purged the entire contents of its stomach in one convulsive action.

The Feral coughed some more sitting back in a musculature and balancing movement that was much more complex that it appeared.

The Atrekna watched. They were able to adjust their center of balance in advance of their movement.

Atrekna watching the time streams noted that there were structures within the Ferals brain that could determine the outcome of its actions in the long term, measured in decades, while other parts subconsciously predicted the future based on evidence in the present and the past.

That left the Feral not only firmly anchored in the timestream, but reduced the number of timestreams as the Feral consciously and subconsciously examined various actions and their short/long term outcomes and discarded them.

Several Atrekna noted that the chronotrons seemed to try to push the Feral into actions or inactions that would have disastrous results. Building up in one timeline or the other, abandoning others, to encourage the Feral to slide into what could almost be called a desired timeline.

The Atrekna noted that anomaly. The universe did not attempt to change the outcome of time branches or prefer one over the other. That would require some kind of intellect, and a universe was merely a collection of space, time, energy, and matter.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The Feral had been relieved of all clothing and objects. The Atrekna had used psychic surgery to remove the cybernetic device on their temple and force the wound to close. It was naked, only fine hair covering the body, a thick patch of hair on their head, under each shoulder, and a thick patch between their legs covering the complex structural system that hid the opening and the connecting canal to their womb and ovaries.

The Feral stood up slowly, turning in place, looking up and around.

The Atrekna noted how closely set the eyes were. How the pupils moved. How the eye did not hold still but moved with an almost flutter.

Several Atrekna noted that there was a complex visual cortex that was directly linked to memory, predictive systems, as well as other systems.

The few Young Ones present scoffed at the crudity of the Feral's neural structure. How it was so primitive as to have multiple redundancies. A measurable percentage of the neural systems, as well as endochrine and intellectual faculties, were dedicated entirely to reproduction. There were even nervous system links between the mammary glands and the milk ducts and the brain.

**Hopelessly primitive** several of the Young Ones said together.

**Yes the Feral, upon awakening, has reduced this facility to only a single timeline, with branches occurring based on its actions, not our own, and the timelines unobservable by us until they are almost upon us** an Elder One stated.

**the historical temporal branches are collapsed into a single line, with no way to adjust them** an Ancient One stated. It turned its psychic attentions to the gather Quorums of Young Ones. **Can any one of you do the same? Any group? If you can, speak up, for we will wish to examine you also**

The Young Ones stayed silent.

The Feral stalked around its cell and the Atrekna noted the parts of the brain that had the most activity.

Prediction. Spacial Awareness that was attached to memory. Curiosity. Anger. Resentment. Determination. Constant recall of physical, intellectual, and emotional memories.

The Feral was anchored firmly to the present, but drew on the past and made predictions of the future, even as it slowly paced its cell.

It reached out and touched the wall.

It was thick phasic energy over phasonium, plenty of phasite crystal sand doping the metal.

The wall had been designed to lash out at the prisoner with psychic power should it be touched.

**Now it will die and we will learn nothing** a Young One stated.

The sparks jumped off the point of contact. Electricity snarled around the fingertip.

The Feral pushed harder, forcing its finger through the phasic barrier. Its eyes glowed red and thin wire-like tendrils of lighting moved through its hair and around its feet.

**Impossible** a Young One scoffed.

**Yet it is performing the action you deny witnessing** an Ancient One replied as the Feral pushed its fingers through the phasic barrier to touch the phasonium beneath.

The Feral bared its teeth as it pulled its hand back, shaking it. It stared at the wall for a long moment.

**Now it will realize it is hopeless and give up and we shall learn nothing more** a Young One stated. **All sentient beings know when it is hopeless and no longer expend energy to change an outcome that cannot be changed**

**Watch** an Elder One stated. **Be silent**

The Feral suddenly spun in place, their bare foot lashing out as they gave a sharp, aggressive cry. The bare sole hit the phasic barrier with a loud KA-RACK, sparks showering from the suddenly ruptured phasic barrier.

The Young Ones squealed in sudden self-preservation anxiety.

The bare foot sole impacted the phasonium, which tore with a loud squeal as it stretched like a semi-solid. Crystal shattered as they were overloaded, further compromising the metal.

The Feral stood and stared at the wall, looking at the edges. It was mouthing something as the phasic barrier slowly crawled across the damaged wall, flowing like oil, until the wall was covered again.

The Elder Ones noted that several parts of the brain involving time were engaged willingly, consciously, as it watched the phasic barrier re-establish.

The Feral suddenly repeated the action, right down to making silent mouth movements as the phasic barrier covered the wall.

It did it again.

And again.

**It is mad. It repeats the same action when it must know it will have the same result. Or worse, it expects a different outcome** a Young One said.

**Silence** the Ancient One Four ordered.

It repeated the action on the other five walls.

**It is testing if the phasic barrier replenishes at the same strength and speed each time, on each wall** Four stated.

**There are minor reductions but of no matter** a Young One stated.

**No matter? The Feral can destroy a phasic barrier that we would require weapons to penetrate, with a kick from its unenhanced foot and you state than any reduction, no matter how minor or major, is of no matter?** Four stated. **You are young as you are full of larvae and stupid**

The Young Ones bridled up. They were not spoken to in such a way. They were responsible for the duty of carrying out their race. They would each sink a tentacle into the belly of a slave creature, properly prepared, and implant eggs that would hatch into larvae that would slowly eat the still living host.

The Ancient and Elder Ones were spent, could do no such thing.

How dare Four speak to them in such a manner!

**It damages phasonium alloy, which the Lanaktallan and Hive Lords required weaponry to do so, with its bare appendages through speed, power, innate latent phasic ability and potential, as well as what we can only assume is training** another Old One stated.

**Was this one one of their warrior castes?** an Ancient One asked.

**No. It was alone, riding a primitive beast and carrying a length of sharpened metal** a Young One stated. **Although it was able to slay many slavespawn before it was consumed and put to sleep it was not one of the warrior castes**

**Where, again, was it taken?** an Ancient One asked, watching as the Feral pushed its fingers through the weakened phasic barrier and began pushing on the phasonium, as if to test its tensile strength.

**On the Feral's side of the Harvested Sector. A primitive planet with no actual cities, buildings of rude stone, no advanced technology we could detect** the Young One stated.

**We need more data** an Elder One stated. **Drop food into its chamber. I wish to see it consume quantities of nourishment**

A panel opened and roasted carbon based muscle fiber fell to the floor.

The Elder Ones noted how, at the first hint of sound and movement, the Feral looked at the feeding hatch, its eyes narrowing as it focused its eyes better.

A spinning kick sent the roasted muscle fiber into the phasic shield, the movement a blur, the impact of foot against the meat before the meat could touch the floor. The phasic shield collapsed but the Feral was moving again, taking three long steps and launching itself into the air with a loud vocalization. It hit the phasonium wall with a bare foot.

The wall exploded outward.

Elder Ones, wearing phasic enhanced armor, rushed forward.

FWOOP! FWOOP! FWOOP!

The psychic blasts caused the skin to ripple, caused the Feral to shield its face with one forearm as it advanced step by step. A slavespawn prod was extended, the crystal glittering, even as the Feral was peppered with gunfire.

The tiny drugged darts puffed from the guns hit its skin, none penetrating.

The prod touched bare skin and the Feral jerked, collapsing, even as the other Ancient Ones directed their powerful psychic blasts at the Feral.

Satisfied it was unconscious, they moved it to a new cell.

The phasic shielding was thicker, more powerful. The phasonium wall thicker.

The Atrekna watched as the Feral groaned, rolled, and sat up.

It had recovered in record time. The amount of psychic blasts and the shock from the slavespawn prod (normally used on the huge aggressive armored ones) should have left the creature unconscious for a long period.

The Atrekna watched with interest as Her Grace Khoonkeenadee, the Arch-Duchess of Relflagen, Lady of Magic and Beauty, the Arcane Will of King Nganto, She Who has Birthed a Hundred, slowly paced off her cell.

The Universe howled with laughter.