No words were sufficient to convey the importance of what had just transpired. The Lower, a realm with technology powered by the will of quasi-gods had been placed on the defensive. In a flash, some unknown force destroyed every branch of the Nexus, and was now spying on the Ancients through sonars sent in this world.

The energy was new, pure.

"Are there patterns in the energy, vibrations, or resonances in the outbound communications?" asked a Guardian.

A second answered immediately, "We did find patterns in the oscillation of the inbound energy that triggered the severance of the Dot from all the Nexus gates. The patterns are difficult to read. Their complexity seems to be... evolving. It bends and escapes our sensors as we lock into it as if it evolves or adapts. Initially, it was at a simple frequency of alternating short and long bursts; a relatively mundane digital stream. The moment our probes begin the decode it, the signal changed, becoming a continuously oscillating signal."

"Provide us with you assessment,” forced a Guardian, “can we read this data. You are wasting precious time." Some of the Guardians were showing signs of annoyance by the situation. The Oldest stayed at a distance.

"The source beyond the Dot is obviously very intelligent and technologically advanced. The invader trying to probe us is using a simple algorithm, but no realm other than ours possesses knowledge this sophisticated. The attempts to avoid detection shows a deceptive intent."

"Do you have a lock on the stream of data?"

"Yes. We are translating it now. Our technology seems superior to this invader. For now."

"Is there any consensus as to what the intruder is probing for?"

The translators began to work. "The information being sent back relates to the size and nature of our realm. Nothing more than simple encyclopedic information."

An automated computerized voice warned: "The full Council is now awake. They are being briefed."

Before the creatures could react, a destructive pulse ripped out of the Nexus and smashed the diamond shell around it. This one was louder and stronger than anything that had preceded it. The ripple of energy traveled quickly to the wall erected by the creatures. It smashed into it with brute force and pulverized most of it. The next pulse would surely kill anyone in proximity included the Oldest and the Guardians unless they moved.

"Council!" cried a Guardian to the awakening creatures, "We apologize, time is short; we've been speaking on behalf of the Lower before this rupture."

"No time," said the creature as it moved next to the Oldest. "Wise one, how may we help?"

"The Nexus was just vaporized." The Oldest's voice sounded strained. Light shone out of four Council members. They were at the four corners of space around the bare, exposed Dot. The creatures willed a change. Crystals appeared forming a new casing around the Dot.

"The damage is now repaired," said the voice of a member from the Council. "The casing is now operational, even if we have not reattached the different singularities to it. We are ready to do so."

"Be..." before the Oldest could warn, the next pulse of energy pushed millions of shards in every direction. The four creatures stood no chance. They were garden lawn chairs arranged on a patio moments before the tsunami hit the shore.

The Oldest willed himself further away as did the others. He had seconds to raise a shield to absorb the blast. The voice from the Council continued, but this was a different creature speaking. "An invader is probing us through the Nexus. For eons we have been guilty of the same infraction. We've shamelessly used the Dot and attached singularities to probe others without their knowledge. We cannot cry foul very loudly when someone finally uses the method against us, even in such a primitive way."

A different member of the Council continued. "We are locked into the probe's current wavelength. The technology they use to probe us is less advanced; we need not fear."

The Oldest believed otherwise. "This conclusion is premature," he said, knowing the Council had already made up its mind.

She spoke to the Oldest, "No world has even a fraction of our power."

The Oldest knew the next pulse would be stronger. He came to a decision and continued. "Today, the Attraction begins. Something is powerful enough to harm the Multiverse itself. We safely can assume this power resides in the Cold. We must learn humility. The Cold may have reached technology vastly superior to ours."

"Impossible."

The pulse came. Like a nuclear detonation, it pushed away from the Dot the very fabric of space. For a fraction of a second, the Dot was naked, in space. The dark oil of the Lower's atmosphere was shoved away, violently. Then the fabric bounced back.

"Difficult to claim our vast superiority at the moment,” said the Oldest humbly.

"We have a new problem, a more important one."

Around the creatures, the sea of darkness began to resonate with background energy. Every corner of the realm bent. At the speed of thought, a unanimous decision was reached by the godlike creatures. Before the next pulse, the Dot stood free in the Lower. It moved to avoid confinement like a flying insect. The Dot began to breathe on its own. It was pulsing slowly with colors. It was a vortex, a tornado in which nothing could exist. With great alacrity, the Ancients bent space itself and the Dot began to move. It traveled as far from what was left of the Nexus as was possible, into an empty corner of the space. It was being pushed under the proverbial rug.

Seconds later, the Dot arrived at the base of a rock formation on the edge of the Lower. There was a deep cavern ahead. With great ease, the Council, using their combined mental power slid the Dot along the endless corridors of the rock labyrinth. The Dot was now in the deepest, most secure location of this world. This rock was both hiding place and shield against any detonation of the Dot.

"Council, the Dot is secure. The labyrinth will prevent any probing by the foreign entity. The Cold wants war, it seems." No other theory made sense.

"We took immediate action once we uncovered that the sensor wavelength of the probe entering the Dot was camouflaged to mask its true potential. There were many higher levels of probing. We now know the invader's technology's either equals or exceeds ours."

"Please explain," said the Oldest.

"The intelligence from the Cold knew we would initially underestimate it if we found a simple frequency in the probe. That was a decoy. As we worked to repel the decoy, the real probe, at a much weaker frequency, grabbed the information it needed."

"Do we know what information it read and sent back?"

"We think. It sent biographies."

"This is good," said Oldest to himself.

"We do not understand, wise one. Why is that information of any relevance?" asked one of the voices to the Oldest.

"A sign of great intelligence. There are different ways to guess an enemy's next move, the simplest and most sophisticated is to learn about him. To predict where a ship will travel next, get information on its pilot, not the craft itself." The Oldest was floating around and pacing in the Lower. The small ball of lights that represented his physical form bobbed and wove like a firefly. The creature was deep in thoughts and knew time was short, very short. "We can assume it could anticipate our reaction, and our transfer of the Dot to the fourth quadrant of space. What does that mean?" he wondered out loud. For the first time this race's existence, they were faced with a real threat. Each of the creatures instantly understood Oldest was right. Every creature in the Lower was now awake. The Oldest continued, "We must close the Dot."

"Venerable One, we have more information. We translated more of the outbound signal. There was a third band below the first two. The probes were looking for something more specific than simply biographies. One concept kept coming up."

"What was it?"

"You and your recent research on causes and consequences."

The old creature spoke. "It knows of me?"

"Apparently. Specifically, it was looking for your age." There was stupefaction. No one knew the age of the Oldest. This gave the powerful creature pause. "It was also looking for information on your recent theories of the Attraction."

"Was it trying to contact me?"

"No. Once that information passed the singularity, the probe turned to understanding the physics of our world. The forces which bind it." This was no easy conversation.

"Can we know where the information was sent? Which world?"

"The Cold."

There it was, the Oldest knew it. A creature from the Cold was at the heart of this situation.

Someone else had relevant information to share. "It is confirmed, the speed of their adaptation and probing suggests we are facing technology much more advanced than ours. Vastly more advanced. Our displacement of the Dot to the vault seems to have temporally halted the flow of information through the portal." As the Guardian spoke, it saw something else. There was shock in its voice. "I have spoken yet again too fast, we have now found five new layers of intertwined probing algorithms. It is confirmed, the information we just provided to you was also a decoy." There was a moment of shock in the Lower; a slow inundation of humiliating shame fell upon them. "There are hundred more probes, they are everywhere, and originate from within the labyrinth. We cannot stop it. Something is here, an infection."

"We must try to communicate with the invader," said the Oldest.

There was a moment of preparation. The voice of the Oldest echoed throughout the Lower. It entered deep within the labyrinth, where the Dot was anchored. The message swam up the current of energy pouring out from the singularity in space. "We welcome you," began the Oldest. "We are the creatures from the Lower, we manage this communication channel...."

The ballet of subatomic vibrations stopped. There was a temporary halt in the probing as if the creature probing had stopped; a heartbeat later it resumed and intensified. Whoever was behind the probing was not taking this bait.

"Close the Dot!" yelled the Oldest to the Council. "The refusal to communicate is the final sign of hostility!”

The generators pumping energy to the Dot to keep it in place in the Lower were shut down for the first time in half a billion years. The creatures from the Lower expected the Dot, without the polarizing influx of energy, to resume it's random march through the Lower, as it had done before it was discovered. It would move and touch a wall and destroy it. That was damage everyone could accept in exchange for frustrating the probe.

The Dot did not begin this slow lateral shift. Instead it did the unthinkable; it blinked out of existence. There was no energy, no noise, simply banishment. For the first time in an eternity, the creatures of the Lower were overwhelmed with confusion. Singularities, by their own inherent nature, could not vanish.

The whole of the Lower instantly felt two emotions: shock and fear.

Someone just stole the Dot using technology beyond any known in the Multiverse.

“Agh, got it,” said the voice of Marilyn defiantly.

Then there was darkness.