They were moving into the CIC and everyone's attention was on that.  The woman they were following, who'd identified herself as Czar, confirmed for her, "It actually is an organosilicate, Dr. Calhoun, albiet one not arranged in any structure that makes sense biologically."  She stepped through the door and continued, "Silicon, carbon, oxygen, iron, titanium, trace uranium, nitrogen, phosphorous."<br/><br/>The smile faded, causing Zoey to become concerned, as she continued once more in a serious tone.  "A trillion individual particles, each autonomous, or at least we think so.  We've never seen anything like what just attacked us; that is, a self-propelled, self-powered, and openly aggressive specimen.  Normally it's just lumpy goop in a glass jar.  Mobile?  Somewhat.  Sapient?  Maybe, jury's still out.  Deadly?  Not unless you eat it."<br/><br/>"Now, I could spend all day telling you everything we know about the Augurs -- their chemical makeup, their reproductive methods, etc. etc. -- and it would be a mere drop in the ocean of truth.  So here's what needs to be known: they are numerous, they are very dangerous, and they are<em>here</em>.  On Earth and above it."<br/><br/>Zoey listened, and already her mind was working the problem over.  While the others focused on the Seeker, that wasn't Zoey's concern.<br/><br/><em>Alright, they don't make sense biologically, which tells me they're artificial.  Artificial means they were built for a particular purpose, and they're clearly self-contained.  Self-contained means they are either here for war or they're here for a particular purpose that doesn't concern us.  Since they're not outright attacking every civilian they can from space, they're here for something.  Think... what are they here for and why?</em><br/><br/>She moved away from the group and sat down, closing her eyes and thinking.<em>If they're suddenly becoming hostile then something has changed.  Either they perceive us as a threat since we're now aware of them, or something we're doing is triggering them.  But what could be causing it?</em><br/><br/>She ran through the multitude of things that could possibly account for it.<em>Antimatter under nuclear reactors?  No, we've been doing that for years.  Fusion has been attempted but why would they care about what we're doing there?  Unless...</em><br/><br/>"Excuse me?" she asked the woman, Czar, "Um, how long have the Augurs been actively engaging us here?  As in, do we have an exact date for when they started?  And how does it compare to when we fired up the Large Hadron Collider?"  She knew the collider went online back in 2008 but they recorded the largest ever release of energy on the 30th of March, 2010.  Could it have taken this long for the Augurs to respond to Earth?  And if so, why?  What was so special about the collision?<br/><br/><em>I hope to God it's some sort of alien system to detect upstart civilizations and crush them before they become a threat.</em><br/>