The Eternal Winter - Chapter 18 - Catching Up and Science (Patreon)

                                                               Alexander North

I nod towards him at that before watching the others slowly file into the bunker, with only a few of them still looking back at me with wary glances.

Looks like my terminal and the lieutenant colonel have both cleared me of a lot of trouble. Even if there are still a few who are afraid.

Once everyone has cleared out, I turn my attention back to my terminal and quickly say, “Give user General Edward North permission to use direct port ‘North’.”

Almost immediately after I finish speaking, a static-covered video screen appears in the corner of my vision that should have dad’s face showing on it live but instead shows nothing but interrupted static. However, he quickly asks me, “Are you okay?” in the same way that he always does whenever seeing me for the first time in a while.

And when I don’t respond right away due to not really knowing just what to say to that, he quickly says, “Tell me everything.”

And so I explain everything that’s happened since the apocalypse to him.

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“-and that’s when the lieutenant colonel unlocked the port, leading to this conversation,” I finish explaining to him from my place seated on the top step of the staircase. I had moved out here at some point because BF7 was just too warm for my liking.

Which is another new change. It looks like whatever I am now prefers colder locations than humans do.

That aside, it looks like this is happening throughout the entire universe and not just on this planet. To the point that most of space is somehow filled with an endless blizzard that’s moving without any wind or atmosphere.

Dad just stares downwards off camera for a few minutes as I lean up against the wall. Eventually though, he looks up again and says, “The military headquarters is in much better shape than your base thanks to the vast number of symbiont hosts here, so we’ve been able to capture some of the monsters and run tests on them.”

I sit up straighter at that as he continues, “One of the officers here has already shared this information with the lieutenant colonel at your base, so you don’t have to repeat this to him, but we’ve learned that the energy located within the shards has a similar composition to Cocytus – the ice super planet located next to the capital of the Arctic Empire. However, this is only a similar composition, meaning they are not the exact same, so it doesn’t prove anything.”

Which means that The Arctic Empire might be behind this? But if it’s happening there too and hurting them, then I doubt it was on purpose even if it was their doing…

“We’ve also learned-” dad continues, sounding slightly disgruntled for some reason, “-through a rogue scientist who was visiting from the Terran Researcher Union that the mutation caused by the energy has two different phases. The first phase has the energy spread out throughout the body, changing it in the process without touching the brain. Whereas the second phase is changing the heart, followed immediately after by changing the brain, which is also the point where a person or animal will lose all of its intelligence and begin to react only on the new instincts given to them by their mutation.”

Looks like my guess was correct. I didn’t fully turn because I have a 100% artificial heart.

But wait…

“How did the scientist…” I trail off as I realize that the only possible way that he could have learned that is… “…did the scientist purposefully turn someone?”

Dad doesn’t say anything for a few seconds before answering rather tersely, “Yes. Without our permission.”

My mouth parts slightly at that before closing again.

I knew a lot of the scientists at the union were a little screwed in the head, but purposefully turning someone into a monster?

That’s screwed up.

And this is coming from a monster. Or part monster, I guess.

“Were you at least able to punish them?” I ask despite already knowing the answer.

“No,” dad answers, “because, and I quote, ‘The Research Union is not under your jurisdiction.’” I then hear dad shout at someone at his location, likely venting his anger before he continues talking to me, “In reality, the Legislative branch likely saw the use that scientist could give us, considering the findings the bastard’s already gotten.”

I lie back on the floor while looking up at the ceiling.

Yeah. The universe really isn’t a nice place, is it?

Eventually, after a few minutes of silence, I ask, “Do you know why our guns and technology doesn’t work?”

Dad answers right away, as if latching onto a change in the topic, “Yes, actually.”

I sit up at that answer, a little surprised by how fast they’ve learned this stuff.

“The scientists said that the ‘Eternal Winter’, as they seem to like calling it, has somehow caused physics itself to change. To put it simply – since most of the technical crap goes over my head – certain molecules in the universe have all somehow been capped at how quickly they can move, so we can’t make fire or explosions anymore. And that also means that, outside of biological creatures for some reason, everything is also limited in how fast it can move,” dad explains, sounding rather confused. “As for the electrical technology not working? It’s because the Eternal Winter has messed with the electrons in the universe as well, making the creation of electricity rather complicated. To the point that I didn’t understand a word that they were saying after that point.”

I blink in confusion at his explanations, which were rather bad to put it lightly, but then again, dad was never very good at science.

How is the universe still existing in the first place if there were such drastic changes to physics…? It doesn’t really make much sense.

Although, I guess the scientists there can probably answer that. At the very least, they’d be able to answer it much better than dad can.

Also, the no fire or explosions answers why our guns don’t work.

“Suffice it to say, we’re not completely sure yet, but we might never be able to use technology on the level that we had ever again,” dad concludes. “Or at least not until this storm ends, or if and when the scientists can find a way to clear an area completely of the storm. It’s just that the storm seems to have a very wide radius on what it affects, with that being larger than just where it is.”

“Huh,” I mutter while looking down and scratching my chin. “Sounds like they were able to clear the storm of a small area, but it didn’t do anything.”

Dad hums in agreement before silence befalls the staircase again.

“Sooo,” I mutter after several more minutes, “how are you doing?”

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