NOVEL WEB I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter H.1
Two figures sat at a table, seemingly enjoying a break from work. As they sat drinking coffee, a female news anchor greeted the camera on the television hanging from the corner of the room.
"Good evening, everyone. It has been four days since the storm off the coast of Antarctica was spotted by researchers at Maldonado Base. Storms are not an uncommon occurrence in that area, so those of you who have not been tuning in recently may be wondering why we are reporting such a thing."
A video feed displaying extremely choppy waves in icy water replaced the anchor on the screen. Dark clouds covered the sky.
"To put it simply, this was not a typical storm. It looks like nothing out of the ordinary at first; just strong wind and rough water. Undoubtedly, no one would have bothered to record such an event, and if it were not for the fact that a security camera happened to be pointed in its direction, we would not even have this footage. As you can see, nothing seemed out of the ordinary for a while, but that soon changed once a strange phenomenon was spotted a few minutes later."
The video began to fastword, making it easy to see the storm increasing in intensity. A green flash was shown reflecting off of the dark clouds. It was so quick that one would likely attribute it to a video error. After a few minutes, however, more and more of these green flashes could be seen coming from inside the storm, completely discrediting such a theory.
"Some of the researchers at Maldonado Base began to take notice of the storm at this point," the anchor continued as the video cut to a new perspective seemingly recorded on a shakey phone.
"It was in this video taken by one of the researchers that a small boat could be seen inside of the storm, leading people to suspect that whoever was on board was the cause of the strange phenomenon. The Argentine Coast Gaurd later found the vessel and the lone captain was brought back for questioning.
This would normally be the end of a story like this, but what the investigators thought would give them the answer to the green lights only served to spiral into a giant mystery."
A picture of the boat was then displayed.
"It started upon the realization that the captain's boat was not registered. The coast guard quickly raided the ship suspecting it was being used in drug trafficking, and a secret compartment was indeed discovered. Instead of substances, the compartment was hiding a few boxes filled with what looked to be odd artifacts and rare materials. The captain refused to answer both where they were from and where he was smuggling them to.
Luckily for the investigators, he did comment on the storm itself and outright denied being the source of the green lights. Contrary to what many figured, he claimed to not have lit any fireworks nor shined any lasers into the clouds. His denial was supported by the raid which found no evidence of such things.
When asked to elaborate on what he witnessed in the storm, the captain claimed that light-green beams 'rained down on the ship from above'. Although he stated that the ship was struck multiple times, no punctures nor unusual damage could be seen on the deck. He also claimed that the beams were targeting a person on board and did not cease until that person fell overboard.
His description of the person held a striking resemblance to an 18-year-old from Connecticut who had recently gone missing after leaving on a trip to Argentina. A joint search was conducted in the area between the US and Argentine Coast Guard, but no body was recovered."
The video cut back to the anchor talking directly at the camera.
"There are many theories about what these green beams could be, ranging from secret military equipment to aliens. When asked for comments, the Press Secretary claimed that the captain was intentionally being misleading to distract from whatever smuggling operation he was conducting. She went on to assert that the source of the green lights was the aurora australis- sometimes referred to as the 'southern lights'. Her comments have been met with heavy skepticism considering both the time of day and the part of the year-
*Click
The television was turned off. A man in a green general uniform let out a sigh as he buried his head in his hands.
"The media is having a field day with this," he muttered.
A man dressed in a lab coat put down his coffee and spoke from across the table.
"Can you blame them? This is the kind of stuff we only hear about in fiction- I'm sure they are going to milk this dry. I still think it was the right call to let that guy meet with the press. Even though it brought a lot of unneeded attention, if it wasn't for him mentioning that he had a US citizen on board, we would not have had the justification to inspect the area."
"I guess that's true... we were able to get all of the samples we needed," his demeanor instantly became more serious, "Has there been any progress on the analysis?"
It was the other man's turn to sigh.
"Nothing major yet- our team is still completely lost on what could be causing those readings. We haven't had access to the samples for long, but I'm sure that we'll make a breakthrough eventually."
"Speaking of samples," the general leaked a smirk, "I could understand taking sections of the boat's deck and even some ocean water near the storm... but was netting the area really necessary? It sounds to me like you guys are scared the fish will figure out the alien lasers before us."
The man in the lab coat adjusted his glasses to cover his annoyance.
"Yes, the netting was needed and no, we are not scared of the fish. There's not even any reason to suspect that the lights were a resort of alien technology-"
"Oh, you don't think it was from aliens? So you're saying that the fish were the ones shooting at the boat?" the general mocked.
"... Is your sole purpose in life just to annoy me?" The man in the lab coat sighed and laid back in his chair, "I think you're underestimating just how big this whole discovery is."
"Well I think you're underestimating just how big my-"
"I swear to Newton I will leave if you finish that sentence."
The general cracked a smile and put his hands up to show his surrender.
"Alright, clearly I don't get this stuff- that's why we brought you in. So explain to me why the Department of Defense is going crazy over green lights that can't even put a hole through a small fishing boat."
"The government is probably just worried that it's some secret weapon from Russia or China, but this is a huge deal in the scientific community. We don't have the 'beams' themselves to study, but we did get some readings from the equipment at Maldonado and now we have the samples from things they impacted.
From what we're seeing, whatever these beams were made of... it's not a particle or wave; it's somehow between the two of them. It constantly switches between the two yet can be either one depending on the stimulus. This is something completely unheard of! There isn't even a single scientific theory predicting the existence of such a thing!"
The scientist glanced over to the general only to be met with a face of pure confusion.
"Okay... maybe you'll understand better if I put it like this." He paused as he thought of what to say, "Light acts as a wave for the most part. When it makes contact with an object, it might transfer some energy to it and make it warm up, but it does not add mass to it. If you leave a chocolate bar in the sun, it might melt but it won't get heavier.
What we are looking at is different. Based on the readings from Maldonado, it exists in a state of energy and has no mass in its beam form. The second it makes contact with an object, instead of transferring this energy, it infuses into the object and adds some mass while potentially altering its properties!"
The general glanced at the scientist with eyes full of skepticism.
"I think I get what you're saying, but what do you mean by 'altering its properties'? I didn't notice anything different about the ship even after it apparently got blasted by those beams."
"What you say is true- nothing seemed different on the surface." A grin appeared on the face of the scientist. "But when we took a portion of the ship's hull into the lab, we noticed something unusual: it was nearly three times more durable than what should be possible for the material!"
The general nearly leaped out of his seat when he heard this.
"Three times!? Could you imagine if we shot some of those beams at our tanks... it's no wonder the Department of Defence is so obsessed with this stuff," the general paused, seemingly pondering such a possibility, "What would happen if a person were to get hit though? Would their skin just become tougher?"
"...I don't know. I was able to isolate some of the fish in the area that got hit using this contraption I made with parts from the fishing boat. My team will be studying them to try to figure out the beams' effects on living things, but it might take us some time to see if anything changes with them."
He pulled out a small metal device and placed it on the table. The general looked at it with curiosity.
"... And that stick can tell you which fish got hit by the beams?"
A smug grin was plastered on the scientist's face.
"This is just a prototype that I threw together. Even though we still don't know what that energy particle mixture is, I never said I couldn't find a way to detect it. Once we can find the source of this energy, we will have the potential to enter a new age... and I'll be the one to get us there."
