I stomp through the hallways of the civilian science vessel, my mind reeling from the information I have recently become wary of. I am making my way to another meeting at the end of the day where the scientists and diplomats are going to discuss their findings. What I learned is extremely disturbing and could mean trouble.

The Eternal Kingdom has never figured out nuclear fusion or even fission. In fact they truly have never heard of Uranium metal, or even any fissile material at all. The Shipmaster seemed quite disturbed by my showing of standard nuclear armament and when he asked if that was my strongest attack I told him it was the strongest in a way, but only for the main cannons of my ship. I was referencing the nuclear HEAT shells we have for really hard targets, but the nuclear effect shells used for slapping things with light armor technically have a higher yield. Still, it has less damaging capability compared to the hellish Cassaba howitzer nuclear HEAT shells, which are the main guns the USS Catfish can use. The 12-inch guns are the smallest caliber guns capable of firing these weapons with any reasonable yield.

I explained this to the Shipmaster who really seemed horrified and as a gesture of good faith, I offered to show him our highest-yield tactical device the USS Catfish has on board. He declined stating,

"I need some time to go and think about these developments. Let us end these weapons tests, but thank you for showing me."

He then severed the line before I could answer and then his massive ship blinked away in another burst of radiation.I recognize a terrified retreat when I see one so the weight of the situation dawned on me and I quickly made my way back the the fleet and waited until the ground teams were done before boarding the civilian vessel worried that the Eternal Kingdom may choose some manner of preemptive strike out of fear of our nuclear weapons, or possibly may try and take them from us for study through force.

I enter the meeting room and find it entirely jolly. Everyone is talking giddily, it's not just the team leads, instead its all the team leads plus the heads of specific science groups like microbiology, geology, chemistry, ETC. All the eggheads ignore my entrance as I slink over to the table and sit down at an open chair next to Uriel who still keeps her icy expression despite her overly excited tone of voice. From what I am picking up from the room, what has been found is an absolute breakthrough in science. Regardless I lean in and whisper in Uriel's ear,

"I fucked up... no... Shariah fucked up and I followed through."

She glances at me in that icy way she always has for a moment and without breaking stride sends me a text through our neural links which reads,

"send through texts, don't fucking ruin the situation here. We are enjoying ourselves."

It takes me a while to word what I need to say correctly and the whole time Uriel can see in the corner of her vision me attempting to create a response through text. Eventually, I found the right words so as not to make the situation seem overly dire, but definitely something that cannot be ignored. The situation is laid out and all she sends back is,

"The meeting is starting soon. You will go last as the information we uncovered may actually give you peace of mind."

I do not respond but pat her on the shoulder before facing the meeting table. I activate the built-in console so I can access pictures and reports as the scientists and diplomats explain their findings. Since this is a civilian vessel one of the heads has to send all the information directly to my head rather than me just downloading it myself. I flick out my metal fingers the gloves dulling the loud metal scraping. The conversation slows down before Uriel gets to the head of the table and opens with,

"Alright, let's get into this. I know we are all excited about the findings but I will start us up here.

I know we all want to share but all the heads of this operation aside from the Commodore here have decided the abiotic information we have found is foundational to the biotic things and also the political and legal."

A projector turns on and a small presentation starts. Uriel then begins,

"In our further studies of the strange matter and radiation found within this area of space, these findings have been a mixture of disturbing and highly interesting.

First, the basis of this all is physics and the sometimes utter lack of them. The locals call these phenomena "magic" and the radiation "Mana" or at least these words are the closest translations we have to standard English. As you all know this part of space has radioactive particles that are opposite charges to ours back home, this is also on top of them having the same Alpha, Beta, and Gamma particles we know and love. This novel radiation, from here on out referred to as Reverse Polar Radiation or RPR. This RPR is fairly easy to manipulate once one understands how it works. This is through means of electromagnetism as well as utilizing normal radiation. The previously known radiation prior to this study will be referred to as OR or old radiation for ease of understanding, this will change later as this is a placeholder.

It has been found small controlled gamma bursts from some of our equipment can cause the RPR to act in predictable ways as they are attracted or repulsed by the gamma if done in specific ways light can be produced along the gamma stream through still unknown means. Electromagnets can also achieve this in a far more controllable way. When done in certain ways, as shown in video 1a3 a layer of RPR can be forced to gain mass through creating a super dense layer creating something like new matter without the radioactive particles actually starting fission. This creates a dull glow of various colors, it is unknown why different colors are expressed, but this glowing patch has mass but is still permeable, like a non-Newtonian fluid. Certain levels of energy are allowed to pass, such as a falling leaf, but when a stick was swung at the subject the stick's acceleration was reduced as if it had been run through an area of higher resistance. This was described as trying to swing the stick while underwater. Every time the electromagnet was switched off the wall of radioactive particles was dissipated with little to no residual particles left behind.

RPR when interacting with OR does not result in destruction of either, this usually results in strange phenomena that we have yet to understand. Both types of radiation exist throughout this part of space and on the planets but do not interact at all unless acted upon by extreme bursts of OR, and theoretically bursts of RPR. Why this happens is unknown as they are of opposite charges.

The biggest finding we have found is how radioactive this part of space is. If this whole area was composed entirely of OR it would be similar to the aftermath of a fission reactor meltdown. The levels of radiation found planetside composed of OR and RPR are just as common as photons coming from the sun, or that is theorized. All planetside radiation kits showed the highest readings and possibly would go further. Scans from space corroborate this data, but the surrounding space is so much more saturated in RPR and OR that taking readings of the planet is near impossible thanks to interference in the void. This whole part of space is similar to standing inside the reactor of a completely melted-down powerplant.

The next part of our findings is how RPR interacts with matter. The existence of RPR means there are subatomic particles within atoms of the same charge. This is true and thus creates something we call Strange Matter or SM. I will continue on this subject later but first is how RPR interacts with our normal matter or NM.

Despite how it seems NR isn't always affected by RPR as NM exists in large quantities in this part of space, of course, most of this matter is hydrogen and the SM version of hydrogen which we will get back to.

It has been found that all SM is practically immune to RPR unless it is directed into a piece of matter through electromagnetic force. What usually happens is the release of light and heat and other releases of energy such as a disproportional amount of kinetic force. During testing, it was found that the RPR can increase electromagnetic forces placed upon an object. This was expressed via the use of an electromagnet to lift a small ingot of iron. The magnet was nowhere near the strength to lift the 1KG ingot of iron, but when observed the RPR surrounded the object and more than doubled the forces as if a hand or something picked up the iron as kinetic forces were being placed on the iron. This of course will be further researched. Videos 3a1 through 3a10 show this phenomenon in action along with a breakdown of the current findings.

What is most interesting, and almost disturbing about the RPR is its transformative effects on NM and SM. The RPR can directly add atomic mass and charge to atoms of NM and apparently to SM as well, but research on SM must be studied further before this is confirmed. This RPR Fusion event hereby referred to as FE works in an interesting way compared to normal atomic fusion. There is no great burst of light and heat as we know, when RPR is used this event becomes the FE. As far as we can tell normal fusion works as expected, but more protons, electrons, and neutrons can be added to NM and SM at random due to this anomalous effect. We were unable to perform this by ourselves and required assistance from a local. They managed to turn hydrogen into helium with minimal effort, only a slight glow was observed without any thermal release. It is currently believed that the opposite can happen with similar effects. This means RPR can completely remove the effects of normal fission and fusion. Videos 3a1 through 3a20 prove this action with multiple different tests.

Then is the SM, which is a matter that utilizes the oppositely charged subatomic particles in its construction. As far as we can tell there is an equivalent periodic table composed of SM. This matter is capable of being entirely stable without any RPR being released in its base state, and this SM acts similarly to its NM counterpart but with sometimes strange behaviors such as being lighter than air but being as tough as the lead it is the direct opposite of. This shouldn't work at all considering the atomic mass is the same as regular lead. There is so much information to go over all figures are being put on hold before release before more information can be gained. It also should be noted that SM and NM can sometimes alloy or create an exothermic reaction similar to thermite. How and why this happens is unknown at this time.

Last is the sheer abundance of natural resources on the planet. A local who escorted us to the testing area told us this planet is rather low in resources and they find it hard to make a living when it comes to mining. We so far do not know the geological history of this planet yet, or at least much of the history but this planet is so far one of the most abundant planets in records. The planet has a universally temperate climate, even at the poles, the dirt has hunks of iron, gold, and other precious or useful metals easily accessible. Nearly county-sized ore veins of nearly pure metals or other resources. The soil is fertile and allows for easy farming without much fertilization or irrigation. The planet surpasses any standard classification as it is what should be known as a world without any threats to human life or progress. Something never before seen. The aliens refer to this planet as poor. What this could mean is unknown at this time.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

With this baseline out of the way, we shall now move onto the biotic nature of this alien part of space."

Uriel sits back down and the crowd of scientists murmur in excitement about the prospects all this new science can offer. I sit there shocked and slowly coming up with my own theories and answers to questions brewing in my mind. From what I can piece together it's starting to sound like these aliens have something quite similar to legit magic. I mean multiple processes that should result in an actual nuclear explosion, or at least require an equivalent amount of energy is being done without the threat of even slight burns. The only danger is that the radiation that makes this possible literally melts our flesh and gives turbo cancer.

I focus up again as Josef stands up front with a balding professor type. Josef says,

"I am sorry mein friends, but mein accent may be difficult for some to underzand me fully so I will have ze doktor Klein here explain ze biological studies."

(Authors note: I didn't want to write the explanation in a crappy German accent.)

Dr.Klein clears his throat and starts his own presentation. He then speaks,

"I understand we have had only a day to do research but what we know, even after a single day, is far beyond what we could do back home in a hundred years. I shall begin speaking about the major things we have learned about these novel aliens and how our biology reacts.

First, why is radiation that seems harmless to the locals deadly to us? This is simple, we do not have resistance to it at all. Our cellular makeup was formed without RPR and our cells cannot resist the attractive and repulsive forces of the RPR. Due to having none to learn to resist, our naturally limited radiation protection cannot help us at all against RPR resulting in immediate DNA destruction in the exposed cells. This can result in almost immediate, and highly aggressive cancers as Commodore Hollander found out. Not only this, but since our bodies are a theoretical area of no RPR or SM it immediately binds or enters known biological tissue resulting in burns similar to being doused in strong acids. Despite lots of smoke, there is little in the way of an exothermic reaction.

So far we theorize why this happens with known biological matter while NM is completely unaffected is that our known biomatter does not exist in this part of space while NM does. As this part of space is closer to the galactic core than our known area of space we believe most NM formed alongside SM and for some reason, RPR and related SM either was somehow stopped or decomposed before reaching Earth and the other biologically viable planets in our part of space. This is a theory but we have evidence to corraborate this theory.

Next is the incredibly strange... things the living organisms of this part of space can do, or at least some of them can do. More research must be done before any certain statements, but we have observed something strange."

The man sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose before he continues,

"I do not know how to describe this in scientific terms, but simply put the organisms can straight up use magic. While we have a good theory about how it works and the possible limits of this magic it is the simplest name to call it and it is a pretty apt description of the actions and abilities of these alien organisms.

As the abiotic science team found, RPR can be practically controlled through the usage of electromagnetism. This appears to be the case on a biological level too. Referred to as the mana field of an organism by the locals, this field is a naturally produced form of electromagnetism that can be trained and controlled with incredible precision. We haven't been able to dissect a cadaver to figure out how this works, even the prisoner taken five years ago has not passed on and it was seen as cruel to execute them for the sole reason of cutting it to bits. We currently believe that electromagnetic fields are produced through a complex series of either nerves or subdermal muscles like a shark's electroreceptors or an electric eel. More research must be done, but what the organisms are capable of is... intense.

It appears differing species and genetic lines within species can have affinities with their supposed magic. We did note differences in each individual mana field so this could be the truth. The physics-breaking nature of RPR can be utilized through their fields to seemingly produce matter, energy, and other... effects out of thin air, without needing air just ample RPR and a potent enough mana field to wield the proper amount of RPR or matter. We have observed aliens producing fire, lightning, and some potent acids, and even performing telekinesis with this power. We also have been told there are living statues in places somehow enchanted to walk around through this... strange phenomenon. Seemingly the limits are endless and all known physical laws are going to have to be revised. Regardless each individual is born with limited capabilities to produce certain effects for their entire life, but the capacity and scale within these effects can be trained as if it were a muscle.

This is all we have at the moment, and I believe there is lots more we need to understand, and we will find out more in the future. I apologize for how short this was, but biological sciences do take more time sometimes than chemistry and physics due to the extreme complexity of even the most simple biological systems."

He suddenly sits down, looking drained from his speech which he seemingly did on a total of four breaths. For a moment I have to take a look around the room just to make sure this isn't some elaborate prank. Finding everyone discussing this as seriously as a heart attack I sink into my chair feeling a little silly about being so worked up about them possibly being intimidated by nukes. I wouldn't be if I, and lots of others could shoot fire and all kinds of cool magic stuff. I put both hands on my face and leaned against the table in front of me. I think I need a drink.

Then Shariah takes the floor and she starts with,

"Now that we have gotten a summary of all the scientific aspects of our current... scenario I will now share the political situation of the Eternal Kingdom. I am going last because the science behind this part of space plays a big part in their society.

First, their society is one of a feudal-style monarchy. This monarchy and all its noble houses formed around the most potent magic people whatever the term they used was. It was ruled by the strongest for the longest while, but slowly as the kingdom expanded some of the nobles became less powerful, but now they hold soft power instead. Apparently, there still are some heavy hitters running around though. According to those I talked with, the King is seen as some sort of divine entity and possibly may be a living breathing nuclear device. These claims have yet to be proven or denied, so tread with caution on that, although we are most likely never going to meet the king. While this may seem like a slight to us, it's really not. The King, who has no other name, never leaves the palace unless it's time to basically commit a punitive genocide. From what I've gathered he is the pillar that holds up their entire interstellar empire. How this is I don't know.

Second, their society strongly lives by who has the higher power level and some really complicated social etiquette. The social etiquette is mostly for the upper class, it's a convoluted web of gossip, rumors, and never actually saying what you mean. Then it's all piled high with professional ass-kissing your higher-ups. Reputation is everything to them and a small slip-up could lead to an eventual hostile takeover of one's family holdings. Damaging another reputation through any means aside from martial is considered an incredibly grave offense usually met with a deadly response. On top of this social stratification is usually decided by the power and influence of either an individual or the family name they are attached to. Power levels or whatever you want to refer to them as, are genetically predetermined to an extent meaning there is little upward social mobility. Also, apparently, most commoners, peasants, and the like have a very limited magical field or none at all resulting in no magical capability worth noting.

Lastly, and most upsetting is the practice of mass slavery in their kingdom. There are entire species that are enslaved within their kingdom usually for reasons of past criminality or resistance to being integrated into their society. One is born into slavery and is able to get out of it based on some incredibly rare and lucky circumstances but slaves truly have no rights. The only rights they have is based entirely on their master's whims. They are property and stealing or harming another's slave without permission is criminal. While this is against our most basic American ideals, we can in the future move toward... enriching their society and hopefully resulting in eventual emancipation.

So those are the main three aspects of their society that need to be addressed for future interactions. Any questions?"

I raise my hand and Shariah nods toward me and I ask,

"So... we know how they are socially, but what is their society actually like? By this, I mean how does the standard person live?"

Shariah nods in acknowledgment and continues,

"I neglected to speak about that out of oversight, thank you Commodore.

Their society is both backward and very advanced. On average their standard civilian or commoner lives in standards similar to the late medieval period or early Renaissance but with indoor plumbing and magic crystals for lighting. The nobility lives in great castles of stone and beautiful artisan glass, but lives similar to the time period they seemingly emulate. It appears their social development is quite stagnant while their technology advances to a fairly large stellar empire... according to them that is."

I nod and lean back as other scientists ask questions. I think over the information I have been confronted with and decide...

I am not impressed with these aliens. Non-nuclear, and while magic is cool they are not a threat. My only questions are about their FTL. That looked really cool. Simply appearing in one place and then another with minimal external indicators of anything happening. If we can figure out how to use that, the next time those Euro-fucks come for us we can just show up in New Brussels and glass the whole world.

Regardless this information is really cool... I send a note about my potential concerns to Uriel, Josef, and Shariah before standing up and leaving the science vessel. I get back onto a shuttle and head back to the Catfish, this whole thing may not require someone like me and I need time to digest the information. If anything comes up that needs my attention they know how to get ahold of me.

I sit in my command chair on the bridge when Shariah enters from behind me. She sits in her chair from before the new operation and she simply scrolls through information on her console. I am simply going over basic reports and making sure all the ducks are in a row. The backup communications officer gets up from his seat and starts to head for the bathroom. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice he is a little wobbly then just as he passes in front of me he collapses to the ground, writhing in agony as his mouth begins foaming. I feel my heart sink into my stomach as I practically leap over my console to hold him still so he doesn't hurt himself on the steel floor. I bark an order loudly,

"GET MEDICAL UP HERE RIGHT NOW! CODE ALPHA 21!"

The seizing stops and the man sits up confused and crying. As I hear the medics approaching I look him in the eye praying not to see what I know I will. Small spots of his brown irises are losing color, a pale, pearl white replacing the deep chocolate brown as both pupils look like pinpricks despite the light levels being quite comfortable. I feel a lump in my throat and say in a low voice,

"How long?"

He slowly begins sobbing and says quietly,

"I'm sorry sir... I can't... I don't wanna..."

I grip his shoulders and keep my eyes locked on his as the medics start trying to pull me off. He then answers with a sob,

"This was my third one... three weeks... I've been fighting it off..."

I let go, bow my head, and say to the medics,

"Get him to the med bay... I'll follow you down to deal with it as his commanding officer. "

I start to leave when Shariah asks me in a scared tone,

"What's wrong with him?"

I glare at her from under my hat as the room stares at the paradise worlder with sheer disgust. I respond trying not to grit my teeth as I know it isn't her fault,

"The curse everyone but your kind carries."

She looks around the room, at all the angry stares and shrinks. I leave the bridge my will steeling for what must be done as I make a stop by the armory for the task I will have to do...