16 Theta radiation

Mark opened the folder, and the first thing he read already grabbed his attention.

"Analysis report of Theta radiation?"

He knew nothing about radiation apart, that it usually was not a good thing. He still remembered a few incidents with nuclear power plants that had happened once the beasts came. Those places are now considered dead zones, because no one can set foot.

Mark shook his useless thoughts and focused on reading the report, because he could not lose too much time on it. He still had a lot of things to do today.

[Upon the report submitted by the U-3 Lab about the interference in the satellites communications caused by an unknown type radiation, more research was done to identify the exact type of radiation and its origins.]

"Is this a technical report about communications?" said Mark aloud, but continued reading. His guts were telling him that there was more to it.

[After a long research, our laboratory, U-2, was capable of identifying the radiation, a previously inexistent type of radiation on Earth, and using a spectrometer to measure the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, we identified that the origins of this new type of radiation is a phenom caused by the feeding process of the alien beasts, during its process of digesting, the alien species releases the same type of radiation]

'The beasts are creating this radiation when they feed? Asked himself Mark in surprise, while skipping a few pages that only had data and some kind of technical language he didn't understand.

[Analyzing the environment, we also identified that this radiation is affecting all types of matter on our planet, further study showed that local species born less than a year ago, are even more affected by the Theta radiation, in some cases, causing mutations]

"So, the mutations are caused by this new kind of radiation, and the beasts are creating this radiation when they feed, that's don't seem random to me, there is something more behind it" said Mark aloud while skipping a few more pages that had only data on it and focusing on the final reports.

[As already reported by laboratory U-5, the mutations have the capacity of affecting the molecules of its hosts, but also, the ability to affect the environment, causing a variety of phenoms that we call now abilities, under controlled environment we were able to identify that the use of those 'abilities' have a strong connection with Theta radiation. Further study is suggested to understand the relation between them.]

Mark already knew about abilities, but reading that the Union already knew about that, in that way, showed that they were aware of this for a long time already.

'I wonder when they will release this information to the public,' thought Mark, because a year had already passed since the invasion, and the union still didn't make it public that mutations were happening.

[Using computational simulations to understand the impact of the radiation on the environment, and assuming the same frequency of alien species entering the planet, we were able to predict that in about 10 years the entire planet will change, not only the fauna and flora will evolve but also the water, minerals and gases, in sum we believe the entire planet will change in the approximate estimate of 10 years, including the human species.]

'So the entire planet is really changing, but if he says that even the human species is changing, this means that even the people currently alive will change? Not only the new kids born after the invasion? But I remember that researcher measuring two plants and one of them didn't have mutation. Or what he means was that it was not mutated yet?' asked himself Mark, because what he saw that day made him thought that only things born after the invasion were mutating.

Mark put that thought on hold and continued reading the report,

[Measuring the theta radiation on mutated plants and animals, we were able to conclude that once a species mutates, the concentration of theta radiation in its body increases, We were able to analyze two animal species while consuming mutated organs from other animals, and during the process we identified that the radiation is absorbed during the process of digestion, and mutates the animal, the same doesn't occur while trying to transplant an organ from a mutated animal to a non-mutated, the hosts reject the new organ and dies, digestion seems to be the only process to 'pass' an existing mutation to another animal, further study showed that the mutated animal parts still keep they characteristics even after the animal death, for a very prolonged period of time, still unknown, due to budget limitations on the project]

"So it indeed only works by eating?" Mark thought it was weird that he had to eat an animal part to receive its ability, but understating that it had to do with some weird radiation, and that the beasts also released that same radiation when they feed it seemed to him that things were related somehow.

Mark refocused in reading the papers and found three pages asking for more budget, personnel and materials to continue the research about how much time an mutated animal part could hold its characteristics and further research on the uses of those same animal parts to create weapons and new devices.

[Due to the contents of this report, and previous invasions on the union network, we are submitting this report physically to be analyzed by the head of the research department.]

'That's why they send it through this guy, but who is trying to invade the Union network? I thought there were no more political conflicts since the creation of the Union, but it seems that things are not that simple, huh', thought to himself Mark, because since the union was created no more armed conflicts happened on Earth, not that he knew at least.

Mark thought the report ended, and was almost closing it when he noticed a single last page fully red, written in while letters.