Everything finally made sense!
All the things Nick had learned over his lifetime finally made sense!
The only thing he needed to hear was that there was definitely a traitor amongst the Shields.
By knowing who the traitor was, Nick just needed to combine a couple of clues, and everything finally fit together.
Although, maybe not everything…
'Where did the Sun come from?'
'It should have been created back during the era of the Ancient Ones.'
'Sadly, I don't know enough about the Ancient Ones to come to an answer. While we can see their power all across the world by looking at the gigantic ruins of steel, there's barely any writing or information left.'
'The Ancient Ones seemed to have changed the planet the most, but they are also the ones we know the least about.'
'Based on the records, they even had enough power to destroy chunks of Earth that have a radius of over a thousand kilometers. The Earth would look like someone took a huge bite out of a fruit.'
'This kind of power is so unreasonable that not even Eternals can achieve something like that. If War became an Eternal and launched an attack, it might be able to create a pure ball of fire with a radius of up to a hundred kilometers, but that's still far less than what the Ancient Ones were able to accomplish with their technology.'
'In order to rival that, War would need to reach a theoretical tenth level.'
'How did the Sun even manage to kill such a civilization?'
'The Ancient Ones would just need to fire one of these weapons at the forcefield surrounding Earth, and it would crumple, most likely killing the Sun in the process.'
'It's obvious that the Sun killed the Ancient Ones by targeting their bodies directly. Most likely, it unleashed an intense burst of radiation that turned all of the humans into ash.'
'However,the Ancient Ones should have seen the Sun coming already. A civilization with such advanced weaponry should have equally impressive perceptive machinery.'
'Such a huge forcefield couldn't just appear out of nowhere.'
'The Ancient Ones should have had the means to destroy the forcefield before it encompassed Earth.'
'I can't find an answer to that.'
'Even though I know what the Sun is now, I still don't have all the answers.'
'There has to be more behind this.'
Nick looked at the Knife, who was looking at him with raised brows.
The Knife had just talked about a traitor, and Nick had fallen silent for several seconds.
"Is that so surprising?" the Knife asked.
Meanwhile, the Technician, who had known Nick for much longer, could see what was happening.
He could see that Nick was combining a lot of clues in his head.
'How much do they know?' Nick thought as he looked at the two Shields. 'They have to know more things, but they don't want to tell me.'
'The chances are high that they already know everything about the Sun, including the things I don't know.'
Nick focused on the Technician.
Then, he lifted his right index finger.
"I've once been in a ruin of the Ancient Ones, and in there, I have seen this," Nick said as he drew a circle, which was surrounded by another circle. "I think I know what that means now." ’
The Technician didn't answer.
"The inner circle is Earth, and-"
"Yes, yes," the Technician interjected. "It's the upper limit that humans are not allowed to cross without getting killed by the Sun."
The Technician seemed normal, but Nick could see an urgent warning in the Technician's eyes.
Nick should not continue to talk about that.
It was clear that the Technician received the message.
Nick had essentially told the Technician that he knew what the Sun was, but the Technician stopped him from saying it out loud.
Meanwhile, the Knife leaned back too much on her chair and almost fell over as she heard Nick's words.
She could only look at Nick with a surprised expression.
"Damn, I knew that you had to know some things, but the fact that you even know THAT is crazy," she said with an impressed voice.
"Seems like I was a bit careless," she added with an embarrassed laugh before looking at the Technician.
Then, she shrugged. "Oopsie."
The Technician just sighed.
"Did you know that there is a speed of information?" the Technician asked.
"Speed of information? No," Nick answered.
"Imagine there are two particles that are intrinsically connected. When one of them gets created, the other one gets created. When one of them gets destroyed, the other one gets destroyed."
"Now, if you put them one lightsecond away from each other and destroyed one, when would the other one get destroyed?" the Technician asked.
Nick raised an eyebrow. "Based on the rules of your hypothetical, they would get destroyed at the same time."
"This is not a hypothetical without basis on real-life physics and logic," the Technician said. "That is a real experiment that can be repeated as many times as you want."
The Technician lifted one finger.
"One second," the Technician said. "It takes exactly one second for the other particle to get destroyed."
Nick looked at the Technician with skepticism. "And how does that make sense? You said that they get destroyed at the same time."
"Yes, but the information of destruction can't move faster than the speed of light," the Technician said. "Do you realize what I'm getting at here?"
Nick wasn't sure and shook his head.
"If there is a speed of information, there is information. Information is not just some illusory concept that we made up. Information is an actual physical thing."
"So, if information is a real thing, it can also be measured. It is not too crazy to consider that a specific type of information might trigger a specific type of alarm, right?"
"Just think of Nurse Alice."
Nick did just that.
Nick was almost completely certain that Nurse Alice wasn't immune to his ability, which meant that Nick would feel her if she focused on him.
But since Nick's ability was basically always active, it meant that Nurse Alice wasn't sensing him.
And yet, if Nick or a human near him spoke the Sentence, he was sure that Nurse Alice would notice it.
'It's like a spider web,' Nick realized. 'The net is everywhere, but the spider only consciously senses it when some prey is struggling in it.'
'Nurse Alice has some kind of ability that allows her to scan the world for a specific trigger phrase, which is the Sentence.'
At that moment, Nick narrowed his eyes.
'So, why couldn't the Sun do that?'
'If something specific is said about the Sun, it might get triggered, in which case it would kill everyone involved.'
At that moment, Nick thought about the Null.
'Same with the Null.'
'The Null can probably sense anyone that knows something about it.'
Nick was reminded that the Null had let him live back then.
'That means that the Null is most likely not intelligent.'
'Is the Null actually a Force Specter that works on instinct?'
"Do you realize what I'm trying to say?" the Technician asked, pulling Nick out of his thoughts.
Nick looked back at the Technician and nodded. "That's the reason why you are all so secretive about this."
The Technician nodded. "I decided it's worth the risk to tell you about the information thing now since the risk of you uttering certain pieces of information can cause much more damage."
The Technician sighed. "I just hope that this is not enough to trigger the Envious Researcher yet."
Nick's eyes widened.
That also explained why they didn't want to tell him why they didn't want to tell him!
'It seems like this speed of information thing is not public knowledge yet. Any additional person that knows about this might trigger the Envious Researcher.'
'However, I believe the Technician forgot something.'
"Wait," the Knife said with a raised brow. "You're concerned about the Envious Researcher? Why?"
The Technician raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, why? I don't want him to die to the Envious Researcher."
The Knife became even more confused. "What the fuck are you even talking about?" she asked in exasperation.
Then, she pointed at Nick with annoyance.
"He's a fucking Specter, dumbfuck! How's he gonna make the Envious Researcher appear?!" she asked in annoyance.
"He…" the Technician said before stopping himself.
Then, the Technician blinked a couple of times.
"Huh," he added. "Would you look at that. I've completely forgotten about that."
Sometimes, it was difficult to see the most obvious things when one was essentially just going through the motions and doing the same thing again and again.
The Knife just rolled her eyes.
Nick looked at the Technician with a raised brow.
"Yeah, sorry. My bad," the Technician said as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.