"How long will it take for the Company's reinforcements to arrive?"
Evelyn asked as she wanted a clear time table for everything that was about to happen. This was her first outing and her first big move. This was the beginning of her adventure. She did not want to experience failure just because she did not account for most of the details. She was a Mundi, but even with the power her race held, it would not hurt to be cautious.
"About a week or so, I'd wager. They're not in too much of a hurry since this is a frontier region and no one would be dumb enough to try to steal from the Company.... I don't mean you're dumb, by the way! You clearly have a plan and have the power to execute it so you're not dumb!"
Jeor backpedaled as he paled in fright. He literally just called Evelyn dumb even though it was not intentional. In that moment, his life flashed before his eyes, but Evelyn and Adam were not even paying him any mind. Instead, they were discussing.
"How long do you think it would take us to devour this world?"
"I don't know. I've never devoured an entire planet before, much less something this big. It's probably in the late stage of Minor World or an early stage Major World, just smaller than Helmin. The largest I've tried to devour was the Corpus mothership's core and it took 32 hours including evolution."
"We cannot take away the necessary time for evolution even if we're not guaranteed to evolve every time. We need to account for the worst case scenario. How big was the mothership's core compared to this world?"
At Evelyn's question, it was not Adam who answered as he was still thinking. Comparing the sizes of two things when one of them is not yet clear to him either from afar or through the hologram was almost impossible. He had no idea just how huge this planet V1-X9937 was. All he knew was that it was massive. Just from what he could see in this distance a few light years away, it was definitely bigger than any planet in the Solar System, even compared to the current Earth.
While Adam was still thinking of the answer, the AI came with its own. It seems to have knowledge of the Corpus mothership and seemed cognisant of the fact that it had become derelict. And for an AI, it seemed quite fitting that it did not even seem to hold any attachments to the Corpus and their other creations as it completely began serving its new owners.
[The Corpus mothership, Galatea's core is roughly the size of 33% of Jupiter's mass. Planet V1-X9937 is roughly the size of 38 times the mass of Jupiter. With a record of 32 hours on Galatea's core, it will take approximately 3650 hours or 152 Earth days to completely devour the planet.]
Upon hearing the AI's response, both Adam and Evelyn fell silent, their faces dark as they discovered a new problem. Both of them managed to catch onto a specific troubling detail in the AI's words that could basically invalidate all of their plans.
Earth days...
It seemed simple enough and not at all a problem, but that was only because in Adam and Evelyn's perspective, it was the most normal thing. The Earth completes one full revolution around the Sun in about 365 days which is one entire year for the inhabitants of Earth. The Moon revolves around the Earth for approximately 27 days or 1 month. The Earth rotates on its axis for 24 hours or 1 day.
These had been their normal cycles since as far back as they could remember. They had no reason to think of time any differently. In fact, they had no reason to think about time at all. They were celestial bodies existing only for the sake of existing. Just like seemingly everything else in the Universe, they were a product of chance. They did not even have consciousnesses until recently.
They were practically immortal with no regard for time outside of their bodies. But that was no longer the case. They were now Mundi, living planets with minds of their own. Their consciousnesses were no longer limited to just their planetary main bodies that still continue on their routine.
Whereas only significant periods of time really mattered for most planets as their domain of activities was incredibly limited, for the Mundi who have bodies actively venturing out into the Universe and interacting with other lifeforms, every second, minute and hour was important.
This shift in perspective was not something they would be able to cultivate over a long period of time. They would have t acclimate to it now especially since this was only the first part of the problem.
As a famous Earth human once said, "Time is relative."
One's perception of time is based entirely on their frame of reference. In Earth's case, it was the appearance and disappearance of the Moon as well as the length of time the Sun stays in the sky before setting. But was that the same for every other planet in the Severis Galaxy or the rest of the Universe for that matter? Definitely not.
Just take for example Helmin whose entire star system seemed to have been decimated by the war between the Corpus and the Corpuscladis. Those planets had their own star to revolve around. They must have had their own satellites that revolve around them as well.
And then there are planets like V1-X9937 which are classified as 'starless rogues', a category of planets that exist outside the perimeters of stars, floating alone in the vast darkness of space. How does one measure time in such a place? But more importantly...,
"How does the Starnet Company measure time across the galaxy? Is there some kind of centralised system that they implemented? How does it compare to the other measurements of time of other galaxies?"
Adam's consecutive questions shook Jeor out of his fantasy of death. He looked at Adam in genuine surprise and confusion as though he could not believe what he was hearing. But that short moment of silence from him was enough to annoy Evelyn who was expecting a quick answer considering the simple question.
With a wave of her hand, a small gust of cold wind blew toward Jeor and his body began turning numb. Starting from his feet, the frost crept up at an incredibly fast rate toward his neck. It was as though he had been flash frozen, leaving only his head for him to speak. Fear instantly painted his face as he stammered out a panicked answer.
"It's the Universe! The Universe has its own measurement of time! You can check the System!"
"See? It was such a simple answer, all you had to do was speak. Why did you have to gloat? I'll let you reflect on your behaviour for a while. Just try to stay alive, little worm."
As Evelyn decided on a punishment for Jeor, Adam had already shifted his focus to the Universal System. There was a reason he did not think of this from the very beginning. First of all, they have not yet fully explored what the Universal System could do. That was not their fault, however.
The Universal System was an enigmatic thing that would not tell its users anything about itself. For all they knew, it had unlocked very important function that would have had drastic impact on their activities and they would not have known of it until much later. Trying to discover such things on their own without at least a little bit of hint was a very difficult task.
Who knew what the Universe added to this System?
Second of all, when Adam wondered to himself how much time had passed since he began devouring the Corpus mothership's core, the System answered him in a very straightforward manner. 32 hours, it said. It did not bother elaborating further.
This made it so that Adam believed it to be 32 Earth hours when, in fact, it was not. It was 32 Universal hours. What was the difference between an Earth hour and a Universal hour? This was something he needed to know. He felt like he was walking on a tightrope on the cusp of grasping something that he himself could not quite perceive just yet. And this might be the lead.
[What you refer to as Universal time is a Universal constant. The Universe measures time by its flow within the vacuum of space rather through than the motion of constructs like stars and planets.]
[Time is constant. It cannot be measured with labels and thus could not be perceived by intelligent lifeforms in its rawest form. In order for an intelligent lifeform to perceive and measure time, they would need a frame of reference.]
[The Universal System automatically converts the measurement of time based on the individual's frame of reference. This means that the 32 hours it took to complete your evolution was in Earth hours.]
The Universal System answered his questions with an information dump that basically told him to not even try to understand the difference as he would not be able to. But instead of being angry or relieved, Adam was in a daze. He had just come across something that deeply resonated with him. It was something that somehow seemed incredibly pertinent to him, but still beyond his current understanding.
Time is constant.
We are relative.