Interdimensional milking part 47 – Stan’s special skills

Recap: Max is a teenager from Earth in the distant future, who attends a boarding school on planet Herschel Majoris where his seed is automatically harvested every day. Shaun has gone missing on a camping trip.

Patrons can access downloadable PDFs of most stories, 4K versions of many images, and content that I chose not to publish publicly here.

Please consider donating to my Patreon in order to receive access. Click here to find out more

Interdimensional milking part 47 – Stan’s special skills

Brill and Max sat facing each other on the golden fur grass looking into each other’s eyes and holding hands.

“Such a shame the way the trip ended,” Max said. “That was one of the best nights of my life.”

“One of?”

“Well, there was that time I watched a cartoon then had a Stellar bar.”

Brill looked at him for a fraction of a second and immediately realised Max was teasing him. Brill pretended to be angry, and he gave Max a slap on the leg.

“I’ll give you “One of;” be honest, you’re going to remember that night for the rest of your life!”

“A couple of weeks at least,” Max smirked.

Brill frowned, and Max thought he was playing the angry lover, but he quickly realised the boy was no longer playing.

“Brill?”

“Max, I can feel him; Shaun. He’s in pain. A lot of pain,” Brill said.

“What? What do you mean you can feel him? Like in your head?”

Brill nodded.

“Yes, I don’t know why. I was never really tuned to him before. Not once he was out of sight. Maybe he’s a telepath. I didn’t know he was native.”

“Ummm, yes, Sam said he was born here,” Max said, cautious about breaking Sam’s confidence. “Can you speak to him? Find out where he is?”

“No, but at least he’s alive.”

“Can you find out anything?”

Brill winced and grimaced.

“He’s in so much pain.”

“Why? Jeez Brill, what’s happening to him? We’ve got to help him. For moff’s sake, there’s got to be something we can do?”

“He’s on fire! Omj, he’s burning up! Oh Maxy, we HAVE to find him!”

Brill leapt to his feet, nervous energy powering his motion. Tears were streaming down his face.

Max said, “We have to tell Squad, maybe he’ll know what to do.”

He reached for his wristcom and found Squad’s contact. He pressed connect, but instead he heard a mellow female computer voice speaking.

“Communications net not accessible at this time. Please try again later.”

Max tried twice more before giving up.

Brill tried on his device, meeting with the same response.

“Commsat must be glitching. We’ll have to tell Cap; he can decide what to do.”

Brill nodded and they set off at jog back into the school.

As they entered the school buildings, Stan almost ran into them.

“Oh hey, there you are!” he said. “I wash jusht coming to find you.”

“Not now Stan, we have to talk to Cap about Shaun.”

“That’sh why I wash coming,” Stan quickly said. “I gueshed they shtill haven’t reshcued him. I think I have a way to help find him.”

“You have?” Brill said. “How?”

Stan noticed the tears on Brills cheeks.

“Hey Brill. Are you crying? What’sh wrong?”

“Shaun,” Brill said ignoring the question and wiping his eyes.  “You said you could help find him.”

“Oh yeah, well I figured the shcanners are not working or they’d have found him daysh ago. I checked and the schcannersh are almosht ushlesh.”

Max ignored the fact that Stan had access to the scanners.

“So, what can you do?” he interjected, trying to hurry him along.

“I found a way to boosht their range. A modulating shignal bounshing off the ionished atmoshphere. The radiation is blocking the commshats, and meshing with local but we can ushe it like a mirror. Itsh not as powerful as commshat, but you can ushe it to shcan even plashes not covered by regular shatsh.”

Max frowned.

“How the moff do you know about this stuff Stan?”

“I had a lot of time alone to shtudy,” he replied and Max felt a pang of sympathy for him.

“Are you sure it will work?”

“I found you guysh didn’t I? It sheemsh to work fine.”

“Shit, we have to let Cap know right away!” Max said. “Let’s get to his office.”

“Not my dad,” Stan said quickly. “He can’t find out I know thish short of shtuff.”

Max hesitated for a beat.

“Okay, we’ll speak to Squad then. If you tell him not to tell anyone it was your idea, I’m certain he’ll stick to it.”

Three hours later, a sedated Shaun lay naked on a grav-bed as it was pushed from a copter that had landed on the roof of the main med facility in Central. Most of the surface of Shaun’s skin looked like he had received third degree burns, but he had been sprayed with transparent dermaseal so it looked as though he was wrapped in polythene.

Sam rang the alerter on Cap’s door. An image of the headmaster appeared on the screen.

“Yes, can I help you? Ah, Sam isn’t it. Mrs Wilmott said you’d be visiting. Please come in.”

Sam entered Cap’s large office and the man smiled.

“How can I help you?”

“They found Shaun. He’s in the med at Central.”

“Yes, I’ve been in touch with the search team and the centre. That’s excellent news.”

“I need to visit him but they won’t let me. They won’t tell me anything.”

“No, I’m not surprised. Family only I imagine.”

“I AM family. Check our files.”

Cap considered the claim for a few moments.

“My apologies Sam. Yes of course you are. I’m so used to maintaining the lore, I forget sometimes. For your safety, it’s not information that I divulge to anyone. Not even other members of staff here are aware of that fact. But in this case, I’d be happy to clarify with the med centre so that you can get visitation.”

“Yes please sir. That would mean so much to me. I’ve been so vexed I can’t even sleep.”

“I understand. I should have reached out to you as soon as your brother went missing so that I could keep you updated. I’m so used to protecting your privacy, it didn’t even occur to me.”

“That’s okay sir, it’s smooth, but I’m desperate to go see him.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll contact them immediately. I’ll let you know the absolute instant I have news, I promise.”

“Thank you sir.”

The following day, Sam stood by Shaun’s hospital bed. He touched his brother’s arm and Shaun’s eyes flickered open.

“Sam!” Shaun said. “What are you doing here?”

“I had to look in on my little sib. You don’t look so good. How are you feeling?”

There were tears in the corners of Shaun’s eyes.

“Not so paced Sam,” Shaun said in a small voice. “I got caught by a giant plant. I think it was trying to eat me.”

Sam looked at the scars that mottled every inch of Shaun’s skin. It hurt his heart to see his brother in such a state. He tried and failed to hold back tears.

“I’m so grieved for you sib. The doc said that they will fix you with tissue seal, but it’s gonna take a while.”

“At least they found me. I thought I was gonna die.”

Shaun’s voice cracked with emotion. He seemed so much smaller and younger than before.

“You can’t do that sib. You’re indestructabubble. You’re gonna live forever!”

Shaun gave a wan smile, but there was vulnerability in his eyes as he recognised his own mortality.

“I don’t feel indestructible right now.”

“Yeah sib. You’re not presto primo right now. The females gonna have to wait a while for some Shauno loving!”

Shaun smiled weakly.

“Don’t think I’ll be interested in that for a long time Sam.”

“Zero probs. You just worry about getting better.”

“I’m just glad they found me.”

“You can thank Stan for that.”

“Stan?!”

“Yeah. They searched for three days. The scanners weren’t working but he came up with a way to boost their range.”

“No way! Have you seen the size of his stick?”

“I thought you weren’t interested!”

Shaun smirked.

“He’s so smooth.”

Sam grinned through his tears.

“Smooth? Stan?”

“Yeah, crazy smooth. And he’s funny.”

Sam’s grin widened. It never occurred to him in a billion years that anyone might find Stan cool.”

“I can bring him next time, if he wants to come.”

“That would be sharp!”

Sam reached down and lightly touched the blistered skin of his brother’s arm.

“The plant was digesting you. You were lucky.”

“I don’t feel lucky.”

“Nah, I can imagine. Are you hurting now?”

“Yeah, pretty bad. I can’t process what it would be like without meds.”

Sam leaned down and placed a light kiss on Shaun’s mottled cheek.

Three days later, Shaun was already starting to feel better.

“You got your EV!” he said.

Jurnal smiled.

“Yeah, when we got back. I told the nurse about what happened when we were camping, and she said I’m ready now.”

“You TOLD her that?” Max said.

“Of course.”

“Why d’you tell her?” Shaun asked.

“Because I’ve wanted my own EV ever since I got to FK. Everyone looks at me like a little kid without one. Now I’m just the same as everyone else.”

Shaun pushed away a snide remark about Jurnal’s small genitals. He was determined not to surrender to those instincts ever again, now that the guys finally seemed to be accepting him.

“So um, have you had your first green?” Brill asked.

“Oh yes! Lots of them. 5 today alone.”

“Did you enjoy them?” Max enquired.

“Oh yes! They were pacing! But…”

“But what?” Sam asked.

“Well, they did leave my legs kind of trembly. Is that reg?”

The others all laughed.

“Yeah, completely regular. Not every time, but that’s why it’s a good idea to make sure you’re sitting or laying down for a green. You’re never quite sure how strong it will be.”

“And they just happen without warning?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Not during gym, or at night, but any other time. Oh, and you can make them happen.”

“Really, how?”

Jurnal was excited at the new world opening up before him. Max grinned.

“I’ll leave that to Shaun to explain when he gets home.”

“Actually, I don’t think I’m gonna want anything to do with that for a looong time,” Shaun said, repeating the comment he’d made to Sam a few days earlier.

“What do you mean?” Jurnal asked.

“You gotta promise not to tell anyone,” Shaun said.

“Of course. Promise.”

He held up his hand in the Explorers salute. Max and Brill glanced at each other with a smile. They both found the gesture charming.

“Well, it wasn’t just the plant that got me.”

“What do you mean?” Jurnal asked innocently.

“The taraballas grabbed me first.”

Jurnal frowned.

“Did they hurt you?”

“No, but they did fuck me. Non-stop for a whole day. I was juiced the whole time. I splashed so many times I couldn’t even count.”

“Oh zip, you must have been so worn out.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

Jurnal looked at Shaun’s scarred face. Without asking, he gently ran his fingers over the lumpy skin.

“Does it hurt a lot?” he asked.

His innocent personality was diametrically opposed to Shaun’s worldly-wise persona. Max smiled as he watched them interacting.

“Not so much now, but it was a real beach the first couple of days.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better. When will you get out of here?”

“I’m not certain. A couple of weeks or more. Gotta make me look beautiful again!”

“You’re already beautiful,” Jurnal said.

Their eyes met and Jurnal quickly looked away bashfully.

“Anyway, gotta go. Bye!” he said.

He leaned forwards and gave Shaun a hug in his bed, then left the room in a hurry without making eye contact again.

“What was THAT about?” Sam asked.

“Looks like he has a crush on you,” Brill said.

Shaun smiled.

“Nah, I doubt it, but he’s a great friend.”

If Shaun’s disappearance and the ensuing search caused a surge of interest at Friedrich Krupp, his fate caused a tsunami. The more salacious details were withheld, but getting almost devoured by killer plant was not something that passed under the radar.

Shaun had never considered himself particularly popular, and it wasn’t something that particularly bothered him, but in the first week after his hospitalisation, he was visited by a constant stream of well-wishers. Sam was there every day of course, and Shaun was more than happy to receive a couple of visits from Jivan and Hoyer. Jarvis visited on several occasions. He even dropped off a multi-bladed survival knife as a gift.

“You’re gonna need this next time we go camping soldier,” he said gruffly.

“Yes sir! Thank you Squad, sir,” Shaun said.

“Good man.”

As Jarvis started to leave Shaun said, “Sir, how’s your ankle?”

Jarvis stopped by the door. Then he walked back over to Shaun.

“My ankle is completely fine thank you for asking, and I don’t want you to waste another nanosecond worrying about it, you got that? It was just an accident. Nothing more.”

“Yes sir.”

Jarvis patted him paternally on the shoulder and gave him a friendly wink.

“Hoping to see you back in Explorers lightspeed, you got that?”

Jarvis smiled warmly and Shaun smiled back.

“Yes Squad.”

Many of the Explorers dropped by, but he was also visited by people he barely recognised. But the visitor he was most pleased to receive, apart from Sam, was Stan. The moment he saw Stan entered his med room, his eyes lit up.

“Stan!” he said.

Stan smiled.

“Hey Shaun, how ya doing?”

“I’ll be fine when I get out of here.”

“I bet you’re sho bored.”

“I have my pad but comms aren’t working so good so I can’t connect to the hub. The centre has entertainment vision, but the passives are all pretty bad.”

“Give me your pad,” Stan said.

“Why?”

“I might be able to piggyback off the shentre’sh intra. It’sh hard wired sho the interferenshe won’t be a problem.”

“You can do that?”

“Maybe. No promishes though.”

Shaun handed Stan his pad, and in less than two minutes, Stan handed it back.

“That wash eashy. They already had public acshesh.”

“And now I can get on the overnet?”

“Sure, but I’d keep away from anything black, if you know what I mean.”

“Wow, thanks Stan, I really appreciate it.”

Shaun got out of his chair and gave Stan a hug. It was an unexpected sign of affection. Stan patted him cautiously on the back. He wasn’t used to unsolicited displays of affection.

“Zhero probsh.”

“Speaking of, Brill and Max said it was you that figured out how to make their scanners work. Is that true?”

Stan shrugged modestly.

“I wash jusht happy to help.”

“Sib, are you some kind of genius? They couldn’t figure it out but you did?!”

Shaun became pensive for a moment.

“You know I’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for you Stan.”

Stan looked shocked. He struggled for the right words.

“Then… then I’m shuper happy I wash able to help. You’re a really shmooth guy.”

Shaun smiled.

“That’s what I said about you.”