Interdimensional milking part 50 – Friction

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. Life at FK is returning to normal after the camping trip.

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Interdimensional milking part 50 – Friction

Brill and Max slouched on a couch in Common 3, one of five shared leisure rooms on the campus. Brill had his arm draped around Max’s shoulder.

In the middle of the room, a holo-vid was showing the outro of a youth drama. As the outro finished, a presenter appeared.

“News tonight on the atmospheric effects that have been disrupting communications and transportation, and interfering with a wide array of systems over the past month. Astrophysicists have finally determined the cause. They tell us that a blazar at the heart of the Castor system, has incredibly tilted on its axis, aiming in our direction. This has resulted in a beam of neutrinos travelling at relativistic speeds. Although Herschel Majoris has largely been shielded by Herschel Prime, the jets are so powerful that their friction has disrupted our star’s photosphere. This has resulted in stellar radiation which is the highest since records began.”

Max tensed and Brill hugged him closer. All around, the other students watched with intense interest.

“The scientists studying the phenomenon cannot tell us how long it will last, but they do warn that the effects are likely to become more severe as the neutrino density is still increasing.

In an unprecedented move, the Unified Government under direction by the Majoris Safety Administration, has issued a temporary ban on all air transport that uses levitreme drives, as well as any transportation using gauss induction.  All vehicles are restricted to a flight ceiling of 20 metres, and are prohibited from flying over inhabited areas. This will of course prevent inter-continental and space flight for the time being.”

A hubbub of chatter rose up in the room. A flight ceiling of just 20 metres would make all but local transport impossible.

“Now, here is our science correspondent P’Landro Belson to explain the phenomenon in more details and tell you how to protect your property from damage…”

“Oh shit!” Max said. “How bad do you think it’s going to get?”

“I don’t know, but it’ll pass, and we’ll be fine.”

“It didn’t pass for Kataan when their sun went giant,” Max said.

“True but they were a super-fringe tech 1. They could maybe have all gotten away but they were too far away help. The planet was seeded with portals. They had no chance of building enough ships to evacuate in time.”

“I wonder how many people could get off Majoris if we needed to evacuate?”

Brill nuzzled Max.

“Don’t get yourself worked up baby. It won’t get to that.”

Six hours later, the alerter on Max’s vone rang. He looked at the screen; it was Jonathan his father. He pressed answer and the call connected.

“Hey Max!”

“Hey dad, why are you on voice?”

“Holo is not working. It’s all we can do to get a stable voice connection at the moment.”

“Yeah, the atmospheric stuff; it’s the same here. I was gonna vone you but I wasn’t sure what time you got up, especially on a weekend.”

“We’ve been up an hour.”

“Is Dom with you?”

His second father spoke up.

“Yeah Max, I’m here. How you holding up? How are your privs?”

“Hey dad. They’re back to normal. The nurse gave me another month extension.”

“That’s decent of her. Did you need it?”

“Not need, need. I mean, I wasn’t still hurting but, I don’t think I’ll ever feel safe in an EV suit again.”

“Oh really? We’re sorry to hear that darling,” Jonathan interjected.

“I think it would really help if you spoke to a counsellor,” Dominic said.

“That’s what Nurse Janeway said.”

“How did the camping trip go?”

“OMJ, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you! Squad broke his ankle, and Jivan, Hoy, and Shaun had to hike out for rescue, I mean Shaun didn’t HAVE to but I think he felt really bad because it was his fault that Squad broke his ankle, I mean, it wasn’t really – it was just an accident, but he felt like it was. Anyway…”

“Whoa slow down. Don’t forget to breath!” Jonathan said grinning.

Although they couldn’t see each other, Max grinned too.

“Ha, ha, and normally YOU’RE the excitable one!”

He took a breath and forced himself to talk slower.

“Anyway, Shaun went missing. They got attacked by these monkeys and then there was this big search, and when they found him, he’d been caught by a man-eating plant!”

“Jeez, it sounds almost unbelievable, like something out of a daytime movie!”

“No, it’s all true.”

“I wasn’t saying you made it up darling, I was just saying it sounds incredible. Was the boy alright?”

“Yeah, they rescued him just in time. His skin was really badly burned from the plant acid, but they fixed it. Shaun was kind of obnoxious before it happened, but now he’s totally different.”

“I should think so. Something like that could scar a person for life emotionally,” Dominic added.

“Yeah, but the funny thing is, he’s actually MUCH nicer. He wasn’t awful before, but he was kind of desperate, and always horny, but now he seems… calmer. Also, we found out a massive secret about him. I can’t tell you what it was, but it explains soooo much.”

“In a good way?”

“Well, not good for him, exactly. Incredibly sad actually, but it explains a lot about his personality.”

“Sooo,” Jonathan said, “how did things go with Brill on the trip? You were looking forwards to getting out of your suits for a while…”

Max paused, smiling at the memory.

“It was pacing. Wonderful. We had the best time. We…”

He considered how much to share.

“Did you get closer?” Jonathan prompted gently?

“Yeah, pretty much as close as we could get, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you grinning?” Jonathan asked.

“Yeeeeeah,” Max admitted, feeling like a real dope, the grin splitting his face in two.

“Ahh sweetheart, I’m so happy for you. Brill seems like a wonderful boy.”

“Thanks dad. He is.”

“And how’s everything else going?” Dom asked.

Max was still lost in the happy memory, but the question brought him back to the present with a bump.

“Well, this thing with the neutrons is really frizzing me out. How serious do you think it is?”

“That’s neutrinos son. To be honest, I think this is an unprecented situation. Neutrinos don’t usually interact with matter in a meaningful way, but there are so many of them coming from Castor, that they’re affecting Prime’s magnetic field and THAT is what’s creating all these effects.”

“Ooookay,” Max replied, trying to understand. “But what does that mean?”

“To put it in simple terms, the planet is being bombarded by a massive amount of stellar radiation, and some other exotic particles. Nobody knows what the long-term effects will be, or how long it will last. They never thought a blazar could change its axis so dramatically, but it has. This is really uncharted territory.”

“Are well going to die?”

“Whoa! No, you’re not going to die!” Jonathan interjected. “Things are just going to be strange for a while.”

Dominic said, “Look, nobody knows much at the moment. If the blazar keeps pointing towards us, this could be the new normal. We know that HM’s magnetosphere is particularly powerful,”

“Mag what a what?” Max queried.

Dom chuckled.

“Magnetosphere. It’s like a magnetic shield surrounding the planet. It protects us from harmful radiation. And HM has a powerful one.

“Powerful, like your father’s biceps,” Jonathan added.

Max heard him giggle.

“Get off man, you’re insatiable!” Dominic said, but Max could hear the humour in his voice.

“Not my fault if you have such a hot bod!”

“Umm, son present,” Max said, grinning. “So, we’re not going to die then dad?”

“I think that’s pretty unlikely Max. If the worst came to the worst, we’d leave the planet.”

“All spaceflight is grounded.”

“What?!” Jonathan asked. “Is that true.”

“Yes, all flights above, I think they said 50 metres.”

“Just looking it up…” Dominic said.

He heard them murmuring for a second.

“You’re right. All interstellar flights, and everything planet-side is restricted to just 20 metres.”

“Damn, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for long distance travel.”

“Are you still going to visit in the summer?”

“I’m sure we’ll find a way,” Jonathan said, “right Dominic?”

“Let me just do the calculations…”

Max heard him mumbling.

“87 thousand miles, at a speed of… mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble, equals…”

There was a pause.

“How long dad?”

“18 days each way son. I’m not sure we can take an entire month out of our schedules Max.”

“You shush up,” Jonathan said. “He’s been away nearly away almost a whole year. I’m sure one of us can find a way.”

“What about a portal?” Max asked, suddenly feeling the distance between them acutely. He felt unexpectedly emotional.

“They’re only for emergencies out here,” Dominic said. “They use an immense amount of power, and even if they were available, they’re wickedly expensive. Only for leets, not ordinary people like us I’m afraid.”

“Don’t you worry sweetie, we’ll find a way.”

“Don’t lie to him Jonathan, it only makes it worse if he finds out the truth.”

“I wasn’t lying, I was…”

“Telling him something that isn’t true.”

“I’ll walk there if I have to.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Don’t call me ridiculous!”

They continued bickering for five minutes, Max all but forgotten about, before he tired of it.

“I’ve got things to do. Bye dads. Love you.”

He hung up before they could object. They didn’t argue often, but when they did, it could be extremely petty, quickly descending. He didn’t like to be around when that happened.