Almost everyone knows how Max became the most famous individual in the Milky Way. Hardly anyone knows anything about her childhood on Harappa. She was born in Harappan Year 199 and Earth year 2390, just months before Earthers showed up on our world.
We had forgotten our connection to the Homeworld. Harappans had been taught for generations that Earth’s environment had collapsed and could no longer support life. To our surprise they had rebuilt their ecosystem and developed the faster than light starships that brought them to us.
We Harappans experienced culture shock in the extream. New technologies started appearing in our towns and villages overnight and we were exposed to a whole list of new theories about the nature of the universe.
It was a great time for a brilliant child to go to school.
I’m not trying to be disrespectful in any way. I’ve known Max since she first came to Kusha in Earth year 2411 and Kushan Year 21. She is a blessed being and I love her dearly. I just think it is important to know that she is just like us, only smarter and in the right places at the right time. There has been a movement around the galaxy to see her deified. I know for a fact she would hate that.
So, with that in mind I’m going to share a few stories from her childhood, passed on to me by her mother.
I know Max to be a very humble person but humility was something that came to her as she matured. Her parents loved to host parties for the intellectual elites of the University of Sandon and if possible scientists from the SID (Science and Industry Division).
One such evening included an astronomer studying how the orbit of the Blue Moon had affected Harappa’s wobbly orbit and if there was a connection to the gravitational effect of the illumaphane. This SID scientist was of the opinion that the illumaphane could not have a strong enough pull to affect the orbits of either the Blue Moon or Harappa and this proved that it was the shock wave from the Harvest Day Explosion that loosed the Blue Moon from it’s orbit not the vaporization of so much illumaphane during the blast.
A seven year old Max tugged on the man’s coat and said, “That is just plain wrong mister. Planet Harappa has nowhere near the gravity to hold the Blue Moon in a steady orbit for eons. If the illumaphane was not holding it in place it would have flown off a million years ago.”, and she accented her comment with, “That should be obvious to any school child.”
Max’s mother told me she had a difficult time not laughing. The man was a pompous jerk but she did lecture Max later about approaching a debate with some humility.
I guess it was obvious to Max but it was a hotly debated theory for several years after that. The SID long held that it was the resultant shock wave that broke the bond between Harappa and it’s giant gas moon. They also contended that it was Paladin Thain’s charges that set off the chain reaction. I know not one single Harappan who buys that.
Philip Normer
Kushan Year 87
Earth Year 2479
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