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[h3]Api’s Strange New World[/h3][hr][/center]

Api looked at Joey’s bed and wondered why his roommate was blowing off school; what was the point of coming if you didn’t use it for what it was?

Shrugging he shouldered his school bag writing it up to thinking with the smaller head then headed to his first class Applied Physics. 

They started the class off with a dull recount of the Theory of General Relativity but things got interesting quickly. 


They discussed the idea that according to GR the sum of all known radiation, visible matter, and dark matter should be exerting a “Tug” on the universe slowing down the rate of expansion. They talked about how it was actually accelerating and because of that the physicists were forced to consider three possibilities all of which used the loosely accepted idea of “dark energy.” the first and simplest which explained it’s favor was the existence of a cosmological constant or vacuum energy which was contracting gravity by exerting a constant negative effective pressure. The second imagined that the cosmological constant is actually dynamical. The last was that gravity behaved differently in large scale but that would require a modification of GR.

When the small class reached that point in the discussion they all turned to look at Api as the professor said

[B]Class we are in luck on this mark because Gunnar is likely more sensitive a gravity wave detection scanner than anything any university has available. He may not be able to detect the distant effects we’d like to observe but he will be critical in helping us locate and shield any background noise that might interfere with our goal. We will be building a detector array so we can observe the recent discovery of a gravitational wave and light emitted by a distant Binary neutron merger when they arrive in 7 months and 6 days.[/b]

Then he pointed at the lectern’s monitor displaying the findings of the LIGO and Virgo experiments that had picked up a loud signal 2 s of the event of another merger like the one they were going to study. 

The event was known as GW170817 and found by the Fermi gamma-ray satellite which detected a short burst of gamma rays which Follow-up observations from across the globe confirmed that the gravitational wave and gamma rays came from the same source—a binary neutron star merger in the NGC 4993 galaxy, approximately 130 million light years away from Earth.

It was after class that Api learned that the others he shared the class with held abilities that needed a good grounding in physics to use properly or that they were future mutant scientists. He was so happy to meet people he might be friends with he barely noticed they didn’t think of him as more than someone they attend class with that might help them write their master or doctoral thesis. 

When he realised that was the case he also noticed most were 7 years his senior and of course they didn’t want to hang out with a kid.

He attended two other classes before lunch and saw the people that were sort of in his school group and it didn’t take him long at all to see he was even among them the strange short guy. It wasn’t that they were doing it on purpose they had just formed their groups aligned either by sex, nationality or romance it was a common condition in groups and it was a common consideration he’d learned to live with.

[hr][center][h3]Lunch for a Wallflower[/h3][/center][hr]

Api had a meal before him that he couldn’t figure out was too large a portions, strange combinations, or both as he found a table that was out of the common foot traffic paths in and out of the dinning hall. It was situated in a shaded area and at an odd place in the table arrangements which assured he’d be alone; he didn’t want company. 

It wasn’t that he was depressed, angry or just off he just knew that if anyone sat down with him he’d want to talk and then he’d get his hopes up only to discover he was somehow too awkward for real friends so he did as he’d always done his entire life; he open a book.

The Hidden Reality by Dr. Brian Greene

It was a fascinating book on String Theory and while complex written for people who had a minor grounding in the field.

Api was stunned when he finished his meal and realised he’d also committed the books pages to memory so that he could drag out his whiteboard later and work on some of the math puzzles presented in the tome. The real stunner was he was late for his next class so he floated his dishes to the proper cleaning station then rushed out.

[hr][center][h3]Study Time[/h3][/center][hr]

Api finished classes and hurried to the library to pick up some new books and rushed to the section on Physics looking for Dr. Jan Ambjorn and his book on Causal Dynamical Triangulation. Then a book by Dr. Julian Barbour on Machian Physics a book that examined the Machian approach to physics that discussed analytical dynamics in a systems future evolution by observing particle positions and momenta which Barbour believed eschewed the momenta velocities of those particles though there was no way he or science in its present state could directly observe and must as it did in many other area predict the effects it would have on observable phenomena.

These weren’t books required by his physics professor but they were books he wanted to study because they touched on area of his power which could prove useful and they also occupied his mind so he didn’t focus on how out of place he was.

He was going to read the books there in the library but he noticed people who would distract him so he hurried to his room.

[hr][center][h3]Alone in the room with his thoughts[/h3][/center][hr]

Even though he knew he was falling into the same old patterns Api didn’t care he had books that opened his world and expanded his mind; he could always make friends after graduation. So with that thought he lay back on his bed floating CDT above him while he read it but he was still distracted by his situation. 

It was supposed to be different, he was supposed to come here and meet people like himself and use their common shared concerns as the way to forge friendships… he thought just before the heavy book crashed down on him because he allowed himself to become maudlin.


A few choice words that would have drawn his mom’s disapproval and he lay the book on his bed and looked over at the bed of his roommate. It was empty, it was cold and its promise that he’d at least have someone close proven a lie. So sighing Api went to his closet and changed into a light bluish gray pair of gym pants, gray shirt, and a gray hoodie.

[hr][center][h3]Free Flight[/h3][/center][hr]

Api opened his window and looked outside making sure the coast was clear before slipping on a Balaclava and a pair of warm gloves. Then he focused on a point in the sky that had no trees in his path and gathered up his power like a coiled spring thinking here goes a make or break exercise in his ability; could he stay conscious at 10 G?