User blog:Bardurwashome/Conflict in Ebullience

Chapter 1

Day 1

Ekeu swelled with pride, looking over his craft. Which he had designed, built, and programmed from scratch over the past four months. Seeing it finally complete gave him that satisfying feeling that really doesn't come from anything else but some Do-it-yourself. Not only was he happy to finally see it completed, he also knew it was almost certain to finish him at the top of his graduating class and give him a ticket into the third and final year of the course and eventually, the great university of AUAE.

He looked back to his twenty semesters of elementary school.

Throughout the previous two years he had managed to survive every test and every demonstration posed by the academy. He reminisced over the educational course, looking back at academic friendships and rivalries. Now more recently, from of a beginning class of over 1,000, only 130 had made it even to this stage and far fewer still would graduate. Storing his craft for the inspection and competition tomorrow, Ekeu felt totally confident that he'd be among that few and had no problem with telling everyone he could find the same thing.

Ekeu knew that Alpe, his current roommate and sole friend among his remaining peers, did not share his confidence, either with his craft or hers. So, after seeing her alone at one of the mess hall's tables, sat next to her. Ekeu knew she was brilliant and reassured her of that but she couldn't lead herself to believe it, she responded to his assurance by telling him to be quiet because she had to think. finally breaking the silence she asked "How are you so sure of yourself?", Ekeu thought about it and replied "I don't know, I just know I'm going make it, cause I haven't failed yet, I know I'm going to make it because I have so much more to do". Alpe was quick to criticized the fact that he'd just said he wasn't sure why, jabbing with "I thought you said you didn't know." Ekeu simply replied "I didn't!" while grabbing her knee, which she promptly pulled away, Ekeu continued teasing, "but now I do. I thought you didn't want me to make noise, now you won't stop talking", She rolled her eyes mumbling "shut up." putting a little distance between them. He slid down the table closing the gap and she glared at him saying "Quit". "It is hard to believe you want me to quit when you smile like that," Ekeu responded. Suddenly she stood up and grabbed her plate as she imparted a simple "See you later", glancing back over her shoulder, only to see him watching her as she walked away. She smiled to herself disappearing into the crowd. Ekeu turned his attention and noticed Arnin across the mess hall, watching the single piece of meat on his fork as he spun it. Ekeu observed that Arnin had not touched the rest of his plate and he wondered what he was thinking about.

No one else including Arnin, even among these engineering geniuses, genuinely worried Ekeu. In the first semester Arnin had tested high while quizzed, but barely made the cut when his crafts were demonstrated. For that first semester Ekeu had written him off as book brilliant but practically poor. Now in the past three semesters, Arnin's test scores have dropped as he quizzed and demonstrated just well enough to stay in the course by the slimmest of margins. This had changed for a brief period at the end of last year during the first graded demonstration where he placed third. But this was shown to be a fluke when Arnin's demonstrations the next semester, soon afterward fell back down to just passing. Ekeu knew there was no denying Arnin as a genius but he soon turned his attention to the only other person, besides himself, to have bested Arnin in last year's graded demonstration. Ekeu often described this 'other' person, Karal, as "Loud and confident, but cocky, clearly lacking the fun and charming characteristics possessed by myself". He recalled how Karal had been neck and neck with him over the past two years and had even beaten him during two of the six demonstrations. Looking around, Ekeu finally spotted him among the students in the mess hall sitting with his roommate and two others. Karal looked up from the table conversation and the two made brief eye contact, that said it all. Ekeu continued to observe and supposed to himself that Karal had mentioned him to the table, as the person on his left had already made a glance in Ekeu's direction. After a moment when Ekeu looked back to Arnin's table. He was amazed to see Arnin gone, and his table left bare with only his plate standing on it's side balanced by the fork laid lengthwise across the plate.

Ekeu briefly went down to the hangar bay and checked on his project before going to his dorm. He found Alpe laying awake on her bed staring at the ceiling, she glanced at him for a split moment before looking back up at the ceiling. "Hey." she said softly, "Heeey", Ekeu replied in a louder suggestive voice, Alpe ignored his mock flirtatious behavior and looked back at him, only to see him fluttering his eyes. "Do you want to go a round of 'politics'." Alpe asked him, while pretending not to notice. He replied that the game had gotten old for him, He compromised with "If you want to play something I'm up for Armada?". Alpe thought about it apathetically stating "Too late for that, I just want something to get my mind off tomorrow." After a moment of silence she asked "Have you ever wanted to go to the frontier?".

"That'd take the next twenty years, and interstellar flights are not cheap either. Nah in twenty years I'll be fifteen years graduated and halfway there to running the whole stellar neighborhood.".

"What would you do with the whole stellar neighborhood?" Alpe inquired. "Stick it to Karal and the Anahapalarni". replied Ekeu. "Naturally, then what?", Ekeu noticed her smile as she said that last remark, as an answer he thought to himself, how he'd make all her wishes come true to see that smile every day. But responded aloud "I'd build myself a moon, live inside of it, with programs and Armada galore, I'll design the best aerospace plane to date and visit the canyons of Epurata. Hell I'll meet a nYaucto." Ekeu finished. "You could do that on the frontiers too, except for maybe the moon" Alpe said. "But it wouldn't be mine." Ekeu responded. Alpe thought about his reply and just hmmd to herself. The two heard the nearby campus activities as the conversation broke, before Ekeu finally revived it by quoting " 'Ever Upward and Onward' ". Alpe looked at him and smiled, "That's what 'they say".