Installation Nov-X 21

Day 1
Ekeu swelled with pride, looking over his craft. Within the workshop he had designed, built, and programmed it 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 and eventually the great AUAE.

Throughout the last two years, after graduating from a previous twenty semesters of elementary school, he had managed to survive every test and every demonstration that the academy presented. He reminisced over the educational course, looking back at academic friendships and rivalries, out of a beginning class of over 1,000, only 130 made it this long and far fewer would graduate,

Ekeu felt total confidence that he'd be among that few, and after storing his craft for the inspection and competition tomorrow, he had no problem with telling everyone he could find the same thing. Alpe, his current roommate and sole friend among his remaining peers, did not share his confidence either with his craft or hers, Ekeu knew this, sitting next to her in the mess hall after having seen her alone at a table. 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 criticized the fact that he'd just said he wasn't sure why, saying 'I thought you said you didn't know." to which he replied "I didn't! but now I do", He grabbed one of her front knees which she promptly pulled away, teasing her "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 "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 he had not touched the rest of his plate and he wondered what he was thinking about.

No one else, 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, his 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 were decent but soon 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 Karal as "Loud and confident, but cocky, clearly lacking the fun and charming characteristics possessed by myself". Ekeu 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, 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, he thought to himself, how he'd make all her wishes come true to see that smile every day. "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".

Day 2
Karal woke up and, peering out the window, saw that he had just managed to beat the sun whose first rays had just recently hidden the stars from view. He noticed Asalka, his roommate, was still peacefully asleep. He got up and went quietly down the hall to the changing rooms, getting dressed for the day. He checked his project to ensure it was not sabotaged, backing up the program before strolling down to breakfast. Karal noticed Alpe was already there and he spotted Ekeu standing beside her. He made eye contact with him across the dining room before Karal turned his attention elsewhere. He noticed Arnin watching both him and Ekeu, So he came closer, looking over the pea eyed Alkere. "Thinking much?" Karal asked Arnin. Arnin grinned without making eye contact and shook his head watching Ekeu and Alpe. "I try to leave all the thinking to the educators." replied Arnin as he chuckled at presumably what he had just said. Karal wondered what could be so funny about what Arnin had just said, but smiled anyway to be polite, feeling the back of his left ear as he did so awkwardly. The two went through the line together chatting a little along the way, though Arnin was one not much for words unless he was by himself. Karal and Arnin both exchanged occasional looks with Ekeu and Alpe who were seated at a table near the wall. Karal noticed Arnin's strange choice of food, but kept it to himself before splitting up at the end of the line. Karal sat down next to his friend Usiatsa, he did not show it, but Karal was very anxious about the upcoming demonstration, the only thing he felt stronger than his anxiety was his desire to see Ekeu lose.

Alpe observed Arnin, questioning why he was talking with Karal or anybody else for that matter. "Maybe Karal doesn't realize it's Arnin's shrill voice because of his bad ear." came the reply from Ekeu. "I didn't realize I said that out loud." she said to Ekeu, a little surprised. "Just like what you said in your sleep last night." "What'd I.. did I actually?" asked Alpe. She felt herself blush a little hoping desperately it was a joke. "Yes, You confessed your undying love for Professor Ialna". "O' shut up!" she said annoyed as she shoved him "Besides you think I'd like one of the programming professors and not one of those sexy maintenance guys in welding. " continued Alpe. "I don't know." said Ekeu slowly and jokingly "Maybe you do, I hear being a sensitivity calibration expert is all the rage these days". Alpe simply rolled her eyes. "No you actually just murmured something about the hand eye coordination." Ekeu continued. "Great, no, I've got a bad feeling about the repair part of the simulation". Just then the evaluation delegation walked in, they notified the staff to announce a reminder of evaluations time and place as well as the current time. Ekeu looked over Karal who was already looking his way. Alpe stood up saying "See ya, and 'Enjoy your ride'" as she did so. Ekeu broke eye contact with Karal and looked over at Alpe grinning. She smiled a little, than turned and began walking away as Ekeu called "You too." back at her.

Chapter 2
The 2nd year's course project was centered around creating an astro-droid. The probes would be giving simulated tests, where they would need to overcome various obstacles whilst still achieving their mission. The probes would be expected to not only surpass any programming hurtles presented but must also maintain near perfect functioning mechanical integrity. Grades would be based on these criteria, total duration time, and economic performance.

The whole class along with their projects traveled to a nearby Alsara Spaceport where their previous graded demonstration on rocketry had taken place. Ekeu looked out the window as he rode the overpass. While the vehicle barreled towards the receiving station, he saw the field where his rocket had earned the top spot in the first graded demonstration. He remembered the demonstration well, and this time gave him a sense of dé ja vue, except this time, he thought, there were not 400 of them. Last time their projects had simply to orbit the world in 30 minutes and return intact. It was also graded by a score of 0 - 14, with scores of 4 and over failing the course. This time around would have additional challenges but the same bar.

When the class arrived they were driven to the same field, and filed into a monitoring station. The class was divided into groups of nines and tens. One from each group took turns escorting their project out into the field, inspecting their vehicle one last time before giving the go ahead and returning to the monitoring station. The coursemates were seeded according to last year's graded demonstration. Ekeu was a part of the first group along with the 10th, 25th, 40th, 55th seed and so on, along with the 127th. Ekeu watched Karal and Arnin go with the second and third groups respectively, he waved farewell to Alpe as she followed Karal with the second group, she replied with an anxious smile before moving out of view. Each group was given a room, a set of monitors watched each group's project and a small control panel allowed each coursemate to interact with their vehicle. Several spacecraft watched the launch site from 60 kilometers above the Alsere surface. And Ekeu could see it all, he watched the 121st - 134th all go out into the field.

It was a spectacle as he watched one Rocket take off, followed by another every 30 seconds or so. The Camera's followed the craft one by one as they entered low Alsara orbit. Each craft took a separate trajectory, communicating with orbital-traffic control as they went. He followed 127s craft as it entered the middle of seemingly nowhere, As the rocket set it's course as it ejected it's astro-droid in the opposite direction. The astro-droid began to steadily align it's velocity and spin with that of the simulated craft's, and begin repairs. Ekeu looked between the project camera and the other monitors, seeing the simulated craft in the project's vision and what was little more than a paper mâché in the other.

After a minute the droid made a mistake with one of it's arms making contact with the craft. The class watched as a small explosion popped from the side of the droid. Ekeu glanced over, seeing the disappointment and pain on 127s face. One or two of the other craft performed similarly but not quite as bad as 127s. As the Rocket's returned they rendezvoused with their droids. The droids then docked with or otherwise joined their parent rockets for the return landing. After each returned the next coursemate of each set readied their project to rinse and repeat.

In each of the early sets, at least one vehicle had problems with ejection, the simulated repair, droid docking, and/or the reentry. Surviving craft were looked after by their creator and one of the evaluator staff and saved for later inspection. Ekeu got bored and even a little angry after the first two hours of watching what he considered people just screwing up. When Alpe's set came up he watched as she took her vehicle out into the field and went over, what he thought was probably one too many times. She then headed uneasily back into the monitoring station. He watched her craft as 22s and downwards went off, he counted off each from 21s to 12s, after 12s it was hers and his eyes were glued to the screen as her craft took off masterfully into the sky. After a minute or so it ejected the astro droid which merged flawlessly into the simulation's vector, grappled onto the craft and began making repairs, he held his breath, hoping that her worries were unmerited. He was relieved to see the droid disengage without incident and rendezvous back with the rocket as it returned after only twenty minutes. He held his breath again as the droid attached itself to the rocket and reentered it's vault. He stepped back excited and was going over what he'd say to her. Ekeu then noticed something that would haunt him. The rocket veered off balance right before landing, and hit the ground hard at an angle before recovering. He knew this would give her a 1 at least and hoped that the craft hadn't suffered any damage. He watched the field cams after the last of the set's landed, and watched Alpe slowly walk out onto the field, dragging herself along, clearly shaken after witnessing the landing. One of the evaluation staff tapped Ekeu on the shoulder and he realized it was his turn.

Ekeu told himself that he'd talk with Alpe later, and he went quickly to the project bays. He saw Arnin and Karal along with the other five. Karal called to him across the bay "Ready to get wrecked, buzzer!". "Unless you mean shrill, I'm not sure who you think is going to do it!" said Ekeu. Karal grinned wide at the response, shaking his head, before replying "We'll hear what tune your talking in, in a half!". Ekeu took his turn to grin as he came up to his vehicle, he heard #7 join in, but he didn't pay him any attention as he led his craft out onto the field. Arnin watched the number seven than Ekeu before turning to his own vehicle. The sun glared in Ekeu's eyes as he exited the hangar bays leading the hovercraft carrying his project. He climbed inside the craft and looked it over for the last time before nodding to the Staff member there. The hovercraft opened up, gently setting the vehicle onto the unused launch pad. Ekeu looked back at it a few times as he headed back inside. He then made his way down to the control panel and readied. After watching the first five, he watched Arnin's craft take off. He shook his head as he did so, then turned his attention to Karal's. He admitted to himself Karal's gorgeous design, and takeoff before turning his attention to his own pride.

Lift off was counted down from 28 in half second intervals, flames spewed out the back of his craft and the monitors featured various little programming symbols. He evaluated his craft's fuel monitoring. And smiled to himself as he finally got to see it in action. It was beautiful to see the droid deploy just as he had designed it to, looking over every traffic and dare he say (again) "Flawless" detail. He watched the droid cam and simulation cam as they approached each other. He looked over the simulation damage and again smiled as he selected programming file one. It made repairs and communicated with the rocket which requested permission, and when approved, began accelerating, on track to finish in 16 minutes. The droid cleared itself from the now "perfectly" conditioned simulation craft and was retrieved by the rocket. As his own landed perfectly, his mind briefly flashed back to Alpe's landing. Drawn back to his own craft land, he threw his hands up in triumph, then looking over, he saw Arnin's and Karal's craft already returned, potentially beating his own time. He asked himself, hoping for the best, "How long have they been back?".

Later that year, Day X
Ekeu found consolation in the fact that out of the seventy remaining coursemates, only those maintaining 'outstanding excellence' in all demonstrations were permitted to commission tours. But despite this fact, the loss continued to haunt him, and to add to it, the pain felt was only exacerbated by Alpe's narrowly failing grade resulting in her dismissal from the course. Trying to secure his mind from these thoughts, Ekeu refused to let these facts continually daunt him. He resolved himself to keep on track "Ever up and on". He smiled soberly, thinking to himself how that phrase used to carry a different meaning altogether, thinking, not that it had somehow changed, but rather was simply now being viewed through additional lenses of satire and sentiment. The elevator door opened and he walked out, after briefly pondering as to why elevators had doors. His head turned to the direction of a nearby voice, but was dismayed after falsely hoping it might be Alpe due to a similarity. Ekeu came to the gate of the overroute train station. He presented the checking machine with his tour card. It scanned him, and after a second of processing the door opened and it gave it's usual "Enjoy your ride". Simultaneously, Ekeu's lips mouthed the words coming from the robot, then replied to it "You too... buzzer". He waited inside of a passenger car, after a few minutes the crew called for any last passengers. After a second the doors closed and the crew cautioned all passengers to "Hold on or strap in" as the engine began to ease the train forward, the train began accelerating at half a gee for a few seconds before gently lessening the acceleration, cruising at over 1,000 km/h.

Flashback Day 2
Ekeu carried his view outside as he took in the impressive masterpiece brandished by the setting sun, the peaceful Scenery returned his mind to the day of the demonstration. Each vehicle was inspected with the creator allowed to remain with the project as it was inspected. Those whose vehicles were lost or completed were allowed to break for dinner. Ekeu stood by his project, actively watching the evaluation staff as they went over the first set's vehicles. Each coursemate was given their grade in private after a around ten minute assessment. The ten minutes passed slowly for Ekeu as he waited impatiently silent beside his craft's landing site. The staff member finally gave him the green light to return his project to the hangar bay. Ekeu saw Karal and Arnin on his way back, Karal was shouting something to him, but Ekeu promptly ignored him when his eyes fell on Alpe. He saw her talking to one of the members of her group as he briskly approached her. Her face appeared monotone, but this did not stop her from dodging eye contact as he got closer. He made out the other person to be Atȧna, who looked at him with a smile that was far less than convincing.

As Ekeu finally came within comfortable talking distance he waited for a break in the conversation before asking Alpe "What'd they say?". Alpe took a deep breath before revealing that she'd survive the day and they'd announce her final grade tomorrow. "How bad was it?" continued Ekeu in his interrogation. "It wasn't a safety issue, but the system is significantly damaged." Her voice warmed up as she added "But my time was great, I got a 19:39, How'd you? your flight was really something". "I got a 16:04 " replied Ekeu. "You're flight was spectacular but I think Arnin got the best of you." said Atȧna rejoining the conversation. Ekeu sighed holding back an insulting comment, simply replying "Well we'll see tomorrow".

Day X (Epilogue)
Ekeu pulled himself back into the present and looked around the car with the painful realization that he'd 'seen tomorrow'. He'd lost, not to Karal or Arnin, but to both. The train began decelerating as it was caught by the receiver. In his head Ekeu saw the whole architecture of the train and the receiver. How the magnets were laid, how the wires were run, how the train was calibrated. He sat quiet by himself wondering, waiting while the train finally came to a halt. He exited the car with the group and they descended the tower down to the city below. Here they arrived at Apialaria, the planetary seat of government. As the group exited the massive aerospace elevator and headed out into the awing city streets, Ekeu smiled. He looked around, seeing the commotion of an empire. Taking a deep breath, He thought to himself that everything might work out after all, maybe it wasn't that he'd lost to Karal or Arnin. "Maybe." he realized, the only person he had to beat was himself, and he, again looking around, simply smiled.

Episode Aired 12:00 Dec 1st 2021. Words in Italics have pending Canon.