Ok I know you have all been waiting for this one :), but remember its an Amarrian acadamy so it might not be all that you have been dreaming up.
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At the end of last weeks episode I had just arrived at the Imperial Acadamy in Deepari, I found the nearest trash compactor, tossed the hated datapad away and began 4 years of training on my route to becoming the greatest of living beings this side of the Empress and God himself, a pod pilot.
Now 4 years is a long time, so I hope you dont expect a day by day diary of it all, and at the rate I am publishing these I will never catch up with myself, so its the importaint bits only ok? If you got a problem with that, take it up with my publisher.
Now, being a Khanid who was, even by my own standards, full of her own self importance, being dropped into a class of Amarrians who all knew they were the center of the universe and the best thing since liquid Vitoc you can imagine there were a number of ego clashes. My Khanid heratige also caused a few if not more clashes with the stricter Amarrians. You see we Khanid may follow the same basic scripture and way of life as the Amarr, however we tend to be a little more liberal and tolerant of some areas. I had, in view of these differences, purchased myself a new edition of the Pax Amarria and was studying it along with a very thorough and helpful book I had been advised to check out of the Acadamies Introductions to Amarrian culture section, it was entitled the "Visitors guide to Amarr, A beginners guide to avoiding Eternal Damnation, (Complete Edition)".
Unlearning habits and rules that I had lived with for 22 years was somewhat more difficult than the basic theory that the Acadamy's tutors were putting us through for the first year. Planetry motion, Thermodynamics and Quantum Effects on Warp Drive Calibration all these subjects became a walk in the Bio-Dome compaired with remembering to bow my head on passing the countless Masters and Abbots whilst wandering the corridors of the Acadamy.
The other major clashing point I had with the Brothers, who enforced the theological laws, concerned a facet of my persona that I would have conciderable difficulty in changing (unless I was in Gallante regions I have heard), I was female. This wasn't as great a problem as it had been centuaries before, the everpresent reminder of the Empress sorted that out, oh no we females are respected as useful contributions to the world, a Creation of God therefore of equal stature in his eyes to men. Its just that in the tierd old eyes of the tutors of the Acadamy we, or I specifically as they persisted in informing me, were sent here as a trial for them personally.
I was assigned to a small class of only 30 students, the population of which was to whittle down to only 8 graduates, the result of a mixture of dropouts, transfers, two unfortunate fatalities and an execution. Of this class I was one of 4 Khanids and 3 girls, myself being the only crossover between the two catagories. Initially I took a while to warm to my colleagues, my background hadn't prepared me for regular contact with equals, my father was my superior and was to be obeyed to the nth degree, and the assets were ordered and used as required, I had no middle ground to fall back on.
Anyway here I can hit fast-forward over most of the first year providing you with outcomes and such, it is becoming a bit more of a record of facts, but thats my writing style, get used to it. The first year consisted of normalising all applicants into a standard level of knowledge, weeding out the innapropriate, either academically, theologically or psycological, and rasing basic theory skills in astronamy, physics and quantum mechanics. The academic studies I could cope with well, father had provided the best education for me that was available. Psycological, well I was stable enough, my independant streak infuriated testers and tutors alike but was identified as not particularly a bad thing in a pilot. However theologically I struggled, my self tutoring was slow going and I would subconciously slip back to my Khanid teachings. I barely passed this sector of assessment. Of our class seven were rejected outright during the first term, one of the two falling at the theological hurdle was a young Khanid I had started to get to know. His enforced departure had earned me my first disiplinary, I had voiced my objections directly at the Abbot, this was a big no-no.
The second year was more hands on for the remaining 23 students, I was becoming more integrated into the group, and had naturally grouped up with the remaining two Khanid guys, we were having similar culture adjustment problems so it was a natural choice. However that is not to say that I shunned the other students, no, I got on with three of the Amarrians quite well by this time, Markus, Pripyet, and Jinzu the four of us stuck together and they helped me to not only adjust but to get off my own high horse and remind me when to bite my lip around the Masters.
The second year also introduced us to our first taste of commanding a ship, virtual reality simulations, the Acadamy wasn't prepared to allow us, supervised or not, to pilot real ships yet. This wasnt fliying by capsule, this was traditional bridge control, shouted orders, control panels, vid screens, all very exciting.
This was a skill I seemed to excel at, I couldnt understand or explain how I could do it, but I always seemed to be more together and aware of my surroundings than the other students.
There are the first two years at Imperial Acadamy Deepari, I intend to do another like this, simply chronicaling the general trail of events, and then do seperate stories at a later date on specific events, for ex. my Ground Combat story is one of the lessons from my 4th year.
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