[b][u][center]Academy Days
For Arrow
By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

Cadet Arrow Quincy Vershaft was a relatively new student to the AGATE program, but he had quickly learned that there was a deep need for privacy, for solitude, and more than anything else, the chance to quiet the mind and focus on something different than the endless chatter from the other students. The red-tailed hawk from Terra Buteo - well, all of the students were from Terra Buteo, as far as he understood - knew the stories of the AGATE program, that it was built from the ground up to ensure that everyone advanced by capability, that the program was meant to be a meritocracy of the highest order.
In reality, there were still miniature games of politics being played, students that attempted to get by on their charm and charisma rather than by their grades. He had quickly learned that they would seek him out, and there was only one way to avoid the endless results of being asked to get their work done for them. Thankfully, it also addressed his need for solitude and mental distractions.
The education sphere was not a substitute for the lectures, but it was the best way to embed them. The red-tailed hawk stood in the middle of the blue sphere, staring absently at the various pictures and text that floated around him. From the outside, it would doubtlessly look more focused than it did to him at that moment, and he did plan to use it, but for a few minutes, he was taking a much-needed break.
[i]Who would have thought that they could push this hard...[/i]
A week in, little more than that, and he knew some students that had come up on his shuttle that were five days behind on their homework. He had heard of some that were a month behind in their assignments, and some that had outright stopped trying, pouring all their efforts into the Runout exercises. Theoretically, he knew, one could graduate with enough skill in that, but that wasn't an option for everyone. Particularly not someone that was taking the technical track, like he was.
The education sphere beeped at him, jostling him from his thoughts. A projection emerged from the scattered images, reminding him that he had been idle for the past sixty seconds, and warned him to get back to work if he did not want to be ejected from the sphere.
[i]Productivity, always,[/i] he thought, reaching out a scaled finger to tap the warning and acknowledge it. [i]Where were we...[/i]
The education sphere caught his gaze as it finally settled on one of the text boxes, bringing it up and displaying the History of Bio-Augmentation to him. It was a field that was a casual interest of his rather than one of his directed studies, but it had caused a large enough conflict on Terra Buteo in the past that he could justify it being part of his off-time reading. He let his eyes lazily scan over it, keeping the machine from realizing that he was barely skimming the material while his mind went back to wandering.
Not for long, though. Another student, an eagle, began approaching his sphere. The eagle wasn't someone from his shuttle-batch, but was someone that he had interacted with twice during one of the technical track classes. A few years older than him at 19, the eagle - the name escaped him - had been failing the class until they had been assigned together for a short group project. Something about energy transfer, something that Arrow had been rather knowledgeable about before being entered into the program. Since then -
Yes, just as he expected. He was able to make out a datapad in the other raptor's hand, something that looked like it was flicked over to an assignment that had been handed out earlier. The eagle kept referring to their sessions as 'tutoring', but the red-tailed hawk knew what they really were: half-bullying, half-harassing encounters to 'encourage' him to do the work for the eagle so he could focus on Runout.
The education sphere darkened slightly as the eagle approached, tinting itself to black out distractions as part of its natural functions. The eagle went so far as to rap his fingers against the outside of the sphere, something that shocked the cadet. There were certain rules, certain layers of etiquette even out here, and interrupting someone in an education sphere was certainly well past that.
Thankfully, the sound didn't transfer through, and the more that the eagle did to try and get his attention, the more that the sphere did to cancel it out. Soon, the outside world was gone, leaving nothing but a black layer outside the light.
Arrow sighed. The eagle would be waiting for him later. Even if he was marched off by one of the instructors for violating protocol, the upperclassman would be waiting to try and pin him down later. He shook his head.
"Display Mod Buteo, Eagle, biology."
The various texts disappeared, leaving a single blue box that asked him to verify his reasons for asking for a new topic. He shook his head.
"Self-defense."
The screen glowed slightly, the box hazing in and out as the education sphere's onboard computer weighed the reason. Eventually, it accepted it, and many floating diagrams appeared around him. Sighing again, the red-tailed hawk started flicking through them, tapping one, then another, seeing which showed a proper map of the nervous system on the other species.
[i]I'm going to have to do this eventually. Might as well do it before he starts getting any angrier...[/i]
A fight would likely be inevitable. For all that the instructors did keep a better eye on their students than some of the other programs across the galaxy, they were still more than willing to allow the students to 'hash out' their problems without professional interference. With the way that the eagle refused to take the hint that the group project had been a one-time thing, that meant that he would likely face increasing aggression, further force from the other avian, and then finally outright force to do something or be met with violence.
He wasn't a fighter. He never had been, and he didn't want to be. Otherwise, he would have signed up for the military and officer track that the AGATE program offered. However, if he was going to succeed in the program, then he needed to defend himself. The program rewarded those that took initiative, and more than that, it rewarded those that were willing to go the extra mile to ensure that a situation never repeated itself.
He picked one of the nerve maps, bringing it up as a 3D display beside himself. He stepped backwards, slowly walking around it. It wouldn't look that strange from the outside, he knew. There were many students that took the computers onboard the education spheres and did this. Studying military maps over different planets, studying the different art forms of different species, and more: the 3D projectors of the spheres was one of the best assets they had for visual learners.
In this case, it worked perfectly for him. It allowed Arrow to bring his hand in, up, around, and from the side, testing out blows that he might need to deliver in self-defense. He could measure where he would have to strike to get around common defense poses, how he could still hit something if both his arms were pinned - there were many weak spots in the legs, if one could aim precisely - and he built up a personal strategy as he did.
He was at it for some time, to the point the sphere beeped at him again, this time in a different tone. The red-tailed hawk looked up.
"Reserved time expires in five minutes," the text box said.
"Extend time."
"Extended time unavailable. Please save all work and prepare to exit the sphere in four minutes, forty-five seconds."
Apparently he had lost himself in his research more than he'd thought, but it would have to be enough. He had four different plans of attack if it was needed, and if he was lucky, he would be able to avoid the eagle for another day or two to finesse them further. So long as the instructors had done their job and sent the eagle off to do his assignment properly - and provided that he hadn't been so much of a brown-noser that he hadn't fooled them into thinking that they were doing a group project - he believed that he had at least twelve hours before their next point of contact.
He saved his other work, mostly little articles that he had been reading for pleasure, and waited for the ten-second countdown to release. The front of the sphere went dark, then slid open on its side, pulling in to fold against the back-half. He stepped through, and the sphere shut behind him.
"Productive research session, Cadet?" asked the instructor on-duty, a peregrine falcon.
"Productive enough." Arrow nodded. "I apologize, sir. I had lost track of the time."
"Apology accepted, Cadet. Here."
The instructor passed him his tablet, one of several pieces of equipment that were passed out to students in the program upon arrival. A little blue dot in the upper corner informed him that there were several calls from off-planet waiting. Probably his family, he thought. They were in touch reasonably often, always interested in his progress so they could spread the word about their son.
Truth be told, he toned down some of the results. Not that there were many so far, but his initially high grades could always plummet, and it was better not to put them in the awkward situation of having bragged so much of having a 'genius' son when they might find out that he wasn't as good by AGATE standards as they had led everyone else to believe. After a few months, if his test scores stayed high, he might tell them what he was getting, but not until then, and certainly not until he'd been through more than the most basic tutorial of the Runout exercises.
He tucked the tablet under his arm, giving the instructor a salute, and then rushed from the chamber. His education sphere had already been taken by someone else, and if he was going to get to his quarters before the upperclassman found him, he needed to get moving.
Finding no sign of the eagle in the corridor outside, he breathed a sigh of relief and kept moving. He still had the assignment from today to do if he wanted to avoid the fate of so many other students, and an essay on the inner workings of early AI-driven motherboards was not going to write itself. He had a preference for chemistry over robotics, but they were all part of the same track. If he was going to graduate and use the AGATE name for his future, then he needed to get good grades in [i]everything[/i] on the technical track.
That determination was just paving the road for a mental breakdown, probably, but he was seventeen, just getting started on the road of life. He could afford to borrow from his future, if only a little bit.

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Arrow Quincy Vershaft is a cadet in the AGATE program, a rather prestigious course of study in a sci-fi setting. Unfortunately, he's also dealing with some of the typical school problems, and is trying to find solutions to it.

Tags: No sex, sci-fi, red-tailed hawk, school, plotting, planning, cool tech, day in the life, slice of life, eagle, student,