Chapter 2: The Ascension Ceremony
9th of July 3220.
Aryaan woke up early. He felt rather agitated from the time he woke up. 'Ugh! another one of those dreams! Mom...dad! Are you guys really somewhere out there, still alive?', thought Aryaan. He was in no mood to take the gravity test. But the test was a compulsory to reach the final graduation of the training academy. Once a student graduates they have to take part in one year compulsory outer space travel program, where they would be hired as mercenaries to complete some tasks which ranged from easy to some even being life threatening at times. All the money thus earned goes back to the system governing the survivors. According to them this cost helps them maintain the state of the space stations and the rehabilitation they are trying to do back in Svarga Nagari.
Other than the test, to graduate from the academy, a student has to be proficient in basic combat skills, intermediate knowledge of the universe and it's laws, basic knowledge of meta physics and astrophysics, intermediate knowledge in physiology and herbology, advanced level in applied mathematics and quantum horology[1]. Aside from this each students had to chose at least three selective curriculum, they could chose at most 12 selective curriculum. The selective curriculum had to be completed within the last three years before graduation.
Aryaan gritted his teeth and went ahead to wash up and get ready for the big day. He got to the front door of the apartment left to him by his parents. Immediately he was greeted with the beaming faces of his cousin brothers, Rick and Len. The twins, although born with identical face, one was a sunshine boy while the other was an emo freak. They are the only ones who could brighten his sore mood with their weird and conflicting antics.
"Yo! Rise and shine bro. Let's transcend these mortal exams and whatnot and leave for our journey to spread our immortal names in all nook and cranny of the space!", beamed Rick. Len was feeling visibly embarrassed by his sibling's crude remark. He smiled apologetically towards Aryaan. Len was 5 minutes younger to Rick, but contrary to expectation, he acted more mature than the ruffian that Rick was. Aryaan laughed loudly and said, "Ha ha ha! Let's go bros! You made my day Ricky boy!".
Though Rick and Len were 2 years older to Aryaan, who was 16 this year, were in the same academic year as him. This didn't mean in any way that the twins were lacking, it was just that Aryaan was a born genius. He had a photographic memory, accompanied by an agile physique. He also had inborn talents for psychic arts and technology. As a whole he was the ideal student that the teachers in the world could hope to have in class. Thus he was promoted through grades more than once to be in the same grade as his older cousins.
Among the survivors of the Svarga Nagari, many faced various degrees of mutation due to exposure to various elements of space including aliens. Aryaan's parents had faced such mutation leading to their genetic heritage getting stronger. Aryaan thus obtained their genes and the mix of both sets of genes from his parents had given rise to his latent ability in memory and physical strength. Although he was not bulky but this athletic figure had a good show of marble like muscles under those clothes.
All three of the cousins had taken physical combat as one of their electives, and had completed them till intermediate level officially. Unofficially, under their master, they had achieved an advanced mastery of the skill, which is as high as friendly combat could teach them. The level of this discipline could only be improved once one faces real life situations. Other than that Aryaan also specialized in 11 other subjects like medicine, psychology, mystical arts(magic), Kienology[2], hypnosis, necromancy, nano physics and so on. Mystical arts was another of the common subjects of the brothers. They officially completed basic level of it in school which was the requisite of graduation. But contrary to everyone's expectations Len was the brightest among the lot in this where he had unofficially completed intermediate level of the same.
Well all the studies mentioned above had two types of variations when it came to higher studies. For theoretical subjects, like astrophysics, the highest level one would reach is advanced level, beyond which it would be the area of the researchers on those subjects. As for the application based studies like mystical arts and combat their highest yet recorded level is that of a maestro. If anyone was to reach beyond that level they would have been considered as exalted beings.
So all the levels can be stated as basic, intermediate, advanced, professional and maestro. For academic subjects beyond maestro are the researchers. For mystical arts beyond maestro was the exalted beings, also known as legendary existence.
☆☆☆☆
Within a lush green field, which was a pleasure to the sore eyes, stood many boys and girls in their late teens, teaming up in groups of four, awaiting to take the last test for their graduation, ahem...'Ascension'. It was a big day in Bright Lights Academy, the only educational institute of space station 7351, a.k.a. Suvarnarekha. It was named after a river of Svarglok. Probably the founder of the space station was from the area where the river used to flow at the now destroyed planet. Everyone here knew everybody. This could be said to be a good thing as well as pretty annoying in case of those who had become secret couples in the course of their education life or such.
The compulsory education and the 1 year space internship was to be attended by every resident, no matter what profession they chose to follow later. This was required, because, ever since destruction of Svarglok, more and more alien invasion was recorded in all space stations of Souryalaya. So humans started their own ways of fighting such invasions.
Other than invaders, there were many alien races who came just for cultural exchange purposes. This also gave rise to mixed races in some of the space stations, including Suvarnarekha. In Aryaan's group, other than his two cousins, there was a member of such a mixed generation. The gender of this person was ambiguous, since until the time of maturity, the decedents of the genus Varanus Draconian, had both male and female reproductive organs. They usually reach the maturity at the age of 20 years and thus lose one of the sex organs to attain a complete state. The name of this group member was pretty peculiar. It was Nemo, it could be used both for a male and female in this world. The parents of Nemo was pretty much very clever in this respect.
Aryaan and his team was numbered 17. So they had to wait in queue for around 8 hours, since the test took around 30 mins to complete, with exception of one group who failed at the 26th minute to be disqualified. Once disqualified, the group had to retake the exam in another 3 months [1], since there was an ascension ceremony each quarter.
Aryaan's group stepped into the capsule for gravity test wearing their space gears. Nemo was a natural at this, since his race had a high endurance against gravitational fluctuations. But the others started struggling as the test commenced. Aryaan used his agile body to keep changing his posture. Len had an inborn ability to increase or decrease his weight at will. But the abilities of Rex were not suited for this test. He almost flew to the ceiling of the capsule. But the team guided personally by the great warrior Purushottam, could not be as weak as to lose to such trivial tests. They were thoroughly prepared. Rex used a black log staff to fix his position. This staff could increase or decrease in size, according to the user's command. Slowly with more time, the pressure kept increasing on the team. Purushottam, who was sitting on the sidelines beside the examiners, had a cool and unperturbed face. Everyone could guess his confidence in the team from his expression alone.
As the test progressed within the 30 minutes of test duration gravitation force within the capsule was increased 3 times of normal and then there was an abrupt decrease to 0 gravity. All these were to test the physical abilities of the students so that they can serve as space warriors at various conditions. The capsule was occasionally shaken as well with the gravitation increase and decrease, as if one was facing space nodes[3]. The team slowly but steadily kept their standing and did not give in to any of the changes to the conditions within the capsule.
Slowly time ticked away and the team with each other's talents, weapons, and treasures, passed the exam with flying colors. Although this was a group test, the result was dependent on each individual's strength.
☆☆☆☆
At the evening, all the students who passed the graduating exam were present in the big field, while the ones who could not pass, left this fields. There were 3 more groups after Aryaan and his team. All the students now wore graduation cape and hat. The graduation cape was not any cape that could be worn as a keepsake. It was made of a great quality material and one could use it as a defensive equipment during their internship period. The cap was likewise a shape shifting high tech gadget which could be used as head protection gear, as well as temporary oxygen supplier in times of need. This was kind of a gift from the academy before the students went off to brave the universe.
Among all the clatter, may girls eyed Aryaan and his group. Nemo being the cutie pie, attracted both male and female attention. While Len's gloomy atmosphere, coupled with his handsome features attracted the attention of many female students and even teachers with heavier tastes. Rick was a magnet for weirdos as his brothers with say. He kind of ended up attracting some gay students, and now was trying to hide behind Aryaan who was taller than both him an Len.
"Aryaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!" Came a nasal voice from somewhere in the crowd. Aryaan's face darkened. He immediately took off for the door. But his fanclub was a bit too exaggerated, and they started blocking the exit. In the mean time Purushottam came to the rescue by calling the group over and going to the Ascension party that he planned for the four and another group he mentored this session, which being his last teaching session in this academy for now.
Amidst the various sad and unwilling cries, the two groups left the Ascension ceremony for the private party. The heart broken fans thus started to leave the grounds taking their respective belongings, bidding good bye to the academy where they studied for the last 16 years, commencing the end of the Ascension ceremony.
Notes: [1], study of measurement of time
[2], time in this space station was calculated in earth years. :)
[3], space nodes are turbulence at areas within space containing space distortion and cosmic energy rifts.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
musubiSahashi
musubiSahashi Creation is hard, cheer me up!
Note: [1] Kienology : Study of manipulation of kinetic energy..
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