Cosmos.

Moment 1-my world

The superintendents office was spotless, but full of interesting trinkets, possibly prizes from his travels, or gifts from students and admirers.

Superintendent Alexander Marcus.

He had severe looking grey hair, with a hairline that made a thin 'v' at the top of his forehead. His eyes were a dull dark blue, and he had lines on his face, the pressure of the missions from years ago.

"Enter" his voice boomed, seconds after my fist made contact with the aromatic red cherry wood. Interesting. I opened the door, it was an old-style one, with hinges that moved in his direction as I pushed on the black handle.

"Sir." I offered a small salute. He poured himself a cup of clear liquid, probably water. I sat down in a small stif chair in front of his desk, feet flat on the floor, arms crossed.

"Cadet. You are familiar with your role here?" I gave a single nod. He continued. "You understand that there is much more pressure on you than on any of the other cadets and officers here. We are very happy you came to Starfleet. " He leaned back, a shadow obscuring his face. "However, due to your special circumstances, you should understand, anything short of outstanding is unacceptable." A smile flittered onto his face. "I wish you good luck."

He muttered something to himself, and a strange-looking plant behind him changed color.

"I understand, sir." I smirked.

"Then you are released to your duties." He answered, seeing my expression.

Without anything else, I stood, my hands behind my back. Turning, I put a mock frown on my face. Turning, I decided to test the admirals strings. "Do not disappoint me, Kaisar" he muttered, as I shut the door in front of me, a smirk still on my face. Behind the closed door, I kept my smirk on my face, turning to the side where a small device was lodged near the hinge. Almost unnoticeable.

Almost.

Giving a quick mock salute to the camera, I left. Did he truly think that I wouldn't notice?

My footsteps rang through the hall, and my path took me to the last floor of the dorm building, the front room. On the bed, there were two spare uniforms, and my satchel of belongings.

After laying out my few belongings, I was summoned through my standard-issued PADD. The see-through surface of the black and blue-rimmed glass beeped, showing me a copy of my schedule. Placing the glass onto my bed, I stretched.

Straight into the fire, huh?

Quickly taking up the standard issue machine, and a few loose ends of my own, I started walking back downstairs. Time for class.

-------------------------

The first class on the list, was advanced machinery. An engineering class.

I felt like it was specially engineered to make me feel small. For one, my feet dangled, a good 10cm above the ground. The professor was a transferred being, a tall spindly man who towered above me, inspecting me as he wandered past all of the desks.

He did not say much, but you could feel respect for him being demanded by the very individual molecules in the air. The first exercise he gave us was the opposite of what I expected.

Instead of launching into a lecture, or introducing himself, a small collection of mechanical parts were placed on each of our desks.

My logical mind automatically raced, placing the metal bits into different positions before finding the optimal organization.

I was done mentally structuring the pieces before he finished passing the bags out. The pieces lay untouched on the desk in front of me, and as I looked up, I found the teacher staring at me, slightly bewildered.

I looked back at him for a moment, a blank stare falling on his gaze. Then it clicked.

Tall frame, skinny limbs, arms with three segments, and general lack of oral communications. Our Advanced Mechanics professor was a Derivium.

The Derivium were a nomadic race, known for their amazing contributions, and a trait that they were known for instantly permeated my mind.

All Derivium peoples were telepathic.

I saw him smile as I came to my realization, standing far over me, he spoke. "I like your solution. You have advanced machinery skills and 3-dimensional spacial reasoning.

I thought my response, while giving the professor a quick 'thank you' on the outside, to not appear overly rude to the other classmates.

After giving me a quick nod, the man came to the front of the room, stretching to his full height.

"You have all been given ahm-- a collection of mechanical parts." Looking to the class, he gestured to all of us. "We have quite a talented class this year. You may begin, I look forward to your creations."

Stretching my fingers, I took the first piece into my hand, a magnetic sphere, rolling It in my fingers.

Nothing less than amazing.... Oh, admiral. I started fitting the pieces together, the way I had thought in my head, the parts whirring as they came into contact.

"Admiral.... Ye of little faith." I muttered holding up a morphing cube, made with all of the bits. Machine parts whizzed around inside of it, charged with a single burst of energy. Now, all the small bits were charged with slowly diminishing kinetic energy, whirling away, changing shape at enormous rates. A boy in the seat next to me stretched over, looking at my already finished product.

His speechless form gaped as he saw the shape-changing cube sitting motionless on the tabletop. He was about to turn to his friend, point to me, yell to the others in the class.

But one glare from me shut him up.

Over all,,I thought classes were a success.

For the first few months, it was all the same......

Sleep,

Classes,

Lectures,

Food,

Work,

And tinkering.

No changes occurred within those months, and the other students still stayed in two silent merciless lines, speechlessly looking down at me.

I was alone.

I kept everyone at a mile distance. Never smiling, never talking to others.

Then came the day when everything changed

Combat training.