The Trell Universities

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October 25, 2005

All Rights Reserved JTAkin

If you wanted to learn anything in the realm that was then Trell was the wellspring of knowledge. There were at the university teachers from all over the galaxy and some from out of galaxies from the Core Nebula for example. The Core Nebula was a star system hidden from the eyes of earth by a series of explosions of old stars that needed to be removed anyway or so many believed. Of course to some moving old stars was like moving a geriatric patient outdoors and leaving them there or worse.

Trell University was vast and complicated and had so much knowledge it studied that few minded the high price needed to attend. It was the elite manifestation of resources. Thus only the brightest and best were allowed to attend. Now I know this hurts some again. Are we speaking the equivalent of Yale and York earthside? Or are we speaking of a school that was different then anything we understood? Perhaps in some ways the latter was true. It was a Universe City. A place where men, women, alien cultures, elves, even a few dwarvish types, all gathered to learn, study, prepare.

But there were aspects of it that caused the star lanes to tremble. One was the type of classes held there. To go into all of them would probably take months. I speak of classes that are hard to understand. Like the Challenge of the Karo. The Karo was the dark realm and the Karo were part of dark races where sin still dwelt and where sin was still part of the dark realm. It was a far off place and a far off realm and there were few at the University who know Karo agents had already infiltrated them. Looking at them and you though “How beautiful they are” because they, the Jurellian or Kurellians always sent the best of the best and trained them in espionage from a very young age. Most of the time they used the ‘death’ on them so their memory of their training would be erased and then when the programming kicked in they would do something and then they would return to normal. This training we speak of was not given at the University but before they were arrived.

Most of the programmed students went into engineering but the women who arrived took knowledge courses. There were a lot of classes to chose from but among the least appreciated but most respected was the True Ship Classes. The True Ship Classes were little known to most and had the most spoken of in quiet rumors. Only a few hundred were ever accepted into the classes each year and no one knew what the criteria were.

Now every University had its heroes and among the heroes of this day was the Marksman Class. This class was known for their warlike abilities. Now we speak strangely for some because we spoke of the dark realm and we also spoke of it being far off. So did the Marksman class go into war just to fight? I think the best way to put it is they were warrior type men. Those who were aggressive and needed to find a way to burn off their aggressive natures. They were given jobs as explorers in the far realms and each one faced battle more then once. They were part of the grizzled look and many a young man and/or alien wanted to be part of it.

One of the professors at the school had labored for years to bring knowledge to the students. Few knew his reputation nor his credentials. Even the administration only knew a few things about him. He was a little like a master wizard with knowledge and played around in his lab and with his books and in that voice of his acknowledged things that most of us would prefer not to know or dwell on. He was an expert on the dark realm and being that kind of expert meant paying close attention to signs. He had known of the ‘death’ chards and knew their capabilities. I guess you could say he had tasted one and overcome its powers. The only human in all history to do so. And there was knowledge that he experienced that kept him continously on the alert for any signs of programmed students. Every year the dark realm sent them and every year he tried to reprogram them. But this year something different happened. There were an influx of women, young, beautiful, lovely, and they had gone into three sections. Hope Class, True Class and Wisdoms Realms. Getting into any of the three was considered difficult without the highest connections. But this time the Professor realized that they had gained entrance in his realm. Which was True Class. There were few who understood it and fewer yet who had the authority to override his wishes or even knowledge. All he knew is these students came and they came to him and sat there waiting patiently for something to begin. And he also sensed that they held secrets. Dark, dark secrets that were a threat to him, aliens, and galaxies and cultures. And for the first time the Professor felt afraid.