DbD Thirty-Two: Brentaal, Part One (Patreon)

Quest: A Proper Gander

Discover who is spreading propaganda against the Brentaal-Denon agreement

Rewards: ???

Failure: ???, propaganda continues to spread

Quest: Denon Arrival

Ensure the safety of the Denon delegation at the 944 ARR Galactic Commerce Meeting, taking place at Brentaal

Rewards: ???, win the respect of certain parties who support the Brentaal-Denon alliance

Failure: ???, anger certain parties who oppose the Brentaal-Denon alliance

Quest: Tip-Top

Make the top 5% of students at the Brentaal Commerce Academy

Rewards: 1 experience point for each person you out-perform

Failure: -1 experience point for each person who beats you

*

After three weeks at the Brentaal Commerce Academy, Ali’ya was certain that the Academy had three things going for it. The first was the food--shockingly good by university standards. The second was the location: Brentaal was Core, but outer Core, and along a trade route. It was busy but safe, populous but with nature nearby--sixty-five billion was a lot of people, but compared to an ecumenopolis like Alsakan or Coruscant it was nothing--and open enough to be exciting but Core enough to feel comfortable for the upper crust. The third (and the best, in Ali’ya’s mind) was the library. One of the largest archives in the galaxy, the library of the Brentaal Commerce Academy sat on two acres of land, stretching an even two hundred floors above the planet’s surface--by far the largest building in the capital area--and another hundred-fifty floors below ground. Founded some eighteen thousand years ago, the library predated the Academy by several thousand years. Despite numerous wars the library had never been touched, viewed as something of a secular temple. The trade records and journals stored below-ground dated back to the planet’s first settlers. Records of land and title ownership, building blueprints throughout the millennia, and the galaxy’s largest known collection of works on trade, economics, commerce, psychology, and finance were but some of what the library had to offer. Ever since the founding of the academy in the aftermath of the Pius Dea Crusades (the founding originally an attempt to bridge the gap between the humanocentric Core and Brentaal’s many nonhuman trading partners) the library had tracked each of the academy’s graduates. Every book written by a graduate had at least one volume in the library, as did every biography about them.

As good as the library was, it did not convey quality onto the myriad students of the Brentaal Commerce Academy. Their fault lay not in intelligence but in the system itself. The students at Brentaal ranged from heirs to galaxy-wide companies and noble trading houses to students who struggled through the reality of schooling at the depths of Coruscant, Taris, or Denon. The former were desperate to prove themselves to their parents while the latter were simply desperate. The pressure to succeed was intense and the competition ruthless. While the school’s administration cracked down on cheating and acts of sabotage, they encouraged pulling all-nighters and overloading courses. After all, the lowest ten percent was dismissed from the academy each year and there was no coming back.

Beneath the veneer of one of the best teaching facilities in the galaxy lay the reality: while the school would teach their students how to play the game of capitalism, any amount of questioning the system itself would result in automatic failure. The government of Brentaal gave out thousands of scholarships to the academy, taking the brightest academic minds of the galaxy’s oppressed classes and beating into their heads that one could succeed under capitalism, or not at all. With the course-loads and the homework there was no time to study politics or plot revolution. Not when one’s place on the surface, where air was breathable (and where maybe they could bring their family one day) was at stake. It was a dynamic Ali’ya was all too familiar with. Had she not planned to use the system, to play capitalism’s game by eating alive the existing world of young adult literature, in order to give her family food, medicine, and a chance at a decent lifespan? No, Ali’ya could not blame the choices being made. She could only be depressed by them, and by the nature of her mission.

With the students largely too busy for political activities--the existing clubs (including a Socialists of Brentaal club that had all of six members) were barely able to have meetings, let alone begin a serious political campaign--it meant that the anti-Denon propaganda coming from the academy was coming from one of the staff. In order to attract their attention, Ali’ya would need to stand out. After all, who better to use for their economic propaganda than a star student of Brentaal’s prized academy?

Brentaal Commerce Academy worked on a four-one schedule: four days on, one day off. It was fairly typical throughout the galaxy and Ali’ya had considered it relatively relaxed for such a high-pressure academy before she got her first assignment. On her day off she was expected to read two hundred pages, write twenty-eight pages of essays, and prepare a project presentation. Ali’ya went above that. She read two books each day outside of class, prepared projects and presentations that wouldn’t be due until much later in the year, wrote essays that (despite her desires) encapsulated the capitalist lessons the teachers wanted them to learn as she analyzed dozens of businesses, systems, and individuals. Ali’ya slept on her day off, and the rest of the time used the Force instead, having pared down the needed time for rejuvenation to four hours a night.

In her attempt to attract attention Ali’ya had time for little else. She made only a single friend--Marque Curovao, the only child of Aladaire Curovao-Simo, the head of the wealthy and powerful Curovao family. Unlike many at the academy Marque seemed less focus on the specifics of the academics and more interested in applying them to his own future. The Curovao family ruled their eponymous city, one of the richest in Brentaal, and ran one of the largest (and, thanks to their experimental Research and Development department, one of the most controversial) corporations on the planet. While the status boost of graduating Brentaal’s most well-known academy would be nice, Marque needed it far less than many others and seemed not to care where he fell in the class ranks. When Ali’ya began making her move, Marque was one of the few people to remain by her side.

It started when Ali’ya requested to take the exam for her Introduction to Economics early. While allowed--any student had the right to request the final exam (which counted for 100% of the grade) at any time--it was unusual in the extreme. If one passed the exam, they were free to move onto the next class. If they failed, that grade was permanently added to their record. While they would be able to retake the exam at the end of the year, the second score would count as a different class. Few who failed the early final were able to survive the yearly cut and even fewer passed. And while that was a concern, even if she failed Ali’ya would still stand out. The first student to take an early exam in at least a century.

The exam was difficult. Even with reading ahead and picking up two books a day--five on the break days--Ali’ya struggled to translate academic text into actual answers in the time given. She did her best, discretely using the Force to speed her hands until it matched that of her thoughts and tapping as far into her System-enhanced intellect as she could manage.

She passed. Not perfectly, but enough to score the coveted “Outstanding” range, meaning a perfect score on her grade-point average. With one class in the bag, Ali’ya moved onto the next: Introduction to Business Negotiations. Although the exam was far more in depth than the Economics one had been, it was also something Ali’ya had experience in. She had negotiated with the Mon Cala, the Quarren, and the Sluiss Van. She had convinced Mandalorians to wage war against the Huk and talked the Intergalactic Banking Clan into purchasing Kalee’s excess foodstuffs. She had trillions of credits in existing investments. While no expert, neither was she ignorant. That exam Ali’ya passed with flying colors. By the end of her first month Ali’ya had passed all four of her scheduled classes that semester, and picked out new ones.

Another month passed. Ali’ya routine remained the same. Go to class. Study. Talk to Marque. Study more. Rest. Repeat. At the end of her month Ali’ya requested early tests again, and again passed them. Her reputation at the academy was building, just as they’d hoped. Whispers followed her everywhere. They were difficult to ignore, just as it was difficult to shut off so much of her brain, focusing only on her studies. But it was for the mission, and Ali’ya did it.

Ali’ya’s third month began. Her master was out of contact, busy hunting down leads on the sabotage after disarming two bombs on the Brentaal-Denon shuttle. She pushed through it. She ate mechanically while reading a book. She walked in a daze. She took her classes, studied her notes, took the tests. Marque managed to pull her out of the daze a couple times a week, taking her to see the Cormond Museum of Arts and the golden beaches of Oradin. She requested her finals, took them, and passed.

The tenth galactic month arrived, and Ali’ya seemed no closer to finishing her assignment. She couldn’t leave, not when a collapse of relations between Brentaal and Denon appeared increasingly imminent. Not when her Master was flying back and forth between the two planets, diffusing tensions and bombs alike. Ali’ya would endure, as she always had. She would endure and wait to strike.