Excerpt: The Last Great Hero

To Live as a Soldier
The alarm clock gave a constantly irritating beeping sound as it signaled five forty-five SST. Victory rolled over with a grunt as she hit the snooze button, but instead of the obnoxious beeping going away a rather loud upbeat song took its place. Reluctantly she threw back the standardized military blanket, muttering incomprehensibly to her self, and got out of the rather comfortable bed to set her feet on the freezing cold floor below. Despite the cold floor she moved like a sloth into the bathroom, passing the small window that looked out into the blackness of space.
Ten minutes later she reappeared in the small bedroom quarters with her long silver hair neatly up in a ponytail and dressed in the full standard military uniform. The pants were a carpenter style and as black as can be while the jacket was of a thicker black fabric with one silver diagonal stripe going from right to left. The stripes that represented years of service were also a silver color and rest on the left arm sleeve just below the Imladian symbol. Above the breast pocket was the rank Lead Specialist and below it the name Madison.
She quickly walked over and slipped on the clunky military boots at the end of her bed and then with a small sigh she walked out of the confining space and into the overly crowded main hall of the cityship Amion.
Solders and trainees crowded the halls as they carried on with their routine jobs ranging from Medical Doctor to Soldier, and Scientist to simple Janitorial staff. Some of them were heading to one of the many cafeterias for Diner and others were heading the same place for Breakfast as the day time shift switched to the night time.
Victory pushed her way through the Cafeteria hall into on a bit less crowded and followed it up to were it ended at two sliding doors. With out an activation code or gesture of any kind the doors slid open automatically to reveal a rather large control room.
There was at least a hundred Control Officers in the room monitoring each station round the clock. The controls were divided into two sections with a large isle in-between them that led to the front of the room which was merely one large window looking out onto the stars ahead.
“Alright lets get this party started,” Victory said trying to sound enthusiastic as she walked up to take a seat in the large chair sitting in the center of the isle. Just as she was about to sit down though something, or more accurately some one, caught her eye. “Amer, get out of my control room.”
The man was standing next to communications in the back of the room and gave her a tolerating look. He was tall, about six foot two and also bore the Imladian trademark silver hair only his was put up neatly in a half ponytail. It looked as if he could be part of a mob with the slight Italian look about his face.
“It’s not your control room,” Amer said as he walked up to her and crossed him arms with a look that dared her to contradict him.
“It is for the next, oh, eight hours while the trainees come to practice at their future stations,” Victory replied unwavering as she looked at him standing a good five inches taller then her.
“It’s my control room because it is in my ship which happens to be a part of my armada,” Amer replied evenly. “Plus, I hear from reliable sources that you made a trainee cry last time they practiced their stations.”
“I swear he just burst out into tears on his own,” Victory defended as she held up her hands. “Hey, this is a military society if he can’t put up with me then I don’t know how he’s ever going to put up with anything else.”
“The enemy can’t even put up with your crap Victory,” Amer pointed out. “That’s why you’re my Lead Specialist.” With this he took a seat in the chair.
“Then how can you put up with me,” Victory asked with a mischievous smile.
“Hundred of years of practicing patience and discipline,” Amer offered in reply with a witty smile. Victory gave him a hard glare.
“Children, lets try to act like military leaders today,” Another man commented as he walke up to stand on the other side of Amer.
The man was very different from Amer and Victory though still Imladian. Instead of the usual silver hair and pale skin he had dark black hair that consisted of hundreds of tiny braids and they fell freely around his shoulders. His skin was dark brown and he was the tallest of the three standing at a towering six foot six.
“What bring you to the control room on this lovely night, Gabriel,” Victory asked with a genially kind smile.
“I’m waiting for a team of specialists to come back from a mission to Gabre,” Gabriel said vaguely, but Victory new what the vagueness meant so she didn’t question it farther.
Moments later the trainees began filing into the room as the Control Officers stood up to let them take a seat and then quietly left. Within a minute the control room had changed from a sea of black to a sea of silver.