FL/CM Werdna Elbee/Beth 2-1/Wing III/SSSD Sovereign

"So, are you scared yet, Elbee?"

There were four young cadets sitting in a dark room around a small table covered in datapads. There was only one source of light in the room coming from a dim light directly above the table. It gave the impression that there was nothing outside of the circle of light but empty space. From the darkness, a man appeared with a wry grin on his face. He stood standing just in the light making his face visible but shadowy. With a slight tilt to his head he answered, "Not at all. You?"

"Who? Me? Hell, no." replied the questioner. He was a bulky man with short, curly hair and every part of him made him look like a joker. His name was Al Briers and it was very rare that he took anything very seriously. It was said that you could tell how dangerous a situation is by how funny his jokes were. "I’m already thinking about the party after the exam."

They were all ready to take their IWATS Core exam and finally be promoted to a Sub-Lieutenant and serve the Empire. They had already proven that they could handle themselves in a combat situation, no they just had to prove that they were disciplined enough to become a proper pilot.

A young woman piped up, "Well, I know that I’m terrified. My parent’s will be very disappointed if I don’t pass." She was called Vivian Walters and she came from a family full of geniuses who did not know failure. Vivian wasn’t what you would call a genius though, although she was very bright. She already knew this herself though as she always compared herself to her unbelievably intelligent family.

"Us too!" the other two said in unison. They were Marious and Phiuk Annacka. As irritating as talking in unison may be, they were twins who had a strong bond. Their formation flight was amazing though. They were identical; both with dark hair, cut to a crew cut and a tall, thin build. As identical as they were, you could still tell them apart because of the slight scar on Marious’ cheek.

"You right! You shouldn’t have any worries considering you were put forward early for this exam, Werdna," piped up Briers, "You should be doing your exam in another four months rather then now."

As Briers jealousy became clearer the figure in the shadow walked closer into the light. He was about six feet tall with hair that slightly changed from dark to fair depending upon the light. He stared at Briers for a moment, which allowed Briers to see that part of the man’s blue eyes had a patch of brown in them as well.

Briers must have been disturbed by this as he quipped, "Ah, Werdna Elbee, the master of dramatics."

It must have the right effect because Werdna started to laugh and take a bow. "Thank You, Thank You. You like me, you really like me."

The others were in hysterics and relief by now and for a moment they forgot about the exam looming in the future. "Anyone else fancy going out for a drink? I’m bored of this," asked Phiuk.

**********

Inside the recreational bar onboard PLT Daedalus there was loud cheering and jeering coming from the drunken crowd inside. Upon closer inspection it was apparent that they had formed a circle around two people in a tussle. One was Werdna but the other could not be seen as he regularly had a fist in his face. The other fighter eventually fell to the ground and Werdna raised his hands in victory. The crowd eventually dispersed, disappointed that Werdna had won so easily.

"Here’s a drink for the champion of bar brawls!" Briers handed a bottle to Werdna and a quick swig was taken. The smile of winning was still on Werdna’s face, and it was still there as he offered to give a hand to the unlucky loser. The bloody face of the fighter looked up at his hand and spat at it.

"Charming," Werdna said as he gave the ungrateful man a swift kick. He walked over to the bar where his friends were standing.

"It’s a good job that there’s a shortage of troops in the EH or you would have been on Dungeon ship by now," explained Vivian, "Now, if I had been an on duty trooper I would have taken you down."

"Well, none of the troopers in this bar are on duty so I think he got away with it," said Phiuk. Phiuk took a look at Werdna and told him, "You really need to get cleaned up, you may have won the fight but you don’t look like it." Werdna put his drink on the bar; "I’ll see you back here soon."

The loser of the fight was only just getting up and as Werdna passed him on the way to the door he stamped on his hunched over back.

**********

Werdna walked down a long corridor that led to his room. He got out his portable music machine, stuck the earphones in and began listening to the sound of the Basement Jaxx. His head bobbed to and fro as his was engulfed in dance music.

He thought back to before he joined up to the EH and no matter how much he hid it, he hadn’t had the best of times in the past. He couldn’t remember much of it because he had lost most of his memory as a child. It was lost when his ship crash-landed into a desert planet over four years ago. Everything before that was blank in his head. He had no idea of what his life used to be like before he was stranded on that planet.

Werdna had decided that he would find out who he was someday, but he had other things to think about, what with the exams coming up, being split up from his friends on Daedalus, and active duty just around the corner. Werdna would have been lying if he said that he wasn’t nervous about it all. He had no problem with the flight test; it was always going to be the IWATS Core test that was going to be a problem. He could never tell his Captains from his Commodores and he would be damned if he knew every officer in the fleet.

All the way down to his room he worried about the test. It was a good job that his friends weren’t with him. Werdna had been pretending to be cool about the test since the flight test, but really he was just as worried as everyone else. Werdna stopped outside a door and took a deep breath before going through it.

**********

A big handful of water was collected from the tap and was pulled up to splash Werdna’s face. A mixture of blood and water fell back down into the sink the he was using. In the mirror he could see that he had a nasty cut under his eye. It may have been bleeding a fair bit but it didn’t look bad enough to get bacta for it. Anyway, he might get a cool scar from it, he though to himself.

When he had done cleaning himself up he walked over to his bunk and picked up the datapad resting on his pillow. He lied down, positioned the pad above his head and tried to study.

He was like that for five minutes before realising that he had not been reading the words on the pad and had just been staring blankly. He got up and decided play some music. The room filled with the music of Travis playing "Writing To Reach You" and he began to perk up a bit. He went back to his bed and eventually drifted off to sleep as the music washed over him.

**********

Werdna woke up with a startle. He had another nightmare. For the past three days his dream had been the same, he would be sitting in the exam hall and as he turned over his paper there would be nothing but gibberish on it. Then he would rummage around trying to find a pencil to start but all he would find were pencil shavings in his pockets. In a few minutes after the test starting the moderator would tell them to stop and Werdna would scream until his paper was collected in. It was about then that he would wake up.

He wiped of the sweat from his brow and checked his clock by his bed. He stared at the clock for a few moments and jumped out of the bed to make a run to the door. He only had a few minutes before the test stared and he bolted out of the room and down the corridor.

**********

The door in the exam hall burst open and all of the cadets inside turned to face the disturbance. A ragged Werdna crawled into the room and muttered a "Sorry" to the moderator. He slid into a chair trying not to be too noticeable. As he rested back into his chair, it made an irritating creak, catching the attention of the cadets once again.

"Well then, if we’re all ready," barked the moderator, trying to get some of the attention from Werdna, "you may begin!"

All that could be heard was the rustling of papers and the scratching of pencils scribing. Werdna put his head down and had a go at the exam.

An hour later, the moderator called an end to the exam. As the paper was collected in the moderator gave Werdna such a stare that he had to leave the room as soon as possible. As Werdna got into the corridor Vivian caught up with him. "Nice entrance, Werdna, were you late for the test to show your confidence or did you just have a lie in this morning."

"Oh, confidence of course!"

FL/CM Werdna Elbee/Beth 2-1/Wing III/SSSD Sovereign