When you live on board a spaceship, a vehicle made of thousands of pieces that can travel faster than light, concepts like home, family and friends take on different meanings.
Nightmares returned to visit Aribert last night. Maybe tackling 3 pirate ships and escaping death by a miracle triggered something, something Aribert would have preferred to avoid. The nightmares are always the same: the years of training for the GIANO project, the rigor of the Imperial camps, blood and death. Certainly there is no lack of more pleasant parts, such as the years spent with his adoptive family, Duke Darksong and his concubine Arianne, friends who, like him, survived the project and are now destined for the highest positions in the Imperial ranks. But these serene parts are always overwhelmed by the darkest memories, memories of a child forced to grow up too quickly and thrown into a world that does not know or understand. Aside from the comfort of his family, Aribert has always found peace and serenity in the nights spent contemplating the stars, trying to recognize constellations and planets. The choice to enter the Imperial Academy and become a pilot seemed logical to him, a natural consequence of his curiosity as a child. Duke Darksong was not surprised when Aribert communicated his intention to leave for a life among the stars, while trying to comfort his concubine and reassure her, the Duke was more bitter and disappointed, but after all Aribert was not his natural son, he was a child that the Empire had used for its purposes and now it did not know what to do with it. Despite this, the Duke loved Aribert, he had learned to love him as he watched him grow, therefore giving him the title of Duke was not a sacrifice, but the last gesture of an adoptive parent who sees his son leave for the unknown.