It's a tale as old as time - a small-town girl growing up in some backwater country on some backwater planet, far from the technological advancements the rest of the galaxy had seen. It was a simple life, if not a rather bland one taking into consideration what was going on on the rest of her planet, not to mention the galaxy itself - rather than indulging in the lavish technology and winding architecture of the densely-packed inner cities or seeking out glory in space colonization, complete with the exploring of new frontiers and expansion of her species' grasp on the universe, she'd resigned herself to her simplistic, humble life in the irrelevant country on her irrelevant planet.

Needless to say, after twenty years of sitting behind while the rest of the world was moving on forward, this young Ukrainian was sick of it. Wasn't there something bigger than this? Wasn't there a point?

Her refuge came when colonial officials, as hungry for manpower as always, came snooping for potential recruits in her little town. The recruiters talked big, but she was doubtful that they could really have the experiences in mind for her to back it up. But, could she trust them anyway, all for a chance at prosperity? She'd never taken a risk in her whole life - not like this. She really had two choices: continue aspiring to nothing in her tiny Slavic town, forgettable and behind with the rest of existence as we know it, or leave it all behind for a chance at something [b]greater.[/b]

That tiny risk, something she'd never experienced before, something she yearned for and wanted more of, made her decision obvious.

She was out of the atmosphere by the month's end.