On The Shoulders Of Giants
Two beautiful, gleaming stars sparkled against a velvet black backdrop, winking enticingly. 'Reach out and touch me!' they said. And because nobody had ever told the boy that he could not reach out and touch the stars, he did.
A smile played across his six year old lips as his fingers closed around the cool, shiny metal. He cupped the stars in his hand so that he could not drop and break them; he would be in a lot of trouble if he broke Father's stars. The urge to hold them, however, was stronger than the urge to put them down. He ran ran the fingers of his other hand over each of their five points, noting the way each points' bevelled sides fell away and then met in the centre, where lightning symbols had been lacquered. The stars were almost twins, save for one detail; the lightning in the centre of the eldest star was blue, whilst its younger brother's was red.
"What are you doing with those?!" Mother's voice was high and tense. The boy resisted the urge to hide his hands behind his back. It wouldn't help; she'd already seen the stars in his hands. Besides, Father said a real man owned up to his mistakes. A real man was not afraid to accept responsibility for his actions, even if it got him in to trouble. "You shouldn't be playing with those."
She strode over and took them from him, placing them back in their display case on the living room shelf. The boy watched longingly as the glass panel was slid back across the case, protecting them from damage.
"I wasn't playing with them," he told her. "I was just looking."
"You look with your eyes, Tobias, not with your hands."
Tobias tried not to sulk. "Where did Father get them?"
"I'll tell you when you're older."
"You always say that!" Now he couldn't help the sulk. There was a lot Mother and Father didn't tell him, and the stars were only one part of the mystery. There were other children aboard the ship, but he wasn't allowed to play with them. Father said they were Followers, and Followers did not play with Leaders. And equally mysterious was his home; his school teacher had told the class that once, many years ago, all the people on the ship, and on dozens of ships like them, had lived on the surface of planets, and they had dwelt in houses, with gardens, and suffered all sorts of weather. To Tobias, the idea of living on a planet seemed absurd. Why would people want to be stuck in one place like that? On the ship he called Home, they were always on the move. Every day brought new sights from the viewing ports.
"Well, ask your father, and maybe he'll tell you," his mother said. Then she disappeared back into her bedroom.
He would ask his father, he decided. He would do it as soon as Father returned to their rooms. He would finally know how his father had managed to take two stars out of the sky and put them in a box in the living room.
It took a long time for father to come back to their living quarters. There were drills. Always drills. Father liked to oversee them all. Tobias wasn't really sure what drills were, except they involved a lot of alarm sounds from the ship tannoy, and sometimes it meant a lot of stormtroopers, clad in their white plasteel armour, went running past in their platoons.
At six o'clock ship-time, Father entered the room. Tobias jumped to his feet and issued a salute, standing to attention as Father appraised him.
"Polished your boots?" was the first question asked.
"Yes sir," said Tobias.
"Done your homework?"
"Yes sir."
"Behaved well for your teacher?"
"Yes sir."
Father's face softened into a smile. "Good!" He took a seat on the sofa, settling himself into the chair which always seemed too small to hold him. Father had a unique way of filling every space with his presence. "Now, tell me what you learnt about in class today."
"Today we learnt our twelve times table, and about all the different types of planets in the galaxy."
"Alright. Name me three types of planet, then tell me the answer to six times twelve."
"Ice, desert and arboreal. And six times twelve is…" He quickly calculated in his head. "Seventy two."
"Good! Very good."
With his father in a jovial mood, Tobias struck. "Father? Where did you get your stars from?"
Father's eyes followed his pointing finger to the two bright stars in the display case.
"I'll tell you when you're older, son."
"But you always say that! And I'm older now than the last time you told me," he scowled.
His father sighed. "That you are. And I suppose you're old enough to know the truth." He patted the empty sofa seat, and Tobias sank into it. "The star on the left," he said, referring to the one with the blue lightening, "I received for service to the Empire. And the one on the right is for service to the First Order."
"But that does that mean?" The words themselves were not unfamiliar, but they had never been properly explained.
"Many years ago, before you were born, the galaxy was governed by the Galactic Republic. It was a dangerous and corrupt organisation—"
"What does 'corrupt' mean?"
"It means the Republic was controlled by bad men. They lied, and they stole, and they did not own up to their mistakes. They were cowards who cared only for themselves. Now, you've heard of Emperor Palpatine, haven't you?" Tobias nodded. Everybody had heard of the Emperor. "He was a great man, who took it upon himself to restore order and peace to the galaxy by turning the corrupt Republic into the Galactic Empire, by removing the greed and the cowardice like a surgeon cutting away rotting flesh, leaving behind only strength and unity. But not everybody wanted peace and order!" Tobias gasped and father nodded, a very serious expression on his face. "Some people like chaos and war. Some people are only happy when they are fighting. Some people want to be able to hide in the shadows, to cheat and line their own pockets at the expense of others. These people came together to form the Rebel Alliance, which challenged the Empire, using terrorist tactics to undermine Emperor Palpatine's rule."
Tobias felt his eyes go wide. He turned his head to examine the shadows at the corner of the room. "We're not in danger from them, are we?"
Father chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound. "No, son. The Rebels—or as they're calling themselves now, the New Republic—never come this far into the Unknown Regions. They fear what they do not understand. They daren't come after us here."
"Oh, good." Tobias sank back in relief. The Rebels did not sound like very nice people at all!
"As I was saying, though… the Rebel Alliance opposed the Emperor at every turn. They tried to kill him more than once. They sent an assassin to try and shoot him in the back whilsvt he was visiting a planet named Makara—one of our allies in the fight against the Rebellion. I was with the Emperor, that day. I saw the assassin, and I managed to shoot him before he could fire his weapon. For saving his life, the Emperor gave me the Medal of Valour. I was one of only twenty officer in the whole Empire to ever receive that medal."
"What happened to the Emperor? Where did he go?"
Father's eyes lowered, his gaze momentarily on the floor. Tobias tried not to fidget, but he'd never seen his father look so unhappy. Not even when Tobias' elder sister, Kristyna, had been found 'lacking the mental aptitude required for officer training' and sent away to become a Follower.
"The Rebels," Father said at last, meeting Tobias' eyes with his own, "managed to turn one of the Emperor's servants against him. A Sith Lord named Darth Vader… he used the power of the Force to kill the Emperor, handing victory over to the Rebels."
"What's the Force?"
Father took him by the shoulders, and Tobias tried not to pull back. "It is a very dangerous thing. You must never fully trust people who can use the Force. They are not always right, inside their minds. The only one you can truly trust is our Leader. He is a great and wise man. He is going to lead us in restoring peace to the galaxy."
Tobias nodded, and his father let go of his shoulders. "Did he give you the red star?"
"Yes. But not for saving his life. You see, after the Emperor was killed, there was chaos. Many men like me, who had served in the Empire, came out here to the Unknown Regions, to escape the corruption and depravity of the New Republic, and to start over anew. But not all came. Some took their ships and became smugglers, slavers or pirates. They fell into darkness, and became just like the men they had fought against. That's another thing you have to be wary of, Tobias. Be wary of those who cannot be trusted to uphold your morals and standards when they are out of your sight."
"Yes, Father."
"It shames me to admit that there were such men within the Empire. They were flawed, broken men. They had abandoned the Emperor's vision and betrayed all that the Empire stood for. Supreme Leader Snoke tasked me, and several of his most trusted generals, to return to known space to track down these traitors and put a stop to their illegal activities. It took a long time. You probably don't remember, but I wasn't around very much for the first two or three years of your life. My mission to bring these men to justice had to take precedence. But eventually, our mission was done, and we came home. To me, and to the other men who had carried out his orders, the Supreme Leader gave the Medal of Service."
"I don't understand. Why would anybody want to be corrupt? Why do people fight against peace and order?"
"Because, my son, men and women are inherently flawed. Some do not like to be told what to do. You say, 'turn left,' and instead they turn right. Some people like to be contrary merely for the sake of being contrary. Others were never taught right from wrong by their parents, and grew up thinking thievery and dishonesty to be acceptable things. Some think they have better ways of ruling, better ways of maintaining peace. Others merely enjoy watching others suffer; they would burn whole cities down, just to laugh at the misfortune of others. That's why the First Order is so important. That's why we have to do everything within our power to bring peace to the galaxy. We have to shine a light in all the dark places, so the bad people have nowhere left to hide."
"Can I help?"
Father's smile returned and he reached down to pick up Tobias in his arms. "You already are. Everything we are doing today comes through learning from yesterday's mistakes. Today is my day, but tomorrow is yours. Tomorrow and every day after. Years from now, you will stand at Leader Snoke's right hand, and you will bring hope and peace to a galaxy filled with fear and chaos. On that day, you won't have two medals like mine; you will have a billion. The stars themselves will be your medals, and you will own each and every one."
Tobias returned his father's smile. He could already see it, in his mind's eye. A galaxy full of stars, all of them twinkling just for him. And the people living on those worlds, not even realising how they were always stuck in one place, praising the name of Hux, thanking him for bringing them the peace they had always been denied.