Star Wars: Path of the Damned
"... as we forgive those who sin against us..."
Dramatis Personae
Othros:
Othros Government:
Alexander Damien (human male, Othros)
Rebellion:
Ximon (Falleen male, Falleen)
Brett Spade (Human male, Othros)
Kryss Mendia (Human male, Othros)
Roald Crestfall (Human male, Othros)
Melody Spade (Human female, Othros)
Tricia Spade (Human female, Othros)
Kaiburr Empire:
Revan (Human male, unknown)
Joseph Adun (Kaiburr male, Kaiburr)
Ossus Jedi Praxeum:
Luke Skywalker (Human male, Tatooine)
Prologue: An Ocean of Sorrow, an Isle of Joy
Towards the end of the 15 ABY1, the year-long Cold War between the Kaiburr Empire and the New Republic came to a close. An age of peace and prosperity that engulfed the Empire, and all its peoples were finally happy.
However, back home on Othros, things were not as peaceful as they should have been.
After the war, Alexander Damien, one of the masterminds of the Othros Planetary Unification Movement a few short years prior, was elected as the second president of the Republic of Othros. In spite of his initially clean political record and his bordering-on-naïve idealism during the Unification Movement, his true colors began to show once he was elected.
As soon as he took office, Lex struck his first blow into the hearts of Othros's peoples: the implementation of the Othros Equalization Act.
"I believe," Lex announced the day the act was passed, "That for peace to continue to prosper in our beloved planet, its peoples must be fully united to serve her greater glory, and the next step in attaining unity is equality. Imagine…a world where all its peoples are equal, united and broken from the barriers of the selfish illusions of supremacy. No envy, no malice, only peace, order and prosperity for all. This is what I dream for our great planet's future: a unified Othros, which under my humble leadership, will be within our grasp!"
Trimming off all the frilly wording, the OEA basically "took control of all public displays of superiority." In other words, children were not taught to excel in schools, people could no longer be creative or imaginative, and we Force-users could no longer live on the face of the planet without being forced to work for the local government.
On that day, he was met with great applause from the masses, and a decade later he was met with the same applause when he grabbed the power of the senate by declaring a state of planetary emergency in response to the Yuuzhan Vong2 invasion of the New Republic (Interestingly enough, however, the Yuuzhan Vong never came.), thereby making him supreme ruler of all of Othros. In other words, he sold bonds to prisoners, and they bought them as if they were keys. Always the people's man he was…
With the might of the Othros military combined with the superior might of the Kaiburr Imperial Police sent to each of the empire's ends during the Yuuzhan Vong War, Lex had anyone even suspected of "disorder" "dealt with". What followed was a reign of greed and injustice, which almost seemed to have no end. Yes, there may have been order; yes, Othros did prosper economically, and yes, there was even some perverted sense of "peace" in our society, but the cost was far too great.
And with that, justice suffered one of its biggest losses in history.
The Force-users who refused to register were told to vacate the planet within the month the law was made, but some of us decided to act otherwise.
On the night after the law was passed, Tricia, Roe, and I discussed the situation. It was true that I no longer wanted a life of violence after the war, but neither did I want to leave my beloved home. Therefore, I decided to remain on Othros but hide my Force powers that I may be able to live and peace.
Tricia decided to do the same and pursuit her medical career, but what disturbed me was Roald's course of action. He decided to take the low road and remain on Othros to rebel against the new order.
Because of this, Roe went into hiding, and, though I didn't oppose his choice, at first, I didn't join him either. In fact, I thought that he chose the worst possible thing to do given the situation, but what really disturbed me was that in spite of the sheer stupidity of his decision, deep down, the warrior within me wanted to join him on the front lines, still craving the thrill of battle.
However, something held me at bay.
Since that night, there were a lot of crazy things I wanted to do, but the same irresistible force kept me from doing them. That force came in the form of a little girl who stayed awake each night waiting for me to come home safe and sound.
When Faith died, she left me one thing: her baby sister who entered her life just half a year before she passed away. How she was able to hide her from me for those six months still eludes me, as does what she was thinking when she made the decision to leave her precious sister in my custody. I had no desire to take the responsibility Faith left me with, but I did so nonetheless if only in honor of her memory.
Or at least that's how I felt at first.
Sometime after the war ended, I tried to teach the baby how to speak. , After teaching her the basics, I'd simply let her go on and on, pointing to objects in her room and saying what they were with just a little help from me.
One day, she was doing her usual pointing routine when something happened that caught me off-guard: Her finger ended up pointing in my direction.
"Da-Da?"
I paused upon hearing the question the baby seemingly asked me. At that point, I was certain that I was going to raise her, but at the same time, I didn't feel like being called "dad" for the rest of my life. Besides, she had the right to know about her real family.
"No," I answered shaking my head, "I'm Brett. Breeeett."
"B-b-brett?"
I nodded, and for a moment, she giggled happily, but then her inquisitive look returned as her finger moved from me to her.
At that moment, it hit me.
I never gave her a name! I said in my head as I mentally kicked myself.
Faith didn't leave her name with me either, and whatever that name was, along with so many other things, died with her. Looking back, naming the baby was probably one of the first things I should've done when I found her, but I guess I just wasn't comfortable with naming a child that wasn't mine.
Still, I was going to correct that mistake.
Not knowing where to begin, I looked at her sister for inspiration, but all I found were memories I wasn't prepared to relive. Amidst it all, though, one thing managed to stick out: a song. I couldn't make out the words; it was as if the lyrics were buried under the beauty of the singer's beautiful voice. All there was was…
"Melody,' I said, "You're Faith's Melody."
"M-m-me-me-mel…" she tried to pronounce.
It took her some time before she got it right, but soon she did.
"Melody!"
"Yeah," I said nodding my head in approval, "Melody."
Upon seeing my approval, little Melody smiled, and for the first time in quite a while, I did too.
Footnotes:
Stands for After the Battle of Yavin. System of time used by the New Republic.
An extragalactic race that invaded the galaxy circa 25 ABY. (First Appears in Star Wars: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore.)