Chapter Three: The Admiral and The Trash-Man

Marney sat in his cell, tapping his webbed claw on one side of the bench. Another inmate, a quarren, sat on the opposite bench staring blankly at the floor. The bipedal, yet sqid-like being was waving his chin tentacles hopelessly while the pointed flaps on either side of his face drooped in despair.

"And what are you in for, Brother Quarren?" Marney asked listlessly, "Were you attempting to smuggle orphans in as well?"

"No," the quarren responded, equally listless, "I'm in because I used the King's Royal Fountain as a toilet."

"An easy mistake to make," Raddek replied in a sympathetic fashion, "I used many things as toilets when I used to get rip-roaring drunk at the academy. Come to think of it, my own father used to get rip-roaring drunk when I was just a tad...I'll bet he blindly pissed on a few things himself in his day."

"Ah, well," his cell-mate mused, "as it is with the father, so it is with the son. My father was Quorr, and I am Qualle."

"Nice to meet you, Qualle," Marney affirmed the unfortunate wrong-doer, "and what did your father do?"

"He used the King's Royal Fountain as a toilet," answered Qualle, without elaborating any further on the matter.

The enchanting conversation with Qualle the quarren was interrupted when their cell door opened and a guard poked his head inside.

"Raddus," the guard beckoned him, "Come with me. Your father wishes to speak to you."

"It's Raddek, now," he corrected the guard, "Marney Raddek. I changed it to a more human-sounding name, just to bother my father."

The guard did not respond to his banter, but instead guided him silently into another room, where his father was sitting at a small table drinking a cup of seaweed tea. The admiral gestured to his son to sit across from him, pouring him a second cup of tea from a small brown urn.

As Raddek sipped the tea, his father stared at him with his big, bulbous eyes. He wished fervently that he could go back to Qualle the quarren. Finally, Charcorr Raddus spoke.

"You know, Radka," he said slowly and deliberately, "There have been times when I have wanted to string you up by the feet and use you as a weather balloon."

Marney lowered his eyes, unable to look his father in the eye. He felt like a young boy again. Why did the patriarch not just scream at him?

"I should leave you here in jail," the older man continued, "but your mother wanted me to 'make an effort' as she called it. She thinks that I have been too harsh on you; but I would dare say that I have not been harsh enough. My son, The Empire's Trash-Man! Have you no sense of self-respect, my boy?"

"Not really," Marney replied, without looking up, "Not when I'm around you, at least."

"You can't blame your disgrace on anyone else but yourself," Raddus countered, "I had hoped to see some sign that you had grown up at last...but it is painfully obvious to me that my expectations have been disappointed yet again. You rescue orphans to give yourself a scrap of dignity, but even they cannot save you from your own shame."

Raddek finally tore his gaze from the floor and glared at his father with a smoldering rage.

"I don't rescue orphans for that reason," he argued, "I do it because I don't want them to have to grow up to be like me—a drunken failure."

"Exactly so," Raddus replied, as if his son's statement had confirmed what he had just been telling him.

Raddek could no longer keep his anger inside him.

"You hypocritical old sea toad!" he exploded, "How many times did you come home from the tavern drunk when I was a tad? I'll bet you have no idea how much pain and shame you caused your wife and family!"

"Yes, I do have an idea," Raddus replied evenly, "and that is why I no longer partake of alcohol. The damn stuff was brought to our planet by the humans, and it was used by the Empire during the occupation of our world in order to dull the spirits of the mon calamari people—to turn us into willing pets! I stopped drinking when we began to fight them, because I knew I needed my wits about me if I was ever to unshackle our people from their servitude. But where were you when our people were enslaved, Radka? When your family needed you most, you were off lugging trash for the very Empire from which we fought to emancipate ourselves..."

"That's not fair, Admiral!" Raddek yelled, pounding his fist on the table and spilling their tea in the process, "I had a family to support and protect...besides, I fought the Empire in other ways."

"You didn't fight them, you worked for them, you traitor, and you still do! If you'd have really wanted to free orphans, you'd have picked up a blaster baton long ago...but you were too cowardly to fight for your family, or even your newest 'wife'...as you refer to that thing that you have in your crass indecency cross-bred with..."

Marney had endured enough. He stood up and pounded the table before summoning the guard and walking out on his father.

"What, you don't have enough courage to strike me?" Raddus called to him as he exited the door, "Some soldier of the Empire you are!"