Manda'lor
I looked at myself in disgust. I had gotten used to wearing full armor again, and to see myself dressed as a common mercenary bothered me. I picked up the heavy blaster rifle, checking its weight. My own personal weapon, it had weights in the back so that when I swung it up on target, the barrel didn't pull the muzzle down.
I heard a knock, and Kelborn looked in. "Manda'lor, you have to see this."
I stepped out of my quarters. The battle circle was cleared, and the woman and the young girl faced each other. Then like something from a legend, beams of lambent fire leaped from their hands. Both had decided on the saber staffs, twin beams running from their fists. They faced each other then suddenly they came together in combat.
It had been a long time. I remembered watching them that entire faithful journey. Bastila, The foundling Sasha who had been raised for three years by my kind, and discovered her warrior heart as a child aboard Leviathan and later at the Star Forge. The Cathar woman Juhani, the old man Jolee. And the one I had wished would have been Mando'a by birth, Revan, now merely Danika Wordweaver. The problem with living to my age is that most of the people you remember are dead and gone by this time. I didn't know what had happened to any of them.
They stepped aside, looking at each other appraisingly, and the beams died. Two women dressed as if they had just come off a tramp spacer. Warriors.
"If we're going, we had best get to it." They looked at me. The older and younger. Both had that same look in their eye.
Bao-Dur
I finished tuning the arm, then bent it smoothly. The hyper drive generator had a tuner problem according to the General, and sure enough I was able to detect a slight variance when I ran the diagnostics. But to correct it needed the arm in its best working order.
"Got a minute?" Atton was greasy and tired after a long day of repairs.
"I'm kind of busy here."
"Really, it's just a little thing. Won't take a moment."
I sighed then got the micro-spanner out, adjusting my eye piece. "I'll work, you talk."
He moved over beside the workbench. "You're friend, the Jedi. You knew her way back when, right?" I grunted. "How much do you know about her really?"
"You mean the General." I replied. "Sure, I knew her during the war, if that's what you mean by way back when. But I only served with her. So did a few hundred thousand others. Can't say I really got to know her."
"Better than anyone else on this ship. I just want your opinion, that's all."
"Opinions. Yeah I have those."
"Now don't laugh-"
"Atton, is there an end to this song and dance? I'm trying to work here."
"Well, I was just wondering if, you know, she and I would be..."
I stopped, looking at him, grinning. "You're serious."
"Hey, you said you wouldn't laugh."
"I'm not laughing. You're really serious, and expect me to grease the skids for you? Atton, I was a Tech when I met her, and a Lieutenant Colonel in Technical section when we served at Malachor V. Your guess is as good as mine."
"But what's your guess?"
I straightened the arm. "I guess I'm ready to go back to work." I closed the toolbox and picked it up.
"Hey, I'm being serious here!"
"And I seriously need to get this fixed." I waved at him as I opened the deck plate and climbed down.
Behind me I heard T3 say something.
"Oh so you're laughing at me too, you obsolete block of printed circuits? I'll put alcohol in your oil if you keep it up!"
Manda'lor
The shuttle was cramped and tight. It was designed for two, and we had put in another seat because we Mando'a don't need the frills. The younger girl took the forward seat, Marai merely curling up in the back like a massive homicidal cat. I lifted off, and we headed almost straight up.
People say some gods have a sick sense of humor and the Onderon/Dxun binary prove it. Two worlds formed in the space that should have only supported one. Close enough that they should have broken up; instead they spun around a common axis tidally locked in a day almost three times the standard. They should have crashed into each other and been destroyed, or perhaps their rotation should have flung them apart but the Gods had an off day. Another body, the forest moon Zanetro saved them from that. It rotated around both of them; it's gravity pulling them away from each other when at a tangent, and together when at the tidal points. This maintained a separation of just over 500 kilometers apart at perihelion, and 2500 at aphelion.
Gravity play tricks in such close proximity. The atmospheres of the two bodies intermingled like liquid in a blender. The first settlers back in the mists of history had chosen the slightly larger body. Luckily for them, because the system would have been uninhabited until the next ship if they had chosen Dxun as home.
Dxun is home to more predators than any planet except for Deralia. But the largest one on Dxun was only about three tons weight. The ecosystem is extremely active, and the atmosphere thick enough to support large flying animals, and the Brantarii, the 'demon dragon' is the largest. There were a lot of them on both world, and pundits postulated parallel evolution, even though it had been disproved so many times through the millennia. Even with exactly the same ecosystem, which they did not have, two planets would not evolve exactly the same animal.
But less than thirty years later they discovered that the Brantarii came to Onderon from Dxun, flying straight up like ballistic missiles until they were caught by the larger planet's gravity. They did this because the competition was fierce on Dxun and they could get away, unlike their ground-based brethren.
But the humans arrived in the only section of the continent that had been free of them originally. Otherwise they wouldn't have survived. The first colonists took horrendous losses the first few years. Small brantarii can take something the size of a human child; the larger ones could take a full-grown nerf meaning an adult human was about right for a snack.
So they had built the first walled settlement where Iziz is today. That settlement, large enough for about four thousand is preserved near the center of the now 160,000 square kilometer city with its thirty meter walls. To those of you from most Rim worlds it's huge. But it could be dropped into the average Coruscanti neighborhood and been lost. It is home to over half a billion people now. The rest of the planet belongs to the animals and the Beast Riders.
We came in without all the problems the Republic ships had been having. After all, our transponder read as local.
"It is interesting." Marai said from were she reclined. "The local news feed is, confused."
"You're telling me?" I asked her.
"It is the trend I am noticing. I have accessed the major media networks, and indexed their past recordings. The new is being systematically suppressed." She scrolled down. "What is not being suppressed is heavily slanted against the Jedi and the Republic."
"But why?" The girl asked.
"Someone wanted the people angry at the Republic. Maybe they want to secede."
We came in over the ocean.
"There it is. Iziz." They looked at the city as we approached. It was impressive. "They've been shut down tight for the last four months or so. General Vaklu was ready to declare martial law any day now. Even without it, most of the city is banned to uitlanders." I saw the blank look on the girl's face. "The unclean ones from the stars. We're allowed in the Star port, main market center, and the Western Square which is the only area open to the foreigners for recreation."
"How do they feel about having Mandalorians here again?" The girl asked.
"Very few people know about it." I admitted. "I made a secret agreement with the queen two years ago to use Dxun as a staging ground because it already has places for my people to live until we're ready to go home."
"They enjoy it there?" The girl looked at me askance.
"It isn't a matter of enjoyment. If the place where you live is dangerous, you learn to adapt or die. You build walls," He waved at the wall as we passed over it. "Or you find a way to bend nature to your command, like the Beast Riders did for the last four and a half centuries. As much as Vaklu preaches about 'racial purity', his family is more Beast Rider than city dweller."
We settled in, and I shut down. "You do the talking. They still don't like my people here."
"What kind of 'secret' agreement?"
I considered then shrugged. "I promised not to invade, and if she needs help, she can call us in to fight for her gratis." I looked at their wary eyes. "My word is my bond." I popped the hatch seal. "But of course we can't just stroll into the palace, kick up our feet and order tihaar. Secret means just that. I have an old friend that we can contact in the western square. A doctor of sorts."
Iziz
Kavar
If she wasn't half my age, I would have been attracted to Queen Talia; at least until she opened her mouth.
"Vaklu is saying the Republic freighter opened fire first? You have already shown me our own sensor records from our ships and ground stations!"
"I know that, your Majesty. But Vaklu is screaming that you are covering it up, and his men have assured there are enough faked records for people to look at."
"This is madness!"
"Unfortunately, the common man on the street in your city doesn't want to hear the truth. The lie says what they believe." I had to feel a bit sorry for her.
The Onderoni had been subjugated by the Mandalorians under Exar Kun, been occupied again after that war when the Mandalorian moved back in from Dxun until the battle. Then the fear the Revan and later Malak would do an end run and occupy them again. Her father had brought them into the Republic, and one of his own citizens had repaid him with a sniper's bolt right about the time the Mandalorian wars ended.
Now her cousin General Vaklu had again taken up the flag of separatism. He'd hoped to be named regent, but her aunt Klassa had gotten that position. The girl had taken the throne officially just last year. He Aunt was a full-blooded beast Rider though. Talia could ride a Brantarii with the best of them, and fought well with both sword and paired daggers. She was lithe and well formed and all of about eighteen years old. Muscles rippled when she walked, and even the long ceremonial robes she was required to wear could not disguise her feline grace. But her voice had the harsh accent of the nomads.
"The timing of this incident could not have been worse! A space battle overhead, fourteen Republic Freighters damaged and three destroyed. Seventeen fighters lost. My supporters are being ridiculed!"
"According to com logs, all of the fighters belonged to Colonel Tobin's Fighter Wing-"
That Schutta!"
I winced at the Twi-Leki curse. She swore like a Beast Rider too. If only more of them voted! "Strong words, your Majesty. But there is no good time for news such as this. We must go ahead with the plan."
"But won't that bring even more dissidents to my Cousin's cause?"
"For a time, yes. But we both know he is not the real threat. It is his supporters in the shadows that are the danger. We must find a way to drag them into the light. Only then can we strike." I stopped, and she continued walking for a moment before she noticed. She turned to face me. "Your Majesty, when you prorogue your Parliament, They will be forced to come out of hiding. All of his supporters will have to openly ally with him, and the rot will be revealed."
She sighed, and we walked on. "I fear it is already too late."
"Where there is life, there is hope." I said.
She chuckled. "Tell that to someone swallowed by an adult Drexl."
Handmaiden
The city was open, spacious, and well designed. But it was still oppressive. The Port Authority officer was almost glad to see us. The two or three hundred docking bays were almost completely empty.
"You haven't been here in a while." He said to Manda'lor. "If it wasn't for the little shuttles in the system, I might as well sit home and drink. Must be hard to shuttle people from place to place what with the blockade and the Republic gearing up for an attack."
"The blockade I noticed." Manda'lor waved. "But I was just out there, and there isn't any Republic fleet. Just a lot of angry merchantmen."
"Didn't you hear about the battle a few days ago? A corvette using a faked transponder tried to land a spy team but the Iron Eagles caught them!" He was like an old gossip unwilling to let a good bit of news lie. "Then the two Republic merchant cruisers that had escorted the raider opened fire on them and they had to destroy them all."
"And how do you know that?"
"The Data network did an entire series on it just last night. General Vaklu spoke personally." He sighed. "But it does make my job more boring. Military checkpoints, half the city closed off under local control the new Visa regulations-"
"Visa regulations?"
"Ah that's right I almost forgot." He handed each of us a small transponder. "Hook that on your belt. The restrictions stop anyone from getting to the Space Port area without these transponders. It's just as bad throughout the city. Papers have to be shown to go from cantonment to cantonment. If you don't have your papers, you can't go anywhere.
"But if you're visiting it isn't half as bad as those poor bastards in orbit. The regulations require full search and inventory of every Republic ship arriving. I'm not talking the easy 'what have you got' I normally do. I'm talking full scanning teams every crate opened and visually inspected, hull and compartments scanned for any hidden spaces. Not even the most daring smuggler would try to bring anything in. Captain-owners are looking at the profit margin and the Corporations have already stopped running to us."
"How long has it been like this?" Marai asked.
"This bad? Just the last few weeks. But the original visa regulations are a year old and the first transport checkpoints were tightened four months ago. Bad days. Captain, I'd suggest you sit back and find something more... interesting to keep you occupied for a while." He leered at the two of us. But Marai was thoughtful and I had learned to ignore such comments. "Well, is there any thing else?"
"Yeah." Manda'lor handed him the manifest. "You were supposed to ask 'what have you got'. Manifest is there; the can is still sealed. It can go into the bonded warehouse. My spare can should be ready, just have them lock it on. All I need is your thumb-print."
We got it, and walked out into the square. If anything it was worse there. We discovered there were also new restrictions on what could be shipped from place to place in the massive city. We passed a lifter full of frozen meat, the driver asleep behind the controls. From the line he was in, he might have been there for more than an Onderoni day.
The maglev shuttle direct to the Merchant quarter had a queue as well. We had an hour wait, and Marai stopped, her head coming up. I sent out that new found sense, trying to feel...
Animals, lots of them. Marai turned from the queue, and went through into the next area. Manda'lor merely grunted, and waited patiently as we wandered off.
There were Cannocks, Boma, Drexl, all in cages separated by their species, and a few young men moved among them, dressed in leather from nape to toe. They spoke softly to their charges, and as they did I felt them reaching out through the Force to calm them. It was like yet unlike what I had seen Marai do on Dxun.
One of the men saw us, and I saw hope in his eyes. "Fair winds to you, off worlder. Is it too much to hope that you are from Telos?"
"I'm afraid not." Marai answered.
His face fell. "Then the winds still taste of misfortune. We will have to wait." While sad, there was resolve in his words. The Beast Riders were a pragmatic lot.
She stood, and I could almost see her counting. "Why do a hundred beasts sit here still? The Ithorians have a ship in orbit even now."
"Seven if you count the Telosians and the ones awaiting consignments." One of the other men offered.
"Silence when elders speak." The first man said, but it was a gentle admonition. "My younger brother speaks true. But they must wait through the endless unnecessary searches. It is not as if they have thousands of compartments, they're bulk cargo ships after all. Yet the customs searches almost seem to concentrate on them above all." He waved at the warehouse we were in. "It is as if the warehouse were empty, but they needs must rip out the permacrete slab to check under it." He sighed. "We have stopped taking the beasts on Dxun, but that leaves our young with nothing to do in the hills but make trouble."
"Why are they called beast riders?" I asked softly. He heard me, and looked at me.
"Come." We walked through the warehouse to a field outside it. Brantarii paced there, tied with a single line to each massive neck. One of them saw me, and his wings spread to their full fifteen-meter length.
"When the dark wizard Freedon Nadd ruled, we were banished to the wastes beyond, but my people were a hardy folk. We learned of where to hide and live away from the beasts. The mountains became our city. But some of us can reach the mind of the animals, and Grygar the Great was the first to discover the secret of the brantarii. If captured young, those able to touch their minds can raise them as pets. It is the most important step between being bound to the earth, or flying the skies as we do." He reached up and that massive head, almost large enough to devour me whole dipped so he could stroke it.
"We thrived. Life was hard, and those of us that could fly did what we could for our land bound brothers. We learned that those of us that could touch a beast mind could guide the beast with our thoughts back to feed our people.
"Then half a century ago, Galia, princess of the Royal house and our greatest hero Oron Kira eloped. The queen was furious, and even called the Jedi against us. But those who were sent saw the love the two had for each other, and stood against the Queen and her armies.
"They married, and even having her banished as well did not work. When Queen Amanoa died, her chosen successor was weak. Galia was begged to return, and she did. Their love united our peoples again. But it came with a terrible price. It has begun to unravel, and even our beasts can smell it in the air."
"Your people changed to fit back into the city." Marai said softly. He looked at her. "Your people were nomads, moving with the seasons along the great mountain chain. Living by what you could wrest from nature. Truth became the currency most dear, and suddenly you were thrown into a place where deceit was as common as truth before."
"Aye, you see the pain of it. Some of ours have fallen to this bitter fruit of deception. They have left the mountains, forsworn the honor of our people. They have become little more than thugs. Queen Talia spent her young life with her aunt among us, and she loves our people, even as Vaklu who was willing to use us in his war against the Mandalorians does not. Honor is something worth more than coin to us, yet when we would not stand with him against our sovereign, he decided we were less than dust. They argue now in full council, and those that support him speak of the 'creatures' we are in comparison." He was not angry, merely saddened.
There was a roar within, and we turned. Almost as if an order had been given, we followed the Beast Rider back into the warehouse.
People think animals weak or unbearably stupid. A farmer puts up a fence of mere wire strands to hold a herd of half ton Nerf because the beasts do not realize that even the weakest among them has the strength to push the barrier aside.
A half grown Boma barely a ton and a half in weight was thrashing about, and before the cage a young beast rider was standing, hand out, speaking. "Calm, my brother, be at peace..." The beast flailed, and his tail ripped through the heavy cage as if it were tissue paper. Like a child climbing from the womb, it began to wriggle out.
"We shall have to kill it!" Our guide shouted. The beast riders converged, drawing stun batons and shock sticks.
Marai stepped forward, shrugging off the man who grabbed her arm. She extended her hand. "Why are you so angry my pet?" She asked in a conversational tone. The beast turned to face her then it staggered as it tried to charge. "No, I am unworthy of your attentions." It struggled mentally, and I could touch the edges of what she was doing, like feeling with blind hands upon a wall looking for a door.
She came forward in a slow glide, hand out stretched, and the beast flinched back. But her hand came down on its head.
"You are hungry, but that is not the most important thing." She whispered, her hand running across that huge blunt head. "You want darkness, the blessing of sleep." She motioned to me.
"A cage, covered so it appears to be night." I ordered. One of the men ran off, then came back motioning to me. As soon as I had checked, I came back. "It is ready, Marai."
"Good. There is a cave so near. A cave that is dark and warm, where nothing can eat you." She moved away and the Boma waddled after her. The cage was open, and she knelt, brushing her cheek on its head. "Sleep my love. Soon you will be in open fields able to run and hunt to your heart's content." It wuffled in confusion, then crawled into the cage, turning then dropping to rest like a giant cat. Marai closed the cage, drew the covering down and turned.
A stunned crowd of Beast riders surrounded us. The young man that had failed to calm it hung his head. "Not since my first young Boma have I failed so completely."
"Not so my young lad." Marai came over. "You are tired, it has been a long day, and the beast felt your frustration. Do not let that frustration enter your thoughts and you will not fail again."
"I will heed your words."
"The beasts grow more agitated every day, as do we." Their leader sighed. "It is like the old stories."
"Stories?" Marai asked.
"It is said that when Freedon Nadd first took the throne, he used the anger of the beasts as proof of the people's unworthiness. It is said that there were weeks of our days where they would attack the walls, climbing over themselves to try to kill those within. He devised a test that would find this evil, and every one who failed the test and their families were cast from the city to become the ancestors of the Beast Riders.
"Vaklu points to the old tales, to the disquiet among the beasts we bring. He claims that the old stories are right, and that it proves that we are the evil of this world, and driving us back beyond the walls will cleanse the city again."
"And what does the Queen say?"
"It does not matter. He merely claims that she is the root of that evil, that she has been possessed by it, and only when she is gone will the city be pure again."
The com link chimed, and Marai lifted it. "Yes?"
"We're close enough along to catch the next shuttle if you move real quick." Manda'lor replied.
"On our way." She bowed to the Beast Rider. "Truth is a heady wine, and I think it is time your planet drank deep, even if it drives them mad. Soon it will happen. All you need to do is wait a bit longer."
"We are good at waiting." The Beast rider replied. "Fair winds and open skies to you."
"May your beast take you to paradise." She replied.
Communication.
Marai
There was a checkpoint at the shuttle, and they were searching for weapons. If you had a star port visa, they left you alone, but the average citizen wasn't allowed anything more dangerous than an eating knife. I watched this, and my disquiet grew.
"What is the matter?" The Handmaiden asked me as the shuttle shot down the track toward the Merchant's quarter.
"What Vaklu is doing." I said. "A government can be the greatest strength of a people, but it can be their worst enemy as well. You have to give up so much of your freedom when you accept your leaders, and they can take more if you are not careful."
"The definition of reasonable anarchy, is that I can swing my fist as much as I like as long as I don't hit you with it." Manda'lor said. I chuckled. After a moment, the Handmaiden understood it, and joined in.
"Yes, but most people are not reasonable. A criminal in a just society is someone who feels his right to do what he wishes is more important than what others feel. But in a just society, everything must flow smoothly, or there is more disquiet than normal."
"More?"
"All right my sister. Beginning Government from the Jedi point of view. Every society, no matter how peaceful or benign it is has its rogues. Laws are supposed to be the expressed will of the people or at least the majority of them, but when you go from true democracy; every person having the right to vote and being heard, to a representative form, you immediately start to have problems. A man can represent a group say a few score with few problems, but what happens when you try to represent several thousand? Suddenly you are no longer speaking for all of them, you are merely speaking for the ones that shout the loudest, or are willing to give you gifts. Maybe less than a hundredth of the people you claim to speak for.
"Then you take a few dozen or few hundred of these, and they work together, creating factions and parties. They now create agendas to attract the voters, to bend the society not to the will of the people, but to the will of whatever their party wishes. But those agendas are not clear-cut, because you have too many you are trying to attract. There are basic things you will all agree with, but to drive the party along, you have to accept those you would not wish to be there, and they will espouse the party line even if they lie to do so."
"So now you have thousands that speak as their faction wants them to, but believes something else entirely." The Handmaiden said.
"Exactly. When it comes to the higher offices, your faction chooses people to represent them, and those people are again compromises. Not the best man, but the most acceptable. By the time you get to the upper level; Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, you have made so many compromises that you don't really know where the man stands. He is just the one that is the most homogeneous to the onlooker. It is like trying to run a government by making it a beauty contest."
"But the best-"
"The best usually don't reach that point." Manda'lor said. He looked at the Handmaiden. "Would you decide that every left handed man with red hair, without freckles, between a meter four and a meter eight must automatically be evil because it will gain you acceptance?"
"Of course not!" The Handmaiden answered, shocked.
"Yet on a fundamental level that is what you must do to even reach the upper echelons of a party, and it is them, not the voter, who chooses which of them is put forward for those seats. It is as if you have only the flavors of ice cream someone else has chosen, and they dun it into you from the start that to stand away from the party will give the other side the victory, and everyone knows how evil they are!" I pointed out.
"Are they evil?"
"Unless your definition means they must agree with you on everything no matter how stupid, then of course not."
"Even putting tight controls or no control does not help in the end." I told her. "Coriandis created a series of tests that you must take to show your knowledge of the subject when applying for government office from the lowest waste disposal foreman to the president. Every election is more competitive examinations. Yet they are a mess because the tests have changed only incrementally in four millennia. "
"They are taking tests four thousand years old? Who is supposed to be creating these tests?"
"Professors. But most professors of social sciences get to their positions in universities by espousing whatever their teacher taught them, no matter how bizarre or stupid it might be. When they wish to change a test, you have representatives meet-"
"Ah, I see." She said. "So that factor of speaking for the loud or the generous steps in again."
"Exactly." I nodded. "Mriabelo is worse."
Manda'lor laughed. "Yeah. Election by lottery. Every citizen above the age of consent pays into a fund, and buys a chance. Once every three years they have a lottery, and the winners become the president and cabinet, then they have another for junior ministers and House seats, then another on and on until all seats are filled. The fund is used to pay for the government."
"That sounds bizarre. How does anyone get anything done?"
"Who says they do?" I asked. "Less government, not more' is a national motto. But there is no rule that you can have only one chance at it. The rich can buy thousands of chances, and Corporations will buy more to give to those they deem worthy. Worse yet, the lotteries are done by computer and any computer can be sliced."
Manda'lor laughed. We looked at him until the laughter died down. "Remember the election fifteen years ago, right before the War officially began?"
I nodded smiling. "A man who detested the way elections were held inserted names of children, some of them as young as seven. Then he weighted the chances so that those children held several thousand markers each. The lottery came up, and the cabinet had two adults in the lower seats, and the president was an eleven year old boy."
She shook her head. "That must have changed the system."
"No. They just brought in programmers, and closed the system so it couldn't be sliced from the outside. The fact that the man that had originally done it had been head programmer was conveniently ignored."
The Handmaiden looked at me as if she expected I was teasing her. "What happened with the children? Surely the older people-"
I laughed. "Picture someone with the mind of a child who knows that his word is law! No one is worse when it comes to making decisions because they can do everything they want."
"So what is happening here and now?"
"As I said, a government can be the greatest strength or your mortal enemy. I am sure that if I looked back to before the Queen ascended the throne, a lot of the restrictions we see now were already there, but weren't enforced. All they needed to do was enforce them to the letter. They searched the common people for weapons, but those of us from other worlds were left alone. That suggests a comprehensive control of weapons among the citizens. But does a criminal turn in his weapons when the law he despises demands it? Of course not. The honest people do, but when they find they are now defenseless, some of them decide that they have the right to defend themselves, and so are labeled as criminal.
"Rising crime rates means the people cry out for more police, more laws, stricter laws. So the government gives them that. The people of that cantonment over there are all bad people, you know it because you have been taught that, so they pass laws that stop those people from coming to your neighborhoods, and that slows commerce, because not everyone there is truly evil. Some of the things you need desperately might be made or grown there or might have to pass through there so you have a lack or serious slow down of necessary services.
"Then there is the news. When the press is completely free, you have pictures of dead bodies in all their bloody glory shoved into your faces, so you already have restrictions on them so a press that is honest and not too flamboyant is what you settle for. But if you tweak it even more, you have the government deciding what they must tell you, and eventually telling the media what to say. People always say, 'I wish people would not do this' and when they are heard you get censorship but none of these people ever say 'I hate when I do this, and I wish they'd stop me'. It is always something another person does.
"But everyone has such things they do not like and when enough are heard, it is easier to deny than allow. So the news becomes pabulum fit for a child.
"This is about as bad is it can get without actually trying to make it worse. But then, if you are the one wanting that dissent, you see that you can make it worse. You create more restrictions on movement, you make it difficult if not impossible for them to go from place to place, and so if you cannot find work, you are unable to even move to where it is. And if moving off planet is your answer, they restrict it too. Make the checkpoints that were supposed to merely block criminal activity harsher. Now they search for things that the government does not want you to have regardless of laws.
Oh I am sure a lot of drugs and contraband are stopped, but what about ammunition for a weapon you were allowed to have? What about alcohol if you do not think it is right to drink? Or medicines that could be used as illegal drugs, but are vital to people's lives? You now have to find a way to slip it in, or take what you need, making crime even worse."
I looked at her, and could see that she was envisioning what I had described. "So Vaklu is doing this?"
"Not only Vaklu, though he might be the force behind it. There are enough good men in the government that might feel that some restrictions were necessary, and they helped him get what he wanted.
"Then, just as the people would throw you off, you give them a reason for all of this. An excuse that makes your government right, but someone else, whether they are the Beast Riders or Uitlanders wrong. It isn't you government doing this. It is those brave men of you government who are trying to stop the evil ones from doing what they would wish in violation of the law.
"The member planets of the Republic have become the enemy using this meter. Fully a third of Iziz's goods come from off planet, but those evil monsters out there charge more than they deserve. You are not stopping your people from having it; the rapacious monsters out there are the cause for that. If only they would deal honestly, there would not be a problem
"The Beast Riders are animals, they are filth, they are the kind of people that no self respecting family would allow into their families, and the fact that the Queen dares to stand by them shows how low the family has sunk. She was seduced by their ways, and if she had her way she would raze the walls and the city, and force everyone to travel with the seasons.
"If the Jedi were still common, they would be using us as another evil pawn. We would be the ones coming in to force order. Not the order of Onderon, but the order of the Republic. Agents of those distant evil oppressors.
"Worse yet, there are enough governments and corporations out there who will help b ecause it makes money for them. So if Vaklu gets his way, hundreds of them will cheer him on, and try to convince their people that this is the wave of the future, and that will cause the Republic to be weakened even more.
"The people here look for a hero now. They look at General Vaklu in this light. A man that fought the Mandalorians to a standstill. A man of pure blood that cries for the people to return to the values of the last century, and cast aside the Republic.
"A shining hero can do what a common man cannot. He can rip out half a century of history and return it to what it was." I stood there looking at the troubled city. "If he wins they will get it, and may the Gods help them all when it happens."
