Karvis
Player Journals => Keli's Scratchpad => Topic started by: Keshani on May 10, 2016, 08:46:29 PM
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It was the control center of the ship - the brain, the nucleus. Only people who had a job to do should really be there.
But she couldn't resist. She was curious about the senators and what they represented. She was curious about the level of technology that this ship, with a workshop included that had more tool gadgets than she had seen in her life, would have at its center. And she was curious about the people who knew how to fly this massive beauty.
She meant to just peek in; a whim as she had been walking the corridors of the ship.
But her feet had carried her farther than her brain had intended and she found herself standing fully on the Bridge of the ship before she even realized where she was.
Swallowing she looked around to see if anyone noticed the intrusion....
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Garm Bel-Iblis had dark hair, greying at the temples. He is wearing a ratty set of fine clothes - a result of his recent incarceration.
When the bridge door opens, he glances back.
"Ah. Come on in. Don't be shy. I'm just working on the course from Alderaan to Chandrilla."
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"You mean I'm allowed...?" Her voice trailed off as she realized she probably looked like an idiot standing there.
Forcing herself to take a few more steps onto the Bridge she looked around. It didn't take long for her intense curiosity to be reflected in her eyes.
"You were a pilot before you were a senator? "
There's question sounded lame even to her own ears - obviously he was a pilot since he was flying the ship...
But she DID feel suddenly very shy and suddenly that had been the best she could come up with.
She tried her best to intentionally slow her step, trying to make it seem like standing on the bridge of a ship was not a new thing for her....
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"I built ships long before I was a senator. I spent decades getting my hands dirty before some fool decided to nominate me to the Senate."
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".....Built....?!"
She couldn't help it. Her eyes went wide with wonder and she found her feet carrying her closer to where the man was seated.
"Drek, that must have been sweet..."
Her face flushed a bit as she realized what she had said. She had a feeling cursing in front of senators would be frowned upon...
"Uh.....sorry....uh....sir...." she stumbled over the words as they tried to come out of her mouth. She couldn't remember the last time she had used the word "sir"....
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He chuckles and waves a hand absently. "I've never been much concerned with titles and ceremony. Call me Garm - or Mister Bel-Iblis if you must. What's your name, lass?"
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"Keshani." She answered, taking another few steps closers to him.
"How did you learn how to build a ship?", she asked, her tone still holding more than a little awe in it
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He shrugs. "Just kinda did it. I built my first airspeeder when I was 10. By the time I was 15, I had a business making orbital shuttles, and had sold some freighter designs to Corellian Engineering."
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"That's totally awesome. " She frowned. "I wish I were smart enough to be able to do something like that....."
Truth be told she wasn't even really aware she said that last pay out loud...
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He shrugs. "Maybe you are. I had opportunity, and parents with money and an appreciation for my talent. I had skill and determination, certainly, but my situation provided fertile ground for a budding engineer. It's a privilege I am keenly aware of that is not afforded to many, especially these days. I've found many beings in my life who could have done what I did, but lacked the resources, means or encouragement to grow into their talent."
He turns to glance at you. "It's why I became a senator, Keshani. The galaxy is a better place when the best and the brightest are allowed to flourish, not held back by circumstances beyond their control."
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"Um....yeah..." she mumbled, suddenly feeling rather awkward.
"So, um, what, you just get to hang out up here and fly the ship the whole trip?"
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He smiles. "Nah, most of the trip is autopilot. I only need to be here for navigation checks and transitions. But I'm carrying on after Alderaan, and I thought I'd get some of that work out of the way early. Mon Mothma is anxious to get to Chandrilla."
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"What's going on at Chandrilla?" she asked.
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"Well, that's Mon Mothma's home, and where her army is located. She needs to get back there, so I'm dropping her off on my way to Corellia."
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"Do you really think what you're doing can make a difference?" She blurted out, her mouth working faster than her mind could process.
"I mean...fighting against the Empire?"
She shrugged. "I absolutely hate what they..." she stopped.
"I mean, we'll, I hate them and what they do. But what can be done really?"
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He nods. "Yeah. I do. The Emperor rules through fear, Keshani. And as big and powerful as the Imperial Navy is, they cannot be everywhere. The galaxy is too big. All we need to do is show the galaxy that you can fight the Empire, that they are not everywhere. We need a big win, and more systems will openly revolt. That's how we win this thing, and how we beat them. So yes, it can be done."
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She thought about that, but still, the idea of having a force big enough to even accomplish a "big win" was unfathomable to her.
"I....don't know how much I'm allowed to ask..." she said, scuffing the toe of her shoe against the deck in front of her idly.
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He smiled. "Well I'm not going to be sharing any big secrets - safer for you that way. If you're not interested in signing on with our Rebellion, then the less you know the safer it would be for you. But you can ask questions. I'll decide if I want to give the answers.
"But yeah, I think a big targets. There's lots of targets out there, and many of them are only lightly defended. Like I said, the galaxy is too big for the Empire to be everywhere."
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She thought about that for a minute.
"But the kind of places that are 'lightly defended'....aren't they like places people live and stuff? Not military places?"
She frowned.
"And it's not that I don't want to join the Rebellion. It's......more complicated than that."
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He shrugs. "It's a big deal, joining. You don't have to justify not joining it to me. And yes, we're talking about military targets. Shipyards, supply depots, communication arrays, military staging areas, barracks. We're trying to free the beings of the galaxy, not kill them." He sighs. "Yeah, some are going to be caught in the crossfire. We can't predict where a ship will crash, or what the Empire might do in response to a local uprising. But I can promise you this, Keshani - we're going to do everything we can to keep innocent people safe.
"We've got plans for benevolence missions - supplies, food, medicine - to the worlds suffering the most under the Empire. We're going to do what we can to keep people safe, while hitting the Empire where it hurts."
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"Are you sure the people who need those things will get them instead of the Empire just taking it instead?"
She fidgeted again. "I just wish I could help without.....I don't know. Swearing unconditional allegiance to something or someone sounds an awful lot like prison..."
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He shrugs. "You can help in other ways. But for your own safety, we're only sharing the big important things with those are are dedicated to the cause. If oaths and orders sounds like prison to you, then so be it. No hard feelings, and you can help where you want. But there are things you won't be able to do." He shifts in his chair to look at you.
"Keshani, the oath we asked for was not about prisons or rules and orders. It was about recognizing that sometimes, there are things in this galaxy more important that ourselves. That dying trying to fix them is a worthy death. That fighting for what is right is worth it, even if we die. Sometimes, our free will and desires can take a back seat to really important things. And we feel defeating the Emperor and restoring freedom to the galaxy is one of those things."
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"I have no problem dying", she retorted back, again without thinking. Her tone was half...defensive...and half, something else. Something like a mix of seriousness, and maybe even a small speck of something close to hopefullness?
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He chuckles. "While we all risk it, it's not about dying, Keshani. It's about allowing other people to live. It's planting a shade tree you will never get to enjoy. It's about giving people a chance. It's about stopping others from having to go through what we have gone through."
He stops himself. "And here I go, sounding like Bail. You have your reasons, Keshani, and I do not fault them for you. But I ask you not to mischaracterize what we are doing, and what this movement is about."
He stops again and looks at you.
"I don't know much about you, Keshani, but I know a week ago you wore a slave collar. Tell me: if you had the means, and you met a young girl trapped in the life of a slave, would you help her?"
He holds up a hand. "I'm not looking for an answer from you. I just wanted you to think about it. Maybe you would help, maybe you wouldn't. That's your choice. But for my part, I would help. And that's what we're trying to do here. Only instead of freeing a single slave, we want to free whole planets. Instead of stopping one cruel overseer, we want to stop a cruel tyrant."
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She opened her mouth to say that absolutely without a second thought she would rescue the slave. Because she knew what it was like.
But she stopped even before the Senator stopped her.
Because something else floated into her mind unbidden - Collan.
Collan had also been a slave. And because of that he had assumed that he knew how she felt, as well. But he didn't. No one could know what another person was going through really, could they?
"Um. This may sound silly, sir...I mean, uh..Garm, but who defines who the 'slave' is? Who defines the 'cruelness' of a tyrant and who's to say that what will come in its place is any better?"
She frowned.
"People seem like they're always telling others how to live...who's to say they want that help?"
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He smiles and shakes his head. "That's the whole point, Keshani. Right now, the Emperor is telling everyone how to live. We want people to be able to make their own choices. To have the freedom to organize themselves -or not - as they wish. To be free from slavery, taxation without a voice in how those taxes are spent. I want the people of Alderaan to be pacifists if they wish to be. For Corellia to be a haven for small traders, if they choose to be. For people like you to live without fear of slavery ever again. You didn't choose the life of a slave. We want it so that no one has that forced on them ever again." He sighs.
"Defining a slave is pretty easy. It's someone who is considered the property of someone else, and who is forced to work for someone else without pay against their will. Someone who can be killed with no more repercussions than breaking a glass. That's what a slave is. And that is what we, all of us, are to the Emperor.
"I don't know what the galaxy will look like after the Emperor is gone, Keshani. But I'll tell you this - I want to see it. I want people to decide how they want their little piece of it to look. I don't want a galaxy forced to conform to one will. I was a glorious mosaic of difference."
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"And you really think that getting rid of one person, no matter how powerful, will change that?"
She shrugged. Part of her wanted to sit down somewhere, the other part was hesitant because she was afraid that at some point the Senator would get either bored or angry at her and tell her to go away, which was much more awkward if she was sitting down....
"I'm from Bakura. As far as I know we weren't really influenced directly by the Empire. But corruption was there anyway. People got things because of who the knew or the money they had. When I got sent.....*there*, it wasn't any Emperor who was making the Stormies do what they did. That was pure cruelness on the part of a whole bunch of people. Or maybe it wasn't all cruelness. Maybe it was fear, as well, that if they didn't do it THEY would become the slaves..." she shrugged, pushing that thought away because she didn't like the road it would lead her down - that not all of the people in the slave camp were truly evil...
"But either way...I didn't see any Emperor having a direct hand in that...."
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He shakes his head. "And who allowed the organizations on Bakura that allowed corruption to grow? Who permitted that sort of thing to flourish? Our focus is the Emperor, but it's also about the apparatus of government he created. Governors have no checks on their power. The empire has sterilized entire worlds for refusing to be enslaved. The Emperor, his governors, and the entire Imperial government exists to enslave the galaxy.
"I'm sorry you cannot see that. Perhaps in time you will."
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She felt chastised. Like she was a kid and understanding was beyond her. She felt ashamed but also a bit angry at feeling brushed aside.
"I guess that's beyond a street urchins capacity to understand " she retorted, sarcasm quite evident in her voice. She turned to leave but hesitated. What he said DID make sense. She just didn't like his insinuation that she couldn't understand it.
"I hope you're right, " she said softly
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He shakes his head. "We seem to view the galaxy differently, Keshani. I'm not going to argue with you about that. You are entitled to your opinions, and I reserve the right to maintain mine. I have tried to show you why we're fighting, but we do not see things the same way. I find this disappointing, but you are entitled to believe as you wish. I meant no insult, though you have obviously taken it that way. For any offence I may have caused, you have my apology."
He returns to his calculations.
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She hesitated again and turned back to the Senator.
"Im...sorry." she said, still softly. "I want to understand. Can I" she shrugged and scoffed her foot against the deck again.
"Can I stay? And learn?"
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He looks up from his plots, and eyebrow raised. "If you want to. I'm not much of a teacher or diplomat though. Bail Organa might have more patience than I do."
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"But Mr. Organa isn't a techie, is he?"
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He laughs. "Oh, no, not at all. He's a business man, a diplomat, and a politician. And far wiser and patient than I. You want to learn about what we're trying to do, you should talk to him."
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She nodded. "I will. But...I haven't really much had the chance to be around people with tech skills either. I guess I was kinda wondering if I could learn anything from you. I uh...haven't really had many chances to be in ships..."
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"Tech stuff? Sure. I grew up in, on and around ships. I picked up more than a few things."
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"Can you show me how to fly the ship?" she asked, a bit of excitement creeping into her voice
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"Well, not at the moment. We're in hyperspace. But tell you what, when we revert for a navigation check, I'll show you how it works then. OK?"
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She nodded. "Okay."
She chewed her lip for a second. "I was also kinda thinking that learning more about communications type stuff could be useful. Ya know, picking up the common signals of others, being able to jam them, maybe being able to break through someone else jamming you....do you know any where I could look for info on that? I figure I have 7 days...might as well take advantage of it..."
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He smiles. "I can help you there too, Keshani. It's a... hobby of mine."
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"Yeah?" And smile appeared on her face. "I mean, will you have time? You must have more important things you need to do..."
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He smiles, and leans back as he puts his hands behind his head. "Not much to do for the next week, aside from the occasional nav check."
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"Okay." Her smile grew brighter. "Un. When do you want to start?"
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[Getting pretty tired. He spends some time going over the basics and whatnot. You can spend CP's on pips in Communications if you wish. Same for Capitol Ship Piloting.]