Maris shrugs, and slips off the crate to sit cross-legged on the deck.
"Kesh, I don't see anyone here abandoning anyone. I do see people parting ways, but that's because they are moving towards something, and their paths are just diverging for a time. Saying good-bye is not always about abandonment."
Her eyes search Keshani's. "Look, I don't know what's going on in your head - and I'm not going to wiggle my fingers and poke without an invitation - but I can guess. You tell me if I'm wrong."
She slips over to sit beside you, leaning back against the bulkhead. "For the first time in your life, you don't have to think about mere survival. You can think about what you want to do. In many ways, survival is easier. Living in the street, you find food, it goes in your mouth, no questions asked. This?" She holds up her hands, indicating the surroundings. "This is so much freedom it can be terrifying. You've never had to pick from a bunch of options before, and maybe you don't know how.
"There are several people out there right now who would be willing to take you in, look after you, give you a home, and a living. Any one of them would be pleased to do it - want to do it. But maybe, for some reason, you don't like the idea of soft warm beds, servants waiting on you, rich clothes and fine food. Then, you can take my offer and make a living on the skill of your own two hands, far away from the Empire, and keep your independence and self-reliance.
"But you are choosing to focus on the guy planning an overly elaborate suicide by waging a one-man-war against a gangster, his personal army, and a cadre of bounty hunters. But he cares enough about you that he doesn't want to put you in the middle of all that. he didn't say 'no,' Kesh. He said, 'Yes, but not where the blaster bolts start flying.' But you don't choose see the caring part. You paint it that he is abandoning you."
She shrugs. "I don't buy it. I don't think you're upset about Trax - not like you think you are. I think you're scared to make a choice, and your using Trax to hide that. Maybe even to hide it from yourself."
She sighs, and considers you a moment. "I am sorry if this upsets you. Maybe I'm totally wrong. Maybe I'm full of drek. But at the end of the day, Kesh, you need to see that, at the core, the choice boils down to this: Continue to be a victim, or embrace a better future. On your own. With one of the senators. With the rebellion. Hell, even with Trax. You can do whatever you want at this point, Kesh. You just gotta let yourself do it."
