USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE IV (JEDI)- Purity

(I actually thought of that but didn't think to ask about it.)

"I do have some queries about what happened after our tragedy on Thespia," Gallagher says. "Sienar told me that the only reason the Jedi Order continued to train me was because I have a gift for sight... for seeing a particular danger. Was this true? Did the Council keep me around to predict the coming of the Woman with White Hair?"

Korth ponders this.

"No-one knew what might come from you, Gallagher. The Council simply knew you had a possible destiny. So the decision before them was whether to risk you by training you and providing the opportuntiy for that destiny to be realised, or taking things safely and ending your training, due to your family attachments and the great stress ad emotional pressure you had been uner.

"The Council chose the latter. Whatever destiny you might achieve, they did not feel it was fair upon you to effectively compel you to take that risk, quite aside from the possible harm you might cause if it went wrong. They had many decisions to make at that time. They were already covering up everything that happened at Thespia."

Gallagher frowns.

"But I was trained," Gallagher says. "I am a Jedi Knight after all. That does not happen without completing the Trials, and you cannot complete the Trials without training..."

"Aren't you curious as to why they covered it all up?" saks Korth.

Gallagher admits that he had not thought of why it was covered up, aside from his own theories. But these theories have no precedence over the facts that Korth has readily available.

"Why did they do it?"

"Well, the simple verison is that they did a deal with your father."

"What deal was that?" Gallagher asks. "And then give me the complicated version..."

"On the surface of it, your father made a deal with the Jedi. He would name all of the criminal associates of his brother, who had been a graeater influence on your sistser than your father ever was. He made this plea in return for immunity for himself and for all information regarding the incident being kept quiet.

"That was how the Jedi 'sold' the deal to the Senate, anyway. But in fact they had sensed a much greater opportunity."

"What was the greater opportunity that they had sensed?"

"Thespia is a troubled world, Gallagher. Over the millennia its facade of elegant civilisation has given away to criminal conenctions. It was our investigation that exposed the Family Protectors to be no more than a supply of muscle for criminal enforcement. Thespia was an important link in the criminal chain, wealthy and well-connected. To be a part of that criminal movement has long been the only way to succeed there. All of the families and their protectors have been complicit; it reaches down to every citizen.

"What happened with us in Thespia was just oen symtpomn of Sienar's struggfe to cotnrol that criminal empire. But once he flushed out and killed the Hutt assasisns sent after him, he didn't really need Thespia any more. He left it to its own devices, and there destiny has intervened. Your father was the man now in a position to act on that world, and after your near-death experience, following hard on the death of his daughter, he started to change. The Keppers also, seeing the sacrifice of Zolos; killed for his cause. They wanted change also, but it would take one of the senior family members to do it.

"Galahad's conscience, the Council foresaw, could be the spark that will transform Thespia from a world of sin to a world... well, a world trying to do its best, like most others, which is as much as you can ask of any world.

"The Jedi could have released the truth, and there might have been some satisfcation in that... but little to gain, Sienar had been very neat, after all. Just about everyone who could be charged with a crime was dead- and Sienar himself was a phantom. Only you ever saw him, and no-one was sure what to make of that.

"But by making the deal with your father, they would put him on a course that might redeem an entire planet, and prevent countless crimes in the future."

Gallagher nods in understanding.

"And so good did come from all that happened that day," Gallagher says. "I never thought of that, but admittedly, I didn't remember much."

"It is not an opportunity that comes along often," says Korth. "And so you have learned, Gallagher, that sometimes it is simply harmful for the truth to be known. Sometimes a Jedi must consider a wider picture.

"For your father, the decisionw as not without cost. And for betraying his criminal contacts, he has put himself in danger. I understand he has had to learn how to take care of himself. The family Protecotrs may have a use yet, too."

"I am sure they will," Gallagher says. "Zaland helped muchly during our investigation on Spiridos, after all. I admire my father's willingness for positive change to come to Thespia and the secrets that came with it, and can perhaps draw from that. The truth cannot be known about what happened here on Mandragos, either. It would ruin too much.

"Was my continued training part of that bargain?"

"No," says Korth. "The last person who could sway the Council on the training of a Jedi is that person's parent. That goes against every principle of training a Jedi."

"Then what did sway the Council's decision?" Gallagher says.

"That would be me."

"What did you do?" Gallagher asks, looking upon Master Korth with greater appreciation.

"Simple. I begged them to continue your training."

"Why, when you knew what I had done to my own sister?" Gallagher asks. He knows himself that it was self-defense, but at the time there must have been much debate over the entire situation.

"Well, who was to know what you had done to your sister? Training you could be dangerous, that was all we knew. But as your Master, the Council cponsidered my opinion. And all I knew was... my instincts told me that you deserved your chance.

"Theior price was that I had to stay away from you. To keep you stable, they wanted nothing to remind you of your past. It seems the Force had other dieas for that though. It led you to your past before the Council raised the issue with you."