"If I am so weak, then why do you need me?!" Gallagher snarls, feeling himself breaking under the mental assault that Sienar is putting him through. "I can't save anyone! If you are right, then I can only kill and destroy! I could not save my own sister! What makes me think I could save you?!"
He points his lightsaber at Sienar, the weapon casting sinister shadows in its blue light.
(Are the others able to sense me at all?)
(It clouds everything. Damn you, Sienar.)
Gallagher keeps his lightsaber pointed at Sienar's throat. He resists the temptation to drive it through Sienar's decaying body, knowing that he would just be doing the Dark Sider a favor and would be dooming himself to walk the same path. He says nothing, though the struggle is obvious in his twitching arms and contorting face.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." he exclaims. He raises his hand to his eyes, examining the burning. He flxes it. The noise he makes is horrible, almost a guttural snarl.
You feel such power frtom him, Gallagher... almost new power. Yes... the pain is making hijm STRONGER! And his whole body, in such pain... giving him strength... the worse it gets, the stronger he becomes!
You may well be right about the madness thing...
"Not yet," he says. "You must understand fully before you choose, else you may well idneed become the pointless creatyre of darkness, driven wild by emotion, that you fear becoming. Thibk on it, Gallagher."
And so he hobbles away...
Gallagher stands dumbfounded, horrified at what he just witnessed, the madness with which a person would try to grab the physical blade of a lightsaber without any means of not losing their hand. Breathing heavily, Gallagher finally remembers himself and deactivates his lightsaber, replacing it at his belt.
"I almost fear to keep it with me," he thinks aloud, brushing his hand over the circular upper-hand grip. "I could have killed him, here... now... but it would have been the end of everything."
He tries to bring his breathing under control, then seats himself on the floor of the alcove, able to watch the banquet from above.
Originally posted by Ushgarak
She is less keen to avoid conflict."Of course you have the power. There's nothing they could do to stop you if you made them re-distribute. You'd save more lives in one move than possibly the Order has done in its entire history."
"Power is a very dangerous word, Miss. If the Jedi were to... compell the food merchants, the growers, the shipping the distributers and whoever else is involved- no matter if the intentions are good- what would the cost be? We would still be hurting one group to save another, AND although it may sound shallow now, the Jedi would lose more of their power in the process. As you say, we do work for the Senate and the paople through them. If we betray their trust, then what? We would slide down that slippery slope until our only choice would be to use our real power (he lifts his glass to him with a gesture to illustrate) to get what we want. (He drinks) We would have to take over. Would you want the Jedi ruling the Galaxy? We wouldn't. No one would. Only a Dark Jedi would take power that way, and the Galaxy would never be the same again."
"I'm not a child," she says. "I know the implications of what I said. I think you'rte wrong though- I think people would welcome it, if you achieved. Anyway, none of this is the point. In the end, the Order is going to be just like the Senate- you are going to sit by and let all of this happen. Only people like me are trying to stop it, so forgive me if I don't find your moral position very tenable."
"Fair enough. Parhaps you are right. The Jedi should save these people, thereby condemning others. Then we could be reviled by an entirely new set of citezens, Senators, and lobbyists." It was a sarcastic jab, so Ando softens his tone next, "Look, it's a complicated issue who's solution will affect billions on both sides. I just don't beleive taking is the best solution. But beleive me, I understand why most people would. I can't explain why, but yesterday I might have as well."
"You would condemn no-ome at all, that is gross exaggeration. For stepping in and saving those people, you would be more celebreated than revilked. And the sheer scale of the amount of people you would save dwarfs all else, especially the relatively tiny amount of people you would inconvenience. I'm just saying- when it comes to the true problems of the Galaxy, the Order does nothing."
"Poverty, famine, greed, corruption, the Hutts... the list goes on. You worry about being revilled? Have you ever met anyone from one of these affected planets? I could introduce you- you'll see the revulsion is already there. The weakest are exactly who you are meant to protect, and you've abandoned them. What are you even here for?"
Originally posted by Ushgarak
One thing at a time.Well, the voucher system is the current Republican solution to the issues Joylo has outlined.
The theory is extremely simple. Rather than all the complication of trying to re-distribute wealth, the Senate gives out to poverty stricken wordls these interstellar foud vouchers. These worlds can then use these vouchers to buy food, and the food companies can in turn redeem the voichers once received for a cash payment from the Senate.
Totally missed this in the excitement of Sienar's display of crazy.
And that doesn't seem terribly complicated. It sounds like it should actually work quite well. However, how is it working out in reality?
"Oh, where to start?
"First of all there is the hassle of working out precisely what the entitlement to each star system is. Ask them to make their own requests and you can expect fraud, try to make an objective standard and you receive accusations of unfairness. Population counts are unreliable, their actual meaning differs by species and in any case they have to be made relevant to the actual agricultural output of the planet AND their wealth. So in the end there is this complex calculation working out the 'food gap' of a planet, which is the difference between the food it needs and the combination two other things, being the food it produces and and the food it can be reasonably expected to buy. The vouchers should be exactly what is needed to close this 'food gap'.
"We need to use the phrase 'reasonably expected' because when the system started and we just used the phrase 'what they were buying', all that happened is that these planets immediately stopped buying any food at all, knowing that we were then obligated to make up the shortfall in vouchers, whilst they then spent the money saved on luxuries- and, in at least one instance, weapons for use in a civil war. So now we need another calculation to work out how much money these planets produce and how much we think should be 'reasonably' spent on food and... well, as you can see the whole thing is becoming rather complicated and many are complaining that we have mis-set this or that number in the equation and we end up with some planets getting more food than they need and some not getting enough. Oh, and don't get me started on the planets who deliberately shut down their own agricultural production in order to build industry, knowing that, again, we would then be obligated to supply the foud vouchers for them to buy it in...
"That's the first problem."
"I can see why that would complicate things dramatically," Jelena says. "You are only trying to feed these worlds, not jump-start their industry or improve their militaries. Though, again, I could see why they would want to use Senatorial money to improve their situation beyond being able to feed their people.
"What are the other problems?"