Private To Create The Force

[Hatred]

Traveling the galaxy was an interesting bit of progress for the Elder. While he had no ship of his own, there seemed to be plenty willing to assist his moves across the stars. Willingly so was a different question to ask, but he didn't think much of it. Even now as he descended another vessel he paid no mind to those left within and the state they would likely remain for some time. Unable to disobey, unable to break free.

They would in time, but that hate he had fed would remain with them forever more. The Thought Dowser he carried certainly had quite the effect.

His gaze drifted about the landing zone as he walked, the smile on his face ever present. Ever calm. Purpose had brought him here. There were more minds within the Galaxy he wanted, needed, to bring to his side. One such mind was here, if his contacts were to be believed. Out into the town he went, gazing to the various shops as he walked as a beggar, yet with his head held high. A simple robe, no shoes, yet the presence of a noble. It was an interesting contradiction.

"Where might you be, I wonder."

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I stepped out of the small shop with a paper-wrapped parcel tucked beneath one arm and my datapad in the other hand. It wasn't anything particularly interesting. A few replacement components, some basic supplies, and one item I'd bought almost entirely because my little biomass companion had decided it was absolutely necessary. He was currently hidden beneath my jacket, apparently content to let me carry both him and my purchases.

My attention was on the datapad as I glanced through the same message history I'd already checked several times that day. There was nothing yet from Pax. I sighed quietly. "I know," I murmured beneath my breath. "Patience."

A faint chirp answered from beneath my collar.

"Yes. I do realize that that's rather hypocritical coming from me." I closed the datapad and slipped it into my satchel just as I rounded the corner of the shop's entrance.

And nearly walked directly into someone. I stopped abruptly. The man standing before me was unusual. Not because there was anything overtly threatening about him. If anything, his appearance seemed almost contradictory. Simple robes. No shoes. The sort of clothing that might have suggested poverty, were it not for something about the way that he carried himself. There was a confidence there that didn't seem to belong to someone who had spent much time worrying about what other people thought of him.

I instinctively shifted half a step to the side. "Sorry." My eyes lingered on him for only a moment before I stepped farther out of his way, giving him plenty of room to continue along the street.

There was no reason to stare. No reason to assume that someone dressed strangely was dangerous. And, more importantly, no reason to make myself memorable. I'd spent enough time recently reminding myself of that.

My fingers briefly touched the edge of my satchel, reassuring myself that everything was still where it belonged. The datapad. My notes. The small collection of things I had acquired while waiting for Pax to determine whether getting me back to New Cov was actually possible.

I glanced after the stranger for only a second. Something about him was difficult to place. Not familiar, exactly. Just different. I dismissed the thought for New Cov occupied far too much of my mind already. Until Pax contacted me, there was very little I could do except wait, prepare, and avoid attracting the sort of attention that might make the journey home considerably more complicated.

So I turned away from the stranger and continued down the street. My little companion shifted beneath my jacket. "Don't start," I whispered.

A soft chirp.

"I mean it."

Another chirp.

It looked like it was going to be another one of those days.

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

The old man remained still. His bemused smile remained as he watched her step to the side. Watched her step away and apologize. He said nothing at first, only because he was ensuring that she was the one he had been looking for. The irony that he would find her like this. Perhaps this was that sense of fate Tegan Starfall had spoken to him of.

"Lady Terallo. I had been hoping to speak with you, so I will ask you give me a moment of your time."

He kept his tone respectful as he watched her. Waited to see how she would react. He didn't want to make her feel cornered after all.

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I stopped for perhaps a second longer than was entirely natural. I simply stood there with one hand resting against the strap of my satchel. My first instinct was to wonder whether I'd heard him correctly. Lady Terallo. My expression changed only slightly, but the surprise was there. I hadn't introduced myself. I hadn't given him my name. And yet he somehow knew exactly who I was.

I turned back towards him, studying him more carefully this time. The same strange contradiction remained. The simple robes. The bare feet. The unmistakable confidence in the way he carried himself.

My little companion shifted beneath my jacket. I gently rested one hand against him through the fabric. "It's all right," I murmured quietly, though I wasn't entirely certain whether I was reassuring him or myself.

My attention then returned to the stranger. I glanced briefly up and down the street before looking back at him. There was no obvious reason to be alarmed. He had asked rather than demanded, and for whatever reason, he seemed determined not to make me feel trapped. That, at least, I appreciated.

I shifted the parcel beneath my arm and gave him my full attention. "You may have it. Who are you? I don't believe that we've met before."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"I am- Ah. I don't actually have a name. A tenant of faith. I suppose I can be called Elder, to avoid too much confusion." The name he could go by wasn't the most welcome he imagined to others. "We have not met, however I am familiar with your work. I have many, many people who would seek to benefit from what you've already accomplished, if not help accomplish more."

There was no reason to beat around the bush for the old man. He kept a smile as he watched her, then glanced to where the companion was currently stashed away.

"Do they have a name?"

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I considered the name for a moment before giving a small nod. "Elder, then." It was a little unusual, but I had encountered stranger names during my travels before. If that was what he preferred to be called, then I had little reason to question it.

His comment about my work, however, was considerably more interesting. My eyebrows rose slightly. "I've worked in quite a few fields over the years." I tilted my head. "So you'll have to be a little more specific than that."

My hand remained lightly against my jacket as my companion shifted beneath it. At his question, I glanced down. "No. It doesn't have a name." A faint smile touched my lips. "It's simply my companion." I gave the fabric beneath my hand a gentle pat. "And my friend."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"You have, that is true. But I only care for the most important side of it. The Force. Creating Force sensitives. I know not whether you succeeded, but my interest lies in that creation." No beating around the bush, no mistruths. He kept the same smile as he glanced to the companion, nodding in understanding. Sometimes things didn't need a name.

"Would you and your friend care for a drink?"

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I studied him for a moment, and whatever curiosity I had felt before was tempered by a quiet unease. Of all of the subjects that he could have chosen, he had gone directly to the one that I was the least willing to discuss. "The consequences of that particular line of research are considerably more complicated than you might realize." My expression remained polite, but there was a firmness beneath it now. "I've made certain promises regarding that work, and I intend to keep them." I gave a small shake of my head. "So I'm afraid I can't help you with that." The consequences of that research were quite destructive.

My companion shifted beneath my jacket, and I glanced down briefly before looking back toward Elder. "As for the drink..." I hesitated. There was still something about him that I couldn't quite place. "I suppose that I can spare a little more of my time. Provided that you don't intend to ask me to break any more promises."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"There is nothing more important than keeping a promise. I've my own to keep, which is why I've sought you out. Perhaps there is something that can be done to keep both of our promises, but I certainly won't have you break yours." Everything was about promises for the Elder. For Hatred. If they didn't keep their promises, then everything would unravel. He turned his gaze elsewhere, glancing amongst the buildings.

"Where is a good place for tea?"

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I considered his question for a moment before glancing down the street. "There's a small cafe not far from here." I gestured in the direction of it. "They have a few tables outside. It's usually quiet."

I started walking in that direction, assuming that he would follow if he wished. "Although I should warn you," I added after a moment, "I'm still somewhat concerned by your interest in my research. I've had people interested in that work before. And not all of them were particularly respectful of my decisions regarding it." A faint crease appeared between my brows. "There are reasons certain promises were necessary in the first place."

I glanced towards him while we walked. "But if you believe there is a way for us to keep both of ours without compromising either, I'm willing to hear you out." After a moment, I added with a small smile, "Tea first, however. It seems like a reasonable place to begin."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"That is all I will ask, at least for now." Depending on just what promises she made, at least. The Elder wasn't going to completely abandon the desire he had for that research. Into the tea shop they went, with him leading them to a table. He'd go so far as to pull out the chair for her, simple manners really. He'd step way to get them both a cup of tea before finally taking his own seat to gently sip at it.

"So. What is the nature of your promise?"

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I settled into the chair he offered, though I couldn't help noticing how strange the whole situation felt. I was accustomed to eating with only my little companion for company. Having someone else sitting across from me, particularly someone who had sought me out specifically because of my research, made even something as ordinary as drinking tea feel rather unfamiliar.

I wrapped both hands around the cup for a moment before answering. "Two promises, really." My gaze lowered toward the tea. "The first is simple. I promised that I would never sell the research. Not the formula, not the methodology, and not anything that would allow someone else to reproduce it for profit." I looked back toward him. "That promise isn't negotiable."

"The second is more complicated. I promised myself that I would keep the true purpose of the Catalyst Protocol to myself." There was a faint crease between my brows. "It was never really about creating an army of Force sensitives, despite what people might assume. It was about equality. People like me have spent generations being treated as secondary citizens by those who possess something that we don't. Sometimes we're useful. Most of the time we're expendable. And when the Galaxy needs soldiers, scientists, test subjects, or cannon fodder..." I gave a quiet, humorless smile. "...People without the Force are very easy to volunteer."

I took a small sip of tea. "But giving everyone the ability to wield the Force creates it's own problems. It could correct one inequality while creating another." Not to mention there were many anomolies created when the synthetic Force was used...

My eyes settled on him again. "That's why I keep the purpose to myself. Not because I'm ashamed of it. Because I'm not entirely certain that the Galaxy is ready for what happens if someone decides that equality is worth pursuing without considering the consequences."

I gave him a small shrug. "So those are my promises. I won't sell it. And I won't reveal what I truly intended to accomplish with it."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"Those are good promises. The kind I've no reason to break." He sipped his tea before setting the cup down gently on the table. The smile hadn't changed, hadn't shifted. He kept the same expression to an eerie degree, like a mask that had no ability to change even as he spoke. "I will speak plainly on my own promise. Freedom. Equality as you put it, in fact. The world I am from had no presence of Force Users asides from our King, and he used that to rule with an iron fist. Fear kept us all in line, and when we sought a peaceful resolution to the oppression, to simply stop mining to convince him to share the profits more equally with his subjects, he turned that on us."

He traced a finger around the rim of the cup.

"We had nothing to fight back against him with. He turned his army on us, killed us, forced us back into the mines. We lost, terribly. We sought help from the Jedi, but they arrived far too late. Why do the most numerous people of the Galaxy have to wait and pray for the few to make it to them?" He pulled on the Force just a bit. Enough to move the cup.

"I found one path, using the Netherworld as a path. There are beings there willing to make trades for some power over the Force, but what does that leave us with? Unknown masters in a realm of death? No, I want to find other paths for my people to walk. For all to be able to walk. I've no intention of making this a market personally. I'd rather see all with the Force than only the few."

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I watched the cup move across the table without his hand touching it. I tried not to let my unease show, though I found myself holding my own cup a little more tightly. "I understand why you would want that." My voice softened. "More than you probably realize."

I listened to the story of his people in silence for a moment before continuing. "I've spent a considerable portion of my life wanting the same thing. Not just for myself, but for my own people. New Cov has lived under the assumption that freedom could be taken away from us simply because someone else decided that they were stronger and better." I paused. "I know what it is like to look at a population and realize that the people with the power to change things are always somewhere else." I glanced at the cup again. "But I don't think that giving everyone the Force is the answer. I actually know what happens when people become frightened by that possibility. Mandalorians once hunted me because they knew that I had created a way to give the Force to people who didn't possess it." A faint smile touched my lips, though there was little humor behind it. "They intended to kill me." I let that settle for a moment. "I survived because I negotiated. I made a promise, and they made one in return."

My fingers traced the edge of the cup. "And I've been careful with the Catalyst Protocol ever since. Because even if your intentions are good, someone else will eventually decide that the discovery belongs to them. Or that it should be used against someone."

I hesitated before adding, "I've been to the Netherworld once. Briefly. I didn't encounter anyone offering me power or demanding anything from me. I was mostly left alone." My expression became thoughtful. "Perhaps they simply weren't interested in me. I'm not Force-sensitive, afterall." At least, not anymore. I had reversed what I had subjected myself to, both in a bid to disrupt the destructive anomolies, but also to see if such a thing could be done.

I looked back toward the Elder. "I understand why you don't want your people depending upon beings in a realm of the dead. But if you want freedom for them as well as the Galaxy, I'd be careful about replacing one master with another. But perhaps there are other paths. I just don't know what they are yet." I gave him a quiet, genuine look. "But I do know that if we are trying to free people, we should be very certain that the path we're offering them doesn't simply lead to somewhere else that they cannot leave."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"No matter what you choose, someone will be frightened. Someone will hate it, whatever the case may be." He lifted his cup, taking another sip as he seemed to mull over his thoughts. He already knew what he wanted to say, but there was no rush here to this discussion. "I wasn't sensitive to the Force either. Even now I assume it's more of an.. Echo, than a true connection. Something letting me be a conduit than truly have any power. It's sadly just the same fate. A puppet who's strings belong to another."

With a cost, as everything had.

"Your choice was taken from you. Another chose that their fear overrode your ability to give yourself the Force, to give another the Force. Any choice for them to make. That is the state of this galaxy. Those with the power to choose will do so, for all those around them. If that is the case, then forcing everyone to make the choice is better than not having the choice at all. That is the path I choose to walk, at least. To walk this path to it's end."

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I was quiet for a moment, considering his words. "Perhaps," I said softly. "But I don't think that giving someone a choice and forcing them to make one are the same thing."

My fingers remained wrapped around the cup. "If someone wants the Force, then they should be allowed to choose it. But if someone doesn't..." I shook my head slightly. "I don't think that I have the right to decide for them. Even if I believe I'm giving them freedom."

I looked down at the tea before continuing. "And it wasn't only the Mandalorians that frightened me." My voice became quieter. "I was frightened of myself." I took a slow breath while I organized my thoughts. "The Catalyst Protocol had consequences that I didn't fully understand when I had began. The smallest uses would cause headaches and nosebleeds. Then the effects became worse. Much worse." My eyes lifted towards him. "When the synthetic Force was used suddenly or in large amounts, the consequences didn't always remain inside the person using it. They could spread outward." I hesitated ever so slightly. "Time could bend in small pockets. Space could distort. I've seen ships disappear entirely. I've seen them exist in two places at once, with each version having aged differently." My expression tightened. "I couldn't know whether there was a limit to it. Or whether, eventually, one anomaly would create another, and another, until there was nothing left of the Galaxy that we recognized."

I set my cup down carefully. "So I hid the research. And, for a while, I hid myself." A faint, tired smile appeared as I sighed. "I hoped that if I stayed quiet long enough, that people would forget that I'd ever created it."

My gaze then settled on him again. "I don't want to take anyone's choice away, Elder. Not yours. Not your people's. Not anyone's. But if the choice comes with the possibility of destroying everything around them, then I think that they deserve to know what they're choosing."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"If you could create it without that destructive element, if your research didn't come at such a great cost, what would your thoughts be then?" He tipped his cup, finishing the bit that was left of his tea before settling the cup down carefully on the table. He had listened in respectful silence, but now his smile seemed.. Less. Still there, but some how it felt wrong.

"The Catalyst Protocol is only one path to the end I seek. This galaxy needs a change. You've seen it. Witnessed it first hand, as you've said. If the Catalyst doesn't work, then we need only to find a different path. But the Force will not belong to only the select few. All will have a connection to it, and it will be their choice on whether they strengthen it or not. If that is something you cannot support, then I suppose I can't change your mind."

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I considered the question for a long moment. "If the Catalyst Protocol didn't have those consequences..." I glanced down at my tea. "Then my answer would probably be different." I looked back towards him. "I still wouldn't want to force the Force upon anyone. But if it could be given safely, without the possibility of tearing holes in reality or killing the people around you....Then perhaps I could support giving people the choice."

My expression became more serious. "But there would have to be safeguards. A way to sever the connection if someone became dangerous. Because giving everyone the Force doesn't mean everyone will use it responsibly." I gave a faint, humorless smile. "Some people would use it to protect others. Some would use it to rule them, just as Force Users do now. We'd simply be creating a different kind of tyrant if we assumed otherwise."

My fingers tightened slightly around the cup. "And there is another problem. If I found a way to make the Protocol safe, I'd have to assume that I'd be hunted for it again. I already know what happens when people decide that my research is more valuable than my life."

I was quiet for a moment as I too, finished my tea. "So no. I don't think that I could support the Catalyst as it exists now." My gaze remained steady on him. "But if you are truly looking for another path... one that gives people a choice, protects those who don't want it, and includes a way to stop those who would abuse it..." I tilted my head slightly. "Then I wouldn't dismiss it simply because it was your idea."

Tag: Hatred

 

[Hatred]

"I suppose that is where our views differ. When I say freedom for all, I mean the freedom to do what they will with the Force. Good, evil, right or wrong. It doesn't matter. Once everyone has the same potential, how could any become a tyrant? They wouldn't hold some mystical power over another as they do now."

They were facts, in his eyes at least. Though it didn't matter if he was wrong or right. If everyone had the Force, the type of wound that could be formed in a mass genocide would only give Hatred more of what he wanted.

"Everything else is something I can agree with. But to try and control those who would do wrong by taking it away from them is it's own form of tyranny. With or without your protocol I will put everyone on the same level. That is a promise I cannot break."

Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

I was quiet for a moment, considering his words. "I understand what you mean. Truly." My fingers rested loosely around the empty cup. "But I don't think that giving everyone the same power necessarily removes the ability to become a tyrant." I glanced towards him. "It might simply mean that everyone has the potential to become one."

My expression grew thoughtful. "We've already seen what happens when people with the Force decide that their beliefs justify violence. Jedi and Sith have spent generations fighting one another, killing one another, and dragging entire worlds into their conflicts." I shook my head slightly. "Giving everyone the same potential wouldn't necessarily end that. It might just turn an imbalance of power into an arms race."

I let that thought settle before continuing. "And I agree that deliberately stripping the Force from someone because I disagree with what they do would be it's own form of tyranny. But perhaps there is another way to achieve what you're seeking." My eyes lowered briefly. "What if equality doesn't mean giving everyone the Force?" I looked back towards him. "What if it means giving no one the Force?"

There was a faint uncertainty in my expression as I considered the idea aloud. And it was obviously one that I had considered before. "A Galaxy where nobody could use it to dominate anyone else. No Jedi. No Sith. No kings whose power depends upon being able to move a cup without touching it." A small, almost hopeful smile appeared. "Perhaps that would be the most equal solution of all."

I wasn't sure I actually believed such a thing was possible. But the more I considered it, the more strangely logical it seemed. I had planned on seeing if the effects of Catalyst Protocol could be inherited, but given that there's never been a suitor in the picture; that theory became highly unlikely to test out.

"Perhaps the question isn't how we give everyone the same power." I tilted my head. "Perhaps it's whether anyone should have that power over another person in the first place."

Tag: Hatred