Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 1) (#Wattys2018 shortlist)

Chapter 7: "This is the price of Imperial stability."

Lady Jish wiped her tears away. "Your own father made such a sacrifice didn't he, Captain, when he died for the Republic?"

"Yes. But there was no one else to take his place. I don't want to send an innocent to their death. I want a genuine terrorist sympathiser."

Jish stared into his eyes and he felt suddenly uncertain.

"Y-you will accept Valsum's offer," she said. "You will–"

The wookie gave a low growl and Jish's words broke off. The droid spoke.

"No, Jish. Don't push him so. It might be dangerous." The wookie looked down into Pina's face. "You are not like many Imperial officers. Come. Let me show you something."

Valsum led Pina out of the chamber to where a large glass partition looked over the immediate camp area. The beings there seemed too exhausted to talk. They simply stood, existing, unsure of their futures.

"There are millions of us here, Captain," the wookie explained. "And across the galaxy there are trillions more. Displaced. Forgotten. Marginalised. The great majority through no fault of their own."

Jish appeared at his shoulder. She gave him an ice cold look.

"This is the price of Imperial stability," she said. "Of your most cherished achievement. Tell me Captain Pina, are you proud of this? Proud of a place where diseases that could be cured within a day on one of the Core worlds are now a death sentence?"

He couldn't answer that.

"So Captain, you face a choice," the wookie said. "Do you want ten thousand beings to perish? Or just the one?"

"Of course just the one!" Pina snapped. "But it has to be the right one!"

"I see. Then let me make it easier for you. Let me prove it. A battle is being fought right now, in a far away system called Endor. Tell me Captain, how could I have come by such knowledge unless I had access to the Rebel's news networks, an act which, I need not remind you, is highly outlawed?"

Pina looked over the faces of those the galaxy had abandoned. There was no light in their eyes. There was no spark that could be kindled. They were soulless creatures who had given up on the future. Part of him wanted to hate them for that. But a bigger part of him felt sympathy for them.

Killing such beings as they had become was in no way a noble action.

"Very well, Valsum. I accept your surrender."

They left the building and made their way to the speeder. Outside, a huge crowd had gathered. Hundreds of different aliens stood in mute wonder as the white haired wookie delicately climbed into his seat. Jish sat upfront and the speeder moved away.

As it gained speed, a cry went up behind them. Pina saw the cheering faces that lined the roadside, of aliens of every kind, all united in their cries.

"VALSUM! VALSUM! VALSUM!"

The cries followed them all the way back to the gate. And all the while, the wookie sat in silence, surrounded by a dignity that Pina couldn't help but admire.

"Thank you for this," Pina said in Valsum's ear. "It is the most noble thing I have ever seen."

"It is a good way to end a life," the wookie said. "Those who survive because of me will not forget me. They will, I hope, live their lives with my sacrifice as an example to them. Perhaps the galaxy might become a better place for it?"

"I hope so."

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Captain Pina has now met, for the first time, a genuine rebel. The fact that the old wookie is willing to exchange his life in place of many others is not lost on the captain, who can't forget his father's actions two decades before. And the pricking words of Lady Jish can't so easily be ignored or forgotten either. The truth is not so easy to dismiss. Again, the world building here is seen in Jish's remarks about the diseases that are a death sentence in the camp, even though they could easily be cured in a Core world with the resources. This serves to illustrate the plight of the refugees of Farsalt, and of how they are slowly being starved by the Empire.