[Fic] The Bothan (entry for Javyar's Cataina)

[SilentScope001]

Worried that I will be unable to post my fanfiction on March 31st, I decide to post it here to be reviewed. I hope this will be moved into the Javyar's Catina forum for the competition on March 31st, for review.

 

The theme for the contest, by the way, is: betrayal.

---

The imperial officer stared at the Bothan.

 

"So, you are willing to give us the secret plans of the Rebellion, in order to ruin them."

 

"Yes," the Bothan responds.

 

"You expect payment?" the Imperial officer responds

 

"Yes" was the reply.

 

"How do I know this isn't a trap?"

 

"Because it isn't. You know the deal. I give you the plans, you give me money. I leave. You get the credit for the victory, for the destruction of the Republic. I get only these credits and the ability to live for a few more years."

 

"Here." The Imperial officer shoves the bag full of credits to the Bothan. "Take your wealth, scum."

 

"It is my pleasure," the Bothan smiles, as he pockets the bags. He hands over the hologram and then he begins to leave.

 

The Imperial Officer thinks for a moment. "Actually, stop."

 

"You aren't going to arrest me for treason, are you? Just to go and steal back your money?" the Bothan ask, nonchantly.

 

"Er...no," the Officer said, altough he privately admit the thought did cross his mind. "Listen, I know your Bothans are always one who love credits. So, I'll hand you another bag of credits...if you tell me why you are doing this?"

 

"Why you want to know?" the Bothan replies.

 

"Because this is the first time an alien ever worked for us! Willingly! We had to threaten them, we had to corcere them, we had to kill them. We taxed them heavily, to use them to build huge weapons of wars. We drove them into the arms of the Rebellion, but we were confident we could destroy them. Only a few aliens helped us out...and I know for a fact that the Bothan race has just aligned themselves to the Rebellion.

 

So I only want to know why you choose this path. I'm curious."

 

"Fine. Not like anyone cares..."

 

The Imperial Officer does reflect on the fact...Of course, he really did not care about the Bothan. Nobody does. It is obivous that the Human race is superme, better than these alien freaks, the most evolved, fated to take over everything. But he also has something in the back of his mind: Nobody wanted to be a slave to the Empire. Sure, the Empire can enslave Wookies, Genosians, Gungans...but they will all silently resist. Why this Bothan? What is it with him? He is compelled to find out, and says, "Out with it."

 

"I am a Bothan Spy by birth. This means that I spy for a living, taking contracts, gaining intelligence."

 

"Why not just go and tell me right now what exactly HAPPENED? Why must you go and relate your whole life story?" the Imperial Officer said.

 

"You want me to go and tell you why I am betraying the Rebellion, then let me tell you my life story."

 

The Imperial Officer had enough. "Listen to me! I want to know what happened! If you don't...I'll throw you into the slammer and..."

 

The Bothan Spy pulls out a Bothan stunner and aimed it right at the Imperial Officer. "I killed many of your kind, during the Battles of Naboo and Kashyykk. I stormed your base and stole your Second Death Star plans. If you ever seek to lay your hands on me, I'll slaughter you AND take my secrets back."

 

The Imperial Officer calms down, though his rage seethes. He did not like being talked back by the Bothan Spy, but he is a valuable intel source, and to make him angry means you lose important data. One must compromise the justified racism of humanity...in order to win a much more important war.

 

The Bothan puts away his stunner and continue talking.

 

"Now, I took those jobs not because I hate the Empire. Mind you, I see all your politicking as...nothing. You guys never help us out in our time of need, neither the weak Republic nor the Empire, nor would this Rebellion. You both are corrupt bastards, stealing our money, our resources, and in some cases, our lives...

 

I did it because I was defending the Gungans and the Wookies from slavery. I felt a connection to other alien races, being hurt by your oppressive policies, your slave labor policies, your genocides. I wanted them to be free, to be able to make their own desicions. Nobody should tell us aliens what to do, not even the Republic."

 

"Did you help any...Jedi?" the Imperial Officer asks.

 

"Yes, a couple, but only in the course of defending these alien races. I never cared for the Jedi Order and their pratice of 'balance' and 'light side'. It's all mubo-jumbo. Who cares who's embracing the Dark Side...when the rest of us can't even find food to eat? Half the galaxy is in poverty, and the other half is barely ekking out an existence. Why else are there so many criminal syndicates and smuggling rings? If you really want to curb the spice trade, you should take away this demand by making these people's lives better. Increase people's living standards, and then there will be no more criminals. But you guys are more focused on warfare, murdering off your enemies just to gain contorl over the whole galaxy!"

 

"Bothan, remember...I don't care what you think, I care of why you betray the Rebellion."

 

"Alright. Sorry for the tangent, I just felt it neeeded to be said to you guys. No politican ever cared what the common folk think of them, and no politican ever will.

 

After the Battle of Yavin, the Bothan clans got together and voted to formally enter the war on the side of the 'Rebellion'. Now, I had no love for the Rebellion, as you heard before, I hate all politicans. But, well, the Rebellion was...different. Lots of aliens were joining up to it, and well, they did state they wanted to support the weak and the defensless. They promised a new era, one without you Imperial scum. I decided I might as well support the 'lesser of two evils', that is, the Republic.

 

They also pay me double the usual contract fees."

 

"You Bothans would do anything for money..." the Imperial Officer chuckles.

 

"A man has to eat, no?" the Bothan replies teresly. "After 4 years of working for the Republic...something changed though. It is as if a switch has been thrown, and the Republic began to abandon its support for the 'weak and defenseless' and is preparing to now become the strong and the mighty.

 

They were not interested in actually sharing power, they were just using us, the aliens, as to complete some stupid revenge against the Sith Order. Who would have known that religion is the cause for all wars in this galaxy? All they were doing is trying to rule us over...Didn't they learn the lesson of the CIS?"

 

"You were pro-CIS?" the Imperial Officer asks. He hated the CIS, seeing them as terrorists wanting to leave the Old Republic. If the CIS would have left, the Old Republic would have been destroyed, therefore, anything must have been done to prevent the CIS from winning. The Officer actually served as a leader for some of the Clone troopers during the Clone Wars, and was responsible for the mass murder of thousands of civilians, all of whom he suspected of aiding the CIS.

 

The Bothan Spy realizes that he is treading on tough grounds, so he ease back on his rhetoric: "I'll reserve my judgements about the Clone Wars for another time, but it must be known that I do believe that Aliens should rule over Aliens, and that Humans should rule over Humans. I don't want one race ruling over another race, that's just dumb. The ruling race will always rule in its favor, and will never treat the enslaved race with the respect it deserves. I do not want Aliens to rule over Humans, that would be committing the same sins. All I desire is that each race has the freedom to rule themselves, and I want protection for the weak and the defenseless races out there, but still allowing them the ability to rule themselves. Is that too much to ask? Oh, yes, yes it is in this cruel world!"

 

"I never...thought of it that way," the Imperial Officer admits. He then recovers himself, "But let us finish this story. What happened that cause you to betray the Rebellion?"

 

"A quick question: Have you been to the moon of Endor?" the Bothan asks.

 

"No, I have not," the Imperial Officer admits. "Not after the Battle of Endor. It's not very tactically significant, now that the Second Death Star's shield generator is destroyed."

 

"I suggest you never go there again. The whole moon is irradiated. Nothing lives there now."

 

"What happened?"

 

The Bothan begins: "We led the raid against the Second Death Star. Many of my fellow Bothans died to help the Rebellion find the diagrams, and then many of us died again, battling on Endor, in order to help perserve the Rebellion. The Rebellion had the alliance with the Ewoks, as you know..."

 

"The Ewoks? Bah! They were an uncivilized race, savages that hampered us. Why in the world did you rely on them?"

 

"They opened up a second front. The Ewoks led the charge, attacking you. While you massacre them, we'll sweep in. We seek to overwhealmed you, and we did."

 

"But why did you use them? Why did you resort to this tactic, rely on these savages? I thought not even the Rebellion would swoop so low to rely on these base primitiaves!"

 

"Because we wanted to win! That's the thing! There were some Rebellion officers that saw the Ewoks as really nice creatures. I was one of them. I wanted to defend the weak and the helpless, the people who really need my help. But...most Rebellion officers were interested in their own freedom, not that of the Ewoks. So, they used them in human waves, taking advantage of their trusting nature, their stupidity.

 

I merely watched the horrors, as the Rebellion revealed its true nature...but that is not all their sins, that is not what pushed me over the edge.

 

After we destroyed the Second Death Star, we all had a party, to celebrate our victory...only to begin to drown in radiation. The Second Death Star exploded, causing huge snaparal to fall and crush the planet. The entire atmosphere was filled with smoke and fallout...blocking out the Sun...causing a nuclear winter. The whole moon was irradiated.

 

Oh, sure, the Rebellion did what it could to protect its human troops, escorting them out, giving them medical aid. But they didn't protect the Ewoks and the other Alien races, the ones that actually fought to destroy the Shield Generator on the Second Death Star, so that it can be destroyed. To think, that Shield Generator could have SAVED the Ewoks from the massacre, and instead, we have all written its 'doom'. I was one of the lucky ones, who escaped the moon...but there are still other Bothans, suffering. The Ewoks died...the republic troops died...everyone died.

 

What's worse...there's a cover-up. The Republic covered up everything having to do with the Massacre, claiming that they 'removed the debris', 'in the process of cleaning up', and that 'no Ewoks were harmed at all'! They would have you believe that they are sinless...when in fact, they have just as much sin as you guys.

 

They KNEW this was going to happen. They knew that if they blew up the Death Star, the planet will suffer greatly. And they didn't care. They thought that the destruction of the Second Death Star is important, to save more senitent lives...so the death of one insiginifcant moon and the murder of a insiginificant race...

 

I told my Bothan clan, telling them that they should leave the Republic. Many of them did not listen to me, choosing to believe the New Republic, choosing to believe their lies. There was one person who was there...who understood. And he said: 'If we inform the rest of the galaxy of this, then the entire Republic will fracture...We cannot let that happen at all. A little cover-up is fine, otherwise the Empire might win...'

 

Ah, but if you are willing to murder off one planet in order to keep your preicious and holy 'Republic' alive, you beg the question of why such an insitution needed to be protected in the first place. You can justify anything really. What is to stop you from framing innocents, from making slave camps, erasing the memories of your foes...from doing any wrong at all!

 

The Republic is nothing more than the Empire, cloaked in a different guise. Even now, who's running the Republic? Humans! And not only mere humans, but also one special human, a Princess, royalty from an Human world! We have replaced one Human king with that of a Queen...a very, very unfair trade. I learnt that, and this is why I am betraying the Republic...in order to gain revenge for the screams of the Ewoks, on the moon on Endor."

 

"You care about those squealing people?" the Imperial Officer shakes his head. "But their misfortune leads to our victory in the battlefield. Here's your credits." The Imperial Officer hands another bag of Credits, which the Bothan quickly profits. "I tell you, this thing could quite easily ruin the Republic, if we leak this out..."

 

"Nobody would listen to the Empire. Everything is covered up so well...There's no way to destroy the lie that the Republic has set up. But at least now you know what I think. Now will you excuse me, I need to return back to my main struggle of living..."

 

"Wait. One last question..." the Officer request. "It seems to me that you hate the Republic for what they have done. But then why did you aid us? Why not try some other method of destroying the Republic?"

 

"You have done many genocides, but at least you don't cover them up. You admit you are evil, and you admit to the crimes you have done. That is something I admire. The Republic has no virtues, but at least the Empire have one: They are honest.."

===

(The concept of the Ewok Massacre is considered fanon by some, and non-canon by others. I used it as a way to help further the story, and for artistic license, to help make the point clear and use it as a main reason why the Bothan betrays the Republic.)

[Bee Hoon]

There's a few grammatical errors and typos, but it's an intriguing story. I suppose that it never really occured to me about the effect of destroying the second Death Star. But then again, being honest like "Yeah, we kill people, so what?" isn't really much better...

[Emperor Devon]

Nice fic, SS. I like how you delved into the politics of the Rebel Alliance and the Empire with that one - it was an interesting viewpoint you had the Bothan give there. An obviously biased one, but an interesting one nonetheless.

 

The writing style could've used some polishing, and a different tense would've been preferable. "The Imperial Officer asked" usually sounds better than "The Imperial Officer asks," IMO.

 

Still, the Bothan's dialogue and the politics he talks about makes up for that. It's a good piece.

 

My score: 7.5/10

[SilentScope001]

Thanks for the comments. The style may be akward, and I do need help with proofreading, but the main idea of showcasing other people's viewpoints (wheter or not I actually believe in them, ) sounds like a good thing to do. It had been an idea I have been kicking around and I finally got around to posting it.

[Emperor Devon]

If you're in need of proofreading, ask someone you know to beta or look at the thead for it. You can really catch a lot of errors when you get second opinions.

[JediMaster12]

It's a nice piece delving into political isssues that seem to get overlooked among other things. I do have to agree that you could do better with some tense changes other wise it sound like you're directing a film or something. I also think that better organization of your dialogue would help smooth things out better. Again most of this comes with a good beta reader which ED has thoughtfuly provided the thread for. My rating is a 7 out of 10.

[Jae Onasi]

I found the politics interesting as well.

Writing the descriptions and dialog tags in present tense is distracting, especially when you switch to past tense from time to time. I'd recommend going to all past tense.

 

It meanders around a bit before it finally comes to a point--I would expect a Bothan spy to simply say why he did what he did without too much window-dressing. No matter what, I don't think he'd want to stick around with an Imperial officer for very long, since that invites trouble.

 

I like some of the descriptions, and the description of the Empire being honest about their evil was intriguing.