Master and Apprentice (Star Wars)

by Claudia Gray

“Why do we allow this barbarism to flourish? The Republic could use its influence to promote abolition in countless systems where the practice flourishes. How can we fail to do this?” Yoda remained silent for a few moments before saying, “Know of the planet Uro, do you? Devour their weakest children, they do.” “…they’re arachnids, whose instincts are unstoppable.” “What of Byss?” When Qui-Gon shook his head no, Yoda said, “When their elderly grow too old to regenerate, beat them to death, the Abyssin do, to conserve their resources.” Qui-Gon’s patience began to wear thin. “This isn’t about imposing human ethics on nonhuman species. This is something humans do to one another, an atrocity we should put an end to.” “We? Not the chancellor, not the Galactic Senate, not even the people of the Republic, but the Jedi?” Yoda thumped his gimer stick on the floor. “Want to rule, do you? Dangerous this is, in one who would join the Council. Dangerous it is in any Jedi.” Qui-Gon knew all of this. On one level, he accepted the truth of it. On the other—“If we don’t stand for the right, what do we do? Why do we exist?” “Many ways there are of serving the right,” Yoda replied. “We work within our mandates, and there do as much good as we can. To do otherwise, to substitute our judgment for that of the Republic, is to repeat the mistakes of the past.” So instead we make different mistakes in the present? Qui-Gon kept this to himself. A galactic crusade against slavery beyond the reaches o...