Random bar patrons: “Why hasn’t anyone done him in yet? I mean, seriously. Huge galaxy. There’s got to be at least a handful of planets populated by elite assassins, yeah?”
Patsy: “Dozens of them. Who are we talking about?”
Random bar patrons: “It’s got to happen sooner or later. Surely. It can’t go on like this. It just gets worse and worse.”
Random bar patrons: “Right? I’d do it myself if I thought I had any chance of success.”
Iden: “I completely agree.”
Random bar patrons: “And I’m sure loads of people feel this way. Millions. Billions, probably. Forty nine planets were declared uninhabitable just this last imperial unit—that’s crazy! It can’t go on like this. Things are getting desperate.”
Random bar patrons: “Exactly. If things were more stable, I’d understand, but it’s been nearly seven standards since they blew up… what was its name? Luddow?”
Random bar patrons: “Yeah! That was crazy. And for what? So wasteful… like, I’m not saying it would have been right to have invaded it, but that was a whole habitable world just poof! gone. Anyway, I’m just some guy and if I’m saying all this, there have got to be loads of others better equipt to do it, right?”
Random bar patrons: “There’s a rebel alliance.“
Random bar patrons: “Well, there’s rebels. The ‘alliance’ part never seems to work out.”
Iden: “It needs to. That’s the only way anything is going to change.”
Random bar patrons: “I hear you. But still—somebody’s gotta do it, right? What’s wrong with people? In all this big blasted galaxy, there’s gotta be someone who could get in there and have a go at him…”
Random bar patrons: “It’s not like it would be hard. I mean, all it would take is a pretty face and a complete lack of self-respect… somebody willing to put out for the greater good, then WHAM, crush his windpipe while he’s still riding the wave, problem solved.”
Iden: “I think it would be a lot more complicated that that.”
Random bar patrons: “Nah. I’m telling you. A suicidal slut assassin could safe us all. There’s gotta be somebody willing and able to pull it off. I’m just surprised it hasn’t happened already.”
Iden: “Well. Maybe suicidal slut assassins are more complicated than they sound. Maybe they dream of more than revenge.”
Random bar patrons: “But there’s trillions of people in the galaxy, there have got to be thousands who’d—”
Iden: “Maybe it’s harder than it sounds to kill someone so intimately. Maybe it’s pretty traumatic to turn yourself into a sexy human weapon at the expense of everything else.”
Random bar patrons: “Sure, but—”
Iden: “You do it then, if you’re so confident! Patsy, we’re leaving. These… these armchair revolutionaries don’t know what they’re talking about.”
