The Crew Of Starshatter: Boris ("Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity")
Law and justice. Annoyingly in a lot of works of fiction they are not synonymous. As I have mentioned before in many stories the law is up for interpretation and what is just is put on the back burner. Which is grotesque in its own way. To be asked to put your faith in something that pretends to make everybody equal and yet it's bent every which way, depending on the needs and stature of a person.
That is where Boris comes in. To coin a phrase - he is the law. No ifs, ands or buts. With humanity on the constant brink of obliteration, he is one of many that serve as a backbone, a secure wall, depended upon to decide and do what is right, not some meandering and ever-shifting illusion. He is a true servant of the people. He doesn't do it for personal gain or glory, it's his constant, unrelenting and unforgiving hunger to see justice done. He, who has seen just how cruel and unjust the Galaxy can be, has taken upon himself to level the scales. For that, the telepath is willing to go to almost any length to accomplish his goal. And in doing so he is paying a great price.
What's admirable and tragic is that the Bulgarian embarks on his crusade without a second thought or regard for himself. He almost doesn't feel like his life is anything more than a vessel which carries his mission, his crusade. A dangerous way of thinking for in that lies the risk that one day he might forget why he does what he does. He is in constant threat of having his crusade consume not only his life, but also who he is as a person.
Boris walks the fine line between justice and vengeance. What's unique here is that such a conflict is usually born out of the fact that the law is insufficient, ineffective and the hero has to go outside it to do what's necessary, which is not always what is right. Here, the law helps the lawman to not go too far. To constantly remind him why he is on this path in the first place. Boris struggles to walk that fine line, because in keeping that balance lies the key to not losing his humanity, to remain a person.
What has been truly enjoyable is to see his quest of discovering that what makes the difference is deciding why you fight. It might be for vengeance or justice. But what is far more powerful, what can keep you going further, is the belief in your own cause. When your strength comes from a place of conviction, when you see that ending a life not just because you have to, but because in doing so you will save many others, when you see that you are fighting for life...well...there is no cause more just than that.
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My other blogs: Brynjar, Awesome, Alric, Mack, Kera, Dozan'Re, Cat and Vasilisa