> It is, at best, unwise to mistake these things for each other...
> Kindness for Weakness
> Patience for Passivity
> Caution for Cowardice
> Silence for Ignorance
> Those who have done so have, almost invariably, learned the differences are vast indeed, and quite often have learned this in a manner whose results ensure they do not ever make that same mistake twice... or do anything else ever again, either... -- Anon Guest
It's almost a joke: A Galactic Citizen and a Deregger arrive at a planet-wide disaster zone... Except that this wasn't a joke and both Human individuals acted according to type. The Deregger attempted to make a profit, lecturing those already at their worst moments about how they should have prepared for the unforeseen.
The Galactic was quiet, and gave what they could spare, calling for help even though help was distant. Pitching in with sweat equity and doing what they could for others, even though it put them at risk as well. They didn't waste time or energy on correcting the Deregger, no matter how ample the Deregger's supplies, how loud their opinions, and how deplorable they were to their fellow cogniscent beings.
The Deregger was an armchair tactician, broadcasting across the devastated planet about how the Galactic opposition was doing everything wrong, causing more harm than help, and otherwise ruining it for commerce. Every single transmission decried the Galactic as a weak coward with less intelligence than an overripe pomegranate, who was somehow passive about the situation despite stealing honest work from the upstanding citizens below. Dereggers can believe in six conflicting ideas before breakfast.
Finally, help sailed in, and the CRC blockaded the Deregger from fleeing the scene. There was a public trial, with recorded diatribes and victim testimony from the citizens who had had their comms systems overwhelmed by the Deregger daily broadcasts. The Deregger had hacked the emergency communications system and hijacked it once a day at minimum, thus disrupting any and all communications planetside that were for actual emergencies. They hadn't bothered to learn that it was an essential service and, further, didn't care that it was.
The Galactic, meanwhile, sent out autominers into the asteroid fields and fabricated a comms system that could be used whenever the Deregger overwhelmed the old one. Since the Deregger was unpredictable about when they broadcasted, that meant that the entire planet switched, as quickly as they could, to the reserve system.
"Ah, that other guy's stupid," scoffed the Deregger when they found out. "Didn't even make a buck out of it. Not one dirty penny."
"Sir," sighed the legal representative attempting to make them understand that what they did was wrong, "do you understand what 'emergency' and 'disaster' mean for people?"
"Yeah," laughed the Deregger. "Pure, distilled, _profit_! And I'd have got it if it wasn't for that moron from the other side of the galaxy barging in and ruining it for everyone."
"Sir, your activities have been linked to thousands of deaths."
"No they haven't. Not my fault at all."
It was like playing pretend with that one kid who claimed to have an Everything-Proof Shield. It's next to impossible to explain to a Deregger that their practices hurt people and that they should actually try to care about that.
Even, "You were killing your customer base," didn't gather more than a, "So?"
Half of the Deregger's trial for crimes against cogniscent life, including neglecting an urgent situation for profit, were their denials that they had said any such thing. Even when they were logs from their own vessel.
The Galactic, on the other hand, refused any payment beyond reimbursement for their expenses including living costs. They didn't want a monument, they didn't need anything named after them. All they said about the ordeal was, "I just did what needed to be done until I wasn't needed anymore." They _did_ take the week at a luxury spa resort for a decent pampering. They had, after all, earned the mental health break.
The Galactic was happy to return to obscurity and the life they had made for themself. Content in normalcy and earning a decent living whilst also being a decent intelligent being.
The Deregger was incarcerated for the remainder of their life in Sensitivity Training courses and left to bewail their fate to a round-robin team of therapists who also earned their mental health breaks in full. By all reports, what they missed the most was the profits they could have obtained from the material goods that were seized and then distributed to those in need.
[Image <a href="https://www.canstockphoto.com">(c) Can Stock Photo / lucamendieta</a>]
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