Demons of Future Past

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I'll tell you this much. Our respective intelligence is the Force's gift to us on top of our respective Force-sensitivity"

"We're both sick and tired of hearing in the Force about how we have such big brains, or at least I am: I'd rather say that my brain is well-trained instead"

"You know what exactly do you mean when you say that you have a well-trained brain? That could very well apply to me as well, and you realized as much. When one trains its brain, new neural connections are formed, and a well-trained brain has a high density of neural connections"

"Yes, I know. Our intelligence is a gift, but it comes at a cost"

Jessica's thought process was, at the time: If the Force was really picking my brain over and over for other Force-users to boost their cognitive functions, that means my own cognitive functions are really powerful and I should never doubt my intelliectual capabilities ever again. How would that cost manifest itself in Catria? She was smart, but that cost would probably be different (and, if what Jessica said about her smarts is correct, she was simply bordering on unnatural, but even one such person would still be a formidable person in that respect) because the blue-haired woman didn't complain about how she was used as a computer in/by the Force. The question being just how. But both women had to expect that there would be some cost, perhaps even to be paid in common. They know their intellects do not come for free, but that the cost is different in Force-users vs. NFUs: Jessica readily accepted that her cost was to be used over and over as target practice for Drain Knowledge or the more dark-sider mechanism for Force-comprehension. Catria? Probably have some trouble to forget: while memories on either woman's scale were useful on some level, there are times where the ability to forget can be useful. But they were pretty happy with their smarts otherwise, at least so long as either is with someone that can understand them at the idea level.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I assume you know about the Jedi Code, Jessica. You - and a few Jedi I know of myself, if only by name: Cathul, Matsu, Sor-Jan, Audren, Taeli, Joza, to name those I heard about, and of course, you, seem to think that ownership and control of corpoations are compatible with the Jedi Code and what matters is what you do with it"

"Oh, Simikarty: that guy ruined everything. He introduced way too many tenets that unnecessarily restricts what means we can use to accomplish what we swore to do"

"Can you recite the Code?"

"There is no emotion, there is peace, there is no ignorance, there is knowledge, there is no passion, there is serenity, there is no chaos, there is harmony, there is no death, there is the Force"

Junko, Kianna and Summer were anathema to the whole notion of Jedi shall not rule others. Yet Simikarty was one historical figure the Silver Jedi despised, especially since the Silver Jedi Order was entirely funded through corporate contributions of Jedi-owned corporations, and by far the SJ-held corp that had to pay the most was Sasori Research, while Corellia Digital and Ringovinda StarYards each used to contribute roughly the same amounts. For some reason, even when Ringo Vinda was inside SSC-land, and Charzon was not a Jedi (and Jessica became a Jedi shortly before Ringo Vinda left the SJ), it was somehow considered Jedi-operated for SSC taxation. In comparison to these major corporations, Heartbeat House and Ceredir Industries each paid very little. Oh Jessica was a Jedi who could rant over the limitations that Simikarty introduced and how these were incompatible with today's Jedi practice.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"There are two things that people commonly believes the Code prohibits us to do but that you do anyway. You seem to believe that the Teyan Apologia introduced many limitations to our basic duties. Can you tell me how you believe violating these two tenets would allow you to better serve your Jedi duties?"

"How do you know about Glyss? I'm not the actual ruler of that planet, but a Jedi is on the throne there - and I'll take over the training of the Queen soon enough"

"Ruling over Glyss was not one of the violations I'm talking about. They often talk about how Jedi shouldn't own more than a few essential belongings, let alone own/run major corporations and how you should not get married"

"Ownership of a major corporation is beneficial on both short and long term, while the second is beneficial on the long term. Jedi tend to underestimate, or otherwise overlook, the resources that major corporations can afford as far as their ability to protect innocents, and other underprivileged, or to provide aid and support to them, when large-scale events happen. Sometimes there are resources more efficient than Jedi to come to the aid of the innocent and under underprivileged, that major corporations or governments can deploy. The problem with the second is mostly on a reproductive level: I believe that maintaining a long-term pool of Force-sensitives among the population would enable the long-term viability of Jedi. Nowadays, the net for Force-sensitivity detection is cast wider than in no other time in galactic history. I know that there are those Jedi in Alliance-land that call for 1) encouraging Jedi to run and own corporations and, from there, 2) have Jedi-owned corporations pay for the operations of their brothers in cult. As applied to the Alliance, such a plan would result in Aurora Industries and IGR Brokerage paying for nearly all of the operations of the NJO"

"Yet I would think that a Jedi that either rules a planet or owns a major corporation would be more vulnerable to graft and hence the dark side of the Force"

"A strong sense of self-discipline is necessary to overcome the temptations of graft"

At this point the Techno Empire promises no Imperial interference in Force-cults, let alone financial, and each Force-cult was allowed to fund itself in whatever ways they wished. As for the Techno Empire's Jedi, Ringovinda StarYards is funding the whole thing. So basically they pay for the upkeep of Jessica, Julie and Catria, and any Geonosian Jedi as well as any subsequent Jedi that could be placed in Techno Empire service. (Summer's Jedi upkeep was provided for by the Crown of Glyss instead) But what many failed to understand about the Jedi Code and its teachings is that the Teyan Apologia is not part of the Code. The interpretation of the code is fivefold, at least to these two people: Jedi should be highly self-disciplined (especially emotionally), they had to accept responsibility for their actions, they had to use the Force for the greater good, so long as they did so in respect of all parties involved (whenever possible), they should use the Force for knowledge and defense, and finally they should not fear death - they then become one with the Force. Force-alignment is not simply a matter of what is used to power the Force-skills when in use, but also the actions one make. And the actions seem to carry more weight in gauging NFUs' Force-alignment than for FUs: unfortunately NFUs are often judged by their Force-alignment in a much more simplified way compared to FUs.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Back to the topic of my problems with most Jedi Healers. Take, for example, the topic of mind tricks, and more generally, psychiatry. They have a poor understanding of mind tricks and what understanding they do have, is mostly on a psychological level rather than on a neurological level. As a result they can offer rather quick diagnoses but they can run in a direction counter to what it actually is"

"You have realized by now that in-depth knowledge of Force-power mechanisms allows to make the most efficient and precise use of the Force and hence to save energy. But you went up against the drawback of that approach to the Force while learning both IAC and Electric Judgment"

"For example I could use Force-horror simply by aiming Force-power at the target's amygdala. But you know me, I'd rather aim at the target's motor control zones and thus I would use Force-stasis. That said, my knowledge of neuropsychology would enable to use a common dark-sided power as a light-sider"

"That's one of the problems with Jedi training back in the Clone Wars era: background knowledge may be insufficient to ensure proper use of the Force. When I was a child, gifted education screening made all of us who were covered to undertake Force-sensitivity testing. I'd prefer to train someone with at least some shred of background knowledge - less likely to be arrogant"

Art of the Small was a commonly-cited example of misunderstood mechanisms and where would a proper understanding of the mechanisms would result in hitting the intellectual wall Catria alluded to. Cathul and Jessica could both use Art of the Small, using the full strength of what their knowledge of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory provided them, plus both women understood QFT better than virtually every Jedi alive. Plus such methods would force these ladies to indirectly use Art of the Small, even Catria. But again, both women knew that, far from considering each other as their intellectual peers - they knew not all Jedi would possess the amount of background knowledge even Catria had. Jessica knew that the illusion would last so long as the discussion remained within Jedi doctrine and medicine, but if the discussion slips into engineering matters, then the illusion would fade.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I sense something"

"Someone is victim of a cardiac arrest. Quickly!"

"You defibrillate, while I take care of the blood clot or the internal hemorrage"

"Roger!"

The two ladies left the Neimoidian with a sprained ankle to his own devices in Jessica's office, and they already have a plan. They rushed down the stairs with as much speed as they could without Force-speed (neither can reliably use it) until they come across the rather elderly Geonosian that was victim of the cardiac arrest Catria alluded to. Their plan was: Jessica is to use Force-heal to remove the blood clot/atheroma or seal the hemorrage (whatever is found in the patient with a cardiac arrest, because Jessica senses that the cardiac arrest is caused by a heart attack) while Catria uses her low-powered (may as well be her maximum power at her skill level because she is a beginner) Electric Judgment to defibrillate the patient. Then the Geonosian around the victim was a little amused at the sight of Jedi trying to simultaneously use the Force to remove the atheroma inside his heart, and defibirillate him.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

OOC: Since there are no good Geonosian references available I used the best Basic approximation.

IC: "Space witches! What are you doing on him?" the Geonosian bystander asked the Jedi ladies, in Geonosian.

"He had a heart attack, we had to save him" Jessica answered in her best Geonosian, not sure that she will be understood.

"How will space magic save him? You're electrocuting him!"

"It's defibrillation"

While Catria repeatedly used Electric Judgment to perform defibrillation, Jessica was done using the Force to remove the atheroma that clogged his coronary artery. Hopefully the patient's heart would restart with the repeated attempts at defibrillation made by Catria; if that's the case then Jessica would attempt to grow back the heart muscle tissue that was killed in the heart attack; since she knows that Force-healing would only work if there is any living tissue to begin with, the less damage, the less power there is. But that took a fair bit, but what helped was the circulation being reactivated. Blood flow was important for the operation to work, because she knew that mitosis was an energy-expensive operation in biochemical terms, regardless of whether the mitosis was Force-induced or not. But the energy cost was paid by the caster, borne out of their Force-energy. But here the aim was to grow back to normal.

"Go home, you need a day of rest or two" Catria tells the patient. "Well done. Doesn't mean that you can use the Force to heal, that the patient should not take precautions after the fact"