Harry Potter and the Damaged Battlecruiser

[Cathul Thuku]

"Admiral, it appears that the extra turrets being installed are almost fitted" Cathul overheard the engineers in the dining room.

"Good"

Cathul was a little amused too see her apprentice make such a clumsy attempt at cooling down the slimy powder that was used to make soft ice cream in the ice cream parlors of the galaxy. It appears that, to the Wookiee, it was easier to use pyrokinesis than cryokinesis. While she knew that violating the second law of thermodynamics required the use of the Force, she always feels nervous when having to explain the matter-energy questions of the usage of the Force. She is always tempted to talk about the energy of the Force coming from some zero-point quantum energy, but that explanation, and what it involves, is too complex for many a Force-user so she refrains from talking about Hermitian operators (or spirit ichor), Hamiltonians and whatnot, and how they relate to a given Force-problem. That is, she believes that the Force itself is quantized and that each Force-observable comes from a Hermitian spirit ichor but not all Hermitian spirit ichor are Force-observables. Plus some spirit ichor with energy may not even be Hermitian in the first place.

"I will answer the question as to where the energy goes when you use cryokinesis or, alternatively, where it comes from when you use pyrokinesis. While there is a thing called the laws of thermodynamics, and the conservation of energy, the energy goes from and to the Force. However, the Force stores energy under the form of spirit ichor"

[member="Siriwook"]

 

[Siriwook]

Siriwook feels embarrassed.

"Hyryyyyyya-yh-wa? [This isn't cryokinesis?]"

She looks at the frozen slime, then her hands, then back at the slime, wondering how else to freeze the slime.

She thinks back to when she heated the rivets. Where had the energy to move the atoms come from? Ichor? Siriwook doesn't understand ichor at firs but then remembers the ripples... the fluid. The ichor must be the fluid. So it is full of energy? This time, instead of moving the heat, Siriwook allows the... ichor... to absorb it. She just makes cold.

"Rrruuuuugh riii augh? [Is there a book I can read about this?]"

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"You've got it just right by now. Just eat half the content of the ice cream bowl, I will eat the other half. Then you can go to sleep. Does that work with you?"

Now that the slimy powder has actually become ice cream, she knew that treats were the main things one would ever use ice cream for. Cathul began to eat her part of the bowl of ice cream, while waiting on the exhausted Wookiee to do the same with her half of the bowl. That was the precise reason for why she even summoned that size of a bowl full of slimy powder. And beginners in the Force often get hungry after using the Force to train. While so many think of the Force as something to be weaponized, neither woman thought of it as a weapon. It was difficult to juggle training two Padawans (the second of which is rather independent for someone at her level) and the refitting of a battlecruiser. Said refits meant that she was receiving multiple status reports once given steps are accomplished, and she feels that she is losing concentration fast, but that the Wookiee witch apprentice going to bed would be welcome in the context.

"Installation of the superstructure turbolasers is almost complete, admiral, same with the tractor beams"

"We have time. The Alliance naval doctrine is to make operational use of battlecruisers only in full-scale engagements against other battlecruisers"

[member="Siriwook"]

 

[Siriwook]

Siriwook wonders why the mother's milk is being eaten cold and by an adult creature. No, she corrected herself. Her mistress might not be fully grown. She hopes there isn't a child going hungry on board. But she can't turn down food. Siriwook waits for her mistress to finish before reaching a paw into the bowl. She picks up a handful of the frozen slime and licks it off of her hand. Her eyes go wide. Whatever this is, she must have more. She takes another handful and another. When no more can be extracted, she looks around to see if there is more. She takes the bowl with both hands and pushes her face into it, licking it completely out. She spends the next few minutes licking ice cream out of her fur. Her eyes catch her Mustress' expression.

Siriwook feels embarrassed again. She has never done this before. She hopes that the mother's milk was good for her because she is likely to eat it again. Siriwook thinks of ways to stash it if she ever finds more. Perhaps she would build that ice box.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"You're not familiar with dairy products... nerf milk is where it comes from. Nerfs are livestock animals bred for multiple things: meat, milk and leather. Wookiees are not people to eat such things frozen. And nerf milk is used for several products: ice cream, soft and hard, available in many flavors (especially what is called hard ice cream), and same goes for cheese, butter, and, of course, the milk itself"

Cathul might be amused by her Wookiee apprentice being embarrassed by her ignorance of the greater galaxy extending well into dairy products. The Wookiee I have for an apprentice is rather naïve in the ways of the greater galaxy. That is going to be one painful apprenticeship. Inysh proved one thing: if she wants to become a Force-healer, that might be a good fit, knowing that my bad bedside manner was a big red flag for my first function as a witch: therapy. Don't get me wrong, I can function as a Force-healer just fine, Inysh proves that too, just that Mandos somehow could endure bad bedside manners while undergoing therapy, she thought. At the same time, she harbored hope that the main artillery would be completed in short order. She wouldn't want the Alliance to be left without a credible counter to the Darr Itah, would she? That was going to hurt, and hurt very badly, once it is in service.

"Admiral, the turret installation is complete, The last batch has begun installation"

"That would be pushing it a little bit to put more than one extra batch of turrets"

[member="Siriwook"]

 

[Siriwook]

Siriwook nods, absorbing the information about nerfs. She wonders if the nerfs like being surrogate mothers to creatures that eat them and wear their skin, but she doesn't ask. Instead, she excuses herself and goes to bed, dreaming of the next time she might eat ice cream or learn how to use the Force. Thinking about mothers and milk before bed takes her mind to a strange place. She is remembering her childhood, but it seems different, somehow. Gone are the treetop dwellings of the Wookiees. All that she sees is darkness, in a cabin barely illuminated by lamps. She smells the decay of a forest floor so deep that it has never seen the sun. And a woman, all covered in hair, singing.... Is she casting a spell?

Siriwook awakes, sweating. The Voice-of-Hope-Within speaks to her, "[Sleep, my child. Rest and learn. One day soon, you will be a witch.]"

She is unsure whether she hears this now, in a dream, or as a memory. But the suggestion, she heeds. She goes back to sleep and does not dream again.