It Takes a Little More Persistence

[Caulder Dune]

At an undisclosed location, the Telos Holocron sat in an empty, circular chamber. It rested on a pedestal in the center of the room, as it had for quite some time since arriving in Tyrin’s possession. He had visited regularly, consulting the knowledgeable avatars of the likes of Sidious, Plagueis, and other similar Sith Lords for advice and information regarding the more esoteric of his abilities. Force Drain, Horror, Knowledge Drain, etc.

But today, Tyrin wanted to try something different.

He had a longstanding admiration of advanced technology. Tyrin fancied himself something of droids, computers, and the like. He wished to understand it better. Get more in touch with the parts of the galaxy that weren’t all magic and mysticism. Tyrin poured over information available to him, learning what he liked of the subject matter.

That was certainly one way to go about it, but being a Sith, he could never go wrong with a more esoteric route. Such as becoming familiar with the side of the Force that allowed for the manipulation of such things.

 

[Caulder Dune]

The holocron activated on its own as he approached, conjuring one of the gatekeepers. Many Sith had left their mark on the Telos Holocron. The gatekeeper conjured upon opening the holocron was random each time. The most sought after, were the simulations of Darth Bane, Darth Sidious, Naga Sadow, and Ajunta Pall. He was not here to talk things over with them, though. Instead he would be asking for someone different.

Even with all the time he had with the holocron, he wasn’t sure he was familiar with all of the gatekeepers. The one conjured now he certainly had not seen before. A dour looking Weequay with a plainly visible cybernetic arm.

“What do you want?” It hissed. Definitely not the most pleasant gatekeeper. None of them were.

“I seek insights into electronic manipulation.”

The Weequay studied Tyrin carefully for a few moments.

“Fine.”

The projection abruptly vanished.

 

[Caulder Dune]

A new gatekeeper appeared shortly after that, one that was fairly unexpected. It stood no more than four feet tall, with stumpy limbs and a tusked face that resembled swine. It was not a Gamorrean. Far too short. This was an Ugnaught, one clad in the simple black robes of a Sithling.

“Yes?”

Usually these things introduced themselves. Tyrin blinked once before shaking his head and continuing regardless. If this gatekeeper had little care for introductions, Tyrin certainly wasn’t going to be the one to object to it. It left far more time to actually get to the crux of this session.

“Can you instruct me in electronic manipulation?”

The Ugnaught’s nose twitched. “Yep.”

There was a significant pause. The gatekeeper merely stared at him. Was it sizing him up? Just staring him down? Tyrin soon realized the thing was just being a stickler for phrasing. In other words, wise-ass.

“Will you?” Tyrin ventured.

“Nope.”

Without further instruction, the Ugnaught gatekeeper vanished, leaving Tyrin alone in the chamber.

 

[Caulder Dune]

There was no mistaking the scowl on Tyrin’s face for anything else. He’d been pushed around by enough people over his existence. He wasn’t about to start taking this kind of nonsense from a memory fragment of a long-dead Sith Lord, much less one that was as diminutive a creature as an Ugnaught.

He reactivated the Telos Holocron, and the Ugnaught appeared once again. Perhaps it was not so random after all.

“You again?”

“Why will you not instruct me?”

The Ugnaught looked around the room slowly. Once he was done making Tyrin wait for a response, he looked at the Umbaran dead on and stared passively for another minute. He looked as though he was about to speak several times, but did not. Just as Tyrin was about to protest, it spoke again.

“You don’t have the necessary materials.”

“The what?”

Rather than respond, the Telos Holocron deactivated once again, leaving Tyrin alone in the room.

He thought he understood what it meant.

 

[Caulder Dune]

Eventually, Tyrin returned with an electronic device. It was a simple little thing, a datapad. In the event that this was not enough, Tyrin had also brought along the Gonk droid he acquired while exploring the ruins of an ancient fortress. It was a simple little droid, but it proved a stalwart enough companion. If a bit slow.

He activated the holocron, and the spectral Ugnaught appeared where he had left it. Tyrin held up the datapad for the creature to see. It nodded curtly.

“Good. That will work.”
Tyrin nodded. “I should hope so.”

“Familiar with Force Lightning? Electricity, are we?”

Tyrin flashbacked to Alderaan, where he had electrocuted two daft Echani women for daring to challenge him to combat. Despite his efforts, both of them escaped and lived to fight another day. Hopefully he could more permanently remove them from the galaxy another time. Whatever the case, Tyrin nodded.

Without further delay, the Ugnaught began his lecture. “Electronics, like that datapad you are holding, are inanimate objects. They can’t be sensed with the Force. Before you can manipulate electronics, you must be able to sense them. Know how they work.”

“And how would I sense them?”

“Electric signals. That’s how these things work. More subtle than Lightning, Sith or otherwise, but detectable with enough practice. Focus on the energy. Not that mystical energy in all living things gobbledegook. Actual energy.”

Gobbledegook. What a fantastic word. Tyrin would have to remember that one.

 

[Caulder Dune]

He relocated after that, deciding he would be more comfortable in his meditation chamber. He kept the datapad turned on, running various applications. He sat cross-legged on the floor, the datapad laying in front of him. The meditation chamber was nicely furnished. Definitely atypical for Sith, who thought it was better to suffer in poorly decorated rooms when the meditated. Degenerates.

To be quite clear, Tyrin had little idea of what he was doing. The instructions provided to him were vague at best, but there didn’t appear to be much else to it. He supposed the only thing to do was to concentrate. Remember the feeling of lightning flowing from his fingertips, or when he himself had experienced Sith lightning. True, Sith Lightning held little in common with actual lightning, but it still held that electrical energy that he needed to focus on.

Tyrin continued to focus on remember these sensations, then on the datapad itself. Somewhere in that small little device, something similar was happening on a much smaller scale.

It would take several days before he finally got what he was looking for.

 

[Caulder Dune]

He caught a glimpse of it, but only for a moment.

It was still progress.

For the briefest of instances, he felt he could see into the device. No, he did see into the device. It was a massive grid, spread out in front of him. He could see lights, the electric signals, darting back and forth, relaying information and sending signals. It was as indiscreet as the Ugnaught had warned it would be. This wasn’t a power generator or an arc caster. This involved more finesse. The initial shock of his success (albeit a mediocre one at best) was enough to break his meditation.

He stared silently at the datapad on the floor before shutting his eyes. Tyrin inhaled and exhaled deeply before edging back into a meditative state. Hopefully next time he could get a hold on it for longer.

 

[Caulder Dune]

Before long, Janus found himself in the same vision. Now that he had done it the first time, he suspected it would be easier with each attempt going forward. Provided, of course, he could focus. He found himself in the same place as before, a formless observer to the internal workings of the datapad. Then again, to imply that he was literally seeing the inside of the datapad could be inaccurate. If anything, this was just his brain and the Force at work, taking what he was sensing and translating it into a tangible image he could understand. Other people who did this would likely see something different.

Ultimately it didn’t matter exactly what he was seeing. Only that he saw it.

Electrical signals darting back and forth across a massive grid. This was how it worked. Tyrin supposed he could eventually figure out how to directly manipulate the signals, but that would require him to know what each one was sending, wouldn’t it? Maybe not. Maybe he only had to will it. Tyrin tapped into the Force, deciding to will the datapad to do something without his direct interaction with it. Something simple.

He conjured a single line of text on the screen.

 

[Caulder Dune]

Tyrin rose from his seated position. His legs were numb from being here for too long, and his stomach growled. That had been the standard for the past few days, but at least he now had something to show for it. He walked unsteadily over towards where the datapad had been laying down and bent over to pick it up.

The device was unchanged and didn’t appear to be functioning any differently. Given the amount of time it had been there, the screen had shut off automatically. Janus tapped the screen, the device flickering back to life at his touch. A note-taking file had been opened, a single line of text emblazoned into it.

HELLO WORLD

It was such a stupid, innocuous, and ultimately banal thing. Yet Tyrin smirked anyway. Here he had thought he had gotten too far along in his career to learn anything new. This, was only the beginning. First Electronic Manipulation, next was Technometry. At the end of it all, he would be proficient in Mechu-Deru.

And that was always a nice thing to be.

 

[Caulder Dune]

As he moved to leave, Tyrin checked his chronometer. If he was correct in his assumptions, it had taken him roughly two minutes to manipulate the datapad as he had once he finally managed to get into it and stay into it. Adding in that he had spent a lot of time loitering when he finally had… There was a lot of room for improvement.

If he intended to be able to control and coordinate droids at a whim, much like the Santhe woman did, he would need to be able to do so faster than that. It would be a good goal to work towards, considering he fully intended to take control of a particular droid company. He was waiting for many things to materialize in that department.

This was all for later, though. For now he ought to just be happy he had made any kind of progress. This would bring him one step closer to assuming his rightful place in the galaxy, and finally bring something to the table for the Tion Hegemony. But none of this had very much to do with the training he just did, as it was merely a filler post.

 

[Caulder Dune]

Tyrin paused in front of the door, just before hitting the button to disengage the lock and allow it to slide open. Maybe he could…

He focused for a moment, envisioning the lock. Deeper still, he saw the controls for the door, the pathways the electric signals would travel on in order to trigger the mechanism that opened the door. He gave it a nudge, or rather, a command.

The door unlocked and slid open in front of him.

That would be useful in the future. Grinning a rather uncharacteristic grin, Tyrin sauntered down the hallway and made for his quarters. He was famished.