The light side of Force-comprehension

[Cathul Thuku]

While Cathul has had a few rather unpleasant encounters with dark-siders, she never hoped the day would arrive that one of them would even want anything to do with the light side of the Force. One of them even forced her to give up on what she trained so hard and practiced for so long: therapy. Said Sith Lord beat her ability to do therapy (and most other medical functions) out of her by generous applications of beatings and dark-sided Force-powers. Luckily for her she didn't have to wait long for her chance to re-orient her career: she was also Governor of Azure and CEO of a real estate development company that also deals in realty and land reclamation. Despite accusations of graft pertaining to public works, IGR knows Azure like no other. She has to show that, despite meeting with a Sith Lord, she can show some restraint and not be dizzy in the presence of dark-siders. She has no desire of falling in the "Jedi-fights-Sith" trap. Even so, she senses that she should at least give a chance to that Sith Lord: he may have a legitimate reason to go grey rather than dark. Use too many dark-sided powers on her and she becomes dizzy, her brain fries a lot more easily. Hopefully there won't be Force-powers used on her.

------------------------------

Office of the Governor of Azure

To: [member="Darth Erebos"]
From: [member="Cathul Thuku"]

Although I usually not entertain requests of that variety, I heard that you were interested in learning Force-comprehension; as a bonus I may teach you pyrokinesis and cryokinesis. And Force-healing. I wonder whether you knew it or not but you can use Force-lightning to recharge a lightsaber or powerpacks. You shall be surprised at how the light side and the dark side actually have less of a bearing on a practical level than what most people think after hearing what I have to say. That is, if it makes sense to you.

Her Grace Cathul Thuku
Governor of Azure

------------------------------

 

[Shaddi]

He sat at his desk in his private study of the palace of Shawken. The study was much more like a small courtyard garden with only one forth of it holding bookshelf's and a desk along with a very well made, carved wooden conference table that would be able to hold six people with two on either side of each length and one on each end, in the middle was a very well integrated holo-projector that seemed like it simply belonged to the table. The blend of a calm meditative garden coupled with the carved wooden furniture of the study area itself made it all seem like it all belonged together, the ceiling held an artificial light projector that supplied sunlight into the garden to help the many plants grow.

Sitting at his desk he read through the replies and requests of different officials, requests for diplomatic relations and the people of shawken itself, though one did stand out. As he looked at [member="Cathul Thuku"]'s message he had to wonder a little about the offer extended to him.

From The Imperial palace of Shawken

From: T'zanith Zebron
To: Cathul Thuku

After reading through your message, I must confess to a curiosity of what you have to teach me. Your views on the force as well piqued my interest and I'd like to arrange a meeting. If you wish for me to come to you please know that my duties will not allow me to be away from Shawken for too long but if you so wish you can be given a room in the imperial palace while your visiting. Your safety is guaranteed in either case and I look forward to hearing your reply.

His Higness of Shawken
T'zanith Zebron

 

[Cathul Thuku]

------------------------------

Office of the Governor of Azure

To: T'zanith Zebron
From: [member="Cathul Thuku"]

Your Majesty, yes, I accept that offer to be housed in a room in the Imperial Palace while I visit. And you will also, in addition to any spell not listed in my last, learn Force-stun. And Instinctive Astrogation Control. All things considered that's a lot of light-sided Force-powers. Also, if there are others that are interested to learn the Force-powers I listed in either letter that you know about, please, they are welcome to learn it with Your Majesty. I should warn you about Instinctive Astrogation Control: most Force-users will need to use Force-comprehension first if they are able to use it at all.

Her Grace Cathul Thuku
Governor of Azure

------------------------------

Speaking of IAC, it would be just as draining on her brain to use as the three-target chain lightning she used back on Athos IV to fend off scavenger animals that were pests in a contaminated area, and require, as three-target chain lightning (powered by Electric Judgment), nearly all her computational power to bring to bear. And even so she doubted Catria's ability to use IAC without Force-comprehension (she knew her only by name because her name appeared on Jessica's medical records on Azure) - and Catria was highly intelligent in her own right, almost unnaturally so. But, if Catria develops her computational power a little bit, then she will be able to rely less on Force-comprehension if she wished to use IAC, and maybe completely do away with that when IAC is in use. Then again, Cathul was more than just a little oddball. She practiced as a therapist for the past 15 years but yet her intellectual makeup seemed to be closer to that of a mathematician or a condensed matter/AMO theorist than to a therapist's. She began to use Instinctive Astrogation Control to plot a course from Kriselist to Shawken, knowing that she would be using the coordinates at her own risk, but that a trip from Kriselist to Shawken would require several jumps anyway.

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

T'zanith knew that it might take a day or two for [member="Cathul Thuku"] to get to him so he decided to work on his meditation and go through his daily duties. Using moving meditation in a manner to go through several of the moves in the martial arts he knew and practiced like that. Going through raising a few rocks and making them orbit around him as he went through the moves also increased his focus and mastery of the force, until he had a small sword fight with one of the royal guard while trying to maintain control of two rocks he had floating of the ground on either end of the arena they fought on.

When a servant finally arrived to inform him of the ship coming into Shawkens orbit he ordered for Cathul to be allowed to dock her ship within the private hangar of the palace and a servant to greet her and escort her first to the room she'd stay in and then to the small garden T'zantih used as his meditation chamber/study.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

After about twenty jumps, in which she had to use Instinctive Astrogation Control equally many times, roughly once every two hours, Cathul had massive headaches from having to use IAC so many times that her computational power, that she knew was finite, was almost entirely drained. She was in no condition to use sorcery, not even to relieve her headaches, because she knew her headaches were caused by extremely intense mental activity and using the Force the way she does would only increase it so long as the power was in use. It almost seemed that sparks were flying from her forehead. She used the auto-docking sequence to dock her ship inside the private hangar of the palace. What wil T'zanith find in the hangar would be a tired Cathul, tired of having used her brain to the point it fries. Yet she always knew how her massive brainpower helped her stand out from other Force-users, including but not limited to Jedi or Witches: she was one of those few who were capable of using IAC without Force-comprehension.

"My head... it hurts! That's worse than on Athos IV"

"Sleep, Your Grace, you need to be rested for tomorrow"

And so she was, sleeping in the cockpit, wearing her beskar'gam by virtue of her being a Jedi in Mandalorian service (even though there were rumors that she would be going to set up a homestead in Alliance space), for which she knew that painkillers would only push back the need for sleep. Then she could put her cognitive functions on standby mode rather than at maximum.

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"Your grace your visitor, [member="Cathul Thuku"], seems to have taken to sleeping aboard her ship after the long journey she had to take to get here." An aid spoke up as T'zanith took a few steps back from his sparring with a royal guard. "Hmm, that is understandable. In the morning invite her into the dining hall for breakfast and we shall see if she is up for that." He said as he then gestured for the aid to leave and he finished his sparring match for the night and retired to his chambers.

In the morning he enjoyed his breakfast while in the dining hall which overlooked the great valley that ended in the mountain that the palace was built on. It was a magnificent view and despite the blindfolds indicating his physical blindness the force allowed him to enjoy the view.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Even a full night of sleep didn't make the headaches go away entirely but at least she could now use Force-healing to cure it, knowing that her mental activity has diminished enough to safely cure her headaches with Force-healing. Now her hope was that stimcaf would allow her to return back to normal so long as it doesn't induce a caffeine crash. Provided T'zanith actually had stimcaf or tea for her. Because she knew that it was tempting for him to use Drain Knowledge on her, and he probably knows the strength of her memory: no matter how many times would people use Drain Knowledge on her for one particular thing, the memory she has of that particular thing would remain almost unaltered in her brain. She realized that T'zanith's Force-power dwarfed hers and that she shouldn't trifle with his cognitive abilities because she knew he was well within her own range of cognitive abilities and functions. Along with Jessica, she was one of those who had to clearly delineate between their cognitive power and their Force-power. Now that she sat at the king's table...

"Greetings, my name is Cathul. I hope that Your Majesty won't be using Drain Knowledge in an attempt to accelerate His learning of the light-sided Force-powers on the agenda. I've seen way too many dark-siders attempt to extract what knowledge they want out of me using Drain Knowledge as if I was some sort of computer in the Force"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

Seeing [member="Cathul Thuku"] on the other end of the table he simply smiled. "Well you don't have to fear that, Drain knowledge is a skill I do not have in my repertoire." He replied as he took a bite of his break fast and then a drink from the fresh fruit juice from one of the gardens of the palace. "If you so wish you can call me T'zanith, miss Cathul. While I am no longer a sith lord I still have the... well craving for knowledge I had while I was one and I believe it is an integral part of who I am so I want to nurture that a little with knowledge of the light side." He explained as an aide came with a freshly brewed stimcaf for her to enjoy along with a small menu should she wish to enjoy a breakfast as well.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"T'zanith, the trick is that, I know exactly three practitioners using the methods I use, and we all call it knowledge-as-power. The main drawback of how I use the Force is that one needs to understand how the Force acts on the target when in use on a rather deep level. We always think of Electric Judgment, which requires one to understand Maxwell's equations in matter, and solve them for the target, but someone trained in the dark side of the Force would apply such methods to Force-lightning instead. Pyro and cryokinesis is a question of playing with the root-mean-square speed of the target's molecules (translational if the target was a gas, a plasma or, less commonly a supercritical fluid, rotational if the target was a liquid) or the molecular vibrational frequency (if solid). These quantities all depend on the temperature. Many a Force-power's mechanism have some scientific grounding as to how the Force acts when the Force-power is in use"

The other two were ladies who had some connection to Ringo Vinda: the first one had a Jedi Healer practice on that planet, the other ran Ringovinda StarYards, and both served the Techno Empire. She couldn't readily say whether he actually knew about those physico-chemical notions, but Cathul knew that these two people could pretty much learn any Force-power thrown at them if you give them the mechanism. And herself, too.

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

T'zanith had stopped eating at that point and had leaned back into his chair with one hand against his chin as he listened to her. "Hmm an interesting view of the force indeed." He said with an interested tone of voice. "So in essence with knowledge of biology, physics and mathematics one can in theory get all force abilities to work for oneself?" He asked as he used his other hand to take the glass of fruit juice and took a sip of it.
[member="Cathul Thuku"] certainly was an interesting individual.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"In theory, yes, one could get nearly all Force-powers to work with proper knowledge of the science behind a Force-power's mechanism, without using a particular alignment. Force-nexuses are therefore akin to a point where the Force resonates at a given frequency in a way that reduces one's expenditure of energy. Understandably, in practice, You'll understand that massive amounts of background knowledge are required for one to have a varied repertoire of Force-powers, and knowledge-as-power makes intense intellectual demands on their practitioners. I know very, very few Force-users know enough about neuropsychology to understand that, with nearly the same techniques as applied to mind tricks, one could use Force-fear or Force-stun respectively. Even Force-healers sometimes lack biomedical knowledge, and yet they are sometimes consulted in lieu of, or as a supplement to, generalist physicians. One only needs to aim for different parts of a target's brain: the prefrontal cortex, the bilateral amygdala and the motor cortex for mind trick, Force-fear/horror/insanity and Force-stun/stasis/Stasis field respectively, that is, in many humanoid species and on humans/Near-Humans as well. That's why I can switch so readily between all three of the mind trick, Force-horror and Force-stasis, without ever having to use a particular alignment in any case. Do you still feel the need to learn Force-comprehension?"

Whereas Cathul and Jessica both knew about quantum field theory - heck, Cathul learned it from Jessica when Jessica was just some NFU applied physicist - the last overt practitioner did not. Which meant that they explicitly knew Art of the Small; in their minds one can at best make implicit use of Art of the Small without proper knowledge of quantum field theory. If what Cathul knew about Dr. Turano was correct, she was more than eager to use her knowledge of biomedical sciences for "surgical" applications of the Force, but her knowledge of physics was a little... spotty. But by then Cathul was finished eating. If she had an apprentice that was a little weak intellectually, she'd have said apprentice learn Force-comprehension early in the process - maybe then the apprentice would be able to learn more advanced Force-powers. But the life of the Jedi Guardian appealed to those who wanted nothing better than to play cat-and-mouse against Sith, and still use the light side of the Force, and, since they would make limited use of the Force, to those who were a little weak intellectually.

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

T'zanith rubbed his chin a little as he listened to [member="Cathul Thuku"]'s explanation. "Tell me though force comprehension how does it work? Is it simply a force assisted manner to learn quicker or is there something more to it and it's uses?" He then asked as he used the other hand to place the glass back down onto the table in front of him.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Force-comprehension makes your neural processes faster by temporarily increasing the density of your neural connections. So it is, yes, often used as a Force-assisted manner to learn quicker, and more generally as a Force-booster for mental processes. The reason why it is often considered light-sided is that serenity and mental clarity are the best states of mind for optimal efficiency. There is a risk of seizure, though, if you use too much power at once into Force-comprehension. That is, if it actually works at all. There are a few people on whom it doesn't, but most of these people are Omwati or Givin, and nearly all of them are geniuses"

Unlike Short-term memory enhancement, and its more advanced form, Long-term memory enhancement, which is strictly used to enhance retrieval of information, calling on the Force to access subconscious memories, Force-comprehension enhances more than just memory, so Cathul would rather teach Force-comprehension to someone whose intellectual abilities are more, let's put it bluntly, questionable, unless one is much stronger in the more "fluid" areas of logic, computation and reasoning than for memory, in which case Short-term memory enhancement is called for. These things have one drawback in common: the better the person's cognitive functions natively are, the less of a boost they can provide. Cathul and Jessica are such brilliant ladies that these three Force-powers have no effect whatsoever on them: their native density of neural connections is higher than what Force-comprehension can provide for. This comes with the drawback, however, that anyone wishing to train in the use of Drain Knowledge at range will target any unnaturally smart person they can get their hands on to this end. Like them. Catria, the third and final known practitioner of knowledge-as-power as Cathul and Jessica knew it, is the target of such but only on occasion; even then it is mostly for medical knowledge. Sure there are tons of practitioners of Force-healing that weren't professional Force-healers unlike Catria was, and while it is easier to forgive a lack of biomedical knowledge in a practitioner of Force-healing that doesn't do it professionally, there truly were professional Force-healers that didn't have much, if any, medical clue.

"Oh and about Force-healing: you always hear about how using the dark side of the Force for Force-healing, well, actually, doesn't heal. You just substitute the injuries or illnesses for pain. But light-siders have a range of methods: good knowledge of biomedical sciences allows one to use the Force in more, please forgive the term, surgical ways, that is, with more precision and less Force-energy. Proper diagnosis is important when using Force-healing"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"I've always been interested in force healing and while I might not be at the same level as your self in the terms of cognitive abilities I would rather learn force comprehension just to be sure. It might have other uses if experimentation is performed on it, of course I shall forward anything I discover back to you as a favor for simply teaching this skill to me." He said with a smile as he stood up and walked a little towards the windows. "If you so wish I can teach you a force ability I came up with on my own if you so wish, though it isn't perfected yet." He said with a smile as he waited for [member="Cathul Thuku"] to respond to him and to see if she was intrigued by what he had said.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"I'm up for learning almost any power so long as I understand its mechanism, so please, tell me how it works"

And then I can determine what to use it for, she thought. So long as it isn't a dark-sided power, she would be just fine so long as she doesn't overextend her power. But from what she heard of Force-comprehension vs. IAC, Force-comprehension was to be learned first and then IAC. Because Force-comprehension is just a neural booster, increasing one's computational power. The basic restrictions underlining it are fairly straightforward: maintain a safe distance between the object and the trajectory, make sure that the curvature and torsion do not exceed a certain value (or else the G-forces would make it too dangerous) and drop out of hyperspace when you either reach your destination or, for long-haul flights, when there are cusps (that is, when the trajectory isn't differentiable). But ensuring that said curvature or torsion do not exceed a certain value, requires that, when the trajectory is differentiable, it must be done at least thrice. Hence Jessica claims that a person with a good grasp of topology or a person capable of solving for Maxwell's equations in one's head would make a good candidate for learning IAC (and oftentimes people who can do either, can do both; surprisingly Cathul can do both).

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"It is a skill I call force echo and I created it to make up for my lack of... focus when it pertained to my force sigth. By gathering the force into my palm and forcing it into a spherical shape and then letting it "explode" outwards. This way the area around me or were I cause the sphere to expand to be bathed in force energy which allows a practitioner of force sight that hasn't sufficiently mastered it to see just as well as someone with sight. However I've begun to experiment with it and I managed to combine it with force shock which just like before will cause the area you manage to make the sphere expand into, be made into an area of force shock." He explained as he gathered the force into his palm and only for a moment combined it with force shock to be seen with the naked eye before he made it simply into a basic force echo and allowed it to explode outwards, filling the room with palpable force energy. He hoped that the demonstration would aid in [member="Cathul Thuku"]'s understanding of the skill for it was neither light nor dark but rather a grey utilitarian skill in it's nature.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Knowing that the inverse-square law meant that, as the sphere expanded, the pressure generated by Force-echo was going to decrease: basically, just some Force-explosive or, more accurately, a sonic charge. Ought to combine that with pyrokinesis and then I'll get my own fuel bombs to hurl using witchcraft. But using both in one Force-explosive was going to incur the sum of the computational power required to do each one in isolation, she thought. She always thought that, so long as her cognitive functions can be fully brought to bear, she can use the Force any way she wants so long as she actually had the power to do so. But if someone can somehow impair her cognitive functions, it has a somewhat similar effect to being cut off from the Force to her: she feels as if her well-trained brain is her central Force-instrument enabling her to use the Force, and that computational power was what mattered to determine what she can and cannot do with the Force: unlike Jessica she doesn't feel trapped by her lack of Force-energy as much.

"For Force-users of my style, that would mean... Force-echo can be used as a Force-explosive! Combined with other spells, like Electric Judgment, Force-stun, one could use Force-echo to inflict area-of-effect damage. Now that was one spell that will make me that much more effective"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

He smiled a little. "I thought as much. Creativity is something I admire and encourage of those around me." He said with a smile as he flicked his wrist and a small flame figure came into existence over his palm that danced a little around before he blew on it and it dispersed. "To me the force is more like an art form you can use to inflict whatever you want onto those that you use it on." He said with a slight smirk.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Oh, sure I could use Force-echo as an explosive, but I'm not one to use explosives on a regular basis. That's the only reason why I accepted to learn Force-echo: I know that I won't abuse it. Not like all too many Jedi I know in Mandalorian service: they are brutes, they think beskar will render them invincible, they recklessly charge with little tactical consideration" she spoke as she hurled a small Force-echo ball that fizzled rather quickly due to her being a beginner in the skill.

Hmmm... if my knowledge allowed him to go to the light, that is already a win-win for me, she thought. Way too many Jedi become Jedi as an excuse to kill, disregard the tenet of using the Force for knowledge and defense; thank the Force I am a rather light-sided Witch! I can only provide a foundation for him to go to the light: the rest comes from his use of Force-comprehension and Force-healing. I come to a surprise to T'zanith; he'd expect a Jedi in Mandalorian service to provide him with a lightsaber or blaster lesson. What was for sure was that Cathul possessed much stronger cognitive abilities than the average Jedi in Mandalorian service. Of course, she is a little oddball among Mandos, where combat prowess is valued beyond knowledge, and, even though she herself have a suit of beskar armor, Cathul used her beskar'gam more often when she was a therapist than she does now.

"It's weird but the Force once willed me into becoming a therapist, but ceased to practice after a patient beat my ability to do therapy using generous applications of beatings and dark-sided Force-powers. Now I realize my own intellectual makeup is closer to that of a condensed matter/AMO theorist; you probably know that intelligence is multifaceted but that's what most Force-users fail to realize"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"It is true that the reason I'm teaching you force echo because your willing to teach me and because your intelligence. However You are the first I've ever taught this skill and if I hear you've miss used it in any way I will come back to you and having your mind tampered with will be the least of your problems then, do I make myself clear?" He said as he turned to face [member="Cathul Thuku"] fully and the stern look of a practiced teacher was in his facial features while he looked towards her. He knew that jedi had strayed so far from their original path that their ancestors would weep merely at the mention of some of the atrocities committed by jedi and in their name.

While he saw the force using Mandalorians as simple brutes with little to no tact and even some of the sith, he viewed in a similar fashion. What he respected was creativity and intelligence something he saw in Cathul's eyes but then again he wasn't about to hand over some of the more obscure secrets of the force for something as relatively simple as force healing and force comprehension. "However I must ask, do you know force sight? I created force echo to aid in that ability so I believe teaching the two together would be for the best."