The light side of Force-comprehension

[Cathul Thuku]

"Oh, I do know Force-sight: I'm even called the Radar of Mandalore by the Jedi in Mandalorian service precisely because my skill at using Force-sight and, with it, Force-sense, is among the best in the galaxy"

Cathul is one of the most Force-dependent Mandalorians, but it has to do with her ability to weave spells almost on a whim using her vast knowledge of the outside universe. She knew the Force is infinite but she always feels best about her relationship with the Force when she feels that she has enough power to act based on her knowledge. Because, by Mandalorian Jedi standards, she had massive amounts of intelligence, she was considered a genius by most Mandalorian practitioners of Drain Knowledge, and certainly on Azure. She knows better than to abuse Force-explosives in combat, and T'zanith knew it.

"Force-echo has the effect of a remote probe when used for Force-sight. Nevertheless, it may come at a surprise to you, because you assume I'm a Jedi, but here are three services of a financial nature I could offer the people of Shawken, provided I have the permission to open a branch for all three of the following: banking, insurance and real estate brokerage. However I know I am not alone in providing these things to the people of Shawken"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

He smiled slightly as he heard [member="Cathul Thuku"]'s reply to him. "Well it seems your full of surprises Miss Thuku." He said as he gestured for her to follow him as he took a walk towards a door which connected to a corridor that lead into a very scenic and tranquil garden, seeming to belong to a jedi temple of serenity rather than a palace garden. "I usually train here when it comes to the more calm nature force abilities as well as my sight." He said as he walked with her along a path that was flanked by knee high bushes with various flowers growing out of them from white lily like flowers to purple roses.

Stopping at a large circular area were their path lead to and then split into three others as if the circle was in the middle of a cross intersection. "While I do admit Shawken does need all the help it can get in it's rebuilding. What is it that your company might offer in terms of jobs for the people of Shawken?" He then asked as he took a seat in a meditative manner while he gestured for Cathul to sit opposite himself. He found her boast of being among the best in the galaxy in force sight and force sense a little humorous, he had been relying on it and nurturing it for almost four decades now and he was considered a master though he still thought he might need must a little to be beyond what the luke sene could do with the skills, as they were the undisputed masters of the skills.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Speaking of rebuilding, even though my company, IGR, started as a real estate brokerage company, it's also a general contractor. We handled large-scale reconstruction projects on Azure, Gala, Athos IV and Kriselist so we can do it on Shawken too, provided that we use local labor and materials to build on Shawken what the residents of the aforementionned planets liked about us, that is, social housing in neighborhoods that are self-contained. And local labor would be used for the other three services I mentioned earlier"

Local labor was a key tenet for Jedi in Confederate service, even though she was actually neither Jedi nor Confederate. Suspicions began to arose in Mando-land that she had ties to the Confederacy of Independent Systems especially since she knew more about economics and finance than virtually all Jedi in Mandalorian, or even Alliance, service, and that she embraced business and finance much more readily than was the Jedi norm. She always found that most Jedi diplomats, in Alliance or Mandalorian service, are rather shallow when it comes to economics, and she had to train would-be Jedi diplomats in economics on various occasions, Mandalorians at first and later extended to the NJO as well. Political science and law has often come more naturally to Jedi than economics had; even then not many wanted to become Jedi for diplomacy, and it is not a secret to anyone in the galaxy.

"Self-contained in the sense that the essential services and merchandise would be available within walking distance of the residents so long as it is safe and healthy to do so. I've got to say, however, in Mando-land I am suspected of actually having ties to the Confederacy of Independent Systems especially since I am planning to provide them with deposit insurance. That way Confederates can rest easy knowing that their money won't be entirely lost should they suffer from a bank failure"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

T'zanith thought a little on that. "hmm while I do have my own company which provides jobs here on shawekn to the more design and scientifically focused individuals. I must admit to a slight ignorance to Economics in general." He admitted as he leaned a little forwards while resting his elbow on his thigh while holding the closed fist of the same hand against his jaw. "I will then have to ask for you to provide shawken with housing and some of the amenities that a society will require for example hospitals, schools and suitable locations for business centers, small or otherwise. Your desire to use local labor is admirable as well Cathul, I do hope that our relationship will be mutually benifical both in learning, buisness and to my people."


[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"We had to do just that on Kriselist: provide hospitals, schools, business centers, and other socially-critical amenities, and, as I said, as close as possible to the residents as is healthy and safe, all the while using local labor and materials, and here I believe densification is key, and doing it intelligently at that: urban sprawl will limit the ability of the planet to grow food for its residents"

Even though said business centers are, depending on whether they are retail or not, on the lower or upper floors of mixed-used buildings, she knows better than to put stuff other than a hospital in the same building. But she will have to compromise: schools have to take up two or three floors in certain high-rises. But upon hearing that T'zanith was a little weak with economics, at least compared to Cathul, that shattered the whole notion that dark-siders were stronger in that area to her: she has just showed that the light side of the Force was just as capable of producing Force-users with a functional grasp of economics. While she does not know who trains Silver Jedi in that topic, and the Confederacy was content with Jessica, she never received complaints from the part of Mandalorian Jedi diplomats, nor did she from Alliance ones, concerning their economics training. But that might be a function of the Mandos' notoriously low intellectual refinement.

"By now you have realized just why I have been asked, for the past five years, to act as a distance economics trainer for Mandalorian Jedi who wanted to do diplomacy, and now for the Alliance. Not a whole lot of Jedi actually want anything to do with the diplomacy part of peacekeeping, and most Sith I have known seem to regard diplomacy with suspicion at best"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

At that T'zanith had to chuckle as he moved to open the closed fist at his jaw to lightly grip and rub the temples at the right side of his face. "Well Sith are suspicious in our nature, most of the time it's what keeps us alive. However though I follow some of the sith's philosophy I've moved past the more brutal aspects of it, as such I can no longer be called a sith." He said before he picked up a small holo-communicator from his robes and spoke in Shawkesse into it to a small image of a human male dressed in a butlers clothing.

"While We wait I can teach you force echo while we discuss economics and the butler brings in the holo table that will allow you to see more of the cities layout." He said as he smiled lightly and took a much more meditative stance in his seating posture by raising his back straight up.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

By now Cathul knew how T'zanith came to begin the process for going to the light, and where she fit. She sensed the butler was soon coming with a holotable in tow with the prospective design for the city IGR was brought in to rebuild. So long as the constraints in internal usage are not too heavy, she can work her way around. So she clearly knew better than her Mandalorian brethren (and most of the Alliance complement of Jedi, too) about urbanism and the economics of cities? She had a clear vision and a clear logic behind it, he had to grant as much. As she began another round of using what she called the Force-explosive, she sees her deploying a ball of compressed air, as if an explosive's shockwave, using the Force. She thought hard of how much wave pressure and how noisy using such a Force-explosive is, even though she can't use it as a Force-explosive yet. When Cathul's next attempt at using Force-echo succeeds, all that she managed to do was to create a ball of soundwaves, as if to do echolocation.

"I must have awakened everyone else in the palace by now... forgive me, T'zanith, I'm still a beginner at Force-echo"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

He nodded to [member="Cathul Thuku"] and then moved his hand over to her to hold her open palm pointing up towards the sky. "Think of Force echo as echolocation but in the force. When I use it the only thing that should be felt are the gentle ripples in the force that it creates. In essence force echo doesn't create a sound as it is a different type of echolocation, relying on force sight instead of hearing." He said as he funneled the force through his hand and coalesed it into a small force echo above her hand and then expanding outwards without a sound. "It is a utilitarian skill at it's core. To begin trying to make it into something it isn't when learning it is ill advised." He said with a smile as he then moved his other hand to gently gesture for Cathul to close her eyes. "Learn it while using force sight and you will understand it much better."

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Oh, my creativity can play some tricks on me sometimes. I just learned kinetite alongside Force-echo"

Cathul was way too eager to turn Force-echo into a Force-explosive for her own good. Echolocation in the Force... now T'zanith was talking. Here Cathul was sending out a Force-signal that was more like what would be suitable for doing echolocation in the Force. She was attempting to use Force-echo for actual echolocation before that, knowing that increasing the power down the line would make it suitable for a Force-explosive. Here she had to reduce the power, rather than making an expanding bubble of Force-energy. Then she finally understood what Force-echo was used for: enhancing long-range Force-detection abilities. Not that she had much use for it, but using Force-echo as a Force-explosive is more akin to what she knew as a spell called kinetite. Kinetite was a spell that was mostly associated with Electric Judgment or Force-lightning, however, she would use kinetite for awakening people if used as a blaring Force-klaxon.

"Much better: the Force-echo says that the butler should arrive along any second"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"He is an expedient one I can give him that." He said as he leaned back up and began to play around a little with a small force lightning he began to make fly around his fingertips and between his hands, a small practice he usually did when his mind began to race around with possibilities. "hmm when it comes to the force I've found it to be quite malleable, a combination of some powers is easy while others aren't as easy to combine." As he said that he made a small flame in one hand and then clasped that hand together with the one holding a small lighting above it. As he opened the clasped palms what floated above his palms was a blue flame with arching electricity around it. "I find it to be the mystery of the force that makes it so... interesting." He said with a slight fond smile as he flicked his wrist and the blue electric flame dissipated.

With a slight grunt the butler pushed the heavy floating holo-table towards them, the table holding a few refreshments on a side tray built into it. "Here it is my Lord." He said as he had it placed next to them and gave a deferential bow. "Thank you Mister Bassun, take some time off you seem to need it." T'zanith replied with a smile and seeing the relief on the old butlers face caused him to chuckle a little.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Now that the holotable was in position for Cathul to look what the city looks like, she was ecstatic to show that the urban planning team respected her wishes: as with Kriselist, and to a lesser extent, Gala, densification was key. Might make a neighborhood more walkable, but might be more dangerous crime-wise, she thought, upon seeing the plan. Then again the correlation between population density and criminality is disputed, and she knew it. Clearly Shawken was no agri-world like Chandrila was, and yet local labor often meant local food and whatnot to her eyes. To her ownership of a major corporation doesn't have to be incompatible with the Jedi Code. Cathul was a little uncomfortable around the more orthodox of these for a reason. The more orthodox Jedi, like one of the Jedi Healers a certain Jessica consulted, would be uncomfortable around either one of Cathul or Jessica: they're both executives, each running a major corporation and she would feel either one would be much more vulnerable to greed.

"I'm glad you understand the implications of the scarcity of arable land"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"Shawken has it's agricultural centers around the planet while most of the population is situated in six major population centers. Ismitta is a citywide moon orbiting above us which holds many immigrants and shawkenesse citizens as well while Badra is the moon that was terraformed in the ancient past to provide a rich agricultural moon to provide even more food for our populations." He said as he pressed a button and the planet along with it's four moons came up on the holo display with dots showing the cities on the planets and one moon colored the same with another moon and some large swaths of land on the planet marked as agricultural purposes. Another moon and three locations on the planet were marked for military purposes and comprised of defenses and shield projectors. One of the moons was designated as off limits as well as a large part in the upper north of the hemisphere of the planet.

"Tell me [member="Cathul Thuku"], what is your companies experience in building Military complexes? Such as planetary shielding complexes and defensive installations? With the state of the galaxy as it is, one cannot be too careful with defense."

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"The project to rebuild Shawken is far too big for a single corporation to handle. Military complexes should be best left to other companies: I mostly provide for civilian building needs"

Cathul was tempted to call on Jessica but her idea of defensive installations would mean installing batteries of hypervelocity cannons, turreted heavy proton torpedo launchers firing 533mm proton torpedoes, as well as turbolasers and ion cannons on orbital platforms. She knew about what Jessica sold but never had the thought of fleeting crossed her mind, despite having had a wide range of patients from which to draw on tactical experience. Including fleeters, and starfighter pilots, even though there were more patients that were coming to the various incarnations of her medical practice because of traumas induced by ground combat than from space combat. She harbored no illusions that she would be the sort of person to fight on the battlefield and be a person to inspire others with sheer combat skill, but she was the kind of Jedi that relied a lot on witchcraft to fight on ground, that is, on weaponized uses of the Force.

"I know someone else that could provide hardpoints for defensive installations but unfortunately that corporation I know most about does not do planetary shielding complexes. However, you can always ask that corporation about heavy proton torpedoes, long-range hypervelocity cannons, turbolasers, ion cannons, and other items of that variety, and mounting said items on orbital platforms. You should, however, launch a bidding process for these things: there is no shortage of contractors willing a piece of the defensive pie"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"Hmm that is true, perhaps setting up a bid for the defenses might be a good Idea." He said as he adjusted his sitting posture a little. "My own company can also help provide the needed materials and labor that isn't safe enough for organics to take." He had to wonder about the person [member="Cathul Thuku"] had talked about given that there seemed to be something more to that person than what Cathul was letting on.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"I've got to say that your company is welcome to contribute the more hazardous portions of rebuilding Shawken. I'm taking it that some of the local materials are too dangerous for organics, and specialized droid labor are used for such things by your company?"

She was forced to admit that part of the project she was there to carry out was too dangerous for organics to do, as much as she would like to make use of local labor and materials. And, for some reason, the main construction companies of the galaxy were content operating in lower-risk areas. Puzzled, Cathul was. She picked up T'zanith's thoughts urging him to question her about exactly how she was related to Jessica and Jessica's relationship to Ringovinda Systems, now that he knew what Ringovinda Systems sold in the first place. Even though the everyday citizen is a rather minor investor, some people used investment banking for retirement funds, and the investment banking division knew that there were dozens of companies selling starship components, hence Cathul's suggestion of launching a bidding process. But perhaps telling him about exactly who the prospective bidder is, that sold the very things she mentioned, would be a good idea.

"I previously described what [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] designed and sold. She should be able to take part in a bidding process, but I would like a bidding process to be equitable, and so would she. To her, and to me, using the light side of the Force in business means that 1) everyone should be given a chance until proven otherwise, and 2) one has to treat everyone with respect"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

T'zanith smiled a little at that. "Well while respect is given freely, sometimes it must be earned but I do agree with those two ideas. The sith had a similar idea in that those that are deemed weak are those that have wasted their chances to become strong. Of course I do not hold solely to that idea and am actually formulating something of my own philosophy towards. However who is this Jessica really? I sense there might be something more to who she is than your letting on." He said as his facial expression turned to one of scrutinizing curiosity.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Jessica may not be as powerful as I am in the Force but that's probably for good reason: she lived much of her adulthood as a NFU, because of a false-negative Force-sensitivity test during her childhood. She seems like a nice light-sider that actually uses the Force for defense and knowledge, and one of the few that can actually use Instinctive Astrogation Control for something other than some glorified form of Force-comprehension, and I am another one of those people, too"

IAC was a daunting power to learn: many Force-users who are good pilots but lack the computational power either Cathul or Jessica had would rather learn Instinctive Astrogation in its place. What made it error-prone was that it required one to compute a 1-manifold in a 3-dimensional space, subject to several constraints: a maximum curvature (for G-forces reasons), a minimum distance to astronomical objects must be respected, hyperspace trade routes must be taken if possible, if either the maximum curvature is exceeded or the curvature cannot be computed (that is, if the manifold is at most differentiable once, but often not at all), one drops from hyperspace. But those who wanted to learn IAC anyway despite their lack of computational power, usually used it as a neural booster rather than for actually computing paths through hyperspace. Yet Cathul is furiously thinking about what could possibly pique T'zanith's interest in Jessica.

"Jessica designed some space-borne weapons all by herself. Like a 380mm-caliber hypervelocity cannon, but she once talked about how creating a cutting-edge AI by herself over a few days about five years ago ultimately made her discover that she was Force-sensitive because of her peculiar neuroses. Just invite her here when the bidding process opens"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

"Hmm well I do have an interest in those that began their development in the force outside the "more religious" orders of the sith or jedi. However you are right, the bidding process would be a good place for me to meet her." He said as he began to examine [member="Cathul Thuku"] a little with a scrutinizing eye, or as relative as that is when one sees with the force. He moved to stand at her side as he looked down upon the holo table projecting the Shawken system for her to see. "Tell me though how does one achieve force comprehension or Instinctive astrogation control?"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"What differentiates Force-comprehension from Instinctive Astrogation Control is what one could use it for. While they are both used as intellectual boosters by way of using the Force to increase one's neural speed, IAC is originally intended as something much more specific than an intellectual booster. But so many get the trajectory wrong that they instead use it as an intellectual booster, hence why I say that many use it as a glorified Force-comprehension"

Yet Cathul found that the intellectual booster portion of IAC was completely ineffective on her. She chuckled when T'zanith asked about Force-comprehension vs. IAC. She knew who were the best candidates to learn IAC and actually use IAC for its intended purpose: people who could solve for Maxwell's equations in their heads, or people who excelled at differential geometry or topology. But she knew that, while such people existed, there weren't that many Force-users capable of doing such.

"Instinctive Astrogation Control is reputed to be a very difficult power to master because of the mathematical requirements to actually use it effectively. There are four constraints that must be obeyed, all of which have to do with safety: a minimum distance must be observed from a stellar body other than an endpoint of the route, a maximum curvature must be respected or else the centrifugal forces would tear the ship apart, even with an inertial dampener, if possible, use hyperspace highways, and finally, if the curvature cannot be calculated at a point, you drop from hyperspace there. I wonder whether your knowledge of vector calculus and of differential geometry/topology is sufficient to make use of that. Even I tend to keep it for long-haul flights, where multiple jumps are needed anyway, because using it for actual hyperspace nagivation is sensitive to the endpoints, which means that I use it every time after the jump ends, while using the time in hyperspace to rest. And also because detours are much easier to accept as a fact of hyperspace travel on long-haul flights"

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

T'zantih thought for a few moments as he took in what [member="Cathul Thuku"] had just said about the two abilities. "Hmm well I believe force comprehension will be better for me as I do not chart hyperspace routes at all." He said with a light smile as he leaned a little against the table.