Will the regulatory nightmares end?

[Jessica Med-Beq]

It seemed that the First Order regulatory authorities further delayed the entry in service of the Lucrehulk-X. She dismissed the original reasons as being a little arbitrary but she also had to comply with those, especially since one of the prospective clients include First Order-affiliated entities (and not just Star Tours but certainly Star Tours). While everyone and their dogs in the shipbuilding industry were willing to start filing the paperwork well in advance of any putative entry-in-service dates of a ship, or at least when minimum requirements are met, ships in that size bracket were incredibly complex for regulatory authorities to inspect. Also, the main things that were unfinished were relatively minor kinks, but were concentrated around the living crew areas of the ship. As with last time, it seems that the living areas near the hangar bay, located aft and close to the reactors but with no direct access to them from the hangar bay, are the hardest to work with, knowing that long-haul cruising crews were often picky with their accommodations. The crews in the CIC (even though, in normal service, the CIC would be mostly used when in port) were watching the Neimoidian Yacht unpack workers from the ring station, among which one [member="Celiana"] was to be found:

"Jessica, your guest has arrived in the hangar bay" the hangar bay crewman told Jessica over comms.

"Tell them to send her to the buffet" Jessica told the hangar bay crewman.

 

[Celiana]

I'd arrived on the ring station not long ago and had been looking for the possibility of establishing trade relations along with finding a repair station that didn't involve some kind of crime syndicate or on a world owned by Hutts. Glancing up I saw a crewman approaching me...not out of the ordinary for a crewman to approach me especially based on the fact that I was in Beskar'gam armor. As they approached me they said "Excuse me miss, my employer has instructed me to escort you to the buffet." The crewman couldn't see my expression through my helmet but I was surprised which was fairly difficult to do. I gestured for the crewman to lead on and I followed him down the halls towards what appeared to be a conference room with a rather large amount of food. Thanking the crewman I waited for them to leave then pulled my helmet off before pulling a small stool over and taking a seat atop the stool I crossed my legs into a lotus position. Closing my eyes halfway I opened myself to The Force and began levitating my helmet before pulling several small fruits into a loose orbit getting them as tight against each other without allowing them to touch. I had to admit I was curious as to who the crewman's employer was and what was with the buffet deal not that I'd turn down good food...

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

The buffet in which [member="Celiana"] entered, with the guidance of the valet crewman, was, well, unfinished. Or at least some of the equipment in the kitchen attached to said buffet wasn't yet ready. Soon the Lucrehulk-X will pass the review of the First Order regulatory authorities, provided that they put in the work. Yes, the main systems of the ship are operational, but it operated with a skeleton crew for its test flight from Glyss to Ringo Vinda. Several food-warming cabinets had steam pipes that were not welded yet; she had Celiana positioned in front of one of those cabinets. She opens the maintenance hatch of one such polished quadanium steel cabinet, revealing a system of turadium pipes used for steam, with, of course, some shelves for storing the plates and other utensils. Better not bore her with the thermodynamics part of pyro/cryokinesis; I might lose the student before she even had a chance to practice the skill if I did. Hopefully she will get to eat Force-cooked stuff, she thought. While she pointed at one of the unwelded pipe joints:

"Welcome. My name is Jessica. The agenda for today will be as follows: we'll start with pyrokinesis, then we will go on to cryokinesis and then finish with Electric Judgment. Does that make sense? Now before we begin, let me preface this by saying that too many people think of these three Force-powers as weapons. But pyrokinesis can be used for cooking, welding or, for those more medically-oriented, cauterizing wounds. Here the first exercise will be to weld the steam pipes in the food-warming cabinet into place. You have to understand that temperature is about the speed of the atoms, so use the Force to accelerate the atoms around the joint"

 

[Celiana]

As a woman entered the room I'd been sitting in I registered her presence and began calling the fruit I'd been levitating to my hands one at a time and stuffing them into a small bag on my belt. As I finished that I said "A pleasure Jessica, and I'm familiar with the concept though I've never really used it before." Listening to her explanation of things I looked at the joints where the steam pipes needed welding and began to lose myself in The Force. Looking at the pipes through The Force I recalled the pain I'd felt at getting my first real saber injury the heat of it and how it'd instantly cauterized. Looking at the pipes I began channeling The Force and taking the energy of the electricity running through the station calling it to me and amplifying the energy in my mind to the point of combustion. Then calling the energy to my right hand I breathed out and looked towards my right hand. While there wasn't any flame per se, there was definitely arcing electrical current with more energy than I'd ever held before...

Walking over to the piping I channeled the arcing current through my hand into my index and middle fingers and kept urging the current to go faster and faster until finally my fingers began glowing a hellish red color. Trusting that The Force wouldn't betray me I moved until I was directly in front of the piping and touched my fingers to the piping where it began to spark due to the electrical heat running through my fingers. I wasn't entirely comfortable with this amount of energy coursing through me but I also realized that I'd need much more practice with it too. I'd always been fairly good at channeling The Force for uses of destruction, it was the control aspect of things that I truly struggled with... I silently wondered if this Jedi would be judging me negatively on the fact that I'd used electricity to begin the process of kick-starting my use of pyrokinesis... I couldn't help but think of Master Rasu and how I'd worked with her to learn what I knew of Electric Judgement.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You won't always have electricity at your disposal, unless you want to bleed your lightsaber dry by using pyrokinesis. However, since you already know Electric Judgment, we can take it off today's agenda. Speaking of Electric Judgment, you may use it to recharge a lightsaber. Sometimes you may want to use pyrokinesis for HVAC purposes, where using pyrokinesis as you would for arc welding would be inappropriate"

As she feels the power grid in the buffet going haywire, Jessica wondered what kind of Force-user would simply be draining electricity to do arc welding; at least the piping was properly welded. She did teach pyrokinesis to Sallikar, a Shard, on Sekalus based on using it for HVAC. Here heating was the main item of note here. But [member="Celiana"] was pretty clearly intent on using pyrokinesis and cryokinesis for weaponized purposes. Jessica would prefer teaching pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, Electric Judgment even, pretty early in the learning curve of a Force-user so that they have a better grasp of control: she always lamented that people who wait too long to learn Force-powers (except for the very top-end powers, like Battle Meditation, Sever Force or even Force-light) often had to struggle with the issues of control. Speaking of which it's one of the main things today's student needs to work on: a Force-user with poor control is dangerous, not only for those around it, but also to itself.

"For those occasions, it is better to think of pyrokinesis as making the target's molecules dance, with the dancing tempo being the desired temperature. For the purpose of climate control, it would be too dangerous to use electricity to jumpstart pyrokinesis. Now try to make the air molecules dance but just a little faster"

 

[Celiana]

I somehow felt that Jessica was silently judging me on my use of electricity to weld with. Speaking over my shoulder as I began exciting molecules in the pipes as well as my two fingers I said "Seems like you've already made up your mind on the reasons why I'm learning these powers, or at least the beginnings of them from you. Though I have to ask, isn't assuming what I'll do with this knowledge a tad judgmental? I mean for all you know I could be learning pyrokinesis for forge work, cooking, or other things. I could be learning cryokinesis for something as simple as chilling a glass of tea."

Concentrating on the piping and my fingers I began heating up the pipe again until it began to glow once more. When that was done I began doing the same with my two fingers as I pulled the unheated pipe into place to begin the weld. I knew that I had a reputation for being...aggressive in The Order but not everything I learned was meant to be used as a weapon even if in all likelihood it could be. I wondered if The Order simply thought that's all that I wanted from The Force to use it for power and as a weapon....

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"All right, I know I don't know you that well"

True, perhaps Jessica may have let these memories of [member="Celiana"] on Kuat cloud her judgment, even though she was unable to use the Force back then. But at least Celiana didn't use the nearby power grid to get pyrokinesis started this time around. Much better, she thought. As for Celiana's comment based on cryokinesis being used for chilling a cup of tea, based on that, Jessica decides to go fetch a cup of tea since she accepts that suggestion without questioning it. Just large enough to pass for a serving of iced tea once appropriately chilled, and the cup was placed on the buffet countertop used for serving drinks, right behind the food reheater whose pipes were welded by Celiana as a lesson in pyrokinesis. Perhaps today's student really was wanting to use pyro/cryokinesis the same ways she used it herself. True, Jessica tended to use the Force as a tool, and frankly she let her expression of happiness show in the Force.

"Oh and since you mentioned that you wanted to use cryokinesis for chilling tea, cryokinesis is about slowing molecules down. Try chilling this cup of tea"

 

[Celiana]

Imagining my time on Arkania and the cold there I looked at the cup of tea before taking it from Jessica's grasp I held it in my hand and began to breathe. Looking at the tea, glass and all I began to truly see the tea...The molecular structure of the tea and the cup both. Focusing on the tea I began to will the molecules to quick-chill. I saw the steam cease to rise and the liquid begin to cool until there were slight bits of ice in the tea. There was a thin film of ice that'd begun to form on the outside of the cup and then I began to stem the flow of control I'd used to chill the tea. I'd been concerned about my chilling the tea and cup as one because of my general lack of control but it seemed I'd started to really begin getting the hang of control....

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The film of ice on the cup is due to frosting: the ambient air is pretty humid" she commented, upon seeing the thin film of ice on the cup left by [member="Celiana"]'s attempt at cryokinesis.

Jessica preferred to teach the Elemental Triad (pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, Electric Judgment) as early as possible for a myriad of reasons: it allowed for better control of one's power down the road. It was one of the main advantages of quantum magic, if not the main one: control was much easier to get, to a level that would require a lot more practice for conventionally-trained FUs, even though she knew that conventional FU training was designed with requiring as little background knowledge as possible. And she was satisfied with Celiana gaining in control of her power. Now that's one that finally learned what goes into the control of their Force-powers, she thought, while the various items that made up the buffet were being loaded in the first operational test of these brand-new food reheaters. Soon the staff working onboard the ship will get to actually eat the food that lured the young Jedi padawan onboard for her lessons in pyro/cryokinesis.

"Nevertheless, you may want to drink it for yourself. Soon the buffet food will be actually served, on the house"

 

[Celiana]

Smiling a bit as I did as Jessica suggested taking a sip of the tea I realized that I actually was learning the control needed for these higher degrees of natural uses of Force powers. I was curious what Master Rasu was up to and she was in my thoughts quite frequently these days. The tea was just one of the uses of these powers but I knew that sensors could be fooled by creating a field of cold air. Welding could be done faster, food could be cooked, fires started and various other things too. I was curious though about what Jessica's history was and if she knew of any shipping opportunities for someone with a ship...

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Dinner is ready!" she hollered, while the nearby crews came to the buffet. "Fresh Pizza Hutt stuff ready, alongside other non-Pizza Hutt stuff"

The buffet was filled with about three dozen different meals that were common in all-you-can-eat buffets across the galaxy, with desserts to come out soon: these were still being prepared elsewhere in the galleys. She was satisfied that [member="Celiana"] actually made some progress in the area of Force-control. Control was one of the key ingredients that made effective Jedi in her mind. Meanwhile, Jessica went out and served some coleslaw (one of the few cold items) alongside other items like breaded fish and breadsticks, onto her plate, now laden with Pizza Hutt-made items. And yet, somehow, she could pick up Celiana wondering about what happened to her after they first met them on Kuat, like following through on what she did on Kuat by exploring the wreckage of a ship for schematics on Jabiim, living a period of intense neuroses where she felt used as a computer in/by the Force, then discovering that she is a Force-sensitive (as a result of a false-negative in her childhood), which, in turn, led to her training as a Jedi. Although there are a few dark secrets that she does her best at not letting them surface, which happened at various stages of her life as a Force-user.

"You appeared to have used Electric Judgment earlier. Perhaps you would like to check your lightsaber's battery status; if your lightsaber battery is low, dead even, you may use Electric Judgment to recharge it"