Force Matters

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***

- Yeah, you guys should be in bed for another six hours..." I stretched out as I noticed the two students. Crumpled, even Shiai. Still, going to such vulgar places, and even at their age, doesn't go without a mental break. If it had been later, when puberty began, the consequences could have been... unpredictable, from depravity to complexes, but for now the kids were just nervous and couldn't sleep.

- It's all right," Shiai grinned, "Shall we begin?

- There's no class for today. You have to train with vigour, otherwise it won't be of much use. Shiai, show Ahsoka the ship," I sighed, "and don't forget about lunch.

Shiai nodded and after a brief glance at Ahsoka, taking her by the hand, pulled the girl out of the training room. Let them rest for now.

I, on the other hand, gathered my thoughts and walked around the training room. Thoughts swarmed in my head, not leaving me for a minute. Was I even right to take Tano in? Was it the right thing to do? One could think about it for a long time.

The yacht was fortunately filled with all sorts of entertainment systems. Giving up on work, I went to the lower level. All the personnel of the yacht lived scattered all over the "claw", only the lower levels were service and economic, here were stored hundreds and thousands of tonnes of food, water, there were techangars for droids, spare parts, spare reactor and... assembly hall. It could not be crammed upstairs because of the abundance of training halls, laboratories and cabins. The former storage of weapons and battle droids was converted into an auditorium in the style of the Coruscant Opera House, only five times smaller. The stage, after all, was full-sized. This time I decided to rest and, leaving the choice of the play to the droid, sat down in the parterre.

The floor of the stage was one large holoprojector, which could create an image of amazing accuracy - here the count was already tens of millions of points of resolution on all three coordinates, so it was not easy to distinguish the image from real people. Except for the fact that there were holograms of actors on the stage... there was no difference from a normal theatre. I successfully spent two hours watching a classic play, and the droid had several thousand such productions in its memory. The pleasure is not cheap, as far as I knew, there is only one similar installation, on the cruise liner "lady of minor", and several dozen in the central worlds, remaining a rarity due to its costliness and popularity of classical theatre art. While I was fiddling with things, Cal, the captain of the yacht, used the money allocated for the ship's upkeep to order and install a holotheatre installation. And there were a lot of small improvements, but the condition of the yacht was not perfect after docking, so I had to make improvements as I went along.

I can't physically finish training Ahsoka Tano - I don't have the time, I just don't. When Ben will surrender to Satine's onslaught is unknown, but he may be recalled in a month or two for lack of use, or simply replaced. I'd bet that would be the case, but so far I'd seen no sign of it. There was a catastrophic lack of time - if in the tactical plan it was in abundance, in the strategic plan, the shortage was felt constantly. Here, he took up the noble task of educating a padawan, and it takes years... well, let's say, three to five years, no less. And during that time she should be taught the basics, as well as advanced draughtsmanship - at least at the level of an average Jedi knight, but taught. She'd do even better with the Force, on the level of a good knight, if not more, because she had an innate talent.

Since when did I start complaining about time? - I wondered, as if I'd been studying for decades myself. Well, let's say I've been studying for fewer years, but by the standards of this time, it's only been months. So why not pull a time-travelling stunt? Risky, going backwards would involve making a sea and ocean of calculations and plans, not a dive into the future after all, but....

I took up my tablet and sketched out a rough plan again. It came out beautifully, even elegantly. There were a couple of little things that could ruin the whole thing, but it was bearable. There were a few things left to check, so I got up and ran to the hyperdrives. I was afraid to touch the main one, but the spare one could be damaged. Having switched off the car, I took it out of its mountings and for a while, chuckling evilly, plunged into work. I had to drag it to the hangar and there, under the surprised looks of the technicians, to arrange an express reassembly by power forging. It's not an easy job, of course, but I had experience. A little tweak the main winding, which is responsible for the relativistic flow of time and voila, ready antitime machine. Or anti-time machine. The essence is simple - time machine can travel to the past and future, so that the flow of time inside the machine goes with one speed, and outside it, with another, and the journey through the centuries is imperceptible, and the antimachine of time makes so that the balance shifts to the side of time inside the machine, that is, inside will pass a year, and outside it - a month. It's a very handy invention. It was inspired by the invention of the "slowest teleport" in a well-known computer game where the hero travelled to the near future. Time is a relative thing, so why not use a true-architectural cheat and try to pull off such a trick?

Finishing the hyperdrive took me two days. The kids were just coming round, and I had time... as long as there weren't any developments on Mandalore, I had time. I called the experiment "Chronos", having destroyed almost all records about it, even erased the droids' memory just in case. Erdva, who looked into the hangar, only looked at my work and went back. The dusky imperial genius in my person reached the condition and installed the hyperdrive back into the slot. It was time to begin the experiment. If successful, it would be a breakthrough in the study of the nature of hyper travel and could save me a lot of time from now on.

Tired, hungry, but satisfied, I returned to my master quarters to find Tano and Shiai studying together under Makoi's guidance.

- Children," I waved my hand, "Maekoi, wait a moment.

The girl walked out, leaving the three of us alone.

- Dad, what have you been doing?

- Something useful. So, I've got the most unpleasant news for you," I flopped down on the couch, "we're going to train.

- It's about time," Shiai was enthusiastic, but I told him to stop:

- I'm serious. So, the yacht is now heading towards the nearest planet and we're dropping the entire crew there.

- Why? - wondered the boy, - are they in our way?

- Yes and no," I smiled, "let me tell you the lesson plan for the next five years..." I grinned, seeing the look on the children's faces.

After a minute of lengthy explanations, they were both in another state of confusion - time games are something beyond mortals' comprehension, so the kids had already realised that something was going on.

- But we'll grow up! - Ahsoka was the first to break the silence," she said, "five years, I'll be... thirteen, do you think no one will notice?

- No, of course not," I shrugged, "how old do you think I am?

Ahsoka fell silent. I had stopped my aging at the level of twenty, so I hadn't changed for a few years now.

- And really, how old? - Shiai suddenly wondered.

- Well... legally, sixteen. In fact, twenty-three, but psychologically over thirty by the years I've lived. Gaming over time has its imprints, and it's hard to identify one's age unambiguously. The main thing is that with the help of the force can slow down aging, so if necessary, you will grow up for a year, maximum - two. It's not critical at your age, though it's noticeable.

- 'That too,' Shiai nodded, 'but what about five years? Do you think no one will notice we've changed?

- Of course they will. But in fact, who knows you well enough to realise such a small thing? You, Shiai, I know you, and you, Ahsoka, Ben knows, that's all.

- Then I agree," Ahsoka nodded, "what does it take?

- Nothing. Right now we're going to take the crew down and make a hyperspace jump. From here on out, we'll do daily activities. The yacht has a sea of entertainment systems, even a theatre or game rooms with a small casino, so you won't get bored. This is in between gruelling workouts. Air, water and food reserves here are designed for three years of autonomy with a crew of a thousand people, that's thousands of tonnes of different goodies and not so goodies. There's no shortage of provisions.

The kids agreed and I went to Cal.

* * *

"The Chronos started right after the crew left the ship. I dropped them off on a very quiet and peaceful planet, telling them not to get into trouble and giving them money from my generosity. I was the only one who could operate the yacht, although I had to run between the consoles, the children also came to the bridge, but did nothing but stare at me. Ahsoka couldn't believe it was even possible, and Shiai just stared. The jump on the modified hyperdrive was calculated with maximum precision, along the main route to the Mandalore sector. If all goes smoothly, we'll be out there in a couple of months, and then we'll get right on top of Satine's problems.

I moved the manual hyperdrive lever and the stars in front of the windshield blurred into lines, the space around the cruiser filled with a grey haze of hyperspace with occasional dark sparks. Typical hyperspace.

- Erdva," I turned to my friend, "check the hyperspace beacon timings.

- Checked. Time distortion factor is about a hundred and fifty units. Continuing to rise.

- Let me know when it stabilises.

- Acknowledged," Erdva fell silent and stared at the navigator console in front of him.

- Er..." Shiai spoke up, "Dad?

- What?

- That's it? - he was disappointed that he didn't see anything incredible.

- Yes, that's it.

- Stabilised,'' Erdwa's voice intervened, ''the coefficient is two hundred and fifty units.

That was wonderful. The experiment was successful, we were in space and time, but for us it flowed strictly as we needed it to. Wonderful, however... I asked Erdva to inform me about the changes every day, and then I led the children off the bridge. Erdva stayed here for the time being, keeping an eye on the ship.

Thus began the most interesting epic with the three of us - me, Shiai and Ahsoka. At first the children didn't even know what to do, but the very next day their torment began, so agonising that they had to forget about time and the fact that we were on the ship.

I finally got to have time, free time that I could only devote to perfecting my style, skills, teaching my children and learning the state of affairs in my empire. I got them both up early in the morning and then we did a light jog around the ship, from stern to bow and back again. Five hundred metres back and forth is nothing for a forsuser. And then the fun began - Ahsoka learnt to swing a light saber. The temple's training was pretty bad, if all she'd shown me was normal training. Maybe the Jedi just felt sorry for the children, or maybe they really didn't think she needed to know more, but compared to Shi'ai, who had learnt from her mother, a veteran of the Sith wars, Ahsoka's knowledge was dismal. She had to arrange training from scratch - from keeping her body balanced, and balancing her sword. Shiai was also training from morning till night - he didn't want to give in to some girl, so there was a rivalry between them, which quickly turned into enmity.

A week of classes flew by very quickly, after which balancing was replaced by strength training. This was where Shiai showed the heat to Ahsoka. I even had to increase the weight of the projectiles to keep him from pulling ahead. I combined the methods of the Architects and Toshi in my training, and added my own sadistic methods of obstacle courses, acrobatics, and surprise attacks. For the latter, they had to resort to a very creepy but interesting method - using one technique to create... a phantom of power.

Phantom is one of the most complex and interesting techniques, both in light and dark. A phantom is a prototype of a holocron, a materialised particle of power. A phantom could even hold a sword, speak, participate in battle. It is a kind of avatar, created with power and image in my perception - it was proto-material. The first person who became the prototype of my phantom was Qui-Gon Jinn. Qui-Gon materialised out of thin air, drew his sword and attacked the students who were not expecting this. I didn't remember his style, so I took the first one I could find. The ghost was weaker than its counterpart, as it was just an image that the force had given materiality to, but it made an impression on the two children. Ahsoka recognised the Jedi Master, but Shiai did not, so he attacked the phantom more boldly. After a couple of finishing blows to the phantom, the training sword fell out of his hand, and the phantom dispersed in a cloud. I watched this through my strength, sitting a good hundred metres away from them. Shiai had passed the first test. After Qui-Gon disappeared, the children stopped, but I didn't hold back and created another phantom. This time, I used the image of Shiai himself. The clash ended with Ahsoka hitting a real sword in the heat of battle, and the phantom "killed" her. The girl was demoralised, but had to move on.

Later I used phantoms more and more often in training - I can't do such training with myself, but I'd love to use them on children. Shiai had a misfire a couple of weeks later, when I used the image of Tosi, not that of a middle-aged lady, but as I remembered her from the Shili forests - a young and active, mischievous girl. Shiai failed, unable to hit her mother, but Ahsoka dismembered the phantom quickly and efficiently. Next, there was a frank conversation between the children on the subject of who it was, after which Tano left in thoughtfulness.

* * *

A conditional year later, theatre.

* * *

- Master, but still, why don't we start learning the techniques of the force? - Ahsoka asked a question as soon as we finished watching another play.

- Ahsoka... - I looked around, Shiai didn't like theatre, so he wasn't with us, - you know, a wise warrior once said that he fears not the enemy who knows a thousand techniques, but the one who repeats the same technique a thousand times.

I'm paraphrasing Bruce Lee a bit, but the point is the same.

- But we've already reached the limit! - I can't be stronger than I am.

Indeed, after getting in shape, Ahsoka became physically more like Shiai. Stronger, more muscular than before.

- This isn't your limit, Ahsoka," I collapsed in my chair as the light in the hall began to gradually intensify, "You can do a lot more. You just need to turn to the force, to feel the force. Strength is your symbiont, and together you are stronger than separately. So from now on you will learn the same things, the time has not yet come to teach you the abilities of the force.

Ahsoka was left with nothing.

- But, Master, haven't we achieved something?

- We have," I nodded, "Now the ordeal I put you through a year ago will seem like child's play to you. If you wish, I can begin training you in the power, but it will require you and Shi'ai to put aside your feud, or you will fail. The Force does not tolerate being used to show superiority over another.

- It leads to the dark side," she rolled her eyes, "I've heard that before.

- Exactly. If you want to learn the arts of the dark side, I will help you do so, after all, one of my teachers was the greatest master of the dark side. However, if your path is on the light side, don't be set up for the dark side.

Ahsoka was thoughtfully silent as I continued to chip away at her:" your enmity with Shiai has no basis. You're alike, his childhood was hard, he had to lose his mother, I'm always busy at work. Being an emperor is a heavy burden. However, from my point of view it's a hothouse environment, maybe my own childhood is to blame, after which you should give a medal for just surviving, maybe it's just the kind of person I am. Not exactly human, but you get the point.

Ahsoka nodded:

- Are you saying we shouldn't be feuding?

- You each have your own path. Shiai will not become a Jedi, his path is Mandalore. I can feel it, you are a Jedi, it is your choice. You will be different and equally deserving of the flick for misdemeanours and the carrot for achievements. I don't even make my son a favourite if fate has it in my favour to teach two students. All the more, be a girl after all....

- Hey," she took offence.

- I know," I grinned, "I mean, guys sometimes want to fluff their tails in front of girls and show them how cool they are. You don't have to show him everything you've learnt, even though your potential and training are almost identical, so you're on equal footing.

- I get it," Ahsoka nodded, "I shouldn't be jealous of him.

- Because if he's trying, it's only for you.

- For me? - Togruta's eyes became as big as saucers.

- He can't be weak in your eyes, or he'd have asked you to slow down by now. It's the nature of men - even if he's weak, he can't show it to a girl. Okay, consider it my condition," I stood up, and Ahsoka did too, "until you and Shiai come to an understanding, there will be no strength training. It's not something you can train to show others your superiority or compete in. Now," I smiled, "come on, you haven't mastered the fourth form of combat yet.

Ahsoka hung her exuberant head and followed me, thinking about how to find approaches to Shiayu. I had a similar conversation with Shiai, who was also taught by me, took some fatherly wisdom on how to treat the girls, and in the near future they should have a long-awaited reconciliation. I have been waiting for this day for half a year - after all, their enmity has worn off and instead of jealousy towards my neighbour there are other feelings - a desire to get to know my fellow student better, to become friends. When they had finished their feud, they could begin to study the abilities of the Force, not just training in speed, agility, and swordsmanship. They could use the experience of teamwork too.

The only downside is that Cinna's reports take a long time to load. From his point of view it's fast, but here you have to wait half a day for an encrypted document to load at the speed of several kilotrites*. Erdva had tweaked the circuitry a bit, increasing the timings between packets, so I had a connection to the holonet. However, its speed was fantastically slow, you could tell it was barely loading.

Leaving the report, I put the datapad back on the shelf. This was what I feared - that there would be any feelings between Ahsoka and Shiai. The way psychology works, if you're alone with a partner of the opposite sex, it's only a matter of time before feelings arise... And childhood crushes are just as interesting and sweet in their simplicity, I've experienced it firsthand. But I was unlucky with Ali. Ahsoka could hardly make the first move, but I can't vouch for Shiai - he was trying so hard, there was clearly something of that order involved. I couldn't just read him, for now my abilities weren't enough to make sense of such a delicate mental organisation. It was the same with Tano - feeling superficial emotions is one thing, but getting into the soul is something else....

* * *

The meeting on Elba had taken place. And, apparently, for me its results will be a surprise, judging by the emotions of the children who came to me. Ahsoka was embarrassed, Shiai even more so, but there was no animosity between them.

- Master Skywalker," the girl began, but I interrupted her:

- Are you ready to learn the powers of the force?

The children looked at each other, Ahsoka answered:

- Yes, Master.

- Excellent. Let's begin. Sit in a meditation pose and prepare yourself. Before you can use any ability other than telekinesis or Force lightning, you will have to learn and understand the basic course, the theory of the abilities themselves. It's not enough to know and be able to do, you have to understand.

The kids sat down next to me, on the floor, and I began to explain, simplifying some of the points as much as possible. Still, an education like Toshi's is designed for a more or less knowledgeable student.

The only thing that surprised Ahsoka was the conventional division of power into four different directions - Light, Dark, Grey and Green. That was completely out of everything she knew.

- Master, ah...

- Let me explain. Now, the Force is the omnipresent energy of the galaxy. It penetrates everywhere, everywhere, and interacts with living organisms. Intelligent gifted ones, in their own way. It is conditioned by their actions. How does a sentient invoke the light side of the force?

Ahsoka was left flapping her eyes and Shiai raised his hand.

- Yes, Shiai?

- By positive emotions.

- List them," I prepared to listen and watched a stunned Ahsoka.

- Joy, Hope, Love, Happiness, Compassion.

- Right," I smiled, "and the Dark Side?

- Anger, Greed, Rage, Fear, Selfishness, Despair.

- That's right. They are two antagonists, similar in nature - the light side of the force and the dark side of the force," I nodded at my thoughts, "they are very similar in nature - it is a direct appeal to the force through unconscious emotions. The strength of the effect cannot be calculated exactly - it all depends on the strength of the emotions. The difference lies in stability - it is impossible, for example, to be kind and from that to become even kinder, but to increase rage, fear, egoism, it is easy. It is a descending straight line - from light to darkness, that's why the transition to the dark side is called a fall. Of course, the fallen may repent, but this is a rare case. Unlike the dark side, the light side does not capture its adherents, as there is no suppression of will in its essence.

Ahsoka raised her hand.

- Yes?

- Master, is the dark side similar to the light side?

- In terms of the mechanics of its use, yes, very similar. But there is one major, fundamental difference. The light side does not force its followers to follow it, it is a path chosen by reason and feelings. At the same time, a person who has fallen to the dark side is like falling into a swamp or quicksand - the more he tries to get out, the more he is pulled in. The dark side subjugates the will of a reasonable person, reason is superfluous for it, the main thing is emotions. It is a kind of parasite that sucks on emotions and deprives the victim of the will to resist. Over time, the "disease" progresses, and the adept becomes more and more fierce, more and more angry, more and more acts not as necessary, but as he wants at the moment. That is why the dark side is like a giant trap that sucks many adepts into itself, turning them into agents of its own will.

- Doesn't the light side work the same way? - Ahsoka didn't understand.

- Almost. But in the light interpretation, emotions don't suppress the will, they act in concert with it. To put it more clearly, the light side uses emotions to become a symbiont of the forsuser, and the dark side uses them to become a parasite. Both concepts are well known to us in the living world, and both have a right to exist.

Tano nodded, after which I turned to Shiai:

- Two more directions. Give a definition of the Grey side of the force.

- The grey side is expressed by a complete rejection of emotional engagement with the Force and intelligent symbiotic control of the Force. Adepts tend to the dark or light side due to their innate nature, but rarely change sides due to their habit of analysing and understanding emotions and avoiding them when dealing with the Force.

- And the green?

- Green is the natural side of the force. Adepts primarily perceive their bond as a natural process, a symbiotic bond and use subconscious or control honed by years of use, excluding both emotions and conscious control, use the power as naturally as their own body, reach great heights in medical techniques due to the high adaptability of their power to the power of other beings.

- "Enough," I interrupted him, "I will note that most Force medics are partly or wholly 'green' in one way or another. The adaptability of the Force and the naturalness of manipulation brings them to the green side of the Force.

- Master-" Ahsoka fell silent, having just realised something.....

- You want to ask about the Jedi? - I guessed. The girl nodded in response and I explained: - the modern order has little to do with the light side of the force. There is one reason for this - after the fall of the Sith, they feared the rebirth of the Order of Darkness more than anything else, so they adopted much of the philosophy and methods of the grey side of the force. We can say that only the name and the declared light side are left from the true Order, but otherwise it is not the same Order as it used to be. Ninety per cent are "grey", and ten per cent are light. But lately, after the fall of the Sith, the number of Jedi who have turned to the dark side has decreased tenfold, hardly once in a generation there is a Jedi who will turn dark. Whether or not it's worth depriving the galaxy of the light side of the force...I don't know. I did not make this decision and I am not responsible for it. We, me and Shi'ai, are light, Shi'ai on the green side, me on the grey side, but we are light. Therefore, people like us have no place in the modern Order, where love, kindness, compassion and duty "lead to the dark side." Yoda only forgets to add that this path leads through the light side of the force, and the Jedi's fall into darkness is far from a fact. But his fear of darkness makes him veiledly deceive his followers.

- So..." tears came to Tano's eyes, "are they lying? Deceiving?

- It turns out, yes. But from their point of view, the deception is worth it. The only Jedi I know personally are Qui-Gon Jinn and Ben Kenobi. Both are still somewhere around half light, half grey. The others, judging by the records, are grey with a little bit of light.

Just the last thing I need is a girl crying.

- What about me?" Ahsoka looked up at me, "what side do I belong to?

- You don't belong to the Force. The path you're on is your own. I warned you that if you step on the dark side, it will take you in its clutches. Only the strongest of spirit and adepts with unshakable moral principles can resist it. As for the rest, the choice is yours.

I tactfully stood up and walked out, whispering to Shiai to comfort the girl for now. Judging from the way he put his arm around her shoulders, she'll calm down and be fine.