Trinity 2

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* After a year *

The old man was just my nightmare.

There's nothing I can't handle-that's what I thought before I saw the old man's tasks. To begin with, my level of strength was underdeveloped in his opinion, and I should have spent a lot more time on meditation and strength.

At first he even often grumbled that I was too slow to grow on myself. Power forging was one of his dioceses. The strength was suddenly not so strong - the old man could create a ready-made ship at once - with everything he needed. How could he do that, because it requires keeping countless different details in one's head and knowing the structure of the ship down to the last molecule. But he did it, and I was left with my mouth open at this miracle of nature.

Other skills he trained, too - so we spent a lot of time developing both my sensitivity to power and my ability to subtly manipulate energy. The training lasted an entire year. It was a long time for me, and the old man didn't even notice, as if a couple of days had passed. So, he gives me an assignment, gives me a lecture, and off you go, young man!

It was hard. Especially at first. It was a common thing to go to the field to take metal or minerals out of the ground, to refine them, change them, build a transport for oneself and go back using the transport. The quality of the transport produced in this way determined the degree of preparation. At first it was more of a laugh - seriously, what kind of transport could I create from what I could manipulate at first?

And this was only a small part of the training. It was not enough to be able to work by force, one had to be able to work with his head - to memorize the structure of various multifunctional assemblies, the principle of their operation, formulas and physical laws. But even this was not enough for the old man - to the four subjects, forging, engineering, mathematics, physics, a fifth was added - the interaction of forces.

As far as I understood from the introductory lecture, force can interact not so much with physical objects as with the force within them, that is, combine into one common and thus interact. Any direct influence by force was an interaction of forces.

For example, suggestion. It seemed an easy thing to do, to concentrate on an emotion and to present it to another. Toshi couldn't explain the principle to me, but the old man could. Transmitting emotions was still the easiest thing to do - it was difficult to interact with a particular emotion - to amplify, weaken, remove, suppress it altogether... Many ways of influence were based on this principle. The most difficult of them is to influence indirectly - to force something so that it would have a different perception. For example, to make one's words or gaze sound, to focus attention on some detail, or vice versa, to influence something so that it would not attract attention and would look quite ordinary, be overlooked.

The old man mastered this technique to perfection, so his lectures were firmly memorized and it was physically impossible to lose attention to them.

A year of training passed. I learned a lot, but I still had a lot to learn-the main thing, how to create hyperdrive, I still hadn't learned. I should have learned from the old man's children before I started.

The architects were extremely entertaining individuals with a fascinating story, which the old man told me in a normal way. He himself asked that I call him "teacher", but sincerely say it did not work - although he taught me, the teacher for me was Tosya...

Of course I was sad for her sometimes, but being cut off from the galaxy, I could not go back. And she must have taken a new apprentice.

Let's return to the history of this entertaining and extremely interesting race - the Architects.

The first thing I learned was that the architects are not celestials, although they are directly related to them. Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a small race that came from the planet Celestia. This race was anthropomorphic, but not human. It was long ago, even before Rakat appeared. The Celestian race, unlike the other races, was rapidly evolving-all members of this race were Forsusers. It was not difficult for them to foresee the not-too-distant future, and they did not have as many problems as others. There were wars, there were problems on a global scale, but many of them were solved by the Architects. Architects didn't have that name back then and were called by another word, but the fact was that Architects had been the rulers of Celestia since time immemorial. Rarely, very rarely, unicums were born among ordinary Forsuers, capable of sensing power on a completely different level and in a completely different way than ordinary Forsuers-these unicums could use their abilities with incredible efficiency. Gradually the unicums began to be trained according to their own program, thanks to an unknown architect for that. The power forging, medicine, mind techniques... they excelled in everything of course, but it was in these arts that they could achieve special results. Thanks to force forging and literal seeing and feeling of force fields, the architects were among the first interstellar travelers-they had achieved enough to create hyperspace gates and fly away to unknown lands. Celestian society considered them rulers, saints, aristocracy, and so on down the list.

Very soon the Celestians found another race and were surprised by its lack of power. Chalking it up to illness or a quirk of fate, they moved on. And they found that the galaxy was not deserted, and almost no one had the power. Occasionally they did come across other races capable of it, but that was rather the exception to the rule. The Celestians' greatest distinction from all others was the Force. Stronger than other races, they quickly began their expansion - taking over planet after planet, race after race. The Celestians became the basis of the primary globalization of the galaxy - if before them there was no society - every planet was for itself, after their arrival the races began a full-fledged interstellar life. Led by architects, the Celestians undertook big, high-profile projects, such as building a "balancer" station for hyperspace routes. This station could even move a star and a planet off the route, which would not have to go around. The galaxy was becoming one big colony of Celestians. That's when the nickname "celestials" came about, as they didn't consider the religions of other races, firmly imposing their values. The worlds that are now called the Central Worlds were the main region of Celestia expansion-coruscant, Alderaan, Muunlist, Correlia... they even created the Correlian sector themselves, with the help of the "balancer. The station could do much more than that.

The architects got their name precisely because they were engaged in the architecture of the galaxy-changing the positions of the planets, creating hyperspace routes, creating a home for the future twenty million intelligent races.

What happened next is the fate of myths and legends, as the Celestians, aka the celestials, fought among themselves. After a small civil war, stopped by the architects, there was a great rift and rebellion. For every cunning celestial there was a slave with a rifle.

In their pride and confidence in their own superiority, the Celestians believed that they were the celestials, the elite of the galaxy and masters of the other, power-starved races. The architects couldn't change the fact that the Celestians wielded power and were just as dissatisfied with their followers, but by then opinion was too entrenched. A civil war ensued in which the inhabitants of previously oppressed or simply enslaved races took up arms and rose up against their "masters." There were about a trillion Celestians and a hundred times as many of their opponents. Though they fought valiantly, they stood no chance-the architects had turned their backs on them. Reaping the fruits of their pride, the "celestials" were destroyed every last one of them. True, there were architects who lived at the time, who decided never again to interfere in the life of the galaxy and retired to another galaxy. True, not all of them. The old man, who was still young at the time, was left in that galaxy to observe - the architects did not want to leave the galaxy to its fate.

Since then, the old man and his children have lived on a planet hidden behind the hyperspace gate, in complete isolation, although they had their own ways of finding out news - access to the holonet, access to communication lines.

The only time the architects interfered in the fate of the galaxy was the destruction of the Rakata race. A relatively young race that decided to repeat the feat of the Celestials and take over the entire galaxy. Either way, it promised a giant war and either Rakatan hegemony or mutual annihilation. The Architects intervened and developed a virus from which the Rakatans could not escape-they lost their connection to the Force. Without the Force, their chances of holding their slave empire in check were nil, and once the epidemic reached sufficient proportions, a new war of liberation broke out. The annihilation of the rakata that captivated entire nations came on stream and in three years, the remnants of the endless empire were gone. There were other wars after that, but they were no longer a danger to the entire galaxy, so the old man didn't think to get involved.

After defeating the Rakatans, the other races wished to learn what the power was and to master it at the level of the past masters. For this purpose, a group of scientists and Forsuzers was assembled, who removed themselves to the planet Taiton and began to study the power's abilities. They could not achieve their former greatness without Architects, and no more Architects had ever been born. I was the first.

Since the past masters were exclusively dark, there was a strict prohibition against attempting to master the dark side of the force. The brutality and ruthless, senseless lust for power and wealth of the Rakatans was still fresh in my memory, as was their contempt for anyone else. This was not even a wolf pack, but a gladiatorial arena, where the strongest ruled and the weakest was a slave. Mastering the dark side hypertrophies the most negative traits of the rational - selfishness, lust for power, greed, and dulls the few virtues that the rational has. The supporter of the dark side cannot live in any society - for him there is only his own self. It is clear that such a being can live only until he meets another darker one, stronger than himself, and is enslaved or killed. As a matter of fact, that's how it turned out - despite the fact that there were more dark ones among the power users, their rejection of social improvement, discipline, and self-centeredness, played a bad joke on them. They have been beaten, they are being beaten, and the old man has no doubt that they will be beaten hard and often. No matter how hard they try, they are not destined to become rulers-the galaxy has already been ruled twice by dark personalities, and twice it ended in civil war and mass slaughter of regime supporters.

I remembered Palpatine. Yes, he was hyperegoistic and he stepped on the same rake - a politician cannot be egoistic, a politician is someone who influences events, not forcing others to kneel. Barbaric methods do not achieve greatness.

At least the story is very instructive. The old man even compared the dark side to degradation in a child. All, or most, children are selfish, self-centered, cruel. Because children are not developed enough to understand the basics of life and the interaction of reasonable, to be included in society. For a child, there is only his own self, everything else is secondary. Cruelty? Also from the same line - little brains and a lot of feelings, instincts. That's why the main and most dangerous age for a young Jedi is childhood and adolescence. During this period his worldview may partially coincide with the Sith one and his desire to put his "self" on top of his priorities as well. That's why Sith seem so cool to children and teenagers - because a child can't see the ugliness of their soul. The humor of the situation is that there are often people who pay lip service to the Sith as "proud and implacable, not like those stupid Jedi monks," but in reality are just teenage maximalists who lose all their zeal when they encounter something real, not just waving a red blade and making cool speeches. If it's necessary to slaughter a child for the cause, the Sith won't think twice - "I want to, so I have the right," while the "loyalists" will start to flirt, try to get away, say something about how they're for it, of course, but...

Many people in the galaxy can be referred to such individuals - often those who have not faced the harsh realities of life in the galaxy before. I am genuinely disgusted by such examples - these are even worse than just the Sith or any other Dark Ones, they are, excuse me, cattle, trying to take the side of the strong. There were enough of them in the Empire of Palpatine, you can say, human values have not yet been knocked out, but the "new order" has already polluted the brains.

Philosophy, as it is not difficult to guess, we also studied.

My second year and my first in mortis were difficult. The old man kept saying that it was the hardest at first, and then I wouldn't even notice how the time flew by.

The old man was right-the first year was the most memorable, a year of discovery and experimentation. After that, as promised, it got much more boring.

We stopped working with the old man after two years of training, which is how long it took to learn how to create hyperdrive.

I couldn't complain about the rest - my knowledge was enough to build a spaceship from scratch, with only the most basic materials I could get from the planet's surface. My own factory and my own designer.

No matter how brave experiments I conducted to create new ships, the old man would inexorably destroy them and start all over again. By the end of the training, we had reached the main point: the creation of a hyperdrive capable of transporting me to the future. But the training wasn't over; we still had to visit his two children, a son and a daughter. They lived separately, each in their own little place, and, like all supporters of opposing powers, they feuded.

I met them at the very end of my apprenticeship with the old man. The son, a rather strange-looking man, came to see his father. I didn't expect anything good from the dark man, but, as the old man had said, no one knew better than him about harm.

This local assassin walked in quickly, and after looking me over, he gave me a skeptical chuckle:

- "How old are you, kid?

- Ten years on Tatooine, another year in space, then two years on Alderaan, one year on Shili, two years on Mortis... so biologically I was sixteen years old, and considering the too rapid passage of puberty due to life in the wild and the constant use of force, you can add a few years to the total.

- Ugh," he spat, "you'll be a baby.

I wasn't offended-it was probably the same compared to him. He grinned and jerked his head toward the exit:

- Come with me. We're going to teach you, you little twerp. You can solve your problems with your father later-he can wait a year or two.

That was the end of the old man's training and the beginning of his son's.

In fact, the old man was quite a pacifist, especially compared to his son. He flew, as it turned out, in an ancient speeder of Rakatan design. It took a good twenty minutes to get back to where his son lived, though he was... fast.

It was a large mansion, with equally large, pompous halls and a beautiful garden in front of it. You can't forbid to live beautifully, especially to an architect...

- So," he twitched, "there's a class from dawn till dusk. There will be no indulgences for you. You've been in the class for a year. You can pick your own weapon. Do you understand?

- Yes, that's right! - I nodded.

The speeder controlled by my son flew to the landing pad and the new teacher got out and asked:

- What do you use in battle?

- Lightsaber. Juyo style and the rest of the Jedi.

- What a joy! - He said feignedly. - The Jedi architect. What an oxymoron. Come downstairs quickly, you'll find a room to your liking. We'll begin tomorrow at dawn.

My son was not deceived. At sunrise we started training. He rousted me and sent me off to get ready for future endeavors. He was hard to find, as the whole house was literally saturated with the emanations of the dark side, but I managed - he was downstairs in the great hall.

As I made my way downstairs, I stumbled upon a lecture:

- You're taking a long time. Come on, quickly into the circle. Let's see what you're good for...

I stood up, and then my opponent simply disappeared, even to my perception. He appeared behind me, with his weapon in his hand. A lightsaber, you'd think.

- I didn't see anything.

- So you're worse off than I thought," he disappeared just as I thought, and then he moved without speed and began to fight. He was still moving fast, and my ability to see into the future didn't help-it was too unpredictable for me.

His first combination knocked the weapon out of my hands. He must have had something on his hands, too, or I wouldn't have let go of the weapon.

With a sorrowful roll of his eyes, he started at the bottom. No, we weren't learning any style, just that he was teaching me to move fast, to strike accurately, to anticipate the battlefield, and to take advantage of positions for defense or attack.

The speed at which Son moved was too fast for a non-architect. After three months of training he showed me this trick. You can use force to move, not only as an increase in grip and leg strength, but also to reduce or increase pressure. If you reduce the atmospheric pressure in front of you while moving, it will allow you to move at theoretically any speed. True, you would also have to strengthen your body so as not to suffer from barotrauma. But that's another matter...

A year with my son went by much faster since he gave me no rest, except one day off a month, so my training was reduced to one big training session with a constantly increasing level of difficulty. No indulgence was given to me, and I had to endure constant abuse from this sadist. I myself did not notice how after a year the old man came to our practice and informed his son that his time was up. The joy on my part could be felt with my hands. My son, however, finished training easily, nodding to me goodbye. He didn't even say a word.

The old man stepped closer:

- Anakin? How are you feeling?

- Fine, Master," I bowed briefly. - Is it really over?

- I suppose so," the old man nodded. - Now it's up to you to go to my daughter, and I don't think you could use her skills.

I, tired of being in a place of dark power concentration, followed the Old Man and smiled at him wearily:

- "I hope we get along.

- Who knows," the old man raised his eyebrows and smiled into his mustache. - We'll see. Just don't try... you know what I mean. I don't think she'd be interested.

- Who knows," I smiled back. - We'll see.

The old man laughed, though I had been warned not to get involved with the girl, and I took it seriously. I was not even going to, to be honest, but now I wondered. But that was a different matter...