A Neural Storm in an Electric, Invisible Teapot

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Let's see: this empty power cell" she answered Upari's question while pointing at a datapad power cell. "If the power cells can be detached, it is recommended to detach the power cells first prior to using Electric Judgment on it, although I use EJ for that purpose only if there are no other power sources around"

Yes, she knew that droids typically solved for Maxwell equations numerically, [member="Ultimatum"] not being an exception. Just that, the datapad from which the power cell came needed repairs while the power cell, even empty, remained intact. She also knew that most organic practitioners tended to treat electricity-based Force-powers as if they were just throwing a lightning bolt at something, or otherwise projecting the energy of the dark side (if a dark-sider). By energy conservation, the full amount of the lightning bolt would be flowing into the power cell; sure there would be resistance inside the power cell, but by Joule's law, a high-voltage, low-current power source would be preferred to a low-voltage, high-current one. I acknowledge that intellect is the Force's gift to me, but it's by no means a free lunch, unlike what other organics might be led to think. Other organics think that, because of my intelligence, I have it easier, or maybe even easy, than they do. It's just a different set of challenges, she thought, while eagerly awaiting the recharge of the datapad's power cell.

 

[Ultimatum]

That could prove useful, as a droid Ultimatum used many devices that required power, mainly in the form of electricity. He imagined being able to recharge energy cells for some of his bodies in the field, no longer needing a facility or mobile work station to do the charging. It was a useful skill and Ultimatum doubted that most organics would have used it in this manner. Then came the more interesting ideas. If he could create energy in this manner, what of a more direct method. "Would it be possible to create the energy within the battery? It would be more efficient."

Upari began to put the Force into energy, transforming the Force potentials into actual electricity. The Shard poured his mind into the answers and equations, creating a stable target and then the origin. The lightning flew in a bright flash of silvery white. The short bolt was not very strong, for Upari had started with a smaller percentage so as to avoid uncontrollable sparks.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Creating energy within the battery is more battery-dependent; in fact, this is a lead-in to the next power in the agenda. Neural Storm, and also the pain induction portion of Crucitorn, also make use of a similar idea, Speaking of Crucitorn, you can already do the pain relief portion via Force-healing"

In fact, the implication of creating energy within a battery is that a similar method can be used for causing seizures and, from there, incapacitate the person. But the main difference is that Neural Storm is more of a low-voltage application, and likely low-ampere, too, she thought, while realizing that there was no one else that she knew that taught Electric Judgment by having it used for recharging power cells. [member="Ultimatum"] must have realized by now that both major Force-cults seemed to focus more on how to use a given power in combat, while Jessica preferred to teach it by having the student use it for a non-combat purpose. Plus it seemed that both Force-cults tended to take power sources for granted, which was perhaps the reason why dark-siders tended to think only of combat uses for Force-lightning. Yet perhaps the risk of uncontrollable sparks is another factor that may make dark-siders hesitant to use Force-lightning as a power source. Her methods allowed more fine control, sure, just that such fine control is not a strong point of dark-siders when it comes to using the Force.

 

[Ultimatum]

It would have delighted Ultimatum to know that [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] had thought of the militarization of Force powers, for Ultimatum had thought of much the same. His experience with Force users, mainly suggested that most Force powers were used solely for combative purposes. Jessica was the first to show how combative techniques could be used in more civilian needs. The simple charging of a battery was a far step from electrocuting an individual, yet at the same time, it was much the same. The difference lay in purpose and at this time Ultimatum was one for the more peaceful uses of these powers.

Upari attempted again, this time refining and correcting the formula. With a small zap, which was barely visible, the electricity arced from Ultimatum, near the chest where Upari was, to the battery. The Shard repeated it, ensuring the formula was still viable, within a degree of error. The lightning again struck the battery, if slightly off from the point of contact originally. The Shard began a third time, attempting to correct for the minor change and then following through again, this time with a stronger bolt intended to charge more of the battery. It struck, the electricity left a distinct smell of ozone as it ionized the air through which is passed.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Now that [member="Ultimatum"] has finally charged the datapad battery, it was time to move on to the next lesson. She had an idea of how painful Neural Storm could be when she uses too much computational power at once. The hard part was to find a suitable target for Upari to use it on. I'd rather have a non-sentient headed for euthanasia, but if there is no choice, I'd volunteer myself: I could always shunt the excess Force-energy back into my own Force-batteries if it came to that, or try to calm down the neural voltage until there are no more risks of long-term problems, she thought, knowing that, while subjected to Neural Storm, she won't have much, if any, control over her computational power, nor any of her nervous functions. So it takes very little to incapacitate a simple organism, but the energy required to perform Neural Storm scaled with the target's brain size. Too little power and one could cause at most a focal seizure, too high a voltage (or too much power even if voltage was in the right band) and it can cause other problems, possibly lethal ones. There was good reason in Jessica's mind as to why Neural Storm was very obscure: proper use required medical knowledge that not every Electric Judgment user possessed, even though it was typically understandable for anyone that had a working knowledge of what seizures are.

"The aim of Neural Storm is to induce seizures in organics by causing a low-voltage burst of current inside the targeted being's nervous systems; typically seizures induced by Neural Storm cause extreme but momentary confusion, loss of awareness, or loss of coordination. And often intense pain after the seizure proper. But because organics' nervous systems typically operate at voltages much lower than even a mundane power cell used for hand-held electronics, it's a very tight balancing act: if done properly it can incapacitate organics without killing them, but voltage is the main area where it can go wrong"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum seemed to think on this for a moment. It was an interesting method; Ultimatum had wondered if it were related to the chemical relations within the brain. It would have been an even more delicate task than simply firing electricity since it would have involved an understanding of the individual's brain chemistry, which was almost unique. Fortunately, as [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]s stated, the power requirements were far lower, which would hopefully translate to a far smaller Force draw. The brain of an organic was a complex machine, one that could be damaged fairly easily, in a physical sense. He would have to be careful not to send even a slightly too strong shock. The droid would have to study more biological differences between the brains of different species. He knew the areas of the brain that controlled movements and receptors in humans, which were the areas Ultimatum guessed he would need to direct his attack.

"Should we aim for particular parts of the brain or just the whole thing? Shall we test it on someone, or leave it to the theoretical for now?" While Ultimatum liked to be able to have definite practice and knowledge on these abilities, he did not believe in causing unnecessary pain or discomfort to others. Further, since Jessica was a Jedi, Ultimatum feared that she would take it upon herself to be tested upon, rather than call upon some other.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"It would depend on the need for consciousness: if you want the target to be immobilized but conscious, then aiming for a particular part of an organic's brain is enough, which I acknowledge is race-dependent, but if knocking someone unconscious is necessary, then aim for the whole thing. Neural Storm is such an obscure power much like malacia because it requires a working knowledge of neurology, at least as it pertains to seizures"

The only historically significant user of Neural Storm, a Nagai spy that only went by the codename "The Telepath", spoke of psychic energy; however, it seemed to be, to me, anyway, a catch-all term for circumventing the racial differences between nervous systems. My guess is that "The Telepath" is a spy that often used medical practice, psychiatry even, as a cover for espionage activities. But the main drawback of the psychic energy approach is that it takes much higher amounts of Force-energy to use than low-voltage electric sparks. Which tradeoff is more advantageous to make someone depends mostly on two factors: the intellectual attributes of the user and the ability to exert fine control over the Force, she thought, realizing that fine control is not obvious to even light-siders, much less dark-siders. Just because [member="Ultimatum"] and, to a lesser extent, Jessica, could hold very large amounts of information in their respective memories doesn't mean other prospective Neural Storm users had such a good memory, and maybe for someone else, it might be better to spend more Force-energy under the form of psychic energy, provoke generalized seizures and not to worry about the choice between focal and generalized.

"But you're right in that it is dangerous to practice. Best leave this to the theoretical for now"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum noted the difference in mentality. He figured there would rarely be a circumstance where this form of power would actually be required, in fact, Ultimatum assumed that this would be one of those abilities that would only be used in the most extreme of circumstances. In a firefight there would be no time, realistically, to run the calculations and attempt to injure another's mind, it would be more efficient to zap them with the electrical judgment. He could see it being helpful in taking prisoners, or moving prisoners, but other than that it was relatively without use in Ultimatum's work. It seemed to be a relatively unused power, having never heard of it until [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] taught. He understood why few Force users would take advantage of it, but he hoped to be one who used what he was taught and keep it well remembered.

"Alright then. I shall keep the calculations in mind. We are ready for more teaching if you still have time." While some of the earlier lessons had taken a toll out of Upari's Force reserves, it was still sufficiently filled to be able to continue.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"There is, in fact, another topic that I found intriguing. Rest assured that it has nothing to do with learning Force-powers"

While faction-aligned Jedi often have their respective factions to support them, unaligned Jedi like [member="Ultimatum"] were another can of worms altogether. Unaligned Jedi were more vulnerable if they simply stuck to a poverty vow: they couldn't rely on charity as much as was the case during the Clone Wars or even the NJO of the post-Concordance era. Such poverty vows essentially made the more orthodox Jedi dependent on factions. However, only a handful of Jedi (and FUs in general) actually knew about finance; those who did know, typically ran a business. That was made much easier because today's banks are very willing to extend commercial loans to first-time entrepreneurs with the only requirement being that, once in business, financial statements must be produced yearly (or quarterly if, at some point, they go public, that is, their shares are publicly traded). Or, for the more orthodox of the gang, their respective orders' finances. Then again, the scarcity of charity is why the public in unaligned space perceived Jedi as a Force-using bounty hunters, commandos or some such things.

"Because factions typically don't last a Jedi's lifetime, unless one was from a species with very short lifespans, like Devlikks, some Jedi would then be vulnerable to the dark side when their factions collapse and that they have no clue as to how to manage their personal finances; they may then resort to desperate measures especially if charity proves insufficient for them"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum pondered where this was going. As a Jedi outside of a large faction, he did not have a galactic power to support him. But that did not concern him, for the droid believed he could handle it himself. One of his first programmed jobs was finance management, and the droid was not short on money. Of course, that would probably not always be the case, since economies were far from permanent and his lifespan was quite long by most standards.

"That is a definite concern, but rest assured that we will not resort to crime to increase our economic standing. We run companies that have a steady income and have maintained a decent development rate."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"It's just a disclosure I feel needs to be made, and it's even more critical for an unaligned Jedi. Often Jedi were taught responsibility, but most of the time, the scope of responsibility as they were taught tended to be limited, and typically casualties or collateral damage were the main items, and to a lesser extent, criminality. Peacekeeping typically implies that Jedi hold societal responsibilities"

Honesty, accountability were definitely part of the game as Jessica understood it, and keeping promises made as well. Also, although the leadership of a faction's order (in the case of aligned Jedi) cannot always control their members, they have to answer for the actions of its members. To the extent that being an unaligned Jedi like [member="Ultimatum"] could be nice, in that there were more freedoms of belief and action, it typically meant that they had to provide their own funding. But even Jedi that were aligned often were clueless about finances, in that they may well prove to be irresponsible with money, and spendthrifts were liabilities, and not only because they may force their orders to take out unnecessary loans, but also could tarnish an already vulnerable image. Now, as for the actual expenditures, they were highly variable and the general public was tolerant of expenditure variances between individual Jedi so long as certain limits were not crossed. In the past, old Orders were lucky that they were not embroiled in financial scandals, but today, It's becoming clear how being responsible with other people's lives and property must also be extended beyond the individual. They also have a social responsibility, too, she thought, before summoning a bundle of stock certificates. That is, a bunch of equity securities from a variety of issuers.

"This is my knighting gift to you: to the extent the ICLE purchased stun weapons from me, the total value of the bundle of stock certificates in my hands represents the difference between their manufacturing costs and the price the ICLE paid for those as of today"

 

[Ultimatum]

"Thank you," was all Ultimatum could manage, the surprise overwhelmed his initial response systems, and for a few moments, he remained silent as his mind overcame the shock. He then continued, "This was unexpected, though not unappreciated. You believe I we ready to be considered a knight?" The droid wondered about the authority involved here. As his master, it was her decision about his progress in training, but would she be allowed to give a non-affiliated Force user a title or promotion. It was a question of politics, another area that Jedi were not always very astute in. If the Jedi order did not want to recognize the legitimacy of those Force users unattached to them, then it might have been more likely that they did not allow such promotions and long-term interactions.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Factions do not hold a monopoly over the determination of Force-user readiness. As much as Silvers can, in fact, train unaligned Force-users to Jedi knighthood, they can also grant knighthood to the extent that knighthood is understood as the ability to train other padawans. Often in unaligned space Jedi tend to be legally considered the same as any Force-users so long as regulations on FUs are alignment-agnostic"

True, politics were an area where Jedi had mixed successes at best. But to be frank, however power-hungry Sith may be, they don't have that much more success either, and the most that could be expected on their part is a functioning society. And of Jedi, too. However, much of why Jedi had mixed results in the political arena was due to their historical stance as servants to factions. They had more successes in the law enforcement and special forces areas, but for just about anything else, except maybe the humanitarian and the scholarly, they had mixed results. [member="Ultimatum"] harbored doubts about his legitimacy to the eyes of the Silvers, but Jessica didn't.

"Currently Silvers seemed to acknowledge the legitimacy of unaligned Jedi to the extent they don't deal in extremism; we often worked with unaligned Jedi on multiple occasions"

 

[Ultimatum]

With that momentary concern assuaged, Ultimatum nodded politely. "Then we appreciate the trust in our abilities. We hope that we shall live up to the expectation. To be certain, as long as we remain neutral, or more light oriented, we will be acknowledged by the Silver Jedi?"

It was an interesting development if so. It certainly left a reason to remain on good terms with the Jedi. "Does this mean that we shall continue training in other techniques?" Ultimatum would have said 'more advanced techniques,' but he knew that the current abilities he had been learning were far from simple.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The Silvers acknowledge they don't hold a monopoly over Jedi-hood, no more than they hold a monopoly on determining Jedi readiness"

Jairdain is a good example of those unaligned Jedi we sometimes have around. Then again, Upari learned so much exotic stuff that many paddies could only dream of, and many others consider premature to have padawans learn. But if Arax ever became ready to undertake Jedi training then I will show her how to use the Force for non-combat uses, the same as I had... everyone else, really. Just that anyone's conversion in either direction is a protracted process, she thought, while pondering the question [member="Ultimatum"] asked. In that sense Upari was lucky that Jessica was his titular master; most organics capable of training paddies knew a much more limited repertoire of Force-powers. Now, she realizes that, among Silvers, she is one of the main go-to people to learn exotic Force-powers from; many Jedi tended to have rather well-defined needs out of the Force that were rather... narrow. Yet the time has come for Upari to continue learning additional powers that are different from what Jessica knew. He must have realized that, although Jessica did know a number of exotic powers, any organic's scope of knowledge was going to be limited.

"Yes, it does mean you can continue to train in other techniques"

 

[Ultimatum]

There was a moment where Ultimatum had the feeling of unreality, a moment where the droid questioned if this was all real or some illusion created inside his robotic mind. It brought with it disturbing possibilities. For all of his organic like capabilities, he had never once felt true imagination. It was a new experience and one that had struck Ultimatum as frightening in its implications. If he were beginning to show signs of imagination, then it could mean a degradation of his mental processors. At the same time, Ultimatum knew that it was not a question of his sanity, everything that had happened was real. Why then was he questioning himself?

Perhaps it was the fact that Ultimatum was still learning about the effects that Upari had on him, the two minds becoming ever more alike. Someday they might be one, and then they could become something new, more than a droid and more than a Shard. This was a step in that strange and alien direction. Whether or this would be for good or ill, Ultimatum would not know.

For now, the robot bowed low and stated, "Thank you once more. It means much to us that you believe we are ready for this step."

For his part, Upari felt the thoughts change, and he could tell that something was going on. The Shard could tell that the Force was at work, slowly and subtly within the duo, but to what end? For now, it seemed unimportant; the most pressing matter was to ask about further teachings. Not that the Shard expected [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] to be unable to teach them anything more, instead it was to achieve a wider field of knowledge. "Do you have any recommendations as to other tutors that would be willing to take us in?"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

[member="Ultimatum"] was one demanding customer when it came to learning exotic Force-powers. Not that other paddies she did take were not good, just that their desire for independence may have been a little premature. Last she heard about Taygeta or Paige, however, they were just tending to the RRM's humanitarian needs. Now I know it's a difficult moment for both Jedi and Sith capable of training new FUs from start to finish. Letting go of a padawan is not always easy for masters, especially for the clingier of the gang. Nevertheless, better have Taygeta or Paige doing humanitarian stuff than on the battlefield: in that they are better than other arrogant Jedi padawans I may have known. They are much smarter than your average paddy, too; at this point it's more of a question of choosing which powers to learn and which ones not to learn, she thought, while realizing it's only the second padawan she brought to completion. Jessica, however, knew that Jairdain always seemed to know other exotic stuff that she knew would have limited use to her. So maybe Jair would be a good person to send him to. Plus she knew Jair personally and could personally vouch for Upari if necessary.

"Maybe Jairdain if you wish to learn Battle Meditation, Animal Friendship or Plant Surge"

 

[Ultimatum]

"I shall be certain to look them up, though I hope to continue to learn from you what you have yet to teach me, both in the Force and of the Jedi conduct." The droid was always prepared for more lessons, whether he be the one to initiate them or not. He knew the path to knowledge was long and often strange, but it was an essential part of growth. And grow Ultimatum would.

He would have been intrigued to learn his difficulty in regards to his Force related area of studies. He had always assumed that Jedi learned some basic techniques and then focused their field of study depending on their calling. Because he had no known purpose as to his training, Ultimatum wished to focus in those places that most interested him. The idea of learning many of these more mystical concepts, while still having a scientific base of course, was very attractive to the robot. He hoped to be able to focus less on the obvious and very open conflict side of the Force, where he noted most Force users tended to spend their time. Instead he wanted to find the inner secrets and hidden knowledge that was readily discovered, but all the greater for its subtlety.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I know that often, the more spiritual aspects of the Force seemed to depend a lot on whether one perceives the Force as even possessing a will, or objects otherwise being bound to some sort of destiny, with that view often espoused by Unifying Force practitioners, while Living Force adherents preferred to think of the Force and its associated spirit ichor as being present in living beings, sentient or not, in highly variable concentrations of course, with the majority of ichor being broken down into three categories, with anima being associated with the spark of life and pneuma with sentience and thought"

That harkened back to the very beginning, she thought, while she knew [member="Ultimatum"] dealt with other FUs that held varying beliefs around the Force proper, such as the Force having a will (or lack thereof; she would think the Force rolled quantum dice, via wavefunction collapse), how much stock to put in the here-and-now vs. the long-term, and whether or not the Force was intrisically choosing sides. Sure, she was best described, over time, as a Cosmic Force adherent, with the unifying gestalt being a perfect random number generator to her by virtue of the gestalt being quantized in nature. Yet, only a handful of Jedi would actually know about what quantization of the Force actually implied: Force-observables were necessarily based on Hermitian ichor, Force-wavefunctions were necessarily normalizable, and, most importantly, ichor were available in discrete, albeit microscopic, quantities. Just that Jessica would probably associate aperion, another category of ichor as she typically heard about, with matter-energy manipulations of any kind. And, of course, there were a few very generic ichor that didn't fall into any of those categories, the most important of them being measurement-related, such as the alignment operator and the power operator.

"I know Cosmic Force adherents also talk about aperion, which is more typical of Force-induced matter-energy manipulations"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum had always guessed that because the Force was in everything, that the center of its power was in everything as well. Because Force users were able to command the elements, and control such things as as rocks and plants, Ultimatum had theorized that those elements had the Force within them as well, they just could not control it like a Force user. Therefore, all matter had the Force within it. Though, Ultimatum was by no means an expert in that field, so he was not entirely certain of this view. It was a theory, nothing more.

"So different Force users have even greater difference in beliefs even within the fields of scientific or more relgious beliefs?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]