Control... You Must Learn Control (Morgan)

[Serena Laran]

Serena Laran sat in the meditation chamber deep underground in the Jedi complex hidden on the planet of Vortex. Of course, the Vors knew they were there, they just were not aware that the group of aliens that they had allowed to settle on their planet were Jedi. They had friends among the Vors that lived closest (though the nearest settlement of the leathery skinned and winged aliens was over a klick away), allies who were friendly to the Rebel Alliance and knew of their ties to the organization.

She sat crosslegged on a circular ottoman, one of two in the room. Consciously the Jedi Knight had designed the Enclave's mediation chamber (one of two such private rooms in the complex) to reflect their counterparts in the destroyed Jedi Academy on Coruscant. This room was still very different - with two walls that were rough hewn stone, left natural when the Rebel techs had constructed the room. The other two were the same lightweight but strong building material that rest of the base had been built from. A large, dim light fastened to one wall filled the room with a diffused glow, giving the false impression of a covered window to the outside.

Before her on the second meditation seat lay five medium sized eggs, laid by a avian rodent that lived on the surface in complex nests constructed from the dangerous razor grass. In direct opposition to the harsher conditions where they were laid, the eggs were covered with only the thinnest of shells, a testament to the wonder of life in the galaxy.

These eggs were newly laid, and the gestating creatures inside were barely beginning to form, the strange embryos tied to the large yolk inside the shell and floating in gooey jelly. Serena extended a hand towards the eggs, lifting them one at a time with the Force and floating them towards her until they were halfway between the two meditation ottomans. She closed her eyes as the eggs slowly rotated in the air, waiting for her tall apprentice, Morgan Evanar, to arrive as requested.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan walked in, and immediately felt nervous. Those eggs were from something rather unpronounceable by human lips. He called them skitters, which was shorter than the original name, and still descriptive of their behavior.

"Skitter eggs?" He asked, his voice tentative. You could break them by picking them up if they were freshly laid. He could only guess at how high the attrition rate of the eggs was. Morgan took the other seat, and stared down at the eggs.

Fragile little buggers.

[Serena Laran]

Serena opened her eyes as Morgan sat, and nodded. In the air the eggs stopped their orbit around an invisible point, but remained in an evenly spaced vertical circle. "They will serve as helpful tools during our training session today."

She continued, "Have you been practicing your telekinesis and meditation every day?"

[Morgan Evanar]

Serena already knew the answer, yet she asked it anyway.
"Except for my brief recovery, yes. I still feel that I have a lot to learn about both. My telekinesis is improving, but it's slow going compared to things like spacial detection." Morgan sounded a touch frustrated, but not discouraged.

"I'm not sure traditional meditation works for me, either." Serena gave him a curious glance, nodding to indicate he should provide more detail.

"It's easier if I'm putting some focus toward something more... menial, I guess. Like running fiber op lighting or putting up walls." Over the past several weeks, the Rebel presence had thinned significantly. Morgan happily picked up much of the slack since he had healed.

"I'm better when I have a goal, or another task I don't need to think about very much. I wasn't good at non-applied mathematics, either."

[Serena Laran]

It made sense. He had used the Force subconsciously for a great many years, and therefore conscious use of it was more difficult than his instinctive grasp of it. Having to adjust tradtitional training methods for use with older padawans was something Serena was slowly getting more skilled at, yet more adjustments were constantly needed.

"Then I suggest you put your hands to work during your meditative sessions. I believe there will always be some wiring to be done here." Serena refocused her eyes to look at the eggs suspended in air between them, and the five circular objects twitched a little. "Over time and with practice meditation will come easier. We access the Force best when our spirits are calm and at peace, and meditation helps open the door to that part of our being.

"When we are at rest mentally our control in the Force sharpens, and other abilities are opened up to us. Telekinesis, for one." She indicated the hovering skitter eggs with one long-fingered hand. "Brute force is sometimes needed when you move objects through the Force, but more often than not a lighter and more controlled approach is needed."

Serena gently floated one egg closer to her padawan. "Use the Force to take the egg from my control. I will resist you a little, so be prepared."

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan took a deep breath. He stared at the egg. Some people found it easier to close their eyes, but it never made much of a difference to him. Senses could be deceived, but that didn't make it bad information, just inaccurate.

The egg wobbled for a moment, but Serena held it fast. Morgan began again, trying carefully to ramp up the amount of force he used. The egg began to crack. Through an eternal tenth of a second, he could feel the egg's mass shift and deform. The top buckled in and began to ooze.

"Well, crap." He said while his open palm caught the bit of yolk before it dripped over the floor.

[Serena Laran]

She hid a smile from her padawan, and pushed at another egg, moving it in front of Morgan while she disposed of the broken shell of the previous one.

"When you encounter the skitter egg, imagine the Force as completely encompassing it - applying the same amount of pressure equally around it." Serena gave the new egg a little bit of a jiggle in the air, then let it lie still.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan blinked. It was rather obvious, now that it had been pointed out. A logical approach. With the pressure evenly distributed across the surface, the egg would be much less stressed. Morgan hadn't thought of it before because he was still thinking within the constraints of his hands.

While Serena was holding the egg, Morgan experimented with this new approach oh his fingers. He felt his skin ripple a little at first, but after a few minutes he could feel an even pressure. It still might not be good enough to grab the egg.

Morgan tried again. He slowly encompassed the egg, feeling it secure, evenly blanketed in pressure. The egg pulled apart towards him, his little bubble of even pressure now oozing yolk.

Morgan sighed and scratched his head.

[Serena Laran]

Serena reached out with the Force, reinforcing his hold on the cracked and runny egg, and keeping the mess contained as the yolk threatened to drip on the floor. As Morgan relinquished control, she lowered the ruined skitter egg to the ground, on top of the remains of the first egg.

A third egg floated towards him, and she nodded at him encouragingly. "You are grasping the concept, Morgan, it just needs a little polish. Though you exert an even pressure on the shell, it must still be the right amount of pressure. Too much and the shell will implode on itself, as we have seen.

"Take your time - there is no race against the clock today." She paused, and considered for a moment. The normal rules of meditation did not seem to apply to her older student.

"As you reach through the Force for the skitter egg, compute the coordinates needed for a jump from this system to the Core."

[Morgan Evanar]

"Well... well okay." He had been debugging the hyperdrive on a light freighter the Alliance had been using to ship materiel. It was the last ship left that didn't belong to Adia or Serena, but it had been troublesome, so he did a global update on it's charts, which took an hour.

Coruscant was usually the first update, unless it was a Corellian design. Then it was Corellia. It was, as many light freighters are, Corellian.

Morgan thought of the relative galactic drift of Corellia versus Vortex. It was a rather long jump. Actually, he was certain he knew that the drift charts were about a hundred thousand kilometers off, and compensated. Jump to Coruscant and then to Corellia down the Corellian Run.

It was relaxing. Content that each mass was being calculated correctly, Morgan shifted his concious thoughts to the egg. The egg was a more local issue, but since he was not operating on a quantum scale, the same application applied. Morgan understood the egg's mass, and it's core structure. Jumping through it would not be the best idea. However, he could see how the outer structure distributed energy, including the local gravity field. His previous attempt failed to take it into account. The egg was fragile, but the limits were much more clear to him now.

Smoothly, the egg floated up. Morgan understood how much energy was required. He was within tolerances.

[Serena Laran]

Serena smiled as his attention slowly returned to the egg that was now fully in his control. "Good work, Morgan." He floated the skitter egg back towards her, and she put out her hand. The egg wobbled, then landed gently on her palm.

Placing it beside her, she indicated the last two eggs that remained in her control and in front of him. "Again, please."

[Morgan Evanar]

It was much simpler, now. He took the time and calculated the tolerances of the new egg. It was similar to the previous egg. Moving the egg was still difficult. That was trickier to determine, and it was unnatural. Envelope, and lift.

The egg floated up smoothly. Holding it was not any real trouble, but it would take time to get something so delicate moving. None of this telekinesis stuff felt especially natural. It would take time to puzzle out.

[Serena Laran]

The final egg shot out towards him while he was still manipulating the last one, zipping towards his face and then veering off towards the egg he controlled. It looked to be on a collision course with the other, then changed direction at the last minute and headed towards his head once again.