Edjumacation (open)

[Kale]

It was a very forlorn Kale who plodded in through the Archive doors one hazy Coruscant afternoon. He held in his hand a flimsiplast with a list of questions on it--questions about galactic history, current events, stellar cartography, interstellar culture, sciences, mathematics, vocabulary, reading comprehension...

Kale stretched the flimsy out in front of him and re-read the top line:

ELEMENTARY-LEVEL PROFICIENCY TEST (Practice sheet)

Elementary? Nerfdren. It was all Huttese to him. And he had until tomorrow to fill out the sheet and return it to Master Tondry.

It was a problem most Jedi Padawans didn't have to deal with. The ones who were raised by the Order had their education provided along with everything else. Most of the older applicants had at least a twelve-year diploma to stand on. But when it came to general knowledge, Kale had always been on a need-to-know basis. Most of this stuff had never been relevant to him before. What does a pickpocket care who was the Senator of Naboo during the Clone Wars? Or what sector Bestine IV is in? Or who the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Sovereignty is?

Frankly, Kale didn't much care now, either. But it was... homework. Go to the archives and find the answers to all those questions. Write down where you found them. Study your answers before training tomorrow morning.

As Kale approached the reference desk, the librarian quickly donned her spectacles and began shuffling anything else on the desk the Padawan might steal into a neat pile where she could keep an eye on it.

"Um... where are the research terminals?" Kale asked.

The librarian pointed directed him to a bank of computers located quite obviously in the central corridor. Kale shrugged a sheepish "thanks" and selected a seat on a corner.

Search... um... He glanced down at the keyboard and began picking out the letters one by one, double-checking the spelling with the sheet.

senator of naboo during clone wars

A cavalcade of relevant articles flooded the database; he skimmed the top heading, then pulled up the full text.

"...during the Clone Wars, when fears of rebellion against the Republic propelled the former senator of Naboo to a position more akin to military dictator than Chancellor. Palpatine continued to feed these fears as he tightened his grip on the crumbling democracy..."

There! That was it!

Or was it?

Kale carefully read over the segment again. Looked like this was going to take a while...

[spada]

Spada walked into the archives, a big smile under his bulging mask. Walking over to the rows of datapads, he confidently slid a datapad on the biography of Plo Koon which he had been reading since he entered the academy almost a year ago.

Walking to the central console of computers, took one next to another jedi, and sat down, causing the chair to sink and rise again. Slowly typing, he spelled out
'l-i-g-h-t-s-a-b-e-r...t-e-c-h-n-i-q-u-e-s'

Pressing enter, he waited as a long list of books began to pop up on the computer. Looking over at the Jedi who he sat next to, he noticed how he seemed to be frustrated and was staring intently at the screen and said dumbly,

"Hey..uh- whats up?"

[Kale]

Okay, so he'd got Padme Amidala scrawled down on the flimisplast. He'd discovered that the Hydian Way was the longest trade route in the civilized galaxy, stretching from Trezibond in Imperial space to Bonodan in the Tingel Arm. And he put Thyferra down as the galaxy's primary source of Bacta--he'd known that one already. Now Kale was trying to track down the identity of the species represented in a small photo printed on the flimsy--a ponderous-looking alien with a forward-thrusting head and eyes mounted on stalks to either side.

Search: giant slug creature

Search: t shaped head

Search: wat the frell is wrong with tis #*57q09 computer!!!!

Kale leaned forward with his chin propped on his hand and glared daggers at the monitor until he heard a metallic voice from his right. He glanced sheepishly over at the source. A Kel Dor. He'd never met one of those before.

"Uh... Just doin' a little research," he said. "Er, tryin', anyway."

The teenaged padawan quietly pushed the practice sheet underneath a shelf on the back of the desk--he wasn't too proud of struggling through an elementary test.

[spada]

Spada leaned over at the picture that the man was looking at, saying,

"Hey, looks a little like a...whadya call it...starts with an I or something...Itherin?? Something like that..."

Spada looked back at the man and to the picture saying,

"So who gave you the test?"

[Arajah Ramanuja]

Argh, wrong account.

[Kale]

Apparently Kale hadn't hidden the sheet quite quickly enough. Caught in the act, he slowly drew the flimsiplast back to the front of the desk.

"My master gave it to me," he said. "He, uh... Well, I never had much schoolin', y'know, so..."

He fidgeted, then turned back to his monitor. "Let's see, let me give that a try..."

Search: itherin

The database returned a few hits about some Selkotar cult that flew itself into a pulsar expecting to be ushered into the heavenly realm. Oh, wait, there was something at the top...

Did you mean Ithorian?

Kale selected the link. The first hit was from an encyclopedia of sentient races.

Ithorians are a species of humanoids with large, domed heads atop sharply curving necks, commonly referred to as "Hammerheads." Ithorians have two mouths and glossy, brown flesh. In general, they are devoted environmentalists, staunch herbivores, and complete pacifists. Many have become galactic traders who peacefully travel the stars in giant herd ships. They will only resort to violence if threatened.

Picture, picture... there! Paydirt.

Kale scribbled the name down. Only... sixty-six questions to go.

The padawan glanced back over at Spada. "Hey, thanks. I ain't really used to this library an' all, and, uh..."

Way to make yourself sound even more pathetic.

"What're you workin' on there?"

[spada]

Spada nodded to Kale, saying,

"Just picking out another datapad to read. I finally finished one on Plo Koon."

Suddenly remembering something, he said,

"Oh I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name is Spada Elhow."

[Kale]

Plo Koon... Kale didn't recognize the name. Ah well, he had other things to attend to.

He nodded minimalistically. "Kale," he replied. Then he turned back to his practice sheet.

What was the significance of the Battle of Endor?

Heh, even he knew this one. That was when the Emperor died. Wasn't it? Hmph, all the questions so far had short, declarative answers.

Better safe than sorry. He banged in "Battle of Endor" and hit the "search" key.

Frell! The first page of hits was flooded with historical essays and journal articles. He was trying to answer a question, not write a friggin' book!

Kale normally wasn't one to socialize, but it was a good excuse to put off slogging through the morass of academia on his monitor screen.

"So, uh... how long you been at the Order?"

[spada]

Spada gazed into the screen with his empty eyes beneath his kel dor mask and said,

"About 10 months. Maybe less..."

Spada watched as the entries finally stopped popping up and said,

"So who gave you the test?"