Kazahan Learns a Lesson About... Lightsabers!

[Kazahan]

Among the many and varied students of the Jedi on Ossus, the Jedi Order's chosen homeworld, there was only one Trianii.

Or at least, as far as Kazahan was aware, there was only one Trianii. And that one Trianii was him. Kazahan.

As far as apprentices went, Kazahan felt he was in fact rather talented. His physical conditioning was superb, he was not prone to fits of murderous rage, and he applied himself to every... almost every lesson with a determination and will succeed that few matched. He was a shoe-in for Knighthood, and from there travelling the galaxy and the Trianii worlds as a bonafide hero, righting wrongs and proving himself a great Trianii; and further, he wouldn't be surprised if someday he were made Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, and he would negotiate a true peace with the Empire, and then trade and sex would normalize everything and smooth out the worst in both the Empire and Alliance, leading to a prosperous and peaceful galaxy...

If he could build a lightsaber.

Putting his daydreams aside, he focused once more on the conglomeration of materials on the worktable, only to find that instead of a lightsaber, a haphazard model of a cat sat on the table's surface. He stared at it in bemusement for a moment, sure that before he'd slipped off into his ruminations on his future there had been a clear cylinder in front of him. He scratched his chin. Maybe one of Raji's droids would like the metal cat as a present?

He'd faced this prospect before, but now, he was sure, he could not avoid the truth.

He wouldn't be able to figure out how to make himself a lightsaber without much help.

He glanced down at the cat again.

Much help, indeed.

He adjusted the metal cat's tail and set it aside, before moving it back into the middle of the table and working on making it more suitable as a present.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"That's the Iridium battery there," a voice came from over his shoulder. "It goes in the bottom of the hilt." A hand appeared over Kazahan's shoulder and pointed at the hilt pieces that must have been the tail of the statue. "So the battery goes in the pommel, then the connection of the battery to the focus emitter. The crystal slides in, then you close it in with the ignition plate."

The Force Cripple pointed to each part in turn. "The real trick is once it's all done, you have to use the Force to seal it together. The better your mastery, the better quality your saber will be. That's why it's traditionally been the final task for Padawans receiving Knighthood. If your saber functions, you've proven your Knighthood."

[Kazahan]

Kazahan stared blankly at Wei, turned to look blankly at the metal cat, before looking back at Wei just as blankly.

"This one did not understand most of the words you have said. Perhaps you can reframe your point so that Kazahan's head does not hurt?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei smiled. "Of course. Look. See the picture?" Wei held out his datapad so Kazahan could see the screen. Make it look like the picture. Then, use the Force to finish putting it together."

The schematic laid out the pieces pretty clearly. The bottom with the battery inside, the half-cylinder plate cradling the crystal. The connector and the focusing emitter were shown connected (but really it was just a matter of fitting the three small metal spars into the holes). Lastly, the lens sat on the other side. Above it all was the ignition plate with a large arrow indicating that it should go over the crystal and connector to create the rest of the hilt. Other smaller arrows indicated how the Padawan should focus to bring it all together and lock the pieces in place.

"Does that help?"

[Kazahan]

Kazahan stared at the diagrams, and then looked up at Wei.

He looked back at the picture intently, and then held up a piece beside the datapad and glanced between it and the pictures before setting it back on the worktable.

He looked back at Wei.

"No," the Trianii said. "It does not."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Well, let's see here..."

Wei sat across from Kazahan. "May I?" he asked as he gestured towards the statue. Kazahan didn't object that Wei could tell, so he started to carefully pick apart the statue.

"Ok, well here's the battery, that's good," he said plucking off the nose. "Um, here's your connector..." he gestured at the whiskers. "This spring looks like it goes to something else..."

Wei scratched his head. "This lens is from a scope. It won't help at all with your lightsaber. Oh, this isn't a field emitter at all. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it's a broken, rusted piece of a hydrospanner."

After all was said and done, Wei found a bit of a plastic fork, something not unlike a wad of chewing gum, a restraining bolt, and a bent bottle cap. And that was just the things the Jedi Knight could identify!

"I don't know where you got all this from, but clearly you were either handed a junk pile that was mistaken for a lightsaber kit, or you just picked up every shiny bauble you found lying around."

Wei paused and studied the Padawan. "Who's your teacher?"

[Kazahan]

"This one is taught by Master Solomon!" Kazahan said brightly. "Kazahan needs tutoring on reaching the Force and building lightsabers and knowing when not to ask people if they are cats among other things."

Wei's observation about picking up shiny baubles was mostly true, though Kazahan hardly thought he could be blamed for that, given that the Jedi were not flush with money and parts for lightsabers required expertise and time to put together into a working hilt. They had crystals now, thanks to Hal and his past exploits on Ilum. But those were nearly all kept for students who could actually build a lightsaber.

Kazahan was not one of those students.

"You mean there are lightsaber kits?" Kazahan's ears flicked back and forth. "Kazahan was unaware of this. Kazahan was led to believe that parts for lightsabers were not plentiful enough to be given out."

The Trianii's eyes narrow.

"Kazahan is perturbed."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Well, we are limited on resources, but when we have the complete set of parts, we bundle them into a kit and give it to a student who is proficient enough in the Force to put together a lightsaber. It's traditionally one of the last rites of passage from Padawan to Knight."

That tradition had fallen away even before the time of the Clone Wars. Padawans were handed lightsabers when they were assigned a Master from as far back as Wei could remember up until the Purge. With the Alliance helping the Jedi rebuild, parts were coming in at a quicker, steadier pace. Many Padawans were given lightsabers for training purposes. The fact that Kazahan did not have a lightsaber already was odd.

"Of course, we're getting more materials all the time. By now I had expected we would not have to be so discerning with the lightsaber parts. Still, I know there are a few kits. We can get one, if Solomon has signed off that you can have one."

Wei had some lightsabers that he had recovered from his duel on Geonosis. He had been holding onto them to study the technology and the crystals. If he couldn't help Kazahan build a saber, Wei would reach out to Solomon for permission to loan the Padawan one of his.

[Kazahan]

"Well, that is the reason then," Kazahan answered quickly. "In fact this one has been banned from touching a training saber unless directly supervised by Knight Loki or another qualified teacher."

Kazahan tilted his head.

"Kazahan is not very good at putting lightsabers back together," the Trianii admitted without a shred of shame.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Kazahan.

"Is that a fact?"

The Jedi Knight had already changed his mind about getting the Padawan a kit. He needed training in the proper use of a lightsaber. Loki, no doubt, had been teaching Kazahan proper technique. Wei could also trust Solomon to instill in the Padawan the proper mindset. It was the impulsiveness, and a lack of understanding about the substance of things, that seemed to be the critical issue.

And Wei, of course, understood nothing about Kazahan's species--biology, culture, or anything. "There is no ignorance; there is knowledge," he said (mostly to himself). "Ok, um, Kazahan, was it? I want to know if I can trust you with a lightsaber. So I'm curious. What do you know about the Jedi?"

[Kazahan]

"Jedi were peace keepers," Kazahan answered without hesitation. "Kazahan is unsure, but perhaps the Jedi of old did not revere their god, a field of energy called the Force that is present throughout the galaxy and was characterized as having a will, correctly. But the Jedi order was almost annihilated by the Empire, which Kazahan can somewhat understand, but still, the Imperial Knights are quite intimidating and interesting looking. Perhaps Trianii may have a conversation with one at some point in the future."

Kazahan stood and stretched, his tail lashing about as he built up steam listing the things he knew about the Jedi.

"Relationships or strong emotional ties were frowned upon apparently, but no one knows what to do about that now. Master Solomon and Master Serena trade very romantic looks sometimes. There is almost to criteria right now for the Jedi to turn away a prospective student. The Jedi are not numerous, yet are growing. Often a Jedi will 'touch' or 'commune' with the Force through meditation, but Kazahan has not yet mastered meditation techniques, because Kazahan cannot seem to tell himself to be still; only after being still is Kazahan aware of stillness. Philosophy is confusing, but it is apparently mandatory learning for Jedi. There are at least fifteen different species that Kazahan has seen represented in the Jedi Order..."

It didn't look like he was going to stop in the next few moments.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei reached out and touched Kazahan lightly on the shoulder. "I can see you've been attentive in and out of class," he said.

Wei scratched his chin. "If you have a hard time keeping still, maybe you should try shifting your focus," he suggested. "When I was first learning to meditate, I would often concentrate on the sound of my own breathing, or a clear pure tone, or the hum of my lightsaber blade. Even then, you don't always have to have stillness of body to have stillness of mind. Not all Jedi have been warriors, but most all of them have recognized that there can be mental peace found in physical activity. I think it's why all Jedi carry lightsabers: performing the scripted sequences of techniques can clear the mind when performed in the right way."

The Jedi Knight stood. "Come on, let's get you a training saber and see if we can find your center."

[Kazahan]

Kazahan stood and followed the much shorter Jedi Master out of the workshop, and into the bright Ossus day.

"Is not Kazahan's center..." the big Trianii paused and looked at his belly, trying to figure out where inside of him his center of mass was; his finger hovered over his diaphragm uncertainly.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled in spite of himself. Apparently Kazahan took things literally. "I mean we're going to see if we can't help you find a way to have stillness in your mind. You know, when you don't think about anything in particular. Peaceful."

The Force Cripple had no trouble signing out a training saber, and soon the pair stood on a mat inside the training center. A few Padawans were practicing here and there, but for the most part the space was empty. The humming lightsabers were a welcome sound to Wei. He took a satisfied breath and took up the stance for Form I.

"Ok, let's practice a basic defensive velocity from Shii-cho. We guard the 5 main target zones. Head, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg."

As Wei called out the target zones, he swept his lightsaber in a wide, slow arc. Wei did not believe in speedy practice of velocities. A slow, accurate execution of technique taught the body better in his experience. Speed could wait until muscles memorized what they were supposed to do.

"We're going to repeat this several times. Breathe in, then out when you perform one technique. So in between each movement, we're going to take a breath."

The Jedi Knight started again, setting the example for Kazahan.

[Kazahan]

Kazahan gripped the lightsaber awkwardly; his hand was larger by a fair amount than the average apprentice's, and the training sabers were obviously built to fit as many hands and appendages as possible. Sadly, this meant that Kazahan was left with a weapon that was smaller and lighter than he was accustomed to or expecting.

"These are the martial forms of the Jedi," Kazahan said, swinging his lightsaber in one hand in rough approximations of Wei's own elegant strokes. "This one has practised them before, but the weapon is awkward. That is how Kazahan became banned from touching training sabers without supervision. An unsupervised attempt to make one larger and heavier did not turn out well for Trianii."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Well, I'm afraid you'll have to learn to manage on the weight. Remember, the blade is pure energy. The field that contains the blade will cause some friction in the atmosphere, but mainly you'll just have to accept the heaviest part is going to be the hilt. We can lengthen it pretty easily, if it's too small for you. The Jedi Order has had some pretty tall Jedi in its long history."

The Force Cripple closed down his lightsaber and put it back on his belt. He pulled his datapad and started flicking across screens of inventory documents for lightsaber parts.

"Are you happy with the length of that blade? We can modify the outputs to make the blade longer, and we can add some extra length to he hilt so you can hold it comfortably in both your hands. It's not terribly difficult to do now, and if I can ever get my project off the ground, it'll be almost nothing to produce blades to suit any Jedi Knight."