Entry Fifteen
The ceremony is today at sunset.
I don't mind admitting I'm more than a little nervous about my first task as a Knight, but I'm well prepared. We rehearsed the ceremony yesterday and will again today, and I think I will do fine representing the Order to the best of my ability.
Yet, I still feel the burden on my shoulders and I find I miss my Master's reassuring presence, but the Force is with me even if my Master is not. As the ceremony draws closer and closer, I find myself drawing on it more heavily, to keep my center focus.
After this morning's rehearsal, Senator Palpatine asked how I was enjoying Naboo and I thanked him for asking me to come. How he knew so well that I wanted to be off Coruscant, I'll never guess, but he was right and he was amused when I mentioned it.
We had time to kill before the ceremony after the rehearsal, and rather than stand around, he took me on a tour of their plasma mining facility, which has it's own wing in the Palace. Darius has recently taken an interest in the efforts of Naboo trade, because as the planet's representative, it makes sense that he would be interested in something that is one of their chief exports. They sell to a group known as the Trade Federation, rather than managing the tedious affairs of finding markets themselves. I can't say that I blame them really for going through a middleman rather than handling business and trading on their own, keeping in check with regulations can be quite tedious.
The mining facility could be accessed two ways, behind a door in the palace hangar bay, or through it's own private lift tube. For safety's sake we took the lift tube and emerged on a level where there were two plexiglass doors, so that visitors to the room could see everything that was going on.
The plasma mining was quite a sight.
Darius explained how it all worked and he seemed quite knowledgeable. Deep in the heart of the planet, plasma is generated by natural ionization reactions and generators bring it up from the plasma veins below the surface to deliver it to the processing facility, which is where we were standing.
I could see the big rigs driving deep down, obviously going into the planet's surface. They had covered containers so that you couldn't actually see the plasma, but I have seen plasma before on other planets.
Beyond the processing plant, we came to the generator room, which effectuates the power for the plasma mining. There was a large open pit, and a hallway of energy beams and a series of catwalks crisscrossing each other. Darius explained that the generator core used particle coils to disintegrate the plasma and the laser beams that turned off and on, are in response to potentially dangerous power outputs that occur irregularly during the plasma activation process.
As we stood there, taking it all in, I felt a slight disturbance in the Force, but before I could think further on it, it was gone.
We eventually left to go return to the main section of the Palace once more, and it was busy with people bustling about doing last minute preparations for the ceremony, which should begin very shortly. I thanked Darius for his tour, as it had been very enjoyable.
It was truly fascinating, really. I always love learning new things and seeing how things operate on other planets first hand.
It's only an hour before sunset, so I must attend to my duties and be what I was trained to be for the very first time.
A Jedi Knight in the service of the Galactic Republic.