{}{}{}{} Jedi Council Chamber. POV Kenobi, age 30, which means Anakin is 14 going on 15. 5 years till episode 2
"Masters." I bowed respectfully.
"Knight Kenobi, Padawan Skywalker." The scowling visage of Mace Windu greeted us while the other Masters remained silent. I could feel Anakin fidgeting to my left. He always seemed a touch nervous in front of the council, and Master Windu's obvious bad mood wasn't helping matters. Actually, most of the Masters were looking rather cross, although several seemed more thoughtful than upset. Grand Master Yoda actually seemed thoughtful, if a touch exasperated.
I was fairly sure that spelled more trouble for our upcoming assignment than Master Windu's temper did.
"Are you aware of the recent videos posted on the holo-net advertising Force training?" Master Windu asked, cutting straight to the point.
"I, no this is the first I've heard of it." I answered. Holonet videos offering to teach people to use the force? It had to be a scam. "Shouldn't this be a matter for a slicer team? Anakin and I aren't really suited to tracking down a scam artist through the darker corners of the holo-net." While Anakin was gifted with physical machines, coding was not among his many talents, and I had never felt the need to learn anything past what was necessary to operate most computers.
Master Windu looked like he had just bitten into something rather tart.
Master Yoda's soft chuckles eased a bit of the tension which was beginning to grow in the room. "Misunderstand, you do. These recordings, genuine they are, and charging for them, the creator is not."
"Whoa." Anakin murmured. I was hard pressed to not make a similarly unimaginative statement.
"... Masters, you mean to tell me that someone is producing genuine tutorial videos on how to use the Force? And posting them on the holonet for anyone to view, free of charge?" There were several grudging nods from around the chamber. "Why?" I didn't even try to keep my incredulity out of my voice.
"Revenge, of a sort." Master Plo Koon gestured towards the center of the room. A small ripple in the Force indicated he had activated some hidden mechanism as a holo projection filled the center of the room. Hanging in the air were two images. One of a young human boy in his mid teens wearing Jedi robes. The other was a young man, likely the same person, perhaps age twenty or so. He was dressed in heavy boots, loose pants, and a zipped jacket that appeared to be made from some kind of leather. The young man had a blaster holstered on his right hip, and unless I was very much mistaken a lightsaber hung from the left side of his belt. While the younger boy seemed rather apathetic, the young man wore a confidant smirk I'd run across too many times on star pilots of all stripes.
"This is former Padawan John Kesel. Current age twenty one, owner and Captain of the light freighter, Arcane Knowledge." My nose wrinkled at the name of his ship. For a former Jedi to be making allusions to magic was… distasteful. "The opening statements in his first video make it quite clear he bears a grudge against the Jedi order for attempting to send him to the agri-corps."
"Attempting?" I asked feeling no small amount of trepidation. Another subtle ripple in the Force preceded the hologram flickering off.
"He refused and left the temple. The Master sent to collect him was so startled and confused that he failed to stop Kesel." Master Windu interjected sourly.
"Oh dear."
"Within his rights, he was." Master Yoda spoke soothingly. "Illegal, his actions are not. Nevertheless, problematic they are."
"There have always been those who distrust us and speak against the Jedi order." Ki-Adi-Mundi spoke ponderously as he stroked his beard. "But rarely have those sentiments come from former members. He advocates the study of the Force as a hobby." The Master's exasperation was understandable and intense.
Yoda at odds with the rest of the council actually chuckled seemingly finding Kesel's opinion amusing for some reason.
"That's, rather insulting." I admitted. "It takes years, decades really, to accomplish mastery of the Force and he is claiming that people can become so skilled in their free time?"
"Mmm, not entirely wrong, he is. Remember your training Knight Kenobi. Classes you had, on mathematics, politics, language, history, biology, combat, and more. Learning to feel the Force, your whole day, it was not." Yoda calmly stated while pointing at me with his stick. I had to blink several times as I worked my way through that train of thought. "Missions you were sent on. Days, even weeks, there must have been where meditate, you could not?" I nodded slowly. Put in that context, I suppose it wasn't impossible for an individual to develop a degree of skill with the Force without dedicating their entire life to the process.
I shook my head. "I'm sorry, this is all interesting, but I still don't see how it is a problem. While the Jedi order doesn't recruit every force sensitive youngling in the galaxy, there cannot be so many out there that this will become a problem, even should all of those with the ability pursue these… lessons."
Master Saesee Tiin leaned forward in his seat and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The Jedi, order on average, manages to successfully recruit roughly a fourth of the Force sensitives we find."
My mouth went dry. "Oh."
"Even then, some are missed." Yaddle chimed in.
Master Tiin shook his head. "Many parents are unwilling to part with their children, and that is within the Galactic Core, where we are respected. In the Outer Rim we have comparatively little power, and any Force sensitives discovered in those regions are often found through blind luck. These holo vids open up potential Force training for all of them."
"More than that." Plo Koon interjected. "Captain Kesel has apparently spent some time among the Matukai. A small light aligned Force sect who have devised a style of training which can strengthen one's connection to the Force. He is spreading their training. He plainly admits it is the work of many months or even years, but with dedication anyone could potentially learn to forge a strong connection to the Force."
"And," Master Windu growled before I could process the implications of that piece of trivia. "if these lessons of his work, parents could truthfully argue that their children don't need our training at all."
"... He's trying to destroy the Jedi order." I spoke in a horrified whisper. Anakin's head snapped around to look at me.
"Mmm." Yoda hummed. "Destroy, I think not, but change?" He trailed off leadingly.
Master Windu sighed but at least dropped his scowl. "Assuming the lessons work, the galaxy won't change overnight. But I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see lower recruitment numbers in a decade or two. If others follow his lead, learning and freely sharing their knowledge, or even start their own groups of Force users... There have always been Force users outside of the order, but this could see us outnumbered by other groups within a few generations."
I looked at master Yoda his earlier words playing over in my mind. "You think he wants to force us to change? To adapt or be left behind?"
The diminutive grandmaster nodded solemnly. "Yes, a challenge this is. Change and grow, or do not and wither. Destroy the Jedi, this could not, see us reduced to a shadow of ourselves? Mmm possible, all too possible."
Master Rancisis slapped a hand against the coils of his lower body. "But change into what?! If we must change to such a degree that we are no longer the same, is that not another kind of destruction? A more pleasant death?"
"That," Master Windu cut in sharply. "is a discussion for another day. John Kesel is on Coruscant, we confirmed it through system control. Your mission is to meet with him and assess him. While he has so far shown a mild disdain for the Jedi Order none of his lessons have demonstrated any Dark Side leaning. But he's released only a handful of lessons so far. Having countless Force users bouncing around the galaxy all on their own personal agenda will be bad enough, but if this is a subtle plot to seed Dark Side users across the galaxy? That is a threat we cannot condone."
Master Yoda jabbed at Anakin and I with his walking stick. "Meet with him, you will. Speak with him, you must. Gain his measure, and report back."
I glanced down at Anakin to find the same uncertainty I felt reflected on his face. I steeled myself regardless and bowed to the council. "We will leave immediately."
{}{}{}{}
Piloting a speeder through Coruscant traffic was never something I had enjoyed. Normally I would let Anakin fly considering his skill and how much he enjoyed it. Given we were listening to Force tutorials as we went though… I felt it was better if I flew us, lest Anakin become distracted behind the controls.
"Well, it's been two weeks since my last videos, sorry about the delay. You'll all have to bear with me though. Some trips through hyperspace are longer than others, and while I'm thrilled to be bringing you all these lessons, I've still got bills to pay, and jobs to do." Kesel chuckled lightly. "Though I have to admit the extra credits I'm getting for the ads they make you sit through are a welcome bonus to my regular income. Thanks for that."
"Anyway, it's been a month since my first video went out so some of you overachievers might be getting to the point where you can consistently sense the Force while meditating. If you're not at that point yet you might as well keep listening, you'll need to know this sooner or later."
"So, you're starting to feel the currents of the Force." Kesel's voice took on a near hypnotic quality."The energy flowing through and around you. Relax let it pull your awareness away from yourself. Can you sense the things around you? Objects, people, plants, animals? Feel how the Force flows through them as well. That's the nature of what you are attempting to learn, what you intend to harness. The Force is an energy field that saturates the universe in its entirety, it binds all of us and everything together, makes us each part of an unfathomable greater whole."
There was a clear intake of breath, followed by a slow release.
"I've sometimes let hours slip by, just lost in that sensation of being part of a greater whole. This is what the Jedi would call the Light Side of the Force. It's a good way to kill time during long hyperspace trips… It's so peaceful." There was a reverence in his voice that I found myself commiserating with. There was an undeniable peace in allowing yourself to be swept away by the currents of the Force.
"When you get to the point you can feel that, what you want to do is just focus on it. Keep practicing that meditation. Eventually you will get used to the sensation. You'll find yourself sinking into this state easier and easier. Eventually, you'll find yourself sensing things around you even without meditating. That's what you're striving for. That's the milestone you want to reach. To always have at least some awareness of the Force."
The video fell silent long enough for me to glance over at Anakin who only shrugged before refocusing on the screen. Finally, an audible sigh played over the speakers.
"This is where the study of the Force gets complicated. If you are here for some kind of religious reason, or because you're looking for a sense of peace in your life? Then this is really all that you need to learn from me. Being able to sense the universe around you and how you connect to it is as close to a religious experience as I've ever felt in my study of the Force. The Force might push you to do something or go somewhere from time to time, and that's interesting because you suddenly realize there is a part the universe wants you to play, or that it is looking out for you… But even without that, the sense of belonging is amazing."
I openly smiled at that summary. Perhaps the council was getting worked up over nothing after all. If people only wanted to develop a connection with the force in the pursuit of peace in their lives, I could think of no reason to deny them that comfort. From the corner of my eye I noticed my padawan's uncharacteristically small smile. That kind of quite innocent joy had become less common as he grew up. It was nice to see it again.
"If you wanted more than that then this is the point where we need to talk about the Force in more detail."
Then again, perhaps the council was right to worry.
"Let's… Let's put this in terms of archetypes. The two most famous groups of Force users throughout history are the Jedi, and the Sith. There are a few splinter groups, but for now I just want to focus on the Coruscant Jedi. They are an order of monks and nuns. Yes, they are trained in combat and politics, but at their core they are a religious group. How and why they fell into the role of galactic peacekeepers is something I never got a clear answer about. They are taken from their families as infants or toddlers, then raised to follow in their predecessor's footsteps. I'd honestly call it a form of indoctrination. Their entire lives are dedicated to the Jedi order, and to the rest of the galaxy. They take children and raise them to think and feel a certain way, then dictate the course of their lives." He emphasized his point. "There are occasionally people who disagree and break away, like myself, but we are not very common. If it were any other group at all… no one would stand for it. No one would accept it."
My grip on the speeders controls was a bit tighter than strictly necessary, but I made myself focus on the traffic.
"The Jedi order justifies this practice because supposedlyit's proven the best way to stop people from 'falling to the Dark Side of the Force.' Not that much of the historical data from before the practice was implemented has survived to back up that claim." The data pad's speakers conveyed a disgruntled huff.
"Which is a pretty good segue into talking about just what the 'Dark Side' of the Force is. How to explain this… If I had to define the Light side of the Force, I would define it as the collective willof the universe. Sentient life has advanced so far because we can cooperate. Because we can work together to be greater than the sum of our parts. Much like the Force we are, in a way, united. What harms one system harms us all to an extent. But if the light is our knowledge, our cooperation, our logic… Then the Dark side is our emotions, our individuality, and our willingness to act."
"Jedi are trained, conditioned, to not form attachment. To cut themselves off from a great deal of their emotions, to suppress them. It's unhealthy. At best it bottles those emotions up until they eventually explode out, and at worst, and seemingly far more common, it damages their ability to deal with their emotions." Anakin and I shared confused glances not really sure what to make of that. "I say that because there is a trend of Jedi who draw on the 'Dark Side' for whatever reason losing all sense, and defecting to the Sith."
Well… I wasn't exactly a historian, but that did seem to line up with the usual cautionary tales. I certainly couldn't remember many stories of Jedi making use of the Dark Side remaining part of the order.
"I mentioned the Sith before, records of exactly what they believed are fragmented and incomplete, but from what I do know they were obsessed with trying to take over the galaxy, and preached the use of anger and hatred when channeling the Force in the pursuit of power."
"In case any of you at home are getting any ideas? Don't. The Sith were out of their damn minds. They kept trying to take over the galaxy. And for what? Even if you manage to pull it off, you'd spend the rest of your life dodging assassins, filling out never ending paperwork, and dealing with every inter system pissing match that happened to pop up. Why anyone with an ounce of sense would think chaining themselves to that migraine is an accomplishment…"
Anakin's chuckles mirrored my own grin.
"And I mean aside from the combat precognition and enhanced physical abilities? Force powers? Not that big a deal." His voice shifted to something deep and intentionally over dramatic. "Look upon me insects, I can shoot lightning from my fingers, but a large enough bomb would kill me as surely as it would anyone else! Fear. My. POWA!"
I didn't bother suppressing my chuckles. Anakin outright giggled.
"It's insane," Kesel's tone returned to its usual irreverent lecturing. "like a bunch of grown adults dedicated themselves to becoming a cult of creepy goth teens. Force users are pretty hard to kill, powerful ones more so, but we're not invincible. A big enough blast radius, or too much enemy fire to deal with? We go down just like anyone else. And challenging the galaxy to a fight is just asking to get killed sooner or later."
"Well, at least we know he has some sense."
"Yes, Master." Anakin replied with another half smothered laugh.
"The thing you have to understand is why they acted that way. There are other Dark Side groups out there, but you don't see them launching suicidal crusades. I described the Dark Side as our emotions. I meant that very much literally, it's reaching out to the Force with your emotions, charging it with them, then drawing on that emotionally charged power and using it."
"Oh, Sith spit." He had just, in very broad terms, explained to all the galaxy how to use the Dark Side of the Force.
"Most of you are probably thinking to yourselves, ok, so what? Drawing on the Force without emotion or drawing on it with emotion, what's the big deal? The big deal is that the Force doesn't just feed your emotions back to you at a one to one ratio. Put in x emotion get x back. No, it's much more dangerous than that."
"Imagine you stubbed your toe on something, it hurts, you're annoyed, maybe even a little angry. You sink that into the Force and then use what you get back to toss whatever you kicked aside. But you're still angry about it, maybe even angrier than when you started. What normally would call for a few curse words now takes you a half hour to calm down from. And the stronger the emotions you use the worse the results. Emotional people don't make the most rational decisions, and the Sith encouragedtheir members to nurture a mindset that was constantly using anger and hatred to draw on the Force. It's like throwing yourself into a hole just to keep digging deeper. It's self destructive!"
"So, the Jedi cut themselves off from living their lives for fear of what their emotions could make them, and the Sith threw themselves into the most violent and destructive emotions like junkies chasing their next high. I don't like either of those options. I'm a sentient being, and that means I am both a logical member of society, and an individual with emotions. I am not one or the other. I am both in balance. I do a job which contributes to society, but it is something I enjoy doing. I enjoy having fun, but I'm responsible enough to temper that pursuit of pleasure with reason."
In spite of myself I was actually finding this fascinating. It was heresy, but there was a ring of truth in his words. A sense of belief and self assurance. I was nearly certain Kesel had experimented with the Dark Side of the Force, but nothing he was saying sounded like the rantings of someone who had fallen.
"Using your emotions to draw on the Force is like drinking alcohol. You have to be aware of what you are drinking, how much you are drinking, and how different drinks affect you. Most importantly you have to know when to cut yourself off and sober up."
"Interesting metaphor." I muttered. Anakin only hummed back too absorbed in the screen and its lesson to respond.
"Anger, hatred, negative emotions like that are going to make you want to lash out. And every little slight is going to seem like a good reason to do just that. You pull on that when you're already mad enough to kill someone and you won't be calming down anytime soon. Especially if you get stuck in a loop and keep feeding it back in. If I had to bet, I'd say that's how a fair few people 'fell' as the Jedi would phrase it. But you don't have to use those emotions. Hell, I'd advocate againstusing them. I tried using love to draw on the Force while tucked in with my ex a couple years back. I was a sappy, clingy, goof, for three days." Kesel's voice was full of resigned amusement.
He hummed thoughtfully. "Though I wouldn't claim even that is risk free. Imagine what someone who is obsessed could do? Even positive emotions could be twisted by circumstance. If she had been killed while I was essentially doped up on my feelings for her I'm not sure I could have restrained myself from slaughtering whoever was responsible. And maybe that's not so bad, every sentient species has a history of individuals killing for revenge. But then I ask myself if I would have stopped with just the guilty party? As I am normally? Sure. Hopped up on rage and hate I'd likely have drawn on in my grief… I'm less certain. Or what if she had decided to break things off when I was like that? Would I have let her? Or would I have tried to force her to stay? Emotions are not rational, Force enhanced emotions even less so, be careful. Don't wallow in any emotion. Just like with anything else in life, feel it, let it play a role in deciding what to do, but don't let it control you."
It was sobering to hear a warning that actually explained the risks of the Dark Side in detail. My entire life I had been warned away from using the Dark Side of the Force. And here was a detailed explanation of why it was a risk, of how lashing out once in anger could influence someone enough to cause their fall. Of how even an emotion like love could twist someone into a force of evil.
"This video's run long enough so let's wrap it up. In conclusion, as you learn to sense the Force. Be mindful notto pour whatever you are feeling into the Force. If that sense of peace is all you are looking for then congratulations you've found it. If you plan to make use of the Force as I start explaining Force powers then be careful. Experiment with as little emotion as possible. Minor annoyances, slight affection, a bit of amusement. Pay careful attention to how it affects you. Just so you can recognize it. Then make a habit of preventing what you feel from affecting the Force around you. That control, that separation of what you are feeling from how you use the Force is the difference between being in control and losing yourself. Master yourself, and it can't master you. Spending lots of time meditating on the Light Side of the Force is a good way to purge the effects, and help you find and maintain balance."
"Remember, the Force isn't your entire life, just an aspect of it. Don't let training take over. Go out with friends, sit down with a book, focus on your job and family. Keep yourselves grounded. I'll get back to you all with another video in a week and a half, maybe two weeks. Until then think about everything I've said. Later."
For several minutes Anakin and I went with the traffic in silence, thinking over what we had just heard. I was the first to break the silence.
"I think we very much need to meet the Captain."
"Yes, Master." Anakin replied unusually quietly. "Do you think… are we…" He couldn't seem to properly form the questions on his mind.
"I don't know what this means for our mission, Anakin. I wish the council had seen this before they assigned us the mission, but considering it only went up an hour ago…" I sighed. "Forward the video to the council, Anakin. I doubt it will change anything though. They'll likely be debating it until long after Kesel has left the planet. Probably until he has posted his next lesson, and that will start the debate all over again."
Anakin wrinkled his nose in minor scowl. "This mission is going to be trouble, Master."
I chuckled lightly at that simple yet accurate evaluation. "I think that may just prove to be an understatement."