milliways_bar | Millitimed to sometime after the thing with k_in

"Wow," Ray says. "That's, um... that's a lot more work than Peter's dad ever put in. I hope he's good at running. I don't think the Spanish police like that kind of thing."

"I really don't care much how good he is at running. He's a crook, and if the Spanish police catch him, good for them." The snark-face is for her dad.

"Gotcha," Ray says, and contributes a similar face for the cause. "I'd offer to loan you my dad instead, but he sort of died a long time ago. You seem to be doing pretty well with Miss Honey, though."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I bet he was loads nicer than mine, not that that's hard. And Miss Honey is lovely. When we moved into her dad's old house, I found out it has loads of books stashed away in boxes and such in various storage rooms. Boxes! There must be thousands of them - I want to get them properly shelved and displayed, but I'm Bound at the moment. Still, it's a project for when I get back. Oh, and she's very nice to me, of course. She's letting me study ahead in school - says I'll be ready for university in two years if I try, although if I study plenty while I'm Bound I might cut it down to one and a half. Time doesn't pass there when I'm here."

"Well, my dad was a chemical engineer. He and Mom were very big on books. We didn't own a television until I was five, and after that I only got an hour a week, but they were glad to let me read as much as I wanted." He grins. "I didn't get to skip ahead as fast as you would, though. I had to wait until I was nearly fifteen to go to Columbia University."

"Oh." She discovers wells of sympathy deep within her soul for someone who waits until the ripe old age of fifteen to attend university. "Well, I congratulate you for not owning a television until the age of five. I rather wish I'd been in the same situation. It's hard to read when your parents are making you eat dinner in front of the telly. Just thinking of all the books I could have finished earlier than I did..."

"Hey, at least you can appreciate them now," Ray says. "The other way, you could've wound up taking them for granted, and that wouldn't be any good at all."

"I suppose that's true. Still, the television is an annoying waste of time."

"True enough," Ray says. "New question, though. Since you seem to be more sensible about this kind of thing than most grown-ups, what did you want to do for a living when you grow up?"

"I don't know exactly. I was thinking of postponing the decision until I've gone through university and had some time to really consider. Perhaps a professor. Although I've heard some better ideas since I thought of that one." She doesn't mention that Jedi was among the best. He seemed a bit odd on the subject, and she fears the sort of argument that starts with 'You're too young to...'

Ray grins. "I used to be a university professor myself," he says. "Got fired because I didn't publish enough stuff about my research. I was pretty lazy at the time. Things've picked up since then, though, since my colleagues and I are in business for ourselves."

"You're required to publish, then, as well as teach? Interesting. Perhaps..." The thought trails off, and she gathers up the courage. She won this argument once about demon slaying, after all.
"But actually, when you mentioned the Jedi... I think they sound like a much better idea than being a professor. D'you think there are any who'd take students as young as me?"

"Oh, yeah. It doesn't look good for the university if you don't," Ray says.

And then he looks back at Matilda thoughtfully. "Actually," he says, "the Jedi generally prefer their apprentices to be young. As young as possible, so that they don't have time to develop bad mental habits like fear. Most Jedi only take pupils who've got the ability to sense or use the Force, which is this energy field that pervades all living things and the rest of the universe besides. That eye-power of yours isn't the Force- it's showing up on a different part of the scans on my PKE meter- but you never know... You should probably talk to the Jedi who was my Master. His name's Qui-Gon Jinn."

She's sharp, this one, and catches the bit about 'who was my Master'.
"So you're a Jedi, then? I'll have a look around for Qui-Gon Jinn. In the meantime, what are some of the first few things a Jedi's supposed to learn about, and are there any books on them? And can I see the lightsaber you said you built?"

"Yeah," Ray says. "Although I'm just a new one. I only just got promoted from being an apprentice a few months ago. You're probably going to have to learn about the Force, and history, and meditation- it might be a little hard to find books in English on the history of the Jedi Order, but if you're good at memorizing I can give you my Roman-to-Aurebesh transliteration key, since it's a straight one-for-one letter exchange for the most part. There's stuff on the Force out there, but you need to learn the Aurebesh first- that's their alphabet. And I'd really suggest you watch the Star Wars movies, just in case, because that's how I first heard about the Jedi Order and I think you need to see what they go through before making up your mind completely. you know, just to be fair."

He then nods. "I'll show you," he says, "but I can't show you in here. There's a rule that says Jedi aren't allowed to switch on their lightsabers in the Bar unless there's an emergency, because they can be really dangerous."

"All right then. I'll have the transliteration key, and ask Bar for some books and the movies and... find something to play them with and on, because my room doesn't have a television or any of a television's accoutrements."

"And there's a lovely spot outside where I've been practicing doing difficult things with the eye-power that I'm sure would be perfect. Why don't we go see?"

"Oh, you don't have to ask the Bar for them," Ray says. "I'll loan you my copies. Only you have to promise me that you won't tell anybody here in the Bar that you saw them in the movies, because they might not know about that and it'd be kind of rude to tell them. People are funny about that kind of thing."

He's okay with it, but that's because he was trapped inside a cartoon universe when he saw the live-action movie they'd made of his life.

No, seriously.

"I'm good if you are," Ray then says, and slides out of his chair. "Lead the way."

"Seems fair enough. And thank you." Nobody's yet mentioned to Matilda that she's from a children's book, although she'd probably take it quite philosophically.

"Excellent." She leads him out to the same place where she was so recently blowing things up. A careful observer might note the remains of eight fireworks scattered about the area.

Ray follows along after, slipping a silver cylinder from his belt into his hand as he goes. "Okay," he says. "Do me a favor, would you? Get a really big stick- thick as you can manage- or a rock or something, and bring it over here for me?"

He holds up the cylinder. "This is my lightsaber," he says. "It's turned off at the moment. And this is what it looks like turned on.

There's a whrmmmmm as the shimmering green blade powers into existence.

She looks around, and fetches as big a stick as she can manage. Without moving.

Upon the turning-on of the lightsaber, she firmly suppresses the urge to yoink it with her eyes for closer examination, and simply brings the newly-acquired branch to hover in front of him.

"Let go of the stick, Matilda," Ray says. "Just stop using the power on it."

The instant she does so, he brings up the 'sabre and slices the stick cleanly in half.

She blinks and has a good look at the 'sabre, then a good look at the fallen halves. Then she brings one back for inspection, tapping the cut part with her fingers thoughtfully.

"That's interesting. How do you make one of those?"

"First you have to design power cells that can run the 'sabre without being completely drained at the first go," Ray says, picking up a rock and tossing it in the air. "Then-"

He swings the blade. Two half-rocks hit the ground.

"-you have to design the power routings and couplings and focusers inside the weapon itself. And then you have to get all of the necessary crystals, most of which aren't available on Earth. I had to learn to grow photonic crystals molecule-by-molecule to make my first one, and that took months. After that- well, while you're learning to build one you need to learn how to move while you're using one, so that you don't accidentally forget that the blade is longer than it feels. It only weighs as much as a flashlight, after all. It's easy to cut off things like arms or legs if you don't watch out."

She drops the branch and fetches a half-rock for examination.

"Hmm. It would take more knowledge of building things than I have at the moment." It has never been clearer that she intends to gain more knowledge rapidly. "But it shouldn't be difficult. You grew your own crystals, you say? What differentiates the sort you grew from any other sort?" Her brain is whizzing along madly in true Matilda fashion. "And would perhaps the sort of power cells you have for the PKE meter, the ones I'm not allowed to make on account of their being radioactive, work well?"

"As I said, they're photonic- periodic dielectric or metallo-dielectric nanostructures designed to affect the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the same way as the periodic potential in a semiconductor crystal affects the electron motion by defining allowed and forbidden electronic energy bands. An opal would be an example of a natural photonic crystal, but the crystals I make are a lot more complicated and sophisticated than anything Earth ever produced naturally. They route and focus the energy themselves and block out the undesirable or unneeded wavelengths so that the blade ultimately terminates naturally, instead of extending forever the way a natural, unattentuated light ray would."

He shakes his head. "The power cells that I would suggest as a substitute for the radioactive ones would be suitable. The deuterium ones just don't have enough energy in them to run this. That's how much of an energy drain it is."

Millitimed to sometime after the thing with k_in_black.

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