I've been waiting for the second part of Naboo to write the next part of Riphath's journey: R&R at the Matukai Meditation Room, or "Sit quietly with your eyes closed, good. Find your center, good. Punch through durasteel plating. Wait, what?"
I decided to get off my butt and stop waiting.
R&R at the Matukai Meditation Room
I looked at the squad holo I'd insisted on taking at the start of working with Grievous and then back at the Kalee in the ship we were on. Every single one of them were still alive and working with Grievous, after a year of working with him in the middle of the Clone Wars. We'd been lucky, yeah, but I'd also been good. I'd made a copy of the holo for my own records, with names, weapon preferences, previous combat wounds, and other useful data. Look, I didn't grow up having to be able to tell one Kalee apart from another, so being able to connect the data with the people was a useful thing. Made me a better medic, I thought, as I realized that all of them except for Grievous had been under my care in the last year. Granted, Benny had just twisted his left ankle chasing down the enemy, and Ronny had tripped over a disabled droid and sprained her right wrist, but those counted too. You needed to be able to count on your whole body in a combat situation, after all, and if the group fought like they'd never been injured then I'd done a karking good job.
We returned from Naboo and I put in my request for a week off. Given my posting as the medic attached to Grievous and his personal guard, the request was approved immediately. Anybody who could keep up with those crazy Kaleesh was valuable to the organization, and if I needed a bit of time to put myself back together, then so be it.
I smiled to myself. I was going on vacation a free man. I'd paid off my med school bills in a year. Not that it would do any good if the Republic realized what I'd done with the saline that disabled the clones' obedience chips. Okay, they were probably named something else, but anything that promoted independence in sentients was a good thing in my book. I just wish it wasn't as likely to be something Palpatine could trump up into some kind of treason charge or some nonsense. I suddenly felt really really vulnerable, and not safe going on a proper vacation. Maybe just something in the organization?
I was flipping through alternative trainings that night, my mind still racing as I tried to find something. Explosives? Yeah, no. You don't need your medic playing with explosives. Slicing? Safer, all right, but I'd as soon not add to the list of things the Republic could charge me with, and the best way I could do that was to have fewer skills that I could easily do something illegal with. Then again, kriffing Terrek had found a way to get me to do something morally right but massively illegal with my medicine skills.
Ugh. Still made the hair on my neck go up. Let's not.
I'd flipped to the border between Force Sensitive trainings and other trainings and something caught my eye. "Matukai Meditation Room. Strengthen your mind and body by finding your inner calm. Taught by Matukai Master Veskasa Jansen." Okay, I could seriously use some inner calm, and probably some strengthening too.
I suppose I should explain something here. I'm not a Jedi. I don't have that danger sense thing, for starters. The only sense I have for danger actually belongs to Grievous: the more excited he gets, the more danger we're all in. I'm pretty sure he would collapse in ecstasy at the sight of a dozen AATs bearing down on us a city block away...for a moment or two, before racing straight at them with the rest of his personal guard to kill them all within that city block. Granted, in that time I'd be finding cover instead because while I might not have a danger sense I do have a self-preservation instinct and some common sense.
I signed myself up for a week of Matukai Meditation Room sessions and hoped I'd find some sense of calm.
In hindsight, I probably should have done my research first.
My first day, we ran ten klicks. In full combat gear. We went a couple lengths in the pool after that, and whatever we'd gone those couple lengths in the pool with we got to use in a spar with Master Veskasa. I discarded my armor, my blaster, everything but my watertight bag of medic gear. When I got out, I pulled out the syringe full of sedatives and wielded it like a knife.
My instructor looked at me like I was a particularly clever child who'd missed one key detail. I tilted my head. "What's the matter? Afraid of a little syringe?"
Veskasa smiled serenely. "Not at all. In fact, Mister Althean,"
Doctor Althean I corrected in my head, "I'm going to stand here and let you deploy the whole syringe into my system."
I looked at Veskasa skeptically. "Ma'am? You're sure about that? There's enough in this syringe to make a full-grown Kaleesh take a long enough nap for me to fix a dislocated limb, and it's fast-acting enough that they don't get the chance to chase after glory after I give it to them."
In response, she rolled up her sleeve and tapped at the inside of her elbow.
I dutifully cleaned the needle and injected her with the entire syringe. She gestured to the class that we would continue to the gym for our next segment, showing no signs of fatigue as she began to climb a rope. "Should you achieve mastery in the Matukai arts, you can cleanse your body of illness and poisons, as I've done here with Agent Althean's sedatives. Yes, Agent Althean, that also includes lactic acid. Yes, that means exactly what you think it means."
My gast was well and truly flabbered. Seriously? Eliminating fatigue as a limiting factor for one's ability to perform physical activity would mean...sithspit. I needed to make sure Grievous and the rest of those crazy Kaleesh never ever ever heard of this thing.
My mind kept racing and I barely heard Veskasa's next direction, but as I saw everyone sitting on a mat in the corner of the room near a training dummy, I walked over and joined them.
"Now, class." She waved a hand over at the switch and the lights went out. From like twenty meters away. Even something like that would be really cool. "Close your eyes. Imagine yourself sitting in a dark room."
I smirked. That wasn't too hard. After all, we were in a dark room. It didn't take much imagining.
"Stretch out your senses. Feel the room around you. The breathing of your fellow students. The rhythmic flow of my voice. Now, place your hand over your chest. Either hand, it doesn't matter. You're looking for something near your heart. There should be a warmth, a light there. Feel it grow and warm up with each breath you take. A little more glow, a little more warmth. Keep your eyes closed, but put your other hand on that warmth. Feel the glow and the warmth wrap around your hands, gently flowing from your chest, through your shoulders, down your arms, past your elbows, into your forearms, over your wrists, and back into your hands, cycling through back into your chest and becoming stronger."
I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not, but I could have sworn I felt a candle down near my xiphoid process.
"That will be all for today, class. Tomorrow, we will have another ten kilometers but after that we will go straight to the meditation."
True to her word, Veskasa had us do another ten kilometers in full combat gear. This time, though, she interrupted it with obstacles. I felt better though, even with the obstacle course. If nothing else, I'd be able to keep up with my squad properly again.
After that, more meditation. I realized I had no idea how old Master Veskasa was, but that she'd kept herself in really good shape. Then again, anyone who literally no longer had a lactic acid threshold was only limited by what they felt like doing. So I supposed to the Matukai, age really was just a number and a set of experiences one had and certainly no limit on physical ability.
"Now, you will notice that each of you has a training dummy. You shall stand up and strike the dummy once. For those of you who are skilled in Matukai techniques, might I ask you to strike down rather than up as I would like for the dummies to not be launched across the room." She demonstrated, punching a dent the size of a fist into the faceplate of the armor on her dummy.
Okay, look, you know that thing they say about a kind word and a weapon getting you farther than a kind word alone? I was pretty sure that a Matukai Adept was on a whole new level with that, because they were the weapon.
I didn't figure myself to actually be good at the whole Matukai techniques thing. So I dropped into a fairly ordinary athletic stance and remembered back to the unarmed crash course I'd gotten back in university. Put your hands up, plant your feet, and twist your body to drive the heel of your hand through the target.
I was rather surprised when the dummy actually moved about ten centimeters along the floor. This sort was usually bottom-weighted pretty serious.
"That will do for today. Remember, a strong body leads to a strong mind, a strong mind to a strong will, and a strong will to strength in the Force."
Okay, I don't believe in any sort of all-powerful fate guiding my destiny, but I'm all right with the rest of it.
The next set of ten klicks was easy. The next round of meditation and I felt like I actually had a torch in that center. Not a sun, like I'm sure our teacher had, but a legitimate flame.
That's when Veskasa threw the curveball. "Today, class, you will notice your training dummy is wearing combat armor. Strike them anyway. They have no will, they have no mind, and there are limits to the strength of their body."
I stepped up and drove a palm strike into the training dummy. It didn't move, much. One of the others in class accidentally launched his across the room. I had about half a second to realize it was coming toward me, before I did the thing I always did in this sort of situation: duck behind someone better armored than you. The training dummies cancelled each other out and I stood there.
"Anger, hate, fear. These things weaken your will. Do not trust them, for when you place your weight upon them they shall break." She stepped up to her training dummy and struck it, punching straight through the armor. "And then you shall be left with nothing."
On the final day, Veskasa took me aside. "I understand you don't think of yourself as Force Sensitive, Riphath. The Matukai do not make the distinction. The only distinction we make is between those who have trained and those who have not. I see in you the ability to become trained, regardless of how strong you actually are in the Force."
I bowed. "I am honored, Master Veskasa. I already have another call upon my life. I am the medic attached to Grievous' personal guard."
Veskasa smiled. "They are closer to the ways of the Matukai than they know. Perhaps the next time you return, you will seek me out for more training."
I looked at the floor, unable to meet her eyes. "I...I'm kinda intimidated, to be honest."
Veskasa took my wrists in her hands. "That is the mark of one who understands their present limits. In time, we shall expand those. For now?" She smiled, pointing me at the training dummy, garbed in full combat armor. "I'll make you a bargain. You make your best attempt to punch through one of those. If you fail, I won't bother you about becoming more."
I turned back to her. "I succeed, you go one on one with Grievous to keep me here?"
Veskasa laughed. "I am interested in seeing your potential, Riphath, not in throwing myself through a durasteel wall without cause. If you succeed, I will send to your data address some additional training holos to help you advance your training."
I smiled. "I'd have sold tickets and made a killing."
Veskasa said nothing.
I closed my eyes, took a couple deep breaths, felt that torch in my center flow into my hands and through my body, letting it get good and hot before stepping up and throwing a palm strike into the upper chest of the training dummy.
I opened my eyes, and standing there before me was a training dummy clad in battle armor...with a palm-sized dent in the chest.
A/N: One part Fitness Bro, one part Eastern Monk, all parts Awesome. The Matukai are fun.
