NAZGUL #14: Two Months Is Two Minutes

Posted on Sun Nov 17th, 2024 @ 1:03am by Lieutenant Sean Loewen

Mission: NAZGUL: {CD&MISSION} Return to Basics
Location: various
Timeline: Current

ON:

For the couple of days after meeting with Qeritas, Sean Loewen had read and studied what he could in that limited amount of time. The texts described techniques for meditation and communing with the Force, as she had called it. He now knew what it was, and that Green called it the Core here in this galaxy. But, Qeritas had been very direct on that point. He knew that spending this much time alone, away from Len, might damage the burgeoning relationship but there were going to be times that a person needed 'me' time, and to just be secluded to work on themselves. He hoped she would recognize that and reason it out as both his love interest, and a physician.

He had, just yesterday, tossed his combadge across his bed, to the far corner away from himself. Sean breathed in and out several times, doing his best to center himself and call on the Force, closing his eyes and reaching his hand out, trying to call the badge to himself through telekinesis provided by the Alter discipline within the Force. Opening his eyes as he did so, seeing the badge still sitting there where it had landed, he focused more on it and tried desperately to reach deep into his being. So much so that his brow began to perspire whereas he called on the Control discipline to offset the strain to his physical self. Amazingly, to his delight, it worked. He began to cool down as his body adjusted to the anxiety and strain within himself. It also caused him to relax, to think with a clearer head, so calling on the third Discipline of Sense, Loewen reached out and felt the badge through the Force. The shape, the weight, and where he wanted it to be; the palm of his hand. As he had attained a perfect balance of obeying and commanding the Force, the badge moved. It was not much, but it did slide about an inch towards him and then stopped. His arms dropped and he was breathing heavier than he thought he would be, his body relaxing as he stopped trying. Through Sense, he could still feel the badge, and also, everything going on around him even outside his quarters.

That had been yesterday. Today, he was trying again. Same setup, same calling. However, he had changed his chronology for accessing the Force, using Sense and Control, and then Alter. It seemed to work better in his favor as he had meditated for hours this morning to commune with the Force and gather it to him. Reaching the hand out he focused on the badge but, this time, he kept himself calm, at peace as the texts instructed. It took a good fifteen minutes of concentration but before he knew it the badge leaped off the surface of the bed and landed squarely in the palm of his hand, his fist closing over it as he turned it and opened his fingers. With a giggle of amazement Sean looked at the badge now in his hand. He had done it. He had become one with the Force as the texts instructed, creating the symbiotic relationship between crude matter and energy. Excited by his success, Sean picked up his saber hilt, which now sat next to his bed on the headboard/nightstand side. He gave it a backhand toss across the main room. Calling on everything at once through the Force, knowing without question he could do it, Loewen extended his hand and called the saber hilt to his hand. It sprang off the floor, twirled through the air, and landed blade side up in his grip, ready to be used the moment he called it to himself. Booyah! He thought, smiling with exuberance.

"I told you you could do it."

Loewen jumped in spite of himself, his body reacting badly as he rolled off the side of the bed he was sitting on and landed on his ass on the floor. Looking over he saw Qeritas, and shook his head in frustration. "Could you please stop doing that?" He got to his feet.

Qeritas stood up from where she was sitting on the other side of the bed, and played it cool as always. "Stop doing what?" The shitty grin and expression were present.

Shaking his head in frustration he spouted back. "Never mind." Not really in the mood for her shit he walked her out to the main room section of his quarters. "What do you want?"

"Wow," said Qeritas. "Not very nice to the one who opened your eyes to a larger universe."

Sean opened his mouth to retort, thought better of it, and got himself under control without using Control. "Apologies. You surprised me and it put me in a foul mood. So, again, why are you here?"

"Training." She said simply.

"Training?"

"Yep. We begin now." Qeritas raised a hand and before he could stop her or even say anything to her about it she snapped her fingers and the next thing Sean saw was a clearing in a dark forest, which he was standing in the middle of. There was a thick mist roiling through the trees, carried by a slight breeze, the vaporous essence swirling and making it hard to see beyond a few meters accurately. This was made possible because the woods were doused in a nightfall.

"Where the hell are we?" Loewen asked.

"Your training grounds. And, a bubble in time. Well, more like a lack of time." Qeritas gave him a grin he did not view as pleasant. Something told him that things were going to get worse before they got better with this 'training'. "See that opening in the trees there." She gave an offhand pointing in the direction she meant.

Loewen half turned to look behind him where she meant, seeing it. "Yeah."

"Off you go." Qeritas said. "You have twenty minutes to make the circuit and get back to me. It goes in a circle, so don't worry too much."

"Qeri," he said. "I can barely see as it is and you want me to go for a run in there?"

"At what point did I stutter?" Qeritas asked, cynically. "You want to increase your skill with the Force, do as I say. Training with Ro would take you months we don't have. She needs backup and that means you need to be far more ready than you are now."

"Backup?" Loewen asked. "Backup for what?"

"You have eighteen minutes left. Failure means discipline." She gave a cynical little wave bye-bye.

Sighing with every ounce of frustration he felt, Loewen turned to the path she indicated and began to jog into the mist, hooking his saber hilt to his waistband as he began this run. Calling on the Force he enhanced his vision, to allow more light to enter them so he could at least see well enough in the dark, aside from the mist hiding things too. He reached out with his feelings to guide his path as he tried to sense what was around him and the right direction to follow. As he settled into a steady pace, slightly above a jog, the Force aided him in staying strong and not becoming too winded as he moved. As promised, he came through the mist and back into the clearing, breathing heavily and covered in sweat, with Qeritas sitting on a fallen tree and examining her nails.

"Good job, even though you're late." She stood up. "Three minutes late as you crossed into the clearing again. It is time to discipline you by pushing you to use your gifts when your life is on the line. Prepare yourself." Qeritas pulled a saber hilt from her own belt and ignited it, a bright crimson blade springing forth and thrumming with power. "This is the color of the enemy's sabers. It could switch as we progress since there may come a time when you have to fight one of your own."

Loewen pulled his hilt free of his waistband and ignited the blade as he held it down at his side, point towards the ground. His Sense was telling him he was in danger and he had no cause to disbelieve that. As best he could he called the Force to himself and got in a fighting stance that was rather weak since he did not do this every day. Sure, he had had melee training in the past but nothing extraordinary. Qeritas rushed him and began to swing and within seconds he had been ran through from behind as she had gotten in behind him. Her blade went through his torso center chest, a good portion of it sticking out ahead of his vision before his mind went black from death and the excruciating pain.

Just like that he was back where they had started, his eyes blinking at the sudden change in his reality, with him facing her again while she was standing exactly where she had been before she had attacked and skewered him. "How the..." Before Loewen could finish the question she rushed him again. This time, he gave a few more defensive blocks to her blade before she again dazzled him with her moves and he was ran through from the front, her blade going through his gut this time. Darkness came quickly. BAM! Back again, same spot, same stance. ~Okay~ he thought ~This shit is going to get old fast.

Qeritas shouted AGAIN, and attacked. The result was the same. Darkness and then back to the beginning. AGAIN! He got ran through. AGAIN! An arm got lopped off, then his head. AGAIN! She kicked his feet out from under him and then ran him through as her blade went into the turf with a downward stab. AGAIN! Both arms gone, ran through. AGAIN! One leg gone from the knee down, he fell to the other, head removed. AGAIN! Repeated, over and over and over, each kill allowing him to feel the agony of his wounds and his death.

After the first fifty or so deaths, Loewen began to focus. While she was dicing him up with her attacks Qeritas said to use the Force for knowledge and defense, with counterattacks coming naturally through that connection as the Force would help guide him through battle. As they progressed he began to know where her attacks would come from and blocked them easier with each confrontation, but still failing as he was cut down. When he became incensed, his anger beginning to boil, she stopped the attacks and closed her blade down. "No! Don't give in to anger, fear, or aggression. That leads to the Dark side, and trust me when I say, that will take you down a path of destruction and suffering. Calm yourself. Emotions run high during battle, but maintaining control over that anger is essential. Getting angry is okay, using it to destroy your opponent is not. The dark side is quicker, easier, and far more seductive with the power it offers, at first."

Regaining his composure, Loewen closed his blade down and listened to her instruction as he went to sit beside her on the fallen tree. She continued her teachings.

"You must remained balanced, Sean. Always at the tipping point if need be, but never falling to the other side." Qeritas said, her face now as serious as anyone when explaining a dangerous situation. "If you fall to the Dark side then you become something terrible. At first, you revel in that power, able to do amazing things that save your friends and family. Eventually, as it corrupts you further and further, you become a danger to your friends and loved ones. You will kill them without thinking should they stand in your way, ridicule you, even failing to do something you thought was easy for them to do. You will use your power to control and punish them. Many a noble being has fallen to the darkness and only a few were able to overcome it and find redemption, which usually only comes as they give their lives selflessly to save those they put in danger."

Loewen listened with all his being. A vision of himself came to his mind, using the Force to harm Len because she did something he did not like. He knew it was a vision from the Force, the Light side as Qeri had called it. Knowing he could harm others if he fell, and most of all Len, got him to stand up and pace, not sure he wanted to know all this after all. He could never forgive himself if he killed Billi, Kara, or the others because he was drunk with power. Acting from a place of hate and anger simply because they did not do things the way he demanded they be done. It made him feel sick. "I will need your guidance in this, Qeri. Teach me, I beg you, so I never suffer that fate."

Qeritas stood up and faced him, toe to toe, looking up into his eyes. "That is why you're here. I could just plant it all in your mind but that would not allow you the experience of becoming one with the Force. Communing with it in your own, unique way, which is pivotal to success in wielding it. The Force has to get to know you as much as you need to get to know it. As I have said several times before; a symbiosis. Are you ready for that training. Can you control your fear and anger, your base emotions, long enough to obtain that relationship?"

"I am." Loewen said with conviction.

"Good, then we begin."

***

After she had said that they got to it. For two months she ran him through the gauntlet of training. Physical, mental, metaphysical; all covered. His ability to manipulate the Force, to commune with it and see it as a tool not a weapon, came about. He was now fully trained in its uses, and how to use it and not abuse it. To not use it as a parlor trick to impress people. It would be with him forever, always guiding him and protecting him with its influence. And, over those months he had become quite the swordsman. When Qeritas said he had learned enough to be able to go back to the 'world', she snapped her fingers and they were back in his quarters. Everything looked exactly the same as when they had left.

"Welcome home," said Qeritas. "Our time there was two minutes here. You were not missed by anyone and no one came calling. You will spend your life learning more and more as you go, but for now, you are prepared to defend others; defend life." She returned to the cheeky Q she was, giving a cheeky smile. "You're welcome." Then, just like that, she vanished.

"Bitch," he chuckled as he said that out loud to himself. Her voice came through his mind. "I heard that." And then, her essence was gone from his mind.

Sean had a lot to do. The first item on the to-do list was finding the Captain and explaining as much of it as he could for it to make sense. He would need to allowed to carry his lightsaber with him at all times. Starfleet was usually pretty strict about personnel being always armed, but perhaps Bjorgo would understand and allow it. All Sean could do was be honest and seek his approval.

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