Jedi Master Daz Murl and Carissa Koo'Lak

[Akirapryde]

Jedi Master Daz Murl and Carissa Koo'Lak
Originally Posted: February 4 - 5, 2012
Azgardian Assault Shuttle
In route To the Core World of Mearisa
October 1st, 1936

Master Murl

When Jedi Master Daz Murl was Padawan Daz Murl, traveling aboard an Azgard assault shuttle had taken some getting used to. Over the years, this mode of transportation had become very familiar to him, if not always entirely comfortable. However, it was not physical comfort he had so fervently sought throughout his lifetime. Rather, it was spiritual contentment which he longed for but had all too often eluded him. He knew that the key to unlocking this inner peace was hidden behind the mystery of who he was. Now, as he made strides to purge chaos from his life, he found his footing on the path of the light side ever more secure. As he made progress, he could feel himself nearing the answers that had remained hidden from him since birth.

Daz had learned much from his encounter with the Force spirit of Jedi Master Preena Tabanne, and it was his intention to heed her wisdom. Among other things, this meant that he would have to forsake knowledge about his family and their history, even though he had just concluded that Jedi Master Qu'Wash was his biological father based on information Master Tabanne herself had provided.

With this solemn knowledge, Daz now meditated aboard the assault shuttle. He reached out with the Force and sensed those around him. He could feel the restlessness of the Azgardians. He had begun to understand their need for warfare. It was nearly as great as his own need to breath the atmosphere of his homeworld. The difference was that he owned an antiox breathmask that filtered the air he breathed through filters of Dorin isotopes. The Azgardians craved action, and they had been without it for far too long. Priestess Fury had helped him understand that their hunger for combat was biological, not behavioral. Now, sensing their craving to fight, he was actually able to feel sympathy for their plight.

One Azgardian, however, was different. He knew that she was technically the biological daughter of both his friend, Bothan, adopted Azgardian, and Jedi Padawan Ogon Koo'Lak, and of the presumably destroyed warship, Ka-riss-ah. However, there was much about her being that was anything but biological. It was time that he learned more about this young woman.

Opening his eyes, Daz peered through his goggles and located her. Gathering up the goods his best friend Jedi Angelique Heartman had procured for him in the last city they had visited on Fra, the world once known as Naboo, he stood and made his way over to Carissa. Sitting down beside her, Daz withdrew a spool of black thread from his bundle of supplies and threaded it deftly through the eye of a needle, utilizing the claw-like nails at his fingertips.

"Hello, Carissa," Daz greeted her in a friendly tone. "I would like to discuss a matter with you that I wish to better understand," he explained, unrolling a bolt of black fabric as he spoke.

---

Carissa

Looking up from her console she smiled back towards the man that she has come to respect as Jedi Master Murl. The images on the console seemed to shift and twist from his sight ensuring that he could not see what she was working on directly in front of her. With a wave of her hand, the console went black, "What might I assist you with Master Murl?" she replied with a glimmer in her eye and a soft smile across her lips.

She had learned that showing, at the very least, the physical signs of emotions tended help others deal with her. She had over heard a few times that she was 'creepy' due to her lack of emotions. It was something that bothered her but she couldn't place a reason to why it bothered her. She ran a few analysis of the situation and realized that organic beings were just simply illogical and it was better to pander to that ill-logic behavior if she was to have normal relations with the others.

---

Master Murl

Noting that Carissa had made certain he did not see what she had been working on, Daz wondered if it had anything to do with the blood samples she had requested, but he would pursue that line of inquiry another time. "I'm interested in learning what your thoughts are on sentience in relation to artificial intelligence," he replied as he stood, draping the fabric around him to estimate measurements.

"I feel that your perspective will grant me unique insight into this subject. I have always held to the belief that life, in all its forms, is worthy of deep respect. The prevalent view throughout the galaxy we left behind was that droids were limited to their programming and were treated as machines rather than intelligences. I, on the other hand, have speculated that a droid can exceed its programming and evolve into a sentient artificial lifeform, if allowed to. I am not suggesting that you are a droid, of course," he assured her.

Fellow Kel Dor, Baran Do Sage, and his own Jedi Padawan, Swip Larn, had lent him her knife on Fra, which he now delicately drew from its sheath fixed to his belt. He began to cut the fabric to size as he continued, "Did you inherit your mother's knowledge on this topic, and what thoughts of your own do you have about the potential for sentience to evolve in artificial intelligences?"

---

Carissa

She made sure to blink while he talked as her mind ran through the hundred or so calculations of the project she was tasked with. It wasn't that she was bored with what he was talking about. In fact it was quite the opposite. She paused nearly half of her calculations that were deemed a lower priority so she could run her own independent calculations regarding sentient artificial lifeforms. It was an interesting prospect that something could achieve its own measure of awareness. However there were a great deal of flaws in his concepts.

"Master Murl, there are millions of files which support and dispute your argument. Nothing of what I am finding will grant and measure of assurance to one side or another. If life can be described as exceeding the basic parameters to which it was created to do, than would it not be correct in the assumption that what is consider traditional lifeforms are not lifeforms at all. Consider you, Master Murl, you are what you have been designed to be. Every step to which you make to further your goal of being a Jedi Master is only following the path that was set before you. If we measure life in the form that it exceeds its intended propose, than you, Master Murl would not qualify as a Life Form."

She looked around and closed her eyes, "This ship which we are aboard was never designed to operate in the situation to which we are in current. She has had to write several new programs which would make our extended operations possible. The new navigation program that she and I wrote a few weeks ago has actually made this trip possible. Under your thought process, Stjerne would be a life form while you would not."

She opened her eyes and looked back at him, "My personal thoughts are simple. I am what I am. Stjerne is what she is. And you are what you are. It is what we all were created to be."

---

Master Murl

Daz nodded, sheathing Swip's knife. "Thank you, Carissa. You have certainly given me much to contemplate," he remarked thoughtfully. He gathered together the fabric, needle, and thread along with his other supplies. After carrying the bundle back to the corner of the assault shuttle he now knew as Stjerne, in which he had previously been mediating, he sat back down and began to sew the black fabric together. Gradually, it began to take the shape of layered robes and a thick, hooded cloak. As he ran the final stitches through his new garments, he overheard Senni shouting at Birgr in anger.

Reminded of a time long past, Daz thought about the nervous breakdown he had experienced following the disaster over Coruscant. With the heavy weight of the casualties he had unwittingly shared responsibility for inflicting already crushing his conscience, it had been the feeling of condemnation and emotional abandonment he had perceived from his friends that had ultimately broken his psyche. Through the Force, Daz could sense the shadowy grip of isolation wrapping itself around Senni. "There is freedom in madness," he whispered softly to himself, setting his finished robes and cloak to one side. He knew that the ethically questionable interrogation techniques of Jedi investigators had led to her mental instability, but were the words of her superior officers making her question her self-worth?

Standing once more, Daz began to search through the tools stowed aboard Stjerne. Upon finding the snips he required for his next project, he sat back down on the floor and unhooked his lightsaber from his utility belt. Ejecting the weapon's diatium power cell and removing its power vortex ring, he peered inside its hilt and made the necessary estimates. Retrieving the lead sheeting from his bundle of supplies, he picked up the snips and deftly cut away the proper amount of metal. Bending it to snugly line the inert power insulator, he inserted the new lead piece. Replacing the other components, he hefted his lightsaber in his hands. Although he found the difference in weight negligible, he took the time to familiarize himself with his improved lightsaber's balance all the same.

Once satisfied, Daz hooked his lightsaber to his utility belt and bundled up the leftover supplies, which he stood to stow in an empty compartment. After folding his new robes and cloak and placing them in his pack, he once more returned to the floor. He drew his legs up under himself, crossed them in a lotus position, and brought his fingertips together to form a steeple. He calmed his mind and drew on the Force, drifting into a state of deep meditation. First, he focused on the fate of the Twi'lek named Nafia who had been abducted by Dark Jedi slavers on Fra. Eventually, however, he centered his meditation on the present and near future, preparing himself for what he was soon meant to face on the Core World of Mearisa.