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"Of course." This was among the most basic of Jedi skills. A remote was a small levitating droid about the size of a goldfruit that could be programmed to zip about and fire mild electric bolts at a student. With a blast helmet on and the blinders down, the only way to know the position of the orb was to use the Force. As a student progressed in the use of his or her lightsaber, blocking the remote’s bolts became a standard exercise. Since you couldn’t use your eyes or ears to track the de-vice, the only way to avoid being shocked was to let the Force guide your hands.

Her Master continued: "And were there not instances when your use of the Force was less than perfect and the training bolts got past your lightsabor?"

"Far too many of those instances," Barriss said rue-fully. She shook her head. "At times, I felt like a needle cushion!"

"And did you ever feel during those times like de-stroying the remote? Reaching out with the Force and crushing it like a wad of scrap flimsi?"

As she spoke, Master Unduli began the Salutation to the Force, a combination exercise and meditative pos-ture that started with a body arch upward, followed by a deep squat and leg-extended stretch to the rear.

Barriss copied her Master’s pose. "I confess there were occasions when I had little love for the training de-vice, yes."

"And did you have sufficient skill in use of the Force to have destroyed it, had you chosen to do so?" Master Unduli stood and repeated the pose, ending on the other leg.

Again, Barriss copied her.

"Yes. Easily."

"Why didn’t you? If the goal was to protect yourself from being shocked, would that not have been justifi-able?"

Barriss frowned. "But that was not the goal. The goal was to learn how to attune my lightsaber with the Force so that I could stop the bolts from striking me. The shocks were painful, but without any lasting damage. In a real fight, with a full-charge blaster bolt coming at me, if I could not block that, I might not have the power to stop a shooter fifty or a hundred meters away from pulling the trigger."

"Precisely. But did you know that one student in eight does eventually reach out to destroy a remote? That they usually justify it by saying it is more efficient to stop the source of the damaging bolts than to endlessly deflect them? Laser Pose, please."

Her Master lay upon the soft grass, rolled up onto her neck and shoulders, and extended her body skyward, her hands on the ground at her sides.

Barriss also assumed the Laser Pose. "I can certainly understand how they might feel that way. And it makes a certain logical sense, especially given the premise in our hand-to-hand combat training that says pure defense is inferior to a combination of defense and offense."

"Indeed. Arch Pose."

Hands and feet on the ground, Master Unduli pushed upward and formed her body into a high, rounded arch.

"I hear a ’but,’" Barriss said as she followed suit.

"And I see that yours could be higher from the ground."

Barriss smiled and pushed herself into a more acute arch. Her Master continued: "Many of the exercises Jedi in training must learn-and Jedi are always in training, be they Padawan, Knight, or Master-involve determining what the true goal of the exercise is. You will recall the levitation drill and the bakery."

"As if I could forget that one."

"To destroy the remote is, in itself, not necessarily a wrong choice. If you have developed sufficient skill to block the training bolts and you arrive at the decision through logic and with a calm mind, then you can justify using the Force to stop the attack at its source. Some of the more gifted students do just that. But if you do it out of anger, or pain, or fear, or any emotion that you have allowed to control you, then you reach for the dark side. If you offer that the end justifies the means without mind-ful thought to determine that it indeed does, you have succumbed to the insidious energy. If you remember nothing else from