Sinube raises his eyebrows. "I wasn't telling you to do anything that would get you shot. But I think you'll find that it's easier without it. A large shield like that isn't very versatile, is it? Heavy, slow, maybe blocking your own way just as much as it blocks the shots."

"At first, it might be easier to just let the shield block things for you. But if you have patience, you'll get to the point where you don't need it at all."

"Except when I'm trying to block more than five or so bolts at a time, Master Sinube.  Try to connect five to seven randomized points with two straight lines - not even line segments - and you'll see why.  And - this really isn't that heavy?  A bit bulky, yes, but that's partially the point.  A lightsaber can do many things passably; this shield, however, is the sledgehammer of blaster-deflection to the lightsaber's precision multitool."

"How often do you find yourself with five or seven blaster bolts coming at you at the same time?" asks Sinube.

Meanwhile, Bultar and Darra have started arguing over whether you can draw two straight lines through any five points. Darra says yes. Bultar says Darra's lines are all too crooked. Darra says they're close enough.

"...Let me think...At least twice so far?  Being able to deflect more bolts would certainly have saved Master Trebor.

"...Excuse me, they're misunderstanding geometry over there."  She ducks out of the conversation and into Bultar and Darra's.

"So, Bultar, Darra - you're both right.  There exist sets of five and seven and nine and fourty-two points that you can draw lines through, because - lines are a collection of points, and you can just do - " Kina draws a straight line with the edge of her datapad - which seems to be marked like a ruler - and proceeds to dot it with points - "this, but - the amount of times you get that, if you're selecting points randomly?  The chances of that go down a lot, because you can define a line from any two points.  Which is to say that if we pretend lightsabers are infinitely long, and ignore that they can move in and out as well as up and down and left and right, there's a maximum number of randomly-selected points we can pick on a sheet of flimsiplast - or an infinite plane - and be sure that we'll only need two lines to go through every one.  It's four points.  So you can only be really sure that you can block four blaster bolts at once if you're dual-wielding, and really I think the guaranteed-deflection number for people who only have one single-bladed lightsaber is one - not even two; lightsabers aren't long enough to cover your whole hit zone.  So that estimate of four?  Cut it down to two, because I was assuming a double-bladed saber for some reason."

"Now consider," and here she gives Master Sinube a look, "the idea of seeing how many randomly-selected points you can fit inside a rectangle.  It's a lot more!  And I think that even if the model gets more complicated, takes into account timing and 3D movement, that the rectangle still wins out on blaster shots successfully deflected."

"Well yeah, a rectangle's bigger than a line," says Darra, "but look, I can draw two lines that go through the five points - "

"No, look at this!" Bultar responds, scribbling a square on the table. "See, look, you draw these four dots that make a square, and then you have to use these two lines, or these two lines, to get through them all. And then I just choose another place to put the next one that isn't on those lines, and then you can't hit them all."

"Oh. But you can also do the diagonal lines on the square, here - "

"Well, I can just put one somewhere that isn't on those, either."

"Yes, it's good to see you working on your geometry," Sinube nods, "but you can still try to dodge them, and it's not just that five shots are coming at you and you have to find lines that go through them, they're coming at different times; if you practice you can deflect them all. And what happens if people are shooting from different angles? It's far better to have a nice, nimble lightsaber that you can move around to protect you from every direction, than a big, cumbersome shield on one arm that you can't move around."

"The lightsaber has proved itself a good fit for the Jedi over countless generations, and in time, you'll all learn to use it well." Sinube pats Kina on the shoulder, and turns to leave, the question apparently settled.

Kina jerks her shoulder away from Master Sinube before the touch is consummated.  "No.  First of all, I didn't say you could touch me, second of all, your assumptions are wrong.  Would you care for a demonstrative sparring session, Master Sinube?  I have something that ought to prove my point."

The room becomes silent.

"Oh? Well, if you want to spar, then let's give it a go."

This one's arrogant. He'll put her in her place.

The thing that Kina is is confident.

Not arrogant.

A small, but subtle difference.

She has, herself, practiced against the weapons she plans to use.  She knows their nature and their limits.

"Master Sinube, have you any preference upon the scoring and the permitted tools of this spar?" 

"You may use what you want." He walks away, slowly, and returns with a pair of green training lightsabers.

Then Kina shall be using - quite a lot, it seems; her blaster-saber tonfa, for one, and furthermore, four modified blaster-deflection training drones - she's flattened them out, and given each of them two additional blasters, arranged in a wide triangle.  She also attaches a small, three-barreled device to her right shoulder, and connects it to her green 'welding' lightsaber's output.  And, of course, she has her shields.

"I am as ready as I expect to be."

"...that is not quite what I meant."

"...One must always seek clarity and precision in language when one is negotiating a contract with adversarial parties, the guide to diplomacy says.  Is there a specific objection?"

"You cannot use training drones in a sparring match. It is you against me."

Kina is rather unimpressed with this argument.  "They are drones I built, just as I built this lightsaber.  If I were to go into the field again, I would bring them with me.  Is there some such item you lack?"

"The point of a sparring match is to test each other's abilities, not the abilities of drones. I might say that I now lack Master Yoda, with whom I have fought many times. Shall I go fetch him, then, and see if he can defeat your drones?"

"Master Yoda is not a tool you can wield, Master Sinube.  These drones are."

(Unless you're a Sith Lord doing some sort of mind-control ritual, she doesn't add.)

"You are confident that no amount of blaster fire should faze you, regardless, aren't you, Master Sinube?"

"The drones are separate allies, which you cannot call upon during a spar. You can shoot your own blasters at me, and we will see how well those weapons work."

"Let us compromise: I turn off the computer cores and repulsors.  They are no longer autonomous allies, but truly tools to use.  Is that acceptable?"

Sinube sighs. "Very well, then. You now have a great many blasters at your disposal. Will it be enough? Let us begin." He ignites a training saber, and begins to slowly circle Kina.

Kina's blasters proceed to go brrrrrrtttttt.

Well.  The one mounted on her shoulder does; a stream of constant blasterfire dashing lines of green in careful sweeping strokes, pressuring Master Sinube even as the sets of tri-blasters fire in pairs - and her saber-tonfa remains trained on Master Sinube, waiting for the opportune moment to break his guard.