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"Rebuilding and repairing that ship will tell us if commissioning new ones is a viable option," said one of the other Masters nodding his head. "If they're too expensive, we will have to look at other options. Our budget from the Senate isn't unlimited, after all, and the Agricorps can only bring in so much. I agree that our educational program needs to be revamped given the losses in recent years, but your idea of more training vessels might not be the solutions."
Yoda nodded agreeably at that, and they all began to speak of issues elsewhere for a few moments as well as sharing names for the strike forces to be assembled and sent after the Bando Gora. Eventually the Masters excused themselves, one after another to go about their own tasks. Soon only Mace was left, and he watched Yoda calmly, his fingers still steepled in his lap. "You are hiding something."
"Yes," Yoda replied with a nod knowing it would do no good to even try to prevaricate, nor was it in his nature.
"Something that will change the Order?"
"Yes."
Mace nodded slowly, his eyes dark as he stared at Yoda's hologram. "You know my power is to see shatterpoints. I can sense one here. Not between you and I, but this information you hide, it has become one for the Order itself. It mars the Order, adds an imperfection to the Order as a whole. Are you certain it is worth that risk?"
"Yes," Yoda said for a third time. "Certain I am."
Then he chuckled, shaking his head as his mind brought up an analogy Windu would understand. "Think you only purity is strong? The steel of a ship's armor, not pure steel it is. Impurities the metallurgists add to the mix, strength and flexibility added to the steel thus. Imperfections, make the whole stronger they can."
Mace slowly nodded, thinking hard and Yoda went on. "Felt it we all did, changed the Force has. Reason I now know. Harness the change we must. Ancient knowledge long lost found it has, studied and taught in a controlled environment it must be."
That last was a mix of lie and truth, but it would be the party line for a while as Yoda watched Lily and Harry in action, watched how the other younglings learned from her, what they could do. But having met Harry and felt him out, Yoda had become more convinced by this course of action.
Mace's eyes widened, and he nodded far more seriously, understanding not only what Yoda had found but that he was going to use the Explorer and its training clan as a test bed for this new knowledge, which was quite smart after all. There was also no doubt that change was of the Light to any Jedi, even now they could remember the initial shock of the feeling and anything that could harness that power for the Order was worth the risk of insular teaching.
"I understand. But you will tell me more about it when you can?" he asked, rather ruefully. "I must admit that my curiosity seems to be getting the better of me here."
"We'll speak of it in person yes," Yoda said. "This attack, coincidental it might appear, but…" Yoda shrugged. "Silent on that matter the Force is. Hint of it being otherwise, there is not, but even so…"
"Coincidence is often not coincidence," Mace said with a nod and a small frown. "The fact that you have discovered this and that the Explorer was attacked at the same time is too coincidental. Perhaps the Bando Gora have found a Force user willing to work with them, or use them. Or perhaps the Night Sisters have begun to branch out away from Dathomir. Nonetheless, I will see you when you return Master Yoda."
Yoda nodded and without another word cut the communication. Leaning back he closed his eyes, meditating as he wondered what Harry's presence would bring.
OOOOOOO
Four days after Harry and Aayla woke up the training ship had been repaired enough to get underway. Its thin anti-asteroid shield, which protected its surface from small particles in space, dust and other things, was online and its hyperdrives powered up. The Jedi still had to trust their own abilities to calculate the hyperspace jumps, but Micah was up to that task.
There was a cheer as they entered hyperspace from the younglings, and another cheer when they came back out, at their destination. Yoda sent a transmission ahead of them, and the ship was quickly allotted into a slip in one of the busy systems series of orbital stations.
The rest of that day, Yoda, Tholme, Zertesh and the two knights from Yoda's original ship were busy talking to the locals about the work the Explorer needed done, following a few inspectors around as they looked over the damage. It wasn't as if the Jedi were untrusting, but someone had to have inputted the virus into the Explorer. The only way someone could have done that would've been to get physical access to the ship, which meant one of the supply drops or quick inspections.
Lily also followed a few of them around, unseen by any non-Force user, the ultimate spy, which made Tholme wish rather wistfully that he could convince her to leave Harry here and join his hunt for the Bando Gora. However he was enough of a pragmatist to know an impossible battle when he saw one, and that was the very definition of an impossible battle.
She reported them not doing anything suspicious, but warned that she wasn't the most knowledgeable about computers, so might not have spotted anything. Laitha, who had taken over the computers, reported nothing untoward, and work quickly began on the ship's repairs. While this was going on, Yoda, Saa, Micah and Lily took over training the children leaving the Knights and Master Zeltesh to watch over the repairs and upgrades.
It would take over four months for the ship to be fully upgraded. They would have to rip out many of the old shielding systems and replace them with larger versions, which of course meant they would need to enlarge the areas of the ship around the generators.
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