"How's Sentinel Portland doing so far today Doctor?"
"Same as yesterday Healer D'lan, the Betazed doctor that arrived yesterday is actually confused because she can sense that Portland is mentally active but nothing else, we don't know if she's in a trance, a coma or just deeply unconscious and the tank is preventing her from showing us just how well she's doing"
"Well considering what you've told me the fact that there's been no change isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's also not a bad thing"
"What do you suggest because everyone else is pretty much out of ideas"
"Try taking her out of the tank, if she lasts to another bed she might be on the mend finally"
"We'll try, though actually I think we should start with just turning the tank off, if she's stable after that we'll move her to another bio-bed"
"That actually might work better, once she starts healing I want all the reports you've made about her condition since she first arrived back in your sickbay, it could prove useful both here and in your Starfleet medical, seeing as how more Jedi are willing to join every year"
"When's the next group coming to test then?"
"They'll start the journey in about six months, meanwhile some of them are still on missions and the rest are studying your part of the universe and helping protect your representatives"
"People are still threatening them?"
"Yes but so far no one's succeeded"
"Does anyone have any leads?"
"Not that I'm aware of, listen I'm actually about to get swamped so how about we end our conversation now and when you or I have an update talk to each other again if it happens before tomorrow regular time okay?"
"Sure no problem"
The two people end the communication and then the doctor carefully shuts down the bacta tank. Ashland actually survives that and so is moved to a bio-bed where three hours later the doctor got the strongest vitals since she first put Portland in the tank in the first place
"Doctor to bridge"
"Bridge here go ahead"
"Captain, I do believe Sentinel Portland is finally on the mend"
"On my way"
Not ten minutes later the Captain was in sickbay and at looking at the vitals of Portland was quite relieved that everything was finally going right when suddenly her vitals changed again
"Doctor something's wrong"
The doctor looks and actually smiles
"Nothing's wrong Captain, actually I was hoping this would happen"
"What is it then?"
"She's gone into a healing trance Captain, she should be awake at the very least within two days and up and about on light duty within two weeks"
Sadly that never happened a day after Ashland awoke the ship was attacked and Portland was told that it was by a bunch of people who really didn't like Jedi or the fact that Romulus was now part of the Federation, seeing as how she was both a Jedi and a Starfleet officer she was in double trouble
"Understood Captain, I will do my best to escape with at least one other person here in sickbay"
She actually sees an Ensign and tells him to come with her, but first she takes a synthetic Force inhibitor that Starfleet had designed when she first arrived and once they and the Republic became allies actually had the Republic's and Jedi councils approval as a safety measure
One day earlier
"By the way there's one more thing you don't know about since your return"
"What?"
"This"
She brings out a hypo which Ashland actually recognizes due to the different color it had on the end
"Ah, the synthetic Force inhibitor, doctor I helped design the thing back when I first came to this galaxy after I explained the Force to them it lasts for forty-eight hours which should buy us enough time to get out of danger in most cases"
"If you are ordered to take this immediately, in fact once you're discharged I would like you to have this on you at all times"
"When will that happen?"
"Day after tomorrow if you're cooperative"
"Fine by me"
"Oh by the way, I think you'll be wanting this back with you, the officer you gave it to took care of it by the way just like you asked"
The doctor hands Ashland her lightsaber back
"Thanks, and thank the Ensign when you next see him, I will be a bit busy once I leave sickbay this time and you know it"
Present
"Come on Ensign into the Jeffries tube"
They crawl through the tubes until finally they reach their destination
"What are we doing at an escape pod when you know that will be noticed?"
"Just get in"
She pushes the Ensign in and starts the sequence
"You know we're going to be caught right?"
"That's where you're wrong Ensign, you see this escape pod was especially designed once Command fully understood who I was and was tested carefully, there will be no alarms set off when we escape"
"Fine but you also know this is the start of an invasion right? I think we need to get to Starfleet Command and make our report personally"
"Unfortunately that's not going to work because we have way too many things against us to make it work, fortunately for us we have allies we can go to"
"Oh really like who?"
"The New Republic, it will take us about six months to get there but it's better than being here, plus I can hide much easier being far away from these guys seeing as how they hate Force users"
"Fine but why take a lowly Ensign who just graduated from the Academy?"
"Well I could only choose one person and considering how fast the enemy was I didn't have much time so I chose you because you may be new to Starfleet but you have potential. I am going to train you to the best of my abilities while in the pod, now then hold on because the ejection can get a little bumpy"
They eject and start heading away when they were discovered by a second ship, that had Federation weaponry
"Sentinel we've got incoming"
"Computer detonate missiles on my orders authorization Alpha 5 Zulu 7 Bravo 1476 Omega 17339...detonate"
The bombs following them do indeed detonate saving them and they quickly go into warp