"Sentinel are you okay?"
"Something's happened to the Mississippi I don't know exactly what, but something's happened"
"Enterprise to Mississippi respond please...Enterprise to Mississippi respond...Mississippi this is the Enterprise answer me...Sentinel try and scan the area where the Mississippi is supposed to be Enterprise to Mississippi respond"
Finally they got a response not from the Mississippi but from a fighter who said that there was a sudden explosion either on or near the Mississippi he couldn't be quite sure due to where the explosion happened which was where they knew the warp core was located
"Did you sense this Sentinel?"
"I sensed something happened to fellow officers but I wasn't sure what, hopefully the Mississippi will contact us soon so we can get official details"
Not two minutes later they get a report from the Mississippi that was broken up but at least they knew the ship was still able to support life, though most likely it would need some major repairs before it was truly fight capable again
"Well looks like we have an exercise to stop so that the Mississippi can be repaired"
"They have lost people Captain now that things have calmed down slightly I can tell that lives have been lost but just how many remains to be seen"
"Don't worry we'll think of something, are you sure you can continue Sentinel?"
"Yes, I can continue as long as I am needed"
They quickly get back to Coruscant and the damage to the Mississippi was vast and repairs would indeed be extensive. The Enterprise and Melbourne broke up their crews to help replace the fifteen lives lost in the explosion. When they finally got word the Mississippi was repaired Ashland decided to go to the temple to see if any Jedi would be willing to join the crew of the Mississippi not as Starfleet officers but Jedi who knew how to fight which they did. Though it took a few days for everyone to adapt, so while the Jedi were adapting to a starship the two replacement crews showed them the ropes, though the same stipulation to serve on the Mississippi was the same as the stipulation for them to join Starfleet in the first place
A few days earlier when the Mississippi was finally ready for replacement crews
"Why can't we Padawans help, especially the older ones closer to Knighthood, after all we pass the age cap this Starfleet has set"
"The rules are the rules, even if the Federation has gone to chaos we will obey them is that clear Padawan Cho?"
"Yes Knight Portland"
"That's Sentinel Portland to you Padawan, and that's part of the reason why Knights with Padawans aren't allowed to be part of Starfleet because the Padawans even close to Knighthood still have things to learn from their Masters"
"But it's not fair, why do our Masters have to be left behind when they've learned everything and have earned the right to serve others?"
That was the wrong thing to say and Portland saw that Luke was getting really close to reprimanding the Padawan but she caught his eyes and shook her head, indicating that she wanted to deal with the upstart herself and he gave her a nod of approval
"I challenge you to a right of honor saber duel, but only after I show you a weapon of my fellow Starfleet officers, which if set at it's highest setting can disintegrate a person but for us Jedi will just knock a person unconscious, since we don't kill if we can avoid it, though I will ask for a volunteer because I will not use this weapon against a fellow Jedi without permission"
As it turned out Picard had come to the temple to talk to the Jedi about what life aboard a starship and spoke up right after that having heard the Padawan talk about the unfairness of Knights who had Padawans being unable to join
"I'll take that blow Sentinel, as a demonstration of it's power and then I will use my phaser against a training robot to show the power of a killing blow"
They all turn at his voice and Portland instantly stands at attention
"Are you sure of this Captain? I don't want you to miss the duel and you know as well as I a full blown stun can knock a person out for at least an hour"
"Don't worry I figured this might happen so I asked doctor Crusher to give me a counter measure to the stun so that I'm not unconscious for too long, just five minutes or so"
"If you're sure Captain"
"I'm sure"
With those words Ashland stuns the Captain and six minutes later he wakes up and Luke activates the training robot which Picard quickly destroys
"That is the kill setting"
"That is a very powerful weapon, now then Sentinel Portland and Padawan Cho have a duel"
Ashland and Cho quickly get to the duel arena and they start fighting, everyone could tell that Ashland was holding back to give the Padawan at least a chance to fight back, but eventually Ashland got serious and she quickly got the upper hand and beat the Padawan
"I have fought enemies that would make you cry Padawan, sure most were in simulation but they had some means of countering a lightsaber, I was there in the new battle for Naboo and had my phaser be useless and very glad I had a lightsaber, I assure you Padawan that you would not be ready for a space battle with Starfleet, you aren't ready for Starfleet training if you are questioning policies Starfleet put into place for your safety and ratified by the Jedi Council once I came back and explained to them their reasons for doing so"
"They also aren't ready if they don't fully understand the implications of what we are doing here in the Republic training everyone against our technology"
"True that Captain Picard"
"What are you doing?"
"Sedition Jedi Knight, Sedition"
"Sorry Captain Picard that's not true and you know it, what we're doing would be counted as treason pure and simple if not for the fact that we're fighting to bring back the Federation"
"You guys are a rebellion, that's what I was part of when we were taking down the Empire to reestablish the Republic we were the Rebel Alliance"
"Well whatever you want to call it we're fighting our own people in a fight to bring back what we all believe in"
"If I could I would join you, but I'm needed here to lead the Jedi that stay behind, as such I am appointing Sentinel Portland as the ultimate leader of the Jedi that help Starfleet regain the Federation"
"Considering I have to obey orders of those who have higher rank I'm not sure just how much I'll be doing in regards to orders, though if you feel a disturbance in the Force you are allowed to act on it without proper authorization, and that has happened at least once since the whole agreement"
"When was that Sentinel? I never heard"
"Remember the colony mission right before DS9 was discovered to be taken over by enemies?"
"Oh that mission I heard the Texas was assigned that mission"
"Yep, I stayed away from one of the buildings even though I was ordered to remain with my team, instead I went to another area and fought some people that really hated people trying to recolonize the area, once I took them down I saved the people in the building collapse by keeping the ceiling up long enough for everyone else to escape without teleporting out"
"Meditation or feeling?"
"Both, I was meditating on the way and saw chaos and danger, then the mission started out fine but I suddenly had the feeling that I was needed else where's and when we were ordered to the building I left the unit without telling anyone else and went to where I felt I was needed. I was reprimanded initially by the team leader until I explained to the Commander that I had both a vision and a feeling in the Force that I had to act on before heading to the location I was ordered to"
"Do the rest of the Captain's know about that?"
"Yes, they do, the Commander's probably know as well because I was asked by several Captain's how to handle Jedi should they get the graduates...well before this happened and at least one or two Commander's asked as well so that they fully understood the implications of having Jedi on their ship"
"Meanwhile, the Mississippi is finally ready for a test run of her engines so that once they are fully tuned all you have to worry about is how the ship runs and operates in emergency situations"
"And for that some of my crew and the crew of the Melbourne will be with you guys while you learn how to live on a starship, once that happens we will continue exercises until we are sure we are fully integrated and your people are fully capable of fighting against the rest of the fleet"
Present
"Sentinel I think you need to go to Engineering, something is up and it might be the combination tech"
"Understood sir"
It turns out it was the technology combination, the warp core just wasn't taking well to some of the modifications made to some of what made it work. Plus sickbay was also having trouble with the bacta tank that they had, fortunately Ashland knew exactly what was needed to deal with the issues that were popping up with the technology marriage
"I thought you guys had fixed these issues when the technologies first combined"
"So did we, guess we were wrong Sentinel, though I'm amazed that we've managed to keep things going as long as we have"
"Well now that I'm here I'll see what I can do, Sentinel Portland to Captain Picard"
"This is Captain Picard go ahead"
"Captain you might want to ask the Mississippi and the Melbourne if they've had any problems with the two technologies being combined as well, if they have I'm going to be a bit busy, especially on the Mississippi which has recently had repairs anyways"
"Understood Sentinel I will get back to you on their reports as soon as possible"
It turns out that both did indeed need Ashland's help in regards to getting the two technologies to combine seamlessly so over all it took Ashland two and a half days to get everything in order for all three ships. Finally though they got things working correctly and finishing up the training. Eventually everyone was ready to simply go back to the front lines and a few days after they were back in Federation space they had their first battle
"Surrender and your lives may be saved, including the hated Jedi"
"I don't think so, computer initiate emergency self destruct authorization Omega 9 Zulu 7 Tango Tango 11 activate"
The Enterprise is suddenly gone and the Mississippi quickly follows making a lot of people mad and those of the Melbourne didn't listen to the other Jedi or reason, that's because all they could think of is that these were the ones that forced their comrade's hands in initiating the self destruct just so the Jedi wouldn't be tortured to death. They also were really mad that these were the ones who destroyed the Federation with very little resistance