"Due to the fact that T'vran is Force sensitive we now have a combination of a training and Vulcan sibling bond, due to that we can control just how open the bond is and can if need be pass information on to each other. The downside is that if one of us is hurt the bond might either open up very suddenly or very suddenly we might not feel the other and deliberately open the bond to ascertain the health of the person on the other side of the bond"

"This is going to complicate things with the Captain isn't it?"

"Not to say what Command is going to think about this bond"

"This bond is going to complicate any transfers that are needed isn't it?"

"Indeed Lt. it is however we can also use this bond to our advantage, if you're on mission and I'm not or vice versa then we can keep everyone informed that might need it"

"We'll work it out once we inform the Captain"

"This is going to be a very interesting conversation"

"Does Starfleet even know about training bonds?"

"Yes it's why only Knights and Masters who don't have apprentices are allowed to join, because what affects one can affect the other and that can't be allowed in Starfleet where missions can turn dangerous at a moment and where there is a possibility of being stationed in separate places"

"Yet we've now formed such a bond"

"I know, and that worries me greatly"

"Why?"

"What if something similar happens to other telepaths who make contact with the mind of a Jedi?"

"I see where you are going, especially in Vulcans and most likely Romulans as well, the mind meld"

"Exactly" (sighs) "I think it best we also contact the Jedi Council about this, they might have some answers or suggestions that will help"

"This is going to be a long debrief isn't it Sentinel?"

"No kidding"

It would indeed turn out to be a very long debrief. Both sides needed full information and how it formed so the debrief lasted three days instead of a few hours but finally they had the answers they were looking for, it turned out that the reason why the two had such a bond now wasn't just because of the fact that T'vran was Force sensitive and imprinted his mind onto Ashland's, what had happened was something so rare that it hadn't even been considered possible. When T'vran had let his Katra enter into Ashland's mind as a way of surviving they didn't realize that T'vran had known that his time wasn't yet up and Ashland sensed it as well as soon as the meld started, so both minds together worked out a means of making sure that something like what happened the day of the attack would never happen again. While all of that was going on the Force recognized that they cared for each other like family and decided to form such a bond because that was the only way to keep them together no matter what happened, the Force realized that a strong bond would be needed in the future and started that process at the present when T'vran was dying

"This shouldn't happen again unless the Force decides it's needed again, but something like that will be very rare so don't expect it to automatically happen"

"That's good to know, now then due to what has happened to the two of you I am now ordering that any and all transfers have to go through the two of you since we don't know how far reaching the connection will be or the affects it will have if you're too far and something happens to one of you and you find out through another means"

"Understood sir, for now I think we both like the Enterprise and will be staying on it"

"Are you using the connection between the two of us right now?"

"No I am not, it's just that I only just joined the Enterprise and would like to serve for a few years before I even think about a transfer, besides considering how fast I was promoted through the ranks I think it best I have a place to settle down for a few years and hopefully not get promoted too quickly anymore so that I can handle all the responsibilities my rank now gives me, and having a stable place while we both adjust to our new situation is a good thing"

They soon use the link between the two of them in a mission, Ashland was on the planet's surface while T'vran was piloting the ship in standard orbit when things fell apart. The cave the away team was investigating collapsed trapping half of the team while the other half managed to get away, unfortunately for the team the one person who could have minimized any falling debris from hitting them was knocked out instantly, but it was fortunate for the ship because they instantly knew something had gone wrong thanks to T'vran

"Lt. is something wrong?"

"Yes, something's happened to Sentinel Portland"

"The link cut off suddenly?"

"Not so much cut off as much as flare to life with intense pain before going back to a small part of my mind that tells me she's alive but not much else. I can open the bond further if you so order me Captain but I will warn you that might cause me to grab my head in pain again"

"No Lt. for now I think it best that you simply make sure the Sentinel is alive, if we need further information later we'll get it, in the meantime I want a secondary away team to get down there immediately, and make sure they have medical personnel"

Two hours later most of the original away team was back and a third team was being beamed down because the second away team had immediately reported the situation to Picard and he decided to do the rescue in shifts, though he was very relieved when three hours after the second team beamed down T'vran reported that Ashland was conscious though apparently very confused

"It's all a little fuzzy on her end but at least we know she's alive and she and I agreed that our bond is fully open on both ends so that if there's a sudden change in her condition I'll know immediately and can inform the away team"

"What about the rest of the team, can she tell you about them?"

"From what she's told me everyone has injuries of varying degrees but hers are the worst because she was unconscious for so long, the only good thing is that she has a medkit on her and for Jedi medkits come standard with bacta patches"

"Bacta patches which help heal wounds"

"Exactly, I think it's safe to say that she'll be fine"

Eventually they finally managed to break through to the rest of the original away team and start treating them while Ashland closes the bond to normal back of the mind levels which suited the two people just fine because that meant that there was no longer an emergency situation. Two after that everyone was back on board the ship and very relieved that was so

"Sentinel Portland what exactly happened down there?"

"It's not exactly certain sir, but while we were investigating the cave I think I sensed something right before the cave in happened, I quickly Force pushed everyone I could to safety but I couldn't prevent the debris from hitting people and injuring them"

"Why didn't you use the Force to simply keep the cave from collapsing Sentinel? I know for a fact that you could have done that easily"

"That may be true sir, but you're forgetting that I had an instant to decide the best option for the situation we were in and I judged that it was safer to push everyone to an area of safety rather than exhaust myself trying to keep everything from collapsing on us any further. I know that things will still need to be investigated including the reason why the cave collapsed in the first place but I am going to stand by my decision no matter what"

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you Sentinel, in the meantime you're off duty until cleared by the doctor, that means I don't want to hear anything about you training, I might allow for your katas but no sparring is that clear?"

"Yes sir I will obey my restrictions, I know better than to push myself beyond my limitations while healing believe me on that one"

"Learned it from personal experience?"

"Yes sir I did, twice actually, the first time was when I was just made into a Knight and had gone on my first solo mission as one, it was supposed to be a relatively peaceful mission being at the signing of a planet entering the Republic. Unfortunately for us there were dissidents still on the planet that didn't like the fact that they would now be under Republic rule and decided to attack the signing ceremony, I managed to defeat them along with the security team but badly broke my left leg and right arm during the fight. I was told to rest for a minimum of three days and light duty until told otherwise once my leg and arm had healed up enough for me to be put back on light duty, unfortunately I pushed myself a bit too far in my first duel since being injured and set myself back a solid month. The second time I pushed myself too far was in the Academy my first year, I had been injured in a flight training exercise and was told to take it easy for a few days while my bones knitted back together and my arm regained it's strength, unfortunately at the time I was using a very crude but effective Old Republic Force inhibitor that Jedi trained on so I didn't fully realize the extent of my injuries nor could I use the healing trance. I was quickly allowed to spar again and unfortunately I got too eager and asked my opponent to go full on at me and she managed to strike my injured arm in such a way that it set me back several weeks and caused spasms for the next three months whenever I would move my arm a certain way"

"Okay then you do indeed know what to do while injured, now then I must be getting back to the bridge but be warned that I am going to keep an eye on the holodecks"

"I understand sir"

Several days later she was released and she went straight into the holodeck when everyone else was busy, when Picard went to her quarters to invite her to poker night he found her room empty and so decided to ask where she was

"Computer where is Sentinel Portland?"

"Sentinel Portland is in holodeck two"

Picard calls to sickbay after that

"Picard to sickbay"

"Sickbay here go ahead?"

"Doctor did you remove Portland as a patient today?"

"Yes sir"

"And did you tell her any restrictions placed on her for now?"

"Yes sir why?"

"Meet me at holodeck two"

Five minutes later they both arrive at the holodeck and see that a program they didn't recognize was running, however it wasn't locked so they entered and saw a sight they didn't recognize with Portland just sitting there in the middle with her eyes closed. Once they got closer they saw Portland open her eyes and look directly at them

"I suppose you want to know about the program?"

"Yes Sentinel, honestly when we first saw an unfamiliar program running and knowing that you were in here we thought you had ignored your restrictions"

(Shakes her head) "I needed some time alone to meditate so I decided to run one of my favorite programs from my time at the Academy and also on the Texas whenever I needed some peace and quite to meditate on things, I never really got the chance to use it on the Yoshimaru and I needed to meditate on the most recent mission so I came here"

"Where are we anyways?"

"A very peaceful planet in the Republic, and no it's not Naboo though there are similarities. Sometimes I actually modify programs to have to different locations that sooth me, like this program is the original program but I've modified a version so that I could also have a room of a thousand fountains also there, though it's not the entire room of course"

"Of course, I seem to remember seeing that place when I was at the temple that one time"

"Yes you were, and I think even with that one visit you know why many Jedi like to relax there either by swimming or by meditation"

"Yes it is pretty peaceful there, so all you'll be doing until cleared is meditation in the holodeck?"

"Yes, while I meditate in my room the most often I have had enough of being cooped up and decided to simply go to a place with plenty of space...or well at least the illusion of space"

"Are you going to keep the holodeck open whenever you meditate?"

"Yes, everyone is allowed to join in any of my meditation programs, I will only lock the holodeck if I run one of my more dangerous Jedi programs, only you, the doctor, security chief and Commander Riker are allowed to override the program if you feel it's needed at any time"

"Understood, we won't override it unless we feel it's necessary"

Over the next few weeks officers started taking Portland up on her offer to meditate with her in the holodeck and she also recovered enough to go back on full duty. One day though she got a surprising request from a Lt. who wanted to learn more about her and her abilities

"Sentinel I was wondering if I could join you in one of your training programs that doesn't involve your meditation sequence"

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to forbid that"

"Oh come on Sentinel you know full well that I can take care of myself"

"I'm sorry Lt. but I made a promise that I would never let another Starfleet officer join in my training programs unless they are my fellow Jedi, they're just too dangerous, sometimes even I get hurt in my training programs with full safeties on"

"Oh did you promise the Captain when you told him about the programs?"

"No I promised the Admiralty when I joined the Academy and had finished explaining their need and could actually make and run the programs"

"Sentinel that was years ago, you know that we're an experienced crew and can take anything the program throws at us not first or second year cadets"

"Sorry, but rules are rules and no one is allowed into my Jedi programs unless they are strictly for meditation and that's final"

Portland leaves to go into one of her locked programs leaving the Lt. to think about what she had said and the Lt. decided not to listen and somehow managed to hack into the system entering one of her Jedi only programs. Ashland would not be able to see the Lt. in time to prevent the hologram from attacking him, almost certainly fatally injuring the Lt. but she did everything right for the situation

"Computer end program!" (taps comm badge) "Sentinel Portland to sickbay medical emergency in holodeck three!"

She runs over to the Lt. and does everything she could to keep him alive until the medical officers could get there, which they arrived within three minutes. Unfortunately two hours later she would be informed that the Lt. died despite all of there best efforts

"Sentinel what happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure Commander, one minute I was running one of my Jedi only programs after having told the Lt. that he wouldn't be allowed to join and then the next I saw him get fatally stabbed by the hologram, though it wouldn't have been fatal if the Lt. hadn't moved the way he had when confronted with the hologram because I always make sure that the safeties are always on when I run those programs for the exact reason that they can be fatal otherwise"

Worf, LaForge, and Data all enter sickbay at that point to talk to Portland and the Commander

"Commander, Sentinel from what we can tell the Lt. managed to hack the security system that locks down all of the Sentinel's Jedi only programs while bypassing the alarm system you set up Sentinel to alert you to such an issue so that you could stop the program immediately, he also managed to bypass securities alerts to such a hack though he didn't cover up his tracks once we were looking for such a thing though we can't tell why he did so poorly in that if he managed to hack in the first place"

"From what I have observed he also did not think about the fact that even if he had not been killed he would have still been forced to face the consequences of his actions by both the Sentinel and the Captain. The reason you can tell this is because he has apparently hacked or attempted to hack into at least five different programs the Sentinel created that only she or another Jedi can access, the only reason why the hacked programs never ran is because of a security measure I am unfamiliar with"

"I am also wondering about that Sentinel, especially because as Security Chief you should have come to me if you were worried about security issues with your special programs"

"I know Commander Worf and I'm sorry, I really should have come to you but in all honesty I wasn't thinking about that because of the fact that I have been using and protecting these programs for so long on my own I didn't think that you might have had some ideas yourself to help protect them"

"What security measure did you use that has them confused Sentinel?"

"A voice recognition on top of clearance passwords that only fellow Jedi will know of, and as each Jedi joins Starfleet their voices will be added to the programs, only the Admiralty has an override on how the passwords are passed onto other Jedi and that's in case we need them to pass those passwords on because all other Jedi are dead, like I already told the Captain, certain people on board this ship has the authority to override my locks if they feel it necessary but I don't think that will happen too often if at all but I'm pretty sure that the Captain has already informed the people who need to know who has the override if necessary"

"He has, but I think for now I am ordering you to shut down those programs until further notice, we can't have Starfleet officers deciding to simply ignore what you tell them and enter programs that are simply too dangerous for them to enter"

"I understand sir, this was something we didn't think of when I was in the Academy because we never thought this would be a problem so the Admiralty and I have no procedures for this"

"Well considering that the Lt. is dead I doubt that there will be repercussions this time but if there is a survivor I think you should establish what happens to the offenders just like with your lightsabers"

"I understand sir, but for now I need to go on duty, oh and by the way inform Captain Picard that he will have the final say on punishments once I can think them up"

"Understood Sentinel now get to your station"

She heads to her primary station which was actually on the bridge and things were actually calm until half way through her shift when she detected a mild disturbance in the Force which made her close her eyes in concentration. No one noticed this because of the fact that they were currently at warp heading for another planet that was actually requesting assistance in a medical issue, but they certainly noticed when she suddenly punched in new coordinates without prior approval

"Sentinel why have you changed course without my approval?"

"Simple sir, we would have been destroyed otherwise, a ship had been following us at high warp for at least two minutes before they fired at us. I only just managed to change course in time and unfortunately for us they're still following for an unknown reason, but it's almost as if...dropping out of warp now!"

They quickly drop out of warp and Ashland leaves her post and heads up to tactical