"I understand, I'll be in the holodeck meditating if anyone wants me. I am so glad I made those precautions with my programs in regards to myself when that Lt. disobeyed my orders all those weeks ago, otherwise I would be putting myself at risk"

"Understood Sentinel, go meditate I can literally see you vibrating with restrained emotions"

"Thank you sir, are there any other orders for me from either Command or Council?"

"You do have one order from the Council and it's due to what happened at the Senate, you are to remain at your post unless otherwise ordered by Starfleet, you are not to engage in any actions you may feel are the will of the Force for a period of two weeks and...they have banned all Jedi from meditating using the Force which means if you want to meditate you have to wear the Force inhibitors"

"Then Captain, as the senior Sentinel I am going to pass on an order to the rest of the Jedi that are currently serving in Starfleet"

Picard punches something real quick and nods letting her know that this order was being passed on to the entire Fleet at this very moment

"I First Junior Sentinel Ashland Portland as the highest ranking Sentinel do hereby order all Jedi to wear their Force inhibitor bracelets at all times for a period of at minimum three weeks and a maximum of three months depending on how you feel after the initial period of time we are not allowed to meditate using the Force, any Jedi that disregards these orders will have to answer to not only their commanding officers but also to me, for any Jedi that are currently cadets they will not answer to me for one reason and one reason only, because they will be answering to not only the headmaster of the school but also at minimum three appropriately ranked and cleared Admirals. I also hereby give special circumstances exemption to all Starfleet doctor's should they feel that their patients life will be in danger if they do not have access to the Force. Sentinel Portland out"

Communications are then cut and Portland immediately puts on the bracelet

"Well like I said I'll be in the holodeck in my meditation simulations because I desperately need the meditation time, I will of course be available when you need me and yes Jedi have been taught how to meditate without the Force, it's needed in case we encounter Force inhibitors while a captive"

"I will leave you to it then Sentinel, but I expect you back on duty within twenty-four hours"

"Understood sir"

Ashland goes into a three hour meditation session with others joining in at various times because soon after she was informed of the entire situation the rest of the crew was informed and some of them also realized that they needed to meditate on issues, especially the Vulcans and Troi who had empathic and telepathic abilities which affected them and their work. Others had started to learn to enjoy meditation and simply joined in so that they could reflect on things. Once Ashland was done meditating she went to her quarters for sleep, honest to goodness sleep which she so desperately needed. Over the next several days everyone kept a closer eye on Ashland especially considering that once Starfleet was informed that another ship had to take over they gave Ashland two days to recover and then sent them on a simple exploration mission as no one knew how Ashland would handle such a potentially dangerous mission without her ability to access the Force

"I'll be fine, look I've had to do dangerous things without the access to the Force before just ask Picard about that one planet we stayed on when we had to fight to free the Federation"

They land and things go south really fast, so fast that no one really had time to do much more than simply run for several minutes

"Okay time for a plan B because that's what it's going to take to get off this planet"

"Well who knew there would be dangerous animals that lived here, not us"

Suddenly though they heard weapons fire, and weapons fire that Ashland was used to as well

"Oh great this is not good, not good at all"

"What is that we're hearing?"

"Um, has everyone heard of the battle for Naboo?"

"The one you participated in, what of it?"

"The enemy had those weapons, of all the times for us Jedi to be forced to have Force inhibitors now is most certainly not the time"

"You still have at least two and a half weeks to go don't you?"

"Yes I do, well follow me we're going to have to modify our plans a bit"

"How do you propose we do that?"

"Just follow me, you'll know more when we get to our proper location, trust me this worked on Naboo it will most definitely work here"

Finally they reach the location Ashland wanted

"Okay what are we doing here?"

"A trick I learned on Naboo who learned it from the Rebel Alliance, we're going to break those weapons using heavy logs tied to trees with vines"

"Say what now?"

"Oh, just follow my lead, what I did to slow them down won't last for very long and it's a lot harder to set everything up when you don't have access to the Force"

Ashland shows them what to do step by step and several people soon start to understand what was going on and started setting up more of those devices knowing that Ashland would need them. Not two minutes after they finished preparations the enemy was upon them and they used their new weapons to good effect, Ashland even showed them where to point their phasers which were also of use thanks to the modifications Starfleet made after having been shown said modifications by some of the Jedi who had modified the phasers that officers had on Naboo

"Looks like this planet isn't as uninhabited as we thought it was"

"Actually it looks more like Republic and Federation enemies remained after the war and rebuilt without our knowing, they're also ruining the native habitat here. We could potentially colonize it but with our enemies here as well it's simply too dangerous"

"So we just give up and leave this place to the enemy?"

"No because since it's inside Federation space they can easily attack a planet inhabited by people which would weaken our position overall seeing as how Starfleet is based on Earth"

"Got a plan B then?"

"For now no, but I have a feeling that once we present our case to the Captain he'll think of something and it will be good, it will be very good"

They eventually leave the planet and Ashland immediately reports their findings to the Captain including the bit about the enemy

"I see, is there anything we can do to slow them down now Sentinel?"

"Maybe, but we also don't know if they have other planets on their side or weapons, plus we don't know how many stay on the surface. Not to mention they must have shielding of some kind because of the fact that we couldn't read any of their life-signs when we scanned the planet"

"Right, we'll leave the planet for now and issue a Federation wide alert about this"

"Understood sir, anything I can do to help?"

"Just give us all the information you can on the enemy, because while I know some of it you have fought them the longest if they were involved with Naboo"

"Yes sir"

So she goes to her quarters and writes out a very long and detailed report on the enemy and their weapons, both their strengths and weaknesses and sent it to the rest of the Fleet and other Federation planets that had ships that could also fight should they so choose. Once that was done she goes to sleep but doesn't get much of it because even though she had her Force inhibitor on, she would occasionally dream about missions gone wrong if she had no access to the Force and that's what happened that night, it actually got so bad that she went to sickbay because she just couldn't sleep

"Portland you look exhausted, what's wrong?"

"I can't get any sleep, it's not Force visions, it's my memories of missions gone wrong that's preventing me from getting real sleep this time"

"Come on I'll give you a sedative and send one of my nurses with you to make sure you get back safely I'll also want to see you before your shift to make sure that you're okay to actually work"

"Understood doctor"

She's given the sedative which actually works really fast because of just how exhausted Ashland was from fighting her memories and waking up about every fifteen minutes

"I'll get her to her quarters"

Fortunately Ashland sleeps the rest of the night and has no lasting ill effects from her lack of sleep. The remaining period where she and all other Sentinel's were required to wear their inhibitors passed in relative peace but finally the three weeks were up and Ashland took off the inhibitor and knew that her period of waiting was up. Yes she felt minor disturbances but knew that they would take care of themselves and everyone else was doing fine as well

"Now then, I am going to simply enjoy meditating in the Force for an hour and then report to my shift"

"Very good Sentinel, how do you feel otherwise?"

"Good, actually glad I said three weeks which was an extra week longer than the council because with the way things have been these past few weeks I'm not sure we could have coped otherwise"

"What do you mean?"

"All those disturbances would have bombarded our senses especially given our extra sensitivity after losing so many people thus the reason why not having access for three weeks was needed"

"So that you could cope with your loss and not have to deal with other sorrows"

"Exactly councilor Troi exactly,we needed time to cope with our loss and I figured depending on the situation it might take some people at least a week maybe longer to have the actual time to properly reflect on our loss and mourn, and the Sentinel's know that"

"Then why have a maximum limit of three months?"

"That's just a general time frame that I am giving them to either find time to properly reflect and mourn on their own or realize that they need to request the proper time to do so, some might also need to seek out professional help which they would know if they needed it"

"Like you've done in the past haven't you?"

"Yes I too have made use of the councilors on Academy grounds which I knew were cleared to know about me, I have also used councilors at my other posts, which reminds me we still on at 1400 Troi?"

"Yes we're still on"

"So now that the time limit is up it's up to the individuals to decide when they're ready"

"Exactly Captain, but I also had to set up the time limit because I didn't want them to stay away from the Force due to potential fear that when they do access it again it will all slam into them and they'll be unable to handle it"

"Thus why you also mentioned how they felt after the initial three week period"

"Exactly I know some will have to ease themselves back into being Sentinel's depending on their sensitivity and the area they are in"

"When will you know if your orders were obeyed?"

"Within the week, I sent a separate message to those that I know have Jedi to wait until I have access to the Force again which I will inform them right before I meditate speaking of which I should go and do that now before I run out of time"

"See you on your shift Sentinel"

Ashland decides to have a private meditation session and simply sends out the message and then goes into her meditation pose simply enjoying being one with the Force for the first time in three weeks. An hour later she was meeting with Troi which lasted about fifteen minutes and then she was on shift. While on shift things were going well when Picard asked her to look at something real quick

"I have no clue what this is"

She looks at it and groans

"Sorry Captain, looks like a report meant for me was accidentally given to you instead. As a Jedi I come across many different people and cultures and while I don't exactly know all the languages the Force does help me translate that which I don't know, but this language I know. I am fluent in Basic, Bocce, and Huttese, seeing as how I lived on Tatooine for many years one gets to learn the language. Transfer the report to my PADD and if anything important is on there that you need to know about I'll let you know"

"Okay just how do you know the other two languages then?"

"Think about it, Basic is spoken right there and you heard it, as for Bocce, look up a deep undercover mission given to me just before I was assigned the mission that led me to both the Federation and Starfleet I think you'll find it very interesting to say the least"

"Fine, now then get back to your station, we're about to head into a potentially dangerous area of space and I need everyone on alert"

"Yes sir"

They remained on alert for several hours and Ashland was actually working with Lt. Commander Data when suddenly she changed directions yet again without prior authorization, but seeing as how they were in a dangerous area Picard decided to ask Ashland a question before doing anything else