On Earth
"Now then who can tell me what Hoth is like?"
A cadet raises her hand
"Hoth is an ice planet that is inhospitable due to how cold it can get at night which is only slightly better than the day time"
"Yes but if you've read Republic history then you know that the Rebel Alliance managed to make a base out of Hoth and lived there for a good bit of time before they were found by Vader and his Imperials so it is possible to live there but it's not easy"
"But that doesn't mean people will automatically go back to those places because things have changed since the days of the Empire"
"That's true, there might be more places that people are fighting back but they would be well hidden to keep themselves alive and even then several planets might not be willing to host rebels for the simple fact that they are afraid to be discovered allied with such people and have harsher punishments forced onto their subjects, some people that might decide to fight back may make a decision to temporarily pull a Kenobi or Yoda until they find out that the Federation has come back to help because from what I got from the message sent to the ship I was on no one had a chance to send out an emergency message to the Federation the fast way and had to use an emergency frequency not well known to anyone outside of the Council and much slower to send messages. If not for the fact that we were getting a Jedi home who had been on an undercover assignment for a very long time we might not have received that message for several more months because of the fact it was sent shortly before we arrived in Republic space so we should consider ourselves lucky because for the past six and a half months or so Starfleet has been preparing for such a mission but couldn't allow cadets to join without hearing from us about the planets you might be going to"
"How come the other officers haven't been subjected to the same lectures then?"
"Who says they haven't cadet? I know for a fact that First Junior Sentinel Portland gave descriptions of the planets in the Republic when she first arrived during the very long period of debriefs and that all Starfleet Officers have to access those files before going to Republic space, the reason why cadets aren't allowed to access those files is because of the fact that those files are on a need to know basis and secured with needing a certain level of security clearance so that people don't just go looking for information for fun, which means that only people ranked Lt. Commander or higher are allowed to access those files normally, and the only reason you fourth year cadets are hearing this information is because you will soon most likely be assigned as part of the attack force going to free the Republic, though you might not be it's still good for you to know this information in case you are suddenly assigned there"
"Fine but it will still take six and a half months to get there"
"We know which isn't something anyone is happy about but there's not much we can do about it and we can only hope there's a Rebel Alliance happening again to help the fight along but we can't be too sure about that"
The lecture continues and things settle down for the moment while on Cardassia things actually took a turn for the worse and the building Ashland and a few others were at was attacked, but Ashland and the others managed to escape because of their cloaks
"So who's the one to make the call this time?"
"Who knows but not here, not now it's too dangerous we could be monitored"
"Even with all the modifications made after you reconnected with the Republic Ashland?"
"Even with because all communications can be hacked if you know how"
"We are not faking our death, you've been thought dead far too often for comfort Ashland so we aren't doing it and that's final"
"Don't worry I wasn't planning on something that extreme, nope it's MIA for us, just until things settle down a little further"
"I hope you know what you're doing Portland because if this goes wrong I am so blaming you"
"And you'll have every right to blame me too"
"How long will we be missing?"
"Three days maybe longer depending on the atmosphere of the city"
"Got it, adjust as needed, and maybe find a way of communicating to key people secretly if need be"
"And what makes you think Cardassian communications aren't rigged to be hacked when trying to make contact with the outside world?"
"We don't but it's a whole lot safer than us trying when in a charged atmosphere or don't you remember that situation when you were a senior Padawan one year away from the Trials?"
(Winces) "I remember Johnson but if you recall things were already in a bad way when that happened in regards to the situation"
"Then we disagree because I was there you weren't we could have trusted the locals"
"When the government was suspect? I don't think so you're lucky there was a Jedi team nearby when it was needed"
"Look let's stop arguing and start getting to a secure location, good thing we have these Jedi like cloaks because otherwise we might be in big trouble being in Starfleet uniforms"
Three days later they were still considered missing because things were still extremely tense in the city so that meant all Sentinel's couldn't leave their secured location
"If this is the enemies doing when I get to the Republic I am so going to make them pay for this"
"Not if there's a Rebel Alliance who gets them first"
"We don't even know if people managed to escape and get to safe places to form resistances"
"We'll know once we return to Republic space don't worry we'll know"
"Well for now we need to start thinking about means of communicating to the government so that they can inform Starfleet that we're still alive and okay"
"Don't worry I think I know how to do that but I need the rest of you to stay here in case of any trouble is that understood?"
"Yes Portland it's understood"
"If I don't come back in three hours consider me compromised and prepare to move to a new secure location just in case they find a way to read my mind without my permission"
"Understood Portland, three hours"
Ashland quickly left with the hood of the cloak up disguising her general description with it off and of course the cloak also hid the obvious parts of the Starfleet uniform aka the commbadge she was wearing and went to a very little known location that had been set up during her academy years when she was visiting Cardassia as a means of observing if they were ready to talk about an alliance between Cardassia and the Federation. They hadn't been ready quite yet at that time but due to an incident while there the higher ups managed to find out about Ashland and after making them swear to secrecy about her abilities and explaining that only Starfleet Command was in the know they set up a secret location where Ashland could activate an emergency message for those in charge of Cardassia with instructions on how to deal with Starfleet, whether to reveal that she was alive or not depended on what the message stated when received, and had updated them to the fact that she would sign with her new designation of Sentinel whenever using the location
Message
All Sentinel's safe and in hiding, will make further contact once situation is more calm, alert Starfleet to our survival, will make contact once a week until safe to reveal ourselves Sentinel Portland
End of message
"There now at least Starfleet will know of our continued existence"
She hears the sounds of fighting and quickly leaves the area knowing that while there was most likely fighting in the area where she could communicate with the Cardassian government it was so deep underground that the actually equipment was safe from destruction. She made it back to the location that the rest of the Sentinel's were staying at with half an hour to spare
"Man people really don't like us right now do they?"
"No but part of that is because they don't understand why Starfleet is even here asking for their sons in the first place, they don't realize the danger they are in from the potential enemies that might come from Republic space, not like we do"
"So there's nothing we can do right now to help keep them calm is there?"
"No there isn't, by the way I have managed to make contact with the Cardassian government, it's a one way communication method though so if they need to get information to us they will have no choice but to simply search for us, either that or leave a message at the location that I use to communicate with them, I know what we did was a bad and seriously flawed idea but we didn't exactly take this situation into account when we first set it up"
Several days later things finally started to turn around for Starfleet presence mainly because the Cardassian government finally got things back under control telling their people that no matter what happened everything would turn alright in the end and that allying itself with Starfleet insured Cardassian survival because Cardassia just wasn't used to dealing with the threats like Starfleet was (Starfleet had made mandatory practices against Republic species on a regular basis once Ashland revealed herself to the Texas, the only thing they didn't and couldn't simulate was the environment of the different planets because they never asked Ashland to describe them except in vague generalities and they never asked anyone to expand the explanations later after the Republic and Federation became allies and several Jedi arrived to also train to be Sentinel's)
"Now then can we please contact the Komatsu so that they know they can pick us up for the next stage of Starfleet's plans?"
"Yes you can contact them openly now"
"Good, First Junior Sentinel Ashland Portland seven to beam up"
Her team arrives back on the ship and is quickly informed that Starfleet's plan was working and that there was some mandatory training to be had in regards to the different environments they might be dealing with once back in Republic space