Chapter 26
Truths and explanations
Hina rushed to a panel next to the airlock hatch once she was aboard the Bantha. Opening it she pulled out the two emergency hovertrolleys the hatch contained. She dragged them over to the stretchers. She swayed as the deck vibrated and shook a moment after the thump of a launcher had filled the air. Nebula, Dew and Gwen were clustered around the stretcher that Octavia laid upon.
"Help me get her across, we need to get her to the medbay." Hina instructed them
Carefully they pulled the limp body of Octavia across, leaving behind a blood soaked stretcher. Pressing the Activation button the trolley lifted up and a shield bubble encased Octavia. Hina pushed the hovertrolley to the ladder hatch, once again cursing the lack of a turbolift or even a gravity shute. She noted that Yara had already transferred the other stretcher case and was preparing to follow her.
"Bring the wounded up first and follow me to the medbay. Then come up yourselves." Hina instructed.
She tilted the hovertrolley till it was vertical before pulling it up behind her as she climbed the ladder, the force shield making sure that Octavia did not move in her protective bubble. Gaining access to the upper level she returned the hovertrolley to vertical and pushed it forward waiting for the second hovertrolley. Tsune followed up behind Yara and the second trolley and Yara let Tsune take over pushing the trolley, staying by the top rung to help Yang step on deck as she was carrying a still unconscious Weiss.
TD 25 activated the moment the door opened and moved on its repuslors to the main treatment table. Hina lowered her trolley on it and deactivated the shield
"TD25, we have multiple trauma cases. Standby with emergency stasis," Hina ordered
"As you order, doctor."
"Doctor?" Tsune querried
"Just another thing I will have to explain, now we have patients to stabilise till we get to the Dawn and a proper surgically equipped medbay."
Yara in the meantime were leading the rest of the group to the crew lounge and pointed to the seating including the emergency seating that lined the hull
"Strap in, the ride may get rough." She instructed
Noticing that a barrage of questions were about to unleashed she held up her hands.
"I promise once we are safe all questions will be answered. Pyrrha, Nora, can you help everyone strap in please?" She asked
Flying over the remaining Nest, Jaune fired the bunker mine and another two antigravity mines before pulling back on the controls and opening the throttle wide heading for atmosphere. As per his usual habit he turned the inertial compensator down to be able to feel the ship. The shields glowed bright red as they pushed through the atmosphere, and everybody in the ship with the exception of the medbay carrying an independent inertial compensator were rattled extensively. Realigning the ship he went in a parabolic arc to approach the dark side of the moon where the Green dawn has been landed. He opened the internal communications to the Medbay
"Hina, you got a moment?" He asked
"Not really, but I can listen." Hina replied
"We are close to the Dawn, I am going to dock with it to allow you to evac the injured. Thereafter I will delink and go land in a cargo bay. Do you need me to fly a few circuits to get ready?" Jaune asked
"A few circuits would help, stall for about fifteen to twenty minutes before docking. Can you get me some help to move them once we dock?"
"I will grab April and come help you." Katya broke in
"Take Ren and Nora as well." Jaune suggested
"Grab whoever, just have them ready to run to the medbay once we dock." Hina asnswered
Sitting in a chair against the wall Peter Port was looking through the viewport in shocked silence as he took in the view he was seeing. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face, convinced he was hallucinating. In the crew lounge Cameron had been looking up in an effort to control her rebelling stomach. She blinked as the red glow dissipated and blackness overtook the viewport, Before she could question it, nausea won and she bent forward and started vomiting all over her boots. An activity she was soon followed in by several others. Call of gross interrupted the prayers to Ralph, the view outside the viewport being ignored
Jaune was thankful that La1D2 had repaired a few of the catering droids as one of the said droids placed a cup of caf and a hot meal before him. Everyone had been gathered in the dining room of the Dawn and he could see that impatience was starting to set in among the Hunters. The door opened and Tsune and Hina entered. The group was ignoring the food and drinks before them. The time for the promised answers was now
"How are the injured?" He asked Hina as she sat down
"All will recover, they are currently sedated and receiving bacta therapy." Hina replied reaching for sweetener for her caf
Jaune stood up and cleared his throat to gain everyones attention, a needless move as silence had descended the moment he had stood up
" Right so I know you have questions and a lot of them. So let us start with the most important, to those who had not heard Doctor Ichuru, all those injured will recover and once we are done we will let you see them for yourself. As you probably have guessed by now you are not in an Atlas facility or that the area you are in is much more advanced of what they are capable off. Some of you might have noticed the absence of Ciell Solleil and Penny Polendina. Those two are not among the injured as you might have guessed. They are currently in the brig of the Green Dawn, the ship that you are currently upon." Jaune said
Anne Greystone jumped up and pulled a pistol from behind her back. Jaune reached out and the pistol ripped out of her hand and flew in a spinning circle to him. Velvet reached up and grabbed the weapon and placed it beside her plate. Another motion of his hand had Anne pressed back into her seat. Silence reigned as the hunters took in the
"Thank you Velvet, now before we all get more upset in regards to that. Ciell Solleil had been in possession of a device that she had used to communicate with someone in Atlas military command, thus was despite orders that all communications was to go through Beacon staff." Jaune said lifting the lapscroll
"It was taken from her as soon as she had been subdued. As you are all aware we had been instructed by professor Port we were only to take our weapons and ammunition with us. So at the very least Ciell was guilty of disobeying the orders of the senior Hunter in command." Pyrrha
"And Penny? Did she too carry anything illegal according to you?" Rebecca demanded
"And how did this ship know where we were?" Hermione snapped
"Penny is a completely different story." Jaune said sighing
"She had no need of a device to do the same. Penny Polendina is not organic. She is a robotic device, thankfully not a cyborg as we had originally feared. Though how a robot can generate aura we do not know." Yara answered
"Bullshit." Yang snapped
Jaune noted that Ruby had shrunk in on herself on that revelation. He motioned LA1D2 forward and the robot's holo emitter sprang to life showing a scan of Penny first from outside where she appeared human then progressing inwards showing her robotic nature. Anne slumped in her seat, defeat prominent on her face
"I will admit these images could have been faked but how we could do it in the hour we have been aboard I do not know. I also think Greystokes response says enough." Jaune pointed out
"As for Hermione's question, we set a pulse beacon to give our location to the ship. We activated it as we were sure we were about to be overrun." Yara jumped in
"Where are we?" Moody demanded
"Currently we are on the moon of Remnant in the dark side region of the moon." Katya answered
"It is true we are in space. As much as I don't want to believe it, it is true." Port broke in, before any rebuttal could be made
"How is it possible? Dust stops working at a certain distance from the ground, everyone knows it." Peach objected
"There are more power sources than dust." April replied
Peach spun to face her sister
"You knew about this?!" She accused April
"I did, as does Pyrrha, Nora and Ren. We have been here before." April said calmly
"Listen, why don't we stop here for now. We all had a very long day, and we had just been in combat. Let us eat the food before us, go see that everyone in the infirmary is fine and get some rest. Once we are all rested and no longer on edge we can get all the answers we want." Tsune suggested
"Is it safe to eat though? I do not want to get probed" Dew said, poking the food with a finger
"Probed?" Jaune asked confused
Katya started snickering before she produced her datapad and opened a file she had downloaded from the CCT net, in particular a file from the Remnant Enquirer. She opened it to full view and Yara, Jaune and Hina read it
"What the Kark?! What is wrong with you?! Why would anyone do that?" Hina spluttered in shocked disgust
"What she said." Jaune said
Derrick kept his eyes closed as he woke, waiting for the person in the room with him to get closer
"Uncle Derrick?" Sapphron said softly, switching on the hall light
Derrick sat up from where he had been sleeping on the couch. He had slept over after having had dinner with his brother and his nieces.
"What is going on Saph?" He asked
"Just wait a moment, Terra is waking my dad up." Sapphron replied
" I assume it is nothing good then." Derrick said with a yawn
"I will make us coffee, by the time I am finished I guess dad will be up as well." Sapphron answered
The four adults were in the sitting area nursing cups of coffee, taking a look at the wall mounted clock. Derrick noted it was just before five o clock, Sapphron took a deep breath before speaking
"Just heard from Jaune. They had to flee from Serenity Forest on the Bantha. They are all on the Green Dawn. Along with the other teams that were with them." Sapphron told him
"Are they okay?" Johnathan asked
"They are fine, Jaune said there had been injuries but Hina took care of it." Terra answered
"The problem now being that their cover story is blown." Derrick said with a sigh
"That is it. Jaune asked for help. The Bantha should already be back in the warehouse." Sapphron said
"I suggest you call your superiors and warn them." Jonathan told Derrick
"Why would the bank care?" Derric replied
"We both know you are not a banker. Just as I know that you had recruited Sapphron and Terra for who ever you are working." Jonathan replied with a slight scoff
Derrick thought for a moment to try and counter the allegation but ultimately decided not to
"You are right, but I still can not tell you who I work for, nor can Terra and Sapphron tell you either." Her replied
"Oh, damn it. I was supposed to go into Beacon today and work on Ozpin's computer systems again." Terra gasped
"Okay let me think on it." Derrick replied
Mari burst into the room, her face was red and tears were running across her face. Jonathan hastily put his cup down and moved to pick her up
"What is wrong pumpkin?" He asked
"The news. They said Jaune and the others are dead." She hiccupped in his shoulder
There was a rush as the rest of the Arc girls made their way to the sitting room, all of them teary eyed and agitated. Jonathan cradled Mari closer before addressing his children
"Don't worry about the news. Jaune is okay as are the others. Once it is dark we will go to them. I promise." He said
Derrick was tapping away on his scroll to contact his superiors
" John, you had better call the hospital and warn them not to let Juniper get near a television. I suggest you go and tell her what is going on yourself, maybe book her out for the day and take her with us if the psychiatrists agree to let her have a day pass. " Derrick said grimly
"You are right. I had better do it know. If she see the news before we can get to her" Jonathan shuderred
"Terra. Honey, I think you should call in sick for the day. I think we need to be home in case Beacon does some form of notification." Sapphron said, biting a nail in worry
Ozpin slammed his cane down the desk of the editor in chief of the Vale Daily channel. The man and his ace reporter reared back in shock at his action. Despite his towering rage Ozpin spoke clearly and slowly
"I want to know what you were thinking on reporting about teams of Huntsman being decimated. Are you not aware that there is set protocol that needs to be followed." Ozpin said through gritted teeth
"The public has a right to information…" Lisa Lavender started saying
"Not while Vale is in a state of emergency! Damn it, woman, we have had to repulse multiple attacks on the wall already due to your stupidity. " Ozpin shouted her down
Ozpin produced a document and threw it on the desk'
"In terms of the Emergency Act it gives me great pleasure to shut your news department down. As you will notice it was signed by the full Council. This order also pertains to any so called current events programs." Ozpin said
"This can not be legal." Lisa objected
"Then I suggest you go and read the Emergency Act fully, or tune in to the Vale Broadcasting corporation. They will be having a special news report soon explaining the facts in regards to Serenity Forest, and by the way they will probably also inform the public why your station will not be broadcasting a large amount of your regular programming. I am sure they will get a legal expert to explain in full as to why that is." Ozpin replied
Ozpin grabbed his cane and turned around walking to the door he had barged through, the three security guards that has attempted to stop him lying on the ground where he had dropped them. Behind him he heard the editor hastily speaking into his telephone
"Gladys, get Legal up here immediately…"
Glynda sighed as she stepped out from the car and looked up at her latest destination. This was one of the duties she hated most, notifying families that their loved ones were dead or are considered missing in action. She already had a harrowing session with the Scarlatina family as well as the Adell families. Ozpin had indicated that he will deal with Taiyang and Qrow as well as the Schnee's and Belladonna families. Normally she would have been accompanied by Tsune, but she too was unaccounted for and officially listed as Missing in Action. Peter's ex wife had already demanded to know when the life insurance would be paid out, his mother was unaware of her sons fate not that telling her would help. At times like this advanced dementia was a blessing. To continue the bad responses the Millers was the worst, she had overheard a conversation from the two's father study instructing his campaign manager to use his tragedy to his campaign advantage while she had been waiting to formally inform them. For a moment she wondered how Oobleck was faring with his list of families to be notified.
The door to the Fort Freedom residency opened and a young faunus woman made her presence known. Glynda straightened her skirt and glasses before resolutely walking up the stairs to where the woman was waiting.
For the first time since getting to know her, Qrow saw the Ice Queen crack when receiving information. She stumbled as she sat down before Ozpins desk, Her head dropped into her hands and her shoulders shook. He took a deep pull from his flask before extending it to her. She took it and actually drank from it
"Oz, are we sure the reports are accurate?" He demanded
"As sure as we can be without being on site. Both the mayor and Captian Prager from the atlas division reported heavy fighting. The Atlas Knights dispatched this morning to the camp found no traces of the camp. I am sorry. As of this morning Cameron Branwen, Ruby Rose, Yang Xio Long and Weiss Schnee are listed as Missing in Action, presumed dead." Ozpin said softly
"It was supposed to be a safe posting for them." Qrow snapped
"It was, we had no idea there were multiple Nests. The Rangers had no indication that anything was in that area." Ozpin replied
Qrow rubbed his face. He blew out the breath he had been holding.
"Does Taiyang know?" He asked
"Remington is at Signal now collecting him. I had the doctor at Signal give him a sedative. We will keep him on suicide watch here in our infirmary." Ozpin said.
The survivors reconvened in the mess after several hours of restless sleep. For the most them, they were still dressed in their combat outfits and none seemed to have taken the opportunity to clean up. KHYA and JNPR were the last to arrive all dressed in blue coveralls and freshly washed. Katya looked the other group over
"I knew we were forgetting something." She said
"Did we not explain how the showers work?" Yara asked
"Obviously not. Nor did you mention getting clean clothes" Coco ground out, looking very disgruntled
"Yeah, we will do it after breakfast." Jaune said rubbing his neck
"I for one am more interested in some answers." Port said
Jaune sat down at the head of one of the tables and motioned the serving droid to come closer
"I believe you are owed some answers. First of the people in the medbay are progressing well, as per doctor Hina they will be fully recovering." Jaune said
"Just how can she be a doctor? She is the same age as us." Rebecca asked
" Not that it is polite to ask any female her age but in this case I will answer you. I am twenty three. My species age a lot slower than yours." Hina chuckled
"As for how she can be qualified. Our educational system is a lot more advanced than yours. We start schooling at four and get the necessary neural downloads once we reach puberty." Yara added
"So you can download all kinds of information directly into your brain?" Coco asked
"If only. Once you pass formal basic schooling, you go through extensive personality and aptitude testing. Once you decide on a direction you get the basic information of your profession and trade downloaded, the rest you still have to learn the hard way." Jaune said
"Trying to download more than the basics can lead to extensive brain damage and death, which is why it is heavily regulated." Hina concluded
" You said species, how many different species are there?" Port asked
"Literally thousands, though humans seems to be the most prolific species, then the near human types are a close second." Hina answered
"Are there more of you coming here?" Cameron asked
"Hopefully not, the truth is we are in hiding from an intergalactic crime syndicate and now the Empire as well I guess." Jaune said scratching his neck.
"I believe we should start the tale at the beginning, otherwise we will be constantly sidetracked." Katya suggested
Katya motioned LA1D2 forward and the droid started projecting a standard navigation map. The projection was done in such a way that the table they were seated at were completely covered by the overhead projection. Katya stood up and stood underneath the projection
"This is the galaxy as we know it…"
AS Katya started their explanation Jaune leaned into the force and scanned the emotions of those around them. Scepticism, surprise and curiosity, excitement were the foremost emotions. He felt a pulse of anger. Closing his eyes for a moment he concentrated on tracking it down, to his surprise it was emanating from Ruby. Also unusual for her she had the hood of her robe up covering her face, thus schooling her emotions. He felt Pyrrha touching his leg, a quick glance to her had him seeing that she and Velvet too were concentrating on the little reaper.
Once the explanation wound down Ruby stood up
"Why are you not doing more to help? You have all this and you are not helping us." She demanded angrily.
"Miss Rose." Moody said sharply
"No, she has a point." Jaune said lifting his hand
Jaune leaned forward
"Yes this is classed as battleship and sure it can decimate the grim easily. However to fight a ship like this you need trained personal. We are four, not the thousand needed to do so. The Bantha is not a warship it is freighter. That is why we extracted instead of trying to fight." Jaune said
"You can share your technology." Ruby countered
"I will take this." Katya said, lifting her hand
"Not the caveman analogy please." Jaune requested
"It is the one who works the best." Katya shrugged
Katya sat down on the table
"Let us go back to the time you humans lived in caves. You, Ruby, had just returned from a hunt without getting prey. Yang had finally beaten Blake over the head and is dragging her to the cave to her way with her, and as such is unavailable till further notice and Weiss is waiting to tell you how you could have hunted better. The thing is you did your best but the prey had entered another tribes grounds and you stopped before a fight could be triggered."
Both Blake and Yang blushed, and various chuckles filled the room. Katya gave a brief grin before continuing
"Now you are back in your cave and a being appears and hands you a case of rifles and a karkload of ammunition. This being teaches you how to shoot. What happens next?"
"I teach the others?" Ruby said uncertainly
"You do, and suddenly you are eating better than before and you can actually trade with other tribes. How long before they too demand rifles? Now you only have four and giving one away will mean you will get less when you hunt, so you refuse. How do the other tribes respond?"
"They try force." Port broke in
"They do. Now a rifle against stone spears and arrows and we all know how it ends. Suddenly you have more territory but you also have more enemies." Katya concluded
"So what you are saying is we are the cavemen, and you are the superiour beings." Cameron said
" Power given and not earned will destabilise your world. There have been many recorded cases of lower civilizations gaining knowledge that they have not earned, to the planet they either caused their extinction themselves or threw their development back centuries. Dagobah is still a wasteland five thousand years later." Hina said
"To be considered as advanced enough a civilization must meet certain requirements and Remnant does not." Yara said firmly
"But you already admitted that we are being used by others, would you leave us defenceless?" Peach asked
"We are not a planetary government, we can do nothing. And considering the mess the galaxy is now, you are better off not being involved. Currently we four are the only ones who know of Remnant as far as we know." Jaune replied
"What would we need to be considered ready?" Peach asked
" A solid technology base, an unified planetary government and be space capable. Their might be a lot of other criteria but we are not part of the exploration Corps." Jaune replied
"We have the first." Peach replied
"Based on a fuel source that you are rapidly depleting. What will you do once you can not access dust. We had the droids search your datanet, we found no references to research into other fuel sources. Then there is your being rights issues and in particular the Faunas and their treatment by Atlas and the SDC. That counts heavily or it did under the Republic." Katya said in rebuttal
"Then there is the fact that technology is heavily skewed towards Atlas. That you have four kingdoms and only one with a fleet and Army is worrying." Yara added
"Add to that we caught Ciell and Penny trying to spy on us and you can see why we believe Remnant is not ready." Hina concluded
"What will be done with them?" Port asked
"That will be up to you. We will take them and you back to Beacon either tonight or when your injured are healed. Though they will be kept prisoner till then."
"That is not right!" Ruby snapped scowling
"In Penny's case, no. She could not counter the instructions given to her. However it is the only way we can keep her safe. Ciell chose to act on her orders." Jaune said mildly
"What do you mean keep her safe?" Moody asked
"The brig is a contained unit, we detected that Penny or more accurately her software is trying to establish contact with whoever. However the ship software will see it as an attack and defend against her, she will not survive the anti hacking software the ship can deploy. Letting her out of the brig would be the same as putting a blaster to her head and pulling the trigger." Jaune said bluntly
"And any attempt to update her software will see her activating her doomsday protocol. We already had to rig a power unit to her to keep her functional. Her batteries and power source are dust driven and was failing." Yara said
"Am I hearing you correctly. She has a self destruct?" Port asked
"She does. We kept that inactive by keeping her inactive at low power." Yara nodded
Jaune stood up
"I suggest we break for now. The Bantha will return once it is dark in Vale and you can decide what you want to do. Take the time to think things over"
"The terminal in the corner has been unlocked for you to use if you want to look up more information. Otherwise walk around, secure areas have been locked down. If you want a good look at space and the stars there is an observation deck on the fifth level. We labelled the turbolift controls for you." Katya invited them
Jaune looked at Velvet
"I want you to come with me and Pyrrha. There is something we have to show you."
"Can I come too? I have to protect my bunny's virtue you know." Cooc said jokingly
"Sure. Though it might be boring for you." Jaune replied
"It is a spaceship. How boring can it get?" Cooc countered
Hina walked over to where RBY And NDG were seated
"If you want to come with me, Weiss is ready to be released from treatment and you can see how Octavia is doing. We can also stop by the brig on the way there so you can see for yourself what is going on with Penny." She offered
She looked over to where the four Beacon staff were seated
"You are included in that offer." She said
"I will go." Tsune replied
"Not me. I need to have a word with my sister." Peach said
"Behave yourself." Tsune told her warningly
April sighed as her sister approached her. Yara gave her a comforting hug.
"I am here for you and I am not going anywhere. Anything she says to you she can say before and to me as well." She said soothingly
"Thank you, I appreciate it." April said softly
"You are pack, more importantly you are my mate." Yara replied firmly
Yang was mightily trying to hold her laughter as Weiss was cleaning up after her bacta submersion. Said girl was furiously trying to clean her hair. She turned to face Hina
"I thought you said this bacta stuff was safe to use." She said
"It is perfectly safe." Hina replied
"Then how do you explain her hair?" Blake asked
"A side effect that occurs in one in a million humans that bacta discolours their hair. It is suspected that a lot of it is due to the chemicals you treat your hair with" Hina said, looking over a series of holograms
"So if we were to put Yang in one of these tanks…" Blake started
"Don't even think about it." Yang said crossing her arms
Weiss stormed over, the robe she had been given was done up to her chin. She pointed to her hair
"Can you fix this?" She demanded
"No, you will have to let it grow out, the hair follicles will with time regain their natural colour, assuming you do not get more Bacta immersions." Hina replied
"You know we can no longer call you Weiss." Yang said thoughtfully, her mouth corners twitching
"Why not? It is my name" Weiss demanded
"Well Weiss means white. And currently your hair is rainbow coloured." Blake replied, stifling her smile
"What about hair colouring?" Weiss asked desperately
"The bacta will neutralise it, it has been tried before." Hina replied
"So Weiss, quick question. Does the carpet match the drapes?" Yang asked wiggling her eyebrows
Weiss turned scarlet and started spluttering. Hina, Yang and Blake openly laughed at her discomfort. A sputtering giggle had them turning their attention to Ruby, this had been the first time she had shown an emotion other than anger since Penny had been neutralised. Weiss spun to face her, a desperate look on her face
"Ruby, I need your cloak. Please." Weiss asked, moving forward
"Nope." Ruby said backing away
"Please I am desperate." Weiss nearly begged
"Nuhuh." Ruby replied eloquently
Weiss jumped forward to grab hold of Ruby. Ruby dodged and burst into petals as she fled. Weiss was in hot pursuit moments later. Hina tapped a few buttons on the console and a slot came out. She removed a disc and handed it to Yang
"I will give you a player later. I thought you might like the memento." Hina said innocently
"Thank you." Yang said with a shit eating grin
"Oh and if you catch up to them, please tell Weiss that I have a coverall here for here. And more importantly to be careful of the gown, it is very fragile." Hina added
A scream of mortification carried down the passageway.
"I think she found that part out herself." Blake said dryly
"Get ready then for another scream. The robes degrade quickly and fully should it get damaged or wet." Hina said
Coco, Fox and Yatsu sat down in front of Velvet as she sat on a cushion meditating with the crystal that had called to her, if you looked closely at her tightly clasped hands, you could see a faint light between her fingers. Velvet opened her eyes and looked at her team
" When did you get here?" She asked confused
"You have been in here for three hours." Yatsu answered
"Can you show us?" Coco asked
Velvet opened her hand and a glowing orange crystal was in her palm. She looked proudly down at it
"Does the colours mean anything?" Yatsu asked
"I am not sure, maybe you should ask the builder droid." Velvet replied
She pointed to where the droid was supervising as Jaune, Pyrrha and Hina were constructing their lightsabers. The droids head spun to face her group
"Traditionally the crystal denoted to which faction of the Jedi the user belonged. Blue is the colour of the Gaurdian class, Yellow is the colour of the Consular, and finaly green that of the Sentinel." The droid responded
"Though that is a broad generilization, the crystal colour can be any colour irregardless of class. Though red is a colour that is rarely if ever used by a jedi. Though that is mostly due to how the crystal was formed." Jaune said, not looking up from his work
"That is correct." The droid replied
"I am missing something here. Why the prejudice against red?" Coco asked
"Red crystals are typically the focus of the enemy of the Jedi. The Sith. There crystals are either synthetic or the crystal has been corrupted to the dark side by the owner." The droid replied
"So Velvet is not likely to get flak because her crystal is orange?" Coco asked
"Right now, no one would care about that, with the low numbers of Jedi. Worrying about blade colour is immaterial."
"Why is there so few Jedi then? If as you say there are billions of beings in the galaxy, why the low number." Fox asked
"Because before the Empire took over there had been a galactic civil war. Killing large amounts of Jedi. And then the troops turned on the Jedi killing the rests that did not manage to flee." Hina replied
"And the four of us has a very long way to go before we can even think of calling ourselves that. That is assuming we want to take up their teachings." Jaune added
"Telling you now I am not giving up sex or attachment." Hina said
" They demand celibacy and no attachments?" Coco asked
"Yup, and I am not giving that up." Hina repeated
"The Green Jedi did not completely ban intercourse or attachment." The droid spoke up, sounding defensive
"That is true." Hina replied
Jaune stepped back from the bench and the droid moved in to inspect his work
"You may proceed to charge the battery and initiate the final steps." The droid said after a few moments
Jaune moved over to a mediation mat close to a power line and connected his lightsaber to charge the battery, before shifting to a meditation pose. He became still
"Why do you have to meditate while charging your weapon?" Coco asked
" It is the final step to bond the user, the crystal and the weapon into a single entity." The droid replied
"That does not make sense." Coco objected
"That is the way it is." Hina shrugged
Pyrrha was next to proceed to the charging phase, with Hina following half an hour later, her two lightsabers in hand. Velvet had gone back to meditating with her crystal, Still feeling tired Coco and Fox stretched out on the seating in the room and fell asleep moments later, Yatsu merely made himself comfortable and started to meditate.
Coco was woken by a heavy shake, Blearily she opened her eyes. She found that she was nolonger in the room where Velvet had bee and the others had been working on their new weapons. Instead she had been laid out on a small bed. Yatsu loomed over her
"Doctor Hina said not wake you so she levitated you here." He informed her
"Where am I?" Coco asked
"We are in the Medbay." Yatsu replied
Coco sat up and rubbed her eyes. She blinked as she saw the four tubes standing close to the door. Moments later she rushed over to one.
"What happened to Fox?!" She demanded
"Nothing. Doctor Hina and the droid doctor gave him a physical exam. They believe they may be able to return his eyesight." Yatsu replied calmly
"Failing that. Fox is a perfect candidate for cybernetic replacements. His optic nerves had not sustained any injuries when he lost his sight, Nor is there any atrophy to his Cranial nerves. Which is good since we do not have access to a nerve splicer" Hina broke in
Said Catgirl had been working away at a terminal while in soft discussion with Tsune at the far end of the ward and Coco had yet to look in that direction
"In fact Fox had already picked out cybernetic eyes should the bacta immersion and the ocular surgery fail." Hina continued
"And yes, we talked him down to accept human looking eyes." Tsune added
"Let me guess, he wanted more gadgets than what is practical." Coco said ruefully
"All the things he wanted we can add to the cybernetic eyes, except for one thing." Hina said
"What did he ask for?" Coco asked
"He wanted eyes that were able to see through clothes. But once it was explained that he would be able to see skeleton structures only instead of naked people he lost interest." Yatsu answered
"What else can these eyes do?" Coco asked
" Low light vision, increased visual range, depending on the software." Hina replied
"It is also a lot more elegant than what Atlas gave Ironwood. Though form what Hina had said there is tendency amongst some of the galaxy inhabitants to keep their cybernetics as plain as possible, to the point it is obvious it is limb replacements." Tsune broke in
"Why would anyone do that?" Coco asked
"Fear and hatred of machines. We just came out of a war that had droid armies commanded by a Cyborg." Hina explained
"You do not want to know what a cyborg is or how it is created, believe me." Tsune forestalled Coco's next question
Coco shrugged before giving another big yawn
"What time is the Bantha getting here?" She asked
"Already docked. It brought up the Arc family. And they had decided to bring up Glynda and Bart as well." Tsune replied
"Professor Goodwitch is here? Why not professor Ozpin?" Coco asked
"Because professor Ozpin can not hand over his current duties at this time and he trusts Glynda to handle a lot of things for him." Tsune replied
"If you want to know what is going on I suggest you go get breakfast." Hina suggested
"Just how long was I asleep for?" Coco replied
"Close to fifteen hours. Oh and by the way when the others are called here for their vaccinations you do not need to come. You already got yours courtesy of a function of the bed I forgot to switch off." Hina said
"The bed automatically gave me injections?" Coco asked incredulously
"It is a part of its design. You might find some bruising the auto inject is not known to be gentle."
Hina tapped a few final sequences and the holograms dwindled in size before flickering out of existence
"Well, let us go and get breakfast, today will be another long day."
