A faint presence touched his consciousness, and Master Ikrit's muscles twitched.

He fell out of his trance with an exhalation, then stretched himself out.

As a kushiban, he had two long ears, and a vaguely lapine face, and four paws supporting his body with a long tail behind him. He was covered all over in off-white fur, and he weighed about ten pounds.

This made him noticeably smaller than his old Master, but his old Master had been noticeably smaller than just about everyone else so that had never really bothered him.

Stifling a yawn, Ikrit exchanged stretching muscles for stretching his senses, and he felt the Force around him for answers.

The Palace of the Woolamander remained closed. That much, at least, was good news… and that he had woken at all meant that there was someone nearby who could touch the Force.

Flicking his tail, Ikrit felt for their presence, and detected a flowing current of light. Like a miniature humming whirl of sound going up and down the scales, muted but still present.

They were definitely heading in this direction, and there were others with them. Not sensitive to the Force, not like the single presence he could feel strongly, but it told him that they were moving towards him using some kind of airspeeder – or spacecraft.

Next, the small Jedi Master felt for his own internal sense of time – and flicked his ears, trying to hide his somewhat embarrassed surprise.

It seemed he had been in hibernation for around three hundred and seventy standard years.

Master Yoda would never have approved of quite such a long nap, and right now Ikrit wondered if perhaps he should have done something else.. but what was done was done, and he let his embarrassment go into the Force.

Then he focused, and sprang up to the roof of the Palace with a single spring.

He was going to need to ask the visitors for help, after all.

"Any idea who built these temples, General?" Bail asked, looking around. "This one's designed differently to the other two, but it's got to be the same style – despite being so far apart."

"We don't have much," Dodonna replied, apologetically. "A lot about the moon has been lost, but that's exactly what makes it a suitable base location – we can hide a lot of power signatures behind this much stone."

He glanced at Bail's daughter, who was looking around herself with great interest. "Are you sure it's a good idea to bring her along?"

"I'm sure Princess Leia is quite able to keep silent on important matters," Bail replied. "Isn't that correct?"

"Of course," Leia replied, with a smile. "I haven't told anyone about the thing."

"The thing?" Bail repeated, amused.

"Oh, I couldn't explain," Leia replied. "After all, then I would have told someone about it."

She frowned, slightly. "What exactly are we trying to do here?"

"Investigate the thickness of the walls, mostly," Bail told her. "Like Dodonna said, thick walls can conceal power signatures – if the walls are thick enough, this could be an independent base."

"Or if they're less thick, they might still make for a good satellite base," Dodonna added. "To cover an evacuation, if the main base is found out – an unexpected fighter strike coming from a novel location can do a lot for clearing the air."

"Got it," Leia said. "And how can I help?"

"Carrying a sensor pack should do," Bail suggested. "We can get good density and dispersal readings by flying the ship over while there's sensor packs in different parts of the structure."

He winked at Dodonna. "I've learned a few things myself, General."

"I wouldn't want to suggest otherwise!" Dodonna replied, with a chuckle. "I'll get my men turned out – and an extra pack for the Princess."

Ikrit's ears twitched, as he watched the group disembark. They were mostly humans, with a scattering of other races.

No kushiban, but he was expecting that. His people were mostly not wanderers.

The problem was, what he could hear indicated that there had been some quite serious linguistic drift… which meant he could have serious trouble making himself understood.

On the plus side, though, being this close let him pinpoint the person with the ability to touch the Force. Ikrit could work past at least some of the problems by working with concepts, allowing the other adept – a human girl, not yet into her full growth – to fill in his meaning without him needing to use exactly the right words.

He could also see where she was going, and turned to scamper down into the Palace to get ahead of her.

A few minutes of going down though the Palace's chambers – much the same as they had been over three hundred and fifty years ago, except for the precise layout of plants – and Ikrit was ready to introduce himself.

Introduce himself to a girl who was very strong in the Force, but who bore no Padawan's braid and who had no sign of that strength being trained.

It was quite strange, but Ikrit shook himself out, then appeared out from behind a rock with a smile as the girl entered a corridor.

"Greetings," he said, weighting his words with the Force and aiming to let the concepts he was transmitting flow through the air. "It is nice to meet you."

The girl stopped, and blinked at him.

"You (communicate-can talk)?" she asked.

"Yes," Ikrit agreed. "I am not quite speaking your language."

"I can (understand you-follow your meaning)," the girl replied, looking confused. "How?"

"The Force," Ikrit replied. "You could do it as well. If you agree to a mutual connection, with my help you can become a female-padawan."

Leia stared at the strange creature smiling up at her, covered in fine white fur.

"It's something (you)(can learn)," he said. "If you (make a contract)(with me), you can become (a magical girl)!"

AN:

Ikrit is a useful resource.

No other comment here.