Chapter 26

The first thing I did was to calm down and accept that I couldn't have foreseen everything, releasing the emotions of frustration and anger, letting it pass through me and into the Force.

Do or do not, there is no try.

In the next moment, I expanded my awareness and senses to encompass the entirety of Resolute. I felt every erg of energy that flowed through the ship's conduits like blood flowing through veins, the movement of air through the spaces of the ship, pushed along by the air conditioning systems, every droid and power source, as tiny clusters of stars that moved through the corridors and among the crawlspaces… then the life of every clone.

I narrowed my focus, remembering how Gritt had felt in the Force, how the brain worm had felt…

The number of infected I counted with was both a relief and a worry.

It wasn't numerically overwhelming, but the damage they could do given where they were positioning themselves was the problem.

I tapped my comlink and got a private encrypted channel directly to my R3 droid.

"R3, I sense you're near my fighter at the moment in Hangar Bay D4, find the nearest logic port so that you can get access to the entire Resolute network."

"At once, mistress."

The astromech droid stopped its maintenance work on my Z95, pushed out its roller track and sped to the nearest terminal. The logic probe popped out and it slotted into a computer jack on a nearby hanger systems terminal.

"Good, give me a diagnostic on the internal sensors."

"I am unable to comply, mistress. The system is offline and in maintenance mode."

"Can you trace where the maintenance mode order originated from?"

"Certainly, one moment. It seems to be coming from a terminal in engineering, an adjunct computer mainframe room that is normally completely automated."

"Any visual sensor you can use there without possibly alerting the person in there?"

"Yes, there is… rerouting and slicing… interesting. There is a clone trooper in there, working on the system. He is clearly not a technician."

"Okay, listen carefully R3, I need you to slice his terminal and usurp control, but also act as a fake virtual terminal that will keep him in place. He must not suspect that we are on to him. Can you do that?"

"Please Mistress, even an R2 unit could do that without straining its processors."

"Good. In the meantime, I need you to reinitialize the internal sensors, lock in on all the clone's internal ID chips. I need a real time feed to my armor."

"Allocating processing cycles, it will take a few minutes, mistress. I am curious, what is this all about?"

"I foresee I'm going to have this conversation many times in the next few hours," I grumbled in annoyance.

The next half hour was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in a long time, but made me rather grateful that the clones were unquestioningly obedient to a direct order. The problem came afterwards, especially the more experienced clones, who would begin to evaluate your order against the regs that were equally drilled into their brains.

In the interest of time and efficiency, I began to order every squad or individual clone trooper that I passed to go to Briefing Room 5, one of the larger rooms that could house multiple companies at once. I also made a stop at the med bay and gathered one of the clone med techs.

By the time I had Rex with me, who was thankfully not infected, there were already a hundred and ten troopers gathered and patiently waiting in their seats.

Any residual chatter died the instant I walked into the briefing room. I closed the door and sealed it with my command code.

"R3, keep this door shut until I tell you otherwise and all visual sensors rerouted."

The droid had a constant link open to my com, in the interest of safety and my own paranoia.

I walked to the podium and placed on it a clear stasis cylinder that held the dead brainworm for all the clones to see.

"501st, helmets off," I ordered.

Some clones didn't walk shipboard with their helmets on, but there were those who did. A moment later I was staring at a room full of light brown identical faces.

"I've gathered you all here because this entire task force, currently in space and on the ground, is under threat from an enemy we didn't even know existed. You may have all been wondering about the quarantine order and now I can show you the reason why. This…" I placed my hand on the stasis cylinder, "is a Geonosian brain worm. It does what its name implies, it infects any living or even dead being and controls them. Roughly a quarter of all Geonosians that were fought on the ground were infected and directly controlled by the Geonosian queen using these worms. And yes, if you were wondering, even if a controlled Geonosian dies, the brain worm can keep the body going and fighting. This specific one was on this ship and inside Quartermaster Gritt. I trust you can realize the implications."

There was a strong undercurrent of fear that erupted from the clones and they began looking at each other with suspicion.

"Before you all look at each other, I can now sense these worms and no one inside this room is currently infected. The problem we have is that on this ship, there are currently 37 people infected and there were 32 infected when I first began looking. If we are infected to this extent, what does that mean for the other Venators?"

"Commander, are you suggesting that if this goes far enough, we could be looking at having to fight our own?" Rex queried, his face and the turmoil I sensed from him clearly showed that he was having a hard time processing this.

"Yes, however, before we can help the rest of the fleet, we must clean our own house. I am assigning three of you to each infected. I myself am going to secure the closest armory and you will arm yourselves. At this point, don't worry, we're only going for stun shots. There is a way to safely remove the worms. The key aspect of this operation is grabbing the infected all at once. Even though the Geonosian queen is dead, I theorize an aspect of her remains within the worms and it's possible that they may have a hive mind and be able to communicate telepathically. The worms may also be a survival mechanism, allowing her to be reborn if enough of them come together."

I pressed a few buttons on the lectern, a cross section holo of Resolute appeared and thirty seven red dots representing the infected were sprinkled all over.

"You can see here the position of them in real time. Some of them are in critical areas, no doubt trying to sabotage or control key systems. This is another reason for the time critical nature of this mission."

A clone captain raised his hand, "Commander, once we've subdued the infected, what do we do with them?"

"It's highly likely the worm will try to jump ship, that's why you must keep your helmets sealed and armor set for vac fighting after you leave this room. That will be the third member of each party's responsibility, killing the worm if it jumps. They can survive outside of a body, for how long, I don't know. We don't want to spend days searching for the things, so please, don't miss. If the worm does not leave, carry the infected trooper to the medbay. My R3 droid is handling the sensors. Use your personal pads and you will note you have access to the internal sensors to guide you to your specific target… any questions?"

There was only silence in answer and determination.

"Good, on your feet and follow."

The nearest armory was one deck down and despite me navigating to avoid any infectees, it was inevitable that we would draw attention. Multiple companies marching together under the lead of a Jedi was bound to alarm any of the ship's personnel we crossed paths with. It was critical that word didn't spread through the grapevine. Therefore I commandeered them to follow as well.

The armory quartermaster was rather surprised to have so many customers at once and it was clear he wasn't pleased at having his schedule interrupted. The only way I could get him to not contact Yularen and blow the whole operation, by talking over the channels that were being monitored by the infected, was for me to take him aside and explain the situation.

Rex had everything well in hand while I did that, starting to organize and assigning men to each target. Then sending each trio of clones off with orders to watch the sensors carefully and avoid the infected. Thankfully, with the ship the size of the Resolute, that was easy to do.

Soon we were left with a mix of twenty troopers and naval personnel. I dismissed the latter back to their stations with orders to go about their duties as if nothing was happening.

"Rex, get these men organized, we are going to secure the bridge."

"I noticed there was an infected there. Who is it?"

"Someone who is going to be very grumpy at me after all this is over."

Walking onto the bridge, Rex and ten troopers immediately fanned out behind me as I walked across the gangway, past the crew pits and towards Admiral Yularen.

He was very intently busy tapping something onto a datapad.

"What the…"

Only to be very surprised when the datapad flew out of his hands and landed in my outstretched hand as I approached the command chair.

"Commander? What's the meaning of this?" he objected, his eyes taking in the armed troopers around the bridge.

"I'm truly sorry about this Admiral." I tapped my comlink. "Begin."

Rex brought up his pistol and fired.

The blue ring of a stun shot burst forth and hit the admiral in a blink of an eye, briefly giving his body a faint red glow.

The admiral jerked in his seat, not before surging to his feet and snarling at me with an animalistic growl.

Before he could even take a step, I had him suspended in midair giving Rex another perfect stun shot, which finally seemed to do the trick as I sensed both the admiral and the worm's combined Force signature dim into unconsciousness.

The naval crew were all out of their seats and gaping in astonishment.

I embraced the Force and infused my voice, "Relax, this is an intervention, not a mutiny. The admiral and numerous others have been compromised by an alien infection from the planet below." My voice was directed to the com link next. "All teams report."

Successful captures were reported steadily and I sensed many infected had lost consciousness.

"Commander, we have a problem at the hyperdrive, we tried, but they managed to activate a program of some sort before we could stop them."

"Status of our hyperdrive?" I snapped at the bridge engineering officer.

The naval clone worked at his station, "Sorry commander, it's offline. Its systems are completely scrambled, returning nonsense data and diagnostics. It's been sliced in a way that I've never seen before."

"R3?"

"It is a self-replicating program that has overwhelmed the navicomputer and internal hyperdrive systems," the droid reported.

How the hell did the worms even know how to do that… unless the brain worm's were co-opting the knowledge of their hosts.

"There's no easy fix for that, is there?"

"Negative, mistress. Each individual system in the hyperdrive needs to be shut down and reformatted to factory spec, then it must be recalibrated. Estimated time to repair, two days."

"We're not going anywhere anyway for a while due to this mess."

"This is Bits down in life support," reported another clone. "We've got our quarry. Minor damage down here, nothing too bad."

"Let engineers be the judge of that. All teams, bring your targets to med bay. Rex, get the admiral down there."

Two troopers were ordered to carry Yularen off the bridge while I reviewed the data pad he was working on.

It was just as well we had arrived when we did. He had been looking over command codes to every ship in the task force.

"Everyone back to stations, bring the whole ship to condition two but keep our shields lowered."

I dumped myself in the command chair as the bridge crew sprang to action.

"Commander, if you don't mind me asking, how are we getting those things out of our people?" Rex asked.

"By exposing them to something the worms don't like at all, extreme cold."

"That sounds uncomfortable, even dangerous."

"Nothing a brief bacta dip afterwards can't fix, which is preferable to being a prisoner in your own body."

"Can't argue with that. What is your plan for the other ships, commander?"

"The cold treatment is at the moment a theory, which med bay needs to confirm works. Then I plan to have a little chat with the ship captains via holo." I keyed my command chair's com system. "Nav, I want you to slowly and steadily alter our orbit, give me a course that will overlap with all the other destroyers over a period of two to three hours."

"Calculating now, commander… the best I can give you is a five hour course given those parameters."

"That'll do. Guns, I want your crews on standby, but don't power their systems. I want all our tubes filled with torpedoes though."

"Roger, commander."

"Sensors, I want you to keep passive eyes on all our ships that come into range, work with ELINT. If they so much as sneeze in our direction, I want to know."

"Understood sir."

I keyed the com system and tried to reach Anakin next. It took a few minutes before he answered and when his holo appeared it rather told the story already. He had his lightsaber lit and was leaning behind cover that the holo failed to render.

"Sorry to disturb, master, I see you're busy."

"You can say that," he said through gritted teeth, before going through deflections of numerous blue blaster bolts. "Please tell me you have some good news up there."

"Resolute is secure. We've tracked down and isolated 37 infected. I'm testing a theory on how to get rid of these brain worms efficiently and get the other Venators sorted."

"Good, I only wish the news was better down here. It might as well be a civil war between the clones at this point. A number of key positions in the army down here were definitely subverted and they convinced their subordinates that we were the ones who were infected. We're trying to keep it to stun shots, convince the subverted companies that their infected leaders are the actual problem… but you know stun shots, their accuracy is pathetic."

"Will you need reinforcements from us at some point?"

"Maybe, but you must first get our orbital assets sorted out."

"Very well, master. May the Force be with you."

"And you."

The holo winked out.

"Never thought I'd see the day," Rex's voice filled with disgust and grief. "Brother against brother. All just because of some worm."

"It's no comfort, but the galaxy is big, Rex. There are some threats out there that unfortunately can't be fought with fist and a blaster. It's inevitable that we will in time run into these things and either confront them or yield and retreat to them."

"Hard to imagine that, commander."

"Which is precisely the point."

"I- I don't understand."

I smiled sadly, "Pray that you never truly do. I'll be down in med bay."

It required a bit of jury rigging from engineering crews, the rerouting of quite a few coolant conduits, but we managed to create a large enough cold room by emptying out a storage space near the med bay deck. Testing first on a single infected trooper had resulted in the brain parasite instinctively trying to escape its freezing host, only to land in an even worse situation with a sub zero atmosphere outside.

To satisfy my own paranoia, I personally oversaw the process of all the parasites being removed, killed and then incinerated. I also had biohazard search teams go through all the infected's quarters and any of their gear, which resulted in a backpack full of ugly off-yellow eggs being discovered.

I personally threw that in the incinerator.

Now I was back in the hot seat on the bridge and the Resolute was slowly approaching the Negotiator.

"Com, hail the Negotiator's captain."

A Republic naval clone appeared in holo and bowed to me briefly, "Commander Tano, do you have news?"

I sensed carefully through the holo, using it as a focus to extend my senses to the entire bridge of the Negotiator.

Do or do not, Ahsoka.

I refused to let doubt and logic take hold of my thoughts. I refused to feel victory as my senses bloomed further to encompass the entirety of Negotiator.

"Yes, I do, Captain Garm."

Garm frowned at me for a second before his attention was suddenly diverted to something behind him, "By Kamino… what… sorry, commander I have to…"

"You will stay on the link, Captain. The two troopers and your helmsman that just seemingly fainted are infected by Geonosian brain worms that subvert their actions. I'm transmitting to you all data to verify and procedures you must undertake. I currently sense 81 infected on your ship."

Thankfully, my orders and his conditioning managed to break through his natural disbelief.

"Yes commander. I'll review it and get right on it."

"Good, I managed to incapacitate all of them and it should last for an hour or so, more than enough time for your internal sensors to get to work and round them all up. Once you've done that, set your command to condition two, but keep your shields down. It's entirely possible that we're going to have trouble up here. If we've lost an entire ship to these worms, we might have a battle up here."

"Understood commander. We'll be ready. Garm out."

"One down, four to go," Rex commended with relief.

"It'll only get harder from here," I declared, closing my eyes to draw on the Force. "The parasites will have had more time and infected more."

My battle was now with myself. Fighting to throw off the chains of logic and matter that bound me… that said I should now be tired after having thrown Force Sleep on 81 people at once at such a distance.

"Nav, time to intercept Victory?"

"Eighteen minutes, commander."

"Rex, I am going to meditate, short of the ship about to explode, do not interrupt."

"Understood, commander."

I fell into the Force. As usual, with such mediation, time became very murky even though I had set my anchor that would let me perceive its natural passage. The Force in and around Geonosis was 'strong', but in comparison to many other places it was quite lacking. Life had found a way, but the conditions were just too harsh below for it to truly flourish, so I had to turn to the cosmic side of things.

It was an energy tapped very gingerly. It was raw, chaotic, unfocused and powerful, yet increase your perspective enough and orderly systems could be perceived, obeying the laws of gravity and mass.

My eyes opened.

"Approaching Victory, commander. They'll pass us fifty kilometers to port."

"Thank you, Nav. Hail Captain Kitster."

The captain's holo appeared and he turned from whatever he was doing to look at me. "Ah, Commander, what…"

His eyes rolled back into the back of his head and he collapsed.

This naturally caused quite a bit of commotion on the bridge of Victory, the XO rushed into the holofield. "Commander, Captain Kitster's just collapsed…"

That was all this clone said as well, before he also just keeled over into sleep.

Another naval clone rushed forward, the Victory's second officer.

"Commander, what's happening? Half the bridge just collapsed at their posts."

"Lieutenant, them and another 126 aboard the Victory collapsed, because they were infected with Geonosian brain worms and I rendered them unconscious. I'm transferring all data and procedures related to this. Carry them out immediately. That is an order."

Again, it managed to snap the clone into obedience, he saluted. "Yes, Commander. Right away."

I cut the com link.

"126 crew down and the second officer in charge, I don't think Victory is in any shape to help us, Commander," Rex declared.

"How many bloody brain worm eggs did this queen lay?" I slammed my fist into my armrest in useless anger. Simply to distract me from thinking about what I had just done.

"If the Geonosians kept them in stasis over time as she laid them, thousands?"

"Nav?"

My helmsman knew what I wanted, "We'll intercept Valor in fifty minutes, commander."

"I'm seriously considering throwing subtlety out the window, Rex. The more time I'm given, the more I recover, but in the same vein, it means potentially more infection at each ship."

"Commander, I don't know the first thing about your powers or the Force, but is there a limit? Could you knock out an entire ship?"

I gritted my teeth with frustration as the war in me truly raged. It would be so easy to say, yes, there was a limit… NO! Who was I to truly say what was possible or not in the Force? Why do I so eagerly throw chains upon myself?

"Yes, I could!" I snapped. "The question is the potential disaster that would result. One single engineer falling at his post, failing to secure a system is one thing, but do that over an entire ship?"

"I see the problem. We must keep the element of surprise as long as possible, commander. We must stay the course."

I nodded, immersing myself again into the Cosmic Force. "Do or do not. I choose to do."

Mercifully, the Valor and the next ship, Chimera, were more like Resolute in terms of infection numbers, with 43 and 51 people hosting brain worms respectively. I incapacitated them and set their captains to work.

It was as we approached the last ship, the Vindicator, that I sensed and through prescience saw that any good grace we had received in dealing with the situation in orbit had been well and truly spent.

"Raise our shields, battlestations!"

The wailing alarm echoed through the Resolute but due to already being at Condition Two, there was little need to scramble and run for the crew. All systems were brought to full power and the massive turbolasers of the ship began moving.

"Nav, back us off to maintain a 120 kilometer separation from Vindicator."

"Roger Commander."

"What's happening over there, commander?" Rex queried.

"It's not good, no, in fact it's catastrophic. Comms, hail Vindicator."

There was a slight pause, "No response, commander."

"Keep trying. Sensors, go active, full power, I don't care if you make their hair stand on end."

"Understood commander. Scanning… 823 life signs register, commander."

My heart sank as it confirmed what I was sensing, there also should've been over one thousand crew on that ship. "Scan for parasites."

"I read… 310 signatures. Now also detecting high energy discharges in multiple sections of the ship. Concentrated around engineering and the bridge."

"There's a war happening for that ship," Rex commented grimly.

"Sensors, are there any lifesigns on the bridge?"

"Yes, commander, seven, no parasites."

"They're too busy fighting for their lives to answer our hail," I felt my hand curl into a fist as I resisted the urge to express my surging anger and frustration as I lost the battle. I needed at least some link, some focus to project my power and will through at this distance. Prudence, common sense and prescience prevented me from ordering the Resolute closer.

All guns were ready and aimed, with our bow pointed directly at Vindicator's aft, where very few of their guns could be turned to fire back at us.

The only thing I could do now was cast my Farsight forward and observe the battle.

Five clone troopers and two naval clones, including the Vindicator's captain and his second officer, were hunkered behind cover, desperately firing towards the parasite infected clones trying to storm onto the bridge.

"We can't hold much longer, captain!" screamed the second officer. "If they toss a grenade…"

"I know!" snapped the captain. "Keys!"

Both naval clones reached into the collars of their uniforms and produced two small code cylinders, which they promptly slotted into their datapads.

"Captain Hiram, it's been an honor."

"The honor is mine, Cengo."

I pulled back and shielded my eyes as abruptly a brief new artificial star was seemingly born and my sense of the lives of over eight hundred people winked out. Pulled into a conflagration of energy and rejoined with the cosmic Force.

In the material realm, the light died down and revealed all that was left of the Vindicator was a large chunk of its pointed forward bow, spinning off into wild orbit and a storm of debris radiating outward.

"Shields to double front!" I shouted.

The order penetrated through the grim horror that had gripped the bridge crew at seeing their fellow ship just die like that.

Resolute's shield flared into visibility as a field of debris began bouncing off it, throwing the pieces of hull, armor and all manner of wreckage into further erratic orbits. It was almost like seeing the most grim game of billiards ever played, except in three dimensions.

A grim but respectful silence settled on the bridge and I had to struggle to hold back stupid useless tears.

"Sensors, any escape pod beacons?" I asked softly.

"None, commander. I'm reading only the self-destruct beacon."

"Flight Ops, launch a shuttle to retrieve it when it is safe to do so."

"Affirmative, commander," replied the officer in charge of the flight bridge.

"Were they about to lose the bridge?" Rex asked stoically, his eyes full of pain.

"Yes."

"Then they died doing their duty."

I nodded, "I'll be in med bay," then stood and turned to the port crew pit, "Second officer Lorso, you have the bridge."

"I have the bridge, commander."

I left, knowing there was nothing more I could've done, but still feeling like failure was draped across my shoulders like an awful blood stained cloak.

A day of grinding and oftentimes bloody fighting passed on Geonosis. The infected clones had briefly received reinforcements from a nearby hive of Geonosians during the crisis in orbit, but the bugs swiftly retreated when I ordered squadrons of Y-Wings, Torrents and Z95s towards the battlefronts and to 'buzz' every major hive and rattle their ceilings with a bomb or two.

Seeing the pace of the battle from orbit was an exercise in frustration and distinctly odd.

The battle lines were drawn in a confusing mess between the various landed Acclamators and in some cases the fighting was happening inside the various ships.

Thankfully, none of the ships were in complete enemy control but it was still like watching a back and forth tug-of-war, where a deck was won here… then another lost on another ship.

It was a mess, but for the moment it seemed there was no need for reinforcements from any of the five remaining Venator's in orbit.

The enemy was losing ground and numbers steadily.

Every infected clone that was stunned and captured was swiftly dunked into a bacta tube that had been replaced with near freezing ice cold water. Once the parasite was removed the clone was taken to a recovery bed, where their body temperature was brought back up to safe ranges. A few hours of sleep, a good meal and that trooper would be ready to go back into the fight.

It was a fight that the clones took on with a grim dogged determination. They saw it as a rescue mission for their brothers.

The tide truly turned when I flew overhead in a gunship, sat in the belly of the craft in meditation position and started throwing out Force Sleep techniques that saw squads of infected promptly fall to the ground like puppets who's strings had been cut.

By day three, the second battle of Geonosis was over.

From hyperspace and into the system a large bulk freighter emerged. I stared at the massive craft feeling both satisfaction and a grim dread.

"Admiral, welcome back," I said before Yularen could politely cough to draw my attention.

"Good to be back, commander," he said primly.

"Things are generally well in hand," I reported, getting down to business.

"I never expected anything less," he gave a brief smile.

"Yes, only now we are tasked with a grim duty," I gestured to the freighter. "The Chancellor and the Jedi Council have ordered that a laser satellite grid and Golan platform be built around Geonosis. The 41st will be tasked with garrison duty initially."

Yularen made the deduction instantly and his eyes widened, "The Republic is turning Geonosis into an effective prison planet?"

"They have ruled that the danger presented by the parasites and from future queens rising among the Geonosians to create more brain worms is just too great. If they should get a foothold elsewhere or be able to spread to other worlds… no, best to just hem them in here once and for all."

Sentencing an entire world and species to isolation like this was one of the gravest punishments that was still on the books in Republic law. It hadn't been used once in the thousand years since the Ruusan Reformation, and even in the Old Republic it had been rare.

Of course, there was the other issue, the grinding wheels of destiny and Palpatine's plans.

Geonosis would now be the perfect place to begin the future Death Star's construction. Far in the outer rim, with a massive labor force of Geonosians just waiting to be enslaved and used. The ring of asteroids surrounding the planet was brim full of untapped resources that could be used to efficiently mine and fabricate from.

"Building this grid will not be easy, once construction begins it won't take long for the Geonosians to come to the correct conclusion on what we're doing."

"Which is why only half the task force will be leaving for other fronts, the rest are being assigned to the garrison and will be rotated out on a six month basis," I explained, then looked at my chrono. "I need to leave on a shuttle for the Negotiator in half an hour, so… you have the bridge, admiral."

He blinked in surprise, "The bridge is mine. May I ask, commander, why are you needed there?"

I wondered if I should be diplomatic and understated in my response, "I am to explain my actions to the Jedi Council."

Yularen picked up on my subtext immediately, "Commander, you did nothing wrong."

"From the point of view of the GAR, you are correct. However, the Jedi Order does not react well when someone of my station starts throwing around power like I did over the last four days."

"Obviously I'm not well versed in the internal affairs of the Order, very few are, but I just don't see what could possibly be the problem."

I racked my brains for an analogy that would work, but came up short. "It's hard to explain. The usage of the Force has potential consequences, which in some cases can be very negative and can impact the galaxy in ways that are difficult to predict or account for. An example of things going very wrong is demonstrated by the fact that we are here fighting this war. Dooku was a Jedi Master at one point, after all."

"But as far as I'm aware, did he not resign from the Order? It was only after he left that he began the Seperatist movement."

"Yes, but Dooku's case and the war is causing quite a bit of… doubt within the Order. Dooku was very well regarded, charismatic, powerful, a figurative jewel in the crown of the Jedi. Now if someone like that could fall so far, what does that mean for everyone else? Many masters are questioning themselves and their training methods. It means for me, unfortunately, that they are looking at anything beyond the norm as suspicious and needing investigation."

"And if they find something at fault in your actions, what could happen?" Yularen frowned with worry.

"The worst that can happen to any Jedi in my case, is expulsion from the Order." There was another punishment, but that wasn't spoken of to outsiders.

The admiral scoffed, "Utterly ridiculous."

"The chances of that happening is very slim," I agreed with a nod. The probability lines leading in that direction were miniscule. "What can happen is something like the Jedi version of a military reprimand - both General Skywalker and myself could be ordered away from the front lines and put in the gilded cage of the Coruscant Temple to reflect and correct our naughty ways."

"For how long?"

"As long as the Council decides it is necessary."

Yularen scowled, "That is equally unacceptable. The very thought of someone of your talents and General Skywalker, being wasted like that."

I nodded in agreement and stood from the command chair. "We'll have to see."

"Good luck, commander."

"Thank you, I'll need it."

It had been the briefing room for one of the Negotiator's bomber squadrons, but was now hastily repurposed. There were no real circular rooms on a Venator, so the long rectangular room was all that was available. It had the unfortunate effect of creating an adversarial air, with the council represented on one side and those being debriefed on the other.

Obi-Wan sat down in his chair and regarded his two fellow council members out of the corner of his eye. Luminara Unduli was her usual unflappable, perfect self and it took a Jedi Master's skill to determine that the Mirialan Jedi was irritated that she was being called on to sit at this meeting in the first place.

In contrast, was Ki Adi Mundi. The Cerean was just as perfectly serene to an outsider point of view, but Obi-Wan could sense a hint of impatience.

On the exact appointed time the doors opened.

Anakin and Ahsoka, master and apprentice, entered the room side by side and not in the traditional manner of master first. Already both of them were opening the meeting with a very clear message.

They made for quite the striking pair now.

Both bedecked in armor that he would only privately admit, was rather unsettling. As it gave them almost the look of old Mandalorians - the only difference being the integrated Jedi robes flaring behind them and the symbols that adorned the pauldrons. That the armor was not merely protective but also adding to their already prodigious abilities, such as flight, only added to the sense of strength that they carried with them. He could also tell that the armor even had powered limb movement assist systems.

They stopped at a respectful distance, Anakin clasping his hands together in front of his body, seemingly relaxed, whilst his padawan adopted a more militaristic at rest stance, with her hands behind her back.

Obi-Wan briefly took in his peer's reactions; Luminara looked rather fascinated, whilst Ki Adi had disapproval written all over his eyes.

"Knight Skywalker, Padawan Tano, thank you for coming," Obi-Wan began. "I hereby call this meeting of the Jedi Council to order. We must first recognize the unusual nature of this meeting, that it is being classified to a level not seen in centuries. Only those present in this room and the Grandmaster of Jedi Order will be privy to the records of this meeting. Understand that any transgression of this classification will result in expulsion and possible indefinite imprisonment. Is that understood?"

Obi-Wan turned his head to survey everyone in the room and received nods in return.

"Good. Padawan Tano, you've been called here to account of your usage of the Force in what is now formally called the Second Battle of Geonosis. As we were all generally present in the areas you affected, we can all attest to what we sensed you doing through the Force. With our own eyes and senses we can confirm and testify that you have no taint of the dark side on you. Yet, as has been demonstrated, the dark side can shield its users from easy detection - therefore we must resort to more conventional methods in our investigations. So please explain what you did."

"Very well masters," she readily agreed. "At its heart, it's a derivation of the Force Persuade or mind trick. Instead of targeting the active cognitive function of a being's mind in trying to get them to divulge information, this technique targets the autonomic functions of the brain and essentially convinces it to go through the natural process of sleep.

"Due to this any species that sleeps or has some form of hibernative function is susceptible and none of the usual limits or caveats of Force Persuasion applies. A strong mind, will or 'alien' thoughts are irrelevant to the Force Sleep's function.

"Next, I combined this with my perception abilities, one of which allows me to use any communicative medium - such as a holocall, to project my senses through it and perform certain abilities through that medium. This allowed me to not only sense how many infected troopers I was dealing with on a particular ship, but also to project the Force Sleep onto them. This has the effect of making distance mostly irrelevant."

"Fascinating," Obi-Wan murmured, stroking his beard in thought. "So, theoretically Padawan, if you were to open a com link and project a holo of yourself on Coruscant, you could knock out anyone you were speaking with there?"

"Correct, as I said, distance is irrelevant."

"In the battlefield reports," Unduli spoke up next, "the timelines indicate that you must have also done this to many dozens of troopers at once. Now I'm quite familiar with the strength needed to perform a Force Persuade and perhaps the Force Sleep is more efficient, but it seems to me that the amount of strength you had to expend is quite extensive to achieve this."

Obi-Wan nodded in agreement, even as the implication was there that one of the ways Ahsoka could've pulled on that much power was to draw from the dark side. He could tell that the young padawan also understood that.

"It was extensive and would have normally been beyond me, but I've recently had a bit of a growth and I drew on the Cosmic Force," the padawan explained.

Obi-Wan leaned back on his chair as the implications quickly became apparent. Unduli's eyes widened in surprise.

Mundi brought his hands together and visibly, openly frowned at Ahsoka. "Are you seriously claiming to be able to draw on the near infinite font of the Cosmic Force? A mere padawan?"

"Did any of the esteemed masters present sense that I was lying?" Ahsoka retorted wryly. "Or should I demean myself by lowering my Thought Shield to you?"

"That will not be necessary, padawan," Obi-Wan turned to give Mundi a brief glance, in which he communicated one word, 'Don't'. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to include Mundi in the proceeding, as the two did have an antagonistic history with each other, but necessity and circumstances had left no other choice. Master Yoda had ordered this ad-hoc field council, but for some reason didn't want it to be held on Coruscant or the Jedi Temple.

"Tapping directly into the Cosmic Force at your age, Padawan Ahsoka, is extremely dangerous," Unduli spoke, her concern coloring her tone. "Most masters don't try until they're well in the latter years of their life and some don't even bother."

"It was necessary, Master Unduli and I will do what I must."

Obi-Wan was almost mentally bowled over by the phrasing and nostalgia, as his memory pulled him into the past on that sunlit balcony with Master Qui-gon as he argued with his old master yet again.

"I was presented with a choice," Ahsoka continued. "Play it safe and assault the problem of the parasites conventionally, in the process costing the lives of yet more of our troops in boarding actions and potentially more ships destroyed. The brain worms were well in the process of conducting sabotage on the Resolute and were doing the same all over the fleet. Any conventional assault would have alerted them that they were exposed. Instead of just losing the Vindicator, we could have potentially lost three quarters of the fleet. Therefore, I chose the path with the most risk to myself yet would save the fleet and the most lives."

"A selfless decision that is to be commended," Unduli declared. "That you so successfully used the Cosmic Force is extraordinary. Death is the least of the fates that occur to those that overreach."

Obi-Wan looked to Mundi and gave him a silent message that it was his turn.

"Padawan Tano, during the battle you determined that the solution to remove the brain worms was extreme cold exposure. How did you come upon this novel idea?"

Ahsoka gave a brief look to Anakin before answering.

"A combination of precognition and logic. Geonosis is a hot and arid world, without even polar ice caps. Water can only be obtained from the air by vaporators. It is in this environment that the Geonosians evolved. Exposing them to the opposite extreme would result in them attempting to flee the cold, much like many migratory species on worlds across the galaxy. Once I was determined to test it, I pushed into precognition to see the results."

"A risky thing," Mundi declared. "Unless you were certain you had eliminated any bias from your vision."

"Master Mundi, it is effectively impossible to remove bias. No matter how objective and logical one strives to be. I merely determined that it was within acceptable bounds."

The master nodded, seemingly accepting the argument and sat back in his chair.

"A point I also wish to bring to this session is to seek an explanation on your decision to wear full armor," Unduli said. "This is addressed to both of you. Over 980 years ago, in order to convince the Republic that we would not become a conquering army, the Jedi Order abandoned the wearing of full battle armor, renounced military ranks and disbanded all our army, navy and starfighter forces. Now, while I recognize that we have resumed a military role in the GAR, it is important that we not raise the old specter of fear from the public that the Jedi will once again step in to rule over them."

"The armor is a simple necessity, Master Unduli," Anakin explained. A slight cheeky smile adorned his face next as he said, "We don't send our troops onto the battlefield in robes and not all of us can be as skilled as you, Master. You saw the utility of personal flight systems. It would've been awfully embarrassing for Alpha Company to literally fly away from me and my padawan."

"A point well made, Skywalker," she gave a brief smile. "I'll caution you both to keep in mind the homefront of this war. Given all the time you spend in the outer reaches of the galaxy, you are perhaps not as aware of the slowly developing public perception of this conflict - that it is taking too long and its popularity is going to plummet when taxes are inevitably going to increase over the next few years to continue to fund the war."

"We will limit wearing it to the battlefronts, Master."

"That is acceptable, Skywalker."

"Knight Skywalker," Obi-Wan began formally. "Can you confirm that the testimony of your padawan is the truth?"

"I confirm," Anakin said immediately.

"Very well," he looked at Unduli and Mundi in turn to get their opinions. "It is the judgment of this Council that Padawan Tano acted within the best spirit and traditions of the Jedi Order. We would also caution her in the development of her powers, that it must be undertaken with care and forethought and this one especially not used on a whim. All actions have consequences, Ahsoka."

She nodded in acceptance and bowed.

"You are both dismissed."

Master and padawan now bowed in unison and left the room.

Obi-Wan turned to the astromech in the corner, "End recording."

The droid warbled its agreement, then rolled forward and produced a data chit from a slot, which he swiftly pocketed. Obi-Wan reached out with the Force and the droid promptly shut down.

"Off the record, what do you think?"

"A fifteen year old padawan has no business with such power," Mundi declared firmly. "And if she has it, I'd bet that Skywalker has it too. If she can use this Force Sleep technique remotely, then she can just as well use other powers, such as Telekinesis. Imagine it, she tunes into a holo sensor mounted on that blasted droid of hers and she doesn't even need to be on the battlefield."

"My dear Ki Adi, why did you not object on the record then, if you feel so strongly?" Luminara pointed out.

"Because I am a realist and I sense the winds of our internal politics acutely, not to mention she has a strong favor with Yoda that is completely illogical. This is compounded by the fact that the Chosen One is her master."

"You have to admit, Ki Adi, she's one of the five rising stars of her generation. Many masters haven't brought forth as much new knowledge of the Force as she has and her career hasn't even begun properly. Yoda I think sees her as a puzzle to solve. He did have a rather more active hand in her formative education than we see in most initiates and adepts."

"It is why I was so hard on her during the Academy, so much potential. It is unfortunate that our personalities are so… volatile when brought together. Now this war is only serving to turn that talent to the business of slaughter."

Obi-Wan stood from his seat, "It is a tragedy, but our eyes must focus on the goal of peace. It might take longer than we wished to get there, but it will happen. Now if you'll excuse me, there is a prison to build."

"Would it really have been that bad, Snips?"

I sat in front of my desk in my quarters, my head resting on my folded arms on the desk itself. Anakin stood behind me and had a comforting hand on my shoulder, sending me support through our bond.

"It would've been worse, I was accurate in my prediction to the Council, just not complete," I spoke into my arms.

"What would've happened?"

"Conventionally grinding through the fleet in orbit with boarding actions, would've lost us four ships. Rex would've died on one of the ships when a self-destruct charge was set off by the surviving crew. The surviving two ships would've been Resolute and Negotiator, but both would've been so badly damaged by that point that we would've lost any capacity to launch fighters." I raised myself from the desk surface and leaned back, allowing Anakin to see my weary eyes. "Without any threat left from the air, the Geonosians would've drowned you down there in numbers. All Jedi, including you, were infected.

"From there the infected and Geonosians commandeer what remains of the Acclamators, they ascend to orbit and launch an assault on Resolute and Negotiator. Obi-Wan's flagship is destroyed in the process, and the Resolute is boarded and taken over as well. Both you and Ki Adi Mundi assault the bridge and I'm forced to duel you both. The brain worms can't really use the Force properly through us, but they use your combined skill with the lightsaber well enough and my reluctance to truly fight you, to defeat me.

"From there I'm also infected with a brain worm, and the Resolute and all the other ships are repaired enough that the Geonosians can use them to travel the galaxy. Their first stop is Tatooine, where they pull the same trick of infection and subversion. Jabba is infected and with all his knowledge, funds and an entire army of criminals, smugglers and bounty hunters they launch a campaign to conquer Hutt space with CIS support."

"That's ambitious, would they have been successful?"

"It takes a while but eventually, yes. It also doesn't help that the CIS somewhat retreats to consolidate their space, while this is happening, giving the Republic breathing room. Many in the Senate cheer seeing the Hutts at last get their just deserts and they let it happen."

"Fools, let me guess, the Hutt hyperspace routes?"

"Correct, the CIS now has the galaxy effectively cut in half and all the resources of Hutt space behind them as well."

"What about us? Did the Jedi Council just let us remain enslaved with brain worms in our heads?"

"As you can imagine, they would be very leery of word getting out of the apparent 'defection' of five Jedi to the CIS. Not to mention the whole notion of the brain worms. If that became public knowledge it would cause rampant paranoia across the galaxy. Nevertheless, they attempt to send Jedi into Hutt space to find and apprehend us. It naturally doesn't work, especially as by this point the brain worms in our heads have gained better proficiency using the Force through us."

"So they're defeated and are also infected, causing the Council to refuse to send more."

"Yes, I stopped looking at this future at this point. It was… just too depressing to go further," I wearily rubbed my face. "So now we're on this path and I have to live with the consequences. Foremost of which, I have definitely garnered the attention of the enemy. Not exclusively, I'm no threat to be eliminated immediately but he knows that he won't be able to just kill me off-hand. No, he'd need to put more effort into it and it has surprised him."

"That doesn't sound good," Anakin frowned with worry.

"Yes and with that surprise will come curiosity. He'll begin sending feelers my way. Testing, probing, seeing what will be able to manipulate me. He'll discover that you Skyguy will be a lever he can pull, which is convenient because he was setting up to do that anyway."

"What can we do?"

"We're already doing the first step, realizing what is coming. The first step in avoiding any trap."

"He can just set more."

"Yes, we must be able to at some point turn it around on him. When that will be, I can't foresee, too many variables and he needs to make up his own mind before the future will solidify enough."

"I don't think we're going to enjoy this, Snips."

I shot him an amused look, "Trying your own hand at some foresight, master?"

"Can't be upstaged by my own padawan, can I?"

I laughed despite myself. It was honestly a relief to be able to share some of this burden.

The die has been cast and it'll have to fall where it may.

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