Chapter Twenty Nine

Four days after Harry and Aayla woke up the training ship had been repaired enough to get underway. Its thin anti-asteroid shield, which protected its surface from small particles in space, dust and other things, was online and its hyperdrives powered up. The Jedi still had to trust their own abilities to calculate the hyperspace jumps, but Micah was up to that task.

There was a cheer as they entered hyperspace from the younglings, and another cheer when they came back out, at their destination. Yoda sent a transmission ahead of them, and the ship was quickly allotted into a slip in one of the busy systems series of orbital stations.

The rest of that day, Yoda, Tholme, Zertesh and the two knights from Yoda's original ship were busy talking to the locals about the work the Explorer needed done, following a few inspectors around as they looked over the damage. It wasn't as if the Jedi were untrusting, but someone had to have inputted the virus into the Explorer. The only way someone could have done that would've been to get physical access to the ship, which meant one of the supply drops or quick inspections.

Lily also followed a few of them around, unseen by any non-Force user, the ultimate spy, which made Tholme wish rather wistfully that he could convince her to leave Harry here and join his hunt for the Bando Gora. However he was enough of a pragmatist to know an impossible battle when he saw one, and that was the very definition of an impossible battle.

She reported them not doing anything suspicious, but warned that she wasn't the most knowledgeable about computers, so might not have spotted anything. Laitha, who had taken over the computers, reported nothing untoward, and work quickly began on the ship's repairs. While this was going on, Yoda, Saa, Micah and Lily took over training the children leaving the Knights and Master Zeltesh to watch over the repairs and upgrades.

It would take over four months for the ship to be fully upgraded. They would have to rip out many of the old shielding systems and replace them with larger versions, which of course meant they would need to enlarge the areas of the ship around the generators.

The ship would also be given to quad laser turrets, but that was all the Explorer could be given due to Republic regulations on ships its size. They would have to go to the Senate itself to get an exception for more dangerous weaponry, even on a Jedi ship. This left the ship rather vulnerable in terms of firepower given its size but its defenses, its shields, could be as strong as they wished.

Harry was able to rejoin that first day of full class lessons, and Lily spent some of her attention watching him closely, making certain he was fully recovered. When she determined he was, Lily called him into the meditation room after the exercises had finished for the day. "Harry, do you remember me saying that we were going to start training on more offenses spells?"

"Yes," Harry replied grimly. "I don't like killing, I don't like that feeling, but I think I let myself and my friends down because I couldn't really do a lot. I mean even with what I already knew. What if I had tried to use that Incendio spell, even that would've been more of a help than the stupid stupefy!" He and Aayla had talked about the fight while in his mind, and had helped each other get over it while also coming up with ways to use Harry's power better the next time.

"Unless you could direct the fire it wouldn't have been much help considering you'd have to be careful not to hit Quinlan with it." Lily shook her head and went on firmly. "It's a good thought Harry, but you weren't the one who failed there, I was. I should've been pushing for you to add more attack type spells to your repertoire, tried to expand your ideas into combat the moment we realized that these Jedi were more combat-oriented than most wizards back home have to be."

"I should've realized that," Harry said just as firmly glaring up at his mother almost challengingly. "I was the one that was so interested in their light-swords right?"

The two emerald eyed individuals locked eyes with one another, before laughing in unison, shaking their heads. "All right Harry, how about we just agree to each take an equal share of the guilt and move on?"

Harry nodded, and Lily began. "Okay, so for tonight, we'll run through the shield spells I know of including the Protego, which you've already been working with. I'll describe their abilities, then you'll see if you can re-create them. We'll concentrate on this for a week or so, until you can cast the spell without any lag time and hold it for at least five minutes. Then we'll move on to a few offenses spells. I hope to use at least a week on each concept in turn, so that you learn not only how to use the spells, but possibly modify them. I'm going to tell you their effects and I'm going to leave the rest to you understand?"

"You don't want me to get caught up into the same sort of mental mindset as the wizards, just doing one thing the same way over and over," Harry guessed.

"That's it exactly. Now show me your first shield spell," Lily commanded, crossing her arms and sitting in midair as she watched her son begin.

Those lessons would be the most mentally and physically taxing Harry had run into yet, but they would also be the most rewarding outside of Master Yoda's classes on meditation and balance. He soaked up the spell concepts like a sponge, coming up with his own variants quickly, sometimes far better than the original.

For instance, Harry was able to mix the abilities of two different shielding spells, the Protego, and the Armoria. Armoria was a full body spell that covered one's body, and was great against physical attacks, such as from non-magical weapons or conjured up creatures. But it couldn't stop energy-based spells.

The Protego spell was simply a shield of magic that deflected other magic. But its strength varied wildly and it didn't do very well against physical spells. It could be beaten by anything moving too quickly, and could be overcome by a powerful enough spell.

Harry took both of those spells and merged them into one shield that he could actually manipulate! It was the most amazing thing to watch Harry actually move the shield around into different formations, able to cover both himself and Aayla at the same time. Aayla and Alecto joined this class along with Wulo, Zule and two of the other, slightly older students, who Yoda had selected to join them.

Eventually all the students were able to learn Harry's version, which made Lily absolutely giddy with delight, and the other Jedi ecstatic. Only Harry however could do so without gestures or words at first, though Aayla was able to do so for very short amounts of time by the time that first month ended.

During that time the teachers noticed that there was a distinct cross-leveling flow going on between Aayla and Harry. Aayla's ability to learn 'spells' grew by leaps and bounds, while Harry's ability to use Jedi techniques did the same. He began to be able to use some Force Precognition: reaching out to it to feel other people's intent and sense answers to questions behind closed doors. Both children swore up and down to Lily, Master Fay and Yoda separately and together that they weren't sharing thoughts about those things all the time, just some of the time. It just was happening that was all. While interesting, that told no one anything new about the bond.

Of course, the two of them did spend an inordinate amount of time talking mind to mind, something all of the adults noticed and couldn't come up with an argument to stop. Harry understood eventually he'd have thoughts he wouldn't want to share, but that was in the future. Aayla didn't even understand that, and many times after lights out the two of them spent time in one another's minds going over the day's training and helping one another along. Since this made them both perform better in class, and both went out of their way to help the other younglings, the adults decided to let it go for now so long as they didn't become dependent on one another too much.

At one point as part of an experiment and with the children's permission master Fay took Aayla down to the planet ostensibly on a shopping trip. Harry was still able to pinpoint her exact place, though only through triangulation of course at this distance. Using the computer they generated the lines from where Harry pointed from where they started, to the second point, which was on the actual space station rather than inside the ship, about two kilometers away from his starting point.

Aayla in turn could do the same to Harry, and could feel his emotions wherever he was. In return Harry could not sense Aayla's specific emotions unless they were physically close by one another. This had more to do with the fact Aayla was a natural empath than any limitation of their bond however, a skill that didn't seem to cross over. He however could hear some of her thoughts even when she had been on the planet.

Micah trained all of the students in the first few exercises of lightsaber combat, as well as physical training overall. He was a Sentinel, and knew that far too many Jedi relied solely on their Force given abilities and their lightsabers to get by. Now that he had a chance to actually teach, he wanted to make certain that was not the case with these children.

In the second month of training, he made several discoveries that paid off his efforts rather handsomely. The days training was meant to build up their reflexes and, though they didn't realize it, their Force Precognition. The training room for this was a specially designed room with padded surfaces all around, with several dozen tiny soft balls littering the floor. Each ball had a small repulsor and a tiny computer imbedded under its surface.

After letting the children bounce around the room for a time, Micah calmly gestured with one hand, and the small balls, both those on the floor and in the youngling's hands, floated into the air. "The objective is simple children. While each of you take a turn, these balls will move through the room randomly under my direction. Your objective is to dodge them. Every time you let ten balls hit you in you will have to restart the exercise."

"Do they hurt master?" Wulo asked, placing his hooves down on the spongy floor delicately.

Since he could not roll or leap as easily as the others this really wasn't a fair test for the Chironian, but he still looked game, something that Micah approved of. "These balls do not young one, we might be stern at times but we are not needlessly cruel. In a year however you will graduate from such soft targets to harder ones, then two stinging bolts and from there to ascending levels of both difficulty and danger." Other differences would of course also be added on, noise and other distractions as well as different types of balls or objectives, but that wasn't material at present.

All of the students nodded, since that made perfect sense to them. "Are we allowed to use our own powers Master?" asked another student.

"Reaching out to the Force to predict the balls trajectory is of course allowed, that is indeed one of the objectives of this exercise. But if you mean can you push or otherwise block them, no, then no, you may not."

Micah chuckled, shaking his head as all the students let out 'awws' of disappointment at that, before going on. "You can also catch the balls. After its small sensors feels an impact the ball will fall to the ground, out of the action. I have seen a lot of different strategies in my time, so I would suggest you all pick your own strategy quickly. Now, do I have a volunteer to go first?"

Zule stepped forward, cracking her neck and doing a series of warm up exercises. "Better to get this over with quickly. The rest of you watch and see what happens," She ordered the rest of her friends.

"A wise tactic, volunteering to be a scout." Micah said agreeably, though he also knew the Falleen girl had certain issues with making headstrong decisions. Still, she was one of the most physically inclined of the clan, so this worked out well enough. With another gesture of his hand, the room began to hum, and the balls began to move around randomly.

Standing in the center of the room, Zule began to twist and dodge this way and that, leaping up and around, showing the immense body control that their training had already begun to give the initiates. They looked slow and uncoordinated to any Jedi, but to other children their age it would have looked like they were all training to be professional athletes or something similar.

Despite that, and despite Micah feeling the girl reach out into the Force around her in order to predict the balls' flight, she was struck several times quickly. But then to Micah's amusement she began to catch the balls out of the air as they came towards her, tossing them towards other attacking balls with little flicks of her hand.

"Excellent, well thought out, a good offense and defense at the same time. But how long can you keep it up I wonder?" Micah mused even as his eyes sharpened, watching the girl closely. Ahh, now isn't that interesting, she is able to use both hands equally…

Zule lasted another three minutes using that strategy before she was hit for a tenth time, a ball smacking down from directly above her to bounce off her blue hair. She paused, then pouting moved to the rest of the class by the doorway. "Do not worry young one," Micah said kindly, patting her head gently. "You did very well for your first attempt. Few initiates at your level last for more than five minutes."

Indeed, Zule did far better then most of the rest of the class. Wulo, as Micah had predicted, wasn't very good at this exercise, though he was quite quick on his four feet he just didn't have the lateral speed or flexibility to dodge in an enclosed space like this. Alecto seemed to cave slightly under this exercise. his mind unable to process so many moving objects at once and move his body at the same time. On the other hand a young human boy and girl pair did very well, outperforming their slightly older fellows for a time as they seemed to be able to read the ball's movement better.

Halfway through the class, Harry took his turn. Standing in the center he breathed in once, then nodded to Giiett, who started the exercise. The balls moved toward Harry from all directions and his hand quickly flashed out, grabbing a ball and dropping it to his feet before ducking under a second, leaping over a third and rolling along to dodge several more. He kept moving for a time until he was in one of the corners of the room, having been tagged only four times.

Micah had to nod his head at the boy's strategy. Harry was the first to see even in a room like this you could still use the terrain to his advantage. And even if he isn't as good at the others about relying on the Force to predict his enemies' movements, his reflexes are incredible, as is his hand eye coordination. He will be a deadly lightsaber duelist in time.

A case in point Harry's hands flashed out, one at a time admittedly, catching and dropping balls as they came at him. And now that his back and flanks were somewhat secure, he was able to keep it up for several more minutes. But even if he was fast for his age, there were a few too many balls for him, and they also tried to strike his arms when he stretched out. Every time he overbalanced slightly in order to catch a ball, a ball slipped in, and eventually Harry was struck the tenth time.

"Well done," Micah said, nodding his head to the tousle-haired youth. "You tried to compensate for a weakness in your style and used the lay of the land to your advantage. We still have work to do of course, but very well done." Harry had lasted for nearly seven minutes, by far the longest time for this clan.

Aayla eagerly stood forward. Her light brown eyes locked with Harry's emerald ones for a moment, and Micah knew they were communicating mind to mind even if he couldn't feel it in the Force, his senses not up to that task. Then the Rutian girl grinned, slapping her hand against Harry's and stepping into the center of the room as the rest of the clan cheered.

Laughing lightly at their enthusiasm Micah set the balls moving once more, and immediately it was obvious that Aayla wasn't going to follow Harry's plan of forting up in a corner. Instead she simply moved.

Like Zule, Aayla had amazing body control, but her agility and flexibility was even better, having begun training as a 'dancer' before Harry had liberated her. She danced in place, dodging this way and that twisting and ducking before leaping into the air, bouncing off the wall at one point. Then as the hits still piled up, she too reached out with both hands, catching and tossing balls towards other attacking balls as Zule did. Her aim wasn't as good, but Aayla was able to actually catch more balls in the first place than the Falleen initiate.

It was an impressive display, for more than one reason. Another ambidextrous student, excellent!

None of the students succeeded in lasting the full ten minutes of course, though several had come close after emulating Harry's strategy. But after the class was over, Micah called both Aayla and Zule over to her. "Tell me young ones, can you write with both hands as well?"

"Yes master," Zule said, since Aayla was still a little out of breath from her last attempt at the exercise. "I sometimes switch hands in class, and I know that Aayla has occasionally."

"Tell me young ones, have you heard about the various lightsaber styles?" Micah gestured down to his belt, where two lightsabers hung. One was a regular sized blade, the other a shoto or short lightsaber, like Master Yoda's lightsaber in length though the hilt was the same size as the other blade. "I think you both have the potential to become Jar'kai users in the future."

Both young girls looked at one another, and Micah went on. "If you like, I can give you some more exercises to perform to help take your ambidexterity to it's maximum potential in preparation for that. I will warn you though, this will be on top of your other lessons. Indeed, I think you should take a few days to think about it, after all, a lightsaber style is a very personal, serious thing for any Jedi aspirant."

After a few days both girls had decided to take Micah up on his offer. By which time he had discovered that Alecto was a natural with any type of gun, and also seemed to have set his mind on the order he would like to join, that of Sentinel. Micha did his best to watch over all three of them on their personal training while also overseeing the clan's physical training as a whole.

During that time, Lily and Yoda also got to know one another, and found in one another an odd friendship. Yoda was that most precious of birds in educational circles, a teacher with vast amounts of experience and a true gift for teaching who had not lost his joy of it. More than once Lily watched Yoda pick out the student who was having the most trouble, or needed a bit of boost to his self-esteem and help him along gently, oftentimes allowing himself to look like a creature of play for the kids, squeaking in overdone shock as he fell backwards during a game of push-me, pull-you, or smiling and chortling along with the children as he subtly helped the youngster use his Force power to send a ball careening faster than the others.

Yoda in turn found Lily an excellent conversationalist, when she wasn't on the other side of a debate anyway. She was intelligent, if far less educated about the galaxy at large and the Republican particular than most her age should be, which of course was understandable. She was outgoing, personable, willing to listen and understand another person's perspective, as well as being an excellent natural teacher. Lily guided the children rather than giving them answers, which was often times the hardest lesson a teacher could learn, especially when it came to the Force. It was all too easy for people to give out answers, to almost force knowledge down the initiate's throats rather than simply guide them to it.

Between the two of them, Saa and Micah, they had the clan caught up to where they should have been had the clan been on Coruscant in all aspects, though this was but the start of their education as Jedi. It would only get tougher from here on, far tougher.

Yoda also sat in on the lessons Lily was giving the advanced students in pure magic. The other students to his great relief and happiness didn't seem to take it badly that they were excluded from those lessons, understanding that that was an age thing and a power requirement that they couldn't match just yet.

He was never able to do much with magic, though his ability to use the Force to move objects grew by leaps and bounds, and he was occasionally able to send out Stupefy spells, conjure up fire and water and even the shield spell. The Light construct, which Harry sometimes experimented with, conjuration, and transfiguration eluded him entirely. Saa could conjure up water, but not fire, and her shields didn't last as long as Yoda's, but she had been able to create her own version of Force Light, an ancient Jedi technique inimical to anything of the Dark Side, from watching Harry test out his Light construct. Micah was somewhere in the middle in terms of his shield, but couldn't conjure up either element for some reason, though his ability to move objects via the Force also grew tremendously.

On the other hand there was Fay who befriended Lily to a degree that surprised both women to a certain degree. Fay was mentally flexible enough to start using much of the offensive magic that Lily was slowly imparting to Harry, the effects of which were beyond astonishing to Yoda. The Bombarda, Rifela, and Harry's abilities to use them and to expand upon the spell's beginning were incredible.

Learning like this and teaching a single clan like this was very different work from his normal routine as Grand Master. That combined with the discussions with Lily made for a very pleasant time for the ancient being. All in all, Yoda was very pleased with his time on the ship, but as all good things must come to an end.

Eventually the ship was repaired, the new Knights assigned to it arrived and Yoda was formally asked to return to Coruscant. He had honestly been gone too long as it was, the Senate had apparently been making noise about wondering why he was spending so much time away from Coruscant where they could not avail themselves of his advice and soothing presence, and had passed on a formal, if polite, demand for his return.

Walking down the hallway with Micah toward the loading ramp where the new knights would be, Yoda grumped quietly. "Hrhrhrm, soothing presence? Noticed such a thing before I have not! Disturbing it is the Senate so irritated by my not being there."

"I don't think they like having any Jedi of your caliber or mine out of sight," Micah said ruefully. He had been asked to return too, though not as strenuously as Yoda. Nor was he looking forward to the confrontation with Master Mace and the rest of the high Council. All of them had to know by now that there was something more going on out here than just the two of them standing in for the dead Masters of the training vessel and wanting to continue its work.

He knew Yoda had implanted some ideas before this, but it was quickly going to be time to show them what they had learned. Thankfully Micah had finally gotten over his own mental hang ups to using the new Force powers, and his shields in particular would be enough to convince the High Council that the training here needed to continue. Harry's presence however would still be kept as secret as possible. Lily alone would be enough to show where all these news skills came from.

Yoda stopped, looking up at the taller Master for a moment. "Think you it is that simple?"

"What else could it be Master?" Micah said with a shrug. "The Senate is the power in the Republic, as corrupt, byzantine and factionalized as it is. Whereas the Jedi Order moves in lockstep, and has for a thousand years. The Senate knows that we are a source of stability, not only to them, but to the Republic as a whole. Naturally they want as many of us where they can see us as possible."

As the other Master said the words lockstep, Yoda was faced with a short Force vision but a very powerful one. It was of a debate somewhere, a debate between hundreds perhaps thousands of Jedi who were wondering whether or not they had should follow the High Councils commands. What specific orders they were talking about Yoda didn't see, only that the vote was going against doing so. But whether or not this was a danger, or a positive the Force was silent on. Filing it away, Yoda began to walk once more toward the loading bay.

The two of them were silent for a few moments, then Micah asked, "How goes the hunt for the Bando Gora?"

"Found several plants, Master Tholme has, hypnotized via drugs to obey orders from the death cultists the individuals were. Two training centers as well. Master Dooku, led assault against both. Information did they gain on several others. A guerrilla war it might become, but all the Masters and knights involved, able to hide their presence in the Force they are."

"It will be a wrench to leave this group," Micah said thoughtfully, changing the subject as they entered the loading bay. "They've all grown leaps and bounds, but what will we do with Harry and Aayla? I think it's obvious that with their bond they will never fit in with the rest of the Order as it is right now. I would love to have Aayla and Zule on Coruscant to train in Jarkai."

"Aayla, join with Quinlan she will when he has become a knight. The bond between them, obvious it was. See no reason to gain say that I do. Remain on Coruscant she will for the minimal time we can get away with. Thankfully, only a few years from being ready for his trials is Vos."

"What about her connection to Harry? And what will we do about him? The Force is telling me he should not be exposed to the rest of the Order just yet."

Yoda sighed faintly. "Master Fay, take Harry as padawan she will, agreed to this long before now she has, a growing connection between her, Harry and Lily there is. The Force, warning me not to allow Harry to spend any time on Coruscant, a danger it is, though uncertain is the type of danger."

"Agreed," Micah said with a nod. "I have meditated hard on this issue myself, and the Force is clear on the matter."

The two of them fell silent then, Yoda leaning on his gimer stick watching as three knights walked up the ramp while Micah simply stood, waiting. In the lead was Knight Toramund, a young Coruscant born human male who often smiled, and was known to have a sense of humor that ran heavily to jokes at the expense of politicians.

Behind him came Knight Shaak Ti, the only other one of the three Yoda had personally met since they had taken their Trials. The Togrutan knight was an excellent choice for this, a calm, open presence, who was able to adjust to surprises and with a highly analytical mind. The last one, a young Muun named Cale, a staunch Consular and a decent engineer. Yoda was uncertain of Cale's inclusion in this group, Muun tended to have trouble when shown new Force powers they could not mathematically explain but as he had told Master Windu, Yoda would trust his judgement.

The three knights bowed as one to Yoda, who harrumphed at them. "Master Yoda, the council has assigned us to take up positions here on the Explorer as teachers. I must say it wasn't my first choice of tasks, but then I began to hear some rumors about this clan being used as a test bed for some rediscovered Force techniques you found." Knight Toramund said, his voice respectful, but his eyes lit up with inquisitiveness.

"Hrhrhrm, truth there is to some of that. Come, introduce you to your charges I will." Yoda said making a note that rumors passed through the Order far more quickly these days than they had been when he was younger. He remained silent as did the five knights following him until they arrived at the main classroom. Opening the door he gestured the youngsters inside, only to watch with a small smile as they stopped in shock, bunching up in the doorway.

The five young Knights all stared at the initiates in front of them changing the colors of objects and conjuring up shields in astonishment as well as the red-haired Force Ghost in the scandalous clothing which seemed to be presiding over it all. Then Knight Shaak Ti stepped forward with a faint smile into the center of the group, reaching down to touch heads and shoulders. "I see we are all going to be students of one sort or another."

"Excellent attitude," Lily murmured smiling down at the only slightly older, at least in physical age, Togrutan woman. "Keep that attitude and we'll all get along well."

Chuckling, Yoda gestured the others forward. "Needless to say, rumors about ancient powers discovered, only the half of the truth they are. Come, fill you in I will on what I may."