If you want to read more 25+ chapters ahead from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://patreon.com/kelly_over
____________
The Katana fleet had been an attempt to create a fleet that needed the barest minimum in the way of living crew, automating powerful, state of the art dreadnoughts to the point where they had cut the crew to a bare fifth of their original complement. They had even been slaved together, one ship to another, hence the tragedy: when the crew of the flagship had been infected by a virus which drove them mad, they all jumped randomly into hyperspace. No one had ever been able to find them again.
Of course it wasn't only that example that made Master Fay leery of robots. She didn't like the fact that the Trade Federation used robots to get out around the proscription against standing armies. She also didn't trust computer programming. It was one area where the Force could be little to no help, and computer espionage in particular had proven to be a weakness in the Jedi Order before, one they did not have a real defense against even now. On top of this, she didn't like the idea of even the Jedi having access to what would amount to an army in a can, as Lily put it.
"But then we wouldn't be able to use it for humanitarian reasons either, Master," Harry said thoughtfully. "But from what you're saying, regardless of the mission type we'd still have to keep the expansion charms themselves a secret?"
Fay leaned back, sighing faintly, and Harry looked at her in concern. Fay opened her eyes and looked at the two Potters, shaking her head. "The expansion charms are one of the most important things we have to keep secret," the elven Jedi said bluntly. "Every time I ask the Force to give me a vision of a future where we have allowed that knowledge to spread, the darkness suddenly closes in all the faster! I wish I could tell you why, but I don't know why."
"Oh, that's easy at least!" Lily said, scoffing. "If someone is behind the Veil of the Dark Side, he or she obviously has his fingers in a lot of pies. And possibly even a few eyes inside the Jedi Order itself."
"I wish I could gainsay that statement, but I can't," Master Fay shot back tartly, giving her head a convulsive shake. She sighed again, closing her eyes and raising her hand to rub at them for a moment, looking up as she felt Lily's ethereal touch on her shoulder, smiling wanly at her friend.
As a padawan, Harry was actually not allowed to know about the fears of the High Council on that score, however Fay had told him as much as she herself knew, which was precious little. She had even asked the Force for any hint as to his/her/their identity or whereabouts. Or even his/their overall goal. But what Harry didn't know was that the Force had been utterly silent on that matter, the Veil obscuring her eyesight so completely it was as if she had gone blind. That had been a severe shock to the ancient master, and Lily had been forced to talk her out of continuing to try to get answers from it.
"It is as if the Force does not care!" Fay had said at the time, almost in histrionics, utterly shocked at being so rejected for the first time since she was a youngling. "It feels almost like the Force itself is turning on me!"
"The Force, as I understand it, can't turn on an individual," Lily said, reaching out to actually push her fingers through her friend's face, something she very rarely did, but which served to jolt Fay a little, her eyes tracking again. "The Force is all about this 'balance' concept and the big things, keeping the stars all moving in their courses and such?"
"That is an egregiously simplified concept of what the Unifying Force is, but all right, I can understand what you're saying," Fay replied, sensate once more, at least.
"Then in that case the Force itself might be silent, or its voice might be unheard through the Veil that you've mentioned so often," Lily said briskly. "That doesn't mean that the Light Side of the Force has betrayed you. It might be weak now under the Veil, but it's still there and still obviously cares for individuals when the Force as a whole can't. The feeling between Harry and Aayla, the fact they can bring you into their bond, tells you that much. And what about your own future, Fay? Can you still see that?"
"In a way," Fay said, smiling now. "I know what I am doing at the moment is what I should be."
She breathed in, then reached out, initiating her own light kiss on the other woman's ethereal cheek, centering herself once more in the Force as she did so. "You're right Lily. That is enough."
Harry's voice brought both women back to the here and now, smiling faintly. "All right, how about this as a compromise. We start working on the ship in segments when it arrives, just me and Aayla. We can replace our starfighter training with working on the Lucrehulk. I agree that using the Lucrehulk ship as a humanitarian vessel is a massive boon, and it can be the public reason for why the Order is keeping hold of it; no one's going to question us about that.
"And isn't that ship going to be immediately turned around once it's full of parts for Naboo? We can load it with all those parts, drop some off, and then simply keep some of the extras hidden in one of the cargo bays. We can start with a single shield generator and a single cargo bay, then expand outwards from there. It'll be slow going, and we'll always have to be on the lookout for making certain that our work isn't noticed from the outside, come up with reasons why we're funneling material through one cargo bay into another or some such. But it should be doable.
"As for the need to further mechanize the ship, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I am not exactly in favor of the idea either. Although I do like the idea of having an entire fleet packed into the ship."
_____________
If you want to read more 25+ chapters ahead from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://patreon.com/kelly_over