Sensitive Information

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Whatever Corvus was, Gen was fairly certain that was not a person she could ever be--passive; benevolent. No, Gen had always been a fighter, and a prideful one at that. Yet she recognized who must have taken the right--or better--path between the two of them. Thankfully, Raaf was at least on her side. "You're a better woman than I. So don't pity my punishment. I've earned it." An uncomfortable smirk arose against her right cheek, her attempt at self-effacing humor feeling all too true in actuality.

"The greater good, though--I try to help that. I swear I do, Corvus. You probably don't care much about what I do, but you've got to know. At least one person has to, dammit." The politician covered her mouth just then, wondering if cursing was something Jedi were okay with. "Apologies for that."

While Geneviève may be having breakthroughs here, it was still risky to keep in this position--not to mention a little suspicious-looking should one of Raaf's associates chance to pass by. So she slipped her blindfold back on in spite of its dampness and sniffed back the remainder of her emotions whilst removing her weight off the Grandmaster's shoulder. "Let's try this again. And spare me not. I'm not going to let a little happiness kill me."

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus listened. No two lessons were ever the same – but some were more different than others. She had tears before and coped reasonably well. It was the ones that wanted to hug you she found most disconcerting.

And she appreciated the honesty. Her experience of politicians was not positive – so she was taken aback by what was unfolding in front of her. But then she’d faced rancors, Krayt dragons and Sith Lords aplenty. A Prime Minister was just an addition to the collection of formidable foes.

Except they weren’t on the opposite side of anything right now. She was about to teach the most important woman in the Republic how to defend herself against the Sith. And her learner was throwing humility into the mix.

“I have but one approach,” Corvus said when the PM had composed herself. “The right way, or no way at all. So, let’s continue.”

"OK, close your eyes and meditate once more. Once you're connected to the Force, use it to seek out a strong emotion. I'll push the same one out and as soon as you find it, I want you to follow it back its source - my mind."

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

"Okay." Closing her eyes as she was instructed--though it seemed redundant to her--Geneviève returned to the focus of this meeting, sinking into that mental serenity. Or was it an abyss? Whatever it was, it was devoid of much of anything, save a flitting thought here and there. Such was practically inevitable.

As Corvus pressed forth that emotion again, Gen's brow furrowed in concentration--but also a hint of reticence. It was by no means an easier task for her to accept this emotion than it had been the first time, but there would be no more tears from her. Thankfully it had only been Raaf--her friend--who had been witness, but that hardly meant she would care to show that sort of weakness again. The Jedi was her master for the moment, and she felt the need to impress in some way. She would soldier on.

"Alright." Deep breath. Then she resumed correspondence telepathically. Where do I go from here? She was honestly afraid to visit the Grandmaster's mind. Last time she had traveled deep into someone's mind, she had doomed them to death.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus took the cue and once more thought a happy thought. It was the time her sister was accepted into the Jedi Order as a redeemed Sith. Quite a poignant memory, given who agreed to the process.

"Now when you latch on to the emotion, follow it back to my mind. Some envisage it being like the ether, following a signal. Others imagine it's like swimming upstream. It's whatever works for you. When you reach my mind, I'll feel it and we can take it from there. Go slowly and I'll make sure my defences are lowered. Typically sentients will have a natural resistance to any invasion unless you are gentle or skilled enough."

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Gentle. Gen was not known for that, and sometimes she wondered herself if she could possible embody tenderness of any kind. Then again, who was the one who had been crying? It was not the Jedi before her.

But gentle she was in reaching out for the proffered memory--though the way she clutched it when it was within her mental grasp was hardly so. It was like a dream she could collect. It had the feeling of something tangible, if only for a split second. She was permitted to see within a ceremony that almost no one outside the Order's highest Council had ever witnessed. She allowed herself to be immersed; engaged in the memory for the sake of the knowledge, despite the fact that her body still tremored slightly under the envelope of happiness.

I hope you won't be disappointed. I have nothing this beautiful to show you in turn, she warned as she pulled in closer to Raaf's mind. In fact, Lasedri was frightened of what her teacher might find when everything collided between them as she suspected it would. And, naturally, the more she thought about hiding her darkest secrets, the more she thought directly about those things. Like Xiangu.

Xiangu had taught--or forced upon her--the lesson of closing off her mind. It was instinctual now. But could she hold that up now against Corvus? Corvus was her friend. Her one friend.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus responded mentally. 'Good, I sensed your presence, but then I was expecting it. And you were gentle, which is all I can ask. A Sith looking to take information or to force you to do something would likely leave behind someone damaged in one way or another.'

'OK, we now have a connection - which is good. I am going to now connect to your mind. I'm not going to seek any specific piece of information. If I were, I'd probably give a prompt to encourage you to bring it to the surface subconsciously. Like if I suggested you forget to set a door-code alarm today, it would be the memory you'd automatically access. Much easier for me to find than searching through your whole mind.'

'Now defending yourself is about building a barrier. Again, this is personal. You can have a durasteel wall, or a liquid bubble, or some sort of anti-virus software. It is whatever mental imagery works for you. Once you're ready and have set it up, I can test your defences. This will not protect you against a full-on interrogation but it will definitely stop any casual attacks.'

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

I'm sorry for hiding it from you. Or at least trying to do so.

Suggestion. Now that was a novel idea. Gen had long been infatuated with the concepts and process of psychological gaming, yet somehow she had neglected to validate such theories in the Force as well. She had always tried to do this forcefully and through scrupulous digging. But all she might have had to do; all that would have been most effectual for the job was a simple suggestion.

An imaginary durasteel wall sounded good. Or even a succession of turadium blast doors. She could 'open' some and 'shut' others in that case, perhaps leading her teacher astray by directing along false paths. Though it was likely that Raaf could deal with this sort of ruse being the Jedi Master that she was, Gen surmised that it might be worth a shot. It was something that might be unexpected, at least.

"Ready." She 'opened' the 'doors' to politics, and 'closed' them to her Rebel life. Let's see how this goes...

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus crossed the small mental gap between them. Given they were already connected, it was a simple task. In facing an untrained mind, accessing memories, thoughts and emotions was simple. Straightforward even.

But when facing someone strong willed – especially a Force-user – it was more of a challenge. As she approached the PM’s mind, she felt like she was on some great starship. There were huge blast-doors and endless corridors and a path was clearly marked out for her as she mentally travelled the imaginary vessel.

Pretty soon Corvus realised she was being led down a particular path. And she figured she had two options now. The first was to access an allowable memory and then leap to an associated one. But instead, she did what came naturally to a Jedi.

Her imaginary self activated her saber and started to cut a Corvus sized hole in the first blast door that was closed to her. How would the PM react? That was the key here.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

She felt Corvus trying to breach one of the doors and realized she might have to be a little more active than previously thought. With Xiangu, she had been able to avert too much prying by depleting her mind of thought. But one could only hold that mental silence for so long, and the Sith had eventually issued the use of violence to rip into her brain. The Jedi, though--she must know another way. A better way. Gen would need to be proactive.

But first she needed to be reactive. And that meant disrupting Corvus' little project of slicing up one of the 'blast doors'. Should she be gentle, though? So far, they had taken great care to not be rough about this whole connection process, but now Geneviève supposed her master was weaponized--in a sense. A little grappling would not be too bad, right? They were sparring now rather than embracing each other.

Focusing on the apparition of the saber-wielding Grandmaster, Gen launched in her direction, elbows bent and aimed forward with the intent of knocking the other woman away.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

The beauty of the Force was that everyone approached it a different way - in a manner that worked for them. This way of dealing with the situation was a new one for Corvus but that did not make it any less valid.

So she went with the flow - if nothing else the actions would buy her pupil precious time. This was a tactic to avoid casual attacks after all and so the one thing the perpetrator could not afford was to delay in their approach.

And given it was a virtual Corvus that was walking the corridors, the virtual Jedi Master employed Teräs Käsi - and swiftly side-stepped the woman. But regardless, the PM had been successful in stopping her in her efforts to open the door. The virtual Corvus bowed an acknowledgement and cocked her head to one side.

'So if we engage in a fight here, and I win, what happens to your mind?' It was clearly a question that Corvus had no answer to, and one she was evidently less than sure she wanted to find out what the outcome would be.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

She missed, the Jedi expertly dodging her rush but also abandoning her attempted breaching of the mental door. A little pride was lost on the part of Geneviève, but she was already feeling used to that in the vicinity of Corvus. 'Nice.'

Maybe she had achieved a small victory. But the question Raaf posed was a troubling one, and Gen was fairly certain she had a general understanding of the correct answer. 'If you win, I will be doomed to playing a reactive game as opposed to proactive. And-- Well...' She paused, recollecting that memory she was eternally chained to.

It was Matsu. Not me, she insisted privately, though it was hard to say what the truth was. The fact that she still was conflicted about what had happened bothered her; forced her to consider that she might just be a liar to her own self.

Gen's apparition approached the Jedi's, hands buried in her pockets. 'Corvus, may a confide something in you?' Had she not already burdened her friend with enough of her tale? Sure, Corvus still knew little about her prior life despite her little confession time, but she nonetheless was now aware of more than Gen had ever shared with anyone previously. But this felt important to her. 'Maybe I can teach you something. One thing. I must come clean and I fear you must be warned on top of that.'

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

The virtual Corvus nodded sagely. In truth she was unsure how damaging losing your life in your mind's manufactured environment could be. It may even induce a coma that offered no way out? And Corvus was in no mood to find out. And at best you'd allow the other person free access to your memories, and that wasn't exactly a good outcome?

'I am here to listen as much as I am to teach. It is something I am reasonably good at, so feel free to ask, tell , teach or whatever you need to share. I am a Jedi, I do not judge, always remember that.'

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Geneviève folded her arms and leaned against the door, its metallic surface a little warm due to the cutting from Corvus' lightsaber. 'I once learned tactics similar to this under the teaching of... one who is now a very prominent Sith Lord.' Her breath became shallow in that instant. She knew that the Jedi was aware of the dark character in her past. But to fully admit to tutelage under a Sith? That sounded nearly heretical. 'I was tricked into it, but I did learn how to infiltrate a mind--a man's mind. I fully regret it now.

'If you are curious as to how it ends when your guard is broken down--well, it's not pretty.' She had killed him. Or was it Matsu? Gen would protest the latter, but even she was not one hundred percent sure on that. 'The strong-willed ones--like myself and perhaps you--will achieve success for a time. Even one who has no access to the Force can shut a Sith out for a considerable duration. But when they finally do break... they shatter. They die, Corvus. They just slump over and die.

'I was later attacked by this Sith. They tried to break into my mind. I was strong, but they were capable of things that could distract even the most focused individuals. There is a point when the only way to defend, that I know of, is to not think. Don't think at all. It's the last resort, but it's the only one if they get that deep.' Maybe it was best to let yourself die at that point, from a strategic view. Perhaps in capture; in the hands of the Sith, there was nothing else to do but submit to death and take your secrets with you. But Gen did not want a comrade to die. She had always considered her men when directing the Rebellion. So she would personally value Corvus even more.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus let the reference to previous teachings slide. What was in the past was typically behind them. What was in the future was what mattered to the Grand Master.

But she nodded as the PM retold her experience. 'History tells us sadly how easily broken the mind is when a Sith wants to do so. Death is often the outcome.' Corvus was a study of Bane especially and his apprentice, Zannah was legendary on her ability to both extract information but also to break a mind and to kill using the Force.

'There are other techniques, more advanced Abilities I have learned that you could learn — but not given your current role. You’d have to dedicate your life to becoming a Jedi. Then you can learn to shrink your mind to a microscopic size. That way any Sith could not find your memories. It would be like looking for a single speck of dust in this ship you’ve created.' Corvus waved her virtual hand by way of explanation.

'Of course, if captured, given they may have an infinite amount of time to look? They would no doubt break you down. And as I’m one of only two people that knows the location of all of our Holocrons, we have protocols in case I am captured. The same for the files that are for the Grand Master only.'

“What we learn is a defence from a typical attack. The best advice I can ever give is to say it’s best not to get captured.'

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

If only she had known that beforehand...

Actually, it would have been nice to know that Xiangu was Sith before even allowing herself to be on the same planet as her. Dammit, Mrrew.

'I don't think I'd fit in the Jedi Club,' Gen stated. Corvus may be able to forgive her transgressions, but she doubted she could ever forgive herself. Besides, who would want the warhawk from Chandrila in some peaceful society like the Order? Lasedri knew she had a time limit as it were in the Republic's leadership position. If they ever pushed back the Sith far enough, Geneviève would suddenly hold an alien platform to the people--war hardly ever sustainable with the public. 'You need role models, and that is something I am not. I don't think I can ever be one.

'So I guess the game is to not get captured. As if it weren't before.' She hinted a smile.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]