RPlog:Jedi Under Glass

Flashing a security badge to the guards, Rall slips into the detention block without much of a hassle. The guards remind the pilot about bringing weapons and once again the Commander reminds the troopers, that he doesn't carry them and they should get used to seeing him around. Pulling up a chair, Rall sits down right in front of the cell containing the Jedi VIP, and watches. His relaxed posture seemingly out of place in the detention block, with the up tight guards and the dower looking attendants.

After the fiasco yesterday, the cell block where Ai'kani is being held. To Korolov's orders, the temperature in the Jedi's cell has been lowered to thirty-five degrees and her food rations reduced to eight ounces of water for the next three days. Ai'kani has yet to fully notice. The cold, for now, it helping her as she lay across the floor; as if she had passed out. Arms extended outward and her body slightly curled in, the woman appears to be completely unconscious. Though what is going on inside her head may be another story.

Noticing the puffs of breath breaking into thin strands of steam as the leave the young Jedi's nose, Rall sighs. In the heat of a battle the TIE pilot turns off all sense of morality, only seeing two side of a story, the side he is working for and the side he is working against. But in here on the ground, in the confines of the real world torture doesn't always sit well. It doesn't weaken the stomach, nor would the imperial veteran even consider an altering such a course. Looking towards alternative methods, and trying not to focus on the one being uses, Rall hazards to speak. His voice soft and raspy in tone, but clear in the quite of the cell block, "Good morning." he states first to see if he can gain the Jedi's attention. "It seems you had yourself quite the night"

Eyes open slowly to the voice with little effort. Perhaps she wasn't unconscious or just teetering between the two worlds, but her awareness looks towards the doors. The daylight level of the lights are glaringly bright against all the white of the cell and Ai'kani succumbs to closing her eyes again. "Is it truly morning," comes a soft reply, "or are you referring to the first part of yet another long day?" Her body doesn't move in fear of breaking the concentration she has. If she can remain still, Ai'kani cannot feel the full affects of the cold; numbing herself to the enduring chill. Why it is so cold is beyond her. She cannot remember anyone other than Danik in her cell along with a smaller man trying to tackle her from the drug-induced rage that over-came her.

Leaning back in the chair, lets his answers form freely. There was no sense in lying to the young woman, not the he was sure he could. The exploits of the jedi were well known to many. The TIE pilots had all read and learned about the infamous Luke Skywalker, but other than that they are more like mythical creatures, their powers unknown and sometimes exaggerated. The slim figure's shoulders rise into a half shrug, "For you I am afraid, it's both" Rall was attempting to build a feeling of connection, but that was going to be a long process. Doubting very much the woman lying prone on the floor would really fear him outside of the cockpit of a fighter, the Commander none the less states the obvious, and “I'm not going to hurt you, or have anyone come in here to do it for me. I'm here to talk. I am Lt. Commander Rall" Again, the pilot falls quite, and watches the movements of jedi.

"You came in with Sandor," Ai'kani notes simply. "I remember you. It is the great uneasiness I recall. Do you fear doctors?" The movements of the white-haired woman is next to nill save for the up and down of her chest. Though the room is cold, Ai'kani is focusing herself on what she can. Until Rall's arrival, it had been a slow breathing pattern and counted jars of beans in her head; much like she used to do for her former Master on Caspar. But now she has Rall; a new focus. "I do not believe you or your friend Sandor mean to hurt me, but the orders you follow have not the same regard."

The only reaction to Ai'kani's first question are in his eyes widening slightly and then returning to normal very quickly. Again Rall sees no reason to lie, but keeps the answer simple. "Doctors have a way of finding flaws you'd rather not know about. If I have some sort of incurable illness, I'd rather go on living my life with out knowing." Well, it was a stretch but, having a Doctor find out that Rall has been masking his true identity as a she isn't an option, or something the Jedi needs to know. Leaning forward, resting his arms on his knees Rall turns the focus back on Ai'kani "My orders are as simple as they are vague. Get to know your enemy. What about your intent? I doubt you want to see harm fall to me currently, but that isn't always the case is it?"

"The question was less than literal" Rall replies, "I was speaking more in the general sense. I know you assisted a former friend of mine, Baeden Mirhoz, escape justice for a short time. And now you find yourself here. So, I find myself asking what would drive a clearly intelligent to do such misguided deeds? Deeds that find you an unwilling guest of the Empire?" It truth Rall's orders are so vague regarding the prisoner that the questions he has sever more of a personal interest that any military objective.

"How can you talk of misguided deeds when you lie to your own organization?" Indeed, she could sense the toil within the sentient on the other side of the wall. "How can you judge what is right and wrong when you do not practice it? I did not save Mirhoz. He saved me. When Danik wrongfully accused me of attacking and chased me from Corellia." A pause. "Unlike many, Mirhoz does well to stay true to himself."

A quick rage passes through Rall, and he leans back in his chair and clinch his jaw. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, clam washes back over the pilot. Control, he thinks to himself. If you don't fly the TIE, the TIE flies you. Folding his arms across his chest, Rall answers. "The good of the many outweigh the good of the few. Or isn't that what you jedi wish to install?" Rall has only read a little on the jedi faith before agreeing to interview this woman, but that memory did strike a cord. "Baeden did what he felt was right, for him....and in the process he abandoned everyone else that had loyally followed him. And remember, I'm on the outside of the cell. I did not attack Advisor Kreldin, you did these deeds"

"You seek to repress your true feelings? And the Force you so strongly believe in is your path to this?" Running his right hand over his hair, and pausing to think what direction this should take a gap of silence passes between the pair. "I doubt very much I would overcome you with a debate about the righteousness of the path I chose. Simply put, I walk a path of easy choices. I support and am loyal to the ideas of peace and I am will to fight as hard as I can to secure that peace. I would give my life for it" Tilting his head to a side, "What about you young jedi? Where are you hoping your path leads you, if not in an Imperial Cell?"

"I am not trying to repress my regret. I ask the Force within me how I can redeem my actions. Even if against my will and control, my actions are those of the Dark Side. It must be redeemed. My regret alone proves my unwillingness to have made such actions. As for my hopes; I have none. Only to live my life well and help preserve life within itself. For the most part, I do not see a man for his beliefs. If there is an enemy wounded in the gutter, I will help him."

"Would you?" Rall asks "But if then why call such a person an enemy? If I held a blaster to one of your loved one's head you regret the act of striking me down? And how would you redeem such an action? I have flown in so many combat mission I have lost count of the lives I have ended. Would it help me to mourn the loose of the live of people that's sole intent was to kill me or my friends?" Shaking his head, "I stated when I came in I would not hurt you, for you can cause no harm to me right now. But, free if you were a threat to the very peace with protects my friends and family, that would be a different story. I don't want my foes to morn me. Form your moral high ground do you?""

"You have no choice who mourns you. Every person's will is a free one regardless of what the Empire may try to instill in you. It is your free will to lie to them and yet follow them loyally. You forget that even the smallest of untruths is an untruth. A disloyalty that stains what you preach is an effort of truth and peace. The True Order, I've heard it called." Slowly in and out, Ai'kani remains on the floor still unmoving; eyes closed and all her focus on the being on the other side of the door. "Indeed, an enemy are those that wish to hurt me and those I care for. It is merely a title that does not change that the person is still a living creature. Yes. I mourn those that I must do battle with. Should someone die, I feel loss. I do not disconnect myself from the truth; that a death in war is still a death. It does not matter if justified or not, death should be regarded heavily and never taken lightly. There is joy, also, that a person may become one with the Force but death in of itself is the burden and reason for living."

A guard comes over and taps Commander Rall on the shoulder, then leaning forward as Rall turns back to him, the guard whispers something. Nodding, Rall starts to sad up, "A scorpion reaches a rivers edge and can find no way across. The scorpion finds a river otter swimming and playing in the water. The scorpion asks the otter to take him across, but the otter says no. You will sting me and I will die. The scorpion makes a promise that it will not. Reluctantly, the otter agrees." Standing up fully, and putting the chair back causes a pause in the story.

Rall returns and faces the prone figure of the jedi, "Just over the deepest part of the river, the scorpion lashes out, stinging the otter. As the Otter starts to weaken it asks. "Why did you do that? Now we will both die!" to which the scorpion replies, "I can't help it. It is my nature." Breathing in deeply Rall finishes the story, "So when you're ready to tell me Ai'kani. How hard do you fight your nature? Maybe you need to reflect on that. We will speak again"

"How can you judge one's nature when you barely recognize your own? Or do you believe it is nature for life to take life and feel nothing? Perhaps you are confusing nature with lifestyle. You have no idea of my past and the true frights I have fought. To speak as if it is I that needs to reflect is laughable and sad. For it is not I who must fight what I was born with. It is not I in constant turmoil of my lies. Even now, you speak highly, but I sense it in you. You are afraid of the day they discover you. Ones who hide nothing have no reason to fear. When you figure out what it is you believe I am hiding, I will still be here unless the great Force has taken me with it in that time. Until then, step cautiously. Some of your comrades are more aware than you may perceive."

Offering a small shrug, "Every choice I have made has been for the good of the Empire and to secure the peace it brings. I'm willing to be judged by that." Turning towards the door, Rall's soft and raspy voice stays clam, "I never judge another Ai'kani. But I do sleep soundly, my demons at rest. How about you?" and with that the pilot fires his last salvo of the encounter, the first in many should Rall get his way. The first meeting of two forces is always a feeling out period. The second encounter a but more information will come forth. "Know your enemy" Rall mutters as she passes the guard. Rall knows the enemy within, now is time to know the outside ones.