Plaything
of the Gods:
Under Suspicion
"Tell me again why I'm in here?"
"Because you have too many friends who are pilots. Those friends think you need to get over this."
"I have no trouble with simulators, though."
"This is just to teach you the controls. Once you've mastered that we'll put you in the real thing."
Aria froze for a moment before throwing the simulator door open. Her eyes locked on the tech at the master controls. "They want to put me in a fighter?"
Halo looked up from her screen and grinned. "Uh-huh."
"I'm out of here." She slid out of the simulator and started toward the door. Halo ran from behind the control mod and stood in her way.
"No you don't. The people who put me up this way outrank me."
"Yes, but I'm your roomie and you have to live me with. I think that gives me more pull."
"More pull than the head pilots of Rouge Squadron? Not quite."
"Traitor."
"No, just someone likes her job. Now get back in."
Aria glared at the woman who had been sharing quarters with her for the past six months, but did as she was told. The truth was that Halo outranked her, but only by one step up. The fighter tech had been part of the Valiant until that ship made a narrow victory against two Imperial Star Destroyers. The battle had left the ship unsafe for the full crew, so three other ships had split up the crew members to be temporarily absorbed into their own while the Valiant was repaired. It was going to be a while, but still less time than constructing an entire new ship.
Until then the perky blond was the person sleeping in the bunk across the slightly larger quarters Aria now lived in aboard ship. It wasn't that bad of a deal. Since the crypts were kept working impossible hours in what appeared to be a vain attempt at keeping at least two steps ahead of the Empire the pair of them rarely saw one another. This forty-eight consecutive hours of downtime was a luxury for Aria. She'd been able to sleep for fourteen hours straight and had hoped to spend some quite time re-reading one of the Bab-5 paperbacks she had dug out of her luggage. Halo, however, had drug her here.
The simulators weren't bad. It was a lot like playing a really expensive arcade game, only you didn't have to give up half your life savings in quarters to get it started. She wasn't too bad at this one, either, but she seriously doubted that the Rebellion really wanted to put her inside the cockpit of a rather expensive piece of machinery like a real X-Wing. Halo had to be screwing with her, surely.
She was just about to take out her third Tie when the simulator shut down. "Huh? Hey, Blondie! What gives?" Light flooded into the darkened simulator as someone opened the door. She flinched, shielding her eyes until they adjusted, and then looked up to find herself looking into Chief's age worn face. "I didn't get my down time messed up, did I?"
"Something's come up. You'll need to come with me."
"Sure thing." She unstrapped herself from the simulator and stepped out. Halo was standing behind the console still, worry etched into her features, and Aria immediately saw why. The Chief had come with two members of Security in tow. "Is there something wrong, Sir?"
"It's not just you, Private. The whole team's being brought in for questioning."
Ari exchanged a look with Halo before nodding and leaving with Major Gil, the guards about ten feet behind them. As they walked through the corridor she dared to ask, "What's this about, Sir?"
"The upper brass are concerned about how fast the Imps are breaking our new codes. They suspect that one of us is giving them the keys."
"And as the new guy I'm the prime suspect."
"No, actually you're not. You were thoroughly interrogated under the influence of drugs when you first came to us and there is substantial evidence in the form of your personal belongings to back up your story. Although it's not impossible that the Empire dreamt it all up, it is highly unlikely."
"That's good to know." They took a lift to three decks below. A couple of twists and turns later they were in a large room with the rest of the cryptology team, all of them in various states of stress and sleep deprivation. Once they arrived, the rest of the team got to their feet, all of them looking toward Chief for some words of encouragement.
"Now everyone try to relax. I know this feels like and insult to all of us, but if we take the time to think through this rationally we should all be able to see Their side of things."
"And after they grill us all and realize this is a waste of time? What then?" This came from a Twi'lek who had only been with them for less than a year, less time than Ari.
"Then we'll be cleared and they'll re-examine their choices."
Grumbles were bountiful, but there was little any of them could do about their present situation. Instead they waited patiently until someone with enough rank to clue them in made an appearance. Perhaps intending to soften the blow a bit, the higher up had sent in Leia. To her credit, she didn't look very happy about what was going on either.
"I am sure that by now Major Gil has advised you all on what is to happen here today." Silence greeted her. Ari tried to offer a reassuring smile as Leia steeled herself, but even she was feeling more than a little insulted by the whole affair. "Under the current circumstances Command feels that all precautions have to be made to ensure that security hasn't been compromised."
Ari's tongue was about to get away from her, but she was stopped by one of her teammates pinching her arm. She managed not to yelp, but glared at the smiling corporal as she rubbed her underarm.
"You will each be questioned in turn while under the influence of a truth serum. Under most circumstances this would be sufficient, but in order to ensure that no one has been tampered with by the Emperor or Lord Vader we will also need to have your thoughts scanned during the debriefing."
This gave everyone a pause. Ari frowned, more than a bit confused, and looked over at Corporal Nass who was the one who dared to broach the subject. "Ma'am, what exactly is that going to entail?"
"Yeah, what he said."
Leia took a deep breath. "Commander Skywalker has been asked to assist with the process." There was an immediate increasing in the grumblings.
"Assist? As in he's going to be poking around inside our skulls?" That made everyone silent. Leia shot Ari a rather severe scowl. "Sorry."
"Are there any other questions?" No one looked very happy about it, but there was little that could be done. "We'll send in a guard to summon each of you in turn."
Chief stood up. "Your Highness, I'll go first." The rest of the team immediately stood up, each voicing protest. Leia shook her head.
"Major Hatur, Command doesn't suspect you in this."
"Your Highness, if you suspect my team, then you suspect me. I will go first."
Leia paused, then nodded in agreement. Without another word, she turned and entered into the room where, presumably, the brass who were behind the entire thing were waiting. As for the crypts, they were all staring at their Chief in silent respect and gratitude. None of them quite knew what to say.
~***~
Aria, whether because she was one of the newest or because she was the last resort, was the last one to be called in. So far every member of the team who had been questioned had refused to leave the antechamber when they were done. Slightly dazed from the serum, they each had taken a seat and remained there for moral support of their fellows. When the guard came for her, Chief gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
The other room seemed somewhat severe. It was gray on gray like most of the ship, but somehow the chorus of stern faces made it seem all the more unwelcoming. Even Leia seemed more serious that usual. There was a medic present to administer the serum, and next to him stood Luke, trying his best not to appear like a fresh faced farm kid. His stoic expression, however, did falter when his eyes met her own.
"Hey."
"Hey." Luke watched as she was settled into the chair in the center of the room, the medic indicating that she should roll up her sleeve.
"Commander Skywalker, are you certain you will be able to continue with this... particular interrogation?"
Luke and Ari both looked over to the speaker, a gray-faced general who looked as though his face would crack in two if he smiled. Luke nodded. "Yes, Sir."
"Uhm, no offense, Luke, but are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"What?" He blinked, as though surprised she was asking such a question.
"It's just that you told me yourself that you're stumbling around in the dark as far as this entire Jedi thing goes. How do I know you won't accidentally scramble something in my head and leave me to stare a wall with a line of drool coming out of my mouth for the rest of my life?"
The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Watch it with all the confidence. You'll inflate my head so much I won't be able to get my helmet on anymore."
"I'm serious."
"I'm not going to hurt you."
"Promise?"
"Promise. I'm just going to make sure that you're really who you think you are and that you're not just some sort of sleeper agent with a false identity planted over the top."
"Oh, I can answer that. I'm not. Can I go now? OUCH!" Ari glared down at the needle now in her arm. "Where the hell did you learn how to do that, Buddy? A POW camp?"
No one asked her to elaborate, but it wouldn't have mattered much if they had. The serum began to take effect almost instantly, causing a general feeling of drowsiness. As though from a distance she heard the Medic's voice advising her to relax and count backwards from twenty. She didn't remember much after seventeen.
~***~
"Nothing. Not a thing from any of them! It has to be one of them. No one else would have the access needed." General Stoge slammed his fist onto the table.
"Not necessarily, General." Mon Mothma studied the young woman still dozing in the center chair. "Cryptology was the most likely place to look, but there are many people within the Alliance with the knowledge, skills and opportunity to obtain the codes and pass them on to the Empire."
"So we interrogate the entire fleet? That will take years." Stoge glared at Private St. Claire. "Commander Skywalker, what of you? Can you see anything inside her mind?"
Luke frowned, but said nothing. He had been an unwilling party to this entire affair. The rest of the team had all scanned clean, but he truly didn't want to poke around inside Ari's head. Part of it was because it felt like an invasion. Part of it was because he was half-afraid that he might run across something about himself he didn't particularly like. The rest of it was because he couldn't help but think of the deity she followed that had an unnerving habit of popping in to chat with her from time to time. What if that Force presence took offense to his being there?
"Commander Skywalker?"
"Sorry, Sir. I'll commence."
He tried to be careful, not wanting to injure her. Aria had been right to be concerned. Dipping into someone's thoughts was a risky business, especially when you weren't entirely sure of how it was to be done.
Under the truth serum her thoughts were likely to jump from one topic to another. One second she was replaying her turn in the simulator inside her mind, the next she was thinking in some weird, disjointed language as though typing it into a computer screen. Occasionally he caught glimpses that were dreams focusing on her family, so far away from where she was now. There was a feeling of homesickness and more than a little uncertainty about finding herself in the middle of this war.
What was missing, however, was any sign that someone had used the Dark Side of the Force to alter her memories in any way. She was just as clean as the rest of them.
"There's nothing there. She's not the one." Of course she wasn't, but they had to check. Luke was starting to pull out of her mind, ignoring the grumblings of General Stoge, when he felt something he hadn't felt in a while. In what had been just Aria was now joined by the Force presence he had been half fearing would make an appearance. It stopped him from retreating for just a bare second, just long enough to 'send' a thread of reassurance before it gently, but firmly, pushed him out.
"Luke?" Leia rose from her seat as he stumbled back a few steps. "Are you all right."
"Yeah, I'm fine." He could feel the presence all about them, like a weight that was imperceptible and yet just shy of being smothering at the same time. "I'm fine."
"What happened?"
Luke turned his head to look over his shoulder at the Princess. "It's Him again."
The general leaned forward. "The Emperor? Lord Vader?"
Leia shook her head. "Neither of them." She gave a cautious glance at Aria and realized that the woman's eyes were now wide open, although she didn't appear to be seeing anything. "Is she all right?"
"She'll be fine. He's never harmed her. Although, He's never done this before. In fact, I haven't felt Him around for months. He doesn't do this very often."
"What are you two talking about?"
"General, we have reason to believe that an unknown Force presence keeps in irregular contact with Private St. Claire. Commander Skywalker has felt it when it was approaching her."
"A Force presence, and it's not the Emperor or Vader? What about you, Commander? Is it you?"
"No, General, it's not me. Whatever it is, it's very old and very powerful."
"It is a danger, Commander?" Mon Mothma's voice was soothing and kind when compared to the General's.
"Not to us. I've never sensed any sort of threat from it. Whatever it is, it's..." Luke paused and turned his head back toward Aria. "It's gone."
Aria took a quick breath and sat up straight, no sign of any side effects from the truth serum present in her eyes. She waved away the medic when he tried to approach her, her expression one of contemplation. "That made absolutely no sense whatsoever."
Luke walked over to her and squatted down beside the chair. "What was it? What did He tell you?"
Ari rubbed her eyes. "I don't know. He did the riddle thing again."
"Mon Mothma, this woman is clearly a danger to the Alliance, even if she isn't the leak! Unknown entities running around in her head whenever they please? How long before one of them tells her to hurt us?"
"Two movies, a great war and my job? What is that all supposed to mean? Can't He just give me a straight answer for once?"
"General, Aria St. Claire is not a threat. If this Force presence intended any harm toward the Alliance it could have done so when she first arrived. And from what Luke has said, he doesn't think that whatever it is needs Aria to accomplish anything."
"Princess, the General has a right to be concerned. The encryption codes meant to keep the Alliance safe are falling into the hands of our enemies with alarming speed. We are all concerned."
"What was the conversation about?"
"Oh, He made some crack about being sure I didn't get addicted to the truth serum and then started going on about how the solution was in the movies."
"Mon Mothma, Aria has given us no reason to doubt or mistrust her. She scanned and questioned as innocent. They all did. It's time we put an end to this persecution of the entire team and considered other possiblities. The longer we keep down this path the more time the spy has to cover his tracks."
"Any idea what He meant by that?"
Aria started to shake her head, then paused. "My job... as in my crypt job. A great war and two movies." She frowned as she rolled the clues over inside her mind, the conversation between Mon Mothma, Leia and the general fading into the background. "A great war, two movies and codes..."
No one could have blamed the arguing trio for stopping to look at Ari as though she had gone mad. Her laughter was quite unsettling. "Oh, that's good... that's real good. It would take a while, but it just might work."
"What might work?" Luke tried to get her to focus, to let him know what she was talking about.
"But only if we have the books. Only if they made it in the bug out."
"Aria? You're starting to sound like a mad woman."
She finally focused, looking at Luke. "It just might work. Come on!" She stood up and grabbed Luke's arm, pulling him toward the door. Leia called out to her, but when they didn't stop she opted to follow them.
"Private?" Gil stood up, along with the rest of the team, as Ari and Luke came back through the door.
"Chief! You need to come, too. The rest of you... just stay here." She let go of Luke and headed toward the door. Luke and Gil gave each other an puzzled look as Leia came up to them, but then all three followed in her wake.
The hodge podge collection of luggage and boxes that made up Aria's personal belongings was kept in a storage bay along with her converted speeder. Luke, Leia and Gil watched in silence as she tore through one after the other, tossing various items aside as she searched for something. Luke was the only one who dared to try and speak to her. "Uhm... Ari? What are you doing?"
"Look for some books."
"Okay. Can you tell us why?"
"To help out with our current problem. It took a moment to figure out what the heck He was talking about, but I think I got it."
"Got what?"
She pushed aside another box that failed to yield results and moved onto the next. "He said that I knew the answer, I just had to think of the right things: A great war and two movies that dealt with the kind of stuff I'm already doing. If you ignore the One Hundred Year War, that leaves the World Wars, one and two. It didn't make any sense, so I thought about movies."
"Okay... and that resulted in...?"
"There are only two movies I could think of that had anything to do with encryption. One was called something like 'U-571' or 'U-751', I can't recall the actual name. Anyway, I think they really butchered it, because if I'm not mistaken the original sub crew was British, but they made them American in the movie. Anyway, the plot was that they, the sub crew, were trying to hijack a German submarine in order to steal an Enigma device. It was an encoding machine that the Nazi's were using. You couldn't break the code without the device."
Gil's interest was peaked now. "You have a book that tells you how to make one of these devices?"
"Nope, 'fraid not." Her voice was muffled with her head buried in a box as it was. "That brings me to the other move, also set during World War II. It was all about the Navajo Code." She finally straightned up with three thick books in her hands. "It was a code used by the Allied forces, still technically unbroken. The Americans used a code within a code, encrypting the message to be sent, then sending that message in the Navajo language. Since the only continent where the Navajo language was spoken was in North America, it wasn't something the Germans would know. And since it was already encrypted if they did manage to capture an American soldier who just happened to be Navajo, all they got out of it was something like 'table rock throw bird', complete gibberish."
Leia frowned. "What are you thinking, then?"
"I'm thinking that I'm the only person in this entire galaxy with these." She held up the books for them to see. "One is a copy of Webster's English collegiate dictionary, and the other two are a Chinese to English dictionary and an English to Chinese dictionary. One of the pitfalls of a modern college educations; everyone has to take at least two semesters of a foreign language. I chose Chinese because the written laguage is more like art than a language, but it was a 7:30 class, which is far too early to ask any person in their late teens to get up and think. It was the only class I failed, mainly because I skipped most of it."
Luke looked confused. "How's this going to help us?"
Gil, however, was getting the idea. "Because a computer is only as smart as you make it. The Empire knows every written language in the galaxy and has it programmed into their computers."
"But since written English and Chinese aren't from this galaxy, they won't have anyway to read these? Even if they intercept a message, their computers won't be able to make sense of them. It will just come out as random symbols, if they come out at all." Aria walked over to the major and offered the books for his examination. "Of course, we shouldn't just use it in the main computers. All it would take is one good slicer to steal the language program and our code is worthless."
Gil nodded. "And that's where this Enigma Device idea comes in. A separate encoding device, independent of the computers." He smiled like a cat offered a very rich bowl of cream. "It's almost foolproof."
"Almost?" Leia quirked a brow. "But if the Empire doesn't have the base language..."
"Then I'd be the weak link. English is my first language, my native language. Even if we destroy the dictionaries after we've written the language program, if I were to be captured I might be forced to translate the words themselves." Aria looked toward the major. "We should do the double encryption thing, like with the Navajo code. That way if I'm forced to translate the English words, I still won't have the full key."
Gil was flipping through one of the Chinese dictionaries. "This is going to take a lot of work. We'll need to write a lot of code."
"I can do that part, or at least oversee it. We'll need to recruit help from some other teams so I can have the manpower needed to cut down the time, but I think I should be kept out of everything else. As long as all I do is write the code to teach your hardware to understand written English, then the code will be more secure. We can get that part up and running first, which should buy us time while another team uses the English to Chinese book to start writing the next part of the code. Have other teams do the Basic encryption."
Gil grinned down at Aria, something just a tad bit devious alight in his eyes. "You've got two days to polish that idea up enough to present it to the brass. It's a good enough idea that it won't take much to convince them." He handed the books back to Aria. "Keep those safe. All our lives may depend on them." He ruffled her hair much like he would a small child's and turned around to leave. "And clean up this mess before you go."
Aria rolled her eyes before turning around to face Luke and Leia. Leia looked impressed. "Good job, Ari. I'll make sure you have a time scheduled to be seen before Command. But you might want to make sure your uniform is a little better pressed." She gave her a brief hug before walking out into the hall. That left only Luke, who took a deep breath.
"That's a very useful friend you've got, there."
"Father of All, Creator of All... yeah, He's pretty useful. A bit annoying at times with all the cryptic stuff, but useful."
"Cryptic or not, He just nudged you the right direction to save all our skins. Still feeling nervous and overwhelmed by being singled out?"
Aria nodded. "Constantly, but He hasn't asked me to part the Red Sea or call down fire and brimstone, so I think I'll manage."
Luke grinned. "I'm not going to ask what those relate to. I'm just glad that an answer's been found."
"Me, too." Ari looked down at the three books in her hands and smiled slightly. It was going to be a challenge, but it really could save all their skins.
Under Suspicion
"Tell me again why I'm in here?"
"Because you have too many friends who are pilots. Those friends think you need to get over this."
"I have no trouble with simulators, though."
"This is just to teach you the controls. Once you've mastered that we'll put you in the real thing."
Aria froze for a moment before throwing the simulator door open. Her eyes locked on the tech at the master controls. "They want to put me in a fighter?"
Halo looked up from her screen and grinned. "Uh-huh."
"I'm out of here." She slid out of the simulator and started toward the door. Halo ran from behind the control mod and stood in her way.
"No you don't. The people who put me up this way outrank me."
"Yes, but I'm your roomie and you have to live me with. I think that gives me more pull."
"More pull than the head pilots of Rouge Squadron? Not quite."
"Traitor."
"No, just someone likes her job. Now get back in."
Aria glared at the woman who had been sharing quarters with her for the past six months, but did as she was told. The truth was that Halo outranked her, but only by one step up. The fighter tech had been part of the Valiant until that ship made a narrow victory against two Imperial Star Destroyers. The battle had left the ship unsafe for the full crew, so three other ships had split up the crew members to be temporarily absorbed into their own while the Valiant was repaired. It was going to be a while, but still less time than constructing an entire new ship.
Until then the perky blond was the person sleeping in the bunk across the slightly larger quarters Aria now lived in aboard ship. It wasn't that bad of a deal. Since the crypts were kept working impossible hours in what appeared to be a vain attempt at keeping at least two steps ahead of the Empire the pair of them rarely saw one another. This forty-eight consecutive hours of downtime was a luxury for Aria. She'd been able to sleep for fourteen hours straight and had hoped to spend some quite time re-reading one of the Bab-5 paperbacks she had dug out of her luggage. Halo, however, had drug her here.
The simulators weren't bad. It was a lot like playing a really expensive arcade game, only you didn't have to give up half your life savings in quarters to get it started. She wasn't too bad at this one, either, but she seriously doubted that the Rebellion really wanted to put her inside the cockpit of a rather expensive piece of machinery like a real X-Wing. Halo had to be screwing with her, surely.
She was just about to take out her third Tie when the simulator shut down. "Huh? Hey, Blondie! What gives?" Light flooded into the darkened simulator as someone opened the door. She flinched, shielding her eyes until they adjusted, and then looked up to find herself looking into Chief's age worn face. "I didn't get my down time messed up, did I?"
"Something's come up. You'll need to come with me."
"Sure thing." She unstrapped herself from the simulator and stepped out. Halo was standing behind the console still, worry etched into her features, and Aria immediately saw why. The Chief had come with two members of Security in tow. "Is there something wrong, Sir?"
"It's not just you, Private. The whole team's being brought in for questioning."
Ari exchanged a look with Halo before nodding and leaving with Major Gil, the guards about ten feet behind them. As they walked through the corridor she dared to ask, "What's this about, Sir?"
"The upper brass are concerned about how fast the Imps are breaking our new codes. They suspect that one of us is giving them the keys."
"And as the new guy I'm the prime suspect."
"No, actually you're not. You were thoroughly interrogated under the influence of drugs when you first came to us and there is substantial evidence in the form of your personal belongings to back up your story. Although it's not impossible that the Empire dreamt it all up, it is highly unlikely."
"That's good to know." They took a lift to three decks below. A couple of twists and turns later they were in a large room with the rest of the cryptology team, all of them in various states of stress and sleep deprivation. Once they arrived, the rest of the team got to their feet, all of them looking toward Chief for some words of encouragement.
"Now everyone try to relax. I know this feels like and insult to all of us, but if we take the time to think through this rationally we should all be able to see Their side of things."
"And after they grill us all and realize this is a waste of time? What then?" This came from a Twi'lek who had only been with them for less than a year, less time than Ari.
"Then we'll be cleared and they'll re-examine their choices."
Grumbles were bountiful, but there was little any of them could do about their present situation. Instead they waited patiently until someone with enough rank to clue them in made an appearance. Perhaps intending to soften the blow a bit, the higher up had sent in Leia. To her credit, she didn't look very happy about what was going on either.
"I am sure that by now Major Gil has advised you all on what is to happen here today." Silence greeted her. Ari tried to offer a reassuring smile as Leia steeled herself, but even she was feeling more than a little insulted by the whole affair. "Under the current circumstances Command feels that all precautions have to be made to ensure that security hasn't been compromised."
Ari's tongue was about to get away from her, but she was stopped by one of her teammates pinching her arm. She managed not to yelp, but glared at the smiling corporal as she rubbed her underarm.
"You will each be questioned in turn while under the influence of a truth serum. Under most circumstances this would be sufficient, but in order to ensure that no one has been tampered with by the Emperor or Lord Vader we will also need to have your thoughts scanned during the debriefing."
This gave everyone a pause. Ari frowned, more than a bit confused, and looked over at Corporal Nass who was the one who dared to broach the subject. "Ma'am, what exactly is that going to entail?"
"Yeah, what he said."
Leia took a deep breath. "Commander Skywalker has been asked to assist with the process." There was an immediate increasing in the grumblings.
"Assist? As in he's going to be poking around inside our skulls?" That made everyone silent. Leia shot Ari a rather severe scowl. "Sorry."
"Are there any other questions?" No one looked very happy about it, but there was little that could be done. "We'll send in a guard to summon each of you in turn."
Chief stood up. "Your Highness, I'll go first." The rest of the team immediately stood up, each voicing protest. Leia shook her head.
"Major Hatur, Command doesn't suspect you in this."
"Your Highness, if you suspect my team, then you suspect me. I will go first."
Leia paused, then nodded in agreement. Without another word, she turned and entered into the room where, presumably, the brass who were behind the entire thing were waiting. As for the crypts, they were all staring at their Chief in silent respect and gratitude. None of them quite knew what to say.
~***~
Aria, whether because she was one of the newest or because she was the last resort, was the last one to be called in. So far every member of the team who had been questioned had refused to leave the antechamber when they were done. Slightly dazed from the serum, they each had taken a seat and remained there for moral support of their fellows. When the guard came for her, Chief gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
The other room seemed somewhat severe. It was gray on gray like most of the ship, but somehow the chorus of stern faces made it seem all the more unwelcoming. Even Leia seemed more serious that usual. There was a medic present to administer the serum, and next to him stood Luke, trying his best not to appear like a fresh faced farm kid. His stoic expression, however, did falter when his eyes met her own.
"Hey."
"Hey." Luke watched as she was settled into the chair in the center of the room, the medic indicating that she should roll up her sleeve.
"Commander Skywalker, are you certain you will be able to continue with this... particular interrogation?"
Luke and Ari both looked over to the speaker, a gray-faced general who looked as though his face would crack in two if he smiled. Luke nodded. "Yes, Sir."
"Uhm, no offense, Luke, but are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"What?" He blinked, as though surprised she was asking such a question.
"It's just that you told me yourself that you're stumbling around in the dark as far as this entire Jedi thing goes. How do I know you won't accidentally scramble something in my head and leave me to stare a wall with a line of drool coming out of my mouth for the rest of my life?"
The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Watch it with all the confidence. You'll inflate my head so much I won't be able to get my helmet on anymore."
"I'm serious."
"I'm not going to hurt you."
"Promise?"
"Promise. I'm just going to make sure that you're really who you think you are and that you're not just some sort of sleeper agent with a false identity planted over the top."
"Oh, I can answer that. I'm not. Can I go now? OUCH!" Ari glared down at the needle now in her arm. "Where the hell did you learn how to do that, Buddy? A POW camp?"
No one asked her to elaborate, but it wouldn't have mattered much if they had. The serum began to take effect almost instantly, causing a general feeling of drowsiness. As though from a distance she heard the Medic's voice advising her to relax and count backwards from twenty. She didn't remember much after seventeen.
~***~
"Nothing. Not a thing from any of them! It has to be one of them. No one else would have the access needed." General Stoge slammed his fist onto the table.
"Not necessarily, General." Mon Mothma studied the young woman still dozing in the center chair. "Cryptology was the most likely place to look, but there are many people within the Alliance with the knowledge, skills and opportunity to obtain the codes and pass them on to the Empire."
"So we interrogate the entire fleet? That will take years." Stoge glared at Private St. Claire. "Commander Skywalker, what of you? Can you see anything inside her mind?"
Luke frowned, but said nothing. He had been an unwilling party to this entire affair. The rest of the team had all scanned clean, but he truly didn't want to poke around inside Ari's head. Part of it was because it felt like an invasion. Part of it was because he was half-afraid that he might run across something about himself he didn't particularly like. The rest of it was because he couldn't help but think of the deity she followed that had an unnerving habit of popping in to chat with her from time to time. What if that Force presence took offense to his being there?
"Commander Skywalker?"
"Sorry, Sir. I'll commence."
He tried to be careful, not wanting to injure her. Aria had been right to be concerned. Dipping into someone's thoughts was a risky business, especially when you weren't entirely sure of how it was to be done.
Under the truth serum her thoughts were likely to jump from one topic to another. One second she was replaying her turn in the simulator inside her mind, the next she was thinking in some weird, disjointed language as though typing it into a computer screen. Occasionally he caught glimpses that were dreams focusing on her family, so far away from where she was now. There was a feeling of homesickness and more than a little uncertainty about finding herself in the middle of this war.
What was missing, however, was any sign that someone had used the Dark Side of the Force to alter her memories in any way. She was just as clean as the rest of them.
"There's nothing there. She's not the one." Of course she wasn't, but they had to check. Luke was starting to pull out of her mind, ignoring the grumblings of General Stoge, when he felt something he hadn't felt in a while. In what had been just Aria was now joined by the Force presence he had been half fearing would make an appearance. It stopped him from retreating for just a bare second, just long enough to 'send' a thread of reassurance before it gently, but firmly, pushed him out.
"Luke?" Leia rose from her seat as he stumbled back a few steps. "Are you all right."
"Yeah, I'm fine." He could feel the presence all about them, like a weight that was imperceptible and yet just shy of being smothering at the same time. "I'm fine."
"What happened?"
Luke turned his head to look over his shoulder at the Princess. "It's Him again."
The general leaned forward. "The Emperor? Lord Vader?"
Leia shook her head. "Neither of them." She gave a cautious glance at Aria and realized that the woman's eyes were now wide open, although she didn't appear to be seeing anything. "Is she all right?"
"She'll be fine. He's never harmed her. Although, He's never done this before. In fact, I haven't felt Him around for months. He doesn't do this very often."
"What are you two talking about?"
"General, we have reason to believe that an unknown Force presence keeps in irregular contact with Private St. Claire. Commander Skywalker has felt it when it was approaching her."
"A Force presence, and it's not the Emperor or Vader? What about you, Commander? Is it you?"
"No, General, it's not me. Whatever it is, it's very old and very powerful."
"It is a danger, Commander?" Mon Mothma's voice was soothing and kind when compared to the General's.
"Not to us. I've never sensed any sort of threat from it. Whatever it is, it's..." Luke paused and turned his head back toward Aria. "It's gone."
Aria took a quick breath and sat up straight, no sign of any side effects from the truth serum present in her eyes. She waved away the medic when he tried to approach her, her expression one of contemplation. "That made absolutely no sense whatsoever."
Luke walked over to her and squatted down beside the chair. "What was it? What did He tell you?"
Ari rubbed her eyes. "I don't know. He did the riddle thing again."
"Mon Mothma, this woman is clearly a danger to the Alliance, even if she isn't the leak! Unknown entities running around in her head whenever they please? How long before one of them tells her to hurt us?"
"Two movies, a great war and my job? What is that all supposed to mean? Can't He just give me a straight answer for once?"
"General, Aria St. Claire is not a threat. If this Force presence intended any harm toward the Alliance it could have done so when she first arrived. And from what Luke has said, he doesn't think that whatever it is needs Aria to accomplish anything."
"Princess, the General has a right to be concerned. The encryption codes meant to keep the Alliance safe are falling into the hands of our enemies with alarming speed. We are all concerned."
"What was the conversation about?"
"Oh, He made some crack about being sure I didn't get addicted to the truth serum and then started going on about how the solution was in the movies."
"Mon Mothma, Aria has given us no reason to doubt or mistrust her. She scanned and questioned as innocent. They all did. It's time we put an end to this persecution of the entire team and considered other possiblities. The longer we keep down this path the more time the spy has to cover his tracks."
"Any idea what He meant by that?"
Aria started to shake her head, then paused. "My job... as in my crypt job. A great war and two movies." She frowned as she rolled the clues over inside her mind, the conversation between Mon Mothma, Leia and the general fading into the background. "A great war, two movies and codes..."
No one could have blamed the arguing trio for stopping to look at Ari as though she had gone mad. Her laughter was quite unsettling. "Oh, that's good... that's real good. It would take a while, but it just might work."
"What might work?" Luke tried to get her to focus, to let him know what she was talking about.
"But only if we have the books. Only if they made it in the bug out."
"Aria? You're starting to sound like a mad woman."
She finally focused, looking at Luke. "It just might work. Come on!" She stood up and grabbed Luke's arm, pulling him toward the door. Leia called out to her, but when they didn't stop she opted to follow them.
"Private?" Gil stood up, along with the rest of the team, as Ari and Luke came back through the door.
"Chief! You need to come, too. The rest of you... just stay here." She let go of Luke and headed toward the door. Luke and Gil gave each other an puzzled look as Leia came up to them, but then all three followed in her wake.
The hodge podge collection of luggage and boxes that made up Aria's personal belongings was kept in a storage bay along with her converted speeder. Luke, Leia and Gil watched in silence as she tore through one after the other, tossing various items aside as she searched for something. Luke was the only one who dared to try and speak to her. "Uhm... Ari? What are you doing?"
"Look for some books."
"Okay. Can you tell us why?"
"To help out with our current problem. It took a moment to figure out what the heck He was talking about, but I think I got it."
"Got what?"
She pushed aside another box that failed to yield results and moved onto the next. "He said that I knew the answer, I just had to think of the right things: A great war and two movies that dealt with the kind of stuff I'm already doing. If you ignore the One Hundred Year War, that leaves the World Wars, one and two. It didn't make any sense, so I thought about movies."
"Okay... and that resulted in...?"
"There are only two movies I could think of that had anything to do with encryption. One was called something like 'U-571' or 'U-751', I can't recall the actual name. Anyway, I think they really butchered it, because if I'm not mistaken the original sub crew was British, but they made them American in the movie. Anyway, the plot was that they, the sub crew, were trying to hijack a German submarine in order to steal an Enigma device. It was an encoding machine that the Nazi's were using. You couldn't break the code without the device."
Gil's interest was peaked now. "You have a book that tells you how to make one of these devices?"
"Nope, 'fraid not." Her voice was muffled with her head buried in a box as it was. "That brings me to the other move, also set during World War II. It was all about the Navajo Code." She finally straightned up with three thick books in her hands. "It was a code used by the Allied forces, still technically unbroken. The Americans used a code within a code, encrypting the message to be sent, then sending that message in the Navajo language. Since the only continent where the Navajo language was spoken was in North America, it wasn't something the Germans would know. And since it was already encrypted if they did manage to capture an American soldier who just happened to be Navajo, all they got out of it was something like 'table rock throw bird', complete gibberish."
Leia frowned. "What are you thinking, then?"
"I'm thinking that I'm the only person in this entire galaxy with these." She held up the books for them to see. "One is a copy of Webster's English collegiate dictionary, and the other two are a Chinese to English dictionary and an English to Chinese dictionary. One of the pitfalls of a modern college educations; everyone has to take at least two semesters of a foreign language. I chose Chinese because the written laguage is more like art than a language, but it was a 7:30 class, which is far too early to ask any person in their late teens to get up and think. It was the only class I failed, mainly because I skipped most of it."
Luke looked confused. "How's this going to help us?"
Gil, however, was getting the idea. "Because a computer is only as smart as you make it. The Empire knows every written language in the galaxy and has it programmed into their computers."
"But since written English and Chinese aren't from this galaxy, they won't have anyway to read these? Even if they intercept a message, their computers won't be able to make sense of them. It will just come out as random symbols, if they come out at all." Aria walked over to the major and offered the books for his examination. "Of course, we shouldn't just use it in the main computers. All it would take is one good slicer to steal the language program and our code is worthless."
Gil nodded. "And that's where this Enigma Device idea comes in. A separate encoding device, independent of the computers." He smiled like a cat offered a very rich bowl of cream. "It's almost foolproof."
"Almost?" Leia quirked a brow. "But if the Empire doesn't have the base language..."
"Then I'd be the weak link. English is my first language, my native language. Even if we destroy the dictionaries after we've written the language program, if I were to be captured I might be forced to translate the words themselves." Aria looked toward the major. "We should do the double encryption thing, like with the Navajo code. That way if I'm forced to translate the English words, I still won't have the full key."
Gil was flipping through one of the Chinese dictionaries. "This is going to take a lot of work. We'll need to write a lot of code."
"I can do that part, or at least oversee it. We'll need to recruit help from some other teams so I can have the manpower needed to cut down the time, but I think I should be kept out of everything else. As long as all I do is write the code to teach your hardware to understand written English, then the code will be more secure. We can get that part up and running first, which should buy us time while another team uses the English to Chinese book to start writing the next part of the code. Have other teams do the Basic encryption."
Gil grinned down at Aria, something just a tad bit devious alight in his eyes. "You've got two days to polish that idea up enough to present it to the brass. It's a good enough idea that it won't take much to convince them." He handed the books back to Aria. "Keep those safe. All our lives may depend on them." He ruffled her hair much like he would a small child's and turned around to leave. "And clean up this mess before you go."
Aria rolled her eyes before turning around to face Luke and Leia. Leia looked impressed. "Good job, Ari. I'll make sure you have a time scheduled to be seen before Command. But you might want to make sure your uniform is a little better pressed." She gave her a brief hug before walking out into the hall. That left only Luke, who took a deep breath.
"That's a very useful friend you've got, there."
"Father of All, Creator of All... yeah, He's pretty useful. A bit annoying at times with all the cryptic stuff, but useful."
"Cryptic or not, He just nudged you the right direction to save all our skins. Still feeling nervous and overwhelmed by being singled out?"
Aria nodded. "Constantly, but He hasn't asked me to part the Red Sea or call down fire and brimstone, so I think I'll manage."
Luke grinned. "I'm not going to ask what those relate to. I'm just glad that an answer's been found."
"Me, too." Ari looked down at the three books in her hands and smiled slightly. It was going to be a challenge, but it really could save all their skins.