Library with Ibani

[childofrebellion]

The door opens onto the library and Cassian stops for a moment to marvel at all the paper books, he's never seen so many before.

In his work he hasn't had reasons to go to libraries and gently reaches out to touch the shelves and see where they might need to go.

Comments

[last_kallig]

"I don't know," Ibani replies, gaze distant. "My only plan so far is to get in a position where I can slip changes in under the radar, ease things along a better path. Luckily, the Emperor doesn't directly involve himself in government much these days, it's beneath his notice."

[childofrebellion]

He looks at her, he's never before heard her say so clearly that she's within her time's Empire,

"Yes, I'm often in those kinds of roles when I work undercover. Do you know if the people have any hope of their world being different?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani catches Cassian's look, but since he doesn't appear to be getting hostile, lets it pass without comment.

"Inside the Empire? There are some, people who want to reform the Empire, but they have to keep a very low profile and I'm not in a position where I can assist the one group I know of."

She sighs. "I was ordered by a Sith to find out who their leader was so they could be taken and interrogated. I managed to pin the blame on the Sith's Master, bringing the investigation to a stand-still, but me contacting the group would place them all at terrible risk."

[childofrebellion]

He trusts Ibani and knows that she's trying to create change and good in her time,

"Then use someone else to contact them. What about outside? Have there been any signs of unrest or is everyone too scared?"

If they are then its going to be far more difficult.

[last_kallig]

"Have to find someone I could trust first, which is quite the obstacle at the moment."

"And things are heading back toward open war with the Republic, which is likely to make any would be reformers keep their heads down until it's over." Ibani is clearly Not Thrilled with this.

[childofrebellion]

"You could use someone from your cult if you trust them enough. No, I don't mean just reformers, they're good at adjusting. I mean everyone else, has anyone ever fought back?"

They must have, he hopes they have or else the reform from the talk doesn't matter, not really. Then its changing the name if there's no hope in the galaxy.

[last_kallig]

"Not recently, at least so far as I know," Ibani admits. "The Dark Council has tried to overthrow the Emperor in the past twice and was utterly crushed both times."

She frowns. "But it could be that Imperial Intelligence is just good at covering up and doing away with people who fight back before they become public knowledge."

[childofrebellion]

"That's what the Empire does, if its only a localized issue then there's no reason to think you're not alone in fighting back. Its incredibly demoralizing and people find it hard to believe anyone else is out there. Yet something as simple as a piece of graffiti can give hope of yes, we exist,"

That was why seeing that banner in Milliways meant so much, it proclaimed that the Rebellion existed and mattered.

[last_kallig]

"It is demoralizing, feeling alone in the fight," she agrees. "I'll just have to hope that there are other people out there, even if I don't find any sign of them."

[childofrebellion]

"But you can leave signs for them that they're not alone. What kinds of access do you have to communication on a larger scale?"

[last_kallig]

"Nothing I can think of that couldn't be easily tracked back to me," Ibani replies. "I have to be EXTREMELY careful to seem like what they expect me to be. It's dangerous to think I'm ever NOT being watched outside of Milliways."

The downside of being a Sith, people pay attention to you!

[childofrebellion]

Cassian nods, he's used to that, the Empire always has surveillance. The only times he allows himself to slightly relax is on his ship and on a base and even then, he's always ready for everything to change,

"How do they watch? I know some ways to take down surveillance and slice through records to hide traces. If we could find a way to lace a message through something, it might be helpful. Do the reformers have any symbol associated with them?"

[last_kallig]

"Cameras for sure, spies, informants, probably other ways I'm not thinking of."

"There's no symbol, so far as I know. I'm not sure what we could even USE for something like that, not that would be easily recognizable."

[childofrebellion]

He pulls up an image of the Sith Empire's symbol, which is almost the same as the Empire.

Then he finds the right program and draws a red slash through it then changes it to a crack,

"I can help with the cameras if you can get me one. There, that's something. This is ours."

Quickly he sketches the Alliance Starbird.

[last_kallig]

"Ah, the Starbird, the symbol of the Republic even in my time," she says, looking at the what Cassian has sketched.

"I don't know that the cracked symbol would work, not for us. We don't want to destroy the Empire, just make it BETTER."

[childofrebellion]

"I didn't realize it had been around that long. What will it take to make it better? What works?"

This isn't a conversation he ever expected to have but he can remember listening to his father and others debate how to fix the Republic. He didn't understand it then and as he heard it in other cells, he learned of a place that he never knew.

[last_kallig]

Ibani is silent for a good minute, thinking. "I don't know," she says at last. "The Imperial crest is about the only symbol you see in Imperial space anymore. If we had other symbols, they were stamped out long ago." A thousand years is a long time to work on a population and a culture, prune it into the shape you want.

[childofrebellion]

"Then your belief in change needs a shape. Something to fix and follow that. As the idea is too big, find the smaller ones and do that,"

He thought her fight had more focus than this.

[last_kallig]

Ibani chuckles wryly. "Easier said that done. Most of my focus so far has been on surviving and climbing the ranks."

[childofrebellion]

Cassian leans back in the chair he's sitting in with a nod,

"Surviving always comes first. Is there a rank you're aiming for or just up?"

[last_kallig]

"I'm aiming for the Dark Council, eventually," Ibani replies. "That's as high as anyone can get in the Empire, unless I figure out a way to kill the Emperor."

[childofrebellion]

His eyes go a little wide, that's aiming as high as possible, but it would allow her to do what she wants to,

"What will it take to get there?"

[last_kallig]

"A lot of work, and sufficiently impressing people to get myself promoted to Darth and then promoted again to the Dark Council."

She pauses. "Which means I need to kill someone who's on the Dark Council and their apprentice, or they need to die without an apprentice and the Emperor selects me to replace them."

[childofrebellion]

"It always comes back to death,"

He files away that title Darth, perhaps its a connection to Darth Vader, Palpatine's mysterious bodyguard. The way to a better world seems created by blood no matter the time.

[last_kallig]

"Death and blood," Ibani agrees. "Especially among Sith. Officially we're not allowed to attack each other, but that just means you have to be careful not to get caught."