It wasn't an application of the Force that people tended to use all that often, Max would freely admit, but he rather liked using it personally. Alex was good to go along with it however and he was grateful; despite being a Jedi Master, Max was under no illusions about his ability to use the technique on a larger group of people. If there were three or four guards he could get all of them if they were the only living beings in a room... but they weren't.
That would require precision and power at speed, which he was not capable of.
"The benefit of using this technique is that it, ultimately, doesn't matter if we catch some of the hostages in the technique as well." he admitted his reasoning aloud, "But we should be able to pick them out, generally, from any anger that peaks when we begin."
Hostages weren't going to get angry if other hostages were knocked out immediately with no warning but the guards would, which would help them locate them. Feeling the way Alex was immersing herself into the Force, Max smiled a little bit and began to do the same, sinking into it as though it were a lake of warm water.
The Force opened to him and the Light breathed warmth into him as he slowly closed his eye. Connecting with Alex would be a little bit... different to begin with since they shared no bond such as the bond between a Master and Padawan. Instead he felt her connection to the Force 'brush' up against his own. It felt like a hand slipping into his own when he wasn't looking; at once both surprising and welcome.
She felt soft but unyielding - like a velvet glove over a work-worn hand.
But it wasn't enough for their connections to the Force merely to touch - they needed to merge and work in complete tandem. That was less like a hand touching a hand and more like running hands over skin. He could feel how she connected to the Force and she could feel his own, likely even feeling the warm lake water as he did whenever he reached into the Force. It had been some time since Max had done something like this but, well, some things were never forgotten.
Like taking her hand to guide her in a walk, he coached her connection to the Force outward along with his own, guiding their combined strength and skill with the Force into the room beyond the large door. Mind by mind they reached out with their joined 'hand' and touched them - sending them into a dreamless sleep. Emotions heightened beyond the door and they moved on, latching onto the minds of the ones most prone to violence.
Four times they reached out and touched minds of anger and frustrated hate; and four times they soothed them with unexpected slumber. Until there were only the minds of frightened and confused people remaining beyond the door. Then he slowly disengaged, the hand of his own connection to the Force slowly slipping from Alex's own until they were, once again, separate.
Max opened his eye slowly, feeling slightly unsteady from the exertion of the technique through a wall to multiple people. Still, he readied himself to assist Alex should she find the decoupling more jarring.
"I think we got them... but we would be wise to assume there are still hostiles."
He was confident in their work but he had learned never to assume success in anything.
@Marx Agar