Hoth: Blood and Ice

Despite all the hard works the last days, Kat made sure to find some quiet time away to meditate, and her preferred spot remained still the area were life grew. It all gave a sense of peace and hope, where she felt more connected to the Force than usual.

Tethys paces through the hydroponics facility, pausing to trail her fingertips in the warm water of an algae tank. The briny smell makes the corners of her lips curve upward a little. Then she spots Katarzyna on the other side of the tank, and the smile softens her face more fully. "Hello, Kat."

Kat opens her eyes as she senses Tethys' approach, like the welcoming rays of sunshine peeking through finally on an overcast day. "Hello, Tethys," she greets in return, smiling gently as well.

"Care to join me? I find this place to be the best place in the base for a moment to just relax and feel the growth of life."

"Hm. Not the quietest spot for it on base," Tethys observes. Somewhere on the other side of the large indoor hydroponics facility, the goat herd is kicking up a ruckus yet again; closer, a sprinkler pipe is clanking loudly as it spins above a bed of leafy greens, and there are various other thumps, creaks, and conversational voices from other residents of the crowded base spread out around them as well. "But it is warm. The only temperate ecosystem, however small, for hundreds of kilometers... yes, I see the appeal."

She steps around the algae tank, shaking the water off her fingers as she goes. "I'll join you."

"If one wished for silence, I am certain that there's some ice cave to be found that must be pretty quiet," she remarks with a mirthful chuckle and shifts in her seat ever so slightly to get more comfortable.

With a small sigh, Kat's shoulders rise and fall gently. "How are you doing, my friend? A lot has been going on, but we've had little time to check in with eachother to see how we're all handling... well, everything." Layne's spell of morose idiocy, invasion, Eternal Empire, a dead Emperor, and more oh boy.

"There's life in the ice caves, too. Just less familiar life," Tethys says, with a slightly tired half-laugh, half-sigh. "If I were a better student of exozoology, I might find it fascinating. I am sure Glade would." Kat has probably met Tethys's relatively green young apprentice, even if only briefly.

Tethys lowers herself to a seat near Kat, crossing her legs neatly. "I'm tired of ice. Preoccupied with various dangers threatening other people. Otherwise well enough." Her lips quirk wryly for a moment. "So, not much recent change at all. And you?"

With all the chaos of the day, Aphr wanted somewhere less stressful. Following her feelings, she found herself being drawn to the Hydrophonics. Perhaps the plants were more relaxing to be around than people? She wasn't sure, she had just followed the feeling. However she then heard voices and paused. Peeking ahead, she spotted the two people sitting and talking. Normally she'd have quickly snuck away, but she noticed Tethys and remembered the last time.

Better to speak now instead of get accused of sneaking in!

"Ah...my apology if I disturbed you all" the little Twi'lek said.

Kat smiles as Tethys mentions her Padawan. "Hopefully Alderaan has provided her with other interesting nature studies in the meantime. We'll make sure to share some of the data from here when we return home." The unspoken if hang in the air, threatening the fragile hope they all held on to. "As for me, much the same headaches as you and all of us... a part of me worries for my family on Alderaan, but," Kat holds back a sigh, "I remind myself to have hope in the people there. Their abilities and skill, and that yearning to protect all that is dear."

All things considered, Kat had maintained a stoic facade these weeks since they learned of the invasion, as well as never letting her spirit waver.

Sensing the new arrival, she looks away from Tethys to Aphr. "It's no disturbance at all, ms. Aphr." The voice remained calm and soothing.

"When I left, she was eagerly anticipating riding a thranta," Tethys says, smiling at Kat's mention of all Glad might find to explore on Alderaan. Then she sighs. "It's hard not... not knowing. That's the most difficult part of this, I am finding."

She tilts her head to look up as Aphr appears on the scene. "Hello, Aphr. We were just speaking of home and family. And perhaps meditating, in a moment."

"I see" Aphr said softly, lowering her head "I was looking for somewhere more calming with everything going on and it drew me here. I thought it was perhaps the Hydroponics itself."

She looked up at the two Jedi, giving them a smile.

"May I join you?"

"Certainly." Tethys opens a hand palm-up above her lap in a gesture of invitation. "Though I wouldn't have supposed Sith training teaches one to seek out calm under fire, particularly."

"These are the days to open up for more understanding between the two groups. The difficulties in cooperation exist only as long as we allow them to," she said with a gentle smile. The past weeks she had been working tirelessly to improve cooperation in the base, though it was a challenge and she was only one person.

"In the end, we are all part of the same galaxy and the same existence."

"Even among the Sith there are differences in how to approach this situation. Quite a few would face it head on and revel in the chaos. Others would hold back and only involve themselves when it's advantageous to them. Me? I prefer to find calm and look to the Force, especially when everything is cloudy and unclear, but I wouldn't consider myself a typical Sith example."

Aphr nodded to Kat.

"Unfortunately there are too many that will not learn that lesson on both sides, and many will fall before it is learnt if it is ever fully learnt at all."

"That's a rather fearful attitude." Tethys's brows arch upward for a moment. "Acting out of fear for the worst is usually a good way of assuring the worst happens, I've found."

"Patience and understanding must be given to adapt, to overcome. People are not infallible... it's not easy to let go of apprehensions, or bad experiences and bad blood."

Kat held her hand, palm down, over one of the plants. It was only a small thing, but it seemed to grow a little bit more under her gentle presence. "Trust is a difficult thing to build. It must be nurtured, and like growing plants, it is hard to rush it." Slowly she removed her hand and placed it back in her lap, fingers lightly curled together. "Time is not on our side, but I don't think it's going to serve us either by placing blame at people not learning their lessons fast enough, or not adapting fast enough. It kind of defeats the purpose of coming together, no?"

Aphr had gone to reply to Tethys, but then Kat spoke. Which took a lot of words away from her. The little Twi'lek tilted her head upwards, and a small smile.

"Now I understand why the Force guided me here."

She looked to Tethys first, and then Kat.

"I've lived, no maybe lived isn't the right word. I've survived through fear, and it may make the worst happen but surviving through fear has allowed me to be here. I'm never the biggest in the room, or the strongest, so I can only use what I have or I would have been doomed to remain a slave to the Hutts forever."

There was a nod though to Kat.

"However she is right. On both sides, there is too much fear of what the other will do. Trusts broken, methods questioned. That needs to be put to a side because Zakuul does not have any doubts in its beliefs. It doesn't question what it is doing, and with the Shadow of the Dragon removed they could be more united. It's time for these views to be put in the past. Not every Sith is cruel, selfish. For every Baras who chose their path, there is an Aphr who had no choice. Even among the Jedi there are examples of those who act in a way that is not right, my first encounter with a Jedi master was them on purpose drugging me without my consent when I barely understood what the force was and that shaped my views of the Jedi for a long time."

She took a small breath.

"Let the past be a lesson to improve on, not the reason to stay apart."

"Learning from the times you've been afraid is different from letting fear shape your actions." Tethys rolls her shoulders a little, one at a time, nudging out stiffness and settling her posture into one she can comfortably hold for a while. "One of the most important lessons, of course, is that there's always a choice. We may not like all the options, but we always have that power. When people look away in fear and choose to believe they have no choice but to do something... that's often precisely how the worst things happen. Jedi aren't immune to it either."

She sighs. "Or Zakuul, for example. If the others are like Senya, they've convinced themselves they have no choice but to do all this, for the glory and service of their Empire. Although I think, without Valkorion's mind at the center, they may find that their ideas of exactly what they 'have no choice' of and why will not be so harmonious anymore."

"Mm, there is always a choice," Kat nodded a little. "I... mostly just question a society made by someone like him, who would commit such cruelty to his family. And whatever vision he might have had for it, I don't think it was made with good intentions."

Even the Sith saw the necessity of ridding the galaxy of the Emperor, so to her it seemed like he was very much a big problem to both sides. "Though I am concerned for the people of Zakuul who are not the ones making decisions, as a civil war might be on their hands... there is only one throne, no obvious heir, and suddenly a vacuum left behind by an eternal emperor."

Aphr considered the words. Looking back on her own decisions, that lead her to where she was now. Did she have a choice?

"Yes...I suppose if one is able to look back on the moments they can see choices. It's not always that easy or simple."

There was a small shake of the head.

"As for Zakuul, from my visions the world they live in has advanced significantly due to their choice...or I suppose perceived lack of choice? I've not heard or seen anything to suggest conflict. They seem united in a singular goal, but without speaking to the citizens that are not closely affiliated with him we may not ever know. The twin brothers seemed united under one cause, so perhaps with their Emperor absent they have lead together either waiting for his return or to keep the people united, as his vanishing wasn't recent. Vaylin is another matter."