Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

While she understood Layne's concern...it was misplaced. She was healthy enough and got plenty of exercise. She guessed that fear of the unknown was at fault here.

So she sat at the back of the truck waiting for her physical while R-5 was driving towards the Thul enclave

''Will this take long?''

"Less long if we weren't in a moving vehicle," Tethys says with a degree of cool amusement, unzipping her medical kit.

Her datapad is tucked inside the bag as well; she pulls that out first and flicks through directories to bring up the files she'd been looking at earlier this morning. Veeone must have had some really top-end medical subroutines installed since Bankor, she reflects, still impressed.

''Well things are busy at the moment, we take the time where we can'' she replied wishing to get his over as soon as she could.

"True." Tethys sets down her datapad--securing it so a sudden swerve or bump by R-5 won't send it flying--and picks up the medical scanner, taking a moment to adjust the settings to Togruta neural norms. "You can't help with any of that if you become impaired yourself, though. Layne sounded really worried about you."

''Yeah...she does that.'' there was a sigh ''I guess either expressing or understanding the complexity of a hive mind was beyond each of us respectively''

"Oh?" Tethys's brows arch. "Is that what happened?"

"Well, er. Hold still please," she adds by way of warning before she starts aiming the scanner over Baesal's head and upper body.

''Yeah...I am quite fascinated by that species. They are are sentient and thus certainly should not be treated like pests.''

"I haven't heard anyone questioning their sentience," Tethys murmurs, half her mind on the conversation and half on the medical scanner readouts as she steps behind Baesal to continue the scan. "So far, anyway. Seems like the crux of the problem is... not that."

''What do you mean?'' she quirked an eyebrow

"Hm? I mean, the problem looks like a quite ordinary conflict between sentients with incompatible preferences." Tethys knits her brows, adjusting a dial on the med scanner and pecking through the new readouts with a fingertip.

"Setting aside the difference in species cognition, for the moment, it's rather typical otherwise. Both sides want exclusive use of the same land area, neither recognizes the other's claim. The expansionary party is quick to lower-level violence for... let's call it cultural reasons," one corner of her lips turns up, wryly. "Cultural reasons the defensive party doesn't share. So that pushes the conflict toward escalation."

Baesal quirked an eyebrow

''I don't think your reasoning is sound. The difference in the state of sentience and congnition is at the heart of the problem. The killik may have the same basic needs as any other biological creature but without understanding how their mind functions assuming their intent is wrong. Not being able to exchange ideas leaves a gap in the communication if any is even attempted.''

''We must not forget that Alderaan is the killik's homeworld and that the human population would not have grown to what it is now if the killiks would have been hostile since the start. Humans and capitalist societies, however, do exhibit shifts towards hostilities when their economic growth reaches barriers''

"I didn't say their intent is 'wrong,' Baesal," Tethys says mildly. "I said they and the Human residents have incompatible preferences. Or call it objectives. The two sides can't both get all of what they want."

She returns to her seat and sets the med scanner next to the datapad. One hand scans through Veeone's data on the pad screen while the other pecks through the med scanner readout.

"Since the war on Bankor, I've spent a lot of time around conflicts." Tethys heaves a sigh. It might not seem like much, but she's not usually quite that demonstrative around non-Jedi. "Before too, but I was just a padawan then... anyway. Most conflicts with real stakes aren't ended by understanding intent. As much as I wish they were."

The medical device boops once as Tethys hits the end of the readout.

"With the bodies of these Joiners as mouthpieces, the Killik hives can communicate with humanoid sentients about as much as humanoids can communicate with each other. Do you think there's something the hives aren't understanding that would change how they think about other sentients? Or their willingness to compromise with other species?"