[Chase]

With her meal gathered, some actually good food which might have surprised most and found herself a table. Focused eating she was almost a sight to behold, given a minute or two and her portions were sure to be gone.

[Tethys Carrack]

The tall Jedi is also assembling a tray around the same time, still in her dusty armored robes but apparently all in one piece. She stocks up more food than is usual for her, feeling simultaneously ravenous and completely without enthusiasm for eating.

A quick sweep of the mess hall picks out at least one familiar profile--Chase, the fighter jock she'd first run into back in Uthan Mil. Tethys sets her tray on the table opposite Chase and slides into the seat. "This spot did not look taken," she says, with a slightly expectant look.

[Chase]

Finishing a bite, chewing, swallowing, only when she was completely finished did she hold out a pronged instrument at Tethys, "It is now," she motioned the fork down for Tethys to sit. Cleaning up her immediate area with a clean precision about her movements.

"Glad to see you're still kickin' Master Jedi. Half thought your lot would get tired of the fighting and just keep to the peaceful bits, but here you still are."

[Tethys Carrack]

"It's the people who do not get tired of fighting that I worry about more," Tethys says reflectively as she picks up her own utensil. "Anyway, you look well, Lieutenant. That's good."

[Chase]

Chase grinned, "Didn't expect that one, Master Jedi, but it was good. It was good." Pausing long enough to take a quick drink, wetting her lips. "It's been rough fighting but I've stayed ahead of it. Didn't have to worry too much till the funky stuff started happening though. Almost wonder if I gotta blame you Jedi for it all."

[Tethys Carrack]

"'Funky stuff'?" Tethys raises an eyebrow, regarding Chase quizzically over the rim of her own water glass. "Do you mean the Aznuri?"

[Chase]

"No, not them," Chase said, thinking and then pushing aside her tray for a moment to lay her hands out on the table. "Alright. So, this is gonna sound crazy but I'm gonna tell you something and you're gonna tell me what you think of it."

"Yesterday I encountered an unidentified craft, Imperial Make, touch down in the Blight somewhere. Now, before this thing went down there we went and took a look at it. Soon as I did, saw something. Didn't really make sense but it was kinda like a dream with a red beam coming down and it just came with... the world being cracked open." Chase paused, thought for a moment and then shook her head.

[Tethys Carrack]

"Imperial make..." Tethys sets down her glass and bites the inside of her lip for a moment. "A bit big for a starfighter, small for a freighter? Black exterior?" Her dark eyes pin Chase with an intense gaze.

[Chase]

"That's the kinda thing I'm talkin' about, you seen something like it before?"

[Tethys Carrack]

"Yes, yesterday morning." She frowns, two vertical lines appearing between her eyebrows. "It belongs to a powerful Sith Lord. He'd come here on some business of his own and has, I believe, found what he came for and left... but it's not strange if his presence affected you. He's extremely strong in the Dark Side of the Force, and the Blight itself can only have made his presence stronger."

[Chase]

"You're kidding right?" Chase said, preparing by making sure her food was out of the way and her legs were clear of the table.

[Tethys Carrack]

"No. Unfortunately not." Tethys considers half a beat and then reaches across the table to touch the back of Chase's hand in a steadying gesture. "There's not much to be done about it now, except be prepared if he appears again somewhere else in Republic space."

[Chase]

"So he's gone?" Chase said, settling for a moment and narrowed her eyes. "Has anyone been told about this?"

[Tethys Carrack]

Tethys nods. "We've reported it to the appropriate authorities. Under the circumstances, it did not make sense to create a general alarm. But if you've already seen it, and had a vision through the Force... it wouldn't be fair to keep it from you. There's nothing the matter with you--what you experienced was him, and this place."


((Reporting hasn't happened onscreen yet, but like hell is Tethys not making a full report whether Layne likes it or not. ))

[Chase]

"Damn better," Chase commented initially, "But... yea, I knew that. Just needed someone to confirm it was all," Chase's eyes glanced toward her food as she pulled it back in front of herself again."So, tell me about the moment you found him. I'd like to know who's responsible for nearly putting me in the dirt the other day."

[This unintentionally works out, cause your mission was MM and chase talked to Jace MM]

[Tethys Carrack]

"The ship attacked you?" Tethys gives Chase a concerned look. But the pilot is obviously still alive, so whatever happened, it clearly wasn't as deadly as it could have been.

"Found him... I can't say that is quite accurate. I had agreed to accompany some of the other Jedi to investigate some ruins within the Blight they suspected of being old Sith structures. When we reached the site, that ship was already there. Its owner came out of the ruins a few moments later." Judging by the shift in her body language as she recounts it, this must have been a disturbing experience even for the preternaturally composed Tethys.

[Chase]

"Not quite, but it's hard to control a craft once you've been forced to see something else," Chase said, leaving the rest to happen naturally. Though she scoffs soon after the pause, "Leave it to the Jedi though. Come here to fight the Mandalorians and you've all gone and found yourselves an ancient Sith temple to dig up instead."

[Tethys Carrack]

"We can multitask," Tethys says mildly, picking up her eating utensil again. "At any rate, he was not interested in fighting us, either--if he had been, you and I might not be having this conversation. And he left without destroying some intelligence that may be valuable." She spears a vegetable on her tray and adds, "I have the strong impression we escaped injury because he was too preoccupied with some internal Sith factional business to be concerned about us."

[Chase]

"That only proves to worry me war, nothing worse than Sith fighting each other," Chase said, sat, thought for a minute and then finally added, "I'm all well and good to let them kill each other but those bastards tend to level places when they throw all they've got against one another. Heard the stories, it's like a damn bomb went off but one that was build outta malice and hate and not all that much explosives."

[Tethys Carrack]

"You're right," Tethys agrees. "If they only harmed one another with their squabbles, the history of the galaxy would be quite different." She sighs, then looks down at her tray and makes herself take another bite.

"But there is no way to untangle the Empire from the Dark Side's influence just by wishing it so," she continues afterward. "We can only be prepared to react. As is all too often the case." Frowning, she adds, "I hope you don't have any long-range plans that depend on the treaty lasting, Lieutenant Chase. We may all be disappointed in that respect sooner or later."

[Chase]

Chase laughed, heartily.

"I seem to recall you're the one here who thought they could be redeemed one day, Master Jedi. I still know exactly who those people are."

[Tethys Carrack]

"Knowing where the problem lies is not the same as having an easy solution," Tethys says, lips curving wryly as she reaches for her cup. "I understand a good part of why the Empire is as it is. More than the last time we spoke, I believe. But I still have no more of an idea than I did then about what it would take to truly turn their political system away from the Dark Side. Until someone cuts that knot," she swirls the water in the bottom of her cup, "the Republic and the independent worlds will always have to be prepared for the collateral damage from their follies."

[Chase]

"And I'm still of the mind it's so rotten to the damned core the whole damn thing is better off toppled," Chase said, rolling her fingers against the table. "If they weren't complicit, there would always have been something they could do about it. They brought themselves to where they are now and not one of them that gets into a position to do much about it has changed anything for the better yet. So I'm not quite too hopeful anyones gonna manage that thing you're hoping for, Master Jedi."

[Tethys Carrack]

"The Force may have the answers, but I don't." Tethys shrugs one shoulder. "All I can do is protect as many people as I can. Even when that means letting a Sith Lord walk away." She frowns. "I hope that will not happen often."

[Chase]

"Right now we need to make sure knights like you," Chase said, picking up her fork, "and pilots like me," she pointed the fork at herself. "Stay alive long enough to be around for when the Empire comes back."