Bankor

Tethys slips from the busy corridors of the Valiant Star into the medical bay, with luck not too hectic at this hour. The push on Vantage Core Station isn't until later this afternoon, so there shouldn't be many new casualties, apart from the scattering of sprains, burns, and hangovers inevitable in shipboard life.

She sees only medical droids at work at first, and ventures in deeper, wondering if Dr. Ormont is likelier to be in his office or off in some other corner of the ship.

Cole was sitting at one of the shared desks the medical staff used, reviewing various files. He looked up and sees Tethys, "Jedi Knight Carrack, how can I help you?"

"Dr. Ormont." The corners of her lips turn up in a small smile as she fetches up near his desk. "I wondered if we might talk. Somewhere quieter than our last conversation."

"Certainly," he adjusted his spectacles and extended a hand, "please sit."

She does so, sweeping her comfortable robes out of the way with a practiced gesture. "I hope you have been well since we came back up from planetside, Doctor? I thank you again for taking such good care of Specialist Devaroo and Sergeant Kelborn down there. I still feel... responsible for that, somewhat."

“It was my duty and my pleasure, in a sense. My job is a necessary evil, but I am glad that I can do it well.” He ran a hand through his hair, “from what I understand, if it weren’t for you, it would have been significantly worse. Our people survived, and you captured the woman responsible.”

She shakes her head slightly. "Varad was fixated on me as a Jedi. Declared she would kill me last. I wanted to pull her off them, tried to, but... I did not succeed." She shrugs one shoulder. "I wanted to face her. Yet if it had been someone else instead of me, Specialist Devaroo might still have two arms. It's only a possibility, not a certainty, but it still troubles me somewhat."

"Don't be too hard on yourself," he pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose with a fingertip, "Rav is adjusting well, and Sergeant Kelborn is her customary exuberant self, I didn't imagine the Jedi to be prone to dwelling on what might have been." Cole's tone was nonjudgemental, "what did you learn from the encounter?"

'"That knowing an opponent's psychological weaknesses doesn't make victory inevitable, for one," she says, quirking an eyebrow. "Just as well, since I wear my own on my sleeve."

Cole’s lips thinned a little as he looked at the serene Jedi Knight, “how so?”

"It isn't obvious? Well, I suppose at our previous meetings I was either totally incapacitated, or the setting was too convivial for much observation." Her lips twitch slightly. "I can be a very stubborn person Doctor. Sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better."

Running a hand through his hair, "I see. Do you feel that your stubbornness has harmed yourself, or those you have been working with recently?"

"I did run out under fire for longer than I meant to, in Rygor. Thanks to you, the harm was not permanent." She reaches up to rub at the hollow of her shoulder where Varad's sniper had caught her with a lucky shot. "And there was Eralynn. Some other decisions that could have been wiser. As ever." One corner of her mouth quirks wryly. "I imagine I do not have to explain the inner workings of a stubborn temperament to you, Dr. Ormont."

"Perhaps not, but I've heard not heard anything so far that would give me any cause to worry. " Cole adjusted his spectacles and tilted his head slightly, "are you worried, Knight Carrack?"

"About myself? No." The pause that follows this calm answer invites him to clarify his question... or whatever else.

"I see. So, what did you come to speak to me about?" Cole was unhurried, oblivious to her actual purpose, letting her answer in her own time.

"Something else about which I am feeling stubborn." The Jedi folds her hands in her lap, outwardly composed.

"Knight Carrack, I'm sure you are aware that I hold you in high esteem. It was you I choose to seek out when I suspected a Sith in our midst." Cole ran a hand through his hair, "but this serenity act can be tiresome. Will you please come to a point?"

"If you prefer." The corner of her mouth twitches up again, then smooths into a neutral line. "I am glad you think so highly of me, Dr. Ormont. I think very highly of you as well--your professional skills, and your character. I want to emphasize this, so that my motive in coming to see you today is quite clear."

She tilts her chin up a fraction, pauses for just a moment. "I am concerned that you are unwell."

"I see," Cole sighed softly, a hint of exasperation. "I take it you are referring once more to my pain management regime?"

"Something like that," she says with the same potentially-irritating Jedi calm. "I am not as acutely sensitive to the emotions of living things as some Jedi, but I can tell you are not a particularly happy man. Though truthfully... you don't have to be a Jedi to guess that a man who takes spirits like medicine and medicine like spirits most likely is not comfortable in life."

“I see,” he repeated. “Is happiness highly valued by the Jedi? Do you, here above a war zone, preparing for a decisive strike, feel particularly happy?”

"I don't feel unhappy. 'There is no emotion, there is peace.'" Tethys quirks an eyebrow. "Of course, that kind of calm is not asked of anyone outside the Jedi. But most of the beings hereabouts seem able to find some spaces for peace and rest, war notwithstanding."

"And you would contend that I am... lacking in this peace?" His thoughts strayed to Shaisaha, to Jo'Ren, the didn't beat around the bush like this. He missed them, both of them, achingly so.

"Or... not without artificial assistance?" Her expression softens. "There is a darkness around you that I do not think is truly part of you, not by choice. It doesn't have to be that way."