trans_9 | Meet and Greet Part Deux: The Socialing

"Don't be so formal." It was an updune battle to get the girl to relax sometimes.

She unrolled the bundle, revealing a strange garment (http://duneinfo.com/miniseries/children/images/stillsuit.jpg). "This is a stillsuit, the finest water preservation device ever made."

At this Katara did relax, glad she didn't have to be "student to master" right now.

Katara took the present solemnly as she could. She had never seen anything like it, and her ears perked at the description of it being a water preserver.

"Thank you," she said, smiling. "Will I ever need it in the future?"

A silly question.

"I should have given it to you earlier, in fact. It's a Fremen garment which recycles and purifies all the body's water. Now if we are ever back in a desert environment, you won't be left weaponless." It was arrayed with little tubes, skillfully patched in parts. All Fremen children knew how to make and repair the.

Katara examined the suit longer, noting the tubes, and started to memorize the way this suit worked and what she might need to do to maintain it. It was a gracious gift and Katara was not ungrateful.

She reached over and have Sheeana a peck on the cheek. "Thank you for the gift, Sheeana, its wonderful! It will help me if we ever need to train in the sun."

In fact, she would probably be using it later today for training.

Well that was new and different. Sheeana had plenty of experience with physical affection, but that was something almost new. The last time that had happened...she remembered a stern Fremen man bouncing her small self on his knee, the smell of flatbread cooking and...She shooed the memories away. The past was quicksand. You could drown in it.

"Are you pleased with your first mission then?"

Katara wasn't sure what was going through Sheeana's mind. Was the peck on the cheek bad? Jamie had done the same thing with her, she thought it showed a sign of respect. Maybe she'd ask her about it later.

"I think it went well," Katara said smiling. "We helped out a bunch of people, and got them together with their families. I don't think we'll ever have that kind of peaceful mission from here on out."

"Maybe not. The line between peaceful diplomacy and low intensity warfare often blurs." Sheeana had done her own cloak and dagger while Katara was managing the mission. Local officials were easy enough to bribe after all, and her charms usually made the spending of coin unnecessary.

Damn it. She noticed Katara's noticing. The girl was too quick a study. She had no wish to write her life story on her face, no matter Katara's good intentions. "I'm sorry if I seemed startled. That's not a common gesture among Fremen."

"You would know more than I would," Katara said. "I've only had to participate in a few wars, and they were all in my world. I'm pretty unfamiliar with other ones." That was of course why Sheeana had done all of the undercover stuff while Katara organized distribution of clothing, food and items to the poor.

Katara watched Sheeana's face for a hint of something else, then shrugged. If she wanted to tell her, she would. "Its all right. In my world, its a sign of affection, or gratitude."

She laughed and it was like the sigh of the wind over the dunes. "Only a few wars? Well somehow I will have to work with your terrible inexperience." Yes, that was gentle sarcasm. Sometimes it seemed Katara was too humble by half.

In fact, she realized they were about equal in this respect. She'd experienced the effects of violence before, seen Leto's priests and their "divine chastisement", watched the Honored Matres burn her homeworld, been next to Duncan and Miles as they composed their battle plans. But she had never been a soldier. The Sisterhood had other uses for her.

Katara looked insulted. "Well, I don't know how many wars you've been through, I wanted to make sure I didn't sound like I knew everything!"

And that honestly had been Katara's intention. She realized she was excelling in certain areas that Tess had not, but didn't want those temporary victories make her seem like a know-it-all. After seeing Asuka, she knew all too well what happened when one thought too well of their abilities.

Her face burning, Katara continued. "But there isn't a lot I know about other conflicts outside of greed and the desire to expand property. That's why I get a little confused when I read about the fight between the Harkonen and the Kwisatz Haderach."

"Just the one in my lifetime but many in other memory." Another cheek-based gesture: Sheeana prodding Katara's with her finger. "You sometimes are too humble by half. Well, the two reasons you named are are the cause of most conflicts. The remaining small percentage fall into what we call conflicts of faith...Holy wars, essentially. Those are much more dangerous. The Harkonnens were greedy, atheistic men and thus they were expecting a conflict of the former type. Their plans were extremely clever, but they were preparing for the wrong kind of war. The Kwisatz Haderach gave him the second kind of war and the results...well, you read the histories."

"I see," Katara said, and couldn't help but give Sheeana a small embarrassed smile. "I guess I'm acting unnecessary, but I can't help it sometimes. I'll try to tone it down."

She listened, her attention focused on the words, but substituting the Harkonnen in her mind with the Fire Nation, and the Kwisatz Haderach with Aang. She had heard Sheeana mention their similarities before. Personally, she couldn't understand why anyone having a war would call it holy to begin with.

"Sheeana?" Katara asked. "I know I've asked you before, but I remember you mentioning that the arrival of Paul was both a good and bad thing for the Bene Gesserits. I've gone over it a few times. Why would the Bene Gesserits not want the arrival of another Kwisatz Haderach if they had been waiting for him in the first place?"

Edited 2010-01-10 03:00 (UTC)

She patted the girl's soft brown hair. She had focused on the idea of the similarities between Avatar and Kwisatz Haderach too. A more conservative Reverend Mother would have advised killing him, 'just to be safe'. But Sheeana remembered Paul Atreides' own words: The safe path leads ever downward to stagnation! This 'Avatar' would have to be evaluated on his own terms.

"Because we were fools. All we could focus on was the things the Kwisatz Haderach could show us. We were so obsessed with the knowledge we could gain from him, we didn't bother to ask ourselves what would be the consequences of bringing such a being into existence."

The patting on her head was not something she'd been expecting, but it was not unwanted despite it catching her off guard. She simply blinked and listened closely to what her teacher was saying. She knew why too, and it wasn't just curiosity. She wanted to make sure an altercation wouldn't happen between the two of them.

"'Such a being?" You make him sound like a thing, like a kind of unstoppable force. But from what I read, his mother was a Bene Gesserit, and was born because of their influence. As far as I knew, wouldn't he be a good thing for them? What consequences came about because of him?"

Sheeana put her finger to her lip, trying to compose and summarize. To someone who had never taken melange and had not lived through her universe's unique and bloody history, there was a good chance this would be hard to explain.

"Yes, and it was the greatest mistake we have ever made as an organization. He was an unstoppable force. What he did...When I say the Kwisatz Haderach saw the future, you should understand that in doing so he locked the future into place, stole chance from all of us. When I say he was a hero, you should know how heroes distort the societies they inhabit."

Katara had to listen quietly to all of this: Sheeana was letting her know something that would be looked on as a warning, something that might make her not trust Aang. She had to make sure of two things: that Sheeana knew what Aang had done for her world, and what she would do for him in return.

"Heroes have to change things sometimes in order for things to change," Katara replied. "Being a Kwisatz Haderach is not a responsibility anyone ever decides they'll just take, it happens because they are born. This is the same for the Avatar in my world: when one dies, the next Avatar is born into a new body from another nation. The things Aang did only looked easy to other people: to the people that watched him, he was only starting to get the hang of it, and was risking his life every single time. I'm not saying that having a locked future with no chance is great, it certainly doesn't sound like it. But I also know that without him we would have no future. It would have fallen into the hands of killers and soldiers who's only concern was personal gain. Because of that, it is why I question the opinion of the Kwisatz Haderach."

It may have been the first time she and Sheeana ever disagreed on something, and Katara knew she hadn't lived the aftermath of what happened on Arrakis like Sheeana. But she also had her own experiences with those that cared about what Aang was doing, and those that wanted to hurt him or use him because of who he was.

Sheeana decided to lay things out on the table. Intrigue was a tool for dealing with those outside of the order. Ever since Katara had taken her vows, it had become innapropriate to hold things back from her.

"Let me make this clear. I do not think your Avatar is a Kwisatz Haderach. He is his own being and I will evaluate him on his own terms." Which didn't mean she was going to like him. "And I certainly would not have liked to see an Arrakis under Harkonnen rule...Or your world under the Fire Nation. However in this case the cure proved far worse than the disease. However, if you want to see it for yourself...His daughter is on board this ship. Ask her what had to be done to undo her father's mistakes."

Katara understood Sheeana wanted to make her own things clear: how Sheeana would view Aang, and how little Katara knew of her world. Both things Sheeana had done without a trace of anger or the slightest bit of hesitation. For that, Katara wanted to make sure that she had not stepped over the line.

"There is much I'm still learning about your world and others," she said. "If I seem lacking knowledge, that will change in time. I'm just talking from my own experiences. You got to see the aftermath of the Kwisatz Haderach: I was pulled from my world before we could see what peace in my world looked like, truly."

Ah, there's embryonic wisdom! Sheeana was momentarily pleased.

"Exactly. Wars are easy to win. A just peace is much more difficult." Truthfully, she also had the Kwisatz Haderach's son on board too, in a way...But that was a conversation for another time, when there were no ears to overhear them. She added 'learn the history of Katara's world' to her already long mental list of things to do.

"Not all wars are easy to win," Katara said, thinking of how long the war between the nations had taken place. "But you're right about a just peace. If people already knew how to make peace, there wouldn't be problems after the war in the first place. But I'd like to think its not completely silly to imagine we can out aside our differences and just let people live."

"Maybe." She shrugged. Sheeana had a cynical view of human nature. "I'm not holding my breath." It seemed at odds with the Bene Gesserit vision, but then, when you love someone, you sometimes expect good things from them even if you know you'll be dissappointed.

"Actually there's something i'd like to know more about: How is bending taught? What are the methodologies for imparting the four arts?" This was important. She had to know what kind of expectations Katara would have of her as a teacher so she could selectively go at odds with most of them. :-3.

Katara lowered her head. "I never said it would be easy. In fact, the hope I have isn't an easy hope to begin with. Peace takes work. I learned that after going to the Middle East. We were having people get together to enjoy time with their families and the insurgents came anyway. If peace is going to reign anywhere, it needs help."

Here, Katara had to pause. "Well, I had to teach myself mostly, because I didn't have a bending teacher until I went off with Aang. I learned from experience and scrolls, and then I got to learn from Master Paku. I can't say there's a real methodology, since every teacher is different. Master Paku was a pretty strict teacher though, and expected as much dedication from his students as he gave. I guess that might be why I talk the way I do to you: training with him could be fairly humbling."

She could leave out the part where she fought him. That Sheeana could learn about later.

"I see." She would have words with this Master Paku if he ever appeared here. He had given the girl skill but almost destroyed her urge to question. There were teachers who let their abilities go to their heads. Not even the Bene Gesserit were immune, though they tried to eliminate them from the organization where possible. One more reminder and if Katara didn't take it to heart, well she had other ways of driving the lesson home. Hilarious ways. So she kindof wished she would and kindof wished she wouldn't. "You know, while I expect you to train the things I ask you to, I do not expect you to do it unquestioningly. Critical thinking is a large part of what you will learn too."

"Yes, I think I'm getting very bad at that!" Katara said, laughing a little at herself. "I gue4s I'm just a little anxious, because this is still so new to me. I'm glad for the training, and I really don't mind the extra work, but I have to try so hard to be a blank slate! It would be disrespectful to my people."

She didn't understand herself why she was being so diligent. Was it because a part of her wanted to be accepted so badly? No, she thought she might know, thinking about it a bit more. It was just the first time she'd ever been in an order where it had been exclusively women fighting, and she did not want to fall behind or look arrogant because of what she'd been able to accomplish already.

"Could you tell me, then, a little about Alia?"

Sheeana put that aside for later. There would be time to teach this lesson that was far more important than any physical teaching.

"It's not a happy tale. When Paul Atreides disappeared, fifteen year old Alia was placed in charge of the empire he had ruled. The stress proved overwhelming and by the time she was thirty, she was taking increasingly large doses of Spice, looking for prescience to guide her. She was also having difficulty with the voices in her Other Memory demanding attention from her constantly. She began make increasingly rash and despotic decision, ruthlessly executing dissenters and seeking distraction in the beds of her high priests."

She gave Katara a moment to absorb this.

"It was into this milieau that the Memory-Life of the Baron Harkonnen, her maternal grandfather entered. Even in death he had not forgotten his hatred for the Atreides. He presented himself as a helper to Alia, advising her and silencing the other voices within. What he was actually doing though was quietly taking over more and more of her mind. Things came to a head at the wedding of Ghanima, when Leto appeared to claim his place on the throne. The Baron's voice came from her mouth, declaring his hatred for all Atreides, especially her 'Bene Gesserit whore' of a mother. Alia, by effort of will, took her body back for a moment and plunged her crysknife into her heart."

Meet and Greet Part Deux: The Socialing

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