I reloaded from an auto-save right before/when the southern polar region area loads. I entered, talked with the 3 Echani at the entrance, then visited Atris and quicksaved before talking to her.
I then ran through response for Light Side points and to offer help, and was 'escorted' by the Echani away from Atris. At this point I noticed an Echani with her hood down was the one speaking to Atris.
I reloaded from my quicksave, ran through the same responses, then noticed an Echani with her hood up was speaking to Atris. Odd. Glitch? Bug?
Any ways, I proceeded to release my "friends", but once again I was stuck and could not initiate a conversation with Kreia, nor get her conversation with me to trigger. I was stuck again. Grrrrr! At this point I'm really getting frustrated with Obsidian's buggy software.
I'm going to load my military base save now and save in may be 6 slots right before I take the spacecraft to the southern polar region. This is getting annoying.