I don't own Avatar, although I kind of wish that I did.
A note to new readers, this is the final story of a trilogy, and so reading the first two stories is highly recommended: Semper Victoria, and Semper Furor.
Semper Vitae
Prologue: Moonlight
Date: 10:57, February 24th, 2175
Location: Ops-Center, Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
Parker Selfridge sighed as he saw the tall, blue, and visibly annoyed form of the Na'vi 'Ambassador' stalk into the Ops-Center. It was one of the few rooms in the base where the ceiling was actually tall enough for her to move in such a way. Most of the time she looked more awkward and ridiculous than threatening, as she had to crouch and contort herself to fit in rooms and hallways meant for humans.
"I still say we shouldn't give her the run of the base." the burly form of Colonel Theodas muttered from his place next to him, thick fingers reaching down to manipulate the image on the main holo-table. Despite the motions, his dark eyes never once left the approaching form of the alien woman, tracking her in the same way that he had often seen the man track targets on the shooting range.
"We've been over this; she is no threat to us." His boss, leader of humanity on Pandora, and the woman he occasionally was able to share a bed with replied with equal softness. As slender as the Colonel was bulky, Maria Thomes' cold blue eyes did not even glance over to where the former huntress was closing on them. One of her hands moved in a reflexive gesture, as though to brush her hair back, despite the fact that she had cut almost all of it off, leaving only a blonde buzz cut behind.
"Ambassador Pey'ral." he found himself speaking, giving the tall woman a nod as she finished navigating the packed room. "What brings you here?"
The alien's ears twitched once, and her tail shuddered in what he was starting to recognize as suppressed emotion, before she spoke, "Ean'atane."
The brought a sigh to his lips, and annoyed grunt from the Colonel, although it was the Commander who spoke, still not looking away from the holo-image of Tartarus, "Sully and I agreed to the terms by which the prisoners would be released, terms that the prisoners who remain refuse to agree to. Until they do so, they will remain. That includes that stubborn little bitch."
"I understand that." A broad hand waved towards the broad windows, in the direction of the small prison camp easily in sight, "You have made that quite clear."
He felt an eyebrow rise, "Then what did you want to talk about?"
"I would ask that our own healers be allowed to care for her, when the time comes." Her head tilted to a side, one of the many little gestures she had picked up in the past few months, "Or would a pair of elders and our Tsahik be a threat to you?"
It was difficult to restrain a smile as the Colonel's cheek twitched slightly, even as he replied. "I would not believe so, no, provided that they obey all warnings and orders given, as you do."
"And they would be supervised at all times," Theodas cut in quickly, adding his own stipulation before she could agree, "They won't be a threat, but all of those morons in the camp are. I wouldn't put it past them to try and break out, or even take hostages."
Pey'ral opened her mouth to reply, and then shut it after barely a moment, some of the tension draining from her posture. She might have been proud member of a warrior culture, but that did not mean that she was stupid by any means. The blue-skins in their small camp were the hardcore members of the youth movement, and he was sure that more than a few of them would gladly get themselves killed if they thought they could take a few humans with them.
The morons.
"Parker, I'll leave it to you and Patel to handle the details, just be sure he keeps me in the loop." the Commander glanced at the native for the first time, "I don't want a repeat of the Hell's Gate incident."
The native woman had the good grace to look more than a little embarrassed, and Parker barely listened as she murmured her farewells and began to awkwardly make her way out.
"You're going to have to tell me about what happened there." Theodas spoke as soon as she was out of earshot, "It has to have been good, if she reacts like that every time you bring it up"
"You are better off not knowing, trust me. Now," a pale hand waved at the image, bringing them back to the topic they had been debating before the interruption, "I want you to start setting up recon flights of Samsons in pairs, examining these areas." A few manipulations of the controls highlighted a dozen or so broad swaths of jungle and riverbeds.
"Looking for..?"
"You'll be working with Doctor Thorton, and monitoring the herds moving along the game trails in those areas."
Parker felt himself frowning, and a slight glance showed Theodas appearing to be as uncertain as he was.
There was a quiet, irritated sigh before she explained herself, "Attacks by the native fauna have dropped off heavily since the battle, and according to Patel, it should still be another few decades before the local ecosystem is back in balance. But we're also sure that those wolves that harassed us weren't locals, they definitely migrated in. We can't track small things like that underneath these bloody trees, so we're going to track their food supply instead."
"Ah," he nodded slowly, understanding what she was on about, "And if the Doc says the herds are losing as much as they normally would, we know that there are plenty of wolves and thanators around, which means..."
"That there's a large scale migration heading to this region." Theodas grunted, frowning grimly at the image, "What about Patel and Spellman, or their assistants? We might need the extra eyes running the math on this."
"She's stealing four of their people, and is liaising with the Avatar still out there." Maria shrugged slightly, "Apparently the little schism between our resident geeks is still in full swing."
"Oy vey," one of his hands rose to rub at his forehead, "As if we didn't have enough problems."
"As long as they keep doing their jobs, it isn't a problem. They can hate each other for all I care, so long as the data comes in one time and correct." There was another small shrug, "In the meantime, Parker, I need you to set up a series of meetings with Patel, Spellman, and the huntress. There are still a few plains clans that we need to know more on, and keep pumping them for information on the southern ones."
"I doubt they'll have more for us at this point."
"Make them go over it all again; I don't want any details left out."
He restrained a snort, but just barely, "What details? We know, roughly, how many clans are on the islands, near the river valley, but no one still alive has ever been down there. That's not including god knows how many clans are on the southern continent."
"Thank you, Parker, for spelling that out for us." She growled back at him, her eyes flashing irritably "Anything else obvious you can point out for us?"
"No, that's about it." he rose his hands in mock surrender, "Sorry, I'll see what I can find out."
"Good. Colonel, I want your squadron choice and flight plans by the morning briefing tomorrow." Theodas grunted his assent, tapping some notes into his tablet as he did so. "Parker," she turned back to him, "What's our status on mining operations?"
It was his turn to shrug, "Given that there's three years until the Neptune's Twilight gets here, we're way ahead of schedule. We should be able to slow down our operations significantly within the next few months. I don't want to shut the process down entirely, the last thing we need is a few hundred of my people with nothing to do." He glanced at his own tablet, mentally running the figures that his foreman had brought him earlier in the day, "Three more months at our current pace, then we can start a gradual slow down."
She grunted an affirmative at that news, "You're the expert on those, just keep the Colonel and I up to date."
"Of course."
"Good." he watched as she glanced at the small clock built into the table, "I'll leave you to it." She gave them both a small nod before leaving, doing so far more gracefully then the alien woman had, and he was definitely not above letting his gaze linger on her retreating form.
There was a deep snort from next to him, "I'm surprised you survive her."
He felt the heat of his mild flush at the comment, "I don't know what you mean."
"Uh-huh." The Colonel chuckled to himself, "Whatever you say Parker."
Muttering his own farewell, he retreated towards the safety of his office, doing his best to ignore the muted cackles and sly grins from the civilians and officers manning their stations. Most of them were respectful enough to not bring up his quasi-relationship with their commanding officer, but Theodas had increasingly begun amusing himself by needling him about it.
Of course, the bastard never brings it up around her. As far as he knew, no one had been stupid enough to do so.
Tossing his computer on the desk negligently, he collapsed into his chair with a long sigh, dreading another round of pointless discussions with Patel.
Fuck it, let's get this over with.
With one more long suffering sigh, he picked up his headset and got to work.
Date: 11:22, February 24th, 2175
Location: Prisoner of War Camp, Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
Ean'atane stared beyond the metal of her cage, letting her eyes gaze longingly at the trees in the far distance.
It was, she supposed, the cruelest thing that the aliens did to her. Being able to see the trees, watch them rustle with the wind, but never being able to approach them… beside that, the poor food and unnatural confinement was hardly worth noting.
Or the fact that half of her own people had betrayed their cause, agreeing to the vile agreement offered by the tawtute.
Pey'ral, wrapped in the unnatural cloth of the sky people, had stood before the gates to their cage. She leaned heavily upon a wooden stick of some form, her skin still sallow, and her face drawn. Next to her was the woman who was apparently the alien's leader, her tiny arms crossed before her chest. Jake'sully and Neytiri had been nearby, both watching the proceedings with an impassiveness that she couldn't understand.
"The sky people have agreed to let you all go, provided that you agree to what they call 'parole." The huntress had spoken to them, her voice strong, unlike her body. Or her faith."If you agree, you swear by Eywa that you will never again fight against them, or those that stand beside them. To break this oath, you would be killed if captured once more."
She felt her hands clench into angered fists at the memory, her uncut nails digging sharply into her skin, Swear on the name of the Great Mother to never again fight against the very aliens that seek to murder her? How could they have done that!?
Only a few had agreed at that first offering, pathetically abandoning their fellows and scampering away. That had been bad enough to her, and for many of her fellows, but the news had only gotten worse. The agreement had not been born from the twisted mind of a tawtute, but rather her own Olo'eyktan. What little affection she had still held for the father of her fallen mate had died when that news had spread amongst them.
Not only did he dare to fight against the goddess, against his own son, now he wounds the very memory of him!
Further angered thought was cut off by an uncomfortable motion within her, and she let out a quiet groan, a hand moving to gently cradle the bulge of her abdomen.
Calm, calm my child. Rest within me, and know that you will grow up in a natural world, one where aliens do not dare raise their hands against our Mother.
"Not many left now, Ean'atane." The strong voice broke into her thoughts, and it made her hiss in anger as she turned, her ears flicking backwards.
Pey'ral, standing easily and alone on the other side of the metal, regarded her casually as she spoke once more, "There's only ten of you left now, who have not taken the oath."
"Traitors." She spat back, glaring at the huntress she had once considered a mentor, "Just as you are. You are traitors to your own people, and worse, betrayers of Eywa herself."
The older woman did not give her the satisfaction of growing angry in return, she merely sighed and regarded her. "Will you not take the oath? Not even for the sake of your child?"
"It is for my child that I refuse."
"Then you are a moron," another one of those pathetic sighs, as though she felt genuine regret for her, "I have spoken with the sky people, and they will allow the Tsahik and two healers to attend to you when the time comes."
Ean'atane turned away at that, feeling her tail swishing with emotion behind her. To bring a child into the world, in this place, was not something that she desired, not even with the honored Mo'at attending to her. But in order to leave, she would have to agree to an oath that she could not keep, and to do so upon Eywa's name was…
Much of the pure, warm anger drained from her, leaving only a cold weariness. A tiny of nod of… acknowledgment, if not thanks, was all she could manage.
"You still have time, young one. Should you choose to return to the clan, you have but to send for me." Thankfully, she backed away after that, striding towards the massive block of metal and stone in which she seemed to live.
It's getting harder… to stay angry, to keep hating. And when that fades… I want to leave. I want to return to the kelutral, so that my child's first sight might be of his home, his kin. A hand rose, fingers curling against the cold metal of the fence. I want to be amongst my own people, my clan. But… so many fought against Eywa, against my Tsu'tey. And to swear such an oath…
She bowed her head, so that the tawtute warriors who stood on guard would not see the tears that began to slide down her face.
Next is Act I: Whirling Storms,
Chapter I: Lost Days
Well, here it is, first chapter of the third story in what has become a trilogy. A note in regards to Chapter length, expect Vitae to be closer to Victoria than to Furor, in that there will be more, but shorter, Chapters (usually one to two character points of view per chapter, rather than the three of Furor).
In our initial prologue, we see that six months have passed since the end of Furor, but the fall-out is still occurring. Tsu'tey's young mate is carrying his child, but is still stuck in the prisoner of war camp along with a few other hardcore 'youths', something that is becoming severely taxing for her mentally. And while humanity might dominate the local region, they're still quite worried about the rest of the planet, in particular of the idea that Eywa might be encouraging vipers wolves and thanators to return to the region.
The next chapter will continue with these themes, and the over-arching plot of this story will begin its slow approach.
Please, please review!