Parker Selfridge took his place in the last group of dejected occupants of Hell's Gate to board the Valkyrie for the ISV Venture Star. It was in orbit awaiting the final loads of unobtanium before returning to Earth; instead, it would be carrying the expelled humans back home.
Parker avoided eye contact with the Na'vi who stood by to oversee the evacuation. When he walked by Jake Sully's avatar, however, he paused. He turned to look at Jake and considered making a final plea. Had he forgotten all of his humanity? How could he condemn his home world to the social upheaval the coming energy crisis would create? He thought about dozens of things he wanted to say to him, but Jake's expression was resolute; and so, without a word, Parker continued on to the Valkyrie.
Once all were aboard, the ship's crew – some of the few surviving pilots of the security team – left the tarmac and made for the interstellar vehicle. While the employees and surviving security personnel headed for the cryogenics bay, Parker headed for the Venture Star's command center. Human control was only necessary for the first and final stages of travel; the rest was automated.
Parker got a cool reception when he entered the command center, but ignored it. "Who's running communications?" A hand went up. "Have you sent any messages home, yet?"
"No," a crewman said. "We were waiting for you."
Parker walked over to the communications station. "We'll keep it simple. 'Evacuation underway. No more shipments. Total loss.' Got it?"
"Got it." The crewman typed the message into his console. The vehicle's computer would translate the message into an evolved Morse code to be flashed back to Earth by a high-powered laser on the ship's hull. The message could be seen by a number of observatories in Earth's orbit and on the Southern Hemisphere; but to prevent decoding by RDA's few competing organizations, the message would be broken down into numeric codes which could only be decrypted by RDA. It would give the company a year and change to prepare the announcement to the world that unobtanium shipments would be delayed. It would give the governments of the world time to brace for the economic disaster.
"How many ISVs are inbound?"
"Four. Three are outbound, and the remaining one is being prepped in Earth orbit."
"Send a message to the four inbound ISVs to turn around. If there's no unobtanium, there's no point in leaving them here." Each interstellar vehicle had the same decryption ability as the Earth observatories. The light messages were the only way to communicate with the vehicles while they were in flight. Early space explorations had demonstrated that most other communication methods could not survive intact far beyond the Sun's bow shock. The discovery was a fatal blow to the SETI program.
"Done."
"Boss," another crewmember called out, "the computer's finished calculating our trajectory to Earth, and all non-essential personnel are in cryo. We're ready to launch when you give the say-so."
"Yeah, get us out of here."
As the Venture Star turned towards Earth and the crew worked through the departure checklist, Parker watched as Pandora fell out of view, blocked by the giant shield at the rear of the ship. "We're beginning acceleration," the pilot called out. "The antimatter drive will engage in about twenty minutes."
The ship's announcement system called out, "All crewmembers must proceed to their designated cryogenic chambers."
"That's it, people," Parker said. "Move it." He was the last one to enter a designated chamber.
He had been on Pandora for six years, and all that he had worked for was destroyed in less than a week. "It doesn't make sense," he said as the chamber automatically prepared him for the cryogenic stasis. "They were a bunch of goddamned monkeys."
It was fortunate for Parker that a side-effect of cryo sleep was a lack of any dreams. Otherwise, the next five years, nine months, and twenty-two days would have been very restless.
Jake was looking up at the night sky when the Venture Star's antimatter engine kicked in. A flash like a meteor exploding in the atmosphere appeared, soundless, and slowly dissipated into a blue-green gas. Eventually the artificial phenomenon was rendered invisible by Pandora's bioluminescent ecosystem. However, he must have stared for too long, because he was startled when Neytiri's placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Jake, you are very distant," she said. "You should be happy. You are about to be born as a true Na'vi."
He turned and offered a smile for his mate. "I am happy," he said. "But they'll be back, and I'm worried about what they will bring with them."
"It will take a long time for them to return." She placed her hands on his cheeks, "Until then, care for our people. And for tonight, my Jake, be happy."
Jake took her hands in his and leaned forward to rest his brow against hers. "I will always be happy while I am with you."
They walked together towards the Hell's Gate compound, where Norm stood with a handful of Omaticaya warriors and their direhorses.
Norm stepped forward. "Are you ready, Jake?"
"I am."
Neytiri took hold of his right arm, and a warrior stepped forward to hold his left. Norm spoke into his communicator to an avatar pilot in the Link Room. For a moment, the world became black; but as his vision recovered, he could see his Link open with Max was leaning over him.
"Are you ready to go?" Max asked as Jake got into his wheelchair.
"Just one second," he replied as he moved towards a video log station. "Grace would have wanted me to record all of this while it was fresh."
Jake was never comfortable with being carried. Not when he had to be carried from the battlefields of Venezuela, and not before he had completed physical therapy at the Marine and Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. However, as it was Neytiri carrying him towards the Tree of Souls, he was at least at ease.
His eyes met those of several Na'vi warriors, when a thought came to him. He looked up at Neytiri and asked, "Do you think they see me?"
She smiled down at him, "Yes, they see you."
He was the only human there. Even though Norm and the others were allowed to stay on Pandora, they were not allowed at the Tree of Souls; not even for Jake's birthday. Despite Neytiri's assurance, he could not help but think what some of the Na'vi warriors had to think at the sight of Jake's broken, human body. Would it lessen their respect for the sixth Toruk Makto, the Omaticaya's soon-to-be olo'eyktan, or increase it? Perhaps it would all be moot in a matter of minutes.
When Neytiri set him down at the base of the Tree of Souls and beside his avatar, he could not help but recall Grace's death. He must have let the memory unsettle him too visibly, for Mo'at put her hand on his shoulder and said, "You are strong, Jakesully. Put your faith in Eywa."
He nodded and replied, "I am ready."
Soon after the ritual to transfer his consciousness from his human body to his avatar began, as his body was overtaken by the many queues of the Tree of Souls creating an ultimate Tsahaylu between him and Eywa, Jake felt himself overcome by a great calm. Whereas there had always been darkness when the Link transferred him from one body to the next, this time there was an intense light. He could feel the presence of thousands of spirits of long-departed warriors gathered about him; but above them all, he could feel Grace's there with him.
An instant later, Jake was born as a Na'vi.
The Omaticaya cheered when he stood up in his new body – no longer a mere avatar – and was soon joined by Neytiri. Words failed them both, so they embraced as mates. Looking over Neytiri's shoulder, Jake saw his human body lying still.
Even though the warriors' reaction to him assuaged his earlier concerns, he was unprepared for how the sight of his body affected him. He let go of Neytiri to lean over the body – his body – and removed the respirator which had kept it alive in this place. He was suddenly aware of the frailty of his old body, the life which in recent months had become ever more like a dream to him; a nightmare of confinement and limistations. Regardless of the hardships he had experienced, he realized it was harder to let go of his past than he had expected.
Mo'at, standing behind him, said, "We will bury it like we do the bodies of our warriors."
Jake nodded and stood up. "He was a warrior." He reached over and took Neytiri's hand in his, "I will be a leader of the people."
Norm and Max sat in the deserted Hell's Kitchen with the few humans who were allowed to stay on Pandora, the avatar pilots; barely twenty people in all.
"Do you think it was successful?" Max asked.
"I'm sure it was," Norm replied. "Doctor Augustine was just too weak. It would have worked for her otherwise."
One of the avatar pilots spoke up, "If only they hadn't destroyed the other avatars during the shitfest, maybe we could have gotten the same treatment. " She leaned back in her chair. "Imagine living the rest of your life as one of them."
Norm shook his head, "No, they accepted Jake. They never really accepted us. We would have been outsiders."
"We still are," she said. "Living in a deserted human outpost that none of them have any reason to visit?"
"You could have gone back to Earth with everyone else," Max snapped back.
She laughed. "Yeah, I don't think I'd make it out of cryo with them."
Norm stood up. "Well, if you change your mind – if any of you do – I'm sure there will be another ship to take you back in eleven years, seven months, and however many days."
"No question about it," Max said. "Too much invested here to just let it all rot. They may even be here sooner than that, depending on whatever Selfridge had beamed back."
"Even if he told them everything," Norm said, "it will be four and a half years before RDA command really gets what's happened. Then they'll have to get new equipment together with a whole new security team. That will take a while."
"They'll do it," Max said. "And they'll do it damned quick, too. And who knows what kind of new stuff they've been building while we've been here."
"So that's our job," Norm said. "We've got to give them whatever we can to prepare them for RDA's return. We'll keep the stereolithography plant working as best we can, keep the communications station alive so we can stay in touch with Jake and the Na'vi, and hope we do enough."
"A lot of it will depend on them, though, and whether or not they accept the RDA as a living threat."
"Yeah," Norm said solemnly. "But I think Jake's up to it." He paused. "God, I hope he is."
