Standing Tall

Javier "Spider" Socorro was taller than most humans.

Or at least, most humans his age, of whom there were none in Hell's Gate. Well, his age at least, and he could only guess what other humans his age were like, so…well, he went with his earlier assumption.

Why it was called Hell's Gate he didn't understand – oh sure, he got what Hell was (a place of fire and brimstone that existed in numerous mythologies from Earth), but how was it a 'gate' for anything? It was an extra-solar colony where the RDA had shipped men and material to Pandora, and shipped men and unobtanium away from the moon. Was it to suggest that Pandora was Hell? Or that Earth was? Which way did the gates of Hell swing? Because if Pandora was 'Hell,' then he couldn't agree with that assessment, given that he'd spent the entirety of his sixteen years living on the moon. And if Earth was 'Hell,' then…well, he couldn't say. He'd never been to Earth. He'd likely never go to Earth. Even if the RDA turned up tomorrow and forced every human on Pandora to return to their homeworld at gunpoint, he still couldn't go to Earth, because the high gravity could kill him. 0.2g was far less of a difference when compared to Luna or Mars (more worlds that he'd never go to), but it was a difference nonetheless. And that wasn't to mention the lack of immunity to Terran pathogens.

So he sat in the rec room, spinning a hologram of Earth dated at 2154. It didn't look like Hell, he thought. It didn't look like a nice place, given how so much of its landmass was a sickly shade of brown, but Hell? Not quite. It wasn't some burning sphere in the sky with a devil waving a pitchfork. Of course, maybe it was like that now, given that he was now living in the year 2174 by Earth's Gregorian calendar, but somehow, he doubted it.

"What you doing?"

He didn't spare a glance at the newcomer to the rec room, and kept his eyes focused on Earth. He moved his hands and drew away from the planet, turning the hologram into a depiction of the Sol system.

"Javier?"

That's Spider. He glanced at the newcomer. "Studying."

"Studying?"

"My mum's giving me an astronomy test tomorrow. From what I gather a lot of it will be spent on Earth's astro-geography."

"Why not Alpha Centauri?"

"I know, right? I mean, like I'm ever going to go to Earth." He leant back in his chair. "If you ask me, mum and dad are just homesick or something."

"Maybe they are."

"Well, maybe they shouldn't have decided to stay here twenty years ago." He looked at the newcomer, as he took a seat opposite him. "You ever have any regrets?"

Given the look in the newcomer's eyes, he did. But he'd known Norm Spellman long enough to make a few guesses as to the how's and whys.

"No," Norm said. He took a sip from the bottle he was carrying. A very large, very dark bottle.

Liar, Javier thought.

"So," Norm said. "Are they treating Pluto as a planet or not?"

Javier shrugged.

"Huh. Back home I think the definition of a planet had changed three or four times." He took another sip. "Can't remember about Pluto though. I was more into biology than astronomy. I mean-"

Oh for Eywa's sake would you shut up? Javier drowned him out and recited the planetary mnemonic his mother had taught him - My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles. Of course, he'd never been able to actually eat noodles, since Hell's Gate had run out of them before he was born, and he didn't think that his mother was that 'excellent,' but hey, if the rhyme did its job, and he passed this test, and then got back to doing things that actually mattered on this world, then-

"…and that's how remembered the planets," Norm said.

"Hmm?" Javier looked up at him.

"I said that's how I remembered…" Norm trailed off and rubbed his eyes. "Oh never mind."

Great. I won't.

Javier turned the view onto Mars. The hologram was kind enough to show him population figures (1.3 million), and the names of various settlements (Arsia Mons, Nova Scotia…who the heck made up these names?) Would these be in the test, he wondered? Probably not. If Earth wanted to bring him 'home,' bringing him to Mars as a side trip would do him far more harm than good, given that its gravity was even lower than Pandora's. It occurred to him that perhaps people on Mars grew even taller than he did. That they might have even more trouble getting to Earth than he would. That if Earth was 'Hell,' perhaps Mars was humanity's only hope. Or something. He supposed on some biological level he cared about the fate of his species, but was Pandora was his home. He was the only child in Hell's Gate, and the only human child to have ever lived on the planet. With every passing day, he found it harder and harder to care about a planet he'd never seen. Although…

"Do you miss it?" Javier asked.

"Hmm?" Norm looked at him, and for the first time, Javier noticed how tired he looked.

"Lights," he said, and the rec room lit up, the hologram disappearing. He walked over to the sink and poured two glasses of water before bringing them back to the table. "I said do you ever miss it?"

Norm took the glass, but didn't drink it from it. "Miss what?"

"The old days."

"Old days?"

Javier took a sip and rested his feet on the table. "Old days. I mean, back when you guys still had fuel to take the Samsons out. Back when this place still had meat, before we had to turn to an all-fruit diet and the occasional piece of Pandoran fauna." He paused. "Back when you had an avatar."

Norm didn't say anything. He took a sip from his bottle and put it down on the table, empty. Javier frowned – Hell's Gate had lost a lot of its conveniences over the years, but moonshine wasn't one of them.

"I manage," Norm said.

"Manage?"

"You going to repeat everything I say?" he snapped. He reached for the glass of water, fumbled, and knocked the glass onto the floor. Luckily it was recycled cardboard, but the water spilled out.

"Crap."

"Doesn't matter, water's cheap." Javier picked up the glass and returned to the sink. "Least it was last time I checked."

"Actually that reminds me – you're wanted on water shift next week. Irrigation lines are playing up."

Figures. Javier returned to the table, and the two men sat in silence. Norm was twenty-four years his senior (unless one counted the time spent in cryo, in which case the gap was much wider), but they were of the same height. And Javier supposed that Doctor Norman Spellman, xenolinguist and xenoanthropologist, knew more than he did, but still, he'd lived on Pandora all his life. Norm had come from another world, and given how he was hitting the bottle, Javier suspected that even one of the leaders of Jake's rebellion could miss 'the old days.'

Like the rest of you miserable pricks.

That was harsh, but he didn't regret it. He hated being here sometimes. Hated these stupid tests, hated how his parents never talked to each other (let alone him), hated how ever since they'd gone on fuel rations, he couldn't take a Samson out into the Pandoran jungle and talk with the na'vi. Because damn it, he'd enjoyed that. He'd enjoyed being in the jungle. Enjoyed talking their language. Even enjoyed talking with Jake Sully the only time he'd seen him. But that was long ago. He couldn't go out into the jungle, and no na'vi came here anymore. He supposed Hell's Gate to them was this great ugly grey thing, situated to a giant hole in the ground that reflected a metaphorical hole in their hearts. Which, Javier could understand, but still-

I'm in a hole as well. He looked at Norm as he took a sip. I mean, great job on that – you couldn't just take a bit more fuel, or give the Omaticaya a radio, or, I dunno, something?

He took a sip of water himself. It had a gritty taste to it – the irrigation line would need fixing. Which would be fine, if the solar array didn't need repairs as well, not to mention the holes in the perimeter fence. There were only about a dozen people left in Hell's Gate now. Not nearly enough to keep it operating at peak capacity. Let alone create the one thing he really wanted. The one thing he needed.

"Y'know, my seventeenth birthday's coming up," Javier said.

"Huh."

"Guess what I want?"

"The thing you've wanted for the past ten years now?"

"Hmm." He smirked. "I want an avatar."

"No."

"Please?"

"I'm not your father."

"But if you were my father…"

"Then I'd somehow have to scrounge up an amino tank, five billion dollars-"

Dollars?

"…and a few more million dollars' worth of lab equipment." Norm finished his water. "So, no. You're never going to get an avatar."

"Huh. Well, least I never got to taste it."

Norm looked at him.

"I mean, it must really such that your friend Jake, a warrior, gets to go on and bang some na'vi princess while you're stuck here in a body that was meant for 1g."

Norm got up.

"Still, word spreads." Javier knew he was pushing his luck, but as Norm said, he wasn't his father. He couldn't do anything to him. "There's some who think that you became a misery guts not because you lost your avatar, but because that pilot girl got killed in the Tree of Souls battle."

Norm looked at him like a thanator would its prey. Unlike said prey, Javier remained seated.

"What was her name…Judy? Susie? Well, I dunno. Guess it sucks that you're left here while Jake gets to keep his own girlfriend. Not to mention that I get popped out as well, proving that little Norms could be made as well."

Norm walked back to the table. He stuck his chair back in.

"Of course, maybe the reason you're so miserable is that you did sample the goods before things went down, and-"

Javier stopped talking. That's what happened when one got punched in the jaw. A punch strong enough to send him falling off the chair and onto the ground. Enough for him to spit blood onto his palm as he looked up at Doctor Spellman. Keeping his left fist clenched, and flexing his right.

"Trudy," Norm said.

"What?"

"Her name was Trudy." He paused, before walking off. And Javier remained silent.

Hell's Gate. He finally realized where Hell was. The place that had become Hell as the universe moved on. Caught between two worlds, but separated from both.

This very place.

A/N

So, at the time of writing this, some Avatar 2 facts were let known concerning new characters. Of all of them, the idea of Javier struck me as being the most interesting, what with being a human actually born on Pandora, and likely after the RDA was forced out. So biologically speaking, you'll have a human that's grown up in an environment very different from Earth, including lower gravity. Culturally speaking, well, that kind of speaks for itself. Course I have no idea what any of the new characters' personalities will actually be like, but I drabbled this up regardless.

Update (21/10/17): Altered the writing of the 'cryo section' as per feedback.