Chapter 2 Arrival
My wake up from cryo was a little more grueling than most. I was one of the minority of cryosleepers that don't awake normal defrost cycle. I woke up to the pain of the med tech's stimulant shot directly to my carotid.
"Ow! What the Hell did you do that for?"
"I needed to give your nervous system a jolt to get you up" the tech said.
"Did you think I might just be a heavy sleeper? Maybe give me a little slap to the face before you jab a needle in my neck?'
"Doesn't work that way. It's nothing like sleep, your brain almost shuts down, some people don't respond to the automatic awakening process. I had to give you a little more aggressive restart."
"Well maybe you could make it a little less like a cobra bite to the neck, and hurry up and get those tubes out of my arm! I don't want to get miss the first wave of shuttles because you don't know how to politely wake a person."
After being unhooked from the systems and monitors I made my way to the storage lockers to gather my belongings. I took the long route to them, relishing the feel of zero G and doing a few tumbles and spins to exercise my stiff muscles. I collected my duffle and shot my self down the length of the module to find the nearest viewing port I could, to get my first view of my new home, Pandora.
After struggling to claim a seat on the second shuttle I found my self rocketing through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds. After donning my mask I found the wait for the cargobay doors to open unbearable. What would the air feel like on my skin? Would it tingle? Burn? When it finally descended and the wave of air hit me I was astonished, it felt warm and moist, it didn't feel different than regular air, nothing to indicate that breathing it would make you drown in your own lungs.
I made my way to the main building and into the commissary/meeting hall for the big safety and orientation speech. After 10 minutes of listening to that SecOps commander's tiresome (and I suspected rehearsed) speech I found my way to the spartan quarters I was to share with a computer technician and programmer named Williams. I found it easily enough and after depositing my things and checking the trip hadn't damaged my computer or storage, I collected my ID keycard and went out to find my supervisor and the other repair technicians. I met him, a stern all business fellow who gave me a brief tour of the repair shop and the key areas of the base I needed to be familiar with, life support, waste recycling, power generation. He then gave me my initial assignment, the base's vehicle depot, where I would assist in repair and maintenance on most of the aircraft and AMP suits. I felt confident that if would fall right into it, considering I worked on systems that where integral to most of RDA's vehicles.
I fell into the routines of the base and the demands on my skills quite easily. I found the decreased gravity of the moon quite liberating, sure you eventually might loose some muscle mass, but it made working with heavy tools and vehicles a lot easier! I eventually met Williams, my roommate, and found we had a lot in common. He practically watered at the mouth when I told him I filled up a whole holomemory drive with music to bring here. Apparently he had forgotten to bring more than a few tunes with him and the mercenaries choice in music was, in his words, "leaving something to be desired".
After I quickly became bored with exploring the mineral refinery and the rest of the base in my free time, I stared asking around about how I could get onto an expedition into the bush or get permission to explore the area surrounding the base with a guide or two. I was quickly met with smirk laughter and told "It's not your job to go poking around in the forest and getting your hand chomped off!" I got the same response from almost everyone except one supervisor who offered to transfer me to mine repair work if I wanted to get off the base and "out into the wild". I politely declined the offer and eventually told "If you want to go take a walk in the woods, maybe you should go hang out with those tree-huggers in the science division".
I eventually made my way into the lab under the pretense of checking the status of the air handlers in that section, a job I had managed to swap from one of the other maintenance techs. I struck up a conversation with one of the head scientists and managed to make and impression on her and dropped a few hints that I was very much interested in what lied beyond the fences of the compound. I had found my way out.
I spent almost all of my free time in the labs from then on. I found the science team far more enjoyable company than any of the other staff on base, with maybe the exception of Williams. I found a good friend in Max, one of the scientists attached to the avatar program, what he liked to call "the great experiment". I gave them help with improving a lot of their equipment and and helping with repair work, since they where seen as of secondary importance and ignored by a lot of the other workers on base. I even became a hit with the whole division when one of them discovered that I had brought a whole library of video files with me. I arranged a few movie nights in the department, getting Williams, or Will as I began to call him, to lend me the portable hologram projector to show them with. The movies and a few of my choice TV shows where a hit with Dr. Augustine and most of the avatar drivers, although a lot of the other scientists couldn't go through a film without pointing out inconsistencies and scientific errors. I had to remind them that they where just stories and you had to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the story, although Alien and 2001 did seem to be a big hit with them.
After about two months I finally got my chance to go out with them, they pulled some strings and managed to get me assigned to go out and assemble one of their remote labs that they where utilizing for field research and extended trips with their avatars. The moment the Samson gained altitude and I could start to see more beyond the perimeters of the base the exhilaration overtook me, I was going to explore an alien world. I wished the journey to the site could have lasted forever, every time I looked down between the trees I was seeing something entirely new. All too soon we arrived at a small rock mesa that provided a good location that could easily be defended from predators and provided a good landing zone for the chopper.
I spent 3 days with them setting up the modules for habitation and making sure all the systems where functioning. I had become somewhat of a resident expert on the fuel cells that power everything from the amp suits to the power systems in the field labs. I was able to boost the power output by sixteen percent, which enabled them to increase the time they required between resupply flights. I went out with them on the second day in mixed company of avatars and humans on one of their collecting expeditions. I spent most of the time with snapping away with a camera I had managed to barter off one of the guys in the ops center for copies of most of my music collection and a few of the movies he had heard I had. Even In my wildest dreams I had not imagined the lushness and beauty of the forest. Luckily we did not encounter any large predators on that first outing.
I had to return to the base with the Samson and go back to my duties repairing the myriad of mechanical behemoths that experienced constant problems from the atmosphere, wildlife, and the occasional damage from the natives, caused mostly by the security and miners instigating. After my visit to this untouched Eden, I found myself depressed from being surrounded by the cold gray and silver of the base. I would gaze out at the forest when my work took me out of the hangers, the fence seeming like a prison meant to keep me in. The depression drove me to slip into the communications center one night and print off tree of the most beautiful pictures I had taken on that first outing. I managed to find a roll of waterproof paper meant for engineering plans and quickly set up the printer for the largest output it could handle. I rushed back with them rolled under my arm and some electrical tape in my hand. Williams eyed me questioningly from his top bunk as I entered and slid the door closed behind me.
"What have you got there?" he asked.
"Just some hi-rez print outs I made in comms" I said.
I jumped In my bunk and proceeded to unroll them and tape them to the walls and the bottom of Will's bed. I heard him shifting above me as I finished and laid back to admire my work, only to see his head pop over the edge to get a look.
"Landscapes? You printed out frigging landscapes to put in your bunk?"
"Not any landscapes Will" I said.
"Pandoran landscapes. This one on the bottom of your bed is Polyphemus and the other moons at dusk, so I can fall asleep looking up at the sky."
"I was expecting a beautiful centerfold some charitable soul sent through on the superluminal link. The comm techs occasionally slip in little tidbits like that for the guys out here in the data streams."
"No, this Is what I want to look at every time I fall asleep and wake up."
"You sure do love this place don't you Mike?"
"Yeah, yeah I do."
