Chapter 2 – Blue Man's Burden
Silence descended over Ops, an invisible blanket of mutual dread, a moment that seemed to stretch into forever. No man was ever meant to process the scale of such a statement, to truly grasp the reality of that much destruction. For centuries, mankind had always stayed its own destructive hand before the end, sometimes at the very last moment possible. Extinction had been averted by the narrowest of margins from time-to-time, leading many people to believe humanity simply wasn't capable of making that last narrow leap into permanent oblivion.
Doubt lingered in Jake's mind, the turmoil of guilt, distrust and sorrow coming upon him all at once, like an unstoppable tidal wave. He could barely feel Neytiri's comforting touch or hear the whispering thoughts of her mind. Earth had been a wrecked world since long before he had been born, and yet the planet had remained a functioning wreck, soldiering on through all of the wars, the rampant overpopulation and the terrible mismanagement. Earth simply was and if one's own birth-world was not a measure of consistency in the universe, then what was?
"...Pandora, do you read? Did you get our last..."
"Yeah. We heard you." Jake croaked. "Do we believe you? That's a better question."
"There's no reason to lie. But... we will transmit our data." The voice was filled with a lingering sorrow, a weariness that came through clearly even over the static-filled transmission. Whoever was on the other end was either a very good actor, or was in deadly earnest. Trudy nodded as the satellite uplink connected, transmitting logs, videos and other data to Ops' computers. None were prepared for the images that appeared on the holo-console, or the data which accompanied them.
"Norm?" Jake asked simply, the unspoken question lingering in the air like a terrible stench.
"Looks legitimate at first glance." The scientist answered grimly. "I can't believe anyone would do that."
"I can." Trudy added truthfully, despite the shock etched on her features. Earth had always possessed a certain number of crazies who would be perfectly happy to lay waste to the entire planet in the pursuit of some apocalyptic goal. She had fought many such enemies before reaching Pandora. Even here, light-years from Earth, she had found Quaritch and his band of merry assholes. If there was any universal truth to mankind, it was that there were always some to be found who would rather kill everyone then admit error.
"What has happened?" Neytiri asked in English, confused, feeling the powerful tension in her lifemate yet unable to make sense of the Sky People machines or just what these newcomers were saying. Jake seemed to wrestle with this for a moment, conflicted about the subject, guilt flooding his awareness.
"Put it on the holo-display." Jake decided finally.
"Jake, I'm not sure we should..." Norm hesitated.
"Just fucking do it!" The ex-marine's angry, hurt tone demanded immediate obedience. Shock crossed Neytiri's features, she had not heard him speak in such a manner since that terrible day when Hometree had fallen. It was that same desperate tone, of guilt mixed with shame, of love combined with abject horror. Somehow, she knew her eyes would gaze upon a thing she would never be able to excise from her memory.
Blue light shifted into existence above the holographic projector, the familiar outline of the Sky World hovering before her. Neytiri recognized, through memories that were not her own, the outline of the continents, the shimmering cerulean oceans, the cloud-filled skies. It was as if she stared into the eye of the great orb which hovered perpetually in the Pandoran skies. The Na'vi knew the place as another world, a place untouched by Eywa, a wilderness far away. Jake had told her that his birthplace was so far away, it wasn't even visible as a speck in the heavens. Such a thing was difficult to believe without seeing, and yet here was the representation of the world, floating before her.
Something was wrong, the floating imaging zooming in impossibly far, showing some kind of great battle occurring in the void, Sky People weapons and machines destroying each other with impunity. She could not comprehend how many were inside those machines, but it must have been many, for with each flare of destruction, Trudy winced visibly. Through the furious battle, a gigantic rock broke through all. If the machines were mighty and massive, this rock was far larger, pushed by some machine she had never seen before. The comparably tiny machines stopped fighting and joined forces, turning their combined attentions to the offending rock, pelting it with weapons fire. Yet it was too late. The rock soldiered on, undisturbed, into Earth, blue oceans vanishing in waves of red-hot energy, continents shattering, the world slowly covering itself in dark ash that blanketed the entire surface.
Even though she understood so little of what she saw, Neytiri knew what the impact meant to the people who lived on the Sky World. Eywa respected all life, even that of the humans who had turned away from their destructive ways. What the humans had done to each other defied everything she believed in, everything her people understood about life. It was as if they had taken the will of Eywa and turned it around entirely, declaring war against all living things. Tears flowed down her cheeks, even for Sky People she had never met, for no matter what they may have done to her and her home, they had never deserved this.
"How could... they do this to themselves?" Neytiri asked.
"Someone purposely shot an asteroid at Earth? Why? Why would anyone do that?" Norm demanded almost simultaneously, nearly screaming into the radio.
"It's a long story full of all kinds of stupidity. That's not why we're here, though." The voice at the other end paused for a moment, as if summoning a great amount of courage. "We've come to ask you... for a place to live. There's no where else for us to go."
Trudy was livid, her face turning nearly scarlet with unbridled rage. "So you mean to tell us, you people just up and blew up Earth and now you want to come be our next-door-fucking-neighbors?"
"Pandora's the only habitable world we know of, now." The voice replied. "It's not like we have a choice. You think it's easy, to come out here and beg? You have any idea what it's like to witness that with your own eyes?"
Guilty thoughts roiled around in Jake's mind, wondering just how much of this destruction was his fault. Earth's economy had been a disaster long before he had left for Pandora. Just how badly did RDA's downfall hurt his former home? Would everything have still played out this way if he had never made that fateful decision, as he had watched his brother's corpse roll into the incinerator? Was it selfish to obsess over his own guilt at a time like this? He was Olo'eytkan, there were responsibilities now, he couldn't sit here and nurse his own emotional wounds while a battleship full of potential crazies was floating just overhead.
That fact was, perhaps, even more disturbing than the sight of Earth's destruction. For whatever else had happened, that warship probably had the potential to level Pandora if whoever was up there decided to go completely ape-shit. Yet knowing what happened to Earth, the Na'vi would probably banish him if he simply allowed them to land and settle here uncontested. They certainly had every right to deny entry to a people who had blown up their own home. Beyond it all, part of him still felt a connection with humanity, and he couldn't simply abandon them to complete extinction. Everything weighed heavily upon him, and he knew he couldn't simply decide the fate of this entire world himself. The other clans would have to be consulted, the thing would have to be worked out. No, it had to be worked out. It was as the leader up there said, there was no longer any choice in the matter.
"One shuttle. No weapons." Jake cautioned. "We will talk first. Humanity isn't exactly adored down here. You'll have to convince the Na'vi if you want to settle."
"Agreed." Came the simple reply over the radio. "We will send a shuttle down in twelve hours. We're prepping it now."
"What now?" Norm asked pointedly.
"Now... I have no idea." Jake answered, staring at his lifemate expectantly. Leading a clan was a thing you did more by example than by fiat, and he had been grudgingly accepting of that role. In truth, Neytiri did most of the legwork and kept things running smoothly. In war, he could lead, it was a trait expected of any marine, but in peace it was his mate's natural grace and sharp mind that proved far more useful. As much as he disliked the idea of falling back on someone else to make the decision, it was a thing he knew she would have to guide him through.
"We must go. Talk to the others and bring them here. You are Toruk Makto, they will listen. They will come." Neytiri stated simply in Na'vi. "I do not know how it will go. Many have been lost to the Sky People. They will not be easily swayed."
"What would you do? What do you think is the will of Eywa?" Jake asked solemnly. That, at least, was part of Neytiri's role as Tsahik. Where the entire fate of Pandora was on the line, the world-spanning consciousness would have to be consulted.
"All life is sacred. Eywa would not simply allow the Sky People to die for no purpose." Yet her expression was confused, and it unnerved Jake. She continued. "They will have to change much if they are to live in harmony with the People."
"Yeah," Jake began switching back to English and facing the others. "There's a lot of work to do. We're off to bring the clan leaders here. I'm... not sure what you can do."
"Fucking dumbassess. How in the hell could we be so stupid?" Trudy shook her head, trying to blink back a tear unsuccessfully. "I had family there you know. Hadn't spoken since I was little, but still, they were there... All fucking dead. Twenty-fucking-billion people." Norm nodded silently at Jake, passing along that silent cue to leave. Trudy had a heart bigger than a Samson, yet it was a vulnerability for her, a form of nakedness to have it exposed into the open like this. At this point, only Norm could really be there for her.
Careful to avoid bumping his head again, Jake ducked out of the hatchway, quickly making his way outside with Neytiri in tow. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could feel his ikran, flying freely above the base, searching for prey down below. Before he could summon the beast to fly him off to the other clans, his mate reached for him unexpectedly, binding their queues together without warning. Never before had she done this without asking, such a thing was almost unthinkable among the Na'vi, but then so was watching an entire planet full of people just die.
I am with you Jake. She thought, the voice echoing in their shared awareness. Neytiri felt his pain, his doubts and the lingering guilt that he was somehow responsible for this destruction. You did not do this, it is not right to blame yourself.
Would it have still happened if I had never come, came Jake's doubtful reply. His mate almost fell to tears at that thought, at the realization of what her life would have been like if he had never come at all, if they had never shared this life together. Connected as they were, she couldn't even imagine a life without her Jake anymore. It was like trying to imagine life without water. It simply could not be.
Even if it had never happened, Hometree would still have fallen, eventually. Many of the People would have been killed, and eventually her home would have become another Earth, another desolate battleground. Both worlds would have died. Eywa had known this for truth and that was good enough for her.
I see you. Jake calmed her roiling thoughts, pushing aside his doubts and his fears, as he had always been trained to do. His love for her passed through their shared awareness in waves. Their lips pressed together, not from desire but from a need to be close, a need to feel another body and another soul.
Earth was not his home anymore, but it had been, once. His human side felt the pain of loss, the anger at the insanity of it all. From the side of him firmly entrenched in the ways of the Na'vi, he felt the absolute revulsion at the thought of so much death, such blatant disregard for the sanctity of life. The thing could not be undone, all that remained was to prevent it from happening here, to preserve what was left, to keep the good in humanity and dispense with the bad.
I see you. Neytiri tried to force a smile, but Jake felt the emptiness of it, reaching for her instead, holding her tightly in warm embrace. They lingered there for a moment, alone over the cracked and worn pavement of the base, with nothing but each other for comfort.