Dr. Matthew Lucas received news of his promotion shortly after he heard the gunshots that signaled Dr. Augustine's defection. He had been in the Biolab dissecting a section of helicoradian when the alarm sounded and successive cracks of a gun sounded from above him.
Lucas was well into his fifth decade, and had been working alongside Augustine for around twenty of his life, not counting the six it took to reach Pandora. He had begun to drive an Avatar in the last five years, using it to explore the forest for biological material to run through the lab, and it was still in its physical prime, having been engineered fairly recently. He was stuck in the lab, however, most of the time.
Leaving the sample and tools behind, Lucas slid his chair over to the nearby computer station. As he approached, the curved projection screen flickered into life. He quickly manipulated the screen, scanning his ID to access the security camera feed. Cycling through a few, he finally found a camera mounted on the building outside. Through a covering of protective wire mesh he caught a glimpse of a Samson helicopter lifting off from the hangar and into the sky.
He returned to his work, shutting off the screen. Watching the feed, he had confirmed what he already knew would happen. He had been in the control room to watch the destruction of Hometree. The negotiations between the RDA and the Na'vi had failed, and Quatrich had gone ahead with the demolition. He had seen Grace and Sully tied up, struggling as fire and explosions erupted around them, and watched as they were untied, loosing sight of them as they escaped into the jungle.
He wouldn't forget the way Grace had snarled "MURDERERS!" at all of them when she emerged from the link unit, fighting off security as they dragged her to the holding cell. Sully had just stared blankly, stunned, until the guards lifted him out of the unit. After the two had been taken away, Lucas had watched the screens for a while longer, looking over the gnarled and smoking remains of the enormous felled tree, then went back to the lab.
He had just begun to apply small amounts of electricity to the neuromuscular system of the plant sample when the door to the lab bust open and Quartich stormed in. He was pale, as if suffering from oxygen deprivation.
"Lucas!" Quartich snapped, striding through an array of scientific equipment, computer terminals, and scattered desks strewn with datasheets.
"Sir." Lucas stood, straightening his lab coat. Though not part of the militia, all scientists and anthropologists had received training in arms – and military conventions – when they first arrived on Pandora. It was essential to have training in the hostile environment they would all be working in.
"It seems like we have a situation on our hands," Quartich said, arriving at his desk. Lucas noticed that his breaths were shallow and rapid, and he could smell trace amounts of Pandorian atmosphere coming from the Colonel. What the hell had just happened?
"In the absence of the appropriate authority, I'm promoting you to director of the Avatar program," he continued. "In addition to your current duties, you will now be supervising the other avatar drivers and communicating your activities and progress to Administrator Selfridge. In short, you will be taking over for Augustine. I suggest you find someone to assist you with your work in the lab."
Lucas nodded.
"Yes sir."
"Glad we're on the same page, Lucas."
Quartich left as quickly as he had come. Lucas rubbed his eyes with a gloved hand, then discarded the glove in the trash receptacle beside his desk. Hanging up his lab coat on the wall, he looked around the room. There were only two other scientists working in the lab, engrossed in their work. Lucas wondered if they had even paid attention to his discourse with Quartich.
"I need someone to continue my experiment," he said, and one of the researchers looked up. "Call someone if you can't do it your self," he finished, and headed through the automatic door to the link room.
Warning lights flashed and emergency signals blared in the command centre at Hell's Gate. There was screaming and a frantic scrambling for emergency oxygen masks. Avatars began pouring into the command centre, all armed. They leapt through the broken window, disengaging the air locks to let others in.
"I got him, Lucas."
Dr. Lucas's avatar turned to see driver and xenobiologist Hayley King leveling a gun at the head administrator of the RDA. Selfridge, freshly masked and gulping air, immediately threw up his hands.
"What the hell do you think you're all doing –" he said, stepping backward.
"Don't move you fucking son of a bitch!" she snapped, shoving the gun towards him. All around the command center holo screens displayed images of the ongoing battle. Lucas moved to a control desk, deactivating the decompression alarms.
"Look!" Li shouted, gesturing at the screens. All of them had gone white. Everyone went quiet, watching as the glare slowly faded. Some of the cameras cut out, and the screens quickly switched to new feeds.
"The explosives!" King shouted. She turned and bared her teeth at Selfridge, letting out an inhuman hiss. In her rage, Na'vi instinct was beginning to take over.
"Where did the bomb land?" Lucas said, gun gripped tightly in his avatar's hands and pointed towards the dozen or so technicians with theirs held in the air.
"Get a camera on the tree," Selfridge gestured nervously to the nearest technician.
It was still there.
They could see the soft glow of the tree's tendrils, surrounded by a sea of praying Na'vi. The avatar drivers let out a collective cheer, as did some of the technicians.
"All of you here were almost responsible for destroying that," Lucas said at last, pointing a blue hand at screen still displaying the column of smoke. "You may not feel like you were directly responsible, but all of you here played a role in the near-genocide of these people."
"Tie them all up and put them in the cargo room." Lucas finished. He turned to Hayley. "Except him. Keep him here."
She nodded.
"Get down," Hayley snapped.
Oxygen mask hissing, Selfridge dropped to his knees.
"All of you will be arrested once the military gets back," he said, raising his voice over Hayley's gutteral growl.
"Sir," came a voice from a console. It was a woman technician. "The militia have been captured and are returning to base. I've just received word that Quartich is down. We've lost."
"So much for that idea, Selfridge," said Li. "You better hope that the Na'vi don't decide to make you a part of their victory feast."
"The Na'vi don't eat human flesh," Lucas said, "So they will most likely dismember him and leave him in the forest to be eaten slowly by some other organism."
"That works just as well for me," Li replied, smirking.
Gasping noises suddenly came from the far side of the control room.
"My mask is malfunctioning!" a man cried, stumbling around his console. "I can't…breathe-"
He passed out, sprawling over floor.
Grabbing for a spare mask on the wall, Li nimbly sprang through the consoles until he reached the prone figure. He quickly made the switch, and the man stopped hyperventilating.
"We've got to get all these people out of here," said Lucas.
"I'll go," Hayley said. "I'll delink and meet you on the other side so we can bring them through."
Lucas nodded. "Fast, Hayley."
Hayley cleared a space on the floor of debris and lay her body down. She closed her eyes.
"Set me up."
Finding the nearest computer, Lucas scanned his ID. He patched into the terminal in the link center, found Hayley's unit, and began the delinking process.
Hayley plunged into chaos.
"Norm…"
"Norm, come in…what's your position?"
Jake readjusted throat mike, now wrapped around his human neck, and tried again.
"Norm, state your position and status."
He shook his head.
"I can't get anyone."
"Maybe it is broken." Neytiri offered. They sat in the clearing by Jake's avatar body, waiting; Neytiri cross-legged on the forest floor and Jake in his chair.
"Try yours." Jake shifted in his chair, trying to get a better look at the sky. "Are you sure he'll come if we wait here?"
"Once the bond is made, Ikran will know where his other half will be always," Neytiri said, reaching up to take Jake's small hand in hers. "I think it is the same with Toruk." With her other hand she touched her neck.
"Can anyone hear me? Come in, please. Neytiri and Jake are here."
They waited for a time, in silence, and then –
With a hiss and crackle, they hear the deep and melodious voice of a female Na'vi.
"What is she saying, Neytiri?" Jake asked.
Neytiri closed her eyes, ears swiveling slightly. "It is difficult. She does not speak like Omaticaya." She touched the reply button on her neck again, and began speaking in her own language. They talked back and forth, too rapidly for Jake to even pick up the gist of what they were saying.
"She is of the Eastern Ikran clan." Neytiri finally. "She has found the body of Norm. He has been hurt badly, from a gun."
"Norm's dead?" Jake asked.
Neytiri's eyes grew wide, and she quickly shook her head. "No, no, it is his dreamwalker body. And the body is not dead. She is bringing it to the tree, to heal."
A shadow passed over them. Jake looked up to see the Great Leonopteryx batting his orange wings as he descended into the clearing.
He turned to Neytiri.
"We have work to do."
