Jake's POV
"In the beginning, the Great Master created all that we see. He created many worlds with many beings, diverse plant life, and many different people. He created you, Sky People on your Earth. He created us, the Omaticaya. He created the O'txep – the people of fire, the O'hufwe – the people of wind, and O'ean – the people of the water. He created the ikran, toruk, pa'li, and yerik along with the mountains and seas. However, what you must remember is that we all came from one Great Master. We are all the same though we are all different." Mo'at raised her hands and smiled. She indicated to Neytiri and I that we should sit closer and gather our queues.
We arrived at the Tree of Memories before the heat of the day. Mo'at had wasted no time preparing for her story. The pa'li fed on various flowers nearby while the pale blue and green willow shaded us from the hot Alpha Centauri A. I scooted closer to my mate and listened to Mo'at's words intently. "Great Master? Is this like a God? Is there something more than Eywa?" I was intrigued. This sounds way too much like the Book of Genesis from the Bible.
"Patience, you will know soon." Mo'at smiled at my eagerness. Neytiri sat upright, leaning forward expressing her interest as well. We made tsahaylu with the roots that surfaced the soil and the ground started to glow a rich royal blue, something I've never witnessed before in the forest or with the other Sacred Trees.
"Before the people, all that existed was Great Master. The night had no stars. The day had no sun, no warmth, yet no chill. The Great Master had a blank canvas, an empty loom. With his hollow heart, he yearned for love, so created four daughters. He loved them and gave them everything they wanted. He dotted the night sky with stars much to their delight. He gave them beautiful worlds to play upon, rings of great planets to run along, and the great suns to keep them warm."
Closing my eyes I first heard Mo'at's words, then I saw them. Four beautiful young girls, humanoid and angelic in appearance but note quite human or Na'vi, ran and played on a virgin planet's once green and lush valleys. Wild flowers and butterflies circled them as they giddily ran circles around this once utopist paradise. The sun was warm and gentle and the breeze blew through their shiny and sparkling hair as if kissed by the stars themselves. They hopped from world to world with only a skip and a jump, loving and appreciating each planet's gifts and unique beauty.
"They played on their many worlds until they came of age. The Great Master brought all of the sisters to his home, the eye of haven ta'em. He laid out in front of him fire, wind, water, and stone. They must now choose their destiny."
Without hesitation I saw the beautiful elements transform into pure energy and grace. He motioned to his first daughter, Veni, to step forward. Fire was deceiving as it danced around the mountainsides, teasing the little girl with her warmth and grace. The crimson, amber, and gold colors played with the sunlight and kissed the valleys. She begged the first sister to choose her as her life long partner promising love, passion, and power. Mo'at's words echoed in the background but I didn't hear them. I saw them and felt them. The other elements were overshadowed by Txep's* charm and personality.
Veni walked to the selection displayed in front of her and picked up Fire instantly. She praised and hugged the powerful element as the flame arrogantly batted her blazing eyelashes at her competitors. In a whirlwind the first daughter and Fire flew up as if in a heated tornado and disappeared into the stars above.
The Great Master beckoned for his second daughter to step forward. Wind took the stage this time and blew her mighty breath around the room bringing warmth, autumn leaves, and a welcomed summer breeze. She brought with her the smell of fresh citrus fruit, pine trees, and the salty ocean. She gently teased the second daughter to take her hand promising she would never be too cold or too hot, and would always have the wind to be carried on wherever she desired.
The second daughter, Zephyri, hesitating slightly, expectantly chose the Wind. The air fluttered around her lightly, picking her up and carrying her away as if she was upon angel's wings. They flew higher and higher until out of sight, disappearing into the stars with her older sister.
"Only two remained," Mo'at's voice broke my vision and brought me back to reality. I opened my eyes and saw that Neytiri was gazing at Mo'at as she began the next part of the story. "As you can see even in the beginning, the chosen must also choose. But this next choice was different." She continued.
"The third daughter Eywa and the youngest daughter, Gaia nervously eyed their destinies. Both Stone and Water were equally submissive, and equally powerful. They were both strong and stabile forces unlike the fickle and extreme natures of their earlier counterparts. The elements complimented each other well," Mo'at's voice once again faded away leaving me with only the visions and sensations of the past.
Eywa looked down at her younger sister and asked her to choose first. Gaia was humbled by her older sister's generosity and stepped forward to make her choice. Unlike her sisters before, one element in particular did not stand out. She saw statuesque mountains with snow covered peaks, waterfalls cascading over impressive and rocky cliffs, ocean waves beating against a flat shoreline lined with boulders and sand. The two elements intertwined with each other equally and gracefully. They balanced each other, one needing the other to accentuate their unique properties.
She turned back to her sister, confused, scared and unsure of her decision. The choice was not coming to her as easily as her previous sisters. She begged her sister to take it back and to make the decision first so she could accept her fate. She wanted both stone and water but could not choose them both. It had to be only one.
Gaia stepped forward and placed her hand lovingly on her younger sister's shoulder. She picked up the stone because it was less impressive and plainer than the water. She wanted to give her sister the more beautiful of the two elements. Stone was strong and satisfactory, however, water was graceful. It sparkled, cooled, and flowed and filled empty spaces with refreshment and life. Gaia, thrilled that her sister had made the choice for her, reached towards her chosen element and dove into the cool depths of water's body.
Eywa faced her father with her choice as Gaia gleefully rode the waves farther and farther away to her new place in the stars. She noticed Gaia wave one last time before she disappeared, the last time that she would ever see her dear sister. The Great Master smiled as he waved his hand over her chosen. In a voice so powerful it shook my soul to the very core. He said to her, "You may have been left with the plainest looking element of all, but do not forget what you hold in your hands is stronger than any element before. Of the four, only these two carry the gift of life. Always protect the balance of life."
The once dull grey rock started to glow and vibrate in her hands; she gripped it tightly afraid that she may drop it. Her fingers started to mold to the once barren stone and its magnetic colors rippled over her skin. Soon, the stone had swallowed her whole and covered her body with its luminous powers. Slowly, the growing mass started moving away from the smiling Great Master and towards a beautiful trio of stars in the far distance.
The vision faded and I opened my eyes to the setting sun and darkness easing in around us in the late evening. Mo'at was obviously tired having focused much energy into the story.
"Before you start with your questions, the story is not over. Tonight we must rest as tomorrow we will finish the tale and reveal your destiny, Jakesully." Mo'at nodded to me. I stood and helped her to her feet and towards a small fire pit. Neytiri collected a few fallen branches while I prepared the meat left over from last nights kill. Before we were able to serve our dinner, Mo'at had fallen asleep on her pallet.
"This has been a very hard journey for sa'nok. She needs rest. She will be hungry in the morning." Neytiri lovingly covered her aging mother with her tautral* blanket and put away her meal until the morning.
Parker POV – ISV Venture Star – 0800 – One week after deportation from Pandora
"I need all high ranking officers and any slightly high ranking executives of all branches of RDA in the upper flight deck conference room right now," Parker commanded over the intercom of the starship. "I also need all management of service personnel and cryotechs. Pronto. If you think you are part of management, drop what you're doing and get your ass up here."
Parker ended the transmission and sat back in the plush black leather seat. The captain of the ship had asked him numerous times what was going on and how they were going to be able to handle the journey back to Earth. Parker had been putting it off until he could find the right words to say, but today he was just ready to get it over with. One by one people started to file in the meeting room. Some of them had been forced into their rank because of a dead superior. Some were only doing what they could to help. Finally, Captain Whitt Brewer walked in and shut the door behind him. He was the highest-ranking member of the military on the ship as well as being the Captain of the ISV Venture Star. The important part was that he wasn't directly employed by the military. He was a "hired hand" that worked for RDA. And that means he had to obey Parker. Quaritch also had to obey him, but he turned the dog loose too quickly. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
Inspecting the occupants of the room, Parker knew he was the boss on this ship, being in the direct chain of command with RDA; however, the success of his idea will be directly proportional to how well he can convince the rest of the patchwork crew of the same.
When everyone settled, Parker began.
"The first thing I need to find out is exactly how much life support do we have on this ship. This includes oxygen, food and water. I need to know what we are looking at time-wise and if we have enough to get back to Earth. Who's in charge of this now?"
A man in his mid 20's dressed in a grey jumpsuit raised his hand nervously and looked around the room.
"Stand," Parker commanded, "And tell me what you got."
The young man stood and looked upwards trying to avoid Parker's gaze. "We have plenty of oxygen stores as those were already filled. The O2 proximators are functioning as well so that is not a concern even with the extra passengers." He dropped his head and started picking at his fingernails.
"And?"
"Well, the problem is with food and water. The ship is only supplied with enough to house 150 people maximum. Most of these people are in cryosleep during a normal flight. We have exactly 349 people on board and only enough cryo chambers for 100. That still leaves 249 people at any given moment we have to feed for 6 years."
"Wait I thought we had 200 cryo chambers?"
"No sir, the Venture Star is a smaller ship."
"Shit. Okay. Thank you. Sit down. Who's the highest ranking military official on the ship?" As Parker suspected, Captain Brewer stood up and looked around checking to see if he was still within rank.
"G'morning Captain. What are your thoughts on this situation?"
"Morning Parker," he didn't waste any time getting to his point. "I honestly believe we need to leave some people here. If we try to leave now, as is, we risk the health of the entire flight and the health of the people on board this ship. I'm suspecting violence will break out when food storages disappear and at that point there will be nothing we can do. We will starve."
His voice was crisp, stern, but concerned. Parker knew he was right, and at that moment he knew he would have him on his side. The sounds of people shifting nervously in their seat and whispering among themselves quickly filled the room.
"Any scientists on board? Animal lovers? Tree hugging hippys?"
A young girl stood, confident and clearly annoyed, "Sir I am all of the above if you would like to put a label on someone who actually appreciated Pandora for more than the rock she was made of."
The room grew eerily quiet as all eyes fell on her, then Parker. "Well hello Miss..?"
"Diaz. Leslie Diaz."
"And you are in here why?"
"Because your dumb ass got us expelled from the planet. And yes, I would be the first person to volunteer to go back. In fact, get a ship ready and I'll go now."
Parker tried to hold his temper, "That wasn't the question. Look, you listen to me. I've had corporate assholes breathing down my neck for the past 10 years on this God forsaken planet. I've watched people get eaten by flying dragons and my bottom line has fell through the floor. At this point anything you say to me doesn't mean shit. Because right now the only thing I have on my mind is saving my ass. It is just a coincidence that I have 349 asses on this ship that I am responsible for as well. I don't care if you jump ship right now and land in the deepest most sacred part of the rainforest below." He felt his blood pressure rise and his face getting red, "RIGHT NOW, we have to come up with a plan. NOW," he slammed his hand onto the table, many people jumped at the noise. The urgency of the situation was finally felt throughout the room, uniformly. The scientist sat down.
"Numero uno, we have to reduce the numbers on this ship. There will be three options." Parker sat down, trying to calm himself. The scientist was right and it made his blood boil that she called him out in front of what was left of the "higher ranking" personnel.
"The first option is to be sent back down to Pandora. We will need to make contact with Hell's Gate and Jake Sully to arrange this. We do not have a choice and we will have to adhere to all rules they give us IF they even agree to let us come back."
"IF they let us come back, we can negotiate importing local rations to help with the flight. I'm sure if we tell them we just need food for the trip home, they would fill a whole fucking Valkyrie 100 times over."
The feisty scientist motioned with her hand as if she was asking permission to speak. "Go ahead," Parker acknowledged.
"I was friends with Max Patel and Norm Spellman, both on the avatar team. I wasn't with the in crowd so I was forced to leave like many others. I would like to speak with them as I believe they would trust me before they would trust you."
"Fine. You handle that then and keep me informed. Do you think all of your hippy friends on board would be interested in going back to Pandora?"
"Yes sir, I'm almost certain all of them would."
"How many are there?"
"Roughly 20."
"Great." Parker realized that was not near enough to make a dent in the population crisis.
"Next, option is to be put in cryo indefinitely. We have 100 cryo chambers. Anyone have any idea how long someone can stay in cryo?" He knew nothing about the science behind all this.
"Up to 20 years. At that point the body tissues get extremely weak and revitalizing is difficult to almost impossible." Parker looked over and saw the nervous tech guy fiddling with his pen as he answered the question.
"The last option I would like to talk to Captain Brewer about personally. At this point I would like everyone to report back to your stations and get some numbers for me. Ask your buddies if they want to go to Pandora or go to sleep or if they just don't know. I also need to get everyone's names and ID numbers. Report back to me by 1700 today. Thank you all for coming in."
The members of the room disbanded and Parker motioned for the Captain to sit next to him.
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"Max Patel, come in."
"Max, do you copy?"
"Max, this is Leslie Diaz from the biochemical mechanics lab. I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I'm on the Venture Star. I know we aren't the best of friends; however, we have a crisis up here. I think Parker is ready to negotiate.. in your favor."
"Help us Max."
"Please. I'm afraid he's going to kill us if this doesn't work."
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* ta'em – up above
*txep – fire
*tautral- sky palm