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Chapter seven: No one's trial of courage
Norm was the first one to wake up. There were no clocks but bright morning light shined through the window. He wanted to get up but something held his arm. "If they tied me to bed, I'll never drink with them again" Norm thought but after he checked what was holding him, he smiled.
It was Jake's tail which was wrapped around his arm, and he held him tightly.
He tried to take his tail off, but it was stubborn as Jake himself. "Figures" Norm thought and then prodded Jake with free arm. Trying to wake him,
"Let me sleep for another five minutes Ney'tiri" Jake said in na'vi. And Norm tried not to laugh too loud. He didn't want to wake anyone, but if Jake won't let him get away, he has to do it. "Jake, it's me… Norm!" he said while shaking with him. Jake woke up after shaking, and then looked at the Norm "What is it?" Jake said and covered his face while he yawned.
"Just wanted to tell you how possessive you are" Norm said with amused smile
"What?" Jake said looking at Norm, who pointed at the arm with Jake's tail coiled around it
"Well, you're quite a whiner, now we're even" Jake said while releasing Norm from his tail-grip.
"Where's Rick?" he asked and then turned his head, immediately answering his own question.
"Oh, there he is" he said while looking at Rick who's lower part of the body was buried in the pile of dirty clothes, he was drooling, and held two empty bottles in his hands, using one as a pillow.
"Check him for life signs? " Jake asked looking at norm who smirked.
"He's really a booze hound" Norm said looking at Rick whose face twitched as Norm mentioned Booze.
"We should wake him up, he's coming with me." Jake said.
"Why?" Norm asked, then stood up and stretched.
"He's got nowhere else to go, sure he could stay here but you guys would be dead after three nights like this, and of course he promised me to help with moving."
"You found a place for all the na'vi?" Norm asked, smile appearing on his face once again.
"Yes, and I came here for you too." Jake said grinning
"Oh, don't tell me!" Norm's eyes sparkled,
"Yup, you are..." Jake started
"I'm going to get a mind transfer!" Norm exclaimed
"…going to help us move everything." Jake finished with his grin still on his face.
"Oh" Norm said disappointed
"After you get your mind transferred, so pack up your lunch and your avatar too." Jake said after a while
Norm cheered and jumped in excitement.
"If my headache won't kill you, I will do it instead!" Rick growled now fully awake.
"All seamen are assembled on the deck Capt'n" he said and then added loud "YARRR" to finish his best pirate's impression yet.
"You'll walk the plank if you don't stop yelling, and you too skipper!" Rick said while he unburied himself from the dirty clothes, and then tried to stand up, but after he tried to do so he sat back into aforementioned clothes
"And this is why are they here" he said, and then stood up once again.
"Okay. So what were you talking about?" he asked and Jake was first to answer "About your promise to help us move, and about Norm's Mind transfer."
"I'll be finally na'vi, one of The People." Norm cheered once again, and ran off to pack his things.
"That's cool" Rick said while he took his backpack from under his bunk.
After he looked up, Jake was still on his bunk. It was comical to see that big blue na'vi on that small bed.
"Settling in?" Rick asked while packing up the things he would need, that consisted of toothbrush, towel, some clothes, and the rest of the unfinished alcohol
"Nope, watching you packing the most important things in your life" he said, once again making fun of Rick.
Rick suddenly stopped and then turned to Jake; with blank look on his face he slowly reached his arm towards Jake's head,
Jake was confused, and maybe startled. But as Rick's arm got close to his throat.
"wha?" Jake asked but then Rick suddenly pushed Jake's head aside and took a photo from the wall. "You almost scared me" Jake said jokingly and after that he looked at the photo which Rick held in his hand. "Hey!" Rick said pulling the photo from Jake's view and holding it close to him.
"That thing is personal!" he said and shoved it into his pocket.
"Sure thing" Jake said climbing out of Rick's bunk and went to the hallway, looking back at Rick who packed some cigars and that was about all. "We're leaving in hour, that should be enough time for you to finish packing, and recalibrating another AMP for you, we're taking Samson to drop us near sacred tree, so please pick up quiet one." Jake said, with a plan of travel forming in his head.
"Who will pilot the Samson?" Rick asked, "You are, we're taking the transport version" Jake explained, it was logical, AMP's were big and wouldn't fit in Samson, so they've been attached to Samson instead of weapon load out and then dropped where they were needed.
"But I'm crappy pilot!" Rick said with sincere look on his face. Sure he was trained to use vehicles of all sorts, but he seriously sucked when it came to flying. He was a pilot, so instead of extensive training in infantry warfare, he was taught how to use land and air vehicles, he was pretty good at ground vehicles but as he mentioned, he was crappy pilot.
"You'll manage" Jake said while he walked away.
"Great!" Rick said sarcastically, then he packed up, thought about taking a shower, but then he left without it. He will not need it when they all die in horrible Aircraft accident involving him trying to stabilize Samson in mid air with AMP attached to its belly, and then it would involve lot of trees, attempts at landing, falling and then blowing up with mushroom cloud comparable only to the one that atomic bomb could make, normally Samsons wouldn't blow up that much, but with the headache Rick currently had, he must've drank enough to cause such an explosion.
"Yeah, thinking positively, it always helps!" he said as he put on his ceramic armor which he forgot to take in his last mission and then left for the hangar.
After he reached the hangar, he saw that there were many AMPS left there, He thought about taking his MK-4 but it was armless and loud, he and Jake didn't want either of these things.
Then there were few MK-5 who were at the far side of the Garage, and the rest were the usual MK-6, but after few minutes of searching, he found something that sparked his interest. It was Mk-6, which was covered in "factory default" white color, . It was never used according to the maintenance log next to it, and there was no name on it yet! And there were paint prepared next to it, obviously RDA got this one the day they were exiled, and didn't even paint it with camouflage pattern yet.
"Woo! I can customize this one!" He yelled as he picked up sprays and started his work on customized AMP.
After one hour and thirty five minutes
"I needed to pack more things!" Norm explained through exopack he was already wearing while Jake was walking in front of him.
"Whatever" Jake said while entering the hangar, after that he saw Transport tilt-rotor Samson with new name on it's doors and Rick sitting in the pilot seat.
"What do you think about the name on the doors?" Rick asked, Jake got closer to read it and then laughed, Norm got there a few seconds later, but instead of laugh he gulped. There was writing saying "Rick 'I told you I would crash this plane' No one"
"Where is your AMP?" Jake asked as he took of the clothes covering both motors.
"We need to pack this one's blue guy first." Rick said pointing to Norm, "Where is he anyway?" Rick then asked Jake then looked at Norm whose face went pale white
"I knew I was forgetting something!" Norm yelled as he loaded his belongings consisting of one fully loaded, RDA issued human Pack.
Jake went back with Norm to help him,
After another five minutes, Rick saw both of the guys again, Jake was lugging Norm's limp avatar, while Norm was just holding his avatar's tail in the air.
Rick laughed as Jake sat Norm's avatar in the seat
"Ok next time, I will think thoroughly about helping you." He said while Norm smiled innocently.
"Ok Jake, one more thing for you to do, I'll try to keep this baby steady as you attach it to me." Rick said. Samsons were not made exactly for this purpose but RDA had to improvise on many things. So they developed this "Hovering loading", truth to be said, they should've spent more time making ramp for it so it wouldn't be so difficult and dangerous. But that is RDA.
"Where is it?" Jake asked as he exited the vehicle. "It's coming right up!" Rick said while pushing remote control and then Floor in front of the Samson opened, and lifted newly painted AMP lying on its face in front of them
Jake was firstly dumbstruck by the customization on it, and asked Rick
"You've done this? In an hour?!" he asked pointing at the AMP which was Blue with white stripes, and got covered front with old school roaring face used on the airplanes in second world war.
"Yep, and I've done the registration number too" Rick said while Jake went closer to see it.
"Yeah, that seems like you. Nobody else would put license plate on their AMP, especially not one saying "No one's AMP" he said but then he noticed a small sticker under it
"But the sticker is good!" Jake said, and Rick laughed. "What does it say?" Norm asked.
"Na'vi pay better" Jake replied still laughing but then he got over yelled by Samson's motors
As the Samson lifted, it was leaning right and left but Rick eventually got that, but not before Norm yelled that they all are going to die here. But after Rick stabilized it he said "You should've read the sign on the doors before coming on board then" and then he lowered the plane to almost sit on the AMP, Jake then only fastened it down using chains clinging from Samson. After he attached it all, he climbed into the Samson saying that "we're ready!"
"Okay" Rick said while trying the controls with AMP attached to Samson, AMP was just a dead weight so it wouldn't affect his flying at all. But it was somewhat more difficult to climb to some height
"So I think I've got it. Jake, do me a favor and pray to Eywa"
"What for?" Jake said jokingly, already knowing the answer
"Pray that what I've written on doors will not happen" Rick answered and then went through hangar's door, flaying the paint on his right tilt rotor and creating horrible screeching sound when he did so.
Will Rick crash that Samson? Will everyone survive the crash? Will that AMP get its new paintjob Flayed?!
We'll see in another chapter.
