Part 10, where the other sort of Avatar is introduced. Brace yourselves for a bad joke.
"Room Atten-hut!" called out the angry female sergeant whose surname was Rose, perhaps not apt enough, she was pretty, but far more deadly than any rose, Nettle would be a better label for her.
The Colonel walked in along with a youngish, not too plump man wearing a pilot's overalls. "At ease" said the Colonel, and the room relaxed but the sergeant stood at ease, and it was clear to Andrei that the only person on the base she respected was the Colonel. They were in the briefing room, and the room felt very empty, as there was just Andrei, the Colonel, the three other crew members of the Dragon, Captain O'Donnell, and the eight soldiers that Andrei had chosen. The Colonel stood at the front of the room, then looked over the assembled men and said "Andrei I would like you up here with me for this briefing as you are the field commander of this expedition."
"Yes sir" said Andrei and got up to stand at ease on the left hand side of the Colonel avoiding the man hater on the Colonel's left.
Miles Quaritch did not like people to be too focused on drill while he gave briefings "Just relax everybody, make yourselves comfortable and focus on the task at hand." He took a remote control from the table and pointed it at the projector and turned it on. The windows also closed meaning that the light came from the glow from the corridor, and from the projector. On the screen came two maps from orbital imaging. The maps showed the areas in a 50 km radius from the Na'vi hometree, and the entire Hallelujah mountains. "You can tell what these areas are and no doubt Lieutenant Semyonov here" he said gesturing to the nervous young man on his left "will have told you that you are going on recon. I am here to fill you in exactly on what you are doing. Now," he clicked a button on the remote and the dual map screen disappeared to be replaced a full screen map of the area round the Omaticaya hometree "this is the area in a fifty kilometer radius around the Na'vi hometree that is closest to us. We have been in a sort of cold war with the tribe that inhabits it, the Omaticaya, for about twenty years now. Our main exploratory dozers are advancing in that direction and in about eight weeks time will be there. We are hoping the tribe will leave, and this reconnaissance mission is part of that effort. Lieutenant Semyonov here, and by extension, everyone of you are under orders to try and establish peaceful contact with the Natives and let them talk to a human ein who actually represents our interests instead of a some hippie here to bond with nature." Everyone chuckled, but Quaritch did not laugh at his own joke as that would have spoiled it. "However another mission you have of equal importance is to recon the area and map it entirely as well as gather any intel you can on dangerous plants, animal nests, etcetera, so we know about them when this turns messy, got that?" he asked in a voice he hoped was not nasty. No one had any questions. "Then there is this region." He clicked the same button, making the satellite map of the area around hometree disappear to be replaced by the area of the Hallelujah mountains. "We know little about it except that there are large unobtanium deposits in this region, much of it in the mountains themselves. We do not know much else however. The science team provides us little data, and at any rate, they themselves appeared to have properly explored less than one percent of this region. This is the place where flying will be difficult as instruments do not work in the mountains, something called a flux vortex. However, for those of you who have not read Dr. Augustine's book, or stopped before you got to this part because your brains were melting, this is a sacred place to the indigenous. It therefore has significant cultural value, and is likely to be a strongpoint for the enemy. We need to know everything we can about this region, so you will map every square inch of this region, so we know just what we are doing and we can have accurate maps inspite of the flux. Every day I will tell Lieutenant Semyonov where to go. He has my permission to explore whatever part of which region he has been assigned, and Captain O'Donnell" he said turning to the pilot "you will treat Lieutenant Semyonov as if it was me commanding, and go where he says to go. He in turn will respect your expertise as a pilot, and your superior rank, though due to circumstances, you go where he says you go, is that okay?"
Quaritch was relieved when O' Donnell smiled and said "Yep that is okay sir, I understand, I'm just glad I don't have to set foot in the jungle."
"Good now Andrei," he said looking at the nervous officer to his left "What have you to say?"
Andrei kept his serious face as he addressed the assembled soldiers and gunship crew. He reminded Quaritch of himself when he was younger, "Well I'm not going to tell the gunship crew what to do, except to..." Quaritch could see that Andrei's mind was trying to find the appropriate English phrase, but he winced slightly. He knew the others did not hold Andrei in high regard, they thought he was too soft and this was not helping. Andrei kept his eyes closed as and made downward motions with his right hand, concentrating on what he was saying "except to come when I say we need you and to go where we need to go, because we do not want to be in any tight spots for long."
Quaritch noticed one of the Privates sniggering at Andrei and stared him down. Suddenly the private was a lot less cocky.
"As for the soldiers, when you go on a mission with me, no short sleeves, you must where your combat shirts all the way down to your wrists. We are going to look respectable. Another thing no water bottles, but have a full camel back at all times, I don't want to have to stop just so we can drink." Quaritch noted that the soldiers were all grumbling at this, but he, and many other soldiers on the base would be inclined to agree with Andrei. Andrei turned to look at Quaritch again "That is all from me sir."
"Good" said Quaritch and then he turned back to the assembled people and switched off the projector. The lights came back on. "That is all from me. You'll be exploring the area around Hometree tomorrow, so Captain O' Donnell, Lieutenant Semyonov, get planning. Dismissed everybody."
"What about the LT?" Wainfleet asked his friend later.
"Man he is some thin shit that the Colonel likes cause he toadies up to him, let's just do our thing, I guarantee you the Lieutenant will be too chicken to make us to what we are told" responded Fike.
"Maybe not though" said Wainfleet "I mean he may toady to the Colonel but he seems perfectly serious, and seems to have genuine respect for the Chain of command. I mean I too think he's a little worm, but he's been here nearly four years and even though Lieutenant Drummond, nearly lost a Samson to banshees, he defended him from the Colonel. I think if we disobey him, we will answer to the Colonel, and we won't want that."
"Yeah I suppose so, but man I do not want to be ordered around by some desk jockey, who does not know what he is doing."
"Well, we have to be at the Dragon by 0730. This must be real important to the Colonel if he is letting the Lieutenant use his favourite toy."
Andrei Semyonov over heard them and then went back to his room. He made sure that he had all his kit and water filled up. Captain O'Donnell had said that he would bring extra water so they could fill up, and would bring packed lunches. Andrei had told his men to have their choice of meal, as they would be eating on the dragon, not on the forest floor where it was unsafe. Back in his room he put on martial music to instil in himself the will to fight. He listened of course to Soviet military music, but also to North Korean marches, as well as Japanese ones. The emotions flowing from these songs did indeed brace him mentally for what was to come tomorrow, for he did not expect it to be anything good. For the real threat to him was not from the planet, but from his own people, who were on his side. When he was a cadet in school, because people had disliked him, on his own team when they had gone paintballing, people on his own team had shot him in the back, with everyone condemning him for being soft because he cried. The pain did not make him cry though, it was the treachery. What was to say his own team would not dispose of him? He knew it they hated him, they wanted to kill him. It did not matter to them that they were on the same side or that he to was a human being with his own life. He hated them for it, and he wanted to kill them, before they killed him. Well that would not surprise him. He would be dead by their hands, why they wanted to kill him he did not know. He could not understand their mentality, he just did not know, and that made him hate them more.
He fell asleep not knowing where his enemy was, or if even the Colonel was an ally. He cried as fell into sleep, knowing that his parents were probably dead, and he would die unloved, uncared for, so far from home, with everything on the planet either not caring or being glad that he had perished.
On another part of Pandora, someone entirely different in character to Andrei was dreaming. She was Na'vi, a fearsome hunter, fastest of any in the Omaticaya tribe on foot, but not laughed at contemptuously by all in the tribe. Although not all illfavored in looks the men all refused her as a potential mate, the women liked to go after her, to make her feel bad. She was thirteen inches shorter than the average Na'vi female, and as such was not favoured by any. She had tried to get her own Ikran but was overcome by the beast's strength and had nearly lost her life. She remembered the derisive laughs of those waiting to get their Ikran. Tsu'tey, who she had a crush on, though that word was not in the Na'vi vocabulary, the phrase was meaningless love, showed sympathy but it was rife with condescension.
She was even ignored by her parents who were ashamed at having produced a dwarf. She could not turn her anger on her tribe though, or she would be banished and any chance at being accepted destroyed. She especially hated Jake Sully, who being a dreamwalker, seemed to get more attention than she did. At least they were bothering to help him, an enemy of her people learn their ways, no one was helping her overcome the troubles her height brought her.
She hated the Sky people as a way of channelling her anger. They were the only people who could not call her short, they were inferior to her and her people. She hated them. They destroyed their mother piece by piece, burrowing towards her heart trying to find their worthless rock. She did not understand why her people did not fight the sky people. They were not as brave, strong, or skilled as any of her people. They required their cowardly arrows, and metal beasts to even dare face them. She resolved that she would do what Ninat had done as part of her training, kill two people. She would kill them and finally be one of the people, they could not deny her, after she had killed sky people. Her name was Shodan.