Sory if it took a while to update but it is my longest chapter yet. Enjoy!
"Normal" - english speach
"Italics" - thoughts
February 27th 2151
Will was leaning against the wall in the mostly empty storage room. It was eleven thirty and nobody had turned up yet.
His evening had not been too comfortable. For diner he had sat down with some troops hoping for a similar intelligent conversation to the British troops he had talked to back home. What a mistake; he had to endure some rather disgusting stories and few understood his humour, British wit was like that. Tomorrow he would sit somewhere else.
The handle on the door began to move and Will silently ducked behind a crate and drew his revolver. He heard little but Will could tell someone had entered the room.
"Greed and destruction go hand in hand. We know your hear." Came a very sturdy voice.
Will smiled. "And thus without them we move forward until dawn." It was the Commonwealth's motto and frequently used as an all clear or simple friend or foe test. He holstered his gun and stepped out from behind the crate.
"My name is Zachariah Felps, but in public you will call me Ian Brown. I already know who you are Mr Highlander." The man was taller than usual with short but slightly messy brown hair and blue eyes. He had a sturdy build but was not ridiculously over muscled like some of the troops on base.
"It's Doctor Highlander if you insist on using that name. So, how is this going to work then?"
Zachariah smirked. "Your independent, this beefing is mostly a formality. My team has no jurisdiction over you however we do have a few things to help you get started if you chose to accept them."
Will smiled. "Had no idea you would be so accommodating. Let's hear it."
"OK. For starters we've set up a trojan in the bases mainframe. It will give you access to all systems and all but the highest level of clearance; we're still working on that one. Unfortunately there's a catch; use it to access anything really sensitive or frequently used and there is a greater chance of its discovery." He handed will a data chip and he slid it into his wrist computer.
Will looked over the software. Computers were not his strong point but the interface was simple enough for him. "Sweet. What else?"
"Well your equipment along with ours and a compact superluminal communicator is being stored in warehouse fourteen. It's long term storage so hardly anyone goes in there. We've been tampering with the manifest as well so people don't know about certain useful items stored there such as six cruise missiles that have been sitting there for five years." They both chuckled but his good humour soon dropped. "However, the communicator has been sending incriminating evidence about the RDA back to the Commonwealth non-stop. The working conditions here are appalling, they say every miner goes back to Earth rich but they end up spending it all on booze or shrinks. The resident cytologist is very well paid and very pro RDA."
Will stared him in the eye. "Well, that's why we're here, to sop the sons of a bitches running the RDA from ruining humanity, its people and our pride in it any more than they already have."
Zack gave a sour smile. "I suppose your right. There are a few other things you should know about before you get started. First of all we've been prohibited from deliberately derailing human relations with the Na'vi." Will was about to protest but Zack spoke out first. "Now I know what you're thinking, it's the easiest way to disrupt the operations here. However I did say 'human relations' not RDA. If there's going to be an uprising we want humans fighting alongside the Na'vi. But preferably not with sticks and stones." He added hastily.
He thought about it for a minute. "Well, I sincerely hope it does come to something like that." Will had a lot of spite for the RDA built up inside.
"So do I at times but these are still people on this base, no matter their employer. Most of them have little other choice; you simply chose a bad seat tonight at the dining table. On that subject you would do best to avoid the 'testosterone brigade'; their lap dogs of Major Quaritch. The basted is not to be trifled with; he exposed my predecessor just before he was due to leave this rock. Tortured him for information. Didn't get any though. A large group of marines are fiercely loyal to him but fortunately there type is easy to spot." He said distastefully.
Will was a little shocked; none of the Commonwealth's spies had been discovered for decades. "Shit. Thanks for the warning. I also remember a Falco, anything on him?"
Zack snorted. "Without a doubt the worst human I've ever met. Very pro RDA, might makes right sort of person and doesn't like the Na'vi. Thinks their standing in the way of human progress. Likes pulling strings and manipulating people from afar even if he lacks the people touch. He's the second in command so I really hope Conrad Olson lasts the next four years for his replacement to arrive. Conrad is not a bad man but he did have a nasty brush with an individual Na'vi who's killed a lot of his men. Revenge or something, I never got the whole story. Then there's Grace Augustine."
"The Grace Augustine? I didn't think she was the company type." Will remembered a few of her recordings that had been sent back to Earth. The RDA editors were good but the BBC was better, making a front line stories of the edited footage and recordings.
Zack chuckled and looked at him as if he knew what Will was thinking. "She ain't. Even saved my ass once without knowing it, started bitching to an administrator about something and diverted his attentions from what I was doing. The problem is if you spend too much time around her you'll be black balled by Falco and Quaritch. The scientists practically worship her and she's as close to on our side gets without knowing about us so no worries there but a few of her underlings are of different opinion, watch out for them. That's all I think you need to know about thing around here. Anything more specific and your trojan can tell you what you want to know."
"Well, thanks for the info. I'll see you around, but probably not if you don't want me to." Will joked.
Zack remembered something just as he was about to leave. "William, there is one more thing you do need to know. Are you aware you're not the only Highlander on Pandora?" He asked nervously.
"No, I wasn't. Who is it?" This surprised him, hadn't heard any of the family had gone into the spy busyness.
"She seriously never told you...? Your falling out must have been worse than I thought." Zack muttered to himself.
The fact Will was getting tiered may have had something to do with it but he was getting increasingly agitated. "Who? What are you babbling about? I haven't had any recent falling outs with any family members."
"It's your sister. Eleanor Highlander." Zack said rather plainly.
He was shocked to say the least. "Eleanor? She's here?"
"Yeah, sabotaging the RDA's science initiative. Sending as much of the useful information from it back to England as well. Uses the name Sofia Saxson." He explained.
Will sighed. "Typical her. Overreacting and running off. I thought she was in Africa or something, maybe even America but never this far away."
"Well now you know. See you around, probably won't see each other for a while."
"Yeah, bye." And with Will's understated farewell Zack turned and left.
February 28th 2151
The next morning he had difficulty waking up so his room mates had already left. Will made his way to the mess hall and retrieved a decent breakfast of Tapirus bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns and cooked tomatoes. He stopped to scope out a decent place to sit. "Miners; too dumb. Fellow spies; don't want to blow cover. Soldiers; too interested in killing and fucking. Technicians; too many boring details. Scientists; snobby but… given my other options looks like they will have to do."
Will proceeded to an empty pair of chairs at the end of the table. He got a few cautious and venomous glances from the other occupants of the table. "The soldiers and the scientists must not be on good terms. Never the less I am determined to enjoy this meal… however disgusting it looks." The alien bacon and hash browns weren't bad but the rest was pretty pathetic; the egg was probably powdered and the tomato had a faint taste of chemicals.
"Excuse me, you're sitting in my usual seat." A rough female voice called from just behind him. He turned to see a woman of about forty five with a stern face and fiery red hair. Doctor Grace Augustine.
Will shrugged. "First come first serve from what I heard." He had seen the Commonwealth's file on her; 'Possibly the best xenobotanist in human history with an attitude in proportion to her renowned'. "There's a perfectly good seat opposite me if you're not too skittish of us soldiers."
"Do you know who I am? Any idea of who you're dealing with? You're obviously new here." She said rather snidely.
"Your possibly the best xenobotanist in human history with an attitude in proportion to your renowned, or at least that's what my government says and so far I agree. Unfortunately for you however nothing gets between an Englishman and his breakfast." Will smirked to himself. "Personally I'm more of a physics man myself but I'm sure I know enough to strike up interesting conversation, if you don't mind joining me that is." He answered sincerely.
Grace tried to suppress a grin but failed and sat down opposite him. "You know I don't think anyone else has given me a more accurate description of myself in a long time. You've got guts." Her sudden friendliness surprised many of the other scientists on the table. "All hero worship and that from them, no matter how I act to get them off my back. So, what do you know?"
Will shrugged again. "Not much; read your book and saw the news reels. Like to see the original copy though, bet the RDA stopped you from putting a few things in there. But like I said, biology is not my best subject." He answered as honestly as he could.
"Wow, a smart 'jar head'. Maybe I can get him as my escort." She thought to herself a little sarcastically. "Tell me, what do you think of the Na'vi?"
Will thought for a moment and decided to give his honest but under formed opinion. "Well, my first thought is technologically primitive but not necessarily stupid. Your book makes it sound like their fun people to hang around with however I am a little nervous about meeting one, their ten foot tall and unlike you I don't have an Avatar. I think I will have to meat one to form a better understanding but I have heard about an incident with Conrad Olson flying off the handle about one of them killing a lot of men. You know what happened?" He was being bold now.
Grace bit her lip trying to decide whether or not to trust him.
Will apologised before she could decide. "Oh, sorry, probably a sensitive topic. I haven't even told you my name yet; Capitan Jaime Evans ex-SAS combat engineer." He said with a little humour.
"Dr Grace Augustine xenobotanist and head of the Avatar Program. You probably knew that already though."
"Yeah, more or less." Will took a couple more bites of his breakfast. "The news reports make you seem quite the pioneer and diplomat. Using you as a poster girl right?"
She snorted. "I know, Kristina the base's resident reporter isn't that bad but she paints a bad picture of what the editors back home do to her work." "He doesn't sound too bad for a soldier I think I can trust him but Parker will never give me a Capitan for an escort, at least not a good one."
The lull in their conversation let Will's ear catch something interesting, two others were talking about something. "nah, I tried that it just blew the fuse. I don't get it, the electron microscope attracts dust like nobody's business."
"I could take a look at it for you." Will butted in as politely as he could.
The guy looked at him snidely. "I think we can handle a little technical glitch solder boy."
His colleague decided to speak out against the other guys hostility. "Hay, you know how the techs are; they don't get around to us unless it's real important. Selfridge considers us low priority he could get it fixed quickly."
"You should deicide quickly as I'm only around for this morning. I'll even give you a seventy five present discount making my services free but act fast this is a limited time offer only." Will said with a grin.
"How the hell do I know you'll know what you're doing?" The first guy asked again.
"All you have to do is look up my file, I am a combat engineer. In Britain that means you would easily be trusted with a hadron collider."
Grace smirked. "I think we can trust this guy with a microscope, if not much else."
The two looked nervously at each other before accepting his help. "Obviously Grace caries a lot of swing around here, well, at least with the scientists." Will thought. "Excellent. I haven't had the chance to see the labs yet. Just let me finish breakfast and I'll see what I can do." The two colleagues left shortly after that.
Grace turned his attention back to him. "You know, I bet you don't even know where the lab is." It wasn't really a question.
Will let himself slip a slightly embarrassed look. "Uh, no. Not really."
Grace laughed a little. "Come on, I'll show you. I'm heading that way anyway." They disposed of their trays and continued. Grace didn't trust him yet but had a feeling it could come to that. "You're not the typical soldier are you? I assume the SAS is some kind of Special Forces right?"
"That's right. The Special Air Service, surprised so few around here have herd of it. It was the first Special Forces ever formed but your subject isn't really history is it." He mused as they walked down the corridor.
"Nether is anything military but they seem insistent on meddling in my affairs. Always trying to hijack my projects and tern them into weapons. To make it worse occasionally some marine goes cowboy and starts plundering for personal profit. It doesn't help my negotiating stand point with the Na'vi." She decided to go out on a limb and tell him what happened with Conrad. With his rank and curiosity she had little doubt he would fined out eventually any way. "You wanted to know about the killings yes? The one Na'vi warrior who took out a dam, a factory and close to a battalion of solders."
"I only knew he killed a lot of people, an impressive line up for one guy." Will said sourly. "You appear to have caught my interest."
Grace stopped and turned to look him in the eye. "Their is something familiar about him but I don't know what." She continued to walk at a slower pace. "Very well, I will indulge your curiosity. About two years ago a rather messed up lieutenant by the name of Sean Wallen raided a Na'vi tribe called the Anurai clan. He massacred the population and stole their belongings to sell on the black market. The attack wasn't sanctioned but nobody questioned it at the time."
This was quite rattling for Will. "Bastard. I can see where this is going, I'd be pity pissed to if someone killed everyone I ever knew and then had the arrogance to loot my home."
She snorted. "Tell me about it. Around a year later a pair of Na'vi warriors resurfaced and attacked locations where the artefacts were being stored and Sean had been recently. It is believed they were brother and sister and the only survivors of the attack a year prior. They later helped another clan, the Li'ona, by destroying an RDA dam that was causing a drought in their area."
"I knew the RDA was filtering the released news but this is... this is something else entirely."
Grace gave a bitter smile. "And the current administrator Parker Selfridge wonders why I am having little success negotiating with them. The destruction of the dam drew the attention of Olson Conrad who ordered Sean to return the artefacts to the village they were taken from. Unfortunately the pair had already moved on to destroying a factory. For some reason, I don't know what, they returned to the ruined village. Sean defied Conrad's orders and had prepared an ambush for them. It back fired and Sean was killed. This was the final straw for Conrad who led another raid against the village of the Li'ona clan using his Avatar in some bid for revenge. His Avatar was killed and he entered a cycle of depression."
"Wow, and he lasted a year after that? His replacement isn't turning up for another four." Will thought about it. "Conrad could be a problem, if he goes psycho and worse if he dies or becomes ill those Falco and Quaritch characters get to run the show."
Grace suppressed a twitch. "He is not supposed to know about Conrads replacement and most certainly not when. Even I didn't know that!"
Will noticed a sign giving directions to the science block. "Um, grace; aren't those the labs off to the left?" To Will she seemed to have spaced out for a second and walked past.
Grace frowned and blushed at her mistake. "So it is."
As they entered the labs they got quite a few surprised looks a few of which turned to scowls and even rearer smiles from people Will didn't think he would trust considering his agenda. "They probably think because I'm a soldier I'm pro RDA. Oh how wrong can they be?"
"Here we are, examination room four." Grace turned left sharply to room with the same two colleagues he met earlier bickering over something. "Play times over you two. Your saviour has arrived." She said sarcastically, gesturing towards Will.
"Hi there again." He extended a hand. "Name's Jamie Evans."
Grace gave a reassuring nod to the pair.
"Alan Coll." The friendlier of the two said as he shook his hand.
"Mathew Nickels." The other said shaking his hand with less enthusiasm.
Grace smiled reassuringly at the three. "Good... Now get to work, when I get back I'll have samples for that thing." She turned and left.
Will looked towards her as she left but soon turned back. "Right, so what seems to be the problem."
Alan went first. "Well, if you hadn't noticed the electron microscope here is the dustiest thing in this room probably the entire lab. It's blocking the lens and contaminating samples. A real pain in the ass."
"Got any tools I can use?" Will asked.
"We have a general purpose tool kit we keep around. I'll go fetch it." Mathew said and left to retrieve it.
Will decided not to waist time and started examining the microscope.
Grace was preparing to link up with her Avatar when her ever faithful assistant Max Patel confronted her. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company this time?"
He was acting nervously. "Quite a few people, including my self to be honest were wondering who your new friend was?"
"Capitan Jamie Evans combat engineer, special forces and a Brit. Said he could fix that microscope, you know; the one that ruined a dozen of my samples." She answered as she continued making her way to the link pods.
He frowned at her. "You know how the people around hear think of the mercs; they hate them! What if Falco or Quaritch sent him hear to get under our skin and spy on us?"
"What the hell would they gain by that?" She began calibrating her usual pod.
"You know Falco, he wants to turn the planet against the Na'vi using the Eywa network. Quaritch wants to bomb them into submission, make slaves or something out of them the sick bastard." Max ranted.
Grace sighed as she began climbing in to her link pod. "The Eywa network is only a theory and most lightly a myth. As for Quaritch he won't be in charge for a while, he's not a concern."
"Doctor Monroe thinks otherwise."
Grace looked him dead in the eye. "Max, I know I'm taking a risk here but this guy only got here yesterday for crying out loud. He's also a Brit and you know what their type think of the RDA once they see what's going on here. I got a good feeling we can trust this guy and we can most defiantly use him on our side. Spread the word to try and act friendly towards this guy."
Max sighed in submission. "Fine, if not for your gut instincts on people the negotiations would not be going so well."
Grace puled the lid of the pod closed. "I hope I'm right about this guy, I really do."
A/N: I hope I'm doing well but I havn't had much feed back or any sugestions. I was hoping to show a lighter, less biter side to Grace in this chapter, before the slaghter at the school house.