The Balance of Life
Part One - Discovery
Chapter 3 - Part 4--- Aftermath
Author's Note:
A reviewer commented on Max's last name. In the movie it's Patel but in the script it's Cullimore. I'm sure more of this kind of variance will surface. Shouldn't make a big impact. I'll correct these as they are discovered.
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Once Norm and Karen were sure Susan was going to be all right they returned to the lab for the very unpleasant task of dealing with Andy's body. Actually they had to deal with both his human and avatar bodies. The RDA never shipped dead bodies back to Earth. They maintained a small crematorium in one corner of the hanger bay to dispose of the remains of anyone who died on Pandora.
While Norm and Karen were checking on Susan, Buck and Kyle removed Andy's body from the pod, placing it in a black body bag and onto a stretcher.
"Is everyone ready?" Buck asked when Norm and Karen entered the lab.
When everyone nodded or voiced their readiness Kyle and Buck hoisted the stretcher and started for the hanger bay. The trip was short; no one spoke along the way. The longest part of the trip was walking across the huge hanger bay that was almost completely deserted of aircraft and AMP suits. The doors were sealed to keep out aerial predators. Now that the perimeter wall was partially breached hopefully if would keep out those that walked or crawled as well.
It was impossible not to see Andy's avatar sticking out from under an AMP suit that lay toppled face down on the hangar floor. Everyone felt a chill run through them, especially the drivers.
"As soon as we have taken care of Andy's human body we will come back for his avatar," Buck said as the little procession passed by the fallen avatar.
Karen had been trained in the operation of the crematorium, but this was the first time she had actually used it. She hoped it would be the last. Setting the stretcher on the floor, Kyle and Buck waited for Karen to open the door and slide out the metal slab. Norm was glad to see that the slab was big enough to accommodate an avatar. He figured he wasn't the only one relieved by the fact that they wouldn't need to sever the avatar's legs in order to get the body into the cremation chamber.
"Would anyone like to say some last words for Andy?" Buck asked after he and Kyle had placed the body bag on the cantilevered slab.
"I will," Norm said after several seconds of awkward silence. He felt at least something should be said by someone. For no one to speak would be a sad commentary on their lives.
"I did not know Andy Truman very well. Having been on Pandora a little over three months, with more than half of that time spent at Site 26, I didn't really get to spend much time with him until the last few days. He impressed me with his respect and feelings for the Na'vi. He never seemed too busy to answer questions. He was always willing to help me improve my Na'vi language skills. I don't recall ever meeting anyone who didn't like him. His life was ended simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something that could happen to any one of us, as avatars or as humans. We will miss him. He was a good man. May his spirit join with Eywa and he forever be a part of the planet he loved so much."
"Does anyone else wish to speak?" Buck asked.
When no one responded Buck nodded at Karen. Everyone watched as the slab slowly retracted into the cremation chamber and the steel door closed silently. A few seconds later the sound of gas jets kicking in could be heard through the walls of the chamber.
"The process takes about thirty minutes," Karen said into the silence hanging over the group.
"Buck, if you and Norm would push the floor hoist over to the fallen AMP suit I can try to right it. At the very least I will be able to lift it off the avatar and out of the way," Karen asked as she stepped away from the crematorium. "It's just over there, against the far wall."
"Rocky, would you get a motorized ordinance carrier? We can use it to move Andy's avatar to the crematorium. It will be easier that trying to carry it."
"We are going to check on the other avatars. Make sure they are ok." Abby informed Karen as she and Judy headed towards the fenced in area of the hanger bay.
Karen waited at the toppled AMP suit for the guys to arrive with the hoist and ordinance carrier. When she noticed the pool of blood beneath the avatar she felt her stomach churn. Clenching her jaw she looked away trying desperately not to picture Norm's avatar in her mind. She knew that every time he linked up she was going to be uneasy until he was safely out of the pod. She also knew that he would have to go out again, that he wanted to go out. All she could do was ask him to be careful, that and pray.
With Karen directing, they were able to hoist the AMP suit and rotate it out of the way. She had decided not to try and set it back on its feet. It took all four of them to lift the avatar onto the carrier. She opted for one of its legs, keeping her eyes averted from the crushed rib cage. By the time they reached the crematorium with the avatar it was finished with Andy's body. When the steel door opened they all felt a blast of residual hot air.
"Be careful not to touch the slab. It will still be hot," Karen warned as she cycled the slab out to the waiting position.
Once the avatar body was on the slab Karen started the cremation cycle for the second time in less than an hour. As there was nothing more to say Rocky drove the ordinance carrier back to where it was normally parked.
"I feel pretty hollowed out," Karen said to Norm as they walked back towards the fenced in area.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. This has been a real pisser of a day," Norm replied, taking her hand in his.
"Are the avatar's secure?" Norm asked when they reached the cage as Judy and Abby came out and closed the gate.
"Yes, they are in normal stasis," Judy replied.
"Let's go see what Gary and Zoe have discovered about the earthquake," Karen suggested. "Maybe they will have some good news for a change."
"Don't count on it," Rocky muttered as he led the way out of the hanger bay.
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Gary and Zoe met up with Norm and the others just outside the temporary airlock to the lab. It took several minutes to process all nine of them through the airlock, three at a time. Once inside, after checking the air quality Gary removed his exopack, the others following his lead.
"I was really starting to get tired of that thing," Zoe commented. "I don't know how the security forces wore it for days at a time."
"It was that or die," Buck replied. "One of those easy choices."
"Yes, I see your point. Guess I'm a bit spoiled spending most of my time inside the complex."
"Everyone keep your exopacks close at hand," Gary ordered. "Even though the quake did minimal damage to the complex, new breaches could happen at any time."
Several good natured, and some not so good natured, acknowledgements reverberated through the lab.
Max, Susan and Ron entered the lab after Gary stuck his head in the prep room and ask them to join us.
"Before we get to Zoe's report, I wanted to let you know that we should be able to get normal, earth normal, air restored throughout the complex in about five hours. There is one patch that needs to be applied on the outside. I'll leave it up to you drivers to decide who and how many of you should go out. I think at least three of you should go at a minimum. A few doors need to be resealed. A patch on the inside, opposite the outside patch, then we should be good to go. With that said, I'll let Zoe have the floor."
"I'm not sure where to start," Zoe began nervously. "The long and the short of it is that our continent has split into three sections."
"You're joking, right?" Judy asked, a stunned expression spreading across her face. Zoe now had everyone's full and complete attention.
"No, I'm afraid not. As you may or may not know, this was the largest continent on the planet. That's why the RDA chose it for their mining operation and base of operations. The open pit mine was the common point for the three fracture lines. Like a hub with spokes. We, Hell's Gate, are in the eastern section. Our new west coast is about ten kilometers west of here. Two of the fracture lines run pretty much north to south right through the middle of the open pit mine. Or what was the mine as it isn't going to be used for that any more. From there another fracture line runs southwest, skirting below the northern mountains, and then northwest to divide the western part of the continent in two. Our eastern section has about twenty five percent of the original land mass, the northwest section about forty percent and the southwest section has the remaining thirty five percent. Right now the divisions between the sections are about three miles across, and getting wider. The depth of the water between the sections is five thousand meters plus. Each section is now completely independent of the other sections, each free to move on its own."
"The Well of Souls is in the northwest section, along with the Hallelujah Mountains?" Norm asked.
"Yes, that's right. For the moment the Omatikaya should be safe."
"What do you mean, for the moment?"
"I'll get back to that, but first I wanted to give you some more background on the geology involved. Think of the continent, as it was before it split, as a thick sheet of ice floating on a thin layer of water. Imagine the mining operation as an icepick that repeatedly jabbed at the same spot. At some point the ice fractures and the pieces separate. Because the continent was essentially one big deposit of unobtanium it split vertically from the surface all the way down to the mantle. That's the layer over the liquid core of molten rock and metal that makes up the center of the planet. Once the land mass split, water from the oceans forced its way into the crevice, further pushing the land masses apart. The weight of billions and billions of gallons of water forced the crack to spread wider and deeper until the crack reached all the way to the ocean floor."
"The magnetic fields flowing through the unobtanium are trying to hold the sections together. At some point equilibrium will be reached and the sections should stop moving apart. I don't know just how long that will take or how far apart the sections will be when equilibrium is reached."
"Are we talking miles, or hundreds of miles?" Karen asked, looking around the group.
"Right at the moment I don't have any way of knowing. What I would like to do is anchor a Geo-Pack to each of the three sections. These packs contain GPS locators along with other instruments and a satellite uplink to transmit the data back here. From that data I should be able to calculate when equilibrium will be reached."
"You mean fly to each to each section, mount the packs," Rocky added, stating the obvious.
"Yes. If we don't have good, accurate data all we can do is wait and watch. There is another reason that we need to get Geo-Packs out into the field. The packs measure temperature and other atmospheric variables. It is almost a certainty that we are going to have some major changes to our normal weather patterns."
"Why so?" Trudy wanted to know.
"Basically, because of all the heat and moisture being released into the atmosphere. The magnetic energy that is trying to hold the sections together is being dissipated by the water. Like an electric current, this dissipation is generating huge amounts of heat. Coupled with the freshly exposed mantle at the bottom of the fractures the temperature of the water between the sections is close to forty degrees Celsius, instead of a normal twenty degrees. This is acting as a heat engine pumping vast quantities of hot water vapor into the air. Water vapor that is high in hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur based compounds."
"You're just full of good news, aren't you?" Kyle asked rhetorically.
"I'm sorry…"
"It's not Zoe's fault, Kyle. She's just trying to give us all the facts," Gary interrupted.
"I wasn't blaming you, Zoe," Kyle said, looking a bit sheepish. "Shoot the messenger, that sort of thing."
"I'm afraid it gets worse," Zoe said, lifting her shoulders apologetically. "This huge increase in moisture is sure to spawn some gigantic electrical storms. I'm afraid we may be in for storms the likes of which have never been seen on Pandora. As bad as that is there is another effect that could be potentially lethal to all life on all three sections."
"A planet's magnetic field protects life on the surface by deflecting cosmic rays and high energy photons from the sun so that they do not strike the surface. Think of them as high velocity bullets raining down from space. Earth's magnetic field is fairly uniform affording good protection. Pandora's is not. The magnetic fields varies widely across the planet's surface. The high concentrations of unobtanium having a lot to do with the field fluctuations. Now that the continent has been split up the smaller sections will not have the same level of protection. Phenomenon that have been recorded are holes or vortexes in the magnetic field that act as funnels or conduits for this high energy radiation from space. Anything caught in one of these vortexes is instantly irradiated."
"Is there any way to predict where these vortexes will exist?" Abby asked in the total silence that had taken over the lab.
"No, none at all. Previously they were almost nonexistent on this continent. Another reason this site was selected by the RDA."
"Is there any way to detect them? I wouldn't what to just walk into one of these damn things," Buck asked.
"Possibly, but they could form instantly, last for a second or a day, and then just disappear. There is no way of predicting just where and when they will form."
"What happens if one forms right here?" Susan asked, here skin color not looking much better than it had just after she came to.
"If it was large enough to encompass the whole base then we would likely all die. The high energy particles ionize your cells. In effect short circuiting our brains. The only comfort I can give is that we wouldn't even know it. Our brains would be fried before we felt the slightest sensation."
"Not much of a comfort," Norm put in. "Will the Na'vi be at the same risk?"
"Yes, their bodies are just as fragile as ours are when it comes to high energy particles."
"We are going to have to warn them," Norm added, the sickness he was feeling coming though in his voice.
"How? What would we warn them about?" Judy asked. "All we would do is make them paranoid. 'Watch out for the invisible killer photons.' I'm sorry Norm, but there isn't really anything we can do for them. Or ourselves for that matter."
"Maybe not about the vortexes, but we can warn them about the changes in the weather. Damn it, they don't even have a home at the moment."
"You're both right," Buck interrupted. "We can give them a heads up about potentially violent storms. As to the vortexes, I don't see any way we can warn them that will do any good."
"Zoe, anything else we should all know about?" Gary asked when the room fell silent.
"No, not at the moment."
"Unless someone has a better plan," Gary began. "First, we need to get the patches applied and the doors sealed. Once that's done the air scrubbers can make it fit to breathe in about four hours. Five tops."
"Rocky, you, the four remaining avatars, and Zoe should take one of the Sampsons and place the Geo-Packs while the weather is still good and we have plenty of daylight. Norm, you should go out and warn Jake and the Na'vi. The rest of us will stay here and monitor operations as best we can."
"Any objections? Amendments?"
"Ok, we have a plan," Gary concluded when no one spoke up.
"Rocky, you and I can seal the doors that are breached while the drivers are linking with their avatars. We should have enough time before you need meet them in the hanger bay."
"Norm, you be careful out there," Karen said after Gary and Rocky left the lab and the other drivers began to power up their pods. "I'm growing awfully fond of you. Not sure what I would do without you."
"I'll be back. That's a promise. It might be awhile, try not to worry."
"If you get yourself killed, I will never speak to you again." Even though it was an old cliché, Karen managed to smile when she said it.
"Kiss me goodbye so that I'll be sure to remember what's waiting for me when I come back."
With as much nerves as desire she wrapped her arms around his neck and let the kiss spin out until she thought her bones would melt. 'Can't do better than that while standing with your clothes on', she thought as she eased away from him.
"That should do the trick. Start the cycle," Norm added as he lay out in the pod and lowered the sensor array.
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Author's Note:
Weather Forecast: Big Bad Storms on the Horizon. It's going to get wicked.