The Plan
Hey Sully, how's it feel to betray your own race?
The economy… You'll send it down a shit hole…
Jake sat in his wheelchair. Max sat in a chair he pulled up. Norm leaned on a nearby desk. All had their heads were bent down in silence. After minutes that felt like hours, Jake broke the ice with a deep sigh.
"As much as I hate that son of a bitch, he has a point."
"The Na'vi would have all died eventually if we didn't stand up." Norm added.
"But it turns out to be more complicated." Max finished.
Unobtainum was the only thing that kept the economy going. Human civilization needed it if it was to keep going. But humanity would need to destroy another world in order to keep running. Jake and the others knew things had to stop, no matter how much politics or statistics prevented it from happening. But now, they had their eyes open to the bigger picture after the adrenalin of acting to the immediate situation.
"These people can't suffer from these black hole hungry bastards." Jake said
"But if we don't feed the beast, the other people will pay the price." Max said
"If the economy collapses, there will be riots and it'd be total chaos…," Norm said.
With earth's lands being complete toxic sludge, it could only be lived on with electricity. If electricity were removed, air filters would not work, global communication would be impossible and civilization would collapse. Like the Roman Empire ages ago, when it fell, the entire continent plunged into bloodshed and anarchy. If the human world today would collapse now, the magnitude of the bloodshed would be off the scale. The toxic atmosphere would multiply the destruction as people would die left and right even after the initial bloodshed ended. With no technology to protect them, they would be as good as screwed.
"It just had to be those money grabbing jackasses to build up earth's economy so much that collapse would mean near extinction." Jake said.
"But we can't let another species die because we were so stupid." Norm said.
"If only there was another way…" Max said.
"With what I have planed, it might be the 'other way' you're looking for."
Jake, Norm and Max turned their heads suddenly to another voice in the lab. From behind a desk, a man stepped out from behind it. He strode in front of the trio with his arms crossed around his chest and his shoulders relaxed.
"Who are you?" Max asked standing up along with Norm.
"My name's Matt Harrison." He answered and looked straight at Max. "And might I ask, did you manage to get a good look at the douche bag they call Selfridge when you did your thing?"
Max didn't answer the question he was given. Instead he looked at Norm and Jake who were both surprised by the man's question.
"What did you mean by plan?" Jake asked when he returned his gaze to him.
"You'll have a lot more questions when I start answering." Matt replied and he walked to his right and took a chair and sat down. "I'll answer the one that you and your friends both tall and small have; who were those two fly boys who gave your friends a medical run?"
The trio looked each other again with surprise to Matt's question.
"They're Danny Whitmore and Aiden Johnson. To the regular person running through the employment list, they're nothing more special than everyone else including me. I'm just a technician just making sure things work and they're pilots flying what needs to be flown."
Jake began to catch on from the tone of Matt's sly and calm voice, "But there's more it, is there?"
"When you make it through the threshold and don't get blipped on the radar up here, you're free to get the job done." Matt continued. "And when you're itching for the truth and your friends are coughing and gagging on a home that needs to be saved, you know what job you need to do."
Though his words were initially confusing, Jake began to have an idea of what he was talking about.
"If you are what I think you are, how many are you are there here."
"About dozen," Matt leaned back on his chair. "A job couldn't be done with one person. It takes a group of individuals who aren't afraid, who are determined and all have one thing in common."
"And that is…"
"They're all looking for the better tomorrow they've always dreamed about."
Norm entered the conversation. "So you're saying you're spies?"
"Let me ask you this. Before you signed up for the ticket up here, think about what you're image of earth was and what this mysterious planet was. Then think about what you saw these last few months; the good the bad and the ugly parts."
Norm and Max recalled their memories and Jake did too. The RDA propaganda board advertised a chance to go out to outer space to a world that was the most hostile place known to mankind. And with the hostility, the RDA promised a big wad of cash as a reward. Norm and Max recalled what they read about the Na'vi culture and lifestyle but they noticed that they were oblivious to what the RDA was doing to them at the time. And they remembered the document, "Introducing Pandoran plants and animals to earth"(1) and how it said it was a bad idea to bring Pandoran life forms to earth without the consent of the RDA. Then they recalled the recent events and not just the brutal shocking parts of death and sadness. As they researched the life forms of Pandora, they found and shared very unique and interesting properties of the flora.
"You're here to get information about Pandora?" Norm said in a question that sounded more of a statement. "And get it to the people on earth?"
"If we were on a game show, you'd be a millionaire." Matt slyly smiled and nodded his head. "So now that you know who I am or more like what I'm here for, you're free to fire the questions left and right."
And so the questions came and the answers followed. The first questions concerned the people he was working for. Matt explained that it wasn't an actual job, but like secret, underground volunteer work. People on earth were organizing together and learning what they could about the RDA, Pandora and ways to save what was left of earth. Their overall goal was to take apart the RDA piece by piece until it fell and in doing so, Pandora would be saved and earth would go into a new direction to change itself and save itself.
He was one of the most willing ones of the group because he had, one, skills of a technician who can work in the field and, two, he had nothing to lose that was close to him. His family wasn't in contact with him much anymore and his friends drifted away over time. The only thing he felt he had was a heart bruised with the darkness of a world that was taken away and murdered before everyone's eyes. After the fateful day when he received the note in his pocket, he met the activists. He felt it was the only group of people he could ever trust after his first meeting with a number of their members. He would go up to the moon, report on the events and perhaps smuggle off valuables if he could risk it.
"I have a question," Norm said. "If you and others here inside men, why didn't you help us?"
"We fight from the shadows. If we talked to you or the scientists or even had shown any reaction to the incidents of this week, our cover would be blown and our mission here would be comprised. What's worse, this would show evidence of the movement on earth and they would get a scent to hunt them down. But we don't have any Na'vi blood on our hands; I made sure that at the proper time, Danny and Aiden's Samsons would report engine problems and would turn around out of harm's way when the battle started. I couldn't sabotage much else because if they succeeded in winning that battle, our cover wouldn't be blown. I hope you understand."
The trio nodded in acknowledgment. Then Matt returned to his story.
The activists learned everything from the information that was disclosed to them but they dug deeper to learn the truths. They stole documents and intercepted transmissions concerning the RDA's actions and history of destruction, both on earth and Pandora. They could only hunt from the shadows because if the RDA knew about the movement, the activists would become the hunted with the law against them. They were careful to disclose their information to the select few and were careful not to go public because that would be the easiest way for the RDA and the authorities to trace them.
"Okay. I understand Pandora will be saved, but how would destroying the RDA and leaving Pandora alone save earth if there would be no more unobtanium to power it?"
"Do you think the world will end when those glutinous fucktards lose supply income? Don't worry about that; the economy will go on for a number of years even after the last cargo makes it to earth. They store many of their stashes secretly to keep the price of Unobtainum high on the market with fake shortage in supply."
Jake wasn't surprised when Matt said that. All of the digging had been done as fast as possible for efficient collecting and when it came to the market, of course they would want the price to be high. With the storage, they would have a fall back plan to confiscate the demand if a payload didn't meet it and the excess supply wouldn't decrease the prices.
"Alright, so the RDA could power the world with whatever they have left in their storage, but what happens when they really run out?"
"That comes to the part of the conversation where I show you what my plan is." Matt leaned forward in his chair. He reached into his uniform's large pockets and he pulled out a small bag. He then unzipped it and gently reached inside. When he pulled out his hand, he opened his hand and a dozen small translucent cubes lay in his palm.
"Any of you know what these are?" Matt looked up at the trio.
"Aren't those data modules?" Norm asked
"100 petro bytes of data on each of these centimeter wide cubes," Matt responded. "Loaded with schematics for manufacturing weapons and vehicles and documents of the status of the company too complex for superluminal communications when brought from earth and loaded with base data and genetic codes of Pandoran wildlife to be synthesized in the labs when brought back to earth." (2)
Matt then explained what he planned to do. During the near three decades the RDA had set up its commercial interstellar pipeline with Pandora and earth, they used data modules to import rich data from Earth to Pandora and vise-verse. On their way back to earth, some modules contained genetic codes of the plant life of Pandora. When the data was downloaded to the RDA labs, they grew the planets in the labs and sensitized samples for farther research.
Many of the plants had very unique and even outstanding properties that made them have so much potential for uses around the world. However, it was all controlled by the RDA and hardly anyone else had any research or knowledge of the potential of the plants. The RDA did release some products that used Pandoran plants like the Panopyra (3), the giant pink flower the Na'vi called Tawtsngal or "Sky cup." The RDA synthesized the juices from the plant and sold it as stimulants and "enhancers" for the public. Another plant used is Episoth (4),named pxorna by the Na'vi meaning "exploding seed." After some alterations, the mucilage of the plant was sold for skin care, which is in high demand because of the nearly depleted ozone, and highly controlled by the RDA.
The activists knew the potential of many of the plants that were in the labs. They couldn't however, sneak into the labs and steal samples or genetic codes under the RDA's nose with the breakneck security. They were, however, able to get a sample of anemonid (5) fungus by sheer luck and it had great success with detoxifying the area around Pittsburg. But their luck was limited because no one got any other plant out of the labs.
But 4.4 light years from earth, after a swift event of fire, blood and destruction, an opportunity like no other showed itself and Matt had seen it. With all the personnel rounded up, and he managed to hide and not be rounded up, there was no security.
"While Danny and Aiden were flying your people out of a little goodwill, I had a blast filling these up with the codes and the info I need. Without guards toting guns or security monitors watching the logs, I don't have to worry about covering my ass like everyone on earth is. So if you were to kick the people of the planet now, they wouldn't have any monitors making sure the personnel aren't taking what they shouldn't be taking home."
"In the chaos, you will slip right through." Jake said. "So you plan on sleeping all the way back to shithole earth with that? They might have security when you come through the terminal back on earth."
"Don't worry I know how to get through."
After his five-year nap and he got through security, he would find the activists. After 11 years of space travel, the people and places might change but the group was able to make finding each other easy for the members but hard for the ones oblivious to them. Once he made contact with them, he would show the information and they would distribute the plant codes to the other labs so they could do their research and when they get it right they could release it to the public.
So many plants could help everyone. The environment restoring plants like the puffball tree (6) absorbed salts from soils making them nontoxic. Dakteron (7), an insect eating plant could help reduce river blindness, and the mother of all fungus, Octoshroom (8), when adapted to the earth's atmosphere, could restore so much toxic land like the Nevada toxic flats. The pharmaceutical market would grow with the introduction of Episoth to "cause" organizations to give the RDA a competitor and Dapophet (9), a multipurpose plant that the Na'vi use frequently, could provide a verity of pharmaceutical products. The last featured plant was the dandetiger (10). Jake used its sap for his improvised torch he made on his first day out on the field. With the genetic code in hand and when given to the public, small communities will find themselves free of unobtainum with the outstanding energy yield unlike any vegetative fuel found on earth. And last, but not least, was teylu (11). With its high protein content, palatability and rapid breeding in waste, teylu has potential to become a cheap and productive food source.
"The last things I'm bringing are some RDA documents. It's impossible to get all their documents into all these," he shook his hand that held the modules. "But it contains enough documents the public will find revolting and perhaps make the authorities start an investigation when they hear about it. But it won't be enough. I came here to ask you guys to add a little personality to it."
"Personality?" Jake asked.
"I'm asking you to allow me to download your video logs and get the home tree attack footage so the people will get the other side of the story if the RDA decides to tell the public before we do. The videos will go viral after a few weeks after we've given the "cause" organizations the plant codes."
Jake looked at Matt for a moment and replied, "Of course, but why ask me? You could have taken it when you were having free time on the computers right?"
"Well, I thought it'd be more polite to ask for something from a person who sees things the way we do. Besides, we needed to talk so you could know what to do next while I know what I will do."
Jake smiled and nodded his head. "Ok. So you are going to go back to earth and give the information to the people and hopefully they won't suspect that you are one of us."
"Correct. And since you guys have nowhere to go except stay here you might need some help keeping the base up without all the personnel running everything. If you want, I can tell the others to stay with you to help in keeping this base up if you or the Na'vi will permit it. You're going to need those pilots and other people for food and all the essentials"
That's right. Jake thought. They needed a plan for how they would run things now that almost every person who keeps the base up and running will be gone. But at moment Norm's eyes opened suddenly.
"Wait, if the plan is to kick the rest of the RDA people off of Pandora, aren't any of you concerned they might come back before Matt gets back to earth with the evidence?"
"That is a possible flaw but I wouldn't worry too much about that. The only way to communicate with earth now is through the Venture Star's low-bit superluminal communicator since Max trashed the ops-center. I wouldn't worry much for two reasons. One, when the RDA were given the rights to mine out in space by the Interplanetary Commerce Administration, their military power out here and on earth can only go so far and they can't get their hands on any nukes or other weapons of mass destruction (12) so that rules out the threat of the threat of nuclear winter here. And nukes might make the Unobtainum deposits radioactive and that might affect its properties. Two; if they were to get ready for a full scale invasion of Pandora, it might cost them too much to and It would take almost seven years to prepare and travel here. If they were to get to the surface, they would need reinforcements quickly and would need to set up a staging area so they would get troops gradually to overwhelm the planet."
"So if the RDA does return, I can tell the Na'vi around the world to be prepared and stop the troopers before they can set up a staging area." Jake answered.
"You can just tell the commercial line of ISV's to make a u-turn when they come by every six months when you can fix the communicator. They don't have the man power to take Pandora since you control the ground and the base. Since you guys managed to give the alien invaders too much trouble, they might think that Pandora is too hard to claim and they might move on to fuck another planet for fuel. So all and all, you've managed to save Pandora from the rotten side of humanity."
"So basically we'll just stay here and do whatever for the rest of our lives." Norm said.
"You could have more uses for that, you could do more research and it might lead to more breakthroughs. Let me give you some advice, after about six or seven years, you and my people should make a superluminal receiver and transmitter to see if things changed on earth and you can speak your minds up here. Maybe things changed enough for the good people to come to Pandora or something."
The trio was silent for a moment as they looked at each other. "Well I guess we have a plan then." Norm said.
"I believe we do." Matt nodded his head.
"I'll get my logs up right now for you." Jake rolled to a computer terminal and began to type in his access codes to his profile. "It's all yours," he rolled aside when he came to his log collection.
"This won't take long," Matt pulled up a chair and connected one of the cubes to the computer. But before he connected the cube to the computer, he turned to Jake and asked: "I'm afraid to ask, but, what happened to Grace Augustine since she's not here?"
Jake looked down when he heard the question. He breathed in coolly and calmly gave his answer. "She… was hit in the escape. We… tried to save her with the help of the people but... we didn't make it in time."
"Oh…" Matt said coolly like he wasn't really surprised by the answer. "War is war then. She was an icon to many of our group. I guess she's in the place she always wanted to go after she was done."
I'm with her, Jake. She's real…
"Yeah, I believe she is too." Jake replied.
"Shouldn't get to ya. Should be a reminder of what you fought for and what you're still doing."
"Right," Jake exhaled the weight from himself.
Matt connected the cube and went to work. While he did so, Jake, Norm and Max sat down facing each other. Jake was the first to start the conversation.
"So since we're staying here, how do we keep this base running with little fuel to power it and not enough people to look after the whole thing?"
"I got some ideas," Max said "The base needs a lot of power to power the entire base including the refinery, the manufacturing plant and the living quarters."
"All we need to do is shut down the refinery and the plant so that way we won't need to use so much power." Norm jumped in.
"Yeah, but what will we fuel it with? Whatever unobtainum is left?" Jake said.
"Maybe we could be able to use the dandetiger sap to power the essential facilities." Norm said.
"That could work." Matt spoke from the computer. "And maybe you can keep the manufacturing plant up just a little longer to make solar panels. I believe there are schematics for constructing them in the database. And my people can help you build them."
"Perfect! If we can conserve enough power, we could keep a sustainable life style here." Norm added.
"Well it looks like we have a plan here as well." Jake said.
Matt pressed a key on the computer and a bar filled across the screen. After it was finished downloading, he disconnected the cube from the terminal and put it and the rest of the tiny cubes into the bag as he stood up.
"Well I guess you guys need to make some arrangements with the Na'vi and to get the rotten people off Pandora."
"You'll just blend in with the pack then?"
"Yea, but I'll tell the others to stay and I've up loaded the profiles of my people on the computer so you can identify them."
"All right then." Jake said.
"Though we might never see each other again, I must say it has been a pleasure seeing and working with the savors of Pandora and contributors of the salvation of earth." He walked forward and shook each person's hands. When he was finished he turned around and headed for the exit. Just before he walked through, he turned around and smiled.
"We are all looking for something and we see a chance to make it happen. What is it we see?"
Jake answered, "A better tomorrow."
"You got it." Matt turned the corner and disappeared.
Author's note: As you may have guessed, Matt is a part of the activists from the activist survival guide book. I've yet to see a fan fiction about that book by the way. So, since I couldn't find one, why not create one with in mine? And yes, I've done my research on all the details to make it as authentic and realistic as possible.
This one took a little while to write and it's the longest chapter I've written so far and it was rather fun to pick at the guide and Matt's character. The story's far from over so… enjoy the show, review, refer to friends and enjoy life. :)
Sources:
1: Activist survival guide: pg. 126
2: Human operations / Vehicles /ISV Venture Star
3: Activist survival guide: pg. 136
4: Activist survival guide: pg. 131
5: Activist survival guide: pg. 115
6: Activist survival guide: pg. 138
7: Activist survival guide: pg. 127
8: Activist survival guide: pg. 133
9: Activist survival guide: pg. 130
10: Activist survival guide: pg. 129
11: Activist survival guide: pg. 100
12: Human operations / RDA /RDA