Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or Pandora and I don't make any profit by writing this.
Chapter 14
Twenty minutes later Jake rubbed tiredly his face and said: " Damn, I'm feeling like I've stole his skin...", he sighed, "I'm living truly in my brother's body now."
Norm countered: No Jake! You didn't steal anything. Please stop torturing yourself. If anybody had to be accused than it would be Gliese!"
"And Gliese died years ago of leukemia.", Max amended.
The former Avatar shrugged and answered: "Yeah, yeah..Maybe you're right. But it doesn't make me feeling really better right now." After a pause he said: "We have to tell Tsanten about what happened. He's got the damn right to be in the know. But I think I should speak with Neytiri first. She can give some advice how to explain Tsanten all this mess without causing a diplomatic catastrophy."
Max nodded: " Would you mind if I come with you ? But of course, if you prefer to speak with her alone first..."
"No!", said Jake "You and Norm should take part in the talk too. You're much better than me in explaining all that science stuff which was the reason for Gliese to pinch the umbilical blood."
Norm cursed: " Damn, I promised Amy to help her with the plant samples. Wait, I'll call her and.."
Max put a hand on Norm's shoulder and said calmly: " You may go to Amy and help her, if you want. I don't think that the situation really requires your presence. But, of course, if you want to come with us.."
"No, no. It's okay. I should really see that I keep my promises."Norm smiled, obviously not offended: "Should there be any problems, just call me over the communicator." With this words he turned and headed to the GENMOD.
When Jake and Max entered MEDBAY 1, Neytiri was settled comfortably on the guerney and, much to Jake's surprise, she was reading a book. He could read the title on it's cover: Once there was Eden.
Jake approached her smiling: " Oh, you are reading a book. What's it about?"
Neytiri reciproced the smile: "I complained to Louise that I felt bored. We chatted for a while and when I told her that I've learned to read how the humans draw their language, she brought me this book. It is about wildlife on Earth before the humans killed their mother." She showed him the page she was just reading and, aside from the text, there was a picture of a lion while he was catching a gazelle.
Jake grinned: " I never imagined you as an avid reader, my love. I should've known better though. Grace was an awesome teacher."
Neytiri smiled graciously: " Will you tell me about the visitors now, my Jake?"
After Jake had told her about the Tipani und his talk with Tsanten and his mate, she smiled: "Oh, I remember Aketuan. He was always merry and helpful. If someone's heart was heavy, he could relieve it with his friendly words. We were sad when we had to accept that he had to leave our clan. Then we heard that he found a mate, one of the finest hunters among the Tipani. But the last news we heard about him were sad ones. His mate suffered an accident during a stormbeest hunt. Since then, Tsanten, Aketuan's mate, wasn't able to move his tail. And as you know, you need your tail to keep your balance.", she grabbed Jake's arm, "He even had to sent away his Ikran because he wasn't any longer able to fly with him.", Neytiri sighed, "It was bitter, when I lost Seze in the battle. But to sent away an Ikran..?", she shook her head, "I don't want to imagine the pain in the heart Tsanten was going through..But maybe you know more about this pain. You set Toruk free after the battle."
Jake nodded sympathetically." You can't compare Toruk to an Ikran. We fought together, but we weren't so close..not like me and Boy. If I had to send away Boy.. I don't want to imagine that.", Jake shook his head, "But about Tsanten..Yes, I noticed that the end of his tail was tucked at his warrior's belt, so I assume his tail is completely paralized. I'd never guessed that an injury like this could even be possible for a Na'vi."
"I've never heard of such an injury ever before. You think it is like...what happened to you in your former life?"
Jake didn't like to think about this at all and after an uncomfortable moment of silence, Max cleared his throat discretely.
"Right," Jake sighed, "there is something else, we wanted to talk about with you. Look, it turned out that...Damn, Max, I think, you should explain the whole mess that Gliese guy made."
Max nodded patiently and told Neytiri everything they found out about Tsantens birth and who Gliese took an bloodsample from the umbilica. Much to their surprise, Neytiri remained quiet, just facing her mate and his friends pensively.
"Your mother was quite upset when I spoke with her about these events.", Max stated carfully.
Neytiri shrugged, a short, hardy visible smile on her lips. "The umbilica was given back, wasn't it? But from this blood ", she fell silent for a moment, "From this blood my mate was born, the sixth Toruk Makto who defeated the skypeople. I think, that Tsanten and his parents will be very proud when they are told about this."
Max mused for a moment about the differents opinions of Mo'at and Neytiri on this matter, but didn't dare to ask about. The situation was complex enough, even without his own questions. Instead he said: " and, who knows, maybe Gliese didn't mean any harm while he took the bloodsample. After all, on earth this is a quite common practise when a child is born - at least if the parents can afford this treatment."
"But why do the skypeople a thing like this?", Neytiri queried.
"Well, Neytiri,", Max began," The umbilical blood comes into a freezer, a, let's say a place where it can be conserved for many,many years. And the most important thing is, that this blood contains stemcells. Stemcells are, how can I say it? The very origin of a being, they are like seed, like seed of a plant. And with our knowledge, we are even able to tell the seed, which part of the plant it shall grow. So, when the
child should get sick,or, maybe a better example, if the child has an accident and, let's say it's leg gets smashed, we can grow a new leg and ..and put it on it's body. It adheres after some time and ..."
"The child has again two legs. That is amazing!", Neytiri gasped.
"Yes," stated Jake," If my parents could have afforded this treatment by the time, my brother and me were born, I wouldn't have ended up in a wheelchair."
"Oh...wait...!", gasped Max and grabbed his communicator. "Norm?...Norm! Listen, if Gliese adhered to the common procedure when he took the bloodsample, then he must have token two samples, one for earth and another as a reference sample for the gene bank here in Hell's Gate! ...I'll tell you later why I want to know...Just look for the sample. Here's the identifier again... a420122125...Ok, I'll wait"
Jake at Neytiri looked at Max questioningly, but he waved to silence them.
"Yes, norm..It is there? Really? ...Damn, that's great! Thank you! I'll explain later everything to you...Ok, until later then!"
After Max finished his talk with Norm, he entered a different code: " Brenda? Would you please immediatly come to MEDBAY1?...No, Neytiri is feeling well. but this thing I want to talk with you is really important too..Ok, see you soon."
"May I ask you what was this all about?" asked Jake.
"You will see! I just have to speak with Brenda first."
Even before the Na'vi couple was able to ask any further question, The door was jerked open and a quite upset med tech was standing in front of them: "So what the hell has happened?"
Max calmed himself and tried to explain Brenda everything, beginning with the story of Jake origin and ending up with his idea how to help Tsanten.
"So, this is the answer to all questions we were musing about concerning Jake...Why didn't you tell us?" she asked, still being a bit angry. But about your idea to help Tsanten...I don't know. You see, we're not exactly the Mayo clinic here and the idea of simply to inject stemcells into the spine of a paraphlegic was proved to be wrong mor than hundert years ago."
"But I know you have a stash of nanites, reserved for the treatment of the heads of the RDA management! And this isn't the actual spine, it's just about the caudal vertebrae.", Max said.
"Yes, that's correct," Brenda said, "But we are talking right now about the treatment of a spinal injury nonetheless."
Brenda closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
After some moments she said:" I'll have to examine the injury thoroughly. If it should be a very simple fracture and the vertebral canal itself isn't damaged, I might perhaps be able to help him."