The door swung open just before Na'dia reached for the handle. The human male behind the door did not have time to do anything other than assume a horrified expression when she spitted him with her knife, grabbing hold of the back of his neck and ramming the wickedly curved blade under his rib cage. She felt the fluttering of his heart tear itself apart on the sharp point of the bone knife, until it stopped with a shudder as she ruthlessly twisted it.
The human released his last breath directly into her face, his mouth trying to make a single word - why?
She did not think he would be happy with the only answer she had – because he was in the way.
Na'dia eased the blade out of the corpse, a few drops of blood leaking from the wound floating through the air, each drop wobbling like a jelly as the surface tension stopped the small spheres of blood from dissipating into mist.
One of the Uniltìranyu shot past her, and swam down the other docking tunnel to secure the second shuttle craft. Renshaw detailed two of the men to stand guard on the docking ports, and took half the remainder to secure Propulsion and the cryogenics pods. As she led her uniltìranyu towards the crew hab modules, there was a brief scream from the other shuttle that was suddenly cut off.
The central corridor of the starship was painted white, with large red numbers counting down the frame numbers towards the front of the starship. Na'dia propelled herself down the corridor, grabbing the occasional handhold to correct her trajectory. Every twenty frames there was a pressure door. No doubt the uniltìranyu were setting off alarms as they spread over the ship.
At frame forty, Na'dia hesitated to open the pressure door. There was a life spark behind it, waiting. When Tania reached for the door handle, Na'dia caught her by the wrist. "No," she said quietly. "Self feels tawtute behind door with weapon. Hide. Self will deal with this." She took a deep breath and concentrated, making herself one with the alien air.
Sharon swore, "Holy fuck!"
Her response was not unexpected as Na'dia faded from view, until all that could be seen was a faint rippling distortion in the air, much like the initial mixing of Earth and Pandoran atmospheres. There was a faint ringing of metal as Na'dia drew her shortswords. "Open door," ordered Na'dia softly.
A shot fired as the door opened, the soft lead leaving a spall mark on the door as it ricocheted off. A pistol, thought Na'dia. The shooter was anxious, and let his shot off too early. This was not a problem that two legs males suffered from – or females, for that matter.
Na'dia slid through the door opening. The space behind was a not a corridor – it was a large circular compartment, spinning slowly about the long axis of the starship. The tawtute at the other end of the compartment, wearing loose white coveralls. He held an automatic pistol aimed at the door. She pushed off, drifting towards him.
"Shoot it!" screamed a voice over a speaker. Clearly, there was a camera monitoring the compartment.
The tawtute asked, "What? There is nothing there. The blue monkeys are behind the door."
"It's right in front of you!" screamed the voice.
So she was.
Na'dia swung both blades in a scissor-like action, so that she did not start herself spinning. The razor sharp swords met at his neck, severing the head with a soft ring of metal when the blades lightly kissed together. The head went spiralling away shedding a spray of blood drops, while a great curtain of blood erupted from the torso. Her flight took her through the curtain of blood, soaking her entire body. She licked her lips, tasting the sticky saltiness of the blood that had splattered over her face.
She stormed up into the rotating crew hab module. Suddenly, there was an up and a down, which made it much easier to kill. Some humans tried to face her, with whatever improvised weapons they could find. She cut them down ruthlessly. Five minutes later, she was facing the only other living being in the crew hab module - the mission commander. He was cowering in a corner of the bridge of the starship, begging for mercy.
Na'dia paused. She was interested to wonder why this creature thought it should live. "Why should self spare human?"
The man was so astonished by her question he was struck dumb. Na'dia waited for a good ten seconds without receiving any coherent answer. Clearly, there was no good reason why he should continue living, so she killed him, gutting him like a pig.
Tania came swimming head first down the ladder, followed by Sharon. They both had sick expressions on their faces.
"Is other module clear?" asked Na'dia, her voice level and calm. Her blades were pointing to the floor, relaxed in her hands. Blood slowly dripped down the blades and dripped off their points. Her bloodstained footprints marked the floor.
"We cleared it," said Tania.
"Yeah," said Sharon, "But we didn't fucking butcher everyone."
Na'dia nodded. "Is waste of good meat," she said. "Self understands. Flesh will rot before it may be eaten."
"Shit," murmured Sharon. "Sully was right. You really are out of your fucking mind."
Tania replied, "She is not crazy. Palulukan are neither Na'vi nor human. They do not think like us."
The bloody woman gazed steadily at the two uniltìranyu, making them shift uneasily from one foot to the other. "What does it matter how the tawtute die," she said eventually. "As long as they perform some use in dying. And die the tawtute must, if Pandora is to live."
Renshaw slid down the access ladder from the starship core, landing lightly on his feet. "Na'dia is right," he said, his face grim. "We have no choice if we wish to live free."