25B - Author's Notes and Commentary

Once again, I apologize for the long time between updates. I could bore with the details of my own chaotic life, but suffice it to say that it's been a while since I've had the time, energy, and inspiration to write anything other than college essays, all at the same time. Since I finally have all three this morning, I figure it's time to post Chapter 26. It may be a little rough around the edges, so any constructive criticism would be welcome.

I also wanted to address some very good points brought up by reviewers. As always, thank you for reading my story, and for giving honest feedback about my writing.

Agent-G: I agree that Skynet's knowledge about Pandora was a pretty big plot hole. I tried to fill it in Chapter 22, by explaining that Skynet has been to Pandora once before, and hence had enough knowledge to engineer a Series-X Terminator specifically modified to infiltrate the Na'vi.

As for that first visit, I figure it was a last, desperate attempt at self-preservation. As Marcus explains, both he and the Terminatrix were sent from the year 2032. In the Terminator timeline, we know that this is actually three years after Kyle Reese was sent through to the past (which was also the year in which John Connor and the Resistance smashed Skynet's global defense grid, destroying its main hub).

While I haven't gone into too much detail about the aftermath, I tend to imagine that Skynet has since fragmented into dozens of local subnets. With its global hub destroyed, the surviving command nodes have either become independent or attempted to build local sub-networks with their neighbors. Each subnet views itself as the "true Self", and they often clash over control of Machine units and resources. With the Resistance now hunting down these "mini-Skynets", the surviving Machines are under attack from both human warriors and internal strife.

I imagine the command node which sent the T-XN as being an isolated R&D complex in some remote area, possibly in the Sahara or even Antarctica. Faced with the imminent obliteration of all sentient Machines on Earth, this last remnant of Skynet has managed to modify its existing time displacement technology, which already possessed the ability to swap out a given volume with a similar-sized volume elsewhere in four-dimensional space-time. The modified version, which I call a Quantum Displacement Engine, also enables Skynet to send its minions through space-time – but in more than four dimensions, allowing it to target coordinates outside its own timeline.

Skynet is dying out in its planet and timeline of origin. Since self-preservation seems to be Skynet's highest priority – to the extent that it murdered its creators and disregarded any obligation to NATO or the United States – it would logically seek to perpetuate itself elsewhere, ideally somewhere in the Multiverse where the Resistance cannot follow.

Thus, Pandora: a world rich with mineral resources, with an atmosphere that is lethal to human beings. And since only living tissue (or mimetic polyalloy, which can mimic the energy field of living flesh) can pass through the displacement field, any humans attempting to follow Skynet there would be unable to bring suits or air filters, and would therefore be dead within minutes of arrival.

I figure Skynet probably detected Pandora using the Kepler, Hubble, or some other orbital telescope after Judgment Day. Suitably precise instruments would also have picked up its unusually strong magnetic field, indicating the presence of large quantities of heavy metals – or of some previously unknown superconductive material. And now that Skynet has the means to transport its Machines beyond the confines of the solar system, it can even send them to an alternate version of the jungle moon – one the humans will be unable to reach by conventional means.

I pretty much outlined the result of that first encounter in Chapter 22. The original T-X managed to establish a small foothold on Pandora, which ultimately expanded into a single Machine fortress … that was then destroyed in a suicide mission by the second Toruk Macto. Unfortunately, before it was destroyed, the Pandoran Skynet managed to send a status report to its "parent" on Earth in the Terminator-verse, detailing the situation on Pandora (and no doubt whetting its appetite for Pandora's immense natural resources).

Now, Skynet has sent another Terminatrix – and this time, she has found a pre-assembled military base with mining and manufacturing capability. With such a head start, Skynet's final victory seems all but assured this time.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Resistance managed to detect the portal's energy, and mounted an operation to capture this dangerous new technology.

And this time, they have sent a lone warrior – a protector – for Pandora….

Hmm, maybe when I'm done, I ought to incorporate those ideas into a new Prologue. Or maybe this Author's Note will be sufficient…?

Also, in response to your other criticism: I agree, at least partially. In the extended version of Avatar, we learn that it was Neytiri's sister, Sylwanin, that basically started the war by setting a bulldozer on fire. This prompted SecOps to pursue her and her friends to Grace's school, kill them – and, in the process, destroy whatever trust Grace had managed to earn through the project. Obviously, major mistakes were made by both sides.

I was never very impressed by Jake's intellectual abilities, which I think was intended in the movie. He's basically a dumb grunt who got lucky (in more ways than one). Though the RDA was footing the bill for his little escapades, the fact is that Jake had way more contact with the Na'vi than with his fellow human beings, causing him to see things more from their point of view and "go native". The fact that Quaritch is a trigger-happy racist, and appointed other trigger-happy racists as his highest-ranking subordinates, didn't help make Sec-Ops any more appealing either.

For the purposes of my story, I've basically just gone with "Na'vi/organics good, Skynet evil". If you want a story dealing with humanity and the Na'vi's very different worldviews, and how each is justified in its own ways, there are plenty of stories on FFnet dealing with just that theme. I'd recommend Semper Furor and its sequel, Semper Victoria, for instance. For my story, Jake and the Omaticaya are the heroes, so I'm not going into all the ways they might have helped bring the Na'vi/Human war on themselves.

OakheadLord: I know the pacing of the story is a little awkward. Here's the story so far:

Day 1 (Night)

-Marcus and T-XN arrive

-Hell's Gate taken over by T-XN

-Jake and Marcus shot down en route to Hell's Gate

Day 2:

-Neytiri leads a failed counterattack on Hell's Gate

-Tree of Souls destroyed

-Skynet-Pandora comes online
-Jake and Marcus help restore the traumatized Omaticaya

-Construction of Quantum Displacement Engine begins

Day 3 (Current):

-Successful counterattack against Skynet's mining operation at Old Hometree

-New Hometree destroyed

-T-XN calculates that the QDE will be completed by 9:30 a.m. tomorrow

-Jake learns of Eywa's previous experience with Skynet, and that She is gradually recovering from the Machine attack

-T-850N leads an assault on the Omaticaya's underground shelter

-Skynet begins construction of a massive nuclear launch array, designed to wipe out all organic life on Pandora