26. Natasha's story (1)
Jake looked around, at all the waiting and wondering faces. "Norm told me that someone let Natasha go." He explained who Natasha Gorozny was, for the ones who did not know that yet.
"Apparently whoever let her go thinks that she is no longer useful there, and also that she can't tell anyone about where these people are. The Sky people found Natasha's Dreamwalker body, her untiltìrantokx, half buried by the river, south of here, near the Hellfire Plateau."
Jake told how they had found the body, how Puvomun had discovered the injuries and how Neytiri and the teacher singer had performed a simple burial rite.
A few soft voices mumbled in agreement of how this was done, and nodded at the two in appreciation.
"Natasha is one of the scientists," Jake went on, "but without her uniltìrantokx there is not much she can do. Tomorrow I will go there again, with some of you, and then we will talk with her. Perhaps she knows something that the bad guys didn't think of."
"I will come with you," Tawtewng said. He had recovered quite well, although his wound still needed some wrapping.
"And I!" Rakan said, jumping up.
"You stay here," Lolet cautioned him. "I'm going."
"Let's fight over that tomorrow, people," Jake said, holding up a hand. "For now it looks like we have some kind of break, and that's more than we had so far. Maybe after talking with Natasha we finally can get ahead of those guys."
Rakan kept muttering about getting to miss all the fun, but when Lolet had whispered something to him, his face relaxed and a smile came on it.
Amhul and Puvomun looked at each other and grinned.
The next morning Jake announced that he wanted Nusumea, Puvomun and Tawtewng to come with him. Neytiri then said that she had to do some things in the village, by her mother's request.
"Maybe," Jake thought out loud, "it is good if Amhul comes with us then. I think it's important to have a woman along."
Lolet frowned as she heard that, Puvomun noticed, and Jake did not miss that.
"I know, ma Lolet, you are a woman as well, but Amhul is a teacher. She thinks different from a hunter. I need you and Rakan, together with a few others, to fly down the river once again, until you get to the Hellfire Plateau, and see if you can find traces of the Dreamwalkers. See how the people from the hill clan are doing, when you are there. They know you and Rakan, which is important now. Familiar faces. And if you can, go and see the forest clan also, maybe they have seen something and have not been able to let us know yet."
"Maybe I should go with them," Nusumea Tirea said. "They know me as well. I can take some medicin along and see if they need any of it."
Jake thought about that. "Yes, good thinking, Nusumea. Go with them, and we'll hear from you when we're all back."
Ateyo then said that he would accompany Lolet and the others as well. "Four pairs of eyes and ears see more."
Thus the two groups were made. One more group of warriors would make random sweeps over the area to the south, on both sides of the river. After all, there was something they felt they had to do. They would also keep a look-out for Miktan and Tsu'wey.
Five hunters, among whom Ekirä and Korun, would go out and provide fresh food for the clan.
Ninat and Eyamsiyu said they would keep an eye on the children if necessary, and wished them all a good journey.
Soon the groups were on their way again, with streams of ikrans leaving Hometree and flying off in several directions.
The speed of the flight to the aysawtute camp was quite high again. Kilvan and Taw were up to it. Puvomun had warned Amhul of this, and she was quick to pick up the right pose for this kind of travel. The land rushed along beneath them, and again Puvomun was enchanted by how it looked in the light of the morning.
Jake decided to land the ikrans near the buildings of the Sky people, as that was fastest. He did not fear another attack by the two hunters who still were invisible.
Norm Spellman and Max Patel came outside, both very surprised to see the people.
"I tried to get you on the radio," Norm complained, half an accusation in his voice, "and all I got was a few laughing children."
Puvomun was not disappointed: he expected the stupid grin on Jake's face and it appeared promptly.
"But it's good to see you all," the tawtute scientist then said.
Max told them that Natasha had been examined, and she was doing well. "Emotionally she is still very messed up, but as long as we treat her gently, she'll be fine. So please, don't raise your voices, will you? She's going to close up as a shell when you do."
"That's fine, Max, don't worry. We'll just wait until she's ready to come out and talk."
Max went back inside, and Norm told them about how Natasha had just been "literally flung out of the room" the evening before.
"The guard at the door wasn't prepared for that. Someone shoved the door into his back, Natasha was pushed out and the door was closed and locked again. They hadn't even bothered to untie her. She was close to hysteria."
All attention was momentarily drawn to the ikrans as they engaged in a squabbling contest, but there was nothing wrong.
Then the door of the building opened. Three people came out. Max was there and two women. One sat in a wheeled chair, the kind Jake had used before his transformation, and the other woman was behind it, pushing.
All the people sat down, to appear less large for the small woman in the chair.
"Hello Natasha," said Jake, "remember me?"
The woman, fear still evident on her face despite the breathing mask, nodded. "Hi, Jake," she all but whispered.
"These are Tawtewng, Puvomun and Amhul. We hope you can tell us what happened. How this all started."
Natasha looked at Max, who nodded as he rested his hand lightly on her shoulder. Then she started to talk.
It had all started with what was nothing more than a talk with Mendelson about the early origins of Pandora. Mendelson had wondered how life would have evolved here, if it was similar to Earth, and if there were species still to be found that were not listed in Grace's book.
"We arranged to go out a few times, using one of the Samsons, and saw some incredible places. Did you know that in the lower parts of the mines we found some amazingly huge fossiles? It was however very difficult to examine everything we wanted in our human bodies. We discovered that quite soon. This world just has things that are too big. So that's when Mendelson thought of using our avatar bodies for trips outside."
Louis and Baker, two of the men who were still out and missing, had been avatar drivers as well. They had been two of the people who supplied security for expeditions and such in the days of the RDA. Louis had heard of Mendelson's plans, and offered that he had an idea to go out and venture there for a longer time.
"We could take one of the Samsons, he said, take enough food and stuff with us, and Mendelson and I could then look around to our heart's content. Baker knew one of the Samson pilots, and he was certain he could get that man to fly us around."
Mendelson had then talked to Thorenson about the plan, and that man was game too, which was how everything was beginning to happen. Thorenson suggested they should hang a boat from the Samson to go down the rivers and creeks, and to cross lakes. Louis and Baker somehow had set up the hidden link chamber. And Mankx somehow had gotten into this too. Natasha was not certain how, but she suspected that he was a friend of Baker.
"Mankx told us that everything had been arranged, so we got our gear together and then linked up with our avatars. There was no one else in the shack at that time, so we simply walked out, picked up our stuff and left with the Samson that was already waiting for us."
"And nobody thought it was strange that you left? Nobody stopped you, or asked any questions?" Jake asked.
"No. We left very early in the morning," Natasha clarified, "so there was nobody who could ask us anything."
The first days had gone very well, she continued to tell. They travelled quite far, discovered the most wonderful things, located what had to be ancient sites, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves very much. Mankx and Baker often took off on their own, to look around. Louis always stayed with the three scientists, to make sure there would be no problems with animals.
"One day we were close to a village," Natasha said. "Mankx and Baker were away again and we were taking samples and getting readings, when suddenly there was an explosion. When Mankx and Baker returned, they told us they had been attacked by a hammerhead, and they had used a grenade to kill it."
"Olo'faypya," Puvomun said, remembering how the stream clan had found the dead 'angtsik.
Amhul and Jake nodded.
The group then had left quickly, because they were worried that the clan nearby would not take the killing very well.
"We knew it was wrong, but it had already happened. Thorenson and Mendelson shouted at Mankx for being such a murdering bastard, and then Mankx took a gun and pointed it at us, telling us that we were nothing but a comfortable excuse to get out here. He said that as long as we did our thing, they would do their thing and that would be that. Otherwise we would have to face the consequences."
The woman in the wheelchair fell silent. She was crying.
Puvomun felt very sorry for the tawtute after hearing all this. Jake's face stood hard and Amhul looked worried too. They gave Natasha time to get her emotions subdued.
"They told us that they were there to find more unobtanium," the woman continued. "They said they wanted to do it better this time. Not getting in the way of the natives- I mean Na'vi, and not getting into a fight with you. We had seen that this whole moon will fight back. Getting it from someplace where there are no people would be the best thing."
It had proven to be very difficult for the group to find a place where no Na'vi lived. After things had gone wrong near the stream clan, they had moved on to Hellfire Plateau. Mankx and Louis had blasted a hole in the rock to see if underneath that was unobtanium, but that had resulted in a lot of deaths. Natasha recounted how the men had cursed about the indigenous living everywhere. They had left, wanting to go back north, but Baker had gotten into a dispute with the pilot who wanted to return to the base.
"Baker opened a hatch to the pilot's area. Baker is a dangerous lunatic," Natasha said, tears welling up in her eyes again. "He told the pilot to turn around without remembering that the man could not breathe the air."
Na'vi - English.
'Angtsìk - hammerhead
Atokirina - seeds of the Sacred Tree
At'sha - "Archer" (name of the man, chapter 14)
Ayewan - young ones
Ayfkio - many tetrapteron, four-winged flying animals
Ayfo lu tstunwi - They are kind
Ayfo makto nìwin - They ride too fast
Ayikran - plural of ikran
Aynivi - plural of nivi
Ayoeyä atxkxe - our land
Aysa'nok - mothers
Aysaronyu - plural of taronyu (also 'saronyu')
Aysawtute/sawtute - Sky people, the humans
Aysko / sko - bows
Ayuniltìranyu - plural of uniltìranyu, dreamwalkers
'Eveng - a child
Eveng - children
'Ewantu - young one
'Ewll - plant
'Eylan - friend
Eylan - plural of 'eylan
Eywa - the Goddess, nature, Gaia
Eywa ayoehu - Eywa be with us
Eywa ngahu - Eywa be with you
Fa'li/ayfa'li - plural of pa'li - horses
Fngap - metal
Fngapä ta'leng - metal skin, AMP suits
Hayalovay - See you!
Hetuwong - plural of ketuwong - aliens
Heyn - to sit
Hì'i - small
Hì'pa'li - small horses
Ikran - mountain banshee
Ikran makto - ikran rider
Ikranay - forest banshee
Irayo - thank you
'Ite - daughter
Kaltxì - hello
Karyu - teacher
Kava - alcoholic drink
Kämakto - go ride
Ke nìltsan - not well
Kefyak? - right?
Kehe - no
Kelutral - Hometree, where the Na'vi clan lives
Kelku lefngap - house of metal
Ketuwong - alien
Kìyevame - May we see each other again
Koaka karyu - old teacher
Kxam - middle
Kxawm - maybe, perhaps
Kxetse - tail
Kxi'txah - Na'vi phonetics for guitar
Lu - is, to be
Ma yawne - (my) love
Makto zong - travel safely
Mawey - calm down
Mesawtute - two Sky people
Meveng - two children
Mllte - to agree
Nantang - six-legged direwolf
Nga - you
Nga yawne lu oer - You are my beloved
Ngeyä - your (ngeyä sa'nok - your mother)
Nìltsan - well
Nìprrte - you're welcome
Nivi - hammock
Numeyu - Student
Oe 'efu pa'li - I feel the horse
Oe irayo si Eywaru - My thanks to Eywa
Oe ke lu - I am not
Oel omum - I know
Oe tsleram - I understand
Oeyä koaka 'eylan - my old friend
Olo'eyktan - clan leader
Pa'li - six-legged direhorse
Palulukan - giant six-legged feline predator
Po lu - he is
Pxasìk - very bad curse-word
Pxora'pam - explosion
Rewon lefpom - good morning (lit. morning good)
Riti - stingbat
Rolyu - singer
Rolun - Na'vi equivalent of "Eureka", I got it!
'Rrta - Earth
Sa'nok - mother
Saronyu - hunters
Sempul - father
Set - now
Sì - and (used in listing things)
Sìltsan - good
Skxawng - moron, idiot
Sran, srane - yes
Srung - help (n)
Srung si - to help
Swizaw - arrow
Syaksyuk - Prolemuris
Tam - Good, okay
Taronyu - hunter
Taw - sky
Tawsìp - Airship, flying machine
Tawtute - Sky person, one human
Teylu akerusey - larvae of death
Tokx - body
Tsa'u lu sìltsan - that is good
Tsaheylu - a mental bond, made by tendrils in a Na'vi braid to other living organisms on Pandora
Tsahik - spiritual leader, shaman
Tsamsiyu - warrior
Tsko - bow
Tsmuk - sibling
Tsmukan - brother
Tsmuke - sister
Tswin - queue, braid
Tokx - body
Txon lefpom - good night (lit. night good)
Txonam - last evening
Txumtsä'wll - poison squirting plant
Ulte - and (used to combine sentences)
Uniltìrantokx - Avatar (dreamwalker) body
Uniltìranyu - Dreamwalker, a human in an Avatar body
Utral Aymokriyä - the Tree of Voices
Vitra - soul
Vitrautral - the Tree of Souls
Yawne - loved one
Yerik - six-legged kind of deer