You know guys, I've slept in on the story, and I'm beginning to write this chapter late, almost too late, I hope I can manage to write something decent.

If not, then I guess I'll write something indecent too! (but then again, i'll try to keep it rated T for Thanators)


Chapter Forty nine: No one's romantic dinner.

"Rick, are you just making this up?" Max asked after his initial freaking-out worn off. "No way, I can breathe Pandora's air without any problems. You see it allows me to do things outside that I could only dream about." Rick said and then turned to still crouching Tarya. She was looking at him with interest, now thanks to Observer's translation she knew at least what Rick said. "This allows me to spend more time with Tarya, and I don't have to worry about filter getting dirty, or about holding the breath if I eat something with her, or when …" "Enough please, Rick I'm sure that you are going to tell us how great it is, but we have now a slightly different problem" Max interrupted him, and he did so in the right moment "If I would let him continue, then he'll surely get through eating with Tarya to kissing and then on and on…and on." Rick noticed that Max began to space out, and he blushed slightly. "If we are going to plan something, I would recommend doing it tomorrow, I don't know about you, but being awake this long actually wears me out" Rick said pointing to the clocks on the wall. Tarya turned her head to see that little apparatus on the wall, it was small circular thing with two sticks pointing to some symbols, written in English. "Yeah, it's getting late" Max acknowledged, "More like, it's getting early" Rick corrected him and then added "It's almost six in the morning" he pointed out the obvious. Tarya only knew that it was night, Na'vi didn't used exact time, instead they've used simply morning, lunchtime, evening and night. They've didn't need more, why would they? "So let's get to the bed" Rick said and then turned around to face František and said "You too…guys?" but when he turned he saw that both František and Alexandra were gone "When did they've left?" Rick asked once again using Na'vi which was beginning to be more comfortable for him than English. "They've left a few moments ago" Tarya filled him in, now Rick knew that he was tired, he didn't even notice that they were gone. "One more reason to get a rest" he said "We should probably get something to eat" Tarya pointed out, and when she did Rick's stomach threatened Rick with angry growl. "You know, I've tried to make some Chinese food today, and I say it was delicious, it's in the canteen" Max said with pride, it wasn't an easy job to make something edible from military rations, and it was a miraculous job if it actually taste good. "What is chai-nees food?" Tarya asked with curious look, she wasn't sure what kind of food it was but she hoped that it would taste good. "It's a meat with rice and lot of vegetables in nice sauce" Max tried to describe the thing he cooked. But the terms like Rice were alien to Tarya "What is Rice?" she asked and Before Max could continue with his explaining, Rick grabbed her hand and said "Instead of getting a description, how about actually eating it?" "Now that's a nice offer for a romantic dinner, a Chinese food of …let's say unknown origin, just me and Tarya" Rick thought. "Very well, let's see this Chai-nees food" Tarya said, her curious look staying on her face "Cool I'll join you, I cannot get enough of it" Max said, crushing Rick's idea about having a nice romantic dinner, just the two of them. "Step on my dreams, why wouldn't you" he thought as he said "Alright, let's go" but then he suddenly remembered that Observer was still sitting there "You are dismissed for the rest of the night. Tommorow we'll go to the Home tree of Omaticaya and then we'll go with you back to Scylla" Rick said stopping in front of the doors "Contact with RDA must be established first" Observer pointed out "Look, I am PFC Rick No one, last RDA soldier left in hell's gate" Rick said with a slightly annoyed look on his face. "Acknowledged, when is the scheduled departure?" he asked "Around eleven o'clock" Rick said after a moment of thinking. "I'll be sleeping with Tarya, how could I get from the bed with such a beautiful woman sooner than ten o'clock? " he asked himself and then finally left the Med-bay

After they all arrived into the canteen, Max turned from computer geek to a waiter. "I'll bring it." He said in na'vi, motioning toward the nearest table "Make yourself comfortable until then" he said and walked into the kitchen. Rick smiled at Tarya and walked over to the canteen table. Immediately he saw the upcoming problem, these tables were made for humans, and even some of the personal had problems with space for legs there. There was no way that Tarya would be able to sit there. "Max, can I have a special request?" Rick asked, using the human word for special, there was simply no word for special in na'vi "Yet, I'll be the inventor of that word for na'vi" Rick thought sarcastically. "What is it?" Max yelled at them from kitchen "Could you bring that to the Avatar quarters?" he asked, already thinking about the alternative, to make Tarya more comfortable. "This will be interesting" he thought as he heard from kitchen "Oh, Alright" Max said with a resignation in his voice, he'll be carrying two plates and two glasses through the base and then even outside, but he understood that it needs to be done in Tarya's sake. He however will have to eat somewhere else, he wasn't fan of eating while holding his breath. "Let's go outside" Rick said and motioned Tarya toward the doors "We'll eat outside" he then added, and together with Tarya he exited the canteen, they've walked through the base to the airlock and when it opened, Rick and Tarya entered it. Rick pushed the "Open" button on the other doors and the doors behind him close, he instinctively grabbed one of the exopacks on the side of the airlock and put it on. Only to remember that he don't need one. "Oh I've forgot" he said with his exopack on as he already walked outside of the airlock with Tarya "You look nicer with it" Tarya said with a playful smile on her face, "She lies" Rick immediately knew. There was no way that an exopack would make anyone nicer. Sure it can make you look dumb but nice? "Thank you, I guess I'll keep it on" he said with a smile on his face, and judging by her look he knew that this was not her intention.


Max in the kitchen


Max prepared the food, one to a normal dish and the second was on a big plate, Max was about to lift off with it and bring it to them, but he still kept thinking about Rick "Is he really able to breathe Pandora's air? I need to find out" he thought and opened his laptop which he was still carrying, he didn't want to leave it in Med-lab and then forget about it, he would've spent at least ten hours trying to find it if he would've done that. He connected through the wireless connection to the base security system and opened the camera system, after he found Tarya and Rick he used the nearby camera to zoom in on Rick's face. "A-HA! He is wearing an exopack! He lied!" Max yelled with victorious smile "I bet he'll take off his exopack just when I'm in sight and will hold his breath just to make me believe that he actually can" Max thought as he closed his laptop and put it back into his bag. "Well I'll just hang around until his breath runs out and he'll be forced to put his exopack back on!" Max's sinister plan was almost flawless, he will only need to get this Chinese food to them and wait around. Max picked up a bottle of water and put it also in his bag, two plastic cups as well and then put his bag back on his back and took the meals with a set of knives and forks and set off, he had a little problem with the dishes in Airlock, he had to somehow get his exopack on, after he got it on in very comical way, he pressed the button to open the doors. After he walked through the compound with two dishes he finally arrived at his destination. "The moment of truth" he thought as he entered the big wooden building made especially for avatars, he got inside to find out that Tarya was already sitting on the bench made for avatars, looking at Rick who was standing on the bench, because it was made for avatars, not humans. But the creators of this table were funny guys because they've put a ladder on both sides of it, making it possible for human to climb up with no big problems. On the other hand the table wasn't that high from the bench so Rick could eat like in a buffet. Rick was not wearing an exopack already, as Max closed in he noticed that it was on the table. "You've already started? We'll just see if you can breathe Pandora air sooner" Max thought as he got to the bench, he put Rick's plate on top of the bench and climbed on it, then put the plate in front of Rick and gave him the knife and fork, got a glass from his bag and poured some water in it. "Max, you sure you don't want to be a professional waiter?" Rick asked, "You know, that's a great idea for a spare time job. How about making a restaurant? We'll call it, Restaurant 'Thanator's rest' and Thanty will be our main propagator" Max said and they've both laughed. "Yeah, talk some more, your air will soon run out" Max thought as he slowly descended on the floor again and the plate on the side of Tarya's bench and then climbed onto it "Why can't they just sit on one side?" he thought ironically as he got up and placed the plate in front of Tarya, then placed the knife and fork next to the plate and poured the water into the glass. "Enjoy" he said as he slowly started walking away, and was even slower with the climb down procedure, he was sure that Rick was without Oxygen about a ten minutes now, that made his theory about Rick lying about being able to breathe it slightly suffocating herself, the theory died after Rick toasted with the water to "let's toast to you, my beauty" he said and waved with the glass toward her, she wasn't sure how to react to that toast, but she did raised her glass and chugged the contents of it down, Rick did the same but then turned to food, sniffed and said "it smells delicious" to Max and Tarya agreed. Max whose jaw dropped said "So you really can breathe Pandora's air!" With finger accusatively pointed at Rick


Duh, he said it. Max should knew that whatever Rick says, is true. (most of the times, like that time with Samson)

Guess this is the end of today's chapter. Will Max finally believe Rick that he is indeed able to breathe Pandora's air? Can Max make an edible Chinese food? Why don't they eat that food with chopsticks? Can Tarya use chopsticks? Probably not, but hey we'll find out in next chapter!

(p.s to skoedaddy: Thanks, but I'll stick with daily updates until it will become too serious. ((but as I know myself, even if I died, I would simply walk it off and wouldn't miss the chapter)) Simply said: There is no rest for Merlin…I mean Skreetz!)
(Funny fact: Even though i've started writing this chapter late, i'm posting it a little early :-D)

STAY TUNED!