Author's note:

This story is more than most of what I have written dialogue. It was just so very fun to put some highly unconventional Earth people in the Pandora environment, and take it from there.

A Very Different Kind of Invasion

After the banishment of the RDA colony at Pandora quite a few newcomers gave the fifteen original rebel avatars, plus Norm who had lost his avatar during the Great Battle and plus Max and Trudy who never had any of their own, ten to the number.

First to arrive, some months after the eviction, was the microbiologist Wayne Stuart Bell, he soon became Max' irreplaceable assistant in the avatar lab. He even invented a technique to fuse na'vi and human fertilized egg cells (zygotes), thus creating new avatars, without a complete bio-lab with dozens of employees and technical equipment worth dollars by the millions – allowing Max and Trudy to remain without having to return to Earth at the time of last ISV departure.

Second to arrive, about a year and a half after the eviction, was Tran Thi Dung Ly, agronomist by education and historian by leisure interest. In not so long time the graceful and industrious Vietnamese woman had found out that Owen MacGregor, the administrator clerk of the research station, shared her hobby and soon after they fell in love.

Third to arrive was Mathilda S. Cummings, astronomer by trade and in time gardener assistant to Ella van Laare in the hydroponic greenhouse too. When arriving she was grotesquely overweight and completely out of touch with any sensible way of behaving, be it among humans or na'vi, but they managed to turn her around. The day would come in the future when she would fall in heroic defence of her family and clan during the 2nd Human – Na'vi War, greatly mourned by all who knew her.

Fourth to arrive was Melanie Foster, limnologist (i.e. science of fresh water) by research specialty and given task as meat collecting assistant of hunting master Ernie Gumm. She was a modest, shy, kind, uncharistmatic and more than a little distracted young woman – hardly more than a freshman at her university. She was what sometimes might be called a "grey mouse", i.e. so extremely ordinary and unremarkable in her looks, she was so totally devoid of charm that she just for that stood out of the crowd...

The last newcomers to arrive, some four and a half years after the departure of the RDA people, gave the leaders at the Augustine Research Station some surprise…

Angie at the radio listening post had drawn the list of passengers, detailing four scientists with avatars. Martha Lopez Rojas, Bradley Fuller, Rose I. Pemberton and Lilly Four Galloping Horses, ethnologists all of them. Nothing very remarkable.

But those they saw when the door of the space ferry opened were remarkable indeed… For the four persons walking on to the tarmac that day wasn't exactly what you probably associate with dry, colourless scientists…

Martha Lopez Rojas showed to be a well grown, motherly Latina woman in a long skirt of home-woven textile, with long, unkempt hair and an artificial flower stuck into her hair at her temple. When Norm asked her to present herself she admitted that it so was – "so hard to get a real flower for hair adornment nowadays at Earth!" she said. "My name is Martha as you said but that is soooo boring, I would have preferred to be called 'Tulip' if the choice had been mine!"

Brad Fuller was a bohemian-looking guy – long hair that hadn't seen a comb for a long time either, goatee and far from snappy attire. "Me too! How 'bout calling me 'dandelion', then we have plant names all of us. Cool, whadda you say, pal?"

It was the turn of Rose Pemberton to be called up. A rough-hewn and ruddy young girl of African – American family, with an overgrown afro-mop hairdo, dressed in obvious second hand boy's garment, rose up. A pipe stuck out of her jacket pocket, and she had an aura of a weak but unmistakeable whiff of "pot" around her. "My middle name is 'Innes', I am happy with being a 'rose' – and don't you dare to joke about R.I.P. for me! When my professor did so, I needed some 'high' days after that before I could forgive him that one!"

And then it was Lilly Four Galloping Horses. The name sounded rather like from the Amerindian tribes at the prairie but she was a crew-cut blondie with lively blue eyes, dressed in ill-fitting military style garment, obviously bought from a military surplus store. Norm asked her from where she had got her surname, she didn't look very Indian. "No but I ought to have been born so! I 'fixed' my name a little when I had the opportunity, being named 'Lilly Wilson' would have been just so very boring, bland and unremarkable! I need to be someone special!"

After the end of the introductory course the day after, Norm sat down with his two other partners in the leadership at Augustine Research Station. "Some gang, I must say!" he said.

Trudy added: "Did you remark how Brad sat down with Lilly and Rose at each arm and Martha clinging to his back? They are his harem, that is what those gals are! A hippie band, that is what we have got us."

And Max added a thoughtful idea: "They declared unequivocally that they intend to stay on when the last ISV leaves. We will have our job cut out for us then, with convincing them that the ways of the Na'vi are strict, rigid and not open for give and take. We should warn Jake that these guys are one of their kinds, may be a little rough to handle! A special treatment like Mathilda got might be what they seriously need."

The omens came true. The four of them made no attempt at protest against living in close connection with and being subject to rules of nature – until it became clear what that implied… For instance: Rose became rather grumpy when Ella in the greenhouse refused to put the hemp seed Rose had smuggled along from Earth to cultivation – no "pot" for the future… Brad scoffed when he was told the Na'vi opinion on liberal love and open group marriages. Martha showed off her disgust with the tasks she was given at the station by housekeeper Ewa, she protested loudly against needing to wash floors. Lilly rolled her eyes in exasperation when hearing how little room there was for deviating from rules in general in the Na'vi way of life, whether in garment, menu, crafts or whatever. And all of them agreed that the demand for absolute and blind loyality to Na'vi clans when and if RDA should try to return was an abomination, that it was unacceptable to hide away while other fought.

In the end, after an archery training where the women happened to be absent – again, and a window had been improperly installed by Brad so that it leaked in the noxious atmosphere, the four friends convened a meeting about them – Jake, Norm, Max and Trudy.

Max opened the debate. "Those four are a problem. As for now, they are parasites on the society at Augustine – they don't hunt and gather to feed themselves, they keep trying to evade duties at the station and they perform their duties they after all do sloppy, and they are completely indifferent to lessons about the defence of us all against RDA incursions. As for now they are likely to be a heavy burden on any Na'vi clan. So we have to discuss what to do with them, the introduction course doesn't seem to have made enough impression on them, and the next arriving ISV will be the last one to depart before the time is over for Augustine."

Norm proposed: "Might it be possible for you Jake to ask Eywa for help with them like when She cracked the nut of Mathilda's resistance? Being four it will be hard to convince them with a show like I performed for Nick when we turned him around."

Jake concurred: "I'll at least have some words with Neytiri and Mo'at about it."

Trudy concluded: "I will in any case have some serious words with them. After that we'll see."

In the evening some days later Trudy drummed the four freaks together. She opened the séance with saying: "We in the leadership are dissatisfied with you. You 'play hokey' with your assigned tasks here at the station, you are not serious about learning abilities you will need to know about what it takes to live permanently here at this moon after the departure of the last ISV – you have declared that you intend to stay on, and you keep trying to tamper with rules that go for life here. There will be an end to such ways, or you will be put on the passenger list of that last ISV."

Brad protested: "We on our part are unhappy with meeting a so serious and unflinching style all around. Nothing can be done when you feel like or not at all if you do not see the point about it. There is a strict norm to all behaviour, no room for just living in the here and now and absolutely nothing else! And we are unyielding pacifists and vegetarians, there are some of our sort in the mass of RDA employees, believe it or not! We simply don't want to kill to live."

"In so case you are parasites all of you, you take more from the rest of us than you want to give back. Such types simply are unacceptable here. We all need to take our tasks seriously. Least of all is such free-loading acceptable when RDA some day in the future will be going to try another colonization of this moon. Anyone not then joining in wholeheartedly in the defence of this world will then be regarded as a traitor. And what are we going to do with traitors – you have three guesses…"

Brad became pale. "You are not seriously thinking that Earth people will make another attempt at that, are you? We at Pandora never do anything to them!"

Trudy returned him a flint hard gaze. "Oh yes, we do think they will, sooner or later. The value of unobtanium is so awesome to industrialists at Earth that they simply can't afford not to. You arrived after the half time between our rebellion and the terminal point of this research station, why do you think they didn't turn back when they were told by our broadcastings that mining had now ended, only ore available would be the stock already dug out before mining operations were ended. In other words, your very presence here is a testimony to the need at Earth for this material! So we need to join in the defence of this world all of us, the weakest link in the chain may be the one that bursts the whole defence. We are links in this defence each and every one of us, and the four of you are regarded as rather weak links as for now, Brad."

Trudy passed her gaze out over the rest of them. "It is probably time to go down for the night now. I want you, no we demand you, to ponder on what I have now said over the night, so think and talk during the time before you fall asleep. Sweet dreams, all of you! See you all in the morning and we'll meet again after breakfast. I'll then ask you what your choice will be: To be unreliable slackers for the next seven months and then sent back to Earth, or to take your share in life here, in all its aspects."

That late evening was a time of four freaks in a painful soul searching. What were they to give up – their "liberal" life style or the nature they felt much better about? They held an "extended family" council. They had long ago agreed on a fixed round of speaking order so that everyone had their uninterrupted turn with the word.

Brad was the one to open the debate. "I am seriously in doubt what to decide. I frolick in this nature but I have a hearty disgust with the feeling of living in a military barrack I get from people here, whether human or na'vi."

The word went to Rose: "Much as I am revolted by having to obey their demands, I still will. I simply don't want to return to Earth, to such an impoverished slum like my hometown, Akron, Ohio, has become nowadays. It has probably become still worse in the years gone by since I left from there."

Martha carried on: "Or El Paso, Texas, in my case. So I am of the same inclination like you, Rose. And may be those rules are there for good reasons, what if Norm is right when he is insisting that those rules are an important part of what has saved this world from deteriorating like Earth? For ruining this beautiful nature is of course what we least of all want to do, are you in?"

Lilly finalized: "Don't you think that such conditions are uniquely US American either. St. Johns, Newfoundland, is certainly not a place for me any more either. And I simply refuse to believe that absolutely all those silly Na'vi rules are quite so rigid as they say they are. There must be some of them that can be bent and stretched a little without breaking the main principles. It simply takes knowing them well."

Brad concluded, and brought up another topic. "I see that I am in minority, you three are squarely in favour of staying on while I have trouble making up my mind, so I bow to the majority. But the four of us have another problem we need to think about too. They have let us understand, with no room for interpretation and misunderstanding, that our group marriage will not be accepted when we live in a blue skin permanently. Who of you will then be my one and only, and who will I have to give my good bye to? I shudder with thinking about this, I love you all three of you! What you say, are we to draw cards about it or what do you think?"

Rose had her turn with the word: "I am fond of you as much as Tulip and Lilly are, I think, and I have weaned my mind from jealousy long ago. How we decide this will probably be the same for all of us – as long as it is just probability."

Martha took over: "I just ask you to arrange this drawing of lots well before we emigrate to the Na'vi life. Otherwise there will be a race among us to capture that hair lock of yours, Brad!"

Lilly ended the topic: "Just declaring my agreement with you two. We'll rely on probability – but expect some tears from those of us not in luck!"

Brad brought up another one: "We pass on to next thing to think about. They demand us to take our share in the clan hunting expeditions. Imagine me as a hunter! I who have been a committed vegetarian since I was 14! The idea is just so damned-icky-preposterous!"

Rose inweighed: "If we have to then we have to…"

Martha tried to modify: "If we participate in the hunting and the processing of the game afterwards, who is to say that we have to eat it afterwards? Just so that our duty is completed, in other words. May be we even will be able to pull the whole Na'vi society a wee bit in a vegetarian direction, may be?"

Lilly followed up: "And we should have a few words with Max or Wayne concerning Na'vi nutrition. Let's say, we can eat what our bodies will crave of dietary elements but absolutely not an ounce more meat than that either."

Brad came with one more: "Here is the last problem I can think about here and now. What if Trudy is right when she is saying that RDA probably will one day be back with digging plans, a lot of soldiers and killing hardware to protect their vandalism? Then what are we to do should so happen? I have a horrible, icy and sinking feeling in my gut with the thought of having to kill or maim someone. But if we go into cover and try to stay neutral in some secluded hole, it will be regarded as disloyalty and Heaven help us then. Your thoughts please."

Rose concurred: "I have the same heavy feeling like you, Brad. But no army can have only warriors, someone must be medics, transporters, engineering services, communications etc. too. A possibility for us?"

Martha extended: "Also someone must keep the civil society running while the tough people fight it out. Food must be collected and prepared, plant fibers collected and woven to textiles, children must be taken care of. And you could continue."

Lilly inveighed: "Yes indeed, also it may well be that our attitude could become a little different when it is getting personal. If some hoodlums came here and attacked or killed anyone of you, there is no way of telling what I then would do."

Brad put a period mark to the discussion: "OK, so here are my proposals, protest if you like. We declare that if humans start up here at Pandora again, we'll be squarely on the Na'vi side, not their. We only ask them to put us to tasks that don't involve battlefield action. We are perfectly happy without decorations for battlefield heroism. And we accept to abide with all Na'vi rules and practices – but we will not promise not to bend them to our liking and nip them a little at the edges without actually breaking them, where it doesn't any harm. Are there protests against this from anyone? Or am I allowed to go to Norm with our acceptance of this?"

Norm received their bowing to their demands. "I hadn't really expected anything else from you, either. But I sense that we are still not finish with you. Accepting rules in theory is one thing, abiding with them in practice is something else. Your mentors will still be keeping an eye on you."

The four "special cases at Augustine" were among the bystanders when the cargo door of the last Valkyrie space ferry slammed shut for the last time, the three who were to return to Earth had left with the Valkyrie departure yesterday (or rather to their doom, as the commander at the station had secretly decided), so by now it was too late to change their minds. Their collection of Na'vi lore was complete and finish edited, all end notes were finish appended and photographs and sketches were included. Some details of present reforms had been omitted – best not to reveal all trump cards Jake had on his hand… And then the report was sent back to Earth by the radio waves. Norm hoped that his anthropological dissertation and their ethnological compilation would render new and unwelcome visits superfluous.

That evening all the staff at Augustine sat and listened to speeches by the three leaders at the research station – Max, Trudy and Norm, and by the three who were now the principal leaders of the Namana Land Federation – Jake, Neytiri and Mo'at. Details about what was now going to happen were presented. The day after the final training in the art of living at Pandora with little technology began in earnest. Hunting, faith, language and more were on the syllabus. They were all required to choose a craft for their future living – Rose went into gathering, Brad took up tool making, Martha decided for weaving and Lilly preferred story telling.

Brad kept his promise with treating the three women equally, he made a salomonic decision: none of them! He teamed up with Penny Magennis, once the seamstress and laundry manager at Augustine. Tears were shed as a matter of course, by him too, but they all understood that he tried his best at being fair and square so there were no death threats or the like. Martha and Lilly found themselves mates for themselves with time, but they all remained good friends.

But Norm was right in that troublesome situations still occurred for them. Irreverence was a principle for them, sometimes just for a childish protest against water always running downhill, not uphill when so was simply asked from it.

Martha was soon regarded as one of the best weavers of the clan, she was one day awarded a black armband marking her out as such, she was highly instrumental in seeing to that the Omatikaya clan retained its reputation as the weaving clan par excellence. Her loincloths, capes, bags and banners were always something apart, she never imitated anyone else's style – she didn't even copy her own earlier works – but sometimes she picked something so outlandish out of her loom that nobody would deign to take it into use. She more than once had irritated sighs from clanspeople, once Mo'at came to her with a wrinkled nose. "Is this a loincloth or a just a single string hanging down from a leather band?"

Rose was at the same point of time attending the lesson of gathering master Riru'niti.

"Boiled pono'tey leaves are an efficient potion against wound infection, 'disinfectant' is what I think Max called it, it will keep the wound clean and free of parasites. But don't use it if the wound is in the mouth, and don't keep it for too long on an open, bleeding wound. You will get 'funny dreams' from it."

Rose got an excitedly interested gaze in her eyes. "Not dangerous that is, just 'funny dreams'? A mild hallucinogenic, that is? Interesting!"

"You are not thinking about eating it for everydays, are you? It will in time be bad for your health!"

Rose protested: "Why do you think so?"

"Because we – and I – are starting to know you four!"

Another protest: "But have Eywa stated a strict prohibition against using it like that?"

"Well, no – but…"

Rose was soon a habitual chewer of pono'tey mixed with nectar, to sweeten the acrid taste of pono'tey – she invented the recipe herself. She often walked around in a faint confusion – somewhat like "stoned" at Earth – so it wasn't very hard to frighten Na'vi kids about not imitating her. But she learned when not to take a chew more so she was never so "gone" that anyone needed to take offence. She simply was the local weirdo female, never shunned but not quite mate material for any male either.

Lilly had meanwhile just ended a lesson in history given her by Atanzau, history master of the clan. After the story of a bravely fought conflict over a hunting ground she ended up in a heated debate with him.

"I understand that it sometimes is necessary to defend vital interests, but isn't it better to negotiate quarrels without bloodshed?"

Atanzau agreed with her. "It surely is, mostly. But it still happens that arguments simply are insufficient, it isn't usual but it does happen, among Na'vi too. Should we have given up those hunting grounds and starved just because the Angtsik – clan didn't want to listen to reason?"

"But wasn't it possible to use diplomacy, the support from others, to convince them?"

Atanzau nodded. "Oh yes, support from other clans does help in such cases and that was how they finally budged, as you can remember from the story, but if we hadn't had the mettle to defend ourselves few clans would have cared much about standing up for us either. And then in a story much closer in time, we could of course have moved to another home tree when the sawtute demanded us away. But that would only have been a temporary measure, with their insatiable appetite for grey rocks they would soon have been asking us, or some else clan, for the same once again. And again. And again… for ever. Just talking would in the end never have stopped them, taking on them with naked power was regrettable but in the ultimate end oh so necessary."

Lilly didn't say much but her gaze was full of vinegar, she simply didn't have any argument left.

In time Lilly earned a healthy respect for her story telling. She was wont to embellish her stories with a good deal of acting, like miming, animal sounds, gesticulating. She preferred humoristic fairy tales to serious sagas and became much like a clown among the story tellers. A useful teller of such stories, in her opinion. Many mothers in the clan agreed with her, she became a treasured entertainer for the small ones.

And Brad had been listening to a lecture by Norm about the present Na'vi political system. Then it was that he put his hand up.

"All this is OK, Norm. We four wish to be useful clan members, of whichever clan it might be. But is it so bloody impossible to live just a little aside form the mainstream of the clan, according to additional rules of our own? You see, we dislike abiding with rules not of our own decision, consequent and always. So having performed our duty and abstained from breaking any prohibitions, we hope we'll be allowed to pull a little apart and do like we prefer?"

Norm became serious. "It seems to me that you are the one of the four of you who takes hardest to following common Pandoran sense. Do realize that you are balancing at the edge of a sharp knife! Those going by that way will always be under clanspeople's suspicion for disloyalty and for breaking rules, so that eyes always will be upon you. And should you happen to break some rule, you can bet that the punishment meted out for you will be all the harsher for this reason."

Brad looked dejected – and then his final word of the case came from him. "It is simply too bad that there isn't a greater room for tolerance for those who prefer a little different life style."

And then Norm put down the ultimate word. "This isn't all a human versus Na'vi affair, having a degree in anthropology I know this. This intolerance you take offence from is due to the difference between a big, impersonal and indifferent society where you are totally on your own and hence anything goes, versus a small scale society where we are all dependent on each other and consequently put demands to behaviour so that we all know what we can expect from each other. Urban life doesn't mix with rural life Brad, and that is how it will always be, whether in pink or blue skin. It seems to me that you want the social cohesion that is part of rural life, while disliking the demands to behaviour that goes with this cohesion. Compare it with a jigsaw puzzle, in a big city there are many puzzles so you can always go looking for some puzzle where you will fit in, while in a small village there is only one puzzle to fit into, those who don't fit in will have to get rid of some awkward corners of the bit to become part of the image."

In his professional life Brad became a good toolmaker. His works were unmistakeable, they were full of funny or outright bizarre details. He once made a walking cane not practically usable – on question why he had made it so he simply replied: "Because it was fun to make it like this!"

So in the end they fit into the Omatikaya clan all of them. They by and by managed to work out a compromise between their individualism and the collectivism of the Na'vi society, to the sometimes grudging satisfaction of other clanspeople. The big thing they had relinquished to be accepted was their group marriage.

But then the day came when their loyalty had to go through a fire test.

Brad was working on a pole to be fashioned into a banner, he knew Martha had made ready a banner for the Uplands tribe kumpongu, her proposal had been voted by the tribal council. A nice symbol, a triangular grey shape with spots in on a pale blue background, symbolizing a mountain with caves in, was a fitting badge for the strongest clan in the tribe, the Mountaineer clan. Her proposal of a national flag for the whole Namana Land federation had been entered in the competition for the common symbol of the "state", she knew that its chances for being appointed were favourable.

Lilly had recently come back from a story telling festival, her entry in the competition – about the young hunter who had climbed a liana that had grown up to the sky during the night, straight up to the abodes of the Sky People, to get back an olo'eyktan's flute from up there – actually a "translation" of the fairy tale about "Jack and the bean stalk"… Her story had been a runner up in the competition but the prize went to the Ekanagi story teller who gave a reciting of a section of an old epic, about the hunter who went from clan to clan performing great deeds wherever he came to gain back the lost respect of his home clan for his hapless brother, Lilly was reminded about the old myth about Heracles and his great works… And Rose was sitting and preparing some ointment for aching shoulders, oh how she longed to be finish with the task so she could pick up a little of her private "dream mixture # 3"…

But then the dreaded event took place. For each and every of them the same: A boy came running, saying: "You are to report to your crafts master, at once. No protest and deadly serious! Sky people are here!"

They all dropped whatever they held in their hands and ran straight to the workshops of the masters / mistresses of their crafts. Their crafts masters and mistresses gave them speeches more or less the same for all of them. "We are now to go to a smaller tree in the forest, as for now uninhabited, appointed us by the clan leadership so that those who need some of our services will know where to go to. That is where we will settle and set up workshops for the coming time. Dispersing out in the forest will make it much harder to attack us. So go fetch your raw materials, tools and products under work, we'll bring them to our new 'away tree'. I'll show you the way."

Busy times came to the four freaks. Martha needed to weave many, many stretches of gauze for bandage, Rose had to gather lots of herbs for medicines, Lilly got to experience that parents had become far busier than before – she had to arrange play school for kids for longer days than before, and Brad had to put in another gear with making tools for all kinds of uses – stretchers for carrying, splinting rods for setting broken legs, pickaxes, hoes and other tools. All four regarded themselves lucky for not having to go into the "active service", and grudgingly accepted that this was not the best time for wasting time with making funny details on their products. In times of conflict there is little time for artistry, unless it is connected with agitation for the great cause.

So Lily was from time to time pulled in as a reteller of old stories from Earth, like reminding about the danger of invading a poor but resourceful people, remember Britain in Afghanistan 1842 – backward people but very at home in their nature, with a powerful military tradition and guided by gifted commanders... Or Russia in Caucasus during the 19th century, they managed to conquer those mountains in the end but it took more than fifty years of bloody warfare... Or Chile south of Bio-bio River, the Chilenians finally succeeded in subjugating the area in 1880 but then the colonists had been fighting the Araucanian tribes living there for more than three hundred years…

One of the freaks happened to make a direct difference as to the run of the war. Rose had been taken along to replenish the stock of medicines her assigned healer Orikite spent on wounded warriors. The two of them had been sent along with a war party of the Onati clan, playing hide and seek with an enemy patrol of one helicopter, ten soldiers and forty allied ikran riding warriors. In the evening a scout gave olo'tsamshiu eyktan Noatar the message: "They have struck camp and put out guards for the night."

Noatar looked to his assistant Bana'ä in exasperation. "Having only five hands of warriors and as many hunters of less martial experience, it is risky to attack them. Those guards are na'vi too and not easily fooled or stalked. And with a Sky people kunsip to assist them, they will be hard to overcome."

Suddenly the peacable Rose stood there. "I have an idea how to take out at least the na'vi warriors, without their support it will be simpler to corner the human soldiers afterwards."

"How?"

"Most of the enemy warriors will be sitting close together by a firepit, I presume, to have their evening meal? Then it will be possible to 'bomb' them with my little surprise for them. You see Noatar, I have the last days collected a lot of pono'tey leaves, cured them, dried them and ground them to fine powder. You have seen me doing it and probably wondered about what I have been doing. I have tried a little of this powder, I have found out that it is concentrated and very strong. We can give those warriors really a wonderful time! (hi hi hi…)"

Sergeant Rob Getz was happy when captain Davis ordered camp struck for the night, landing their Samson helicopter. They had been flying together with their Marakxali allies all day, looking for the elusive enemies but finding none. The Marakxali scouts had seen the home tree of the Onati clan, at a distance it looked abandoned but they kept their distance. The fiasco when they had come to the Swamp clan's home tree and fell into the ambush set up there – one 'copter with all crew lost – was remembered and the memory rankled. So where had the Onati hidden? Probably not far away but where?

Suddenly he saw in the weak fluorescent light from the vegetation that one of the scouts rose up from the firepit, he pointed up to the sky and called out something like: "Ikran ay'makto!" And suddenly a big bag dropped down into the firepit, the hot air from the firepit flushed the fine dust in the bag out all over. Rob and his six team mates only felt a weak, pungent and nasty smell through their exo-packs, but among the scouts the effect was immediately obvious. Some of the scouts simply sat down with an empty gaze, others walked around without direction and thought. A couple was left standing and talking in incoherent confusion, another one just giggled and laughed with a silly face expression, and there was one who simply lay on the ground crying. Only the four scouts standing guard high up in the trees were not flushed with the dust and didn't lose their minds.

Suddenly a dozen enemy warriors came out of the forest, with some gauze bound tightly around their mouths and noses like face masks, arrows flew and the captain fell to the ground, a few seconds later two of the other team members had their own arrows in their stomach. One of the warriors called out a muffled: "Surrender!" in broken English. Rob and his friends had no alternative but to do so, they couldn't get on wings soon enough to get away.

Noatar was elated, he only left four warriors to guard the "stoned" and helpless na'vi scouts from malevolent predators, and when their stupefaction waned they were to be told that they should go back to their clan and tell everyone that sawtute were the targets not them, they would in time be their friends. Eight warriors were detailed to take the four captured soldiers away. And in the end Noatar had one thing left to do, he put a bomb he had been bringing along for some opportunity into the helicopter. Soon the helicopter was done away with and the enemy patrol had been finish exterminated.

Coming back to the gatherer's "away tree", Rose was given a reception she never had imagined she ever would be given. She a committed pacifist was given homage as a war hero! She remarked many a long gaze from warriors of the clan… A few days later she was in a solemn ceremony awarded a brown tassel for her to wear on her gatherer's collecting bag, the gathering master declared that this had been given her for inventing a weapon that allowed enemies to be defeated with only a minimum of blood loss – a sort of "poison gas"…