Freedom has Many Faces

Chapter 4

'Sweet mother of god…'

Grace Augustine's lips spread into a wide toothy grin. 'Sure beats the photographs.'

She was standing, in her avatar body, with the two marines she had very reluctantly allowed to accompany her in the heart of Hometree. The meeting place was like a great hall, draped with ornate woven banners that hung from the highest branches and filled with fearsome shadows cast by the skulls of massive animals that were mounted above their heads. Word of their coming had already been sent ahead, and Hometree was filled with rows and rows of Na'vi waiting to see these strange new arrivals, some perched on thick sloping branches that resembled new tree trunks growing out of the main plant, others crammed together on the main trunk. The crowd parted as Matuei led the visitors towards the platform at the centre of the space. Suhaar walked at the rear of the procession with an arrow held loosely in his hand, the tip of which was vaguely directed at the spine of the marine in front of him.

As they reached the clearing at the middle of the gathering, they saw the Omaticaya's Tsahik Mo'at waiting for them. She was dressed in her full regalia, with blood-red fabrics and beads draped low around her neck. On either side of her broad leonine brow her golden eyes flicked from Grace to the two humans. She registered each briefly with a nod, but her face remained deadpan and the other high-ranking Na'vi around her – five guards with bows drawn, Eytukan a few feet behind her, the two skinny daughters who hovered uncertainly at his waist – appeared agitated. One of the marines accidentally caught the eye of the younger princess as he passed, prompting a defensive growl from the archer in front of her. Rows of dagger-sharp teeth that looked like they had been filed down into fearsome points glistened as he drew back his lips. The marine quickly glanced back down at the ground.

Presently, the procession stopped in a single file in front of Mo'at. She nodded to Matuei and Suhaar, who bowed and withdrew, walking back to join the front row of the watching clan. Moments later, Mo'at's gaze fixed on Grace.

'I am Mo'at. I speak for the Omaticaya, and Eywa speaks through me. And all three of us are curious as to how and why it is, traveller, that you walk in the skin of one of the People. Please explain.' She gestured to Grace with an open hand, soliciting a reply.

'Thank you for granting me an audience, Mo'at. It's a great honour. My name is Dr. Grace Augustine. I assure you that my appearance is not intended to deceive you.'

A small smile crept across Mo'at's face. 'I could be blind and not be deceived by your appearance, doctor. The way you move and smell is enough to give you away to any true Na'vi. But I wanted to know what the purpose of this contrivance is. You strike fear into my clan by coming here. I would rather that their hearts were enlightened and at ease than that their arrows should be pointed at your chests.'

Grace spoke steadily and calmly. 'My … companions and I come from another planet. We are human beings, of the planet Earth. We have travelled a great distance in search of other civilisations with whom we might form alliances. Pandora is one of the few places we have found that bears some similarity to our own world. We've studied it, admired it. But its air is toxic to us. Without breathing apparatus,' and here she tapped on one of the marine's exopack visors with a fingernail, 'or some other biological means of surviving within Pandora's atmosphere, we couldn't make contact.'

Mo'at's smile remained. 'Perhaps the fact that it is toxic to you is a sign that you were never meant to come here.'

Grace grinned. 'I'm afraid that's how human nature works. If there's somewhere we weren't intended to be or something we weren't made to do, it becomes an obsession for us. We live for curiosity and we're cursed by it, but it's not incompatible with respect. I've come to extend the hand of friendship on behalf of my species. Whether you decide to accept or refuse it is entirely in your power. Whatever your decision, we'll honour it.'

'Thank you for the formality,' said Mo'at. 'But I believe some Na'vi on this planet must have already decided. This is not the first time the human race has risked having its throat cut by one of Pandora's clans – otherwise you would not speak our language, assume our form or examine our ways here.'

Grace nodded. The introduction had been nothing more than a formality. It was not only a case of no deception being intended, but also of no deception being possible.

'Perhaps I also need to enlighten you,' said Mo'at. 'The presence of a foreign species on Pandora has been common knowledge to all Tsahik for a long time. The Omaticaya may not have been the human race's first point of contact, but rest assured I have heard of your kind and your interactions with other clans. Your eagerness to learn, your taking … "samples" from us so that you might try to replicate our form in the interests of practicality: do not worry, I know all these things. I only regret that the starving thief has spent a hundred years stealing fruit from our garden before thinking to ask our permission. But it cannot be helped, and I'm glad that you did finally think to ask.'

Grace sensed that the clansmembers behind her were moving and whispering among themselves restlessly. Mo'at must have also noticed because she raised her arms and lowered them slowly, palms down, to pacify the crowd.

'The Olo'eyktan and I didn't want to worry our clan prematurely,' she explained. 'If our world was nothing more than a passing fancy for your kind, it would only cause unnecessary upset. Clearly, though, our fates are supposed to be tied. Eywa has accepted it, and I must too.' Mo'at stepped down from the platform and approached Grace, now level with her. 'I'm sure you have come to ask for something further, though.'

'Yes,' said Grace. 'My hope was that I could extend the dialogue further with the Na'vi.'

'In what way?'

'We've studied you. It's only fair that we share something of who we are and our ways with you. I've come to propose a series of discussions or classes between our people. As you say, we've been a bit too much behind-the-scenes, as it were, and if the human race is to take our friendship seriously, there should be some understanding between us.'

Mo'at paused. A number of the clan peered up interestedly, though some obviously couldn't care less and had quietly returned to tending to their weapons or appearance. Eytukan shook back his hair. He gestured to his two daughters that everything would be alright and that they should sit down, then he slipped out from behind the line of guards that stood in front of him.

Mo'at's left ear flicked round, acknowledging him. 'You have something to say, Mate.'

'Yes. I cannot claim to speak for Eywa myself, but as clan leader I see it this way. Every Na'vi has the responsibility of looking forward and preparing for the seasons ahead. When one food source suffers a fall in numbers, we must make plans to rely more heavily upon other prey in the mean time to allow it to recover. When a dry spell seems likely later in the year, we need to conserve water now. When threatened with the emergence of a new disease, we must ensure that the vulnerable are kept strong and fed and that the young can provide for us what their elders no longer can.'

The younger members of the clan, Matuei and Suhaar included, pricked up their ears and leaned closer.

'Although it comes from the outside, this situation is no different,' continued Eytukan. 'If further interactions with human beings are to be our future, we have an obligation now to prepare for that event. We must be pragmatic here. I think that turning away the doctor's offer would be foolish. Whatever relations we may have with the humans, we would be in a far more advantageous position if we knew them better.' He glanced back over his shoulder at the two children behind him. 'I don't make my decision lightly. Tomorrow's triumphs and sorrows are decided entirely by how a leader chooses to act today. Some day the management of this clan will fall to my daughters, Sylwanin and Neytiri. I would rather they came to that role with wisdom and courage about how things are and will be, not ignorance and fear.'

He looked over at Mo'at expectantly. She cleared her throat.

'You must understand, Grace Augustine, that you must tell me more about this initiative of yours and I must consult with Eywa, as is customary. For my own part, though, I respect my mate's opinion on this matter.' She reached out and held Grace's five-digit hand in her four-digit one. 'We can neither of us now turn away from the other. This is our future, for better or worse.'

Kith introduced a new ream of crimson thread into his loom and began to weave it into his banner. He smiled down at Nikal, who was resting with her head on his knee. The glow of a nearby fire played over her cheek, turning the deep blue skin and its faint luminescent speckling to a flickering bloom of amber. It was late evening in the jungle, and under a grey-pink sky the Omaticaya were relaxing and eating together. The burial teams, Jake and Neytiri included, had returned home to rest. Mo'at could be seen sitting cross-legged on an upper branch, consulting with Jake and her daughter. Both the new Olo'eyktan and his bride looked exhausted. They barely seemed able to keep their heads up. Mo'at presently laid a hand on Jake's shoulder and smiled reassuringly. She gestured to the roasting meat, then to the area where the clan had re-hung their vine hammocks. Jake grinned somewhat weakly and draped his arm around Neytiri's waist, and the pair set off towards the fire-pit, where they were greeted enthusiastically by several younger clansmembers. Kith looked down at his feet and breathed out heavily.

'Are you due to head out again tomorrow?' asked Matuei quietly from where she was sat several feet away, eating and watching him work.

Kith nodded. He kept weaving. 'It's not all bad,' he said. 'This should be the last time I go out there for quite a while. Then I can concentrate on this, and the tilling. Maybe I'll even get the chance to go on a proper hunt. It'll be nice for things to go back to normal, a bit.'

Matuei could tell he was still rather subdued about the task that awaited him: the search for bodies, the burials, the sad and necessary clean-up after the battle with the RDA that they had all tried to overlook for as long as they possibly could. She considered telling him about her extraordinary experience with the injured ikran a couple of nights before, but soon thought better of it. Kith was remarkably easy-going and non-judgmental about the humans despite the horrible things he had seen, but it still felt quite risky to tell him or anyone else about actually calling on the help of a human to fix a problem which, in the eyes of the more conservative Omaticayans, had been created by the humans to begin with. She looked over soundlessly at the banner. He was still working away at the green and red diamond pattern he had started several weeks ago. It was coming together nicely.

'Ah, Kith, you work so steadily,' Matuei said. 'Don't you get tired?'

Kith shrugged. 'I enjoy it. It's relaxing.'

Matuei thought back to her own rather chaotic attempts at weaving, where she had only succeeded in tying an increasingly complicated string of brightly coloured knots and bows around her fingers: relaxing was hardly the right word. It was certainly a skill that you were either born with, or forever failed to master.

'And I know it sounds a little weird, but I look at it this way – however hard I try, I can't make the trees grow any faster or the flowers blossom any sooner, but with this, I can create something and nurture it just as fast or as gradually as I like.' Kith sighed. 'Sometimes it feels like there are fewer and fewer things I can control. There are times when even, even this,' he said, gesturing to the banner, 'seems so futile. I create things with my hands every day, but-' He looked down at Nikal. 'But the one thing I can't create is the one thing that would make her happy.' He chuckled and stroked back a few strands of hair from his mate's face. 'She looks so peaceful. You'd never guess that she spent the whole day nagging and throwing stuff at me.'

Matuei laughed. 'That's Nikal. The bigger the bump she leaves on your head, the more she loves you.' She pressed Kith's hand gently. 'It will be alright, Kith. You'll see.'

Suddenly a loud crack shot through the air, bringing several Na'vi to their feet. Nikal jerked awake and automatically cuffed Kith around the ear with a cry of 'Keep it down … you … uh?' She had just noticed what had now caught the entire clan's attention.

The horizon had burst into a scattershot explosion of grey and orange plumes, accompanied by an ear-splitting barrage of gunfire. The assault lasted a full minute, and then everything fell quiet again. The Na'vi began to murmur among themselves, and Matuei was about to speak when the solid blunt blow of a single bullet plugging into flesh rang out and echoed through the forest. Several women shrieked. The noise was repeated four more times, and that was the end of it. The clan's worst fears surfaced in an instant.

'It's happening again!'

'You don't think it was-'

'It's those damn humans. I said it at the time, only a fool would let any of them stay here after what they did!'

Matuei was shocked to see Nikal join in with the more aggressive shouts and accusations. The change in her appearance was quite startling. Her braided hair and the furry tip of her tail bristled, her back was deeply arched and her face was contorted in a terrible snarl.

'Everybody calm down!' yelled Jake. The clamouring of the crowd gradually petered out as they turned to look at him. He murmured something in Neytiri's ear, and she began to translate for him as he spoke aloud to the clan.

'That outburst was definitely human gunfire, I can't argue with that, but the people who were allowed to stay when we evicted the RDA are my friends. I know what they're like. They all respect the Na'vi and the forest. They wouldn't just go around blasting it to bits. Look, first thing in the morning we'll head out and investigate. Right now it's too dark.'

'Nonsense!' shouted one of the men. 'The humans can't see an inch in front of their own noses at night. We'll be on top of them before they have the slightest clue what's going on.'

'Whoever they are, they probably have night-vision gear if they're out this late,' said Jake, 'Which means they'll be able to see us just as well as we can see them. If they're still alive, they'll be on alert now. It'll be much safer to go in daylight.'

'We'll cover the land in sections as small groups,' said Neytiri. 'Everybody try to get some sleep. Tomorrow may be a long day.'

After this terse command, she hopped back up to where Mo'at was sat now facing out into the forest. She began to reach out to touch her mother's shoulder, then stopped. Mo'at did not glance up at her or even react to her being there. The shaman's shoulders were slumped and rounded, and Neytiri noticed that she suddenly looked very old and small. Neytiri leaned forward with a soft murmur of 'Mother?' She could see from this new angle that Mo'at's eyes were blank, gazing out at the treetops but not seeing. When Neytiri extended her arms again to envelope her in a hug, Mo'at yielded as if her entire body had gone limp. She curled into her daughter's shoulder and raised a hand up to cover eyes brimming with tears.

Matuei stood thinking for a moment, her pupils darting back and forth hesitantly. After a moment, she straightened up.

'Nikal, Kith – I've got an idea, but I need you to come with me,' she whispered, squeezing Nikal's arm.

'Where are you going?' asked Nikal, reaching out to hold her back.

'You'll see when we get there. It'll all make sense then,' Matuei said. 'There's no time to lose. Tell Rana and Axeu to come along too.'

'Matuei, we've been ordered to stay here till morning,' said Kith. 'It's too dangerous!'

'Trust me!'

Kith sighed. 'Is it just me, or is that what she always says before she does something crazy.' He looked to his right and noticed that Nikal had already started after Matuei. 'Nikal? Nikal! You can't be serious-'

'Serious? What about you, Kith: are you serious about hanging around here all night when there could be warriors dying out there? Come on. I can't just stand around doing nothing.'

Kith grunted in frustration and began to wander after the two women, dragging his feet. He shook his head.

'It's just like my father said,' he grumbled. '"It's never just the woman's family you marry into, it's her whole crazy circle of friends too." And did I listen?' He kicked a pebble out of his way. 'Skxawng…'

A short while after her meeting with Mo'at, Grace was told that she could go ahead with her proposal. Several lengthy negotiations with the bodies which had organised the funding for the avatar programme later, she was permitted to conduct her classes without military guards being present. As a result, the atmosphere relaxed considerably. The majority of her attendees were children, clearly encouraged to participate once Eytukan and Mo'at permitted their daughters to come to the classes. The youngsters reacted uncertainly towards the human guards: in basic physical terms it was rather confusing to find creatures as tall as them assuming a similar level of authority to the larger adults. In addition to hampering the good will between species, Grace and the other language teachers enlisted in the avatar programme alongside her soon became aggravated by how often the children were distracted by the guards. Having a human body to hand made for a useful teaching aid at times, but Grace was soon tired of their continual presence and more than aware of how tired they were of apparently being subjected to ridicule in an alien tongue. Even if the salaries, pensions and financial supports for army and marines had greatly improved over the last fifty years, sometimes you just weren't paid enough to tolerate being prodded and poked like a specimen in a Petri dish.

The school that would later be built was only a makeshift shack then, with walls just stable enough to support a whiteboard and a few posters filled with numbers, letters, photographs and drawings of insects, cats and grazing herds unfamiliar to the Na'vi. The class and Grace sat together on the floor in a circle.

One morning Grace took a slim package from her pocket and began to unwrap it. At the sound of peeling paper and foil the children virtually scrambled over one another to take a closer look. Grace laughed gently and sat up higher on her heels. She snapped part of the package's contents off and held it up so that the entire class could see.

'What is it?' the younger ones chirped.

'It's a human delicacy,' smiled Grace. 'It's called chocolate. I brought some so you could try it. It's going to help us with the next thing I'm going to teach you.' She noticed that some of the older, warier students were looking at the treat uneasily, and quickly added, 'It's fine. It's completely safe for you to eat. I checked.'

The older pupils relaxed and started to edge nearer along with the children. Grace continued breaking up the bar.

'There's enough for each of us to have a piece. So I'm going to pass it round and we're going to try it together. No gobbling it up as soon as I hand it to you – this is something we savour.'

Once the chocolate was distributed, they ate it together. Some of the children giggled at the way it melted on their tongues. A couple of the women in the class closed their eyes in pleasure.

'Mmmm. That is real chocolate. First lesson for today: if anyone else who comes here offers you chocolate, turn it down. Life's too short for that crappy army-issue stuff, believe me. Uh-' Grace caught herself, paused a moment, then pointed to the wrapper. 'This stuff is specially imported, Belgian, the real thing. Got a whole private stock of it just for me.'

'How much of it?' one boy asked.

'That, Telnin, is for only a woman to know and a man never to question.' She looked up at the class. 'Watch out, girls: this is the guy who's going to be "accidentally" asking how much you weigh when you're older.'

The children in the class looked confused, but the adults laughed. Grace stood up and uncapped a dry-erase marker pen. She started to write on the whiteboard.

'"I gave my chocolate to you. Now it is yours,"' she said in English. She reverted back to Na'vi: 'This is another of our cases. Do you all remember those, what we've done so far?' The class nodded. 'Course you do. What we're going to cover today is the genitive case. It's for when you're talking about things that belong to you. So, "my chocolate."'

She started to write out the different pronouns – my, your, our, his, her, their – in English and Na'vi, and asked, 'Can any of you give me an example in Na'vi? Just a short sentence, nothing fancy.'

After a short pause, one of the girls raised her hand. Grace nodded to her.

'Liyii, sock it to me.'

'My father is the best taronyu in our clan.'

Grace laughed. 'Ooh, controversial. Very good, Liyii.' She wrote the sentence in Na'vi on the board and then provided the translation below. She gestured to the table of pronouns. 'Do you see where these sorts of words fall in the sentence? Just before the nouns. Okay, see if you can figure out this next one. Can anyone give me a translation?'

She wrote a further sentence on the board in English. The students looked from it to the table of conjugations. A few hands went up hesitantly.

'His ikran flies very fast …?'

'Perfect! Now, let's try using some different pronouns, see if we can pronounce them right.' She spoke firstly in Na'vi: 'After me: my ikran flies very fast, your ikran flies very fast. Good – now, let's try those in English-'

'You may want to rethink your example, stranger,' a voice from behind her suddenly said.

Grace looked round and saw Suhaar resting on a branch overhead. Having just returned from hunting, he had a bunch of small rat-like mammals draped over his shoulder, bound together around the legs by a thin vine. She had spotted that in class was in progress whilst returning to Hometree and had stopped off to see for himself what sorts of things the students got up to. As more of the clan had decided to attend lessons, even those who had first shown disinterest or open contempt for the initiative had become curious.

Suhaar swung himself down from the branch and walked towards Grace.

'H-how's that?' she said, looking nervously at the board.

'An ikran never belongs to anyone,' replied Suhaar. 'They are as independent as any Na'vi. You cannot possess one, and you do it a great dishonour if you ever claim to own it.'

'I'm sorry. It was a completely random example. I just chose it for simplicity's sake.'

'Simplicity? Ah, so is that what we are to you, simple?'

'Of course you're not. I didn't mean that at all-'

Several of the adult pupils in the class got to their feet.

'Leave her be, Suhaar!' said one of the men.

'Were she only teaching adults, Nanalkti, I wouldn't bother her at all.' Suhaar gestured towards the rest of the class. 'But there are children here still learning our ways, just as she is. It strikes me as rather irresponsible to have the Na'vi teach them one thing, and this … this human another.'

'Not all of the Omaticaya feel and teach as you do,' said Nanalkti. 'Your blood follows two currents, and we-'

Suhaar snarled. 'I am as much of this clan as you are. Tipani ancestry does not change that in the least. And in any case,' he said, pointing to the board, 'these are the naïve presumptions of one who has never undertaken Iknimaya. It is our responsibility to ensure that our children are not confused by her influence.'

'Look, I'm sorry I caused this problem,' said Grace.

'There's no need for you to apologise,' said Suhaar quietly. 'I expected no more from you. A stranger descending from the sky, wounding he who flies with me with arrows made of lead, immediately insisting upon an audience with the highest ranks of the clan and intimidating them into accepting your demands. No. How could I expect anything approaching respect from the likes of you?'

He began to walk away, murmuring, 'I only regret that it is my first impressions that should prove true, and not my mate's….'

Grace watched him go, looking rather annoyed at herself. She picked up a cloth and wiped off half of the notes she had made on the board in a resigned manner. It was overly optimistic, she thought, to hope that the entire clan would warm or, at the very least, adjust to her, but to hear that she was still thought of as a stumbling interloper… She wanted to scream that she was not the intruder, that she meant no harm, and that she was not the one they should fear. She had fought with the guilt every single day. Every single day, falling more and more in love with Pandora whilst cursing herself for having even learned of its existence in the first place. Back on the dying Earth, she had kept her study of this alien world as private and as untainted by outside interests as she could. Yet no researcher was an island, especially on a planet hungry for hope, a future and the land they considered necessary to creating that future. A species with no more oceans to cross, no more virgin continents to discover. Had she herself sold out by appealing for further financing for her research when it was offered, or was the corporate interest in Pandora inevitable regardless of her work? She was furious at herself for those instances where she accidentally caused the Na'vi offence, but that anger was nothing compared to her fear that worse was to come for the Na'vi, and that in her love for them and her determination to connect with them, she had damned them.

'Grace?' piped up one of the children. 'Is something wrong?'

She turned round and smiled down at the youngsters. She sat herself back down on the ground cross-legged so that she was level with them once again. 'Made a silly mistake. What can I say, I'm only human. Shall we start over?'

Author's note: A quick apology for formatting goofs: Sorry, I only just now looked at how the uploaded files appear online – I hadn't realised had booted out all the symbols I used to separate the different scenes in each chapter. Apologies to any readers who have already been following the story as I post this: it looks horrible and very confusing, and I'm genuinely honoured that everyone who's read/reviewed/faved, etc. has actually stuck with it, so thanks very much. I've now reformatted it so that the changes in scene are clearly marked.

Okay, so I said this chapter might start to clarify things a bit, and I lied; it's full of loose ends and ambiguities. I'm sorry this story is turning out so slow-burning: I just don't like bludgeoning people round the head with plot points and action sequences. I don't have that blockbuster mentality, sadly. To clarify for any readers who are thinking "Dude, where's my linear timeline?", the first and third segments of this chapter are flashbacks, following on from the past time-frame I introduced in Chapter 2. The next chapter will all be flashback/back-story for pacing reasons. I'll be going back to present-day stuff for Chapter 6, though. There you go: usually I can't think ahead far enough to plan my own lunch, but I'm all over this fic planning business (only because it's tonnes easier than planning a 100 000 word thesis). Swings and roundabouts, in't it.

Okay, as with the end of Chapter 2 I'm potentially walking on dangerous ground having OCs interact with canon characters at a significant point in their 'history', but that's just how the plot seems to have developed. I wanted to compensate for that by putting Matuei and Suhaar in a position where they're more witnessing/reacting to Grace turning up and starting the school rather than necessarily affecting what's happening there, so ultimately I don't think I'm doing much damage to continuity. Please feel free to whine at me if you feel otherwise (or else hold off till Chapter 6, where there'll probably be even more to whine about). Having a shot at writing the meeting between Grace, Mo'at and Eytukan felt necessary: I just wanted to use it as an opportunity to tackle what seemed to me like a bit of a sticky chicken-and-egg situation as regards Grace first appearing to the Omaticaya as her avatar, and the whole matter of why the hell the Na'vi would be even vaguely interested in learning about another species that they definitely didn't go in search of themselves. I'm making the assumption here that Grace already knows that the relationship between humans and Na'vi will go a bit beyond just exchanging local knowledge, and that the avatar programme already has some financial links to the military (the marine escort is supposed to hint at that), but that she doesn't anticipate the lengths that the RDA will go to, i.e. mining, bulldozing, all that jazz, just yet.

Oh yes, and I didn't just make up the thing about Neytiri having a sister – apparently Sylwanin is a canon character. I gather that she dies before the film's narrative begins. I just stuck her in on the off-chance that of all the mistakes I've probably made so far that'll be the one that I get told off about.