Chapter 6

Rhada cursed when the communicator by her bed started beeping. She cursed again when she saw what time it was. She'd only been asleep for an hour! She rolled over and slapped the device. "What?" she groaned.

"Rhada! It's Cynthia. I've got Max on the line he needs to talk to you right away."

She jerked upright, sleep banished from her mind. "Put him through!"

"Rhada?" came her brother's voice. "Can you link up right away? All of you? We got trouble."

"What's wrong? Are the animals attacking?" She was already grabbing her nightgown and shaking Ivan.

"No, it's not that—at least not yet. No, it's Silwanin. She went off and linked herself to the Tree of Souls! She's in some sort of trance or coma."

"Damn! Can't you break the link?"

"No! The others say that normally it just takes a firm pull and the tendrils in the queue release, but hers won't let go! She went off with her new boyfriend without telling anyone. He came back in a panic to get the rest of us. We're all here by the tree now, but we're feeling mighty exposed. Jake wants the other avatars to give us some extra muscle in case we need it."

"Okay! We'll be right there! Ivan! Wake up!"

Ten minutes later, still in her nightgown, Rhada lay down in the link capsule and watched it close over her. A few moments later she was in her avatar, back in the cursed ruin that had started this nightmare. Max was there waiting for them along with Harri Kim. As soon as the other avatars came awake they all went out into the night.

They quickly but cautiously made their way up the hill that covered the shelter to the top and then back down into the well that held the Tree of Souls. Rhada gasped when she saw it. Normally the Tree glowed a pale blue color, but this night it was an angry red, pulsing erratically. The others were clustered near its base. They hurried down to them.

Silwanin was lying on her back on the ground. Her long queue was connected to one of the glowing branches of the tree. Strobes of light ran up and down the branch and the girl was twitching and quivering in time with them. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her face twisted in a grimace. Jake and Neytiri and Mo'at and Pallar were kneeling next to her. Grace was sitting to one side. "Oh God, no…" hissed Rhada. "How long?"

"Half an hour, forty minutes, maybe," said Jake grimly.

"And you can't get her loose?"

"Not without risking injury to her queue." Which no Na'vi would ever do, Rhada knew. It would be like a human poking out his own eyes.

"What about cutting off the end of the branch?" suggested Ivan.

"We don't know what that might do to her—or Eywa," said Max. "It would have to be an absolute last resort."

"I am so sorry!" moaned Pallar. "I should have tried to stop her!" The boy looked devastated.

"She's her mother's daughter," said Jake. "Once she's made up her mind to do something the only way you could have stopped her would be to knock her out and tie her up." He looked pointedly at Neytiri and Rhada realized she had arrived in the middle of some argument.

"I am going to bring her back," said Neytiri, returning her mate's stare.

"Now wait a minute…" said Rhada.

"We shall bring her back," said Mo'at. "Together."

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" asked Rhada. "One falls in so two more jump in after her? We need to stop and think about this!"

"My granddaughter was impetuous, but her vision was clear," declared the tsahik. "She did this to help Eywa and so we must! It is our duty! We will calm Eywa and bring back Silwanin." Mo'at nodded at Neytiri and they lay down on either side of Silwanin, each taking one of her hands in one of theirs.

"Jake," hissed Rhada, "are you going to let them do this?"

"No stopping them," he said, never taking his eyes off the women. "Believe me, there's no stopping them. And maybe it will work."

She looked desperately to Grace, but she was just slowly rocking back and forth, eyes shut, her hands curled into fists pressed against her temples.

Rhada watched helplessly as Mo'at and Neytiri lifted up their queues to the hanging branches. The tendrils instantly wrapped themselves around the branches, which glowed even brighter-red. Neytiri gasped and her eyes rolled back in her head and she crumpled backwards, flat on the ground. Mo'at did the same. Both began to twitch in rhythm with the light, just as Silwanin was.

"Let's not panic," said Max, looking very close to panic. "Remember what we were saying about Eywa's processor speed. It could take hours for anything to happen."

Jake sat down next to Neytiri and took her hand. Pallar looked around like some lost sheep and then sat down next to Silwanin's head. He carefully raised her up and scrunched forward until he could lay her head in his lap. He gently stroked her cheek. Rhada turned away, fists clenched.

"It's not your fault, Rhada." She looked to see Norm Spellman standing there.

"Then who's fault is it?" she said bitterly. She tried to walk away, but Ivan wouldn't let her get far. Too dangerous, he said. So she plopped down on the hard stones and put her face in her hands and tried not to cry.

She sat for as long as her nervous energy would permit and then she paced back and forth, alternately looking between the suffering women and their suffering menfolk and the huge bloody tree hanging over them. An hour went by and there was no change. She wracked her brain trying to find some answer, but there were just too many unknowns in the equation. I'm a geologist, dammit! I don't know how to fix a broken god!

Another hour passed and everyone was getting restless. The night seemed endless, but would the dawn bring any light?

Jake suddenly stood up. "It seems like they are suffering even more! Like it's getting worse instead of better! Grace, is it getting worse?" He looked toward the woman, but she didn't answer. "Damn it, Grace, tell me! Is it getting worse?"

Grace jerked her head in a convulsive twitch. "Yes," she gasped.

"But why? This ought to be helping!"

"Maybe they can't… despite what we've told them, they're all Na'vi… not scientists… they don't really understand… can't really explain to Eywa. Maybe… maybe I should try…"

"No!" cried Jake. "I'm not letting anyone else get stuck in this!"

"Someone's… got… to…" Grace staggered to her feet, but then doubled over and vomited. Jake was at her side in an instant.

Rhada stood and watched, her breath coming in short gasps. Grace was right: the Na'vi women couldn't really understand what had happened. In spite of their love for Eywa, they didn't understand.

But I do!

Almost without thinking she stepped forward and pressed the end of her queue against one of the branches.

"Rhada! Don't!" A dozen voices all seemed to scream at her at once, but they were fading away…

She fell into a sea of pain.

[Scene Break]

Max Patel stared in horror at his sister's avatar's crumpled body. He'd seen her step to the tree, seen what she was doing, but all he could do was shout. Ivan and Norm had shouted, too, but everyone was too far away to stop her. Ivan leaped to stand over her. His face was twisted in anguish and he had his knife in his hand.

"Ivan! Wait! Not yet!"

Ivan spun around. "It's either this or have them break the link back at the base!" he snarled. "I'm not going to let her go through this, too!"

"She's doing it to save the others! At least give her the chance to try!"

Ivan looked to his wife. After a long pause he cursed and put his knife away and straightened her out so she was lying on her back like the others. He knelt beside her. She was twitching and moaning just like them and Max gritted his teeth. What the hell should they do? But before he could think of anything to say his communicator pinged. It was Cynthia.

"Max! Max, is everything all right? Rhada's biometric readings just went through the roof. Is she all right?"

"We're not sure," he answered numbly. "Tell me about her readings."

"Well, heart rate, blood pressure and respiration are all up over fifty percent. Her brain readings are… Max, I've never seen readings like these before!"

"Is she in danger? As a doctor, Cynthia! Is she in danger?"

"Physically, no. I wouldn't want to see her stay like this for too long, but at the moment her body isn't in danger. She's strong and healthy and she can take this. But the brain readings… Max, I just don't know!"

"Okay, let me know if there's any change." He clicked off before she could ask anything else.

"One hour," said Ivan looking up and pointing a finger at him. "One hour, Max!" He looked over to Jake and he nodded.

The minutes crawled by. Max paced back and forth just like Rhada had been doing. He stared at the women, he stared at the tree, trying to force some change through sheer will. Nothing, of course, happened. Grace recovered a bit from her vomiting, but she was clearly in enormous pain. She lay curled up on her side near the other women.

The hour finally dragged to a close and everyone stirred. "How are we going to do this?" asked Norm. "Cut the branch on all of them, or disconnect Rhada at the base? All at once, or one at a time?"

"All at once, I'd say," said Max. "If Eywa does react… badly, we don't want anyone still linked. No telling what that might do to them."

"All right, what about Rhada? The button or the knife?" asked Ivan.

"Knife," said Max. "No point risking the avatar by leaving it hooked up. Three cuts or four, I don't think it will make much difference." He sure hoped he was right. The tree had hundreds of branches, so perhaps this wouldn't be crippling.

"Okay, let's do it," said Jake. "I've got Neytiri, Ivan, you've got Rhada, Norm, can you take Mo'at?" He looked at the boy, Pallar. "Son, can you release my daughter? Or would you rather someone else do it?"

The boy looked stunned. Max couldn't decide if it was because of what he'd been asked to do or because of what Jake had called him. He slowly pulled himself out from under Silwanin and stood up. "You can count on me to do what has to be done, sir."

"I was sure I could," said Jake. He pulled out his knife and the others did likewise. He took hold of the branch, just above where Neytiri's queue was joined to it. "Okay, on three? One…" Max held his breath…

"Uh, guys? Hold up a second." Everyone jumped. It was Harri Kim's voice.

"Holy shit," gasped Norm.

Max followed Norm's eyes and gasped himself. All around the rim of the well that held the Tree of Souls large, dark shapes moved. The light from the tree flickered on them, painting them garish colors. Hammerheads, sturmbeasts, Max spotted at least two thanators, and groups of viperwolves. Predators and prey animals mixed together, all staring down on them. The whistle of wings made him look up. Banshees circled overhead, silhouetted against shining Polyphemus, and there was another, larger shape among them. Toruk! None of them made a sound.

"What… what's happening?" asked Pallar.

"Well, we were all wishing that something would happen," said Norm. "I think it has."

"Be careful what you wish for," hissed Jake.

"So what do we do?" asked Ivan.

"I think we wait."

"But…" he looked at his wife.

"No, Jake's right," said Max. "The animals aren't attacking. But they sure got our attention! I think Eywa—or someone—is asking us to wait."

"But for how long?"

"As long as it takes," said Jake. He put his knife away.

So they waited. Max resumed his pacing, but now his eyes moved not just between the women and the tree, but also to the watching animals. They completely surrounded the well so there was no way they could leave even if they could get the women loose. But what was going on? If Eywa had managed to assemble these animals—and keep them under control-then she must have at least some measure of rationality left, she wasn't completely psychotic, or schizophrenic or whatever the hell was the matter with her. He found that at least a bit hopeful. He checked in with Cynthia and Rhada's readings hadn't gotten any worse, either.

After almost an hour Pallar suddenly stiffened. "Do… do you hear that?"

Everyone froze and listened. Max didn't hear anything that he hadn't been hearing before, but he knew that human ears couldn't begin to match the sensitivity of a Na'vi. After a few moments Jake nodded. "I think so. Sort of a deep thrumming sound? Almost like a heartbeat?"

"Yes," said Pallar. "It's getting louder."

Max stood and listened and it wasn't long before even he could hear it. As Jake had said: like a heartbeat, except that each beat was stretched out, elongated, lasting four or five seconds. As the volume increased, the pulsations of red light in the Tree of Souls began to synchronize with the sound. This was the first change he'd seen since this all began and hope began to build in him. The pulses spread out from the tree and through the exposed roots on the ground. After a while pulses were coming back into the tree as well. And the noise got louder. Much louder.

"Damn, it's rattling my bones," whispered Harri Kim.

It was true, the low-pitched thrumming was actually shaking the ground and travelling right up through his legs. And as it went on he realized that at least some of the noise was coming from the surrounding animals. They were grunting in sync with the beating. And then the four trapped women were groaning, too. Their twitching became more pronounced. Everyone gathered around them and stared. Even Grace roused herself enough to watch.

"God, it's… it's like when my wife was in labor," said Max.

"Yeah," said Norm. "Yeah… exactly."

The noise grew louder yet and the women's groans became cries. It was heart-wrenching for the watching men, but everyone seemed paralyzed by the spectacle. The beat got faster, the pulses were coming more quickly. But were they…? Yes! The blood red light was slowly fading, changing color! Red became pink, pink faded to white and then with one last heartbeat that felt like it was going to burst Max's chest, one last cry from the women, it stopped.

The Tree of Souls stood glowing a faint blue and the forest was silent.

Max twisted his head around and he would have laughed if he's had the strength. All the animals were looking this way and that, seemingly stunned by who they found themselves standing next to. Thanator's stared at Sturmbeasts, Hammerheads gawked at viperwolves. And then all, all slowly began to back away, disappearing beyond the edge of the well. The banshees overhead veered off and Toruk made one last pass and vanished. The first light of dawn was just appearing in the east.

A chorus of groans brought his attention back where it had been for so many hours. The women's queues, almost as one, released their grips on the Tree's branches and fell away. Grace let out a long sigh and rested her head on her arms. Immediately the men were by the women's sides. Ivan and Jake had their wives in their arms. Pallar was holding Silwanin's hand. Norm knelt next to Mo'at. Max let Ivan have first crack at Rhada, but he moved up next to her and was relieved to see that her eyes were open and she seemed to be aware of her surroundings.

"H, Sis," he said.

"Hi, Max," she replied when Ivan stopped kissing her for a moment.

"That was a damn-fool stunt you pulled, you know?"

"Yeah, but I guess it worked, huh?"

"I guess it did. How do you feel?"

"Like I've been run over by a bulldozer. Can we get the hell out of here?"

"I'll call for the choppers."

[Scene Break]

Rhada walked with Ivan toward the little pavilion in the Heaven's Gate avatar compound. Max had decided to have a picnic and discuss the aftermath of the recent crisis. He didn't seem to realize how little she wanted to talk about it. She'd been trying not to even think about it. But there was no avoiding this. All the others who had been involved were already there and she found a seat at the big table.

"So, how is everyone feeling?" asked Cynthia. "Any unusual pains? Problems?" The others all said they were doing fine except for a few minor aches. Cynthia looked at her. "Rhada?"

"Physically I'm fine. But I've been having some very strange dreams—in my human form."

"You have passed through the Eye," said Mo'at. "You must expect this."

"Wonderful."

Mo'at looked at her with a shrewd expression. "You blame yourself for this. You should not. None here will place any blame on you."

"No one was seriously hurt, Rhada," said Max. "Eywa seems to be back to normal."

"We were lucky," she replied. "Damn lucky. And you know that this disruption wasn't confined just to this area, Max. It had to have been worldwide. Not everyone could have been as lucky as we were. I've got a hell of a lot of blood on my hands even if we haven't heard about it yet."

"You were searching for the truth," said Silwanin. The girl was sitting next to Pallar, holding his hand. "It is what you do, Rhada. No one will blame you for finding more than you were looking for. If a hunter finds a herd of talionangs no one blames him if someone is hurt in the ensuing hunt."

"And you were the one who tipped the balance in the end," said Neytiri. "The three of us could not have done it."

"No," said Silwanin. "Only the science could make Eywa understand. But we could not explain the science. We even feared the science and made Eywa's pain all the worse. But you, you do not fear the science. You love it as we love Eywa. I can… I can still feel Eywa's wonder as you explained the motion of the worlds."

"You were really aware of each other while you were in there?" asked Norm.

"Oh yes," all four answered in unison. Even Rhada chuckled a little at that.

"Yes," continued Silwanin. "You showed Eywa the beauty of the science, the… the elegance of this math-e-matics. How things could be explained. Without you, all would have been lost. You saved us. Thank you." She touched her forehead and bowed.

Rhada blinked back tears. Damn. How'd this girl become so wise? She was going to make a hell of a tsahik… "Okay, okay, I'll stop feeling sorry for myself. Thanks." She looked around the table. "All of you, thanks."

An awkward silence descended for a moment, but then Max said: "Yeah, enough moping! You've got a hell of a lot of work to do! They don't give out Nobel Prizes until the paperwork is all done, y'know!"

"Max…." began Rhada.

"I'm serious," said her brother. "Between this lost civilization and all the hard data we now have on the Eywa phenomena we've got enough for a boxful of Nobel Prizes! You get the big flashy prize for the lost civilization, but if you don't get cracking I'll beat you to the punch with my Eywa studies!"

"Max, I'm a geologist, not an archaeologist. I study rocks."

"Not anymore!"

"Rocks, Max! I study rocks!" She shook her head. This was just too much.

"Rhada?" She looked up and saw Silwanin looking at her.

"Yes?"

"You have told us just the beginning of a wondrous story. I would very much like to know the rest of it. You have showed us how our people, working with Eywa, built a mighty civilization. Had not the great tragedy occurred, who knows what they might have accomplished. And now that I know what I know, I have no wish to go backwards. Eywa does not wish to go backwards! Maxpatel has said that She is 'back to normal', but while Eywa is happy again, She is not the same as before. She has learned that there is more to the world than She thought. She wants to know more. I want to know more!"

Rhada bowed her head, uncertain what to say.

"Deep radar scans have found a lot of other places where there might be ruins, Rhada," said Max with a smile.

"I… I'll think about it," she said.

"It would be an honor to assist you," said Silwanin. "The Heaven's Gate Clan knows the science. The other clans know Eywa and this world. Working together perhaps someday we can become greater than either of our two peoples alone."

"Without killing our mother in the process," said Jake.

"Amen," said Grace.

"I'll drink to that," said Norm.

And so they all did.

Epilogue

Silwanin and Pallar slowly approached the yerik they had been stalking all morning. They had almost reached a position to shoot twice before, but each time the wind had shifted and they'd had to try again from another direction. But this time it seemed like they might succeed. Slowly, slowly Pallar drew his bow. But then, at the last moment the beast suddenly bounded away, leaving them looking at nothing.

"I'm sorry," said Pallar. "I must have made a noise."

"I don't think so," replied Silwanin, standing up and sitting on a fallen log. "It is all right. Not every hunt ends in a kill." Pallar nodded and sat beside her. He really was very handsome. And kind. And smart. Being mated to him would be very pleasant, she thought. Father had already accepted him completely. Apparently Pallar had acted with courage and good sense during the crisis. Mother and Grandmother were refusing to say anything yet, but the outcome was hardly in doubt. And once he was formally adopted into the Omaticaya… well, then it would be up to her to decide on the time of their mating.

"Silwanin?"

"Yes?"

"There's something I would ask of you."

"Anything."

"When I agreed to come here I knew that I would be joining a clan far different from the one I was leaving. So many new things! The Thundering Rocks, the Tree of Souls, Toruk Macto! But…"

"What?"

"I have to ask: What just happened, the ruin, the lost city, Eywa…"

"Yes?"

"Does… does this sort of thing happen often around here?"

Silwanin laughed.

"I hope not, Pallar! I really hope not!"

The End