Chapter 2
AN: Thank you SO much to everyone that reviewed this story and all those that put it on their alerts and added it to their favorites. You all rock. It makes me very happy to hear that you enjoy the story so far!
I will try and update this story at least once a week. It might get difficult as Grad school could get in the way, but I foresee this story being a nice procrastination tool and we all know how wonderful those can be.
That being said, here is Chapter 2, please read, review, and enjoy!
My mother never talked about my father except to say his name as though it were a curse. Whenever anything went seriously wrong, she would yell out "Sam!" To me, he was never anything more than an image my mother showed me once and the originator of my last name. Lying in the hospital after the explosions, my four and a half year self held a brief hope that he would learn of my predicament. I imagined that he would walk through my hospital door, pull back the depressingly yellow curtain and save me from an unknown future. I can remember the quickening of my heartbeat, the flow of heat that washed through me every time the door opened. I can also remember finally giving up hope, as my father never entered that doorway, never pulled back that curtain, never saved me from the unknown.
The two men looked angry. One, in an expensive looking suit seemed to be gesturing strongly in the direction of the other. Naomi could not tell what was being said as both men's faces were turned away from her. What she could determine was that the other man, tall and lanky, did not care for what the impeccably dressed man had to say. Finally, as if just noticing the new arrivals to the mess hall, the tall lanky man dismissed the other with a rude shove and stood to face the group.
He took a moment to look over the six people sitting at the mess hall tables. His eyes fell on Naomi and appeared to linger a little before moving on to the man sitting next to her. He nodded at someone behind them and a woman in a lab coat hurried forward. As he began to talk, the woman next to him used the most modern form of American Sign Language to communicate what was being said. Naomi smiled to herself a bit as she realized that this addition was entirely for her benefit.
"I am Norm Spellman, co-director of this facility. My partner in crime here," Norm nodded to a man standing at the back of the mess hall as several of the assembled staff smiled conspiratorially, " is Dr. Max Patel. Together we oversee all of Hell's Gate's scientific endeavors. As you should know from your briefing aboard the land shuttle, the military and subsequently the corporate entities that were here are here no longer. We are attempting to run this facility in a scientific direction only. This is where you all come in. Please find your personal bunks and report to either the Med lab or the Science wing when you are settled in."
With his speech duties complete, Norm walked down the aisle towards Dr. Patel. The two turned away from the rest of the people, walking briskly down the hall, their heads and arms showing that they were discussing something in a rather worried and heated manner.
Naomi watched them as they rounded a corner and disappeared then turned her attention to the windows at the front of the mess hall. Norm had been standing in front of them, as had his interpreter, and with her senses focused on those two individuals, Naomi had yet to really look around. Now she did and as she gazed at the luscious jungle beyond the gated perimeter, Naomi felt the prickling of tears in her eyes.
No where on Earth was there anything like those jungles. No where on Earth was nature able to run free and dominate the landscape as it did here on Pandora. Out on the horizon, Polyphemus' giant shadow floated over the jungle, like a guardian titan hovering over the small Pandora moon.
A hand touched her shoulder causing Naomi to jump slightly, so immersed in the world outside of Hell's gate was she that she had not noticed the interpreter walking over to her.
"I am Hannah McGuire," signed the woman. "Please follow me to your quarters so we can drop your belongings off and get you over to the science wing." Hannah McGuire smiled kindly at Naomi. She was slightly taller than Naomi with curly red hair, pulled back in a messy braid. She waited for Naomi to pick her sack up before turning and walking down the opposite hall that Norm and Dr. Patel had gone.
Arriving in the Science wing after a quick introduction to her bunkmate and a trip to the restroom, Naomi was struck with the shear amount of visual stimulation in the front room alone. There were lights of all kinds on the machinery, blinking and stable, all different colors. As with the rest of the compound, this room only smelled of sterility and metal. She joined Patricia Anderson and Joshua Avery who were both sitting on stools, seemingly in an animated discussion about the flora and fauna of Pandora, based on the lip movements that Naomi could see.
Patricia turned to Naomi as she approached and exaggeratedly mouthed, "Hello." Naomi nodded to her in a returned greeting and settled on the empty stool next to the other woman. Hannah McGuire had left her at the Science wing door to return to her regular duties up in the control tower to see that the land shuttle got off ok on its return trip up to the Niagara Star Explorer.
"So, have you been deaf your entire life?" Patricia mouth slowly, looking as though the effort to slow her speech pattern down would give her permanent worry wrinkles above the bridge of her nose. She cocked her head, letting her dark smooth hair tilt to one side, waiting for Naomi to answer.
Naomi blinked, not quite expecting the blunt question, but then again, Patricia and most of the staff left on Pandora were science types, and therefore interested in answers and not tact. Naomi took a minute to focus on how she wanted her mouth and tongue to move as she attempted to answer the question posed.
"I loth my 'earin when I wah four yearth ol'," Naomi managed to vocalize. It was like executing oral gymnastics. The sounds, which Naomi could not hear, were produced by exact placement of her tongue in various positions on the soft palate of her mouth, or behind her teeth. Getting the right positions of the tongue to work with the movements of her lips and coordinate with her vocal cords was actually quite a challenge. Naomi had to consciously think about every aspect of speech and the only way she could tell if her efforts made any sense at all had been to focus on the other person and understand their micro facial and gross body gestures that would let Naomi know if she was successful.
Naomi smiled as Patricia looked first confused then moved in the telltale signs of understanding as she appeared to gasp in air and shook her head. The worry wrinkles in the woman's forehead deepened as she leaned forward and put a caramel colored hand on Naomi's knee.
"I am so sorry. That must have been very hard on you."
"I cope't. I ca' rea lips an' fashul geth-ters. Ith why I am 'ear," Naomi stuttered out, nodding at the Science wing at large. She gave the other woman a reassuring smile as she caught site of Norm heading towards them. He had three displays in his hands, most likely their profiles and information.
"Alright, Joshua and Naomi will be coming with me to your avatars. Patricia, you will go ahead and report to Dr. Patel over there by the hub station." Norm handed Patricia her file. She nodded, turned and patted Naomi on the knee again and gave her a "thumbs up" as she headed out of the front room and into the bright link up room.
Naomi and Joshua followed Norm over to the rear of the front room where two enormous tanks held the floating, lifeless looking bodies of the avatars. Naomi looked for a second at the male before turning quickly to the female in the tank across the aisle. She approached it slowly, scanning the body from the giant blue feet up. The legs had a myriad of blue stripes intermixed with dark purple dots that formed solid patches here and there. The hips rounded into the abdomen, which flexed as the body twitched a little in the chemical solution it was suspended in. Naomi was amused to note that this avatar body was in a tad better shape than her own.
She was interested to see that the female avatar body had the external mammary glands just as humans do. She knew from reading and preparation for the trip that native Na'vi females had them as well. She did not notice any hair on the avatar body that she could discern. She wondered if the Na'vi produced milk like humans did and if so, could they be considered mammals in the strictest sense?
The arms were slightly longer in relation to the body than human arms. These creatures still used all their limbs to move about the jungle. Naomi bent over and twisted her head to see under the body and get a view of one of the strangest appendages the avatar body possessed that Naomi's small human body did not; the tail. It protruded as an extension of the spine. A long hairy patch poked out of the end, much like a lion's tail.
Naomi let her eyes finally reach the avatar's face. She leaned in to the curved glass of the tank and looked in wonder at a face that looked just like her but completely alien, all at once. Of course there were the blue hued stripes, as there were over the rest of the body, but the flattened nose and highly positioned ears were a shock to see. Naomi felt as though she wanted to trace the features, feel a comparison. How would this creature's skin feel different than her own human skin? Would the hair feel like human hair, or more like fur? And how had a biological evolution decided to form part of the hair into a perfect braid to hide the sensitive nerve endings that allowed the Na'vi to connect, literally, to their world?
A hand on her shoulder brought Naomi back from her musings as Norm stood next to her, looking into the tank. He turned to her and squeezed her shoulder kindly.
"She looks like you," he said as he nodded at the floating avatar. Naomi simply nodded in return, taking one last glance at the thing before letting Norm lead her back to the stools they had started on. She and Joshua, who looked like a kid in a candy store after viewing his own avatar allowed technicians to take final readings and various samples of hair for their own purposes.
Once they were finished, Norm and Dr. Patel approached the two avatar drivers.
"We can have your avatars ready for you to take your first run tomorrow morning," Dr. Patel stated and laughed a little as Joshua pumped his fist in the air. "I would suggest that you both get a good night's sleep and some decent chow in you before then, as you will probably find those two things fleeting from now on. Go on with you."
Dr. Patel literally shooed the two eager drivers out of the Science wing. Naomi walked down the hall towards her apartment intent on a shower before heading back to the mess hall for some semblance of what they called food. After all, she had not taken a bath in a little under six years and she felt it was high time to get cleaned up. Tonight she would wash the grime of cryo, zero-g, and general travel away. Tomorrow, Naomi would link with her avatar for the first time. And, as Naomi looked in the small mirror next the shower at her reflection, she thought that tomorrow she would be able to hear for the first time in over fifteen years as well.