"You! Organise a party to search the starboard cargo stores!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"You! Take your men and watch the passages between Aft Section and the forward sections! I don't want anyone coming in or out!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"You! Gather as many of Xuan's staff as possible and brief them on the state of the mission! I need extra hands to scour all the Pumping Stations!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"And you! Is there anyone currently idle?"
"Not anymore there isn't, ma'am," Lieutenant Yin reported curtly, hands held together behind his back in an attempt to look authoritative...a hard task when Mayu was around actually being authoritative. They stood in a large, square hub surrounded by corridors, above which was a skylight pouring light down above their heads...the same skylight those children had passed through. Mayu was taking personal command of the search, and was accompanied by a quarter-dozen militia and Lieutenant Yin himself, acting as go-between and with his eye on the personnel problem, "but isn't this putting all of our eggs in one basket?We have a skeleton crew on the bridge, a skeleton crew tending to the rest of the ship, and everyone else no matter what their area of expertise is crawling around this part of the ship peeking behind pipes for seven levitating kids, and even this isn't enough."
"If this were a regular warship we wouldn't have this problem," Mayu explained, "but as it stands, we're trying to deal with a deadly threat on a ship nearly as big as the Royal Barge with only two dozen soldiers on board. We need everyone we can. If the passengers stay in the quarters then the other sections won't be too much of a problem. The real problem is right here, in this place."
"I concur, ma'am, but there are other problems besides," Yin took his hands out from behind his back, one holding a scroll which he handed to the Captain, "all crew members have reported to the aft muster points for further instructions...except one. Ensign Xai was last seen in the Forward Port section, close to the quarters that blew out. Should I send a team to investigate?"
Mayu rolled open the scroll and studied it diligently, verifying Yin's report, "once we catch these children, we can indulge in an investigation. We can't spare the manpower." Mayu peered closer to the scroll and raised an eyebrow, "I can't help but notice we've added a crew member as well."
"Hmm?" Yin peered over Mayu's shoulder and read the scribbled-in name at the bottom of the scroll, "ah yes, Gameshin. He's a passenger that Wan ran into while he was up on deck getting some fresh air. When the call came through, Gameshin volunteered to help in the Engine Room. I didn't see a reason why he couldn't. Wan vouched for him."
"Wan voluntarily getting some fresh air," Mayu repeated, rolling up the scroll to wave it at Yin, "there is simply deeply wrong with that equation."
"Ask him, ma'am," Yin shrugged, taking the scroll back, "he's the engineer."
"Um...Captain Mayu?" a young woman crew-member, clearly unused to military hierarchy after so long working for the Hong Yu Guo service dealing with customer complaints and making sure the floors were clean. Only after a few seconds of hand-wringing did she remember to salute awkwardly, "th...these people wanted to see you, Captain, sir...ma'am...sir..."
"Why are you doing this to Nandi!?" Kyo stormed past the nervous crew-member and glared accusingly at Mayu, "why're you treating him like a monster!? Nandi would never hurt anyone! How could you do this!?"
If Mayu was taken aback, she didn't show it. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, sounding sincere, "no one's treating Nandi like a monster. We have reason to believe he's involved in something that threatens the entire ship, but I want you to understand that we have not given up on him. We will do everything we can to get him back. You can see how hard we're trying all around you..."
"Then why is he still missing!?" Kyo was finding it hard to keep her self-control, "why isn't he here if you've got everyone looking for him!? It's not just me. There's five other mothers whose children have gone missing since you started looking for Nandi! Why aren't you stopping it!? Why!?"
"Please, madam, we can't make miracles," Mayu calmly pleaded, "I promised to bring your son back, and I intend to keep that promise. Just please let us do our work. The Ensign here will help you back up the Bridge Section, and as soon as we find him, and the others, you'll be the first to know."
"You just expect me to vanish!? I want to find him!" Kyo stepped up and trembled with conflicting emotions.
"You've already helped, more than you even realise," Mayu soothed, "and you can help further by being strong and being there when Nandi comes back. Think you can do that?"
Kyo looked sullen. It wasn't the answer she wanted, but she still nodded and turned back. The Ensign wrapped an arm around her shoulders and escorted her out. The crew-member turned her head around to ask, "and what should I do with the boss?"
Mayu, slightly intrigued by the crew-member's comment, leant to one side to see Xuan looking pensive and uncertain in the corridor Kyo was walking down. Mayu muttered condescendingly, "I'm sure he can find his own way back."
Xuan's face briefly flickered with indignation until Kyo stared him down. He shrank back when Kyo seemed close to taking her frustrations out on him, but the Ensign stepped in quickly enough to soothe her, and walked past. Xuan watched her go with trepidation, and coughed apologetically before he spoke to Mayu, "look...Captain...I realise we haven't exactly seen eye-to-eye on this whole situation..."
"That's an understatement and a half," Yin chimed in.
Xuan continued after a brief, hostile glance at Yin, "I just wanted to say that maybe we don't need to be so opposed to each other. We've complemented each other before. No reason we can't now."
"Yes, there is a reason we can't now," Mayu reminded Xuan, "to deal with this problem we need clear, unified leadership without petty sniping getting in the way. If people are questioning who's in charge, then no one is in charge, and that makes our job all the harder. And when faced with the possibility of the ship sinking, making the job harder for ourselves really isn't the way to go."
"I can appreciate that," Xuan negotiated, "I can appreciate that security is what's important. It's what you're good at, what you should have responsibility over. But all I'm saying is that there's no reason we can't delegate some things. You may not have noticed, Captain, but this is a passenger vessel. Hundreds of people cowering in their quarters and in the meantime my kitchen staff's been conscripted for this martial law of yours. I don't suppose you've given much thought that our passengers need to eat?"
Mayu pointed a stern finger to sharply rebuke Xuan, but paused in mid-pointing to consider, "actually...that's a good point. Yin? How many backup rations are there?"
"Enough for the next 24 hours, ma'am, but that's eating out of the lifeboat stocks," Yin answered, "you want me to break them out?"
"We can distribute them through the ship's cafeteria," Mayu decided, "a few at a time, in order of room number. That shouldn't stretch us too much..."
"You're missing the point!" Xuan accused, "would you have thought of that on your own? Seriously? You need me! You may try to deny it, but I'm the one who knows how to treat our customers right! You don't seem to appreciate the level of responsibility that needs to be exercised for their sake."
"I could say the same thing about you, sir," Mayu crossed her arms, "and on top of that you don't appreciate how much this ship is in serious jeopardy. Your reaction to all the warnings, no matter what they were, from the very start of this journey has been to stick your head in the sand and hope the problem goes away. Your actions have led directly to this awesome mess we're in. And as the gaping hole in the side of the hull demonstrates, the threat is real, growing, and a clear and present threat to the lives of everyone on board."
"This is rich, you thinking you've got all the answers," Xuan mocked, "you've shut the ship down and scared everyone on board witless! You keep talking about this 'great threat' and you don't even know what it is!"
"You're right. I don't know what it is. And unlike you, I'm trying to find out," Mayu exhausted the last threads of her patience, "you don't get how important this is. These circumstances are following the same pattern as all the other attacks on the Mo Ce Sea. No other ship has survived these attacks. Which means that unless I get to the root of the problem right now, our chances of getting to Naha at all are precisely nil. Your 'concern' for our passengers' well-being will be rendered pointless. And I am beyond caring about your precious reputation, Hong Yu Guo's quality of service, or even how I look at the end of this, because I'm too busy trying to make sure I see the end of this. If it wasn't for you and your 'entrepreneurial masterminding' we wouldn't be in this mess! Your actions have been height of fecklessness and irresponsibility and what you laughably call 'help' is the last thing I need. Do you get it now!?" Mayu added angrily for emphasis "...sir!?"
Xuan was absolutely livid. No longer content to simply wander off and disappear in a confused haze, he glared hatefully at the Captain with both fists clenched, with no hope of an adequate comeback just staring angrily was the closest he could get. He was unrepentant, but deep down he was completely, utterly terrified. Mayu seemed to calm after a while, evidently moving beyond their feud.
"Civilians should remain in their quarters until further notice, and that includes you," Mayu informed the administrator, "remember the promise I made at the beginning of this journey? As I hope to demonstrate to our Kyo, I'm one person who keeps her promises. So, for your own sake, you'd better hope we find what's responsible for these events."
Xuan seethed, but slowly, and staggeringly, turned around to head into the corridor and back up towards the bridge. Mayu ignored him and turned back to Yin.
"Lieutenant, you'd better sort out the rations," the Captain ordered, beginning to head down another corridor on the far side of the well-lit hub, "we'll be searching in the Air Conditioning Room. Join us once everything's organised and keep me informed of all developments."
"Understood, ma'am..." Yin confirmed hesitantly. Mayu paused in mid-march when she noticed the trepidation in her first officer's voice.
"Something the matter, Lieutenant?" Mayu asked. Yin was hesitant to voice his concerns, but out of obligation decided to air them.
"Kyo...the mother...she said that five other mothers had their children missing, ma'am," Yin offered his opinion, "including Nandi, that makes six children missing. No one else has been reported missing. So...who's the seventh child?"
"One of the children was being bodily carried by another," Mayu remembered, "it may be that they have a hostage. But if no one's been reported..." Mayu drifted off into consideration. She barked at the officer, "carry out your orders, Lieutenant. We'll see where this takes us, and hopefully that won't be the sea-bed."
Yin saluted stiffly and marched quickly down a corridor. Mayu began down the other, followed by the three militia, thinking hard about things, including that extra child that's sprouted up.
Shui stood there, perplexed. It was one of the most random and out of the blue things she'd ever witnessed Wan do, and if Wan was anything he was a creature of habit. But here it was, definitive proof that no matter how hard she could try, she'd never understand him. This was because Wan was standing there with his arm around Gameshin's shoulder, smiling as if they were the best of pals. With the Engine Room working flat out, steam billowing, engineers cussing, and heavy objects being chucked around like balls in a game of catch, she couldn't just stand there and gawp forever. Instead, she pointed sheepishly at Gameshin and asked Wan, "so...he's working fer us, now?"
"Yup!" Wan confirmed with a wide, forced smile, "praise be ta Our Lady cuz I'm actually taking yer advice fer once...Gameshin here's kindly volunteered ta help us out with our Flank Speed troubles, ain't that right boy? Y'were damned enthusiastic when ye told that guard..."
"Eheheh...course I was! I've always wanted to do stuff like this!" Sokka forced a smile of his own back at Wan, leaning over to whisper harshly, "and I had to tell them something. It's not like you went to any effort on making up an alibi."
"I was hopin' ye'd slip up. Don'tcha dare think y'impressed me with that display..." Wan whispered in disappointment. He raised his voice for the benefit of Shui, "now don't jus' stand around like ye got nuthin' ta do! Follow me!"
Wan walked past Shui towards a ladder leading up to the left balcony. Shui was still confused, "wait, chief! What's going on with th' ship!? Why're we in 'lockdown'!?"
"Things too hard fer people like us ta think 'bout. Don't bother," Wan called back without looking, "anythin' explode!?"
"Well...yeah!" Shui answered as if it should've been a statement of the bleeding obvious. Sokka jogged past to follow Wan in his tracks.
"Good!" Wan yelled as he climbed, "gives 'im sumthin' ta do!"
Shui watched Sokka as he clambered up the ladder, pitying the poor lad for being dumped with this much work on his first minute on the job. Impulsively, she called, "hey! Gam!"
Sokka paused halfway up the ladder and briefly wondered if she was calling for him. After looking back and figuring out that she was, he asked sheepishly, "why'dja call me that?"
"Easier to say!" Shui shouted above the roar of the furnaces, a sly smile stretching from cheek to cheek, "welcome t'th' team!"
Sokka found himself spontaneously smiling back, "thanks!"
"C'mere, Ravana," Wan grabbed Sokka by the neck of his shirt and jerked him upwards with a strangled yelp.
The great mass of the God of Steel, nestled in the centre of the room, belched and buckled in her hinges. It was her own way of saying 'hi'.
Lieutenant Yin could spare all of two people to help him stack the trolleys with ration boxes. The small red cardboard rectangles could feed a healthy, fit, young, energetic soldier's needs for 24 hours, and for most of these people that could be stretched out to two days...assuming gorging on Xuan's rubbish hadn't spoilt them. Mayu had a point on the principles of War Economy. They were there for a reason.
The two women, Xuan's attractive assistants, were a lot more useful than he had thought previously. Which was good considering he hadn't anyone else to rely on whatsoever. The front sections were practically deserted, so as soon as the rations were given out he was going to have to rely on the passengers themselves feeling obliged to return peacefully to their quarters without coaxing. Xuan had a point on the principles of customer service. Those were there for a reason too.
He didn't know what to think about all this. He wasn't allowed to think. Yin had gathered the impression that if he did think hard about their situation he may just feel the urgent need to throw himself overboard. But thoughts cropped up on him anyway. The Captain was certain the Gang Shen was under attack. But who was attacking? And how? The only clue he could consider was the gaping hole in the side of the ship, and they couldn't do anything about it now.
The first officer looked over the scrolls, filled with checklists and technical details. The rations were heading to the cafeteria. The room that was attacked was only a couple of sections forward. When he allowed himself to think...it would've been a dereliction of his duties to not investigate if he had the opportunity, surely? He gulped at the possibility, but couldn't escape it.
He checked with the lovely ladies. They were happy with being given responsibility on anything at all, for a change. That left him the opportunity to do some clue-hunting...
"How do you feel?" Katara asked the blind girl.
"Like I might just live?" Toph answered as honestly as she could, with a dash of bleak wit on the side. Her aching bruises ached a lot less, and she felt able to lift her own limbs with ease, but moving a few muscles still made her wince. Her senses were a lot less fuzzy now, much clearer, and much more able to tell the approximate shapes around her through the reflections of sound that bounced off the surfaces, coming through the ship from the engine. It was gratifying, but still unnerving, when she felt out around the room. Everything was wet, and out of place, torn and stretched and unstable. And she could hear a place that didn't ripple from the puddles, a place in the centre of the floor where a large amorphous lump absorbed whatever sound frequencies there were with its irregular, soft surfaces. She shivered when she considered it, knowing what it was. Whatever her state of affairs, even if she wasn't ready...she wanted to get out of this room. She continued, "able to move, anyway."
"Good," Katara answered shortly, flowing the pool of water away from above her body and back into her pouch, definitively ending the healing process. Toph could tell she was looking for an excuse to stop and get on with looking for Aang. The Waterbender leaned in and held Toph by the arm, asking carefully, "now...when they said they were taking him down to the bottom...they did mean the bottom of the ship, didn't they?"
"What else could they have meant?" Toph remarked. In the pause that followed, Toph could feel an angry tension, and didn't need to see Katara's expression to know that what she just said was probably not the smartest thing to say given the circumstances. Under the wrathful gaze, Toph grunted, "okay...yeah...they probably meant they were taking Aang to the lowest deck on the ship..."
"I seen grandmothers twist bolts better th'n that, sonny!" Wan condemned without even looking in Sokka's direction, occupied by the panel of piping in the wall in front of him.
Sokka had gotten sweaty after the first minute working under Wan's abusive work regimen. After the first five of trying to twist a bolt that had long since fused with the rest of the ship, he was beginning to suspect that most of his body water was now outside his body. Straining and grunting with badly-repressed rage, Sokka muttered, "if grannies had acid for hand lotion, I might just believe that."
"Awwww...baby wanna nap?" Wan cooed, "if ye can't stand th' heat...well...ye can't get outta th' kitchen so that sucks fer you."
"Do you treat all your people this way?" Sokka asked, glancing right.
"Nope," Wan answered without a second thought. As if a Water Tribe spy could expect the merest morsel of sympathy and concern. Sokka grunted, and rubbed the front of his neck, still sore from being half-strangled.
"Y'know," Sokka ventured, "you didn't have to tear my neck off earlier..."
"Yes I did," Wan asserted, still not looking Sokka in the eye, "keepin' yer sorry carcass away fr'm possible victims of yer manly charms."
"Will you stop with that already?" Sokka moaned, twisting the bolt a tenth of an inch more in frustration, "and what the heck's a 'Ravana', anyway?"
"He was an ol', mythic, lovesick puppy," Wan explained, stretching an arm in Sokka's direction, "stole a god's wife once. Hand me th' Number 3 Screwdriver."
Sokka, grasping that Wan wasn't making a request, delved into the toolbox beside him for something that looked like a Number 3 Screwdriver. Guessing it to be some random metal tool, he took it out the box and handed the thing end to Wan. The Chief Engineer paused in his work to look thoughtfully at the tool, then at Sokka, and used the tool to thwack Sokka harshly in the back of his head. Wan exploded, "I said th' Number 3 Screwdriver ye dumb rhino-brained moron!"
Sokka cowered, "I don't know the...!" The Warrior looked panickly through the toolbox, gave up, and in frustration picked up the whole heavy thing and clunked it loudly next to Wan, "get it yourself if you're so smart!"
Wan peered through the box just as thoughtfully as before, carefully picked out the Number 3 Screwdriver, held it as if gauging its weight, looked at Sokka again and thwacked him in the head even more harshly than the first time. The engineer kept hold of the screwdriver and used it on the panel as if nothing had happened, "y'know, fer a guy that's supposed ta know his machines, ye don't know nuthin' 'bout runnin' 'em."
"Yeah, well, I grew up in a block of ice and I still got better grammar than you..." Sokka complained, rubbing the back of his head to keep it from splitting into chunks, "and I don't get all paranoid at the drop of a screw."
"I didn't like ya before I knew ye was Water Tribe," Wan protested, turning to Sokka to argue his case, "given that, I think I got a pretty keen sense'a who's good an' who's not. 'specially parasites 'a young girls like you."
"I. Am. Already. Involved. With. Someone. Else!" Sokka threw the spanner down to accentuate the point, turning to Wan in challenge. Cooling down marginally, he picked up the spanner and began working again to distract himself, "whaddya want me to do? Draw a diagram out of my own blood?"
"Well...who?" Wan gesticulated, "if ye're not scumming 'round, prove it."
Sokka paused and sighed irritably. He closed his eyes in thought, "don't matter much now, does it? She's a Warrior too. Comes from an island in the south. Her name's Suki and she's clever and beautiful and all those great things loves of our lives should be. That enough detail?"
"If she's a warrior too, why ain't she with ya?" Wan queried, "d'ye keep her in a jar 'r sumthin'? Where is she?"
Sokka stopped twisting the bolt altogether, and contemplated, "that's what I'd like to know."
"She disappeared?" Wan concluded. Sokka nodded.
"I think the Fire Nation captured her. If I can get there, I can..." Sokka was cut off by an eruption of guffawing on Wan's part. Sokka took disgust at the attitude, "what's so funny!?"
Wan let his uncontrollable chuckling run its course, and sighed happily as he wiped a tear from his eye. "Ye're adorable, y'know that?" Wan mocked, "comin' all this way jus' ta see a girl. I bet ye've only even met her once..."
"...twice, actually!" Sokka challenged, immediately regretting telling the big lummox anything about his personal life.
"Yeah, I'm sure it'll last," Wan joked, "ye c'n go on walks, share a meal an' blow up my country t'gether. Real strong foundations."
Sokka stopped wandering into the engineer's traps. It was obvious that appealing to Wan's humanity was like asking Momo to look deep into his heart and find the common decency to not eat the last lychii nut in the bag. You couldn't appeal to something that wasn't there. The undercover Warrior drawled, "so d'you believe me now? I already got a girlfriend."
"Sure. Sure. Pass me th' drill," Wan requested distractedly, having lost all interest in the conversation and gone back to the panel of pipes. Sokka, grateful for the displaced attention, nevertheless felt a pang of unease when he scoured through the toolbox for a drill-shaped object. He soon found a hand-operated drill-like contraption, and immediately thought of how unbearably painful being hit over the head with it would be. Sokka defensively winced as he handed it over to Wan. The engineer looked at it carefully and began using it without fanfare, "good. Ye're learning. Go on like this an' I might even feel bad ta see ya executed."
"I help you out, save your life and do your job for free and you're still gonna turn me in?" Sokka spoke with incredulity, returning to his bolt-tightening.
"It's th' duty of every Fire Nation citizen ta act with th' Nation an' its people in mind!" Wan recited by heart, "an' its in th' interests of th' Nation an' th' people that I keeps ya grubby Water Tribe mitts off my ship an' off my team-mates. Weaseling inta gullible people's trust is th' kinda thing you parasites do, an' I wanna set an example to th' others so they don't trust ye either."
"Shui especially, I noticed," Sokka muttered, "what is it with you and Shui anyway? Why're you so protective of her? Far as I can tell you're not even related."
"She got no one else," Wan didn't pause once in all the exposition, "lemme tell ya a story. One smoggy day in th' port city of Puye, some homeless schmucks were picking salvage up offa th' seafront when they saw a wreck of a raft drift in. Dead man, dead woman an' a baby girl wrapped in a shawl screamin' 'er lungs out. Th' girl grew up in th' slums, tryin' ta make ends meet, but first chance she got she stowed away on a cargo ship. No one else wanted ta deal with 'er, I needed some help getting' under th' engine ta tighten some screws, an' the rest is history."
"...did she know?" Sokka looked behind himself to see Shui leaping up over a balcony edge and hanging down to fix a loose panel upside-down.
"Folks that adopted 'er told 'er, soon as she was old enough," Wan elaborated, "she ran away th' next day. She says they was good people, an' I believe 'er. Kid's been brought up good."
"So...wait..." Sokka turned back, "...if her parents died out at sea, why does she want to join the Fire Navy so bad?"
"That's easy 'nough," Wan tapped a long tool with a hammer, concentrating on the panel even when telling a story, "she got some romantic idea of her folks being great sailors. Hero worship, sorta. Wanted ta follow in their footsteps. Ye wouldn't get it."
"I do get it, thanks for asking," Sokka, son of Hakoda of the Water Tribe, got the concept better than most people. Sokka was starting to suspect he was intruding on things it was better not knowing about, and redirected the question, "so...what's you're story, then?"
"...me!? I am following in my folks' footsteps. I need a smaller hammer," Wan held out the hammer he'd be using, which Sokka gingerly replaced with another hammer two sizes down. Wan eyed it up before returning to work, "that'll do it. My daddy was an engineer, my grand-daddy was engineer...my family must've built half th' Fire Nation."
"Ahh...family business," Sokka noted knowingly, "that's great, having something to call your own. Is it fun?"
Wan paused to look Sokka over, a firm grimace etched into his aged face, "does it look like I'm havin' fun?"
Sokka shook his head sagely, "no, it doesn't. Ever thought about trying something else?"
"Don't matter what I think," Wan returned to his work, "I got a duty ta build, fix, refit an' generally tweak th' world inta sumthin' else. An' I think I'm pretty good at it."
"'Tweak the world'? That's one ambitious mission statement," Sokka commented.
"It ain't a mission statement, it's what I do," Wan pointed out, "th' God of Steel chose me ta spread th' word of iron an' attend t'er every fickle whim, an' it ain't my place ta question 'er judgement."
Sokka had reached the limit of indulging this nonsense and decided now was as good a time as any for a confrontation. He dared to lay down his tools and challenge, "see, I really don't understand you. You're a down-to-earth, practical, grumpy sorta guy who doesn't like authority, doesn't take fools gladly and likes nothing better than to make himself miserable. But you come up with something like the 'God of Steel', and...I have never come across that. I been travelling a lot, all over the place, but I never seen anyone call a piece of machinery a higher being." Sokka worked it through, "and then you say you're a patriot. That's nice...really...even if you're country is evil and everything, but when you see something disturbing and wrong, instead of helping the powers that be around here...like patriots are supposed to do...you skulk about and try to sort things out yourself. Like you're ashamed of spirits attacking the ship or something, or you don't want to admit it."
"I ain't ashamed 'o nuthin'," Wan asserted, "I'm obligated ta protect My Lady, an' that's just what I'm doing, my way. Any o' my other folks woulda done th' same thing."
"Come on!" Sokka argued, "just cuz your family are all mechanics don't mean you have to be. Sure, since you're about five times my age, it's probably a little late now, but think about it...if your 'folks' built half the Fire Nation, including the railroad over the Yalu River, then that would make this whole thing your people's fault. And for what? Not sure you looked around lately, but this place ain't exactly paradise on Earth, is it?"
Wan stopped suddenly, and stared fitfully at the mess of metal piping in front of him, unspeaking. Sokka was wondering if this was some new build-up to an explosion, but when he looked closer at the engineer's face he realised that he really had struck a nerve. The situation came together in Sokka's mind, and he realised the source of Wan's discomfort. Now it was Sokka's turn to guffaw. It had been so simple the whole time that Sokka found laughing out loud at the trap Wan had thrown himself into immensely satisfying. Wan peered across, embarrassed and annoyed, "I don't see th' joke, boy."
"That's it! That's the reason for all this 'God of Steel' nonsense! You don't wanna admit that all this stuff, your life's entire work, is being used to make monsters. So you pretend it's being used to make gods instead," Sokka stood straight upright to deliver his verdict, pleased beyond measure about how smart he was, "Shui there said you Fire Nation make gods out of rocks and vines. And y'know what? There probably are gods of rocks and vines. I think I might've met a couple...got kidnapped by a forest spirit once, actually. And then there's these spirits of rivers tearing us a new rear. But that's the thing, we can see them, talk to them. Sticking all the mumbo-jumbo to one side, I can't see me talking to that."
Sokka pointed at the God of Steel herself, rumbling and thumping and bursting a couple of its own pipes in protest at being pointed at. Wan looked at the engine and back at Sokka, humouring, "y'so sure 'bout that? Seems mighty clear ta me."
"I like to think of spirits as normal creatures with spooky stuff lingering 'round 'em," Sokka leaned back on the balcony, "no point worshipping them, but no point making them angry either. Live and let live, that sorta thing. So there's no point killing a whole load of them just cuz another load of them tell you to. Building stuff over, stacking things high, pulling clumps outta the ground to feed your war machines...what's the point of it? Really? It's not like it makes living any nicer, just grey fields, grey skies, grey buildings, grey people and armies of ghosts descending on you every weekend. What's the benefit?"
"It's progress!" Wan shrugged, "ye can't stop progress! Though you Water Tribe scumbags have a knack fer trying."
"I like progress! I'm very pro-progress, me," Sokka counter-argued, "but I actually like my progress...progressive, y'know?As in...better lives, smarter people, bare minimum of soldiers running 'round pillaging things, easier living, nice sunny days and starry nights, all that stuff. I think 'progress' and I don't think 'up to my eyeballs in soot'. And I sure as heck don't think of the 'God of Steel' over there."
This time it was Wan smiling, mischievously. While wondering what mistake he'd made, Wan took Sokka round the shoulders and had a heart-to-heart chat, "spy...lemme ask ye sumthin'. What is 'progress'? Really? Deep down? What is it?"
Sokka ummed and ahhed, and came up with a stopgap answer, "improving things?"
"Why?" Wan asked further. He'd versed himself in mechanical theology enough to debate certain things.
Sokka shrugged, "I dunno...'cause they're sucky as they are?"
"An' who says they're sucky?" Wan asked finally.
Sokka winced and thought hard, getting irritated the questioning, the stifling heat, the deafening noises and Wan's firm grip on his shoulder, "well...egh...just...just...people!"
"Good answer," Wan smiled, "that's right. People, men, humankind, us, we...nature goes on fer thousands 'n thousands...maybe millions 'o years jus' being all...'natural'. Not a care in th' world, jus' there, content 'n relaxed. Th'n we crawl along, our single species, 'n we say, 'this sucks! Let's make it better!' An' we do, cuz we're human beings an' we can do great 'n impossible things."
"I didn't ask for a history lesson, grandpa," Sokka complained.
"Well tough, cuz ye're getting' one," Wan continued, "nature is cuz nature is, until that nature is human. We don't try ta find heat in th' cold, we make our own heat! We don't try ta find shelter from th' rain, we make our own shelter! We don't grow fur, so we steal something elses'. We don't hunt prey, but grow it t'order. Our way's blocked, so we build a new one. We don't like nature as it is, so we change it inta sumthin' else. That's progress."
"What's this got to do with the God of Steel?" Sokka asked.
"Cuz even when we're busy tweaking things an' doing things we shouldn't, we feel guilty," Wan espoused, "so we got th' gods, naggin' us all th' time fer being human. They'll never be pleased an' they'll never be satisfied, cuz they're nature an' we're not. It's a weird thing we are, Water Tribe. Our nature is ta be unnatural. Take bending, fer instance. What th' heck's 'natural' 'bout that? Some animals do it, but we take it, learn ways ta mimic it, change ourselves ta do it, an' build houses an' smelt swords with it. It ain't sumthin' we should do, but it's like breathing ta some people. Ye wanna see what progress does? Progress is jus' what humans do. We've been doing it from th' beginning. Our whole makeup makes it impossible fer us 'n nature ta be best buddies. When it comes right down to it, at th' end, there ain't no compromise, no balancing act, no co-operation. It's us or them, we can't live on th' same planet, an' some of us don't accept that. We see what we do, how we mould th' world in our image, an' we gets cold feet. That's where gods come in. Our gods want us ta be animals again, but in ways that animals would be freaked out by."
Wan turned, and both he and Sokka faced the God of Steel, working flat out to keep the ship at flank speed. His chest swelled with pride, "but not th' God of Steel. Nuthin' natural 'bout her. Pure, 100 human in every way. She wants change, an' submission, an' everythin' life c'n give 'er. Nuthin' 'bout making lives better, or peace of mind, or any o' that waffle. All she wants is ta grow, th' highest product of humanity, taken from th' earth, boiling water, holding fire an' belching smoke. This is what humanity is, what we'll turn th' whole world into, even without trying. Th' Avatar was everythin' that was wrong with that old way o' thinking, that there are limits ta what we c'n do. Now he's dead, we no longer need ta be hypocrites. This is what th' future is, what th' whole world will be like, an' I'm gonna gladly serve th' first god of men."
Sokka struggled against the affectionate arm-lock, but felt compelled to speak his mind, "I was once face-to-face with a guy who wanted to kill the moon, but that's nowhere near as insane as what you just said."
Wan, still smiling from his spontaneous sermon, looked down at Sokka and asked curtly, "did I say ye could stop?"
"...no..." Sokka answered pitifully. He was quickly swivelled around, pushed down and planted painfully on his knees, back in front of the row of bolts he was screwing tight.
"I gave ya ten minutes ta do those bolts," Wan castigated, "now ye got three. Make th' most of it."
Sokka grumbled and set about twisting sealed bolts in a third of time that was needed. He was thankfully interrupted by the sound of bare feet slamming lightly onto the balcony surface, the feet of someone who could travel across the room without once touching the ground. Sokka looked up at Shui as she asked Wan, "hey...I need someone ta help me with th' pumping system...it's kinda hard squeezing in 'n checkin' th' controls at th' same time. C'n I jus' pinch Gam fer a moment?"
Sokka looked back at Wan, who looked back at Sokka suspiciously. They communicated silently, in no uncertain terms, that anything more than friendly bonding was going to result in being chucked into the pumping system while it was still on. Wan spoke without much enthusiasm, "sure. Plenty'a 'Gam' ta go round. Ain't that right?"
"Absolutely!" Sokka nodded urgently, planting the spanner on the ground to stand up and follow Shui down the ladder. A loud knocking from behind made Sokka turn back. Wan was thumping Sokka's discarded spanner loudly against the balcony and holding it up to Sokka's chest.
"Never, ever, leave yer spanner behind, boy!" Wan chastised, "in this place, it's as much a part'a yer body as yer kidneys. Got it!?"
Sokka was momentarily shocked solid at the outburst, but recovered quickly, grabbing the spanner and nodding affirmatively. Shui was already sliding effortlessly down the ladder while Sokka was just stepping on. Wan, half-kneeling, watched the two young'uns head off before he turned towards the engine once again, soaking up all the juice he could give her and dishing it out in spades. It felt good to preach, but in the act of doing so, more questions occurred to him. He was starting to think that the encounter with these river spirits may well be the start of the last battle between humanity and nature. It was exciting and everything...but did it have to be so soon?
The God of Steel voiced her own opinion with a buckling plate bursting forth steam. Wan groaned and picked himself up, spanner in hand, "okay, My Lady, I get th' picture...who put that plate t'gether!? C'mon, people, c'mon! Wakey wakey! Get those clamps out 'n get me th' stapler! Move it, move it!"
To Be Continued…
Avatar: The Last Airbender Concept and Characters © Nickelodeon 2005-06
Author's Note: A lot of Wan/Sokka interaction this part. It seemed like a good time to finally explain what this 'God of Steel' gobbledygook was about. If you don't quite follow the philosophy, then that's fine. Sokka doesn't get it either. And Sokka's smarter than me.
Next part: Aang converses with the Children of the Damned and we take another peek at the Machiavellian goings-on in Nagaoka Prefecture, Fire Nation. Stay tuned!
