James Cameron owns Avatar, not me.
Chapter 7: Dasvidaniya, Rodina
Date: April 30th, 2163
Location: Tyuratam, Kazakhstan, Earth, Sol System
The room was packed with the press. Parker, in seat to Oberst Weigand's right, slowly sipped from a glass of water while trying to project an appearance of detached calm as the stoic german calmly answered a question regarding the military units to be involved.
In truth, even four weeks later, he was still a bit rattled from the revelation that the fleet wouldn't be sticking around for more than a month after their arrival, and that if anything went wrong, as had last time, there wouldn't be anywhere for him and the others to flee to. Worse still was the apparent acceptance of this fact amongst the military personnel and the miners picked for the mission. It wasn't until only last week that he manged to corner Thomes and confront her on the subject, where she revealed that the expedition's members had all been warned that it could very well be one-way trip during the initial interviews.
Extremely irritated at being left out of the loop, especially given his position, he had virtually attacked the computer system, devouring every bit of information that he could to ensure such a surprise didn't happen again. But aside from some minor details, most of which he had little interest in, it seemed that he was now fully in the loop as far as what was occurring.
I wish these jackals would hurry it up already, he grumped mentally. Now that the launch date was so close, he just wanted to get it over with, and anything to get away from the press at this point. They, it seemed, had become divided when it came to 'The Expedition' as it was being called. Some, primarily from the studio that had released the story on the Avatar transmission and several other affiliated studios were actively hostile, while others were taking the opposite tract, instead opting to portray the expeditionary team as heroes fighting valiantly to lead humanity into a bright future.
Though the pro-human group heavily outnumbered their opposition, he found that he didn't really care that much, both were irritating. He'd been hounded constantly from reporters on both sides, some constantly requested exclusives with a "hero of humanity", while others attacked him with scathing questions and trying to get him to say that he had ordered the butchering of native children.
Agent Wallace, for all of his irritating politeness, had been indispensable since he had arrived several days ago, handling the minor press conferences concerning news releases and doing his best to shelter Parker, Weigand, and Thomes from the media's spotlight.
Weigand wrapping up his little speech and a reporter raising to her feet brought him out of his reverie. He glanced at her quickly, recognizing her as one of the anti-expedition members and preparing his thoughts accordingly, "Mr. Selfridge, a question regarding the mining operations if I may. What form of mining exactly will be employed upon Pandora, given it's status as a garden world?"
Garden world? It's a death world moron! He wanted to scream aloud, but exerting his self control he spoke calmly, "We will most likely resume use of the open-pit method of strip mining, just as was being used previously. It is the most efficient at removing Unobtanium quickly and with a maximum of safety for the miners themselves. It will," he admitted, "Cause short-term damage to the environment of the region as all mining does, however, we've chosen the mining location specifically for the fact that it is near a river, and we intend to reclaim the region via creating a lake as soon as mining is complete. Our initial mining site near Hell's Gate was chosen for a similar reason, and reclaiming that area once our old equipment has been salvaged is on our agenda."
The reporter frowned, his politically correct mention of reclaiming the mining zone having taken away what she had no doubt hoped to use as ammunition against him, and she sat, lips pursed.
The next reporter had questions concerning the modifications to the Explorer's Dream, and Thomes leaned forward to handle that while Parker smirked to himself internally, Take that you hippie bitch.
It continued in that vain for several more hours, the questions from pro-expedition reporters being responded to with short speeches, often outlining in great detail what was to occur, while those questions that were barbed with the intent to cause pain were gently slapped down. Around seven the conference finally wound down, the reporters filing out as Parker and the rest of the expedition leadership made their own way out the back into a much smaller conference room, taking up chairs and helping themselves to drinks.
"Well that went well," he said aloud as everyone else was sitting. "Managed to keep the tree-huggers down and I'm pretty sure we came off as the future saviors of humanity."
Everyone else chuckled and Wallace spoke up, "Indeed. That did go very well. I feel positive that me and my team will be able to keep the public's spirits buoyed and in support of the expedition until the first cargo begins to return."
Weigand chimed in, sipping his black coffee, "That is good, the last thing we'll need is a recall order as soon as we get there. It's imperative that we maintain public support here at home."
"You'll have it." The Brit replied. "Between how cheap power is in the regions with access to the anti-matter reactors, and with how wildly popular the reclamation projects are, we've got plenty of reason to remind people that we need unobtanium."
"Plus the images of Reach and Styx have really got people excited. The colony ships aren't even built yet and people are volunteering left and right to be on the colonization teams." Thomes spoke up, "Hell , you could probably bribe people with spots if things start looking bad."
Wallace chuckled and made a notation in his pda, "Not a bad idea Captain." he glanced at the clock on the wall, "Now if you'll excuse me, I should let you all get some sleep, you're going to need it I fear. Your transports to Aldrin station leave in the morning, and from there it's out to the Gagarin shipyards."
He turned his level gaze on everyone as he left the room, "Remember, humanity is counting on you to succeed, everything else is secondary to our survival." And with that, the British agent swept from the room.
Date: May 1st, 2163
Location: Tyuratam, Kazakhstan, Earth, Sol System
The reviewing stands around the launch pad were packed to overflowing, it took Parker a bit by surprise. He had know, intellectually, that the mission to return to Pandora was popular, that most humans knew exactly how critical unobtanium had become to their species. But it was one thing to know it, and entirely another to see it in person.
The cheering couldn't really be defined as such, it was a single tide of human noise rising and falling, he could barely make out half a dozen national anthems being sung, flags of every description being waved about with wild abandon.
Weigand leaned over to him and shouted in his ear, the only way he could be heard, "The UN is gaining wildly in popularity with this!" he gestured at the dozens of bright blue and white flags being waved, beaming as he did, "Who knew that a bunch of blue monkeys throwing a tantrum five light years away could cause humanity to start banding together?"
He chuckled a bit at the mention of the blue monkeys and nodded in response, occasionally waving to the crowd as they moved towards their Valkyrie. Turning at the base of the ramp, he and Weigand paused one final time to wave at the crowd before entering the shuttle and taking their seats next to the rest of the administration staff. The shutting hatch suddenly cut off the tide of noise and Parker realized he could hear ringing in his ears.
Yawning and stretching out his legs, he rested his head against the bulkhead as he felt the shuttle lift off the ground, and begin it's slow acceleration. He didn't realize he was wearing a contented smile until Weigand mentioned it.
"You're getting caught up in it as well," the German chuckled after remarking on it.
Parker frowned, "Caught up in what?"
His companion nodded at the hatch, and the crowd falling away behind it, "Humanity. The idea that we as a species deserve to survive and thrive in this cold galaxy. That humans are worth fighting for."
The Oberst chuckled at the incredulous look he shot him at the word 'fighting', "I don't mean fighting as I and my men do, Herr Selfridge. Mining on Pandora to try and wrest unobtanium from the land is fighting in it's own way, and may prove no less dangerous."
Parker said nothing to that, opting to close his eyes and try and relax instead. It didn't last long, even as the Valkyrie cleared the atmosphere and begin to make it's way to Armstrong station he was already thinking about what Weigand had said.
He had been a bit caught up in the moment when the expedition launched, he admitted to himself. But that was nothing right? Just a contact high, like being in a football stadium, you couldn't help but be pulled into the roar of the crowd, it was just human nature. He was only doing this because he had been dragged into it, and because the RDA had given him a full promotion with raise.
He frowned to himself, shaking off the thought that there could be another reason why he was doing this, and forced himself to think instead of the initial mining plan, and if there was anything that could be done to improve it's efficiency in the early stages of arrival.
By the time they docked at the station to transfer to the inter-system ship that would take them out to Gagarin station, he'd forgotten all about the conversation.
Date: June 30th, 2163
Location: Near Gagarin Shipyards, Orbit of Saturn, Sol System
A fleet rendezvousing in space was a lot less impressive in real life than it was in the movies. For all Parker could tell, there wasn't any other ships within his eyesight. If he looked at the holographic table aboard the Ever Onwards, he knew it would reveal the other six ISV's all in formation in a ring pattern around the flagship, the Luna's Rise. But since that ring was over a hundred kilometers in diameter to ensure that the ships would never pose any risk of getting in one of the others way, it gave the appearance of lonesome solitude.
He turned from the small window and made his way over to the command station, feet striking the ground lightly in the low artificial gravity.
"We're about ready, Administrator." the ship's elderly captain spoke up from his bridge station. "You can probably head down to the cryo tubes now, we'll be at Alpha Centauri before ya can blink."
Parker smiled dutifully and headed down the long shaft connecting the living quarters to the ship proper, very carefully moved from the artificial gravity zone to the zero-g section, and pulled himself along the walls into the cryo chamber. Everyone else was already out, and a pair of med techs were waiting for him.
Even as they helped him into his pod, he realized he was absurdly glad he was going to sleep through the trip. He didn't think he'd have the stomach to go through with it if he had to be awake for the full voyage.
His last thought as the drugs lulled him to sleep was that he was oddly looking forwards to the expression on those blue-skinned savage's faces when they realized that the humans had come back.
Date: July 2nd, 2163
Location: Rendezvous Point, L2 Lagrange point, Saturn, Sol System
Had anyone been present to witness it, it would have been an impressive sight. Seven massive plumes of exhaust lit up in space simultaneously as the largest assembled human space faring fleet began its long, slow acceleration out system, their bows pointed firmly in the direction of the star nearest to Sol, heading for a small moon that contained everything their species needed, yet in turn wanted nothing to do with them.
Next up is Chapter 8: The Road to Hell
And the fleet has finally left, the beginning of the action is not far off, wonder what those Na'vi will think when the humans show up? And for that matter, what will the avatar team think, especially of the expedition's motivations?
Next chapter, Jake meets with Max concerning the difficulties the avatar team faces, then maybe a filler chapter or two to occupy the seven-year gap, then the arrival.
Hope everyone is enjoying and please review! Even if you just say "I read it, it was ok" any form of review is awesome and I want to hear from you!