James Cameron owns Avatar, not me.
Chapter 8: The Road to Hell
Date: June 3rd, 2163
Location: Edge of Omatikaya territory, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
Max and Walsh carefully made there way through the forest, moving slowly and carefully. Neither had been much of an out-doors man, but when the alternative is being eaten by something, you tend to learn real fast. That wasn't to say they had anywhere near the skill of a Na'vi, but they could move lightly and quickly when they had to, and both had been abusing one of the greatest strengths of the human body: endurance. Max remembered talking with Cindy about it several years back, after she had commented about how she and Norm had been able to run farther than some of the Avatars they'd been hunting with.
"Remember," he had spoken up, "As a species, it's one of our defining assets: the ability to run for very long periods of time on minimal resources. Even against a full-grown Na'vi, an in-shape human can run for a much longer period of time with significantly less nutrition. I mean, think about simple things like our sports. Football requires someone to be able to move, often at a run, for an hour and a half, more if the game goes into overtime. Or a marathon, try getting a Na'vi to run for forty-two kilometers with only a few sips of water, they won't even get close."
It was a good thing for them to have, it was quite a hall on foot from site 17 to the areas where they could reasonably expect to run into someone from the tribe to escort them the rest of the way.
"Still wish that Jake would let us bring the Samson in. It's the only thing we have sufficient fuel for." Walsh muttered from his place just behind Max as they cleared a fallen tree.
"He was unhappy enough to find out we were using it to drive game, I don't even want to imagine what he would say if we flew in to the Kelutral." Max retorted as they resumed their jogging pace.
"Probably ban us from ever showing up again, not that he'll be thrilled to see us as it is. Still don't see why it was such a big deal to them, they do the same thing with their ikran," Walsh groused.
They'd been over this before, many times. "Because it's technology Walsh, and because not too many years ago people were using Samsons to try and kill them."
The other man sighed and slowed, leaning against a tree and digging into his pack for water, "I know that Max, and I know that it's their world, their rules, but it does mean life's more the bitch for us and its really gotten old after all these years. Hell, we helped them didn't we? Risked our lives for them?" He shook his head, "Now, I'm not saying I regret it, that axe-crazy Quaritch and that worm Selfridge needed standing up to by God, but don't you think the Na'vi should be a bit more accepting of us? I mean, we bend over backwards for them and they accept it like it's their due, but we do anything that goes against what they think people should live like and they freak out at us."
He shook his head, settling down, resting against a different tree and carefully drinking around his exopack, always an awkward ordeal, before he responded. "I know Wash, but what do you want me to do about it? We're managing on our own, barely, but we still need them to help us, and a lot of them are still real bitter about what happened with the RDA. A lot of them didn't want any of us to stay at all, it took a lot for Jake and Neytiri to convince them."
Walsh opened his mouth to answer before suddenly jerking his head to the left. "Somethings here." he snapped, drawing his gun.
The former Avatar scientist reached for his own pistol, feeling the hairs on his neck raise as his own senses picked up on what Wash had already figured out. Something was watching them. The two moved slowly and carefully, putting their backs to opposite trees so they could watch each other, and glanced carefully around.
After maybe a minute of silence, Max spoke up, raising his voice, "Kaltxi?"
There was a moment of silence before a Na'vi warrior emerged suddenly from a bush to Walsh's left, bow drawn but arrow held loose. He nodded in return to the two humans and spoke in heavily accented english, "What bring you here, tawtute?"
Carefully putting his gun back into its holster, he replied, "We wish to speak to Jake Sully, our friend."
The hunter frowned at them before nodding slowly, "I will take you there, but cause no trouble for us."
"We won't." Max assured him, and the two humans followed their new guide towards the massive tree in the distance.
Date: June 3rd, 2163
Location: Omaticaya Kelutral, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
They arrived shortly after the tribe's dinner. Jake was waiting for them at the base of the tree, casually inspecting his bow as they approached.
Exchanging quiet greeting in Na'vi, the two scientists took seats on the ground across from him, carefully taking water out of their packs and drinking.
Jake was the first to break the silence. "What's up, Max? Not that I'm not glad to see you, it's been ages, but you do know that the tribe doesn't really like you here right? Better be important is all."
Max winced slightly, being reminded of that, and especially in the cavalier way that Jake said it, was not how he had hoped to start this conversation. "Cindy's dead." he said quietly, "Nantang attacked her."
The Olo'eyktan gave a wince of his own, "Oh. Oh, sorry man. I know she was.. wow." he finished a bit lamely, "Was expecting you to be asking to use technology again, not that. Um, did you want Moat or Neytiri to head over to perform a service or something?"
And yet a part of him remains fallibly human, Max smiled to himself mentally as Jake stumbled over his words. "It's all right... we laid her to rest last night, yo don't need to worry about that. But it brings up more problems for us.."
This time the former marine did understand him, "One less person helping hunt and gather food. And, let me guess, you want to start using the Samson to hunt from the air again?"
Max winced more heavily this time at the hostility in his tone, "We don't have much choice Jake." he tried to sound calm and reasonable, he had to get the message across. "The door gun is too heavy for us to carry around, and it's the only weapon we have ammunition for. We're almost out of pistol rounds, and our crossbows aren't good for hunting anything larger than a Tapirus. If we can't use the Samson, we're going to have to cut down trees to make a barricade so we can stay safe and increase what we're growing."
Jake actually hissed at the mention of cutting down trees, "No."
Walsh spoke up, "It's one or the other Jake. The Avatar team is still helping us out a bit, but they've got their duties to the clan. If we want to live, we have to either hunt from the air, or increase our farmland and defensibility. We don't have a choice."
Sully rose and strode back and forth over the ground, his tail flicking angrily back and forth. "So, either you drive off game with the Samson, or you harm Eywa to defend yourselves."
"We don't have to hunt nearby here," Max spoke up, trying to calm him down, "We've still got years worth of fuel saved up in the armory block, we could easily hunt near there instead? Minimal disruption to the tribe, keeps us alive, and we don't have to harm Eywa."
Turning and glaring at them, Jake resumed pacing for several more moments before finally giving a grudging nod. "Fine. That's fine. But keep it away from the kelutral. Understand? I don't want my kid, or any other 'eveng to start having nightmares. About those things."
Max felt a tap on his should and saw Walsh glancing nervously deeper into the tree, several other Na'vi had walked forwards, frowning, no doubt attracted by the sounds of Jake's outburst.
Glancing behind him, the clan leader visibly composed himself before turning to look at Max, "Remember, away from here Max. Sorry about Cindy." And with that he strode back into the tree, rapidly climbing into it's heights.
Sighing, the two humans got to their feet and began to make their way back in the direction of site 17. Once they had left the area of the village, Max spoke up, "Well, that went both better and worse than I thought it would."
"No kidding." his companion replied sardonically.
Next up is the First Interlude
All right, Jake finally makes an appearance. It's been 9 years since he passed through the eye, and it seems he's now far more Na'vi than human, but slivers do still show through now and again.
This wraps up the first act of the story, and I think I'm going to put in a filler chapter from Agent Wallace's POV about what's going on on Earth, and one more short one from Max to show what's happening during the long trip. But I do intend to keep the sequence of alternating Selfridge/Patel point of views after that.
Review please! I'm getting plenty of people viewing, but more reviewing would be awesome! Hope everyone is enjoying my humancia styled story.