- insert witty disclaimer saying I don't own avatar here -
Chapter 13: Hell Descending
Date: March 25th, 2170
Location: Camp Augustine, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
"It's getting crazy over here Max. One of the patrols Jake sent out didn't come back, and the tribe is on edge over that. Everyone's assuming the humans killed them." Miguels voice filled the shack as he reported on current events for them.
"That's not an unreasonable assumption to make." Norm pointed out from his place on a cot.
"Yeah man I know, but it's reminding me way too much of the last days of Hell's Gate." Miguel replied, "All the warriors and hunters are arming up, I think they're going to try and stage a raid of some kind, Jake's trying to get everyone psyched up for some kind of guerrilla war."
Max shook his head, "They've made no thoughts at all about trying to talk or negotiate?"
"The only kind of negotiating Jake wants to do is the kind where he convinces the other clans to help out. They've already sent messengers." There was a short pause, followed by a panicked, "Oh shit man, gotta go."
And with that, the link died.
Max let out a long groan, rubbing his face with his hands.
Katrina chuckled darkly from her leaning spot next to the airlock, "Welcome back to Pandora, here's an arrow to the face."
Both of the men snorted, shaking their heads, though it was Max who spoke "What are we going to do about it though? Jake's hell bent on fighting, as is Neytiri. Mo'at doesn't like to deal with us, and except for our three scientists over there, the rest of the Avatar team would rather be Na'vi."
Norm shook his head, "I miss the old days man. When it was just us against the RDA, the Na'vi trusted us and listened to our opinions and everyone was united."
"So do I" Max and Katrina replied simultaneously, and all three of them smiled quietly.
"We have to think of something though." their gangly friend continued, "There must be something we can do to stop everyone from killing each other. I mean.. I know it might come down to that no matter what, but we have to try don't we?"
"Yeah, we do." he sighed and rubbed his forehead. There has to be something! Come on Max, use that Phd brain for something! He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. Wait..
"Wait. We're over-thinking this. Why don't we just call them?" he said, blinking.
The other two stared at him.
"Huh?" Norm wittily replied.
He stared back at him, "They're humans, they'll have radios. By coincidence, we are humans, and we have a radio. Why don't we just call them and find out what's going on?"
Katrina opened her mouth, closed it, frowned, thought for a minute and the opened it again, "But wouldn't that reveal where we were? I mean, if they could detect where we're transmitting from?"
He frowned, "Probably. What if we fly to Hell's Gate and radio from there? Or set up something to bounce our signal from here to there?"
"I think the latter is our best bet... they've probably taken over the old satellite system by now, so they could probably just follow the Samson if we transmit from it. But if we stay low and scoot over there, set up a transceiver.. we could probably do that tomorrow and call them up tomorrow night when we got back. It'll take tonight to get everything setup anyway."
Max thought about it for a moment and nodded, "That should work out, let's get started."
Date: March 26th, 2170
Location: Hell's Gate, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
"For the record," a sweating and shaking Katrina spoke as they settled down next to the old Ops Center. "Dodging an angry Toruk while flying at tree top level is not fun."
His own heart beating a bit too fast, Max had to agree with her. The massive beast had attacked them shortly after taking off, and if not for some creative flying on Katrina's part, along with a few warning shots nicking the beast's crest, they could very well have gone down.
Carefully working with Norm to offload the equipment, they got to work quickly, hooking the equipment as quickly as they could, Katrina carefully watching the darkening skies as they worked. Less than an hour later, their jury-rigged transceiver was in place, nestled neatly next to the old building, and they quickly piled back into the Samson, looking worriedly at the sky.
They had flown in the darkness before, but they certainly had never enjoyed it, and that hungry Toruk might be looking for round two. Flying as carefully as she could considering the fact that she refused to slow down, their pilot hauled them back to their small camp as fast as their aged metal bird allowed.
"So what are we going to say?" Norm spoke up, watching the trees blur by beneath them.
"I have no idea." Max admitted, "I was thinking of offering some the data we and the others have been working on in exchange for some kind of limit on mining."
Katrina's voice chimed in, "They probably won't go for that Max."
He sighed, "I know, but we have to try right? Maybe get them to limit themselves to the old mining site? Or to only have one mine running at a time?" he ran a hand through his hair.
"The Na'vi wouldn't like either one of those though." Normed pointed out, "And there's another problem. We might, we might get them to limit the mining, but any mining at all is going to cause Jake and the others to flip out."
"I know Norm, I know." he banged the back of his head against the metal of the Samson. "But if we can get the humans to at least sit down and talk with us, maybe we can find something to appease both sides."
Even as they spoke, they arrived over their camp, the Samson slowly tilting as it banked in and then settled down on the grass. Stepping out and sighing, Max and Norm made their way inside as Katrina ran a post-flight checklist.
Stripping their exopacks, the two paused to eat before beginning to configure the system. It was dark by the time they were finished, and Katrina had joined them.
Glancing at the other two, Max grimaced, feeling like a man about to stick his hand intentionally into a fire, and activated it, "This is Doctor Max Patel calling any human who can pick this up, please respond."
Silence and static answered him. He repeated himself, two more times, about a minute between the repetition, before the very last voice he had ever expect to hear again came across the radio.
"Patel? What the hell!"
His jaw dropped, "Selfridge, what the fuck?" he blinked as heard more noise, "Is that gunfire?"
"Of course it is you damned hippie! Your blue-skinned savage friends are doing their best to kill us!"
Max saw Norm go pale and wince, and heard Katrina's small groan, "Did you provoke them?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Provoke them! They tried to assassinate me three days ago!" the executive howled at them, "Now get the fuck off the air! Call us in the morning if we're still alive!" Something in the background exploded and the signal cut out.
He winced and turned in his seat to look at the other two. "Well, that didn't go as I was hoping it would."
"Not shit." Katrina shook her head, "What can we do about this?"
"Nothing" Norm said, his voice quiet. "We don't know where they are, and even if we did, three scientists and a Samson with only one gun can't stop a fight that's already started. We just have to hope that Miguel was right, and it is just a raid, not a full blown assault."
Max rose and reached under his cot, pulling out their last bottle of whiskey. Norm stared at it for a moment before rising and grabbing three glasses. He poured and all three took their small cups and downed them.
A few drinks later, he spoke into the awkward silence. "Really think they would have tried to assassinate Selfridge? Or is he just being a drama queen?"
"Well.. Miguel said there was one of the Avatars with the scouting party, if he saw him, and told the Na'vi who he was.." Norm let his voice trail off.
Katrina swore softly, "And if they already started mining operations, there might be nothing that we can do to stop it from becoming a full blown war."
He shook his head, "I refuse to accept that. It might happen, I won't deny it, but it's our duty to try and stop it from reaching that point. That's what we decided last time, all of us. There might be only three of us now, six, if you include Miguel and the others, but we have to live up to that promise."
Smiling slightly, Norm spoke up, "We swore to do as our conscious' dictated, that we would do the right thing. And now, doing the right thing could get us wanted by both the humans and the na'vi."
He smiled at his friend, "You did always want to be the hero Norm, here's our chance."
Katrina laughed, the slightest bit of drunken hysteria to it, and raised her glass, "Here's to our chances of dying while trying to be big damn heroes."
The two men laughed, and all three drank.
Next up: Chapter 14: Midnight Duel
I know, bit short compared to the last two, I'll make it up to you with pure awesome in the battle in the next chapter, I promise.
Also, I have to say i'm pleased with the positive responses to my first ever fanfic, so thanks going out to everyone who's been reading, and bonus points for everyone who has reviewed!
Review Responses:
mindteller: I have read it, and it wasn't bad, but it's a bit too vague for my liking. It's missing a "Why he did it" beyond "it was the right thing to do". Glad to see you're still enjoying my tale though. Expected a massive argument/debate to occur between human and na'vi on that subject in a few chapters :)
a siting duk: Glad to see you liked that bit. It always amazes me that people don't realize just how significant human endurance is and I felt it would be a good point to bring up, that there is something that humans are naturally better than na'vi at.