Believe it or not, I still don't own Avatar.

Chapter 37: Opposites Repulse

Date: 15:45, June 1st, 2170

Location: Valkyrie en route to Explorer's Dream, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System

Sully had been talking in low terms to the woman in Na'vi ever since they had lifted off, probably trying to prepare her for what was going to happen when they hit orbit. He did not really care, choosing instead to ignore them and relax. It was the first time that he had been able to since the battle had ended, what with dealing with the casualties, repairs, and dozens of other, more minor, things.

The shuttle-wide comm system clicked just after they entered super-cruise, the pilot announcing, "Administrator Selfridge, Captain Thomes on the line for you."

He sighed and unbuckled himself, squeezed passed the natives and the grouchy looking medics, and hauled himself up the ladder into the main crew compartment.

The copilot turned and gestured towards one of the open stations behind him, "Got her up for you there sir. Might want to be careful though, the Captain's in a foul mood."

"When isn't she?" he retorted, and all three laughed quietly as he sat down and strapped in, "Time to orbit?"

The pilot examined his instruments before replying, "Ten minutes, then four hours to catch up to the Dream, and another hour to dock. Think that native chick will live that long?"

He shrugged his slight shoulders, "Not my problem." the pilots laughed quietly again. They certainly would not lose any sleep if she died.

Thomes' voice carried across the earpiece as soon as he donned the waiting headset, "Parker, Thomes. That native going to stay alive through zero-g?"

He twitched slightly. I just answered that damn question. "Don't know, don't care. If she does, your doctors can patch her up, and everything is all fine and dandy. She dies, we still lived up to our end, we tried."

A nearly masculine grunt answered that, "Fine by me. You'll have a lot of fast talking to do when you get up there though. A lot of the men won't be thrilled to see a native being treated."

The thought had occurred to him as well. The authority of command only went so far, especially given that the men who would be on the Dream would largely be the wounded, those least likely to care at all about the survival of a blue-skin.

But at the same time, he was actually glad it was mostly the wounded, as it would be easier to keep them calmed down when they were already on drugs.

"I can handle it."

"You'd better," was the reply, "Tensions are already high enough without people trying to kill each other up there. And watch out for Sully," she added, "It'll be hard to stop the men from trying to taunt him, or someone from making a stupid comment, make sure he doesn't blow a gasket."

"Easier said then done." he muttered. The idea of keeping that idiot under control while his girlfriend was being operated on was not something that sounded pleasant.

"Yes it is," Thomes agreed, "But it's not something we can afford right now. Much as I loathe the natives, we're in no shape to fight."

"I know I know." he sighed, "I'll call you back when she's either dead or out of surgery."

"Will await your return then." she confirmed, and the line went dead.

Outside the sky had faded to the deep black of space, and he felt gravity slowly falling away. With another small sigh, he unbuckled the straps keeping him tied to the chair, straightened, and kicked off the deck.

Spinning slowly, he carefully pulled his way along the wall until he reached the ladder down, then casually propelled himself down.

Two of the medics were carefully going over the wounded woman, floating lightly next to her as they monitored her vitals and made sure that the numerous straps kept her firmly in place.

The mother was staring at them, wide eyed, clutching to the handholds next to her seat to keep herself in place. Her already wide eyes became almost comically large when she saw him position himself to 'stand' on the wall, looking down at them.

To be honest, it was a nauseating position for him to be in, but it was worth it to see the expression on her face.

"She still alive?" he greeted the medtechs.

They glanced at each other before one of them answered, "Vitals seem stable, though it's hard to tell. Her organs are already in bad shape though, and zero-g is definitely not doing her any good."

Sully spoke quietly, "She's going to make it."

The humans all glanced at each other. "She might make it." the medic corrected.

"She will." the massive Avatar glared at the man, "No mights about it."

Shaking his head, he pulled himself down to his seat and strapped in again, before revealing what the pilot had told him, "Probably five hours until we dock. And no Sully, we can't go any faster."

Sully had nodded quietly, but the elder native spoke up quietly, "Why not?"

"Physics." he replied, "The ship we're docking with is ahead of us, we have to catch up to it."

"Can it not slow down?"

Why am I even answering her? He asked himself. Because five hours of silence is extremely dull. His mind replied.

And now I'm talking to myself. He decided to answer her before he could introspect, and thus creep himself out, any further, "No, it's in a fixed orbit above our base, and it's too fragile to move at any real speed."

She blinked at that, "Fragile?"

"It's very fragile." he nodded, "It's very difficult to build a ship that isn't, because even the tiniest grain of sand can do massive damage to our machines up here."

"Then why travel amongst the stars, if the danger is so great?"

It was his turn to blink.

"To conquer." Sully's dull voice responded, "To consume. They travel the stars because they have to in order to survive."

He glared at the man, "No. We would travel the stars anyway."

The matriarch glanced between the two of them, "It does seem that most of the tawtute live to consume and destroy, even as they try to heal." she said finally.

"Human nature." all four medics, Parker, and Sully had said it at the same time.

"Many a tawtute have said that," she seemed to quietly wonder, "Max'patel in particular. Whatever you behold, you destroy, then repair, then destroy again."

Chewing on his lip for a bit, he thought it over. A memory struck him, of something that he had realized not that long ago. "That is true, partially. And I know why we travel the stars, I'll show it to you as soon as we get to the Dream."

Sully opened his mouth to say something, glanced at his girlfriend's comatose form, then seemed to think better of it.

That's right big boy, he thought with a smirk, You're girlfriend's life is in our hands, don't piss us off.

The two natives settled into silence for the rest of the trip, which was quite fine with him, and he relaxed in his seat and waited for the docking alarm to sound.

Date: 16:20, June 1st, 2170

Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System

The Russian, Kozlov, had headed inside upon their arrival, requesting that Max and Katrina stay with their Samson. Norm and John had remained behind to help the clan use the human medications.

Max had not had the time to really look at Tartarus when he had been there in the morning, now, without Selfridge glaring at him, and with most of the medical supplies already to the Omaticaya, he could fully see the destruction that the battle and wreaked upon the place. All of the buildings, both the few complete structures as well as the teetering remains of half-finished buildings had been blackened by fire. The skeletal corpses of AMP suits still lay where they had fallen, the warpaint giving them the appearance of mythical creatures slain and left as warnings.

And the smell... burned bodies, decomposing bodies, burnt fuel and electronics..it was horrendous.

They had already removed most of the Na'vi bodies, though he had no idea how or to where. He had a guess, judging from the long bloodstains heading towards the nearby jungle, but, as much as he hated to admit it, they did not really have any other way of dealing with that many dead.

The humans currently moving around the base all looked like they were suffering from extreme exhaustion, shuffling about as they began preparing funeral pyres, stacking fallen wood into massive piles, mostly by hand and although some were using the clear-cutting equipment.

"So, you're Doctor Patel huh?" the feminine voice caused him to turn towards the Ops Center. He had never actually seen Thomes in person before, but the exhausted looking blonde woman had to be her.

"Captain Thomes I presume." he nodded to her, glancing aside as several people who'd emerged from the airlock began to slowly load up the last round of supplies into their Samson.

"Indeed." her eyes traveled over him in his blood-stained clothes, the battered Samson, and Katrina relaxing in the pilot's seat. "Seems you've been through quite a bit in the last decade."

"More than that," he absently corrected, "And yes, we have, especially these last few days. There's a lot of wounded to take care of."

"Wouldn't be as many if they had just left us alone." she muttered darkly. "Would be far less of those needed as well." she added with a gesture towards the massive pyres.

Wincing slightly, he nodded, "Hopefully this will convince Eywa that it's in everyone's best interests to negotiate, find a way to cooperate."

She snorted, "'Eywa'. Bunch of natives worshiping a tree, and because that tree doesn't like us, they fall all over themselves to get in line for martyrdom."

"Eywa is more than a tree," irritation colored his reply, "She is Pandora. Every tree is linked together to create her, to give her sentience."

"So...it's a world brain?" she arced an eyebrow, "And the natives do whatever it says? How...delightfully primitive."

He glared at her, "You really are a bigot, aren't you?"

A negligent shrug of her shoulders, "I'm a human. Is it a crime to care about the lives of my own species more than the lives of a bunch of creatures too stupid to even question their own beliefs? Take that traitor, Sully, for example. He had to be smart enough to know that attacking us was going to be a massacre, even if they did win, but he just moronically went along with what a friggin' tree said instead of using his own judgment, his own mind."

He glared at her. I hate it when people I dislike make points.

"Oh really?" she smirked.

It took him a moment to realize he had just said his thought process out loud. He felt his cheeks coloring.

Opening his mouth, he tried to find something to reply with, before giving it up and muttering, "I need more sleep." and shuffling over to the Samson.

"Take care of your blue-skins!" Thomes called out after him, voice sickly sweet, "Let them know it was fun!"

Climbing into the copilot's seat as he heard the other humans laughing, he rested his head back and sighed.

Katrina chuckled lightly as he closed the hatch, "Glad to see humanity hasn't changed much in the last decade."

"It was a bit much to hope for." he admitted, shaking his head and strapping in, "Does make me wish Weigand had lived. He was just as pro-human as her, but at least he was polite about it."

His pilot and friend chuckled again, spinning up the engines as one of the men who had loaded the supplies tapped on the glass and gave her an OK sign with his hand.

"At least she's giving us some supplies, whether or not she actually cares." she pointed out as they slowly lifted off the ground.

He grunted, "Yeah, but she'd be much happier if there was no one left for us to treat. I think it was Selfridge's idea."

"Think she'll make problems for the clan?"

It took him a while to think over that. "No." he replied finally, "She seems smart enough, even if she is a bitch." Katrina sniggered a bit at that, and he realized that being around the irritating Captain was causing him to lose his own polite veneer, he hastily continued, "Beside, there aren't enough humans to do anything beside fort up at the moment. It'll probably be a few years before they're back up to their previous strength."

"And what then?" she asked quietly, "What are you and Norm going to do?"

You and Norm. "You still planning on going over to them?"

She nodded slowly, not saying anything.

He sighed. To be honest, he'd forgotten all about that, what with the chaos of trying to prevent the battle, failing, and now the aftermath.

"I suppose we'll have to ask permission to move into Tartarus. The clan might be ok with us right now, but give them enough time..." he sighed, "They'll probably accept us now, and let us stay, but we'd always be a reminder of what happened here, and I don't want to inflict that on them. Maybe convince Selfridge to start up the science division again, without the Avatars. To be honest," he smiled lightly, "I'm a bit tired of Camp Augustine, as pleasant as it can be, and the idea of eating a pizza right now instead of yerik is simply delicious."

She smiled lightly and nodded, steadying out their flight as they moved out over the jungle, heading back to the kelutral, and the wounded still waiting for treatment.

Date: 21:50, June 1st, 2170

Location: Explorer's Dream, Pandoran Orbit, Alpha Centauri A System

Hauling the injured native first up the ladder, then through the airlock, and then towards the habitation modules had not been a fun experience. They had to do it slowly, to try and make sure there was minimal shifting of her already battered organs, and everybody had had to help to also make sure that it did not move too quickly, lest they lose control of the gurney and send her flying through the ship.

By everyone, he excluded the matriarch. She was having enough trouble just keeping up with them, clutching the handrails desperately as they moved down the cargo modules towards their destination.

Several of the nurses available were already waiting, standing impatiently in the low-gravity ring ahead. Their faces betrayed the fact that they were utterly displeased with having to work on keeping a native alive, and Sully was returning their glares.

Parker sighed. He had hoped that they would be able to avoid confrontation until after she was in surgery, but it looked like things would be tense off the get-go.

"Gentlemen," he greeted as they slowed, carefully moving her into the ring and towards the long, struggling to hold it against the sudden pull of artificial gravity, "Mind giving us a hand here?"

They nodded slowly and carefully rigged the stretcher to the pulley system that would carefully lower her down the long spar into the module.

He carefully headed down the long shaft first, Sully following him. The ropes began to move slowly as the stretcher followed them, and he could hear a relaxed sigh as that Mo'at woman entered the shaft, no doubt finding the pull of gravity, no matter how slight, comforting at this point.

Emerging into the module, he nodded at the pair of doctors awaiting them, the two women nodding back.

"You didn't jostle the patient, did you?" one of them asked as Sully emerged.

"As little as we could," he assured her.

The two rushed forwards, helping Sully carefully detach the stretcher and lay her out, before stepping back and letting the emerging nurses and medics pick her up, moving her towards surgery.

Sully moved to follow, but one of the women reached up, placing her hand on his stomach. "No. It's going to be crowded enough without you in there. You wait out here."

The avatar hissed at her, "She's my wife! I'm going to-"

"You are going to wait out here." the doctor snapped, "With how agitated you are, you'll destroy half our equipment with that." she glanced pointedly at his thrashing tail.

Sully glanced behind him at the appendage, and the doctor promptly stepped through the doorway and shut it behind her, the light proclaiming 'Surgery in Progress' lighting up.

The glaring yellow eyes found him, "This was not part of the deal, I should be in there with her!"

"Sully. Shut up." he tried not to let his voice quaver at the sight of the ten-foot tall furious behemoth. Even crouched over as he was to fit into the human-height room, he was still very imposing, "Find a place to sit down and wait. No doctor anywhere lets people stand around during a surgery, what the hell did you expect?"

Taking his own advice, he strode over to the row of chairs and casually sat down, pulling out his tablet and opening his mining reports.

Mo'at, crouch-walking like Sully, emerged into the room, blinking and looking about, before asking something in native.

Sully replied, and the two had a short conversation. It did not sound like it was going Sully's way, and his ears were flicked back as the older woman snapped something at him.

Nodding jerkily as she finished, the jar-head awkwardly sat on the ground, crossed his arms and stared at the floor. With much more dignity, the matriarch did the same.

For his part, he largely ignored both of them, going through his reports instead.

Let's see.. casualties being what they are, but we did save all of the mining equipment.. he tapped his chin thoughtfully, Could be possible to resume mining at a slower pace. We already have enough for the first ISV, and she's dropping off our main excavator. With that, we might actually manage to get back on schedule. That does, though, assume that the native leave us alone, we don't have the security staff too guard anything more than Tartarus at the moment.

Several hours passed. Him planning, the two natives sitting in silence, occasionally speaking softly.

One of the doctors emerged, around three in the morning, announcing that they were still working, but reassuring Sully that zero-g had not seemed to make anything significantly worse for her, and that they would know for sure if she would live in a few more hours.

Mo'at had thanked her gravely, leaning her head back and murmuring what sounded like prayers. Sully copied her, and the two began to speak in time with each other.

I'm not listening to a sermon, especially in a language I don't even understand. He saved the report he was working on before yawning and stretching. Feeling bored, he then began making his way back into cargo section of the ship. Normally he would have visited the wounded, just for someone human to talk to, but given the current time, they would most likely all be asleep.

Yawning some more, he pulled himself along to the window facing Pandora and Polyphemus and stared at them. It was a relaxing, empowering sight, as it always was.

A slight clang cause him to start, nearly floating away from the wall. Grabbing it, he turned in irritation to see Mo'at once more clutching desperately to the wall. The clang had been her hand shooting out to seize a handhold as she stepped out of the ring, the old woman most likely having forgotten that gravity cut out rather suddenly beyond it.

Shaking his head, he watched her slowly pull her way over before she slowed and carefully 'stood' next to him.

He nodded to the window, causing her to crouch down and glance through it.

Her mouth opened slowly as she stared at her home-world, Polyphemus magnificent in the background, three other moons barely visible in the darkness.

They stared in silence for a long time, until he eventually broke it, "That's why we would travel the stars."

The elder Na'vi said nothing, simply staring at the wondrous sight before her.

The two remained in silence for a long time more, before Parker eventually kicked off the wall, and made his way back to the ring to await the news of whether the other woman would live or die.

He heard her whisper softly as he passed.

"Beautiful."

Next up is Chapter 38: Matters of Spirit

And here's the next bit of my story, the docs have begun working on Neytiri, and parker showed mo'at what the humans see in traveling the stars. Max and everyone are doing what they can, and things on the ground seem to be calming down a bit, but the tension remains.

Next chapter we'll see if the native princess survives, and how both the na'vi and humans are dealing with the aftermath of the fight now that things are starting to calm down.

Ok guys, TONS of people reading, but not that many reviews?

Please please, please, please Review!