Running out of new ways to say I don't own Avatar.
Chapter 39: Hail the Fallen
Date: 20:07, June 2nd, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centuari A System
The tawtute had told her to stay in the shah-tell until their rites for the fallen were completed, saying "The last thing our people need to see right now is you three right now.", before he had hurried off to take part.
Mo'at could understand that, the People would not have reacted well to seeing tawtute while they laid their honored dead to rest, so it made sense that the tawtute might feel the same.
What she could not understand was how the tawtute were going about it. She realized, with slightly growing horror, as several of them approached the wooden biers with lit torches, that they intended to burn their dead.
She had to remind herself, very firmly, that the tawtute did not travel to Eywa's embrace, but the idea of destroying their bodies still struck her as a transgression, it went against the natural order of things, far more so than their usual insanity.
The dead should be laid to rest so that life can be brought from their energy once it has returned to the Great Mother!
Then one of the tawtute began to sing.
She had never heard a tawtute sing before. The singer's, it sounded like a woman, small body made the song sound odd, yet it did not seem to detract any beauty from what she was creating with her voice.
The song itself... was mournful, quiet, yet beautiful. It was clearly a song for the departed, and she watched as they continued to sing, the torch bearers slowly lighting the massive pyres, flames roaring up to consume wood and flesh. It was not in inglisi, she did not recognize the words at all.
"What does she sing of?" she asked Jake quietly as he watched from his place next to Neytiri.
Her daughter's made responded just as quietly, "I do not know, I've never heard the language she sings in."
The fire had roared higher now, consuming the strangely colored cloths hanging from the highest portions of the wood, and she could smell the faint odor of burning flesh as the wind shifted.
She watched the fire roar and consume, the crowd of tawtute simply standing and watching as it greedily consumed the bodies of their kin.
Such a strange folk. Their music is beautiful, yet they destroy their dead, rather than allowing their bodies to rest as the great mother intended. So strange.
The tawtute woman continued her song for a short while more, voice slowly fading as she finished, and as though the end were a signal, the majority of the crowd began to disperse. Most began to make their way into the stone and metal structures of their home, several, however, remained behind, gazing into the roaring fire.
Selfridge had made his way back to them, the strange device over his face gleaming with the distant orange-red light.
"We tried to get in touch with Patel, but no one answered, they're probably already passed out, we'll try again in the morning. In the meantime, we're going to wait to offload your daughter until everyone is mostly asleep. They've moved some medical gear to an attachment of the machine shop in the Ops-Center." the tawtute explained.
She nodded, "For how long will she remain here?"
The small man shrugged, "Probably until Patel thinks she's fine enough to move around on her own."
Jake spoke, "How many of us can stay with her?"
"You two. That's it. And we'd prefer it if you didn't stay around all the time. You can have Patel or Spellman with her constantly if that makes you feel better."
The olo'eyktan seemed to think it over, before nodding very slowly. "We won't be a welcome sight here."
"No. You won't. We've got enough problems convincing everyone it's worth the time and effort to heal her, and not just slit her throat." the tawtute responded bluntly. "It's in everyone's best interests if you two get out of here in the morning when Patel shows up."
She felt her ears flicking back, this was not what she had hoped for. "And you are sure we cannot move her to the kelutral?"
The tawtute spread his hands apart, "You want her to get injured and bleed out, fine, take her, we're not healing her again."
A hiss nearly escaped her before she reigned it in. And there are times when pity so rapidly gives way to anger.
"Very well, I shall speak to Max'patel in the morning."
"You do that," Selfridge shrugged again, looking utterly unconcerned, "In the meantime, I have work to do, the medics know where to take her."
He turned and left without a word of farewell, heading towards the tawtute's home.
Theother tawtute began unstrapping Neytiri, hefting her up with small groans and heading towards the closer building. Jake and herself following more slowly, glancing around as they did so. Those few who had remained behind, staring into the flames, did not react to their approach, or even seem to notice them move behind and past them.
Up close, she realized just how massive the fires were, and the stench of burning wood and flesh filled her nose. Even for one who had treated the injuries of the great battle long ago, the smell was nearly enough to cause her to vomit.
Covering her nose and mouth with one hand, she hurried past.
The tawtute healers brought her daughter around the large stone building, to a large opening in its side. Several of their massive, metal suits had been brought into the room, all looked battered and broken.
What disturbed her the most was the imagery depicted upon them. Though faded, chipped, and in some cases, burned, the portraits of snarling, horrific creatures stared at her from their surfaces. It was extremely unsettling to look upon, even though she knew that the machines had to be broken.
They brought Neytiri into a small side room, machines that she recognized as medicinal in nature were already there and waiting, and a make-shift bed for someone of her size was already there.
Carefully lifting the stretcher and placing it upon the strange bedding, the tawtute just as carefully moved it our from under her. One began to attach the machines to her as another examined the strange glowing lights that they emitted.
"Is she all right?" Jake asked quietly.
The one gazing at the machines nodded slowly, "Looks like her vitals are all right. Hard to say, we're not experts on your kind's biology, but they look stable, at least. Patel will know more."
Finishing their tasks, the tawtute bade them good nights, warned them to stay in the room and not wander around, and then left.
Jake had already knelt next to his mate, holding her unmoving hand and gently examining her tswin. She knelt beside him, slowly closed her eyes and leaned her head back, quietly beseeching her great mother to spare her daughter from pain.
Date: 06:45, June 3rd, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
Parker yawned and stretched as he carefully picked his way through the Ops-Center. Though they had repaired the missing glass and welded the metal shutters back together so that they did not need exopacks anymore, the room was still a mess. Most of the consoles had been damaged, either from arrows or bullets, and only one bank of computers and the main holotable were actually working. He honestly was not sure how the massive thing had avoided damage, but he certainly was not going to complain about it.
It had felt good to sleep in an actual bed again, and word from Thomes that their communications officer, who had managed to survive the final, insane charge, had been able to get in touch with Spellman earlier put him in a cheerful mood.
Well rested for the first time in over a week, don't have to personally deal with Patel or Spellman for several hours. Good start for today.
Stretching once more, he gazed out the windows. Though the local sun was only now rising, work crews were already prowling the base. Mining equipment was being jury-rigged to help in the repair process, Thomes having dictated that she would let him resume mining once two things happened: first, that defenses around Tartarus were repaired, second, that they were sure that the natives and wildlife would leave his miners alone.
In addition, there was the issue of the wounded native princess or whatever she was to consider. They had debated about resuming mining almost immediately, essentially using her as a hostage without explicit stating so, but they eventually agreed that it would only enrage Sully and his blue-skinned friends.
In the meantime, there were plenty of repairs to do.
They had lost all of their Samsons, two of their three Valkyries, and all of their AMP suits were currently down. The surviving mechanics thought they could get at least six of the AMP's back in working order, mostly by cannibalizing parts from the others.
Kozlov entered the room, yawning and clutching a cup of coffee in his paws.
"Morning." he nodded to the burly man.
"Morning." the Russian Captain nodded back.
"Where's Thomes?"
"Am I her keeper?" Nikolai shrugged, "She'll be here eventually."
He snorted, shaking his head, and reached down to begin manipulating the holotable, zooming in on the two massive buildings and the defenses around them.
The sole remaining Captain sighed after sipping his coffee and noticing what he had done. "Our defenses are going to be a problem."
He frowned at him, "How so? I mean, I know we don't have the manpower to defend the outer lines anymore, we'll probably have to fill them in, but the inner defenses should still be good, right?"
"Not really. Even the inner defenses were designed around having over two hundred people manning them. We're going to need to fill in at least half of them."
"Damn. Fill in all of them and rebuild from scratch or just modify the existing trenches?" he frowned.
Kozlov shrugged, "There are a few engineers still alive, I have a meeting with them at noon to go over it."
Yawning and nodding, he sat back and glanced over the glowing three-dimensional image. Kozlov slowly sipped at his drink, pulling up a chair across the table from him, and the two sat in companionable silence as they awaited Thomes' arrival.
Their commander arrived several minutes later, the bags under her eyes having been banished by the virtue of actually having a solid nights sleep, much like his own.
"Morning all." she briskly made her way into her own chair and pulled it up.
"Morning Maria." he nodded back to her, "What's our morning agenda?"
"Exactly what you'd think it would be." a shrug from the Canadian woman, "Dealing with the natives and our own plans until the Comet's Lament arrives."
"Ignore them, mine what we can, and sit tight?" he guessed.
That earned him an exasperated glare, "I was hoping for something more concrete than that Parker."
He smiled beatifically at her, "Would be helpful. Well, we can start mining whenever you say we're good to go, I have a meeting with my mining crews this afternoon to go over our plans to resume. Going to make sure that everyone knows it's going to be volunteer job."
"Good, saves me the trouble of telling you that." she pulled out her personal computer and flicked through several files, "Nikolai, how is our ammunition? Supplies?"
"We're now extremely overstocked on food and basic supplies. Ammunition is low, but we should be able to stretch it out." the bigger man ticked off the points on his list.
She nodded and glanced over the image of their battered home, "I talked with the engineers last night, they think that with everyone working we can get the defenses around the buildings finished within a few days, maybe a week. Parker, how are your mechanics doing on the AMP suits?"
"Maybe six of them, few days. Bet that blue-skin will love waking up to them working."
Thomes snorted and chuckled, "That would be a sight to see. They are still painted up right?"
He chuckled, "Yep."
The table pinged before the meeting could continue, a flashing light marking an incoming Samson, the communication table flashing a few moments later.
Sighing, he rose from the table and made his way over, putting on a headset and pressing the 'receive' button, "Tartarus command."
"This is Dr. Patel, we're approaching your perimeter, permission to land?" the scientist's voice resonated in his earpiece.
"Go ahead Patel. Your patient and the two blue-skins with her are in the machine job attached to the Ops-Center. If you could please get the two of them out of here as soon as possible, that would be great."
The good doctor's voice came across, "We will once we check on Neytiri and make sure she's all right."
He rolled his eyes, "Fine fine. Tartarus out."
Returning to his chair, he nodded to Thomes, "Patel is almost here. They're going to check on the princess before they fly the two natives out."
She shrugged carelessly, "As long as they're gone before the mechanics get there. Now, we have the medical suppllies to go over, then I'm off to breakfast before I go meet the good Doctor."
Date: 07:17, June 3rd, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
Light focused slowly as she blinked her eyes. It was harsh, glaring, far too white and bright. Unnatural.
The smells hit her moments later. Metal. Stone. Pungent, harsh smells she had no reference to.
She recognized the stench. Tawtute.
Gasping, she tried to sit up, only to nearly cry out as the pain slammed into her chest and back.
A warm hand clasped one of hers tightly, and her Jake's voice carried to her, "Calm my love, calm!"
Gulping, she breathed out, "Where are we? Still.. still amongst the stars?"
Her mother's voice responded, "No my daughter, we are in their home of metal and stone."
"Why? Did.." it made no sense, "Why I am here, why not at the home-tree?"
There was a very long silence, one that made fear began to clutch her heart.
"We... we didn't win...? But.. but how? Why are they healing me?" Confusion and terror were warring for control of her mind.
"We... I. I agreed that we wouldn't bother them anymore if they healed you." her Jake's voice sorrowfully sounded next to her.
"But.. no, no! Am I worth more than all the lives and energy that they will take with their insanity?" she wanted to hit the moron that she loved.
"Because I couldn't lose you. Because we already lost. Because the tribe will be lucky to survive without merging with another clan." Her mate continued sorrowfully.
"There has been enough death." her mother agreed quietly, "There has been enough fighting. The time for talk has come."
"But.." she whispered quietly, struggling against the exhaustion struggling to pull her back into sleep's dark embrace, "But.."
"Quiet love." her Jake's hand rested across her forehead, "Sleep now, we can talk later."
She gave into the darkness, rest overwhelming her.
Date: 07:35, June 3rd, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
"Is she still unconscious?" Max asked as he rushed into the room, Norm panting behind him as they removed their packs full of extra gear, carefully setting them aside.
"She was awake for a short time not long ago, but she rests now." Mo'at quietly responded from her place at her daughter's side.
He began to check over the medical equipment and gear that the medics had provided, talking while he worked, "Did she say anything? Was she coherent?"
"She seemed fine, if confused at what was going on." Jake responded, not taking his eyes off his wounded mate.
Adequate. He decided finally. Though a bit more tailored to human biology than Na'vi, but they probably received only basic training for taking care of Avatars, if they received any at all. Could be worse.
Eyes flicking over the readouts, he continued his evaluation, Heart rate good. She was awake and not crazy, both good. Doesn't look like the trip down hurt her any.
Norm quietly shuffled forwards and checked her over physically. "Looks like she's fine. Or," he grimaced, "At least as fine as she can be under the circumstances."
"That's not very reassuring." Jake murmured quietly.
Norm placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "She's tough, young. She'll pull through. Will probably take a while for her bones to mend, but she should be fine."
Their friend nodded slowly, breathing out heavily. "Are you sure we have to leave?"
A woman's voice came from behind them, sounding amused, "You want to start a new war? Feel free to stay."
He sighed. Thomes. Joy.
"Captain," he turned, nodding to the blonde woman, "Good morning."
"Good Morning Doctors. How is the patient?"
"She should be fine." he glanced out of the small room to the machine shop and AMP suits beyond, "I don't suppose there's a different place you could let her rest? Somehow I get the feeling that some very loud repairs are going to be occurring here."
"We're repairing everything." she pointed out, "And somehow I doubt that she's in any condition to be moved any time soon."
He grimaced. Dammit. She's in no shape to be moved around again, and somehow I doubt they'd be willing to move all this equipment to our Camp.
Her smirk indicated she knew that she had won yet another point on him, before her expression became a tad more serious, "The room is partially sound-proofed, and considering her injuries, she should be able to sleep through the work."
That earned a slightly grateful nod, Well. At least she isn't a total bitch all the time.
The UN leader continued, "But it would be best for everyone if Mr. Sully and the matriarch here left soon, before the mechanics arrive. They all understand why we're healing her, but minimizing contact is in everyone's best interests to avoid conflict."
Jake's ears flicked back, it was painfully obvious that he did not want to leave her side.
Dammit Jake. Stay calm.
"Jake, we'll be here with her at all times." he tried to sound as reassuring as he could, "She'll be safe with us, and Katrina will be there with you. If anything happens we can call you."
With visible effort, the former marine nodded and forced himself to stand, pausing only to kiss her forehead lightly before stomping out, tossing a glare at Thomes as he did. Mo'at followed with much more grace after quietly bidding her daughter goodbye.
Thomes snorted lightly after they had headed outside, shaking her head, "Feel free to ask if you need anything, but try not to wander around unescorted."
He called out as she turned to leave, "Wait! Um.." she glanced at him, "We need to talk with Selfridge at some point. Could you send him over here later?"
That got him an arched eyebrow in response, "He will be held up in meetings until tonight, I'll have him stop by then. What do you need to discuss with the dear Administrator?"
I would really rather not discuss that with you. "That would be private." he said firmly.
She stared at him in an evaluating fashion for several moments before nodding, "Very well. Take care of your.. friend here."
With that she left, shutting the door behind her.
He and Norm groaned simultaneously, shaking their heads, before resuming examining Neytiri and her readouts.
"Norm, make a list of what you think we might need that isn't already here, I'll head out in a bit and see if I can find a medic or someone to find it for us."
His friend sighed, "Somehow I get the feeling that taking care of Neytiri will be far easier than keeping the peace between her and Jake."
No kidding Norm. "We can worry about that later, let's just focus on her at the moment."
Next up is Chapter 40: Rainy Days
And here is the next chapter. Would have been out earlier, but RL kind of intervened, I should be able to get out the next chapter soonish, but my rate of updating might slow down to once every few days, trying to expand my portfolio so I can get a programming job and thus afford things like a new computer, my Frankenstein's creation of a pc is starting to fail me.
Anyways, back to the matter at hand, the humans have laid their dead to rest and started laying their plans to continue, and neytiri has begun the long, slow healing process. Next up will be looking primarily at Tartarus and the goings-on there as the repairs and healing begin.
Glad to see that even more people are reading and that everyone is enjoying it, hope that everyone keeps enjoying it up to the end. At the moment, I'm considering a sequel but don't quote me on it, this story is also going to be a bit longer than planned (this chapter was supposed to be much longer and wrap things up for the epilogues, but I decided to continue it for several more at least).
Love the rate of reviews, Please Keep Reviewing!
Review Responses
Some101: Always liked the Epsilon Eridani system, just has a cool ring to it. And I do tend to play Halo a bit too much. And ya, this is the first fanfic or actual story that i've written, of any kind.
blackmamuth: that may creep up a bit later, much later.
insaneduk: wow, glad to know I got you to do that :).
Author's Note:
Expect Act II to be quality-control updated along with the next chapter.