- inset a useless disclaimer here -
Chapter 40: Rainy Days
Date: 18:35, June 3rd, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
Parker gave a huge and genuine yawn as he wandered towards the mechanical shed. The meeting that had been supposed to take an hour had, naturally, lasted for five. They had, however, been able to hammer out their rough plans to resume limited mining as soon as the repairs were complete and they could spare the gear and personnel.
His people were not thrilled with the idea of heading back outside the relative safety of Tartarus, and he had had to remind them that unobtanium was the only reason they were on the planet at all. He had also reassured them that, as soon as the AMP suits were repaired, the massive exoskeletons would be on patrol around the mining site. Even then, most of his men and women had not been exactly eager.
I'll have to spend a lot of time out there with them to keep their morale up. He grimaced slightly at the thought.
In the meantime, however, they would all have to lend a hand in changing the the layout of their defenses. Several of their now-precious trucks were hauling the excavated dirt from one location to another, building more permanent defenses around their only two completed buildings even as Kozlov was visibly conferring with the Sergeant in charge of the remaining American engineers.
He was supposed to be inside, helping re-organize their limited indoor space for maximum efficiency, but instead he was stuck meeting up with Patel and Spellman about something or another.
They didn't even say what they wanted. The annoyed thought crept through his mind. Couldn't it have waited a few days?
Sighing, he shielded his eyes as he approached the machine shop. Mechanics were scrambling over the wreckage of their AMP suits, welding torches flaring brightly as they cannibalized the massive beasts so that a few of them, at least, would live.
"Dammit." he muttered through the din, "And here I thought the AMP suits were loud when they were online."
Trying to both cover his ears and his eyes, he rapidly threaded his way through the various tool chests and collections of parts until he reached the large door that had once held the garage's office.
Not bothering to knock, he strode straight in, swinging the door closed behind him, letting the noise level drop instantly.
The native was awake, and had thrown up a massive four-fingered hand over her eyes, snarling something as the door shut.
Spellman sounded irritated, but then again, the geek always did when he was talking to him, "You could have knocked you know, given her a chance to cover her eyes."
"You're right. I could have." he agreed easily, "Now, what did you want? In case you didn't notice, I have better things to be doing."
That earned him a glare from all three of them, which he did his best to ignore.
Patel spoke eventually, "Katrina, one of us, wants to go back to Earth, or at the very least, sign up with you guys."
He blinked at that. "Huh? A tree-hugger wants back into the fold?"
A grimace from the darker skinned man, "To understate things, she's rather sick of living hand-to-mouth out in the jungle."
"And why should we take her back?" Parker shot back. It was reflexive. If his memory was right, Katrina was their pilot, and he knew for a fact that neither one of these geeks could fly.
I have a good guess where this is going, he thought smugly, And I'm going to get everything I can out of it.
"She'll bring her Samson with her." Spellman said quietly, "And fly for you. Considering you don't have any Samsons left, that should be more than enough to forget about anything she did to the RDA."
He mentally snorted. They're still worried about that? Honestly. Most people on Terra probably already forgot, and the UN and RDA just want everything kept neatly under-wraps, prosecuting people would just draw attention to it.
"That sounds acceptable for her." he said slowly, as though it was paining him to say it. "I take it there's more to this?"
The two humans exchanged a glance, and he noted that the blue-skin was frowning in confusion, massive eyes flicking back and forth between the two men.
"Without the Samson, we can't hunt. If we can't hunt we die. So.. so we need to join up as well." Patel said, sighing as he did so.
He crossed his arms, "And what are you giving us? You already promised your research in exchange for reclamation of the old area, and as far as I know, Thomes is still going to go through with that once we have the manpower."
"We promised some of our research." Patel corrected, "We've had fifteen years here, we have a great deal of work done that we can give to you to send back. We're also willing to resume working and researching for the UN."
That got a grudging nod out of him. Patel really did like to plan for all contingencies when he could.
And hey, the conversation is still civil and polite, Augustine would have been screaming and ranting by now.
"I will have to go over it with Thomes, she's the overall base commander now, but I do not anticipate there being any issues with that." Another thought occurred to him, "As you both speak native, add 'diplomats' to your list of responsibilities. Try to actually succeed at it, unlike Sully."
A soft hiss came from the native, "Do not insult my mate!"
He glanced over at her. Still immobile. "As his former employer, I can insult him all I want for massively failing at his assigned job, as well as destroying most of my company's property on this planet. And as a human, I can insult him all I want for being responsible for possibly dooming my species to self-extermination."
She struggled for a moment, as though debating about leaping up and tearing his face off, before slumping back into the bed and merely glaring at him.
Maria had a far more impressive glare than she did, and he quite easily resumed ignoring her, turning to Patel instead. "So. If that is everything I have work to do. I'll talk with Thomes tomorrow morning on your proposal, and I'm fairly sure that it will be acceptable. Please remember, however, who you're working for and what species you are this time."
From their faces, both knew quite well, and were not thrilled.
He shrugged, turned, and left, smirking as the native hissed in irritation once more as the low drone of background noise turned into a roar as the door swung open.
Date: 13:10, June 7th, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
The effort of merely standing was nearly too much for her body to take. Norm and Max were standing carefully next to her, arms held slightly out as though they expected her to fall at any time.
Refusing to show exactly how close she was to tipping over, she straightened as much as she could in the too small room and concentrated on remaining upright.
It had been several days since she had seen her mother or her mate, both were being kept quite busy tending to the wounded and attempting to organize hunting parties to begin feeding the people. She had been able to speak to her Jake on one of the tawtute's speaking devices after Max had finished talking with Katrina. Though Max and Norm were pleasant enough company, the rest of the tawtute were not nearly as acceptable. Both of their leaders were especially unbearable, and the constant noise of them working on their machines just outside was driving her insane.
This was the first time she had been allowed by the two toktor's to stand and attempt to walk, and she was determined not to fail. Very carefully, she tried to take a step, nearly sending Norm flying when her arms shot out to balance herself.
Gulping a panicked breath, she let out a quiet sob and stared down and behind her at her tail.
"I still can't feel it." Neytiri spoke very quietly.
Both of her tawtute friends winced at that, Norm being the one to speak, "We were afraid of that. The doctor on their ship did what she could, but it was pretty badly damaged. You might never get the feeling or control of it back."
The other chimed in, his voice very serious, "But, fortunately, it's something you can live with. I know it isn't what you want to hear right now, but it could have been much, much worse."
Nodding slowly, she very carefully turned and bent over enough to be able to slowly crawl into the strange bedding, laying down on her side once more.
She stared blankly at the wall beyond them.
It was hard not be angry with them. Very hard. How would they know what it was like, how would they know it 'could be worse?'. She could not feel her tail. And despite what they had said, that she could eventually learn to walk and run and climb without it, she knew better.
Memories of wounded warriors from the Great Battle swam through her mind. They could all walk, even run, although without the silence needed to pursue prey. But climb?
I will never again be able to so lightly run amongst the tree-tops...
The thought depressed her heavily. She loved flying, adored it, but there was more to a hunter than merely being able to fly on one's ikran all of the time.
She would never be the same hunter and warrior that she once had been.
That knowledge stung.
Though she knew that her Jake would always accept her, and the tribe would do anything for her, and that, as the future tsahik, she would not be required to hunt as much, the knowledge was still painful to bear. She was a hunter. A warrior. It was who she was, who she had always been.
Now, she was that no longer.
Norm sighed quietly, "Let's talk about something else, shall we? We talked with Thomes yesterday, she said that Jake and Mo'at can visit tomorrow, if you don't mind."
That earned small smile and a slight nod. It will be good to see them again. Perhaps I can convince them to let me leave? Perhaps ride on a Pa'li?
That thought cheered her immensely, and she did not fight the sleep that rose to claim her, looking forwards to dreaming of once more being at the kelutral.
Date: 13:22, June 7th, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
Max sighed quietly as he watched Neytiri slip into sleep again. She was not sleeping the days away anymore, but she was prone to slowly drowsing off randomly as the waves of exhaustion hit her.
"She's not taking the paralyzing of her tail very well." Norm murmured quietly.
"Not too surprising." he said after a moment, "Remember the original Tsu'tey? They really take any kind of permanent maiming very hard."
Norm shook his head, absently fixing his faded and stained cap, "I get it. And I don't." he sighed. "It's the little things that make us so different in the end. I mean, I can get being depressed over losing a limb or being paralyzed or something, but wanting to end it all or thinking it's the end of the world?"
He sighed and shook his head before glancing at the time, "Keep an eye on her, I have to head to that meeting with Selfridge and Thomes."
"Have fun." his friend smiled at him, sitting down and turning on the computer.
Snorting, he opened the door, slipped out, and shut it as quickly as he could. The noise level was much lower than it had been several days previously, when they had been doing major repairs, but the mechanical growls and roars as the repaired AMP suits were being put through their paces was still quite loud.
He moved quickly around through the shop, heading to the airlock that connected it to the interior of the Ops-Center, gratefully tearing off his exo-pack as the air cycled.
The unfortunate thing about once more working with humans was that he had to get used to scheduled days again. That, and staff meetings. Though Thomes was, more or less, letting Kozlov, Selfridge, and himself run their own sections with minimal interference, she did insist on nearly-daily meetings to ensure that she was fully up-to-date on what was happening. And as the new 'Head of the Science and Research Division', he had to attend.
Arriving in the recently refurbished conference room, he nodded to the burly Russian captain already sitting in his chair. He had to admit, of the three UN leaders, he liked Nikolai the best, the man cared only about protecting the base and keeping the people in it alive, everything else was effectively non-existent as far as he was concerned.
And unlike Quaritch, he actually is tolerable to talk with.
Selfridge strolled in shortly after, lazily snacking on chips from an aluminum bag, flopping into his own chair and continuing his munching.
And yet, somethings never change.
He wasn't sure what to think about Selfridge. On one hand, the man was a consummate coward who cared only about the bottom dollar, but on the other, he did seem to have changed a bit from all those years ago. Perhaps for the better?
Covering up a wince, he nodded as their leader strolled in after Selfridge. The blonde Canadian woman nodded back and murmured greetings as she headed towards her own chair.
Her on the other hand..
There was no love lost between them. Thomes did not care about the Na'vi, at all. Selfridge at least, had seemed to show guilt when the kelutral had been destroyed, but her? She would have shrugged and forgotten about it within moments. If it was not human, it did not matter to her. Combined with the fact that she did not like him in return, and it had not taken him long to confer primarily with Selfridge or Kozlov whenever he could.
"Afternoon." Thomes greeted as she took her seat, "Not too much to go over today, so let's get it done with fast. Parker, status of your mining teams?"
"They've gotten the gear back to Site Two, and started up again. Haven't reported any problems, seems like whatever fauna is still alive is leaving the region alone." he put his chips aside and glanced over his hand-held computer screen, "The mechanics managed to get most of the defensive turrets up again, mostly thanks to Sully bypassing the site. They think they can salvage the rest of the guns from Site One to have full coverage at the mine, that will, with luck, free up the AMP suits from guard duty."
"Make sure that they have an escort for their salvage mission, we can't afford to lose anyone." she checked her own screen, "Nikolai, on the subject of AMP suits, you said this morning that you had good news?"
"Da." the man rumbled, "We have six running at the moment, as we thought we would. But we were able to grab most of the pieces from four more, and we think we can repair them, after a fashion." he shrugged, "They will not be very pretty, I think, but they should work just fine."
"Very good news, keep me updated please. Dr. Patel, reports from your department, how is the move going?"
He did not even need to glance at his own flat-screen, "Still dealing with the wounded, primarily. The last of our gear and research will be transferred over tomorrow. Jake Sully and Tsahik Mo'at will visit Neytiri tomorrow as you allowed, and he at least, will help with the move."
The Administrator leaned forwards, "And what of their tree-goddess then? Think the native life is going to go berserk again?"
"I'm not sure." he admitted, "But I don't think so. Casualties from the battle were... extreme, any more fighting would further disrupt the balance that Eywa seeks to maintain, so I doubt it. Plus, there probably just isn't that many animals still alive in this region."
"The wildlife not attacking is all well and good," Kozlov interjected, "But what of the natives themselves? If they regroup, even without Sully leading them, they could overwhelm us."
"Yes they could, but again, doubtful. The tsahik's don't seem to be experiencing the nightmares anymore, at least at the moment, and again, the losses they sustained were massive. I doubt any of them are eager for a round two."
Thomes ticked something off on her screen, "Send me all the data you have on this 'ay-wa' as soon as you get it tomorrow. If it is more than just a pagan goddess like you say, we need to know everything we can about it."
"Knowing about her," he placed a slight emphasis on that, "Won't do you much good. She exists seemingly only to keep a delicate balance of life, as long as you disrupt it as little as possible at this point, there shouldn't be much conflict."
"We didn't do much before!" Selfridge blurted out, "And hell, we were even going to heal what happened before!"
"She.. she does seem to have become less.. impartial," he admitted, "But that also might mean that she can be reasoned with, at least, with the results of the fight clear. I was hoping to speak with Mo'at about heading to the Tree of Souls tomorrow after her visit to see if she can figure out what's going on."
A sigh from their blonde leader, "Very well, do what you have to. I don't like dealing with the blue-skins any more than is necessary, but if you think it is needed for us to stay alive, go ahead. Make sure that Samson gets back."
He nodded, making a note to call Katrina when he got back to their 'room' and inform her of what was going on.
"Moving onto the last item before we adjourn, Selfridge, how are the wounded doing?"
"Most of the walking-wounded are back to doing light work at this point, and we should see the majority of the rest back to work by the end of the month." the Administrator replied.
"Good. I'm heading back up to the Dream tonight to send a message back home, and won't be back down for two days, we'll have our next meeting then to go over Dr. Patel's findings as well as the initial results from the mining teams."
Next up is Chapter 41: Drunken Ramblings
Once more, apologies for the pause in between updates. I know it's still much faster than most stories are updated, but people are probably used to nearly daily updates so I feel the need to apologize.
Neytiri has begun the long process of healing, and is already fed up with it. Max & co are now officially working for the UN, we'll see how that plays out for them. And amidst all of this, Parker is still.. well, Parker. Next chapter will show what's going on with Eywa in the aftermath of the fight, and how the mining teams are doing.
The story is getting progressively more difficult to write as it winds down, hope the quality is still as high as everyone says it is, hope you're all still enjoying.
Please Review!
Please Review!
Please Review!
Review Responses:
Jadedmagus: glad you like that, i'm trying to keep everyone 'human' instead of the alternative of having them walk on water.
AndreyRus: C++ primarily, though I also work with C# and a few game engine scripting languages.
khaos974: the answer to your question lies in the next chapter, ;).