XIII: To Hell and back (II)
"He's really unlucky." Norm frowned. Jake had planned a quick tour of the entire compound, taking stock of some of the weapons and their condition in case he or the Na'vi would ever need to use them before the RDA did, when they returned, but suddenly a Na'vi came looking for him saying Norm needed to see Jake immediately. When Jake got back to the lab there was such a hustle of activity, for a moment he'd thought the RDA were entering orbit. The attention however, was centered around the pod and its mysterious occupant. When Jake finally tracked Norm down through the rush of people Norm, accented it by showing Jake a clipboard with various lines and figures.
"That's not how you play tic tac toe." Jake smirked.
Norm deadpanned, "Jake this is serious!"
"Like I'd know what any of that means." Jake protested.
"Okay how does this grab you then, our initial study showed the pod had a leak, it was full of toxic air, so we were going to flood it with oxygen but he was already breathing!" Jake's golden eyes became golden dinner plates. "Oh yeah and that's only the beginning, we were lucky we had Avatar's and Na'vi in there because the second we were able to take the smallest bioscans we found more viruses and bacteria than a corpse."
Jake scowled, "Was anyone contaminated?"
"No, that's what I mean, our tests right now are showing it was specifically designed for human DNA and human DNA alone. No Na'vi or Avatar's were affected. But that sure didn't help him"
Jake gave Norm his best question mark face, "So he's… dead?"
"No, that's just it. He's alive, and from what we've gathered so far, the viruses and bacteria have been working and adapting on a genetic level for years. I don't mean just the trip over, I think he was buried for far longer."
Jake closed his eyes and held his hands up, "Okay Norm, I'm sorry, but spell it out for me. What does this mean? Is he an RDA bio weapon?"
Norm took a deep breath, "I don't think so, we're only now doing the initial tests, but from the looks of it the original stuff that was in him a very nasty customer. If a human had been even slightly exposed to the air he breathed, it would have spread across the whole of Pandora and killed every living human on it. Without fail."
Jake felt his shoulders stiffen, "There are still humans on Pandora…"
Norm nodded, "Don't worry Jake, as advanced as the mutations are, the original strand was easy to deal with. Medicine has improved a whole lot since we've been on Pandora and whatever designer virus he was carrying, it was no match for our current technology. He's not dangerous to anyone but himself now."
Jake crossed his arms, "Okay, wait, mutated how? Allowing him to breath Pandoran air? Is that all?"
Norm shrugged, "Initial tests say yes, but we've only just begun; I don't think this guy meant for all this stuff to sit and stew inside him this long. But he was a carrier and some of us think he was sent here to wipe out the RDA."
Jake rubbed his chin, examining the possibilities, "Someone from earth sends a lone man infected with a plague into space for five years on the off chance the RDA would intercept and open the pod to look him over? That's stretching things, but it's the most plausible so far…"
Norm tapped his chin with the clipboard, "Exactly, but the real question is…" Norm paused, "…what has this stuff been doing to him all these years in the dark?"
…
Jake waited, feeling like a kid at his first prom, uncertain what to do and always in the way. Avatars and Na'vi danced in an intricate pattern of workmanship, humans flowed around Jake like a river, hands ever busy. The chatter in both languages used words Jake had never heard and he was feeling about as out of his depth as anyone could. Toruk Makto finally quietly retreated, escaping through a back access door. Once outside he took a few deep breathes and looked out over the vast jungles. The forests which were now more home to him than any structure made by human hands. It was his back yard. Jake was greeted by a few pleasant memories, bitter sweet when he thought of Grace and the times he stayed out here. Bunking with alien beings in a new body; it was a interesting experience, a simple kind of nostalgia following him around by the tail he now owned forever. With a glint in the sunlight Jake caught sight of Yawne's hair; he was talking with a group of Na'vi gesturing to a fence line and then bending down to look at the ground. Jake casually strolled over, just catching part of the conversation.
"-through last night, and with all this activity it's pretty certain there will be more." Yawne said, the other Na'vi bending with him. They lifted their heads and gave Jake a formal greeting, Yawne grinned and motioned to the ground. "The Gate's been welcoming some new visitors, the scientists have reported sightings of Viper wolves prowling around. I was just talking about rounding up some Slingers to rub down some of the fence lines and other natural barriers." Jake nodded, brow furrowing, but he didn't really listen. Yawne noticed. "What's up?" he smiled.
"This pod business, it's just weird." Jake looked at the tracks without seeing.
Yawne stood, "I don't know about you, but even with all my lab experience I'm about as lost as a fish out of water."
Jake smirked, then let it drop. "What's in there is dangerous, and it could have wiped out every human on Pandora, but it didn't and now I can't helping wondering if there are more people buried out there with the same plague in them; and I just want to know why."
Yawne didn't drop his grin. "I know how you feel."
…
The next few hours Jake continued his tour, this time with Yawne and the others showing him all the improvements they've made. The group with Yawne was actually the patrol team for Hell's Gate, they were a small portion of Na'vi who hunted for the humans and Na'vi in the facility as well as protected it. They were also being taught about human culture and learning a variety of things about the inner workings. Jake was face to face with a Na'vi who knew how to use the radio equipment and the various frequencies by heart, able to broadcast his own DJ routine if he wanted too. The Na'vi were really interested in the music of the sky people and the instruments they used, it was such a fascinating subject may of the Na'vi at Hell's Gate continually discussed the variations and thematics in their free time. He could have sworn he heard one humming Flight of the Valkyries.
Yawne showed Jake the normal patrol route, where they stored most of the things they used and had left over, the gigantic fridge which held sturmbeast meats, and where many of the roofs had been converted into Banshee holds or tanning stretches. The most active parts of Hell's Gate were the spaces large enough for Na'vi to fit and Jake was shocked to find actually construction on a extension wing large enough for Na'vi to work in that held much of the equipment one could find in the most advanced labs. Jake also met a Na'vi or two bent over a microscope. The small cultural mixing here was strongest yet. Jake and Yawne sat in on a small group speaking about advanced mathematics applied to the Na'vi standard eight system. They weren't just exploring their world, they were making the first steps into exploring their universe. Then Yawne took Jake on a little trip to the personal rooms of a few of the humans and Na'vi.
Jake discovered some humans had adopted the Na'vi way of sleeping in a communal pile and even had tiny trees in pots inside their room, shrines to Eywa. Yawne then introduced Jake to a Na'vi who was learning to draw with renaissance skill. The art he produced was both new, breathtaking, and unlike anything Jake had ever seen. The Na'vi expression for emotion was as varied and strange as any expressionalist from earth. By the time Jake was finished being floored by all the advances and interconnections between two entirely different worlds another Na'vi came to find him with the same message. Norm needed to see him immediately. Yawne came along this time. Jake was lead by an Avatar into the sealed room, the hustle of activity had stopped dead and now everyone was plastered to the glass viewing area. Everyone as silent but all attention was directed to the pod. Jake felt weird in that silence, but the Na'vi sitting beside the open pod was looking at Jake seriously. Jake questioned with his brow, but then the pale man in the open pod moved.
Jake came up beside them, the slow 'epp' of the heart register and various other read outs flowing over the screens- even Jake was able to understand by the rising numbers- he was waking up. The man turned his head, once, then back again. The Na'vi at his side had on a surgical apron and mask, and a few implements in her hands Jake couldn't place. She gently bent closer, eyes glued on his own closed. Jake felt all of his focus follow her own, he felt the hair rise on his neck; the suspense was palpable. Then the man moaned. Jake nearly jumped out of his skin, and his breath caught as the man's eyes slowly split. Brown piercing eyes fluttered open and focused on the Na'vi nurses face. Confusion for a split second dominated his expression, then he closed his eyes in a kind of pained denial. "No, not you…" he moaned in english, then spoke in Na'vi. "My people, please, my people." he drifted off, then he opened his eyes and saw Jake.
Jake watched his sharp eyes scour his insides down to the soles of his feet, and then flicked to his hands. He looked up, around the room, then focused on the glass… and a long smile spread across his face. Suddenly he began to laugh, a low chuckle of elation and tears slowly fell from his eyes. The Na'vi nurse looked to Jake then to the others as the laughter filled the dead silence. He laughed like a man on his deathbed, finally learning he'd had his greatest revenge. The firmness of that thought and how quickly in came to Jake explained everything about his purpose there; Jake knew instantly Norm and the others were right. The Na'vi nurse snapped her fingers in his face twice, and then slowly pulled his lip up. Jake saw it too… he had fangs.
Jake resisted the urge to begin asking questions, remembering how he had felt after coming out of Cryo-sleep, and remembering this guy had been in there far longer still. The Na'vi nurse wasn't as gentle as perhaps some of the human ones would have been, but she used all the skill of a healer until it came to doing a few things Na'vi didn't normally do… such as with needles. But the pale man didn't even gasp as she virtually stabbed him. Then again his eyes were closing so Jake figured he wasn't even able to feel his toes at this point. Then the nurse lifted his shirt. Jake and most everybody in the room leaped back, instinctively reaching for knives where there were none. The man's abdomen was moving. Beneath his skin, like a snake sliding beneath a blanket. A sudden chatter erupted in the room and hisses of disgust and warning clouted Jake's ears.
He quickly calmed everyone down, and before he could take another step, the door opened with several people coming in, all wearing the white bio suits Jake recalled from so long ago. These were proper doctors and medical staff who knew all to well their job. They approached the slow writhing figure without concern, professionally calm and collected. Jake could only stare as the number of needles and machinery they swiveled over the pale man dizzied his senses. They kept a constant working chatter, and this time, not even the Avatars and Na'vi interfered. Samples of blood were taken away, samples of tissue, and even samples of deep bone. The flesh beneath his clothes was not pale, it was grey, as if all dead flesh. Jake and Yawne waited out of the way, and some of the Avatars had to leave the room as the result poured in. A tidal wave of apparently impossible information, the other side of the glass was a blur of activity- Jake watched in locked down silence as he saw people coming apart, arguing, and all the while the monitor continued to beep. Jake felt like he was in some kind of horror movie.
The hours slipped by, scientists came and went, until finally Norm caught Jake's attention and motioned him to join him on the other side. Jake wordlessly nodded to Yawne to remain, Yawn didn't have to respond as Jake passed him. By this time night had fallen and all around Hell's Gate the natural luminescence of the forests created a wall of lights. Jake's own lights led the way as he spotted the personal patterns of several Na'vi in various positions of watching. He nodded to those whose lights faced him and entered through the main door. Norm was waiting for him with in a nervous sweat. "Jake!" he practically yelled..
Jake steeled his expression. "What is it Norm."
Norm licked his lips, "I've never seen anything, I mean, on Pandora I, but, okay but this is just, amazing! I can't believe this is happening! I don't know where to start!" he babbled.
"Norm." Jake said neutrally, "What is it."
Norm put his hand to his forehead, he spun once, getting a grip. He pulled Jake away a bit, off to the side from the rest of the people working. "Jake," he gasped, "his genes, are evolving." Jake waited for Norm to explain further, taking no reaction. "The, the Virus he was infected with, it was a death trap; it was going to totally wipe out all the people on Pandora and him last, but, something went wrong- I don't know maybe in the crash, Pandora Atmosphere got in, slowly, like an IV drip. The oxygen filters tried to fight it but over time the mixture was overwhelmed, it was just too toxic, but, see the virus was designed to remain dormant until exposed to atmosphere, see because it needed a living host to carry to the, okay, the-virus, it reacted to the atmosphere and was released, I think that's why who ever found it buried it. but, it didn't get out, it was sealed in with him, for years Jake." Norm licked his lips again and slowly began to calm down.
"Look, the Virus was created to expend itself quickly, whoever made it wanted it to spread fast, kill fast, and burn out fast- like a wild fire, kill its host in the final stages, but it didn't. It was, introduced, to, to Pandora microbes and I don't know, maybe Eywa had a hand, but the fact is, the virus mutated and evolved. It converted, and molded, and, and…" Norm stopped, seemingly unable to grapple with what he had to say, "…Jake, this new virus has merged with a Pandora bacteria, both have mutated and, are both following the same genetic principle, they're… god Jake they turned every cell of his body to soup." Norm stepped forward, gripping Jake's larger arms. "It's evolving him, Jake, into something completely new."
Jake remained silent, turning to look back to the group of people, Na'vi and Humans, Avatars, Drivers, and then him and Yawne, merged beings of both Na'vi and Human life. He spoke silently, "Norm, in my case, I'm in a body man made to combine Na'vi and Human DNA; Yawne was the first, an experiment of genetic purity, a product created by man to be the strongest of both species and stabilized by Eywa. Eywa somehow used the genetic code of Yawne's human body to stabilize his Na'vi body, and repair it, but, both of us started as men and left that body behind. So you're telling me this man is something else entirely?"
Norm rubbed his mouth, stepped away then back, "The catalyst for his change was man made, but his body and the new body he was, is evolving into, is all the product of evolution from both Earth and Pandora. He's not being moved into a premade, healthy, perfect body- he isn't being stabilized or repaired, he is completely evolving from a human base to survive on Pandora. The, the wildfire virus, has burned away everything he was and from the ashes is rising a new creature neither Na'vi, Human, or a combination of both. It is completely new." Jake and Norm starred at each other, allowing the incomprehensibility of this event to sink in. They were witnessing, like a time machine in the very far, far, future, the birth of the first human to be able to live on Pandora.
"Norm, Jake!" Yawne called them back; Jake and Norm both turned and approached the glass. Inside the man wore only a modesty cloth, surgical clamps on his chest, one of the doctors was pulling away his stomach- like a sheet- the grey flesh fell away… like a cocoon. All voices gasped. A flat stomach and something long and winding curled onto it. For a moment Jake feared it was his guts, like they skinned him, but the Na'vi nurse used wipes, a soft rinse… and gently held it up. A tail. The man had a tail. Yawne looked to Jake with an unbelieving stare. The tail slowly uncurled, completely prehensile, and wrapped itself around the Na'vi nurses hand.