Pandora: The Final Solution
I gratefully acknowledge one of the foremost creative geniuses of our times, James Cameron, for conceiving the lush moon Pandora and the "noble savages," the Na'vi, that inhabit it. This chapter uses the characters and setting he created for his movie, Avatar. I have not received any money for my work based on Avatar. If I could get paid by the hour for these stories, I would retire and spend all my time dancing and writing in comfort.
Chapter 9: Jake & Neytiri – Part 3
In a calm and conciliatory manner, Jake thinks through the bond "Your mother said I shattered your trust in me. You're asking when I lied to you. Like Doctor Augustine said in her class, we humans lie all the time. You remember that first morning when you tried to teach me how to ride a pa'li?"
Neytiri nods with a questioning face.
"And I fell off that docile female pa'li, what, sixteen, twenty-four times, hitting the ground very hard each time?"
She chuckles while she nods again, and then silently replies "I was hoping you would give up and ask to be taken back to the other humans. You did not stop trying. That made me think that maybe you could become a hunter."
"The next morning, I was sore as hell and could hardly move. Remember me saying I was ready to try again? That was a lie!"
They laugh out loud together.
Neytiri thinks "Yes, I did not expect you would ask for another pa'li lesson that soon. Even before I saw you that morning, I knew I needed to ride Seze. I like to fly every day, and did not fly for two days because of you. So I decided to take you up to see her. You were so stiff, I knew the climb was hard for you."
"And then you tried to slam me out of the tree!"
"You knew what to do. You showed good judgment and quick reflexes by getting out of the way in time. That made me realize you are not a complete skxawng."
"Oh, what did I do to make you think that?"
"That first night, you did not know what we were eating. After I explained it was teylu, you said it was just like your grandmother's teylu. If your grandmother made teylu for you, you would know what it was."
"OK, that was bad. Just trying to be sociable." They laugh out loud together again.
Using her accusatory tone normally reserved for misbehaving children, Neytiri silently asks "So you lie all the time? Did you lie when you said you would not tell me when you lied?" She smiles and looks into his eyes in a challenging manner.
He smiles back, lovingly gazing into her eyes, and thinks "How can I answer that? You're very sharp, that's why I fell in love with you. Maybe this will help us get to the point. You saw my first meetings with Augustine and Quaritch. The Doctor made me feel useless, and the Colonel gave me a purpose for being here after I proved I could drive an avatar. Then we met. I'll give you the highlights of that day."
Jake remembers his first sortie into the forest in glimpses by skipping over the mundane parts; whooping as the Sampson flew over the waterfalls, landing in the clearing, hiking to the school, touching the loreyu to make them retract, standing his ground against an angry 'angtsik, outrunning a hungry palulukan by jumping off a cliff, being rescued by Neytiri from a vicious pack of nantang, having a cloud of atokirina' land on him, being captured by Tsu'tey and his patrol, and being force marched into Hometree for his introduction to the clan.
"We already covered what happened that night after we arrived in Hometree, so I'll go to the next morning before my first pa'li lesson."
"That was a very busy morning, and it was all about you."
"Oh?"
"I met my parents for breakfast. I tried to wake you, but you didn't move."
"I wasn't in the link yet, I was in a meeting I'll show you. Show me your breakfast with your parents first."
She hesitates, and then replies through the bond "Jake, I am sorry but I am not comfortable showing that to you. We said many bad things about you and the other humans because we did not know you, and we were still upset with the loss of Silwanin and the other children. The night before, my mother told my father about Tsu'tey and the other warriors waiting for us on the way to the healers. He wanted to know what I thought about that. He also asked me where I saw you before I brought you back to Hometree, and what you did before I saved you. He suggested that I give you a lesson on riding pa'li to get you out of Hometree, away from the clan. He said he would send Tsu'tey into the forest to verify my story, and keep him away from you. That is when your things were found. Of course, Tsu'tey went out of his way to ride past us as he was leaving."
"Yeah, I remember. He wanted me gone, if not dead."
"After we ate breakfast, my mother and I went down to her counseling alcove in the ceremonial level and discussed the signs from Eywa. She knows stories about atokirina' landing on arrowheads, but they are very rare. I did the right thing by not killing you. Having a whole cloud land on you is something new. We did not understand it until you flew your toruk into the Well of Souls."
"That sign changed your mind. You wanted to leave me behind in the forest before it happened."
"I knew taking you home was going to be difficult, but I thought the signs would make it easier. I was wrong. I never got to explain them until the next morning. I never told my father about the signs, but I think my mother told him. Since I already said that there was a sign from Eywa to Tsu'tey in front of his patrol and to my father in front of the clan, we decided I would describe the first sign if I was asked about it. We wanted to keep the second sign to ourselves until we knew what it meant."
"Why wasn't your father there?"
"He always has a meeting in the morning right after breakfast to plan the activities of the clan, mainly how much food is needed that day and where to send the hunters and gatherers to find it, so he went to that. He decided to call a full meeting of the clan to discuss you for the next day after breakfast, and needed to go so he could announce that. And, my mother is always hesitant talking tsahìk matters when he is around, so he knew to leave. The next day, the clan meeting started when you and I went up to see Seze. He let all adults speak that had something to say. Many wanted you dead. He explained why he wanted you here, to see what you could do, and he asked everyone to watch you. The humans sending us a warrior dreamwalker for the first time made everyone nervous, especially after the killings at the school. No one trusted you. But as you learned our ways and language, becoming stronger and more like us, and made friends among the clan, more saw the wisdom of keeping you here. Until the day Hometree was destroyed and my father and many others died, when you said you were sent here so you could tell us to leave. Whatever trust you earned, you lost when you said that."
"Well, the day you found me, my orders were simply to get to know you. Here's what happened that morning before I woke up in the hammock and came down for my first pa'li lesson. This is when I met Parker Selfridge, who was the man in charge, like the clan leader for the humans."
Jake remembers in detail the meeting held in the command center for Hell's Gate. It was Jake's first meeting with Quaritch's staff, and he was also introduced to Administrator Parker Selfridge. This group gave him a much warmer welcome than Grace and Max. Jake sees the deposit of unobtainium beneath Hometree and gets the assignment to make the Omatikaya leave before the bulldozers get there three months later.
"I didn't think the clan would give up its home, but everyone else thought it was doable, so I went with it."
"You were feeling reluctant when you took on that assignment, but you acted enthusiastic. Were you lying?"
"Guess so. I didn't know how to convince the clan to leave, but I had three months to come up with something. So, I said what was needed to keep my leaders happy. My next meeting with Quaritch and his staff was that night."
Jake remembers his covert briefing on Hometree where he describes its structure, especially its hidden interior. His description begins the planning on how to destroy Hometree so that the new mine can be started.
"I'm shocked at how coldly you and these other humans talked about destroying Hometree. So you told them how to attack it?"
"Yes. This was before I understood what you and the clan were all about."
"Hometree was the home of the Omatikaya clan since before the Time of the First Songs. Your people know that we lived there for many thousands of years. Why would anyone think we would leave?"
"Humans always become blind to everything else when they see riches. I didn't know the history of the Omatikaya in Hometree until many days after this meeting. But, it seemed very unlikely to me that the clan would leave willingly. I was new, and everyone else in Hell's Gate seemed to think the clan would leave. If I wanted to be a trusted part of the team, I had to agree to fit in."
"What does 'roger that' mean?"
"That's another way human warriors say yes. Quaritch needed a detailed scan, and I agreed to make it. Here is my memory of making it."
The afternoon after Neytiri took Jake up into the canopy of Hometree to see Seze, he asks her to take him back to the forest near the school to retrieve his pack and weapon. He is surprised when she takes him to a storage alcove on the ground level of Hometree where his human belongings are neatly sitting on a high shelf out of the reach of most children. During Jake's first pa'li lesson, Tsu'tey and another warrior scoured the area that Neytiri described to her father, following the trail of destruction made by the palulukan that chased Jake to the waterfall, and collected his lost belongings, even his spent bullet casings from within the tree where Jake briefly sought shelter. The pack is still the way he left it, with the addition of some holes and rips made when the palulukan bit into it and later tried to paw it open. Also on the shelf are his door gun, belt, survival knife, boots, and clothing. The remains of his human clothing that he handed Tsu'tey are washed and neatly folded. His survival knife was taken from him when Jake was captured by Tsu'tey's patrol, and he didn't think he would ever see that knife again because it is superior to Na'vi knives. Here it is, cleaned and stowed in its sheath that was removed from his belt. Jake examines the door gun and is relieved that no one fired it after finding it, because the barrel is clogged with dirt. Jake takes the door gun and pack outside to a large flat rock in a sunny spot on the lake shore, followed by many children and several warriors, including Tsu'tey, who are interested in the weapon. Jake takes a gun cleaning kit from his pack, tears the gun down, cleans and oils it thoroughly, and reassembles it. Once he is finished, he lets Tsu'tey and a couple of other warriors squeeze off a few rounds. He unloads and safes it, and wraps it, the used casings, and the remaining ammo for storage.
He digs around in his pack, and pulls out a mysterious object. He picks a stick up off the ground and uses it to poke the object several times, it was obviously made for the smaller fingers of humans, and then ties the object on top of his head. He puts everything else back into his pack, and returns his belongings to the alcove. Much to the delight of the children and amusement of the adults, Jake jogs around Hometree wearing this strange device on his head. Neytiri falls in beside him and finds jogging odd, between walking and running, but Jake says his bare feet hurt and this pace does not hurt as much as running. Jake jogs the human way, landing each step on his heel, and Neytiri mimics him as best she can. Grace said the Omatikaya have lived in Hometree for thousands of years, and Jake thought the ground level would be worn smooth and hard as concrete, but that is not the case. On a rough stretch of loose gravel, the sharp stones dig into his tender heels. He tries jogging the way Neytiri ran through the purple moss, knees bent, leaning forward, always staying up on his toes, landing on the toes of the leading foot after pushing off with the toes of the trailing foot. When Neytiri sees what Jake is doing, she says "Good, Jake, good," approving of his first attempt to run the Na'vi way, even though he is doing it too slowly at his jogging pace.
The whole time they jog, Jake asks questions about the areas they are traversing. Once they complete a circle, he jogs into the next ring and circles again. Eventually, they circle the double helix of ramps in the center. Jake next veers onto a ramp, and to Neytiri's consternation, goes down to the ceremonial level. No one should go down there unless invited by the Tsahìk, but he didn't give her a chance to explain. Instead of turning around and going back the way he came, Jake crosses from one ramp to the other, stopping at the very center to look up the central axis of the tree. This is when Neytiri is finally able to explain that they shouldn't be down here. A surprised Mo'at appears out of the shadows, but Jake simply smiles, says hello in broken Na'vi, and jogs to the other ramp, leaving without letting her respond. Neytiri is mortified, looks to her mother in shock, and takes off after him. He goes up to the gathering level and circles it, and then up to the sleeping level and circles it, and then up the ramp until it ends. He crosses to the other ramp and descends to ground level, returning to the storage alcove. Here, he unties the device from his head, and uses another stick to poke at it again. He plays back the audio from the beginning with his questions and her answers, and says he wanted a record of the tour. Here he is not completely truthful with her, because the device also made a video and a complete three dimensional interior scan using ultrasonic measurements. Since he went almost everywhere he could within Hometree, he has made a record of the internal structure that is complete enough to plan the attack. To keep up appearances, Jake jogs and then runs the same circuit, minus the leg through the ceremonial level, every day until Neytiri takes him out into the forest for physical training.
He also receives daily requests to fire the door gun, but Jake steadfastly refuses, saying he is here to learn the Na'vi ways and Neytiri gives him no time off to teach others his human ways. After one such request, when Eytukan, Mo'at, Tsu'tey, and Neytiri are present, Jake looks to them and suggests it would be a good idea to take all his human belongings back to the old schoolhouse. He doesn't need them, and clearly they are a distraction to the clan. Little did any Na'vi suspect that returning his human objects made the attack on Hometree possible. The next day at breakfast, Eytukan tells Jake that his belongings are no longer in Hometree. After eating, Jake excuses himself, goes back up to his hammock, and jumps in. He breaks the link, gets out long enough to email Quaritch about the gun and the scanner in the backpack waiting in the old schoolhouse, and goes back into the link. Before noon that day, Trudy flies a squad out to retrieve the door gun and his belongings, and the technicians download the scan and update their model of Hometree. Quaritch even shares the data with the scientists, who immediately go to work analyzing Jake's tour and how Hometree is being used by the clan. Norm and the other anthropologists are very excited to finally get new, first-hand data on how the Omatikaya live within the great tree.
"I guess that was the worst thing I did against the clan. My scan gave Quaritch what he needed to destroy Hometree. I'll always regret that. But, that was before I learned what you were all about. The worst thing I did against the Na'vi people came later. I knew it was very wrong when I did it, but it was the only way I could keep Quaritch from pulling us out, taking me from you." He gives Neytiri the memory of them overflying the Tree of Souls and her explanation of it. Then he gives her the memory of Grace explaining how the flux vortex was centered there, followed by the memory of him typing up a description of the sacred site and its significance to the Na'vi. He sits on it for days, debating on whether he should just delete it or download it for delivery to Quaritch. Neytiri feels his agony over the choice. Finally, he gives her the memory of Trudy demanding that Jake make a useful report before Quaritch decides their time at site 26 is not paying off and shuts them down. Here, again, Neytiri feels Jake's pain when he hands the downloaded report to Trudy.
"That was the worst thing against the Na'vi I did, and came after my heart switched sides, which happened during my first flight with my ikran. I didn't want to betray the Na'vi, but I feared losing you more."
"You should have said something to me or my mother." Jake feels her frustration building.
"I knew that I wasn't trusted, and thought saying anything bad would get me kicked out. I've never had a love for anyone like I have with you, and didn't want to lose that. I didn't think you had any feelings for me, until you took me to the Tree of Voices and mated with me." Jake feels her frustration abating, replaced with heartache.
"I was also worried about losing you. Once you survived your dream hunt and became an adult member of the clan, I did not think you would stay much longer. You have much more to learn, but you learned enough to become a hunter. I did not want to lose you, and felt I had to act. I took you to the Tree of Voices and mated with you. If Eywa did not approve, we would not have been able to do tsaheylu together. I was very happy that we could, that Eywa approved our mating. My prayers were answered that night. When you said you were sent here to learn our ways so you could tell us to leave and we would believe it, I felt like a skxawng. My mother always counsels everyone to learn everything about a person before mating, and here I mated with you before finding out why you were here. How can I become a tsahìk when I cannot do something so necessary and obvious?" Her self-doubt is clearly coming through the bond.
"Yeah, I can see how you're going to have trouble with that. You'll be speaking to a group of adolescent girls who have grown up with you as their tsahìk and me as their clan leader. They will know the songs about you as the only Palulukan Makto ever, and me as the sixth Toruk Makto. You'll tell them 'Don't do what I did, mate with the first skxawng that catches your eye.' And they'll say 'Look how that worked out for you.' They'll fight over the next male skxawng that walks by."
"Jake, I am being serious."
"So am I. Was mating with me a mistake? I don't think so. I chose you the first time I saw you. You chose me before taking me to the Tree of Voices, your hair and outfit that night told me something was up. You did say that it was a place for prayers to be answered? I don't think you even thought about me until the hunt festival. Did we mate too quickly? Maybe. I should have told you about my mission and my second thoughts. We should have talked about our feelings for each other much sooner. We should have talked about being mated before diving right in during our first conversation about it. I've known many mated couples on Earth who spent much time together, but didn't really learn about each other until they moved in together. That's what happened with us. The best thing is for you to tell girls what your mother told you, and skip the details about how well you followed her instructions."
"I am very happy that we are mated, but I am angry that I did not ask you the right questions, especially after working together for so long. A tsahìk must fearlessly ask the right questions at the right times. Being a hunter is so much easier."
"Sounds like you're having second thoughts about becoming a tsahìk."
"Second thoughts? You said that before. What does that mean?"
"It means you're talking yourself out of doing something you said you'd do. On Earth we have this saying, no one is perfect. Think that holds true here too, even though you are the closest to perfect I've ever seen. Ask your mother if she ever made a mistake. Bet she'll surprise you. I have second thoughts about being clan leader. Unlike you, I haven't had any training for this job. I know I'll make many mistakes, I just hope none of them are fatal. Everyone says you'll make a great tsahìk, even though your mother will be a tough act to follow. Is there another couple in the Omatikaya that would make a good clan leader and tsahìk?"
"No, and all previous Toruk Makto were also clan leaders. Tsu'tey knew that, and by making you clan leader allowed me to return as the future tsahìk, which I gave up to take you as my mate."
"Tsu'tey was hard for me to live with, but he was a great guy. I certainly didn't become Toruk Makto to become clan leader, I did it to get you back and get help for Grace. Why did you become Palulukan Makto?"
"I did it because Eywa and the palulukan did not give me a choice. I'll show you."
Neytiri remembers running with the pack of nantang that were attacking the human warriors. One human stopped and started to turn around to shoot at the nantang. Neytiri shot an arrow in his side before he could get off a shot, and she kept close watch on him in case he aimed at her. A large black cloud bounded off the rocks and over a fallen tree near the wall of fire to her right, and bellowed at her. Fortunately, the human warrior was pounced on by several nantang and was no longer a threat, so she could freeze in place at the dreaded roar. To her amazement, the palulukan crouched down, beckoning her to get on its back. Forgetting the humans, she made tsaheylu with the beast and jumped on. She didn't have anywhere to put her bow, so she held onto it and the palulukan as best she could. They bounded through the forest, apparently guided by Eywa, running at full speed.
"You're right, dear, you had no choice. I'll let you in on a little secret, the toruk got no choice, either."
Jake remembers flying at high altitude, coming from above and behind the toruk that chased him and Neytiri days before. He had his ikran dive as he positioned himself to jump off its back. He broke the bond with his ikran and jumped towards the toruk. Luckily, he guessed the speed and distance just right, and landed feet first onto the toruk's back, one hand holding his queue, and the other hand grabbing the toruk's antenna. The toruk was so startled by the sudden weight punching into its spine, it practically stopped in mid-air. By the time it recovered its wits, Jake had already made the bond and commanded it to fly level at a slow speed so he could get a good flying position before flying to the Well of Souls at top speed.
"Jake, it was that simple?"
"Well, I caught it off guard, and I got lucky. If you don't get a good grip and make tsaheylu right away, you become a snack for the toruk."
"I promise to tell no one, otherwise we could have a whole clan of Toruk Makto."
"Yeah, it seemed too easy. I'll try it again just after you catch your next palulukan."
"I will be happy just to catch another ikran. Eywa must have told the palulukan to find me and take me to your link module. We got there just as that evil man was going to attack it, and maybe kill you."
"I'm very happy you got there when you did. You and Eywa really saved my life, and I appreciate what both of you did that day." Jake kisses Neytiri on the lips, and she sends a wave of loving feelings through the bond. "Hold that thought, my love. Let's get back to that shortly. OK, so I told you that I had second thoughts about my mission for Quaritch. Here is an example."
The next memory he shares is his discussion with Grace and Norm just before his Dream Hunt. Jake explains his dilemma to them, and Grace is already aware of his change of heart and his desire to protect the Na'vi. Norm says that the clan will not understand what Jake has done.
Neytiri quietly interrupts, her frustration flowing through the bond, "Norm was right, I do not understand how you could have done what you did."
"What I did here at first is what I was trained to do as a warrior for my country. I came here not knowing anything about the Na'vi, except for that cartoon I showed you. I thought you behaved the same as humans, and deceit is a normal part of life on Earth. Only after I was with you and the Omatikaya for some time did I realize how different you are, but by then it was too late. Nothing I could do would take back what I did. Remember that time early on when we sneaked up on the mother nantang and her three babies to watch them?"
Neytiri nods.
"Well, that is what I was ordered to do at first to the Omatikaya. Get close and watch you. Learn what I could and report back. I was never ordered to hurt you or anyone else, and I did my best not to. They would have destroyed Hometree without my help. Only my telling them about the Well of Souls was truly hurtful. By becoming Toruk Makto, I tried to make up for that."
Neytiri continues sending her frustration through the bond, with her anger rising, "We do not cut the heart out of anyone and show it to them! How could you think we would do such a thing?"
"Yeah, that's something that humans did in the past, and I thought the Na'vi also did that. I don't know what punishments the clan gives offenders. You did say your father was deciding whether to kill me that first night after Tsu'tey's patrol shoved me into Hometree. I never did know how I would have been killed if your parents didn't decide to study me."
"No one has been killed for many generations. If a clan member does something really bad, the punishment is usually banishment, letting Eywa decide their fate. That has not happened since my father became clan leader. When someone is unhappy in the clan, they find a way to leave and join another clan without causing hard feelings. If my father decided to kill you, I think he would have stabbed you in the heart with a poisoned spear. It would have been very quick, not gruesome like showing you your heart."
"That place where Grace and I were tied up by the lake shore, that looked like a place where something gruesome happens, and was about to happen to us."
"If two clan members have problems with each other and cannot be resolved by discussion with my parents or the elders, my father has them tied up there overnight. They usually think they will be eaten by predators, but that never happens. That place is too close to Hometree. The insects do make a feast of them, though. By morning they are happy to settle whatever problems they have. That has happened only once that I can remember. Everyone was expecting the human warriors to come down the mud road and end up on top of the ridge on the other side of the lake. You were tied up there where they would have seen you, and maybe cause them to reconsider if they valued you and Grace."
"If they came by land, I think they would have shot us, just to prove that hostages didn't matter to them."
Neytiri is shocked and surprised. "No! Thank Eywa that did not happen."
"They came by air because their goal was to destroy Hometree, not to kill anyone, if they could help it. That's why they shot gas canisters first, to chase everyone out. They didn't bother with us because we didn't matter to them. They already had plans to shut down the Avatar program and send us back to Earth. Grace and I tried to stop them, but the gunships were already airborne, and the best we could do is get in our links and warn you to leave. I should have said it better, but your anger kept my message from being heard." Jake stops, wishing he didn't think that last sentence to her, and expects Neytiri will explode in anger. Much to his surprise, she bursts out in tears.
Once again, he pulls her against him. He folds his tail down between his legs, and rolls onto his back, pulling her atop him, letting her cry on his shoulder. This time, he has no idea what this is about. He tries to send her comforting thoughts through the bond, and rubs her back with his hands. His mind wanders to the first time he tried to comfort her, after he found her kneeling by the body of her father, holding his bow. She pushed him away with that bow, yelling for him to go away and never return. Jake never felt so devastated and rejected as he did in that moment.
"Oh, Jake, I am so sorry!" Neytiri blurts out loud, and starts wailing even more loudly. She blasts sorrow and pain and remorse through the link to Jake, crowding out all other thoughts.