Pandora: The Final Solution

by Tisrusewa Karyu

When the ISV Venture Star reports that Hell's Gate has fallen to a coalition of Avatars and Na'vi, the entire RDA organization springs into action to save their cash cow. The lowest cost solution has unforeseen consequences. Irayo.

14. Chapter 14: RDA, New Mexico

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. 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.

This chapter contains all original characters and situations, set on Earth immediately after the end of the movie. It is the obvious approach to dealing with the Pandoran uprising, with less than obvious consequences.

Notes:

1. ABD means All But Dissertation, the unofficial designation for those PhD candidates that complete all coursework and qualifying tests, but drop out before writing and defending their dissertations.

2. PO means Purchase Order, what companies use to buy existing products or services from other companies.

3. RFP means Request For Proposal, what companies use to buy custom designed products or services from other companies willing to bid for such business.

Chapter 14: RDA, New Mexico

JW's musings on how this crisis could help his career is interrupted by his secretary buzzing him on the intercom. "Yes."

"Your staff is arriving. Do you need a conference room?"

"Thank you, no, we'll use the boardroom. Please send them in as they arrive. But get that security request done ASAP. I'm waiting right here until you send it to me for my signature. It's the hottest item in my life right now."

"Right away, Mr. Winston."

JW is sitting in the largest office in this RDA complex. One wall of his office opens into the boardroom that contains a beautiful wooden conference table, one of the most impressive such tables on Earth. It is made out of pieces of scrap wood, but these scraps have traveled 4.4 light years from Pandora to become this table. When unobtainium is packed for shipment into sealed metal cargo containers, wood boards and wedges are used to secure and separate the boules, as wood is neither conductive nor affected by the electromagnetic fields emanating from the precious mineral. These wooden pieces are cut from the trees that once stood on or near the open-pit mine, and are put through a very rigorous decontamination procedure after milling. They are carefully marked and documented on Pandora, and inventoried in the RDA facility back on Earth that unpacks the unobtainium crates. Although most furniture on Earth is injection molded using a plastic by-product from the algae food plants on the oceans and shores, this table was hand-made in a special high-security RDA shop by a colony of marquetry artists, part of RDA's corporate outreach to the arts, that is one of the last groups that know how to work with wood. Most of the table is made with matched strips of a warm, red hued wood, inlaid with wood of various shades in stylized patterns based on Na'vi motifs, including a spiral of life emanating from the very center. The only plastic in this table is the exterior coating required by the "xenophobic" regulations promulgated to protect Earth from contamination. This coating meets the legal requirements and is so strong that it is bullet-proof, but is specially engineered to bring out the natural beauty of the Pandoran wood. Besides the wood sprite in the lobby, this table is the most beautiful artifact in this RDA facility. The presidential suite and boardroom comprise one of the most secure areas in this complex, and have a special fire suppression system to protect this table. Because of the importance of this enterprise, it has one of the few such tables owned by RDA outside of its headquarters in New York City. Of course, RDA has given similar tables as gifts to its friends in high places, like board chairs, CEOs, emirs, kings and queens, presidents, prime ministers, and other heads of business and state.

The staff slip in and quietly take their places around the table, not noticing its beauty, as everyone is mulling the reason for an impromptu meeting this large and seeming importance. The staff refilled their coffee cups and exchanged pleasantries in the outer office and speculated on potential topics, but no one is certain. They disperse around the table, taking their usual places. Of course, the head of the table is reserved for Mister Winston. To his right, as always, is his deputy and unofficial hatchet man, Doctor Dmitri Mendeleev. These places are empty now, a clear sign of how quickly this meeting was called.

As JW stays behind his desk on the other side of the partially open folding doors that separate the rooms, he is asked "What's up, boss?"

"We have the Chairman and other high-level corporate VIPs dropping in later today, and this meeting is to prepare for their arrival. However, I have not been told why they are coming. Let's wait a couple more minutes for Jerry to drive here. My hope is that he can enlighten us. Apparently, there is a problem on Pandora. Also, I'm waiting to sign off on a super high priority security request, and I'm not leaving my desk until it is signed and sent. Doctor Dmitri is sitting in his dentist's chair getting worked on, and that may be more fun. At least he is getting pain killers." That get laughs from everyone around the conference table. "Can anyone think how we can influence what's happening on Pandora from here?" His computer beeps, and it's the email he's waiting on. He looks it over quickly, types in his approval, and forwards it to Security. He gets up and takes his usual place at the head of the conference table.

The staff look at each other around the table, wondering why the corporate executives would come out here to the New Mexico desert to deal with any problem on Pandora. Whatever happened, nothing can be sent from Earth to Pandora in less than five years, provided another ISV was ready to launch today, and that is not the case. Clearly, the RDA corporate officers are clueless, so they're coming here looking for answers.

Danny speaks up. "It will take some time to buy whatever is needed and get it shipped to Pandora. I can get my staff and suppliers spun up, but we'll be wasting our time until we know what is needed."

JW answers "That's good, Danny, but we're all in the dark. And if this is really negative, Corporate will need some time to work up a response. We can't let our actions, or our suppliers, spill the beans before Corporate can put their spin on the news. That's why Jerry's input is crucial right now."

Jerry appears in the doorway, looking a bit haggard and unkempt, saying "Good morning, Mister Winston, everyone. Hope you have not been waiting too long." He limps to the front of the room and scans the crowd. Seeing the usual collection of his co-workers around the table, he says "Should I wait for Doctor Dmitri or anyone else?"

JW answers, "Doctor Dmitri is at his dentist's office. Go ahead and get started, we don't have much time. The Chairman and his entourage will be here this afternoon, and I hope you can tell us why their coming."

"I'll try, Mister Winston. I don't see any visitors or uncleared individuals here. That's good. From this point on, this meeting is Most Secret, RDA only, subject to all the usual restrictions for information at that level." He hits the switch that activates the main screen and dims the lights. He waves his hands and a virtual keyboard appears on the bottom of the screen. He enters the following text while all eyes in the room watch the screen intently.

MOST SECRET – RDA ONLY

NAVI+AVTR TAKE HG:REST EVAC2ISV

"This emergency flash from the Venture Star was received late last night via the FTL link. That's FTL as in Faster Than Light. It was automatically routed to Corporate Communications in New York City, and was displayed in the Alpha Centauri pit in Ops here at the same time. Obviously, it was sent by someone in the crew of the Venture Star, probably Captain Pieter Gustav himself, because it is so succinct. These flashes are very brief, by design, but this one leaves much to the imagination. Apparently, the avatars helped the Na'vi take Hell's Gate, and the remaining personnel were sent up to the Venture Star. No ISV can handle that many humans at once, unless they were fully prepped for cryo before leaving Hell's Gate, and that doesn't seem likely. So, the Venture Star crew have their hands full." Everyone around the table chuckles. Preparing for cryo is like preparing for a colonoscopy. It's not difficult, but requires full-time use of a toilet for each person for several hours. There aren't many toilets available on any ISV, even after the emergency units are taken out of storage and installed in the habitation module where there is some approximation of gravity. This situation is taxing the life support systems on the Venture Star, and could be disastrous if any critical systems fail.

"Losing Hell's Gate is obviously an inside job. Why would the avatars help the Na'vi?"

"Ops paged me when this message came in, and I've been trolling the secure comm archives since I got in last night. Fortunately, I have the security accesses to see everything. The bean counters have been trying to kill the avatar program for years, because the cost has so outstripped the benefits. PhDs just don't understand the real world." Everyone laughs at this obvious observation, especially with Dr. Dmitri absent.

Francisco Salazar, the manager of Pandoran mining and industrial operations and a proud ABD from Chile, adds "PhDs have to be clueless to survive academia. All that matters is how much money they bring in and how many papers they can get published, even if it is the same idea recycled a hundred times. They don't live in the real world, so being clueless really helps." Everyone around the table laughs again.

JW laughs with everyone else, but follows with "Yes, just don't say that around Doctor Dmitri. He won't see the humor in it, and you don't want to make him mad. But, you're right. I've gone to several formal parties at Corporate where the new avatar drivers, called post-doctoral fellows, are introduced to the organization. They are all very young and very arrogant, for the most part. They know everything about their specialty, and little about anything else. Most of them have spent their whole lives preparing for this competition. They have nothing to live for except Pandora. Maybe the administrator tried to shut them down and they rebelled. But the Na'vi have been generally peaceful since the humans landed there many years ago. They certainly can't match our firepower."

Jerry interjects "Recent messages indicate open warfare between Hell's Gate and the Na'vi."

"Who started it?"

"My guess, Hell's Gate did. Months ago, there was a message that SecOps killed three Na'vi that set a bulldozer on fire and inadvertently shot Dr. Augustine's avatar and caused other collateral damage at the school. Left unexplained was the fact that no bulldozers were slated to be anywhere near the school, or why the fight ended up at the school, or what the collateral damage was. Doctor Augustine's avatar was in the hospital for several weeks, followed by months of physical therapy, and the school never reopened after that. The internal Na'vi relations committee asked for more details, but got no response from Hell's Gate."

Salazar says "We've been sending the updated plans and fielding questions for the new mine, Willow Grove, and Paradise for weeks, jamming up the FTL link in both directions. The administrator there wants all planning messages in the priority queue. That reply is probably languishing in the routine queue waiting to be sent. I've heard that nothing has gotten through the background queue for almost two months. Lots of folks at Hell's Gate are unhappy with us for that reason." All RDA data links, including FTL, have a priority system that selects the next message for transmission. In order, they are flash, priority, routine, and background. Long messages are split up so no message can tie up the link. Each employee is allowed to send and receive personal items, such as pictures of their families on Earth, through the background queue, but are forced to wait until the bandwidth frees up. With the change of plans putting Paradise into the new mine site, there has been no bandwidth for routine and background messages.

"Things seemed quiet until recently. There's a message saying that six SecOps troops were killed, two bulldozers destroyed, and one damaged. Maybe that was payback for the first incident. After that, a message saying that the Na'vi village was destroyed in retaliation, with no injuries to SecOps. Now this. The Na'vi haven't done anything like this before, so I wonder why they started now. I'll keep digging."

"Jerry, why don't you email links to the relevant documents to our internal Na'vi relations committee, and see if they agree with your view. Email me about any security access issues for these documents, and I'll forward that on to Security. Corporate is coming here to get answers, and it would be best if we are all in agreement, or at least on the same page."

"Yes, sir, Mister Winston."

"That raises a couple of big issues. Corporate will have to report this to ICA and the UN, and the International Commission on Na'vi Relations will subpoena all communications concerning the matter. That means it is best that everyone keep out of theses archives unless absolutely necessary. If I put out a blanket request to keep out, that will be interpreted to mean RDA is hiding something. So, put out the word verbally to your subordinates to stay away starting now, and keep out until they get the all clear from you. Francisco and Jerry, I know you have operations people who read the feeds from Pandora every day. That's OK, they can continue doing that, but tell everyone else not to go there until this blows over."

The managers of Pandora mining operations and RDA flight operations both look at JW and nod.

"Secondly, once the problems on Pandora gets out publicly, reporters will be flying in to buttonhole us RDA employees at all the usual haunts in the area. Las Cruces and Alamogordo aren't very big, so it will be hard to avoid them. I will put out a reminder that no RDA employee is to confirm or deny any rumors, and refer all reporters to the Corporate Communications office in New York City. As always, we have to give the impression that we know nothing, and at the moment, that's not far from the truth. Any questions on talking to the press?"

JW looks around the table, and no one responds.

JW looks at Jerry again and asks "Can we request clarification on this flash?"

"Ops did that last night, right after they received the message. New York has already asked, too. It'll take fifty hours, more or less. It should come in the day after tomorrow. I'm hoping Venture Star sends some clarification before they get the requests."

Although the ISV Venture Star is carrying FTL communications gear, these communications still are not instantaneous. The experimental physicists toiled for decades trying to get FTL communications to work, getting tantalizing results, but never perfecting any technique that was much better than random noise. The theoretical physicists also worked on FTL, but did not find any solutions or impediments. One day, a theoretical physicist blogged his musing on his latest gravity equations, wondering aloud if maybe gravity is interfering with FTL. That touched off a flurry of activity in the FTL community, culminating two years later in launches from the RDA space station at the second Lagrangian point. Two satellites were boosted out of the solar system on the north side of the ecliptic. As the two satellites streaked away from the Sun, and hence the gravity well of the solar system, the FTL tests between them improved steadily. Once they both were at a distance greater than Neptune's orbit did the results become incontrovertible. FTL is a reality, but usable only in interstellar space. The FTL satellite for Earth is placed south of the ecliptic, ten light hours away. With three stars in the Alpha Centauri system, its FTL satellite is twelve light hours south of the ecliptic defined by the A star. The bit error rate remains stubbornly high, so all FTL messages are repeatedly transmitted, usually a binary million (two to the twentieth power, or 1024 squared) times, and the "final" message determined statistically after processing on the receiving end. Ignoring backlogs and priorities, a short message takes about 25 hours to traverse the links between Earth and Pandora. Normal messages can languish much longer. For this reason, a conversation is not really possible. Standardized binary message formats and highly abbreviated text are the norm to keep the information rate as high as possible in spite of the latency. RDA continues to fund FTL research, as the need for throughput improvements to handle audio and video transmissions is so great.

JW asks "Didn't the Venture Star take an avatar driver out there to become the cultural ambassador?"

Jerry answers "Yes, there were two new avatar drivers on the Venture Star. Originally, both were qualified to become the cultural ambassador, but one driver was killed just before departure. He was replaced by his twin brother, a former Marine, who had no training. However, Colonel Miles Quaritch, the SecOps commanding officer on Pandora, went to great lengths to get this former Marine on the flight. He thought it was necessary to get a driver out there who could assess the military capabilities of the Na'vi, and that former Marine, a Corporal Jacob Sully, was in First Recon, just what the Colonel wanted."

"How did that work out?"

"There was a report from Doctor Grace Augustine, the manager responsible for the Avatar program on Pandora, saying Jake Sully had made contact with the Na'vi, and his avatar was living with the nearest clan, training to become a hunter. She did not give any more details."

"If he was living with the Na'vi, he should have reported their preparations. See if you can find anything along those lines."

"Will do, Mister Winston."

"What is the status of the ISVs?"

"There are twelve ISVs in the rotation between Earth and Pandora; one being refurbished in orbit here that is slated to take the PANSATs out, one, the Venture Star, in orbit there, five on the way out, and five on the way back. The three on the outbound leg closest to Earth should be recalled. The two closest to Pandora must continue on to Pandora, they're past the point of no return. The one behind them has a couple of months before it passes the point of no return. The five ISVs on the return leg really can do no better than return on schedule. The Venture Star will probably break orbit as soon as they can, but that depends on how quickly they can get everyone in cryo, and whether their consumables have been replenished. They have only been in orbit for three months, they will not have started resupplying yet for anything other than critical shortages. The unobtainium always loads first, otherwise the shuttles would return empty after off-loading cargo from Earth. Resupply runs usually start three months before departure to Earth. The big question is whether Hell's Gate will give them what they need before leaving, especially if a battle brought us to the current situation."

JW replies "Good work, Jerry. Keep at it, and let us know if you find any more. Thanks for filling us in. If you need any help, let me know."

"You're welcome." Jerry nods, waves to clear the screen, and limps to the nearest chair.

JW looks to Dan, and asks "Danny, what's on the two ships that can't turn back, any SecOps?"

Danny replies "The Venture Star had the main contingent of SecOps personnel and equipment in case there was trouble with the natives getting to the new mine site. There are some replacements in each of the following ships, but not many, nor large quantities of SecOps equipment. The next ship to arrive at Pandora contains the critical components for the nuclear reactors and the construction crews for the initial Paradise Resort and the new mine. The following ship has the staff for the resort and all the furnishings and equipment needed by it, including the seeds and livestock to produce top quality food. Both ships have some miners to work the new mine. The three ships that can return have the first paying customers for the resort. The last ship out has the largest SecOps contingent, to replace those taken out by Venture Star. But they didn't have much equipment with them besides their personal weapons. Just replacement engines, transmissions, and rotor blades for the gunships already there."

Jerry says "If SecOps has been kicked off Pandora, their equipment is probably all junk by now." Looking to Danny, Jerry adds "Before you got here, there was much discussion about procuring the gunships. In order to reduce the weight and the cost of buying and flying, the gunships were stripped down, like replacing the bullet-proof windows and cockpits. The vendors made some studies with Na'vi weapons, and said the replacement windows were bad in close-up combat. But, the SecOps leaders laughed that off and the financial arguments won, and cheaper and easier to break windows were delivered, along with omitting the spider silk and Kevlar cockpit liners. The vendors will bring that up again, especially if the windows made the pilots too vulnerable in this battle."

JW says "That's another good point. We will have to get some hard facts to work with, but, Danny, be prepared to hear about these issues when we do start putting out quick react RFPs."

Danny looks to Mr. Winston and nods, as he writes down a note in his book. "I'm sure our vendors are willing to sell us their best products." That causes some laughs.

"Guess we'll be inundated with sales folks when the word gets out. Once we get hard evidence about the state of Hell's Gate, we can put together a prioritized list of items to buy. When you get calls from vendors, tell them to contact Danny's group, and don't give them any other information."

Danny adds "I'll have my group put together a list of vendors from the calls and begin qualifying the new ones, so we can send out POs and RFPs as we figure out what must be bought."

"Put out an email asking all employees here to direct all sales inquiries to your group, and put names, phone numbers, and email addresses in it to make it simple for everyone."

"Yes, sir, Mister Winston."

"Anything else?"

Virginia Kim, the chief financial officer for the enterprise, says "We have another legal issue that affects everyone in this room and those in Ops and Corporate who know about the flash message. News of a production stoppage on Pandora is considered adverse inside information until Corporate makes its formal announcement. That means, no one in the know can trade RDA stock until two trading days after the announcement, or risk serious problems with the SEC."

JW responds "That's good, Misses Kim. I agree that this is material insider information. Please put out a reminder to everyone. I know the stock will take a hit when the news gets out, but, in reality, there are five years worth of unobtainium in flight to Earth now. I think I'll exercise my options to buy stock when I can after the news, provided the stock doesn't rebound too quickly."

JW asks again "Anything else?"

No one has anything to add, so JW finishes with "If you come up with any more ideas, email them to me. Use a subject line of "board discussion topic" so I know what it's about. When I get the arrival time of the Chairman's party, I'll let you know. Push your work off on your subordinates, and noodle what we can do about Pandora, even without hard knowledge. Thanks for putting your time and attention into this challenge. Now, get back to work." The meeting ends with laughter.