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 story 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.

I'm so blue! In the USA Weekend dated August 1-3, 2014, James Cameron said the next three Avatar movies are at least five years away. We will be lucky to see the release of the second Avatar movie by the tenth anniversary of the first. Fox Movies has played Avatar recently with a new interview featuring Jon Landau showing off the new studio where the performances for the sequels will be captured. Mr. Cameron, I would be happy to work for you in any way that I can to move these new films along to the earliest possible release dates.

THANK YOU! My thanks go out to the anonymous reviewers that provided reviews to this story recently. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to post a review, and constructive criticism is most welcome. I'm acutely aware of my shortcomings, and your reviews motivate me even more to improve my skills. My "favorite stories" consist of the few fan fiction works I think are the best finds during my explorations of this web site. I hope to write as well as these authors someday.

Happy Halloween and All Souls Day.

Chapter 18: RDA Flight Operations Center, New Mexico

Jerry limps out of Mr. Winston's meeting. He's been up since late last night and is very hungry. He could eat in the RDA cafeteria or go home, but neither will satisfy his cravings. The cafeteria is still serving breakfast and has only healthy fare, RDA's way to lower health care costs. Home will take too long even if all ingredients are on hand, and he can't remember what's in the kitchen since his teenagers gobble down everything as fast as his wife can buy it. Good thing he isn't living in a major city, he would have to walk or take public transportation. Here in the desert, he is allowed to drive his company car anywhere. He drives to his favorite 24 hour diner on Route 70. This diner is a popular haunt for the Operations staff, especially when the night crew goes off duty. The food is not the healthiest, but they have what he wants now.

Jerry walks into the diner and is greeted by Maggie, a waitress and a long time acquaintance.

"Running late today, Jerry?"

"No, Maggie, I've been working all night and have to get back as soon as I can. Just needed to see your smiling face. I'll have my usual Manhattan supper and high-test coffee, black."

"You're so good to me. Hope they're paying you overtime." Maggie laughs. "Be right up."

"Thanks, Maggie." Jerry sits down on a stool at the counter, and barely gets settled when his phone buzzes in his pocket. He pulls it out and sees a text from the duty officer in Ops.

"vs status critical"

He texts back "how"

"breathing but no heartbeat"

"ok do not open e m"

"u r kidding"

"orders"

"yes sir"

"alert me of changes"

"roger"

"back after meal out"

"vr"

Damn the comm officers to hell! They have their standard procedures and aren't supposed to diddle with the communications equipment, but Captain Gustav wants to make a point. The ISV Venture Star must be sending the clarification as an emergency message, jamming all other communications, including their heartbeats, back to Earth. At least this message is showing up long before the requests for clarification get there. Those requests should be on their way through the Sol and Centauri FTL satellites, and are many hours from being received by the Venture Star.

Maggie sets down a saucer holding a cup using one hand and fills the cup with coffee from a steaming glass pot in the other hand, all in one smooth motion. Next she puts down a small plate with hot dinner rolls, and then pushes an icy bowl filled with wrapped butter pats towards Jerry. "Your meat is cooking now. You need to turn that thing off and enjoy your meal."

"I'd love to, but my bosses wouldn't understand."

"Tell me about it. Bosses cracking the whip."

From behind the griddle, "Only in your dreams, Maggie. Hi, Jerry."

"Hi, Bob. Tough job, keeping this crew in line."

Maggie gives Jerry a shocked look, obviously well rehearsed, but then smiles broadly "Bob is such a sweet pussycat."

"Yeah, keep thinkin' that, Maggie. Jerry, your meal is on. As soon as it's ready, I'll serve it up."

"Thanks, Bob." Jerry slathers a roll with butter and bites into it.

All comm officers on the ISVs know their systems inside and out. It is surprisingly easy to put oversized messages into the emergency priority queue, provided you have the right access. Of course, all comm officers need such access to do their jobs. The policies and procedures are very clear about the acceptable use of the emergency priority, but when a captain demands the attention of Flight Operations, dumping an over-sized message into the queue is the one trick that works every time. If Captain Gustav can get the Venture Star back in one piece without loss of life, this transgression will be conveniently forgotten. If he doesn't, well, it won't matter.

Bob slides out his phone and whispers into it "Our friends have a problem, no details yet." He slips it back into his pocket as he pushes on the faux roast beef with one finger and feels that it is done. He scrapes up the slab and drops it on a thick slice of bread, then drowns everything with brown sauce. With enough chilies and good beef base in the gravy, you can't tell that the meat was made from algae grown in an ocean far from here, not the feed lots between here and El Paso. He turns and sets the plate down in front of Jerry. "Here you go, Jerry. Bon appetit."

"Thanks, Bob. Smells good as always. Just what I need on a crazy day."

"Good food makes everything better."

"I sure hope so."

"Want to talk about it?"

"If I told you, I'd have to shoot you."

"I can't afford to die, I have too many orders on my griddle now." Both men laugh.

"And I forgot my gun. You're in luck."

"That's a relief. I'm here if you change your mind. Have a good day, Jerry." Bob turns back to the food sizzling on his griddle.

"You, too, Bob."

Jerry quickly eats his meal without interruption as the breakfast crowd thins out. The ground station must still be processing the emergency message.

In the early days of aviation, crashes happened all the time. Some were investigated, but most were written off as mechanical failures or pilot error. A few planes were lost forever, causing much speculation. Amelia Earhart piloted one such plane whose loss still remains a mystery. In time, commercial aircraft became regulated, and "black boxes" became standard equipment. These boxes, called black even though they are normally painted red or orange so they can be found in water, record flight data and voices in the cockpit. They didn't stop the losses, but made investigations more likely to pinpoint the causes. When commercial spacecraft were developed, black boxes were standard equipment, but rarely were effective. Identifying and recovering these black boxes was practically impossible when a vehicle exploded in space. In addition, the mysterious losses continued, similar to the disappearance of Malaysian Air Flight 370. After more than a century of searching, that plane still remains lost. Conspiracy theorists believe that that very same Boeing 777 is parked on an uncharted island next to Earhart's Lockheed Electra, even though those planes are believed to have gone down into different oceans almost a century apart.

Technologies such as high speed digital transmissions via satellites enabled the development of real-time "heartbeats." Each ISV heartbeat has ship identification, time, location, attitude, compressed video from the flight deck and engine rooms, and thousands of measurements from throughout the ship. The flight monitoring system sends out a heartbeat periodically, say once every five minutes ship's time, while all systems are operating nominally. If a situation is identified, more detailed information is streamed out at a faster rate until the situation clears, or the power runs out after a catastrophe. RDA maintains a network of receivers that collects these heartbeats and forwards them to the Flight Operations Center in New Mexico. For ISVs outside a solar system, the FTL satellites at Sol and Centuari handle the heartbeats. The heartbeats for a space vehicle may be delayed while an emergency message is being sent, and that is the current condition of the Venture Star. As long as the comm link remains active, the ship is still "alive," but a catastrophic failure will not be recorded. Flight Ops gets immediate notification of overdue heartbeats, and that is the alert comm officers trip when they dump a greatly oversized message into the emergency priority queue.

Jerry works his way through the gates with armed guards and the security doors to limp into the RDA Flight Operations Center. He stops to look up the ramp into the glass-enclosed visitor's gallery, and is glad to see it is empty. Early this morning he put out the order to cancel all tours, but sometimes his underlings get bullied into ignoring such orders. No one wants to get a terrible evaluation from an irate manager in another part of RDA for canceling a tour at the last minute. Of course, the Chairman and his entourage will be allowed in today, if they want to watch. Just hope no one else at a high level, like an ICA or UN delegation, arrives and demands entry. He passes through the last set of security doors and looks over the pits. The normally hushed room is deathly quiet now, as if everyone is holding their breath waiting for the message from the Venture Star to arrive.

The duty officer has arranged the display screens to highlight the most critical situation in progress. The status screen for this solar system, normally displayed on the largest screen in the center of the far wall, has been relegated to a smaller side screen. The other side screen holds the status of the en-route ISVs, showing ten windows edged in green neatly tiling the screen. As usual, the small screen in the center below the main screen is displaying the status windows for the two FTL satellites, both outlined in green showing that they are operating nominally. They have their usual data streams flowing through them, so all links are green and active as expected. The main screen is showing a single window, edged in yellow, displaying the ISV Venture Star status. It will stay yellow until the heartbeats resume, at which time it will turn green again. If its comm link drops out, it will turn red. A clock in one corner is counting the microseconds since the last heartbeat was received. Another corner has two lines in bold red text: "EMERGENCY MESSAGE IN TRANSIT" and "SUPPRESS DISPLAY ON RECEIPT." Jerry is not pleased that everyone in Ops is focused on the Venture Star, but at least his order to limit dissemination of the emergency message was understood.

He waves his badge over the box on the wall, punches in his PIN, and the security door swings open, letting him into the bridge. He walks in to find a crowd, all with their backs toward him, huddled around the video conference screens against the far wall. Jerry quietly limps up to them, putting his hand on the shoulder of the slightly built and balding man he recognizes as his lead systems engineer for the ISVs. Jerry looks past him and sees that the duty officer and flight operations officer for both this day shift and the previous night shift are seated facing the screens, and the rest, the off-duty officers and ISV experts, standing behind them. A voice is droning on "During construction, all welds were x-rayed and analytically scored based on the anticipated loads..."

The duty officer from the night shift glances back and sees Jerry. Looking to the screen, he says, "Excuse me, but my boss, Jerry Shipley, just came back from his meeting. Jerry, this is the ISV Emergency Response Team. Even though the message last night was missing really important details, it implied that the Venture Star is experiencing a severe overcrowding condition. I convened the ERT at that time to get everyone thinking about the potential problems. The team will be reviewing the post-event telemetry from the Venture Star looking for problems that may cause deviations from the existing emergency procedures. Before that is received, it is looking at the potential life support and structural issues to start that analysis. We're sending out an emergency message with our recommendations as soon as we have something."

"Sounds like you have everything well in hand, at least until we get more details from the Venture Star. What level is this meeting?"

"We called in some contractors for their expertise. Being August, they have some summer interns and new hires that are not cleared yet."

"OK. I'll keep it unclassified. I just got out of a meeting with my boss, John Winston, on this situation at Pandora. I ask everyone on the ERT to stay focused on keeping the Venture Star and its unexpected passengers alive. That first emergency message used one of my favorite four letter words, N-A-V-I." There are smiles and chuckles from everyone. "If the Na'vi are involved in this incident, there will be intense scrutiny from outside organizations, ICA, UN, and others. Their Na'vi oversight commissions will probably subpoena and depose everyone that has read the relevant messages from Pandora. So, the duty officers here will provide the ERT with the details needed to aid the Venture Star. The details on what caused the evacuation of Hell's Gate will be limited to those who need to know, just so the number of personnel subject to questioning can be kept to manageable levels. That will save you a lot of grief. I'm not looking forward to it, not at all. Of course, if you want to talk to these lawyers ..." Everyone laughs as Jerry pauses.

"Thanks, Jerry. Anything else for the ERT?"

"No, carry on. All duty officers and flight operations officers from the off-duty shifts have been called in for a meeting here on the bridge, and will be arriving shortly. We'll start that after you finish up here. When you're ready or when that emergency message arrives, call me, I'll be in my office. Don't open the message before I get back here. Thanks for your time, everyone."

"Thank you, sir. We'll hold that message until you personally approve its opening. OK, we were discussing the stresses on the arms for the rotating habitation modules, especially at the hinges. You were talking about the x-rays of the welds?"

"Yes, we need to get the number of personnel now in the habitation modules on the Venture Star. With that, we can recalculate the loads and re-score the x-rays. The maint bots can be sent to check the welds that score below some acceptable level, which is another topic we must hash out."

Jerry turns around and limps back to his office. He can't contribute to this discussion, and must do more digging through the comm archives. This is one job where dull is good, very good. What was that Chinese curse?

When Jerry returns to Ops later that morning, the status screen for the Venture Star is outlined in green and has been moved to a side screen with the other eleven ISVs. The red text now reads "EMERGENCY MESSAGE READY" and "AWAITING DISPLAY/DISTRIBUTION". The main screen is displaying the volume around the L2 space station with an orange line through one corner. Most likely there is a situation with a drone freighter that didn't wake up after its long coast from beyond Neptune's orbit. RDA keeps contracting with firms that fly drones because of the potential cost savings, but the equipment just isn't reliable enough yet. Jerry hopes that this new problem hasn't taken everyone's mind off of the Venture Star.

Jerry walks into the bridge and sees his shift officers, both on duty and off, huddling around the message screen.

"How could they make an emergency message that large?"

"Once they get the text file they want to send, a one-line script or command can duplicate it, one time or a billion."

"What a waste of bandwidth!"

"Yeah, but it jammed up the system long enough for everyone to notice."

"Oh, hi, Jerry."

"So they sent us a huge file for an emergency message. If it was short, we might miss it."

"We wouldn't miss an emergency message. They're just jerking our chain."

"Looks like all shift officers are here. Is anyone missing?"

"No, we're all here."

"Does everyone know why we're here?"

"We need to limit the number of those who know what happened on Pandora."

"Yes. Everything about why Hell's Gate was evacuated must be kept on a need to know basis. It is very likely that ICA, the UN, and other governmental organizations will be demanding all documentation from us, and maybe will depose us."

"We'll be besieged by journalists, too."

"Yes, so the fewer that know, the fewer chances that something will be leaked. I know lots of people in this complex want to know what's happening, but we've got to keep a lid on it for now. We have to let the folks in headquarters handle the publicity, and we have to get the Venture Star back home with all hands."

"Who works out the response?"

"What happens to the ISVs en-route now?"

"All in good time. Some corporate folks are flying out here today to get those balls rolling. That detail is classified MOST SECRET, by the way, so don't tell anyone Corporate is coming to us. OK?"

Everyone nods or gives a verbal response at the same time.

"If there are no more questions, let's take a look at this file. First make sure it cannot be deleted or modified."

The duty officer replies while typing "That's easy enough. OK, now what?"

"Open it up and see what we've got."

"Oh, no! It looks like it got garbled up in transmission."

"No, look, the lines are all the same length. See if there are any non-printing characters in there."

"What do I have to do?"

"Mind if I drive?"

"That violates so many security rules, but go ahead."

Jerry adds "If anyone complains, send them to me."

The two officers switch places. "Just do this, and we see only newlines in the text. That's good."

"Oh?"

"It looks like a binary file that has been converted to all printing characters. I'll run it through base64 and see what comes out." The screen is now full of true gibberish. "Look at the first line. It must be a video file."

"They sent a video as an emergency message?"

"Looks that way. Let me try this." She types rapidly while everyone watches.

A new window appears, showing a very tired and rather haggard Captain Gustav in a damp tee shirt, slouching in a chair, grimly staring into the camera, his face unmoving, breathing heavily. After a long pause, he picks up a clear glass of water from out of sight and gulps down part of it. A voice in the background is heard "You're on now, Captain."

The Captain's face brightens as he sits up, leaning towards the camera, moving the glass off-camera.

"Hello. I am Pieter Gustav, master and commander of the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star. I apologize in advance for this message. If I had time to compose a proper message, I would, and save all of us the trouble of handling a video. I also apologize for my dress. I've been outside for the last six hours with all space-qualified welders, including several of our guests from Hell's Gate. Even though my ship is holding together much better now, this is the best I can do for you. Must say, I haven't welded since I became a ship's officer years ago. It took a few minutes to get my rhythm back, but once I did, I put down a good bead. My welds x-rayed clean, so I've still got it. Had plenty of time to think, and have reached some decisions that I will tell you shortly."

"Being so far from Sol and the RDA resources so bountiful there and lacking here, I have taken the seemingly futile step of declaring an emergency. All ship's crew, including those who have fulfilled their maximum duty days, have been taken out of cryo. All hands have been pressed into service around the clock to keep the passengers in line and the Venture Star in habitable condition. Because of the severe overcrowding caused by the evacuation of Hell's Gate, we are experiencing numerous problems, particularly with life support. When our human cargo first arrived, the situation was not so dire. But all life support systems, especially water reclamation units and air scrubbers, were overtaxed, and eventually we suffered a number of breakdowns. Only by keeping work crews on all critical systems and redistributing our passengers about the ship have we been able to forestall lethal breakdowns."

"The basic problem is that we cannot handle everyone from Hell's Gate. We now have far too many humans on board. There are not enough cryo units on this ship to hold everyone. There are not enough consumables and living spaces to hold the overflow during the trip home. Some aboard now are not going back to Earth. Period."

Captain Gustav sits back, pausing for dramatic effect. He takes another gulp of water and then leans back into the camera.

"As you know, it is my job to select those that must be euthanized in this situation. I have privately told my crew that none of them will be sacrificed. The one person from Pandora that my crew hates and wants dead is the one person I promise to bring back to Earth, Administrator Parker Selfridge. Everyone else is open for consideration. I should think many surviving SecOps personnel would rather die than return to Earth, disgraced by losing to a stone-age force. I have decided that I will not euthanize anyone if I can help it. I intend to return enough personnel to Hell's Gate so no one must die. If I must, I will send my only Valkyrie into the mine and off-load the excess personnel there, and let them hike to Hell's Gate. Except for one avatar driver, it seems that everyone in the avatar program, including their supporting medical and science teams, have elected to stay. They expelled everyone else, including all maintenance, manufacturing, and engineering personnel. Those are the personnel I plan to return to the surface. They are needed to keep Hell's Gate up and running for the survival of all humans on Pandora. They must also produce the items needed by the ISVs inbound to Centauri space that cannot turn back and must stop here to be repaired and resupplied before returning."

Captain Gustav gulps down more water, this time up close.

"My crew is vastly outnumbered by the refugees. The refugees could mutiny and take over the Venture Star if they think some of them are going to die. Since none of them know how to operate an ISV and were disarmed before being sent up here, they are not an imminent threat. This plan ensures they will not become a problem. We have met with the remaining SecOps leadership, and have them working with us. They have the assignment to identify the personnel that should return to Pandora. After I get done with this message, I will eat and get some sleep. Then I will try to communicate with Hell's Gate. Apparently the command center was destroyed and no controller is on duty as required by RDA, but I must make contact somehow. My comm officers tell me we still have access to their computer network. I suggested sending an email to request a parley with their leaders, but the SecOps cadre want to keep that channel secret. If they cannot find another way to raise Hell's Gate, I will email everyone. When I do talk to them, I will make it clear that enough good people have died already. They need these people to keep Hell's Gate running for their survival, and the survival of those on the inbound ISVs. I will not tell them Hell's Gate is needed by RDA when it returns in force to take back Pandora, but I think we all realize that."

He rocks back in his chair, and then forward again into the camera.

"Our current situation is stable for now, but we must be very vigilant to survive. The Venture Star handled the refugees well at first. We tried to distribute them around the ship, but they congregated in the rotating habitation modules. Most cannot eat, sleep, or use the facilities in the zero gee spaces. My engineering officer was worried about the load, and sent the maint bots out to check the arms and hinges. Everything was nominal at first, but then some cracks opened up. We evacuated and safed the modules and stopped the rotation as we do for the boost and deceleration phases. Most of the refugees went into the cryo holds, not into the units but the empty space down the center. Even put some back into the hold of the docked Valkyrie in spite of the risk. We raided a cargo container with raw materials for Pandora. After gathering up the space-qualified welders, we went out and welded down braces and fixed the cracks. We also welded attachment points on the modules and rotating bushings and strung some of that wire cable between them to take the load off the hinges. The strain gauges really dropped off once we tightened up the cables. We will have to cut the cables off before breaking orbit, but the maint bots can do that. The modules are rotating again. The crew and refugees are using them in shifts, and we are processing the refugees as quickly as we can to get them into cryo, the injured soldiers first. As long as we can off-load the excess personnel and keep the air scrubbers and water reclamation units running, we can make it back safely. I intend to ask Hell's Gate for spare parts and supplies before leaving to improve our margin and drive home the point of why Hell's Gate has its industrial capability. I think they believe studying the Na'vi and mining are the only reasons for the existence of Hell's Gate. They must be made to understand that everyone on board the ISVs heading this way rely on the parts and supplies made here for their survival."

Captain Gustav sits back and takes a sip of water. He leans into the camera again.

"How did this mess happen? My security officer is interviewing the survivors. His report and interview notes will be sent to you when ready. The SecOps cadre are also putting together a report. I have asked Selfridge to make his report, but he has not been cooperative. Keeps demanding scotch and cigars from my officers, and babbles on about the god of the blue monkeys sending the wildlife into battle, killing all humans on sight. I had a long discussion with the surviving cadre and learned some interesting details, such as the particulars of the death of Colonel Miles Quaritch, the SecOps commanding officer. Here is what I know."

"We had a routine trip out here. Once we got into orbit, as usual we safed our main engines and took the orbital crew out of cryo. Before putting the en-route crew into cryo, we held our traditional arrival party. Then we got to work off-loading our cargo and replenishing our consumables and critical supplies. On 19 May 2154, the two new avatar drivers designated as cultural ambassadors, Jacob Sully and Norman Spellman, and their avatars were delivered to Hell's Gate, along with a large contingent of SecOps personnel and other critical cargo. As I've been told, Jacob was a last minute replacement for his twin brother, Thomas. I did not seek out this individual before he left for Pandora, but now I wish I did. He had no training as an avatar driver, but was a former U. S. Marine Corps soldier injured in battle, now in a wheel chair. My security officer found his military record in the ship's classified dropbox for Pandora, marked for delivery to Colonel Quaritch. His record seems routine. The one complaint about him is that he was not interested in the responsibilities needed to lead others in combat. He was called a lone wolf, and sought out training and assignments along those lines. This detail is surprising in light of recent events. This lone wolf now seems to be in charge of Pandora, and is the recognized leader of all Na'vi."

"Within days of landing, the head of the Avatar program on Pandora, Doctor Grace Augustine, led a sortie into the forest. Sully's avatar became separated from the rest even though it was part of the security detail, the kind of mistake you would expect from a lone wolf. Apparently it had a number of run-ins with the local wildlife, and was saved from certain death by the daughter of the leaders for the local clan. His avatar's savior took it home like a stray dog, and convinced her parents to take it in. By all accounts, Sully's avatar became an excellent hunter and a full-fledged adult in the local clan. He even married that daughter that rescued his avatar, upsetting the succession plan of the clan. He also provided Quaritch with intelligence on the clan. Here it seems he did an excellent job, very much in line with his military training. As a reward, Quaritch got corporate approval to cut short Sully's contract and have his war injuries repaired at RDA's expense. However, Sully missed his assigned flight up to the Venture Star, and nothing further is recorded. Guess he had other plans."

"About three months after Sully made contact, the site for the work camp near the new mine, called Willow Grove, was clear-cut. I pulled up a map of Pandora from the ship's computer and asked the SecOps cadre to point it out. They quickly located it and the site of the local clan's village that is also the site of the new mine. To their surprise, both sites are marked as UN designated Na'vi heritage areas, off-limits to all humans. Their maps did not show these keep out zones. In the discussion that followed, they complained about the quality of the maps they use. Seems the extreme weather and geological activity wreaks havoc with the terrain, and maps quickly become outdated. Sometimes a floating mountain drops tons of debris or crashes into the ground, making significant changes. In particular, the hydrological features change almost on a seasonal basis. The Willow Grove site was chosen mainly because its bounding river has a rocky ford that has remained stable for a number of years. SecOps on Pandora had an intelligence unit devoted to keeping their maps up to date. However, they seem to have omitted the keep out zones on their updated maps used by the rest of the SecOps forces. Maybe Administrator Selfridge can shed some light on this omission, but I'll bet he will blame Colonel Quaritch who can no longer answer for himself."

"Even though Willow Grove was a keep out zone, a holy site full of sacred trees, it was completely destroyed. That started the hostilities. A squad of SecOps forces were killed in retaliation. I was told that Sully was tasked to negotiate the sale of these sites. Shortly after Sully admitted his failure to make a deal, the tree the local clan used for its home was destroyed by the SecOps air contingent. Destroying their home was the trigger for all-out warfare. The homeless clan moved to an unusual rock formation in the mountains called the Well of Souls, another holy place designated by the UN as a Na'vi heritage site. Within a couple of days, all local clans converged on this site. Quaritch was convinced that the Na'vi were massing for an invasion of Hell's Gate, and declared Threat Condition Red to order a preemptive strike on that site. SecOps attacked it the next morning."

"Witnesses say the Na'vi started strongly, but SecOps answered back, both sides sustaining heavy losses. SecOps almost prevailed, but the wild animals attacked both on the ground and in the air, and routed the human forces. Selfridge claims the Na'vi god brought in the animals, but it stands to reason that the Na'vi stampeded the beasts into the SecOps formations. By all accounts, Sully was in charge of the Na'vi forces, and flew a great leonopteryx. Those that understand the Na'vi tell me flying that oversized bird is of great cultural significance to them. These birds cannot be flown by anyone except those heroes chosen by their god. Obviously, Sully learned what was needed to take charge of the Na'vi. He led the Na'vi forces into battle, destroying many Scorpions and Sampsons, and single-handedly brought down the Dragon and a Valkyrie. His was a heroic performance by any standard. Of course, he had to lead the air attack because he was the only one on the Na'vi side with the knowledge to bring down these craft."

"Quaritch was on the Dragon, but somehow survived by jumping out in his AMP suit. He found the portable link unit used by Sully and Spellman, and engaged with Sully's avatar and his wife who were protecting it. I've been told that Quaritch was killed by Sully's wife who shot him with two arrows just as he was going to kill Sully's avatar. The Na'vi use poisoned arrows, and normally only shoot one per target. The story is that she used two arrows, one for her dead father and one for her dead sister, both whom died because of SecOps actions. If this is true, it indicates just how bad relations with the Na'vi have become. Even though the Valkyrie crashed nearby, the Well of Souls was not damaged."

"Most troubling to me is the fact that Hell's Gate was lost because of the uprising of the avatar personnel. Clearly, no one thought they could be a threat. There were rumors that Selfridge got this assignment for political reasons by golfing with RDA executives and board members. It does seem now that he was not properly vetted for this job of Administrator of RDA's most profitable off-Earth operation. He has alienated me and my crew with his arrogance and pugnacity. I've heard that relations between SecOps and the avatar personnel had become very antagonistic, and ended in mutiny. How could he let the important relationships around him get so bad?"

"Selfridge privately told SecOps that he had corporate approval to shut down the avatar program after a settlement with the local clan was made. The rumors of it being shut down have been around for years. It is very expensive and has been ongoing at various levels for several decades in spite of producing little direct income. Since Sully failed to reach an agreement, Selfridge ordered the avatar program terminated and scheduled the return of all personnel associated with that program. Selfridge should have waited to get them in cryo before launching the attack on the Na'vi, but he was too impatient. The personnel in question were still in Hell's Gate during the attack, their flight to the Venture Star postponed so that the Valkyrie scheduled for their departure could be used in the attack. Most of these people have nothing on Earth to return to, and therefore nothing to lose by attacking the few SecOps forces left in Hell's Gate during the battle. These SecOps forces were in the command center and were concentrating on returning the injured from the battle, and so were taken by surprise when the avatars attacked. The fighting in the mountains was practically over when the command center was taken. The Na'vi would not be able to take Hell's Gate on their own. Only this avatar revolt allowed the Na'vi to have a total victory. At first I could not image how SecOps with its technologically superior forces could lose to the Na'vi. In my mind, the help they received from the avatar personnel was the deciding factor."

"Most surprising is that the leader of these mutineers remains a mystery. My job will be much easier, I think, if I deal with this leader instead of Sully. It looks like Sully has gone completely native, and maybe will not care what happens to the humans in Hell's Gate. This mystery leader should be running Hell's Gate now, and will better understand the value of the personnel I want to return. With a little luck, I might be able to show this leader how Sully does not have the best interests of the humans in mind."

"After the tree housing the local clan was destroyed, Quaritch had Augustine, Sully, and Spellman locked up in a holding cell. Then a SecOps pilot, Major Trudy Chacon, got them out that night and flew them away from Hell's Gate. Quaritch shot at the fleeing Sampson, and purportedly hit Augustine, who died the next evening. Sully, Spellman, and Chacon were seen during the battle, so they did not lead the avatars in Hell's Gate. Selfridge claims Doctor Max Patel destroyed the command center with a boom mower. However, numerous eyewitnesses say Patel was running the medical team handling the wounded returning from the battle. The entire medical staff was engaged in treating the wounded, so it seems none of them, including those that are also avatar drivers, could be this leader. Unfortunately, none of the SecOps personnel in the command center were familiar with the avatars, and did not recognize the attackers."

"I asked the one avatar driver that came aboard, Ivanna Petrakov, about what happened. She said everyone in the avatar program was shocked and upset by the order to shut down the program. Armed guards oversaw the clean up and packing. The attitude of some SecOps personnel infuriated them, but there was nothing they could do. The news that Augustine and others escaped swept the facility, and cheered the avatar personnel. The next day came the news that Augustine was killed by Quaritch, and that really inflamed them. She didn't know how the news got into Hell's Gate, but there was communication between Sully and those inside the compound. SecOps controls all communications, they should have picked it up or prevented it, but they never knew what happened. Soon the armed guards left to prepare for the attack. Apparently the avatar personnel got together later, but she passed, saying she was too upset by Grace's death to leave her apartment. She and Augustine did work together for a number of years, and had gotten close. Then she heard the announcement for all personnel to report to the cafeteria. There she was told the news that the Na'vi prevailed in the mountains and the avatars took over Hell's Gate. She was given the option to stay or go. She felt that she must go back, because her uncle has a high position in RDA and she did not want to cause him any trouble. Soon she was leaving Hell's Gate with those that were expelled on the only Valkyrie left. She never learned who led the avatars that attacked the command center. I believe what she said to me. I explained the situation to her about not having enough cryo units, and asked that she return to Hell's Gate. She said she will think about it, but she is not eager to return to either Earth or Pandora. She is very intelligent, she would never knowingly betray her friends in the avatar program, and I think she would be indignantly opposed if asked to do that. But, there is an opportunity here. If everyone agrees to do this, track down this uncle of her's, a Doctor Dmitri Man-dell-lay-off, or something like that, I've never been good with Russian names. Make it worth his while to get in contact with her and tell her she can stay without him being hurt, followed by regular communications about daily affairs. With finesse and subtlety, maybe she will say enough to give you some idea how things are going among the avatar drivers. There will be other sources after the maintenance personnel are returned, but none close to the avatar drivers. This is just a wild idea on my part. Don't try this without the RDA executives approving it. And make sure the uncle wants to do this before going forward."

"So, I have said more to you than I intended when I started. The mystery leader remains unknown. I will continue my search. I will ask Sully about the leader of Hell's Gate, if he is the only one to respond. I do not expect to get an answer from him, though."

"My security officer had the good sense to record each refugee as he or she left the Valkyrie. He also got the latest personnel roster from Hell's Gate. His lists will be sent to Ops on the priority queue, and his video will be sent on the routine queue. The ship's doctor is sending the medical records of all refugees that arrived here injured, also on the priority queue. A list of personnel returned to Hell's Gate will be provided when ready. The SecOps cadre is sending a list of the aircraft and other weapons that made it back to Hell's Gate after the battle, and an assessment of the damage to the command center. It will be sent to Ops on the priority queue. Since we made changes to the outer envelop of the Venture Star, the inspection bots are out recording the deltas to keep the other maint bots from making changes. The updates to the maint bot database will be sent on the priority queue when ready. The engineering officer is sending his report of the changes made by the welding teams, including all x-rays of the welds, on the normal queue, so you can analyze what we've done and make any recommendations. We can break orbit in about two weeks, barring any new problems, without any help from Hell's Gate, but I want to try to get some consumables and spare parts before leaving. I will keep you informed of my communications with Hell's Gate and the status of the Venture Star. I'm getting too tired to think straight, so I will end this now. Please send me any recommendations you may have, we are all in uncharted waters, so to speak."

Captain Gustav finishes off his glass of water.

"This is Captain Pieter Gustav of the ISV Venture Star, signing off for now. Thank you for your attention. Godspeed."

He sits back in his chair. He turns away from the camera. "I'm done. Stop recording and send it off as soon as you can. Don't bother to clean it up before transmission. For this message, fast is good and much better than perfect."

"Aye, aye, sir." The video stops and the window goes black.

Jerry looks to the officers around him. "Captain Gustav did a good job, talking off the cuff like that. This will give everyone something to work with. I'll call Mister Winston and have him watch this and talk to Doctor Dmitri."

"Finesse and subtlety are two words that don't apply to Doctor Dmitri." The group breaks into laughter.

"Exactly, that's why I'm letting Mister Winston handle this one. Do we have a video editing capability here?"

"Yes, no sweat. We do that almost everyday because most raw video we get has so much useless dead air in it."

"Good. Edit out the parts about Pandora. Call me when that's ready and we'll review it together. Put the edited version on the internal daily operations site for today's report. Make a new secure archive and put the full untouched video there, along with the original file and maybe a short text file describing how to change the original message into the video."

"Roger. Anything else?"

"Please send the full, uncut video to Corporate Communications via the secure net and tell them we are editing out the parts about Pandora. That way they'll have the full story, if they haven't figured it out the way you did, and know what was released internally here."

"Will do."

"If anyone comes by asking about what happened on Pandora, don't tell them anything, just send them to me. I've made up a list on the secure net of those who are to have access to the full story, and I'll let you know when that list changes."

"Yes, sir."

"Thanks for coming in on short notice today. I'll keep you informed about the meetings with Corporate." Jerry turns and limps out.

His operations officers get to work on the video and discuss its ramifications among themselves.