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.
Chapter 21: Jake & Neytiri
Jake wakes up inside his assigned apartment in Hell's Gate. It is bare, he hasn't spent enough time in it to bother decorating, but it's much larger and nicer than his last place on Earth. Indeed, that dump of an apartment he left behind would fit into his bathroom here and not fill it up. RDA treated its avatar drivers very well, and that made most everyone else in Hell's Gate despise them. Those people are gone now, and the atmosphere is much more cordial when encountering someone in the nearly deserted facility. He could take over Parker Selfridge's old place, it is the largest and nicest apartment on Pandora, and no one would stop him if he did. Still, it would feel cramped after his three months in Hometree, and the furnishings would seem pointless as he and the Na'vi live happily without any. If he can get it arranged soon, he will transfer into his avatar body permanently, and leave human dwellings behind forever. He definitely must do that before Max and company return from their hospital in the Well of Souls and begin tracking his weight, sleep, and link time. Max made him promise that he would do better, but he just can't seem to get started in the aftermath of the battle.
He thought things would quiet down, but his life has only gotten busier. The most pressing need is finding a new home for the clan. Mo'at told him there are families talking about leaving for other clans. She wants him to have a clan meeting this morning to reorganize the clan, begin the search for a new home, and urge the survivors to stay on and help build the Omatikaya up to preeminence again. He is also concerned about how and when RDA will return. If there are enough weapons on board the Venture Star, they could rearm and land today. The Na'vi live together so cooperatively and peacefully, they do not seem to understand the concept of a long term threat, other than dangerous plants and animals. He has called a meeting of all clans in the Well of Souls at the mid-day meal to begin the process of preparing for the return of RDA. Many clans desire to leave now that the battle is over, and Jake must convince them to begin preparations today and continue after getting home. He captured his toruk simply to get help for Grace and to talk to Neytiri again. He never dreamed of the grief it is causing him now.
He should go to the cafeteria and get something to eat, but that could take too much time with the service staff gone. He grabs a bottle of his favorite energy drink from his fridge and gulps it down while sitting on his toilet. Neytiri always rises before dawn, and he doesn't want to keep her waiting. She should be in a great mood after last night, and he doesn't want to spoil that. After throwing on some mismatched and lightly used clothes, he speeds down the empty hallways to the link room, where his link, the only one not in use, is waiting for him. He sees the link operations staff huddled around a workstation in the raised ring, all with grim looks on their faces. He stops alongside his link. One of the staff yells, "Jake, wait up. Have you read your email?"
As he pulls himself up into the link he answers "Not for days. I gotta go." Jake pulls the lid shut so the scanner spins up while the bed slides into place.
As his consciousness settles into his avatar, he feels Neytiri's head on his chest, waiting for him to awaken.
"Good morning, my love. Did you sleep well?" She sits up and turns so she can look down at Jake's face, smiling at him.
Jake opens his eyes and sighs at the sight of her beauty. "Good morning. I slept very well, after our romp last night." Jake raises his left arm and rubs her cheek with his hand. She covers his hand with hers, pushing it into her cheek, closing her eyes and smiling broadly.
"Romp? Is that what you call that? We must romp every night." Neytiri bends down and kisses Jake on the lips, and then rises up, kneeling beside him. "You made me sleep very well, too. That is good, we have a very busy day."
Jake sits up and wraps his arms around Neytiri, pulling her against his chest, their faces almost touching. "That's why I'm here early. I should have slept more, especially my human body back at Hell's Gate. Please don't tell Max, he'll be angry with me."
"I know, my love, but he means well. I will not tell him unless he asks me. You must tell him what he wants to know so he can take care of you."
Before Jake can respond, his body goes limp and falls backwards, pulling Neytiri down on top of him.
"Not now! We must get going! Jake? Ma Jake!" She sees that he has become limp and unresponsive again, like he was just after she killed the leader of the human warriors. She knows his human body is inside Hell's Gate, too distant to check on him. The people there will take good care of him, but doing this makes her concerned and angry. Why did they pull Jake away from her?
"Should we abort his link and show him this email?"
"He'll be really pissed if we do."
"But it's a life or death situation!"
"It's shift change time for the drivers working the hospital. Let's round up the day shift and fill them in. They can talk to Max when they get out there. It's important enough that he'll go to Jake right away."
"That could take hours, especially if Jake is away from the hospital, flying or hunting."
"Doesn't matter, there's plenty of time. The captain is bluffing."
"I don't agree. If everyone on the Venture Star dies because we're too timid to talk to Jake now, the people of Earth will want RDA to come out here and kill us all. I'd rather have Jake mad than all of Earth. The operator clicks the emergency stop icon for Jake's link. Everyone holds their breath while the link spins down to a stop.
As soon as the bed of the link pulls away from the scanner, the lid flies open. A livid Jake sits up and yells "Dammit, this better be good!"
The operator that aborted Jake's link replies "Sorry, Jake. The captain of the Venture Star has emailed everyone here, wanting an immediate parley via radio with you and Max."
"I don't want to talk to him, or have anyone else talk to him."
"His ship can't handle the load. The life support systems are breaking down. He says it is a life or death situation. He needs water, oxygen, and other supplies and spare parts to keep the ship habitable. If they have another breakdown, they might all die."
Jake rubs his face with both hands. "I don't have time for this crap!"
"If the Venture Star dies because we ignored their SOS, we won't have a single friend left on Earth."
"OK! OK! I get it." He puts his hands up and pauses. "Guess that's true. Anything else?" He lowers his hands and looks directly at the tech speaking to him.
"They don't have enough cryo units to hold everyone. He wants to return the maintenance and manufacturing personnel so he doesn't have to kill the surplus. He has that legal responsibility and duty, but sounds very reluctant about it."
"Great! That gives them another excuse to make a landing here in Hell's Gate with a shuttle full of people. Good cover for an attack." Jake pauses, scanning the faces of the link techs. "That means I have to bring the warriors back here to control the situation. You said he emailed everyone?"
"As far as we can tell."
"So, they can access our computer systems. Is there anyone here that can isolate our computers and keep RDA out of them?"
"We can ask around, but SecOps always ran the computers and networks, for security reasons. Computer geeks were not recruited for service on Pandora."
"Yeah, well, see if someone can do it. Are you familiar with the people he wants to return?"
"We know some janitors and fix-it guys, but not many."
"I'm betting they have already changed the personnel files to put in some SecOps moles."
"Can't say, but you're probably right." A few techs have surprised looks, but most of them are nodding their heads in agreement.
Jake hangs his head, rubbing his emaciated legs with both hands, thinking hard. "The housing here seems to be by job function, SecOps in one building, medical and scientific in another. Did the maintenance and manufacturing personnel have their own building?"
"I think so. Next to the factories and warehouses, opposite the chemical plant. Never been there, myself."
"OK. Send someone over there to go room by room and write down the names on a map. Break down the doors if you have to, to get names and pictures from every apartment. My brother's name was on my door when I got here. I hope it's that easy. That way we can match up the names and faces if we have to take the surplus back."
"We'll collect names and pictures from the SecOps apartments, too."
"That's good, but we don't have much time. They could switch pictures and DMTs. Norm has been collecting the DMTs from the bodies of the dead humans before burial. I'll have him carry those back here. We may not be able to ID every mole, but we'll do what we can to make it harder for them. I'm guessing the radios were in the command center, and that's a mess now. Is there another radio around here?"
Several of the techs smile. "Grace took you out of Hell's Gate too soon after your arrival. You missed your training classes, obviously."
Jake looks at them with a sheepish face. "Yeah, I was glad to get out of here and escape all that bureaucratic cover your ass bullshit. Had enough of it in the Corps."
"One useful tidbit is the fact that there are emergency radios on each floor in each building that can talk to each other and the space and FTL uplinks. That's a result of the disaster at Vesta base. The tricky part is that they are spread around, so you have to go looking for them. But they are well marked, just look for the signs." Several of the link staff are pointing to a sign above a red door recessed into the wall.
"OK, so there are plenty of radios that talk to the Venture Star. That's good, but I don't want to talk now. Can I see that email?"
"Sure." A tech swipes the email onto a large tablet and walks it over to Jake.
Jake takes the tablet and scans through it quickly. "He can't expect an immediate reply." He looks at the woman that brought him the tablet. "I want you to reply and say simply that you have read the email and are contacting your superiors. Say you expect they will agree to talk. That's it. No names. Nothing to hint that most everyone is out at the hospital, or that the Na'vi are not here guarding Hell's Gate. If they figure out how empty Hell's Gate is right now, they might send SecOps down here to take it back, and maybe shoot all of you in the process, just for spite. I can get the ikran makto, banshee riders, back here before they can land the Valkyrie, but it will take all day to get the ground forces here from the Well of Souls. It's at least sixty clicks over rough terrain out of the mountains. Can you do that?" He hands the tablet back.
"Yes, Jake. No names. No details. Just say we will ask our bosses to read this email. They should respond soon."
"That's it, exactly."
"What if they send another email?"
"Until I get back, try to keep one link open, and a driver with an avatar at the hospital on call. If an email is received, have the driver read it and link to the hospital to pass it on. Radios don't work well out there. I'll fly my toruk back here as soon as I can, worst case will be late in the afternoon. I'll get Max and Norm back here, if they can tear themselves away from the hospital."
"We look forward to your return. Should we arm ourselves, just in case?"
"Do it, but be careful. No guns to those with no training. Don't shoot anything unless you see the Valkyrie dropping in unexpectedly. And keep a full-time armed watch on the airfield. Get word back right away if the Valkyrie shows up unannounced. There should be some Na'vi here to take over in an hour or two."
"Will do. I'll be glad to get some maintenance personnel back here. I put in a work order for a leaky faucet before all the excitement began. Don't know where they hide the tools and parts. You do know about the power plants?"
Jake's face falls. Not another problem. "No, what about them?"
"It's a long story. Max can fill in the details. The power plants are all nuclear. The original units were made in Germany and are well past their designed lifetimes. The replacement units were made in China and are faulty, big scandal inside RDA, hushed up and kept out of the press, the guilty were fired. The new units are started once a quarter just to keep them going in case the originals fail. But, they're too dangerous to put into full-time service. More German made units are coming in on the next ISV, along with the personnel to install them here and at the new mine site.
"You're saying we need the power plant personnel back?"
"Yes. Without power to run the life support systems, air, water, food, habitation, we're all dead."
"Wish I knew this sooner."
"Everything happened so fast, guess nobody thought about it until now."
"Yeah, I see." Jake pauses and then looks up at the personnel on the platform. "Put your heads together and make up a list of things to discuss. Find the contingency plan and emergency procedures manual for Hell's Gate and start working out which things can be handled with the current personnel, and which things need outside help. ID the personnel that ran the power plant and life support systems. Got that?" Jake pauses again, waiting until he sees several heads nodding. "And start learning basic Na'vi. It may save your lives."
"We've been talking about that. Need someone like you or Norm who knows what lingo is important for us to know."
"I'll send some of Grace's students that know English. They can get you started."
"That will do nicely, Jake."
"Sorry I blew up before. You did the right thing to abort my link. Just don't make a habit of it."
"Thanks, Jake. Just wish we could have caught you sooner."
"Yeah, got a lot on my mind. Had a busy day planned before you yanked me back. See you later." Jake lays down and pulls the door shut as the scanner spins up again.
This time Jake wakes up with a very worried Neytiri staring down at him.
"Jake! Are you well? Is everything good?" Her worried face softens into a concerned look as his body moves and he begins sitting up.
"I'm fine, physically, both bodies. Well, this one at least. But we have another big problem. I sent everyone we can't trust up to the spacecraft that brought me here. They have more humans on board than what they can handle. They want to return some of them, those that keep Hell's Gate running, and pick up supplies so the rest can return to Earth safely. If we do nothing, they will have to kill the excess people. Maybe all of them will die if there is a major systems failure, especially with life support."
"That is very bad. We must help them. All life must be protected. But what if the soldiers return instead?"
"That means everyone that can leave the Well of Souls must do so to guard Hell's Gate, just in case, and fight if necessary."
Oh, Jake, everyone thinks we are done fighting."
"That won't be the case until the Venture Star leaves. Then, we must prepare for the arrival of the next one. It has machines Hell's Gate needs to keep the humans here alive. I don't know how many are past the point of no return, so we will have to be ready for several more arrivals, all about an Earth year apart. Let's get going. I need to get the ikran makto to fly to Hell's Gate, right away."
The Omatikaya Clan is arrayed in the usual Na'vi sleeping pattern for traveling clans lucky enough to find a defensive position against a steep hillside or rock wall. When the clan vacated the Well of Souls before the battle, they moved their encampment here. They are hard against a cliff under an overhang that protects them from most weather. The frail elderly and families with babies and young children are in the most defensible position against the rock wall, centered on Mo'at's cave. Except for the previous night when Jake and Neytiri were isolated there to begin healing their hearts, the parents use this cave for night-time cryings, feedings, and changings. Surrounding them are the families with older children. Next comes the senior adults in good physical condition and the couples without children. Finally, the outer ring is made of adolescents and single adults. The young warriors are on this outer ring, and always sleep near the sentry posts, ready to help out when needed. Neytiri picked out their place directly in front of her mother's cave, at the outer edge. She and Jake have places on one side of the path to the cave, and Tsu'tey had his place across the path from them, but that space is empty now. They can easily run to any sentry position, if needed, from here.
Jake and Neytiri dress and leave together to get help from the other clan leaders. As they emerge from the cave, they are surprised that there are still eight sentinels outside the cave, but not the eight they greeted before retiring yesterday. Half are from a Plains clan that arrived at the Well of Souls last night, including its clan leader who is waiting to introduce himself. Most of the newly arrived clan are resting or setting up their own camp, but these warriors were happy to stand guard for the new Toruk Makto and his mate. With many of the Omatikaya still sleeping, the sentinels silently gather up their gear and walk with Jake and Neytiri down the trail towards the common area. When they are far enough away from the clan to not disturb anyone, proper introductions are made. When Jake tells them that a Na'vi force must immediately return to Hell's Gate, the clan leader says he will go now, and orders those with him to gather up their clan. Jake promises to give him some guides to lead them on the quickest route and thanks him for his quick action. After the members of this Plains clan take their leave, Jake and Neytiri hurry to inform the other clan leaders of the need to defend Hell's Gate again. Most warriors not helping the injured are happy for the chance to get out of the encampment again, even though the prospects of another battle with the skypeople is not welcomed.