The rhythmic sound of mechanical beeping filled the air. A reawakened mind reclaimed a body that felt heavy as a rock. She groggily opened her reluctant eyelids and squinted at her surroundings. The dryness of her mouth nearly made her choke.
She laid in a suffocatingly dark, casket-sized capsule, with her torso strapped into a harness. The sound of her own quick-paced breathing moved through her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them. Once her pupils had adjusted, the darkness was replaced by a dim, hazy blue light. The back of her head subtly bounced against a thin pillow due to the low gravity environment.
With a sudden mechanical whirring, the capsule door slid open and pulled out the bed she was strapped to. Her eyes narrowed at the abrupt brightness of the sideways diamond-shaped room. Pale blue lights glared down from the walls, illuminating the nurses as they checked on each passenger.
A nurse, whose scrubs, gloves, and hat were the same color as the lights, floated towards her. He pressed his feet against the wall and grabbed the harness across her chest for stability. Her throat constricts with an attempt to say something, but the only thing heard was the hoarse strain of her vocal cords. The nurse took a close look at the medical tubes attached to my arm and harness, then smiled.
"It'll wear off soon, don't worry." He said. "You have been in cryosleep for six years." She cleared her throat and nodded slowly. Six years…
The nurse undoes the harness strapping me to the bed and I'm free to move around. My limbs and neck feel stiff from lying still for so long. The voice of the same male nurse projected from across the room,
"You've been in cryo for five years, nine months, and twenty-two days! You will be hungry, you will be weak! If you feel nausea, please use the sacks…" He continued on, but she ignored it. Instead her attention was focused on finding her locker among the dozens along the wall. Finally, she found the one labeled 'Emberleigh, B'. short for her name, Brinn Emberleigh.
Over the next couple of minutes, Brinn and the other passengers hurriedly dressed and were moved to a waiting area. A few nurses remained with them as they waited, carefully checking on their conditions. Before she knew it, she was guided to an aircraft with other men and women and strapped into a seat between two unfamiliar men. After waiting for what must have barely been five minutes, a man started to yell out orders.
"Exo-packs on! Let's go! Exo-packs on!" Brinn copied what the people around her were doing and started to prepare the mask in her hands. It had been a long time since she had put on an exo-pack.
"Remember, people," the man continued casually, "you lose that mask, you're unconscious in twenty seconds, you're dead in four minutes. Let's nobody be dead today! Looks very bad on my report." Brinn eventually figured out the mask and slipped it over her entire face, adjusting the straps over and under her ears before pressing the air seal button.
The aircraft descended quickly, making Brinn's stomach flip. The aircraft settled and the man started yelling again, "Harnesses off! Get your packs! Put it together, let's go!" His assistant simultaneously repeated, "Harnesses off! One minute!" Once everyone was standing and had their bags and weapons in hand, the man walked down the line and said,
"When that ramp comes down, go directly into the base. Do not stop!" Finally near the hatch, he said, "Go straight inside. Wait for my mark!" After he finished speaking, he slid his own mask onto his face. The hatch slowly opened with a shrill hissing sound. As soon as the ramp was fully exposed, the man said, "Go, go, go, go! Get out of there!" and the people jogged down onto the concrete.
Brinn followed behind, nearly tripping on the feet of the soldier in front of her. She briefly looked over her shoulder, noticing that one of the men who was seated beside her had not gotten up. Before she looked away, Brinn saw him pull out a wheelchair. The man's commanding voice rang out again, "Keep moving! Let's go, let's go!" She could hear the thuds of boots tapping against the metal ramp as they made their way to the building.
The ground was wet and slick under her boots, and the air in the mask was warm from her breath. They passed by two amused-looking men, who said, "Well, well, ladies. Look at all this fresh meat!" Then chuckled and hooted. They made it to the building and were shown the way to a meeting place with a massive window at the end of the room. Everyone took a seat, with a few standing near the window.
"You're not in Kansas anymore." Said Colonel Quaritch as he confidently walked down the aisle between benches. Heads followed as he strided down the aisle. "You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact, every second of every day. If there is a hell, you might want to go there for some RR after a tour on Pandora."
Colonel Quaritch pointed to the window, back facing his audience. "Out there, beyond that fence, every living thing that crawls, flies, or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for Jujubes." As he finished the sentence, he turned to face the people sitting down. Quaruitch was a lean man with nearly white, buzzed hair and dead blue eyes. Brinn stared at him with a clenched jaw. A trio of scars ran across the right side of his face, stretching from his temple to the back of his head.
He continued, "We have an indigenous population of humanoids called the Na'vi." Brinn straightened up at the mention of the Na'vi people. They were the reason why she was brought all the way out here. Why she agreed to be brought all the way out here. "They're fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin that will stop your heart in one minute, and they have bones reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber." The colonel spoke with bitter contempt, which put Brinn on edge.
Turned out the marines weren't so fond of the Na'vi. "They are very hard to kill." He added, walking to the middle of the aisle. The marine in the wheelchair arrived, momentarily stealing Colonel Quaritch's attention. "As head of security," he continued, "it is my job to keep you alive." He paused and turned around, then said, "I will not succeed. Not with all of you. If you wish to survive, you need to cultivate a strong mental attitude."
Quaritch returned to the front as he said, "You've got to obey the rules. Pandora rules. Rule number one…"