And An Undiscovered Country — Chapter V
Bridgehead City
"Undies?" Wade shouted over the prop wash of the kestrel.
"Uh-yeah, check," answered Asher while he adjusted his exopack.
"Ten pairs of shirts?"
Asher nodded.
"Ten pairs of pants?"
"Can we do this later?" Asher shouted back.
"We can but don't complain to me when you forget something! And don't expect me to share. I hate sharing! By the way, did you bring clothing for the avatar?"
Asher thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "I thought that was your job?"
Wade laughed. "I'm not the one driving the damn thing, buddy!"
"Don't worry," Danielle chimed in, zooming past them. "Two containers full of clothing and gear for the avatar, all onboard the kestrel."
Asher was impressed. "Someone is on top of things."
Wade waved his hand, dismissing the arbitrary comment.
Asher's gaze then fixated upon the kestrel, instantly locking onto the massive avatar occupying one of the passenger seats. Its towering stature and unmistakable blue skin starkly contrasted with the industrial-military gray interior of the gunship. Leaving no doubt in Asher's mind that he really was going to be thrust into an otherworldly realm of green vast jungles and untold threats. At least he was going to be in an avatar, making things easier for him to traverse through the jungle without suffocating to the humidity. But when he took a closer look at the avatar, it weirdly enough bore an uncanny resemblance to himself.
"This is wild," he muttered to himself.
Inside, the avatar's head drooped to one side, projecting an almost lifeless expression that complemented its dormant form. If it wasn't for the shades masking his eyes, Asher would have thought it was alive. But as he stepped aboard the gunship, Asher recoiled away when the tail from the avatar flicked restlessly around.
"Does it always do that?" He asked Danielle, his finger pointing to the tail.
She caught the involuntary muscle movement of the avatar when she glanced over to Asher. "The twitches?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with it?"
"Nothing." She said, patting the avatar on the forearm. "He's about as unconscious as a doll. But that does not mean he's dead. The body still reacts to the environment. Which is good, otherwise if he didn't, then he really is dead and you're in deep shit."
Asher mouthed an 'ah' before turning to stare up to the blue alien. Again, Asher found it strange that it looked like him and yet, not quite. When it was floating around in the amnio tank, it looked completely alien. Outside the tank, and breathing? It looked more like Asher. The feline nose, no. The ears? Definitely not him. But he can see that the cheeks rounded in a way that hinted it was him and he imagined that if it smiled, it would also sport some dimples. The jawline was a little off balance, but Asher chalked it up to how it had its head tilted to the side.
However he did have a problem with the choice of shirt they picked for it.
"Really?" Asher said, 'Resources Development Administration Property'?" 'Property' being in big red letters on the white shirt.
"Sorry! We ran out of those tiger strip shirts that you've asked for." answered Danielle, her face shrinking behind the apology.
Might as well wear a billboard that says, hey I'm human! Shoot me! Asher begrudgingly thought. At least they gave it a decent green ballcap with a pair of nice sunglasses, even if the sunglasses were somewhat tilted, exposing the underside of one of the closed eyelids. Asher corrected that.
"Dibs!" Wade cried out. The best spot according to Wade Kingston was right next to the cockpit. He believed being seated by the pilots brought good luck, which he felt they needed at the moment.
Left grinning in the wake of Wade's playful antics, Danielle hunched down to avoid the hanging netting of supplies suspended above her designated seat.
Carefully sliding her bag beneath the netting, she settled into her spot, intent on providing both company to the avatar and protecting it from any unforeseen predicaments that might arise during the flight. Naturally, like any good technician, Danielle meticulously checked the harness securing the avatar.
Secured, good! She thought with a good tug on the harness.
Glancing across at Asher, who was shoving his duffel bag beneath his own seat, Danielle motioned for him to inspect the harness on the avatar situated on his side.
Following her cue, Asher leaned around the avatar and concluded that the harness was securely fastened on his end as well. Flashing a thumbs-up in Danielle's direction, Asher settled into his seat. Standing at five-eleven, a faint sense of intimidation crept up his spine as he craned his neck, realizing that he was at least three whole feet shorter than the towering avatar beside him. What on earth had they been feeding this thing? While he knew the avatars were intended to match the Na'vi in height, this disparity seemed... unfair.
Danielle removed a pair of dangling headsets from the hook above her, slipping them on and activating the switch on the cord, enabling her voice to be heard by everyone aboard the gunship. A soft crackle of static briefly interrupted Wade's thoughts.
"Can you all hear me?"
Wade, still fumbling with his own headset, heard her words piercing through the audio interference. It seemed only fitting to respond with an enthusiastic declaration: "Loud 'n clear, Danny!"
Danielle smiled, pleased to hear it. Since the day she returned to the RDA, she felt lost, isolated, and humiliated. It was no secret to everyone at Bridgehead and Hell's Gate that she, along with twenty others, were traitors. It took a long time for her to come to grips that she effectively betrayed the Na'vi to save her own skin. However, she now regarded her actions in a more humble light. She knew that if she did stay with Jake, the Na'vi would have certainly been killed, along with herself. By surrendering, they staved off death for the Na'vi and gave Jake's family enough time to leave Hell's Gate.
Though her excuses did not help her ease back into the fold of the RDA. Everyone tried their best to make her feel uncomfortable and unwelcomed. She would find herself shunned at the mess hall, or outright ignored in meetings with other technicians, engineers, and scientists. Some have even yelled out traitor to her for no other reason than to embarrass her. One night, she came back to her quarters to find that her door was vandalized with blue lettering that read, 'Blue lover go back!'
One of many reasons she chose to sleep in the lab afterwards.
Everyone, she felt, was out to get her. Except Wade. The moment she met him, he shook her hand without a second thought to hesitate and spoil his actions. He also had a big smile on his face that made her feel comfortable; clearly innocent of the rumors of who Danielle was. She felt that he only saw her for who she was and that sincerity in him drove her to be protective of Wade. Because like herself, Wade was bullied by other employees who found him to be too eccentric, too weird, too… much. And he was not a traitor.
"Yup, five-by-five, Miss Danielle!" Asher exclaimed.
"Whoa, that's loud." Wade commented, adjusting his.
"Pilot, looks like we're all good here."
"Roger that." The pilot acknowledged Asher.
The pilot and co-pilot swiftly went through a pre-flight checklist, ensuring all systems were ready. Standing outside and in front of the kestrel was a marshal in an orange vest, his hands occupied with guiding lights. Behind the glint of sunlight bouncing off his mask, a hint of impatience lingered on his face, wondering when exactly this bird was ready to take off.
"Thank you for choosing Just Cause. I'm Silas 'Corkscrew' O'Connell, your aviator on this fine Pandora afternoon. Now, a little reminder to all our new passengers—please, for the love of all that's holy, refrain from sticking your heads out during the flight." The pilot's voice crackled over the intercom as he flicked at hat switches above him. "Yes the forests are lovely around this time of year but as the Good book says, 'don't be deceived, my brothers and sisters'. She's a temptress and as seductive as she is, she wants you dead. So I heavily advise that you all stay in your seats. If you do happen to test your luck and die—then that is your problem, not ours. That's all and thank you again for choosing Just Cause."
"Cheery," Danielle quipped, her face giving that expression to say, 'weirdo'.
"Gauges look good on my end, Silas." His co-pilot reported.
"Yup, got it. Clear on one and…. Two. We're good to go brother."
"Uh, yahoo!"
Signaling to the marshall that they were ready, the marshall then directed the pilot with his guiding lights to face southwest.
Asher immediately felt his stomach doing those turns again. Unlike the previous flight to Bridgehead where all he had to do was hold back his lunch, this flight reminded him of all those missions back on Earth. It always started the same. The burning fuel tainting the air, the searing adrenaline stinging the tip of his fingers, his feet fidgeting against the hull, antsy to leave, while anxiety rode up and down his sides, all combating against the thrill of inserting into some dangerous environment that he had no clue about.
God, he missed this. He made a mental note that as soon as he got back to Earth, he was going to return to the Army.
As the rotors of the kestrel spun faster in opposing directions, a distinct mechanical whine filled the cabin before being overpowered by the soft rumbling of the engines. They were ready. Pulling the stick back, the gunship's nose lifted slightly, making the necessary turn as directed by the marshal to head south. Asher silently pleaded with his stomach to settle down, and just as he was starting to feel a sense of calm, the kestrel leapt into the air, sending both their breakfast and necks downward.
Wade tightly gripped his harness, adjusting to the sudden jolt of the gunship.
Danielle grimaced in her seat. Her experiences on Pandora had made her detest these types of flights. Too often, the reports of Na'vi attacks largely came towards the kestrels. After all, they were easy prey for their best warriors, leading Danielle to whisper a small prayer that the Na'vi lacked the appetite to ambush them now.
Below, they observed several trucks traveling in the opposite direction, kicking up dust that the passengers aboard the kestrel followed. Judging by the path of the vehicles, it appeared they were heading towards the marina. The rumor that both Danielle and Wade had heard about prompted Ardmore to construct a massive sea ship to find this supposed substance out there in the sea. Where? It was anyone's guess but that was not their concern. Their primary focus for now was on Rayan Asher.
"Bridgehead is getting bigger by the day." Danielle said over the headset. "Before I came to re-settle here. All I saw… was dirt. Just dirt everywhere. The construction crews used a chemical that killed the trees. I'm guessin' they were toxins of some sort. Because the trees died within hours. The only thing they had to do was remove the trees with bulldozers and soon, they brought in construction vehicles to fabricate the buildings. "
"Yup. You've seen one RDA colony. You've seen them all," said Asher. He was well acquainted by the way the RDA worked back in the Sol System.
"As you know—" Danielle said, leaning over the avatar, "the backpack we brought has a built-in network system. Complicated system, too complex to explain to you… no offense."
Asher shook his head, he did not mind being spared an exhaustive lecture on some technology that was well out of his league of understanding. The only thing he asked for was that it worked. There was nothing worse than some technology you depend on, failing on you at a critical moment.
"It will keep your avatar operational inside the floating mountains. If the battery dies, you are disconnected. You can walk away from the backpack but do not walk too far or you'll disconnect, that's what the watch is for." She said, pointing to the watch on the left wrist of the avatar.
Asher leaned in, his eye catching the brand.
Coros… expensive.
"The watch will tell you both the battery life and how far you are away from the backpack. If you get the backpack damaged, you will disconnect. It can handle several feet of water pressure but don't test that theory out, okay? The backpack has silicon wafers woven on top, so anytime you're under direct sunlight, it will charge. Do not keep it in the shadows!"
Asher nodded along, his gaze drifting to the big avatar sitting beside him, wondering what exactly was going to happen out there.
"One more thing! If you disconnect, there is no way we can get you back into your avatar. You abuse the backpack—you lose your avatar! Simple! Any questions?"
"Yeah," he leaned out to look at her. "Tell me about the Na'vi."
Her face changed to one of confusion. "What?"
Asher spoke louder over the headset. "The Na'vi—tell me about them."
"What's there to tell that you don't already know?"
"Ma'am. This is my first time to Pandora. I have only ever read about the Na'vi. You—you have direct experience with them."
She sunk back into the seat. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Dr. Hurley told me about you—"
Danielle hated where this was going.
"—that you were with Jake and the Na'vi. I'm very curious to know both before I meet them."
She remained quiet for a moment, pondering on her next words carefully while the landscape beneath them changed from concrete to dirt.
"You think because I was with Jake and the Na'vi that I'm some kind of traitor?" She asked, her words intertwining with an agitated tone.
Furrowing his eyebrows, Asher was unsure what he triggered. "Ma'am?"
"Listen. Driver." Danielle said, her tone now subdued with grievous annoyance. "I don't know what Dr. Hurley has told you about me. But I am not a traitor. Ardmore was willing to pardon us if we surrendered Hell's Gate. I agreed like many others that day because there was no way we could win."
Asher listened beneath a silent fortitude of his cautious gaze, unsure where this conversation was leading her.
"The real traitor is Jake—he betrayed the Na'vi and us. I, along with many others, fought tooth and nail to protect the Na'vi. They were willing, and supporting of some truce, some treaty. Something you want to bring to the table now. But Jake? He was preparing the Na'vi for war. Thirteen damn years, that's what he did. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Even after Ardmore threatened total annihilation of the Na'vi! He still did not care. He sent them into space, hoping to defeat them. Can you imagine? Na'vi in space! Ludicrous! But he did and what happened? Well, some Na'vi died, some of our own died, and the RDA still won and… now I'm here. Because he ultimately betrayed us, and he betrayed himself."
The acerbic words echoed through her voice. To Asher, she sounded as though she hated the man.
She started thumbing her chest. "I. Did. Not. Betray anyone."
Asher steadied himself; half-measuring and half-surveying the truth of her conversation to make sure he did not just step into a quagmire that he could not get out of. When there was a pause in her words, he tip-toed, figuratively, towards a reclamation.
Wade on the other hand, or rather, by the corner of the gunship, was listening intently to Danielle. He was afraid that by digging up old painful memories, that Danielle would have a hard time bottling them back again.
"Forgive me… ma'am." Asher said, he was deliberately quiet with his words, choosing a diplomatic approach to making amends to any offense he might have made. "I did not mean to imply anything about you. I came to you about the Na'vi, about Jake because I believe you are the closest expert to both of them." He swallowed that dry hard lump in his throat as he continued. "And I appreciate what you said about Jake. I will write that down in my notes. Is there anything else you can say about the Na'vi?"
Danielle brushed the strands of black hair behind her ear, wishing for this wave of remorse and bitterness to fade out from her mind as the question of the Na'vi still came to her.
"They're…" she smiled a little, reminiscing of her time with them. "They're kind people. Innocent. Gentle. But proud and powerful. I would advise you, Mr. Asher, that you tread lightly with them. The Omatikaya have had their unsatisfying fill with us humans and with you crawling into their space is like throwing a snowball into hell."
Asher scratched his neck. That sounded concerning. "Thank you ma'am."
Soon, an awkward silence filled the space in-between Asher and Danielle before a crackling interjection from Wade interrupted it. "Hey bud," he said. "Have you learned their language yet?"
Asher turned, finding Wade past the metal frame of the seats. "No?"
Wade cocked his head, saying, "What? Serious?"
Even Danielle looked at Asher with a dumbfounded expression. "Hold on. You went through avatar training, right?"
Asher nodded.
"Then you should have been taught their language? Everyone who goes through the Program are experts on the Na'vi language by the time they leave for Pandora."
Asher shrugged, his eyes blinking at the notion. "The Program was half-staffed by the time I entered training. The RDA fired a ton of people and by the time I graduated. The entire Program was killed. Learning the language was nowhere near the qualifications to drive the avatar."
Danielle sighed, her head knocking against the headrest so as to look up to the ceiling of the kestrel with disbelief weighing on her face. She silently mouthed shit.
Wade, however, found this to be an opportunity to flex his skills with the language. "Well, you're in luck buddy! You're looking at an expert!"
"You?" Asher asked, surprised that an engineer had to learn it.
Wage smiled. "Yes sir! Three years. Caltech! Go beavers!"
"O…okay, cool. Why do I need to learn it?"
"Why?" Danielle repeated, her underlying frustration with Asher was finding its limitations. "Because you need to speak with the Na'vi! How else are you going to get that treaty of yours signed? Charades?"
Asher shrugged. He always relied on translators to get the work done. If he had to stop to learn every single language on Earth, then he would never get his job done. The only other language he knew was bad English.
"I'll use a translator then." He answered almost meekly, expecting retaliation from both Wade and Danielle.
"No you will not," Danielle protested. "You have to learn at least some of the basics. Otherwise you're going to get that avatar of yours killed out there."
"Ma'am," Asher said, finding his courage again. "I do not have time. Besides. I'm only going to talk to Jake. I do not see a reason to talk to the Na'vi. If he speaks for the Na'vi, then I speak to him."
Danielle clenched her fist. How ignorant was this man? Did he not pay attention about the mention of Jake betraying the Na'vi?
"Jake might…" she hesitated for a moment, her gaze falling over the avatar that sat between them. For reasons she could not explain, the avatar took her back to a place where she was talking to Jake. Face-to-face.
'Being a,' Jake said, looking at her with a funny expression that suggested to Danielle a certain kind of weight pressing down on him. 'Olo'eyktan—a leader—feels strange. I don't know how to explain it. I try. I really do but every single day just gets harder and harder. I don't know if I'm making it hard on myself or if they really do see me as Na'vi or they're respecting the title because of Neytiri. Heh… honestly? I wish Tsu'tey was still here.'
'You're too hard on yourself, Jake. Of course the Na'vi look up to you as their leader.' She said to him.
He looked down to her with a face that said I wish.
'Yeah… I guess.'
Danielle cleared her throat. The time warp made her feel nostalgic but also sad as she looked back to Asher. "Jake only represents the Omatikaya. But he is not representative of all the Na'vi. That treaty, if it's meant for all of them, means you need to seek out an unbiased third party."
"Who?" He asked, interested in any leads.
She gave a light shrug, "I would try asking around when you get there."
The kestrel began to disappear behind the concrete walls as General Frances Ardmore quietly sipped the last of her coffee. Watching from behind the comfort of the observation deck that was inside the administrative tower; Ardmore stared in silence, her mind ruminating on Rayan Asher. The plan she developed was delicate, fragile, and volatile. It required enormous willpower on her part to not just kill Asher and bury his body somewhere on Pandora. Because at the moment, she felt Asher was going to do something stupid to upset this plan and ruin everything.
But she also knew that he was the key to getting to Jake and if she can get to him without destroying those floating mountains, then it was a victory. Asher should count his lucky stars that Ardmore was obeying the guidelines left by the UNE. Otherwise he would've been dead by now. The gamble, as it was, lied on whether or not he was foolish enough to play the role of Jake Sully.
She hoped he did.
"Good luck, Mr. Asher. You'll need it." She said, raising her cup in gratitude to the man.
Pivoting on her heel, she had another meeting with this Aussie who claims to be the best there is in hunting tulkun and he wanted an hour's worth of her time. He better be worth it, she thought.
The shadow of the aerial vehicle ran unevenly over the barren land of the kill zone, projected by the second star of Alpha Centauri that loomed over the easterly horizon. Out in the kill zone was a wasteland of death. Evidence of trees stuck out from the earth. Like bones of an ancient world, they remained behind, a cautionary tale, as it were, to the fruitless endeavors that Humanity had undertaken against this Paradise.
And before long, Asher fell into a calming trance as the brown dead dirt transformed instantly into the emerald green of the forest. He was no stranger to the Pandoran jungles, perhaps by his very experience of a few days on the moon had given him permission to declare the jungles a 'concrete of green' that could—no—would in time, swallow the imprints left behind by the RDA. However, just seeing them again lulled him into a tranquil peace that within a matter of minutes, caused the heavy eyelids to finally close… while the muffled sound of the rushing wind told him that everything was going to be all right.
5 Hours Later — Forward Operating Base Ticonderoga
It only took the kestrel a meager thirty minutes to arrive to Ticonderoga. Built in conjunction with Bridgehead, Ticonderoga was less of a colony like her cousin, Hell's Gate, and more of an observation post with teeth. Teeth being the foundational word and reason the octagonal fort contained fifty-five SEC-OPS troopers, five amplified-mobility platforms, and a small detachment squadron of four scorpions. Supported by a fifteen-foot-high concrete dual-layered wall that encased the fort, topped by barb wiring, and surrounded by seven gun towers just for good measure.
She was ready to chomp.
She was also quickly proving herself to be quite the lethal obstacle for any suspecting Na'vi trying to get the drop on them. And like any imposing obstacle, she sat nuzzled inside the overgrowth of trees and bushes, deliberately hidden whereas Bridgehead and Hell's Gate made their presences known by clearing bush for up to several kilometers wide.
Circling above the air, Danielle and Wade got a bird's eye view of the place that was to be their new home. From Danielle's point of view, she was awestruck by how much SEC-OPS was prepared to go to war with the Na'vi. With Wade, he was taken a little by surprise. He suspected, partially in his mind, that Ticonderoga was more or less like Hell's Gate. But seeing the gun towers shimmering in the sunlight and the parade of troopers standing by the landing pad, he reconsidered that belief and substituted it with the fact that Ardmore was planning something.
For Asher, Ticonderoga appeared to him no different than any other military base he had been to. Only difference was, he felt safer here than at Bridgehead, where he suspected that Ardmore would have controlled him more directly from there.
Upon landing and departing from the kestrel; Asher, Danielle, and Wade spent the next hour greeting everyone at the landing pad. It was a who's-who of SEC-OPS' finest. Beginning with Captain Nathan Richter, a man whose veteran status earned him immense respect among his soldiers. He sported a horseshoe mustache, with grey streaks running through his black hair. The muscles on this man's arms made Wade take a second look. He was plenty of brawn, but easily fooled people with his eloquent speech that threw Asher for a loop.
After a brief talk regarding each other's military past, the kind that made Danielle yawn and Wade fiddle with his fingers, the Captain then ushered them to the main complex. Along the way, the Captain was determined to make it a point that he did not endorse Asher's mission.
He showed Asher the ingrooved scar on his left leg, a 'gift' as he called it, from the Na'vi when he came to Pandora. He stated that the first wave on Pandora came across an embedded group of guerrilla fighters, and among these fighters was a warrior who gave him that scar.
Indifferent to the story, Asher nodded, taking the story with a pinch of skepticism on whether or not that was not merely an accidental scar the Captain received while traversing through the alien wilderness.
Regardless of how the Captain felt about Asher's mission, he told them to prepare a small speech to summarize their mission. If there was one thing Asher hated it was doing public talks. Especially about his mission that could cause some suspicion among SEC-OPS who did not hold the Na'vi in a good light.
After some meandering with words, the so-called speech and explanation of why they were here did not rouse suspicion in the slightest, but rather, laughter—at first. The crowd arrived at the conclusion that Asher was here to get it on with a Na'vi woman. In their own words of course.
But Asher was neither bothered by that belief nor offended by how they saw him in that light. They all knew the story of Jake Sully. Fighting against the big oppressive RDA to protect the one he loved. Someone that Asher read in the profile of Jake Sully to be Neytiri.
Strange alien name but he had no idea who she was, let alone care who she was to Jake. He just knew that Jake took to fighting against the RDA over a woman and all the men and women at Ticonderoga assumed Rayan Asher was planning to do the same.
'Nope,' he said. 'I'm only here to see their side of the story.' That did not get a laughter but a silent, awkward stare by all fifty-five faces.
'When you do find out he's nothing more than a traitor. You should kill him!' someone erupted. The crowd cheered.
Sighing, Asher could not wait to leave and the moment they did leave the main complex, Asher busted out laughing.
Wade crooked his head, asking, "What are you laughing about?"
"That they think I'm here to lay with some alien woman."
Wade shared a serious expression. "Are… you?"
"No, of course not. Why the hell—" Asher noticed that Wade was about to laugh. "Oh…"
"Aha! I'm just yanking your leg." Wade said, elbowing Asher in the arm.
Asher bobbed his head with the momentum of the elbow, grinning. It was a silly idea.
Walking alongside Asher was Danielle, her hands in her pockets and her face searching the ground while they walked back together to the concrete bunker that was to be their home for the next several weeks.
"When we first came to Pandora." She started to say, her head shaking in disapproval while the light from the towers glinted off her mask. "There was a secret going around. A secret that quite a lot of people wanted to keep to themselves. That we as humans, had a genuine attraction to the Na'vi."
Asher yawned behind his mask. "Miss Danielle. Humans have had strange attractions to anything remotely looking, erm, hot."
"True, but I believe that is what drives a lot of people to hate them. They cannot form any basic relationship with the Na'vi, so they relent and attack them, out of some primal destruction of 'if I cannot have you then no one can' mentality."
"So you believe the RDA attacked the Na'vi because they cannot have sex with them?" Asher said, a mischievous look teasing the corner of his lips.
"Not in such a vulgar point of view. We simply did not care. We were still every bit in need of unobtanium and the Na'vi, no longer perceived as obtainable, were now regarded as disposable."
"Poetic," Asher noted behind a slight drip of sarcasm.
"Mr. Asher," Danielle begged. "Don't turn this into a joke. Even if you think this is funny, the Na'vi have died by human hands."
"And so have humans by the Na'vi."
"Whose side are you on?"
He looked at her, his expression falling between seriousness and vagueness as he answered, "My own."
"Huh?"
"Ma'am." Asher said, softly. "I want to protect both our people and the Na'vi. I can't do my job if I start taking sides. Whether you believe the Na'vi are as oppressed as you make them out to be or the RDA claims they are truly the attackers in this conflict, is none of my concern. My job is to find out from both sources directly and work my way in finding the truth."
Her eyes narrowed. "So what are you exactly? Some kind of asshole who gets a thrill by playing politics with people's lives?"
He chuckled. "No-no. If I take sides, then that means I'm working on their behalf. That's something I can't do. Ever."
"So if you believe what the RDA says about the Na'vi?"
"I have to find that out on my own. If the Na'vi are indeed the ones causing this so-called war. Then Ardmore has the UNE's permission to continue her campaign against them."
Danielle froze, her eyes quivering with disgust. "How could you?"
"How could I what?"
"Be so… so, callous!" She said, spitting out the final word.
"I'm not," he answered, shaking his head. "Emotional attachments invites a ton of unique problems that can harm everyone. If I automatically side with the Na'vi, then I'm hurting very good people who are just working to make a living. If I automatically side with the RDA, then I'm hurting the Na'vi. I don't want to hurt anyone, ma'am. But if their actions fits the story the RDA has been saying, then I cannot do anything else about it."
He sounded cold, calculating, uncaring. Leading Danielle to say, "It sounds to me like you already found a side to take."
Asher was about to take another step towards the bunker when the statement was tossed to him. Tilting his head to her, he shared an expression that suggested 'I don't know'. He had no real answers to her questions and the more she wanted to find a good answer that benefited her wellbeing, the less interested he was to remain standing around.
Danielle Ibarra remained quiet for the rest of the evening, her thoughts rebelling against Rayan Asher while Wade Kingston silently trailed after him. No one, it seemed among the trio, were interested in talking, least of all, Danielle, who slid her card against the security pad, allowing them to enter their home.
Their home, if one had the audacity to call it that, was grey all around, with windows big enough to face the courtyard. They suspected, at least by the black shelves inside, that the bunker was used to house munitions by the evident copper casing founds all along the floor. Wade, through his mild case of OCD started to pick at them, like some city pigeon before placing them elsewhere in the bunker.
Asher gravitated towards the makeshift link room. One link unit sat against the side of the wall, with a computer station squeezed into the corner. It was not much but it was entirely doable.
"So buddy!" cried Wade, his hand patting on Asher's shoulder. "Excited?"
"No."
"Huh?"
"I'm not excited."
"You're not? Do you hate being here?"
"I hate being away from my family."
"Family? You have a wife?"
Asher snorted, a slight smile appeasing his face. "Never found time to settle down," he said, adding, "But no, I just miss my family. My sister, my parents. Y'know—that family."
"Well, I'm kinda jealous you're going to be driving an avatar."
"To be honest, it's not my cup of tea."
Wade gasped. "What are you? Some contrarian? You don't like being on Pandora. You don't like driving an avatar—I mean, while I was in school everyone wanted to be an avatar driver. To think, being in some other body, but not entirely human. Gives you chills, buddy!"
"Yeah?" Asher said, looking at him. A puzzled feature flashed across his expression but faded as he started to turn towards the doorway. "Not my cup of tea."
"You're going to change your mind when you meet them! Just you wait. Before you know it, you're going to do nothing but talk about how cool they are!" Wade cried out with his voice echoing throughout the bunker.
Asher spotted Danielle sitting at the only table in the room, her back turned to him as she rested her chin in her hands. He leaned in, hoping to catch a glimpse of her mood, but her curtain of brunette hair concealed her expression.
"Goodnight, ma'am." He said, addressing her.
She continued to ignore him, offering no response. With no acknowledgment, Asher moved on and entered the next room where stacks of boxes lined the wall. Surveying the area, he noticed that his cot was wedged between these boxes. Along the brick wall, he observed crude curses scribbled by bored SEC-OPS troopers. Taking a seat on his cot, he heard the familiar creak of the metal frame under his weight.
He stared at the floor, feeling the familiar pre-mission jitters creep into his gut. These were the jitters that kept him up all night, strategizing and contemplating what lay ahead.
Throughout his life, Asher had only seen Pandora through news clippings, movies, and documentaries—all produced by the RDA with a heavy propaganda slant. They portrayed the forests of Pandora as terrifying, highlighting frequent animal attacks and conflicts with the Na'vi, emphasizing the casualties instigated by Jake.
Inhaling the recycled air, Asher did not know what to make about Jake or the Na'vi. To him, they were one and the same, with the small benefit that Jake had once been human. That was what Asher needed to do, tap into Jake's human side and reach down into that human side to pull out the truth. Because somewhere within Jake's story, there had to be the truth about what truly transpired on Pandora all those years ago.
Asher just hoped he didn't die on his first day in the jungle.
July 18th, 2168 — Somewhere in the outskirts of the Hallelujah Mountains
"Okay, there's no way I can land so you're gonna have to jump!" The pilot shouted over the headset.
Bracing himself with the handrail, Asher, in his avatar form, leaned out to see if that was at all possible. By an educated estimate, the kestrel had to be somewhere between twelve and fourteen feet high and if the pilot was suggesting he jump at this height, then he had another thing coming for him.
"Get me closer!" Asher yelled.
"No can-do friend!"
"I'm gonna break my damn legs!"
Asher heard him laughing. "You're in an avatar!"
Avatar or not, this was high. Looking out again, Asher ran through a series of suggestions to entice the pilot to bring him lower to the ground when he heard, "I'm bingo on fuel. So you better jump now or forever hold your peace!"
Shit, shit, shit!
Asher took a step back, pulled on the backpack straps and… "Gah!"
A split second flashed before Asher's eyes from which a tranquil thought fooled him into believing that he somehow made it—until he realized the world he jumped into was now turning upside down.
Oh no…
In the middle of falling, he remembered faintly of his air school instructor yelling: Tuck in your shoulder, roll with the speed!
Tucking in his arm, he gambled on the instructor's words as he felt the ground striking into his shoulder. The momentum of the roll was pursued by the physical throttle of gravity as he slammed against a fallen tree log. The instructor's words paid off but—
The backpack! He screamed inside his head. Danielle warned him about the backpack. If it gets damaged in any way, then this mission was over.
"Crap!" He choked out, his lungs still assessing what was lost as he scrambled to his feet.
Within the tornadic wash of the kestrel, debris of dead leaves to twigs swirled around Asher, creating a cyclone of violent lashing that made it difficult for him to see his way out. Arm raised to protect his face; he followed his way out by looking down to the ground until he bumped into a tree.
Walking around the tree, Asher then turned the backpack over from his shoulder to find any damage. There was nothing. The protective waterproof Teflon cover had some green smearing from rolling on the ground but otherwise it was on good condition. Checking his watch, the radial dial told him that the network connection remained stable.
Peering out from behind the tree, Asher waved the pilot on, letting him know by his signal that he was okay.
"What a dumbass," said the pilot, laughing.
The hurricane-like winds immediately grew stronger as the gunship ascended higher into the blue empyrean skies.
This was the first time Asher had been inside the Pandoran forest and somehow, it was every bit unremarkable as he expected it to be. Unlike Earth where the last vestige of a forest was encapsulated inside a biodome, this forest looked like a maze that went on forever.
Ears flicking back, Asher heard the humming motors clapping into a melodic echo, letting him know it was safe to venture back into the open space.
A twig snapped under his weight, earning a rather curious look from the avatar who stared down at the jungle earth. He could not recount when he had managed to 'touch' grass, but this seemed like a first. Lifting his boot, he found the brown mud leaving behind an imprint of his sole.
"Damn." He muttered. He should've brought something with less impact to obscure his trail. No matter, he had to make do.
Looking around, he found the stillness of the jungle to be overwhelming. Asher had been absorbing the sounds of human noise for so long that he had forgotten what silence was like to occupy his thoughts. He tried to shake it off by playing a tune in his head but then came the sound of animal chirping off into the distance, its noise making a clapping echo that drew the sharp ears to lean towards it.
He looked about, his eyes scanning the tree line, then the bushes, then the faint rustling of a stream. There was an undercurrent of awareness that made the blue skin of the avatar shiver and his tail jerk from side-to-side, irritated by something.
A buzzing sound pulled on his ears to alert him of the insects flying across his vision, earning a curious look from a pair of small golden-rim eyes as Asher followed them. Unaware of what he was doing, he blinked out of the spell. Some part of him wanted to keep watching as though some part of this alien body was far more fascinated by the bugs than he would ever be in his human body. Shaking his head, Asher started to walk when he stopped again, only to find himself staring up at a strange upside-down mushroom, dangling from some tree limb. Taking a step back, he heard something crunching. It was another plant of some kind. The limited knowledge he had about Pandora rendered his thoughts mute. It was distinctly red to him, round and bulbous but small and squashed.
"Sorry little guy." He said, apologizing. The hell am I apologizing to this… this thing?
Shaking his head of such thoughts, he kneeled down and slipped the backpack from his shoulder. He unzipped the top cover and shoved his arm into it before fishing out what appeared to be a square folded metal frame. Unfolding it, it turned out to be a personal defense weapon, though unlike the variants the Skel operators used which was the M69-AR. This was a stripped-down Century Arma close-quarters submachine gun; one that use to be a rifle but could also be converted into one if need be.
Removing the optics from his vest pocket, he attached it to the picatinny rail of the weapon and aimed down the sights. Inside the view, Asher found that he could switch from normal vision, to FLIR, to thermal, all by a switch on the side. The benefit did not outweigh the cost of how much weight it applied to a rather small form factor of the submachine gun itself. But beggars can't be choosers.
Removing a magazine from the left breast of the vest, he slammed into the magwell and pulled the charging handle back before slipping the weapon's sling over his body. He was almost ready.
Asher was told that the RDA only had enough GPS satellites in orbit to provide information for their vehicles and their infantry squads. Not for a lonely avatar, as he was told. He did not mind it however, since he much preferred the use of paper maps to GPS-led devices. He argued that in many situations, he had no access to GPS satellites, forcing him to utilize local knowledge or to refer to maps anyways.
Pulling a fiber-mesh rolled tube from the backpack, he unrolled it and leveled it against his knee. The map was protected by a laminated cover and on the map was the topographical outline of the surrounding area and the Hallelujah Mountains. Turning his wrist over to see the watch face, Asher then clicked on the screen until a compass appeared on the watch face.
"Okay, north is this way." He pointed with his right hand to his rear. "And I need to go northeast."
He turned around to face northeast. "I am here… I think." He told himself with the blue fingertip tapping over the area with a red circle. This had to be the LZ. Asher was told by Danielle that he was to be dropped off in the vicinity of B2, which was the red circle and had to arrive to the first checkpoint, marked in a yellow circle. He had to reach C3, encircled in purple before sundown.
Looking back up to the horizon, he knew that his Ranger training was going to be put to the test. The jungle was dense and scarce of geographical anomalies, which was going to make this journey rather difficult for him and that idea alone both excited him and scared him, somewhat. He rolled the map and stuffed it into the backpack.
'Remember Asher, keep an eye out for dangerous animals.' Danielle's reminder echoed.
"Now you tell me." He said, climbing to his feet.
Pushing the activation switch from push-to-talk to automatic, Asher called in, "Ticon, this is Olympus, are you receiving me?"
"Lo- nd- -ar b-buddy."
The voice hissed with static, prompting Asher to adjust his earpiece while looking down at the radio nestled into his vest. Turning the frequency, he checked again.
"Say again, Ticonderoga."
"Loud and CLEAR, big buddy!"
Asher flinched back, yanking the earpiece away. "Damnit! Not so loud." He cursed. Fiddling the earpiece back, he tried again.
"Correction: Big buddy is Olympus, I repeat, big buddy is Olympus." Asher said, shaking his head that Wade did not sit through proper radio etiquette.
"Ticonderoga to Olympus, we have you. Over."
The voice now belonged to Danielle to which Asher thanked God above for giving him.
"Olympus to Ticonderoga, good to hear your voice. I am at the LZ in B2. Over."
"Roger. Good to hear you as well. Observe the following coordinates: You will walk three-hundred and twenty-one degrees northeast. After twenty-eight kilometers, turn three-hundred and fifty-one degrees northwest. You should then be close enough to see the mountains above your head. Breaks at each of the checkpoints that you have mapped out. We will be in the blind once you enter the center of the floating mountains. Acknowledge."
"Roger, Olympus is oscar-mike, out." Flicking the switch from automatic to push-to-talk, Asher was now alone in a labyrinth of green, brown, and whatever else crawled around.
"Good luck out there, Olympus. Out."
Asher breathed in the warm afternoon air, tasted the moisture that sought to suffocate him and looked ahead.
"All right, lets go." He told himself. Gripping the PDW, he flicked the safety off and marched off into the forest.
An hour passed into the day when his mind suddenly had the urge to tell him how otherworldly it was to be in an avatar. There was not a moment he spared to absorb this fact and since the only other time he had been in his avatar was for thirty minutes, minus the puking episode, he really did not quite understand what it was like to be in an avatar.
Standing perched on a rock, Asher scouted the environment ahead when the burning urge brought him bearing down upon his arm. The dark stripes across the elongated arm was truly alien but this was his arm, or at least, an arm that he had controlled. It did not belong to him but somehow, he felt it did. Raising his hand to his face, he flexed each finger. Was this him? Yes but… no.
Worse still was this uneasy feeling growing at the pit of his stomach that this was probably him.
"It's not." He told himself. "It's a tool. Like a hammer and a skillet." Why a skillet?
Strange animals howled into the far-off distance, causing his tail to snap side-to-side. Ears leaning back, he pulled his attention away from what he was looking at, to peer off to the side of his peripheral vision.
He felt that ugly feeling again. His senses were heightened in this avatar, telling him to keep going, to keep moving. But this forest rebuked his presence. The animals were a symptom to something more dangerous, more frightening. He compared it to diving into the deep end of the pool and realizing you have forgotten to take your swimming lessons.
Not that Asher would ever drown, he was an Army Ranger after-all. Best of the best, he reminded himself. He could stalk any human through cold or steel, follow a platoon through war torn urban hellscapes, and disappear when he needed to. It was the biggest reason the UNE brought him aboard their Colonies Division. Who else do they send but veterans to talk down a rabble of rebels?
But here? Here, he felt like the entire moon wanted him gone.
Licking his lips, he shook his head and calibrated his bearings to focus on the mission.
He spun his wrist over to see the compass watch-face, the needle danced a little as it pointed north. Aware of the excitement flowing throughout his body, the blue-tail behind him snapped unexpectedly.
This was one limb he could neither control nor influence aside from the stray emotion that electrified it to move.
"Give it a break," he told the tail, somehow expecting to obey his words.
Pushing forward, the Pandoran jungle became an assault on the senses. Everywhere he looked, he caught something he could not quite explain but worse was the uneven nature of the terrain. He was more use to falling through a sheet of ice or moon dust cutting into his suit than this. Thankfully, he would give credit to the engineers for designing the khaki-colored boots to withstand the harsh environment of the jungle.
The first checkpoint was coming up or at least he hoped it was coming up. Leaving the weapon to hang from the sling across his chest, he fetched for the map again and unrolled it; the laminated map offered clues as to where he was. The compass on the watch also provided additional information while the blue finger traced from the red circle of the LZ to the yellow circle with a '1' next to it, indicating the first checkpoint. The topographical information read that there was a nearby stream. If that is true, then he would use it to walk along it. It should take him to the next checkpoint further north.
Checking his watch, he allowed himself a break even if he wanted to do without one. By now, he would be pouring sweat and dehydrated if he was in his human body, but this avatar felt perfectly fine to him, which as Asher knew, was never a good indicator of thirst.
Testing this theory, he grabbed the mouthpiece hooked into the water reservoir behind him and sucked on it. As usual, the water tasted warm. Also, unknowingly behind Asher, the tail swung from side-to-side, indicating enjoyment of the refreshment.
"I guess that will do," he surmised of the experience.
The slow methodical trek was not filled with the boredom he came to expect with such a journey. Instead, his heightened awareness for his surroundings tugged his gaze to the exotic plants that was strewn all around the jungle.
He noted that some looked like spirals blossoming up from the ground. Bitten by curiosity, he took a closer look and even stretched out a hand, not thinking in the moment what would happen when his finger barely graced along the fin-like edge of the spiral.
—fwoomp!
The spiral shot back down, hiding into a shoot and spooking the avatar away from the plant, unsure what else it could do.
His ears flicked back and forth, reminding himself to not touch it again. If it looks strange, don't touch it, he told himself. After all, it would be embarrassing to end this mission because he touched a plant that shared toxins with his avatar instead of friendship.
Coming across a bush, he realized it was no ordinary bush but a vibrant one, teeming with flowery petals that looked nothing like the ones in a botany museum back on Earth. Over on the other side were white-tipped bulbous looking plants blooming alongside a dead log. He walked over to it, took one look, and shrugged but not before nearly stumbling into an array of blue-green fruit-like things that he described as 'candy shaped'.
It was all too strange, even his best dreams would never describe this place perfectly. He was like a wide-eyed child again, only this time with spherical golden-rim eyes, matched with a mouth line that refused to close, and flaring feline nostrils that took in the scent of the environment.
Drifting from one step to the next, Asher started to realize there were no animals to be seen, only heard. Not even the fearsome thanator, which he was told could kill him instantly, was seen or heard. Hell, not even the viperwolves, that were described to him as 'wolf'-like, as the name implies, were even around.
Lifting the weapon, he searched through the sights to see if any unique heat signatures could be outline— just in case they were stalking him.
Nothing.
Lowering the weapon, he moved on.
Hours faded away into the day, allowing for the sun overhead to sail towards the horizon. Stopping by a stream, he unhooked the water bottle from the backpack and began unscrewing the cap when he noticed how clear the stream looked. Not an ounce of pollution, even Mars water was dirtier than this and that was filtered water, the best kind!
Pouring out the water from the bottle, he chanced at scooping in some of the stream water to have a taste. He knew it was drinkable, but he was not so sure how drinkable it was. Doing the typical sniff test, he then took a hesitant sip; finding that not only did it taste good, but it also tasted way better than any water he had ever drunk before in his life.
His ears stood up when he swished the water in his mouth, taking in every bit of the taste before swallowing it.
"Not bad," he mused.
Funneling in more water into the bottle, he screwed the top back on and hooked the bottle back over on the backpack. Shuffling the weapon sling around, he then continued.
Being in an avatar was different than being in his human body. A body that currently sat in a bed, with eyes closed and two people he trusted to monitor him. It was also far enough away that it felt unreal for him to be here. It was a dream, a waking dream of sorts but this was a reality he was enduring. The technology was nothing new to him, having known about it for much of his lifetime, but he never had the opportunity to use it until now. Nonetheless, it did not quite feel real and yet it did… all at the same time.
Ears flattening, he wondered briefly what it would like to be a scientist. Pandora was a gold mine of information to exploit from and he imagined the program drivers had a lot of fun being in their avatars. They probably spent hours, countless hours just scouring the moon for the next discovery. In some way, he wished he was here with them years before. Instead, he was here with the intention of seeing if Jake or the Na'vi were as much of a threat as the RDA claimed.
Three more hours flourished out from his mind and two more checkpoints later, he finally arrived to C3, at least according to the map.
"Need to make camp," he told himself with eyes searching around for the best spot to do so.
The forest was far too thick to set up a bivouac. Not without searching further about but then he would be wasting valuable time trying to do so. Danielle had reminded him of the creatures that crawled over the forest floor, suggesting instead to set up a hammock when possible and avoid using a bivouac altogether.
Locating a pair of trees situated close enough, he believed he could use their thin trunks to create a hammock of sorts. Jumping over a root, Asher walked over to the pair of trees and slipped the backpack off. He gently laid it beside one tree where he also placed his weapon next to before removing the hammock net from the backpack. Unspooling the hammock, he looked around to see the cold darkness encroaching upon the short amount of time he had left.
Pandora never had true nights like on Earth. Not quite dark but not quite bright enough to be stirred awake by it. In his human body, it took time to adjust to both the odd time of day and the weird shifting night. But in his avatar, he was already yawning.
Lucky bastard.
Bringing up the rope, he went around the trunk and tied it. He did the same with the other tree. In less than two minutes, the hammock was raised, and a proud look overcame Asher's expression. The last time he had to set up a hammock was in Timor-Leste during a civil war; now he was making hammocks on an alien world four light-years away.
"Wild," he said of the notion.
Looking to the canopy that shrouded above him, Asher counted on the weather not to pour cold rain this evening, otherwise he was going to wake in this body drenched.
"I know you don't like me," he started to talk to the forest like a lunatic. "But if there is one thing I would like to ask you, is to not rain."
In response, Asher heard silence. Not that he expected the forest to talk (and he was glad it did not!) but he felt that the forest knew he was here. He could not quite explain it in scientific terms, but in a way that if he did, he knew he most certainly come across as a crazed kook who lost his marbles by playing the role of a diplomat in an alien body.
Thanking the forest, he turned his attention to setting up a perimeter. The perimeter devices that he brought with him were ideal in setting off a silent alarm to his watch back in his human body. But it could only detect the presence of the Na'vi, not animals. He just hoped no other animal was eager to have a snack while he was gone. Taking them from the backpack, he began going around and staking them into the ground. They were colored in brown, matching the jungle floor, and deceiving any curious looks from the Na'vi who might know what to look for.
Turning to his watch, he tapped on the screen a few times and set the trip devices to active. To test that they were active, he moved his boot against the trip laser, causing an alarm to beep incessantly until Asher tapped on his watch to reset the devices. They were live again.
Nodding to himself of the good work, Asher about-faced to the hammock where a meal awaited. Scooping up both the weapon and the backpack from the ground, Asher then carefully coordinated himself over the hammock. A tricky lesson was that he could not swing too much, otherwise he'll fall over. One leg over and soon he was completely in the hammock.
With the hammocking holding, Asher unzipped the backpack and fished for the meal ready-to-eat package. It was the typical brown MRE that the RDA gave out to their security personnel or when someone was stupid enough to take a mission like this.
Reading the label, he then mouthed the following title of the MRE package, 'protein paste with raisin cookies'.
"That sounds yummy," he said sardonically.
With a pinch of two fingers, he tore the tear line and began dining on his expensive dinner this night.
The paste was first, which instantly resulted in him gagging on it. Choosing the more desirable cookie, he took a bite and found it tolerable but just barely.
The sole purpose for this meal was to deny animals from sniffing out his location, though the reality was he was denying him satisfaction of feeling full. Though by the taste of it, no animal was really going to indulge in this food.
Several minutes passed and crumbs began forming around his neck and chest while an absent-minded Asher attempted to roleplay his meeting with Jake.
"Mr. Sully," he said, "I'm Rayan Asher, UNE. It's good to meet you." Shaking the invisible Jake and the air, crumbs spat out between the words, making an unfortunate mess that Asher did not care to notice.
At the same time that his mind was creating this fictitious story, his eyes caught something glimmering in an unusual fashion to the tree canopies above.
He tilted his head, wondering if it was his vision that was getting screwy. Rubbing one eye and then the other, he blinked to see if what he was seeing was trick of his imagination.
If this was a trick, then these cookies were laced with some good hallucinogens. But as Asher continued to watch, he started to comprehend in his mind of what he was seeing was not an illusion. The trees, they were…
…glowing.
Chased by a racing mind of reason, it then struck him, like a shot through space-time itself, that this forest was coming alive.
Gleaming across the glistening surface of his avatar's eyes, the forest lit up in a mesmerizing way, transcending over his face of thousands of colors—all of which he barely had the education to describe them with. The plants, the flowers, even the floor radiated in some way. His gaze searched around, wondering how this was all possible when he saw that a bush was glowing in the most intense and beautiful way imaginable. The entire forest was glowing!
Cookie resting in his mouth, Asher remained silent in the hammock, watching in awe while the forest bloomed into the glittering exhibition of purple, malachite, periwinkle, and whatever else he could not quite describe in the moment.
Eventually, reality had to wake him back up when the cookie limped over his lips and fell against his throat, causing the avatar to startle himself.
Picking up the cookie, he tried again and placed it into his mouth, chewing slowly while keeping his attention glued to the forest around him.
Spending the next hour simply looking, Asher came to recognize the sounds of the forest as well. It grew alive and wild, with sounds of distant animals cooing or hissing, some even yiped angrily, spooked by an unseen predator or fighting for a mate. The entire time that he spent enchanted by the forest, his ears swiveled like tiny radars, picking everything up for him to decipher.
Beep-beep, Beep-beep
Snapping out of this dream, he pulled away from the forest to look at his watch. Midnight. He had to get back.
Lifting the MRE bag, he shook it and felt that all of the contents were eaten. Shoving the bag into his leg pocket, Asher reminded himself to deal with the trash later. It was getting too late for him to continue being in his avatar form.
Resting the SMG between his legs, he made sure the butt was against his chin while the barrel pointed away and towards the rear of the hammock.
Now all he had to do was sleep. But the damn Pandoran forest was putting on a show for him. He needed to get back, to write a report, to eat, then sleep and plan for the next day. So much to do and so little time.
Soon enough, sleep caught up with him and the heavy eyelids ultimately won out. As for the avatar, it remained behind on the hammock. Sleeping and alone once again.