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Chapter 6: Field Trip
Once again, Kate was drawn through the tunnel of lights.
She awoke on her cot in the cabin, morning sunlight filtering through the awnings and mosquito netting, and she felt right.
She took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of the fresh air, then stretched all over and sat up.
Norm was crouched in the aisle between their cots, rummaging through his footlocker. Hearing her move, he glanced over his shoulder, saying, "Sleeping beauty awakens. Good morning, sunshine."
Kate chuckled. "It's not like I've actually been asleep for the last two hours."
"Yeah, I know," he replied. "But we've gotta get going." He reached back and thumped her footlocker. "C'mon. Gotcha some clothes of your own that should fit you properly. Get changed; we need to be on the flight line in ten."
Kate rubbed her face, then unzipped the mosquito netting and got up. Opening the footlocker, she found basic utilitarian underwear, a black t-shirt, fatigues, and socks, all sized for feminine avatars. Next to the footlocker were a pair of combat boots that looked like they'd fit her. She grabbed the clothes and went to the shower to change.
Five minutes later, the two of them walked through the gate onto the flight line. There were almost as many aircraft parked here as had been in the hangar, including one far larger quad-ducted-fan behemoth at the far end.
"What the hell is that?" Kate asked.
"Quaritch's personal pet project," she heard Trudy call from her right. Kate spotted her as she stepped around from behind her Samson, which had been rolled out of the hangar on a wheeled pallet. "He had it designed and built from scratch right here at Hell's Gate. Says he needs it to deal with Pandora's more aggressive wildlife. Carries the firepower of two squadrons of Scorpions plus a dozen AMP suits. He calls it the Dragon. I call it overkill."
"I can see why," Kate said, walking up to the Samson. "Where do you want me?"
Trudy gestured around to the far side of the aircraft. "Left side door gun. There's a safety lanyard attached to the forward bulkhead; strap in before we take off."
"Got it," Kate replied, walking around the Samson. She ran her hand over the cockpit windshield as she went. "Y'know, I was too preoccupied to say it this morning, but she really is a fine aircraft. I can tell she's been around the block a few times, but she's in good shape."
"Damn right, she is," Trudy beamed. "I take care of my girl."
Kate ducked under the fan and looked into the Samson's rear compartment, finding Grace there checking through the contents of an avatar-sized rigid-frame backpack. Wainfleet was on the far side, manning the other door gun. "Grace," she nodded at the scientist by way of greeting.
"Kate. Good morning." Grace zipped up the pack and slid it toward her. "This is yours."
Kate slung the pack over her shoulders and adjusted the straps so it would sit as comfortably as possible. "What's in here?"
"A few pieces of equipment that we might need, and some survival gear, just in case," Grace said. She reached out her hand, passing Kate a small, almost triangular gadget and a narrow black band with two metal discs set into it. "Put these on. Radio earpiece and throat mic. I assume you've used these before?"
"Something similar, yeah," Kate said, fastening the band around her neck like a choker necklace and fiddling with the earpiece until it stayed put. It felt weird—but then, so did her avatar's ears, in a way. She could feel them constantly flicking instinctively to better catch sounds from different directions; it was a very peculiar sensation.
Grace touched her thumb and forefinger to the two metal discs on her own throat mic, and said "Comms check." Her voice came through the earpiece loud and clear.
Kate touched her own mic and said, "Check." Norm and Wainfleet followed suit, and Trudy checked in via the more standard radio headset in the Samson's cockpit.
"Alright, boys and girls, load up," Grace said, moving to perch at the right side door and fastening her safety lanyard. Kate sat on the edge of the left side door, spotted her own lanyard, and strapped in. Norm climbed in behind her, situated himself, and strapped in as well.
Kate touched her mic. "All secure," she said, then turned her attention to check over the machine gun mounted next to her as the engines whirred to life.
"Ladies and gentlemen," came Trudy's voice over the radio, sounding exactly like every airline pilot Kate had ever heard, "we're about ready for departure. Today's flight will take us on a low-altitude sightseeing tour on our way to a brief stop at Site Thirteen, and then onward deeper into the forest for our regularly scheduled science expedition. Please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their upright and locked positions. Enjoy the view, and thank you for flying Pandora Air."
Kate chuckled, and looked over her shoulder at Norm. He was smiling too.
Yeah, today was going to be a good day.
After several minutes of flying over dense jungle, the Samson broke out over a wide river. Trudy banked the craft to the left and swung low over the water, kicking up spray and prompting exhilarated whoops from Kate and Norm. As Trudy leveled out, Kate spotted a flock of birdlike creatures flying nearby, which Grace identified as tetrapteron. One of them screeched at them, and then turned away, the rest of the flock following.
Kate felt Norm tap her on the shoulder. She glanced back at him and he gestured for her to look forward again just as the Samson soared out over the edge of a waterfall. Kate's jaw dropped. Ahead of them was what looked like hundreds of miles of even denser rainforest than they had flown over before. The trees making up the bulk of the canopy were two or three times as large as those near Hell's Gate. And scattered every few miles, rising above the canopy like normal shrubs in a field of Bonsai, were trees the likes of which Kate hadn't thought possible. Utterly gigantic, each one had to have been over a thousand feet tall, with trunks at least a hundred feet wide.
Trudy dipped the Samson's nose slightly, diving under the branches of the nearest giant and angling toward a gap in the rainforest canopy where a river cut through it. "Sturmbeest herd," she called over the radio, "coming up on your right."
"Got it! Thanks," Grace replied. Norm clambered through the cabin as far as he could to get a better view.
Kate scooted back and craned her neck to look over his shoulder. As Trudy banked again, she could see a cluster of bulky, leathery-skinned creatures wading through a shallow, slow-moving portion of the river. They had large bony protrusions from their hips, and large forward-pointed spikes on their foreheads and chins, the latter of which they seemed to be using to scoop up plant life from the shallow water.
"Looks like a bull, a dozen cows, and some juveniles," Grace said, pointing as she spoke. "Territorial herbivores. The Na'vi hunt them sometimes, since just one can provide quite a lot of food for the clan."
Kate was wondering how one was supposed to hunt something that looked like a walking tank when the Samson banked away, leaving the herd behind.
They'd flown for another half-hour before Trudy slowed the Samson down, circling a gap in the dense forest canopy below. She carefully slipped the rotorcraft through it, descended another hundred meters between tree trunks that Kate would have considered massive before she'd seen the behemoths that rose above the forest, and touched down gently in a small clearing beside a stream.
Kate unclipped her safety lanyard, pulled her machine gun off the pintle mount, and jumped to the ground while the craft was still a few feet in the air. Holding the weapon like a common assault rifle, she advanced a few steps away, scanning the surroundings for threats.
"Shut it down, we're gonna stay a while," she heard Grace call over the radio, and a few seconds later the whine of the Samon's engines started dropping in pitch and intensity.
Kate came around the front of the aircraft, machine gun still shouldered, and swept the surroundings again.
"Stay with the ship," Grace said to Wainfleet, who had also disembarked. "One idiot with a gun is enough."
Kate rolled her eyes as Grace walked past her, leading the way out of the clearing.
With the Samson shut down, Kate began noticing the sounds of the forest. The rustling of leaves as a breeze stirred the canopy above them, the buzzing of insects, scurrying sounds of small animals dashing through the underbrush, and the distant calls of birds and larger animals all distinct yet blending together to create a symphony of nature.
It was strangely peaceful, while simultaneously leaving her on edge.
A series of warbling hoots from above startled her, and she snapped her gun up along with her gaze. A creature about the size of a human with blue and green skin and arms that split in two partway up jumped from a branch and caught itself on a thick vine strung between two tree trunks, and hung there, looking at her quizzically. Kate could see and hear a dozen or so more of them moving through the lower canopy behind it.
"Prolemuris," Grace said. "They're non-aggressive."
Kate let the muzzle of her gun drop an inch, but didn't take her eyes off the creature until it lost interest in her and swung away to catch up with its companions.
Grace came around to Kate's right and shoved the barrel of the gun down. "Relax, Marine. You're making me nervous," she said before continuing onward.
"I'm making you nervous?" Kate asked incredulously. "After what I've heard about the wildlife here, how are you not nervous?"
"Just keep your safety on and do what I say," Grace retorted. "You'll be fine."
"So, how will they know we're here?" Norm asked as they approached another clearing, this one housing a wood cabin on stilts, similar to the one back at Hell's Gate.
They'd hiked for maybe half a kilometer through the underbrush. Grace and Norm had spent most of it in sciencey shop-talk, most of which went over Kate's head.
"I'm sure they're watching us right now," Grace replied. Norm paused and looked around with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness before jogging to catch up with Grace.
Inside the cabin was a large chalkboard and several makeshift tables and benches, some of which held various pieces of RDA equipment and all of which were covered in dust and loose leaves. Small plants had started to grow up through the cracks in the floor.
"This was our school," Grace said, a hint of sadness in her voice. "Now it's just storage." She picked up a slim book from one of the desks and brushed it off. "The kids were so bright. Eager to learn. They picked up English faster than I could teach it."
Norm spotted another book on the floor and picked it up, holding it out to Grace.
"Oh yeah, I love this one. The stingbats knock them down," Grace said, indicating the small purple-ish creatures dangling from the rafters. "I keep hoping someone will come back in and read them."
"Why don't they come back?" Norm asked.
Kate wandered around the classroom as they spoke. Approaching the chalkboard, something caught her eye.
"The Omaticaya..." Grace hesitated, "learned as much about us as they needed to."
Kate looked at the chalkboard more closely, then stepped around to look at the back side of it. A cluster of small holes punched through it from front to back, each about the size of her little finger.
She turned to look at Grace. "What happened here?"
A mournful expression flickered across Grace's face before it was hidden by a mask of annoyance. "You gonna help us with this gear? We've got a lot to do."
After gathering what supplies they needed from the school, they'd set out hiking deeper into the forest. The trees only seemed to get larger as they went. They'd gone another kilometer or so before Grace called a stop to run some kind of test on a cluster of tree roots.
Kate began establishing a perimeter—mainly as an excuse to keep moving rather than standing still—slowly circling outward from where Grace and Norm were working. Stepping between two trees, she found herself at the edge of a cluster of strange...plants? The largest of them were over twice as tall as she was. Each had a single reddish-orange leaf that spiraled around itself, narrowing as it reached toward the canopy. Swarms of insect-like creatures buzzed around them, seemingly attracted by the faint sickly-sweet smell the plants gave off.
She stepped closer to one of the smaller plants at the edge of the cluster, reaching out a hand toward it. The instant her finger touched it, the entire plant contracted, shooting down into the ground with a thoomp sound. The sudden reaction startled her for an instant, then she grinned. Curious, she took a few steps forward and touched another one.
Thoomp.
Kate stifled a giggle, and reached out to touch a third one.
Thoomp.
Thoomp. A fourth plant, adjacent to the third, retracted on its own, seemingly reacting to its neighbor.
Thoomp. Another one retracted.
Thoomp thoomp. Two more.
Thoomp...thoomp-thoomp-thoomp...
The entire patch of plants retracted in a chain reaction, revealing a creature even larger than the sturmbeest they'd seen earlier, with a huge horizontal bony shelf jutting out from its head. It had seemingly been grazing and, startled by the sudden movement of the plants retracting, looked up.
It spotted her, and roared.
Kate heart rate doubled as she snapped her machine gun up and took aim at the creature's face...for all the good it would do; she doubted even the massive cannons the AMP suits carried could do much against the natural armor of this thing.
The creature roared again, and took a step forward, stamping its feet and raising a fan-like crest of brightly colored leaf-shaped flaps from the top of its head.
Kate heard the sound of running footsteps from her left, and Grace's voice came over the radio. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot, you'll piss him off." A glance to her left revealed Grace and Norm taking cover behind a pair of trees.
The creature took another step forward and thrashed its head to one side, obliterating a stand of foot-thick saplings with its hammer-shaped bone shelf.
"It's already pissed off!" Kate said, taking half a step back and tightening her grip on the gun.
"Kate, that armor's too thick," Grace said. "Trust me."
Kate raised her gun away from the creature and clenched her teeth. The beast stepped forward again, smashed another clump of saplings, and pawed at the ground angrily.
"It's a territorial threat display," Grace said. "Do not run, or he'll charge."
"So what do I do, dance with it?!" Kate spat.
"Just...hold your ground."
The beast pawed at the ground again, roared, and broke into a heavy, loping run straight at her.
Kate felt her heart rate spike even further, adrenaline surging through her body. She hesitated for maybe half a second before grimacing and breaking into a run herself, straight toward the beast, arms spread and an angry shout erupting from her throat.
The beast stopped.
Kate stopped, and her breath caught, waiting to see what it would do.
It fanned out its crest again, then let it drop, letting out a softer cry and taking a step back.
Kate breathed again, and felt herself grinning. She took a step forward, and then another, spreading her arms aggressively. "Yeah? Come on! What you got? Huh? Oh yeah. Who's bad? That's right. Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about, bitch."
The creature spun and retreated, letting out another cry. Kate could now see a group of the same creatures behind it, much larger than the one she'd just faced down. Apparently that one hadn't even been an adult, and its parents were the size of houses.
"That's right, get your punk ass back to mommy," Kate taunted as it fled. "Yeah, you got nothing. You keep running. Why don't you bring back some of your friends, huh?"
A sound from behind her made her ear flick, and a pit formed in her stomach. She turned slowly.
A new creature was slowly climbing through the fork of a tree trunk. It was the size of a small bus, with leathery black, almost oily-looking skin; prehensile clawed hands on all four of its front legs; and incredibly vicious-looking fangs.
The thing let out a short roar of its own, the sound sending deep chills down Kate's spine. It leaped over her, moving like a cat, and landed facing the herd of armored beasts.
The juvenile Kate had faced down disappeared behind its parents, who wasted no time in moving forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and fanning out their own impressive crests as they stamped and pawed at the ground, promising death to any being that might attempt to harm their child.
The black beast roared at them in frustration and, apparently deciding they weren't worth the effort, turned its hungry gaze toward Kate.
Kate already had her gun pointed at the newcomer. "So what about this one? Run? Don't run? What?"
The black beast growled, and started stalking toward her, baring its fangs.
"Run!" Grace said. "Definitely run!"
Kate ran.