Spider wasn't sure if it were a good idea to eat the breakfast Kitty had brought him, but he was pretty sure he trusted her before anybody else he'd met here, so he cautiously put a piece of fruit in his mouth. It tasted normal enough. He tried the sandwich. It seemed okay, too. From there hunger took over, and he dug in.
He was glad he did, too – half an hour later, one of the soldiers in the strange teal uniforms came in, with another covered try. This man walked in, and then stopped short when he saw Spider was already finishing up his first breakfast.
"Where'd that come from?" the man asked.
Spider shrugged one shoulder. "Got it from Nunya."
"Who's Nunya?"
"You don't know Nunya?"
"No..."
"Nunya Business."
The man blinked, then snorted. "I should have seen that coming," he said. "Do you need anything else? Clothes, maybe?"
Spider didn't answer. The only thing he needed was out of this cell, but he knew he wasn't going to get that if he asked for it. He had to wait for Kitty.
"Have it your way," the man said. He turned and left, taking the food with him. The wall turned opaque again behind him.
Kitty hadn't said when she'd be back, and Spider was worried he might be waiting for days, just sitting in this cell with nothing to do. There was still no way to tell what time it was in the cell, but he could tell when afternoon arrived because another person stopped in to give him lunch. With the food came a variety of other items – human clothes, books to read, and a holopad to play with. Spider ignored these, and continued pacing impatiently. What use were these things to him? They wouldn't get him out.
Shortly after the second delivery man left, there was a commotion outside. Spider could hear a scuffle, and multiple voices talking, some of them shouting. He put an ear up to the wall, but couldn't make out any actual words. Not until the wall turned to a window, and he stepped back to see a half-dozen people crowd into the outer room.
Most of them were human. None of those were Kitty. There was, however, one Na'vi – and at first glance, Spider thought it was Quaritch.
At a second, he wasn't so sure. The first thing he noticed was the scars: there were three of them across the left side of the man's scalp and face. They were long-healed, but the tissue was white and puckered, suggesting the flesh had been torn by something that ripped rather than cutting, like an animal attack. When he managed to tear his eyes from those, Spider next saw the man's clothing. Quaritch wore the miliary gear issued to him by the recom program, but this man was in blue jeans and a button-down shirt, with sneakers on. These had, of course, been made for a Na'vi, but they were very much civilian clothes. Spider had never even seen a picture of Quaritch wearing something like that... had the figure he'd taken for Quaritch last night been dressed like that? He hadn't paid enough attention to be sure.
The third thing was that even under the scars, this man's face wasn't quite right. His eyes were a little offset, his nose a little lower and wider. He looked less like a recom and more like a real Na'vi – and that was the observation that prompted Spider to look at the man's hands.
He had only three fingers. What kind of sense did that make? What version of Quaritch could have been born as Na'vi and still ended up here?
The man crouched down outside the cell and frowned, looking Spider over with his forehead furrowed. He was older than Quaritch, too, Spider realized – the recoms were all in the prime of life, as the RDA wanted them to be useful for as long as possible. But this man, while in good physical shape, was at least fifty, possibly even older. Plenty old enough to be the father of a teenage son.
"So," he said. "You're... Spider."
The voice, like the face, was almost recognizable, but not quite. This man had a ghost of Quaritch's southern accent, but also a shade of an Omatikaya one. How did...
"And you're Kavuk," Spider realized.
The man chuckled ruefully. "My reputation precedes me. Okay." He turned to one of the soldiers and gave the man a poke in the ribs. "Open that door."
The soldier swallowed. "Sir," he said, in a tone that was respectful but didn't have the force behind it that a military title would. "My orders from Major Da Silva are..."
"I don't give a shit what Major Da Silva told you to do!" snarled Kavuk. "I want my son back, and the girl says this is how I get him. We don't know what's on the other side of that damn thing and I'm not leaving Tsamtxìn there there just because Da Silva says so. Now open that door or I'm breaking it down with your face, you understand?"
This was a startling statement in several ways: first, because Spider doubted Quaritch would be half so insistent about freeing him; second, because he couldn't remember ever hearing Quaritch threaten a human; and third, because the soldier actually obeyed him. The wall slid open, and Spider immediately dashed out, afraid somebody would change their mind.
"Come here," Kavuk ordered, reaching out. "I don't want you falling behind."
Spider stepped away from him. "I don't like being carried," he said. "I can keep up."
"Can you really?"
"I've been keeping up with the Sully kids my whole life!" Spider declared, and only then second-guessed the statement. Would it even mean anything to Kavuk? If this world's Kiri were human and its Quaritch were native Na'vi, who were Jake Sully and his family?
"I guess you probably would have," said Kavuk. "Follow me."
He ducked out the human-sized door and headed up the hallway, taking long strides that Spider had to run full-tilt to match. That left no breath for speech, which was probably good, because Kavuk didn't seem like he was interested in talking. On the other hand, there were a million questions Spider would have liked to ask this man. Who was he, where had he come from, and why was he living with the humans? Why did people call him Betrayal as if that were his name? Had he been a part of his son's life? Who was his son? Who was Tslikxyu, this alternate self?
Maybe Tslikxyu wouldn't need Kiri to help him. Maybe if Kavuk were willing to help Spider in order to get his son back, Quaritch would do the same. It didn't seem likely, but maybe there was more to the man than Spider had thought.
Kitty was waiting for them outside the lab, leaning on the wall opposite the door and being scowled at by two guards. She was scowling right back at them, her face a mirror of the defiant glare Kiri wore when standing up to her mother. When Kavuk and Spider arrived, Kitty stood up straight and tugged on the crocheted shawl she was now wearing so it wouldn't slip from her shoulders. The guards also straightened up to confront the new arrivals.
"You're not allowed in here, Mr. Kavuk," one of them said.
Kavuk calmly took each of them by the back collar and slammed their heads together. There was a crack of bone hitting bone, and both crumpled into unconsciousness. "Get your masks on,"
Kitty tossed an exopack to Spider. He put it on and swung the oxygen bottle onto his back in one motion, born of many years of practice. Meanwhile, Kavuk rammed his elbow into the doors, bending them open just enough to create a gap he could get his fingers into. An alarm started to sound as the outside atmosphere hissed in, and his ears folded back at the harsh noise, but Kavuk gritted his teeth and ripped the door out of the frame.
"Get in there!" he ordered.
Spider ran in. Kitty was right behind him. She went straight to the nearest console, and began turning things on.
"The power surges suggest that the plant can't transfer things between universes on its own!" she said, putting on the goggles Dr. Tham had made out of Da Silva's retinal print. The computer scanned it, and a display came up. "It needs additional power, which it draws from our reactor."
"Just get it done," Kavuk ordered. This time he did not ask permission. He just grabbed Spider under the arms and lifted him up to the catwalk above the hydroponic tank. Spider ran out to the middle, where the shoots were wound around the metal.
"Wait a moment, wait a moment. It's got to boot up," said Kitty, holding up a hand.
"Your damned machines!" Kavuk growled. "Why are they so quick all the time, but never when you need them to be?"
"Not my fault!" said Kitty.
The soldiers were already arriving. Recalling how angry Da Silva had been last time – and the time before that – Spider knew they wouldn't get a second chance at this. "Tell me when!" he said.
"Soon! Soon!" said Kitty.
A man with a gun approached her. "Get down on the floor," he ordered, pointing.
"In a minute!" Kitty insisted. "Okay? Okay. Now!" she said, and dropped to her knees.
Spider paused a split second to make sure the man wasn't going to shoot her, but voices were yelling, alarms were blaring, and machinery buzzing as power surged through it. He had to act. He dived on the nearest root, and grabbed it in both hands.
Again, there was a rush of sensations. This time, Spider was able to pick out some of them, because he recognized them from his dreams. The roots digging into the dirt. Kitty laughing in delight as a dozen fan lizards took flight from a shaken branch. Kiri lying on the grass while atokirina' danced around her. Quaritch clumsily trying to speak Na'vi. A much younger, un-scarred Kavuk, wearing warpaint but dressed in human-style battle armour and holding a rifle, plummeting out of the sky towards the jungle.
Then Spider was being grabbed by soldiers again and dragged to his feet. He blinked and shook his head, trying to get rid of the dizziness and the spots. He was in big trouble now, but at least he was home...
... or was he? The men dragging him to the edge of the catwalk were wearing teal, not green, and when his vision finally cleared, Spider could see Kitty and Kavuk both kneeling on the linoleum surrounded by guns, as sparks flew and sprinklers sprayed. Kavuk looked up at Spider with a hopeful expression, which crashed and burned into bitter disappointment at what he saw.
Spider was passed down the ladder and manhandled into a place between them. He looked at Kitty for an explanation. "Why am I still here?" he asked.
She shrugged and looked away.
Again, the soldiers surrounding them made way for Da Silva. She stalked up to them, fuming, and stood there with her feet wide apart and her arms folded. For the first few moments she was so furious she couldn't even speak, and then she managed four words.
"Who wants to explain?"
"It was my idea!" said Kitty immediately. She started to get up, then changed her mind when she remembered she was still surrounded by soldiers. Still, her chin was high and her eyes fierce as she took responsibility. "I thought I could send Spider back where he came from, and I talked Kavuk into helping me."
"I'm not letting Tsamtxìn end up like Pakwikxan!" said Kavuk, showing his teeth. "I lost a friend yesterday. I'm not losing my son!"
Da Silva looked like she might physically explode. She balled her fists and breathed in through her nose – but then she let it out through her mouth, fogging up her breathing mask, and made a visible effort to relax.
"Get me an interrogation room," she told an underling. "I can't hear myself think in here." She turned and stormed out again.
The soldiers hustled Spider, Kitty, and Kavuk to their feet, and escorted them back towards the cell block, where they were shown into a small room similar to the one Spider had been confined in on his first day at Bridgehead. There was a table in the middle, bolted to the floor, and several plastic chairs too fragile and lightweight to be used as weapons. One wall was a large observation window disguised as a mirror, and there were cameras in the corners. The door closed and the lock clicked, and they were left alone.
For the next ten or fifteen minutes, nobody spoke. All three of them knew that anything they said or did would be recorded. The only sound was the occasional sighing, as Kavuk took breaths from his mask, and the thump of his tail hitting the floor as it switched like an angry cat's. There were apparently no Na'vi sized chairs, as he was folded into a human-sized one like an adult sitting on a chair meant for a small child. Kitty just sat leaning on the table, staring intently at the bare metal. Her mouth made shapes as she silently talked to herself, trying to figure out what had just happened.
Spider himself watched his companions, taking in their body language as they waited. Kavuk was patient like Quaritch, but like Quaritch it was possible to see the effort it took to hold himself in. Kitty had all the focus of Kiri listening to Eywa breathing, and while she directed it inward instead of out, she was equally oblivious to the outside world. When the door finally opened and Da Silva walked in, Kitty jumped as if something had just exploded.
Da Silva pulled up another chair and sat down on the other side of the table to talk to them. She looked much calmer now.
"Okay," she began.
Kavuk had clearly had enough. "What's okay?" he demanded, getting to his feet. "None of this is okay!"
Da Silva just looked back at him, as he leaned on the table with both palms, his lip curled in a snarl. After a moment, he realized he was not going to make things better by shouting and sat down again, glowering.
"I've tried to do this by the book, but that's clearly only going to make things worse," Da Silva said. "Let's try something else. I'm guessing it was Miss Augustine who came up with the parallel universe theory?"
"It's a hypothesis," said Kitty. "A theory needs to be repeatedly tested and corroborated."
"Right," said Da Silva. "Whatever you call it, you're correct. We're dealing with an alternate universe, possibly more than one, since we have no proof that the alternate Pakwikxan and the alternate Tsamtxín are from the same one. In fact, we don't know anything about it. We don't know if it's dangerous, or what else might try to come through, which is why I don't want anybody playing with it. That's why I was planning on keeping our..." she glanced at Spider. "Our guests contained, until we know exactly what we have here and whether we can interact with it safely."
"You could have told me that!" Spider protested.
"It's supposed to be top secret," said Da Silva. "We didn't want to tell you because you might carry tales home when we send you back, and nobody on your end ought to be messing around with it, either. I didn't think you'd believe it anyway. Pakwi... what did you call him?"
"Baxter," said Spider.
"He didn't. He thought this was some kind of psyop." Da Silva blew a strand of hair out of her face. "I'm telling you all this now because I'm hoping it'll be enough to convince you that you can't try anything like that again until we have more information."
"There wouldn't be any point, I think," said Kitty. "It seems like the equipment's too damaged to handle the power surge. Otherwise Spider wouldn't still be here."
Was it really that simple? If he'd been brought here as part of Eywa's communication with another universe, like she said... Eywa didn't do things by accident. But for the moment Spider kept that idea to himself. "I'll promise not to go in there again, but only if I don't have to stay in a cell," he said.
Somewhat to his surprise, Da Silva appeared to consider it. "How do I know you won't run off into the woods and never be seen again?" she asked. "I understand that was a bit of a problem with your counterpart." Her eyes went to Kavuk.
Kavuk gave a slight nod and said, "he won't. If necessary I'll keep an eye on him myself."
"Oh, now that's reassuring," grumbled Da Silva. She had leaned back in her chair, but now she straightened up again. "Somewhat against my better judgment," she said, "I'm going to let Miss Augustine go home. But," she looked Kitty in the eye, "effective immediately I am revoking all your clearances. From this moment on, you're not to go in Dr. Tham's lab, or any other."
"What about my work?" Kitty protested.
"You mean Dr. Tham's work," said Da Silva.
Kitty shook her head. "Even if I'm not helping Dr. Tham, I need to have access to my mother's records. They're all I've got!"
That seemed to soften Da Silva a bit. "I'll see what I can do," she said, "but you'll have to look at them in your quarters. As for Kavuk..."
"I'm not leaving," Kavuk said, arms folded across his chest.
"You're supposed to be tracking down insurgents for Ardmore," Da Silva reminded him.
He shook his head. "Somebody needs to stay here and keep a fire going under your ass," Kavuk said darkly. "I know what humans are like. Little things like finding somebody's missing kid might be easy to forget when you've got a whole new universe to strip."
Once again, Spider wondered what was going on back home... was Quaritch even half this insistent on getting him back? Had he underestimated just how much the recom had gotten attached to his precursor's son? Or was Kavuk just an entirely different person even if he were an equivalent?
"We'll see what your superiors have to say about that," Da Silva threatened, and then turned to Spider. "So that leaves Mr. Socorro. What are we gonna do with you? You don't want to stay in a cell, but I can't let you wander around unsupervised. The people you claim are your foster parents don't know who you are, and from what I heard they don't want anything to do with you. I definitely don't think they're going to want you around their daughter." She glanced at Kitty.
Spider twitched. He probably shouldn't have been surprised to hear about that arrangement. He should have remembered Mary saying she just wanted to take Catherine and go home, and it made sense that the couple who'd adopted an orphan in his universe would do the same with a different child in this one. But the idea of Nash screaming at Kitty the way he'd used to do at Spider made him want to strangle the man.
Da Silva was waiting. She wanted an answer from him.
"I don't wanna be in a cell," Spider repeated. "I'll stay here at Hell's Gate because I want to go home, but want a room with a window."
"I'd like to be able to talk to him, too," Kitty put in. "I was there when he arrived. He can tell me what he was doing on his end, and I can compare with what was going on here. Maybe the two of us can figure out how this works."
"Anyway, you don't want us talking to anybody else about it," Spider said. "We should at least be allowed to talk to each other."
Da Silva seemed to think about it. A few seconds went by in aching silence, and then she said, "okay. Mr Socorro, I'm going to ask you to wear an ankle monitor so we know exactly where you are at all times, and I will assign you a room. And in return, you're going to stay in designated areas and not talk about the alternate universe with anyone who doesn't already know about it. And you're going to wear real clothes," she added. "I don't want people asking why we've got George of the Jungle wandering around."
"No," said Spider. He hated clothes. They restricted his movement, they caught on vegetation, and worst of all they made him look like... well, like a human. Wearing anything more than a tewng made him feel like every animal for a mile around was about to swoop down on him.
"Then you're back in the cell," said Da Silva. "This is not a negotiation."
Spider scowled.
"Please just do it," Kitty said.
Something about her pleading expression got to him. If he wasn't going outside, if he were staying in the base where Eywa couldn't 'see' him, it was probably okay. But it felt like a betrayal. "Fine."
"Wonderful. I'm glad we had this little talk," said Da Silva, sounding mostly glad it was over. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go explain to my commanding officer why I just briefed three people who aren't cleared to know about this."
She left, and two men came in to put the ankle monitor on Spider. It was a big, clunky thing with a transmitter and several lights on it, and the main thing he noticed about it was that there was no reason why it had to be so big. The same technology could and did fit on something the size of a fingernail. It was made to be visible and heavy, to slow him down if he tried to run and to tell everybody who met him that he was a prisoner. Da Silva wanted them to think she was being nice, but she wasn't trying very hard.
The same two men then escorted Spider to his new quarters. This was very tiny – a combination kitchen and sitting room, a small bedroom, and a bathroom barely big enough to turn around it. It was enough to make him appreciate his quarters at Bridgehead.
"Laundry is communal, the doors are down the end there," one of the guards said. "The Major will send somebody by with some clothes for you. You have to put them on before you leave the room again. No second chances." He inserted a card in the door's control panel. "Put your hand there."
Spider obeyed, and the machine scanned it to remember his fingerprints. It beeped, and a green light came on. The soldiers, satisfied, left.
About ten minutes later, another person dropped off the clothes and other items they'd brought him in the cell. These were no more interesting to Spider now than they had been then, but he didn't want to be locked up again. So he put on a pair of stiff, uncomfortable jeans and an ugly striped t-shirt that at least didn't cover his armbands, but he drew the line at socks and shoes. If he were challenged on it, he would blame the stupid ankle monitor. He gathered his dreadlocks back the way Jake did, and cautiously stuck his head out into the hallway again.
He wouldn't have been surprised if there'd been guards posted, but clearly the ankle monitor made that unnecessary. They could probably predict where he'd go, anywhere. There were only two people in Hell's Gate he was allowed to talk to, and only one of them had expressed a desire to talk to him. If he wanted to know what was going on in this universe, then he needed to talk to Kitty Augustine, and thanks to what Da Silva had said earlier, he had a good idea where to find her.
For the first time, he was glad he'd been taken back to the McKoskers' place the previous day. It meant he knew for sure they still lived in the same quarters – hopefully that would be true in this universe, too. He found his way easily, and pressed the buzzer.
The screen came on, showing the face of Mary McKosker. She blinked at him a couple of times in evident confusion, and then recognized him. "Oh! It's you," she said, in the voice of somebody determined to be polite even though she believed she had no reason to be.
"Yeah," said Spider. "Is Kitty home?"
"Who is it?" came Nash's voice from somewhere in the room.
"It's the wild boy," Mary replied. "He's got clothes on now."
"My name is..." Spider began, and then decided at the last second to try to sound respectable. "Miles. My name is Miles Socorro."
Nash' face appeared on the screen next to Mary's. "Kitty's not here," he said.
"Yes, I am!" came Kitty's on voice.
"Not for him, you're not," said Nash.
Spider felt his fists clench. Da Silva had said where he could go and who he could talk to, but she hadn't said anything about beating the tar out of anybody...
"I'm sixteen! I can see boys if I want!" huffed Kitty.
"Boys are one thing. Animals are another," Nash growled. "Hey! You, missy, get away from that door..."
The door slid open, and Kitty was halfway out before it even finished. "Come on!" she said, grabbed Spider's hand, and ran.
"Where are we going?" Spider asked as he followed her down the hall. He didn't dare look back to see if Nash were chasing them.
"Don't worry! I know how to lose him!" Kitty promised. She rounded a corner and slid onto the floor in front of a row of lockers. Below these was a grate for the air conditioning, just large enough for a person to squeeze into. She opened it, and wriggled in. "Follow me!"
It was a tight fit, but Spider managed to squirm through, and heard the grate bang shut behind him. From there it was impossible to turn around, so he could only hope Kitty knew where she was going as she crawled down the duct and up an incline. Fortunately, it seemed she did – at the end of the tunnel was a bigger space, about four feet high and nine or ten on each side, with a big, slowly turning fan in the ceiling. It was quite cold in there from the air conditioning, but there was room to move, and somebody had brought items in to make it more comfortable – throw pillows, a crocheted blanket, and a stack of books. A few photographs had been taped to the walls.
"You're only the second other person who's ever been in here!" Kitty said. "I used to bring Tslikxyu, but he hasn't fit since he was nine. He got stuck in the duct," she explained with a grin, "and his Dad had to help me pull him out. His Mom was so mad... I didn't think she was ever going to let him come inside again!"
Spider tried to picture Kavuk involved in such parenting, and couldn't. "What is this place?" he asked, reaching to pick up a fallen photograph.
"I used to call it our monster bunker," Kitty said. "I used to have nightmares about this big black bug-thing chasing me around the station. Tslikxyu thought it was because I got stung by a kemeyam bug when I was really little. They scared me so bad I started looking for hiding places that would be too small for it. Then when I had the dream again, I would make my dream self crawl in here, and it wouldn't be able to find me."
Spider noted that she'd just come in here to escape from Nash, but didn't say anything aloud. Instead, he looked at the photo he'd found, and was surprised to immediately recognize it – he'd seen it as a child, pinned up on the wall next to the tank where they kept Dr. Augustine's avatar. It showed that avatar, animated by Grace's mind, on the steps of the old schoolhouse with a very young Neytiri and her sister Silwanin. The familiarity of it, contrasted with the oddness of everything else he'd seen since his contact with the roots, was spooky.
"I have so many questions," Kitty said. "I want to know how your world works. I mean, was it the Na'vi invading Earth? That doesn't make any sense!" She held out her hand for the picture.
He gave it to her. "No, it doesn't." Earth would have nothing they wanted in any universe. "No, it was the humans who came to Pandora."
Kitty nodded. "But then why are you human?"
"Because my parents were. Why are you human?"
She smiled, understanding his point. "Because my Mom was."
Spider's heart beat a little faster. "What about your father?" If Kitty knew who her father was, would that have implications for Kiri?
"Uh... we don't think I had one," said Kitty. "I... I'm not exactly a clone of Mom, but I don't have any DNA that didn't come from her. Dr. Spellman said it's like an ovum got as far as meiosis one, and then got confused and thought it had been fertilized, so it went straight into cleavage and comp..." she stopped herself. "Too much science."
"It's fine," said Spider. He got the general picture. "Didn't Dr. Augustine get shot, though?"
"Yeah." Kitty looked away for a moment, then changed the subject. "You said you knew somebody like me, but not me exactly. Who is she?"
"Kiri. She's still Dr. Augustine's daughter," Spider said, "but born from her avatar. They never figured out how that worked, because it's not something Pandoran creatures ought to be able to do. What's the word?" There was a science word, and Kitty would appreciate it. "Parthenon?"
"Parthenogenesis," she said. She simply stated it, without any of the mockery that usually accompanied such corrections from fellow humans. "Mammals can't do that, either. Dr. Spellman said he'd write a paper on it if it wouldn't take twenty years to do the peer review."
"What about your friend Tslikxyu?" Spider asked. "Who's he?"
"His parents were Turncoats," replied Kitty, obviously expecting him to know what that meant. "His mother died in the Battle of Hell's Gate and his father was exiled, but he was too little and anyway, the Tsahik said it wasn't his fault, so Jake Sully and Neytiri brought him up."
Spider had been preparing himself to hear about Kavuk's attempts to be a single father. He wasn't ready to hear that. The shock was like a slap. "What?"
"Him and Neteyam were about the same age so they've always been close," Kitty went on, "but Tslikxyu is fascinated by human stuff, so he..."
She was cut off when Spider brought his fists down on the floor, with a clang that was shatteringly loud in the small space. Kitty covered her ears while it reverberated away, while Spider shook his wrists to get rid of the sting. It was going to leave bruises, but it didn't hurt as much as realizing what he might have had.
"Sorry," he said.
Kitty stared at him. She couldn't understand the reaction. He needed to explain.
"My world..." he said. "Here, you live with the McKoskers and they let you keep working on your Mom's research, and I... and Tslikxyu lived with the Sully family and their kids, right?"
"That's right."
"Well, in my world, somebody fucked up, and you and I got each other's lives by mistake," said Spider.
He sat there quietly for a moment, taking it in. It had always seemed unfair that Spider had been born a human – but it had also always been inevitable. Now suddenly there was the real possibility that he might not have been, and that made it a thousand times worse. Did this Tslikxyu realize how lucky he was? What was he thinking about, over in Spider's world? Was he even still in Hell's Gate, or had he escaped into the woods? What if he found the family... if he told Jake and Neytiri they were his parents, would they welcome him with open arms, because he was like them?
"I gotta get out of here," he said, and crawled back into the tunnel.