Chapter One
Arrival On Pandora
“We’ve arrived,” said the pilot of the ship over the loudspeaker.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts. There will be some turbulence as we enter the lower atmosphere.”
As if we didn’t know from training.
But then again, several of the hired guns--ex-marines, who needed extra cash back on Earth--who had come with us, hadn’t exactly gone through a training program.
The only ones who had been here before were my ( )other Miles Quaritch, Parker Selfrige, and Dr. Grace Augustine, of course.
Grace was the whole reason I was here. She had been a friend of mine
since high school, and had been passionate about Pandora ever since she’d
first heard of it. I had shared her passion, but Miles had dominated most
of my time and I hadn’t gotten a chance to see where my friend had been
working for five years.
There’s one thing you should know about my ( )other before we move on. He’s always had this thing where he has
to be control of everything all the time--specifically, me.
If I’m not doing what he wants me to do when he wants me to do it, I’m in
for it. Yes, I should have called the police about some of the things he’s
done to me, but you know, I’m terrified of him. He would be sure to find some
way to either talk himself out of prison or simply escape and find me again.
But I’m cutting in on the story time here. The point is, Miles finally let me
come. You see, I’ve always had a talent for peacemaking, and that’s one
of the skills he needs. So I have no choice but to come. For once I was
happy about where he wanted me.
I looked eagerly out of the window as we buckled in; I had heard that
Pandora had a beauty not even surpassed on Earth. And as we descended,
I found that I had been told the exact truth.
The sky was blue like a sapphire. We could see in the hazy distance, the
outline of the planet Polythemus in it. It was enormous, and had to be
several times bigger than home. From as far as the eye could see, there were
trees; gorgeous, green trees. Several large flying creatures of some sort flew
overhead as we got lower.
But what stood out to me and made my heart sink was where we were
headed. It was a pit of dirt; the center of the mining corporation.
It was as if a scar had been made in the green skin of this world, and it made
me feel almost sick.
Miles came up behind me. “Isn’t it lovely?” he asked, referring to the
pit (which I later nicknamed the Scar). I nodded absently, but my eyes were
on a dragonlike beast flying into the distance.
Chapter Two
Pep Talk
After we’d landed, we headed across the Scar to the base. According to
Miles, it was only a temporary home. As soon as I entered my Avatar body
and made contact with the natives, I was supposed to move to another
“linking” area somewhere that I could get out of his way. I would be only too
happy to comply, but before we did anything, Miles had to ( )ief the troops.
“You’re not in Kansas anymore,” he said, walking to the front of the room.
“You’re on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact. Every second of
every day. If there is a Hell, you might wanna go there for some r and r, after
a tour on Pandora. Out there beyond that fence”--
here he paused and pointed outside, gesturing to the fence that surrounded
the compound- “every living thing that crawls, flies, or squats in the mud
wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubes.” He turned to face his
audience, making intense eye contact with each of them, especially me.
“We have an indigenous population of humanoids called the Na’vi,” Miles
continued grimly. I could see the hatred or at least utter disgust in his eyes
as he spoke of them, and it frightened me, no matter how used to it I was when
he gave me that look. “They are fond of arrows, dipped in a nuerotoxin that
will stop your heart in one minute. And they have bows reinforced with naturally
re-
occurring carbon fiber. They are very hard to kill.”
A chill went up my spine at the word “kill”. Wasn’t this a diplomatic
mission? Of course we needed to know about the Na’vi’s weapons, and of
course the troops needed to be warned and even be here to protect us
from any dangers, but Miles seemed to think we were preparing for war!
He was unkind, certainly, and selfish as well, but was he really willing to risk
hundreds (if not more) Na’vi lives to get what he wanted?
At the time, I didn’t think so. All I knew was that something was wrong.
Meanwhile, Miles was still talking. “As head of security, it is my job to
keep you alive,” he said. I rolled my eyes and he glared in my direction,
but continued on. “I will not succeed. Not with all of you. If you want to
survive, you will need to cultivate a strong mental attitude. You’ve got to
obey the rules...Pandora rules.”
The speech went on, but I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts to
listen; I would probably end up
( )eaking at least a dozen of the rules anyway.
When he had finished speaking, Miles dismissed the troops, but pointed
at me, his eyes clearly instructing me to stay put. As soon as the last
soldier left he sat down next to me.
“You weren’t listening to the rules,” he said, cocking an eye( )ow at me.
I hated it when he did that; it made him sound as if he were a superior
waiting for an excuse from a misbehaving employee.
“Don’t need to,” I replied hotly, attempting to look like I didn’t care. “I’ll
( )eak them anyway, you know that.” This earned me a slap on the cheek,
which he delivered more quickly than I could react. “Ow!” I glared at him
fiercely, but knew that was all I could do to defend myself.
“You’re going to listen to me, Erin. I have my own set of rules for you,
since you are obviously above everyone else. Rule number one; you are not
to leave Grace Augustine’s field of vision.” I opened my mouth to protest,
but then closed it again, realizing that wouldn’t help me at all. “Rule number
two; you are to stay out of my way at all times. You will not be seeing me
unless I call you, do you understand?”
I nodded, exhaling. My cheek was bleeding a little, and it stung; I couldn’t
wait for this chat to be over.
“Rule number three; if your Avatar body is not safe at all times, your human
body certainly won’t be.” That one wasn’t a problem; I wasn’t safe already.
I shrugged, showing my apathy for this rule, and would have gotten another
slap, but Miles was too involved in his speech to say anything. “And lastly,
rule number four. Your loyalties lie with me, and you do not have a choice.”
Anger boiled within me, but again, I said nothing. I nodded once more,
and Miles gave me a pointed glare, then dismissed me. “Avatar testing is in
one hour,” he said. “Be ready.”
Chapter Three
Testing the Avatars
Two hours later, I arrived in what was referred to as the “link” room.
Inside, scientists were running around like bees in a beehive attempting to
get everything in order before the link. I scanned the room and immediately
found Grace Augustine. When she turned around, I waved and her entire face
lit up.
“Erin! Hey!” she exclaimed, hurrying over to me. I smiled
( )oadly and we exchanged a warm em( )ace.
“I missed you,” I said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come earlier. You know how
Miles is.”
“Yes,” she nodded, rolling her eyes. “You need to stand up for yourself
once in awhile though, Erin. You can’t just let him control you.”
I shrugged off the comment, knowing it wouldn’t do me much good.
Grace threw her hands up in frustration and shook her head, muttering a
few choice words under her
( )eath. “I swear, woman, one day you’re going to be asking
him permission
to get married."
“Can I see the avatars?” I asked, a( )uptly changing the subject.
It seemed to work. Grace’s face
( )ightened and she nodded. She led me into another room. The fake
bodies were huge, and were lying on beds in a hospital-
like area. “That one’s yours,” Grace said, pointing to a female one on the
far right hand side of the room. “You’ll be walking around in it in a few
minutes. I just wish you could have come for some training; as it is, you’ll
probably feel a little dizzy.”
“I think I’ll be fine,” I assured her, smiling. “There’s another guy here
who hasn’t tried it out before, right?”
“Yeah,” Grace replied, shaking her head. “Jake Sully. Totally untrained,
and rather stupid in the scientific department. I keep telling Miles I don’t
need another trigger
happy moron out here, but he refuses to listen. Anyway; it’s almost time.
Let’s go.”
We walked back into the link room. It was ringed with coffin-
like chambers,
at least, a coffin is the first thing I thought of. I’m not certain how else to
describe them. Anyway, as soon as we came inside, we were met by a young
man in a wheelchair. Grace introduced him in a flat voice as Jake Sully.
“Norm!” she called to another young man, entering the room soon after us.
“How much link time have you logged?”
“Seven hours,” he replied, earning an approving look from Grace. She
walked over and entered some numbers into a pad near his ‘coffin’.
“You?” she asked, turning to Jake.
“I read a manual,” he answered, smirking. I rolled my eyes, beginning
to understand why he drove her up the wall. I wanted to stick around and
watch this entertaining scene, but I was lead over by a scientist to one of
the machines. Wordlessly, she opened the ‘coffin’ and motioned for me to
step inside. I lay down on the jell-
like surface and tried to relax as the woman closed me in.
All I could hear was the countdown outside.
Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. |
