Fic: Pelagius Redeemed, Chapter Two
Mar. 13th, 2011 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
concertigrossiTitle: Pelagius Redeemed
Fandom: Avatar
Chapter: 2 of 2
Author: ConcertiGrossi
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6320
Characters: Trudy Chacon, Norm Spellman
Summary: In which demons are faced, wounds are healed and a victory becomes the aftermath.
Warnings: Trudy lives!
Disclaimer: Sadly, Avatar does not belong to me.
Author's Note: This is the World’s Most Overdue Help_Haiti fic, but now it’s finished. Many, many thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
websandwhiskers, a patroness as generous as she is patient. Thanks also to my fabulous beta-readers, rexluscus, stasia and IshyMaria, who saw me through this drawn-out process.
Chapter One
For the next week, they didn’t speak, not really. How Norm managed to avoid being alone with her on a planet with a total human population of less than forty, she never knew, but he managed. Either he shut himself in his own apartment, or made sure that, when it couldn’t be avoided, there was always someone else present and that no conversation rose above the level of commonplace pleasantry.
They went about their respective routines, as usual. Trudy told Max about the complete failure, but they were at a loss as to what to do next. An intervention seemed the only other choice, but it wasn’t one either of them wanted to undertake. It would be so much better for all concerned if Norm could be convinced to seek treatment on his own.
One morning, eight days after the fight, she went out to the hangar and found Neytiri waiting for her, as usual, but with Mo’at standing next to her. Mo’at, like most of the Tsahiks, avoided the base like the plague, and her presence caused no small amount of comment. Norm was already hurrying over from the medlab.
Neytiri greeted her. “Your picture of your family - the video? May I show it to my mother?”
Trudy was taken aback, but agreed. “Sure. Let me get it for you.” She got the vidframe out and handed it over. It seemed so small in a Na’vi hand.
“These are a -what was the word? recording? - of your family?” asked Neytiri, for Mo’at’s benefit. “And they are dead?”
“Yeah. They died in a hurricane…” From the confused looks she got, the word didn’t translate. “A really big storm. There was a flood.” She looked to Norm gratefully when he ran up. “Mo’at was asking about my family,” she said, gesturing to the small screen. “My father and sisters died during Hurricane Sara.”
Mo’at, despite herself, looked impressed. Trudy couldn’t figure it out.
"Come." Neytiri said to Mo'at. "Let me show you how they fly." Neytiri led her mother inside the Samson to show her the controls of the aircraft. Norm and Trudy tried to follow, but there simply wasn't room in the cockpit, and so they were left awkwardly cooling their heels outside.
Norm cleared his throat. “Your family died during Sara? I’m sorry.” He might be avoiding her, but he couldn’t let that pass.
“Thanks.”
“You and your mom made it out?”
“Yeah. That’s how I ended up on Pandora. Mom got acute abiogenic Parkinson’s from the floodwaters. RDA offered to pay for the treatment if I upped for off-planet duty.”
“How’s she doing now?”
“Dead.”
“What!? The treatment for AAP is 100% effective!”
She raised an eyebrow. “There’s no cure for being in a Maglev on Luna when the pressurization fails.”
Mo’at walked back over to Norm and Trudy, interrupting the conversation. “You control the machines with your eyes and hands? That is all?”
Trudy, confused, nodded. “It gets to be second nature, but that’s all you’ve got.”
Mo’at looked at the video in her hands. “And these are how you store your memories?”
“It’s one of the ways,” said Norm.
“Show me your First Song,” she commanded.
Norm led her over to the console they’d set up for the Na’vi, perched on a tall stool, and started typing awkwardly on the oversized keyboard. He started to read:
He who has seen everything, I will make known to the lands.
I will teach about him who experienced all things alike,
Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all.
He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden,
he brought information of the time before the Flood.
He went on a distant journey, pushing himself to exhaustion,
but then was brought to peace.
Mo’at interrupted. “This is ancient?”
“Almost five thousand years old. 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' is considered the first piece of literature, though not the first piece of writing. There’s some debate as to what actual literature is as opposed to just writing, and there are a lot of extant fragments, but this is the first complete story.”
“Show me more.”
And so began the strangest Wiki-walk Norm had ever been on. Each question led to an article or a video or a sound file, which generated another question. And another. And another. On history, biology, sports, culture, languages… everything. Norm translated and explained as he went, though even he had to confer with the other human Na’vi speakers to try to adequately convey the meaning of some of the terms. A small crowd started to gather.
It took hours. They scarcely even broke for lunch.
Trudy found herself watching the whole thing; it was fascinating to see someone try to explain your own culture to someone else. (And, occasionally, hilarious. They’d had to actually set up a miniature soccer field to adequately explain the offside rule, but had run up the white flag when it came to explaining the mass mania for wearing furry animal costumes that swept the world at the turn of the 22nd century.)
Max pulled up a chair next to Trudy and sat down. Daniel, Gabriella and Norm were involved in a deep debate trying to find the words to explain the Twin Paradox.
Jake joined them, sitting crosslegged on the ground. “Forget it, I don’t even understand that in English.”
Max and Trudy laughed.
“How is it that they don’t already know about all this?” Trudy whispered the two of them, gesturing to the computers.
Max replied, sotto voce. “In the classes, Grace used paper books - static images and text on paper- and she once brought a 2-D camera, but that was it. The thing of it is, First Contact situations are really hard to manage well. In the past, the more technologically-advanced cultures tended to go in and try to overawe the natives into compliance. Grace figured that there was enough of that going on with the mining operations and the weaponry, so she tried to keep it simple at the school. She was planning to introduce them to the tech gradually, but…”
“But she never got the chance.” Trudy finished.
“It was also a real pain in the ass to keep a link console working at the school. Not to mention that that program was one of the first things Selfridge cut when Grace started getting up his nose.”
The night was coming on when Mo’at finally pushed her chair away. She looked around her in meditative silence for several long minutes, and then spoke.
“All this machinery does more than destroy. You cannot hear the voices of your ancestors, so you found a way to let them speak. You do not have Eywa, and you were born blind, yet you have striven for all of time to overcome these defects. You have given me much to think about.” She nodded to Norm. “I thank you.”
She stalked away, leaving a shocked crowd in her wake, and none more shocked than her daughter.
The crowd broke up, but Trudy lingered, hoping to take advantage of the momentary thaw in her relations with Norm. Neytiri unwittingly dashed her hopes. “Perhaps there is time for a short flight? I would like to practice.”
Norm fled, again. “I’ll leave you to it.”
——
She decided to try again; they were having dinner in the mess with the rest of the humans when Jake and Neytiri came in. The pair were clearly bearing bad news - Jake looked sick and Neytiri couldn’t meet their eyes. They approached the group. “The Olo’uxulta has spoken. They’ve decided on the Äietisop,” said Neytiri.
“Oh shit, you’re kidding.” said Max.
“We’re dead,” said Norm.
“I don’t get it,” said Trudy.
Neytiri answered. “The oldest Tsahik will undergo a ceremony for four days to purify herself. She will then give herself over to Eywa and meditate on the problem. When she wakes, whatever decision she comes to will be accepted by the tribes.”
“And that’s a bad thing because… ? I’d think we’d have a better chance of convincing one woman than the entire world.”
Jake answered. “The oldest Tsahik is Radetkan of the Swokpa'li. Or, I should say, she was. The Swokpa'li were almost completely wiped out.”
The Swokpa'li had been a horse clan from the plains and, in keeping with the fate of all cavalry the first time they meet automatic weaponry, had died disproportionately.
The format for the Äietisop had been set down at the time of the First Songs, to be used as a court of law and parliament, the final appeal when inter-tribal disputes reached the point that such a Thing was needed. The Tsahiks from each warring tribe would be permitted to make their respective cases before all the Tsahiks and Olo'eyktans assembled, after which the oldest Tsahik would lie under the Tree of Souls, join with Eywa and deliberate.
Now that the format had been decided, events began to move quickly. Norm, as the best Na’vi linguist, was elected to speak for the humans. He was, of course, the logical choice, but now had to face the stress of preparing, translating and practicing the speech on which all their lives would depend.
Needless to say, for all that she and Norm were close to being on speaking terms again, this left them no time to be alone, no time to talk.
Trudy flew Max, Norm and Ameera to the Tree of Souls, while the rest of the humans waited anxiously by the commlink for the news. They stood with the Omaticaya, as had been previously agreed. Norm radiated anxiety; every so often, he would go over his speech again on his tablet. Overcome with sympathy and desperately wishing to impart confidence, Trudy took his (clammy) hand and squeezed it.
Startled, Norm looked up and gave her a panicky half-smile. Before he could say anything, however, the drums started pounding, calling everyone to attention.
——-
The event would be remembered as the 171st Äietisop since the Time of the First Songs. Sempere of the Nantang Clan spoke first. She excoriated the humans in no uncertain terms. She condemned their brutality, their rapaciousness. “From the very first moment we encountered these animals, all their thoughts were for what they could take from us, from Eywa and our world! They have killed our people and ravaged our planet!”
This was met with cheers and boos, and was largely as expected. However, when Dr. Spellman started to climb to the tree to begin his appeal, Sempere leapt to her feet again and shouted. “He does not get to speak here! They are not a recognized Tribe of the People!”
The crowd erupted. Arguments back and forth were shouted; on the one hand, the humans really weren’t a recognized Tribe of the People, but on the other, how was it fair to deny them a voice in these deliberations? (It was also universally considered that Sempere’s outburst had been in somewhat bad form, as such details should’ve been sorted out before the ceremony began, but Sempere had a known reputation for enjoying dramatic effect.)
Jake leapt to the fore. “They are under the protection of the Omaticaya!”
Sempere looked down on him. “Under your protection, yes, but that does not make them Na’vi! They have intruded themselves enough on our world, and now you would have them intrude on our most sacred of ceremonies!”
Jake bristled at this, but before it could come to blood, and to everyone’s great surprise, Mo’at’s voice cut through the din. “If they are not to be allowed to speak, then I will speak on their behalf!”
At the very least, she shocked everyone into silence. It was generally accepted that the Omaticayans had suffered the greatest loss - populations might be decimated, but no one else had lost their Hometree. The human delegation traded looks amongst themselves and with the Omaticaya; she had hardly been their partisan. At any rate, it satisfied the forms, and once the crowd settled down, Mo’at began.
Mo’at sang in the style of the First Songs. She sang of heartbreak and pain. She sang of a people trapped on a poisoned world, long since doomed by decisions made hundreds of years before they were born, lashing out like wounded animals, grabbing at anything that might buy a little more time for their children.
She sang of the scientists who had constructed entire disciplines so that their blind eyes might see. She sang of engineers who worked tirelessly that their soft, weak bodies might be protected on the land and sea and even in the icy black of space. She sang of historians, working to preserve the voices of the past without an Eywa to keep them. Barbarians they might be, but there were those amongst them who worked hard to correct this. “Their kind are not beyond redemption!”
The assembly’s reaction was decidedly mixed, but she’d given them enough to think about that no one responded peremptorily.
As soon as she finished, Radetkan was brought forth on a litter. A frail old woman, she slowly rose and, after making a gesture of greeting to the assembly, took her position before the Tree. She was dizzy and lightheaded from lack of food and sleep; physical purification was an important part of the ritual. (It would later be discovered that the stress of the hunger and sleep deprivation released enzymes into the Na’vi system that heightened the conductivity of the nerves in the queue, thus improving the connection to the planet's neural net. Or, as the Na’vi would say, the ritual brought the Tsahik closer to Eywa.)
The assembled Tsahiks sat in a ring around her, chanting. Radetkan closed her eyes. Her skin itched madly as Eywa’s tendrils connected with her nerve endings, but that lasted for just a second before she was swept away.
When she opened them again, she found herself looking out at her home village as it was when she was a girl, from a vantage point several feet shorter than she was used to. The scene brought a lump to her throat.
“I see you, ‘itetsyìp, after so many long years.” She turned to see her mother as she had been in her prime, when she was young and before the Sky People came.
“I see you, sa’nu,” she said, and ran to her mother’s arms. They embraced, and her eyes welled with tears.
“You would not be here in this place without good reason. Walk with me to the river, and we shall talk.”
She took her mother's hand, as a child would, and complied. “I am sent for Eywa’s advice, sa’nu.”
Her mother nodded, but walked in silence for a time. “How I envy you, Radetkan, to live in such interesting times!”
“Envy me!? They have taken my sons! My grandchildren!”
“They have returned to Eywa in defense of their homes and families. One cannot ask for a better death.”
“The Sky People have brought nothing but death! We must be rid of all of them!”
“And this is what you will tell the Olo’uxulta?”
“It is!”
Her mother frowned. “Why do you come for Eywa’s advice, then, if you have already decided?”
“They do not see! They can not see. They are abominations! Surely that is obvious!”
“Your grief is clouding your judgment. They are not all as you have described them. Abominations would not lay down their lives for our world and exile themselves forever from their homes.”
“Lives they would not have had to risk if they had stayed home to fix the world they already have! We do not need their pollution here. The younglings are already taking too much of an interest in their technology! Our ways will be corrupted, or lost! Our world will change, and not for the better!”
Her mother pursed her lips. “Do you remember, when you were just a few years old, we journeyed to visit the Clan of the Eastern Sea? In the mountains, we saw that young ikran who didn’t want to fly? He was well beyond the age that he should have spread his wings, but still he stayed in the nest. He cried piteously as his mother pushed him out. How cruel he must have thought her!”
Radetkan rolled her eyes. “I only appear to be a child, sa’nu, stop talking to me as if I’d barely left the womb. We are not baby ikran and it is NOT ordained that we must leave our world.”
Her mother smiled indulgently. “Are you so sure of that?”
“Eywa has given no sign!”
She raised her eyebrow. “The Sky People fly among the stars. Jakesully learned our ways, was reborn Omaticaya, became Toruk Makto and cast away his human form when he passed through the Eye of Eywa. If anything I would say that Eywa is not being particularly subtle.”
“THEN EYWA IS WRONG!”
Her mother looked down at her sadly. “You can say that and still believe yourself a Tsahik? You do not see, ‘itetsyìp.”
She released her hand, and Radetkan fell.
———
Those on the outside waited with varying degrees of patience. The Tsahiks maintained their chanting vigil, but the Olo’eyktans started to talk amongst themselves. Amongst the Omaticaya, at least, the talk centered on Mo’at’s conversion, minor miracle that it was. Neytiri gave the credit to (and laid the blame on) Norm and the day they spent with the database.
But in the end, everything still hung on Radetkan’s verdict.
Trudy was not given to handling inaction well. She’d flown the humans up in her Samson, and so, for lack of anything better to do, went to her airship and started running some routine checks. Occupied completely with this, and with her worries for the outcome, she hardly heard when Norm came in to sit behind her, in the teacher’s chair.
They sat in silence, for a time.
“It always starts the same. I’m running with the machine gun. I feel the impact, and I’m in agony,” said Norm.
Trudy turned back to look at him.
“You can voluntarily leave the link, but in the dream, I can’t find the way out. I’m trapped in the dying body, and I feel it shutting down. I see the tunnel that everybody talks about - it’s really just your body shutting down the nerves on the periphery of your eye to try to preserve your main field of vision - but it’s not the tunnel back to my own body. I feel myself dying and I can’t find my way back home.”
He ran his hands through his hair again, and began to rock a little. “That’s the first variation,” he said. She took one of his hands. “The second, at the last minute, I do find my way back to my own body, but the wounds are real… my blood starts to fill up the link chamber and the whole process starts again, only this time there’s nowhere to run to, because I am in my own head.”
The pressure on Trudy’s hand grew exponentially, but she barely noticed. Norm continued. “And it seems so stupid. I know what you said, but it seems so stupid that it should bother me. I’m fine, and I’m here, and there were so many dead. Do you know, it took us weeks to bury all the bodies? I mean, it was total carnage. We didn’t even find everybody. After a month, we had to assume that the jungle got them all, because it’s just that kind of ecosystem. Over half the Na’vi who fought are still missing, and a third of the humans never got found…”
His voice started to choke, and he stopped. She wrapped her arms around him, and pressed her lips to the top of his head. She so envied people who knew what to say in moments like these! Who knew how to say something to ease pain without sounding stupid, or minimizing the situation. She held him tighter.
He fought the tears with everything he had. Trudy, ever the practical mind, started working on a plan of action. “You need to get more sleep. It won’t make things better, but keeping on with this screwed-up schedule will only make things worse. No more sleeping by yourself. Just move in with me. They say the depression meds help. I bet Max would hook you up, if you asked him. When you need to talk, I’ll listen, and when you need to be held, I’ll hold you. No matter what you need, I’ll help you get it. I love you, Norm.”
The dam broke. He wept openly in her arms, while she kissed him and rocked him gently.
Maybe that was enough, after all.
Eventually, the torrent stopped. Norm pulled in halting breaths, and looked directly at her. “I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his face on his sleeve. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m such an idiot.”
“Never. Not ever.”
He kept apologizing, and she kept demurring, until she gave up and resorted to humor. “It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of two little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world…”
Despite himself, Norm gave a hiccoughing laugh. “That’s the worst Bogart impression I’ve ever heard.”
“Yeah, well, when it comes to that, I’m handicapped. At least I finally got to see the end of that damned movie.”
She helped him get cleaned up, and got him some water. There was much more to say, but they didn’t dare be away for too much longer. Radetkan could awaken at any minute.
It was, at any rate, a start.
———
Radetkan dropped for a night and a day through the sky and the stars, and slammed to earth in the middle of a parched desert. As she got up and dusted herself off, she noted that here her body felt young and energetic, at the peak of her strength and vigor.
“That was quite an entrance.”
She turned around. Grace Augustine sat cross-legged on a rock, smoking a cigarette.
“Pah!” She spat in the ground in front of her, and shouted, “It would have been better if you had never come!”
“I agree completely. But that can’t be undone now.”
“It is not fair! If we were to go to the stars, it should have been at a time of our own choosing, not thrust upon us by you!”
“Again, you’ll get no argument from me. But they will come. And if you want to preserve your world at all, you’ll listen to the humans on the base.”
“It is better to die as pure Na’vi than to accept your kind and your corruption!”
“Yeah? You going to take a planetary vote on that?”
“The People could never behave as your kind have!”
"You can't know that. Nobody knows how they'll react once the resources get scarce, until a famine starts and their children start going hungry. Or once they find themselves in a position of power. We have a saying, 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Can you tell me that there has never once been a bad Olo’yektan, not one, since the Time of the First Songs?”
Of course, she could not. Radetkan gave no answer, but glowered at the woman on the rock.
“And while we’re at it, if The People could never behave as my kind has, why are you so worried about our influence?”
Caught in the contradiction, she sputtered. “I do not wish to see my world change.”
She nodded. “Believe it or not, that I can understand. But now the wave is coming and it can’t be stopped. Do you want to accept it, flow with it and help direct it, or do you want to just let it roll right over you?”
She looked away.
“Not all change is bad. Sometimes, it makes you stronger.”
“You would have us give up who we are!”
“Not in a million years. I just want you to learn to defend yourselves! You have no idea what’s coming! Be Na’vi! Find a way to do this in a Na’vi manner! Write histories for centuries after this deploring the perfidy of the human race! You want to assign blame? Fine! Give us the blame. I, Dr. Grace Augustine, hereby accept the blame for this horrible situation on behalf of humanity in perpetuity! Just accept our help in preserving all of your culture that we can! Let the humans have the base, and let them negotiate to buy you protection until you can protect yourselves!”
“Why are you like this!?”
“You want to judge? Look, your people grew up in a Paradise. We didn’t. We protected our own kind not by keeping a balance, but by having more. More food meaning more children, meaning our genes carried on. A progenerative arms race. That’s how our world evolved. From the beginning, this is how we prevailed, and old habits are hard to break.”
“You are savages.”
“It’s not the first time we’ve been called that, and I’ll bet it won’t be the last. You were born in a state of perfect harmony, and we’ve had to work for it all throughout our history. And yes, the path is littered with failures, but that doesn’t mean we won’t one day succeed.”
Radetkan was silent for a time. "From all you have said, there will come a day when that base isn't enough."
Grace nodded. "Possibly. So, on that day, make sure that every Na’vi hand holds the better weapon."
She rallied one final retort. "We shouldn't have to do that."
"Should? While we're discussing 'should,' can I point out that I shouldn't be dead?"
Despite herself, Radetkan laughed. Dr. Augustine held out her hand to shake, and Radetkan took it, her big blue hand dwarfing the tiny pink fingers.
Radetkan let go, and fell away from Grace.
——
She opened her eyes to see her fellow Tsahiks around her, waiting patiently.
She got to her feet, slowly, and with the help of her attendants. The discomfort from her physical privations was nothing compared to the wretched feeling of being a fragile old woman again.
Knowing the forms, she began to speak immediately. “My mother and father died the year before the Sky People came. In that, I envy them. But as Eywa chose us to live through these horrible days, we must rise to face them. Eywa dispenses justice and maintains perfect balance, but the universe is unfair, and has placed its thumbs on the scales. This world is ours, and ours alone, but the Sky People own the sky and the stars above it. Those who would destroy us will come, and we must be ready. We must learn to use the tools of the invader to preserve all that we are!”
There was a ripple of surprise in response to this. The humans watching dared hope for the first time.
“And while humans might take without regard, we cannot do so and remain Na’vi. We are better than they! The Sky People may stay on their base, and negotiate the peace with their fellow humans. We will learn to use their weapons, and learn to fly in their machines, and in return, we will teach those humans willing to learn our ways, and allow them to study our world, in the hopes that they can be enlightened. We will teach those willing to learn, and defend against those who will not, until the day that we grow stronger than they are!” She collapsed back.
The crowd of Tsahiks and Olo’yektans burst out into cheers of agreement and shouts of rage. In the hubbub, Radetkan was placed on a litter to be carried to get some food and rest, leaving the chaos of an all-out political argument in her wake. As they passed the human delegation, an urge overcame her, something that she would never quite understand. She raised her hand to stop her bearers, and looked down.
“Where are your instruments, Dr. Spellman? You must take some samples…”
——-
The negotiations continued for weeks; first amongst the Na’vi and then between the Na’vi and Earth, but in the end the details were hammered out, and the humans were able to make themselves a home.
Jiang-Mei got the spare Valkyrie working, and Trudy offered to take the first volunteers up for a quick orbital flight, to show them the perspective from which they would have to learn to defend.
The offer accepted, Neytiri joined Trudy, and together they readied the Valkyrie to go. Neytiri had developed quite a taste for human-style flight, and was very keen to break orbit for the first time. As they waited by the spaceship, Neytiri handed a small package to Trudy.
“Here,” she said, grinning innocently. “To go with the other one.”
“Uh… thanks,” said Trudy, confused. She unwrapped a small vidframe and pressed play.
The picture was shaky, of marginal quality and very clearly shot by a camera being held covertly. The film - with sound, no less - was from the monumental victory party they’d held on the base the day the Pitcairn Treaty had been signed. The bash had run until the dawn, and had gotten pretty raucous. Raucous enough that she had been sure the next morning that no one had noticed when she and Norm (both more than a little drunk) had started necking like teenagers on the couch.
She was wrong.
She gave a suspicious cough, and glowered merrily at Neytiri’s whoops of laughter. “Tell Sully he’s a dead man.”
Nevertheless, that vid joined the rest of her family on the dashboard, and stayed there for as long as she was able to fly.
Soon enough, however, their passengers gathered - they were mostly Omaticaya, and many were there to prove their bravery. This trip would be the first of dozens; hundreds more Na’vi would volunteer as soon as they saw that the first trip returned safely.
They launched, and after a brief interval to let her passengers get used to the thrill of zero-gee, Trudy lowered the UV shields from the windows.
No one stands unmoved at the sight of their homeworld when seen from a spaceship: a small blue marble shining out against the stygian depths of infinite space. The Na’vi were no exception. Some cried out, others prayed, and still others stood dumbstruck.
What Trudy always remembered, though, was a small girl floating at the opposite window, staring out at the starfield. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth formed into an awestruck grin.
The girl saw Trudy watching her and explained, “I did not know there were so many…”
-----
Excerpt: “Interview with Rosaline Spellman” by Deanna Wellsley. Inter-Planetary News. Inter-Planetary Network, Shanghai. 17 October 2204
DEANNA WELLSELY: It’s been five decades since the founding of the Pitcairn Colony on Pandora, and Earth’s furthest-flung colony is still as controversial as ever. We’re here with Dr. Rosaline Spellman, first Pandoran-born human, to talk about the fiftieth anniversary of the Pitcairn colony. Dr. Spellman, thank you for coming.
ROSALINE SPELLMAN: Thank you, Deanna, I’m glad to be here.
WELLSLEY: How are you adjusting to being on Earth? This is your second trip off Pandora, is it not?
SPELLMAN: Yes, I came here for college. It’s looking much better than when I left it last time, but the gravity seems to have gotten stronger over the last twenty years!
[LAUGHTER]
WELLSLEY: There have been some big changes, that’s true! The big story, of course, is the announcement tomorrow of the latest breakthrough from the Pandoran research labs… any truth to the rumors that they’ve developed a new faster-than-light engine?
SPELLMAN: Sorry, you’ve got the wrong Spellman… I’m just a biologist. My brother is the aerospace engineer.
WELLSLEY: But surely you can give us some idea.
SPELLMAN: I am sworn to secrecy. You’ll find out with everyone else tomorrow.
WELLSLEY: But what do you say to the controversy surrounding the ongoing partnership? That Earth has essentially built up its greatest competitor?
SPELLMAN: Against whom are we competing, and for what? We and the Na’vi are the only sapient life forms we know of, and it’s a big universe.
WELLSLEY: And ours are the only two planets truly capable of sustaining life as we know it. There are those who would argue that the Na’vi will invade Earth, if given a chance.
SPELLMAN: I’ve heard that, over and over again, and I’ll repeat, it’s completely unfounded. Why would the Na’vi want it? The air may be clearing and the ecosystems rebounding - developments, I might add, that wouldn’t have happened without the joint research labs on Pandora - but an inch-thick patch of seasonal ice at the North Pole does not a complete recovery make. It’s still a mess.
WELLSLEY: Let me play you a clip of the Humanity Party’s latest statement, given by their spokesman Brenden Rattray:
[ON SCREEN]
RATTRAY: We feel that the Earth must be kept for humans, and humans only! Our hard-earned tax dollars should not be going to support this wrongheaded idea of dragging them out of the Stone Age! They’re freeloaders! If the Na’vi want to develop their infrastructure, that’s their business. They’re stealing our resources and our research ideas. They will overrun us if given half a chance!
SPELLMAN: That’s just complete hogwash. First of all, the Pandoran labs cost Earth nothing at all… in fact, they’re a net gain. Second of all, the contributions of the Na’vi have been at the very core of our research paths for decades. And thirdly, Stanford may have a few Na’vi students, but those students have to serve for four years in orbit on the Augustine Station to show that they can handle it before they’re allowed to set foot on an ISV. That particular test for entry has a 97% failure rate, with the majority having to return planetside within a month to the school’s Pitcairn Campus. Very few Na’vi can stand to be off-planet for any length of time - try to imagine spending four years in a sensory-deprivation tank. They evolved with this close connection to their home planet; it makes it very hard to leave.
WELLSLEY: There are numerous reports that the Na’vi are developing organic computers, akin to the network on Pandora, which will remove this limitation; your CV indicates that you’ve been assisting in this endeavor.
SPELLMAN: They certainly are, and I certainly am. But any developments in that respect are a long way off. The complexities of the problems involved beggar the imagination.
WELLSLEY: Speaking of Stanford, the Terran Na’vi movement has protested their close association with the Pandorans as well, arguing that we have no right to subject the Na’vi to our “educational indoctrination,” as they put it.
SPELLMAN: Look, the Terran Na’vi movement and the Humanity Party are just flip-sides of the same coin. The Terran Na’vi want the actual Na’vi to remain museum pieces; theme park exhibits that they come off as oh-so-educated and sophisticated to study and talk about and collect artifacts from, but when the Na’vi turn out to be actual living beings with a desire for non-romantic self-determination, they get their noses out of joint.
WELLSLEY: They are your greatest partisans.
SPELLMAN: And with friends like them, who needs enemies?
WELLSLEY: They feel that greater understanding will be achieved by more “conversions” as they’re called, as opposed to more academic collaboration…
SPELLMAN: The Na’vi have a very stringent process to determine who gets to be chosen as an avatar driver, much less who gets to attempt the conversion ceremony. Most of the Terran Na’vi are annoyed because they can’t make the cut.
WELLSLEY: Your father was one of the original drivers, was he not? Why hasn’t he “converted?”
SPELLMAN: (laughing) Well, he may, yet. But not while my mother lives. She won’t, and he won’t without her.
WELLSLEY: In honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding, the NAFTA countries have rescinded the death sentence imposed on the original Pandoran rebels. Do any of them have plans to return home?
SPELLMAN: Now that they’re all too old to risk six years in hypersleep? How very kind of the NAFTA governments. No, I don’t think so.
WELLSLEY: This past year, Pandora mourned the death of Jake Sully, the leader of the original Rebellion and Olo’yektan of the Omaticaya. What changes do you see now that the Pitcairn Advisory Council is no longer headed by a converted human?
SPELLMAN: Jakesully’s passing was a great loss to Pandora and Earth; I can’t imagine anyone having done a better job of shepherding our two peoples through the early years of the colony. How many times did he keep negotiations going when everyone thought that there would be a war? However great the loss, though, I don’t see it affecting relations in the least. The Na’vi are as committed as ever to the Earth-Pandora partnership. It has paid off enormous dividends for everyone, human and Na’vi alike, and will continue to do so, as long as Earth keeps up her share of the bargain.
WELLSLEY: Well, that’s all the time we have. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Spellman.
Fandom: Avatar
Chapter: 2 of 2
Author: ConcertiGrossi
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6320
Characters: Trudy Chacon, Norm Spellman
Summary: In which demons are faced, wounds are healed and a victory becomes the aftermath.
Warnings: Trudy lives!
Disclaimer: Sadly, Avatar does not belong to me.
Author's Note: This is the World’s Most Overdue Help_Haiti fic, but now it’s finished. Many, many thanks to
websandwhiskers, a patroness as generous as she is patient. Thanks also to my fabulous beta-readers, rexluscus, stasia and IshyMaria, who saw me through this drawn-out process.Chapter One
For the next week, they didn’t speak, not really. How Norm managed to avoid being alone with her on a planet with a total human population of less than forty, she never knew, but he managed. Either he shut himself in his own apartment, or made sure that, when it couldn’t be avoided, there was always someone else present and that no conversation rose above the level of commonplace pleasantry.
They went about their respective routines, as usual. Trudy told Max about the complete failure, but they were at a loss as to what to do next. An intervention seemed the only other choice, but it wasn’t one either of them wanted to undertake. It would be so much better for all concerned if Norm could be convinced to seek treatment on his own.
One morning, eight days after the fight, she went out to the hangar and found Neytiri waiting for her, as usual, but with Mo’at standing next to her. Mo’at, like most of the Tsahiks, avoided the base like the plague, and her presence caused no small amount of comment. Norm was already hurrying over from the medlab.
Neytiri greeted her. “Your picture of your family - the video? May I show it to my mother?”
Trudy was taken aback, but agreed. “Sure. Let me get it for you.” She got the vidframe out and handed it over. It seemed so small in a Na’vi hand.
“These are a -what was the word? recording? - of your family?” asked Neytiri, for Mo’at’s benefit. “And they are dead?”
“Yeah. They died in a hurricane…” From the confused looks she got, the word didn’t translate. “A really big storm. There was a flood.” She looked to Norm gratefully when he ran up. “Mo’at was asking about my family,” she said, gesturing to the small screen. “My father and sisters died during Hurricane Sara.”
Mo’at, despite herself, looked impressed. Trudy couldn’t figure it out.
"Come." Neytiri said to Mo'at. "Let me show you how they fly." Neytiri led her mother inside the Samson to show her the controls of the aircraft. Norm and Trudy tried to follow, but there simply wasn't room in the cockpit, and so they were left awkwardly cooling their heels outside.
Norm cleared his throat. “Your family died during Sara? I’m sorry.” He might be avoiding her, but he couldn’t let that pass.
“Thanks.”
“You and your mom made it out?”
“Yeah. That’s how I ended up on Pandora. Mom got acute abiogenic Parkinson’s from the floodwaters. RDA offered to pay for the treatment if I upped for off-planet duty.”
“How’s she doing now?”
“Dead.”
“What!? The treatment for AAP is 100% effective!”
She raised an eyebrow. “There’s no cure for being in a Maglev on Luna when the pressurization fails.”
Mo’at walked back over to Norm and Trudy, interrupting the conversation. “You control the machines with your eyes and hands? That is all?”
Trudy, confused, nodded. “It gets to be second nature, but that’s all you’ve got.”
Mo’at looked at the video in her hands. “And these are how you store your memories?”
“It’s one of the ways,” said Norm.
“Show me your First Song,” she commanded.
Norm led her over to the console they’d set up for the Na’vi, perched on a tall stool, and started typing awkwardly on the oversized keyboard. He started to read:
He who has seen everything, I will make known to the lands.
I will teach about him who experienced all things alike,
Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all.
He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden,
he brought information of the time before the Flood.
He went on a distant journey, pushing himself to exhaustion,
but then was brought to peace.
Mo’at interrupted. “This is ancient?”
“Almost five thousand years old. 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' is considered the first piece of literature, though not the first piece of writing. There’s some debate as to what actual literature is as opposed to just writing, and there are a lot of extant fragments, but this is the first complete story.”
“Show me more.”
And so began the strangest Wiki-walk Norm had ever been on. Each question led to an article or a video or a sound file, which generated another question. And another. And another. On history, biology, sports, culture, languages… everything. Norm translated and explained as he went, though even he had to confer with the other human Na’vi speakers to try to adequately convey the meaning of some of the terms. A small crowd started to gather.
It took hours. They scarcely even broke for lunch.
Trudy found herself watching the whole thing; it was fascinating to see someone try to explain your own culture to someone else. (And, occasionally, hilarious. They’d had to actually set up a miniature soccer field to adequately explain the offside rule, but had run up the white flag when it came to explaining the mass mania for wearing furry animal costumes that swept the world at the turn of the 22nd century.)
Max pulled up a chair next to Trudy and sat down. Daniel, Gabriella and Norm were involved in a deep debate trying to find the words to explain the Twin Paradox.
Jake joined them, sitting crosslegged on the ground. “Forget it, I don’t even understand that in English.”
Max and Trudy laughed.
“How is it that they don’t already know about all this?” Trudy whispered the two of them, gesturing to the computers.
Max replied, sotto voce. “In the classes, Grace used paper books - static images and text on paper- and she once brought a 2-D camera, but that was it. The thing of it is, First Contact situations are really hard to manage well. In the past, the more technologically-advanced cultures tended to go in and try to overawe the natives into compliance. Grace figured that there was enough of that going on with the mining operations and the weaponry, so she tried to keep it simple at the school. She was planning to introduce them to the tech gradually, but…”
“But she never got the chance.” Trudy finished.
“It was also a real pain in the ass to keep a link console working at the school. Not to mention that that program was one of the first things Selfridge cut when Grace started getting up his nose.”
The night was coming on when Mo’at finally pushed her chair away. She looked around her in meditative silence for several long minutes, and then spoke.
“All this machinery does more than destroy. You cannot hear the voices of your ancestors, so you found a way to let them speak. You do not have Eywa, and you were born blind, yet you have striven for all of time to overcome these defects. You have given me much to think about.” She nodded to Norm. “I thank you.”
She stalked away, leaving a shocked crowd in her wake, and none more shocked than her daughter.
The crowd broke up, but Trudy lingered, hoping to take advantage of the momentary thaw in her relations with Norm. Neytiri unwittingly dashed her hopes. “Perhaps there is time for a short flight? I would like to practice.”
Norm fled, again. “I’ll leave you to it.”
——
She decided to try again; they were having dinner in the mess with the rest of the humans when Jake and Neytiri came in. The pair were clearly bearing bad news - Jake looked sick and Neytiri couldn’t meet their eyes. They approached the group. “The Olo’uxulta has spoken. They’ve decided on the Äietisop,” said Neytiri.
“Oh shit, you’re kidding.” said Max.
“We’re dead,” said Norm.
“I don’t get it,” said Trudy.
Neytiri answered. “The oldest Tsahik will undergo a ceremony for four days to purify herself. She will then give herself over to Eywa and meditate on the problem. When she wakes, whatever decision she comes to will be accepted by the tribes.”
“And that’s a bad thing because… ? I’d think we’d have a better chance of convincing one woman than the entire world.”
Jake answered. “The oldest Tsahik is Radetkan of the Swokpa'li. Or, I should say, she was. The Swokpa'li were almost completely wiped out.”
The Swokpa'li had been a horse clan from the plains and, in keeping with the fate of all cavalry the first time they meet automatic weaponry, had died disproportionately.
The format for the Äietisop had been set down at the time of the First Songs, to be used as a court of law and parliament, the final appeal when inter-tribal disputes reached the point that such a Thing was needed. The Tsahiks from each warring tribe would be permitted to make their respective cases before all the Tsahiks and Olo'eyktans assembled, after which the oldest Tsahik would lie under the Tree of Souls, join with Eywa and deliberate.
Now that the format had been decided, events began to move quickly. Norm, as the best Na’vi linguist, was elected to speak for the humans. He was, of course, the logical choice, but now had to face the stress of preparing, translating and practicing the speech on which all their lives would depend.
Needless to say, for all that she and Norm were close to being on speaking terms again, this left them no time to be alone, no time to talk.
Trudy flew Max, Norm and Ameera to the Tree of Souls, while the rest of the humans waited anxiously by the commlink for the news. They stood with the Omaticaya, as had been previously agreed. Norm radiated anxiety; every so often, he would go over his speech again on his tablet. Overcome with sympathy and desperately wishing to impart confidence, Trudy took his (clammy) hand and squeezed it.
Startled, Norm looked up and gave her a panicky half-smile. Before he could say anything, however, the drums started pounding, calling everyone to attention.
——-
The event would be remembered as the 171st Äietisop since the Time of the First Songs. Sempere of the Nantang Clan spoke first. She excoriated the humans in no uncertain terms. She condemned their brutality, their rapaciousness. “From the very first moment we encountered these animals, all their thoughts were for what they could take from us, from Eywa and our world! They have killed our people and ravaged our planet!”
This was met with cheers and boos, and was largely as expected. However, when Dr. Spellman started to climb to the tree to begin his appeal, Sempere leapt to her feet again and shouted. “He does not get to speak here! They are not a recognized Tribe of the People!”
The crowd erupted. Arguments back and forth were shouted; on the one hand, the humans really weren’t a recognized Tribe of the People, but on the other, how was it fair to deny them a voice in these deliberations? (It was also universally considered that Sempere’s outburst had been in somewhat bad form, as such details should’ve been sorted out before the ceremony began, but Sempere had a known reputation for enjoying dramatic effect.)
Jake leapt to the fore. “They are under the protection of the Omaticaya!”
Sempere looked down on him. “Under your protection, yes, but that does not make them Na’vi! They have intruded themselves enough on our world, and now you would have them intrude on our most sacred of ceremonies!”
Jake bristled at this, but before it could come to blood, and to everyone’s great surprise, Mo’at’s voice cut through the din. “If they are not to be allowed to speak, then I will speak on their behalf!”
At the very least, she shocked everyone into silence. It was generally accepted that the Omaticayans had suffered the greatest loss - populations might be decimated, but no one else had lost their Hometree. The human delegation traded looks amongst themselves and with the Omaticaya; she had hardly been their partisan. At any rate, it satisfied the forms, and once the crowd settled down, Mo’at began.
Mo’at sang in the style of the First Songs. She sang of heartbreak and pain. She sang of a people trapped on a poisoned world, long since doomed by decisions made hundreds of years before they were born, lashing out like wounded animals, grabbing at anything that might buy a little more time for their children.
She sang of the scientists who had constructed entire disciplines so that their blind eyes might see. She sang of engineers who worked tirelessly that their soft, weak bodies might be protected on the land and sea and even in the icy black of space. She sang of historians, working to preserve the voices of the past without an Eywa to keep them. Barbarians they might be, but there were those amongst them who worked hard to correct this. “Their kind are not beyond redemption!”
The assembly’s reaction was decidedly mixed, but she’d given them enough to think about that no one responded peremptorily.
As soon as she finished, Radetkan was brought forth on a litter. A frail old woman, she slowly rose and, after making a gesture of greeting to the assembly, took her position before the Tree. She was dizzy and lightheaded from lack of food and sleep; physical purification was an important part of the ritual. (It would later be discovered that the stress of the hunger and sleep deprivation released enzymes into the Na’vi system that heightened the conductivity of the nerves in the queue, thus improving the connection to the planet's neural net. Or, as the Na’vi would say, the ritual brought the Tsahik closer to Eywa.)
The assembled Tsahiks sat in a ring around her, chanting. Radetkan closed her eyes. Her skin itched madly as Eywa’s tendrils connected with her nerve endings, but that lasted for just a second before she was swept away.
When she opened them again, she found herself looking out at her home village as it was when she was a girl, from a vantage point several feet shorter than she was used to. The scene brought a lump to her throat.
“I see you, ‘itetsyìp, after so many long years.” She turned to see her mother as she had been in her prime, when she was young and before the Sky People came.
“I see you, sa’nu,” she said, and ran to her mother’s arms. They embraced, and her eyes welled with tears.
“You would not be here in this place without good reason. Walk with me to the river, and we shall talk.”
She took her mother's hand, as a child would, and complied. “I am sent for Eywa’s advice, sa’nu.”
Her mother nodded, but walked in silence for a time. “How I envy you, Radetkan, to live in such interesting times!”
“Envy me!? They have taken my sons! My grandchildren!”
“They have returned to Eywa in defense of their homes and families. One cannot ask for a better death.”
“The Sky People have brought nothing but death! We must be rid of all of them!”
“And this is what you will tell the Olo’uxulta?”
“It is!”
Her mother frowned. “Why do you come for Eywa’s advice, then, if you have already decided?”
“They do not see! They can not see. They are abominations! Surely that is obvious!”
“Your grief is clouding your judgment. They are not all as you have described them. Abominations would not lay down their lives for our world and exile themselves forever from their homes.”
“Lives they would not have had to risk if they had stayed home to fix the world they already have! We do not need their pollution here. The younglings are already taking too much of an interest in their technology! Our ways will be corrupted, or lost! Our world will change, and not for the better!”
Her mother pursed her lips. “Do you remember, when you were just a few years old, we journeyed to visit the Clan of the Eastern Sea? In the mountains, we saw that young ikran who didn’t want to fly? He was well beyond the age that he should have spread his wings, but still he stayed in the nest. He cried piteously as his mother pushed him out. How cruel he must have thought her!”
Radetkan rolled her eyes. “I only appear to be a child, sa’nu, stop talking to me as if I’d barely left the womb. We are not baby ikran and it is NOT ordained that we must leave our world.”
Her mother smiled indulgently. “Are you so sure of that?”
“Eywa has given no sign!”
She raised her eyebrow. “The Sky People fly among the stars. Jakesully learned our ways, was reborn Omaticaya, became Toruk Makto and cast away his human form when he passed through the Eye of Eywa. If anything I would say that Eywa is not being particularly subtle.”
“THEN EYWA IS WRONG!”
Her mother looked down at her sadly. “You can say that and still believe yourself a Tsahik? You do not see, ‘itetsyìp.”
She released her hand, and Radetkan fell.
———
Those on the outside waited with varying degrees of patience. The Tsahiks maintained their chanting vigil, but the Olo’eyktans started to talk amongst themselves. Amongst the Omaticaya, at least, the talk centered on Mo’at’s conversion, minor miracle that it was. Neytiri gave the credit to (and laid the blame on) Norm and the day they spent with the database.
But in the end, everything still hung on Radetkan’s verdict.
Trudy was not given to handling inaction well. She’d flown the humans up in her Samson, and so, for lack of anything better to do, went to her airship and started running some routine checks. Occupied completely with this, and with her worries for the outcome, she hardly heard when Norm came in to sit behind her, in the teacher’s chair.
They sat in silence, for a time.
“It always starts the same. I’m running with the machine gun. I feel the impact, and I’m in agony,” said Norm.
Trudy turned back to look at him.
“You can voluntarily leave the link, but in the dream, I can’t find the way out. I’m trapped in the dying body, and I feel it shutting down. I see the tunnel that everybody talks about - it’s really just your body shutting down the nerves on the periphery of your eye to try to preserve your main field of vision - but it’s not the tunnel back to my own body. I feel myself dying and I can’t find my way back home.”
He ran his hands through his hair again, and began to rock a little. “That’s the first variation,” he said. She took one of his hands. “The second, at the last minute, I do find my way back to my own body, but the wounds are real… my blood starts to fill up the link chamber and the whole process starts again, only this time there’s nowhere to run to, because I am in my own head.”
The pressure on Trudy’s hand grew exponentially, but she barely noticed. Norm continued. “And it seems so stupid. I know what you said, but it seems so stupid that it should bother me. I’m fine, and I’m here, and there were so many dead. Do you know, it took us weeks to bury all the bodies? I mean, it was total carnage. We didn’t even find everybody. After a month, we had to assume that the jungle got them all, because it’s just that kind of ecosystem. Over half the Na’vi who fought are still missing, and a third of the humans never got found…”
His voice started to choke, and he stopped. She wrapped her arms around him, and pressed her lips to the top of his head. She so envied people who knew what to say in moments like these! Who knew how to say something to ease pain without sounding stupid, or minimizing the situation. She held him tighter.
He fought the tears with everything he had. Trudy, ever the practical mind, started working on a plan of action. “You need to get more sleep. It won’t make things better, but keeping on with this screwed-up schedule will only make things worse. No more sleeping by yourself. Just move in with me. They say the depression meds help. I bet Max would hook you up, if you asked him. When you need to talk, I’ll listen, and when you need to be held, I’ll hold you. No matter what you need, I’ll help you get it. I love you, Norm.”
The dam broke. He wept openly in her arms, while she kissed him and rocked him gently.
Maybe that was enough, after all.
Eventually, the torrent stopped. Norm pulled in halting breaths, and looked directly at her. “I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his face on his sleeve. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m such an idiot.”
“Never. Not ever.”
He kept apologizing, and she kept demurring, until she gave up and resorted to humor. “It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of two little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world…”
Despite himself, Norm gave a hiccoughing laugh. “That’s the worst Bogart impression I’ve ever heard.”
“Yeah, well, when it comes to that, I’m handicapped. At least I finally got to see the end of that damned movie.”
She helped him get cleaned up, and got him some water. There was much more to say, but they didn’t dare be away for too much longer. Radetkan could awaken at any minute.
It was, at any rate, a start.
———
Radetkan dropped for a night and a day through the sky and the stars, and slammed to earth in the middle of a parched desert. As she got up and dusted herself off, she noted that here her body felt young and energetic, at the peak of her strength and vigor.
“That was quite an entrance.”
She turned around. Grace Augustine sat cross-legged on a rock, smoking a cigarette.
“Pah!” She spat in the ground in front of her, and shouted, “It would have been better if you had never come!”
“I agree completely. But that can’t be undone now.”
“It is not fair! If we were to go to the stars, it should have been at a time of our own choosing, not thrust upon us by you!”
“Again, you’ll get no argument from me. But they will come. And if you want to preserve your world at all, you’ll listen to the humans on the base.”
“It is better to die as pure Na’vi than to accept your kind and your corruption!”
“Yeah? You going to take a planetary vote on that?”
“The People could never behave as your kind have!”
"You can't know that. Nobody knows how they'll react once the resources get scarce, until a famine starts and their children start going hungry. Or once they find themselves in a position of power. We have a saying, 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Can you tell me that there has never once been a bad Olo’yektan, not one, since the Time of the First Songs?”
Of course, she could not. Radetkan gave no answer, but glowered at the woman on the rock.
“And while we’re at it, if The People could never behave as my kind has, why are you so worried about our influence?”
Caught in the contradiction, she sputtered. “I do not wish to see my world change.”
She nodded. “Believe it or not, that I can understand. But now the wave is coming and it can’t be stopped. Do you want to accept it, flow with it and help direct it, or do you want to just let it roll right over you?”
She looked away.
“Not all change is bad. Sometimes, it makes you stronger.”
“You would have us give up who we are!”
“Not in a million years. I just want you to learn to defend yourselves! You have no idea what’s coming! Be Na’vi! Find a way to do this in a Na’vi manner! Write histories for centuries after this deploring the perfidy of the human race! You want to assign blame? Fine! Give us the blame. I, Dr. Grace Augustine, hereby accept the blame for this horrible situation on behalf of humanity in perpetuity! Just accept our help in preserving all of your culture that we can! Let the humans have the base, and let them negotiate to buy you protection until you can protect yourselves!”
“Why are you like this!?”
“You want to judge? Look, your people grew up in a Paradise. We didn’t. We protected our own kind not by keeping a balance, but by having more. More food meaning more children, meaning our genes carried on. A progenerative arms race. That’s how our world evolved. From the beginning, this is how we prevailed, and old habits are hard to break.”
“You are savages.”
“It’s not the first time we’ve been called that, and I’ll bet it won’t be the last. You were born in a state of perfect harmony, and we’ve had to work for it all throughout our history. And yes, the path is littered with failures, but that doesn’t mean we won’t one day succeed.”
Radetkan was silent for a time. "From all you have said, there will come a day when that base isn't enough."
Grace nodded. "Possibly. So, on that day, make sure that every Na’vi hand holds the better weapon."
She rallied one final retort. "We shouldn't have to do that."
"Should? While we're discussing 'should,' can I point out that I shouldn't be dead?"
Despite herself, Radetkan laughed. Dr. Augustine held out her hand to shake, and Radetkan took it, her big blue hand dwarfing the tiny pink fingers.
Radetkan let go, and fell away from Grace.
——
She opened her eyes to see her fellow Tsahiks around her, waiting patiently.
She got to her feet, slowly, and with the help of her attendants. The discomfort from her physical privations was nothing compared to the wretched feeling of being a fragile old woman again.
Knowing the forms, she began to speak immediately. “My mother and father died the year before the Sky People came. In that, I envy them. But as Eywa chose us to live through these horrible days, we must rise to face them. Eywa dispenses justice and maintains perfect balance, but the universe is unfair, and has placed its thumbs on the scales. This world is ours, and ours alone, but the Sky People own the sky and the stars above it. Those who would destroy us will come, and we must be ready. We must learn to use the tools of the invader to preserve all that we are!”
There was a ripple of surprise in response to this. The humans watching dared hope for the first time.
“And while humans might take without regard, we cannot do so and remain Na’vi. We are better than they! The Sky People may stay on their base, and negotiate the peace with their fellow humans. We will learn to use their weapons, and learn to fly in their machines, and in return, we will teach those humans willing to learn our ways, and allow them to study our world, in the hopes that they can be enlightened. We will teach those willing to learn, and defend against those who will not, until the day that we grow stronger than they are!” She collapsed back.
The crowd of Tsahiks and Olo’yektans burst out into cheers of agreement and shouts of rage. In the hubbub, Radetkan was placed on a litter to be carried to get some food and rest, leaving the chaos of an all-out political argument in her wake. As they passed the human delegation, an urge overcame her, something that she would never quite understand. She raised her hand to stop her bearers, and looked down.
“Where are your instruments, Dr. Spellman? You must take some samples…”
——-
The negotiations continued for weeks; first amongst the Na’vi and then between the Na’vi and Earth, but in the end the details were hammered out, and the humans were able to make themselves a home.
Jiang-Mei got the spare Valkyrie working, and Trudy offered to take the first volunteers up for a quick orbital flight, to show them the perspective from which they would have to learn to defend.
The offer accepted, Neytiri joined Trudy, and together they readied the Valkyrie to go. Neytiri had developed quite a taste for human-style flight, and was very keen to break orbit for the first time. As they waited by the spaceship, Neytiri handed a small package to Trudy.
“Here,” she said, grinning innocently. “To go with the other one.”
“Uh… thanks,” said Trudy, confused. She unwrapped a small vidframe and pressed play.
The picture was shaky, of marginal quality and very clearly shot by a camera being held covertly. The film - with sound, no less - was from the monumental victory party they’d held on the base the day the Pitcairn Treaty had been signed. The bash had run until the dawn, and had gotten pretty raucous. Raucous enough that she had been sure the next morning that no one had noticed when she and Norm (both more than a little drunk) had started necking like teenagers on the couch.
She was wrong.
She gave a suspicious cough, and glowered merrily at Neytiri’s whoops of laughter. “Tell Sully he’s a dead man.”
Nevertheless, that vid joined the rest of her family on the dashboard, and stayed there for as long as she was able to fly.
Soon enough, however, their passengers gathered - they were mostly Omaticaya, and many were there to prove their bravery. This trip would be the first of dozens; hundreds more Na’vi would volunteer as soon as they saw that the first trip returned safely.
They launched, and after a brief interval to let her passengers get used to the thrill of zero-gee, Trudy lowered the UV shields from the windows.
No one stands unmoved at the sight of their homeworld when seen from a spaceship: a small blue marble shining out against the stygian depths of infinite space. The Na’vi were no exception. Some cried out, others prayed, and still others stood dumbstruck.
What Trudy always remembered, though, was a small girl floating at the opposite window, staring out at the starfield. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth formed into an awestruck grin.
The girl saw Trudy watching her and explained, “I did not know there were so many…”
-----
Excerpt: “Interview with Rosaline Spellman” by Deanna Wellsley. Inter-Planetary News. Inter-Planetary Network, Shanghai. 17 October 2204
DEANNA WELLSELY: It’s been five decades since the founding of the Pitcairn Colony on Pandora, and Earth’s furthest-flung colony is still as controversial as ever. We’re here with Dr. Rosaline Spellman, first Pandoran-born human, to talk about the fiftieth anniversary of the Pitcairn colony. Dr. Spellman, thank you for coming.
ROSALINE SPELLMAN: Thank you, Deanna, I’m glad to be here.
WELLSLEY: How are you adjusting to being on Earth? This is your second trip off Pandora, is it not?
SPELLMAN: Yes, I came here for college. It’s looking much better than when I left it last time, but the gravity seems to have gotten stronger over the last twenty years!
[LAUGHTER]
WELLSLEY: There have been some big changes, that’s true! The big story, of course, is the announcement tomorrow of the latest breakthrough from the Pandoran research labs… any truth to the rumors that they’ve developed a new faster-than-light engine?
SPELLMAN: Sorry, you’ve got the wrong Spellman… I’m just a biologist. My brother is the aerospace engineer.
WELLSLEY: But surely you can give us some idea.
SPELLMAN: I am sworn to secrecy. You’ll find out with everyone else tomorrow.
WELLSLEY: But what do you say to the controversy surrounding the ongoing partnership? That Earth has essentially built up its greatest competitor?
SPELLMAN: Against whom are we competing, and for what? We and the Na’vi are the only sapient life forms we know of, and it’s a big universe.
WELLSLEY: And ours are the only two planets truly capable of sustaining life as we know it. There are those who would argue that the Na’vi will invade Earth, if given a chance.
SPELLMAN: I’ve heard that, over and over again, and I’ll repeat, it’s completely unfounded. Why would the Na’vi want it? The air may be clearing and the ecosystems rebounding - developments, I might add, that wouldn’t have happened without the joint research labs on Pandora - but an inch-thick patch of seasonal ice at the North Pole does not a complete recovery make. It’s still a mess.
WELLSLEY: Let me play you a clip of the Humanity Party’s latest statement, given by their spokesman Brenden Rattray:
[ON SCREEN]
RATTRAY: We feel that the Earth must be kept for humans, and humans only! Our hard-earned tax dollars should not be going to support this wrongheaded idea of dragging them out of the Stone Age! They’re freeloaders! If the Na’vi want to develop their infrastructure, that’s their business. They’re stealing our resources and our research ideas. They will overrun us if given half a chance!
SPELLMAN: That’s just complete hogwash. First of all, the Pandoran labs cost Earth nothing at all… in fact, they’re a net gain. Second of all, the contributions of the Na’vi have been at the very core of our research paths for decades. And thirdly, Stanford may have a few Na’vi students, but those students have to serve for four years in orbit on the Augustine Station to show that they can handle it before they’re allowed to set foot on an ISV. That particular test for entry has a 97% failure rate, with the majority having to return planetside within a month to the school’s Pitcairn Campus. Very few Na’vi can stand to be off-planet for any length of time - try to imagine spending four years in a sensory-deprivation tank. They evolved with this close connection to their home planet; it makes it very hard to leave.
WELLSLEY: There are numerous reports that the Na’vi are developing organic computers, akin to the network on Pandora, which will remove this limitation; your CV indicates that you’ve been assisting in this endeavor.
SPELLMAN: They certainly are, and I certainly am. But any developments in that respect are a long way off. The complexities of the problems involved beggar the imagination.
WELLSLEY: Speaking of Stanford, the Terran Na’vi movement has protested their close association with the Pandorans as well, arguing that we have no right to subject the Na’vi to our “educational indoctrination,” as they put it.
SPELLMAN: Look, the Terran Na’vi movement and the Humanity Party are just flip-sides of the same coin. The Terran Na’vi want the actual Na’vi to remain museum pieces; theme park exhibits that they come off as oh-so-educated and sophisticated to study and talk about and collect artifacts from, but when the Na’vi turn out to be actual living beings with a desire for non-romantic self-determination, they get their noses out of joint.
WELLSLEY: They are your greatest partisans.
SPELLMAN: And with friends like them, who needs enemies?
WELLSLEY: They feel that greater understanding will be achieved by more “conversions” as they’re called, as opposed to more academic collaboration…
SPELLMAN: The Na’vi have a very stringent process to determine who gets to be chosen as an avatar driver, much less who gets to attempt the conversion ceremony. Most of the Terran Na’vi are annoyed because they can’t make the cut.
WELLSLEY: Your father was one of the original drivers, was he not? Why hasn’t he “converted?”
SPELLMAN: (laughing) Well, he may, yet. But not while my mother lives. She won’t, and he won’t without her.
WELLSLEY: In honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding, the NAFTA countries have rescinded the death sentence imposed on the original Pandoran rebels. Do any of them have plans to return home?
SPELLMAN: Now that they’re all too old to risk six years in hypersleep? How very kind of the NAFTA governments. No, I don’t think so.
WELLSLEY: This past year, Pandora mourned the death of Jake Sully, the leader of the original Rebellion and Olo’yektan of the Omaticaya. What changes do you see now that the Pitcairn Advisory Council is no longer headed by a converted human?
SPELLMAN: Jakesully’s passing was a great loss to Pandora and Earth; I can’t imagine anyone having done a better job of shepherding our two peoples through the early years of the colony. How many times did he keep negotiations going when everyone thought that there would be a war? However great the loss, though, I don’t see it affecting relations in the least. The Na’vi are as committed as ever to the Earth-Pandora partnership. It has paid off enormous dividends for everyone, human and Na’vi alike, and will continue to do so, as long as Earth keeps up her share of the bargain.
WELLSLEY: Well, that’s all the time we have. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Spellman.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 05:00 am (UTC)I also want to thank you for writing - in a thoughtful manner - about PTSD. I don't think I ever mentioned it on this journal so you'd have no way to know this, but my cousin was in Iraq, came home, and shot himself (it was declared an accidental death, but - I don't want to get into all the details - but it was accidental in a 'taking an excessively stupid risk and he knew better' way.). I know the issue of PTSD has gotten a lot of media attention, but I tend to think it could always use more. So again - thank you.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 11:21 am (UTC)Oh, thank goodness. I'm SO glad you liked it. I've felt just wretched, not having this done sooner.
And OMG, no, I didn't know at all about your cousin, and, honestly, wouldn't have touched the subject with at 10 foot pole if I had. I'm so sorry for your loss. :(
I'm glad that it came off well, though. I work on a military base, and there's been a lot of awareness of the subject, particularly how hard it is for people to ask for help...