"Please Jake?" Phoenix begged.
"Yes, I can introduce you."
"Yay!" Now that he had made a connection with the Omaticaya clan - practically celebrities to any of the scientists at base - Phoenix was desperate to meet them and learn all about their ways from the best source: the Clan themselves.
"But aren't you still supposed to be on bed rest?"
"Yes, but I'm dying in here! It's boring me to tears!" She flopped onto her bed.
He chuckled at her dramatics. "Is there anything I can do to help make it not so boring?"
"Yes actually-" She popped back up into a seated position. "-Could you go to the lab and get me my notebook and a breathing mask? And a pen. Please and thank you!"
He was perplexed, but didn't question it, and went to retrieve her requested items.
Later, when she was scribbling away in her book, Miles came by to check up on her.
"Ah, Mr. Head of Security, just the man I wanted to see! This is an idea that's been tickling the back of my mind since I got here: look, a more sleek and easily-transportable breathing mask." She grinned proudly. "My new friends in the lab have been helping me with the technicalities but, according to them, it sounds doable. You see, it's really just a headband with clips above your ears and the screen covers your face - it's barely there!"
"Shouldn't you be resting and not working?"
"I have been resting! It's so boring! Besides, I had to get this idea out on to paper."
"You're doing okay then?"
"Better than okay! I'm dying to get back to it!'
Knock! Knock!
"That'd better not be the Doc this time," grumbled Miles as he stepped away from her again.
"Come in!"
It was not Grace, it was one of the nurses.
"Ms. Vallencourt, good news: you're clear to return to work."
"Oh, thank the goddess!" she cheered, wasting no time in leaping off the bed. She turned to Miles. "Don't worry, Colonel, I won't put in a complaint to the Head of Security." She winked - making sure the nurse couldn't see - and headed out.
"Boy am I glad to see you!" she said as soon as she entered the lab, addressing everyone and everything within.
"Hey, good to have you back, kid," Grace said while bustling around along with everyone else. "How you feeling?"
"I'm back and better than ever!"
"Great and just in time." More bustling around.
"You lot seem busy."
"We are. We're moving out."
"Oh - that's a plot twist."
"I'm not about to let Selfridge and Quaritch micro-manage this thing." Grace looked at Jake when she said this. "There's a mobile link up at Site 26 we can work out of, way up in the mountains."
"The Hallelujah Mountains?" gasped Norm.
"That's right."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
"Yes!" he cheered.
"The what?" asked Jake.
"The Hallelujah Mountains, the legendary floating mountains of Pandora, heard of them?" Norm shot back.
Phoenix leapt up in a cheer. "Oh baby! Here we come!"
YOU ARE READING
Pandora's Box - Avatar (Book 1)
FanfictionEywa is calling - do you hear her? Phoenix is ecstatic to arrive on Pandora, having been chosen as a civilian test subject for Dr. Augustine's Avatar Program. A reunion with the man she's secretly involved with comes into conflict as she becomes...
