CHAPTER 007
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LET'S GET STARTED
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I HEARD DISTANT VOICES ECHOING IN THE BACK OF MY MIND.
I opened my eyes slowly, only to snap them shut when a light was flashed directly at me.
"Aquila, Aquila!" Grace's unmistakable voice calls out to me as she taps my cheek, trying to get me to react. "Come back kid, come on"
"Hey, are you there?" Max's voice ringed in my ears.
"Aquila" Norm.
"Goddamnit people, are you trying to make me go blind?" I shoved the flashlight in Grace's hand away, closing my eyes again to get rid of the burning feeling.
"She's okay, she's fine" I opened my eyes again and between the three of them, they helped me sit on the linkbed.
My head spun for a few seconds, but the dizziness quickly disappeared and I was relieved when I looked over my shoulder and there were no longer claw marks spread across my back. In this body, I didn't feel as weak as in the Avatar due to the blood loss I had suffered.
"Is the Avatar safe?" was the first thing she asked when I recovered my senses.
"Damn, no are you good? How do you feel?" I joked, chuckling sarcastically because I knew she cares about the Avatar more than she does about me.
"Yeah, yeah. Is it?" I rolled my eyes, but nodded.
Memories of the long night and my little adventure came to my mind, making me smile because I accomplished something none of her uptight scientists had been able to do in all their years here.
"Yeah, carrots. The Avatar is fine" I then looked at her in the eye and smirked "You are not gonna believe where she is"
The three off them shared a confused look, waiting for me to tell them. I am going to rub it in her face so much that she'll have to keep her comments to herself for a long time.
"Where?" Norm asked.
"With the Na'vi" they all looked at me as if I told a bad joke "They took me to their hometree thing" I shrugged and jumped off the linkbed, stretching my muscles after hours laying without moving.
"The Omatikaya? No way" Max said in disbelief.
"Yeah, I'm there. They're gonna teach me their ways" Grace took me by my shoulders and shook me a little.
"How?"
And I proceeded to tell them everything. From the chase of the Thanator, the attack of the viperwolves, the rescue of Neytiri, the talk with the leaders, dinner and bedtime. The three of them stared at me in silent surprise, listening to every detail of the story carefully. At the end of my story, a new countenance appeared on their faces. Grace was surprised, but a glimmer of hope appeared in her dark eyes. Max seemed happy and he gave me a warm smile and two thumbs up telling me 'well done' and Norm, I wasn't sure what his expression reflects with his frown and somewhat dull eyes, but he smiles slightly at me as if he is happy. Although it is obvious that he's not.
"Well, this presents a great opportunity to all of us" Grace finally said after a long silence "They agreed to teach you their customs and their way of life, if you succeed you could open the doors to an alliance between us and the Na'vi. Just what we all want"
[>>>]
The next morning I'm heading towards the control room, where I was informed that Quaritch was waiting. I decided to skip breakfast because of how late I woke up and meet with the Colonel before starting my lessons.
I entered the control room and immediately saw the Colonel with some of his men and Parker Selfridge, the corporate head of the RDA here on Pandora.
Everyone is gathered around a holographic map on a round table, where they point to places in the forest and discuss topics that I couldn't care less about.
Since no one had noticed my presence, I decided to clear my throat hard enough to make them turn in my direction. Quaritch looked at me with a small smile and received me.
"Miss Chase, what a joy to have you here" he welcomed "I hope you had a good night of sleep. Heard what happened yesterday during your little expedition"
"Morning, Colonel" I nodded in his direction and then in Selfridge's direction "Mrs. Selfridge" he seemed pleased with me aknowledging him "I've come to deliver great news"
That seemed to catch everyone's interest and attention, because even some of the technicians around us turned to hear me or pretended to be busy with whatever they were doing but listening to my words.
"What is it?" Quaritch asked.
"I'm in" I smiled at him "The natives found me in the forest yesterday and for some reason have decided to teach me their ways, so I'm in" they shared an impressed look that boosted my ego.
"Well, that's pretty impressive" he admitted "How did you make it happen?" they all showed interest in the story.
"I told them I was a warrior for my Clan and that seemed to be enough to allow me in" I shrugged.
"Warrior of a Clan?" Quaritch chuckled and shook his head with a slight smile "I can't believe that shit of excuse worked"
"Yeah well, they bought it pretty easily" I smiled "They want to study me"
"That's taking the initiative, Chase. We need more soldiers like you" I grimaced at his words. The word soldier or corporal bringing bad memories with them.
"Chase, Chase" Selfridge interrupted while pacing at the other side of the round table "Just find out what the blue monkeys want" he looked stressed and at edge with everything and everyone "We have tried to give them medicine, education, clothes but no, they like their mud" I rolled my eyes discreetly at him "And I don't really give a fuck about that. What really bothers me is that their ahmm-" He snapped his fingers ordering one of the technicians to reflect on the hologram the location he was anxiously looking for. "Their village is located on the richest unobtanium deposit within 200 km in any direction. I mean, look at all that!" He pointed to the image of the hometree on a huge space highlighted in blue and red colors that indicates the unobtanium deposit underground.
"Who will get them to move?" I asked, a little concerned about the outcome of this conversation.
I knew Quartich wanted me to become one of the Omatikaya and to gain their trust, but this part here... Something inside told me that there was more to it than they told me about.
"Who do you think?" Quaritch said looking at me from my left.
I wanted to scoff, turn around and leave, but I couldn't do that. Besides without me, the destiny of the Omatikaya could be worse than leaving their home.
"What if they don't go?" I asked instead.
For my benefit, it would be best if they did.
"I bet that they will" Quartich got closer to me with a smirk on his lips. Confident on his words.
"Look, Chase" Selfridge came too close for my liking, so I took a step back "Killing the indigenous looks bad, but there is one thing that the chairs hate more than bad press and that's a bad financial statement. I don't make up the rules, so find me a way to get them to move"
"You have five months until the bulldozers arrive" Quartich added.
I stayed quiet analyzing his words. It feels almost cruel and unfair of me to do this to the Omatikaya, but it's a necessary evil.
It benefits us and besides, they can move to any other of the thousands of trees in the forest. In my opinion, it would be worse if I left them at their mercy and allowed the bulldozers to murder them alongside their beautiful tree.
"Let's get started then" they smiled to each other.
"I like her, good choice," Selfridge told Quartich.
I just hope that this ends well for everyone.
[>>>]
"Let's run through them again" I wanted to groan at her and tell her to fuck off.
Grace has been following me around since I arrived at the lab, showing some pictures of the Na'vi and telling me to say their names and status in the Clan.
"Grace, we've been over-"
"Again" she ordered sternly.
"Fuck, fine" I gave up and let her continue her endless interrogation. "Mo'at, Dragon Lady" I said taking a quick look at the picture of the woman on the screen.
"Good, next" she changed the picture.
"Eytukan, the Olo'eyktan" she nodded a little impressed by my knowledge.
This is where I thank Norm for all the things he rambled about in our dinners, breakfasts and lunches.
"Next"
"Tsu'tey" she nodded.
I approached my linkbed and sat on it, adjusting my legs and waiting for Max to finish programming everything to return to the avatar.
"This one" she showed me the screen again, this time a picture of the cocky warrior displayed.
"The Asshole" I rolled my eyes.
Grace frowned and looked at the picture again before correcting me. "Tsyeyk. He's gonna be their next Olo'eyktan" I just nodded when I don't give a single fuck. "Okay, last one"
I let out a breath and took the screen from her hands looking at the image in front of me. "Neytiri" I made sure to pronounce her name correctly "She's the Clan leader's daughter. The princess" I smiled slightly at her picture, remembering the little smile that I managed to get out of her last night at dinner.
"She's going to be the next Tsahik. Tsyeyk and Neytiri will become a mated pair when the time comes" she added.
I did not know that information and to be honest it sounded strange to me. I didn't know the Na'vi had arranged marriages. Or I may be wrong and both are in love. Even if it didn't seem like it.
"So, who's this Eywa?" I wanted to ask just to add a little bit more information to my knowledge. Even if Norm has been teaching me about the Na'vi, he didn't mention this Eywa before.
"Who's Eywa?!" Norm asked in a high tone of voice that startled Max and made us turn to look at him surprised by his change of attitude. "Only their deity, their goddess. Made of all living things, everything they know! You'd know this if you had some training" I just rolled my eyes at him, taking this little attitude as some kind of teasing from him.
"Who's the one that got a date with the princess?" I smirked at him, bothering him more than he seemed to be.
"Enough you two" Grace gave Norm a pointed look and ordered me to lay down "Come on, village life starts early" and with that, she closed the lid.
Seconds after, I'm back to my Avatar body.