Larry’s satellite images of the surface showed the main base to be abandoned, but not destroyed. Larry and I deployed a “tinkerbell” -- a remote hovering imager -- down to the base and I explored it. It was only down a few minutes before a native spotted it. Yeah, a twelve foot tall, blue skinned native -- the first I’d seen in person.
He said to the tinkerbell in fairly decent English, “You. Wait here. Jake-Sully will come.” Then he got on some dinosaur-looking creature that acted like a horse for him, and rode off.
I contacted the scientists, introduced myself, and puttered around the base, getting a feel for the place. I found it odd. The place had been abandoned for what, six weeks now, and yet there was no sign of looting. The jungle was beginning to encroach in places, and some animals were nesting in a few places, but there were apparently no scavenging tendencies among the natives -- not even those who had gone to school here. Most odd.
It was a day before Jake Sully showed up. A few hours before he did, Larry and I noticed from the overhead view that scouts were positioning around the base perimeter. When he came, he flew in on a big, monstrous, flying dinosaur-looking beast. It looked mean, and big enough to swallow the tink whole, should it get upset. And, sure enough, this Jake was a native -- twelve feet tall, blue skinned, and wearing skimpy native garb. He landed in the base courtyard and dismounted. I flew the tink up and we started talking.
“I’m Andrew Stranger. Joshua Tyler, the sector governor, sent me here to assess the situation. ...Are you really Jake Sully?”
“I am. With Eywa’s help my spirit was moved from my human body into this avatar body.”
“Eywa?”
“Eywa, the chief spirit of Pandora.”
“...Fascinating. Are you the only one who has moved?”
“I am. We tried to move Dr. Augustine, but we did not succeed. She is with Eywa now.”
“I heard she had died.”
“She was shot by Quaritch. But when I say she is with Eywa now, that’s not a euphemism, we got her spirit out of her body before it died. ...We got some of it, but we couldn’t get it into the avatar. It was too damaged, too near death, it would not have functioned in that form.”
“What happened to Quaritch?”
“He fought. I fought him. He nearly killed me by attacking my human form, the animals and Neytiri finished him off. In life, he was a psycho scumbag, but his last fight was honorable. Eywa has accepted his fate.”
Sully was being straightforward with me. I decided to be straightforward with him, “Sully, I’m here to find out what we humans should do next.”
“My opinion is that humans should pack up and bid this world adios. RDA did the Omaticaya both outrage and great harm. The Omaticaya are my people now, and I will do what I can to protect them.”
“Have you considered--”
“But, I’m also here to convey a message from Eywa. She feels that humans should not be denied the wonder of Pandora... if they can learn to behave themselves.”
My jaw dropped on hearing that. I was not expecting a mother-talking-to-a-naughty-child attitude. Sully waited patiently.
“How do we do that?”
“That Eywa has not said. I think she’s leaving that up to those of us living here.”
“You’ve given me a lot to think about, Sully. Let me give you some, as well. Many of the people who left here want to come back. One of those is not Selfridge--”
“Selfridge!” Sully spit, “He was not honorable. Eywa... no I have not forgiven him! Eywa does not think about him.”
“He is facing a trial--”
“It better be for ordering a massacre.”
“The lawyers are still trying to decide the charges -- the records are sketchy. At this stage I don’t know if that charge makes sense, but, if it does, would you be interested in coming back to testify?”
“No. I don’t have a human form anymore.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I was wide-eyed, but that wouldn’t show up on the tink.
“...What happened to it.”
“We buried it after my spirit left it.”
“...So you’ve cut bait on being human completely.”
“I have. I’m Na’vi now.”