Jake Sully gave me permission to land with my avatar and Murray, and a week later I was on the surface at Main Base. I felt I was taking a chance, but I felt that given our sixty day deadline, taking the risk would get me a lot clearer picture of what to recommend. Also, the scientists who were still at the Main Base did not seem intimidated. They talked most about what they could expect in the way of resupply, not about getting off-world or treading lightly in the presence of natives.
These two were avatar techs, so with Murray’s help they got my avatar ready in three days. They were excited to work on that because this was a next generation design, so they and Murray were kids in a candy shop while the avatar finished maturing.
I spent the three days reviewing local records and doing my final avatar training. My beginning training, I should say, just like Sully when he first got in his, I was still going to have a lot to learn.
The local records made it even clearer what a shoe-string operation this was. Selfridge had promised way too much, and with his smooth-talking help, this group of investors had worked themselves into a feeding-frenzy over the potential market for his fairy dust. He wasn’t telling them, but he’d started the mine in the wrong place. He pulled out enough to send samples to the sector capital, but then the vein played out. He kept the machines digging so that the investors could see steady progress, but they were just making the hole bigger. He was in a tight spot.
Augustine was no saint, either. She was just as fixated, first on the at-one-with-nature wonders of Na’vi culture -- she wrote a whole book on that. Then, at her untimely end, she had moved on to explore their relation to the “Planet Brain”, as Jason called it, Eywa, as Jake and the Omaticaya call it. In her marvel, she too missed the bigger unnatural oddness of this place -- this whole business of Unobtainium, the floating mountains, and how this one-with-nature environment on Pandora seemed to be missing a lot of real nature, such as ugly diseases.
Yeah, there’s still a lot of mystery here.
But that’s not surprising considering the whole Alpha system is about mystery. Much to the surprise of those watching the reports from the first explorer craft to reach Alpha, there were signs of civilization here -- an advanced one, at that. Real advanced, I should say, well beyond Solar System-level technology. But now they’re gone -- all gone -- that’s why the SETI searches never found anything.
And that’s both why people came so fast, and why Selfridge and his buddies got away with mucking up Pandora so badly, Pandora is still small potatoes compared to the other mysteries around Alpha system. So, it will get researched some day... the question is: Should it be today?
The three days fly by. And at 6AM of the fourth day, I climb into my big suitcase, and I start seeing the world through a half-breed Na’vi/human clone’s eyes... ears... everything! Wow! It takes some getting used to, but it really is something!
The first day I just wander around, looking, seeing, sensing things... and getting my balance. The tail takes some getting used to. The second day I work on coordination and doing things I’ve done in my human body, like basketball.
The third day Jake Sully comes back, with his big winged dinosaur, and I climb on its back with him, and we take a tour.
First, we just circle the base. I get to see what the open pit mine nearby looks like through Na’vi eyes, and it sure looks ugly. I can see... feel, I should say, feel in my heart, why the natives were so willing to take pot-shots at miners and mining equipment.
Next we go to the home tree that Quaritch dropped in his first attack. It looks more like tragedy than ugly.
“Eywa says it will not grow back,” Jake says as we fly along, “But another tree nearby will grow stronger and taller to replace it. But that will take time, and in the meantime, the Omaticaya will have to live like plains people, not hometree people.”
“How long will it take?”
“The grandchildren of today’s brides will begin the move back in.”
“There are no other suitable trees?”
Jake looks back at me momentarily, “Yeah, I find that odd, too. But what I’m finding is that this world is really a tight fit. There’s a lot of harmony here... a whole lot of it.”
“Is there Unobtainium to see at this sight?”
He looks back at me again. The look is not so pleasant.
“If I’m going to give Tyler a good report, I need to be comprehensive and unbiased.” I say.
After a moment, he accepts that, and we circle down to where the base of the home tree was. Some of the root structure was ripped out by the tree falling, creating a pit. In the deepest holes of the pit, there are glowing sparkles.
“That’s it.” he says, “Yeah, Selfridge would have had a lot easier time here. He was no fool on that account.”
“So this is the fairy dust that’s making all the fuss.” I say in a sing-song sort of way.
“It is,” affirms Sully, “But it’s far from the most miraculous stuff on Pandora. Let me show you the mountains.”
We hop back on and fly away.
The Floating Mountains are literally breath-taking, especially when you’re visiting them on the back of a flying dinosaur. I didn’t want the journey to end, but sadly, even on Pandora, time flies when you’re having fun.
As we head back, Jake points into the distance, “Over there is the sacred grove where the second attack took place. I won’t take you there, it’s still sacred.”
“I’m OK with that.” I say, “It’s nothing I need to see now. But something you should keep in mind is that when the trial comes up, a verifiable story of what happened there will likely be useful evidence.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” says Sully.
And after that, my first adventure on a flying dinosaur ends.