Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

 

Trudy twirled the food on her plate. The table sat everyone on the trip, at least twenty people. She glanced at everyone in turn. Casual conversation drifted to her ears and she picked up a few things about plant samples and such. The security detail sat on one side at the corner, not paying much attention to anyone else but themselves. She’d love to go over there and “shoot the shit”, but Toby had asked that she sit next to him.

“Trudy?”

Trudy looked up and shook her head. “Huh?” The people next to her were staring at her.

“I asked what you think about the forest.” Toby sat with one arm on the table and another with a fork in his hand. “What’s your favorite part about it?”

She didn’t really have to think about that too hard. “The glow,” she said, “it’s relaxing. I don’t have to worry as much.”

“That’s why she spent all her time eating the fruit in the bio-lab,” one of the scientists said. That brought a round of laughter on her part. She smiled and went back to twirling the mush on her plate. She needed to get out of here. Her nerves were starting to build up, and she knew she was going to have trouble getting out.

“Toby,” she asked quietly, “can we go outside in a little bit? I’ve never really seen the forest at night in person. It’s always been through a window or on a vid-screen.” She tried to look as pleading as possible. This was more than likely her only chance.

“Sure,” Toby said, “we’ll go when we’re done with dinner.” He smiled and patted her shoulder, unknowingly sealing the deal.

 

The Pandoran night was stunning. Trudy wasn’t lying when she said she hadn’t seen it in person. It fascinated her enough that she almost lost track of her real goal. She had to pretend to be truly entranced for only a while longer. She walked over to a plant that looked like a palm tree on steroids. Its cyan glow made her skin look pale, almost Caucasian. She kept moving along a line of plants, slowly making her way toward where the vehicles were parked. Her eyes scanned for her buggy and found it behind the flatbed.

Slowly, she made her way around towards the “parking lot”. She looked at Toby, and in a very serious voice, said “I’m leaving.”

Toby just stood there for a second, no emotion at all evident on behind his mask. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the exo-pack hissing as it tried to fill his mask with oxygen. “Why?”

“I need to find my friends,” Trudy said. “They need to know I’m not dead. They need a clear conscience. The last they saw of me was a fire ball falling from the sky.”

“How do you know they are still out there?” Toby opened his eyes and stared at her intensely. His voice gradually picked up the same intensity. “How do you know they even care?”

“I don’t know, but that doesn’t matter.” She hopped into the driver’s seat and flipped the ignition switch. The buggy started with a low roar and idled patiently. Trudy looked to her right at Toby. “Are you gonna come with me or not?” She revved the engine a little to emphasize her question.

Toby just stood there. For a second she thought he was going to run for the security guards. He took a step back away from the buggy, obviously in conflict with himself. Trudy could only imagine what he was going through, but she hoped that the part of his brain that is that knight in shining armor won. Her hopes were answered as he let out a growl and ran over to jump in the seat behind her. “You owe me Chacon. Big time.”

“Yeah, yeah, I owed you a long time ago.” She pushed the accelerator to the max and the buggy peeled out, dirt and rocks spewing out from the rear tires.

She turned the headlights on, but realized that she really didn’t need them. The natural lights from the plants gave off as much light as any streetlight on Earth. She wove her way through the glowing forest, heading towards a place where her guidance instruments would soon start to malfunction. “Do you know where you’re going,” Toby asked over the roar of the engine.

“Yeah,” Trudy said, “I’ve been here more times than you think.” Of course, that had been in the air. You could see where you were going in the air. That’s why she didn’t like the ground. Things could pop out at you with little to no warning. She was honestly going of her women’s intuition. She knew the general direction of the Tree of Souls, but that was it. Hopefully Toby wouldn’t catch on.

They drove for only a short time. Site 66 wasn’t more than a couple hundred clicks from the Tree, and they hadn’t traveled to far from that. She looked up and saw a familiar stone arch above her. She killed the engine and climbed out, Toby following suit. She grabbed the pistol from a compartment behind the buggy. It was never not a good idea to bring some sort of protection on Pandora. She made her way through the underbrush towards where the arch met the ground.

“What was that,” Toby asked. It was a whisper, but loud enough for her to hear. She stopped walking and listened. What was it? It didn’t sound natural. Like the wind was singing a dirge. No, not the wind. Voices. She took off at a run in the direction of the voices. That had to be them, the People. She cleared a ridge and saw that she was correct.

It looked like an entire clan. They were all arranged in a semi-circle around the Tree of Souls, singing what sounded like a very sad song. But from the way they swayed, it looked more like some sort of prayer.

“What the hell…?” Toby’s mouth hung open and he was wide eyed. “What are they doing?”

“Calling for pizza? How the hell do I know, does it look like I speak na-“ She was cut short buy something sharp under her neck. She looked down and saw a long blue arm holding a knife to her skin. A quick look to the side saw the same thing happen to Toby. All she could say was, “ah, shit.

 

Norm sat amongst the Omaticaya, singing a prayer for those who had died, both recently and long ago. That was what Trr’ok was all about, Remembrance. The only bad thing, was it made him remember Trudy. Yeah, it had been short, but better short than never at all he liked to say. The prayer song ran into a chorus, and he began singing with more heart, the thought of Trudy giving him strength. The harmony was almost surreal, like it wasn’t real. He enjoyed it, probably a little more than he should.

Something happened at the back of the group. Someone had screamed. Was it an attack? Maybe a pack of nantang, big enough to take on the clan. There were two taronyu walking forward with some weird creatures in front of them. They were almost half the size of the Na’vi. They were bipedal, and they had fingers.

Five fingers.

What were humans doing here? They had left long ago! The two Na’vi reached the center dais, where the Tree of Souls stood and where Jake, Neytiri, and Mo’at stood. Mo’at had recently returned from a visit to a neighboring village in need of guidance.

Jake looked at the two humans with what looked like sorrow. Maybe regret. He spoke to the two taronyu, telling them to leave the humans and go back to their places.

“Who are you?” Jake asked in English.

“Just scientists,” the male said, “We’re only here to study.”

“Yeah, what the nerd said.” That was the female. She sounded so very familiar. Norm stood. He went walked up to dais and stood next to Jake. He looked at the female. She had burn marks all over her face and down her arms. Something looked familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. She looked him in the eyes, her brown irises adjusting to the strange light, and they opened even wider. “Norm?”

That’s why it was so familiar. He heard her voice in his mind not more than thirty seconds ago.

“Trudy?!”