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[Random the Navigator]

Someday I'd like to make an actual plot summary for the RP, something like "The Story Thus Far", which could be updated as we add more story to the story.  In the meantime, I'll be posting the text file for each chapter as we go along.  Fortunately for anyone playing catch-up, we haven't been at Passages for very long; the finished portion only spans four text files, none larger then 140K.  Here ya go...

For extra sauce, I've also included Camille's summary of her original research into Ben's cognitive development in vitro.  That's a biiiiiig deal in this story...   Enjoy! 

[Kiyevanie]

- ::: The Story Thus Far ::: -

 
The story starts when the last shuttle with RDA personnel leaves Pandora.

The humans left behind need to figure out where to go from here – it's discussed between Anna and Angelo, about the lack of resources and possibly skilled people to use those missing resources – the need to repair the huge hole in the command tower, for example, or what to do with the remaining raw Unobtanium. 

While they’re at it, three Na’vi enter the compound. The young hunter Txa’ren is bringing his apathetic sister Ni’ka in search for help with something even the healers and Tsahik of his Clan can’t heal. They are being accompanied by the boy Tali, one of the few survivors of the Horse Clans, who has a bad case of hero worship for Norm after having seen the driver fight in the war - in both bodies. 

The Na’vi are brought to Camille, as she’s a physician and an expert on Avatar neurobiology; she and Angelo diagnose Ni’ka as having post-traumatic stress, “shell-shocked” by the war.  They persuade Txa'ren that it'd be best for the Na’vi to stay at Hell’s Gate for now - Ni’ka for healing, Txa’ren as her companion, and Tali because he wants to join the “Dreamwalker Clan”.

During those discussions Norm learns two things:  a) the Pa’li Tali came with is actually the one Norm rode into battle, and b) his Avatar is still alive, even though badly injured. At Tali's urging, Norm, who has missed his Avatar badly, links in to find out if it’s possible and finds himself in a world of pain, but also in the hands of the very skilled healers who have managed to keep the Avatar alive.

Norm’s link process is more than bumpy, and Max, watching, is tempted more than once to end it.  He is stopped by Camille, who tells him that if he did this now, both Norm and his Avatar would probably die. Camille then informs him of a few facts that turn the whole program upside down and thoroughly shake Max’ view of the world: She is convinced that, based on the development of Angelo’s Avatar (Ben) during the two months Angelo had to postpone First Link, it is possible - even likely - that, left alone, Avatars could actually develop something like an own consciousness.

In between we also learn about Enya, an Avatar with her own soul who went missing when her driver Solanda died in link; and her guardian, a tough driver named Brenda, living in a remote station.

The next day the group decides that the most urgent thing is to check out and, if possible, retrieve Norm’s Avatar, who he has named Nate by now. An expedition is mounted, consisting of Camille in her Avatar, human Norm, Angelo/Ben, and Tali as a guide, as they now know that Nate is actually being cared for at the Tompa’tanhi Hometree.  They are warned that not everyone will be happy to see them, but the Elders have guaranteed safe passage. On top of that they want to inform Txa’ren’s and Ni’ka’s parents about the whereabouts of their children.

On the journey they have a discussion about the impact of Tsaheylu on Avatar drivers – while Norm didn’t have any problems with bonding his Direhorse (and Jake didn’t show any problems either with his several bonding experiences ranging from Pa’li and Ikran to Toruk and Neytiri), Camille and Angelo are deeply convinced that the human mind isn’t ready for the experience. It turns out that this comes from the time when Angelo and Brenda were lovers and tried – completely unprepared – to make tsaheylu, resulting in Angelo getting kicked out of link and Brenda going into a coma for weeks. 

When they reach Hometree the travellers are challenged by Ley’tin, a 16-year-old Na’vi girl who has to do guard duty, showing the losses the Clan has. She’s hostile at first, and only saucy Tali can bring her around to at least guide them to Hometree. There they finally find Nate, still a critical patient, but the Na’vi healing methods actually did the right thing to keep him alive. Camille takes over and dresses the wound the modern way. But she also realizes that Nate has lost too much blood, so she decides to link out and gather the other drivers for a Blood Drive.

They also speak with Yo’ku, Txa’s and Ni’ka’s father, and tell him about Ni’ka’s diagnosis and that she'd be better off at Hell’s Gate for now. During the discussion Yo’ku realizes that, to Camille, the Avatars are like her own children, and that his daughter is in good hands. In between all that Ley’tin has to rethink her prejudices, and finally accepts that not all humans and Dreamwalkers are bad people; she now starts to support the group.

 
Back at Hell’s Gate, Txa’ren and Anna care for Ni’ka, and the experience of “warm rain” in the shower finally brings her out of her shock. She’s still deeply traumatized, but at least she’s able to talk and walk on her own again, even though she still cries or sleeps most of the time. During their care for Ni’ka, Txa’ren and Anna get to know each other a bit, Anna even being introduced to Taw’itan, Txa’s ikran.

That’s good because later, when Camille arrives, it’s Anna who has to help her convince the siblings that the best way to save Nate is for Txa’ren to fly the blood plasma back to hometree.

Once rider and ikran are on their way, Anna looks after Ni’ka again while Camille links back in. Back in Hometree she meets Tangek, the Clan's ranking healer and Nate’s attending physician, and they hit it off well, being kindred spirits when it comes to their patients.

 

[Random the Navigator]

[The last few posts, starting with the appearance of Tangek:]

::: ::: :::

[Angelo, Norm and Camille have been discussing Brenda and her penchant for going it alone.]

[Norm] was interrupted by the appearance of a male Na'vi fully as imposing as Tukruan, but with a full head of loose white hair like a lion's mane.  The look in his eye brooked no nonsense.  To a Na'vi, his beaded armband marked him as a healer of the Tompa'tanhi...but if he was such, and if he was any good at it, it must be because he could send illness and injury packing with that glare long before mixing up any balms and poultices.

"'Besides,'" he echoed Angelo in a voice that matched his looks, "the Palulukan, too, knows oneness with all things...but everyone knows he walks alone."

"Why, hallo, Tangek," Tukruan smiled.  "Funny, we were just talking about you..."

"What, about loner Palulukan?" the healer grinned back--a ferocious grin; a wolfish grin, the kind that made his allies profoundly glad that they were on his side.  "And let me tell you something about the Palulukan," he said a little more warmly...just a little; but it was enough to show that he had it in him.  "Every larger beast on the face of Eywa'eveng has a tswin; most of them have two.  Syaksyuk and the People, one; Pa'li, Nantang, Angtsik, Yerik, even Talioang have two, as do birds from Fkio's size to Toruk's.  Tukruan's Great Rays, who sing the Worldsong as they swim the vastest seas, have four.  Some say that the number of queues signifies the capacity of that creature to know Eywa in all Her guises, and if so, then that tells you how much the People have yet to learn from our brothers and sisters.

"The Palulukan, too, has two tswin.  But he also has ten quills, every one of them telling him what's going on in the world and, often as not, what needs to be done about it.  It's no accident that it was he who offered himself as a mount to Neytiri of the Omaticaya, nor that it was his jaws, as much as her arrows, that rectified that particular imbalance.  If a woman of your People has him for a spirit-guide, I wouldn't go trying to make a Pa'li or even a Nantang out of her..."

Then he crouched in front of Camille, who, by her robe, he guessed to be his Dreamwalker counterpart.  "Oel ngati kameie, Kamil of the Dreamwalkers," he greeted respectfully.  "I'm told you've been here a few hours; I've heard good things about you..."

For the first time since her arrival at Hometree, Camille felt like she was dealing with someone who understood.  Understood what, she wasn't sure--Brenda's outlook?  Her own fierce protectiveness?  The often-overlooked needs of the strong?

"You know, I do believe I See you too..." she said sincerely, finding and clasping his hand.

To say Norm was impressed by Tangek's appearance would have been an understatement.  He heard the tone of the healer's voice and noticed very well the steely glint in those golden eyes.  And still there was a certain warmth in the Na'vi's eyes when he crouched down in front of Camille to greet the Dreamwalker physician.  And he also could see a certain spark of understanding pass between those two different healers.  ~ What have I done, ~ the anthropologist wondered, feeling kind of humble, ~ to deserve the attention and help of all these impressive people? ~

He had never seen Tangek before, not even in those fevered hours when he had fought to keep the link stable the other day.  But whatever it was that made a healer like Tangek fight for Nate's life or Tukruan guard the injured Avatar, it filled Norm with a deep gratitude, something he didn't even know how to put into words.  So once the greeting between Camille and Tangek was done, he clumsily got up from where he'd been sitting beside Nate and Tali.  Now just barely eye to eye with the towering healer, he gave him a glance that showed all those emotions Norm hadn't even sorted out himself.

"Oel ngati kameie, Tangek, healer of the Tompa'tanhi," he greeted in the most formal way he had spoken since they had arrived at Hometree.  Over the last months he had lost a lot of his former stiffness in language and behaviour, but for that moment he felt it necessary and fitting.  "And I don't have the words to say how much I thank and owe you."

Tangek studied Norm for a long moment.  "Ah...so you're the fellow who goes with this one?" he said, indicating Nate.  "Why, Yes, I do see some similarities...though not so many that he needs to come home wearing your portrait."  He fished around in his ample herb-pouch and extracted Nate's access pass to Hell's Gate, which featured a mug shot of his driver, and flipped it to Norm.  "He was wearing this...  Your Folk amuse me sometimes.  He's got his own face, you know, and it'd be rather hard to confuse either of you with the other.  Well, take a picture of him when he's feeling better; a fellow deserves to be seen for himself and not merely as an extension of another's Being."

The statement could have been a lecture, except that his tone underlaid it with a certain...fondness?  Camille was almost sure she heard a hint of an almost fatherly affection, and she had to admit she agreed with him.  As if the healer's manifest skill weren't enough, this above all assured her that Norm's Avatar was in good hands.

"As to debts and gratitude," Tangek continued, "I believe that it is we who owe you.  Your deeds out there, in both your bodies...  Tali here has been singing your song all over Hometree, of course.  You are of his Clan and Kin.  If all you'd ever done was put a song in a boy's heart, you would have justified any effort I could have spared you.  But it goes beyond that; well beyond.  You see, we of the Tompa'tanhi have had somewhat extensive dealings with the Dreamwalkers.  And our feelings about them over the last few decades have run the gamut from contempt and suspicion on one end to admiration and appreciation on the other...and, enough times, bemusement; and, once or twice, even love and affection.  Yes, I am passably fond of your kind.  And while we still have people of all persuasions here, especially after the late unpleasantness, there are a few of us--more than a few--who were afraid we'd have to stop liking you, and who are happy to have been proven wrong."

For the second time that day Norm wondered what kind of contact the Tompa'tanhi might have had with Avatars and drivers that it had made that much impact.  Ngatapa had mentioned good encounters with Dreamwalkers this morning already, changing the bad first impressions the Clan must have formed.  And still none of the other drivers so far had mentioned visiting the Tompa'tanhi...

Well, that was a riddle to be solved on another day.  For now, Norm took his key card with a smile, gazing at it as though he had never seen it before. He had worn it on that day just out of habit, not expecting to ever use it again, and it was kind of strange now to get it back.  Like a relic of a past life - the life of the lanky, awkward anthropologist that had stumbled off a shuttle to get himself dragged into the biggest war this world had ever seen.

In a way, that person didn't exist anymore.  The old Norm Spellman had died somehow with all the other Na'vi who had ridden into that crazy cavalry attack and hadn't survived.  The new one - a person Norm had yet to get to know - eyed the wide-eyed and somehow innocent-looking picture of himself with a weird expression.  "Maybe we should take two new pictures," he mused.  "This one doesn't fit either of us."


-:-  -:-  -:-

The full text file for this unfinished chapter - Passages 05, "Common Cause" - is attached below.