Avatar: A lost survivor on Pandora

Piloting a spaceship was quite the experience, even presently for Liam it was more akin to piloting a fighter jet the size of a cargo airline still for all intent and purpose exceptional, intoxicatingly so even but it wasn't the full experience.

He felt like a kid who got a new toy, a toy he must take great care of as neither did he have the resources nor the machine necessary to repair it if it were to be greatly damaged. 

He didn't even have the blueprint for it, which wasn't all that much of a problem in itself as reverse engineering this machine wasn't complicated but that didn't magically fix the earlier mentioned problem.

For example, if one of the fusion reactors had a critical failure then that would be a problem for quite some time and the Valkyrie will be out of service for that entire time.

The Stereolithography Plant or the Grinder as some called it, something akin to a giant 3D printer, were interesting machines with many advantages such as the capacity to build machinery in record time with no defect and their sizable library of vehicles and machines but all were old models revamped for Pandora.

But they weren't without fault, they were here for the mining expedition and to have a constant supply of firepower for 'safety reasons' and that showed in its capacity of fabrication and again in its database. 

It couldn't print highly processed materials even with the raw material given and various pieces of equipment that required highly advanced precision to be made. Advanced computers were as well not doable in any way shape or form.

It wasn't a problem before as these uncraftable components and devices were brought here by ISV Venture Star straight up from the Sol System. And it also meant the 3D printer lacked the know-how for such things. 

Why take storage space when it can't even be done? So it lacked essential blueprints and templates for more advanced and up-to-date pieces of technology.

Luckily he had such know-how, to a large degree at least he was profoundly knowledgeable. 

It was a similar problem with his fabricator, precision was needed. It's a must after all and he was working on it, and he would provide it. It's just that these types of things aren't done overnight and without cost or thought put into it.

It was basically rebuilding, and modifying the 3D printer at Hell's Gate Manufacturing Complex, a massive machine the size of a nearly three-story building from the ground up and also digitally.

And because of these problems of precision, if more complex technology were to be damaged to a certain extent they will be completely irreparable and unusable, such as the Supraliminal radio in Selfridge's old office or the three virgin Soul Drives in the mini vault of the same room.

Though that didn't stop him from taking unused equipment, such as a Link Unit that was currently laid in a room of the spacecraft completely broken down into pieces.

It was done for several reasons, he wanted to know how it worked, and he learned it used the strange native metal of this moon but not all it was a Psionic-based technology too.

Both of those things that Hell's Gate didn't hold much data onto, pandorium or unobtanium as it was called aside from the plasma forge to refine it and how to do so there was nothing of value in the database he couldn't already deduce in a heartbeat or he already was aware of. 

As for Psionic, it's the fifth fundamental force at least that's how it's considered by the ones studying and interested in it, and as its name indicated it was related to the mind and other esoteric aspects that were considered psychic in nature.

A recent discovery gave birth to an entirely new branch of science, one that was perceived as some sort of mystic nonsense, and pseudoscience to the grand public and a large portion of the scientific community.

Norm was one of them bizarrely enough until very recently. This branch was perceived this way aside from some exceptions like the Link Unit and they were considered that. Exception. An exception that happens on a stroke of luck and randomness doesn't make the rule. 

There were a few scientists specialized in those subjects here who decided to stay, Grace having dipped in it a little as well as it was in direct correlation with her study of Pandora flora. And Max… He was quite possibly the most knowledgeable on the human mind and brain but a good thing if that could be called that in that context is that he had a lot of notes written by hand.

Adding the multitude of reports in the database from various scientists and a few more he rapidly understood that nobody really comprehended what it was and they barely scratched the surface, something that isn't unordinary but here it was especially obvious. 

Though one thing that was clear by their understanding, it was related to life but after this, besides the hypothesis and some data there wasn't much, it certainly helped as said hypotheses weren't for a small percentage random or void of sense. 

Psionic couldn't be detected directly by regular means by their knowledge, it was the various minute variations that shouldn't be there from various detectors such as gravitometers.

And they used those types of devices in conjecture with one another to detect the Psionic Field as it was called, and it was with various degrees of success that it tended to lean toward failure. 

They couldn't even quantify it by regular means and even less predict it, it seemed to behave randomly and without patterns, it was unique.

The most successful at detecting it was the Link Unit, but it was the case because it's a perfectly controlled and monitored environment with constant scans of the central nervous system. 

It was by detecting these anomalies they discovered Pandora, a large cluster of it and unknown in origin, curiosity won over and this led to the present even if at that time humanity didn't know what Psionic even was.

And he found it quite funny that he could feel this force with his regular senses, the presence when near a Tree of Souls or the telepathic links he had with his tames and the weak empathetic one with Eywa were exactly that. 

It was real and it was deeply connected to the Mind and by extrapolation the Soul and Body. It also had quite a few similarities to various parts of Tekgrams and considering what the Element could do in its corrupted form it made sense as in its uncorrupted form it has similar traits.

He just didn't do the connection before as what he had in his memory wasn't explicitly related to Psionic and until now he didn't have the chance or time to think about that deeply.

It was extremely fascinating in any case, it was how Jake's Mind and Soul were transferred from his crippled human self to his Avatar, and it was how the pilot could drive their Avatar, which thanks to Grace again, he learned was possible due to the discovery of a Psionic link between monozygotic twins by Dr. Carnell Lovecraft. Quite an amusing name.

The Avatar are essentially hybrid clones with the equivalent of DNA for Na'vi and the DNA of the driver and it used this same principle. 

Pandorium and Psionic interact with one another; it ties to the Link Unit that uses a plate of pandorium carved to the molecular level to start the syncing process between humans and Avatars. It shows how limitless was the potential of pandorium. 

And he could see how this could be weaponized, be it with its magnetic property or with its apparent Psionic property.

The latter was excessively more dangerous, it only encouraged him to study this metal, and as for Psionic itself, who better to ask about psychic phenomena than the local ancient hive mind? 

Eywa would likely not be bothered by him wanting to learn from her, he was quite certain it would be the opposite and not like he would dislike it either. 

'Then there are the clones too...', Liam thought back to the Soul Drives as he commanded the Valkyrie to decelerate and land on a small clearing, the wall of his base visible from the window.

The potential of such a technology was terrifying and that this made the life of an individual even less important didn't help the matter. 

They lose one of their brightest scientists or valuable agents due to an accident. Not a problem, the RDA has a thousand more perfect clones to replace it. The designation 'it' is appropriate here.

It made the irreplaceable and invaluable resource that you can mass produce and quite possibly transform into a property. And the memory stored could likely be edited as well.

Evidently taken into consideration this piece of technology worked without much of an error margin. 

The entirety of a person's memory was, to put it mildly, a considerable amount of data and not the most consistent or logical at that since it was the biased perspective of someone, 'bug' and problem he supposed where to be expected.

'Anyway, this isn't a problem for now, no need to worry about it.', with that in mind, Liam walked through the spacecraft up to the opening ramp.

He had a problem of wanting to do everything at the same time, a bad habit he had for as long as he could remember this added to his perfectionist side had caused several problems before.

Both he was trying to quel but there was too much to do and it needed to be done right. He with Grace relegated plenty of tasks but most of them were necessary for the base maintenance.

His silver eyes met with the four orange ones of Gladius, the beast was belly down on the ground, its bifurcated tail waving in the air happily, a fact that only amplified as he smiled and sent through their link a sentiment of pure joy. 

He smiled brightly while he approached his tame until the latter pounced playfully on him and stayed still on him, a loud and thundering purr escaping from its body as it brought its beak next to his head.

"Oww… Yes, I missed you too buddy. It's okay… And you grew bigger.", Liam cooed, scratching the back of Gladius' colorful crest as he let himself fall on his back, the two tetrapteron he came with flying out to look around.

'Yes I'm fine don't worry.', he sent through the link as Gladius connected his neural queue to his implant, the great aistrapede aside from acting all dramatic as if it had been abandoned sent information in neat packets about what happened and what it had done.

He taught Gladius and all of his tames to do so, and what he got was interesting. Daisy the slinger's head had grown fatter and changed color and shape to something akin to a cocoon.

And he could feel the worry, fear of disappointment, and rising shame from Gladius as the poor thing thought it messed up, same was for Occiden through the link, both were tasked to take care of the slinger's head while he was gone and they did an excellent job. 

The tetrapteron in question flew down on him landing on the metallic ramp next to his head before nuzzling in his hair, his mood relieving the two caretakers. The three other tetrapterons flew out from the Valkyrie and joined in the chaos. 

A good half an hour passed like this until Liam with a herculean amount of willpower focused back on why he was here, there was enough emotional support for the day. The message was understood by his five tame as they let him have a breather.

His metallic boot left a deep footprint as he walked and he noticed the ground was quite dry and the plants growing from it were less vibrant, their tips going brown. 

The rainy season was ending, that much was obvious with the high temperature. He wasn't going to have to live through the dry season. Not that it would be a great problem but it would still be an annoyance, one he preferred to not have. And his tames weren't as resistant to it as him.

Moving toward the wide open gateway of his base he noted the area was not overrun by vegetation and that a large neat pile was made over a collection of stone. Flicking his left hand a large purple fruit and a piece of meat jerky appeared which were thrown at Gladius and Occiden.

"Good job.", Liam complimented while directly going into one of the various tunnels he dug in his base, he moved through the labyrinth and in a few seconds arrived at the right room.

The bioluminescent mushrooms growing on the ceiling lighted the area with a soft blue hue but what attracted his attention was a deep scarlet roughly triangular cocoon attached by gooey threads of the same color that attached it to the wall as the vein all on its surface pulsed with orange light.

"Damn, it looks even more freaky from up close.", he let out approaching Daisy, and from one of his shoulders a mechanical arm exited, at the end was what looked like a pincher-hand but it was more as the four-finger changed configuration and what appeared to be a roughly shaped drill started to spin. 

He studied the cocoon and the wall it was attached to a bit more, a pickaxe materialized in his left hand and he started working on taking the alien-looking thing with a part of the wall to bring it with him back to Hell's Gate.

Pickaxe and drill working in tandem, he worked extremely fast yet at the same with great care and attention as he didn't want the room to collapse. 

He would survive, but not Daisy and it could lead to a chain reaction even if he dug the area in a way it wouldn't happen, you never know, a weakness in an area he couldn't have known is always a possibility.

An hour and a half of meticulous work later and Daisy's cocoon with the part of the wall it was attached to were secured in one of the Valkyrie's rooms where he put the same condition that was in the room it was in before.

Then there was moving the multitude of boxes full of various resources that were by Liam's estimation for a total of fifteen tons. So he to gain time his tames helped.

First, he moved the boxes at the surface, second the tetrapteron added ropes around it, third Gladius dragged the boxes with the help of said boxes in the Valkyrie and fourth, when all boxes were out Liam helped Gladius by lifting the remaining boxes.

This took a bit more than two hours in total at this point it was getting dark but Liam didn't stop, he wanted to do it all in one go, and as such the various machine he built such as the fabricator came next, fabricator that he took a good thirty minute for it to be stored in his inventory.

This was why he didn't use it for the boxes, aside from the fact most were simply too heavy for it to be possible. 

After he took all the other machines like the generator and induction forges then he took the remaining food and drink, as he did try and succeeded to make alcohol for more reasons than simply drinking it. 

And finally, after having moved pretty much everything in the Valkyrie, he stared at the empty area with a strange feeling in his heart. He spent so much time and put so much effort in it, getting attached to the place was unavoidable but that didn't mean he wasn't more than happy to move out.

It was dark, at this point and his tames were exhausted, and a nap for him wouldn't hurt either. So after setting the Valkyrie to fly in autopilot to Hell's Gate, he slept on a mattress made of mostly animal skins with Gladius' head resting on his chest, something that would cause a normal man to suffocate and Septen, Meri, Orien, and Occiden hugging his limbs.

He was awakened two hours later by an emergency call from Norm and what was said before it was suddenly cut off made his face twist in a mix of confusion, urgency, and irritation that rapidly shifted to anger. 

"There was a < Ritual of First Blood>! The blade was poisoned, Jake is dy-!", 

The Ritual of First Blood was a nonlethal duel done in exceptional circumstances where two clan members, one being the current Olo'eyktan, the one to draw the first blood with their blade won and became the new clan leader.

The Valkyrie at this point was already high in the sky and Liam increased its travel speed switching off autopilot as it has inbuilt security to not be able to move past a certain speed when deep in a planet's atmosphere. 

Changing that would mean modifying the internal components of the spaceship motherboard. It wasn't feasible as of now.

This led to the sound barrier being repeatedly broken and the Valkyrie flew straight to Norm's last known location leaving behind trails in the late morning sky.

 *

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