"All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for."
"You don't choose your Avatar... your Avatar chooses you."
"Just relax and let your mind go blank"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A scientist, Doctor Max Cullimore, is supervising the uncrating of two shipping containers. The nearer has the sides removed, revealing a ceiling-height acrylic tank. Norm stops to stare, as Jake rolls past him as if drawn by some unseen force, toward the amnio tank. I followed Jake to the long cylinders. There is a figure floating languidly inside, which looks like a man. A very large, very blue, man. Blood circulates through a synthetic umbilical in the abdomen. As the figure turns in the amniotic fluid, we see that it has a lemur-like tail. The skin is cyan-blue. Long black hair drifts, graceful as seaweed.
"Damn. They got big." Jake chuckled. "Yeah, they matured on the trip out." Norm smiled before turning back to Max. "So the proprioceptive sims worked pretty well." "Yeah, they've got great muscle tone. You guys can take them for a spin as early as tomorrow." The figure's sleeping face turns toward us, and the features are, despite feline ears and a long feral snout, definitely Jake's. "It looks like him." "No, it looks like you. This is your avatar now, Jake." Norm said.
1st pov Jake was mesmerized as he stared into the tank. I walked away from Jake to take a look at my avatar. I could most definitely see the resemblance. It had bigger eyes than Jake's just as the nose was smaller. The face was more feminie and round. The lips were the same along with the high cheekbones. It had a long slender torso. A toned stomach, firm thighs, and perky breasts. It had ten fingers and ten toes. It was beautiful. I was as mesmerized by her as Jake is.
We were deeper in the lab by now. Jake was told to do a video log. I refused to do one because I felt it was too boring. We're marines, not scientists. We're here to drive these things, not study them. What's to study? They're us. I've learned plenty about the Na'vi from Tom and the books he gifted me.
3rd pov "Me and Nyami were out here to drive these remotely controlled bodies called avatars. They're grown from human DNA mixed with DNA from the natives here. So their nervous systems are in tune. Or something. Which is why they offered me this gig, because I can link with Tommy's avatar, which was insanely expensive." Jake turned to Max. "Is this right? I just say whatever in these videologs?" The camera showed Norm working nearby with Max and Nyami messing around with the equipment. "Yeah. You just need to get in the habit of documenting everything, what you see, what you feel, it's all part of the science. Good science starts with good observation." "Well then, all I see is boredom so can we fix that or what?" Nyami looked to Norm with her arms crossed. "Yeah, yeah." Norm got up. He walked near her to hand her a previous sample. "So this shows the-" "The bioactive compounds in the fibers, yeah I know that. I wanna link already." Norm was astounded. "Right. So, whatever. Here I am. Doing science. Never been in a lab before." Jake continued. "Log off. It's time to meet your boss for the next five years."
Max leads us through the short corridor to the link room containing a dozen psionic link units, which look like coffins crossed with MRI scanners. "Grace Augustine is a legend. She's the head of the Avatar Program, and she wrote the book, I mean literally wrote the book, on Pandoran botany." "That's because she likes plants better than people." Max remarks, lowly. "I don't blame her. You guys are a disgrace to fun." Nyami says.
