A New Mission: Ash to Fire

Opportunity

Miles awoke before dawn. He was gripped by the hope that everything that happened yesterday was just a nightmare and that his Zu would be there next to him. That he would be consoled by seeing her there, or better yet, by her dainty hand on his face, soothing him from his bad dream. But reality set in—Zu's grave injuries, his failure to once again kill Jake Sully, and Spider's painful words towards him.

Miles was lying on his side, his head resting on his huge left bicep. His tail was still. He was staring into the space where he had grown accustomed to seeing Zu. Miles had no more time for tears. Today he was going to take action to help his mate. Nothing else was more important. He was going to go back to Dragon's Tail to convince Zu's parents to give blood for their beloved daughter. Miles made a determined face, got up from his cot, and exited the room, already dressed and ready to go as last night he didn't even bother removing any clothes to sleep.

He looked at his watch. 05:49. Miles was going to see Zu.

Miles quietly exited his room, Mansk and Lyle still sleeping in theirs. He grabbed his breather and left the drone hangar, ambitiously making it to the Ops Center from across the airfield in the base's fairly inactive early hours, the cooler air on his body. By the time he got there, dawn began to crack over the horizon, the emerging luminescence peeking through the skylights and windows of the corridors he navigated.

When he got to the Medical Bay he didn't see anyone. Save for an RDA worker who was knocked out on a bed with an IV in his arm... drunk to all hell. Miles could smell it. Some of that low base morale. He moved around the facility, looking for Zu or someone to direct him to her when he saw the same young woman from the medical team who helped him yesterday.

She looked at him with a soft expression and said, "Good morning, Colonel."

"I'm looking for—"

"I know. Come on, follow me," she interrupted with kind assurance.

Miles followed her down the hallway, past the operating room where he brought Zu yesterday. He looked at it as he passed by, a dropping feeling in the pit of his stomach, recalling the memory of setting her limp body on the table. The last he held her. The medical staff member led him to and entered a room with multiple high-tech cryo capsules, set up very similarly to the arrangement of the beds in the main Med Bay area. It was a room specifically made for medically induced cryo comas.

Miles looked around and for the briefest moment thought, Damn, how many of these could they possibly need? But then he became ever grateful at Bridgehead for having the wherewithal to have such—and that they could be calibrated and were sized for both humans and Na'vi.

The woman led him to the first cryo capsule on the left side of the room, gesturing to it. These next-generation cryo capsules were different from the ones Miles remembers coming to Pandora in for his first tour. They had opaque to clear transitioning glass tops which could be activated to see the individual inside. Miles took a deep breath from his breather and cautiously approached the cryo capsule. The medical worker pressed a button to toggle the capsule from opaque to clear and Zu was revealed inside.

Miles felt his breath uncontrollably escape his lungs at seeing her there. She was lying on her back in a medical gown, completely still, with a peaceful look on her pretty face. But she was still pale, her glowing freckles nearly unlit. Miles tilted his head to the side and welling sadness built up in him at seeing her like this. His ears fell and he slowly placed his right hand on the glass. He said nothing but looked at her with assurance. You're going to be okay Zu. I am going to make sure of it.

Miles waited there for a moment, his hand on the capsule. Then he swallowed and looked at the medical worker and asked, "When we get the blood for her... how's it gonna work?"