She felt the rich soil beneath her feet and breathed in the fresh air around her.
Rune strolled into the Avatar Link Room at exactly eight o'clock the next morning, dressed in cargo pants and a tight-fitting sleeveless. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and bumped her keycard against the door to let herself in, walking through the lab and saying good morning to the passing scientists.
She noticed that her Avatar was no longer in the Amnio Tank when she passed the lab earlier, and an electric shock of excitement shot through her body. She quickly shook it off though, keeping a formal stance. But still.
Today was the day.
Her first day in her new body.
She stretched out her body as she approached her idol and Dr. Patel, who were waiting for her, looking over a tech-pad at statistics like heart rate and blood level.
"Morning Dr. Augustine and Dr. Patel." she greeted, words clipped and sharp, stopping next to them and looking over Grace's shoulder.
"Mornin' Rune." said Max.
"Morning kid. You can drop the army attitude you know, you're on Pandora, not a tour." Grace responded.
"Sorry Dr. Augustine, you're right. When can I link?"
Grace passed her the tech-pad and pointed to certain things on it, "As soon as I walk you through some things, and those are your current Avatars stats. And call me Grace."
Rune took the pad and observed the numbers and imaging, "Nice, her oxygen intake is looking good, so's the heart rate."
"We've got slight neural activity as well, which is good for linking," Max told her, he then pointed through a large glass window on the far side of the Link room, and she saw her Avatar laying on a gurney table as med-techs in exo-packs hustled around her, "She's ready when you're ready."
At this point, Rune took in the room.
The Link room was large and circular with multiple link chambers placed around the circumference of the room, a desk and chair with a stats-monitors next to each one. In the centre of the room there was a large circular central control station, which three people were constantly monitoring. Just like on the ISV Argo, the whole room gave off a 'dentist's office' vibe, except it was darker and more ambient.
Grace waved the younger woman over to a link bed which she was setting up for her, calibrating the settings and other things.
"How many hours have you logged?" she asked.
"Around four-hundred and eighty, could have been more, but it's a lot for only two years of training. I'd say I'm pretty experienced with it, enough at least."
Grace nodded with an approving smile of some sorts, before punching in the final things on the monitor, "Just remember, whatever you've learnt in that Avatar, it's going to be so much more different than what you're about to experience. You'll be able to hear properly for the first time in a couple of years, feel actual dirt and breath actual air, you'll be in a completely different body. It's going to be a bit over stimulating at first so just stay calm and follow the instructions of the med-techs. Then you'll get to go for a test drive."
Rune's lips slipped into one of her iconic grins, "I'm ready then."
"Yeah, don't get ahead of yourself." Grace told her, opening the roof to the link-bed and revealing a squishy medical-aqua coloured bed.
Rune seated herself on it, finding the texture of the bed underneath her weird and unpleasant, but ignored it.
"Hearing aid out."
"Why?"
"Messes with the signals in the link-chamber and you'll get really bad tinnitus."
"Alright." she removed the hearing aid from her ear, now only hearing the always same earthy buzz in her right ear.
YOU ARE READING
Heart & Soul - An Avatar Fanfiction
Fanfiction"My soul and heart lay with the Na'vi, lay with you." Rune Chapman is a spirited woman in her late 20's, capable of many things. She's co-ordinated, respected, kind, and ready to teach and learn. And she's trying to survive. She's a former captain o...
