Chapter 3

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I do not own James Cameron's Avatar all rights go to its creators!

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Max lead us away from our avatars and out towards the main link room where we were supposedly about to meet our boss. This practically caused Norm to have a fit in his excitement at meeting 'the Grace Augustine'. I couldn't deny I wasn't a little excited, Grace was probably the most knowledgable scientist on this team when it came to Pandoran biology and I couldn't wait to pick her brain about all the different species of plants and animals on the planet.

Jake looked slightly overwhelmed by Norms' enthusiasm and I increased my pace a little to walk beside Max. "Grace Augustine is a legend. She wrote the book, I mean literally, wrote the book on Pandoran botany." Norm twittered excitedly and I caught the faintest hint of a smirk on Max's face as he turned around to look at us.

"That's cause she likes plants better than people," he whispered lowly with an amused smile that I parroted back to him.

We were all startled out of our fun when a coarse shout echoed across the now busy link room, "who's got my goddamn cigarette. Guys, what's wrong with this picture?" She looked older than most of us, probably in her fifties with short curly red hair and slightly harsh brown eyes. She had everyone in the room figured out and she knew it, it left me a little apprehensive about meeting her. It was clear that she expected a lot from those that she worked with, I only hoped that I could live up to her expectations.

"Here she is, Cinderella back from the ball. Grace I'd like you to meet Norm Spellman, Kida Olson and Jake Su-" max started but was abruptly cut off at the end by the woman herself.

"Norm I hear good things about you, how's your Na'vi?" She intoned calmly stoutly ignoring everyone else as she focused on her current subject of interest.

"May the All Mother smile upon our first meeting."

"Not bad. You sound a little formal." Her face had taken on a satisfied expression, it was clear that he had impressed her with his knowledge.

"There is still much to learn," Norm responded bashfully, clearly thrilled about the not quite compliment he had just received from his idol.

She whipped her stare around to me and my body flushed hot with nerves. She was certainly intimidating, she could pin even the strongest person down without ever saying a word. "Kida your resume was impressive, you finished your degree remarkably fast and with honours no less," she said challengingly, testing my knowledge on the native language.

"I thank you for your kindness, Dr Augustine. It is easy to learn when you love what you are learning, I thank you for the opportunity you have provided by bringing me here." I responded respectfully, I had always struggled with the language so I had made it my goal to be able to speak fluently by the time we left Earth for Pandora. This situation made me incredibly glad to have reached that goal on time.

Grace looked at me approvingly seemingly satisfied by both mine and Norm's performance before Max interrupted her gently. "Grace this is Jake Sully," he said motioning down to the marine waiting awkwardly in between the scientists.

"Ma'am," he said respectfully holding his hand out for her to shake. She dismissed him easily with a wave of her hand turning to speak condescendingly down at him. "Yeah I know who you are, and I don't need you. I need your brother. You know the one with the PhD who trained three years for this mission." She had a look of disdain on her features as the words poured out of her mouth.

I looked over at her in shock, could she be any more insensitive to someone who had just lost their twin brother. That shock turned to anger as my stare turned cool. I understand that it must be difficult for her that she no longer had one of the scientists she hired but couldn't she be a little more discreet? The man's life had just been turned upside down and here this woman was bitching about losing a scientist, she should learn to be more grateful for what she has. At least Tommy had a twin brother like Jake who could not only operate his avatar, which is extremely expensive, but he was also not completely incompetent and useless. But she certainly wasn't thinking about it like that, I'm sure all she saw was another soldier trying to weasel their way into her department. But I knew Jake, he wasn't like that and if she kept insulting him I'd make sure she knew it.

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