[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

gunships spots a running Na'vi on the down-looking
infrared, the pilot tells the powersuit troopers and they
converge.
The forest is riddled by fire from the GAU 90 cannons.
Josh and the hunters duck behind the mighty trunks, which
shelter them from the hellacious fire. Then they run on,
zigzagging.
Josh runs from a powersuit which pounds through the forest
behind him. He leaps and rolls, dodging behind trees as
the cannon rips up the foliage.
Zuleika runs along beneath a fallen treetrunk while a
gunship tries to hit her with its cannon. It fires
rockets and she dives into a pond as the jungle explodes.
She surfaces amid burning debris as the gunship flies on.
The powersuit chasing Josh is catching up. It follows him
into a narrow rocky cleft. It turns out to be a cul-de-
sac, and Josh is trapped. The powersuit closes in for the
kill.
Then tons of rock come crashing down, smashing it into
junk. Josh whoops and waves to the Na'vi hunters poised
above. They wave back.
And then twenty mounted Na'vi charge into the battle, the
hooves of their direhorses thundering. With a shriek, two
dozen bansheerays flash down out of the sky, Na'vi on
their backs.
The horsemen scoop up the rescued Na'vi and gallop off
into the woods. The gunships dive to give chase, dodging
and weaving through the trunks.
Josh, running from a powersuit, leads it between a stand
of trees.
Hidden hunters hit it with their bolos. The powersuit
goes down and the hunters set upon it, four of them
pinning it. Josh runs up and trips the rescue-release on
the canopy. He rips the lid open. The trooper screams as
the toxic air whooshes in. Josh pulls him out like a
ragdoll, tossing him away with one hand.
He and the hunters lift the heavy arm, aiming the GAU 90
at an approaching gunship. Josh reaches into the cockpit
of the powersuit and hits the fire control button. The
GAU 90 roars. Its solid tongue of tracers rips into the
Scorpion which cants over, plummets to the ground and
explodes.
Striding through the jungle in his hydraulic seven league
boots, Quaritch goes apeshit. What the hell is going on?
He watches as another Scorpion is riddled from below. On
fire, it banks over him, careening into the jungle.
Quaritch wheels at the sound of hooves in time to blast a
direhorse and rider. He pivots, firing at a running
Na'vi. The hunter disappears in a gout of earth and
foliage.
Tsu Te runs along a horizontal bough. A gunship moves
slowly through the woods below, looking for a victim. Tsu
Te leaps. Lands on the back of the thing. He runs along
its spine, clutching a rock about the size of a football.
When he reaches the turbofan intakes, he hurls it down
into the turbine blades full force. There is a clattering
shriek, and the turbine blows apart, sending shrapnel
outward through the sides of the fuselage. The gunship
tilts and heads for the ground. Tsu Te leaps for a liana
and swings to safety. The ship explodes below him.
Two bansheerays swoop in behind a gunship. The first
rider drops a thirty pound rock, which hits the Scorpion
squarely. The pilot hears the clunk, and looks around.
The second rider guides his ray over the center of the
ship. Zuleika is riding behind him on the ray's back.
She rolls off onto the gunship, then runs to the rock and
picks it up... pounding it down into the turbine. The
turbine explodes. Zuleika runs as the gunship goes out of
control. She dives out into space... and a third
bansheeray plucks her out of the air with its claws.
A trooper in a powersuit hears hooves and turns, His eyes
widen as he sees-- Two direhorses, with a heavy log slung
between them like a battering ram. At a full gallop the
riders guide the log right into the canopy of the
powersuit, shattering it. The suit flips onto its back,
and doesn't move.
Tsu Te pulls out his bullroarer and starts to swing it.
The sound wails through the forest like a siren. The
Na'vi retreat as one, disappearing into the forest.
PUSH IN ON QUARITCH calling to his men. The gunships
aren't answering. The suits aren't answering. He sees
burning wreckage on his right, and a powersuit lying still
on his left. The forest is silent, except for the usual
hoots and screeches. What the fuck is happening? They
just got their asses kicked by bows and arrows!? Night is
falling, and the forest is dark and deep around him.
He swears and rakes the jungle with his gatling gun until
the ammo paniards are empty.
IN THE MOUNTAIN STRONGHOLD the Na'vi are gathered. There
are several hundred of them. All the nearby clans have
come to join the battle. It is full night, and the stars
blaze overhead. Polyphemis stares down at them with his
one bloody eye. Torches, as well as a galaxy of
bioluminescence, light the gathering.
Josh, Zuleika and Tsu Te stand before the gathered
clans... the alien warrior, the daughter of the Patriarch,
and the Patriarch's successor. Josh speaks to the
assembly, and Zuleika translates for him into the Na'vi
language.
He tells them they are not just fighting for this part of
the forest, or these few trees, but for the very future of
their world. He says the history of the aliens they call
the sky people is one of blood. For as long as can be
remembered, they take what is not theirs. They take the
land and hunting grounds of other people, and kill them,
or put them in places they cannot live. They call this
progress, and it has led them down a path to sickness and
death. Their world, their forest, is a dying place. A
poisoned place. They have killed their mother. And they
will do the same here. They must be driven away.
When they come again they will come with all their force,
and we must be ready. We must fight, to our last breath,
or they will rape and kill our mother as they did their
own.
Josh hears a familiar voice behind him.
GRACE
Nice speech, kid.
Josh spins around, seeing Grace's avatar stepping up
behind him. She is bright-eyed and as alive as he ever
saw her. He is dumbfounded.
She walks up to him, grinning.
JOSH
Grace! Grace... It's you!
 GRACE
Of course it's me. Moron.
Finally, he whoops and picks her up, spinning her around.
JOSH
Is it going to hurt my brain if you
tell me how...?
Grace says she's not sure exactly how it works.
Scientifically that is. But the short version is that
under certain circumstances, the Na'vi can do this
thing... call it a soul transfer. When I was dying, the
trees stored... well, they stored my mind, my emotions, my
memories... me. Then they downloaded it all to this body.
No more turning into a pumpkin. I get to be Cinderella
all the time, now.
Josh is lost. The trees stored you?
Grace laughs, and puts her arm around him. Josh, she
says, this may take a bit of explaining.
Back home we called it Gaia. A single being made up of
all that's living on the whole planet. The only problem
is, back home it's a myth. There is no Gaia. If she ever
lived, she's been long dead.
But it's not a myth here. On Pandora there is only one
entity. The forest is its brain. Like a vast neural net,
with every tree being a single brain cell, or dendrite.
And all the roots co-mingling... those are the synapses.
One vast sentience, covering all the land. And everything
that walks and breaths and lives within it is a part of
it. It is like a government, which keeps everything in
balance. That's why the Na'vi don't kill, or make war.
No ownership, no territory. They are given all they
need... a place to live, a part in the great pageant of
life here. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne