"Life on Pandora" - Part Two

Part Two

            Quaritch arranged a tour of “Hell’s Gate” for Alicia, Ben, and Newt. This included an introduction to the Avatar Program, which allowed humans to control avatars – genetically engineered human-alien hybrids that looked like Pandora’s dominant natives, the Na’vi.

            “Whoa,” Ben exclaimed while gawking on one submerged, unconscious avatar within an amino tank. “They’re huge!”

            “Ten feet, to be exact.”

            An auburn-haired woman approached them with a lit cigarette in one hand.

            Alicia, Ben, and Newt were introduced to her prior to the tour; her name was Dr. Grace Augustine, a botanist and the leader of the Avatar Program.

            “Dr. Augustine,” Alicia formally held out her hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

            Grace did not return the formality. “Let’s get one thing straight: I don’t approve of the Colonel’s decision to let some random outsiders lurk around my lab, acting as if they belong here – and none of you clearly do. My team and I have made considerable progress teaching the Na’vi our language and culture and learning ourselves about theirs. And now I hear something about some ‘magic watch’ that can let some kid turn into one of our avatars?!”

            “It’s called the Omnitrix,” Ben told her. “And it’s not magic. It’s science.”

            “And I certainly can vouch for that,” Newt added.

            Grace noticed the item of interest strapped to Ben’s wrist. It was a very big wristwatch, primarily black and grey in color, with a green hourglass shape on it. “And what do you call it again?” she asked with a questionable frown.

            “The Omnitrix,” Ben said.

            Grace puffed her cigarette in curiosity. “How does it work?”

            To help in the demonstration, Alicia aimed her sonic screwdriver towards the amino tank, scanning the avatar within it. Once she received a sample of its DNA structure, she pointed the sonic at the Omnitrix, feeding it the sample. In seconds, the silhouette of a Na’vi popped up on the face of Ben’s alien watch.

            Ben slapped the palm of his other hand down on the watch and, before Grace’s very eyes, transformed into an avatar with the Omnitrix insignia on its chest – no link unit required.

            “Congratulations, kid,” Grace shielded her awe with cynicism. “You just made decades of work obsolete.”

            “Man, I feel like Way Big as this guy,” Ben spoke in his Na’vi form, his voice maturated just like the body itself. He admired not only the superior height but his striped blue, bioluminescent-spotted skin and his long braided hair, which included many little pink, hairy, worm-like neural tendrils on the end. “What the heck are these?”

            “Your neural queue,” Grace said. “Don’t play with it. You’ll go blind.”

            After having a moment to admire his new alien form, Ben turned to Alicia and asked, “So what now?”

            “Now you integrate yourself with the Na’vi civilization,” Alicia instructed him.

            “But what about the Colonel’s deal?” Ben inquired.

            “We’ll keep our end of the bargain,” Alicia said with a wink, “but we’re not gonna let it hold us back in focusing on our own mission: finding out what happened to the wildlife on this planet.”

            Hearing this, Grace spoke up, “The same issue’s been worrying me. There’s a story that’s gotten around the Na’vi tribe about a tanhì vrrtep – which translates as ‘star demon’ – and how it’s been destroying life on Pandora.”

            “What does this star demon look like?” Alicia inquisitively asked.

            “Not many Na’vi warriors have lived to describe it,” Grace said. “Only those that have survived its wrath say that it exists.”

            Alicia’s fascination swelled. “How would you like to go and find out, doctor?”

            Grace griped. “Knew you were gonna say that.”

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            While Alicia set off on her investigation with Newt and Dr. Augustine (in her own avatar body), Ben trekked through another end of the endless Pandora jungles. He tested the limits of his new alien form, running as fast as XLR8 and jumping as high as Four-Arms. He enjoyed being Na’vi more than he enjoyed being Heatblast or Upgrade.

            “All’s I need now is to come up with a name for this guy,” he reflected.

            Suddenly, he heard vicious snarling and discovered an enormous animal directly ahead that looked like a cross between lion and panther. It struck deep fear within Ben, his first instinct being to run away. His speed as a Na’vi was put to the test more than before in the creature’s pursuit of him.

            Whatever this animal was, it was as fast and agile as a cheetah.

            It would have gained on Ben’s tail had it not been for some random laser fire that was unleashed out of nowhere and killed the beast.

            The creature’s body fell dead in an instant, skidding to a halt over the dirt.

            Ben stopped once he witnessed the surprising act. Believing his life to have been spared, he told his unseen rescuer, “Hey, whoever you are, thanks for savin’ my butt! I owe ya one!”

            His relief was soon replaced with anxiety when something familiar materialized out of the foliage: a Dalek!

            “What the heck?!” Ben cried. “I thought we finished off all you tin-can dweebs!”

            “YOU REFER TO THE MULTIVERSE WAR! THE WAR BETWEEN YOUR FEEBLE RESISTANCE AND THE DALEK EMPIRE! WE PERSISTED! THE CULT OF SKARO ALWAYS PERSISTS!”

            Ben could never stand the screeching voices the Daleks were synonymous for.

            It was torture to his ear drums – even in Na’vi form.

            “WE DISCOVERED THIS PLANET AND HAVE LAID CLAIM OVER IT! THIS IS WHERE WE WILL ESTABLISH NEW SETTLEMENT FOR THE CULT OF SKARO, ONCE WE HAVE EXTERMINATED ALL LIFE!”

            “Not if I have anything to say about it,” Ben defiled.

            He used the skills inherited from his Na’vi form to best the Dalek, as it fired its gunstick repeatedly, only managing to turn a few trees into ashes.

            In Ben Tennyson fashion, the boy hero taunted his adversary.

            “Am I too fast for ya? You’re nothin’ but a lame excuse for a…!”

            And then, at the most inopportune of times, the Omnitrix timed out, leaving Ben standing defenseless in his human form…directly in the Dalek’s sights!

            “EXTERMINATE,” it shrieked, advancing on him.

            Ben gulped. “Oh, man.”