60 60. Plans for a Nalutsa

"Shit!", Liam exclaimed as the drone disappeared into the giant incoming jaws.

He acted on instincts, the Rhyniocopter hovering had its speed pass from zero to a third of the speed of sound in what might as well be an instant; moving violently backward the jaws of the shark-dunkleosteus beast snapped shut where the aircraft once was.

'The cable… Shit.', he thought, his heart hammering in his chest as the nalutsa with its closed maw felt the call of gravity and was already dragging the aircraft down. He willed the cable to disconnect as the world outside spun.

The cable snapped against the giant shark doing nearly nothing to it aside from a light scratch against its exoskeleton while it fell into the dark midnight-colored water creating large waves and a heavy drizzle. Its only prizes were the hermit crab drone and fifty meters of cables.

{A nalutsa...}, he said in Na'vi as he frowned slightly an holographic screen appeared and showed footage of the Apex predator all the while he moved his aircraft a hundred meters higher for good measure.

The behemoth disappeared from the radar as well as the two smaller bodies that were likely of a different species from their shape and size, probably following the bigger one either to clean it or eat morsels it left or both.

The option of the two being young nalutsa was here but Liam held serious doubt about this for those earlier mentioned reasons.

'Plan B it is… Not like I didn't want to have one of such creatures.', he thought with growing excitement as he began his flight back to Hell's Gate.

Plan A was just using drones to scout and mine the area, calling it a simple probing to test the water would be more apt. Its destruction was expected, the drone wasn't going to have a very long life when below the surface, he even called the one he threw Timmy for that exact reason.

He just didn't expect Timmy to be eaten mid-fall, before even breaching the water, though he guessed the nalutsa's true target was his aircraft. It must have been thought it was food.

The 'aura' around him born of the link with Eywa helped in a way that didn't make animals as aggressive toward him as for old regular humans but it heavily depended on the animal and circumstance of the encounter in question.

To put it simply, it made them act more naturally thereby and ultimately made them more unpredictable. If something fancying meat such as an obligate carnivore was hungry and big enough, it would try to eat him. He wasn't exempt from being on the menus.

The nalutsas were the second largest aquatic carnivorous fauna from both the Olangi word of mouth and the little amount of information on those majestic creatures in the RDA database.

Data that specifically speaks of a need to be wary of coastline water because this animal resided here tended to try eating aircraft and to boot each time they appeared out of nowhere even when the water was relatively shallow.

As for the largest, they were called tulkuns and were considered sacred animals to the sea Na'vi tribe. It was pretty similar to whales in shape but in terms of information about them, it was still near zero aside from that they moved in giant pods.

Taming either of them was what he needed and wanted but since one was smaller and lived a more solitary lifestyle while also not considered sacred beasts by a substantial number of the Na'vi clan living in the Eastern Sea he currently was in. The choice was self-evident.

Though the problem was now taming a nalutsa, he didn't know if they gave birth to live young or not, nor when or where, or how long they take to grow. And also to take care of it while it grows, which will be time-consuming and far from easy to manage.

He needed one that was self-sufficient and could serve rapidly after it was tamed. The method to tame it was going to diverge widely from how he got Gladius and the tetrapterons squads.

He wasn't sure if it would work but without trying there was no way to know it. He needed to let a connection happen then make it 'bend the knee', submit to his will and there weren't exactly thousands of ways to do so in a relatively short period.

The other option was to kill everything and destroy the entire area for what it was worth, something he wouldn't do unless no other option remained. And it wasn't that good of a solution, to begin with, there would have been consequences he preferred to not have.

'I need an adult one huh… And one just ingested a tracker.', a smile appeared on his face at the thought. Timmy's unwanted and unplanned sacrifice wasn't in vain.

Three hours later.

Liam's silver eyes were currently locked onto a reddish creature the size of a golden retriever walking with visible difficulty from an orangish translucent cocoon toward him all the while emitting small squeaks as if to attract his attention.

It worked as he heard even through the metallic as he was walking down the corridor of the Valkyrie on his way out after having taken five liters of Daisy's venom he extracted two months ago and kept in condition to preserve it.

It was very recent with how its body was still covered in a sort of thick liquid that dripped from the freshly cracked open cocoon and the smell indicating there wasn't any rot or mold. Liam was in fact quite certain it waited for him to be close by to get out.

"So that's indeed how you regrow a body…", he mumbled with fascination as Daisy climbed up his armored legs with the help of its six hooked limbs but with great difficulty.

'Interesting…', he thought as he extended his left hand toward the slinger, his implant glowing brightly in the dimly lit room.

The head and body of Daisy split open where they connected together. There were four neural queues, two of which kept the connection and two other with one from each body's parts that like tentacles wiggled out while their tip bloomed into small, and furry tendrils that aimed toward his specimen implant.

A connection was made, his eyes dilated as his Mind entered in contact with that of the slinger. It was both a single entity and two, its Mind split in two yet functioning as one individual. It was fascinating, he didn't think it was possible until now but studying this unique aspect of this creature was for later.

Most of the emotions were alien to Liam but a few weren't such a fear, fear of death that became clearer as the link came to be and a hierarchy with him at the top established itself the entire crossroad of links to him readapting in but a few nanoseconds for it's newest member.

'Aren't you a clever little thing.', Liam thought through the link as he made his nonviolent intentions clear, he wasn't going to harm it and it was safe which had instant results. The slinger immediately relaxed.

Daisy was opposite to Gladius, Occiden, Septen, Meri, and Orien; it didn't let itself be tame because it thought Liam was its father or mother but out of pragmatism and will to live.

It observed, learned, and drew conclusions, it remembered what it had done before having its body blown up due to its own negligence and how it was treated.

It realized there was no other option and so it did this, it didn't have a sense of pride like a human or a Na'vi did. This thing was a foreign concept it couldn't understand. What mattered was that it survived no matter the way anything beyond that was not even a consideration.

And this was the way to survival.

All of this was being given to Liam in the form of emotions, memories, and more. It was difficult to make sense of due to his unfamiliarity with the Minds of Daisy but he had experience so understanding most of it was possible.

Thirty minutes passed and he made sure everything was in order before he decided it was time to go back to work.

'Meri will arrive and show you the rope after you ate and slept.', he said through the link before giving a large slab of fresh meat to the slinger, it was more emotion mixed with delicate changes of tunes in them than words. It was humm more than anything.

Tugging on the link of the tetrapteron in question he moved to his room dedicated to crafting to work on the tools necessary to 'avenge' the drone, thought first Daisy's venom needed to be treated as in this form aside from potentially killing the shark nothing else would happen.

Knowledge came in many forms, even if it was from a shaman where mysticism is at every step. Not every step where 'magic' seemed to be involved was to be ignored or looked down upon. Psionic was after all omnipresent here and it affected more than the eyes could see, though it didn't mean all words and actions were to be taken literally.

What mattered was the ingredients, methods, volumes, conditions, and times. All in all, it was something to be alert at every point.

He got a recipe from the Tsahìk of the Olangi, one used to help with pain in many ways when in small quantities but if miss doses otherwise would lead to an early if peaceful death in dreamless sleep. He participated in its making.

Of course, if it will work the same on a nalutsa, that is a different story altogether. He could only throw things at the animal until one stuck. Barbaric maybe but he could care less.

It was early in the morning of the last day of the first month of the year 2155 in the Airfield of Hell's Gate.

Grace could see Liam working on the autocannon of his strange aircraft that resembled insects of the time before the wars.

Something that neither was in the database nor he should know since he wasn't from Earth even less aware of that, same was for the moment he seemed nostalgic, and asked seemingly random questions about the past.

At first, she thought it was simple curiosity but she couldn't lie to herself eternally, he had a connection to Earth that wasn't simply due to his physical outward appearance even if human wasn't what she would qualify him as. And not the present Earth as buzzard as it seemed considering his knowledge of advanced technology.

It's just that she couldn't make much sense of anything or that she refused to believe the most ludicrous possibility. So she didn't think of it, or at least tried. And she wasn't alone in that line of thought Norm, Trudy, and more.

People can't just accept it in such a short timeframe. that a superintelligent ruthless alien 'demigod' popped up out of nowhere and took control of everything, even their lives.

And also working in secrecy on things she couldn't begin to understand herself. His positive attitude helped calm things down but a few were still very unhappy about this development either comparing him to Quaritch or thinking of him as a tyrant puppeteer.

Though ultimately they were dependent on him and to say he was babysitting Hell's Gate wouldn't be that much of an over-exaggerated statement.

When most humans left Pandora the individuals that might have a fraction of his knowledge and capabilities left with them, the base had plenty of biologists and other scientists that was a fact but that didn't magically make them technology experts.

The most qualified individual in that after him was Trudy and a few more with the specialized drone but repairing a motor and the life support system are two different things.

She wasn't here for that, and he was aware of how others thought of him anyway yet the subject she woke up this early to speak to him.

Her body tensed up instinctively when the passive-aggressive great austrapede next to the man glared dagger at her. A hiss echoed and reached her ears but one friendly tap on its head crest by Liam calmed the murder bird down instantly.

'As fascinating as ever. He has total dominion over it yet it still possesses its own freewill.', she thought with wonder it reminded her of a scandal back on Earth about a mind-controlling technology used on chimpanzees that either made them braindead or turned them into a frothing enraged mess, the only success was a young male chimpanzee that had with someone stealing it led to the entire research being shut down.

At least that's what was told in public. Anyway, what made this possible she wasn't sure but his 'Survivor Implant' as he called it was playing a major role.

"Good morning Grace.", Liam said through the integrated speaker of her exopack, surprising her, and the deep chuckle afterward caused her to grumble in visible annoyance.

"Good morning Liam, I have an important matter to speak of.", she greeted him, her voice becoming serious as she approached and looked up to meet his gaze.

"When?", he asked with a slight frown as if the simple word he spoke should explain everything.

"When what-ah… So you knew huh.", Grace said under her breath in a voice mixed with amusement and disappointment at her inability to guess he would have already guessed. She felt dumb.

"That you have the desire to transfer your consciousness to your Avatar, yes. At least I could tell this much, it's a logical decision from your standpoint.", he paused, leaning his back against one of the legs of his aircraft as a bottle of highly mineralized water appeared in his left hand, and took a sip of it.

"Your body's failing. Barely a kilometer to get here caused you to be out of breath and your heartbeat to increase by more than half. The main reasons I can think of off the top of my head are the lower gravity affecting your bone and musculature, excessive stress, lack of sleep, and your increasing age. Adding to that an addiction to alcohol and smoking with a lack of self-care so a few major health issues could be added.", he said the truth bluntly without any sugar coating.

It was something she both liked and disliked about him, he didn't say what others wanted to hear but what he thought was right. And he was right.

She didn't take care of herself enough and now paid the consequences for them. She didn't think of it as something of much importance until very recently. But that wasn't all.

"And your new romance with Tsu'tey, it's a logical line of thought.", he added without much care, he was simply stating facts.

There was no need for drama though if others wanted to start it he wasn't against using less than soft methods. He knew it would be created by many dissatisfied people to a degree, sadly for them if Grace was human or not mattered little to him.

"I… You are correct but that's not all. My Avatar is… No.", she stopped mid-sentence correcting herself, "I'm pregnant."

'That was sooner than I anticipated…', he thought, the lack of surprise in his face being all the obvious for Grace.

It must be a recent development as well since Na'vi pregnancy from what he knew and saw is about six months and it became obvious from an outward perspective. The last time he saw Neytiri being a good example.

"I know this will affect the base for the years to come, I know this is selfish and an escape in a way.", she stated without looking away from his analytical gaze.

She was slightly puzzled; he didn't seem bothered by it all. It wasn't her intention but she imagined some form of negative reaction would be seen at the very least.

But no, nothing. She was certain he knew about both the positives and negatives her decision would bring but aside from a smile nothing else. She felt relief flood her being at that.

"Then I suppose a meeting with Mo'at and Jake for the ritual is to be scheduled.", Liam said before cracking his neck and his focus switched back to the autocannon as if the life-changing decision she just spoke about was mundane.

She wanted the ritual then she would take action for it to happen as simple as that. At least she informed him the rest was on herself.

*

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