Effervescent ||Tsu'tey||

Two christmases?

A few hours later Grace, Max, Norm, Grace, and a select few of her science division were packing up the most essential of Grace's equipment and research. Vials with test subjects and odd-colored liquids that glow in the dark, cylinders with discs containing thriving cultures and micro-bacteria, mountains of papers with chicken-scratch notes and doodles, printed out MRI scans and lab readings. Botany and science books, thick needles and tubes, PDA's and holo screens, and containers with soil and porous rocks, as well as a token piece of floating unobtanium contained in a glass box, were all shoved into water-proof boxes to be taken to Trudy's SAMSON rotorcraft by Parker's grunts.

Alva closed one of them when Jake rolled into the room, panting and with a large backpack slung over his back. His pale skin shone under the harsh white lights, giving him a washed-out appeareance, coupled with the beginnings of a stubble casting shadows across the planes of his face suggested the long hours of linking were already taking their toll on him.

"Hope you didn't stay up too long braiding Quaritch's hair." She told him. "Grace wanted to leave early."

"Where are we going?" Jake asked, narrowly avoiding being trampled by Norm as the man stomped over to the opposite side of the room.

Grace looked away from the vial she was inspecting. It, along with a few others, contained the dissected parts of an atokirina found drifting not far from the base. It didn't shine any longer, and the tendrils had lost the luster, whatever energy Eywa had bestowed it with drained away by their ignorance.

"Getting the hell out of dodge. I'm not about to let Quaritch and Selfridge micro-manage this thing." Grace told him with a pointed look. "We're going up into the mountains. There's a mobile link up at site 26 we can work out of."

"The Hallelujah mountains?" Norm's head snapped up from the bundle of papers he was cataloging.

"That's right." Grace confirmed.

"Are you serious?! Yes!" Norm cheered. Jake blinked in confusion, either from sheer ignorance or the early hour. "The legendary floating mountains of Pandora? Heard of them?" He sneered.

Alva sighed and clambered over the table she sat on. She couldn't help but compare the timid man cowering in his chair now compared to the larger-than-life comedian entertaining that room of thick-headed apes yesterday.

"Don't mind him." She told Jake. "He's jealous the Na'vi like you better."

Jake gave her an uncertain grin.

'Did you take your pills this morning?' His mouth wasn't moving, but she heard his words clear as day. He had meant them, even if they were spoken lightly and disguised as a joke.

Alva had thought he was different, that he would be different. But Jake Sully was just like the rest of them, and that left her... strangely disappointed.

"But then again it could also be your spying that's got him in a mood." Alva flicked a piece of lint off the tip of her finger. "He's got a thing with our pilot Trudy."

"Spying?" Jake's eyes widened. "Listen, Alva-"

She shook her head and silenced him with a finger pressed against his thin lips. "Shh, Jake." She hushed him. "He doesn't actually know that's why we're moving," Alva grinned, "but he has been sneaking around with the pilot. That bit was true."

"I'm not," he chuckled to try and salvage what remained of his cover. "I'm not spying on anyone."

Alva snorted. "We saw you yesterday. 'Roger that'." She saluted but then leaned in close, lips close to the shell of his ear. "This is how it starts. He sees if you'll bark like a good dog, if you'll sit when he commands and if you come running when he calls." Jake shivered. "But those are all just tests. Time comes and he'll be commanding you to attack, and it won't be to injure." She sat up straight again. "Remember what I told you, Jake. The bill comes due and the price is far too steep."