93. Green Obelisk

"Good, as usual, sit upon the chair, and do not move while I attach everything.", Liam said after Miles decided to continue and do what was planned for today.

It was routine but a necessary routine.

It wasn't to pilot the Mek kneeling behind them or anything of such, the boy was too young for that. Piloting a Mek was more like piloting a simple run-of-the-mill vehicle or that of the other mecha. Piloting a Mekwas becoming one with the machine in a way words would fail to transcribe.

And it wasn't in a philosophical manner, it was what happened in the most literal way. Piloting a Mek as such entailed much more and had long-lasting effects on the pilot's body and psyches leading to shifts in mentality, due to the unpredictable changes in brain chemistry and the organization of neurons.

These were side effects that weren't specifically negative and would even enhance the performance of a pilot but Liam didn't want this to happen to the developing mind and body of his adoptive son, even if these side effects would lead to the boy being an inhumanly good pilot at an exponentially faster rate.

But what would be the point of this, it would mold the mind and body of Miles for this only purpose, a single-minded weapon in a way. Miles would lose himself to the machine if he started now, his humanity would be twisted away, and piloting a Mek for any extended period, in the long run, was something to be done meticulously.

It was by his and Eywa's estimation and knowledge.

Anything related to the mind was no laughing matter, more so when it was something so intricate on such a young and malleable individual. Liam needed data to avoid potential problems but also to train the boy and regularly check on him.

But it would be worth it, if not for the immediate future but for what is to come in the long term. Meks and Exo-Meks, a smaller variant of the first model, were both versatile tools and weapons of extreme power depending on what was attached to them, the limit of the video game gone making the possibilities virtually endless.

And that was not speaking about the big version that could cleave mountains with an obscenely large energy sword, one longer than the biggest of bulls tulkuns.

'This will also give insight into how his emotions will affect the connection… All parameters must be as high as possible for his safety and performance and that of others.', Liam thought not the biggest fan of essentially using Miles as a guinea pig.

But as much as it was the case everything was safe beyond measure and it felt somewhat good to experience regular emotion. Adding that Miles wasn't the only one that Liam gathered data on for the safe synchronization of mind and technology.

It was in other circumstances and with volunteers, mostly from the miners as it was to improve their AMP suits but not only, but he did do something similar for the Na'vi volunteer, with this he obtained hundreds of terabytes of information to work his way around of potential problems that may arise.

"Close your eyes, take deep breaths, set your heart, and tidy your thoughts as much as you can.", Liam instructed as the boy sat on the chair, the soft synthetic surface of the backrest hugging his form as he did as asked.

He felt a cold sensation moving between back, and head, the living metal shifting slowly like a muscle as it crawled to the area of his body where his nervous system was the most accessible, not unlike what happened to Liam when he was connected to a Tree of Soul. It was inspired by exactly that.

Then the anticipated intense but short pain came from the connection forming, it was in the form of three short but sharp points of pain as hair-thin tendrils shot to the back of his neck, middle of his thoracic vertebra, and the end of his lumbar vertebra. But Miles didn't flinch at this, only a small twitch of discomfort flashed over his face but disappeared just as fast, the connection blocking the pain from registering.

'No permanent damage will happen but it would have been less unpleasant if he had a specimen implant. Alas, this is a current impossibility, cybernetic augmentations would fix this but only when he is fully developed…', Liam remarked internally while he was observing the connection taking place, not intervening or helping, only here to stop everything if something went astray.

"Stay focused… Good, proceed like we repeated last time. Slow and steady, there is no need to rush things.", the post-human praised softly as the synchronization went on smoothly going past the 20% mark then the 40%, then 60% before stopping at exactly 79,74%.

It progressed no further but neither did it regress, and for a human it was a very very high score and one nearly impossible to change due to the nature of the synchronization.

It worked on the resonance of the Mind and Soul, something comparable to DNA, a code unique to each individual. It could be altered but not by a lot and if that were to happen then it would be bad, very bad.

This resonance to the Mek was what represented those percent, but if the pilot couldn't be changed in that aspect the machine very much could.

It was done by building one that was a perfect fit for them, in this case, Miles and this was why exactly when the post-human operated the modified system the percentage increased to 84,52%. Further than that it would be incredibly dangerous, baring two special cases that Liam could be considered a part of both.

The first was that, it was him, the Mek was part of him, and there was nothing to resonate to aside from himself. The second was what he theorized he was shifting to, an ascension he couldn't stop and knew essentially nothing about aside from a potential result.

But if this synchronization were to be put into the percentages then he would be so far above the one hundred percent that the almost inhuman feat Miles was currently doing with his training and sheer talent would pass off as a mildly interesting if rather boring factoid.

"Excellent, Miles. Try to flex your left hand.", he instructed and the boy did as he asked, then he continued on the exercise, "Good, then try to do the same for the Mek left hand but without moving your actual hand. Then do both."

This was how the next three hours went on, a ten-minute pause every thirty minutes of exercises that while seemingly simple were relatively mentally taxing and gaining in complexity as time went on. It was from Miles closing his fists and that of the Mek to do sign language and for the hardest, as out of place as it might seem juggling.

It was to train the conscious and subconscious of Miles to not confound the true body to the nearly twenty-meter tall living metal extension and more. It also helped in motor control and dexterity and overall was a pleasant experience for both of them, it was quite playful and engaging. It needed to be that the boy was still ten years old, as intelligent and mature as he might be for his age.

After this they had a meal consisting of marinated akula steak cooked to perfection on a stone grill with an assortment of smoked Pandoran vegetables edible for humans, for Liam, it was mostly to be with his adopted son than to truly fill his belly. For him food was never about this to begin with, he wouldn't have become a sous chef or gone to culinary school if that was the case.

Still nowadays eating without ingesting a minimum of ten kilos of highly nutritious food would be a great waste of time if he wanted something a minimum fancy.

He needed a constant flux of nutrients due to the enormous quantity of calories he needed to consume daily to simply maintain his body in shape, not forgetting his uncontrollable growth that was becoming a source of worry he had anticipated. The cubic laws existed and he was feeling its effect in more ways than one.

This aside after dinner and a safe amount of time for Miles to not puke his gut out due to rough activity Liam asked with a large grin, "Do you want to surf tonight?"

The boy blinked and tilted his head in confusion. He didn't understand what the word 'surf' meant, never had he heard it before but that didn't stop after a short second for him to scream a "YEEESSS DAD!" of pure excitement. He still understood it was for a fun activity.

An excitement that evolved into jubilation as Liam waved his left hand and the air shifted. From his movement an object manifested itself from his inventory; it was an elegant metallic surfboard of Tek in nature.

Its long body hovering half a meter above the ground, then from its middle and bottom, a skeletal pole of metal unfolded, soon followed by two smaller at the board nose. But that wasn't finished, from those new structures blue hard light zipped into reality forming a magnificent sail on its top, and three wing-like fins on the three others.

It was a Tek Hoversail, a mix between a true hoverboard, surfboard, flute board, and a sail. A rather interesting vehicle overall that could be used in virtually all terrain, even the sky but it demanded a large amount of skill.

And so the rest of the day unfolded ending with Liam tucking a thoroughly exhausted Miles in bed. This was one of the rare days they could have together, so it was cherished.

In this way time ran its course, plans were worked upon as resources flowed in great quantity and today was the day a third of one of such plans would reach completion. A plan that was to protect Pandora in its entirety from extraterrestrial threats.

It was within the deepest part of the Hallelujah Mountains, an area where the magnetic vortices were at their strongest. As such all conventional technology relying on magnetism would become obsolete, or their function relying on it would fail. The magnetic anomalies were so strong in certain points that most magnetic material would be physically altered.

It was in this same area, between the rib cage-like stone structure that was growing the oldest Tree of Souls of the continent, and one of the oldest of the moon.

In this place, a kilometer north of this Tree of Souls was a scene where only the words divine and miracle could be used as an apt description.

The ones who had heard of what was to be built today had come to have the chance to witness this event, they were from many Na'vi clans, the Omatikaya, Olangi, Tipani, Anurai, Tayrangi, and more, even the recursive clans of the Eastern Sea such as the Metkayena had come.

But the Na'vi weren't the only ones to come, two-thirds of Hell's Gate population had come to witness this, and it wasn't a sight only reserved for the ones of the lands, Tek Remote Cameras were hovering everywhere sending in life footage to the tulkuns.

The one behind it all was placing his left hand on the glowing crystal embedded atop a small metal pillar, a Terminal, it was connected to lines of blue at the epicenter of a hundred-meter-in-diameter circular platform of metal, the antithesis to the primeval nature of the surrounding yet it was not out of place.

The one standing in the middle of this platform was the All-Father.

His tall muscular body was covered in his Tek Armor barring his head, as he would not hide his face, letting everyone see his dark brown braided hair, his neatly trimmed beard of the same color, his sun-kissed skin, his dilated silver iris with the vein within and around his eyes glowing a deep blue and purple. All of those features fused to form an inhuman visage of pure concentration as he worked on the task at hand.

He was in a trance-like state as from above him the uppermost part of a tower was forming, its size comparable to the canopy of a Hometree, yet it was only the beginning. Robotic creatures worked at his will, the three Artificial Engramic Matrix his Children of Metal as Eywa titled them, obeyed his instruction with the utmost limit of their processing power.

From the first and oldest Arx, the general consciousness of the Tek Stryders, to the second one Excursor, the consciousness of the Scouts to the last and youngest, Executor the consciousness of the Enforcer, quadrupedal creatures half the size of thanators yet just as strong and capable of walking upon all and any surface while possessing the ability to teleports as long it had enough Element.

Those three types of Tek creatures numbered in the thousands, many of them built for this purpose only. Notably were the Scouts who numbered the highest.

All of those acted alone to a colony of ants or a hive of bees but more at every point, they worked together in perfect harmony as they assembled the gargantuan structure above him from top to bottom, teleporting prefabricated piece by prefabricated pieces in a never-ending cycle. Millions of pieces that connected following his design to the last detail, nothing aside from perfection would be tolerated.

In a matter of minutes, the shock of all this tower growth neared its end, as should the well-oiled machine that was his creation controlled by his decree the reason for this speed. The thousand of hours poured behind the plus needed for it to be also possible.

No one dared to speak or emit any noises, nevertheless dared to move, the sound kg the wildlife having since long disappeared as well. The lozenge of metal in the middle of its uppermost part, a symbol omnipresent within the All-Father creation, even on this strange piece of metal on his left wrist.

This structure flashed a bright green, a sound emitted in conjunction sounding similar to that of a muffled crack, then it flashed again and again. The visible black tissue riddled with blue veins within the structure of a kilometer-and-a-half-long (~4921 ft) edifice of alien aesthetic lit up at each of those green flashes.

Each flash seemingly getting progressively stronger, the rising eclipse of Polyphemus upon the two suns showing the humans that the fauna and flora were in rhythm to those flashes.

{It's a heartbeat… Their heartbeats… Of Uncle Liam and Eywa…}, Kiri standing at the right of her shell-shocked Mother mumbled under her breath, her eyes moving from the post-human to the pink-eyed Na'vi hovering down from her hiding place to her mate.

The young Avatar was the first but not only one to remark on what those flashes represented but none had the time to process anything further that the white-haired Na'vi had reached Liam, only now did the Na'vi notice her.

Then she placed her forehead with complex birthmarks more akin to tattoos on his forehead, their eyes focusing onto the others before the tower began to rise and when it reached two times its height in distance from the ground it crackled with pure white lighting, and with a silent boom shot a beam of an equally pure green to the heaven above.

The Green Obelisk has been activated.

*

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