33. Capitalism never changes

The call has gone up for several minutes already. Questions and answers flying from each side such as what is the state of Earth asked by Liam, while most of the man's answers were mostly reserved and very cutthroat, something Grace and Max understood.

Something Liam didn't even try to hide either he didn't know them and they didn't know him, being frank here was good, necessary even.

Lying about something that was going to be ultimately discovered was dangerous, but that didn't equate to revealing everything such as his interdimensional origin.

Something he couldn't even answer and he didn't want to open this can of worms now either. He must gain their trust, and gain allies human or not so lying was counterproductive.

"Liam, have you had any contact with Na'vi, they are tall blue humanoids with four-digit, pointy ears, and a tail?", Grace asked while bringing up a holotbalet with a picture of a female Na'vi with human characteristics looking oddly like Grace and she was smiling with three other regular female Na'vi two being teen and the third a kid in front of the camera.

'Right… There was this in the movie where they controlled those human-Na'vi hybrids by sleeping in those boxes. I wonder how it's done, Liam wondered briefly about the technology behind it as it could simply be a simple brain chip to a full-blown psychic link.

This technology was mostly possible thanks to a controversial RDA scientist back on Earth, Dr. Cordell Lovecraft pioneer psionic researcher having used all animals for his research, the Dark Dream Project, humans, criminals mostly, not being outside of the range of his experiment. It wasn't a bloodless or painless technology but nobody outside of the Dr. Lover raft and a few high-placed individuals knew the extent of those two points.

There was a question to answer, one that would have come. This wasn't trivial, his relationship with the Na'vi was very important. Closing his eyes for a long second Liam spoke this time not in English to the immense shock of the scientists.

<Yes, I did, a few times.>, he waited letting his words set in with a smile forming, he nailed the pronunciation this time, <Am still bad at the People's language, however. They are fascinating, some less welcoming than others but very interesting, they call me the Lost Child.> 

After this, he waited some more until the xenobotanist replied, shocked and delighted, hungry to learn more, "<By Ewya!> You are even better than some who spoke it for years, pronunciation is nearly perfect. This is incredible! It changes everything. How did you learn the language, did they teach you? What clan were they part of? Why such a title, what is the meaning behind it? How did your interaction with them go? Are you currently in contact with them?"

Max placed a hand on her shoulder telling her to calm down before she started asking even more questions, it was Liam's turn after all. 

One of the rules that were set at the start, was equal exchanges, to a degree of course as information was more or less precious to the individual in question. Max was more of a middleman here, truthfully, he was no expert in Na'vi culture or alien biology outside of Avatars' and humans' brains. 

He had an interest in Liam's brain, how it was made etcetera but that was not the place nor time and to let the man enter a scanner more than two calls are necessary.

"That isn't a problem Max, yes I learned the language thanks to an amiable wandering Na'vi with the same trade that we are doing, knowledge for knowledge but that is all I will say. For now.", Liam said calmly, he didn't want to involve anyone else in this… To say it mildly 'clusterfuck' and make it even worse.

Grace nodded, calming herself down. This information opened many possibilities for the future of human-Na'vi interactions, all needing Liam as he was a third party to the conflict between Na'vi and the RDA. 

She could only hope she could convince him to help, from what little she learned he wouldn't budge without very convincing arguments, and forcing him, even if she wouldn't do it either way, seemed to be the worst possible decision. 

The man was desperate and in depression to an unknown degree and as such quite possibly mentally unstable, no he was, he just didn't show it. 

And betraying him will likely make him snap and she was certain in no way would she survive, it was a gut feeling coming from her most primal instinct, he was 'superior' to them as confusing as it was and also mixed with common sense. A discussion she had many times with Max for the last few days, this man wasn't normal if man at all.

A genetically engineered individual of unknown origin would be far from ordinary in all aspects imaginable.

For explicable reasons, he was like this mentally, alone in an alien environment, and with the blade of the entire RDA and so much more above his neck did this. If he were to have been discovered by someone less altruistic than them, his future wouldn't have been nice. 

She couldn't even begin to comprehend the amount of pressure and stress he must endure. He was aware of his situation, he clearly didn't want to be here, but he was and fared much better than anyone else she could think of in those conditions.

The fact he learned the Na'vi language from a Na'vi means he was a good person, even if she was not as well versed in the many clans of the great plains. A general rule Na'vi made after what the RDA had done and is doing is to be extremely wary of humans, and some are sometimes aggressive to the point of going for the kill without hesitation. Such as the Omatikaya.

Liam speaking it to such a proficient degree showed he was taught extensively for at least months by the natives and no Na'vi teacher will bother teaching someone who was a monster or who couldn't show potential in their ways or if they were forced and she seriously doubted he could do the latter as strong as he looked. 

Na'vi and Avatar simply didn't play in the same league as humans in that department. A fact she could attest it was the difference between a full-grown adult and a regular child.

"I suppose it is my turn… I want to be sure, I have an idea of why the RDA is here but again I want to be sure, why is it here, and also since I answered one more how powerful it's actually, in the grand line as you clearly hate their guts?"

"You're right. It would like to say the RDA is on Pandora to study the flora and fauna as well as learning from the Na'vi but that would be a lie.", she halted thinking of a polite way to put it while taking a big gulp out of a water bottle.

"The leading factor of it all is, I suppose you already guessed, resources, resources such as unobtanium… We are simply here to be a pretty little eco-scientist team to the media back on Earth, it's a company that works for profit and only this. It needs a nice image even if it's the most powerful independent company in the entirety of human history. From healthcare to the food and entertainment industry, most of the scientific research is not connected to any government, they control and find basically everything else under the Sun… The sole reason Pandora isn't a rock void of life is a set of extraplanetary regulations set by the United Nations.", Grace explained, she was furious, sad, disheartened and so much more.

She truly despised the RDA and what she gave in general information, for very good and valid reasons. But it's nothing new as a concept to him, only taken to the extreme, and it was good to know the UN still existed but they wouldn't act much different from the RDA at his discovery. 

And he seriously doubted the one at the head of the RDA, if push came to shove, would bother to think twice before breaking some of the rules just for him, the UN not being exempt from this either. In fact, he was sure new laws would just be made for him.

They make the rules and he didn't know how different they are from the one he was used to but they should be, in any case, way, way more corrupt. If the Earth is as bad as Max told him a few minutes earlier when he asked, and it should be even worse currently, it wasn't HIS Earth but that didn't change that it was tragic. 

A dystopian world one he was happy to not have been born on. The Moon and Mars colonies not faring that much better, exceptionally worse even from the little Max knew.

Tragic but logical for Mars and the Moon to be worse than Earth in terms of habitability as the not-so-blue-planet-anymore needed to be cracked open for the playing field to be even.

He hated politics and politicians in general, but that didn't mean all were 'evil pieces of shit and worse scums of humanity' so to say. It's simply that the ratio of good and bad has always leaned toward the extremely bad end of the spectrum from any party, country, time, religion, and ideology. An aspect that must be even more pronounced here.

Trusting that one, if he managed to contact one high placed enough, will do something other than lie and deceive him for him to end up under a scalpel or in a white room to be tortured or worse was pure unaltered madness and stupidity in its rawest form. 

There surely are exceptions, they always are, but that wasn't worth the risk to find them, he hated to be put in that corner. The RDA was a megacorp controlling nearly everything, its influence over the entirety of humanity but humans he couldn't trust except for a potential few.

His own species, more precisely the leaders were going to be his enemies, something he already anticipated as he couldn't see any other alternative now. If the occasion of communicating presents itself and it is safe he will still try but there weren't many ways out and his life mattered more to him than anything else.

'And for the metal… Make sense they want it this shit is better than any superconductor known to humanity here, it's revolutionary… But can't they artificially synthesize it? I mean… It should be possible with enough research, I can already see several ways to go about it. Yeah no, I'm idiotic. Monopoly over it. Of fucking course! Milking things as much as possible even when there are other alternatives.', Liam rationalized, he wanted to be angry, furious but he only felt immense disappointment and disgust.

"That all sounds extremely bad… but I admit it's not surprising. At all.", Liam said honestly, and both sighed at that.

"Any more questions you might have, Max, Grace, it's getting dark on my side, there is not much time left unless I want a txumre' reaping my gut out?"

This earned a snort from Grace at that and a confused glance from the person spoken to before she explained what a txumre' was, a slinth, the fastest land predator of Pandora and an extremely venomous animal that Na'vi use the venom of to coat their arrows. 

"Yes and saying the contrary would be the understatement of the century, but your safety is more important even if I don't doubt your self-defense capabilities.", Grace said, disappointed by the overall shortness of the call but greatly pleased by what was learned.

"That sums it up for today, when would you prefer our next rendezvous to be?", Liam said, the red tetrapteron on his lap waking easily reading the messages of 'Father' through the link that it was soon the time to go home.

"I thought of a time but the next few weeks will be very hectic for the entire base. New personnel is coming to the base directly from Earth, some must already be in the stages of waking up from cryostasis. The only time Max and I have with certainty is May 6 and for the time it's yours to decide, Liam. Some will be added under my care and that will need my attention.", Grace explained with a frown, almost upset, not a particularly new sight with how many times she was and comprehensible with how many reason she had to be.

'Ah, is the cripled guy arriving with this batch? Or it could be another totally different batch for all I know.', Liam nodded in understanding while scratching Meri's belly, his mind going over what was said.

"Around 3 p.m., I suppose after this one in ten days chances are there will be a long time of silence, right? This won't do, this won't do at all. Unacceptable even.", the man said calmly, his left bandaged hand holding his chin with enough force to break a child's hand.

"I would like for you two to procure yourself with a device similar to those tablets you like to wave around or one that could be used as a phone, preferably inconspicuously, it is of little importance to me as long as it can send, treet, and recuperate data. As well as needing them to be new, disconnected from any of the RDA servers, or ever connected to those either. I want devices free of any externals interferences. I want them to be on a particular frequency of your choosing but one unused, that doesn't risk getting found and that you will give me next time.", Liam explained voice unwavering and a smirk gracing his roguish features.  

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