Selective Sight 1
Disclaimer: The Avatar universe is a creation of James Cameron, not me. I intend not to, nor am I making, any money from this work.
Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Author's note: This is a new story that I'm trying out. Based on the Avatar universe. At the moment it's just the premise for the story. Enjoy!
Selective Sight 1
The crash of rock and the flash of light interrupted the silent darkness of the cave. For millennia the damp limestone had not known the touch of light nor the footsteps of the living. Buried deep below the surface, the cave had remained undisturbed. Until now. Through the newly cut hole in the rock wall emerged a tall man, a breathing apparatus covered his face in order to protect him from the deadly gases that had until that moment been kept safely contained within the cavern. In one hand he carried a flashlight which he used to examine the rock formations within the cave. Surrounded by fallen debris, the man slowly and methodically searched for what he hoped to find. A glint of glass shone out from the darkness, its surface unmarred by thousands years of neglect. The man carefully made his way over to the source of the reflected light, mindful of the damp cave floor and the possibility of losing his footing.
When he reached the flat glass embedded in the wall, the man stretched out his hand and touched the surface. Immediately the panel lit up with an array of lights, text, and letters. The writing was in a language that the man knew very well. He was one of the few humans that could read and speak the exotic language. That thought alone brought a smile to the man's face as he read the words on the ancient screen and input the correct sequence of letters with the onscreen keyboard. The screen lit up in response, which indicated that access had been granted. The ground began to rumble slightly as part of the cave wall began to slide away from the man, then to the side, to reveal a hidden passage. He pointed his flashlight down the tunnel to reveal a metal grating on the floor, and a straight line of pipes along the walls that contained what the man assumed were wiring.
The man stepped across the threshold and into the passageway. A few steps down the tunnel and the sound of rock as it slid against metal greeted him. The wall had slid back into place, which meant he was now effectively sealed inside. He was not worried. The people who had created this place were not malevolent beings intent on trapping visitors, there was bound to be a way out, he just needed to find it. As he made his way slowly down the dark tunnel, his only source of light the torch in his hand, the man thought back to what had brought him here. It had only been a few days ago when news broke that the expedition to a planet outside their solar system had resulted in failure. The inhabitants of that world had repelled the humans who had been mining there. Unfortunately, many were killed on both sides of the conflict, including a good friend of his. It was this friend that had left behind much research that dealt with those aliens, including a few encrypted files that had been transmitted to him, apparently upon the event of his friend's death. These files were personal research that had been kept off the books. The man understood why his friend would want him to have these files, he was after all very interested in the aliens, an interest that sometimes bordered on the obsessed. What he did not understand, however, was why this research was not official.
At any rate, the information he had unencrypted from those files indicated that there was something buried here, deep beneath the surface, that had something to do with the aliens. That much was evident from the panel he had encountered earlier. The idea that those aliens had visited Earth and built this place was incredible when one considered the level of technological development that had been observed on the world they presently inhabited. Something must have happened long ago to reduce them from a spacefaring civilisation to a Stone Age equivalent. Whatever that was, the man hoped to discover the answers. Fortunately, his journey down the dark tunnel came to an end. He had finally reached a small circular room, with three doors arrayed like the points of the compass. Above each door was a sign that glowed a soft blue. The text illuminated to the reader exactly what was behind each door. Beside each door was a panel just like the one he had used to gain entry. The door to his left led to the power supply for the facility, apparently the place was powered by geothermal energy. The door to his right was the living quarters and therefore of no interest. The door directly opposite the man was what had his interest. This one led to the reason why he was here.
He stepped forward and input a sequence of letters into the panel in the wall. The door swiftly slid open to reveal a room filled with screens that glowed softly. As the man stepped into the room the ceiling began to glow softly which bathed the room in white light. With the room illuminated enough to see, he switched off his flashlight. The door slid shut behind him as he made his way passed several screens that displayed different sets of data. Each screen was elevated off the ground, level with his eyes, but apparently designed to be viewed by beings of taller stature. There were strange chairs arrayed before each screen that were clearly not designed for humans. Below each screen was a glass panel, large enough to comfortably type with. Obviously these aliens did not believe in the use of desks as everything was secured in place with thin metal frames and wires. The screens displayed information on Earth such as the temperature of its core, the stage of evolution, the level of pollution in the atmosphere, and so on. Other screens displayed information on other planets in the solar system, as well as the asteroids and moons. None of this was of primary concern to the man, although it did spark interest in what exactly the aliens had planned for Earth.
Eventually he located the screen that he had hoped to find. The display showed various bits of information about the aliens, such as their history, their technology, and their plans for this planet, as well as others. Unable to sit in the chair, the man remained on his feet and began to touch various parts of the screen. His actions brought up several windows that contained text and images on different subjects. The first one he looked at was on Earth. From what he could tell, the aliens had simply planned to observe the evolution of the planet and check whether other planets in the solar system could be used for their project. The observation was cancelled when a suitable planet was found in another system not far from this one. There was a short note about how terraforming a planet in this solar system may disrupt the natural evolution of the human civilisation. If they ever became technologically advanced enough, they would be able to observe the alien activity in the solar system. Contact with underdeveloped cultures was apparently something the aliens avoided wherever they could. This led the man to the next window he had opened. This planet, technically a moon that orbited a gas giant, had been selected for a terraforming project. The aliens only terraformed planets that were lifeless, and this moon was as dead as they come. They had desired to 'grow' what humans call 'unobtainium' and then mine it for use in their spacecraft. Some sort of refinement process made it essential for faster-than-light travel.
The man had to read that again. As a scientist, he knew that it was not possible for matter to travel faster than the speed of light, at least not without consequences. But the aliens had found a way to get around that problem, and unobtainium was a key part of solving it. This led him to the last window he had opened. This one showed the schematics for the construction of a small spacecraft, just large enough for one alien to fit inside. He was no engineer, but he had enough knowledge to know that what he had read was a technical reality. Now he understood why his friend had kept those files secret. If the government ever got their hands on this information, they would be able to build an empire in space. They would use terraforming to create more habitable planets, tuned just right for humans of course, and they would use the faster-than-light travel to keep their empire together. He agreed with his friend in this matter. The government could not get their hands on this data. The mess they had made of Earth would only translate to an even bigger mess on a galactic scale. According to the information in the database, there were hundreds of other civilisations out there, and he seriously doubted that the government would have any qualms with using the terraforming technology on planets already brimming with life. If things did not go their way, they either corrupted or destroyed.
Already a plan had formed in his mind. With no desire to procrastinate, he pulled out of his pocket a small device. It was a prototype that was designed to be connected through biological means to the aliens who created this technology. He was unsure if it would work with an entirely artificial connection, but as soon as he brought it near the screen a bunch of stringy tendrils erupted from a small slot between the screen and keyboard. Similar strands flowed out from the device in his hand, and they both entwined to form a connection. Immediately on screen a window opened which showed an empty device. He navigated to where the files on the system were stored, and he managed to copy all the files from the system on to the device. While he waited, he made a quick check to see how he could leave the facility, and found that the rock wall should automatically slide open when he approached it. When the copying process was complete, which the man admitted to himself was a lot faster than he thought it would, he disconnected the device and instructed the computer to delete all the files on the system.
Satisfied, he stepped away from the screen and turned to leave. As he was about to exit the room, one of the screens in the room began to emit a noise that must have been an alarm. He turned back and hurried over to the screen in question. On the display was a window that was been rapidly filled with text. Apparently this console was set to monitor communications, because this was a planet-wide government broadcast. The reason why the computer had set off an alarm was clear. The government planned to return to the moon that had been the site of the recent defeat of their puppet corporation, and on their return they planned to destroy the alien civilisation that inhabited that world. This changed his plans somewhat. In his hand was the key to the salvation of that world, and he knew what he needed to do to ensure that they survived. He needed to warn the Na'vi and hope they would listen.