Chapter 26: In Which Some Things Are Resolved, And Others Not (At Least Not Yet)

Neytiri and her husband helped their brother get back into his hospital bed.

"But we could have kept on going." Jerry muttered. "A couple more hours and we'd have had the treaty all done and negotiated. Why'd we have to stop?"

"Because you were getting tired and I don't want you to hurt yourself, brother!" Neytiri said, looking at Jake, then Jerry's doctor. "I was only doing what's best for you, my brother."

"And it's a good thing you did. Jerry needs his rest," his doctor said, looking at her, then Jerry. "and as your doctor, I am ordering more rest for you. You can always negotiate tomorrow."

"Take it easy, Jerry." Jake said. "We'll finish this up tomorrow. If not then, certainly by the day after that. We're almost there, we just got a few little things to tie down and then we're all done. You need to be at the top of your form, and for that, you need more rest. We need you, I need you, I couldn't have done this or gotten this far without you, so brother, you have to get some rest."

Jerry shrugged. "I suppose you're right. It's no matter, really, just that I wanted to get as much done as we can today."

"And we did." Jake said. "We've already gotten most of what we wanted from this treaty already. The humans will have to fix the damage they have caused to our world, if they want any more Unobtainium, that is, and they do, so they will. They will not be able to use destructive mining methods any more, which means no more open-pit mining, and if they have to do any surface mining, they'll have to replant and restore the areas they mine to as close as those areas were before the mining. And that was just in the first hour of the negotiations. We did pretty good."

"Yeah, that's true, and Neytiri's idea that only humans who want to go to Pandora should go, was a good idea too. I like that. Before it was people who were getting paid a whole lot of money to go to a place most of them didn't want to go to in the first place, and now, they'll be sending people who want to go there, to do research, to learn, from us and us from them, good idea, Neytiri."

"It was what you said, brother. You said that the people who came before never really wanted to go there unless they were given a lot of money. But, if we can get people to come to our world who really, really want to come there, then we will benefit along with them. It was you who gave me that idea, my brother. I have to give you credit for that. You are right. If there needs to be people to keep Hell's Gate working, then it is best that they be people who want to be there in the first place, not just those who expect money. And of course the humans at Hell's Gate need fuel for their machines, which means they will have to have their shuttles to get the fuel, and all that brings along with it."

Jerry smiled. "Well, great minds, and all that. Infrastructure required people to maintain it."

His expression turned bitter for a moment. "And it looks like one of those people who gets to go to Pandora is going to be me." he muttered.

"Of course it is, bro!" Jake said, "You're family."

"No, it's not that. That last break we took before the last round of negotiations this afternoon, I got a message from the University. They want to 'renegotiate' my contract, because of all the crap I pulled to get us to this point. 'Inappropriate use of university resources' and 'violations of numerous state and federal statutes' among other of their complaints against me are more than enough for them to get rid of me. I can take the hint, I can see the writing on the wall."

"Aren't you a tenured professor, they can't just fire you, can they?"

"They can do whatever they want, even if I have tenure. It doesn't matter to them. They can 'renegotiate' my contract into oblivion, if they wanted too and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. They can give me a broom closet under the back stairwell to work out of, if they wanted to."

"Maybe we can talk to someone, pull a few strings, make some demands of our own." Jake said, looking at Neytiri, then Jerry.

"No, brother, it's water under the bridge. I broke so many damn laws, those who want to get back at me can do it this way. All I ever wanted to do was teach, and they can take that away from me, just like that." he said, snapping his fingers. "It's my life, and they can kick me to the curb and I can't stop them, the bastards." he said, almost crying.

Neytiri put her hand on his shoulder. She looked at Jake and he at Jerry as Jerry's expression turned very bleak. He looked up at them.

"I hate to ask you this, brother, but can I come out to Pandora, and stay with you and Neytiri, with the clan, I mean? It doesn't look like I have much of a life here anymore. I won't ever get another job teaching, ever again, even if there are a lot of people who are glad for what I did, I'll always have to look over my shoulder, wondering if there is someone out there who wants to kill me for what I did to stop the RDA."

Jake looked at Neytiri again. She knelt down next to Jerry's bed.

"Jerry, my brother. We want you to come back with us, back to Pandora." She said, taking his hand. Jake put his hand over hers.

She continued. "We want you to carry one where Grace left off. We want you to start up her school again, to teach the clan's children, our children, because our worlds will be together now. We want you to teach the children about the humans, their world, their language, everything. You can still be a karyu, it's just that you'll be doing on Pandora, for me, Jake, and all the Na'vi."

Jerry looked at her for a long moment. "Sounds like a plan. I'll do it on one condition."

"What would that be, brother." Jake said, smiling.

"That my sister-in-law the Tsahik of our clan will also teach the children, along with me, and perhaps Max and Norm too, if they want to help." he said, looking at Neytiri.

"I will gladly do so, brother." she said, tears in her eyes, "you have much to teach us, and I want to learn from you too. It is appropriate that the Tsahik of the clan helps in the education of the next generation of Na'vi, after all, so yes, I accept your condition."

"You'll have to build a new school, and it will probably have to be a much larger school, if you, me, Max, and Norm are teaching there and we're teaching more than just the Omaticaya's children. For that matter, we might be able to have the humans build other schools with other clans, since there will be humans coming to learn from and teach the Na'vi."

"Yes. That will be a good idea, Jerry." Neytiri smiled.

"A whole bunch of schools for the Na'vi. I like that idea." Jake said. "And we'll build the first one right near our new home, just for you and Neytiri and Max and Norm and whoever else. And we'll build a house for you, Jerry. I don't imagine you'll want to live up in Hometree itself."

"No, I'm not much on the climbing thing, with this bum leg, and this new knee I have." he said, smiling again. "But if I have a little house near Hometree, then that means I can watch your kids grow up and live vicariously the experience of parenthood through you, bro."

"'Live vicariously the experience of parenthood' my ass." Jake grumbled at him. "Dude, if I am gonna be changing diapers and cleaning up after my kids then so are you. I want them to grow up knowing their uncle, you know."

Neytiri smiled at both of them.

"Ain't that nice and sweet." Jerry's doctor said, joining the conversation. "Jerry gets a family, at long last." he said, smiling. "I know the president imposed a moratorium on the teleportation machine, but I'll explain to her why you need to use it again, as soon as you're up and about and out of this bed, which should be in about a week or so. You're making excellent progress, Jerry."

Neytiri smiled at him. "Thank you, Toktor Hansen. I want my brother to come home with us."

"And he will, and he can everything he needs to help us with our energy situation from Pandora as much as he can do here anyway, so it doesn't matter. He can use the facilities at Hell's Gate for that, if he needs to."

"That is true." Neytiri said, getting up.

"And, if your brother-in-law is going with you, I'll have to work out something with Max to ensure that his health is looked after. You'll probably have to take him to Hell's Gate once or twice a month or so, to make sure he's doing fine, and once a year, you'll have to bring him back here, so I can check up on his heart, make sure it's doing fine, give him any upgrades, that sort of thing."

"And we will determine all that in time, Toktor. I am glad you're thinking ahead."

"Just trying to stay ahead of the game." he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make my rounds." He nodded to Neytiri. "We'll talk about all of this later, before you leave."

He left the room.

The three of them held the moment, savoring the feeling of family.

"You know," Jerry said. "I did read everything the president sent me. She was right. They had an operation in the works to take down the RDA." His expression turned wistful for a moment. "Maybe I did jump the gun on this."

"Don't go there, brother." Jake said. You did what you had to do in order to save us. You can't play 'what might have been' or else you'll go crazy. We can't afford you going down that road."

"No, but it's like this. The RDA was apparently way in over their heads. They were overleveraged big time with the Pandora operation, way, way overleveraged and their house of cards was one missed shipment of Unobtainium from crashing down around them. They were like the old Soviet Union before it fell by the wayside. Like all empires, they had reached their zenith and were on their way down. They just didn't realize it, and I should have realized that, I would have realized that if I'd simply opened my mind to other avenues of information instead of being so goddamn paranoid. They were a paper tiger, Jake, and maybe I should have listened, I should have talked to President Abernathy before I went off on this. I could have saved everyone a whole lot of grief if we'd pooled our resources."

"But you didn't, and that is what counts." Jake said, looking at him. "And think about it like this, brother. If there are people here who hate your guts for what you did, imagine how the RDA Olo'eyktan must feel right now. His whole operation, blown wide open, most of the human race hates his guts, he'll never have an easy night of rest ever again, for as long as he lives. He'll have to spend the rest of his miserable life in hiding, always looking over his shoulder, wondering if someone will finally get to him. Serves him right."

"You know, I never told you which world I was going to save, remember?" Jerry said, smiling.

"That's true." Jake said. "You were trying to save this one, and in saving Pandora, you ended up saving this one too."

"That I did." Jerry said. "That I did."

"And you have secured a future, for all of us, human and Na'vi alike." Neytiri said, looking into her brother's eyes. "For that, we thank you, I thank you, and I think even the President thanks you, Jerry. In fact, I think her heart is on our side, not that of the humans."

"Maybe so," her brother mused for a moment, "you two seem to be getting along fine now, you're on a first-name basis after only the first day of negotiations. That's pretty good, to go from 'Mrs. Sully' to 'call me Neytiri, if you want' and that bodes well for all of us."

"I rather like the American leader. She is a strong-willed woman. She will see to it that this treaty between our worlds is observed, for it it is what will truly secure our future." She looked at her husband, then at Jerry, "And we have you to thank for that."

The Tsahik of the Omaticaya, her husband, and their brother held hands for a long moment.

Their future awaited them, a future Jerry Handelman had helped ensure would be there, for them, if they wanted it, which they most certainly did.