TheBipBoop2003
patreon
68. Technology, bad or good?
🕑 Added 2023-08-04 16:38:01 +0000 UTCLooking for a brief second to Miles in Mary's arm Liam shifted from his crouching position to a standing one making go by a few heads above the two women.
"I must bid you goodbye.", he said, not bothering or needing to explain anything further. He needed to deliver the boy and that's what he did and so his task was done he walked out of the glasshouse leaving the two women behind.
"Huh… Mary, are you alright?", Bibi the first to snap back to reality, asked her friend whose body was trembling slightly and her hands focused on tapping gently the boy's body as if to look for any potential injuries.
"Yes… It's just… He scares me to death. He ripped people with those hands, he is a monster Bibi. I know I repeat myself, I know how you feel about him, hot or not he is still one. He doesn't even see us as equal, the Na'vi have more in common with us than us with him. We are dumb animals to him.", Mary said in one breath and her heart started to calm down.
Bibi mentally rolled her eyes at the drama of Mary, she understood how it was possible to fear him, she wasn't different the first few months but after years people like her friend should not be as skittish when Liam is in the same room. They should feel the opposite in her opinion.
And the man they were speaking about was already on his way to the exit of the Avatar Compound. Liam had heard it all and he was used to it, at first this kind of thing annoyed him but now he didn't even remotely care. Being offended is a choice.
He had thicker skin than that, he wasn't going to be offended by Mary's petty words not that they were void of any truth and this was inevitable, humans were never happy, always ready to find something to complain about or create imaginary problems to then complain about.
As long as it didn't go to a certain point he wouldn't do anything, though if it was in his face or if it was rather extreme then things would be set straight. If it was a remark from someone he was close to then it would stick but otherwise, he cared little.
In the end, the ones acting this way were a minority who didn't speak of him with vitriol in such a way aside from others they knew wouldn't berate or slap them. They were cowardly and their only strength was creating a group of like-minded people which was useless here.
It wasn't a democracy or any kind of such, it was a meritocracy dictatorial, rioting wasn't going to bring positive results if it was for such reasons. He was kind but his kindness wasn't unlimited or for everyone.
Right at this instant he could kill everyone wearing exopacks as he already recycled every old one to basic materials, he can make the devices hold onto the skull so that the wearer wouldn't be able to take it off unless skins, hairs, and jaws were ready to be ripped off or broken, and create a vacuum, or switch the air to the regular one of Pandora.
And everyone knew he had, or was quite literally the kill switch. He wasn't happy with this situation and would prefer to not have to need such things but what he wanted… That reality and stupid people didn't care and a wordless threat to your very existence got the message across better than any words.
The most dangerous aspect about him wasn't his superhuman strength, speed, or even his inventory but his knowledge and control over technology.
Because if he didn't have such a thing he would just be a brick. One that certainly punched hard and ran faster than nearly all land animals but that would be about it.
Any strategies with some thoughts put behind them and done by mildly competent and dedicated individuals would end up with him in a highly secured cell in some laboratory or dead.
He wasn't different from regular humans here, his greatest strength lay in technology. Though without it he wasn't completely defenseless either.
Mentally commanding the reinforced gate in front of him to open he walked past the electrified metal fences and was out of the Compound.
The jungle began but a few dozen meters but it was far from being in the true wilderness aside from the odd viperwolves and small group of stingbats nothing truly dangerous roamed this territory.
Making sure the Avatar girl on his shoulder was safe he progressed into the jungle following a very precise path, various buzzing, chirps, yawls, and clicks were heard from both fauna and flora alike creating a chaotic melody of which the loudest partaking in it were a group of monkey-like creatures with two arms slipping into four forearms ending in two fingered hands was following them with but curiosity.
Those were a pack of prolemuris or syaksyuk in Na'vi, a curious and non-aggressive species related to the latter in a way similar to humans and chimpanzees even if for the Na'vi they would be closer to a species of chimps. And it was a pack known and followed by the xenozoologist.
They were just as much interested in him as in the small Avatar of which for some reason Liam and Eywa only knew but one four-eyed glare from Orien scared them off. If the tetrapteron wasn't on his shoulder and with a task it would have trapped one of the small blue monkeys and eaten it still alive.
And in an order of fifteen minutes he walked two kilometers and half to arrive at a bizarrely shaped clearing with a lake in its middle, the change almost as drastic as between the Avatar Compound and the jungle.
It was the first mine that caused conflict right after the departure of the RDA and it had been repurposed when all important minerals had been excavated out.
Destruction as it may be wasn't the end, the local flora took a heavy toll and the fauna was forced out but no toxic substances were used and the soil was still fertile and safe to live on, it wasn't as grave as some would make it sound.
The mining expedition wasn't done recklessly without care for anything but short-term benefit, which Liam made sure of. It was unlike the others of the RDA which had become almost a wasteland where the biodiversity was extremely limited to a few specialized organisms that would in due time make them habitable for others. Life always finds a way, even more, so when she has a consciousness.
And this mine in particular is still in use but for wildly different reasons. A house that looked like a mix of modern but with woods and plants growing everywhere that developed into an ordered botanical garden.
The building was situated on the edge of a cliff with multiple ropes and ladders leading to the crystal clear water of the lake full of giant lily pads below, various fish could be seen swimming with a large cephalopod-like animal in between a nautilus and a cuttlefish, a sagittaria or skuka in Na'vi and its timid nature let it to disappear in the depth of the lake.
Liam took in the pleasant and peaceful sight before being reminded of why he was here by a soft yawn from the Na'vi-human hybrid sleeping on his shoulder free of charge.
"A bed right and food too… And a new pair of diapers as well but those are problems for your father.", he chuckled to himself as a very recognizable scent entered his inhumanly sensitive nose.
Hasting his pace he moved along the coast up to the cottage, walking past a direhorse drinking the nectar of a tube-shaped flower with its long tongue he arrived at his destination.
His silver eyes met the yellow cat-like ones of an adult male Na'vi wearing a pair of bloodied cargo pants, a dirty brown shirt, and a black metallic suit over the right side of his body, from right shoulder to tip of the right-hand fingers, it covered his right leg to the food.
<Liam!>, the Na'vi exclaimed with a bright smile as he stopped shining the already bled-out carcass of an hexapede and stood up to his almost three-meter height.
<Tsu'tey.>, Liam said back but in a lower voice as both men exchanged a firm forearm handshake, the blood left behind on his left forearm warping away in his inventory and a handkerchief materialized above his implant which he gave to the Na'vi.
<Thanks. I hope Kiri didn't cause any trouble.>, Tsu'tey said with a hint of worry as cleaned his hand, the drying blood vanishing into the tissue before he picked up his daughter from Liam's shoulder all under the scrutinizing gaze of the green tetrapteron.
'Calm down girl don't go rip one of his eyes out.', Liam sent to his tame through the mental link while at the same time, he answered and mirth filled him at the sudden reaction from Tsu'tey about Kiri's surprise gift, <She didn't, she played with Gladius and Miles before falling asleep.>
<On another note it seems the suit works as intended in action if you managed to hunt such a game in such a short time.>, Liam said as his eyes narrowed slightly and his implant glowed ever so brighter as he looked over the data from the suit microcomputers.
<Yes… It's impossible to describe. It's like I never was injured, I can use my full dexterity, sense of touch, and nearly all strength. It's… Only Eywa knows how grateful I am for this piece of machinery. Heh, how things have changed.>, Tsu'tey snorted amusedly at the end.
This suit has the purpose of substituting the epidermis for protection and the permanently damaged nerves due to the third to second-degree burn the Na'vi received during the battle against the RDA.
The suit detected the electromagnetic signal of the healthy nerves and translated it into usable data for its paper-thin microprocessor all the while sending its own magnetic signal to the nerve back mimicking almost too perfectly what is supposed to be still functional such as the nerve on the skin to give back a sense of touch with thousands of cell-sized sensors.
It didn't grant him extra strength from anywhere as he misinterpreted, it let him have access to the one he lost but not all as some muscles simply couldn't heal back to their full capacity or were still in need of being strengthened after an extended period of inactivity, the time passed to keep them from atrophying and few months of testing not enough to keep everything in perfect shape.
The snort amused Liam, wearing such a piece of technology with clothes from the Sky People was something the Na'vi would have preferred suicide over barely three years ago and it wasn't an exaggeration of both his knowledge and understanding.
Grace changed him and Liam found it quite ironic it was almost the exact opposite of Jake or Tsyeyk as his name in Na'vi was with his mate Neytiri. But all Na'vi and their view on technology has changed and is bound to continue on this route.
It's just that Tsu'tey has become one of the most open-minded about this. He realized it was the user the problem and not the technology by itself, a gun by itself isn't dangerous, the one handling it is and the RDA was the handler until recently.
It didn't mean he liked many of its facets such as vehicles but he saw the utility in having them and who would say no to running water that magically changes temperature, a box that cleans and dries clothes, or a cube filled with cold air that kept food for far longer than it should.
It wasn't black and white.
This was one of the reasons why Tsu'tey didn't live in the encampment of the Omatiakaya barely three kilometers North of here; these machines wouldn't be accepted. The other was Grace, she might have become an Avatar but she very much remained human in both heart and mind.
And she wasn't part of the Omaticaya, being part of the People and that of a clan are two distinctly different things. She refused to be part of the clan, judging it wasn't for her as she knew she could never integrate.
She still held very good relations with its members but she wasn't one of them as such the couple with their daughter didn't live with the clan preferring to live in between the two worlds.
There were some more minutes of small talk between the two before Liam bid his goodbye and sprinted off back to Hell's Gate.
Not needing to be careful about a sleeping baby on his shoulder he enjoyed the full extent brought by his transhuman physiques and with Orien holding on for dear life as he arrived back at the Avatar compound in barely three minutes.
Then he tracked right where he was keeping the kids, the Lesser Replicator, Grace used the chance he was here to use the machine to ask him to watch over Kiri while she was working in her lab and Tsu'tey hunting.
Gladius was sleeping in a ball with Daisy fiddling confusedly with a regular Rubik's cube in its first pair of legs, both now fully grown up. The slinger wouldn't differ much from its wild counterpart aside from a bulkier body and that it was smarter while for Gladius…
The great austrapede was almost two times the size of its wild counterpart much of it by sheer muscular mass, making it stand at nearly nine meters (~29ft) if the head is counted, the mental part not needing to be mentioned such the difference was huge.
And that wasn't all Liam had recently started training Gladius to use the suicidal attack the species is known for, sounds were extremely powerful and dangerous weapons if used correctly.
"Wake up, lazy bird.", he said both physically and psionically to his clawed monster of a tame who in an almost comical way straightened up at the call.
A few mental commands later Liam verified if the harness over the giant bird was good before jumping down and checking for one last time over the large trolley that was supporting the weight of a large blocky metal structure.
Attaching a similar if smaller harness to his body Liam cracked his neck and the two breathed in deeply before they began dragging the trolley and what was on it out of the Lesser Fabricator toward Valkyrie 17 a few hundred meters away.
Could a vehicle or other methods have done the job? Yes, but the two of them do so as well, and remarkably so adding that Liam found using his strength liberating even more so when it was a real effort like now.
Every day, hour, minute, and second he was forced to control his strength and restrain himself for the others and the world around him. It wasn't a complaint, it was a natural consequence of being gifted with such strength but by all means, letting loose from time to time was beyond relieving.
The structure being dragged was the last piece of a puzzle he had been working on since he decided to build a facility upon the surface of Naratskxepay, the icy moon.
It was a time-consuming and resource-consuming project. Designing and finding the perfect place to build the Element Nexus as he called it was the easiest part.
Pandora wasn't the moon used for most of the minerals for the facility creation, what was unique about this moon was pandorium and this metal wasn't needed in the ten thousand tons here.
Metals weren't all that were needed either and those prime materials such as silica could be found elsewhere such as on Naranìnän and Naratxep the two other closest moons to Pandora.
Though this wasn't what led to the beginning of an extra lunar mining expedition, it was something already planned by him and Katherine. It was a necessity aside from the obvious point of being the best choice for everyone
And the moon exploited was Naranìnän the smallest of the two, there wasn't everything but there was what was needed.
The other moon currently was simply out of their league, too dangerous with an average temperature enough for lead to melt, extreme or basic rain to earthquake, and almost daily volcanic eruption. It was a mini Venus.
To put it mildly, the miners weren't trained to go to such dangerous areas or even equipped for it, the Moon, Mars, and asteroids were quite comparable to that literal hellscape. Automatons would not fare much better either.
It was but the start, after all, he had only two Valkyrie shuttles at his disposition, and aside from him only two other pilots, which was the number necessary to pilot one, were under him. Doing more such mining asteroids was not quite right doable for now.
Comments
THE SAVAGE KITTY
Signiture look of alpha survivor Superiority
TITOO
Yes there will and yes he has every engrams and a bit more.
Laplase
Will there be more of Ark coming to the story in the future? Also, I forgot to ask but does he have All the Engrams in his head?
