Terra Nova: Reformed (2/?)
Characters: Josh Shannon, Maddy Shannon, Zoe Shannon, Elisabeth Shannon + Mentions Kara
Word Count: 1'351
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None.
Summary: A termination order was sent to Hope Plaza 3 months after the 6th Pilgrimage. All are presumed dead. Until a communication between Lt. Washington and Dr. Wallace is intercepted, and a Dr. Shannon is mentioned as a necessity to proceed in making something to save a significant someone's life. I've rewritten Terra Nova based on an article on how the show 'could' have been better.
Maddy presses her rebreather closer over her mouth and adjusts her hood against the cold wind. She's only a few blocks away from home but the smog's already gone from a murky orange to poisonous green grey. The hologram ads jumping out at her make awkward shadows on the wet concrete, her footsteps are the only thing she hears besides the hum of the city as she enters the underground parking lot. She hasn't taken the elevator since she'd been hospitalized, it's a shred of extra exercise and she figures she doesn't need to take a box up to the one she already lives in. The door hisses open and she gets in quickly. Josh is sitting at the tiny kitchen table with his hands in his hair.
"What's wrong?" Maddy asks, pulling off her rebreather, her hood falls back to reveal her head of long dark hair. She tosses her rebreather and jacket into her cubby and toes off her shoes.
"Mom's invitation yesterday." Josh nods over to the small living section to where their mother and little sister are sitting.
"What was it about, mom?" Maddy says sitting across from Josh. Elisabeth sighs.
"The holos with the trees on 'em." Zoe pipes up, Elisabeth smiles, Maddy frowns.
"The Terra Nova Project?" Maddy asks dubiously. "The seventh pilgrimage was cancelled three year years ago." Elisabeth nods.
"I've-or rather we, have been invited to join in on a salvage team into Terra Nova." Elisabeth says slowly, interrupting her daughter before she can say anything. "My name was brought up in an intercepted communication between the Lieutenant-"
"Lieutenant Washington, you treated her!" Maddy jumps in. Josh rolls his eyes.
"You're like a puppy lighting up for its favourite ball." He says, disbelievingly. Maddy makes a face at him.
"As I was saying; my name was brought up in the communication and I'm needed to create a vaccine of some sort." She looks a bit guilty when she pauses.
"But the portal only goes one way!" Maddy presses, looking to Josh who looks simply sullen.
"I've been made well aware of that. I was also assured that there is someone there who can make it go both ways, if we can recover them." Elisabeth persists. Maddy looks at her mother as if she's lost her mind.
"And you're willing to risk that, with us?" Maddy motions at Zoe who is sitting quietly next to Elisabeth.
"Yes! I am Madison. You've done the research; you know this, the air quality!" Elisabeth exclaims. Maddy's face falls, she covers her face with her hands.
"The air quality." She says, voice muffled. Of course. She looks back up at her mother.
"I didn't realize, I'm s-"
"It's alright Maddy," Elisabeth interrupts, "there are a lot of risks, but the team we're going through with is highly skilled." Maddy nods.
"How long?" She asks, glancing at Josh again and taking his expression as a bad sign.
"Two weeks." Elisabeth says. Maddy nods. "You'll be able to study. There's an EYE computer in the colony that you can get your work from." Elisabeth adds, Maddy brightens considerably.
"Mom, I can't leave!" Josh bursts out, bringing his hands down on the table. Elisabeth levels him with a pointed expression.
"Josh, we don't have much of a choice." She says.
"But what about Kara!" He insists, and Maddy's face falls again. Kara. She's been a good friend to Maddy for as long as she and Josh have been together. Elisabeth looks like she's about to retort but stops herself before she speaks.
"I'm going to be contacted at the end of the week regarding some of the conditions. I can see if Kara can come through as well. She's been wonderful in her astronomy classes and might be of use." A smalls smile quirks on Josh's lips.
"What about Daddy?" Zoe asks, looking up at Elisabeth. Both Josh and Maddy's jaws drop; they'd forgotten that.
"That was one of the conditions, Daddy is coming with us." She smiles, none of the kids notice how it doesn't reach her eyes.
"He's being released!" Maddy jumps out of her chair in her excitement. Josh grins.
"So we get to see Daddy?" Zoe asks, her face lighting up. Elisabeth nods and Zoe hugs her.
r-e-f-o-r-m-e-d
The office room is stuffy from lack of a better central filtration system. Maddy has her own portable filter pressed against her face. While Josh has Zoe on his lap and it helping her connect the dots on a paper. Elisabeth has been in an even more stuffy office for over an hour now going over the final agreements for the excursion. Maddy pillows her head on her arm and leans down, her eyes closing and opening slowly.
"Late night, Mads?" Josh asks, and she opens her eyes. Lifting the filter off her face she replies, "I was up reading about the Terra Nova project." She replaces the mask.
"Haven't you been doing that all week?" He asks, steadying Zoe's hand as she guides the stylus to the next dot.
"The first two nights were digitalized copies of wilderness survival books-do you know that people were reluctant to digitalize those?-anyway, the third and fourth were about dinosaurs, and the last three have been on the Terra Nova project; new, publications, any public records I could find." She waves her hand dismissively.
"How many books?" He asks, with a chuckle in his voice.
"Twelve." She says. At that the door to the office room opens and Elisabeth walks in with seven other people; three women, four men.
"We wanted to introduce ourselves before going through the portal next week." One of the women speaks up. Elisabeth crosses over to Maddy and sits next to her.
"I'm Clara Benton, I'm your eyes; a sharpshooter." She nods at each of the Shannon kids. She points to three of the men, "Dan Partridge, Eric Matthers, Jake Uriol, they're going to be the muscle on the ground." They all nod their greetings. A dark skinned woman steps forward.
"Lee Samson, survival, I've got tours in Somalia and Alaska." She says, Maddy looks impressed. The last man speaks up.
"Henry Claymore, explosives." He smiles at each of the Shannon's. Finally the last woman steps forward.
"Renee Holland, terrain; snow, jungle, desert; you name it." She nods.
"The seven of us are going to go through first to set up a perimeter and base camp. We'll radio Hope Plaza once we're finished and your party will come through. Any questions?" Benton looks from face to face.
"Will there be dinosaurs?" Zoe asks, face lighting up. Uriol grins at her question.
"That'd be a yes, little lady. You ever read about the long necked ones?" He asks and Zoe nods.
"I've read about the Tie-ran-asor-us Rexes too." She says.
"We might not see those, but we might see Carnotaurus'. That's almost the same." He says and Zoe nods.
"Aright, that s'all I wanted to know." She says with a smile and leans back into Josh.
"Dr. Shannon has been given all the information necessary for packing and preparation, there is a secure facility with top class filtration where you can do any of the mentioned training in the files provided. They aren't necessary." Clara turns on her heels with a final nod and the other soldiers follow her out. Elisabeth takes three little chains out of her pocket and tosses one to each of her kids. Josh's has two chips inside protective cases on his chain. He puts Zoe's around her neck.
"The files are on the chips, put them on your Plex and read them when we get home." She says, putting a hand on Maddy's back. She looks to Josh who's been silent since she came back in.
"Josh," she says, he looks up at her, "call Kara." He bows his head in relief, and he hugs Zoe around the middle. Zoe tries to wiggle around in Josh's lap.
"Kara's comin' too?" She asks, smiling, Kara used to help her with homework sometimes. Josh nods.
"Yeah, Zo', Kara's coming too."