Disclaimer: I don't own and I am borrowing for my story: Terra Nova characters, one Jurassic Park: The Lost World character (Roland), Nanosaur the Mac Game, some of the nanosaurian language is derived from words heard on the game Spore in the Tribal, Civilization and Space stages.
Mira's Secret
The sixers returned to camp. Carter went and sat down heavily on the edge of his bed.
"I took a shot at Taylor, almost got him, if it wasn't for that fresh," Carter said to Mira when she walked in to check his wound.
"You what," Mira said, looking at him horrified.
"I thought you'd be happy about that," Carter said.
Mira looked around the tree fort. Her face was grim with both worry and anger.
"What's gotten into you?" Carter asked.
Mira finished up with Carter and then went to her own place in the camp.
Mira walked up to a small cage that held a Tuatara lizard in it. She sat down at the desk and began to write a message in a secret code. She was the only one in the entire camp that knew how to translate the message.
Glacha, voda keet na futter na eh, fia corsa. Mira… (Captain, I need to speak to you, in person)
She rolled the piece of paper up into a tight scroll and placed it in a water proof container on the lizard's leg. She carried the lizard to the ground.
"Go my scaly friend," Mira said and put the lizard down. It scurried away quickly, disappearing into the thick undergrowth.
Three days later the lizard scurried into an abandoned compound. A large Deinonychus reached down and picked the lizard up.
"What have you got for me my scaly friend?" the Deinonychus asked as he popped open the canister on its leg and removed the scroll.
He read the message and walked into another room where several small pterosaurs sat looking at him on perches. He placed the scroll into a canister on the leg of their fastest Compysogopteryx and took the pterosaur to the window and set it free.
"Take that to Captain Taylor as fast as the winds can carry you," the Deinonychus said.
A week later…
Mira walked up to Carter.
"I have somewhere I need to go, and I need you to go with me," Mira said.
Carter got to his feet and gathered his weapons, a knife, a crossbow and pistol.
After nearly an hour's drive they stopped and got out of the rover.
"Follow close by," Mira said. They hiked for another hour. By the time they got to the spot, night had fallen.
Mira stood looking around.
"Well, you going to tell me what this is about?" Carter asked.
"You and I are meeting someone here," Mira said.
Carter and Mira looked around.
"You sure this is the spot?" Carter asked.
Mira didn't speak but looked to her right expectantly. Carter looked in the same direction and a large Utahraptor appeared.
"He took a shot at Taylor, he needs to know before he does something he regrets," Mira said to the raptor. Carter looked at Mira, wondering if she had lost her mind, but then before his eyes the raptor shrank down, the snout melted back into a human face, the tail dissolved and in just two seconds the raptor dissipated into a human figure he knew and loved.
"Nethania," Carter gasped.
"I helped her fake her death so that she could come and live her in secret. I work for her," Mira said.
Carter approached Nethania cautiously, fearing that she was just an illusion. He reached his hand out to Nethania cautiously, settling it on her cheek. Nethania placed her hand on it.
"I'm really Carter," Nethania said softly.
She had met Carter when she was on deployment to Italy. She had liberated him and his family from a village that was being occupied by insurgent forces. They fell madly in love, or rather he did and she played impossible to get, but it seemed that after he stood up to her father, she began to warm up to him.
They embraced tightly.
"I'm sorry for my deception, Bucky, but it was necessary I assure you," Nethania said.
"Bucky," Mira said with a snicker.
"He behaved like a big buck around my dad when my dad was trying to keep him away from me," Nethania said.
"So she started calling me Buck Carter," Carter said, holding her close to him.
"She could kill you with her bare hands, why did Taylor need to protect her from you," Mira said.
"Because he's my father and didn't like seeing Carter chasing me when I was interested in him," Nethania said with a cheeky smile.
"Who else knows you're alive?" Carter asked Nethania.
"Just you and Mira…Tom Boylan…and Cassie Durwin," Nethania said looking away from him. Carter didn't like the grimness of her expression when she said that.
"Your father doesn't know," Carter said.
"He's at the top of the list of those who are not to know until the uttermost end of need," Nethania said walking away from him.
"Does Lucas know?" Carter asked.
"I pray he doesn't," Nethania said her voice was heavy and rough.
After a moment of silence, Mira spoke up.
"Our question now is; Carter, do you wish to join the Saber Pack. We are a group of humans who are capable of nano-morphing into Saber-Tooth Cats," Mira asked.
"Saber-Tooth Cats, they are of this time period," Carter said looking from Mira to Nethania.
"Exactly," Nethania said turning around and looking at him with a smile.
"You see Carter, if Lucas succeeds and the portal we use is reversed. If our employers' army takes Terra Nova and Taylor is captured or killed, then we will appear in our Saber-Tooth Cat forms as a symbol of hope to the Colonists that a much stronger force already inhabits the land; that Captain Taylor still lives. Only Nethania could have created and given us this ability in such perfect quality," Mira said.
"Who all is part of the Saber Pack?" Carter asked.
"Mira, Ayani, Richard and of course myself," Nethania said.
"Ayani, as in Taylor's wife and Richard as in Richard Philbrick," Carter asked.
"Yes and yes. I used a serum I created that can revive a person if they are but a few hours from death," Nethania said.
Carter thought for a moment on Nethania's proposition then nodded to her. Nethania drew from her pack her patented injection gun and pressed the nozzle to his arm.
"Mira, I trust that you will train him in nano-morphing and fighting in my absence," Nethania said.
"Of course," Mira said with a slight nod.
Nethania pulled the trigger and instantly Carter's arm swelled from the serum.
"The swelling should be gone by morning. Don't do anything to reduce it before it's time," Nethania instructed.
Carter nodded and gently rubbed his arm. Mira smiled and thought of something witty to say.
"Carter, I told you not to touch that plant," Mira said sarcastically.
"No need for sarcasm Mira," Nethania said looking at Mira.
Nethania walked with them a short way back to the rover.
"Be careful, both of you," Nethania said.
"Lucas is almost done with his calculations Nethania," Mira said.
Nethania looked at her.
"I am torn between wills," Nethania said.
"What do you mean?" Carter asked her.
"The sooner Lucas finishes his calculations, the sooner I may be reunited with my father. But the sooner he finishes, the sooner my home will become threatened and all that I hold dear," Nethania said.
"Why not stop him now, just come out in the open, show him that his mother is alive," Carter said.
"If I screw this up, I could waste all my work for nothing. Years ago, before my father came here; my mission was to build a genetically enhanced dinosaur army to protect mankind from mankind's follies. That soon grew to protect this world from mankind's follies. If word got back to the future, to Lucas' employers that I am alive, they could change their tactics and I could be thrown off guard. My plan is to let Lucas go through with his plan and then catch them off guard. I cannot engage him before I am ready. Plus, for the first time ever, I have opted to follow my CO's orders," Nethania said.
"Admiral Roland," Carter said.
Nethania nodded.
"Before we part ways, do you have any orders for us?" Mira asked.
"Stay the course. Maintain your cover for now," Nethania said.
Mira nodded and she and Carter continued down the path to the rover.
"I bid you good luck," Nethania said as she turned around and headed back home.