Back to Basics
Disclaimer: This is written for fun not profit, all characters belong to respective creators and producers.
Chapter One
The sun beat down on her back, sparse scraggly trees offered no shelter from it. Alicia had spent everyday of the last four months under it and her skin was baked into leather, tanned or red from sunburn where her skin wasn't protected and heat rash in the spots her clothes covered. It made her hate the body armour, as did every other soldier with her; something the scientists didn't understand. The thick protective material was brutal in the heat.
The next scientist to request one more week was going to be injured; badly. Her mind was made up, on Friday they returned to the colony; ready or not. The requests for a return trip could and would be filed within hours of their return to the colony; and likely with Malcolm Wallace's full support. But she would see that the Commander made them jump through every hoop imaginable and process what they had before another mission would be approved. And as he was also suffering through this trip her husband had promised another ranked officer could head the mission and it would have a hard time limit.
Alicia wanted little more than to be back in the colony with her husband. The months spent doing day operations on the Sixer border felt like years ago, but at least she had been home every night. Been able to sleep at night, curled against Nathaniel and unconcerned with whether the nightmares would haunt her because he knew and he understood. Sharing a tent with a young recruit she could never really sleep soundly, afraid she would wake the girl if her mind chose to play with her.
More than that she missed waking up with him, laying together to talk, relax or laugh. The mornings when he woke before her, and they started their day in the best way possible. He checked her armour before she left and would strip it off her again at night, hands lingering on the sore spots she never told him about. The man could drive her crazy without meaning to, he was used to giving orders, and fiercely protective as though there were moments he forgot she had served for more than fifteen years.
Four months they had been off colony on operation in the badlands, which was almost half as long as she had been married to him. Nathaniel was as frustrated as she was, when her birthday had passed she wasn't sure who had been more irritated about it. Chatting each time she checked in was a tease that only made her miss him more. For four months he had made sure he was available for each of her check ins, something she knew he had to coordinate carefully no matter what he said.
But given the proximity of the Phoenix camp, one of them had to be out here; and she couldn't claim innocence in the protective of spouse game either. She felt safer having Nathaniel in the colony. So in the badlands Alicia rotated a team of six soldiers through guarding the science team, once it became obvious that there were no remains to be found in the site she developed a theory of her own and left the scientists in capable hands; and saved herself more than one head ache.
No remains in the wreck proved what they had suspected since their discovery six months before, some had survived being thrust into another world. Dragging her recruit with her, Alicia worked methodically away from the site. Pleased that Skye kept pace and kept her mouth shut. What they were doing may have seemed pointless over the last few weeks but it would pay off; she had tracked long enough to know patience was key.
They were more than three clicks from the site, where the badlands gave way into jungle. Human instinct would dictate any survivors headed for cover, out of the burning sun in search of food, water and shelter. They would have headed this way, where trees could be seen from a distance, any other direction would have taken them deeper into the badlands and the unrelenting desert would have wasted no time doing away with them.
Even if years had passed she was betting signs had been left behind, people had a way of doing that; especially people in a panic. The jungle would have grown up, any trail would have been gone days after they moved on but if they had settled for any length of time something would remain. She doubted if they would have tried to hide their presences, likely assuming the same as those of Terra Nova had; that they were alone.
Within an hour they were bushwhacking, the jungle kept the sun off their backs. Alicia scanned the ground, the twisted roots and up the soaring trees. Scientists had their eyes on the historic event, Alicia was more interested in hat had happened after. In where those people had gone.
She literally tripped over her first clue. Her world pitched and she jerked, trying to free her foot from a vine. The overgrown vine remained wrapped around her ankle and pulled free of the weathered wood it had been tangled around as Alicia landed on her front. The wood was a roughly hewn cross, old and weathered.
"Ma'am?" Skye looked between her and the marker she had uncovered.
"I'm fine, found what we were looking for." By being a clumsy idiot, shaking her head Alicia slid the combat knife from the sheath at her side and began to cut the vine away.
Skye took only a moment before helping her clear the area. There were years' worth of growth in the clearing but slowly they uncovered a row of eight crosses. Now they knew why no bodies had been found, comrades had carried their dead away and laid them to rest in dignity. And only eight meant most had survived for a time, long enough to get here and create this memorial.
Survived long enough to bury their dead, to do it right. She would see that no one disturbed it. No science was that important and while she knew some would argue the final decision would be made by a man who had buried to many people he cared for. One who knew what she did, knew what it was to do everything in her power to bring her comrade home, even when he was beyond help; it was a right all humans should have. The scientist who pushed would see what war did to a person, and the proof that it was veterans that founded Terra Nova. Veterans who had buried many.
Alicia had dug graves, hastily in battle fields to see that scavengers or enemies did not harm the bodies of fallen soldiers when retreat was not possible. The wave of sickness she felt in putting a human in the ground and marking the coordinates on a map so someday they could be brought home. She wondered what these people had felt when they laboured to give their dead a resting place. With little hope of ever taking them home, or ever seeing their own home again.
Being thrust from a tossing ocean on a ship under attack into a desert, and a world entirely new. Confusion she thought and fear would probably have been the forefront of many minds. She had felt both those emotions, knowing and making the choice to step through the portal into this world. But there had also been excitement and awe as she took in the new world around her eight years ago; somehow she didn't think the first emotion would have been shared with the people who had been here.
Yet quickly this world had become home, it was likely the same for them. Learning to survive in this world and come to love it; to thrive in it. Had they? Had they carved out a home in some corner of this world and learned to survive? Somewhere far from the colony, or in the last eight years they would not have lived believing that the military team had been first. Many questions raced through her mind and Alicia knew it would take every skill they had to find the answers. But should they?
Her thoughts went no further as the ground began to shake. A deafening rumble began, growing louder every second. She wasted no time grabbing Skye by the scruff and tossing her against the base of a huge tree; using her own body to shelter the girl. The ground beneath them trembled violently and the rumble became a roar she recognized moments before the sonic wave raced over her back and winds whip in funnels hurling debris around. She stayed still a good thirty seconds after every thing passed.
"It would be too much to hope that landed in the middle of the Phoenix camp." She muttered as she climbed to her feet.
"Did it cause an earthquake?" Skye's voice shook slightly, the girl was a little more cautious getting up.
"No, just a meteor; impact shook things up. The earth's growing pains are a couple million years out. We will both be long gone, but we will see our share of meteors; and apparently EMPs." She sighed, fiddling with her com; the thing was dead.
"How far could it have traveled?" Skye was starting to sound nervous. Alicia slid the old glock from her ankle holster and tucked it into her waist band.
"Far enough, we need to move." Alicia knew the girl was hoping it hadn't reached the colony, but the last had, and it had hit them hard. It was time to get themselves home; one way or another.