The Badlands

"Hey, Hooper."

The dark-haired soldier looked up at the sound of his name. One of his men was watching him from across the campfire. "What?" Hooper grunted, pulling the toothpick from his mouth.

"Do you think that message was real? Do you think Lucas was telling the truth?"

Hooper snorted and spread his hands. "Why would he lie?"

The man shrugged. "Dunno. Me and Quincy here were just wondering if that Terra Solar team is still out there."

"Solace," Hooper corrected. "Terra Solace."

"Yeah that. Lucas said those people were headed toward to these Badlands to set up a colony of their own. Do you think we'll find them? And how did he know anyway?" The man frowned. "I mean, we have to take his word for it. He claims he and his Sixer friends destroyed the message so his father wouldn't find it, but how do we know that's what happened?"

"I don't know, Pittman," Hooper replied, shaking his head to accentuate each word. "But what's better? Waiting around for some dino to eat us for dinner or trying to find someone who can help us? Terra Nova sure isn't going to take us in; these Terra Solace people are our only chance."

Now the other man, Quincy, joined in. "Come on, Pittman, everything else he said lines up. The calculations were there on the rocks; he showed us those. What was it he said? They were the perfect springboard for his own work that ended up getting us here?"

"And we see how that worked out," Pittman snorted. "Look where that got us."

"Hey," Quincy put a hand on his friend's arm. "Come on. Do you think Weaver would have given the government that information about the eventual Terra Solace team so it could be shut it down in a few years if he didn't believe Lucas? Do you think we would've found that figurehead out in the middle of that old dried up lake if it had all been a lie?"

Pittman tilted his head as he considered that. "Yeah, I guess you got a point there."

"Fine, I'm glad it's settled," Hooper said sarcastically. He tossed his toothpick into the fire. "Let's just hope we find something usable out there, even if no one from Terra Solace is still around."

Terra Nova

Elisabeth sighed and put a hand to her temple to massage away the headache she could feel coming on. There was so much work to be done and not enough time in the day to do it. She regarded the workstation in front of her with a grimace; it felt like she'd been working on this project for hours, and although she didn't necessarily doubt the research that indicated medicinal properties in this plant, she was starting to doubt her ability to extract it.

A voice broke into her thoughts just then. "Hand me that scope there, would you?" Malcolm gestured past Elisabeth.

"Yeah, sure." She turned to grab the indicated instrument, but then the room suddenly tilted in front of her. She gasped and put out a hand to brace herself against the table. After a few deep breaths, things seemed to be back to normal, but she glanced back up to see Malcolm watching her intently.

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked, worry coloring his tone.

"Yeah," she replied, nodding. "I think I'm just tired is all."

But Malcolm didn't look convinced. "We're all tired," he told her. "I've seen you tired before, even to the point of exhaustion, and you never look this pale." As he spoke, he strode over to put a hand on her arm. "Sit," he ordered gently, guiding her to the stool just to her right.

She did as he instructed, less out of an inclination to follow orders and more because her knees felt incredibly weak and there was no way she was fainting in front of her colleagues. Plus, Jim had enough on his plate right now; the last thing he needed was to be called away from important security matters because his wife hadn't gotten enough sleep. "I'm sure I just need a decent nap, and I'll be back to normal." She glanced over to see Skye watching worriedly from where the girl had been organizing test tubes in one of the storage cabinets. Skye looked like she was about to say something, but then Malcolm crossed his arms and pulled her attention back his way.

"Nuh-uh. Nothing doing, Elisabeth." Elisabeth had known the man for years, and he'd never been one to be easily dissuaded from anything. "I'm running some tests to make sure you're good. You've been exposed to all sorts of things here, and exhaustion does lower your immune system. I just want to make sure you aren't in any danger." Then he leaned in and lowered his voice conspiratorially, "Jim would kill me if I let anything happen to you."

Elisabeth chuckled. "I suppose you're right."

"Of course I'm right." Malcolm pointed a finger at her. "Stay there; I'll be right back."

As he turned away, Skye came over with a glass of water in her hand. She offered it to Elisabeth, along with a handful of small, brown crackers. "Here, Mrs. Shannon, you should probably eat something," she advised with a worried smile.

"Thank you, Skye," Elisabeth accepted the items, then felt a small flutter as her stomach growled in agreement. She grinned. "I guess I was hungrier than I thought."

Skye cocked her head in curiosity. "When was the last time you ate?"

"I had breakfast this morning," Elisabeth replied. "You don't have to be that worried about me."

Whatever Skye was about to say next was interrupted by Malcolm's return. He had several instruments in his hands, and he leveled a stern look at Elisabeth as he deposited the objects on the table. "Let's make sure you're as fine as you say you are, shall we?"

Terra Solace

Henry stared out at the waterfall, glaring if willing a portal to open up would make one do just that. It had been nearly a month since his team had escaped from the warehouse through the portal. He sighed in frustration, then winced as his right side reminded him he still had a way to go before he was fully back to normal.

His team was trying to be patient, trying to tell themselves that it would only be a little longer and then Taylor would arrive, and they could fulfill their mission. But as the weeks dragged on, it was getting harder and harder to keep up morale. They'd already been attacked by dinosaurs since they'd arrived… large, ugly creatures with rows of sharp teeth and a tail that had rent flesh in one quick and deadly motion. There had been three of them, all setting upon the team at once, and if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of the security team, Henry was sure they would have lost more of their number. As it was, the animals had killed one of the science team, Scourby, and had injured two others before they'd been driven off. Another time, a single, large dinosaur had charged them, but the armed security team had managed to shoot its underbelly in just the right spot to bring it down before any of the team was lost to it. Henry supposed they were fortunate they'd only been set upon those few times by prehistoric monsters for as long as they'd been camped out in the jungle, although the constant howls and shrieks from the dense jungle had the entire team continually on edge.

They had managed to bring along one of their detection devices that would indicate when and where the portal opened when Taylor came through, but the infernal thing hadn't sounded once since they'd arrived. Henry was having his doubts as to if it still worked. However, deep in his gut, he knew. They'd done their research and were camped as near to where the original probe had come through as they could pinpoint. Or at least, they were fairly certain they had. Nothing was sure anymore, and they were all starting to doubt… well, everything besides their mission's purpose. That still remained. They had to find a way to help Taylor avoid the pitfalls that would come his way, even if it would be hard work convincing him that his son was in cahoots with an enemy intent on stripping this prehistoric paradise for all it was worth.

Henry sighed as deeply as he dared, then turned and slowly made his way back to the camp. The rest of his team was there, one poking at a campfire, another walking back with a handful of dry wood. The others were scattered between the handful of tents that had been set up and the surrounding underbrush, but when they heard Henry's footsteps crunching on the gravel, they all gathered in to meet him.

"Let's regroup, shall we?" Henry asked, clapping his hands together. He looked over at the team's lead physicist, a middle-aged man with a weathered tan and a short-yet-assertive stature. "Dorchester, how's your team faring?"

"Well, we've been trying to work out how to get a portal reopened to the future," Dorchester told him. The man sighed and ran a hand through his graying, shoulder-length hair. "It's easier said than done though. I mean, we've made some progress, but nothing near what we need to achieve our goal."

That wasn't what Henry had wanted to hear. "Do you think you'll figure it out anytime soon?"

Dorchester paused momentarily, regarding Henry with squinted gaze. "Do you want the truth?"

"That would be preferable."

"Okay then." Dorchester sighed. "We probably won't figure this out for years. Most of our equipment got left behind, so all we've got is the rudimentary basics. And I mean rudimentary. We're scratching this stuff out on the rock face, for crying out loud! My team's brilliant, but not that brilliant. And half of them got left behind in 2161. You're lucky we've gotten this far with what we have."

Rubbing a hand over his face, Henry closed his eyes for a moment. He wanted to sink into the ground and be done with this whole affair, but that wasn't an option. So instead, he looked back up at the men and women gathered in front of him. "All right. All right," he repeated, mulling over his thoughts. "We'll just have to deal with what we've got. It's not the best scenario by any means, but we can't change that." He squared his shoulders. "So correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as we can tell, we're not sure where we've landed in relation to Taylor. Our calculations are off in one of two ways: either we're in the right place but not time, or we're in the right time but not place. If we were in the right place but not time, it's possible Taylor won't show up for years."

Several of the faces in front of him fell at that statement, and several of the group started whispering at that.

"Does that mean we're doomed?" someone asked.

Henry regarded the man who had spoken. It was Danielson, one of the team members who had assisted with recruiting others to the Terra Solace program. The man had no formal training in any scientific field, and Henry was fairly certain the man had only wanted to travel to the past for the fresh lease on life it would afford him. "Well, you could say that, I suppose, but that's not going to help you any." He shrugged. "Anyway, our other possibility is that we landed in the right time but not place, meaning Taylor could already have established the colony in another place nearby."

"So what?" one of the medical team asked. "Do we go wandering off in search of them?"

"I say we do that," called another member of the team. "Beats sitting on our butts doing nothing."

Looking around the group, Henry could see multiple heads nodding in agreement. "Okay then, let's vote. All who are for heading off in search of Terra Nova, say 'aye.'"

A chorus of "aye"s sounded in the small clearing, with only a few remaining silent.

"But how do we know that's the best option?" one of the men who hadn't agreed said as soon as the others had quieted. "I mean, we could be guaranteeing our deaths by dinosaur or starvation if we start wandering around looking for a colony that may or may not exist." He crossed his arms. "There are who knows how many dangers just waiting for us! I say we stay here."

"Williams," Dorchester spoke up again, "I see where you're coming from, man, but there's no guarantee we won't suffer any of those same fates if we stay here! Our supplies aren't unlimited; sooner or later, we're going to run out. If we find Terra Nova, so much the better. If not, we're not worse off than if we'd stayed here."

"And what if we got the location right and Taylor shows up here after we leave?" a woman's voice spoke up. She crossed her arms. "It's foolishness to split up with as few of us as there are, and what if - if we had just waited another day or two - we'd finally be rewarded with seeing Taylor come through the portal?"

"What if, what if, what if!" one of the soldiers exclaimed, standing to his feet from the boulder where he'd been sitting and listening up until this point. "One more day, two more days. We've been here for a month already, Williams! You can always keep going like that until you starve to death! Either we do something, or we sit here and rot!"

There was a rumble of agreement through the rest of the group, and Williams' shoulders slumped slightly. Her expression still stayed defiant, but she looked a little less sure than she had moments before as she looked around at the others.

Henry nodded firmly. "Okay, then it's settled. At first light, we pack up and head out. We'll head for that big lake to the east. Maybe we'll get lucky and stumble onto Terra Nova, maybe our portal detector will pick up Taylor coming through. Either way, we take our chances out there."

"What if Taylor does come through after we leave?" Williams persisted. "What if by the time we make it back, he's gone off into the jungle, and we miss him? What then?"

A man in the back raised a hand. "Well, we've been scratching equations into rocks, haven't we? Won't he know something's up when he finds them?"

"Perfect!" Henry snapped his fingers. "Somebody start working on a message to Taylor. Let's let him know what's going on, just in case he shows up here after we leave. Williams, why don't you do it? Let him know we came through and why… oh," he interrupted himself, "and add in a warning to watch out for Lucas's double cross with future investors and the Phoenix Group. Let him know we'll come looking for him and that we have supplies that can help him. Got it?" When Williams nodded eagerly, Henry smiled in satisfaction. "All right then. The rest of you, get to work on the camp. Let's go!"

Terra Nova

Elisabeth pushed inside the house and closed the door behind her. The worst of the storm had now passed, but the wind was still blowing fiercely, and the rain was still coming down, although not as severely as it had earlier that afternoon. She shrugged off her jacket, hanging it on a hook by the door, then reached up to smooth her mussed hair from where the hood of the jacket had been covering it. "Jim?" she called, trying to hide the smile on her face. "I have some news."

"He's not here, Mom." Maddy stuck her head out of the girls' bedroom. "He hasn't been back since this morning… Is everything okay?"

"Oh, of course," Elisabeth replied. She smiled at her daughter. "I'm sure he and Commander Taylor just have their hands full with everything going on around here lately."

Maddy shrugged. "Okay. Hey, what's for dinner?"

"Um, you find something, okay?" Elisabeth was already reaching for her jacket again. "I'm going to run over to Taylor's office to see if your dad will be home for dinner. You kids eat, though; just save us enough," she added with a wink.

"Gotcha," Maddy replied with a nod.

Zipping up her jacket, Elisabeth threw a wave over her shoulder and then stepped out into the storm again. She was using dinner as an excuse, and she was sure Maddy was smart enough to know it, but Elisabeth needed to see Jim. Not only did she feel like she would burst if she didn't tell him the news, but she was starting to worry. She knew there was a lot going on in the colony lately, but she hadn't seen him since the night before, and she just needed to make sure he was doing okay.

After unsuccessfully checking several places along the way to Taylor's office, Elisabeth reached the raised building where the commander kept his headquarters. She blinked the rain from her eyes as she put a hand on the railing and started up to Taylor's office. This was the only other place she could think of where he would be if he weren't out inspecting one outpost or another. She hoped he and Taylor were just hunched over a map or screen of some sort, making plans and discussing strategies. It hadn't been an easy time for anyone in Terra Nova lately, but especially not for the men whose job it was to ensure the survival of everyone else. It was getting late, though, and dusk was falling fast. Even though she knew Jim made many trips outside of the gates after dark and had always come back, there was still a part of her that worried every time he went. And especially now.

Taylor opened the door to her knock, his eyes softening when he saw who it was. "Good evening, Elisabeth," he greeted her politely. "Come in; get out of this weather." He stepped aside and swung the door open wider.

She returned his smile but shook her head. "I'm good; thank you. Just looking for Jim. Do you know where he is?"

"He's probably on his way back," Taylor told her with a casual shrug. "This storm was a doozy, and he rode it out at one of the outposts. Now that the rain is slacking off a bit, he'll be able to drive home safely." He reached out and put a reassuring hand on her arm. "I'll send him to you as soon as I see him, okay?"

"Okay." Elisabeth nodded her thanks. "I appreciate it, Commander."

"Anytime." His eyes crinkled with warmth. "Now you'd better get yourself home before you catch cold. Those jackets only do so much," he added with a wink.

She tugged the hood back over her hair and smirked. "You're right about that. Thank you again," she told him, before turning and heading back down the staircase.

Taylor watched her go, the smile on his face slowly turning to a frown of concern as she headed down the path toward the Shannon residence. He had thought Jim would have made it home already; plenty enough time had passed since the younger man had radioed in that he was leaving the outpost for him to have gotten back to Terra Nova. Taylor hoped it was nothing serious, but Jim was always attentive to keep Taylor apprised of any delays in missions; Jim knew how dangerous the jungle was and the importance of sending back updates. Hopefully it was something simple, but Taylor's mind immediately jumped to all of the more severe outcomes that could potentially have befallen Jim.

And then, as if all of his fears had suddenly come to life, there was a crackle on the radio as a woman's voice came through. She didn't even have to introduce herself; Taylor recognized her voice immediately.

"Taylor, are you there?"

Taylor snatched up the device and clenched it in his hand as he pressed the button to speak. "Mira, if you have done anything to harm Shannon I will -"

"Yeah, yeah. You'll hunt me down and kill me. Blah, blah, blah. I haven't hurt him. Much," she added, almost as an afterthought. "But I'm prepared to, so listen up."

Taylor growled and then pushed the button again. "What do you want, Mira?" Even as he spoke, he strode to the window and gestured at one of the soldiers standing guard on the ground outside. The man nodded and hurried up the stairs to join his commander.

"Simple. I want contact with 2149 again."

The soldier had just walked inside of the office, and his eyes widened in surprise at the conversation taking place. Taylor shot him a look. "I want a location on Shannon's radio right now."

"Yes, sir!" Immediately, the soldier rushed to the table in the center of Taylor's office and started typing away at the screen display set into it.

As he did, the radio crackled again. "Taylor, did you hear me?"

"I heard you." He was making no effort to hide the complete anger and frustration in his tone. "You do know we have no way to contact 2149 any longer?"

There was a pause, then, "I don't think that's true. I want my daughter back, Taylor. Either you get me there or bring her here; I don't really care which way the portal goes at this point."

"Mira, the portal was destroyed." Taylor leaned over to study the map that was now displaying a circular indicator where Jim's radio was positioned. The signal seemed to be in the jungle midway between two of the outposts on the far perimeter of where they had ventured into the wilderness. He snapped his fingers and pointed to the door. "I want a team ready in ten minutes," Taylor told the soldier who had stepped back from the screen to allow the commander access to the screen. "Have them geared up with ammunition and the rovers running."

"I'll give you until dawn tomorrow. And then Shannon pays for every hour you're late." With that, the crackle of static from the other side of the radio communication went silent.

"Mira. Mira!" Taylor tried, but there was no response. He grunted then slammed a hand on the table in frustration. There was nothing they could do now but hope they got to Jim in time. With any luck, Mira would have made a mistake covering her tracks, and they'd catch up to her. Taylor just hoped she'd stay true to her word and wait until the next day before harming her hostage. She was shrewd enough to know that angering Taylor wouldn't help her cause any. At least, that's what he was counting on.

Hopefully he wasn't giving her too much credit.

"Walk, Shannon," Mira ordered, giving him a push from behind.

Jim glowered but didn't argue. He'd already tried that, as his bloody nose and gash on his temple could attest. And besides, with the gun Mira had pointed at his back at all times, he didn't have much room to argue with her. "I'm going, I'm going," he muttered. "What's the rush anyway? You pulled the batteries out of my radio; it's not like Taylor is going to track us to… where are we going again?"

"Just walk."

Raising his hands, Jim nodded. "Okay, okay. I'm walking."

Mira just snorted and pushed him again. A few moments later, the jungle opened up to a large clearing. A tall cliff stretched up on the far side, in the side of which the opening to a cave of some sort was visible. Movement from a clump of bushes startled Jim, but the tension in his shoulders relaxed when he realized that the presence was human and not reptilian. But his relief was short-lived when he saw who it was.

"Glad you could finally make it," Lucas sneered. "Stopped for coffee along the way?"

"Oh, shut up," Mira snapped back. "He'd have bested you in two seconds, and you know it."

Lucas frowned but didn't respond. He just turned and stomped toward the cave. "Well come on then. Before we all get old."

"Uh, excuse me," Jim cut in, raising a hand and then waving it at Mira as she stepped closer to him. "Oh, cut it out with the pushing, okay? I'm not going anywhere. What exactly are we doing here?"

Turning back to face Jim, Lucas smirked. "She didn't tell you?" he asked, looking over Jim's shoulder to Mira. "Of course she didn't," he snorted. "Mira's always been more of a fan of acting than talking."

"Shut it, Lucas."

He made a face and rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, Shannon, as you can see, I am nowhere near capable of clearing this cave here, and Mira won't put herself in such a vulnerable position as to do the clearing - although she wants to reap the rewards of it, of course," he quirked an eyebrow at that. "So that's where you come in, Jim Shannon."

"And what do you get out of it? You two finally settling down in domestic bliss?" Jim cracked. Then he was thrown to his knees as light exploded in his vision and the jungle around him went fuzzy for a brief moment. When he regained his senses, he was on his hands and knees in the dirt. A pair of dirty boots was in front of his face, and Jim followed them upward to Lucas Taylor's crossed arms and smirking face.

"I would love to let Mira smack you around all day," the younger man told him. "But there's this little matter of a cave that needs clearing, and you sort of have to be in one piece to do manual labor." He nudged Jim's arm with his boot. "Come on now, Shannon. Up and at 'em."

Glaring at Lucas, Jim shifted his hands and then pushed up against the ground. When he had gotten to his feet, he raised an eyebrow at Lucas. "What's with this cave anyway?"

"I ask the questions around here. You just get to work," Lucas ordered.

Mira shoved Jim from behind. "We don't have all day, Shannon," she barked.

Reluctantly, Jim made his way over to the rock-laden entrance to the cave. He stood back and surveyed it for a moment, then sighed and squared his shoulders. Until he saw a chance to get the upper hand, he didn't have much of a choice. It wasn't as if he could take out two armed assailants and escape into the jungle in a puff of smoke. Clearing the cave - or at least starting to until an opportunity presented itself - was his only real option at the moment. He had just reached down to grasp one of the smaller boulders when Mira spoke from behind him.

"So how long after we get into the cave until you get the portal reopened?" Mira asked.

That caught his attention, but Jim carefully focused his gaze on the rocks in front of him, even as he continued listening to what the duo in the clearing was saying.

"Well," Lucas responded slowly, "first I have to double-check the amount of minerals in the walls. If the deposit is as large as I think it is, all it'll take is a few bits and pieces that I can cobble together from what the Phoenix Group left behind and some other materials from the jungle, and hopefully we can reconnect with the future."

"Huh," Mira grunted. "Fine then. I'm going find dinner. You good to watch him?"

Jim paused as the sound of a sonic pistol powering up met his ears.

"Yeah," Lucas replied.

"Good. See you later then."

Listening to the sound of Mira's footsteps had retreated into the jungle, Jim lifted another rock and tossed it to the side. "There is no mineral deposit in this cave, is there?" Jim asked aloud even as he picked up another large rock. He risked a glance away from the pile of debris to observe Lucas.

There was a flicker as the other man's eyes widened ever so slightly, but then he glared at Jim. "Shut up and keep working."

"You know what I think?" Jim continued. "I think you're trying to save your own skin by telling Mira you can get her back to 2149."

"Shut up."

"Come on; you're smarter than this. I mean, you were there. You know exactly what that explosion meant. There is no way back to the future. Oh!" Jim snapped his fingers. "Did she threaten you?" He studied Lucas's face as he spoke, noting the younger man's expression as Lucas's jaw clenched in anger. "She did, didn't she?"

"I said shut up!" Lucas hissed. His face was starting to grow red as he stared Jim down.

"And I mean, it makes sense then why you had to grab me. You're in no shape to evade her right now, so you can't dare let Mira down. What'd she do, threaten to string you up for the dinos if you didn't help her? I bet she did, and so you had to figure out a way to stall until you're strong enough to get away successfully," Jim added with a shrug.

"Stop talking!" Lucas raised his pistol in Jim's direction. "Clearing this cave is going to be a lot harder if you only have the use of one arm."

"Funny. I was going to say the same thing to you," Jim commented, turning and hurling a rock at Lucas in one quick motion.

The other man ducked out of the way, cursing as the movement aggravated whatever injuries Lucas was nursing. It wasn't the incapacitating blow for which Jim had hoped, but it would have to do. He ducked around the corner of the cave into the jungle, hearing the whine of Lucas's sonic pistol seconds before the tree next to his head splintered with the shock of the blast.

Lucas's primal scream echoed through the jungle, and then the pistol whined again. This time, there was no splintering of a tree. Instead, Jim suddenly found himself flying forward. The pain of the blast didn't have time to register before he was hurled headlong into a thicket right off of the path.

His landing carved a swathe through the underbrush before Jim came to a sudden halt as he slammed into the sturdy trunk of a small tree. His forearms absorbed most of the impact, and he lay still for a moment, breathing slowly and taking inventory of his extremities. Everything seemed to be in working order, but Jim didn't take the time to check past being able to wiggle all of his toes and fingers before he painfully scrambled to his feet. There was crashing in the underbrush nearby, and whether it was human or dinosaur, he knew he had to get moving. He'd worry about any further damage from the pistol and his dive through the bushes later.

"Shannon!"

His feet pounded the packed dirt, and he didn't dare look behind him. If he didn't concentrate on where he stepped, he knew he'd end up tripping over a root or a fallen branch and go sprawling. Jim wasn't sure he could get back up if he fell again, so he focused very hard on where he was going and tried to tune out everything else. He could only hope that he didn't run headlong into any hungry Carnotaurs. He took a turn around a particularly thick grove of trees and then pulled up, his arms pinwheeling as he halted his forward momentum.

"Shannon!" Taylor exclaimed, leaping forward to put an arm around the younger man. "Good heavens, man, are you okay? You look like a pack of hungry Nykos decided to snack on you for lunch."

"Kinda feels that way too," Jim cracked. He stumbled slightly and put out a hand to steady himself as the shock and pain began to catch up with him. Blinking several times in quick succession, he tried to focus on the group of soldiers looking his way expectantly, but he was having no success. He felt his knees buckling underneath him, vaguely heard the shouts of "Jim!" and "Mr. Shannon!" from somewhere nearby, but then he was lying on his back and staring up at the treetops. There was something he needed to tell Taylor, he just knew it, but what was it…? His mouth moved, but nothing came out, so he licked his lips and tried again. "Lucas," he managed to croak out.

"What?" he could hear Taylor exclaiming. A hand was on his chest. "Shannon, what did you say?"

"Lucas…" he panted. "Mira… cave…" He had so much more to say, but then someone prodded his side, and the pain exploded up into his head. And with it came the darkness.