Chapter 44

A Wall of Deceptive Calm

"No. No, this is too far."

"This is the only way. You back out now and you're condemning everyone." Kensinge folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Everything that happens after this is on your head. Every life lost from here on out will be on your conscience."

Harlon slammed his palm into a nearby tree, looking slightly nauseas.

"No. I can't do it." He glared into the woman's eyes. "I won't."

"Then you'll make things unpleasant for yourself." Kensinge's face took on a stony expression and she nodded towards the edge of the clearing where a few of her men stood waiting. Big men. Holding a large box. "That crate there is just big enough to fit you. Not comfortably, but it'll do. Take a good look, and make your decision carefully, or you'll be on very familiar terms with it by the time we're done here."

Harlon shook his head and took a step back, bumping into Esteban's chest.

"You're insane."

Kensinge paused to flick a beetle off the sleeve of her white shirt.

"No. I can see both sides of the equation. Trust me, there's more at stake here than your simple-minded way of thinking can understand. There's a reason you're a hired gun. You're good at doing what you're told and taking orders. I'm just asking you to do the job you've been trained for."

Harlon pointed a finger at her, stepping forward to look her in the eye. He felt the man behind him step closer as well.

"I understand what's at stake just fine. I've lied, stolen, spied, and silenced objections for you. I wouldn't have done that if I didn't believe in what you were doing. But you're crossing the line this time." He took a deep breath, standing up straighter. "And I won't have any part of it."

Kensinge glanced down at her front calmly, dusting off her green vest as though the dirt from his finger had somehow leaped to her clothes across the divide.

"You'll do it." She looked back up at him confidently. "Or you'll spend the rest of your life wishing you did. Trust me."

Harlon was sent away then, with a final warning to make his decision quickly. When he had well and truly gone, Esteban came to stand beside his superior, arms folded.

"Think he'll go through with it?"

"Maybe." She replied noncommittally. "It'd certainly make things easier."

"Hm."

Kensinge turned to look up at him, before casting a last glance into the dark shadows of the surrounding forest.

"But just in case .. prepare the men."

In the series of weeks following the wedding, life carried on more or less as normal. After a week's holiday, both Maddy and Mark resumed their respective jobs. Both were a little air-headed at first, but seemed to settle down somewhat as the month drew on. With the days growing cooler, Lucas and Deborah had fallen into the routine of taking morning walks around the colony together, a habit that both enjoyed equally. Deborah was technically in "remission", whatever that meant in her particular case. She didn't seem to be getting any worse, but not even Elisabeth was quite sure why the illness seemed to have backed off or if it would return, though secretly she feared it was less a question of if than when. In the meantime, Deborah shouldered whatever pain she might have felt in silence and could often be seen wandering the colony cheerfully, one hand on her cane and the other looped through Lucas' arm.

Taylor, true to his word, had dragged himself begrudgingly off to see the colony counsellor a couple of times. Monica had taken the surprise with good grace, and Taylor found that she was much easier to talk to than he had initially suspected. The sessions still, somewhat inevitably, had their moments of tension, but overall, he came to rather enjoy them. In his spare time - which he found he had quite a lot of nowadays - he concentrated on building up his pens, spending particular time and effort planning a special one some distance from the others - a corral he eventually intended to use for training Nykoraptors, though he kept this little detail to himself.

A few weeks into his work, one of the security team bikes went missing from the autobay. They never found it - in all honesty, they didn't try very hard. Everyone was so busy with their own work that no one could be bothered worrying about the odd motorbike, but it was heard in the woods every now and then afterwards, and the native creatures were often treated to the sight of an older man flying through the trees on two wheels, a blur of Kaprosuchus by his side.

The colonists watched his progress with great interest and often made special trips out to visit the series of pens. The Parasaur enclosure in particular appeared to be a favourite, and several folks had been known to applaud the quality of his handiwork.

"It's a good fence." One such visitor had commented. "Nice and sturdy."

"Taylor-made." Someone else had muttered in reply. The topic of the conversation had looked around suspiciously for the culprit, but at the time, no one appeared to be listening .. a fact which, in and of itself, was perhaps even more suspicious.

Lucas and his father had clashed several more times, but most of the confrontations consisted of small digs and spats and nothing further. The one exception to this occurred at the end of a long day of strategic planning, and so perhaps we ought not to judge them too harshly. Nevertheless, this is how it went down ..

Jim stood up and stretched his back. Sitting for hours in the hard cane chairs could truly be counted as an basic form of torture.

"Alright." He covered up a yawn with the back of his hand as the rest of his small company stood. "Sorry. I'll see you all tomorrow morning for another progress check. If anyone wants to fake their deaths in the meantime, I'll understand."

There were a few chuckles around the room as Jim glanced at Taylor.

"Except for you. You've used up your quota already."

Taylor grunted in response as he stretched his neck from side to side.

"Where's the fun in that? You have to get better chairs, Shannon. These ar-" His words were cut off as a rattling metal snake collided abruptly with his chest. He just managed to catch the object, glaring over at the offending party that had flung it.

"I think those belong to you."

Lucas was in the process of pulling his bag off the back of the chair and throwing it over his shoulder. He glanced up to meet his father's look of annoyance before turning on his heel and leaving the room.

Taylor glared after him and looked down into his hand, frowning when he recognised his rust-embellished tags.

"Son, wait."

Jim exchanged a look with Mira as the he left the room. As it turned out, Lucas hadn't gone far. Taylor caught up with him at the bottom of the steps.

"You kept them with you all this time?"

"Yep." Lucas muttered carelessly, shifting the position of the bag strap on his shoulder. "Don't let it go to your head. I figured I might be able to sell them, I just .. never got around to it."

"Ah. Well, I guess we'd better make this a fair trade then." Lucas watched out of the corner of his eye as his father reached into a shirt pocket. When he removed his hand, his fist opened to reveal a small piece of rock. It was dark grey and rather unimpressive, but as he held it out, several metallic veins caught the light and reflected it brightly. Lucas blinked in surprise as he recognised the patterns on it.

"It's .."

"A piece of the rock wall up near Snakehead." Taylor finished for him, dropping the rock into his son's open hand. "Those are your carvings - well, a small section of them anyway. You recognise them?"

Lucas nodded mutely, rocking the stone in his hand so it twinkled in the sunlight. Taylor smiled a little.

"I noticed, you know. You didn't think I even cared enough to come look for you, but I spent hours out there. Eventually, I had to come to the conclusion that you didn't want to be found. I had a colony to look after."

"A task you accomplished so well." Lucas muttered, his eyes flicking back up to Taylor's face. The older man folded his arms, shoving his old tags back into his shirt pocket.

"I kept this colony afloat for years."

"Before you lost your grip on reality, you mean." Lucas threw the dig out so matter-of-factly that his father almost forgot to be angry at the insult. "Before you went insane."

"It's a work in progress, yeah." Taylor responded, sounding a little defensive, although he seemed far less bothered by the fact than Lucas had expected. "But I'm saner than I was. I may not be completely back to my old self yet, but I'm getting there."

"Well, you certainly do a good job of convincing people, I'll give you that." Lucas fell silent for a moment, running his thumb over the glittering gold etchings on the stone. "There's something I've been wondering."

"What's that, son?"

Lucas looked up, resisting the instant urge to correct him.

"That night on the way to the coast, with the Therizinosaurs. Was it you?"

Taylor took a deep breath and responded, a little more gruffly than he would've liked. Lucas didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, it was me. What of it?"

Lucas shrugged.

"No reason. Remind me to tell Harlon I was right."

"Harlon." Taylor snorted. "Now you listen to me, you be careful with that one, son. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Kid's madder'n a box of fleas."

"You're one to talk."

"Well, so are you if we're gettin' petty." Taylor laughed at the look on his son's face before falling to study him thoughtfully. "Your mother would be proud of you, you know, how far you've come."

Lucas stiffened and kicked at a rock.

"I seem to recall you saying the opposite not too long ago."

His father shrugged.

"Well, not too long ago, you were a different person. You've changed. I can see that. I'm sure, wherever she is now, your mother can too. Look, son, listen to me." Taylor stopped and faced Lucas, giving him little choice but to do the same. "I will say this as many times as I have to to get it through your stubborn head. I do not blame you for your mother's death."

Lucas stared into his eyes expressionlessly.

"Why would you? It wasn't my fault."

"Lucas .."

"Daaad."

The familiar response brought a hint of a smile to his father's face. Lucas saw it and dropped his gaze, mentally rebuking himself.

"Look, I don't care what you think of me. I don't care what the rest of the colony believes." He looked back up darkly, sounding as though he was being partially strangled. "I don't even care if you live or die, so please .. do us both a favour - mind your own business .. and leave me alone."

With that, Lucas had stalked off, his father watching him go with a shake of his head.

Overall, though, things were progressing more or less smoothly. There had been no sign whatsoever of enemy activity, Jim had received no further threats. In fact, to all intents and purposes, they no longer even seemed to be in danger, so much so that several groups of colonists had begun to complain about the earlier build-up, claiming that the warnings had been nothing more than useless scare tactics. The core of the colony leadership, however, continued to prepare tirelessly, though it appeared to the outsiders as though they were building an Ark for a flood that would never actually eventuate. Away from the critical eye of the general public, the war councils continued to be held on a regular basis, the different sections of preparation joining together seamlessly like the cogs of a well-oiled machine .. well, almost.

"Mira, how are the weapons coming?"

"The people are learning quickly. The old folks have become the backbone of our army." Mira's mouth twitched a little. It was as close as she ever came to an outright laugh. "They're out there in the market from sunup to sundown, but they're picking up the craft quickly and teaching it to others. We're gathering up a decent stockpile, and we'll keep building on it."

Jim smiled as his mental burden lightened a little.

"Good work, all of you."

"I've also thought of something else .." She hesitated, as every eye in the room swung back to her. "The plans are already done up, we'd just need your go-ahead to start. There's a clearing opposite the pens that we could use as a workstation. If we can get it up and running properly, our long-range attacks would just about triple in power. We could build it-"

"Build what?" Malcolm interrupted impatiently. "What are you blabbering on about?"

"A trebuchet." She threw a cold glare in the researcher's direction. "We wanted to build one before, but we couldn't get together the resources."

Malcolm exploded.

"I'm jolly glad you couldn't!"

Jim thought for a moment and then nodded decisively.

"Consider the idea approved. Get started on that as soon as you can." As Mira nodded in response, he turned to the next team leader. "Taylor? Your project?"

"Well, Commander .." The old man still seemed to get an odd sense of novelty from using the title to address another person. Novelty and .. something else. "Pens are going up a treat. We've already had a few natives volunteering to inspect the traps. Curran and I are working on a funnelling system. It's gonna be quite the operation when it's done."

Jim smiled wryly.

"I'm sure it will. Elisabeth?"

His wife stepped forward.

"We've had less patients than usual, so we've been checking our equipment and taking stock of our supplies. I've had groups of staff go out with security and collect more plants to prepare and store out the back."

Guzman nodded.

"My team have been helping them in between training exercises."

"Good work, both of you. Malcolm?"

Malcolm cast a glance at Lucas, as the latter's eyes began to shine excitedly.

"Actually, I have something to show you." He pulled a small round device out of his shoulder bag and placed it on the desk. "We've been working on a way to implement these for a little while and we think we've finally come up with a functional design."

Jim eyed the device warily. Was it about to blow up in his face? It certainly looked like a mine. He took a step back.

"What is it?"

"This .." Malcolm announced with a flourish of his hand. ".. is a solar-powered electromagnetic energy disabler."

He stared at Jim politely as the current commander remained silent.

"Take out your pistol."

Jim raised an eyebrow, but did as he was told.

"Charge it up." Malcolm tapped a pattern into the top of the disc, which hummed a few times before falling silent. A few dots of blue light chased each other around the rim of the device before they too disappeared. It sat on the desk, looking about as lively as an unusually symmetrical river rock. Jim glanced at it skeptically.

"How do you know it's still working?"

"You don't." Malcolm commented, holding his arms out to the sides and stepping into the centre of the room. "The less obvious they are, the easier they are to hide. Now shoot me."

Jim blinked at him for a moment, then shrugged.

"Whatever you say."

He levelled his pistol on his head researcher as the rest of the group watched, intrigued. Jim pulled the trigger calmly, fighting to maintain a professional demeanour. The pistol went off with a whoosh, sending a wave of pressure pulsing through the room.

Malcolm clutched his side and gasped for air as Elisabeth darted over to him.

"Malcolm! Are you alright?!"

"Just fine." The researcher grimaced, shooing her away from himself and turning back to Jim. The Commander tried not to smile as his lead scientist straightened with a small groan. "Do it again."

"Malcolm .."

"Again!" Malcolm demanded, holding his arms out once more. Jim sighed and raised his pistol, pulling the trigger amidst his wife's protests.

No response.

He frowned at his gun and tried again. Nothing happened. Malcolm let out a sigh of relief under his breath and stepped forward, still holding his ribs.

"It drained it of energy." He explained, sounding rather less enthusiastic about the whole idea than he had minutes ago. "If we sprinkle enough of them around, they can take down electronic devices as large as the battery in a cargo truck. Of course, it means we're fighting without electronics as well, but thanks to Mira's stash of weapons, it'll do more harm to them than us."

He massaged his side as he straightened slowly.

"Obviously, we're still working out a few kinks, but I'm confident our devices will be ready when they're needed."

Jim slapped him on the back, causing a sharp gasp to escape from Malcolm.

"Good job. You can be proud of what you've managed already. And the sooner they're completed, the better."

Malcolm's brows lowered in annoyance.

"I know that, Jim."

"I'm just reminding you, Malcolm."

"But why can't we just go and throw them around the enemy base now? They won't know what hit 'em. We can stop them in their tracks!"

Taylor's suggestion was addressed to Malcolm, but with a glance at his ailing superior, Lucas took up the answer.

"Their accelerator is their main power source, and it's protected by a Faraday cage. We can't harm it from the outside. If we do it now, we only irritate them a little, and we lose the element of surprise. Better to wait until they're about to come at us. Then we even the playing field."

Taylor stared at Lucas for a moment and then laughed approvingly.

"Haha, that's my boy."

Lucas glowered at him.

"You do remember you tried to kill me, right?"

Taylor shrugged.

"It was my job, as both your father and as the commander of the colony. Besides, you tried to kill me first .. several times. I'd say this makes us even."

Lucas scoffed, but his expression seemed to soften a touch. Jim smiled a little and rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he turned to the silent party in the corner of the room.

"Carter, any updates from our enemy camp?"

The Sixer stepped forward, spinning his knife as he spoke.

"Still building up resources. According to my informants, they've doubled up on their security. They've had people pouring in from who knows where. They haven't made a move yet, but with the amount of power behind them, it could get ugly real fast if they do."

Jim nodded grimly.

"So we make sure we're ready for them. Keep up the good work." He stared around the room, meeting each set of solemn eyes in turn.

"Company dismissed."

A few days later, as a swirling breeze whistled its way through the colony, Jim and Malcolm were on the balcony of the Command Centre discussing current affairs when they were joined by an unexpected visitor.

"And then there's the water main and the hydro plant. We need to make sure to guard those carefully. If they take those, we could end up without power or water, which would cripple us from the inside .. out .." Jim trailed off, lowering his brows at his companion. "Malcolm, are you even listening?"

"Yes. Sorry." Jim rolled his eyes as Malcolm seemed to come back to reality. "I was just wondering. If we station-"

A sharp yelp from the researcher combined with the accompanying flap of heavy wings caused Jim to swing around in alarm. Malcolm, for his part, had taken a few steps back and was now staring up at a large pterosaur sitting calmly on the railing. Jim reached out slowly for the researcher's arm.

"Walk back towards me .. easy .."

"I don't believe it .." Malcolm gaped at the creature as he retreated further, guided along by Jim's hand. "He's back!"

"Who's back?" Jim threw a sideways look at Malcolm before turning to eye the pterosaur uneasily. The animal blinked calmly at him, but made no attempt to come nearer.

"He's grown." Malcolm muttered in wonder. In only a couple of months, the pterosaur had just about doubled in size. "Are you hungry, old mate?"

"Wait, this is the same pterosaur?" Jim stared at the large eyes. "The one you fixed up the other day?"

"The other month you mean." Malcolm snorted. "Yeah, it is. Bigger and older, but it's him alright."

"How can you be sure?"

Malcolm glanced at him.

"When was the last time you saw a pterosaur come in this close to the colony, or to people in general, for that matter? They're shy creatures. They usually stay away." He frowned. "Wonder why he's come back .."

Jim shifted nervously as the other man stepped closer to the animal with a steady hand outstretched. Malcolm and the pterosaur eyed each other as he approached, muttering gently to it.

"Easy, boy. What's brought you all the way back here, ey? Your wing looks fine. Something else up?" Malcolm paused as the animal flinched a little. "Easy there, Max. You're alright."

Jim grinned in amusement.

"You named it?"

Malcolm stood a couple of feet from the creature. They watched each other solemnly, Malcolm's face reflected in the dark, glass-like eyes.

"Well, I had to call him something, didn't I?!"

"Max is a very ordinary name." Jim clicked his tongue. "It's not like you, Malcolmus. You're losing your touch."

"It's short for Anaximander." The scientist retorted. Jim blinked, his mouth twitching a little.

"Of course it is."

After a moment of silence, Malcolm stared back around at him, looking appalled.

"You don't have a clue who that is, do you?"

"Sorry, but they didn't exactly teach ancient Latin philosophers in security."

"He was Greek." Malcolm corrected with dignity.

"Of course he was."

"In fact, he was one of the first Greek philosophers to challenge modern thinking and try to find explanations for natural process based on science rather than mythology."

Jim rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright, you've made your point."

"Actually .." Malcolm mused, ignoring him. ".. though practically none of his research was preserved, Anaximander was one of the main reasons science has had the courage to progress to the point it's reached today. Born in610 BE, he was a student of .."

After being subjected to a painfully dull five-minute lecture on the qualities of a long-dead scientist, Jim finally managed to get a word in, staring uneasily at the wickedly sharp beak.

"That's great, Malcolm, but .. are you sure you should be that close to that thing?"

Malcolm stared into the large eyes, gaining confidence from the gentleness he saw there. There wasn't a sly or malicious streak to be found.

"He won't hurt me."

"You don't know that."

Malcolm continued to ignore him.

"Send someone to bring some fish from the Lab. I think he's hungry."

Jim wanted nothing more than to bat the researcher in the back of the head, but he reluctantly complied. The pterosaur sat patiently as the fish was procured, then ate calmly when the food was offered, but still it didn't leave. Malcolm frowned at it from his seat a few metres away.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Maybe he just missed you." Jim teased. Malcolm shook his head, taking the comment completely at face value.

"No, there's something else .."

As he spoke, the creature suddenly stretched out its wide wings and took to the sky, disappearing above the Command Centre. Jim blinked.

"Well, I guess that's that."

Malcolm stared at him with raised eyebrows.

"I guess it is."

It was not, however. The pterosaur appeared again that night, taking up vigil on top of the fence near the guard tower. The guards were given instructions to leave him alone, and though he watched them curiously for a while, he made no attempt to interact with them. Over the next few weeks, he stuck around, bothering no one but Malcolm, whom he periodically crash-landed in front of when the researcher stepped outside of the Lab. Malcolm slowly got used to the occurrence, though he still had no clue as to what the creature was trying to say to him. 'Max' would simply stand there in front of him, wings held aloft, for a minute or two before flying off again. During these occurrences, Malcolm attempted very little - the pterosaur, when it pulled itself up to full height was almost as tall as he was - but despite his better judgement, he was known to offer the animal the odd fish on occasion. After all, he reasoned with himself, it wasn't harming anyone at this stage. Better to encourage it to eat fish than colonists. And so, the winged visitor became a familiar sight around the colony, even appointing itself a sort of watchdog, crying out from its position atop the fence when a Carnotaur or the like wandered too close to the area. It was a right nuisance where the Kaprosuchus was concerned, according to Taylor at least, but short of hollering at each other madly a few times a week, the pair - that is, Max and Taylor - soon learned to ignore one another. The Kap simply rolled its reptilian eyes and resolved to ignore the both of them.

Before long, autumn had dawned, and on a day when the gentle rustling of the trees had just begun to take on a faint crunchy note, Lucas was startled by an exuberant banging coming from the front of his house. He moved to the door and opened it slowly. Nowadays, he greeted any visitor with an air of apprehension, but it was only Skye on his doorstep, shivering impatiently in her jacket. Autumn had yet to set in properly, but this day in particular appeared to be an unusually cold one. Lucas narrowed his eyes at her.

"Bucket .. nice weather we're having today."

Skye barely heard him, probably due in part to the fact that she started talking herself when he was half-way through his sentence. Lucas stared at her suspiciously. Her blue eyes were shining with excitement.

"Dr. Wallace wants you right away. It's the Probe - apparently it's been flashing intermittently. Malcolm thinks it might be transmitting again. He thinks you should come have a look at it."

Lucas frowned as she paused breathlessly.

"Flashing? I thought that thing was long-dead."

"We all did! Come on!" Skye darted away as Lucas followed, grumbling.

"Alright, alright. Why can't we ever have a normal conversation?!"

As they jogged toward the front of the colony, Skye grinned at him.

"Hey, did you hear about Dunham?" As Lucas shook his head, she continued. "He was out in the field with Mira when this Nykoraptor comes charging toward them out of nowhere."

"What did he do?"

Skye scoffed, slowing to catch her breath.

"He jumped right in front of Mira like some knight in shining armour."

"What did Mira do?"

Skye began to laugh.

"Pulled out his gun and shot it without a second look. Of course. Poor Dunham was so embarrassed."

Lucas grinned and shook his head.

"Can't be a hero with Mira."

"What, you've tried, have you?"

"With Mira?! Not a chance!" Lucas snorted, then looked sideways at her. "But don't worry your little head about it, I'd be a hero for you."

"How noble."

He ran a hand over the back of his neck thoughtfully.

"I mean, what's one more Nykoraptor, right?"

Skye raised an eyebrow at him and clicked her tongue.

"Ah, but Dunham would've been hurt protecting someone. That was just because you didn't get out of the way quick enough!"

Lucas blinked.

"Ouch." After a moment of listening to the gravel crunch under their feet, he glanced at her again. "I would though, you know. But then, I'd do just about anything for you."

Skye laughed a little, but didn't look at him.

"Mhm, right."

"I would!"

When she didn't respond, Lucas stopped walking and stared at her in mock exasperation.

"What, don't believe me, huh? Am I going to have to run out there one of these days and get myself killed just to prove it?"

Skye frowned and thought for a moment, then shrugged.

"Nah, I'd miss your whining!" She gave his arm a light punch and then walked ahead quickly. "Come on already! He's waiting!"

Lucas put a hand to his heart and called after her.

"Bucket, I think that may be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Skye shot a laughing look over her shoulder.

"Yeah, well don't get used to it! I wouldn't want to ruinmy heartless reputation." She stopped in front of the small gathering at the Probe and released a deep breath internally.

"So .. what have you found? What's wrong with it?"

"Lucas, come here. Look at this."

Skye barely noticed she'd been ignored as Lucas moved past her and knelt beside the blinking object. They had removed The Probe from its pillar so they could get a closer look at it - very carefully and with rather a lot of assistance, I might add. The device was definitely not light, but for now, it was lying securely on the gravel. After a short preliminary examination, Lucas sat back on his heels and looked at Malcolm, who had knelt beside him.

"It's definitely transmitting .. but to who?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Malcolm stood up and stretched his back. "That's why I brought in the second-smartest person in Terra Nova to help me figure it out."

Lucas glanced up at him.

".. 'second-smartest'?"

"Well, I had to give myself some credit."

Lucas shook his head and chuckled to himself as he turned back to the Probe.

"Hold on, what's this .."

Malcolm knelt beside him again and squinted at the metallic text Lucas had run his finger over. To his acute annoyance, however, the tiny writing was all a blur. Perhaps Maddy had a point when she spoke of reading glasses .. He stood again and snapped at Lucas.

"Are you just gonna sit there all day and admire it or actually see what it has to say?!"

"Give me a minute."

"You have twenty seconds."

Lucas turned to look up at him.

"Take it easy. It's not my fault you're old."

Malcolm scowled.

"Careful, or I'll have you taken up for insubordination."

"Do you want this read or not?"

Malcolm narrowed his eyes with a sly smile and turned to Skye.

"Skye, you read it."

"No!" Lucas held a hand up to halt Skye's immediate approach and leaned forward to take a better look at the Probe internals. Skye cast a grin at the head researcher, who was still smiling a little at his own antics.

"Alright, here we go."

'Knowledge of 10,000 years.

Collaboration of 1,000 hands.

Born in 100 different rooms,

For 1 final purpose.

Beware the wielder.

- Property of the Guild of Scientists.'

Lucas dusted his hands off on his pants and stood up.

"Little cryptic."

Skye tilted her head and looked up at him, squinting against the bright morning sun.

"What does that even mean?"

Lucas stared at the Probe distractedly.

"Probably some manufacturer's label. Lots of firms that contributed to Terra Nova had weird company lines like that. Probably thought they'd be forever written into the annals of history so they wanted to sound cool." He smiled at the other two. "I wouldn't read too much into it if I were you."

Malcolm nodded.

"But we still have no idea why it's suddenly come back to life. Is it .. Do you think it's possible that it's been able to get back in touch with base command at Hope Plaza? Could they have gotten it up and running again?"

Lucas shrugged.

"Anything's possible, I guess." He turned to the head scientist. "What do you want to do with it?"

Malcolm though for a moment and then seemed to come to a decision.

"Disable the transmitter. Who knows if anyone was even receiving the signal in the first place, but I don't like the thought of it broadcasting our whereabouts to some unknown recipient."

Lucas nodded and got to work, standing up again a few minutes later.

"Consider it silenced."

"Good work." Malcolm patted him on the back approvingly. The action was mirrored by Skye on his other side.

"Dr. Taylor, you're a credit to your profession."

Lucas shrugged a little and threw a condescending look down at her.

"Well, I guess not all heroes wear capes."

"Indeed." Malcolm commented blithely. "Some wear handcuffs."

"Harsh, Malcolm."

"Thank you. I do try."