If you guys haven't watched the psych evaluations clips before, you definitely have to check them out. Look on YouTube; they are really funny!
The three Shannons and the three security guards walk into the Terra Nova recruitment office right on time. There is a secretary behind a desk and several doors leading into offices and such. The office space is simply a converted apartment complex next to Hope Plaza. The secretary smiles and speaks to Elisabeth while the others take seats in hard, plastic chairs.
It is relatively quiet until a small, older man with white hair and a cheap suit walks out of an office and towards the front door. He is followed by another man who looks to be Chinese. The first glances at the group, then does a double take. "Madelyn Shannon?" he asks.
Maddy looks up in surprise, then gives a shy, tight smile.
"I knew I recognized the face," the man says. "Such a pleasure to meet you in person. I've heard so much about you."
"Nice to meet you," Maddy mutters shyly before standing up and shaking his hand. Josh rolls his eyes behind her back and the three guard exchange a confused glance.
"Just dealing with some international affairs, if you will," the older man continues, evidently not noticing or not caring how uncomfortable Maddy looks. He gestures to the man beside him and says something in a foreign language.
Mark watches the situation unfold before him. He scoots closer and closer to the edge of his seat, not liking that he doesn't know what they are saying. The second man proceeds to say something to Maddy, who shakes his hand and says something back. Whatever Maddy says, both men laugh. Mark gets annoyed that he doesn't speak Chinese.
When the two official looking people leave the building, Maddy sits back down with a sigh. Mark, Kent, and Laura all turn all look at her, which says something because Laura doesn't usually ask many questions. "What was that about?" Foster asks.
"Nothing," Maddy says, though her face is beet red. "I guess the guy just happened to read our transcripts and remembered me."
Seems unlikely, Mark thinks. "Well what did you guys say?" he asks.
Maddy shrugs, "He's an international recruitment officer and just explained that the other man was here trying to get people of his country on one of the next pilgrimages. I said that I can try to understand sharing the time fracture on an international level must a ton of paperwork, but I hope that everything works out for everyone. Just as with any other animal species that goes to a new place, humans should have a level of biodiversity represented for safety; safety in numbers."
Foster raises his eyebrows and shakes his head. "You speak Chinese?" he asks.
"Kind of. I'm just not very good at reading, like the complex texts or ancient Mandarin Literature," Maddy answers indifferently.
Foster and Reilly seem impressed. Mark just frowns, feeling there was more to that brief meeting than met the eye.
It doesn't take long before Elisabeth, Josh, then Maddy are all called back one by one. Elisabeth seems pleased when she comes out, Josh annoyed, and Maddy flustered. "I don't think I got an A on that one," she says.
"I doubt they are grading you," Josh says. "What did you say anyway?"
"I just answered the questions," Maddy responds. "But I may have asked a few times if my grades transfer or not, just to be sure." Josh rolls his eyes. "Oh," Maddy continues, "and I may have given the guy the impression that I'm afraid of dinosaurs, which I'm so not."
Elisabeth gives her kids an encouraging smile. "Let's just get home," she says.
Instead of going back to the house, Josh takes off with Foster to meet up with his friends. Once the others get back, Maddy decides that she is going to fix Josh's Plex, which was smash by one of the population control officers yesterday evening. The screen has a spider web shaped crack on it.
Mark and Reilly both try to give her space, but watch interestedly as she pulls up blueprints on her Plex. "The screens are just tempered glass, and the core isn't damaged, so we just need to create some sort of fusion to mend the glass back together," she talks to herself. She takes apart a Plex Pen, then messes with the internal wiring for a little. At one point she goes and rummages through a drawer of random electronic pieces. She finds an electronic fly swatter and takes that apart too.
Maddy blushes when she notices Mark and Laura watching her. "I just reconfigured the Plex Pen to ramp up its firing potential," she says. "In theory, it was designed to bridge things together – your touch and the screen – so I just increased its firing range, so it will shoot out more like a laser. And the fly swatter has higher voltage so I used its power cells instead. The electricity produced will be so hot that it could melt something, but in this case I'll use it melt the glass back together." Mark and Laura watch in awe as Maddy shoots a red beam of electricity out of the former Plex Pen onto the glass. She traces over the cracks and they miraculously fade.
That evening, Laura is stationed inside the apartment and Ken and Mark both take a small break as they get ready for the night shifts. Well, Ken has the external night shift. Mark is happy that he gets to sleep in a real bed. Ken steps out of the shower and walks into the living room area, looking for clothes in his duffle bag, and Mark lays on the couch, staring at the ceiling. He wishes he has a Plex to study.
"Fourteen days," Ken snaps Mark out of his daze. "Exactly two more weeks, including today which is basically over, and we're home free."
Mark sits up, giving a mild smile. "You have a nice home to get back to?" he inquires at the other guy's excited demeanor. "Something nice back there?"
"Someone," Ken explains. "Girlfriend." He gets a goofy smile on his face and Mark stifles a laugh. "She's … perfect."
"Maddy Shannon isn't that bad looking, don't you think?" Mark asks as he self-consciously stretches his neck. He stands up and stretches, and Ken gets changed.
Ken just laughs. "Sure, she's hot," he says, "and smart, but it isn't like you could plan on a future with her; she's leaving. Besides, her dad? He might be in Golad right now, but I still wouldn't be willing to try something with her. That guy really doesn't like us."
"Yeah," Mark laughs it off, "I wasn't being serious. Just … small talk."
"Honestly, I don't know how you put up with her," Ken says. "I mean, the girl seems nice, but she's an odd combination of incredibly shy and horrifyingly talkative. I don't know how you put up with her rambling once she gets started on something."
Mark frowns. Why do people think that she's so annoying? Maddy is simply brilliant. "You get used to it," Mark explains softly, "really quickly."
"At least Maddy isn't with anyone, is she?" Ken continues. Mark shakes his head unsure what Ken means by that. "Lucky," he explains. "Josh has a girlfriend, Kara. They're in a band together with a few other kids. Kara has a garage, which is where I follow Josh to after school for practice. Anyway, they practice for about an hour or so, hang out, everyone else leaves, then I stand in the doorway awkwardly as Josh and Kara take turns sticking their tongues down each other's throats."
Mark cracks up, not being able to stop laughing. He's so glad he doesn't have Ken's position. Then again, he's also more glad that he isn't stuck in the same position with Maddy, for more reasons than one.
"You have anything else lined up after this?" Mark changes the subject.
Ken shakes his head happily, that goofy smile coming back. "This is it for me," he says, "as far as random jobs here and there go, anyway. I've been doing this since I was fourteen. My uncle had a house in a dome; he let me train with his security team and paid me under the table. Sixteenth birthday I started finding gigs like these, the more dangerous the better, you know? Not just for the hazard pay, but the thrill and adrenaline." Mark nods in understanding. He does this for the money, but he does get that feeling of excitement when there's action. "I was going to enlist in the army," Ken continues.
"Don't tell me" – Mark cuts him off – "the girl came along?"
Ken grins from ear to ear. "Adison," he says as he subconsciously reaches for a chain tucked in his shirt. Mark notices there's some sort of pendent on the end and realizes it was probably a gift or something. "I never made it to high school," Ken continues, "but my mom was forcing me into night classes at the local college for my GED. Addie was the teacher's aide, completely above all the idiots in the class. Well, I kept screwing up on purpose so I'd have a reason to talk to her. After a few weeks of me failing, she finally told me that she only agreed to help me study since she knew I wasn't actually stupid. She wanted to see how long I'd keep it up just to be around her."
Mark laughs again. "That's actually kind of sweet," he says.
"Yeah, well we've had our ups and downs, but who doesn't?" Ken says. "The last year-ish I've only been doing this stuff to save. The second I turn eighteen, I'm moving out of my mom's apartment and we're getting our own together. This job was for the ring."
"Dude, you're proposing?" Mark asks. "That's got to take some balls. I can't even tell the girl I like, that I like her."
Now it's Ken's turn to laugh. "I know she's going to say yes," he explains. "We're in love. But did you seriously just tell me that you don't have a girlfriend?"
"Uh, yeah," Mark says with a shrug.
"No one would ever guess that looking at you."
Mark raises his eye brows. "Um …" he says, not sure how to respond to that one. "Okay?"
Ken just snorts. "For someone who seems really cool and collected, you don't peg me as actually having a plan for life," he says.
Mark rolls his eyes. "I'm only here to support my family," he says. "No mom, no dad, just me, my older sister, and this boy and girl we took in. They're family, basically our cousins. It was my sister's idea, so now I'm stuck risking my neck to feed the strays." Deep down, Mark loves Macey and Stephen like they really are related, but if it were up to him, he would be in the military, not security. Even if it isn't Terra Nova military.
"But what do you really want to do with your life?" Ken pushes. "Do you want a serious relationship with this unnamed girl? Or do you just want to get into her pants?"
"I'm not like that," Mark clarifies. "And I told you. Support my family. And the girl isn't a possibility. She's … she's off limits on several different levels."
Ken smirks. "Addie was off limits, too," he says. "She's two years older, hotter, cooler, smarter. I thought she was totally out of my league, not to mention that she was practically my teacher." Mark laughs. "But look where we are now!" he prompts. "This winter will make four years of my doing this reckless shit; but that's it. Addie's in college studying literature to become a professor, and I'm applying for Hope Plaza security on my eighteenth. Steady income, less dangerous, just enough to put a roof over our heads, food on the table, and bring me home in one piece every night. We got a future; I bet you can too, man. But you won't know unless you try."
"You know," Mark speculates, "you were a lot more chill before you admitted you were getting engaged. Now you're spewing true love and philosophical shit."
Ken just laughs. "Okay, but one more piece of advice," he says. "Addie only took an immediate interest in me because I stepped up and did something foolish. Later she said that no one had ever done anything like that for her."
"That's become normal people don't fail classes just to get tutored by their hot teachers or their teacher's hot intern," Mark interjects.
"You know what I mean!" Ken says. "Now I am going to go outside and sit on the dirty floor, and you are going to figure out what you want and how to achieve it." Mark looks that the other guy dead panned. "I'm serious."
"That's what scares me."
Ken rolls his eyes, "Figure out how to woo your mystery woman the second we get back to our normal lives."
Ken leaves and Mark flops back down onto the couch with his head in his hands. What does he want to do with his life? How is it that no one else had ever asked him that before? It's because we live in a dying world, Mark realizes. People aren't supposed to have dreams.
He's always wanted to be in the military. And as of a week ago, he's realized he's always wanted to be with Maddy Shannon. Mark gets up, digging looking through his duffle for a specific data card. When he finds the one, the crosses over to the apartment next door before he can think it over too much.
In a way, it's kind of lucky for him that he doesn't have to wait until he gets back to his 'normal life' to be with the girl he likes.
In case you couldn't tell, Mark and Maddy moments lie ahead! What did ya'll think of Ken's and Mark's heart to heart and Ken's backstory?