Chapter Two
"Mom." Maddy called, stepping out of her room as Elisabeth turned; recognizing concern in the young woman's voice. "I was looking up Lieutenant Washington's service record, Mark and I were talking and…"
Maddy broke off, Elisabeth only nodded. The entire colony knew the soldier was alive, and that she was struggling, that struggle was very personal to a lot of them because of what the woman's actions meant to the colony; in this house even more so. The kids had gone with Jim to visit the other night, she wasn't sure who had been more confused; her family or the Lieutenant.
Alicia Washington could remember Terra Nova, she knew it was her home and could recall a lot of the challenges they had faced in setting it up; although the events were not in order. But it was around the tenth pilgrimage, their pilgrimage, that things became blank. The woman accepted Elisabeth as a doctor but still gave no indication of remembering her; Jim and the kids had received a similar reaction.
Zoe had gone racing up to the bed for a hug, startling the Lieutenant from a nap, thankfully the woman's reflex time was recovering or else her youngest might have been tossed backwards. The Lieutenant had looked from face to face blankly and nodded as she introduced them, as though they were meeting for the first time.
While she hoped that other memories would begin to fall into place, Elisabeth suspected the tenth pilgrimage, and the months before the occupation would remain the boundary. Even the Commander could not jog current events out of her, the incident with the nesting grounds had amused her and concern had crossed her face at the mention of Skye being the spy but there had been no recognition.
She knew Zoe had been disappointed, but it struck deeper for Jim who very much felt he owed her their lives. For Maddy it was colored by Mark Reynolds' relationship with the Lieutenant, the woman was his CO, but the young man looked up to her as a mentor. Commander Taylor and Lieutenant Washington had left the future as highly decorated war heroes, the Lieutenant as an especially young one, it was the young soldiers who would tell of their past acts much more than either of those two.
Mark had told them more than a few stories the past few evenings, but she had realized, listening to the two of them piece the Lieutenant's memories together; what the public knew about their actions only scratched the surface. Most of their careers remained classified, the Lieutenant's clearest memories seemed to be of injuries, her own and of soldiers she had patched up over the years; the Commander's descriptions offered a lot of insight.
In the field Washington was all that unit had, behind enemy lines there was no pulling back to a tent hospital or evacing out unless they could make it to their check points. The Commander had revealed that at one point there had been a reward on her head, for the enemy soldier who could confirm a kill; he had smiled when that made the soldier laugh.
"Lieutenant Washington is married." Maddy whispered, holding out her plex.
Elisabeth frowned, she hadn't had cause to look up the soldier's personal details, any time she had faced a question the Commander had known the answer; and the man always seemed to be able to make the time. Next to an ID image the stats listed Lieutenant Alicia C. Washington as married, Elisabeth tapped the stat, but it did not open a link.
"Maddy, Lieutenant Washington had a personal life before Terra Nova." She thought of what she had heard those two talking about, their careers contributed to the safety of their country and now the colony; but the cost was high. "With the way she lives she might have kept any loved ones very private."
"But if she's married, she shouldn't have to be alone, she shouldn't be here alone; other soldiers brought their…" Maddy stopped and Elisabeth stepped closer as her daughter made the connection.
Other soldiers had brought their families, spouses, children and even a few parents or grandparents were mixed in. Though it was odd that there was no file on her partner the fact Lieutenant Washington lived alone was a clear answer. But it was odd that in all the topics covered a partner had never come up.
"Trust me Maddy, she isn't alone now." And it was encouraging to know that the woman wasn't going to be left alone either.
Elisabeth had known the woman was a good medic, but she hadn't realized the scope of the woman's capabilities until Casey Durwin turned up; adamant he see her. Casey Durwin had seen her, and he'd had an opinion on keeping her cooped up in a hospital too. The man felt much the same way she did, although the Lieutenant had saved his life in a different way.
She had swallowed hard when she realized exactly why the man had such a strong opinion on his care. Once Elisabeth had asked about his legs, the scars were rough and there was the technology to reattach limbs available. Casey had lost his legs to a dinosaur, not a carnotaurus, but nykos; Washington had closed and cauterized his wounds in the field. There had been no limbs available to reattach and the man had been second pilgrimage, only here a few weeks when the incident occurred; when they were twenty hours away from the colony.
The man firmly believed that with any other medic he wouldn't have survived, Elisabeth suspected he might have been right. She wasn't even sure she would have thought to use fire to stem the bleeding, that technique was ancient history and it was risky. But tourniquets could have come loose, and the way the man told it they had been several hours from their transports as well; Boylan, Washington and another soldier had taken turns carrying him on their backs for at least part of the way.
Casey was a driving force for the colonists who wanted her released, and as a soldier the man understood the side effects of a sonic; and Washington's mindset. There was no question of the woman being able to recover physically or coping at home. But Elisabeth had concerns about well meaning colonists trying to help the Lieutenant remember. Yet she had also thought that being at home, in her own space might help the woman.
…
It was Dr. Shannon who made the decision to send her home and she spent the afternoon getting her settled in her unit. He was relieved he had taken the time to put it back together, Wash was struggling as it was; and that was a factor in the doctor's decision. He had wanted to take the time to be there with her, but a mine crew had come across signs of a small camp, recently used; only a few clicks north of the colony.
He spent his afternoon out with a team, it was certainly a scout camp; Guzman's reports had the Phoenix and the Sixers in the Badlands now. They must have some reservations about finding their way home in the northern desert and given they had abandoned the portal site established down here he had a few questions of his own.
When he got home, hot and tired he debated going to check on Wash but decided he'd have a shower first; the doctor was probably still with her. The past few days had been difficult, they were rarely alone and in moments when he caught Alicia Washington watching him with questions in her eyes, he was never sure what exactly she was thinking.
With a towel wrapped around his waist he slipped into the bedroom and got a clean set of clothes. The doctor would want to go home to her own family and it would give him some time alone with Wash; there were a few other memories he wanted her to sort out. A soft sound made him pause.
He turned as she stepped through the door, his heart soared as he turned and saw her. Reaching out, his thumb resting under her chin, drawing her in. Closing his eyes as he inhaled her scent, their lives so tightly entwined, even if the true depth of it was theirs alone.
But as she pulled back, confusion in her eyes Nathaniel sighed; right now, it was his secret to keep. He knew he should be thankful he wasn't to be a widower for a second time; and yet if she had no memory of their life together in a way he was. Theirs was not the most romantic of stories, their marriage an agreement made in the months of planning for this mission eight years ago; it had been based on friendship and respect.
In the dark bar he sipped his drink, idly wondering if she would show; let alone hear him out. He figured he was either going to get his way or he was going to be sore tomorrow; Washington wasn't exactly a subtle woman.
This was a dive, it was a popular with the military, but quiet this early in the evening. It wasn't his scene, he preferred a quiet drink at home, but he needed to talk to Wash before the brass got a decision out of her. Nathaniel Taylor had his assignment and he knew the risks, but his imagination was already running away with the possible rewards; it was a war he wanted to fight.
People trickled in, pulling off their rebreathers as they stepped into the filtered air; the room still stank. He shifted as a rebreather was plunked down along with a beer; Wash had slipped in with the last group and gone straight to the bar.
"Starting to wonder if you were going to show." He took another sip of his whiskey as she popped herself up onto the stool across from him.
She only nodded, knowing his question was rhetorical; Taylor knew full well she would be here. Alicia Washington shifted on her stool, he had picked a table where he could have his back to the wall; but it meant hers was to the room. He hooked his foot around the leg of her stool, drawing her glare as he dragged it around the side of the table.
He watched her take a swig of beer, her throat moving as she swallowed. Wash was strong, and she was young; she had every reason to shoot him down on all fronts. There was a very good chance this new project was a suicide mission; the brass was certainly concerned that it could be. That was the only reason it would be volunteer based.
"Philbrook get in touch with you yet?" He knew the man had intended to reach out to her; that he wanted her with him.
"Yeah." She took another swig, already half way through the tube.
"If you stay the unit will be yours." If she stayed, she could take over the team she knew, the men she'd patched up and fought beside for years; there would probably be a promotion in it too.
"I'm with you." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Whatever comes."
Nathaniel nodded, it made him sit a little straighter; maybe he had a chance. "Have you told them that yet?"
Wash shook her head. "I've got seventy-two before they want my decision."
"When we get there, we can't come back." He murmured quietly. "There won't be a break, and very little space, it won't be the same as it is with the unit."
"If we survive at all." She smiled slightly, Wash always liked a fight; didn't matter what kind.
It was hardly the first time they'd be up against the odds, but there would be no brass; no orders coming down. Command decisions would come from them, the soldiers that followed them deserved their best; failure was not an option he would accept.
"Every soldier, every colonist that follows will be your subordinate." He eased towards his question. "Mine too. But Wash I need an outlet and I want one."
"Sir?" Her face tipped towards him, she was following his train of thought.
"I'm not afraid to be shot down Wash; but I've got a very narrow opportunity to try." Wash had stood beside him for everything, and she understood him in a way no one else could. She knew what the loss of Ayani had done to him, she had mourned her friend beside him; but her suffering had saved lives.
They got along, in truth he got along better with her than with some of the men in the unit, she had never been interested in partying, and she had an active mind. Wash could follow an order and she was not afraid to defy him, she knew how to do it, but there was no one he would rather have in his corner in a fight; no matter the odds. They had spent more time together over the past decade than with anyone else, he'd taken her on as a rookie; they'd survived a war together.
"Marry me. We work; we both know that." He would never forget Ayani or the sacrifice she had made for their son, but Wash knew that, and Wash was a big part of the reason one of them had survived. "On shift nothing changes, off shift we are partners; we can relax without secrets."
For a moment she was silent, finishing her drink before brown eyes focused on his face. "And the regs?"
"As of today, you are spec ops and I am on the Terra Nova project; they're separate branches." She didn't shoot him down or laugh. He was more than a decade older than her, she had baby sat his son on occasion and been friends with his first wife. "We put the licence through before you sign on and there is little they can do."
"They can pull the offer on my side."
"They won't, I doubt they will even care, they're assigning us late in the game; we ship through that portal in three months." There was a chance they wouldn't even catch it; his paperwork was processed and so was her offer.
Silence hung between them until he considered offering her an out. Wash had never had a problem speaking her mind to him, not when they were off duty; but then this was different. Maybe it wasn't fair, he wasn't asking her because they were in love. They were friends, a friendship forged as comrades, in time it might become something more, but he knew he would not have another chance. There wasn't going to be another woman who understood him and who had shared in what he had seen. And that shared experience mattered to him, Wash had seen war, she knew the people they had lost, and she still cared.
"I suppose marriage would satisfy your honor code." She rolled her eyes at him, and he winced slightly; she might be right. He would feel better if it was official, even if their superiors would likely prefer an arrangement that was easier to ignore; he couldn't hold his soldiers to one standard and live by another. "I'm with you Taylor."
Nathaniel had been a little relieved, they had married quietly the next day, the licence had been processed and for awhile they believed it had gone unnoticed. It was not until they were making final preparations, going through the plans for the supplies that would be shipping through with them that Philbrick revealed that he knew.
"You two need separate units, I don't care if there is five feet between them, you will maintain the illusion of decorum; your marriage will remain secret. I've sealed the record." He warned as he reviewed the detailed plans for their first year.
He smiled at the memory, the shock she hadn't managed to hide and the smirk on Philbrick's face; he'd been right. His mentor oversaw the project, and he could care less; their service records spoke for them. In the past three months they had told no one of their choice, there was no one who had needed to know. For them love had come in a gradual way, but it hadn't taken long.
In retrospect he wondered if Lucas knew somehow, if that night in the square his son had known that killing Wash would come close to destroying him; more effective than any weapon. She was a constant in his life, when he had lost Ayani he had her support, when thing with Lucas got rough, she was there; it was her last request to the Shannons that had pushed him on. And when they returned to the colony, it was work that distracted him from grief, knowing the moment he stopped it would hit him, he would not let her death be for nothing, until the moment Elisabeth Shannon guided him to her hospital bed.
But she was healing now, and while it was frustrating to have her retreating from their home; she was alive. He followed her quietly, punching in the code to her back door, the same way she must have done a few moments ago. He found her pulling on her jacket, still a little unsteady.
"I need to move." She murmured as he crossed to her side.
"Let's go for a walk then." He understood that, she was never one to sit still for very long and she'd been cooped up in a hospital bed for days on end.
Long dark hair hung down her back and gently he helped her with the thin jacket; he let his hands drift over her shoulders. She had gotten a walking stick of sorts from somewhere and it helped her keep her balance as they started out on the patrol route along the fence.
"How far do you want to go?" He asked after awhile, he'd slowed his pace a little, but they had walked quietly together and were nearly halfway around the loop.
"I want to finish it." She murmured, determination in her voice; he should have known she wouldn't want to give up.
But as they came through the north end her brow knit, eyes scanning the damaged exterior fence and the rubble that crews had yet to clear away. The patrol path had been cleared and there were patches to the fence, but it was far from secure, he wondered what she was thinking as she looked from the damaged rubble in to the orchards of their agricultural sector. This would have been a nice neighborhood to live in, now it would be reclaimed for farming.
"When we were first building our units, I remember how you carefully transplanted the trees into our back yard; well before we knew the project would expand to the point we would have these fields." He reminded her of that period shortly after the second pilgrimage arrived and he had crushed her suggestion of living separately so Lucas could live with him.
Needless to say, his son had never wanted to live with him and so they designed a way that they could live together while maintaining the appearance of space. They were certainly not the only ones who decided not to divide their yards, enjoying the space they hadn't been able to have before; though for them it provided a private path between the units they shared.
"I like our yard." She murmured quietly before beginning to move again and kept moving until they made it back around to their units.
He spent the evening with her, sharing a meal and letting her direct the conversation. She bounced between topics, questions from the past were followed by questions about the Phoenix and their current situation. Nathaniel decided to excuse himself, she was trying to focus but she was exhausted; he slipped away and left her to settle for the night.
…
The house was hers, but it didn't feel right. The bedroom was empty, the bed carefully made, and everything was neat but there was nothing personal about it; nothing comforting. Alicia stretched out and tried to sleep for awhile before she rose and slipped out into the back yard, curling up on the bench.
She could see the lights still on in the next unit, he was still up, and she was tempted to join him. There were a lot of things in her mind that were jumbled but she knew Nathaniel Taylor was more than just her CO and friend. Parts of her life were clear, and from the time she was pulled out of the mud of boot camp he'd been there; a lieutenant then.
Other faces blurred, family members angry as she packed a backpack and walked to the transit stop; knowing that the commune was no longer her home; she did not want to take a vow of peace and stand idly by in the world. From then on, she lived in barracks around the world, tent camps and small base quarters. The people around her then were soldiers, names and ranks escaped her now, but some moments were clear.
Sitting under the stars she remembered being a little girl and looking up at the smoggy gray skies with Alex, listening to her older brother dream of a world outside; of their grandfather's stories of the past. Alex's sense of adventure was strong then, and so was he; they used to get into so much trouble. Why was his face so clear when everything else seemed a blur?
He was gone, there were a lot of faces that came to her mind; so many had died. Maybe she was supposed to be with them now. It might be easier, death wasn't picky, it took the good and the evil; bodies whole and destroyed. With the state of her mind, and how she looked it wasn't hard to believe she was supposed to be in a grave somewhere; the Phoenix had certainly intended that. Or Lucas, if her CO was to be believed for her that wasn't even jumbled; it simply wasn't there.
Alicia leaned back on the bench, eyes scanning the shadows full of lush green, this was her home; and she wouldn't give that up. This was a better world, and it was worth fighting for. She would find her balance again, and she would hold onto life here with all she had. It wasn't just Alex's dream she was fighting for, the colony around her had a dream and so did a man she cared deeply for; they'd beat the odds again.
…
Maddy worked quietly taking the samples she had been asked to from the roots of the ancient ferns that her supervisor was testing for antibacterial properties. The realities of their situation had been assessed and now came the practical side of determining how they would survive, and the science department had a massive role to play.
Their connection to 2149 was gone, there were no more supplies coming through, no medicine or tech; no new colonists. There was a massive amount of work to do, she heard her parents talking about it late at night, when they both finally got home that was.
Everyone in the colony was aware of it, even if little was said. It was in the energy, in the way they went about their tasks, no one had forgot the occupation, how hard the security forces had fought to defend their homes; and the price of freedom. And even now there was fear in the air, she had seen the relief in faces when Taylor returned to the colony; they were afraid the Phoenix would turn back on them.
In the horticultural plots Maddy shifted and rose, she heard giggling; looking up to find her little sister and some friends skipping along the path. The children were playing, and she sat back on her heels for a moment, it was good. And they were safe here, there were security towers along the perimeter and Mark was in one of them; he had told her they were all on high alert. When she glanced to the perimeter a lone figure moved along the path patrols used, leaning heavily on a cane.
Maddy quickly looked back to her work, stomach sinking; it was Lieutenant Washington. She should be relieved that the woman was alive, they had all believed the Lieutenant had died helping her family escape; but in away, losing her mind might be worse. The woman who had been Commander Taylor's go to, a fierce soldier in her own right; had led the defense of the colony with only half the strength of their military.
Maddy had looked up her military record, her boyfriend's mentor was the most decorated female soldiers to survive the land wars; making a career in spec ops with Commander Taylor long before Terra Nova. Following her Commanding Officer on what might have been a suicide mission her history in the colony had been no less impressive; working with the men she led to build this colony. Now the woman's memory was gone, she had heard her parents fretting over it at night; her mom didn't think some memories would be recoverable.
When the children's giggles were joined with high pitched squeals and yips Maddy stood up and spotted her sister with the other kids at the edge of plot; in the orchard. Putting her tools aside Maddy wove between the trees to find them, the foliage gave cover but that made her uneasy.
"Zoe, get back!" She grabbed for her sister as she saw the little creatures the kids were crowded around. Pulling her sister back by her arm she urged the others to move away. "Leave it alone."
Her cautions were met with protests. "They're just babies!"
"So cute."
"They may be babies, but we don't know how they got here; or what they are." But by their markings Maddy suspected they were some kind of raptor. However, they shouldn't be in here, the jungle had been cut back, few dinosaurs ventured this close; and these hatchlings shouldn't even be out of the nest.
Suddenly a man burst from the trees, the children screamed, curling back into her side; Maddy turned to see another behind her. Fear raced through her as she tried to hold the kids close, sidling towards the trees as they closed in, one wore a Phoenix uniform but the other looked like a Sixer.
The soldier grabbed for one of Zoe's friends but as he pulled her back the man's eyes went blank; he crumbled forward. Maddy crouched, wrapping her arms around the kids; squishing them together. The Sixer stepped back, his face losing some color even as he raised his weapon and Maddy closed her eyes before he fired.
But the shot didn't come and as she heard the calls of soldiers coming from the towers Maddy opened her eyes to see Lieutenant Washington pushing herself to her feet; unsteadily gripping the trunk of a tree for balance. As Terra Nova's soldiers burst through the trees they paused, looking between the men on the ground and their Commanding Officer; struggling to stand.