Chapter III: Confrontation

Only minutes later Noah was sitting in the back of one of the vehicles she had seen earlier. Commander Taylor was sitting next to the driver while Jim Shannon sat opposite of her. The latter was still eying Noah.

"How was she?"

Noah looked up.

"How was she?" Jim repeated, "did she look scared? Was she hurt?"

Noah shook her head. "She was scared but she was brave as well. I didn't want to leave her there but she told me that I'd have a better chance at reaching Terra Nova."

Jim nodded and stared at the back of the drivers head; the worries for his eldest daughter were clearly visible in his eyes.

"Hey, Guz!" Taylor was looking back at a latino looking man.

"Yes, sir?"

"When we get there you stick with miss Storms, got it? Don't let her out of your sight."

"Yes, sir!" Guz turned to face Noah and nodded shortly when he caught her attention.

"It's not that I don't trust you, miss Storms, but I don't want to take any chances with these guys. If they managed to capture you a lot more could be lost then just your freedom."

Noah wanted to ask what he meant with that remark but before she got say anything the driver alerted them that they were getting near. In complete silence the men got out of the rovers and into the woods. It was clear that everyone knew what he had to do. Noah thought that commander Taylor must have been an excellent leader if his men knew this without so much as a word of explanation. Guz touched Noah's shoulder lightly and beckoned her to follow him. Noah tried to follow him as quietly as possible but she felt like an elephant compared to the swift, fluid and yet silent moving of Taylors' men.

"Look, I don't care about the fact that you're tired! Find her! Without her we'll never get out of here."

Noah easily recognized Leechs' voice.

"We've been looking for her all night, Leech."

That was Angus.

Guz took hold of Noahs' wrist and silently dragged her to a point left of Taylor, who was looking through the trees. Noah couldn't see a thing but judging from Taylors faint smile she could tell that it looked good. Noah moved a little to the right and managed to get a view of the clearing: Leech and Angus were standing about 4 meters away, the other two were sitting next to the well with their weapons lightheartedly cast to the side. She couldn't see Maddy but her old tent was zipped up so she suspected that she was being held there. The arguing between the men continued while unaware to them Taylors' men took their position. The next moment Taylor whistled shortly and his men stormed into the clearing.

The surprise was complete: Taylors' men had surrounded them before they could do so much as breath. The air was filled with shouts of surprise and orders to get on the ground. Guz ran forward into the clearing followed by Storms. Leech was staring in utter amazement at Taylor.

"Don't even think about it, pal." Taylor snapped when Leechs' hand went towards his sidearm.

"Where is she?" Jim shouted.

Leech didn't answer. Before anyone could stop him, Jim ran up to the man and almost lifted him of the ground, shaking him angrily.

"I'm not going to ask again!"

"Dad!"

A muffled cry came from Noahs' tent. Noah, who was closest to the tent, opened it and looked inside: Maddy was lying on her matrass with her hands tied behind her back. Right next to her were the components of Noahs' key. Noah crawled inside the tent and untied Maddy, behind her Jim peered in.

"Maddy, are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm… I'm fine. Dad, this is…"

"I know who she is, Maddy. Now get out of there."

He pulled her out of the tent. While she gathered her stuff together Noah could hear father and daughter exchanging words of relief. Noah took her backpack and went outside as well. Taylor had tied two of the men up and one of his soldiers was in the process of tying up Angus. Leech stood a little to the side with an angry face.

Noah checked her equipment in the full sun: the 1 meter 50 long tube-shaped key seemed to be alright, the seperate control panel looked fine as well. This task absorbed her so much she was completely taken by surprise: Angus suddenly elbowed the soldier in the face and ran for the trees. Leech, taking full advantage of the momentary confusion, knocked out his guard, stole his weapon and had his arm around Noahs' neck before she could even look up to see what was going on.

"Stand back!" Leech shouted as the men tried to advance.

Noah tried to breath but his arm was so tightly around her neck that she couldn't draw in air. Slowly Leech walked backwards towards the tree line.

"Let her go, son. You won't get far. And even if you could get away; where would you go?" Taylor asked him.

"Yeah? Well, old man, either you get me that stuff that's on the ground over there or I'll shoot this one through the head!"

As to prove his point he put the gun to Noahs' head. It felt strangely cool, Noah had expected it to feel warmer. The lack of air was getting to her: her head felt as if it was going to explode and at the edges of her sight things began to blur; her strength was fading. Yet, despite all the pressure and anxiety she felt oddly calm: she knew she only had one chance. So when, for one second, Leechs' hold over her loosened she elbowed him in the stomach and dived for the ground.

Taylor didn't need any extra motivation: he aimed his gun and fired a sonic blast at Leech. The latter managed to evade it, however, and disappeared between the trees. Noah could hear Taylor swear as he and a few of his men went after him.

Noah coughed as she struggled to get back on her feet. Guz was by her side in seconds and pulled her up.

"You alright?"

Noah nodded and staggered back to where her key was lying. Noah checked the rest of her equipment in her backpack. She concentrated on it so she wouldn't have to show the others how this had gotten to her: she was a scientist, someone who worked in a lab, not a soldier. Off course, she had known about the potential dangers of her expedition but… Noah was still going over her equipment in silence when Taylor came back. He was furious:

"He got away, the son of a bitch!"

He only calmed down when he saw Noah. Her eyes were still wide with fear, even though her body seemed completely relaxed. He walked over to her and grabbed her by the chin to take a look at her neck.

"Looks like there's going to be some bruising."

He looked her in the eye: "Are you ok?"

Noah put her hand on his arm and tried to smile.

"I… I'm fine; a little shaken up, that's all."

Taylor nodded shortly and turned to the rest of his men.

"Alright, let's get out of here."

About fifteen minutes later the four rovers rode into Terra Nova. A furious Elizabeth Shannon and a very upset Malcolm were waiting for them.

"Commander Taylor!"

Elizabeths' voice exploded with the force of a small bomb as soon as Taylor left the vehicle, making him wince. She was furious.

"Why on earth wasn't I informed that Noah Storms had gone with you? She's my patient and…"

"Mom!"

Maddys' intervention saved Taylor from her rage. As soon as Elizabeth caught sight of her eldest daughter she completely forgot about Taylor and ran to hug her, leaving him with Malcolm.

"Commander Taylor, I must admit that Elizabeth is right: Noah Storm is much too valuable to be taken outside."

"Aah shut it, Malcolm."

An irritated Taylor didn't wait for Malcolms' reply and started helping a still shaken Noah with unloading her equipment.

"Damn, that thing is heavy." He cried out as he lifted the tube shaped key out of the rover.

Noah couldn't suppress a smile. Malcolm however seemed to go completely nuts.

"Is that… Is that a portal? Oh my god, it's… It's… How does it work?"

Noah stared at him for a short while; she found the man's behavior rather annoying and slightly disturbing.

"Don't touch it!" She exclaimed when she saw his hand reach for it.

Taylor was highly amused by this and decided that the wised thing to do would be to get the 'key' out the way.

"I'll put this in…"

"The science-building!" An overly excited Malcolm, who obviously hadn't gotten the message in Noah's tone, said, "I'd love to study this thing."

Noah was getting increasingly annoyed with him and stepped between him and Taylor.

"I said that you weren't touching it! So you won't be studying it either, I still need this thing to get me home and I don't want it to get broken!"

Taylor, who foresaw a row, handed the key over to Guz: "Bring it to the science building, but let no one touch it!"

Guz nodded and walked away. Taylor turned towards Noah and Malcolm, the latter seemed shaken up at the treatment he received from someone he considered a hero of his. Noah however seemed to have lost all interest in the argument and was breathing hard. Taylor was only just in time to catch her when she fell backwards.

"Wow. Elizabeth!"

Immediately Elizabeth Shannon appeared at his side, closely followed by Jim and Maddy.

"Let's get her to the clinic."

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Noah protested as Taylor lifted her up and carried her towards the clinic. " It's just… I'm just tired."

"Mom, is she going to be all right?"

"Maddy, go home." Jim answered.

"But dad…"

"Maddy, listen to your father and go home. Josh and Zoë are waiting for news of you. Go and surprise them." Elizabeth said as she held the door open, leaving a disappointed Maddy no other choice then to obey her parents. Noah continued to protest but it was no use; Taylor put her down on the same bed she had woken up in. A still agitated Elizabeth started examining her right away.

"Everything seems normal." She said after a while. "She's right, it's just fatigue and a lack of decent food."

Just to be sure she ran a blood analysis which only confirmed the first test she had done when Noah was unconscious.

"Well, at least now we have an explanation on the first analysis: her time travel from the 21st century would explain the level of toxic chemicals in her system."

Noah looked with sad eyes at Taylor. He grinned back at her, completely understanding the 'please-get-me-out-of-here" message.

"Elizabeth, don't you think we should get her something to eat?" He suggested tentatively.

"What? Oh right. Well… Jim, maybe you could get something from the market."

"I have a better Idea: I'll take her to the market to get something."

"Commander…"

Noah didn't let Elizabeth finish, she jumped of the bed and grinned at Taylor. Neither of them saw Jim's smile grow wider as he understood what was going on.

Miles away from Terra Nova Leech was looking down the barrel of a gun. The owner of said gun was a beautiful black woman. Next to her were two men who couldn't differ more from each other: the one on the right was obviously an army man and although his uniform was dirty and torn he held himself as a commander: cool and in control. The other man was dressed as a civilian and had a positively mad expression in his eyes; as if he had a brain fever.

"You better tell us what you are doing here or my gun is going to be the last thing on this planet you'll ever see."