Return to Terra Nova
"Oh thank heavens," Nathaniel said when he woke up that morning and found Nethania's message on his plex.
"Hmm, Nethania finally contacted you," Alicia said, rolling over and embracing him.
Nathaniel had been sleeping with his plex by his bed. Every morning for the past two weeks he had been checking it for contact from Nethania only to be disappointed.
"Yeah," Nathaniel said.
"Hmm, that's good," Alicia said, kissing his bare shoulder gently. He put his plex down and rolled over to engage her.
The swelling in her right arm had gone down significantly when she woke up. Dario was still lying across her. She gently stroked the Dimetrodon's head and he stirred awake. Using all her strength she pushed the mammal-like reptile off her and got up. Dario opened his mouth wide in a huge yawn that spread to Nethania.
"The most contagious disease," Nethania said as she yawned and stretched. Dario looked up at her almost like he was questioning her.
"Yawning is contagious," Nethania said as she yawned again, getting Dario to yawn too.
Dario shook his head and grunted.
"See what I mean," Nethania said.
She walked to the fridge and looked inside. All of the meat she had in there had gone bad. Normally she would eat it anyway, but having lost her nano-morphing abilities, she didn't trust her stomach to handle the rotten meat. She pulled it out and tossed the meat to Dario instead.
Nethania headed out, subsequently followed by Dario. She walked across the hall and knocked on Ayani and Maxwell's door. After several minutes of waiting Lucas answered the door.
"What is so important that you had to wake my baby brother up?" Lucas said with a groan.
"Oops sorry…I was just hungry and all of my meat has gone bad," Nethania said.
"Don't you like rotten meat," Lucas said with a yawn that traveled to Nethania.
"I do and normally I would eat it, but since you shorted out my nano-morphing capabilities I can't trust my stomach to handle it," Nethania said.
Lucas sighed heavily and stepped aside for her to enter.
"Let me see what we have," Lucas said. He went into the kitchen and scrounged up some fresh meat for her.
Ayani walked out with her fully awake baby son.
"Sorry about waking him up. I completely forgot about him," Nethania said.
"That's alright," Ayani said. Maxwell appeared behind her wearing pajamas that were covered in little beakers and other science tools.
"Good morning niece," Maxwell said.
Lucas appeared and handed her several slabs of fresh meat. Nethania checked it over for flaws before beginning to nibble on it.
"Thanks," she said as she walked out.
"You're welcome," Lucas said. He headed back to his room and to his bed.
Two weeks later
Nethania stood next to Carter.
"Let see if I can do this as efficiently as before," Nethania said. She closed her eyes, imagining she had all the strength and power of the Saber-tooth cat. She gritted her teeth and with a loud saber-tooth cat roar, she nano-morphed.
Carter looked her over. She was almost face level with him now; Carter nano-morphed into his own saber-tooth cat form.
"You're bigger than I am now," Carter said.
"Of course I am. Originally I was a Smilodon Fatalis, same as you are now. I upgraded my Saber-tooth cat form to Smilodon Populator, so now I am much bigger," Nethania said.
"Nethania, why is it with you, everything has to be bigger," Carter asked as they nano-morphed back into human form.
"Bigger isn't everything. It's not the big dinosaurs we have to worry about. It's the little ones. A swarm of small Compysognothos can reduce you to skeleton just as fast a Carnotaurus eats you whole, but it's a lot more painful. They are still eating you, even while you struggle to get them off of you," Nethania said.
Mira and Sienna walked over to them.
"Sienna and I have decided we want to return to Terra Nova," Mira said.
Nethania looked at them.
"You could use the break. Even though Bashskull gave you the green light, he did say to take it easy," Carter said.
"Especially with your nano-morphing capabilities coming back," Maxwell said.
Nethania looked from one person to the next.
"Alright then," Nethania said. Sienna giggled with joy.
Two weeks later
Saber-tooth cat form Nethania led Mira and Sienna out of the forest and towards Terra Nova. Instantly guards turned their guns towards them. Ute, Jim, Nathaniel and Alicia came out of the command center. Ute had returned to Terra Nova shortly after Sienna got through the portal.
"That's a huge Saber-Tooth Cat," Nathaniel said. He was viewing them with his binoculars.
Nethania lifted up onto her hind-legs, a talent only she had mastered.
"Captain Taylor," Ute called.
"Raise the gate for the captain," yelled Reynolds.
Nethania, Mira and Sienna walked in and people greeted them.
"Welcome back Captain," Ute said as he pushed his way through the throng of people and Nanosaurs.
"Ute," Nethania said, she lowered down onto all four limbs
Nathaniel and Alicia followed the large raptor.
"This is unexpected," Nathaniel said as he embraced the large cat.
"Mira and Sienna wanted to come live here among their own kind," Nethania said looking at the mother and daughter.
"What's your reason for coming here?" Ute asked.
"Dr. Bashskull gave me the green light, but he's told me to take it easy, especially now that my nano-morphing capabilities are returning to normal," Nethania said as she nano-morphed back into human form.
"Your saber-tooth cat form is larger than before," Ute pointed out.
"Before I was Smilodon Fatalis, now I am Smilodon Populator," Nethania said.
"And that's not all," Mira said walking over to them.
"It's still difficult to control Mira," Nethania said in a low voice. Nathaniel, Ute and Alicia could only guess Nethania meant her Spinosaurus form.
"I don't rampage as bad as I did, but if I nano-morphed here, I can be bad enough to flatten the place," Nethania said lowering her head, clearly distraught by this fact.
Jim sat down at the dinner table.
"So how was everyone's day," Elizabeth asked.
"Oh my word, did you see that huge cat at the gate," Jim asked.
"Captain Taylor," Zoe said.
"Captain Taylor, she's back," Maddy said.
"Dr. Bashskull contacted both me and Dr. Won yesterday to let us know she was coming in as a surprise for everyone," Elizabeth said.
"She came walking in as this massive Saber-tooth cat. I mean I stepped up to her and she was looking me directly in the face, no joke," Jim said.
"Sounds like she's got her nano-morphing ability back up and running again," Elizabeth said.
"Nethania said she was once a Smile-o-don fat-list," Jim said trying to pronounce the scientific name Nethania had used.
"Smilodon Fatalist, the second largest species of Saber-tooth cat ever discovered," Maddy said.
"Now she's a Smilodon Popular," Jim said.
"Smilodon Populator dad, that's the largest species of Saber-Tooth cat ever discovered. They say that Smilodon Fatalis was about the same size as a Siberian Tiger, S. Populator is a lot bigger," Maddy said.
"Well she was a lot bigger, no doubt about it," Jim said.
Nethania took the handful of Terras from Cassie, before going to meet up with her father for a small debriefing of her activities in Nanosauria.
"Where did you get those Terras from?" Nathaniel asked.
"I sold a bunch of perfectly polished stones to Cassie," Nethania said.
"Nice," Nathaniel said he motioned for her to take a seat.
"Yeah well, I didn't have the heart to tell him I got the stones from the stomach of a Homalocephale that I killed a few years back," Nethania said.
"So what have you been up to these past four weeks," Nathaniel asked her, sitting back in his chair.
"Mostly just reinstating my nano-morphing abilities," Nethania said.
"You upgraded your Saber-Tooth Cat form and redid your Spinosaurus form I assume. Any new ones I should know about?" Nathaniel said.
"I can't have too many forms in my system. I've only added a new one that can only work in the ocean," Nethania said.
Nathaniel leaned forward, resting his right elbow on his desk and his head on his right hand giving her the 'I'm listening' look.
"Orcinus Orca, more commonly known as the Killer Whale," Nethania said.
"Nethania, I don't approve of you incorporating species from so many varying time periods," Nathaniel said putting his arm down.
"I already have a pod of orcas to my name," Nethania said.
"No more creating new species Nethania," Nathaniel said.
"Lll," Nethania said, indicating she already had new Nanomal species in creation.
"What ones are you working on now?" Nathaniel asked sitting up straight.
Nethania wasn't ready to divulge that information to him and looked away.
"What are you working on?" Nathaniel asked more sternly.
"Pliosaurus and Plesiosaurus," Nethania said, she didn't mention her other two bigger projects.
Nathaniel sat back and began to study his daughter closely. She was becoming more and more difficult to read.
Alicia walked in and stopped dead in her tracks.
"Am I interrupting something?" she asked.
"No, we were just finishing up," Nathaniel said. He got up and walked over to her.
Nethania got up and looked at her curiously. Her senses were back to full strength and Alicia smelled different.
"You're pregnant again," Nethania said.
"What," Alicia said with a gasp.
Nethania walked over to her and inhaled deeply.
"Nope, never mind. Just sweaty," Nethania said with a sheepish smile. Alicia had half a mind to slap Nethania for that false alarm.