Chapter Seven
"Well they're not pathetic anymore but I wouldn't want to be taking many of them into a hot zone." Guzman sighed at the morning meeting, sadly Alicia nodded in agreement; there were a few that they had passed through the training in the week. The rest would continue to work on their hand to hand. That did not reassure her as they were preparing these skills should they come up against the Phoenix and their old tricks.
"And this is where you terrify me, I've watched them fight and I don't think they're bad; I am surprised you all survive each time." Shannon commented, giving them an innocent look under three brutal stares.
Alicia didn't comment, he was the only person currently present who had never attended military boot camp or served in any capacity and did not understand the full threat of mercenary groups; especially ones they believed would become desperate. He was cop and good at what he did, he had a head for theory but when it came to combat he was clueless.
"End of shift, seventeen hundred, time they had a reminder and you had a lesson Shannon; you've never been in the bull pen." Nathaniel murmured giving her a pointed look; she knew that meant they would fight. And this time it would not be an exercise in control, it was Guzman's day to run the soldiers through their paces so this time they would both come in fresh. This time it would be brutal.
The military portion finished Alicia rose to get a second cup of tea as they shifted to a departmental meeting and Guzman excused himself; there was ten minutes before the department heads were due. She fixed a cup for herself and a second for her husband. As she set it in front of him he caught her wrist in his strong hand and held her steady a moment; his eyes searched hers and she shook her head. Two department heads had a lot to answer today, they needed time lines from both Malcolm Wallace in science and Dean Jones in construction.
The two had been tasked with a number of projects but one required they work together; and she was tempted to lay a bet on when the builder decided to deck the scientist. Alicia listened quietly as Jones laid out the plans he had created and Malcolm sulked. Not deterred by the lack of power Jones had created blueprints by hand; Malcolm had come with an excuse. Jones had several key tasks in the near future, one he was ready to begin on and that was a second wall of defense; this one made of stone. It would also provide an increased area for growing crops and possibly offer some protection from a sonic wave. His other project was a hydro system harnessing the power of the river that ran just beyond the northern fence.
From a construction stand point it would be quite a task as it had to support the amenities of the colony. But on the science side all that had to be done was hand over the drafts, she saw Jones cover a look of irritation; it was more than she bothered to do.
"Malcolm we need that schematic; construction can't even complete surveying without the data on energy use. I don't care what research you have on right now, all projects are to be suspended until this is ready." Nathaniel growled, privately Alicia was glad that this was all they were counting on him for.
Boylan might be a pain but the man could work and with his little team he was busily cranking out chips for the equipment they couldn't do without. Terra Nova needed power in one form or another.
"I don't see why we can't repair all the chips and use that system until this is functional; even after construction I will need to conduct numerous tests before we can rely on it." The scientist laid his hands on the table; as though their demands were unreasonable; Alicia had an idea.
"Commander with this project taking precedent perhaps this would be the best time to move all the artifacts into storage. I believe Jones gave me a report stating that the facility was complete; and the science division is busy." Malcolm began to splutter as Jones confirmed the secure holding was complete; Alicia knew exactly what that scientist was spending his time on. They'd had their fun with the data from the badlands, now it had to take second to the welfare of the colony.
Her husbands blue eyes glinted like steel as he nodded. "Have a team begin now; they've got all they need from it."
As Malcolm began to barter Alicia left and gave the order; some days scientists were too much. The colony had bigger concerns than research right now, they needed the science division to function in a practical manor. Someday they might have the safety to look deeper into the history of this land and its inhabitants but for now they needed to fight for that future.
She took her time assembling and briefing the soldiers who would complete the task and returned as the department heads filed out. Alicia smiled a little at that, she knew Jones had some of the same issues with Malcolm they did; the man was a scientist with no head for the realities of the world. He ignored half the orders he was given and did as he pleased, before it had been irritating but the day he became a liability she would strip him of the position herself.
...
At end of shift he strode into the training center, the soldiers stood around the mat, Shannon and Guzman stood with them. Alicia stood at the edge stripping off her excess gear, he removed his holster and the combat belt he wore and caught his wife's soft smile as they both removed their wedding bands.
They were going to hurt each other and leave many marks on each other's flesh; some would wonder how they could do it to the person they claimed to love. But their love was real and deep and this was simply a part of what they were; what war had made them. He loved his wife, and loved her in the state she was; that being alive.
In war that meant being faster, stronger or better than the enemy; that meant the marks he left helped ensure he kept her. They faced each other, dropped their hips and shifted their weight; he waited for her to throw the first hit.
This was no control fight, he landed blows just as hard as she did, and they slammed their bodies together stopping just short of actually doing each other permanent harm. In a sense they were still playing, only this time the gloves had come off and they were each playing to win. But he knew that was not what it looked like.
He heard a few gasps as he deflected her shoulder by heaving her across his back and the slight moans of sympathy as she drove an elbow into his hip; inches from a groin shot she would have taken in a real fight. But from the side he knew they could not see she'd not hit the mark they thought; had she taken her shot she would have put him down.
But had they been taking the hits each would have gone down and out several times. A well placed fist to the throat could easily kill a man and a fist to the chin knock him out. They were breathing hard when she took his feet out from under him; he countered quickly and took her down with him. Alicia sprang back up nearly as fast as he did and when he tried to get a boot in her gut to force her down again she caught his knee and jerked him forward as she shoved his shoulder back. They both hit the mat in a bone jarring thud.
"They'll kill each other." He heard Shannon mutter, and he smiled at his wife; a moment before she twisted free of his grasp and they were up again.
"No, they aren't doing each other any real harm." Guzman, he registered but the man wasn't speaking softly. "That is what those wars made them, what you read in the history books isn't half of what they lived. I was stationed state side until the last few months. Time I got there we had won and it was just clean up. Thousands of soldiers fought the land wars, only a few hundred came home right. They came back like this; they've seen and lived things you can't imagine. But if we had lost and the Russo-Chinese took over two continents they would have tried for America, for what resources we had left and it would have been worse than the hell they faced over there."
As if to illustrate the soldier's point Alicia caught him behind the knee and forced him down; forcing a groan out with the air from his lungs. Not willing to let her have him so easy he pulled her over his shoulders and let her hit the mat; they were nearly done.
"I saw combat, but the mind games and strip tactics were over. I've only seen the failed attempts; they've lived the ones that didn't. Over there the enemy would play with their heads, use air borne gases at night to make them to sick to sleep, make them hallucinate and drop electromagnetic bombs to fry their weapons. Then just before dawn they'd move into an area and cut through entire camps. Usually they didn't kill all of them, just cut a few so if they didn't bleed out fast animals or the insane would attack them. The Phoenix group is not new, they just have not been hired by the states before." Finished with the fight as he saw the memory flash in her eyes he let the hold she'd reached for land and was spun into her body; her forearm blocking his windpipe.
She held it for five seconds and then released him, stepping away and heading for her things. The room was dead silent as they put their holsters and belts back on. He slid his wedding band onto his finger as she was strapping her knife to her thigh. Nathaniel crossed to her and picked up the ring still laying on the mat; gently settling it back into its place.
In complete silence they left the training compound; knowing the lesson they had taught would go deep. Going forward combat wasn't just going to be handy, they might need to rely on their weapons against fifty foot predators; but mercenaries were the real threat. They had trained these kids how to survive predator attacks, how to subdue and where necessary kill a predator that thought to make a snack of them. But they had given very few the specialized combat training that was necessary to go up against mercenaries like the Phoenix Group; he had a feeling their soldiers had finally realized that.
The silence told him that, the proof would be in how the next few weeks went. He stole a kiss from his wife and dropped her at the waiting rover near the gates. "Before I forget, Elisabeth needs to talk to us, possibly tomorrow morning."
She would be overseeing a short patrol out to an out post; they were thinking about arming it as a tactical station to begin the process of mapping the land mass. It was an effort both to monitor the Phoenix and find any survivors or their offspring as well as to create a small strong hold should a war come.
He didn't like how close the Phoenix had come, didn't like to know that they were crossing the Badlands or exploring; it only meant they were getting ready to fight to survive. And as they were poorly equipped he figured that meant striking out against Terra Nova for what they wanted. This time it wouldn't be so easy to threaten the colony and he would not make his wife face the scars the past had left on her; they would fight the way the always should have. Side by side.
In the ten days that she had been home they had covered so many topics he could hardly keep them all straight. From their own personal lives and the hope of a family to every aspect of colony business he had missed having someone to discuss with. They had bickered and argued, debating many but had accomplished more than he would have thought possible.
Now it was about putting it into action and her part was as it should be, even if he longed to wall her up in the colony where she would be safe. It was her skill set that would find any one else living in this world and he would be a fool to try and keep her from that. Not to mention make sharing a home with her dangerous.
He reassured himself she would only be gone a few hours; in his arms by midnight. And he would meet her at the gates, until then he would work from Comsend. They had repaired enough communicators and the radio receivers in the rover; they would be in contact at all times. Nothing would go wrong tonight.
…..
Alicia snuck back into the unit late, Boxer stirred from the couch and came to greet her. The critter that had once weighed only a few pounds now weighed twenty and was the size of a dog. An interesting pattern of brown and black with a black patch on one eye the little dino was every inch a pet. She had heard the lectures of the mistake of making the animal a pet but every society had pets of some sort and kids wanted them.
They just had to find the species that would not decide to eat their kids. And so far maiasours were not doing to badly. Zoe had Hank, and while the Shannons had decided he could not be in the house all the time and built an enclosure against the back wall of their unit they'd had no issues.
Alicia being more of a sucker had given up trying to keep Boxer out of anything, and simply admitted to her husband that when it came to the animal she was weak. He was the one who drew the lines for the dinosaur, one being that she was not allowed in the bedroom. Alicia broke it every time he was late getting home.
However her husband was not in bed and had not been at the gate to greet their team. He had been in Comsend most of the night as every time she checked in his voice had greeted her. With a frown she cuddled Boxer against her chest and left the unit, stroking the little dino's head as she walked; it was relaxing to pet her. Circling the Command center she stepped into the radio room to find the night operator sipping a cup of coffee and looking bored.
Frowning Alicia tried to think of where else he might go, the windows of their office were dark and if he had been on the towers he would have come down when the rovers approached. Turning back to the residential area she saw a familiar shadow heading for their door, Alicia lengthened her stride and slipped in just behind her husband.
"Hey." She murmured, tipping her face up for a kiss, he looked tired and annoyed. In the time she had been gone bruises had bloomed on both of them, she wondered if he was as stiff and sore as she was.
"I'm sorry I wasn't at the gate." He murmured, leaning in to take her offer. "False alarm at the storage units. With the possibility of the Phoenix hanging around I am a little paranoid; took Shannon."
Alicia raised a brow as he extracted Boxer from her arms, set her on the floor and tugged Alicia with him. She smirked at her pet's disgust as the door closed behind them.
"You get one guess. He is a pain in my…"
"Malcolm." She laughed, he didn't need to finish that one.
"I tossed him in the brig, he's down there whining to Shannon about how unfair I am." Nathaniel smiled but Alicia was a little concerned.
"Isn't that a little harsh?"
"No more than the world we left, they threw Shannon in prison for having an extra child, tossed thieves into cells for taking things that don't belong to them and created a special type of holding just to keep drunks to sober up. Maybe a night in the brig will have the same effect; not being used for anything else at the moment." And yet she questioned the spark in his eyes, he might never admit it but he was enjoying trying to take the scientist down a notch or two.
"What was he after?" She asked, leaving that alone, technically the man had broken the law by breaking into a military storage hold so they hadn't stepped over a line.
But the fact it was both her husband and Jim Shannon, one who was forever being irritated by the man and the other who had to restrain himself from beating the scientist off his wife with a stick made her wonder how much of a racket the scientist would make. And Nathaniel was not the least bit sorry about the decision if she was reading him right and given his arms and throat were bruised he would have been a sight sliding out of the darkness to catch the would be thief. She had a feeling that alone would have been a sobering sight for Malcolm Wallace.
"A book they managed to bring back when you were evacing out of there. They couldn't fully process it as they were not sure of the language; made a mistake on that though." Nathaniel smiled and Alicia had a feeling that between both him and Shannon Malcolm Wallace was going to take a lot of hits. "I think we will have it processed in a matter of days; and I will get a full report."
"Why?" She ran through the languages they both understood; there were thousands in the world they left behind and between them they hardly made double digits.
"I left it in the capable hands of Maddie Shannon and told her to use the Eye. Without it however she was fairly sure it was an old dialect of Spanish. But she did inform me of something interesting. The Royale Merchant was a British vessel purchased from the French, and she is fairly sure that it is not French or English." His grin was dangerous and Alicia shook her head, she knew exactly what he was doing and in the morning they would discuss it; and he would hear her out. Then she would go and have a word with Elisabeth; they had both married stubborn and bullheaded men.
His hands were working the fastening of her armour and holsters and the grin on his face was not fading; Shannon was probably wearing a similar look. It had been nearly a year ago that Alicia had discovered the information about that ship, and that Nathaniel had chewed Malcolm out for not finding it first. It had not been a good year for the scientist as the needs of the colony shifted into something she was not sure he was ready for; the man was having a tough go.
As her armour fell away she knew that no matter how much the man irritated her she was going to have to keep her husband from rubbing salt in his wounds. Malcolm Wallace had a brilliant mind but it did not work in the way they needed it too; didn't mean the man didn't have his uses. Perhaps the science division needed some more restructuring; she would consider that more in the morning.
Nathaniel had her disarmed and had her armour off in no time and she didn't try to help; he liked to do that and got testy if she interfered. Alicia pulled on a soft shirt to sleep in before crawling into bed with him. He wrapped an arm around her and they both slept; it had been a long day. Morning would come to fast.
…
Nathaniel fidgeted with his empty coffee cup, waiting for Alicia to be ready. She had slept late and he hadn't had the heart to wake her, but Elisabeth was early. The doctor sat on the couch, the small pack she brought on the floor next to her, he knew why she was here but hadn't had the chance to talk to Alicia about it yet.
She had been exhausted last night, and Malcolm had complicated the night; and she had ducked out of the meeting early yesterday. They had more people in the infirmary with environmental illnesses, serious allergies, and a number of children. And as medication supplies ran short they had fewer means to treat them.
The hunt was on for alternative treatments, and the science division felt antibody vaccines was the best way to go. The science of it was lost on him but he got the drift, medications were weakening people's immune systems; vaccines would do the opposite.
Alicia came flying out of the bathroom. "Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting."
"No problem." Elisabeth smiled briefly as his wife dropped down to sit. Her damp hair clung to her cheeks and fell over her shoulders, he saw the doctor eying the bruises; and for a moment he felt sick.
"This is about the medical situation right?" Alicia was ready to focus, a little off by being late but business as usual, and alone with her he had felt the same; now he didn't.
Now Elisabeth was looking at her, at him; he knew she didn't understand them. Most decent men could say they had never hit their wives and what he could justify did not make him feel better as a woman wondered how he could have hurt Alicia; and she sat next to him. He was not an abuser and his wife was not a scared victim, he might have size on his side but Alicia could hold her own in any fight.
He saw Elisabeth frown, felt a hand tighten on his thigh; and glanced over to find Alicia watching him. "Sorry?"
"What do you think?" She looked at him expectantly and he tried to piece together the conversation he hadn't really been listening to.
"Is there another option?" He could piece together most of it, science division wanted his wife for a guinea pig and donor. And his wife was not impressed with his answer.
"Not a very good one. We do not have a reliable supply of the compounds or the equipment to be trying to synthesize medications we used to use. We need to look at a solution not a band aid." The doctor answered.
"And if she is pregnant?" She wasn't right now, but he sort of hoped she would be soon.
"We take the appropriate precautions and monitor mom and baby carefully, the side effects of the medication are serious but short lived and not a threat if Alicia becomes pregnant while taking it." The woman launched into an explanation of the precautions they would take, he focused on his wife; she was listening to her friend.
"What side effects?"
"There are hallucinogenic and neuromuscular inhibiting properties." And as she went on to explain how the properties would manifest in his wife's body he worried.
"We need to discus this. I understand the pressure with so many in the colony sick but this is my wife's health." He wasn't ready to decide and he knew what Alicia would choose to do unless he tried to fight her on it.
They showed her out and he went for his weapon holster, he knew she was going to tell him what she thought. She grabbed her vest and he winced. "Nathaniel what?"
"Nothing." He slid the pistol into the holster and his knife into his belt, he liked the colony knowing she was his wife; he wasn't enjoying seeing his hand prints on her.
"Look don't get all bent out of shape, we can talk about it later. I've got to meet engineering, and then check in on Wallace." She grabbed her gear and headed for the door. "Oh, and you need to talk to Maddie Shannon, the kid shouldn't be working her boss' pet project."