Chapter 9

Three Weeks After Hope Plaza Was Destroyed

Standing in front of the remains of Hope Plaza, Michael stood with his rifle in hand beside his Phoenix Group comrades as they guarded their leader, Miranda Nichol, from the screaming crowds of protesters in front of them. Even though he was equipped with OrbisTech's finest rebreather technology, he still thought he could sense the stench of acrid smoke and soot from the charred remnants of the facility. The flashes from the cameras were blinding him, leaving coloured spots in his vision as they captured the destruction behind him; a massive hole of debris where Hope Plaza once stood.

The fire had burned for days. Eventually the structure completely collapsed, leaving a hideous pile of rubble just outside the city. The portal's anchor had crumbled, unleashing the anomaly to god knew where.

The death toll had risen to twenty-two. Many more were injured. The thousands of protesters who roamed the streets had felt as though they may as well be condemned to death with Hope Plaza gone.

Understandably, they wanted answers. They wanted hope. And with no one else to blame, they turned to the corporation who had made all of this possible in the first place.

"EdenCorp is not responsible for the tragedy that happened here a few weeks ago," Nichol declared to the crowd and the cameras in front of her. She was calm, confident. Dignified. "Regrettably, the Terra Novans have turned on us. They have cut themselves off from us. They no longer wish to share their fortune with the rest of us."

Some shouts and curses came from the audience. Michael narrowed his vision, watching carefully. Many people had showed up today. They filled the streets. Many of them poor families, most with outdated rebreathers, some without any rebreathers at all. They were sick, weary, angry.

"The man responsible for this act of treason is Commander Nathaniel Taylor. He was given responsibility of the colony, and he has abused his power."

The murmurs from the crowd became louder, angrier.

"I promise you, I will do everything in my power to rectify what has happened, and bring Commander Taylor to justice."

Louder still. Angrier. People started throwing trash and random objects.

"You did this!"

"How the hell can you fix this now?"

One man near the front unwrapped his scarf from his face and turned towards the crowd. "The rich don't care if this world burns, or if we burn with it! I say if we're going down, we bring them down with us! Down with Eden!"

The crowd roared in agreement.

"Down with Eden! Down with Eden!"

Nichol attempted to restore order, but it was too late. Michael gripped his rifle. He knew what he had to do, he just didn't know if he was prepared to do it.

A bottle came flying at Nichol's head, missing her by a few inches.

"Get me out of here!" she snapped.

A couple of her guards began to escort her, when a loud shot rang through the crowd. She ducked to the floor, her security shielding her. Panicked and screaming, the public dispersed across the site. Michael looked around for the shooter, heart racing. Bodies were running in all directions, but he eventually focused on a single still person in the centre of the crowd. It was a middle-aged man, stony-eyed, wielding an old-fashioned handgun. Michael raised his rifle.

"Stop!" he yelled.

The man lifted his gun again, prepared to shoot a second time.

"What are you doing? Shoot him!" yelled Nichol. "Somebody shoot him!"

Another shot echoed through the crowd, and the man fell. Michael looked over to see another soldier had pulled the trigger. He shot a cold glare at Michael. Then a member of the crowd tackled the soldier, grabbed his gun and shot him.

Michael's blood ran cold. He turned to see Nichol being escorted into a car, leaving the chaos. More shots. Phoenix Group soldiers were firing on the civilians.

He couldn't breathe. He took a step back, his finger trembling on the trigger as people rushed past him.

"MURDERERS!" a young man bellowed as he ploughed into Michael, knocking him down. Dazed for a second from the sudden impact of his body hitting the floor, he sensed the man on top of him, prying away his rifle.

"No!" Michael tried to pull the gun away from him, but the civilian was gradually turning the rifle to point at Michael. "Stop!"

The man's fury and desperation had given him strength, something Michael hadn't really trained for when learning how to defend against an enemy. This guy didn't care if he lived or died anymore, he literally had nothing left to lose. That made him more lethal than any dino, or Sixer, or Phoenix Group soldier he had ever come across.

He felt his strength fading, the gun slipping from his reach. He could imagine himself dying here in the dirt, an insignificant henchman, shot to death by a raging man shouting insults at him. It would be quick, easy. Simpler than the alternative. But he had to live. For Alicia.

He focused all his energy on regaining control of that weapon. His muscles tensed painfully. Then he felt the heat and vibration of the weapon as it discharged. For a moment he considered the possibility that he himself had been shot, but as he looked up at the man threatening him, the terrified expression in his eyes, he knew he had done what he had feared. The man flopped lifelessly on top of him, soaking him in blood

Distraught, Michael crawled out from under him, cursing. He saw more of them, waving broken bottles or bits of wood and other improvised weapons. One of them ran towards Michael, screaming, before being shot down. More of them were dropping.

Michael realised he was shooting them. Killing them before they had a chance to fight him. His 'comrades' were doing the same, with an automatic disregard to the consequences.

Any person that charged him, he would pull the trigger, and they would fall. But Michael kept shooting. Because they had their side and he had his.

He couldn't breathe. He turned to see one of the Phoenix Group men get shot in the face, dark blood and brain matter exploding through the air as his body fell into the crowd. Another soldier grabbed Michael and pulled him along.

"RUN! RUN! GET BACK TO BASE NOW."

Michael ran, his stomach churning. Panting heavily, he followed the other Phoenix Group soldiers until they reached one of their trucks and piled in. They drove off fast. Michael closed his eyes. shivering, hearing the panicked cries and screams of the crowd gradually disappear into silence.

He didn't realise at the time that he had witnessed the start of a war. All he could focus on was the sound of his gun going off and the sight of those men and women falling, one after the other.

Terra Nova, Now

Another difficult night, but Michael could begin to feel his worn mind and body gradually recovering from all those months of pushing his limits, physically as well as mentally. On the rare occasion his subconscious was kind to him, he could dream that he was a kid again, letting his mother help him with his homework, or playing with Lucas, or even stepping into Terra Nova for the first time as a teenager, or lying in bed with Wash. He could be anywhere he wanted, and travelling through time in the mind was a lot simpler than travelling through time in real life.

But he would also have those nightmares, where his dreams mirrored reality, and he would wake to the realisation that the nightmares were real life, and the comforting dreams were just reliving what was already lost.

He gradually came round to the sound of a loud thumping on the door. Wiping his tired eyes, Michael pulled himself to his feet and dragged himself over to the door as the banging continued.

"Alright," he muttered. "Hold on." His expression remained wooden as he opened the door. "Who needs an alarm clock when I have you, Mark?"

Mark frowned and hastened into the house, shutting the door behind him. Michael understood why he was being so skittish when he pulled an object out from his uniform pocket. Another communicator.

"This is what you wanted. It still works as far as I'm aware. Now you can talk to those people whenever you want. And I'm out, understood?"

Michael nodded, taking the device. "Understood. Thank you, Mark."

"I didn't do it for you. I did it for Maddy. She doesn't need to find out about this."

"Of course."

Mark stared at Michael for a beat, then shook his head and began to leave.

"Aren't you ever curious?" Michael asked suddenly. "Why they chose you?"

Mark stopped and sighed, giving Michael the impression that he didn't want to discuss it. But he turned around, softening, and gave a small shrug. "They said I was special. That I could be part of something important. But it was all lies. As soon as I got here and I met the Commander and I saw how great everything could be, I realised I wasn't special. This place was special. And I wasn't about to let them destroy it."

Michael was silent, causing Mark to huff scornfully and walk out the door.

As the door slammed, Michael ran his fingers over the smooth surface of the device. His one connection to Alicia was literally in his hands. He couldn't mess this up. He hid the device under his bed and waited for his next intruders to take him to work.

Michael spent that morning in the Command Centre drawing out detailed maps of Nichol's base, the one in Bermuda and the one in Chicago. He drew Wash's prison quarters at EdenCorp HQ, which he remembered vividly, and pointed out where the Commander was likely being held. He marked where the guards patrolled and described their shift patterns to Jim. All in all, he was being incredibly helpful considering he was the enemy. He hoped Jim appreciated this. He liked to think that he was betraying Nichol by doing this, but the sad part was that even if Malcolm got the portal up and running, even if they were 100% prepared for what was on the other side, they still had to survive a warzone with little rebreather technology, gain access to one of the most guarded buildings in the city, find Wash and his dad and fight their way out, back to an untethered portal which could open up two-hundred feet below the earth for all they knew.

Unfortunately, whatever plan Jim could cook up had a slim success rate. But he could admire the man's determination if nothing else. And every piece of information Michael could offer helped him get one step closer to earning the colony's trust.

"We appreciate your cooperation, Michael," said Jim, examining the diagrams Michael had put together. "I understand you just want to get Wash back in one piece. And of course, your son."

His son. Michael kept forgetting. The idea of him being a father still felt so foreign to him. He smiled. "I'm still getting used to that, I guess."

"Trust me," Jim said, even going as far as patting Michael on the shoulder. "You never get used to it."

It was an odd connection. Were he and Jim bonding? It was an alien feeling, to have some warmth between the two men. Perhaps Jim was finally starting to trust Michael.

Michael even enjoyed Jim's story about how terrified he was when Josh was born, how he had no clue how to act, how to be a father. But somehow, with Elisabeth's help, he managed it.

"Didn't stop him hating me all throughout his teens though." He chuckled. "Even when we came here, it was tough for a bit," Jim added. "That's just the way kids are sometimes."

"He seems okay now," Michael said. "Stable job at Boylan's...sweet girlfriend."

Jim nodded. "Yeah. Skye is...Skye is good for him. She's a great young woman. They've had their bad days though...I just hope they're not together for the wrong reasons."

Before Michael could probe any more into Jim's statement, the two were interrupted by some shouting and loud noises outside.

Jim leapt to his feet to investigate the disturbance, peering over the balcony of the Command Centre. "Not again," he muttered. Michael followed and witnessed a commotion in the market below. People were fighting and brawling, shouting and swearing. Casey Durwin was on the floor, the wheels of his chair spinning as they pointed upwards to the sky.

"Oh my God."

Jim took off down the steps immediately to break up the riot. Michael instinctively followed. Some security officers had also attempted to break up the scene, with little success.

"HEY!" Jim yelled. "Back off! Calm down!" He tried to disperse the crowd that had surrounded poor Casey. They were yelling at each other, scrapping and grabbing what they could from his stall.

Michael helped the man back into his chair. He was obviously shocked by the fall, looking around with disorientation. And then his face flushed red with fury.

"These thieves are trying to steal from me!" he yelled. "Give back what you stole, all of it, do you hear me?"

"I gave you five terras," one man argued. "That's a fair price, not the ridiculous prices you've had recently."

"I gave him seven terras! The batteries are mine, give them to me!" another man screamed, trying to launch at the first man. Jim interverned, forcing the men apart.

"I wouldn't have to hike my prices up if everything wasn't so in demand," snapped Casey. "This gear don't grow on trees, you know!"

"Alright, alright. I know things are difficult right now," Jim announced so everyone could hear. "But we can't let it get the better of us. Batteries are in short supply and Durwin has the right to charge what he has to to make his living."

"What about our living?" a woman in the crowd yelled. "My earnings can't afford anything anymore."

"Why do some people like Malcolm Wallace get to walk around with plexes and power cores while the rest of us go without?" someone else demanded.

Over the commotion, Michael could just about make out a woman's shouts in the distance. He looked back over at the rest of the market, many stall owners packing up quickly whilst they still could. But one woman was waving her arms and pointing.

"Help! Stop them!"

Michael's gaze followed the woman pointing to a cloaked figure, making a quick dash through the housing units. He didn't even think. He launched after the figure, weaving through the houses, following as they skillfully dodged and jumped over obstacles, turning corners in an attempt to lose him. Michael pursued closely, until the cloak was in grabbing distance. Panting, he reached out his hand, felt the material graze his fingers, and then he tugged as hard as he could. The figure was yanked backwards, causing Michael to trip over them, and they both tumbled to the floor, spluttering in the dirt.

Michael coughed, wiping dust and dirt from his eyes and mouth. He saw the thief had dropped a bunch of stolen fruit. Then he looked over at them. A girl. He blinked hard.

"Tasha?"

He got to his feet. Guzman's daughter. He still remembered her face the day he told her that her father had died. The way she crumpled to the floor still haunted him. He had given her the worst news of her life. Now she was orphaned, she had been making a living with her friends. Or so he thought.

"I...Are you okay?"

Tasha wiped the dirt off her cheek, glaring at him, before picking up her stolen items and running off again.

Michael caught his breath, confused. Were things so bad that kids like Tasha were having to steal food just to survive? This wasn't right. He instantly felt ashamed, remembering Guzman's last words before he died. Keep Tasha safe. Clearly, she didn't feel safe. First he failed to keep Guz alive and then he failed to fulfil his last wishes.

He made his way back to the market where Jim was still trying to keep order. Michael looked around at the exasperated crowd, seeing how desperate people were. He saw an opportunity.

"Terra Nova needs help," declared Michael loudly as he approached the crowd. Everyone began to stop and gradually quieten. "The colony is struggling. Today is proof of that. We're 22nd Century people living in the Cretaceous period. We had no right being here. There's tons of diseases and creatures out there that could kill us in a second if not for those gates and our technology to protect us. We were never meant to survive on our own...which is why we need to open up communication with the future again, with the people who started this journey in the first place."

The crowd began to buzz again, fear and panic rising in people's voices.

"Are you insane? They'll attack us again!"

"We can't trust the people in the future."

"The portal's bust anyhow."

"We have no choice!"

"We're dead either way…"

"We want to hear from the Commander!"

"Yeah, where's the Commander?"

"Everyone calm down!" bellowed Jim at the top of his voice. "Commander Taylor will be back soon."

"He's in the future, isn't he?" a voice guessed.

"I thought the terminus was destroyed."

"We're sick of the lies, Shannon. Tell us what's going on!"

"I can tell you the truth," shouted Michael, earning the attention of every single person in the crowd. He took a deep breath, taking in the many faces that were now staring at him attentively. "The Commander is in 2150," Michael answered. "With the people I've been working for."

"Michael," Jim warned.

"I didn't realise it was a secret?" Michael said, feigning ignorance.

Jim scowled at him. Then, sighing deeply, he addressed the crowd:

"Taylor is negotiating with the head of EdenCorp to come to an arrangement," he explained. "We don't know how long he'll be gone for. But as I said we're working on getting him back."

"I knew there was a fracture in the Badlands," a woman said smugly. "Everyone who goes there disappears."

"That means they can come through and attack us again!" someone else cried fearfully.

"They won't," Michael promised. "EdenCorp want peace. That's what my father has gone there to negotiate. This is the only way to guarantee a safe and healthy future for your families. Trust me."

There was only a quiet mumbling now, with people clearly unsure what to think, including Casey Durwin who had been listening intently, forehead wrinkled with deep thought. He shook his head, still angry, and began packing up his stall.

"The market is closed," Jim announced. "Everyone go home and don't worry. Everything is under control."

Hesitantly, the crowd dispersed. A mix of angry, confused, and upset voices echoed through the market. No one knew what to think.

As everyone left, Jim stormed over to Michael, seething. "What the hell was that?"

"I just gave them what they wanted. Some hope."

"Hope? For all we know, EdenCorp could have killed Taylor by now. You've just made things worse by panicking people."

"They were already panicked, Shannon. Take a look at this place. You've barely got a hold on this colony. What would my father think?"

Jim looked like he could shoot daggers from his eyes. "Regardless, the truth is out now, and I have to decide what to do with you. I have to arrange a meeting with the council to discuss our next move."

He grabbed hold of Michael, dragging him towards the Command Centre.

So much for their new-found bond, Michael thought. It looked like they wouldn't be buddies after all.