Whole New World - Terra Nova

-Training

Several months later...

"OOF!" Ruby landed hard with a groan, followed by by a long, "Ow..."

Alicia stared down at her, hands on her hips.  "Come on, up."

"I think you broke my tailbone." Ruby got to her feet, rubbing her now sore backside.  "Or bruised it at least..."

"Come on, let's go again." Alicia grabbed her hand and wrenched her to her feet.

"Okay - practice makes perfect, right?"

"We're not after perfect, we're just after survival."

"I'm going to go home and have a nice hot bath." Every one of her muscles ached, thanks to the woman in front of her. 

Ruby mostly operated in a lab all day, and didn't have the intensive survival skills of the OTG crews. So when she'd approached Lieutenant Washington about training her, the other woman had been surprised but also eager to help out. 

They already worked together in the orientation for newcomers to the colony. Alicia taught survival skills when out in the wild and Ruby educated everyone on the dinosaurs  they could encounter, and how to best deal with them. Which ones you hid from, which ones you gained altitude from, and which ones you ran like hell from. 

It's not like she had expected the training to be anything less than intense - she had seen it in action - but in practice it was on a whole other level. 

"Whoa!" Alicia smoothly threw her back to the ground when she had barely regained her footing from last time. Hey, no fair! 

"Good morning, Commander," Alicia said. 

From her viewpoint on the ground, Ruby watched as Commander Taylor entered her vision, standing above her next to Alicia.

"Wash, Doc. Good Morning."

"Morning, Sir." Trying to keep her groans to a minimum, she got to her feet and brushed herself off. She mimicked Alicia's tall posture with her hands clasped behind her back. "Lieutenant Washington's training me for OTG."

The Commander shared a glance with his right hand woman.  "Is that so?"

"Yes," Alicia told him.  "Doctor Marshall was very insistent."

"The only way to get accurate information on our dinosaur neighbours is to go out there and observe and do tests." She gestured widely, meaning 'out there'.  "So I'm preparing."

"Well it looks like you're working hard, that's good."

"Yeah, I'll be out there in no time! Just as soon as I knock the Lieutenant here on her ass!"

Another glance shared between Commander and Lieutenant. "Carry on."

"Thank you, Sir, but we are wrapping up for the day," Alicia told him. 

"Yeah, I can only take so much - as of right now." Ruby lifted her hand in a wave.  "See you. Thanks again, Lieutenant Washington." Then she walked stiffly away in the direction of her single-person dwelling.

"It feels wrong, giving her hope," Alicia told the Commander. 

"I know, but it's for her own good. Keep up the training, stretch it out as long as possible."

"Yes, Sir."

_------------------------_

True to her word, Ruby went home and promptly ran herself a nice hot bath. She stayed there in the tub until the water grew chilled and her skin wrinkled. She was going to be stiff and sore for days. But it was worth it, she kept telling herself. If she kept this up, she would eventually be able to go OTG - outside the gate. That was the whole point of this. Professor Phillip's sudden death had put an abrupt halt on the scientists' chances to go OTG, and she hoped to change that, and sooner  rather than later. Oh, she knew the risks, but the research demanded it. It was well worth it. After all, how many humans got the chance to study real live dinosaurs? 

After her bath she got dressed and decided to spend some time in the lab. As she was leaving, she noticed tall shadows around the fence: dinosaurs.

Brachiosaurus, to be more specific. 

And not only them, but someone else as well: a young girl had also been drawn to the magnificent creatures, and was feeding them scraps of branches that didn't quite make it into their mouths.

"Oh hello." Ruby greeted her with a smile.

"Hi," she returned. 

"You like them too?"

The girl smiled and nodded. 

"ZOE!"

Some folks who appeared to be the girl's family members came tearing around the corner, stopping when they saw her. They must have been newcomers. 

"Welcome to Terra Nova," Ruby told them.  "Come meet the neighbours."

The family introduced themselves as the Shannons: Jim and Elisabeth and their three children, Josh and Maddy, and Zoe, of course, who Ruby had already met. They had just come through on the most recent pilgrimage, the tenth.

She shook each of their hands.  "I'm Doctor Ruby Marshall, dinosaur expert and paleontologist  - these are just a few of  my colleagues." She chuckled and gestured to the dinos. 

"How long have you been here?" Elisabeth asked her.

"I came through on the Sixth Pilgrimage." 

Seeing this family with their three children, Zoe the illegal third, made her bristle. Unlike her own family, the Shannons had fought long and hard for Zoe's right to exist within their family. She was glad to see they had succeeded in bringing their whole family here where they could live in peace, away from the 'Family is  Four' authorities. 

She gave them - this lovely family of five - a warm smile. "Welcome home."

(I'm thinking, as of right now, this story will feature mostly my own plotline but will feature some scenes from the show :) Oh, the joys of fanfiction!

Thank you so much for all the reads and positive response already! :D)