Terra Nova (Oc x reader)

Bylaw - Part 2

Back at Taylors office, Wash pulls up the location on the screen.

"It's on the move." Jim states.

"The nyko, it must've eaten it." Taylor says.

"Then we're gonna have to get that nyko." Jim says.

...

Jim, Liam, Taylor and Wash hunt for the nyko. They butcher the nyko and find the tags inside its stomach.

On it is a the picture of Foster with a woman. Wash recognise the woman as someone that works in the mess hall. Jim and Liam go to visit the woman, Rebecca Milner.

She refuses to admit that her and Foster had an affair. Then Howard Milner, her husband, comes back home when they are still there. He tells her he knows about the affair and then turn to Liam and Jim. He then confesses to the murder of Ken Foster. They take Howard Milner with them for interrogation. Once done, they give Taylor the interrogation footage to watch.

...

"You were right." Taylor says coming out after having watched the interrogation video. "It was murder.. Lieutenant Washington knows, I expect my people to adhere to a strict code of honour. For one of them to get involved with a married Terra Novan, well, that's not just frowned upon, I won't tolerate it.. But Foster didn't deserve to die for it. Shannon have you been out to Memorial Field?"

Liam shakes his head. "Not yet." Jim answer for them both.

"It's beyond the fields before those low hills. Simple headstones buried in the earth. We have sustained losses, fallen soldiers, accidents, citizens who've succumbed to Syncillic fever." He says and Liam looks down thinking about your loss. "But we've never had a murder in Terra Nova."

He then turns back to them.

"Unless I commute Milner's sentence to imprisonment, the bylaw says banishment." Taylor tells them.

"Out there?" Jim asks.

"Out there." He confirms. "I'm going to bury our soldier. Then I'm gonna make a decision. I don't recall ever having to make a tougher one." He says and leaves.

...

The next day they walk a silent parade through the street for Foster. Later at night Elisabeth and Jim starts talking while they clean up after dinner.

"So what do you think will happen tomorrow?"

"I don't know. But the good news is, there's not gonna be a drawn-out trial."

"You don't think he deserves one?" Elisabeth asks him.

"He confessed. There's something to be said for swift justice."

"But, Jim, come on. This is wrong. It's frontier justice. You know that."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. Like I should miss the system we left behind. You remember the crap I dealt with. Everything moved iceberg slow and I'd work a good case for months only to have someone buy the verdict out from under me."

"Yeah, no, I know that was bad. But I fail to see how it's worse than barbaric decisions being made by one man alone."

"Barbaric?"

"Yeah."

"Okay.. Don't forget, Milner's a confessed killer. Well, what do you think we should do with him?"

"Confine him. Put him on trial. And if he's guilty then put him in prison. But try to show some mercy."

"I was just in prison, and mercy is not the first word that comes to mind when I think back on my time."

"Maybe we should talk about this later."

"If someone gave me the choice between an eight-by-eight in Golad and a chance in the wild with a gun in my hand, I know which one I would have picked!"

"Okay, I didn't think before I spoke, alright? I didn't mean it that way."

"What do you want from me, Liz?"

"I'm trying to take this back!"

"I mean, we got a confession. You're acting like we beat it out of the guy!"

Liam walks out of his room angry.

"Dad! Mom!" He whisper-shouts at them for arguing loudly.

They sigh. "I'm sorry." Jim says and Elisabeth sighs.

"Like no one's ever had reason to falsely confess." She says and goes to her and Jims bedroom.

Jim and Liam frowns and look at each other.

...

Liam finds you in the crowd and walk to you. He takes your hand and you jump slightly having not seen him come, you look up at him and then smile sadly and intertwine your fingers with his.

Taylor walk out and stand in front of the crowd and Milner.

"Howard Milner, you confessed to the murder of Ken Foster. Do you have anything else to say for yourself?"

Milner shakes his head and looks down in answer.

"Ours is a colony of laws. A violation such as murder is a crime against every one of us. Terra Nova cannot survive unless we hold ourselves, hold each other, to standards higher than our standards of the past. With a heavy heart, I carry out this judgment of banishment." Taylor announces. A few in the crowd murmur slightly.

"Taylor, you know this is a death sentence. Isn't there another way?" Someone speaks up.

"The only way is forward, for the good of the colony. What we're building here, there's no place for a crime like this. Just as we've come back to remake this world, we have to let this world remake us. If we can't dare to live lives that are worthy of this remarkable place, well, we should've just stayed in the future to perish with the planet." Taylor says, then address Milner again. "Milner, you have a fighting chance out there. That's more than you gave Ken Foster. Don't ever come back to the colony. You've made your own fate. Now live or die with it."

Curran and Wash guides Milner out through the gate. You lean into Liam and cover your face. He takes your head and kiss it and wraps his arms around you as he watches Milner go out the gates. He then glance around the crowd til his eyes meet his fathers and they share a nod.

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