It was as if a large weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Emmy finally felt relaxed, for the first time since arriving in Terra Nova. The piece of paper in her hand flapped against the wind as she made her way down the stairs of the Command Base and towards the stone path. She folded it in half and placed it in the back pocket of her jeans, walking passed people. A hand clamped down on her shoulder and she froze, she grabbed hold of the arm and twisted it as she moved the person in front of her. Her left arm wrapped around his neck from behind as her right arm pinned his behind his back.

     "Oh god, Emmy!" Mark choked out in surprise.

     Emmy quickly released him, stepped backward. "I'm so sorry," she spoke quickly as he rested his hands on his knees before rubbing his throat.

     "Warn a guy next time."

     "How about not putting your hand on a former prisoner from behind?"

     "Yeah." He nodded. "That works too."

     Emmy blew out a deep breath, quickly looking around noticing that the others had stopped to watch them. Her jaw tightened as she pushed Mark around the corner of the one the building and between two of them, into a small alley way. Mark let out a small yelp as he stumbled and stood up straighter. Emmy stepped back until her back was pressed against the other wall of the building. It wasn't the exact impression she wanted to give people, she could have handled that situation with a bit more grace and finesse, but she couldn't go back and change what she did.

     "So, how'd it go?" Mark asked her, seemingly unaffected by what just happened.

     "What?"

     "With Commander Taylor? Is everything alright?" Emmy could tell that he was worried but she wasn't sure why, it wasn't like they were exactly friends. They hardly knew one another.

     "Yeah, everything is fine," she replied.

     "What did he want to talk to you about?"

     Emmy touched the piece of paper in her back pocket. "He offered me a job."

     "Doing what?"

     Emmy groaned. She didn't really like how nosey he was. "Maintenance."

     "Well, that's cool."

     "You talk a lot." Emmy began to walk down the alley way and back out to the path.

     She could hear Mark following her. "Yeah, I guess I do." He nodded as he began to walk next to her. "Do you want me to show you where the maintenance department is?"

     Emmy sighed. "Sure."

     Mark nodded his head with a smile. He wasn't a bad kid, he just didn't know when to stop talking. Emmy thought to herself as they walked passed the infirmary where Tanya and Michael were.

     "Just give me a sec." She patted Mark's arm and walked inside the medical centre.

     "Emmy?" Malcolm asked when he spotted her walk in. "Is everything alright? You feeling okay? I was just heading to the Research Labs but if you need me to help—"

     "I'm fine, really. Do you know where Tanya is?"

     "She's with a patient right now? Can I give her a message?"

     Emmy paused. "Uh, yeah. Let her know I'll be down in maintenance."

     "Maintenance?"

     "She'll know what that means." She smiled at him before walking back out and over to Mark.

     "Did what you need to do?"

     "Figuratively speaking, yeah."

     "Okay, great."

     Emmy and Mark continued to stay silent for the remainder of their walk to the maintenance department. Emmy couldn't help but smile at everything. All around her there was life. Adults and children were out and about, enjoying the new life that they were given. New and strange plants were growing, from both inside and outside the gated walls of the colony. Not to mention the wildlife outside the gates, the dinosaurs that roamed further out into the woods. It made Emmy feel less alone and isolated to know that she wasn't the only one experiencing this. Back in Golad, there was no interaction between anyone, so this was definitely a nice change of pace.

     They walked up to a circular building with two other buildings connected. "I'll see you later." Mark patted her back before walking off, leaving Emmy alone. She didn't mind that much, she knew he had a job to do.

     The doors to the circular building slid open as she stepped towards them. The glass doors had a light grey stripe along the middle, going left to right with the words: 'MAINTENANCE FACILITY' written across parallel to the stripe, just above it, each word separately placed on its down door, with smaller grey squares placed beside them filling up the gaps, mirroring the bottom stripe. Emmy watched the doors close behind her before she walked into the room more. From the right side of the building, in the joined section where the two buildings met, there was a set of stairs leading down to another level.

     Emmy walked over and heard something drop to the door, followed by a string of curses. She walked down the stairs, reading a sign on the wall with an arrow pointing down. When she got to the bottom of the stairs there were three glass doors. The one on her left had a small room of servers and tall metal fences in front of each one, small flashing lights and wires were behind the locked fence wall. The one just in front of her had a room filled with scrap metal and wires. The door on her right was open, she walked in and saw a messy area of desks and computers with a table covered in scraps and old parts.

     "Are you, uh-" Emmy looked at the piece of paper that Commander Taylor had given her after he instructed her to go visit the maintenance department and continued, "Jaived Abel?" Emmy looked up and furrowed her eyebrows. She could have sworn she heard movement from inside the room when she walked in. She took a step closer and looked over the edge of the desk.

     A head popped up from underneath the desk causing Emmy to let out a scream, stepping back before holding her chest with her right hand, crinkling the piece of paper while her left hand held the table behind her. "Hello," he responded. Emmy breathed out, glaring at him as he stood up brushing his clothes. "Sorry about the mess," he apologised as he picked up a dirty rag from the desk, wiping his hands before wiping the sweat from his brow. Emmy bit back a comment when she noticed him smear dirt on his face.

     "Are you Jaived?" She asked again.

     "Uh, yes. Yes, that is me." He walked around the desk and held his hand out to her. Emmy stared at the dirt on his hand not moving her hands from her chest or the table behind her. "Oh! Right sorry," he exclaimed once he looked down at his hand. "So, uh, what can I help you with?" He tilted his head when he pulled his hand away from her.

     "Commander Taylor sent me down here," Emmy started, "He told me to see if there was any mechanic work that needed to be done."

     "You're a mechanic?"

     "What did you think I was? A maid?"

     Jaived's eyes widened and he shook his head. "No, no! That's not what I meant!" He held his arms out in defence. "I just meant that—"

     "I don't look like one? Because I'm a girl?"

     "No." He shook his head again. "I wasn't told that we were getting a mechanic."

     "Oh."

     "Yeah, I have nothing against you being one, I just didn't expect anyone." Jaived gave her a small smile before looking at the piece of paper in her hands. "May I?" He motioned to the parchment. Emmy raised an eyebrow and handed it over before pushing away from the table to walk around the room.

     "So, what are you?" She asked as she glanced back at him.

     Jaived looked up from the paper and to her. "What?" Obviously, he wasn't paying attention.

     "What do you do around here?"

     "I'm an engineer." He nodded, looking back down to the piece of paper. "It says your last name is Cade. Are you related to Tanya by any chance?"

     "Yeah, she's my sister. How do you know her?" Emmy picked up a small computer chip from the desk and inspected it.

     Jaived quickly took the chip from her and placed it back down on the desk. Emmy stepped back with her hands up and eyebrows raised. "We came during the second pilgrimage together. She had to stitch me up a few times when I first started working down here."

     Emmy chuckled. "Why is that?"

     "I wasn't used to the technology that they brought over. I came from India two years before Commander Taylor went through the portal, and in India, we didn't have the same tech as you did in Hope Plaza, so it took a while for me to get used to things."

     "Were you and engineer back at Hope Plaza?"

     "Trying to be." Jaived chuckled. "But I wasn't that great at English. My parents didn't speak it and only my uncle did, so when I moved away from India I left them all behind—"

     "Why did you leave them?"

     "Pardon?"

     Emmy pressed a few buttons on one of the old computers. "Why'd you leave your family behind? Didn't they try to get you to stay?"

     "They're dead," Jaived replied in a monotone voice as he handed back the piece of paper. "Before I left a war broke out, my father and uncle had to go fight—but they never came back," his voice quietened down at the end.

     "Your mother?"

     "She couldn't deal with the pain."

     Emmy's jaw tightened. She knew exactly what that meant. She offered him a small smile. "I'm sorry."

     "It's fine. I've had time to grieve."

     "I suppose." She nodded. "So," her voice rose slightly as she changed the topic. "Any space for a mechanic here?"

     Jaived looked down with a smile before glancing up at her. "I'm sure we can find something for you."