Terra Nova: Introduction To The Alternative Game

Portsmouth, England

November 14, 2003

Logged by: Terry Thorne

When I saw them, I couldn't help feeling pissed. Fuck all, here I was again. Serving as the Welcoming Committee. Shoulda been Nash this time but Maximus said there was no way he was letting that screwball near a new arrival.

"Why me?" I whined as I flicked my cig away and shoved my hands in my coat, sighing at the two of them bumbling up the wharf toward where I was waiting. They didn't have a damned clue.

But I greeted them as prescribed, gave them my name, told them to follow me. Actually? Damned good thing that Annie had talked me into reading their founding books along with her because it's why I was at least a bit prepared for them.

Took them to the inn we'd be staying at that night near the wharf area. Had dinner sent to their suite and it's where I gave them the first rudimentary run-down of where they were and why they were here.

Greeting the new brothers who arrive in Terra Nova is supposed to fall to the brother who arrives just before the new one. It's like a right of passage. But Max had been right; old Nash would have made a mess of this. Hell, I didn't do the best job either.

Should have been Max doing this, truth be told. He was scheduled to but then he got called away at the last minute on business so he called and asked ... read that 'ordered' ... me to do the honors for our newest brothers: Lucky Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin.

Max had figured out they'd be arriving at the port their ship was heading to at the end of the film. He also had this carefully mapped out instructional process for them. As the other recent Brother who'd come from way out of the past, Max was in the best position to know what they needed to start feeling some sense of comfort in this modern world.

Not that I didn't do my best. I'm a good briefer. Down and dirty. Unemotional. Get to the heart of the matter and leave out the unimportant crap.

That night, after I called Annie just to hear her voice, I laid in bed and thought about when I first came over. It had been Max to greet me and Dino. Tried to remember how it felt, what he'd said, how he'd acted, how much either of us had really heard.

For Jack and Stephen, I didn't exactly do it as Max had wanted. Not my style.

How to really explain this new world to a new Brother? Fuck, it's harder than it seems.

Try telling a bloke that he's really just stepped into the 'real' world from a movie. That he's been a figment of the imagination of an actor who ended up breathing life into him.

That he's one of many such creations in Terra Nova, the term we brothers have for this world we're now living in.

Try telling him, before he's met any of them much less seen their films, about the origins of this world for us. That it started back in 1992 when the creation known as Hando erupted with such force and such charisma that he seemed to have simply drawn himself and every other character Russell Crowe created into this world. How those men in the early years stuck to Australia; at first, running wild with this exhilarating feeling that I also felt upon emerging into this world. As if there's nothing that's not possible and nothing that's not there just for the taking.

Eventually, reality does set in. For some of us, like me, it only takes a few weeks. For those early brothers ... and for damned sure I figure Hando's influence was mainly responsible ... it took them a while to get themselves sorted. And when reality set in for them, they started realizing they'd made a few mistakes. Some things about how they were reacting in this world made them realize they needed to help new arrivals until they had their feet under them. Early on, they pooled their money and bought a ranch in Victoria so they'd have a private, secure area to gather. This gathering spot in Oz had become increasingly important as Crowe has gained fame and our numbers increased. As we've become only too aware in the last few years, there are dangers to all of us if any of us get too comfortable and forget to keep our secrets.

What secrets? How's this for starters: it started with eight brothers in 1992; by 1995 there were 13 and the new creations began arriving anywhere but Oz ... bringing us to the present day and, with these new arrivals, there are now 26 of us. From the beginning, Hando saw the possibilities for this world for the brothers. We could make it as we wanted; we always seemed to have that ability. It was Hando who insisted that the men live the lives they wanted as long as they looked out for each other. Trust him to instill some tribal discipline.

It's been Maximus, though, who's taken it to a whole other level. I don't actually have much appreciation for how it was before the General assumed boss status because I came after he did, obviously. But I understand that before Max, the others didn't have too much trouble hiding in the open. Then Max's film brought such fame to the Creator, Crowe, that steps had to be taken to bring defined order to the Brothers to assure the safety of each brother and his family.

Yeah. Family. This clan has grown to include wives and children. The early discipline that Hando set out was loose; about all he cared about was that the men were in charge of their individual families but that they also answered to him if they screwed up and caused trouble.

Right away, there were problems, so I understand from Lachlan. Those initial brothers didn't know about 'the pull.' What's that? It's hard to explain to someone outside the clan, but I'll tell you like Max told me ... it's a feeling each of us men experience with certain women we meet. Every single one of us has felt that pull with our mate ... Well, let me back up. Not all of us feel the pull for a woman; we do have Jeff Mitchell, who felt the pull for a man as befits his own calling. The rest of us? It's this uncanny feeling we have that's like a deep primal force that is impossible to resist ... you meet a woman and something about her has already attracted your attention. You ignore that feeling of being pulled toward her at your own risk. Because the thing is, that pull is what sets her apart for you. If you're smart, and I was, you follow that instinct and you'll find the woman has felt the same pull for you but has no idea what it was. It's more than animal magnetism; much more. So much more.

Now, the pull has another odd impact on us men. We feel moderate versions of it for the women being pulled to mate with any other brother. It's not so bad we can't control it once we know about it, but, mate, let me tell you ... the first brothers didn't know about it and there were some real fucking problems early on. Once they figured it out, a lot of the Brothers decided they didn't want to chance watching it affect their wives or girlfriends, so they tended to keep their women away from other brothers.

Initially, like I say, the brothers pretty well scattered and did their own thing. They'd gather together after a new bloke came into the world so they could greet him, but other than that, there wasn't that much contact unless there was some big reason like a wedding. Some brothers were friendlier with each other than others; seems natural in any clan that siblings match up according to interest and personality, right? But then SID came into being and by some strange twist, he actually created something that began binding the clan together a bit tighter.

SID wanted the finer things in life; Cort and Lachlan were worried about what he might be capable of because he was a psycho. Let's just call it as it is, right, mate? SID was nuts. Only Hando could control him. But then SID had this 'brilliant' idea to fund the family. Hey, I don't ask too many questions about the 'Treasury,' which is what we call the common funds SID's work generated. Figure it didn't come from anything totally legit but I don't care to screw up everyone else's fun. Besides, the Treasury is handy in setting up the new brothers. It helped me and Dino set up our company, the K&R biz we'd been set on when we stepped away from our film and into this world. But now, like most of the men, we pay our own way, earn our own living.

There's another reason the early brothers are reluctant to have their women, the Premiers as Jeff first termed them, get around the clan's gatherings. Those blokes have almost a superstition about these women ... they think they possess some power of their own to match the ones we seem to have. I mean, you know we got some mojo going since we're most of us never mistaken for Crowe and no one ever seems to think they've seen us in a movie. But the women, the Premiers? I have to laugh at some of the men, especially Hando and Zack, who are convinced that if we let the women get together and they get too cozy, we just may find that their combined power would be a force we'd have a tough time dealing with.

Right.

You can tell I'm worried, right?

Okay. So, that's probably one reason they came up with the Rules. I know, I know. I said I'd follow the Rules and that I'd insist my woman follow the Rules. You see that happening? I won't fight Max's authority; there's no reason as long as he leaves me alone. But trust me, the Rules were not my idea. They work to keep things in order, so I don't complain. I just don't necessarily approve of or follow them. And Annie for damned sure was never going to accept them. Rather knew that from the beginning and besides, one big Rule was that it was up to each brother to decide how to keep his own house in order. I just happen to run mine different than say, Max or Bud.

Y'know, I've actually got these theories about that. Dino and I have had a few half-drunken laugh riots trying to imagine old Maximus in his household with Uma. And while we both think Bud's a stand up guy, we gotta wonder how he found a woman like Natalie who really dotes on his 1940s mentality. Not that he's got it half wrong, we agree. Then there's Lachlan; another man from the 1940s; but the way he tells it, Darcy is just an old fashioned girl with the best heart he's ever found so it sounds pretty sweet for him, too. That said, you can be damned sure that Dino would never dare mess with his and Heather's way of life; he's got it too good. I'm not too close to the others, to be honest, so I don't care enough to even conjecture. There are times, though, that I do wonder how SID ever managed to find any woman willing to deal with him but Lach says Teener fits him like a velvet glove. There are some Brothers, like Cort, who have never felt the pull. Well, I say Cort hasn't felt the pull but the reality is, he took his spiritual calling a bit rough and has practiced celibacy since arriving in Terra Nova. The idea makes me shake.

As for me and Annie, what we have together works for us. Most of the time. Hey, like any married couple, we have been through some rough spots but we have neither of us forgotten how lucky we were to find the other. Although, Annie's one wife who's never been quiet about her unwillingness to swear to follow the Rules. That's my girl.

The Rules? Let's see. What's important to know? Well, Maximus didn't institute them all on his own but he did propose a lot of them from the somewhat chaotic tribal lore of Hando's time. It didn't take long for Max to rise to the challenge of becoming the clan's leader, mate. Must be that military background of his. Might also be that his film set him firm in the other brothers' minds as a man of honor, discipline, courage and brutality. I'm not saying anyone out and out challenges Max in this role, but I will say that not every brother is totally thrilled with this. Sometimes, he does verge on the dictatorial side. What grown man really wants to have his privacy invaded when Max gets to feeling he wants to ensure a brother is following the Rules?

His Rules are patriarchal; but then, so was his culture. The most radical ones ... the Premiers may only be allowed to know any of the clan's secrets after a marriage is approved by a small committee of brothers and then she gains final ratification from Maximus himself. This is a new rule; it began after Max took over. Naturally, the General felt no need to have his own wife approved but that's neither here nor there, right? The brothers who already had mates didn't have to worry about this Rule. And none of the men apparently had the least objection to the other main Rules regarding the Premiers: the Premiers were to be faithful to their men; however, the men could have sex with any other woman they wanted. They can even take the mate of a brother, as long as that brother permits it. Trust me, that doesn't happen too often, especially not with us later brothers. And not all of us ascribe to this notion of open permission to have other women besides our wives.

I remember when Max told Dino and me that Rule. The two of us got drunk shortly after that briefing from Max and thought it was the best idea we'd ever heard. Imagine that ... a world where men really did rule and it got right down to the most basic element every man wants: out and out permission to be a man.

Reality, though, is different for both of us. We both ended up wanting something else than a convenient wife. I think we both got what we wanted and needed on that score.

Hopefully, Jack and Stephen will as well.

For the six days in which I had to babysit them in London, I used my time to teach them not just about our Terra Nova mythology and Rules, but also to get them acclimated to the modern world.

Imagine the absolute thrill I kept having ... electricity, cars, modern plumbing, phones, computers ... Yeah. Such a great time having to explain it all.

By the time Max finally got his sorry arse back to London to take on the responsibility for settling Jack and Stephen in, I was so fucking glad to be getting rid of them. Not that I didn't like them. I actually did. Thing was, though, I was looking forward to spending a bit of quality time that night with someone who smells and looks a lot more to my liking. Annie was stopping over in London from Berlin where she'd been for a week. We were flying home to DC the next morning together. So you'll understand why I turned the two boys over to Daddy Max with a hearty smile on my way to meet Annie at the airport, right?

Max told me to feel free to bring her to dinner with everyone that night. I figured it was my first chance to meet his wife. Nope, Uma wouldn't be joining us as she was home with their child, Max said. He keeps her hidden away from most of the rest of us; I keep wondering just how bad ... or how good ... she looks that he feels the need to do that.

Anyway, Max is taking Jack and Stephen to dinner at the restaurant in our hotel that night. Says, bring Annie cos he'd love to see her again; Jack and Stephen insist on meeting my wife. And I could hardly tell them that Annie's been on my arse for a week about meeting Jack and Stephen because she loves them from the books.

Didn't fancy sharing what little time I have with her with other men. But sometimes Annie has other ideas. She does have some nice ways of trying to get me to change my mind. Sometimes, it even works.

So I ended up having to sit through dinner and watch Jack try his best to charm her. Max was his old uptight self but even he can mellow a bit around Annie. Stephen was the only one who seemed to not fall over himself with her. And then after we left them, I had to listen to her wax on about "Jack is so cool." But, hey, I know some ways to get her to forget anything else but me. Sometimes, it even works. Okay, well, it pretty well always works but I hate to brag on myself.

We'd been home all of ten days when Max calls. He's lost Jack. Now, understand that we were not worried about Stephen as we know he'll do fine. And he was; he was off traveling to see his old lands in Spain. But we had agreed that Jack was another matter. We know he's a bumbler and a fool on dry land. Max was supposed to be keeping an eye on him, checking up on him, offering him whatever help he needed to settle in.

Great, Max, I thought to myself. We got about two weeks before the entire clan is set to gather outside London, in Kent at this country estate, to welcome Jack. This time, we even made the extra effort to tell the Premieres they were welcome. It was to be the first clan gathering outside of Australia; we just thought it made more sense this time since more of us could make England easier that Oz. Max had used his government connections to wrangle a secure location with a staff that wouldn't ask questions about the group there for the weekend.

But he's lost the guest of honor. Great.

"Damn, Max, you were supposed to be watching him," I groused over the phone.

"I am not his nursemaid," he growled at me. "He is a grown man."

"Yeah, with an uncontrollable urge to follow the nearest pair of knockers." And with that comment, Annie clobbered me with a pillow as she caught on to whom I was going on about.

"What do you mean? He is a highly honorable sea captain and war hero," says Max.

"He is a drunk and a womanizer ... a fucking idiot on land," I retorted as Annie tries to whack me with her book.

"That is true," he said. "But we can hardly tie him to the mast and keep him afloat and I am not taking him home like a foundling child!"

"Why? Your wife got big tits?" I finally had to sit on Annie to keep her from punching me. "Look, you're either there for your Brother or not. I had to babysit Nash. Your turn."

"I am afraid it may be too late. He hasn't left the woman's bed in days."

"Go in there and drag him out. Bring along another woman, one with bigger tits than she has, to entice him out," I muttered into the phone as I settled a much more obedient Annie in front of me and began examining her breasts. Nice ones. She liked the attention.

"I can't walk in a man's room when he is...in flagrante..."

"Look, you want him back? You go get him."

"Come with me. He may be unwilling."

"What? Max, I am not flying over to England to ..." I thought about this a minute. A chance for a bit of a boy's frolic? Searching the dives to find Jack ... cos you know the kind of places good old Lucky Jack would be hanging about. Just the idea of seeing the Generalissimo in one of those places would be worth it. Besides, it had been a while since I'd dragged Max out for a bit of a boy's night. "Okay. I'll come help. I'll be there in the morning. But one thing ... I get to pick the wench with the big tits we'll dangle in front of him."

"Then I promise I shall stay with him until he has dried out and then leave him with Stephen- who appears to be a much more sane and approachable man."

"And drug addict," I said, smirking at Annie's outraged face just before I leaned in to give her a kiss as I hung up on Max.

Took us most of the day to find the place in the docks area where Jack and his new woman friend were shacked up at. We sat in the bar they'd been frequenting. She apparently worked there.

It was priceless. Sitting there with the General of the Armies of the North and looking around for a suitable pair of tits to use as bait to get Jack's interest away from whatever bimbo barmaid he was with and I said, "No shortage here, mate...even a few spares for later."

He glared at me over his glass. 

"Only joking, Max, steady on." But I hadn't missed his eyes perving on the local talent. He's a man like the rest of us, after all.

I leaned back against the bar and scanned the room a bit. Crowded in there. A pair of comely wenches sauntered over to check us out. The brunette got close to me and I checked out her jugs. They were okay, but not built to Jack's basest desires. The blonde threw her arms around Max and whispered something in his ear. Mine rubbed up against me. I gave her my most charming grin and whispered in her ear with my reluctant turndown of her kind offer. Max's face got that tight arsed look and he simply shrugged his girl off him. She got the message.

He's adorable when he's like that, mate. And then I saw a likely target so I nudged Max and indicated her with a subtle tilt of my head. Out of the side of my mouth, I murmured, "Fuck...is she asking for it or what?"

"Some things never change, I am pleased to say," he muttered behind his beer glass.

"If my wife heard this, I'd be ball-less in seconds..."

"Well, that would leave the field open for me then," he zinged me, giving me a grin to go along with it.

Gotta admit ... I doubt I woulda come here to help anyone but Maximus. He's fun to get in trouble with.

And just then, Jackimo arrives in the bar. His face is flushed, his hair's all messed up ... and he's got his arm around a beauty. Max and I looked at each other. Nice tits. Nice arse. Nice everything. Not exactly what either of us expected.

He saw us almost as soon as they came in. He drags her over to where we are; they're both giggling. He sits down and drags her atop his knee. He's three sheets to the wind.

Before either of us can say much, Jack is greeting us with a hearty welcome to his brothers. Then, he says it ... the words heard round Terra Nova: "Meet my future wife...the fair Isabella..."

As he raps out the beat to "Farewell To Spanish Ladies" on the bar and Isabella chortles at him, I could not help my reaction.

"Jesus," I said, knowing the General is about to explode.

"Fute," Max said and his face was as rigid as I've ever seen it. He had that tic near his eyes again.

Jack, though, didn't seem to notice that our reactions were somewhat less than enthusiastic. He slapped one big hand on the bar and called for a round. Then his face crinkled up in a grin and he said, "Did I ever tell you the one about the Irishman, the Frenchman and the Italian with the yard-long prick?"

"Jesus," I said again as he launched into one of the crudest, most inappropriate and least funny jokes I've ever heard. Max and I exchanged glances as Jack and Isabella collapsed on each other, laughing like they'd never stop.

"Did I miss something?" Max said.

Well ... yeah. Actually, we both missed something. We missed the significance of what was unfolding before us. Because what we had on our hands was the beginning of an incident that would come to mean more to our clan than any of us could have ever known that night.

It was the beginning of a string of circumstances that would have far ranging repercussions for us all in Terra Nova.

This was how we first met the woman we came to know only later by her correct name: Isobel. And at the gathering we were holding in a few weekends, at what was supposed to be Jack and Stephen's introduction to the clan, Isobel was going to meet the rest of us because the gathering was now going to become the wedding of Jack and Isobel.