by Maureen J. Long & Ellen
Warning: This story is a blending of several alternate universes: Energized, Florida Universe, the Year 1 universe from "Those Who Help Themselves" and Barbara Conrady's alternate universe "Matter of Life and Love" as seen in "Melissa Matters". It never actually happens in any of these universes. Barbara Conrady's versions of the characters was used with her permission. If you have never read the above stories, it is unlikely this story will have any meaning for you at all. And even if you have read them, we don't guarantee you won't be confused. We were when we wrote it. Enjoy.
“I’m heading out to the hot tub.” John(F) Koenig called to his wife as he slipped out the patio door.
“Don’t stay too long, you’re still weak.” Helena responded.
“Still weak, humph, I’ll show you just how weak I am later.” John(F) chuckled as he headed toward the mini-frig and pulled out a beer. He carefully hid the beer in his towel. Helena would have a fit if she saw him drinking so soon after his accident. He crossed back across the deck placing his towel and his beer on the edge of the hot tub. John(F) eased into the warm bubbling water sitting with his back toward the patio door. The swirling water felt good on his sore muscles.
John(F) glanced over his shoulder toward the house. Satisfied that his wife wasn’t looking, he pulled his beer out. He took a long swallow of the golden liquid and smiled as the cold beverage slid easily down this throat.
“That’s so good.” He said quietly.
He took one more drink before returning it beneath the towel. John(F) relaxed, leaning his head against the lip of the sauna. The sky above him held few stars as clouds from a brewing storm moved quickly across the heavens. In the distance, he could hear thunder. It had been two days since they had returned from Alpha. Robert and Susan had taken the kids down to their place insisting that John(F) need time to recover from his accident. John(F) didn’t feel that it was necessary but Susan Thompson had been firm and he’d learned long ago that changing her mind was a task slightly less than impossible. For her part, Helena had practically waited on him hand and foot. She’d been hovering around him like a mother hen. The attention, although welcome at first, was beginning to get on his nerves.
“John? Are you doing alright?” Helena called from the patio door.
“Fine, Honey.” He waved his hand
“Don’t stay in too long, Honey. And don’t finish that beer you have under that towel. The meds you’re on can’t be mixed with alcohol.”
“Shit!” He muttered. “Either she knows me that well or she’s spying on me.” He didn’t know which he aggravated him more. He really couldn’t blame her if she was spying. He’d given her plenty to be concerned about dreaming about being married to Melissa and denying their children. Thankfully, she understood that his condition was caused by the fall. A medical condition seemed like a poor excuse to him. In time they both knew, he would have to deal with this. But it wasn’t something he wanted to deal with now. He just wanted to sit back, drink his beer, and forget about the accident. Glancing at the door, he retrieved his beer. His wife already knew he had it so he might as well enjoy what he could before she came out and took it.
He managed to finish most of the beer quickly, pausing only when a rumbling sound erupted from the clouds above him. The storm was getting closer and soon he would have to go inside. Stretching his legs across to the other side of the sauna, John(F) submerged his whole body beneath the water and closed his eyes. Eventually, the combination of the beer and the warm water left him sleepy. Slowly, he closed his eyes………
Alpha, in orbit around Loki (shortly after Murphy’s Law)
All was quiet when John(E) opened his eyes. Helena lay to his left, as always, curled on her side and softly sighing in her sleep. He must have been dreaming. He thought he heard Emma calling him. Of course, it couldn't be Emma. She was gone. It hit him once again in the pit of his stomach. Emma was gone, and Alan with her. They wouldn't be coming back.
Helena stirred restlessly and John(E) knew his emotions were affecting her. They had grown used to their somehow psychic connection over the last decade and a half. He had to get his mind off his grief... again.
He stood quietly and made his way through the living room to the boys' room. It was a small room, crowded for three growing boys, but Emma had loved it here where she could look out a window and see the stars. The boys seemed to like it too. It was their home. They'd already lost their parents, so it didn't seem fair to uproot them. But next season, when people began to return to Loki, he was reserving larger quarters. Preston would be a teen soon and would appreciate some privacy.
Preston's bed was against the back wall of the room. The twins had narrow bunk beds to the left. There was a dresser with clothes for the three boys on the right. Drawers under each bed held their few toys. Life here in the Loki system didn't inspire the conspicuous consumerism left behind with the high populations on Earth. All three boys were curled up on Preston's bed. Preston's arm was around Daniel. Denys was curled on the pillow above his two brothers. All three little boys were deeply asleep. Bob Mathias had advised them to allow the boys to sleep together if they needed to. It gave them a feeling of security. He and Helena would tuck them into their separate beds each evening, but before the night was out, they were nearly always in Preston's bed.
He watched the three blonds for a few moments. It usually helped, looking at their innocent faces and remembering the promise he made to Alan to look after them. If there had only been another way. If only Emma and Alan could have made it to the safety of the other module.
He suppressed his grief and headed back to his own bed. There would be another full day before him. He wished he could sleep as deeply and untroubled as his grandchildren. He paused in the living room to look out at the unchanging vista of the lunar surface. He did love it here. But he wondered if he could have somehow changed things. What would their life have been like if they hadn't ridden this runaway moon to the Loki system? What would have happened if they could have returned to Earth? Had his arrogance and belief in the space program cost his little girl her life?
With that question still on his mind, he headed back to bed. Helena turned over and settled against him without waking fully. She put her arm over his chest and he patted her hand as he returned to sleep…
The shower may have left him feeling cleaner on the outside, but he felt less than clean on the inside. John(M) pulled on a uniform and returned to the living room of his quarters. It seemed very quiet in here. There was a white plastic pitcher on the table and he poured himself a glass and settled into his favorite chair. He tried to bring his emotions under control as he took a sip. He made a face. Tony had to be the worst beer brewer in the universe.
He had watched others die before. It was not something he enjoyed by any means. But this felt different. He seemed unable to grieve; unable to admit to himself that she might be dead.
Melissa Thompson had come into his life only yesterday. Before that, he had only barely been aware that Helena had a sister. He hadn’t known that Helena had a twin; or that she was a bit on the wild side, that she was passionately in love with Alan Carter, that she liked to be firmly in control of everything from her love life to her destiny. He took another sip of that awful beer and glanced at his bed. He knew it would still have her scent. She had arrived with the brilliance and promise of a fast comet, and was gone just as quickly.
Had she stayed, he couldn’t have lived with her for more than the briefest time. Melissa had seen that immediately, but that hadn’t stopped them from enjoying each other’s company in intimate fashion for the last twenty-four hours.
Then he had sent her back through that wormhole. To her death? He would never know. He sighed, took another sip of beer and closed his eyes. He doubted that sleep would come…
Alpha Y1 (One month after “Those Who Help Themselves”)
John(Y1)’s quarters were dark and quiet when the rowdy group arrived. The door opened and the crowd offered one last toast to their Commander’s last night as a free man. Victor was laughing as he led the toast. Paul Morrow was there, guitar over his shoulder. Someone had placed a fancy Mexican sombrero on his head and he looked like a one-man Mariachi band. Alan Carter patted him on the back and led several pilots in a cheer. Tony Verdeschi and a few others from security were trying to out-shout them.
John(Y1) thanked them all, managed to bid them goodnight without burping or barfing and stepped through the door into his room – and immediately tripped over a box. Fortunately the door had closed and John managed to maintain some shreds of dignity. He considered just remaining here on the floor amid Helena’s boxes, but that would hardly be the best night’s sleep. And tomorrow night… ahh, tomorrow night he would be with Helena. He wanted to be well rested for his wedding night.
He rolled over, kicking several boxes as he stood up. Something fell and he caught it before it hit the floor, priding himself on his reflexes even under the influence. It was Helena’s photo album. He made it to his favorite chair, the large barrel chair that swiveled, and settled comfortably, the photo album still in his hand. He opened it and smiled at the picture of Helena as a little girl in a pink tutu. He leaned closer. It wasn’t his vision. There were two little girls. Helena had a twin.
He flipped through the lace-covered album to later in the book when the girls were grown up. Helena was so beautiful, and her sister was a lovely echo. He smiled slowly, fantasies invading his thoughts. Of course, he would never meet that sister… what was her name? He couldn’t remember. But seeing the two of them sitting on that sailboat, laughing, happy, carefree. That was a sight he would love to see. He wondered what she was like. His head was pounding and he leaned back in the chair, still balancing the book on his knee and closed his eyes…
His mind was reeling when he came to, and with it, his stomach. He stood unsteadily and made his way to the bathroom just in time. He leaned over the counter and ran cold water over his face once his stomach was empty.
“You look like hell,” a voice said from behind him.
“Feel like it too,” he growled, not bothering to wonder who was talking to him. He glanced in the mirror and did a double take, seeing his own face staring back at him.
The man behind him with his face nodded and moved back in the other room. “You need a hair of the dog.”
John(Y1) stood slowly and looked at his reflection as he wiped off his face with a towel. He wore standard issue Alphan pajamas, but he really didn’t remember putting them on. When he went to sleep, or passed out, rather, he had still been in his uniform. He moved into the other room. It looked something like his quarters, but not quite. His chair was there, with the photo album in it. There was also a section sofa that curved around one corner of the room.
Wearing something that looked almost like his regular uniform, the same man who had spoken to him from the bathroom door turned from a small table. There was a white plastic pitcher and a set of four white plastic mugs. He poured an ample amount of amber liquid into the mug and handed it over.
John(Y1) took it cautiously and took a sip. He almost spat it out. It was the most awful beer he had ever tasted. In fact, he was almost too offended to call the stuff ‘beer’ but that’s what it undoubtedly was.
Another man appeared from the shadows by the window with a chuckle. “What a cure. Almost makes you long for the hangover doesn’t it?”
Both men in front of him were tall and angular, with dark hair that was beginning to thin. They weren’t just his twins. They were his doubles. Somehow he could accept that without questioning it.
The man who had poured him the beer nodded in agreement. “Tony Verdeschi needs a new hobby. I think I’m going to encourage him to find one.”
The man by the window had a bottle of Coors Light in his hand. He wore khaki slacks and a maroon polo shirt with a stylized logo monogrammed in silver that looked like an intertwined C and K wound up with a starburst. “What were you celebrating?”
“My bachelor party,” John(Y1) said weakly, sitting back in the barrel chair and moving the photo album out of the way.
The man with the Coors and the polo shirt grinned. “To Helena? Good god! I remember mine. Nearly cost me my marriage before it even got started, thanks to my good friend and brother-in-law, Alan Carter.”
“Alan Carter is your brother-in-law?” The John(M) in uniform said. He gave an identical lopsided grin. “Did he marry Helena’s sister, Melissa?”
“That’s right! She showed up with a ship from Earth and new star drive. We manufactured enough to equip the Eagles and get everyone back to Earth. Helena and I live in Florida now, and with Alan and Mel we have a business designing and building space habitats.”
That explained the great tan, John(Y1) thought.
The John(M) in uniform let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear that. She is one of the hottest women I’ve ever been with. I couldn’t stand the thought of sending her through the wormhole to her death.”
John(F) looked startled. “By ‘been with’ you mean…”
John(M) looked slightly sheepish, “Yeah, like in the biblical sense. She was from a parallel universe, not quite the same as ours. When she found out that Lee Russell was still alive and Alan Carter had never met her, she was pretty distraught. I guess I kind of comforted her.”
John(F) snorted. “Yeah, and I know how Alan usually ‘comforts’ her.”
John(Y1) was having trouble wrapping his mind around a thought, and that other guy had already made two comments he wanted clarification on. Remembering his earlier fantasy, he went with the most important first. “You mean you’ve had Helena and her sister, what’s-her-name?”
John(M) let out a breath and sat on the sofa. “Yeah. Yeah, I have.” He chuckled remembering Melissa’s statement that he was the only one who had ever had both Thompson twins. “Not at the same time, of course.”
“Oh of course,” John(F) laughed from his spot by the window. “I figured that, because Helena would have cut them off and nailed them to a wall. She’s not tolerant about such activities. And?” He asked. “How do they compare? We’ve got to know.”
John(M) looked at the other two and gave a miniscule shrug. There certainly wasn’t anyone else he could have this conversation with. He was probably dreaming anyway, although he hoped like hell that Melissa had survived. “There’s no way to compare. Helena is… like a walk in a beautiful garden. Melissa is more like a salsa dance. Both can be breathtaking, but they have nothing in common.”
John(Y1) smiled at the analogy. “A walk in a garden, like being home,” he said, thinking of the woman he would marry tomorrow.
“By God, yes,” John(F) said, slouching at the other end of the sofa. “What would I do without her? I expect you’re completely accurate about Mel too. Alan would like that comparison.” His expression turned dark. “I couldn’t do without Helena, and I swear Melissa and I would tear each other apart if we tried to be together.”
“Melissa said something similar,” John(M) said. He smirked, “She told me I like to be on top too much.”
John(F) chuckled. “Yes, she would put it that way. There was an accident on Alpha just recently, a meteor strike. Mel and I were nearly killed. I ended up with a concussion and had these incredibly erotic dreams about her. My memory circuits even got scrambled for a while and I thought I was married to her and not Helena. But even in the fantasies, the longer they went on the more tension there was with her. Always great sex, but this underlying unhappiness.” He sighed and leaned his head back. “I think I’m just basically relieved that she’s Alan’s responsibility. I’ve just got to convince Helena of that.”
“Are you two… having problems?” John(Y1) asked hesitantly. He and Helena were just starting out. This version of himself had obviously been married to her for a while.
“Problems? No, no, nothing like that.” John(F) assured him quickly. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. We made it home, we have a great life, great kids, we’re even still involved in space and the space program, although in the private sector now. I guess it’s guilt on my part more than anything else. Since that accident Helena has been spoiling me, almost to death.”
John(M) sighed, looking miserable.
“And you? You’ve been with Melissa most recently. Did you and Helena break up?” John(Y1) asked.
“Break up? Yeah, you could say that. Although sometimes I wonder if we were ever really together or if it was all some kind of fantasy on my part.” John(M) replied. “I thought things were going great. With all the pressures of trying to survive on Alpha, we still found at least some time to be together. I was ready to go further, make some kind of commitment, and she started dragging her feet. I asked her to marry me, and it actually made her ill! She finally told me she was already married.”
“To Lee Russell?” John(Y1) asked. “But he’s dead.”
“That’s what I thought. Even when we encountered that planet where he appeared. He was in no condition to really communicate with us. I really thought it was just some kind of alien trick.”
“That happened to us, too.” John(Y1) said. “Actually, that brought us closer together. She said she hadn’t ever really accepted his return, but somehow it laid some ghosts to rest for her.”
“Well, all it did for us was make things worse.” John(M) said. “Then, he shows up again, this time in a pure matter form, not some half-assed shit. And Helena just about forgets I even exist.” John(M) got up and began to pace. The other two men exchanged amused looks. That was their pattern for dealing with anger as well.
“There was nothing I could do to get her back, nothing I could say. Hell, yes, he was her husband. I was just the jerk who had been sleeping with her until he returned. And he wanted to stay on Alpha with her—chose it over returning to Earth when he had a chance. All I wanted to do was pound the daylights out of him, stuff him back in his little scout ship, and send him straight into the nearest star. In fact I came pretty close to doing just that. I waited and the first little mistake he made, I banished him, sending him packing back to the place the Astro-7 mission ended up.”
The other two looked at him, shocked. “Can you do that?” John(F) asked, glad to be back on Earth where he wasn’t an absolute dictator with all the power and responsibility that entailed.
“Well, I did it,” John(M) growled. “It was the worst mistake I think I’ve ever made, but I got away with it. I sent him packing and everyone else was too scared to protest.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked out the window at the unchanging grays of the moonscape. “I almost think that scared the hell out of me worse than what it did to Helena.”
“What did it do to Helena?” John (Y1) asked quietly.
“Nearly killed her,” John(M) answered, voice barely above a whisper in shame. “I nearly killed the woman I claimed to love, from shock and grief and disappointment.” He shrugged. “She just… gave up. Like some of those poor devils right after Breakaway. The ones who couldn’t accept that we couldn’t ever go back, and they just… faded away.”
Both the other men shuddered. They remembered that. Certain people just couldn’t cope. A few had chosen suicide. Some didn’t even have the courage for that. They tried, and the other Alphans tried to help them, but they just didn’t seem to have the strength to continue.
“You couldn’t let that happen to her, could you?” John(F) asked. He had known, throughout their journey, Helena was his strength, his rock to lean on. And he had been hers. Returning to Earth, with all its distractions of career, family, day-to-day life, they had still kept their commitment to each other and been there for each other.
“Of course not. Of course not,” John(M) assured him. “I did what had to be done. I called Lee, apologized, and invited him back. It was damn hard to do, but I couldn’t let her die. They’ve been together ever since. And you know what the damnedest thing is?”
“What?” John(Y1) asked.
“I like the man! He’s a friendly, likeable guy, and I think he’s even my friend! He’s not what I would have imagined Helena’s true love to be like, but it works for them. I think she’s actually more important to him than his job, or anything else on Alpha. He treats her like a queen, and… cares for her. Takes care of her. God knows she deserves it.”
Both the others looked shocked.
“Well, he must be nothing like the Lee Russell where I come from,” John(F) said. “To hear my father-in-law talk about him, that’s about as far from the type of man he was as possible.”
John(Y1) looked at John(F) “You’re the one. The one I met before on that other Alpha. Who sent us home with that neutrino device.”
John (F) looked at the other man with recognition. “I’ll be damned. You’re right. That’s been… years.”
“Only days for us. Less than thirty.” The two men grinned. “It’s been years for you?”
“Let’s see… about seventeen or eighteen now, I think. My daughter will be starting high school in a few days.”
“You have a daughter in high school?” John (M) asked. “Born on Alpha?”
“On Earth, after we got back. Our resources were so limited, we didn’t trust that we’d have enough of a future to have children. Thank god Mel came along with that rescue ship when she did.”
John(M) grinned. “I am glad she made it. And glad to know there’s some kind of hope for getting back to Earth.”
John(Y1) stood and joined John(M) at the window. He shook his head. “I don’t know about that. Helena’s sister in our universe seems pretty happy on Earth. Husband, kids-- I doubt she’d be leaving them to come for us.”
John(F) joined them. The view from here was one of his favorites. “Mel told Helena once that she came for both Helena and Alan. If she doesn’t know Alan in your universe…”
“But maybe someone else…” John(M) said. “For us, there’s some hope that the Astro-7 crew may get word to Earth that we’re out here.”
“I think,” John(Y1) said. “We’re on our own. Plus, our Alpha was getting set for an expansion. So we have a few more resources than you. Our problem was food in the short term. Thanks to you, we dealt with that.” He nodded to John(F). “I think it’s time to do more than exist. That’s one of the reasons Helena and I are getting married tomorrow. We want to start a family, make Alpha a true community, and a home.”
John(M) shook his head, not convinced. “Aren’t you putting any children at risk?”
“Is there ever any place completely safe to raise kids?” John(Y1) turned to John(F). “Aren’t you a bit worried about your daughter starting high school back on Earth?”
John(F) had to nod, “And dating and getting her driver’s license and going off to college. Once you become a dad, your worries only get bigger. It’s like being in command of Alpha, only more concentrated.” The other two laughed. “But I can’t say I’d want to raise my kids on Alpha.”
“It was a good place to raise children,” another voice said.
The three turned. He sat at the table, an oversized laptop sitting before him. He was much older than the others, hair thin and completely white, face rugged from age and worry. He wore reading glasses perched on the end of his nose as he touched the screen sitting flat on the table. He beckoned the others.
“This is my oldest, Alex. He had just turned six and completed one of the airlock safety classes.” The blonde boy grinned, huge teeth filling up the grin. He held a small medallion. A younger John Koenig knelt beside him and the boy had his hand on his father’s shoulder. “I was afraid he’d never grow into those teeth.” He touched the screen and the picture changed. The boy was older, a teen now and clothed in a flight suit, a shock of blond hair hanging over one eye. “His first Eagle solo. That boy was so proud of getting his pilot’s wings.”
“He grew up on Alpha?” John(Y1) asked. The boy had his father’s features with blonde hair the color of Helena’s.
John(E) nodded. “No choice. We ended up in orbit around a sun with no planets suitable for year-round habitation. Loki does provide a platform for growing things in the mild seasons, and we have one small settlement that buttons down during the bad times, but I don’t want to be down there.”
The next picture was of three small children on a beach with blue colored sand. The smallest, a red-head, held a small shovel and pail. In front of them was a sand castle. With a touch, John(E) called up the next picture. Helena sat with the children on the sand, the carrot-top on her lap. You could see he was missing his two front teeth. The little girl with curling black hair and a wide-brimmed had smiled impishly at the camera. Alex stood with his hand on his mother’s shoulder looking past the camera with a dreamy expression on his face.
The other men grinned at the picture.
“What a terrific family. You have three kids?”
“With Helena, yes, we raised three children, Alex, Emma and Richard,” he pointed them out. “I have another, Evan, who was raised by his mother on a mining colony out in the asteroid belt.”
“Another son?” John(Y1) asked. “By someone else? Does that mean you and Helena are no longer together?” He exchanged a glance with John(M).
“No, oh, no. I couldn’t exist without Helena. Let’s just say it was a ‘sperm donation’.”
“Let’s just say that,” John(F) decided to let the matter drop. The older man was obviously unwilling to talk about it. “So, the Alphans have established a good foothold in this Loki system?” he was most curious, his own people seemed to be concentrating mostly on the home Solar System.
“We could use more people. But yes, we’re managing,” he smiled and brought up another picture. “These are some of my grandchildren.”
The picture showed a cluster of five children sitting on a bench in a garden. A blond boy of around eight or nine sat in the center of the bench, with a two smaller blond boys, still toddlers, on either side of him like bookends. A blonde girl looked over the boy’s shoulder, her hair pulled back in a long pony tail. Two other boys sat on the ground in front of the bench, the younger one had dark hair, the older, light brown hair. John(E) pointed them out. “Alex’s three, Bella, Deep and Owen. And that’s Preston in the middle and the twins, Denys and Daniel. They’re Emma’s boys.” His voice broke as he said her name.
“Something’s wrong,” John(F) said, as the other father in the group he picked up the emotion fastest.
“Emma… was lost while testing a new mining vessel last month.”
“Oh, God.” John(F) paled and took a chair at the table. “How… how old was she?”
“Twenty-eight. She was only… twenty-eight.” His grief overwhelmed him. Helena wasn’t here, he didn’t have to try to hold it back. He selected another picture. Emma, grown now, her dark curls framing her face as she held the tow-headed Preston on her lap. He must have been about five, and was clutching a soccer ball and smiling up at his mother with sheer adoration.
“I can’t imagine…” he thought about his own daughter, so similar to this young woman. “Tori is just fourteen.”
“Her sons?” John(M) asked, his eyes still on the picture before him.
“They’re safe. Helena was keeping them at the time. Helena and I will raise them,” John(E) assured them, his voice steely with determination. He turned to the man sitting next to him. “You have children too?”
John(F) nodded. “Two, Tori—Victoria is fourteen and will be starting high school next month. Sam is twelve.” He pulled a wallet from his back pocket and shared a series of school photos of the pair.
“You made it back to Earth?” John(E) asked.
“We did. We’ve been back for fifteen years now.”
“Good, good. It’s good to think… that the Earth still exists out there somewhere. For us… sometimes it seems like a dream.”
John(M) sat across the table. “It does exist. And, it’s where we belong. All of us.” Somehow, knowing it was possible to make it back to Earth, and knowing that Melissa made it, gave him additional determination.
John (Y1) moved back to the window. “No, not for all of us. I think we’re evenly split on this gentlemen. Some of us must find a way to survive out among the stars.”
John(E) nodded. “We belong in the Loki system now. Our descendents will take hold and thrive there.”
John(Y1) smiled at the older man. “Yes, and we’ll remain on Alpha. It will work out for us, I know it.”
John(E) smiled in return and gave another nod.
John(F) stood and moved back to the sofa, where he had left his beer. He lifted the Coors bottle in a toast to the others. “Well, I, for one, am glad to be back on Earth.” He turned to John(M) “I hope you make it.”
John(M) nodded and exchanged a look with John(Y1) “And good luck with your marriage. If these two are any indication, you should fare well.”
John(Y1) smiled. “What about you?”
“My encounter with the lovely Melissa has shown me that there is life after Helena. I can go on, and maybe, someday, I’ll find the right one for me.”
“I hope you do,” John(Y1) said. He moved to sit in the barrel chair, suddenly very weary. He closed his eyes, knowing that the others would be gone when he opened them again.
Florida (shortly after “Wet Dreams”)
The bottle slipped from his hand as he slid further under the water. He jerked awake as Helena plucked the bottle from the hot tub.
“You’re going to spill beer in the water!” she exclaimed. “That’s why you aren’t supposed to mix alcohol with those pills. It makes you too sleepy.”
He smiled up at her, happy to see her lovely face above him. “Do you know how much I love you?”
“You didn’t have more than one beer, did you?”
“No, just the one, and not even all of it. Come here.” He grabbed her wrist.
“John! I’ve got clothes on!” She resisted.
“Then take them off,” he said, reaching out with his other hand to unbutton her blouse.
She laughed and batted at his hand. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Or come in with them on and I’ll take them off,” he winked at her. He stood, continuing to unbutton her blouse and moving on to the khaki shorts she wore. “The kids aren’t home. The neighbors can’t see. I want you.”
Helena gave a furtive glance around, then a mischievous smile she saved specially for him in their naughtier moments. She leaned forward and kissed him. Taking that as assent, he lifted her over the edge and into the bubbling water with him. She laughed as he began to remove her sodden shirt and shorts. The clothing quickly drifted to the other corner of the hot tub while he drew her close and buried his face in her hair. She smelled of honeysuckle. His hands moved over her body. He wanted to take another walk through the beautiful garden that was Helena.
Alpha, in orbit around Loki (shortly after Murphy’s Law)
His eyes opened and he stared into her beautiful green eyes, now filled with tears.
“You were dreaming,” she said, moving closer, into his arms.
“Yes.” He shifted to a more comfortable position and held her close.
“Of Emma?”
“Of… how incredibly lucky I am to have you.”
“We’ll get through this.”
“It’ll always hurt.”
“Yes, but the pain will fade.”
He knew she spoke from experience. And he had been there too. When Jean had died, he hadn’t any idea that he could ever be happy again. He sensed it would be different, losing a child. But there would be times when he would be happy too.
“I love you so, Helena.”
Helena’s answer was a contented sigh as she fell back asleep.
Alpha, somewhere in space (hours after the end of Melissa Matters)
He came awake with a start, nearly spilling the remains of the beer in his cup. It was flat now, and John(M) wasn’t certain that it wouldn’t eat its way through the upholstery on the chair.
He moved to the counter to put the cup down. It was time to get some sleep. He turned to the bed and pulled the spare pillow closer to him. Yes, it still smelled slightly of Melissa. He closed his eyes with a smile, imagining her returning to her ship, finding Alpha, and her Alan. He could picture her returning to Earth to marry him and go on to run a successful business with Alan and John. He wished Alan luck, but knowing his friend here, he was sure that Alan Carter would cherish the volatile Melissa Thompson and things would work well for them.
It was good just to know that Earth was still there, that they had a future, and a chance. He had renewed hope that someday they would find a way home.
Alpha Y1 (One month after “Those Who Help Themselves”)
The photo album clattered to the floor and woke him up. The picture he saw was of Helena as her sister’s bridesmaid. The posed picture had the two women holding their heads together, bridal bouquet in hand, and Helena holding Melissa’s hand, large diamond showing prominently. John(Y1) smiled. Helena would be even more beautiful as a bride, even if she was in Alphan uniform—or maybe that green silk pants suit.
There would be children, he was sure, and they would find a way to thrive here on Alpha. He looked at the commpost. It was just a little before 3 a.m. He could get nearly three good hours of sleep. He headed for the bathroom to change into pajamas, looking forward to his wedding day.