Tony Verdeschi stepped into the emptiness of the abandoned Main Mission and heaved a sigh, as he looked around.

"What a mess," he said to Alan Carter, who was accompanying him. "It'll take a hell of a lot of work to re-open the old place."

Alan grinned and walked ahead of him, speaking to one of a band of technicians who had begun the task of returning the large control room to operational status. Main Mission, and some of the other areas in the upper levels of Moonbase which had been abandoned during the Alphans' time in space, had only been fully repressurized the day before. There was a lot to do.

"It's not as bad as it looks Tony," Alan enthused, returning to the Chief of Security's side. "Shove all the instruments and desks back in here, and it'll feel like we've never been away. The techs say everything up here is structurally fine."

Shaking his head, Tony kicked at a few loose papers that were lying on the floor. Dust was raised by his action and it made him sneeze. Where did it come from? Did moondust seep in from the outside, in spite of the airtight conditions inside Alpha? Or did the detritus from the lower levels somehow float upwards, to settle here? He stared at the open wound in the wall where the big screen had once been. When the Commander had given the order to relocate Main Mission to one of the lower levels for safety's sake, they had carefully transported it underground, not having the resources to build a second screen of that size. Now that they did, a totally new big screen was being manufactured to fill the gap.

Tony walked up the staircase to Main Mission's magnificent observation deck, his footsteps echoing eerily on the metal steps.

"At least we'll have a good view from up here, I suppose," he muttered glumly.

"You aren't keen on re-locating Command Center back to Main Mission, are you," stated Alan, following him.

The Australian looked puzzled; most command personnel were happy with the idea of being able to return to the space of a bigger operations center. Command Center could get a bit claustrophobic at times, especially when there were a lot of staff on duty at once. And now that Moonbase Alpha was being extended, Main Mission, with all it's space, would definitely be needed.

"It's not that I'm not keen exactly..." replied Tony with a frown, unable to clarify his feelings of reluctance.

"Is it that you think coming back up here leaves us vulnerable to attack again?" Alan asked, trying to fathom his friend's strange behavior. "I suppose it's true, but now that we've gone into orbit in this system, we're at no more risk of attack or strike by interstellar debris, than we were before Breakaway."

"Yes, yes, I know," Tony sighed. "It's just... well, it's just that I'm used to Command Center now. And in some respects, it seems a waste of time. We could do so much else with the upper levels of Alpha- turn this whole area over to recreation, or something."

Alan grinned in disbelief at what he saw as Tony's stupid attitude.

"I'm glad the Commander doesn't think like you," he said, leaning on the window ledge and looking out at lunar surface. "I love it up here."

Tony stared at the view in silence for a few minutes. He knew that his reaction to the move was out of character and was surprised at himself; usually he was so keen to press ahead with progress on the base. Then all at once, it came to him. Maya had never worked in Main Mission. She had come to Alpha shortly after they'd relocated to the lower levels, and in some ways, to him, it seemed his life had truly begun at that time. Their relationship had blossomed down in Command Center; they had grown to know and love one another there, sitting across an aisle from each other. They had no history together at all, here in the dusty old Main Mission.

In fact, Tony himself had spent far less time in Main Mission when it was operational, than he had in Command Center. As Chief of Security, he'd had a small office down the corridor from it, only opting to move into Command Center when they'd re-located because he felt he would have a better grasp of day to day matters if he wasn't isolated. Besides, he'd never enjoyed working alone.

I'm being a sentimental idiot, he silently admonished himself. This is a far better operations center and I know it!

Turning his back on the observation window, he sat down on the dusty floor and began to watch the techs at work, below them. They were busy re-connecting wires and cables on the floor, where the desks had once stood. Soon they would be covered over with the newer desks, which had been custom- made for Command Center.

"Alan, where were you when John decided that we shouldn't try to return to Earth, shortly after Breakaway?" he asked, his mind idly wandering.

"Over there," Alan replied immediately, pointing to the far side of the room. "I remember it like it was yesterday. I'd just managed to fly my Eagle back to Alpha, by the skin of my teeth, when the Commander made his speech to the whole base. I knew he was making the right decision; there was no going back."

"I was standing by the door, near that bastard Simmonds," Tony said, in a low voice. "I felt stunned, and I couldn't believe that something so catastrophic had happened to us all. But you should have seen Simmonds' reaction to John's words! I could tell that he was on the verge of panic and half expected him to make a dash for an eagle to try to fly himself back to Earth, regardless of the distance. What a selfish man; he never worried about anybody else but himself, the whole time he was on Moonbase."

Alan gave a short, humorless laugh.

"Yeah, that's one guy I never missed. He got what he deserved. Hey- what about the time that amazing space brain nearly crushed Alpha? This whole place was filled with that weird foam!"

Tony grimaced at the memory.

"I remember the dampness, and the strange, meaty smell of it. It hung around for weeks afterwards. I opted to stay in Main Mission during that disaster, if you recall. There was nothing I could do anywhere else. Security was a bit obsolete when windows were imploding from the external pressure and the corridors were filled with white froth."

"I think that was one of the key incidents that convinced John we should move to the lower levels," said Alan. "We'd been attacked by alien ships on more than one occasion, but almost being crushed by that inter- galactic brain was a close one.

Cleaners began to move into Main Mission, starting up their floor polishing units. The dust would soon be a thing of the past.

"Will everything in here go back to where it used to be?" Tony wondered.

"If Kano has his way," smiled Alan. "He's dead keen to have the place set up just exactly as it was before. We've accumulated quite a bit of new equipment since we working in here, though. He's going to have to make some allowances."

Tony stood up again and blew into his hands. The temperature of Main Mission still hadn't quite reached a comfortable level, since the re-pressurization of the day before. Another few hours would be needed.

"Well this time, I want a desk in Main Mission myself," he said. "Someone else can have my office down the hallway. And there'll need to be a place for Maya, of course."

Alan began to chuckle, suddenly catching a glimpse of why his friend had seemed reluctant to return to Main Mission. He got to his feet and gave Tony a friendly slap on the back.

"Maya will love it up here, I guarantee it! Let's get a coffee and something to eat, before we have to go back on duty. I'm starving."

John Koenig stepped over a bunch of cables and zigzagged his way through the scattering of boxes and desks that were being installed in Main Mission, heading towards the steps, and the big doors that separated his office from the control room. Although he'd given the order to re-open their old operations center a couple of days previously, he'd been so busy with other matters that he'd not had a chance to check how things were progressing up here himself. What he saw pleased him, and brought a flood of nostalgic memories back.

Lifting his commlock, he pointed it at his office and one door slid back. Stepping inside as it closed behind him, he ran a hand across the smooth black and silver of his old desk, which was still in position. The room had already been cleaned and the instrumentation panels in the desk replaced, although as yet, they weren't connected. The comm post was up and running though, and it's video screen was playing the Alpha news channel.

John turned the dim lighting in the room up to full power and it was only then that he noticed someone sitting on a sofa, down in the sunken area of his office. He smiled with pleasure when he saw that it was Helena.

"All you need now is the round table and your big old globe of Earth; then your office will look just like it used to," she said, patting the seat next to her.

"When did you let yourself in here?" John asked, sitting down and putting an arm around her shoulder.

"When I had two guys from Stores carry this sofa up, half an hour ago," she replied. "Tony said you would be coming to look at Main Mission, so I thought I'd drop by on my break and surprise you."

"I'm glad you did," John whispered, kissing her gently.

He sat back in the sofa and looked about him, pleased that he was going to have his old office back. Although he'd liked working at his desk in Command Center and being in constant touch with every member of the command personnel, there were times when he dearly wished he could shut the door and have a bit of privacy, as he'd been able to do up here. Times when difficult decisions needed to be made, or when he was under stress and finding it hard to maintain a mask of command. Once they were re-established in Main Mission, John knew that he would keep the two big doors open a lot more than he had in the past, but just the fact of knowing he could shut them would be a stress reliever.

"Penny for them," said Helena, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Oh, I guess I was just thinking about how great it is to be sitting in this room with you," sighed John. "So much went on here, didn't it Helena. So many of the hardest decisions were taken- including the one to move down to Command Center."

"It was the right decision though," said Helena. "We were very exposed, here in the upper levels of Alpha. When they were built, the designers could never have anticipated what was going to happen to the facility. It's a miracle, really, that more of the upper sections of the base weren't completely destroyed at times when we were under attack, from one alien source or another."

"And now our journey is over," John murmured. "Sometimes I find it hard to believe, don't you?"

Helena nodded.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, each thinking their own thoughts.

"Do you know, the first time I saw you actually working in Main Mission, I got quite a surprise at how well you were getting on with the command personnel," Helena suddenly said. "When you first introduced yourself to me in my office, and I took you down to Medical Center to see the sick Meta probe pilots, I really wondered about you. You seemed so... over- confident. A little arrogant, even. I thought to myself, Oh no, not another Gorski. I can't bear to have to deal with someone like that again. Everyone really hated Gorski."

John began to laugh.

"No, it's true," insisted Helena. "Then later, I walked into Main Mission and there you were, talking away to Paul Morrow at his desk, and I could tell that he really respected you- admired you. I watched you figure out the connection with Waste Disposal Area One and the sick personnel, and I began to think I'd seriously misjudged you at that point."

"Well, I'm so glad you changed your opinion of me Doctor Russell," John said. "Or should I say, Mrs. Koenig."

Pushing her back on the sofa, John began to kiss Helena's lips and neck with great passion, making her squirm and laugh until she finally sat up and pulled away from him.

"Stop horsing around," she gasped. "I did actually ask for the round table to be brought back up here, so it could arrive at any minute. It wouldn't look too good if the guys who brought it found their commander in flagrante delicto with his wife on the sofa!"

"I'm sure they'd understand," John replied, making a grab for her again.

But Helena would not be persuaded.

"See, I told you," she whispered, as a few moments later one of the service personnel poked his head in the door.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sir; I didn't realize you were in here," he said. "We've brought the round table."

"That's fine Sam," said John, using his commlock to fully open the big doors onto Main Mission. "Bring it in and put it down where it used to stand, please."

Three burly men from Stores heaved the table off a trolley and carried it down to it's place.

"What about the globe Commander?" asked Sam. "Do you want us to bring that up too?"

John nodded, and they left.

"I have to be getting back to work," said Helena.

John watched her fondly, as she walked out of his office and down the short flight of steps, into Main Mission. The first time he'd set eyes on Helena, sitting at her desk in the medical center, he'd been bowled over by her beauty. He was sure he'd told her that before, but he would tell her again when they were both off duty and alone in their quarters...

Turning his back on the hustle and bustle of work going on in Main Mission, he looked at his office one more time. The globe of Earth- yes, he had to have it back where it once stood. With the exception of Maya, it was where everyone on Alpha came from, and they should never forget their history. But Loki and it's solar system were their new home. Their future. It wasn't exactly the promised land, but it wasn't so bad either. It was a hell of a lot better than wandering aimlessly through space.

There and then John decided to have a second globe built. A globe of Loki. It could stand beside Earth; there was plenty of room in his office. In a way, it would be a reminder of what they'd achieved- survival under horrendously difficult circumstances. Whistling under his breath, John stepped out into Main Mission and began to speak to some of the techs who were working there. They were all happy and excited about the re-opening and he decided that it had been a good idea.

One of his best.

"It won't work!" insisted David Kano, his frustration rising. "You can't put the satellite monitoring panel under the big screen; we need it on the left hand wall with the other instruments!"

The unfortunate technician who'd made the suggestion to him sighed, and went back to work.

"Calm down David," laughed Tanya. "We're almost operational now."

Kano crossed his arms and scowled.

"We've had to add more desks, make room on the wall panels for extra instrumentation- and getting that new big screen in place was a nightmare! We didn't have half this trouble when we moved to Command Center."

Tanya shrugged.

"Things have changed so much since we worked here last; what else do you expect? Besides, now that it's nearly finished, I think Main Mission is looking great."

With a smile, she walked away to her desk, and Kano sat down at his. In less than 24 hours, they would all be working here again. In some ways, it would be just like old times, but in others.... He looked to his left, where Paul Morrow used to sit. He was gone now- dead, like so many of their comrades. Maya would be here now, perhaps sitting where Paul once did, and Tony Verdeschi wanted a desk in Main Mission too, instead of his little office down the corridor. They were people he liked and respected, but he did miss his friend Paul- and Sahn, who had loved him, had changed so much since his death that she was hardly the same person.

"Well, here we are again Kano," said a cheerful voice. "Good to have a bit more room, isn't it."

It was Victor Bergman, wandering around with a smile on his face and a clipboard in his hand.

"Yes, it is Professor; we'll say goodbye to Command Center for good tomorrow," Kano replied, standing up from his seat.

Victor nodded happily.

"Do you have time to run these figures on the asteroid belt through computer before we do?" he asked. "I know you're busy, but I need them in rather a hurry."

Kano chuckled, taking the clipboard from him.

"It will be a pleasure, Professor."

"Oh- there's one more thing I meant to ask you," said Victor, as they began to walk out of Main Mission. "Are you going to re-activate computer's voice capability?"

"Well, I never really considered it," Kano replied.

When they'd moved to Command Center, he had re-programmed the central computer to prevent it speaking, as the noise was gratingly loud in the smaller room.

"I suppose I could ask the Commander if he'd mind..."

"You do that," said Victor, with a wink. "I often think of the way that voice echoed majestically around Main Mission. It would be rather nice to hear it again, don't you think?"

David Kano smiled to himself as the professor left him. He'd lied when he'd said he hadn't considered re-activating the computer's voice capability. He hadn't suggested it though, because he'd figured that nobody else but him would want to hear her again. After all, it was completely unnecessary to have her speak. Perhaps he would ask the commander, after he'd finished work today. He could re-program the computer when he'd finished his shift...

A large trestle table of food and drink stood in the middle of the horseshoe of desks in Main Mission. The floor shone with polish, the walls smelt of fresh paint and the instrument panels on the walls gleamed a shiny black. Red and white streamers were hung from high up on the roof, and multi-colored balloons that had been created down in the labs and filled with helium, were floating amongst them.

John Koenig stood at the top of the steps outside the open doors of his office, facing all of the command personnel. Video links throughout the base would show every other Alphan the scene. Kano gave him the nod that all was ready for the transfer of computerized operations from Command Center, so he began. Clearing his throat, John raised a hand.

A hush fell over the room and everyone turned to face him. He began to speak:

"Just over ten years ago, we began our journey through space right here in Main Mission. It was here that we received the news of the Moon's breakaway from Earth, and here that I made the difficult decision not to try to return to our home planet. Some time ago, it became necessary to abandon this wonderful operations center, in favor of a smaller more secure Command Center, below ground. We were safer there, as we traveled through the cosmos.

"Well, the Moon has finally reached the end of it's odyssey and we are now in a position to re-open all of the above ground levels of Alpha. The area of Main Mission has been tackled first and due to the incredibly hard work of a number of dedicated personnel, it is ready to function at it's full capacity once again. I am sure that it will play a vital role in our colonization of this solar system. I'm also sure that like myself, each and every one of you is looking forward to a bigger and brighter future for the whole moonbase. So- without further ado, I now declare Main Mission operational!"

Stepping into his office and slipping behind his desk, John pressed out the code Kano had given him, and Main Mission's new big screen sprang to life. Consoles on the desks began to beep and the female voice of computer announced that the system was on- line, to the surprise and delight of the small crowd. They cheered and clapped enthusiastically, before wandering over to the trestle tables to partake of the food and drink. Elsewhere on the base, similar tables had been set up in the recreation rooms, so that everybody could join in the celebration.

Maya, Kano and Tanya began moving from desk to desk, making sure that the system was okay. Everything was functioning smoothly and they were able to relax a little themselves. Tony came up and put an arm around Maya's waist.

"It's going to be wonderful working up here, Tony," she enthused, her eyes sparkling. "Look at the view from those windows! And the extra space in here; I've never worked in such a large room!"

Tony saw that she was truly happy, if a little daunted by the idea of Main Mission. He smiled tenderly and whispered,

"Aren't you going to miss Command Center at all?"

"Well... yes," she replied with a nod, setting her beautiful auburn locks bouncing. "It suppose it's served it's purpose, and now we're moving on to bigger and better things. But... it was where we first worked together, and where I first met you...."

"You're just a pair of sentimental fools," joked Alan, who was standing near them and had overheard the conversation. "Am I right?"

"I guess we are," grinned Tony, looking about. "I will miss Command Center, but I like what we've done with Main Mission too. And I particularly like that my desk will continue to be right near Maya's. I'll still be able to keep her in line..."

Maya gave him a playful slap and shook a finger at him.

"It's the other way around, I think," she laughed, moving away to re-fill her glass with punch.

John, Victor and Helena stood together by his desk, glasses in their hands.

"We'll give them thirty minutes, and then everybody had better get back to work," sighed John.

"Oh, let them have a little longer," begged Helena. "Kano's keeping an eye on things, so Alpha's not likely to fall apart."

Victor chuckled and glanced down at David Kano, who was typing away at his desk, looking just as though he had never left it in the last ten years. Someone had put a plate of food next to him, but at yet, he'd hardly touched it.

"Now there's a man who's dedicated," he said.

John smiled.

"They all are, Victor. I'm proud of them all."

Helena raised her glass.

"I propose a toast. To Main Mission, and all those who work in her!"

Victor and John raised theirs too.

"To Main Mission..." they echoed.

Copyright 1998: Heather Hammonds.