Part 3: Arkadia
Arkadia was a dead world. Once it had been as lively and lovely as Planet Earth; its oceans had been full of life, its land rich and fertile. The catastrophe had occurred so far in the past that there was no longer any proof of what caused the disaster. The planet was so dead that the chain of life that dealt with decay was also affected and dead husks had turned to dust without decomposing. The only record among the dead ruins of the planet was found in a cave, the refuge of the final survivors. Those few final survivors, victims of their own folly, accepting blame for their race's treason against its mother planet had left a message to future visitors and died. Somehow their spirits imbued the place with a geas to future visitors: take pity on our home, restore it to life.
Twenty years ago explorers came to Arkadia. They were castaways searching for a new home. Their only home was an unsteerable planetoid with a tiny inhabitable base. All three hundred souls felt the pull of Arkadia. Their base ceased to function properly. They would die if they stayed on the base. They must go to Arkadia.
They would also die if they went. John Koenig, Commander of Moonbase Alpha knew they were not equipped to survive on Arkadia. His medical officer recommended that they go, try to settle Arkadia, but she knew famine and prolonged death awaited them. A quicker death by freezing and suffocation awaited them on Alpha. Although they both felt the pull of Arkadia, they resisted. If they had been able to make personal, individual decisions, they might have chosen differently, but their responsibility lay with Alpha, doing everything possible to ensure the lives of all their people.
Luke Ferro and Anna Davis didn't have that responsibility. They were able to choose their own path. That path was altered by Arkadia to include stealing, taking a hostage and defying direct orders. The hostage they took was Alpha's Chief Medical Officer, Helena Russell. They chose her because it was becoming obvious to everyone on the base that Commander Koenig had feelings for Doctor Russell which were more than friendly. Luke figured that Koenig would do anything -- even give up life-giving supplies -- to keep her safe.
He was right, almost. Koenig devised a way to track them and retrieve the stolen items after Doctor Russell was safe. That did not prove necessary, however; once Luke and Anna arrived on Arkadia, Alpha and its people were released from the paralysis of Arkadia's geas and the supplies were replaceable, no longer so desperately needed. Luke and Anna were free to try to bring Arkadia back to life. Koenig, Russell and Alpha were free to roam the stars.
Now, twenty years later, Alpha's people can no longer care for their Moonbase and Earth has no welcome for them. They need a home. They have learned certain abilities that could be quite useful, but will Arkadia welcome them? Will Luke and Anna?
Helena Russell sat on the sofa in her living room wearing a black jumpsuit and pulling on matching hiking boots. She had no wish to ever wear one of the beige Alphan uniforms again. Besides, Alpha was only a temporary haven, not their home again. Most of her thoughts were centered on Luke and Anna, and the last time she had seen them. They had not hurt her, although they had cautiously and steadily kept a hand laser aimed at her while she was aboard the Eagle that John provided them. She had tried again and again to reason with them, but they were beyond reason. She remembered her relief at being back on Alpha, and the sorrow.
Anna had been her friend. They would meet for dinner and watch old movies together. When a friend on Earth sent Anna popcorn and a collection of old movies for her birthday, Anna and Helena conceived a way to pop popcorn over a hotplate and celebrated with an all night marathon of Cary Grant movies. Anna had been a philologist working on Alpha under a SETI grant to study the signals from the planet Meta. She had never been off Earth, and had never planned to be. Her tour of duty should have ended in late August of 1999 with the departure of the Meta probe, but she had been caught in the quarantine when the Meta probe astronauts became ill and others began dying. Alpha had no need of an expert in languages after Breakaway and Anna had held various assignments around the base. She was a horrible cook, had a black thumb and generally killed anything in hydroponics she tried to grow. She finally landed a job in the laundry department, which she kept until her abrupt departure from Alpha. Most of the time she had been simply and miserably homesick.
Three days before Alpha encountered the planet Arkadia, Helena and Anna split the last of the hoarded popcorn, watched a 'Thin Man' movie and stayed up late and shared a general gripe session about Alpha's lack of good food, good entertainment, and good men.
Well, not many good men; Helena confided that she was beginning to enjoy Victor Bergman's game of matchmaking. He had made a habit of inviting both Helena and John to dinner, then conveniently forgetting to show up. Sometimes she and the Commander would go for a walk together, to the observation room to look at the stars, and talk. She looked forward to those times, and was beginning to anticipate a time they would lead to something more.
A few days later her good friend was holding a laser to her head to force Commander Koenig to release supplies that would allow her and a man she barely knew to live on a dead world. The two women had not parted on the best of terms. Now, twenty years later, Helena and the remaining Alphans needed the sanctuary that Arkadia could provide. Helena couldn't remember if there was any reason Anna might have held a grudge against either her, or Alpha. She hoped not.
The door from the children's rooms opened and Liana Carter burst in with her usual dramatic flair. Katie Morrow followed holding an Eeyore doll that had not left her side since she left Walt Disney World. The girls piled onto the sofa on either side of Helena.
"Do you have to go?" Liana asked, putting her arms around Helena.
Katie crawled into Helena's lap. "We'll miss you."
Helena smiled and hugged the two girls. "Okay, cut it out. You two will be fine, and you both know it. I won't be gone that long."
"Can't we miss you?" Liana asked.
"Of course you can, but I'm not sure why, I'm the one who makes you behave."
"Children need structure," Liana quoted.
Helena sighed. "You've been reading my psychology books again."
"Do you know how often those books contradict each other?" Liana asked seriously. At age eleven she was reading voraciously, and she seemed to focus on psychology and sociology and anything to do with why people acted the way they did. She had an incredible memory and would quote passages to anyone who would listen.
John Koenig entered with Alan Carter. "Hello girls. Helena, are you ready to go?"
Helena stood and smiled at her husband. "All ready." She looked at Carter. His mental talents allowed him to navigate between worlds with ease. Carter had found the mental pathway to Arkadia. Because the Alphans would need the world to be able to support life soon, they would return to a time ten years after Luke Ferro and Anna Davis had arrived on Arkadia. They also hoped that if any bad feelings regarding the Alphans had existed, they would have diminished with time.
Carter held out his hand and Helena felt the familiar mental touch of her old friend as she strengthened their telepathic bond. He shared with her the mental pathway to Arkadia then released her hand, diminishing the bond without extinguishing it. Sharing a thought was an amazingly quick process. The children in the room never even noticed a pause in the adults' conversation, but Helena now knew exactly how to traverse the years and light-years to Arkadia. She could now follow Alan's memory any time she wished. John had already received the information and was ready to travel.
"You look tired," she commented.
"It's easier than a trip to Earth, but not by much, and I didn't stay long," Carter replied with a smile.
"Did you see them?" she asked.
"No. But you'll be amazed how green things are around the cave. I expect they're close by and okay." Alan put his arm around his daughter, and yawned. Liana leaned against her father. Carter smiled at the children, "Tell them good-bye, guys."
Carter drew the girls out the door as they said good-bye. Koenig lifted a pack including survival gear they might need and food rations for the two of them. He handed Helena a smaller pack containing emergency medical supplies, and smiled at her. "Are you ready, love?"
She nodded. "Let's go." She stepped toward him and laced her fingers with his. The bond strengthened between them. Being with John was a completely different experience from any bond she shared with anyone else. Before they had learned telepathic abilities she had shared a physical attraction with John that left her breathless and tingling even after twenty years together. Now, through their mental bond, the physical attraction they felt for each other was shared and amplified. When the two of them worked telepathically with additional people they made every effort to keep that part of themselves private and shielded. When they worked together as a pair they savored the additional feelings of attraction and arousal. Koenig leaned down, touching his forehead to hers, and the two vanished from the room.
Traveling by mental power was unlike any form of locomotion Helena had ever experienced. It was almost like being in a dream state. It was not dark -- or light. She could see nothing, but could follow Alan’s shared memory like a shining ribbon. She didn't move her arms or legs, but moved in the direction she wished by the effort of will power. The trip was quiet. It was not an ominous silence, but there were no sounds to hear. There was a feeling of motion, almost like free fall, but with more control. John was there with her, she could feel his presence, a comforting shield in this other-ness she was traveling through.
They reached the end of their journey as if awakening from a dream, or surfacing from a dive into a deep pool. She let out a breath she had not been holding. Although she was never conscious of the sensation of breathing while traveling, she was never out of breath. What they did occurred outside the need for breathing -- between one breath and another.
Arkadia's air smelled and tasted different from Alpha's familiar much recycled air. They stood on a carpet of grass beside a small creek. She pulled back both physically and psychically from John and took a look around at this new greener Arkadia.
They stood on a hillside covered in grass and a scattering of purple and pink wildflowers. Helena walked a few paces to the nearest patch of flowers and recognized the terrestrial clover. She knelt and touched the soil, a moist, rich loam. The hill sloped gently down to a small valley with a creek meandering through it. Slender deciduous trees stretched up to a brilliantly blue cloudless sky. The air held a moist freshness that bespoke of a spring morning. Helena smiled at John.
"They've done marvelous things here with the supplies they took from Alpha."
"It is beautiful, isn't it?" He held out a hand to her. She took it and stood. "Which direction do you think?"
Alan had a talent for navigating among the stars. Helena's talent lay with people. She frowned slightly as she listened to an inner voice, and pushed blonde hair out of her eyes in a reflexive gesture. She turned one way, then another, twisting the wedding band on her finger while she concentrated. Then she nodded. "That way."
They headed over a small rise, down and across a wide sloping meadow, then up another rise and through a small copse of young trees. On the other side of the trees the hillside lead down to neat rows of vegetables, and fruit trees. The familiar lines of an Eagle graced a clearing next to a well-remembered cave. Just down the hill from them a child sat on an outcropping of rock. She looked a little older than Katie, and she had been crying..
The child noticed John and Helena at about the same time they noticed her. She looked up at them with wide brown eyes full of surprise. She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand with a child's disregard for sanity, sniffed, and asked, "Are you angels?"
They made their way down the hill and Helena knelt beside the child. She was a little girl with brown curly hair cut into a short cap that framed a pixie-like face with a scattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She was very much a miniature version of Anna Davis. Dressed in a white smock, she resembled a small cherub more than John and Helena resembled angels. "No, we're not angels. Why do you ask?"
"Mommy said that angels watch over us and keep us safe and Mommy needs an angel now."
"Why does she need an angel?"
"She keeps screaming. Papa said I'd have a little brother or sister when I woke up, but Mommy screamed all night and Papa told me to come outside and pray. So I did, and now you're here."
"Well, I'm not an angel, but I am a friend. Take me to your mommy and I'll try to help."
The child slid gracefully off the rock and took Helena's hand fearlessly. She lead them down the hill, through a lush neat vegetable garden, past the Eagle, and into an all too familiar cave. The cave looked different now. A fieldstone hearth framed a cheery fireplace, including an oven area. A worktable from the Eagle stood next to it, covered with assorted crockery. The large table in the middle of the room was no longer surrounded by skeletons and covered with dust. A bowl of fragrant flowers sat on the polished wood, and the benches sported cushions from the Eagle. The walls had been painted a light color to brighten the room. A door across the room from the entrance led further into the cavern.
"Papa! Papa!" the child called.
The other door opened quickly, and Luke Ferro strode into the room. "Claire, child! I told you to stay out --" he stopped abruptly as he recognized the woman whose hand the child held, and the man behind her. "Oh, thank God!"
"Where is she?" Helena asked.
"Through here." Luke ushered her into the other room.
Koenig diverted the child by taking her hand and asking to be shown the garden. Helena put her hand on Luke's arm as she passed him. "Let me see her alone. I'll call if you can help." She shut the door behind her without waiting for an argument.
Luke followed Koenig outside and watched Koenig interact with the child. John took the child seriously, asked questions, listened to the answers and made comments that elicited smiles and giggles from the little girl. Luke stayed near the cave, and soon Koenig made his way back to the other man.
Luke took his hand, then pulled him into a bear hug. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you."
"Helena will take good care of her." Koenig replied. Luke couldn’t know, but Koenig used his bond with his wife and could see that Helena had induced sleep in an exhausted Anna and was assessing the baby's condition.
"Claire's birth was so easy. I was terrified, but everything went fine. Then two years ago Anna had a miscarriage, and I was afraid I would lose her. This time, everything went fine until she went into labor. It has lasted so long!"
<The baby is breach.> Helena's thoughts reached Koenig. <I'll get the baby to turn, then there shouldn't be a problem.>
"Helena has everything under control," Koenig told him.
"Where's your ship? How did the moon make it back here?"
Koenig grinned. "We didn't exactly use a ship. It's a long story." He gestured to a bench at the entrance to the cave and they sat.
Luke listened with amazement while Koenig filled him in on twenty years of history. They were still talking when Helena arrived with a small bundle and a delighted smile on her face. "Luke, would you like to meet your son?"
Luke leaped up and eagerly accepted the small bundle. He inspected the tiny baby and smiled at Helena. "Anna?"
"Sleeping. She's exhausted. Let's give her a few hours, but you can look in on her now if you wish." She could tell that he wouldn't be at peace until he had seen her for himself.
Luke handed the baby back to Helena and hurried inside. She sat next to Koenig. He wrapped his arms around her and leaned forward to view the infant. The tiny child had a head full of dark curly hair and was pressing his fist into his mouth, making loud smacking noises. Koenig smiled, sensing his wife's thoughts and feelings.
<You want another one?>
<Of course. I'm always delighted, and a bit jealous, when I get the chance to deliver a baby.>
<My love, we could have another child now, couldn't we?>
<Yes, I think so. I'd really like to try.>
<Then we will.>
<As soon as we’ve found a home. >
He felt her hope and shared her happiness. Aloud he said, "Soon."
She smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. Together they enjoyed the sunshine on their faces and the sounds of the baby in her lap.
Luke was a gracious host, and once Anna was awake, she was happy to see her old friends as well. The garden, meadows and young trees covered an area for nearly 50 kilometers around the cavern. It would not be a large enough area to support the Alphans and their families, but it would be a substantial start. Both Luke and Anna had the ability to learn their friends' mental talents, but John wanted to be sure that both Luke and Anna knew all of their options.
Anna recovered quickly and was up and around in just a few days. Helena and John visited, helped with daily chores, and at night slept nearby under the stars. They lay in each others' arms and made up new constellations in the unfamiliar sky, hoping that these constellations would belong to their new home.
Three days later John and Luke headed out in the small ATV that had been aboard the Eagle to survey the edges of the land Luke and Anna had so laboriously brought back to life. Although John could have easily used his mental gifts to more quickly view the area, he wanted Luke and Anna to feel as comfortable as possible around he and Helena while they made up their minds about sharing Arkadia and determining what their future would be.
Helena helped little Claire pick vegetables in the garden, then joined Anna and the baby on the bench by the door. She sat down with a basket of peas and began to shell them into a pan. A soft breeze blew, and the sky was the color of a robin's egg. Helena noted the lack of bird song in the peaceful setting.
"It's so beautiful here," Helena said.
"It is, very peaceful. You know, I grew up in a city, was educated in a city, and never dreamed of living elsewhere. Then I ended up on Alpha, without a clue that I could end up somewhere like this. I don't think I ever experienced silence until I came here." She smiled. "It took me a long while to get used to it, and even longer to enjoy it, but if we left, I think I would miss it. How was it -- going back to Earth?"
Helena thought for a moment about her brief return to Earth. The only sound was the peas dropping into the pan, and the laughter of Claire as she played nearby with a kite her father had made her out of string and some old rags. "I thought it would be marvelous to be home. I wanted to see old friends; buy things without worrying about whether they were available or might soon run out; breathe fresh air; taste foods I hadn't tasted in years. I guess I'd been away too long. My friends and I had very little in common. The intense commercialism unnerved, and even offended me. The air was almost unbreathable in New York, and although it was better in California, the weather was much colder than I was used to."
"You were glad to leave again?"
Helena shrugged. "Not glad, no. But I don't think I could have really gone back to my old life, and worked in a hospital, or for the space program again. I know my son was miserable and would have had a horrible time adjusting. I've lived day to day on Alpha for so long, I really can't see a future for us much farther than a few days at a time."
Anna smiled at her friend and looked down at her own son, dozing peacefully in her arms. "It's always been the opposite here. Luke would look into the future and see towering forests, groves of fruit trees and lush meadows. Especially the first few years tomorrow usually meant hard work and hunger."
"Was it bad, at first?"
Anna looked at her daughter, playing in the meadow. "Bad, horrible, the stuff of nightmares. We'd plant things, and it would rain so hard it would wash them away. We'd plant again and it would be too dry, and nothing would come up. We finally planted things in boxes and rigged the lights from the Eagle and kept them inside.
"For a long time, Luke and I hated each other so badly we could barely speak to each other. You were right. I was so lonely. I wasn't bored. We were struggling too hard too stay alive to be bored, but we blamed each other for everything from the decision to leave Alpha to where the best place was to plant the seedlings we managed to grow. And we were so ignorant. A lot of the blame rested with each of us, but we couldn't forgive each other."
Anna paused and Helena waited for her to continue. She sensed that Anna needed to talk and was relieved that her old friend still trusted her.
"It got so bad that sometimes we didn't say a word to each other for days at a time. He would leave with a small supply of seeds and plantings and hike for days without returning and I'd just be relieved. I was sure it was better to be alone than around him any longer."
She laughed. "He probably thought the same thing about me. I suppose it was even part of the reason he would leave like that. It never occurred to either of us that we might get into some kind of trouble and need the other."
"Obviously, something changed," Helena said, pointing out the children.
"Yes, it did. We had just planted that grove of fruit trees," she said, pointing out a group of healthy sturdy young trees growing just downstream from the cave. They weren't more than twigs with a few leaves on them. Then Luke took off again, and I was glad to see him go. The garden was just beginning its best production for the year and I was concentrating on picking and canning everything I could. I wasn't paying attention to anything else. I noticed that the sky was overcast when I picked in the morning, but after five years on the planet, we had become used to the weather, and I knew we were entering a season of rain that comes just before fall here. I didn't expect the amount we got though. It rained for three days straight. I was frantically picking everything I could, even in downpours, trying to save as much of the garden as possible. The creek was rising and threatening the fruit trees and I was frightened they would drown. In fact, the way the water was beginning to accumulate, I was beginning to become concerned about everything here -- the garden, the Eagle, even the cave!
"I was about to decide to dig up the trees and put them all in the Eagle and hope they, and I, survived the flood to start again. I was standing there with a shovel in my hand in the pouring rain when suddenly there was Luke beside me. He said we had to build a dike and divert the creek. It suddenly made sense to me. Moving the trees would most likely kill them, but protecting them from the water might work.
"We worked like demons, hauling rock, setting it in place, covering it with dirt to try to keep the water out. We built an entire levee around them in three days. Then we practically dragged ourselves back to the cave and collapsed.
"When we woke up, we were caked with dried mud, and looked like some kind of mud monsters. I looked at him and started laughing, and he laughed too. It was the first time we had ever laughed together. When we calmed down, we talked. We didn't make plans or try to order the other to do something. We just talked. We needed each other. We couldn't do it on our own, and we had to learn to compromise and respect each other's feelings, and most especially, not blame each other for the things that went wrong. After that, it was different, better. Now - I wouldn't want to be without him."
Helena set the peas aside as Claire came running up, eager for some of the attention that her younger brother was getting. Helena took the sleeping baby so Anna could make room for her daughter on her lap.
"We've talked about it, Luke and I. It will be nice to have neighbors, and friends for the children to grow up with. We don't want to leave. To be honest, I'm not sure we could leave. Arkadia might not let us, and I don't want to test it. But there are things that we need: more seed, animals, building supplies, tools, and most especially people. We want you to come here, Helena, and help us to make Arkadia live again."
Helena felt a wave of relief wash over her. She hadn't realized how tense she had been about the chance to live on Arkadia. She reached out and took Anna's hand thankfully and shared Anna's message with John. His relief and happiness mingled with hers. They had found a home.
Ellen Lindow
June, 1998