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Breakaway + 10 months
“Sandra, I just don’t like the way he finds excuses to be around you. I know he feels the need to make sure all the Alpha-trained pilots are up to specs, but I can certainly do your evaluation.”
“Perhaps he thinks you will not be objective.”
“And he will be? Sandra, just about everyone in Reconnaissance knows he’s interested in you. Not to mention Main Mission. It’s… embarrassing.”
Sandra walked over to the fretful man leaning against the wall in their quarters and wrapped her arms around him. She tucked her head under his chin and simply rested against his warm body. She could feel the tension slowly relax as she reminded him tactilely of her love. Finally, he returned her embrace and they returned to bed where they made love with the urgency of impending loss.
The alarm awoke them early. “I’ve got to go meet Fraser. We’re scheduled to scout out that planet. David says that the initial readings are hopeful.”
”I know. Be careful, Peter.”
“Always.” He kissed Sandra and rolled out of bed.
Sandra watched as he pulled his green jacket off the hanger in the closet and headed out the door. Sighing at the expected upcoming awkwardness in Main Mission, she rose out of bed to prepare for the day.
~~~~~~~~
Sandra waited at the doors to the lift that would take her up to Main Mission. She hoped it ran smoother now since the techs had finally found the time to overhaul it as best they could. The light panel to her right flickered distractingly. Unfortunately, that was low on the repair list.
She had little doubt that he would be sitting at the Eagle Ops console for this all important mission. They had entered this system four days prior after the usual jump through a space warp. This time, they had only suffered two containment breaches and one serious injury. Poor Alpha wasn’t going to hold up much longer at this rate. And their recent encounter with the Sidon ship had left extensive damage, despite Voyager’s sacrifice which had attempted to deflect its wrath.
The lift door opened and the brief trip up to Main Mission was uneventful. She walked the short corridor and turned the corner to enter the cavernous space. It was dark and shadow-filled in the absence of the overhead light panels. They had remained dark since their encounter with the Bethans. She walked to her seat next to David Kano and turned to look up at the main screen. She paused. They were significantly closer to the planet today and the current orientation of the moon allowed for visualization with the best of the remaining optics.
It was beautiful.
The small rocky planet was predominately blue with the white swirls of cloud cover. A large land mass could be seen girdling the equator and stretching far up into the northern hemisphere. There were two small orbiting satellites, one tending toward pink, the other a rich ivory.
Sandra pulled out her seat and prepared to coordinate communication and data recovery from Eagle 1. As she continued her preparations, she felt a tall, tense presence behind her. There was no need to turn around. It was the Commander.
“Eagle 1 to Moonbase Alpha.”
“Affirmative, Eagle 1,” Sandra acknowledged. She studiously avoided the eyes of the Eagle Ops officer.
“Things are looking good do far. We will be within optimal sensor range in seven hours.”
“Understood, Eagle 1.”
There was nothing to do but wait, so wait they did. Sandra heard without listening the sporadic, nervous banter between staff members. Everyone here was quite well aware that Alpha was terminal. They had barely enough staff still alive to keep their basic systems functioning. Their protein tanks were at subsistence level since the encounter with the Black Sun, the one nuclear generator destroyed by whatever it was Zoref had turned into was unrepairable, and Gwent had taken irreplaceable supplies. It made the growing tensions between the Alphans almost laughable.
Koenig repeatedly paced the length of Main Mission, his restlessness keeping the entire staff on edge. The Alphans seated at the desks around the U-shaped control center quickly ran out of tasks to do. There seemed little purpose in attempting additional repairs. Sandra saw Paul look at her and then at the chronometer on her console. Another two hours to go. Paul leaned to the seat next to his and whispered to Tanya. The tall Russian slipped from her seat and left Main Mission. As she watched Tanya leave, Sandra paused to look at the orange-sleeved man. He looked up just then and caught her eyes.
“Paul, assess our readiness for Operation Exodus.”
“Very good, Commander.”
Without being asked, Sandra gathered the required info from Service Section and shunted it to Paul’s terminal. They had been through the drill enough times in the past ten months that it was by now second nature. She saw Paul nod in acknowledgment of its arrival as he continued to collate the remaining data.
Sandra sat back and watched the lovely blue and white planet grow larger. Eagle 1 should be getting ready to check in soon with their initial readings. The tension was almost unbearable. She glanced behind her and saw the Commander looming behind her seat, his grim face deeply grooved and prematurely aged. She was distracted by Tanya’s return with mugs of warm drinks that she offered around, finally reaching Sandra and the Commander. With a small smile she left a drink by Sandra and then handed one to Koenig who sipped it absently as he acknowledged its provider.
“Thank you, Tanya.”
Sandra saw a small smile pass between the two. One that Paul perhaps deliberately did not notice.
“Eagle 1 to Alpha.”
Sandra sat up. “Main Mission, Eagle 1.”
“Sandra, things are looking good so far. Atmospheric gas ratios are just about Earth normal and the gravity is the anticipated .97 Earth nominal. We are reading dense foliage in the equatorial and temperate belts at this distance, but no specifics.”
Sandra heard the excited rustlings and whispers around her. As she expected, Koenig leaned over her shoulder and scanned the incoming raw data feed.
David spoke up with excitement. “Commander, Eagle 1 is right. Those are chlorophyll bearing plants, and the sensors are now reading life forms in the oceans. Many of them.”
“Any signs of advanced life?”
“Negative, Commander.”
Koenig remained solemn despite the growing excitement of his staff.
“Settle down, people. We’ve been disappointed before.”
True enough.
Another two hours passed. Dr. Darrel Wandell, the CMO, wandered into Main Mission and chatted with Koenig, all the while watching the images coming in from Eagle 1 on the main screen.
Peter’s voice over the commline startled all of Main Mission into silence. “Eagle 1 to Moonbase Alpha. Commander, I suggest initiating Phase Two.”
Cheers rang through the room. Sandra saw Koenig smile slightly but then quickly regain his calm.
“Alright, Rockwell, Phase Two it is. Paul, call up an agricultural specialist and security. Dr. Wandell, we’ll need you from medical and Sandra from data analysis.” Koenig nodded in her direction and then looked at Eagle Ops. “Carter, you’ll pilot. Okay, let’s move.”
~~~~~~~~
Sandra stowed her personal flight kit in the back of Eagle 2 next to the bags placed there by the Commander, Dr. Wandell, the techs and security guards, as well as Alan’s usual bright blue bag covered in old mission patches from Earth. Her bag bulked larger than the others. At the last moment she had decided to include her needlework supplies. Just in case they didn’t come back.
She joined the others as they sat down in the crowded transporter pod and strapped in. One of the guards closed the door.
“All ready back there?”
Dr. Wandell sat down next to her and hit the toggle to open an interior channel to the command module. “Just about, Alan. Give a couple minutes more.”
“Right. Two more minutes, doc.”
Wandell turned to Sandra, leaned over to her and smiled. “My, he is being literal today.”
Sandra smiled slightly and nodded at the large Canadian. He was in his early middle years, black hair just starting to be sprinkled with grey and a bit free in regards to personal space. She tried to lean away from him and reposition herself closer to the Eagle’s wall. It wasn’t that she disliked the man, but he was extremely self-confident and rarely had the patience to listen to the input from any he considered a subordinate. She knew that drove poor Bob Mathias batty. At least he never inopportuned a woman. His interests did not lean that way.
After the two minutes passed, Sandra felt the familiar shuddering roar of the engines as the Eagle lifted off.
~~~~~~~~
The flight seemed much longer than the expected eight hours. Sandra had tried to get some sleep but was simply too jittery. So very much depended on this planet. She knew that back on Alpha, Paul was preparing to instigate a full Operation Exodus if the final assessment proved favorable. The additional info forwarded from Eagle 1 continued to look promising. Peter and Bill waited in orbit for the arrival of Eagle 2 and then both ships would land.
Kano estimated that they had twenty-two hours after landing to make their assessment and come to a conclusion. That would then leave the Alphans the needed six days to strip the base bare and move everything to the as yet unnamed planet. The moon and Alpha would then move on, unless it was captured by the planet on the far side of the solar system, but that was chancy at best, according to David.
Keeping her eyes closed so that Dr. Wandell would not feel the need to fill the silence, Sandra reviewed their current resources. Alpha’s Eagle fleet was down to twenty-one serviceable birds and the population stood at 253. And the three Alphans that ‘lived’ in a comatose state in Medical Center. Sandra had no idea what would happen to them. Hydroponics had maintained and had even managed to expand their supply of seeds over the past months, at least until the small crop growing cavern had breached. And on the off chance they did ever find a planet, Alpha’s self-appointed archivist, Sister Betty McCandless, had sought out and copied texts on frontier living from the American and Canadian plains migrations as well as the Australian Outback. She had even recently found anthropological information on the resourceful communities who lived in rain forests and the arctic circle. She had been far more successful than expected courtesy of the vaulted information stored beneath Alpha. Sandra knew each Eagle was programmed with a complete copy of those valuable references. She had seen to that.
If… If… this planet was viable, then maybe they would survive. She just barely let her thoughts wander to the next possibility, that they could finally form families, and have the long hoped for children. Sandra wistfully recalled little Jackie Crawford. She had helped care for him until his unexplained death at only 16 weeks old. She would very much like the opportunity to hold her own child one day.
Their numbers were on the very edge of long-term viability. Of the population of 253, about forty percent were women, and of those only two-thirds had the potential to have children due to age or health issues. That meant only about seventy child-bearing women for 150 men. If they colonized this planet, that would become a problem.
Sandra felt the person next to her lean closer. She resigned herself to having to ‘wake up’ and listen to the CMO.
“Hey, Sahn, I know you’re awake.” The Australian voice held quiet laughter. “Why don’t you join me up front and we can spell John for a while?”
Sandra open her eyes to see Alan’s blue ones not far from her own, a wide smile on his face.
“You’re a lot cuter than John. Come on.”
He held his hand out for her but she chose to push herself out of the chair and follow Alan at a discrete distance. She waited at the front of the pod until the Commander came back before taking the co-pilot’s place. She slid in to the seat and adjusted it to fit her. She ran a quick systems check, finding all in order as Alan had left it not so long ago and then settled in for the flight. The view of the planet from up here was simply mesmerizing. It looked so… Earthlike.
She shook her head not wanting to jinx their chances. Which was probably why no one else had yet dared to give the planet a name. She turned to look at Alan. It didn’t take Peter saying it to realize Alan had an interest in her. And to be honest, it did run both ways. She had met Alan years ago, prior to Peter in truth. They had been just comfortable friends until the past few months, the events since Breakaway changing that simple friendship as they had so much else. She could not forget that it was Alan who had come to her rescue that time on Retha. He had fended off the changed Alphans and had cut her free as Tanya was about to hurt her. And since then, on those nights Peter had been off Alpha, Alan had always ‘just managed’ to be available to help her through the nightmares with kindness and love. Alan looked at her, this time his face carefully neutral. He held out his hand, and she took it.
~~~~~~~~
“This way, Sandra.”
She turned around, for a moment disoriented by the lush profusion of growth around her.
“Over here.”
She followed the voice and found a lovely glade where Peter and the security guard stood smiling as she beat her way through the fronds.
“I thought we’d lost you there, Sandra. You need to grow a few centimeters.”
“You need to perhaps keep a better watch on your charges, Mr. Verdeschi,” Sandra replied tartly.
Peter laughed. “She’s got you there, Tony.”
The three looked up at the movement at the other end of the treeless, sunny space and saw Bill and the Commander break through the fern-like plants. For a rarity, the Commander was wearing a smile. “Good, you three should see this.” He turned back and the four Alphans fell into line behind, Tony carefully bowing Sandra in front of him.
It was a walk of perhaps fifteen minutes and then the forest abruptly dropped off. Sandra gasped in surprise, blinking hard, as Peter also came to a sudden stop. Tony flanked her other side protectively, both men shielding her from the buffeting winds. Before them, dropping down from a sheer cliff, was a wide valley sheltering below protective mountains, a shining river running down its middle from waterfall to the not so distant sea. It could have been Earth before mankind overdeveloped its resources and polluted its wilds.
Alan, the two techs and their guard walked up from the forest. Alan appeared sweaty and his uniform tunic had been torn in a few places, but he moved steadily to clear the way for his team members. Once they were free of the woods, he walked over to stand between Sandra and Tony. He let out a low whistle at the sight of the valley in front of them.
The agronomist hurried straight to the Commander, absently pushing her wind tossed hair from her eyes and all but ignoring the valley in her haste to share her news. Shermeen’s wide smile brought an echoing one from Koenig’s face; she was almost beside herself with giddiness. “Commander, it all checks out. The air, the water, the soil. This planet will support us. We can live here!”
There was silence except for the whistling of the winds as the landing team took in the enormity of her words. The faint sounds of insect-like creatures buzzed in the woods behind them, small flying creatures wheeled over the valley in front of them.
“Koenig to Moonbase Alpha. Paul, commence Operation Exodus. Terra Alpha is waiting.”
Sandra reached out to take the hands of the two men standing alongside her. Finally, they were home.
~~~~~~~~
One month after landing…
The first settlement was taking form. The Alphans were sheltering in caves and quonset huts along the riverbank while more permanent living facilities were sought or made. There was still some disagreement over how the community would ultimately be laid out, and if one or several communities would be best, but for this first planetary cycle of 311 days, a number many found significant, it was agreed the Alphans would stay within a day’s walk of base.
Food was still scarce, but the botanists had tested and cleared enough native vegetation that no one went hungry. A few techs with knowledge of the seas on Earth had focused on the local waters and had found ‘fish’ that were edible.
With the newness of their respite from death wearing off, and the fatigue of unrelenting work setting in, the inevitable confrontations were starting. And Sandra was not at all surprised to see that the pressing need to pair off and start families was a major source of conflict. The Commander and Security Chief Eleanor Parks were relying on exhaustion to keep raging hormones in check, but there were too many young and not so young men who were simply determined to lay their claim. To her growing dismay, Sandra had found herself in the middle of the battle of wills between Peter and Alan, and she couldn’t seem to find a peaceful resolution.
Finding herself momentarily alone in the small quonset hut assigned to her and Peter, she gathered her needlework and sought to escape to the solitude of the small waterfall pool. She hoped to have a little time to do some needlework while there was still enough light. It was the one activity that counted as ‘normal’ in this strange and glorious world. The light from the doorway dimmed. Looking up, she found her way blocked.
“Sandra, come with me.”
Alan looked at her, his eyes intense. She knew he meant for more than this night alone. She dreaded these confrontations.
“Alan, I can not. I made a promise to Peter before we left Earth, and that should be honored. I am sorry.” She turned quickly to walk around him and leave the room. She did not wish to see the hurt in Alan’s eyes.
“Sandra, wait.”
She stopped. She did love this man, as much as she did Peter. It was an impossible situation. She felt Alan come up behind her and rest his hands on her shoulders. Without meaning to, she leaned back against him.
“Sandra, this is a new world, a new chance for life. Peter is a good man…” There was a long pause and she would have left if not for the hands resting on her shoulders. She could feel the warmth of Alan’s breath as he leaned even closer.
“But, Sahn, I’m not going to just walk away.”
She left without turning back, swiftly leaving the settlement and following the path already being worn into the bracken to the small waterfall. She found a soft patch of moss to sit on and a convenient rock to lean against, but instead of working on her project, she found herself wondering how not to cause hurt to either of her lovers. She looked up at the rustling amongst the leaves expecting to see Alan, when to her relief Tanya stepped into the small glade.
“I thought I might find you here.”
Sandra grimaced. “Are things that obvious?”
Tanya chuckled. “Only to a fellow vixen as the hounds close in for the capture.”
Sandra stared at Tanya for a moment and then had to laugh. That was precisely how she felt.
“I have a possible solution, but we will need to present a united front.”
“We?”
“The women. All of us, whether we have the possibility to bear children or no.”
Sandra belatedly gestured for Tanya to join her and waited to see what she would say next. Tanya did not hesitate.
“We will set the terms for our liaisons. We decide on when and by whom we have children, and the children will stay in families with their mother’s, no matter who the father.”
Sandra sat up, surprised. “A matriarchy?”
“Of a sort. Not extending to governance, but of a certainty over our own futures.”
The two women sat looking at each other, butt finally Tanya broke the silence. “I have no desire to see the Alphans resort to a feudal, paternalistic society. Your England was better than Russia in that, but your history includes women subjected to their husbands in the not so distant past, no?”
Sandra had to nod. Both sides of her heritage had that legacy. “What does Paul have to say to this?”
“I have not discussed this with him. Just among Annette, June, Alibe and a few others.”
“And now me.”
“Yes.”
“Why now?”
‘”You are the most senior in rank among the women, it would be best if this comes from you with our support.”
Sandra saw the wisdom in her plan, both in gathering the support of the Main Mission female staff and now having her present it to the remaining women, and then the Commander. She toke a deep breath and nodded. She had been so wrapped up in her efforts to set up a functional computer net during the days and then avoiding the silent maneuverings of the two pilots in the evenings that she had lost track of the larger picture.
“Let me consider this, but yes… I think there is something here.”
Tanya nodded and stood up, brushing the leaf litter from her uniform pants. She looked well pleased. And, Sandra thought, a bit sultry.
“Is Paul back from his reconnaissance trip?” If Paul was back, that meant Peter was, too. The men were part of the multiple teams out in Eagles exploring and cataloging the local natural resources against future need.
“No.”
“Ahh.” Sandra smiled and returned to her needlework, pulling out a dark thread to work against the light fabric, but finding it had grown too dim to do anything.
“He is really quite gentle in private, Sandra. And very lonely. He still grieves deeply for his wife back on Earth. I know he loved her very much.” And with that Tanya slipped away leaving Sandra to consider her plan.
~~~~~~~~
Two months after landing…
“There is no reasonable alternative, Commander. The women stand united and we will enforce this for the good of all. If any coercion or force is shown to any woman, that man will be shunned by all the women. And if any woman misuses this …” Sandra paused to carefully choose her words, “prerogative to hurt or manipulate others, she will be shunned. By all.”
There was the expected stunned silence from the men assembled. Only the sound of the dwindling rain outside was heard echoing off the recesses of the cavern they used as a foul weather refuge. Some of the men looked puzzled, some angry. She looked at Peter and saw the hurt in his dark eyes, and one row back, the hope in Alan’s.
The Commander remained silent and looked between the women gathered behind Sandra. She knew he would see their conviction. It had taken only that one less than consensual episode to convince the few holdouts that they needed to take the initiative, and take it now, before the children started to arrive. This was asking a great deal of all the Alphans, but the women amongst themselves had agreed to do their best to make sure no man was left alone who sought a stable relationship. All Sandra could hope for was that the example she was about to set would be well received by the two who mattered most to her.
‘Then, that is that.” The Commander said and turned to leave, and Sandra saw Paul looking between Tanya and the black-sleeved man. She was a bit surprised that Koenig had offered no argument.
Sandra took a deep breath and followed the Commander, but paused by Peter and held out a hand, and then looked over to Alan and smiled. The three left the cavern together. It would not be easy, but they would make it work.
~~~~~~~~
5 years after landing…
John Koenig looked down over the verdant valley in front him. This was his favorite time of day as the Alphans returned to the two main settlements and enjoyed the fruits of their hard labors. He carefully walked down the steep pathway leading away from the wind turbines located on the ridge above their main settlement. Seven were up and running with at least ten more planned. As he approached his settlement, he could hear the high-pitched laughter of many children carrying over the wide stream that provided both water and local transportation between the two communities set ten kilometers apart.
Terra Alpha had been kind to them, for the most part. They had lost seven people to foolish accidents in those first few months, and two women had died in childbirth, but excepting those tragic losses, the Alphans had prospered. The population was healthy and growing exponentially in no small part due to the hard work of Dr. Wandell and his medical staff. Their grains had taken to the soil and much of the native vegetation was nutritious. There was even a form of sea life that proved to be an excellent source of protein. The few dangerous carnivores in the area had been persuaded to hunt elsewhere and several of the smaller herbivores were finding homes among the Alphans as pets. And although he wouldn’t admit it to just anyone, he was just as happy the small critters had been found to be inedible. They were simply too cute. His wife would have loved them.
He brushed the sticky seed pods off his black-sleeved linen shirt as he finally made it to level ground. Too bad these were among the mildly toxic plants. There were so darn many of them. John sighed. Black sleeves. Tanya had had the very devil of a time finding a dye that gave the rich, dark color that met her approval. He had been more than willing to give up the responsibilities and burdens of being the sole leader, but the Alphans still turned to him for leadership and called him ‘Commander’. He had added to his old Command Staff a selection of men and women knowledgeable in agronomy, meteorology and other earth bound necessities. He felt much older than his forty-six years, but realized that an acceptable successor might have to wait upon the next generation.
John watched the busyness around him for a while. He saw pilot Kevin Taylor and a very attentive Paul helping Tanya bring in some of the harvested flax plants, no doubt heading to the nearby small, dry cavern used as a threshing room. Kevin had expressed an interest in devising a solar powered thresher to help automate the process of turning the flax into the soft linen they now wore. Tanya and, somewhat surprisingly, Bill Fraser were turning into fine weavers. John was not surprised to find Sandra in that number given her interest in needlework. He smiled as he recalled the many instances of finding her at her fancy work as she sat night shifts in Main Mission. Returning to the present, he offered to help with the toting and carrying but was waved off with a smile by the very pregnant Tanya.
High pitched giggles immediately behind him caused him to turn around carefully so as to not knock over the small children. It was tiny Danae Benes and her brother chasing a scaled down replica of a blimp that had been made by her father. Alan was set on proving the viability of a fleet of dirigibles to ultimately replace the Eagles. John had his doubts, but had left them unvoiced after the discovery of natural gas in a swampy area not too far away. He reached out and plucked the blimp from the air as it rose far out of the girl’s reach. The silver-haired child thanked him politely and took the hand of her brother Alistair as they raced off.
The day was winding down. He decided to take the opportunity to find a few moments for himself before joining the others for dinner. He followed the well-worn path to the small waterfall behind the settlement and settled on his favorite rock to watch the sunlight dance off the tumbling water in front of him. Soon, a small hand slipped into his and a small warm body leaned trustingly against him. They watched as a rambunctious, blue and burgundy furry mop of a quadruped ran down to the water for a drink.
John looked at the slight, four-year-old girl child bathed in the golden sunlight. Her hair was dark and her features distinctly Slavic in heritage, and the smile was one of delight at the beauty around them. They sat companionably together, speaking of things important to the child, mostly of her pet and her best friends, the Benes children. John listened attentively, if not in complete understanding, as the light around them shifted through its spectrum of yellows, oranges, greens and then blues and purples as night settled.
“Carry me, daddy?” The child held out her arms as John stood for the return trip home.
“Most certainly, come here scamp.”
Jean Aleksandr jumped into his arms, then twisted slightly to face the stream to call her pet to her side. Father and daughter headed home.
~~~~~~~~
6 years after landing…
A heavily damaged and abandoned Alpha kept her lonely watch. The remnants of the X5 Computer continued to scan the heavens, carefully recording and filing data for later review, the data banks growing more and more full as the absent Alphans no longer attended this task. In a darkened Main Mission, a red tell-tale began to flash on the desk once manned by Sandra Benes. A static-filled voice waxed and waned and finally became clear.
“An erroneous contact, Dr. Logan.”
“Hmm. This is where Alpha should be. Okay, that last trembler may have affected the delta wave variable. Modulate that by plus 0.02% and reset the parameters and we will try again.”
“Yes, Dr. Logan.” A young technician quickly stored the old novel she was clandestinely reading and performed the requested adjustment. In distant Alpha, the red tell-tale faded back to black while somewhere else another red tell-tale lit up. The tech glanced at Carla and nodded.
“This is a neutrino transmission. This is a neutrino transmission. Calling Moonbase Alpha by neutrino transmission."
27 Sept 2006
MGK
Since October 12, 2006