By Ellen C. Lindow

It was still working, she thought with relief.  Green lights and computer readouts no longer assured her and she sat back on her heels after tracing the entire system.  Although she knew others would debate her opinion, Helena felt this machinery and its frozen cargo were their future, perhaps their only chance at survival.  She carefully replaced the tool kit and stood to find John standing quietly in the doorway watching her work.

He glanced at the equipment but didn’t ask.  “I brought lunch,” he said with a smile.  He held up two mylar packs and two bottles of water.  Helena shared his smile.  She couldn’t remember the last time they had a meal together.  The month since Operation Exodus had been beyond hectic.  They shared a mattress placed in the narrow confines of her “office”, a corner of the natural caverns that had been designated for use by the medical center staff.  Both seldom slept until well after midnight and rose before dawn.

Dawn.  Real dawn on a real planet.  She had even made it to the surface twice and spent a few moments watching the sun rise over the hazy valley spread below the bluffs that were riddled with natural limestone caverns.  The Alphans were putting these caverns to practical use here on Terra Alpha as the planet had been designated.

“Do you think you could get away for a few minutes?”  John asked hopefully.

“Yes, she can,” came a firm response from behind him.  Bob Mathias rounded a stack of boxes stowing unpacked supplies.  These constituted makeshift walls in the large room that was becoming Medical Center.  “In fact, I had intended to speak to both of you about that very thing.”

“Lunch?”  Helena asked her colleague with a smile.

“No,” Bob adopted his scolding tone.  Helena might be his boss, but their long association allowed him to speak his mind with impunity.  “Taking a break.  I know there’s a lot to do, but the two of you have adapted to this twenty-seven hour day by working three extra hours, plus all the rest of the hours you can manage.  No one is getting any rest.”

“Bob—“  Koenig started, but Bob held up a hand, giving his commander a look that said he didn’t want to hear excuses.

“The two of you are giving the example of the perfect workaholics, but people are getting tired—and careless, and it’s showing in the fatigue level as well as the accident rate.  Consider yourselves under doctor’s orders to take the afternoon—and evening—“ he emphasized, “off.”

John and Helena exchanged a glance and John responded with mock reluctance.  “Well, if we’re under doctor’s orders…”

“You’re right, Bob,” Helena said.  “We need to make sure everyone takes a break.

Before Helena could stop and begin scheduling that herself, John spoke up.  “Yes, Bob.  Why don’t you schedule the medical staff so everyone takes an afternoon off during the next week, and contact the other department heads and pass on the orders to them as well.”  He glanced at Helena and added.  “Have everyone schedule for a full day off the following week.”

Bob smiled.  “Should I make sure the two of you end up with the same day off?”

“Most definitely,” John said quickly.  He put his arm around Helena and steered her towards the exit of the large cavern room.

As they walked, Helena slipped her hand into John’s and let him lead.  “The beard looks quite handsome,” she commented.

“Thank you.  First there was no water and power, then we came here and mostly it was a time saver.  I wasn’t sure what you’d think of it.”

She looked him over speculatively.  “I’ll have to see how it feels…” she said thoughtfully.  His answering grin as he caught her intimate meaning left her feeling warm and wishing they could find someplace private to spend the afternoon or evening.

One of the moon buggys approached them and John tugged her against the wall.  The two technicians riding in it gave them a smile and a wave as they headed to one of the construction sites.  Helena was glad John was leading.  She had barely left the medical area in the past month.  John moved the quickly through the hallways that were still uneven and changeable in size.  They were making their way up toward the surface, following blue lines and arrows painted on the wall.  Different color lines lead to different departments, a low tech idea for keeping people from losing their way.  It would take her a while to learn her way through the maze of natural caverns.  They turned into a tunnel that had been enlarged by laser cuts, the smooth walls showing wavy patterns in the yellow-gold colored rocks.  It was quite lovely.  Lights in the ceiling were strung with plastic conduit and wire scavenged from Alpha.  The technical department had stripped everything they could from the dying base.

They emerged above ground and into a slight bowl-shaped depression.  An already well traveled road wound up to the top of the bluff.  They edged past another buggy pulling a palette of boxes that had just been unloaded from an Eagle.  The moon had been out of range for more than three weeks but Carter and Fraser had devised a time saving plan to remove as much gear from Alpha as possible. Non-essential, non-perishable items had been dumped at a La Grange point in orbit to be brought down to Terra Alpha as time permitted.  It was a plan that had allowed more Eagle trips from the moon and more equipment salvaged. 

It was noisier here than in the caverns where the twists and turns of the caves absorbed the sound of construction and other people.  An Eagle’s whining engines could be heard lifting off for another trip to L1.  The sounds of power tools could be heard where the greenhouses were being constructed to cover the hydroponics farms.  Another team was using a moon buggy to pull a hastily fabricated plow.  Several fields of grain were being planted already. 

Their landing site had been chosen for what they hoped was a moist mild climate.  The weather experts among them—delighted to have weather to study again—would make no long term predictions regarding the climate here until they had at least three years of data.  Helena had not been present for Koenig’s reaction to that statement, but both Maya and Sandra had described Koenig’s furious reaction in great detail.

John steered her away from the activity.  He seemed to have a goal in mind and she was content to follow.  As it sunk in that she had some time to herself she realized she would have to begin dealing with the grief that accompanied leaving Alpha.  She had once described the place as a barren barracks that they couldn’t wait to leave, but she had found love there, watched friends die there, and little by little it had become her home.  She also knew that John would be feeling his own grief.  He had loved Alpha with an intensity that had shaped most of his adult life.

The sky was overcast again.  The clouds were a golden color, the makeup of the atmosphere absorbing light differently than Earth’s.  There was an odd odor to the air that she found slightly unpleasant.  Eventually, she knew, she would habituate to it and there was nothing poisonous in the air, she just didn’t like the smell.  She firmly reminded herself that Alpha’s air had smelled odd to her too, and neither Alpha nor Terra Alpha smelled as bad as that chemical plant in Houston that she used to pass every day on her way to work.

They followed a narrow path down a slope and around an outcropping of rocks.  There was a natural alcove with a rock shelf just the right height to make a comfortable bench.  They settled onto the bench together and looked out over the hazy valley beneath them.  A river wound past and the flood plain across the river was blanketed in fog.  There was no greenery.  The carpet of vegetation that stretched down the hillside was more gold than green, with larger specimens of red and purple scattered about.  Chlorophyll had not won any evolutionary popularity contests here.  There had not yet been time to collect animal specimens for study.  Satellite data indicated something that could be large herds of grazing animals far to the north and east of here.  No animals had been spotted close by, but with all the noise and bustle of the Alphans moving in, that wasn’t a surprise.  Plenty of plant specimens had been collected, but no one had made an attempt to determine their edibility as yet.  There hadn’t been time.  Right now they were simply hoping to grow Earth plants in sufficient quantities to keep their population of 225 alive.

The thought of remaining alive reminded her of the machinery she had just checked.  It was time to talk to John, and she wasn’t sure what to say.  John handed her a ration pack and a bottle of water and they ate together in companionable silence for a while.  John kept giving her odd glances as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t quite sure of himself.  That was certainly unusual.  He was one of the most self-assured people she had ever met.

She finished the crumbly tasteless bar and sipped on the bottle of water.  As she folded the mylar wrapper to return to catering, John said, “I wanted fried chicken and a bottle of wine for our first picnic here, but they just ran out.”

Helena smiled at the old joke.  They had spent countless meals together dreaming up the ideal—but impossible—menu for the occasion.  Now was the time. They had to talk.  She took a breath and said it.  “John, I want to have a baby.”

He didn’t quite stiffen or pull away from her but it was a while before he answered.  She waited.  When he did speak he tried to keep the tone light.  “I thought we’d have a chance to talk about marriage again before we got to the baby argument.”

The ‘baby argument’ had been their code name for all the pros and cons, hopes and fears, delays and promises, they had made to each other over the years about having children on Alpha, both children in general and their children in specific.

“We don’t have time.  I haven’t hit menopause yet, but it will happen—sooner rather than later.”

John looked down at the ground in front of them, then reached nervously for something in his jacket pocket.  “You beat me to the punch,” he said with a smile.  “I planned to ask you to marry me.”  He pulled out an intricately knotted piece of metal which gently encased a small crystal.  “It’s not a diamond, or even gold, although you certainly deserve both.  But the crystal is from the moon and I—wanted it to be—symbolic.”  He gently took her left hand and slipped the ring on her finger.

She looked in stunned silence at the crystal in the pretty silver ring.

“How soon do you want to start working on that baby?” he asked.

Tears filled her eyes as she met John’s gaze.  “As soon as possible,” she managed to say.

“Well, we could find a couple of witnesses and find someone to say the words and be working on that baby by sundown.”

That finally got a laugh out of her and she leaned against him, feeling such great affection for this man she loved so dearly.  “How about getting married next week on the evening before that day off we’re taking?”  she suggested.  “That gives you time to prepare my wedding present.”

“Which is?”

“A bed somewhere out of the earshot of my staff.  I’d prefer not to invite them all to my wedding night.”

John grinned. “It’s yours,” he promised.

“And I’ll have Bob remove my implant tomorrow so we can start on the baby too.”

He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her gently to face him, his eyes serious.  “Promise me that you’ll be very careful though.  I don’t want to lose you now.”

She smiled.  They had endured so many risks together.  She understood his fear.  “I promise.  A baby this late in life is risky, but I’m tough, I can handle it.”

John leaned forward and kissed her softly.  “Tougher than I am sometimes.  I love you Helena.  I wish we could have started that baby sooner…”

She silenced him with a finger to his lips.  “I know.  But Alpha needed you.   Do you think things can be different here?”

“I hope so.   I hope this was the right decision.”

“It has to be,” Helena said.  “We would have been dead soon, if we hadn’t come here.”

He pulled her into his arms and she settled comfortably against him.  “I miss Alpha already.”

“Me too.  I think we all will, but we’re still alive and we’ll continue to survive.  I’m sure of it.”

They sat in silence together for a while, each thinking their own thoughts.  The comfort of silence between them was one of the things they cherished about their relationship.  Another Eagle flew past them and wiggled back and forth as it spotted them.

Helena smiled.  “I see this isn’t a particularly private spot either.”

“That must be Carter.  He was the one who told me about this place.  I think he and Sandra found it.”

“He and Sahn?  Well, it’s about time those two paired off.”

“Do you think they have that much in common?”

“Do we?  I think they have great affection for each other.  And they’ll be good for each other.  Sahn needs someone who can make her smile more often.”

“Carter’s good at that.  He’s also talking about building airplanes already.”

“I think it’s a little early to be planning an aviation industry here, but it’ll be a challenge to keep him on the ground.”

“Maybe I’ll assign that duty to Sahn.”

They laughed together.  Helena turned more serious.  “John.  We’ll need to have children soon.  If I don’t get pregnant in three months I’m going to use one of the embryos.”

“Do you think that’s necessary?”

“I hope it’s not, but I want you to know how determined I am.”

“Is that why you were checking the equipment when I came to get you for lunch?”

She nodded.  “Everything looks fine.”  She thought back to the battles they had fought over the gene bank.  She had collected both sperm and eggs from as many Alphans as were willing to donate.  From couples who agreed, she had used in vitro fertilization to create embryos and frozen them.  She and John had argued for months about the necessity of doing that.  He remembered the obsessive survival of the Darians and had resisted strongly.  She felt this might be their only hope of still being able to produce children once they found a planet to live on.  Neither ever voiced the sentiment ‘if they ever found a planet to live on.’

John had only reluctantly agreed to donate after returning from a planet where he had been captured and nearly detained by a madwoman who had told the other alphans that he was dead.  Helena had come so close to losing him, and during their reunion she had tearfully convinced him to allow her to create an embryo to be frozen until the time was right to have a child.

But they had managed to survive, to make it to a new world.  John held her close, smoothing her silky blonde hair and kissing her softly.  It was time for new beginnings on this new world, far from their home.  Their new challenge was making this their new home.