Completion
We all have ways of dealing with grief. Mine is through fiction. Please read this small piece I wrote this morning. Very short but, I hope, expresses my love for this show and its characters. RIP Martin Landau.
Space: 1999 (c) - Written as therapy and for entertainment purposes only.
"We did it, John. We are home." She squeezed his hand gently as he lay on the stretcher, the one that brought she and her husband to their new home world. Helena and John Koenig, with many who remained, had spent most of their lives on the moon. How often had they dreamed of finding a planet, a new beautiful world, to call their own?
And now it was happening. Planet Ariel, with its glorious caerulean sky, fresh plentiful water, luscious vegetation … It was all theirs. They had come home!
Yet John, too weak now, could not fully appreciate their accomplishment from where he lay. He smiled gently up at Helena as they unloaded him from the Eagle onto a cot near a wooded area. The air felt good. His mind had started to fade a week before and a mere few days ago, just as it was announced that Ariel would become their new home, he collapsed in he and Helena's quarters.
As he lay on the floor, before he faded off, he could hear Commander Zarski telling all on the moon that Operation Exodus was a go.
When he awoke, John Koenig was in Medical Center, which was mad with activity. Helena, still so beautiful and efficient in her mature years, came over to him. She looked as if she might have been crying. Softly, she lay a hand on his shoulder and told John all was well. Soon they would be happily living on their new home.
Helena was being needlessly positive, he thought. John Koenig knew he had a stroke. While his mind was still lucid he could not speak and he felt at least part of his body had gone numb. He had known this woman long enough, had been able to pick up on the signs, to know he was in a bad way.
John moved his lips, saying her name, and saw her lift a hand to stroke his cheek. Yet he could not feel it.
Now, here they were. On the home they had always dreamed about, with nearly everything they could hope for …
Once again, he looked up at Helena. He saw her attention was diverted from him. She was smiling at something she saw. Perhaps it was some of the children playing. She and he had two of their own. Both adults now with children of their own. Where had all the time gone?
He pulled at her hand as hard as he could.
Helena felt the pressure and looked down at him. "Do you want to sit up, darling?" she asked.
The endearment came easily from between her lips and he smiled. At least he hoped it looked like a smile. John Koenig was unsure what it looked like since the paralyses had set in. He did manage something however because he could see Helena motioning to someone, asking for help you prop him up.
John could see it all much better now. Ariel truly was lovely. He could see where land was being cleared and homes were already being built. The last of the Eagles, containing nearly all that was on Alpha, were landing in the distance.
He then looked up further, watching as the moon, so far away now, glimmered in the twilight sky. Soon it would be gone, never to be seen again.
Much like himself. His job was done.
His eyes returned to Helena. She still held his hand as she watched all that he had gazed at, with thoughts of her own. If he had any regrets it was in leaving her alone. John tugged again and she looked down at him. "Love you." he croaked.
She quickly leaned down and touched his cheek, seemingly delighted he had spoken words. "I love you too," she whispered.
As twilight turned to dark, she was the last person he saw before closing his eyes forever. John Koenig thought he heard a sob, most likely from Helena or one of their children, before the darkness came.
Was there a world after this one? Would he go to Heaven if there were such a place? John wished he had more confidence, a deeper faith in the next life. Despite what they had all been through, the wonders they had seen, he pretty much believed in what he saw with his own two eyes.
Despite being a scientist, Victor Bergman was far more open than he ever was.
It amused John that he was thinking of his old friend, a man who had passed away so many years before. But there he was, smiling at him, lifting a hand and telling him it was now time to really rest. John Koenig saw so many of his people who had gone on before him, and even loved ones from home - on planet Earth.
He truly did feel at peace. Only … he already missed his children … Helena …
"She, all of them, will be here with us – with you – soon." Bergman spoke softly, "None of us are infinite, John."
He would wait for her. He would wait for them all
John Koenig's funeral was the following day, his body buried in a place of honor on their new world. Alan, Maya, Sandra … nearly everyone was there, remembering their one-time Commander.
Helena lay a single rose on his grave. It had come from hydroponics before it was disassembled. She had kept it close – knowing.
She felt the hand of her son on her back. Her daughter stood close and whispered into Helena's ear.
Yes, he had made it to their new world.
And Helena knew one day he would be there to welcome her into another.
END.
July 17, 2017
RIP Martin Landau.
1928-2017