What followed, after the double Autumn wedding of Paul, Sandra, Alan and Regina, and the building of all their small homes, mostly from storage containers and scrap plastics, was a peaceful first Winter in Santa Maria.
The weather was not bad, no snow or sleet, but they did have heavy rains in November that threatened to make the creek overflow. Despite the danger, Helena loved the rain. It was on those stormy, exciting nights, hearing the pounding of thunder and seeing the flash of lightening, she lay with John Koenig and they could abandon themselves completely, without fear of being discovered. No one wanted to leave their homes during storms.
If there was one regret in their relationship it was that they were sorry that they hadn't taken the initiative sooner. For Helena it was a delight, feeling such deep stimulation, along with a tender, exquisite passion. She had been afraid, after her first husband, she would not be able to feel the same fervor with John Koenig - but she was wrong. He had been so tender and considerate with her during their first night together and when the flame ignited it was like nothing she had ever experienced before, even with Lee who she had loved dearly.
Although John and Helena were ostensibly living in their own quarters, they seldom spent their nights alone. The others knew they were a couple and were waiting for the wedding announcement but, as it was on Alpha, they knew better then to pry into the couple's private lives.
Koenig was ready to marry Helena at anytime of her choosing. He had even asked Victor quietly one evening if he would officiate, but Helena asked them both if they could wait until Spring, when Victor's flowers would be in full bloom.
John Koenig could deny her nothing. She had his heart, mind and body. It took and outer-space journey and discovering Earth again to find his true love. How did he get so lucky?
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Regina was the first to become pregnant but by early Spring it was clear that she had lost the baby. There was no heartbeat, no movement and Helena recalled Alan's expression as being the saddest she had ever seen from the normally cheerful Australian.
Paul and Sandra tried to get pregnant but it was a slow process and both were becoming discouraged.
Helena told John they needed to hold off with their wedding plans. She found Regina very prone to infection and fevers, taking up a great deal of Helena's time, and Sandra was emotionally troubled, stopping in to see her often. Even Adam Strom from Camp Three came to see her regularly for stomach ulcers and Gemma Neal from a settlement in the west had developed a nervous disorder. Dr. Russell, for now, could concentrate on nothing but her patients, as well as the Alphan's on-going fight for survival.
She used her own small home as a hospital, cleaning everything thoroughly, making sure those who came to see her, from near and far, were well taken care of.
Helena had learned that Dr. Mathias, in his village, was just as busy as she and had even fewer resources. She asked Bob and his bride, Paula, to come live with them in their settlement. Helena felt they could join forces and provide even better medical care for their people. However, Mathias was needed desperately where he was and Helena understood his position.
Koenig did not mind Helena converting her home into a Medical Center because it meant she would come to him every evening and spend the night. She had no other place to sleep unless she pitched a tent and Koenig would not hear of it. Besides, It also gave him the opportunity, as she lay in his arms at night, to remind his betrothed that with all the sadness around them, the illness and loss of life, it might be time to celebrate again.
A wedding would be the perfect antidote.
They married in early Summer, Victor's flower garden making a lovely backdrop to the festivities. It had been a wonderful time, a beautiful ceremony, and Helena now took John Koenig's last name as her own.
By Winter of that same year Sandra was pregnant with her first child, a son for she and Paul.
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Their Alphan uniforms did not wear well in this new harsh environment. When it came to working the land they were useless. After repeated washings in the Unsullied they began to fall apart. A loom was created and clothing, light but well-wearing robes, were fashioned. Helena found she was very good with not just the loom but needle and thread.
"Not surprising," Victor had told her. "As a doctor you sutured all of the time."
Helena told him it was not quite the same thing.
Progress was being made.
The water-well was built, their crops were coming in, and after David had been attacked by a small but vicious animal, which left the two small fingers on his left hand permanently numb, a security feature was installed around their settlement's perimeter. If ever a breech or emergency occurred someone would be there in seconds. It did not happen often but the Alphans had become proficient in tackling whatever might come their way.
Three years after the birth of Sandra's first son she had become pregnant again and there was much joy. Regina and Alan never conceived again and Helena told John, quietly one evening, that she felt her miscarriage had been so brutal that it may have made Regina incapable of ever having children. However, at least on the outside, the woman was very please for Sandra.
One evening, just after a particularly hard day of investigating and scavenging the south end of the Dead Forrest, Koenig came into their home and told Helena he might need to take their reserve Eagle to the moon.
Victor told them the afternoon before that while the power core which provided their community (and several others) with electricity was currently working proficiently, they might eventually find themselves in trouble unless they had a back up energy source. Alan had mentioned that Alpha still housed the McKinney Converter, a mechanism that might keep them going indefinitely if Professor Bergman could learn to adapt it to their needs. Initially, they never brought the core down because it was huge and awkward. Moreover, they weren't really certain it was needed and there were plenty other life saving items they needed to pack into their Eagles.
But now, it made sense.
Helena was unaccountably nervous and slightly angry.
Koenig did not comprehend her mood, the way she was shutting him down, until Helena placed a hand on her stomach and told him a husband should not leave his pregnant wife for the dangers of space travel. Koenig could not believe it. They had never really discussed children. It was always about someone else. Helena, although far from old, said she was no longer a twenty year old and decided to live vicariously through the younger women who were more likely to conceive.
Koenig was beside himself with happiness but also worried. Was she well? Did she need something? Could there be a danger?
Yes. No. Possibly - but it was worth it.
Helena told him she wanted to keep her pregnancy quiet for awhile because Regina was emotionally fragile and she did not want to take the focus away from Sandra and her pending birth just yet. "Eventually, when I start to balloon, I think the others will get the idea."
That evening, despite his fatigue, their love-making was tender and especially profound.
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Koenig was more eager then ever to get that extra power source from Alpha now. If their community was going to grow they needed all the advantages their moon could supply them. "We'll go there and come back in a day." he told her, "You won't have time to miss me. And just think of the benefits." he encouraged.
He was going no matter what she said so Helena merely nodded.
A day later the men were packing up Eagle 3.
If Helena was having a premonition, a fear that something might go wrong, Regina was almost certain this was the worst idea they had ever had. She begged Alan not to go but he reassured his wife that nothing could go wrong. They were only going to the moon, not to the other end of the galaxy.
"Alan, I'm afraid!" She held her husband and whispered close to his ear.
"Nothing to fear, love." he assured then teased, "I'll bring you back a present."
Away from them, John held Helena in his arms and her head rested on his shoulder.
"Promise me you will be careful." she said.
Koenig kissed her forehead gently, "Of course. We're even wearing space-suites although we really don't need to suit up until we get to Alpha." He pulled slightly away but Helena was not yet finished with him.
She wrapped her arms around her husband and kissed him again but with more passion, a kiss of love, worry and - upon later reflection - a kiss that would signify the end.
"Now, how can I not return when I have you, a child on the way and this," His lips found hers again, "to come home to?" John whispered in her ear. "Tell Aaron that his Daddy will be home soon."
"Or Anna." she chuckled.
He smiled at Helena and gently brushed an errant strand of hair from her cheek. His hand then dropped and he lightly and confidentially patted her belly. "As long as it's healthy and I get to spend the rest of my life with both of you I don't care if it's a girl or boy."
"Come on, Commander. It's time to go!" Carter called. It had been awhile since Alan flew and he was impatient.
Koenig nodded in his direction and looked one last time at Helena. He cupped her cheek with his hand before he parted.
She stepped back with Regina and the others as they waved and the Eagle's hatch closed.
Helena would speak with John one more time and, in the next week, she would know a grief like nothing she ever experienced in her life.
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TO BE CONTINUED ...