Epilogue:

When Helena Russell awoke she was lying on a dirt-packed floor and, uncertain where she was, nearly panicked. She looked up at the damp craggy stone walls about her and the first thought Helena had was that she had been buried alive.

How could they have betrayed her so?

And her head hurt again. She lifted a hand to touch the back of her scalp and felt a slight swelling. If this was Hell feeling pain was only natural, she thought.

But then she heard voices and slowly stood, looking about, her vision somewhat blurry but getting better as she looked about in the darkened tunnel.

"Helena!"

My love?

It was a very familiar voice but could it really be him; the real him? And it occurred to Helena where she was.

The catacombs.

"John?" Her voice was nearly a croak. She looked to the fork in the tunnels, nervous but also anxious!

"Helena!" he called again.

"I'm here!" she replied.

Then she saw him, followed by what appeared to be Alan, Maya and Tony … Helena wanted to run to him but she hesitated, her hands lifted as he approached. "Is it you?" she asked, her voice trembling. "Tell me, is it you?!"

"Yes," His arms raised as he approached, the voice gentle, his eyes gleaming with emotion. "It's me … and you are home."

She collapsed into his arms, pressing herself against his body, so grateful. She held him as John Koenig embraced her. Somehow she, all of them had crossed a dimension, and came back to their Moonbase Alpha.

Those others had theorized correctly that each set of Alphans had their own place. That was still difficult to get her head around and Helena thought she might need to talk with Maya about it some day when she was better able to reconstruct what had happened in her mind.

"Why do you suppose there were differences in their personalities?" Maya wondered aloud, "If they were us – why the variances?" She looked at Helena but addressed them all.

"Their experiences in outer space were not entirely the same as our own." Helena said, remembering Maya's coldness on the other Alpha. What, she wondered, had made Maya so uncaring in that world. "And, from what they told me, they have been going through the same cycle over and over again. They go through a warp and have to fight off their doubles to maintain their base and lives."

"That's enough to make anyone bitter and tense." Tony said, recalling a few encounters before he had been transferred.

However, one thing Helena did hope - as had the others - that in telling her their story she might have broken the cycle for those unfortunates. Helena sincerely hoped so.

She looked over at her friends who were all smiling and appeared relieved. Another disaster diverted.

"You had us worried, Doc." Alan said, "We thought we might have lost you when you didn't follow John, Yasko and myself."

She looked up at Koenig, "They swapped you in Command Center – they sent you back here?"

"Not without a struggle." He said, "But when I realized what was happening, that we were being sent to our own Alpha, I could only hope and pray you would comprehend unlike I did and eventually follow."

"You should have been there when I showed up. After that spooky trip …" Alan said. "… here I was in Yasko's quarters and it took John, Tony and Maya to convince me I was sent home to Alpha."

"Home." Helena exhaled and looked up at Koenig again, her head pain dwindling by the second.

"Has it ever really been anything else?" John asked, smiling gently.

Maya, Tony and Alan politely looked away as the couple gently kissed.

Yes, Helena thought as his lips covered her own, it truly was so good to be home!

THE END


Becky - March 2016. Hope you enjoyed this fiction!