[7]
There were fog shrouded mountains off in the distance and Cellini suggested they walk, explore, and hope to find a cave for shelter before nightfall. They all needed to rest and Helena, especially, could do with sleep and maybe a little warmth if they eventually got a fire started.
As they journeyed, Koenig noted that Helena's breathing was becoming labored and shaky. She had to stop more than once to cough, once so violently she was forced to purge. Koenig held her hair, looking up at Cellini who appeared nearly as concerned as himself.
"I really don't want you looking at me right now." She had told Koenig after. "I'm not at my best. As a matter of fact," She brushed sweat and hair away from her pale face, "I look like some vile monster."
He smiled, appreciating her overly dramatic humor despite feeling openly dreadful, and placed an arm around her shoulders. "I think you look just great." John said, guiding her along, still attempting to keep her warm.
Helena's eyes rolled, "Only to another monster."
"Thanks a lot."
She hadn't meant it the way it sounded but chuckled anyway.
He took Helena's wrist and looked at her monitor as they pushed on. It read one hundred and one and continued to climb. The fever was not breaking and Koenig looked about the woods, anxious. "Helena, is there anything you can think of we might find here in this forest that can be used to help you? A fruit, vegetable or root …?"
"Here?" She shook her head back and forth, dubious. "On Alpha it would be so simple."
Then, as if the gods thought it a grand joke, it started to rain. Koenig let loose with an expletive, cursing the unfairness of it all. He paused and pulled Cellini's jacket from her shoulders and covered her head. All Helena needed now was wet hair to add to their mounting problems.
"I look ridiculous." She murmured.
"Negative." He said, stepping behind her as they continued on. Carefully, he rubbed his hands up and down her arms, hoping for warmth but the pelting rain made his efforts null.
"She needs rest." Cellini said, ahead of them. "We're almost there. Inside a dry cave we'll let her bed down, build a fire, and wait for Dr. Logan to fix his error." He knew he was repeating himself but it was all he could offer. "If all goes well we'll be on Alpha by morning."
Helena did not say a word and that frightened Koenig. Her expression said it all. By morning it might be too late.
[]
She returned to her quarters, showered and changed, then restlessly wandered into Alpha's recreation area. Marcia poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at one of the long ping pong tables, the cup nestled between her hands. The place was empty, do to their current emergency, and she was content to sit quietly alone and think.
Sipping her beverage, Marcia determined with little preamble that she absolutely detested Moonbase Alpha. But even more, right now, she hated John Koenig for accepting a command position on this evil, worthless piece of rock. John had forced her to make a decision which, initially, had not seemed such an ordeal. She fought him on it, of course, ("What the hell am I going to do on the moon?") but weighed all she had learned, everything she had come to believe, and agreed to his terms. Who knew it would turn out this bad?
And now he was gone … possibly forever!
The joke was on both of them. Marcia because she was now residing in a place she despised, forced to live with people she had absolutely nothing in common with who, with the exception of Sandra, probably did not care if she lived or died. John was a buffoon because, despite his power and position, he was now lost with her, Helena Russell, existing somewhere in the cosmos.
Now their instruments told them that Dr. Russell was ill or infected and was possibly dying. Perhaps he or that fool, Cellini, would be next. Idiots! They deserved it!
Marcia gulped ever so slightly and sipped from her cup. Despite feeling used and abused not even Marcia – as self-absorbed as she often was - actually wished that type of fate for her husband and his friends. She felt awful for them and wished they would all come back whole and well. Yes, even Helena who, truthfully, really wasn't such a bad doctor after all. Okay, Marcia had to admit, she was actually a very good doctor and some would say a nice lady – and Marcia was jealous that the woman had found something in John that she, his wife, was never able to touch. Marcia could understand John's fondness for Helena. And Tony Cellini … She really did not know him well but John had always trusted him so who was she to cast stones? Marcia drank again from her cup then brought a napkin to her eyes and nose, sobbing.
The doors parted and Emil Trez walked in, holding two large white graphic tubes, and appeared glum. He was startled when he saw Marcia. He nearly turned around and walked out but the sadness and defeat in her expression called to him. "I'm sorry to intrude, Mrs. Koenig." He spoke quietly.
She waved him off in a gesture of tolerance.
"Misery loves company?" he asked, slowly walking over to her.
Marcia did not answer, merely sipped from her cup.
"I am sure they will be fine." Emil attempted to be encouraging but only succeeded in looking as pained as she.
"What are those?" she dully asked, glancing at the tubes.
"Oh …" He laid them on the table. "Plans." He said. "Whenever I am frazzled I lay them out and make adjustments. Somehow it calms me."
Marcia concurred, "What is your name?"
"Emil Trez, Chief Engineer." He introduced and bowed ever so slightly.
She liked that touch of gentlemanly consideration. "I understand, Mr. Trez." Marcia said. "Once I had a heavy social schedule. I'd flip open my date book, look at all I had to do, and somehow it always made me feel a little better." She looked a little harder at Trez and suddenly realized how good-looking he was; the tall, dark and handsome type. "Umh." She glanced at the tubes again, "Can I see them?"
A little stupefied, he nodded. "The first tube has my plans for a nursery and birthing center. I made them when we thought …" He let it trail off seeing the discomfort in her expression, "But this one really has me excited." He quickly pulled a large schematic and laid it on the table in front of Marcia. "Initially, it was going to be a playground but with a little redesigning it can be a park and recreation area."
She looked around them, "We have one of those."
"Yes, in a way we do but it looks the same as the rest of Alpha. This is different …"
"Is that a brook?" Marcia examined the plan carefully, fascinated, despite her earlier mood. "On the moon?"
"Inside the moon, a mile beneath the surface, See, I've designed an area about half the size of a football field. We would blow the area out then retrofit. We would then start to build what could look like an outdoor space, a play area with a stream, with recycled water pumped in over and over again …"
"Like a fountain?"
"Yes." He spoke ardently, "And a grassy surface for picnics and trees for hammocks …"
"Grass and trees? Really?" Marcia looked at Emil, captivated and inspired.
"The trees would be manufactured, of course, but the grass could be real." He pulled up a chair and sat beside her, intent in his vision. "We have grass seed in storage and if properly maintained it will grow and last for years."
The prospect of being on Alpha for that long took the wind slightly out of Marcia's sails. She asked, "Without sunshine?"
"Disguised heat lamp. We would create an artificial sun that would come up on the eastern wall." He pointed, "It would then set on the Western wall. It's an illusion on an eighteen hour time cycle. Rousing, no?"
Marcia loved his accent and smiled, "Emil, this is amazing." She said, gazing at his creativity, genuinely impressed. She squinted slightly, "What is this area?" She pointed at a blank space.
"I'm debating with myself on this. Perhaps a large gazebo?"
"Why not a stage?" she offered, "For outdoor concerts. Maybe even a sort of 'Shakespeare in the Park' area?"
He smiled at her, "That is very clever, Marcia. I can see why everyone on Alpha is so awestruck by your ingenuity." He jotted a note on his schematic, grinning as he wrote.
'They are?' Marcia looked up at Trez, a little starry-eyed. He certainly had a way about him … And he was the head of the engineering department on Alpha. All he needed was encouragement and the go-ahead by the Commander in making these plans a reality. The possibilities were endless!
However, having thought this Marcia was brought cruelly back to reality. 'John …' Her heart sank a little 'Where are you?'
[]
Cellini went off ahead, scouted the mountain's perimeter, and found an apt cave. It was small but suited their purpose. He then came back for the slower moving Commander Koenig and Dr. Russell.
Earlier, Helena told the men that she was thirsty and she crouched by the river, leaning forward to cup hands in the cool water, to drink and sooth her throat and to wash the sour taste from her mouth. She leaned over, took a swallow, rinsed her mouth, and suddenly felt abnormally dizzy. Cellini caught her before she pitched forward and fell into the lake.
"Helena!" Koenig was by her side, helping her to stand.
"It's okay." she gasped. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't stay upright."
The men carried her between them for a time until she went limp. Koenig then picked her up off of her feet and carried her across his arms. When they finally reached the cave he laid her down, wrapping Helena with their coats, pillowing her head with some soft brush found on the cave floor.
He and Cellini tried again to make a fire and this time it caught. Both men breathed a little easier.
Helena awoke twenty minutes later and, while still unwell, was also pleased. Then her vision took in the flames as they bounced colored light against a far wall. "What is that?" she asked.
John looked at her glassy eyes, her anxious posture, and suddenly felt afraid. Was she delirious? "Helena, what are you seeing?" he asked.
"It's just light, doctor." Cellini said.
"No, no. It's more. There is something on the wall. Is that fungus? Scrape some of that off."
Koenig and Cellini looked at one another then the curious Italian did ask she requested.
Helena examined the fungus carefully. She told them they could mix it with any vegetable fiber and the blend, along with heat, could help lessen the effects of the infection. She now determined she had viral pneumonia. But if applied quickly the concoction could help her just long enough for Dr. Logan to send them back to Moonbase Alpha.
Cellini needed to hear no more. He looked out of the cave's exit and saw the sun was getting ready to set. The rain had dissipated to a drizzle. He told the couple he saw what he thought was a proper vegetable a little away from them that reminded him of pea pods or beans. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes, Doctor." He told her and started for the exit.
"Tony." Helena called before he left.
He paused, turned and looked at her.
"Thank you." She said in a small but grateful voice.
They made eye contact and smiled at one another.
He then turned about and left.
"You keep that up and I'm going to get jealous." Koenig said with mild humor. He tossed a few more sticks onto the fire then, sitting beside her, he put his arms around Helena and allowing her to rest against his body.
"I just hope it works."
"You think it might not?"
"I'm not entirely sure." She gulped, "The infection might have progressed too far."
"Don't say that." he whispered, holding her and silently begging God to intervene.
"You and Tony have already been too close to me. John," Her head, which had been resting on his shoulder, bobbed up and Helena looked into his blue eyes, "If I become responsible for the two of you becoming ill," Fear and grief caught slightly in her throat, "I'll never forgive myself."
The absolute woe in her expression, carrying the burden for those other than herself, and the love he saw as she looked at him … It moved Koenig beyond words. Tears stung his eyes. Unable to stop himself, he kissed her passionately on the lips, not caring about sickness or contagion. All he knew was that Helena was not going to die. They would find a way out of this. They simply had to find a way back to Alpha!
And once back on the moonbase, when she was well, there were going to be changes. John loved her deeply and no longer cared who knew. Maybe it was a love that would force him to step down as Commander. It was a chance he was willing to take. Without her, life anywhere in the galaxy was unbearable.
Koenig swore, as he held her and wept with her, that he and Helena had a future together.
[]
"This is impossible. We keep recalculated, again and again, and our computer tells us that they are on Earth!" Logan spoke in exasperation. "There must be something we are missing."
"Is it possible they are on Earth, lost in a remote area, an air bubble of some kind that is keeping them alive?" Verdeschi asked.
"Not possible. We combed the entirety of the Earth's surface for such a place for experimental purposes."
"They're somewhere in space and you have to find them." Carter paced, practically talking to himself. When he thought of he and Verdeschi, how either one could be with them now, it truly boggled the mind. Alan glanced at Regina as she worked near the computer wall. To be without her, wherever they were, would be a nightmare. And when he thought of Helena and what he had with her … John and the friendship they had developed … and Cellini … "Recalculate, Doctor." He said, firmly. "And do not stop until they are back on Alpha."
They had only twelve hours before their friends would be forever lost.
[]
She slept and dreamt of Victor Bergman. They sat together and held hands.
"Do not be afraid, Helena." He said, "You will come out of this. You, John and the others have a destiny and it's not your time to depart this life."
"I'm afraid, Victor."
"I know. But be assured. And Helena …" He paused and looked at her carefully, "Don't be fearful of loving him. He needs your strength. Alpha relies on John's sound judgment but I do not believe you or he yet realize just how much the two of you together make a difference. John needs your input, your intuitive good sense, and you need his wisdom, his conviction that there is a future for not just our people but for you two as a couple … You both need love."
"But Marcia …"
"The cosmos has a way of making corrections, Helena." Victor said, mysteriously. "Just get well and continue on."
Helena squeezed his hands, "We miss you so much." She said.
"I am here, always watching over you. In an odd way Alpha is still my destiny as well."
"But …"
"Goodbye, Helena."
And he was gone.
She awoke and heard noise; gruff voices, speaking in a language she did not understand. For a moment she wondered if it was still a part of her dream. Helena had taken her cure over two hours ago and slept. She did feel a little better now that she was awake but a new terror had made itself known.
Invaders had come into their cave.
She, John and Tony were pulled not so gently to their feet.
"Come my friends," A large figure of a man in a heavy cloak called to them in an accent that was vaguely familiar, "We the people of Scotland celebrate this evening …. And you are our honored guests!"
The Alphans were roughly pushed from the cave, swords touching their backs, as they listened to crude laughter.
Scotland?!
"We're on Earth!" Cellini spoke quietly but desperately next to Koenig as they marched.
The three Alphans looked up together and saw their confirmation.
The moon. Their moon was lighting the night sky!
[]
To be continued ... (the exciting conclusion coming soon!)
