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********

She looked up and sensed him rather than seeing him. Yur.

"It's you again, isn't it?"

"How are you, Doctor?"

"How funny that I should have forgotten you."

"It was intended."

"Why have you come back to me?"

"To explain."

She was in the abyss yet again. A spiraling blackness. She remembered it from her voyage
to and from Earth, "Explain what?"

"You and your friends wanted a home in a place that didn't want you. But the Tagleon
intervened. They spoke with the race to whom this planet belonged and made a bargain. If
found worthy, you and your friends would be allowed to live on this planet. If not, then
Moonbase Alpha would have to go on its way."

"Were we found worthy?"

"Because of you - Yes."

"What did I do?"

"You cared, Doctor Russell. You cared."

'I'm no different than anyone else on Alpha.' she wanted to say because she knew it was
true. Apparently she had been selected for this test - possibly because the Tagleons knew
her and suggested her presence - and had evidently passed. But it was the presumptuous
behavior of their benefactors that concerned Helena now, as she weighed matters for better
and worse.

"And what of further interference? Will we be slaves, forced to do the bidding and act as
our masters insists. Or will we be free to do as we wish, right or wrong, on this planet?"

A pause, "You are unfettered. Neither the proprietors of this world or my children will
ever intervene again."

Helena felt comforted. Yet, she also felt loss.

"You must go back now, Doctor. You are needed -- by more than you know." A pause, "It was
good to experience you."

She wanted to know if she would ever see Yur or the Tagleons again but the answer would
never come in her lifetime. 'You can't have it both ways', she thought.

Helena was on the planet once again, looking up at John Koenig, who was staring past the
woman at Carl, Robert and Victor -- who were approaching the couple from their exploration
in the woods.

Alan was also there, waving at the trio of men.

"It's perfect, John!" Victor called. "The planet is perfect and it belongs to us
entirely!"

*********

"We came to rescue you." Koenig said as he sat beside her in the Eagle, "But, as it turns
out, you didn't need us." and there was only a little regret in his tone.

In the Eagle. Not in the Taldrofian spacecraft. Already things were changing to fit a
different reality. Victor, Carl and Robert had all died but Yur and his friends saw how
distressing this was to their chosen one, Helena Russell, and made alterations. But surely
not everything had been recreated.

They were on their way back to Moonbase Alpha where Operation Exodus would be in full
swing by the time they arrived. Thanks to the Tagleons, they had managed to squeeze out
another forty eight hours before Moonbase Alpha left the planet's orbit.

Helena looked about the craft, glancing at both Carl and Robert, who were seated next to
each other, discussing plans each had for the future. She heard Robert say he had his eye on
DeAndra Oruro, originally from Boliva, a lovely pilot trainee. And Carl simply said that he
wanted a small space of land where he could start cropping. His eyes held pain, of a love
long lost, but neither man appear ill or deranged.

"Helena?" John continued to gaze at her. When he first saw her, on the planet, he had
thought she was injured, her face bruised. But she wasn't. Helena seemed a bit confused but
otherwise was fair and fine. Then when her crew came out of the woods, appearing jubilant
and pleased to see them, Koenig knew all of his worries had been unsubstantiated. It was the
rain blocking their transmissions and nothing more. He couldn't even remember now why he had
been led to believe his people were in danger in the first place.

Victor and Alan were up front, piloting the Eagle. Everything was as it should be yet ...

"John, do you remember Ataun?" Helena asked.

"No. Who was Ataun?" he asked.

Helena leaned back in her chair, searching her thoughts. "I don't know. The name just
came into my head. As if he was someone I once knew, a long long time ago."

"A doctor you knew back on Earth? An old boyfriend?" he suggested, with a smile.

Then, something else occurred to Helena - "John, how is Maya?" she asked, almost afraid
of what she might hear.

"Mother and child are just fine. Now Father, on the other hand, is a nervous wreck."

Helena smiled and breathed again.

*******

"Oh, you're just a little angel, aren't you?" Doctor Russell lifted the baby and looked
at

her beautiful and calm little features. What a wonderful, darling package to greet her upon

her return. If only ... ("John, we have to talk ...").

Outside the nursery many Alphans, given various duties, could be heard running up and
down the echoing halls, moving equipment from their stations to Eagles for their voyages
down to the planet.

"It's about time you came to seen your goddaughter, Helena." Tony Verdeschi teased,

crossing arms over his chest as he stood beside John, "One would think you had better things
to do."

Helena glanced over at Tony and mock-snarled at him. All knew that, besides seeing to the
medical departments pull-out, she and the others on the reconnaissance team were given
physical examinations the minute they returned to Alpha, as per regulations. And the entire
time, as Vincent examined and probed, Helena had urged both Ben and Bob to hurry so she
could escape to the nursery. Persuaded, Mathias finally told Helena to go and he would let
her know later if he or Ben found anything irregular.

Maya, appearing relaxed and radiant, came out from behind a changing screen - now dressed
in her familiar uniform. "She's a treasure all right. Our little Sarah Susan ..."

Helena looked over at Maya then Tony, "Sarah?" she questioned.

"Do you mind, Helena?" Tony raised his arms and Maya moved into them, "We talked about it
while you were on the planet and Maya said that it was a favorite name of yours."

"But Maya," Helena felt a combination of tearful joy and reluctance, "You were going to
name her Moria, after your mother. I can't ask you to ...I mean, just because I ..."

"Helena allow us this." Maya's expression grew serious, "We want to grant you this
tribute." she gulped and leaned into Tony a little, "Without your care I just don't know if
I could have gotten through this pregnancy. I was so afraid. I might have done something
stupid. And now ..."

("You cared, Doctor. You cared.")

Helena, attempting to hide her tears, looked down again at the baby. "Of course. Thank
you both." she whispered and reluctantly put little Sarah Susan in Maya's arms.

Koenig watched Helena, troubled by something he saw. He placed a hand on her back,
wanting to impart something he hoped she could sense. "Well," John announced to them all,
breaking an all too solemn mood, "it's time to go home."

Home.

"And say goodbye to Alpha." Verdeschi suggested.

It would be harder than any of them could ever imagine.

The door to the nursery unexpectedly opened and both Doctors Mathias and Vincent entered.
"We need to talk to you, Helena." Mathias said as they slowly walked inside.

In Ben's hand was a paper report, freshly torn from a medical computer printer, and he
was examining it with sober concentration.

"Is something wrong?" Koenig asked, suddenly worried and placing his hands on her
shoulders as he stood behind Helena. His mind raced. Was she ill? Had she contracted a virus
while on the planet? Could the medicine she and Doctor Fairfax created make a difference?

Vincent closed the folder and abruptly said, "Doctor Russell, congratulations. You are in
a family way."

John and Helena just stared at Doctor Vincent and the now smiling Bob Mathias.

"Pregnant?" Helena whispered (Carl: "More than one life depends on you!" - Yur: "You are
needed by more than you know."), stunned beyond belief. She and John had been very careful
to prevent something like this from happening.

"The night of our engagement." he smoothly whispered from behind, into her ear. Romance
had been on their minds that night but neither made a counteractive move. It didn't seem
right then and now. In Koenig's mind, it was almost as if it was meant to be.

Helena turned and looked up at John as she heard Maya and Tony's exclamation of joy
behind her. "But John, you said ..." A little lower so that no one but he could hear, "I
didn't think you wanted children."

"I might have said that at one time but early on it was because I was in denial and later
... You weren't that anxious to marry and I thought ..." he fumbled a little, " ... maybe
you were having second thoughts about us or hadn't gotten Lee out of your system yet. Maybe
it was my pride, Helena. I don't know. But having children together is a huge step and we
both needed to be ready for it. I think we are now, don't you?"

Helena's eyes widened as he spoke. "Yes. Oh yes, we're ready!" and her arms flung
themselves around him. Her lips pressed his. I love you! she thought with passionate
abandonment.

Maya, Tony, Sarah and the doctors discreetly left the Command Couple to themselves.

There would be time later to ask questions and receive answers. But now, on this Moonbase
Alpha, there was joy and later there would be sadness as they, all who once belonged to this
moon, would watch her float away from them -- never to be seen by human eyes again.

*********

EPILOGUE

They worked hard, built homes and struggled - as they had on the moon - for survival.

John Koenig and Helena Russell married and had three fine healthy sons, the eldest of
whom married Sarah Susan Verdeschi. John and Helena lived happily together and became the
focus of many tales told over the years. Helena's diary entries from Alpha, after many
hundreds of years, were touted as ancient treasures.

Victor, when he wasn't busy being scientific, officiated at nearly every wedding and
lived to a ripe old age.

Tony Verdeschi died eight years after the Alphans settled on the planet, leaving a grief
stricken Maya. Yet, with the help of her family and friends, she grew strong again and
became the Alphans' official chronicler. Every two or three generations one of Maya's
descendants acquired her ability to change shape and, for unknown (yet often speculated
upon) reasons, these people always lived rich and very fulfilling lives.

Alan Carter never married but he and Paula enjoyed a long relationship and she bore him
one daughter and one son.

Every year for one week, the anniversary date when the moon came into the planet's orbit
to the moment when it left, there was a celebration. The children called it "The Day of
Genesis". During this time all dressed in their best attire and feasted on the fruits of
their labors. On the final day, over a bond fire, stories would be told about the adventures
on Moonbase Alpha. Some tales were fact and others myth, as Helena had once predicted.

And there was happiness on this world..

All on a planet inhabited by Alphans, from a terrestrial sphere called Earth, on a planet
now called ... Moria.

THE END

References:

Episode: "Journey to Where".

Episode: "Journey to Where" - A quote from the episode.

See Chapter Two: "The Challenge".

Referring to the first season "The Black Sun" episode where Victor is seen, on at least

two occasions, smoking a cigar.

See Part One of Alphan Quests: "The Progression".

See Part Two of Alphan Quests: "The Challenge".

See Part Three of Alphan Quests: "The Discontented".

From "The Discontented"

See Chapter Three, "The Discontented".