All my life I've read and learnt. Born intelligent, always wanting to know.

My first clear memory of childhood is standing in the kitchen being scolded by my father when he'd found I'd taken the living room clock to pieces. Not an antique, but expensive. I just wanted to know how it worked.

I was always the first with the latest gadget. The other guys at school took the mickey, I guess I was a geek, but I didn't care. I knew then I'd go far while they stayed in their own little worlds.

Of course when I got the job with GeoComTex I wasn't surprised. They take the brightest and best. And I'm one of them. Van Statten himself oversaw the interview. I impressed him. I knew it looking at him. He told me later as well.

And now. Now after waiting all my life I have experienced things beyond my wildest dreams. I've been to the future...

It's not fair - I only wanted to know, to experience a different life. I didn't think, I know that now. It was stupid and a guy with A Levels shouldn't be stupid.

I won't ever forget the disdain in his expression. The utter fury. I'd endangered him and I'd endangered Rose. And that was unforgivable. And before I'd even begun, it was all over.


It can't come quickly enough
And now you've spent your life
Waiting for this moment
And when you finally saw it come
It passed you by and
Left you so defeated.