To Wilma's relief, the night passed relatively peacefully. Buck became restless twice, shifting and mumbling something unintelligible, but he settled down as soon as she got a hand on his shoulder, and he never woke up. Most of the time, he slept deeply, exhaustion taking over.

The other two were awake in the morning well before he was, and they retreated to the bathroom for a private, soft conference, wanting to let him sleep as long as he could.

"The rest will help," Hawk said. "I doubt he got any sleep at all the night before the trial, and since he left the Searcher at 1:30 yesterday morning, he couldn't have gotten much the night after it."

"Hopefully he'll be feeling better today," Wilma agreed.

"I wonder where he went first yesterday," Hawk mused.

He lost Wilma briefly. "First? What do you mean?"

"Think of the time table, Wilma. He left the Searcher at 1:30. There's too much of a time gap until he landed in New Houston. Unless he was flying around in circles, he had to go somewhere else first."

She hadn't thought of that, too focused on catching up with him to dissect the time table. They hadn't left the Searcher themselves until mid morning, having both slept later than usual, worn out from events, and having expected Buck to do the same.

"Maybe he went to Washington, DC, their old capital. That was the other place Theo said he would have worked a lot with Jim Anderson. I hope he didn't go there. He showed it to me once when we were doing something on the East Coast. If you think the area outside of New Houston looks bad, Washington is a lot worse. You can't even tell there was a city there anymore. I never would have known that was the site if he hadn't been with me. The general area is mentioned in the history, but not the exact location. Seeing that again wouldn't have done much for him." She edged to the door and looked across the room at Buck, then ducked back in.

"Still sound asleep?" Hawk asked.

She nodded. "I was thinking. The other time he really got depressed in this century was his first birthday here. The trial had to be a lot more stressful, but he was locked back in the past then, too." She filled Hawk in on that eventful birthday.

"Being useful," Hawk said thoughtfully. "That is a very good method of cheering him up, but it sounds like saving Dr. Huer was a coincidence."

"Yes. I wish we could think of some way, some easier way than endangering somebody, something we could schedule, where he would feel useful and connected to this world. Some way where he could help us here."

Hawk was considering. "That might work. Although I think what would reach him even better is some way where he could help them. All of his friends back then. Where the last memory he had involving them wouldn't be them thinking he betrayed them. Unfortunately, that's impossible, as they are all dead."

"Unfortunately, yes." Wilma shook her head. "How could Jim Anderson, if he was Buck's best friend, have thought he really did that? Even with the video." She had never doubted Buck's innocence herself, no matter what testimony she had to watch. Nobody stationed on the ship and serving with him had. She had known all along that there had to be some explanation.

"He was probably under pressure from others. He was also injured and under extreme stress himself with the holocaust accelerating. I am sure that deep down, he must have still had doubts. If he really knew Buck, he had to."

At that moment, they heard Buck stirring, and they went back into the main room.

"Wow." Buck sat up on the side of the bed and looked at the chronometer. "You two should have woken me up."

"Why?" Wilma asked. She studied him. He definitely looked better today physically, his eyes clearer, but he still didn't look like himself, and the lines of stress were still there.

"We've already wasted half of the morning. Not that I guess that matters. It's not like we had anything important to do." The clouds were almost visibly settling down over him again as he stood up.

They all went out to a late breakfast, and then Wilma asked as they finished, "What do you want to do today, Buck?"

"Doesn't make any difference. Whatever you all want to do. I already went where I wanted to yesterday, and it didn't change a thing."

"Where else did you go yesterday besides New Houston?" Hawk asked.

Buck retreated into himself again. "What makes you think I went anywhere else? Isn't seeing what used to be the Johnson Space Center enough?"

"It's enough," Wilma agreed, "but we know you, Buck. There's too much time before you landed here, and you wouldn't have done nothing with it." He didn't reply. "Did you go to Washington, D.C."

Direct hit, and his body language registered it even while his words denied it. "No," he answered curtly.

Wilma sighed. "Did you go where Washington, D.C., used to be?" She knew that he hated telling an outright lie.

"What would be the point?" He stood up from the restaurant table. "Nothing's there. It's all gone." The others stood and followed him as he left the restaurant.

"I'd like to see it," Hawk put in suddenly. "Let's fly over there anyway. You can show it to us."

Buck shook his head. "You don't want to see it. And I don't want to see it again. It's nothing like it was, even worse than the Space Center yesterday. I'm not sure which is worse, absolutely burned wasteland left there or having some smashed rubble still here that's nothing more than a curiosity or a hiding place to people. They don't know. None of them. Those people yesterday didn't even realize where they were. Even if they knew the name, they'll never be able to have any idea what old earth was like."

Wilma jolted to a stop as the idea struck. She took a few seconds to examine it, then plunged on ahead. It was the best idea either she or Hawk had had so far. Wouldn't hurt to bounce it off Buck and see how he reacted to it. "That's it!"

Buck and Hawk both turned and looked back at her. "That's what?" Buck asked.

She hurried on to catch up with them. "Buck, what if they could know what old earth was like? Washington DC, the Space Center, the other major points. What if they could see it? Maybe we can all see what you remember, and then other people could appreciate it, too."

He looked at her like she had suddenly sprouted a tail. "Wilma, what are you talking about? They can't see it. I'm the only one who remembers, nobody else." The loneliness of 500 years removed gave his voice a bitter edge.

"But that's something that maybe we could change. I'm talking about the OEI." She eagerly started outlining her plan, and by the time she was done, Hawk was looking impressed, and even Buck's interest was caught somewhat. He wasn't totally believing her, but he wasn't refusing, either. Hurriedly, they searched for a main communications panel, and Wilma called New Chicago, contacting Dr. Huer.