"And we dropped in somewhere new." Jeffrey looks around. "What happened? Where are we?"

"You had to click the button, didn't you?" Kate says. She takes the omni from him. "We just voyaged."

"Voyaged? We used to drop out of the sky after a voyage."

"I know. They fixed that when this thing was in for maintenance. Caused too many sprained ankles, and the occasional broken leg. Not just in Voyagers. Once a Voyager broke the leg of the unfortunate person he fell on top of. Nowadays Voyagers appear, much in the way they disappear."

"And where are we now?" There is something familiar about the street they're in. As if he has seen it before.

"USA somewhere, Texas, I think." She smiles sheepishly. "I kind of neglected my omni read out homework this week, month, year."

"I see, so it's like father, like daughter?"

"I resent that. I was always very good at doing my homework before I took an interest in you." She uses her index finger for emphasis.

Jeffrey chuckles. "Bogg didn't pay attention in school because of a girl, and you didn't pay attention because of a boy. Like father, like daughter." He finds this very amusing.

Kate looks at him with a blank face. "I have a good mind to just leave you here."

Jeffrey has to laugh at that too. "I think Bogg has also used that threat on me."

"He should have followed through on it."

"Oh, come on. I was just teasing you. Try again." He straightens his face and tries to look at her seriously. "Where are we, and when is this?"

Kate takes a deep breath. "November 1963. Texas, I don't know, Austin? I can't make that out. Green light. We might as well stay here a bit and find out what the crowd is about." Kate closes the omni and hangs it on her belt.

"November 1963? The 22nd of November? Then this is not Austin, this is Dallas." He suddenly remembers why it seems familiar.

Kate opens the omni again. "Now I know where Dallas is. Hang on, the light just turned red." Kate looks up and sees Jeffrey running away. "Hey, wait up." She calls after him. She hangs the omni back on her belt and starts running after him.

A little later Kate catches up with Jeffrey as he is running up the fire-escape of a warehouse. She grabs him by the legs and pulls him down. Jeffrey falls, tries to kick Kate off him and crawl back up the stairs.

"We have to save him. We can save him. We must stop him."

"No, we don't." Kate pulls him down again and pins him to the stairs. "There was a green light; this is what is supposed to happen." Jeffrey doesn't give up that easily. He tries to struggle away, but Kate is a strong girl and she has the upper advantage.

"You don't know if this is the right thing. He could do so many more good things if he stays alive."

"Yes, perhaps, but he is not supposed to do them." They hear gun shots.

"And now he won't be doing them." Jeffrey stops struggling.

"I'm sorry." Kate lets go of Jeffrey. "But we can't save them all." He slides down the stairs.

"I think there are very few we can save."

"That's not true. You know yourself that Voyagers can help save lots of lives. Just occasionally we have to let one go."

"I need to be alone right now." Jeffrey runs away again.

"Well, at least this time we know when you are." Kate sits down and checks the omni. The light is green.

-oOo-

A few hours later Kate finds Jeffrey in a park. She sits down besides him straddling the seat of the bench.

"How are you?"

"Fine. I think. This thing, I don't understand it." He points at the omni. "It gives a green light and we're supposed to let a man die. It gives a red light and we're supposed to get that man killed. I can't believe I liked being a Voyager."

"It's not always like that. It has it good moments. You were there, along side Edison in his lab working on the light bulb. Or when Pasteur discovered rabies vaccine. Although perhaps, for you, that is not a good example." Kate pulls her hair and rubs her hands in her face trying to think of a better example than one where Jeffrey himself nearly died because he was bitten by a rabid dog. "Or in the American Civil War when you helped uncover a confederate spy. You helped save many lives when you were there."

"I was on board the Titanic when it sank. I tried to warn about what was going to happen. No one listened to me, because I was just a kid."

"It wasn't meant to happen. We can't save them all."

"What would have been wrong with saving president Kennedy?"

"He would have lived."

Jeffrey gives her a scowl.

"I don't mean it that cruel. Because he lives on, that influences other things. The bad things, but also the good things. They can't happen anymore either. The sinking of the Titanic, though horrible for the people on board, did a lot for nautical safety regulations, so in a way, that ship sinking saved a lot of other lives."

"There must have been other ways. We could have tried to save them all."

"We can't save them all. We must let go of some."

"You said that already. Why can't we save them all?" Jeffrey wants to get up. He wants to get away from this person. Why can't she leave him alone? The plantation was so bad he had started to idealize voyaging. He had forgotten about the bad things they had to do, or let happen. He was wrong, voyaging wasn't a happy time in his life. The happy times had ended before that.

"I don't know. Too much work I guess. If Voyagers prevent bad things from happening, then how are people going to learn from their mistakes? We mustn't want to save them all. We have to accept that some must die."

Jeffrey snorts. He remembers a somewhat similar speech from Bogg on board the Titanic. He had wanted to warn the captain about the ice-berg. Bogg had sat him down to tell him that they couldn't do that because the Titanic was supposed to sink. It was a short speech because at the same time Bogg was eyeing a girl. When he went after the girl, Jeffrey tried to get on the bridge.

Despite his anger Jeffrey has to smile. Bogg was always flirting with one girl or another. His eye for the ladies had gotten them in trouble more than once. It's hard imagining him being married to one and the same person. And that person Olivia, of all people. They were arguing most of the time, as far as he remembers. Maybe their marriage only lasted a couple of years. Still, it would be nice to see Olivia again.

"When I was thirteen Mom died," Kate interrupts his thoughts.

Jeffrey wants to scowl at Kate again. He's annoyed with her for only springing bad news on him. He holds back this time because he is also sorry for her she lost her mom.

"I couldn't accept that she had died," Kate continues. "She was a Voyager. She died on a Voyager mission. Voyagers travel through time. Surely, someone could go back in time and save her life. Go back just before the accident and pick her out of time. You know, how Voyagers are recruited."

"I know how Voyagers are recruited," Jeffrey snaps at her a little harder than intended.

"Yeah, well, there's another way," Kate snaps back. "I'm the first person to receive Voyager training that was born on the Island."

"You were born to be a Voyager." Jeffrey doesn't even try to hide the sarcasm in his voice. "Why are you telling me this? Is there a point to this story? Am I supposed to feel sorry for you because you lost your mom? Forget it. I lost my mom, and my dad, when I was twelve. I've also spent five years in slavery. It will be a long time before I start feeling sorry for you."

"Forget it then. I wanted to tell you that I understand how you feel about not being able to save them all. But if you don't want to hear, forget I even mentioned it." Kate takes the omni from her belt and sets the dials. "Let's go home." She puts a hand on Jeffrey's arm. He shrugs it off, but she grabs hold of his wrist and presses the trigger button. Nothing happens. Kate presses it again, and again.

"Bat's breath." She resets the dials.

"Something wrong?" Jeffrey asks.

Kate throws him a frantic look. "Home button doesn't work."

"We're stuck here?" Great. After being stuck in the 18th century for five years he is now stuck in the 20th. Well, at least it is closer to home.

"I don't think so. We voyaged here, so I think we can voyage away from here. We just can't get back to the Island."

"Oh, in stead of going back to your dad, let's go back to mine. New York 1982."

"Can't. The time boundary of this thing is still set at 1970."

"What?" Jeffrey asks mockingly. "You mean to say they haven't changed the time boundary when this thing was in for maintenance?"

"No, they haven't. But I can." Kate jumps up. "Follow me."

Jeffrey has to think about this for a moment. Following Kate got them in trouble in the first place. On the other hand, where else can he go? He sighs and gets up.

"Lead the way."

-oOo-

"Breaking in comes second nature to you, doesn't it?" Jeffrey says while Kate tries to pry open a window.

"You're the one that wants to go to the 1980's. I need some tools to make that happen. This is a place where they have such tools." Kate pushes the window open and dives in. "Are you coming?" She asks when her head pops up. Jeffrey climbs in after her and closes the window.

"Where are we anyway?"

"Technical lab. I need some precision tools."

Following Kate had not been easy. Her walk was almost a run. Probably picked up as a kid trying to keep up with her dad. First stop had been a phone boot where Kate had apparently looked up an address. Then they walk-ran for an hour to get to what seemed the other side of town. Jeffrey suggested taking a cab. Kate replied she thought those things cost money. She added she didn't have any. Neither had he so he gave up on the cab idea. He asked if she could omni them in any closer. She said the omni wasn't that precise.

Kate asked directions a couple of times. One time someone offered them a lift to a couple of streets from where they were going. Before Jeffrey could say anything about the dangers of hitchhiking Kate had jumped into the car. Jeffrey had quickly followed.

Half an hour later they are walking through a building they shouldn't be. He used to do this kind of thing all the time with Bogg. But Bogg was twice as big and three times as wide. When things got rough he could always hide behind him. He doesn't think Kate would proof to be quite as useful as a shield.

They proceed down the halls. Kate reads the signs by the doors, occasionally tries to open one. All are locked. She tries to open one with her pocket knife. When it doesn't give, she breaks the window and opens the door that way. "You stay on look out. I don't expect anyone will be bothered about what happens here today, country in morning and all, but still."

"What are you going to do?" Jeffrey looks into the lab.

"Work on the omni." Kate puts the omni on the work-bench and starts looking around for tools. She brings them to her location: a number of small screwdrivers and a soldering iron. She sits down and screws open the omni to take it apart.

"What are you doing? If you break it we can't get out of here anymore."

"Unless I turn of the homing signal, they will be able to find us. I know what I'm doing. I think."

"That's reassuring. Are you sure you did your take your omni apart homework?"

"Taking your omni apart for other purposes than cleaning is against the rules, so, yes. Just you look down the hall and see if anyone's coming and let me work in peace." Kate waves him out of the room.

Jeffrey decides to leave her on her own and walk around. He finds out they're in a Texas Instruments building. 'Basic survival skills,' he thinks. Bogg used to make the most of a situation by charming people. He didn't know much about technology. Jeffrey has missed him. Five years. Twenty-one year for Bogg. Will he have missed him as much? Must have, he kept looking for him for twenty-one years.

Jeffrey sits down on a bench in the hall way. There's so much he wanted to say to Bogg. He's never given up waiting for Bogg. He always knew they would see each other again one day. Some times the waiting got too hard, but it was also the thing that always gave him hope. He would lie on this floor mat at nights when he couldn't sleep and thought of the things he would say to Bogg. Now he had seen Bogg, briefly, he hadn't had the chance to say any of those things to him.

He leans his head against the wall. On the opposite wall hang some posters with information about the company. He has missed Bogg those five years. Almost as much as he has missed his folks. If his folks were still alive, none of what had happened after their death would have happened. He wouldn't have met Bogg; he wouldn't have voyaged; he wouldn't have gotten lost in time; Bogg wouldn't have found him, and he wouldn't have gotten lost in time again. Well, this time it won't take five years to be found. He will make sure of that. He now knows what to do: get himself in a newspaper that gets read by Voyagers. Or do something that will upset history so that a Voyager will come to set things straight. He wanted to do that in Ceylon; he just didn't know enough about 18th century Ceylon history. 20th century American history, however, piece of cake.

His thoughts return to his parents. It's been seven years since he's seen them. He misses them too, but for some reason he has less active memories of his folks than he has of Bogg. It is like the memories he has of them are fading away. First they're turning into black and white movies, then into silent movies. Jeffrey's afraid that before long he will have nothing left of his parents than a few snapshots in his memory. He tries to reactivate his memories. He hates to think he is losing his parents this way too.

Jeffrey looks at the pictures of the three founders of Texas Instruments.

"I'm not forgetting about my parents, am I?" he asks the first president of the company. "I love my folks, and I wish I could be with them again."

The president doesn't respond.

Jeffrey gets up and goes back to Kate, to find out what it is she is doing.

"I think we're alone here," Jeffrey says when he enters the room. "I didn't even see a guard."

"Good." Kate rests her chin on the tips of her fingers and stares at the pieces that came out of the omni.

"Looks like a puzzle." He is trying to hide that it really freaks him out to see a disassembled omni like that. It did when Edison took it apart, it does now when someone trained as a Voyager takes it apart.

"It is. It's a bit more difficult than I thought it would be."

"What did you want to do?" Jeffrey leans on the work-bench. His legs are starting to wobble a bit. Okay, he tells himself, 1963 not as bad a time to be stuck in as 1779. They're in America, he speaks the language, he'd be free to choose his own profession. He could live here, get a job, become a history teacher or something. He has a few ideas of how to get Bogg's attention, but if those don't work, or if they have to wait a while before him to get them unstuck, now is a much better time than before. Still, it would have been better if Kate hadn't opened the omni.

"This is Dad's old omni. It's not supposed to go beyond 1970. It already did that once, you know that, when Dad picked you up. I'm trying to figure out how I need to configure the wiring to get that more permanently. That's why Dad was never able to bring you back when he first picked you up, his omni couldn't go to 1982."

"Yeah, he explained to me."

"What he should have done," Kate takes the soldering iron and a pair of tweezers, "was take you to Voyager Island and let them take you home. I don't now if that ever occurred to him."

Jeffrey shrugs. "I don't know either. He never said."

"Maybe he tried and it didn't work. And he didn't want to tell you because he didn't want to get your hopes up or anything."

"I guess."

"Home setting is beyond repair. Best I can make of it is that someone deliberately made it impossible for Dad to get back to the Island."

Jeffrey looks at Kate. He can tell from the look in her eyes he doesn't have to mention a name. She's thinking of the same. Kate shakes her head.

"Doubtful. From what I've heard it's not his style. He likes to manipulate people rather than machinery."

"Did they ever catch him?"

"No, but they also haven't heard from him since before I was born. I guess he accidentally omnied himself into some quicksand and then couldn't get out."

A fitting end, Jeffrey thinks. Then reproaches himself for that thought. That was not how he was raised. He's going from bad to worse. First he forgets the things they did together and now he's forgetting the stuff his folks taught him too.

"Anyway, whatever is wrong with the home setting, I can't fix it without schematics."

"I thought you said it was fixed. You know, so Voyagers wouldn't drop from the sky anymore."

"Yeah. I guess that was less far taking maintenance than I thought it was. They just put in a new chip. Not done anything about all the other mals. They shouldn't have put in a new chip. They should have deactivated it entirely. An omni without a functioning home button should be melted down."

"So, how did it work later on, when Bogg was looking for me and you were a little kid? He did occasionally want to come back and see you, right? How did he do that? Or did he stop looking for me?"

"He was given another omni. And there's the Omnitron at the Island. You can call an omni to come home to the Island on its next voyage. I guess that's how it worked for him. He's got Mom's omni these days. I don't know why. I wouldn't want it." Kate bends down over her handy work and starts putting the omni back together. "I was able to reset the time boundary. Let's just hope that someone on the Island starts missing us and would like to see us again, figures we took off with Dad's old omni, Alexander might be giving that information, and sets the Omnitron for us. Otherwise, we could be voyaging for quite a while." She closes it up and sets the time and place. "Are you ready?"

"Shouldn't you clean up here first?" Jeffrey needs a little more time to recompose himself. All the scenario's that have been running through his head of what could go wrong have left him slightly agitated.

"Well, I also broke the glass, I won't be able to fix that." Kate shrugs. "Might as well leave the rest. Ready?"

Jeffrey grabs firmly on to her arm. He's not taking any chances on being left in time again. "Ready."

-oOo-

"So this is New York? The hustle and bustle of the big city." Kate looks around. They have arrived just at rush hour and people are bumping into them left and right.

"It looks the same and yet also different. I don't remember people dressed like this when I left." Jeffrey feels his skin tingle; he's back in New York.

"Well, I wasn't able to set an exact year, just move the time boundary. The instruments I had were not precise enough. I would have needed a microscope to start with and a really fine soldering iron."

"It's all right. What year is this?"

"1989. Pretty good work, if I do say so myself. I deserve a pat on the back." Kate pats herself on the back.

"1989, that means I've been gone for seven years."

"That explains the change in fashion."

"That is great. It means I've been gone as long for my aunt, as for me. That's very good." The thought of being back in his 'own' time cheers Jeffrey up.

"What do you want to do now?" Kate hangs the omni on her belt.

"I'll show you where I used to live. This way." Kate grabs Jeffrey by the hand as he starts to walk away.

"I don't want to loose you in this crowd," she explains.

"Maybe I'll stay here in New York, this is my time."

"Huh?" Kate gives his hand a little jerk.

"I meant ... you said the Omnitron tracks Voyagers when they are, not when they are actually voyaging."

"Yeah."

"So it makes sense to stay in one place. I mean we don't want to risk someone coming to get us and we voyage out of that place right at that moment. That's not the kind of hide and seek I want to be playing."

"I guess not."

"And 1989 is a pretty good time, right? You would know more about that than I."

"It's a pretty good time." Kate chuckles. "Dad always said you were the smartest person he had ever met."

-oOo-

Kate and Jeffrey are standing at the entrance of a high rise.

"I used to live here. 14th Floor. Then one evening, a guy drops into my bedroom, says things like 'well, this is not 1492. You're not Columbus. Is this even America?' Ralf, my dog, is freaking out, barking, jumping around. I try to calm him down, but he jumps around so wildly he pushes me out of the window. Seven years later, here I stand. Wondering if my aunt still lives in this building."

Kate is still holding on to Jeffrey's hand. "Maybe you should go in and ask the doorman."

"Yeah. Maybe I'd like to wait a little while before doing that."

"I understand."

They wait a while, staring at the door. A man and a woman exit the building. They stop standing face to face with Jeffrey.

"Mom?"

"Jeffrey?" the woman cries.

"Dad?"

"What's going on here?" the man asks.