An Alternate Life AU
Chapter 5 Not So Familiar Scenes
Alternate
The screen flashed white and then became a street in Paris, 1918. The two voyagers landed together on a stack of flour sacks.
"I don't believe this!" the man whispered angrily.
"Where are we now?" Jeff asked as he stared into the street.
The man opened the Omni, then closed it again. "We're supposed to be at headquarters. This Omni isn't acting right, this can't be happening!"
"Who are you? What are you?"
"That dog of yours has my book!" Dan shouted angrily. "I don't believe this!"
Jeff stared in shock at the stranger. "What are you?" he whispered again.
"That's none of your business, I've gotta get rid of you." He reached out for Jeffrey's arm and pushed the button.
oOo
"Dayton, Ohio, 1903, red light. Great." Voyager Dan Steel said these words quietly, in frustration. He'd been trying to get back to headquarters since he'd accidentally picked up the kid and nothing had worked. The only thing he hadn't tried was triggering an automatic recall, which occurred if the Omni was activated 8 times within an hour. He hated to drag the kid through the cosmos so many times, but it seemed like the only way he could get back to headquarters so he could get his Guidebook and more importantly, get rid of the boy.
He knew that more trips would make his memory much harder to erase, but that couldn't be helped. He would just have to stay at headquarters until the effects of the voyages wore off, then his memory could be erased and he could be put back into his life in 1982.
oOo
He reached for Jeff's arm again and pushed the button. This time they landed in a gladiator ring.
"Hold on kid," Dan ordered and Jeff felt too dazed to argue, so he watched Dan push the button again. They landed in a haystack with bombs exploding nearby.
"Yeah, I know," Jeff yelled over the explosions as he grabbed Dan's arm before he was told to hang on.
oOo
Now they landed on a pile of garbage. It was quiet, and as Dan reached for Jeffrey's arm, the boy pulled away. He slid off the pile, stood up and tried to run, but stumbled and fell to his knees in the alley. Flashes of light were going off inside his head before it hit the floor of the alley.
"Get back here!" Dan yelled and lunged for him, but when he finally touched the boy, his arm was limp. Dan paused and looked more closely at the kid. He was pale and sweating. "What's wrong with you?" he asked. When Jeff didn't answer right away, he spoke louder. "What's the matter?"
"I don't know," Jeff whispered. He could barely hear the question and his arms felt like lead weights.
Dan stared at him and finally sat down. "Okay, we'll rest a minute. So many quick trips through the cosmos can make a person sick if they aren't used to it."
After a few minutes, Jeffrey asked a question. "Cosmos? That's what those lights were?"
"Yeah."
Jeff lay still, his face against the cool floor of the alley, feeling better by the minute, and suddenly very curious. "What are you?" he asked again.
Dan looked at the sky and finally gave up. "I'm a Voyager. I fix history when it gets messed up."
"What's your name?"
"Dan Steel. What's yours?"
"Jeffrey Jones."