An Alternate Life AU
Chapter 7 Ben and the Kite
Alternate
This time they landed in a grassy field.
Dan shook his head and sighed loudly.
"Where are we now?" Jeff asked, shaking his head to clear his vision.
"Pennsylvania, 1752, and look at that!" Dan said, pointing to an old man in spectacles, who stood nearby holding a kite. Dan stood up and ran toward him, and Jeff followed shakily.
Dan reached the man and looked back for Jeff. He was following slowly and Dan shook his head. He hoped the kid could stand one more trip, because they'd have to make another before the automatic recall kicked in.
"Let me guess," Dan began, "you're Benjamin Franklin."
"Wow! Ben Franklin!" Jeff exclaimed as he approached and overheard what was said.
"I'd rather no one knew my name at the moment, I seem to be having a devil of a time flying this kite."
"It's too heavy," Dan told him and began tearing the tail to make it shorter.
"You're doing an experiment!" Jeff said excitedly.
"Course he is kid, he's Ben Franklin," Dan told him sternly.
Jeff's shoulders slumped.
"Yes, I'm trying to prove that lightening is charged with two kinds of electricity"
"Here you go," Dan interrupted, "now I'll just get this up into the air for you.."
Jeff stepped forward and started to speak, but stopped as Dan took the kite and turned away. He tossed the kite up and quickly let the string out. It went higher and higher as Jeff watched quietly, wishing he could have flown the kite.
Suddenly there was a rumble of thunder and Dan quickly walked back and handed the string to Franklin.
"Thank you so much sir," said the gentlemen.
"No problem, good luck," Dan answered taking out the Omni and turning to Jeff.
"He doesn't need luck, he's a great inventor," Jeff said.
"Course he is kid, everyone knows that," Dan answered in a condescending tone.
"I just wanted to talk to him," Jeff whispered.
"Voyagers can't do anything that could affect the time stream. That means we can't talk to famous people any more than we have to."
"Oh."
"Grab on kid."
Jeff hesitated, "I don't think I should."
Dan shook his head and spoke louder, "you are NOT doing this to me. We need to travel once more to get back to headquarters, whether it makes you sick or not."
Jeff nodded, he wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't want to make this Voyager angry at him. He took hold of his arm and Dan pushed the button.
Real
"Our time is up, we'll have to come back tonight," Daryl whispered as the screen went blank.
Jeffrey shook his head to clear it. He'd been so mesmerized by the action on the screen that he hadn't even realize their time was spent. He walked out with Daryl and Gary.
"How're you doing?" Daryl asked.
"It seemed so real," Jeff whispered. "I really would've said those things and reacted that way. Do lots of trips with the Omni really make you sick?"
"Only some people, when they aren't used to it, but some people are so sensitive that they can really get sick or even die if they travel too often within a small space of time."
"Do you think I'm one of those people?"
"I don't know, maybe just because you were so young."
"See you tomorrow," Daryl said and waved as they parted and Jeff headed to the deli and then back to the apartment. Later that night, he sat on the edge of the bed in the room he shared with Bogg and stared at the empty bed against the other wall. His first minutes with Bogg hadn't been very pleasant either. Dan Steel may still end up being a better fit for him than Bogg was, but even so, he was starting to feel just a little guilty about the project. He hoped Bogg never found out exactly what their project consisted of.