Author's Notes: Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.

Kate finished and hit the timer at her side.

"Yes," she crowed throwing her arms in the air, "Eleven minutes and fifteen seconds."

She leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh of relief. She needed to be able to make the three devices in fourteen minutes and it had been the biggest challenge of the plan to get the timing down below sixteen.

"Well done," Tobias said from behind her.

Kate turned with a smile, "You mean it's about time, right?"

Tobias rolled his eyes, "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to," she shot back, "It was in your general tone."

He chuckled and handed her the tea he'd brought with him, "We're almost ready, Kate. We'll have to start and put together a plan for how we're going to pull this off."

Taking a long drink she nodded, "I have a few ideas."

"Tobias, Kate," Mac yelled suddenly, "Come here, now."

Confused they ran together to the small room they were using to listen in, skidding to a halt finding Mac holding the headset.

"What?" Kate demanded confused, "Did Henderson finally admit she's useless?" when he hesitated she rolled her eyes, "Come on, Mac tell us what had you screaming for us?"

"The Seaquest is gone."

Kate stared at him confused, "I'm sorry, what?"

Mac winced, "I was checking the recordings and all of a sudden there was nothing."

"Are you sure it's not the bug?" Tobias asked with a frown as Kate slid into the seat to start a diagnostic.

Mac shrugged, "I don't think so."

Silence fell as they listened to Kate working the annoyed sighs making them both wince.

"Damn it," she snapped finally, leaning back in the chair she pushed a hand through her hair, "They're gone. Just gone and whatever happened means we don't have the feed from the past few hours."

Tobias stared at her, "So we have no idea where they are or what happened."

Kate's eyes closed before she slammed her hands on the desk before bouncing to her feet and kicking the chair.

"Hey," Mac moved and caught her by the shoulders, "Calm down."

She stared at him incredulously, "I can't calm down because they're gone. We need the Seaquest to make the plan work without it we're stuck here."

Mac sighed rubbing her back in a slow circle, "Is that such a bad thing? You have a home here, Kate and you still have family."

Kate pulled away from Mac and shook her head sadly whispering, "But I don't have them," before she slowly walked away.

x

Kate sat cross-legged on her bed, elbows on her knees and chin in her hands. She couldn't cry, she wouldn't cry because she had to be Kitten again for the rest of her life.

Tobias had given her hope, hope that she would get her life back soon and she would be able to return to being Kate Foster, Seaquest engineer with her three guys there for movie nights and meals or card games and even emergencies where they were putting their lives on the line.

Now that was truly gone for good.

A knock on the door made her grimace and Kate debated for a moment which one would be at her door. She let out a sigh then called to come in.

To her surprise both men stood there.

"What is this?" she demanded, "Two pronged attack?"

Tobias shook his head while Mac walked over and sat beside her, "We both wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I have no idea," she told them, "But they can't have just disappeared, can they?"

Tobias shrugged, "I don't have any answers for you, Kate. I'm sorry."

"Could it be your people again?" she demanded.

"I doubt it," he replied, "They would have contacted me first and even if they didn't," he continued before Kate could say anything, "I would know they were here."

She took a long deep breath before nodding, "Alright."

"Kate?" Mac asked softly.

"I need some time," Kate told him gently patting her foster father's arm, "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back later."

x

Darrow was not the nicest of places.

It had originally been a farming colony but it had been built on a route that smugglers found to be useful. Soon it was taken over by smugglers, thieves and other scum who by 2032 had somehow coalesced into a working government of sorts with Mac as its elected leader.

Kate had spent a lot of her time on Darrow, growing up under the tutelage of murderers, thieves and other people who should have been in jail.

She strolled through the corridors not going anywhere exactly, just needing to walk in order to sort through her thoughts. Feeling someone begin to follow her, Kate paused for a moment and made a show of letting whoever that she was armed.

As she started walking again Kate smiled to herself knowing whoever it was had decided to leave her alone.

Losing the Seaquest now, after they'd come so far in their plan was...it was beyond devastating.

Kate headed back to the room they were using to listen into the Seaquest; she wanted to hear the final conversation they had before disappearing.

The voices of the bridge crew filled her ears. The random discussions making her smile especially when Lucas and Tim's voices became prominent and she rested her head on her hand listening with a smile as the two men discussed ideas they had for the WSKRS.

This had been her small comfort during these past few months, listening to them just talk about anything and everything.

Taking a deep breath Kate was about to shut down the entire system when she noticed a feed coming through. Hastily she started checking the computer and stared in amazement.

"Come on," she demanded, furiously trying to get the connection she was being told existed again, "Come on. Work you piece of..." she gave a cry of relief when she heard Hudson giving a speech to the bridge crew.

Kate pushed her hand through her hair before checking that the records from the missing time were being uploaded. Scanning through them quickly she found the record from just before they went missing to find out what had happened. Starting the recording Kate's eyes widened in astonishment.

Hitting the comm. button before yelling, "Tobias!"

x

"Well?"

Kate demanded as she paced the floor behind where he was sitting going over the data. Tobias held up his hand silently asking that she allow him to finish studying the information. She grimaced continuing to pace but as requested didn't ask anything else waiting for him. Finally he turned to her.

"So?" she asked, "Did they travel in time?"

Tobias nodded, "Yes, they did."

"And it helps us?"

He nodded again, "It does. Using the information the bug fed back to us will help me finish the calculations much sooner than I expected."

"What does that mean?" Kate asked trying not to get too hopeful.

Tobias smiled, "It means it's almost time to go home."