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The silence grew so loud that I could not stand it. "Ummm, Jane dear. Mind that first step—it is a doozy!"

Jane had a calm, collected look about her, and I knew that Serina, not Jane was in charge. Of the two Jane is by far the most cuddly but Serina was all Marine. She looked at me with that look that had inspired men since before time was recorded to go beyond themselves and find the hero within. "So what is our battle plan," Serina asked. "We have to get back home fast. The Duke is still alive somehow. Which means Dad is in imminent danger. You do realize that it was his voice that we heard before that unbearable flash?"

"Yeah, I recognized him. Not only is he alive we know that there is at least one more regent in on this coup attempt. So, about that, is your Dad, an immortal?"

"He is, in fact, he just turned sixty if this is indeed 1948. But right now he is probably in hiding. I doubt we could find him and even if we did. What am I going to say, Hi I'm your daughter from the future? Not even considering that he has little political clout anymore in this time period. And trust me on this one, he is not a technical genius!"

"I understand. Do you understand that the attack on your Dad is not imminent but several centuries in the future? We literally have tons of time. I was more concerned about how long it will take us to get back home considering the only option we have at the moment is to live long enough. But if that were the case, then we would already know about the sneak attack, and it would never have happened which means that we would never have met and could not have gone back in time to…, Oh my head hurts!"

"Oh, poor baby, come let me cuddle you so you can relax and think."

But knowing where cuddling would lead, I stayed where I was and thought. "Computer, no that is too long, Serina any good names on tap?"

"I know—how about 'Bit'?"

"Oh, I like it," the computer chirped.

"OK, I can see where you got it from. Bit it is. So Bit, could you make it a secondary priority to think about how we could get back home? Right now I think we need to get planetside on Terra. Can you look at your databases and find us a decent spot to land and be assimilated into the native population?"

"Don't look now buckwheat, but we have been on our way to earth for some time."

"Buckwheat?" I queried.

"Yes, I decoded those other RF signals and found that they are what was called TV signals. The Little Rascals happened to be playing on one of the channels I was monitoring. From Imp's dialogue in the past, I thought that phrase would be appropriate now. Was I wrong?" Bit asked.

"No, but please don't use Imp as your role model," Serina responded.

"Do you have a landing area in mind? I responded.

Bit said, "Yes we are going to New Jersey on the North American continent."

"Why?", I blurted. "What on earth would possess you to go to New Jersey now or any century?"

"Two words," Bit responded. "Bell Labs."

"Bell who?" Serina asked.

"Bell Labs, they are where 'The Transistor' is going to be invented, and it looks like they are having some problems in creating a transistor at the moment. If you want to get home, we are going to have to give some technologies a boost. And to do that we need money and we need to be where the people doing the inventing are. Plus knowing what we know, we can invest in the right technology companies at the right time, then give them a boost. We get the money we need while accelerating that natural development of the technology we need. There have always been rumors that we gained some of our most massive technology jumps from Aliens, well maybe you two are those aliens. I have mapped out a plan based on what my database has in it. Gambling will provide a lot of money, but first, we need money to make money. The only question I have now is how to get the seed money to get you established and wearing clothing that will not get you locked up in jail in this time period."

Lance with a grin on his face said, "If only this were later in time Jane could be a bluebell girl in Las Vegas. If anyone could be a Vegas showgirl, she could!" This got me the smile I was hoping for and reduced the tension a little. I suggest we find an off the beaten path location in New Jersey to land and get our feet dirty. Databases are wonderful things, but nothing beats feet on the ground. Jane, let's crash for

a while until we get into earth orbit, we need to be alert when we land."

I'd like to say that we took my advice and cuddled up for a nap, but no. We kept raking the same old things over the coals time after time. How did we not see the Duke escape? How did he still have an organization large enough to get those missiles after we wiped out his and Lady de Winter's bases? Was there a better plan than to accelerate technology until it could send us home. Did we need to create the transporter first and even if we did transporters required an origin and destination link to work. There simply was not the lifespan to wait for a ship to carry the second half of a transporter lightyears away. And even if we did that would not help us get back to our time. Should we track down Janes' father? Was it possible that he could help us get the immortality treatment so we could live long enough to do all that had to be done? Even if we did find him, did we dare affect the future by revealing ourselves?

Around and around we went until nature could not be denied and we collapsed into each other's arms and sleep clamped down on our outrage minds.