Her eyes softened now, and he was relieved. “No, I know that.” She sat down again and poured each of them another full cup. “What do you plan to do? About getting back, I mean.”

“How much do you know about physics?”

“Next to nothing.”

“Then let’s just say I’ll put the ship’s computer to work. The damage was pretty minimal, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll have to ask you to drive me out to the ship again.”

“Of course.” She felt a bubble of panic and struggled to get past it. “I suppose you’ll want to stay on the ship now, while you work out your calculations and make your repairs.”

It would be more practical, and it would certainly be more convenient. Cal gave it no more than a moment’s consideration. “I was hoping I could stay here. I’ve got my aircycle on board, so I can get back and forth easily enough. If you don’t mind the company.”

“No, of course not.” She said it quickly, too quickly, flustering herself. Then she stopped and backed up. “Your aircycle?”

“If it wasn’t damaged in the crash,” he mused. Then he tossed the possibility aside. “We’ll have a look tomorrow. Are you going to eat the rest of that?”

“What? Oh, no.” She passed him the second half of her sandwich. It was ridiculous, she supposed, but every now and then he said something that made her wonder if she was dreaming again. “Cal,” she began slowly, “it occurs to me that I can never tell anyone about you, or any of this.”

“I’d rather you’d wait until I’d gone.” He finished off the sandwich. “But I don’t mind if you tell anyone.”

“That’s big of you.” She gave him a bland look. “Tell me, do they have padded cells in the twenty-third century?”

“Padded cells?” He took a moment to imagine one. “Is that a joke?”

“Only on me,” she told him as she rose to clear the plates.

“It may be one on me, too. I’ve wondered if, once I get back, anyone will believe me.”

A thought struck her that was both absurd and fascinating. “Maybe I could do a time capsule. I could write everything down, put in a few interesting or pertinent items and seal it up. We could bury it—I don’t know, down by the stream, perhaps. When you got back you could dig it all up.”