He knew he wasn't going to like the answer before he heard it. If the colonies had gained their independence, they had come a long way from the ones he had known of. That was something that took years. But what he hadn't expected was to hear that he was centuries beyond where he was supposed to be. Will's mouth dropped open slightly. That was impossible. One did not just travel forward centuries. It took him nearly a minute to find something halfway intelligent to say.
"That's not possible." Even as he spoke, he knew it was. This woman had no reason to fool him, at least that he knew of. He needed only to look around to realize that he was far from home, in more ways than one. "A pleasure to meet you as well, Billie," he replied, somewhat numbly, as he took her hand. He faintly wondered at the nickname he'd heard only for males now a name for women. Things certainly had changed.
He was in worse trouble than when he'd started. Instead of a ship and and a set of maps, he now needed to find his way home through centuries. That little detail still hadn't sunk in, running over and over in his mind. "This isn't uncommon? People arrive here for no reason?" What would cause something like that? "How do they get back?"