"It is the small things you miss. Like coffee," Owen says, smiling slightly, "but that's the one I pulled up for use in polite conversation." Now he's really trying not to laugh.

"The people thing..." His humour fades a little. "I used to think that. And then, then I met Will Zimmerman, when I was apparently so out of it I thought my voice had been lost in translation across the Rift, and he helped me; is helping me. Well, he just wouldn't give up," he adds seriously.