Quinn stood leaning on the ledge at least ten stories up, staring out at the large buildings above him.
The structures seemed to go up forever and ever. He looked at the cars down below. Not like the
cars he was used to seeing, these cars were tubular, almost cylindrical. Kind of like mini subway cars
hovering a foot above the ground. Larger vehicles floated above the smaller ones. They reminded him
of the space shuttles on his world. Except they floated soundless, some of them coming so close to
the ledge he and Maggie were on as to make it seem like you could reach out and touch them.

Ordinarily, Quinn would be amazed at these sights. They were wonders of science unlike anything he
had seen on any of the worlds before. But this wasn't what was supposed to be here. He was
supposed to have slid home. After three years of sliding across the multiverse, the journey was
supposed to be over. He had found Rickman's timer, and punched in the coordinates for his home world.
He should be back on Earth Prime, back on with his life. Back with Wade and Rembrandt. The professor died to
give them this chance, and he blew it. Wade and Rembrandt may have made it home, but
Quinn didn't. He was here in this world unlike anything he had ever seen. A stranger in a strange land,
again. Just like he had been every day for three years now.

Maggie looked at Quinn, his face grim and filled with disappointment. She wanted to say something.
She knew what he must be going through. To have come so close to getting home, but end up so far
away. She didn't know what to say, though - didn't know what words to use. She had never been good
at that. Never knew how to comfort people. How to really be there for them. She had to try though.
The only reason he didn't slide with the others was to help her. He saved her life, and now it seemed
he paid the price for it.

Maggie put her hand on Quinn's arm. "Quinn..." her words trailed; she didn't know what to say. How
could she make this better for him? "Uhmmm, how much time are we here for?" She wanted to kick herself
for asking him that. Like that was really what he cared about now, but she froze, didn't know what
else to say.

Quinn looked at her for a second, almost numb. "Oh yeah. I almost forgot." Quinn pulled the timer out
of his pocket and glanced at the display. "We have three days. Three more days until we slide to the
next world..." Quinn held the machine to the palm of his hand. "And then we slide again, and again,
and again...." Quinn added, his voice slowly rising with anger.

He walked to a nearby squared object
that for all purposes looked to be some form of waste receptacle. He kicked the object, hard. The
square object stood roughly the same height as him and gave a loud clang as his foot made contact with it. Other
than that, the object stood there unmoved. It didn't seem to make Quinn feel any better either. He
leaned against it, his head slowly hanging down. "This wasn't supposed to happen. We were supposed
to be home, my home. The sliding was supposed to stop."

"At least you got the others home. Like you said you would. You kept your promise."

"Yeah, at least I have that," Quinn replied. It was a small comfort. If any of them were to have had to
not slide home, he wanted it to be him. He stood there for a minute, his head still hanging low, taking in
what had happened. He was still trapped on a parallel earth, still at the mercy of his stupid timer, still
having to worry about making each and every slide or being stuck there for 30 years. "Come on,
Maggie," he finally said, his voice almost shocking her after the long silence. "If we are going to be
here for three days, we might as well figure out what kind of a world we are ..." Quinn stopped and
looked to the ground as if just noticing something. Without saying a word to Maggie he walked over to
a spot of ground a few feet away, and kneeled on the floor, picking something up off the ground.

"What is it Quinn?" Maggie asked, growing impatient. She hated having people shut her out. Even if they
were in the situation Quinn was in.

"Recognize this?" Quinn asked her, getting up and holding what appeared to be a silver necklace. Maggie
tried to snatch the necklace from Quinn so she could get a better look, but he held on to it.

"It's a necklace, Quinn. I don't get it. So this world has necklaces. Is that supposed to strike me
as...."

"Maggie!" Quinn snapped at her. He really wasn't in the mood to put up with her sarcasm at the
moment. He unclenched his fist, revealing the four cubes that hung on the chain; they spelt out Wade's
name. "This is Wade's - she was wearing it when we slid from that island."

Maggie looked at Quinn, a little bit perplexed. "Quinn, are you sure? We set the coordinates on
Rickman's timer to your world. It's just a necklace. It could have been dropped by another Wade."

"It's her necklace, Maggie," he said, exasperated.

"But how is that possible? We put the coordinates for your home world in the timer." Maggie ask stated.
"Unless..."

Quinn finished Maggie's thought for her, "Unless our timer wasn't the one that was broken." Quinn
stood for a second, thinking. "Come on, Maggie, let's find a hotel. I want to get a look at the timers. I'm
starting to worry that none of us made it home."

"But, Quinn, that doesn't make sense? We were right behind them. If they did slide here before us, then
where are they?"

"That's the next thing I want to find out," Quinn answered her. Not even waiting for her response, he
turned and walked towards a flight moving stairs that seemed to him much like an escalator. Quinn
hoped they led in some direction that he could go to find a hotel.

The two sliders then walked off into a collage of lights and strangely shaped vehicles. One thing was
certain: this stood to be one of the most interesting worlds they had ever found themselves in.
 

*****

What if there was a world where the Russians ruled America?
Or where the dinosaurs never died off?
Or where women were in control instead of men?

These worlds do exist.  Same planet, different universe.  My
friends and I have found the gateway to reach them.  Now all
we have to do... is find a way to get home....

SLIDERS... Infinite Slides....
Based On the Original "Sliders" TV Series
Created by Tracy Torme and Robert K. Weiss

*****
 

A man stepped out from behind a corner. His clothes resembled something more common to a Buck
Rogers episode then a pedestrian on the street. His green suit with its blue stripes looked more like a
jump suit than civilian clothing. Not that he thought anything about it - this was the standard wear for
this world. It was the two strangers that came in before him that wore the strange clothes in his eyes.

The dark hared gentleman reached into the pocket of his suit and pulled out a small rectangular
looking device. He then pressed a button and the device opened up, splitting in half like a cell phone
would have. He pressed another button and the object came alive. Lights flashed all around its
console as it made a small screeching noise. Suddenly a voice came from it. "I take it you have news
to report, Callian?" the voice from the communicator asked.

"Yes, sir," Callian replied back into the small microphone of the device. "You were right. A wormhole
opened shortly after the first one. Two more sliders came out of it: a woman and a man, both of them
young with dark hair. They were probably both in their mid twenties."

"Did the trackers find them?" the voice asked.

"No. They never showed up. It looks like your cloaking device did the trick. The trackers' machines
must not have detected the wormhole."

"Great. Some good news for once..." continued the voice. Callian could tell he was excited. If they
could get these two on their side, it might make what they were about to do a lot easier. Especially
with what that guy had said about looking over the timers. It had sounded like that meant at least one
of them was familiar with the technology of sliding.  "... Maybe that cloaking device will turn out to be
worth the hundreds of thousands it cost us. Follow them to wherever they are headed to and call
back," the faceless voice continued, "but don't confront them then. Wait for reinforcements. I think we
and these sliders could be of help to each other."

"Got it," replied Callian. "Callian out." He pressed a button on the communication device, and
with that the lights went out in it and the device closed back into its former shape.

Callian stuffed it back into his pocket and headed in the same direction as the two new visitors.
The sliders.

 -----

Rembrandt sat in his chair. Mirrors were in all directions around the chair as well as devices pointing to
it that he didn't even want to know what they were for. He had a very uneasy feeling that he was about to
find out, though. He was bound to the chair by his hands and feet, tied with the strangest material he
had ever seen. The cloths holding him into this dentist chair from hell looked and felt to be no more
than tissue, but the thing was that he couldn't tear free from them. He couldn't even move them, they
were as hard as steel. After struggling for a few minutes, he finally gave it up. As flimsy as they looked,
these bounds were not going to break. Rembrandt looked back at the bright light that was shining in his
face. It was almost blinding, but he could seem to almost see something standing behind it. Something
he hadn't seen before - an outline of a man. Someone was in the room with him.

"Is somebody there?" Rembrandt called, his voice echoing in the large, almost vacant room as he
squinted, trying to make out the shape better.

Silence. No one was answering, and Rembrandt had about decided that he was seeing things. When
suddenly, a harsh, rough voice answered, startling him. "Correct. You have excellent eyesight," the
voice said, almost sarcastically.

"What's going on? What do you want?" Rembrandt asked the man who was stepping closer but still
was enough out of the light to keep Rembrandt from making out his features.

Suddenly, a large cylindrical object came down from the ceiling. It lowered one end, pointing straight at
Rembrandt. A noise that reminded Rembrandt of an old fashioned video game emitted from it. Without
warning, Rembrandt felt a sharp pain almost as if every inch of his body had been
simultaneously stabbed with sharp knives all at once. He let out a scream that echoed
throughout the room. His torso jerked up, the rest of his body still bound, keeping him inside the chair.
He then fell back. A cold sweat already breaking out from his brow.

"Doesn't feel very good, does it?" the voice taunted. "What you felt was the lowest setting of the
machine. I can, and will, make it go higher if you wish. At level five the pain is so intense that most of the
recipients beg us to take their life rather than subject them to the pain once again. At level seven ...
well, let's just say that madness is not a pretty sight.

"But I don't want it to have to come to that. I don't think you do either. So here is all I want you to
do. I ask some questions, you give me some answers. And I will return you to a nice, warm cot.
Deal?" the voice finished. His tone was almost sadistic, as if he enjoyed taunting and torturing
someone like this.

"Your one sick puppy, man. Whatever it is you're digging for, you're wasting your time. I don't know
anything about what goes on around here. I can promise you that." He was telling the truth. How
could he know anything of use to these people when he hadn't even seen enough of their world to
have any useful information?

"Oh, I think you can tell me more than you could possibly realize, slider," the voice answered.

*Slider?* Rembrandt thought. Suddenly he had a memory. A memory he would rather forget of another
time he was captured, and tortured, and interrogate about sliding. "What is this?" he asked out loud.
"Another damn Kromagg trick?"

Suddenly he heard it again. That arcade like noise,
and then the pain that followed it. When the pain stopped and Rembrandt looked back at the figure, it
was standing in the light, now allowing Rembrandt to see its features.

But this wasn't the face he expected. The face wasn't that of the simian like Kromaggs. It was a human
face, scarred but a human face. The human standing before him stood at over 6 feet tall. His black
hair was cut short and neat, and a scar showed across his face. It was a fairly new scar, probably not
more than a few years old.

"Do I look like an apemagg to you, slider?" the man shouted back, clearly in a state of rage. "I oughta set
this thing at level five just for comparing me to those barbarians. Twenty million people died because
of those throwbacks' attacks!" the interrogator lashed at him.

Rembrandt sat there. Not sure what to say. He had heard from his encounter with the Kromaggs before
that they had attacked hundreds of worlds. Even though he and his friends had been fortunate not to
run into any of those worlds after that meeting with them.

"I'm sorry, man," Rembrandt said, hoping to maybe show this guy he was on his side before he did
something irreversible.

"Yeah, sure you are," the man said to Rembrandt. "You're a kinder, gentle slider I am sure." A tone of
sarcasm was in his voice. "So you know the Kromaggs, huh? Great." He palmed a small box that he had been
holding. Rembrandt assumed these were the controls to the machine that he had already felt the wrath
of more than once.

"Looks like you and me are going to have a lot to talk about."

 -----

Wade sat in a small cell. She was curled up with her hands around her knees, still trying to take in
what had happened. Everything had seemed to be going by her so fast.

One minute they were on the island. Maggie was fighting those beasts as the red wormhole from
Rickman's timer opened with home on the other side. She wasn't sure what to do, whether to take
what may have been her last chance home, or stay and help Maggie. Even after everything Wade had
said about her, all the resentment that she had given her, Maggie was willing to risk her life to see to it
that the people who always made her feel like an outsider got home. At that moment Wade didn't
care about all her problems with Maggie, or the way she had felt she was losing everything to her. She
just wanted to help her.

She didn't get a chance though. With one shove, Quinn made that decision for her, and she and Remmy
were on a one way trip home courtesy of Rickman's timer. At first she and Rembrandt didn't even
realize that they weren't home after all. They stood and watched while the wormhole and Wade's
heart sank as it collapsed down to the size of her fist and then disappeared. Quinn never came
through. He was still on the other side. Still on that island with those hybrids. That's when she and
Rembrandt turned around, and saw to their disbelief the huge buildings and flying vehicles. Wherever
Rickman's wormhole had taken them, it hadn't taken them home.

The next thing she saw was three men, highly armored and heavily armed. Their weapons looked
more like some Star Wars toy gun then a real weapon. However, she soon learned they were definitely not
toys as one of the men pointed it at her and put his finger on the trigger, sending a ray of blue light
straight towards her face. There was a flash and then darkness.

That's how she found herself here in some kind of prison. A small cot which she was sitting in
adjoined a steel wall. From appearances it would look like there were no more walls around her, but
Wade learned not long after coming that wasn't so when she tried to leave and found herself running
straight into some kind of force field. It didn't hurt her, but was as solid as any wall. Even if it was
unseen.

Wade's silence was interrupted by a sound close by. The sound of a struggle. She got up and
walked over to the force field opposite her cot to get a closer look. She saw four men wearing some
kind of green and yellow body armor. They looked to her as if they were some kind of high tech
solders. They were standing close by in a semi-circle holding some kind of clubs and looking as if they
were trying to apprehend someone. Whoever it was was hidden from her view by the men. Then, suddenly,
one of them fell, knocked backwards by whoever it was they were trying to capture. Wade then got a
good look at the assailant. It was a Kromagg. His lip was cut and bleeding from the armored men's
beating. Wade almost jumped back from surprise. The last thing she expected to ever see on the
defensive here was one of them. The ape-like Kromagg broke free from the men and started to bolt
away right next to Wade's cell. She stood there transfixed by the scene that was unraveling before
her.

One of the armored men pointed his club at him as a dart flew from an opening in the club, hitting the
Kromagg square on the neck. The Kromagg stopped as if frozen in time as the man who'd fired the dart
advanced towards him. Suddenly the Kromagg came back to life almost within seconds, but
was now stumbling as if trying to regain his bearings. He didn't have time though, the advancing guard
was right on top of him and threw him forcefully right towards Wade. She jumped back instinctively,
forgetting about the force field, but the Kromagg stopped as if being thrown into the wall right where
the force field was. It was then greeted as it started to turn around by a hard blow from the guard's
club, sending it down onto the floor on all fours. The guard then started swinging on the downed
Kromagg, looking to be beating it within an inch of his life. The Kromagg no longer offering any form
of resistance, just lying their motionless as the guard's club hit him again and again.

Wade stood and watched for a second as the guard mercilessly battered his downed escapee. Then
she was brought back to earth. "Stop it!" she finally yelled to the guard. The guard continued
to hammer away at the Kromagg as if he didn't even hear her. "STOP IT!" Wade yelled louder. "Can't
you see you're going to kill him?" She didn't care if this was a Kromagg; no one deserved this kind of a
beating.

The man looked up, anger showing in his eyes. "And what's he to you? You're not one of them. He's a
Kromagg, a savage, or do all you sliders just stick together. Is that what it is, honey?" he said to Wade,
tauntingly holding up his club. He was obviously trying to intimidate her, and it was working too. He was
a lot bigger than Wade and definitely a lot meaner. Wade stood her ground though, staring him straight
in the eyes. She wasn't about to let this guy have the satisfaction of letting him know it was working.

"What's the matter?" Wade asked. "You only feel like a real man when you're picking on beaten
Kromaggs and people behind force fields?" she shot at him. She could see the anger building in his
eyes.

"Why you little bi..." the bullies words were broken before he could finish as he was grabbed and
pulled back by a tall, blond-haired man. The man was young, probably only a few years older than
Wade herself. His uniform looked to be more decorated then the others though. He was apparently
the higher ranking of the two of them.

"What the heck is going on here, Kitch?" the blond-haired man asked.

"Just disciplining the trouble maker here, Captain," Kitch replied, motioning to the downed Kromagg
lying in a heap on the floor, groaning.

The Captain walked over to the Kromagg and leaned down, looking him over. Wade could get a
close enough look when he leaned over to see from the name tag on his uniform that his name was
Capt. Dan Griffey. "Looks to me like he isn't capable of causing any trouble at the moment."

"He was attempting to escape, sir."

"Well, it looks like he is through with that attempt now. Wouldn't you say so, Kitch?"

"Sir..." Kitch started to protest.

"That's enough, Lieutenant," Griffey said, standing back up, glaring at Kitch. Kitch was obviously not
happy at this but stood there silently like any well trained officer in his position would. "These
Kromaggs may be prisoners of war, but what they are not, Private, is a vessel for you to take out your
personal frustrations on. Is that clear, soldier?" Griffey barked at Kitch.

"Yes, sir" Kitch replied.

"Good. Return to your post, Kitch. I'll take care of the prisoner from here."

Kitch turned around, putting his club into a loop in his belt that was clearly made for that purpose as he
stormed off. The lieutenant was not at all happy to have been chewed out by a superior in front of the
other three guards which had been standing silently in the background the whole time, not to mention
in front of the prisoners. The other guards, seeing that the show was over, quickly returned to their
posts before Griffey decided to take anything out on them.

Griffey leaned down and put the Kromagg's hands inside a wrist brace he was carrying, and then slowly
lifted the Kromagg back to his feet. He looked back towards Wade as he did, looking almost sorry
and embarrassed by his involvement in the scene that Kitch and the others had set out before her. He
grabbed the Kromaggs arm and escorted him back to apparently where his cell was. Wade was so
caught up in everything she hadn't even noticed the man in the adjoining cell to her left. Standing up
next to the force field, looking silently at the events himself.

"Whoa, babe, that was so cool. Standing up to Kitch like that. None of the prisoners have dared to
talk to him like that. Looks like my new neighbor's got some cazongas on her," the man said.

Startled, Wade turned around and her jaw about dropped as she saw the man standing before her. She
recognized him, his long hair dropping down to well below his shoulders.  "Bennish...?" seemed to be all she
could manage to say.

-----

Wade stood there, totally taken off guard. As if seeing a Kromagg being beaten and treated like a
common thug wasn't enough, now she was to find she was adjoining a cell with Bennish, or rather a
double of him. At least things weren't boring on this world; which could be considered good she
guessed, seeing as how without the timer, and Quinn not having slid with them, she might be stuck on
this world forever.

"Bennish? Is that really you?" she asked him.

"In the living, breathing flesh!" Bennish said, holding his hands out as if to take a bow. He was
definitely like the Bennish she knew, although this one seemed more troubled. The dark circles on his
eyes giving away the fact that he probably hadn't had a good night's sleep in days. Imprisonment
would do that to someone though. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage. I don't
remember seeing you before and I think I would have if I knew you because, well, girls who look
like you don't talk to me very often," he told Wade.

Wade smirked at Bennish's remark, and right as she was about to answer him, she heard a humming
noise next to her. She turned and saw a large gray hared man standing there. He had apparently opened the
force field and was holding someone - Rembrandt.

"Remmy!" Wade shouted with a mixture of relief from knowing that he was still alive and worry from seeing him
hunched over the larger man who was clearly holding him to his feet. As she started to walk
towards her friend, the man grabbed Rembrandt by his shirt and shoved him into the adjoining force
field. He hit it hard and slumped down to the floor. Wade ran over to him and leaned down looking at
her friend. He didn't seem to have any bruises or signs of taking a beating the way that Kromagg had.
It was clear, however, that he was probably not even conscious enough to know what was going on, or
where he was.

"What did you do him?" Wade asked the man, half afraid of the answer he might give.

"Oh, don't worry. You'll find out soon enough," the man said, looking over at Wade. The look he was
giving her made Wade feel as if she was naked. "It's a pity too. We don't get many sliders who look
like you down here. You've already become quite popular with the guards," the man said, smiling
crudely. He then looked over his shoulder at Bennish, who backed up slightly. "And how about you,
Bennish. Lonesome for your buddy yet? Don't worry, he'll be returning shortly. I should probably
warn you, the brass higher up are becoming quite annoyed at the two of you guys' inability to talk."

"That's because we have nothing to tell you, Whitt," Bennish said, looking as if he had said this to the
man at least a dozen times already. "We came here by accident and we came here alone. We just
want to go back home. Why do you have such a hard time believing that?"

"Because we have seen what your kind is capable of. We can't afford to be careless with you people.
Our country has worked too hard for what we have to lose it to another interdimensional attack. Am I
really suppose to believe that you actually created this thing in your own workshop, that you and
your teacher just up and decided to go exploring parallel worlds, and landed here by dumb luck?
How stupid do you think we are, Bennish? What did you do? Pull that out of hollo broadcasting?"

Wade was a little shocked at this. It hadn't occurred to her yet that this Bennish could be a slider. He
was in prison with her and at least one Kromagg. She just hadn't noticed the pattern. She assumed it
was this world's Bennish and he was some kind of criminal.  Apparently, his and their only crime was
being a slider. The gray-haired man left, pressing a button on the wall, closing Wade's force field behind
him.

Wade went back to Rembrandt, whose head was slowly moving from side to side as he seemed to be
coming back around. Wade picked up her friend with some effort as he was not exactly her size.
Leaning against her Rembrandt slowly started moving and Wade guiding him to the cot. "Wade?"
Rembrandt asked, still apparently in a daze. "Oh, sweetheart, I thought I had lost you too," Rembrandt
said. As much of a nightmare as he had been through since getting to this world, he was already feeling
better seeing that she was okay. He had already lost the professor, and it seemed Quinn was now gone
too. He didn't know what he would do without her. She was the last link to his old world it seemed,
and probably the best friend he had on any world.

"Where are we?" he asked her.

Before Wade could answer they were interrupted by Bennish.

"Whoa!" Bennish said as eloquent as he seemed to be on every other world. "I thought I saw you
before. You're Remmy Brown. Man, you are like The God of Metal!" Bennish said, excited.

Rembrandt looked up, noticing Bennish for the first time. "Let me guess. We're in Hell?" he said,
not exactly thrilled that, on top of everything else that had been happening, now he had to be around
Bennish too. He had gotten used too not seeing him after a whole year. Wade chuckled. Whatever it
was they did to him, they hadn't seemed to take away his sense of humor.

"What are you doing here, man? How did someone like you get here? The Metal God a slider? You
celebrities really can buy anything?" Bennish said.

"Look, buddy, I may be Rembrandt Brown, but I can assure you I am not the one you are talking
about." He sighed, disgusted, and thought, *Heavy metal! That isn't even real music.*

"We're from a parallel earth," Wade told Bennish. "We slid here by accident, apparently like you. We
were trying to get home."

"I can relate to that, lady," Bennish answered. "Me and my friend vortexed in here too. Looks like we
both picked the wrong world to cruise to. This world isn't to kind to sliders..."

Before he had time to explain any more, the scarred man that he, unlike his neighbors, had gotten to
know well as Capt. Whitt, the commanding officer running this forsaken place, returned. He was
holding another large man who looked familiar to Wade and Rembrandt but his head was hanging to
where they couldn't get a good look at his face. Whitt pressed a button on the wall, opening the force
field to Bennish's cell and threw his captive onto the floor and closed the force field. Bennish went
down to his companion as the captain left. "Come on, man, you're back home now," Bennish said,
helping his cell mate to his feet.

"Blistering idiots...." the man muttered.

Suddenly, it hit Wade and Rembrandt simultaneously why this man seemed familiar. As he turned around,
looking into the direction of the two sliders, there staring at them was the face of
Professor Maximillion Arturo.

 -----

Quinn sat inside the hotel room. He and Maggie had worried that, in a world this different, their money
wouldn't pass as currency on this earth. They were apparently right, because when they went to the
hotel, the first thing the man did was lay some kind of pad on the table. After watching Maggie and
himself stare at it for a second he seemed to get agitated and bellowed at them, "Listen, kids, unless
you changed your mind about staying here, would one of you please give me a palm print? Hotels
aren't free anymore here then the rest of the planet. You know the drill." Reluctantly, Maggie had put her
palm on the pad and felt a funny buzz making her jerk her hand off the mat. Whatever she did
managed to satisfy the clerk, though. He typed something at his computer, and with that Maggie and
Quinn had a room in the hotel. They decided to take a good thing when they heard it and not ask
what just happened.

An hour later in the hotel, Quinn had the timers taken apart and the pieces spread out across the table.
Maggie had gone out to check the hospitals, or at least find a phone or whatever passes for it here
since they couldn't find anything resembling one in the hotel. That wasn't much of a surprise though,
seeing as how they didn't know what half the stuff in their room was. They had stayed in this hotel
what seemed like hundreds of times on various slides. It always looked different on each world, but
this time it wasn't even recognizable. With all of the silver and blue furniture and the beds that when
not in use lowered into the floor, it looked more like something one would have expected to see in a
Star Trek episode than here on earth. Not to mention they must have been 300 stories up. The large
shuttle like vehicles would occasionally be seen from a distance flying across the window. It was hard
to believe all of this existed in 1998 on this world.

Quinn poked away at the inside of Rickman's timer with a small screwdriver from a set of micro
instruments he had long started carrying in his pocket during the slides, when he suddenly heard a
noise and spun around in his chair. A section of the wall that appeared to not even have a door
shifted, turning transparent and then vanishing. Maggie stood in front of the opening for a
minute. She had entered and left the room this way and she still couldn't believe it. It was like when
she pressed the button on the wall the door just vanished into thin air and then reappeared when she
walked through the opened section of the wall.

Maggie walked over to the table next to Quinn. He looked up at her. "I take it you didn't have any
luck?" Quinn asked her.

"None. I went to every hospital and police station I could find. I looked for a cab for an hour before I
realized these glowing pads all over the sides of the street are used to transport you into a shuttle taking
you where you said you wanted to go. I got to all the hospitals quickly after that, but there was no sign
of Wade or Rembrandt at any of them," Maggie answered.

"Terrific... I might have something about where they went though," Quinn told her, getting up off of his
chair and moving towards a wall of the hotel.

"Really? What, did it come to you in a vision, Mallory?" Maggie sarcastically asked him.

"Not quite," he told her, moving to a keyboard and sitting on a small table next to the wall. He punched a
few of the keys and the wall sprang to life, a large picture of some TV style program neither of them
recognized flashed onto the wall in a widow almost as big as either of them. "These people have taken
the internet to the next level it looks like. Through this monitor you can access TV, libraries,
databases, even birth and criminal records of what looks like everyone on the planet and beyond, this
world has colonized the entire solar system in one way or another, it's unreal."

"And you figured all of this out in the four hours I was gone?" Maggie said, a little impressed even
though she would never admit it to him.

"One of the rules of sliding, learn to adapt to your surroundings quickly," he explained to her. He then
punched a few more keys and brought up a screen of what appeared to be some entry from a history
text. "I did some checking up on this world. It looks like in this world the dark ages that ours
experienced never happened. Science kept advancing in the time it was considered heresy and
punishable by death on my world and probably yours. That plus some early peace treaties with
Russia, Germany, and a lot of the countries our worlds spent so much time fighting gave them the
added time to ban together under a new United Alliance and develop faster. Those seem to be the
reasons that this world's technology is so much more advanced than our own."

"I found something else as well." Quinn punched another key and the text on the screen changed to
reveal some kind of news footage showing Kromagg ships vortexing and then the monstrous looking
creatures ravaging the streets and mass killing the humans of this world. The carnage made even
Maggie shiver.

"Remember when I told you about the Kromaggs?" Quinn asked Maggie.

"Yeah, those were those inhabitants that evolved differently and started plaguing parallel worlds after
one of your doubles gave them the formula for sliding. Those creatures are them?" she asked almost
repulsed. She had never had a chance to meet them fortunately, but even from hearing the others'
stories of them she never pictured anything like them. They didn't even look human.

"Afraid so. It seems that they paid a visit to this world but the technology here was so advanced they
were actually able fend off the Kromaggs and drive them back within three days. Not before losing
millions to their attacks, though. After the attack, the president put this world's scientists to work on
finding out everything they could about sliding technology in case of a rebuttal. They quickly learned
how to track incoming wormholes and have been taking away anyone who slides into this world and
imprisoning them in some kind of military compound. That scared off the few Kromagg scouting parties
that came by and apparently they decided to move on and conquer another world instead and no one
has seen any sliders sense ... until last night. There were two sliders reported to have been captured late
last night, humans."

"That has to be Wade and Rembrandt," Maggie said, finally piecing all of this together.

"That's what I'm afraid of. We got another problem too," Quinn told her. He had been dreading telling
Maggie this for the last two hours.

"What?"

"I checked the timers. The reason Wade and Remmy slid here instead of home is that Rickman
wiped out all the coordinates before we got to his timer. He put some random ones in the place of our
home world.  Guess it was his sick way of getting revenge should we ever catch up to him. Looks like
that bastard got us one last time even after his death. I deactivated it. Its vortex would have opened an
hour ago anyway. His timer was set up a little differently, so I managed to fix it so it can be reactivated
again, but it would still send us sliding randomly. It's good for spare parts if nothing else, not to mention
a backup."

Maggie looked at Quinn. After all this time chasing Rickman they would not have made it home
anyway. "Quinn, I'm sorry..." She reached out to put her arm on his shoulder, but Quinn backed away.
He had more bad news, unfortunately.

"That's not all, Maggie. Most of the coordinates stored on our timer are gone also. There's a few left, but
Rickman must have wiped most of ours out as well when he had it on the last world. I don't have any way
to get you back to the New World."

Maggie stood there for a minute. She tried to look unfazed, but her eyes gave it away to Quinn. He
knew how it felt, finding out there was no immediate way to get back to where you called home.

"Come on, Mallory, let's go find that compound." Maggie said, walking towards the door as if he just
told her what time it was.

"What!" Quinn was startled. This wasn't quite the reaction he was expecting. "Maggie, didn't you hear
me..."

"I heard you all right. What do you want me to do? Break out crying? That place wasn't my home.
My home was destroyed. The New World was just someplace that the last survivors went. So if you
expect me to brake down, or cry and fall into your arms so you can play out some hero complex,
forget it."

Quinn just stood there dumb struck. He didn't understand her, was it so important that she always
play the tough act? "Where do you plan on spending the rest of your life then?"

"That's not the issue right now. Right now our priority is rescuing the others. Now are we going to
find that complex or not?"

Quinn sighed. There was no point in arguing this now. He just hoped he wasn't there when all this stuff
Maggie insisted on keeping hidden behind those walls she put up overflowed and she had to finally
deal with it. "Hold on, Maggie, let me put the timers back together and we'll go find the compound," he
said, defeated.

-----

Quinn and Maggie walked down the streets. Neither of them could still believe this was San
Francisco on this earth. Everywhere they walked they were surrounded by flying machines, moving
sidewalks, and teleporter pads all over the city which seemed to take you to the shuttles littering the
sky which took you where you wanted to go and back. And people said Star Trek was a stretch.
That plus the fact that everyone seemed to be wearing some kind of jumpsuit-like outfits, made
it all seem like they were on some other planet.

Maggie turned to Quinn as the two walked down the street. "So, you mean to tell me, Mallory, that all
of this came about just because there were no dark ages?"

"And some early treaties, and the space program furthered sense Kennedy wasn't assassinated..."

"Who's Kennedy?" Maggie asked, looking puzzled.

Quinn smiled, He tended to forget that Maggie wasn't from the same world as the rest of them. Looks
like he found one of the differences. "Just a great man on our world." Quinn stopped and looked
around. "Is it just me or is everyone staring at us?" Quinn looked around again for a second, then
suddenly he realized what was different about them. "Maggie, I think it's our clothes. We don't exactly
fit the dress code on this world," Quinn concluded, noticing the metallic-looking jump suits which didn't
hold much in common to their street clothes.

"And here I thought guys were giving me second looks at the hospitals because they liked me,"
Maggie said, joking. "Wait a minute." She moved in closer to Quinn, whispering in his ear. "Don't look
now, Mallory, but I think someone is following us."

"How can you be so sure of that?"

"See that guy over there by that street corner? I saw him at least three blocks back."

"Maybe it's a coincidence," Quinn said.

"Let's find out." Maggie grabbed Quinn's arm and walked toward the nearest street corner and turned
left. After a few minutes, the two of them had turned at every street, making almost a complete circle.

"Still behind us?" Quinn asked Maggie.

She turned her head, still walking alongside Quinn. "Yeah, ugly is still behind us."

"I'm starting to not like this. Okay, Maggie, on three, we run."

"Is that supposed to be the plan of a genius scientist?" Maggie asked, that sarcasm she seemed to be
so good at ringing in her voice.

"You got any better ideas?" Quinn shot back.

Maggie thought for a moment. "On three, right?"

"Yeah, Ready? 1... 2... 3!"

The sliders took off across the street. Hovering cars went swerving up onto the sidewalk and into
each other, trying to avoid them. Luckily, it was in a part of the street where the cars were moving
slowly, so no one got more than a few dents.

 -----

Callian saw the two sliders take off as the cars were running into each other to avoid hitting them. He
had wanted to apprehend them without a show. It wasn't good for their plans to have a scene out in
the street, but it looked like he didn't have a choice.

Callian spoke into a small microphone he had hidden inside his collar. "We've been made. Apprehend
them before they get away or the police get here." With that, a tall muscular man and a blond haired
woman started to move the direction of the sliders. They were standing so far away from Callian that
anyone who had passed by them a second ago would have never guessed that they were even
together. The three darted into the street, but a hovering car, that was attempting to avoid them, ran straight into
another one, causing a wreck and blocking their way to the sliders.

Quinn and Maggie made it to the other side of the street. But unfortunately, the people following them had
thought ahead enough to put someone on the other side of the street, and no sooner had they made it
to the sidewalk then Quinn was knocked onto the ground by another man in
a silver jump suit. He reached into his suit for his weapon, but he didn't have enough time and was
greeted by Maggie's boot straight to the face. His head snapped back and, before he even had a
chance to react, he got a good shot in the gut, doubling him over. Maggie was about to deliver the
finishing blow, but the other guy wasn't without his own trick, and as she readied to kick his face again, the
man grabbed Maggie's other leg and sent her hard to the ground on her back. She rolled to the
side, her hand on her back, wincing in pain as the man got up and leaned down to grab her and
pick her up.

Maggie surprised him yet again, though. She was playing opossum about how badly she was
hurt and grabbed his arms. Putting her foot on his chest, she flipped him over, sending him onto his
back. Maggie's combat training was definitely coming in handy right now. She never would have
figured when she was in training that it would one day be put to good use in sliding.

Quinn shook the stars from his head and got up to help Maggie. Not that she seemed to be
needing it. Before he had a chance to do anything though, Callian finally made his way to them along
with the two others, and he grabbed Quinn, shoving him into the wall. He pulled out a gun, although it
looked more to Quinn like something Luke Skywalker would hold rather than a gun. "Don't move, kid,
and this won't have to be hard," Callian said, pointing the gun right at Quinn's neck.

The blond woman pulled a badge from her pocket and turned to the crowd which had been forming
around the scene unfolding before them. "Nobody panic. We are from the Slider Retrieval Unit, and
request that every one please stay back. Anyone who tries to interfere here will be placed under
Federal arrest for aiding and abetting an escaped slider..." she yelled to the crowd, flashing the badge.

Maggie had by this time finished up the blond man and was well in the process of putting the taller
man that came with Callian down for the count too. Callian and the others hadn't been expecting this
kind of resistance. The two sliders didn't look to be wearing any kind of uniforms implying that they
were any kind of military officers. They seemed to be wrong though. This woman did not fight like a
civilian. Callian was starting to lose his cool. They were supposed to be apprehending them without a
scene. That plan had pretty much been shot now. "Will you guys stop her already!" Callian yelled to
his men.

The blond man slowly, and feeling really sore, rose to his feet. He reached into his pocket and pulled
out the gun he had been reaching for to begin with, and pulled the trigger on it. A small green beam
shot from the gun and hit Maggie right as she was about to deliver the finishing blow to the other man.
She fell to the floor motionless.

"Maggie!" Quinn yelled. He started to move towards her, but Callian was still there and, right as he
attempted to move to her, grabbed Quinn and shoved him back into the wall. "You bastards!" Quinn
yelled at Callian.

"Relax, kid, we didn't kill her, just put her out for a couple of hours. Although she'll wake up with a
headache that may make her wish we did." Callian shoved the gun a little further towards Quinn.
"Now you can come along quietly or you can take a nap like your girlfriend there did." Callian looked
back to Maggie lying on the concrete. "I suppose it is a good guess to say your world doesn't subscribe
to the keep women submissive and obedient lifestyle."

Quinn stood there, glaring at Callian. He wanted to try to get away, but it was four against one and he
didn't see what good getting himself knocked out would do. A small vehicle came down from the sky;
it looked similar to the shuttles Quinn had been seeing flying around, although this one was about the
size of a van. Callian put Quinn into some form of wrist restraints and loaded him into the vehicle. The
others grabbed Maggie and put her into it as well. The three men and woman climbed in and the
shuttle took off into the night sky. Quinn still had no idea who these guys were, but he was starting to
get the feeling that he was in over his head again. He was starting to wonder why they always
managed to get into so much trouble in such short visits to these worlds.

-----

Wade and Rembrandt sat on the floor in their small cell, facing the force field with Bennish and Arturo
on the other side. Bennish was sitting cross-legged in front of the force field as the professor paced
back and fourth, taking in what they had just told him and Bennish, stroking his beard in the exact
same way their professor had done so many times before when contemplating. It was almost eerie to
Wade and Rembrandt, everything about him, the way he moved, talked, his voice, his mannerisms
were exactly like their Arturo's. It was like seeing a ghost, but it wasn't a ghost - it wasn't even the man
they knew. It was an Arturo from another earth, just like they had run into so many times before. It
was different seeing one this time though, now that theirs was dead. It was eerie.

The sliders had spent the last hour telling the two adjoining captives everything that had happened to
them. How they had gotten caught up in Quinn's experiment gone wrong, how for the last three years
they had been roaming lost in the multiverse, about their Arturo and the sad fate he had met at the
hands of Rickman, about Maggie and Rickman, and how they had finally caught up with him and
finally thought they were going to go home only to find themselves here. Arturo and Bennish were
both doubly impressed with their story. They had only slid a few of times before they landed here, so this
was all still new to them, but these two had been living it for over three years now. Their part about
the doubles was what impressed Arturo the most though.

"Amazing," he said, looking back at the two sliders. "Doubles of people on alternate earth's. People
like you and me but made different through a different environment and society. I had theories about
this but never saw any proof of it so far."

"So that's why you look and sound like Remmy Brown," Bennish said to Rembrandt. "You're his double
on your earth?" Ironically enough, despite Rembrandt and Wade's claim to have known both of them on
their world, he and the professor had no memory of ever meeting a Wade or the other two that they
were traveling with. The only real experience with any doubles of them was Bennish's seeing
Rembrandt sing in concert.

Rembrandt nodded. "Although if that's true, I can't see why anyone with a voice like mine would waste
it screaming to a bunch of dead beats and drug addicts."

"Hey man..." Bennish said, looking so offended you would think Rembrandt had just insulted his mother.
"Remmy Brown is the master in his field. When he sang, you could actually feel the rhythm moving
through your body," Bennish said, swaying as if he was actually hearing the music.

"Yeah, well if all his fans are like you, then I proved my case," Remmy countered. It had been so long
since he had run into this guy, on any world, he'd forgotten how obnoxious he was.

"Hey, look..." Bennish started to say as if he had found the ultimate defense for Remmy Brown's music
when he was interrupted by Arturo's annoyed voice. A sound he knew all to well.

"Mr. Bennish, would you please? I really don't think that in our present situation, whether or not some
singer of that infernal music of yours is an artist or not is really a matter of debate in these
circumstances," he said, his voice risen and filled with annoyance.

"Hey, whoa dude, it's cool. Just take a deep breath," Bennish said, getting up from the floor and walking
towards his companion. "I was just defending the arts, man. I mean, how would you like it if he said
that about that Pavvicachi dude?"

Arturo's face started turning red now. Wade and Rembrandt couldn't help but chuckle at this. Seeing
Arturo, even if he wasn't theirs, worked up and annoyed, at Bennish no less, it almost made them
temporarily feel like it was old times again. "That's Pavvirati, you twit, and that is not the issue here.
Will you please remain focused, man?" he bellowed at his student. Bennish was a genius and Arturo
had grown attached to him, and he even liked him and was proud to have such a gifted student in his class.
Their friendship was why Bennish asked him to come along after discovering sliding, yet still he could be
almost intolerable at times.

Arturo looked around and then, once confirming that no one else was around, motioned Wade and Rembrandt
over. Wade and Rembrandt moved in as close as the force field would permit them. "Bennish and I have
managed to gain the sympathies of one of the men here. A captain Dan Griffey," Arturo told them.

"I know that name," Wade interrupted. "He was the guy who saved that Kromagg. That guard would
have probably beaten it to death if he hadn't stepped in."

"Quite," Arturo continues. "He has started to lose faith in the system he works for in this world, not
that I would blame him, seeing as how his system sees no problem with the imprisonment of innocent
people, without even a trial, over a year old incident. He has offered to help us escape, and our plan will be
launched tomorrow morning. You two can come with us and slide out of here back to our home earth
with us if you’d like. I can't make a promise that we will be able to find a way to get you home from
there, though. Still, our world may not be what some would consider perfect, but I can't think of
any place that can be worse than this world."

"Don't be too sure about that, man," Rembrandt said, thinking back to the ice world, and being trapped
in a cave with that T-Rex, or on that twisted world playing The Game, and when he and Quinn
were trapped in that house surrounded by the snakes. This may be bad, but as much as he hated it,
it was true it wasn't the worst he had faced. "Trust me, as bad as this is, we have slid into worse."

"You must be joking!" Arturo said, shocked at Mr. Brown's comment. He and Bennish's other three
slides were pretty much mundane. They were different from their own world, but the entire world
being vegetarians or America being as neutral as Switzerland, didn't really compare to this one in terms
of danger. He looked over at Wade who just solemnly nodded, it really was true. What sights these
two must have seen in three years. If their plan succeeded, he was eager to hear some of the intriguing
stories they must have of their adventures.

"He's right," Wade said to the somewhat awestruck professor. "We seem to have almost gotten used
to imprisonment and brushes with death by now"

"Maybe sliding without a net wasn't such a slammin' idea after all," Bennish said from behind Arturo.

-----

Whitt sat behind his desk as a ten foot section of the wall flashed TV-like images of current events of
the day. As he watched, he rubbed his scar, a constant reminder to why he hated the Kromaggs.

He heard a buzz signaling that someone was outside of his door wishing to enter. That would be Griffey. Whitt had heard about his little action in the cell earlier and wasn't real pleased to hear that he was reaming officers in front of new prisoners.

Griffey was starting to become an annoyance. His loyalty was strong and devoted to this service when
he first enlisted. That and his combat experience against the Kromaggs was why Whitt requested his
transfer here. But lately he seemed different. Griffey's loyalty seemed to be faltering. That wasn't good.
In order for the projects run within this compound to be at their peek performance, he needed loyal
and united men to serve within the walls of it, not sympathizers to a bunch of killers.

He got up from his desk and moved to stand in front of it. "Enter." He pressed a button on a little
controller he held in his hand and a section of the wall seemed to fade and then disappear like all
rooms walls did when someone needed to enter. Griffey entered and saluted his superior, at least he
hadn't forgotten about the chain of command. "At ease, Commander." Griffey assumed the at ease
position. "I heard that you and a privet had an incident earlier today."

"Correct, sir," Griffey answered.

"You want to fill me in on what happened?"

"I entered section 10 of the prison compound to relive two officers of duty and found one Private
Martin Kitch commencing in a cruel beating of a Kromagg prisoner. I removed him from the prisoner,
and informed him of the proper treatment of POWs."

"The word around the base is the prisoner attempted to escape."

"I was not present at the alleged time, but can promise he was in no condition to attempt an escape at
the time I was there."

"Are your men not given orders to stop any attempted escape with force if necessary?"

Griffey paused briefly as if contemplating whether or not what he was thinking was worth saying.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Griffey asked the Colonel.

"Go on."

"I wasn't aware that beating a prisoner within an inch of his life was supposed to be within the extent
of detain by force."

"These are Kromaggs, Commander..."

"They are still living beings!" Griffey interrupted.

"Living beings who launched attacks that killed millions of lives on this planet, or were you not there?
If one of those *living beings* were to escape with word of our impending counter strike against
the Kromagg occupied planets, the effects could put us and this compound in great jeopardy." Whitt
countered. How could a soldier who fought these things worry about their rights as if they were equal
to humans? They were monsters - they didn't even look human.

"Counter strike? What President Geingrich is proposing is a declaration of war. It will kill thousands
more solders, not to mention...."

"Stop right there!" Whitt snapped at Griffey who did stop talking right after that. "If I ever hear you
talk like that again, I will bring you up for a court martial. You have a right to your opinion however
much liberal minded garbage it may be, but you will not be speaking such treasonous words while
under my command. The planned strike will continue as scheduled by the orders of our Commander
in Chief. You and your men will not allow an escape from that compound and will stop them by any
means necessary, even if that means killing them." Whitt stopped for a second and made sure that last
part sunk in, then continued, "Is that understood... Commander?"

"Yes, sir," Griffey answered, his voice underlined with bitterness.

"Dismissed." Griffey saluted Whitt and turned to leave. As he did, Whitt stopped him, having just
remembered something. "Griffey, by the way, where did you put the two recent prisoners?"

"Mr. Brown and the girl are both in a cell in section 10," Griffey answered, sounding a little confused.
Whitt had been there earlier today and interrogated Brown. What kind of a question was that?

"Not him, the two recent ones. A male and a female, both Caucasian. They would have been brought in
a couple of hours ago."

"No one like that has been captured or even reported to me, sir. The two most recent additions are
Mr. Brown and the girl." This meeting had taken a weird turn.

"I was afraid of that."

"Sir?"

"Nothing. As you were, Commander."

Griffey left the same way he had come in. He couldn't believe he even tried to reason with the colonel.
Why would Whitt care anyway? It wasn't his life on the line in an attack. He would sit in his
comfortable office reaping the fame and power while good men died by his orders. Same as everyone
that high up in this world’s system. He couldn't believe he used to respect people like him. He couldn't
believe he wanted to be them. A year watching his friends die in the Mexican takeover while the
fat-cat politicians got all of the glory told him otherwise. The only reason the attack even happened
was so that they could get the advanced propulsions that their scientists were about to beat them to.
The media didn't know that the bombing of the Venus colony capital building, allegedly launched by
Mexico, was a government job done to justify their actions to the people. They covered their tracks
well and brainwashed their officers well enough to see that info stayed buried. The government
played their solders like puppets, but not him. Not anymore.

Griffey left to return to his quarters. He had to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be an active
day, and most likely the end of his military career.

-----

Whitt sat at his desk again. He had heard about the capture of two more sliders by their operatives
on the news, but hadn't received any papers implying such. He was hoping that they just got filed in the
wrong place, but this was the only place their operatives would have taken them, and Griffey would
have known about it. So what happened to those two sliders, and who did apprehend them using
their name?

-----

Quinn was pacing back and forth in a small cell, probably not more than 25 square feet. Some kind of
clear shatterproof glass material was blocking one side with reinforced concrete making up the other
three walls. Maggie was sitting in the corner of the cell. There was no furniture in the cell, and she had
grown tired of standing. What she was starting to grow even more tired of was seeing Quinn move
back and forth and hearing his feet stomping across the cell. "Mallory! Would you please stop pacing
back and forth? You are driving me crazy."

"And you got something better for me to do, Maggie?! We’ve only got one day left here, and Remmy and
Wade are still gone. We have managed to get two timers taken away from us, and we are stuck in
some shoe box with no clue as to where we even are. How can you be so calm about this?" Quinn
asked.

"I am not calm. I just think you and I could put that energy to better use. Like trying to find a way
out of here rather than you pacing around giving up hope already. It's not like we haven't seen
worse," Maggie said.

"So, what do you recommend then, Maggie?"

"I don't know; you’re suppose to be the genius here. Can't you build a bomb out of a rock or
something?" Maggie said, making a vain attempt to lighten the mood.

"Very funny, Maggie..." Quinn said, shaking his head.

"I don't think that will be necessary," a voice said from their right. They both whirled
around, shocked to see that someone else had entered the room with them, standing just outside the
cell. This man wasn't one of the ones involved in their capture. He was older, around his mid to late
thirties, and his hair was graying slightly. He was wearing a silver jump suit in much the same style as
the others. It must be easy to shop for clothing on this world; the colors changed a lot, but the style
was mostly identical on all of the clothes the people on this world were wearing. "Maggie Beckett I
presume?" the man asked her.

"How do you know who I am?" Maggie said with her classic tough girl attitude.

"You paid for the hotel with your credit." Maggie looked puzzled, so the man clarified. “The pad that
scanned your palm print."

Quinn and Maggie looked about to say something when he continued. "Don't worry. We
are well aware of the fact that you are a double of her. I always wondered if
doubles had the same DNA and finger prints, and I guess now we know. Besides, your counterpart here is
seven months pregnant."

Maggie was a little shocked to hear that revelation. She wondered if the
father was Steve on this word. Kids were something she and him had discussed and hoped to have one
day, but it always seemed to be in conflict with their careers. Too late to think about that now. It
wasn't the time to let old pains catch up with her.

"Besides which," the man continued, "I have never heard of many accountants who can take out two of
my best men." Quinn couldn't help but chuckle at that last part. He couldn't see Maggie in a suit
crunching up numbers like that. Of course, on this world she was probably wearing the same jump
suit looking things everyone else seemed to be wearing other than an actual suit.

"Shut up, Mallory," Maggie snapped. She had been around him enough to know what that chuckle
was about. She had to admit, though, Maggie the nine-to-fiver mother hen wasn't exactly how she saw
herself either.

The man continued looking at Quinn now. "We couldn't find a match on you, though. You must not
exist here."

"Something to be proud of from what I've seen of this world’s treatment of visitors," Quinn told the
man.

"Oh, you can rest assured we do not represent the opinion of most of this world," the man told them,
walking to a nearby table and putting the timers down.

"What is that supposed to mean? And who are you anyway? This doesn't look like some compound -
it's too small. Isn't that where you people are suppose to be taking us?" Quinn asked the man.

"I'm impressed. You two seem to pick up local customs fast, but that's the trackers that take you to
that insane place. I can assure you that we are not them."

"But I saw one of your goons identifying herself as one." Quinn was having a hard time
swallowing this man’s story. What he read said something about torture and interrogations. This could
be just a part of it.

"The ID you saw her flashing was a fraud. We had hoped not to have to use it,
especially not in such a public place, but you two forced our hand. Now, thanks to you, we are going
to have to up our time table."

"What time table? Who are you people?" Maggie asked. This guy wasn't making any sense and it was
starting to tick her off.

"My name’s Denton Rube. My associates and I are members of a resistance group against the US
government," He explained to the two sliders.

"You're a terrorist," Maggie corrected.

"I am not familiar with the term, but the only terror involved is this little ordeal is the one in Washington,
run by men and women who are about to sign papers to send thousands of men into a war zone for
their own personal glory trip."

"What are you talking about?" asked Quinn.

"I'm talking about a launched strike against one of the occupied worlds of those damn Kromaggs. I'm
talking about the war they are going to be declaring that they don't think the public will find ‘in their
best interest to know about.’ While the American people sit on their buts being fed lies, hundreds of
them are going to lose their parents, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. All so that they can free
a world from one power hungry occupation so it can have another," Denton told the two of them, his
voice obviously filled with resentment for the people he was speaking of.

"But I thought the Kromaggs pulled back a year ago?" Quinn said. "Why would they do something like
that now? They clearly aren't a more immediate threat than they were before."

"You think their strike is about a threat? Moving the Kromaggs back only encouraged them to make a
counter attack. It showed our president that if our world could drive them off, then we could take
what they have just as well."

"They would declare a war on an enemy like that just so that they could become rulers of the
multiverse in their place? That's Crazy." This guy had to be exaggerating.

"Maybe to your world. But in our world, the people in Washington are only interested in two things:
power and wealth. If anyone stands to take even a small piece of that away from them, then they find a
reason to go in and stop it. If you don't believe me, ask the Japanese who are still dying from radiation
poisoning courtesy of our little missiles, or ask Russia if you can get past our quarantine from the germ
warfare launched on them 200 years ago. Fifty soldiers died from residue just guarding the quarantine
lines. Or you can ask yourself why Canada is now half the size it was while the US has gotten so much
bigger in the last 100 years."

"I read the paper's. It talked about peace treaties," Quinn countered.

"Propaganda. They made the treaties *after* the US had destroyed their home, then fed the sheep
back here stories of accidents months later."

"Okay, okay!" Maggie interrupted. "We get your point. What does any of that have to do with us? In
another day and a half it will be time for us to leave. We don't even care about your country’s power
trips."

Denton picked the Egyptian timer back up. "I wondered what this one was counting down. Sounds
like you guys aren't as advanced in this as your Kromagg buddies."

"The Kromaggs are not our buddies," Quinn said definitely.

"Makes no matter to me anymore," Denton stated. "Besides, they can't be all bad. They gave those
jerks a taste of what they had been doing to everyone else on their own Earth. What I was more
interested in was whether or not you guys and I could cut a deal."

Quinn stood for a second, not sure what to say. He wasn't sure whether or not they had any reason to
trust this man. For all he and Maggie knew, he was the one who was unworthy of their trust. Quinn had
noticed while doing research in the hotel that the US had a much larger border and more occupied
territory than the US of his Earth, but that didn't change the fact that they knew nothing about this
Earth's politics. He could just as well be making all of this up.

Then he thought of Wade and Rembrandt, and them being in the compound. He’d pushed them through the
worm hole into this world. He had to get them out of this. If that meant he had to trust Denton to get
out of this cell so he could help them, then to him there was no choice. "What kind of deal?" Quinn
asked Denton cautiously.

"We were there when the portal before yours opened up," Denton started. "The trackers can locate
the wormholes even before they open, and were on the two that slid out of the wormhole before we
could do anything. One of our men did hear them say something implying that others might be coming.
I assume that would be you two."

"Those are our friends," Quinn answered.

"Right."

Denton was about to continue when Maggie spoke up, interrupting him. "Wait a minute. If they can track
wormholes so fast, then why didn't they get Quinn and me? We were roaming around for almost a full
day, and it was you guys who caught us." Maggie asked Denton.

"We have managed to obtain, through some military contacts we have on the inside, a device that can
block wormholes from the trackers’ equipment so that a wormhole won't show up within a 2000 foot
radius of where the person holding it is standing. One of our men, after hearing what your friends said,
activated it and waited to see if any other wormholes opened. Sure enough, within minutes you two
slid in. If it wasn't for him, you would be joining your friends inside a nice comfy cell right about
now," Denton explained.

"You mean like this one?" Quinn answered back sarcastically.

Denton looked at the two, not amused at the young man's comments. If he didn't need the two of
them so much, he would have thrown them back onto the streets.

"Anyway..." he finally continued, pretending to ignore Quinn's last remark, "the US Army is in the
process of building a sliding machine that, when completed, will be used to launch the attack upon a
Kromagg occupied world. We don't know what the equipment looks like. None of our contacts have
that high of a security clearance. If you two would agree to come along and help us identify the
equipment so that we can destroy it and end this stupid fools attack, then my men will help you rescue
your friends as well."

Denton reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device not any bigger than his palm and pointed
the device at the sliders, and with the press of a button, the glass-like substance that separated Quinn
and Maggie from him was sort of just phased out of existence. Same way the section of the wall did
back at the Hotel. Maggie and Quinn jumped slightly, half thinking that the device he held was going to
be some kind of weapon until they saw the glass disappear. Quinn was really wondering how they did
that, but this didn't seem to be the right time to look into it.

"If you don't want to help us, you’re free to
go. We are not jailers and we have no intention of holding you here." With that, Denton walked over
to the table and put the timer back onto it next to Rickman's. He pressed a couple more
buttons and two of the wall’s sections phased away, leaving door sized openings. The one closest to
Denton led down a hall and the other one seemed to lead into an alley outside. Not that with it being
so clean you could have told, but then again, the streets seemed to be cleaner everywhere around
here. Probably with all the other technological wonders this world had, there was almost certainly
some way to clean the streets faster and more efficiently.

Denton turned back to the sliders after setting the timer down. "If you want to help, I will be down this
hall. If not, that alley will lead you down to Main Street. You can find your way back to your hotel from
there." Denton turned to the door and started to walk away.

"Wait a minute?" Maggie called, stopping Denton in his tracks who turned around towards her. She
couldn't believe that he was actually saying all this. What kind of terrorist kidnaps people, and then
sets them free three hours later? "You expect us to believe that you are just going to give us back the
timers and let us go about our merry little way?" she said with an obvious tone of distrust.

"We aren't like those capitalists in the compound. You go to the police, especially dressed like you are,
and they will arrest you and send you to the toy soldiers in the compound. So you aren't a threat to us.
As far as your timers are concerned, if the four of my men who captured you had had a say in it, they
would have destroyed them when they captured you. Sliding has brought nothing but death and the
threat of war to our world, and wherever you do go, take those damn things with you to the next
world and get them off of ours." He was practically shouting now. "But I warn you, the compound is
the most heavily guarded building in California, if not the US. Trust us or not, we are your best chance
at getting inside and to your friends." Denton turned and walked out of the room, leaving Quinn and
Maggie alone.

-----

Maggie went over to the table and grabbed the timers, handing the Egyptian one to Quinn and taking
Rickman's and sticking it in her pocket. "Come on, Mallory, let’s get out of here," she said, heading
over to the door. She peeked her head cautiously out and looked outside, studying the surroundings.
Looked like there really wasn't anyone around; maybe he was on the level and they were free to
leave. It was a good thing too. Maggie wasn't about to go along with some terrorist attack. "Looks like
things really are all..." Maggie turned to look to Quinn and found he was still staring at the door.
"Mallory... Quinn! Come on, let’s go before they change their minds."

"You think he was on the level about being able to get inside the compound?" Quinn asked her,
oblivious to what she was saying.

Maggie rolled her eyes. "You can't be thinking of helping them. They’re terrorists and they want to launch
a strike against this world's government. Aren't you the one who is always saying never get involved in
the politics of another world?" Maggie asked.

"This is a different situation, Maggie."

"Different? For crying out loud, Mallory, we don't even know if they are on the level. For all we know,
the government is using it to help people, and these guys just want to steal it to sell to the highest
bidder."

"The difference is that my friends are in there, and I need to find a way to get to them fast. In case you
forgot, the one thing that we never have on our side is time," Quinn said, holding the timer up to
Maggie.  The display side showed approximately 23 hours left on it. "These guys seem to be our
best choice, and if it means it will get Wade and Rembrandt out, then Denton can do whatever he wants
with the sliding equipment. I got them in there, and I am getting them out. And I don't care whose help I
need to do it," Quinn snapped to Maggie.

"You didn't get them in there," Maggie shot back, never being one to back away from a confrontation.
"You tried to get them off that island to where you thought they were safe. You were going to give up
your chance to go home to make sure they could. You had no way of knowing that the coordinates
led here. That was Rickman's doing. Are you going to take it upon yourself to carry the weight of
everything that goes wrong with them on your shoulders just because three years ago you made a
mistake? Cut yourself a break for crying out loud!"

Quinn almost winced at her words. What bothered him the most was that deep down, he knew she
was right. "Look, Maggie," Quinn said, his voice less intense at least, "they are in there, and Denton is
my best chance at finding them. If you don't want to help me, you have Rickman's timer. Activate it
and slide out of here, or stay and do whatever you want. You got Rickman, which was what you
joined us to do. You don't owe us anything." Without waiting for an answer, Quinn turned and walked
towards the hallway.

Maggie stood looking back from the door to the hallway Quinn was walking down. She didn't like the
idea of joining a bunch of radicals in a cause she knew nothing about. She was a solder. On her world,
she would have been out to stop these guys. Like it or not though, the sliders were now the closest
thing she had to a family, even if it was a dysfunctional one as far as her relation to them was
concerned. Whether or not she agreed with Quinn's plan, she was one of them now. She couldn't just
up and turn her back on them.

"Wait up, Mallory!" Maggie shouted, running down the hall. Quinn
slowed his pace to let her catch up, but didn't stop moving. After a second, Maggie caught up with him.
"If you insist on doing it this way, someone's got to see to it you don't go and get yourself shot." Quinn
let a smirk off without letting Maggie see it. She may act the tough cookie, but he knew the real reason
that she went along with it. Deep down, she had grown attached to them.

-----

Wade sat on her cot. She hadn't been able to sleep since hearing about Arturo and Bennish's plan for
escape. It was risky, but they had been through worse. The risk of escaping wasn't what was keeping
her up, though. What was keeping her up was the flood of emotions that this world had given her. After
months of chasing Rickman - sure that after all of this time, she was finally going to get home - she had
found herself in this rat hole. Although, at least, it was cleaner than most rat holes.

And then there was the deal with Arturo. After all of this time, she was finally starting to come to terms
with his death. Then the minute she saw this Arturo, it all came flooding back. She’d known that this might
happen sooner or later; they all did. They had run into enough doubles of Arturo in the past to know
that the odds were in favor of them running into another one someday. It didn't make seeing an Arturo
alive, walking and talking again in a matter of speaking, any easier. And the fact that someone she had
come to know and love like her family had been looking at her as if she were a stranger didn't help.
Wade shook that thought. It's not his fault he didn't know her. She probably didn't even exist on his
world.

Then there was Quinn. As if losing the Professor wasn't bad enough, now it looked like she had lost
Quinn too. Sliding had seemed like the greatest adventure when she first started, anymore all it
seemed to be was a nightmare. Slowly, tears started forming from her eyes. When did things go so
wrong?

Rembrandt rolled over on the top cot and looked down at Wade. It looked like he wasn't the only one
who wasn't getting any sleep. He got down from his cot and sat on the bed next to her. It was
obvious she had been crying. She seemed to be taking this even worse than he was. He gently put his
arm on his friend’s shoulder, and he noticed that she looked like she had been about to cry again. "Not taking all this too well, huh, sweetheart?" Rembrandt said.

"It's just so weird," Wade replied. "Seeing him again, like this." She motioned to the Professor who
was asleep along with Bennish.

"It is, but that wasn't what I was talking about," Rembrandt said to her. "Look, girl, I know you haven't
said anything, but Q-ball's not being here has to be affecting you. I know it's got me worried."

"He slid out, Rembrandt. He had his timer. It's not like he stayed on that awful place," Wade said
quickly. Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she would eventually believe it ... and not that he and
Maggie had died at Rickman's hands on that damn world.

"I know he did. Quinn doesn't go down easily," Rembrandt answered. He really wasn't as sure of that
as he sounded, but now wasn't the time to be telling her that. "But you do know that if he did, he probably
slid randomly. We may have to except the fact we..."

"Shut up, Rembrandt! He's fine! I know he is. He may not be able to follow us, but he is on another
world somewhere. He's fine!" Wade snapped at him. Then she put her face in her hands and started
crying.

Rembrandt got quiet. He knew this was hard for her. She took losing Arturo hard. She wasn't going to
have an easy time with Quinn gone now too. The four of them were always the one constant that kept
them sane throughout all the insanity their lives had become, and now even that seemed to be slipping
away. Rembrandt set his hand on Wade’s shoulder, wishing he could do more to comfort her. "I know
he is, child. Don't worry, things are going to be all right." He wished he believed that as much as he
sounded like he did. He was having his doubts about whether or not Quinn made it off the last world.
What bothered him more then that, however, was facing the fact that he and Wade may never know for sure.

A few minutes later, Wade sat back up, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Rembrandt, I've been thinking.
After we get to Arturo and Bennish's world, maybe we should try to find homes there."

Rembrandt looked at her, a little confused. "We'll sure, Wade. We will need somewhere to stay in
between trying to find home. At least we will have someplace to return to, what with them knowing
their home coordinates." He was not quite sure what she meant by that.

"That's not what I'm talking about, Remmy. I mean, maybe we should make their world our home, and
quit sliding," Wade explained.

Rembrandt did a double take. He couldn't believe Wade, of all people, was saying this. "Quit sliding?
Wade, if this is because of the professor, staying with this one won't bring him back."

"This has nothing to do with that," Wade snapped, but deep down that was part of the reason.
Even though she knew it wasn't right, she couldn't help but think that if she stayed on his world, it would
almost be like having him back. That wasn't the only reason though, or even the biggest one. "We've
been sliding for three years now, and every time we think we might have found a way to get home, it
fails. Rickman's timer was our best chance, and that obviously didn't work. Look where it landed us,"
Wade said, making a gesture of her surroundings. "Maggie told me the last time we were on the New
World that the only thing left back home for us was the past. Maybe she was right. Maybe we should
just cut our losses, find a world we like, and make new lives there before we are killed too like the
professor or..." Wade stopped. She couldn't believe she had almost said  that Quinn was dead too. "Just
like the professor."

"But don't you want to see your family again..." Rembrandt said. He couldn't believe he was hearing
this from her. "...or the friends that you left behind?"

"Of course I do. But we have been trying for so long. How much longer am I supposed to believe that
I will see them again? I am sure that they have made peace with my being gone by now. Maybe it's for
the best," Wade said.

"Do you really believe that?" Rembrandt said. Wade was silent. Apparently she wasn't as sure as she
seemed. "Look, Wade, I feel the same way sometimes, but no matter how great or how close to our
world some of these worlds might be, they aren't home, they aren't where we belong. Nothing can
change that for me. Do what you gotta do, but I want to go home."

Rembrandt moved his arm around Wade’s shoulder. She didn't know what she would do if she lost
her last friend too. She shivered. The thought was almost too much to bear. "Just promise me you
won't disappear too," she said, almost worried.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, it'll take more than a few of these wannabe storm-troopers to put down the
Crying Man," Rembrandt said to her, forcing a smile. He removed his arm from her shoulder. "Come on,
sweetheart, try to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day."

-----

Quinn walked down a hallway in the building of the rebels hide out. As best as he had been able to figure, this place was some kind of converted warehouse. He couldn't be sure though. Like everything
else in this world, the architecture was unlike anything he had seen before. He really wished he would
have a chance to really study this world - it was incredible. The technology that he and Maggie had
come across since sliding here was far beyond anything he would have thought possible in this
century. He couldn't imagine what he would have found if he had the chance to really look around and
explore. That wasn't a priority right now though.

Maybe they would have a chance to come back to this world another time. Even though Rickman had
erased all the coordinates from the previous slides, they were still able to store the ones they
encountered from now on.

He walked over to a section of the wall with a red button near it. This was the entrance to the room
they had given Maggie for the night. He wasn't looking forward to what he was about to do. He and
Maggie had been so caught up in finding the others that they hadn't had a time to discuss what had
happened on the last earth... specifically the kiss they’d shared. In all the distraction, the two of them had
managed to avoid the subject so far, but the waiting until early the next day to strike had given him
more then enough time to stir on it.

Quinn had been attracted to Maggie almost sense he and the others had met her what seemed like
ages ago, even though it had only been a few months, but he hadn't met for that to happen. He was so
caught up in the events, he wasn't thinking. He now realized that he and Maggie wouldn't work. They
were too different and had too much chaos in their lives going on as it was. The problem was, he didn't
know how Maggie felt about it. He guessed there was only one way for him to find out.

Quinn pressed the button on the wall and a small rectangular section of the wall next to the button, not
much bigger than Quinn himself dissolved in the same way they had noticed all walls did on this earth
when someone needed to enter a room. Quinn wondered if doors existed at all on this world.
He walked through the entrance which quickly closed when he entered it.

Maggie was standing near a window on the opposite side of the room from where Quinn was, looking
in awe at the world outside. The buildings seemed to go up almost further than the eye could
see as the shuttle like vehicles they had seen before hovered in all directions, transporting citizens from
one place to another. What looked to be a billboard hovered in mid air as the shuttles drove around it.
The billboard read "Visit Disney World Titan" and showed those all-too-familiar mouse ears on the
planet of Saturn. Another banner floated directly above the last, showing a poster for 'Baywatch.'
The difference was, in this poster, apparently instead of being on the coast, the beach was entirely inside
some kind of building. Life guards were as scantly clad as ever. Quinn didn't think he remembered
seeing Kathy Ireland or Anna Nicole Smith on the show back on his world though.

Quinn shook his head. This wasn't the time to get distracted by small differences on worlds like this.
Maggie noticed him and turned around to face him. "What's going on, Mallory?" Maggie asked, and
then got a good look into his eyes. She suddenly had an uncomfortable feeling about what this visit was
concerning.

"Look, Maggie, I need to talk to you about something," Quinn said, walking towards her.

"Look, Mallory, if this is about what happened on the last world, I don't think we need to talk about
it. Let’s just forget about it," Maggie said to him.

Quinn was a little surprised. Did she always kiss a guy and then turn around and act like it was no big
deal? He wasn't sure what kind of a reaction he was expecting from her, but this wasn't it. "You kiss
guys and then act like it's no big deal all the time?" Quinn said, sounding a little confused. Not that
under the circumstances he wanted her to confess of any undying love for him, but his male ego would
have liked her to act like it meant something to her.

"Of course not. Look, Mallory, what happened on the last world was just the result of a mutual
attraction and an intense situation. You and I could never have anything, and we both know that. Let’s
just write it off as a mistake and move on."

"I wouldn't have called it a mistake," Quinn said. He didn't get her sometimes, actually most of the time.

"Look, Quinn, you're right. It's not a mistake. Just an impulse." She was starting to get a little frustrated
at her lack to find the right words. "You know what I mean. We're friends but we
would be a lousy couple."

Quinn was strangely relived at this reaction. Looked like this wasn't going to be the scene he worried
about. "You’re right." Quinn said. He then extended his hand. "Friends?"

"Of course we are," Maggie said, taking his hand.

-----

In a storeroom of the compound, a section of the wall started to dissolve and finally disappeared all
together, leaving an entrance into it from the outside. Dan Griffey walked silently into the room. He
was showing signs of fatigue. He hadn't slept well the last night. What he was about to do wasn't easy
for him. He loved his country, and was once proud to have been able to say he had served it. But times
had changed and so had he. Despite everything his training had tough him, he couldn't condone what
his country was doing. If the armed forces finished developing the sliding technology and used it to
launch an attack on a Kromagg occupied world, more men and women would die for a cause that
was little more than another excuse for the US to expand their grip.

He walked over to a nearby stack of boxes and pulled a small, circular, metal device out of a pocket in
his body armor, setting it hidden behind one of the boxes, and pressed a button on it, causing green and
red lights on it to come alive and flicker. The device was sending a signal back to the rebel base. From
it, they would be able to transport within a 30 foot radius of the signaling device, undetected by the
sensors outside. It would allow them to get in unnoticed. After that they were on their own. He wasn't
about to open fire on his own fellow soldiers. He had already done his part.

He moved over to the wall he’d come in and pressed a button, opening the section of the wall and allowing
him to exit the room. The wall closed up again as he walked down the corridor. Now it was time for
his other agenda - the one that was just for him and some friends he had made who’d showed him that
not all worlds have to live under this world’s kind of conquering mentality.

-----

Callian looked up from a small terminal to Denton. "The device is in place, Denton, looks like our
soldier boy came through. It should be charged and ready to teleport us in about 15 minutes or so."

"Excellent," Denton said, looking back to the rest of the room. The two men and the woman, who had
helped Kitch apprehend the sliders, were in the room ready for his briefing along with Quinn, Maggie,
and a younger member of the rebels. Denton had decided to keep them small so as to make it easier
for them to move about with minimal notice. "Alright, people, look alive," Denton told the crew
assembled before him. "We will be starting the mission in exactly 15 minutes. The main objective will
be to get into the lab that houses the sliding equipment and destroy it. We will be using the aid of Mr.
Mallory here to help in determining exactly which equipment is being used to aid them in the
development of sliding. Callian and Shawnee will be separating from us along with Captain Beckett to
help and locate her and Mallory's friends. Do the two of you understand that alright?"

"Yes, sir," replied Kitch and the blond girl who was apparently Shawnee.

"Good... Here are your weapons. Due to the internal sensors in the compound they are only at half
charge so shoot sparingly." Denton handed each of the people in the room a gun that looked like
some kind of miniature cannon with a rifle scope and trigger. "These Cloaks will also assist us,"
Denton said, handing each of them a gray hooded cloak. "When the hoods are over your face,
they should effectively hide us from any of the guards sights." Denton put on one of the cloaks as he
was talking, and then put the hood over his face which, to Quinn and Maggie's amazement, caused him
to fade in much the dissolving nature that the doors seemed to. Denton took the hood back off, which
once no longer over his head, caused him to reappear. "Okay, everyone, get them on and let's get ready.
We teleport in fifteen minutes.

Maggie looked at Quinn as the other men talked amongst themselves and put on their cloaks. "How
much time do we have left, Mallory?"

"About 3 hours. We are going to have to find them fast."

"And if we don't?" Maggie asked.

"Then we come back here after the next slide and try again. As many times as it takes. I am getting
them out of here."

"Understood," Maggie said, fooling with her laser until she figured out how to charge it.

-----

Wade and Rembrandt sat on the cots of their cell as Arturo and Bennish stood near the door. It was
time for Bennish and Arturo to put their plan into action. Arturo walked over to his pupil and put his
hand on his shoulder. "Are you ready, my boy?" he asked Bennish.

"As ready as I will ever be. Let’s get this over with," Bennish told Arturo.

Arturo looked over to a hallway near a their cell and saw Griffey talking with Kitch, the
guy Wade mentioned had been beating on that Kromagg the day before. Everyone was in place, time
to see if this was going to work. "Alright, Mr. Bennish... go." Bennish suddenly hunched over and
started howling as if he was in great pain, clutching his stomach.

"OWWWWWWW! Oh, man, it hurtsssssssss..." Bennish hollered, amazingly convincing. Maybe he
should have been a theater major instead of physics major.

"Guards! Guards!" Arturo shouted. "Captain Griffey, Private Kitch, come over here. Hurry, something is
wrong with Bennish."

The two guards walked over to the force field. Griffey lagging slightly behind Kitch. "What's your
problem, Max?" Kitch said in a rude tone.

"It’s Bennish. He seems to be having some kind of stomach pains."

Bennish continued to hunch over, howling as if he was in a lot of pain. "Ouch... Oh,
mannnn!"

"Why should we care? This isn't the Dominion. What difference should it make to us if your little pet
over there is uncomfortable?" Kitch seemed annoyed that Arturo was even bothering them.

"Get in there and see what's wrong with him," Griffey ordered.

"And do what? I'm not a medic." Kitch asked.

"Just see what's wrong with him, private," Griffey said, pressing the button to open the force field to
their cell. Once it was down, he pointed his club at Arturo. "And don't get creative, Max, one dart from
this club and you won't be going anywhere anytime soon."

Kitch entered the cell, shoving Arturo out of the way as he leaned down to inspect Bennish who was
still howling on the floor. He was definitely playing his part well enough. As Kitch knelt down, Griffey
pointed his club away from Arturo and towards Kitch. "I hope you'll forgive me someday for this,
soldier," he said as he shot the dart out of the club. It was the same kind of dart as the one Wade had
seen Kitch use on the Kromagg. It hit Kitch square in the back, and he suddenly stopped moving
midway through kneeling and just stayed there, motionless. "Hurry up and get out of the cell, Bennish,
that dart is only good for thirty seconds!" Griffey shouted.

Bennish abruptly stopped howling and sprung up from the floor, running from the cell. He exited and
Griffey quickly pressed a series of buttons, closing the force field once again. Kitch came back to life
and ran towards Griffey and the two sliders, but stopped as he hit the force field. "What do you think
you’re doing?" he asked, sounding angered and surprised at the same time.

"I'm getting these people out of here. They aren't part of the Kromaggs’ attack and had no reason to
ever be in here in the first place. You know that too. This service just has you too brainwashed to admit
it."

"You're not going to get away with this, traitor. Those men are prisoners of war!" Kitch shouted. He
couldn't believe a superior officer was actually doing this.

Griffey ignored him as he released the force field to Wade and Rembrandt’s cell. "Your timer is down
that fourth corridor. When you reach the panel of buttons, type in the sequence 'alpha-7' and it will
open up the wall. Good luck," he told the four sliders as Wade and Rembrandt exited their cell.

Arturo reached out his hand to meet Griffey's. "You're a good man, Captain. Thank you."

"Just be careful. Now get out of here before anyone else walks by."

With that, Arturo, Rembrandt, Wade, and Bennish headed down the long corridor towards where the
timer and, hopefully, their ticket off this mad world were.

-----

In the small storeroom Griffey had recently left, four figures seemed to materialize out of nowhere.
They soon took the shapes of Quinn, Maggie, Denton, and the rest of the rebels. They were each
wearing the white robes and carrying the phasers that Denton had given to them in the briefing. The
eight quickly looked over the premises, making sure that no one was around.

"Okay, people..." Denton finally said once he was sure the area they were in was empty. "You all know
your assignments. Now let’s get this over with."

Quinn grabbed onto Maggie's arm as she was about to head for the door, stopping her. "We’ve only got
a few more hours, Maggie. Find them fast. I don't want to have to leave any of you here."

"Relax, Mallory," Maggie said, sounding offended that he didn't have complete faith in her. "I will have
them and be back with you guys with an hour to spare," she said, arrogant as ever.

"I hope so," Quinn said. The group left the room through the opening in the wall. Maggie, Griffey, and
the blond hared woman went one way to where they believed the prison cells were as the rest of the
group went the other direction.

-----

Wade, Rembrandt, and the others walked silently and stealthily, or at least as close as they could
manage. They neared a corner and Rembrandt poked his head around and quickly ducked back and
looked at the others. "It's the entrance alright, guys," Rembrandt told the other three sliders. "Problem is,
there are two guards blocking the entryway."

"Then I guess we'll have to get their attention," Wade said with a mischievous smile.

-----

A guard stood at the entrance to the sliding equipment lab. He had been bored out of his skull lately.
The researchers had been taking a few well deserved days off, so this floor had been pretty much
empty. Leaving his job of guarding this entrance even more monotonous than usual. Suddenly, he felt
something poke him in the ribs. He looked to his side and didn't see anyone where the feeling at his
ribs was, then suddenly the area in front of him got a little hazy.

Denton phased into sight next to the guard as he removed his hood, followed by Quinn and the other
three rebels. "Well, well, just one guard huh? Looks like our countries finest were a little too sure of
their external security. Didn't put much in the way of internal security."

"How did you get in here?" the guard asked, clearly shocked to see so many people had been running
around the compound without tripping any security alarms.

"That's not your biggest concern," Denton said, jabbing his weapon further into the guard's ribs. "Your
concern is whether or not you're going to open that there entryway or see your insides on the
outside."

Quinn didn't like the way this was panning out. He was a scientist, not some high-tech guerilla. Still, he
didn't see himself with much of a choice. He just hoped Maggie would find the others in time so he
hadn't dragged himself and her into this for nothing.

"Alright!" the guard said. "I'll open the wall." He then turned towards a nearby numerical pad to open
the wall. The guard pressed a few numbers, then surprised Denton and everybody else by quickly
elbowing him to the side of the head. Surprised, Denton staggered back as the guard reached for his
own weapon. He never had a chance though as the taller revolutionary from Quinn and Maggie's prior
encounter zapped him with his gun, knocking the guard to the floor.

"Stupid, kid," he looked back and saw Quinn staring at the guard’s body. "Relax. We had it set to
the same setting that we shot Beckett with. He'll be fine in a few hours."

Denton walked over to the control pad as the others gathered around it. "Now we can find out if that
security code was worth the money we paid for it."

-----

Wade and Bennish rounded the corner, standing down the corridor. They started to wave their arms
and shout to the guards of the room that was housing the timer on the other end.

"Yoo-hoo... Hey guards.... Come on, you storm-trooper rejects." The guards noticed them and
called for them to halt right as the two sliders rounded the corner. The guards quickly ran after them.

As they rounded the corner, their unprotected faces were greeted one by Arturo's meaty fist and the
other by Rembrandt’s.

The one Rembrandt hit went down pretty good. Arturo’s guard started to get back up and go for his
weapon. Right as he was about to shoot, Arturo heard a loud yell and suddenly saw Bennish charging for his opponent, yelling his lungs off. Bennish's noise distracted the guard as he looked toward the noise to
see Bennish plow into him at top speed. All he felt was Bennish tackle him, and then his head hit the
wall and with that he was out.

"Good show, Mr. Bennish!" Arturo said, patting his pupil on the back proudly.

"Thanks, Maxy, you were pretty good yourself with that right cross. Ughhhh!" Bennish attempted to
mimic the professor's punch, but ended up knocking himself off balance trying, stumbled, and almost
fell flat on his back.  After a second he did manage to regain his balance.

"That was a good shot, Professor," Wade said, impressed.

"Thank you, but Professor is for my students. Please call me Max."

"Come on, guys," Rembrandt interrupted after looking around the corner to make sure that no one else
was around. "Coast is clear."

-----

Maggie, Kitch, and Shawnee walked down the corridors, occasionally putting up the hoods to their
cloaks to turn themselves invisible and dodge the guards. For the most part, though, things had been
going pretty easily. Maggie wasn't sure if she liked that. In the months she had been sliding,
things never went easy. Not to mention they still hadn't found Wade and Rembrandt, and time was
running out.

The three neared an open wall that was apparently the entrance to the detention cells. It took them
long enough to get to it too. The compound was huge. "Okay," Callian said. "From here on we need to
keep our cloaking on these suits. Last thing we need is these apemaggs making a ruckus and bringing
in the guards. Our inside source said that there are only four human inmates in here, and your friends
are the only black male and women of them, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. Let’s get them and
get out. We will use the infra-red goggles we got to keep track of each other. Just keep quiet. I hear
rumors that the Kromaggs have extra good hearing." Callian put his hood up and phased into
nothingness. "Alright, move out," Callian's disembodied voice was heard saying as Maggie and
Shawnee put the hoods to their cloaks up, rendering themselves invisible as well.

-----

The wall to a lab of the compound opened up and Quinn, Denton, and the rest slowly stepped inside,
except for the younger member who had activated his cloak and was standing watch at the door.

"Alright, slider..." Denton said to Quinn, "point out the sliding equipment to me and hurry. I don't
know that we didn't trip a silent alarm coming in, and we may not have much time."

Quinn surveyed the lab. He was sorry he didn't have more time to look over the equipment in this lab.
He could only guess what was being done in a world as advanced as this one. He looked over the lab
and then back at Denton. "I'm not sure. None of it looks like equipment I have seen before."

Quinn walked over to a nearby machine. The architecture on it did seem similar to his sliding
machine. In all truth, he didn't really care too much. He didn't condone the war that this army wanted to
start, but he was doing this for one reason only: to get Wade and Remmy out. What difference did it
really make so long as he gave them something? "I think this is the main sliding machine," Quinn told
Denton.

"Good. We can start here. Out of the way, guys," Denton told the two men in the room who moved
out of the vicinity of the machine. Quinn stood watching as Denton aimed his gun. Quinn couldn't
believe that he was helping save the Kromaggs, of all people, from an invasion. Still, from what he had
seen, this Earth had the potential to become the next Kromagg Dynasty if they were allowed to slide.
One evil for another he guessed.

Right as Denton was about to pull the trigger, he was interrupted by the rebel at the door calling into
the room from outside. "Denton! We've been made! The guards are ARGHHHHHH!" A loud sound
that almost reminded Quinn of the sound spaceships make firing in an old video game was followed by the
mercenary hitting the floor bleeding.

"Dang!" Denton yelled.

Suddenly, four of the compound's solders entered the room. The blond rebel managed to shoot one of
the soldiers as they entered the room. Unfortunately for him, one of the other soldiers got him in the
process as the other three ducked behind some nearby equipment. A firefight ensured as both sides
took turns firing back and forth for a few seconds, although it seemed like hours to the participants.
Finally, Denton and Quinn managed to knock off two more of the soldiers with well-placed shots. One
of the guards got in a clean shot to the other rebel, sending him down. Unfortunately for the guard, he
got out of his cover long enough for Denton to get a clean shot sending the last of the guards to the
ground, dead.

Quinn and Denton, the sole survivors of the brief firefight, moved over to the bodies. Both of them
were squatting, investigating their allies' bodies.

"He's dead," Denton said firmly, closing the rebel's eyelids.

"This guy is also," Quinn said solemnly. "I'm sorry."

"They all three knew the risks."

"HALT!" a voice shouted as more guards were seen from the doorway, coming down the hall.

Denton was ready for them this time. He shot the control panel to the entrance, causing it to
phase shut. He then looked back at Quinn. "There is another exit to this room on the opposite wall. It
isn't used much according to our source, so it shouldn't be guarded. Use it and double back and find
your friends. I know you are running out of time." Quinn hesitated for a second. Did Denton actually
plan to stay here? "Go on, slider, they're gonna be able to override the door before long. You kept
your end of the bargain. Find your friends."

"What about you?" Quinn asked. " We didn't even get the equipment destroyed."

Denton pulled a small, rectangular, metallic object from a pocket in his suit. A green light was flashing on it. Quinn wasn't sure what it was supposed to be until he heard Dentin's answer. "I have another way.
I'm going to blow this room up. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but I am ready to die for this
cause."

"Die?" Quinn said confused "Why don't you just leave the bomb, or whatever that thing is, and come
with me?"

"Because it's touch sensitive. The second I let go of it now, it is going to go off. It will easily destroy
this room."

"You would commit suicide just to prevent one world of tyrants from going after another? You’re
crazy," Quinn said. He was shocked at what Denton was saying.

"Listen to me, Slider, because I am only going to have time to tell you this story once. Eight years ago,
the US government launched an assault on an orbiting colony around Jupiter. They gave the news a
bogus story about it being a launching pad for some group of anarchist. Told them they were planning
to launch an attack against the good ol' US of A, but the truth was that their succession from the United
States was going so successfully that other stations were talking about following their lead. It would
have caused the jokers in Washington to lose their hold on space and that scared them to no end.

"The colony was next to defenseless and blind-sided. The entire colony was destroyed in mere
minutes, along with all of the people in it. My wife was one of them." Denton paused for a second, not
liking having to relive the experience. "You know why she was there? Huh, slider? She was on a
diplomatic trip for the monsters that killed her.

"Our fine country has a hold over this planet and this solar system. It has made them all rich and
powerful beyond their wildest dreams, and they will gain and keep it at any cost. If it will save another
world full of victims like my wife, then it is worth the lives of the men lost here, and mine," Denton
finished.

Quinn stood there, stunned. He couldn't believe that the government of United States could be like
this, and they said his world’s politicians were corrupt.

The entrance slowly started to phase out. The soldiers on the other side started to manually open it.

"Go on, Quinn." Denton shouted. "They are almost through, and don't think I won't set this off if you
are still in here when they make it."

Quinn snapped back to life and, with one last look at Denton, went to the door and opened it, leaving
and running down the long corridor.

-----

The guards finally had the override controls to the door working. Right as they opened the door, they
saw Denton standing in the center of the room, holding the bomb out in his hand.

"I'm coming to meet you, honey," Denton whispered, hanging his head down. And with that, he released
his grip on the bomb which, instantly after he let go, exploded, sending the whole room up in a
spectacular explosion.

Quinn didn't run quite fast enough, though, and the sheer force from the explosion sent him flying about
ten feet through the air and to the floor. Thankfully, he was far enough away that he managed to do no
more than skin himself. He got himself up and pulled out the timer, rubbing his now skinned knee. He
looked at the display. It read that they had just under an hour left. Quinn cursed under his breath and
headed down the corridor. He had to find Maggie and the others fast.

-----

Maggie, Callian, and Shawnee walked down the prison cells cloaked, passing cells after cells of
Kromaggs. Maggie couldn't believe it. They were even uglier in person than on that video.
Unfortunately no sign of any humans.

A guard stood above the cells on a railing, and looked over the cells through a computer terminal. He
was in charge of scanning the cells for traces of the electronic waves that cloaking devices would give
off. It was one of the most tedious jobs in the compound. It was also one of the most important ones.
If someone were to sneak into the compound under a cloak, they could do a lot of damage before
being discovered.

He had been stationed here for two weeks and, in that time, he had yet to see anything happen. That
was about to change for him, he suddenly noticed as the screen flashed from one map of the
compound to another showing three red dots in one of the rooms. He went to his keypad and typed
something, and then suddenly the map of the area in question was on the computer screen. The
detention center closed in and changed to a three-dimensional view and with it an outline of a man and
two women. Someone cloaked was actually in the building. The soldier pressed a small button on a
console turning his communication device on. "Captain, Griffey. This is Siggerson. You're not going to
believe this, but I have three cloaked intruders in your detention cell."

-----

Griffey had no problem believing there were cloaked intruders, seeing as how he was the one who let
them in, but what on earth were they doing all the way over in the detention compound. He hated to
do this, but he had to keep up appearances. "All right, Siggerson, thanks. Activate the fluorescent lights.
Oh, and until we have a chance to identify the intruders, could you..."

Before he had a chance to ask Siggerson to keep a lid on it with the Colonel, he heard another
message come in through his transmitter. It was Whitt's voice. "May I have your attention. There has
been a report of intruders in the compound, and a bomb has been discharged in sector 15. All units
are to maintain defensive positions. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill"

Well, so much for keeping intruders from Whitt. At least the bomb being discharged seemed to imply
that the rebels did reach their target. So again, what were they doing in the detention compound? Looks
like he was about to find out. He pressed a button on his belt, activating his transmitter to talk to his
security chief. "Private Yar, activate the lighting and get yourself, and whoever is on duty in cell block
10, to scope out some cloaked intruders. I'm on my way."

"Yes, sir,” came an aggressive sounding female voice over the headset.

-----

Maggie and the two rebels had been looking around the detention compound for over 20 minutes.
Maggie was getting antsy. Time was running out and there was still no sign of Rembrandt or Wade.

The room got darker and a weird fluorescent light was suddenly activated. Maggie
looked down at where her hand was, and she noticed something. Before she couldn't see it. It was invisible
to her as well as everyone else. Yet this time, she saw a bluish outline if it.

"Damn!" she heard someone say from behind her. She looked and saw the same outline of Callian and
Shawnee.

"What's going on here?" Maggie asked Callian, or rather the outline of Callian.

"These lights. The suit doesn't hide in this lighting," he answered her.

"What! Why didn't you tell us this before?" Maggie asked.

"We didn't think that they would have a reason to turn them on." He took of his hood and faded into
sight, no reason to have it up now. "They must have had some kind of tracking systems for us that we
didn't know about."

"Wouldn't your inside man tell you something like that?" Maggie asked. She couldn't believe these
guys would do something like this without being better organized.

"We didn't get the info on the bases layout from him. He wouldn't give it up, only promised to get us
in. We bought the schematics."

"You got ripped off," Maggie said. "Look we need to take..." Her words were interrupted by the
sound of laser fire. A red beam flew right past her head. She heard it go by her ear and hit Shawnee.
The woman went down. Maggie looked up and saw three guards standing on a rail overhead, both armed and shooting.

Maggie fired a shot of her own followed by Callian as the two of them ducked into a nearby empty, and thankfully open, cell. Apparently they felt no need to close the force fields if no one was inside the
cells. Lucky for Maggie and Callian. They at least had cover now. Maggie shot for one of the
guards above, missed, and hit the rail. It did at least hit close enough to make them duck, and Callian's
shot did hit the mark. The shot sent one of the soldiers falling over the guardrail and onto the
floor below, leaving only two up there. Maggie and Callian exchanged fire for a second with the
guards, neither one able to get a clean shot.

Suddenly, they heard a voice from behind them calling for them to halt. They looked and saw two guards peering from behind a corner on the opposite side. Swell, now they were being fired at from both sides.

"I got the two behind us. You get the two on the rail!" Callian barked to Maggie as he turned around
and started shooting at the two soldiers behind them; this was definitely not going according to plan.

Maggie continued firing on the two at the rail. She must have fired at least five shots and not hit one of
them. What was the matter with her? These guys were not that far away. She had shot targets further
than this 100 times. She didn't seem to be shooting as well as she used too lately. Actually, she had
been missing a lot of targets she shouldn't have recently. She had Rickman at least three times where
she should have been able to hit him easily, and she’d kept on missing. Her fighting hadn't been up to
training either. There was a time not more than six months ago that Callian and his guys would not have
captured her. But she got sloppy and let a bunch of amateurs outfight her. It was like she was
someone else these days.

One of the soldiers on the rail finally fell backwards and landed on the ground, lying still. About time.
Then she heard Callian.

"You still haven't gotten them?" Callian said, sounding surprised and angry. He fired a shot to the
remaining guard and, with the one shot, sent him down. The threat was over for the moment, although
with all the firepower that went off, they didn't have much time before others came. "What happened
back their, Beckett? You had clean shots on those guys. What kind of soldier are you? Or did you
freeze or something!" Callian snapped at her. He was under the impression that he was with a trained
shooter. Not someone who couldn't hit a standing target in over five shots.

Ordinarily, Maggie would have snapped back, but she was so embarrassed she couldn't. A freaking
amateur revolutionary had just out shot her. She was supposed to be a trained marksman. She made
expert for crying out loud. Why hadn't she been shooting like one? Why hadn't she been acting
like a soldier anymore? "Come on!" she finally said. "We’ve got to find my friends." Without waiting for
an answer, Maggie walked down the hall.

"Lets just hope we don't have to shoot them out of anything," Callian mumbled under his breath as he
walked up behind her.

-----

Wade, Rembrandt, Arturo, and Bennish had been looking up and down the dozens of shelves in the
room. They had found just about everything imaginable, although they didn't recognize half of it. Right
as they were about to give up hope on finding the timer, Wade noticed something on a shelf. It looked
like a timer, but not the one they had been using. It was crude and looked more like the original one
they’d had, all patched together out of spare parts. "Hey, guys!" she said to Max and Bennish. "Is this
it?" she held up the device with an impish smile on her face.

Arturo took hold of it as the others gathered around. "Why yes, yes it is. Good show, Miss Wells," he
said happily.

"Alright, Wade!" Bennish said, putting up his hand to give Wade a high five. Wade put her hand up as
Bennish's hand slapped it.

Rembrandt patted Wade on the back. "Good job, girl. So, how much time do we have before we
return to..." Rembrandt looked at the face of Max Arturo. "Max?" he said, walking closer to him. His
face was grim as he looked over the timer. "I don't like that look, pal. What's going on?"

Max pushed a few buttons. Then looked up to the others. "I am afraid the timer doesn't appear to be
working."

"That's because we took the batteries out." The four heard a voice say. They looked towards the voice
and saw Whitt holding a blaster and pointing it at them. "Did you two braniacs think we would be so
stupid as to leave it working so you two could just up and activate it and escape?" Whitt asked,
motioning to Bennish and Arturo.

"How did you find out we were here so fast?" Rembrandt asked Whitt.

"I didn't," he answered. "This building is being infiltrated. Silent alarms and intruder detection computers
are going off all over the compound. When someone blew up the lab that the sliding machine was in, I
came here figuring they might be going after the timer. Looks like I was wrong in that regard. I don't
know how you guys got out, but at least getting rid of you two trouble makers..." Whitt looked to
Arturo and Bennish, "...it will almost make it worth it. By the way you might want to look behind you."

The sliders looked over their shoulders and saw three guards standing behind them, blasters pointing
to them. "Come on, guys, out," Whitt said. "Out, Out, Out," he repeated, waving his hand towards the door.
Having no choice, the four followed out the door and into the hall. Wade grimaced. Looks like this
might be the end of the road for all of them.

-----

Maggie and Callian walked down a hallway. They had checked all the cells and no sign of the others
or any other human captives. They decided to check the only other exit from the detention compound
other than the one they came in by. It stood to reason that they would have seen Wade and
Rembrandt if they went out that exit. At least those stupid lights were off and, for the moment, no
soldiers seemed to be on their tails. That probably wouldn't last though. This mission had turned into a
disaster.

Maggie listened for a second and heard a gruff voice in the distance. She put her hand on Callian's
Shoulder. "Wait a minute..." she told him. She had a feeling about the sound. She walked over to the
point where the hallway intersected with another, and she poked her head around.

She looked around the corner where she heard the voice. There was a man holding a gun to four
figures standing against the wall. What looked to be about five soldiers were standing behind the man
speaking, their weapons drawn. She
couldn't tell for sure what the man was saying, but she could tell it was no good news to the four
standing against the wall. Then she got a look at the man standing closest to her against the wall. It
was Rembrandt. She then noticed the one on the furthest from her – Wade! She had found them.

Rembrandt caught something out of the side of his eye and glanced over. Maggie! She saw him too and
made a very hasty motion for him to be cool. Rembrandt nodded and slowly turned his head back to
Whitt. The whole thing happened so fast that it didn't look like anyone else saw it. Maggie jerked her
head back around the corner.

"It's them, my friends," Maggie whispered to Callian.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Of course I'm sure," Maggie said to Callian. "Come on." She put her hood up on her cloak,
disappearing from sight once more, and went around the corner and down the hall. She didn't even
bother to wait for Callian's reply.

-----

Whitt stood facing the sliders, a smug grin on his face. This had not been a good day for him so far.
He was going to enjoy getting rid of these four. He pressed a button on his blaster as it made a
buzzing sound. Apparently the equivalent to cocking the gun on this world. "Well, sliders, I am afraid
that now it is time for you to..." Before he could finish, he saw what appeared to be a blast fly by his
face. He looked and saw several red beams appearing to fly out of nowhere. Most of them missed,
but a couple of them hit the guards, sending two of the five of them down.

"What the..." Whitt started to say but was interrupted again, this time by Bennish's fist. It wasn't a very
strong punch, but he wasn't ready for it and didn't see it coming, causing him to go down almost out
cold.

Bennish clasped his fist in pain. "Owwww... Owww... oh man, that hurt. I wasn't cut out for this
physical stuff," he cried.

Callian appeared around the corner. He was thankfully hitting his mark more than Maggie, and
managed to shoot down two of them. Rembrandt took care of the last of the guards with a few
well-placed punches that managed to knock him out. Within almost no time, all of the guards were
down. Things happened so fast that the soldiers didn't even have a chance to fire off a shot.

Maggie removed her hood, phasing back into sight. After Wade and Remmy had a second to get used
to what looked to them like someone appearing out of thin air, it registered to them who it was.

"Maggie!" Rembrandt yelled as he and Wade ran over to her. "Sweetheart, you have no idea how glad I
am to see you," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Are you two okay?" Maggie asked them.

"We're fine," Wade said, pausing as if thinking whether it was worth it to say what she was about to.
Finally she decided it was. "Thanks for the save," Wade said, smiling.

"My dear lady..." Arturo started, "I don't know you, but let me say that anyone who just saved us from
that is a friend in my book."

Maggie looked to see who said that and her jaw dropped when she saw Arturo standing there. The
living embodiment of the man Rickman killed. "Oh my..."

Rembrandt interrupted her. "Maggie Beckett, meet the profess.... I mean, Max Arturo."

Maggie stuck out her hand and Arturo gladly took it. "Charmed," she said, still a little in shock. Her
exposure to doubles had been limited in her short time sliding; she still wasn't used to the idea of
someone being dead in one world and alive and kicking in another.

"Hey, wait a minute..." Wade said, finally calming down from the last few minutes to realize something.
"Where's Quinn?" Wade asked, a little worried.

"He's helping Callian here's friends," she said, motioning to Callian who nodded. "We need to find him
quick," Maggie said, looking at her watch. "We only have 30 minutes until the next window and he has
the timer."

"We need to take them too." Wade said without even thinking to ask. After all, they were going to take
her and Remmy when they thought they could."

"What?" Arturo said, a little surprised.

"Quinn is the other friend we slide with, Max. He has the timer and can get us out of here. We can't
promise to get you home either. In fact it will be a random slide, but like you said, anywhere is better
than here."

"And you and Mr. Brown begged to differ with me," Arturo countered. "Still, I guess we don't have
much choice, do we?"

"Whoooo! Now this is what I call a slider!" Bennish, who had still been in the corner nursing his fist,
said as he came over, looking Maggie up and down. "Hey, Max? How come Remmy here gets all the
cover girls to slide with and I got you? Man, I got ripped off."

"Who's this fungus?" Maggie said, sounding disgusted.

"This is Bennish," Wade said, noticing Arturo in the corner holding his head embarrassed. "He and
Arturo's double slid here and got captured like us. We have to let them come with us; they were going
to do the same for us."

Maggie looked at Bennish and rolled her eyes. "Just my lucky day. Ordinarily I would argue, but if it
will get us to Mallory faster, let’s just go already."

Bennish was getting ready to say another of his smooth come-ons and completely win over this
Maggie babe when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was Whitt on the floor, except he
wasn't unconscious. He was stirring, reaching for his weapon at the ground in front of him, and pointing
it at...

"Max! Look out!" Bennish yelled as he dove in front of Arturo to move him out of the way. Before he
had the cha