Infinite Slides:
All In Good Time
By Liam Smith
Edited by Jayelle Carey
Disclaimer: The following work is based on Sliders which is property of Universal/Saint Clare and the Sci-Fi Channel. The author has received no monetary compensation and no copyright infringement was intended.
"All In Good Time" is the eleventh episode of Infinite Slides, an on-the-net spin off series based on Sliders. To read the other Infinite Slides stories go to the IS website (http://www.psi-fi.azweb.com/IS) Feedback is always welcome, we live on Feedback, thrive on feedback!!! We like feedback, okay? Even negative feedback.
This story is in loving memory of Melissa Torme.
Quinn sat in the movie theater, watching the movie on the screen. He wasn't thinking about the timer or about the world of impending doom that they had slid off, he was just watching the movie. However, images off the last world kept on plaguing his mind. The others had called it Hell. Lines of fires going everywhere, people infected with radiation struggling through the dirt on their stomachs. His double had been on that world. The group had found an underground tunnel that was shielded from the effects of the outside, and they had stayed there for the few hours they had there. Quinn's dying double had followed them with ounces of his life. He nearly managed to crawl into the tunnel. Instead he had died a few meters away from the tunnel's entrance.
For the next six hours, the group had suffered through what Quinn could only describe as an illness which put them to the edge of their lives. For some bizarre reason, Quinn was immune to the illness. He found that odd considering that he was the one with a weak immune system. Perhaps this illness somehow fed off a strong defense. He didn't know.
He remembered the feeling of dread as Arturo had actually stopped breathing. His heart also stopped. Quinn had managed to revive him before the slide. And on this world, the four recovered within days, and they had decided to spend their last few hours here watching 'Back to the Future IV' starring Quinn Mallory as Marty Mcfly.
But no matter how hard he tried, Quinn's mind drifted. The words he had yelled at Arturo as he gave him CPR kept echoing in his mind.
"NO!! Not again, Professor! I'M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU AGAIN!!!"
The movie ended and the credits started to roll.
"Hello? Earth to Quinn! We've got thirty seconds until we slide." That made Quinn snap to it. He leapt up and looked over at Wade who was holding the timer.
"Looks like the audience is gonna get a sequel," Rembrandt joked. Quinn tried to smile.
Wade aimed the timer in the air and opened the wormhole. One by one the group jumped through the vortex. But before leaping into the vortex, Quinn could've sworn he'd seen the professor's face just before he had to be revived.
-----
"Oh man!" said Rembrandt as he slammed into the pavement. Maggie followed, missing Rembrandt and landing in the back of a truck. Arturo followed, crashing into Rembrandt just like old times, causing him to yelp in pain. Soon enough, Wade and Quinn joined the pile.
After the group got the themselves untangled, they began to look around.
"No people?" Rembrandt questioned.
Quinn took a good long look at a nearby car which was overturned. It had laser burns all over it. Kromagg laser burns. "Guys, I think I've figured out the problem."
"These humans aren't as stupid as we thought," a voice said from a nearby alley. They all turned to find a group of five Kromagg soldiers pointing their guns at them. Quinn looked at the Kromagg, stunned. The last time the Kromaggs had captured them, they had refused to speak with them directly, using Mary, an asian woman they had captured as a child and had raised to be a human communicator, to do all their talking. The one who seemed to be in charge had a strange look on his face. Compared to the others, it seemed like he was almost... acting.
"Shall we kill them?" one of the soldiers sent telepathically to the others. "Or shall we just fire on them and let them die a painful death."
The leader looked at the sliders. "I think we shall take them to the Kromagg base," he finally answered aloud.
"But they are humans!" one of the Kromagg soldiers cried out through his mind.
"Yes! Humans on this earth were destroyed years ago. Now, unless our scanners are incorrect, there should be no human life left on this planet at all. Meaning that these people are sliders."
The Kromagg looked Maggie up and down. "Now, now. We couldn't kill this one, could we?" he said in a menacing tone. "Get in the truck," he told the sliders. "We've got a long journey ahead of us."
"How long 'til we slide?" Arturo asked.
One of the Kromagg soldiers punched him across the side of the face.
"Quiet, human!!!" he yelled.
The Kromagg leader looked at him. "Leave him alone, Tyran. I know the temptation to kill them is going to be difficult over the next three days, but I think you'll manage." He then walked over to Tyran and looked him in the eye. "But of course, if you do kill one of them, I would have no choice but to do the same to you."
-----
Wade lay in the her sleeping bag, looking at the stars. It had been two days since their encounter with the Kromaggs. Over that time, Quinn and one of the Kromaggs had got into a fight resulting in the Kromagg getting shot in the leg by the leader.
Even though she was afraid, she knew she had to sleep. Maggie lay in the sleeping bag next to her. Wade wasn't sure if she was asleep. The night before, Maggie had tried an escape plan, not knowing that the Kromaggs had set up a look out. Maggie had been told to go to back to bed, which she had, but Wade knew she'd stayed awake the rest of the night.
Wade's head was aching. She hadn't had any sleep the night before. Tonight she had to sleep. Her body wasn't going to let her stay awake.
On the other side of the fire, Quinn also lay awake in bed, looking at the deserted city before him. For some reason, the Kromaggs refused to stay in one of the deserted houses, hotels, or buildings. So the group had set camp in the street. He felt his left eye where the soldier Tyran had hit him. It was still a bit swollen and most definitely bruised.
Quinn looked up at the sky and thought about the conversation he heard between two of the Kromaggs earlier.
"Isn't he the one that gave us the power?" the first had asked.
"No, he is a double of the one that gave us the formula for sliding. This one slides with friends."
"No, not that power. The power that we found on this earth."
There was a brief moment of silence between the two, and then the second finally replied with, "Anything's possible."
What had they been talking about? What power other than sliding? He wasn't sure he liked the looks of this. He'd gotten a glance at the timer before the leader had stolen it. It said they had two weeks left on this earth. By the end of the next day, they would be at the Kromagg base.
The thought of being imprisoned by the Kromaggs sent shivers up Quinn's spine as he remembered Earth 113. The Kromaggs could manipulate your mind. They could make you believe your dead father was standing there talking to you. They could make you believe anything. For now, the group was helpless. But Quinn was determined that was just for now.
-----
The Kromagg truck pulled to a stop in the middle of a street. "From here on, we walk," the leader said.
The group leapt of the truck and started walking towards the base which was in the center of city. It was about twice the size of Buckingham palace. The exterior of the building was dark black with ports which Manta ships could enter and leave from. The mere sight of the building sent shivers up the sliders' spines.
Maggie trod slowly next to Quinn. "Got any bright ideas, Mallory?" she whispered. Quinn glanced at the soldier that had his gun on her. The soldier had not noticed that she had spoken.
"Not really. But we've been in worse situations than this before and survived," he whispered back, the last few worlds coming to mind instantly.
"Worse than this? Quinn, not only do they have our timer, they've got guns on us at point blank range. One false move and we're dead meat."
Quinn looked back the soldiers again. Over the past days he'd built up a lot of resentment towards these Kromaggs. If he only had the chance to act on his anger, he would.
"We've been imprisoned by the Kromaggs before and escaped," he noted.
"Not only did they have our timer, but they had us in a prison cell. We still escaped, even if it was with help of a girl called Mary."
This time the Kromagg soldier heard and yelled out, "Quiet humans!"
The five humans wandered slowly towards the base. Then, from out of nowhere, a man arrived. He wore a brown trench coat, and had small mustache with a five o'clock shadow around it. The grouped stopped. He walked up and looked at Quinn.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the man himself. Mallory, right?" He looked at the soldiers who seemed to recognize him.
"Move away, Creeper!!!" the leader of the group told him. The man just laughed.
"You know you can't kill me. You have direct orders to not even harm me." He walked around all of them, studying their faces. He spun around and pointed at the sliders.
"So, the gang's all here. Maggie, Arturo, Wade, Rembrandt, and..." he walked up to look Quinn in the eye again, "Quinn. Quinn Mallory. The man that caused it all. This happens every time, doesn't it? You always get captured by the Kromaggs. But not the first time. The first time it was all different, wasn't it? Everything was different the first time."
Suddenly, there was swishing sound in the sky. Two manta ships began moving very slowly through the air. Then they were covered by green light.
"They said it wouldn't be for two more days," one of the soldiers whispered to no one in particular.
The man looked walked up to the leader of the group. "Well, Gawain, looks like you lost this time, didn't you?"
A look of alarm spread over the leader's face as he realized there would be no escape. From what, the sliders didn't know.
The manta ships vanished, filling the city with a blinding green light....
----- Quinn crawled through the maze of tunnels. He knew that the Kromaggs were after him. They would be there soon.
Nearly three days ago, they'd slid to this world. Only to find it overrun with Kromaggs. They would've been captured if a group of renegades hadn't found them about an hour after they'd arrived. The Kromaggs had been searching for this group for quite a while. Now they'd found an access to their hidden base - the only entrance they didn't know about.
Following him was a group of five Kromagg soldiers. He only knew the name of one of them. Tyran. The others he didn't know.
-----
In another tunnel, Rembrandt and Arturo were moving as fast as they could. A Kromagg soldier was close behind them, too close. They knew he didn't have a gun. Arturo had kicked it out of his hand when they'd last encountered him.
Rembrandt was starting to worry about the others. They hadn't met up with each other in a while. Although the way Melissa Torme, one of the renegade leaders and quickly an ally of the sliders, had designed these tunnels, it was possible that they could spend days in them and not escape or meet with each other. He just hoped that whatever happened, whoever had the timer would slide off this world and not get caught.
-----
Maggie kicked the Kromagg in the head for the sixth time. She had to give them credit for being able to withstand pain. The Kromagg soldier wasn't gonna give up. He grabbed her and tossed her across the room, then began running towards her. At the last minute, Wade jumped with a metal pole and hit him in the groin. Then she hopped up and hit him repeatedly until finally the Kromagg faltered and collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
Maggie looked at her in shocked. "You saved my life," she said.
Wade started tying the Kromagg up. "Don't let it go to your head," she called.
Maggie grabbed another piece of rag and began tying his feet together. After that, she checked the timer in her pocket. "One week, four days, three hours, and twenty minutes," she read out loud. "Let's just hope when we slide out, the Kromaggs don't follow us."
-----
Four of the sliders met up in the main room of the underground base. There was only one Kromagg left unaccounted for. Quinn was also unaccounted for. Wade stared at the tunnel which lead to the main room. It was the only tunnel which lead to the underground base. The only tunnel Quinn could enter through.
-----
The Kromagg grabbed Quinn and threw him across the room. They'd stumbled unknowingly upon the spare room in this maze of tunnels. The Kromagg soldier held Quinn down to the floor and started beating him. Quinn's foot shot up, kicking him hard.
In the split second in which the Kromagg flinched, Quinn made an escape. His hopes were set on one thing: the Kromagg's weapon which lay at the other end of the room.
He was a few a feet away from it when the soldier grabbed on to him. Quinn kicked him in the head and grabbed the gun. He swung around and aimed it at the soldier who was frozen.
Quinn got a good look at the soldier this time. "Gawain, right?" he asked. He'd heard his name when two of the soldiers had meet up earlier.
"Yes," the soldier snarled.
"You're acting like you know me?"
"Let's just say, I did know you. Once."
Quinn looked Gawain in the eyes. The rage that seemed to have once filled them was gone. There was no fear in his eyes either. It was as if he were remembering something.
Quinn fired the gun. The beam flew towards Gawain and hit him in the shoulder. When he collapsed on the ground, Quinn picked up the Kromagg's unconscious body and, following a pattern that Melissa had told him, took him to the surface. He dropped the body on the ground a safe distance from the entrance.
When Quinn returned to the hidden entrance, he moved an old tree branch in front of it. He then went down to meet up with his friends.
-----
Wade ran up to Quinn and hugged him. "Quinn!" she squealed. "I thought that 'Magg might have killed you," she told him.
"Quinn Mallory die? I don't think so," he joked. Although his double's warning about getting into fights rushed back into his mind. It had only been three slides and already he was risking his life by taking unwise chances. He shook that thought aside quickly. Besides, he couldn't change his lifestyle no matter how hard he tried. He'd just have to be more careful.
Melissa looked up. "What happened to Gawain?" she asked.
"I escaped to the surface and got hold of his gun. I left him a good distance from here. When I got back to the entrance, I covered it up with an easy to move, large branch," Quinn told them.
"Well, Mr. Mallory, it seems that our friend, Mr. James, has found a way of defeating most of the Kromaggs' protection on their database," Arturo told him.
Ben swiveled around on his chair. "I've got past all but one protection device. I don't suppose you'd be of any help?" he asked hopefully.
Quinn smiled. "No, that's Wade's department." Wade smiled and sat down next to Ben.
Rembrandt walked up to Quinn. "I can't believe we've still got a week left on this world. I don't fancy playing cat and mouse with the Kro-maggots all over again."
Jimmy, another one of the renegades, jumped up to his defense. "Look, they've never found any of the entrances before. That was just a one-off."
Suddenly, from the dark shadows of the room, a Kromagg leapt towards Arturo. Instantly, Maggie fired the gun she had picked up. The Kromagg fell to the ground.
Dying, he looked up at the humans. "It's useless, in less than 24 hours, the technology on this earth will be sent out to the entire Kromagg Dynasty. Humans will become a minority in the multiverse."
Jimmy looked the Kromagg dead in the eye. "What do you mean?" he demanded.
The Kromagg looked back at him and only responded with one word.
"Koctornon." With that, he collapsed completely.
Rembrandt checked the Kromagg's pulse. "He's dead."
Upon watching all of this, Wade had an idea. She entered the word "Koctornon" into the program protecting the Kromagg Database. Instantly, the database opened up before them on the screen.
"We're in!" said Wade, smiling. The group gathered around the computer. Ben started searching the Kromaggs files. "They're arranged in a strange way. It seems that all branch of from that point there." Ben pointed at the directory marked 'PRIME' and then clicked on it. "There are a whole bunch of video files, documents, and pictures in here."
Wade opened up a document and looked at it. There were a few moments of silence before she spoke. "Oh my gosh! Please let this be a dream! This can't be happening."
As they looked at the document, Maggie, who was at the back and couldn't see the computer screen, demanded to know what it said.
"They've done what we thought was impossible," Quinn said under his breath.
"They've built a time machine."
Maggie's eyes went wide. "A time machine? Are you serious?"
Quinn nodded while Max corrected him. "While Mr. Mallory is dead serious, he is not completely correct. The humans of this earth have developed a way to travel through time. We assume, the Kromaggs stole this technology when they invaded, and will be giving it to the Kromagg Dynasty in three days."
Melissa stared at the screen. "Something's wrong."
Jimmy laughed. "Of course something's wrong. If the Kromaggs have the ability to travel through time, then Humans all over the multiverse will be erased. Time travel is the most dangerous and powerful weapon that has ever existed. If it falls into the wrong hands, then who knows. We could all die. Or worse."
Melissa was still confused about something. "No, something's wrong with the document. As in, that context shouldn't be there."
"Wait a second! That's today's date!" Rembrandt yelled out.
Quinn looked at screen in confusion. "So, the Kromaggs stole the technology today?"
"But the Kromaggs invaded this earth years ago. This document makes it sound like they've never even heard of the Kromaggs," Wade pointed out. Then one by one it dawned on them.
"Dear God," Arturo gasped. "They had acquired the technology before we even arrived here."
Ben closed down the document and brought up one of the video files. It seemed to be a recording from video camera. The frozen image of the first frame had two men on it - one standing in a white coat, the other in casual clothes. The man who was wearing the casual clothes was Quinn.
"Play it," said Quinn
"Mallory, the things you could see in this recording could be dangerous to your health. Who knows what could happen. This recording is dated 2 days ago which means that this man is either your double, or you in another time line. The way the database is set out, it makes it look like this is a recording from the original timeline. Who knows what could happen to us, or even this timeline, if we learn the events of the original history. The human brain might not be able to handle it," Jimmy said.
"I've been sliding to thousands of different dimensions, encountered countless numbers of different histories, and you're saying my brain might to be able to handle it?" Quinn asked.
Ben thought about this for a moment and then pressed play.
-----
January 23rd, 1999 4:00pm
Doctor Johnson walked down the corridor with Quinn Mallory.
"So, you say you've been sliding for the past four years? And you've only returned home once?" Johnson asked him.
Quinn smiled. "Not only have I only visited home once, but it was only for about half an hour."
"Well, Mallory, if it was possible for you to crack the code of sliding, you might be able to help us crack the code of time travel." A door next to them slid open, once the Doctor pushed the button next to it, and the image changed to different camera. This one was another security camera.
"I can't believe that you've actually figured out a way possible for you to travel backwards in time." They stood in front of a black board with an equation on it. Quinn read for a while, then turned to the doctor and said, "So, you can travel backwards in time. Can you return?"
"Not in the same way you think. A person here at the base must open another time portal for the people to return through."
Quinn picked up a bottle of cola from the table and opened it up. While drinking, his eyes looked like he was thinking. After a few minutes of looking at the board in silence, he turned to the doctor. "If I help you crack the code of time travel, do you think it would be possible to combine time travel and sliding together?"
Johnson thought about this for a moment. "I suppose so. Why? What were you planning on doing?"
Quinn picked up a piece of chalk and started drawing diagrams on a blackboard on the other side of the room.
"If I could travel backwards in time, I could stop my professor from dying. I could even get the coordinates to my home earth. We could go home." The word echoed from Quinn's lips. It had been so long. The thought of getting home had virtually left his mind, but the idea now shined in his eyes. Doc Johnson just watched the door, quite confused.
-----
The image on the screen froze. Doctor Johnson just stood in the middle of the room. The group turned to Quinn.
"Any idea what's going through his head at the moment, Q-ball?" Rembrandt asked.
Quinn nodded. He knew exactly. He knew that look. "He's realizing his chances of getting home. He's discovering what it feels like to have that feeling of hope again. But he's missing something...." His voice trailed off as sudden realization hit him. "He needs to know if he could save the timer on the world where I slipped into a coma. From there, he could go back and stop Rickman from erasing the coordinates of Earth Prime from the timer," he explained
Maggie looked intently at him. "My link in the chain?"
Quinn nodded. "Maybe Rickman didn't thwart us completely."
"Rickman? Angus Rickman?" Melissa asked.
"You know him?"
"Well, we do. My best friend once had a fling with him before the Kromaggs." Jimmy looked away, and Melissa quickly broke eye contact with Maggie. Maggie easily guessed just who it had been, and she looked down at the floor, slightly ashamed. Her double could have easily been involved with these renegades. Melissa awkwardly continued. "When the Kromaggs invaded, Rickman helped them and gave away top military secrets - the locations of nuclear weapons and so forth - in exchange for his life."
"What happened?" Wade asked.
"After they got all of the world's secrets out of him, they killed him." An uncomfortable silence went across the room.
"Play the rest of the video file," Quinn eventually said. And, without any arguments, Wade hit the play button.
-------------------
January 23rd, 1999
4:47pm
Quinn stood in front Max, Wade, Maggie, and Rembrandt in the room they were staying in.
"So, you're saying that, if you solve this guy's equation, we may be able to travel back in time and save our professor, and go home?" Wade asked. Quinn nodded.
"I do not want to put a down side to this story, but may I ask what would happen to me?" That was when all the sliders realized that no one had contemplated what would happen to the professor.
Quinn took a few minutes to come up with two possible solutions. "Well, you could come home with us, or you could slide until you find your own world."
Wade, however, was thinking along other lines. "Or when, and if, we travel back in time, we can go back and stop Bennish from getting killed. And maybe get the coordinates for Max's home world," she stated.
"Miss Wells, I do not wish to endanger your lives as I have in the past. Sliding back to that world is more dangerous than it sounds--"
Arturo was cut off by Maggie's determined voice. "Max, if we don't succeed in getting the coordinates for your home world, then I would be more than happy to continue sliding with you. After all, I can't breath on Quinn's world."
"So, it's decided then," said Rembrandt. "If Q-ball solves the equation of time travel, then we can go home."
-----
The image on the screen flickered, and then suddenly the date jumped to
January 25th, 1999
3:00am
The image was of the corridor just outside the lab which Quinn and Doctor Johnson had been standing in earlier.
"I've got it!" yelled a voice which was undoubtedly Quinn's. "That's it! I've got it!!" Quinn ran into the corridor and started running down it.
The image changed to a room much like the one the sliders had been in before - just a single king-sized bed sat in the middle of the dark room. A figure lay asleep in the bed. The door burst open and Quinn ran in.
"Johnson!! Johnson, wake up!" Quinn yelled.
"What?" asked Johnson.
"I did it! I solved the equation!" Johnson sat straight up. "You're kidding?" he said. Quinn shook his head. Johnson leapt out of his bed and went running out of the room.
------------------
January 25th, 1999
7:00am
The five sliders and Johnson stood in a separate laboratory which had large machine sitting in the middle of it. They were all dressed in casual clothes. Johnson was giving orders to three other men standing the room who were wearing white coats.
"Once the portal closes, you must re-open it once the power core has fully charged." The three men nodded. Johnson started typing commands into a computer panel.
"All you have to do is press ENTER and the portal will open. It's set to open two hours after we arrive in the past - which is about how long it will take for the power core to recharge. I'm *not* taking any risks with jet lag, or time lag as the case may seem." Johnson leaned forward and pressed the ENTER button. In the center of the room, a vortex formed. It looked like wavy water. Quinn tested it by placing his hand through and bringing it back out. He smiled and then stepped through. One by one, the sliders all stepped through the gateway.
Johnson faced the three men again. "See you in two hours," he said and stepped through.
-----
The image changed from a black and white picture to a perfect color image of Wade's face.
"Hey, it works!!" she called out, then, turning back to the camera, she said, "This is Wade Wells, reporting from the coordinates attached in the year 1983. We have succeeded in traveling backwards in time - 13 years to be exact. We'll be heading down to the city for lunch and see if we can bring back proof of our mission."
The image then changed to the face of rough looking man with ugly, yellow and black teeth. He had a scar over his left eye and a beard fell down his face. "This Captain Wilkson of the Starship BibboPrise. Mr. Scoot has claimed that we will be hiding from the Klingon soldiers so they don't steal my camera. They should really build bigger spaceships. That President Kennedy should not be impeached for sleeping with Monica lady. Wait a second, I'll show you what I found today."
The image moved around until the camera was placed on box and then the man picked up an unopened TV Dinner. "Do you see this? It's space food. That nice man from the take-away store gave it to me."
Suddenly, a voice called from the end of the alley. "Hey, Mr. Mallory! The man's back here!" The homeless man turned around to see Arturo and Wade standing there.
"The Klingons!" he whispered under his breath.
Arturo and Wade were the joined by the others. "Damn it! We shouldn't have brought it here! That kind of camera won't be invented for another 10 years. It being here could change history."
The man looked at the sliders. "I'll give it back for a kiss and a bucket of fried chicken."
Quinn turned to Johnson. "Any money left on you?" he asked. Johnson shook his head.
"Not for this time period. Why do you think I gave that guy at the diner my wallet? I'm having trouble storing my ID and money in my pockets."
Quinn looked at the man and called out, "Which of the girls would you like to kiss?"
The man pointed and Maggie and said, "Her!!!"
The group turned to Maggie. She glared back at them. She then glanced at the man and whispered under her breath to the others, "You owe me big time."
Maggie walked up to the man and kissed him passionately. The image on the screen revealed Maggie grabbing the camera while kissing him.
Then the image changed again.
-----
January 25th, 1999
9:30am
The lab had five Kromaggs in it. They were holding the three men hostage. One of the Kromaggs was Gawain; Quinn recognized his face. Gawain looked at the three men.
"Now, according to the document we have here, this machine has the ability to travel through time. Tell me how to use it and I *may* let you live."
-----
Quinn stared the computer screen and screamed at the top of his lungs, "DON'T TELL THEM!!!"
Maggie and Melissa both grabbed on to Quinn, restraining him from attacking the computer. "Quinn! It's already happened! You can't do anything to stop it!!"
-----
One of the three men looked at Gawain. Gawain pointed a gun to the man's face.
The man responded with, "Go to hell."
Another Kromagg, Tyran, picked up his weapon and fired it at the rebellious man who fell to the ground and died.
Gawain pointed his gun at Tyran. "Do *NOT* kill any humans unless I tell you to do so," Gawain said sternly. Tyran laughed.
"What are you? A human helper? A traitor?" he said, mocking Gawain.
"For all you know, Tyran, that man may have been the only one who knew how to use this machine!" Gawain hissed, his gun pointing at Tyran. Then suddenly, one of the other captives spoke up.
"All you have to do is press enter!!" he said.
-----
"NO!!!" Quinn screamed.
-----
Gawain walked over to the computer and pressed the ENTER button. Next to him, the portal opened. Quinn was the first come out. Gawain pointed his gun at Quinn's head.
"Well, well, well. I should've known a Mallory would be behind this. Tell me, Quinn, did you build this machine? Or did the government on this earth build it for you?" By now, the others had come out from the gateway also. Gawain had not yet finished. "Do you know how to use this machine?" he demanded.
Quinn stayed silent. Gawain pointed his gun at Arturo. "Tell me, or I kill him, and then the others. One by one, slowly and painfully."
Quinn looked at Gawain and finally he answered. "I'll tell you everything. Just promise not to kill them." The image froze and the video file ended.
-----
Quinn collapsed on the floor. "I can't believe it. It's all my fault. And in three days, there'll be little human life left in the multiverse."
Everyone else stayed silent. Quinn Mallory was right. In three days, there was a chance that they might not exist at all.
-----
The next few hours were spent looking through the video files and documents. Each contained a piece of information about that timeline and the time shield which protects people and things from the changes of time.
Quinn watched in silence as other versions of himself did different things each time they slid to this world. Gawain had gotten to know Quinn more and more each time. Quinn wasn't sure of Gawain's motives. Every time he learned something of Quinn, he would tell the other Kromaggs he was drilling him for information, learning more about the enemy and so forth. But the way he acted, and they way he talked to the other versions of Quinn, seemed almost like Gawain had taking a liking to Quinn.
Quinn stayed up, after everybody else had gone bed, just watching the video files.
Unable to sleep, Arturo had joined him, and the two had learned more of their actions in the previous timelines. After viewing one particular video file, the professor looked at the screen in surprise. An idea was going through his head.
Quinn was about to open another video file when Arturo stopped him. "Mr. Mallory, will you replay that last bit for me?" he asked. Quinn rewound the file a few minutes and pressed the play button. The Professor watched the piece and again. "That's it!!" He was speechless.
"What?!" Quinn demanded.
"Mr. Mallory, in another timeline you may have given the Kromaggs the secret of time travel; however, in this timeline, you may have just saved the human race from total annihilation in the multiverse.
-----
Quinn tapped Rembrandt on the shoulder. "Remmy, wake up!" he whispered. Rembrandt just rolled over. "Rembrandt!! We've figured out a way to stop the Kromaggs from using time travel."
Rembrandt groaned as he started to wake up. "Q-ball? What did you say?"
"The professor and I have figured out a way to change history so the Kromaggs don't get hold of time travel."
Rembrandt shot straight up.
"Come on, I'll show you." Quinn grinned.
Rembrandt got out of bed and followed him to the main room.
The sliders and the renegades were all there - those that hadn't been having nightmares about being erased from history, or being captured by the Kromaggs, had been unable to sleep at all. Quinn walked over to the computer and pressed the play button on the video file they had up.
"Just watch this small video file and then we'll explain."
-----
Quinn looked at Gawain. "Come on, Gawain! You know this is wrong! They're going to kill the professor and Wade for no reason. If you let me go back in time, then you could come with me. You could slide randomly and choose an earth which you could live on."
Gawain looked back at Quinn through the force field of his cell. "They are probably taping this right now. If I agree, they will, without a doubt, kill me," he replied.
Quinn hit the force field with his fist, an action he regretted a second later. "Don't you understand?! If you go back in time, then they won't be able to kill you!!"
Gawain shook his head. "They'll do worse than kill me. They'll kill my parents, my grandparents. I could wipe out a whole army of Kromagg soldiers just by escaping the Dynasty. It's too risky."
Quinn took a step back and said calmly, "If you let me go back and change history so that I took the opportunity to go back to my home earth with my friends, then we will have never slid here. And you would have never met me, Gawain. But you would need to disable the time shields."
Gawain thought about this for a moment. "How do you plan on changing history for your liking, Mallory?" He asked.
Quinn looked up, a strange look in his eyes - one that looked almost like fear. "By killing a man called Angus Rickman."
"How would you do this?" Gawain asked calmly.
"I can go back to a world where my timer got wiped. From there, I would fix the timer, save the coordinates, and slide back in time to Maggie's world."
Gawain pulled a keycard out of his pocket and deactivated the force field. "I'll deactivate the time shield. You can go back and change history," he said.
Quinn stopped him. "I'll need my timer." Gawain nodded and continued down the passage.
The image changed to a room where a larger version of the time machine stood. Quinn was typing in commands on one keyboard while Gawain worked at another.
"Damn it! The power core still has another minute to recharge!" Quinn called out.
"The time shields have been powered down!" Gawain shouted back. Quinn pressed one last button on the computer.
"45 seconds until I leave," he said as he walked over to face Gawain. "Looks like this is the end of the line."
Gawain smiled. "Look at it this way, you'll be able to go home. You'll be able to stop your professor from getting killed," he answered.
Quinn stopped dead as it hit him. "The Professor! I forgot! How could I have been so stupid?" he yelled.
Gawain grabbed him. "What do you mean? This is what you wanted, isn't it?"
"No, not my professor. The professor that's been sliding with us, Max!! We saved him after my Professor was killed. If I changed that then..." his voice trailed. The look on his face revealed that he didn't know what to do. Suddenly a laser shot past him. Quinn looked at the door to see Tyran standing there.
"Well, Mallory, it looks like you didn't have a flawless plan. It's a shame that you have to die like this. I'll tell your friends about this. Especially the professor," said a speaker for the Kromaggs who stood next to Tyran. Quinn glanced from Gawain to Tyran and made a run for the keyboard.
A shot from the laser hit Quinn in the arm just as he pressed the ENTER button. Behind him, a shimmering green portal opened which he ran towards, but was an instant too late as Tyran made the final shot.
Gawain growled and hit Tyran across the face. He then grabbed Tyran around the neck and barked, "Tell anyone about this and I'll break your neck!!!!"
-----
The video file ended and Quinn turned back to the group.
"So what's the plan, Mallory?" Maggie asked.
Quinn pointed at the screen. "In that timeline, I tried to fix things so we could get home. Now, that didn't work out so well, but it did remind us of one thing. If we had never slid to this world, I would have never solved the equation of time travel, and the Kromaggs would've never invaded this earth years ago." Quinn picked up a sandwich he had made and took a bite out of it.
Arturo continued. "What Mr. Mallory is trying to tell you is that the plan is that we break into the Kromagg base and use their time travel technology to go backwards in time to last earth where we steal the timer of past version's of ourselves and change the coordinates so we never slide to this earth."
Rembrandt looked confused and was about to say something, but he stopped himself because it would just add to the confusion.
Melissa picked up a gun and loaded it with ammo. "So, how do we get in? How do we get to the time machine, and how do we turn off the time shields so the Kromaggs will be affected by the changes?"
Quinn brought up a map of the Kromagg base and explained how they would get in. The renegades would go and shut off the time shield while Quinn and the others would go off and slide to the past earth and alter history.
What Quinn didn't tell them was that after he had sent the others back to the previous world, he planned to go back in time and alter history stop Rickman from erasing the coordinates on the world with the mutants. That would put things in motion. Then he could prevent himself from ever falling into that coma, save the professor... and get them all home.
-----
The sliders and the renegades ran through the streets of the city, avoiding any contact with the Kromaggs. About 100 meters away from the base, where the group split into two, Jimmy stopped them.
"Do you feel that?" Jimmy hissed. Melissa turned to him.
"Kromaggs?" she asked. Jimmy put a finger to his lips and nodded. He then pointed towards the window of an old deserted building. Melissa aimed her gun at the window and fired. A fiery ball exited the gun and went through the window.
A few seconds past before it exploded, sending a Kromagg soldier flying to the ground. Ben ran over and checked the Kromagg's body. He was searching for his weapon when he pulled out something and froze.
In Ben's hand was small, ball-shaped device with a display on the top. Ben ripped open the Kromagg's shirt to reveal a slash mark over his chest. The Kromagg in the building had been dead when they had arrived. Ben's shaking hand read out the display on the device - 2 minutes and counting down.
"It's a bomb!!" he yelled out.
"We've been tricked. Get out of here; you got less than 2 minutes!!!" The group split up into two again and went in their opposite directions. Ben threw the bomb as hard as he could, then followed the rest of his group. Melissa headed for her group, but a beam from the building she had just bombed fell down, blocking her way. She took one last look at her friends, who had been there for her during the Kromagg invasion, and then followed the sliders.
When they got to another resting point, Rembrandt grabbed Melissa's arm. "How did Jimmy know about those Kromaggs?" he demanded. Melissa pushed his hands away.
"Jimmy's got a sixth sense. How do you think he knew when those Kromaggs broke into the base the other night? It's like he's got this kind of mental connection."
"If the Kromagg body was planted there, they may know that we hacked into their database," Wade pointed out.
Melissa shook her head. "Those bodies are planted all over the city. They're one of the Kromagg's delightful traps. Their set off by humans. Don't ask me how the Kromaggs pulled it off."
In the sky, a manta ship exited the Kromagg base. It stopped in mid air and started to glow green. Suddenly, from nowhere, appeared The Creeper.
Maggie pointed her gun at him. "Who are you?" she demanded. The Creeper ignored her gun.
"I'm a friend. People call me The Creeper. Now, that Kromagg ship's about to go back in time and, if I'm correct, you guys aren't protected by a time shield." One by one, the sliders realized he was right. "Well, then come on! I've got a time shield around my hideout and you've got less than a minute to get there."
So they followed The Creeper, running faster than they'd ever run before, until the reached the hideout. Arturo climbed in, then Rembrandt, Wade landed on top of the two of them, and Maggie then followed.
Quinn climbed in next, missing the four, and held out his hand to Melissa who had tripped over a fallen lamp post and had fallen behind. The Creeper grabbed Quinn's arm and pulled him back in. Then a green light filled the room. When it faded, Melissa was gone.
"Where is she?" Quinn demanded as he tried to climb out to look for her.
The Creeper stopped him. "She's gone, Quinn. She was captured by the Kromaggs three years ago."
Quinn turned to face him. "Who are you? Why are you doing this? How did you know who we are? How do you know what happened to her?"
The Creeper looked at Quinn. "I can't tell you much about myself. I can tell you that out of all the timeline's that I've seen so far, this is the only one where you've got the right idea. You can't go home."
He looked directly at Quinn when he said that. "If you try to go home, then you'll fail. Just like you have in the past. Don't you see? When you try to get home, you are not thinking of all the possibilities!!! When you planned on going home in the original timeline, did you think that Maggie might be able to save her husband? Or that you might've found a safer earth than the dinosaur world to go to? Now, I know you don't remember doing those things, but if you were placed in that situation which you saw in that first video file, then you would've acted exactly the same way they did. Or you did, to be confusing.
"Now, I can help you get back in time to your previous earth, but other than that, there's a very good chance you'll fail. I'll give you a short while to think it over." The Creeper then slipped into another room of his hideout.
The sliders looked at each other. "Well, Mr. Mallory. Now your secret's out, you may as well tell us what you planned to do," Arturo said.
Quinn sighed. "I thought that, if after sending you four backwards to the previous earth, that I could open up a portal to the world where we finally got Rickman's timer, and stop Rickman from erasing the coordinates to our home earth." He sat down on the ground, unable to look at the others.
Wade was shocked. "Quinn, do you have any clue what would happen to Max if we did that? He'd still be a prisoner on that earth that had declared an open season on all sliders."
Arturo stood up and stopped Wade from continuing. "Miss Wells, Mr. Mallory was not thinking straight at the time. I'm sure he has no intention of traveling back to the world he spoke of."
Quinn ran his hands through his hair, then shook his head. They were right, he hadn't been thinking straight. He'd been thinking of them, yes, but also about himself. He hated the fact that he wouldn't be able to change things, hated the secret he'd been hiding from them, hated that a life of sliding could so easily kill him now, but mostly he hated that he'd put that before everyone else.
The Creeper poked his head through the doorway. "There is one other possibility that I might mention. You could always stay here, in this hideout, on this earth. It's pretty big and the food supplies are fine. I don't recommend it, with the Kromaggs living outside and all, but it is a possibility."
The sliders looked from one to another. Quinn sighed, then finally spoke up. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not planning on staying here for the rest of my life, and sliding to the next earth doesn't seem much of an option because the Kromaggs could change history there as well. So, I'm going to be going back in time. Are any of you planning on coming with me?" he asked.
Maggie got her weapon ready stood next to Quinn.
"Hey, I've nothing to lose." Wade also joined Quinn's side.
"Well, I suppose it's better than here." The Professor turned to Rembrandt. "Mr. Brown, care to come with us and risk our lives trying to save a countless number of universes?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world, Professor," he said.
The Creeper smiled. "Well then, let's get this show on the road."
-----
The sliders crawled through the air vents of the Kromagg base. The Creeper, who they were all following, stopped and started opening a grating.
"I'm going to shut down the time shields. The time travel machine is exactly 100 meters to my right; you have to follow the corridor. To set up the machine so you can slide backwards in time, you've got to hook up your timer to the computer. There's a cable hanging out the back that will work. Set the coordinates on the timer, and the date and time on the computer. Then all you all have to do is slide away." The Creeper jumped out of the vent and ran over to a computer panel and started typing in commands.
The sliders jumped out from the vent and started running down the corridor to the right. They were at the doorway to the room where the time travel machine was when Gawain stepped in front of them. Quinn and Gawain stared at each other.
"You know, Mallory, I should stop you from doing this because I know that changing history like this will not benefit the dynasty." The Kromagg glanced at the others. "But then again, I must say, I prefer a fight for survival than a victory where there is nothing to be won."
He turned around. "The sensors have detected your presence! Set the coordinates for the earth you wish to go to!!"
Quinn ran over and hooked up the timer to the computer just as The Creeper had instructed. Quinn then desperately started typing commands into the computer. The portal was set to open in 3 minutes.
"GAWAIN!!!" a voice from the doorway barked.
Gawain turned around to see Tyran. "Tyran, stay out of this. This is not your fight!!!!"
Tyran laughed. "But, Gawain, you're wrong. Whenever you try to help out a human, there is a fight. A fight for victory. Humans are the filth of the earth. Anything that happens to them, they deserve," Tyran yelled.
Quinn glanced down at the screen - 2 minutes and 30 seconds left.
"Tyran!!" Gawain called out. "Haven't you ever stopped to think that there is something wrong about killing humans? Do they not think like us? Do they not act like us?"
Tyran pulled out his gun and a fired a laser blast at Gawain who ducked. The blast shot past and hit wall causing it to leave a burning mark.
Two minutes and 10 seconds.
"Come on, Tyran! Are you afraid to fight like a Kromagg? A real Kromagg fights with his bare hands." Gawain's hands formed fists and Tyran dropped his weapon. Gawain charged for Tyran, knocking him to the ground. Tyran's hand shot and struck Gawain across the face.
"You traitor!" screamed Tyran as punched Gawain across the face again.
One minute and 30 seconds.
Gawain got to his feet and kicked Tyran in the ribs, once, twice, three times. Tyran fell to the ground unable to move.
One minute.
A beeping noise from a screen on the wall diverted Gawain's attention. He read it then turned to Tyran. "Tyran, you will not remember this fight in the next timeline. Nor will you ever as the time shield has just gone off line. Permanently. But in this timeline, I will you tell you this, if a villain is one who kills his enemy, then what do you call someone who kills his friends?"
Fifteen seconds left.
Gawain turned to Quinn and saluted. Quinn saluted back. The portal behind him opened and Arturo jumped through it. Quinn turned to see what the vortex and the time portal looked like when they were combined. What he saw was a brilliant green vortex.
>From the door, The Creeper spoke up. "You know, it's a good thing the manta ships didn't have to open up portal to travel backwards in time. Who knows what a portal that big would have done to the timeline."
Quinn smiled at him. Maggie and Rembrandt jumped through the vortex, leaving only Quinn and Wade standing there.
Wade looked at Quinn. "Congratulations, you did it," she said.
Quinn shook his head. "Not yet." He then smiled. "But we will soon."
Wade took a step towards the vortex. Tyran picked up the gun that had fallen to the ground and fired it. The blast shot past Gawain and hit Wade.
"NO!!!" Quinn screamed, grabbing Wade as she collapsed. He glanced quickly at the vortex, but then ignored it and turned back to face Wade again. He tried to stop the bleeding, but after a moment found himself just looking into her eyes. There was nothing he could do. She was going to die. "Wade, I..."
She looked back at his sad face, her gaze locking with his. "Go," she whispered before letting her eyes close. "Don't let this happen..." She fell limp in Quinn's arms and quit breathing.
With a tear-streaked face, Quinn looked up at Tyran, bitter hatred glowing in his eyes. "This isn't over!" he yelled as he laid Wade's lifeless body gently on the ground, then leapt into the vortex as it snapped shut.
The ride through both time and dimensions was fun for the sliders as the brilliant color display amazed them. But for Quinn, his mind was not watching the bright colors or feeling the weird sensations they were getting as they slid back in time. Quinn was thinking.
His mind kept on flashing images through his head. The professor taking the bullet for him, Max nearly dying in the cave on Hell World, Wade getting shot before his very eyes. But there were more images there as well. Rickman, the faces of the people on the earth where Max had joined them, Tyran. His mind was working so fast.
He *hadn't* been responsible for the death of the professor, or for Max nearly dying, or for Wade. Oh god, Wade!
He forced his mind on, pushing those negative memories aside. But he choked back a sob. Wade. She had died helping him. Quinn *had* to stop himself from sliding to the earth he had just left. It was matter of life and death.
-----
The vortex whooshed open on the earth they had planned to go to go, and the sliders came out. Quinn came out of the vortex and landed on his feet, his best landing in a while. But he didn't care. He sunk to his knees then sat on the ground, stunned and in shock. The vortex closed behind him.
>From under Rembrandt, Arturo screamed out. "Get off me, you blistering idiot!"
Rembrandt stood up and looked around. "Hey, Q-ball? Where's Wade?"
Quinn's expression was filled with remorse. He put his face in his hands and sobbed silently. In his mind, a voice was still telling him to go on. He had to stop his past self from sliding to that earth. He tried so hard to listen to that voice. "She didn't make the slide. Tyran found a gun at the last second and... He shot her," he finally was able to say. "She's dead."
Rembrandt was silent and then screamed out something as he kicked a nearby rock as hard as he could. "Another life lost!!"
Quinn turned to him, forcing himself not to fall apart. "Remmy, if we stop our past selves from sliding to the earth we were just on, then Wade will still be alive. Not only that, but the Kromaggs will not have the power of time travel."
Rembrandt was still not convinced. "And how do we do that?!" he shouted.
"I'll talk to my past self," Quinn answered. "I know what he's thinking."
Arturo was not pleased. "Mr. Mallory, a confrontation with our past selves could cause a paradox in time. Who knows what that could do!"
Quinn started walking away. As he did, he called out to the professor. "In one of the video files I watched, Gawain had confrontation with his past self. No paradoxes were caused. I have to do this, Max.... It's my last chance."
-----
Quinn leaned against a lamppost as he watched his past self eat a burger at a diner called Crunch's. In a few minutes, the group would decide to go see Back To The Future IV starring Quinn's double. The group would head off to the cinema while his past self would go back to the Dominion to get his wallet.
Quinn watched his past self leave the diner and followed at a close distance. Once in the hotel, his past self had taken an elevator while Quinn took the stairs. He was out of breath when he knocked on the door to his room. His past self opened the door and looked at him.
"We need to talk," Quinn said.
-----
Quinn held his past self's timer in his hand. "So Wade was killed by Tyran and we ended up here."
His past self was staring out the window. "Why should I believe you?" he asked.
"I can prove to you that I am who I say I am. Your last slide was from an earth you called Hell. On that world, Max, Wade, Maggie, and Rembrandt were taken by an illness which brought them to the edge of their lives. At one point, you had to revive Max, and while doing so, you called out, 'I'm not going to kill you again, Professor.'"
His past self sat down on the bed.
"I killed him. I killed the professor and I still carry that guilt with me, and I know you do also. And unless you change history, I'm going to kill Wade as well. I have killed her." He paused. "And adding that pain makes the guilt a thousand times worse."
Quinn stood up. "I couldn't live with myself if I were responsible for Wade's death."
"That's why I'm here. When Wade was killed, and I was sliding through the vortex, I realized that I didn't kill the Professor. Rickman did. I just considered it to be my fault." He stopped for a moment. He had to let go of his own guilt if he was going to convince his past self to do so also. "You don't need to feel guilty, Quinn. Listen to me. I can't lie to you. That would be lying to myself. I know you feel this overwhelming responsibility, and it's tearing you apart. God, I dream about how I've screwed up every night. But we have to let it go. You've carried it long enough. Now, you can either stop feeling bad for yourself and get on with life, or you can live a miserable life and then you may actually end up killing somebody."
Quinn walked to the door. He turned around when he got to it and tossed the timer to his past self. "Here's your timer."
-----
Quinn closed the door and went down to the lobby. Standing there were his friends. At first, Quinn thought they were the past versions of his friends. Until he noticed Wade missing.
"Did it work?" asked Maggie.
Quinn shrugged. "If it did, would we still be here?"
Then, before his eyes, Maggie vanished. Before the other two could realize it, they vanished too. Quinn looked at his hand. He had done it. He felt a sense of relief as he faded into the current timeline.
-----
The Dominion's doors whooshed open and the sliders came in just as Quinn was about to go through the door to leave.
Wade stopped him. "Quinn!! Are you okay? What happened? Why did you take so long?"
Quinn smiled. "I suppose I got to take a good long look at myself. Come on, let's go slide on the street."
The sliders left the Dominion, walked to the back alley, then opened the vortex and slid.
From a distance, The Creeper watched the five slide to another world. They would meet up again some time in the future. There were many things they did not know about him. These sliders did not know he even existed. The Creeper opened up his vortex and slid off to another time, another place.
THE END