It took a few minutes before we reached the entrance of the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station. The guard cleared us and the Toyota Samurai was parked in the parking garage.

"Welcome to Cheyenne Mountain," said Dad. He and Mom and I went through some huge doors. "These are the blast doors. In case of a nuclear attack, the blast doors would protect thefacility."

The main hallway on Level 1 was big enough for a forklift to go through. I saw military personnel walking along the halls doing their duties. We went inside a room labeled "LEVEL 1 SECURITY SUBSTATION". the substation was manned by Air Force security police.

"Excuse me while I get Mr. Mallory here the proper security badge," said Captain Shays. He spoke with some of the SP's, and they gave him something which he then handed to me. I looked at it; it was a laminated badge. It was marked "VISITOR-SCC-A". The background had the seal of the Cheyenne Mountain facility.

"You will be reporting to Sub-Level 28," said Shays. "That is where the Slidecage Control is."

We lef the Level One Security Substation and walked throuhg the concrete hallways. he reached an elevator hall where elevators would transport people to various levels of Cheyenne Mountain. We went to the elevator that served Sub-Level 28; an Air Force SP stood by.

"Dr. Mallory," he said. "Dr. Mallory."

"This visitor is authorized," said Captain Shays.

"Yes, sir. I was informed of the visitor. You may enter the elevator."

We all entered the elevator, and then Captain Shays used a plastic card to access the controls. He pressed the button for Sub-Level 28 and then the elevator went down. it was a high speed elevator; it stopped in seconds. The door opened, and I saw a sing indicating that we were now in Sub-Level 28. Three people were already waitiong for us in the Sub-Level 28 Lobby-Colonel Rembrandt Brown, Chief Master Sergeant Michael Hurley, and an Air Force major general.

"Welcome back," Colonel Brown said to me.

"I am Major General Alexander Hunt," said the Air Force general. "Colonel Brown informed me of what happened. So you are the son of Michael and Elizabeth Mallory."

"That's right," I said. "It took me two years to get here."

"When will our visitor from the Pentagon arrive?" asked Dad.

"She's here already," said General Hunt. "She was interested in the answers to Captain Shays's questions-especially the part about the kromaggs."

"Well, sir," said Colonel Brown, "I say we take our guest here to meet her."

We all walked along the main hallway of Sub-Level 28. We passed several airmen walking in the opposite direction. We reached a double door. A plaque identified the room on the other side as the Main Conference Room for this level.

"She's in there," said Sergeant Hurley. He opened the door.

I walked inside the conference room. There was a long wooden table where the people of Slidecage Control would sit. There was a smaller table along the wall with a coffeemaker, sugar, creamer, and styrofoam cups sitting on it. Standing at the end of a table was a dark-haired woman in a Marine dress uniform, with a major's rank insignia and a pilot's badge on her left breast.

"Maggie," I said, recognizing her. I then knew that she was my world's version of Maggie Beckett.

"So this is the Mallories' son," she said.

"That's right, Major," said Dad. "We can tell you all about him-how we hid him during the war and how we identified him when he came back."

"I'd like to speak to him alone." She then looked me right in my eyes. "I am Major Maggie Beckett, U.S. Marine Corps. My current assignment is an intelligence officer for the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. I was sent here by General van Dahl to interview you."

"My name is Colin Mallory," I said.

The others left. "I have a few questions to ask you. Now, you were raised in a parallel Earth, right?"

"Yes. My parents had me stay with their duplicates during the war."

"Tell us how you learned that and you got here."

So I did. I told her about my encounter with Quinn, and about the message in the microdot, and my attempts to get home. Major Beckett was especially interested in her duplicate who slid with me for over a year, for obvious reasons. She asked me about the kromaggs, and I told her my experiences with the kromaggs, such as my first encounter with them in the slidecage, my dealings with the kromaggs and the genetically-engineered humaggs, my visit to Kromagg Outpost One, and Dr. Crayton and his attempt to junction another Earth with this Earth to bypass the slidecage.

Maggie pressed a button on a handheld audio cassette recorder. She removed the cassette and tore off the erase tab, thus sealing the recording. "I have no further questions for you, Mr. Mallory," she said. "I will interview your parents next."

So I left Major Beckett in the conference room.

I spent some time in Dad's office. Being the chief technician for Slidecage Control, his office was big. It had a mahogany desk and couches and file cabinets. On his desk sat a Pentium personal computer with Internet access. I read a science fiction novel by Isaac Clark; Dad mentioned that he worked with Mom in the Voraton project.

Dad returned to the office. "Colin," he said. "We're gonna have lunch in the officer's mess. You are invited."

So I had lunch in the cafeteria.

Spaghetti with meatballs was being served in the officer's mess at Sub-Level 26, which services both Slidecage Control, the NBC Warfare Research Lab, and other units located in the deepest levels of the Cheyenne Mountain complex. It looked like the dining room of a medium priced restaurant like Denny's or Sizzler.

I sat with my dad and Colonel Remberandt Brown and General Hunt and some of the civilian technical staff assigned to Slidecage Control. Dad introduced me to the other senior technicians-Dr. Maximilian Arturo, Dr. Vladimir Jariabek, Dr. Steven Jensen, Dr. Conrad Bennish, Dr. Wing, and Dr. Diana Davis.

"I was there from the very beginning," said Dad, eating his spaghetti. "I was there when we made the prelimiary experiments, and when the slidecage was under construction, and when it was finally online over twenty-two years ago."

"Katie mentioned that she was born the day the slidecage was activated."

"That's right. We all celebrated with champagne the moment we confirmed the slidecage was working, diverting wormholes to Cheyenne Mountain on Slidecage Earth. King Leonard was there as well as the Joint Chiefs and representatives from the five nations which we agreed would share control of the slidecage. After that, I checked my message on my cellphone. I learned that your mom went into labor. I told everyone what happened, and the king gave me his blessing. I rushed to the hospital just in time to see Katie being born."

"So tell us more about your travels," said Colonel Brown.

And so I gave hima condensed version of my story.

"Tell me more about my duplicate," he said.

"Well, my Rembrandt was a singer," I said. "He served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War."

"Vietnam War?"

"It was a conflict on his home world. After being discharged, he sang with the Spinning Tops and then went solo. In the 1980's, he became a music producer. It was in October of 1994 when he was going to the World Series that he had a fateful encounter.

"He drove his car into a wormhole which was generated by my brother Quinn. He ended up on an ice world, along with Quinn and a woman named Wade and his professor whiose name was Arturo."

"Was that my duplicate?" asked Dr. Arturo.

"Yes, he was. Any way, back to my story. There was a tornado, and Quinn activated the timer early. The timer was corrupted and they ended up sliding from world to world. Along the way, Professor Arturo was killed and a woman named Maggie Beckett joined them. That was three years ago."

"Isn't that the Marine lady who came here?" asked Dr. Jensen.

"Yes, that was her duplicate. Three months after Maggie joined them, they found a way home, but only Rembrandt and Wade made it through. Rembrandt came home and met the President in the White House and then got a job in Los Angeles playing the piano at a hotel. But two months after their arrival, the kromaggs came and conquered their home."

"And these kromaggs came from our world?" asked Dr. Bennish.

"Yes, they did. Anyway, Quinn and Maggie found Rembrandt, and then they set off on a quest to find me and this world."

"What kind of person was my duplicate?" asked Colonel Brown.

"He was a cheerful fellow. He was into Gospel music and we would sing hymns whenever there was peace and quiet. He even volunterred for a choir when we celebrated Christmas two years ago. But there was this shadow of guilt within him. He spent a hellish month in a kromagg prison camp, and he was separated from Wade. We had less than a handful of encounters with her duplicates on other Earths, but every time that happened, Rembrandt would get out of there as fast as he could. His felling of guilt was so strong that he would never look up her duplicate on any world. You see, whenever we arrive in a new world and have time, we would look up information about our duplicates. We looked up our own duplicates, and Quinn would look up Professor Arturo, even though he still missed him. But we never looked up Wade Welles."

"I've heard stories of the maggs' cruelty to human prisoners," said Colonel Brown. "anyway, I should tell you a little bit about myself. I graduated from the the Air Force Academy a year before the war ended. I served as an intelligence officer, and I was assigned to the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence and Security. I was there in Castle America with the king and your dad when he ordered the use of the Voraton against the maggs' home. I stayed in the Air Force, and got assigned as director to Slidecage Control last year; I replaced Colonel Rickman who retired. I recently started giving guest lectures at the Air Force Academy; it's good to tell the new officers about my experiences during the war."

"Well, I am home now. I do intend to leave soon, but it will only be for a little while. Quinn is still out there, and the kromaggs still occupy Rembrandt's home world. Which does remind me, I'm going to need a few of those Voraton devices so we can drive the kromaggs from Rembrandt's world."

"None of us can give you a Voraton device," said Dad. "In fact, your mom can't even authorize such a thing. Only King Leonard can do that."

"Maybe he'll be willing to lend those devices when he hears about how the kromaggs from this world conquered and enslaved other worlds."

"I'm sure he'll hear about it when Major Beckett sends her report to the Joint Chiefs," said Colonel Brown.

"Colin," said Dad, "I'd like to take you on a brief tour of the slidecage facility."

"Are you sure that's wise?" asked General Hunt.

"He wathced my duplicate's back for more than a year," said Colonel Brown. "I think it's okay."

So Dad led me out of the cafeteria and back to Sub-Level 28. Colonel Brown tagged along, along with Sub-Level 28's security detail. We went into this room with control panels and monitors lining the wall. Air Force airmen were watching the consoles. On the main monitor, I saw two images of the planet Earth.

"This is the Slidecage Control Center, the heart of Slidecage Control," said Dad. "From here we monitor the slidecage."

"How does it work?" I asked.

"The slidecage is generated here. It uses the Earth's magnetic field and satellites in orbit to envelop the entire world in the slidecage field. Essentailly the slidecage is a huge force field which diverts wormholes. The technology was originally developed in the late 1950's for the purpose of preventing intruders from another dimension from entering. Such force fields are in place in Castle America and the Pentagon and high security military facilities like Cheyenne Mountain. The whole plan was to build a slidecage and divert the wormholes to another version of Earth. The Earth we chose was a hostile world, far from us dimensionally. The U.S. Air Force Space Engineers had to build the facility in that world's Cheyenne Mountain. It took a whole year to build the holding facility and to link it with Slidecage Control. Once everything was ready, the slidecage was activated. There were a few attempts to open wormholes to our world, but the slidecage redirected it."

"But your slidecage is not impervious. I got through, and the kromaggs might get through."

Dad looked at Colonel Brown and the other technicians and officers and airmen. "Any unusual activity that we find is immediately reported to the Joint Chiefs. Major Beckett, whom you've met, is our liaison with the Joint Chiefs. She comes here for inspections, and personally hands reports from us to the Joint Chiefs Chairman."

"The Chain of Command runs from General Hunt, the American representative of the Slidecage Control Council, to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs," said Colonel Brown. "I've had to appear before the Joint Chiefs twice since I was assigned here."

"We should take you to the sliding generator," said Dad.

"Sliding generator?" I asked.

So we all went to another room. The room was staffed with airmen, and there was a control panel and monitors and compuiters. The control panel was in front of a window. Behind the window was a huge room with electrical equipment that looked like they were to be used for heavy electrical loads.

"That is the sliding generator," said Dad. "this is the only place on Earth where a wormhole could be opened. We send maintenace people to the Slidecage Holding Facility for maintenance."

"How do they get back?" I asked. "When Quinn and I first arrived, our timer was frozen and we had to modify the sliding equipment there so that the wormholes would be redirected back to their starting world. It was something we had to do to escape."

"I remember having to report to King Leonard and the National Security Council about that," said Dad. "But anyway, we have timers calibrated to the Cheyenne Mountain Sliding Generator. They can bypass the slidecage due to thgeir direct link with the generator. Of course, if they miss the slide, they are stuck for twenty-nine years, and the slidecage would prevent them from using another sliding generator to come home."

"Are there any regulations as to sending anyone to the holding facility or any other world?" I asked.

"All incursions must be reported to the Slidecage Council," said Colonel Brown. "Every member of the Council has full access to all reports on off-world trips as well as reports on slidecage-related activity. Any of them can order an off-world mission-a military unit from each nation is assigned to each member of the Council. But under the Slidecage Treaty, there can be no secret missions-all off-world missions require full disclosure. I'd like you to meet the members of the Council."

"they know about me?" I asked.

"Your'e involved with the slidecage; after all, you did penetrate the slidecage. Each member has been given a copy of Beckett's interview with you. Might as well meet them."

And so I did.

The members of the Slidecage Control Council all met in the same conference room where I spoke with Major Beckett hours ago. The members of the council were all high-ranking military officers. General Hunt represented the United States of America. I saw military officers from Britain and Russia and Israel and China.

I also saw that one of them was a kromagg. that was a big surprise.

"I am from the Republic of Ner'tul," said the kromagg officer. "My nation chose to sit out the war with the humans. Late in the war, after the humans used the Voeraton devices, troops from Beruth fled to our country. Under international law, we had to intern them. they resisted, and there was a battle. King Leonard ordered American forces to intervene and drive the Beruthese troops out of our country. Eventually the Beruthese evacuated to another dimension. My people ratified the Slidecage Treaty and we have been involved ever since."

"So you must have heard about my travels," I said. "Especially the part where I mentioend that kromaggsa from this world have conquered other worlds."

"Yes, that is disturbing," said the Ner'tul officer. "It is unfortunate that the war was brought to worlds which never heard of kromaggs. If the Kromagg Alliance gets past the slidecage, they may seek reprisals against my nation."

Once again, I told my story.

"We thank you for your time, Mr. Mallory," said General Hunt. "You may go now."

I went back to Dad's office. He had a cable TV with all the premium channels. Since we were deep in the mountain, we could not get radio signals.

Major Maggie Beckett entered the room. "I knew I'd find you here, Mallory," she said.

"Well, I can't exactly wander around the base unsupervised," I said.

"Well, I've been on the phone with General Van Dahl for hours," she said. "And then he called me back. They want to meet you."

"You mean General Van Dahl?" I asked.

"Not just him. King Leonard wishes to meet you."

"You mean the King Leonard?" I asked.

"Yes. He wishes you to meet with him and the entire National Security Council tomorrow in Castle America. We will leave for Landry Air Force Base in Maryland, where a helicopter will take us to Castle America in Alberton."

That night, I went to sleep in my bedroom. I was a little excited, what with meeting the King of the United States and all. And he was my king, for this was my country now.

In my dreams, Marc LeBeau contacted me.

"Colin," he said.

"Hi," I said. "Can you guide me to my brother? Is he still out there?"

"The appointed time for your reunion approaches," he said. "But a danger awaitsa you in Alberton."

"What danger?"

And then he was lost into dreamtime.