I woke up early the next morning, for my flight from Colorado was leaving at 6 A.M. I got dressed in a suit, using the time to ensure that I looked well. I was really excited. I was going to have an audience with King Leonard of all people! Not since my reunion with my parents have I felt so excited.

Anyway, I got into the passenger seat of my parents' Toyota Samurai and then we headed to the Petersen Air Force Base near Colorado Springs. All military air transportation serving Cheyenne Mountain and the Air Force Academy was based from there.

After a few minutes of driving through the streets of Colorado Springs, we arrived at the gates of Petersen Air Force Base. The SP at the gate checked our ID's, and then we proceeded to enter. The Samurai was parked in the visitor's parking lot.

"The hangar should be this way," said Dad. he, Mom, and I walked to a row of huge buildings which I guessed where the hangars. There was one hangar that was open; that must be the hangar where Major Maggie Beckett was waiting.

True enough, she was there, in her Marine dress uniform.

"Hello there," she said. "I'm glad to see you made it on time."

I looked at the air field. I could see the lights of the runways, and to the east I could see the sky getting brighter due to the approaching sunrise. I looked in the hangar and saw the airplane which would take us to Alberton.

"The flight should take a little over three hours," said Major Beckett as we clibmbled the stairs into the airplane's cabin. "This is a high priority flight, given that this was ordered by the Joint Chiefs themselves."

I sat down on one of the seats in the passenger cabin and buckled the seat belt. I do not fly on airplanes that much, but I always make sure to enjoy the experience.

The plane pulled out of the hangar and taxied to the runway. Then we took off. I looked outside the window, and can see the landmarks on the ground get smaller and smaller. I could see streets, houses, freeways, a park, and a school. Soon they gave way to the Rocky Mountains. There was still snow on the highest peaks.

"Are you excited?" asked Major Beckett.

"Yes," I said. "I mean, he's the king you know. The ruler of our country. Our dread sovereign lord."

"Well, it is always an honor to appear before our commander-in-chief," replied the major. "Tell me about my duplicate whom you slid with for a year."

"She was a Marine officer like you. She was a combat pilot. Her dad was a general in the Marines, until he got killed in a helicopter crash. She was married to this scientist named Steven Jensen. Four years ago, Steven was paralyyzed in a skiing accident and Maggie transferred to intelligence. When her husband was hired to do sliding research, Maggie was assigned to provide support for him."

"Is that where your brother worked?"

"Quinn grew up in a different world. He arrived there three years ago. He and Professor Arturo decided to assist Jensen. Together, they manage to build a working sliding generator. Not only that, they also built timers that could store coordinates and track wormholes."

"Is that how your brother and his friends found their way home the first time?"

"Yes. There was another reason why they were researching sliding, and why Maggie decided to join them. It seemed that pulsars would cross through Earth's solar system and thus irradiate the whole planet.Everyone on Earth was going to die, and only a few could be saved. This Marine colonel named Rickman was the project director. He organized the exodus project. But he had an ulterior motive."

"What was that?"

"He had some sort of infection, and his only treatment was to use brain fluid from compatible people. Anyway, he selected a world-it was a world where Indians in California were living primitive lives, and where dinosaurs roamed freely. Rickman began the exodus, moving people and supplies and equipment to that exodus world. But Quinn and the professor found out about his tragedy, and Colonel Rickman shot and killed the professor as well as Jensen. Maggie wanted revenger on Rickman. She and Quinn and Rembrandt and Wade chased him. In addition to his murders of Steven Jensen and the professor, he also had the timer with the coordinates to Rembrandt's home world. Rickman also had to steal brain fluid from other people."

"It just occured to me," said Major Beckett. "If Rickman was sliding around stealing brain fluid, wouldn't he go after his duplicate. His duplicate would be the perfect match."

"He did that at least once. Quinn and Maggie were going to set a trap using Rickman's duplicate. They managed to stop Rickman from killing his duplicate, but he escaped."

"What happened to Rickman?"

"Well, three months after the exodus, they casught up with him. They managed to get his timer, and Wade and Rembrandt slid home. Rickman came after them, but the wormhole closed and he fell to his death. Maggie and Quinn spent the next three months trying to fix the timer so it can track the wormhole to their home. They did that, had an encounter with kromaggs, and one thing led to another, and I'm here talking to you."

"What kind of person was she like?"

"Well, she was tough, considering that she was a Marine pilot, which was not a job for the weak-hearted."

"Don't I know," said Maggie, smiling.

"She never gave up," I said. "She was determined to find my home world and to find the weapon that would drive the kromaggs from Rembrandt's world. And I am sure she is doing whatever it takes to bring me back to them. They actually did that once last year, but it was only temporary."

"Did you have encounters with any of my other duplicates?"

"A couple of times. We never did look for your duplicates; we always looked for Quinn's duplicates, since he would be the person most likely to help us get here. There was this one time when one of her duplicates came with us. She was an Air Force pilot, and she was married to her world's version of Steven Jensen."

"If I remember correctly, Steven Jensen was one of the slidecage technicians," said Maggie, reading through a portfolio. "Maybe I should go after my world's version of Jensen."

"There are trillions of possibilities," I said.

"How did that turn out?"

"Well, we found out the truth, and we returned Maggie's duplicate to her world and we reunited with Maggie and we continued on."

I looked outside at the Earth below. Highways looked as thin as threads frokm this height. There were building clusters which I guessed were towns or cities. I yawned; I only had six hours of sleep. I soon fell asleep in the seat.

In my dream, I saw a vision of King Leonard. I knew what the king looked like from the pictures of him I saw in newspapers and magazines and the Internet.

I then saw myself strapped to a chair or something. There were kromaggs in the room. All of them were soldiers except one man in a lab coat.

They connected electrodes to my temples and then I suddenly felt a mixture of feelings-pain, pleasure, rage, contentment.

I then saw King Leonard again. I suddenly felt rage. A murderous rage. My rage was directed at him.

I then saw him collapse on the ground and die. I then felt pleasure.

I was then back in the room with the kromaggs. I saw another one of them in there. I recognized him as Rakakot, the man who brought me to Outpost One.

"You will do us a great service, son of Mallory," he said.

Then I saw the technicians press buttons and turn knobs on a console. and everything went blank.

"Colin," said Mom.

I woke up, and found myself in the passenger cabin of an Air Force transport plane.

"Yeah," I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"We'll land in thirty minutes, dear," she said.

I could see the landscape outside. I could see fields and forests and buildings and highways. Farther off, I could see the Atlantic Ocean. I had never been to the eastern seaboard of North America.

the objects on the ground appeared to get bigger and bigger as the airplane made its final descent. Soon I could see cars driving down the roads and highways, and I could read the storefront signs on buildings. I then saw a concrete runway. Soon I felt the landing gears of the plane touch down.

"This is the captain speaking," I heard a voice from the speaker say. "We have just touched down on Landry Air Force Base in Maryland."

Soon the plane taxied to a stop.

"Let's go," said Major Beckett.

The door was opened, and we all stepped down. I looked aorund the airfield, and I noticed a U.S. Marine helicopter waiting for us. Standing between the helicopter and the airplane were two men in Marine dress uniform. One of them was a general; the other was a sergeant major.

Major Beckett saluted the general, who then returned the salute.

"So these are His Majesty's guests," said the general.

"Yes, sir," replied the major. "And that young man is Colin Mallory, who came from a parallel Earth and had enoucnters with kromaggs who came from our world."

"I'm General Galen van Dahl," he said to me. "I am currently the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under His Majesty King Leonard.

"Nice to meet you," i said, extending my hand before he shook it.

I looked at the Negro Marine sergeant, and he flashed a smile and I saw a gold tooth. Now I remembered. His duplicates worked with Van Dahl's duplicates. I guessed destiny asserts certain patterns that are meant to be.

"Come on in," said General Van Dahl. So we all boarded the helicopter and fastened our seat belts. Then the helicopter lifted off from Landry Air Force Base.

"Major, your father is looking forward to speaking with you," said Van Dahl.

"That's nice," said Major Beckett.

"He told me about how you did not have dinner with him last Wednesday."

"Well, you do keep me busy, sir. I guess he must be excited at meeting Colin Mallory here."

"He's looking forward to hearing the full report, as am I."

I looked at General Van Dahl. "you must have served in the war," I said.

"I served under Major Beckett's father," replied the general. "We were both in the Battle of Alberton where the Voraton device was first used."

I looked outside the window of the helicopter, and I saw a cluster of buildings surrounding a wide river. I could see freeways snaking through the building clusters.

"That is Alberton," said Major Beckett. "Our nation's capital."

"I've never been here before," I said.

"Alberton was built in the nineteenth century. It was named after King Albert, the first King of the United States of America. Virginia and Maryland granted land to the Crown, and there the capital was built. The headquarters of the Cabinet departments are all located there."

I could see a green area of the city and there were white buildings scattered among the green.

"See that building with the dome?" asked Major Beckett. "That is the Capitol building, where the Congress meets. The buildings near the Capitol contain the offices for the members of the House and Senate. And just up the street, on Pennsylvania Avenue, is Castle America. Take a look."

I looked and saw a castle, with a stone wall surrounding a central building. The walls and the central building were all painted white.

I then noticed the helicopter descending. Soon I saw a white wall from where I was sitting. It appeared we landed in the castle courtyard.

The door was opened by a man in a blue uniform. The emblem on his left shoulder identified him as an agent of the United States Secret Service.

We all got out of the helicopter and I looked around. There were towers along the outer wall, where I guess soldiers stood guard. I could see the main building more closely. It was tall, and had turrets and balconies built into it. The windows were all narrow.

"Come inside," said the Secret Service agent. My parents and Major Beckett and General Van Dahl and went through the door.

We were now inside a hallway. The hallway's floor was covered with a blue carpet. The ceiling and walls were painted white like the exterior walls of the building. There was a wooden panel along the bottim of the wall.

A woman wearing shiort brown hair and a blue suit greeted us.

"Hello there," she said. "I am Wade Welles, one of His Majesty's many aides."

"Is the king expecting us, Miss Welles?" asked Dad.

"He is currently in a meeting with the Secretary of the Treasury," she said. "He will be with you shortly. He told me that this meeting with the National Security Council is very important. Of course, mertings with the National Security Council are always important."

Another man walked towards us. He was dressed in a suit.

"Hi, Dad," said Major Beckett.

"Maggie," the man replied. "I am Thomas Beckett, His Majesty's National Security Advisor. I rank third in the Council, after the king and the crown princess."

"I am Colin Mallory," I said, extending my hand towards Maggie's father. "I am the son of Michael and Elizabeth Mallory. I grew up in a parallel Earth, and I managed to get here."

"I've read of summary of Major Beckett's report," said Thomas Beckett. "I am interested in what you have to say, as is the king. Anyway, we had better get you the appropriate visitor's passes."

So that was what we did. The Secret Service scanned us with devices, and gave us laminated badges like the one Thomas Beckett wore clipped to his coat. My pass was a Class A Visitor's Pass.

"That pass allows you to be with the king and others in the royal family," said the Secret Service agent who gave me the pass.

We were led through the halls of the castle and entered a conference room where there was a huge wooden table in the middle. There were people already seated, some civilian, some military.

"The National Security Council meets here every Monday morning and at other times as the king directs," said Thomas Beckett. "Let us all have a seat."

So we did. "Mr. Beckett," I said, "you served in the war, right?"

"Yes," he replied. I was a captain in the Marines when the war started, and I later became a major. My forces were fighting the kromaggs in the Battle of Alberton, when a strike force of enemy marines came up the Potomac to seize our capital. We held them off long enough for the Voraton to be used. General Van Dahl was with me in that battle; he was a captain at the time. He and I both were awarded Silver Stars and Purple Hearts after the war. I continued in the Marines, and later became its commandant. I retired when King Leonard asked me to be his National Security Advisor. How could I refuse?"

"I was at Dad's retirement party," said Major Beckett. "He turned in his retirement papers after the Senate confirmed him. The day after his separation from the Marines, he went to work here."

Then some more people came in, among them an auburn-haired woman. Everyone bowed down, including me.

"Who is that?" I whispered.

"That is Crown Princess Sophia," whispered Mom. "Heir to the throne and Secretary of Defense."

"Welcome, my lady," said Thomas Beckett. "We are so glad you can come."

"Is Colin Mallory here?" asked the princess.

"I am Colin Mallory," I said. "I am honored to meet you, your Highness."

"and I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences with the kromaggs," she said.

I of course recognized her, for I had a fling with one of her duplicates four months ago!

"You have a brother and a sister, right?' I asked. "Prince James and Princess Kathleen."

"You sure know about your country's royalty, Mr. Mallory," replied Princess Sophia.

"Excuse me, sirs and madams," said a Castle America aide who entered the room. "His Majesty King Leonard will be here shortly."

I then went into some trance. I had this image of the kromaggs experimenting on me, in my minds eye. I had this image of King Leonard.

I then came to a horrific realization.

"Keep him away from here!" I shouted, standing up. "It's dangerous."

"We have Secret Service here," said Dad. "Some of them are even in the room with us."

"Listen, you have to restrain me!" I yelled. "You have to restrain me and get me out of here. The king is in danger!"

Then he entered. He was a tall man with red hair and a red beard. A crown adorned his head, and he was dressed in a purple three-piece suit.

He was none other than King Leonard of the United States of America!

I felt myself walk to him. I could see the others reacting. I had no control for some reason.

I felt myself salivate.

I then felt myself spit.

Major Maggie Beckett jumped in the way, and my spit hit her on the cheek. the Secret Service agents suddenly slammed me against the conference table.

"Are you all right, my lord?" I heard Maggie ask.

"Your Majesty, you are not injured?" asked someone whose face I did not see.

"I'm fine," I heard a voice say; I figured that was King Leonard.

"My liege," said Thomas Beckett, "I advise this meeting should be postponed indefinitely, and that Colin Mallory here to temporarily incaracerated until we can find out what happened."

And then I was taken away.