I was transported by truck to a Marine brig somewhere in Alberton. The military police took my fingerprints and scanned my retina and then I was put into a secure cell.

I just sat there in my cell contemplating my situation. I knew what had happened, and why. Of course, I did not have to be confined here; I could easily slide to another version of Earth and no one could stop me. I decided to stay; after all, where would I go? This was not the time to flee.

I was served a lunch of steamed vegetables, bread, and water. This place was sure different from the hotel suite I was promised yesterday. I thought about my parents; they must be worried about me.

About an hour after lunch, Major Maggie Beckett came for a visit. I was led out by a Marine MP and taken to a visitation room.

"Major Beckett," i said. "Have my parents been notified of where I am?"

"Yes, I've informed them," replied the major. "What just happened in the castle?"

"You remember when I told you I was taken to Kromagg Outpost One?"

"Yes, it was that world where the kromaggs built cities on top of trees."

"Well, I was their prisoner for about two days. They experimented on me and studied me."

"Yes, you've told me that, Mallory."

"They suspected that I could penetrate the slidecage, and they were right. So they took me to this room where they drugged me and showed me images and manipulated my emotions. They showed me images of King Leonard, and told me to spit on him. They stirred feelings of rage, and I kept hating him."

"It sounds like kromagg brainwashing. We know of incidents where they subjected human prisoners to such things."

"They told me to spit on him. I saw myself spitting on the king, and seeing him die. My God, that was how they wanted to kill him. Somehow, my spitting on King Leonard would kill him."

"Luckily I got in the way," said Major Beckett. "But why did you not mention this before?"

"They must have used their mental powers amplified with the drugs and the electronics to suppress my memeory," I answered. I only started to remember during our flight from Colorado. I think my friend Mr. LeBeau might have had a hand in this."

"I believe we should have you tested in the U.S. Navy Laboratory in Alberton," said Maggie. "We'll need to run a full scan on you down to the molecular level as well as a scan of your brain. We will also be examining a sample of your saliva and blood. You will, of course, be escorted by MP's and they will probably have orders to shoot you if you try to escape."

"Well, I almost killed the king," I said. "I have no intention of escaping, and I will cooperate. This is my country. If I am to live here, I must submit to its laws."

Major Maggie Beckett left the visitation room. I was taken back to my cell.

An hour after Major Beckett's visit, I was taken from the Marine brig and put into a U.S. Marine police car. the car drove through the streets of Alberton to a U.S. Navy base in the Anacostia neighborhood of Alberton on the banks of the Anacostia River.

I was taken to a building which a sign identfied as the United States Navy Laboratory. I was taken to a medical lab where Navy doctors in white lab coats took a sample of my blood and saliva.

then I was taken to this room where my brain was scanned. I saw an image of my brain on a monitor screen. I was taken to other labs where I was scanned down to the subatomic level.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Major Maggie Beckett watched.

After that, the Marine MP's put me in the police car and then transported me back to the Marine brig.

I sat in my cell meditating for the rest of the day. I was extending my consciousness beyond the dimensional boundaries, trying to find my brother Quinn. There was no luck.

I was then summoned to the visitation room again. I sat down in front of the window where the vistior appeared. There was a styrofoam plate in front of me; the meal was beef and potatoes and green beans. A styrofoam cup contained a glass of water.

Major Maggie Beckett arrived. I looked at the clock and the time read 6:30. The lady sure could keep long hours, like her duplicate.

"Hello," I said, eating my dinner. "I am so glad to have you for company."

"Well, Mallory," said Major Beckett. "The prelimiary results show that you had been subjected to brainwashing by the kromaggs. What is more interesting is that your saliva has bacteria in it."

"What kind of bacteria?"

"It's a modified bacteria. It is harmless to you or me; it produces a toxin that is designed to kill any person with a specific genetic code."

"It was King Leonard. That was how they planned to kill him."

"A brilliant plan."

"What's going to happen to me now?" I asked.

"You are not a spy, and I do not think the castle will order the U.S. attorney to prosecute you for attempted regicide. You will be freed tomorrow, pending certain conditions."

"Like what?"

"You have microbes in your salivary glands that can kill our king. We'll have Navy doctorsd prescribe you with antibiotics. Fortunately the kromaggs did not make their bacterial weapon antibiotic-resistant. You will also appear before the king tomorrow."

"I will?" I asked.

"Yes, you will, Mallory. But we will have a few security precautions first."

After spending the night in the Marine brig, I was transported to Castle America the next morning. I was going to be served breakfast by the Castle America staff.

"You are up and early," I said when Major Maggie Beckett entered the room. "Take this with your food."

She handed me a bottle full of pills; I read the label and it had this difficult-to-pronounce name. I guessed this was the antibiotic.

The domestic staff arrived with a plate of food. I saw it to be scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon.

"Enjoy your meal, sir," said the royal servant.

"How are you doing?" asked Wade Welles, whom I met yesterday.

"Fine," I said. "How long have you been working here at the castle?"

"Four years," said Wade. "I used to lived in San Francisco before I moved to Alberton. If you will excuse me, I have work to do."

So Wade left, and I ate my breakfast. I made sure to take the antibiotic pills.

"Okay, Mallory," said Major Beckett after I finished breakfast. "Let us go meet the king."

So we went to the conference room where I was yesterday before that little outburst. Several members of the National Security Council was there, including Crown Princess Sophia and Maggie's father Thomas Beckett. My parents were also in the meeting.

I was seated on a chair with arm rests. Secret Service agents handcuffed my wrists and ankles to the chair.

"It is a security precaution," said Major Beckett, sitting next to me.

And then he entered. Everyone in the room bowed down. I looked at King Leonard, with his red hair, red beard, gold crown, and purple three-piece suit.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the king. "I call this meeting to order under the authority vested to me by this Crown. We shall continue the meeting which was cut short by the security breach yesterday. Now, I shall begin the questioning of our guest. Are we now recording?"

"We are recording the minutes now, sire," said a secretary.

King Leonard faced me. "Let us begin with the basics," he said. "What is your name?"

"My name is Colin Mallory," I said. "I am honored to speak with you, your Majesty."

"And where were you born?"

"To the best of my knowledge, sir, I was born in San Francisco, California, in this world."

"Tell this council how you got here."

"I was living on another version of Earth in a parallel universe," I said. "You see, my lord, the universe is partitioned into parallel timelines. Subatomic particles can interact through its ciounterparts in these parallel tem,poral dimensions through quantum interference."

"I understand the concept of parallel universes," said the king.

"I grew up in a parallel universe. I was raised by my parents' counterparts, whom I believed gave birth to me. They died when I was young, and I became an orphan living with distant relatives. It was on February 14, 1998 that my life once again was changed forever."

"How many years ago was that?" asked the king. "I mean, their calendar may be dfifferent from ours."

"Their calendar is identical to ours, my liege," I answered. "But I think you want to get to the point. I met a man who looked a lot like me. He said his name was Quinn Mallory, and that he was my brother."

"How did he know you were his brother?"

"He told me he recognized me from observing my duplicates in his previous travels. Anyway, he opened a locket which my mother gave to me. There was a dot hidden in the device. I put in on my forehead, and received a message from my parents. I learned that I was born on this world, and that there was a war, and I was hidden away. I decided to go with Quinn and Rembrandt Brown and Maggie Beckett."

"Is this the same Maggie Beckett who is in this meeting now?

"No, my king, one of her duplicates from a parallel Earth. Anyway, your Majesty, I slid from world to world, and picked up the concept quickly. Quinn and I were trying to get home, to this world, even going so far as to enlist the aid of his duplicates. We had no success. Then once again, my life was changed forever last year, on June 11."

"What happened?"

"During a slide through the wormhole, something collided with me, I think. I ended up separated from my friends. I later learned that I was unstuck; I was now traveling through the dimensions without a timer or any external equipment. I did not give up trying to find my way home or my brother. In fact, I intend to look for Quinn after I get settled here."

"And you just popped in here one day?"

"I met another unstuck slider two weeks ago. He was a man named Dr. Maximilian Arturo. He told me that he could control where he goes and when he goes. He taught me how to do it. Finally, I came here, arriving in San Francisco. I made my way to Colorado and well, I ended up here."

Everyone in the room looked at me and then looked at the king. "Now let us get into the heart of the matter," said King Leonard. "Tell us of your encounters with the kromaggs."

"My first encounter was when we inputted our home world's coordinates into the timer," I said. "The slidecage redirected us to the holding facility. There were kromaggs who tried to return to this Earth, and were stuck there. There were also humans who were caught off-world when the slidecage went online. Anyway, we used our ingenuity to send everyone back to the world they came from. From that point on, we tried to find a way to bypass the thing."

"What about your next encounter with the kromaggs from our world?"

"We arrived in this world where the kromaggs were experimenting with genetic engineering. They had these kromagg-human hybrids called humaggs. They looked human, and had kromagg mental powers."

"I've read reports on kromagg attempts to incorporate parts of the human genetic structure into their own to create kromaggs with human strength and endurance," said the king. "Continue."

"We managed to escape that world. I will tell you the two significant encounters with the kromaggs that I had since becoming unstuck. My first enouncter with them after becoming unstuck was last year, in September. I arrived in a world where Indians were paying homage to the kromaggs as if they were servants of God. I was captured by the Indians and turned over to the kromaggs. The kromaggs took me to this world where they built cities on huge trees. They called this world Outpost One. It was the world they were exiled to after they lost the war. They found out I was unstuck, and did tests on me to learn information that could be useful in their attempts to bypass the slidecage. I managed to escape but not before causing some damage. It was during my stay in Outpost One where I was brainwashed."

"I've read the report from the Navy laboratory. What was your other encounter?"

"It was two months later, in November. I found out Quinn had a graduate physics degree, so I lookef for him. He was surprised to see me, since his brother-my duplicate-was killed in a car crash along with his parents. I told him whom I was. He then took me to a lab where he and some others were working."

"Who were these others?" asked the king.

I smiled. "They were duplicates of the Slidecage Control technicians," I replied. "They were led by a man named Dr. Crayton. He was a brilliant quantum physicist, and his top project was a device called the junction, which could junction an object with its parallel Earth counterpart."

"What does this have to do with the kromaggs?"

"I had this warning that something was up. After Crayton laid off the research staff, I took a closer look. He was a kromagg, and his intention was to junction that Earth with ours."

"I take it you thwarted his plans."

"Yes, my lord. Since then I did not have any major encounters with the kromaggs. But one thing is clear, my liege. They are still trying to bypass the slidecage. They tried with the junction, and despite the damage I caused when I took down that air base on Outpost One, we must assume they are still trying."

"Very good, Mr. Mallory," said King Leonard. "We thank you for your report."

"It is clear what we must do, my lord," said General Galen van Dahl. "We must find this Outpost One and launch a massive strike against them!"

"Your Majesty," I said, "there is one thing I must ask. The kromaggs of this world conquered and enslaved other worlds, including the one my brother grew up in. I want to ask for a Voraton device. I understand you can loan such a device. You need to understand what horrors the kromaggs inflicted."

"We understand perfectly," replied the king. "The Battle of Alberton was to be our last stand, and the Voraton saved us. But we paid a terribel price for it. the Voraton was designed to kill kromaggs without harming humans, but none of us considering what it would do to other forms of life."

"What do you mean, sire?"

"Just after the war ended, marine animals like fish and whales and clams and stuff started dying in droves. People-humans-started getting sick. The National Marine Biology Institute later determined that the Voraton poisoned the Earth's oceans. The oceans are now toxic to almost all forms of life, including human beings. Our society was changed forever. Seafood is now a luxury grown in marine tanks. All of the beaches are closed. All oceanic sailors wear hazmat suits in case they fall into the water. And if an airplane were to crash into the ocean, it would mean death for anyone who survived the initial crash. I can not in good conscience inflict this horror upon another world."

My heart sank. Remmy had always hoped to come here so he could borrow the weapon that droive the kromaggs from our world and use it to free his world. Now his best hope is gone.

King Leonard then walked up to me, under the watchful eye of the council and the Secret Service. I did not feel any urge to spit on him. He extended his hand towards my handcuffed right wrist.

"It was an honor to meet you, Mr. Mallory," he said.

I shook his hand. "It was an honor to speak to you, my lord," I replied.

"We must meet in private behind closed doors."

My wrists and ankles were released, and then I left.