Quinn yelled as he exited the familiar swirling blue vortex, expecting to land harshly on the unforgiving pavement or, if he were lucky, a somewhat softer patch of grass. Instead, he sat confused, having landed on a soft couch. A quick look around brought a sense of panic as Quinn realized they slid directly into someone's living room, but seeing the lights off and a thin layer of dust coating many of the unused electronics and books made him quickly deduce this home had been abandoned, or at the very least unused for a short time.
Wade soon landed beside him, turning to face him with a look of surprise. She looked down to the couch, a small smile coming to her lips as the two of them heard the familiar sound of Rembrandt Cryin Man Brown exiting the vortex. Quickly the two separated, making room for him as he landed between them. Once he realized where he landed, a large grin spread across his face.
"Now this is what I'm talkin about!" Rembrandt cheered, patting the couch appreciatively before looking up to the vortex and spotting an oversized Englishman heading directly toward him. With a terror filled scream, Rembrandt wrenched himself from the comfortable couch and practically threw himself out of the landing zone. Likewise, Quinn and Wade moved away so that Arturo could land comfortably.
As the vortex closed above them Arturo let out a soft laugh, looking to his now standing friends with a smile.
"Well, Mr. Mallory, I must say this landing was quite an improvement to our usual dates with mother Earth"
Standing he dusted himself off, looking around the small home they currently occupied. Likewise, Rembrandt and Wade seemed to have noticed where they landed and turned to face Quinn.
"We don't land indoors very often, Q-ball. It's a good thing no one seems to be home" Rembrandt said with a chuckle.
"This place looks abandoned," Wade added, turning to look around the small empty space.
"Hey, I'm not complaining. The last thing we need is to explain to angry homeowners why we had to use their couch as a personal landing pad" Rembrandt replied, now looking around the home as well.
"As opposed to using me, Mr. Brown?" Arturo asked, giving the musician a momentary glare before walking to the nearby window.
"Oh don't start that again" Rembrandt groaned, spotting some nearby records and dusting them off, looking through the small selection. He smiled as he came across a record for the Spinning Topps. Across the room Arturo opened the blinds, seemingly deep in thought.
"Has anybody else noticed how quiet it is? No sound of cars driving outside, no conversation, nothing. Just dead silence" Arturo muttered, peeking out at the empty street. Rembrandt stopped what he was doing and strained his ears to pick up any outdoor noise. To his surprise the professor was right.
"Actually now that you mention it, yeah. It is pretty quiet. Good neighborhood maybe?"
"Or an empty neighborhood," Arturo replied, turning his attention to Rembrandt, "This home is abandoned, perhaps the others are too. But the question is why"
Quinn entered the home's kitchen as his friends continued to talk in the living room. He too noticed how quiet it seemed to be, his eyes stopping as he spotted several newspaper pages strewn across the table. Leaning closer to see in the dark room, his eyes widened as he read the different headlines.
"Guys!"
His friends entered the room in an instant, approaching him with curious expressions.
"Did you find something, Mr. Mallory?" Arturo asked, spotting the papers and leaning closer to grab one. He soon reached into his jacket pocket, producing a pair of bifocals and slipping them on.
"Yeah, according to all these headlines a pulsar is heading straight for Earth" Quinn replied, pointing to the different pages as he did.
"Great Scott! A pulsar, heading here?" Arturo said aloud, quickly scanning the page in his hands.
"What is a pulsar, exactly? Some kind of star right?" Wade asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"Not exactly a star, Miss Welles, or at least not a living star. You see, Pulsars belong to a family of objects referred to as neutron stars," Arturo replied, "It's an old star that collapsed in on itself. It spins very rapidly, and as it spins it emits an immense burst of electromagnetic radiation, or a pulse of radiation if you like. Hence the word pulsar"
"What will happen to the Earth when it hits?" Rembrandt asked, crossing his arms and looking concerned.
"That depends on its distance. If the Pulsar is roughly 50 light-years away, our atmosphere will be blown away in an instant. Half the planet will be immediately vaporized while the other half will suffocate" Quinn answered, looking sick. The other sliders in the room felt the immediate weight of the situation fall upon them.
"According to these papers, NASA first discovered the pulsar over a month ago. They projected its path and realized that one of its jet's of radiation would blanket the Earth," Arturo muttered, a sad tone in his voice, "They tried to keep it quiet from the public, but several news outlets were given leaked information. Some of these papers claim several bunkers were created to house different important figures, while many others suggest safe areas which undoubtedly many of these people flocked to"
"They don't have a chance, do they, professor?" Rembrandt asked with a frown.
"Truthfully? No, Mr. Brown, they do not. All these papers offer are false hopes"
Taking that information in his friend's frowns grew, realizing how many lives would be lost due to this disaster. With a sigh Arturo set his paper back down, placing his hands on the table as he looked between the different pages.
"All these papers contain guesswork, but they seem to all believe the pulsar will hit the Earth by sometime tomorrow, between 5 and 9 pm. I wish there was more we could do for these people, however, I haven't the foggiest idea where to even begin in attempting to stop a pulsar"
"You're not a miracle worker, professor. We understand, there's nothing we can really do" Rembrandt attempted to comfort him, knowing the Englishman likely wanted to try and save these people. Heck, all four of them did, but how could they?
"When do we slide?" Wade asked, turning to Quinn with her own small frown. Pulling the Egyptian timer from his pocket he glanced at the numbers, his previous frown turning into a look of panic.
"What is it, Q-ball?" Rembrandt asked, noticing his friend's worried look.
"Two days, we slide in two days. 49 hours 23 minutes to be exact" Quinn replied, looking up to his friends in worry.
The sliders looked amongst each other, realizing that according to the papers the pulsar will blanket this Earth in radiation in as little as 29 to 33 hours. Long before the next slide window.
"So that's it, huh? End of the line?" Rembrandt mumbled bitterly.
"Let's not be so hasty, Mr. Brown. We've escaped situations like this before, we just need to remain calm and think" Arturo quickly replied, beginning to pace as he tried to come up with some viable solution.
"Could we force the gateway to open early? Like we did on the world with the spiderwasps?" Wade offered. Rembrandt shuttered at the mention of those eight-legged freaks. Quinn simply shook his head, looking serious.
"I wouldn't want to try that again if we can help it. It fried the timer and nearly separated us, even I don't know how we managed to land on the same Earth that time. The chances of doing that once are off the charts, imagine if it happened a second time. Not to mention the risk of sliding into empty space between universes" Quinn replied. Wade shuddered at the thought.
"Then what do we do?" Rembrandt grumbled.
"Well…" Quinn started, torn on even telling his friends his idea, not wanting to offer false hopes. They all turned to him as he spoke, his eyes locking onto each of theirs as he looked between them. He had to try, even if it seemed unlikely. He had to save them. He only wished they landed in San Francisco, to increase their chances.
"We still have my original timer," Quinn began, pulling the original Motorola timer from his pocket, "If we can find some sort of lab I may be able to reset it. It would be easier if we had my doubles sliding technology, that is if my double's even a slider on this world, but if we can pull this off I can use it to slide us off this world before the Pulsar hits"
"Didn't you replace some of the Egyptian timers components with your timers?" Wade asked curiously, remembering Quinn and the professor swapping parts shortly after leaving the Egyptian Earth. Quinn nodded as he pocketed the timer.
"Yeah, a few of the Egyptian timers parts were fried when we forced the gateway open early. It had a better stabilizer but unfortunately, that was one of the parts lost. I had to use my timer to make it functional again before the next window. So I can either return the Egyptian timers parts to my timer or try to find new parts. I'd rather find new ones so I can try to reset both timers, so we always have a backup"
"You know Q-ball that still doesn't make much sense to me. If the timers were created on Egypt Earth why was it even counting down? Wasn't the original function to count down on other Earths and bring you back?" Rembrandt asked, looking perplexed. Quinn looked just as lost, shrugging his shoulders in uncertainty.
"To be honest with you Cryin Man I still have no idea. Maybe the Egyptian timer's original function is different from mine. Honestly, we have no way to know for sure"
"Well, I say we don't waste any more of our valuable time with theory and conjecture," Arturo cut in, "I say we find a lab, the sooner the better, so we can begin working on a way off of this world"
The four friends left the home in haste, leaving the small suburban area and heading into the vast and empty Los Angeles streets. The city itself was devoid of life, the eerie silence that permeated from the empty buildings and abandoned cars the only thing present. The empty streets served as a constant reminder to the Sliders that this world would soon perish, leaving the four friends feeling a great deal of anxiety and sadness.
Quinn felt the greatest stress of the four, knowing it was his job, his responsibility to save them. He put them in this mess when he prematurely leapt into the vortex and now he was the one who had to solve this problem. If he couldn't get them home at the very least he could get them to safety. He jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to face the professor, who regarded him with a fatherly smile.
"Don't worry my boy. We will find a lab and we will slide off of this world long before the pulsar hits. I have the utmost faith in you, and I of course will offer my assistance where I can. I know you will save us"
Quinn nodded, though his expression made it clear he was uncertain about the truth in those words. Arturo squeezed his shoulder, giving it a pat before turning and regarding a small convenience store at the base of a building. With a look of thought, he quickly jogged across the road and through the already open doors. The remaining sliders looked between each other in confusion as they followed his lead.
Arturo quickly returned through the same doors he entered a few moments ago, an open map in his hands as he approached his friends. Quinn quickly looked over his shoulder, eyes scanning for any sort of lab or stores that may at least contain equipment needed to attempt to reset the timers. Arturo suddenly pointed at a spot on the map, Quinn zeroing in on it, a smirk growing as he read the location the professor suggested they go.
"You know, I always wanted to visit Caltech"