The vortex surprised Dr. Soran as he fired at Picard. Too busy to hear the initial whirl of the portal opening, he didn't duck out of the way of the truck that dropped almost on top of him. The evil bastard screamed as his pelvis and upper leg bones were destroyed, and he passed quickly into unconsciousness as the truck struck a boulder and rolled on its side, only to be struck by a second truck.
The heap of twentieth century vehicles marked the end of same as women and men dug themselves out of the upended transports, a very confused Picard stepping forward to help now that the force field had ceased. A minute later, helping the expecting young women to sitting positions, Kirk made his way down.
"Friends of yours, Captain?" Kirk asked of his successor to a vessel named Enterprise, "I don't think they followed me home."
"Indeed not Captain, but their timing was quite fortuitous, and it seems Doctor Soran is dead."
"I'm not too broken up, from what you told me, though it looks like I came all this way for nothing."
"Captains Picard? Kirk?" a very large man seemingly in his early twenties asked as he approached.
"We are," Picard responded as Kirk assessed the man and his group, "Mister…"
"Harris, Alexander Harris, and since I'm in your dimension I won't worry about rank—"
"Commander, all's secure," Maggie called out.
"...or maybe I will," he continued as all three men smiled, "It seems we were able to help you out. I hope your rescue folks will give us a ride back to Earth from here."
"You're from an alternate Earth?" Kirk asked, looking at the vehicles and clothes of the newcomers who spoke English, "What brings you here?"
"Obviously the saving of your life and that of that populated planet in this star system," Alexander smiled, "Though the turbulence of that last portal left some doubt as to if we'd live to help…"
"Do you do this often?" Picard asked, "You seem a little…frayed?"
'Yeah, we're moving through dimensions on our way back to our own, and it seems best when we're on an actual Earth for the next leap," the young Slider Commander admitted, "The last one was nice, but I'm so looking forward to decent plumbing."
Four hours later, they'd linked up with survivors of the crash landing, Dawn and Data finding food for his cat 'Spot' in the back of a truck to the amusement of those around them.
The mini-drags, who were keeping low profiles in this last stage of pregnancy since the beginning of the previous leap, were of interest to the Starfleet personnel in spite of the need for survival preparations, who kept finding tasty snacks for them.
The Sunnydalers helped as they could, but Picard's crew was very efficient and knew their stuff, so mainly they talked to Kirk for many hours more, his career, Alexander's Wild Ride, and general perceptions of right and wrong, i.e. the Prime Directive and how it let entire planets die just ot avoid responsibility.
"So, Captain," Dawn smiled, "wanna sign up? Always room for one more."
"I don't know, Dawn, but I must say I'm tempted. How long did you say you had until your next jump?"
"Ninety days."
"Hmm, let's see how many of the people I knew are still around. I believe Xander said Scotty and Spock, but I need to find out if Bones is still hanging in there."
"We wouldn't think of taking you from your friends, Captain," Xander said as he returned with some juices, "But if you feel the need to find a place to fight the enemies of Earth at long odds alongside those who'd appreciate the help, you're invited."
"Thank you, I'll keep it in mind."
Xander and Picard had negotiated like Ferengi over trades of technology, general assistance to Xander's group, transport to Earth, conversion of goods and knowledge for lodging and information access until the Slider time of departure.
Xander had allowed access to records showing his position as it stood with the SGC and The Colonies, his Caprican residency, the mixed technology and biological materials they had sealed away, and light sabers. As a final item, Xander allowed access to timer technology, made originally from parts four centuries in arrears of Starfleet's.
"So, if you'll get permission from the right people, Captain Picard, we can get this all over with and possibly become friends."
"Friendship is not a commodity, Commander Harris…"
"But like trust, it should be freely given and rightly earned, Captain, and call me Xander…"
"I agree with your sentiment, Xander, so I'll pass this on for confirmation."
"Thanks, Captain, it means I can take care of my Family."
"I understand, and now that we're done, tell me more about these vampires…"
The trek to Earth was a long one consisting of two stops, but luckily the Sliders had been assigned two of the surviving Enterprise shuttles as lodging and cargo during their stay. Their belongings were divided and duplicated between them, and after a brief refresher, Kirk served as a pilot and Data as the other.
They'd stopped on Raisa for six days, Vulcan for four, and spent their time reading, exercising and learning all they could of this Federation time period before the three week journey took them to Earth as part of a general reallocation of Enterprise personnel.
The rest and relaxation on Raisa was much needed, and let the stress of traveling in such close quarters ease before the next leg of the journey. The Vulcans had been fascinating to the Sliders, and for the most part the use of a couple of spells shielded emotions and thoughts from their hosts, which meant they'd been welcomed for exchanges of information and learning.
But it was the view of 24th Century Earth that held them captive for countless moments before they were given coordinates down to San Francisco.
"A California without pollution," Xander smiled, "Who'd a thought it?"
"Yeah, and it says they've restored most of the forests and such too," Willow enthused, "Though there doesn't seem to be a Sunnydale here."
"That's a relief," Dawn chimed in, "I like there not being demons and monsters we have to fight. So what should we do for ten more weeks?"
Joyce interjected herself, "Shopping and resting some more. And we'll get you three young ladies looked at again by doctors to see how the babies are."
Xander smiled at the normality of their talk, even as across the café he could see Rupert and Deirdre, Ash and Maggie holding hands, "Sounds good, though I've committed myself to those lecture series I discussed with Picard and Data."
"I think you just want to learn the Baatleth and go drinking with Worf every night while we're gone," Dawn playfully accused, then smiled, "But that's okay, Xan, you need some time just for you once and a while."
"Well, so this is the wee lad you been talkin' about Captain, is he?" Mr. Scott smiled as he signaled the bartender for a bottle of top shelf scotch, "I must say he's in good physical condition."
"That he is, Scotty," Kirk smiled as he shook hands with the young man and made introductions, and the three agreed to familiar names.
"So Jim, we push off in two days," Xander smiled, sipped his whiskey and looked at Montgomery Scott, "So you staying or signing on for while?"
"We've talked to Spock, and said our farewells, Xander. It turns out he's trying to reunite Romulans with Vulcans, from within, so we'd probably never see each other again. Though we could always hope…"
"I think lad, the Captain's saying if you have room for one, do ya have room for two?"
"You signing on too, Scotty?" Xander asked in pleasant surprise, "we might be a bit primitive for a couple of years, but the toilets usually flush."
"Aye, I've been headin' up Starfleet's Engineers for a coupla years, now, and don't really have much of a challenge, lad. And Jim's said it's a bit of a mixed bag o' technologies ye have, so I'm willin' ta sign on just for the challenges of getting 'em to work better."
Xander reached his hand over the table and shook hands with both men, "welcome aboard, gentleman, I hope you find a home with us."
The understatement of the moment would be to say everyone was a bit shocked at the firefight that broke at around the Slider's departure. The Starfleet folks had replicated some six replacement trucks, and carefully packed away more seeds and such, and even replacements and parts for the technology they had already. The only real differences were in that the vehicles had doubled and roomier driver-passenger compartments.
Phaser fire nearly killed Doyle and Joyce, narrowly missing them as Beth grabbed the timer and activated it instead of Dawn as security personnel began to return fire. Repeat shots stunned Joyce, Ash and Maggie as the others got their vehicles up and running. Not understanding why this was happening when they'd traded so freely, the Sliders and their two new members started the vehicles and raced for the swirling vortex, pieces of truck phasered off, burn holes missing most of them, Willow and Dawn both receiving minor phaser burns and Tara about three inches of her hair at the ends.
Two men changed shape in mid-air, lunging for the vortex as Doyle reached out with the Force and pushed them away as Rupert got off a fire spell that caused the two Founders to loose cohesion for the moment. Driving through the vortex, all were tense and Doyle radiated strongly in the Force…