Rating: PG-13
Warning: This story is NOT for Maggie Beckett fans!
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyright material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. I only own my original characters.
Across a barren wasteland, the thick blanket of the sun beat down on the travelers who were walking. The heat was intense and for the last eighteen hours, with a few intermittent breaks in between, these travelers had been walking in the hot desert. Every so often though, a lone wind graced the sweaty travelers with its presence.
But when there was no breeze, the only thing that brought them comfort were their shemaghs. These shemaghs were black in color and draped over their heads and faces to protect them from the viscous heat. The shemagh on their heads draped covered over their ears, neck, and shoulders. And the other shemagh that covered their mouths and front of their necks.
Thankfully, then over the horizon came many horses led by a slender female who was also wearing shemagh. As she came to a stop in front of the travelers, she looked at one figure and said, "Judging by your sweat you left early."
The man she spoke to pulled down the shemagh around his face to reveal himself to be Skurge.
"Things happen Krissy. Let's start distributing these horses."
Once the sliders had their horses, Quinn looked at the small traveler next to him. "Hey," Quinn said getting the attention of a fellow traveler with a small figure, "are you sure you're okay? That cave in was pretty brutal."
The small cloaked figure mounted the horse in a swift motion and as the person had situated, the person tugged at the shemagh covering her mouth. Once the cloth freed her face, Wade looked at Quinn with a tired expression.
"Yeah Quinn I'm alright, really. I'm just a little sore."
"Only a little sore?! Girl I've never seen such fancy foot work from you before. I mean just as the final rock fell you flew through the tiniest opening ever, with a child in your arms, and then landed in a tuck-in-roll! That was beautiful," complemented Rembrandt as he galloped his horse closer to his friends.
"Yes Ms. Welles that was very well done. But in the future, might I ask that you not give me heart failure anymore," added Arturo as he rode by on his much larger horse.
"Oh sure Professor, cause I so planned to be crushed by half a mine," Wade retorted with an eye roll.
"Ms. Welles, you know that I did not mean it that way…" But then Skurge interrupted the rest of what Arturo was going to say with a loud whistle to get everyone's attention.
"Listen up everyone!" shouted Skurge to the group. "Don't stray from the group. Where we're going is tough to locate. And do not bring attention to the group! If someone sees you, just act normal. Now let's move!"
With that said, everyone got their horses moving to follow Skurge.
Quinn looked at Wade, who had retied her shemagh around her face, and thought, These slides are getting more and more dangerous. First the Professor and now almost Wade…something's gotta change. But what?
These thoughts plagued Quinn's mind for the next few hours as the traveled further and further into the desert.
Finally though, after a long and very hot journey the travel finally came to a slow halt at the foot of a small mountain.
"Alright everyone, this is it. Stop right here," said Jason.
"You know with everything we've heard about this place, I was expecting a lot more," said Rembrandt.
Quinn looked at mountain and said, "I think that's exactly what they want us to feel Cryin' Man."
"Talk about underwhelming. If you didn't know this place was special. You'd always just go right past," added Wade.
Jason and Krissy then both dismounted their horses and handed their reigns to two people of their group. The two then climbed up a little ways then lifted from under their shirts a small blue crystal that dangled from a single string and inserted both crystals into a small hole on the side of a large boulder. Once inserted, the boulder then started to move and role away.
"Home sweet home everyone," said Krissy. "Go in as a single file line."
As the travelers entered the opening, they were able to see that the inside at first was a poorly lit cave. Then everyone was instructed to dismount their horses and walk with their reigns in their hands. As the travelers did what they were told, the sliders saw the boulder behind them slowly close and calmed their horses that got spooked a little due to the change in light.
Then everyone started to move once again and as they went deeper into the large cave they came across a large metal door. A door that Jason approached and banged on it with much force.
From the other side, a voice could be heard yelling, "Password!"
"Hhofesh!" yelled Jason in response. With the password given, the heavy metal door creaked as it slowly opened.
"Hho…that word. What's it mean?" asked Rembrandt.
"Hhofesh means freedom in Hebrew," answered Arturo.
"You speak Hebrew Professor?" asked Quinn.
"Among several others my boy. It's a beautiful language." The three other sliders looked between each other with an impressed expression on their faces. Their Professor was certainly an anomaly. But they loved him all the same.
As the travelers entered through the giant door, some people dressed in black military-like attire came and took the horses from them as they were ushered further into the haven.
The interior of the haven was enormous. There were overhead lights to keep the inside well lite as the many people from all walks of life bustled about. Then a uniformed young woman approached Skurge. The woman was an attractive but there was a hardness about her. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and was athletically built. Then they approached Jason, who was leading the travelers to an unknown location.
"Take them to the registration area. Captain Beckett here wants to talk to a specific four," said Skurge. "Arturo, Brown, Mallory, and Welles stay behind."
With that the woman, Captain Beckett, approached them as Skurge left to follow the others.
"I'm Captain Beckett. Follow me," the woman said tersely.
The sliders simply looked at each other and followed behind the retreating captain.
~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~
Once Captain Beckett opened the door, the sliders stepped through to see that the room was of medium size, with rocky textured walls. On the back wall, there was a large couch and that there was a desk filled with papers across from it. Sitting at the desk was their lawyer, Naomi LaLache.
"Well hello. I'm glad to see you all got here safely. I hope the travel wasn't too horrible," greeted Naomi as the four sliders came into her office.
She motioned for the weary travelers to sit on the couch as she poured them all a glass of water.
"I hope everything was relatively okay for you all while you were in the camp and for your journey across the desert,"
Naomi said conversationally.
"Meh. It was…well let's just say we're all glad to be alive," commented Wade, with the others nodding in agreement.
Naomi looked at them with sympathy as she sat back behind her desk. Then their lawyer took a deep breath to prepare herself for what she was about to say.
"I have some unfortunate news for you all. You see, when I finally got your 'timer' back from the police lockup. Um, well, I'm sorry to say that your 'timer' is..." unable to finish her sentence, Naomi simply reaches into a draw in her desk and gently hands them their now broken timer.
The sliders gasp in surprise as to what Quinn held in his hands. The once smooth plastic outer shell was now charred and cracked horribly. Quinn then opened the flap and tried to turn it on but the timer sparked wildly and smoke started to come out of the sides. The display that once had the countdown on it now refused to turn on.
"The timer...it's dead," Quinn said with an ominous defeat. The young genius slumped back in his seat and allowed Arturo to take the device from his limp hands.
"So we're stuck here?" But surprisingly it was Naomi who answered. "Well hopefully not." All of their heads snapped toward the lawyer in surprise. "Wait…what? You believed us?!"
Coming from behind her desk, Naomi sat in a vacant seat in front of the sliders and answered, "There's been so many things to happen to us…so I asked you those questions simply to make sure you weren't crazy or actually from another planet. So yes, I did come to believe y'all. And now, I'm hoping that the bartering agreement will help your current predicament. Basically, we're trying to escape this world."
"Wait. What do you mean another planet?"
"Just that. In our dimension we have life forms on other planets. In this dimension we have an alien neighbor called the Kromaggs…"
"Aw come on!" Rembrandt groaned loudly.
"You now of them?"
"Unfortunately yes. But when we ran into them they were on an alternate earth trying to invade several others."
"Yeah that sound like them. Again, I just wanted to make sure that you weren't one of them in disguise. They're technology is quite advanced and we don't know really who to trust."
"That's fair. So what's this bartering arrangement that could help us?"
"We have a Quantum Eigenstate Device, or as we call it Q.E.D., but we're having some problems though. But now this is where you all come in. We, rather, I'm hoping that because of your success with your device that we could use your expertise to help us resolve these problems. In return, you may use our facilities and tools to restore your…timer."
"That would be amazing! Thank you so much!"
"Alright it's settled then."
"I've got a question," said Rembrandt. Naomi looked at him expectantly. "Are you a lawyer and a scientist?" Before Naomi could answer, there was a knock on the door before it opened and an older Hispanic woman came in wheeling a cart of soup and more water. "Thank you Rita. Good night," Naomi said once the woman handed the four their meals and left.
As the famished sliders were digging into their supper, Naomi smiled and answered Rembrandt's question, "I'm simply a lawyer. I don't deal in the realm of the laws of physics. Which in away really brings me to another point. While you all are here, there are somethings you should know and what you're up against." A troubled yet curious look crossed each of the sliders faces as Naomi continued.
"Look, we're on a time crunch because essentially our world is going to be destroyed by a pulsar. But the populace at large don't know of this because there's a massive world war going on between two rivaling kingdoms. Where we are is the Kingdom of Xiaovatar ruled by King Chase Unomaraq. The other is the smaller but still strong Kingdom of Wrezia ruled by King Ronan Drogo. But our troubles escalated eight years ago. Eight years ago, King Unomaraq's soldiers captured a Kromagg who was traveling in the same solar system at the time. Once it was captured, the alien then sent a distress signal to its homeworld. Then a representative of the Kromaggs was sent out to investigate. During the course of their meeting with King Unomaraq, it was discovered that the Kromaggs were a dying species living on their own dying world. The two groups then make a deal to help each other: enhanced genetics to extend the Kromaggs life in exchange for their help in the war. Once the deal was made, King Unomaraq allowed the aliens to use the same enhanced genetics he himself used, which was created by Dr. Geiger."
Wade's eyes went wide at this. All this time sliding and I'm still shocked at things like this. Wonder what the professor thinks of all of this, thought Wade as she glanced to the big man sitting next to her and saw an unreadable expression on the acadamien's face. Then Wade turned her attention back to what Naomi was saying and thought, Then again maybe not.
"Then two years later, which was six years ago now, a man by the name of Quinn Mallory 'slid', as you call it, into King Unomaraq's palace! The young man was immediately detained and set off to prison. His technology was also detained and studied by the King's men and the Kromaggs. Thankfully, my good friend by the name of Romo Lampkin was there and was able to steal some key schematics before escaping. He contacted me and another friend of ours named Dr. Timicin and we founded this safe heaven called the Underground Escape. Unfortunately, this didn't deter King Unomaraq or the Kromaggs because, quite frankly, they had your double Quinn. It didn't take long after that for the Kromaggs, with this new technology and well developed powers, to soon leave this dimension."
At this portion of the story, Quinn couldn't help but think, Unbelievable, this Quinn discovered sliding much earlier than I did.
"You see, our goal is to leave this world as soon as possible. We've deployed a search team for a world that suitable for us and thankfully we've found it; however, the machine we've built can only take so many bodies inside. Again, I'm hoping that because of your success with your device that you'll be able to help diagnose what the problem is and help us expand the limit of the Q.E.D."
Taking it upon himself to speak for the group, Arturo took a deep breath and said, "This is certainly a dire situation. Regardless of that fact madam, we'll certainly do our best to help."
"That's all I ask. Now because of the late hour, let's find a place for you all to sleep," Naomi said as she stood up.
Following her lead, the sliders had abandoned their empty bowls on the table in front of them and stood up from the couch they were sitting on.
As they opened the door, they found that Captain Beckett was standing guard outside of it.
"Captain, I didn't realize that you were still out here."
"Just making sure there was no funny business ma'am."
Naomi had a disapproving look on her face, but let it go. "Alright then. Have you seen Zoe? My clients here are going to be staying with us for a while."
"Yes ma'am, just follow me."
And like before, Maggie started off into an unknown direction. Naomi silently motioned for the sliders to follow her and Maggie.
~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~
As the group left the office, the sliders were escorted down a dirt floor passage way. As they were walking, there were a few workers bustling about hauling large planks of wood and large sandbags. However, one of the workers dropped a plank of wood on Maggie's foot. With a sharp yelp, Maggie glared at the poor worker. Knowing the look the captain was giving him, the worker refused to look at the angry captain.
Seeing the way Maggie was about to blow, Naomi eased the storm saying, "It's alright Maggie. It was just an accident."
"Yes ma'am I'm sorry. I didn't mean it," the worker said as he hurried away.
Still fuming, Maggie led the others toward to women who were speaking a little ways down and yelled at them.
"Hey Zoe! Got some new bunkers for ya."
With their conversation interrupted, one of the women left while the other waited for them to come closer. The woman, Zoe, was a statuesque Cuban woman. Her brown hair was of a wavy texture as it cascaded past her shoulders. She wore a dark green quarter length sleeved shirt and an auburn colored vest. She also wore tan khakis and had shin high black boots.
As she waited for approaching group, Zoe observed the four new people with Naomi and Maggie. The four were made up of three men and one woman.
The young woman was attractive and petite brunette. Her hair was short and complemented her features. The young woman was still in her labor camp attire.
On the brunette's left was a tall slender young man, who looked to be the same age, with wavy-ish brown hair. This young man had a cool yet dopey air about him.
The other male, although older and quite rotund, seemed to be the leader of the group and he seemed to ooze confidence. This man had a big bear like appearance with his curly mustache and beard while his hair was straight and slightly longer than most other men in his age group.
And finally, the last man of the new group caught Zoe's eye. The middle aged African-American was quite handsome with his wavy jet black hair and mustache. He appeared to be a couple of inches taller than her. And his eyes emitted a kindness that she hasn't seen from another adult man in a long time.
"Zoe these are the people that'll help us with our Q.E.D. problem. This is Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, Professor Maximilian Arturo, and Rembrandt Brown. Everyone this Zoe Pearson, she's a very good friend of mine and she's going to show you where you'll be sleeping while y'all are here," Naomi said.
"It's nice to meet all of you," greeted Zoe. All of the sliders greeted her, except for Rembrandt who was too busy staring at Zoe. Wade got his attention by shoving her elbow into his side and a hello stumbled out of his mouth.
Naomi smirked at the singer's flustering and said, "Alright everyone, I've still got some things to do. So I'll leave you in Zoe's capable hands. Good night."
The sliders collectively said 'good night' and followed Zoe to their sleeping quarters.
..:TBC:..
Author's Note: So I gotta say that while Zoe is fancasted to be the same actress, this Zoe is NOT the same as in Firefly! The Firefly corssover will be used as an Alternate Earth and the Zoe in that future fic will be a double. (Hopefully that makes sense.)
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please R/R!