Chapter 48:
The group emerged in a large room, with several computer consoles lining the walls, with a large Kromagg sliding device that looked like a laser cannon. Rembrandt walked over to it and tapped it with his hand.
"Maggie, remember the last time we saw one of these?" Rembrandt asked.
"It was the last time we were on a mission to rid the universe of the Kromaggs for good." Maggie replied.
"That's definitely an antique." James said. "They decommissioned those years ago. Wonder why it's here..."
"Well, I'm a bit of a pack-rat, so it makes sense that Logan also has that trait." Quinn said. "Let's get to work."
"This room should be safe from cameras, it's in the R&D wing, and after the failure of the time travel, the Kromaggs have been focusing on massing armies." James said. "At least that was the chatter I heard."
"Well, if there are cameras, I can disable them." Wade said.
"Mr. Mallory, shall we start with modifying the machines?" Arturo asked.
"Good job, Professor. Let's go, Colin." Quinn said as they started laying out their equipment.
"We'll watch the door." Maggie said, grabbing Rembrandt by the arm.
"And, we have a mission of our own." Michael said. "We'll try not to be seen."
"Good luck, try to get back quickly." Quinn said.
"We will." Michael said, as he, Sam and Rebecca walked out of the room.
"So, this computer should have a listing of the Kromagg bio-signature." James said.
Michael, Sam and Rebecca snuck down the hallway, holding their rifles close to their bodies. As they passed a door, it suddenly opened and Michael was dragged inside and tossed to the floor. He looked up to see Tiberius standing over him, aiming a gun at him. Sam and Rebecca rushed into the room, aiming their weapons.
"Shoot at me and he dies." Tiberius said. "Drop your weapons."
Sam and Rebecca complied. Tiberius looked at the three of them, smiling to himself.
"The Empress will be most pleased. You're not Mallory, but you'll do." Tiberius snarled.
"Can you just answer me one question?" Michael asked. "Why doesn't Logan have our home coordinates? You tried to invade our world."
"You don't actually think I relay my failures to the Empress, do you? That was my own private operation, the perfect gift for the Empress, that you ruined. She would have only heard in the case of success." Tiberius replied.
"That certainly makes a lot of sense based on my tenure working for you." a voice said. Tiberius turned to see James, standing at the door with his timer in his hand.
"Ah, both of you are here. Not only do I get to turn them over to the Empress, but I finally get to kill you for your betrayal." Tiberius said.
"You're the one that betrayed me. We were never on a peaceful mission to stop sliding from falling into the wrong hands. It was in the wrong hands all along, yours." James said.
"Maybe so, but soon the multiverse will be ours." Tiberius said.
Quinn held a circuit board in place as Arturo and Colin attached wires and soldered them to the Kromagg device. Wade sat at the computers, and Rembrandt and Maggie stood at the door.
"Mr. Mallory, I wish you had made this device a little easier to assemble." Arturo said.
"Sorry, I didn't have the time to make an instruction manual." Quinn laughed.
"This is too easy. I feel like Logan should have burst in with guards already." Colin said.
"She's probably too busy looking for us to realize we're hiding under her nose." Quinn said.
"I don't think this room has been used in months." Maggie said. "The hallway is empty and half the lights aren't working."
"Looks like a couple of the clubs I played in during my post-Topps years." Rembrandt chuckled.
"And these computers are dusty. This place probably hasn't been used since we escaped the Mags fifteen years ago." Wade said.
"We need to get these computers hooked up to our machine. This software should get them connected." Colin said, handing a flash drive to Wade.
"You still haven't explained the Slidecage part to me yet. The cage we were on was built specifically for that purpose." Maggie said.
"I'm using a simplified version. I'm just creating a dampening field around the world that we're putting them on, that will disable all sliding tech, whether brought with them or built there. No one slides in, no one slides out." Quinn said. "And the device keeping it active will be here, and with any luck, no one will be left here to mess with it after we leave."
"I think I can get this work, but this operating system is old, good thing it's like the stuff we used at Doppler, so I think I can handle it. If only Hurley could see me now." Wade said.
Tiberius grabbed Michael off the floor and held the gun to his back. Michael tensed up and looked gravely at Sam and Rebecca, who stood firmly in place. James held his timer in his hands, his finger resting over a button.
"Any last words?" Tiberius asked as he moved the gun and trained it on James.
"Actually, I do. Jump!" James shouted.
Michael headbutted Tiberius and ducked out of the way as James activated his timer. Tiberius dropped into the portal that opened on the floor. The trio looked in shock as the portal closed and James put his timer back in his pocket.
"Where did you send him?" Rebecca asked.
"Well, if my calculations were correct... about ten miles thataway." James said, pointing towards one of the walls.
"That takes care of one issue, let's get back to the others." Sam said.
They walked out into the hallway, only to step back into the room, with several Kromagg rifles trained on them. The sliders looked at each-other with looks of dread. They were dragged into separate interrogation rooms, except for Michael and James. The two doubles began to whisper as they waited for a guard to show up. A Kromagg walked in and stared them both down.
"Identify yourselves. Which is which?" The Kromagg asked. They answered and a guard dragged one of them out of the room.
The remaining Michael Josephson sat opposite a Kromagg that was straining to use his mental powers on him.
"Something wrong?" he asked, smirking. "My mental fortitude must not be something you expected."
The Kromagg continued straining. Meanwhile, Sam and Rebecca sat in a cell, when someone was brought in front of the cell.
"You'll never get away with this, you fiends!" the person shouted in a British accent. He was tossed into the cell with the other two sliders.
"James! What happened to Michael? We told them that we had only shown up to help Quinn escape before and had been hiding out and didn't know where Quinn was." Rebecca asked.
"If I had to guess, they're trying to get Quinn's location out of his mind, but they'll have a hard time with that, considering he was trained to be able to fight off Kromagg mental powers." he replied, dropping the accent slightly.
"Michael?" Sam whispered. He smiled.
"I guess they didn't want to scan us to see which one was actually me, and well, we didn't resist telling who we were, and James does a pretty damn good impression of me." Michael whispered.
"How do we get out of here?" Sam asked.
"Same way we did last time." Michael replied, pulling the keycard out of his pocket, cementing his identity. He waved it into the force-field, but the force-field remained in place. "Come on..."
"They must have changed the codes since we were last here. Not surprising, considering we used that card to break Quinn out yesterday." Rebecca said.
"I guess we just have to wait and hope that Quinn and the other finish their plan without incident." Michael said.
Quinn looked towards the door as he fitted the Kromagg device with another piece of his machine.
"Michael and the others have been gone a long time. I think someone should go looking for them." Quinn said.
"I agree, Mr. Mallory." Arturo said. "They may have been captured."
"Maggie, Rembrandt, Colin, you stay here and continue work. Wade, you're with me. Professor?" Quinn said.
"I'm a little too old to be rushing around like a commando, I'll stay here with Colin and work on the machine. You and Ms. Welles go ahead." Arturo said.
"Let's go." Quinn said.
Quinn and Wade walked into the hallway and towards a more used, well-lit corridor. Logan sat in her office, watching her computer screen as she saw the two walk across her screen. An evil grin spread across her face. She tapped an intercom button.
"Guards, be aware of Mallory and Welles in the hallways. Do not approach or apprehend, those two are mine." Logan said as she stood up and walked out of her office.
To Be Continued...