May 5, 1999

Three years since I was separated from my sliding companions.

It was also Cinco de Mayo.

I had a mini0-celebration with Dr. Vladimir Jariabek, Dr. Isaac Clark, and Brigadier General Angus Rickman in another world.

On that world, San Francisco was under the jurisdiction of El Reino de Espana Nueva, which reigned over a region from Panama to the Canadian border, with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east. They too celebrated Cinco de Mayo. From what our explorers learned, May 5, 1737 was when Nueva Espana was given its own parliament and Cabinet, while retaining the Spanish monarch- a similar arrangement between Canada and the UK, both here and there.

We all made the slide at 6:00 PM, emerging in their version of Azure Gate Park. At the spot where the Abraham Lincoln statue would be on our world, there was instead a statue of a man. The plaque read Rodolfo Moctezuma II. There were some people ion the park who noticed our arrival.

"Shall we go?" asked General Rickman.

We had some local currency, and so we took the bus. I noticed the emblem was the same as San Francisco city buses back home. I took a look around. Somethings were different, and other things were similar. McDonald's also existed here.

We got off on Calle Mercado, and then walked a few yards to this cantina. Explorers had been here before.

"We have reservations," said Rickman.

We went in, and the hostess showed us to our table. I did note that the general spoke fluent Spanish. We were escorted to the wooden table. The place was already lively. So many people were there, and waitresses walked around with trays of food and drink.

Our waitress came to us.

She was Wade Welles- more specifically, the Wade Welles of this dimension!

She took our orders. I myself decided just to have three steak tacos a la carte. I heard Rickman order in

Spanish, he seemed to order the Texas barbecue burrito.

"I talk English," she said.

"It must be very busy," I replied.

"Maybe it will be enough to pay card bill after I go to Selena concert here later."

I soon had my tacos as well as a Tecate beer on tap. We all chatted, some about my personal lives. I told stories about my twrnty months of sliding.

"I now spend my time reading reports," said General Rickman after taking a bite out of the Texas barbecue burrito. "I do miss exploring other dimensions."

"You were arrested for being a Nazi spy once," said Dr. Jariabek.

"Life is full of risk," replied the brigadier general.

We continued to talk as we ate and drank to listened to Spanish-language music playing in this place. Construction of the facility in Quinn's New World was ongoing, and there was already talk of setting up outposts on worlds which had technologies we could adapt.

Eventually, we were done, and Wade came to give us the check. Rickman paid with some local currency that Yerba Buena acquired from this world.

And then it was time to go. We were due to slide back at 9:00. we all went to a back alley connecting to Calle Mercado. General Rickman took out the timer and opened the vortex. Within a minute, I was back in Yerba Buena.

It was a pleasant time.

I knew I would be busy at the University.