January 25, 1998

I woke up in my cell and t took me a full minute to realize this was no nightmare.

One of the MP's took me out of my cell and took me to this room. It was a bare room with a stainless steel table and some chairs. One the table was a breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, sausage patty, and a biscuit.

"Enjoy your breakfast," said the guard. "Someone's gonna see you."

I had my breakfast quietly. Conrad Bennish, Jr., Steven Jensen, Diana Davis, and Maggie Beckett may have returned to their world by now. And any more explorers they send here would surely figure out that a man named Maximilian Arturo was arrested.

I heard the door opened, and this world's Maggie Beckett appeared with this bespectacled man. They both wore uniforms identical to those used by the United States Army on my world.

"So you're Maximilian Arturo," she said.

"I am not the Arturo you think I am," I said.

"I will introduce myself," she said. "I am Captain Maggie Beckett, United Crown Commonwealths Royal Army. With me is Master Sergeant Michael Hurley. We will ask a few questions."

"Do I get a lawyer?" I asked.

"You will meet him later. Where have you been since 1996?"

"I am not who you think I am. I look like him, and I may have the same fingerprints and the same DNA, but I am not him."

"A clone?" asked Master Sergeant Hurley.

"I was part of a group of explorers from another dimension, another version of Earth. Some things are the same, some things are different. We went to visit other versions of Earth, mostly to find out more about the human condition and human nature. Another one of my fellow explorers was you, or your counterpart from the dimension I came here from. She wasn't there at the museum when you and Colonel Rickman came to arrest me; she and my companions would have returned to our world by now."

"You must be trying to plead insanity so you won't get executed, is that right?"

"I tell the truth. You would have found in my possession this device that counts down time. This timer would have opened a wormhole back to our research facility if I activated it when the timer hit zero. But I didn't, and the timer is now just a timepiece for the next twenty-nine years."

"How very convenient. Now tell me about the fake Rickman who was with you."

"There's nothing fake about him, Captain. He is as real as the Angus Rickman you know. He is just from another version of Earth on a parallel universe. You would have found a timer in his possession- which would not be opening any wormholes here for the next twenty-nine years."

"Parallel dimensions, other versions of Earth," said the Army captain. "Or maybe it is just a story you spun up to avoid the noose. There are many who will pay a fortune to witness your public hanging. As for the fake Rickman, it's easier to believe he's a Nazi spy, sent to infiltrate Her Majesty's military and the ranks of Her Majesty's Civil Service, to undermine our freedom and put us back in bondage." She looked at Master Sergeant Hurley.

"Let's go, Master Sergeant," she said to him.

"Yes, ma'am," snapped Hurley.

"Wait," I said. "Wade Welles! She spoke to your other self. She claimed that after she was rescued from the Presidio, she met someone who looked like her, and said she was another version of her. That other version was an explorer from our world, who got lost. We're trying to find her."

"Wade Welles hasn't forgotten you."

She simply left, and the MP escorted me back to my cell.

It was late in the afternoon when the guard removed me from my cell and took me back to the interrogation room. Would I be meeting Captain Beckett? Or maybe this world's Colonel Rickman or even someone with stars on his shoulders.?

There was a familiar-looking man in there, wearing a gray jacket over a white coat.

"I am Ross J. Kelly," he said. "I'm your lawyer."

I have heard and reads about this man's other selves who were also lawyers.

"I am glad you are here."

"We are Americans. Despite your crimes, you are entitled to challenge the evidence and witnesses against you, and present your own defense, in a trial before a military tribunal. We have two weeks before the prosecution begins opening arguments."

"Military justice is to justice what military music is to music."

"I did see a performance of the 1st Royal Marine band in Alberton in October of last year, just over a month after we liberated it.. Anyway, Mr. Arturo, I'll represent you. It's my job as your lawyer to do my utmost, even if it means you escape any punishment. So tell me everything."

"I am not the Arturo people think I am," I answered.

And I told everything, from the day THE Quinn Mallory took me to his basement to show he solved the sliding equation and opened the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge.

"You look sane to me," said Kelly. "that panel of generals and admirals aren't going to buy an insanity act."

"It is the truth, Mr. Kelly. "They have a man in custody that looks like Colonel Angus Rickman of the Royal Army; he even has the same fingerprint and DNA,. because he is another version of him from another dimension."

"Or that man was made to look like Rickman due to a Nazi bioengineering project to insert spies in our military and intelligence services. That's what Her Majesty's Armed Forces and Her Majesty's CIA would think." My lawyer stood up. "If they can open these portals to our Earth," he said. "Why not open up a portal here, in this very room? You can slide through- that's the term, is it?- and then Maximilian Arturo will once again be one of America's Most Wanted."

"We don't have that capability yet," I said. "The portal will only open on this side at Azure Gate Park."

"I'm sure they can send agents to retrieve you and then take you home."

"I's not that simple, Mr. Kelly. Before sliding, we have to set a time for our return. If the timer is somehow activated before then, then it won't lead home and the slider will be sliding randomly, like I did that first time. If the timer is not activated for maybe a minute or so after it reaches zero, then it will not be able to open wormholes in this dimension for twenty-nine years. So for an escape attempt to work, they would need enough time to find me and free me from custody, and then hide out somewhere until their timers reach zero. And then of course there's the fact that any explorers would have figured out that my captors aren't Nazis or Communists or slavemasters or assorted bad guys. They wouldn't want to use lethal force against people who are merely trying to guard someone facing trial for wartime atrocities. I know I wouldn't want to kill the guards here, even if they all want to see me hang."

"The prosecution would say you crafted quite a story that explains the absence of evidence, the absence of a rescue attempt from another dimension."

"My story is quite unbelievable. Tell me more about my other self."

"What Her Majesty's Government believes is that you, in your youth, joined a Hitler Youth movement in England, and were part of the uprising that toppled the Lord Protector in 1969. You later immigrated to the Commonwealths in 1988, after the Nazi takeover and four years after King Leonard was publicly executed. You became a Schutzstaffel officer, reaching the rank of Standartenfuhrer by 1992, when you took command of the Presidio Concentration Camp, where enemies of the American Reich were imprisoned and executed, and abused in ways I don't want to speak of now. It was so until the Raid on the Presidio in October of '94. Hundreds were broken out by the resistance. To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised our dear departed Reichsfuhrer did not have you publicly shot in San Francisco for your failure. You were never confirmed dead; the Government believes you had fled to South America where several Nazis were believed to hide."

"Is there any way you can arrange a newspaper to be delivered to my cell each morning?" I asked. "I do want to learn more about other versions of Earth that I visit."

"I'll see what I can do. I need to prepare your defense."