June 6, 1998

I was back in Washington, D.C.

I was at a reception in the Rose Garden of the White House, at the invitation of President Bill Clinton.

Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, and Rembrandt Brown were there, of course. Also there were Drs. Steven Jensen and Diana Davis, Conrad Bennish, Jr., and Major Maggie Beckett. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Hagel, Mr. Almquist, Secretary of Commerce Bill Daley, and Major General Alexander Hunt were there, along with some others, some of them from the sliding research project. Hors d'ouerves were served. I did exchange some words with the President, telling him about some of my experiences, including tracking this world's Quinn. Photographers, both from the White House staff and some media outlets- took pictures.

Then Clinton took the podium to give a speech.

"My fellow Americans," he said. "Today we celebrate the homecoming of three individuals, who came home to their families and loved ones last week after spending three years in another version of the United States of America, another version of Earth, after an experiment in opening wormholes to other dimensions went wrong. We acquired the sliding generator built by Mr. Quinn Mallory and improved on it, gathering the greatest American minds to study the nature of realities themselves.

"I want to thank the research staff of the Yerba Buena Trans-Dimensional Research Facility for their hard work."

There was applause

"Our work is not done," the President continued. "Even today, we send explorers to visit different dimensions of this same planet. We are acquiring not just technologies, or even just scientific and medical knowledge that can benefit my fellow Americans and the rest of the world. We can learn about other cultures, many different, many not-so-different. We can learn their lessons, their triumphs- and their failures."

I reflected on my twenty months of sliding. I had witnessed wonders.

I had also witnessed horrors.

The reception continued for a while, and then President Clinton went back into the White House.

Quinn told me President Clinton offered him a job in Yerba Buena as a researcher. He would have to be approved by the Oversight Commission, of course.

"I wish I had visited the D.C. in that other world," he said.

"Perhaps another time," I said.