"Oh yeah, I forgot," said Quinn. "This is the longest we've been on one world in quite a while. At least things seem to be pretty normal here." "I know," Colin replied. "And NO Kromaggs!"

Shortly after, Colin and Quinn headed out to meet Remmy and Maggie for breakfast.

After waiting half an hour they began to worry and went to the front desk to see if they had left a message. "I don't know what you are talking about," said the clerk. "Only the two of you checked in last night." Quinn began to shout at the clerk. "What do you mean only the two of us checked in last night! You checked all four of us in yourself!"

The clerk looked puzzled. "Sorry sir," he said. "I don't remember that."

Quinn continued to argue with the clerk until Colin pulled him away. "Come on brother," he said. "We can't find them this way."

Quinn walked away while Colin thanked the clerk for his assistance. The brothers then headed out in search of their friends.

"I don't like this," said Quinn. Where are they? I am really worried about Remmy. I could tell he wasn't feeling well when we all went to bed last night." Colin replied, "I know what you...."

His sentence stopped short as Quinn watched him fall to the ground.

"Thank God, Colin. What happened?" Quinn asked.

Colin looked up at Quinn and said, "Who are you? And why are you calling me Colin? Why am I here on the street?" As he got up and brushed himself off, he pushed Quinn away and said, "Leave me alone you creep!"

Quinn ran back the way he came. He accidentally ran into a man.

"I'm sorry sir, I wasn't...Remmy!?" Rembrandt looked at him with a puzzled look, "Who the devil are you and who is this Rembrandt?"

"Remmy," Quinn said. "It's me, Q-Ball." "Look, just leave me alo-" His sentence was cut short. He then blacked out on the ground just like Colin did. "Not again!" Quinn sighed under his breath. "Rembrandt, wake up. C'mon don't do this to me!" Rembrandt's eyes opened. First he looked at his surroundings and then at Quinn.

"Q-Ball," he said, "I had the strangest dream." "Well what was it about?" "There was this tower, and....ughh, I can't remember." Quinn gave a concerned look and said "Don't worry we'll figure it out later. Right now we have to get the timer at the hotel." "All right. I mean after all, you are the genius here."

The two started for the hotel. But, when they were almost there Rembrandt froze in his tracks and looked dead ahead with a horrific look on his face.....

When Rembrandt noticed the puzzled look on Quinn's face, he said, "Those are the guys who came in our room last night. They came in, pushed some button on some kind of remote control device and left."

"What happened then?"

"That's what's so strange, it's like Maggie and I went to sleep right after they left. Didn't try to stop 'em or anything."

"You think they would know where Maggie and Colin are?"

"Best shot we have."

As Rembrandt started slowly towards them, Quinn grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "Wait. I've got to get the timer first."

"The timer? You mean you left the timer in the hotel room? I thought we already had this discussion."

"I know. I know. Keep the timer with one of us at all times," Quinn said like he knew it by heart.

"No point giving lectures now, huh? C'mon, let's go back to your room."

Quinn and Remmy walked along, with Quinn telling how Colin acted so strangely, and Rembrandt telling about his "dream", which now seemed more and more like reality.

Finally, they reached Quinn and Colin's room. "I'll keep a look out for those goons while you go in and get the timer," Remmy said.

As Quinn walked into the room and looked for the timer, he quickly let out a disgusted "Great! This is just great!"

"Don't tell me. They took the timer?"

"Worse." Quinn walked out, timer in hand. The digital read-out wasn't lit up and the timer looked like it had been recently dismantled. "They took the power chip."

Somewhere inside Maggie was sleeping on a very large bed. She was at that point when dreams become reality. Slowly stirring she awoke with a start, only to find herself tied down to the bed by her hands and her feet. She tried to struggle free and screamed out with the effort, but it was no good. All of a sudden a voice from behind her spoke, "Calm down Ms". A tall man in a long white jacket walked to the side of the bed. "You're not going anywhere".

"Let me go!" Maggie screamed out.

The man pushed her down hard on the throat "STOP IT!!....I dont want to have to kill you."

"What do you want! Who are you?"

"I'm cloning you Maggie, we know all about your little group of travellers and....."

Maggie interrupted the man "What!-- Cloning?"

The man looked to the other side of the room; Maggie followed his gaze. Her mouth dropped open: she couldn't believe it. Right before her very eyes she saw a copy of her body being created by hundreds of lasers. Head...shoulders....neck....they were all gradually apearing as the lasers seemed to draw out her body in thin air.

"Where are my friends; why are you doing this?"

"You have something we want."

"Where's Quinn, where's Remmy?"

"Your coloured friend is in the room next door ... his clone is already out there."

"NO!"

"Oh yes Ms. and I'm sure he's found your friend already..."

With that, the shape jerked up. "Look out you goon, or I'll give you what you got before!"

"Remmy?"

"Colin?"

"What the hell is going on here?" Rembrandt said, as he held a hand to his pounding head. "First, I'm at the Chandler last night, then all of a sudden I'm outside with Q-Ball. Then we try to retrieve the timer...which, by the way, now has a missing power chip."

"So what else is new?" asked Colin. "Don't we always meet someone who wants what we have?"

"I agree with you on that one, Farmboy. But, I had some weird dream about a castle with a tower or something. I don't know. Something is definitely wrong on this world. Then, I remember trying to hide from those people who came in our room last night."

"What people would those be?" Colin asked quizzically.

"Well, if you don't remember them, maybe I dreamed that, too. They had some kind of remote control that made us go to sleep. Come to think of it, they were kind of hazy. Maybe it was some kind of holographic projection. Anyway...next thing I know, you're poking me in the arm."

Colin let out a big sigh. "Well, a while ago, I heard Maggie screaming. She can't be too far from this room. It was pretty clear."

Remmy let out a little laugh. "Maggie could be on the next 'block' and we would still hear her scream."

"That is true, my friend," Colin agreed, nodding his head. "But, if she's in another room close by, we've got to try to get her out and then find my brother."

"Of course, of course," Remmy said in agreement.

Remmy slowly opened the glass door and peeked out into the hallway. It was brightly lit and his eyes had to adjust to the brightness after the darkened room he and Colin were being held in. 'Being held for what?', he didn't know. "Ok," he said, motioning with his hand for Colin to follow.

They hugged the wall as they followed the whining sound that could be heard down the hallway. When they arrived, they stopped beside the glass door that was identical to the one where they had been. Luckily, they didn't run into anyone...yet. Cautiously, Remmy opened the door a millimeter at a time. The whining noise was louder but he blocked it out. His eyes searched the room, then took in the sight of Maggie being restrained by metal clamps on a bed. Then, at the corner of his vision was a sparkling light. His eyes quickly took in the sight. There, in a round, metal cubicle, he saw the shimmering face of Maggie! Beside the cubicle he also saw a man adjusting some dials. He quickly exited and closed the door quietly. Motioning for Colin to follow, they headed back to their own room. Once inside, Colin asked, "What did you see? What was that sound? Was Maggie there?"

"Oh yeah...she was there. And so was her clone."

"Her what?" Colin said. "What's a clone?"

"No time to explain now. We just have to get her out of there and pronto!"

After a few short minutes of planning, they exited the room once more. Upon reaching the door, Remmy quietly opened it again. The man was now standing over Maggie, about to give her a shot of something. Quickly, Remmy ran up behind him, grabbing him with one arm around the neck, the other twisting the needle around and plunging it into the unsuspecting man's stomach. He crumbled quietly to the ground. Colin was trying to open the restraints to free Maggie.

"Hurry," Maggie hissed.

Remmy helped Colin and Maggie quickly jumped up, gave them both a hug, and said, "What took you so long?"

"Well, we thought we'd take a side trip to Margarita world first," Remmy said sarcastically. "What do you think we were doing?"

"Sorry guys. I'm just a little shook up to see that clone of myself over there," she said, pointing in the direction of the sparkling lights.

With that, Colin saw the sight for the first time. "Is that a clone?"

Remmy walked over to the cubicle, twisted the dials, and the shimmering face started to disintegrate. Maggie, Colin and Remmy watched as the sparkles floated to the metal floor and lay there. Maggie could see her own eye looking back accusingly at her. She had a little shiver go over her shoulders and then said, toughly, "Let's get the hell out of here and find Quinn...'now'."

In a dash Quinn ran down to the front desk and asked for the location of Biotech Engineering. The clerk answered Quinn's question. "Oh, yeah. It's the large building up on a hill about a mile from here. Looks like a giant tower or castle or someting. I hear they're doing weird experiments up there. Cloning, quantum physics, interdimensional travel. All kinds of weird stuff. They started the cloning to replicate body parts, but the physics stuff didn't happen until someone calling herself a "slider" came here. They must have taken it seriously because they made the person V.P. of the company. Her name's Logan something or other. I can't remember the last name. They have tours every couple of hours. You can go up there and see what "publicly" goes on." replied the clerk.

Quinn ran outside to catch a cab. He realized that the Rembrandt he was with had to be a clone. Quinn was shocked to hear Logan's name. "Logan St. Clare!! I was wishing she was gone for good. She must have sent her goons to steal the timer's power chip. She obviously landed here and got stuck."

Just then Colin showed up again. "Quinn. What happened? I remember passing out and then I found myself obsessively thinking of some giant tower of some sort. What now?" Quinn noticed the timer's readout begin to fade away slowly. He needed his power chip back.

"Come on," Quinn said, "I'll explain on the way." Quinn hailed a cab and they were off to Biotech Engineering.

"What's going on?," asked Quinn. "Is this the Colin from another earth?"

Rembrandt and Maggie looked at the Colin that was with Quinn. "He's a clone, Quinn...we don't have time to explain now. The engineers at Biotech should be coming any minute now. Did you recover the power chip for the timer?"

"Yes," Quinn responded. "We slide in 90 seconds."

Putting the cloned Colin into a cab, Rembrandt gave the driver five dollars and told him to take the clone to the nearest movie theater. Quinn, Rembrandt, Maggie, and the real Colin ran to an alley where they could undergo their next slide. As they entered the alley, they noticed a thunderstorm was approaching. Quinn activated the timer and the vortex opened. At the same time, they heard gun shots and noticed that they were being followed.

"Quick, hop into the vortex, guys", said Quinn. "I'll hold them off."

Colin, Maggie, and Rembrandt leaped into the vortex. A man with a gun approached Quinn and knocked him onto the ground. Quinn wrestled him for about fifteen seconds before he put a "Spock hold" on the man to make him unconscious. Quinn heard the loud noise of thunder. He quickly jumped into the vortex, but as he did, he was struck by a bolt of lightning. Instead of seeing the colorful spiral pattern as he traveled through the vortex, Quinn instead noticed an intense bright light...

Back on Earth Prime, Dr. Sam Beckett prepared himself for another "quantum leap" after preventing the death by fire of a prominent neurosurgeon. After travelling home for a last time and being told it was Sam`s life mission to save lives through leaping, it had taken Dr. Beckett a while to accept his situaion. But through seeing the results of his efforts, Sam had grown used to his way of life. As he walked out of the building that he had prevented from being burned, Sam noticed a thunderstorm.

"Better watch out," Sam said to himself. "Last time I leaped during a storm, I was struck by lightning and switched places with Al."

It was with such a thought that Sam saw the approaching of the bright white light that characterized each leap. But as it occurred, Sam suddenly felt the passage of thousands of volts through his body. The scene suddenly changed. Instead of a serene and highly intense bright light, Sam felt himself tumbling through a tunnel of some kind. He looked around to see that this tunnel was like no other...it was composed of many different colors that seemed to be spiraling around. Sam heard voices. Ahead, he noticed that there were three other people in the vortex.

Suddenly (and quite panfully), Sam felt himself hit the ground. As he came to, he noticed three people standing around him. One of them, a black man appearing about 40, asked him, "Who the hell are you? What have you done with Q-Ball?"

"Yeah," an agressive woman yelled, "You're not Quinn."

Sam looked up at these people and wanted to say something, but he seemed to murmur only two words. "Oh boy," he said.

...As the shining light began to diminish, Quinn grew fearful as to what was happening. He didn't know whether he was dead, dreaming, or what. When the light fully disappeared, Quinn noticed that he was in a cell of some type. In it, were two women. One of them looked extremely familiar. "It can`t be," Quinn thought to himself. Quinn blinked his eyes, but the scene didn't change. In that same cell of Quinn was no other than the kidnapped and enslaved Wade Welles.

"Wade!," Quinn yelled!

"Don't get so excited, Kate, a Kromagg camp isn't the funnest place to be, you know."

"Why are you calling me Kate, Wade. It's me...Quinn!"

"That's not funny, Kate," shouted Wade. "You know how much I love and miss him!"

Quinn began to protest Wade's remark, but as he did, he caught a reflection in the mirror...a reflection that seemed to reflect his image, but was not that of which he was used to. In fact, the face he was staring at in the mirror was that of a female. "Oh boy," Quinn said, "What is going on here?"

As this was going on, Quinn saw a man appear out of nowhere. Little did Quinn know, he was looking at the famous hologram from Earth Prime known as Al.

A tall man in a long white coat (who did indeed look a lot like Scott Bakula) snorted with satisfaction as he surveyed the room. All four of the Sliders had appeared in this room from a vortex seconds before.

"Will they be okay?" the second person asked intently. She was an determined looking woman whom many would consider attractive.

"Capturing a vortex is never easy, nor is it comfortable for the passengers. They could suffer brain damage, or just squeeze by with a couple hallucinations half based in reality, or they could be stuck in a dreamworld for the rest of their lives. There is no way to judge at the moment."

"You almost didn't get them in time," the woman spat out. "If our agent on the street had not seen them and contacted us immediately as they prepared to leave..."

The door opened, allowing several men; whose arm size no doubt doubled their collective IQs, judging from the vacant expressions on their faces; to enter the room.

The woman ordered the removal of three of the Sliders. When she was alone in the room with Quinn, she squatted next to him. "You are trapped on this world for the next 29 years, dear heart." She smiled, somewhat attractively. Then she slapped his unconscious face viciously. "I know what you are, my dear."

"At least, I know what you are going to be..."

The timer was confiscated, and from what Logan had told him when he recovered, useless. He was stuck in a society of cyborg clones, imprisoned in a tower like a damsel in distress from a third-rate fantasy novel. All this, and he was having hallucinations of being Scott Bakula.

For a moment he thought he could see Al Calavicci again; then he realized it was Remmy, wearing the clothes he'd picked up on Disco World a couple of slides ago. Quinn sank back against the wall, groaning.

"Maybe it's all some Kromagg illusion," he muttered. Maggie stopped pacing for an instant.

"Don't even go there," she ordered him. "If our situation gets any more convoluted, I'm going to say something very, very nasty."

The next person they saw was a robotic double of Colin marching stiff-leggedly outside the transparent aluminum window. Maggie considered making a comment on how the Colin clone acted almost as wooden as the original, but figured Remmy in his bitter, injured state might say something about preferring a robotic Wade for company to her, and remained silent.

Seeing his doppelganger, Colin made his obligatory weekly remark about the complications of technology and how he'd really prefer to land on a world of farmers sometime.

It was half an hour later when Logan St. Clare entered their cell, looking much the same as she had two years ago. She grinned and looked at Quinn. "You know what you are," she stated without preamble.

There was an awkward moment of silence.

Feeling something had to be said, Colin declared "He is my brother."

Logan looked at him oddly.

"He's my key to immortality," explained Logan. "Quinn's genetic code will allow me to produce countless clones of myself. All I'll need to change is an X chromosome in place of a Y. I'll pass my soul down from one avatar to another, achieving virtual immortality. Of course, we'll have to render his body down to its component elements to have enough preservable material..."

Quinn's mind reeled at the thought of her mad plan. As he faced certain death, he had a sudden insane thought that it would make a really good plot for a James Bond movie.

Logan called one of her guards. "Scott? I think we're ready." The Sam Beckett look-alike arrived to lead Quinn into the hallway. *It really was Scott Bakula*, thought Remmy.

As Quinn was forced stumbling into a room labelled "Genome Isolation", he knew he had only one chance ... to escape, recover the timer, and secure another power chip that would slide them all off this Earth ...

But how?

It was then that he noticed his lifeless timer sticking out of Logan's lab coat pocket...

"Real attractive" thought Remmy, but out loud he said "Yeah why do you think they keep doing that girl?

"I don't know" replied Maggie, "remember, Logan isn't exactly dealing with a full deck."

"I did not notice her dealing at all" said Colin "and what is a deck..??what is dealing??" he asked quizzically.

"Shut up...we've got to figure out how to get the timer chip -good thing Quinn filled us in on that while he was conscious the last time we saw him" "Think guys,if we can reason why they want the chip maybe we can figure out where it is"

Our three heroes stood around , thinking..thinking hard... thinking harder ...suddenly, Remmy smelled smoke..he looked suspiciously over in Colin's direction..."Whew, it's not him", he thought with relief. Quickly his relief turned to panic when he noticed a wispy bluish smoke seeping in through the bottom of the door..."what the hell.." " Uh, Maggie we've got to get out of here..NOW!!!"

"All right guys, don't panic", said the marine, "I have an idea..we'll use these berets I have in my pocket as gas masks {I'm so sorry..something is wrong with me..I just can't help it --1013shan} ..."we'll use these berets as gas masks..here everyone take one and tie it around your face"..Maggie's was so big it encompassed her entire face. "we ARE getting out of here" with those words, she jumped up unhooked the grate to the vent in the ceiling (convienant huh) and said, "boost me up!!"..She crawled into the duct with the other sliders close behind..........

************************

Quinn had resolved himself to escape...no matter what he had to do..no matter how vile..how disgusting..he knew he would not be the sourse of Logan St. Claire's immortality..not if he could help it.

Quinn looked around the Genome Isolator room. Scott had long since left and now Quinn remained strapped onto a table waiting..waiting for Logan St. Clair. Soon she opened the door. "Well darling - are you ready to sacrifice yourself for me? About to say something sarcastic, Quinn stopped himself..Was Logan flirting with him? Why did she keep looking at her image in the mirror, why did he keep catching her stealing glances at him? Nah, he was just imagining it..Or was he?

"My you are attractive..but then again you are my double so what did I expect.." Logan laughed, but this time it wasn't the evil sinister cackle he had heard before..It was more of an uncertain girlish giggle - like she was waiting for his approval. Quinn figured..what the hell.. "Yes Logan, I never realized that I was attractive until I saw you, not only are you beautiful, but you're brilliant..If you weren't always trying to kill me I'd have to ask you out..We'd make quite a team you know."

"I know" she said quietly, "but nothing is going to stand in the way of my immortality"

"Oh come on Logan, come here..tell me you can't picture us together..a team..we could slide and find another double - use him and both remain immortal..together."

Logan looked up at him suspiciously, "Don't toy with me Quinn." her voice was cold and monotone again. "I'm no fool" she was walking toward him with determination now. "Sure we can be together....why not, but make no mistakes, you and I are NOT a team...far from it." She slapped him with one had and reached for his zipper with the other..

***********

Ironically, the orgasm was the best Quinn ever had..It must have been good for Logan also because he was able to grab the timer just before she fainted....

[again sorry - but what the hell did you guys do to me..besides..i said no EXPLICIT sex scenes..that was kind of subtle... :)1013shan}

*****************

Quinn dressed as he was running down the hall. He had to find his friends...little did he know they were right above him

************

With Maggie in the lead, the threesome crawled through the air-conditioning vent, berets over thier faces to slow the blue smoke from filling their lungs.. They could hear the fire alarm now.. the building was being evacuated. As they crawled, they passed several vents over rooms, but they were securely bolted on...finally, Maggie found a vent that would give (convienant) she managed to kick in out and she and the vent went tumbling into the room below. The boys followed suit. They found themselves in a large sterile looking room..lining the walls were what looked like suspended human beings..."

"My God. They're clones" Remmy uttered. "What was Logan doing? Creating an army?"

"It looks that way - and we landed right in the middle of it"

"This is obviously a lab of some sort guys, look around for the timer or anything that can help us." Maggie took control - again.

"Hey, this is pretty" Colin said as he held up a small shiny object that he found pleasing to gaze at.

"You idiot - I think that's the thing that goes in the timer" screamed Maggie

"Yeah, I've seen enough a those to know that that IS the thing that goes in the timer" (convenient huh? - and don't forget...they are all still wearing berets on their faces-- :))

"Lets go find Quinn" Remmy said as quickly as possible..For once he wanted to make the decision..."well done Remmy" he congratulated himself. Maggie looked pissed.

They burst out into a hallway of blue smoke...luckily it was hovering close to the ground so they could still see. The building was quiet, having been, for the most part evacuated. They chose to go left and started to run...

*************

Quinn heard the alarms and noticed the blue smoke. Something must have gone wrong with these freaky cloning experiment he though as he ran down a hallway, opening doors, looking for his friends. He glanced over his shoulder..no Logan..yet..

***********

Remmy , Maggie and Colin were running full speed now, opening doors yelling for Quinn..

Quinn heard their faint cries..he headed towards them..the blue smoke was all around his feet now....unfortunately, Quinn wasn't the only one who hear their cries..Logan, slowly coming to heard them and ran into the hallway (dressed of course)..and so did two of the large guards..as Logan ran behind Quinn listening for his voice..the guards followed the other three.

They were coming to a part of the building where, they would all run into each other..Quinn spotted them first across a long hallway ?? "Guys..I have the timer..." he yelled, blue smoke and distance between them hindering their escape. "We've got the chip Quinn" yelled Maggie, "but we're being followed"

"WHAT???" he couldn't understand a muffled word she was saying.

With Logan behind Quinn and the guards behind her..Maggie knew she has to do something - FAST... as the four ran closer together, she tossed the chip to Quinn, then she turned taking the beret from her mouth and using it like a frisbee hurled it at the guards..what luck!!!..it got them both in the eye!!! Quinn put the chip in the timer and the vortex opened...JUST IN TIME FOR THEM TO LEAP TO SAFETY.......

When the vortex closed. Logan and the guards arrived on the scene.. 'Noooooo" Logan screamed...and the building exploded - or something like that- I'm exhausted

1013shan

and by the by I wanna go last all the time!!!!!