"Everybody stand back. Give the man room to breath. I'm a doctor and I'll do whatever needs to be done." The voice was attached to a tall, beautiful woman, a woman who was definitely used to being in charge. "He's unconscious but it appears he's okay. We'll take him to my house across the street, put him in bed and let nature take its course. He'll probably wake up within the hour. Is he your husband lady?" Maggie jerked her head around and answered, "Absolutely not!" "Then what is he doing out on the streets, and why are these men along too? What kind of woman walks around outside with men?! They should be in the house where they belong!" the doctor reprimanded. With that said she ordered Quinn and Remmy to gather up their companion and motioned them toward a beautiful old home with huge oaks and Spanish moss all around.

As the men walked ahead, Maggie engaged the lady doctor in some conversation to try to figure some things out. "I'm sorry about the men but we're not from around here and I needed to have them with me. We're traveling and have become quite lost. You know how men are. Where are we exactly?" With eyes wide open, the doctor said, "Why you must really be lost if you don't know you're in Savannah." "Savannah!" Maggie gulped. "How did we wind up in Georgia?" The doctor couldn't believe what she just heard. "Georgia?!! Lady, I think you're the one who hit her head, if you think this is Georgia. You're on the other end of the continent. This is Savannah, California!"

The door opened slowly with a loud screech. The sliders couldn't believe their eyes!!! There right in front of them was their old friend the Professor dressed very smartly in a butler's uniform.
Quinn was the first to speak. "Professor?" The large man looked at Quinn with his mouth wide open. "MR MALLORY!"

"Arturo, could you grab my medical bag? This young man here hit his head and it needs bandaging." The doctor asked in a harsh tone. "Yes, doctor, right away." Arturo ran to the study and retrieved her medical equipment. The doctor turned to Maggie and asked for Colin's ID and her owner's card. "Uh, he doesn't have any ID and I left my owner's card at home, back in Canada." Maggie replied. The doctor looked at her like she was crazy. "You must have hit your head too. There hasn't been a Canada since president Nancy Reagan signed a treaty making Canada's provinces the last of the 12 United States of America." the doctor said, promptly. "I guess that means you don't have his pedigree, either?" "No. Sorry." said Maggie. "Well, being that he is badly injured, you can stay here a while. You don't mind waiting on these nice people, do you Arturo?" "No, ma'am. Not at all. It's always a pleasure to have company." replied Arturo.

Arturo motioned for Quinn and Rembrandt to go into the kitchen with him. They gathered at the kitchen table and talked quietly. "Quinn , have you had time to work on that physics theory of yours. You know, the one about getting us off of this God-forsaken planet. You know I had to act like I hadn't seen you in a while for everyone's own sake. Working for that doctor, that blistering idiot, has become nothing but hell on earth. Hopefully you can get us men off of this earth, eh?" Arturo replied.

Rembrandt looked at the professor and said "We need to know what's going on here, sir. You see, we're not from this earth. We slid here from another dimension." "So Quinn, you did perfect sliding. That's a good lad. When can we leave?" asked Arturo.

At the back door Arturo heard a light tapping noise. "One second," he said, "let me get that. It's probably Conrad or Mr. Wing [Wing was the Asian guy in the pilot]." When he opened the door he was shocked to see another Quinn standing on the back steps. "Like Rembrandt said, we're not from here, but we can explain." "Please do!!" said Arturo as each Quinn glanced at each other in amazement.

All of them heard a crash upstairs, "Good Heavens!" Arturo exclaimed and immediately rush over to investigate as the others followed.....

"What happened here, Ma'am?" asked Arturo anxiously.

The doctor got up slowly still cradling her arm and approached them. "There was a man in here," she said, "He left through the window." She pointed to the open window.

Quinn went over to the window and peered out of it. He could see how the man had got away. There was a window box at every window and several pipes which could be used as foot or hand-holds. "He's already gone," he said.

"Did you see his face?" asked Maggie sympathetically.

"Yes," said the doctor, "but it's just not possible." She looked into Maggie's eyes. "It was the young man I brought in earlier, the one who was with you!"

Rembrandt bolted into the room where they had left Colin, but returned quickly. "He's still there, exactly as we left him."

The doctor made her way to the same room and checked what Rembrandt had already done. She didn't quite trust men. She thought they might easily lie to protect each other. "He's right," she said, "He couldn't have moved. I don't understand." She was fighting to keep back the tears. It wasn't because of her arm, but of the shock she had just received.

Maggie put her arm comfortingly around the doctor and said, "Come on, we'd better phone the police and tell them what happened." The doctor nodded and they went down the stairs to find a phone.

When the guys were alone, Arturo began to shout at Quinn's double. "You blistering idiot!! Why didn't you tell me!"

"I tried," replied Quinn's double sheepishly, "That's what I came to tell you about; We have to stop him...."

"You're right Mr. Mallory," replied the professor. "Wasn't it only sixteen months ago that men ruled this earth and women spent their time at home washing dishes?"

"Yea, it was," said Quinn2. "And it was then that we lived in the wonderful Confederate States of America and we had that national anthem written by Gregg Allman. It's just that Colin made such a bad impression on the people from the past. From what I gathered in interrogating him, the people of the fourteenth century thought he was so dumb that women must be smarter than men. It's got to be changed."

The professor said, "Yes, yes. We must get our hands on that time machine."

"But what should we do about your old friends. From what you say, we can't tell them about our secrets..."

"No, we surely cannot, Mr. Mallory! If they found out that I faked my death two years ago in order to expose Quinn's secrets, they'll most surely condemn us... They think I'm the good-hearted professor who died to save them. Little do they know that I planned the whole thing from day one. Mallory didn't deserve to expose sliding... I did...I've been working hard ever since I was a youngeon. We're going to find Colin and get that time machine! And thank god, we built that sliding machine. All we need to do is steal Mr. Mallory's earth prime coordinates, return back there, and travel back to 1994 to prevent Quinn from sliding. Then I'll use the timer to show everyone at earth prime that I, Professor Arturo, am the true brains in the creation of sliding."

Quinn2 abruptly said, "We need to take our antiparadox medication by the way. If we forget to, the changing of history will affect our minds and we will forget the plans we made to begin with."

Quinn2 and "the real" Professor Arturo lingually took the medication.

Arturo said, "Now, Mr. Mallory, we must find a way to trick my old friends into giving us those coordinates for earth prime and we'll spoil all his old plans..."

"Oh, we were just commenting on how this is not the first episode we have had with Colin." Arturo said.

"You see," Quinn2 said, "Colin is criminally insane. He's been an in-patient at Gate Haven for several months now, but they can't keep him in there. Neither electro-shock therapy nor straight jackets can hold him."

"And you find this funny?" Remmy said. "There's a crazy man on the loose out there, and he could have killed someone when he was here!"

Just then the sound of a siren filled the air. The police had arrived. Everyone went downstairs, and the doctor gave the two officers a description of the intruder while Arturo gave her a glass of ice water to help calm her down.

The doctor began to give a description of what happened, when she suddenly collapsed. Maggie was there to catch her, and she let her down easy.

Quinn2 decided to continue where the good doctor left off. "Officers," he said loudly. "These are your culprits here," He pointed at the Sliders. "You will find the man described upstairs in the second bedroom, unconscious from a blow to the head. The whole group busted in the door and assaulted the doctor while she was examining Max."

"Yes, remove them at once." Arturo said.

"What?!" Quinn said. "He's lying!"

Rembrandt added, "What the hell is going on here?!"

The officers had no choice but to take the Sliders to downtown Savannah and question them. As they were cuffing Remmy and Quinn, Maggie grabbed the timer from Quinn and ran. One of the officers drew her gun and chased her, while the other drew hers and put Quinn and Remmy into the squad car. The officer then drove off to catch up with her partner.

Quinn2 and Arturo took the doctor upstairs and laid her in a bed.

"So how did you start sliding anyway, Max?" Quinn asked.

"I believe I have told you this many times, Mr. Mallory," Arturo answered. "I feel no need to go into it again. Besides, we have to get that time machine from your brother."

"I just like to hear you tell it, that's all," Quinn said.

"Very well, Mr. Mallory, I shall indulge you. It all started, of course, while I was working on building a Sliding machine of my own. In time I found out about a group of Sliders that had appeared on my earth, one of which was their beloved Professor Maximillian Arturo. They each thought they were home, but Quinn remained a skeptic because on their earth, they have the Golden Gate Bridge, which is red - go figure. On my earth, however, it is Azhure Blue, and is named accordingly. To make a long story short I borrowed their Sliding machine in order to complete my work and receive the Nobel Prize that was already indebted to me. I also had an interesting run-in with my double from their earth..."

Arturo's anecdote was interrupted by the sound of gunfire outside...

"Put your hands up where I can see them," said the officer pointing the gun at Maggie, who was behind a nearby parked car. "If you refuse to, I will shoot!"

"Please! Don't hurt me" said Maggie in her best bluffing voice. She wasn't the type that would give up easily. She saw the nervousness of the officer, and knew she had a good chance of getting out without a bullet wound.

But, just as Maggie was about to bolt, the officer's partner skidded his car behind her, leaving the slider trapped.

"Okay!" said Maggie raising her hands up in the air "I give up." Beckett flinched at what she had just said. She hated those 3 words. And she hated saying them even more.

"Cuff her!" said the police officer to her partner, still pointing the gun at Maggie. The cop got out of her car, locking the doors to make sure Quinn and Rembrandt don't escape. She saw the tip of the timer peeking out of her pocket when putting the hand cuffs on Maggie.

"What's in your pocket?!" Said the officer with a strong voice

"It's my garage door opener" Ssaid Maggie, hearing the moans of Quinn and Remmy as if they were saying 'Is that the best you can do?!?!?!"

"Yeah?" She took the timer out of the woman's pocket and studied it. "Looks a little too fancy, doesn't it?"

"There it is!" said Arturo storming out of the complex with his Henchman, Quinn 2. He walked up to the officer and looked at the timer in the woman's hands. "I see you have found my TV controller." He pauses and makes a friendly fakish laugh. "You know a man can not do anything without his controller."

As the officer hands it to Arturo, screaming comes from the complex of the car.

Max looks at Quinn and Remmy banging on the glass of the back-seat of the auto Mobil. "Ah. I see you won't be too hard on my associate's crazy twin brother and his madman friend. Oh, and officer..."

"Yes?" said the officer.

"I also hope the swat behind your head you are about to feel won't be too painful."

"Huh?", just as the officer said that word, she gets a big hit on the back of her head and falls cold. Revealing that the evil Colin was behind her, with an evil grin. He immediately took her place in holding Maggie still.

"Stop or I'll shoo--" the other officer's sentence was cut short when she was knocked out by Quinn2.

"Good job my boy," said Arturo patting his partner's back. He then turns to face Colin. "And you, Colin. You are cutting it close." He pauses to look at the timer. "We have 60 seconds left. Now give me the attachment."

Colin hands the time transporter attachment to Max and he hooks it to the back of the timer.

"Now," began Arturo "I will punch in the time and dimensional coordinates to Quinn's coordinates in the year 1994 and we'll do our dirty work there."

"You're crazy!" yelled Maggie, squirming to get free.

Arturo laughed madly. "Why yes...I may be. But a very genius one at that." He pauses to look at the timer. "And I believe, this is my cue. For the timer has hit zero."

Just then, the timer releases the gateway. But, it was very different from anything the Sliders have seen before. It never stayed one color, and small lightning bolts came out of it.

"Are you sure it's stable Max?" asked Colin, a little uneasy about the image of the vortex.

"Why of course it is you blithering idiot!" said Arturo slapping Colin across the head. "It was made by me wasn't it?!"

As Arturo, Quinn2 and Colin2 were ready to jump into the vortex, Rembrandt and Quinn finally got the door open to the police car and stepped out.

"Its a good thing we learned a thing or two about picking locks." said Quinn holding up a pair of opened cuffs.

Arturo pushed both Quinn2 and Colin2 into the vortex and breaks a grin at Quinn1. "See you in the future. Or is it, the PAST!"

Arturo jumps into the wild vortex laughing, just before it closes.

"NO!" yelled Rembrant.

"What do we do now Quinn?" asked Maggie.

"I don't know" said Quinn, looking dead into the clear atmosphere "But, if Arturo's theory in time goes as planned, we will cease to exist..."

"and that could take a while, if you were as boneheadedly stubborn then as you are now," Maggie interrupted, with a hopeful smile. Quinn started to argue with her as per usual, but Colin and Remmy broke it up. The cops were sitting up, rubbing their heads. "So what are we gonna do about it?" Remmy pressed. "Well, we can't stay here," Maggie said, louder than necessary, grabbing Colin's arm as she got up. The Sliders made a hasty exist before the police could find their guns. Not knowing how long they'd stay around each worried that they'd never leave this world.

The next day they were astonished to realize that not only did they still exist, but that most of this world was exactly like Earth Prime. They began to get more comfortable in their suite at the Chandler. Then someone knocked at the door. Maggie, who was drying her hair after her morning shower, called to Colin to get the door. He, however, was engrossed in a television program (he'd taken one appart on the last world and could now watch the shows without being distracted by the technology.)

Rembrandt was explaining the finer points of The Addams Family to Colin who still watched television with a kind of awe on his face. They ignored Maggie's appeal to get the door. She called to Quinn, but he was in the bedroom attempting to rebuild the timer from the VCR remote (originally he was going to use the TV remote, but Remmy nixed that idea before he went into his scientific frenzy) and at any rate he was deaf to outside noise while he worked. Dropping the towel from her hair around her shoulders Maggie went to the door, mumbling something about doing everything herself. "Remmy could you turn that thing down?" she called, her hand on the knob. He shouted something about Gomez seeming more whipped than usual. "Who?" she asked. The person at the door knocked louder. "Hold on!" she called and swung the door open.

Meanwhile Rembrandt tried to explain his problem with the change in the old show to Colin. "But how does that hand move about without it's body?" Colin asked, perplexed.

"Look man," Remmy began, putting his hand on Colin's shoulder - or rather through his shoulder. He forgot what he was about to say and instead stared at his hand, which was slowly becoming less substantial. Colin was still staring at the Thing on the screen. "Colin!" "Yes?" "Pay attention bro, I'm starting to disappear..." He nearly made a joke about Back to the Future, but then realized that Colin wouldn't understand, since he hadn't had TV in the 80's and hadn't yet been introduced to USA.

Colin turned quickly to his friend, his eyes wide, "That man, your friend's double has changed something!" Colin and Rembrandt stared at the hand. "Quinn!!!"

"That's it! Xinj'uan has gone too far this time. Impersonating a figure essential to human history is one thing. But attempting to stop the discovery of interdimensional travel by humans is another. I won't stand for it."

Most of the Council cheered him on. "You forget yourself, Kortala. Xinj'uan has quite a following among the people. Besides, we have no clear plan of what to do with humans who can travel interdimensionally. Most of the commoners wouldn't want the competition."

"Give it a rest," Kortala retorted. "Only a handful of human worlds possess the technology to travel interdimensionally and none of them have the ability to use it for anything more than experimentation."

"Enough!" When the Council President, Darminu, called for silence, he got it. "I think we can all agree that this travel to the past was a breach in the orthodox behavior of the Sxanzix race. We do not interfere in the development of interdimensional travel of other worlds. Therefore I have launched a team of two to aid the four humans in question."

Colin, Rembrandt and Maggie watched as Quinn's hand seemed to fade in and out and all were afraid for their own existence. Maggie was the most afraid, as she could lose her life.

"If this is it, guys, I just want to say..."

As Quinn spoke, his hand once again became solid. He opened and closed his hand to make sure it was OK. It was.

"Alright, Q-Ball!" Rembrandt said and gave him a high five.

"Don't celebrate yet, Remmy," Quinn reminded him. "We don't know what other kind of dangers those three could pose to us where they are."

"If you're done with your magic tricks, Quinn, I'm going to see who it was at the door," Maggie snidely remarked.

She opened the door and nearly fell over. The two people standing before her were Steven Jensen and Susannah Morehouse. They were wearing black suits and ties and had futuristic weapons with them.

"Mind if we come in?" Steven asked.

"We have a little surprise for you," Susannah continued.

"I should say you do," Colin remarked, clearly stricken by seeing her double.

"You needed your timer fixed and a way to go back to your world, 1994, correct?" The others were stunned by their knowledge of their situation. "I think you'll be interested to look at this."

As Quinn looked at the device, roughly resembling a timer, he nodded his head in satisfaction. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go." Quinn said.

Maggie looked at the others. "So what else is new?"

Colin, Quinn and Remmy nodded in agreement.

"I don't know what else could go wrong on this world," Quinn stated, "but, if we have a way to leave...let's leave."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Remmy said, matter-of-factly, as he quickly turned to grab up his shoes, putting them on as he grabbed his jacket and Colin's.

"Well, let's just hope we get there in time to stop the evil plans those three seem to be plotting," Quinn said.

"If everyone is ready then," said the Steven look-a-like as he pointed their timer device toward the other side of the room. The vortex opened, all swirling and purple, with gold streaks running along the sides. Susannah jumped in first, followed by Maggie, Quinn, Colin and Steven. It quickly closed with a little whoosh.

They landed quite gently on the University grounds. "Hey, Q-Ball, could you program that soft landing into our timer?"

Quinn looked at him, winked and said, "I'll see what I can do. Let's just hope we have a timer left when we catch up with them."

The five made their way to the Professor's lab. Quinn lead the group to the door, and that's when Steven said, "I'll go first."

The others followed close behind. Their were angry voices coming from behind the inner door as Steven opened it.

"You blistering idiot...I told you to be careful with that," boomed Arturo.

Colin2 looked up sheepishly, ready to reply, but instead said, "Uhhhh...."

"Uhhhh what?" retorted Arturo.

Colin merely pointed.

As Arturo whirled around he was totally taken aback.

"Hello, Xinj'uan. Long time no see," said Steven.

"What the...," was all Arturo could stammer out.

"You've had your fun, now it's time to return with us to Sxanzix," Steven said.

"I won't go. I like it here. I'm going to be famous," he replied.

"Oh...you'll be famous alright," Susannah interjected, "just not in the way you've been planning."

With that Steven raised his 'weapon', and with one burst rendered the three fugitives helpless.

Quinn quickly looked on the table locating the timer. He removed the time transporter attachment and looked over the device. He handed it to Steven, asking, "Will this work properly?"

Steven opened the timer and adjusted the internal calibrator where the attachment had been. "I assure you it will. But, you cannot remain here. You must immediately leave," he said, handing the timer to Quinn.

"But, we can't do that till the timer is at zero," Remmie said.

"Look at the timer. I believe you will see you have exactly 2 minutes till you slide."

The four looked and saw the timer was indeed counting down.

"But, I have a million questions," Quinn stated. "Like, where are you from? How did you know we needed help? Who are those three supposed to be? How did you adjust the timer?"

Steven held up his hand. "Please, I understand your concern, but, I'm really not at liberty to reveal that information. Suffice it to say that we saw your plight and knew that we could not let those three interfere with history." With that, Steven and Susannah gathered up Xinj'uan and his two cohorts. He opened the swirling purple vortex as the others watched. The sliders held up their hands in a salute of thanks and watched as the others quickly vanished in the golden purple swirls.

"What do you make of that?" Remmie said in amazement.

"I don't know," Maggie said, grabbing the timer from Quinn to look at the dial. "But, we have 10 seconds till we jump." With that, she raised the device, opened the vortex and they jumped in.

"Uh-oh, guys. We have a problem," he said, looking at it. "This newspaper says the year is 1994. We must have kept sliding in the year we slid off Earth Prime in!"

"So what does that mean? Can we get back?" Maggie looked worried.

"I don't know," Quinn replied. "Man I wish our friends were still here.""We have returned, and the group is safely on their way," reported "Steven", now back in his natural form.

"Very good. Now we must discuss what is to happen to Xinj'uan," said Darminu. Just then the Council heard what sounded like an echo: Can we get back? I don't know. Man I wish our friends were still here....

"What is wrong with them? Didn't they get back?" asked Kortala.

"Where did you leave them?" Darminu asked "Steven" and "Susannah".

"They slid from their Earth Prime after we apprehended Xinj'uan," "Susannah" said. "Why?"

"Now they are stuck in that year! They have no way to get back to their own year. We will have to fix this."

Colin and Maggie shook their heads.

"Well anyway, what if this is just another one of those screwed-up time Earths?"

Quinn was looking unusually somber. "I don't think so Rembrandt. Why would it just happen to be 1994, the exact same year the evil time-travelling professor had tried to reach?" He sat down on the curb. "This raises so many questions. What are the ramifications of living part of your own life over again? Would..." He seemed to be getting a headache just thinking about it.

At that moment Maggie tensed and motioned for Remmy to look behind him. A figure bearing a striking resemblance to Professor Maximillian Arturo was walking up the sidewalk.

He turned, seeing them, and started towards the four of them. No mistake about his identity - it was Arturo.

But his hair was a lot shorter than the Evil Professor they had recently encountered.

Approaching Maggie, he inquired "Excuse me, ma'am but I'm trying to locate the home of one of my students. Perhaps you know of him - Quinn Mallory? He lives in this area...

...I believe he wants to apologize to me."

The other man chuckled easily, "to be honest, I doubted that you would, my dear. I just cannot resist stopping to chat with a beautiful lady."

"Get moving, I don't need more headaches," Quinn muttered under his breath. The last thing he needed today was one more long winded explanation.

Maggie, hearing him and praying that Arturo had not as well, kicked backwards and barked Quinn's knee. She gave the corpulent man a winning smile. "Aw, you are what the kids call a 'player,' aren't you?"

Arturo was trying to get a look behind her. He had noticed her kick and heard the resultant muffled scream.

"Well! We have to going now. See you on the flip side!" Remmy said, breaking in. "Come on, princess." He said to Maggie, touching her arm.

She gave Arturo a parting smile and then glared at her friend. "You are going to pay for that 'princess' comment, song-boy." She warned as soon as they were out of ear shot.

Quinn had kept Colin between Arturo and himself. Now, he limped after Maggie. "He is going to pay? How about my broken leg? Was that necessary?"

Remmy laughed merrily. "You two aren't fooling anybody. That was a love tap!"

Now both Maggie and Quinn were glaring at him, while Colin tried to avoid earning their ire with his trademark grin. "What has gotten into you, Remmy? Why the sudden funny bone?"

He shrugged goodnaturedly. "I guess I like getting away from women dominated worlds. I have been to two or three now." He gave a mock shiver.

Quinn's leg was feeling better, and he picked up his pace. "We have to get somewhere and try to figure out how to get back when we belong. This is not good. The ramifications of being even four years in the past could be ugly. I won't bore you with all the various theories, but most of them are bad news."

The others agreed and they headed for the Chandler hotel. They passed a man about a block before they reached their hotel. Only Quinn glanced over at him. The man seemed familiar. After another step, Quinn realized that it was the Steven-being again. "Hey guys-......"

A wave of dizziness struck the Sliders at the same moment. Quinn fell against a stucco wall and slid slowly to the ground.

"Hey.............
"....................guys......
".................................I think.......
"................................................we are............

The entity smirked, not unpleasantly. "Saved. Sure, why not?"

***

The vortex opened and spit the sliders roughly onto the ground. Remmy groaned and shook his head, looking around for the others. Then he saw it. There lay a crumpled body, no movement. Then he heard Quinn, "Colin, oh my God, wake up, please!"

Maggie took his arm, feeling for a pulse. "He's alive. Look, he took a nasty shot to the head. We've got to do something."

"Everybody stand back. Give the man room to breath. I'm a doctor and I'll do whatever needs to be done." The voice was attached to a tall, beautiful woman, a woman who was definitely used to being in charge. "He's unconscious but it appears he's okay. We'll take him to my house across the street, put him in bed and let nature take its course. He'll probably wake up within the hour. Is he your husband lady?"

Maggie jerked her head around and answered, "Absolutely not!"

The doctor blushed. "Sorry, common mistake, I suppose. I don't know why I even asked that." She gave Quinn and Remmy a glance but did not seem to find their presence unusual.

Quinn was distracted, despite his brother's injury. Something about Remmy teasing he and Maggie, or Maggie kicking him, or being angry at Arturo... but it was gone. He couldn't remember anything, if there was anything to remember.

The doctor noticed his distraction. "Come on, help us take him in. Your friend is going to be just fine."

***

"Now, as I was saying, we must discuss what is to happen to Xinj'uan," Darminu intoned for a second time.

"Hmmmmm," Kortala pondered. "Doesn't the Vilebeast zoo need to be scrubbed again? All 6000 cages?"

Darminu grinned. "What a lovely idea! That should take a couple decades..."

THE END