The Fourth Season Machine

• • •

by Dorky



Episode 524: Dust



This episode originally was to suppose to air, but I was late with my Y2K ep.

Guest Stars: Gary Jones, Lester Barrie, and Ashton Kutcher as Jon.

In a desert area, the vortex opens to quickly, tossing the sliders out faster than ever "is everyone ok?" Laura asks
"I think my arm is broken!" Jacob yells in pain
"maybe I can help?"
"No Sara, you've already helped enough!"
"Calm down, let me take a look" Remmy states.
"we have a problem, the timer is not working, maybe you can look at it Sara." Ryan says. "I already know what the problem is, the power source is gone. Rembrandt, where did you get this timer?" "I'm not sure, since my friends were doubles, but my Quinn got the timer on an egypt world, resembling this one, when we thought he was dead, and he told us that a gem was the power source. How did the gem get destroyed?" "possibly, when we switched our power chips to save that underwater world. Too bad I don't have jumper cables." "do you think you can fix it?" Laura asks. "I might, depends where this world's technological knowledge is at." After a long walk, the 5 enter a small town, and sit down for water at a table from an outside restuarant, "what kind of water do you want?" Digg asks. "how about clear, we really don't want yellow or brown. By the way, is there an electronic store nearby?" Sara asks. "if you want, I have an order form, and catalog to send to San Francisco. Just go over to that small building, my friend is there to help you."

"So, when can the expedition begin for the trip to Yosimite Caves?" a big ugly man asks other people sitting with him "it will probably take 2 more weeks, then we can begin." "good, I can't wait to get my hands on those jewels, to become richer."
"Hey, that doesn't sound like a bad idea, go now before them, to find a gem to replace it." Ryan states. "even if we get a gem, we don't know how the creator of this timer used the gem, it could of been transferred power." "theres another problem, if we are going to Yosimite, that's about 209 miles, it will take weeks to find the place" Laura exclaims. "not if we get a truck. Look over there, a truck for rent." Sara gets up, heads to the truck and finds the owner putting air into the tire "how much is this truck, to rent?" "depends. Where you going?" "me and my friends are on an expedition, we need it, to save time." "on one condition. Have a date with my son tonight." "fine how much." "now its free, since you've answered my prayers." Sara heads back to the others, telling them of the good news.

That night, the sliders find a room at a small Inn, while Sara is on the date. Laura and Remmy head to the courier office to find Diggs on the phone, when Micheal Hurley enters "can I help you?" "ya, we were wondering if you had any maps, for Yosimite Caves?" "yes we do, just give me a few minutes ma'am."

Over in the diner, Sara is sitting with Jon, who she finds attractive, "so, how long are you going to be in town?" "until tomorrow, we were traveling when our jeep broke down, and we got to use your dads truck to finish our trip." "where were you headed?" "we were on our way to Los Angeles, from New York." "you must not get much news around there. Los Angeles is nothing but desert, ever since the atomic bomb was dropped in California during World War 2." "I always thought it was Hiroshima that it got dropped on. I should say, we were living in an Amish community." "well that's obvious now." Jacob and Ryan were laying in the desert sand, just outside the town, watching the skies as the sun was setting "it seems pretty quiet here, I wouldn't mind if we could stay here for a couple of weeks." Jacob says. "ya, but after a while, you would get bored from the quietness." "and especially Sara." "I just want to know why you hate her anyway?" "I have this feeling, like shes going to get us killed, or the fact that Rick is probably already dead, and if it wasn't for her, Rick would be with us." "thats true, but we're all in this together, trying to find home, or at least your home. My world wants to kill everyone, to limit the population. Since you are new to this group, I'll get you up to date. About 5 years ago, the sliders landed on my world. I was planning to win the lottery, and die a millionaire, but I fell for Wade, and before I knew it, I joined the sliders for the next world, where that was the last I saw of them, after Wade refused to stay with me. I felt so embarrased, but now I plan to just help the others out, and then after they are home, I'll decide my life."

By the next sunrise, the sliders were leaving on their trip, with all the supplies they needed "heres some more maps of the area near Yosimite Caves." Hurley said as he gave them to Remmy "thanks, I think we'll need them, since we aren't familiar with that territory." Laura got in the drivers seat, with Sara and Remmy inside with her, and Jacob and Ryan sat in the back, with nothing but wind blowing in their faces. After a long day traveling, they made it to Yosimite by sunset "alright, lets get our gear together, and lets move to a camp spot near the entrance of the caves" Remmy says. Jacob decides to hang onto the timer, since he didn't trust Sara with it. During the night fire, the sliders sat around chatting about their plans "so do you think we can actually fix the timer?" Jacob angrily asks Sara "I believe that as I can see, there are wires connecting to the point of the original gem, so if it can work, we can slide out." "but you said if. That doesn't mean you know it will work, your just guessing! I really don't want to be stranded here on this world forever!" "Jacob calm down!" Remmy commands "I won't calm down, not until everything is back to the way it was! especially to have Sara gone!" "stop right there Jacob, don't be yelling at her, its not her fault, your stranded from home, besides, if in fact it is true, you really don't want to go back to your earth anyway with kromaggs running the place-" "Remmy, I can handle this, if you want me gone, fine, I'll stay here, try to make a new timer. Is that what you want!" "you just don't get it do you!" Jacob gets up, off his sleeping bag, running into the darkness "he'll be fine, just let him go" Laura says.

In the morning, everyone is up, but they wonder if Jacob ever came back, since his sleeping bag was never opened "he's probably down at the river that I saw north of here." "well he better get back here soon, I don't want to hold this expedition up" Remmy says as he is packing things in his bag. Help is heard over beyond some rocks, so they head up there to find Jacob taken hostage by Hurley and Diggs "what the hell is going on!" Remmy asks. "I guess we wanted the same thing you did, so now we've decided to make a deal, you leave, and we get the treasure." "we don't care about the whole treasure, we just need a gem to fix our timer." "ya sure, and I only came here for the view. Don't follow us, or Jacob is dead!" "theres 2 different paths in the cave, so how do you know which is the one leading to the treasure?" Sara asks. "we have clues to follow as to which trail leads us in the right direction." Diggs holds the gun on the sliders as Hurley pulls Jacob into the cave. "great, now what do we do?" "we will have to wait, until they come out, if they ever do." "Sara, I disagree with you, Jacob's our friend, and we're going in there whether or not they plan on killing us." Laura states.

Hurley handcuffs Jacob to him, with Diggs following them "we should find the treasure in no time, with this map." "why would you now decide to head in here to find a treasure, why didn't you go months ago?" "because we didn't find out about it until the day you all arrived." Remmy turned on his flashlight, and everyone followed him "I figured there would be a problem. We should split up, just in case the other passage is wrong" Sara commands. "that's a stupid idea, we don't have guns, and if Jacob is dead, we all would be heart broken. I say we head down a path, and if it comes to a dead end, we go back and take the other way." Ryan says.

Just as Hurley, Jacob and Diggs walk over a small bridge of sand, it collapsed into the abyss leaving them stranded on the other side. Down a long dark, wet and dreary tunnel, the sliders are feeling its the wrong path, until they make it to the end and standing on a brick ground surface "figures, this would be the end of the line." Laura says as she is shining her flashlight on the rock wall reading 'DEAD END' "lets go back, we should be able to catch up to them by afternoon" Remmy states. As Ryan begins walking off, the floor collapses beneath his feet, and just before he falls in, Sara grabs his arm "I don't think we'll let you die today." then Ryan is pulled back up.

Ryan turns around, squatting down to see how someone could of made a floor out of bricks, when he pulls a brick out off the side "these things were glued here, I guess some others weren't so lucky." As Ryan shines light below, to show 5 skeletons to the others. Laura begins walking back, when a skeleton falls from the ceiling of the cave, and so she knocks it down after her frightful scream, then Ryan takes the brick he has and shoves it into the wall made of wet sand "lets go." Remmy commands.

On the other side, the 3 are making their way to the treasure, when just as Diggs walks into cobwebs, a blade comes towards him "get back!" Hurley yells, and Diggs barely made it back to the entrance "I think this place has traps of all kinds." "lets make Jacob be the leader." "fine, but Hurley, your forgetting that I'm cuffed to you" "so I'll just uncuff us as we follow behind you." Jacob begins to walk forward, when arrows appear, heading towards his way, and they get dropped to their knees. As the sliders prepare to take the other route, a gun is heard, and Sara soon realizes its Jon "what are you doing here?" "shut up! I'm only here for my money's worth of treasure!" "we're on our way to find it, so we can use a gem for our discoveries." "I'm the one holding the gun, lets go, or I start shooting!"

Down a narrow pathway, Diggs finds a large piece of gold on a metal statue of a table, and when he picks it up, a rumbling sound is heard "what the hell is that coming towards us?!" Hurley asks. "its a bolder, lets get out of here!" so the 3 begin running and are barely run over, until they fall into a small hole as the bolder goes over them and falling off a cliff "that was close. Lets go" "hey, you nearly got us killed, what was the big idea to take that gold, I thought you wanted the treasure!" "I do, but any extra money will helpe me." The sliders continue walking down the cave pathway, as Jon holds them at gun point "do you know this cave good enough to lead us to your friends locations?" Ryan asks Jon "I'm suppose to meet them near an entrance, then we proceed-" "watch it!" Remmy yells to Laura as she takes a step off into the abyss and backs away "what the hell, wheres the bridge, great, now we can't get across. Alright, one by one, start jumping into the abyss." "why, whats the purpose of that?" "I don't need your help anymore, I have rope, but its only good enough for one person to use-" but he doesn't finish his sentence, as he falls to the ground, pulling a small blade from his neck "guy's it me, we found the treasure" "Jacob are you alright?" Laura asks. "ya, I'm fine, after I found a gem to use in the timer, I was abl to escape with Diggs and Hurley gathering more treasure in their pockets, not noticing my absence. I also found small blades to use in the event of a fight, and I saved all of your lives."

The cave begins shaking and Sara takes the rope out from the bag Jon had, and used it to help Jacob over "lets move, it feels like an earthquake coming on." Remmy tosses part of the rope over as Jacob grabs it. When Jacob is about to jump, the cave shakes again, causing him to fall into the abyss except the end of the rope he's hanging onto is snapping apart "give me your hand!" Ryan yells, but Jacob can't reach him. As Jacob begins slipping, he can't hang on, and as he lets go of the rope, Sara grabs his arm "we're not going to let you die today either." and Jacob is pulled back up. A rumbling sound is heard in the cave where Diggs and Hurley are at, then a large hole opens up, bringing sand out to cover their bodies.

The sliders make it out of the cave before the entrance is covered in rocks. "heres the gem and the timer. Do you think you can fix it the timer?" "I can now, all I need is a screw driver which I have in my pocket." when Sara puts the gem in, to connect with the curcuitry, the timer automatically activates reading 30 seconds "Sara, I want to apologize for not believing you can help us, I know that Rick is gone, but I hope we can still can become friends." Sara opens the gateway, then she says
"I would like that Jacob, and I want you guys to know, I'm willing to help in anyway, especially defeating the kromaggs." then each slider slides out to the next world.



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