The vortex opened on an empty, but familiar street. TemporalFlux, Brand_S and HunterD_Raven poured out of the portal and for once, managed to make as close to a three-point landing as they could hit. The three quickly stood up and looked around."This place looks familiar," S said.
"Yeah, it does," Hunter agreed.
TF thought for a moment. Then he realized where they were. "Hey! This is the Universal back lot! See over there! That's the courthouse building from Back to the Future and TROMB!" Hunter and S turned and looked. TF was right on the money. The three decided to take a short tour since they'd only be there for a little more than a couple of hours. They walked down a few streets, passing crewmen and a couple of actors as they went. Eventually, they found themselves in front of the Chandler Hotel façade.
"This is weird!" S said.
"I wonder if this world is still making Sliders," TF said.
"Who knows? Even if they are, they might be on vacation," Hunter replied.
"Hey!" A voice called. "TF, where the hell have you been?"
The trio turned to see who was shouting. It was SpaceTime.
"SpaceTime?" TF said, startled. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean, 'what am I doing here'?" SpaceTime replied. "I've been looking all over for you. You're needed on the film site."
TF was caught completely off guard. SpaceTime grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him away. S and Hunter followed behind.
"Did you read the script, TF?" SpaceTime asked.
"Uh, no."
"Damn it, TF! You've been slacking off too much lately. Do you want to end up getting fired like Peckinpah?"
"WooHoo!" S and Hunter stopped for a moment to celebrate. TF was too busy being dragged to react.
Eventually, the group arrived at the site. Cameras had been set up in the European-style region of the back lot seen in New Gods For Old. Hunter and S stopped to look around the set as SpaceTime brought TF to a nearby table.
SpaceTime picked up a script off the table for the Sliders episode, "Timeless." On the front page, the credits read, Executive Producer: Robert K. Weiss, Associate Producers: SpaceTime & TemporalFlux. Written and Directed By: QBall79.
TF was in awe. He, or rather, his double, was one of the people in charge of Sliders, and no sign of Peckinpah! If it weren't below his moral standards, TF would have considered killing his double to take his place.
"This is so cool!" TF said.
"What, the story?" SpaceTime asked. "You haven't even read the script!"
TF tried to cover. "From what I had heard earlier of it, anyway."
"Oh, OK. Listen TF, filming starts in an hour. This script needs some serious rewrites. QBall didn't finish polishing the script. All of the marked pages need revisions, now!"
"Right, I'm on it!"
"Good. I need to go talk to Bob. You get writing. I'll come back in an hour."
"Don't worry, Space," TF replied. SpaceTime left TF alone with the script. Hunter and S walked over as he opened the script.
"What's up, TF?" Hunter asked.
"My double's a producer for Sliders. Space told me to revise the script. I have an hour to get it done."
S checked his watch. "That's about how long we have until the slide. Should we help?"
"Nah," TF said. "I can handle it." He began reading the script and freaked out. "Shit!"
"What is it?" Hunter and S asked together.
"It's completely different!" TF replied, exasperated. "None of the characters we know are in this show! There's no Quinn, Remmy, Wade, Professor, none of them! I can't write for these characters!"
"Just read the script," Hunter suggested. "See if you can figure it out."
It took TF and the others a half an hour to read the entire script. What made it hard was that this was apparently a very arc-driven episode. Eventually, they figured out what the story involved and started looking at the pages marked for revision.
"It doesn't say what to revise!" TF growled, slamming his head on the table.
"So just rewrite whatever you think needs it," S said.
TF started rewriting the script at a maddening pace. S and Hunter had to stand back to avoid TF's flying pencil. After another fifteen minutes, TF closed the script. "That's the best I can fix it. That is, if I fixed it."
Five minutes later, QBall and SpaceTime walked over and grabbed the revised script. They silently looked over it. They occasionally nodded or gave looks of unsure surprise. TF wondered if he should call his double to start looking for a new line of work at the end of the season.
Finally, QBall spoke up. "It doesn't look too bad now. I don't think that this is going to be high on the fan favorite list, though."
"It's the best I could do with the time I had," TF replied.
"Don't worry," QBall said, "I'm sure I can fix it during filming. See you tomorrow!"
QBall walked off in one direction and SpaceTime in another. TF breathed a huge sigh of relief. "God, that was close!"
"At least you didn't screw your double over," Hunter said.
"How much time we have left, TF?"
TF looked at the timer.
"2...1..."
"Shit!" TF fired the timer off. They just barely made the slide, and they weren't even in life threatening peril! No one saw the trio as they jumped through the vortex to the next world.
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