The Fourth Season Machine

• • •

by Dorky



Episode U-703: Saving Humanity



I apologize for not posting an episode last week, but I had a situation, so this week, I hope to get back on track with things, and post the latest episode of my series.

Logline: When the timer is taken from the group, and later returned, it is known that when they open the vortex, they'll be taking the entire population with them to be killed if that happens.

Starring: Jerry O'Connell, Kari Wuhrer, Robert Floyd, and Alicia Witt

Guest Stars: Michel Modo as Professor Eldridge, Jason Gaffney as Conrad Bennish, Tom Irwin as Dr. Priest, and Charlie O'Connell as Colin Mallory

Synopsis: The sliders are exiting a log cabin, wearing camp counselor outfits, and heading down a dirt path for the slide. Mallory comments this place has been the worse, since he didn't know how cruel kids can be. Colin states that kids are suppose to have fun with pushing camp counselors into lakes and making them land in fires, or even making them get stung by hornets when the nest lands on them. Wade finds this world quite nice, since she fell for a camp counselor, who reminded her of Vin Diesel and gave her great performance in bed. Maggie tells Wade to shut up, since she always talks about how good men are, that sleep with her; Wade tells Maggie she has no life, and that men haven't given her excitement in years. The group stop walking, with Colin opening the gateway, and the group enters, and exiting out at a Renaissance Faire, to shock citizens during a jousting performance. The sliders quickly exit the area, hoping no one would follow them; they're surprised, when an older man runs into them, steals the timer, and takes off in the wooded area nearby, so the sliders must chase after him, to get their only way off this world.

Unfortunately, the man got on his bike, and speeds away on the main road, with no one able to catch him. The sliders see a taxi, but it doesn't stop for them, since they saw people already inside; Quinn and Mallory decide to keep running, in order to get the timer back, while Wade, Maggie and Colin walk back to the faire, to find a ride. The 3 manage to get a taxi, and catch up to Quinn and Mallory who are tired out, and walking; The 2 get in, with heading to the city of San Francisco. When arriving at the Dominion Hotel, they exit the taxi, and get rooms, with then heading to the bar for drinks. Quinn states that he noticed who the man was that stole the timer; Quinn reveals that it was Professor Eldridge, his supposed teacher for his physic class, until he retired from teaching, and he got Arturo instead. Maggie suggests going to the university, and see if he still works there; while the rest find the professor's home, or search the area. Colin asks if anyone noticed their time limit on this world, but no one could answer his question.

When entering California University, Quinn and Wade look around for the man, and figure the best place to start would be in the classroom or his office; The 2 split with Quinn going to his office, and Wade heading to the classroom.

Mallory and Maggie head to Professor Eldridge's house, while Colin takes a taxi, to look around the city to spot the professor. When approaching the home, Maggie heads to the door, knocking and ringing the door bell; after a few seconds of no response, Mallory busts the door in, giving them an entrance. They call out to the professor, but there is no response. Maggie heads up stairs, while Mallory checked around on the first floor. With nothing found, the 2 decide to exit, when suddenly, the basement door that was locked, opens, and out comes a man, exiting through the kitchen, to the back yard, and he jumps over a fence, forcing the sliders to chase after him; they are stopped, when jumping over one fence and see 2 German Shepards growling at them; the 2 jump back over into the yard, with returning to the hotel empty handed.

As Wade waits for Quinn, who soon exits the university, they compare notes, figuring this would be the last place the professor would be at; Wade comments that when entering the classroom, she saw Arturo, and he yelled at her for interrupting, and calling her a blistering idiot for entering a classroom without knocking, then yells to get out of this university, if she can't act appropriate around adults that teach at this school. Quinn tells her not worry, since he was always like that and probably still is. The 2 share a laugh, with taking off, hoping the others have found him. As the 2 exit the area, a confederate flag is seen on top of the university, blowing in the wind.

At the hotel, the group meet up in the room; Maggie states they found the professor, yet they scared him away. Wade finds Maggie and Mallory stupid, since the man was the one that has their timer, and the professor now likely, wouldn't return to his house, leading them to go on a manhunt for the professor. Colin asks Quinn if it was possible to create a new timer, but Quinn states it may take too long, and he feels that he probably has lost his knowledge, since he's been sliding for the past few years, and usually just slid into a wormhole, awaiting the next world's differences. Wade considers the possibility that maybe if they returned to the university, it would be likely to find out more of Professor Eldridge's whereabouts, or even talk to other professors, that may know his location. The group decide to split up, with Quinn, Wade and Mallory heading to the university, while Colin and Maggie start checking other hotels. When arriving downstairs, they soon notice Professor Eldridge getting a room; Quinn grabs a hold of him, pushing him up against the wall. Quinn asks for the timer, and the professor apologizes, handing it back to him; Wade asks why he took it, but the professor preferred to not speak of this in public, so the sliders and the professor return to their room.

In the room, the sliders sit, with the professor explaining of his actions; stating that 6 years ago, he and a fellow scientist, Dr. Priest, were working on creating a wormhole to alternate realities, and finally succeeded a year later, but the problem was, Dr. Priest was greedy, and took the credit for himself. After a week of studying it, Dr. Priest activated the wormhole, and took off, sliding to alternate earths, leaving Eldridge here, to take the embarrasment. Over the coarse of the next 2 years, Professor Eldridge traveled all over the world, to tell people of his discovery, and would like funding to start up a new program. Mallory asks the professor what his intentions were, and Eldridge states he had an exciting idea, to travel to alternate worlds, and he could take his classes with him, to study parallel cultures; but with everyone calling him a crackpot, he just gave up, since he had no funding. Colin is confused, with the reason he took the timer; Eldridge states he has decided to get revenge, with making everyone travel through their vortex, landing on an alternate earth, then with returning, they would die by being burned to a crisp. The group is shocked of the professor's plans; Quinn states this sounds familiar when meeting his alternate who had problems, and he figured it was incorrect reentry portal coordinates, or his friend Max Arturo suggested the random return could be a problem with the gyroscope and spectrum stabilizer.

Wade figures Eldridge is doing this on purpose, and it would happen; Professor Eldridge apologizes that they had to get involved, but this was the only way to make people realize how smart some people are. Quinn states their timer can track wormholes, so the portal coordinates wouldn't be a problem, nor of the gyroscope or the spectrum stabilizer. Professor Eldridge states he did a little work under the hood, and when they tracked the earth so people would return, it will malfunction, giving the timer new coordinates, sending the people to their deaths. Maggie yells at the professor for doing this, and shouldn't screw with people's lives. Quinn soon questions the timer, wondering if they would burn up too. Professor Eldridge states its possible, but he is going to plan on living on the next earth, to be wealthy for creating sliding. The professor states he would see them on the flip side, exiting the room, leaving the group unsure of what to do and pissed off.

Maggie asks for options, but Quinn can only think of destroying the timer, and start over. Colin decides to look at the timer's circuitry, and see if he could figure out the problem, so the whole world wouldn't end for the people. Wade questions the idea of asking the Arturo here, who may be able to help. Quinn considers it, but wouldn't konw if the Arturo here went into physics or just became a law school teacher. Mallory asks about Bennish's double, since their friend built their timer, leading the double to possibly know of the problem; Quinn finds it stupid to not have considered Bennish a person to speak to. Quinn decides to take off with the timer, along with Wade taging along, while the others just remained worried in the room.

When approaching Bennish's residence in an apartment building, Quinn knocks, and Bennish's double arrives at the door, opening it and asking what he was needed for. Quinn introduces himself and Wade, then asks if he ever got into quantum mechanics and dimensional gateways; Bennish looks down the hallway, stating to enter his apartment. The 2 enter, to find plants all over, and dirty clothes hung over furniture. He offers the 2 drinks, but they decline, wanting to know what he knew of interdimensional travel. Bennish's double asks if they were with the FBI or CIA, and the 2 stated they weren't; The double states he did open a gateway 6 years ago, but never pursued it since he suspected the feds to be watching him. Quinn pulls out the timer, showing it to Bennish, stating he and Wade were from another world, and that on their earth, their friend Conrad Bennish created the timer. The double overlooks the timer, then pries it open, to look over the curcuitry; he comments it was narly and outrageous, not being able to believe the story of his double making the timer. Quinn gets to the matter at hand, stating of their situation; the double agrees to look at it, and learn of what professor Eldridge did to the device.

By the following morning, the sliders were on their way to Bennish's apartment, hoping he came up with a solution. Colin states it wouldn't be long until the wormhole would be opened, and they would either slide to an alternate reality, or at their end. Wade states to give Bennish's double a little credit, since not all of them are crazy; Quinn interrupts to state that this one could possibly be that way. Maggie asks if the timer will be destroyed if it wasn't fixed, and iff Quinn would be able to create a new timer; Quinn states its likely, but don't expect to slide out by the end of the week. When entering the apartment, Bennish has the timer placed on the coffee table. The double states he took it apart and put it back together again, with finding nothing except a few burned wires, which he replaced, but nothing he did could prevent the events that would take place soon. Quinn excepts the situation, but plans to find a way to fix the timer, before it reopened on the next world. The sliders thank Bennish for trying; Quinn asks Bennish if he wanted to see them off. Bennish excepts, figuring he would be joining them soon anyway; the group enters the Golden Bridge Park. Wade brings up that she hates the idea of letting down people if they don't succeed on the next world.

Professor Eldridge soon arrives, pointing a gun at the sliders, stating how stupid did they think he was, knowing they would try to find a way to stop this happening, but Eldridge concludes it was unlikely, and this slide would still take place. Professor Eldridge orders Quinn to give him the timer, since he wanted to be first out of the gateway, and find a place to hide, so he could get to work on his new world, since it soon would be crowded for awhile. Quinn hesitates, but walks to the professor to hand him the timer, reading 30 seconds; Mallory stops Quinn, asking if this was the right decision, but Eldridge interrupts, stating it was the only decision.

The portal is soon open, as Professor Eldridge states he would see them shortly, and leaps in. As the portal begins closing, gusts of wind push the sliders and Bennish near the vortex, but it implodes inside itself, with the group falling to the ground, shocked to see they never left. Maggie asks what happened; Quinn states the professor must of miscalculated his equations that he programmed into the timer, figuring he increase the power that would pull the rest of the world with him.

A few seconds later, a red vortex opens, tossing out Professor Eldridge, who is burned to a crisp and the timer falls to his side. The group rush to him, to see he was obviously dead from his burns; Quinn tries to pick up the timer, but the heat was too intense to touch it. Suddenly, a white vortex opens, tossing out a man, who is surprised to see the group there; Quinn soon considers the man was none other than Dr. Priest, with the man to confirm his identity. Dr. Priest reveals that was who he was, and shocked to see Professor Eldridge dead; Quinn explains the situation, and asks if it wouldn't be to much trouble to help with repairing their timer.

Later that night, as the sunset began, the sliders were exiting the university, along with Bennish and Dr. Priest to see them off. Quinn thanks the doctor for fixing his timer, and glad he or the others wouldn't burn up before reaching the next world. Bennish's double pulls Quinn off to the side, thanking him for getting a job with working for Dr. Priest; Quinn states he was glad to know the truth of Dr. Priest, and glad he wasn't the type of man Professor Eldridge originally described him to be. Colin opens the portal, with the group sliding off to the next dimension; Quinn, who is last, waves to the men, leaping in himself, and the portal closes off. Dr. Priest then turns to Bennish, asking if he was ready to be in the public eye for a few years as soon as people learn of sliding; Bennish finds it narly and puts his arm around the doctor, as they turn around, heading back inside the university.

Executive Producers: Jerry O'Connell
Bill Dial



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