The Fourth Season Machine

• • •

by Dorky



Episode U-712: Spaceslide Part 1



After 3 weeks of repeats, the S7 for Sliders is back, and here is the new episode of the series on USA.

Logline: The Sliders land on an earth where Galileo was a big influence in space travel, which led to early discovery of the rocket and space travel by the 1800s. With a space station orbiting the earth, the sliders visit to explore, and Maggie gets in too deep, when she tours a starship, which is taken through a wormhole which takes the ship far from earth.

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

Guest Stars: Jonathan Frakes as Cpt. Pricherd, Taye Diggs as Officer Jim Reed, John Mahoney as Jack Ripley, and Charlie O'Connell as Colin Mallory

Synopsis: The red vortex opens in an alley, tossing the group out, and it quickly closes. As the sliders stand up, they notice the area around them is quite advanced, and soon see flying cars pass over them. Wade looks at the timer, stating that they have a 10 day stay, and she puts the timer in her back pocket of her pants. The group exit the alley, to notice they weren't in normal territory, and figure they would quickly catch up to learn of this earth.

They take off, to head to the Chancellor Hotel and get a room. In the lobby of the hotel, Mallory, Maggie, Wade and Colin are watching a television program, talking of England's kings visit to the space station which is orbiting the earth. Quinn arrives, handing Mallory a key, and asking what was going on; Wade tells Quinn the news, and figures it would be quite interesting to visit the station themselves, when it opens the following morning to the public. Colin points out a stack of pamphlets about the station on the table in front of them; but as starts reading one, he notices the tickets to visit the station weren't going to be cheap, since each ticket, costs $500 a person. Maggie suggests to Colin that he use his ATM card and get them a little spending money. Colin states he has $5000, but would like to keep it in case of another situation. Mallory smacks Colin over the head, asking if he was gay; Colin doesn't reply to his comment, but states they will have to get jobs and he wouldn't be the one to do hard labor, since he's been working on the last few worlds.

By the following morning, in a shuttle, the sliders, along with the pilot, co-pilot, and a few other passengers, are traveling to the space station, and it soon docks, with entering a landing pad. A hatch opens for the passengers, to exit the shuttle onto the station, and are soon met by a man named Jack Ripley, their guide through the station. Mallory asks where a bathroom was at; the man seems annoyed about the question, but tells Mallory to head down the cooridore and take a right with entering the first door on the right. Maggie decides to go also, and the 2 disappear. The tour guide states they would start the tour, by entering the central command ring where the astronauts are at their posts, working, to make sure the station kept going. As the tour guide leads the group up an escalator, they stop by a window which is large enough to see the earth, except a large space craft is in sight; the group of tourists notice it, and Quinn is shocked to see such a technological advance, with a ship, resembling something from Star Trek. Wade notices the vessel as well, asking the tour guide what ship was flying by; the man is surprised that Wade wouldn't know, then states it was the fifth U.S.S. Galileo, and the ship would be docking, with them taking a tour aboard it later on. Mallory and Maggie join the group, asthe group heads down into the promenade with several places to visit; restuarants, a casino, and even a few stores for buying souvenirs. Maggie starts to enter one, but Colin pulls her away, stating they would have time for that later; Maggie hesitates, but agrees, not to enter the store.

After a while, the group is taken down another cooridore, and boarding the Galileo vessel; the tourists notice the officers exiting the ship, passing by them. The sliders are shocked to notice dark grey uniforms and little pips on their collars, that state their rank aboard the ship. Mallory states he really is going to enjoy this place; Maggie agrees, stating this would be a first time aboard a space ship. With entering the bridge, 5 at a time, including the tour guide, they notice all the systems that are used by the officers, and even the captain notices the group, welcoming them aboard, with even taking the 4 sliders into the ready room, to tell of his officer's duties aboard the Galileo. Unfortunately, Maggie had to go by herself, besides the tour group, and the captain takes the 2 in, yet he notices Maggie and she asks why he was staring at her; the captain asks Maggie, calling her Ms. Jenson, why she wanted to tour the ship, since she was the engineer of the ship. Maggie is shocked of this, but is about to state the truth, when suddenly, the tour guide pulls a gun out of his pocket, grabbing a hold of Maggie, and stating this was a hold up, and that they would be taking a trip into the wormhole.

The 3 exit the ready room, with Mr. Ripley telling the captain to order an officer to fly the ship, or he wouldn't have an engineer later on. The captain asks what Mr. Ripley needed on the other side of the wormhole; he states that the United Federation Alliance was foolish for not trying to make first contact with species, when they discovered the wormhole. The captain states that when entering the wormhole, they would have to keep up with it after exiting into space, if they wanted to get back home. Mr. Ripley states he has no intention to return to earth. The captain hesistates, but Mr. Ripley kept moving the gun around Maggie's head, so he contacts an officer, who is still aboard the ship, telling him to return to the bridge; the captain looks to Mr. Ripley, stating he has a skeleton crew aboard here, and it wouldn't be wise to go off, without the entire crew, through the wormhole. Mr. Ripley states that he wouldn't wait, or the crew could easily leave the ship, giving him control of it; the captain refuses, stating he isn't about to give into a hijacker. The officer arrives on the bridge, he waves to Maggie, and takes his position at the ship's helm; the captain orders the officer, named Jim Reed to clear them from ops and to head for the wormhole. Despite the odd order given by the captain, the pilot listens, and the Galileo prepares to take off.

Near the hatch, as it closes, the other sliders are surprised of what happened and try to pound on the hatch for it to open. An officer, who was obviously Maggie's double, appears, looking over the situation and stating the ship is about to take off; Maggie's double tells the group to get out of the way, so she could deal with the situation. The double takes off heading for command central, as well as the sliders who follow, stating their friend was aboard the ship when it took off. The double states they may follow, but wouldn't be allowed near systems that could destroy this station. Colin asks the double what she did aboard the Galileo; she states she was the chief engineer for the Galileo and it wasn't suppose to take off until next week. The double finds the captain of the station, telling him of the situation, and for them to contact the ship. An officer hails the ship, but the ship doesn't reply; the Galileo is seen flying toward a wormhole. Maggie's double goes to a station, trying to firing a stun beam on the ship, but its missed, and the ship disappears, along with the wormhole.

The ship flies through the wormhole tunnel; the captain asks Mr. Ripley why first contact with aliens, was so important to him. Jack states that it would be quite interesting to learn of new technologies and species for allies, in case of conflict back home. The wormhole opens, pushing the ship out, and Jack Ripley orders for it to be destroyed; the tactical officer tries to over power Mr. Ripley, but he is shot and dies on the floor. The wormhole closes; the captain states for the pilot to follow it, yet Mr. Ripley decides otherwise and fires at the console, enabling it, and knocking Jim Reed to the floor with burns. Maggie gets free, telling both men that she wasn't the chief engineer, since she wasn't even an officer. The captain is confused, stating she was his chief engineer, as Commander Margaret Jenson; Maggie, again states she wasn't her and that Mr. Ripley took the wrong woman. Mr. Ripley tells Maggie to stop lying, or he would kill her; the captain states there would be a way to make sure they had the right Margaret, by having her take off her shirt. The captain explains that his engineer had a scar on her back, after being attacked by a mental patient; with looking at Maggie's back, there was no scar. Maggie states she would of said something earlier, but had a gun pointed at her head, figuring she could get blown away, if she said anything. The captain tells Mr. Ripley that they really are going to be stranded in some unknown space, since they could be in any quadrant and it could take them years to get home. Maggie states the doctor should see the officer down, with heading to the pilot, and looking at both men, asking for help.

Back at the space station, Maggie's double is looking over a console, pushing buttons; Mallory asks what had happened to the ship and what if it couldn't be found. The double states that the wormhole as an uncontrollable range of destination, but they have studied a quadrant 90 million light years from this location, and if the Galileo went that far, and the wormhole wasn't caught up to, it would take them a few decades to get home. The officer states that the ship had entered the wormhole which led to some location far in space, but without recieving the coordinates of their destination through the wormhole, there wouldn't be any way to pinpoint their location. Quinn asks if there was a way to open another wormhole and try following them out at the farthest distance and return through another wormhole to a new area; the double states the wormhole has a speed of 60 miliquads per second, which is a little fast for them to keep a hold on the wormhole, but one does appear every 3 hours, which may be of assistance, sicne there is a new scouting vessel being finished up, and it could scan at least 30,000 light years. Wade asks when the ship would be finished; the double states they were to have it sent up here in the next few days so she could finish working on the warp core. Quinn states if she takes the ship out to find the Galileo, they would be coming.

With entering sickbay, the captain, who is carrying the tactical officer, and Maggie who is being helped by Mr. Ripley to carry the pilot in, who is placed on a bed to be checked out, while the dead tactical officer is placed on another bed to be placed in the morgue. The holographic doctor is activated by the captain and states one officer was dead and the other had burns to be treated. The doctor states to leave him with his patient and to return to duty. With exiting sickbay, Mr. Ripley stops Maggie and Cpt. Pricherd, telling them he shall put them in a holding cell, along with the other crew members, so he could fly the ship in his own direction. Maggie states she needs to get back home, before being stuck in space forever; Mr. Ripley apologizes to for getting her involved, but she was in it now. Mr. Ripley forces the 2 down to a holding cell in the brig; after some time went by, the entire crew of 66 were in holding cells, except the doctor. The pilot was forced into a cell to be looked after by the doctor, whose program was transferred there.

In a cafe on the station, Quinn and Wade meet up with Mallory and Colin who've been waiting for them. Quinn states that he got passes back to earth in a few hours. Mallory tells the group, that if Maggie doesn't return when the time comes, he is going to stay here, until she does. Wade states that Maggie's duplicate seems nicer, and they should just kidnap her instead; Mallory smiles at the comment, but states in a sarcastic tone, that he would miss his naggin girlfriend. Colin tells the others they may not be able to go on the scouting trip, since Maggie's double wasn't excited about them coming; Quinn states they will be going anyway they can, even if they stoaway on the vessel.

In a holding cell aboard the Galileo, containing Maggie, Cpt. Pricherd and a few other officers, are waiting for something to happen; Maggie decides to start chatting, asking the captain how technology advanced so much. Cpt. Pricherd asks Maggie why she didn't know, so Maggie lies, stating she has been in acoma for 15 years, and has forgotten the world's past. Cpt. Pricherd states that Galileo Galilei discovered the telescope in his time, and wanted to reach for the stars. So for the next 200 years, people started building rockets, and before people knew it, technology expanded from microwaves to holographic doctors. Maggie asks when the space station was put in, figuring it went up around the 1950s; Cpt. Pricherd states that the station had gotten built in space from 1903 to 1934, and people considered building starships that went faster than rockets, and the first Galileo ship was built in 1940 with 4 more to follow 12 years a part. Maggie states she may have an idea to escape the cell, since she figured with enough power, the circuitry would blow out, and disabling the field holding them in. Cpt. Pricherd agrees, but would need to find the circuitry panel.

Mr. Ripley was on the bridge, telling the computer to scan for planets or even other vessels in the area, the computer states that there was a vessel being detected in space, about 3.4 light years away. Mr. Ripley looks over a control panel, pushes buttons, and then asks the computer to set a coarse for the vessel; the computer responds, with the Galileo speeding ahead. A few minutes later, the Galileo starts to slow down into impulse power, leading Mr. Ripley to open a communication line to the vessel, with a quick response by a lizard alien, telling Mr. Ripley that he was interfering with their territory, and would be destroyed.

The view screen returns to show space; the Galileo is attacked, and Mr. Ripley tells the computer to launch photon torpedos at the vessel attacking them. With the officers escaping their holding cells, Cpt. Pricherd, Maggie, Officer Reed, and a few other officers head to the bridge, planning to take back control of the ship.

To Be Continued.....

Executive Producers: Jerry O'Connell
Bill Dial



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