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The BMW was a classic convertible. Black. The two teenage boys exchanged wicked grins as the taller jimmied open the driver's side door. He slid inside, behind the wheel, and unlocked the other door. The real leather interior felt plush and expensive. They worked quickly to hotwire the starter. Slowly the one in the driver's seat eased the car out of the long driveway. Once they hit the street QROC got cranked. Heavy metal exploded into the air around them as the two long haired teenagers screamed the lyrics.

“It’s my turn man,” an hour into the joyride through the hills of Los Cisco.

“Ten more minutes buddy.”

“You've had it for an hour!”

“Ten more minutes. After all, I am the sicky.”

“Sicko maybe.”

Their voices melded in laughter. Everything about these two melded. They had been best friends for so long that neither one was sure where one ended and the other began. Their families had tried to keep them apart, but it never worked. Now that one was sick, things were changing. Since they didn’t want to admit that they wouldn't be the same any more, they decided to do what they did best--raise some hell.

They should have been at home. Asleep. They should have been anywhere but the intersection of 21st and V Street. They were so busy belting out the words of Danger Kitty that neither of them saw the stop sign. Not that they would've stopped. But they might've seen the truck. They might've slowed down. The driver might've survived. Instead metal screeched it’s angry call against metal. Glass shattered and tinkled in counterpoint to the squealing tires. Amazingly the radio still worked. As the life ebbed out of one and the spirit of the other, Danger Kitty played on.
What if you found a portal to a parallel universe? What if you could slide into a thousand different worlds, where it's the same year and you're the same person, but everything else is different? And what if you can't find your way home?

Starring:
Cleavant Derricks as Rembrandt Brown
Kari Wuhrer as Maggie Beckett
Robert Floyd as Mallory
Tembi Locke as Diana Davis




by Tigs
Produced by Q-Ball79 and Chaser9
Story by JToner

He woke up in a cold sweat. The breath rattled through his body. Tears streamed unheeded down his cheeks, past the stubble, into his long, curly hair. He looked around the empty warehouse with fear. Slowly his breathing eased. Slowly his mind came back to the here and now. Slowly sounds penetrated the fog. He heard the stutter of automatic gunfire and his stomach had another reason to clench. With catlike movements he eased himself to the wall. In moments he was slipping through the alley, past the bodies of associates, past the burning buildings, past the Federales. Fortunately, his misspent youth came to his aid as he avoided them.


“Logan Mallory was a brilliant young woman from a brilliant family. She always exhibited an offhanded charm whether she was conducting a tour for school children or showing a naive reporter around Prototronics, the laboratory that brought us usable cold fusion. Since the events of last week, Miss Mallory and her older brother Colin have been in seclusion. It’s obvious the people of Los Cisco hope the Mallorys are successful in their attempts to stop the anti-fusion movement.”

Colin Mallory finished reading the editorial and tossed the newspaper onto the coffee table. “At least we are still loved sis, but why does that reporter always wax poetic about you?”

Logan pulled on her black leather jacket as she answered, “he thinks I’m cute. That's all. Shall we go make sure they are really going to leave?”

“Yeah,” he slid on a cowboy hat and adjusted his belt buckle. “Let’s roll.”

A short while later, the Mallory siblings sat on a park bench and watched the last of the four sliders disappear into an Interdimensional gateway. It sucked closed with a pop. At the same time it shut a mob of rioters hit the park. The Mallory siblings watched the mob break into search parties. On their way out of the park they were stopped by five different bands. All of these people wanted one simple thing--normalcy.

A few days ago the sliders had landed. Two men and two women. Instead of lying low like normal people they had decided to “get involved.” Among other things they decided to dabble in was politics. They had been relentless in promoting and passing a ban on cold fusion technology. Cold fusion was the golden egg that kept Prototronics, the Mallory's business, in the blue. It was also the primary energy source of Los Cisco. A little something the sliders seemed to have missed.

The government had come in and taken over Prototronics, claiming it as federal property. This left the Mallory's with no livelihood and no rights to the cold fusion their parents had died helping perfect. They and the mobs that had begun to roam the city and randomly attack the Federales only wanted cold fusion back. Somehow Logan and Colin had to find a way to do it; a city was counting on them.

Conrad “Rad” Bennish eased into the dark house. He passed the “wall of shame” which sported pictures of three siblings. Two of the three went from babies to post college. The other ended mid-high school. Softly, Rad touched the last picture. How he missed his best friend. His fingers stayed on the picture as he felt the barrel of a revolver press into his neck. “You really need to cut your hair,” Logan breathed into his ear while removing the gun.

“Yeah, yeah,” he whispered. “I know I should be more careful, but I didn’t have anyplace else to go.”

Logan carried the conversation into the downstairs guest bedroom, “you know you are always welcome here. Colin even insisted we make up the bed for you.” She indicated the comfortable looking bed.

Before she slipped past him, he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close, “when are you going to make my dreams come true?” He let the words tickle her earlobe as he playfully nibbled his way down her neck.

“Knock it off, player,” Logan gently shoved him away. “G'night lover.”

He groaned as she left and he pulled off his boots. He was unbelievably lucky to have the Mallorys. His biggest problem was trying to wrap his mind around the way the Mallorys had taken him in, forgiven him, been a family to him when his parents kicked him out. They never let him wallow in his guilt. And he was guilty.


Rad lay sprawled across the pillow top mattress. His lean frame looked too thin to Logan's eyes. She glided quietly into the room and continued to watch him. She grimaced at his greasy, lank, hair -- it needed to be chopped off. It hid his beautiful face. She leaned over him, blowing softly on his cheek. Her fingers brushed his beard. He’d come to look so rough with the long hair and beard. At least when he slept the stress disappeared. Funny, she was the one who should've carried all the pain. Quinn had been her twin. She gasped as his eyes opened and his arm snaked around her waist, pulling her onto the bed next to him. “You never give up, do you?”

“You know you want me,” he grinned at her as she continued the roll and planted her feet on the floor.

“Maybe if you had a decent haircut and trimmed that beard,” she smiled seductively, “besides, you know you want me.” She stood up and walked to the door, “Colin made waffles.”

He looked after her retreating derriere. Growling he, crawled out of the comfort of the bed and hopped in the shower. The water saturated him -- warm water. Only the Mallorys would find a way to keep their amenities. They probably had a cold fusion generator in the basement. He wrapped one towel around himself and used the other to dry his hair. He hated it when she was right, but he was too well known for his current look. He was going to have to go GQ.

By the time Rad made it into the kitchen Logan and Colin had plowed through several waffles each. He noticed that several sat on a plate just for him. The smell of coffee sent him over the edge as he sat down and dug in.

Colin pulled his well worn cowboy boots, “So, what are you going to do? They have your picture plastered all over.”

Between bites, Rad managed to spit out an answer, “Need a makeover.” He winked at Logan as he gulped some coffee, “Ah. Hot.”

“Does that mean I finally get to see you looking as good as you can look?” Her lips curved up in a smile.

Rad mentally shook himself. He had to stop noticing all of the little things about her. The curve of her lips, the shapely way she filled out her clothes, the line of her long legs. “Yeah,” he said, trying to stop his thoughts.

“I don’t suppose I can bring you to the other side?” Colin threw out a lopsided grin as he slumped in his chair. His long legs seemed to go halfway across the kitchen.

“No way am I going for that Canadian look,” Rad shook his head. “But I do want you to cut my hair,” the pathetic look he gave sent both Logan and Colin into fits of laughter.

“What about the beard?” Logan grinned, “after all, there’s something sexy about a clean shaven face.”

Rad put his head in his hands, “fine, butcher my stunning good looks. If you don’t, Hurley and his Federales will find me.”


General Michael Hurley paced the length of the Prototronics board room and continued growling at his pet scientists, “How am I supposed to destroy this technology or declare it safe if you are too stupid to understand it?” He turned to face the five cowering scientists. “Well?” his voice was softly menacing.

One of the scientists, a tall thin man with a shock of brown hair and a goatee, spoke up, “Sir, if we could find one of their scientists,” he swallowed nervously.

“Green, if I knew where any of their scientists were, don’t you think they would be here?” Hurley's last words were said in Dr. Green's face.

“Gee, sir, I guess so,” he wiped the spittle off of his face. “I should've taken that internship at MTV,” he muttered under his breath.

In disgust, Hurley stomped out of the room and towards the office where his Intelligence Officers had centered their web. “Well, Jones?”

The huge black man stood up to quietly tower over Hurley, “Do I really need to be questioned every ten minutes about the progress of my agents? First, we don’t know anything about the insurrectionists. Secondly, we cannot find any of the former Prototronics’ scientists. Third, we have had no success getting anything out of the computers. Any other questions, sir?”

“Do you realize that Washington is breathing down my neck? If I can’t prove the claims of those publicity hogs, then we give up Prototronics. All I need is a pet scientist who will say what I want,” Hurley's voice raised to a pitch that was making the compounds dogs shudder, “That cold fusion was flawed, we fixed it, and therefore we are keeping it. But it needs to be someone who can convince the scientific elite. Do I get what I want? No,” the last word was drawn out.


Rad looked at the pile of hair with distaste. “You don’t have to enjoy this so much,” he threw at Logan who, to her credit, was quietly cleaning up the hair. “How does it look?” He nervously stroked his smooth cheeks.

Logan swept the last of the hair up and stood. She walked over to Rad and kissed his cheek, “You look very nice.” Her sweet smile turned into a grin. “Okay, you look hot. Totally GQ yummy.”

“Thanks.”

“Excuse me while I gag,” Colin finished the sandwiches he’d been preparing. “Rad, you want to hit the cooler in the shed and grab up some beers? I’ll take this outside.”

“Let me help,” Logan grabbed a bag of chips and a bowl full of carrots and used her hips to open the door. Soon all three were at the outdoor picnic table laughing, “So you never actually asked her to prom? Margaret just showed up at your door?”

Rad nodded laughing, “Yeah, Army Brat Beckett just showed up. Who knows why she took a shot at me. I wonder how she's doing over in England.”

“Why'd she go over there again?” Colin finished off his first beer.

Before anyone could answer a familiar sound assaulted their ears. The sound of the fabric of space and time shredding. As one, the three turned to see a small circle grow larger. As the dark blues and greens played with each other four bodies slammed out of the vortex and onto the trampoline. The first man bounced off and onto his back where he lay groaning. One woman landed on top of him and quickly rolled off in disgust. Another woman bounced off and just missed braining herself on the picnic table while the last man just bounced on the trampoline until it was still.

“Crap,” Logan rose in anger.

“You got to be kidding me,” Colin muttered in disgust.

“Is that Army Brat Beckett? Talk about irony,” Rad let out an irritated sigh.

Maggie Beckett pulled herself off the unforgiving ground and looked closely at the three people by the picnic table. She gasped in surprise as she recognized Colin Mallory. Intellectually she knew it wasn't her Colin, but this was the first double she'd seen since the accident. “Colin?” her voice was barely a whisper.

Remmy swung himself off the trampoline and quickly moved to Diana. “Sweety, are you ok?” He gently helped her into a sitting position.

“I’m fine,” she searched herself for the timer and the PDL. “At least they are both whole.” She handed the timer to Remmy and put the PDL in her jacket pocket. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, girl. I don’t know,” Remmy watched the three strangers and he recognized Colin too. Momentarily he was transported back to better days. “Oh man, Maggie?” His voice reached her and he saw the tears she was fighting off.

Finally Mallory, groaning, pushed himself off the lawn. “Damn. We've never hit a trampoline before. They should be outlawed.” He stood and looked around. That's when Mallory's carefully cultivated persona shattered.


IO Jones typed quickly at his keyboard as he tried yet again to get any information out of the Prototronics mainframe. He’d never seen anything quite like it. He yawned and rubbed his face with a hand. “I’m never going to crack this,” he was used to speaking to himself, so when someone coughed in answer Jones was on his feet, gun in hand, “Oh it’s you. What now?”

“Is that any way to treat your favorite scientist?”

“Tom, I don’t have time for this.”

“Dex, you need a break, man. You've been working on this for three days straight.”

“Sorry, Tommy boy. Hurley's foaming at the mouth as it is. So, is anyone coming up with anything worthwhile?”

“No, man. You couldn't have stuck me with a geekier group.”

“In that case, I need to get back to work.”

Tom got a nasty grin on his face, “My bum is on the desk, my bum is on the desk.” Chuckling, Dex shoved him out of the office.


Logan felt her world fall apart. Everything spun out of control for her. She swayed for a moment. Rad, standing beside her, grabbed on to her. She felt his hands close in on her arms with a bruising grip. As tears spilled down her face, she knew what he felt. For his part, Rad held onto the only thing that had ever been real. Logan was here. Logan was with him. If Logan was here, if he could feel her, then he ... his thoughts scattered as the apparition moved.

“Are you real?” Mallory stumbled forward. His only thought revolved around whether he was in hell. Would Rad disappear? Was Rad real? No one else seemed to move except for the woman Rad held onto. If Mallory had a lifeline like that, he would've used it. “Rad?” his voice held all the emotions his being contained.

Logan could feel Rad shaking. Automatically she swung her leg over the bench so she was standing nearer to her twin. Of course, he didn’t know her. But he knew Rad. And if she couldn't have a moment with him, well, Rad could. She gently moved Rad so that he was closer to Quinn.

Mallory let the tears fall unheeded. He took a closer look at the woman. His parents had given him all they could because he was their only child. His mother had miscarried before him. Maybe this was how things should've been. The family he should've had. The best friend who should've lived. “Rad?”

They stood inches apart. “Quinn?” Rad's voice cracked. The two men hugged. “You’re alive.”

Colin sat at the picnic table. His face in his hands as he sobbed at the sight of his baby brother. A baby brother who didn’t know him from Hurley. It hurt. It hurt so badly. A hand touched his shoulder. He looked up into brown eyes, “Are you ok Colin?” Maggie knew it wasn't her Colin, but he was a Colin.

“Yeah,” his soft voice held so much pain that Maggie felt her heart contract. This was the man Colin could've been given more time. Given a better fate.

Logan looked around her and her stomach clenched. The other three. She had been so focused on Rad and Quinn that she hadn't noticed the other three. Logan looked over at Colin and wondered how long it would take him to recognize the woman who was talking to him. Or the other two. Logan spun around quickly. Everything was wrong. She folded onto the grass, crying.


Tom Green walked the halls of Prototronics whistling. He mulled over the possible whereabouts of the missing scientists. What would possess them to go into hiding in the first place? What about Hurley would scare these people so much? It had to be Hurley. The Prototronics' scientists had worked with the Federales numerous times. So, what now? Why Hurley? He continued to walk and whistle.


All seven sat around the living room. Maggie Beckett was quietly reeling from the shock that she had been responsible for causing Colin and the others problems. Well, not her, but a double. A double who traveled with the Quinn she longed for. She felt the coarse weave of the couch as her arm rested on it. Next to Maggie, Diana sat and absorbed. Everything swirled around her as she tried to reconcile all the different things coming in.

Logan and Colin Mallory sat side by side. They both looked as shell shocked as they felt. In their living room sat one dead brother and three bitter enemies. Only they weren't quite who they were supposed to be. In fact, they had some serious questions. Especially Quinn. It was a stunner to Logan to hear that none of them could figure out why she was living there with her brother. The seemed to think she was supposed to be some sort of monster. And the way Remmy and Maggie jumped every time Colin spoke was almost funny.

“So,” Mallory said, “you were my twin?”

Colin put a comforting arm around his sister. She hadn't even told Rad about any of this. Colin started, “Logan's actually my half-sister. Her mother, Amanda, worked with my father. They were close. So when Amanda and her husband Jake found out they couldn't conceive, Dad offered to donate sperm since Jake was the problem, so to speak.” He paused.

“Amanda was so happy when she finally conceived that she stopped by here to tell Mom, I mean Liz. Liz had just found out that she was pregnant too. It turned out that their due dates were only a week apart,” Logan continued the thread and absently wiped tears from her cheeks. She was beginning to wonder if she would ever stop crying, “tragedy struck a week before we were born,” she indicated Quinn. “Jake fell from the roof of a building his firm was constructings. The stress of his death and the funeral proved to be too much for Amanda. She spent the next week in the hospital.” Logan couldn't continue.

“Dad was torn, Mom was having Quinn and Amanda was dying. The upshot is that with Amanda and Jake dead my folks decided they wanted Logan. She was raised as Quinn’s twin. Until her twenty-first birthday, we were both in the dark. Our folks sat us down and told us all about Amanda and Jake. They wanted Logan to know as much as possible about her mother.” The siblings were silent.


“Holy crap,” Jones muttered. The main frame laid one of it’s secrets before his eyes. A secret that explained the missing scientists and the attempt to discredit cold fusion. Colin Mallory had headed the investigation into the deaths of his parents. The cold fusion generator they had been experimenting with had sabotaged. Colin had found DNA. DNA that matched one General Michael Hurley. What was Hurley doing in Prototronics? Why would Hurley mess with a generator? Was Hurley under orders? Who had Colin told? Jones rubbed his temples. There were too many questions. He had to find the Mallorys and there was only one person who could find them.


Dr. Green maneuvered his borrowed Honda through the residential streets of Los Cisco. Thanks to Dex, Tom didn’t have to worry about being tailed. He did wonder how Dex had managed it, but some things were better left alone. He took a left on Blue Jay Way. For a few minutes Tom sat outside the unimpressive house. History was about to be made.


“Your turn,Q-bert. How did you become a transdimensional traveler?” Rad had to move the conversation away from Logan. He hated to see her in pain and he understood why shed kept all of that from him. He didn’t really need to know that she wasn't really Quinn’s twin. He hoped that she had enough faith in him to know what his reaction would be.

“Q-bert? The hell?” Maggie exclaimed.

“Only our favorite video game,” Rad responded.

“Fogboy, you've got a new nickname,” Remmy laughed.

“I was part of an experiment to cure my muscular dystrophy and...” before Mallory could go any farther a quick series of raps on the front door startled everyone.

Colin rose and opened the door. “Can I help you?” he asked as politely as possible.

“I hope so. My name is Tom Green and I need your help.” Tom flashed his badge. “I really need your help. It’s about Hurley and Prototronics.”

“Come in,” Colin curtly gestured toward the living room and he took a moment to enjoy the shocked gasp Mr. Green gave.

“I don’t understand.”

“Mr. Green,” Colin began.

“Dr. Green.”

“Fine, Dr. Green, allow me to introduce you. Rembrandt Brown, from Earth 1; Diana Davis from Earth 2; Margaret Beckett from Earth 3; Quinn Mallory also from Earth 2 and incidentally the spitting image of my dead baby brother; Rad Bennish from this earth; and finally my sister Logan.” Colin directed a stunned Tom to an empty chair. “Any questions?”

“Several,” Tom said. “First, how--who--oh nevermind. First, I need to know about the investigation into your parent's deaths. What did you find out? How does it relate to the disappearance of all the Prototronics’ scientists? And what crashed your main frame?”

Logan and Colin exchanged looks. This was territory neither of them had been prepared to go. Rad coughed. Logan looked around the room and Colin just looked uncomfortable. “Don’t you have any easier questions?” Colin asked.

“If we are going to help you--” Tom started.

“Hold up,” Logan interrupted. “Who are you? How are you going to help us? Why should we trust you?”

“Right. I’m Dr. Tom Green. I work for Federales Intelligence. We've been tracking a group of rogue officers who seem to be building a power base for a take over. Somehow Prototronics is a, perhaps THE, key piece. If we can figure out who they are now and stop them here then,” he let the last fade. “Would it help to tell you Dex sent me himself?”

“You need to come with us, to the basement.” Colin stood first and then helped his sister up. Rad was already at the basement door. Curious, the four sliders followed. Actually, Mallory didn’t want to let Rad out of his sight quite yet and the other sliders didn’t want to let Mallory out of their sight. At the door, all three put their palms onto metal pads placed evenly across the door at eye level. Everyone could hear machinery whirring. After a series of clicks, Colin opened the door.

“Now that's security,” Tom quipped.

“Yeah,” Logan led the way downstairs. The metallic walls gleamed; the lab equipment reeked of high tech. “Welcome to the dungeon.” She gestured to the elaborate laboratory.

“Damn, girl,” Remmy breathed.

While the sliders and Tom looked around in various shades of surprise Colin accessed one of the small computers. Above a central table hovered a hologram. It showed General Michael Hurley and several others of note that Tom recognized. For his part, Tom took out some sort of a palm pilot clone. He handed it to Colin as he scanned the information scrolling through the holographic display.

“I also need you to send the information to the following e-mail,” Tom took his PDA from Colin and handed him an e-mail address.

“Is this a joke?” Colin looked skeptically at Tom, “bumbum@song.net?”

“That's it,” Tom smiled. “Listen, I have to go. You should all lay low until you hear from me or Dex.”

“You've got it man.” Colin walked him upstairs.

“How is it that you've never invented sliding, but you have a lab like this?” Diana asked.

“Who says we don’t know about sliding?” Rad raised an eyebrow. “After all, sliders are what caused this mess. In fact, three of the four of you had doubles who ruined our lives.”

“Come again?” Maggie looked up from the tools she had been toying with.

Colin returned, “simple, your doubles came to our world with tales of the horror that cold fusion had wrought on their home world. It was all bullsh--”

“We're a little bitter,” Logan interrupted.

“Whatever, Sis. The point is that certain Federales who had already tried to sabotage cold fusion took it as the excuse they'd been looking for. Since we didn’t crumble when our parents died last year,” Colin stopped mid sentence. Too much was too close to the surface.

Rad had both of his hands on Logan's shoulders. He knew that this day had brought both of his friends as close to the breaking point as they'd ever been. No one spoke for awhile. Logan stood in the circle of Rad's arms as they both mulled over the insane roller coaster they'd been thrust on. Colin leaned against one of the support pillars and Maggie gently touched his arm. Rembrandt and Diana sat silently on the couch that adorned the space in front of one wall.

·          ·          ·

Once again, the Mallory siblings were at the park. This time Rad was with them and the animosity was missing. Mallory and Colin hugged. “Take care, little brother,” Colin whispered.

“Stay safe,” Mallory returned. Then he moved on to Logan. He bent down and gave her a kiss on the cheek before pulling her into a hug. “I wish you'd been around on my earth.”

“Thanks Quinn,” she touched a hand to his face, “I love you.” She tried to fight the tears.

“I don’t know what to say man. It’s just so good to see you alive,” Mallory smiled at Rad.

Rad pulled Mallory into a hug, “Just stay safe Q-bert.”

Maggie and Colin had become quite close over the two weeks the sliders had stayed with the Mallorys. “Look me up on this world cowboy,” Maggie said as she pulled Colin down for a “proper” kiss.

Remmy and Diana's goodbyes were understandably less emotional. Remmy pulled out the timer and pressed the button, causing space and time to shatter. The Mallorys and Rad watched the four sliders disappear into the interdimensional gateway. It sucked closed with a pop.

The End


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