As always, Sliders is the property of Universal/Saint Clare and the Sci-Fi Channel.  No copyright infringement is intended, I've received no monetary compensation for this story which may be, since you asked, freely distributed under the condition that it not be altered or sold.  And now that I've adequately covered my ass, on with the show!

“You’re not the only one, Remmy.”  Wade nodded.  “Darth Vader saying, ‘Luke, I am your mother,’ was weird.  Everyone in that theater was probably wondering what the three of us were laughing at so hard.

“A sexually-reversed version of Star Wars.”  Wade sighed.  “Through five years of sliding, I’d say that was definitely a first.”

“And hopefully a last,” Rembrandt added.  “I think Luke Skywalker was sexually reversed enough in our world’s version of it!”

“But it was so powerful,” Logan St. Clair said, stepping into the conversation.  “The struggle between good and evil and the revelation that your greatest enemy is actually a part of you.”

“Yeah,” Maggie Beckett huffed, rolling her eyes, “we have no idea what that’s like.”

Logan let Maggie’s remark slide.  “If we come across this movie series again on another world, we’ve got to check out how it ends.  I’ll die if Prince Lee and Lukeana Skywalker never get Hanna Solo away from that awful Boba Fettette.”

“Here’s hoping,” Wade mumbled to Maggie.  She looked at the professor who had a less than enjoyable time in the movie.  “Max?”

“I’m fine!” Arturo erupted.  “I was just trying to blend in!  Go with the flow as Mr. Brown so eloquently put it!”

“Then you should have told the guy in the stormtrooper costume to ‘use the force,’ Max,” Rembrandt responded.  “I mean, ‘beam me up, Scotty’ was the LAST thing you wanted to say in there.  That’s like dousing yourself in barbecue sauce and diving into a tiger cage.”

Logan laughed which caused the other sliders to stare at her.  “What?” she asked.  “I thought that was funny!”

Arturo took out the timer and checked the readouts.  “We’ve got a minute,” he said.  “I suggest we find a secluded spot to make our exit.”

Logan stayed behind as the others walked into a nearby alley.  “Jeez,” she remarked to Rembrandt.  “Every time I say something to one of you guys, you’d think someone died.”

“Someone did,” Rembrandt coldly replied.

“Look,” Logan said, moving a few blowing strings of her brunette hair out of her eyes.  “Quinn was... a brilliant guy with an excellent genetic makeup, a nice butt, and I’m sorry he’s dead, but what more do you people expect of me?  I mean... I wasn’t the one who killed him!”

“A little compassion would be nice, Logan,” Rembrandt said.  “Quinn was an important part of the team and, in a bigger part, a member of our family.  I think last night was the first time I’ve seen Wade go to sleep without crying in over a week.”  He sighed.  “You know, you’re a cold and unfeeling person, Logan.  Kinda like Darth Vader in many ways.”

“Look, Brown,” Logan huffed, “I know my methods aren’t exactly ethical, and I know I’ve just offended the hell out of you and your friends time and again, but I had the welfare of my world to think of.  We were starving and I saw a way to save them.  Now, that may make me a mean person, a little evil, yes, but I have a long way to go before I turn into a machine like that Darth Vader chick.”

Rembrandt glanced down at Logan’s arm.  Grotesque pieces of wire poked out from under her sleeve.  “Looks like you’ve got a good start,” Rembrandt said, raising an eyebrow.

As he walked into the alley with his friends, Logan nervously covered her arm with her jacket sleeve and exhaled, watching her breath fog in the cold San Francisco air.  She was likely to be stuck with this group for quite a while, and she had to find some way – any way – to get them to trust her.

After all, trust – to Logan – could be a powerful tool.

-----

Logan shrieked as her body hit the cold, salty waters of the ocean.  “I can’t swim!” she screamed to anyone who might be listening.

Arturo grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and hoisted her onto the sliders’ lifeboat, a housetop poking out of the blue mass of water.

“How long are we here?” Wade asked.

“A little over a week,” the professor replied, taking the second timer from a waterlogged Logan and putting it away, then surveying the landscape.  He saw several houses underwater and helicopters buzzing overhead.  “It appears we’ve landed in the middle of a deluge,” he theorized.

“Under a clear sky?” Maggie said, licking her lips, noticing the taste of the water.   “And last time I checked, it doesn’t rain seawater on any world I’ve ever been on.”

Logan fell on her back and stared up into the sky, allowing the sun to warm her.  She hated the water.

“Maybe on this world, San Francisco’s below sea level and a damn broke or something,” Wade said, throwing in her own two cents.

A cold shadow fell over the flooded neighborhood.  “It’s high tide,” Logan said, gazing up at the disappearing sun.

“High tide?” Rembrandt echoed.  “We’re pretty far inland, Logan.  It’d have to be a hell of a high tide.”

“Trust me,” Logan said, never removing her gaze from the sky, “it’s high tide.”

“And what the hell makes you so sure?” Wade asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Logan pointed upwards.  The sliders followed her gesture and looked towards the sky.  A massive sphere was moving in front of the sun, blocking its rays from hitting the surface.  “What the devil is that?”  Arturo said aloud.

“Looks like the moon!” Wade said.

“That’s no moon...” Logan stated.

“If you say ‘...it’s a space station,’ I swear I will strangle you,” Maggie interrupted.

The professor shielded his eyes and exhaled in amazement.  “That’s a planet!” he exclaimed.

Maggie returned her gaze to the heavens and whistled, impressed by the sight she saw.  The blue sky had become black and dotted with stars as a perfect blue, green, and white sphere eclipsed the sun.  It was a planet... a beautiful green and blue planet that was obviously inhabited by some form or another of life.  “My god!” Maggie said in awe.

The day turned into a cold, ominous night in only a few seconds.  “This,” Arturo said, “should be an interesting slide.”

-----

Logan was the last of the sliders to be airlifted off the roof and to safety.  The EMT who helped her aboard grabbed her by her cybernetic arm and reacted with surprise.  “Whoa,” she said, “are you alright, dear?”

“Peachy,” Logan replied, pulling her arm away.

The EMT helped her into the back with the other sliders.  “Is there anyone else left down there?” she asked.

Rembrandt shook his head.  “Not that we know of.  It wasn’t our house!”

“Let me guess,” the EMT replied, “you got washed out of your car on your way out of town?”

“Yes,” Arturo answered.  “The uh... tide caught us by surprise.”

“So much for the effectiveness of the Emergency Alert system,” the EMT laughed.  “We’ve been telling everyone that this is Bacchus’ closest approach to Earth in forever and that tides would be out of control all over the world.”

“Well,” Arturo said, trying to bluff his way through the conversation, “we’ve been away from all television and radio for some time.”

The EMT nodded.  “Alright.  You’re all safe and that’s the important thing.  I’ve got to help our lookouts... see if we can pick up any other stragglers.”

“We’ll be alright,” Max smiled at her.

As the EMT made her way to the opening in the paramedic copter’s side, Rembrandt turned to the professor.  “Bacchus?”

“The Roman name of a Greek god,” Arturo explained.  “Typically, he is referred to as Dionysus.  The son of Zeus and Semele...”

“Professor,” Rembrandt said, grabbing his friend by the arms.  “I didn’t ask for a lecture; all I want to know is what the hell Bacchus is!”

“Bacchus is that planet, Rembrandt,” Logan said, pointing at the large sphere in the sky.  It was four times as large as the moon normally appeared.  “Ancient astronomers named planets after the Roman form of Greek deities.  Mercury is Hermes, Venus is Aphrodite, Mars is Ares--“

“Is there a point to this?” Wade interrupted.

Logan glared at her.  “I was just demonstrating a point, starting with the planets closest to sun and moving out.”

“You skipped Earth,” commented Maggie.

Ignoring her, Logan continued.  “Obviously, Bacchus is Dionysus, the trickster and the god of wine.”

“I know about the names of planets,” Rembrandt replied, quite annoyed by this point.  “What I want to know is where’d the damn thing come from!?”

“An interesting question, Mr. Brown,” Arturo said.  “I have the feeling it’s going to have an interesting answer.”

-----

The helicopter brought the sliders to a small town thirty miles from San Francisco named Miller’s Bend.  After the paramedics made sure they were alright - and after a rather inventive excuse made by Logan so that the paramedics wouldn’t touch her - Arturo found a small library and they all ventured inside.  Arturo quickly picked up an astronomy book and thumbed through the pages until he found a map of the solar system.  “It appears that Bacchus has always been a part of the solar system in this universe,” Arturo said.  “It’s approximately the size of Mars, orbits in close vicinity to the Earth once every fifteen years, and supports a broad array of life.”

“Intelligent life?” Rembrandt asked.

Arturo shook his head.  “No, not according to the robot landers that the Japanese and United Americas have sent up there.  It’s a jungle populated by monkey-like creatures, a few land-dwellers, and plenty of marine life.”  He grinned.  “An alien ecosystem... can you imagine?”

“Yeah,” Logan yawned.  “Fascinating.”

“But how...?” Rembrandt began.

“I’ve been thinking about the how, my friend,” Arturo began putting the book away, “and I believe that I have an answer.”  He nodded at the librarian who had told them that the library was closing in five minutes ten minutes ago.

“Well don’t keep us in suspense, Professor,” Wade said impatiently.

“This earth has no moon...  It also has more mass.  Don’t you feel a little... heavier than usual?” Arturo said as they left the building and walked out into the sun.

“I thought it was just me,” Maggie said.  “You know, being tired and all.”

“I thought it was all of that pizza on the last world,” Wade offered.

“The more mass, the more gravity.  Back on my homeworld, it was theorized that, when the Earth was young, a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth which destroyed that planet and decimated Earth.  The resulting debris coalesced in orbit and formed the moon.”

“...And that collision never happened here, and Bacchus is that Mars-sized planet that your scientists postulated about,” Logan deduced.  “Shame it wasn’t like that on my homeworld.  With a spare planet, I never would have had to invent sliding.”

A military vehicle - a hummer - drove by in front of them.  After a second, it screeched to a halt and the driver threw it into reverse and stopped right in front of the sliders.  “Now what?” Rembrandt sighed.

A dark-skinned officer leapt out of the driver’s seat and immediately saluted Maggie.  “Colonel Beckett, is that you!?” he said in muted surprise.

“Uh... Yes, Private?” Maggie replied.

“Sir,” the private said, “I’m glad to see you’re alive!”

Maggie blinked.  “Likewise, Private.  At ease before you hurt yourself.”

“Thank you, sir,” the private said, putting down his saluting arm and placing it behind his back.  “I saw your Huey crash into the water when that cadet plowed into you, sir...  They’ve been searching the area for hours now, but I never expected them to find anything.  Glad to see I was wrong.”  The private exhaled.  “Colonel,” he said, “if you are able, General Byers is holding a meeting at 1800 hours at Fort Carter to discuss the...”  He looked at Maggie’s companions.  “Plan to, uh...  you know... combat the, uh... the situation, sir.  I think he would like you there.”

“I see,” Maggie replied.  “Well, it’s 1704 right now.  Feel like giving me a ride, solider?”

“Of course, sir,” the private replied.

“I’ll be with you shortly.”

The private got back into the hummer and Maggie turned to face the others.  “Before you say anything, this is strictly information gathering.  Something’s got that private spooked, and I think it’d do us a lot of good to find out what it is.”

“And what if the Maggie he expected to find shows up?” Rembrandt asked.

“Doubtful,” Maggie said.  “From the sound of things, I’d say my counterpart is dead.”

“Maggie...” Rembrandt warned.

“Rembrandt, what am I going to do?” she asked.  “Refuse an order?  That could get me court-martialed, thrown in a stockade, and I think that would seriously hamper my chances of catching the next wormhole out of here, don’t you think?”

“Alright,” Arturo said.  “I don’t like it, but if you believe you must, you must.  Good luck, Captain.”

“Colonel on this world, Max,” she grinned, poking him playfully in the stomach, “and don’t you forget it.”

Maggie jumped in the hummer and, soon, they were speeding down the road.

-----

Maggie wasn’t familiar with Fort Carter, but her double had been stationed there for years.  Thankfully, the private - she’d learned from eavesdropping that his name was Noah Peters - felt it necessary to escort her to the briefing room where a man in a general’s uniform awaited.  Maggie saluted.  “General,” she said.

“At ease, Maggie,” Byers replied, motioning for her to sit down.  He walked over and gave her a hug.  “I’m glad to see you’re alright, darling.”

Maggie nodded.  “I was picked up by some paramedics, sir.”

Byers’ brows arched.  “Standing on ceremony today, are we, Colonel?”

Maggie allowed herself to smile.  Who the hell was this guy?  “It’s been a long day.”

“Understandable.”  Byers smiled.  “Your father called.”

Maggie’s face went white.  “He did?”

“Yes,” he said, tapping on the conference room desk.  “I told him you were alright and that you’re a-okay for the mission.  That is still true, isn’t it?  I’d hate to think I was giving the joint chief of staff false information.”

“Can I talk to him, sir?  My father, I mean, not the joint chief,”  Maggie asked.  This was the first world she’d been to in almost two years of sliding where her father was still alive.

Byers blinked.  “I’m sorry, Colonel, but you’re under strict communications silence starting the second you walked in that door.  I can’t make any exceptions... not even for you, and not even for him or the joint chief.”

The door to the conference room opened and three other generals entered.  Maggie rose to her feet and saluted them.

“At ease, Colonel,” one of the generals said.  A woman, she had to have been at least sixty.  “I’m General Eilling.  This is General Hernandez and General Wilkins.”

“We’ve met,” the large, dark-skinned man named Wilkins replied.  “It’s been a long time, Colonel.”

“Too long, sir,” Maggie replied.  She had seen this man before.  He had been a resistance fighter on an earth she’d visited the previous year, and Wade, Quinn, and Remmy had met him years before that on one of their first slides.

“Gentlemen,” Byers said, motioning everyone to sit down, “what I am about to tell you has been deemed top secret by the United States of North America government and is not to leave this room.”

Everyone nodded as the blinds were drawn over the windows.  Byers picked up a remote control and pressed a button which brought up an image on a nearby screen.  It was an image of the Earth and Bacchus circling the sun.  “We’ve been living with this problem since the dawn of time,” Byers explained as the two simulated planets circled the sun.  “Every fifteen years, Earth and Bacchus pass within two million miles of each other and tides become more severe, satellites are knocked out of orbit, planes are grounded, and so on and so on.  Now, the public has been told that Bacchus’ close approach will be completed in December...”  He inhaled.  “But that is not entirely the truth.”

“What is the truth, sir?” Hernandez asked.

Byers face became grave.  “The truth is... Bacchus’ orbit has been disrupted.”

“Disrupted in what way?”

“It is no longer in orbit of the sun,” Byers explained.  “It is now in orbit around the Earth.”

“The Earth?” Eilling repeated.  “You mean we’re going to have to live under close approach protocols from now until doomsday?”

“Exactly,” Byers told her.  “Unfortunately, doomsday is coming a lot soon than we think.”

“What do you mean, sir?” Wilkins inquired, leaning forward in his chair and anticipating the bad news.

“I mean, that in one week, Bacchus’ orbit will degrade to a point where it will impact the Earth.”

“What’s our damage estimate?” Wilkins asked.

“Total,” Byers said with a raised eyebrow.  “Everything on both planets will be obliterated in a blast that will superheat the planet to that of the surface of the sun.”

Everyone sat in stunned silence.  Maggie desperately tried to figure out a way to tell the sliders that the world was going to be destroyed a full week before they were scheduled to slide.

Byers cleared his throat.  “The reason this is happening is that Bacchus’ gravitational well has increased by over three hundred percent.  Something our scientists do not think is natural.”

“Not natural?” Eilling asked.  “But what... ?”

“Allow me to continue, please, Debbie,” Byers said, holding a hand up.  “Now, as I said, Bacchus’ gravitational well has increased exponentially over the past few months, but our rovers have shown us that the surface gravity has remained .74 that of Earth.  We think that there may be something on that planet - probably in its upper western hemisphere near its polar region - that is causing this disruption.”

“Define ‘something,’ sir,” Wilkins said.

“Something... not natural, not human, and possibly alien,” Byers said.  He clicked the controller in his hand and brought up a new image.  It appeared to be a fuzzy aerial picture.  “What you are looking at is the surface of Bacchus taken from the Hubble space telescope.”

Wilkins squinted his eyes.  “That... that looks like a structure!”

Byers nodded.  “It’s not ours, the Japanese’, or the Russians'.  In fact, no one on the planet has the capability to put such a structure up there undetected.”

Eilling scoffed.  “You mean to tell me that little green men are up there?”

“Who knows,” Byers said, looking at Maggie.  “That’s what Colonel Beckett and her team is going to find out.”

Maggie blinked.  “What!?”

“Colonel Beckett,” Byers continued, “is being sent to Bacchus to see if she can stop whatever is happening up there.”

“You’re sending me into outer space?” Maggie asked in disbelief.

“I know you’ve been wanting to go back up there for a while, Colonel,” Byers said, smiling.  “We’ve assembled your team... other astronauts, soldiers, and scientists.”

“Sir,” Maggie began.  “I don’t...”

“The decision has been made, Colonel,” Byers said firmly.  “You’ve been checked out and I don’t think a little helicopter crash warrants the cancellation of this mission or your removal from it.  You and your team may be the last best hope this planet has at survival.”  He clicked the television off.  “Good luck, Colonel.  You lift off in three hours.”  Two guards entered.  “These men will escort you to a jet that will take you to New Cape Kennedy, Texas.”

The generals saluted Maggie.  “All of humanity is depending on you, Colonel,” Byers said.

Maggie timidly returned the salute and followed the guards outside and to an awaiting Hummer, all the while thinking that humanity was quite doomed.

-----

Wade plopped down on the bed of the Dominion Hotel and exhaled.  Glancing out the window, she caught sight of the beautiful planet Bacchus from the window.  It was even larger than before, dominating the sky as the sun set in the west.  “I’ll say this much for this world,” she said, “they’ve got a nice view.”

“Indeed,” Arturo agreed.  “Must be breathtaking at night.”

Logan turned on the television.  “Yeah,” she sighed.  “Breathtaking.”  She switched channels until she found a television program that looked interesting.

“I don’t believe it.”  Rembrandt laughed as he looked at the TV.  “Lost in Space is still on in this world!”

Logan grimaced and changed the channel.

“Welcome back to Amazing Inventions,” a tall, lanky man said to a studio audience.  “Today we’re talking with inventor Jason Donner about his new gadget, the Tide-alert.”

“That’s right, Carl,” Donner answered in a thick Aussie accent.  “Ever since Florida was wiped off the map by the tide of ‘82, people are always asking WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE COMING!?  Well, with Tide-alert, you’ll always know up to a day before the waters come rolling in!”

“Well,” the host said, “how much are you asking for this fabulous LIFE SAVING device?”

“Only $49.95!”

The audience began booing and shouting, “No!  No!”

“Well,” Donner huffed, “what if I throw in the Wonder Goulashes and the Amazing Shammy... ALL FOR $39.99!?”

The audience only booed and protested louder.

“IS THERE NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!??” Donner screamed at them, losing his accent.

Logan changed the channel.  “Weirdo.”

“The planet Bacchus,” an announcer began as a picture of the strange planet was shown on the screen, “a long time mystery to the men of Earth... but soon to be a mystery no more.”  The picture faded and an aged man faced the camera and smiled.  “Hello, I’m Walter Cronkite...”

“Walter Cronkite?!” Arturo exclaimed.

“Shhhh!” Wade said quickly.

“Just moments ago,” Cronkite continued, “NASA shocked the USNA by announcing that, for the first time in history, a manned spaceflight and landing on the planet Bacchus will be attempted.  For more on this, let us go live via satellite to Fort Carter, California where General Nathan Byers of NASA is standing by.”  Cronkite turned to a nearby monitor where the General was waiting.  “General,” Cronkite began.  “This is certainly an unexpected move for NASA.  Why the sudden and unprecedented mission to Bacchus?”

“Well,” Byers said, smiling.  “As you know, the launch window to Bacchus only pops up once every fifteen years, and we felt that to wait until 2016 for a manned mission would be foolish.  Make no mistake, this mission has been planned for some time.”

“But, General, why the secrecy?”

Byers seemed a little uncomfortable.  “Well, Walter, there are a few...  radical elements in the country who felt that it is a slap in the face of God to leave the planet Earth.  We felt that to suddenly spring a mission like this on the public would give them less time to plan any... terrorist activities such as the tragic Challenger incident of ‘86.”

Cronkite smiled.  “Well, General, don’t keep us in suspense.  Who is the lucky man who is commanding this mission to a strange new world?”

“Lucky, yes.”  Byers smiled.  “Man, no.  I’m happy to report that the first female astronaut in history has been placed in command of this mission.  Colonel Maggie Beckett.”

Rembrandt’s eyes became as wide as saucers.  “He doesn’t mean... ?”

“Oh, God, I hope not!” Wade replied.

“Colonel Beckett has arrived at New Cape Kennedy in West Texas,” Byers explained, “and she’s standing by on telephone as we speak.”

“Wonderful,” Cronkite said, also smiling.  “Colonel Beckett?  Can you hear me?”

There was a pause.  “Yes... Yes, Mr. Cronkite.”  A picture appeared of Maggie’s double looking quite heroic in an astronaut’s suit with a caption on the screen reading, ‘On phone: Col. Maggie Beckett.  New Cape Kennedy, Texas.’

“You must be excited,” the reporter said.

“Excited,” Maggie repeated.

“I see we have to go to commercial in a few minutes...  Do you have any words to the North American people, Colonel?”

“Just that... uh...”  There was a rustle of unseen papers.  “This will be a day long remembered and we...  I mean, I am honored to command such an elite crew of brave sows.”  Maggie cleared her throat.  “Uh... I mean, souls.  Souls!  I’m sorry.”

“Colonel Beckett,” Cronkite began, “any response to the criticism all ready being received about such a secretive mission?”

“If there is any,” Maggie’s voice said, “I’ll just let it slide.  This is important to the scientific community.  A lot of professors are going to be wading in the data we bring back.”

“Thank you, Colonel Beckett,” Cronkite said, “and thank you, General Byers.”

“My pleasure,” Byers replied.

“We’ll be right back.”

The screen went blank and an announcer began speaking.  “Celebrate the wedding of President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky with this commemorative plate from the Franklin Mint...”

Wade muted television and looked at the others.  “She’ll just let it slide?  Wading in data?  Professors?” she said, recalling Maggie’s words.  “Guys, that was a code...  That’s our Maggie!”

“What the hell’s she doing going to another freakin’ planet!?”  Rembrandt asked.

“I sense there is more here than meets the eye,” Arturo said.  “I smell the pungent odor of propaganda at work.”

“Propaganda?” Logan said, rising to her feet.  “Propaganda about what?”

“Who knows,” the professor admitted, “but if it’s important enough for Captain Beckett to blast herself into the cosmos, it must be something big.”  He looked out the window at Bacchus which was becoming more and more bright in the fading sunlight.  “Something very big indeed.”

-----

“T minus one hour and counting,” a voice called over the intercom.  The announcement only caused the butterflies in Maggie’s stomach to flap harder.

She had been dressed in her spacesuit and was being ushered to a van that would take her and her crew to the launch pad.  She took a seat and blinked when all of the passengers saluted her.  “At ease,” she said.

“Colonel,” a thin man said, shaking her hand.  “Lieutenant Hank Allen, shuttle pilot.”

Maggie nodded and sighed comfortably at the thought that she would not be flying the shuttle herself.  “I’ve been asked to brief you on the specifics of the vehicle.”

“Vehicle?” Maggie repeated.

“Yes, Colonel,” Allen said, pointing out the van window to the shuttle awaiting on the launch pad.  “The Armstrong.”

“I know the name of the vehicle,” Maggie lied, trying to put forth an air of authority.  “Just give me the specs I need to know.”

“Well, the Armstrong is a standard shuttle in many respects,” Allen explained, “but it operates a lot like a Harrier jet - capable of vertical takeoff and landings.  The cold-fusion engine on board gives the ship almost unlimited power.  We could fly this baby to Pluto and back if we wanted to.  This is the most sophisticated vehicle ever constructed by man.”  He looked at her uncomfortably.  “No offense, ma’am.”

“None taken, Lieutenant,” Maggie said.

The door of the van opened and a man stepped inside.  “I’m sorry for being late, Colonel,” an English voice said apologetically while saluting, “the prep team had problems with my oxygen supply.”

A thin smile crossed Maggie’s lips.  “I don’t have time for excuses.  I want all members of my team to be punctual and on time.   Do I make myself clear, Captain Rickman?”

“Yes sir,” Rickman said, nodding nervously.

“At ease,” she said, enjoying lording over her former commanding officer and nemesis.  Who knows, this futile mission might be a little fun after all.

The van began to move and all traces of joy Maggie got from harassing Captain Rickman quickly dissipated, destroyed by the merciless flapping of the butterflies.

-----

“And there they are,” Walter Cronkite announced as the camera followed Maggie and five other astronauts on an elevator rising to the top of the launch tower.  “The twelve brave souls ready to launch to...”

Logan muted the television.  “The mission’s supposed to last a week and we slide in a week and a day.”  She rolled her eyes.  “At least she thought it out that far.”

“She launches in less than an hour,” Arturo said, running different scenarios in his mind.  “The Government says that this is a mission of research, but I don’t buy it for second.”

“What else could it be?” Rembrandt asked.

“Let us look at the facts as they stand, Mr. Brown,” Arturo began.  “A top secret expedition to a planet teeming with life suggests that the life on that planet may not be as unintelligent as we’ve been led to believe,” he held up a finger, “but Captain Beckett would never risk herself for something so trivial, therefore, we must assume that Captain Beckett took the place of her deceased counterpart for a good reason.”

“That reason being what?” Rembrandt asked.

“The EMT on the helicopter said that this was the closest Bacchus has ever been to earth,” Wade offered.

“...And you’ve theorized that Bacchus may be the planet that collided with Earth to form the moon,” Logan added.

“True,” Arturo stated.

Rembrandt frowned.  “You mean you think that Bacchus is going to hit Earth?”

“It’s only a theory, Mr. Brown,” Arturo said, “and thus far we have no solid data to back it up.”

“Besides,” Logan said, “if it was true, what good would a shuttle mission to said planet do?”

Arturo nodded.  “Good point,” he said.  “Mr. Brown, do you recall seeing that observatory in the mountains on the way here in the helicopter?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Do you think you can find it’s exact location?”

“I could try.”

“Good,” Arturo said.  “I think it’s time we found some answers for ourselves.”

-----

Maggie grunted as the harness was tightened to insure she wouldn’t fall out of her seat during takeoff.  She went over the names of the officers on the shuttle in her head.

Aside from the two dozen grunts that were secretly loaded onto the shuttle earlier, the shuttle was equipped with a scientific staff of six headed by Doctor Jacob Fontiane.  She was already familiar with the pilot - Allen was his name.  Captain Rickman, who apparently was a lot more humble on this world due to his rank and position and had no indication of the disease that had driven her Rickman insane, was in command of the ground troops.  Maggie was in command of them all, albeit reluctantly.

“T minus one minute,” a voice said over the intercom.

“My men are secure, colonel,” Rickman stated.

Maggie nodded.  “Thank you, Captain.”

“T minus thirty seconds.”

“Hey, Colonel?” Allen asked from the top of the cabin at the flight controls.  “Do you have any idea what we’re going to find on Bacchus?  Aliens?  Anything like that?”

“It’s unknown, Lieutenant,” Maggie replied.  “You’d know that if you read the reports.”

“I read the reports, ma’am,” he answered.  “I was wondering if you had a personal opinion.”

Maggie sighed.  “I’m hoping that whatever we find, it’s friendly and/or is able to stop the collision from happening.”

“T minus ten... nine... eight...”

*This is crazy,* Maggie thought to herself.  *What am I DOING here!?*

“seven... six... five...”

The engines of the Armstrong roared to life and shook the cabin violently.  “We have ignition,” Allen reported.

“four... three... two... one.”

At first, when Allen announced that they had lifted off, Maggie had no idea that anything was different.  Then, she felt the air in her lungs compress and her entire body become heavier.  Even her face seemed to begin to melt back into her seat as the g-forces inside the ship rose.

-----

“...And we have liftoff!  Liftoff of the space shuttle Armstrong on an unprecedented mission of discovery to the planet Bacchus.  God speed to you all.”

Rembrandt sat transfixed on the shuttle riding a ladder of fire and smoke towards the heavens.  “God speed, Maggie,” he said silently.

-----

The shaking stopped and Maggie’s stomach began turning.  Zero gravity enveloped her and she felt sick.  “Calculating twenty minutes ‘til escape velocity burn,” Allen announced.  “After that, it’ll be a thirty-hour, full burn all the way to Bacchus.”

Maggie looked out the cockpit window and saw that they were in orbit of Earth.  Their destination, the mysterious planet Bacchus, was rising like a strange moon.  “What the hell have I gotten myself into?” she whispered to herself.

-----

“What the hell has she gotten herself into?” Rembrandt asked as the sliders walked along the roadside in the early morning haze.  “Why would Maggie take off in a frickin’ spaceship?”

“She may have had no choice,” Wade offered.  “Then again... this is good old, impulsive Maggie that we’re talking about.”

They finally reached the steps of the observatory and Arturo knocked on the door.  “Hello!?” he called out.

“One moment,” a voice replied from the inside.  After a few minutes, a tall young man with a goatee and long black hair tied back in a ponytail answered the door.  “Yes?  Can I help you?”

“Yes, are you the caretaker of this observatory?” Arturo asked.

The man seemed apprehensive.  “Who’s asking?  You’re not a Jehovah’s Witness are you?”

“No, I am a professor of Ontology and Cosmology.  I was hoping to use your telescope to make readings of Bacchus.”

The man smirked.  “Sorry, but I can’t...”

Logan pushed Arturo out of the way and shoved the man inside.  “Look, fellah,” she said, “we don’t have time to play nice with you, so this is what is going to happen...  One: You are going to invite us inside.  Two: You are going to give us access to your telescope.  And three:  You will leave us alone and let us figure out what is really going on here.”

“Or what, lady?” the man asked indignantly.

Logan removed her jacket, revealing the wires and circuits crisscrossing her arm.  “Or I will make things unpleasant for you...” she snarled.  “Very unpleasant.”

The man’s eyes went wide.  “I... uh...”

“Look,” Wade said, pulling Logan backwards.  “It’s very important that we use your telescope, and I promise that we won’t hurt you.”  She held out her hand.  “Wade Wells.”

The man shook her hand, never taking his eyes off of Logan brooding in the corner of the room.  “Colin... Colin Mallory.”

Rembrandt stepped forward.  “Are you related to a Quinn Mallory by any chance?”

“Quinn?” Colin replied.  “Quinn was my brother...  He and my father were hit by a car and killed when he was ten.”

Wade’s heart sank.  “I’m sorry.”

The man was flabbergasted and shocked.  “How did you know that Quinn was my brother?” Colin asked.  “How could you know?”

“If you have an open mind, my boy,” Arturo began as he placed a hand on the confused Colin’s shoulder, “we’ll tell you.”

-----

The Armstrong reached orbit of Bacchus after thirty hours of full power burn.  After the engines were cut off, the intense G-forces released Maggie’s body and she once again felt her stomach float up into her throat as the relaxing embrace of zero-gravity rushed over her.  “God, that was better than sex,” she whispered to herself.

“Three g’s for over thirty hours,” Fontiane commented.  “How does everyone feel?”

“Sore,” Allen answered.

Rickman burped.  “Sick.”

“Understandable,” Doctor Fontiane said to them.  “The effects will pass.”  He paused.  “Theoretically.”

“What do you mean, ‘theoretically’?”  Maggie asked.

Before Doctor Fontiane could answer, Maggie felt gravity clutching at her body again.  “Allen, I thought we were going to wait an hour before landing.”

Allen furiously looked over his console.  “Engines aren’t operating, Colonel!  We’re being pulled to the surface!”

“By what!?” Maggie demanded.

“Unknown...  Reading massive gravitational force,” Allen replied.  He punched a few more buttons.  “I... I can’t explain it, ma’am!”

The silence of the cabin soon vanished in a roar as the Armstrong plunged into the atmosphere.  “Orders, Colonel?” Rickman asked.

Maggie’s heart beat faster and faster.  “Assume crash positions!” she yelled out over the deafening roar.

The Armstrong pierced the white cloudy veil of the planet.  Maggie looked through the front viewpoint and saw that the ship was going down in a large untouched forest.  The trees were huge and the foliage was a strange greenish-blue color.  The ground approached faster and faster and, with a tumultuous cacophony of crashes and the sound of metal creaking and tearing, contact with the ground was finally made.  Maggie managed to momentarily look at her pilot who sat slumped over the command console before passing out into nothingness.

-----

The sliders told their story and Colin, unsure as to what else to do, allowed them access to the telescope.  Still, he was skeptical to say the least.  “Sorry, but I just don’t believe a word of what you’re saying.  Sliding from world to world...  That Maggie Beckett astronaut not being who we think she is...  Sorry, it’s just too much.”

“How could we have known about Quinn?” Wade asked him, leaning up against the wall of the observatory.  She glanced up at Arturo and Logan who were peering through the archaic telescope and making notes.

Colin shrugged.  “You could have read an old newspaper or something.  If you guys are here for money or something, you can just forget it.”

Wade stepped forward.  “We’re not here for money, Colin, we’re just trying to figure out why Maggie went up on the shuttle.  She must have had a good reason.”

“They might have forced her to go,” Rembrandt noted.  “Ever consider that?”

Wade smirked.  “Five years of sliding, Rembrandt, I consider everything.”

Colin just stared at them as if he was trying to figure them out mentally.  “So, what do you do here?” Wade asked him.

“Maintenance,” Colin answered.  “I keep the equipment up and running for Doctor Rollins.”

“Oh, so you’re not the one who operates the telescope, huh?” Rembrandt asked.

“No,” Colin answered, “I just assist and keep everything working.  Doctor Rollins is the one who does all of the science stuff.”

“And where is Doctor Rollins at?” Rembrandt asked.

“You got me,” Colin admitted.  “A couple of days ago, a government car drove up, a couple of men talked to him in private, he tells me he’s going away for a few days, and I haven’t seen him since.”

“...And I think I know why,” Arturo shouted from the upper level.  “I suspect the government took him into custody as well as all other trained astronomers in the country.  They’re trying to keep people from learning the truth.”

“About what?” Wade asked.

“In less than two days,” Arturo sighed, “this world will end.”

“Bacchus?” Rembrandt asked.

“The readings are unmistakable.  Even in the one day that Miss St. Clair and I have been taking readings,” Arturo admitted.  He sank to the floor and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Rembrandt felt bewildered.  “An asteroid we could take care of – we have taken care of - but this... is too cosmic.  Too massive.”

“Wait a minute...  What are you talking about?  What about Bacchus?”  Colin demanded.

Arturo looked at him.  “Mr. Mallory, Bacchus is going to collide with the earth...  Everything... everyone will be instantly killed.”

Colin soaked in that remark.  “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe it or not, kiddo,” Logan shouted, “in two days, you’ll be just as dead.”

“Dr. Rollins looked pretty green when he left,” Colin said to himself.

“We slide in nine days,” Rembrandt said, putting his head in his hands.

The six people stood there in stunned silence.  “Well,” Wade said after clearing her throat, “maybe Maggie can do something.”

“Oh, like what, Miss Wells?  Push the blasted planet away from us with her bare hands?” Arturo asked in an irritated tone.

Wade sighed and leaned against the wall.  “So that’s it, then?  We’re all dead?”

Logan sat upright.  “Maybe not!”

The sliders and Colin looked at her.  “Back on my homeworld, we had a plan B just in case our plan to raid other worlds for resources didn’t work.  It’s going to take a lot of power and equipment... which is mainly the reason we didn’t do it, you know, we didn’t have the power to spare.  Now, it’s purely theoretical and I don’t have a clue whether or not it’ll work, but if it does, we’ll save ourselves and everyone else on the planet.”

“How?” Arturo asked.

Logan tried to explain.  “Basically, it’s an ever-expanding energy vortex that sweeps the planet and dislocates all organic matter to another dimensional plain...”

“English, please?” Rembrandt asked.

“Think of it,” she explained, “as a slidewave.”

-----

Rickman... stood over her.  A smug look was on his ever-changing face, and a sneer crossed his mouth.  “You shouldn’t have come after me, love,” he growled.

Maggie couldn’t move.  She could only watch as Rickman towered over her with a syringe.  He smirked.  “Are you ready to meet the same fate as your beloved?”

Rage overtook her.  “You... BASTARD!”  Overcoming whatever was holding her down, she lunged at Rickman and went for his throat with a blood curdling scream.

Suddenly, a hand shoved her back.  “Colonel!  What the hell are you doing!?”

Maggie blinked, and for the first time, she noticed the taste of blood in her mouth and the soreness on her chest.  Her eyes focused and looked into the face of Doctor Fontiane.  “W-what?” she managed to say.

“Colonel, are you all right?” the doctor asked her.

It took Maggie a moment to remember that she was the one being addressed.  “What happened?”

“I heard fighting and when I came in here you were assaulting Captain Rickman!”  He pointed to a seat where Rickman was panting and rubbing his neck.  In his hand was a syringe.

“What the hell were you doing with that!?” Maggie demanded.

Rickman started to answer, but Fontiane started talking.  “He was administering a stimulant to you, Colonel, on my orders.”

“Stimulant?  Why?”

“Because you’ve been unconscious for the past ten hours.”

It all came back to her... the crash.   “Ten hours?  What shape are we in?  Where’s the rest of the crew?”

Rickman exhaled.  “Dead, sir.  Killed on impact.  Allen managed to hang on for a little while, but he... just couldn’t.”

Maggie felt her hands shake.  “Captain, I apologize for my behavior.”

“Unneeded, but accepted, sir,” he replied.  He stiffened when he saw Maggie looking over the twisted and burned remains of the ship’s interior.  “It’s not good, sir.  The Armstrong is unrepairable.”

“Great,” Maggie huffed.  “Now what?”

“With all due respect, sir,” Rickman said quietly.  “You are the one in command.  You tell us.”

“Of course,” Maggie sighed and made the determination that she was going to see the mission completed, even if it really was never her mission to begin with.  The brave people who had already died on this mission deserved it.  “Doctor, you’re the scientist.  What pulled us down?”

“Intense directed gravity,” he explained.  “It was nothing I have ever seen before.  It was as if there was a mind behind it.”

“Then let’s find that mind and the body that goes along with it,” Maggie ordered.  “We’ve got a mission and I am going to do my damnedest to see it completed.  We’re here to save the world, people.  Let’s get to work.”

Fontiane picked up a small portable computer as Rickman opened the hatch.  The sunlight burst into the cabin and, for the first time, Maggie realized that she was breathing alien air.  Strangely, it smelled like bananas.

“I’ll need a few minutes to calibrate my paddle,” Fontiane explained, “then we’ll be able to find whoever it is we’re looking for.”  He adjusted the controls on his PDL palm computer and began to scan the area.

Rickman looked at them.  “Sirs,” he said shakily, “I think whoever we were looking for just found us.”

Maggie and Fontiane ran to the hatch to see what he was talking about and saw a massive craft looming overhead - the shape of which Maggie had never seen before.  “What the hell is that?” she asked in a voice a little over a whisper.

“I... don’t know, sir,” Fontiane replied.  “Looks like a...”

A strange pattern of light rushed out of the ship and encompassed the crew of the Armstrong.  Maggie felt her knees buckle and she went down as if she was made of concrete.  Rickman and Fontiane fell to the ground also.  “Feels... like we’re...” she took a labored breath, “getting... heavier!”

Blood drained from Maggie’s brain and she felt herself letting go of consciousness once again.  Before she blacked out completely, she felt something...

...a presence in her mind...

...it made her grow cold and fearful.  It was as if she had just brushed the face of pure evil.

-----

Colin dumped an armload of equipment onto the worktable and wiped sweat off his forehead.  “That’s all of Rollins’ equipment.”

Logan picked up a circular looking object and looked it over with a picky eye.  “Some of it will do.  But I need some more.”  She looked at Colin.  “Where’s the nearest military base?”

Colin seemed shocked by the question.  “Fort Carter, of course.”

“Do they do any kind of scientific study there?”

“I-I don’t know!” Colin replied.

“You’re a big fat load of help,” Logan sneered.

“Why don’t you just lay off of him?” Wade asked.

Logan’s face grew dark.  “And why don’t you make me, dear?”

Arturo slammed his fist down onto the table causing the equipment on it to shake.  Wade and Logan stared at him in shock.  “ENOUGH!” he yelled.  “This is not the time for mindless posturing for anyone!”

“Can you get what you need from a hardware store?” Rembrandt suggested.

“No,” Logan replied as if he’d just asked the stupidest question in the world.  “I could get some of it at Radio Shack, but some of the equipment I need is pretty heavy duty.”

“Give us some idea of what you need, girl,” Rembrandt said.

“I need a power source capable of holding large amounts of energy while not burning out, I need a large electromagnet, and I need a computer to input coordinates.”

“So, in laymen’s terms you need a few power transformers, a big piece of metal with electrified wires wrapped around it, and a computer.  I know where you can find a computer,” Colin said, running to another room.  A few minutes later, he came back with a small white device.

“What the devil is that?” Arturo asked.

“A PDL - a paddle,” Colin said, handing it to him.  “It’s like a supercomputer in your pocket.”

Logan grinned and looked at Colin.  “It’ll do.  Thanks, kid.”

“There was a stockpile of electrical equipment down the road,” Rembrandt remembered.  “Power lines, transformers...  Wade, Colin, and I can sneak down there during the night and do a little five-fingered discount shopping.”

“You mean stealing?” Colin gasped.

“When the fate of the world is at stake, my dear boy, the law sinks on my list of priorities,” Arturo said.  “You’ll do as Rembrandt suggests.”

Colin nodded.  “We can take my pick-up truck,” he said.

Wade suddenly perked up.  “Shotgun!” she sang.

-----

Maggie’s head throbbed as she awoke.  She tried to pull herself from the ground, but found that something was holding her down.  She was in a room with a high ceiling that, for some very odd reason, had a door on it.  She pondered what fool would install a door in a ceiling when, completely by surprise, a man walked through the door and down the wall towards her.  “What the hell?” she whispered to herself.

It was then that Maggie realized that she wasn’t on the floor at all.  She was against a metal slab on the wall.  Nothing held her, yet she was a foot off the ground and it felt as if she was taking off in the shuttle again.  She glanced to her right and saw Rickman and Fontiane in the same position she was in.  Both of them seemed equally bewildered.

“Are you two okay?” Maggie asked them.

Fontiane nodded as did Rickman.  “Where are we?” the doctor asked.

The man who had entered the room answered the question.  “Hello,” he began. “My name is John.”  He was Asian by the look of it, and to say that he was eighteen would be a stretch.  Maggie noticed that behind him, three dark figures lurked behind opaque curtains.

“Where are we?” Maggie demanded.

“Please,” John said quietly, “do not struggle.  I assure you, it is quite futile.”  He was speaking as though he was in a trance.  His voice never changed tones and his eyes stayed half-closed.

“I said, where are we?” Maggie asked again.

John looked at the three dark figures in the background and then at Maggie.  “You have traversed the barrier.”

Maggie gritted her teeth.  “Traversed the what?”

“You have traveled between worlds,” John explained.  “My masters know of these things.”

“Colonel?” Rickman whispered.

“There is no point in denying it, Captain Margaret Ann Beckett.”  John walked over to Fontiane.  “You have intrigued my masters also,” he told him.

“I’m flattered,” Fontiane spat at him.  “Who the hell are your masters?  Are they the ones who brought us down?”

“They are.”

“Why?”

“Because you were intruding.”

“We were intruding because our two planets are about to hit each other!” Rickman shouted at him.

“My masters are aware of this,” John admitted.

Rickman stared at the boy.  “Then what are your masters going to do about it?”

“Nothing,” John answered.  “My masters are the ones responsible for the coming collision.”

Maggie’s eyes went wide.  “Why?”

“That is not important,” John said with a wave of his hand.  Suddenly, the slab that Rickman was held on drifted away from the wall and through the doors past the dark figures.

“RICKMAN!!!” Maggie yelled after him.  She fixed her gaze on John.  “Where are you taking him?”

“He is of no consequence,” John replied.  “You are, due to your travels,” he looked at Fontiane, “and you are, due to your mental capacity.”

It was then that Fontiane’s slab drifted away from the wall and through the door.  Maggie struggled to get free until Fontiane was out of sight.

“I am only going to ask one more time, kid,” Maggie growled.  “Who is keeping me here?”

John looked at the dark figures and then back at Maggie.  “Captain Beckett, for the time being, consider yourself a...” he searched for the word, “...guest of the Kromagg Dynasty.”

“Kromagg?”  Maggie repeated the word as if it was an obscenity.  “We’ve faced Kromaggs before and won.”

John seemed amused by that.  “Captain, you have defeated the underlings of the Kromagg Dynasty.  Those who prostitute themselves by speaking the Homo Sapiens’ language and by associating directly with our inferior species.”  He glared at her.  “Captain, those were the mere servants of the Dynasty.  THEY are inferior!”  He looked back at the dark figures.  “They, my masters, are the true Kromaggs.”

Maggie watched as the light illuminated the dark figures.  They were unlike any Kromaggs she had encountered.  Where your run-of-the mill ‘Magg looked like an orange-skinned bald human with pointed teeth, these were far more menacing.  They had gray wrinkled skin and only what looked like a crude hole for a mouth.  They appeared more simian than any Kromaggs they had met before.  All of them sported black ponytails from the top of their heads and each wore black as if they were the disciples of death itself.

“I am John,” the boy continued.  “I have been honored to be the voice of the Kromagg Dynasty.  They communicate with me telepathically.  They tell me what they need and what they want.”  He drew closer to her and stood an inch away from her face.  “And what they want, Captain, is to know the identity of your companions.”

“Go to hell,” Maggie spat at him.

“Hell,” John replied, “is only a state of mind, Captain.”

“Better listen to them, Maggie,” a voice replied from behind John.  “They’re really only interested in our welfare.”

Maggie squinted to make out the figure.  “No...  It-it can’t...”

Doctor Steven Jensen smiled warmly as he rolled his wheelchair into the light.  “Surprised, wife?”

Maggie stared in awe at the image of her deceased husband.  God, he was just as she remembered him.  “Surprised?” she said.  “No, just disappointed.”

Steven blinked.  “What?”

“Do you honestly think I’m going to fall for this?” Maggie yelled at the Kromaggs in the shadows.  “My Steven is dead.  This... impostor isn’t going to help you an iota!”

“Maggie, baby, I--”

“I don’t know who you are, but you are not my husband.  My husband is dead.”  Maggie growled.

Steven sighed and then stood from his wheelchair.  “I am sorry, miss,” he said in a quivering voice.

Maggie’s heart sank when she saw a tear roll down his cheek.  “They said that I could see my children again if I did this for them.  I never wanted to hurt you,” he explained.  Steven then turned to the observers.  “I am sorry, masters.”

John never responded in any discernible way.  “I apologize for this, Captain,” he said, bowing ever so slightly.  “I assure you that we will not deceive you in any other way.”

The boy took Steven by the hand and led him out the door, leaving Maggie alone, trapped against the wall, and staring at the empty wheel chair.

-----

John and Steven Jensen entered a room where a lone Kromagg sat on an elaborate translucent blue throne.  Never once did the creature look directly at the two humans.

“Mister Jensen,” John began, “the master is very disappointed in you.”

“I am sorry, master,” Jensen replied to the Kromagg.  “I couldn’t do as you ask, but I am still loyal to the dynasty and will serve you until my dying day in any capacity that I can.  But, I couldn’t deceive that woman.  I just couldn’t.”  His chest moved rhythmically as sobs racked his body.

The Kromagg merely sighed.

“The master has asked me to inform you that, in addition to powerful telepathy, the Kromaggs also have certain pre-cognitive skills.”

“They can tell the future?” Jensen replied.  “T-That’s amazing.  The masters never cease to amaze me.”

“Would you like to know what your future holds, Mister Jensen?”

Jensen grew nervous.  “I-I suppose.  Yes, masters, I would be humbled.”

John looked at the master for a moment and then turned to Steven.  “The master has divined that you will ask a question, but will never live to hear the answer.”

Steven was taken aback.   “What do you mean?”

For the first time, the Kromagg smiled...

...and the screams of Steven Jensen echoed through the complex for hours.

-----

When Maggie awoke, she knew that they had been trying to pry into her mind again.  *Damn Kromaggs,* she thought.  *I am not giving up!  You want to know who I’m sliding with, you’re going to have to kill me!*

“I seriously hope it will not come to that, Captain Beckett,” John said, emerging from the shadows.  “You are quite a marvelous specimen.  It’s not every human the masters come across that can so fiercely hide their thoughts.  The masters are quite impressed.”

“Glad to disappoint you,” Maggie snapped.  Her head was killing her.

“You’ve just noticed your headache,” John said the instant the thought entered Maggie’s mind.  “The masters are quite apologetic for that, but it’s necessary for--”

“Oh, will you cut the apologetic crap!” Maggie yelled directly at the Kromaggs behind the veil.

John seemed taken aback for only a minute.  “Well,” he said, “that certainly complicates things.”

“What does?” Maggie asked.

“Apparently, you’re too difficult for your own good.  With the impact only hours away, my masters are through wasting time with trivial surface scans of your memory.”

The three Kromaggs stepped out of the shadows and walked towards Maggie.  They seemed to grow and become more monstrous with every step.

“The Kromagg mind is like a knife, Captain Beckett,” John said.  The boy then looked away.  “This will not be comfortable for you.”

Then, it was as if Maggie had been hit by a moving bus.  Her body tensed as the three Kromaggs assaulted her mind, tearing down her mental barriers and leaving her secrets open for all to see.  Still, the images of her companions she fought to keep hidden, deep in the recesses of her mind where top secret military information used to be filed.  The place she had been trained for years and years to keep locked away from interrogators.

There.

Maggie didn’t hear the word.  It was more like the feeling that the attackers had found the place they were looking for.  Gruesome thoughts of torture rattled her brain.  The images of mutilated bodies, the stored emotions of invasion survivors, and the pictures of thousands of  ruined earths chipped away at her barriers.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” she screamed at the Kromaggs who never even bothered to slow their attack out of courtesy.

Then, it happened.  For one split second, her mind gave up an image of Wade, Rembrandt, Quinn, and the professor.  Her attackers were taken by surprise and lessened their bombardment.

Suddenly – and Maggie had no idea how she did it – she forced herself into one of the Kromagg’s minds.  The second she did it, she was thrust out as if she was nothing but a leaf in a thunderstorm.   Maggie was horrified by the experience... the images and feeling she had immersed herself in.  So much so that her guard dropped only so much for the Kromaggs to enter the guarded corner of her mind.

The memories flickered by rapidly, but Maggie experienced each one as though they were happening again.

She watched in horror as her beloved husband’s water ski was caught on a partially submerged stump and his body was flipped over and over again until it impacted another boat.

She gasped as the coroner lifted a white sheet exposing the gruesome, burned, and decayed body of her father.

She could barely contain the tears as she watched hoards of desperate men, women, and children shot down like dogs outside of the army base for wanting nothing more than a way to escape the end of the world.

She felt rage as she learned that Rickman had killed her husband.

“You want Rickman just as bad as we do.  Come with us,” Quinn said to her.

Rickman’s body hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff face and she smiled at the audible crack of his neck.

The memories began to escape faster.

Reuniting with Wade and Remmy.

Discovering she had been experimented on.

Being held hostage by a deranged fan.

Spending New Years, 2000 in a powerless San Francisco.

Watching Quinn die.

“OUT!!!” Maggie wailed as loudly and forcibly as she could.  Her scream echoed through the room, and when she finally gathered enough of her senses, she tasted blood on her lips.  Obviously, the mental assault had given her a nosebleed.

She was furious.  The Kromaggs had violated her and everything she was.  She wanted them dead.  She wanted to hear the satisfying crack of their necks as she twisted their heads in her hands.  She wanted to know what their blood tasted like.

In a rage, Maggie tried to throw herself at one of the Kromaggs only to discover that they weren’t there anymore.  Sometime in the period between when the assault ended and when she looked up, they simply left.  They had what they wanted and they had discarded her.

Only John remained in the room.  He seemed sad.

“You are experiencing heightened aggression,” he said.  “It’s a side-effect of the probing.  Your id takes greater control of your mind and…”

“You little bastard,” Maggie growled.  “I’m going to cut you open!”

John actually stepped back even though Maggie was still a prisoner of the gravity wall.  “The effects should wear off momentarily.”

He was right.  Maggie’s anger was subsiding, but there was still plenty of it left burning.  Good.  Bottle the anger, turn it into something you can use.

Then, suddenly, she fell to the floor.  “The gravity field holding you in place has been deactivated,” John explained.  “Please do not attempt to--“

Maggie threw herself at him and the next thing she knew, she was back on the floor with a throbbing knot on the side of her head.  John was standing nearby, his hands in some sort of a karate defensive position.

“I regret that,” he apologized.

Maggie regretted it as well.  Looking closely at him, John couldn’t have been more than fourteen, and he had dropped her like a green trainee.   “What are you going to do with me?” she coughed.

“I do not intend to do anything,” John said.  “That is up to my masters and how cooperative you want to be.”

“I’ll die before I help you,” she spat.

John simply nodded.  “Yes,” he agreed before walking out of the room without another word.

-----

Arturo and Logan spent hours putting together the pieces for the mass-sliding apparatus that Logan had envisioned.  Wade, Colin, and Rembrandt spent hours as errand boys fetching, buying, and in some cases stealing whatever they needed.  It was obvious that the population of the world began to suspect that something was terribly wrong and that the end was coming.  Rembrandt watched on the news as pilgrims descended on Mecca to pray, as Irish revolutionaries laid down their weapons as war was of little use anymore, and as news anchors on CNN, NBC, CBS, and the other major channels bid good-night as they went home to their families.

Unfortunately, the news of the collision was not a universal cause for acceptance.  Word from Fox News was that the elected president of Mexico had been assassinated as rioting ravaged the country.  Several dictators in the Middle East had been overthrown by their own people, determined not to allow their homelands to be ruled by evil during their final hours.  The communist parties in China, The Soviet Union, and India had sent troops to quell possible civilian uprisings.

The natural world began to feel the strain as well.  Tidal action was at an all time high with much of Australia and Europe underwater.  Tectonic stress was causing long dormant volcanoes like Mount Rainer in Washington to erupt.  There were reports of whole cities disappearing under lava and ash.

Earthquakes were being felt regularly over every major and minor fault line in the world.  Avalanches had permanently changed the face of the Himalayas and Andes mountains.  CNN kept replaying the dramatic footage of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, partially submerged from a tide, give under the shaking of an Earthquake and finally, after centuries of resistance, succumb to the gravity that made it famous in the first place.   Tennessee had been caught off guard by a 7.0, and Japan, already picking up the pieces from a major quake no more than a month ago, was devastated yet again by an unbelievable 9.1.  Tokyo, Kobe, and Kyoto were in flames.

The death toll around the world was in the millions and still rising.

“This is how the world ends,” Rembrandt said to himself, “consumed not by darkness but by fire.”  He turned and looked at Wade who seemed unimpressed.

“Rembrandt, I could count the number of times we’ve been on a world that was about to be blown up, crashed into, destroyed by ice, fire, and floods on one hand.”  She sighed.  “If I had a calculator that is.”

Remmy smiled.  “You think the professor and Logan will pull this off?”

“I’m sure of it,” she answered.  “The only thing I’m worried about is Maggie.  The news on the mission is dead with all of this other stuff going on.”

“There is the possibility that we’re going to have to leave her behind,” Rembrandt finally said.

Wade stared at him.  “Remmy,” she whispered, “I would have expected that from the professor... Logan definitely, but you?”

“It’s military thinking, sweetheart,” Rembrandt said.  “Maggie would do the same if it was one of us up there.  The needs of one shouldn’t jeopardize the lives of many.”

Wade just looked at him.  “So we leave her to die?”

“We may have no choice,” Rembrandt told her.  “If we stay here, it’s suicide!”

Wade stood.  “And if we leave Maggie here, what do you call that?”

There was a still silence between the two when Arturo entered the room.  “Am I interrupting something?”

“Nothing at all,” Wade said.

“I just wanted to let you know that we’re about to test the accelerator,” the professor said.  “If all goes well, we should be able to trigger the slidewave in a few hours.”

-----

Colin was admiring the gargantuan machine that Logan and the professor had constructed.  “This,” he said, motioning haphazardly at the machine, “this is going to save the world.”

Logan nodded, never bothering to look up.

“What’s it do?” Colin asked.

Logan blew air between her teeth in frustration.  She wasn’t used to having non-geniuses in company and was growing tired of having to explain every little detail.  “It’s simple, Tweedle-Dum,” she snapped.  “This thing sucks in a lot of energy, right?  Now, when it does that, all of that energy is converted into extra-dimensional waves which coalesce forming a great big wave!”  She was now pacing around him.  “Now, this ain’t no wave you ride with a surfboard, dude.”  She slapped him on the stomach, glancing down when she noticed he was more muscular than she thought he was.

Brother, she quickly reminded herself.  Colin was Quinn’s brother, and she did not think he was cute.  Well, maybe he was a bit cute.  Ack!  Focus on science now, seek mental help later.

“This wave races out in 180 degrees sweeping the surface of the planet and transporting every organic thing to another Earth in a parallel dimensional plane.”  She smiled sweetly and batted her eyelids.  “Have you got it or should I just act the whole thing out with sock puppets?”

Colin smiled nervously.  “So, what will the world be like?  You know... after?”

“Does it matter?” Logan asked.  “You and the six billion other people on this rock will be alive and well.”  She stopped.  “Of course, that means you may end up on another earth with another six billion, making twelve billion.”  She thought back to her homeworld.  Overpopulated, choking on its own wastes where people starved en masse and disease ran rampant.  At last count, the population of her homeworld was around twelve billion... and now she was seeking a way to inflict her world’s fate on another.  Her vindictive side tingled at the possibility of forcing the population of two more fortunate worlds with the burden.

“Hell,” she said with a short stifled laugh, “what does that matter anyway?”  She put a hand on his shoulder and the other on his chest.  He really was well built.  “You’ll be alive and that’s all that matters to me.”

Arturo and the others walked in and Logan quickly took her hands off of Colin, taking the time once more to remind herself that, technically, he WAS also her brother in a manner of speaking.

“Ready for the test?” Arturo asked.

“No time,” she answered, “we won’t have time to rebuild if something goes wrong.  It’s now or never, Maxy.”

Arturo stopped.  “I asked you not to call me that.  Are you sure it’s safe?”

Logan glared at him.  “Of course I’m not sure!  I mean, we’re using a compact makeup case as a reflector and an old tire we found outside as a buffer!  MacGyver would sure as hell be proud of us, let me tell you!”

“What about Maggie?” Wade asked.

Arturo and Rembrandt looked at her, their eyes telling Wade that they had given up hope.  Logan turned around and placed her hand on the power switch.  “What ABOUT Maggie?” she grumbled.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

“What now?” Logan growled.

Colin tried to calm her.  Apparently, her small come-ons were having more of an effect on him than she realized.  Perhaps she really shouldn’t being playing with the boy so.

“I’ll check it out,” he said slowly.  “You guys stay here.”

Logan watched as Colin ascended the stairs to the second level where the entrance to the observatory was located.  She noticed, as an afterthought, that he had a nice backside too.  She really needed to see a shrink about this.

Wade jabbed her in the arm.  “Did you just check him out?”

“And if I did?”  She glared at Wade.

Placing her hands on her hips, Wade returned the cold expression.  “Well, I’m sure Freud would have plenty to say about it.  He’s your brother, Logan!  And you practically climbed in bed with Quinn when we first met.  You’re sick!”

A smile crept across Logan’s face.  “So what are you really upset about, Wade?  Me using Quinn, or that your boyfriend was more than eager to be seduced?”

Wade just turned away without dignifying that remark with a reply.

-----

When Colin opened the door, his heart jumped into his throat.  Standing there were two uniformed police officers, looking none to happy and acting like they meant nothing but business.

“Hello,” Colin managed to say, his voice an octave too high.

“Are you Doctor Rollins?”

“No, Doctor Rollins isn’t in,” Colin said.  “Can I take a message for you?”

“We’re investigating the disappearance of two power transformers and several yards of copper wire from West Coast Electric last night.”

Colin decided to take the mental defensive.  “Wait just a minute,” he said.  “The whole world’s gone nuts and you’re here asking about some stolen stuff?  Don’t you guys have priorities?”

“Looters are to be shot,” one of them said.  “That’s one of our priorities.  Care to test it, son?”

“We have a job to do and let the world be damned,” the other officer said.  “A truck registered in Joseph Rollins’ name was spotted there last night and now it’s parked here.  I’m going to ask you again, have you seen the missing equipment or not?”

Down on the lower level, the sliders were watching the conversation with concern.  Arturo motioned at Logan and mouthed something to her.

Logan mouthed back the word, “What?”

Arturo rolled his eyes, pointed to the police and Colin, and then pointed to the machine.

Logan still didn’t understand.

“Oh, will you flip the bloody switch before those blistering idiots shoot the poor boy!?” Arturo yelled.

“Who said that?” one of the officers asked, looking over Colin’s shoulder.

Logan reached out and hit the switch, causing the mechanical monster to come to life.  Lights in the observatory dimmed and the smell of burning rubber began to fill the room.

“What the hell is going on in there!?” one of the officers said, shoving Colin to the side.

When Colin was out of the way, all the officer saw was a massive wall of light looming over him.  On instinct, he tried to draw his weapon, but the gun never made it out of the holster before he, his partner, and Colin Mallory were whisked away.

High above, the slidewave began to become more organized and it began to pick up speed.  It was as if someone had dropped a rock in a pond and the ripples were racing outwards.  Within seconds, residents of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle had been relocated.  The slidewave took three minutes to cross the United States, twelve to reach the western coasts of Europe and Africa, and twenty to reach the Eastern coast of Asia.  In exactly fifty-three minutes, the slidewave had swept the world and, like a rubber band, it contracted on itself over the Indian Ocean a few miles away from the Northern coast of Australia.  There, when the energy of the slidewave impacted itself, it exploded, releasing all residual energies creating a heat wave that flash boiled a hundred square miles of ocean and giving birth to a tidal wave that shortly devastated the land down under.

Fortunately, there wasn’t a soul left in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, or South America to worry about it.  The only souls left on the entire Earth just happened to be located in North America, The United States, in the state of California, in an Observatory a few miles outside of San Francisco.

Logan’s eyes adjusted after the blinding light to see the machine that she and the professor had worked so hard on nothing more than a smoking mess in the middle of the floor.  Metal had melted and circuits had fused, transforming the mish-mash of cutting edge technology and junk iron into the world’s largest paper weight.

“What happened?”  Wade coughed, fanning the acrid smoke out of her face.  “What went wrong?”

Logan was staring up at the second level where Colin and the two officers had stood.  It was now empty, the door creaked open and shut with the wind.

Without saying a word, she leapt to the stairs and ran out the front door.  Arturo, Wade, and Rembrandt followed her.

Logan thrust the door open and stared outside in disbelief.  “Oh my god,” she whispered.

The observatory had rested in the middle of a wooded area.  The trees had been rich with foliage and a peach tree near the sidewalk had been in full bloom.   Now, the observatory sat in what looked like a desert.  Trees, grass, insects, and wildlife were gone, leaving only dust blowing in the wind.  No birds flew overhead, the only sound was a small airplane flying haphazardly through the air and disappearing behind a bare mountain with a muffled boom.

“Oh sweet Jesus,” Rembrandt whispered.  “What have we done?”

“We did just what we intended to do,” Arturo told him.  “The slidewave took every living thing, both plant an animal to a parallel earth.”

Wade huffed.  “Then why are we still here?”

“Eye of the storm,” Logan said.

“What?” Wade returned.

“We were all near the accelerator when the slidewave was created.  But it didn’t fully form until a certain distance,” she explained.  “Until it reached that distance, it wasn’t capable of transportation, therefore we were all left here.”

“Caught in the eye of the storm,” Arturo said.  “We’re the only people left in the entire world.”

“The only thing organic left in the world,” Logan corrected him.  “It’s all gone.  People, animals, plants, bacteria - everything has been transported to a parallel earth.”

The sliders felt victory in their hearts at the fact that they had saved yet another sphere until a great looming black shadow swallowed them all, leaving the stripped Earth in it’s final night.  All four of them looked up and saw the planet Bacchus rising over the horizon forever blotting out the setting sun.  It was huge, easily taking up over 70 percent of the sky.  The planet was no longer a blue harbinger of life, now it was a huge reminder of their coming deaths.

And still, they just stared.   Even as one of the now frequent earthquakes shook the ground and the stale wind howled around them from the storms the atmospheric disturbances had kicked up, they just stared in silence until one of them finally said something to break the death silence.

It was Professor Arturo and the words he chose summed up their situation perfectly.

“Oh… shit!”

-----

Maggie paced the floor like a trapped animal looking for anything, any small imperfection in the building material, any small pieces of metal lying around, anything to aid her escape.  She stopped and held onto the wall as another earthquake trembled the foundation.  She looked around.   No damage to the structure.  No means to escape.  Back to square one.

She almost didn’t notice John enter the room.  “Captain Beckett, it is time to go.”

“Go where?”

“It is time to go,” he simply said again.

John motioned to the open door and Maggie, seeing no other alternative, went through.  “So,” she said as she walked down the dark blue hallway.  “Where are we going?  Breeding camp?  Are your masters going to pluck out my eyes and eat them?  That is what they do, isn’t it?  Quinn told me all about it.”

“I am sorry to hear about the demise of your comrade,” John said.  “The masters took great interest in him.”

“I’m sure he’d be falling all over himself after hearing that,” Maggie huffed.  “Now, where are we going?”

John stopped.  Maggie turned around and looked at him.  “Earlier, I told you that you were a guest of the Dynasty, Captain.  That is as true now as it was then and, as you know, all guests eventually go home.”  He motioned to a doorway.  “Through there please.”

Maggie peered suspiciously at the doorway, but something in John’s face told her that no harm awaited her.  She walked through the opening and found herself in a giant hangar.  Many of the Kromagg manta ships were lifting off, soaring out the entryway, and disappearing into wormholes.  Obviously, the evacuation was well underway.

John motioned to a Kromagg, one of the more human, pink-skinned creatures that Maggie had encountered before.  “That plebeian will take you to your friends.”  He turned and walked away.

“John,” Maggie called out.  “Why are they doing this?”

John shrugged.  “The masters work in strange and mysterious ways.  I have faith in them.  You should as well.”  He placed a hand in his fist, held it in front of his chest, and bowed lightly.  “Be well, Captain Margaret Ann Beckett.”

“John, I…”

It was too late.  John had disappeared around a corner and out of sight.  Maggie tried to go after him, but the pink Kromagg, the “plebeian” as John had called him, held her back.

“Let’s go,” he grunted.  “Into the manta, now!”

Maggie could feel the creature’s eyes on her as she walked past him into the ship and took a seat.  She thought about the word plebeian... working class, a commoner, and was actually more curious as to the intrinsic of Kromagg society.  That would all have to wait.  She was on her way back to earth and in a few hours, she would...

There was a shudder along the craft.

“We’re here,” the plebeian told her.

“Where?”

“The Earth,” he cursed.  “You’ll be on the surface in a few moments.”

“Already?” Maggie asked in amazement.

The Kromagg plebeian smiled a toothy smile that sent shivers down Maggie’s spine.

-----

“Oh… shit!”

Wade looked over at the professor, shocked at the sudden outburst of profanity and did something that no one in their right mind would have ever done or expected.

She began to laugh out load.

“What the HELL are you laughing at!?” Logan demanded.  It only caused Wade to laugh harder.

Rembrandt was now laughing along with her.  Arturo glared at the two of them.  “Oh, I hope you two are finding this awfully amusing!  After all, we’re only hours away...” the sides of his mouth began to curl into a smile, “...from a fiery death!”

The professor guffawed out loud and proceeded to giggle and laugh with his two compatriots.  Logan threw her hands up into the air and cursed.  It only caused the sliders to laugh harder.

“Oh, I get it,” Logan finally said.  “Denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance.  The five stages of grief.  I see you’re all at stage six, the big stupid idiot phase…”

And then Logan began to laugh.

The laughing went on for a while before it ground to a screeching halt under the shadow of a giant Kromagg manta ship looming overhead.

“Kromaggs,” Rembrandt said as if it was a can of soup on sale at the grocery store.

And then they all began to laugh again as a white light enveloped them all and they fell to the ground a half-conscious and giggling mess.

Thirty minutes later, the planet Bacchus entered the Earth’s atmosphere creating enough heat friction to melt the very ground across three quarters of the planet.  Soon, it was all over.  Earth and Bacchus were a giant white molten mass surrounded by a ring of debris in a slow, lonely orbit around a yellow sun.

-----

Logan awoke with the buzzing of a bee in her ear.  She leapt to her feet, swatting the air with her hands.  Her actions woke the others who slowly rose from their resting places.

They were in a meadow surrounded by every conceivable color of flower.  The breeze was cool and smelled of pollen and mist.  Rembrandt looked around in confusion.  “What happened?” he asked.

“We must have taken a bad wormhole,” Wade offered.  “Feels like I’ve got a jackhammer drilling a hole in my skull.”

Arturo dusted himself off.  “We must have encountered a plasma burst in the vortex or something that knocked us unconscious.”

“That last thing I remember was talking to Rembrandt about that Star Wars movie,” Logan said.  “After that, it’s a blur.”

Wade held up the timer.  “Well, we’ve got a few more hours here before...”

Arturo searched his coat pocket.  “Wait a minute, wasn’t I holding the timer?”

Wade looked at the devise in her hand.  “I... Yeah, yeah you were!  What the hell am I doing with it?  And if we just slid, shouldn’t Logan have it?  Guys, something weird’s going on here.”

Rembrandt and Maggie just looked around.  Logan looked bored.

“Come on, guys!” Wade said.  “Back us up here!”

Maggie’s head snapped around.  “What’d you say?”

“I said that the professor was holding the timer before we--”

“No,” Maggie said.  “After that...  Bacchus?”

Wade tilted her head.  “Back us up here?”

“Bacchus...” Maggie repeated again.

“Maggie?” Arturo inquired.  “Are you all right?”

“Y-Yeah,” Maggie answered.  “It was just a feeling.  You know, like déjà vu or something.”

“Well, best not to think about it,” Arturo smiled.  “Aside from the rough ride we just experienced, this has been quite an uneventful day.”

-----

John stood before his masters along with the plebeian that had taken Maggie back to the surface.

“The mind probe was a success, masters,” the plebeian reported.  “None of them retain any memories of Defunct Earth #34.”

The Kromagg Commander nodded, giving a telepathic acknowledgment to the plebeian and ordering him back to work on a breeder camp Earth.

The plebeian bowed and left.

John opened his thoughts to his masters.  “The homing device has been planted,” he told them.

The commander nodded in acknowledgment.  “It was a disappointment to us when we lost contact with the sliders from the unknown Earth when their Professor Arturo was lost to them.  Now, they will eventually lead us back to their home and, when they do, the flag of the Kromagg Dynasty will fly there as well.”

“Yes, masters,” John smiled.

“You have served us well, John.”

A tear rolled down John’s cheek.  Not a tear of sorrow or pain, but the tear of one who was conversing with gods.  The tear was one of happiness and bliss.

“I would follow you into oblivion, Master,” he whispered.
 

THE END