Work Text:
7 Days Of Sliding
By David Lee Rickman II
The Sliders Opening:
"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?"
#######
Senate woman Maggie Beckett pulled into the parking lot of First National bank. "I'll be back in a second." Her husband nodded and held their eight month old baby son in his lap. As Senator Beckett got to the teller window, two masked men came into the bank.
"This is a holdup! Everybody get down." One of the masked men shot a gun to prove they weren't kidding. "Give me the money."
The teller quickly turned on the silent alarm and started putting money into the bank robbers bag.
"We're leaving now. Don't get up for five minutes."
*****
"This is Michelle Fong for CZN news. Ten minutes ago, two masked men robbed the First National Bank. We now have word that the men have stolen a car from the parking lot and are running from the police down the highway at speeds up to 90 MPH. We now go to John in the CZN NEWS helicopter."
"Thanks Michelle, this car is passing cars rapidly. If you are on the highway, please don't try to intervene and stay..."
"John, we have breaking news. That car belongs to Senator Maggie Beckett. We believe her husband and baby son are hostages in the car. Can you see them?
"I see three men and...Oh! That car just ran into a greyhound bus. It is bursting into flames!"
*****
Three days later, Frank Parker was being strapped into the sphere by a technician.
"As soon as you arrive in the past, call us and we'll get extra security for the bank so the bank robbers don't try to get away."
"Will do."
"Reactor on-line...Engage Mr. Parker!"
*****
Mallory, Rembrant, Maggie and Diane ran as quickly from the Los Angeles mob as they could. Diane held out the timer as they reached the bottom of a hill.
"5...4...3...2...1...Slide!"
The transducers of the timer shot out a burst of energy, and they jumped through the wormhole that was produced.
The sliders brushed themselves off after finding they landed in a desert. As Mallory looked up he shouted, "Incoming!".
They jumped away from the opening of the wormhole as something blue fell from the sky and fell into the wormhole.
"What was that?"
Diane looked at the timer. "I guess it was some kind of comet. We have eight hours on this world."
As the Sliders walked across the landscape of the desert, Rembrant began reminiscing.
"This reminds me of my cousin's dude ranch. When I was fourteen, my cousin and I..."
"Freeze!" Suddenly a group of soldiers were on a hill with guns.
"Uh, I am guessing we're on private property." Mallory guessed.
*****
"Well Ballard, is it an explosive trigger?"
Ballard put the cover back on the timer and held it in his hand. "No, I don't think so."
Ramsey hated not being told about everything at once. "So what's it counting down to?"
"I don't know but I guess we'll find out in about two hours. I still need to look at the PLD one of them was carrying."
There was a knock at the door. A guard came in and addressed Ramsey. "Sir, we could only I.D. one of the tresspassers."
"Who is it?"
"Senator Maggie Beckett."
*****
Ramsey paced back and forth in the interrogation room. "Somehow you match senator Beckett's DNA profile and dental records, but Beckett is in D.C. right now live on CSPAN."
"I am Maggie Beckett.."
Ramsey grew impatient. "D--- it. Stop this parallel earth stuff. We have a man missing with some classified government property. We think you're involved."
*****
Frank Parker fell out of the sphere. "What was that?"
Parker pulled out his cell phone.
"Hey, it works! For once my cell phone works!" Parker quickly dialed NNL.
"We're sorry. You're call cannot be placed as dialed. Please check the number and..."
"Darn it!" Parker dialed information. "Please connect me to the National Security Agency in Maryland."
******
"Ramsey, you won't believe this!" Ballard came in the room glowing with excitement.
"What is it?"
"The timer was very strange. All I could figure out is that it produced bursts of energy. But then I looked at the PLD. This thing allows one to cross the Einstein-Rosen-Palasky bridge. Ramsey, it leads to parallel universes!"
*****
"O.K. I believe you now." Ramsey ordered the guard to unlock the door and walked in.
"Finally!"
"Look 'Mallory' or whatever your name is. I am getting annoyed by you. We lose a man, and you guys show up on a secret Nevada base..."
"Nevada?" Everybody look at one another.
"Diane, I thought our sliding radius was in California."
"I guess continental drift started at a different geological era on this world."
Rembrant looked at Ransey. "We need our timer back to leave. We didn't know this was a base when we arrived. All we saw was a blue comet almost hit us and go into our wormhole."
"A blue comet? Why didn't you tell us before? Guard, get Ballard in here."
*****
"Look, I know there is a secret base called Never-Never Land."
"No sir, there isn't. And there's no project Backstep either."
"This is Frank Parker of project Backstep."
"Sir, Frank Parker retired last year after marrying his wife according to our records."
"Wife? What wife?"
"A Miss Olga Vulkavitch. I am sorry but I need to go now."
"Wait, is this a joke? Don't hang..." Parker put the phone in his pocket and looked at the sphere. "Now what do I do with this?"
*****
Talmedge looked at the group of Sliders. "So is our sphere lost?"
Diane shook her head. "Going through a wormhole in one direction leads to a specific world. Going backward can end up on any of the multiworlds. With our timer, we can follow the photon trail it left, but we need to slide when the timer hits zero. That's in ten minutes."
"We can't let you leave."
Ballard spoke up. "May I make a suggestion? Diane appears to know the most about this sliding technology. They could leave her behind, and get her when they bring Parker and the sphere back. That way, if we lose the sphere, we still have the other sphere from the Amazon jungle, plus a new technology."
Olga looked at Ballard sternly. "They'll bring Parker back, don't worry."
Talmedge thought for a moment. "O.K. I'll give you the timer."
*****
Frank Parker got out of cab and looked at the house. "According to the phone book, this is where I live."
Frank Parker walked up to the front door and knocked.
"Honey!" Olga quickly hugged Parker. "I thought you wouldn't be back for two more days."
"Yeah." Parker looked around and thought, "Where am I?"
****
The wormhole quickly opened in an alley and the sliders minus Diane fell to the ground. Rembrant looked at the timer. "We have three hours and two minutes to find Parker."
"I think we're close." Maggie pointed to a group of people around a blue sphere.
Mallory got up and brushed himself off. "Let's go see if Parker's there."
*****
As they walked up to the group, they could hear a woman being interviewed for the news.
"A blue whirlpool appeared. WHHOOOSSHHH! Just Like that! And This spaceship came out of it. Like I told Maude here, 'I told ya Maude, aliens do exist.' Now Maude believes me, don'tcha dear? And then the alien took off his red spacesuit and left it in the blue spaceship there. And then he left in a cab! A cab, of all things!"
*****
Mallory scratched his head. "He's not a slider, so he doesn't know to meet us in the Chandler hotel. Where would he go?"
*****
Frank Parker sat on the couch trying to sort things out. Did he die and go to heaven? Is he dreaming. No, he's not dreaming. A hallucination? Maybe. The blue tunnel he went through had to have caused this. Then Parker thought about being married to Olga. This had to be a cosmic reward of some kind. Why should he be concerned about backstepping anymore, dream or not? He sat back and smiled.
Frank Parker opened his eyes when he heard a phone ring. He must have fell asleep. He looked around and saw he was still on the couch. That proves it can't be a dream!
"I'll get that honey!" Olga ran to pick up the phone.
Then there was a knock at the door. "Well, I guess I'll get that." Parker got up to get the door to find three people.
"Frank Parker?"
"Yes."
"You came in the sphere?"
"Uh, I can explain that."
Rembrant shook Parker's hand. "We came to bring you back."
"Go back? No, I like it here. I have Olga as a wife who loves me."
"O.K. You! Get out of here!"
Mallory chuckled. "That would be the loving wife, right?"
"Uh, what is it?"
"You're not Frank Parker! He just called me collect from Boston! Get out of here!"
"On second thought, I think I'll go back."
******
As the sliders and Frank Parker arrived at the sphere in the cab, they could see workers loading it on a flatbed truck.
"They're taking the sphere!"
"We've got only four minutes to get it back."
Frank Parker pulled out a gun. "I'll get the sphere, you open the wormhole."
Frank Parker ran up to the driver side of the truck. "O.K. I'll take over from here."
"Hey you! Put down that gun!"
"Get out of the truck now!"
The workers got out of the truck and the sliders plus Parker got in.
"Can we drive this truck through the wormhole."
"Yes, but I'll have to boost up the power to maximum." Maggie boosted the power, and opened the wormhole when the timer hit zero.
*****
"Parker, you're back!" Olga cheered.
"I knew it." Ballard said
"Can we have Diane back now? We have three minutes."
Talmedge had a base guard bring Diane.
*******
After the sliders went through the wormhole, Mentnor turned to Parker.
"That was some adventure you probably had."
"Yeah, anyway we have four hours to prevent a bank robbery. The crooks took Senator Beckett's husband and son hostage, and were killed while trying to escape."
Talmedge pointed to where the wormhole had been. "One of those Sliders was Senator Beckett's alternates."
"You're kidding. I met one of Olga's alternates. She was married to me in an alternate universe."
"Sure Mr. Parker." Olga walked away.
"You did! I am trying to tell the truth."
The End