"That was wild!" "Something must be wrong, that was the worst slide I've ever had!" "Yeah, well, I've had worse." "It closed." "Yeah, I noticed." "Look, did you see Quinn and Maggie go in on the other world?" "They were right behind me." "I'm sure they made it!" "Okay." "Maybe they got separated away from us." "That's happened before." "Quinn!" "Maggie!" "What if they missed the jump?" "You got the timer?" "No." "Quinn's got it." "Q" " Ball!" "Maggie!" "Maggie!" "All right." "Okay, look." "That leaves two choices." "Either they got left back there." "Which means they're stuck there for 29 years." "Or they got dropped off someplace on this world." "I choose the second." "Yeah." "Let's see what kind of world this is." "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?" "Okay, things seem pretty quiet now." "Maybe the explosion was some kind of accident." "I don't know what the devil that was, but it was no accident." "Somebody out there is very angry." "I can't believe Quinn and Maggie didn't make the slide." "This isn't happening to us!" "Yeah, well, get used to it." "Damn!" "Either they missed that slide or they got trapped inside and dropped off at another world or someplace on this one." "Q" " Ball's got the timer." "And we're stuck in the middle of somebody else's war." "Is there an upside to this?" "Not really." "You made it Quinn." "Maggie." "Maggie." "Whoa!" "We thought we lost you guys!" "It's good to see you guys, too." "But what's the big deal?" "Really." "It's not like we weren't just with you." "Yes, it is." "Look, you don't understand." "The vortex is acting weird." "It opens." "It closed." "It opens." "It closed." "It was filled with turns, drops and electric charges." "What are you talking about?" "Really, I didn't see anything like that." "The slide seemed perfectly normal." "In fact, it was a little more comfortable than usual." "No, guys." "You don't understand." "There were two different slides." "Ours was rough and different." "Yours was the same." "It was normal." "Doesn't seem to be any malfunction." "Yeah." "Maybe you guys just hit a detour." "You got the high-priced ride." "Extra thrills at no extra charge." "That ride was no thrill." "Yeah, well, that last world we were in was no thrill either." "I'm so glad we're out of there." "Oh, yeah?" "You okay?" "Those guys were pretty rough." "I was holding my own till you got there." "You always do." "Look, how much time we got on this world?" "Twelve hours." "What kind of place is this?" "You're not gonna like it." "Company move!" "Company move!" "Go!" "What's going on?" "Hey, you people better get off the street." "What's the problem, Lieutenant?" "Some B-1 snipers in that tenement." "They've got an anti-tank weapon." "We were looking for the Chandler Hotel." "Better stay on this side of the street." "The Chandler's clear, last I heard." "Hurry." "What is it?" "I'm just tired." "Lost my voice." "When are we gonna slide into a world where nobody's killing each other?" "I don't know." "Uh, we'd like a suite." "1215, if available." "Damn!" "Piece of crap!" "You're joking." "I don't think so." "Look, we never joke about hotel suites." "We've got plenty of cash, for a change." "All the suites were split up years ago." "Nobody could afford them." "Gomez!" "Yeah." "This place has changed since the last time we were here." "I've never seen you here before." "Well, you must have something." "Some room, somewhere." "Anything's better than a cot in the lobby." "You have the Ambassador level." "The Deluxe Economy level." "Or the Regular Economy." "All right." "Ambassador." "Shoot the moon." "Hey, we even have a key to the shower room for the Ambassador." "Shower room?" "Yeah, unisex." "But you can hang up a sign for privacy." "We need to fill out a card?" "Nah, nah, nah!" "Pay in advance." "And I don't care who you are." "Hey." "Personal Entertainment center?" "It's a wind-up model." "Just turn that thing power goes around there." "Then, yeah." "Works good." "Thank you." "Yeah." "Hi-fi stereo." "Uh, Remmy." "Why don't you check this place out?" "I'm gonna get Maggie up to the room so she can lie down." "Yeah." "Can I get a draft?" "We've got a bullet hole in the satellite dish." "But Larry tells me it won't affect transmission." "Did Bernie get through to Dornan?" "Look." "The story's one-sided without some kind of comment from the guy." "And tell Bernie I want to lead with footage of that B-1 Bobbie on fire." "Oh." "What can I tell you?" "It's a war." "Tough assignment?" "Not bad." "Nothing like Detroit after the war with Canada." "Yeah." "Detroit was a mess." "You up there?" "No, no." "Wars and me, we don't get along." "That's why I try to stay away from it." "So what are you doing in this one?" "Well, I'm just passing through." "Sort of been out of touch lately." "You see, I'm a marine biologist." "I just spent the past year underwater on the coast of Japan." "They don't get CNN in Japan?" "Yeah, but it's in Japanese." "You're a reporter?" "Caroline Tatashore." "Rembrandt Brown." "So maybe you could, uh, bring me up to date about what's going on around here." "Where do you want me to start?" "The invasion or the stock market crash that caused it?" "The crash?" "Yeah, yeah." "I heard about that." "Just not clear on why." "Microsoft went under." "Took the whole market down." "President of Mexico thought he might have a shot at taking back some land he said we stole." "Those guys have been waiting for a shot at us." "Marvin, another shooter." "Please." "Yeah." "Make that two." "And the Mexican army didn't know every man, woman and child in the state has an automatic weapon." "It's a law." "And they ran into the Willie Nelson Suicide Brigades." "Drove them right back across the Rio Grande." "Yeah, don't mess with Texas, huh?" "You do pretty good work." "Mmm." "I'm a journalist." "Since we're not gonna be here long, and given the gunplay on the streets," "it's probably a good idea for us to lie low right here." "Any better?" "I'm not dizzy anymore." "I'm just really tired." "Yeah." "Me, too." "I guess that fight on the last world took more out of me than I thought." "I am gonna catch some z's." "Yeah, if I just lie here for a while I'll be fine." "Attention." "Attention." "New curfew hours have been published for the Nuevo Los Angeles." "Due to an increased unrest in the northern San Fernando Valley, all residents must be off the streets at night by 9.00." "Once again, the ELL ruling council has turned down demands for bilingual education in the north Valley schools." ""This is a Spanish-speaking "country, "" "Commissioner Reyes told reporters," ""And you Anglos "had better get used to it. "" "California governor Robert Dornan made a broadcast today." "Hey." "They sacked out?" "Yeah, they both seemed pretty tired." "Yeah." "Too many worlds at war." "It's bound to wear you down." "All right." "Look, I'm beginning to get a take on what happened on this world." "I ran into a reporter down at the bar." "She was throwing down tequila like they're running out of cactus." "You like Vienna sausage?" "Never had it." "I better skip that." "Anyway, Mexico invaded." "All the fighting that's going on out there in the streets?" "Those are guerrillas named B-1 Bobbies." "They're named after the governor." "A Robert Dornan." "And he's upstate somewhere underground." "And he refuses to let the UN weapons inspectors in." ""These beets are chemically preserved" ""and will retain their wholesome color" ""long after they are no longer safe to eat. " Oh." "So I think it's best if we stay low until it's time to slide." "Yeah, that's what Quinn said." "Yeah." "Whoa!" "Tabasco." "Better hang onto that." "It just might go off." "Who the hell is that?" "Hey!" "What are you doing here?" "I think this place is haunted." "Again?" "I've checked all over the lobby." "I talked to the clerk and to the reporter." "No one's seen a man with that description." "Like I said." "It could have been a ghost." "Yeah, well, I don't even think about that right now." "Look, does 50 bucks for a handful of ice cubes sound right to you?" "Quinn and Maggie are running a fever." "A fever?" "Are they sick?" "Looks that way." "Wonder how it could've happened?" "I don't know." "It had to be that crazy slide." "They were all right until then." "It could've been something to do with that man." "Or that ghost." "He did something with his hands." "What?" "Did he come back?" "No." "But he had some kind of strange presence." "I don't know." "It's hard to explain." "Yeah, well, I want to land on a world where everything is easy to explain." "No more wars." "No more Kromaggs." "Just peace and quiet for a change." "Go ahead." "Go on ahead." "Go on ahead." "Go on "Go on ahead"." "What does he mean?" "Go on." "Go on ahead." "Go on ahead." "Go on ahead." "Go." "Oh!" "It's him!" "Hey, farm boy." "Come here a minute." "Does she look different to you?" "She looks..." "Yellow." "Yeah, I wonder what that means?" "I don't know." "In my world, some people looked like that when they were sick." "It's not a good sign." "Okay." "Look, I don't like this." "They're gonna need a doctor." "I'm going to see if I can find one." "You stay here." "Try to keep them comfortable." "I'll be back as soon as I can." "Left on attack!" "Gotta get that guy some help!" "Now!" "Move!" "Move!" "Move!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Gunshot!" "I got gunshot here!" "Let's go!" "Move!" "Move!" "Come on!" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "He's hit!" "He's hit!" "The sniper's down!" "The sniper's down!" "Watch for more!" "Heads up!" "You okay?" "Yeah." "But why was he shooting at me?" "Maybe he thought you were Latin." "Maybe it's just your turn." "Okay!" "Let's move it out!" "Red Flower." "This is Red Flower advance." "Sniper rubbed out." "Marshall building." "Street clear." "Hey, look." "I need your help." "You've been helped." "Yeah." "I know that." "Thanks." "But I've got friends over here at the hotel who are sick and need a doctor." "Yeah, good luck on that." "Look, I was told that you people here have medics." "Can't spare any right now." "And now for a news update." "Sporadic sniper fire continues in Pacoima." "But this morning the UN spokesman reported that the area is fully under peacekeeper control after last night's B- 1 Bobbie raids all through the north Valley." "California governor Robert Dornan made a broadcast today." "Avocados actually got to them instead of being diverted to the Dornan's inner circle and his..." "Okay, Hale." "Take the point." "Take the point!" "Man on the left!" "Man on the right!" "Move out to the right." "Move it on up!" "Move it on up!" "Turn it." "Turn it." "Sniper!" "You want one?" "I owe you." "Get me to the doctor and I'll get you one." "Thank God you're here." "I think they're getting worse." "Where'd you find a doctor?" "A friend of his owed me a favor." "So can you tell anything, Doc?" "In a moment." "In a moment." "Interesting." "Very strange, but interesting." "What?" "What's interesting?" "Yeah?" "What's very strange?" "The yellowish skin is indicative of liver failure." "There is edema in the lower extremities, which could indicate congestive heart failure." "Then there are the eyes." "Well, what about the eyes?" "The cloudiness." "That's rather advanced cataracts." "What?" "What do you mean?" "I have never seen anything like this in subjects so young and" "I cannot be sure without doing some blood work." "But," "I would have to say that your friends seem to be dying of old age." "I've never seen anything like this." "They can't be dying." "They're still very young." "Look, when we got here less than five hours ago they were fine." "Now this just came over them." "Now, how is that possible?" "Were they outside a lot?" "No, once we got into the city." "We came straight to the hotel." "Wait a minute, what's wrong?" "It just occurred to me that this could be the result of some sort of biological weapon." "We suspect the guerrillas have them." "But they have never been crazy enough to use them." "We could all be at risk here." "I'm gonna have to report this to the senior medical staff." "We're gonna have to put your friends in quarantine." "Will they get treatment in quarantine?" "Yeah, and how long will it take?" "You haven't been listening to me." "There is no treatment." "Your friends are dying and we have to isolate them to prevent this thing from spreading." "We probably won't know for certain until an autopsy." "Mash 105." "This is Kurtz." "We have a possible bio-chemical contamination." "Chandler Hotel." "Code red security." "Code red." "Wait a minute." "What is that?" "I told you." "Quarantine." "No one will be allowed to enter or leave the hotel until the subjects are isolated." "Okay, what do we do now?" "They're dying." "We're under armed guard where we cannot move." "How long till the slide?" "Seven hours." "Okay, look." "If they get us to a hospital, we're gonna have to try to stay together." "If they try to separate us, like try to put them in some kind of isolation, we won't be able to take them with us." "Then what?" "We stay here with them?" "For 29 years?" "Oh, man, it's bad, it's bad." "I think I've figured out a correlation between the appearance of that ghost-like figure and Quinn and Maggie's condition." "What?" "What are you talking about?" "When I tried to manipulate the coordinating functions," "I found some strange read-outs." "At first I thought it was caused by something that happened in that rough slide we made." "But then I saw that the energy spikes were recorded at the same time that we saw that ghostly image." "I can't read that." "What is it you think you've found?" "Somehow I think the appearance of that figure is linked to the energy spikes." "Which means I think he's either somehow linked to the slide or another world." "I still don't see how that could help us." "Your friend is quite right." "Oh, no." "Don't be frightened." "I'm here to help." "Who are you?" "Where in the devil did you come from?" "I'm a trans-dimensional traveler." "Just like you." "It's not easy to explain what has happened here." "I only just figured it out myself." "And I'm sorry that I had to appear so ghost-like before." "But I had to make certain that I maintained a link." "You know, just an anchor, if you will, to my own world while traveling to this one." "All right." "During your last trans-dimensional journey..." "We call them slides." "Oh, I see." "All right." "During your slide, then, something odd happened in the electron field of your friends' physical composition." "I knew there was something weird that happened with that." "You see, you two weren't affected." "But they were spun off and became the focal point of a kind of bubble universe." "But, forgive me if this isn't quite clear." "But I'm still working out the physics myself." "You're a physicist?" "Sorry." "Forgot to introduce myself." "I'm Thomas Mallory." "Mallory?" "On the world I come from," "I'm their son." "All right, look, I know this must be a little bit of a shock to you, but look, if you want me to help them, you have to help me." "How?" "I think I can make the necessary calculations with your equipment." "Our equipment?" "Your sliding device." "Oh." "I had a laptop computer in the last world." "But a Navajo shaman took it apart." "Yeah, well, this will just have to do." "Here." "The UN soldiers are setting up a perimeter around the hotel." "The medic that we had here wants to put Quinn and Maggie into some type of quarantine." "Maybe us too." "We can't let that happen." "Unless they are reunited with their other selves, they will die." "Then we have to get to work." "So, a lifetime on your world, if I understand this, is maybe like a dream to this Quinn and this Maggie." "That's an excellent analogy." "Your friend's a philosopher." "Sometimes." "Hi." "Hi." "I..." "I got this." "It's okay." "Shall we go?" "My father wants you to come inside so he can meet you." "Your father, the general, wants to meet me now?" "But we'll miss the grand march." "Oh, come on." "Don't be silly." "If he asks you if you're joining the Service, you tell him the Marines." "And if he starts complaining about the Democrats, you just kind of nod, all right?" "Oh, you do own a gun, don't you?" "Let's just enjoy the view for a minute." "Why?" "Is it going to change soon?" "No." "No." "It's just that things are moving very fast for us, aren't they, Maggie?" "Do you like the way they're moving?" "I do." "I do." "Then what difference does it make how fast they move?" "This is getting serious, isn't it, Maggie?" "Yes." "Does that worry you?" "No." "No." "It scares the hell out of me." "Where are we going, Maggie?" "Well, it looks to me like we're going a long way." "What does that mean?" "Marriage?" "House?" "Kids?" "It usually does." "I don't know if I'm ready for all that." "Well, you don't get all of it at the same time." "In stages." "First we get engaged and plan a wedding..." "Hey, put the top up." "According to Isaac Newton, everything attracts everything else." "So how come I'm only attracted to you?" "That's because Einstein changed all the rules." "According to him, space and time are curved near heavy masses." "You're not so heavy." "Only on the outside." "On the inside I weigh more than 1,000 suns." "So do you." "Do you want children?" "Of course." "Don't you?" "We need some time to ourselves first." "Don't you think?" "I mean, I gotta finish grad school and then I want to get hooked up with a good research department somewhere." "What?" "Now you want to teach?" "Last summer, when you had Doctor Feynman, you wanted to do pure research." "I've never heard you so excited about anything." "Feynman had that effect on us." "And if I could get a job at Caltech, I could do both." "A boy." "What?" "You were thinking, "I wonder if she wants a boy or a girl. "" "How did you know that?" "I don't know." "Maybe it has something to do with your "heavy mass"" "and my "curved space"." "So now you can read my mind?" "Sometimes." "Okay, where do I want to go tonight?" "Um, you want to go to that place by that thing that you like." "Underneath the..." "Behind the..." "Yeah." "We always talk about what I want to do." "What do you want to do?" "Fly like a bird." "Mom became a pilot." "Our Maggie was a pilot, too." "Combat with the Marines." "You know, there is no your Maggie or my Maggie." "They're not duplicates." "They are themselves." "Only split off." "I think the world that Maggie and Quinn created was in response to some deep longing," "maybe a need for peace." "A way out of harsh, real worlds like this." "You mean, you can wish a whole world into being?" "Why not?" "Well, no sign of an ambulance or a hazmat team yet." "Maybe this air raid is holding them up." "You know, Dad used to talk about you a lot." "You know, you're my uncle." "I hadn't really thought about that." "Good luck!" "Bye!" "They, look beautiful!" "Yeah!" "Bye-bye!" "They were supposed to honeymoon for a week in Bermuda." "But they came home after a couple days." "Dad had got an idea for a new formula for relativistic energy and needed his computer." "I don't want you to get the idea that Dad neglected Mom for his work." "She was very happy." "So was I when I came along." "Oh!" "They named me Thomas Michael." "Thomas for the general, Michael for my father's dad." "Your dad." "Hey, come here." "Come here come here." "Come here." "I think I was a year and a half when dad started planning my NFL career." "Good one." "He's such a smart guy." "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Yeah!" "It seemed like only an instant." "In a way, it was." "Till I had my PhD in physics, just like Dad." "Of course." "No one could ever be "just like Dad"." "He was one of a kind." "After I left home," "I always wrote Mom and Dad so they could keep up with my work." "I got a great job in biophysics at the South Pole." "At least I thought it was a great job." "A lot of my colleagues complained about the weather." "Mom and Dad were always very much in love with each other" "that never wavered." "And now, that life is almost over." "I think I've got it." "You were right about this complex conjugate." "It folds right back into this other data." "Of course, there's a problem." "I knew there would be." "Can't be helped." "What?" "What problem?" "The only way to save our Quinn and Maggie is to reunite them with their other halves." "You see, these are the real Quinn and Maggie." "The bubble universe where I was born and grew up" "isn't real." "Not in a material sense." "By reuniting the two entities, your friends will be regenerated, the life drain will stop," "and they will live." "Of course, it's just a theory." "Yeah, but a good one." "I like it." "Now, will it work?" "If it does, there'll be a terrible price." "If it works, the bubble universe and everything in it" "will cease to exist." "Including you?" "Yeah, well, we'd better do something." "The medical team is already here." "Looks like they're suiting up for germ warfare." "They're not taking any chances." "My parents had a rich and full life." "Lives that Maggie and Quinn would have wished for." "But now, it's time to break the link." "And let your friends return to this life." "What about you?" "Without your friends, my parents and their world would never have existed." "Without my parents, I wouldn't have existed." "Look, how close are you guys?" "Look, I'm gonna need a second." "I just want a few minutes of your time." "Look, not right now." "Look, just a statement." "Look, we know that the guerrillas are using biological warfare and we think that your friends are involved." "Look, no comment." "Look, the UN has sealed off the hotel and the medical hazmat team is coming up." "I just want the story." "Look, there is no story." "Someone is over-reacting." "In a few minutes, the military police are going to get your sick friends to a sealed biomedical lab." "And everybody else in this room is going to be arrested." "Don't you want to get your story out there?" "He said no comment!" "All right." "If our numbers are right, and I programmed the right coordinate," "I'm ready to transport me and your friends back to my world." "Can you take us with you?" "Yes, but it's dangerous." "Look, Rembrandt..." "You never existed on the bubble world and your presence there now might upset the whole process." "You might even be eliminated along with that world." "What about Quinn and Maggie?" "What would happen to them?" "They'll return here because in reality, they never left." "But they would still live?" "That's the theory." "All right, military police." "Everybody, clear out!" "Okay." "Look, if we go with you we're not sure what's gonna happen." "Let's move it!" "Everybody." "Clear out!" "Right now!" "If we stay here, we do know what's gonna happen." "It's not an easy selection." "Open the door this is the military police." "We can't let them die!" "Open the door!" "This is the military police!" "We're gonna count to three and we're gonna knock this door down." "One!" "Here goes..." "Two!" "Everything." "Three!" "Dad." "Mom." "You made it." "I knew they would." "I knew Thomas would find a way." "You were always a bright boy." "You look just as I remembered." "Maybe even a little better." "Tsk, behave yourself, Quinn." "A little dignity, please!" "I've always had a little dignity, my dear." "Just enough to get by." "Who are they?" "Uh, Dad..." "Friends." "This is Rembrandt Brown and Dad, this is Uncle Colin, your brother." "This is more than I could have hoped." "Will the fabric of this cosmos handle the extra mass?" "I haven't had time to refine the calculations." "They're taking a great risk." "You were always like that." "I don't know what to say." "I do." "Thank you." "You gave us a wonderful life." "And because we lived it, so, in a way, did you." "And you'll remember." "But now, it's over." "Everyone who's ever lived has known from the beginning that there would be an end." "And some of us still wouldn't believe it." "It must be very strange to see your future." "Yes." "But not at all troubling." "I don't know." "I feel, um, at peace, somehow." "Good." "And you mustn't feel at all bad about what is to happen." "We have lived long and well." "Worked hard." "Had more than our share of good times, too." "And a loving son." "Perhaps the memory of all that we have had will keep you strong." "In the hard times you have ahead of you." "I think it will." ""I have been here before" ""When and how I cannot tell"" "Dante Gabriel Rossetti." "You do know him, don't you?" "I probably should." "Physics major." "I don't know what's happening with students today." "Physics majors should know as much about Keats and Tennyson and Rossetti as they do about M-theory." "You do know M-theory, don't you?" "Yes, sir." "It's..." "Stop lecturing the boy, Quinn!" "Occupational hazard." "Oh, I know." "Well, Mags, are you ready?" "Yes." "Thomas, for this sacrifice, there is no way we can thank you." "And no need." "Colin." "Rembrandt." "You may have given your life for your friends." "We know." "Put your hands on top of ours." "Say it, Thomas." "You know the part we like." ""I have been here before" ""But when and how I cannot tell" ""I know the grass beyond the door" ""The sweet keen smell" ""The sighing sound The lights around the shore" ""And you have been mine before" ""How long ago I may not know" ""Has this been thus before?" ""And shall not thus time's eddying flight" ""Still with our lives our love restore?" ""In death's despite" ""And day and night" ""yield one delight" ""once more?"" "Well, we made it." "We're back." "Yeah, but back where?" "You all right?" "Yeah, I feel fine." "Me, too." "Do you remember?" "Everything." "How can I have a lifetime of memories and haven't even lived mine yet?" "I don't know." "But I want to hold onto every one." "And make some new ones." "Does any of this seem at all familiar?" "How much time do we have here?" "Twelve hours." "We're right back where we started." "The poem Thomas read," ""I've been here before But when or how I cannot tell"" "But, how?" "The space-time of the bubble universe was destroyed." "That space and that time never existed." "Except for in our memories." "What's going on?" "Hey, you people better get off the street." "What's the problem, Lieutenant?" "Some B-1 snipers up in that tenement." "They've got an anti-tank weapon." "We were looking for the Chandler Hotel." "The Chandler's clear, last I heard." "Better stay on this side of the street." "Yeah, we know." "By the way, Lieutenant, be very careful today." "Keep a sharp eye out over the rooftops!" "I think we've reached the beginning." "Come on, let's go!"