"You think he saw us?" "I don't think so." "I do." "Even if they didn't, they have infrared scanners." "Yeah, well, I don't think anyone saw us." "We slide out of here in 45 minutes." "If we lie low, we should be all right till then." "That's a long time to play hide and seek with a Kromagg." "Hustle it up, Remmy." "Come on, move it." "What do you think that place was?" "Well, it's gotta be military." "The Maggs don't go in for leisure sport." "Could be a burned-out storage depot." "Yeah, well, I didn't see any other structures." "Well, it could be a proving ground for weapons." "Or it could be a camp where they train the Maggs to hunt humans." "Kind of like that pleasant resort we stumbled across a couple of worlds back." "I don't think anyone saw us." "Maybe we're overreacting." "It is humanly impossible to overreact to the Kromaggs." "All right, this place looks pretty good." "Maggie and I'll take lookout." "You guys lay low." "We're out of here in 40 minutes." "The girl's in Sector 5 Red." "For a breeder to escape." "And with an infant, yet." "Commander, I assure you there's no way this breeder will get away." "My men will pick her up any minute now." "We're picking up other indicators in the same sector." "What could that be?" "I had that sector patrolled less than an hour ago." "You, go take a unit and find out what's going on there." "Maggie, someone's coming." "Kromaggs?" "No." "Looks more like a woman." "She's alone." "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid." "We're friends." "Don't touch him." "It's okay." "It's okay." "Mommy's right here." "Go back to sleep." "Who are you?" "Where'd you come from?" "I'm Quinn Mallory, and where we came from is kind of a long story." "Quinn Mallory?" "Yeah, that's right." "Then you're Maggie." "How do you know who we are?" "I'm Christina Griffin." "Wade told me all about you guys." "Wade?" "Yeah, your friend Wade." "Wade Wells." "So you know Wade?" "Where is she?" "I don't know." "We gotta get moving." "They gotta know by now we've escaped." "Escaped from what?" "A Kromagg breeder camp." "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?" "Where were you going to go?" "I don't know." "I just had to get out of there." "Once I was outside, I hoped to find someplace." "But you're here now." "It's just like Wade said." "You'd find a way to get to us." "Can I go with you guys when you..." "What is that?" "Slide." "Of course you can." "Guys, this is Christina." "She just escaped from the Kromagg breeder camp, somewhere down there." "This is my brother Colin, and this is Rem..." "I know." "It's Rembrandt." "She knew Wade." "Knew?" "I mean, is she alive?" "Is she there?" "Yeah, she's alive." "As far as I know." "Hey, if Wade is back there, we gotta do something." "I don't know if we have enough time." "Look, I don't care, man." "We gotta get back there!" "It's too late." "She's gone." "The Magg shipped all the other prisoners out yesterday to make way for the new arrivals." "Wade was with them." "I managed to get away in all the confusion." "For what it's worth, Wade doesn't think that you deserted her." "And she doesn't blame you at all for what happened to her." "I'm picking up a slight reading on that hill." "Several indicators." "Several indicators?" "Who is out there besides your runaway?" "All right, we're gonna go take lookout." "Well, it looks like a perfectly normal baby to me." "Yeah, well, they do for the first year." "I don't know a lot about it." "It's some kind of genetic quirk." "The gestation and birth are normal." "The Kromagg genes are repressed." "It'll grow up ugly, trust me." "Wouldn't you know it." "We land in a world crawling with Kromaggs, no guns, and now we got a baby." "And I was thinking about getting a dog." "You hear something?" "It's coming from over there." "All right, guys, stay hidden." "We're gonna go check out what this is." "Oh, there we go." "We're keeping steady, you and me." "We're in this together." "It's okay." "He seems to be in pretty good shape." "Yeah, he's a fighter." "How old is he?" "Almost eight months." "We made our break just in time." "Humagg babies are taken away from their mothers at nine months." "Then at a really young age, they start their training to be soldiers." "We've run into a few of them along the way." "Well, you seem to have survived it." "It wasn't easy." "Hello." "You know, at first, I couldn't stand to look at him." "Half of him came from something I hated so much." "But he's so beautiful, and he's smart." "Yeah." "After all, what happened to me wasn't his fault." "We're gonna get out of this, little guy." "You just wait and see." "What's his name?" "Well, you're going to think this is really strange, but he doesn't have one." "I haven't been able to think of the right one." "Surviving from day to day in that place," "I had to think of nothing else." "You've got plenty of time." "The right one will come to you." "You can always name him Maggie." "Yeah." "Okay, let's go, huh?" "Two Maggs in a Humvee." "I knew it." "Infrared scanners." "This is the part where you usually come up with a great idea." "Wait, me?" "Why do I always have to come up with a good idea?" "Hey, guys, wait." "They're looking for a woman, right?" "Maybe we should give them one." "All right, Magg." "Well, that should buy us some time." "I don't know." "There's gotta be more goons out there like these." "How long till the slide?" "Eighteen minutes." "Where will we go?" "We don't know." "I'll take point." "There's a little glitch in our gizmo." "Could we go to my home world?" "If we knew your home coordinates." "They'd be in the Kromagg Central Data Bank." "Okay, uh, you've got a choice now." "You can either work with us or die." "Question too difficult for you, Magg?" "I'll help." "Smart choice." "Can you work it?" "If I can get into the system." "I'm sure there's a password." "Here, come here." "Log us on." "Unit Four, report." "Unit Four, what's happening out there?" "All right, uh, tell him you're enjoying the weather and having a fine day." "Unit Four." "What's going on?" "Uh, sorry, sir." "False alarm." "No sign of the prisoner." "You said you had a pattern." "Several indicators, you said." "It must have been wildlife." "No sign of a human out here." "Resume the search pattern, and keep me posted." "Base out." "You do very good work." "Now open up your system and bring up the prisoners' files." "No tricks." "I read your language." "Go on, Maggot." "What are we looking for?" "Bring up anything on prisoners Christina Griffin and Wade Wells." "I'll need their prisoner serials." "Their what?" "ID numbers." "We don't keep their human names on file." "I don't know Wade's, but mine's JK1125." "Now cross-reference that with her home world." "What is it?" "That's interesting." "So, when do you think that happened?" "The file states that our battalions withdrew six months ago." "Withdrew?" "Yeah, yeah, that's what it says." "My parents, they could be alive." "All right, let me get those coordinates." "Units Two and Three, widen your search area." "Unit Six, return to the river." "If she went that way, she may have gotten across." "All right, got it." "Now for Wade." "But without her ID number..." "All right, we'll do it the hard way." "Pull up the records as fast as you can." "When we see her picture, we'll tell you to stop." "What's going on?" "Unit Four is accessing prisoner files." "Why?" "Unit Four, this is base!" "What are you doing?" "Those files are protected!" "All right, what do we do?" "We keep running through these files." "We only got eight minutes left." "The only conclusion I can draw, Subcommander, is that a woman and a baby have overpowered two of your best men, and are now casually scanning our protected data." "We had several different IR readings." "Somebody's out there." "Somebody's helping her!" "What's the matter?" ""Network error 807." "Please notify system administrator. "" "Try it again." "All units, Unit Four has been disabled." "Coordinates 9774 by 39." "All units converge." "I hope you're not outgunned out there, Sub-Commander." "I don't like this." "They could be tracking us now." "I mean, sending in other units." "Right." "All right, Colin, Maggie!" "We're getting out of here." "Thanks for all your help." "See you!" "You read Kromagg?" "He bought it." "Back up, back up!" "Hang on." "Shouldn't we get out to hit the vortex?" "We're just gonna have to take the chance that the vortex can handle all the mass." "I'll count it off." "Ten seconds." "Get ready." "Anybody hurt?" "We're all right." "Look, we don't know who's here yet or what their intentions might be." "All right, so leave the rifle in the car." "We got nine hours." "This the right place?" "This look like your world?" "Yeah." "I think so." "Christina, I think you better keep the baby well-covered." "Are you certain it was a trans-dimensional vortex?" "Yes, sir." "A court martial will be convened to review this case." "All amenities will be observed." "You'll have representation, a fair, unbiased hearing, then full military execution." "It'll be very nice." "Four humans." "Three male, one female." "They took the weapons off Unit Four, accessed the computer, and then with their primitive sliding device escaped to another dimension." "We received a Dynasty Directive about these humans earlier this year." "We were ordered not to detain them, but now things have changed." "They are now considered to be extremely dangerous, and are to be taken down by whatever means necessary." "Something your troops are obviously not up to." "It is clear that they transported themselves back to the escapee's home world." "With your permission, I'll take a commando unit to that world, recapture the breeder, and deal with the sliders, per Dynasty Directive." "Permission denied." "No Kromagg is permitted to return to that world under pain of death." "I know that, sir, but, under the circumstances, I thought we might find a solution to the bigger problem, as well." "I don't have the authority to override a Dynasty Directive." "You're not to pursue anyone to that world." "Is that understood?" "Yes, sir." "Bye." "Last time I saw this street, we were running." "Hundreds of us, from the Kromagg invasion force." "Their ships fired on us." "My two brothers died right here." "Even those of us who fought back were overpowered." "But the people in your world won in the end." "Drove the Maggs away." "Folks don't seem to be too friendly, though." "Kromaggs make enemies faster than anybody." "Yeah, but we're not Kromaggs." "But we are strangers, and they're not going to take any chances." "We're not here that long." "I'm just glad we were able to get Christina and her baby off that world." "It's funny they didn't pursue us." "I mean, they know the coordinates." "Yeah, well, stay sharp." "The show's not over till the fat Magg croaks." "Something here must really scare them." "Something to scare a Kromagg." "Now, that I'd like to see." "So many nights I'd have dreams, walking up to it just like this." "Then I'd wake up in the barracks." "I never thought I'd see it again." "Let me hold him?" "You don't want to give them two surprises at once, right?" "Hello." "Yes!" "Dad?" "Christina?" "Oh, my God!" "God, I don't believe it." "I don't believe it." "How..." "How did you?" "Where's Mom?" "Your Mom's gone." "Caught in the war." "No." "I thought they'd taken you all away from me forever." "Her heart would be so full at this moment." "Where have you been?" "Where have you been all this time?" "I was a prisoner." "A Kromagg camp on another world." "Come here." "These are the wonderful people that helped me escape." "Quinn, Colin, Rembrandt, Maggie, this is Jonathan Griffin." "This is my dad." "I don't understand." "You said you were on another world?" "How did you get here?" "These people are sliders, Dad." "No, only Kromaggs can do that." "We can, too." "I invented this device that was supposed to be a, uh, anti-gravity machine, but it turned out to be something else." "We've traveled from world to world for quite some time now." "We fought the Kromaggs on many worlds." "Dad, these people are friends, I promise you." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you for my daughter." "And who's this little one there?" "Come on, baby." "We're home now." "Christina." "The camp." "It was a breeder camp?" "Those who put up too much of a fight or who couldn't conceive were taken away." "Killed, I suppose." "You're saying there was nothing you could do?" "Mr. Griffin," "I can tell you from personal experience, there's no use in trying to fight them once you've been taken to a camp." "There's no way to resist them." "Your daughter did what she had to do to survive." "I suppose I have to accept that you were forced to do this." "But you were not forced to keep it, to bring it here." "When you were able to escape, why didn't you do it alone?" "Because he's my child." "Can you send it back?" "I don't know the coordinates." "And even if we could, we would never do that." "Believe me, it would have been best." "For both of you." "That could have gone better." "He wasn't really primed for this." "Look on the bright side." "At least he didn't throw us out." "Not yet." "Maybe we should go." "Where would you go?" "There was a great poet on my world that once said," ""Home is a place where, when you have to go there," ""they have to take you in. "" "Remember what you said to me?" "You said this little guy is a fighter." "Well, his mommy is, too." "So don't you throw in the towel just yet, you hear me?" "Maybe we should go on over to the Chandler." "No, you don't." "This is my home, at least for now, and I can have all the guests I want." "Please, you guys." "For moral support?" "Do you have continental breakfast?" "I don't want you to think that I'm ungrateful for what you've done." "It's just that it's been..." "Well, it's been a bit of a shock." "We can understand that." "Yeah, these days, we seem to spend an awful lot of time being shocked about one thing or another." "Tell me about it." "Kromaggs hit you pretty hard?" "A lot of places got it worse." "Moscow, New York, Paris." "They're simply not there anymore." "Listen, how did you manage to drive the Kromaggs out?" "I mean, from what I've seen, they only leave when they're ready, and that's usually only after there's nothing left." "Our military developed better tactics." "Better weapons." "What kind of weapons?" "I work in Central Intelligence." "The weapons that we used are still classified." "The general public doesn't know anything about them." "Hopefully they never will." "Well, we're just thinking that the Kromaggs are still ravaging many other worlds." "This classified weapon might help defeat the Kromagg Dynasty completely." "I'm afraid the other worlds will have to do it on their own." "Wow, you're a hard man." "I had to be, to save my world." "Come on, Remmy." "What you're feeling, this..." "This hatred that you have against the Kromaggs for what they did to you and yours..." "I've been down that road." "Ate me alive." "Made me blind to the people in my life." "That is your daughter in there." "She's been through hell." "And all she cared about was coming home to you." "Now, try harder to think about that." "Maybe don't even think at all, just..." "Just feel something." "Wait a minute." "You think of yourselves as her friends?" "Well, we're just getting to know her, but I think we're headed that way, yeah." "She trusts us, if that's what you're asking." "The next few hours are going to be very difficult for her." "If you could stay around." "Help her through it." "You're not just saying it's going to be hard on her coming home, are you?" "No." "You're not thinking about doing anything crazy, like turning her in?" "No, of course not." "Nothing will happen to her." "She'll be fine." "I can't say any more than that." "It's just that she'll need something that I cannot give her." "Please, if you could stay with her." "If you've got a secret, you might feel a lot better getting it off your chest." "Good, he's quieting down." "He's been finicky lately." "Teething." "They seem to be growing in human." "I'm glad." "Kromagg teeth can be really brutal coming in." "Yeah, well, maybe that's why they're so bad-tempered." "Oh, hello, hello." "You know, when I was in the camps, what kept me going was thinking of my folks back here." "Christmas, Thanksgiving." "Just hanging around the backyard doing nothing." "He's not a bad man." "Yeah, I know." "I can see that." "He's just been through some really bad times." "If only you could see him the way that I do." "Listen, I'm going to go rustle us up some soup, okay?" "Okay." "Okay, little guy?" "Okay." "How's Christina?" "She's hanging in there." "What's wrong?" "You have that little crease between your eyes you always get." "It's her father." "He said to stick by her." "Something was going to happen." "Like what?" "I don't know." "He wouldn't say." "Colin and Remmy went off to do some research." "Library, newspapers." "See what they could about the Kromagg defeat." "Maybe it's nothing, but everybody's so stressed out." "I got a bad feeling about this." "I could really use a good feeling right about now." "Like the one she gets when she looks at him." "It seems like we're always taking care of everybody else." "When's somebody going to take care of us, huh?" "I guess we've just gotta do it all." "You ever think about having a kid?" "My husband and I used to want one very much." "But we had careers, and so we put it off." "We put it off a little too long." "You had no way of knowing." "Well, you know, on some alternate world," "I've probably got 11 kids, I'm barefoot, living in a shack on a mountain." "I'm sure you'd make a great mom." "For all 11." "Thanks, Quinn." "Maggie." "Maggie!" "What's wrong?" "I don't know." "He's not breathing right." "Oh, he's got a fever." "I gotta get him to a doctor." "Can you take him to anyone who you trust?" "Who won't turn you and the baby in?" "I don't know." "Uh, Dr. Bailey." "He brought me into this world." "He's taken care of me all my life." "Let's go." "Forget about Bailey." "Get away from the door." "He won't be able to help you." "No one will." "And just why is that?" "You know, you've been waltzing around here." "Are you going to tell us what this is about?" "Daddy?" "During the war, our military research developed a virus that affected only Kromagg DNA." "Very efficient." "Extremely fast-acting." "100% mortality." "It permeates the atmosphere." "That is why the Kromaggs left." "The baby, being half-Kromagg, is obviously susceptible." "You mean, he's dying and there's nothing that we can do about it?" "Well, there's gotta be an antidote." "No." "Being as it was designed not to affect humans, there..." "You knew about this, and you didn't tell me?" "Christina..." "If you would like, I could get something where..." "He wouldn't feel it." "No." "I want my baby to live." "Do you understand me?" "To live." "You know, you are one sorry..." "Who the hell are you?" "Everyone be very still." "Don't touch him." "You keep away from my baby." "Be calm, Christina." "He's my baby, too." "For God's sake, kill him!" "Come on, nobody's going to shoot anyone." "Don't move, pal." "This is my son." "Your son?" "You contribute some genetic material and you think that makes you a father?" "You breed children like cattle." "How many more sons do you have?" "This virus is killing him." "As it was designed to do." "Well, is there an antidote?" "A treatment of some kind?" "Not for you." "What about for him?" "He's your grandson." "So there is a vaccine." "Yes." "The virus wasn't designed to affect humans, but we didn't know what would happen when it was released into the atmosphere." "It could have mutated like Ebola-Zaire or Reston..." "We weren't sure that, once it took out the Kromaggs, it wouldn't attack every living thing on this planet." "So far, we haven't had to use it." "I came here to help my child." "And the check's in the mail." "What about my son?" "We can't be sure that it would help him anyway." "It was designed for humans." "The baby's own Kromagg blood is killing him." "It's worth the risk." "Not to me." "Oh, God, Christina, I'm sorry." "So am I." "He's going into his mind." "Stop it." "He's not injured." "I merely wanted to see if what he was saying was the truth." "And?" "The anti-virus is nearby." "It's in a lab, in a classified military facility." "I'll bring it here, and we will administer it to my son." "I hate to sound like we don't trust you, but we don't trust you." "She's right." "We can't just let you waltz in there by yourself." "No offense." "Do you have any suggestions?" "Well, I think we could start by, uh, keeping an eye on each other." "Truce?" "Truce." "Not just yet." "... Colonel Jay Ewing, report to Base Operations." "Uh..." "Is there any plan here?" "I thought we'd just walk right in." "They'll see what I want them to see." "Good afternoon, sir." "Afternoon." "These officers are from the Pentagon." "I want to show them the AKV research establishment." "Very well, Mr. Griffin, but you'll need O-level clearance passes." "We've got them." "Very impressive." "We have to hurry." "I cannot maintain this level of deception very much longer." "Hey, there." "I'm glad somebody's found time to take a nap." "I'm sorry." "We couldn't find out anything about the Kromagg war." "All the information was censored by the military." "The librarian, she looked at us pretty funny when we started asking, so we figured it was just best to beat it out of there." "It was a virus." "Excuse me?" "That's how they won the war." "They released a virus into the air that only kills Kromaggs." "Wait a minute, how do you know this?" "The Kromagg commander of the camp I was in, the baby's father, he followed us here." "What?" "Where's Quinn and Maggie?" "We're here." "What are we going to do about the O-clearance?" "Dr. Griffin." "Dr. Townsend." "You're still on the AKV Project." "They won't let me off it." "Ah." "Tough gig." "The worst." "My colleagues here are in from DC for a week." "Fact-finding junket." "That sort of thing." "I'd like to show them the, uh, latest work being done on the virus." "Sorry I have to ask, but do you have your O - level pass with you?" "Rules, rules, rules." "Don't know what the brass is so interested in this stuff for." "There's no chance of a Kromagg being on this planet." "Right."