""Join the sliders!" "Travel to exotic lands!" ""Meet interesting people!"" "And get eaten by them!" "The next time you decide to go native on me, count me out!" "There's one minute to go." "Hey, it's your fault, you offended them." "Yeah, well, instead of shaking your groove thing with the chief's daughter, maybe you should focus on finding your home world." "We really should try and learn as much as possible about these worlds we visit, someday our survival may depend on it." "Q" " Ball, the girl was looking at you like a rare veal chop." "Hey, have you guys lost your sense of adventure?" "Yeah." "Well, we're gonna lose more than that if we don't get out of here now!" "Hit it." "Three, two..." "Bon appétit." "Oh, I hate sand in my shorts." "Oh, great, public housing world." "Looks like we're tenants for three days, four hours, six minutes." "It's just enough time to figure out where we are." "Well, if this is your Earth, maybe these ruins are left over from the last time that the humans and the Kromaggs duked it out." "No, these buildings aren't battle-damaged." "Looks like a demolition zone." "No!" "How long have we been here?" "Over an hour." "Sorry to keep you waiting." "I'm Brigadier General Randall Simmons." "I'm Quinn Mallory." "This is Rembrandt Brown, and that's Maggie Beckett over there." "What the devil is going on?" "Where are we?" "Didn't anyone tell you?" "No one's told us a thing." "I'm sorry, I thought you already knew." "You're home." "Home?" "You mean we're back on Earth Prime?" "It's not possible." "We've been to Earth Prime." "It's overrun with Kromaggs." "Was overrun." "Three months ago, we cracked the Kromagg communications protocols." "We were able to access most of their tactical and defensive systems, turned their own technology against them." "Two weeks ago we celebrated VK Day." "Victory over the Kromaggs." "This way, please." "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?" "If you've won the war against the Kromaggs, what was that battle we saw?" "Yeah, we nearly got our heads blown off." "Ninety percent of the planet is back under human control." "But there are still pockets of Kromagg resistance." "You had the bad luck to slide into a hot LZ." "In addition to Kromagg weapons technology, we've also adapted their sliding capability." "This display shows our tactical status on all multi-Earth battle fronts." "These yellow ribbons indicate worlds which have been liberated, Mr. Brown." "We've got the Maggots on the run on over two dozen parallel worlds." "And I'd say that calls for a drink." "Will someone tell me what's going on?" "Just relax." "It's okay." "Just relax, try to remember." "You've been having memory lapses since the attack." "The docs say it'll pass." "We've seen this kind of thing before." "Thanks." "Almost bought the farm from a Kromagg plasma cannon." "I remember something." "An explosion, a hospital." "That was three days ago." "Three days?" "We've found this kind of disorientation is common when a person has been exposed to certain types of Kromagg energy weapons." "You will recover." "And when you do, we need people who've had experience with the Maggs." "Feel like strapping on a Harrier again, Captain Beckett?" "Our campaign is expanding." "We're kicking the Maggs off more worlds every day." "But we're spread thin." "We need help." "Mr. Brown, there's a naval commission in this for you, if you want it." "All the same to you, I just want to go home, try to find my family, see if they're okay." "Can you help us, General?" "My mother was shipped off-world by the Maggs." "Yes, and a friend of ours, Wade." "She was taken by the Kromaggs to a breeder camp." "We found thousands of human refugees on other Earths." "There's a chance, a good one, your people are alive." "What about my offer, Captain?" "I know you've been eager to get back up there again." "I might still be a little fuzzy, but I don't recall mentioning that to anyone." "You're a pilot." "What self-respecting marine wouldn't want to get back up there and mix it up?" "This is all happening too fast." "Ah." "I understand." "You've been sliding so long, it must be tough to accept the idea that your journey is finally over." "You can start a brand new life on our world." "Or any other world, for that matter." "Of course, we'll have to debrief you, get the details of your Kromagg encounters," "or any other worlds you may have encountered." "Their culture, natural resources." "I have some questions of my own." "Such as?" "Such as, what is a one-star general doing in charge of a unified command?" "With all due respect, you seem a bit light on the brass to be running a campaign this size." "You're not from our Earth, Captain." "Your military may be different than ours." "Granted." "But is it also customary on your world for a marine officer to be handing out naval field commissions?" "The last time I checked, we worked for the Navy." "Tell me what you want." "I can make it happen." "It wasn't a battlefield we slid into." "I've seen bombed-out buildings." "This was a demolition site." "No!" "No way." "This is a trick!" "Quinn!" "Remmy!" "What are you talking about?" "You can stop the charade." "You're a Kromagg, aren't you?" "What?" "I've seen what you do." "Twist people's perceptions, make us see what you want us to." "Calm down." "You stay away from me." "Welcome back to reality, Miss Beckett." "Who the hell are you?" "I'm not a Kromagg, whatever that is." "Oh!" "Take it easy." "Coming out of virtual space can be disorienting." "You'll need to get your land legs back." "Where am I?" "You're in virtual reality recovery at Chandler Federal Hospital." "I'm Randall Simmons, your case worker." "Recovery?" "Recovery from what?" "The short version?" "You were buried alive." "Though what you and your friends were doing in the middle of a demolition site is a question only you can answer." "My friends." "Where are they?" "Are they okay?" "They're fine." "They're in VR recovery, too." "Speak English." "VR is an effective technique." "Although you seem to have an aversion to it." "Tell me, do you feel that you're resistant to pleasant thoughts?" "I don't like people poking around in my head." "Obviously." "I've never seen anyone outsmart VR therapy." "I'll have to have a word with our programmers." "Still, you and your friends are quite a mystery." "No medicards, no subdermal ID chips." "It's almost as if you just materialized here." "And then there's this." "I need to see my friends." "Now." "That's right." "Oh, yeah." "Come here." "That's right." "Yeah." "Get those things off of them." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, now, we need to bring them out slowly." "Sudden reality shifts are dangerous." "There can be seizures, even brain damage." "What are those?" "We use them to monitor the therapy." "You monitor their mind?" "Invade their thoughts?" "No, we monitor their therapy." "In order to stimulate the healing process, the mind is immersed in pleasant desires." "Memories, the like." "The machines read those thoughts, enhance them, then play them back to the patient." "Tuna casserole, my favorite, Mama." "Rise and shine, lover boy." "I was in a park." "Welcome to the world of VR medicine." "Incredible." "Nurse, maybe these gentlemen are hungry." "Oh, no, thanks, I ate already." "I think." "How long have we been under?" "Long enough." "The timer's counting up." "We missed the sliding window." "We're stranded here." "Are you sure?" "Maybe you read it wrong." "There's no mistake." "We missed the gateway." "It's counting up to the next window." "In 29 years." "I'm not ready to accept that yet." "We've missed a window before." "On that Egyptian Earth." "Yeah, but we were able to find another timer and slide out." "Yeah, but from what Simmons says, this Earth doesn't have that kind of technology." "Not yet." "What're you saying?" "You can build another sliding machine?" "Maybe, but it's not like I carry the blueprints in my back pocket." "I'd be working from memory." "I'd need your help." "Oh, sure, and I'll just build a time machine while I'm at it." "Don't sell yourself short." "You knew your husband's work." "No, I listened to him talk about it." "I also handed him the occasional magnospanner, and gave back rubs." "Doesn't make me a scientist." "Anything you could remember would help." "Look, maybe this Simmons guy can help us." "No." "We don't know enough about this world to just hand them the secret to sliding." "Right." "We tell him who we are, and where we're from, but no more." "I have to admit, when I heard Ms. Beckett's parallel world story," "I thought we pulled her out of the VR too soon." "Sometimes I wish it was just a bad dream." "We appreciate your helping us." "Well, the government on my Earth is more than happy to help you get home." "Look, I don't get it." "Is everybody here in therapy?" "No, of course not." "VR is used for more than just medicinal purposes." "It's a source of recreation, education, entertainment." "It's part of our way of life." "So that guy over there, how does he paint the building with a VR unit on?" "The VR unit just makes the job more enjoyable." "See, it has a multi-tasking function." "You can perform one task while perceiving another in VR." "So he thinks he's painting a masterpiece." "I took a job on a production line one year." "I could've used one of those." "We've set up the lab with everything you've asked for." "This way." "Man, I don't even want to know what he thinks he's doing." "Come on in." "There are cots in the corner, and a kitchen in the back." "If there's anything else that you need that isn't here, just let us know." "Thanks." "I'll let you get to it, then." "Oh, one more thing." "I almost forgot." "The latest recreational model." "The Realman XL." "Hey, thanks, man." "Just a few safety tips with these." "They feed off a central VR processor, so you can enter each other's fantasies." "Just don't try and pull someone out suddenly." "That can be dangerous." "Enjoy them, but remember, they can be habit-forming." "What do we need these for?" "It's like Q-Ball said." "When in Rome..." "We're not gonna have any time to take side trips into VR world, Remmy." "We got 29.7 years to kill here, remember?" "We will get out of here, Remmy." "I promise you that." "Yeah, well, I'm sure you two geniuses can come up with something." "Just make sure that we're gone before I have to change my name to Old Crying Man Brown." "We can do this, Maggie." "Looks like they set us up pretty good." "Maybe too good." "Don't you think Simmons seems a little too eager to help us out?" "Anything we want, no questions asked." "I don't trust him." "You think I do?" "But right now, we do not have a choice." "You know how many dishes we'd have to wash to afford a computer like this?" "We'd be better off waiting 29 years for the next window." "All right." "So where do we start?" "Start." "Right." "Quinn?" "There's something you're not telling me." "Remember I told you I'd be working from memory?" "Well, the memory doesn't seem to be working so good." "What do you mean?" "I've been racking my brain for hours, hoping it was just a temporary lapse, just a VR hangover." "I can't remember how to build a sliding machine." "It's quite a fantastic story." "Alternate dimensions, an infinite number of worlds." "It would be a real coup for the company." "And for you." "For both of us." "It's her friend who's the scientist." "You should be focusing on him." "No, she's the key." "We need her to bring them around." "She doesn't trust you." "Well, neither do you." "But what difference does that make?" "This is very big, Randall." "Don't screw it up." "Nothing looks familiar." "For all I know, this is a nuclear-powered cigarette lighter." "Damn it, can't you remember anything?" "A theory?" "A formula?" "Anything that might trigger a memory in me." "I don't know!" "Our apartment was so cluttered with scribbled-out formulas and papers and books." "A lot about a man named Tesla." "Nikola Tesla!" "Yeah." "Tesla died over 50 years ago." "He invented a device called the tesla coil." "It was a primitive electrical induction device." "Wait, Steven once said that induction coils were an important part of his machine." "Of course." "You'd need to generate a huge burst of power in order to open a sliding vortex." "Okay!" "We've got a place to start." "Wait, wait, wait." "There's something else." "It seemed so silly, I almost forgot." "What's that?" "He made me memorize it." "He said it helped him remember." "Remember what?" "I don't know." "He died before he could tell me." "A musical clue." "Rembrandt!" "Rembrandt!" "Oh, I don't like this." "Remmy's been through a lot." "He needs some R and R." "Yeah, but if these things are causing memory loss, we should get him out of there now." "No, no, no, no, no." "That would be even more dangerous." "He's got to come out of it by himself." "How long is that gonna take?" "I don't want him to get hooked on this thing." "I could see how tempting throwing one of those things on and just forgetting about everything would be." "My point exactly." "Who knows how long he'll stay in there and how many brain cells he'll fry." "Where are you going?" "Simmons says we could jack into each other's fantasies." "Be right back." "No, Stan!" "No!" "Capital "N," capital "O."" "Will you get out of my hair?" "No, no, no, not you, Stan." "Look, this was all agreed." "I'll pick up the cost for the massage therapist, but I'm not budging on the money." "We're talking gross points here!" "Will you get off of me?" "No, not you, Stan." "Give me a minute." "La Toya." "Look, I know how someone like myself is hard to resist, and I'm flattered." "But I'm a married man." "I have a wife and two kids." "I have a husband and three children." "What's that got to do with it?" "Stay away from me." "This is business." "Where was I, Stan?" "Yeah, look, I'm only doing this concert as a favor to Billy." "Look, Billy's got the croup." "Uh, Stan?" "Stan?" "I have to get back to you." "I got a situation." "La Toya." "We'd be so good together!" "La Toya!" "La Toya, this is sexual harassment." "Now, I could call the cops." "Mmm, you are so handsome when you're angry." "Should I make an appointment?" "No, no, Maggie." "This isn't what you think." "I was just taking a little dictation." "Yeah." "She seems like she's very good at it." "Well, when you get to my position in life, there are certain people who want to try to take advantage of that." "Hmm." "Well, maybe I can help." "We have to get back to the lab now." "I'm not going back to the lab." "I'm opening Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl." "The artist formerly known as Elvis is on the bill." "Wait a minute." "Wait a minute." "What part of my program are you?" "I'm not part of your fantasy." "You're real?" "Yeah." "Yeah, yeah, that's right." "You can do that." "All right." "It's time to go, Rembrandt." "Look, I am not going!" "What?" "Why should I, Maggie?" "I mean, look around you, I've got everything I've always wanted and more." "I mean, I got a wife, two kids." "Gold records." "A dog, somewhere." "My mother is finally speaking to me." "I've got respect." "Respect from whom?" "A computer-generated sexpot?" "How can you be happy with love and success that aren't real?" "Reality hasn't had a whole lot to offer me lately, Maggie." "So you want to be spoon-fed a fantasy?" "There is a whole world out there!" "A world with two very real people who need your help." "And a mother who is stuck in a world under Kromagg rule." "Now, she needs you, too." "Here." "You sit." "Damn it." "Again, Quinn?" "How dare you have sex with me without my consent?" "How dare me?" "How dare you!" "This is my private fantasy!" "For God's sake, Quinn, you can't just go around using people's likenesses for your own twisted pleasure." "How is this any different from any ordinary daydream?" "Minus the unannounced visitor, of course!" "So this is how you think of me?" "No." "Come on, that's not it at all." "Shut this down now." "Remmy, are you okay?" "I feel sick." "If I could just get back in the VR world for a while," "I'm sure it'll pass." "Forget it." "Forget it!" "Don't you see what's going on here?" "These things are like a drug." "Just jack in and make all the pain go away." "Well, no!" "I'm not gonna be stuck in a VR coma for the next 29 years!" "If we're going to get out of here, you guys, we have to work together." "And that means going cold turkey." "Hey!" "Maggie, no!" "Yes!" "All right?" "Enough of this!" "Maggie." "No!" "That's it." "It's over!" "Rembrandt, that's it." "Now, let's get back to work." "How's our little project coming along?" "Very nicely, thank you." "The VR success is the only reason the big boys are allowing us to proceed with this." "Then we can move forward?" "For now, but they want to know when we can expect the big breakthrough I've promised them." "Well, it's not gonna happen any faster with you breathing down my neck." "So why don't you go back to corporate and I'll call you when it's time?" "Nobody from corporate is taking it easy on this." "They'll want to see a significant return." "A significant return!" "Well, what about worlds without end?" "Limitless resources to exploit, unlimited labor pool, infinite markets." "And infinite risk." "It's worth it." "It's not just your ass on the line here, Randall." "We need to make this happen." "It's under control." "I hope so." "For both our sakes." "That's it." "That's it." "Yeah." "It sounds a lot like a standard 12-bar bass riff." "Well, my husband really liked the Rolling Who." "The who?" "No, the Rolling Who, they wrote this great rock opera called "Angie. "" "Now, that's a show I would like to see." "Well, I've written it all out there." "E, A, E, B, A, E. Okay." "Yeah, now the sliding formula might be hidden somewhere in those letters." "Great work." "It's from a can." "It's certainly not up to the standards of a superstar." "Chicken soup just like my mother's." "Oh, yeah." "Sure." "I got the impression that you weren't really on speaking terms with her." "She felt show biz was the devil's work." "Last time we spoke," "I was just about to board the bus for Detroit." "She never returned my calls after that." "See, it's not just about money or career." "It's about respect." "You know, respect, and making my mother proud." "Everything I saw in your fantasy." "Well, you know how those things can take off on you." "I never had a family." "My mother always wanted me to have one." "If you could have family and success, you can have it all." "The perfect life." "Kind of hard to walk away from." "How about you?" "You've been in." "You've seen how real VR can be." "Ever been tempted to try a fantasy, maybe relive a memory?" "There are some things you just can't fix." "But wouldn't you want to see your husband again?" "Just for a little while?" "Of course, I would." "But, you know, what I'd find in there wouldn't be Steven." "My Steven is gone." "My world is gone." "Some things just go away, Remmy." "If you want to change your life, you have to do it yourself." "You can't just strap on some rose-colored VR goggles and..." "Because at the end of the day, you take them off, and the world still looks the same." "If I took them off and saw your face, it's worth a case of the shakes." "Okay." "Any of this look familiar?" "Yeah." "Could be part of the initialization sequence." "I'm still gonna need some time." "Well, time is one thing we do have." "You accept the apology of a crazy man?" "Maybe." "Testosterone can do crazy things to your mind." "What you saw, it's not what you think." "Really?" "You miss out on a lot when the sole focus of your existence is making the grade." "I never went through that period in life where there was no future plans, no pressure to perform," "nothing to think about except being young." "And I guess I felt I had some catching up to do." "Sowing your virtual oats?" "At first." "But with you, it was different." "You're more to me than that." "I was kind of hoping that you'd have realized that by now." "Then why fantasize when I'm right here?" "I guess we never had time for anything more." "We do now." "Maggie." "Maggie, come on." "Snap out of it." "Come on, get up." "I hate to be insensitive, but if you're going to be sick, you're gonna have to use one of these on the way." "Let's go." "Let's go." "Sweet dreams." "Thank God we finally found you." "Found me where?" "We were in the lab." "Simmons' virtual reality opium den." "We slid into a demolition site in some sort of slave labor camp." "Remmy and I were thrown clear of the blast, but Simmons got you and the timer." "Just keep walking." "He's been using VR to trick you into telling him how to build a sliding machine." "I told you, I don't know how to build a sliding machine." "Well, you've given him a pretty good head start." "Plus, he's got the timer, and the window opens in less than three hours." "No." "No." "We missed the window!" "Maggie, you have been in VR for three days." "Everything you have experienced has been a virtual fabrication." "A lie!" "The, uh..." "Building the machine, the addictions, none of it was real?" "None of it." "None of it was real." "So, what's our next move?" "Same as always." "Getting the timer back." "It's not gonna be as easy as it was breaking into the hospital." "Let's go."