"Oh." "Oh, that's it." "Oh." "Lower." "A little lower." "Now a little to the right." "Oh." "It's a crying shame we're gonna have to leave this place." "No Kromaggs, no bad cops." "A world where good tans and massages are compulsory." "Thank you." "All right, this is really just an inversion of the Lorentz transformation." "You see, X prime equals X minus UT." "I still can't quite grasp the geometry of space-time." "Be patient, bro." "You gotta give yourself space and time." "Okay, what do you say you geniuses take a little break and get the kinks out, huh?" "I think you're loose enough for the rest of us." "Two minutes and thirty, people." "Everybody out of the pool." "Oh, no." "Oh, man!" "So what do you think it's gonna be this time?" "Polar ice world?" "Talking dog world?" "For once, people, I can tell you." "We are going home." "What?" "You're kidding." "I thought you said the data from the micro-dots your parents gave you was all scrambled." "You see, I thought Colin's micro-dot was damaged." "Turns out it was designed that way to keep other folks from accessing the coordinates." "Other folks?" "You mean the Kromaggs." "Yeah." "But I found a hidden de-encryption program keyed to our specific DNA." "There she is." "I tell you, finding out how they beat the Maggs is gonna be worth the whole price of admission." "Home to see the parents, huh?" "Our parents." "You like the sound of that, bro?" "Yes." "Well, then, you have the honors." "Oh, God." "This isn't quite what I expected." "Hello!" "Hey!" "Where's the welcome wagon?" "Yeah, let's just find the exit." "The air's got a metallic taste, like it's processed." "That still doesn't tell us where we are." "I think we're a long way from home." "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?" "Are you sure you got the coordinates right?" "Positive." "Yeah, well, something must've gone haywire." "It looks like something out of Star Trek." "The lost episodes." "Look, the timer takes us to alternate Earths, not alien planets." "Yeah, well, it looks pretty barren out there." "I mean, if this is your home world, where are all the people?" "I do not know, all right?" "Why does everybody always expect me to have all the answers?" "Because you usually do." "So if this is home sweet home, we stick around, if not, we slide out." "How long do we have on the universal remote?" "Oh, brother." "We got a problem." "The timer's not counting down." "What's wrong with it?" "You don't know." "Yes, that's right." "I don't know." "Excuse me." "Over here, please." "This way." "There's nothing to be afraid of." "Colin, it's our..." "Father." "I know this may be disorienting for some of you, as you were no doubt trying to get to my world." "But instead, you've been shunted here by the slidecage mechanism." "Slidecage?" "You see, following the recent human-Kromagg war, we have driven the enemy from our world and cloaked it so that they may not return by the same means." "And we therefore cannot return you, as that would pose a security risk." "If you are a friend rather than an enemy, I am truly sorry." "All your needs will be provided for, food and air and shelter." "You must not tamper with the dispensing machines." "If you attempt to venture outside, the toxic atmosphere will kill you." "Aside from these two strictures, you're free to live by the rules that you create." "Please, make the best of this world." "It is now your world, for the rest of your lives." "For the rest of our lives?" "It's a perfect protection system." "Keep the Kromaggs from invading." "Try and slide there, and you get caught here instead." "They must have some sort of dampening field to render this inoperable." "Wait a minute." "You're saying that we've wandered into some kind of roach motel for sliders?" "But why would our parents cloak their world and not come get us?" "They didn't know." "I was hidden from them, and you were lost, your foster parents dead." "That's just great." "We're not even in this war and we're POWs." "No." "No, there's gotta be a way out of this." "Right, Quinn?" "There's always a way out." "Okay, okay." "We'll do what we always do, beat the odds." "Okay?" "Come on." "Yeah." "Yeah, fine." "Do you guys hear that?" "All right." "We need to see what the rules are first." "Okay, now we know." "No, come back!" "Remmy!" "Remmy!" "Remmy!" "Remmy!" "Remmy!" "Hey!" "Wait for us!" "Well, what the hell were they?" "They were Kromaggs." "Let's go follow the humans." "What makes you think the humans will help us?" "I don't know, but at least they're human." "Hey." "Hey!" "Hey, hold it!" "Hey!" "We're friends!" "We're friends!" "Friends?" "I know my friends." "You, I don't know." "Hold it, Luther." "Let them go." "Well, no reason to start off on the wrong foot." "We're all humans, after all." "Now, we don't have many rules here, but the ones that we do have you're going to have to live by" "I'm sorry." "To survive." "If you heard about that little fight, then you must have heard that one of our friends got captured." "He's gone, or will be before the night's out." "You're going to have to forget him." "Well, we're not about to do that." "I understand your feelings, but you don't know where you are." "We are all that's left of over 200." "We were all away from the home world during the war." "Some didn't hear about the cage being built, some took too long to get back." "Whatever the reason, we're here." "We keep on the run so the Kromaggs can't find us." "Won't you help us?" "Believe me, I'm trying to." "Okay, now, my brother and I are from the home world." "But we really don't remember it, because during the war our parents put us on other worlds." "And we don't want to make them..." "Save your breath, Quinn." "Look, I may be new here, but I've seen enough bad cos in my day to recognize the breed." "And you, someone who's helped you has just been hung out to dry, how does that make you feel?" "Maybe she has a point, Janie." "Maybe we should..." "Out." "Now!" "All right." "Airlock." "What the hell's an airlock?" "We'll do what you say!" "Quinn!" "Don't do this!" "She's got a temper!" "Vent it." "Wait!" "No!" "Let him go!" "Maggie!" "Maggie!" "Lock him down." "Computer room." "I'm not leaving my brother!" "We're not going to hurt your brother." "Come on." "Come on, now." "That's it." "Maggie?" "She's probably dead by now." "Don't give me that." "You murdered her." "She wouldn't have made it here, and she would have taken some of us with her." "You don't even know her." "Turn that hate where it belongs, on the Kromaggs." "The Kromaggs?" "The Kromaggs?" "I hope you burn in hell." "This is hell, or didn't you notice?" "The mainframe that runs this place is sealed up tight." "We can't get into it." "We can't do a damn thing." "And most of all, we can't leave." "No one takes prisoners here." "We get a Magg, we open him up, we leave him for the others." "I do what I do to keep these people alive." "Lock him up with his brother." "Let go of me, man!" "Let go!" "I can walk!" "You humans are so loud, even when you're not in pain." "I haven't seen you." "Well, I wish I could say the same, but everywhere I go, there you maggots are." "Is he alone?" "No, I had my group with me." "Group?" "Yeah, you know." "Bass, drums, keyboards." "I couldn't bring my back-up singers on this tour, though." "The Brownettes." "You're gonna have to go the limit with me." "I've already spent time in Kromagg hell." "What about your companions?" "The rest of the humans?" "Where do they camp now?" "Do you know the difference between a human brain and a Kromagg brain?" "A human brain is blood and tissue." "A Kromagg brain is a knife." "Your friends." "A woman, two men." "Something special about the men." "Especially one of them." "You're sure he's going to find a way out of here." "Something else there, hidden, buried, deep." "A secret." "A Kromagg secret!" "What?" "Open to me!" "Is he dead, Father?" "No, merely unconscious." "There's a wall in his mind, but I will break it." "I must rest now." "Chain him." "Do you remember I told you about the snake in the garden and how the humans despised it and tried to kill it?" "They hate anything that is not like them." "You're not to speak with him." "Do you understand me?" "I can see why this is a perfect prison for us." "I can't get any of this stuff to work." "Beat the odds, right?" "That's what I told her." "Just like always, Quinn." "On my world, we know death well." "Many families lost a parent, a child, or both." "The influenza carried off my foster mother and father." "At first, I didn't want to live." "Why did it take them and not me?" "I read somewhere that death is a natural part of life." "You can't change it, you can't avoid it." "All you can do is remember those you've lost and live for the ones that are still here." "Okay." "Okay, man." "I'll see if we can get some of this crap to work." "Okay, it's all right, you're not dead!" "I mean, it would be a pretty sorry afterlife if it looked like this." "Where am I?" "In the walls." "You're confused." "It's only natural, after what you've been through." "Pitching you out in the methane, honestly," "I don't know what they were thinking." "Thomas." "Thomas Beecham." "Maggie Beckett." "Maggie?" "I would've figured you for a Betty, or maybe a Lola, when I saw you in the corridor with your friends." "Where are my friends?" "Easy." "Easy, easy." "Take it easy." "You're not up to anything yet." "That's it." "Just relax." "You're a guest." "Matter of fact, you're the first." "I'm a bit of a stay-at-home, but when I saw what was happening to you, I..." "Well, what's done is done." "You rest now." "Thank you." "I'm not allowed to talk to you." "Everyone's out foraging, you know." "Except for the guards, and they're not even watching us." "You wouldn't happen to have keys to these locks on you, would you?" "Yeah, I didn't think so." "You know, I've never been this close to a human being before." "I mean, not a whole one." "Enjoy the show." "Oh, man, my head." "It's killing me." "Oh, I can fix that." "I mean, I can go inside your mind." "It took me a long time..." "You stay out of my head!" "Well, I can, you know." "I had enough of that today." "My father taught me." "Why do you wear that thing across your face like that?" "Because I'm a mutation." "I'm hideous." "We don't have any looking glasses, but my father told me." "Yeah, that's nice of him." "Oh, man!" "When my mother dressed me for kindergarten," "I never thought I'd end up here." "Tell me about your mother." "Why?" "Because I never had a mother." "So where do I start?" "At the beginning." "Made it myself, so I could explore outside." "Good thing, too, or I wouldn't have been able to get to you." "You're looking worlds better." "I'm still a little unsteady on my pins." "Oh, naturally." "To be expected." "Hey, presto!" "I cooked something." "Actually, it comes out of a hole in the wall, so it's more accurate to say I extruded it." "I didn't know what you'd like, so I ordered up a choice." "Artificial ham, artificial turkey." "Actually, it all tastes like artificial chicken." "But it does grow on you." "So, how did you land here?" "I assume you were off-world." "I was traveling with my friends." "It's a little complicated." "Well, complicated is good." "It makes for a long story." "And time we have in abundance." "So what about you?" "How did you end up here?" "Oh, various and sundry this and thats." "Not really important." "How long have you been here?" "In the walls?" "Oh, not long." "Ten years." "Ten years?" "Well, it's not as bad as it sounds." "Really." "I always loved tunnels and corridors." "Remember that TV show, Beauty and the Beast, not the Disney one, the other one?" "God, I loved that." "Oh, I see you noticed my home entertainment center." "I set this up to keep an eye on things." "I must say, the designers built this place with room to spare." "73 disparate levels, 2,300 tunnels." "It's a wonder a soul ever finds anyone." "The Kromaggs hunker down here, while the humans are fairly nomadic." "They're making their digs in this vicinity nowadays." "Yes, sir, lots of elbow room." "Generally, from eight to twelve I watch the humans, from twelve to four the Kromaggs." "It's quite diverting." "I have my favorite characters." "We could use these to find my friends." "Well, yes, theoretically." "But I wouldn't recommend it." "Some of the things you might see..." "You're not up to much excitement yet." "Thomas, it matters." "Please." "Okay, it's just as I hoped." "The same de-encryption string our father hid in the micro-dots he planted here." "He surmised we might come this way." "And he gave us a key." "Can we turn off the Slidecage mechanism?" "Not from here." "It's on a separate grid." "So first, we've got to find a way out." "Okay, there's a venting duct that comes in here." "Over there." "All right, I can override this locking code." "Only hitch is that there's a stretch of it that's open to the outside atmosphere." "How long of a stretch?" "Just a few hundred feet." "We'll hold our breath." "I can't make it." "Hold on, hold on." "We're almost there." "Come on!" "I feel like I've just been through the longest car exhaust in the world." "Let's go find Remmy." "Freaking Kromaggs." "Get away from me." "It hurts!" "You are not speaking of us." "They did something to you in the camps." "Implanted something in your mind." "You are to kill someone." "Who?" "Why?" "Twenty minutes, and then wake him and we start again." "I will have this." "You know, you're gonna get eyestrain that way." "Here." "I made it myself." "Shh." "I'm a positive fiend at checkers." "Please." "Oh." "How about a good book?" "I had it in my back pocket when I arrived." "Or I could recite it for you." "There they are." "Do you recognize it?" "Do you know where it is, Thomas?" "Well, I..." "It's..." "Thomas?" "It's a corridor nearby." "Show me the way." "No, that's not such a good idea, really." "What are you talking about?" "It would be much better if we just stayed here." "Safer, trust me." "They're my friends." "I have to go find them." "Really bad things happen out there!" "You only had a taste." "This is a controlled environment." "No one knows about it, no one comes here." "We can live out our lives." "No." "No." "Thomas, I appreciate your kindness, but I have no intention of staying here." "Now, I'm going to my friends, whether you come with me or not." "I'd rather you come with me." "No, no, no, no." "No, no, that's out!" "I don't talk to people!" "You talked to me." "You were different." "So many have died here." "I couldn't let you be another one." "Want to know why I'm here, in the walls?" "During the war, I was assigned off-world." "Eighth Armored Division." "It got so bad." "I cracked." "Ran off." "When I came back, they were all dead." "All my friends." "Nothing but blood and meat." "I lost it." "Wandered for months, years." "Finally, I wanted to come home, but it was too late." "So I landed here." "It only seems right." "I should have been with them." "Thomas, you couldn't save your friends." "But you can save mine." "Please." "The Kromaggs took Remmy right through there." "I've still got this funny feeling that Maggie's looking down on us." "At the end of our road, they say that you are reunited..." "Shh." "Quinn!" "Maggie!" "There they are!" "Come on!" "In here!" "Maggie..." "Get in, quick!" "Hey, let go of him!" "Get off of me!" "We're human!" "Thomas, I'm so sorry." "If you had brought the Kromaggs down on us," "I'd have chased you to hell and gone and killed you all." "Yeah, well, we're not so easy to kill." "Nobody's gonna kill anybody." "That's not up to you." "Now, listen to me." "We've got something you need." "Aren't you a little curious about how we got out of that room?" "Where's the mechanism that runs the Slidecage?" "In Kromagg territory." "I was hoping you'd say that." "My head feels like a butcher's gone to work." "There's not gonna be much left if he keeps it up." "Quickly, while no one's looking." "Go!" "Why don't you come with me?" "No, I can't, because the humans will kill me." "My father told me so, all right?" "Go, go." "All right." "But there's something I'm gonna have to do first." "No, no!" "Oh, no!" "My God." "No!" "I told you I was hideous!" "I'm hideous!" "My God, you are not hideous." "You're beautiful." "You are human." "You understand?" "You're human." "Come on." "Come on." "Trust me." "Kaldeen, no!" "Stop them!" "Go ahead." "Go, go, go!" "Stop!" "Kill him." "Come on, come on!" "Kaldeen, cover yourself." "I will think how to deal with you." "Take him to his room." "How could you do it?" "He's your own son." "Wait a minute, you got him in some kind of raid, didn't you?" "My own son was killed, and there was no hope of having another." "Something about this place prevents it." "So I took this one." "Everyone is a bit mad here." "Some more than a bit." "And no one ever told him he was human." "They were forbidden." "Enough of this!" "I will have your secret now, and then you die." "Who are you to kill?" "Who did they order you to kill?" "Tell me." "Tell me." "Quinn." "Quinn." "Why would they want you to kill your friend?" "He's got the key to the Slidecage." "Go with him to find it." "Soon as he can open it, kill Quinn before he can close it." "Rest." "Remember none of this." "What happened?" "Quinn!" "Do you mind?" "I'd like to keep my hair." "I got to missing those loud shirts of yours." "How you holding?" "Tortured, beat up and starved." "Same old same old." "Are you a comrade of this one?" "A recent arrival?" "My name is Quinn Mallory." "My father built this prison." "Go on." "I think I can unlock the Slidecage, but the equipment is in your territory." "So I'm suggesting a truce, and we might all get out of here." "To the home world?" "I can't say that." "An alternate Earth, perhaps." "But I won't know until I get to the guts of the machine." "What do you want?" "Safe passage." "For him, too." "Agreed." "If you can do what you say." "The kid comes, too, or all bets are off." "What's taking him so long?" "We should never have let him go alone." "I've been watching the Kromagg show for many seasons." "Believe me, it's the only thing that had a chance of working." "There something you want to say?" "It's a puzzle to me." "You seem to have a good heart." "You care about your people." "Yet you commit such cruelties." "You can't lead with your heart." "I've only seen a few worlds, but I can't believe that's true." "Time to move out." "He's probably dead now anyway." "That's one of your favorite words, isn't it?" "Quinn and Remmy!" "Oh, my God!" "Remmy!" "Didn't think you'd get rid of this face, now, did you?" "Oh, thank God!" "How the crops hanging, farm boy?" "Crops don't hang, Rembrandt." "Stay as sweet as you are, huh?" "I thought you'd had it." "We keep thinking that about each other, don't we?" "Well, you keep coming back." "Easy now, easy now, easy now." "We're all friends." "Easy, easy." "We're all friends." "It's all good, it's all good." "Well, at least we share a common interest." "You don't need the mask." "He's been away at a Kromagg prison for about 16 years." "Does he look familiar?" "You're Jules Konig." "My mother and father?" "Dead." "I'm sorry." "I will show you the Slidecage." "Come." "I need to talk to you." "What is it?" "We can't let Kromaggs back on the home world." "They'll be under guard." "And as soon as they get there, they'll be sent back to wherever they came from." "Or maybe when we slide out of here, they don't." "Safe passage goes both ways." "And once they take us where we're going, you're going to have to leave your war behind." "Better hurry up to the Slidecage." "You don't want to get left behind." "You will need this." "Careful!" "The force field will kill all who near it." "Not anymore." "You've gotta learn to trust me a little more." "Got the Sharks and the Jets here." "Better get a move on." "People, welcome to the Slidecage." "There." "Blue skies, green trees." "Won't be long now, buddy." "It's rather close in here, don't you think?" "So many bodies." "You just keep telling yourself you'll be back with friends and family." "Actually, that was never my strong suit." "Thanksgivings were a horror." "The Slidecage mechanism is disabled and wide open." "Do you think maybe I could go with you guys?" "Because I don't really want to go with the Kromaggs." "The system is damaged." "If I slide everyone to the home world, it'll stay open." "Rembrandt." "The Kromaggs could just slide in and invade." "Then there's no going home." "Sorry, bro." "Not this time." "Quinn!" "Incredible." "Grab him!" "I can't hold him long!" "Remmy?" "What did you do to him?" "It was the Kromagg prison camp." "Kaldeen!" "My name is Jules." "Remmy!" "If it's near the surface, I can reach it." "Sure you..." "Hold it!" "Hold it!" "Hey!" "You Kromaggs have crossed the line for the last time!" "Hold it!" "Now, the truce is still on." "And nobody's going anywhere!" "Okay?" "Rembrandt, what happened to you, let it go." "You owe it no allegiance." "Let it go." "Rembrandt, let it go." "Remmy." "Okay, it's gone." "What did I miss?" "Absolutely nothing." "Oh." "Come on." "What did I do, slip?" "All right, using the slide signatures in our bodies," "I've managed to rig up a feedback burst." "It'll ship all of us to where we just came from, and anyone else who ever tries to slide to the home world." "So no more Slidecage." "Yep." "And the Kromaggs'll still be kept out." "Hold on, Q-Ball." "What about Jules?" "He's from here." "He has no slide signature." "Well, I can't change the parameters on this." "The whole system'll crash." "It's okay." "No way." "It's not okay." "What are you saying?" "We just maroon him here?" "Look, we're not leaving you here alone." "I've always been alone, Rembrandt." "Is there any way you could let me out of this party?" "You want to stay?" "I'm really not up to Times Square." "You mind a roommate, kid?" "No." "Well, then you fellas better grab a seat on the ramp." "Because this is a pretty narrow field." "Take care." "You, too." "We're coming back for you." "That's a promise." "All right." "Anybody who wants a ride..." "Kromaggs on the right side of the cage, humans on the left." "Goodbye, Father." "Goodbye, Jules." "Son." "All right, everybody." "Bon voyage." "So, you ever played checkers?" "Blue skies, green trees." "Thank you." "We're not home yet." "But there's places a whole lot worse." "We'll get there, bro." "You can count on it." "I wonder where everyone else went." "Well, wherever they are," "I can't imagine peace between the humans and the Kromaggs lasting for very long." "I was programmed to kill you, Q-Ball." "Something I'll never get over." "It wasn't you who tried to kill my brother." "It was the Kromaggs." "Gotta admit, though, it was the perfect plan." "Not so perfect." "They didn't count on you making a friend who'd stop it." "The Maggs could get in your head, Remmy, but they can't get inside your heart." "Yeah." "To Jules." "And Thomas." "And absent friends."