An Infinite Number, Part 1

Date: 07/28/2001
From: ThomasMalthus

The vortex spat out the four sliders quite literally. It was as though they had been spewed out of the mouth of some sort of a giant. Wade, Arturo, Remmy and Quinn all gasped for breath.

"We gotta do somethin' about that," Rembrandt was the first to complain.

"It has been kind of a tight fit lately, hasn't it?" Wade asked, bending over to stretch her body out.

Arturo still had not gotten his wind back. "You could say that, Miss Welles. With your physique, it would be a 'tight fit'. With mine, it's more like the girdle from hell."

Quinn stepped up to the scientific plate quickly. "Whatever device the Human Embassy used to extend the portal, to make it take us from San Francisco to San Diego, must have compromised the integrity of the vortex slightly. I think it can be fixed," he said, taking a close look at the timer. "But not here. We've only got a few minutes."

"And this place looks none too inviting," Arturo said, quickly assessing their surroundings.

"Yeah, I hate these kinda worlds," Rembrandt threw in.

"What kind is that?" Wade asked musingly.

"Where everything's shut down and abandoned, there's nobody in sight and it looks like the hand of God's going to descend on the place any second," Rembrandt summarized.

"Oh, those," Wade smirked. "I thought you meant the kind with the ominous graffiti." The other sliders didn't understand until Wade pointed. THE QUAKE IS COMING was written in big red letters, with the final G trailing off at the end.

"How long til we're out of here?" Remmy asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

"Less than two minutes," Quinn answered him. Something caught his eye...a newspaper blowing around like tumbleweed. He snatched and perused the water-soaked page. At least he hoped it was water. "Scientists report that the biggest earthquake since the one in Alaska in 1964 is due to hit San Francisco any day now. The city will be evacuated..." Before Quinn could finish reading, the ground shook violently.

"How the hell do we manage to time our arrival so perfectly?" Arturo asked nobody in particular frustratedly. "Five minutes on a world and we manage to get caught in an earthquake."

"Hang tight, guys," Quinn instructed them. "A minute til the window opens. I think we can handle anything, even a severe earthquake, for a min..." The ground shook harder. Unbelievably harder. It flung the four of them around the street like they were dolls. The next sixty seconds were a blur.

Arturo's thoughts, strangely, were about the change in Quinn's attitude over the last few days. He had slipped into the role of group leader that his double had once held rather easily. He wondered what had brought about the change. As if to distract the Professor from his musings, Quinn held out the timer for him to activate. "You do it," he told the elder man. His befuddlement at the move ended when he saw that some rubble had hit Wade in the arm. "You and Remmy go on through," Quinn called out over the roaring noise. "We'll be right behind you."

As Arturo opened the wormhole, he used the dial on the timer to increase the power in hopes of making the slide a little easier. "I'm increasing the power, so the window might not be open as long as usual!" Arturo practically screamed to Quinn, who was trying to get Wade away from the maelstrom.

"What?!?" Quinn replied, unable to hear over the deafening sound of the earthquake.

"The vortex might not be..." Arturo had to stop when part of a building nearly collapsed on top of their heads.

"Screw it," exclaimed Rembrandt, who jumped through the vortex. The Professor followed suit not long after.

Quinn had managed to make a sling for Wade's arm out of his jacket. "Go on, I just want to make sure you make it through." Wade looked at Quinn strangely. Over the last few slides, she still hadn't gotten used to the idea of sliding with a Quinn who wasn't her own. She suspected she wouldn't for a long time. Still, she looked at him with something approximating respect.

"Thank you," she said simply and catapulted herself through the void. Quinn began to follow her, but a lamppost fell in his way. As he began to jump through the vortex again, it moved out of his way and the boy genius instead landed, roughly, on a pile of debris. He saw the wormhole start to close and thrust himself towards it as fast and, consequently, as hard as he could. He made it through just in time. Just in time for what he would find out to his horror in a few moments.

***
Arturo, Remmy and Wade piled out on the other side. Although their landing was still rough, at least it was carpeted. The Professor dusted himself off, tried to get his bearings, and looked intently at their new surroundings. "Not nearly so life-threatening, eh?"

Wade held her arm, applying pressure to it, all the while watching the vortex. Her eyes caught something and she wasted no time reporting it to the others. "Guys, the portal's moving!"

"Good heavens," Arturo exclaimed. "So it is! It hasn't done that since..."

"Our first slide," Rembrandt finished.

"It must have been the increase in power," the Professor stated flatly. The three watched as the vortex moved behind a door.

Wade moved to next to it. "Quinn?" she called out. She tried the doorknob. It wouldn't budge. Rembrandt, realizing that Wade wasn't in the best state to do anything physical, moved in to see if he could do any better. No such luck.

"QBall!" he exclaimed, pounding on the door. No response.

"What if he didn't make it?" Wade thought aloud with less dread than she would have a week ago.

"Stay here, Miss Welles. Mr. Brown and I will go for help in opening the door." At that, the Professor and Remmy rushed off in the other direction.

Wade looked at her arm. There were cuts and bruises, but it seemed as though no permanent damage had been done. Wade put her head up against the wall and sighed. She had been lucky. Quinn had kept the injury from being much more severe by rescuing him in time. She still wasn't sure how she felt about that. Then she remembered that Quinn might not have made it onto this world because he was taking care of her. She was surprisingly indifferent about that as well.

When she heard footsteps coming, she moved out of sight. "Who's there?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"That depends. Who's asking?" Wade answered from her spot of concealment.

"Detective Welles?" the man asked incredulously. "How did you get here so fast?"

"You know me. I'm always on the case," Wade improvised, hoping the man wasn't playing some sort of joke on her.

"Did you hear the gunshot?" the man asked.

"I must have just missed it," she replied, hoping she wouldn't have to make up many more lies to keep this guy from being suspicious about her. Luckily, he seemed more interested in getting inside the door...where Quinn had presumably slid in if he had made the slide.

"Are you sure we need to go in there?" Wade asked.

"Considering that's where the shot was heard from, I'd say so," the man replied drolly. The man was tall, pasty and wore thick-rimmed glasses.

The man tried the door and had the same luck opening it as the sliders had. "Damn. Does this lock from the inside?" He tried it again.

"Why don't you shoot off the lock?" Wade asked.

"Are you insane?" he stage whispered to her. "Why don't we just send the armed murder suspect a written notice that we're coming in. It'd be more subtle." Wade could only laugh sheepishly in reply. This routine was getting old.

Luckily, at that moment, the Professor and Rembrandt returned with an old lady who turned a series of keys on a chain in her hand. "Lessee. One of these opens this door. Durned if I can remember which one, though."

The man Wade had ran into flashed his badge. "This is police business, ma'am. I would appreciate it if you could speed this up a bit." After a few moments, she finally did produce the right key.

Wade mouthed to Rembrandt and Arturo to stay outside as she and the plain clothes police officer walked inside the room. "Where's your gun?!" he hissed.

"Forgot it," Wade replied lamely. Before he could chastise her, they found a body. "Looks like some kind of clerk."

"Not many of those in a patent office," the policeman sneered. Wade thought about hitting him but then remembered it would hurt her more than it would him. It was then that she spotted Quinn in the corner. He was lying next to a shelf filled to the brim with paperwork, his head bleading from a gash. He moaned and began to sit up.

Other police officers began pouring into the room. The one who had entered with Wade made an announcement. "He's dead alright. Nobody in the room when we came in except this guy." He gestured to Quinn, who was still dazed. "Take him downtown...for questioning."

ThomasMalthus

Typical Sliders luck ...

Date: 07/29/2001
From: The_Seer

... being in the wrong place at the wrong time on consecutive worlds!

I don't know if you did this on purpose but this is definitely a throwback to the kind of openings we had in the first season (especially "Summer of Love" and "Prince of Wails"). Great job so far!

It doesn't pay to be a Quinn Mallory

Date: 07/30/2001
From: DieselMickeyDolenz

No matter which incarnation of Quinn we come across, he just can't help being arrested on murder charges. And with his luck, his fingerprints will somehow end up on the murder weapon, too.

DMD

On board

Date: 07/30/2001
From: Recall317

Let's roll!

As always, great characterization and dialogue. You know your four and do a wonderful job portraying them. Well...we THINK we know Quinn. ;)

R317

Original URL http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/26412
Nominated by DMD