Date: 06/15/2001
From: SouthernSlider

Foxy!!!!!!! It was so good to see your moniker. I promise as soon as I get this posted I'll send you an e-mail. Glad you came back for a visit. I hope it will be more often. I miss you.

Okay, no more horsin' around. It's FRIDAAAAAAAY!!!!!! Let's get this show on the road.
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Chapter Fourteen

The four men left the suite in a hurry. Professor Arturo wondered about the big deal Quinn was making over this woman, but kept his thoughts to himself. Besides, if
she did decide to go back in time, the effort could be disastrous without enough knowledge about the subject. There were so many details and rules to consider, some of
which he hadn’t even had a chance to mention to Quinn yet.

Quinn bounded out the door of the hotel, giving orders right and left. “Colin, you and Remmy go that way; the professor and I will go this way. As soon as you find her, if you find her, come back here immediately. We’ll do the same. Don’t let her give you any argument either. Do whatever you have to do.”

They went their separate ways, with Remmy still in a bit of a fog about the whole situation. He was still mad as fire over Maggie’s words, yet he sensed a bit of emergency
in finding her. Quinn was highly agitated, and Remmy could tell it was more than the words about Wade. He was truly concerned for Maggie’s safety.

“You want to tell me what’s going on, Farm-boy? What do you guys know that I don’t?”

“Time travel is a very complicated thing, Remmy,” Colin said after a second’s hesitation. “For one thing, you can not come back to this present once you go back in time. You are stuck in that time to live out your life.”

Remmy stopped his forward progress, forcing Colin to retrace his next few steps. “You’re kidding! You mean if Maggie went back in time, even just a few minutes, she
wouldn’t be able to catch up to us?”

“That is right. She would live out a new time line for the rest of her life.”

“How is that possible? I mean, if everyone that goes back in time starts a new time line . . . well, that just doesn’t seem like it would work. There would be millions of the same people living out different lives. It . . . it can’t . . . I’m confused.”

“I guess it is a little like parallel worlds, Remmy,” Colin answered. “I really can not explain it thoroughly to you. I think the professor only hit the highlights for Quinn and I.” He looked around and saw the passersby giving them odd looks. “And, especially here in the middle of the sidewalk. Besides, we need to concentrate on finding Maggie right now. The professor can give you more details when we get back together.”

They turned and headed down the sidewalk with Remmy more in a daze than ever. Every time he tried to think logically through what Colin had said, information criss-crossed around in his head in all directions until it tangled into an impossible mess. He shook his head vigorously to try to clear his mind. It didn’t help.

Meanwhile, Quinn and the professor scurried down one street and then another, unsuccessful in their quest, while Quinn tried to explain to his companion the complexities of the relationship between Maggie and Wade. Professor Arturo just shook his head. It was beyond him how people could get so deeply involved with their emotions. If everyone would only use their scientific mind instead of their emotional one, the world would be a much better place.

As Quinn rounded the corner with Professor Arturo on his heels, his eyes came in contact with the blinking arrow he had encountered on his quest to find that same
time-travel store. He wondered if Maggie may have taken this route and been lured into the store herself. He hurried across the street, dodging a few cars, unmindful of the danger of weaving through traffic on foot. He just hoped he wasn’t too late, if, indeed, Maggie had come to this place in search of . . . God knew what. Hopefully, he was making a mountain out of a molehill about her disappearance.

The bell rattled ominously as he jerked open the door. It held none of the welcoming tinkle from his first visit. Two people were standing in front of the far wall,
looking at one bottle after another. The jovial shopkeeper was nowhere in sight. Quinn went immediately to the customers.

“Excuse me, have you seen a woman with dark hair, about this tall --” Quinn held his hand up to the proper height, “ -- wearing . . . wearing . . . gosh, I don’t know what she was wearing, but it was bound to be a short skirt and skimpy blouse. Did either one of you see her in here?”

Both men shook their heads and returned to their perusing, completely oblivious to Quinn’s agitated state. He ran disgusted fingers through his hair, taking a quick glance
at the professor, then toward the cash register. That raised another question.

“Excuse me again, but do you know where the clerk is around here?”

One man turned to him with an impatient frown, almost irate at being interrupted from his examination of the bottles again. He gave Quinn an emphatic shake of the head
and turned away. The other man, looked up, and gazed over his glasses with a friendly smile.

“I’m sorry, young man. He wasn’t up front when I came in. I imagine he’s in the back getting some more bottles. I see a few empty spots here and there. Must be a brisk
business today. I’m sure he’ll be up here in just a minute.” He, too, then returned to his study of dates on the bottles.

Quinn released an irritable sigh, mixed with a mumbled ‘thank you’ and headed toward a door he assumed led to the back room. Down the small, somewhat darkened
corridor, he saw a closed door on the right. Turning the knob, he found it to be locked. With anger, he beat on the door with the palms of both hands, yelling to see if anyone was within. Nothing but silence greeted him.

“Perhaps, Mr. Mallory, we have come to a wrong conclusion. She doesn’t appear to be here. Besides, the odds were very high, in any case.”

“I don’t know, Professor. I just have a feeling.” He noted the immediate raised eyebrow of the man. “I know, I know. That’s not at all scientific, but sometimes
traveling around the multiverse requires some gut feeling, as well as scientific knowledge, to stay one step ahead of danger.”

Without waiting for a reply from the man, Quinn turned and moved further down the hallway. At the end, a door, standing partly open, let in a stream of light. Quinn
pulled it open, in haste, and found himself staring into a back alley, scattered with empty boxes and an overloaded dumpster. The only sign of life was a dog sifting through the smelly trash, and a huge rat scampering among the torn bags.

“Mr. Mallory, it’s obvious, that if she were here earlier, she isn’t now. I say we continue our search on a more amiable street.”

Quinn felt the warm, gentle tug of his mentor’s double’s hand on his shoulder. Reluctantly, he retraced his steps down the darkened corridor, and back into the store’s
front room. The two customers were nowhere in sight -- and also, still no sign of the store clerk. That sent a streak of alarm into Quinn’s brain. Why would the man leave his
store unattended? Maggie had something to do with it, he just knew. But he couldn’t say that to the professor without garnering another indignantly raised eyebrow. There was no scientific evidence anywhere -- only his gut feeling.
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Isn't Quinn's intuitive powers amazing? Too bad he didn't have them when Wade was around.

SS

Hmmmmm.

Date: 06/15/2001
From: DieselMickeyDolenz

You'd think a few minutes alone with Maggie would be more than enough for any man. He should be begging her to leave by now. And now I have to wait until Monday to read another chapter :(

DMD

Ah yes...

Date: 06/15/2001
From: Foxtrottin

You do so like to lead us on ... and on! And I know you're gonna throw several twists in along the way ;o) It's great to be reading your tales once again SS.

Fox

Original URL http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/1095/3453
Nominated by DieselMickeyDolenz