Date: 9/25/2000
From: SouthernSlider

Good morning, all. I'm back. Sorry to keep you waiting for so many days, but my schedule has gotten really crazy. Weddings, showers, birthdays and ballgames are taking up all of my time, not to mention a writing class I'm taking. Oops, I mentioned it, didn't I? Hey, but at least, I got some of you to post something.

Oh, well, enough chit-chat. Here's more.
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United We Slide, Divided . . . We Disappear

Chapter Eleven

Remmy tumbled out of the vortex with Maggie too close behind to miss him. She fell right on top of him with a thud before he could roll out of the way.

“Damn, girl. Give a guy a chance to move before you come flailing out like that,” he said.

“What? And miss my chance to make a soft landing?” She turned and looked at the vortex as it closed behind her. “I just wish there were two others to fall on top of us,” she said, her joking manner gone.

“I know what you mean, sweetheart.” Maggie rolled off and got to her feet, helping Remmy along the way. “I just hope we’re on the right world. I’m really uncomfortable, and a lot less confident, playing with this timer without Q-ball around.”

“Look, Remmy. We’re two intelligent people, and we’ve been sliding long enough to be able to handle this thing. We’ve seen Quinn set this thing to return to worlds before,” Maggie said.

“Yeah, but if something goes wrong, we haven’t got the smarts to figure out how to fix it. I mean, we don’t have the information. We’re not scientists.”

“Have faith, Remmy. We’re on the right world, and when we get to the Dominion, Quinn and Colin are going to be there waiting for us.” She slapped the timer into Remmy’s stomach and headed toward the hotel. Remmy grunted, took the timer and stashed it in his coat pocket, and ran to catch up with her.

After a few minutes, they entered the lobby together, with Maggie keeping her fingers crossed that everything she had said earlier was correct.

“Hi, we’d like the keys to our suite. I think it’s
registered under Quinn Mallory,” she said to the desk clerk.

“Oh, he’s not here right now, but you have a message from him.” He handed her the envelope along with a key to the room. Maggie took both as she gave Remmy a worried glance. They obviously had the right world, but would this be good or bad news? She feared the latter.

Maggie waited until they had reached the privacy of the room before opening the envelope. As she read the contents, her face grew red with anger.

“He’s in Hawaii!!” she yelled.

“Hawaii? What’s the boy doing in Hawaii? We’re being jerked around the multiverse, and he vacations in Hawaii?” As an afterthought he included, “What about Colin? Is he there too? I’m gonna kill both of them.”

Maggie waved her hand at him to shush him as she read the rest of the letter. The look on her face told Remmy they hadn’t gone there on a joyride. Something was wrong.

“He couldn’t find Colin anywhere, but he ran into a bartender that had seen him,” Maggie explained, then continued to peruse the letter.

“A bartender? Colin?”

“He ran off with some girl in a band to Hawaii.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Farm-boy? A groupie?” Remmy chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.

“There’s more, Remmy,” she said sourly. “It seems there may have been an accident. Nobody’s seen them since they checked into the hotel. Quinn has spoken with the authorities, then took the first flight over there to
check things out himself. He said he would call periodically to see if we had returned. We’re to sit tight as long as we can, then slide when we have to, and return again later. We have to leave messages with the clerk, and keep them simple, in case the clerk has to read them to Quinn over the phone.”

“Damn!” Remmy didn’t like what he was hearing. They were scattered out all over the place. One little miscommunication, and they might not ever get back together. And with the brothers on the outs with each other, that could hinder the whole process. “This is getting out of control. Two people fighting, one gone off with a rock freak, one in Hawaii, two novices in control of the timer that couldn’t handle a tecnilogical crisis.
This is too risky for my blood.”

“I don’t like it anymore than you do, Rem, but what choice do we have now? Everything is out of our control. We just have to play along.”

“It’s just like a freakin’ pinball machine. Everybody bouncing around from one place to the next, one world to the next, and none of us knows where we’re going to end
up. Before you know it there’ll be a big TILT flashing in the sky, and we’ll disappear just like those little balls do . . . into oblivion.”

Maggie sighed and patted Remmy on the back. She wished she could offer some words of comfort, but her feelings were just about the same as Remmy’s. Anything she said at this point would sound as insincere as they felt.

***

Quinn walked into the office at the small airport, determined to get something accomplished. He had been put off long enough by Sargeant Willis. It was time to take
matters into his own hands.

He pulled out a wad of bills from his pocket to check his cash flow. Taking a cue from Remmy, he had raided his double’s bank account at the ATM before leaving the mainland. He hated to do it, but ‘desperate times called for desperate measures’, he remembered someone saying. That was definitely the case now.

“I want to rent a plane,” he said flatly as he approached the man at the cluttered desk. The guy looked up lazily at him.

“You got a pilot’s license?”

“No. I . . .”

“If you got no license, you sure as hell ain’t gonna rent one of MY planes.” The man returned his attention to the papers in front of him.

Quinn let out a disgusted breath, and leaned over the desk, covering the papers with his hands, and almost coming nose to nose with the man when he raised his head.

“I want to rent a plane, AND a pilot. My name is Quinn Mallory, and my brother was on that missing plane of yours. I want to go search for him.” His teeth were clinched trying to keep his anger from exploding.

The man straightened his back, then stood up. Quinn did the same, and towered over the small man with fire in his eyes.

“Look, mister. We got someone out looking for that plane right now, and so have the authorities.”

“I’m not satisfied with that,” Quinn growled. “I want to
search for myself.”

“I . . . I’m not sure we can do that,” the man sputtered.

Quinn moved from around the desk, and came chest to chest with the man. He had no time or patience to be civil any longer.

“Look. I have the money. You have the plane and pilot. Take me on a tour just like you did yesterday with my brother and his companions, and do it NOW.” He grabbed a
fistful of the man’s shirt and almost picked him up off the ground. The shocked look on his face and the bobbing of his adam’s apple as he swallowed hard told Quinn he had
gotten his point across. He released the piece of clothing and backed away.

“I’ll see what I can do. Give me a few minutes.” The man immediately picked up the phone and started talking to someone about plane availability.
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SS

Couldn't you have had Maggie get lost

Date: 9/25/2000
From: DieselMickeyDolenz

...on her side trip with Remmy? No? Oh, well. I'm enjoying the story anyway, Maggie and all.

DMD

PS: I see Arkansas is up next for your Dawgs. We've got Mississippi State. Not an easy week for either of us.

oh my

Date: 9/25/2000
From: weeeezr

Quinn is so sexy when hes angry ! he he he...

hugs
weez

Whoa!!

Date: 9/26/2000
From: Foxtrottin

Don't cross Quinn when it comes to his brother! Now, will Remmy and Maggie sit tight ... or will they take off on their own? Good story SS!

Fox

Original URL http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/1095/2860
Nominated by DieselMickeyDolenz