The Sliders landed in a park near San Francisco.
Arturo discarded the samurai sword, he had taken from the previous world,
with disgust. Unexpectedly, the travelers have met the Professor's former
student, Conrad Bennish, Jr., who was wearing a Roman gown. At first, they
thought that Bennish was sort of an emperor, but later discovered that his
toga was a part of a cosplay party. Conrad was pleasantly surprised to see
them and asked them where they had been for so many years. A promising
question that the Sliders had waited six years to hear. A recognizable
possibility that they had finally returned to Earth Prime!
Season 6 credits: Quinn,
Wade,
Remmy, The Professor
The
travelers remembered the last time they were almost sure that they had
returned to their own world. However, although very similar, it was the
tiny details that indicated that this was unfortunately a different
dimension. In the present world, Quinn made sure the Golden Gate Bridge
was red and not blue, as it was in one of the worlds they once visited.
Unfortunately, when he approached the gate of his house, it turned out
that it did not creak, as it always had on Earth Prime. Suddenly his
mother, Amanda, ran out of the building and hugged him tightly. The woman
explained that a year after his disappearance, she asked the gardener to
finally fix the squeaky gate. At that moment, Mallory felt as though he
must have actually returned to Earth Prime. He agreed with the rest of the
travelers, that over the next few days, they had to calmly return to their
old lives and see if all the details were correct. If it turned out that
this was not their dimension, they would have to jump into the tunnel
again in due time.
After
their long-awaited return, the FBI began to question the Sliders. Quinn
was forced to explain the meaning of his basement equations, and the
purpose of the secret equipment that the FBI found there. Having learned
the truth about sliding, the agents closed their investigation. At the
same time, journalists on television reported the great return of
Rembrandt “Crying Man” Brown, who has been recently found
after disappearing many years ago. Excited by the attention, Remmy decided
to use this notoriety to revitalize his expired career. To do that, he
went to see Artie Feld, his long-time friend and manager. Meanwhile, after
many years, Wade knocked on the door of her home. Her family was extremely
surprised by the return of their daughter. She had been considered missing
for several years.
All
travelers returned to their former activities. The Professor was lecturing
again at California University, Wade worked in sales at the Doppler
Computer Superstore, and Remmy was working on songs for his new album.
Unfortunately,
all of the Sliders continued to suffer from personality changes. In the
store, Wells would suffer from fits of furious rage. She destroyed
expensive computers and eventually attacked her boss, Michael Hurley.
Equally, Brown attacked his manager, Artie, while the Professor publicly
presented Quinn’s theories of sliding as his own. At the same time,
Quinn was also behaving maliciously towards his mother Amanda Mallory. He
reacted aggressively towards her after she joked that Quinn would once
again be blowing fuses in the house, due to his continuing experiments.
After
a few days, the four Sliders were sure that they had found Earth Prime.
Simultaneously, the travelers were fed up with their irrational behavior,
which was becoming dangerous for the people around them. Quinn, Wade,
Professor Arturo and Remmy met to discuss the problem in Mallory's
basement. After careful analysis, Quinn was able to confirm that while in
the tunnel, a few slides earlier, they did indeed experience a strange
frequency shift in their bodies. This shift led to the unleashing of
aggressive personality traits. His goal, was to reconstitute the correct
frequency for each of the individual travelers. To achieve this, Quinn
upgraded the timer with his basement equipment, but there was just one
problem. If this is supposed to work, the Sliders would have to jump into
the vortex again. According to Mallory's predictions, after the next
slide, the timer would automatically return them to their home world, but
with a fixed frequency. The Professor was not so sure. However, Quinn's
calculations turned out to be correct and the Sliders would indeed
re-enter their world.
The
heroes were faced a huge dilemma. Should they stay in their world while
facing more and more personality disorders? Or should they take the risk
that a final slide might heal their condition, but could jeopardize their
chance of returning home again? The travelers chose the latter solution
because they felt that guaranteeing the safety of their loved ones was
more important than finding home. As the timer counted down again, Quinn
activated the portal. The noise caught the attention of Quinn's mother,
who asked through the closed cellar door if everything was okay. Mallory
replied “Yes,” and added that he loved her very much. Then the
four of Sliders jumped into the vortex.
The
Sliders reappeared in Quinn's basement. The difference was that everything
was on fire! Apparently, it had come to what Amanda Mallory had always
feared. The overload of power from Quinn's basement equipment, had led to
a fire. They ran outside to find that Quinn's mother had already evacuated
the home. After the slide, they felt much better mentally, and the strange
personality disorders had seemingly disappeared. While the Sliders were
glad to be cured, the fire department arrived at Quinn's house. However,
these were not traditional fire trucks with hoses. Three large elephants
with firemen on their backs arrived in front of Mallory's house. The
animals were taking water from the buckets and using them to put out the
blaze.
The
Sliders immediately realized that they had not returned to Earth Prime. It
was a big irony of fate. They sacrificed their home world and remaining
with their loved ones to heal their own personalities. Quinn's original
timer was unfortunately unable to store dimensional coordinates, and so
the exact location of their former world was once again lost, and together
the Sliders were compelled to continue their journey blindly.
Inspired by a Acclaim
comic book
Text:
Bartosz Listewnik
Translation:
Brick Lady