Fan Fic and More

Thanks for the feedback, Timelord and Roselle! :D And Roselle, that is a plot that is going to be resolved later in the story, before it's all over. They will encounter the Sliders again. But for now, here's the next part. :D


Gerry

<center> Sliding Into Antar </center>



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The
Granolith’s Revenge

Chapter 28

XXVIII

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The Antarian mothership, the New Granolith, sailed back into the Antarian atmosphere, armed with every imaginable stealth device that Varec had been able to give it. Max and Michael both knew that if Pierce actually had succeeded in gaining control of the original granolith in this dimension, they were going to be in for a very difficult fight. Although the New Granolith was far superior, in many ways, to the original granolith; after all, the New Granolith could travel interdimensionally and carry huge numbers of people, the original granolith was intended to be more than just a method of transportation between planets. It was also a weapon… a formidable weapon… a semi-intelligent weapon. It could, and would, protect the rightful king or whomever it perceived to be the rightful king. And somehow… no one knew how… Pierce had made it believe that he was the rightful heir to the Antarian throne. The New Granolith, for all its sophistication and immense size, was never meant to be a weapon; it was meant to be a mothership… a vessel of peace. Some of its systems could be turned into weapons… by a resourceful person like Varec… no doubt; but it still would not be a match for the original granolith in a show of powers. The New Granolith did have the advantages of stealth and size, though. And, it had a resourceful crew thinking for it and guiding it. Max wondered if that would be enough against the original granolith’s powers.

The ship had barely entered Antarian airspace… fully cloaked and in full stealth mode… when it was rocked by a powerful shock wave.

“What was that?” Maria asked, grabbing hold of Michael’s arm and then his co-pilot’s seat to keep from being thrown to the floor.

“If I had to guess,” Michael replied glumly, “I’d say it was a challenge… or at least a warning… from the granolith.”

“But we’re in stealth mode… aren’t we?” Maria asked, holding tightly to the back of Michael’s co-pilot’s seat and spreading her feet out a bit further for stability.

Michael nodded. “Apparently it’s not fooling the granolith. We might as well have a big target painted on us.”

This information caused everyone’s heart to sink a little bit, but it did not destroy their resolve. It was only the opening salvo in the battle. They were not going to turn and run on the opening salvo.

“I say we go straight for Pierce,” Michael said. “He controls what’s happening in the long run. If we chop off the snake’s head…”

Max nodded… “Agreed.”

Max turned the New Granolith in the direction of the palace and brought the ship down so low over the Golden Sea that it was almost skimming the surface of the water. Only a dozen seconds had passed, though, before a huge wall of water appeared suddenly directly in front of the ship, like an immense, two-hundred-foot high tsunami rising up out of the Golden Sea. Max and Michael had no time to react. The ship plunged into the wall of water with full force… slowing considerably as it did. Everyone waited for the ship to emerge on the other side of the wave… and they waited… and they waited…

“Uh, Max,” Kyle said at last, “Where are we?”

Max chuckled, and Michael smiled, knowing exactly what had happened. “Whoever or whatever threw that wall of water at us,” Max said, “expected it to crush us; and it would have if we were any normal ship, but the New Granolith is easily able to withstand those forces. I suspect that something was waiting to see if we made it through to the other side or not; so as soon as we plunged into the wave, I took the ship down… under the sea. We’re below the surface, but still moving toward the shore.”

“Cool,” Alex said, starting to smile, too. “So when we don’t come out on the other side of the wave, the granolith thinks we’re history, and it stops looking for us.”

“That’s the plan.” Michael said.

“Works for me,” Kyle agreed.

“It will slow us down a bit,” Max admitted, “It’ll take more than four times as long to get there underwater, but if it works…”

Apparently, it did. Twenty-two minutes later, the New Granolith rose back out of the sea, having gone as far as it could go underwater due to its size and the shallower depths near shore, and it headed off again in the direction of the palace. During the time spent below the surface, nothing unexpected had occurred. They knew that that would not last, though… and it didn’t.

Eighteen seconds after coming out of the water, the New Granolith was unexpectedly caught in a magnetic wave that effectively and instantly shut down all power on the ship. The ship came to a precipitous halt but did not fall to the ground or crash.

“Is it holding us here… in the air?” Max asked, though he didn’t really expect an answer.

Varec shook his head. “It doesn’t know how to shut our backups down.”

Max and Michael both looked at Varec… “Backups?” both of them asked at the same time.

Varec nodded. I built in backup anti-gravity generators before we left Antar… our Antar, I mean. Since we were going interdimensional, I wasn’t sure what we might encounter, so I devised a new system that operates on a totally new theory. I never had time to test it under actual field conditions, and it was never intended to replace the main generators or systems.

“Well, apparently it works,” Kyle said appreciatively, “You can go to the front of the class.”

Indeed, the backups did work, and with one major unexpected benefit. The system was so radically different than anything else that existed in any of the known galaxies that the granolith apparently did not know how to shut it down. But Varec had no doubt that it would learn how to very quickly. It was going to be a race between the granolith and Varec… the granolith to find a way to shut down Varec’s radical new backup system… and Varec to get the ship moving again.

“It works like a charm,” Alex said, stating the obvious, “But now all we can do is sit here and wait to be slapped down with a giant fly swatter or something when the granolith figures out how to kill it.”

“Maybe not,” Varec said, already working feverishly to bypass the main system in the engine compartment. “If I’m right, I may be able to route the power from the backup anti-gravity generators to the entire ship.”

“You’d better hurry,” Tess said, looking around with a worried expression, “I can tell you that the granolith will figure it out very quickly… no matter how different the system is.”

“I’m doing my best,” Varec said.

Everyone knew that that was true… and it was all they could ask for. Nobody else on the ship had the ability that Varec had to get them out of this. But could he do it fast enough? That would be the crucial question.

“I’ve got it… I think!” Varec said, backing out of the engine compartment and flipping a switch. Immediately, the power came on, and Michael shot the ship forward, momentarily breaking the granolith’s grip and propelling the ship in the direction of the palace, which was no longer very far away. It took less than a minute… about 45 seconds in all, in fact… to get there.

Michael quickly placed the ship directly over the palace…

“I’m betting that the granolith doesn’t want the palace crushed under a falling space ship that takes up several city blocks… not if it’s trying to protect someone inside there. So it won’t be sucking the energy out of our ship as long as we’re sitting right on top of the palace.”

Max nodded and grinned then turned to Varec… “Can we get Pierce up here… maybe with the transporter?”

Varec shook his head. “Only if he had a pin on him somewhere.”

“So somebody has to go down there and stick a pin on him… is that what you’re saying,” Kyle asked.

“That would be one way,” Varec conceded.

“I’ll go,” Kyle said, “One way or the other, I’ll get a pin on him. You guys just be ready up here to beam me back up with him once the pin is on him.”

“I’ll go with you,” Michael said.

“No,” Kyle replied, surprising Michael with his sudden authoritarian manner, “You need to be here on the ship where you can protect Max and the others. I can do this. It’ll be better if one person goes. I can avoid attention easier if I’m alone.”

Michael nodded, knowing that, at least logistically, Kyle was right. “Okay… go for it… but you may have trouble clipping a clip pin to him if there’s nothing easily accessible to clip it to… and the Velcro ones are no good, because there isn’t likely to be any Velcro on him.”

Kyle grinned and selected a pin with a long, sharp prong on the back, “No sweat. I’ll use this one. If it doesn’t go into his shirt, it’ll go into his arm just fine.”

Maria grinned and closed her eyes, and Max laughed.

Kyle smiled and touched his own pin, just inside his shirt…

“Kyle…” Max said, “Good luck.”

Kyle nodded then disappeared from the ship in a wisp of light. He reappeared inside the palace and, looking around, quickly ascertained where he was. Kyle knew the palace well… at least he knew the one on his own Antar well. And so far they had all been fairly similar. This one did not appear to be any different. He edged his way down the grand hall, staying in the shadows as much as possible, rushing fleetingly from one column to the next until he reached the king’s suite. He listened at the door but heard nothing. That really didn’t mean anything, though. The doors of the palace were thick and very soundproof.

Kyle tested the handle carefully, and the door opened… just a bit. He looked around the room. There was no one there, so he opened the door the rest of the way and stepped inside, quietly closing the door back behind himself.

“I’m inside the king’s suite,” he whispered into the pin under his shirt, “Pierce isn’t here, but he’s bound to return eventually. I’ll wait for a while and try to surprise him.”

Kyle looked around the huge room. For some reason, it gave him the creeps. It had none of the warmth of Max and Liz’s suite on their Antar. It looked more like a huge laboratory with a bed in it. Kyle grimaced…

“He dissects them and sleeps in the same room? How sick is this man!”

For a moment, Kyle fought off a shudder. Then he heard the door handle turn. Quickly, he dove behind a covered table. It was Pierce, and he was alone. He looked frustrated. Kyle watched as Pierce picked up a scalpel and turned it over several times in his hand, as though longing to use it, but… Michael had been “abducted” from his table right under his nose. It must have galled Pierce immensely. Still, there was so much that just did not make sense here. This room looked like it had been lived in this way for a considerable amount of time… and yet… few people on this Antar, outside of the palace guards and some apparently kidnapped victims, seemed to know even the most basic thing about this man who was pretending to be their king. It made no sense. But then… Pierce never had made any sense to Kyle.

As Kyle watched, Pierce walked across the room and removed his shirt, tossing it onto a large bureau. Then he sat down on the foot of the bed and removed his shoes.

If he removes his pants, I’ll gag and give myself away, Kyle thought to himself, as he watched from behind the covered table.

But Pierce did not remove his pants, at least for the moment. He stood back up and walked toward the door, then he looked like he was going to walk back to the bed again; but instead, he turned and walked back the way he had come from. Then he walked the other way again, and Kyle realized, with growing alarm, that each time Pierce paced back and forth, he seemed to come closer and closer to where he was hiding. It had to be a coincidence. Finally, Pierce walked in front of the table, directly on the other side of where Kyle was hiding, and as he did, he flipped the table over, exposing Kyle, who looked momentarily like a deer caught in the headlights… but only momentarily. He quickly recovered from the surprise and leapt at Pierce, hoping to get the pin onto him, but Pierce was ready for him. Pierce waved his hand, and Kyle felt something slam into him… hard. Kyle reeled backwards, rolling on the floor from the force. It felt like he had run head on into a stone wall and then been run over by a truck…

“Oh, crap! What the hell was that?”

Pierce smiled, but it was a sadistic sort of smile. “That, Valenti, was a force field. You may have heard that I am well protected here. Well, it’s true. I have powers that you never dreamed of.”

“You mean the granolith.”

Pierce smiled, obviously pleased with himself. “The alien machine does my every wish… It reads my mind. Its powers are mine. I can kill you with the wave of a hand.”

“Why don’t you then?”

“You know me better than that, Valenti. Did I ever take the easy way… if there was a better way?”

“You mean if there was a more sadistic way?”

“Sadistic is such a harsh word. I protect my planet from alien invasion.”

“This is not your planet, Pierce. What are you protecting here?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Earth! Eventually, I’ll wipe this alien colony out… and earth will be safe.”

“It’s not a colony… it’s a planet. It’s their planet.”

“Only semantics, Valenti. I see no difference. It’s a planet of aliens that intend to take over our planet. So I take over their planet first. I wipe out the colony before it attacks us.”

“How in the name of everything unholy and sadistic did you get the granolith to protect you, Pierce? That’s what I want to know!”

“Granolith? Oh, yeah, the alien machine. The aliens were kind enough to provide us with an instruction manual for it. Nice of them, huh!”

Kyle sighed. “That’s what I heard… but it doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t matter, Kyle… it won’t help you to know how I did it. You’re not going to live long enough to enjoy the knowledge.”

“Or to tell anybody?”

“Exactly.”

“Then there is more to tell.”

Pierce smiled again. It seemed that he smiled a lot. But it was the smile of a shark. “I don’t know why I should tell you anything, Valenti. You can’t help me.”

“I didn’t know you needed help… Dan.”

“I don’t!” Pierce said quickly… almost defensively, “I just meant that if I did, you wouldn’t be able to… do anything about it anyway.”

“You need to get off of this planet,” Kyle said, venturing a guess.

Pierce rolled his eyes. “Kyle, I have the machine. It does my bidding. When I’m ready to go home… after this alien plague is wiped out… it will take me home.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“What was that “alien machine” called again, Pierce?”

Pierce looked at Kyle, and his eyes sparkled… with daggers. “It doesn’t matter what it’s called, Kyle. What matters is it obeys me.”

“That’s the part I can’t figure out, Pierce. That was never meant to happen. It’s… it’s… impossible. The granolith was made with too many safeguards to fall into the hands of someone like you.”

Apparently, Kyle struck a nerve with that last comment, because Pierce swung around and grabbed him by the collar, pinning him to the wall…

“WHAT do you know about that machine, Kyle?”

Kyle smiled, reading the truth in Pierce’s eyes. “Everything you’d like to know, Pierce. Everything you pretend to know, but don’t.”

“Don’t mess with me, Kyle. I can destroy you with a wave of my hand. You’ve seen that.”

The air went out of Kyle’s lungs. He HAD seen that. He had FELT it! Whatever Pierce knew or did not know, he clearly did have the power. It just didn’t make sense.

“If you tell me what I want to know,” Pierce said slowly… and threateningly… “I could be inclined to let you live.”

“You’re too generous.”

“Don’t knock it. It’s better than the alternative. Would you like to see some of the alternatives?” Pierce pulled the sheet off of the table, and Kyle saw a number of Antarian internal organs.”

“How long have those been there,” Kyle asked, turning uncharacteristically white.

“A few days… maybe a week… some of them,” Pierce replied.

Kyle shook his head. “Antarian bodies dissolve into dust upon death… or very shortly thereafter. No way would they last a few days… much less a week.”

“I’ve learned to preserve them,” Pierce said with a sadistic smile.

Kyle sensed that Pierce was telling the truth, at least on this matter, and for a moment, he couldn’t think of anything to say.

“All I want from you, Kyle, is information on the alien machine… the granolith machine.”

“Don’t you already know everything there is to know about it? It protects you, doesn’t it?”

Pierce looked frustrated, and he was losing patience. Aware that this conversation couldn’t go much further without Pierce doing something rash, Kyle began to look for a way to put an end to the encounter, but Pierce had removed his shirt. If Kyle was going to stick the pin on him, he would have to stick it to his pants… or stick it into his skin. He lunged at Pierce’s arm, but Pierce raised his hand, and a bolt of something like lightning hit Kyle, bowling him over.

Kyle groaned and tried to raise his head, but everything looked fuzzy, and the room was spinning.

“You thought you’d sucker punch me, Valenti? That was stupid… even for you.” Pierce stood over Kyle and glared at him with those sparkling little daggers in his eyes…

“Tell me what I want to know, Kyle. It’s your last chance.”

“Okay… okay…” Kyle tried to lift himself off the floor; then instead, in one swift motion, with his head still swimming, he reached up and pinned the pin to Pierce’s pants. Apparently, the pin went deep, and judging by Pierce’s reaction, in a most sensitive place. Pierce let out a howl that was probably heard all the way up on the New Granolith.

“NOW!!!!!!” Kyle yelled into his shirt. “NOW, MICHAEL! If you want to live to see tomorrow, get me out of here NOW!”

Kyle had not yet finished the sentence when he appeared on the bridge of the New Granolith… along with a very surprised Agent Pierce, who was still trying desperately to remove the deeply embedded pin from the family jewel box without causing more damage… or pain… than he had already suffered. Assessing his situation quickly, and finally getting the long prong out, Pierce held up one hand threateningly, and Kyle dove for cover.

“I should kill you ALL right here, right now!”

Pierce moved his hand slowly back and forth, choosing his first victim, as he issued his threat. Michael and Max already had him covered. Both of them had one hand up, palms aimed directly at him. It appeared to be a standoff. But there was that nagging little problem… Pierce was channeling the granolith’s powers. If not for that, it would be no contest at all. Even if Pierce had somehow gained some kind of powers on his own, Max and Michael would incinerate him… easily… before he could act. But if the granolith was protecting Pierce… blasting him could get the New Granolith destroyed… and everyone onboard killed.

“You can’t hurt me. You know that, don’t you,” Pierce blustered, “The machine protects me. I’m all-powerful.”

“I would like to test that theory,” Michael said calmly.

“Be my guest,” Pierce said, a sadistic smile playing impatiently at his lips, as he moved his hand in Michael’s direction. Then, without any forewarning at all, Pierce waved his hand as though he were swatting away a pesky fly. Michael and Max both dove for the floor and rolled, and Michael got off a solid blast that sent Pierce flying backwards into the wall. For some unknown reason, Pierce’s attempt to blast Michael had been totally, and unexplainably, unsuccessful… like trying to shoot a gun and discovering that it was out of bullets… and no one was more surprised than Pierce…

“NO!” No, it can’t be! They wouldn’t dare!”

Max and Michael, seeing their chance, quickly subdued Pierce and tied him up, as he alternately ranted, cursed, and threatened ultimate vengeance against someone. Whom, they weren’t sure.

“Well,” said Maria, looking very relieved and maybe just a teeny bit cocky after the present unexpected turn of events, “It looks like the granolith has turned its back on you. I guess it doesn’t like you much either.”

Pierce appeared to sneer, and his eyes narrowed noticeably, but his mouth remained tightly shut.

“Who was it that betrayed you, Pierce,” asked Max, “Who were you swearing vengeance against so vehemently just a moment ago?”

Pierce shook his head, but said nothing.

Max shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. If you have nothing to say, we’ll let the people down there decide what to do with you and be done with it.”

“You can’t…” Pierce blurted out unexpectedly, but then he hesitated, unsure that he wanted to say anything more.

“Just watch us,” Michael said, grinning now like a Cheshire cat. “If there’s anything I love it’s poetic justice.”

Pierce grimaced, even though he was trying to appear stoic… “What happens to me if I do talk?”

Michael looked at Max, and Max shrugged… “We can’t let him go. We have to turn him over to the proper authorities either way. What would you do?”

Michael smiled ever so slightly… “I’d blast his ass.”

Max looked at Pierce and noticed that an uneasy pall had settled over Pierce’s face. Pierce had no reason at all to doubt that Michael would do what he said, given the opportunity… or the go ahead from Max and the others. And he had no reason at all to believe that anyone else aboard the New Granolith would be any kinder to him. He was certain that he wouldn’t find mercy below, on Antar… not among those who knew him. One thing about being a self-serving sadistic tyrant is that it brings a certain relevancy to one’s paranoia.

“If you take me back to earth, I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” Pierce said, out of the blue.

“Can’t do that,” Max replied, shaking his head, “We’re on kind of a tight schedule. Besides, didn’t you say that the granolith was going to return you to earth… after you destroyed Antar?”

“I have nothing more to say,” Pierce replied, resigned now to what he assumed to be his inevitable fate and determined not to tell them anything more.

“Max,” Liz said, patting Max gently on the arm, “Maybe we should ask the granolith ourselves.”

“Yeah,” Tess agreed, “The granolith on our Antar was designed to recognize the royal four… this one probably is, too. If it is, you can find out how Pierce got here and what’s going on. We don’t need Pierce to tell us anything.”

“It can do that?” Pierce asked.

Max nodded.

Pierce groaned.

“So are you going to tell us yourself,” Max asked.

“Find it out the hard way… if you can,” Pierce retorted defiantly, “I’m not giving you anything. I have nothing to gain from it.”

“Except maybe a good feeling inside for having done the right thing,” Liz said innocently.

Pierce stared at Liz momentarily, wondering silently if she was serious. He decided that the comment had been intended as a smart-aleck jest.

Maria stifled a laugh and shook her head, as she put one arm around Liz protectively… “Girlfriend, I’ve got to have a serious talk with you sometime.”

Liz turned slightly red and rolled her eyes with a sigh. “I know… I know… it sounded stupid. But I can’t help it. I always think there’s some good in everyone… somewhere… deep down. It just doesn’t usually come out sounding so lame.”

Maria glanced at Pierce and nodded… “Very, very, very, very, very deep down… maybe… but I’m not sure there’s anything that goes that deep.”

“I know,” Liz said, smiling abashedly, “It was a momentary lapse. Just forget I said it.”

“Don’t try to change her,” Max said, grinning, “If Liz ever sees the real me, she may decide to give me the boot.”

Liz gave Max a playful shove… “I fell in love with you knowing what you are, Max. You never fooled me for a moment!”

She turned and walked away, and Max looked at Maria, puzzled… “What did she mean by that?”

Maria shrugged. “I’d say she wants you to wonder.”

Max looked at Liz again then shook his head, dispelling any further questions he might have had on the subject in order to return to the matter at hand…

“Okay, we find the granolith… and we get some honest answers… about Pierce, I mean.”




<center>End of Chapter 28

tbc…</center>

cool can't wait

Thanks so much for the feedback, Timelord! It lets me know that somebody is reading! :D Here's a new chapter.


Gerry

<center> Sliding Into Antar </center>



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Shocking Revelations

Chapter 29

XXIX

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“Assuming that the granolith in this dimension responds to the same frequencies as in our dimension, that should be it right down there,” Varec said, holding a small hurriedly devised instrument in his hand and watching its tiny monitor, as he pointed to a spot on the New Granolith’s large panoramic view screen that gave them a view of what lay directly below the ship…

“It looks like a tall garage… or maybe a silo,” Max said, looking at the object on the screen.

Michael stared at the small but sturdy-looking building on the view screen… “Someone probably built it around the granolith. Most likely they didn’t know how to move the granolith and it was the only way they knew of to hide it.”

Max nodded. “You’re probably right. So what do we do now, General? Beam ourselves down there into that garage… silo… or whatever it is?”

Michael shrugged. “Can you think of a better way?”

Max was silent for a moment then he shook his head… “No.”

“Neither can I.”

Max took a deep breath and nodded. “Well, the granolith hasn’t tried to kill us since we left the palace… maybe it’s had a change of heart.”

“It’s hardware,” Michael corrected, “It doesn’t have a heart… as such. It doesn’t actually think, not the way we do; it carries out a set of logistics-driven orders that were installed in it when it was created… and it does that to the best of its ability… without being encumbered by a ‘heart.’ Besides, it may only be waiting for us to be away from Pierce so it can pick us off… if it really is protecting him.”

“Good point,” Max agreed… “We can’t take anything for granted.”

Michael shook his head. “Nothing at all.”

“I’ll go,” Kyle offered.

Max smiled and shook his head. “You had all the fun last time, Kyle. Wasn’t turning Pierce into a soprano enough for you? Anyway, It’ll have to be me, because the granolith is more likely to recognize me.”

“I’ll go with you,” Michael said, holding up his hand to squelch any objections from Max. Max thought about it for a moment then nodded. “Two of us may be better than one… are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Max touched the pin inside his shirt, and Michael touched the one in his, and both of them disappeared together in a wisp of light. They reappeared inside the structure.

“Well, that’s it,” Michael said, walking slowly around the granolith, which began to pulsate with a bluish light. “Why’s it doing that?”

Max watched the granolith pulsate for a few moments… “I don’t think it’s being aggressive. It’s just checking us out.” Stepping forward, Max held his right hand out, palm up, and a six-foot-long beam of crackling light exploded from the granolith and into his hand. Michael went immediately on highest alert but did not interfere, surmising correctly that the granolith was trying to communicate rather than attack them. The crackling, lightning-like beam of light continued without letting up for almost two minutes, as the granolith alternately glowed with a cobalt blue color then a jade green then a deep ruby red. Max’s body began to glow with the granolith, producing a thin aura of similar colors around him, making Michael more that a bit uncomfortable. But after a while, the glow began to subside, then the beam abruptly stopped.

Max looked around. At first, he seemed not to know where he was and appeared to be stunned.

“Max?”

“Yeah… Yeah, I’m… I’m okay. It was just… intense.”

“For you or for me? You had me going there, pal. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I will be. I just have to get my bearings.”

“What did it do to you?”

Max seemed to think about it for a moment, then a smile edged over his face… “It exchanged knowledge with me.”

“You mean like… it told you what’s going on… and why it was trying to kill us?”

“Not exactly. Come on! Let’s get back to the ship. I have something to show you… something to show everybody.”

Max and Michael both returned to the ship, and Max gathered everyone together.

“The granolith is… well, the best way I can say it is… confused… by Pierce. It has conflicting data on who he is. The best way to explain it is just to show you. The granolith took information directly from my mind, but it also put information into my mind… a lot of it… so much that the only way it could do it was to show me what happened. That information is still here inside me, like some biological video that’s set to run. In a sense, I only have to turn it on to share it with you… Everyone hold hands and form an unbroken circle. Liz, you hold my hand. Maria, take my other hand, then everyone else take their hands.”

“Are we going to feel anything, you know, weird,” Maria asked.

“Not as weird as sleeping with Michael,” Max said matter-of-factly.

“And you would know this how?” Maria asked.

“I’m guessing,” Max retorted.

Maria took Michael’s hand with her other hand and grinned. “For the record, I like sleeping with Michael. You don’t know what you’re missing, Max.”

Max reddened ever so slightly, apparently wanting to get off of the subject and wishing he hadn’t started it… “If everyone is ready…” He closed his eyes, and the others did the same. About three seconds later, a bright light came on very suddenly. Maria involuntarily opened her eyes but saw that the light was not in the room… it was in her head. Hesitantly, she closed her eyes again and watched…

It appeared that they were seeing through the granolith’s eyes… or whatever it was that the granolith “saw” with. At first, it was dark, despite the bright light inside their heads, and there was only an empty room all around… but it was not a garage or a silo; it was the granolith chamber on earth. As they watched, light began to pour through a crack in the wall and into the chamber, then the stone doorway opened further and someone stepped in. It was Max. He was followed by Michael, Liz, Maria, Tess, and Isabel. They talked for a while, occasionally arguing about whether or not they should go to Antar… whether or not they should leave parents… friends… loved ones… and the life they knew. It was déjà vu for some, as though they were reliving their own earlier misgivings. But then something happened that was not familiar to them. A man with a gun unexpectedly burst into the chamber. As the light fell on his face, they saw that it was Pierce; he had apparently followed them. Pierce took one look at the granolith and knew instinctively what it meant. They were escaping… escaping forever… escaping to a place where he could never find them again. He raised his gun to fire it at Max, and suddenly there was chaos…

Michael was the first to react, quickly getting off a blast of energy that melted the gun in Pierce’s hand before he could fire it. But when he tried to blast Pierce, nothing happened. Max tried, too, with the same result. It seemed that the granolith was preventing them, in some way, from any further blasting inside the chamber, probably to protect the chamber and those inside it. It also appeared to be preventing Pierce from using his backup weapon against Max. Though he pulled the trigger several times, nothing happened. Michael’s first thought, after disarming Pierce and seeing that his backup had failed, was to get Max to safety. Quickly, he shoved Max toward the granolith… “GO, MAX! GO! Get out of here! Take the granolith!”

Max shook his head and looked at Liz, then he looked back at Michael, his head filled with uncertainty… “We all need to stay together… We can fight him together.”

“GO!” Michael insisted, shoving Max into the granolith, “Come back for us when you can!”

The granolith began to glow and pulsate with colors, and Pierce, seeing his number one trophy getting away, momentarily lost all semblance of sanity…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

With one long, hysterical cry of rage and frustration, Pierce rushed forward and leapt, hitting Max with his outstretched hands and sending him tumbling backwards out of the granolith; but at that same moment, the granolith, unable to stop a reaction that had already begun, became solid. For a brief moment, everyone saw Pierce’s hands and face, pressed against the inside of the granolith, like a caged animal wanting out. Then the granolith shot skyward… with Pierce in it.

Pierce slumped to the floor, uncertain what lay ahead, not knowing where he was going or what would become of him. Throughout the brief journey, he remained that way, never speaking… and rarely moving… in shock.

When Pierce had first entered the chamber, the granolith’s immediate impulse had been to destroy him. But it had discovered that it was unable to do so. It scanned and recalibrated its systems internally and tried again. Still, it was unable to harm Pierce, whom it considered little more than a dangerous parasite now that he was onboard and heading toward Antar. Searching for a reason for this strange malfunction, the granolith discovered that Pierce registered as having royal DNA. The granolith repeatedly ran assays to prove or disprove this surprising new data, but was unable to disprove it. Every single assay registered royal DNA coming from Pierce’s body… and not just any royal DNA… but Max’s DNA.

The granolith “knew,” on the one hand, that the man sitting on the floor inside it was not Max, nor even a royal at all… but on the other hand, its own security system, a system designed to protect the royals, refused to act against Pierce; and, even more incomprehensibly, it had prevented Michael and Max from harming Pierce in the chamber and continued to identify Pierce as Antarian royalty. The granolith was not configured to think in exactly the same terms that we do, but this conundrum… this internal struggle between its security system and its higher “brain…” was enough to give it a meltdown. To protect itself, it ultimately accepted Pierce… though somewhere in the guts of its system… it still refused to believe it.

Once on Antar, the walls of the granolith became permeable again, as the forces that had held everything inside it subsided and then ceased. Realizing that he was free to leave, Pierce jumped out; then, with only a cursory glance back, he ran.

That was the last the granolith saw of Pierce until almost three months later, when he showed up with a team of Antarians and ordered them to build a containment unit around the “machine” to contain its powers. Incomprehensibly, at the same time he was ordering them to “contain” the granolith’s powers, he was claiming to be receiving protection and power from the granolith. But for whatever reason, his orders were carried out without question. Almost certainly, the Antarians knew that nothing they built around the granolith would be able to contain its powers, but no one told Pierce this. Perhaps they didn’t dare to. Once the building was finished, Pierce left again, and that was the last time the granolith saw him.

As the images faded, Max dropped Liz and Maria’s hands, and everyone looked at him… a hundred questions swirling around in their minds…

“So Pierce never planned to come to Antar at all then; it was an accident,” Liz said… “But that doesn’t explain where he’s getting his powers from… and why does the granolith’s security system think he has royal DNA… your DNA, Max?”

“Exactly,” Max agreed, nodding. “Those are questions the granolith does not have answers to. His powers did not come from the granolith. The granolith never attacked us. His powers are coming from somewhere else.”

“We need to find out where,” Michael said emphatically.

Max nodded… “Agreed. Any ideas?”

“Isabel could dream walk him,” Kyle suggested, “When he’s asleep.”

Max nodded and looked at Isabel. “It might work, but we can’t be sure that he would tell Isabel anything, either, even in his dreams.”

“It’s worth a try,” Michael said.

Max nodded again. “If it doesn’t work, nothing will have been lost. Isabel? Are you up to it?”

Isabel nodded. “Sure. I’ll do it.”

“You’re not worried about violating his privacy or something?” Maria asked.

“It’s Pierce,” Isabel retorted, “I’m not worried about it.”

The group went about their usual duties until Pierce had gone to sleep later that evening, then Isabel got comfortable in one of the big easy chairs in the ship’s lounge and concentrated. Shortly, she entered into a fog-like state, and then she saw Pierce. He was pacing back and forth in his dream.

“A penny for your thoughts,” Isabel said innocently, walking up behind him.

Pierce swung around, surprised by Isabel’s sudden appearance, seemingly out of nowhere… “Where did you come from?”

He looked her over for a moment then looked back at the wall… “I already told you I have nothing to say to any of you… that includes you.”

“You’re not telling them,” Isabel agreed, “This is a dream. I’m only here in your dream.” Technically, Isabel told the truth; she was, after all, only there in his dream. Pierce looked at her again and seemed to think about it… “Dream or not, I’m not telling you anything.”

“Everybody needs somebody to talk to,” Isabel insisted, “Even you. I guess that’s why you’re dreaming about me… or is there some other reason?”

“No! No… No, there’s not… Besides, I don’t need anybody to talk to,” Pierce replied adamantly, “I’m quite self-sufficient.”

“I know,” Isabel said, “But you didn’t intend to come to this planet. You were trapped in the alien machine. And you don’t speak their crazy alien language. You have to treat the aliens like children to get them to understand plain English…”

“How do you know… oh, right, you’re a figment of my imagination… what was it that Ebenezer Scrooge said… a piece of undigested food…”

“A Christmas Carol,” Isabel said, nodding at the reference to Scrooge when he was confronted by Bob Marley’s ghost. “Do you think that’s what I am… a stomach ache… a bad dream?”

Pierce looked at Isabel again and sighed… “Well, you may be, but if I had to look at one of you, I guess…”

“Yes?”

“Never mind.”

“You think I’m sexy?”

Pierce seemed to fortify himself… “You’re a damned alien. You can make yourself look like anything. You may even be a guy… with three eyes and a forked tongue… if I saw your real appearance!”

Isabel smiled and shook her head. “I’m a figment of your imagination… a piece of undigested food, remember? I am only what you see.”

Pierce looked at Isabel again and seemed to relax. “You’re right. You’re only whatever I dream that you are. You look like her… but you’re just what’s in my mind… nothing more.”

Isabel sat down on the floor and put her arms around her knees, as she watched Pierce pace; then suddenly, he stopped and looked at her again…

“How am I going to get back to earth?”

Isabel smiled. “That is a problem. It’s easy to fool these stupid aliens and make them believe that the granolith is protecting you and giving you its power and that it’s going to take you home again when you’re ready, but to do it, you have to learn how to actually control the, uh… the machine yourself.”

“Exactly,” Pierce acknowledged, as though he were talking to himself, “I have to find out how to control that damned alien machine. The problem is, none of these idiots seems to know how to do it themselves.”

“Lord knows, you’ve tried to make them tell you,” Isabel said.

“I have,” Pierce nodded, “I’ve tortured them, dissected them, threatened them, locked up their families and threatened them…”

“But they don’t seem to know anything,” Isabel said for him.

“No,” Pierce replied, “That’s why I need Max. He will know how to control the machine. It was made to respond to him.”

“That’s why you wanted the machine to think you were him… why you tricked it with his DNA,” Isabel said.

Pierce nodded. “It was a brilliant plan. It should have worked. I think it would have if I hadn’t got trapped in the machine.”

“It was brilliant,” Isabel agreed, stroking Pierce’s ego.

A smile tugged at the corner of Pierce’s lips, and he began to unbutton his shirt. For a moment, Isabel got ready to cancel the dream walk, but instead of doing what she thought he might be going to do, he looked down at his side. There was a scar… like an appendix scar… and he was looking at it almost admiringly…

“That was probably the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done in my life!”

Pierce seemed to caress the ten-inch-long scar as he spoke, as though it were something he was supremely proud of. Isabel was desperate to ask questions, but as a “figment of Pierce’s imagination,” she would already know everything. She would have to get him to tell her while pretending to know all the answers already.

“You sacrificed a lot to save your planet.”

“I did,” Pierce agreed, nodding proudly. “Do you know what it’s like knowing that there’s a piece of filthy alien inside my own body? But it was worth it.”

Isabel recoiled, for a moment fighting the urge to gag, but then she managed to regain her self-control… if only tenuously.

“It was worth it,” she repeated, keeping her hand near her mouth in case she threw up… which she feared she might do even if this was only a dream walk.

“Damned right,” Pierce said, “And I’d do it all over again.”

“Even though it’s a piece of… that one… that alien,” Isabel added, hoping Pierce would keep talking and fill in the details.

Pierce nodded. “It had to be him. He was the leader… the king. The alien machine would recognize his DNA.”

“Max,” Isabel gasped.

“Yes.” Pierce grinned a slight grin, as he caressed the scar again… “A part of him is inside me.”

Isabel’s mind was reeling. She had a million questions, but she didn’t know how to ask them.

“But… Max was there… when you were trapped in the granolith… and he was okay.”

Pierce nodded. “He got away from me the first time, in the white room, but I got a piece of him… a very small piece of an organ that humans don’t have. I had it surgically implanted in me, and it grew. Now it’s full size… the size the original was in him. I assume his body regenerated the missing portion as well. I’ve been following Max for a long time, and finally, I found the machine… the source of their alien powers.”

“The… ? right,” Isabel agreed, knowing that the granolith was not the source of their powers. But it did explain why the granolith detected Max’s DNA in Pierce… and why its security system would not allow Pierce to be harmed. For several moments, Isabel sat in silence, trying to digest the things she had just heard, as Pierce stared at the wall, his mind far away from these quarters.

“They would be surprised if they knew how you actually got your powers,” Isabel said, pressing Pierce further and hoping to get more information.

Pierce looked at the floor then at Isabel and grinned slightly. “They would, wouldn’t they! But they’ll never know. Nor will the aliens on this planet. They believe that the machine is protecting me, and that keeps them scared… it keeps them from revolting and attacking me. They’re all so freakin’ in awe of that machine. Whoever controls it controls everything. If they knew my powers didn’t come from their god-machine, I’d be overrun like a grasshopper covered with fire ants. They’d tear me apart.”

“The… ‘machine’ is not a god,” Isabel said, “And Antarians are usually pretty peaceful. Maybe you misjudged them.”

Pierce shook his head. “The ones who know me won’t be so peaceful. That is a fact of which I am absolutely certain. They must continue to believe that I control the power of the machine. As long as they believe that, they will do anything for me… no matter the consequences. Children… that’s all they are. You have to deal with them with a strong hand.”

Isabel closed her eyes and swallowed a lump in her throat. “Children…” the word was not totally inaccurate. Antarians who had to deal with the likes of Pierce might seem like children. Compared to his evil, their innocence was childlike. Kivar had taken a lot of that innocence away already, of course… But why would anyone do the things that Pierce had done to peaceful people… to “children?” She wondered if even Pierce could answer that. Then again… she was sure that in his sick mind he had dozens of “good” reasons.

“It was brilliant how you got your powers,” Isabel said, trying again to coax Pierce into revealing the real source of his abilities.

Pierce sighed, appearing to have tired of the discussion, but for whatever reason he replied anyway, perhaps because it served his ego…

“Brilliant… well, I suppose it was. Actually, it was a little random luck coupled with my knowing what to do with it. But I guess that’s brilliance, right? These two freaks who looked like you… like the Evans girl, Isabel, I mean… and like Guerin… came to see me. ‘We share a common goal,’ they said. I said ‘What’s that?’ They said, ‘the eradication of some aliens that are claiming to be us… We’re the real humans whose forms they stole… the two of us and four of our friends.’ They named the aliens who took their forms: Max and Isabel Evans, Michael Guerin, Tess Harding, Liz Parker, and Maria DeLuca.”

Isabel gasped. “Liz and Maria?”

Pierce nodded. “I know. They’re human. I figured that out. At one time, though, I thought they might be aliens, too, because they sold out to the aliens… joined forces with them, which is just as bad, actually… maybe worse. Anyway, the two freaks said that they were the real humans, and I told them I didn’t believe them.”

“You did?”

“I told them they should look like humans if they’re gonna claim to be humans,” Pierce said, smiling at his own joke… “They were just freaks, though… gang types, you know… heavy Brooklyn accents, crazy hair, lots of piercings, that kind of stuff.”

“Oh.”

Pierce waved it off as just a joke. “Anyway, the one that looked like Guerin… Rath, I think he called himself… Must’ve been his gang name… says that they learned a lot of things about the aliens while they were abducted by them. He told me about the alien machine… and that information turned out to be accurate. They didn’t know where it was, though. Another thing they learned from their abductors was that there are these ‘caretakers’ on the aliens’ planet who are in charge of caring for the alien machine when the king or some other royal isn’t using it, and these caretakers have some pretty amazing powers of their own. I filed that information away for future reference, but I didn’t think I’d ever use it. You see, you never know about these things. Who knew that I would get trapped in that infernal machine and wind up here, right? So, anyway, their information turned out to be useful again. As soon as I got here, I went looking for these ‘caretakers,’ and I find this big shot guy named Kivar running everything. So I make friends with him… get into his graces. He thinks I control the machine, because I arrived here in it, and only I know where it is, so he keeps me around and tries to use me to find it. But that was okay, because I was using him, too, and the first chance I got, I took over and knocked him off.

After that, I took some carpenters back to where I had left the machine and had them build a strong containment building around it to keep the caretakers from getting in and using its powers. After I isolated their machine, they sort of found me, which was real convenient. It wasn’t much trouble to find their weaknesses. They all had families. I locked up their families and dissected a couple of Kivar’s guards in front of them, and right away they’re doing whatever I say. Our powers are your powers. I’m not sure how they knew what I wanted, but they always did. All I ever had to do was wave my hand and it would send someone flying.”

Pierce suddenly frowned and turned serious… “But they betrayed me. The powers are gone now. Those powers and the belief that I controlled the machine were the only things that protected me here and kept me on top. I need to get those powers back. I need to get out of here and find the caretakers.”

“If you found them and killed them, you would lose their powers permanently,” Isabel pointed out logically, “It would be like killing the goose that laid the golden egg.”

Pierce scoffed. “Who said anything about killing them? There are other ways… they have families…”

Isabel understood all too well. They had to be absolutely certain that Pierce never got back into power here on Antar, whatever it took.

Pierce took a deep breath and became very quiet, having apparently decided that he did not want to talk to Isabel anymore… even if it was about his favorite subject… himself. Then, with a sudden sigh, he turned and looked at Isabel with a new look in his eyes… “Maybe I do need to find more pleasant ways to occupy my dreams.”

Scanning Isabel’s body with his eyes, Pierce began to unbutton his shirt again, and this time, Isabel did not think that showing her his scar was what he had in mind. She stood up quickly and brushed herself off…

“Dream’s over!”

And with a quick wave, she simply went ‘poof’ and vanished, leaving a frustrated and very confused Pierce alone with his desires.


<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>


“Iz, there’s only so much hot water on the ship! You’ve been in there for almost an hour!”

“I’ve earned this hot water, Alex! I don’t think any amount of hot water is ever going to make me feel clean again. If you want to help, grab a bar of soap.”

Alex smiled and obliged, picking up a bar of floral-scented beauty soap and stepping into the shower with Isabel, though he was fully dressed.

“I don’t think you need to look any more beautiful, Iz.” Alex put his arms around Isabel from behind and went through the motions of helping her bathe… “If you were any more beautiful, you would be a danger to all mankind… a bigger danger, I mean, than you already are.”

Isabel smiled then turned around in Alex’s arms, facing him, and gazing deeply into the eyes that adored her, not the ones that merely lusted after her, although Alex did that, too. “Hold me tight, Alex. It’s not the soap I needed… it’s you. You make me feel right again.”

Isabel pressed her lips passionately to Alex’s, and he responded. As the water poured over their heads, Alex’s clothes, already thoroughly soaked, clung to him like saran wrap, and his shoes made little squishing sounds as his toes curled and uncurled with delight… but neither of them seemed to notice.



<center>End of Chapter 29

tbc…</center>

great update. Is the group going to go look for the Max and group in this timeline now. I hope so

slowly but surley chipping away at this well written and hilarious tale. i swear. these guys get themselves into all sort of situations. i had tears in my eyes when they found the parents and they were able to help them. kyle in every dimeniosn. thats jysterical. now you really expect us te believe they are leaving in a few days. yeah right. something will come up i know it. i do love the motion of mind warping suicide thought...don't ask why that made me crack a smile.

Ok, I´ve had this story saved on my computer, trying to catch up with it for like a week or more.
So far, I am still reading it... here it goes some deserved feedback.

CH 1 and 2 - I remember that serie, I used to watch it when I was young, not that I am old , but I was really young, like 13 years old. I enjoyed it very much so I was really excited when reading this was like a Crossover with Sliders. There was also another serie, very similar with Alan Pacula , i don´t even remember the name in spanish least of all in english.

LOL LOL at Kyle and Max dancing with those pants. That was hard to picture !!
It was hilarious when Varec took the machine and separated all the pieces and Quinn saw all of them sprayed on the desk ... Poor Quinn !!! It was for a good reason though, Varec saved their lifes in the end !!

Thanks so much for the feedback, Timelord, Roselle, and Veca! In a way, Timelord, your request is granted in this chapter, only with a slight twist.
I know it has taken me a while to get this chapter finished, but I hope you like it! :D

<center> Sliding Into Antar </center>



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Real King

Chapter 30

XXX

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>




Max, Michael, Liz, and Maria approached the house of Shyubn-Sing, who was generally acknowledged to be the leader of the Caretakers, though officially the Caretakers were all equals and had no leader. Max looked at Michael, and Michael nodded. Then with a last look around, Max turned and lifted his hand, but before he had a chance to knock, the door opened and a man stood facing them…

The man was very old and had a kindly appearance, but he appeared strong, and Max was surprised to see that he was also, quite clearly, blind. His eyes were fogged over and pupiless… but oddly, they seemed to “stare” at Max, then at Michael, then at Liz and Maria, for several long moments. Finally, the old man smiled ever so slightly…

“I knew you were on Antar. Come in.”

Max looked at Michael then back at the old Caretaker, as the four of them entered the house…

“You know who we are?”

“Yes. You are the king… Zan… and his General and friend, Rath.”

“How did you…?” Michael started to ask, but the old man waved his hand dismissively… “There are far more dependable ways to see than with the eyes. The eyes can deceive.”

“Well, they don’t always give us the whole story,” Michael agreed, “I would have sworn that you were blind. But obviously you’re not.”

The old Caretaker nodded. “These eyes are blind, but you are correct… I see more than most men will ever see, only not in the way they do.”

“Blindness can be healed here on Antar,” Max said with deep concern in his voice. I may be able to heal you myself…”

Max reached out toward the old Caretaker, but the old man stepped back… then he laughed loudly. “You cannot heal what is not sick or injured or broken, Zan. Long ago, I traded my eyes for another kind of sight. These eyes are no longer needed, so they atrophied, as any part of our bodies will do if it is no longer used.”

“And you don’t miss seeing… I mean, with your eyes?” Michael asked.

The old Caretaker shook his head. “If one has learned to run with the wind, does he miss crawling on his knees, as he once did when he was a baby? I have no need of eyes. I see far more than my eyes ever imagined.”

“Did you see Pierce for what he really was?” Michael asked, blurting out the question suddenly… and perhaps a bit bluntly… as was sometimes his habit.

Max smiled. “The General has a way of getting right to the point. He’s not much one for small talk, I’m afraid. But that is the question that is on all our minds.”

The old man nodded. “Sometimes… it is a good thing to be direct. That way there is no confusion about one’s intentions. By ‘Pierce,’ of course, you mean the one who arrived in the granolith and took the throne from Kivar…”

“Yes,” Max, Michael, Liz, and Maria all said at once.

The old Caretaker nodded. “I did see him as he was. There was never any doubt. But he had the protection of the granolith…”

“But you’re the Caretaker,” Michael said quickly, “You control the granolith. It won’t hurt you.”

“I am one of the Caretakers, yes,” the old man corrected, “And I do control the granolith. All that is true. But we had to find out more about this person you call Pierce. He had… the royal sign.”

Michael looked at Max questioningly and noticed that Max looked shocked… “Royal sign? You mean, like, the V symbol… of Antar?”

The old man nodded.

“I didn’t see that on Pierce,” Michael said, thinking back to all the times he had seen Pierce since coming to this Antar.

“Neither did I,” Maria agreed, “If Pierce had the V of Antar anywhere on him, I would have seen it. And I know Isabel would have seen it when she was in there with him trying to get him to talk… and she would have told us.”

Liz nodded, agreeing with Maria.

“I have to admit, I never noticed any trace of the sign of Antar on Pierce either,” Max said.

The old Caretaker sighed… “It would not have been visible to your eyes… or to any normal eyes… but it was there, I assure you. I see what you do not.”

“So you’ve told us,” Michael said a bit bluntly, “But that doesn’t explain how Pierce could have the royal symbol on him. Where did you see it on him?”

“Ah, you see…” the old Caretaker said with a bit of a smile, “That is the mistake that you make, because it is the way your eyes see things… always in a particular place… on a hand or on the chest or on the forehead. But if you were able to see with real sight you would see it everywhere.”

“Pierce had the royal symbol everywhere on him?” Michael asked, not trying to mask his doubt.

The old man nodded. “Eventually, it would have become visible even to eyes such as yours.”

“It must have something to do with the piece of that organ he took from you, Max… from your double in this dimension, that is,” Michael said, trying to think of any possible explanation.

Max thought about it then shook his head. What Pierce took, I suspect, was a piece of the gorian duct, the dasna’va. Humans don’t have it. But the dasna’va has nothing at all to do with the royal symbol or our powers. Pierce tricked the granolith because he had some of my double’s DNA.”

“No, but Max…” Liz said, as an idea ran through her mind, “What if what Pierce took was actually the upper chamber of the torsgol’dor, the sthenic substernum?”

“The what?” Michael asked.

“It’s the back part of the jiban’golt, the substernum maxima, a small organ that Antarians have in the upper abdomen, behind the sternum.”

“It is?”

Liz nodded. “You don’t know what the jiban’golt is?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Well, of course I know that… but what’s this sthenic substernum… tors- thing… whatever… that you’re talking about?”

“Well, you see,” Liz said, placing her hands close together to indicate a small organ, “It’s the back portion of the substernum maxima, the jiban’golt. Most Antarians don’t think about the fact that the substernum maxima is actually several independent organs that are fused together into one…”

“Yeah… okay… so…” Michael said, nodding.

“Well, see, the sthenic substernum is attached to the back of the substernum maxima and is considered to be part of the substernum maxima, but it has its own functions, and one of its functions is thought to be amplification of some types of Antarian powers.”

“I think I heard that somewhere before,” Michael said, nodding, “Yeah, I did. So you think that could be what Pierce got, part of Max’s ssss… ssss… sthenic… you know… substernum thing? It would be hard to get to. It’s not really easily accessible.”

“I know, but it could be,” Liz said, nodding, “But think about this… at the top of the sthenic substernum, there is a small chamber called the vars’tya, or in more professional terms, the ‘superior regulum.’”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Michael said, turning and looking at Max. Max shrugged.

“I won’t go into the exact functions of the vars’tya,” Liz said, continuing, “But in Antarians in general, it’s what’s known as a recessive organ, an organ without a purpose, kind of like… well… men’s breasts… except that within the royal family, and the king in particular, it’s well-developed.”

“Max has well-developed breasts?” Michael asked, his eyes widening.

“Nooooo,” Liz sighed, “Move beyond the breasts, Michael. I’m talking about the superior regulum… the vars’tya. It’s a recessive organ in most Antarians, but in the king… and some members of the royal family… and in you, too, Michael… it’s well developed… Only more so in Max.”

“And I would know this?” Michael asked. “Did you know this Max?”

“I heard it somewhere,” Max admitted. “I had forgotten. It’s not everyday information or something we talk about at the table over dinner.”

“You’ve been hanging around Varec and his scientist friends at the lab too much,” Michael said, turning back to Liz again, “Their penchant for finding useless scientific trivia is rubbing off on you.”

Liz sighed. “It’s your bodies. You should know these things.”

“Yeah, well, do you know what the prothorax is in your body?” Michael retorted.

Liz nodded. “It’s the first segment… of an INSECT… the segment that the first pair of legs are attached to.”

Michael grinned a bit sheepishly… “Right… yeah… that’s… what it was. I was just checking.”

“I see where Liz is coming from, Michael,” Max said, “She could have a point. If Pierce cut off a small part of the sthenic substernum and happened to take the portion that contained the superior regulum, it’s possible that he may have more than just the royal DNA. He may also, conceivably, have been given other powers that he doesn’t even know he has… including the power to display the royal symbol of Antar.”

Liz nodded. “That’s what I was trying to say.”

“So the four of you are from a different dimension…” the old Caretaker asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question. “I knew there was something different about you. And these girls are your wives…”

Max smiled and put his arm around Liz. Then Michael put his arm around Maria, too.

The old man nodded, and his face took on all the look of a wizened sage. “I would keep them if I were you. You need them.”

Liz looked at Maria, and both girls grinned, but neither one said anything.

Michael shrugged… then he smiled…

“I know that. That’s one thing I do know.”

Max nodded.

The Caretaker smiled slightly then resumed where the conversation had left off… “The man that is called Pierce was told that the Caretakers have great powers, so the first thing he did when he arrived on Antar was look for the one in charge, Kivar, then look for us. He sought to control us.”

“Rath and Lonnie told him that… back on earth,” Michael said. “Rath and Lonnie are… well, they’re kind of hard to explain…”

“Defective duplicates of yourself and Vilandra,” the old Caretaker said for him.

Michael looked surprised, but the Caretaker just smiled… “I told you, I see things that normal eyes do not.”

“You must have psychic powers, too, then,” Michael said, impressed.

The Caretaker shrugged. “You might consider it that, but it is only sight… sight that you do not understand. Unfortunately, we did NOT foresee the depth of depravity of the one called Pierce or that he would threaten our families in the way that he did.”

“And so you cooperated with him,” Michael said. But then he looked at the old man sympathetically, “It’s… okay… I understand. I’m not blaming you. We all know what Pierce is capable of… and what he would do to your families if you didn’t cooperate.”

“Actually, we did not cooperate with him,” the Caretaker said, “We merely allowed him to believe that his powers were coming from us. It was better that he believe that than that he realize the truth… that he had powers himself.”

Max and Michael both nodded, in total agreement.

“But he lost his powers,” Maria pointed out. “After we captured him, he no longer had any powers. He believes that you betrayed him.”

The Caretaker smiled. “In the presence of your Zan, who also has the sign of the royal house, even though it is of a different dimension, Pierce’s powers were not strong enough, and they shut down… though probably only temporarily.” The Caretaker thought for a moment… “It is likely, as Liz said, that Pierce took the portion of the torsgol’dor that contains the vars’tya, though he probably had no idea what he was taking. If he did, then Pierce is now the legitimate heir to the throne of Antar… and our Zan no longer is. In that case, Pierce is the king of Antar… in this dimension.”

Michael’s jaw dropped and he shook his head vigorously… “That’s a crock! Pierce can’t be the king. I don’t care what he’s got in him.”

“But he has the royal symbol…” the Caretaker said.

“I thought Pierce said that Max would regenerate the missing portion of that organ,” Maria said, reminding everyone of what Isabel had told them after getting Pierce to talk to her.

“The torsgol’dor probably did regenerate,” the Caretaker agreed, “But the superior regulum, the vars’tya, would not duplicate itself as long as it exists in another individual. If Pierce has it, then he is the king. It is as simple as that.”

“Then we have to get it back!” Michael said emphatically.

The Caretaker nodded thoughtfully. “Of course, it would be treason to cooperate with someone who wanted to harm the legitimate king.”

Michael glared at the old man unsympathetically, unbendable in his conviction, and clearly unwilling to waste any time trying to find ways to justify what he knew inside himself was right… “What does your superior vision tell you, Caretaker?”

The Caretaker smiled. “That there is greater sight than normal eyes are capable of… and greater cause than that bestowed by the mere possession of a vars’tya.”

Michael nodded. “So you’ll help us then?”

“I am loyal to the king,” Shyubn-Sing said, “The true king… not the man called Pierce… though by some traditional laws he may now be our king. We will get the vars’tya back. Who will return it to Zan?”

“I’ll take care of that,” Max said. “I’ll get it back to him… one way or the other.”

“Whatever!” Michael exclaimed. “I just want it out of Pierce… and the sooner the better!”

“That’s something we can all agree on,” Maria said emphatically.


<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>

Max, Michael, Liz, and Maria arrived back on the New Granolith to find Jim, Kyle, Alex, and Isabel waiting for them. Usually, when Jim was waiting to meet them it meant that there had been some kind of security incident or that there was a serious and immediate threat of some possible security incident. Max looked at Jim and sighed.

“Sorry, Max,” Jim said, reading his face, “I know it’s not what you want to come back and hear, but…”

“It’s okay, Jim. Just… lay it on me. Whatever it is, we’ll take care of it.”

“Pierce escaped,” Alex said.

Max groaned, and Michael’s face turned pale and then reddened. “How?” Michael exclaimed, “How could that happen? He was contained! How could he escape?”

“His powers came back,” Isabel said. “We didn’t see it coming. He grabbed me from behind and threatened to kill me if we didn’t send him back down to the planet.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Max asked, looking Isabel over.

Alex nodded. “Tess was… and Kyle. They tried to stop Pierce and free Isabel. Tess was the only one on the ship besides Isabel who might have had the power to stop him. With her down and Isabel unable to get at him, we had to do what Pierce wanted… We sent him back to the planet.”

Max looked at Kyle, but Kyle held his hand up… “I’m okay. Don’t worry about me. Go take care of Tess.”

“Where is she?” Max asked, “What did he do to her?”

“In the recovery room,” Isabel said shakily. “She was hit pretty hard by several blasts from Pierce, Max…”

In Isabel’s eyes, Max saw deep concern, and he knew it was serious. He headed for the recovery room without waiting for any more details. The recovery room was the ship’s hospital, but the crew had long ago decided to call it a “recovery room.” The name had an upbeat, positive sound to it. And besides, with Max around to heal almost anything short of death or some incurable disease, it actually was, usually, more of a recovery room or treatment room than a true infirmary or hospital.

Max arrived quickly and walked in to find Tess lying on a bed, seriously injured and semi-conscious. Her husband, Rayylar, was at her side, holding her hand. Seeing Max walk in, Tess made a feeble effort to sit up, unsuccessfully.

“Don’t try,” Max said, taking her by the shoulders and laying her back down gently. “Just wait until I take care of your injuries.”

“I’m… sorry… Max,” Tess whispered, “I let him get away.”

“You tried,” Max said, as he passed his hands over Tess searching for injuries. “You did what you could. No one can fault you for that. I should have had someone watching Pierce 24/7, and Michael or I one should have been here… in case something like this…”

“It wasn’t your fault, Max,” Tess objected. “No one knew that Pierce would regain his powers. We need to find him and get him back.”

“I’ll take care of that, don’t worry,” Max said firmly, placing his hands back at his sides… “Try sitting up now.”

Tess sat up carefully and then smiled. “That feels… definitely… better. I feel like I may actually live now.”

Max smiled. “If you find any more injuries let me know. I think that took care of the main ones.”

Tess nodded then held out her hand. The tip of her finger was burned, and the nail was broken and hanging. Standing beside Max, Liz grimaced involuntarily, though in actual fact, it was one of the smallest of Tess’ injuries. Max touched it for a moment, then Tess looked at it and nodded…

“You have a future in cosmetology, Max. You do great nail repairs!”

Max rolled his eyes and smiled… “Well, let’s keep it to ourselves, okay? I don’t want to be known as the ship’s manicurist.”

Tess smiled and nodded, hopping off the table and into Rayylar’s waiting arms. Rayylar kissed her.

“I think I’m going to need some more of your special therapy, Ray,” Tess said, when she finally came back up for air.

Rayylar smiled and happily obliged.

“I’d better check on Kyle,” Max said, turning back to Liz, “If I know him… and I do… he’s hiding injuries he’s not telling us about.”

Liz nodded.

Back in the control room, Max and Liz found Kyle, who was still pretending that he was only slightly singed. The truth, as Max had suspected, was somewhat worse than that. Though Kyle was still on his feet and conscious… at least for now… Max discovered that he did have a serious injury… a deep abdominal contusion with internal bleeding caused by Pierce’s blast. Fortunately, it was easily fixed, and Max took care of it. With Tess out of danger, Kyle no longer resisted Max’s efforts to help him.

“Max, what happened? I thought the Caretakers had stopped letting Pierce use their powers.”

Max nodded. “They did… I mean they never did… They never let him use their powers. Pierce has his own powers. He just doesn’t know it. The Caretakers let him think they were cooperating with him so he wouldn’t realize that he has powers himself.”

“Oh, man…” Kyle shook his head and whistled. “That’s gonna make things so much harder.”

“Yeah… it is…” Max agreed. “The sooner we get down there and find him the better… before he finds out the truth and becomes a real monster.”

“Becomes?” Kyle chided. “What do you mean ‘becomes?’”

“A real… bigger monster,” Max corrected. “But we may have an even greater problem, Kyle… Pierce may be the legitimate king of Antar now.”

“What!?” Kyle stopped and looked at Max as though he had lost his mind… “That’s not possible, Max! You’ve got to have that V thing with… with the stars in it, like you have, to be the king.”

Max nodded. “Well, apparently, Pierce has it.”

Kyle stood for a moment with his mouth open, staring at Max in dismay.

“Don’t ask me to explain it, Kyle… It’s too complicated.”

“If Pierce were to get killed… I mean really wiped out… would he still have the symbol, Max?”

Max smiled. “I don’t know, Kyle… but thanks for the thought. Don’t forget that he’s got powers, though, and you don’t. You’d better let Michael and me catch him.”

“Yeah, well, catching him wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“I know.”

Max and Kyle walked a little further together and came across Liz again, then they found Michael and Maria, and together the five of them returned to the planet’s surface, but they found no trace of Pierce. In fact, it was four days later before anyone from the New Granolith saw Pierce again; and when they did, they knew that the worst had happened… Pierce knew. Somehow, he had figured out on his own that the powers he was exhibiting were not coming from the Caretakers but were coming from within himself… and he could not have been more delighted. In fact, “delighted” barely described it. It was safe to say that Pierce had become drunk with his own power, using it at the drop of a pin to intimidate… and to kill. In four short days, he had gone from being a virtual unknown on Antar, except among a select few, to being the talk of the planet. Word spread like wildfire from one side of the capitol to the other and to all the provinces. Pierce was no longer a question mark. He was a despot… a very dangerous and hated despot.

Pierce himself had no intention of being a leader at all… in any sense of the word, good or bad. Having discovered that he had powers the likes of which he had never dreamed, he decided to use them to finish the job he had begun… the job of eradicating the alien “plague” here at its source… however long it might take. Pierce felt a new confidence, both in his own powers and in his ability to control the granolith. He was fairly certain, now, that once the “aliens” were all destroyed he would be able to return to earth in the granolith… that he had the power to control it… and that the granolith was his to control.

Of course, drunk though he was with his own power, Pierce did know that wiping out all the “aliens” on a planet would take longer than was feasible for any one person. He did not expect to kill them all one by one, though he no longer hesitated to kill any that got in his way… and often just for fun. No, he would come up with a more efficient way… one that would allow him to shorten the job, killing thousands, or tens of thousands, at once. Then he could return to earth a hero. The thought elated Pierce, puffed him up with delusions of grandeur… and gave him visions of his own place in the history books. He saw himself as a sort of space age George Washington… forging a new beginning for earth, one in which earth was forevermore safe from invasion from space. His crossing over to Antar would be celebrated in writings, in songs, even in paintings… like Washington crossing the Delaware. The name “Pierce” would become a household word… loved and adored by all school children, who would study about his life in school for thousands of years to come.

It was with these thoughts of grandeur running through his head that Pierce walked out of the fortified “situations” building on the grounds of the CoruzAntar Spaceport, where he had been hiding out since escaping from the New Granolith, and found himself suddenly face to face with his greatest enemy, Max Evans. And Max was not alone. With him were Michael, Liz, Maria, and Kyle. They had found him. It might have seemed that that would be the end of it. Certainly, Pierce’s newfound powers were not a match for either Max’s or Michael’s powers, much less both of them together. In fact, though Pierce didn’t know it, Liz or Maria either one could have put a serious hurt on him. So could Kyle, given a fair chance. This Liz and Maria, and this Kyle, had grown in their abilities over the years they had lived on Antar in their own dimension. But one thing one could never do was underestimate Pierce or his sheer deviousness. He had planned for this encounter, and he was ready.

Pierce had figured out that in Max’s presence, the last time, his own powers had failed him. He wanted to make sure that that did not happen again. He had practiced, honing his own powers to make them stronger, but he had not left his fate hanging in that precarious balance alone. He had developed contingencies… several of them… just in case. And he had done what he was so well known for… He had tested actual living Antarians with similar powers to his in the lab over the last four days to determine their weaknesses and strengths. Pierce had left nothing at all to chance.

“You’re trapped, Pierce… Give it up,” yelled Kyle. “We’re taking you back to the ship. I recommend you come peacefully.”

“You’re a traitor to your kind, Kyle! You’re human. You don’t belong with these aliens. If you come over to my side now, I may let you live.”

“Oh, like I’m going to trust you! I’d sooner trust a wild pawgor!”

“Suit yourself, Kyle. I didn’t really want to take you back with me alive anyway. You’re a traitor. So’s your father, the sheriff. Why should I share the glory with traitors? Killing the two of you will be a service to humanity.”

“You’re a sick man, Pierce!”

“You’re right! Sick of your kind, Valenti! Go ahead. Give it your best shot! You want me. Come get me!”

“Maybe I will.”

“Kyle,” Max cautioned, holding Kyle back, “Pierce has something up his sleeve. He doesn’t just invite people to come get him unless he has a plan. Don’t stick your neck out unnecessarily.”

“Somebody’s got to take him down, Max. It might as well be me. I’m as fit as he is… more so, probably.”

“Maybe so,” Max said, “But you’re not as devious as he is. Just wait. Let’s use caution. That is Pierce we’re talking about.”

Kyle sighed. “You’re right. I just want to take this guy down so bad.”

“We all do, Kyle,” Michael said. “And we will… together.”

The five friends stood facing Pierce from about fifty feet away for several minutes, and apparently that was long enough for Pierce. Pierce knew that he had all his bases covered, and he knew that he had the upper hand, even if he was outnumbered, and he was tiring of waiting for someone to make the first move. If they wouldn’t do it, he would. Without warning, Pierce suddenly raised his hand and made a flinging motion that sent a wave of energy flying in the direction of the group. Kyle saw it coming and hit the ground, and Liz and Maria sidestepped it just in time. Max and Michael saw it coming, too, and together, they raised their hands and created a barrier of energy that stopped Pierce’s blast in its tracks, though not a moment too soon.

The others started to regroup, but just as they did, something hit them from above like a hammer.

“What the hey!” Kyle exclaimed, as he was knocked to the ground and rolled into Michael, who had also been knocked over, along with Max, Liz, and Maria.

“I think he created some kind of overloop blast,” Max said, quickly getting back onto his feet. “It wasn’t powerful enough to hurt us, just knock us off our feet. But we were caught off guard. We’re going to have to be more wary. We don’t know what he’s capable of. We could have been killed just now if he had been able to produce a stronger overloop.”

By now, everyone was back on their feet and facing Pierce again. So far, Pierce had allowed his blasting powers to do all the work for him. And apparently he had more where that had come from and wasn’t ready to give up, because suddenly his hand flew up again, and this time a series of blasts flew from the palm of his hand, several of them heading toward each of the five members of the group. Nobody had time to duck this time. Max and Michael shot back, stopping his blasts once more from hitting them and stopping some of the blasts intended for the others… but not all of them. Liz stopped one herself and was grazed by another one that she hit but didn’t deflect far enough. Maria deflected one and was hit by another, which knocked her to the ground, stunning her. Kyle slowed two shots down that were headed at him and managed to diffuse them, weakening them considerably, but he failed to stop either of them completely and was hit by both of them. Max and Michael deflected the rest. No one was seriously injured, but this was not turning out to be the cakewalk that had been expected. And Pierce was only getting started. So far, he had not even touched any of his “contingency plans.”

And that was about to change.

As the five friends helped each other back onto their feet, Michael noticed something in Pierce’s hand. It looked like a gun. For a moment, Michael wondered if Pierce intended to try to shoot them, and he prepared to blast the gun out of Pierce’s hand, as Max prepared to stop any bullets that he might get off. But there were no bullets. Neither Max nor any of the others saw anything leave the gun, but something did… an invisible beam of energy. They felt nothing, but when Michael tried to blast the gun out of Pierce’s hand, he felt weaker than normal… and Pierce still had the gun in his hand. Max tried to blast the gun from Pierce’s hand, too, and he, too, felt weakened.

“What did he do to us, Max?” Michael asked.

Max shook his head. “I don’t know. Just guessing, I’d say he’s found a form of energy that feeds off of our energy, weakening us. We can’t allow him to use it on us again.”

“I’m not sure we can stop him, Max,” Michael said, raising his hand and sending a blast of energy toward Pierce. But he could see instantly that it was too weak and too diffused to be effective. As it slowed down, Liz added her own energy to Michael’s. The blast regained strength and crashed into Pierce’s hand, melting the gun and knocking it from his hand.

“Way to go, Liz!” Kyle said, impressed.

“We need to all pool our energy together,” Max said. “Liz has the right idea. Each of us is weaker than normal, but together we’re still strong.”

The five raised their hands together and prepared to blast Pierce, who had already created an energy barrier around himself for protection. A combined burst of energy flowed from Max and the others who were with him, striking Pierce, whose shield fluctuated momentarily. For a few seconds, they all held their breaths, as the shield flickered, almost failing; then it appeared that it might restrengthen, but at that moment, another blast of energy struck Pierce, one that had not come from any of the five. Then yet another bolt of energy struck him from out of the blue, bringing down his shield completely and knocking him to the ground. The look on Pierce’s face was one of utter dismay and disbelief, but the look on the faces of the five friends was one of almost equal surprise. In the flurry of energy blasts going back and forth, nobody had noticed the arrival of a small, outdated ship on the far side of the spaceport. But now everyone watched as six previously unseen people approached them.

The leader looked Max over and shook his head as he stood facing him…

“I’ll let you explain who you are later. I’m assuming that since Pierce wanted you dead, you’re good guys, even if you do look like another set of dupes.”

“We’re definitely good guys,” Liz said. “I think I can explain everything. We’re not from your dimension. We came here by accident. That’s why we look like you… because we are you… just… from a different dimension. We’re not dupes or anything, just interdimensional travelers.

The leader nodded, looking Liz over and then looking at the girl who stood beside him holding his hand. “You could be twins.”

Liz couldn’t resist smiling. She felt undeniably flattered that this younger Max thought she still looked like her younger double. And as she gazed at the younger Max, she realized that she was witnessing his arrival on Antar for the very first time, something she had missed experiencing with her own Max.

Max nodded. “I guess you are both Liz. Well… this is definitely going to be interesting!” Then turning to Max from the New Granolith, he grinned… “So you’re me, huh!”

Max shrugged. “It would appear so. We weren’t expecting you. How did you get here?”

“We took one of Kivar’s old ships that he left on earth.”

Max nodded. “Probably the same one Kyle and I left earth in way back in the beginning… in our dimension. I thought you had lost your powers, though!”

The other Max smiled. “Where did you hear that?”

“Pierce told us… well, he told Isabel… that he took a piece of an organ from you, and we figured out that it was the superior regulum because when Pierce put the piece in himself it gave him powers… and he had the royal sign.”

The new Max nodded. “Well… I did lose some of my powers temporarily, but they came back.”

“So the Caretaker was wrong,” Michael said, shoving Pierce in front of him and tying him up tightly, “There CAN be two people with the vars’tya at the same time.”

“Not really,” Liz said, beginning to understand. “Max regained his powers, because he was the true king. Pierce may have stolen the powers for a while, but I’m willing to bet that he no longer has them since Max arrived. In the end, the king is still the king, and the would-be usurper is…”

“Dog meat,” Michael said, tossing Pierce down between himself and his double, the Michael who had just arrived. “You’re probably right, Liz, but I’m not taking any chances. Pierce is staying tied up this time.”

Maria grinned. “Well, it’s probably a good thing if Max did regenerate the part. This way he won’t have to put the other one back inside himself after Pierce had it in him.”

“Ewwww…” Liz laughed, agreeing with Maria. “You’re right.”

The newly arrived Max looked at Pierce and nodded. “I don’t want it back. I’ll happily regrow a new one, thank you.”

“It would seem that you already did,” Max from the New Granolith said with a grin… “Well! This is all an unexpected turn… Can we invite you to visit us in YOUR palace?”

The younger Max smiled and nodded. “Why not! We have no other social commitments for today… Our calendar, you could say, is open.”

The others laughed.

“What are we going to do with Pierce?” Michael asked, “nudging” Pierce with his foot just enough to elicit a grimace.

“Call Jim. Have him take him back to the ship and put him in quarantine. We’ll deal with him later.”

Michael pulled Pierce up onto to his feet. “Come on, Superboy. We’ve got a nice kryptonite cell for you back on the ship. Then I guess you get a free ride back home. Not that I really like just letting you go free there either. But I can’t exactly tell anyone that you committed crimes on another planet, and I can’t just blow you up, as much as the idea appeals to me.”

Pierce stared at Michael coldly, a sadistic sort of pseudo-smile on his lips, as Michael turned him over to Jim, who took him back to the ship. That evening, the group from the New granolith joined the new arrivals in the palace, which was conveniently vacant with Kivar and Pierce both gone now, and helped the new arrivals clean the place up. Pierce had been neat, in his own way, but his idea of decoration and entertainment left a lot to be desired. The dissection table in the royal bedroom, for example, had to go. The mattress was replaced… just because. And the families of the Caretakers, palace guards, and some other prominent Antarians were released from their “prison” rooms beneath the palace where they had been held. The rooms of the palace had never been intended to be prisons, but they were sturdy and inescapable… had anyone chosen to use them that way; and for Pierce, they had served that purpose well.

Two days after the new arrivals arrived on Antar, and one day before the New Granolith group had planned to return Pierce to earth, they discovered that Pierce had escaped again. The New Granolith crew immediately notified their doubles and offered to help recapture him, but the younger Max declined.

“Pierce can be dangerous… and unpredictable,” Max from the ship warned. “You may need us. I really recommend you accept our help.”

“Not this time,” the younger Max replied. “We already found him.”

“Is he restrained?” Michael from the ship asked.

“That won’t be necessary,” the younger Max said. “When we found him, he was surrounded by a mob of his victims’ families. Their justice was… sort of… permanent and motivated. It was like… like…”

“Fire ants all over a grasshopper?” Isabel asked.

“Yeah… kind of… just like that. Interesting analogy. Why would you think of that?”

“Just something Pierce once said.”

“So… Pierce is really…?” Max from the New Granolith asked hesitantly.

“Definitely. It’s fortunate that I no longer need that part back, because it would be a little hard to find it at this point.”

“Wow… Well… That does sort of solve a problem, doesn’t it… in a way? I mean, you know… I guess we don’t have to take him back to earth now.”

“It might be hard to do.”

“I don’t suppose anybody there will really miss him. I guess he’ll just be another disappeared agent. So… how are the Antarians treating you guys?”

“Like family,” the younger Max said. “They’ve been wonderful! They suffered through Kivar and then they had to suffer under Pierce…”

“Yeah,” Michael said, nodding… “They’ve had enough of despots and sadistic psychos. The Antarians are good people; they just wanted one thing, and when they found it they knew…”

Isabel smiled and nodded…

“Their real king… at last.”




<center>End of Chapter 30

tbc…</center>

<center> Sliding Into Antar </center>



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Back In Space

Chapter 31

XXXI

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


~ Two Months Later ~


The New Granolith and its crew were in their third day back in space again after leaving behind yet another Antar that was not their own. The truth is, when they came to new Antars these days, they didn’t really expect them to be their own. But they hoped. They never gave up hope. The Antar that Pierce had sought to rule… and destroy… had been left behind nine Antars ago and was just one more memory among many on a long and weary quest to find the one Antar out of millions… perhaps out of billions… that was the right one… the one that they called home.

Maria stared through the dome of the observatory at the stars as they swept by in the darkness of space, and she nestled her head deeper into Michael’s arms. The two were lying together on the oversized sofa that they both loved so much. Nearby, Max took off the remote viewing device that had been on his head and turned his observation chair around slowly so that he was facing Liz. She smiled at him, and he smiled back and took her hands in his…

“We will find our way home, you know.”

Liz nodded. “I know. I just wish it could be sooner. Sometimes I feel so lost out here, Max. It’s like… almost like… our children all died or something.”

“Don’t say that, Liz.”

“It’s just how it feels… not being able to be with them or see them or know if they’re okay…”

Max nodded and took Liz into his arms, cradling her head gently against his chest, then he turned his face upward and stared through the dome into space, as a single tear worked its way slowly down his face. He felt it, too. On board the New Granolith, emotions ran the gamut. Sometimes they laughed, sometimes they played… and sometimes they cried.

But the sadness was always wiped away soon by happier thoughts… or by the antics of the crew. Interestingly, during this long trip together without their children they had begun to act more like the teenagers they had once been. They had become the children again themselves. It wasn’t a bad thing really. It was the result of having no need to act like parents. It simply allowed their true personalities to come to the forefront… minus some of the natural inhibitions that parenting and social responsibilities bring with them. Any of them would have given everything they had to have that responsibility again… just to see their children again. But the realities that they had to deal with were something a bit different.

“Does it seem to you that the places we land up on keep getting weirder and weirder,” asked Tess… to no one in particular.

Isabel nodded. “I think we’re going further and further away from the reality we know. It seems like it anyway.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Kyle said, “A couple of the Antars we were on in the last few weeks were pretty normal, I thought… Everything was peaceful, Max was the king, Kivar was gone… a lot like our own Antar.”

“Maybe,” Michael said, “But Tess is right… some of them have been pretty weird.”

“Well, okay,” Kyle conceded, “If you count that one where you and Maria were the royal couple three planets back.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “That one wasn’t weird. They had peace and prosperity, and everyone was happy. What, you think Maria and I couldn’t do it?”

“Oh, I’m sure Maria could,” Kyle chided.

“Be thankful I’m happy holding Maria right now and don’t feel like moving my arm, Kyle. It’s the only thing keeping your butt from getting a good scorching.”

Kyle chuckled. “Well, there WAS that Antar where Liz, Maria, Alex, and I were the real Antarians and we all had these awesome powers, and you and Max and Tess and Isabel were the earthlings… and had no powers.”

“That one was whacked,” Michael retorted, frowning.

“You just can’t stand seeing what you would be like without powers,” Kyle chided.

“Yeah well… that’s one frikkin’ planet out of… how many now? Anyway, don’t go getting all high and mighty, VALENTI, ‘cause you aren’t the one that had the powers back there.”

“Yeah, well, but I do have some powers of my own, GUERIN. I know, they’re kind of paltry, but they’re something. It’s more than your average earthling has.”

“That’s only because Max healed you that time.”

“Maybe, maybe not. He never healed Alex or Maria, and they developed powers, too.”

Michael shrugged. “So the Antarian food is healthy… and our air is good for you.”

Kyle smiled. “My double back there was pretty awesome, wasn’t he!”

Michael groaned and turned all his attentions back to Maria.

Tess smiled and shook her head… “Well, I thought the weirdest Antar so far was that one three weeks ago… the one where Kivar was the king and the people totally, like, worshipped him. They were going to have us burned at the stake when we showed our faces on their planet!”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, if Kivar hadn’t been so damned honorable and nice and hadn’t convinced everyone that we weren’t their former royals, we’d have been shish-kabob… Antarian style!”

“That’s because on that Antar, you weren’t the real royals,” Rayylar said. “Kivar was the real king, and we… well, you guys that is, tried to overthrow him and take his throne before, and they thought you had come back to try again. They really loved that guy!”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed, smiling, “But what I liked about that Antar was that Nicholas was a woman… a real girly girl… with curly blonde hair and lipstick! I thought I would split a gut when I recognized him… uh, HER. And then when Kivar kissed him!”

Alex snorted and nodded enthusiastically… “Nicholas was Kivar’s wife, Nichola! That was pretty funny! I might have even laughed if I hadn’t been looking at a frikkin’ BONFIRE… UNDER MY FEET!”

Michael snickered. “Hey, all’s well that ends well, Alex.”

“Speak for yourself. They hadn’t lit your fire yet when Kivar saved us.”

Michael smiled and hugged Maria closer to him.

“Yeah, that was the weirdest Antar of all!” Tess said again, laughing.

“Pshhhh! Not even close,” Isabel huffed.

Michael raised his head and looked at Isabel questioningly… “Oh yeah, then what do you think was the weirdest one?”

“The one where my double was married to… that guy!”

Michael grinned… “Say it, Iz… JESSE.”

“Geeeeeeeeeeez!” Isabel groaned, “Get over it, Michael! We find one whacked world that’s all screwed up and you don’t let anyone forget it!”

Michael laughed. “What was so whacked about that planet? It was at peace. Max and Liz were the king and queen. All of our doubles were there, and they were all happy… Huh?”

“Alex wasn’t there!”

“Yeah… so…?”

Isabel huffed. “That is so unbelievable… I mean… God, Michael! Even you can see that’s freaky! Nobody would believe it… I still don’t! I would never just forget about Alex and marry some guy named Jesse… or anybody else… especially so soon after…”

“Well, your double did marry that Jesse guy. So SHE must NOT have thought it was whacked.”

“She was brain damaged.”

“Really? She looked fine to me.”

“If you consider vapid and air-headed to be fine… yeah, I suppose so.”

Michael chuckled. “You’re just jealous ‘cause she got the stud and you got Alex.”

Isabel spun around suddenly, and Michael leapt from the sofa, hitting the floor running.

“Run, Michael!” Max yelled, laughing, as Isabel tore out of the observatory after him.

“Max… don’t encourage him!” Liz said, “One of these days, she may catch him… and she may do him some serious bodily harm.”

“If I don’t do it first,” Alex said, as he headed out the door after Isabel and Michael.

Max shrugged, grinning like a mischievous child. “It’s okay. I can fix it… whatever they do.”

“OH!” Maria huffed, rolling over and pulling the sofa pillow over her head in an exaggerated display of disgust at Max’s comment.

“You think she’ll catch him?” Tess asked, looking just a wee bit concerned.

Max shook his head and pointed toward the door. Michael walked in, with a self-satisfied smile on his face. Tess looked at him, puzzled…

“Where did you come from? Where’s Isabel? And Alex?”

Michael chuckled… “Isabel’s probably running all over the ship looking for me. Alex is following her. I ducked into the droids’ nook just outside the door and stood behind the vacuum hoses until she got in the ascension chamber. Alex waited for it to come back up, then he went down, too.”

“She’ll blow you into little smoking embers, Michael,” Tess said. “You know she’ll catch you sooner or later.”

Michael grinned. “Don’t count on it, Tess. I’m one step ahead of her.”

Tess nodded. “For now. But I’d be looking over your shoulder, Michael.”

“I’m touched by your concern, Tess.”

Tess smiled. “Don’t let it go to your head. I may be cheering for her.”

Michael rolled his eyes and plopped down on the sofa beside Maria again… “Now where were we?”

But at that moment, Isabel came in the door, and she did not look amused when she saw Michael sitting there.

“Michael, stand away from Maria if you don’t want Maria vaporized, too.”

Michael laughed, though just a bit nervously this time… “You wouldn’t do anything that might hurt Maria.”

“You want to take that chance?”

Michael stared at Isabel’s face for a moment, gauging the look in her eyes, then he stood up and walked to the other side of the room.

“Don’t hurt him,” Maria said.

Isabel seemed to smile, but only slightly. “He won’t feel pain, Maria… not for long.”

“Isabel’s kidding,” Liz whispered to Maria, “She’s pissed, but she wouldn’t really hurt Michael.”

Maria didn’t appear so sure, but she nodded.

Isabel lifted her hand, and Michael prepared to block it, lifting his own hand. As fate would have it, Alex walked into the room at that moment. Seeing Michael with his hand up and Isabel across the room from him, Alex sent a surge of power at Michael at the same time as Isabel did. The next moment, the room erupted in light, and everyone looked away, guarding their eyes. When they looked again, there were only gasps.




<center>End of Chapter 31

tbc…</center>

<center> Sliding Into Antar </center>



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

An Unexpected Turn

Chapter 32

XXXII

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>




Shocked gasps were heard, as everyone stared at the spot where Michael had stood only a moment before. But Michael was no longer there. Where he had been, there was nothing but a huge hole in the air… a sort of vortex, surrounded by a hazy aura of swirling mist and eerie light. The first thought in everyone’s mind was that it looked like a scene out of some post-holocaust movie…

“Omigod!” Maria exclaimed, “You vaporized him!”

“I… I don’t think it was anything Iz and Alex did,” Liz whispered shakily, putting her arm around her best friend. “That looks like the vortex those four guys came through before… the ones that called themselves sliders.”

Maria nodded but stood there, transfixed, half in shock, her eyes wide, yet unable to look away from the swirling vortex. Then the vortex suddenly widened unexpectedly and something tumbled out…

“Michael!” Maria exclaimed, rushing to his side. Rolling quickly back onto his feet, Michael grabbed Maria and leapt to one side with her just as another person fell out of the vortex… followed by four more.

“Whooooooooooooooo, Lordy! Oh, MAN!” the first guy out howled, hopping around and fanning a smoldering scorched area on the seat of his pants. “We must have swiped a meteor when we slid this time, Cue Ball! My butt’s on fire!”

“You are not alone, Mister Brown,” said an older man, Professor Maximillian Arturo, in a stodgy, vaguely British accent, as he briskly attempted to put out a small fire that was still burning on his own right pants leg.

Liz and Tess both gasped, and Tess covered her mouth with both hands then began to laugh.

“I fail to see what is so amusing about our situation, Miss… Tess, wasn’t it?”

Tess nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh… honest, Professor.”

Liz stepped forward and smiled at the unexpected arrivals… “I think Isabel and Alex’s blasts must have gone through your vortex.”

“Good Gawd,” the older man said in his stodgy accent, finally putting out the last smoldering embers of his now-shorter right pants leg… “If we wore out our welcome the last time we were here, you might have said so, quite simply. It strikes me as a bit hostile to set us on fire!”

“I’m so sorry,” Isabel said, removing her own hands from her mouth and trying to speak. “We meant it for Michael, not you. Honest, we never expected…! We’re so sorry!”

“That goes for me, too,” Alex said abashedly, “Like Isabel said, it was intended for Michael.”

Quinn Mallory turned to Michael and grinned… “Wow! You must have really pissed them off, Michael!”

Michael shrugged… “They’re thin skinned.”

“Remind me not to get you mad at me,” Rembrandt Brown said, smiling at Isabel and Alex.

“I’m sorry,” Isabel said apologetically, putting her arms around Remmy then around each of the others in turn. “You’re all welcome here. We would never blast you guys, I promise.” She turned and glared at Michael… “Michael, on the other hand…”

“Michael, old pal,” Rembrandt said, pulling him aside, “If you need advice on dealing with the ladies…”

“Isabel?” Michael chuckled, obviously amused. “She’s like my sister.”

“All the same,” Remmy said, “You may need some help… I’m only guessing that, of course… speaking from the seat of my pants.”

“I’ll remember the offer,” Michael said… “You have a new companion?”

Rembrandt smiled… “Yeah, hey everybody, this is Maggie! Maggie Beckett! She joined us a little while back.”

“Welcome to the New Granolith,” Liz said, smiling at the new girl and noticing that she never seemed to stray far from Quinn. Liz filed it in her mind as a curiosity… one that was probably better not mentioned until she knew more. Max and Liz finished welcoming each of the visitors to the ship, and the others all crowded around wanting to ask questions.

“How did you wind up here again?” Alex asked.

“That is the question we would all like an answer to,” the professor said, turning to look at Quinn.

“I think we took an unexpected turn,” Wade said… Then she glanced at Maggie, who now had her arm entwined in Quinn’s, and added, “Not the first one…”

Liz nodded, knowing for sure now that Maggie and Quinn were not a subject to be mentioned… unless Wade brought it up first.

“Well, guys,” Max said, smiling, “Your timing is impeccable. Dinner is in about one hour. That just gives you time to rest up a bit and get cleaned up… and, uh… we might be able to get some of you a new pair of pants… or something. The onboard droids do excellent work… and they’re fast. They can make new pants for you that will precisely match the ones you have on now… only without the scorches, of course.”

Remmy suddenly looked at Kyle then back at Max again… “Hey, Max! You wouldn’t be able to get me a pair of those harem pants would you… you know, like the ones you and Kyle were wearing the last time we dropped in?”

Max stared at Remmy for a moment then nodded, his face reddening noticeably, “I could probably arrange it.”

“All right! Out-o-sight! Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it, Rembrandt!”

“It’s cool, man. You don’t need to be modest.”

“I’m not. That was a royal order,” Max said, smiling.

“Max and Kyle never expected anyone outside of our own crew to see that,” Liz whispered to Wade, “They’ll never live it down knowing that you guys saw it, too.”

Wade smiled.

“Well, I have a question… before you guys go to clean up and all…” Michael said, “How did I wind up inside that vortex thing of yours?”

Quinn laughed. “It was a fluke really. When the vortex first opens on the other end… your end, in this case… just for a brief moment, it sucks in a lot of air, like a huge vacuum hose, before the direction reverses and we slide through. I guess you were standing right where it opened up and just got sucked in in that first moment. We’ve never had a person get sucked in on the other end before… sometimes rocks, sticks, trash, smaller things. It had to happen sooner or later.”

Michael nodded… “Yeah, I remember the last time you guys popped in… all the air got sucked out of the room, just for a second, when the vortex first appeared, then the air returned to normal and you guys fell out.”

Quinn nodded.

“May I ask a question, too?” Varec inquired cautiously.

Quinn nodded… “Sure.”

“Why did you slide again?”

Quinn took a deep breath and slowly blew it back out. “It’s a long story, Varec. The short version is that it turned out that it wasn’t our earth. We all thought it was at first. Almost everything was perfect, just like we remembered it, but it turned out that not everything was exactly right.”

Varec looked stunned, almost as though his life’s work had just been disproved. He stood there for a moment but then shook his head… “It was the earth that you left from the first time, Quinn. I am certain of that. There could not have been a mistake.”

Quinn smiled sympathetically. “Everybody makes mistakes, Varec… even I do, as hard as that is to believe. Don’t worry about it. You did your best, and we appreciate it. Really! You tried. What more could we ask?”

“Not to get sent to the wrong earth, maybe,” Varec replied, torn between being crushed, on the one hand, and being certain that Quinn was wrong, on the other.

“Besides,” Quinn said, “Don’t forget that if you hadn’t recalibrated my timer, our next slide would have been into deep space… remember? You saved all our lives. I think going to the wrong earth was a very acceptable alternative, under the circumstances.”

Varec shook his head. Nothing would ease the vague uneasy feeling of failure, of miscalculation, that played in his mind. He still could not accept it…

“May I see the timer again, Quinn?”

Quinn hesitated, but then he nodded, recalling that Varec had shown an amazing expertise with it before.

“I guess so… Why don’t we wait until after dinner, and both of us can look at it together. It’s kind of like my baby… I don’t like to let it out of my sight.”

“I remember,” Varec said, “Okay… after dinner… together… we look at your timer. We will find out what happened.”

Quinn smiled.

Liz and Maria watched, as Jim led Quinn and the others out of the observatory to show them each to temporary rooms. Maggie Beckett was still hanging onto Quinn’s arm. Wade brought up the rear, her eyes glued on Quinn and Maggie from behind, and Liz had the vaguest, uneasy “feeling” that she was watching Maggie’s back burst into flames, but no one else seemed to notice… except possibly Maria.

Liz looked at Maria and raised her eyebrows, and Maria nodded and smiled…

“This could be interesting.”




<center>End of Chapter 32

tbc…</center>

I just found this story and wanted to leave feedback. When I realized how much of it there was I figured I had better break it into sections as I read, or the feedback might well become a book. LOL

This is really great. I've already confessed the sin of being unfamiliar with Roswell, but I don't need to be to enjoy a good story. And the detail with which you write your characters just brings them to life.

I am familiar with sliders so I know that the characters are realisticly written.

I could envision the look on Quinn's face when he saw what Varec had done to the timer in Chapter one. And had to giggle at the imagery of Quinn and Varec talking theory's and in general being eggheads in chapter two. Chapter four with everyones reaction to Jung-Jo had me rolling with laughter.

Wonderful story so far and promise to leave more feedback more as I have the opportunity to catch up with the author.


10/17 ETA - Am now up through chapter 12. Okay I'm seriously hooked on this story now :D I almost wanted to cry when I realized that Quin and Co. had really been home and not realized it.

Then I felt so sorry for the children at first and then so much admiration for their resourcefulness.

The bog and the healing were absolutely fascinating.

Kivar's attempted return had me chewing on my nails. The whole 'walking on water' thing gave me the giggles and Andya's meteor was great. Definitely more than Kivar was expecting. :

And Bezto's end at the paws of the Pawgor left me cheering.

Considering how long this story is, I'm betting that our intrepid travelers will probably be seeing several more dimensions before finding their own. I can't wait to catch up on what's already here and see what happens.

Wow! Thanks, Teri! I'm so pleased and delighted that you're enjoying this story! I'm having fun writing it, but it's getting close to the end now. There are a few more chapters still to write, though, and you're right about there being a few more dimensions after the one you're up to. Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback! :D I'm looking forward to seeing how you like the rest.

<center> Sliding Into Antar </center>



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Windows To The Soul

Chapter 33

XXXIII

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>




“Well, this looks familiar,” Rembrandt said, sitting down at the table in the same seat he had occupied several months back.

Liz smiled. “Yeah, this is our dining room. No choice of restaurants here. Sorry we can’t offer more variety, Remmy.”

Rembrandt shook his head vigorously. “Don’t be! It was a compliment. For us, seeing anything familiar again is practically an orgasm.”

Michael coughed and snorted his drink, a mix of Cherry Cola, Snapple, and Tabasco, up his nose, which set him to sneezing, and Tess and Maria began to giggle. Liz smiled sheepishly, and her eyebrows went up just a bit, and Max just grinned silently.

“Well, that’s… definitely… good, I guess,” Alex said, as Isabel tried hard to suppress a laugh.

Professor Arturo took a short sip of his drink to ‘clear his throat…’ “Well, Mister Brown, that is not precisely how I would have put it, but I believe you may have adequately captured the essence of our ongoing dilemma.”

“Napkins…? Are there any more napkins?” Michael stammered, doing his best not to sneeze again and having to dab tears from his eyes for his effort…

“I’ve got a frikkin’ news flash: Tabasco does not have the same pleasant qualities when consumed through the nose.”

“I thought you liked it any way you could get it,” Kyle said, not making any effort to hide his glee.

“Tabasco, Kyle! We’re talking about Tabasco! Get your mind back on track, Valenti!”

“I WAS talking about Tabasco.”

“You were? Oh… yeah, well… alright then.”

“This conversation definitely took a detour on the fast track,” Jim said, grinning.

“You’re drinking Tabasco?” Maggie Beckett asked, in an incredulous tone.

“They like it,” Quinn said, “It’s an alien thing.”

Maggie scrunched up her nose but smiled.

“Well, it’s mixed with Orange Snapple and Cherry Cola,” Michael said unapologetically.

“But you do like it straight,” Alex insisted, “I’ve seen you drink it right out of the bottle many times.”

Michael shrugged. “Yeah, so? So do Max and Isabel… and Varec… and Rayylar. I’ve seen Tess take a toke straight from the bottle, too… when she doesn’t think anyone’s looking.”

“Like Quinn said,” Alex retorted, “It’s an alien thing.”

“Yeah, well, this is an Antarian ship,” Michael pointed out factually, “You’re the aliens, not us.”

“He’s right!” Quinn agreed, nodding with a chuckle.

Wade looked at Quinn and grinned.

“Speaking of your ‘ongoing dilemma,’” Varec interjected, changing the subject, “What made you determine that you had not returned to your earth after I sent you back?”

“It’s a long story,” Quinn replied, shaking his head slowly, “Some things just weren’t right.”

“There was this guy that Quinn knew on our earth who had lost one of his thumbs,” Remmy said, “But on the earth you sent us to, he had both thumbs. I don’t know about you guys, but we don’t grow new thumbs.”

“Can’t your doctors reattach a thumb,” Varec asked, trying to think of some plausible explanation.

“Maybe… if it’s done right away and they have the thumb to sew back on… and if it’s not too damaged,” Quinn replied, “But not this long after it was lost.”

“Maybe your medical science has improved while you were gone,” Varec suggested.

Quinn shook his head.

“Well, the decisive factor for me,” Professor Arturo stated flatly, “Was seeing Mister Bennish. The Conrad Bennish I know is a mutant… a dangerous pathogen infecting the very essence of our universe. The Mister Bennish I saw on this earth was a polite, respectful, decent young man… not at all our Mister Bennish.”

“People cannot change on your planet?” Varec asked, incredulous.

“They can… They do…” Professor Arturo agreed, nodding, “But the day Conrad Bennish turns into what I saw back there will be the day I will eat… those hideous harem pants that Mister Brown is wearing.”

“Not my harem pants,” Remmy exclaimed, “Where would I ever find another pair like these?”

“The question is, Mister Brown, why would you want to?” Professor Arturo shot back unsympathetically.

“Well, I don’t know,” Quinn mused, “I would be willing to let the professor eat them. It would be interesting entertainment.”

“Barbarians,” Remmy exclaimed, making a show of protecting his new pants, as the girls giggled.

“Well, it seems to me,” Varec said thoughtfully, “That these are things that could have had a reasonable explanation. Sometimes the most difficult things to believe are true nevertheless.”

Quinn nodded and sighed. “I know… maybe one coincidence… but two coincidences? And like Remmy said, humans don’t grow new thumbs.”

“It should not be impossible,” Varec insisted, “From what I have seen, the human body is capable of it.”

“He’s right,” Maggie said, “The human body does have regenerative capabilities, though we still don’t know what triggers them in most cases. Our fingernails, toenails, hair, and skin regularly regenerate. Children grow new teeth, but adults rarely do… and limbs never regrow… well, almost never.”

“Almost never?” Varec asked.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Quinn said, holding up his hand, “Almost doesn’t mean never. But… trust me, it’s just not likely.”

“Did you eliminate all the possible explanations… even the ones that did not seem likely?” Varec asked, “That would be the first duty of a scientist.”

Quinn actually reddened somewhat. He had, of course, not delved very deeply for possible explanations… certainly not in a systematic and scientific way; and now, under relentless fire from Varec, he had to admit that that had been a mistake. It did not in any way change his opinion that the world they had gone to had not been their own world; but from a scientific viewpoint, Varec was entirely correct, and Quinn, the consummate scientist that he was, knew it only too well… embarrassingly well…

“If I had been conducting a scientific experiment, I would have looked for every possible explanation… and catalogued each one properly… then I would have double checked each answer and looked for conflicts and found a way to explain those as well. But I was not doing a scientific experiment.”

Varec smiled. “Life is a scientific experiment, Quinn Mallory. Everything must be considered with that in mind… especially if it is important to us.”

Quinn sighed. He definitely was not going to win this one, and he knew it from the beginning. But worse than that, some annoying little gremlin in his own mind kept telling him that Varec was right. Whatever he might personally believe about the world Varec had sent them to, Quinn had allowed himself to make a final determination, one affecting all their lives, based on a mere feeling… Well… a bit more than a feeling… There was evidence that had seemed convincing at the time… on the surface… But what if there WAS an explanation? The idea burned at Quinn’s mind. He wished he had given more thought to possible explanations now, even seemingly implausible or ridiculous ones. At least he would be able to look Varec in the eyes right now and not feel lower than a high school science flunkee. It was a very unpleasant feeling for one with Quinn Mallory’s brilliant mind for science.

“Well… don’t be concerned about it now,” Varec said, sensing Quinn’s discomfort. “The information is still in your timer. We can examine it together after dinner. The worst that could have happened would be that you saw a few more alternate worlds and had a few more experiences to learn something new from.”

“Yeah, Cue Ball!” Remmy added, “Everybody here depends on you, and you’ve never let us down. If we didn’t have you, we’d be lost for real!”

Quinn chuckled. “Only if someone else as arrogant and single-minded as me put you out there to start with, Remmy. Don’t forget, it’s my fault we slid in the first place.”

“Yeah, but you’ll get us back, Cue Ball. We believe in you.”

Wade smiled at Remmy and nodded. “I believe in you, Quinn. I’ve always believed in you.”

Seated next to Quinn, Maggie Beckett put her arm through Quinn’s and looked into his eyes… “I believe in you, too.”

Quinn looked at Maggie and smiled, and she kissed him lightly, almost teasingly, on the forehead.

Wade smiled, too… at least, her lips did. That was what Quinn saw when he looked at her. What Quinn did not see was the smile in Wade’s eyes. But how could he have? It had been replaced… by a deeper sadness in her heart. That was something that Quinn did not see.

But someone did.


<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>


The knock on Wade’s bedroom door was soft, almost tenuous, and at first she thought she might have imagined it. Then she heard it again. This time it was just a bit louder. Wade looked up from her bed and closed the paperback novel Maria had loaned her to read after dinner…

“Who is it?”

“It’s Alex. Are you decent?”

Wade smiled and opened the door. “I’ve still got all my clothes on. Does that qualify?”

Alex smiled. “That’s what I meant.”

Wade laughed. “Are you the official welcoming committee, Alex? Where’s my basket of fruit?”

Alex shrugged and smiled. “I can get you some.”

Wade took Alex by the arm and sat him down in the easy chair beside her bed, then she sat down on the bed beside him. “Don’t be silly. I was only kidding. I was teasing you.”

She looked at Alex and smiled, waiting for him to say why he had come… and Alex felt an uncomfortable feeling. Funny, he thought, that he hadn’t given the little matter of what to say any consideration before coming here and putting himself on the line this way. It had just been something he had felt compelled to do, and here he was.

“I was… I was… wondering…”

“Yes?”

Alex took a deep breath… “Well, I’ve been noticing that… that… you don’t seem to be particularly thrilled about the presence of your new traveling companion, Maggie Beckett.” (There! He had said it!)

Wade looked at Alex for a moment then began to laugh. “Is that what this is about? You think I’m jealous of Maggie! Oh, Alex, you couldn’t be more wrong! Quinn and I are buds. We’ve been buds forever. We’ll always be buds. Quinn’s in love with Maggie. That’s a whole different kind of relationship.”

Alex groaned. “I know that… I mean, the different kind of relationship stuff. It’s just that sometimes I see things that others don’t seem to see.”

Wade looked at Alex for a moment, just for a moment, seriously, but then she smiled again… “What are you… empathic… a mind reader… psychic?”

Alex shook his head. “None of the above. I just notice things that sometimes go unnoticed… like… when Maggie Beckett kissed Quinn, you smiled.”

“See! I told you! I’m happy for them.”

Alex shook his head. “No. You’re not.”

Taken aback by Alex’s seeming certainty and brashness, Wade stared at him curiously, but Alex continued…

“Everybody else was looking at your lips, Wade, and your lips were smiling, but I look at the eyes…”

Wade looked down at the floor for a moment then became serious again… “The eyes… windows to the soul and all that, right?”

Alex nodded. “They tell a different story, you know.”

Noticing that Wade’s eyes had begun misting up, Alex started to get up… “I’m… I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have bothered you! I’ll leave if you want me to.”

“Sit down, Alex!”

Obediently, Alex sat back down.

“You wouldn’t understand, Alex.”

“Try me.”

Wade thought about it, then she opened up her heart…

“Quinn and I have known each other like forever. We’ve been friends… buds, you know? We don’t know how to be anything else with each other. Maggie, though… she’s different. She’s what he needs. She’s not just his friend, she’s… more.”

“Don’t you think you can be more to him, Wade? You want to be! I really think you do, otherwise I wouldn’t have come here.”

“It doesn’t matter, Alex. You wouldn’t understand.”

“You said that before. So tell me why I wouldn’t understand.”

“Quinn is… Quinn is… so far above me. I’m not right for him. I could never be right for him. Being a buddy, his lifetime friend, is the closest I could ever hope to come to having him. I don’t want to lose that. He deserves someone like Maggie… someone elegant and… right for him… someone marriageable. I told you you wouldn’t understand.”

Alex started laughing, and Wade looked at him, flustered… “Well, it’s not funny. I’m sitting here baring my soul to you… admitting that I’m not good enough for some guy, and that’s how you try to make me feel better… by laughing at me?” She picked up a pillow off the bed and threw it at Alex, and he caught it and laid it back on the bed with a smile. Then he sat down beside her and wiped a tear off of her cheek…

“You don’t know how well I DO understand, Wade. You couldn’t possibly know. You know that beautiful, blonde, angelic… bombshell that I’m married to?”

Wade smiled and laughed, sniffing. “Isabel? Yeah, she is beautiful! See, Alex, I could never look like that!”

“You’re missing the point,” Alex said insistently, “What I’m trying to tell you is that for the longest time when we were growing up I knew for a fact that Isabel would never ever ever in a million years want someone like me. I wasn’t good enough for her. She was so far above me that I couldn’t even reach that high or think that high. Well, think maybe, but thoughts don’t get you much. She was on a whole different level on the evolutionary scale… or something… She was an angel that God had made special for some Adonis, not for a nothing little geek like me.”

Wade laughed and shook her head. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Alex. You’re special. Isabel did get her Adonis. Trust me on that. A girl knows these things.”

Alex reddened a little bit and smiled. “Well, see, that’s the thing, Wade, that’s what the rest of us all think about you. You’re totally good enough for Quinn. And I think he would be the first one to say so.”

“You think so?”

Alex nodded. “I know so. Trust me on this. A guy knows these things.”

Wade smiled and gave Alex a scolding look for using her own words back on her. Then she hugged him.

Outside Wade’s door, a few minutes later, Alex took a deep breath and smiled. “Now to talk to Quinn.”




<center>End of Chapter 33

tbc…</center>

Wow I guess I'll have to hustle to catch up before you get the end written. I'd kind of like to be current by then. :

Chptr 13 - Loved it, had one of those' thank god they aren't mine' Mom smiles on my face the whole time the kids were feeding Jung-Jo under the table at dinner.

Chptr 14- I almost fell off my chair when they got to the 2nd Antar and found Alex and Isabelle as king and queen.

Chptrs 15-20 I adored the story about how Alex and Isabelle came to rule.

And I'm sorry to ask dumb questions, I know it's probably lame to read fanfiction from a story one isn't really familiar with, but I can't help it. My question is Tess, was this character really like that, so, how shall I put it...'pragmatic' ? This is the second fic I've read that has dealt with her betraying her friends and having a hand in Alex's death.

Though she did redeem herself nicely with the stunt with Kivar. :D


chptr 21- Was tickled to death with the scene in the sheriff's office, very touched by Mali and Gidi's meeting their grandparents. And I had to roll with laughter at them talking about putting Alex to work in the mill or his getting a GED so he could get a 'good' job. I could literally see their jaws drop with the revealation that he was King. hehehehe


So looking forward to more of this soon. Hope to have time to read some more tomorrow. Bravo

P.S. Loved the Urkle (sp) bit too, hilarious image.

Thanks for the great feedback, Teri! :D To answer your question, in the TV show, Tess was indeed responsible for Alex's death. She mind warped him to get him to translate the alien book for her (because he was a computer genius), and keeping him mind warped for so long killed him. Then she set up a faked car accident to explain his death. "Dreamers" (Those who love Max and Liz in the show) generally hate Tess, because she tried to come between Max and Liz and get him to remember their past lives together on Antar and she slept with him once and because she killed Alex. She did try to redeem herself in the end, presumably giving up her life to save all of theirs on the show, but a lot of fans never forgave her. I saw her as more tragic myself. She was raised by Nasedo, a "protector," who was sadistic and hated humans... or who at least had a very low opinion of them and thought nothing of killing any who got in his way. He raised Tess to believe in her rightful destiny as queen and to take care of herself first.

Tess had been Max's wife and the queen in their previous life on Antar. Max was called Zan and she was Ava. As you may know, they had been assassinated by Kivar, who usurped the throne, on Antar then they were "reborn" from hybridized embryos on earth, appearing as 6-year-old children when they came out of their pods. Max and Isabel were found and adopted by the Evanses, a nice couple, Michael was placed in the foster system and wound up with Hank Whitmore, a drunk who beat him senseless regularly, and Tess, who "hatched out" of her pod late, was found and raised by Nasedo, who had been supposed to raise them all. When she showed up in Roswell, with Nasedo pretending to be her father, she was a mystery to the others at first, but then they discovered that she was one of them. After that, Nasedo was killed by the skins, the enemies of the Antarians, and Tess moved in with the sheriff and his son, Kyle Valenti, and it looked like there might be a romance there (with Kyle) if Tess could just forget all the stuff Nasedo had taught her about her presumed destiny with Max. I always thought that Tess was not intended to be evil but that that all changed when Colin Hank, who played Alex, suddenly left the show. They wrote him out as getting killed in a car accident, then later it was revealed that Tess had really been responsible for his death. So she became the bad guy at that point.

wow. this is awesome. i just finished up to 17. so now they've slid to an alternate antar where alex and isabel are ruling and tess is there with them. i love alex's reaction to maria and alex. due the maris's and alex's of there time know whats going on. how you keep all of this traight i have no idea.

Ooohh good stuff.

22- I think I've decided I want a pet Pawgor. I again loved everyone's reactions to meeting Jung-Jo and was really touched when Chuck and Gloria decided to go to Antar.

23- The detail in your writing really brought Washington State to life for me. And you wrote another wonderful reunion.

24- The reference to 'The Patty Duke Show' was cute. The recipe for the candy really had me laughing. And I got a big kick out of Amy the 'stowaway'

25- I enjoyed seeing everyone together and happy, but I could feel for the New Granolith crew's homesickness. I am worried now about what they will encounter next. Not all possibilities in the universe are pleasant ones. I'm not sure which would be worse, them running into a bad ruler or running into some version of themselves that was less than pleasant.


I have to agree with Ti88 that it is amazing that you can keep all this straight.

I'm really looking forward to seeing where the next 'slide' takes our intrepid travelers.

And BTW thank you so much for the basic primer on Tess, it helped me understand quite a bit better. I think I see her as somewhat tragic myself. Again, thanks and my apologies that it was necessary. :D

Can't wait to finish catching up on this story and then getting to see how it all turns out. :D

I so appreciate the great feedbacks, Teri and Roselle! It means a lot. :D Well the next chapter is ready. I hope you enjoy it. :D