Sliders is the property of St. Clare Entertainment, Universal Television, and the Sci-Fi Channel. Characters and premise used without permission. This story may be freely distributed as long as this disclaimer is in place.

WHOOSH! Splash! The blue wormhole opened and deposited the four Sliders into the open sea.

"Man, now what do we do?" sputtered Rembrandt. "There's no land in sight!"

Quinn surfaced, gasping and holding the timer. "We have four hours and twenty-three minutes here." He put the timer back in his pocket, under the water. "It's a good thing this new timer is waterproof."

"Well, start swimming," Maggie replied, treading water.

Quinn coughed and looked at her incredulously. "Swim where? We could be heading across the Pacific just as well as toward California."

"We can't just stay here," Maggie argued.

"Guys, I think I would head for that boat over there," Wade shouted, pointing over the other three Sliders' heads.

Soon, the four friends were being pulled onto an old fishing boat by a man who seemed to be a part of the ship itself. His graying, tangled hair stuck out from a blue baseball cap that looked as if it dated back to the first World Series. A faded brown jacket, white T-shirt, and patchwork blue jeans completed his attire.

"Call me Jake," the man said, with a twinkle in his eye. "Who're you, and how'd you manage to get yourselves out in the middle of nowhere?"

The Sliders introduced themselves, then looked at each other, at a loss for an explanation.

Rembrandt thought fast. "Umm...our boat sank,"

Wade chimed in. "Yeah, it like sprung a leak out of nowhere."

"Well, we'd better get y'all into some dry clothes." Jake remarked. "C'mon, I'll give you a grand tour on the way to the cabin."

As Jake led the way, the Sliders took stock of their surroundings. The boat had one small cabin near the middle, and a sort of cockpit at the front. As they walked, Maggie turned to Wade and whispered, "How long until the slide now? I lost track of time while we were in the water."

"I don't know. Ask Quinn, he had the timer."

"Hey, where is Q-Ball?" Rembrandt exclaimed.

The sliders looked around and finally spotted a green-faced Quinn leaning weakly over the side of the boat. They hurried over to him.

"Quinn, are you okay?" asked a concerned Wade.

"I don't feel so good," he moaned. "Guess me and small boats don't mix...ohhh..." He leaned over the rail again.

"At least the fish'll be enjoyin' your breakfast, boy!" Jake laughed. "A little seasickness never killed nobody."

"Are you sure?" Quinn asked weakly. "I feel like I'm dying."

"You won't have to put up with this forever, Quinn." Wade comforted him. "How much longer do we have here?"

Quinn slowly straightened up and patted his pockets. "I don't have the timer! One of you must have it."

"No, Q-Ball, we don't," Rembrandt said. "You did!"

Quinn covered his face with his hands. "Oh, man."

"It must have fallen out of his pocket in the water!" Maggie exclaimed.

Wade became mildly hysterical. "Now what are we going to do? It's probably at the bottom of the ocean by now!"

"What are y'all gettin' so upset about?" Jake was confused. "And what's a 'timer?'"

The sliders looked at each other. "I guess we'd better tell him," Rembrandt said. "You see..."

Rembrandt was interrupted by Wade's sneeze.

"What'm I thinkin'?" Jake exclaimed. "Y'all gonna catch cold out here in those wet clothes. C'mon, you can tell me later. I've got some blankets you can wrap up in while your clothes dry, and the sick one over there can lay down in the bunk."

"I-I think I'd better stay right here," Quinn moaned, gripping the railing and looking down at the choppy water.

"Quinn, you'll feel better if you lie down," Wade took his arm. "Come on."

A while later, Rembrandt and Wade were explaining Sliding to Jake while Maggie took care of Quinn.

"...so you see, if we don't have the timer, we'll be stuck here for 29 years." Wade finished.

Jake laughed. "That's gotta be the weirdest tale I ever heard. Y'all ain't pullin' my leg, are ya?"

Rembrandt sighed. "No, man, strange as it is, it's all true."

"So that's how you ended up in the water," Jake replied.

"Yes," Rembrandt said. "The timer we've got now has a 400 mile radius. But this is the first time that something like this has happened."

"Well, I wouldn't have been too worried," Jake said. "There're so many boats out here, you'd've been picked up sooner or later. Surprised you haven't landed in water before, though. I mean, ninety percent of the earth is under water."

Wade and Rembrandt looked at each other in surprise. "Ninety?" Rembrandt exclaimed. "On our world it's only seventy-five, I think."

"The polar icecaps must have melted," Wade said.

"Polar whasis?" Jake was confused.

Wade explained.

Jake shook his head. "Never heard of anything like that before." He stood up. "Can ya rebuild your 'timer'? I've got a spare radio, and you're welcome to the parts."

Rembrandt jumped up. "Great! Q-Ball can have another timer ready in no time."

Wade was skeptical. "Out of radio parts? I don't know. It's possible. He'd still have to do it before the time ran out on the other timer."

"Why?" Rembrandt asked.

"He'd have to calibrate it with the signal from his Sliding machine back home. It would still have the same time limit, I think," Wade replied.

"Well, he'd better get started rebuilding it then," Rembrandt looked at his watch. "We've only got a couple hours left."

"I'll go get the radio," Jake said as he walked away.

Maggie came out of the cabin to hear Rembrandt's last remark. "Guys, I don't think Quinn can rebuild anything. He's getting worse."

"That bad, huh?" Rembrandt was concerned.

"Come in and see him."

The three sliders entered the cabin and saw Quinn curled up on the bunk, moaning, "Get me off the boat...stop the boat, make it stop...ohhh..."

Wade knelt down beside him. "Quinn, we need you to build another timer. Do you think you can?"

Quinn opened his eyes. "Sure, just get me off the boat and...oh god..." He grabbed the bucket next to the bed and vomited into it. Afterward, he stood up, swaying, and announced, "I can't take this anymore. I'm getting off. I'll swim to shore." He started to stumble out, but his friends grabbed him and set him back down.

"Q-Ball, if you jump off this boat, I'll have to go in after you, and get my clothes all wet again." Rembrandt said. "You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?"

"I just want this to stop...make it stop, please..." Quinn groaned, lying down and holding his stomach.

"Now what?" Maggie exclaimed. "Quinn's the only one of us who could build another timer!"

Rembrandt, Wade and Maggie looked at each other, helpless. It looked like they were stuck here, unless they could get Quinn back on land soon.

Wade, Maggie, and Rembrandt all sat in the small cabin of the fishing boat. Quinn lay on the bunk, in a fitful sleep.

Jake walked in to the cabin. "Hey y'all, I just heard on the radio that there's a whopper of a storm headed this way. I'm turning the boat around and headin' back to dock."

"Great," Maggie muttered. "Quinn's going to feel a lot better now with the bigger waves."

"Maggie, that's not funny," Wade exclaimed.

"It wasn't meant to be." She turned to Jake. "How long will it take to get back on solid ground?"

"Oh, I dunno. 'Bout the rest of the day, dependin' on how much this storm slows us down,"

"The rest of the day!" Rembrandt was upset. "We only had four hours when we slid in here!"

"I'll do the best I can," Jake said as he left the cabin.

Quinn woke up and groaned. "I feel worse. Why are the waves bigger? I want to get off."

Wade brushed a lock of his hair back from his forehead. "I know, Quinn. Just relax." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Try to go back to sleep."

Rembrandt spoke up. "Don't worry, Q-Ball. It'll be over soon."

Quinn moaned softly as his eyes closed.

The other Sliders looked at each other, helpless. There was nothing they could do but wait.

About an hour later, Jake came back into the cabin. "We're passin' the spot where I picked y'all up. I..."

He was interrupted by a WHOOSHing sound outside. Everyone except the still-seasick Quinn ran up to see what had happened. They were startled to see an orange wormhole in the air off the port side off the ship. As they watched, a woman flew out and landed in the water. Jake ran to stop the boat as the sliders lowered a rope into the water and pulled the woman aboard.

Wade looked at the woman's face and gasped. "Logan St. Clair!"

As rain started to fall on the little boat, Logan stood up with her back to the cabin. "Finally! I've found you and you won't get away so easily this time." She pulled a timer out of her pocket. "I only have 5 minutes on this world," she said. "Where's Quinn?"

Wade and Rembrandt looked at each other, and a mutual understanding passed between them. Logan was not to know that Quinn was on the boat.

Maggie spoke up. "He's...OW!" She stopped abruptly as Wade stepped on her foot.

"He-he's dead," Wade said, swallowing.

Maggie looked confused, but kept quiet, realizing that something was wrong.

"Yeah, he didn't make it off the last world," Rembrandt added.

"Well, in that case, I've got no use for you," Logan snarled, pulling a gun from her jacket pocket. "I'm gonna make sure that you never get home, the way Quinn did when he scrambled the coordinates in my timer. This is just gonna be a bit more permanent for you." She pointed the gun at Maggie. "I don't know who you are, but if you're with them, you sure don't know how to pick your friends."

"Logan, wait," Wade said. "You don't know what you're doing."

Maggie gazed calmly at Logan. "I don't know who you are, and I don't have a problem with you. So why don't you get your gun out of my face?"

Rembrandt glanced from Logan to Maggie and back again. "C'mon Logan, let's talk about this, huh?"

"There's nothing to talk about." Thunder rumbled as Logan cocked the gun. She didn't see Quinn stumble out of the cabin behind her. Sick as he was, he saw the gun pointed at Maggie and Logan's finger tightening on the trigger. "No!" He yelled, and flung himself at Logan's back. She fell forward as the gun went off. The bullet grazed Wade's forehead, who fell to the deck, stunned. Maggie and Rembrandt reacted with speed paralleling the lightning that flashed overhead. Maggie kicked the gun out of Logan's hand while Rembrandt jumped onto Logan and held her down.

Quinn crawled over to Wade and touched her face as she came around. "You're hurt," he whispered.

Wade touched the cut on her head where the bullet had just missed taking her life. "I'm ok," she said. She looked at Quinn's still-green face and chuckled. "You look like you feel worse than I do."

Logan looked up and saw Quinn. "They said you were dead!" she screamed.

Wade shrugged. "So we lied. You know plenty about that, don't you?"

Jake came running. "What'n hell's goin' on here?" he shouted. "I heard a gun."

Rembrandt hauled Logan to her feet. "It's a long story. All you need to know is that she was trying to kill us."

Jake was shocked. "Why?"

Maggie grabbed Logan's timer off the deck. "Twenty seconds," she shouted over the sound of thunder.

Rembrandt handed Logan to Jake. "No time to explain. Just make sure she doesn't follow us," he said

"Don't worry," Jake laughed, holding onto her with his strong fisherman's hands. "She's not goin' nowhere."

"Thanks!" Maggie said as she activated the orange wormhole. She helped Quinn up. "Time to get you back on land." They jumped through the portal together.

"C'mon sweetheart, let's go," Rembrandt pulled Wade up.

Wade looked back at Jake. "Thank you so much!" She yelled, as she and Rembrandt leaped into the swirling wormhole.

"NOOO!" Logan screamed as the portal closed. "Don't leave me here!!" She struggled against Jake, then relaxed and started chuckling.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"The timer was set to go back to the last world that I was on."

"They ain't gonna get hurt, are they?" Jake was concerned for his new friends.

Logan laughed evilly. "Oh, no. They're going to have lots of fun..."

THE END?

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