destiny

Remmy, Logan, and Arturo slide into a world where the US�s westernmost border is the Mississippi River and where all land beyond it is part of a confederation called the United Tribal Nations of America, better known as the UTNA or simply Utna. The Sliders are ready to just have a four-hour layover here in this small village until their next slide, but when they introduce themselves to residents of the local community, they are met with surprise because there are other travelers in this community where travelers are very rare. When Rembrandt-out of curiosity-asks to be introduced to the other travelers, he is shocked to come face to face with none other than Wade and Colin!

There is a joyous, emotional, sentimental reunion between the lost friends. Once the group calms down, Colin and Wade briefly explain what led to their being here (recapping the events of Mind Over Matter), concluding by saying that they�ve now been leaping together for nearly sixth months.

Wade notes that when she first met Colin, he looked familiar, but she couldn�t put her finger on where she�d met him before. After a while, she realized that she�d met doubles of him on past slides, but had never known him as Quinn�s brother. Apparently, he was adopted by other families on those worlds. For example, he was Daelin�s brother on one world (�As Time Goes By�), and a cop who wasn�t part of the Mallory Clan in that dragon world (�Dragonslide�). Rembrandt comments at this point that he too had known he�d seen him somewhere before, and had even discussed it with Quinn back when Colin had first joined them, but neither of them had been able to put their finger on where they�d seen him. Now he knows.

Rembrandt fills Colin in on what happened to make him leap (recapping the events of �The Unstuck Man�), and fills both Colin and Wade in on what has happened with the Sliders since (Colin had previously told Wade what happened since her being captured and taken to the breeding camp). Rembrandt also breaks the news to Colin that the Quinn he met is not his real brother. Wade and Colin make the decision to join up with Rembrandt, Logan, and the Professor so the five of them can search for the others together.

But first, they must help defeat a crazed militia group from the US that suddenly takes the village hostage. The militia, which calls itself �Knights of Providence,� sprang up in the early 1830s when the push toward western expansion began in the US. Several outspoken people felt that the US government wasn�t doing enough to fulfill the Manifest Destiny of America; that is, it wasn�t pushing the idea of the US spanning from the Atlantic to the Pacific with enough vigor. These people were outraged that the government was not fulfilling �God�s will,� so they banded together, forming a coalition.

The Christian Coalition, as it became officially known, grew rapidly and by the 1850s had become influential enough to lobby Congress to be put in charge of western expansion. Its first task was putting together its own militia, the Knights of Providence, which was charged with the task of clearing the West of the Indian �savages� that stood in the way of the Manifest Destiny. The Knights, poorly trained and having no battle experience whatsoever, were defeated time and again by nearly every tribe of Native Americans that they challenged.

Many of the tribes, of course, had not wanted conflict, but the Knights would not make treaties or any other type of peaceful agreements with the so-called savages, declaring that it was God�s will that the Knights and their followers would have sole possession of this continent from sea to shining sea. So the tribes were forced to fight back. With no hope of finding a peaceful solution, the various Native American tribes found themselves in the unique and unprecedented position of having a truly common goal: defending themselves against their common enemy, the Knights. So the tribes united, forming the United Tribal Nations.

The number of Knights had decreased from 12,000 in 1850 to a mere 1,200 in 1857, when the US government finally forced the Knights to give up their fight. No longer in any position to dictate terms, the US ceded to the Nations all land that it had gained west of the Mississippi River and accepted the river as its westernmost border �from now until the end of time.� And thus, the new country of Utna was born.

But even today, the Christian Coalition and its Knights of Providence survive, though in the much diminished form of several unorganized cult/militia groups. The strongest group of Knights in the region today is led by a lunatic by the name of Jerry Falwell, who is leading this siege on the town the Sliders have arrived in. Falwell�s twisted reasoning is that by taking the town hostage he will cause Utna�s military to respond, which Falwell hopes will in turn cause the US military to respond, igniting a war between Utna and the US which he believes will result in the US finally winning the western territory that is rightfully theirs and eliminating the �savages� that live there. The Sliders, of course, thwart the Knights with the help of the local population and slide & leap on to new adventures.

THE END