libra

As this episode opens, Wade and Logan are arguing. Wade is insisting that Logan input a specific set of coordinates into the timer, and Logan is refusing to do so without knowing where the coordinates will bring them; Wade refuses to give an explanation, but she clearly has a reason. At this point the argument has been going on for fifteen minutes, and after another minute or so, Logan eventually relents and inputs Wade�s coordinates into the timer. Moments later it reaches zero and the group slides.

In the wormhole, the group again encounters the wormhole creatures (from �Blood and Splendor�). Wade and Colin are encountering them for the first time, and they are both surprised and frightened by the creatures, but the others know what to do. They fire the timer only once and the creatures leave them alone; evidently, they�re becoming more accustomed to the Sliders� presence.

They emerge from the vortex into the middle of a city street and scramble to get out of the way before any cars hit them. Wade leads the group to a specific address. As the group nears the address, they witnesses a young woman�whose face we cannot yet clearly see, but who is revealed to have an odd marking on her ankle�being led through the front yard and then shoved into a police car.

Wade rushes into the yard but arrives too late to prevent the arrest; the police car speeds away. Wade turns to a couple weeping openly on the front porch. Identifying herself as Wade Wells, she asks what just happened to �Libra�. The man, a Hal double, becomes even more troubled than before when he realizes who�s talking to him. In response to her question, he replies, �Miss Wells, I�m so sorry. Libra�s been arrested...for murder.� Wade seems very troubled herself, and so Rembrandt asks, �Why are you so upset? Who�s Libra?� Wade reveals, �She�s my daughter.�

Wade explains (and we see via brief flashbacks):

After spending two months in the breeding camp on KroMagg Outpost 117 (referenced in �Mother and Child�), she was impregnated by a KroMagg breeder. Shortly thereafter, she was transferred to KroMagg Outpost 151 to complete her pregnancy. Four months later (the KroMaggs are able to speed up the gestation process so that a pregnancy progresses much faster than usual), she gave birth to a daughter that she named Libra. Though her official KroMagg name was Kess, Wade called her Libra in private and even managed to make sure that the ID tag-tattoo on her ankle was the zodiac sign of the Libra scales. To Wade, it was a sign of freedom.

At the age of nine months, Libra began receiving hyper-maturation drugs that would make her age seventeen years in as many weeks; it was a measure taken by the KroMaggs to prevent having to wait so long for breeders� offspring to be useful. After five weeks of taking the drug, Libra had grown to a physical age of nearly six years, which made her old enough to be taken away to begin military training, after which she would be ready to serve the Dynasty as a soldier. But the day before Libra was scheduled to be taken away, Wade was able to convince her cellblock�s humagg guard to smuggle Libra to a safe dimension she had heard about, a dimension where humans and KroMaggs lived together in peace (the Dynasty had once began to invade this world, but when they found that KroMaggs were there and in a position of power already, they decided for once to leave well-enough alone). The guard agreed, and telepathically shared the coordinates of the world with Wade so that she would be able to find her daughter again should she ever be able to escape.

Wade�s duplicitous actions were discovered as soon as the KroMaggs arrived to take the child. The humagg guard that had helped her was summarily executed, but Wade�s punishment was a bit more unique. She was transferred to Outpost 88, a world where the KroMaggs were conducting experiments in cerebral DNA manipulation in order to build a weapon to take back their homeworld from the humans. The �Maggs must have seen it as poetic justice that Wade�s punishment for her betrayal would be turning her into a weapon that would destroy mankind.

Even after spending nearly five months as a prisoner at Outpost 88 (pre-�Requiem�), then another six months there alone (post-�Requiem,� during Mind Over Matter), and another six months leaping with Colin (post-Mind Over Matter), Wade has never forgotten those coordinates to her daughter�s homeworld.

And that�s why Wade had wanted so badly to come here and why she was so devastated to hear that Libra had been arrested. Wade had not wanted to explain her reasons beforehand because she didn't want to get her hopes up only to have them crushed; she feared that she'd somehow jinx the whole thing by talking about it. Wade explains all this en route to the jail to visit Libra, but when they arrive they are told that the prisoner is allowed no visitors. They are told that the trial is to be held in two days, and that Wade is welcome to testify on Libra�s behalf.

As the Sliders soon find out, Libra�s future will rest on how convincing Wade�s testimony (and that of others testifying on Libra�s behalf) is, because on this world physical evidence and witnesses are not considered at trial; the only evidence considered is the testimony of friends, relatives, acquaintances, and co-workers of the accused who are asked to tell whether or not they believe that the accused is capable of committing the crime they�re accused of. After listening to the testimony of exactly nine such people, the judge weighs both the opinions expressed by those who testified and whether or not he believes their testimony, and he then makes the decision as to whether or not the accused is guilty. Justice here is quick; the arrest, trial, and sentencing all occur in the span of a single week.

Wade is desperate to free Libra and begins to do everything in her power to do so. At first it seems that the reason Wade is so desperate to free Libra is simply because she is her daughter and because Wade refuses to believe that her daughter could kill someone in cold blood. But even after she and the other Sliders find evidence proving Libra�s guilt, Wade refuses to give up the fight.

The Sliders confront her, saying that while Libra may be her daughter, she did commit a crime and deserves to be punished. In a highly dramatic scene, Wade ends up revealing a truth that she herself did not even understand up until that moment. While part of it is because Libra is her daughter, another, deeper reason Wade is so desperate to free her is because Wade herself was helpless while imprisoned in the KroMagg camp, and she hoped desperately that someone would free her. Wade�s subconscious grabbed hold of this opportunity to free Libra and turned it inward so that in her subconscious mind, Wade is fighting to free herself. Freeing Libra, Wade has subconsciously reasoned, will help her (Wade) win the freedom she was not able to win herself before. In the end, Wade is not fighting to free Libra because she believes she�s innocent (she�s not) but because she herself was innocent and needed to be freed. Wade at last is forced to face the demons she carries from her time of imprisonment, and must do so without freeing her daughter.

Libra is convicted of the murder and is sentenced to life in prison. Wade and the other Sliders are present for her conviction and sentencing, and Wade has a second chance to bid farewell to her now-grown daughter. It is at this point that we finally get a clear look at Libra�s face, and we find that she looks a great deal like her mother (Sabrina Lloyd, wearing humagg make-up, plays Libra). Wade is able to make some small amount of peace with the whole thing, but is still haunted by her experiences, and always will be to some extent. But the current ordeal has passed, and Wade is somewhat comforted by the fact that she did survive and is now free and amongst friends. They slide.

THE END