| Parallel Developments: Second Chances by IamBoris |
| Following the events of �Post-Traumatic Slide Syndrome,� the real Professor Arturo is stranded on Azure Gate World while his double goes off sliding with the rest of the group. The Professor must make the best of being left behind. One of the first things he does is denounces his (well, his double�s) earlier claim of discovering a method of interdimensional travel. He explains that the whole thing was a hoax perpetrated by an aging scientist desperate for attention. He does this because as much as he might have lavished such attention at one point, he misses his friends and his real homeworld far too much to enjoy it now; besides, he has no evidence. Because of the hoax, he�s fired from U-Cal and is forced to get a job teaching trigonometry and elementary physics at a North Shore Junior College. It�s a far cry from the position he held at U-Cal, but at least he gets to teach. Still, he finds himself unhappy with his new life. Now that he�s experienced sliding and has become so close to Quinn, Rembrandt, and Wade, he finds it difficult to readjust to life without them, especially knowing that while he�s on this world so similar to home, they�re probably still out there randomly sliding in search of home and are stuck with his despicable double. A little more than a year after �Post-Traumatic Slide Syndrome� (a point equivalent to late Season 3), Logan St. Claire slides into the world on which the Professor is stranded. She has just recently lost track of the Sliders after having been following them ever since �Doublecross� (after arriving on �Slide Like an Egyptian� world, she followed the wrong photon trail and lost track of the Sliders). She encounters our stranded Professor, and he tells her his story. Logan informs the Professor that she has crossed paths with the Sliders several times before (all their post-�Doublecross� encounters were not seen on the show but did take place), though she conveniently leaves out her duplicitous actions. Arturo asks her to take him with her when she slides so that he can hopefully meet up with his three lost comrades. The Professor had previously considered building a timer of his own and going off to find the others but had decided that it would be pointless (the chance that they�d run into each other seemed far too slim to even try), but since Logan has run into the Sliders several times before, the odds seem good that she�ll run into them again, especially since she can track wormholes (of course, Logan�s failed to inform him that she�s lost the Sliders� trail). Logan agrees to take him along. Outwardly, her reason for agreeing to take him is �any friend of the Sliders is a friend of mine, and I�d be glad to help,� but her true motivations are, of course, far less philanthropic. First of all, as much as she would hate to admit it, her Arturo did invent sliding, and if anyone could help her figure out to get home, it would one of his doubles. Secondly, if they do happen to run into the Sliders again, she can use this Arturo as a bargaining piece to ensure that the Sliders do what she wants (much the way she threatened to kill Wade in �Doublecross,� but this time there�s the additional fact that Arturo will think that she is his ally). Over a period of several slides, the Professor comes to learn the sort of person Logan really is. As time goes by, though, Logan begins to mellow her extreme methods in response to the Professor�s positive influence and support; the two of them slowly begin to trust each other. After about six months, Logan even admits to him what had really happened when she encountered the Sliders. Even though he has known all along that Logan was up to something (especially given the events of Part 3 of the Worlds Apart saga, �Joint Venture�) and that she had had ulterior motives for bringing him along, the Professor is still shocked and angry to learn exactly what happened. But after a lot of soul-searching, he comes to realize that it took Logan a lot courage to admit to him what she�d done, and he says that he�d still trust her with his life because she�s a different person now who�s clearly remorseful over what she did. After about two years of sliding together (bringing us to a point equivalent to mid-Season 5), they stumble upon a world strikingly similar to Earth Prime. After finding out a great deal about this earth�s history and such, Arturo eventually realizes that it actually is Earth Prime. The Professor is torn; should he remain here on Earth Prime, the home he�s been missing and searching for for nearly five years, or continue sliding in search of his friends? After much deliberations, he decides to stay, figuring that his friends� chances of relocating Earth Prime are better than his chances of running into them by chance while randomly sliding. Logan has become close with the Professor in their time sliding together, so she also stays. The Professor gets another teaching position at U-Cal, and Logan works there as his research partner. Together, they work not only at their official jobs, but also at trying to figure how they can find the Sliders and bring them home. Very little time goes by before the FBI learns of the Professor�s return and sends two agents (Copeland & Yenn from �Summer of Love�) to San Francisco to find out where he�s been all this time. He explains. The agents admit that they had learned about the ERP Bridge from Bennish five years ago but had discounted it as too crazy an explanation. They further explain that soon after, Bennish also disappeared, presumably also via sliding, prompting them to re-think their rejection of the Bridge theory. But by then their photographs of the board of equations in Quinn�s basement had gone missing and the equations themselves had been erased (both done by Bennish, but since the agents don�t know that, they blame it on sloppy work by their CSIs). The Professor explains that Quinn developed sliding on his own and claims that the boy refused to share the data with him (a lie to keep sliding out of government hands). The agents accept this and leave; the Professor and Logan resume their work THE END |
| Sliders is owned by, or is a trademark of, Universal Television, St. Clare Entertainment, the Sci-Fi Channel, & Studios USA. It was created by Tracy Torm� and Robert K. Weiss. I am using the title and characters without permission but am making no profit from doing so; so for the love of all things holy, don�t sue me! That having been said, this particular story was written by me, so please ask me before posting it anywhere else, and give me credit if you do. |