wrongplace

This story opens with the group getting ready to leave a world where North America is known as New Persia. Since this world is dominated by Arab & Muslim culture, Logan and Wade have been forced to wear chadors for the past week. Now that their time here is finally up and they�re in the privacy of their hotel room, they remove the chadors and remark on how great it is to take off that extra layer of clothing. They complain (for not the first time since arriving) about how oppressive this culture is toward women. None of the men disagree, and even if they did, they wouldn�t dare voice their disagreement with these two women, not after they�ve had to endure dressing in such heavy clothes in such hot, humid weather for so long. Various further remarks are made about how they respect a culture�s right to have different beliefs but that they can�t approve of oppression of any kind, but the conversation doesn�t get much of anywhere. For one, they�ve been having the exact same discussion all week. Secondly, it�s time to slide. Colin jumps in first, followed by Rembrandt and Arturo. After saying a final delighted farewell to their chadors, Wade and Logan take up the rear.

Colin emerges from the wormhole into an alley, where he witnesses a murder. The gunman shoots Colin in the head just as Rembrandt emerges from the wormhole. Rembrandt sees what�s happening and begins to chase the gunman. He�s unable to catch him, however, and isn�t even able to get a good look at the guy�s face. The remaining three sliders emerge from the vortex and find Colin down. They call 911 from a nearby pay phone.

The paramedics�Gomez Calhoun and a Maggie double�arrive and do their best to stabilize Colin. When they�ve done what they can on the scene, they load him into an ambulance and bring him to the emergency room. Rembrandt and Wade ride with him in the ambulance; the Professor and Logan take a cab driven by a Mallory double (we�ll meet the Mallory family later and this man won�t be with them; he must be the result of an extramarital affair between Michael Mallory and this man�s mother).

At the ER, Dr. Pavel Kurlienko and Dr. Daelin Richards work on Colin. His condition is stabilized and he�s moved out of the ER and into a recovery ward, but he�s gone into a coma, and his chances of waking up anytime soon seem negligible. They slide in fifty-two hours. Detectives Kristina Fox and Elston Diggs interview Rembrandt and the other Sliders about what they saw, but Remmy�s the only one who saw anything. The detectives send him to the sketch artist, an alt-Dianna Davis, to whom he describes the man who shot Colin, but he only got a very quick glance.

The Professor and Logan, meanwhile, have gone off to conduct their own investigation into matters at U-Cal. You see, it turns out the man who was killed was this world�s Conrad Bennish. Though Bennish had graduated from U-Cal three years ago after having majored in film-making, he�d recently come back to film a documentary about some big, groundbreaking project that was underway in the Physics Department. So Arturo and Logan decide to go to the University to talk to Bennish�s associates there to see if anyone had a grudge against him or anything.

After finishing with the sketch artist, Rembrandt joins Wade in standing vigil by Colin�s bed. The remaining fifteen minutes of �part 1� involve an emotional exchange between Remmy and Wade in which the two reflect on their memories and feelings about Colin and about each other. This is the first real time they�ve spent alone together since being reunited after two and a half years of separation, and there are a lot of emotions at work. We are left wondering whether Colin will wake up in time for the slide, or if, in fact, he will ever wake up.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .