Part II

On the other end of the vortex a portal opens, on the ceiling above the mat. First Jessica falls through hits the mat, rolls immediately to one side, and quickly stands. The Professor comes through the portal behind her and lands on the mat. He sits up and looks at her in stunned disbelief. "I do believe that is the safest and softest landing I've ever made. Do all of your slides end this well?"

"The rides home, yes." She takes his hand again, and helps him to his feet. "I programmed my system so that I always return to the basement. It took a lot of work and calculations to get it positioned just right over the mat."

Another young woman walks over to the two of them, "Looks like you had an eventful slide," she says to Jessica. She turns to the Professor and extends her hand, "Hi, Professor, my name is Jade Mallory, and I am definitely looking forward to hearing about how you came to be here with us."

The Professor looks at her questioningly, but shakes her hand. "It never ceases to amaze me how many people from other worlds know me. I am looking forward to finding out about your world here, and about the other Max you two must have known. I do hope he was not like the one we encountered on that last world."

Jessica smiles at him, and turns back to Jade, "Let’s lock down and secure everything, then we can take our guest upstairs for a meal, and get to know one another."

They both walk over to what appears to be a desk. Jessica runs her hand along one side, and the desk moves forward and to the side. She pulls the desk chair forward into the opening left by the desk. Jade moves in behind her, and says, "When I saw the extra mass coming through I closed the desk. Little did I know it would be Professor coming with you."

"Did you get any new data from that last slide?" Jessica asks her.

"No," Jade says as she leans over Jessica’s shoulder. "And no new coordinates from their trail have come in yet."

The Professor moves in behind them to see what appears to be a computer of some sort, but not a type of computer that he has ever seen before. Jessica’s fingers fly across the keyboard for a few minutes, then she takes out her devices from her pouch, sets one aside and plugs the other directly into a slot on the side and presses a key. The screen quickly flashes several screens of numbers, letters, and symbols, and then it flashes "working". After a few moments the screen goes blank, then rolls information across the screen. The message reads "Data inputted. Scan ran. No source activity found. Location coordinates not found." She types in "Scan continuously. Inform when movement detected." She backs her chair up and stands. She runs her hand back along the side of the desk, and it moves back into place. Jade which has moved over to the other side of the room to what appears to be a fuse box, looks at Jessica waiting. Jessica waits for the desk to stop then opens a drawer, and takes it out of its slot. Inside is a small keypad. She punches in a few numbers, and returns the drawer to its original spot.

Jessica says almost routinely, "OK, lock down basement MACRO and power source. Return false dems and white sounds."

Jade pushes on what appears to be fuse switches and closes the door locking the panel. She turns back to the others and says. "OK, all secure. How about something to eat. I have some soup warming upstairs."

"Sounds great to me. How about you, Professor, are you hungry?" Jessica asks Max as she moves toward the staircase.

He nods and follows her to the steps and up. Jade follows them both up. They both follow her through the door into a bright and cheerful kitchen. She gestures to the left, he turns and walks into a dining room with a large round table well lit by a beautiful crystal chandelier. Both of the young women go in the other direction into the kitchen.

"Please sit Professor, we’ll be just a moment," Jade calls in to him.

Jessica and Jade walk into the kitchen together. Jade had laid out everything for the two of them on the counter.

"I’ll get another bowl." Jessica says going to the cabinets. "What do you think so far?"

"I’ll ladle up the soup." Jade says. Then clears her throat to get Jessica’s attention. She turns to Jade to see what she wants. Jade has her finger to her lips. Once she sees Jessica looking she points to the dining room then she puts her finger briefly to her lips again, before pointing to her head. Jessica nods her head.

<<I don’t think we know him well enough to speak freely yet. I know he looks like Maximilliam, but what if he is nothing like ours. I think we should watch what we say until we are sure we can trust him. >> Jade mindspeaks to Jessica.

<<I agree, Mom>> She smiles sarcastically and continues. <<Standard story we use for fellow sliders? We can find out what kind of experiences he and his friends have had first. >> Jessica replies smiling still.

<<Alright smartie, yes usual story basic and simple. We should decide pretty quickly whether to just return him home or what? Less than a week I think, or we risk unexpected visits. >> Jade says back.

<<OK, I’ll call Dad first thing in the morning to let him know about Professor. He can help out with Quinn James and the outside. >> Jessica says as she grabs two of the bowls of soup and the utensils for both.

<<Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about that. We had better tell him pretty quickly about that. >> Jade says as she gets her bowl and utensils and a plate of bread.

<<OK, here we go Jade, showtime as Dad says. >> Jessica walks back into the dining room. Jade follows right behind her.

Jessica and Jade reemerge from the kitchen with bowls of streaming liquid.

"Professor, I do hope you are hungry. Jade makes the best vegetable soup around." Jessica says as she sets one of the bowls, a napkin and a spoon in front of him. Then moves over to an empty place and sets the other bowl, napkin and spoon there. Jade has placed a bowl at another spot and also a plate of bread.

The Professor has taken several mouthfuls when he stops to take a deep breath. "This soup is marvelous, Jade. Home cooking is one thing, unfortunately, we have had to learn to do without."

He takes another spoonful and smiles. "The others do not know what they are missing."

Jessica offers him a piece of bread. "Yes, thank you very much, May I ask you a question?" He says looking at Jessica.

"Sure, Ask anything you would like." Jessica says.

He looks at her seriously before asking, "Are you the counter part or sister of Quinn Mallory on this world?"

Jessica looks at him a moment with a questioning look on her face, then a look of recognition comes over her face. "That’s right I didn’t have a chance to finish talking to Mrs. Mallory. No I’m not Quinn’s counter part. I’m his widow."

Jade has stopped eating and has been looking from Jessica to the Professor. "Jess, You met another Mrs. Mallory?"

Jessica looks at Jade and proceeds to tell her about her slide. When she finishes, Jade looks at the Professor, "Whoa, sounds like some slide for you." She turns back to Jessica; "We need to run a scan on him to see if he matches the Bio-HBF of their world."

Jessica shakes her head, "I already have, it’s a perfect match to Terra 5’s HBF, it was them. Which has completely narrowed our search coordinates to them only. The only problem is that now there are two HBF patterns traveling together. I don’t know how that will effect the clarity of the data scan, or if the MACRO will be able to focus in on Terra 5’s HBF or not. It could degrade the clarity of their HBF enough we may not be able to get a good lock on their trail."

"What do you mean it narrows your search to them only? Have you been trying to find us?" Professor asks.

"Yes, I guess you could say that. About a year and half ago we visited your Realm to do research, and we came across an article about the three of you disappearing from the basement of Quinn’s home. When we came back home we decided to keep an eye out for you. After Quinn died, and while I was continuing my modifications of the tracking system. I used your HBF trail to track and make adjustment on the settings. We still haven’t completely worked out all the bugs. We have always hoped to eventually catch up with you and help you get home. Once we actually slide to a realm you had been on recently, that is where we found out there wasn’t just 3 of you. That there were 4 including Mr. Rembrandt Brown. Over the course of that time though we’ve helped a few displaced sliders find their way home. I guess you could say that has become one of our objectives on slides. Along with research and security installation and maintenance."

<<Jess, don’t you think that is a little too much information? We said basic and simple. >>

"I am getting the distinct impression that one of my other selves have been here before. You both seem quite at ease with my presence on your world. I take it, my other self that you met was not at all like that coward from the previous world?"

Jade and Jessica look at each other and then at him. <<No, Jade, I don’t. I have a gut feeling. >> "No, he wasn’t at all like him. Maximillian, from what I’ve seen so far was a lot like you. He was a great friend to us." Jessica tells him.

"You talk about him in the past tense, did something happen to my other self?" He questions.

Jessica looks at Jade and then down at the table. The professor can tell by the change in their mood that something had happen to his other self. Jessica final looks back up at the professor; "He was murdered a little over a year ago. It was a hard time for all of us."

"I’m sorry, it seems I’ve brought up an unpleasant subject. We do not have to discuss this topic at this time." The Professor says apologizing.

Jessica again looks at the table, but instead of looking back up at the professor she stands and walks into the kitchen. Jade watches her. She can feel Jessica’s struggle with her emotions, <<Jess, we don’t have to talk about that. It’s probably better we don’t. >> She then turns to him, "Sorry, Quinn was murdered the same night the professor was. I’m his sister, and was Quinn’s guardian. His parents died in a car accident when he was eleven. I was seventeen, and was his only living relative." She looks toward the kitchen and continues, "I guess you could say we are in-laws, but it feels more like sisters."

Jessica finally comes back into the room and sits back down. The professor can tell she has been struggling to control her emotions. "I’m sorry, it’s still hard to talk about what happened." Jessica says.

She pauses and takes a deep breath, before answering him. "My…" she looks at Jade. "or our Quinn, died a little over a year ago, along with our professor. A man named Bennish murdered the two of them one night. He and Quinn had been schoolmates and studied much of the same subjects. Bennish was power hungry and corrupt. He was hoping to find other realms for evil purposes. Which unfortunately has gotten to be a norm here. Somehow he found out Quinn and Maximilliam had found the solutions to some equations that led to sliding, and that the professor and he had been researching realms. One night I was at my father’s home with Jade and we came home to find the door open. We called my father before venturing any farther into the house. We found nothing on the first floor, so we went down into the basement. That’s where we found them.

The professor was lying dead by the operations board, and Quinn was near the other end of the room barely alive. We, Dad, Jade and myself, wanted to call for an ambulance, but Quinn knew it was useless. He knew he was dying. We believe he held on for us. He told us very briefly what had happened. Bennish had come in during a slide. The professor was monitoring the slide Quinn was on. When, he assumed, Bennish snuck up on Maximilliam and killed him. Then he waited for Quinn to arrive back from his slide. When he did Bennish and Quinn fought, and Bennish fatally wounded Quinn. He stole the tracker from Quinn, and slid. He told us to destroy everything. I told him no, that his work was too important. He said it was too dangerous, but he told me to do what I thought was best. He also told us not to call the Police, but to wait until we cleaned everything up and hid all the evidence of sliding here and at the Professors house. His research must never be seen the government or by others. Then in about a week report them both missing. Also we were to take their bodies to another realm and leave them there. Then he smiled and said to me. "We had some fun, didn’t we." Then he got real sad and brushed my cheek. We were all crying by then. He told Jade he loved her very much. And he told my dad to take care of his girls. Then he looked at me crying, and told me that the only regret he had was that he would never grow old with me, and that he would never get to watch his son grow up. He told me he loved us both very much, and he died.

We did everything he asked us to do. Dad helped me take Max to another realm. Then we took Quinn and buried them both. After we came back we opened a portal and had an impromptu funeral. We said our good byes, and threw in some flowers. When the portal closed we continued cleaning and hiding all evidence of sliding. About a week later we contacted the police about Quinn’s disappearance. We told them we had last seen him the day before with Bennish and the professor. They told us that the professor’s sister had…"

"I have a sister here." Max interrupts Jessica’s recount.

"Yes, I’ll tell you about her later." Jessica says.

Max nods his head, "I’m sorry, please continue."

Jessica smiles sadly at him, "No, apologizes. Where was I…? Yes I remember. They told us that the professor’s sister had reported him missing that morning. They also said they would try to contact Bennish for questioning and let us know. They came to the house a few days later to question us and to search the house. They said that Bennish had disappeared also. But that a journal had been found containing references to research project Quinn and Max had been working on. That he seemed to be jealous of them, and hated them for not trusting him with their work. They ended by telling us that they did not hold much hope for finding them. That Bennish had also written about a plot to steal some of their research by any means necessary.

They contacted us about a week later saying they would continue with the case, but they believed there wasn’t really any chance of finding them. Which we knew translated as cased closed. We wept and protested like we were suppose to, of course. Slowly, life sort of got back to normal, as normal as we could get.

Before their deaths the three of us had been working on a tracking system, one that would allow us to monitor a tracker and possibly its HBF on another world. We had already plotted and researched about 100 to 150 alternate Terra realms. We classified each realm by its HBF, except our own and a few others. We just call our own Terra 1, Terra Prime, or home.

Also, unknown to Max and Quinn, I had been working on a security system for Terra 1 that would block anyone from sliding here except for us. It’s still not completely perfected, but I do have a partial security system up and running. Unfortunately, Quinn and Max never got the chance to see my program. I wish now I hadn’t kept it a secret." She stops and puts her face in her hands, and shudders a little. "Sorry," she says as she looks up again. "I really miss them, sometimes, like now, more than others."

"No need to apologize my dear. Sliding has changed all of our lives good and bad." Maximilliam says apologizing.

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