Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 10:42:12 CDT Reply-To: "Thomas D. Haynes" Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "Thomas D. Haynes" Subject: PG-13 Story: Better to burn out pt 2 of ? It's better to burn out than to fade away by Tom Haynes This is a crossover between Sliders, the TV show, and The Highlander. For those of you who don't watch Sliders, the basic premise is that four adventurers are fated to travel to different versions of reality; searching for the one they originated from. They have no control over which dimension they are traveling to, and also they do not know how long they will stay in each dimension they visit. We don't really know if things have to come back to their home dimension, i.e. assuming that the remote control unit the party has was working properly. For this story, it is assumed that things normally have to return. There won't be any explicit sex or foul language in this series, but due to the nature of some of the characters, there will be extreme carnage. (just not the gory details) As for which rules, i.e. movie or TV, that the immortals are controlled by, I plan on taking a mixture of them both. Part II The time: Sometime in the Spring of 1995 The place: A damp and dark dungeon. Time has lost almost all meaning for the group. Quinn still has the remote, but with his arms chained to the wall he can not get to it. They haven't been fed or allowed to drink since they were brought into their cell. For the guys, it is almost bearable, the cannibals had been fattening them up. For Wade, the hunger and thirst gnaws away at her stomach. "Well, well, what do we have here?", asks The Kurgan. Somehow he managed to quietly sneak up on the group. "Perhaps I should shed some light on the subject?", he says as he looks at a torch. It bursts into flames. "A little trick a sparring partner picked up in the Orient." The eyes of the sliders well shut, as tears flow, trying to block the painful light. "Water! Food!", gasps Wade. "There'll be sometime for feeding later. Right now some questions: How do you travel across the dimensions? Can you control it?", asks the hulking giant. "My good man, we'll tell you all you want to know. Just feed us and release us.", says the portly professor. "Ah, Arturo, always plotting. I let you out, then you run away. Where's the fun in that? Do you know what time it is? Oh, I forgot, you can't see your watches, and the clock on the wall stopped months ago. It's near midnight. Another question: How long can a vampire go without feeding? The record has been one night, and you've been down here three days.", Kurgan says as he turns to look into the dark. He waves his arm, and some of his henchmen wheel in the coffin they had last seen several nights ago. "You know, I do believe that both Quinn and Arturo both studied physics, therefore they are quite indispensable. As for Rembie, well an undead Immortal is something I don't want to face. That leaves the lady. Amazingly enough, your counter part in this world sold computers. That is, she did. Until that nasty accident with the vampire boy wonder here. Now, do you believe in destiny Wade?", The Kurgan asked the groaning girl. She wasn't fully conscious, and he didn't wait for an answer. "Well Quinn and Arturo, here's my proposition: you tell me everything you know or I feed her to the vampire.", said Kurgan. "If half of what my double told me about you is true, you'll feed her to him anyway.", replied Quinn. "Good point.", roars the Kurgan. "Let me handle this Quinn.", interjected the professor. "Exactly why do you want to know how we travel?" "I've spent three days, collecting data from all the scientific minds of my world, and we can't figure out what you've done. I wish that I had let the other Arturo live a day longer. The other Quinn has some inkling, but because of his nature, he is hard to read.", replied the Overlord of the world. "So, your driven by the quest for knowledge? That doesn't sound like the Kurgan from the movie.", said the professor. "Not quiet. To put it simply, I'm bored. I thought winning the prize would give me unlimited power, but all it did was rob me of the one thing I really loved: the game!", answered The Kurgan. "So you want to travel to a dimension where you can continue playing the game?", asked Quinn. "In that case you might as well let us go, we can't control the damn thing. If we could, we would have gone home a long time ago!", said Rembrandt. "Mr. Brown, I'll thank you to be quiet. Let me do all the talking.", said the professor, quite crossly. "Reward him.", commanded the Kurgan. One of his men entered the cell, and poured water down Rembrandt's throat. "Give her some.", pleaded Quinn. "First give me something.", commanded The Kurgan. "Mr. Mallory, I forbid you to tell him anything.", the professor sternly told his young companion. "Why, so she can die?", asked Quinn. "We can't control where the slide is going to take us. We also can't control how long we stay in any place.", said Quinn. "More.", commanded Kurgan. "No, give her water. Now!", yelled Quinn. The Kurgan looked at his man, and nodded. The lackey went over to the slumped Wade, and poured water down her throat. "So, you've learned that kindness can get you more than terror, have you now?", asked Arturo. The Kurgan nodded at his man again, and the others were roughly watered as well. "Continue.", commanded the Overlord as soon as Quinn stopped sputtering. "We're lost. I know the theory, but our vehicle is damaged.", Quinn started to say. "You don't have a vehicle.", interrupted Kurgan. "I may not be able to scan your minds, but one of my slaves saw you appear out of a glowing blue circle. If I catch you in another lie, well lets just say someone else is still thirsty.". "Okay, okay. But I swear, if you harm her, I'll make sure you never leave this world.", replied Quinn. "The apparatus is back on my world, and countless other worlds besides. We have a set period of time on each world, and after that time I can summon another tunnel to slide in. We don't know where we will end up.", said Quinn. "How much time do you have here? What happens if you miss your window? Can you stay past your time? And most importantly, can someone else travel with you?", asked Kurgan. He also nodded to his second henchman, who brought some broth and bread into the cell. He started to feed the others in the group. "We had a week. If we've been down here three days...", he looks straight at the last Immortal, who nods. "... then we still have four days. We can trigger a new slide, but every time we do, it weakens our chance of ever going home. We could stay on any world we liked, but the little differences annoy you more than the big ones. Finally, yes, you could travel with us." "Yes. But I couldn't control where we go? I also couldn't control you once we left my world. How many slides would it take to get somewhere interesting?", asked the Kurgan as he stared off in wonder. He turned back to the party. "Arturo, you mentioned that your world had a TV show and movie based on me?", he asked. "No, No. There was a movie, in which you died and Connor MacLeod took the prize. There was also a TV series in which Connor hadn't really taken the prize, but he still had killed you. It followed Duncan MacLeod, his clansman.", replied the professor. "I see. In this world, I killed MacLeod, both of them. I would prefer a world in which I was dead and the MacLeods were both alive. While stalking myself would be, shall we say interesting, I much more prefer hunting the MacLeods.", said Kurgan. "Well, it isn't going to do you much good. Can't you understand, we never know where we are going to slide.", said Wade. "The young woman awakes! Don't worry, I have access to all the minds in the world, plus every Immortal who ever lived, and died, is inside me. You can't even imagine the power I possess.", said The Kurgan. "I thought you said all of your scientific minds couldn't help you understand how we traveled from world to world?", asked Quinn. "I lied, just like I bluffed you with the vampire Quinn.", cackled The Kurgan. "Release him.", he ordered his lackeys. They cart the coffin into the cell, and let this world's Quinn out of the coffin. He is quite pale and can hardly stand on his own. The guards shackle him next to Wade. "One of the things I found out from a vampire, called Nick Knight, was a cure for vampirism. Seems he found it right before I killed him and his lady love. Since I couldn't control my Quinn, and I needed his mind, I decided to see if the cure worked. It did.", The Kurgan informed the party. "That still doesn't let us guide the slide. Also, if you know how we slide, why don't you build your own machine?", asked Quinn. "Ahh, but I don't know how to build your machine. I only know the principles behind your sliding. I suppose I could build a machine, but maybe I couldn't. Where would I be then?", said the Kurgan. "No, I simply must go on with you. I couldn't stand another dull decade." "Yeah, and expose another world to your evil ways.", said Rembrandt. "We fought to stop one plague from spreading from world to world, and we'll fight again." "And here I thought you were as much a coward as the Rembrandt Brown whose head I took. You can't kill me, these mortals can't kill me, the only hope you have is another Immortal. On this world, you are the only other potential Immortal. Shall I kill you, and then let you see if you can kill me? No, what a pity.", said The Kurgan. "Here's my proposition: I let you live, and you take me to my brave new world. I have come up with a way to guide us in the slide. Garrick, a former Immortal, really understood the powers the Prize, and the Quickenings, gives to us Immortals. All I have to do is wait until we are sliding, and then I cause the Quickenings of the MacLeods to reach out to their bodies. Since their bodies were fish food in this world, I will be pulled towards a world in which they still live.", said The Kurgan. "What about The Kurgan on this other world?", asked Arturo. "I had to simplify my explanation for your feeble minds. We will go where I want to go, and then you can be off on your merry way.", said The Kurgan. "See they are fed and exercised. You know your fate if they are harmed or die or escape!", said The Kurgan as he faded back into the gloom. End of Part II -- Tom Haynes haynes@hpserv.keh.utulsa.edu || haynes@euler.mcs.utulsa.edu http://hpserv.keh.utulsa.edu/~haynes/haynes.html All opinions are mine, and are not those of the University of Tulsa. =========================================================================