This is the crossover fanfic in my series featuring Doctor Who (the Fifth Doctor – played by Peter Davison in the classic BBC tv series – and the Sliders.
Story (C) 2001-2016 Mr SciRev.
Previous Episode: Who Sliders 1
SPOILER: Star Trek: Voyager – Pathfinder episode
What you need to know:
“The Doctor is a Time Lord – a time-traveller from the alien world called Gallifrey who travels in space and time thanks to his TARDIS which looks like a police box, bigger inside than outside. When the Doctor is severely injured or even killed, he will regenerate into a new appearance and body. He is currently in his fifth incarnation (4th regeneration). His thirteenth will be the last.
The Sliders have developed a technique called Sliding which allows them to go to different dimensions or parallel universes, but will they ever find the way to their home universe?
The Doctor with his companions – currently an australian hostess named Tegan, Hindle ( a previously deranged soldier from a future earth colony ), young irritating genius Adric, alien orphan and technological expert Nyssa and the Sliders – is on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless and the powerless throughout the whole multiverse of multiple universes. The Doctor’s alteration to the Sliders’ timeline has resulted in multiple changes across various multiverse timelines in hypertime.
Another TOTALLY DIFFERENT Federation in Universe-001 has developed starships capable of sliding. Parships can Slide across parallel universes using ParTravel, based on Sliding technology. Captain Jefferson Fletcher of the Federation Parship U.S.S. Endeavour is himself from Earth-002 however.”
Meanwhile, on a Parship (Parallel-World Ship) orbiting the planet, Captain Jefferson Fletcher was getting anxious that his Science Officer had not returned on board. The Parship was from the 23rd Century but in this universe time moved more slowly, so it was still 2001 here. It was like they had went back in time, but they hadn’t.
Something must have gone wrong, he deduced. He ordered a scan of the building which his Science Officer was supposed to examine. Before the scan had finished an incoming signal was received.
Suddenly the Sliders, Doctor Who and his companions all beamed on board of the real Parship Endeavour.
Wade said “Wow! This place is even cooler than virtual reality!”
“Virtual reality? And who are you?” Archer asked.
“Captain Archer, this is Miss Wade Wells. The four of us here call ourselves the Sliders since we Slide through parallel universes – Mister Rembrandt Brown, Mister Quinn Mallory and myself Professor Maximillian Arturo. This is the Doctor, and his companions: Miss Tegan Jovanka, Mister Adric of Alzarius and Miss Nyssa of Traken. This person is Hindle of the earth military from a parallel universe. We all are from parallel universes, as you can see. We Sliders are from what we call Earth-Prime. The Doctor, Hindle and his companions are from another universe. The Doctor calls it the N-Space universe.”
“I’m from the E-Space universe actually.” Adric pointed out.
“These parallels are headache inducing”, Archer said. “But your story interests me greatly. The Sliders are well known as the inventors of the Sliding Technology hundreds of years ago. My ancestor is said to have been a First Slider.”
“Really? Cool!” Wade said.
“Wow, we’re famous here!” Remmy said.
“Fancy that for a change.” Quinn said.
“Yes, the technology is now called ParTravel. Our Federation ParShip can travel across Parallel Universes.” Fletcher explained.
“I trust you are all feeling ok after the transmat. It is a new technology for us.” Fletcher told his new guests.
“It’s perfectly safe”, the Doctor commented with a touch of deja’ vu.
“Nothing to worry about”, Justine said.
“What was the building you were in, Justine? Did you find out what the alien energy source was?” Fletcher enquired.
“A leisure centre where the inhabitants, due to boredom, have been placed into suspended animation. The inhabitants have given up their work as the government was paying them a larger amount than they had ever earned as a salary, and all they had to do was relax in suspended animation, giving their dreams and imagination to a complex shared-reality virtual reality system.” she replied.
The TARDIS is still on its surface, in the building. Could you get a lock on it and beam it aboard the Enterprise?” The Doctor asked Archer.
Archer gave the information on the TARDIS to the technicians who set themselves to the task of locating by precisely triangulating the position of the TARDIS within the building. Fortunately, it was a straightforward task, and the TARDIS was beamed on board the deck of the Endeavour.
“So is this your ship, Doctor?” Fletcher enquired. “It is, more than a ship, almost a companion. In its own way.”
“Our scans indicated an interesting paradox, Doctor. Inside is definitely bigger than outside, in the TARDIS. Your technology is definitely superior to anything we have encountered, Doctor.”
“Really?” the Doctor humbly replied. He was cautious of Fletcher. What intentions could he have? The Doctor had trusted the X-Men earlier on, their reputation was well known. But this Fletcher was not that well known and may have been an alternate of some other starship captain. And something about him was different, like the timeline had shifted. Not in a bad way, mind you.
Universe-881
Meanwhile in Universe-881, a certain lieutenant Reginald Barclay had just attempted to communicate with the lost Starship Voyager. Illegally, as he had been ordered not to. His idea was seen as too unusual. He sent out a tachyonic pulse through the MIDAS array towards a pulsar, creating a mini-artificial wormhole. He was successful in communicating with Voyager, and his superiors forgave his infraction, so important was his result. What he did not know, however, was that this same pulse had been split and diverted in two, because the pulsar was a binary pulsar! And the second wormhole which was created, tunnelled into a completely different parallel universe universe because the target location was an imaginary number!
Back in the other universe, aboard the Parship Endeavour, the Doctor was listening to Fletcher.
“So you say you require a dimensional pinpointer?”
“We would need two actually. One for the TARDIS, and one for the Sliders’ Timer.”
“We’ll give you what you need. Even a new Timer, fresh from production. Your current Timer is not your original one, Quinn.”
“Great! How did you notice our timer is not the original one we started with?” Quinn almost shouted with joy.
“Your current Egyptian timer uses a scarab crystal which is decaying rapidly. It should be replaced soon. It’s better if we give you a more modern Timer.” Fletcher said.
“There’s one more thing.” Fletcher continued.
“What’s that” Arturo asked.
“It seems that you have altered quite a bit of history. There has been quite a bit of collateral damage. Your meeting the Doctor has been providential to you, but perhaps not to the other people you would have met” Fletcher explained.
“I wouldn’t have met anyone. I would be dead, killed by that madman Rickman.” Arturo said, he was starting to get angry.
“It might have been a double of yours.” Fletcher said. “Or it might be me”, Arturo rebuffed.
“What’s done is done now.” Arturo said.
“No. We must mop up the effected universes. Go where you would have gone. Another thing. Wade, remember when on the X-Men’s Earth-616 you had an alien implant, well a Kromagg one, embedded in your skull and I removed it from you.”
“The Kromaggs had implanted it when they had captured us.”
“Aliens captured you? You must have had very interesting adventures before meeting us, then”, Tegan said.
“Sure did.” Wade replied.
“This will have changed the timeline, in that many worlds you went to in the other timeline were all tracked by the Kromaggs, but not in this one. Our position is stronger now.” Fletcher said.
Justine interrupted and said “Captain, I have determined how the centre’s power source works. It is based on a tachyonic flow whose wave polarity is reversed.”
“It’s put out of phase then.”, the Doctor commented.
“An entire race, the reetwo’s were all like that”, Fletcher said.
“All of them invisible”, the Doctor said. “Could the local technology have been augmented by the reetwos?”
“They hate humans” Fletcher said.
“Perhaps this was the best alternative to getting rid of humans.”
“We shall have to re-investigate this dimension later on. Could the reetwos have entered this parallel universe however?” Fletcher asked.
“Do they Slide?” Quinn asked.
“We don’t know that they can.” Justine said.
“The modifications to our timer are ready – basically the crystal has been replaced, and Archer has given us a new Timer”, Quinn noted.
Suddenly the White Guardian appeared out of nowhere and said:
“I am the White Guardian, an angel of God who has helped the Doctor, and been helped by him in the past. The leisure centre world you went to, was one of the worlds visited by the ‘other’ Sliders who would have been if Arturo would have died. So now it has not been visited by ‘them’, but by all of you instead. The matter is very urgent Doctor… You must take the Sliders to the worlds they would have visited, to make things right. The Sliders will increase in number, becoming Seven. Connect the Sliders’ new Timer to your TARDIS to improve its dimensional travelling precision. I have provided them a list of dimensional frequencies which are the worlds you have to go to. I must leave you now before the Black Guardian finds out…” and he promptly disappeared. The Doctor understood that Arturo’s death was not a fixed point in time, it was a fluke that was to be corrected as had happened.
“Seven Sliders?” Quinn was surprised.
“The others will be those who would have taken your place, Arturo and the place of some others of you who would have died eventually.” the Doctor explained. “Wade for instance would have been most likely captured by the Kromaggs.
What can you tell me about the Kromaggs? They do not exist in my universe.” “The Kromaggs, Doctor, are a very dangerous race. An evolved form of Cro-Magnons.” Quinn said.
“They are your cousins, so to speak.” the Doctor said.
“These cousins are obliterating whole parallel earths!” Quinn replied.
LATER…
Everyone said their goodbyes. The Endeavour was due on another assignment, and as a result, the Doctor, his companions and the Sliders left in the newly equipped TARDIS.
“We should go to the first destination on the list.” the Doctor said.
“But, Doctor, couldn’t you go to Deva Loka first. I remind you, it’s stuck in a time loop!” Hindle commented.
“True. We can go there now then. Deva Loka-777 it is then!” the Doctor replied and set the navigational controls.
The TARDIS arrived at its destination.
“This does not look like Deva Loka to me.” Hindle said.
“I’m afraid the TARDIS has a mind of its own at times. This is also the wrong parallel universe. We are on Earth-2001.”, the Doctor said.
“It seems this is the Chandler Hotel from the iron plates on the walls. We used to find ourselves in the Dominion Hotel before…” Quinn remarked.
“But we are in 1691. The technology of this world is greatly accelerated.” the Doctor pointed out. “Your alternates would not have been in this time period according to the frequency list, however for some reason the TARDIS has brought us in this time period and on this parallel earth instead of the planet Deva Loka in our universe.”
“There must be a connection between the places, Doctor!” Nyssa said in a convinced voice.
“Indeed there is. This earth is in synchronous orbit with this universe’s planet Deva Loka. And this Deva Loka is located in the solar system. It has advanced the world’s technological development, somehow.” the Doctor explained after analysing more sensor data which came in.
“This is unusual.” Nyssa said.
“What is?” Quinn asked.
“Can we go out?” Remmy asked. “I’d like to see this world.”
“Wait. A tachyonic beam emerging from an artificially created mini-wormhole is hitting another planet in this solar system.” the Doctor replied.
“Ah. That explains everything. Can you use normal-speak, please?” Remmy said sarcastically.
“A mini-wormhole has been created artificially, much like the ones created by your Timer. Actually it will be created hundreds of years from now. Only this wormhole is emitting a Starfleet-issue tachyonic particle pulse. Tachyons are minute subatomic particles which have to do with time travel usually. Its effect goes back to this present time on this world. It might even have altered the flow of time on this world,as there are many traces of tachyons on this world.
Now it is striking another planet, which does not exist in our time in the other universes we know of, let’s call it Planet K.” the Doctor explained.
“So the planet K will have it’s orbit altered as a result.” Arturo explained.
“The problem is its new path will bring it very close to earth and Deva Loka.” the Doctor was very upset. “Tachyonic traces on this Deva Loka might have subtly affected the Deva Loka of our universe, also. Parallel worlds are interconnected tachyonically. It is likely to be the real cause of the time loop being experienced in our universe’s Deva Loka.”
“Finally, what will happen is that this earth will be destroyed completely, all life will be wiped out, similar to what happened to the dinosaurs!”
“The news reports indicate that the seas are going crazy, even the weather.” Wade said.
“How much time do we have to save this world, Doctor?” Nyssa asked.
“I’d say a week.” the Doctor replied.
“Sorry, Doctor, but how can we do that?” Tegan asked.
“We will see..” the Doctor replied.
THE END…
Continued in the next Fanfic Who Sliders 3 ‘Doing the Deva Loka Dev Null Device’