Part 1:
Images swirled into view. The Professor, Wade, Rembrandt. Smiling, happy, laughing. They were joking about some humorous difference between the world they were on and their home earth or talking about how the Professor told off some "blistering idiot". It was how it was meant to be, how it would always be to the mind of Quinn Mallory. He couldn't accept the Professor as a dead man on a God-forsaken planet that had been destroyed by a pulsar, any more than he could get his mind around Wade being tortured and raped daily in a Kromagg breeding camp. So his subconscious mind created dreams that brought him back to that time. His dreams would make it last forever.
Only the invasion of Rembrandt shaking him could jar him from the pleasant delusions of his dreams. "Hey, man, you ok?" Rembrandt asked, genuine concern showing in his voice. Quinn emerged from the stupor of sleep and reality came crashing in.
"It was the same dream, Remmy. Where it's still just you me, the Professor and Wade, off on the adventure of a lifetime."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, Q-Ball, I've been having them, too. More often than usual. That's why I asked Maggie and Colin to stay in a separate room tonight. There's just something about this that I'm not ready to share with them."
"Don't get me wrong, Rembrandt, I wouldn't give up knowing that Colin's my brother for anything," 'That isn't true, is it, Mallory?' his mind threw at him, but he quickly dismissed it. "But in some ways I think you, Wade and the Professor are more like family than anyone I've ever known."
Rembrandt sighed. "I feel the same way. I never was that close to my relatives back home, but the kinship I felt with the three, well, there's just something special about it."
"We were so close to each other. Everything that happened, all the things that we did together, it bonded us. We only had each other to depend on." Now it was Quinn's turn to sigh. "Nothing's the same anymore. The Professor died. Wade..." his voice trailed off, but Rembrandt gave him a supportive look that said he didn't have to say anymore. "Our world, lost to the Kromaggs. And the world we're looking for, even though it's supposed to be my home, it really isn't, not here." He pointed to his heart. "I feel like we've lost everything to sliding." He stopped himself. "I know sliding meant a lot of sacrifice for Maggie and Colin, too, but at least they had a choice about sliding. That's something you never had."
Rembrandt smiled, but not without a hint of sadness in his eyes. "You know I forgave you for that a long time ago. Too much has changed since we started sliding for me to harbor a grudge."
Quinn took a long, hard look at Rembrandt. He still couldn't get used to Remmy without a moustache, the one he'd had since junior high. He wondered again about what had happened to Rembrandt in the months they'd been separated. He had never had the guts to broach the subject with his old friend. In truth, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Rembrandt looked down at his watch and saw that it was much later than he thought. "Hit the showers, Q-ball, we've got about a half hour until we promised to meet Colin and Maggie for breakfast."
Quinn's thoughts still stayed in the past, but he barely registered what Rembrandt had said. "Sure thing," he said with a weak smile.
End Part 1
