“Easy Slider” is episode ten of season five of Sliders.
The Sliders have arrived in the wilderness and make their way to a road, with Easy Rider comments. A bus starts approaching, slowly – the speed limit is 40. When it stops, they say they’re lost and can they get a lift into town. Mallory sits next to a woman; both like what they see. The woman, Sam, says they’re the B crew for Kincaid Petroleum as they flirt with each other.
The bus arrives at an outer gate and Sam asks Mallory about his work papers. As he doesn’t have any, Sam talks to the guard, making out she lost them. Mallory tells her his friends lack papers too. Then a pickup pulls up and two guards haul of a motorbike and a corpse, which they tie to the fence. The guard tells one at the gate that a bunch of Smokers raided the refinery and this one was caught. The AQMD has declared war on the Smokers.
In town, the Sliders and Sam recap what they know. The Smokers are outlaw bikers, who refused to give up their machines and there’s now a bounty on their heads from the AQMD, the Air Quality Management Department. Internal combustion engines are banned and the bus they used was hydrogen powered. There are no private cars and the oil is used for anything but fuel. Waiting in queue for jobs, Sam tells them to go for drivers; they’re always needed and the pay is great.
In a bar later, Sam and Mallory are getting ‘acquainted’ as the other three sit at the bar. Diana thinks Sam and Mallory are moving awfully quickly. Mallory is telling Sam he used to be a biker and if he lived here, he’d probably be a Smoker. The bartender tells the others that the Smokers are raiding all over the district. There was some sympathy for them originally as no-one is happy with the new policies, but that’s now gone. And drivers don’t get a tab; they pay as they go. Mallory suggests he and Sam go to a motel. She tells him to be patient; it will be worth it.
In the morning, looking at the vehicles, Diana says she can manage a Humvee. She’ll ride shotgun with Rembrandt. Rembrandt tells her that requires an actual shotgun, and to go get one. Mallory and Sam take an HGV; he doesn’t do a great job of driving off.
The convoy is the HGV and two Humvees, with Maggie driving the second. Her guard says only rookies and idiots do these runs. She’s not a rookie, but owes two gamblers bigtime and needs the cash. Not many jobs pay this well. The Smokers run illegal internal combustion engines and need the crude to refine gasoline. They must have a jury-rigged refinery around. Two bikers watch them head out.
However, they make it there and back with no problems, even though the Smokers are hitting nearly every convoy. Which gets them applause and drinks on the house when they enter the bar, for a safe run both ways with no raid. A man enters the bar and Sam heads out the back. Mallory follows. Sam says she has to leave; Mallory wants to come with. It turns out she has a bike. She’s a Smoker, sent to infiltrate the place to get the delivery schedule. The man who entered is from the AQMD. There’s a bounty on her head and he probably has her description.
Inside the bar, the man introduces himself to the other three as Evans, the head of security. He does have a sketch of Sam, who he says is the leader of the Smokers. They had intelligence she might try to infiltrate the crew. The Sliders deny knowledge of her.
Mallory has really taken a shine to Sam, and the Smoker life. Which means something is bound to go wrong.