“Dust” is episode sixteen of season five of Sliders.
The Sliders are in a desert and someone is watching them. Rembrandt gets a feeling someone is, but they can’t see anyone. They’re also on the world for three more days, and have no water. Climbing up to the top of a rise they see a camp below. Heading down, they’re given water, and claim they got lost on a hike from their hotel. The man in charge says his camp is remaining for at least another week and they’re welcome to stay if they’re prepared to work.
The man introduces himself as Professor Jack Bigelow, forensic palaeontologist of the University of Yukon. This is his dig. They can always use more hands. Mallory has dug ditches in the past; Diana hasn’t and introduces herself as a PhD in physics. Bigelow says he thinks she’ll be interested in this; they’ve uncovered what they think is an ancient and very advanced civilisation. He also introduces Gwen Palmer, one of his best students. The Sliders notice they’re being eyed by the local diggers. The professor leads them into a tunnel and what he says he thinks is a communal gathering place or religious shrine. They recognise it as the Chandler Hotel.
The Sliders wonder if they should tell Bigelow. Rembrandt thinks something really radical mist have happened to the climate on this world. Diana mentions a pole shift, but that likely wouldn’t move oceans and deserts. More likely an axial shift. Gwen tells them that Bigelow is certain this isn’t just one building, but maybe a periphery of a cast city that was there before the Cataclysm.
The professor calls as he’s found a ceremonial goblet. Aka, a beer mug. He says it looks like Renaissance work. Diana checks that the date means the same, and tells the others quietly that technology on this would is like their own, but it happened 400 years ago. Gwen, however, has found a flaw in their story. The nearest hotel is in Seattle. Four days walk away. Diana claims they’re on a classified government project,
Eating outside and a man keeps staring at Rembrandt. Gwen says the diggers are Packers, natives to the area on the fringe of the badlands, about the only part of the zone that’s habitable. The professor doesn’t trust them, but Gwen thinks they’re okay. She heads to meet some people returning to camp. Rembrandt tells the others that the temperate zones in this world are Canada and South America. Diana says that before the Cataclysm, technology developed several hundred years before theirs. She’s not got an explanation for the Chandler yet.
The professor calls them over to a tent to look at an artefact. Which the Sliders recognise as being a parking meter. Leading to Maggie making several comments during the serious discussion of it.
Gwen speaks to the professor about the Sliders. She doesn’t believe their story but the professor just needs all the hands he can get for breaking through the north wall of the temple tomorrow.
At the dig, the Sliders wonder if they should tell the truth. Then they find a timer in the rubble. And Diana says it’s not just a timer; it’s their timer. Either they or someone like them was here before. She wants to take it apart to check. It could be their duplicates were there 400 years before. Mallory thinks that it would take something cataclysmic to leave the timer in the dust. What if they died here? Diana agrees it’s possible.
The professor announces they’ve broken through the wall. On the other side there’s a booby trap, and also a body in what looks like a cryogenic tube of some kind. Bigelow says that there were hints of a frozen deity in the region’s legends. This could be someone very special. Perhaps royalty. Maggie suggests a rich guy who wanted to be frozen until whatever killed him could be cured. Rembrandt agrees that the professor may be overreacting. Like with the parking meter. Diana has to cover for this slipup. Bigelow wants to remove the body and do a topical exam, then a dissection. There’s no chance they could get it to a lab. Rembrandt suggests the man might not be dead.
One of the Packers, outside the ‘tomb,’ introduces himself to Rembrandt. He says Bigelow and his people are making the spirits of the place very angry. Others have come before looking for treasure. They didn’t find it and some never made it home. If Bigelow destroys the Guardian, he will be destroyed.
The professor has the body removed and plans to dissect it once it thaws out. Maggie and Rembrandt are most concerned about this idea. And their own duplicates might be frozen somewhere. Diana suggests that perhaps the spin of this world is different, having an effect on time. Similar to “The Guardian”, though for once Rembrandt doesn’t mention this. There are a whole lot of questions raised in the episode. Sadly, they aren’t answered.