“Strangers and Comrades” is episode three of season five of Sliders.
Diana, dressed in fatigues and in what looks to be a military camp, is washing bloody hands in muddy water. She’s narrating about how she believed that transdimensional physics was the key to piercing the veil of heaven, but you can’t have heaven without hell.
The Sliders arrive at a deserted army camp on a world with a green sky. Diana thinks they aren’t on Earth. Rembrandt says they always appear on the same world, in southern California. Diana checks her instrument and says they’re actually on a world stuck in hyperspace, the region they travel through when they slide. They’re caught between dimensions and the world’s gravity well diverted the wormhole here. And the timer’s countdown is frozen.
Maggie and Rembrandt are searching outside; Maggie had a dream that Colin and Quinn’s home and the weapon didn’t exist. Everything was for nothing. Rembrandt still has hope. Someone armed is watching them. Mallory and Diana are inside a tent when the other two join them. Rembrandt says there’s no-one around. He’s wrong. And quickly proved wrong as three armed soldiers enter.
The leader asks what they are doing in his compound and has one of his men, Bates, put collars on them all. They are then shocked and Bates reports they aren’t infiltrators. The sergeant, Larson, asks what they are doing on Purgatory. They say they are passing through. Larson says no-one passes through; the place isn’t on a map. He wants them locked up until morning but Bates says they’re down to 30% strength. Larson says to have them suit and gear up then. Maggie says Larson can’t make them fight. Larson agrees. But he can take them where the fighting is; then, they can use their own judgement.
Diana asks the others why they didn’t say they are Sliders. Maggie tells her you don’t trust anyone at first. They’re taken to a trench and given weapons. Maggie says this isn’t their war. Larson can’t let them go; they’re a security risk. Maggie doesn’t know who they’re fighting or why. The why is orders. The who is Kromaggs. Who then attack. Diana cowers on the bottom of the trench.
In the morning, Maggie finds Diana on a cot. Diana asks if it’s over. Maggie says it’s not over until Diana figures a way to get them out. Diana is in no shape currently, so Maggie tucks her into the cot and places the timer and Diana’s device underneath.
Rembrandt and Mallory are still in the trench when Maggie joins them. They need Diana to figure this out, but Maggie says that won’t be soon. She’s in shock. Mallory asks if she’s surprised by that. As for him, he will do what he does best; adapt.
Rembrandt talks to Larson; both have questions. The Kromaggs weren’t interested in the place until a manta ship crashed about a month ago. Larson’s force is guarding a bunker. As for what’s inside, Larson says the future of their world probably depends on what Larson does here. Rembrandt says he isn’t from Larson’s world. He knows about the Kromaggs and is on a mission himself.
Diana wakes as a soldier is poking around the place. He gets the timer and device, then turns into a Kromagg and grabs Diana by the mouth. Mallory tackles him, they fight and Maggie ends up killing the Kromagg. The Kromagg is wearing a fake collar; the collars detect Kromagg infiltrators. Maggie says they can’t avoid the Maggots. Larson guesses it is her war after all.
Larson says his people defeated the Kromaggs years ago and constructed this world between dimensions. The others realise which world he’s talking about; Colin and Quinn’s. They tell Larson they’ve been trying to get there. And when he asks which Earth they’re from, they tell him Earths. Larson tells them they’ll never get through. The Slidecage? Been there, done that. They’re trying to find Michael Mallory.
Maggie and Rembrandt have both seen combat and Mallory is adaptable. Diana is neither and isn’t coping. They need to get off Purgatory, and perhaps find out what’s in the bunker too. And Larson’s forces are quickly being whittled down by the Kromaggs.