Michael Houston King

Stranded during an away mission, B'Elanna finds herself the inspiration for a young poet's art.

Michael sets up his own arrest by the FBI as part of a plot to take down a Boston mobster. Elsewhere, Jesse and Pearce resort to blackmail to gain information on a gun sale, but their tactics don't go smoothly.

In a satellite monitoring station, a military officer calls Dr. Jariabek (Krzysztof Pieczynski) to inform him that a radiation-emitting pulsar is heading toward Earth. Before she can finish, however, someone sticks a needle in her neck and then injects himself with the fluid. The Sliders land in a city besieged by looters, as defense sirens wail. They come across a vagrant, who blames the Russians. Apparently, the Cold War has not ended in this dimension. Suddenly, a car races around the corner, flipping and exploding. The Sliders try to rescue the driver, who mumbles something about a trajectory being wrong. As he dies, the Sliders notice blood seeping from a gunshot wound. Arturo (John Rhys-Davies) recognizes the man as Dr. Jariabek, a noted cosmologist. Another car pulls up, and Captain Maggie Beckett (Kari Wuhrer) and two soldiers jump out with guns drawn, demanding to know if Jariabek said anything.

As Arturo (John Rhys-Davies) listens to radio broadcasts from the dying world, Quinn (Jerry O'Connell) slides into the military base's lab with an unconscious Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) in his arms -- and the Slider's home coordinates recorded in the timer. In the infirmary, Dr. Jensen (Mark Kiely) confronts Quinn, jealous of his wife's feelings toward Quinn. A nurse interrupts, telling them Maggie could have died if Quinn had not intervened. The other Sliders show up, excited about the news that they can go home now. Quinn tells them that they must wait until they have finished the sliding device he promised in order to save some of these people. An argument erupts, with Rembrandt (Cleavant Derricks) accusing Quinn of never thinking of the rest of the group.