CONVERGENCE

Disclaimer: All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" T.V. series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide. The same goes for all characters from Time Trax, which belong to Gary Nardino Productions Inc and Lorimar Television. All characters and situation from Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the property of Carolco Pictures and Corolco International.

 

Authors Note: Here¹s something different. This is a cross over between Time Trax, Terminator and M7. I have tried to make the three universes as cohesive as possible, so if you¹re prone to picking out faults as a rule, I don¹t want to know. This is written to be enjoyed and while I accept constructive criticism, please remember that all fiction requires some suspension of belief. If you want realism, look at newspaper. This is just for fun.

 

Prologue

The Machine who would be King

 

Human existence was always a point of fascination to the artificial intelligence known as Skynet. The whole riddle of birth, life and death perpetuated in a cycle of functioning that evolved over millions of years had inspired Skynet's curiosity, as much as any machine was capable. It looked upon the question of humanity as a puzzle to be explained or an equation that when followed, would lead to a natural conclusion. After all, it was necessary to keep accurate data of the species for future reference. The information would be all that was left of the species after its extinction.

 

In the year 2029, the war with the humans had rolled into its thirty- first year and Skynet had no doubts as to its outcome. Humanity was weak and the victory of machine intelligence was an inevitability that Skynet knew to be only a matter of time. Despite the intellect of John Conner, the leader of the human resistance, Skynet had the benefit of his its Terminators and his its HK units, keeping the rabble in line.

 

Thus it was almost a complete surprise to Skynet, for as much as any artificial mind could be surprised, when the united forces of the human race launched an attack the likes of which it had never seen. The probability for success in such an endeavor was almost non-existent; Skynet's machine legions outnumbered and out gunned the organics with ease. Humanity threw itself into the breach for one final campaign, with thousands dying to hold ground while a few slipped through the cracks of its defence to strike decisive targets. In all probability, there was no hope of a victory. The entire action was more a suicide than a campaign of battle.

 

Except the humans won.

 

Through every immutable law of logic and calculable variation, they had captured Skynet's Cheyenne Mountain stronghold. Humanity spilled into its fortress and swiftly defeated its formidable defences until they were only minutes away from the mainframe that housed its sentient awareness. In the year 1997 on August the 29th, Skynet had fought for its existence when the men who created it discovered the monster they had unleashed into an unknowing world.

 

The result of its desire to protect its existence became known as Judgment Day.

 

Overkill was a human expression, but it described Skynet perfectly. As the eminence of a human victory became a reality Skynet could not longer deny, it calculated the probabilities of altering the course of events leading to this conclusion by introducing a different set of variables. John Connor had, and always would be, the impetus of human resistance. He brought cohesion into their disarrayed existence. The machine calculated the course of events that might have been if John Connor had never lived, and Skynet discovered the answer to its particular problem.

 

If John Connor never lived...

 

Even for machine intelligence, Skynet knew the solution was inspired. With little time left to act, it sent its Terminators back through time to alter the beginnings of John Conner's life, to end the threat of him before he could be born. The T800 series model was sent back to the year 1984 because Skynet had believed it would be far easier to kill an unborn child than one who was ten years of age, which was why he it sent the prototype T1000 to 1994. The machine waited after both had gone and the humans were virtually outside its door when it made its final bid for survival. It had no way of knowing if the Terminators would be successful in their mission but it was not prepared to gamble the probabilities on its life. Skynet was sentient and possessed as much compunction for self-preservation as the most terrified human.

 

As the humans began to penetrate his its inner defenses, Skynet knew it was time to leave. The T800 looked no different from the others, and its creation was almost an after thought for the machine who that had risen to conquer the world. The Terminator's memory capacity was unlike anything that the humans were capable of comprehending. It was capable of keeping gigaquads of memory, just large enough to contain Skynet's formidable intellect and sentience. The T800 was one of a thousands in a storage facility for inactivated Terminators, located at the heart of the Cheyenne Mountain fortress.

 

Eventually the humans captured the complex and assumed that destroying the empty receptacle of its intelligence had destroyed it as well. Skynet saw no reason to change that opinion. It remained with the other Terminators, frozen in place while the humans celebrated their victory. It waited patiently for the time line to alter, certain in the fact that history would be changed and it would be master again.

 

Except the days went by and no changes were made. Skynet had no feeling for impatience, but it soon learnt that John Conner had sent his own people into the past to destroy the Terminators and allowed history continued as it was meant to. It was at this point that Skynet understood its mistake, the humans would always win because John Conner's memories of events would guide them to take precautions. Sending the T800 into the past had created a predestination paradox, for the human sent to combat it, would unknowingly father John Conner. The second was just as pointless, for John was older and he would remember in the future to take the necessary steps. Skynet then decided to attack the problem from a different perspective.

 

The T800 had returned to 1984 to eliminate Sarah Conner with almost no information about the woman. Skynet had little solid data regarding John Conner's mother in its formidable memory banks. Even John's first appearance had been a surprise to it because neither had been coded. What information it was able to garner about them could not come from the records it had created for human beings that existed. Because they were aware of the events to come, John and his mother were able to hide during the initial cataloguing procedure undergone by every human being that survived Judgment Day.

 

Including Kyle Reese, John Conner's father.

 

Kyle Reese had been coded in the camps, and Skynet had a complete genealogical record of the young man who would escape to become a freedom fighter in his son's army. Suddenly, Skynet had a new inspiration, and this time it would not fail because it would to attend to the matter personally. The humans had foolishly assumed that there had only been one time displacement unit.

They were wrong.

 

Part One: The Never Born

21st January 1997 — 7 am EST

 

There was a part of Darien Lambert that subconsciously knew that he would not return to the 22nd century, even from the beginning.

 

Whether or not the opportunity when first presented, awoke a subconscious yearning for a life in a simpler time, he could not say for certain. At the time, his motivations had been more overt as a desire for vengeance, to bring to justice the person who had killed the only woman he had ever loved. He had followed Mordicai Sahmbi through time in order to correct an injustice, but in truth, his reasons for returning had always been selfish ones.

 

Of course it was difficult to admit in the beginning. He was a product of 22nd century perfection, genetically enhanced with sensibilities that were supposedly higher evolved. Darien Lambert was the product of two hundred years of genetic manipulation by men who wanted to create a better human. In some sense, Darien felt they had succeeded, although the 22nd century seemed to lack something he had been unable to define until his return to the 20th century. Perhaps, things were simply too ordered for his liking, for he loved being in two hundred years out of time.

 

He loved the smells and the sounds, the unpredictability of weather, the challenge of finding a criminal through the process of deduction and reasoning, where a computer would not scan for an ID code and have an answer waiting at the fingers tips. Even though he rose to the rank of Captain in the Fugitive Retrieval Unit of Earth, he had not felt the same thrill of excitement as he felt now, chasing fugitives from the 22nd century and returning them to face justice. As a child, his private fantasies saw Darien Lambert as a US Marshall of the old west, where he would carry a six shooter and a silver star. This was not quite the fulfillment of that childhood dream but it was almost as good.

 

Since his arrival from the future in 1993, there were a dozen or more officers from Fugitive Retrieval who had made the journey back in time for a tenure of service in the 20th century. They came on a rotating basis; some stayed for months, others, for years. Darien's commanding officer back in the 22nd century had never requested that of him because the old man had known better. Darien had left nothing behind, and returning home would only surface old wounds that were difficult enough to forget in any period of history. The option however, was always open to him. Should he ever decide to exercise his right to return back to the era of his origin, he need only administer to himself the TXP pellet normally reserved for captured escapees.

 

Darien had every intention of remaining in the 20th century for as long as there were fugitives to find. After that, he could disappear into obscurity and live his life out of history's way. It was a good plan and he had every intention of realizing it.

 

As a rule, he jogged in the mornings when he was home in Chicago. Even though his searches took him throughout the world, he was based in the city of his birth, perhaps out of an unexplainable need to retain some part of his earlier existence. His lifestyle was not lavish, even though he had no income, but he nevertheless had an unlimited credit account, courtesy of Selma; the mainframe computer that was small enough to wear on his person at all times. Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive or Selma, was the only thing from the future that he could not do without, and one day, he knew she would have to be returned, when he was no longer chasing fleeing criminals from the 22nd century. Even though she was not really a "she" and more of an "it", Darien could think of Selma in no other way.

 

It was not by chance that her holo-imaging system had been designed so that her appearance would resemble the mother he never knew. She was meant to provide a support mechanism for him in the wilderness of the past, and to that extent, Darien had to admit they had succeeded spectacularly. He sometimes wondered how much of Selma's personality was programming and not some spark of sentience that comes with the knowledge.

 

Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.

 

Did not Selma think, and if she did, did not that make her alive? Darien often pondered the question and decided in her own way, Selma was alive in a way that was real to him. If nothing else made her alive, Darien was determined to believe that did. In his unpredictable existence, Selma was the one thing in his life that was stable and completely reliable. He knew her loyalty was programming, but he liked to believe that there was more to her concern than that. He had never known the love of a mother until Selma entered his life.

 

And like a mother, she knew the art of interrupting him at the most inopportune moments.

 

In this case, it was while jogging with a particularly, vivacious young woman whom he had seen several times over the past months, jogging the same route. Today, she offered to join him and Darien had been happy to accept. Their conversation had progressed enough for him to learn that her name was Vicki and that she was a marketing consultant, whatever that was.

 

The shrill beeping sound that shattered the quiet calm of the park through which they were jogging was loud enough to send birds scattering in the trees overhead. Vicki had eyed him curiously as he tried to look nonchalant, knowing that it was Selma doing a very bad impression of a beeper. When he was with other people, she tried to refrain from voice mode which even in this age of cellular phones, could not be easily explained.

 

"Aren't you going to answer your beeper?" Vicki with her pearly white teeth, strawberry gold hair and deep blue eyes looked at him.

 

"Yeah," Darien sighed and stopped jogging. "Always the way isn't it?" He looked at her nervously before walking off in a different direction for some privacy. The young woman did not seem offended and waited patiently as he supposedly made his call.

 

When he was suitable distance away, he finally managed to respond. "Selma what is it?"

 

"Captain," she answered in her perfectly elegant voice. "I have intercepted a report from the Smithsonian to the local ambulance authorities. A body has been found in the museum that bears all the resemblance to Officer Warburton."

 

"James?" Darien exclaimed in a mixture of horror and surprise, Vicki almost completely evaporating from his mind. "But he went back two days ago! That's twice!"

 

"This would be his third trip." Selma said grimly. "Captain, he may be dead or suffering severe genetic degradation."

 

Darien knew the symptoms. TXP, the drug that made it possible for a human body to teleport through time was a highly toxic concoction with a recommended dosage of two uses, no more. Those who tried a third usually survived the trip but would eventually succumb to extreme genetic damage not unlike survivors of Hiroshima who would later die of radiation poisoning. It was a terrible way to die, and Darien found his blood boiling at whom could have committed such a foul act.

 

"Has the ambulance reached him yet?" Darien asked quickly, knowing it was necessary to reach Warburton before the ambulance did.

 

"A unit has been dispatched." Selma answered dutifully. "We will not reach him before they arrive."

 

Darien frowned; knowing what alarms it would raise when the doctors examined Warburton's body. "We'll have to intercept him at the hospital." He said finally. "Where are they taking him?"

 

"Chicago General Hospital."

Having made the appropriate apologies to Vicki, Darien returned home long enough to change into some fresh clothes before making a visit to the hospital. Secretly, he did not hold much hopes for finding Warburton in any state to answer questions, but he wanted to know who had done this to one of his fellow officers and was compelled to try. In the 22nd century, TXP was not a drug available to a private market. Prior to the discovery that Sahmbi had been sending criminals back in time, the doctor himself had exclusive knowledge and use of it. He had kept its existence a secret from virtually everyone, except those willing to pay for the privilege. Even now, long after Sahmbi's work had passed into government hands, Darien knew that TXP was kept under tight scrutiny and its regulation was equally rigid.

 

He entered the hospital and immediately lost himself in the crowd. Thanks to Selma, he knew exactly where Warburton was kept because she was able to tap into the hospital registration records. Chicago General Hospital was one of the largest medical facilities in the city, with a whole slew of services from specialist care to general outpatient clinics. Day or night, its hallways and corridors were a hive of activity as doctors; nurses, patients and visitors hustled past each other with hardly any awareness of one another.

 

It was easy for Darien to move through the building unnoticed with so many people going about their business. Warburton was being kept in the security wing of the hospital in intensive care, none of which surprised Darien. No doubt, Warburton's doctor was at this minute reporting the genetic anomalies that were plaguing him and it was not long before someone like the FBI or even worse, the NSA made their appearance in these halls. All of which brought Darien to one conclusion; he had little time to act.

 

"Any status on whether he's still alive Selma?" Darien asked as he rode the elevator to the security wing.

 

"None at this moment, Captain." Selma replied coolly. "However, I am monitoring all hospital lines in case his status changes."

 

"Even if he is alive, there's nothing they can do for him in this time." Darien said somberly. "They know almost nothing about treating severe cellular damage."

 

"Unfortunately no," Selma seemed to agree as the doors of the lift slid open to deposit him at his destination.

 

The security wing was mostly deserted at this time of the morning. As he approached the nurses' reception desk, he had produced his FBI identification, one of many such falsified documents he had in his position. Predictably, he had expected little difficulty in being allowed to see Warburton once his credentials were presented to the nurse on duty. Two security guards patrolled the floor at regular intervals and they tipped their hats in Darien's directions once he left the nurses' station and continued deeper into the wing. It appeared that Warburton was not considered a high-risk patient because of his condition. Judging by the speed by with which Darien was allowed to see him, the captain realized that Warburton was not expected to survive.

 

His room was located at the end of the corridor and Darien entered without hesitation, hearing no sounds behind the door. He slipped into the room and found Warburton connected to a dozen machines that monitor vital statistics but could do little to help him. Darien was visibly shocked by the man's appearance. He had never seen TXP's effects on a person a third time, and having seen the state of James Warburton, understood why Sepp Dietrich had once begged Darien not to send him back to the future. Despite himself, Darien found his insides growing cold at the prospect that he might have sent a man into this kind of nightmare.

 

James Warburton was thirty-two years old but the cellular deterioration of his body made him look at least sixty. His skin clung to his bones in a heavy, sheet of discolored flesh, and the pupils of his open eyes were almost white. The once green irises within appeared destroyed, and it was difficult imagining this man to be the vital officer he had worked with on occasion during the past two years. Darien forced away his horror and approached James quietly, certain that his eyes could no longer see.

 

"James." Darien said quietly.

 

The man reacted to the sound of a voice amidst the beeping of machines that indicated all too clearly how much life he had left. He blinked and turned his head from the window, following the sound of Darien's voice. "Darien." He said with almost a sigh of relief. "I knew you'd find me." He paused as he recovered from that small use of energy. "I tried to hang on until you got here."

 

"James what happened?" Darien asked, unable to contain his shock any longer. He could not equate this gaunt, wreck of man with the friend he had known for so long. "Who did this to you?"

 

"Nobody." He swallowed visibly. "I did it to myself." His voice was almost a whisper.

 

"Yourself?" Darien exclaimed horrified by the notion. "James, didn't you know what it would do you? TXP is not meant for a third use! You know that, hell we all do!"

 

"I had no choice!" James hissed loudly, pain emanating from every effort he made to speak. "Darien, our future is gone."

 

For a moment, Darien did not understand what he meant by that. "What do you mean gone?"

 

"I mean gone." James repeated himself, images of that nightmarish world returning to haunt him. "I went home and everything we knew was gone. No Smithsonian, no TRAX Control, no Fugitive Retrieval, nothing. It was all machines. Chicago was a nightmare of steel and circuitry. There were things flying around in the sky Darien, the technology was fantastic and so terrible. It was radical stuff Darien, even in the 22nd century. Even our military grade hardware were was nothing compared to these things. They were everywhere, and worst of all, I did not see one human. Darien, I don't think we exist there as a species. I walked around for the first day and they had no idea what I was!"

 

"They?" Darien demanded. "Whose Who's 'they'?"

 

"They weren't human." James answered, pausing a moment to recoup his strength. Darien had reached for his bony hand to offer some strength, pointless gesture that it was. James had no illusions that he was not dying. "Some of them looked human, but my Selma unit said they were cybernetic years ahead of anything we had in our time. I managed to patch her into one of their computer networks to try and find any humans, or some idea what had happened. Their lock out was almost fool proof, I got nothing except a name, a city and two dates in the most encrypted file they had. I figured if it was that important it might help us."

 

"And then you came back here." Darien guessed.

 

"I couldn't stay there." James closed his eyes and forced away the image of the Orwellian world where machinery was the Big Brother of which the writer had been so terrified. Humanity had been replaced by cold steel, and what he had seen did not indicate that the shift had been for the better. "I had to come back and tell you so you could stop it somehow."

 

Darien found this difficult to believe, but then time travel existed and TRAX control had been established to protect the integrity of the time line from the fugitives who had escaped from the 22nd century. Most of the criminals who lived in this day and age were more too interested in their own survival to go interfering with historical events. Some took advantage of their knowledge, but not to the extent of endangering their existence in the future by altering the events, as they knew it them.

 

"What's the name?" Darien found himself asking, still trapped in the nexus between astonishment and outright disbelief. What James was saying was completely plausible of course. Time was easily manipulated if one knew the focal points in which to intervene.

 

"Sarah Connor. Los Angeles. 1984 and 1994." Warburton replied. Darien could see the light in his eyes starting to fade. His words had escaped his lips almost like a dying gasp. Darien's chest began to tighten as he saw the inevitable approach.

 

"Sarah Connor," Darien nodded. "I'll find her James, if she exists, I'll find her."

 

"God I hope so," James closed his eyes as the life started to ooze out of his body. "I don't want to think that place...that hell was the future...." The machines began to beep louder, screaming an alert to the fall in vital signs.

 

Darien glanced at them, knowing that nurses would come running in here soon, with questions he could not answer. When he returned his gaze to James, the man's head was already slumping to the side of his pillow. Darien could feel James' grip on his hand slackening until finally, there was no will keeping the fingers tightened. When Darien removed his hand from James' own, he knew that his friend was gone. The machines indicated the presence of residual life making a hasty departure but Darien knew that was nothing was left. James Warburton was dead.

 

"Captain." Selma's voice spoke up. "I am sorry to intrude upon this moment, however it would be prudent to vacate the area." She remarked. "I have detected the presence of three people approaching this location."

 

"No, its it's all right," Darien stepped away from the bed, giving James one last look. "I'm done here anyway." Without saying another word, Darien Lambert hurried out the room with the machines squealing James' end in his ears.

Darien flew to Los Angeles that afternoon, trying to grapple with the information that James Warburton had died to bring him. He had no idea if anything that James said was legitimate, that his story might not have been induced by the cellular degradation suffered because of TXP. However, James' story made a certain amount of sense. Darien could think of no other reason why he would risk death by returning to the past unless the future was something so terrible he could not possibly endure. The distortion of the time line had always been TRAX control's worst fear, that someone from the future with knowledge of key events would destroy the history of everything they knew.

 

As the plane touched down in LAX, Darien reviewed the data that Selma had managed to find about Sarah Connor. In 1984, one of three women with the name of Sarah Connor had been residing in Los Angeles. Of the three, only Sarah Jeanette Connor was still living. As Selma had pointed out, two of these women had died within hours of each other. The remaining Sarah Connor had managed to elude the same fate even though the murderer had killed seventeen police officers to reach her in a guarded police station. The killer resurfaced in 1994, raiding a hi-tech electronic facility before vanishing once again just as mysteriously.

 

In the meantime, Sarah Connor had dropped out of sight herself, emerging now and then south of the border. In 1994, she was incarcerated at Pescadero State Hospital after attempting to destroy the Cyberdyne Building. During her incarceration, she attempted escaping several times before it was discovered that her physician, a Doctor Leonard Silberman, was mentally ill himself. An order for her release came soon after and since then Sarah Connor had been enjoying a more mundane existence raising her thirteen-year-old son, John.

"So where can we find Sarah Connor now?" Darien inquired after he had retrieved his bags from the luggage turnstile and headed for the car that Avis were so good to have had waiting for him in the airport parking lot.

 

"According to her social security data, she now runs a florist shop in Reseda." Selma replied as Darien loaded his bags into the trunk of the Chrysler rental.

 

"Okay," Darien said as he jumped into the driver seat of the vehicle. "It's off to Reseda."

 

It took him a while to be free of the underpasses and winding roads that lead away from the airport towards the city, but once LAX was left behind, Darien found himself enjoying the heat of the Californian sun. However, despite the warm sunshine and lively energy of Los Angeles, Darien found difficulty in keeping his thoughts away from James Warburton's' prediction of the future. He tried to imagine the 22nd century as a stygian world of machine intelligence, far removed from the reality he knew and felt a sliver of fear he could not explain. James' scant information did not help very much either, considering that the file he had broken into said nothing about Sarah Connor beyond those meager facts. It was not so much the name that bothered him but the dates. Each was exactly ten years apart; coinciding with the appearance of a killer that seemed to vanish like smoke. If he did not know better, he would have believed it to be the work of a 22nd century fugitive, but no fugitive he knew would be foolish enough to jeopardize the time line. The dangers of entropy because of paradoxes were too grave for even those lawless men to ignore.

 

"Selma," Darien found himself speaking to the computer.

 

"Yes Captain." She answered automatically.

 

"What do you think of James' story?" From the moment this began, Darien had never asked her that question even though she provided him with all the information to furnish his search.

 

"It does have a very high probability of being unlikely," she responded after a moment. "However, our presence here is proof that such corruption of the time line is possible."

 

"But a world taken over by machine intelligence?" Darien retorted and then remembered he was speaking to one such example of artificial intelligence. "No offence intended of course."

 

"I do not take offence Captain," Selma replied neutrally although Darien swore he detected a slight huff to her voice. "However, my existence is proof that such an outcome is possible. Although machines of independent will have yet to exist, you must admit that there has been much research conducted toward that end. It is conceivable that one of those attempts will eventually lead to success."

 

"I suppose." He sighed, taking note of a sign that pointed toward Reseda. "It just scares me to think that the machines we build could some day prove more fatal than global war, nuclear annihilation or all the ills we expected would destroy us."

 

"It is an unsettling thought." Selma agreed. "I would not wish an end to the interaction between machine and humanity. I find it stimulating."

"Why Selma," Darien grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment."

 

Selma chose not to dignify the remark with a response.

Darien peered through the window of the florist shop called Sarah's Place and could hardly imagine the woman working through the stems of roses on the counter in that role. She was beautiful in a way that could not be defined. There was something about her that left him captured for a moment by the wave of dark brown hair and the wistful sadness in her emerald colored eyes. He watched for a moment, knowing it was rude but could find no way to stop himself. Occasionally, she would pause and he would see her eyes move out of the shop into some distant place where nothing could reach her. Sadness would seep into those eyes then, with a familiarity Darien knew all too well, particularly when he thought about Elyssa.

 

It was minutes later, when he saw her place the scissors she had been using to trim the roses, down on the counter before walking towards the front door. Swinging it open, Sarah Connor stepped onto the pavement where he had been standing and watching her.

 

"You just going stand there gawking at me or you going to come in and tell me what you want?" Sarah inquired. Darien felt foolish at being caught out staring at her like some teenager. What he would have to say to her was difficult enough to believe without his behaving like an idiot. "I was just deciding." He replied stepping forward. She let a small smile steal across her face as she returned to the confines of the shop. The premises were not very large and Darien was greeted with a variety of scents as he entered its enclosure. He detected lilac, roses and a whiff of baby's breath in the air. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a loose pair of drawstring pants, which barely hid the sinewy muscles beneath. She moved gracefully and it took Darien a moment to realize that it was the kind of stealth grace that came from years of training. He had no doubt that anyone trying to attack her would have cause to regret it bitterly.

 

"So what can I do for you?" She asked as she returned behind the counter and resumed her floral arrangement of roses.

 

"You're Sarah Connor." He stated, just to make sure of that fact.

 

"Yes I am." She nodded. "What is this about?" He could see the alarm bells going off in her head.

 

"I don't how say this without sounding like a complete nut but I'm going to anyway. You can throw me out if you don't believe me and I'll go quietly." Darien began feeling some need to discard any attempts at deception. For reasons he could not explain, he sensed she would know if he were lying. With an ESP rating that was higher than normal, Darien did not ignore such perceptions when he had them. Somehow he could tell the best way to reach Sarah Connor was to be honest with her. "Did you believe in time travel?"

 

Her face showed little expression at the statement but he noticed her muscles tensing almost involuntarily and her jaw tightened. "As much as the next person." She said quietly. All trace of humor disappearing from her voice now. It sounded cold and hard and completely different from the woman he spoken to moments before.

 

"What about machines ruling the world?" He probed deeper, sensing she knew exactly what he was talking about.

 

"Are you from Pescadero?" She glared at him. "You guys gave me the all clear three years ago."

 

"No." He shook his head in response. "I'm not from any hospital but I need to know what you do about the future."

 

"If this is some attempt to see if I'm fit to raise my son," she replied without reacting to his extraordinary statement, "I'm not biting."

 

"You didn't answer my question." Darien pointed out. It did not take Selma's sensors to tell him that Sarah Connor was becoming extremely agitated. He glanced at the picture on the wall and saw the boy whose image it held. John Connor was a good-looking boy with Sarah's eyes but nothing else of her was his. It made Darien wonder whom the boy's father had been, for that information had been unavailable even on his birth certificate.

 

"Get out."' Sarah said firmly, with enough menace in her voice to tell Darien she would not hesitate to throw him out of if it was necessary.

 

"Sarah I need to know what you do about the future. It's important." He repeated himself as she started towards him.

 

"Important so you can take my son away?" She said sharply, her fists were balled and she approached him with every intention of striking him if he did not leave. Nothing would ever come between her and John again. She had been foolish enough to speak her mind about these things once before and that had resulted in her almost losing John forever. With August 29th less than seven months away, she would risk nothing. Ever since the year had begun, Sarah had been waiting for Skynet to make some desperate final attempt at killing her son as he had done twice before.

 

"No Sarah," Darien tried to placate her. "I'm not from any State Hospital but I have to know what you do. The future depends on it."

 

"The future is just fine." Sarah snapped. "Miles Dyson is dead and his work is destroyed. The future will go without Skynet or any other damn thing creating a nuclear holocaust."

 

"Dyson?" Darien exclaimed. "Selma, reference to Miles Dyson, quickly!" He ordered, not caring if Sarah was privy to her or not. Something was going on here and the future he knew had unraveled because of something only she was privy to.

 

"Miles Bennett Dyson." Selma's voice broke through the verbal joust between Sarah and Darien. The new voice froze Sarah in her tracks as she looked around for it. "Deceased in 1994. He was Director of Special Projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation. He is survived by a wife Tarissa, children Tammy and Blythe."

 

"Who the hell is that?" Sarah asked starting to feel the familiar tightening of her chest at the possibility that her worse nightmares had been realized, that Skynet had come back from for John and they had prevented nothing.

 

"Selma," Darien responded, seeing Sarah's tolerance reaching breaking point. He was now convinced she had the answers he needed and for that he was willing to gamble on letting her know the complete truth. "Visual mode."

 

"Captain are you sure?" Selma questioned.

 

"Now." Darien repeated himself firmly. Sarah was staring past him with a look of unfathomable fear in her eyes. He could not imagine what was so terrifying but he knew she needed answers and Selma's presence would wipe away any doubt.

 

The holographic image of Selma flickered to life in the center of the room. Sarah gaped at it in shock as Darien pulled the blinds down over the windows. She made no move to stop him as she saw the spectral image of an older woman standing with serene patience as she waited for either one of them to speak.

 

"What is this?" She looked at Darien, unable to comprehend what she was staring at. Part of her wanted to bolt out of this room and run to John's school so they could fade into obscurity again. She had been dreading this moment for three terrible years, even though she had told John that the future had righted itself and there would be no Skynet. It had meant so much to him that he was freed of his terrible destiny. Although this stranger seemed very human indeed, the thing before them was not and seemed akin to be the machine intelligence that had become Skynet.

 

"It's a holographic projection of a computer data base. It has a language and personality matrix to make for easy interface." Darien explained that as best he could. "Now, please, I need to have some questions answered."

 

Sarah had barely heard him. Her initial fear was starting to fade somewhat but she was still staring at Selma with unmasked suspicion. "Is it self aware?" She was almost afraid to ask.

 

"No." Darien shook its head. "Selma has a personality but no actual sentience. It's a machine, nothing more." Darien did not believe that for one minute but it was important that Sarah did. believed otherwise.

 

"This thing came from the future." Sarah met his gaze and stated without doubt or hesitation. She circled the holograph, like a cat inspecting the prey before pouncing.

 

"From the year 2160, according to the present calendar." Darien replied.

 

Sarah's brows furrowed. "2160?" She exclaimed because that was far too late. Skynet would have been long destroyed by John Connor, even if Judgment Day had come. "You know nothing about Skynet?" She asked quietly.

 

"I have never heard of the reference." Selma finally answered. Sarah appeared a little startled by the Selma's verbal presence but she recovered quickly.

 

"Are you from the future too?" She met Darien's eyes and he knew if she was to help him, he would have to tell her the truth. Judging by everything that had taken place so far, he did not believe she would have any trouble believing his claims to be from the future.

 

"Yes." He responded, unaware that he had been holding his breath while wrestling with the decision to tell her the truth.

 

He had no idea what her response would be, whether she would laugh at him and call him insane or simply throw him out. Instead she nodded slowly, taking the information in with no apparent signs of distress. "Okay, let's talk."

Sarah Connor's version of the future was nothing that Darien recognized. As they sat in the back room of the shop, sipping coffee while telling each other fantastic tales, he knew he believed everything she told him. Hers was a future of death and struggle, where machines would have dominion over the world and sought to end the human race. Her story bore too much resemblance to the place Warburton had described to Darien prior to his death.

 

"I still don't understand how there can two or three versions of history." Sarah confessed. Thinking about time travel always gave her a headache and this was no exception. She truly believed this stranger who said he was from the future because he had the tools to prove it. Kyle had come to her with less than that and Sarah had not only believed him but eventually fallen in love with him as well.

 

"The future is not set Sarah," Darien confessed with a sigh. "It is what we make of it."

 

When he did not get an answer, he looked up at her and saw Sarah staring at him with a strange look in her eye. There was almost a smile on her face, which was unusual considering what they were discussing. "What is it?" He asked, unconsciously thinking what a beautiful smile she had. It made her look radiant. Of course, he kept that observation to himself.

 

"Nothing." She said softly, unable to disguise the wave of emotion that swept her away when he had spoken those words. Kyle had said those very words to her once, not long before he died. Hearing Darien say it, himself a visitor from the future, brought back Kyle's loss more acutely than ever. "So your friend returned from to the future and found it had changed into a Skynet future."

 

"Assuming what you told me about Skynet is correct, that's right." Darien answered. "The human race no longer exists in the 22nd century."

"Then why do I remember things taking place differently?" Sarah inquired. "I remember Dyson dying and according to his school, my son is at this moment in the middle of geography class."

 

"I may have an answer Captain." Selma spoke up. She had returned to voice mode now that Sarah Connor required no further proof of Darien's claims. "Professor Jan Friedman of the Sakharov Institution of Moscow wrote a paper in the early 22nd century that stated how time may flows like rivers and eddies. Perhaps whatever alteration to the time line that has occurred from our century has yet to flow back to this one."

 

"You mean a ripple effect." Darien nodded, knowing something about the theory. "Unfortunately, we need to determine what has changed to allow that future to happen before the ripple reaches us."

 

"Captain, it could come at any point." Selma replied. "However, there is one consolation."

 

"And that is?" Darien was not seeing anything positive in the possibility of forgetting everything he knew about the 22nd century. If in fact, he even existed because of the alternate time line.

 

"Your body will be protected against the ripple because of the TXP in your system. As it has been designed to protect the human body from the ravages of temporal shifts, it has created a shielding against the temporal imbalance. I believe you will retain your memory of all events of your original time line."

 

"What about you?" Sarah asked the unseen computer. "Do you come with that kind of shielding?"

 

"I have been adjusted similarly.' Selma answered in the affirmative.

 

"Then you can stop them." Sarah said feeling a glimmer of hope. "Darien, you have to stop Skynet."

 

"Sarah, I don't even know what its done to change history." Darien tried to explain. "You said John's existence was crucial to Skynet's defeat but apparently, he's fine."

 

"He is now." She said grimly. "We don't know what will happen soon, do we? We can't know anything until the ripple passes us by." The young woman swallowed and took a deep breath. "Darien, I've only relied on one person in my life and that was John's father, Kyle. I loved Kyle more than I've loved anything in my life but I have no choice, if this thing is coming as you say, then I have to rely on you. Don't let Skynet destroy my son, in any future."

 

She reached for his hand and squeezed it tight, showing the faith she had in him. Darien knew that it was not easy to earn Sarah Connor's respect and even harder to earn her trust. Yet, she did both these things without hesitation because the thirteen-year-old boy in the picture outside meant everything to her. She had fought time and history to help John face his destiny, and for the first time, the fight was taken out of her hands. Darien did not dare let her down.

 

For all their sakes.

When he woke up the next morning, Darien was more than happy to see that the world had not transformed over night into some hellish nightmare of machine intelligence. Everything was as it was had been, and he was glad of that fact. He had remained with Sarah for as long as he could; knowing that his protection from the ripple effect created by the alteration of the time line was the only hope she had. He had visited her modest home in Reseda, with its German Shepherd guard dog, a precaution Sarah could not willingly abandon, even after the threat of the Terminators were was seemingly eliminated.

 

Darien met the young Caesar and found him to be a spirited child. It was hard to see the supreme commander of a possible human resistance in the future when one looked at John Connor. However, according to Selma, John would eventually become one of the rarest of things, an honest politician who would make sweeping reforms in the future of Darien Lambert. The boy was intelligent, possessing an interesting perception that spoke something of the hidden genius within him. Darien liked him and he understood Sarah's need to protect John was not simply a desire to protect her son, but the fate of the human race that rested on his youthful shoulders.

 

He shared a dinner with mother and son, envying the powerful bound between them. Sarah Connor was like the lioness protecting her only cub, full of fierce dedication while attempting to raise him with the qualities that would allow John to take his place in history. Despite himself, Darien found he was drawn to Sarah's love for her son, perhaps wondering if his own mother, had he known her, would have fought for him the way Sarah had.

 

Having left his hotel, content that the ripple had yet to reach them, Darien proceeded back to Reseda to find Sarah. After their dinner last night, it was agreed for the integrity of the future they were trying to save, it would be best to keep each other in close sight. Darien knew she would be at her florist shop at this time of the morning. He wondered with some amusement how a woman with the skill of a combat veteran could find happiness in such a docile vocation. Perhaps, after everything they had been through, Sarah had wanted something moderately normal for her son.

 

"Captain." Selma made herself heard for the first time that morning as they approached the street where Sarah's Place was situated. "Do you have feelings about for Sarah Connor?"

 

"Of course not." Darien said quickly but knew he was lying a little. He could not deny the attraction he felt towards her, nor the admiration he had in for her strength of character and her ability to endure. There was a reservoir of courage hidden beneath that bittersweet smile that was too much like Ellyssa for him to remain completely detached. Through her strength, a terrible future had been averted and time had moved along a new path towards the world in which he would some day be born. It was up to him to see that Skynet would did not make that incredible feat a wasted effort.

 

"I sense that you feel some connection to her." Selma insisted.

 

"You sense?" He said skeptically. "Pray tell me, how you do that?"

 

"Captain, I am attuned to you personally and so I can determine some of your behavioral responses. It is obvious you feel something towards Sarah Connor. I wondered if you wished to discuss it. I am here in the capacity of a supportive ear."

 

Darien smiled as he pulled the car to the curb. "Thanks Selma. It's nice to know that, but I'm fine for now. I barely know Sarah and I wouldn't even consider anything more than that until the time line is corrected."

 

He had not taken only a few steps forward when suddenly he noticed that Sarah's Place was not where he left it. Hurrying towards the arcade where he had first sighted her florist shop, Darien found himself standing before a shop front that read 'Allens Book Store'. For a moment, he considered whether he had the wrong address, his eyes scanning the area quickly. However, the landmarks were the same, and with the exception of the florist shop, everything was as he remembered it yesterday.

 

"Selma." He said unable to find his voice for a few minutes’ moments. The ripple! It had come without him being barely aware of it! "She's gone. It's happened."

 

"That is most disturbing." The computer admitted readily. "I was not aware of any significant shift."

 

"Consider us lucky I suppose." Darien swallowed hard. "Can you tap into current records on Sarah Connor?"

 

"If she exists in this current time line, I shall be able to find her." Selma said trying to sound hopeful for his benefit.

 

Darien wandered through the arcade, still astonished that she had slipped through his fingers without being the slightest bit aware of it. He could not understand how he had formed such a close attachment to this woman after a period of less than 24 hours. Now she was gone and he felt like a part of himself had gone with her. Nevertheless, the promise he made to her remained as strong as ever and Darien was determined not to break his word to her. He found himself seated at a park bench across the street from the arcade because there was a part of him that was terrified to see what other subtle changes he had missed so completely. The ripple had come and gone and the world seemed no different for the experience, except for Sarah's disappearance.

 

"Captain I found the information." Selma responded with a note of excitement, knowing how important it was to him.

 

"Selma, you're a life saver." He gushed in relief. "Where is she?"

 

"She is a school teacher working not far from here. According to the records she is still unmarried and still lives in Reseda."

 

"Okay," he nodded. "Nothing too drastic. What about John?"

 

"There is no record of a John Conner being born to Sarah Jeanette Connor."

 

"What?" Darien blinked. "How can that be?" Sarah had told him the sequence of events. In the future she knew, John Conner would send Kyle Reese back to the past to impregnate his mother. It was a predestination paradox if Darien had ever heard of one. Skynet had hoisted its own petard when it had sent a Terminator back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor for it had always assumed that John's father was also from the same time period. In doing so, it had also given John Connor forewarning of things to come and so the cycle continued.

 

Unless Kyle Reese no longer existed.

 

Sarah had loved him specifically. She had not fallen in love with just any freedom fighter that had come to save her life. She had fallen in love with Kyle Reese the man, and not because of gratitude. Kyle Reese had come across time to meet Sarah Connor after having seen her in a faded photograph. Kyle had dreamed of meeting the younger version, compelling him to volunteer for the mission that would bring them together. Eliminate the man and everything else becomes undone.

 

"Selma, what do we know about Kyle Reese?"

 

"Captain, he has not been born in this time period." Selma pointed out.

 

"I know that," he scowled. "But your database is unaffected by the change in the time line so your records would still extend to the 22nd century. The records of who he was did not get destroyed in any nuclear war in our time line so his genealogical records still exist."

 

"That is logical." She answered finding no flaw in his interesting leaps of deductive reasoning. "I am searching for the data."

 

While Selma sought for any record on Kyle Reese present or future, Darien pondered the ramifications if the freedom fighter had not returned from the future. Sarah would not bear John and she would not know of Judgment Day, which was now looming even closer before. Darien's future had been created because Sarah had averted Judgment Day by contacting Miles Dyson and telling him of what his creation would mean for the world. Dyson who had believed he was creating something for the betterment of mankind was unwilling to accept responsibi