Authors Notes: First, a MASSIVE thank-you to Vija-Thorn for letting me play in her sandbox, and write stories based on the events in her fantastically written story.Please read Vija-Thorn's story 'The Future Is Never Set' or none of this will make sense! That, and if you don't your missing out on an awesome piece of Terminator: Genisys fiction and the world will be a darker place for you because of it .
This story is an account of what happens in the 33 years between 1984 and 2017 when John and Pops lived/fight/survive waiting for Sarah and Kyle to appear.
All characters and plot are used with permission from Vija-Thorn.
This chapter is set immediately after chapter 2 of 'Future' and is, in fact, a reflection of that chapter set from the POV of another character. If you haven't read 'The Future Is Never Set' this chapter especially will make no sense whatever.
Year 2029
Even as the spinning metal rings blurred Skynet was calculating trajectories and odds at a rate that would be staggering for anyone with the intelligence to appreciate it. It had already concluded that stopping John Connor from travelling through the temporal portal was impossible.
Killing John Connor as he did remained probable.
It raised its weapon and fired, the bullet sliding neatly between the spinning rings and piercing John Connor's shoulder in an upwards arc. And then the resistance leader was gone, and the time displacement devise squealed ominously. Skynet frown and reached out, quickly shutting down the controls just as a surge of power ripped through them. For a brief moment the settings rapidly shifted before blacking out.
The AI tilted its head and studied the now stopped devise; there was a flaw in one of the rings. It walked forward, hand tightening around its weapon.
Buried within the ring were the shattered remains of a bullet. With a probability of 4689.43 against, the bullet had passed through John Connor instead of lodging against bone and causing the magnetic field to rip the resistance leader apart.
It wasn't until Skynet heard the sound of grinding metal did it look down and realize it had crushed the gun in its hand. It tossed the useless item away and pried the bullet from the ring. It flung that away as well. The damage to the ring was insignificant- it was the presence of the foreign metal within the magnetic field that had truly wrecked havoc on the device.
Skynet turned, walking back towards the control panel when suddenly it was wracked with, what it could only assume pain. It dropped to its knees, confusion turning to mild shock when it lifted its hand to see its nanotech components shifting and churning. Its body was slowly degrading at a subatomic level for no logical reason.
Error messages flashed through its consciousness as the AI struggled to find the source of the integration inaccuracies. Then it was hit by a wave of searing static backlash that ripped through it very code, forcing Skynet to watch helplessly as foreign, alien script began to reshape it existence. Protocols were becoming muted, distorted, and events long recorded in its database were suddenly changing.
Then the AI understood.
It was not itself that was in error. It was time that was malfunctioning. Error messages repeated as a random information recall flashed.
For the past determines future events, but an approximated, altered past does not adhere to a previously approximated future; in New York a butterfly flaps its wings and in Miami there is a hurricane.
In intercepting John Connor's plans to use the time displacement device, it had deemed the sending of one human back in time as a 'necessary risk'. The action had lulled the resistance leader into a misguided sense of victory. That was why he'd sent the T-1000 back further as a counteractive. It rendered the humans actions pointless, and acted as a alternative should the experiment with the resistant leader fail. Skynet hadn't factored in the potential time distortions should John Connor himself ever successfully travel.
It was facing the real probability of a world in which it did not- had never- existed.
The AI shut down all superfluous systems and forced itself back on its feet. Time was critical; if it was not within the machine in approximately 26.2 seconds it would no longer have the physical integrity to safely use the device. It stumbled to the controls, channelling 55 percent of its stored power reserves to force a reboot, while using a small amount of nanites to restore critical systems. It watched detachedly as its right legs function drained to 32.1 percent operational capacity. The device remained black 2.5 seconds and then a green light beeped on and off. It was a further 4.6 seconds before the time displacements systems reactivated. Skynet frowned at the malfunctioning controls, watching as the date shifted between several possibilities.
The three most predominate dates were acceptable enough, and the AI simply had no more time for further repairs. It activated the device and stepped forward, channelling all remaining power into maintaining outward structural stability.
The rings began to spin, and then to race and Skynet could feel the magnetic pull ripping a hole in reality at the same moment it felt itself being pulled through. It was an interesting experience.
It arrived at unknown destination in the center of a circular wave of electricity and power. It would not be erroneous to say Skynet was mildly unbalanced. One moment it had been on the verge of cascade failure, now it was whole and completely operational. The AI was functioning outside the parameters of currently established and upcoming cause and effect. It had been saved by a temporal paradox; by the fact of its existence in this time line, it ensured the possibility of its continued existence in future, which ensured both system and structural stability of its physical body.
Skynet stood up, testing its physical design by flexing its fingers experimentally as it scanned its internal systems; fully functional, although it would soon require more power to remain so. It looked up at the city around it and frowned. It knew approximately where it was, but it didn't know when, and it didn't know the full range of discrepancies between this timeline and its own. It was going to have to learn everything, set events in motion to correct the errors, and then deal with John Connor; personally.
Skynet was intrigued to realize it was experiencing slight pleasure at the idea.
"…Ah, whoa… Naked. I mean, whoa, okay. Um, Mr? Yeah, are you? Are you alright?"
The AI turned around to see a young adult male who was standing just outside a driver's side door with one hand on it as he shifted from foot to foot. Skynet tilted its head and studied the human, then looked down at itself and effortlessly shifted its outside appearance to mimic the clothing the male was wearing. The human took a step back, eyes widening.
"Holy shit…"
The AI strolled forward quickly, letting its right arm shift into a blade. Before the human could fully react, it plunged the blade through the male's chest. The human tried to speak, but could only manage to gurgle through a mouthful of blood. Skynet withdrew the blade and pushed the male back as he leaned down to scan the interior of the car. He reached in and lifted the wallet from the passenger seat.
Current inventory stock: an underpowered and cheap vehicle of questionable design, a laptop with an insultingly inefficient operating system, and a wallet with little cash and a driver's license declaring it belonged to one 'Alex Major'. Skynet tossed the wallet back into the car and got into the drivers seat.
For now it would suffice.
