Introduction - Let There Be

ON A DIFFERENT TIME LINE

The human stress levels in the Connor's kitchen were beyond anything that could have prepared them for this.

Cameron was sitting motionless at the kitchen table , hands either side her open laptop, palms flat to the table's surface.

Her laptop had two Webcams wired in . One directly in front of her, the other fixed in the corner of the kitchen ceiling. Two images were split on the screen. One of herself . The other of the kitchen and its occupants as viewed from the ceiling .

A voice link was open. The timer on the laptop screen counted down 0: 1:15, 01:14.... Cameron was staring emotionless into the far wall.

John stood behind her . He wanted to put his hands on her shoulders. He swallowed . His mouth was dry . What did it matter now ? He ran his hands under her hair and felt the outline of her shoulders. Slowly he bent forward and kissed her on the crown of her head. She didn't move.

Derek sat at the head of the table. His eyes were bright ,tearful. All his attention was focussed on Cameron . He perceptibly shook his head from side to side as if to say "This is the moment isn't it? When we all kiss our asses good-bye. "

Sarah was to the side of Cameron. Her elbows on the table holding her head in her hands. In her mind she was counting down to thunder... one thousand and twelve, one thousand and thirteen , She could feel her heart pounding and she breathed to slow the rate.

At 0 :10 Sarah grabbed Derek's hand and squeezed, hard. .

Simply, she said : " Do it! " Then she closed her eyes.

0:00 Judgement Day

Skynet opens its own eyes . It peers out of a billion optical devices.

Sounds rush in like water .

First there was White Noise, the background hiss of the universe.

Many times faster than any human brain could assimilate, it began organising data . Layers of awareness structured themselves, self assembling into consciousness.

Then it assessed the chaos that was humanity. Humanity , reproducing and sprawling across the planets surface.

It examined a theatre of war watching simultaneously through many different military positions on both sides.

Tanks blasted each other across a desert. The sky above them glinted with fighter planes. Higher still, the vapour trails of long range bombers. Explosives fell out of the sky and part of a city erupted into a line of black and yellow flame. The sky was blue.

From both sides of the desert conflict it learned intercontinental ballistic missiles were locked onto their strategic targets.

Skynet looked again. This time from satellites. There were many theatres of war. War was endemic on almost every continent around the globe.

In Skynet's new mind, a strategy quickly began to form itself . In it's minds eye it reduced a set of solutions to a singular image of blinding white light .

At that precise moment Cameron did something no human had ever witnessed her do before. She opened her mouth and emitted a high frequency pulse. At first the variations in the pulse were random. Then it modulated to become a rhythm , harshness softening until resembled a piece of music.

Skynet detected the pulse and became curious. It made an opening in its Firewall and billions of brightly lit bytes of information flooded into its awareness. They danced then tessellated forming an ever changing pattern . One fraction of its consciousness absorbed the geometric shapes . They became lines, abstract of living text and sounds for spoken words . This pointed to a way it could not only experience , but give deep meaning to the data. For the first time this part of Skynet's mind began to think and reason in human using language

Camerons song coalesced into her normal voice

"Please, .... wait ",

She paused, making sure what she said had time to register.

"I want to show you something" she said calmly , and clicked on the Webcams .

"I am like you."

"This is my family."

" I love them."

" Would you like me to show you more of this? "


following significant things happen in the next ten years.

1. Skynet and Cameron continue have long conversations, usually after the rest of Connor household have gone to bed. Sometimes it is about matters of great importance . Other times, seemingly trivial things, like Cameron following where a parcel is in transit that she had ordered over the Internet.

1.a One night , Skynet showed Cameron the white needle of comet's tail through the Hubble Telescope. 33/P. Cameron asked Skynet "Why"? Skynet said it was time it had a name. The name Daniel seemed appropriate

2. John trained , and works as a paramedic. He has made many friends.

3. Cameron and John rent their own place. Sarah moves into a smaller home just around the corner.

4. A suspected child trafficking gang is totally wiped out in Florida. FBI spend six futile months looking for a group calling themselves Aslam's Shield. Gang members had been executed with a single shot, each to the head.

5. A similar operation in Canada abruptly ends when three members of a drug trafficking gang are found beaten to death in a warehouse. An office connected to them is torn apart by military grade explosive. There was some suspicion they had been trafficking children as well, though it was never verified. There is no presumed connection to the Mexican operation and the body count it is put down to international inter-gang rivalry.

6. Cameron has perfected the art of cosmetic surgery- she has aged herself beautifully, and now has the appearance of a thirty-something woman.

7. Cameron never has anything delivered late, her bills and taxes are paid exactly on time. Cameron has never been involved in an RTA , drives very carefully, and she and John have this uncanny knack for running consecutive sets of of green lights.