Chapter One:
The Never Born
21st January 1997 — 7 am EST
There was a part of Darien Lambert who always knew he would not return to the 22nd century.
When he first journeyed to the 20th century, he was motivated by vengeance and self-righteousness. Chasing Mordicai Sahmbi through time, he wanted to bring to justice the person who killed the only woman he had ever loved, but in truth, his reasons for returning had always been selfish ones. He never felt quite right in his own time.
Despite being the product of two centuries of genetic manipulation by men who wanted to create a better human, Darien was the pinnacle of human evolution. Yet the time he was born into wasn't equal to the human created for it. To Darien, the 22nd century seemed to lack something he was unable to define until his return to the 20th century. Perhaps, things were simply too ordered for his liking but he knew as soon as he arrived in the past, he was home.
He loved the smells and the sounds, the unpredictability of weather, the challenge of finding a criminal through the process of deduction and investigation, where a computer would not scan for an ID code and have an answer waiting at one's fingers tips. Even though he rose to the rank of Captain in the Fugitive Retrieval Unit of Earth, he never felt the same thrill of excitement as he felt now, returning fugitives to the 22nd century to face justice.
As a child, Darien Lambert used to imagine he was a US Marshall of the Old West, carrying a six shooter and wearing a silver star. Being a cop in the 20th century wasn't quite like that but it was pretty close in his opinion.
When he arrived from the future in 1993, he was alone. Now, four years on, there were dozens other from the Fugitive Retrieval who made the journey back in time for a period of service in the 20th century. They came on a rotating basis; some stayed for months, others, for years. Darien's commanding officer never asked if he wanted to come back. The old man knew better.
Darien left nothing behind, and returning home would only surface old wounds difficult enough to forget in any period of history. If he ever decide to exercise his right to return back to the era of his birth, he need only administer to himself the TXP pellet reserved for captured escapees but Darien knew he never would. He 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.
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 some inexplicable need for continuity. Even though he had no income, he had an unlimited credit account, courtesy of Selma; the mainframe computer who resided on his person as a nondescript key card.
Called the Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive or Selma, she was the only thing from the future he could not do without, even though one day he knew she would have to be returned to the future. Presumably after there were no more criminals to chase. Technically, she wasn't really a 'she' but more of an 'it' yet Darien could think of Selma no other way.
It was not by chance her holo-imaging system was designed to project the appearance of 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 admitted her designers had succeeded spectacularly. He sometimes wondered how much of Selma's personality was programming and not much was some spark or rudimentary sentience.
Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.
Did Selma think, and if she did, didn't that make her alive? Darien often pondered the question and decided in her own way, Selma lived because she felt real to him. In his unpredictable existence, Selma was the one constant he could rely on. He knew her loyalty was programming, but he liked to believe there was more to her concern than that. She played the role of surrogate mother and like a real mother, she knew how to interrupt him at the worst times.
In this case, it was while jogging with a particularly, vivacious young woman whom he'd seen several times over the past months, jogging the same route. Today, she offered to join him and Darien was happy to accept. Their conversation had progressed enough for him to learn her name was Vicki and that she was a marketing consultant, whatever that was.
He was making headway getting her phone number when a shrill beeping sound shattered the quiet calm of the park, loud enough to send birds scattering in the trees overhead. Vicki eyed him curiously as he tried to look nonchalant, ignoring the fact 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, was 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 drifted away from her to get some privacy.
"Selma what is it?"
"Captain," Selma answered in her perfectly elegant voice. "I have intercepted a 911 call from the Smithsonian. A body has been found in the museum that bears resemblance to Officer Warburton."
"James?" Darien exclaimed in a mixture of horror, Vicki 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 doese usually survived the trip but would eventually succumb to extreme genetic degradation not unlike survivors of Hiroshima who later died from radiation poisoning. It was a terrible death and Darien couldn't imagine why James would risk it. Worse yet, what if someone had sent him back against his will? The idea of such a thing filled Darien with anger.
"Has the ambulance reached him yet?"
"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."
Making the appropriate apologies to Vicki, Darien returned home long enough to change into some fresh clothes before heading towards the hospital. Secretly, he didn't hold much hopes for finding Warburton in any state to answer questions, but the urgency of the situation demanded he try.
In the 22nd century, TXP was not a drug available to a private market. Prior to the discovery Sahmbi was sending criminals back in time, the doctor was the only one with knowledge of the technology. Sahmbi, a true paranoid, kept its existence a secret from virtually everyone, except those willing to pay for the privilege. Even now, long after Sahmbi's work passed into government hands, Darien knew 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 where Warburton was kept once she tapped into hospital admission 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 case of radiation sickness to an authority like the FBI or even worse, the NSA. He had to get to Warburton before they arrived.
"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 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 sombrely. "They know almost nothing about treating severe cellular damage."
"Unfortunately no," Selma agreed 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 produced his FBI identification, one of many such falsified documents he had in his possession. Predictably, he had no 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 direction once he left the nurses' station and continued deeper into the wing. It appeared Warburton was 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 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 saw Warburton connected to a dozen machines monitoring his life signs that could do little to help him.
Darien stopped short at the sight of him, visibly shocked by the state of the man. Until today, he had never seen the effects of TXP on a person after a third trip and he wasn't going to forget it.
James Warburton was thirty-two years old but the cellular deterioration of his body made him appear at least sixty. His skin clung to his bones in a heavy, sheets of discoloured flesh, and the corneas were almost white. They used to be green. Darien could barely equate this 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 the man was blind.
"James." Darien said quietly.
The man reacted to the sound of his 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 sighed with relief. "I knew you'd find me. 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 knew. "Who did this to you?"
"Nobody." James shook his head unseeing. "I did it to myself."
"Yourself?" Darien exclaimed horrified by the notion. "James, 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."
Darien stared. "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 wasn't there. No Smithsonian, no TRAX Control, no Fugitive Retrieval, nothing. It was all machines. Chicago wasn't even a city. There were things flying around in the sky Darien, the technology was radical stuff, even forthe 22nd century. Our military grade hardware were was nothing compared to these things. They were everywhere, and worst of all, I didn't see one human. Darien, I don't think we exist any more. I walked around for the day and they had no idea what I was!"
"They?" Darien demanded. "Who's 'they'?"
"They weren't human." James paused a moment to recoup his strength. Darien reached for his bony hand to offer some strength, pointless gesture that it was. "Some of them looked human, but my Selma unit said they were cybernetic organisms, years ahead of anything we had in our time. I managed to patch her into one of their computer terminals to find out what happened. Their firewall was almost unbreakable, 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 nightmare where Big Brother was a machine. "I had to come back and tell you so you could stop it somehow."
Darien found this difficult to believe, but then again, it was time travel. TRAX control had been established to protect the integrity of the timeline from the fugitives escaping into the past. While most of the criminals who escaped to this age were more interested in improving their circumstances by using future knowledge for monetary gain, not many were foolish enough to endanger their existence by altering focal points in time.
"What's the name?" Darien found himself asking, still reeling from disbelief.
"Sarah Connor. Los Angeles. 1984 and 1994." Warburton gasped and Darien could see the light in his eyes starting to fade. James had hung on long enough to deliver his message and now that he was done, he was finally submitting to his end.
"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 at the deterioration of vital signs.
Darien glanced at them, knowing 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 lolling to the side of his pillow. James' grip on his hand slackened until finally, there was no will keeping the fingers tightened. The gap between the beeps of the EKG machine grew wider and wider, until finally there was nothing left. James was gone.
"Captain." Selma spoke up. "I am sorry to intrude upon this moment but it would be prudent to vacate the area. I have detected the presence of three people approaching this location."
"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, grappling with the information James Warburton had died to bring him. He had no idea if anything James said was real, that his story might not have been induced by the hallucinations of degrading mind. Yet James had believed it enough to make the journey back to the 20th century, knowing it would kill him.
The distortion of the time line was always TRAX Control's worst fear, that someone from the future with knowledge of key events would destroy the future of everything they knew.
As the plane touched down in LAX, Darien reviewed the data Selma managed to find about Sarah Connor. In 1984, there were three women with the name of Sarah Connor residing in Los Angeles. Of the three, only Sarah Jeanette Connor was still living. Two of these women had died within hours of each other. The remaining Sarah Connor managed to elude the same fate even though the murderer had killed seventeen police officers to reach her in a guarded police station. He vanished and did not reappear until 1994.
In the meantime, Sarah Connor dropped out of sight, 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 confinement, she attempted escaping several times before it was discovered her physician, a Doctor Leonard Silberman, was mentally ill himself. An order for her release came soon after and since then Sarah Connor was enjoying a more mundane existence raising her thirteen-year-old son, John.
"So where can we find Sarah Connor now?" Darien inquired after retrieving his bags from the luggage turnstile and heading towards the rental car Selma was good enough to have 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 leading away from the airport towards the city, but once LAX was left behind, Darien found himself enjoying the heat of the Californian sun. Still it was hard to enjoy the warm sunshine and the lively energy of Los Angeles when his thoughts kept returning to James' grim 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 didn't help very much and he wondered what Sarah Connor had to do with all of it.
Even the dates were strange.
Each was exactly ten years apart; coinciding with the appearance of a killer who 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 their future by messing with the timeline so drastically.
"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 hadn't consulted her though she provided him with all the information for his search.
"It does have a very high probability of being unlikely."
"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 such an outcome is possible. However, there is a significant gap between artificial intelligence and artificial awareness."
"I suppose." He sighed, taking the turn off toward Reseda. "It just scares me to think the machines we build could someday prove more fatal than global war, nuclear annihilation or alien invasion."
"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."
Darien peered through the window of the florist shop called Sarah's Place and stared at the woman working through the stems of roses on the counter in that role.
He studied her with interest, taking her taking her in. She was pretty, with light brown hair, well define features and soft green eyes that seemed very old. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a loose pair of drawstring pants, barely hiding the sinewy muscles beneath her clothes. There was something about her that was captivating, though he could not imagine what.
He lingered on the sidewalk, trying to decide how to approach her.
It took five minutes before she set down the the shears she'd been using to cut the roses and walked 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.
Way to be inconspicious Darien, he cursed himself.
"I was just deciding what kind of roses I wanted," he replied, making what had to be the lamest excuse of all time.
She let a small smile steal across her face as she returned to the confines of the shop waiting for him to join her. The premises were not very large and Darien detected lilac, roses and a whiff of baby's breath in the air when he stepped inside.
"So what can I do for you?" She asked as she returned behind the counter and resumed working on the floral arrangement of roses.
"You're Sarah Connor." He stated, just to make sure of that fact.
"Yes I am. What is this about?"
She was tense, Darien noticed. Her guard was up.
"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 but I need to ask you something."
Reading her file while she was at Pescadero, Darien knew she'd claimed the father of her child was from the future. Delusional or not, time travel was not a foreign concept to her which only told Darien, James might have been right about Sarah Connor having the answers they needed. Instinct told him the best way to get her help was to be honest with her.
"Do you believe in time travel?"
Her expression was stony and Darien noticed her muscles tensing almost involuntarily. Her knuckles were clenched.
"As much as the next person." She said quietly. All trace of humour disappearing from her voice now. It sounded cold and hard.
"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, I'm not biting." She glared at him.
"You didn't answer my question." Darien pointed out. It did not take Selma's sensors to tell him Sarah was becoming extremely agitated. He glanced at the picture on the wall and saw the boy whose image it held. He was a good looking boy with Sarah's eyes.
"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."
"Important so you can take my son away?" She snapped 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 about Judgement Day and resulted in her son being taken away and put into care. With August 29th less than seven months away, she would take no risk. Ever since the year had begun, Sarah had been waiting for Skynet to make some final desperate 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 bit back against her better judgement. "Miles Dyson is dead and his work is destroyed. The future will go on without Skynet or any other damn thing creating a nuclear holocaust."
"Dyson? Selma, reference to Miles Dyson, quickly!" He ordered, not caring if Sarah heard the AI or not. Something was going on here and the future he knew was unravelling 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 stepped back in shock, searching for its source. "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 demanded, feeling that familiar tightening of her chest at the fear Skynet had come back from for John.
"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 at him with a look of unfathomable fear in her eyes. Why was she so scared? It didn't matter, he only knew he needed answers and perhaps Selma's presence would convince her he wasn't from some hospital and was here to help.
The holographic image of Selma flickered to life in the centre of the room. Sarah gaped at it in shock as Darien pulled the blinds down over the windows and flipped the 'Closed' sign on he door. She made no move to stop him as she stared at the spectral image of an older woman standing with serene patience waiting for instructions, in the middle of her counter.
"What is this?" She asked with a strangled voice.
Sarah wanted to run. She wanted to bolt out of this room to John's school so they could fade into obscurity again. She had been dreading this moment for three terrible years, even though she told John the future had righted itself and there would be no more Skynet. It meant so much to him to be free of his terrible destiny. Now this stranger had come and though he appeared human, the thing before them certainly was not.
"It's a holographic avatar of a computer database. It has a language and a personality matrix to make for easy interface." Darien explained 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."
He'd apologise to Selma later.
"This thing came from the future?" Sarah met his gaze before circling the hologram like a cat inspecting the prey before pouncing.
"From the year 2160, according to the present calendar."
Sarah's brows furrowed. "2160?"
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 Selma's verbal presence but she recovered quickly.
"And you from the future too?" She met Darien's eyes and he knew if she was to help him, he needed to answer this question. He was so different from Kyle. He didn't look like he came from a ravaged civilisation on the brink of extinction.
"Yes." He nodded truthfully.
He had no idea what her response would be, whether she would laugh at him and call him insane or simply throw him out but he had to try.
Finally, she looked at him and sighed, "okay, let's talk."
Sarah Connor's version of the future was nothing Darien recognized. As they sat in the back room of the shop, sipping coffee telling each other fantastic tales, 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 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.
"The future is not set Sarah," Darien shrugged, understanding her frustration. "It is what we make of it."
She went suddenly quiet.
Darien looked up and saw Sarah staring at him intently. There was almost a smile on her face, which was odd considering what they were discussing.
"What is it?" He asked, unconsciously thinking she had a pretty smile. Of course, he kept that observation to himself.
"Nothing." She brushed it off, hiding the wave of emotion that surged inside her when he spoke 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. 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 stating time may flows like rivers and eddies. Perhaps whatever alteration to the time line 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 repair the damage,
"Great," Darien exhaled. He had no idea where to start. "We need to do something before the ripple reaches us."
"Captain, it could come at any point but 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 it's 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 but 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 didn't know her long but he suspected 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 the world had not transformed overnight into some hellish nightmare of machine intelligence. Everything was as it was had been and he was glad of that fact. He remained with Sarah for as long as he could; learning everything he could about Skynet, Judgement Day and the future. He 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 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. According to Selma's recollection of Darien's future, John would eventually become an honest politician who would make sweeping reforms that helped people. Darien liked him and understood Sarah's need to protect John was not simply to save the human race but to remove that terrible burden from from her son's youthful shoulders.
He shared a dinner with mother and son, envying the powerful bound between them. Sarah 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 if Judgement Day did come to pass. Despite himself, Darien found he was drawn to Sarah's love for her son, wondering if his own mother, if he had known her, would have fought for him the way Sarah did for John.
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 mundane vocation.
Darien supposed Sarah couldn't be blamed for wanting something 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 he was attracted to her and that he admired her strength of character and her ability to endure. There was a reservoir of courage hidden beneath that bittersweet smile so reminescent of his lost love Ellyssa. that it was impossible for him to remain completely detached.
"I sense that you feel some connection to her." Selma insisted.
"You sense?" He said sceptically. "Pray tell me, how you do that?"
"Captain, I am attuned to you personally and so I can determine some of your behavioural 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 we have bigger problems to work out."
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 but Selma confirmed he was in the right place. The landmarks were the same, and with the exception of the florist shop, everything was as he remembered it yesterday.
The ripple! It had come without him being aware of it! "She's gone. The ripple! Its happened."
"That is most disturbing." The computer admitted readily. "I was not aware of any significant shift."
"Consider us lucky I suppose. 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 his being the slightest bit aware of it. Even though he had only met the woman a day ago, her absence stung and Darien felt the loss, making him more determined to fulfil his promise to her.
Sitting at a park bench across the street from the arcade, Darien tried to imagine what other changes had taken place. 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 announced.
"Selma, you're a life saver 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 explained the sequence of events leading to Judgement Day and beyond.
In the future she knew, John Connor 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 aided its own destruction when it had sent a Terminator back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor because it assumed, John's father was also from the same time period. In doing so, it caused John to be conceived as well as give Sarah a preview of the future.
If Kyle Reese did not come back, then there was no John Connor.
"Selma, what do we know about Kyle Reese?"
"Captain, he has not been born iyet." 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 we came from. The records of who he was did not get destroyed in any nuclear war in our timeline so his genealogical data should still be there."
"That is logical." She answered finding no flaw in his reasoning. "I am searching for the data."
While Selma sought for any record on Kyle Reese present or future, Darien pondered the ramifications of John Connor never being born and how it affected his own future. Sarah averted Judgment Day by contacting Miles Dyson and telling him what his creation would mean for the world. Dyson, who believed he was creating something for the betterment of mankind, was unwilling to accept responsibility for its destruction. With Sarah's help, the brave scientist destroyed all work pertaining to the SAC NORAD project that would become Skynet and thus saved the world from a nuclear holocaust.
Now none of that had happened, which meant Dyson was still alive at this moment, creating the world's first sentient artificial life form and dooming three billion people to die on 29th August 1997.
"I have the information Captain." Selma interrupted his grim thoughts.
"Good," he swallowed, not liking the conclusions he had reached. "What have you got?"
"Kyle Reese lived a long and healthy life according the records of our time. He was born in the year 2010 and had descendants up to the 22nd century. However, I have cross referenced this genealogy records with the same data of this reality and found that his lineage terminates in 1878."
"1878?" Darien sat up in surprise at this new and sudden twist. "You're kidding."
"I do not joke on such matters, Captain." Selma retorted with some annoyance. "If the cross referencing is accurate, Kyle Reese' last ancestor in this time line would have been a gunslinger who was in residence at a small frontier town in New Mexico."
"Any details on how he died?"
"I would think that the cause of death for a gunslinger as such men were called, is somewhat academic."
Darien frowned at the obvious sarcasm Selma would never admit to possessing. "In our time line, did this ancestor die the same way?"
There was a momentary pause as Selma searched her data banks for that very question. "Apparently not. In our time line, he lives to a ripe old age and passes on early in the 1920's."
Darien had more or less expected the answer as it now became clear what had happened to alter the time line so radically. Skynet, who failed to erase John's existence through his mother and had instead turned its attention to the boy's father. However to ensure there was not a repeat of the predestination paradox that allowed John to be born, it sent the Terminator to a time period where it was virtually invulnerable against the weapons of the day. Where the death could be explained naturally and no one would still be alive to avert Judgement Day."
"Then to stop it you must travel back in time as well." Selma guessed what conclusion he was reaching.
"Somehow, I've got to find a way to reach him. I've got to stop this Terminator from killing..." Darien realized Selma had not told him the gunslinger's name. "Who is this guy?"
"His name is Christopher Larabee."
