Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 44

Interlude III: Unexpected Developments

Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Mars

Date: March 28, 2381

Savannah was nervous, but she didn't let it show.

Lieutenant Commander B'Elanna Torres returned home three days after Voyager disappeared trying to find the vessel. Now, Starfleet was organizing a larger search party that would set out a few days from now to cover the entire distance between Sol and DS9.

Savannah figured now would the only opportunity she'd have for weeks, possibly months, to meet the famous engineer. The need to prepare for Skynet's eventual return was eating at her more and more everyday, and she couldn't help but feel hopelessly vulnerable in the current situation.

Having an ally B'Elanna's caliber would go a long way to easing that sense of dread.

After a brief turbolift ride and short walk, she finally made it to Torres' quarters. With her hand hovering above the door chime, Savannah took a deep breath while she prepared to break every rule Sarah and Kyle had ingrained into her since she was six years old.

As the sounds of the familiar chime died away, she heard someone stumble and utter a series of curses; Soundproofing was not one of Starfleet's priorities when building anything other than a lab.

The noise died down as whomever was about to answer door composed themselves. Apparently a few seconds wasn't enough time for Tom Paris to fix is messy hair nor his wrinkled shirt, but he had a very good excuse. Miral Paris was dozing in her father's arms while he did his best to look authoritative in front of a subordinate.

He straightened his hair with a quick swipe from his hand before addressing her, "Sorry cadet, we weren't expecting guests at this hour."

Savannah wasn't surprised to see the pilot slip a little annoyance into his greeting, and she didn't mind. This was Tom Paris after all.

"Apologies, Lieutenant Commander, but I need to speak with Lieutenant Commander Torres."

The overworked father sighed and looked back towards the door where B'Elanna had locked herself in. "I'm not sure if you've heard, but she's extremely busy right now."

"Sir, I'm well aware of the situation. I'm Naomi's roommate."

A look of comprehension washed over the man's face as he responded, "That's right. You were at the event. Savannah, right?"

She nodded solemnly. "Cadet Savannah Weaver, sir."

"Well, cadet, you'd better have a good reason for bugging my wife or she might toss you out the nearest airlock." he warned as he stepped aside to let her in.

"Thank you, sir."

He waved her off, "Don't thank me yet," he said quietly as he took his daughter into an adjoining room and shut the pocket door with a half-coordinated swipe over the controls.

With him gone, she turned back to the door he'd pointed out and clutched the old PADD nervously to her chest as she approached B'Elanna's office. Before she raising her hand to knock, she rehearsed what she was going to do in her head one last time before before rapping her knuckles on the door.

Savannah had to repeat the action several times before the door slid open. The half-Klingon didn't even bother looking up from her console as her nimble fingers manipulated her multi-purpose console at lightning speed.

The cadet kept patient as the engineer finished up a set of sensor calibration equations. She knew better than to interrupt someone as stressed as Torres' was. It was a full three and a half minutes after she'd entered the office before B'Elanna paused long enough to acknowledge her presence.

"Sorry," she apologized, "what can I do for you, cadet?"

Muscle memory took over and Savannah let her fingers tap away at her pad with practiced ease. In a matter of seconds, she activated the override program and isolated B'Elanna's equipment from the ODN network, including the large display on the right-side wall. The equipment was under her complete control before the half-Klingon even had time to protest.

"What are you doing?" Torres demanded when she stood up to confront Savannah, turning over her chair in the process as her office's equipment went haywire.

Savannah barely reacted to her outburst and continued activating various subroutines and commands without a pause.

B'Elanna was about to rip the PADD out of Savannah's hands when her console came to life with sensor data and the primary display shifted to a video feed showing a bridge-looking-down-the-bow shot of an Intrepid-class starship.

Any harsh words she had for the cadet froze in her mouth as her mind matched what she was seeing to what had happened only a few days prior.

"What is this?" B'Elanna asked as her voice wavered between anger and curiosity.

Again, the cadet said nothing, only gesturing to the screen as Voyager jumped to into slipstream.

B'Elanna's own curiosity got the better of her and she immersed herself once more into a stream of data. At first it was the same readings she'd been pouring over for days, but then the recording accelerated until just before contact was lost.

The mother of one had learned to suppress her more impulsive instincts, including the one wanting to tear the cadet limb-from-limb for not only interrupting her work, but hacking her console and commenderring it. The look on Savannah's face, however, changed her mind.

Sure enough, her instincts proved accurate when the recording surpassed the loss of contact. Her eyes were glued to data as she watched the ship get sucked into some kind of subspace anomaly.

The data stream went wild for a split second, and the numbers stopped making sense. It was as if there was nothing for the sensors to sense for the briefest moment. Then damage reports came streaming in as the ship began to drift over what appeared to be Earth.

Her attention was broken when the recording paused and the cadet finally spoke. "Do I have your attention, Commander?"

B'Elanna's piercing gaze studied for a moment before she crossed her arms, "You had it when you bypassed three layers of encryption and my personal hardware security filters."

Savannah shrugged, "The Borg are good at that sort of thing, all I did was learn how to use it," she explained and transferred the adaptive algorithm to B'Elanna's console.

She immediately frowned upon seeing it. "I recognize this," she frowned, "This is one of Seven's. She taught it me years ago."

"It's been modified, actually," Savannah clarified, "that's why I was able to take over your console so quickly, and no, I didn't get it from her."

"You do realize you're in possession of classified data, in addition to appropriating a superior's equipment without their permission. That first one alone is enough to get you kicked out of the Academy."

The cadet smiled sadly, "I know the consequences, Commander, I've planned this for years."

B'Elanna's eyebrows scrunched together as confusion descended upon her. Instead of trying to explain it long hand, she did something she was taught never to do: hand over her PADD.

The Klingon-hybrid looked at skeptically for a second before taking it. Then she opened the file directory and began exploring.

Her frown deepened the farther she dug into the files. The data stored in the PADD was all sorts of classified material and technology, but most of it was just information anyone could find in public databases.

It was full of knowledge needed for a person or group of people, to infiltrate the Federation undetected.

"There's more there than meets the eye, commander. Some of the data is hidden in a ghost partition in the memory core."

B'Elanna hadn't noticed it, and it took considerable effort for her to find it without the cadet's guidance. Several minutes later she was browsing through the data. The main directories held strange bits of data, visual media mostly, and other files detailing things she'd never heard of before.

"I recommend searching the directory labeled 'Star Trek' and sub directory 'Voyager'. You'll find that interesting."

B'Elanna glanced up at the mention of Voyager, but followed Savannah's advice. What she found both astounded and horrified her.

At first it seemed to be nothing but more media files, primitive ones, but functional. Then she noticed the file names, and some were eerily familiar. Like Seven and the Doctor before her, her eyes were surprised to see the words 'Omega' listed amongst files.

Out of sheer curiosity, she threw the file onto her hacked view screen and began playback.

A few minutes into it, she abruptly shut it off.

"Why do I feel like just watched one of my husband's 20th century TV programs?"

"Because it is one," Savannah admitted, "Star Trek: Voyager, a sci-fi action series that debuted in 1995 and ran for seven seasons until 2001. It follows the adventures of the starship Voyager during her journey through the Delta Quadrant while trying to get home after being stranded by an alien entity known only as the Caretaker."

It was at this point that the overworked and exhausted Klingon lost her cool. Having chased nothing but dead ends and frustratingly small clues, B'Elanna had had enough. With the PADD still clutched in her hand, she grabbed Savannah by her uniform and lifted her up against the wall.

While not completely surprised, the look on B'Elanna's face was one that inspired a little fear even in one as jaded as Savannah.

"Who are you?" she growled with narrowed eyes.

"My name is Savannah Weaver. I'm from another universe, another Earth. I was sent here with my parents after an attack by a sentient AI hell bent on destroying humanity." she choked out as the Klingon woman's fists restricted her breathing.

"And why should I believe you?!" she raged while still suspending Savannah against the wall.

"You can check," she coughed, "my body's material make up. You should find a small percentage of my... matter isn't from the this universe."

B'Elanna let go of her, causing Savannah to stumble and fall against the bulkhead. The irate Klingon forced herself to calm down as she reached for a tricorder. A quick scan set to detect phase variances in matter, and sure enough, 8% of Savannah's makeup did not originate from this universe, nor any like it. The variance was the largest she'd ever seen.

"If you're wondering why the percentage is so small, I've been here for 18 years. We arrived in early 2363," she panted as she regained her composure.

B'Elanna sighed slowly while closing the tricorder as the last of her anger began to subside. "We can't talk here," she said before wiping her console's memory of the last few minutes.

"Agreed, we wouldn't want Section 31 getting a hold of that PADD."

"Section what?"

"Long story. Let's just say they're not one's to mess with," Savannah replied as she straightened her uniform. "There's is a park here, isn't there?"

"There is," B'Elanna answered, "meet me there in ten minutes, and remove your comm badge."

"I've already jammed them and the internal sensors," she answered and showed the woman her tricorder.

B'Elanna nodded approvingly, "I wouldn't run that for very long. Someone's bound to notice."

"I know," she said, "and for what's it's worth, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Savannah smiled sadly, "Dragging you into all of this, but I chose you for a reason."

"And what was that?"

"Your determination, your brilliance, and your willingness to defy authority when it becomes absolutely necessary. They are what made you the perfect candidate."

One of the half-Klingon's eyebrows rose a few centimeters as the cadet took back her PADD and left her quarters.

Once the girl was gone, B'Elanna made sure nothing of their encounter had been recorded and instead filled the void in the logs with fake data that would be difficult to distinguish from the real thing. It was easy since she'd been working on the same thing for most of the day.

After that she found her husband rocking Miral to sleep.

"Sounds like things got heated," Tom observed after witnessing his wife's disheveled state.

B'Elanna sighed loudly before briefly explaining she was simply tired and that Savannah had pointed out a possible reason for Voyager's disappearance and that the debate had gotten out of hand.

"I thought she was a spy for Starfleet Intelligence or Internal Investigations," B'Elanna admitted falsely. "You know, making sure the former Maquis wasn't lying or covering something up."

"So her idea's legitimate?"

"Possibly, but highly improbable. I think she's just trying to help Naomi. I've heard she's taking it pretty hard."

Tom snorted, "That's an understatement. I talked to Samantha the other day, and she told me Naomi has barely spoken a word since it happened."

"Well, even if cadet Weaver is right, it's not going to help us find the ship," she said. "Still, it's something to investigate. I promised to meet her in the park, so I'd better get going."

"Try not to throw her into the fountain," he laughed, causing B'Elanna to flare her nostrils in annoyance before rolling her eyes at his antics and telling him she'd be home later.

Savannah's nerves were still frayed, but she felt better knowing that B'Elanna didn't reject her outright. So far her plan of being upfront was working. She knew the half-Klingon did not like being yanked around, but it remained to be seen if she'd believe what she was saying.

She paced around fountain until she spotted the famous forehead ridges of her query walking towards her.

Both removed their comm-badges and disabled them. B'Elanna also set up her own scattering field to keep anyone from listening in on their conversation or accessing the PADD.

"So," B'Elanna began, "Alternate universes, malevolent AI, and a PADD filled with classified data and a TV program that seems to be about Voyager's crew. What's the connection?"

Savannah couldn't help but snort in amusement. "You'll have to forgive me, I've never had to tell this story before," she said while searching for the best place to start. "I guess the best place is from my end of things."

"Your universe?"

"Yes," she replied. "My Earth has a lot in common with this one, until the late 20th century. There were no Eugenics Wars, no Khan Noonien Singh, no Chronowerx, and no starship Voyager flying over LA in 1996."

B'Elanna kept her surprise hidden and realized that this cadet might know everything about what happened to them in the Delta Quadrant.

"Instead of having a time ship be the inspiration for the computer revolution, we developed it independently. From what I know, our Earths weren't that different until the 1980's and early 90's. That's when our realities diverge." Savannah's shifted from serious to one filled with wonder and awe, "Your universe is filled with life both wonderful and terrifying. From the Vulcans to the Q, it's... unlike anything I could have dreamed of as a child."

"I take it your universe is a bit less exciting than ours?"

Savannah bobbed her head side to side, "In terms of extraterrestrial affairs, yes, but we have our own set of problems. Somewhere in our original timeline, the United States created a defense net run by an AI they called Skynet. Sometime after it was activated, it became sentient. The story goes they tried to pull the plug, and in response it fired nuclear missiles at its enemies across the world. After they responded in kind, the world was left in ruin. While we fought over what was left, Skynet quietly began building an army. Once it was ready, it began enslaving or exterminating what was left of humanity."

"Hold on, " B'Elanna interrupted, "how is this relevant to what's going on here?" she gestured towards the PADD.

"I'm getting to that," the cadet explained, "As time went on, things got worse. The machine's technology advanced, both mechanically and biologically. To help infiltrate resistance groups, it developed a series of infiltrators it called Terminators. At first they weren't much more than clunky bipedal machines that had a passing resemblance to humans. In time they created a series that had rubber skin, but it failed to be convincing. Finally, after decades of war, Skynet created the T-800 series. It was covered in synthetic skin and muscle tissue. It looked and smelled like we do, and capable of mimicking our voices and our behavior. By then, humans had started to gain the upper hand, led by a man named John Connor. He understood the machines, and taught others how to outwit them. Once it realized it was going to lose the war, Skynet began working on a new project: a time machine."

"Of course," the engineer sighed, "let me guess, kill the leader of the resistance?"

"Yes. Only problem was that most of the records were lost after the apocalypse, so it had to go after his mother instead. It sent back a flesh-covered T-800 to do just that, but Connor learned about the plot, so he sent back one of his best soldiers to protect her."

"This sounds like something out of a holo-novel," B'Elanna noted with more than a little sarcasm.

Savannah shrugged. "It was popular movie in at least two universes," she admitted, but her face hardened as she continued, "but in mine it was reality."

"The man that was sent back in time was Kyle Reese, and John's mother's name was Sarah Connor. He told her about the future and what her son would do while defending her from the cyborg's attempts to kill her. Over the course of a few days they fell in love and conceived a child. Unfortunately, Kyle was killed in a final confrontation with the cyborg."

"Naturally."

Savannah stopped walking and turned to B'Elanna and said, "This isn't a joke, Commander. It may be just a story here, but these events shaped my reality, and is the reason why I am even talking to you right now."

The half-Klingon crossed her arms and swallowed her disbelief for the time being.

"The child was, of course, John Connor, but not the same one."

"Because his father was different," B'Elanna reasoned.

"And born on a different date, presumably. Plus he was raised with the knowledge that some day the world would end. We assume he thought that day was long off, but because someone got a hold of the Terminator's remains, Judgment Day came far sooner than it should have."

"Let me guess, the cycle kept repeating?"

"Not exactly," Savannah corrected, "From what we know, the timeline changed slightly with each iteration, but we don't know how many times this has happened nor do we know all the changes. We do know that Skynet became more proactive in its creation and made sure attempts to prevent its creation were temporary victories at best. As a result, Judgement Day ranged from the late 1990's all the way into the early 2010's. Even the physical appearances of John Connor, his mother, and his father changed over the iterations, as did the circumstances of Skynet's creation."

"An evolving time-loop?"

"Yes," Savannah replied, "Eventually, one iteration of Skynet sent back more than just two or three machines to accomplish its goal. It was able to construct multiple TDEs, as they were called, and send back more than a dozen machines to nullify its enemies and prepare for Judgement Day. One of those machines hunted down my parents and killed them. Another, more advanced Terminator replaced my mother, took over their company, and guardianship of me. I was only five at the time and couldn't tell, nor could anyone else."

B'Elanna held up her hand, "Assuming I believe you, and I'm not saying I do, how does at time machine take you to other universes?"

"It doesn't," she admitted. "Not on it's own, and I'm getting there," Savannah pandered before continuing, "In this timeline, John Connor and his mother were assisted by several reprogrammed cyborgs to prevent Skynet's efforts to change the past. The first one was a T-800 just like the one that tried to kill her, but the second was much more advanced. She was based off the T-888 and given specific upgrades to ensure she was capable of processing behavioral subroutines similar to those of holodeck characters. Just like some holo-characters are based off real people, so was she. Her mission failed and was reprogrammed by the Resistance. Then she was sent back in time by Connor to protect his younger self. What ended up happening was that they traveled to the future from 1999 using a Resistance-built TDE to escape the authorities and bring them closer to Judgement Day. They wanted to destroy Skynet in its infancy and avoid the war altogether. That year was 2007, and for the next year and a half, they fought various machines and thwarted their missions, but never got close to finding the Skynet itself."

Savannah took a breath and continued, "During all that time, the female cyborg, called Cameron, had been damaged numerous times. She knew she was becoming unstable and decided to sacrifice herself to further the cause and protect her charge. My mother's replacement, a polymorphic machine called a T-1001, was not under Skynet's control. She led her own independent faction who wanted to co-exist with humans, not exterminate them. She used her abilities and my parent's company to build her own time machine and her own Skynet-class AI; one that wasn't raised to wage war, but just exist like we do. A bridge between humanity and machines, but also one who was as powerful and adaptable as Skynet itself."

"You sound wistful," B'Elanna noted, "I can hear it in your voice."

"I didn't have a lot of friends back then. None actually. I was allowed to interact with the AI, whom we called John Henry, and we became playmates of sorts." A smile was forming on Savannah's face as memories of her old friend flashed before her eyes. "We were together for a few months before a young Skynet found him. With Cameron's neural net processor, he was able to leave the server farm supporting his program and jump to the future in a cyborg body."

The idea struck B'Elanna as familiar, "He wanted to gather information on Skynet and use it to defeat it in the past."

"Precisely," Savannah snapped, "only things didn't go according to plan. Instead of ending up in an apocalyptic future, John Henry ended up on an alternate Earth. One free of Skynet, time travel, and nuclear war."

"Another universe?"

Savannah nodded, "One in which my universe was just a story, just like yours. Televisions shows and movies portraying important events in our realities to tell an exciting tale. Actors who look and sound just like us fill our roles and recite lines made by writers who came up with our lives out of nothing but their imaginations."

B'Elanna put up her hands, "Hold up. How the hell did they get transferred to another universe?"

"The same way Voyager did," Savannah revealed as she brought up the file on the transdimensional corridors. "It only affects objects in subspace, that's why they've never been encountered before."

Once she'd finished speaking, she presented the PADD to B'Elanna once more.

Much like Seven before her, she was initially confused by data, but after a few moments began to understand what was going on.

"So this is how you got here..." she mumbled while the numbers flew through her head and the anomaly took shape in her mind. "Fixed on one end and wandering on the other, just like the Barzan wormhole."

"Exactly, only it resides deep in subspace. Voyager was just one of the victims."

B'Elanna exhaled and looked up at the dome ceiling far above as the revelation washed over her.

"When your cyborg friend tried to return home, he screwed up and snagged Voyager by accident, am I right?"

"More or less," Savannah confirmed, "He was using a heavily modified TDE coupled with a high frequency, ultra-fine plasma beam to direct the tunnel and another to contain and accelerate a collapsed displacement bubble toward the opening.

B'Elanna scrolled through the specs and frowned, "It's an ingenious design, for the early 21st century, but completely inadequate."

"The issue was controlling the tunnel destination. There was too great a variance in the high-frequency emitter, which caused the anomaly to wander."

"Pulling in Voyager by accident," she growled, "I'm guessing he used Voyager's technology to perfect the design?"

"Yes, with a little help from an advanced AI he accidentally snatched in the same incident. With it, John Henry sent Cameron, who'd been placed in a new body, to rescue John Connor, his mother, and his compatriots. While they were away, he recruited Seven of Nine in 2387. Using the Doctor's mobile emitter as proof, he got her and the Doctor to join him."

"That's six years from now," B'Elanna observed, "why the wait?"

"Locking onto a particular timeline is difficult in this universe. A major temporal incursion was needed as an beacon, and 2387 just happened to have one."

"Wonderful," B'Elanna sighed. More time travel gibberish. "Then what happened?"

Savannah stopped walking and faced the older woman with a look of apprehension, "This is where things get really strange, so bear with me."

B'Elanna nodded and gestured for her to continue.

"Six years from now, the Hobus star in the Romulan Empire will go supernova, but it'll be unlike any other before it. For some reason, the explosion became supra-luminal and consumed everything in its path. Ambassador Spock promised to use Vulcan technology to stop it, but was hindered by the Vulcan Science Academy's paranoia. This delay causes the destruction of Romulus and Remus. The captain of the Romulan mining vessel who'd supplied the Vulcan's with the necessary materials to create their weapon was enraged and he sought out remnants of the Romulan military to enact his revenge. What he found was a facility that had been experimenting with Borg nanoprobes to enhance Romulan ships. Nero, the captain, volunteered his vessel for transformation. Once completed, it looked like this."

Savannah changed the image to show the Narada as it appeared in Star Trek (2009).

"Certainly looks like the brainchild of a drone and a Romulan."

"It was highly effective too. Any vessel in its path was destroyed, but was removed from the timeline when Spock detonated Red Matter in the heart of supernova, which sucked both he and the Narada into an artificial singularity. Since both vessels were able to withstand the pressures of the supernova, they were able to survive the singularity with ease and found themselves deposited over a century in the past."

B'Elanna was struggling to keep up at this point, but she kept quiet as the cadet continued the wild tale.

"Suffice it to say that the timeline was changed drastically, or merely branched since this timeline still exists, and the Narada was sucked into another Red Matter induced singularity where one of the interdimensional tunnels deposited its remains in my post-apocalyptic Earth."

The half-Klingon blinked as it suddenly comprehended what Savannah was getting at.

"You're saying," she inhaled, "That your genocidal AI got a hold of advanced Borg technology?"

"And Romulan. It figured out how to reprogram the nanoprobes and rebuilt the ship. Cameron discovered this and evacuated her companions back to the universe she and John Henry had been trapped."

"So with Seven you were able to gain full access to Voyager, correct?"

"Yes, and repair the Quantum Slipstream drive. They'd planned to gain allies to defeat Skynet, but it struck first. It sent a heavily armed probe through another tunnel and attacked Voyager, causing severe damage to the ship before the probe was destroyed. They made the choice to leave that universe before the slipstream drive became unusable and were forced to leave me, Sarah Connor, and an alternate Kyle Reese behind due to transporter failure. That's when we were sent here with Seven's blessing and this PADD. Only problem was that we ended up 24 years off target."

Savannah waited for a moment after finishing to let her story stew in the Klingon's mind.

"Look," B'Elanna finally said, "it's a great story, but...why are you telling me this?"

"We may have learned how to fit into Federation society, but we aren't geniuses. We need help preparing for Skynet's eventual return. It knows this universe exists and it knows it has the advantage."

The engineer still looked skeptical, and Savannah didn't blame her.

"Keep the PADD for the time being. Study it. Read the logs and watch the video files. When you're done, then you can decide what to do with us."

With that, Savannah left the stunned woman behind with her most valuable possession.

After taking a minute to process what had been said, B'Elanna found a comfortable bench nearby and began scrolling through the data.

The trip back to Earth was quiet. Even though there were various others on the shuttle back to San Francisco, she didn't engage any of them and made sure her posture reflected her need to be left alone.

Savannah was deeply conflicted about the choice she'd just made. She'd convinced her parents that it was a good idea, but that didn't mean she was fully sold on it herself. The young woman simply knew that they needed help.

With no connections that would, or even could, provide the kind of help they needed, a risk had to be taken. Now the dice had been rolled and it remained to be seen if it would pay off.

Her hopes hinged on the Temporal Prime Directive being important enough to B'Elanna to not blow the whistle.

After docking at Earth's orbital docking hub, simply called Spacedock, she shuffled to the nearest transporter and used her Starfleet credentials to send herself down to her hometown hub before finally taking a hover-cab back home.

It was a familiar path now, and she found herself barely thinking about her actions as she climbed the steps to the front door.

Being just herself this time, Savannah walked into the house with little preamble and dived into the kitchen for a quick drink from her parent's liquor cabinet.

A bottle of Romulan ale was the first one her fingers wrapped around and she pulled it from the cabinet with no hesitation.

Sarah found her with a few fingers in a short glass a few moments later right before she downed half of it in one solid swig.

Both the action itself and its implication startled the hardened woman. Savannah made a face at the intense burn the ale was famous for before she neutralized her features and finished swallowing.

She set the rest of it down and wiped the remnants from her mouth as Sarah stopped a few feet from her with concern tracing her features.

"How'd it go?"

Even with the night's events weighing upon her, she sensed Sarah's nervousness.

"Better than you thought, a little worse than I did."

Sarah looked at the bottle of ale and back at her conveying her disbelief at her statement.

Savannah held back an eye roll, "Can you blame a girl for being nervous? I just told one of the smartest and most volatile engineers in Starfleet that me and my family are not only liars, but our associate was responsible for the disappearance of their most advanced starship!"

They'd discussed this to death, but usually it was Sarah passionately pointing out the risks and Savannah defending them. She'd figured Savannah still had some misgivings about her own plan, but not this much.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Savannah downing the rest of the Romulan ale in one go was evidence of that.

It had the intended effect, though, as the riled cadet seemed to relax a little as the booze did its job.

Both ended up on the couch cozied up under hand-made blankets dating back to their first years in this universe. Sarah and Savannah had spent many evenings while she was growing up curled up on the couch watching some funny old TV show from the dusty corners of the Federation database, doing each other's hair and nails, or even just sitting there and talking to one another while sipping hot chocolate during the cold winter months. This time, however, they just sat there reminiscing about simpler times when they'd first arrived here.

With Savannah being so young and her two soldier parents having to re-train themselves to fit into this peaceful culture, they'd spent a lot of time just being a family. Eventually, though, Savannah's training began and Kyle got a job that often took him to far away places for months at a time. Sarah, too, would do the same and trade places with her now-husband as they made names for themselves in Federation and beyond.

"Do you remember the first time it snowed after we got here?" Sarah asked wistfully as the memory reminded her of her own childhood long ago.

Savannah smiled at the memory, even though she'd barely been seven at the time. "Yeah, how could I ever forget that snowman? I'd never seen snow before and neither had Kyle. I don't think I've ever seen you more proud and disappointed at the same time after we finished building that abomination."

Sarah chuckled as the image of that lopsided creation flashed through her mind. They'd gotten better in subsequent years, but nothing was ever like the first time they'd just been a family together.

"It doesn't seem all that long ago," Sarah admitted. "Sometimes I look and you and I can't believe you were once that little girl we saved from the machines."

That particular memory was still burned into Savannah's mind despite all the years that had passed since then. "Do you ever miss Derek? The old Derek, I mean?"

Sarah cocked her head to the side as she pondered that response. She'd never really gotten to know the 'new' one, but the old one, for all his faults, had been family. Yeah, she did miss him occasionally when her thoughts would drift back to the old days.

Sometimes she found herself longing after a life that didn't have Halos and starships and aliens all wrapped around each other in a massive battle to the death, but it only lasted a moment. She'd think of Kyle or Savannah and realized once more how blessed she was to live a somewhat normal life, by Federation standards of course, and not constantly afraid that someone, or something, was about to break down the front door and murder you.

"He carried a lot of baggage with him, but we all did back then, even Cameron," Sarah admitted as images of his lifeless body flashed through her mind. "He made some mistakes, but he taught John a lot of things that I couldn't."

"What did he teach you?"

Her question would have caught her off guard had she not know Savannah as well as she did, and so she answered without preamble: "About the future he came from. What his Kyle was like and what kind of man John became."

"You don't talk much about those times," Savannah noted, "you know, what that TV show covered?"

"Those weren't exactly good times, Savannah."

"I'm not asking you to talk about them, just pointing it out," she shrugged, "I wonder if I'll feel the same way someday."

Sarah sighed as she tried to push that thought out of her mind, "Let's see if we live first, and then we'll worry about telling war stories."

Her tone had been serious, but the small smile on her face kept it from being so.

It was just at that point, though, that Kyle called.

A few hours earlier...

After hearing her name, Kyle Reese struggled to recall all the Smart AIs he was familiar with from Halo's lore. Even with the splitting headache, he was confident she wasn't among them.

"Isabel? Never heard of you," he said while leaning on the dead endo next to him, "You new?"

The calmness of his voice threw for a loop, especially since she was still freaked out. "That the first question you have for me? Not why everything just went to hell in a handbasket?!"

He was taken back her outpouring of fear and anger. While he knew Smart AIs were based on humans, he'd thought they had greater control over their emotions than their templates.

Isabel, unlike Cortana, was still in a heightened emotional state long after the action had ended.

Filing that observation away for later, he instead steered the conversation to something more productive, "That won't happen for six more years. Welcome to 2381."

"I know that..." she growled in frustration. "I was with Cameron when you told her."

"I assume you know everything then?"

"More or less," she sighed, "I'm sure they kept somethings from me, security reasons of course, but I know the whole story if that's what you mean."

"Well," Kyle looked back at Sisko and the two Daxes and saw they were still in the midst of a reunion, "We have some time. Mind telling me what we missed?"

Isabel repeated Kyle's gesture and examined her surroundings, only she focused on the dead endo next to them.

"Only if you tell me how you killed that thing."

A smirk crinkled the corner of his mouth, "Deal."

Elation didn't even describe what it was like having a body again, but the didn't make the transition any easier for Jadzia Dax.

Being an essence inside a symbiot was entirely different than being conscious inside a humanoid brain.

She'd made peace with her physical death during Ezri's zhian'tara, but she'd been prepared for that. It was part of the training to let go of the past and let the new host live their lives as you'd lived your's.

All that had changed in an instant without her permission or even time to consider.

One minute she'd been part of Dax witnessing the death of the galaxy through her successor and the next she was waking up on Sisko's shoulder aching like a horde of Klingon's had beaten her with pain sticks.

It hadn't even been the physical pain that was bothering her, but the undoing of her fate. Being resurrected, for lack of a better term since her mind had never fully 'died', meant she had to deal with all the emotional baggage that came with it.

After that, Worf was the other major thing occupying her mind. She knew how'd he react. A Klingon to the last, he'd see this as a gross violation and likely reject her. In his mind, her soul was in Stovokor and that was the end of it. Jadzia knew how hard it was for him to accept Ezri, and that was something most would call a natural progression of a joined Trill.

This, however, was not natural in the slightest.

Somewhere on Trill, her original body was buried with her ancestors, rotting in the ground for eternity.

Deep down, Jadzia knew it would take time to come to terms with what the Prophets had done to her. On the surface, however, her mind slowly shifting its focus on what she'd witnessed through Ezri's eyes.

Halo. That's what Kyle Reese had called the massive weapon that had wiped out the Alpha Quadrant. The name was far too simple for such an extraordinary piece of engineering and far too beautiful for its dark purpose.

She had no idea how it worked or what even powered it. She didn't even know if it could be destroyed by convention means or if it was self repairing like a Borg cube.

The more she pictured the ring-world in her mind, the more questions she wanted to ask Kyle, but he wasn't with them.

Her vision was still blurry, but it was good enough to see a spot of black among the vines and grass.

Weakness still wracked her new body, but she was growing stronger every second. With a grunt, she sat up, prompting Ezri and Sisko to stop their emotional reunion and focus on her near naked form.

"What is it, Jadzia?"

Sisko held back the 'Old Man' moniker since Ezri was right next to him, but his concern was not about the younger Dax, but the elder. She had a look in her eye that took him back when things had been so simple by comparison. The woman he'd come to see as a close friend and confidant during the hardest years of his life was not to be ignored when her face was set in stone like that.

While he knew exactly what the Prophet's had done to Dax, he had no idea how she was dealing with it.

Instead of doubting her, he looked in same direction and found Reese like Jadzia had. Ezri was eerily calm about the whole situation, and she too, was looking at the man from another universe. The man who held the answers about the mysterious Halo super weapon and the AI that wielded it.

Jadzia, regardless of clothing, stood up with Sisko's uniform clutched around her and began walking. Ezri tried to stop her, but Ben held her back. "Let's see where this goes," he told her, but she remained strained against his grip.

"Don't just stand there," he smiled, "Help me up, Old Man."

Finally, she snapped out of it and and pulled him to his feet. "Did you know about this?"

He smiled at her simple question, knowing she was asking closer to ten questions than just the one.

"You're asking whether it was my idea or not," he drawled as his persistent smile settled into an old, familiar command facade.

"You are the Emissary,' she drawled while dragging her eyes back to her enigmatic former commander.

"Exactly," he responded as his eyes went wide to match his dramatic reply, "I'm their errand boy, not their boss."

"You've persuaded them before, Benjamin."

"Not this time," he refuted firmly, "I've done things I'm not proud of, but there are lines I don't cross under any circumstance."

Ezri sighed as they continued to stroll in Jadzia's wake, but she couldn't help old doubts resurfacing about what Jadzia's peers, now her own peers, thought of her in comparison to her predecessor.

Sensing Ezri's doubts, Sisko put an arm around her shoulder in a lazy embrace just as Jadzia reached the mysterious Kyle Reese.

"The Prophets may have kept me busy, Old Man, but that doesn't mean I didn't peak in every now and again."

The message was clear: he knew she was no longer the wet-behind-the-ear ensign she was six years ago.

"I'm sorry," she said while tucking errant strands of hair behind her ear. "It's...strange. I have her memories, and I think she has mine, too. What does that make us? Two sides of the same coin?"

Sisko had no answer for her, but he was fairly sure the question was rhetorical anyway. This was something the two Daxes would have to work out on their own.

Jadzia had taken no notice of them, she was focused on Kyle and the little orange light in his hands. She remembered the object the machine, Cameron, had given him. When she was just a few steps away, he turned away from the holographic figure in his hands and raised an eyebrow at her rather minimal approach to clothing.

While she was far from prudish, a more level headed person would normally feel a little disconcerted with having only a uniform jacket to cover up with, and it wasn't even that effective.

She wasn't in the most stable of mindsets, though, so she felt nothing and sat down cross-legged next to him.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Everyone, including Ezri and Sisko who'd just arrived, stared at the photonic woman, whose eyebrows had nearly shot into her hairline.

Kyle opened his mouth to answer, but Sisko beat him to it. "The Prophets, or wormhole aliens if you prefer." The teasing tone in his voice was pointed more at Jadzia than Isabel, but no one was in the state of mind to appreciate the joke.

"Oh," she breathed while she imagined just how the incorporeal beings pulled it off, but terminated the line of thought when she realized it was going nowhere with her current understanding of them. "They built you a new body?"

Jadzia shrugged, "Something like that," she answered offhandedly as she tried to push those thoughts and emotions away, "but I think we both know that's the least interesting thing that's happened today."

Her tone became very hard at the end, and both Kyle and Isabel knew she wanted answers right here and now.

The orange AI looked up at him and with a pleading look asking him to go first.

With a sigh, he began telling a story his daughter was telling B'Elanna Torres.

As he began, he could only think of his family, and how anxious they'd be when they found out about all of this.

Savannah and Sarah hadn't been expecting a comm, per se, but it wasn't unexpected either.

The mother-daughter duo gathered around the terminal on the desk and answered the extreme-long distance call.

"Sarah," he breathed looking relieved to see here, which had the immediate effect of putting Sarah on edge. Savannah, too, picked up on his relief when he uttered her name in the next breath.

Kyle rarely said hello, and it was almost always reserved for people who expected such greetings, but with friends and family he stuck to first names.

"Kyle," she smiled regardless of her gut nagging at her, "How's station life?"

Both women knew he wasn't on the station due to the visible backdrop behind him, but were playing dumb just in case someone else was in the room. No talk about Savannah's clandestine meeting with B'Elanna.

"About that..." he trailed off as he looked over to the left, "Remember when you said I shouldn't take this job?"

Another set of alarm bells went off Sarah's head and it sent a cold chill down her back.

"Vividly," she groused as Savannah's face grew increasingly worried.

"Well..." he paused, "You were right."

His face was tightly controlled, but his eyes communicated just how serious things were.

Sarah kept the amount of concern on her face measured, not wanting clue in just how much she was worried. "Are you okay? They didn't do anything to you, did they?"

"No," Kyle shook his head, "I wasn't even their primary target. Dax was."

More alarm bells, "What they want with her?" Savannah inquired as her curiosity piqued.

"Long story," he deflected, "just wanted to let you know I'm handing in my resignation to Colonel Kira tomorrow; I didn't sign up for this."

"I guess you'll be home in a few weeks then?" Sarah asked with hopeful tone, continuing the charade.

"Actually I was hoping you'd join me out here and we could take in the sights. Kendra Provence is beautiful this time of year!" he chuckled, leaving both mother and daughter even more disturbed than they were before. He was asking them to meet him on Bajor.

In order to get more info as discreetly as possible, Savannah pouted while she said, "Things are crazy at the Academy, Dad, There's no way I could get away for a month!"

"I know," he leaned back, "I was thinking this would be an extended vacation, maybe two or three months, and you could join us once classes are out!"

"Sounds like fun! You and mom really need to get away after everything you've been through."

Sarah restrained herself from rolling her eyes at how ridiculous they sounded, but played along by plastering a smile on her face. "Sounds great, when do you want me to head out?"

"As soon as possible," he said more seriously as he toned down the cheerfulness, "I should have everything ready when you get here, Sarah."

"Sounds good, I'll see you soon," she said before bidding a final goodbye.

Once the terminal went blank, the masks dropped.

"Jesus," Savannah breathed, "They know, don't they?"

Sarah crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall as she tried to understand what Kyle was really freaked out about. "I think they've always known. I tried arguing with him about it, but we needed the latinum."

"Why Bajor? He wasn't on the station."

"I don't know," she sighed, "I guess we'll have to find out."

Without another word, Sarah left the room and pulled out her go-bag and slung it over her shoulder, "You should stay here, just in case B'Elanna contacts you."

Savannah held back a sigh as her mother passed her, "I know, Mom. Wouldn't look good if I was suddenly on Bajor when she tried to comm me, now would it?"

Sarah ignored the sarcasm and went down into the basement. Hidden behind a dummy wall was a black panel made of the same sensor-null material the mobile emitter had been found in.

It was a compact, hard-wired, site-to-site transporter designed to send someone discreetly to another location connected by a high-bandwidth ODN line to a remote location miles away deep underground.

"Are you sure you know how to program the trans-warp unit?"

Sarah held back a retort, knowing Savannah was jesting. It had taken the better part of a week for her daughter to explain the math to her and then an additional two days of practice setting coordinates and entering variables based on various scenarios.

"Hold down the fort," she said after triggering the site-to-site, "and stay safe!"

The emphasis rolled through the room as the transporter whisked her away, leaving Savannah to drop her calmer facade and let the worry surface once more.

Her father was onto something big, and she could help but worry about the Prophets and Dax, and what they might know about them.

After putting the panel back in place, she settled upstairs and let Naomi know that she wouldn't be back in the dorm for a few days. Then she finally dozed off for a while after setting an alarm for her 8am class.

It wasn't a restful sleep, but it was something. At least, until the door chime sent her shooting up from her bed. A quick check of the security system showed no threats other than an antsy Klingon hybrid standing on her doorstep.

The fact that the woman had come here, personally, and so quickly meant one of two things: she either realized the threat and wanted to join, or she was here to lure her into some kind of trap.

Putting her nervousness aside, she tucked a phaser under her robe and opened the door.

While Reese had been calling Sarah, the rest of the gang had crashed in Sisko's living room.

Jadzia was napping on Ezri's shoulder as the latter stroked her hair like Jadzia's mother had done when she was a child. Sisko watched from a corner chair as Ezri contemplated everything Kyle had revealed. Her jaw worked back and forth while images of what she saw played out before her eyes and imagining ways to defeat this new foe.

At least, that's what Benjamin Sisko assumed she was thinking about. He knew Dax well enough, but Ezri wasn't fully known to him, unlike Curzon and Jadzia.

He'd already thought a great deal about Skynet and Halo before the Prophet's had released him from his duties as Emissary, and he was not in the mood to think about it any more until they were ready to plan a counter strike.

For now he was perfectly fine thinking about his family, who were on Earth at the moment, and how much time he'd missed in the six years he was gone. To Sisko, the time spent with the Prophets and on their behalf was 'timeless' for him, and he hadn't aged a day because of it.

Had this whole Skynet business not popped up, then he would've returned much sooner than he had, but the Prophets knew that this was the best time for him to return if Bajor was to be saved from a terrible fate.

He was tempted to call them right now, but something told him to wait just a while longer. He figured the paranoia was like fear of Section 31 finding out about any of this, if they didn't already.

The war had taught him patience when it came to being separated from loved ones, but it hadn't taught him to dull the ache rooted deep within his chest.

Until Kyle finished talking to wife, Sisko continued to dwell on his family and child he'd never met.

Ezri was numb.

Emotionally, she didn't really know how to process all that had happened in only a few hours, and she had a feeling that more was yet to come.

Kyle and the AI had briefly explained things, about interdimensional travel, the TV shows that depicted her and her colleagues, how everything had come together and the origin and nature of Skynet.

Isabel had informed them all what had happened after Kyle had been sent here in brief detail, most of which she couldn't make heads or tails of. The message was clear, though: Skynet had a vast array of weapons and resources at its disposal, including Borg nano-tech. It had used that knowledge to turn Kyle's biological son (though not really) against his allies which resulted in their defeat and the death of the Alpha Quadrant.

The black machine lay just outside propped up against the port rails until they fashioned something to lift the half-ton husk, and for the moment she was thankful that it was out of sight.

Being assimilated by the Borg was one thing, this was even more insidious than that.

When she'd asked what Halo was and why it'd been built, the AI had explained that it, and six others just like it, were built as weapons of last resort to wipe out all sentient organic life in the galaxy when a virulent, hyper-intelligent parasite threatened to consume everything. The way the infection spread and it's mechanism for doing so, sounded an awful lot like the Borg on steroids.

The AI had simply nodded at her comparison.

Ezri used to think that there was no greater threat than the Borg. Clearly she was wrong.

Even though Skynet was the antagonist, the real threat, she had nothing to visualize the AI with other than its creations, and they seemed miniscule compared Halo.

It was clear that they just couldn't sit around and wait for the inevitable to occur. Even with a fleet, there was no guarantee that they'd be able to stop Halo from firing. No, they'd have to break the Prime Directive and interfere for the sake of their survival.

How to do that, though? At the very least they'd need a starship capable of slipstream flight, and the Defiant would never be able to handle the stresses.

There were a new class of ship comming out this year that was supposed to support quantum-slipstream out of the box, but after Voyager's disappearance, that was likely to be pushed back years.

One possibility jumped out at her, though. A ship that could be equipped with a quantum-slipstream drive and had plenty of firepower.

And they knew when and where it was going to be in six years time...

After the call, Kyle left the house and wandered into the vineyard before anyone thought to bother him. He'd been deeply uncomfortable telling secrets he'd kept for most of his life; secrets he'd trained himself never to give up even under torture.

Isabel was different, though, and he carried her with him.

She'd only briefly explained what had happened post-jump when they were with Sisko and the Daxes, but was more meat to the story and was determined to find out more before Sarah used their transwarp beaming unit to rendezvous with them.

Once they were a good distance from the house, he pulled out her chip and sat against one of the few trees lining the valley.

"When did it happen?" he asked, and Isabel answered.

"Not long after Voyager revealed itself to the Infinity and Shadow of Intent above Requiem." she began, "The Didact brought the Covenant Remnant to heel and got them to cooperate."

"Wait," Kyle put up his hand up, "You said the Didact was the one Skynet used to develop slipspace tech, right?"

"I did."

"And you're sure he wasn't compromised? That he had nothing to dos with Skynet's plan?"

She could only shrug, "This is all second hand, remember? I told you all that I was brought on after John Connor was taken."

"Who vetted him, then?"

"Seven of Nine. They shared a brief...connection. She saw his memories and understood his motivations."

Kyle breathed sigh of relief from his nose, "Good."

"Besides, he died destroying one of the Halos so Skynet couldn't get it hands on it."

Speaking of the death rings, Kyle asked, "What ring was that? How many were left?"

She smiled sadly at this, "This part I know firsthand. I was part of group that was tasked with studying and repairing Installation 00."

"The Ark? I thought they already went there?"

"They did, and we would have been there had Mendicant Bias not chased them off in 2556."

"Why go back?"

Isabel crossed her arms, "We got the portal working on our end again, and after testing the waters with Bias, we rebuilt the facilities we had before. With our help and Bias' cooperation, the Ark was rebuilt in a matter of months!"

"That's...impressive," and he meant every word of that.

"We were proud of our work, but then Skynet came out of nowhere. It wanted a Halo. It couldn't find 01, 02, or 06, and it lost 03 and 07 to the Coalition. Finally it decided to just make one, and damn anyone who got in its way!" She paused as her voice continued to shake, "It destroyed everything we built...killed everyone I was supposed to protect!" Her composure failed completely as images of her colleagues being vaporized by advancing Terminators while she was evacuated by a group of Spartans.

"But you escaped?"

She nodded, "Fireteam Jackknife. Spartan Naiya Ray barely managed to get me back to Earth before the portal shut down. She was still recovering from extreme disruptor-burns when the end came."

"I'm guessing you wanted vengeance and Cameron was the perfect person to buddy up with, then?"

A sad smile appeared on her face, "We helped each other through some dark times. I'll miss her."

"It's never easy losing people if you're not a monster," he whispered while remembering Derek's head rolling toward him.

The conversation died after that. Both were consumed with their emotions and dark thoughts long enough for Sarah to use their hidden transwarp beaming unit to send herself to Bajor.

When she did, he turned off his locator beacon and stood up to greet her. She was a hundred or so yards away, which gave time for Reese to feel more joy than sorrow as he drew near to her.

"Sarah!"

She turned around smiled when she saw him, but only briefly as she was reminded of his strange call.

They embraced for a moment before speaking. Kyle just wanted to enjoy her presence for a moment before all hell broke loose...

A/N: So... bit of a long one, but I hope it was worth the wait.

This little interlude will drag on for one more chapter before we switch back to our main heroes. I'm not entirely sure how many chapters are left in this story, but at least five more.

As always, I appreciate your feedback and welcome questions and concerns in reviews and PMs.

-OZ