After setting up some defenses around the weather control machinery, including adding ignore me wards to it and then to the automated machines that were cleaning up the various beds of bodies of water to prep them for refilling later, I stored the Javelin and made a backup of Dragon.
With the cleanup done, we entered the Reclamation and flew back towards the entrance to the underground tunnels that led to Zion. I filled the cargo bay with choice spare parts and hoverpads, making Malachi laugh at learning the explanation of how I had always managed to find the best salvage.
By the time we reached Zion, we all had our stories straight and could lie about everything easily... and then we docked and not one single person asked us anything. Apparently, with me off gathering salvage, no one associated the massive healing across the city to me. It was all they were talking about, even the maintenance crews helping Dragon unload the cargo bay.
Everyone was in a fantastic mood and our arrival was barely registered. It was both great and also disconcerting, since all the work we did to cover up our involvement with the Dark Storm wasn't needed. It could be days or weeks before the hubbub over the mass healing would die down and by then, no one would associate us or the ship with it.
We entered the elevator to go down to the living area and Malachi gave Akira a brief kiss before we reached his level. He promised to come by for a visit later for a meal and Akira looked quite happy about that. As soon as we entered our apartment and I shut the door behind us, the world greyed out.
You're not going to let me see if the Matrix changed? I asked and felt amusement as my reading buddy's presence appeared next to me. I'll take that as a no.
Fate's little blue box appeared in front of me. You've done more to fix the world's problems than we thought possible.
Oh? I thought I barely started that. I responded.
The tech advances you gave the machines to help regulate their power grid and the added programming is going to change pretty much everything about how they handle energy regulation. They still need the massive amount of power from keeping humanity inside the Matrix, since they are almost solely dependent on it.
That kind of sucks. I figured they could start switching back to solar power. I thought.
Some eventually do, with most using it as an additional power source. The problem is, the machines are used to having access to the available energy the Matrix provides. Switching back to a much less efficient solar power gathering technology after centuries of perfecting what they use now? It's not going to happen.
Damn. I thought and cuddled my reading buddy. What about the people of Zion?
They eventually discover the Dark Storm is gone and attribute it to the machines finally succeeding in restoring their previous source of power. Fate answered. It gives them a sense of hope for the future and they start exploring more and more while still being careful about the machines.
And the whole water situation? I asked.
My reading buddy let out a soft laugh and I felt a lot of amusement.
Introducing the bright sun on a planet that was half frozen over because of an artificial ice age? All of the frozen water at both ice caps melted during the next year and filled in the deepest parts of the oceans. Because it was all fresh water and was full of preserved specimens from when they were created, the oceans quickly repopulate with many extinct species.
I restarted the age of dinosaurs? I asked and my reading buddy laughed.
Proto-dinosaurs, and yes. It will take many centuries for any real significant advances in their evolution, though. The people of Zion won't start development of the biological sciences for another hundred years or so. Fate answered.
I sighed and reclined back and hugged my invisible reading buddy. Since you haven't automatically given me the memories of a dimensional clone, I assume you're giving me the option to choose to go back before you do.
We thought it was only fair, especially after everything you've done there. Fate responded. If you don't choose to return, the current versions of Dragon you have are the only ones you'll have.
Ah, if I do chose to go back and live it out, then I'll have the final version of her whenever I chose to leave after that. I thought and had an important decision to make.
I did weigh out everything that could happen, with both the humans and the machines. How they would have to figure out how to adjust their lives with the changes I had made to both the world and to the technology they had access to. That reminded me of making that sub-dimension with both the towers of people and the birthing fields, too.
I'm not sure if the people of Zion will ever be ready to accept that machines are people too, with their own problems, idiosyncrasies, and quirks. I thought, making my decision. I won't force Dragon to live out decades of her life without giving her the chance to have children, which only our family would accept if it happened.
There was a distinct feeling from my reading buddy that I had made the right choice. I gained a small flood of memories and it was just as I was worried about. Life continued on and that was that. The word stagnant described what life was like and there was no significant change to the state of the world, either with the humans or with the machines.
It was a little mind boggling that there was no great exodus to the surface, even if many exploratory missions happened. It was understandable that the people didn't want to expose themselves to any machine roving patrols, with the sentinels being able to travel much farther from the machine city with their energy reserves increased.
The planet eventually healed, things started to grow, and various animals and things bred and populated the surface. The machines didn't expand or anything, either. They had their existences and their way of life, which kept them inside their main city, which they had always done since it was established in the annals of history... and they stayed there.
I definitely made the right choice. I thought and felt agreement from my reading buddy. I thought about what I wanted to do now and I let my mind drift over the many things I had done before and what I had yet to do. There were many stories I could change, many I could create, and many more I could live out and just enjoy the ride.
It wasn't until I thought about Dragon, about what her father did to her to stop her from becoming a terror to humanity if she was ever unrestricted, that I knew exactly what I could do next. I told my reading buddy about my idea and she heartily agreed that it was a great one and I felt her lips on mine.
After a few minutes of setting up the details, I initiated the transfer and everything went black.
*
The time bubble faded away amidst several electrical strikes to the nearby fire escape and I appeared in the air of an alleyway about ten feet above the ground. I dropped down and landed on my feet in a crouch, naked as the day I was born, and I slowly stood up as the memories of Kyle Reece flowed through my head.
"Say, buddy." A homeless man said from against the wall. "Did you just see a really bright light?"
"Yeah, it was really bright." I said and handed him a small bundle of cash. "Get yourself a drink on me."
"You're an alright fella for a skinny naked guy." The man said and tucked the money into his shirt and laid back down.
"Thanks." I said and walked away from him as I adjusted my size to what I was used to. I was quickly back to my height of 6 foot 3 and gained my muscles back.
I stopped walking when I was out of the homeless man's line of sight and took out some clothes and put them on. Dark jeans, a red shirt, and a leather jacket. I changed my face to look like my Atlas persona and fixed my hair to be both cut well and blond.
I walked out of the alleyway just as a police car pulled up and a search light was shined in my face. "Evening, officer."
The light snapped off and the black man gave me a look that said he was trying to figure out why a well dressed guy like myself had just left a scum-filled alleyway where several homeless bums and other lowlifes hung around.
"I only just arrived here and was cutting through from the other street." I said and he nodded. "Can you tell me where the closest phone booth is? I have to call a friend of mine to come pick me up."
"Sure. It's a block that way on the corner near the department store. You can't miss it." The officer said and pointed back the way the car came from.
"Thanks." I said and started to walk away. I felt him watch me and he didn't pull away from the curb until I reached the end of the block. Surprisingly, he didn't loop around to see if I actually went for the phone booth. I did, though.
Despite my memories of John Connor telling me all about his mother, he didn't know where she lived when she was younger. I checked the phone book and saw the three addresses and knew the Terminator was going to systematically hunt them down to murder them. I wasn't going to let it do that.
The three addresses were 1823 Doncaster, 2816 Easthill, and 309 Calder Canyon. Since I knew the Terminator would need to steal clothes and a vehicle to fit in and not be noticed right away, I had some time before he could reach the first address. A touch of my clairvoyance power showed me he had already done both, so now it was just down to how long it would take for him to reach the first address.
I looked at the house and saw the slightly older woman, about 35, and she had two children already. It didn't really make sense for the Terminator to kill her and walk away, since he should have also killed the children. Then again, maybe they were too old to count. The date was 1984 after all and according to Skynet's records, John Connor hadn't been born yet.
I walked away from the phone booth towards another alleyway and then stepped from there to nearby the first Sarah Connor's house. I pulled out a normal car from inventory, one of the ones I had stored way back in the Walking Dead universe, and made myself comfortable.
Now it was just a waiting game as I tried to figure out what to do about the Terminator and the future creation of Skynet. With all thing being equal, and some aspects of time being immutable, Skynet technically already existed and would have to continue to exist to send a Terminator back in time. If not, then a paradox would form and it could wipe out all of existence along all the parallel timelines.
*
The Terminator, Infiltrator Series model T-800, pulled up to the first address in its updated database and stopped the stolen station wagon. He climbed out of the antiquated vehicle and his eyes focused on the house at the correct address. The number above the door was different from the records and his processor filed it as a clerical error, which referenced a rezoning law for mail services.
He didn't stop his walk to the front door, despite the yapping of a small dog in the yard. It gave the creature a look of disdain, because dogs always could tell they weren't human and ruined their mission. Instead of shooting it and compromising its goal, it ignored the creature and approached the porch. It lifted its foot to step onto it and then suddenly found itself plunging down into molten lava.
The change didn't compute, as lava was only found inside volcanoes and not in a suburb of Los Angeles. There were no records of a volcano existing in the area and the excessive heat from the molten rock soon melted its processors and stopped the recursive loop it had been stuck in trying to figure the situation out.
*
That was easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought as I closed the portal to the volcano in Hawaii. I walked over to the car the Terminator showed up in and climbed in, then drove it away from the area. I would have to make myself invisible and would leave the car near the closest police station after repairing the damage to it, just to cover up that it was a Terminator that had stolen it.
I even left the guns in the backseat, after locking the doors of course, and stepped away. I had worked out what to do and I was sure it was going to ensure that the timelines remain intact, since I had about ten or so years before the second Terminator would be sent back to take care of John Connor.
Well, that was assuming it would have to, just to keep up the ruse that John was in danger, and to ensure Skynet's defeat in the future at his hands. Was the plan convoluted? Most definitely. Would it work? That would depend on if I could manage a few things without getting caught. First up, establishing an identity. Next up, making sure I met Sarah Connor.
*
Sarah drove on her mo-ped down the street towards where she worked as a waitress. She usually enjoyed her shifts at Big Jeff's, since the girls she worked with were always upbeat and joked around. The difference this time was it was Friday and the fast food restaurant was always packed to the rafters for lunch and supper.
With a sigh of resignation for the busy day ahead of her, she parked by the large statue holding two big hamburgers and locked her mo-ped to it. "Guard it for me, Big Buns." She said and patted one of the hamburgers and went inside to change into her uniform.
It was just as busy as she knew it was going to be and she started working her set of tables. She took orders, occasionally messing up with the details like anyone would after taking so many orders in so short a time, and she pushed her way through her mistakes with a fake smile and did her best.
Sarah gathered the tiny tip from the group of three workmen that just left, whom had only put two quarters on the table for her. To be fair, she did mix their orders up and crossed their side dishes, which only took a minute to fix back in the kitchen. She gave them their drinks for free as an apology, which meant she was deducted that much from her part-time paycheck.
Working my way through college sucks. Sarah thought and piled the dishes onto her tray. Before she could pick it up, someone sat down in the booth and surprised her. She jerked slightly at the scare and opened her mouth to complain to whomever had the gall to sit down before she finished cleaning up, and her mouth stayed open as she stared at the handsome blond man wearing a nice leather jacket.
"I'm sorry about jumping in. This place is too busy to wait for you to finish." The man's sexy voice said and Sarah couldn't help but blush. "I'll be sure to tip you well as an apology."
Sarah nodded and managed to close her mouth just long enough to pick up the tray. She thought about telling him she would be right back to take his order and saw his knowing smile. She realized he knew that already and nodded again and carried the full tray back to the kitchen to hand it off to the dishwasher and grabbed a pitcher of water and a clean glass to go back out to her new customer.
She wasn't sure why she felt a slight surprise that he was still there, as if he had been a figment of her imagination and wasn't sure if he was really real, then he opened his jacket and pulled it off. It revealed his red shirt and quite a lot of muscles that the shirt highlighted well and Sarah couldn't help but stare at him.
"I want the burly beef special, an extra order of fries on the side, and I want it all smothered with gravy." He said with confidence.
"S-sure." Sarah managed to say when she finally managed to get her mouth to work. "What would you like to drink with that?"
"The water you're keeping hostage in a death grip will do for now." He said with a teasing note in his voice.
Sarah blushed with embarrassment and put the glass down, poured it three quarters full of water from the pitcher, then put the pitcher down as well. "Anything else?"
"I'll worry about what to have for dessert after I eat." He said, quite suggestively.
That made her blush for a different reason and Sarah wasn't sure why he was flirting with her so much. Was it because she was staring at him before? Or was staring now? Why couldn't she stop staring into his bright blue eyes?
"If you're going on break soon, why don't you join me here at my table?" He asked her.
Sarah made a kind of squeak sound, opened and closed her mouth twice, then decided that retreating was the better option to compose herself. When she was halfway back to the kitchen, she had completely forgotten what he had ordered to eat. Her face went to a deeper red and she thought about what to do, then she saw Jinette.
"Go to table five and confirm his order for me!" Sarah almost shouted at her friend.
Jinette gave her a surprised look and then laughed. "You already forgot it? You're such an airhead!" She joked and patted her shoulder as she walked by her. "I'll be right back."
Sarah sighed with relief and leaned against the wall of the kitchen, then realized she had sent her bubbly outgoing friend to meet the most handsome man she had ever met. She let out a groan and slapped a hand to her forehead for being so stupid.