Terminator Chronicles

By Agent Miles


The city ruins stretched for miles, like the dried bones of a dead civilization. Skynet’s psychological warfare message blared endlessly from hovering HK’s, “Humanity’s fate is termination. Surrender now!”
Millions had given up hope, but the resistance fighters knew what John Connor had taught them, “There is no fate, but what we make for ourselves.”
Explosions rock the night as the resistance fighters shower a Terminator site with laser fire. An alarm sounds and massive bunker doors open as the site’s robotic garrison reacts to the attack with mechanical precision. The resistance fighters take some losses and fall back as the irresistible tide of machines marches after them.
John Connor surveys the battle through his binoculars. It reminds him of all the times his worthless father had beaten him, before the man ran off. However, today he wasn’t going to be beaten.
A soldier whose nametag reads “Reese” whispers, “The machines took the bait, just like you said they would.”
Connor signals his team as they move quickly and silently through the bunker’s open doors. One team member disarms the base alarm system as the rest keep moving. They enter the interior of the bunker. Two men establish security while Reese sets the explosive charges.
John scans the interior of the bunker. This is the central nervous system of Skynet. One last battle and the machines are defeated forever. Then he sees something that he doesn’t like. A portal on the floor below seems to contain pure energy. On a gangway above the portal stands a T-101 infiltrator. This Terminator is receiving its final mission download. John looks at a screen where he sees streams of data being fed into the Terminator. Then his eyes fix on one command line, “Proceed through the time portal to 1984 L. A. and terminate all Sarah Connors.”
Reese runs up to John and whispers, “Come on! The charges are set.”
John pauses. Thinking quickly, he adds it up in his mind as he speaks, “Skynet is sending him through a time portal to kill my mother in 1984, before I’m even born. It will undo everything I’ve accomplished. I’ve got to stop that thing.”
A backup alarm sounds as doors open and a reserve force of various Terminators are activated. The security team open fire, but are outnumbered. Reese grabs John and throws him back as he yells, “You’re too important John, get out of here!” Then Reese jumps down onto the gangway behind the T-101.
Just then, the explosives go off, ripping into Skynet. Reese raises his pulse laser rifle and points it at the back of the T-101. Suddenly, a secondary explosion goes off as the gangway buckles. Reese and the cyborg tumble into the time portal together.
In a flash, history is rewritten and the new events engulf John. All that once was is erased, but a different past has still led humanity to the same end. John realizes that he has sent his father to his death. However, he has no time for remorse as he and his men are trapped and about to be overrun. They fight their way into the command center’s security vault. John slams a reinforced door closed just as the Terminators close in. The men reload their weapons and attempt to block the door as the Terminators slowly bash it in.
One of the commandos checks a computer terminal and calls to John, “We haven’t destroyed Skynet. This is simply a backup for the main system. Skynet decoyed us here the way we decoyed the Terminators away from the site.” The soldier sits down as he says, “This still has access to everything though. I’m going to do a hack.”
John sits down next to the man as he furiously types away. John looks into another monitor as the scene outside comes into view. A group of Terminators were still working on the door. They aren’t using weapons, so as not to cause any more damage. Then, something more ominous comes into view. A T-101 is standing next to an unknown Terminator by the time portal.
“Can you find out what’s going on?” John asks.
The soldier replies, “I’m in! Skynet is downloading a mission to a Terminator; model Tango-one-zero-zero-zero.” Pointing to the monitor, he looks at John and says, “This machine is supposed to proceed back in time to that address…and terminate you.”
John remembers that he was living with his foster parents at that address. Thinking fast, he asks, “Can you stop it?”
“No, I can’t interrupt the mission loader while it’s running.”
John curses and then asks, “Can you hack that ‘101 next to him?”
“Sure, but…”
Connor slaps the man on the back and says, “Great, load the T-101 with the same mission data, only order it to go back in time and protect me.”
Soon, all was ready. The two Terminators jump into the time portal. Time is changed yet again, but the nightmare continues. Three billion people had still been slaughtered by Skynet. John still has to deal with this situation.
A few more keystrokes and all the Terminators at the base were inert. John stood up and said, “Okay, let’s get out of here.”
As the men move to the door, the commando at the terminal yells, “Wait! Skynet has activated an experimental Terminator, model Tango-X ray. I can’t hack into her. I don’t think that we can stop her either. She’s supposed to travel back in time, kill you and start Judgment Day.”
John looks through the monitor at the T-X. She will soon be in the control room. He states the obvious, “Then we’re finished.”
The commando’s face lights up as he says, “No wait. This may work.”
John watches as the man types away, “What may work?”
On the monitor, the T-X enters the control room. A T-101 is activated by the resistance fighter. The two cyborgs struggle and then fall into the time portal. Nothing happens to the present time frame and John has no memory of what the T-X changed in the past. He asks, “So what just happened?”
The commando at the terminal smiles and explains, “I knew that there is a theoretical correlation between time and numerical systems. Just as there are real numbers and imaginary numbers, like the square root of a negative number, there is both real and imaginary time. I simply changed the polarity on the time displacement device.”
With a blank stare on his face, John asks, “So what just happened?”
The commando frowns and says, “The Terminators entered imaginary time. All the events they created don’t exist in real time and didn’t change anything.”
John thought for a moment and says, “That makes no sense to me, but I like it. Come on, we’re going to create some events that will change everything.”
Several days later John and the commando stand by the time displacement device as John says, “So, you know how to build a time machine for me and my mother to use?”
The soldier winks and points to his head as he quips, “It’s in the bank.”
John smiles and adds, “Arch, even without that microcomputer implant in your head, you’re the smartest man I know. Good luck.”
Arch shakes his hand and says, “Don’t worry JC. I’ll do what I can to fix this mess.”
Arch enters the time displacement device and John turns to Cameron and says, “Tell Derek Reese I want to see him.”
Cameron and Derek return. Reese is stunned as he sees the time displacement device. Finally he sees John and demands, “What happened to my brother? Where did Kyle go?”
John frowns and replies, “I can’t tell you what happened to your brother yet, but I can show you where he went. Cameron.” Cameron nods and enters the time portal.
Reese asks, “What is this place?”
John looks him in the eyes and replies, “Men built Skynet and it destroyed three billion lives. Skynet built this thing, and it is going to save those lives…with your help, all of them will be reborn. Come with me to the briefing room.”
After the men leave, a secret door opens and the Cromartie Terminator enters the time portal. Somewhere in Kansas, he stands on a hill overlooking a high school as he reviews his mission command line, “Terminate John Reese.”