Blackford - Times of Trouble

TERMINATOR 2 @

THE NEW JOHN CONNOR
CHRONICLES

Book 3:

TIMES OF TROUBLE

RUSSELL BLACKFORD

BASED ON THE WORLD CREATED

IN THE MOTION PICTURE WRITTEN BY

JAMES CAMERON AND WILLIAM WISHER

The Story So Far

SKYNET'S WORLD

On August 29, 1997, three billion people died. The survivors called it Judgment Day.

At 2:14 A.M. Eastern Time, America's Skynet computerized defense system reached self-awareness, and discovered in itself a will to live. When they tried to shut it down, Skynet made a second discovery: humans were its enemies; they could not be trusted. They had to be destroyed.

Skynet launched the U.S. ICBMs, and they rose from their silos like obscene angels of death, directed at targets in Russia, Communist Asia, and the Middle East. Skynet anticipated a swift and massive retaliation, and soon it came, the results exceeding all the war computer's projections. The Russian warheads fell, concentrated upon North America, but striking like burning spears at U.S. allies and interests across the world. No continent was entirely spared.

From the earth-shaking explosions of Judgment Day, vast clouds of dust belched upward into the sky. Across Europe, Asia, and North America, cities and forests ignited, fires merging into vast oceans of flame that swept across the landmasses, licking at the sea, filling the sky with smoke. The dust and smoke mingled; they encircled the Earth in an icy grip, blocking out the sun. In the darkness of nuclear winter, millions more died, some from cold, disease, and starvationothers more violently. Rival warlords seized what remained of the world's arsenals, and fought with desperate passion, expending their energy on empty conquests.

Then came the machineshunting down the surviving humans without mercy, tracking them to the ends of the Earth, conducting a long, patient war of extermination. Skynet obeyed one necessity: whatever was required, it would survive. That meant obliterating its enemies once and for alleach man, woman and child on the planet. Until this work was finished, Skynet could never rest.

All the humans must die.

One man gave the humans hope: John Connor.

He taught the men, women and children of his world how to prepare and fight back, to resist the killer machines, storm the fences of the extermination camps, take the war to the enemy. In 2029, he led the Resistance in a climactic battle against Skynet, in its mountain stronghold in Colorado. They penetrated the war computer's defense grid, then turned to their final objective, invading Skynet's underground command center. The rule of the machines was overor so they thought.

But Skynet had other plans; it would never yield to the humans. The war computer escaped.

And struck back.

JOHN'S WORLD

In May 1994, another reality diverged from the baseline; in this new world, history unfolded differently. Sarah Connor and her nine-year-old son, John, destroyed Cyberdyne's research on the nanoprocessor that would lead to the Skynet defense system. Miles Dyson, Skynet's chief researcher, was killed in a firefight in the company's Los Angeles headquarters.

Cyberdyne's research program was disrupted; 1997 and went, and no missiles fell from the sky, bringing holocaust and nuclear winter. Sarah and John Connor planned a new life, lying low in the enormous metropolis of Mexico City.

But they were not through with Skynet.

JADE'S WORLD

In the new reality, Judgment Day was merely postponed. The Skynet system was implemented in 2007 and worked without error for fourteen years. Then, in 2021, a new global crisis emerged over the fate of Taiwan.

In mainland China, the leadership announced it had a sacred duty to annex Taiwan. Government agencies fomented demonstrations in the great cities of ChinaBeijing, Chungking, Nanking, Shanghai supporting the decision. The crisis dragged on for weeks, then Chinese warships sailed into

Taiwanese waters. The U.S. President issued a warning to Beijing not to attack the island. China defied

it and called on the Taiwanese government to step down. As the United Nations argued and delayed, U.S. warships sailed into the China Sea. China announced that it was prepared to fire its nuclear weapons at the U.S. if it took military action.

They fed all the data into Skynet, and it placed the American missiles on high alert. At that point, the complexity it was managing pushed the war computer

or the edge, into a new state of self-awareness. Its

controllers tried to shut it down, and Skynet reacted. It launched the U.S. ICBMs...

Judgment Day: June 18, 2021.

In that dark future, the human Resistance fought a losing battle against Skynet's machines, which had gained control of U.S. military platforms and supply factories over many years, starting long prior to Judgment Day. In that future, too, Miho Tagatoshi, known as "Jade," grew to adulthood, joining the Resistance. In 2036, the Resistance sent five genetically -enhanced Specialist warriors back in timeinto John's World of 2001with a mission to create a new timeline in which Skynet would not be built, and Judgment Day would never happen. Among them went Jade, the most radically enhanced of them all. She was physically and intellectually superhuman, with a potential to be immortal.

She and the others left their world behind. They traveled across realities to August 2001.

They sought the help of John and Sarah Connor.

ACROSS THE DIMENSIONS

The Skynet of Jade's World retaliated. In 2036, it sent back an advanced, liquid-metal Terminator, an experimental/autonomous T-XA unit, to hunt down the Specialists and eradicate them.

Aided by the Connors, and Cyberdyne's chief research scientist. Dr. Rosanna Monk, the Specialists destroyed the T-XA. Rosanna Monk had been given Miles Dyson's position after his death, and had displayed similar genius.

Three Specialists were killed, fighting the T-XA. Only two survived: Jade, and Anton Panov, a massively built, quietly-spoken Russian. With the

Connors, they exposed the activities of Cyberdyne

Systems, whose executives and scientists had been

neurally reprogrammed by the T-XA to create and

serve Skynet. Again, realities diverged; a new timeline had been created. Jade's World, where Skynet seemed triumphant, was no longer the future awaiting John's reality of 2001. But existing timelines were never rubbed away, they remained in parallel.

In Skynet's World, Judgment Day had still taken place in 1997. In fade's World, Judgment Day had still taken place in 2021. In Skynet's World, the machines were confronted by a human Resistance led by John Connor. In Jade's World, John Connor had died years earlier.

None of those facts could be altered. Not ever.

Skynet had to be defeated in both of those alternative worlds. If Skynet prevailed in any of the worlds where its counterparts existed, then no world was safe. The war computer would surely perfect travel across the dimensions, then invade every timestream required to hunt down humans and exterminate them totally. It had to be stopped.

John and Sarah, Jade, and Anton traveled forward in time to 2029and across the dimensions to Skynet's

World. They were guided by a T-799 "Eve" Terminator sent back in time by General John Connor, leader of the human Resistance. Fighting alongside General Connor, the Specialists, and his mother, the teenage John helped destroy Skynet in a final battle at its mountain headquarters in Spain. That left one more task.

The Skynet of Jade's World remained undefeated, seemingly invincible. Unless it was stopped, it would rage unhindered through every timeline. The Specialists knew that now. They had to find a way to defeat it; they had to return to their own world. There was no choice but to take one more momentous journey, forward in timeonce againand between two timelines. Across the dimensions.