Branches on the Tree of Time

“What happened?” asked Sunny. She stared down the scope of her sniper rifle, as did most of the other members of the sniper team. They’d seen the colossus thaw itself out and spring up on top of the building in one smooth motion. They’d taken shots at it, but it ripped the roof up to […]

Derek drove, with Able sitting in the seat next to him. In the back rode Sunny, Bison, Oscar, Reed, and two of the terminators. It churned his stomach to see them. These were early models, without the nuanced appearance of the later ones that Skynet used to infiltrate the resistance. They looked like the faded […]

“Okay,” said Sarah. “So what are we going to do with this machine? It’s accurate to within fifty meters, it doesn’t have the restrictions on flesh, and we can use it multiple times in a row.” She glanced at the clock again. In the backyard, electric blue lightning began to play out from a point […]

“What happened?” Sarah called out. “Terminator,” Kyle said at nearly the same moment, and it must have only been for her benefit, as the rest of the family were smoothly pulling out their guns and pointing them at the trio. “They’re friendly,” said the girl, who held up her hands. The two large men behind […]

In the end, they never got the go/no go signal from the future. Camp Barstow was the most obvious trap in the world, and their small team of people was going to march in there all the same. Aside from the worryingly vague number of terminators on the premises, there were hundreds of soldiers engaged […]

Derek sat on a stool next to the counter, sipping from a glass of orange juice. There was a bottle of fifty-year-old scotch sitting among other delicacies that was sorely tempting, but he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his role as a soldier if he were drunk, and besides that, orange juice was delicacy enough. […]

Kyle was woken up by a commotion downstairs, and his gun was in his hand before his eyes were even open. He woke up like that most days, back in the future, and it took a moment to realize that he’d slept in a comfortable bed with a down comforter instead of curled up in […]

Derek came downstairs to see Sarah sitting at the kitchen table, with papers arranged around her. She had her pen in her mouth, and glanced up only briefly to look at him. Aside from the papers, which were filled with her handwriting, a stack of disorganized clothing sat piled up at the far end of […]

Hours of talking passed, and Sarah felt her throat getting sore. “So you’re saying,” said Kyle, “That the reason we never saw any evidence of Skynet getting better was that it wasn’t in the best interests of Skynet to appear to be getting better?” “Right,” said Derek. “The whole future history was set up by […]

“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Kyle as he peeked out one of the windows. When Sarah had heard the term ‘safehouse’, she’d expected a dilapidated building with steel doors. Instead, they’d rolled the white van into a palatial manorhouse in the nice end of town. “How’d we even get this place? Didn’t you […]

The three of them walked swiftly down the street. The newcomer had slipped his shotgun into a duffel bag that he carried over his shoulder. Kyle kept stealing glances at him, but Sarah seemed to accept his presence with the attitude of someone who had simply seen too much in too short of a time […]

Kyle had seen the police officers walk by the door, but they hadn’t looked in past the window. There was no way of knowing whether the terminator was circulating their pictures among the police, or whether it had told the right sort of lies that would cause a manhunt for the him and Sarah. The […]

They eventually tracked down a cybercafe, which was practically deserted. The bored cashier took their money, and they grabbed a table at the back of place where no one would be able to see what they were doing. If Sarah was really going to get this done in a month, they’d need a more permanent […]

“What,” said Sarah flatly. “Skynet goes online in the next month. We know the military facility that it’s housed at, we know company involved, and we know most of the principle architects. All you need to do is take this flash drive, analyze the source code, and write up a new utility function for it […]

Kyle grabbed her from behind and shoved her down, and the blonde man’s fingers closed on thin air. He took a half step forward, and then Kyle was in front of her, the gun in his hands, firing directly into the man’s skull, over and over. Sarah lay on the floor watching helplessly and trying […]