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Seen from the Black Hawk's windows, snowcapped granite mountains stood ranked for mile after mile under the gray sky of a perpetual winter. Many years before, prior to the smoke and dust of Judgment Day, the Rockies had been full of life, with pine trees and mountain scrub, birds and mammals in great variety. Antelope, deer and black bear had lived here. Elk had wandered on the lower slopes, and the lakes, streams and rivers had run with fish. Once, the sky would have shone azure blue, streaked with high, white clouds. Now, everything was dead. No sign of life appeared in the air, on the rocks, or amongst the fallen snow—only the dark lines of a few roads that General Connor's militia kept open for supplies.

Violet lightning flashed between two jagged peaks, then there was a huge rumble of thunder, like the voice of doom, rolling over the steady thrum of the chopper's blades. Up front, Ramirez piloted them, with one of his Spanish comrades in the copilot's seat. Five people sat in the rear hold: John, Sarah, Jade, Gabriela, and General Connor—with John and Jade manning the laser cannons. Since Anton's death, Jade had spoken little, except when involved in the rounds of meetings to plan the campaigns against the warlords and the rogue war machines. Otherwise, she'd been almost unresponsive, though she seemed happier—or less unhappy—now they were doing something. John imagined she might almost relish an H-K attack right now. It would give her something to do with her superhuman skills.

At his booted feet, General Connor kept the forearm and hand that they'd removed from the T-1000 back in New York. In his backpack, John

had the nanochips that they'd taken from the H-Ks and endos they'd fought in Virginia a week before. General Connor had sent them back with a large team to bury the dead, find the CPUs that had controlled the H-Ks, and destroy the base that H-Ks had operated from. Here in Skynet's mountain, they had the technology to read information from the CPU chips. That might help them root out the last war machines.

The Black Hawk descended, and John braced himself for the impact. Fortunately, the damage it had sustained in the battle against the H-Ks was all superficial or minor. In places, its walls had been burnt, pierced, and dented, but there was nothing wrong with it mechanically. They headed for a landing zone part-way up a mountain that was capped by a snow-streaked peak of granite. Seen from the air, the snow on the mountain formed strange shapes where the slopes had been cratered by nuclear explosions, both on Judgment Day and in the months thereafter, when some of the remaining U.S. forces had hit back at Skynet with tactical nukes. Skynet, of course, had survived everything that was thrown at it.

The chopper's landing skids touched with the slightest bump; the Black Hawk shook, then stabilized. General Connor stood first, and they followed him out of there. Half a dozen Resistance soldiers had come to meet them, with a five-ton army truck to drive them back to the emergency tunnel that served as the main I entrance/exit for the greatly morphed Advanced Defense Systems Complex. John and Jade sat close together on a hard bench in the back of the truck, John wanting to touch her hand, but holding back.

The truck drove slowly on a winding road, its gears crunching as the driver changed down when the ascent grew steeper. They turned off the road into a long, dimly lit tunnel that took them into the core of the mountain, then pulled up at the entrance to Skynet's former HQ, where the remains of huge metal blast doors stood partway open, having been damaged in the final battle for the mountain between Skynet's machines and General Connor's militia. They stopped and climbed out of the truck, then went inside, walking between two rows of guards with sniffer dogs—still

checking that anyone who came here was genuinely human, not a rogue Terminator left over from the war.

Past the guards, a slim, dark-haired woman of about forty met them, together with a black man almost General Connor's age. The General stepped up to the woman and they exchanged a quick embrace. "Oh, John," she said, "it's so good to see you back. I've missed you so much," They embraced again, this time for much longer. Young John had met her once before, when they'd first arrived her, seven weeks ago now. She was Juanita Salceda. In a sense, she was the same Juanita that he knew back in his own world and time, but she was just a young teenager back then, in 2001. From what John had heard, "everyone" knew that General Connor and this version of Juanita were in love with each other—except the two of

them. It looked like they were finally admitting it.

Then the General shook hands with the black man, Danny Dyson— a different Danny from the one who had traveled back in time from Jade's World, with the other Specialists, only to be killed while destroying the T- XA. In his own reality, John had first met Danny back in 1994, when he'd joined with Sarah and a T-800 to raid Cyberdyne's headquarters in Los Angeles. At that stage, John had been only nine years old, and Danny only six. In this reality, Skynet's World, Danny had grown to become one of the leaders of the Resistance, and one of its few experts on the advanced computer hardware that had been used for the manufacture of Skynet and its machines.

"Juanita's right," Danny said. "It's good to see you back at last." General Connor nodded solemnly. "You don't know how good it is to

be back. I never thought I'd say that about this place, but you know what I mean. To be back with my best friends." He glanced at Juanita, with a look that suggested "friends" was kind of an understatement.

"Daniel—" Jade said.

"Very well, Danny." "Say, that's better."

"It is good to meet you again." They'd met that one time, and worked well together on the time vault. That had been hurried, and there'd been no chance for small talk or social chitchat. "I am sure we will work together once more. Forgive me if I ever act strangely. The Daniel Dyson of my world was a close friend—he was killed by a Terminator. This is strange for me. But there are many strange relationships here; I think we will all have to make allowances."

It was what they'd all been thinking. Good for Jade, John thought,

putting her cards on the table.

"No problem," Danny said.

"Well, Jade," the General said, "you're right on that one. We're all doing that...making allowances, even if we don't like to say it." He nodded at Sarah, then at John. "This is a crazy universe we live in...or multiverse, or whatever you want to call it." His mouth turned up slightly at one corner. That was the closest he usually came to a full smile. It would have to do.

Juanita led them inside the mountain, where they were confronted by a huge space of concrete and steel, full of heavy machinery, pipes, tanks of liquid, metal ladders and walkways, all lit dully from overhead. Huge turbines whirred and hummed within their metal shells. Just a few warmly-clad soldiers moved about purposefully, monitoring equipment. Another group sat on the far side of the floor, observing banks of what must have been video screens, though they were at the wrong angle for John to see properly. This was Level E of the original Skynet complex, the lowest of the five levels that had been built by human beings.

They took some metal stairs down to Level H, passing more guards at each level. Juanita and Danny led them across the concrete floor to the time vault, where Danny had set up a meeting area, with chairs for them all. The whole set-up had changed since John had first come here; it had been

made slightly more human in its feel, with such touches as an area for making coffee. Better still, the floor was not covered with maimed, bleeding bodies and •mashed machinery, as it had been last time.

We've been working on the time vault," Danny said. "I understand it much better now. I was hoping you would help me, Jade, now you're here."

Of course, Danny."

"That's good, because I think we can just about get this thing to talk. I'm close to figuring out the whole theory of it, but I could just do with some help...from someone who actually knows."

"We can start straightaway," Jade said. "Today, if you like." "I like, all right. That'll be fine."

General Connor placed the polyalloy arm/hand on Danny's metal desk, amongst his computer hardware. "You know what this is?"

"I can make a good guess. You told me you were bringing it." He held it up and inspected it closely. "So, this is from a T-1000. Well, I'll be damned."

"I'm handing it over to you. You and Juanita are my best computer experts. Again, you'll have to work with Jade. She knows the tech stuff better than any of us."

"Only because of where I come from," she said.

"Yeah, and because you're a goddamn freakin' genius. You don't have to bullshit us about that."

"Very well. I'll be pleased to work with Daniel and Juanita." "You know the tech stuff as well as any of us, John," Juanita said. "I mean...leaving Jade aside. Don't sell yourself short."

"I won't, but there's no need to defend me to myself, either." Again, the General gave that little twist of his mouth that was somewhat less than a smile. "You won't need my help. I've asked Gabriela to stay here for a few days before she heads back to L.A. We'll be working on other things."

"Like the warlords?" Sarah said.

"Yeah, exactly like that. Cecilia's campaign is going well, but we need to finish it off. I'd drive them into the goddamn sea if I could."

"Maybe you'll get your chance." "I certainly hope so."

Since they'd sent Cecilia to Argentina with half a dozen Terminators, she'd been hitting back hard against the Rising Army of Liberation. They'd sent more Terminators to support her and the other fighters who were loyal to the Resistance. There was now a growing POW camp, just outside the ruins of Rosario. But they all knew they'd need to give her more support to complete the mission, and clear out the warlords once and for all.

"What about us?" John said.

The General placed a strong hand on his shoulder. "You and Sarah deserve a break by now. You've been in the thick of the fight ever since you came here."

"Well, I'm not so sure about that."

"Believe me, neither of you has to prove a thing to us. You're going to Jade's World, to get the job done there—"

"That's what everyone assumes," Sarah said cryptically. "Sarah has misgivings," Jade said.

"So do we all," General Connor said. "Well, whatever they are, you and your son are welcome here. I know you'll want to work with us, and I don't doubt your abilities. I think you should sort out how you can best help, whether it's with Danny and Juanita and Jade, or what..."

"It might be a case of or what" Sarah said. "Right now, you have a new world to build here. I want to be part of that, even if it can't last."

"Why do you say it can't last?"

"For God's sake, John, I'm sick of false optimism. All we can do is keep fighting. If Jade wants to return her world and carry on the fight there, I'm happy it she's doing that. Maybe I'll go with her—I don't know. But it looks to me like, whatever we do, Skynet wins in the end. I just hope there can be some happiness here for a while. I'll support that."

"It's not true that Skynet wins in the end," Jade said. "We can't let it be like that, Sarah. We have to fight on."

"Of course we do. I'd never suggest otherwise."

"Back in your world, Sarah, remember when we worked with Dr. Monk on the time vault?"

"Of course."

"I remember every detail of what we did when we refined the mechanism."

"Yes, I suppose you would with that goddamn super IQ of yours." Jade looked slightly hurt at that. "Please, Sarah, I only mean well for you and humankind. You know that."

Sarah gave a long sigh. "So where's all this getting us?"

"Give me two days to work on the time vault with Danny and Juanita. We'll get more data. I want to analyze it."

"If it's that important, take as long as you want."

"I want to convince you that it is worthwhile sending a force to my world."

"Oh, you don't need to convince me of that. I have no doubt that we'll send some sort of force, whether it's really worthwhile or not. What else can we do? We're human. The human species might not be much, but it's all we've got. It's better than the alternatives that I've seen. It's us—or Skynet, or the goddamn cockroaches."

John laughed.

"We'll send some kind of force," Sarah said. "It's just a question of who should go, and when...how many...and the most important question." "What's that?" Juanita said. Sarah looked her in the eye. "What will Skynet do about it?"

TWELVE