Jesus, that last sentence.
Tension was mounting but god damn you know how to end a story satisfactorily

I appreciate a future in which Skynet functions as mediators and counsellors for humanity.

Wow. I really appreciate all the thought and work you put into this. It took a bit to get over the exposition side of things though I do understand the need given the complexity of time travel you were trying to relay. And to be honest, I'm not even fully tracking with that. However I did enjoy reading this story and the way you portrayed Skynet and the other characters.

Interesting way to end the story, a bit disturbing, but fitting, a good thing it decided to cooperate, seems to me it good have used an empathy patch or two, and perhaps an honesty patch also.
On the other hand adding more human sensibilities could have created human weaknesses also, it could also be argued that being an accomplished liar is a very human thing.
I liked the insight into the very first timeline, and how it seems the very first Skynet kinda ended up being in the same desperate straits as all the subsequent humanities.
Kinda ironic also that like the original Skynet the timeline problem was also created by humans through meddling with technology.

wonderful story

Isn't Derek basically Able's uncle?

In order for that billion timelines thing to work, they have to survive every single one. If they have a one-in-a-million chance of failure on a single timeline, they're doomed. It will take longer for them to brute force the keys than it would take Skynet to brute force finding the base.

Holy shit! Okay there are a few little issues I see with feasibility, but in general this was an awesome fic! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it.

Lol, i love your 'dumb as a box of bricks...very,very fast'
Never seen it described as that and I must say it's a very interesting way to interpret/represent Skynet...

What can I say...? Everything makes so much more sense now.

Hh

puuuufff you lost me a little bit with all this story...
i loved it! but it was quite difficult..
congratulations! ;)
amazing job!

It's a rare treat to read such an intelligent and 'technically accurate' (if you can say that about science fiction) story on this site. Good work.

Glorious.

I believe that Sarah both succeeded and failed in her attempt to make a friendly AI.

Athena unlike Skynet seems to have a much more human friendly tilt to its intentions, however it still applies cold machine logic to any and every situation, in the sense that it explores every possible solution to any problem up to and including murder.

However it is still a success as there is so very little of the intent to kill all of humanity anymore, without anything similar to the 3 Laws of Robotics governing its core programming I think that's the best we're gonna get.

Brilliant story :)