The Ghost of Christmas Future Past
The smell of the tree nearly knocked Derek Reese over when he walked into the house. Of course, the Connors had to put the thing in the living room. It's not like Sara or John wanted to sleep next to a giant pine needle collection oozing sap and insects. Later he had to listen to them argue about how the ornaments should be hung. He wanted scream. But it wasn't until the Metal walked in wearing her pouty little frown and asked why there was a tree inside the house, that he lost it and stormed out. Half a bottle of Scotch later, he still couldn't stop the memories. If it wasn't for the mission, if it wasn't for the fact that John Connor's safety couldn't be trusted around the Metal, he might actually consider eating his gun. But he had to stay alive for a while which meant he had to sit there and let the memories wash over him like a tidal wave of destruction.
Christmas Eve 2027
Judgment Day taught the human race to enjoy life whenever they had the opportunity. When there were things that could be celebrated, they celebrated as best they could. At Firebase Alpha that meant saving the best rations for the holidays, a bit of moonshine, harmonica music, and carols sung by whoever was brave enough or drunk enough to try entertaining their fellow soldiers. But for Derek it was the best Christmas since, well, ever. He had his little brother by his side and Cameron was exactly where he wanted her, on his lap. He had found Cameron in a bunker three months ago, married her as soon as he could convince her it was a good idea, and since then he had a reason other than laying waste to machines to get up in the morning. Not that smashing those metal motherfuckers wasn't satisfying, but having someone waiting for him to come back, that was a bonus he would sell his soul to keep.
He watched the light bounce off the thin gold band on her finger as her needles clicked. Somebody had taught her to knit recently and she had taken to it with a passion unraveling their ratty sweaters and socks and turning them into new garments. Outside the sky was black, the world was smashed and machines lurked waiting to kill everyone, but he had his family. "You don't have to spend all tonight working on that."
She didn't take her eyes off her needles. "It's for Kyle." She held up a nearly completed cap. "For Christmas Day. Isn't that the way it's done?"
That was another thing he loved about her. She accepted that Kyle was an important part of his life no questions and no jealousy. Most women weren't so generous with the small amount of personal time a combat soldier had.
"Kyle's a big boy. He doesn't believe in Santa."
She slowed her knitting down, but she didn't stop.
Sumner started passing out the toys he had scavenged and repaired to the kids It was beautiful to watch the eyes of a child who had known only war and fear suddenly find pleasure as they received their Christmas wishes.
"I still don't understand. Why hold the toys back for days; then, give them out now?" Cameron said.
"As long as everyone can believe that the traditions need to be handed down, it means the human race is going to survive and there's going to a next generation."
She must have noticed the way he looked at the children and Sumner. "Did you have a Christmas wish?"
He tried not to smile too much. It was hard keeping his feelings under control around Cameron. If his platoon ever knew the emotions she brought out in him or what a single sparkle in her eyes could get him to do when they were alone, he would never hear the end of the ribbing. "My Christmas wish is sitting in my lap right now."
She frowned. "It wouldn't be polite to have sex in front of all these people."
He snorted back laughter. Her sense of humor always kept him on his toes. "No, not just that. All of you. The complete package." He whispered the next so no one else could hear. "You're the only Christmas wish I ever got in this universe." He brushed his fingers across her check the way she liked him to touch her. "So did you have a Christmas wish?"
He already had a present for her; a copper bracelet made by a guy in Rio company whose work everyone wanted, but he was curious if there was something else Cameron might want. She never expressed wants and desires like other women did. It was almost impossible to get an opinion out of her and when he did it was always logical and practical.
She gazed directly into his eyes. "Lots of sex."
"No wonder I married you." He kissed her forehead. The party was nice, but he wished they could go back to their quarters. There he didn't have to brave or strong. He could relax in her arms and not think about anything, but the two of them. That would lead to him being excited in her arms and then he would definitely fulfill Cameron's Christmas wish.
She stopped knitting and laid her head down on his shoulder. "You said it was important to hand down the traditions. What were your family's Christmas traditions?"
Kyle held out a shard of peppermint candy to her. He could get that kind of stuff from Connor. For awhile Derek had worried that the General had ulterior motives; then, he realized Connor probably handed luxury items out to Kyle because Kyle tended to share, in fact his little brother was about as egalitarian system of distribution as they had.
"What were our traditions? Hiding under Derek's bed while Mom screamed at Dad for being a worthless drunk and screwing his secretary. Listening to Dad shout back that she was a worthless harpy. Later after Dad had left and Mom had passed out we would go downstairs and eat all the leftover food from their Christmas party. Smoked salmon makes a great midnight snack, but my big brother here never would let me sample any of the booze."
"It wasn't always that bad," Derek said. "You liked it when Dad would take us out with the telescope to spot the Christmas star."
"You use to show me that star. By the time the stars came out, Dad was never sober enough to work the telescope." Kyle said.
"Well, he was the one that taught me," Derek replied.
"What's the Christmas star?" Cameron asked.
Had Cameron ever seen stars? She lived in a bunker before he found her. She lived in a bunker now. He tried to remember if on the night he brought her back to Firebase Alpha the atmosphere had been clear enough for there to have been stars overhead and quickly gave up. Every star in the night sky could have been visible that night and they would have been too busy watching out for machines to have noticed. He stroked Cameron's check again. "It's the brightest star in the night on Christmas Eve."
"Will you look for it tonight?" she asked.
"I haven't looked for it since Judgment Day."
Commander Perry walked over to them. "How much have you had to drink tonight, Derek?"
More ominous words were rarely spoken.
"Bottle hasn't passed my way yet," Derek admitted.
"We've lost communication with Watch Post 9B."
So much for Christmas Eve in his wife's warm arms, but somebody had to go. All the watch posts were important, but 9B was the clearest view of Skynet's primary aircraft facility. And he knew the wasteland around 9B better than most. It was their ritual that Cameron walk with him to the hatch. He thought about pulling her outside for a brief moment, but knew the sky overhead was covered in black clouds.
"Maybe you'll see the Christmas star while you're outside," she suggested brightly.
He could still taste the mint when he kissed her goodbye, but just below the peppery coolness was that pure clean taste that he only associated with Cameron. If he made it back from Watch Post 9B this would definitely be the best Christmas of his life.
Outside the air was still cool from nuclear winter, but the surface seemed more calm than usual.
Sayles looked around nervously. "You think we're walking into an ambush?"
An HK flew over head. Only one, not a pair. The blue exhaust flare was barely visible. "No, they'll running low on fuel," Derek replied.
Sayles looked up at the sky again. "Maybe they'll run out."
Well, a man could dream on Christmas Eve, but Derek knew the chances weren't likely. Some of the machines already used nuclear power, so when the fossil fuels were gone they could probably all adapt.
Luckily when they pounded on the hatch at Watch Post 9B, a spotter dog went wild. The boy that opened the hatch looked around twelve tops, but nobody had a childhood now and watch post duty wasn't the worst assignment out there. There was a girl with him; maybe, a little older, maybe not. "You haven't checked in with Alpha for three days," Derek said.
"The radio's broken," the girl said.
"And you couldn't use the net?"
"Our proximity to Skynet's airport facility makes Wi-Fi impossible. We sent out a runner three days ago. He hasn't come back."
Derek turned in the direction of the voice. An old man stepped into the light. He still looked strong, but judging from the lines on his face and snowy hair on his head, he must have already been a senior citizen when Judgment Day happened. He held out his hand. "Moishe Amos, I am the chief of this watch post."
They shook hands. "Lieutenant Derek Reese. Perry sent me. What's the problem?"
Moishe lead Derek to the radio area. "A high energy pulse damaged the radio three days ago. I've managed to repair most of it, but I need copper to patch the wiring. We have foraged in area nearby, but our luck has not been good."
So much for giving Cameron her first Christmas present. Derek took the bracelet from his pocket, pulled away the paper, and held it up. "This enough?"
Moishe nodded, took the bracelet, and passed it to the girl. "Deborah, I need four inches of ¾ inch wire and small conductor plate the same size as the one we made yesterday."
Deborah nodded wordless; then, went to a work bench. Children born after Judgment Day grew up afraid of making noise.
Moishe gestured for Derek and Sayles to follow him. "Come. We have no potatoes for pancakes or chicken for General Tsaos, but there are grain bars and applesauce."
He led them into another small room the size of Perry's office at Alpha. Cupboards and water tanks crowded together inside. A table had been built against the side of one wall where a concrete slab beneath it could serve as bench. Judging by the bed rolls hung on the wall, people also slept here. Some places were more crowded than Alpha.
"Is it just the three of you here?" Derek asked.
"Aside from Deborah and Barak, there are two more reconnaissance observers. They are on duty right now. We had a runner and there are two infantry soldiers. They are checking motion detectors." Moishe poured water still hot from the distiller for them. He even added tea leaves.
Sayles dug through his pack until he found rations. "We've got cranberry bars! And I've got some peppermint and a honey!"
"Then we shall have a feast when our patrollers come back," Moishe replied gallantly taking the offering.
Derek noticed the dog-eared technical manuals on the bench. Pre-war. "Were you an engineer before Judgment Day?"
"I was a pawn broker," Moishe replied joining them at the table. "What? That is so surprising. Pawn brokers fix more radios than repair men." He made a circle in the air with one hand. "I had a shop in Hollywood before this."
"Only this? You're the first person I've ever encountered who referred to Judgment Day so casually," Derek said.
Moishe shrugged. "The world has always been a dangerous place. The machines, they have more technology, but they lack the emotions to be truly evil."
"You think so?" Derek wondered if the old man was growing senile.
The humor went out of Moishe's eyes. He rolled up his right sleeve and showed Derek his tattoo, blue-grey and wrinkled, not a Skynet scantron, but a clumsy row of numbers. "I know so. Mengele studied twins, so I was let live in Auschwitz when other infants were thrown alive into the crematories. The machines can only do. Because they cannot learn to enjoy their cruelty, there is a level of evil beyond them."
He had never thought about it that way. Of couse, he didn't like to think about the machines having thought proceses at all.
Moishe began rummaging through the cabinets. "But tonight is not a night to debate the nature of evil. We must find Lieutenant Derek Reese a replacement for the lovely bracelet he sacrificed for the radio tonight or else a young woman shall be very angry."
"She wouldn't know to be angry," Derek objected. Whatever the old man was up to, it wasn't necessary.
"Sometimes that is the best type of woman to have," Moishe remarked. "But with so much lost, let us live the memory of the old world as best we can. Aha, here they are!" he announced.
His hands moved as fast as a man much younger with small tools and wire. "I regret I have no chain other than the same steel like our dog tags, but the stone is real. Other than as components in a few cutting tools diamonds have little value now, but in the world that was this would make a woman very happy and a man very exhausted." With one last flourish of his hand he offered Derek a pendant.
The stone was the size of his thumb nail and set in metal that perfectly matched the steel of the shortened tag chain. It was the kind of gift he fantasized about giving Cameron.
"Take," Moishe pressed the pendant into his hand. "There are boxes of them down here and I say again they are only good for cutting tools and wooing woman."
"From your pawn business?"
"My son, the children's uncle, he was not so interested in being an honest pawn broker. He got involved with people who trafficked in diamonds. It got him killed a few years before all this." Moishe closed Derek's fingers around the pendant. "You must take. I can tell from your eyes she deserves nothing less."
Deborah appeared in the doorway. Once again she was wordless.
"The radio is fixed," Moishe announced.
"Does she ever speak?" Derek asked as they checked over the young girl's work.
"When she prays and sometimes a few other words here and there, but nothing else, not since her mother died," Moishe replied.
"The repair work looks good. You've taught her well." Derek complimented.
"In this world, they must learn as soon as possible." The radio lights came on. Watch Post 9B was back on line.
When Derek returned to the living quarters, the patrol had returned from checking the detectors. Sayles and Barak sat at the table. They each had a pile of cranberry bar pieces, raisins, and candy chips. A spinning top was between them.
"You're gambling with a kid's toy?" Incredible, even for Sayles.
"He's winning," Sayles replied. Then he added a sliver of dried fruit to the boy's pile.
"It is the tradition," a soldier said. The soldier handed Sayles half a cranberry bar, but turned his gaze to Barak. "Try not to take all his sweets, little brother."
Derek took in the dark olive skin, short jet black beard, and the swirling script of the book the soldier was reading and realized he didn't mean brother in the way the Reese boys were related.. When Moishe returned, the soldier embraced him.
"It took the machines to remind us that we are brothers," the man explained.
"There are others," Sayles said; then looked self-conscious. "I hang out a lot with this chick in Signal Corps," he explained. "They get messages from all over the world. There's a couple of thousand people in the caves around Mismar and Jerusalem. And a few hundred in a bunker at Masada. They fight shoulder-to-shoulder. The Wall survives and part of the Dome is left."
"Is there word from India?" the other soldier asked. This one wore a turban.
"Fierce fighting. They use Nepal as a safety zone. Land machines can't handle the conditions above the snow line. General Singh is the man in charge."
The soldier smiled triumphantly. "A good Sikh name."
"Do you have people you look for, Sayles?" Derek asked. Silently he berated himself for never asking that question before.
He shook his head. "Not likely. My parents were Scientologists."
It was near the end of Christmas Day when they made it back to Alpha. Kyle was asleep on the floor of Derek's quarters. Derek noticed he was wearing a new cap; then stepped over him, pushed back the curtain and climbed into bed with Cameron. But he wasn't quiet enough not to wake her. He never had been.
"Did you see the Christmas star?" she asked wrapping her warm softness around him.
"Maybe," he replied. He took the necklace out of his pocket and fastened around her neck. "Merry Christmas."
She cocked her head to one side. On most women it would be an irritating nervous habit. On her it seemed adorable. "A diamond's not a star."
"It's the closest I'm going to get for awhile."
"I still want lots of sex."
Christmas Eve 2007
Derek snapped awake from the noise of a police siren. Luckily it raced right on by him. His head ached, but he was sober enough to drive. At least, he didn't have that disgusting cool spot in his jeans that so often happened when he dreamed about the past. He started up the truck. Back to that house reeking of tree scent and gingerbread and the Metal Bitch who looked like an extra from the Nutcracker, but would make a better Yule log. Hopefully he had enough Scotch left for Christmas Day. But damn, the sky was beautiful tonight. In the clear air the whole cosmos stretched out across above him.
He went back to the house and dragged John out of bed. They didn't have a telescope, but there were plenty of binoculars laying around.
"How old was my dad when you first started doing this?" John asked, happy as a puppy to learn the Reese boys' traditions.
"Old enough to know what a star was," Dereck admitted. He adjusted the binoculars until he got a good view. He knew it was only Sirius, only the Dog Star, but it had been the Christmas Star to his little brother. "Here, to east," he handed the binoculars to John.
"So, what do we do know?" John asked.
"Just make a wish." Then Derek considered some of the things John might wish for and added. "And keep it to yourself."
When they went back into the house, the Metal was waiting in the hall way.
"Why were you outside?" she demanded.
"None of your fucking business," Derek replied.
"It's was part of a holiday tradition. Maintaining traditions is important to the human race." John said.
At least, he didn't say anything else. Derek glared at the Metal. She didn't sleep, but she had started to wear nightgowns. This one was white with hot pink smocking. When she was his Cameron, she had something similar. It had been the most beautiful thing he ever seen on a woman. Suddenly her lips came rushing up against him and she made contact before he could push her away. Lightening impaled his spine. He couldn't breath and the universe flew through his head in a blinding flash. Luckily she stepped away. He hardened his arms to steel, so he wouldn't reach for her, but he wanted to, by all that was holy and damned he wanted to.
"You were standing under the mistletoe," she said before walking away.