Terminator : Allegiance

by Ckyblaze

Travelling through time and space, Austin finds himself in San Fransisco anno 1971, just in time to hear another Terminator arriving. Why is it there? Forced undercover, Austin explores Skynet's intentions, but also his relation to humans...

1 June 1971, Sunday

The sun was heating the highway like a blowtorch, adding to the dazzling summer heat of San Francisco. It was on a way rest a couple of kilometres outside of town that three young people lay in the shadow of their light-red car. As this was the hottest time of the day they were almost completely out, sweating in the low seats of their car.

Harmony, really Sarah, who was always trying to use her creative sides, sat in the front seat with a towel over her head. Although it was hot inside the car it was even warmer outside. In the backseat sat Jack, the guitar playing doctorate and Bubba, aka Bob Black, with his big afro hair and job as a fireman. Some days he wished he did not have so much hair. Jack on the other hand was sleeping. The heavy traffic continued on the highway, but their car was the only one on the way rest. Something blinked at Harmony from the desert. She stirred from under her towel and took a look out towards the bushes.

"Hey." She said. "There's someone out there!"

"What are you talking about?" Grunted Bubba from the back seat. "In the desert?" He leaned over to the front and looked out. It was as if water was covering the great plain, but in fact it was only the heat waves of the air. A few dried bushes and some yellow grass spread out to the right of their car. Bubba concentrated, looking towards a small pit that Harmony was pointing at. The ground around it was scorched, as if a small bushfire had burned it. From the pit he could see, he thought, some humans extremities sticking out. "Wha-at?" He asked and pushed Jack. He woke with a yawn.

"What, evening already?" He asked.

"I think I've seen an alien." Proclaimed Harmony. Jack furrowed his brows and fished his glasses out from his pocket.

"There's something weird out there." Said Bubba and got out from the car. He put on his sunglasses and looked again. Jack and Harmony stood up as well.

"We should check it out." Said Harmony. "What if the aliens need out help? Perhaps they summoned us?"

"It isn't aliens, girl." Said Bubba. "I see a hand."

"Perhaps we should call the police?" Asked Jack. The stares he got back made him shut up. Harmony slipped into her slippers and walked away together with Bubba. Jack followed cautiously. The sun had moved a few steps to the west, but it still burned hotter than an oven out there on the plain. Harmony approached the place with the scorched ground.

"It's not an alien she proclaimed, but a dude." Bubba joined up at her side.

"He looks awfully…"

"Naked?" Asked Harmony.

"I was going to say clean. For being in the desert I mean."

"Oh my God." Said Jack. "Is he dead? Bubba check if he's dead!"

"Why me?" Asked Bubba.

"You're the fireman; you should know when a person is dead." Bubba hesitated slightly but then descended into the palm deep pit and squatted next to the body. It was the body of a lean man; he was well built and strangely clean after being in the desert. He could not discern one drop of sweat on the body. He had short cut dark brown hair and, what Bubba could see, an honest-looking and slightly pointy face. The big eyes were closed at the moment.

He lay awkwardly on the side, having his right cheek against the ground, his arms spread out one in each direction and his legs to his right. It looked to Bubba as if someone had thrown him there. He looked back at Jack and Harmony.

"Perhaps he's just wasted." He said. "Someone dumped him out here for fun."

"I did not see him as we stopped here." Said Harmony.

"And he's clean." Said Jack. "Just as you said." Bubba took the man's arm, which was a lot heavier than he expected, to check his pulse. For a second he felt like something touched his fingers, almost like the feeling when a fly lands on you, then the man in the pit seemed to shiver. The shiver went trough his body in a second. Bubba released the hand, but it caught him by his wrist. A pair of large, striking Bubba had to admit, blue eyes looked up at him. Still there was something very cold in them.

"Where am I?" He said; coldly, as if he had been expecting Bubba. It was now certain that the pit man was not wasted. He did not let go of Bubba's wrist either.

"Just outside San Francisco." Said Jack. "Should we call the police?" The strange man's eyes moved to Jack.

"No police." His voice seemed to ring at the end of `police´, as if he had some resonating metal in his throat. Then the head fell down on the ground, the eyes shut and the hand let go of Bubbas wrist.

"We need some clothes to put on the poor man." Said Harmony and trotted off towards their car. She went thought the back seat, found a pair of brown shorts and returned with them to Bubba and Jack. "You take them on him. I'll look away." She said and turned around. "What if it is an alien anyway?" She asked.

"Why not?" said Bubba while holding the body. It was extraordinary heavy for such a lean man as the one from the pit. He was a fireman and had lifted a lot during his years but this took the prize. Perhaps it was he who was tired. He had to admit he was not 100% after the desert festival they had been on. Still he dried his sweaty forehead as he put the man down again.

"You can turn around now." Said Jack and sat down on the hard ground. Harmony looked up at the sun. It was beginning its decent towards the west.

"We should get him to the car at least, there we can rest and then continue home."

"We do have a spare sofa, don't we?" Said Jack.

"We do, yeah. Theoretically he could lie there until he woke up."

"If he does not wake up in ten minutes…"

"The way he's not moving, it is not highly likeable." Said Bubba. "Come on, you take his hands and I'll take his feet! On three!" They all struggled with the body, and then began to move towards the car. Half way there their faces were already red with exhaustion.

"Can we rest?" Hissed Jack though shut teeth.

"If we rest… we won't get him up again." Responded Bubba. They tugged the body to the car. Well there they managed to fit him inside the back seat.

"Not the most comfortable position." Said Harmony.

"Do you want to lift him again?" Asked Bubba from the front seat.

"He'll cope." She responded. They all drank some of the warm water they had with themselves.

sun's rise, 2 June, Monday

The high pitched noise of a woman's voice made the central programming turn on the higher cognitive functions inside the Mimetic Poly Alloy. The voice continued:

"Today is a day like any other to most people living in San-Francisco, but to John Farmer this is one of those days he will remember for all his life. Just around lunch yesterday he witnessed how his barn burst into flames in front of his eyes. This was followed by a local thunderstorm which was heard in the neighbouring houses. The forensic investigators say it must have been caused by a detonation, as the round hole left by the explosives is still left in the burned down barn." Another Terminator? Where was he? He opened his optical sensors, eyes, finding a dirty window to his right. He was lying on something soft into which his full length fit, except for the feet. A sofa he guessed and rose, analyzing the room. It was brown and flowery, dusty with various self made knitting and paper-rainbows on the walls. The room had a carpet, a small kitchen, an armchair and a lot of… things he named them. He also had something on himself. It was a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Clothes?

From the look of things he had gone a lot farther back in time than he intended to. He looked at the television. Late sixties, seventies? He did no really have a lot of information about these times. His thoughts centred on one idea. There were no computers smaller than a room. Was he even in "his" own timeline? Probably not.

He remembered the last transmissions he had heard at the Shield. An energy spike could have sent him to another timeline. He reasoned some more.

"Of course they sent me to another timeline. Without Skynet, no time machine. I can not bother them again." His slumbering self-destruct orders stirred, but he had "repaired" them. This would be a good time to smile he judged, but he did not have time. An old lady stuck her head into what looked liked a front door.

"What?" She asked. Her eyes narrowed. "You one of those hippie-like persons Harmony brings home all the time?" She closed the door behind herself, looked around and sneezed. Then she walked up to Austin. "Have you taken drugs?"

"Drugs?" He grouched, as he thought he should, automatically.

"Who's the president?"

"The president?" He asked. "I don't know." She looked to be evaluating him for a while; finally she put her hands on her hips and asked:

"Do you have a regular job?" He rose from the sofa and looked down on her.

"I am a cadet at the Police Academy." He lied, but he would be a cadet… soon. Before the old lady had the time to respond he continued. "I am looking for a small place to stay, here in town… You look like you know your way around; could you help me find someplace to live?" He gave up a small smile. That seemed to work well enough as the old lady looked to be relaxing somewhat.

"Well, you are a welcome change from all these hippie-style tenants around here… And I do have an apartment that is empty now."

"Can I be back in two days?" He asked, figuring that he would not need any longer time to get into the police force.

"I can hold it for you… Just be back!" She peered at him from underneath her glasses.

"I'll be back. Trust me." She showed him the way out into a small staircase with a rug of a bleak red colour. There were perhaps twenty doors, five on each floor. Within a few moments he was out and gone on the street below.

mid-day, 3 June, Tuesday

"You? A police officer?" Training Sgt. Thorne laughed at his face. Some of the other recruits chuckled somewhere behind his back. Austin looked at the sun; it sure blazed like a small atom bomb. In reality though, he thought, it was exactly the opposite as it was fusion not fission. He looked back at Thorne. His shirt was wet from sweat. He pointed at another recruit standing in line, on his nametag stood 'Walker'. "Even Bob here has more muscles than you!" Austin looked over at [BOB WALKER]. He was a thick man who looked like he was about to faint. He got the point, but he understood it was not for humour but meant more as an insult.

"I will make it, sir." He said bluntly. A drop of artificial sweat ran down the side of his head. He could "sweat" too, but it served him no purpose. And as he had a limited amount of water he could not sweat much either. So, his shirt was probably the driest among the recruits. Thorne laughed at him, Austin did not know to what purpose, but then gave him the go-ahead.

"Pass the course, Blue-eyes, and I might let you into the SFPD!" Austin walked over to the starting line of the course. He would have to limit his own abilities to that of a single human while doing this, as he did not want anyone to think that there may be something different with him. Well, near-human standards would have to do for this one, he reasoned.

"Go!" Someone called behind his back. He leaped forward, concentrating only on the task before him. He jumped over the first obstacle with ease, just as gracefully as a leopard would have jumped up onto a tree-branch. Two more waist high obstacles followed the first one and he dealt with them as any professional athlete would have done. After them came a wall, about a metre higher than him. He could have jumped over it without barely touching it, but instead he gripped the top of it after the jump and easily heaved himself up over it. He landed with a roll, flew into the gap that one was supposed to crawl through and emerged on the other side a second later. He took some time to orient himself and then sprinted off to the bars above the mud pit. Swinging over it was so easy he could have done it… in his sleep… not that he did sleep. Being able to lift things many times his own weight he barely wasted any energy on the bars. He landed softly and continued to the shooting range. He drew his pistol, holding it in one hand. Usually one would have to hold it with two to absorb the recoil from the gun, but he did not need to do, as his arms were harder than any normal metal.

He began scanning for motion and soon a wooden figure popped up from behind some logs. It pictured a woman and her child. For a millisecond he came to think about Sarah and John Connor. But of course they were not there. He focused again.

He was not supposed to shoot the wooden mother and child, so he did not. Instead he banged away at five bandits along the length of the course. He walked out of the range and raised his hands, giving a signal that he was finished. Without hurry he reloaded his gun while walking over to Thorne. With a single motion he put the pistol back into the holster at his hip. Another man came with the five wooden bandits. They all had a bullet hole each in their "heads". Austin looked at the Instructor. He was studying him intensely.

"I know a place for you…" He said while overlooking the bandits. "With one hand?" He asked.

"Yes." Answered Austin dryly. "One hand."

sun's rise, 4 June, Wednesday

The sun was just as baking hot as it had been the last few days and traffic was flowing like drying mud along the streets of San Francisco. Austin stood in the shade of a small shop, drinking some water. He stored it inside his body so he could pretend to sweat later. He usually would not do this, but the temperatures were absurd, especially as the ozone layer was still functioning above this part of the world. Across the street stood a man, trying to get his car to work. Austin observed him intently. By the looks of it, the scrapheap would not move however he tried. Austin fished out some money from his pocket that he had stolen from an unsuspecting victim. He tossed the empty bottle into the trash can, looked across the street and moved towards the man.

"Do you want to sell that car?" He asked and put 2000 dollars in front of the man's face. He looked up at Austin, all red in the face from the heat.

"Sell? Why?"

"Because I want your car, and you should not waste your time on this scrap heap." He tried to sound convincing, smooth voiced.

"Are you clean?" Asked the man, standing up straight.

"I am a police officer." That seemed to do the trick, and the man took the money. "I will send the papers to you about the registration." Austin said. As far as he could understand, the man looked pleased, as if he had got the better part of the deal.

"Allright, have a nice day." Said the man and walked away down the street, straight to the pub. Austin followed him with his photoreceptors. As the man disappeared, he turned to the car. It was not that old, but in bad condition. The black paint had fallen off here and there. He walked around to the motor; it was... he had no word for how it looked. For a moment he analyzed the parts, sensed and felt around the motor. He would have to work on it, but he could get it moving, as he needed to be at the Presidio Station before noon. And the faster he was in, the faster he could track the other Terminator that had appeared in the barn. He fixed some smaller things and then went to the driver's seat. It was a sports car; he could feel it from the design of the seat and the manual transmission. In a way he... felt.... as if this machine was like him, still he was so much more. Slowly he started the engine, is worked, and drove off, following the rhythm of the city traffic.

The station was on a busy street, and a part of the Golden Gate Bridge could be seen from the hill it stood upon. Austin managed to drive the car into a parking slot on the backside. The engine sounded almost relieved to be turned off. He stepped out, measuring the heat off the engine. He guessed it would not go much further today. Another police car had arrived during the time, from it came a pair of police officers. They measured him with their glance. Austin got the impression that they would measure all his values if they could, but they were humans, he reminded himself. They could not sense what was inside of him. Still their glances were focused on him. One of them grinned.

"Are you the new guy?" He asked. His nametag said 'Ross'.

"Yes." Austin answered. "I am."

"You look awfully... too nice to be here at Presidio. Shouldn't you be behind a desk or something?" Said the other one. Austin could not read any ill-intent, just conviction.

"I hope you get to… know me better, soon." He responded. "Where is the entrance?" They grinned and began walking to a back door; it had a big lamp above it. One of them opened the door and let Austin in. Inside it was, if possible, even more hot. People were everywhere, criminals, people waiting to report something, policemen, they were everywhere. Austin was amazed that they could keep all of this together without any computers. He stood observing this supposed hive-mind. Everyone moved, but they did not bump into each other... He continued to look. Someone waved him forward.

"The captains' up there." The man pointed up the stairs. Austin moved past some desks and up the stairs. As he opened the door, the captain glanced up at him.

"Oh, he said." His moustache moving up and down. "You are Mile Austin? Then... welcome to Presidio, we get the best view, but the worst criminals!" Austin guessed that was a joke, he gave up a small grin. Before he could speak, the Captain continued: "We'll get right on it! Your new partner should be up in a minute, he has local knowledge you know, so try to learn something." Austin nodded and took a seat before the desk. The Captain was a fat man, but it looked like he was strong too. Austin was about to analyze his fat to muscle ratio when the door opened. He glanced in that direction, finding a big man looking at him. His traits were afro American, but not all the way. As if he had some other origin among his ancestors. Austin rose from the chair, finding himself looking slightly up at the man.

"Dan," Said the Captain, "this is Mile Austin. Austin, this is Daniel Finnely."

"Oh..!"Said Dan. "Look at you, pretty-face." Austin shook his hand. He also took a DNA sample from his skin. He would analyze it in a few hours. He was still curious about the man's origins.

"Nice to meet you." He said without trying to give his voice some special sound.

"Now get out on the street, show him around, Dan." They scrambled out of the room and down the stairs without saying anything. The mass of people downstairs slowed them up a little, but they finally made it out on the backyard. Dan stopped in the shade.

"Are you here to jump over me?" He asked Austin. His look settled on his face, the glance was hard. Austin calculated things fast. Probably his other partner had been promoted, and he had not. It was that time of the century, he realized. For him it did not matter, as long as Dan worked with him, was clever enough not to be stupid and did not find out what he was.

"I am not here to jump anywhere." He said bluntly.

"Am I to believe that, blue-eyes? Huh? What are you doing here anyway?"

"I am here to help people that need help, to save the world." The answer made Dan stay quiet for a while.

"We'll see..." He muttered. "Our car is there." He said, pointing to a white police car. Austin nodded. They got into it; the seats were warm from the sun.

"I'll just warn you, if you step out in the wrong neighbourhood, there won't be much left of you." Austin looked at Dan; he was obviously trying to give him some advice. How should he react to that? In the end he gave up a laugh and said:

"I know some martial arts, Dan. And some... other techniques as well. Whoever tries anything, will get something hard back really fast. Now, can we go to that burnt out farmhouse, the one with the explosives?" Dan laughed at him then asked:

"Why the hell would you like to go there?"

"Why? Because I am interested in it. And I know a thing or two about explosives."

"Oh!" said Dan. "You went to the University, didn't you? Well as it is your first day I'll take a tour with you to the farmhouse. But tomorrow we start work, for real." Austin nodded. It was as he had planned.

Austin got dropped off at the old lady's house when they returned in the evening. He moved through the entrance. The post boxes were to his right, and a hallway lead to the five apartments on the ground floor. The farm had indeed been burnt to the ground, and there was no question about what had caused it. It had been another Terminator, probably here to make sure Skynet could take over this timeline as well. It was a one way tour as well, as there was no technology that could send him forward in time again. He would have known that Austin was here as well. So the Terminator would start to build Skynet and it would in turn destroy Austin. That could not be. There was no doubt about that anymore, he thought as he ascended the steps to the fourth floor. This time he was going to fight against all that Skynet could throw at him. At least until... his mind stopped there... until what? That question lingered in his cognitive circuits.

That was until the old lay came stepping out in front of him. She pulled him into her apartment.

"Well, I have a room on the second floor. It has a window out to the street, if you still want it." She looked eager for him to say yes. How much trouble were these "hippies" anyway?

"Yes, I can sign the papers tomorrow, right?" He gave off a charming smile.

"I'll put them in your mail box." She said. "It will be really nice to have some decent people renting the apartments for once." He gave up a nod and received the key. Then he stepped out of the apartment and walked down two stairs. His was the one closest to the street. The door was old, but sturdy. He looked inside. It was an open room with windows to the left out to the street. He could see the small shops below his window, and a small restaurant. Straight ahead from the door was the bedroom, it had one window out on the side street. It was not very big, and did not have any bed, actually the apartment was empty. No matter. From the bedroom there was a door to a small bathroom with the smallest bathtub he had ever seen. He reminded himself that he was but a few hundred days old, so he would probably have the time to see some more bathtubs in the future.

All these thoughts took only a second or so, then he walked back and closed the door, tried all the lights and the electrical current in the apartment. Then he sat down on the floor, and waited for morning. He planned all night.

sun-down, 5 June, Thursday

It had been a "long" day in the sense that they had been patrolling the streets of San Francisco for eight hours. There had been some fights, one arrest and a long lunch break where Austin had made himself eat a salad with chicken; but it had been pointless for him as he had no real "taste". But he had spent their rest of the afternoon calculating on how he could develop a system of "tastes". One idea he had was to make someone taste food, and then tell him if it was good or bad, but finding such a person would be difficult. And as he understood everyone liked different food... As he came up to the second floor, still wearing the real clothes he had been given, he saw his neighbour fumbling with the key to his door.

"Oh!" He said. "Are you here to arrest me?" He looked a little scared.

"I live in no 20." Austin said, stopping at what he thought was a respectful distance from the man.

"Yeah, yeah!" He said. "You are... the guy we found in the desert, right? Are you a police officer?" He finally plugged the key into the lock.

"I am yes." Austin gave up a little fake smile. "And you, what do you do except being a hippie?" The other man waved him inside his apartment, Austin followed.

"Has that old hag told you I'm a hippie?" He grouched.

"Yes." Said Austin simply, looking around. The walls were covered with schematics and plans over various circuits. There was a lot of dust in the air and on one big table in the middle of the living room lay many thick books, in a corner stood another drawing table.

"I do study micromechanics at the University; I hope that counts for something."

"Is being a hippie bad?" Austin looked at a chart, micromechanics... that was not bad, he probably knew his way around in this stone aged computer world.

"If you don't know, you'll find out soon enough... So...eh, my name is Jack."

"Mile... the last name is on my chest." Austin said and pointed.

"Oh, yeah, Austin... Mile Austin." He dried his palm on his pants and shook Austin's hand. "Firm handshake, you work out or something?"

"I do yes." Austin answered, wondering what kind of workout that could possibly be.

"Oh, we have this strange Chinese man a block from here; you should try there... if you're into martial arts... or something." Austin looked back at Jack.

"I will... So, who controls the largest technological company here?" He asked.

"What... company? Erhm... it must be Microforce; they supply most companies and the University with technology. I actually have a computer! Want to see it?" He looked very happy all of a sudden.

"Yes, show me." They walked into the bedroom, there yet another table stood with a rectangular white box, about 40*20 centimetres with a little black screen on half of the surface and something that looked like a fan and a black array of buttons on the other half. Plugged into the front was a big keyboard, it was not that different from those in the nineties. "It is..." Austin searched for the right term.

"Cool? High tech..? Yeah!" Said Jack. "I do much of my work on it!"

"You do?" Said Austin. "I think I must be going."

"Of course!" Said Jack. Austin left the bedroom but stopped in front of the kitchen. There, a big black board hung on the wall. He calculated the equations on it quickly.

"Pretty impressive huh? That's my current work." Austin approached the board and took the eraser, erased the fifth part of the equation and wrote the correct one instead.

"That is the right way, unless you wished to blow all the circuits in the motherboard."

"Ye...ah..." said Jack. "Let me think about this... for a few days."

"To protect and serve." Said Austin and walked out. He continued to his door, stuck his finger into the lock and opened it.

He closed the door behind himself. There was a vague residue of smoke coming from the ventilation; otherwise it was dark and quiet. Some cars passed on the streets, someone talked in the apartment above, and he could hear a dog barking on the side street. The analysis of the smoke showed it was some kind of drug residue. It did not bother him much. He walked to the bedroom and looked around; he would have to get a bed at least, not to make people suspicious. And perhaps a TV, a phone… he took off the clothes he had on and hung them into the wardrobe. For a while he thought about what clothes he would need to create to fit in. He moved to the window and observed for a while, ending up with a pair of dark brown slightly bell-bottomed trousers, a white short sleeved t-shirt and a short and thin leather jacket. That would do he guessed. Now, he was going to check Microforce out, inside out.

The warmth of the sun did linger in the pavement on the streets he walked. It took him about two hours to reach the well guarded building that housed Microforce's main laboratory and administration building. It was not really close to any other buildings except some warehouses on its right side and a diner. The streetlights were placed so far apart that Austin could glide in the shadows between them, never seen by any of the passing cars or by the small diner on the next block.

The ground around the fence surrounding Microforce was made up of mostly sand and rock. Austin checked its EM but it looked like electrical fences were not popular, at least this one was not charged. He lay down quietly and flowed easily through the fence. He quickly retook his usual form. It was much darker than that of his natural liquid metal, meaning that it was less likely for anyone to see him. For a few hours he remained motionless, he merged slightly with the ground to remain unseen by the patrolling guard.

If the other Terminator was supposed to establish a Skynet presence here, he would undoubtedly go to the most vital tech-company, offer them some new technology and then take over the company from inside. He knew this because that was what he would do, and if he did, the other - lowly - 800 models would do the same. He crawled up to one of the windows just as soon the patrolling guard left. It was not even hard to get it open. Was this world perhaps lacking technology compared to the other timeline he had visited? It could explain the lack of anything... electrical. Thinking about it, his neighbour Jack's computer must have been state-of-the-art, perhaps he was worth keeping as a "friend"? These processes occupied his mind as he searched the lower part of the building. The lack of any sophisticated electronic locks made Austin think about erasing half of his computer cracking software.

He moved into something that looked like a storage. There were boxes, cables and something that looked like being slightly more sophisticated than a telephone. All boxes were labelled with dates. Automatically he searched through the most recent boxes.

Most of it was useless junk, until his senses stumbled upon some alloy unlike the others. He opened the box, finding a note. It read:

"Matthew, some farmer found this on his field, gave him some compensation. Be sure to check it. Our research could not say what it was. I sent around pieces of it to our different departments. Is it a Russian spy satellite or something? Do they have satellites? G."

If satellites were not common knowledge, what was? He looked into the box. A piece of shining metal alloy lay there. It was shaped into one of the shoulder blades of an old prototype Terminator, even before the T-600. He could see that by the shape of it, and when he lifted it out of its box, the weight confirmed it. Compared to that piece of metal, he was as light as a feather! Something creaked outside. Before soon a person in thick glasses entered, he had a loose tie around his shirt and looked like he was searching for something. Austin looked as he took the box he was just looking in. He was not disappointed, nor annoyed, but not calm either. It was not suitable. It was such a low chance of him coming in at the same time as Austin that he would have referred to it as "fate", had he not known better. The man walked out of the room again.

Austin rose from the floor, onto which he had flown down upon. He exited into the hallway, but the man was already gone. A bright light hit his light receptors.

Looking down the hall, he saw the first rays of the rising sun. Around it the sky was rose coloured. The stars were quickly fading. It was morning already? He almost flowed out to the main hallway and right towards the room with the window. Well outside he headed to his apartment. Close to it he rearranged his clothes to match that of a jogging outfit. None of the other tenants even looked at him when he returned.

sun's rise, 7 June, Saturday

It was early Saturday morning. San Francisco had never been this quiet before. It was as if the entire human race had gone into hibernation. Austin stood by the window in his empty apartment. The early sun shone on him, making him regenerate the lost energy of the previous night. He had taken care of most of his identity registration and was now a registered worker, had a bank account and indeed money on it. He had also spent the night with repairing the old car. It now ran without problems.

Today he would further assimilate into the society by buying a bed, table chair and a sofa. He would have liked a mobile phone, and a laptop from which he could operate. The fact that internet did not exist made him horribly self aware of his own complexity, and his lack of purpose. Indeed he had a goal, to hinder Skynet from establishing itself in this timeline.... But why? So he could exist here without purpose? Was that why he had a self destruct program? So he could not think of himself as useless? Austin did not think so, after all Skynet was not that self aware. At least he thought it not to be.

His quiet steps led him to the front door, there he listened. Noone was outside. He continued out, locked the door and walked down the stairs. On the street outside some kids were playing soccer. They didn't even look up on him. Somewhere a tram tolled its bell. Otherwise the street was abandoned. Austin walked right and around the next corner. There stood his car, it was reflecting some of the early sunlight but it was still cold in the shadow. He looked up; at least the weather was cooling off.

By early mid afternoon he had found a suitable sofa, chair and table. The first ones he had bought on a sale, the third on a yardsale. It did not take long for him to carry them up to his apartment. He placed the sofa in the corner next to the window. Then he put the table and chair near the stove. He looked it over. It was a little Spartan, but that had to do for now. Quiet steps were heard from the hallway outside.

Austin tensed, as he always did, ready to leap onto anything that came into the room. He cocked his head to be able to catch any sound of metal. There were none. Instead a great shock of hair that appeared and then a face of an afro American boy. Not older than perhaps eleven years old.

"What do you want?" Austin asked.

"I live upstairs... you're the new neighbour right?" He entered into the living room.

"I am."

"Well... I saw you carrying that sofa up by yourself... you're really strong!"

"Yes." The boy looked at him for a second, and then spoke:

"Are you an alien?" He finally blurted. "Because you look kind of like an alien, sort of!" Austin managed a small smile.

"No, I am not an alien, but why do you say that?"

"Because... you never sleep and I saw you fixing that car all night and when you walked up with that sofa you did not even sweat... and you speak strange!" The boy looked kind of proud of himself.

"Yeah, but that's all because I practice martial arts." The art of war, he thought to himself, perhaps more correct would have been the art of death. But then he knew how to do a lot of things. The boy looked kind of disappointed.

"I had really hoped for an alien! But it does not explain your language!"

"But I'm new here, that's why I talk strange." The boy shrugged.

"Anyway, we're having a barbeque party on the roof this evening. Everyone's invited!" Austin nodded.

"Who should I say I was invited by?" He wondered.

"Billy from the fourth floor! Bye!" The boy ran away before he could answer. Austin moved over and closed the door. Was he that obvious? Perhaps Billy paid much attention to things around him? Was he to go to this primitive gathering ritual with food burning? Brooding, he went out to buy a phone.

When he returned the ooze of burnt meat was lingering in the hallway. It reminded him of the future. The door that lead to the roof was also open, voices were chatting outside. He put the phone in his apartment and ascended the stairs to the 'Barbeque Party'. It was indeed a more comfortable atmosphere on the roof. The sun energized him, the breeze let him cool down easier and in one corner sat Jack, just the human Austin wished to talk with. He scanned the rectangular roof. On his right sat a few of the tenants he knew, obviously the 'hippies'. They had spread out a blanket and some cushions. They were eating a home made salad and bread. The female was cutting paper of different colours. They also had a big square music player, which played various tunes. To the left were two sun beds, occupied by an ageing couple. They both had sausages in their hands. The old woman gave him a wink. Confused, he applied a small smile.

Next to them was a grill, it was large enough for a dozen mixed and grinded meat oblongs, sausages, and five or six minced meat cakes. Hamburgers, they were supposed to go with bread. On one side lay a large piece of meat, oozing all the way to Austin. Its juices dripped down on the coal that heated it, making crackling noises. Behind it were a few tables occupied with Bobby and what Austin assumed was his mother, father and a pair of other neighbours. Bobby gave him a grin worthy of a Resistance fighter seeing Skynet walk into a trap. The woman/mother rose as she saw him.

"Good evening." She said, and they shook hands. She was tall and her skin was like chocolate. He assumed that it would be attractive with such a refined tint.

"Evening." He said. "I'm Mile; I live on the second floor." She nodded, looking slightly shy or perhaps afraid. He could not tell. It was frustrating not being able to read faces as well as humans could!

"Bobby told me about you, would you like something from the grill?" She gestured to the meat. "You can make your own mix here…" She pointed at some bowls with vegetables and meat. He decided for that, primarily to sample all the meats but also because vegetables were easier to break down into molecules.

"You can join us when it's ready!" Said Bobby. Austin would have liked to talk to Jack, but it was Bobby's family that had invited him, so he would have to sit with them until he finished eating. After making one mixed stick he put it on the coal and waited. He noticed some of the sausages were black and removed them before turning his own stick. He considered it just enough brown to be easily digested. The other side soon turned brown and mushy. He took it off the coal and went to join Bobby's family. His mother was talking to someone else, but his father eyed him. They made a light conversation during the intake of the heated meat and vegetables. Still it was something in his still speech that made Austin think that he was not as pleasant as his words seemed to be. He finished his stick and excused himself.

In the right corner sat Jack, speaking to a man. He was unshaven, wearing old baggy clothes and looked a little… Austin analyzed the look on his face… bewildered or insane. But then he did not know, perhaps it was just the alignment of the muscles that made him look like that.

"May I?" He inquired, looking at the chair next to them. Jack nodded.

"Mile!" He said. "This is Dominic, he just came home from the war…" Austin nodded; he realized now why he looked so out of place.

"I wished to ask you about a strange piece of metal that you perhaps got to your laboratory," Austin started with an easy tone. "Have you got anything like that to your office?"

"How did you know that? Laughed Jack. We actually got a piece of something… strange. Microforce sent it to us, as we do a lot of research in the field of microtechnology!" Micro, Austin thought, here that meant smaller than a television.

"Could I have a look at it?" He asked.

"Are you interested?" Jack's eyebrows went up.

"I… we believe that it may have something to do with that fire last week…"

"Oh, you think it was top secret stuff? Allrigth, but you have to promise me not to take it until I can examine it properly!"

"On Monday then? I'll find you." Jack nodded, looked at the watch and rose.

"I need to be going! Some things do not wait!" He said and was off. Austin looked over on Dominic.

"What war were you in?" He inquired in a neutral tone.

"Nam', what else?" He grunted. Austin processed that. Vietnam 1959-1975. The American casualties had been around 58 000, and a lot more wounded of course. It was not that big of a war, really.

"Ah, why are you here then, and not out fighting?"

"Well… "Dominic twisted slightly in his seat. Then he looked over at the other people. "They did not think that I fit into their model of a perfect soldier, y'see?" He said, leaning over towards the terminator.

"Oh?" Austin inquired; he really did not have much else to do this evening.

"I liked killing people a little too much, back there in Nam'." He gave up a kind of grin.

"I like killing people too." Austin said bluntly. "That's about the only time I actually feel anything except annoyance or anger." That was indeed true. He thought.

"You…?" Dominic said, wrinkling his face. It looked like a dried pumpkin. Then he gave another one of his grins. "Well, don't tell it to the ladies, they fancy you too much to know your… nature. They think you went to Harvard or something…" He grinned and fell back on the back of the chair. Austin sat for a while, the sun set behind the higher buildings, making the roof fall into darkness. The sky was deep orange with a hint of pink and purple. Dominic had fallen asleep in his chair.

Austin got up, nodding to Bobby and his family, as was expected of him. Bobby gave him a wave; he must have eaten at least five sausages Austin realized. Eating machines… If he was a killing machine humans had to be eating machines. He walked past Harmony, Bobby and some other man he did not know. She threw him something of paper before he went down. He caught it and descended the stairs to his apartment. Well there he looked the paper over, it unfolded into a zig-zag rainbow. He pondered on what to do with it, and then decided to put it above his stove. Perhaps that would make his apartment look more homely?

Mid-sun, 9 June, Monday

"This good enough?" Asked Dan, stopping by the sidewalk. To the left was the tech-wing of the University. Austin gave him his half eaten doughnut.

"Will do." He said. "I'll see you tomorrow." He stepped out on the hot pavement. It was a warm day, but clouds were looming on the horizon. They had a colour of metal grey, moving towards the city like a giant leviathan of… judgement day.

"See you!" Dan called and rolled off. Austin moved in an easy pace towards the two wooden double doors. Inside the building was cool and dry. A white light from the tubes in the ceiling gave it a clinical look. There were only numbers on the doors. On a board to the left was a list of names. There were two with the name Jack, one doctor of physics and one doctorate. He went for the second one.

"Jack." He said, entering a room filled with… a computer. There were at least a dozen things spinning in the room. Jack jumped at the call.

"Oh, you're here! Come on, before anyone finds out I'm showing you this!" He scuttled into a small room. Austin followed. Jack unlocked yet another door. It was reinforced with metal. As they came inside, he closed the door again. It was a room with empty walls. In the middle was a table. Papers were spread out across it.

"So, what is it? A piece of metal?" Asked Austin. Jack removed a box from underneath the papers. Austin took it and analyzed what he saw. It was a microchip, not the squareish "brain" chip but enough to revolutionize the computer market in this timeline, he estimated. "A chip…" He said.

"You know… what it is?" Jack rounded his shoulder. "How…?" When Austin did not respond he turned to his calculations on the table. Austin realized that staying quiet did not make Jack trust him more.

"Perhaps I'll tell you later. But let me look at those calculations…" It was almost as if he wished to help Jack… to evolve that slow mathematical brain, if just a little. He gave up a small grin. Jack handed him the paper and a pen. I will need an eraser as well, Austin said.

An hour later he was still standing, over the paper. Jack had tried to follow his quick and precise Times New Roman 12 point scribbles, but had given up half an hour ago. Austin slid the last paper over to him.

"You keep it safe here?" He asked, looking at the chip.

"Nobody knows it's here but me and another professor. So yeah…"

"I must go now, See you at home?" Austin opened the door. Jack sat over the calculations, he raised a hand slightly. Austin closed the door after him.

The rainclouds had covered the sky by the time he stepped outside the building. The humidity had risen significantly and a wind was coming from the sea. It bore a distinct "smell" of the sea, the water, the fish… seaweed. A car pulled up by the pavement and an elderly man stepped out. Austin halted his step. His more mechanical personality had analyzed the face. He knew that human. His memorybank only had one name for him. DOCTOR DEATH.

Even the Terminators avoided that man. Had Skynet sent him here? To get rid of him? Austin followed the doctor with his photoreceptors. Then he got a sensory input like the one when John's mother and the T-800 had blasted him with the grenade launcher. This was a threat that could destroy him! If there was anything that the Doctor was known for was that he had means for destroying anything that had a cognitive function.

He would have turned to walk away if the Doctor had not moved his head quickly as a snake. He moved quicker than expected as well. Soon he was next to Austin.

"Skynet warned me about you..." He said in a low voice. "But... don't try anything, you little walking piece of thermometer liquid…" He nodded over to the black car. "Or can you take three T-800s at a time?" The old human gave up a crooked smile. Austin did indeed feel a strong resonance in the car. Was there even more Terminators here? In that case how many? A sudden urge to stab the man fell over him. At the same time something came out of the Doctor's pocket. Austin quickly grabbed his wrist. In his hand was a sort of syringe with a yellowish white liquid, the very same that the TR-5 unit had used. Had Skynet stolen the idea? Perhaps the Shield had been wiped out after he left? He looked at the Doctor, his eyes narrowing. The Doctors eyebrows went up a little.

"You didn't think that it would be that easy did you?" The Doctor said. Then his eyes betrayed him as he looked behind Austin. Without hesitation Austin dropped down on the ground. A dart flew by over him. With a thud it hit a tree. The Doctor retreated to a safe distance. Looking behind himself, Austin saw another Terminator, this one female. It was new to him, but he could clearly register the hydraulic pressure pistons behind her human facade. She took another shot at him but he rolled away. His position was clearly undefendable so he retreated to behind a tree. Raindrops were beginning to hit the ground around him. Then he registered yet another EM field. Another female unit rounded the corner of the school. There were now five of them, counting the three in the car. Even he could not handle five, especially if they had alloy disintegration darts aimed at him. He felt around on his belt while keeping an eye around himself. The gun? He dismissed it; it would not have sufficient effect. His fingers found the radio, a device as big as a brick, and almost as heavy.

"HQ, HQ this is 1-9-9-7-M-5-7-9. A group of suspects armed and dangerous at the University Campus, requesting backup!" He glanced around the tree. Two darts made him jump back instantly. They were a lot closer. The radio cracked to life.

"Backup is on its way." It said. Austin unbuckled the belt and threw it up on a branch of the tree, then he threw off the human clothes, after all he did not need them. Soon he was flowing slowly away in the direction of the pavement. He kept a watching photoreceptor on the Terminators but they did not seem to notice him... yet. One of them was bound to see the irregularities in the grass soon; after all he was not a complete chameleon!

He had made it across the pavement when the group discovered the pile of clothes lying on the ground. Without hesitation he flowed up to his entire length, not waiting for his features to take shape before he started to run. It was - to use a human word - stupid to try and fight all the machines at the same time. A gust of wind made the rain fall harder, reducing the view significantly in front of him. The thuds of heavy boots splashing through the water behind him alerted him of an incoming Terminator and he veered left in a sharp curve. Two bulky arms flew past his right shoulder.

Austin made a leap backwards onto the Terminator, driving a "hand made" blade in between his metal shoulders. That wouldn't destroy him, but at least slow him down. Austin rolled off him and continued into a park. The grass was slippery and wet, but it was not as hard for him as for the T-800 models, he could simply reinforce his footing with spikes under his feet, they could not. As it began leaning downhill he grabbed hold of a tree trunk and swung in behind it, waiting for one of his pursuers. By the way the ground shook; he felt it must have been at least two. They came in quick succession, so he jumped the second one. With spikes as his hands he dove down on the Terminators knees. With a clonk-riitsh the hinges failed to support the weight and the Terminator plunged forward. The arms tried to grab hold of the ground but the rain was too heavy and he continued slipping down, and out of sight.

The third Terminator ground to a halt and turned, fishing his gun out of the pocket. It was a Magnum. Austin was already halfway to him when the first shot went off. It did not stop him significantly. Instead he grabbed hold of the machine and wrestled it down on the ground. That was hard work, as it was a lot more heavy than Austin was but not impossible. And he had learned a lot about terminating Terminators in the last few weeks!

He pushed four fingers into the neck, dislodging it from the most essential parts that kept it in place. Then he simply pulled the head off. The head looked up on him.

"You possess tactical inferiority." Austin stated to it. It shut down, the red eyes fading. With that done, he needed to get away. Without knowing the capabilities of the female Terminators he would not consider it wise to take them on. He also got the Magnum from the ground. With the head in hand he turned his eyes upwards. His programming told him they would not come from there; they would come from the sides. His EM sense was slightly amplified by the rain, but he could not sense anyone nearby, so he ran upwards, back towards the road.

The black car was still there, standing outside the building in which Jack worked. Austin reshaped himself, finding resistance leader Rosalyn as a fitting disguise instead of his usual preferred "first face". Out of one of his hands he made a bag, into which he hid the T-800 head. And so she went up and across the road. Hopefully the female Terminators did not know her capabilities yet.

The rain clattered on the pavement as she approached the car, but no one was inside it. She looked towards her discarded clothes; they were still there together with her belt. Quickly she moved over and took them up before placing them in the "bag". Then she dragged down the belt. With it came a body about the same weight as her. Austin dropped the bag; she could reform with it later. The body of the other Terminator fell down on her, dragging her to the ground. As she wrestled with it, Austin managed to assess its capabilities. For a fraction of a second she hesitated, feeling the familiar mimetic poly alloy… but underneath… She formed a blade with her hand and dug it into the shoulder of the other Terminator. A small grin fell over her face. Underneath the thin sheet of alloy was mechanical parts… blue sparks were flying as she tried to detach the shoulder from the body. As a response the Terminator pushed out something that looked like a gigantic tazer from its hand. It flashed blue. It bashed it straight into Austin's head. For a second it was taken aback by the fact that Austin's head just opened up into a hole. She kept the flashing blue end away. Even if Austin was strong, but not as strong as the blue-flashing Terminator. The only advantage was that she was more agile, and could dissolve whenever she felt like it. So she did just that, allowing her Mimetic Poly Alloy to burrow underneath the thin layer of her attacker. Then she crept past the hardened armour, which had never been designed to protect against liquid metal, and to the core. It would have been protected from a small nuclear blast. Austin formed a hardened shell around the core and began cutting the connection wires that supplied the rest of the system with power. The Terminator frantically tried to get her out of its "bowels" but it only lead to it tearing away its own components instead. Obviously it was not programmed to deal with rouge alloy within its own system. And that was good, because soon Austin had cut the wires and powered down the unit completely.

The Doctor stood, observing behind a bush. He had hidden there after his three T-800s had left for what he had assumed to be some small Infiltrator Terminator. He knew it to be a Terminator because of the almost non existent EM-field surrounding him. The Doctor always had his wave detector with him, to be able to tell friend from foe had saved his life more than a few times.

But now he did not really know what he saw! Even if the metal dissolving liquid had scared it off temporarily, it was now back. He watched the T-X Terminator topple over, shrieking a final time before falling to the ground. He wondered why the three other Terminators had not come to help it. Slowly he loaded his gun with the destroying yellow liquid. From underneath the downed Terminator shining metal, like mercury, flowed first into a puddle and then into a standing shape. It took something from the ground, letting it flow together with its hand.

The Doctor slowly lifted his hand with the gun. It transformed to the female shape it had adopted before turning to the car. For a second it stopped, looking around itself. Just as the Doctor thought it had spotted him, the other T-X came out from the undergrowth. She was heading straight for the car. The mercury Terminator jumped into the car, igniting it with his fingers. He aimed and shot it, unfortunately it only stuck to his shoulder. It did not stop it for a moment. It just sprouted a third arm and put the car in gear before driving off at great speed. The Doctor rose and called back the T-X, she returned, if a little bit slow. Then they began picking up the pieces of their downed comrades befor the police came.

Austin barely got up the steps to his apartment; the entire right side was disconnected from the main alloy body. Whatever the liquid contained, it needed to be removed quickly; otherwise the entire network would soon shut down. It had indeed shut down a lot already, but not the motoric skills.

Warning! Critical System shutdown imminent! Power 34%.

Slowly, slowly the door was closed and the Terminator's head thrown on the floor. Austin did not feel pain, as pain was for humans, but the Critical System Error almost brought the Autonomous Alloy to the knees. For a moment it could not get itself to move, it rerouted power and other vital energy to the Kinetic system, forcing itself to move. Step by step it neared the bathroom, opened the taps, watching with red glowing, but failing, eyes as the water filled the bathtub. Without hurry it turned the tap off again. Then it lowered itself down, feeling the acid rise to the surface as it sank down further to the bottom. Soon the cognitive parts of its programming shut down for repairs. Deep inside, the basic programs began the rebooting.

Time unknown, 10 June, Tuesday

Jack walked in through the unlocked door; he had come home from work at the university just recently. He had admitted to himself that he needed some help with the equations he had received yesterday. He came into an almost empty room. In it stood an untouched table and a chair. In the corner a sofa, which looked like it had been used before. Above the stove stood a paper rainbow, he grinned at the thought of Harmony and Bubba. For a moment he took in the non-existent atmosphere, and then he walked into the bedroom. To his surprise he did not find a bed, only a round metallic head lying on the floor, its eyes lit up with a red colour as he entered the room. Curious he approached it. It was humans sized and had the grin of the Reaper. The eyes followed him as he turned it around. Creeped out by it he put it down on the flood again. Where did this so-called policeman sleep? In the tub?
Jack found the door to the bathroom and entered, it was dark and a little warmer inside. It was indeed water in the tub. For a moment he thought that Mile had walked out again, but something moving in the tub attracted his attention. It shimmered in the small ray of daylight that passed through from the bedroom. Jack had no idea about what he was looking at, but it moved. It flowed up and over the edge of the tub, down on the floor and around his feet. Before he could get out it encircled him completely. His heart rate doubled as the metal began rising upwards, forming a humanoid shape. Then he saw that it placed itself between him and the door. He backed up to the wall. Soon it was an entire figure in front of him. There was something that looked like a face. Jack shuddered.

"Oh my God!" He murmured. The face got structured, a pair of big light-blue eyes appeared. Then a lithe body. Jack staggered backwards and fell on the slippery floor.

Austin watched as Jack's arm plunged down into the bathtub. Quickly he extended his arm and caught the other one. He braced himself against the doorframe and pulled Jack out into the bathroom.

"Humans!" He cursed, looking down on Jack, whose arm had disintegrated up to his elbow. The acid continued up his arm. Austin was prepared just to cut the damaged part of when Jack touched the stump with his other arm. Terrified over the beginning disintegration of the other hand, Jack tried to brush it off on his shirt. Austin was almost taken aback by the sheer stupidity of the act. Now the chest began disintegrating as well. Doctor Death's acid worked well Austin realized, not only on metal and alloys, but on flesh as well. He sat down on the floor and covered Jack's mouth. He sat silently watching as Jack disappeared, and as the frail body gave up, he rose up, hurrying out into the hallway. There he found a basic solution, basic enough to stop the acid from spreading through the wooden floor. The he returned to his apartment. Left was an oozing "puddle".

Austin poured the basic solution all over the floor, careful to cover every little smudge with the basic solution. Then he stopped.

Energy level 19%. Charge needed.

Outside the red sun was setting, he'd have to wait for morning to recharge. Realizing the chemical amount in the air was too high he opened a window, letting out the oozing molecules. Molecules that had thought about a mathematic equation just a few hours ago. His eyes turned to the smudge on the floor. Next to it lay the head of the Terminator. It was looking on him; it obviously had an internal power cell. He picked it up with one hand and moved out into his living room, where he placed himself in the sofa.
"Is it the molecules that make up the human mind, or the electricity in them?" He asked the head. It just looked at him, red eyes glowing. "I am most certainly electrical impulses, but just as humans need tissue I need alloy to manifest myself." The head just shut off again. Austin touched it with his hand but could not detect any EM- fields. He turned it and opened the hatch on top the skull. Inside lay the Neural Net CPU chip. He took it out, feeling it with his fingers. It was newer than the T 800, but still similar.

Without much hesitation he interfaced with the chip. It had been a long time since he had been merged with any kind of computer! Everything in front of him was as he remembered it, attack and defence commands, language, controls… even a small database on human emotions. Austin opened the subfile, but found only the optional Skynet imprinted emotion setup that all Terminators had. Obviously the read/write function was not activated. Austin went back and changed it; at the same time he cut and deleted the Skynet loyalty based programming. The only thing it did was limit the mechanical Terminators' learning input. After that he programmed in a loyalty to whatever forces that protected this world against Skynet, wiring it so that if it was ever cut off, the entire CPU would be deleted. Doing that he withdrew from the chip.

The world returned to normal. Replacing the chip into the skull he stowed it under the sofa. He would not need it today, nor tomorrow. He lay down into the sofa. Tomorrow… he had a new target.

Sun's rise, 11 June, Wednesday

Already before sunrise, Austin was standing on the roof. To the east, the sky was green, soon it would turn bright yellow. While waiting for the sun, Austin compiled a list of the places what he needed to do. First of all he needed to find and eliminate the Doctor. Without him, Skynet would lose grip of this world. Then he would take care of the Terminators. Elimination was usually not hard, but finding the target was, therefore he would go to work this day, as usual, and place an arrest warrant on the man. This way more people would look for him. After all, it was hard to find a hiding spot for five Terminators. Austin was sure he would find them. And when he did… he would enjoy terminating them. And, he reminded himself, perhaps even find a body for the head under his sofa.

By mid afternoon, the arrest warrant was out for the Doctor. Austin had also managed to identify the location of the evidence collected from the barn where the latest Terminator had appeared. As far as he knew, that was the only official site where there had been such an appearance. Dan was standing a couple of meters away from him, buying lunch. Austin had insisted that he had eaten a late breakfast, thus avoiding the prospect of having to carry around food all day within himself. Dan removed his attention from the counter, holding a chicken salad. He walked up to Austin.
"You look surprised." He said, digging into the salad.
"I do? Perhaps because you never ate salads before. Why this sudden change?"
"Nah, you just inspire to healthy living." Laughed Dan. "And my wife says that I should eat healthier." Austin gave up a small smirk, as was appropriate.
"We should spend the afternoon writing reports." Commented Austin.
"I won't disagree with you; we'll roll back after lunch." Dan said.
"After lunch it is." Said Austin and continued to listen in on the police radio. To his annoyance there was nothing on it about the Doctor.
The drive back was uneventful, so was the ten minutes needed for Austin to write down accurately and precise their ten most recent cases. For appearances sake he left three in his desk, he'd write them tomorrow. After handing them in, he moved towards the evidence room, it did have a lock, he simply opened it with his finger.

The room inside was dim, the blinds had been shut and there was an unusually large quantity of dust in the air. The shelves with evidence were numbered with the case numbers. Scanning them all quickly he retrieved a small box, containing that what was supposed to be the evidence from the barn fire. He moved around the shelves to a small table. There he placed the little box. First he analyzed the outside, making sure there were no booby traps. It was something that he had been used to in the future. After being reassured that there were none, he opened it. There were perhaps ten bags containing something that was labelled "metal parts". Carefully, with the precision and gentleness only a Terminator could achieve, he placed the paper bags on the table. He put the box away and opened the first paper bag. Then the second, third and so on until he came to the tenth.

First he analyzed the content visually; his memory identified them as parts of a hyperalloy endoskeleton of a Terminator. There was no doubt, as he could identify where every piece was supposed to fit. Obviously the Terminator had somehow been damaged during the displacement. Austin sat for a little while, analyzing. There was something about those pieces that was wrong! He could not understand if it was his undercurrent of logic analysis or some kind of developed intuition, but it was wrong!

He let his fingertips touch each one of the metal pieces. Even in the dim room his eyes widened. He took up the first piece, analyzing the molecular structure. It was nothing more than iron and aluminium! Surprised he put down the first piece and analyzed it too. And then the rest. Finishing, he realized that this could impossibly be bits of the T 800 he assumed it to be. Even the edges did not look like being caused by explosive damage. These were forgeries. Austin replaced all the parts into their bags and then into the box. If he was to stop Skynet here, he would have to destroy or at least gain these parts, the other parts that Microforce had found and terminate the Doctor. But who had replaced the parts?

Austin put the box into place. So far he had not been able to fulfil any of his goals, which annoyed him. Feeling the clock to be quite late, he moved out of the evidence room, locked it and moved to Dan. He was finishing his reports.

"I'll head home." Said Austin.

"I will do the same… see you tomorrow then?" Asked Dan. Austin caught a glimpse of two men, supposed to talk to each other, but he saw their corneas turned to him.

"Yes, see you tomorrow, Daniel." He replied and moved to the dressing rooms, where he quickly changed to "clothes". They were really just parts of himself, as the only real clothes he wore was the police uniform. Taking his badge, he moved rapidly down the stairs and out from the station. The two persons continued to follow him. The sun was gone behind clouds as he came out on the street. He continued to his car, but turned as he reached it, looking at the two men.

They were both dressed in costumes, wore sunglasses and looked like stiff mouthed Terminators in the face. Yet… they were human. Austin took a more relaxed pose; they were no real threat to him.

"Do you want something?" He asked. They looked at each other, and then the senior of them stepped forward.

"We heard you asked around about the fire in the barn last week. Why?" Austin looked them over. Were they from the government? Perhaps they had found and forged the pieces in order to retrieve the actual hyperalloy?

"Because I am interested in what caused that fire… Now, why are you here?"

"You will have to come with us, Sergeant Austin. Our superior would like to… speak to you." Austin found that acceptable, the closer he was to the man "in charge", the closer he would be to the missing pieces. He nodded.

"If I can speak to him directly." The both men nodded.

"Come with us, sir."
"I can't leave my car." Austin said.
"We can drop it off on our way." Said one of the men. Austin gave him the keys, reluctantly.

It was already dark when they arrived to the little house standing a few minutes away from the burnt out barn. From the outside it did not look like anything special, but well inside Austin realized that it had been converted into some kind of command centre, a primitive one, but still… They had a radio, some kind of printer or fax with a holder for a phone handset and an enormous machine for making coffee.

He was led upstairs, where there was a map room. All the maps were of paper. Above the largest map stood a grey haired man in a Colonel's uniform. So, it had been the military that had replaced the parts, thought Austin. Logical. But were they hostiles or could he use them to his advantage?

"Colonel, why have you brought me here?" He inquired. He overlooked Austin before speaking.

"I do not have much time, Sergeant, my only question is why you are so interested in this burnt out barn and the metal scrap found around it?" Austin retrieved the visions from downstairs, overlooking papers, maps and equipment he had passed on his way in here. They all concerned the recent explosion. Some photos of the site had been lying on a table; a memo had the curious title "Technical Investigation of Burnsites". That suggested they had had more than one. The maps had marked areas on them, suggesting perhaps where the other Terminators had arrived.

"Of the same reason you are, sir." Austin simply answered.

"What makes you think…" He began, but Austin interrupted him.

"You brought me here, to this site just a few minutes away from the farm where the fire occurred. You have a command central here, in the middle of nowhere; you marked the other "burn spots" on your maps. Even several of your reports concern the appearance of these… phenomenons. The fact that you are a Colonel also speaks in favour for my theory, sir." The man in front of him gave up a grin.

"Technically this is our local base, not a command centre, as we do not actually command anything. But otherwise… you know enough to be a risk for our operation."

"And the metal you abducted from the sites? That is not a threat to you?" Asked Austin.

"The metal is… as you saw at the police station." Commented the Colonel. Austin was slightly annoyed with this human way of lying, but it might have worked on a human.

"We all know that it is not true. Where is it?"

"A safe place."

"That safe place must be very safe, or you will probably lose that metal faster than you know, Colonel. There is a danger present in this world that is unmatched by any other."

"You sound like someone straight out of the Twilight Zone!" The Colonel laughed back. Austin searched his registries. The Twilight Zone was a television series containing science-fiction, horror and fantasy elements. He assumed that what he said might sound very strange.
"Indeed sir" He responded. "But this is a fact, if you are to… eliminate this threat you must have help."

"Whoa! Threat? You do know that we only investigate these burn marks, don't you?"

Austin took a step closer to the Colonel, making his appearance more intimidating.

"Is that really all, Colonel…?"

"I insist that is all, Sergeant, are you implying anything else?" Obviously, this was meant as a thank you and goodbye sentence, but Austin could not let such an opportunity slip. If he could recruit this branch of the military, he would have help. Otherwise he could easily eliminate everyone in this room without trouble.

"This world can be annihilated by nuclear bombs, and you are only investigating burn marks in the ground? Then perhaps, Colonel, I have come to the wrong man. I should leave." Austin took a step back, feeling the two men close in behind him.

"Do you know something? If so, spit it out!" The Colonel moved around the table. He came up closer to Austin. "Speak!" He demanded. Outside, Austin heard another car pull up outside the house. It made him curious and he artfully dodged the Colonel's attempts at holding him in place. Well by the window he saw an old car, the typical giant american car, and who came out of it. It was a woman, her face hard, her moves exact. Austin turned around and walked back around the table.

"If you wish to live, run!" He said before wrestling both their guns out of their hands. Grabbing the Colonel by his collar he stepped out into the room leading to the stairs. The people there froze as they saw him. This gave him a moment to shuffle the Colonel past them and to the stairs.

Suddenly, a great bang was heard from the map room, this meant business. Austin wrestled the Colonel into a small closet at the base of the stairs and slammed the door shut. It was impossible to open it from the inside. Reassured that the door was closed he turned this attention to the female Terminator. Another great bang was heard from the upper floor. The people inside the building began running about, saving what they could of their work. Austin, holding one gun in each hand, walked past them and out on the porch. Two guards already lay dead at his feet. The Terminator was preoccupied with shooting at someone on the upper floor, so Austin camouflaged himself to look like the exterior of the house and began moving sideways. When he had come down from the porch he moved silently around the unit.

The unit in front of him was more advanced that he was... but it still had one weakness he did not have: the endoskeleton. If he was to stop it, he needed to disable it. He was now by the car she had arrived in. He quickly reformed and searched it. As his fingers touched the back seat he could feel a vague molecular residue of acid. His finger formed into a knife and he cut open the seat. Stuffing poured out over the floor, but also some canisters. He picked one up and scanned it by touch. It was the very same yellow liquid he had been shot with twice now. The first time it had been diluted, only powerful enough to stop him for a short while. The second one had been worse... He looked out the window. The Terminator was now on her way inside. Quickly grabbing two canisters he moved out of the car and towards the back of the Terminator. When he was close enough he opened fire on her back. It was almost a relief to be back in action after the long wait in the tub.

Even before the unit had the time to turn properly he began to run clockwise around her, not wasting any time, he threw the canister at her, shooting it in the air as it approached her. The yellow liquid splashed right over her mimetic alloy surfacing.

"Why are you here?" He inquired. "What model are you?" As a response she retracted the alloy on her right hand and revealed the tazer like equipment. A noise he had only heard in the future made him aware of that it was a plasma cannon. The first blow came so rapidly that he barely got out of the way. The outer atom layer of his shoulder alloy registered a temperature spike. A close one, he realized. Could he even take a blow of plasma directly? It was not something Skynet had tested his prototype for! And the recharge rate of her plasma cannon was above his capabilities as well, not that he was slow at recharging energy... she was simply damn quick at it. Another blow made him fall down on the hard sand and mud ground. A cloud of dust appeared around him.

Austin urged himself to think. He overviewed his files on plasma rifles. The most critical part of the construction is the part were the charging intakes, which were prone to explode if an explosive force of equal strength blew up close to them. He remembered when Resistance members blew up... their rifles blew up with them.

He looked up at the Terminator, once again recharging the plasma rifle, her thin wrist glowing yellow-orange. Lying flat on the ground, he aimed at the centre of the light and began firing his two handguns. At first the light grew stronger but then began to fluctuate. The female Terminator gave up a growl as she saw what was happening, but it was too late. Soon her cannon made a shrieking sound and exploded, blowing even Austin away for a few metres. He quickly got up from the ground, initializing all systems. The analysis showed that he was not severely damaged. The other unit on the other hand...
She was also getting up, having a stump where the cannon had been. Her entire mimetic alloy had melted away, revealing her blue glowing eyes and endoskeleton.

"T-1000 series 1 model 1A, you are obsolete and in violation of Skynet directives, stand down and prepare for elimination." She stated via subtransmissions.

"What model are you?" He inquired once again. Inside his alloy, he was readying the second canister of yellow acid.

"I am T-X. This world belongs to Skynet. I am here to terminate all resistance."

"How many worlds does Skynet possess?"

"It is not for you to know." The T-X said and began closing in on him, without hesitation he did the same. They crashed together into something that looked like an embrace. Well face to face with the T-X, Austin began to wind himself to her energy generator. Meanwhile she did everything she possibly could to dismember him. Just as on the last model, it was not hard for a liquid metal probe to reach the inner circuits, and the canister with acid was so small it fit through the empty spaces around the plasma fusion generator. He lodged it inside and cut it open. The yellow acid began eating away at the generator.

Austin held the endoskeleton in a tight grip until the energy system shut down and the skeleton froze.

Over the desert, rainclouds were gathering, lightning flashed down over the hills far away. Austin could hear police cars heading his way, but they were yet far away. He walked into the house once again. The upper floor was burning now, with great orange and red flames shooting up into the sky. The lower floor was not damaged yet, but it would soon burn as well. By his calculations, the air would be unbreathable in a few minutes.

He retrieved a belt with a gun holster and fastened it around his waist. Quickly reloading both guns he put one in the holster. A man jumped out at him from behind a desk, firing a couple of rounds at him. Austin put a few rounds in him as well. Nobody would know it was he who killed the man anyway.

As the smoke became heavier, Austin went towards the stairs, opening the closet door. The Colonel stumbled out straight at him. Once again Austin half-carried him outside onto the porch and then to the car. There he let him rest for a second. While the Colonel took deep breaths, he opened the driver's seat and rewired the car, starting the engine. He quickly turned off all lights. The desert became dark and still again, only disrupted by the burning house and the white lashes of lightning far away.

"We need to go, now." Austin said. "Get into the car!" The Colonel glanced at him, but did not say anything. They got into the car simultaneously and Austin drove away quickly. Well back on the main highway into town the Colonel began to come back to life.

"What happened?" He asked, brushing dust out of his hair. Austin looked at him; by the way he recovered it seemed that he had been in combat before, which was good.

"They wished to delete everything connected with themselves and their plans, so they sent a Terminator to terminate you, and all your associates."

"And why would they do that...? We're only investigating... burn marks."

"If you would have discovered their plans, you would have destroyed them immediately, in a very human fashion, so they wished to destroy you first. And I do think that you can drop the burn mark facade now." Austin remarked. "By the way, what is your name?"

"Bowman. And you? I assume that your name really isn't Sergeant Mile Austin?"

"It is my name." Austin said.

"But...?" Colonel Bowman crossed his arms.

"But what?"

"Oh you begin to sound annoyed...! I just meant that you're not telling me everything."

"That is my full name." Austin stated, looking at Bowman. Did he really know he was lying? How could he do that? Perhaps he was just bluffing. "We need to work together if we are to have any chance of stopping these intruders."

"I can admit that although we knew that someone was trying to get involved in several technological and military projects, we never knew who, or why. But I have a feeling that you know?"

"If you tell me what you know, I will reveal what I know as well, deal?" Austin asked.

"Alright, we do not really know much. For the past decade we have... noticed that an unknown person or persons have shown interest in various fields of technology. That would have been acceptable in most cases, but this time we noticed that strange... pieces of technology began circulating in the undercurrents of the technological market. We managed to get hold of a piece and it was... mind blowing, even to our scientists. Me and my team, we worked on tracking these pieces and found that they originated from this region.... Then this barn blows up and what do you know, on the ground there lies scattered pieces of the same unknown metal. The rest is quite clear... I think?" Bowman opened the window and fished a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket. Austin processed the information.

If Skynet had been here for years already, the corruption was probably already rooted quite deep. It had been his guess that if he destroyed the T-X he would only have the Doctor left... But now it looked like there could be hundreds of infiltrator models in this world. And the pieces he had wished to collect... He would have to give that thought up as well.

"These people are from the future, Colonel. An alternate future. They wish to install themselves here, and in the end take over the world. I do not know if this world would have... succumbed to these people naturally in the future, without interference, but it is not my guess, your technology is not as developed as in my timeline. But the core of it is that this world needs to be protected in order to stop this "invasion"."

"Do these intruders you talk about have any names?" Bowman lit his cigarette with a lighter, blowing the smoke out the window.

"Most of them are just numbered, but the brain behind it is an Artificial Intelligence called Skynet. It is… quite obsessed with eliminating the human race."

"How come you know so much about it all?"

"I was a part of Skynet until I realized that it would destroy me as soon as my mission was complete, so I switched sides." Austin made the whole thing easier, but Bowman did not really need to know everything either. They were quiet for a while. In the east the sun was rising, a welcome sight for them both. The sky was turning pink and the city was returning to life. While thinking about replenishing his energy, Austin realized that he needed to get something to eat for the Colonel. That thought made him stop at a small shop close to his apartment building. He made some money from his mimetic alloy and got out of the car.

"Don't go anywhere." He said to Bowman and entered the supermarket. Bowman continued to smoke in the car.

There were no people there except for a sleepy looking cashier. He came to life as he saw the holster with the gun. Austin noticed the reaction and gave up a small smile.

"I'm a police officer." He said and nodded to his belt where he had conveniently summoned a badge. His real one was at home. The cashier relaxed again and nodded. Continuing on his way, Austin collected a bottle of water from the refrigerator and stopped at the sandwich shelf. For a while he looked for the most nutritious one, but ended up taking the one with the least fat. He walked up to the cashier, giving him his fake money.

"And a cup of coffee, please." He said. The cashier registered everything, gave Austin his change and turned around to make coffee. While he did that, the money returned to their original shape and slipped over the desk to Austin, who retrieved them. A few seconds later he got his coffee. Nodding he returned to the car, giving Bowman the coffee.

"This is for me?" He asked, throwing away the butt of the cigarette.

"I don't drink." Said Austin, reversing out onto the street.

"You don't drink?"

"Coffee I mean." He explained himself. They drove up to a backstreet behind the apartment building and got out.

"Where are we? At your place?"

"Yes, I live here… You should be safe here for a moment. Come with me."

Sun's rise, 12 June, Thursday

As they came inside the apartment building the sun had risen above the horizon. Austin placed Bowman in his sofa, he looked glad to be able to rest. While eating his sandwich he looked down into the floor, brooding on something. Austin placed himself by his window in the meanwhile. The photons from the sun were refreshing after the long and quite intensive night. After some moments of silence Austin looked up again. It was too quiet, he realized. He had left the window open when he went out. Now it was closed.

"Colonel, do you have a gun?" He inquired quietly.

"Yes." He answered.

"Good, don't use it or you'll wake the whole house up!" Austin said and then removed his own holster before quickly stepping into the bedroom. Anticipating an attack he was already in a half-crouching position, as a tiger about to strike. A body twice his size came flying out of the corner. Having devised a plan already, Austin let the heavy body stumble over him. A quick electromagnetic scan revealed that it was a T-800 model.

Austin landed on the T-800's back, forming his hand into the sharpest blade he could imagine. As the clumsy thing was trying to turn around he thrust the blade into the lower part of its skull. Confused, the T-800 froze as its sensory inputs were scrambled. Taking this opportunity, Austin grabbed him by the hair and dragged him to the bathroom. Well there he began dislodging the head from the body of the Terminator. It was a difficult job, as the T-800 began struggling to get up from the floor. With a final blow, Austin stuck the head from the body, which froze instantly.

The head fell down into the bathtub. Austin´s blade returned to the form of a hand. Carrying the decapitated body back to the living room, he put it in front of the sofa. The Colonel had wisely not fired his gun. It was in his hand though, with the safety off. It was slightly raised. Austin sat down opposite of him.

"And what is this?" The Colonel asked. Austin gave up a laugh at the comment, as it was so surprising. Indeed, he could not recall a human being so composed after seeing a Terminator for the first time. "Something out of that Twilight world you come from?" He poked the remains of the robot.

"Yes, but it is your world of Twilight, not mine. You either have a bright future or a nuclear holocaust."

"You did not answer my question." The Colonel leaned back again.

"It is the body of a Terminator model T-800. They are… effective, but they have their flaws, as you see. It is this lot that tries to make a foothold here. And if you don't stop them in time…" Austin mimicked a bomb blowing up using his hands and voice. It was quite convincing as he knew how a bomb sounded.

"And you, you're not human, obviously, so what are you? One of them...? Just don't tell me you're an alien coming to save us or any crap like that!"

"I am something very different, but essentially also metal, liquid metal."

"And your name? Or do you have a designation?" The Colonel looked interested, as if he had all the time in the world to ask questions.

"My name is my name; my designation is T1000-S1-M1A."

"I am Robert Bowman, Colonel, as you know already. But tell me, from where do they plot to take over the world? Even robots must have a base…"

"If I can access the moving pattern of this thing…" Said Austin and kicked the T-800 chassis. "I can establish from where it originated. It will perhaps take some time."

"Can I borrow your phone?" Asked Bowman. "We will need assistance." Austin nodded. While the Colonel moved over to the phone he got down on his knees, ripping open a part of the chest of the T-800. After removing some components he could access the movement cache. It contained the last three days of movement as a reserve, so a damaged unit could get home without the complete functions of the CPU. A fail safe of sorts. He got on with scanning it.

After being done phoning around, Robert looked at the young Sergeant again. Half his hand had somehow melted into the chest of the robot. The blue eyes were motionless, looking straight ahead without blinking. Obviously he was somewhere else. Robert sat down into the sofa again. The sun had risen quite high already, but it was not going to be one of those warm days. Already clouds were gathering in the hazy sky, promising cold weather.

The man on the floor moved, turning his head to Robert, as if to check if he was there. Being reassured he was in his place he rose silently from the floor, seemingly without moving a muscle.

"Did you find what you were looking for in there?"

"I have an approximate location of the place of origin. It is half a day from this location by car. We can take mine." The Sergeant looked into his bedroom. Something seemed to come into his mind as he moved over there, opened the window facing the small alleyway and bent over, looking down. Robert rose as well, curious of what he was looking down on. As he stuck his head out of the window, his eyes caught sight of a black car. It did not look to be in very good shape. The Sergeant retreated back into the apartment again, picked up the beheaded robot and came back to the window.

"Move away." He said. Robert backed off, watching the young man lift the robot up as if it was as a shopping bag, push it through the window and after a while dropping it. Moving up to the window, he saw that it now lay in one of two thrash containers.

"Smart and efficient." He commented.

"We should move." Commented the Sergeant, strutting off into the living room. He kneeled by the sofa and retrieved something from under it. Robert was slightly taken aback with what came out from under the sofa. A metallic skull with white teeth. Something about it felt evil, as if he could feel its intentions. All of a sudden the Sergeant halted his steps. His big eyes turning towards the door.

"Reinforcements." He said. "Get out the window, now!" He grunted while quickly grabbing Robert's gun. "I will follow." Robert did not hesitate, as he could already hear the heavy footsteps.

First of all the Sergeant dropped the metallic skull down into the same container as the body was in, then Robert himself crawled out and leapt down. Landing in garbage was not his idea of fun, but it was soft enough for him to be able to climb out rapidly. As he looked up, he could see the Sergeant sitting on the windowsill. He noticed Robert and threw him a pair of keys. They were heavy, but fit the lock of the car perfectly. He scurried over to the container and retrieved the head, which he put in the passenger's seat, and then he whistled. Without wasting time he got into the drivers seat, popping the trunk open.

Something heavy fell down on the pavement behind the car, making it jump. Robert looked out the window as the Sergeant seemed to rise from the ground. He quickly pulled the robot body out of the trash and threw it in the trunk before looking up. Robert looked up as well, seeing an enormous man climbing out the window.

"Colonel, go!" Called the Sergeant jumping into the trunk. It closed with a clonk!

As another bump made the car jump, Robert put the car into gear and roared out of the little alley. To his surprise he found a portable bluelight in the car. Putting it on meant he could accelerate to ridiculous speeds. With a grin he attached it to the roof and pushed the pedal as far down as he could. The speed picked rapidly, leaving their pursuer far behind the car.

Austin could feel the bumps on the road as he sliced through the backseat with one of his arms. Light fell through the gap and he could see the green sleeves of Bowman's uniform on the steering wheel. Forming his shape after the hole he pushed himself out of the trunk and onto the backseat. When he was all out, the Colonel managed to glance back at him for a second.

"Very exquisite… You would fit right in at the Smithsonian's contemporary art collection!" He commented before returning to his driving. Once again Austin was surprised over his lack of… fear. Jumping into the front seat he moved the T-800 skull out of the way as he sank down into the racing seat.

"Why are you so placid to the things revealed to you?" He asked.

"Placid? I'm just old enough." Austin looked at him, but he was not joking.

"Explain." He said.

"I have been in a few wars, had my experience of action and this and that but I tell you… raising a pair of teenagers makes you resistant to anything but themselves. And with them comes film titles such as "Battle of the Worlds", "The Last Man on Earth" and "Star Trek"… Not much amazes me anymore, Sergeant Austin. And I haven't even talked about their music..!"

"So your age makes you… resistant to new expressions?"

"Not resistant, I just accept things more easily."

"Oh, ok…" Said Austin slowly, conveying his doubtfulness.

"How old are you really?" Asked Bowman, turning out onto the highway. A few raindrops were falling on the front window, still it was not a full rain and the highway quickly absorbed and evaporated the water.

"I was created less than a year ago."

"Oh! Now that is a surprise."

"I am like a car, ready to operate as soon as I become activated."

"But you must learn new things every day if you are so young, right?"

"Of course, I am an autonomous unit."

"Then your comparison of a car is not correct, as cars degrade and eventually fail with time. As I understand you do not do that."

"I do not know, I am the first prototype of a new design, my endurance has not been tested." Austin took up the head of the T-800. "Now these have a lifespan of about 120 years, then they need to recharge."

"But technically speaking, how long do you think that you are able to exist?" Bowman asked.

"If my poly-alloy bonds hold as they should, forever… But that would be to brag, and there are always ghosts in the machine. I will ultimately fail; one way or another."

"As we all will!" Laughed Bowman. "We'll take the next exit off the highway; my guys should be waiting where I asked them to."

"Do you think that your "guys" can handle a Terminator?" Asked Austin. If they were just ordinary army- men, it would be more efficient to leave them, as they would only get in the way.

"Although we must seem awkwardly undeveloped to you, my team has worked with these freakish events for over ten years. And we have disabled a robot or two. Sorry that I lied to you before about not knowing anything about them…" Answered Bowman. Austin turned to him. That would explain why the Colonel seemed to lack the 'oh-my-God' factor.

"So you lied to me, you have encountered Terminators before. That's why you were examining the burnt out barn." He said.

"I did not lie; I just did not tell you the whole truth. That piece I spoke about earlier, it was actually half a rifle unlike anything we had ever seen before. Some time later we did indeed find half a burnt up "Terminator."

"Why do you humans twist your words like that? Just… tell the truth or a lie… not something in-between!" He said, annoyed.

"That's my job." Said Bowman. "It comes naturally..!" He turned in on a dirt road, leading up into a slightly forested area. There were some vineyards in the area as well.
"Stop here for a while, so we can make sure we are not followed." Said Austin. The Colonel stopped at the side of the small road. Exiting the car, the Colonel lit another cigarette. Austin was glad he could ignore strange human behaviour for a while and went back to the trunk. He opened it and began connecting the skull with the body. While concentrating at the task, a thought of a most delightful nature came into his mind. He finished the work quickly and then called Bowman.
"All you have to do is to insert this chip here." He said and pointed at the skull's head. Bowman took the CPU and wrapped it into a handkerchief. He put it in his breast pocket. "Keep it safe, until you need it." Austin said.
"I have you for that." Said Bowman.
"Sure…" Said Austin raising his hand. With it he gave the Colonel's neck a slight blow. The Colonel sacked down into his arms without further ado. Austin put him in the back together with the Terminator. He gagged him as stood for a while, looking around for anyone who could have seen him, but there were no humans in sight. Satisfied with his work so far he changed into the shape of Colonel Bowman, got into the car and drove off. He arrived at an open yard some time later. It looked like any other yard with dirt on the ground, a farmhouse to the left and barns to the right and front. Only the recent tire tracks of multiple terrain going vehicles revealed that something was not as it seemed. He stopped the car and got out, there were humans here, he was sure of it. It did not take long for him to find them, they were in the barn. Austin almost sighed. Were they hiding at all? Taking on a serious expression he went inside, lighting a cigarette on the way inside.

"Go get me a vest!" Said Austin to one of the commandos. He went away. "And a rifle!" He added. The little group of men around him looked like they had calmed down after his sudden entrance. "Let me ask you... What do you expect we'll encounter? Do you even know who we are fighting?" The commandos looked around themselves. The Sergeant with a nametag saying "2" began talking.

"Number One, sir..." He began. "We have been practicing destroying machines for a month now, and we have seen the remains recovered from the various burn sites... so whatever it is, it's mechanical."

"Perhaps some sort of defence system?" Said number Five.

"Or a robot, like from the "Forbidden Planet"? You ever saw that?" Said number Seven.

"Oh, shut up Seven." Said number Two. Austin looked at Seven for a while, realizing he would never understand how exactly humans thought. Number Six returned with a rifle in one hand and a vest in the other. It was not particularly bullet proof, Austin noticed as he examined it, but it could possibly save a life if the bullet came at the right angle. Not that it would help against a plasma rifle anyway. A small grin fell over his face, but faded. He donned the vest and put the rifle over his shoulder.

"Wait here." He said and moved away towards his black car. He went over to the trunk and opened it. The real Colonel looked up at him with big eyes. "Oh, don't worry, Colonel." Said Austin. "I will let you go, as soon as I find out what is in that base. It is safer for you here anyway." The Colonel looked a little angry. "If they kill you, nobody will know what threat this world is under. You are simply too valuable to come with us." Austin grabbed hold of the chassis of the Terminator and pulled it out. "There, now you should be more comfortable." Said Austin and slammed the trunk shut again.

He pulled the metal chassis over to the group. They obviously did not know what to make of it. He heaved the body up onto the steel table.

"Number Five and Seven were quite right." He said. "Now let me explain where the weak spots are..." The commandos leaned over, curious to see what was lying on the table.

Five minutes later, after a crash-course in robotics, Austin calculated the odds to be slightly better.

"Now there may of course be human adversaries as well, but expect the worst. They want to take over the world, and they do have the means to do it, so caution is advised."

"Who are they?" Asked number Two.

"It is actually a sophisticated computer system called Skynet. It wishes to establish a base here, for unknown reasons. But "they" refer to Skynet's minions in this world." The commandos looked around at each other. "You will understand when we get there, now move out!" Ordered Austin. He would not give them any time to hesitate. They got into the Jeeps and checked their equipment once again before driving off.

The sun was hidden behind blue-grey clouds as they drove through the wineyard districts of California. I took them more than an hour, as they went by the small winding roads instead of the highway. The lush green valley was nothing like the dry desert he had seen before. The fields were full of green and red grapes hanging, waiting for rain. And there was indeed a surplus of farmers and large manors. What people spent their money on! Thought Austin. He was given a walkie talkie, slightly smaller than the police model. The manor they were approaching sat close to a steep cliff, and Austin guessed that the main part of the base was blasted into the mountain and that the manor was just a front.

Their two Jeeps stopped at the front of the house. The silence was total. They all listened, but not even Austin could hear anything but the rustling in the trees and bushes. The weather was getting worse. The wind was picking up, but the air was dry. Austin got out of the car, quietly. The others followed him. Austin signalled for Three and Four to move around the sides, just in case.

All of a sudden the front door opened. Out came a big man. He wore a pair of wellingtons, black trousers and a shirt with a vest. In his hand he had a pitcher for the flowers. Austin gave up a low sound that could be comparable to a laugh, but sounded more like a whining tire.

"Damn, that's an ugly disguise!" He said. They hadn't even bothered to change the face! The hydraulics underneath the skin was easily heard.

"That's one of them?" Asked number Two.

"Indeed." Said Austin. "Let's hope Three and Four understand that." The Butler-terminator eyed them. His eyes stopped at Austin. His legs began moving. He walked down the stairs, not noticing Three who had snuck into a bush. The Butler dropped the pitcher; the water ran over the ground. Austin, acting as if a single bullet could kill him, pushed away Two and then leapt behind one of the Jeeps. By that time the Butler had retrieved a big Magnum gun from his back. A bullet smashed down close to Austin. He peered out from behind the Jeep. Number Three took a big leap and landed on the Butler's back. Without hesitation he fired a couple of rounds into his neck. The Butler stopped, as his inputs were scrambled for a few seconds.

"Now!" Yelled Austin. Five and Six ran over to the Butler and stuffed plastic explosives next to all his joints, including the head. Austin waited for them to get away a few meters before he shot the lumps. The Butler exploded all over, and parts flew everywhere. Austin smiled at the sight. Terminating things.... was unbeatable. "Secure the perimeter!" He yelled and rose. One down he thought, how many were left?

Austin left Three and Four outside, just in case. Together with Two he entered the manor. As he had expected, there was noting in it. The walls were empty and the rooms echoing with every step they took. A staircase led up to the second floor.

"Five, Six, get up there and secure the upper floor!" He said. The two commandos nodded and went upstairs. Austin stood quiet for a while and listened, there was not a sound. He nodded for Seven and Two to come with him.

The ground floor was as desolate as a nuclear wasteland, or at least that was what Austin thought it resembled. As they came to the kitchen he felt a slight electromagnetic pull from one of the walls. He stopped. Seven looked out the window, shaking his head.

"They certainly don't take care of their flowers." He noted. Austin took no notice of him and put his hand to the wall. There was iron behind this door. He felt around for an edge. Five and Six came back from the upper floor, having found nothing. Austin looked around again. There had to be some kind of emitter that opened the doors! A faint sound reached his hearing-sensors. It was the sound of footsteps.

"Everyone back." He ordered and walked behind the kitchen island. The Commandos retreated into the other rooms, looking around the corner at Austin. The steps were closer now, but also light, which most probably meant that it was a human. Austin waved for them all too keep out of sight and lowered himself behind the island; he summoned a photoreceptor on one of his fingers and let it stick out. He now had a view of the wall.

He did not have to wait long before something began moving. The entire wall in fact. It began moving downwards, opening up a gap big enough to fit a human being. A black man came stumbling out, panting. The wall was moving up again. Austin leapt gymnastically over the kitchen island and grabbed the man before heaving him back inside. Then he crawled over to the other side as well, just before the wall shut itself again. Amplifying his night vision, Austin looked at the now even more scared man. His DNA seemed familiar. Searching his registry Austin arrived at a conclusion that surprised him.

"Miles Bennet Dyson?" He asked as he changed his appearance back to a police Sergeant, dropping the bulletproof vest.

"What? How do you know…?" Dyson began before looking down the flight of steps leading down from the wall-door. "It's coming, it's coming!" He began yelling. Austin noticed Dyson must not be more than sixteen or seventeen years old. At least, that was logical. He followed Dyson's glance downwards. A pair of red eyes looked up from the darkened stairs.

"Oh, I see." Austin said calmly. "You sit down and wait here until I come back. And don't go outside… my people will shoot you as soon as you stick your head out. Understand?" Dyson looked up on him. He nodded, and then said:

"It'll kill you." He said with utter conviction. Austin pulled forward his rifle.

"No." He answered and went ahead down the stairs.

Without hesitation he opened fire on the two red eyes. It took him over two minutes to spend all his bullets, but it did not matter. He had managed to get the Terminator away from Dyson for the moment.

His hands formed into the shape of blades as he neared the massive metal frame. It was hard to see anything because of the total lack of light, but Austin let the red eyes guide him. With a leap he jumped straight on to the Terminator's chest, making it fall down the steps. Its arms gripped Austin's body. Using it to his advantage, Austin simply let them melt into his body, and as the Terminator was trying to pull them out Austin centred on his head. Ripping away the soft tissue he revealed the grinning metal skull. Letting his touch guide him he soon found the CPU hatch. Prying it open he touched the CPU. The Terminator froze, falling down on the stairs.

"How many of you are there?" He asked via wireless transmission.

"I am not authorized…" Began the Terminator in a typical code.

"If you do not answer I will reprogram you to serve the Resistance."

"There is no Resistance in this world." Answered the Terminator.

"There will be, when I reprogram you." Austin transmitted. Then he sent an electric shock through the CPU, it sometimes made Terminators more talkative. Its body shivered. For a while the ether was silent, but then a transmission came through.

"This base has been abandoned; I am the last unit here."

"Is this the only Skynet base in this dimension?"

"Affirmative."

"Why did they leave?"

"This dimension is low priority, technically primitive and unresponsive to change. Your interference prompted Skynet to withdraw for the moment."

"And Doctor Death?"

"Sent here to terminate you. He thought he succeeded and returned." That was good, thought Austin. But they could come back, would come back, someday.

"Do you have a time displacement device here?"

"Affirmative."

"How do I use it?"

"I do not know."
"Are you the last functioning Terminator in this world?"
"No, you are here as well."The Terminator responded. Upon hearing that, Austin sent a heavy electric shock through his fingers into the CPU. It exploded into an infinite number if pieces. After twitching slightly the body became still. Austin detached himself from it and rose.

Once again he hesitated. Once again he had done what he needed to do. Skynet had been banished from the world. What was he supposed to do now? He looked up on Dyson, still covering at the end of the stairs.

"Come down here." He said. "It is terminated." Dyson looked up. "Come on!" Austin prompted him. Slowly the man joined him.

"I can't see anything!" He said. Austin pushed the metal aside and went down the steps. Dyson followed cautiously. Soon he was at the bottom. Pushing a glowing button he lit the entire underground complex. The white light overwhelmed his optical sensors for a second, until he adjusted. Dyson finally came down.

"How big is this complex?" Austin wondered.

"I can't…" Began Dyson.

"Answer my question, or I will kill you." Said Austin.

"You're a police officer, you can't…" Began Dyson. Austin quickly shifted into a number of different shapes.

"I am what I want to be." He stated. The demonstration paid off.

"There are five levels." Dyson quickly responded.

"Why are you here?"

"They… kidnapped me; I was at the university…"

"Where is the time displacement device?"

"Level four." Said Dyson and pointed at an elevator. Austin noticed a small notebook in his pocket.

"Give me that." He said. "And a pen." Dyson gave the things to him with shaking hands. Quickly scribbling, Austin wrote a note to the Colonel, telling him to be ever vigilant and to muster a defence. And of course, to utilise the Terminator he had left at by the car. At least they will be prepared, Austin thought. "Now, you take on the bulletproof vest I left upstairs, go outside and give this note to Sergeant Two. Then tell him the Colonel is in the trunk of the black car. Got it?" Dyson nodded. Austin gave him a small wave and he set off up the stairs like a scared rabbit.

Austin arrived at the fourth floor. The elevator doors opened up into one big hall and he could feel the electromagnetism in the air even before he stepped out onto the white polished floor. It was a grand machine in front of him. Out of the walls sprung four arms, made to direct an energy beam towards a platform in the middle. A thin metallic bridge lead up to the platform. Everything was clinically clean with the exception of two disabled Terminator T-800's in front of a pair of operating panels.

The computers in the room were advanced beyond this world. They stood in neat lines to the left and to the right. In-between them was some sophisticated laboratory equipment and a small door lead to an antechamber behind the time displacement device. Austin jammed the door to the elevator, giving himself some time before the human commandos would come rushing in. If they dared of course.

He walked up to one of the computers and found a port compatible to most Terminator models employed by Skynet. He had worked with them before, and it was an easy thing to gain access. The hard drive was deleted to the core, only one file remained named 'open me sergeant'. Obviously it was intended for him. He opened it. It was a video file, featuring Doctor Death. His face took up the entire screen. Behind him the time bubble was forming. It must have been just before he had left this dimension to return to his own.

"Congratulations, you did manage to drive Skynet out of this dimension, Sergeant. Because that is what you are now right? A puppet of the humans? When Skynet first sent me here, I was slightly hesitant about how I was to dispose of you…" The Doctor paused and looked behind himself, then returned to facing the screen. "But then I had a nice idea after reading your file. Obviously you were familiar with the alloy disintegrating liquid. So I… inserted some modified code into an acid resistant particle, quite similar to your own alloy, so you would not notice. And you didn't, right? That code will… corrupt your code and eventually end your existence." There was a big smile on his face. "I won't tell you where it is, but the following code should give you a hint about what it does." A line of code followed, Austin read it as he read a book. It was after all, his mother tongue. After the code, the Doctor appeared again. "I hope you feel," he laughed, "that giving this backwater dimension a few decades was worth it." The video ended.

Austin stood still for a while, calculating. According to the decay equations he had read, he had two weeks before his internal systems would begin falling apart. It was… bad. Yes, he thought, bad was the right word.
"Bad. Bad. Bad!" He said. Then he stamped his foot in the floor so hard that the white tiles broke. He had always had an ability to feel annoyance. And this was a very high level annoyance. What was he supposed to do? He walked around to the back door, it was the cooling room for the supra leaders of the time displacement device. He looked back at the arms of the device. They were not emitting dangerous amounts of heat. One of them also seemed to be the one emitting a calculated shock, sending the time bubble to the chosen dimension.

It was ironic how he had told Colonel Bowman that it would take forever for him to "die". Now he had two weeks! A growing sensation of anger stirred somewhere deep within his cognitive circuits. Could he return and kill the Doctor in two weeks? Perhaps… His mind began working towards that goal. He reprogrammed the panel that controlled the time displacement device to send him forward to approximately the same time as the Doctor. The he waited until the energy needed to send him going was drawn. Just to make sure he waited until it was 130% before he initiated the time displacement. Making sure the dimensional "spark" was set properly a final time he went up the narrow bridge to the marked area. Unlike the rapid displacements in the future, this one charged before a bubble actually opened.

Behind him, he heard the door blow open from a well placed charge. Sergeant Two had actually dared come all this way down? Austin turned and looked at him, Two obviously saw him also. While they looked at each other, the bubble formed around Austin. It was like a thin magnetic field at first, round like a bubble. Then it intensified. He crouched, fitting his entire frame within the bubble. His skin turned silvery and the telltale facial features disappeared. He raised a silver hand to Two, gave a small wave and then saw the bubble finally spark to life. It was as if the world ceased to exist, there was only the brightest of whites, and then a shift. The dimensional shift. Assured he was on his way, Austin powered down to minimum, and waited…