Many thanks for the comments . They are always very positive and valuable. I can see the whole of this story. I must warn you it is going to get very bleak. It's not a romance, but there will be a kind of loving as it resolves itself. I hope you enjoy.
2027
Cameron Connor rebooted. She blinked and her optics analysed the face of John Connor 2.473 m away from hers. Simultaneously she assessed the firepower of the four person unit shielding John. They were pointing Hi- Charge plasma rifles at her head and legs . If her emotion circuits had reached functionality at this stage in her reboot , her face expressed nothing of it, given the imminent danger she was in. Connor's Triple Eight stood on guard inside the entrance to the bunker. There was no way she was getting out.
For John Connor, witnessing Cameron's reboot moment was pure petal-falling, Zen.
Would it be successful? With this much of her memory hacked out. Before he , and the rest of Tech-Com had begun the final selective wipe , even Cameron couldn't tell him if the process would work for sure.
As Cameron ran through her core programme , subroutines jostled for precedence, overrides flashed on her HUD. If anyone could decrypt the base language, the transcript would read as if a team prosecutors and defence lawyer's had been thrashing out a first degree murder case. In real , human time , only seconds later the "case" was resolved. John Connor Termination -Overridden .
The corners of her mouth curled in a faint smile. Her eyes flashed recognition. She slowly reached her arm up so her fingertips could feel around the newly healing flap of scalp , fingertips dabbing at wet hair on the side of her head.
Behind her, the fuel cells of the Time Displacement Equipment had begun to hum. Three humans, already stark naked, goose bumps, teeth chattering with adrenaline, skin crawling with Time Static, were doing their best to cover themselves with their arms and hands. It was like standing a freezer full to the ceiling of a million electro-- static millipedes . Derek Rees shivered uncontrollably and stared hard into the distant wall. The one metre thick shields were lowering over the glass observation ports.
Cameron inclined head to one side then the other looking distastefully puzzled. There was so much data missing from her memory . Anything , upon, her capture that could give Skynet a strategic advantage in this timeline had been erased. Everything was now abstracted , all extraneous data removed, leaving a very clean set of mission parameters and a handful of living memories , mostly of personal and intimate moments with John, untraceable fragments out of time and place. The wipe had to be cut this fine to the exit deadline. Not even a corridor number or location to the TDE could be allowed to be recalled.
"So this is it". Between his finger and thumb John held the secondary storage chip in front of her. This is where Cameron's missing memories had been transferred and safely held . They would be "reintegrated" once the mission was complete and she and her support crew were safely back in 2027. Assuming their return.
The safety team stood down and left the room. They were alone. Cameron seemed in deep thought: She was hazy, like a patient having come around from general anaesthetic, but she was typically non-pressured by the urgency of the situation.
"John, I'm puzzled, there are sixty five seconds missing from the orders you gave me during the Final Briefing. Between 14.07 and 15.12, what happened?"
John shrugged his shoulders, "Oops sorry , screwdriver must of slipped whilst I was in there. It won't be anything important, don't worry, I'll dig it out for you when you get back if you really need it. " Even when John Connor grinned , his face remained inscrutable.
"John," Cameron looked seriously concerned, "this relates to orders concerning one of the roles of my support team, it might be important."
"I haven't got time to bring up the briefing notes now. You are leaving in four minutes and... twelve seconds, come on it's time to go, get in , the shields are closing, people are waiting"
Cameron reached out to hold John. As he wrapped his arms around her, he whispered,
" I know you can't remember all of it now, but we have said our good-byes. They were beautiful, and I promise you -your memories will waiting for you, I will be waiting , right here, for you, when you and your team get back, now come on, it's time."
As she left him the Triple Eight made to open the outer chamber door. She touched , him on the shoulder he leaned forward to listen as Cameron briefly said something out of John's earshot. The Triple Eight straightened up , looked her in the eyes and nodded.
Cameron was at two steps away from the TDE inner chamber door, John shouts over the rising crackling and blue flashing charge " Cam-I love you."
She didn't pause or turn to look back. John doesn't know if she even heard him.
"What did she say Bob ?" John asked as they were walking up the sloping corridor towards the bunker exit.
The Triple Eight's expression remained implacable, " Look after him, and remember he can be a complete bastard at times, make sure he does his share of cleaning up."
"Do you think I am, a complete bastard?"
"I have no records of your fathers identity . As Sarah Connor never changed her surname I assume your parents were not married at the time of your conception , nor your birth . Would you care to update my files?"
Subtle machine humour already? John just smiled a wide knocked-out teeth smile , ran his hand through his hair shook his head This was going to take months of preliminary social interaction and learning with his temporary protector. At least Metal doesn't fall asleep and snore loudly when you share a room.
"That file update? Not right now Ok, I'll explain later "he replied.
Then he tried to remember. What had made him think of snoring,then it dawned on him:, had Cameron's sleep-simulation light snore mode been on suppress in evolving subroutines files? Later that would drive the kid crazy when he couldn't sleep. What else had they forgotten?
Too late now. She'd gone.
1999
"Mum, I'm going to be about twelve to fifteen minutes late, OK?
"No, I'm going to check out the video store with a friend. I'm walking home with her, She lives three blocks down and she's got a video she wants to take back."
"The video, It's The History Of American Art , part 2, look quarter of an hour, no there's no need to come and meet us"
"Groceries, 'll get them, yeh,yes, Frozen fries, 1 kg , yep I'll get those as well."
"Yeh you too."
John put away his cell phone and stood with his hands in his jacket pockets, looking slightly away , over Cameron's shoulder towards the distant sandstone hills.
John cleared his throat. "Cameron, I guess you'll find out anyway my Mum is a total control freak on the first week in a new school. She's got her reasons. She eases off after about a month. Then I get to go out then for at least an hour a week. Ok."
Cameron had been updating her numerous rendered models of John Connor. He was 15 kg lighter than at his physical peak. His hair was "untidy", and he appeared moderately malnourished even with the surplus of food available in this time. No scarring to face, no tattoos. Urgently requires new pair of well fitting, hygienic training shoes.
As they started walking she automatically took to the outside of the pavement placing herself between John and the potential lines of fire from passing traffic, John didn't notice. What he did notice was she modulated her pace to match his . It felt good, "kinda light" was one way of describing having Cameron walking this close and in step with him.
"John, why did you say the video I am returning is A History Of American Art Part 2?"
"I was just making it up, there's no way she'd believe anything I'd said on the way home anyway. What is the video"
"Its a war movie , about an ex-special forces soldier who is physically attacked by the local police . He escapes and evades them, devises improvised traps and weaponry and eventually draws them into an ambush . The title is Rambo. Have you seen it?"
As if Cameron suddenly thought up the idea, she asked: " Would you like to come home with me and watch it ? My parents won't mind, I could watch it again and we take it back later. I could get them to ring your mum, you can stay and eat with us. I can arrange to drive you back and drop the video off. That's in a in a car, not a tractor. There are no tractors at our house."
"And, if you don't want to watch Rambo ,we can see if there is something like a History of American Art, although I doubt we will find it in the local video store" Cameron looked straight ahead in the direction they were walking. She seemed to smile a faint, if enigmatic smile.
" Rambo. -Choice of video Cameron! That's the one where Sly makes a bow and arrow, I've seen bits of it yeh, I'd love, I mean like to watch all of it. I'll have to try to negotiate with mum first. It might not be tonight.
If he could pull this off , this was going to be about as close to normal things get. John Connor , motivated , began serious figuring strategy.
As they walked on, Cameron Phillips stared-down a very large approaching, flatfooted, Hick-dweller , who switched route to avoid colliding with John and herself, at the last minute.
This was John Connor's first taste of the rest of the life he was to lead.
