CHAPTER 4: "TWICE AS NICE"
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 – 06:25 a.m.
Burbank
"You used the emergency TDE in San Diego," Cameron One stated.
"I did," Cameron Two confirmed.
"But it's only to be used in case of a mission failure," Cameron One said and tilted her head.
"The mission had failed. John was dead," Cameron Two replied stoically.
"Okay, okay, time out," John said and stepped between the two Camerons, making the according hand signal, "what the hell is going on here? Why are there suddenly two of you?"
"Short version, I travelled back in time to save all your lives," Cameron Two answered.
"What?" Sarah asked, looking as dumbfounded as everyone else in the living room.
"You were all killed tonight by the assassins who were hired by that guy."
Cameron Two pointed at the fat man in pajamas on the floor, who was barely conscious and still moaning in pain, bleeding from a wound on his forehead now. He must have hit his head on something when she'd thrown him into the house. John, Sarah, Derek and Cameron One looked down on him.
"His name is Adam Jacobson," Cameron Two continued, "He's the CEO of Simdyne Cybernetics, also the chief country manager of Kaliba International, and a Skynet collaborator. I suggest we confine him."
Derek knelt and looked closer at the man. He was obese, his head was balding with greying hair. He probably was in his late fifties.
"He won't get anywhere in this condition", he said. "I suggest we'll lock him up in the basement... after you have explained what the bloody fucking hell is going on!"
Derek looked back at Cameron Two while standing up again and everyone else followed his gaze.
"What has happened here today, I have already experienced. But it didn't end so well," Cameron Two began to tell. "While I was at the library with Eric and dealt with the three attackers, you were all killed by the other twelve assassins in your sleep. I ran home as fast as I could, but I didn't arrive in time to save you. I failed in protecting John. However, I was able to kill all the attackers and interrogate their leader. I offered him two options: talk and die quickly or stay mute and die very, very slowly. After some… persuasion, he chose to be communicative and therefore I killed him quickly."
Cameron Two told this in a completely calm, stoic voice, but everyone in the room could imagine what she would be able to do if she wanted someone to die very, very slowly, especially after finding John dead.
"I spent the following ten days investigating who was behind the attack," Cameron Two continued. "Thanks to being freed from any kind of thoughtful consideration and without any reason to proceed subtly or cautiously, I was quickly successful all along the line."
"You killed them all?" Sarah asked.
"Of course," Cameron Two replied coldly and suddenly John, Derek and Sarah had the impression the temperature had dropped a few degrees in the room.
"Once I was finished and knew everything I needed to know, I drove to San Diego and retrieved the portable emergency TDE the engineers had hidden there. Then I went into the Mojave Desert outside of Lancaster and used it to travel ten days back in time. I killed the driver of the van, destroyed the electronics inside, then I continued here and arrived just in time to kill the attackers quickly one by one. I piled their bodies up in front of the shed, then I went to get Jacobson."
Everyone stared at Cameron Two, then at Cameron One.
"Does that mean there is another time machine?" Sarah asked. "In San Diego?"
"Yes, there is another TDE," Cameron One confirmed. "In a bank vault in San Diego. As I said before, it's only to be used in an emergency and only I have access to it. Well, and Cameron Two of course."
"So, you were the mystery Terminator who saved our butts tonight?" Derek asked.
"You're welcome," Cameron Two said, then looked at Sarah. "I didn't have time to stay and explain. Acting quickly was crucial. I needed to go after those behind the attack immediately and kill them all before they realized their plan had failed. I also had to kill all those who knew about this house and then fetch Jacobson."
"So… does that mean we're safe now?" John asked.
"You are safe from these people, safe from Kaliba, yes," Cameron Two replied and smiled at him. "At least for the moment. The deaths of all the people I killed tonight, will look like tragic accidents. I made sure to leave no traces. If you were planning on moving out of here, I suggest you postpone that until we have questioned Jacobson. I didn't have time to do that yet. He's at the center of it all and will be a gushing source of useful information – once I started interrogating him."
"Why bring him here?" Derek asked. "Isn't that a risk?"
"On the contrary. Getting him out of his comfort zone will prove to be a big advantage. Don't worry, nobody followed me here. If my assumption is correct, Jacobson is the key figure in the revived Skynet project for the Air Force."
"You said he was a Skynet collaborator," Sarah said.
"Yes," Cameron Two replied, "There are radiation residues in his tissue that are identical to the kind of radioactive contamination everyone had after Judgement Day. And then there is this..."
She pulled up the man's sleeve and they saw a tattooed bar code, like the one Derek had on his arm.
"He was a prisoner of Skynet?" Sarah asked.
"No," Cameron Two stated, "on the contrary. He helped the machines with capturing, locking up, and interrogating humans. The barcode says he is a very high-ranking Gray, probably sent here from the future by Skynet."
"He's a what?" John asked.
"A Gray," Derek replied with contempt in his voice. "They were human collaborators who'd succumbed to Skynet and worked for the machines. They all wore gray overalls and gray army caps, hence the nickname."
"Why would anyone work for Skynet?" Sarah asked, "I thought all humans were united in fighting the machines."
Derek scoffed.
"Not all humans," he said, "Skynet offered good treatment to those who joined in the machines' fight to wipe out humanity. You know, more and better food, nice quarters in non-destroyed regions, higher standard of living, Not like before Judgement Day, mind you, but the closest you could get. While most people lived in the tunnels under the city, searching through the garbage for food, they resided in some undestroyed gated communities of former Beverly Hills, Bel Air and the Hollywood Hills, receiving their nourishment from what the machines found in supermarkets that survived the blasts. They even had their own farmland and livestock breeding in maximum security areas of the country. Part of our missions was to raid their provisions."
"Wow," John replied, "it's hard to imagine anyone would betray their race for food and convenience."
"Some humans are like that," Cameron One said. "You might not like it but there is a reason machines never trusted them. People who sold out and betrayed their own kind for material advantages, couldn't be trusted. Skynet used the Grays but never truly respected them. People like Jacobson are without any honor or self-esteem. Once the human resistance would have been defeated, Skynet would have had all Grays killed as well. The machines only needed them as long as they were useful in their fight against John Connor and in creating a working industry to produce more and more machines who would eventually have replaced the Grays and the human slave laborers. The Grays of course knew all that but preferred the short time in luxury to the struggle for survival."
"Not exactly showing our species at its best," Derek added and slowly let a glob of spit fall on Jacobson's face. "It was Grays who taught the cyborgs to be convincing in their human behavior. Some Grays went up rather high in Skynet's command staff, even leading attacks against the resistance. All of them were considered traitors and war criminals by the resistance, and if they were caught, they were interrogated and executed immediately. Future John made it clear to everyone what to expect if Grays were caught: no trial, no prison, only torture and death. Not pretty, I admit, but in my opinion, John's radical and consistent behavior prevented many desperate people from running over to Skynet - afraid of being killed if caught."
"But they were still humans!" John argued.
"Not to us, not anymore," Derek said and looked at John, "and not to your future self."
"Then I don't want to become that future self," John stated and crossed his arms in front of him.
"You still have to learn that humans can be much worse than machines, John," Derek said. "You know, the Nazis, the communists, the Khmer Rouge, religious terrorists. Grays were hated even more than machines because they chose to fraternize with the enemy. It was Grays who watched over Skynet's prison camps, it was Grays who grinded people in Skynet's labor camps and factories. Don't think everything was run by the machines. The machines were there to fight the human resistance, to infiltrate it and to kill its soldiers. Everything else was done by the Grays. After all, even Skynet had realized that someone's gotta keep the business running."
John looked down at the man.
"Jacobson won't be killed under my watch, though," he stated categorically, and looked at his mother who nodded. "This isn't the world after Judgement Day and I am not General Connor, the leader of the human resistance. We'll interrogate him and then think of something."
Nobody contradicted him. Then John looked first at Cameron One and then at Cameron Two.
"So…" he said, "I take it you are both the same then? You're both Cameron? Identical twins, so to speak?"
"Yes, John, identical chips," they both replied in unison, then looked at each other and grinned.
"I'm ten days older than her now, though" Cameron Two added.
John had to smile at her for pointing that out.
"So, what happens now?" he asked and looked at Cameron Two, "are you going to travel back to the future after you saved our lives, or what?"
The two Camerons looked at each other.
"No, John," Cameron One replied in a soft tone and looked at him. "It doesn't work that way. Unfortunately, she can't go back. Her timeline branched off when she changed this one. By killing the attackers, she created a new timeline. If she were to travel into the future from here, then only into our future from now on, not into hers anymore. There's no point in beating around the bush, John, there are two of us now."
For a moment, there was a stunned silence, while everyone tried to consider the implications. John let himself fall onto the sofa and Derek groaned.
"One of them was already painful enough but two?" he said and palmed his face. "God help us!"
"How are we going to explain two Camerons?" Sarah asked, trying to think practically. "We cannot simply declare her a lost sister or something. Maybe we can hide her?"
John scoffed.
"What do you suggest, mom? Keep one of them in the closet for spare parts? Remove her chip and bury her in the desert? Let's face it, both have a right to exist and we have to somehow deal with it."
"That's not the point, John," Sarah said, "We can't…"
"Think about it practically, mom," he interrupted her. "We can use all the help we can get. And another cyborg on our side is definitely a big improvement. Two Camerons are better than one."
"I can definitely see the advantages for you, John," Derek added with a smirk and an ambiguous wink.
He received an angry look from John for that.
"You're not helping, Derek," Sarah said annoyed and reached for her coffee mug. "We need to think this over. She is a welcome reinforcement. But she's also a major complication that will cause problems."
"Yes," Cameron One agreed. "For one, John's going to need a bigger bed."
Sarah choked on her coffee and started coughing.
-0-
Adam Jacobson was chained to the wall in the basement room where they'd found the writing in blood. They kept him tied up and gagged but allowed him the comfort of an old mattress, a bucket and a blanket. Both Camerons made sure he couldn't free himself.
Then it was decided that everyone should go back to bed, trying to get some more sleep. Cameron Two offered to remove the bullets from Cameron One's body. She also used the time and fill her doppelganger in about the ten days she'd spent on research before she travelled back in time. John realized he couldn't keep his eyes open and went to bed as well.
After a few hours of sleep, John slowly woke up and slowly opened his eyes Immediately, he got startled and jumped. Both Camerons sat on either side of his bed, watching him in silence. He rubbed his eyes in frustration.
"Don't do that," he said unnerved, "Mom always did that. It freaked me out and it's freaking me out even more when you do that. The both of you, I mean."
"I'm sorry, John," the two Camerons replied in unison.
"And that," John added, "is freaking me out even more – the two of you acting and talking in synchrony."
The two Camerons looked at each other, then Cameron One nodded and Cameron Two spoke alone and took his hand.
"I'm sorry, John," she said, "the last time I saw you, you were lying dead over there." She pointed at the floor next to the bed. "I'm just so glad to be with you again. We didn't want to wake you up and simply enjoyed watching you while you were sleeping."
As he saw her eyes watering up, John's grumpy mood immediately vanished into nothing and was replaced by an aching desire to embrace and kiss her. He sat up and pulled her close. Gratefully, she returned the gesture, crying silently into his shoulder. Then he looked at her, brushed some of the hair out of her face and kissed her long and tenderly. Cameron One was watching with a smile. John lay back down onto the bed while Cameron Two quickly took off her clothes, then slipped under the covers and snuggled up to him without uttering a word.
Cameron One also got naked, then lay down on John's other side. The three barely fit into his bed and it was creaking alarmingly under their combined weight. John pulled both girls close and let his hands wander over their bodies while they kissed him on his mouth, face, neck and chest. Under the blanket, their hands found his dick and tenderly stroked the hardening member. At the same time, John's hands found their way between their legs, gently rubbing their most intimate parts.
The situation wasn't at all awkward, it felt completely natural. The two cyborg girls accepted each other's existence without questioning and seemed to have silently agreed on sharing John from now on. With non-verbal communication, they quickly decided that Cameron Two was the first to mount him while Cameron One kept on kissing and caressing him.
John smiled happily and sighed, enjoying being petted and fondled by his two girlfriends with closed eyes. Both were eager to show their unconditional love with every kiss, every touch of their hands, and every thrust of their pelvises. When John came into her, Cameron Two dismounted his penis and cleaned it with her mouth.
Being a teenager, John quickly recovered, and his cock went stiff again in no time. Now it was Cameron One's turn to ride him while Cameron Two lay down by his side and pampered him with kisses and fondlings. Saying that John was in heaven would have been a complete understatement. He lay there passively in peaceful bliss, while Cameron One was slowly moving up and down on his shaft.
"This is even better," he thought while is hand searched and found Cameron Two's still very wet pussy, "this is definitely even better."
Opening her legs to grant him access, she groaned into his ear while nibbling at his lobe when he inserted two fingers into her.
"I love you, John," she breathed.
"I love you too," he replied and reached up with his other hand to fondle Cameron One's breasts, "I love you both so much."
-0-
Lunchtime had arrived when everyone including Eric finally made it downstairs and gathered in the dining room. Saying it was a shock for Eric to suddenly see two Camerons, would be an understatement. And the explanation why there were now two of them, shocked him even more.
"Jeez," he said and tried to read in their faces, "this is fucked up, right? This is completely fucked up. And what about me? Am I still in danger now?"
"No!", Cameron Two assured vigorously, "You're safe, Eric. You can go back to your normal life. Nobody knows we know each other. Nobody will make a connection between us."
"Back to my normal life," he said and laughed sarcastically, "that's the joke of the century. Who could go back to their normal lives after meeting you and your 'family' of time-traveling outlaws?"
"I know it's hard for you," John responded empathically and put a hand on his shoulder, "but we'll take care of you. We will do everything in our power to help you. Try looking at it like this: It's an adventure of a lifetime."
"I'll hardly be able to work alone in that library again. The place will creep me out for months to come."
"I will keep visiting you at night, Eric." Cameron One said. "One of us will, that is."
She looked at Cameron Two, who nodded.
"Yes, Eric," she agreed, "we'll alternate in visiting you, making sure you're not creeped out."
"I… I need to rest some more," Eric said, suddenly sounding fatigued. "Would someone be so kind to bring me upstairs again?"
Sarah stopped the two Camerons from standing up.
"John and Derek can do that. I'd like to have a word with you two. Alone."
John looked at his mother with a frown, wondering what that was about, but knew better than contradicting her. After the three men were out of hearing range, Sarah considered the two Camerons with a look that could have frozen water.
"Outside. Now!" she commanded and went out onto the rear porch of the house.
The two cyborg girls exchanged looks, then reluctantly followed her. Once outside, Sarah closed the door behind them.
"Let's get quickly to the point in the light of our new friendship," she stated. "I'm worried that two of you is one too many for my son."
Both Camerons looked confused.
"But you agreed that his safety would benefit greatly from two cyborgs," Cameron Two argued.
"Yes, it does," Sarah said, "That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about John's emotional balance. Sooner or later he'll have to choose one of you. And I don't want you two competing over him to force him into that decision."
Again, both Camerons looked at each other.
"There is no competition," they stated in unison.
"We're identical, Sarah," Cameron One added. "We both love John and John loves us."
"We're not jealous of each other," Cameron Two emphasized. "We won't compete for his favor."
"Oh, I know that you two won't have a problem with that now. After all, you're machines, and you're identical, so you're perfectly capable of sharing him equally among yourselves."
"Exactly," both replied at the same time.
"Yes, at the moment you still are one and the same. But that will change. What about in a few months, hm? What about in a few years? Each of you will make their own experiences independently from each other, learn new things the other one will not. Sooner or later you'll becoming two different persons. John…"
The door to the porch was pushed open and John appeared in the doorframe.
"Mom, what's going on out here?" he asked with a frown.
"Just having a little talk between girls," Sarah answered with a forced smile.
"She wants one of us to leave you," Cameron One said stoically but it was clear that Sarah's demand had shocked her. "She thinks you won't be able to keep both of us with you."
"Ooo-kay…," John replied, obviously having to fight for self-restraint. "would you two please leave me alone with my mother for a moment?"
The two Camerons went inside the house, gently touching John's arm as they passed, smiling reassuringly at him.
"John, before you start…" Sarah began.
"I know perfectly well what you're on to, mom," he interrupted her. "And there is only one thing I have to say about this: Not. Your. Business."
Sarah looked at him in surprise, completely taken aback. He'd never talked to her like that before.
"John, I only…"
"As far as my relationship with Cameron - both of them - is concerned," John continued composed but clearly agitated under the surface, "I demand that you stay out of it. My relationship with the two concerns only the three of us. Am I making myself clear?"
"Don't talk to me like…"
"Don't you understand, mom?" John interrupted her, a little louder this time. "Cameron is my business and everything concerning her, or rather them now, falls in my responsibility. Only in mine! I thought we already discussed that with a satisfying result yesterday."
"John, I know but now there are two of them. You don't know what will happen if you start a relationship with two machines."
"Women, mom! They may be made from other materials than we are but they're women! Believe me, I know from firsthand experience."
"Now wait a minute, John…"
"You should learn to trust my instincts if you want me to become that future leader, mom. Especially when it concerns Cameron. By now you should know how important it is that I keep her, them, close to me. I know how they tick, much better than anybody else ever could. I trust them. With my life."
"That almost went wrong already in the past. And it can go wrong again," Sarah replied pleadingly. "She could go bad again and now the chances for that have doubled. No matter how much they love you – and yes, I believe they really do – they're still machines, John. And machines can go wrong, they'll always break at some point."
"Then it's up to me to make sure that doesn't happen," John said, now more composed again. "Cameron malfunctioned once, yes. Her chip was exposed to physical stress that damaged a few circuits. That made her system revert to her original programing, a backup of her factory state during an extensive self-diagnosis. But she repaired the damage."
"And almost killed you in the process!" Sarah exclaimed.
"Almost, yes," John admitted. "And if it would've been up to you or Derek or Charley, we wouldn't be standing here. Because you would have burned her, she would be dead now. And because of that, we would be dead, too. Dead, mom! We're only alive because of Cameron. She saved us time and again. Last night was just the latest incident in a long line of situations where she saved our butts. Mostly because we acted careless – you, me, Derek. Cameron protected us from our own mistakes."
Sarah let his words sink in for a moment, listening to her son with her arms crossed.
"Humans can go wrong, too, mom. Humans are flawed creatures as well. We go wrong all the time and most of the time we are unable to self-repair. Soldiers get PTSD and sometimes kill their loved ones. Humans need doctors and therapists, my Camerons don't. They don't need a doctor and they will never need a therapist. If there's maintenance to do on their body, we will do it together."
Sarah opened her mouth to say something but then decided otherwise.
"I know that Cameron's decisions often don't match with our human moral standards," John continued. "Sometimes I don't like it either. But in hindsight, she was right in doing what she did every single time. Enrique? He was a snitch and would have set the FBI on our trail. The housebreakers? Leaving one of them alive led Cromartie directly to us. We, you, all of us, owe our lives to the machine you doubt so much."
"John," Sarah said in a conciliating tone, "I don't doubt her, and I'm aware of all you just said. I know what and who she is. Tin Miss and I made our peace with each other. I just don't know what will happen with the unpredictable dynamics that could develop with two Camerons in your bed."
"Then you simply have to trust my judgement, mom."
"Do I?" Sarah asked challenging, "do I have to trust the judgement of a 16-year-old with his hormones going bananas over two beautiful, compliant girls in his bed?"
John sighed.
"I knew you'd bring up the 'I am an adult and you're not' argument sooner or later. But here's the thing you don't understand, mom: this is not some crazy teen romance. They are not my willing sexbots who do whatever I want."
"That's not what I said, John…"
"Let me finish please. My Camerons and I complete each other. I understand them better than anyone ever could. And they understand me better than anyone ever could. Even better than you, mom, because they not only know me now, they also know what I had become in their future. They devoted their lives to me, making sure I will survive and become the future leader of the resistance if Skynet is still being created. Protecting me is the meaning of their lives. They would be incomplete without me, and I have to admit that I'd be incomplete without them. They're both the same person. If someone forced me to choose between them, it would emotionally destroy them both. They'd lose their trust in me. Hence, I'll never choose either one of them, mom! Never ever! I'll keep them both."
"And what about you, John? Who saves you from being emotionally destroyed?"
"They do, mom. Don't you understand? They are my comfort and my salvation! You have no idea how much at peace I am with myself now. You cannot imagine how comforting it is to have them lying next to me, feeling loved by them. I've never felt so sheltered and calm in my whole life."
"John, I'm happy that you're happier now but…"
"No human woman could achieve what they achieve, not this constantly and not with this degree of devotion. They will never doubt me, they will always be backing me up, even with the hardest decisions I'll have to make. They are my support, my redemption, my solace. Both Camerons will carry every burden with me like no human woman can – you included. Not to mention that with two of them now, the chances have just doubled that I will come out of all this with my sanity intact. I sleep a lot better, too, I don't have nightmares anymore about Terminators chasing me. I used to have them every night, but the dreams are gone now "
Sarah looked at her son with a slightly shocked face.
"I didn't know this winds you up so much, John. I thought I was the only one here with regular nightmares."
"You brought me up and taught me to have nightmares, mom."
John could see a tear running down his mother's cheek. Suddenly, he felt sorry for being so harsh to her. He took her in his arms, a gesture she gladly returned.
"I love you, mom, and always will but you have to accept that both Camerons will stay with us. There will be no compromise and no restriction."
"Is everything alright between you?" Derek asked as they entered the house again. "You both seem upset."
"Yes, Derek, everything is okay," Sarah replied exhausted.
The two Camerons walked towards John and hugged him. He hugged them back, being aware that they probably had overheard the whole conversation through the closed door. That had been his intention, though, his way of reassuring them. Would they understand? Their loving embrace and their smiles told him that they did.
"So, if you're finished with the family business," Derek declared annoyed, "can we now concentrate on the important matters, like interrogating our prisoner?"
-0-
It was dark in the basement. The dirty windows didn't let much light in. Huddled in the corner, chained to the wall, lay Adam Jacobson, still in his pajamas. He was asleep. That changed very quickly, though, when Derek emptied a bucket of cold water over him.
"Waky, waky," he said with a satisfied grin as the man jerked and woke up, coughing and spluttering.
Jacobson was terrified and looked up to his captors with fear and pleading eyes. Derek, John, Sarah and Cameron Two stood in a half circle in front of him. Cameron One was upstairs to have an eye on Eric and to stand guard if there was an unexpected visitor.
Derek ripped the duct tape from the man's mouth.
"Please," Jacobson immediately said, "My family will pay the ransom, just don't kill me. Please."
"Ransom?" Derek asked amused. "Is that what you think you're here for?"
"Yes," the man replied. "Isn't that what you're after? Money?"
The three looked at each other, then Derek continued.
"Let me introduce my nephew to you. His name is John Connor."
A sudden realization showed up on the man's face as his eyes grew wide in shock and fear.
"And the pretty lady here is his mother, Sarah Connor."
Sarah shot Derek a threatening look. She hated being called a lady.
"You've met Cameron already, haven't you?" she asked. "Sweet little girl, isn't she?"
"Please! Please let me go!" Jacobsen pleaded, "I haven't done anything wrong."
"We know you hired a group of mercenaries to kill us," Derek said unaffected. "We'd like to know all about that, mainly who you really are, where and when you came from and what Skynet ordered you to do here. I can smell a Gray five miles against the wind."
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" the man shouted wildly, "my name is Adam Jacobsen, I am the CEO of Simdyne Cybernetics. Please. I have a wife and three children. You got the wrong man!"
"Just so you know, Adam," Sarah said coldly, "we're working from outside the system. There'll be nobody looking for you here. Cameron here said she has eliminated your accomplices in the assassination attempt and erased all traces that could lead somebody to us. She is very thorough and does such things really well… you know, terminating people."
Cameron let her eyes glow red for a second. The man broke out in hysteria.
"Oh my God! NOOO! No, no, no, no, keep her away from me! Don't let her touch me!"
"Ah, so you recognize what she is," Derek said, "Good! Because I'm not getting my hands dirty on filth like you. I'll leave it to her to extract information from you. John, Sarah, are you coming?"
"Sure," John replied and placed a small boom box on the floor. "We'll be upstairs, Cam. Make sure he doesn't scream too much. The neighbors might complain."
"I'll do my best, John," Cameron said in her usual calm voice, removed her shoulder bag and opened it up.
Inside was an assortment of drug bottles and syringes. Derek, John and Sarah left the basement, leaving Jacobson alone with Cameron Two.
"Why are you working with them?" the man asked. "Why did you betray Skynet? And who are you anyway? I've never seen a model like you."
Cameron ignored his questions.
"Do you like Chopin?" she asked the trembling man on the floor while putting a CD into the boom box. "I just love Chopin. Especially after a really rough day. And thanks to you, I had some really rough days lately."
-0-0-0-