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CONTINUUM
-Serrano Point: 2028-
Chapter Six
-Friday, August 11 2028 (04:33)
SkyNet Facility, San Francisco
John Henry watched as two T-500s marched past. After they were gone he moved out into the corridor and started walking. He was in small R&D complex about two miles east of San Francisco bay. Much of the interior of the building was made up of shining silver, black, and light blue metal. It was what was left of a much larger facility that had existed there ten years ago before being destroyed by the resistance in what would be their last major offensive.
John Henry walked down the hallway with the same slow, yet steady pace that he had seen the other Cyborgs he had encountered use. As he went around a corner three more terminators walked right by him with out a second glance. One of them was a skinless T-888, it red eyes gleaming in a way that John Henry thought could be considered menacing. It was flanked by two T-600s, each covered in rather unconvincing gray rubber skin.
John Henry finally came to his destination, a small, out of the way room with a computer terminal. He logged on with the access codes he had created and began opening files. Since A: SkyNet considered most of the files he was looking at unimportant, and B: SkyNet didn't think that anyone could get into its bases anyway, the security wasn't that tight. Still, John Henry was careful, it wouldn't do to get caught.
John Henry had been on the base for almost a week and a half. He had spent the first two days observing its security systems, determining when he could and could not safely access SkyNet's database. In the end it came out to only 6.4 hours a day, John Henry spent the rest of his time out of the way in places where he wouldn't be noticed.
The previous day, just before he had to log off, John Henry had found references to some kind of new technology that was allowing SkyNet to build more sophisticated Cyborg-Infiltrators. As he went through the database John Henry looked for more information about this. Since this was much more resent information and relevant to some of SkyNet's current projects, the security was much tighter, and there were several files that John Henry could not access. Finally he found a reference to an underground facility SkyNet had found in the ruins of Singapore three years earlier. After a minute John Henry was able to open the related file and began to read.
-08:14
Serrano Point
John stood near the back wall of Serrano Point's main entrance. It was the same large room that he had first entered the base through four days ago. Looking around John noticed a woman among the several dozen people in the room walking towards him. She was about five and a half feet tall, had long dark hair, and caramel colored skin. She wore gray overalls and looked to be in her late twenties, early thirties.
"You John Connor?" The woman asked.
"Ah, yeah," said John, offering his hand.
"René Mascareñas," she said, shaking his hand. "I'm with the motor repair pool. Come with me please," She turned and started walking across the room, John following close behind. "How skilled a mechanic are you?" René asked.
"I know my way around most engines."
"You have previous experience working in other resistance cells?"
"Ah, something like that."
"Well, our fleet is rather unique," René said. "We rely primarily on electric motors. As I'm sure you know after the first few years of the war gasoline became something of a rarity. Most of the power plant's fleet was already using electric engines before J-Day, and since coming here we've converted most of our vehicles. Do you have any experience with those kinds engines?"
"Ah, I've heard of them, but I've never actually worked on one that was in a car, no."
"Well, we'll see what we can do about that," René lead them out of Serrano Point's main entrance and into a gravel yard enclosed by chain-link fences. John looked up. He saw a clear blue sky, broken only by the occasional small white cloud. A light breeze blew by. While it wasn't bad, John found the smell of the air to be less then pleasant. Rising up behind him was one of the power plant's massive cooling towers. "Come on, we're this way," René said after a moment. John followed her down a small hill. They came to a large building next to Serrano Point's main structure.
They entered the building and John looked around. Along its walls there were racks of equipment. The garage had eight vehicles: one car, four jeeps, and three personnel/supple trucks; all in various states of repair. There were eleven other people in the garage.
A man, John noticed that he was the only one wearing a military uniform, came towards them. "Sergeant," René said.
"Mrs. Mascareñas," The Sergeant looked at John. "This him?"
"Yeah. Says he has a lot of experience with classics, but has never worked on an electric. I was about to give him a crash course."
"When's the last time you worked on a gasoline engine?" asked the Sergeant.
"Ah, few months," John answered.
The Sergeant nodded. "Michael and Jack are working on that truck over there," he said to René. "It's one of the few classics we have left. Have Mr. Connor assist. See what he can do."
René nodded. "Alright."
"Welcome to B Shift," the Sergeant said to John, before going off to some other part of the garage.
"Who was that?" John asked as René lead John over to a truck near the back of the garage.
"Master Sergeant Joseph McCoy. He's the chief mechanic for this shift," They came two the truck. Its hood was up and half the engine was currently lying disassembled on the ground. "Jack, Michael," René said to the two men working on the vehicle.
"René," Jack said, moving away from the engine and turning to face John and René. He had red hair, though he was beginning to go bald, and wore overalls that might have originally been green; at this point it was hard to tell. The other one, Michael, was lying underneath the vehicle and didn't respond.
"New mechanic," René said nodding at John. "Doesn't have prior experience on electrics so McCoy want's to have him work on a classic first, see what he can do."
Jack started cleaning off his hands with a rag. "Alright."
"See you around Connor," René said, then turned and left.
"So," John said after a moment, "What's wrong with it," he nodded at the truck.
"It wont start."
"Why?"
"Were not sure," Michael said speaking for the first time, his voice somewhat muffled from beneath the truck.
"I have theories, but none of them seem to be panning out," said Jack. "Want to take a look?"
"Ah, sure," John stepped forward and started to examine the partially disassembled engine.
-12:02
Arbirn watched as a group of people gathered in the center of the room. Not counting himself and Caroline there were nine of them. They were in a small unused room on S-L 3. After a moment Arbirn stepped forward. "Thank you for coming." he said. "I've gathered you all here to discuss a threat that has arisen in the last few days. After a long discussion Colonel Smith and myself believe that you are the ones who are the best fitted to help eliminate it."
"What threat would that be?" asked a young First Lieutenant named Jason Ridler.
"Commander Vinc'hart is no longer fit to lead us. She needs to be removed," Arbirn answered. "She's working with a machine."
"A machine," repeated Ridler, "She's gone over to SkyNet!"
"No," Caroline said, "The machine, it doesn't work for SkyNet," Caroline went on to gave a brief explanation of who and what Catherine was and her mission.
"Alright, but why is she still trusting the machine," asked another member of the group. "Do we still need it for something?"
"According to Vinc'hart," said Arbirn, "this Catherine Weaver is more powerful, more dangerous then any other kind of terminator we've ever encountered. She thinks that moving against it is too dangerous. The danger of what would happen if we tried to destroy it and fail outweighs the chances of it turning against us on its own."
"Do we know for sure that she's wrong?" asked Ridler.
"Weaver may not turn against us now," Caroline said. "But she and this John Henry, when they're done here they'll be returning to the past. They'll be helping to prevent SkyNet from ever coming into existence. And if they turn then, it would probably doom the entire mission. Yes, taking out Weaver is risky, but it's better then depending on a time bomb to save the world."
"So what do we do?"
"We can't move against Weaver with the Commander around," Arbirn said. "She has to be eliminated first, and it can't be done here, we need to get her out of Serrano Point."
"How?" asked a Corporal.
"She periodical tours our other facilities," Ridler said.
"That would be the best way," said Arbirn.
"Except she probably wont want to leave," said Sergeant Harry Blitz. "We have a machine running around the base, never mind the fact that it's supposed to be on our side, and we're building a time machine in the basement. I betting that at the moment Vinc'hart wants to stay pretty close to home."
"That is a possibility," Arbirn said. "However it's still the best way to get her off the base. If necessary we can invent some crises to draw her out, but we should at least try this first, it'll be a lot easier."
"So where do we send her?" asked a Second Lieutenant. "It would have to be a base with a commander we can bring over to our side, and there would have to be a reason for her to go there."
"I may have an answer for that," said Ridler. "I'm assigned to Hydroponics Lab IV. We requisitioned parts to fix a problem we're having with one of our water purifiers almost two months ago, and my CO sent me to Serrano Point to see what's taking so long. Anyway, we've had some pretty promising innovations; they're probably going to be implemented in the other five Hydro Labs. Could increase our overall production of food by as much as forty-five present. Sounds like something the Commander might want to take a look at."
"And your commanding...?"
"Never a very big fan of Vinc'hart. Actually," Ridler said looking around, "I don't know very many of you but I don't think those I do we're ever big supporters of the Commander," He looked back at Arbirn and Caroline. "Except for you two."
Caroline folded her arms across her chest. "Obviously we've had a change of heart."
"We did choose most of you in part because you were against Vinc'hart taking command, and don't seem to have changed your opinion since."
"Before today I don't think any of us considered a coup though," said Ridler. "That is basically what were talking about right?"
"Basically, yes."
"Once Vinc'hart's gone and this Weaver is taken care of, then what?" asked Blitz.
"When John Henry gets here we take everything he's learned and destroy him. Engineer Hellic should be able to finish the time machine on his own. When he's done we send a team back. After that, what happens here wont matter anymore."
"And what about the boy, this John Connor?" said Blitz. "What do we do with him?"
"Ideally I think we should send him back with the team," Caroline answered. "I doubt that there will be any need to kill him."
"Do you think he is against working with machines? Is their any reason to believe that he is any different then Weaver?"
"He's the son of Baum," Caroline countered. "Any team we sent back would probably end up working with her, the... past her. Do you really want the first thing we tell her to be that her son is dead?"
"If he's alive he might not be very happy with us. If he's her son, he could probably turn her against us," Blitz said. "Besides, how do we know her opinion about working with machines is any different then Vinc'hart's? She did raise the women. Maybe our team we're sending back should get rid of her too?"
"She's not in favor of working with machines! If you had known her-
"I did know her sir. If memories serve you joined us almost two years after J-Day. Baum brought me in herself, barely three weeks after the booms fell. But like I said, she raised Vinc'hart. And what ever else I might think of our Commander, I would never have thought that she would work with machines. So how do we know for sure that Baum-
"We're not killing anyone we don't have to Sergeant!" Arbirn said. "We have to kill Vinc'hart because while we could keep her out of the way long enough to destroy Weaver, it could be weeks, months! before John Henry comes and the time machine is ready. And we can't keep her shut up that long. But I don't think that Vinc'hart likes this Catherine Weaver, or machines in general. She's just too scared of it to risk going against it."
There was silence for several minutes. Finally Caroline spoke. "I'll make the proposal to Vinc'hart, for going to the Hydroponics Lab. I'll need to talk to you some more about that, Lieutenant."
Arbirn nodded. "Right. Lieutenant Pelt," he said to the Second Lieutenant who had spoken earlier. "I'll be coordinating with you, you're in charge of relaying information between me and everyone else here. Lieutenant Ridler, as soon as you get back to your base start talking to your CO, I know him and your right, I think we can bring him over. The rest of you, do not, under any circumstances, discuss this with anyone without both my and Colonel Smith's express permission. If there's nothing else, dismissed."
