Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Terminator characters
:Event timer triggered – exiting standby mode
#Show diagnostic report
:Diagnostics complete – no problems present
:Returning power to all systems...Please wait
:All systems ready
Cameron's vision returned and she found John sleeping right next to her with his right arm still wrapped around her. She was glad to see that her modifications to her standby programming were working perfectly. She had adjusted them so that changes to John's position that indicated that he was leaving her presence would 'wake her'. Sleeping a regular schedule presented many risks in her opinion because it took about 15 seconds for her systems to be ready after exiting standby mode. Although the 'pleasure', the only definition that fit what she perceived she was feeling, compensated for the risks that were involved.
Her internal clock reported that it was exactly 6:00:23.344am and time to get John up. He looked very peaceful and had told her before that her presence with him at night gave him great comfort and helped him sleep far better than he ever had in the past. It made her feel good and she found herself wanting to just stay with him for a while longer. To just ignore the responsibilities that lay ahead of both of them and instead just focus on being with him.
It was a very temping idea and after seven seconds of contemplation she decided to let him sleep while she got ready for the day. As she slowly started to untangle herself from his embrace she felt him pull her closer and open his eyes to fully look at her.
"Where are you trying to going without waking me?"
"I figured that I would let you sleep while I got ready."
He smiled at her and leaned forward and kissed her on her lips, the first one he had given her. It wasn't anything like what she had seen on the TV shows or the few movies they had watched while she had been with him, but to her it held far more meaning than anything those shows could ever hope to portray.
"Thanks for thinking of me, but I need to get moving as well."
With that they both exited the bed and John let out a rather large yawn. He was still very tired from all of the late nights of gathering information and staying up all of last night talking with her had created a large sleep debt for him. She had urged him to go to bed early last night but he refused stating that the information he was getting was far more important.
She was able to get him to come to bed at about 11:16pm by threatening to sit on him all night if he didn't stop what he was doing. Sarah had giggled over the whole affair because it had escalated to her dragging him back to the bedroom by his ankles. Sarah had made some remark about the roles of even cavemen being reversed in this crazy house. She didn't understand it but would look into at a later date.
She stopped thinking about it and looked back over at John as he stretched himself. She watched how all his muscles as they were stretched showed remarkable tone. She knew that he only exercised on the weekends but had done a very good job of it.
"What is the plan for today?"
"Well we got everything yesterday except for the body armor. I had just about figured that all out when you knocked me out of the chair and dragged me back here."
"Sleep is important."
"There are other more effective ways to get a man to come to bed."
"What ways?"
"You will figure it."
She didn't like his answer and put her hands on her hips and stared at him tapping her foot. She wasn't thinking about what she was doing but instead trying to show her annoyance at him for not providing her with a direct answer, something he almost always did.
His chuckle brought her out of her thoughts and she asked, "What is humorous about this situation?"
"It is just how much you are acting like a regular human wife right now. I'm sorry but it is just very funny to me."
"Alright. I'm going to clean up this morning since I was occupied with not letting you sneak away last night."
"I will go ahead and get breakfast and cleanup after you are done. Do you want me to make anything for you?"
"I would like two Eggos with peanut butter. Thanks for asking."
She watched John leave and began to figure out what she would wear today. She wanted to wear some of the clothes and shoes he had picked out for her yesterday. Since he had indicated that they would look nice on her she wanted to see what his reaction would be.
John walked out to the kitchen and saw his mom already up drinking some coffee and when she noticed him she looked up at him with a warm smile.
"So how did you sleep? Anything else happen after she dragged you off down to your room?"
John rolled his eyes and knew that his mom was enjoying the whole situation immensely. He was really worried about how she would take to him latching onto a Terminator in this way and at first he was sure it was going to be an endless fight over the whole thing. However, his mom had surprised him by letting go and then approving of it.
"I slept and that is all. Actually, it really didn't take very long once I got in bed because I was so tired and I didn't even realize it."
"I'm glad she dragged you off then. In fact, I was thinking about doing something similar. I know you want to do everything but it is impossible and you have to take care of yourself as well."
"I know but it's really hard to let go sometimes. Anyways, there is something else I have been wanting to ask you. Why did you suddenly accept the relationship between her and I."
"It was when we were traveling down to Gallup after just using the time displacement device. Her and I talked for a while as you slept and her answers told me that she was different in many ways."
John pulled out two Eggos and put them into the toaster and got down a bowl, grabbed the milk, and decided on corn flakes and carried it all over to the table.
"It sticks out very quickly doesn't it. She is very different from the others and is changing."
"Apparently, your future self knew that was it very important for you to have a companion who could always be with you and you choose her for that job. I was upset with it at first but it dawned on me that emotions and compassion for others are what truly separate us from the machines. If she can learn those things then she won't be like them either."
"Thanks, mom."
"Where's Cameron?"
"She taking a shower. Any word from Derek or Aaron yet?"
"Nope. I bet we will hear from them today. So what do you have planned today?"
"We are going to get that body armor this evening and then tomorrow take care of that T-888."
"How did you figure that out anyways?"
"Cameron spotted him while watching the TV," he lied.
John saw Sarah grimace a bit when he mentioned Cameron watching TV and he knew exactly what she was feeling. They had gotten her a TV with picture-in-picture and she would flip between channels on both pictures constantly searching for any possible threats and watching for other related news. The channel surfing wasn't that bad but she liked to have both audio channels mixed together and while it sounded terrible to them she could apparently separate the two channels and keep track of it all. Any normal person would go insane if forced to be around while she watched TV and John knew that if he had to get information out of someone it would be great method to use on them.
"Well lets not talk about that. Have you two figured anything else out?"
"She doesn't know much. Apparently, Skynet keeps everything on a need to know basis and her mission didn't require much knowledge about what Skynet was doing in 2007. Everything she has mainly comes from the Tech-Com data that has been collected so we are operating a bit blind."
"Not a good position to be in."
"Definitely, but if I was Skynet I would be gathering and securing resources in preparation for the war. Just because it is a computer doesn't mean it won't have to do the same thing. So, Cameron and I are going to start going through the information she has about the various units to see if we can identify some very important resources in their construction."
"You really are ready for this. I admit I am still very worried about you but I'm sure that together we can find a way."
He just smiled at her and got up to take care of the Eggos that had just popped up in the toaster. Cameron didn't eat much but just the fact that she did made her seem so much more like a regular person he often found himself forgetting about the metal that was underneath her skin when he watched her.
"Are you a bit more hungry today?"
"No, I'm just making these for Cameron."
"How sweet. It is good to see that you are trying so hard to take care of your loving wife."
John just sighed at her. His mom's favorite thing to do was tease him and she loved to take advantage of any opening that he presented.
"Thanks mom, you do know I try so very hard not to loose her," he said with as much sarcasm as he could while standing in the kitchen in just his undergarments.
She laughed a bit and then said to him, "I looked in on you two while you both were sleeping. Did you know that she breathes even while she is sleeping."
That sure surprised him. He knew that she had a lot more organic components than the others and that was one of the reasons why she needed to eat food. He would have to ask her about that later.
"I had no idea and never even thought about something like that."
"Yea, it surprised me as well."
John set Cameron's food on a plate and began eating his breakfast mentally planning the events for the day.
"We barely have looked at the crime scene when you feds just appear out of the woodwork."
Agent Ellison never really liked other officials who always had to make some odd remark instead of just helping and allowing him to do his job effectively.
"I appear whenever something matches one of my cases."
"What match? We haven't even got anything processed yet."
He let out a sigh and hoped that this detective wouldn't be needed for very long.
"One of the field kits identified some of the blood at the scene which happened to match blood in one of my cases. Now if you could just take me to one of lab guys so that I can talk to them about it that would be great."
"Sure. He is right through that door. He is the tall thin guy with the black rimmed glasses and his name is Bob."
"Thanks."
Agent Ellison quickly made his way to the indicated door and looked in and noticed only one guy present currently going over all the surgical tools available. He cleared his throat and asked, "Are you Bob?"
The man looked up and replied, "Yep that's me. How can I help you?"
"I'm Special Agent James Ellison and some of the blood you checked with the field analyzer matched one of my cases. I was hoping you could fill me in."
"Sure can. I found some blood still in the drain trap and that is what I had analyzed. It is some strange sort of synthetic blood as it doesn't contain any red blood cells. I have never seen anything like it."
"Anything else match up with it."
"Nope. Everything was really well cleaned and I currently think that this blood came off as the tools here were cleaned. It most likely came from whatever the victim had been working on."
"You don't think it was a person?"
"Not really, but I'm not sure. See the computer was last used to print out a template for a reconstruction to match a man named George Laszlo, or at least that is what the file says."
"Reconstruction, not just some simple plastic surgery?"
"Yea a reconstruction. In fact it was the entire face and hair. Now here is where it gets really strange. No anesthetic was used even though a full reconstruction would have taken all night and I don't think a person could in anyway handle that much time under the knife without it."
Definitely strange. The victim had been found in the morning when his staff had started to open up for the day with his neck broken. He had no appointments for that night and would often head home after finishing up all the paperwork so what could have caused him him to stay all night working.
"Has anyone contacted this George Laszlo yet?"
"Not that I am aware of but you should ask the lead detective out there, a guy named George, about that."
"Thanks for you time Bob."
"Sure no problem."
Agent Ellison headed back out to again chat with George, as much as he didn't want too, about how the FBI was going to be involved in his life for a while longer.
John had just finished off his second bowl of corn flakes when Cameron came down the hallway. John was currently facing away from her so she decided to sneak up on him. As with all Terminators in her series, she moved carefully without making a sound that would give away her presence. As she got close Sarah looked up at her and she put a finger up by her lips asking her not to give her away. The small nod she got from Sarah was all she needed and as she got just behind John's chair.
She grabbed him from behind yelling out, "The Terminator's have got you!"
She had expected John to scream or jump but his response was totally unexpected to her. He quickly grabbed one of her arms around his waist at two places, at the wrist and by the bicep, and twisted quickly with his hips using the leverage on her arm to toss her over him and hard against the floor.
The look on his was one of immense surprise and a bit of fright and she could tell that he suddenly realized just who it was it had tossed onto the floor with all of his strength.
"Oh my God, Cameron are you alright? I didn't mean to hurt you. I just reacted. I'm so sorry..."
He was slightly panicked she could tell but had one real question.
"John, how did you do that?"
"Cameron you should be careful when trying to scare John. While he isn't the best fighter he knows how to react well enough and doesn't freeze up when scared. Now John why don't you help your wife up off the floor and pick up the chair you tossed with her."
John helped her stand up and then looked right at her and said, "Please don't ever try to scare me again. I know you may have thought it might be fun like in those TV shows but if I had hurt you in someway it would have really hurt me as well."
She looked right into his eyes and realized that he looked like he was about to cry so she reached out and embraced him a hug.
"I won't do that again. I promise."
"Thank you."
She let go of him and spotted the food he had left out for her and then picked up the chair. She sat down at the table and began to eat her breakfast when Sarah taped her on the shoulder.
"So you were a bit surprised at how John was able to toss you?"
"Yes. I didn't know it was possible for a human to so easily break my grip and then toss me to the floor. I did record everything as it happened so I can analyze it later."
"John why don't you explain."
"Remember when we were talking about how Terminators fight?"
She indicated she did and continued to eat.
"Well this is one of those tactics I was telling you about. Basically there are two main types of martial arts, hard and soft. Hard is the practice of meeting force with force like how you would currently fight another Terminator. Soft is what I just did in that I used your mass and my leverage to my advantage."
"Is that the only way?"
"No, there are many different methods. I don't know all of them and I was never very good at it but I think with a few books you would do much better against the other units out there."
"Thank you. John do I look nice today?"
She watched as he looked at her in surprise and then examined what she was wearing. She had chosen to wear a white knit top with a V neck combined with a pleated light yellow skirt that went down to a little bit above her knees. As for the shoes, she had gone with a pair of white canvas sneakers and had spent a large amount of processing time deciding on what might fit well together.
"You do. Is it all your own idea?"
"Yes. It took a lot of effort but I hope it isn't bad for my first try."
"Not at all. What do you think mom?"
"She looks fine. She just needs to brush her hair again after your little wresting match and put on a little makeup and she will look like just about any other girl you would see on the street."
"Thank you for the information."
For the better part of the morning John and Cameron spent it going over various details related to the construction of the units at Skynet's disposal. As Cameron would rattle off the various parts needed it became apparent that one thing kept coming up all the time for the creation of the frame. A material known as Coltan, which contains the elements niobium and tantalum.
"Why is Coltan needed?"
"It is used to make our frames far more durable and heat resistant."
"Is it easy to find in the future?"
"No. Most of the stockpiles of it were destroyed when the bombs fell."
"Alright, lets look around and see if we can find large stockpiles of Coltan."
They were about to get started again when the phone rang and John reached over and answered it.
"2d4m. It's Derek."
"0at59. Did you guys get a new place?"
"Yea. It is quite a bit further away and is located at.."
"Derek don't tell me that stuff on an open line. We can meet up at the location I told you about and exchange that information there. I don't care how careful we are some information shouldn't be spread over any telephone. Alright?"
"Sure. You know you haven't really changed that much. I mean you're younger but you are still the bastard I know."
"Thanks, I guess. Tonight I am going out to finish getting some supplies so we can get together tomorrow and go over the plan on dealing with T-888. How about meeting up at 18:00? Sound fine?"
"Yea, that's fine. Just don't bring the metal alright?"
"No deal. We stick together like glue, just get used to it and quit whining about it."
"Heh, yep just as big a bastard as well. See ya tomorrow."
John hung up the phone and then told Cameron they were meeting him at 9:00am tomorrow.
"I thought you said it was 18:00?"
"Yea but that is also a code. In this case we added the numbers together and get 9:00am."
"Thank you for explaining."
Sarah watched from the window as John and Cameron went over the various basics of the soft style martial arts in the back yard. He had told her he planned on picking up some books the next day but had found some information on the Internet and still remembered quite a bit.
He was currently outlining the basics of Aikido, the only one he had spent quite a bit of time working on, with Cameron. Her face held almost no expression but by the way her eyes followed all of John's movements told Sarah of the intensity behind her 'programming'. She wasn't sure that 'programming' in the strickest logical sense would always control her as everyday it appeared that she kept becoming more than the she was the day before.
The last T-800 had explained how Skynet controlled the Terminators and how it prevented them from learning by switching their chips to read-only, but John in the future had change Cameron to read-write before sending her off.
She looked back up just in time to see Cameron duplicate the move John had done on her this morning. He appeared to be rather winded from it and Cameron had keeled down next to him check over him. She smiled when she saw John twist his legs around Cameron's torso and quickly grab one of her arms pinning her. John had quickly let her go and from Cameron's expression she knew he was going over the details.
It was still so strange to think that her son's best friend and lover, it was only time, was a machine that had been built for a single purpose of killing people but once John from the future had gotten a hold of her he changed her purpose and with that action provided them hope. Perhaps there was another path the machines could take as watching Cameron made her think about it.
It was now 9:11pm and John and Cameron were outside a military warehouse. John had figured out what type of body armor he wanted but it wasn't available for purchase to civilians. So, he had tracked down a location that had a supply. It was a new type of ceramic composite armor called Dragonskin.
Cameron and him had spent several hours surveying the location of the warehouse and her sensors had allowed them to pinpoint the locations of all the cameras and alarm points. They had all the equipment and were dressed for the job.
The only really annoying thing bothering John right now was the immense rain storm currently in progress. Why it had to rain tonight he didn't know but he figured that God was punishing him again. He looked over at Cameron and said, "Well at least the rain will make it harder on them as well."
He took off to a side gate that didn't have an alarm or camera positioned on it and signaled for her to break the combination lock on it. She did it quickly and they entered closing the gate afterwords trying to make it look at if it hadn't been touched.
They quickly headed over to the nearby service building that housed most of the power infrastructure and John pulled out his lock picks. It didn't take him very long with the simple lock and they quickly entered. Why most places only put Cameras around the main entrances and exits he didn't know but they were sure making his job far easier doing so.
Ahead of them was a large number different panels and a whole mess of conduit and wires running everywhere. Hopefully, they would be able to find some way to disable the camera systems or the alarms form this area.
"Look around for a control panel that would control the camera electrical systems or a panel for the alarms."
They started searching the area with him looking at stuff on the right and her checking the left.
"John, I think this might be what you want."
He came over to where she was standing and chuckled. The panel was labeled 'alarm control unit' and next to it was a panel that read 'Security systems primary and backup power breakers'. If that wasn't good enough they had enclosed in a nearby three ring binder with diagrams that showed how the whole system worked. He handed the book to Cameron.
"Take a look at this information. See if it provides enough information to disable the alarms and cameras."
He watched her quickly turn every page in the binder and then she opened up both panels and quickly scanned over them.
"It does. All of the security systems can be disabled from here."
"This is almost too easy. No wonder Skynet was able to take over. Go ahead and do it."
She reached in and flipped several breakers and used a pair of wire cutters to snip several of the jumper wires in the alarm box. A few lights went out and then she turned to him and said, "All done."
"Great. Break the tops of the switches on the breakers you changed so that they can't turn them back on quickly."
Once that was done they quickly exited the building and made their way to the back side of a nearby building and hid in the shadows. It was a bit dark so Cameron was leading the way. They waited there for a little bit looking for the security teams that would start to patrol trying to figure out just what in the heck was going on with their systems.
It wasn't long before Cameron tapped his shoulder and pointed. He followed her finger and saw a group of five armed guards heading out to the main gate.
The building they wanted to get into was about 200 yards away from their current position and would require them to move across an open area with almost no cover. John wanted the guards to start moving around checking the security systems so that they could figure out how many were present.
"How many does it look like we have in total?"
"About twelve moving around, but I suspect there are more present in the building."
"Possible, but it is time to move onto the second phase."
John pulled out a prepaid cell phone he had purchased during day and dialed in a number. He let it ring away and waited.
It wasn't long before he heard shouting at the front gate as the car they had stolen for this particular purpose crashed right into the front gate. He had rigged up another cell phone to disengage the breaks and let the car roll down the hill and into the front gate. Cameron had take care of aim the car and her aim was right on target.
"Good job," he told her and felt a squeeze from her hand in response.
Several other guards had taken off running to the front gate and that was their signal to move to the storage building. The rain made the run a miserable experience and he almost fell down several times and was very glad that Cameron helped steady him each time.
The guards were starting to go nuts running all over the place, which he was expecting, but there were running out of time. They moved around the building a bit until Cameron signaled she had found a good spot.
He nodded to her and she punched a hole through the building's sheet metal exterior and quickly ripped a hole big enough for them to enter through.
Once inside John was amazed by the huge amount of stuff present. The two rows near them were made out of large shelving that stood about twenty five tall and where filled all the way to the top with various creates and boxes. Unfortunately, they didn't have any wording on the outside in big bold letters pointing them to what they wanted.
"Well, I guess it couldn't be too easy now could it?"
"John I don't entirely understand."
"I know and I will explain it later. Right now we need to look for inventory number X655-381T-01 as that will hold the body armor."
He grabbed Cameron's hand and just followed along with her as she was the only hope of finding that number quickly. The biggest problem they were facing right now was time. Those guards no doubt radioed in for backup and it was soon on its way. They needed to be out of here before they showed up.
Cameron stopped quickly and John knew that it had to be someone close by. She tuned to look at him and he nodded to her.
She moved very quickly behind the guy and once he was within her striking distance she knocked him out. She grabbed him and easily put him behind several different crates. Once she was finished she returned to John and took his hand. They set off again searching for the needed crate.
"John I found it."
He looked to where she was pointing and it was a box on the floor just up ahead.
"Wonderful. Any other problems present?"
"No."
They headed over to the create and Cameron quickly opened it. Inside was exactly what he was looking for and it was as light as the web page had said. John quickly put on a set for himself and found one for Cameron and tossed it to her to put on.
"John, I don't need to wear something like this."
"I know but it will be easier to wear one and carry a few others than try to carry them all."
"I understand."
They got back outside the warehouse and noticed that two new vehicles where at the front gate, no doubt backup had arrived. Time to implement the third phase of the plan. John again used his cell phone and dialed another number and waited a little bit.
The car that had rolled into the main gate a while ago started up. Several of the guards backed up but the car just sat there running. They called over several others.
Perfect thought John. He dialed another number and a few other cars up on the hill started up with their lights on. The guards where very nervous and started calling for backup at the front gate to deal with the perceived threat.
Once their attention was fully focused on things ahead of them John and Cameron made the run back to where they came in. It didn't take them very long and soon they were out of the gate and walking the half mile back to their car.
"That went perfectly. What do you think?"
"There were no unexpected problems other than the rain."
"Yea, but it also proved useful because it limited their ability to see us moving."
Cameron stopped walking and started looking around.
"What it is?", he asked thinking the worst.
"I don't know. It is a strange sort of sound."
John focused his ears and listened hard expecting almost anything when he suddenly heard it. It wasn't the sound of some new enemy but he knew exactly what it was.
"Cameron where is it coming from?"
She indicated and he began walking over to it.
"Wait John, I don't know what kind of threat it is yet."
"Don't worry because it isn't a threat."
It didn't take him long with Cameron helping to pin-point the source before he was able to see it. One the ground covered in mud and alone was a small kitten. It must have gotten washed out of its mother's nest and was now all alone. John reached down and picked it up.
"John what is it?"
"It's a kitten and your new pet."
He loosened his shirt and slipped the kitten inside his shirt placing it on his skin. He knew that it needed to be kept warm and was most likely in bad shape with the water.
"Pet? I don't understand why a pet would be useful."
"You will. Now lets get back home."
Sarah was on pins and needles the whole time John and Cameron where gone. John had convinced her to stay and let him take care of it by himself. He claimed that two people would be able to do it faster and easier than three people. She tried to argue back by saying that one would be much better than two so they should just send Cameron. He flatly rejected it and told her that Cameron and him must always stay together and he refused to budge on the matter.
Her worrying had started as soon as he was out the door and had gotten worse with every passing minute. So, when she saw the car pull in she flew out of the house expecting something horrible to have happened.
"John are you ok? Did you get hurt? Is anyone chasing you? Cameron give me a full..."
"Mom! Whoa, just settle down. Everything is fine and we didn't have any trouble so lets get inside before people think you are nuts with the twenty questions thing."
Sarah followed John and Cameron inside and had them take off their boots at the entryway to prevent mud from being tracked all over the house.
As John tossed what he was carrying down he reached up under his shirt and pull out something. It was very dirty but it was a small kitten.
"John where did you find that?"
"On the way back. It was all by itself and would have died if I hadn't taken it home with us."
"John you know that keeping a pet is very hard for us so I want you to find it a good home after you have it all cleaned up."
"Mom we can keep it. Besides Cameron is rather attached to it."
Sarah looked over at Cameron who had a very confused expression on her face and knew that she didn't know what to make of all this.
"Alright, I will let you two keep it. However, if things get ugly around here I want you to find it a good home. Deal?"
"Yea."
Notes: I had wanted to get the major fight between the new T-888 in the chapter but it was going to be far too long for that so I am pushing it to the next chapter. Also, I know the last chapter had some odd grammar problems so I tired to fix it up as best I could. It is a really bad idea to try and write with a large number of interrupts going on so sorry about that. I usually go over things about five times before putting it out there but I always seem to miss something. Hopefully this one isn't very bad.