Exterminating Threats
I step outside, my breath chilling in the freezing air, billowing out of our mouths in steamy pillars. Jane is walking out purposefully, looking about. It's like she's trying to get her bearings.
"I have perfect direction. In case you are trying to figure out where to go," I tell her. She looks at me strangely.
"I know where I need to go," she says simply. "I need to go and find out what we were following through time." She looks at Derek. "How you holding up with all of this?" She is asking Derek, whose looking at the Cathedral's exterior. He's walking around it, pointing at it.
"Yeah. It's advanced technology. Bigger on the inside. Used to use Transdimensional physics, but that's clunky and privative. I've been converting everything to Transcendental physics. Not only is it more streamlined, it makes the whole run a hundred times better. I know it's meant to be old – a relic, but it's still scarily primitive. My Clan – those who are hybrids, like me – we have organic technology and other such stuff. We keep it hidden, to stop the progress of humanity from going out of step." Derek is looking at her. I'm turning round to look at her, too.
"You're looking at a lot of back-story. And it's all complicated. I'm from the twenty-first century, like you folks. But it's got a whole pile of different events. Though, it should mostly be the same as this one. But your time travel technology is tearing apart your universe. I've been using the Cathedral to try and repair the damage, a bit like stitching up torn material. Because the number of time people have gone through time..." She shakes her head. "I'm out to not just stop Skynet, but to stop this technology from being created at all."
"So, why is there a Terminator in the past like this?" Derek has a point. One I've been wondering about...
"If I were Skynet, I'd find out all I could about my enemy. Including things like family trees. I'd wipe out the entire family of my enemies, because it's utterly barmy. And utterly barmy tends not to be understood by most people." She looks at the pair of us. "I've been following your progress. If it wasn't a case of you folks trying to save mankind, I'd be thinking you lot were clowns. Lurching from one crisis to another." Derek is getting defensive.
"It's not easy, figuring it all out. There are no records of who built Skynet. And we don't have fancy futuristic technology to help us." She starts sniggering.
"It's alien technology. Not from Earth's future. And not from this universe, either." she snaps her fingers, and the door closes. He looks at Jane, like she's grown two heads. She just smiles back at him mischievously. "Come on, we need to work out what it was we chased."
We walk forwards, into the thick and freezing fog. It's strange. I'm registering the cold, but I'm not shivering. Then again, this coat is thick...
"So, if you're from the twenty first century, how come you've ended up with an alien time machine?"
"I ended up in a fight with a Kindred Elder. A leech that had lived for centuries... I ended up deflecting that monster's blood magics, but not well enough. I ended up here. It had correctly deduced that I'm part Arcadian. And that Elder had sent me to a place where the patch was damaged, and would be fatal for me to travel. And then the damage would be toxic to me, and I'd die. But I met Cameron when I got here, and the hand hit me in the head. What I did to Cameron's arm is what I used reflexively when I was dying. Cameron got me to hold that pickled hand. The DNA I took from it acts like a filter. A buffer from the time poison. But it's more than that. Who I am on a fundamental level is changing. Even after having had six years, my body is still adjusting and adapting." Derek is frowning at all of this.
"We found the Cathedral. It was abandoned. It had been sucked through another universe. The same universe as the hand." I tell Derek. He's striding out in the fog with us. I look behind me as I walk forward. I think there's someone following us. I start scanning the fog, using enhanced vision. Night Vision. Infra Red. Wait. I think I see something, but it's cloaked. Like it is doing all it can to stay hidden.
"There's something following us, isn't there?" Jane asks softly. I carefully nod my head, so as not to attract too much attention. Derek is now walking alongside us now.
"You two certain of this," he asks softly. He's stealthily going for the revolvers. Jane is carefully shaking her head.
"It's not Metal. Metal wouldn't have traces of emotion. Whatever is behind us has the ability to mask emotions. It's probably a side effect from telepathic shielding. Which means that it's not Metal. It's something else."
"So, what is it?" Derek asks, carefully holding the revolvers in such a way that it won't be obvious to anyone behind. Jane's lips are drawing together, her eyes laced with worry.
"Not our big concern right about now. Our big concern is that it might be hostile. If it is, then we have problems. Because whatever is following us has power to keep itself hidden from my keen, predatory senses. And I'm still too weak to fight anything supernatural right now. And that means that our main line of defence is a Tin Miss. And I doubt she's going to have anything supernatural-"
"I can talk to plants. And trees." Jane turns to look at me, her expression one of bewilderment.
"We're in the middle of a city. I don't think we can summon up an army of trees to help us right now. Though it makes me think of Lord of the Rings..."
"Lord of the Rings?"
"Yeah. Written by JRR Tolkien. He died in the Battle of the Somme. Decades before he wrote it. It's one of many discrepancies I've found with this universe. We need to focus, though. Revolvers probably won't do much. I'm not at anything like full strength. But I think I can serve up a distraction. Cams, you'll have to serve up as the main assault. Derek, serve as a distraction, but don't try heroics. We don't know what we've got on our tails." Derek nods, as do I. I feel something. I don't like the idea of being the main fighter in this.
I look a little to my right into the main road. It is cobbled. Wait. I scan ahead on alternate visions. There. I change direction, start walking to it. Jane and Derek are following me. There. I see it. Oh. It's a small crater. Time Displacement has happened here, and recently.
"It seems you were right about Skynet sending units into the more distant past," I comment. Jane breathes heavily through her nose.
"I wish hadn't... Can you hear something?" I listen as carefully as I can, using my audio systems to process anything and everything. Wait. There-
"I think I can," Derek says, beating me at what I was about to say. I nod my head, wishing it had been me saying it first.
"Two separate words. Spoken by two different voices. The first is 'Delete.' The Second is 'Exterminate'.It's-"
"Are you certain it's 'Exterminate?' No possibility for error?" Jane is gripping me tightly, her face warped with panic. I think she might cry. I nod my head, now starting to worry as to what could make her panic like that.
"Certain," I say, and her eyes widen and glisten with tears, her trembling hands covering her mouth. Derek isn't phased by this. If anything he seems irritated.
"I think we should focus on the more immediate problem, and that's the free range metal that's out there," Derek says with a finality. Jane is shaking her head. With a brief fumbling, she's found her Kissie.
"Cams, you remember that guy who came through time? The tear in time?" I nod at her. "This has torn into something else. But it can't be another universe, because we'd see that. We'd see something... where could it be seeping to?" Oh. Was that? I...
"I think I saw something. In the area above the crater," I report. Derek is looking out to the fog.
"Is any if this connected to our friend following us?" he asks, clearly standing point. I scan the area as Jane starts using her Kissie on the invisible rip in the universe. Her hands are shaking violently, barely able to stop herself from bursting into floods of tears. I scan again, just to be sure.
"No. The area is clear. Who ever it was isn't nearby. For now," I tell him. Jane is starting to get hysterical. Derek jerks his head briefly at her.
"She like this all the time?" I shake my head.
"Only when there's something that's fully capable of killing all the life on this planet! When they could destroy the Cathedral of Time itself, which is something that Skynet could never do... never! I have to seal this rip, because if they get through..." her voice is urgent, fretful. I stare at the tear, wondering what's on the other side. I see her frantically adjusting the Kissie, as if ramping it up to maximum.
"Screw it. I'm going over the red-line," she mutters, as if controlling her emotions by focussing on the task. The end light glows from a regal blue to a deep purple. It is whirring its familiar noise, though it's sounding more urgent. I stare at it properly. I didn't before, but now I see it's a different model. It has ribbed parts to the main trunk of it, and a metal dial setting section. And a black, cap-like section.
"Purple settings at maximum, and lets fry the tri-Zirconinium crystals. The damn thing can bloody burn... They're not getting through... bad enough there's Terminators and Skynet in this universe without them getting through," she mutters hysterically. She's openly crying as she's working, the Kissie sounding more high-pitched. It sounds like it's protesting at the over-usage. I get out my Sonic Screwdriver.
"Can this help?" I ask her. She shakes her head.
"Not unless you can use it to stretch and re-combine on a sub-chronometric particle level the disrupted wave-forms-" She stops to contemplate something. "My Goddess... I'm sounding like him in a situation like this. Just like the Lord of Time. Six years of studying all of this, understanding physics that quite frankly baffled me, except for the explanations in lay terms. And here I am, using technology that I never really quite understood, and I can enhance and improve it. I'm repairing rips in time, and I never could have a hope of doing it before... it's the genetic code I took. There's something more to it, more than simple code sequences... it's an awareness. A connection to things. I don't know, and I'll never know, because they're all gone. All dead. Because of them. What's beyond this tear. It's funny, because they're a like. Terminators and what's beyond there. Both were built for war, to act as a defence... bred genetically to hate anything that's different. And they wiped out all the life on their planet, and rampaged across the stars, killing whole civilisations. In the end, the Lords of Time themselves stepped in, breaking their neutrality. They went to war with them, and the whole of creation was at stake. Thing is, even they, with all the advanced technology and wisdom they had, and they destroyed them. The planet burned, and that's what will happen if they end up here. Terminators, easy. It's all strategic. But them... No chance. A single one, a few, maybe... but it seems like there's a whole army in there. And this is starting to overheat." I look at the Kissie, seeing the systems overload.
Derek is just shaking his head, disbelieving it all. A distorted electronic scream sounds, and something comes flying towards Jane's head. She squeaks as she ducks, her reflexes better than human. I stare at the clattering dull brass coloured metal dome with light bulbs and something sticking out. It has a black end of the stalk-like item, with a blue light at the end. There's electronics sticking out, and there's still two units alive in it, a maroon red set of lights in a crescent shaped device. Although the topmost lights are blinking out.
"Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate." It's just saying the same thing over and and over, in this screechy electronic voice. Derek is staring at it, gulping at the words. I frown in disbelief. I look sideways at Jane, whose staring at it, one of her immaculately shaped eyebrows raised. Then she's back at the tear, sealing it up with renewed vigour.
"It's dead. Seems to have in it's communication systems some sort of neural relay. It's contained the last mental impressions of the creature it was attached to. Must be a war going on on the other side... But they were all wiped out. And the Briar Patch should insulate... wait... Oh. Oh no. No..." She's working frantically whilst thinking. Derek turns to look at her.
"So that bit's still alive?" he asks. I stare at it, thinking about it.
"I don't think it's built like a Metal. It's like a tape recording. On repeat." I start to walk towards it, when the sound of metallic servos whirring wildly starts. I hear panicked grunting as I turn around. Oh. There's a metal hand wrapped around Jane's head, and a metal arm is attached, and is gripping hard as its trying to pull her forwards into the tear. Derek is already wrapping himself around her waist, to help her from being sucked in. It's gripping harder. I suddenly start using my Sonic Screwdriver, using the very last setting in combination with the very first setting to help stretch the edges of the tear together. Jane's still working, struggling and working. I move in front of her, my shoulder in her stomach. I'm not like Derek. I can help. I'm a Tin Miss, and glad that I am right now. Because I can help to save my friend. I glance up, to see how she is. Oh. She's bleeding from the ears. There's got to be a lot of pressure on her head. We have to sort this out before it cracks like an egg.
"I don't think we can stop it pulling her in," Derek pants out. I twist, and aim my Sonic at the crack in time, and use it at maximum power. Jane's pulling her Kissie upwards, like a zip. Something is cooking. Something like bacon. Oh. It's Jane's hand. It's starting to cook from the overheating Kissie. I work harder, not wanting to let her down. I have to prove myself. I'm not useless. I'm not.
Suddenly, we all fall to the ground. The hand is outstretched. It's grasping wildly, though it doesn't seem to be moving. Oh. I think it's stuck. Jane us quickly, but unsteadily, getting up, and working harder, determination to seal it up despite the damage to her head. I get up too, using my Sonic at maximum. I hear a tearing to metal, and an electronic scream ringing out from the other side. I see a slightly jagged edge appear, and then it suddenly stops moving. The smell of cooked meat is getting stronger. Derek is holding her up now, which is good considering her her increasing unsteadiness. It suddenly drops to the floor with a metallic clank that's ringing out in the deadly silent street. With a final grunt, Jane lifts her hand up to the highest point in the zip, and then collapses into Derek's arms, the Kissie dying with a loud bang and and sparks. There's a very unpleasant smell as well, as the smoke starts to clear from it. Jane's has blood streaking out of her nose, mouth, ears and eyes. I swallow hard. She's badly hurt. She weakly waggles a finger on her good hand about.
"Get the arm and head. Cathedral. We need to get back there now."
"Why? Are you about to Regenerate again?"
"No Cams. I want to avoid the police officers who are running this way. Can still hear good, you know." Her voice is weak. She tries to get up, but slumps down again. I scoop her up from Derek's arms, and into my own.
"I can carry her, and move unhindered. Get the items." Derek thinks for a second of protesting, then nods and does what I just said. I stand up, and start to run back to the Cathedral, unhindered by the extra weight.
"Starting to be a habit," Jane mutters in annoyance. "Put me down, I can move."
"I'm not risking it. Your voice is still indicating that you are still not recovered enough to move unassisted."
"Still doesn't mean I have to like it," she complains. Derek is right behind me. And the dome is still bleating out a desire to exterminate. We get to the Cathedral, and I briefly turn around. We are being watched again. Jane weakly snaps her fingers, and the doors open obediently. We all rush inside, and As Derek slams the doors, I gently lay Jane down on the floor. She strokes my hair.
"Thanks. Though I hate being a Damsel in Distress. It feels undignified." I smile at her as Derek crouches beside us.
"Is there a medical kit? Anything? You need treatment for your head and hand."
"Well, my dear Mr. Reese, the medical kit can be found by going down the first door down that way, second door on the right, down the corridor, third door on the left, down the corridor, fourth door on the right-"
"Wait... down the corridor?" he asks, slightly sarcastically. Jane just smiles.
"No, right cupboard opposite the door, top shelf."
"How big is this place?"
"Don't quite know... haven't fully explored the place. Besides, we don't need a first aid kit. Because I'm a very lucky girl. I'm still well within the first fifteen hours after Regeneration. So I have a fair bit of residual energy inside me. Enough to..." she closes her eyes, as if concentrating. I hear slight cracking sounds. Oh. It's her head. It's repairing itself. And her hand... it was quite burnt. Now, it's looking much better. As if it's regenerating-
Oh. she's using the remaining energy to heal herself.
"There... that's better. You know, I was quite fond of that particular Kissie. Still, I know there's a few improvements I had in mind... Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm off to bed. I'm knackered. I'll find you two rooms and then a nice mug of hot chocolate before I-" Suddenly, I hear footsteps running along the corridor, towards the main area we are all in. Jane is up on her feet, fists clenched, footing and posture perfect for professional combat.
"I knew it! I knew that UNIT was wrong, and that you hadn't died! I-" A man in what appears World War Two era clothes comes crashing in from the corridor. The happy grin fades from his face. Jane is looking bewildered and murderous.
"Who are you! And how the hell did you get in here!" she demands.