By the time I arrive, thirty humans have been hard at work for a full day excavating as well as they can without heavy equipment. There are five scouted caverns in the dead zone, and three canyons. Cavern one is large and warm. It is very close to the surface as well. Cavern two is low and close to canyon number one. It's not as hot though. Cavern number three and four are somewhat small, and almost directly across the valley from each other. Cavern five is almost dead center in the zone, and quite large. It is higher in elevation, almost directly above cavern two. It is the natural spot for an encampment. For the most part, it is cavern five that the humans have already started preparing, as well as cavern two below it, to store whatever vehicles they can stuff into it. It is big enough for the land whale and many of our actual non-moto vehicles. Number four is below a stream, and comparatively cold. It would work well for storing food and perishable supplies. Perhaps we can store the motos in number three, or widen number two.
As I walk through the widened entrance into cavern number five I see an entire tent village. There is room in the middle for the pavilion, and room around the margins for many, many more tents. There is a hole dug near a wall with a small mound of what looks and smells to be bat guano. I don't see any of the flying vermin now. We walk back to cavern two. It appears that some humans are at work creating a passageway from five to two. I calculate that it will take them at least six months, assuming consistent progress and proper engineering. At the moment, there are a little over three hundred humans in our party, with more arriving every day; so our four old style vehicles and the land whale will almost all fit in the cavern. The seventeen motos will not fit as the cavern as it is, and the floor in both caverns two and five will need to be leveled, in addition to the corridor they are excavating now.
The humans are ecstatic with the area, and for the next month, it is crawling with spelunkers, explorers, and planners. One of them, an aged man named Emmory Sindgart, was a construction engineer before doomsday. He works with Colonel Vincent on how we should adjust the existing cave structure. Most of the work consists in shaping the caverns two and five. It takes a while, since the humans have very little in the way of usable rock-shaping tools, and we have to fabricate from our limited reserves of not-so-raw materials. I am put to work training the young humans. I am actually thankful for that job. I am able to introduce games and other unobtrusive ways to develop strategies that will help them in dealing with Skynet. Atana's purpose remains a mystery to me. Whatever it is, it doesn't keep her from aggravating me. I pass the time perfecting newer versions of the boogeyman alarms, and working on a larger detector that will be of some use if we ever make it back into the field. I can't think of an excuse that would make it remotely legitimate in the eyes of Skynet, or by extension, Atana; I keep it well hidden.
The Boogeyman alarms are actually very easy to make. All the circuitry has to be scavenged, but the motos contain an amazing number of sub processors, most of which are un-necessary with a normal human actually controlling them. Most of my time with these devices is actually spent revising them so the humans can build them with the materials at hand. I spend a lot of time playing with things to get power consumption as low as possible. The amount of work the new alarms do is a significant increase over the original, though I am able to lower their overall consumption a considerable amount, mostly with the help of Mars.
I did not notice this, but Mars designed the originals, and he is fairly gifted with electronic equipment. It is he who first mentions that he originally intended to make the originals function inductively if possible; I figure out how to actually accomplish it. In the presence of a powerful electric field, the alarms can produce enough current from an alarm event to make significant progress towards operating themselves. It isn't nearly enough to run without an external power source, but along with other changes, it cuts power consumption to something practical. Key among the power conservation features is limiting the duration of the burst transmission. There is a limit to how brief it can reasonably be, but I manage to cut it down palpably. This area is not a totally dead area. I have determined that signals will travel up to ten yards or so. Worthless for detection without physically wired devices, which will defeat the point; suitable for testing.
The weak spot with the new alarms is the receiver unit. The old receivers are very simple. Astoundingly simple, really. The new ones require a signal processor and programming, which drains power much faster. There isn't much to do for it but add a simple dyno to charge the device. The noise the alarms create in my head is considerable. The hand-held detection units can be told to ignore echoes and ghost pings. I hear them all. Cody enjoys watching me tinker. He wants to know everything about what I am doing, and I usually tell him, even though I know he only understands a fraction of it.
Cody is with me when I first test the new boogeyman alarms and the kite. He and I take a day to ride beyond the dead zone, placing our sensors in an array at about one kilometer intervals. It takes us half a day of stop and go riding-Cody calls it "leap-frogging each-other"-to place the alarms. Finally, I sink a ground and put the kite in the air. It's larger than I need, because I don't have the components to provide for the right surface area to weight ratio, with the strength I require. With the right materials, the kite could be half the size and go twice as high. The cable is far too heavy, both from the general composition and the insulation.
The most reasonable way to provide temporary coverage is a simple mast, though I toy with balloons and kites. I want to make a balloon-based airborne antenna work, but there are just too many factors...I could eventually force something out, but it would take more time, more resources, and more creative manipulation of the materials at hand. I work on it, but for the moment I settle on a kite-based solution simply because it's simpler than trying to find helium or hydrogen, and safer than toying with hydrogen in a high-static situation. Anything I create will have to be secured with a cable...it's all I have, and that means weight and consequentially a serious amount of lift. Anything thrust into Earth's atmosphere will affect magnetic current. On a fixed mast, I would be facing a relatively harmless coronal effect; St. Elmo's fire. Assuming I could build a device robust enough to lift it, the cable on a balloon or kite-even one well below the lofty and electrically active ionosphere-can easily harvest hundreds of thousands of volts in spare electricity. That is assuming the proper touches on the airborne end and a way to maintain a safe level of potential difference between the ground and mast. From the standpoint of my balloon, the last thing I need is a low altitude fireball. It will generate considerable electrostatic energy as it interacts with the atmosphere. Most certainly, anything that generates power can be useful; somehow. In my mind, I begin making plans for it. I will mention it to Mars. I have all sorts of problems to overcome, but this is a proof of concept.
I also have a very, very simple console. It is a much more full featured version of the receiver. In theory, if I could receive the signals of multiple alarms, I could in conjunction with metrics and signal strengths make a good guess regarding their relative locations. In theory, it works. It practice, it is less than optimal. It is usable, in a vague sort of way. In the end, I get a single purpose device running to map the pings from the boogeyman alarms and a small radio receiving signals better than it ever should. I get a nice display, since I can see the electrostatic charge build and bleed into the ground with the naked eye. I get Cody's admiration. Most of all, I get the feeling that I have solved a problem which never really existed. Probably just to keep my mind busy, or feel important. I draw the kite back in. I'm sure we'll find a use for it.
I wonder what Atana does to keep her busy. We've had no contact from Skynet. She must do something, besides follow me around relentlessly. I think she is tracking my movements to get a holistic view of what I am doing. Fortunately, it is usually possible to justify most of what engages me. Of course, she may be allowing me enough rope to hang myself, as it were. If she is smart-and she is-she will allow me to believe I am deceiving her. Lies become cumulatively more difficult to maintain. It's what I would do.
One thing she will do is aid me in capturing more motos. I am certain this is done out of the thrill she garners, and the necessity we have to collect more vehicles, and not some fondness for me. We have more than doubled the size of our settlement, which most humans call "The Carnival." They have an amazing sense of humor. Being flippant at the most inopportune times is their way of coping with a brutal reality; it's the human condition. Regardless, the humans have brought with them vehicles of their own, but there are still not nearly enough. This means we ride several days a week in the pursuit of Gs to capture. We go far enough away to avoid enough pulling all the Gs from the same general area, though sometimes this means traveling for far longer than I'd like. We have eliminated having to bring along humans...Atana has written a routine that can be forcibly run on intact Gs. It takes advantage of the targeting sub-processor...the most powerful processor after the mpu...by forcing it into a strict follow routine. We still have to disconnect the main processor, and then the servos that activate the large machine guns. The Gs' guns serve as counterweights for navigation, and thus the gun control and targeting sub-processor are intimately tied to its control, both attitude and orientation. When we capture the Gs, we go through the regular process to remove the machines' control, then when we have wrested control, we reestablish the links and disable the MPU and firing mechanisms. Finally, we forcibly upload the follow routine, which forces the Gs to follow simple short range beacons on our motos. It is a trickier process, but I allow her this indulgence because I calculate that any human accompanying us would be almost as likely to be killed by a machine as they would by Atana herself, after she determined they had grown suspicious.
Gs always ride in pairs or threes. If they ride in pairs, we can usually capture them both, as long as we acquire visual on them. We can fairly easily out maneuver them, since we have the ability to visually track them well beyond their sensory range. If there are three, we are usually forced to disable them, and retrieve them over the course of days. Sometimes we get three running machines, sometimes not. We are certainly getting used to converting them into flesh-friendly rides for the humans, although after the first handful, other humans take over. Atana's design is very popular in its simplified form-our method of capture makes it a simpler process than tinkering with mechanical linkages-but most humans don't enjoy a two wheel steering moto. They use a less complex three slider control. I stick with a four slider control, like she has on her bike. The humans are always happy to come into possession of more motos, so we do what we can to capture a few. Skynet allows machines to harry the humans, but overall, it does an effective job of herding them into the perceived safety of their valley. Atana and I have even become complacent.
When we again meet up with a real terminator, a Tx, it shocks us both by appearing suddenly. Atana may be a good actress, but she is not good enough to fool thermal and electrical scanning, and they tell me she is preparing to fight or run. She trusts Skynet as much as I do. The machine holds its ground and informs us that we are to stand by and entrench the humans firmly in their new home, and to return to this spot when there are two thousand humans in our cavern.
I shudder internally. Skynet intends to wipe out two thousand humans at once. I am personally somewhat amazed we have as many humans as we do; two thousand will be more than three times that. I wonder how many HR1s there are in the world, herding humans to our cavern, and how many terminators have been loaded with false data. I seriously underestimated the extent of Skynet's plan. I am becoming human in my errors.
Finally the robot glances at the ground, where there are two downed Gs. It has ripped the processors from the frames, making our follow routines worthless, and they lie in a heap at its feet. Knowing what I know about Gs, they probably weren't completely willing participants in this plan. The T looks to the sky, plunges its hand into its skull, and yanks most of what it can touch out.
"Follow me," Atana says. While the body is still standing, we drive by on our own motos, and unleash the cannons on the inactive terminator. Had it been active, even the heavy machine-guns wouldn't have stopped it without a lucky shot. They do provide a decent amount of generally cosmetic damage, which may impress the humans. We tie the machine onto Atana's moto. Even with the decreased ammunition load, the extra weight keeps her speed reasonable until we get back to the Carnival. Mars interrogates us, and he seems to believe the story we have concocted. We still have to return to retrieve the two disabled Gs. I don't know why the machine felt it necessary to provide them. For a while I even consider not retrieving them.
"We have to return," Atana tells me. "They are too valuable to leave. Anyway, if Skynet is going to return, it may see them lying there and assume we don't need them. You know as well as I do that it is allowing us to capture them with relative impunity. To leave them lying there is to risk Skynet concluding that we no longer need them." It is something I would say. Then she redeems herself. "Besides, the faster we can get humans to the Carnival the happier it will be." Happy is a misnomer. Skynet cannot be happy. It is very capable of becoming satisfied, however.
Her ability to guess what I am thinking doesn't encourage me. If she can effortlessly do that, why not guess that I'm a traitor? When we leave to retrieve the motos we take Cody and Mary with us, to retrieve the fallen Gs. Mars wants us to take Cody, but does not want Mary to go with us. Neither do I, but she refuses to let Cody go without her. Her attachment isn't healthy, but it is natural and unavoidable. Mars insists that she ride with me, which is advantageous to everyone involved. Cody is quickly coming of age, so he'd rather ride with Atana anyway. Atana may be the better rider, but she takes unnecessary risks. When we get to the downed Gs, Mary and Cody will ride ours back and we will bring the destroyed motos, assuming they are ride-able. They must still be controlled with the tickling hand dance, and while Cody can readily do it, I don't want to take risks with Mary. I know she knows how to ride by feel, but she may as well use my machine. Mars might possibly attempt to dismember me by hand if anything happens to her.
We ride for almost a day at a high rate of speed before we come upon the downed motos. They are buried beneath a thin layer of dust...our doing. I can feel Mary tensing behind me. We drive past the motos and scout the area, and then return to the machines. We tip the machines upright. Mary and Cody wait obligingly as they power up. These will be somewhat harder to control with no processors, but that may not be a bad thing. It may force Atana to go slow enough for the still-enhanced motos that the humans are on to follow. Marry and I both accelerate smoothly onto the road, and Cody and Atana follow. When she can't outrun everyone, Atana enjoys riding drag. I speculate that this is because it allows her to keep us all in view, and keep the machineguns on us.
When we get back to the carnival without catastrophe, Mars is visibly relieved. He covers it up by examining the Gs we are riding.
"How do you get these?" He runs a finger along the moto Atana is riding. "Processors ripped out. How did you do that without eating pavement?"
"We found these this way," Atana says. "We didn't have to do anything more than recover them." Mars raises an eyebrow, but he knows better than to second guess Atana. I have a reputation, surprisingly enough, for a quirky sense of humor. In reality, I am so confounded by some of the things that these humans do that my only course is to be ridiculous. Atana is apparently better-adjusted, and therefore hasn't had to resort to acting stupid. She, on the contrary, has a reputation that includes hard, crafty, and intelligent, but not much in the way of humor, other than a truly withering sarcasm.
"I made it, Daddy!" Mary proclaims. "I'm alive!" Mars rolls his eyes. I can see glimpses of the kind of woman she will become. It certainly won't be her mother. I turn back to Cody, who is trying to avoid being noticed. He interrupts this by periodically staring at Atana, who has knelt to assay the damage to her G. I don't blame him. It gets to me, as well.
Tx's are going to be difficult. Since our last encounter with one, I've been trying to come up with a way to effectively destroy them. They have to be deactivated quickly and with finality; a virtual impossibility for any of the venerable T series. The obvious solution is an electromagnetic pulse. I do not have a thermonuclear weapon, and they are well shielded anyway. I would hurt more humans than I would help. I don't have a definite timeframe for Skynet's invasion, but I know what will trigger it. That will be critical for me; if I am to stand any chance in dealing a blow to Skynet, which I have long accepted as my only viable defense for the humans, I must fool Skynet into concentrating its forces enough to form some type of blow...something significant enough to draw its attention away from the humans long enough for them to scatter or counterattack. I will know more about my attack as the time comes.