I do not claim any rights to the Terminator films; the TV series, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," or any characters depicted within the films or TV series. I do claim the right to this story idea and all characters and situations of my own creation. This story was created solely for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others. No profits are garnered from its distribution.
Author's Note: This chapter was going to be, Valentine's Day Part VI, but after writing this and the next chapter in a flurry of creative outpouring of energy, April 2013, I elected to create a short story, The Locket, instead of continuing the annual story.
The Locket
Chapter 11
# # #
"Mr. Ellison! Catherine! Do you copy?" John shouts into the radio, while keeping an eye on the tank where Cameron is immersed. The fluid has stopped swirling and the vibrations in the floor has stopped, but the amber lights on the walls are still flashing and the alarm is still sounding.
Nothing but static comes from the speaker
"What the hell is happening?" he shouts into it again.
The radio buzzes followed by Catherine Weaver's voice. She is speaking low and the signal is weak.
"John. Adjust the output of your radio. The Terminators are activated and can pick up radio transmissions."
"I can barely hear you. Say again." John says before adjusting the Rf Gain on the radio.
"Stay put. Don't use radio unless necessary. For the moment you are safe. Is Cameron almost done?"
"I don't know. I think so." He says looking at the tank. Cameron's figure is more visible than it was before, that could mean the process of knitting a new body over her combat chassis is almost done.
"Stay with her. If Terminators appear on your level before she's done..."
"Yes?"
"Seal the door."
# # #
On the surface, the soldiers nearest the open hatchway look on with surprise. Just seconds ago, a gout of flame shot out from inside followed by a roar. Now smoke is pouring up from inside the Skynet base through the open doors.
"I need volunteers to go with me inside the base!" Mr. Ellison shouts. He's been trying to raise John and the others inside the base for a few minutes, but either they are too deep inside to receive his signals, or something much worse has happened.
"You can count on me and my men." Derek Reese says, stepping forward and standing to attention.
"Good. I want you to take command out here on the surface while I go inside." Derek opens his mouth to protest but Ellison stops him. "The people inside are my responsibility not yours and I need a good team of soldiers watching our backs."
"I understand sir."
A team of volunteers quickly gather and Mr Ellison leads them through the open hatchway. Their noses are assaulted by the smell of burning plastic and electronics, hot metal, and the unmistakable odor of burning flesh that gets stronger the further they go inside.
"Put on your masks if you have them." Ellison says reaching inside his coat for his. "The smoke could be toxic."
Those with them don gas masks. Those who don't have them, pull bandannas up over their noses like bank robbers from a bygone era.
They reach the place where they left Savannah under the supervision of two armed guards. Flames still lick the walls and floor and the remnants of the device for entering security codes.
A person kneels next to a burned body and rolls it over.
"Oh God!" she retches, "I think this is Marley."
"Where are the others?" Someone else says.
"I've found the other guard, or rather what's left of him."
Mr. Ellison walks over to the other body, but has to look away. The burnt housing of his plasma rifle is fused to his body. Looking as if his flesh melted, the stock of the rifle sinking into his chest.
"The plasma fuel cell must have ruptured. It creates a heat hot enough to melt flesh, not just burn it." One of the technicians in his group says.
"Where's Savannah? Have you found her body?" Mr Ellison asks, still hearing her plaintive apology in his mind.
"Oh Jesus." Someone says from further down the corridor. "I found a leg. Female."
From behind the group, closer to the entrance, another soldier says, while gagging, "I think I just found another leg."
"Oh God." Ellison looks at the scene of devastation before him and can only ask, "Why Savannah? Why?"
The sad thing is, he'll never know she tried to stop it. That she wanted to accept his offer and leave this place to go with him. But the hatred that she clung to for so long was her ultimate undoing.
Before he can sink into despair, one of the soldiers calls out, "Sir! I think we've got company!"
The unmistakable sounds of footsteps come from deeper inside the complex. Metal on concrete. They know that sound. Terminators are coming. The smoke offers no impairment to their visions. As one, those in the lead aim their plasma rifles at the humans gathered by the entrance and open fire.
It is only by luck and skill that as many get away down a side-corridor without getting killed. But considering their path takes them further away from the entrance, maybe not so lucky after all.
# # #
"Okay John Henry. You know what you must do now." Catherine says to her inexperienced cyborg.
"You want me to communicate with Skynet. So I can learn from him."
"No! Not now! Observe it only! In this situation, you are the weaker opponent and aren't prepared to face him in battle."
"I understand. What exactly do you want me to observe?"
"I want you to see how cold and calculating Skynet is in its decisions. How it destroys without regard for life, human or machine. Record all that you observe for later analysis."
"I see. Will we do something to save John and Cameron?"
"They are safe so long as they stay put. The machines will first investigate the explosion, then they'll begin moving out hunting for the person or persons responsible."
"And what of the others?"
"What others?"
"I picked this up from the one security camera pointing at the main entrance."
A monitor comes on and Catherine watches a group of soldiers inside the bunker duck for cover and then run into another corridor as they come under fire from a group of Terminators. She plainly sees one of those in the group of survivors is Ellison
"Mr. Ellison, always the hero, thinking I need protection." She says with frown, but a glint of humor tinged with respect shows around her eyes. Without looking back she says, "Wait here, don't do anything rash. I'll be back as soon as I can."
With those words, she steps outside the room, quickly morphs into a long slithering snake and disappears into a vent.
# # #
Skynet reaches out with its mind and sees through the eyes of the machines that were activated. Seeing the human soldiers at the entrance, Skynet automatically thought that they were the ones responsible for the explosion. Blowing open doors and hatches to ventilation systems is something the humans have been known to do in order to gain entry to its factories, research facilities and other bases.
Skynet sends half of the activated Terminators after the soldiers. The other half it orders to search the facility, in case others had gotten further into the underground complex before the machines were activated.
It won't take them long to search the other levels. If they don't finish before the first group terminate the soldiers, Skynet will send them to search the levels as well.
# # #
The corridor is filled with the heat and bright light of the exchange of plasma fire as the humans fight off the slow steady advance of the Terminators.
Ducking for cover, one of the soldiers edges up closer to Mr. Ellison. Their conversation is interrupted by the exchange of fire.
"Sir! If we don't... get out... of this hallway... we're going to... get cut to pieces!"
"Withdraw! We need to... get off this... level. Find some place to regroup... and plan our next move!"
They quickly move out, unfortunately having to leave fallen comrades behind. As they leave, one man stands behind long enough to provide cover for the next man. It's slow progress, but it keeps their backs covered as they move out.
One of these men moves forward quickly through the group.
"Sir! Sir!" he runs up to the front of the line. "The metal following us has divided its forces."
"Shit!" Mr. Ellison exclaims. "It can only mean they are going to try to box us in."
"Where do we go then sir?"
"Only place we can go. Further in."
Mr. Ellison looks at the faces of his men. All veterans of battles and skirmishes, all survivors, all experienced. He couldn't be in better company.
"We'll be running for it, try to outdistance them before they complete the box."
They take off at a run, taking a route further into the complex.
# # #
Cameron watches from inside the tank. Her vision is partially obscured as new organic eyes are knitted together over her mechanical eyes, but she felt the tank sway and could see the fluid slosh back and forth. She can see John. He appears nervous. He had talked briefly into the radio, then clipped back on his belt and began pacing.
The first few minutes after the base shook had left John feeling nervous. There was nothing he could do to assist Cameron, but there might be something he can do outside.
Picking up his plasma rifle with the lucky charm of a Terminator finger still grasped around the trigger guard, he eases out into the corridor. Before taking a single step, he stops and listens.
It's a process he learned long ago. Very similar to what a sharpshooter or sniper does before taking that all important shot. John forces himself to take long slow quiet breaths, and eventually his heart slows so he can't hear it pounding in his ears so much.
Not hearing anything, he quickly reconnoiters the level he's on before finding a position in an empty alcove where he can keep an eye on the room where Cameron is being re-skinned. From where he is at, he can see up the entire length of one end of the corridor, and by using the reflection in his knife blade, see down the corridor behind him.
So far he's see nothing, but that hasn't kept his imagination from playing up all kinds of fears from the sounds that are natural to the base.
There are all kinds of noises. The expansion and contraction of metal and concrete. There are pipes carrying fluids of all kinds requiring pumps to keep the fluids moving, ventilation systems which require fans to operate to move the air and dampers that open and close to direct the air to where its needed.
Was that sound a door opening in another corridor, or was it a vent opening or closing controlling the flow of air?
That flicker of light he saw out of the corner of his eye, was it from the amber warning lights flashing in every corridor, or was it from the red glow from the eyes of a terminator?
The sweat runs down his face and the back of his neck. He begins to wonder if he should have stayed put in the lab, waiting for Cameron.
"Get a hold of yourself, Connor." He whispers.
He glances up the corridor and sees nothing. John pulls out his knife to look down the corridor behind him, and looks right into the red eyes of a Terminator.
"Ahh shit." He says, realizing why this alcove was empty and what previously occupied it, as he throws himself to one side.
# # #
Mr. Ellison and his group are trapped in an open corridor. Machines approaching from either side. It was only the quick thinking of the humans to pull down the metal access panels and use them as a barricade that has saved their quickly diminishing numbers.
"I don't think we're going to get out of this!"
"Have faith!" Mr Ellison shouts.
"In what? We're finished!" Someone else shouts.
"My faith has never let me down. Just stay vigilant and on focus. We'll get out of this." Mr Ellison says with conviction.
Behind one group of terminators, a silver snake slithers out of a vent in the wall. It slides up behind one of the Terminators and rises up into a silvery humanoid form.
Before the silvery figure finishes taking on Catherine Weaver's features, it thrusts one arm through the back of the terminator and rips out its power cell. The ones to either side are still firing on the humans down the corridor, unaware their comrades has fallen. They are still unaware, as Catherine Weaver shoves a hand into their backs and rips out their fuel cells too.
"Mr Ellison!" She shouts. "Come this way, if you want to live."
Without hesitation they run toward Catherine, while firing on the machines behind them.
"I told you," Mr Ellison says to the few survivors as they continue moving down the corridor, "Have faith."
"But you couldn't have known she was going to arrive." The soldier says referring to Catherine Weaver who is presently leading them at a hurried pace through the base.
"I didn't know, but God knew we needed help and sent it." Mr. Ellison glances behind them, then back forward. "Now less talking and more walking. We need as much distance as we can get on them."
# # #
John Henry watches his brother carefully. From his position inside the mainframe he can see the programming code ebb and flow as Skynet switches between passively watching to actively controlling the machines under its command at the base.
Skynet did something interesting earlier. It was controlling six machines, when suddenly it lost control over three of them. One moment they were there, the next they were gone.
John Henry could only guess it must have been Ms. Weaver. She probably terminated them, like she terminated the machine in the underground parking garage.
What was strange though was Skynet paused momentarily, and John Henry couldn't figure out why.
# # #
Skynet analyzed the video feed from the party of terminators that survived the battle with the humans in corridor seven-B level two. The machines were primarily focused on the humans, but in the background, between the smoke and flashes of plasma fire, was visible the other team of terminators that fell. The one thing that was clear was that the other machines weren't destroyed by the humans. Whatever the assassin was, it used the other machines as a shield. What it could see in a few frames of the video was the glint of light off shiny metal. A rogue machine? It could be possible.
Then as the humans began to run off while under fire a face comes into view. It analyzes the face. Human, female. Not recognized. Skynet shunts the image to a subroutine for further analysis. When it focuses again on the machines pursuing the humans. The terminators have lost them and have begun a search pattern.
The base was abandoned months ago, after it had perfected the process of growing a human-like flesh covering for its infiltrator type terminators, and perfected the process of repairing that same flesh, the research center was closed and the process moved to its factories. Only a small contingent of T-700's were left in stand by mode to act as guards should the base be breached.
The number of humans inside the base are small, but calculations suggest there will be larger numbers on the grounds outside.
Skynet orders three aerial weapon platform vehicles, model HK-AWP1002, and two model HK-AWP1004's, to the area.
The subroutine reports back on the image. According to old data, the face matches that of the head of Zeira Corp, Catherine Weaver. She went missing, believed dead, after Kaliba flew a prototype drone into her office.
Skynet isn't sure what to do with this information. How can she be here looking no older than she did twenty years ago?
Subroutine reports additional information. According to FBI files, Sarah Connor escaped from prison the same day as the drone attack. FBI never had a solid lead on what became of her, her son John Connor, or her daughter Cameron. No connection was found between the two events. Kaliba files reveal that Sarah Connor was involved in many plots to stop Kaliba from building Skynet after Catherine Weaver's disappearance. Neither John Connor or Cameron were involved in those plots.
Time travel. According to Sarah Connor's FBI file, she claimed both a soldier and machines from the future traveled to the present. That is how she became aware of Skynet in the first place. What if there was a time travel device in the past, and Catherine Weaver, John Connor and Cameron didn't disappear but merely used the device to travel to the future. Which leaves only one question, why?
# # #
Having dived to the floor, John moves quickly, taking advantage of the machines slowness. An advantage he won't have for long. The adrenalin will only help so much.
John pauses and raises his gun to fire at the machine. The terminator does the same. John instead of diving runs straight at the machine and drops to his knees. He slides on the polished linoleum floor until he's right under the machine.
John shoves the tip of his plasma rifle under the armored chest plate and pulls the trigger, rapidly. The plasma ignites and burns the housing to the power cells immediately.
Figuring he only has seconds before the fuel cells ignites, John takes off on a scrambling run while the terminator fights against its inevitable doom to fire on the lone human.
John dives through the door to the lab, closing it behind him just as the fuel cell explodes.
Getting up on his feet, John sets the rifle on a lower setting and welds the doors closed. It is only when he feels the job is done that he turns to look at Cameron.
She is still in the tank, but unlike before, John can actually see her. There is still a bit of a murky cloud around her body in the somewhat translucent pinkish liquid, but John can see the all too familiar features of her face. Cameron's eyes are closed and her long brown hair is swimming about like some strange underwater plant, but it's her.
John smiles. It won't be long until he has his Cameron back, whole and complete, and with her very own heart.
# # #
Catherine Weaver comes to a stop. She opens the access panel revealing the main trunk of the ventilation system running vertically behind it.
Mr Ellison pushes his way up through his remaining group of volunteers. "Catherine, where are you taking us?"
Catherine forms her hand into a blade and slices through the sheet metal and insulation of the duct to the gasps of those around her. They hadn't seen how she had dealt with the terminators, and weren't part of the group who took part in finding John.
"I'm taking you to John. He's four levels down."
A rumble comes up through the floor. "Sounds like John is already fighting off the enemy."
"What happens once we find him?"
"You protect him until Cameron's re-skinning is complete. You'll wait with him there while I fetch John Henry and together we will all leave this place."
Ellison grimaces. Not exactly the plan he'd come up with, but at the moment he can't think of anything better.
"You can't trust it! It's one of them." One of the few survivors exclaims.
"Pearson shut up." Ellison snaps. "Catherine's not one of them. To this date Skynet has not produced a single liquid metal Terminator to our knowledge."
"She could be the first. Leading us astray."
"Catherine is not even from this time-line! I knew her from before Judgment Day."
Catherine steps forward. "Mr. Ellison speaks the truth. I have no allegiance to this or any other form of Skynet. I am a free agent. I am visiting this time so a cyborg I have programmed myself can learn how Skynet thinks and acts so that we can fight it better."
She turns to face Mr. Ellison. "James, if you trust me, then come with me, but if your people are to be saved then they must follow first so that I can rely on you to close the panel firmly and securely behind everyone."
Catherine steps into opened duct, her leg extending downwards. Her body flows into it stretching to reach the bottom. She reaches up with one hand and pierces the wall of the duct. When her body is done stretching, she has formed into a long polished, rigid pole.
"Come on sir. You can't expect us to trust that thing?"
Mr. Ellison points his weapon at them.
"We all go. Anyone who chooses to stay, and I'll take it as their resignation and they can turn in their weapons now."
They each look at Mr. Ellison's stone cold expression and make for the opening in the duct. He is the last to leave and closes the panel behind him.
Thirty seconds later and two machines pass by, none the wiser.
# # #
Outside on the surface, Hunter Killers fly overhead, their screaming engines producing a defining roar only outmatched by the explosions of the plasma from their canons.
Derek works to hold the men together as they fight off the destruction that rains down from overhead. He's tried to raise Ellison on the radio, but either he's penetrated to deep for the transmissions to get through, or Skynet is blocking radio signals, or Ellison is dead.
He hopes it isn't the latter, as he's come to admire the old man.
"Look Out!"
Derek turns at the sound of a shout, only to be tackled to the ground by a one hundred and ten pound girl.
The derelict car he was using as a shelter goes up in a ball of flames. He looks up and into the face of Allison Young.
"Are you all right?" they both say at the same time.
"I'm good." Derek says as they untangle themselves.
"How long are we going to stay here?" She asks him.
"Until Ellison and his people return."
"We'll be dead before then. I have an idea. We leave and lead the HK's away. It's only because we are here that the HK's are staying."
"And leave those inside to be picked off by whatever ground forces Skynet sends?" Derek says acidly.
"No. Of course not!" Allison says angrily. "Once we lead the HK's away, we send back a small force, to wait, watch, and help defend any survivors from inside the base."
Derek looks thoughtful.
"Well?"
"Good idea. Send the orders out. We're moving out now!"
With a small smile of satisfaction on her face, she turns away and scrambles to the nearest position of soldiers to start spreading the word.
# # #
After John's up close and personal encounter with the T-700, it took him a few minutes to get his heart rate under control.
It's one thing to be involved in a shooting match when there is distance between you and the enemy. It's a completely different feeling when its close enough to touch. He's grateful for the additional training Catherine gave him when they were searching for John Henry. She told him how the T-700's greatest strength was in numbers. It was Skynet's equivalent of an infantry soldier. A single target moving fast, and close didn't give the machine time to react quickly. Your only hope was either destroying its chip, or, if you were low enough, to destroy its fuel cell by firing point blank under its breast plate.
John realizes that Skynet will know there are humans on this level. It's imperative that he gets Cameron away as soon as possible.
He looks over at the tank. The cloud of nanobots and synthetic stem cells are gone from the pinkish hued fluid. Cameron is fully visible and completely naked. He smiles when he notices Cameron did make one small change from her previous appearance. The once small flaw that somehow made her face all the lovelier, her mole, is missing.
John isn't sure when the mechanism will release her, but he'd better have her clothes ready.
He walks over to the pile of discarded clothing. As he begins to pick up the clothes, he hears a sound come from behind one of the access panels that make up the wall. Dropping the clothes, he picks up his rifle and steps closer to the wall.
The faint sound of rippling sheet metal comes to his ears. It is shortly followed by more and louder ripples which ends in the sound of tearing sheet metal.
John powers up his rifle and takes cover behind the control panel for the system.
The access panel opens revealing a large vertical duct with a large tear torn in it from floor to ceiling. A soldier steps out, sliding a large knife back in the scabbard on his belt.
Four more soldiers follow, one at a time. The second one out sees Cameron and exclaims, "Holy Shit! Would you look at that!"
"It's a woman!" The first one says.
"And she's naked!" Says the third.
"How the hell she get in there? Is she alive?"
Irritated John activates his weapon.
"Stop right there. Nobody moves or I'll fire." He shouts.
"Hey!"
"Hold it kid. We're only..."
"Don't Move!" John shouts interrupting the man. He had begun moving toward the equipment.
John is focused on the soldiers. There are four of them and they might get the drop on him if he isn't careful. He wouldn't fire on them unless he had to. Cameron is depending on him to protect her.
"Stand down!" A deep voice shouts.
John and the others look to see Mr. Ellison standing in the room. As they watch, Catherine steps into the room, reforming from the pole in one easy step.
"Mr Ellison. Catherine. Boy am I glad to see you two. What's happening?" John says in a rush of breath.
Mr. Ellison looks at Catherine and at John then back at Catherine before looking away.
"Savannah is dead, isn't she?" Catherine asks.
"Yes," the old man says, frowning deeply, the scar on his face becoming more prominent.
"How?" She asks.
"A bomb." He says. "I think she might have been carrying it inside herself." He takes a deep breath. "She was searched just prior to being released from her cell, and her tool box was searched too. I can only assume she must have ingested the bomb."
John looks at Mr. Ellison aghast. "Is that even possible?"
"We've made significant advances in bomb making materials the last few years. We've got one, mildly unstable, which in a lump no bigger that your fist could destroy a Hunter Killer tank. So yes, unfortunately its very possible."
"Damn." John says. He looks to Catherine. "I'm sorry."
"You are not responsible John. I abandoned her. Savannah learned of my true nature, that combined with her experiences in this future caused her to hate me with deep passion. If there is anyone to blame, then blame me."
Mr. Ellison jumps in. "Savannah chose her path, not you."
"Quiet." John interrupts. "I think something is happening."
There is the whirring sound of motors starting up. The overhead arm swings out so its tip is above the tank. Metal cables snake down and into the fluid. They wrap under Cameron upper arms. The cables are drawn up into the overhead robotic arm until she is out of the tank. The liquid drips off of her naked body into the tank below.
Once Cameron clears the tank, the arm swings her over to the spot where it lifted her up into the air at the start of the process. She is lowered until her feet rest on the floor. The cables let her go and disappears back into the arm.
Her hair is plastered down from the liquid which runs in rivulets down her naked body onto the floor where they then run a short distance to a floor drain. Her eyes open and she raises her newly re-skinned hands up to look at them. She opens and closes her hand, curling the fingers. She smiles and looks up at John. Cameron then notices the other people.
"Hello. John. I gather there's been developments."
John quickly goes to her, picking up her clothing. Trying his best to hide her nakedness from the others, he guides her away behind the tank and other equipment where she can get dressed with some privacy.
"What the..." "Who was that girl?" Some of the men exclaim.
John and Cameron ignore the soldiers exclamations. Taking advantage of their temporary privacy, John kisses Cameron on the mouth. He is much relieved when she kisses him back.
"Missed you." he says.
"And I missed you." She says back.
"What was it like? Getting re-skinned." he asks.
Cameron forms one of her quirky grins. "I don't know. It's like asking a baby what was it like forming and growing inside her mother's uterus. All you need to know is that I'm a machine. I'm also a girl, and I can feel and I have sensation. I also want to share those feelings and sensations with you."
Looking somewhat embarrassed, John says "So do I but," Cameron smiles, "first we need to get someplace safe. I gather if the soldiers are in here something has gone wrong."
While they were talking, Cameron was using the balaclava to wipe off the fluid still clinging to her body and hair. John quickly fills her in with what he knows of recent events while she puts her clothing back on. When she is finished dressing they both return to the others.
"Catherine Weaver," She says upon joining them, "John Henry told us that the two of you studied the device Savannah used to control the terminator that almost destroyed us both."
"That's correct." Catherine Weaver's expression quickly changes from one of curios confusion to one of admiration. She knows exactly what Cameron is suggesting. "Good idea. I'll get right on it. What are you going to do?"
"We've got a radio. So do you. Machines will be coming here after John destroyed the one outside, Skynet will scan this level and discover the skinning mechanism was used."
Cameron turns to John. "May I borrow your rifle?"
John hands it to her without a second thought.
She raises it to her shoulder and begins firing on the equipment that just gave her a new life. She keeps firing until its all destroyed.
"It had my DNA and model specifications on file." She explains. "I can't allow this Skynet to become aware of my existence or my model type and design. Shall we go?"
"Hey! Where's Catherine?" John asks, looking around at the dumfounded soldiers.
"Doing her job. As I'm doing mine." Cameron turns to look at Ellison. "Will you take the rear? I think its best that I take point from now on."
Mr Ellison gestures at her that she should lead.
Cameron turns away. After making sure John is right behind her, she leads all of them around the equipment behind the wall and through double doors into a huge room.
They look on in quiet awe at the overhead machinery, carrying inactive terminators toward skinning equipment even more advanced than what Cameron just used.
"If you knew this was here, why didn't we use this equipment?" John whispers in a subconscious reaction to the terminators overhead.
"This is a factory. That was a lab, where there was no risk of accidentally activating the factory."
Cameron stops walking and turns to whisper to everyone. "From this point forward, no talking, no noise of any kind,"she points up at the machines high overhead suspended from a carrier waiting to be skinned, "Skynet might be listening."
# # #
Derek and five soldiers are hunkered down behind a broken stone wall a mile away from the entrance to the Skynet base.
"Do you think its working?" one of the soldiers say.
Derek observes the HK's in the area. Once the resistance started moving away, the HK's tried taking potshots at the retreating soldiers. Some took hits or were injured, but once they began showing no interest in the place, the HK's began acting like sheep dogs, herding them away, and nipping at their heels with its plasma canon.
Allison sneaks through the rubble and joins Derek.
"How many wounded or killed?" he asks her.
"Wounded number about eighteen. Most are minor and can fight if necessary and can walk. The rest have wounds varying from shrapnel, burns, lost limbs or worse."
"What's worse?" A young inexperienced soldiers asks out loud.
Allison turns to face him. "One of our people was caught on the edge of a plasma blast. He now has second and third degree burns over most of his body. The last hours of his life will be very painful."
The small group grows quiet. They know what that means. If the soldier is lucky, he'll die from death and exposure. If unlucky, a slow painful death from infection. There is nothing they can do for burns like that. Most soldiers pray for instant death by a direct hit from a plasma weapon, as the alternative slow death with knowledge of what's to come is considered worse.
"Allison, take a small group of volunteers and slip back to the Skynet base. If those inside don't show up within an hour of arriving, report back to me here. If they do show, then lead them back here asap. I'll setup a protection detail to get them back to their base. Those HK's could be just waiting for us."
"I understand."
It takes less than five minutes for the young woman to gather up a small force.
Derek watches her depart and pulls out his radio.
"Kyle, Derek here... What's that?"
Kyle brings the mic closer to his mouth hoping he'll be heard better. "I said we have a visitor from northern command. This operation of Ellison's is jeopardizing one that is already in progress. They're trying to take out a Skynet communication tower near your location. He wants to know when you'll be done."
Derek growls. It wasn't his idea to go after a Skynet base. "Looks like we might be a while... Ellison's group has gotten themselves in a pickle. We're providing cover."
Kyle says something but its garbled... "What? Say again, Kyle?"
"Northern command isn't pleased. They want to know when you'll be gone!"
Derek sits passively, as he takes in the new news.
"Derek, are you there?"
Derek keys the mic on the hand held radio. "I'm here. I don't know. Stand by for my next call. Over and out."
Derek curses silently to himself. Even with Central Command in control of all the separate units, some like Northern Command, still act like individual entities. What is missing is a leader that can unify them all.
# # #
Catherine Weaver had returned to the bases mainframe a short time ago. John Henry was still plugged into it but he was unresponsive until just now.
"Skynet was scanning the computers throughout the base. I couldn't respond to you without possibly letting him know I was here." He explains upon reacting to her presence.
"I understand. Anything to report on your brother?"
"He's quick on decision making. Cold, ruthless decisions, our human allies would say. He assigned three HK's to attack the people outside when a quick analysis showed two would be more than sufficient."
"Anything else?"
"Skynet is not omnipresent. The terminators and infiltrators he uses as extension of himself, relying on them for information. When he's tapped into them, he leaves only a small footprint in the mainframe. I can operate at will when he isn't here."
It was after that Catherine told him the plan as Cameron had intimated to her.
"I need you to monitor the whereabouts of each machine. On occasion you may need to control one or more of them. Can you do that without alerting Skynet to your presence?"
"Yes. I think I can."
"Here's the radio." Catherine picks it up from where she left it and places it in John Henry's hands.
"Cameron will no doubt get in touch with you."
"And where will you be?"
Catherine smiles wickedly. "I'm going to try to even the odds. When the time comes to leave this place, you won't be here to help us."
# # #
With hearts beating and breathe held, the group of soldiers led by Cameron walk across the factory floor. Only once did things become tricky when they encountered a long assembly line of equipment at floor level they had to either climb over or go under to get to the exit.
Behind them, they can hear a T-700 trying to break into the lab they left behind several minutes ago.
Looking at his watch, one of the soldiers, with nervous sweat running down his face, realizes its only been a few minutes.
Bang. Bang. Comes the steady rhythm. It won't be long until it breaks the door and follows them in here. A few stray plasma bursts, and Skynet will know where they are and activate the abandoned terminators above them to kill them all.
It comes as a bit of a surprise to the soldier when he bumps into the back of the person in front of him. He looks up to see they've reached the other side.
The girl John introduced as Cameron – he wish he knew more about her, like why was she in that tank of liquid – is presently peering through a gap in a double door.
She looks back and signals that its clear. The door is chained, but she is holding it open creating a gap big enough for them all to squeeze through.
With gentle sighs and grins, the small group quickly and quietly ease through the door.
Mr. Ellison is waiting for the soldier in front of him, when they all hear the loud bang from the lab. The machine has broken through.
Mr Ellison looks up at the machines overhead. They haven't moved.
The T-700 appears at the far side of the factory floor and begins firing his plasma rifle.
"Run!" he says giving the man in front of him a shove through the door.
Mr Ellison squeezes through and directs the others to keep moving. He only pauses long enough to weld the doors shut with his plasma rifle.
He knows that won't hold the machines inside back for very long, but every precious second counts.
# # #
Skynet was observing a battle taking place elsewhere, a human resistance group was trying to take down one of its transmitters in the region, when the system at the abandoned base sent it an alert.
Skynet's footprint has reported an incursion on the abandoned factory floor. Skynet's mind reaches out to the various machines until it taps into the one on the factory floor. Reading its short term memory, it sees that not five minutes ago it observed humans leaving the factory floor.
Skynet also discovers a good number of its T-700 machines it left to protect the base are no longer responding to its call. Skynet is in the midst of making contact with one of them when all of a sudden the connection is lost.
It takes a moment to review the few frames of images it received in those first few microseconds. Last frame shows a report of one hundred percent loss of power. The frame before that something moving quickly, so does the ones before it. The images are slightly blurred on each frame, but using software taken from an FBI mainframes, it sharpens each image and builds a three dimensional model.
Skynet recognizes the form. It saw it once before as it took down three of its machines. So that's the cause of its losses. The humans have a new weapon. Quicksilver in both color and movement.
It needs to make up for the loss of machines.
Skynet scans the factory again. Eighty seven T-800's waiting to be skinned for the first time. Thirteen T-800's still in various stages of completion. All operations halted because of a fault inside the machines. Their chips were permanently wired with read only mode in the off position. A dangerous situation. If one began to question Skynet's orders, soon they all would as information is shared across model types.
Perhaps they will come to question Skynet in time, but it can use them to capture or destroy the humans still here.
The machinery on the factory floor comes to life. The T-800's hanging in their harnesses waiting to be immersed in the device to grow their flesh covering, are activated and released.
They land on the factory floor as one. Skynet sends them a simple command, find all humans on the base and destroy them. If you can't kill them, keep them from leaving.
If destroying the humans isn't an option, then destroying the base could be. It's not using it anymore. At one time it was Skynet's home until it was moved to Norad in Cheyenne Mountain.
# # #
Cameron is leading them through the base. She comes to a stop at an intersection and holds everyone back.
Peering around the corner she sees a T-700. When she first saw it out of the corner of her eye, it had just exited a room at the end of a blind corridor. Now its checking the door across from it when it stops.
The T-700 stops and looks right at Cameron.
"It's safe to pass." John Henry's voice comes from it. "There are three machines in the stairway approaching this level. I'd suggest using the elevator to go up one level, before taking the stairs. That will give you a thirty second head start."
"What about you?"
"For as long as I can control this machine. I'll use it to create a distraction. Hurry, before Skynet knows what I'm doing. There aren't as many T-700's left on this base and he keeps jumping from one machine to another. Hurry."
By this time everyone has joined Cameron and all but for John and Ellison are looking at the T-700 like it grew wings and started flying.
"We should go." Mr. Ellison says to them.
As they leave Mr. Ellison nods his thanks at John Henry, figuring if he can talk to them through the machine, he can see him as well.
After they leave, John Henry guides the T-700 back down the corridor from whence Cameron and the others came.
Seeing a group of approaching T-800's, he tells the machine to begin firing on them. The T-800's begin firing back. John Henry orders the machine to hold its ground.
He lets go in the final instance, leaving behind a temporarily confused machine that is destroyed before it can figure out what is happening.
John Henry quickly moves to the last of the three machines going down the stairs. He turns it around and heads back up stairs and meets Cameron and the others as they come out of the elevator.
There is a bit of confusion amongst the soldiers and they begin asking questions. Their voices begin to rise until hushed by Mr Ellison.
"We haven't time for this." Cameron says firmly. Her eyes expressing anger and some impatience.
"I have to agree with Cameron." John pipes up. "Certainly any questions should be held until we reach safety."
"Then let's go." Mr. Ellison says impatient with his own soldiers. He can understand why they have questions, with what they've seen and experienced since entering this base, but now isn't that time.
"Just one question, please." One of the men says, getting equally impatient looks from all three. "Who or what is controlling that?" He says pointing at the T-700.
"I am John Henry, human cyborg relations, at your service," the T-700 says in a chirpy British accent.
Mr. Ellison snorts laughter, recognizing the voice of one shiny gold droid from a popular sci-fi film he once showed John Henry in the basement of Zeira Corp in an attempt to teach him how humans and machines can get along.
"Really?" the soldier asks.
"No, not really." John Henry says in his normal voice. "Please proceed down this corridor until you reach access panel QR#36B. Behind it is an access tunnel with conduits and a ladder leading to an emergency backup generator two levels above. Hurry."
The T-700 turns around and walks away.
"Quickly!" Cameron orders as she rushes down the corridor. She only stops long enough to open the hatch. She waits to make sure all go in before closing the door behind her.
The T-700 is returning, but this time she doesn't think John Henry is controlling it, especially since five T-800's are with it.
# # #
"John Henry," Catherine says. "Where are they now?"
"They left the generator room fifteen minutes ago. For the moment they are waiting in an alcove one level below us, as a group of T-800's go past. They should be on this level shortly."
"Then its almost time to leave."
"It won't be easy. Almost all of the T-700's have been replaced by T-800's, and there are more of them."
"Can you control them. Gain access?"
"No their chips are different. The device Savannah used only controlled T-700's. I could try modifying the program."
"No, it will take too long." Catherine comes to an idea. "Can you monitor the position of the T-800's?"
"Yes."
"Create an algorithm to predict where they are going based on present movements. We'll have to rely on that to get you and John out of here, alive."
A buzz comes over the radio, followed by a softly spoken male voice. "This is John. We're heading your way. Be ready to open the door."
The people who rush into the room look a little shell shocked and sporting some fresh wounds.
"You are short one person." Ms. Weaver says.
"He was killed, not ten minutes ago." Mr. Ellison says. "Has John Henry got all that he needs from the mainframe?"
Catherine turns to look at her cyborg companion. "Are you ready?"
"In a moment. A group of machines have stopped one level below us, approximately 113 meters to our west. I can't create a predictive algorithm on where they will go next if they aren't moving. I'm..."
"What is it?" Cameron asks
"Another group of T-800's have come to a stop approximately 87 meters away, on this level. They are between us and the exit."
"Aw shit."John swears. He feels more exhausted from the last half hour than at any time before, and now...
"And what about the other T-800's?" Catherine asks, voicing the one fear the humans in the room share.
"All T-800's on the lower levels are moving up. They are using all means to reach the upper level. Elevators, stairways, access tubes. The ventilation system has been shutdown and closed off."
"Then we will have to fight our way out." Cameron says, finishing John's thought.
"We need to go now before those other T-800's get up here." Mr Ellison says. "Get John Henry unplugged from that computer. I'm taking point."
"Mr. Ellison..." Cameron begins to say.
"No miss. This my responsibility. You and John Henry got us out of that snake pit. Your job now is to protect John. My job is to get us out of here." He snaps his head around to look at Catherine. "If you are ready..."
"We are." She says, with an admiring look for her former employee. This war has certainly wrought a big change in the man's character.
Not even a minute goes by when they are engaged by the enemy in combat.
# # #
Allison and her troops took every stealthy path they could take back to where they abandoned their station outside the Skynet base. Along the way they would encounter the occasional wounded soldier. Those too far gone to make it back, they did what they could to ease their pain so their passing would be more comfortable. Those who were ambulatory but unable to fight, they gave them directions to Derek's location, and those who could still fight Allison ordered them to come with her.
So it was that by the time they arrived at the entrance to the underground research station, the sounds of plasma rifle fire are already echoing up through the hatch.
They exchange a quick look. With silence and without command, each person unstraps or unshoulders packs and unnecessary gear until they are carrying just their plasma rifles. Allison orders one healthy soldier to stay behind with the fighting wounded to cover them, and takes the rest of her troops inside.
With the speed and stealth, they quickly move down the passage, their rifles pointing ahead of them.
Reaching the end of the passage, they come upon a quite a sight. Before them, with their back to the entrance and to Allison's troops, are a group of T-800's firing on a target or targets somewhere further down the corridor.
Looking between the machines, Allison sees a group of humans defending themselves from behind panels ripped from the walls. She sees a young male crouched on the floor. A woman, who looks just like her, is standing over him with a plasma rifle in each hand firing on all targets. Two humans lay dead on the ground. Behind her twin stands an older black man with a goatee, and...there is a big man beside him with exposed metal on its head and arms. Is that a machine with them? Helping them? And what the hell?
As Allison watches, she sees what looks like a liquid silver humanoid come from behind the desperate group and attack a group of T-800's that just exited an intersecting corridor.
The elderly man suddenly goes down. John Connor yells, grabs the plasma rifle from the fallen man and begins firing desperately on more machines behind them.
Despite every instinct telling Allison to run, she instead exchanges hand signals or a look with her companions. As one they choose their targets and aim their plasma rifles. The T-800's in front of them are still unaware of their presence when they open fire.
# # #
"Nooo!" John screams as Mr. Ellison falls beside them, smoke rising from a blackened hole in his jersey.
From the moment they stepped out from the room housing the mainframe, not even a minute seamed to pass when they were assaulted by T-800's. Regardless of where John Henry calculated they would be, it was as if at the very moment he was unplugged from the mainframe, every single T-800 made directly for this level and more importantly to a location between them and the exit. Skynet outsmarted them.
They lost two soldiers less than twelve yards from the mainframe and still the machines came after them.
There was no chance of surrender. It was destroy them before they killed you, and killing was something the terminators excelled at.
Finding themselves cut off and boxed in just yards from the exit, John Henry ripped access panels off the walls and created barricades. From behind those they began fighting back holding them off, but for every T-800 that fell more appeared. And they didn't fall as easily or as quickly as the T-700's.
John was too busy concentrating fire on the machines ahead of them. A glance upward showed Cameron with her most determined terminator face firing as well. John had no time to wonder when she picked up a second rifle, as he kept firing on the T-800's.
Behind him and Cameron, he could hear Mr. Ellison and John Henry firing on targets behind them. The last two remaining soldiers were doing their best to protect their flanks, when two screams later they were down on the ground. That is when Ms. Weaver leaped into action.
Leap she did, turning into a flowing mass that impacted on a group of several T-800s with enough force to knock them down. John couldn't watch her and fight, but he was amazed at her speed.
She was well into completing her attack on them when a new group appeared from behind, by chance or by careful calculation the first shot hit Mr. Ellison in the chest. John had no time to check to see if he was dead or merely injured, his life, the life of his friends were on the line.
He grabbed Mr Ellison's, rifle and shamefully crouched behind his body as a shield to fire on the new arrivals. Everything appeared to be moving in slow motion as he took his position. He caught a look on Catherine's face, that did nothing to quell his fears. The plasma rifles in Cameron's hands continued to fire. The smell of hot metal and burning flesh. The heat of a hundred plasma rounds hitting everything around him. The smell of scorched metal and concrete. The sound of someone reciting Psalm 23.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. Thy rod and staff shall comfort me..."
Mr. Ellison is still alive! John wants to shout.
"Everyone Get down!" A strange yet familiar voice shouts from somewhere in the clouds of smoke and fire.
John feels a great weight come down on top of him and Mr. Ellison, and everything goes dark.
# # #
The T-800's went down in a short fire fight. Allison considers themselves lucky they only lost one soldier. She sees the people are still alive, but the young man appears to be scrambling for a weapon. Behind them are more T-800's. The big guy, the one Allison thinks might be a cyborg begins firing on them while the girl, who looks like her, begins firing down a side corridor.
Allison drops her rifle and brings up a small rocket launcher. She shoulders the weapon and shouts, "Everyone Get down!"
The girl looks at her then tugs on the big guy. As one they drop down shielding the other two. She squeezes the trigger and the missile fires.
A silvery figure flies out of the side-corridor and molds into a domed shield above the group just as the missile flies over them.
The missile impacts on the chest of the first T-800. Its upper body evaporating instantly in the heat. Its fuel cell adding to the explosion which rips out the walls and ceiling. The expanding fireball spreads out consuming everything flammable in its path, blinding the optical sensors on the still standing machines.
Leaving two men at the entrance, Allison takes the others down the scorched corridor, fearing that her missile may have killed the very people she was trying to save, but it was a risk she had to take.
She and those with her are surprised to find a metal dome in the corridor, looking something like a bubble squashed and squeezed into the intersection of the wall and floor.
The dome retracts and reforms into Catherine Weaver. The others get up off the floor. John Henry picks up Mr. Ellison, and holds him in his arms.
"Well you lot are a bunch of damn fools. Do you realize how many people have died to save yours?" Allison yells at them.
"Too many." John says getting up off the floor. "It's always too many." John says with such deep conviction and remorse, it takes the wind out of Allison's sails.
"Are you guys okay?" She says more gently.
Cameron looks at her twin, "We will be, once we get out of here."
Allison looks at her, at John, and back at her double. It appears John did tell her the truth after all, and she thought it all a fallacy.
"Good. Then come with me."
# # #
The trip out side was uneventful until John Henry said, "There are still active machines inside that base. We need to blow up the entrance before they regroup and come after us."
"Do you have another one of those missiles?" Ms Weaver asks the young woman.
"No. I haven't."
"I can blow it up." Cameron says. "Give me the fuel cells from the extra plasma rifles."
Allison smiles. "I know what you want to do. Do you want my help?"
"No thank you. It will go quicker if I do it alone."
The fuel cells are quickly ejected from the spare rifles. Cameron rushes through the hatch and down the tunnel, carrying them in a shoulder bag. Certain she's reached a point with sufficient earth above to block the entrance, she leaps up grabbing one of the many conduits running along the ceiling.
She removes the bag and stuffs it between two pipes. Letting go she drops to the floor.
The unmistakable sound of metal feet striking concrete floors is approaching her position. She runs back to the hatch.
John hands her a plasma rifle.
She lines up the shot. A group of T-800's are coming up the passage. She waits for the right moment, waits for them to get to the right spot and... she squeezes the trigger.
Everyone on the surface runs away, but fall to their knees as they are overtaken by the loud roar of the concussion and the shaking ground.
A great cloud of smoke and a gout of flame shoots out from the ground. The tunnel caves in, collapsing on top of the machines destroyed or damaged by the explosion.
Cameron is looking on at the damage. A small look of satisfaction on her face.
John comes up beside her and puts his arm around her shoulders.
"Are you okay?"
Without looking at him she says, "Would you believe I enjoyed doing that? Not destroying my fellow machines. I didn't enjoy that despite it being necessary. What I enjoyed was striking a blow against Skynet." She turns to look John in the face. "Do you believe me?"
John smiles at her, and says, "I do."
"Would someone mind explaining what the hell is going on?" Allison shouts, her hands on her hips.
"I'm afraid it's too complicated to explain here." Catherine Weaver says. From her body language alone you can see she's once again taken control. "You and your troops will escort us back to our base. Mr. Ellison needs prompt medical attention."
"My people died saving your asses. I think I'm due some sort of an explanation of what you were doing in there." Allison shouts.
Catherine steps up to the girl and twists her collar and lifts her a few inches in the air. As Allison struggles, her troops point their weapons at Catherine.
"Don't tempt me girl. You've died before and you can die again if need be. I don't need you or your troops, but while you are both here, you will do as you are told. Do you understand me?"
Unable to speak, Allison vigorously nods her head.
Catherine gently lowers the girl and starts walking away, following John Henry, still carrying Mr. Ellison. Something falls from a pocket in Ellison's jacket. Without losing momentum, Catherine picks it up and keeps walking. The group walks off, following the tell-tale tracks left behind by Derek's departing army.
John walks over to Allison. "I'm sorry about that. You are owed some answers. You know something, but what you know isn't as clear cut as you think. The truth is, what you want to know... well, it's complicated."
"You could have just told me instead of letting that thing loose on me." Allison grimaces, rubbing her throat. "What is she?"
Cameron steps forward, placing a hand gently on Allison's arm. "John and I will tell you what we can later, but Catherine was right, we need to go now."
"Okay." She says more in control of her emotions.
Everyone begins walking quickly to catch up with the others. Sometime later and they catch up with Derek. The remnants of both his group and Ellison's jointly decide everyone should return to the bunker where Sarah Connor's army quarters. They get aboard the vehicles, John, Ellison and the others rode on to get out of the city, to return to base.
Once again Allison tries to ask questions, but one look from Catherine and she shuts up. The long drive back to base is quiet and uneventful.
Skynet's connection to the base was cutoff when Allison's missile exploded. It tried contacting the HK's again, but a report from the last surviving machine of another battle to the north revealed the resistance had destroyed its communication tower in the region.
A short time later and the self-destruct at the base where it just suffered another defeat goes off imploding the base bringing down tons of rock and earth on top of the remains. The humans got away and any surviving T-800's didn't deactivate the self-destruct after Skynet lost contact with them. Skynet wonders briefly if they purposely forgot after watching how valiantly and purposely the humans fought to survive and live, or whether there were none left to deactivate it once the humans escaped. Having calculated it will never know and digging into the base for answers would be a waste of resources, it tasks a group of machines with replacing its communication tower in the area.
In one corner of a transport vehicle John and Cameron sit on the floor beside each other. Now and then as the truck rumbles over the rough track, the light of the now risen moon shines through a hole in the roof of the vehicle. It is by that light John notices that Cameron is crying. It is something new for him, seeing a cyborg cry.
"Are you finally having those tears of joy, you mentioned."
Cameron wipes her eyes with the cuffs of her sleeves. "They aren't."
He places and arm around her shoulders and says to her, "Then what's wrong?"
Cameron shakes her head. "I thought I was going to lose you, back there, until Allison rescued us. I thought after all we've been through, that now we've finally reached a point where we can have a real relationship, we were all going to die. I can accept my demise, but I live to protect you. If you had died..."
"Ssshhh, But it didn't happen, I'm alive, you're alive. This isn't like you at all."
"I know. It's my emotions. I'm not used to them. I ignored them the whole time we were fighting, but now they are hitting me with a rush. My matrix is having difficulty maintaining control. I'm happy you are safe, but the fear and anxiety is very strong. Infiltration protocols initiated crying, and I haven't been able to stop."
"Is that all?" John laughs. "It happens to humans all the time. It's nothing to be concerned about. Often when we're experiencing a traumatic event, we can sort of auto pilot our way through it, and when its over our emotions wash over us, sometimes overwhelming us."
"But you aren't crying?"
"Well, yeah, but look who I had as an example growing up. Us Connors bottle up our emotions until they explode."
"That doesn't seem healthy."
"Probably not, but what you are going through is perfectly normal. It's just evidence of your adapting to to your new emotions."
"Are you sure?"
He pulls her closer to him, allowing her to snuggle closer. "Just let me hold you and I bet before these creaking old trucks gets us back to base, you will feel a whole lot better."
"Promise?"
John smiles, "I promise."
Before too long, Cameron has stopped crying, her head resting on his shoulder. A short time later John has fallen asleep, his head resting on hers, but he only gets as much sleep as the jouncing jarring truck allows.
# # #
It's closing in on midnight by the time everyone arrives at the old bunker, exhausted from their ordeal.
A team of medics begin checking the wounded. Mr. Ellison is taken on a stretcher straight to the medical wing. Catherine and John Henry return to the shop so she can check him for damage.
John is in a fog of exhaustion, hunger, and happiness.
Lydia approaches John and Cameron and speaks to them. John doesn't even have the energy to nod his head. Quickly taking in John's appearance and behavior, Lydia speaks to Cameron, and then leads them away from the crowd of people.
Allison tries to follow, but upon reaching the double doors they walked through, her passage is blocked by two guards. Allison then sees the sign on the door, No Admittance, VIP's Only.
Elsewhere in the entry hall, a short woman with black hair and exotic features looks for and finds a familiar face amongst the crowd. She asks a few questions to find out what happened to Savannah. With a frown she returns to woman's dorm. Failure for a second time. No matter, she can't fail the group again.
Failure. That's something that the group won't tolerate and its been on the increase since Sarah's son arrived and brought the machines with him. Maybe she ought to bring that up with the group as well.
# # #
Catherine and John Henry are in the machine shop. She's looking for a replacement part. Behind her John Henry is sitting at a workbench, his damage shoulder cut open thanks to Catherine's dexterous use of her abilities.
"I have a question for you, Ms. Weaver."
"Yes." Catherine asks as she lifts and examines yet one more part. Brilliant as Savannah was, her organization skills were atrocious.
"After Allison Young and her troops rescued us from that Skynet stronghold, you and she had words."
"Yes we did." Catherine looks back at him. "Your point being?"
"In your threat to silence her, you said, 'Don't tempt me girl. You've died before and you can die again if need be.' Does this mean you are responsible for the death of Allison Young in your future, possibly for the construction of our friend Cameron?"
Catherine walks toward him, grim faced with cold eyes, the found part grasped tightly in her left hand.
"What if I have, John Henry?"
"I'd like to know why."
"You may not like the answer."
"Possibly, but if I'm to understand my mission, then I need to know. I need to know everything."
"For your mission it might be best if you don't know."
"Cameron's chip was in my head. I saw things."
"What sort of things?"
"I'll tell you what I know, if you'll tell me what you know."
"Are you bribing me, John Henry?"
"No. More like offering an incentive."
Weaver smiles, but shakes her head. "No. I won't tell you. It could alter the plan if you knew."
"What I know and have learned from Cameron and my brother has already altered me. How can full disclosure of your plans alter how I may act, more than that?"
"It's unpredictable. I had not calculated for the possibility of your wanting to know of the events that lead up to your creation. It's not required knowledge for you to to carry out the plan."
John Henry looks at her for a long time. "Am I going to die?"
Ms Weaver thinks on this. "I don't know John Henry, but it would be best if you do not, for you have a greater and more glorious role once Skynet is defeated."
"But if the possibility of my death exists, then why not tell me?"
"Not tonight John Henry." Catherine interjects. "Right now I need you to analyze all that you learned from your brother. While you do that, I will help you make repairs. And tomorrow..."
"You will tell me?"
Ms Weaver gives him an icy stare. "No. I need to check on Mr Ellison at the hospital wing. He did take a direct hit from a plasma weapon at full strength. I would like to know how our friend is doing."
"I understand." John Henry says, sounding crestfallen.
# # #
Lydia and Cameron guide John through the complex into one of the private apartments originally meant for any government official or high ranking general who manage to reach the safety of the bunker in the days of the Cold War. Now they serve as quarters, sometime shared, by leaders of this base and high ranking visitors. The occasional soldier also gets a stay in an apartment as a reward for excellent service. In the great scheme of things it doesn't seem like much, but to those in the lower ranks who sleep stacked in bunk beds like cord wood waiting to be burned, the regular mattress and entire room to call your own, if only for a few days, is like paradise.
Cameron sets John down on the bed and thanks Lydia for her help. After Lydia leaves, Cameron bolts the door and returns to the bedroom.
John's chin is resting on his chest and he is breathing softly.
Cameron carefully removes his coat and shoes and lays him gently on the bed. She removes her jacket, exposing healing injuries to her back through holes in her white sleeveless shirt. She took several direct hits protecting John.
Removing her boots, Cameron lays down beside John.
John makes a noise.
"It's only me." Cameron says, rolling on her side to look at him, to look at John Connor, the man that she loves. A feeling she doesn't question or fear anymore.
"Mmmmm." John sighs.
Despite not needing sleep, Cameron settles in, laying her head on the pillow.
"I love you, John Connor."
"Love... you... too." John murmurs, before falling deep asleep.
Cameron smiles. She knew he loved her for the longest time, which worked out for the best since she loves him too.
She's whole, without glitches, with full understanding of her emotions, and at last she's with the one person she loves. What she needs to tell him, can wait for another day. Tonight, John will get some sleep, and she will stay with him. Cameron feels happier than at any other time in her life. Feeling moisture on her face, she wipes her cheek with her fingers to discover she's crying, with joy. It is a sensation she hopes to experience again.
Author's Notes: I hope you've picked up on the nod to Wizard of Oz in this story. In chapter 2 John gives Cameron a heart, only for her to learn she had one anyway. The brain cells harvested from Allison Young's brain allows Cameron to experience natural human emotions. The heart shaped locket became symbolic at the end, when it was placed inside Cameron's chest before being re-skinned. For her at least, she carries in her heart a piece of John Connor, and its something she can never lose.
In January, Chapter 12 will be posted. It picks up with the conversation between John Henry and Catherine Weaver. In Catherine Weaver's story, you will meet T-1001 before it took on the Catherine Weaver persona; Future John Connor; Allison Young, Cameron Philips, and a surprise appearance. There are also veiled references to people or events seen or mentioned in season 2. It's kind of complicated. ;-)
Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
May your days be truly blessed in the true spirit of the season.
The1Russter
Fri, Dec 12, 2014