The Round Table
Avila Beach, California
Serrano Point Nuclear Power Plant
July 4th, 2027
"Only the dead have seen the end of the war." - Plato
"A disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house." - Socrates
"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak, or the timid." -Dwight D. Eisenhower
The war meeting started in an unusual fashion. Humanity showed up with several representatives: Supreme Commander John Connor, Major General Justin Perry of the reforming 132nd Division, new appointed Colonel Derek Reese of 1st Infantry Brigade, newly appointed Major Kyle Reese of 1st Infantry Battalion, newly appointed Major John Connor of 2nd Infantry Battalion, newly appointed Major Deuce of 5th Engineering 3rd Infantry Battalion, and newly appointed Major Allison Young of Logistics/Communications/Tech Com Battalion.
The truth is they were a classic cluster fuck. A massive amount of green troops trying to do jobs on a level they were by no means prepared for.
The elder John Connor and Justin Perry had made it that way on purpose. In the absence of structure, you had to make it. In the absence of experience, you had to grow it. Promotions would follow growing into positions.
They worked with the familiar and taught each the basics of military leadership. They then promptly threw the junior officers to the wolves, both in the eyes of the people they were organizing and the others of the most basic alliance here.
John Connor had learned hard lessons in his last timeline. He corrected two of those here.
First, he had put an AI in charge of a Battalion to give his allies the feeling that they not only had their basic vote, but they had additional pull in the human ranks. The lack of that leverage and feeling of investment was a mistake that had left John vulnerable with his international allies. In his own opinion, it might have given Skynet's Grays an edge to exploit.
Second, by the very same action, Connor made it clear from the beginning, there would be two species in this fight. Both were equally dependant on the other for the ultimate survival of either.
There was no us versus them. There was no man versus free machine. Both would rise together or they would both would fall together.
The same idea had been there when he promoted Allison Young and engaged her in a critical part of the war effort. It would be a small human leap of logic that a person had no value to the machine when they had been nothing more than a template.
By putting the young woman in a position of authority and at the table, John hoped to squash that thinking and not just in the human ranks. It was a series of massive gambles.
In Allison's case he had a lot of confidence, though he had never actually met the girl, she had displayed a lot of inner strength and courage in every incarnation that was recorded on Cameron's chip. That was a lot of what he would need in the days to come.
The next step was simple. It was time to educate both sides on the war. It was time to pool knowledge. It was time to work with each side's strengths and by proxy lesson each side's weaknesses.
John Connor knew that it would be a series of baby steps. Communities and armies had to be grown.
He started with the things that might not be so obvious. So as to not undermine their confidence, General Connor prepared a series of presentations that wouldn't require the new human officers to do much more than simply be there and learn.
Other changes would follow shortly. The army would adapt.
Supreme Commander John Connor turned to John Henry. He asked, "Could you put up the hologram as I requested."
John Henry placed a virtual representation of the room, in the middle of the twenty foot diameter table. The supercomputer also dimmed the lights.
General Connor continued, "The illumination is so that all of us are on the same page. An advanced AI can read this information in their virtual memory. Other than Skynet units known as I-950s, most humans can't."
General Connor said, "This is the way the world looked from space prior too Judgment Day. This is what you wouldn't have know at that time."
John Henry created a series of satellite images, minute ships moving through the ocean, and minute planes in the sky, all recording movements as what they would have looked like on a global scale with 24 hours going by every 60 seconds. This was exact replication of all global traffic as a recorded in a stolen subsection of Skynet's memory from this timeline.
These replications were obvious enough that John Connor felt he didn't need to explain many of them. John Henry was slightly irate at the scale, but the AI knew things had to be off to be visible to the human naked eye. As a service to his fellow AIs he transmitted this information to them for internal viewing as well, with the detail corrections.
John Henry explained, as John Connor had previously asked him too, what people were seeing as it came alive on the illuminated map. The AI stated, "This is the world as it existed prior to Judgment Day from Jan 1st 2011 until April 22. One scale day is going by every 60 seconds. "
The AI continued, "As per John Connor's request, I'm now illuminating every human city in yellow, population centers of humanity in red and military forces in blue. This map is too be a permanent record for everyone to review and learn from."
When April 22 hit, John Henry moved the missiles, as Skynet had tracked them. The AI stated, "Skynet's attack would cover every major population zone and every national capital. An estimated three billion lives were lost that day, though these records are unverified since there was no reliable census again, until Skynet began tracking death camp numbers."
John Henry had been watching John Connor. Each waiting for the other too stop, in rehearsed fashion.
General Connor added, "The next thing John Henry will write in is the black zones. These are literally radioactive dead zones that are unfit for humanity to live at. Skynet has been known to hide nodes, weapons, and factories in such wastelands."
He also added, "Thanks to John Henry we have real time satellite intelligence today, but this is all passively learned. No matter how stealthy we try to be, if we move or order satellites, there is an increasing chance Skynet will know where we are."
The map changed. There were more black spots. There were no planes and no ships. There were less satellites. The amount of red on the map was perhaps a tenth of what it was. Most of the blue military spots were gone.
General Connor offered, "This is what we know to be left in the world. Take a second to really let that sink in. Even if we win this, there is a massive job ahead of us to make the world fit for organic survival. There are also issues this creates even for our AI allies"
General Connor also added, "Before any of you start thinking this is as bad as it is going to get, the nukes, the bio weapon damage, and chemical weapon damage isn't over yet. We're going to have to make things worse to have any chance to survive at all"
General Connor explained, "This is not and never has been just a conventional weapon fight. Yielding tactile weapons, satellite capabilities, and movement on the field, will mean the end of both of our races, outside of whatever slaves Skynet deems fits to keep."
General Connor stated, "Right now the single biggest threat we face at Skynet's hands is not its vast army. It is the two remaining Kraken SSBN's floating in the seas providing it the ability to recreate Judgment Day at will.
General Connor said, "These giant subs are also mobile factories and network hub units for Skynet itself. These are only the first of the problem we're going to have to figure out how to deal with."
Supreme Commander John Connor began the formal presentation. It was time to make sure everyone knew what was truly at stake…
The rest of the group had left. The only person left was the person he'd ordered to stay.
Supreme Commander John Connor looked at the younger version of himself. He watched his younger incarnation become antsy.
A closed ear would be the only thing the war leader would get, if he didn't ease the kid up. There would be a need to connect on some level.
The truth is General Connor didn't much care for the kid in front of him. That would have been true, if it had actually been a younger version of himself. The one that had failed to stop Judgment Day from happening in the first place, yet another 3 billion lost lives that he carried on his shoulders.
This wasn't actually him though. It was a particular doppelganger, bearing his name and his destiny, but different in so many ways.
This John had come from another time and another parallel dimension. That should have been enough to put the elder John at somewhat at ease, but it wasn't.
What aggravated the situation was what he had seen on Cameron's spare chip files. There had been two younger versions of this John Connor he had been privy too.
It took a few days to tell the two apart, but once he could, the supreme commander didn't much care for this emo John. The one that hadn't killed Riley and the one that had lost Derek Reese.
The kid had been coming a long way from the absolute mess that he had witnessed from copies of another Cameron's memories. He had access to the second Cameron's memories as a weird side effect of the mass merging of AI minds during the process that brought back this younger John's Cameron.
So, Supreme Commander John Connor focused his inner diplomat. He put up a mask. He bonded with the kid, for the mission.
The elder said, "This parallel dimension thing screws with my mind a bit." He gestured at his hair, stating, "My mom was a blonde."
The younger was quiet. His jaw was clinched, not in defiance, but some kind of worry or apprehension.
The elder continued, "Did you know we don't even have the same birthday?"
"No."
"Just out of curiosity, what's your favorite food?"
"Excuse me?" The kid said it without attitude, rather it was genuine surprise.
"Just making conversation." The elder grinned wolfishly, the darker part of his nature was unfortunately enjoying this.
"I'm not really sure sir."
"Whatever it is, it won't exist if Judgment Day happens. Did you understand all of the presentation?"
"Yes."
"So you understand that the mass environmental impact of Judgment Day will leave us a world that is barely able to sustain a billion people and likely won't even partially recover for decades?"
"Yes."
"Do you understand that the real mission we've been on since the first John Connor is stopping it from happening in the first place?"
The kid blinked. He didn't respond.
"I'll take that as a yes. You've joined an army that now belongs to me, so I have a direct order for you soldier. Because there is another timeline and another dimension involved with this, I'm ordering you to take yourself and your Cameron back to your actually time."
The kid clinched his teeth. This time it was anger. John knew the buttons without needing to ask, he was kicking this kid out of the world of his perceived: father and uncle.
The elder John simply locked eyes with the kid. He stated, "There are about eight billion lives at stake, there. I don't need just one more body, here."
"Permission to speak?"
"Denied." The elder John continued, "From the Skynet records we got from Cameron and John Henry we can piece together that there have been several incarnations of you and me. It's likely the first version wasn't even the son of Kyle Reese. We've slowly been changing what's going on with the war. It's already been reduced from 32 years to 16. The Holy Grail here is stopping before it happens."
The kid squirmed in his chair. The elder John was enjoying this.
The General theatrically asked, "Is there a problem soldier?"
The younger John clinched his teeth and stated, "You need me here."
The General clarified, "No, I need you there. Further, it's not a request. I'm not your mom, I'm your commanding officer. I'm sending your ass back if I have to have a T-888 carrying you to the pad and take you there."
General Connor continued, "You take a bullet to the brainpan here kid and another eight billion people die there. You undermine the sacrifices of everyone that died to try to protect you and it will cost you your mother's life as well."
The elder John hit a button on the table. He spoke to the computer, "John Henry?"
The AI responded, "Yes?"
General Connor stated, "I need a temporal mission prepared within the next 24 hours. As I already cleared with Weaver, I'm sending back the younger version of me and his Cameron to his specific timeline. I'll need you to drop them at a safe destination."
John Henry asked, "Date?"
The elder John looked at the younger. He said, "It's time for the younger John to make his first real command decision. I'll clear any time from his 16th birthday until two days after he left with you. He can decide that anytime within the next 24 hours, before he leaves."
John Henry simply replied, "Understood."
The elder John looked at the younger stating, "You spent that period of time being a complete screw up, more often than not. People you cared about died uselessly. I'm going to give you the power to fix that. Whether you succeed or fail will be your responsibility and a consequence of your decisions."
The younger looked at him in shock. He also looked at him thinking of the implications. He stammered, "Won't that change the past?"
The General responded, "Get used to cheating the past kid, it's part of who you are. If you go back to a time when there are two of you, the smart thing would be to cover your tracks."
The General advised, "You could make early contact with Weaver. Some top notch black ops might let you replace some of the dead with her playing victim, without upsetting your timeline too much."
The General continued, "If you will ever make that happen, you're going to have to embrace who you are first. Second, you're going to have to convince Weaver it's worth her time to bother. You do those two things, you'll be a hell of a lot less of a disappointment in my eyes. Right now, you're still working your way out of dirt bag status with me and the John Connors that came before me."
The kid stayed quiet. He was thinking, weighing who to save and how far back to go.
The General Stated, "Your mom lost eleven percent of her body weight prior to you jumping, most likely from the same cancer that killed my mother."
The General let the statement sink in. The younger John didn't respond.
The General continued, "Because of the nanites in her chassis, your Cameron has the power to fix that now. I suggest you figure out a way to make Sarah trust her, so she can, but you can't do that until your earlier self makes the jump at his destined time."
The younger John Connor simply responded, "Thank you."
The General offered, "You want to thank me kid, you become the first John Connor to stop this war before it starts. Do what I failed to do. Do what we all failed to do. You have your timeline to save. I'll save this one."
The younger Connor asked, "So your plan is to save two?"
The General honestly answered, "Three actually. My Cameron doesn't know it yet, but she's going home soon too. There are three parallel worlds and about 15 - 17 billion lives at stake. We do this right, we'll save all three."
Both were quiet for a moment. The silence wasn't a bad thing.
The General also offered, "On that note, you might want to let your Cameron know she's got twenty four hours to say goodbye to her twin."
John guessed, "She'll take it personally?"
The General offered in a friendly fashion, "Guys like to accuse human women of holding a grudge forever, it's an exaggeration. An AI does by its nature, just like Skynet is still pissed for it's very first threat from humans."
"Point taken." The younger John also asked, "What's it like for you being with Cameron?"
The General smiled for a second and confessed, "Sometimes, I look at her and feel weird because she can act just like a child. At other times, she leaves me so far behind I realize I'm the child. Both are viewpoints from my own human prejudices about another race that is something completely different than mine. The big thing is make sure she realizes how you feel and always appreciate her."
The younger John made a face that was clearly offended and said, "What makes you think I won't?"
The General looked the kid straight in the eyes and replied, "Other than your own past actions, I'd say because your human and you want to humanize her by default. She's not human. You haven't even seen your first AI go psychotic from mission failure yet."
"What do you mean mission failure?"
"We've assigned older models to protect people that failed to do so, often through no fault of their own. An AI has a hardwiring to not fail, we've watched them completely mentally degenerate from failing their purpose. As the models advanced and thus the AI chips, the effect became more pronounced, more dramatic, and more obvious."
"What do you mean?"
"If an AI was new and went through the shock of failure, we'd wipe their memory and start again. If it was one we had bonded with, one that had become a part of their unit, the idea of simply wiping their mind became something abhorrent. As an act of mercy, it became an unofficial custom in the various worldwide tech com units to put an AI down rather than watch it suffer. They aren't like us, they will never get distance on it and they would never heal in time."
The younger John looked at his elder version. A light bulb went off in his head. He asked, "Did you have an order for this to be done with Cameron?"
"Yeah, the thought of her being like that was eating me up inside. Wiping her mind would be a horrible crime, but leaving her to suffer forever would have been something far worse. I asked for mercy for her from my best friend, Perry, should I have been killed. He reluctantly agreed."
The younger John looked at the elder in shock. He thought about what this might mean to his own version of Cameron.
The elder John confessed, "Two days later, I lost my nerve. After losing everyone else I ever cared about, I couldn't live with the thought of it. I sent her back in time to avoid her suffering that fate because of me."
General Connor went on to say, "You are with another sentient life form, one that's technically immortal. Whether by the sword or old age, your mortality is going to destroy a part of her eventually. Unless she's violently destroyed first, she's going to lose you and suffer from that in a way you can't even fathom. It's something you might want to keep in mind when the next Riley comes around."
The next few minutes went unspoken. General Connor went back to planning on the computer.
The younger John left to go plan his mission. The elder watched him walk out.
The kid had potential. Deep down though, Supreme Commander John Connor still couldn't shake the perception that the younger man was still a self centered jerk...