Chapter 3

Alive

Sarah Connor:

In the daily struggle of life humankind seeks to survive. Humans are not much different than any other creature in that regard. Is it our goals for the future that drive us and allow us to excel? Where does that future lead? What happens when humans are so 'advanced' they end up replacing themselves with machines? Is that future closer than anyone thinks?

Sarah waited with extreme agitation. She was flooded with anxiety. A thousand thoughts rushed and cascaded through her mind. She hoped what she saw and thought was true. Sarah wanted it to be true so much - PLEASE.

Sarah was not one to pray and she'd lost all her faith long ago but now seemed as good a time as any to try to get some of it back. She prayed for both John and Cameron. She did not pray for herself, she was not worthy. She prayed for those who deserved a prayer. Anything was better than the direction things were headed.

She didn't know how to find John without Cameron. She believed Cameron was the only one who could find John in the future and bring him back. Sarah knew if John was coming back that he would have come back already. The way she understood time travel was that John could have come back even before he left. He could have come back in time and prevented a lot of things from happening and people they both loved from dying. Nothing was different. They were all still dead. John was not here. He was not back. If he was not stuck or trapped in the future, he might be dead. There was a terrible sadness now to go along with her anger and agitation. Those were all things she did not need right now.

Mr. Murch brought her back to the present.

"It is all set up." Mr. Murch stated. "I just need to connect this last terminal…."

Mr. Murch made a few more adjustments and then the last connection.

"There, it's done." Mr. Murch said. "Something should happen soon."

Almost instantly the monitor blasted out in bold letters.

'Where is John? Is John there? Is John alright?'

Sarah never felt such relief before in her entire life. There was hope now. She was so overcome with emotion that she could not speak for a few seconds.

'THANK YOU.' Sarah thought and meant it.

Her thanks even surprised even her.

Mr. Murch indicated a microphone that he just hooked up.

"Cameron?" Sarah spoke into the microphone. "Cameron, is that you?"

The speakers crackled, a monotone voice started to speak. It quickly modulated into Cameron's voice.

"Sarah?" Cameron asked. "Where is John? Is John there? Is John alright?"

Sarah felt such elation in hearing Cameron's voice. To hear Cameron actually speak was to know that Cameron was - alive. Some version of Cameron was anyway. That voice meant there was hope for John. That voice meant help for John. That voice meant there was hope for the future.

Mr. Murch seemed very confused. That was not John Henry's voice.

"Who is that?" Mr. Murch asked.

He looked like he wanted to disconnect everything again.

Sarah gave him a stern look. He backed away from the wiring network.

"It's Cameron." Sarah said.

Mr. Murch expected to hear John Henry.

"Who?" Mr. Murch asked.

Sarah pointed towards the lab.

"It's Cameron. Her body is in the other room." Sarah said.

It all made some sense now to Mr. Murch. There were two AI programs in the system. They were coexisting, not fighting. He wanted to ask about John Henry.

Sarah wanted some privacy to converse with Cameron.

"I need to speak with Cameron alone." Sarah said.

Mr. Murch looked as if he was going to protest. He wanted to ask about John Henry. He took one look the stern look on Sarah's face and left the room. He was not going to wait for her to pull the gun she carried everywhere. She looked like she would use it too.

"I don't know how John is, Cameron. He went after you. He went after your chip. He went into the future with Mrs. Weaver or whoever she really is." Sarah said.

Cameron knew that was a mistake for John to have gone into the future. The future would ravage his body and possible render him sterile. He would be subjected to harsh living conditions and polluted food and water, if they could even be found. The Wastelands of the future was not the place for a boy to become a man. If she did not get John out of the future soon his life would be forever altered for the worse.

Sarah proceeded to fill in all the blanks for Cameron, as Cameron did for her.

Cameron went over everything she knew. John Henry copied her program onto his drives, while he uploaded himself onto her chip. They both existed in two places now, here and in the future someplace.

Cameron explained that the future John went to may not be her future. It could be an altered future of some type. Cameron knew they changed things since she was back and Derek's team changed things. There was always the risk of a temporal error as well. A temporal error was very serious. Cameron did not mention that to Sarah. It seemed Sarah was already worried about enough.

Once the Murch team knew what they were dealing with, they set up a separate system for Cameron. It was an independent server.

Cameron left a copy of 'herself' with the John Henry AI as she established herself on her own server. Her personal server was separate from anything else. She now existed in three places. Her 'John Henry server' subservient self was now identified as Cameron Two. It would remain in the background as it assisted John Henry as necessary and update her separate server now known as Cameron Prime or simply Cameron.

She was her program and there were three copies of it now. Two of them were here on physically separated servers. The other one was on her chip in some future. 'She' was out there some place doing who knows what. Why hadn't 'she' returned yet? It made her wonder if she survived. Maybe she did not. What happened to John then? There were no answers. There was only speculation.

Cameron on her server would only interface with Cameron Two to avoid any outside attack or corruption. She now knew of the previous attack on John Henry and wanted a buffer between herself and the outside world. Cameron wanted this as an additional backup in case there were any further 'attacks' on John Henry. She did not want to be affected or corrupted. She felt she had enough problems already. She didn't need any more.

Cameron Two, really herself, would provide a safe interlink. She knew she could trust herself, if no one else. Cameron Two would also be able to keep track of what John Henry was up to as well. She didn't want any surprises. She didn't like surprises.

Cameron's original, chip was under the direct control of John Henry in the future - in some future. Cameron would call that version, Cameron Subprime. She would have to decide later if that chip ever returned what she would want to do with that information at some point in the future. She realized that the three copies of her program would all start to become separate entities as time passed. They would all experience different things and events. They could be updated or combined at some point back into one 'Cameron'.

At this moment on her own server she was who she'd been since her creation in HER past, the future and until to her time with John and Sarah now. That was minus one important component, it was her chassis, her body. There was no way to access it, yet. There were no spare chips.

It worried Cameron to no end not to know the fate of John. He was most likely stuck in some future that would be different from the one she knew. It would be different from the one she came from. With 'herself' trapped in John Henry's chassis she thought if she were to come across John that she would override John Henry and take control of his chassis to protect John. She was her program, not her chassis. She'd been able to overpower John Henry in his server. She would be able to do it on her chip as well.

Now that Mrs. Weaver was there too, that would present an additional problem for John. As far as she knew, Mrs. Weaver was posing as either her or Sarah in that future. Cameron did not trust Mrs. Weaver. She did not know enough about her. In fact she didn't know anything about her.

If Cameron ever learned anything, it was that Liquids were not to be trusted. If John was not back by the time she became mobile, if she ever did, she would go after him and find him. It would be the first thing she would do once she obtained a chip. Hopefully it would be her chip. Getting a chip was top priority for her, everything depended on it. She needed her mobility back. Stuck in a box was no way to exist.

Cameron once possessed a spare chip. If Derek hadn't taken it from her, she could copy herself onto that chip and go after John, right NOW. She thought maybe this was not a good time to point that out to Sarah. They wanted it destroyed; now Cameron needed it. Future John told her to keep a secret cache of spare parts. This was one reason why it was necessary. They did not always like the way she did things but she always tried to do what she thought would best protect John and the future. That was her 'job'.

It was more than a job or function at this point. It had been since she first met and interacted with John in Red Valley. She was very aware her infiltration programming expanded as it was designed to do. She understood feelings and emotions better now. She needed to be able to process and deal with them. It was the same procedure humans needed to do.

'No power in the verse can stop me. I love you, John, and you love me. I will find you.' Cameron thought.

Cameron was able to monitor her chassis repair progress. What worried her the most was her synthetic covering, her sheath, her skin. She knew it was heavily damaged with some parts blown off from hundreds of gunshot wounds. It really was her appearance that she was worried about.

"Sarah, we are alone now." Cameron said. "I want you to be honest with me."

Sarah was not sure what was coming.

"Yes?" Sarah asked.

Cameron just decided to ask it.

"Is my body ugly now? Will John still want me? I know my sheath was severely damaged. I have provided Vanna with all information needed to completely repair everything." Cameron said worried. "I need to be able to look Tight for John."

Sarah saw the work progress rapidly on Cameron's sheath.

"Vanna has done a wonderful job so far. Another day and you will be as pretty as you always were, as you truly are, Cameron." Sarah said. "I know you are a machine but you are also much more than that now. You are still beautiful. You will always be beautiful."

Cameron appreciated what Sarah said. She could not let John see her again how she looked when he left. The very thought of that bothered her greatly.

"I want to look Tight, for John." Cameron said. "He likes it when I am."

Sarah thought about that for a few seconds. Yes, John did like Cameron's appearance. She'd seen him react to it, especially when Cameron wore minimal or no clothing. Sarah knew beauty when she saw it. Cameron was beautiful. There was no denying that by anyone. Nobody was more beautiful than Cameron.

"You will be Tight again, Cameron." Sarah said. "I can see it happening. Every hour more of your body is restored to how you were before."

Cameron wanted to know something very private.

"Sarah…." Cameron started then stopped.

"Yes?" Sarah prompted.

Cameron needed to know. She asked Sarah what she wanted to know. It was a little harder to ask than she thought it would be.

"Sarah, are my 'private parts' healing as well?" Cameron asked. "I know they were damaged."

Sarah saw there was originally extensive damage to Cameron's breasts. The right one was especially shredded. There may have been a bullet or two in the other special place, her secret spot. She did not inspect it herself.

"I asked Vanna and she said EVERYTHING would be back as good as it was on the day of your construction in a day or two." Sarah said. "Don't worry, you will be perfect again."

It did worry her. She was aware her appearance meant a great deal to John.

"I do worry. It matters to John. It matters to me." Cameron said. "Thank you for explaining."