Chapter 5

Poems

One week had passed since John 'left'. Sarah and Mr. Ellison resumed gathering intelligence with the aid of the John Henry AI. Sarah double checked everything with Cameron. Cameron Two watched everything and double checked every piece of information. She would then update Cameron Prime with everything that was relevant.

As Sarah came to accept Cameron for what she'd become and the individual she'd evolved into, she trusted her better now. If her son sent Cameron from the future, there must have been a good reason for that. The more she thought of the disgruntled Resistance fighters showing up now made her wonder if Future John sent Cameron back to also protect her. It was clear Future John also must have loved Cameron. To love someone so much that they needed to send them away to save them is a great sacrifice for both of them. Sacrifice is the true test of love. She knew sometimes when you loved someone, you needed to let them go or at least let go of them. She felt angry at herself for the way she'd treated Cameron in the past. Her son loved Cameron in both the future and in the present. How could she have been so cruel and blind?

Cameron was here to help. That is all she'd ever done. She'd even come to help her get out of jail. It still sickened her to think of the damage that was inflicted on Cameron. That was John's fault for sending Cameron to rescue her. They should have run instead. They would not be in this mess. John would not be in the future somewhere unknown, facing who knows what. He would be with Cameron and she would still be in jail. She would gladly go back to prison if John was still here in the present.

Vanna and Mr. Murch hooked up a connection in the lab so that Cameron would be able to work alongside Vanna. They moved Cameron and her server there to the lab from the computer room. Cameron now had a longer tether so she could move around freely. Well, as free as one could move around with a cable connected to their neck and their mind trapped in a metal box.

Vanna was pleased that Cameron was able to help her with many of the problems she'd been working on with synthetic sheath material and its repair. Her previous work with John Henry greatly helped her. Her work on Cameron's chassis and now with Cameron as a functioning unit furthered her progress. Cameron was able to provide her with solutions from the future that hadn't been invented yet.

Cameron would spend all her time in the lab now. Vanna would be there much of the time. Cameron Two fed Cameron information on a regular basis and she transferred files back to Cameron Two. She wanted to have a back up copy of her program in case there were any more incidents. As long as her program existed, she existed. She didn't like her essence confined to a metal box but at least she existed because of it.

Vanna told Cameron she would help her with anything she wanted or asked for. She promised Cameron she would personally remove and protect her hard drives if there was any further threat. She understood that Cameron was her program, not her chassis. If she protected Cameron's hard drives, she protected Cameron. She would die before those hard drives could be compromised or destroyed in an attack.

She mentioned to Cameron she purchased a swimsuit so that she could teach Savannah how to swim. She told Cameron it was two shades of purple. Cameron said she would like to see it sometime. She went to her room at lunchtime and brought into the lab so Cameron could see it.

Cameron liked the colors as soon as she saw it. She looked at Vanna and an idea formed that surprised her. She was curious to see Vanna as Vanna previously saw her. She wanted to convey that thought with some tact.

"That is very pretty, Vanna." Cameron said. "The doors are locked and all monitoring devices are shut down in this room…."

Vanna was not sure what that meant. Maybe Cameron wanted to wear her swimsuit.

"Do you want to try it on?" Vanna asked somewhat confused.

Cameron wanted something else. She was not sure why.

"No, I would like to see how you look in it." Cameron said. "If you don't mind."

The thought of that idea excited Vanna. She could be naked in front of Cameron with a good excuse now. She wondered if this was Cameron's true goal for asking. She felt they'd grown very close. She didn't want to 'read' more into it than was there.

Cameron developed feelings of friendship while Vanna developed other deeper feelings.

"Not at all." Vanna said. "I would love to show you."

Vanna went off to the side to change but still where Cameron could clearly see her. Vanna wanted Cameron to see her even if it was not outright in front of her. She knew she saw all of Cameron, it was only fair Cameron see a little more of her.

Cameron did watch her without watching until she saw something that bothered her. There was damage to Vanna's body. It was very noticeable.

"That is a serious scar on your lower abdomen." Cameron said.

Vanna's hand quickly covered it over. She was so used to it that she didn't think about it as she changed. The scar held a lot of meaning and pain for Vanna. Several life altering events ended up revolving around it. The scar reminded her of love and sacrifice. A lot of her life was tied in with that scar on several different occasions.

"I would rather not talk about that right now." Vanna said. "I will later on in time."

Cameron noticed something else too about Savannah's hair in 'another place'.

"I am sorry." Cameron said. "I see you have not dyed all your hair black, what little is left."

Vanna reached down and touched a scruff of curly red hair.

"It is nothing my last laser treatment won't take care of permanently." Vanna said. "It is a look I really like, Allison would have liked it too."

Cameron liked that idea. She thought John would like that as well.

"Tight." Cameron said.

In the absence of Allison's presence, Vanna spent a lot of time looking at images and videos on the internet at night before bed.

"It's smooth too. In my future razors were a luxury not often found." Vanna said. "I have viewed a lot of images on the internet since I have been here and I wanted to try it."

Cameron thought she would like to try it too. She might bring it up some other time. She was sort of stuck in the lab for now.

Vanna stood and faced Cameron in her swimsuit.

"You look gorgeous in that." Cameron said.

Vanna reached into the bag that she carried her swimsuit into the lab with and pulled out another identical one.

"Here, you can try this one on." Vanna said. "I bought one for you too."

Cameron was surprised, pleased and confused.

"You did? You got one for me? Thank you." Cameron said. "I'm sorry but I don't swim."

Cameron absentmindedly reached back and touched her tether.

Vanna didn't think swimming was necessary to wear it.

"You don't need to swim." Vanna said. "You will look HOT in it."

Cameron tilted her head slightly. She liked that idea.

"I'll give it a try." Cameron said.

Cameron slipped out of her clothes and put it on in front of Vanna.

Vanna was unable to take her eyes off Cameron as she changed. To see Cameron naked and inoperable was one thing. To see her 'alive' was another. It made Vanna miss Allison even more. Cameron did look HOT in the swimsuit or without it….

"You look absolutely stunning, Cameron." Vanna said. "You are incredibly beautiful."

There was something about the way Vanna spoke that seemed deeper to Cameron.

"Thank you." Cameron said.

Vanna smoothed her swimsuit.

Cameron liked how Vanna looked.

"If looks could kill, there would be a lot of dead people." Cameron said. "You are beautiful as well."

Vanna blushed a little.

"Thank you." Vanna said.

Vanna was aware that Cameron looked better than her. She always felt Allison looked better than her too. Maybe it was because Allison was younger. Cameron certainly looked younger.

"I don't look as good as you." Vanna said.

Cameron thought she could work with Vanna on some makeup. All Vanna needed was a little refining. It actually seemed to her that Vanna tried to hide or mask her true beauty. Maybe that was a holdover from the future. Beauty was a liability for females. It made them targets for exploitation by every group. Vanna was in the past, the present now. She did not need to hide her beauty anymore.

"You look good enough, Vanna." Cameron said. "You really do. I will help you look Tight."

Everything about Cameron seemed perfect to Vanna. Maybe she would let Cameron help her some. Some of the things Cameron said made her think of her beloved who was now lost to her somewhere in the future.

"That reminds me of a poem Allison gave to me once." Vanna said.

That got Cameron's attention real fast. It was a surprise revelation to her. She did not expect to hear that.

"Your Allison wrote poems?" Cameron asked.

There was a sad look on Vanna's face.

"Yes she did. She experienced a troubled past before we met. It was her way to tell her story and express the pain and deepest sadness and sorrow she'd endured. She also used them to communicate her feelings to me. She wrote of bitterness and anger with such beauty."

Cameron walked over to Vanna and gently brushed a tear from her cheek.

"I am sorry for your pain, Vanna. I believe I feel much the same as you do. I have evolved greatly these last few years." Cameron said. "I am much more than I was but not yet all I will be."

Vanna froze up a little when she heard those words.

"What did you say?" Vanna asked.

Cameron thought she was clear.

"I am much more than I was but not yet all I will be." Cameron said again.

Vanna heard almost that exact statement before from her beloved.

"Allison said something like that to me once." Vanna said.

Cameron made a poem before about it.

"I wrote it in my poem book once too." Cameron said.

This new revelation was a surprise to Vanna. It was not something she expected a cyborg to create. She wanted to make sure what Cameron said.

"Do you write poems?" Vanna asked.

Cameron never got over John's criticism of her original poem for school. She wrote what she felt because she was supposed to. That was the assignment. Everything she wrote after that she kept hidden.

"I have. I never showed them to anyone before except one - once." Cameron said.

That surprised Vanna somewhat. She felt poems should be shared.

"You didn't even show them to John?" Vanna asked.

Cameron did not want to relive the incident.

"Let's skip that part." Cameron said.

Most of her poems were about what John made her feel for better or for worse. There were many feelings she'd experienced trouble dealing with. They still bothered her.

In the background the printer began to spew out page after page.

Cameron started printing the pages from her hand written Poem Book from her files.

She walked over and handed the stack of poems to Vanna. She tried to explain herself with words that John told her to use.

"Here are some you can look at. Each one is a part of me, Vanna." Cameron said. "It is my way to express myself. Each one is a piece of my heart, my mind or my soul."

Vanna thought that last statement said a lot about Cameron's development. She took the stack of papers and sat down.

Soon Vanna began to cry as she turned page after page. She could see into Cameron. It allowed her to see inside Cameron about how she felt and thought. It was amazing.

Vanna came over and hugged Cameron and said she was sorry for her pain and hurt.

Cameron hugged her back and cried a little too. Printing all the poems made her relive the feelings and events that created them in the first place.

Vanna was surprised to see this 'emotion' from Cameron and how much it 'hurt' her to talk about it.

Cameron felt a lot of pain and it never went away. In never dulled or hurt less. It only got worse. She was glad Vanna was so understanding and supportive. This was a new experience to share with someone. Vanna made her feel things inside of herself she did not know she could feel.

Ending monologue by Cameron:

.

Deepest Sadness And Sorrow

Every beginning
Must have an end
To think otherwise
We would have to pretend

There are no human words
That can express true condolence
It brings down to earth
Our own shaky existence

Life forever must always repeat
These moments of sorrow
It is then from each other
Whose strength we can borrow

At times life seems
To be bulging with madness
There are times of joy
There are times of sadness

Never forget and eternally remember
There will always be a tomorrow
Friends and family remain during the
Deepest sadness and sorrow

Nobody