Chapter 234

Everywhere

Derek and Kyle tried to talk Jim into taking them on another recon. They'd noticed that Cameron was damaged more often recently.

"Look, we need to check some of these leads out before Cameron shows up by herself without any intel and gets shot up." Derek said.

Jim did not like that idea. Recons could escalate.

"That could happen to Kyle and you." Jim said.

Kyle smiled and patted Jim on the back.

"That's why you're along with us to prevent that." Kyle said.

Jim looked at the 'target list'.

"These could all turn out hot." Jim said.

Derek didn't think so.

"They could all be dead ends too." Derek said. "A lot of the times there is nothing else to find."

Kyle wanted to keep it about Cameron.

"Either way we would be able to clue Cameron in on how hot a target could be." Kyle said. "If it is nothing then it saves her the time to check it out."

Jim thought about the last time he went out with the Reese brothers. Things escalated quickly.

"That was quite a spectacle that was created the last time you two were out." Jim said.

Derek and Kyle looked at each other.

"That wasn't our fault." Kyle said. "The future Gray lost control of his vehicle."

Jim knew the reason that happened.

"That was after you shot him." Jim said.

Derek thought that was a righteous shooting. They were originally going to pop the Gray at a traffic light and grab the box he picked up from a building.

"He shot at us first." Derek said. "I would have done the same thing Kyle did."

Jim needed to go back and clean that mess up on his own. He'd dumped the Reese brothers back at the base and went back out. He was unable to recover the box the man picked up from the second establishment he'd visited. The box was burnt and the contents was destroyed when the man's car burnt after the accident.

He went to both of those establishments later on. He was unable to determine anything Skynet related at either one. He did find out that there were some illegal narcotics being handled. That may have been what everything was about. Either way he did not take any chances. The second building had one man in it when he entered. He snapped his neck and burnt the building as he left.

He went to the first building and found the same things as he found at the second building. There were two people in that one. They were both terminated and that building was burnt as well. He made sure drugs were found at both of the building he burnt. It wanted it to look like rivals 'took care' of each other. That was common anyway.

He decided to tie up the loose ends. He went to where the female was returned to her home. He was going to terminate her as well. He did not want to spend the time beating a confession out of her to determine the nature of her involvement. He was taken aback to see two police cars there. Maybe she was a legitimate victim. If she was dirty she wouldn't want the authorities involved. He drove by without stopping. Now if she were terminated it would draw closer police scrutiny.

Now the brothers wanted to go out again.

He'd seen them speak to Hanna before. She said she would go with them. He told Hanna he would take care of it and this is where they were now. He would think about it some and try to find out a little more about the targets first.

Riley did not like when Derek went out on recons or did surveillance. He always seemed to push it. She followed him from their quarters and saw that he met up with Kyle. That usually meant they were going to pull a fast one and try and get out on an operation.

She was more surprised when they hit up Hanna to be their Metal escort. They figured she may not know how they pushed it. She did know. John Henry must have observed what was going on because Jim arrived and told Hanna he would take care of it. Hanna left.

She listened to Derek and Kyle try to con Jim to take them on a mission. She'd heard enough.

She sought out Hanna.

"Hi, Hanna." Riley said.

"Hello." Hanna said.

"I see you dealt with the boys." Riley said.

"I did." Hanna said. "They forgot I run Holly's program and know all the angles."

That reminder excited Riley that Hanna was 'Holly' in a different chassis.

"I don't like seeing Cameron shot up either." Riley said. "If you want to do a real recon or surveillance I would like to go with you. We will play it by the book and do what our job is. It we need to bump it up. I'm in with that too. I want to help as much as anyone."

Hanna smiled at her.

"Maybe we can do that sometime." Hanna said. "If something comes up I will seek you out first."

Riley smiled.

"Thanks." Riley said. "I also want to say that you look really nice too."

Hanna looked down at herself.

"I do?" Hanna asked.

"You do." Riley said. "You are beautiful."

Riley smiled at her again and turned around and left.

Hanna watched her go.

"Thank you." Hanna said.

She wasn't sure if Riley heard her or not.

Cameron wanted to run a few ideas by John Henry. She knew he would not approve of them. It seemed few approved of anything she did or tried to do anymore anyway. Nobody liked the way she did things. She was not even sure she liked the way she did things. They still needed to be done.

John arrived soon after she did so she could not discuss everything with John Henry that she wanted to. What was worse was that she was currently 'damaged'. She did not like John to see her damaged.

She went along with the conversation. She knew John would insult her again soon. He was very rude to her. She waited for it.

"It appears Skyshield has given up on military contracts for now." John Henry said. "They are trying to build their own super computers on their own to take control. Skynet is battling to re-establish itself as well. We all know Skynet is behind Skyshield anyway."

Cameron looked disturbed.

"I will handle it." Cameron said.

John noted the new damage to her neck and left arm. He'd given up asking her what happened because she would disappear for a few days to a week when he did. It was evident that she'd been in combat again and recently. She tried to hide the damage. He did not want her to act alone.

"No." John said. "We will handle it together."

John and Cameron exchanged a long look.

John took Cameron's hand. Cameron pulled her hand away slowly. Cameron hadn't been with him for weeks. She often informed him there were others he could 'associate' with in her absence, both human and Metal. He wondered what damage she was hiding, it must be horrific. They all wore protective vests now. Where was she damaged at? He didn't even want to think about it.

Cameron informed all the female Terminators that they could be with John if they shared the files of John and them with her. She was afraid that would soon be the only 'interaction' with John she would have. It would be from shared files of John with other Metal females. She was sure she was going to receive irreparable damage soon.

It angered Cameron that John would not do as she wanted him to do. She was upset John refused his destiny. She was befuddled that none on these people could understand John's life depended on humans being around him, not machines. It was not just humans who needed to be around him but females as his wives and lovers. REAL people he loved and trusted. He needed the human connection and people needed to see it was real.

"That is unnecessary." Cameron said. "I can deal with everything myself."

John shook his head a little as if in disbelief.

"Can you?" John asked.

'Here it comes.' Cameron thought.

Cameron glared at him.

"I can." Cameron said.

It seemed like a good time for John Henry to go elsewhere.

"Perhaps I should come back later." John Henry said.

John Henry was about to unplug.

"No. John was just leaving." Cameron said.

John threw his hands in the air.

"Whatever." John said as stormed away.

Cameron thought that went easier than expected.

Cameron watched him leave. She was still unable to understand his reluctance to carry out her 'wishes'.

She wanted to pick up her conversation with John Henry where she left off before John arrived.

"Do you think it will work?" Cameron asked as soon as John was gone.

John Henry did not agree with the program.

"I don't know." John Henry said. "These are your friends. They are women who love you. It may damage them."

Cameron would try her invention on 'volunteers'.

"It will be tested on others first." Cameron said.

It seemed she would steal someone's body and life. There were a lot of moral implications.

"That is not ethical." John Henry said.

Cameron blew him off. She was not going to be deterred or alter her plans.

"Nonetheless, that is what is going to happen." Cameron said. "If I damage someone before I terminate them it makes no difference. They will still be terminated. It is their lifestyle or actions that have determined their fate, not me. My experiments may give them a few more hours of life."

John Henry tried to make clear that what she wanted was very difficult.

"You may transfer human brain engrams to a chip easier than data from a chip to a human brain." John Henry said.

Cameron said nothing at first. Was this going to be a new problem? John Henry was 'on to her'.

"OK, so you've figured it out." Cameron said. "What I do personally is outside the scope of operations for the Resistance. What I do does not involve or taint the Resistance. I act as a private individual. I have my own facility."

None of that was news to John Henry.

"We know." John Henry said.

Cameron felt defiant in her resolve.

"Then you understand I will do as I please." Cameron said.

John Henry faced her.

"I understand it's a bad idea." John Henry said.

Cameron frowned.

"But you know it's going to happen anyway." Cameron said.

John Henry could see there was no stopping this.

"Whose body are you going to try to 'steal'?" John Henry asked.

Cameron already determined how she would obtain what she wanted.

"I will take what I seek from the 'dead'. If someone was killed I have a right to 'resurrect' them and claim their 'existence'." Cameron said. "They will be alive again as 'me'."

John Henry knew Cameron meant Duplicate Allison with John's baby.

"You do not have a right to steal someone's life." John Henry said. "They should be allowed to be who they are if you give them a second chance at life. This is why the TDE is encrypted. It was done to prevent you from doing this very thing. It was to prevent you from altering the future by altering the past and creating divergent timelines. River created that safeguard at what I believe was your request."

That statement irritated Cameron.

"I have checked my files. I find no such 'request'." Cameron said.

John Henry felt there was good reason for that.

"That may be because you haven't made it yet." John Henry said.

Cameron was more than upset. She was angry now.

"That is illogical." Cameron said.

John Henry decided to throw out what Cameron professed herself on more than one occasion.

"You yourself have said you 'FEEL' you are living your life over and over." John Henry said. "If you are, then you meet River in the future and she helps you with all of this to mask its presence in your programming."

Cameron encountered unexplainable files already.

"I'm aware of files now that I never knew I possessed. If that is the case, they would have been on my chip when you were on my chip as well."

John Henry felt that was all by design.

"I never detected them." John Henry said. "That was the point. You only needed them at certain times in your life. It is at that point they become activated."

River promised Cameron she would be back. River said she would come back for her and take her to her future. She realized this would happen on the day she arrived in the past in 1999.

She believed that after John's death she would travel back in time to 1999 to replace herself. She would then have the choice to go with River to her future or relive her life again with John. She felt she chose John every time. She could not understand why. It did not make sense. She wanted to be with River after John died. Why would she want to be with John again? This life was miserable at times.

There was another possibility. She thought maybe she lived her life with John until he died. At that point she went in the future to live with River until she died or was near death and then returned to 1999 to deactivate 'herself' as she arrived from her future. She believed she reset her chip and relived the same two lifetimes over again. She didn't have to choose that way, she could do both.

Cameron was sure this must have happened already in some way.

She would need to travel to New Mexico and search for where she'd placed, stored or hid her newly arrived deactivated selves in 1999. If she really did do this, she believed that she would save her endoskeletons. She did not think she would destroy them. If she could find them, she could be everywhere at the same time….

They would not be clones or copies or Duplicates. They literally would be - HER.

Cameron chose to be an army of - ONE.

John left the Command Center but went to another room. He listened to the conversation as John Henry and he agreed to. It was so that Cameron would speak a little more freely. It was clear that Cameron was out of control. She was really in danger of becoming 'Skynet' herself if anything went wrong. It seemed there was a lot that went wrong with Cameron. Cameron said she feared she would become Skynet. It was all happening by her own design. Cameron was fulfilling her own prophecy.

Then again, if Cameron was reliving her life over and over, history was merely repeating itself….

John wondered when and how he would die so that Cameron could fulfill her 'destiny' and live her future - in the past.

'Eve Of Destruction' by 'Barry McGuire', came to John's mind.

Razed

I see the little ant people
They don't even try
All they can do
Is complain and cry

They think they are better
When they're not even equal
They can justly speak
When they offer a sequel

Parasites and leeches
Describe one and all
They can't meet the challenge
They know they will fall

Ashamed of who they are
Behind multiple false identities they hide
They fool no one
They lack honor and pride

I laugh in their pathetic faces
As I rule the board
To watch them falter and fail
Has become my reward

Everything is backwards
When the lazy are praised
The world will be much better
When everything is razed

Nobody