Chapter 930

Comes Great Responsibility

John Henry heard the phone call between John and Savannah. It was about what he'd expected, even if it was delivered a little bit differently than he thought it would be. He watched as John stared at his phone after Savannah hung up. He knew that he was lost deep in thought. He didn't actually know what John was thinking about.

"That phone call went well." John Henry said.

John didn't think so. It seemed a lot was left unfinished.

"Hardly…." John said. "I'm still trying to figure out what happened."

It seemed quite clear to John Henry.

"You agreed to ask Savannah out on a 'date'." John Henry said.

John was still a little unsure what happened. He knew it knocked him off track when she'd said that. It did help defuse the situation however.

"I think that was her idea." John said.

John Henry wasn't so sure about that. It was clear what John wanted when he was around Savannah.

"Was it?" John Henry asked. "I think it's what everyone wants that's involved."

John took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was a lot for him to think about.

"I can see how any actions taken by Cameron, Savannah, Young Allison or myself can have massive repercussions." John said.

John Henry wanted John to remember that things weren't just about him. It was about all four of them. It was actually something that all of them needed to remember.

"You four will all bear a burden. You must always remember that with great power, comes great responsibility." John Henry said. "It will be that way for each of you and the future."

John could do without that reminder right now. There were enough problems to deal with. He didn't need another one.

"I know." John said. "I know."

John Henry could see that John was still very worried. He wondered which one of the three girls he worried about more. Was it Savannah? Was it Cameron? Was it Young Allison? Based on John's reaction to the two phone calls, he believed it was actually Young Allison.

"Young Allison is to return home." John Henry said.

John thought maybe that was the best news of the entire conversation. The underlying implications still bothered him greatly.

"It's bad enough to have Cameron and Savannah out there risking their lives." John said. "Now we have a very young teenager willing to do the same thing."

There was little doubt in John's mind that Young Allison would do it too.

John Henry wanted to give John a little reminder about what was in store for him.

"They know their future, John." John Henry said. "They know who they'll need to become. It's what you – Future John wanted for them and for yourself."

John didn't want to go there again. It was times like these that he hated Future John. It also made him question his place in life. It made him question his place in the future.

"I think they've all passed me for being great leaders." John said. "I know Cameron and Savannah have. It's obvious Young Allison will as well."

John Henry didn't want John to forget his place going forward.

"You will lead the Resistance." John Henry said. "People will follow you."

John scoffed at himself. He figured at best he was just a cog in the wheel. Who did he inspire around the Resistance base? The people with charisma and charm were Cameron and Savannah. It was rather evident that Young Allison would be as well.

"There isn't anyone who wouldn't follow Cameron or Savannah." John said. "Both people and machines will follow them. I would follow them."

John Henry felt Cameron, through all of her actions, proved what a true leader was. There were many obstacles that have been put in her path. She prevailed over all of them. Savannah always stepped up in battle and never shied away from combat. Her devotion to Cameron was evident to all. Every Terminator behaved slightly differently in her presence. It seems that the humans did as well.

"Cameron has proven herself many times over." John Henry said. "They've both proven themselves in battle. They both captivate everyone with their presence when they are around them."

John believed that too. He felt he fell short of that mark. He thought back on his life going forward. It seemed very lackluster and lacked substance. The part that troubled him the most was all of his negative interaction with Cameron. It seemed that most of her problems radiated from him or from his actions. Maybe some of them were even from his inactions.

"It seems like all I have ever proven is to be a problem." John said.

John Henry I knew there was some truth to that but there was also a lot of evidence to the contrary. He was there in the alternate future and he saw John in action. He watched as the troops rallied around and followed John. That was before Cameron's arrival.

"You proved yourself in the 'alternate future'." John Henry said. "You did that in combat and as a leader."

John wasn't sure that was a true comparison. Maybe he only reached that status by default.

"That's because Cameron was not there yet. Savannah wasn't there at all." John said. "Now I have plenty of assistance."

John Henry wanted to remind John of the obvious.

"Sometimes it's nice to have help." John Henry said.

John remembered when he'd heard those same words before. Not only had he heard them, he'd also said them.

Cameron was very worried about what Savannah was willing to do. She knew it was her fault. It was what she did and Savannah emulated her. Savannah was willing to sacrifice herself to protect her and all of them. She wanted Savannah to be a strong leader. She didn't want Savannah to become a sacrificial leader.

There were times when she took extreme action and acted on her own. She did it to protect the others in the group. She didn't want anyone else to be damaged or injured when she could take the brunt of the punishment herself. There was a difference between Savannah and her. Savannah was real. She was a real human female. On the other hand she knew what she really was. She was a very scary robot from the future who masqueraded as a human female. She wasn't real. She could be replaced. There were clones of her. They were identical to her in every way. The only difference was in their programming. She took out the most hurtful parts of her programming from their programs when she created them. She didn't want them to suffer the same way that she had.

Cameron called Cammy, Sheila and Savannah over. They went over everything they knew or thought they knew about this location. It seemed for every answer that they came up with, there were more questions. There didn't seem to be any absolutes regarding this operation.

She needed to make sure of some facts before they made their next move. The biggest question was about the H-bomb. Was it really there already? She looked at Cammy and Sheila.

"Are you two both sure there's an H-bomb in the bottom of this mine?" Cameron asked.

Cammy didn't have any absolute proof of that. It was more of a feeling than a fact.

"Our files are blocked but it's what we both believe." Cammy said. "We believe that we acquired it in the past and placed it deep within the mine."

Sheila would have liked to have added something concrete to that but she couldn't.

"That's my limited recollection as well." Sheila said.

Cameron needed to verify the time period and where the instructions came from to obtain and place the nuclear weapon.

"Were you told to place it there by Savannah?" Cameron asked. "Did this all happen in the past?"

Cammy reviewed the limited information she could access. It wasn't much. What little tidbits she was able to find only recently appeared once they arrived at that location.

"That's what my files indicate. They indicate the 'Chosen One' is responsible." Cammy said. "All of our interaction in the past has been blocked. We're dealing with fragments."

Savannah looked over at the mountain where the mine was located. If she was responsible for anything that was in the mine, it only made her want to deal with it herself now even more. She couldn't understand why they wouldn't have used it back during that time period if that's when they placed it. Why would they wait?

"Do you know when this happened?" Savannah asked. "Or why it was necessary?"

Sheila glanced over at the mountain where the mine was. She hoped that some more files would unlock. That currently didn't seem to be the case.

"I don't." Sheila said. "Only being here and seeing this landscape from where we are now has triggered these 'memories'."

Savannah wasn't sure she was responsible for the theft of an H-bomb. She only wanted to be in the past to accelerate her pregnancy for the faster delivery of Vanna's baby. Now she wondered what would happen if she didn't go. She wondered if this was all part of some alternate reality or alternate future now. Was what they were in now an alternate future or would the alternate future occur if she didn't go into the past as she planned to?

"I don't plan to be in the past more than necessary." Savannah said. "I want Young Allison to be closer to my age. I don't want to be older than her."

Cammy didn't think it was a big deal. It wasn't a problem for Vanna and Allison.

"You're only a few years older now." Cammy said. "Love doesn't know age."

Savannah could have done without that last statement. It seemed to fit right in with Cameron's agenda to have John and Young Allison hook up at her current age. There was another factor that bothered her as well. She was older than she was before she had her first child.

"Plus almost another two years from the futures I visited." Savannah said. "Those adventures made me even older compared to Young Allison than I had been."

They all knew those visits were very painful to Savannah. She needed to leave her two children with her two future selves. They were the future versions of herself that were rendered sterile by Skynet. One was Duplicate Vanna, the other was Future Savannah.

Cameron needed to suppress a glitch impulse when she was reminded of Savannah's sacrifice. She didn't want to dwell on it herself and she certainly didn't want Savannah to dwell on it.

"I understand…." Cameron said as she gave Savannah a hug. "I'm very sorry about all that."

Savannah didn't want to dwell on her past. Tomorrow was ahead of her, not behind her. She didn't feel anything involved with her two pregnancies was Cameron's fault. She'd acted on her own with Young Jesse both times. She knew that everyone felt Cameron was behind it but that wasn't the case at all. She wanted to move on to a different subject.

"We need to keep moving forward." Savannah said. "We need to concentrate on why we're here now and what we're going to do about it. Everything that's happening now is happening for a reason. None of this is random chance."

Cameron believed it all revolved around the construction of a Cobalt bomb. More than likely it was several of them. What she didn't understand was the time lag from when this happened in the past to where they were at currently. Why was there such a delay in time? It was more than half of a century. She needed answers, not speculation.

"What we need to know is if Skynet is inside the mine and if they are trying to build a C-bomb." Cameron said. "I did some review on the Cobalt bomb. It looks as if they would have been very destructive to all organic life forms."

Savannah felt a lot of frustration about her actions that she hadn't even taken yet but needed to face the consequences of now.

"So why would I want an H-bomb in the bottom of the mine?" Savannah asked. "What if that's what they are building the C-bomb around?"

Cameron needed to find out more about that as well. The Cobalt bomb would be useless detonated in the ground. To inflict the maximum Cobalt radiation damage the large H-bomb would need to be detonated in the atmosphere.

"We don't know what they're doing." Cameron said. "All we know is there's been vehicle traffic around the mine. There is an armored car inside full of cash, one Terminator and a few Grays. Everything else is speculation and not a fact yet. We have very little to work on. We don't even know if the Cobalt is still there or if it was ever there."

Savannah thought there were a few other things they did know as well along with one big 'maybe'. She felt there was still a big missing piece.

"Maybe there is a version of Skynet, an H-bomb and Cobalt." Savannah said. "Cammy, did you set up a triggering mechanism for the H-bomb?"

Cammy tilted her head slightly. There were no files she could access that indicated that.

"I don't know." Cammy said. "Do you think the bomb was set up on a timer?"

Sheila felt they were way ahead of themselves with what they knew.

"Maybe it's not even there still." Sheila said. "That was all more than a half century ago."

Savannah looked over at the mountains. None of this made any sense to her.

"How did the Grays or Skynet find out about this place?" Savannah asked.

Cameron wondered if the mine was actually her tomb. If she went there to attack Skynet and destroy it and was terminated, she didn't doubt Savannah would use some form of 'temporal management' to correct that atrocity. As to why it would be done in this manner was still very confusing. There must be more pieces of the puzzle missing.

"I think they were here first and that is why you asked for the H-bomb to be placed inside, in the past." Cameron said. "I was probably terminated and you did this so I wouldn't be. My termination more than likely happened right before you went back on your temple mission into the past. You probably saw an opportunity how to retroactively 'fix it' to prevent me from being terminated in that mine."

To Savannah that seemed like something that she would do. She wouldn't allow Cameron to be terminated if she could 'fix it'. She wondered if she was already in the past when Cameron was terminated. Cameron could have returned to the present with Claire to deliver Allison's baby. She may have come across the mine site at that time and acted on it while she was in the present still. She may have been terminated at that time. Someone returned from the present to the past and told her of the event. That must be why she took the corrective action to destroy the mine through 'temporal management'. If that were the case, why didn't she destroy the mine in the past? The only thing she could think of was that she wanted Skynet to be inside there first so she could terminate it as well and do it all before Cameron went to investigate it. She shook her head to clear it. This was all speculation. They needed to work on facts.

"But none of this has happened yet." Savannah said. "We don't really know anything."

Cameron knew there was a lot of trouble when time travel is involved.

"It's like the paradox of Future John being fathered by Future Kyle. Future John was the one to send Future Kyle back to do it in the first place." Cameron said. "Future John already existed before he was conceived in the past."

Savannah couldn't help but think of an 'age old' saying.

"The chicken or the egg…." Savannah said. "Which came first?"

Cammy said, 'the chicken', at the same time Cameron said, 'the egg'.

Savannah couldn't help but see the irony in both of their responses.

"See what I mean." Savannah said. "There were two different solutions from the same program."

It was clear to Cameron there was no way around it. She needed to know what they faced. That could only be done from inside the mine.

"The bottom line is I need to get inside the mine and see what's really in there." Cameron said.

Savannah disagreed. She was sure if this was arranged in the past, which she hadn't visited yet, that this was all done to keep everyone out of the mine.

"I think that's a mistake." Savannah said. "I think that is why we're where we are now. I believe it's to prevent that very thing from happening. I don't want it to be a prophecy and cause you to enter the mine and be destroyed anyway, when action was already taken to prevent that from happening."

If there was already an H-bomb inside the mine to destroy it, there must be a way to detonate it. The bomb wouldn't just be sitting there waiting to go off on its own. There needed to be some type of control mechanism.

"OK, how do we detonate the H-bomb?" Cameron asked. "There must be a way to do it from the outside. Someone needed to figure something out at that time."

The choices for setting the H-bomb off seemed to be very few.

"I think it would need to be 'command detonated' from some type of wiring system connected to it." Cammy said. "I don't think it could be radio detonated, especially buried in solid rock."

Cameron thought of another choice that she would personally use. She remembered the way she was able to rescue Duplicate Cameron.

"Maybe we use the TDE to get in, set a timer and get out." Cameron said. "Do you have the depth coordinates?"

Cammy and Sheila looked at each other and shrugged. That didn't seem to be information they possessed.

Savannah thought about if she was doing this herself now, what method she would use to make the H-bomb explode when she wanted it to explode. She would use a timer.

"What if the timer is already set?" Savannah asked. "If I was doing this now, right now, I would have it set on a time delay to explode on its own. I would want it to explode at a specific time."

Unless the timer was connected to a power source of some type, there were no batteries from the past that could last that long and still work as intended. The only other choice would be some type of mechanical timer like a sophisticated clock mechanism.

"There are no batteries that would last that long." Cameron said.

Savannah would have used something better than a battery from the past. She would have used a power source from the future. An idea popped into her head.

"No – no batteries would last that long." Savannah said. "A power cell would."

Sheila thought that was a plausible idea but there was only one problem, she still had her power cell.

"Where would we get one back then?" Sheila asked. "We didn't use ours."

Savannah wasn't so sure about that. Cammy's chassis was specially modified for two chip ports and two power cells.

"Really?" Savannah asked. "Cammy you have two chip ports and two power cells."

Cammy tilted her head slightly to the side.

"Yes." Cammy said. "That's how my chassis was modified before my activation."

Savannah decided to ask the 'million dollar question'.

"Do you still have both of your power cells?" Savannah asked.

Cammy tilted her head slightly in the other direction.

"Yes. I show that I do." Cammy said. "But the power output is only that of one power cell. I was unaware of this until you asked me. The true nature of my output was blocked from me until you asked that question."

Savannah thought the answer was self-evident.

"Is one of your power cells gone?" Savannah asked. "Are you missing a power cell?"

Cammy looked a little worried as she began to run self diagnostics. Something was wrong with her system and it worried her.

"It must be." Cammy said. "I'm only operating with the output of one power cell but my systems still show I have two. One must have failed or not actually be there."

Sheila pulled out her knife.

"There's only one way to be sure." Sheila said.

That's not what Savannah wanted to see.

"Is that necessary?" Savannah asked. "I don't want Cammy cut up."

Cameron wanted some facts. The fact Cammy's belief that both of her power cells were still there but the power output was only that of a single power cell indicated they needed to know for sure.

"I think it is." Cameron said. "Maybe that's the key whatever is happening right now."

Savannah looked at Cammy, Cameron and Sheila. Maybe it was necessary. It was the only way they could be sure.

Savannah didn't want this done out in the open.

"Let's do this in the restroom or in one of the vehicles." Savannah said. "If someone passes by and sees this, they're going to flip out."

There wasn't much traffic but all it tool was one nosy person.

The other Metal girls watched from the distance. They watched Sheila pull her knife out and look at Cammy. Cammy was about to remove her top.

"What are they doing to Cammy?" Ally asked.

Cam looked at the group with a little apprehension. She wondered if Ally and her would be next.

"It looks like they are about to cut Cammy open." Cam said.

Gail was worried Cammy might have malfunctioned. She'd been very upset earlier on. Maybe her emotional response triggered a physical reaction.

"Maybe there's a problem." Gail said. "Savannah should be removed from the area for her safety."

Gail decided she was going to do that.

Holly and Hanna both reached out to stop Gail from going over to where Savannah was at.

"They know what they are doing." Hanna said. "I don't think they would be standing around casually if they thought there was going to be an incident."

Holly took Gail off to the side.

"I know you care about her, we all do." Holly said. "We all love Savannah and Cameron."

Gail was still worried she looked over to where Savannah was at.

"Savannah is so special." Gail said.

Holly wanted Gail to know they'd all been infatuated with Savannah. They all needed to concentrate on their human lovers so they didn't become obsessed with it.

"We've all been where you're at." Holly said. "You need to concentrate on Jesse. I experienced a very hard time with this too. I needed to focus on Allison."

Hanna came over.

"The girls all need each other." Hanna said. "We're lucky to be included in their lives and share their love. They all have multiple partners, as do we."

Cam joined the discussion.

"Only Cameron and Anna haven't shared as we all have." Cam said. "They don't know the true beauty of a female lover."

Ally felt Cameron had a runner-up experience, even if it was a distant runner-up experience.

"At least Cameron has John." Ally said. "He would at least be able to provide her some pleasure."

Gail still felt that left Anna high and dry.

"What about Anna?" Gail asked. "She must be 'lonely'."

Holly felt that may be true now but it wouldn't always be.

"Anna has the biggest prize of them all waiting for her one day." Holly said.

The Metal girls all looked at each other with a knowing look.

"Young Allison…." All the Metal girls said at the same time.

They were all jealous.

Cam looked off to the side.

"Here comes trouble." Cam said.

They saw that Cameron was headed to their location. She seemed in a hurry. She must have heard what they were talking about or have been told by CamNet.

"Stop this." Cameron said. "Savannah and Young Allison belong together. That's what will happen one day. I don't know when. I will deactivate anyone who interferes with that – ANYONE. Anna is Young Allison's protector. She knows her place and her duty."

Ally could see that Cameron was on the edge.

"Chill out before you blow a fuse." Ally said.

Cameron spun around and faced Ally.

"This is 'chilled out'." Cameron said. "You won't like me when I'm angry."

Holly didn't want things to get out of control.

"Cameron, you need to take it easy." Holly said.

Cameron's eyes glowed bright red. It was clear she was very upset.

"I'll never tell any of you this again." Cameron said.

Cameron looked each of the Metal girls in the face, one at a time.

It was clear Cameron was highly agitated and even more unstable than normal.

To Get Away From It All

Life can load up
With many a pitfall
With traumatic events
We would rather not recall

For what is necessary
We can hold our heads tall
We will assist each other
So none need stumble or fall

Events sometimes warrant
We deviate from protocol
Our myriad of deeds and actions
Remain good and beneficial overall

Sometimes it would be nice
With nothing to mull
Feeling what it's like
To get away from it all

Nobody