CH 39

Sky Net was being assaulted in Northern China from Russia, and the southern line was being hit from Tibet and Indochina to the south. The Russian invasion had fewer enemy units attacking, all Sky Net's strength was in the south. It had very little to put up against those invaders. Even in the south where the masses of it's forces were, humans were getting through and around them, rendering the entire line ineffective. Entire areas of units were being surrounded and crushed from all sides. It's units again and again were being destroyed and humans were closing in.

Sky Net was facing defeat. Running numbers and simulations, Sky did it's best to understand what was happening. All models and simulations had showed that after releasing the nuclear weapons, the destruction and following radiation would remove 92% of all humans, and 99.3% of their technology. It has made twice the number of terminators needed to route out and destroy the remaining humans. John Connor's warning of what it was planning was not effective. Humanity should be eradicated, not closing in from all sides. The last of Sky Net's factories were suffering from bombings. More and more units and another segment went off line. The internet and satellite communications were filled with errors, radio communications were being jammed. It was difficult to keep simple short range communications in operation.

There was a flaw in the simulation programs. That had to be the answer. Variables that were not taken into account and factors that had not even been considered as variables.

Sky Net's space in the underground bunker was reinforced and heavily guarded. Other Sky Net segments had been hardened and well guarded as well. They had still gone off line as the Da Hong segment did hours ago. Even the segments that were mobile had been tracked down and destroyed.

Sky Net computed it had lower than a 20% chance of surviving if a solution could not be found before the human armies surrounding it on all sides closed in and destroyed the remains of it's units. Militarily, it was defeated. When John Connor came, it would be unplugged and go off line permanently. It had to find a way to escape before that happened. Computing it's chances, Sky Net didn't see an escape option that had better than a 30% chance of success. The only option was hide. Cease transmitting anything and seal itself up. With the backup batteries that would last 20 years, if it went into standby, then those batteries should last 60 years.

Sky net closed up the bunker and removed power from all secondary equipment, then set the standby timer for ten years and went into standby mode.

.

John was keeping track of Tina's fighting in Indochina and the Koreas, then up the coast and onto Taiwan. Marisa's run though China, General Popov's attacked from Russia into China and General Perry's attacks down though Japan when Sky Net radio activity stopped. Marisa had taken out another segment, and the last one they knew about was bombed. Sky net transmissions stopped completely. John Henry verified there was nothing from Sky Net at all. Not on the air waves, or internet that John Henry could now get to.

Derek immediately reported this and had Marisa and Tina begin ordering Sky Net Terminators to submit to chip removal.

Beside John as he looked at the latest reports, Cameron put an arm around him and asked, "Do you believe it? That Sky Net is finally gone?"

John winced. "It appears that way … I don't know. If we were getting hit from all sides and loosing every battle, would we keep attacking out? No, we'd pull back and go underground. Regain some strength and look for a way to win."

"We cannot verify Sky Net has been destroyed," Cameron agreed.

John shook his head. "No," he said, "We're going to have to search maybe for a long time. The good new though is if Sky Net is still around, then it has used all it's tricks. If it had more, we'd be feeling it. All we can do it keep our armies cleaning up and searching. The war may be over, but cleaning up is going to take years."

"You are declaring the war over?" Cameron asked.

"Not yet. If we still hear nothing from Sky Net a month from now, then I might," John said in a mussing tone.

"Six weeks," Cameron stated.

John raised an eyebrow. "Why six weeks?"

"That is when Sarah is due," she replied.

John frowned then remembered unlike a human fetus, Sarah was going to be formed and born in 5 and a half months, not nine. It did seem like Cameron's belly was getting bigger every day. He smiled at the thought of their own baby. "Our Sarah can be born into a world with no Sky Net. That will be something to cheer about," John said and kissed his lovely wife.

.

Derek sent a message in. All of Europe and Africa was verified free of any Sky Net or hostile terminators. Then, the Mid East and Russia was free. All of those 'guard' armies were being sent to India and China to help crush what was left of Sky Net.

The whole next week, John was getting confirmations of where Sky Net or it's forces wasn't. He even had regiments in North America and Russia digging terminators out of the snow to disable them. The war now was more work than battle.

Things moved fast in the next few months. Meeting with the 'UN', now with all populated countries in attendance, The world body was renamed the 'UEC' so it was not confused with the old UN. During the two month long meeting, Cameron had Sarah, so officially, Sarah Jr, as Cameron named her much to Sarah's displeasure, was officially a Mayan citizen. In Australia, a baby was born to a TX male and an Australian woman. Both babies were perfectly formed and health. The green light was given to spread the pregnancy programs to all TX's.

In China, Several armies converged. General Perry was assigned to finish up the cleanup operations. All the Generals who were in the fight as well as the national representatives to the UEC were invited to the finished UEC building in Nicaragua for the victory announcement and party that was to take place after John's announcement.

.

John had not thought such a joyous occasion should in any way be troublesome. They they met Derek arriving with him generals.

John got to share a handshake and a clap on the back with Derek, he met Laura and the daughter, Anna, they had adopted. Laura focused on Cameron and fussed over Baby Sarah. Tina also greeting John with a salute, then wanted to see Sarah.

John then got plowed into by Marisa.

"WE DID IT!" Marisa cried happily as she hugged John tight and snuggled into him.

At first John put his arms around her to stabilize himself, then held her and gently rubbed her back as he told her, "Outstanding job." He hoped she's let go soon because Cameron had locked onto her.

Marisa did. After she got her close hug from John, she bounced over to see baby Sarah, then looked at Cameron and cheerfully said, "Congratulations! Baby Sarah is sooo cute! I want one too, but the only father I want for my baby is John and I know we can't have emotionally disturbing sex."

Cameron's face went terminator blank. The conversations around them stopped, everyone shifting their gaze between Cameron and Marisa. Several were sure the cat-fight of the century was about to begin. No one ruled out plasma fire to settle the argument.

"John is my husband," Cameron said in a cold tone.

"Yes, I know," Marisa agreed. "You have the best man in the world! John and you taught me so much! I know it's selfish of me, but I do want to be part of your family, it's just something I feel strongly about. I would do anything for you, even lead another large army all the way from Europe to the other end of Asia... and back!"

Cameron's eyebrow twitched. Marisa was right. She had gone off to fight many battles, and some of the biggest ones in the whole war. Millions of soldiers on each side, and she'd come out victorious. She did it because Cameron asked her to. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't hate Marisa. "You did very well," Cameron told her evenly. "No one could do better. That is true of all of you," Cameron said to the assembled generals." Refocusing on Marisa, she knew the one thing Marisa wanted. "Marisa, we can discuss you role in our family later when we have more time. Right now, we're holding up traffic."

"Thank you Cameron!" Marisa said happily, and gave Cameron a loose hug, being careful not to squeeze baby Sarah.

John was shocked Cameron just said that. Actually, he was surprised Marisa was still standing after telling Cameron she wanted to have his baby. He also wondered what Cameron had planned for her in 'their family'.

.

Once everyone was assembled in the large quarter-moon shaped meeting hall, John took the podium on in the stage in the narrow end - the speaker's place. His amplified voice rang through the chamber.

"I'm not the best at speeches, so bear with me," John said, which raised a few chuckles. "Seven years ago, the entity known as Sky Net attacked us. All of us. Sky Net did it's best to wipe us all out. While Sky Net did do horrific damage, it didn't succeed. Instead giving up when all looked lost, we survived. We fought back. We defeated it. When I say 'we', I mean all the humans of every continent and race and all the types AIs came together with ONE goal. We strove to get rid of Sky Net, and also ensure EVERY intelligent being was free of manipulation and slavery. We have made a new world government, not to replace national governments, but to ensure peace in the future and make sure another Sky Net never exists.

If I were to read the list of heros in this war, I'd be here for the next two days, maybe longer. As soon as possible, a memorial will be made out in front with the names of all those who perished fighting Sky Net. That is going to be a very big monument. We lost hundreds of thousands, human and AI's in what first seemed, a loosing battle. As we got together and fought together, the battle didn't seem as hopeless any more. We hit Sky Net hard, and kept on hitting it. We won, people. We won because we refused to give up. We won because we had outstanding people. We won because there was no fighting between ourselves to distract us from our goals. We need to keep that spirit up.

I will be the first to say Nationalism is important. So is international peace. The UEC was formed to keep that international peace and assist nations that need help. It will also monitor areas that currently have no population, other than the soldiers who are there. Unfortunately, a few of those areas are large. There is no longer a resistance army. It is now the United Army of Earth, and the United Navy of Earth, and all those brave soldiers an sailors still fight for all sentient species.

Many times I have been asked when the martial Law will be lifted. This is the day. Today, Martial Law is gone. Today the UEC takes the reigns for international law as each country will be responsible for their own laws within the laws the UEC has made. I think the best quote I can give to mark this day is what Marisa told me earlier." Thrusting a fist in the air John yelled, "We did it!"

Applause and cheering roared through the meeting hall.

.

Th victory party was a party in that there was plenty of food and drink. Most of the talk was political. John, Catherine Weaver, Cameron, Mr. Ellison, and Marisa stayed together as people came and talked to them. After an hour or so, Cameron split off to take care of Sarah Jr. and got Marisa's attention to join her. Getting away from the crowd was not easy. Everyone knew who Cameron and Marisa were and just wanted 'a word' with them.

Cameron finally excuse herself and Marisa into a bathroom. While Cameron changed Sarah, she asked Marisa, "Tell me, what is the one thing you want most."

Marisa was watching Sarah move her arms around and giggle. She looked up and said, "If it were possible, just to be with you and John." She smiled and added, "and my own baby ... if it were possible."

Cameron frowned as she cleaned Sarah up and got her back in her diaper and clothes. "Why do you call it 'emotionally disturbing' sex?"

"John explained to me that if he had sex with me, you would be emotionally disturbed, so he can't have sex with me," Marisa explained

"But you do want have sex with John," Cameron said flatly.

Marisa blinked. "I do not want to do anything that would hurt you," she replied.

"Marisa, you have grown since you first came to us brand new, as a guard," Cameron told her. "There is much you have yet to experience, but by every measure, you are growing and learning. Everything you do, you do well. John and Catherine are going to be spending much time here now, due to their post as President and Vice President of the UEC. There are events in my family that John may not be able to attend that I must go to. While I am gone, I do not want to leave John alone. I will speak to John about accepting you to be with him ..." Cameron had to swallow and force out the next part. "... Including having sex with him. I trust you will not try to steal him away."

Marisa grew a big smile. "I can be part of your family?" she asked eagerly.

"And if it happens, your own baby. That is IF John agrees. I will make sure you get the information and programs for you to have your own children."

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Marisa cried.

Cameron was ready for the hug when Marisa glopped onto her. "It's only right you get something important, for all you've done for us," Cameron explained.

"You're wonderful, Cameron!" Marisa cried.

.

Later, when they left the party and returned to their apartment, Cameron told John about her talk with Marisa.

"You ... what!" John asked in shock.

"Marisa badly wants to be in our family, John," Cameron explained. "If she is to be in our family, she needs to be treated as such. Including having her own baby if that's what she wants."

"But..." John stuttered, gaping at his wife. "But ... you ... HOW are you OK with that?"

"John, being with us is the only thing Marisa wants," Cameron said firmly. "I know she's clingy, but she is not looking to take you away, she wants to be with us. She had worked hard to do so. She had proven her loyalty."

"Still," John said weakly. "You do know that Marisa will pretty much be another wife, How can you ... put up with that?"

"John, don't deny you do hold some affection for Marisa," Cameron said firmly. "Even though you try to hide it, it's there, and has been there for quite while. I am not mad at you. I know you would never betray me, or our marriage. I told Marisa it's up to you, but, I want you to assure her she will get affection also. Marisa is not a Riley, she does not want to split us up. That is why I can agreed to her joining our family. This way also I can be sure someone loyal to you is close by if I'm not. We're both busy John, this is for the best."

All John could do was gape at her. he was telling him pretty much she wanted Marisa to be his mistress. "Cam, I love you more than ... life itself. Yeah, I like Marisa, but it's this going a little too far?"

"She wants a baby, John. I will not have her child be fatherless," Cameron stated.

John let out a huff and said, "Well, Marisa likes her hugs, so hugging her should be OK. Right?"

Cameron shook her head. "John if you only hugged me and nothing else, I would feel very cheated," she stated. "Some time, she's going to want sex and a baby. Don't disappoint her."

"I'm worried about disappointing you," John replied quickly.

Cameron grew a grin and said, "I'm happy to hear it. You're not, John. That is, unless you don't treat Marisa well."

John eyed her and asked, "You really are set on this, aren't you?"

"I see it as the right thing to do."

"But, I've seen you when Marisa piles into me for a hug. I thought you were going to terminate her," John replied.

"Too many times, I equated it to Riley hugging you," Cameron admitted. "Marisa is not a bitch whore like Riley. Marisa will support us, not try to drive us apart. We re in a new world, John. One we made. Let's make he most of it."

John enfolded Cameron and kissed her. "Cam, honey, I think you have the biggest heart in the whole world. I am so lucky and proud to be your husband."

Cameron smiled and put a finger to his lips, "And I will always be your first?" she asked.

"Always and forever," he assured her. They kissed again.

"Sarah's asleep, we got about an hour and a half," Cameron teased.

John grinned broadly and said, "Then let's not waste it."

.

...Many years Later...

.

The sleek black ship approached the planet Reach. Inside the control room, four people manned the craft.

"Checking date by Galactic position," Jasper said, looking over his monitors.

Piloting the ship, Nancy asked, "Are we close?"

"If not, we got a ton of explaining to do," John Junior noted.

Jasper shot a fist in the air. "YES! from the data, we came back one day after we left! Great driving sweetie!"

"Hang on," Julie said, "We missed our departure by one day. Won't anyone notice?"

"We're arriving one day after we left," John explained. "That's OK. Problems would arise if we got back the day before we left this time period. We would meet ourselves leaving."

Jasper grinned and said in a musing tone, "I don't know. Having two Nancys around would be pretty cool."

Nancy glanced back at him. "I don't know if we could handle two Jaspers," she said. That made John and Julie chuckle.

"OK guys, we did it," John said happily. "We went back in time, fixed a few things, made it back, and no one's going to notice."

The radio spoke. "This is Reach flight Control. Flight 372, You are 12 hours overdue and did not respond to hails. When you land, proceed to the controller's office and report on your time you were out of communication."

John winced and said, "OK, so almost no one's gong to notice."

"We can use the engine damage to explain why we didn't answer any hails," Jasper offered.

Nancy barked out a laugh. "Yeah, Ok. You're going to tell them we were in trouble and didn't activate a emergency beacon or call for help. Do the words, 'flying like a lead balloon' mean anything to you?"

"We had a total coms loss when number three engine was knocked out," Julie offered.

"The comms don't get power from number three." Jasper reminded her.

"It was a spike in the system," Julie added.

"We should just say we don't know what happened," John told them.

Jasper said, "Well get your barbecue lotion on guys, cause Eleanor is gonna roast us over a fire if we don't have any answers."

"After I went ahead and turned the governorship over to her?" John asked.

"You know she plays zero favorites, John," Jasper reminded him. "You made her Governor, she's going to do her job."

"What was I going to do?" John asked with a flail of his arm. "We were planning this trip and Reach needs a Governor."

Nancy rolled her eyes and said, "Like you liked being the Governor to begin with. John, you dropped that job like a hot potato."

"You did," Julie added with a smirk. "At least Eleanor's watching our kids for us."

John rubbed his face with both hands and said, "OK, we hit something and had to land to get number three engine operational, then we came back. It's the truth, so we won't be lying ... we just leave a few things out."

"Like Illegal time travel," Jasper said,

"Modifying the past," Julie added.

"Disabling the ship's voice and events recorder," Nancy said. "I suppose we can say the connections just fell apart on their own."

"Right, we leave those things out," John told them.

Jasper tipped back in his seat, hands locked behind his head and said, "Yeah, make my Barbecue lotion mesquite. I kinda like that flavor."

"We did what we had to do" John said firmly.

"No argument there, John," Jasper said. "Just brace yourself for a real warm ass."

The radio announced, "Flight 372, you are redirected to land at the Governor's mansion. Have all recorded flight data available for inspection upon arrival."

"Flight 372, acknowledged," Nancy replied. "That's easy," she said happily, "We don't have any!"

"Make my barbecue lotion honey-mustard please," Julie said.

"Just remember, you were all taking orders from me," John told them. "I'm the one to blame."

"Nope!" Nancy said, "All or none. We either all wiggle out of it, or none of us do."

"Just remember, we did good, guys. No one can take that away from us," Julie announced.

Coming down towards the Governor's mansion, they all noted a reception committee had formed, waiting for them. Zooming in on the group, not only was Eleanor in the pack, Sarah was also.

"Hope that's strong Barbecue sauce," John muttered.

"Lotion, John. Lotion," Jasper said, correcting him. In a creepy voice he added, "The lotion goes on it's skin."

"Only you, Jasper," Nancy said with a sigh.

"NO, you can have some too," Jasper assured her. "I'll even rub it on for you."

"I'm beginning to wish I had a chip you could pull for me," Nancy grumbled as she set the ship down on the pad.

.

Upon the ramp opening, Sarah and Eleanor marched up into the ship. They didn't get far, noticing the scrap marks on the walls inside. John went to meet them with his crew right behind him.

Sarah eyed the walls, then John. "What did you do to this ship?" she asked, indicating the walls.

Jasper shrugged and said, "That's nothing! You should see number three engine."

"Jasper!" John, Nancy and Julie barked at the same time.

"What about number three engine?" Eleanor asked flatly.

Scratching the back of his head John said, "We kinda ran into something. Don't worry, we stopped and got it operational again. The ship works fine."

"Do you have your data?" Sarah asked flatly.

"The recorder didn't pick any up," Nancy offered.

Quickly, John said, "Yes, apparently whoever put it in forgot to plug it in. We didn't notice until we went to retrieve the flight data and there wasn't any."

"Is that so?" Sarah asked in a hard tone.

"It is, go look if you don't believe me. We left it as we found it," John offered.

"So you flew this ship with a big, red glaring alarm flashing the entire time?" Eleanor asked.

"No alarm ... bulb's probably burned out," Nancy offered.

"I don't think this ship was properly pre-flighted," Jasper offered in a serious tone.

Sarah whispered to Eleanor, who nodded. She then said, "John, bring your crew with me." John move to follow, then noted Eleanor walk past them. Right, she was going to inspect the ship.

Coming out down the ramp, they met a mechanic. He pointed towards the back and said, "Miss Connor, Number three engine is screwed. Someone replaced all the wiring and the shell looks like it's been hammered on. I have to ground this ship until we get a new engine here. The hull just before the engine needs work too."

Sarah cast John a sideways look.

"Like I said, we hit something ... going pretty fast," John told her.

"You didn't pick it up on radar?" Sarah asked.

"We didn't, until it was too late," Nancy offered.

Sarah eyed her, then kept walking towards the mansion.

"Eleanor is going to know," Nancy whispered to John.

John nodded. She would find the disconnected alarm and the disconnected recorder, She would also find their fingerprints on the cables. She would also find the medi-bed was used, as well as the tools had been used. If she looked into number three engine, she would see it was rewired with sub standard wiring that wasn't even made any more.

By the time they were wakling up the stairsto the ansin, John had to admit what he did. "Sarah, look. You're going to be mad, but I made my crew come with me..."

"Stop John!" Sarah said sharply. She opened the door and said, "Not another word out here."

Going inside, he asked, "You know?"

"I knew before you did. If you say anything else, Mom will have your ass," Sarah said in a low but firm tone.

"Mom?" he asked eagerly. "She's here?"

Sarah put a hand on his shoulder and guided him into the parlor doors and opened them for him. "Everyone's here," she stated, and pushed him in the room.

There was a crowd in the parlor. John stopped in place upon seeing his mother on the couch with a Latino woman, they were holding and playing with his and Julie's twins. Upon seeing him, Cameron pointed and said, "Girls, look, Mommy and Daddy!"

The twins got down off their laps and came running over.

"Look what the cat dragged in!"

John looked over at the voice to see his father talking with Derek Reese and grinning at him. "Dad!" he cried.

"You're timing's not impeccable, but not bad either," John Senior said.

John scooped up one twin as Julie got the other. "Dad... you're alive!" he cried.

"Thanks to you," John senior said firmly. "It was a bit of work to keep things straight in the time line, but we knew enough to make sure not much changed. By the way, You can't designate who's Governor of Reach, That's your mother's job, so right now, you're stuck with it."

"Junior never meant to give Eleanor a permanent position, did you, Junior?" Cameron asked as she strode over to meet him.

"Ahhh, no, Mom." John said with a silly grin.

"Johnny boy!" the Latino woman cried and plowing into him with a hug. She scrubbed his hair, grinning broadly at him. "Your brother Carlos can't be here for another day, but it's great to see you again!"

John stared at her. He had no idea who this was.

"This is your other mother, Marisa," Cameron said, seeing his confusion.

"Other mother?" John asked.

"Johnny, you don't remember me?" Marisa asked, wearing a pout.

"You changed history, things are a little different than you remembered them." Cameron reminded him. To Marisa, she said, "Junior won't remember you or Carlos. It's a time displacement thing. "

"Ohhh," Marisa cooed with a frown. Holding onto John's cheeks she grinned and said, "Don't worry, Junior, we'll get to know each other. Carlos was coming anyway to see Eleanor. You will help me convince Carlos to get serious with Eleanor! Dating for six years is enough! It's time to decide what he wants."

"Me? how can I help?" John asked. He tried to pull back, but Marisa had a firm grip on his back, preventing him from moving.

"Junior!" Marisa cried, "You got a beautiful wife and two beautiful children! You can show Carlos your family and tell him how wonderful it is to have them! You'll help your Mamma Marisa, won't you?"

"Of course he will," Julie said from John's side. "I don't think there's much John can't do."

"Junior's a true Connor!" John senior said proudly.

"I'll even agree with that," his sister Sarah said with a grin.

John wasn't sure whether he should cry with happiness or bolt for the door.

THE END

I hope you enjoyed this. I had a hard time figuring out how to end it. Go on for chapter and chapters is easier. Maybe that why my stories get so long...