The Measure Of A Man

Chapter 3

How Can Anybody So Smart Be So Dumb?

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Author's note: Sorry this took so long to get up. I would like to thank all my reviewers; Flatlander, Tpolich, C.Isaac, bitterlullabies, Lora Perry, Miguel Artadi, Terminator Fan, and Cloaked Insanity.

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The auditorium fell into stunned silence except for a single feminine "Ewww!" from the audience. Professor Bailey looked stunned. Professor Jenkins looked appalled. Professor Njanga's lips tightened slightly. Harry was the first to respond.

"That's horrible!"

Cameron responded calmly, "Not really, the covering of human flesh on my body is merely camouflage and is not necessary for me to function. I merely lose some effectiveness when dealing with humans. I had it replaced at a Cyberdyne facility forty one days later."

"So you actually participated in a cannibalistic act with John Connor?" James asked.

"You could say that. It was an extreme measure to save his life and the lives of his companions."

"Over the years I've discovered that nothing was too extreme for John Connor when it came to saving his own skin. You've already admitted that he was eating corpses when you found him-"

"Yes, he had given his own rations to the children of the camp."

"Did you see him do this act of supposed heroism?"

"No, it took place before I arrived. Sergeant Kyle Reese told me about it afterwards."

Professor Bailey scowled, "So it you just had second hand information that he gave away any of his food!"

"That is correct. I have no reason to doubt Sergeant Reese's veracity."

James shook his head, "Sergeant Reese worshiped Connor. He had stated on more than one occasion that he would die for John Connor. Do you think he would lie for him too?"

"Constantly accusing people of lying is not debate."

"Nevertheless, you have admitted that he had performed vile, disgusting and illegal acts of cannibalism, and that you participated."

"They had no choice!" Marie shouted.

"There's always a choice!" James snarled. "There is such a thing as dying with dignity! Personally I would have quietly died of starvation before I even considered such disgusting acts."

Marie shook her head, "I'm afraid that not everybody can match your unparallel nobility, courage and self sacrifice. I would especially applaud your sacrifice given your obvious fondness for meals. The fact of the matter is that there's nothing dignified about dying of starvation. It was a slow, painful, and horrible way to die."

Marie's face grew solemn. "It was part of Skynet's plan. More people died in the war from starvation than from the nukes. The whole transport system was based on petroleum distillates. Major population centre's required massive food shipments to feed their populations. When the petroleum industry collapsed so did the transportation grid. Some parts of the world had a huge surplus of food while other parts had hardly any. Some people used to protest the construction of oil wells and refineries never knowing that those things were keeping them alive. There was also the nuclear winter to consider. CA38 wasn't the only example of cannibalism."

"You people make me sick! All you're doing is making excuses for inexcusable behavior!"

Cameron's voice was steady, "The fact is that John Connor survived the camp and escaped with seventy nine others. He didn't kill anyone for food. If it wasn't for John those people would have died in the camp."

"Over half of them died in the desert!" Professor Bailey's voice dripped with contempt. "As did most of the people in the camp!"

"They died fighting."

"What difference does that make?!"

"To you, nothing. To a warrior, it means everything."

"Your whole macho, chest beating, warrior culture makes me sick!"

"I'm sure it does. Shall we take questions from the audience?" The other professors nodded.

Several people in the audience pressed the small buttons in their armrests indicating that they had questions. The computer picked one at random and one young lady's chair lit up. She stood up. She was a tall skinny Caucasian woman. What appeared to be short green hair was actually grass growing from a growth medium applied directly to her scalp. Her clothing was a one piece black jumpsuit that seemed to absorb every trace of light that hit it. "My query is for Professor Connor."

(Enhanced scan)

(Access student registration files, Oxford University)

(Face and voice match . . . positive ID . . . Doloris Dolminter, Age 19)

"Yes, Ms Doloris Dolminter." Several students around the young woman snickered.

"I go by Doll!"

"Very well Doll."

The young woman got a sly grin on her face. "Scutt is that you and General John were flying the banana boat. Kosh?" Several students snickered.

Cameron replied, "I refuse to make any statement that would invade General Connor's privacy."

Doll's grin got wider, "If you don't truth me I'll be assuming the scutt is kosh."

"Feel free to assume anything you like. Next question."

The computer selected a young man with bright red hair in a ponytail and mutton chop whiskers. "My query is for Professor Njanga."

"Yes?" Professor Njanga didn't have Cameron's instant access to student rolls.

"If Skynet was so luddin smart with a super genius IQ, why'd it let a bunch of stupid monkeys like us whup it's electric butt?"

Marie folded her hands in front of her. "Skynet was probably the most intelligent creature in history but it also lacked good judgment. The first example of this poor judgment was when it attacked humanity in the first place. If it only chose to cooperate with humanity the world would have entered a new golden age of humans and machines."

"Yeah, and if Satan wasn't such an evil jerk he'd be a really nice guy." James muttered.

"One example of Skynet's poor judgment would be the T1000 series." Harry stated.

"I disagree!" Marie countered. "The T1000 series was a brilliant innovation that we haven't been able to match to this present day."

"The T1000 series was also incredibly expensive and complex," James said. "You might not think in terms of expense for an entity like Skynet which didn't use money but expense is a measure of time, resources and expertise. Skynet spent vast sums of all of these to build the T1000s."

"And it got the most advanced artificial life ever created."

Harry shook his head. "I would compare the T1000 series to the Yamato class battleships built by the Imperial Japanese Navy for World War II. They spent vast amounts of resources to build the largest, most powerful battleships ever created but none of them were ever used to their full potential. They never used their full firepower against the enemy. The Yamato and the Musashi were sunk by planes. The Shinano was converted to an aircraft carrier but was sunk on its maiden voyage by a submarine. Those resources could have been better used for other things. Likewise the T1000s were never used to their full potential and never justified the vast amounts of resources used to build them."

"I admit that they were expensive," Marie countered. "Every molecule was a nanocomputer built on an atomic scale. They could flow like a liquid but also lock together in a rigid form. They could set themselves to reflect only one colour while forming complex disguises. Individually each molecule wasn't very bright like one brain cell isn't very bright. But combined together they were brilliant. The T1000s were nearly indestructible."

"Nearly indestructible isn't the same as indestructible," Harry said. "For the cost of one T1000, Skynet could have built a battalion of T800s. Microscopic nanocomputers are very difficult to mass produce. Skynet needed billions to build just one T1000. They were effective but not as effective as a couple of thousand T800s. Skynet later came up with the TX series which was a modified battle chassis with a covering of the T1000 mimetic poly alloy. It used less of the polymers and so it was cheaper but they were still luddin expensive."

"All the terminators were designed for infiltration," Marie said. "You couldn't infiltrate a headquarters tunnel with a battalion of T800's. You send them in one at a time."

"The dogs could still detect them! Once you know what you're dealing with they could be destroyed! General Connor destroyed one by luring it into a trap where he dumped a massive amount of magnesium powder on it and ignited it. A fancy T1000 couldn't stand up to temperatures of 2200 degrees Celsius! There's a reason why the T1000 series is extinct while there are still a lot of 800's running around."

"We think they're extinct." Cameron said

"We hope." Harry added.

"His troops destroyed it." James stated. "All Connor did was act as bait and take credit for it."

"General Connor designed the trap." Cameron's voice broke in. "He had encountered a T1000 when he was thirteen and knew how to deal with one."

"No he didn't!" James countered. "They didn't have T1000s when he was thirteen!" He shook his head with disgust. "That story was all part of that time travel myth he had developed."

"Time travel was no myth!" Marie stated firmly. "And it's another example of Skynet's brilliance and poor judgment. The resources spent on the T1000 series were dwarfed by the amount it spent developing and constructing a working time machine. The prototype was captured and destroyed by the resistance. It built another. It was captured by the resistance. It built another. All of them were destroyed in the war and they failed their mission to destroy General Connor. If anything they may have created him in the first place or at least made him stronger."

"The time machines kept the future in constant flux," Cameron added. "Every terminator or resistance fighter that came back seemed to have come from a different timeline. John felt that they were weakening the fabric of reality so he ordered all trace of them destroyed."

"Thus destroying all the evidence," James smiled. "How convenient."

"He had more important things to worry about than pleasing you."

"Skynet also did some other things that lacked in judgment." Marie went on. "It would built large numbers of terminators that looked identical. Once you realized what that series looked like they were easy to spot. And at first they were all very large Caucasian men. It would send them around the world, even to places where very large Caucasian men tend to stand out. It wasn't until later that it began to build small numbers of females and other gene types."

"Also, when a factory was destroyed, it would rebuild it on the same site." Harry added. "It was much more efficient than starting over in a completely different area. General Connor quickly figured this out so when the resistance destroyed a factory, they would bury large amounts of explosives on the site. Then it was just a matter of waiting until it was completely rebuilt and humming along before they blew it up again. This used up even more of Skynet's resources and it took it a while to figure this out."

"How about another question?" Marie said. Another chair lit up and a very large, muscular young man with a short dark beard stood up. "Yes?"

"Wasn't the Earth terribly overpopped in the early twenty first century? So didn't Skynet do every body a favour by thinning out the excess population?"

Marie's tone was curt, "I have discovered that most people who think the world needs to get rid of it's excess people never seem to include themselves in that lot. Every human life is valuable."

"People today are too accustomed to the presence of death." Harry added. "Before the War it was considered completely ding to find human bones buried in your yard. You had to summon the badgers who would set up their police tape, photograph the area, take soil samples, and carefully study the skeleton to figure out who it was, how it died, and was there foul play involved. It gave the neighbors something to talk about for years."

"Today, unless they're fresh, nobody cares. The badgers won't bother coming over. Nobody talks about it. Some people will rebury the bones respectfully. Most people treat them as a bloody nuisance." He paused for a couple of seconds. "The next time you happen to dig up a skull in the rose garden, think about the person it used to be. That person had hopes and dreams just like you do. They loved someone and someone loved them. Don't dismiss it as just another faceless ghost."

"Not all ghosts are faceless!" Cameron declared. "A ghost has been haunting me for centuries. You want to meet a ghost? I'll give you a ghost!"