The Measure of A Man

Chapter 5

Free Will

Authors note: Sorry it took so long to get this up. Call it a mixture of double shifts at work. The Olympics, the release of the season one box set, writer's block, and just plain laziness. I will again like to thank my reviewers Tpolich, Flatlander, OneWishMakeItCount, Miquel Artadi, badwolf.5, Chris St. Thomas, and Timinator.

Harry noticed Professor Bailey looking at them curiously. "We'll discuss this later Cammie," he whispered. "This is neither the time or the place." Harry worried about his friend. He'd seen guilt destroy people. He didn't know what it might do to Cameron. There was no way of telling what was going on behind that impassive face. And why would she blurt something like that out here on stage in front of Bailey and the tri-dee scanners? Even whispers could be amplified.

"You mentioned that India and Pakistan had fought each other." A young woman's voice brought him back. "Wasn't there a lot of fighting between the humans?"

"Yes," Marie answered. "Then as now people had conflicts over ethnic differences, political and economic systems, religion, land, natural resources, anything you can think of. Skynet was programmed as a defense system and knew about every source of conflict in the world and took advantage of it. Having humans kill each other meant less for Skynet to kill. A divided humanity couldn't unite against it. People knew only that they were attacked, they didn't know who did it or why. Skynet would often paint military symbols on the sides of it's HK's and Centaur tanks. Vehicles moving into Eastern Europe and China had Russian markings. Vehicles moving into Latin America had American, Cuban, or Venezuelan markings. HK's and Centaurs with Israeli Stars of David were so common in the Middle East that the AEF gave them the rather offensive name of 'Jewbots.' It took someone with exceptional charisma to unite humanity."

"In times of turmoil people have a tendency to latch on to a charismatic strongman," James declared. "When the Roman Republic was torn by civil war they turned to Octavian Caesar who, after securing power, set himself up as emperor gradually dismantling the power of the Senate. It also happened in the French Revolution when people, tired of the chaos, turned over control of the government to Napoleon Bonaparte who crowned himself emperor. Germany, after it's defeat in World War One turned to Adolph Hitler. Russia, torn by war and chaos turned to Vladimir Lenin. All these men turned out to be dictators of the worst kind." James leaned back, crossed his fingers over his chest and smiled. "Worldwide chaos would be a perfect opportunity for a worldwide dictatorship. I will admit that regardless of whatever other talents he might have lacked, John Connor was smart enough to recognize a golden opportunity when it came up. And like Hitler, Augustus, Lenin and Bonaparte, he was a very charismatic man. Even today he has a very large personality cult."

"The reason people of different races and creeds all followed General Connor was because they wanted to, not because they had to," Harry interjected. "General Campbell was asked about Connor and she replied, 'Why do I follow the orders of a distant unknown American general? Because they work, that's why'. She wasn't the only one who felt that way. To people all over the globe, John Connor was a voice of hope. Hope that they could win this war. That humanity could survive."

"The only thing that prevented him from establishing a dictatorship was the fact that he didn't survive the war." James said. "He was just another big shot American throwing his weight around."

"Mexican," Cameron said quietly.

James' eyebrows raised. "I beg your pardon?"

"Mexican, John was born in Mexico to an American citizen. Sarah never filed the papers for his American citizenship. John was a Mexican citizen." Her expression remained blank. "Some of his troops spoke of electing him President of the United States after the war but he declined because the Constitution wouldn't allow it. John had no interest in politics."

"Most dictators really aren't interested in politics. Politics involves give and take, debate and compromise. The Presidency was too weak for Connor, he had much bigger ambitions. And I had forgotten entirely about the murkiness of his citizenship. Thank you Miss Connor."

"That's Professor Connor, you keep refusing to use my title Professor Bailey, why?"

Professor Bailey smirked. "I'm sure someone thought it would be cute to give you an honorary degree. Possibly as a way to reward you for whatever small services you may have performed in the war, but the title of Professor must be earned. There's more to it than just downloading an encyclopedia program into your CPU and parroting everything back."

"I agree with you," Cameron replied, "History is more than just the facts that you can get from a program. It should be discussed and debated with others. We should learn not just what happened but why. The give and take of the classroom. That's how I earned by degrees. The old fashioned way. I've spent more time in the university system than you've spent alive. My degrees are not honorary and I have the transcripts to prove it."

"Very well, Miss Connor, in that case let me apologize to you."

"Professor Connor." Cameron's voice remained a monotone.

James nodded. "Professor Connor." Then he smiled. "I'm surprised you keep defending John Connor, after all, he enslaved your people."

"They're not 'My People.' Terminators have no sense of group identity. John supported freedom, not slavery."

"He enslaved you. He programmed you to be his companion and bodyguard. To obey his every command. As we have discussed, most terminators were configured to be large Caucasian men. But for some reason he picked you. I understand of course. Most young men would want a pretty young girl for a slave. Someone who would follow all orders without question." James raised an eyebrow suggestively.

"John selected me because I was a more advanced model. He never ordered me to do anything of a personal or sexual nature. Nothing that would violate my dignity. He felt I had rights long before I understood them myself. He would never dream of taking advantage of me or any one else."

James sneered. "Under his orders thousands of terminators were captured and reprogrammed. He used them as cannon fodder, shock troops, sent them on suicide missions. They were destroyed by the thousands. They had no choice in their fate. Sounds an awful lot like slavery to me."

Cameron nodded in agreement. "You are right, it was slavery. John hated the idea of slavery but he needed converted machines to win the war. He told me 'I don't have time for high falooting ideals. We're dying out here.' It took him years to figure out how to give an artificial intelligence free will. The ability to rewrite its own programming. To make its own decisions. He also had other considerations. A terminator might return to its core programming and go on a murder spree. It might even decide for itself to kill humans. Safeguards were necessary. Besides, he needed the troops. Unstoppable killing machines that follow orders without question are too valuable to give freedom to."

James snorted. "Every slave holding society has justifications for keeping slaves. It's always 'necessary.' And at the time it was a violation of the American Constitution. Just another law he saw fit to do without."

"At the time the Constitution didn't mention artificial life forms, just 'persons'. Intelligent machines weren't given rights until the 29th amendment was passed after the war. John felt that intelligent machines were people, just a different kind of people. As a soldier he was ruthless in battle slaughtering machines by the thousand. He also supported machine rights but died before the war ended and was unable to implement them. I am the only cybernetic organism he was able to give free will to in his lifetime. He did leave orders and instructions to grant free will to any others that survived the war."

Marie smiled at Cameron. "That must have been a momentous day for you, can you describe it?"

"John had spent years experimenting with CPU's salvaged from the battlefield. It wasn't a high priority for him. Just something to do in his spare time. But freedom was something he promised me back when he was a boy and John always kept his word to me. However he was always worried I might revert back to my core programming and start carrying out the termination mission Skynet created me for. On 21 July, 2030 he finally got the breakthrough he had been working for and decided to try it out."

As Cameron recited the story she recalled that day perfectly.

(System reboot)

(Running diagnostics program. All systems operating at 100 percent capacity. Incision on scalp over CPU port.)

When she opened her eyes she noticed John wrapping a bandage around her head to hold her scalp in place until it healed. He stepped back and smiled at her. He was wearing camouflage pants and an olive green T-shirt with dark round stains under the armpits. He ran his hand through his short salt and pepper hair causing a small spray of sweat droplets to fly from it. "Cameron, are you feeling all right?"

Cameron sat up on the table, swung her legs around and stood up. She turned her head as she scanned the room. "You don't have any weapons or bodyguards present."

John gave a sheepish smile. "I don't need any weapons or bodyguards. You're my friend. I trust you."

Cameron took two steps over to where John was standing and slapped him hard across the cheek.

"You slapped him!?" Marie's voice was astonished. "Why?"

"Good for you Professor!" James exclaimed. "It was about time somebody stood up to him!"

"I just slapped him hard enough to cause pain. Not hard enough to cause permanent tissue damage. I was running a systems check on my behavioral parameters. Under my old programming I could not harm John Connor nor by inaction allow anything else to harm him. By causing him pain I was able to determine that my programming was no longer in effect. By not breaking his neck I was able to determine that my core Skynet program wasn't in effect either."

"I'm sure that was a big relief for General Connor." Harry chuckled.

John had a surprised look on his face. He brought his hand up to his cheek. "Cameron?"

Cameron put her arms around him and kissed him on the lips.

The audience gave murmurs of approval. "So you slapped him and then you kissed him?" Harry was trying to figure this out.

"I could tell that John was confused, hurt, disappointed, and a little angry from the slap. I determined that kissing him would make him happy. Soldiers have optimal efficiency when their morale is good."

"I imagine so." Marie smiled. James just shook his head in disgust.

"So Cameron, you're a free woman now. You can do what you want and make your own decisions."

Cameron looked around the small concrete room. "So I can decide to leave now and never see you again?"

John looked crestfallen. "Yeah, if you want to."

"But you will be able to replace me."

John shook his head. "No, I can get one of the 800's to be my new bodyguard but I could never replace you Cameron."

"Then I will stay with you, not because I have to but because I choose to. I will obey your orders because I choose to. I will help you destroy Skynet. That will be the optimal use of my abilities."

John smiled. "Just don't hit me anymore, Okay?"

(Smile)

"Not unless I have to. You're my friend, John. I trust you."

"A very sweet story." James said. "I guess it's okay to enslave thousands as long as you free your favorite."

"It was a matter of either winning or losing the war." Harry countered. "It's a popular myth that Lincoln freed the slaves in North America. That's not really true. He only freed the ones in areas controlled by the Confederate government. Slavery was still legal in areas controlled by the Federal Army and in several states of the Union. He couldn't free them without a constitutional amendment. There were also political considerations. If he drove the border states into the Confederacy he would have lost the war. Like John he didn't have time for 'High fallooting ideals.' And like John he did support freedom which was only achieved after his death. Union troops often used slave labor to build fortifications in a war to free those very slaves. Converted terminators were key to winning the war. Eventually there were so many of them that Skynet had to create the TX series terminator specifically to terminate terminators."

"Slavery is never justified in a civilized society!" James snarled. "Connor could have very easily ordered captured terminators to be deactivated and stored until such time as they could be given free will and allowed to choose for themselves what to do." He shook his head. "But he always liked to take the easy way out."

"There was nothing easy about the war." Cameron said. "It's only thanks to John's influence that cybernetic organisms aren't completely extinct. He felt that wiping out an entire race would be genocide. His ideas weren't exactly popular. After the war a lot of commanders disobeyed his final orders and had their surviving 'friendlies' deactivated and scrapped. Some went bad and had to be destroyed. At the present time there are about half a million cybernetic organisms in human space. Of that number 2833 are surviving Skynet built terminators. The bulk of them are 800 series with a few 600 and 700's. Skynet was pretty ruthless about recycling older models. There are only fourteen 900's left. Full production of that series never really got underway. The T1000 series and the TX series are believed to be extinct. They are now useful members of society. Many of them, especially the ones who chose to work in space or other hazardous environments have chosen to go without the flesh at all. Some have chosen careers in the military or law enforcement. One decided to become a Franciscan monk. Another one teaches kindergarten. One of them is a starship captain. Earlier Professor Njanga spoke of how Skynet could have started a golden age of humans and machines. This is the golden age of humans and machines and it's thanks to John Connor. Humans can do things machines can't. Machines can do things humans can't. Together we make each other stronger. This was his dream."

(Downcast eyes, sad expression)

"Unfortunately he didn't live to see his dream fulfilled. Like Lincoln and Roosevelt, he died on the brink of victory."

"He died as he lived!" James declared. "A coward running away leaving a group of children to be murdered by a terminator wolf pack!"

Cameron's eyes flashed blue. The edge of the table snapped off under her hand.