The Measure of A Man
Chapter 6
The Road To Bakersfield
Author's note: Caught the episode last week about Cameron's origins. Excellent show. So much for chapter 4. Oh well. That's fan fiction for you. This chapter will have a pretty long flashback episode in it.
--
(WARNING)
(Power plant operating at 127 percent capacity.)
(SYSTEM OVERLOAD)
(Non combat situation . . . No physical threat detected . . .Unnecessary power expenditure)
"You don't know anything about John Connor. He was no coward. He was the bravest human I've ever met. A good, decent man. If it weren't for John and Sarah Connor you wouldn't even be alive. You are an insignificant man and you will always be an insignificant man. You think you can achieve greatness by tearing down those greater than you." In spite of the glowing eyes, Cameron's voice and face remained calm. Professor Bailey's words and the following power surge had so distracted her that she completely forgot to be angry.
(Increase blood flow to face. Move brow muscles inward and downward. Flare nostrils slightly. Clench jaw slightly. Hard stare at James Bailey. Lower voice one octave. Controlled anger.)
"You are not the first of your kind that I've met. There have been others and your fate will be similar to theirs. In a hundred years you will be forgotten. Only a handful of scholars and your direct descendants will remember that you ever existed. And John Connor will still be honored."
James paled, "Perhaps that's true. But there's no need to take it out on the table. And even you can't dispute the fact that he ran away leaving a group a children to fend for themselves before a pack of terminators!" His voice sounded like a high pitched squeak.
Cameron glared at him. He was obviously terrified but still standing his ground. Whatever else he might be he was no coward. She noticed she was still holding a piece of broken wood in her hand and set it gently on the table. It would have been so easy to terminate him. But that wasn't who she was. Not anymore. She was not a terminator any longer. She hadn't taken a human life for centuries. It was no longer part of her mission. John wasn't the one who failed his mission that day. She was.
"They didn't have to fend for themselves. They had me." Cameron's voice and face returned to normal. The glowing blue eyes faded back to brown.
"Six to one odds. Aren't you overestimating your abilities?"
"There wasn't anything I could do about the odds. You seem to know quite a bit about the incident, Professor Bailey. What did the terminator units do?"
"Some of them went after General Connor, some of them went after the children."
Cameron nodded, "That is correct. It wasn't his plan though. John wanted all the units to go after him. He was bait It was a tactic he used several times. All terminators had John Connor as a primary mission. Upon aquiring him they all had to drop whatever mission they had and go after him. They didn't have a choice."
Marie nodded, "It was in the closing months of the war. Operation Scarecrow was finally taking effect. General Connor had discovered that the Skynet program was actually in millions of computers all over the world. He had given orders that every computer in the world have it's hard drive pulled and destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people searching all over the world. Millions of computers."
"Operation Scarecrow was a truly barbaric act!" James countered, "There were vast amounts of knowledge on computers that wasn't on paper copy. It was worse than burning the Library of Alexandria! People had their life's work on some of those computers!" His fist clenched. "He could have had the Skynet program carefully extracted from the drives and the modems temporarily removed to prevent it's return rather than the ham handed techniques he used! He set back scientific research at least thirty years! Maybe even more!"
"What you are suggesting would be very slow, tedious work that would require years of work by experts!" Harry countered. "There just weren't that many people left who could do that. They had to do the job fast and sloppy!"
"As Skynet got weaker it became more and more desperate." Marie added. "It reverted more and more to its core programming. A chess programme, take out the King and you win. It doesn't matter what the board looks like. Checkmate, game over. It became even more obsessed with killing General Connor."
"The game had changed however." Cameron said in her usual monotone, "It wasn't a chess game anymore. It was a game of checkers. A war of attrition. 'I made it across the board, King me.' New commanders were coming up. The plans had taken a life of their own. They no longer needed the planner. Nothing could stop the plans. Killing John would no longer make any difference."
(Mournful expression)
"There was a light rain falling on the day John was terminated. A group of survivors were attempting to evacuate Bakersfield. General Connor went out there with a squad of soldiers to cover the retreat. . ."
Cameron was standing in a puddle of water that reached above her ankles.. It leaked in through the worn combat boots but she didn't care. The water would cause no damage to her feet. About forty meters away a young black woman was herding children on board a scorched, battered bus with the word "Greyhound" painted on the side. All traces of window glass on the bus had long since disappeared. The sun was going to rise in two hours, forty one minutes and seventeen seconds. John had no intentions of being here when that happened.
Her radio crackled. "Metal! Bearing 047, range 150 yards!"
"Skin job?"
"Chrome job, no meat on this one. He's crouching behind that burnt out van trying to hide his shiny butt."
"What's he waiting for?!"
There was a distant rumble of approaching motors. "That answer your question? He's waiting for his buddies. Sounds like they have bikes. Probably spread out all over the city looking for us!"
Suddenly the street was lit up by huge fireballs. Soldiers engulfed in burning napalm screamed and tried to roll on the asphalt to extinguish the flames. Gunfire erupted from every direction. More soldiers fell. The young woman got the last of the children on the bus then turned to look. A small hole appeared on her forehead and a larger hole appeared in the back of her head. She collapsed next to the bus. Cameron crouched behind a broken brick wall and opened fire on a 800 series she saw approaching on a motorcycle knocking it off. Suddenly John was next to her.
"Cameron! Get on that bus and get those kids out of here!"
"My primary mission is to protect and defend John Connor."
"Mission priority override! Primary mission: Protect the children and get them to safety!"
"New mission accepted. Get on the bus and I'll take you and the children to safety."
"If I do that nobody's getting out of here. I've got a better idea." He scooped up a large satchel filled with C4. "I'm getting way too old for this crap. Cover me!" He jumped up and ran to the terminator's motorcycle. It attempted to get up but Cameron shot one of its elbow joints causing it to collapse again. John pushed the motorcycle upright and quickly straddled it revving the motor up. "Hey everybody! It's me! John Connor! Gotta go now! Bye!" He roared off down a narrow alley. In unison six metal heads turned to watch him. While John had their full attention, Cameron ran toward the bus.
She quickly leaped on board and turned the key. The engine roared to life. She shifted gears and the bus slowly began rolling down the street gradually picking up speed. She tried to shut the door but it wouldn't close. It probably hadn't worked since Judgment Day.
"They're after us!" A young boy squealed after sticking his head out of a window.
"Get your head inside! Now! Lie on the floor everybody! How many are after us!"
"Two of them! On motorbikes!"
Chance of this bus outrunning two motorcycles . . . infinitesimal. Two of the terminators had targeted the children hoping John would come back to rescue them. Cameron turned her head to scan for weapons. A M79 40mm grenade launcher and an old M1 30 caliber rifle. She popped open the ammunition box next to her feet. 30 caliber Teflon coated armor piercing rifle bullets. Cameron slid off the seat keeping a foot on the gas pedal and a hand on the steering wheel.
She selected a boy crouched down near the driver's seat. "You will get up here and drive the bus."
The boy climbed up into the seat and took the wheel. "I can't reach the gas pedal!"
Cameron selected a girl with dirty blond hair. "Get on the floor and work the pedals. This is the gas pedal and this is the brake. Keep the gas pedal pushed down as far as it can go. You, turn the wheel as little as you can. Try to see things in the road ahead of time and gently move around them." Cameron loaded the M1 with a clip of armor piercing bullets and cocked the bolt before handing it to another boy. "Use this to shoot any robots that get on the bus." The boy nodded.
Cameron loaded a grenade in the M79 and stuffed additional grenades into her pockets. Then climbed out through the missing windshield and quickly crawled over the rain slicked roof of the swerving bus toward the rear. The closest 800 was about thirty meters away and closing. He swerved just as she fired. The grenade exploded behind them. Cameron quickly cracked the M79 and reloaded. The closest 800 had something in his right hand which he hefted just as she fired a grenade into his chest. As the 800 blew apart she heard something clatter behind her. She quickly turned her head and spotted a small canister between her splayed legs. Napalm grenade. Cameron grabbed it and tossed it toward the rear just as it went off.
Jelled gasoline sprayed Cameron and the back of the bus. Her right arm and the upper right side of her head was covered with it. It clung to her as it burned. As the napalm burned off she heard a loud thump and a clatter.
(Right eye covered with scar tissue . . . vision impaired 50 percent.)
Cameron's skeletal right hand quickly ripped the burnt scar tissue and the ruined eyeball from her face. With one brown eye and one blue eye she saw a series of explosions back in Bakersfield.
(Primary mission . . . Protect John Connor)
(Mission priority override . . .Protect the children and take them to safety)
Something slammed into her from behind and she slid off the roof. The grenade launcher fell to the road and disappeared into the darkness. Her powerful fingers dug holes into the sheet metal as her body dangled over the side. Cameron looked up in time to see the remaining 800 smash his foot in her face jerking her head back. The metal under her hands tore even more. The 800 lifted his foot again but the bus ran over an obstacle in the road tossing him off balance and causing him to fall over backwards. Hand over hand she pulled herself back punching additional holes on the roof. The 800 was crouched by the escape hatch in the bus's roof. His powerful fingers ripped the hatch off to screams of terror from the children inside. He spun the hatch at Cameron like a Frisbee. She fell prone on the roof as it flew inches above her. She looked up and saw it looming over her.
"Brake!" She shouted.
Inside the bus a little girl pushed on the brake pedal with all her weight. The bus's tires squealed as it jerked to a halt. The sudden stop jerked the 800 off it's feet and it fell backward. Cameron leaped on top of it and attempted to hold it down. It's head dangled over the open hatch. A shot from inside glanced off it's glistening skull.
Cameron put her skeletal right hand on its face and pushed its head sideways. "The CPU port!" She shouted.
"What?"
"The circle on the side of its head! Shoot the circle!"
The boy pressed the muzzle of the old rifle against the circle and squeezed the trigger. The armor piercing bullet smashed into the circle cracking the chip inside. The machine's glowing red eyes faded into black. "Clear the hatch area!" Cameron shouted as she slid the body into the hatch to the screams of terror from the children inside. Kids are tough these days. They'll get over it. Dumping the body on the road wasn't an option. Skynet had a habit of recycling old terminator chassis.
Cameron dropped inside the bus and got into the driver's seat starting the bus up again. Another twenty miles to Fort Taft. She had to complete her primary mission as quickly as possible to get back to John. A filthy little girl aged about six or seven came up to Cameron and stood beside her smiling.
"My Mommy always told me to be scared of the robots but I won't be scared anymore because I know now that some robots are our friends!"
(Primary mission . . Protect the children)
Cameron's skeletal right hand suddenly jerked out and grabbed the little girl's forearm and squeezed.
"Oww! You're hurting me!" She wailed.
"I'm hurting you? Good! Because your Mommy was right! Robots are bad! Never think that a robot is your friend! Never trust a robot! Not even if it looks like me! Always hide from the robots! Never let them see you!"
The weeping little girl nodded. Cameron released the arm. "Now get in the back of the bus and hide from me. If I see you I'm going to hurt you some more!" Sobbing the little girl ran to the back of the bus.
Up ahead Fort Taft loomed. Thick walls bunkered with soil. Dominating the scene on a high concrete platform was an Oto Melarea 76mm naval gun salvaged from the wreck of the USS Reuben James. Inside the walls were two oil wells and a crude refinery. It showed how much Skynet had declined that above the ground fortifications were even possible. Cameron brought the bus to a halt thirty yards from the front gate and got out.
"We've got metal!" A man on the wall shouted bringing a fifty caliber machine gun to bear on her. He wore the ragged blue uniform of a Navy second class petty officer.
"Stand down! It's Cameron! Looks like she had a bad day!"
"More'n one Cameron running around!" From around the sides of the fortress vehicles of different descriptions came around with heavily armed soldiers.
"We can't let you in Cameron!"
(Primary mission . . . Protect the children and get them to safety. . . Mission complete)
(Primary mission . . . Protect John Connor)
"I don't want in! There's children on the bus! Take care of them! General Connor's in trouble in Bakersfield! I'm going after him!"
"Wait a few minutes and we'll go with you!"
"I don't have a few minutes!" Cameron strode over to a burly man sitting on a Harley Davidson. Where the headlight once was now sported the welded on skull of an old 700 model. A jaunty eye patch was attached and a pair of terminator fibula were welded in an X below it. "Give me your bike."
"I ain't gonna . . .Hey!" Cameron grabbed the front of his jacket and yanked him off the bike tossing him aside like a rag doll.
"Thank you." She revved up the engine and sped off on the road to Bakersfield.