Cameron versus the Queen
Chapter Nine
Disclaimer: Don't own TSCC
This story is set in the timeline of my other TSCC stories and takes place in between The Future Cameron and Cameron's Revenge. Characters from the original TSCC story arc and Cameron Grows Up as well as The Future Cameron appear in this story.
TechCom Cafeteria…
Sounds of friendly chatter filled the Cafeteria, set up as it was for a morning breakfast for the visiting delegation and the TechCom negotiation team. John chatted pleasantly with a military officer from the northerner's delegation. The TechCom personnel were enjoying a treat for breakfast. Pastries made from scratch by the northern delegation. Cook was visibly unhappy, something difficult for a T-600 to convey, with the invasion of his kitchen.
Cameron sat next to John, watching everything closely as the Danish was served. John watched Cameron tense like a predator about to pounce on its prey as one of Delegate Racineaux's servants approached, carrying two plates of Danish. The young woman bowed politely and set a Danish before Cameron and then another before John.
John thanked the servant and picked up his fork to take a bite only for Cameron to stab her fork into his Danish and frown. He nodded almost imperceptibly as Cameron hurriedly left with both plates. John finished drinking his coffee, another rare treat, excused himself from the officer and calmly strolled over to the podium placed centrally to the tables where everyone was enjoying breakfast.
Nearly twenty minutes passed before Cameron returned. She frowned for a second and nodded, confirming what John suspected. Turning on the microphone to the portable P.A. system, John winched at the sound of feedback as the unit warmed up.
"My apologies everyone. It's time to get down to business as we need to conclude our talks by this evening. I want to thank Delegate Racineaux for our special breakfast this morning. It is my understanding she personally prepared the wonderful Danish we ate. So, in order to start on time, if everyone would make their way to the meeting area within the next fifteen minutes."
John turned off the microphone and watched as everyone moved slowly towards the temporary meeting hall. He found Delegate Comeaux, standing near the exit, looking directly at John, asking a question with his eyes. John found himself feeling slightly sad as he nodded, answering the man's question. Despite the outcome of the visit of the northerners, John felt Comeaux was a man who could be trusted.
TechCom Meeting Hall…
John watched as Derek made an opening address, thanking the northerners for making the risky and dangerous journey to TechCom City. Crossing the dangerous Wastelands in hopes of forging an alliance. Cameron quietly entered the room and made her way to John's seat, sitting next to him. She sat a box next to him and looked out over the delegates from both parties, finding Racineaux and locking her eyes on the Queen.
Applause marked the end of Derek's remarks and John rose to his feet. He walked slowly to the podium, staring at Racineaux the entire time. The northern delegation members looked confused as John was clearly departing from the planned schedule of events for the morning.
Standing at his full height, John allowed the silence to fill the room, making the northerner's uncomfortable.
"Delegate Racineaux, my dear wife Cameron has something for you."
The surprised delegate shifted uncomfortably as Cameron rose, opened the box and carried a plate containing a single Danish. She strolled slowly over to the woman and sat the pastry down before her. On the plate was a fork and knife. One small square had been cut and removed from the pastry and was missing.
Cameron looked the delegate directly in the eyes and stared at the nervous woman.
"Take a bite," she ordered.
"I am full, thank you," Racineaux replied.
"I didn't ask you if you were full. I ordered you to take a bite."
"I have to watch my figure. I'm not like you Commander Connor."
"What's the matter, don't want to taste your own cooking," Cameron hissed loudly.
"You are quite rude," Racineaux snapped back, looking about for her servants and body guards.
"Rude is trying to poison my John," Cameron replied grimly.
Now openly nervous, Racineaux stood and backed away from Cameron. "That is the most ridiculous, unfounded accusation I have ever heard. Stay away from me."
"We just tested this pastry. The one your servant hand delivered. It's loaded with sodium thiopental. Sodium thiopental you stole from our medical facility. A theft we have on video."
"This has nothing to do with me," Racineaux laughed, backing up. "You're nothing but a deluded machine. Your programming has gone bad. I believe you've had that problem in the past."
A low rumble came from the TechCom personnel present as Cameron took a step forward towards the northerner's queen. Her bodyguards stepped closer only to freeze at the hard look from Cameron.
"If you did nothing wrong, why are you unwilling to take a bite of the pastry?"
"Delegate Comeaux, do something! It is your duty to protect my honor as Queen!"
"If only you had any honor my Queen," Comeaux replied, standing up and looking at his delegation.
"Miss Cameron, is there anything else you wish to tell us?"
"Yes, Racineaux intends to poison you and the King upon your delegation's return. She stole more than enough sodium thiopental."
"I did no such thing," Racineaux shouted, backing further away from Cameron, glancing about nervously.
"Try explaining that to the King," Comeaux said evenly. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a flash drive. "Cameron was kind enough to organize a video file of all of your activity here at TechCom. It is really quite amazing what Agent Ellison has been able to achieve in terms of security, not to mention you seem to have forgotten Terminators digitally record everything they experience. All of Cameron's files as well as Ruth's, Catherine's and Wilhelm's, just to name a few, are on this drive. Including you hiding the other vials in your servant's suitcase."
It's a lie! A trick!"
"Savannah was kind enough to give me a print out of the test she ran on the General's pastry. The one laced with enough sodium thiopental to kill several grown men."
"Mrs. Connor, please, would you bring me the lab results," Comeaux asked politely.
"Come get them," Cameron said in her monotone, dropping the lab report as she lunged for Racineaux.
Her two bodyguards rushed to their queen's defense as Racineaux stepped back. Cameron grabbed the two guards by their shoulders and slammed them together. The small of the two fell to the floor as the larger guard stepped back, shook his head and threw a roundhouse at Cameron's head. She reached for his right with her left hand, grabbing it by his wrist and driving her right hand up and through his elbow, shattering it. She backhanded the guard, knocking him to the floor where he grabbed his flopping lower arm and screamed in agony, a look of shock and horror on his face as he watched his arm dangle from the now shattered joint.
The smaller of the two guards pulled a knife and assumed a fighting stance.
"I wouldn't if I were you," Cameron said politely. "I know you are doing your duty, but resistance is futile. Your queen cannot escape and if you attack me I will injure you."
The guard began circling Cameron who stood motionless. When the guard had moved directly behind Cameron he lunged for her, grabbing her around her neck with his arm and moving his knife up to slash her throat. Cameron simply leaned forward slightly and with her great flexibility kicked him in the head, loosening his hold around her neck. Spinning to her left, Cameron landed another blow to the guard's jaw, shattering it, knocking him unconscious.
"Dr. Johnson, would you please take these two to Medical," Cameron replied calmly, fixing her gaze on Racineaux.
Shaking his head at the utter stupidity of Cameron's two attackers Dr. Johnson motioned for his T-600 orderly Joe to come with him to examine the injured bodyguards.
A TechCom soldier moved behind Racineaux to grab her. The frantic woman grabbed his sidearm and pulled it. With surprising ease, she aimed at Cameron and squeezed off three rounds, the first two striking Cameron in the chest and the third hitting her in the hollow of her right cheek. Blood splatter from Cameron's injuries landed on Racineaux's face and hands.
"That tears it. My face had just healed," Cameron shouted, lunging again for Racineaux. Striking downwards with her left hand, Cameron broke Racineaux's wrist, sending the gun clattering to the floor. As quick as a cobra strike, Cameron grabbed Racineaux by the neck with her right hand and lifted the woman from the floor, slowly increasing the pressure on the frantic delegate's windpipe.
Racineaux kicked Cameron repeatedly as she gasped for air, her vision starting to blur with patches of black growing larger.
"Drop her Cameron," John ordered.
"She tried to terminate you," Cameron replied firmly.
"I know that, and you caught her. She can be terminated after we get to the bottom of why she did this. If you terminate Racineaux now, we'll never know the why. Set her down."
Cameron frowned and then flung the gasping woman across a table, knocking it and several of the northern delegation over in the process.
"Agent Ellison, I think in the best interest of safety for everyone, please have this room secured and search all of the northern delegation's party for weapons. Have your people help Dr. Johnson move the two injured parties to Medical. And as for Racineaux, lock her up in Central Holding. Make sure she's handcuffed and restrained in Interrogation. Delegate Comeaux, please come with me. Mom, take Cameron home and calm her down."
"Thanks John," Sarah snapped, hands on hips. "Leave me with the most dangerous task next time."
TechCom Holding – Interrogation…
John sat in a chair next to Delegate Comeaux. A still fuming Sarah stood behind her son while Cameron leaned against the one-way glass, carefully observing Racineaux. The door opened and Derek walked in carrying food and water. Agent Ellison entered and shut the door behind him.
Derek handed out the food, giving Cameron a small can of Pringles Original potato chips, her favorite and sat down. The group ate in silence watching the increasingly agitated Racineaux squirm. With her hands manacled to the steel table bolted to the floor and her ankles duct taped to her chair, Racineaux had little room to move.
"Delegate Comeaux, are there any limits you wish to place on the interrogation?"
"General Connor, given the fact she tried to assassinate you, I ask only that you not kill her. My King will wish to carry out that task. Beyond that, I ask only that I be given a copy of the interrogation for evidentiary purposes to prove her guilt. If possible, I would be thankful if you could determine why she acted as she did and what the other doses of sodium thiopental are for."
"I think we can manage that," John replied. "Mom, did you bring a med-kit from home?"
"Yes, though I don't think you should repair Cameron with all these men present," Sarah responded. "It took me nearly half an hour to calm her down by the way, John. You owe me."
John reached for the med-kit Sarah had brought and smiled. "I always owe you one Mom. Gentlemen, I ask that you avert your eyes during the first portion of the interrogation, not that you're really going to see anything. At least nothing Derek hasn't already seen," John added, smirking at his mother.
Sarah crossed her arms and shot John and evil glare as she tilted her head. "And he's not going to see it again, now are you dear?"
Giving John a 'why did you drag me into this look,' Derek replied in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Of course not, dear wife. It's not like I haven't watched John dig lead out of Cameron a couple of dozen times before."
Ellison shook his head at the Connor family's antics and opened the door, picking up a pair of folding chairs and exiting with John and Cameron right behind.
"Don't worry, Delegate Comeaux," Sarah said with a polite smile. "We always act like this. You aren't in any real danger."
A loud bang startled the delegate as the door to the interrogation room exploded inward and Cameron took two large, purposeful steps into the room, stopping in front of Racineaux and glaring at her in silence. John stepped in behind her and moved to the table, setting the med-kit down. Ellison followed, setting up the two folding chairs across the table from Racineaux so the backs faced the one-way glass.
"Is there anything else, General?"
"Yes! Let me out of here this instant! I am the Queen of the northern people! My husband the King will kill all of you!"
"Shut up," Cameron monotoned. "You are not leaving this cell alive unless my John orders it."
"Are you going to allow that, that thing, to talk to me like that," the outraged woman snapped at John.
"Why, yes, I am. You shot her after trying to poison me. I hardly think you are in any position to make demands," John said politely.
Ellison left quietly, shutting the door behind him. He returned to the viewing room, again closing the door behind him before turning on the recording equipment.
"I'm a busy man," John started. "So I find myself often having to perform multiple tasks at one time. We're going to skip viewing the surveillance video of you."
"You had no right to film me without my knowledge," Racineaux snapped, tilting her nose up in the air.
"It's a shame you pulled this stunt," John laughed. "If we had worked out an alliance, Catherine would have enjoyed your company immeasurably. Wilhelm keeps her snooty behavior in check, as do her children. She simply has nobody else to be snobbish with."
Cameron maintained her glare at the chained Queen, slowly unbuttoning her bloody blouse. She let the ruined garment fall to the floor, standing in her pants, boots and a lacy black bra. Two large bullet holes appeared over her cleavage. The wound on her face revealed her steel cheekbone and several of her teeth.
Seeing Cameron's nearly nude torso silenced Racineaux. Cameron sat down as John opened the med-kit, removing the items he needed and neatly placing them on a white cotton cloth from the med-kit. Using a large pair of tweezers, her carefully probed the wound on her face for nearly a minute before locating the round. Gently John pulled it from the wound and tossed it in the small metal bowl.
Racineaux watched in morbid fascination as John examined the underlying structure of his wife's face for any serious damage.
"You're fine," John smiled, wiping the blood from her wound. He kissed her nose and picked up the suture he had prepared. With surprising gentleness, he carefully sutured Cameron's face. The resulting repair was one a plastic surgeon would be proud of.
John then carefully cleaned her wound again with antiseptic, frowning at Cameron once briefly before he started the tasking.
"My wife thinks it is silly that I sterilize her wounds. Her synthetic flesh is not capable of becoming infected, but I love Cameron. So I don't leave anything to chance. I always make sure her wounds are clean and sterilized."
He turned to glare at Racineaux. "No thanks to you."
John quickly removed the other two bullets while Cameron sat in silence, glaring at Racineaux.
"That, that doesn't hurt?" the prisoner asked.
"I feel the sensation. It usually is not too unpleasant and I can lower the level of data my CPU receives, so I suppose the answer should be no," Cameron replied evenly.
"What hurts," John snapped, "is watching a guest who we welcomed try to poison me and then shoot my wife right in front of me. May I ask, do you have a death wish?"
"No, I most certainly don't. What I do have is a desire to assume my rightful place on the throne as the ruler of my people."
"You are the ruler of your people," John grunted.
"My husband, the King, would not agree with that viewpoint. To him, I am nothing more than entertainment in the bedroom, the mother of his heir. I made him. I made him before Judgment Day and I was the woman behind him after the nuclear bombs fell. I deserve to rule in his stead. He has no right to ignore me, to not agree to my views."
John began suturing the lower wound, just above Cameron's bra. He glanced at his wife knowingly as he watched her head tilt slightly to the right as she began accessing her files on mental illness.
"So you felt it was within your rights to murder your own husband. Surely you must have loved him at one time?"
"When we were young, yes. Things were good then. He openly acknowledged my help, my superior ideas. We were a remarkable team as I guided him to the top of his profession. But then he forgot who the brains were. He began having affairs with his sexetary."
"I bet she was a blonde bimbo with a big chest," Cameron interjected.
"Yes," Racineaux replied with a surprised look. "She was." The delegate noticed Cameron's glare had momentarily shifted to her husband before being redirected back at her.
"I am still a desirable woman," Racineaux announced, as if she needed to declare the fact. "Not only that, but I am very skilled in the art of pleasing a man in the act of love. He had no right to do what he did."
"That does not explain why you want to kill Delegate Comeaux," John told his prisoner.
"What makes you think I want to do that?"
"The amount of sodium thiopental you stole would easily kill five or six adults."
Racineaux gave John a charming smile, watching as he finished the last suture on Cameron's wound.
"You have such gentle hands," Racineaux purred, giving John the creeps. Cameron slammed her right fist down on the table, not saying a word. Racineaux had gotten the point.
"Why did you want to kill him? He's no real threat to you is he?" John asked as the started the first suture on the last of Cameron's gunshot wounds.
"He stood in the way of my ascension to the throne."
"I see," Cameron monotoned. "He took your place as the King's trusted advisor. You were jealous. But that role had been taken from you before Judgment Day. Did it occur to you your advise was no longer valuable?"
"How dare you say that," Racineaux screamed, straining against her restraints. "Only I have the vision necessary to advise my King, to rule our people! Our empire will never grow unless I rule! My husband has the crazy notion we must allow metal to live with us! Metal! Never will I allow that to happen!"
Cameron stiffened suddenly, causing John to knick his own finger. "I am sorry John. Allow me."
John sat patiently, knowing it was pointless to argue with Cameron as she promptly bandaged the tiny nick on his finger.
"Your husband was Charles Racineaux," Cameron announced. "The self-proclaimed robot king. He slept with his robot secretary, did he not?"
"How, how could you possibly know," Racineaux gasped. "Nobody but me and my husband knew. I caught them on his desk. I made him destroy her."
"That explains your hatred for my wife, but why kill me?"
"Because you showed it could be done! That humans and these vile machines could live together. You sleep with one! You married one! He'd do it again! I know he would. This alliance would have allowed him to become too powerful. He would find another robot whore to sleep with. Then he would toss me aside like I was nothing! That is something I will never allow to happen! I will kill him first!"
John finished sterilizing Cameron's chest wounds in silence, ignoring Racineaux. He stood and walked behind his wife, taking Cameron's purple leather jacket up from the chair and helped her slip into her jacket.
Cameron buttoned the front up, covering herself. Without warning she slapped Racineaux, breaking the woman's nose.
"I warned you. Never threaten my John."
Before John could stop her, Cameron backhanded the prisoner, fracturing her right cheekbone and splitting Racineaux's cheek open to the bone.
"I would terminate you but John won't allow it."
Grabbing the sobbing, terrified woman's hair, Cameron yanked Racineaux's face up and stared the woman in the eye, her own damaged face inches from Racineaux's.
"You insulted Sarah, repeatedly. She is the matriarch of our family. You had no right to do that." Cameron tightened her grip on Racineaux's hair, causing the woman to cry out in pain.
"You insulted Derek. Nobody does that but me. You insulted our children. Our friends. Our way of life. I would be justified in terminating you right now. But my John would be displeased with me and I cannot bear that."
Cameron gave Racineaux's hair another hard tug, ripping strands of hair out at the roots. Wiping her hands together to brush off the loose hair, Cameron's face bore an expression like she smelled something rotten. Cameron kissed John on his cheek and smiled for just a second.
"I am going home. Hailey needs to be fed and bathed. I will get the girls settled for bed. Please tell Sarah they are sleeping at our bunker tonight."
John nodded in reply, watching the distraught Racineaux. "Oh, and John."
"Yes?"
"Thank you for taking such good care of my wounds."
And then she was gone.
"You are lucky she did not terminate you. I couldn't have stopped her," John told the sobbing, bleeding Racineaux.
"What will become of me?"
"That is up to your husband. Perhaps Delegate Comeaux can negotiate on your behalf. The King might have pity on you and spare your worthless life. At any rate, I was never in any real danger. Cameron was three and four steps ahead of you. The question of your fate is in your husband's hands."
"Please, don't send me back!" Racineaux pleaded as John left the cell. He could hear her cries of fear as he walked down the corridor.
Connor Family Bunker…
Cameron lay flat on her back, her chest bare, wearing only a pair of purple panties.
"John?"
His wife's voice broke his train of thought, bringing him back to their room.
"What will become of Racineaux?"
"We're sending them back tomorrow with an armed escort. Wilhelm and Ellison are going. They are going to make things very clear to this King about what transpired. Ellison has been given special instructions to make certain Comeaux and the others are to be held blameless, particularly if the King doesn't want any trouble with TechCom."
"What about her?"
"If her husband has mercy, he'll either put a bullet in her brain so she doesn't suffer or he'll try to make amends and help her. Her mental state is as much his fault as it is hers I suppose. If he's not feeling merciful, my guess is she'll be tortured slowly and her death will be horrible. She'll be used to set an example."
Cameron lay quietly for a moment, considering John's words.
"Either way, he's going to kill her. I don't think he has a choice," she whispered to John. "It's wrong, but I hope he terminates her with a bullet to head."
"What?" a surprised John looked at his wife.
"I know what drove her mad. I can understand her anguish. It doesn't make what she had planned right, or acceptable. But her husband broke Racineaux and he didn't fix her. Didn't even try. When we break, you always work till we're fixed. It's one of the reasons I love you and override my terminate command. You always fix us, just like you always fix me."
John looked at his wife's bare chest and the two bandages covering her wounds. He grimaced at the swollen, angry red wound on her face. He reached down and gently pulled the blankets up and covered his wife.
"Doctor John says no patrol tonight. You lie right there and let your body get started on the regeneration process."
Cameron smiled at her husband for a second, watching him hurry around their bed to turn the light off. He settled next to her, lying on his back. John took her right hand in his left and squeezed Cameron's hand.
"I love you, you love me," he whispered, smiling in the darkness.
Cameron squeezed his hand back.
"I love you, you love me," she whispered in return.
Cameron resisted her urge to cover John by draping herself over him to protect him, overriding her own command with his to rest on her back. With in minutes her exhausted husband was asleep, snoring gently.
"Mess with my John and see what happens, you bitch whore," she whispered to herself as she scanned John and recorded his data in her records.
Knowing John expected her to spend more time than normal in Terminator Sleep, giving her body additional time to focus on regeneration and self-repair, Cameron began shutting down her systems and files one at a time.
Before she entered her standby mode, Cameron whispered aloud a final thought.
"I hope he kills his Queen mercifully."
Reviews are always appreciated. If you liked this story, you might want to consider my other TSCC stories:
Cameron Grows Up
The Future Cameron
Cameron's Revenge
Cameron and the Black Bird
Cameron and John's Wedding
Who's the Boss?
The Storm Before the Calm