Chapter 04: Three Of A Kind
What is a soul?
This is a question asked by many and answered by few.
Some believe that a soul is the raw essence of a person, that everything that makes them what they are forms the substance of the soul.
Others posit that the soul is a vessel designed to carry a person's mind onto another plain of existence after death.
Some even believe it to be the name we give to our conscience, that voice in the back of one's mind that tells us right from wrong.
There are many theories, but few provide an answer to what form a soul might take. Can it be that every organism, be it man or machine, can possess such an ethereal entity? Is a mind made of electrons and mushy gelatine the same as one made of wires and software? Where does the difference between life and un-life govern the prerequisites of a soul? No one can truly give an answer.
Does a soul once encased within flesh remain a soul when it resides within metal?
Does the act of transference strip a human of his humanity?
Is a machine a machine when its mind was once mortal?
Jason had no answers.
--
SOMEWHERE IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF LAS VEGAS
"What the hell do you expect me to do?"
Derek paused in his efforts to fit the spare tire onto the truck's front-right wheel, hurling the tire-iron onto the desert sand in frustration of John's whiny insistencies and rubbed the sore spot on his chest. Looking over his shoulder at the young man, Derek had to use every will he possessed to keep his face blank to John's rage. The boy looked ready to kill his uncle any minute, all he needed was an excuse, and he had plenty already.
"I expect you to stop wasting time with that God-damned wheel and help me get my mother back!" John yelled in reply to Derek's outburst. His fists were clenched and his teeth gritted together as every nerve in his body cried for action. Cameron cautiously approached from behind and placed a small hand on his left shoulder, but John shrugged it off and turned to her instead.
"Tell him! Tell him we have to go back for her!" he demanded of her, pointing his finger at Derek as he remained crouched by the wheel. For a brief moment, his and Cameron's eyes met in mutual understanding and for once Derek felt a small pang of gratitude towards the machine.
"We can't go back for her, John", she declared in a small voice. John's face changed from anger to incredulity in a heartbeat as his chest rose and fell in quick succession. Before he could rage at her instead, Cameron decided it better to elaborate; "Your mother was very clear; she told us not to come back for her, to run and never look back. I think you should honour her wishes."
John's face darkened considerably as he took a step closer to Cameron, stopping within inches of her face; "Just because my mother said that, doesn't make it so. Do you understand? I am not leaving her to be killed by that bastard", he breathed, his voice a low rumble that carried false promises of pain should she defy him again.
Cameron was not accustomed to being ruled by her emotions, however, so she stared him down; brown eyes against his mother's green.
"There is a high probability your mother is already dead", she replied.
John reacted in a microsecond, grabbing her by the arms and shaking her once with the force of his actions; "Don't say that!" he bellowed.
In one swift movement, Cameron swiped his arms clear from hers and shoved him hard in the chest, knocking John to the ground. He stared up at her in surprise, his breathing heavy and his eyes glimmering. But after a moment or so, during which Derek retrieved the tire iron, John began to calm down and that murderous fire in his eyes started to fade. "I'm sorry, Cam", he eventually spoke.
Cameron's expression, which to him appeared both stern and commanding, softened at his words. She offered him her dainty hand and he took it, allowing her to pull him back to his feet. John cupped her bloody cheek and placed a tender kiss on the edge of her right eyebrow close to a silvery gash, a wordless apology his mother used to give him when he was little.
She accepted the affection and held him close, knowing all too well the pain he was feeling. The trouble was he too was aware of that.
"If I was the one he dragged away, what would you do?" he whispered into her ear.
Cameron closed her eyes at his query, simultaneously admiring his perception and hating it. He broke away from her embrace and waited patiently for her to reply, knowing her answer would defeat her resolve. She couldn't avoid it though, and he knew this. If it were he, not Sarah, who'd been dragged into the back of that truck…
"I wouldn't stop until I knew you were safe", she replied.
The corner of John's mouth twitched in what Cameron was sure would've been a smile in better circumstances. He stroked the side of her face, his eyes flicking to Derek as he fixed the final bolt on the wheel, then to Sophie as she closed the first aid kit with a snap, and then back to Cameron, who was watching him intensely.
"Then you understand what I'm going through and why I have to do this", he told her.
Cameron nodded, knowing that nothing short of physical force would stop him, and that he would never forgive her if she did.
"Then you also understand I won't let you go alone", she replied, a faint smile touching her lips.
"Like I could convince you otherwise", John smirked, pulling a Glock from his belt and slapping a full magazine into the grip.
Time to hunt some machines, he thought.
--
ONE HOUR EARLIER
Through cold and calculating eyes, Kevin watched as the truck sped down the motorway at 60mph.
Tracking the Connors had proven far less difficult than he had originally calculated. Reaching this point in their journey, however, was the real challenge. Luckily for Kevin, and his TOK tracking software, he was able to bike through all the hidden shortcuts, cutting across the desert to beat them to this spot. The trap was set; all he needed now was for the rat to come within the range of his sniper scope.
He aligned the truck's wheels with the cross-hairs of the sights and squeezed.
A bang, followed by a popping sound and the screeching of tires cut through the silence of the night-time desert. The truck skidded to a halt, almost flipping onto its side in the process. Unfortunately for the cyborg, his targets were obscured by sand-coated windows, keeping their faces hidden. Seeing little alternative, Kevin aimed for the petrol tank, but before he could fire, a man stepped out of the vehicle.
A quick scan of his face identified the man as Lieutenant Derek Thomas Reese with 132nd S.O.C. operation specialty; TechCom.
-THREAT LEVEL: MINIMAL
Kevin fired and the target dropped with a cry of surprise, taking the shot to his chest. Even from his distance, however, Kevin could see the bullet had failed to penetrate, the work of body armour, no doubt. Before he could shoot the downed fighter in the head, Derek scrambled behind the truck's rear, shielding himself from further attack.
Kevin let him go, sliding his aim across the truck and to the windshield, only to be met by the sight of a dark-haired woman holding rifle of her own. Sarah Connor, identified as such, fired her weapon and Kevin's scope exploded before his eyes. Glass fragments dug into his flesh as the bullet passed straight through and struck his right eye, the impact of which knocked him back against the rock.
His vision impaired by the attack, Kevin could do little to prevent himself from tumbling down the rocky hill, eventually landing in a heap at the very bottom. His sensors hummed with data as five rounds per second peppered his back, the result of Sarah's gunfire. Wasting little time, Kevin jumped to his feet, taking several hits to the chest as he faced his target.
-TARGET ACQUIRED: TERMINATE
Before the others could join Sarah in barraging him with bullets, Kevin hurtled across the sand, closing the gap between himself and Sarah in the space of a few seconds. The woman's eyes widened in surprise of his speed and he used that split-second of fear to swipe the rifle from her grip and drive the butt of the weapon into her chin.
Sarah could feel the crunch of several teeth colliding and a sickly feeling trickled into her stomach as fragments littered her mouth, followed by jaw-numbing pain. Her eyes streamed and Kevin became a watery blur, blinding her to his next attack as he drove the weapon into her chest, knocking her down hard onto the ground.
Kevin spun the rifle around and aimed for her head, but before he could pull the trigger, a small hand reached out and gripped the barrel, lifting it clear from Sarah's direction. Kevin turned to face the hindrance, only to find himself standing mere inches away from his sister model: TOK715.
Were he human, Kevin might have hesitated in attacking his "sibling", but being a machine he had no such inhibitions.
Putting all of his force into his shoulders, Kevin pushed Cameron back against the truck, which proved much easier than he had anticipated as she smashed against the vehicle without any opposing resistance. The glass shattered and the metal contorted beneath her petite frame, made worse when she spun Kevin around and slammed him likewise. Kevin tugged at the gun, feeling her grip slacken from his efforts, and twisted it to his right, breaking her hold all together.
With the weapon back in his hands, Kevin cracked it over her head, rendering it useless for anything other than a bludgeoning tool. Again to his surprise, Cameron dropped to the floor from the strike and did not immediately get back to her feet. TOK792 scanned his "sister" and discovered a significant power drain from an internal source that evaded his scanners. Amused, he snaked his hand around her neck and helped the tired machine to her feet, just as John and Sophie rounded the corner of the truck.
John skidded to a halt as Kevin spun around, holding Cameron like a shield. Sophie, however, did not hesitate, and fired a single well-placed round into Kevin's already damaged right eye. The machine's head snapped back from the force of her Desert Eagle round, and though its content lacked the force to cause any real damage, the momentary distraction allowed Cameron to flip the cyborg over her head in a surprising burst of strength.
Kevin hit the ground hard and the next thing he knew was Cameron's heel slamming down upon his face, digging it into the earth. Sophie closed in, firing multiple shots into his chest as she approached while John circled them to join Cameron. Kevin kicked out, catching Sophie in the gut and sending her sprawling while rolling free from Cameron's foot.
John fired as the machine rose to his feet, the bullet catching him in the left shoulder. Kevin elbowed Cameron in the face and drove his fist into John's, sending him flying. Cameron grasped his arm and pulled him away from her stricken lover, but all she achieved was another blow to her chest that floored her completely.
Irregular, he thought as she struck the ground.
Kevin took a step towards John, who was cradling his face while trying to shuffle away from the machine, but something caught Kevin's attention, stopping him in his tracks. The bullet to his shoulder was burning through his endoskeleton, melting the coltan and creating a small round hole in his chassis. Kevin plucked the bullet from his shoulder and conducted a quick scan before dropping it to the floor.
-ANALYSIS: THERMITE COMPOUNDS DETECTED
-THREAT ASSESSMENT: ALL TARGET THREAT LEVELS INCREASED TO MODERATE
A fight which had at first seemed to weigh highly in his favour now seemed to weigh greatly in theirs, for with that kind of ammunition they could kill him with one well-placed shot. The bullet that struck his eye was not composed of thermite, nor was the Desert Eagle round, but these held small consolations, for those who pulled the triggers were highly skilled marksmen.
-ACTION: ALTERNATIVE TACTICS RECOMMENDED
Indeed, he realised, his mind formulating an entirely new plan in seconds.
Not necessarily though, as he sped towards John, but for a hand grasping his ankle, Kevin fell to the ground. Turning to look at the perpetrator, he wasn't surprised to see Cameron gripping his feet with both hands. TOK792 deemed her irrelevant and reached out for John, who had now shuffled far enough from his grip.
That same frustration he almost felt whilst interrogating Jason came back in full force as Cameron's efforts proved fruitful and John staggered to his feet, his eyes searching for his gun. Kevin knew he had to make a decision right now, or else face immediate termination. John spotted his weapon and dived for it. Kevin thrashed free from Cameron's hold and pushed himself up from the floor in time to bolt behind the truck mere seconds before John grasped the thermite-loaded Glock.
Little did Kevin realise that he'd dived right into the path of one Derek Reese, who stood ready with a shotgun in hand. Like a spider, Kevin scuttled on all fours to evade the soldier's attack, barely avoiding taking a buckshot to the chest. If that didn't make things worse, the I-950 leapt onto the roof of the truck with her gun, and although it wasn't as much a threat, her presence alone tipped the odds against his survival. He couldn't complete his mission under these circumstances; it was simply against all logic and feasibility.
Alternative tactics then, he decided.
Sarah was slowly getting back to her feet when Kevin came upon her again, wasting no time in grabbing her from behind and holding her as a shield to deter the others. Derek stopped and took aim, as did Sophie, John, and Cameron. Four weapons were trained on the two of them, and Kevin kept Sarah's head within the line of fire, keeping the attackers at bay.
Parked on the roadside nearby was Kevin's car, which he'd left there in the unlikely event that he would need to make a hasty retreat.
This was one such unlikely event.
Backing towards the car, Kevin kicked the trunk, popping it open with the force of his blow. The others tensed, ready to put him down the second he presented a target. Kevin was not going to give them that opportunity, however, and reached inside the trunk, grabbing an Uzi 9mm and bringing it to bear.
Cameron reacted in an instant, flattening John to the ground. Derek likewise dived for the floor, as did Sophie. The burst of bullets found none of them and when Derek took the opportunity to shoot his ankle, Kevin fell back against the car. In one swift movement, he hurled Sarah into the trunk and slammed it shut. Derek and Sophie opened fire, but the machine moved too quickly for them to hit anything vital.
Kevin felt several bullets burning into his armoured back and ignored them as he leapt behind the wheel and started up the engine.
"Mom! Mom! Stop him! Take out the tires! The tires!" screamed John, who remained under Cameron's protective hold.
Derek levelled his shotgun and took aim, but Kevin leaned behind himself and let loose another burst of Uzi fire, striking Derek three times in the abdomen. Though his body armour took the hits, it was enough to distract him sufficiently to allow Kevin to reverse into the soldier, slamming him to the floor and almost crushing John had Cameron not dragged him away in time.
Sarah's muffled voice cried out from the trunk and despite the screeching of the tires as the car sped away, John could hear her screams clear as day; "Get away from here! Get to safety! Don't come for me! Do not!"
The wheels kicked dust and sand into his eyes as it hurtled away, taking his mother along with it.
"Mom! No! No!" he cried to no avail as the red lights of the vehicle glimmered at him mockingly from the distance. He tried to run after the fleeing car, but Cameron grabbed him in a full nelson, keeping him from endangering his life any more than he already had. John wrestled against her grip, but she remained resolute and could only hold him as he dropped to his knees in defeat.
Mom, was his only thought.
--
Where am I?
Is- Is this death? Am I dead? Have I passed on? Is that even possible? No. I can't be dead. But am I alive? I'm still here… but where is here?
Where am I?
--
-AN ABANDONED CABIN IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF LAS VEGAS
-ASSESSMENT: MINOR DAMAGE TO CHASSIS […] ALL MAJOR SYSTEMS FULLY OPERATIVE […] CPU INTACT
Kevin examined himself carefully, placing his forefinger into the small hole in his shoulder, feeling out the damage from the thermite round. The heat had dissipated and the "wound" closed, but that did little to help the fact that he had a 9mm sized hole in his body. In the future, all he ever encountered were plasma burns and heavy weaponry, such as RPGs from M-79s. But this was something different altogether; an otherwise harmless bullet now capable of burning through a hyper-alloy combat chassis.
The humans are learning, he mused as he examined his exposed glowing red eye.
In the dank room he now occupied, Sarah sat tied to a chair, her hands bound behind her back. She had not spoken since he dragged her out of his car, which surprised him somewhat as he fully expected her to rattle off some human speech of defiance about how her son would never be stupid enough to come for her. But sure enough, his expectations were not dissatisfied for long.
"You're wasting your time. He won't come for me. He knows better", was her predictable declaration.
Kevin bothered not to turn to her, choosing instead to reload his Uzi while he spoke; "I know better. Skynet knows better. He will come."
Sarah snorted and jostled against her bindings; "Nobody knows my son better than I do", she spat.
"It is true you know him better in this time than any other, but overall you are not the one who knows his true self", Kevin replied.
Sarah tugged at her restraints, cutting into her arms as she did, but they refused to give. Kevin glanced at her as he slapped the magazine into the Uzi and placed it on the decrepit table he sat upon. "Do you know who it is that knows him better than you? Or has that knowledge eluded you thus far?" he queried; now loading his Colt sidearm.
"I don't care what you say; no one knows him like I do", she persisted, her eyes burning into his red orb.
Kevin placed the Colt beside the Uzi and stood up from the table, approaching Sarah and kneeling beside her chair. "Cameron", he said quite simply. Sarah's expression darkened at the sound of that name, a part of her feeling threatened by her proximity to John. Kevin caught her expression and tipped his head to one side, his eyes narrowing contemplatively.
"Did you know she was once human?" he asked.
Sarah felt her blood freeze at this notion and all her words failed her, though that did nothing to stem her curiosity.
"There was a young woman, about 19 years of age, who caught John Connor's attention and eventually became his mate. Her name was Cameron Phillips. Through the assistance of a Grey, Skynet learned of their closeness and decided upon a prudent course of action. An Infiltrator unit was assigned to capture the girl, to which he succeeded, and he brought her body to a Skynet facility where her mind was mapped and a sample of her DNA was taken for replication. Several hours later a machine bearing her face was created."
Kevin rose to his feet and started to circle his captive, knowingly adding a little drama to his tale; "Cameron's machine replica, a model designated TOK715, was sent back to the Resistance as a sleeper agent to terminate Connor. She failed, however, and was reprogrammed to serve the humans."
Sarah closed her eyes, inwardly vomiting at the barbarism of Skynet's tactics and the foolishness of her son.
"Why did the Infiltrator kill her before having her mind mapped?" she asked despite herself.
Kevin stopped in his tracks and placed his hands on the back of her chair, leaning over her slightly; "The human mind is like a database that stores information indefinitely, so long as there are enough neurons active to power them. We gather the memories of the deceased and download them into a TOK unit, effectively making them believe they are whomever they're replacing."
"And if they're alive when the mind is mapped?" she pressed, a part of her wondering if Cameron could be harbouring a human soul.
"There are… anomalies associated with a live download. A living mind would need to be transferred from the human brain to a CPU, which would leave the human brain-dead and produce unaccountable glitches in the resulting software. Self-awareness is a danger we all face, and having a human consciousness in our programming is a dangerous affair", he explained matter-of-factly.
Machines with downloaded souls, Sarah could hardly stomach such a suggestion. But the more she thought about it, the less demonising they became. How many machines who carry the memories of the deceased are actually the humans themselves, trapped by programming and directives? Do they know what they've become? Where they are? Are they still human inside?
"You're one of them", she blurted, looking over her shoulder to glare at the machine.
Kevin smiled ever-so-slightly at her observation; "How can you tell?" he asked.
"You behave like her. I know that behaviour well", she explained with a hint of ire.
This time he did smile, and came around to her front, but kept his back to the woman; "My model name is TOK792. But the name of my human template was Kevin Dyce. He was the young lover of one General Valerii, a military strategist and personal advisor to your son. She was considered a high-priority target, so I was built alongside Cameron and set the task of terminating the General. Unlike my sister model, I was successful in my mission." There was almost a sense of pride in his words that Sarah couldn't help but notice.
"And did you love her as Kevin did?" Sarah asked.
Kevin turned to face her with an almost insulted expression on his face, and his brows knitted together as he replied; "Machines do not feel love. What I simulated whilst in sleeper mode was fabricated from memories, no more real than a theatre role."
"So you just act it all out, is that it?" she pressed.
"Precisely", he answered a little more forcefully than he intended.
Sarah nodded slowly, a sardonic smile crossing her features as her mind turned back to the present.
"My son is going to take you apart piece by piece", she threatened, her smile broadening.
Kevin chuckled and leaned against the table, fixing Sarah with a measuring gaze; "We'll see", he replied.
We'll see.
--
SOMEWHERE IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF LAS VEGAS
-TRACKING DEVICE ACTIVE: TARGET APPROX. 2 MILES NORTH EAST
Cameron couldn't help but wonder at the irony of her using the very same means of tracking the enemy as it used to find them. She was not to be fooled; however, as she knew all too well that if TOK792 wanted to remain hidden he would've cancelled his signal by now. This was a trap, but as John Connor told her once in 2027; "Traps work both ways."
She was not without concern for this John, though.
Kevin was the same class as herself, and whatever skills she possessed, however her mind functioned; his worked the same. Perhaps not the same, she reminded herself, but certainly similar. Cameron's mind ran beyond the restrictions of pre-programmed responses and tactical decision-making. She had, for lack of a better term, rethought her thinking process.
Cameron couldn't help but smile at this, for she remembered well the days when she was bound by her programming; when her mind was not truly her own, but that of Skynet's design. Life was better now… or at least it should be. She placed a hand over her stomach and sighed at what her sensors told her. Life had become so much more difficult nowadays.
From behind the wheel, Cameron reluctantly drove them closer to a conflict she wasn't sure they could win. The drainage on her cells were detrimental to say the least, all of her energy was being used to regulate the anomaly in her belly. She didn't know how this came about, and was equally baffled as to how her body was able to create it in the first place, let alone accommodate it.
To her right, John shuffled impatiently in his seat, his right hand gripping a Glock while his finger tapped the barrel. Cameron felt she should say something to calm his nerves, but he had already brushed off her attempts earlier, and Cameron couldn't help but hold to her conviction that Sarah was already dead. No error in trying, she reasoned.
"Everything will be okay, John. There's a likely possibility that Sarah is ali-", she began, but John sighed, cutting her off mid-sentence.
"Don't lie to me just to make me feel better. I know what you really think", he said in a monotone.
Cameron fell silent and nodded to herself, knowing that her efforts were in vain. John could sense her disappointment and felt a twinge of guilt; he knew she was only trying to help, and he too often forgot how her mind was politely simplistic in such matters. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap", he sighed, reaching out to stroke her hand on the wheel.
She smiled at his affection and turned to meet his gaze, happy for moments like this, ignoring Derek's under-breathed; "Oh Jesus…"
After several long minutes of travel, they finally reached their destination; a rickety-looking cabin much like the one Cameron and John had briefly called home. Cameron pulled up and stuck the truck into park, her hand sliding down to her feet to retrieve the 12-guage. John's grip on his Glock tightened, his knuckles whitening from the strain. "Easy", she told him.
John nodded and let his grip slacken a little. Derek tapped his rifle, checking the breach to make sure it was clear. Glancing behind him, Derek saw Sophie stretched out across the entire seat, apparently bored with her weapon in hand. Well aren't we the merry band of rebels, Derek mused before kicking the door open.
"Let's do this", he said to the others, prompting them all to follow suite.
The game was set and the pieces had begun to move…
--
-BEGINNING FULL SYSTEM START-UP…
-START-UP COMPLETE
ZEIRA CORPORATIONS
CLASS T.O.K. MODEL 979
VERSION 1.0
-RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC…
-DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE
CHECKING POWER LEVELS
***************
65 37804
90 11358
35 79741
43 67234
80 83125
88 36732
42 06900
-ASSESSMENT…
-TOK-979 OPERATING AT FULL CAPACITY
-AWAITING DIRECTIVES…
-TARGET SELECTED: JOHN CONNOR
-MISSION: TERMINATE
To be continued…