OK . One or two of you have been asking for a Jameron story . So here we go. Think I can recall that far back:)
Let me know what you think
Cameron walked down Sawmill Lane towards Red Valley Town Centre . JD fell into a regular pace next to her. There was no need to have JD on a lead. Walking with JD at her side was like having a constant living shadow, gently, every so often brushing against her legs, contacting with Cameron and reminding her she was there . If Cameron slowed, or stopped to listen to something that caught her attention, JD did the same. If Cameron stood still, JD quietly sat at her side and waited until Cameron moved off again . JD was born to hunt with Cameron/She loved being out with her, ON Patrol at night
When Cameron looked up beyond the pavements and streetlights, there was a handful of stars over her head, and a crescent moon. The new moon lay like a curved sword, on its back in the darkness above the Red Valley sandstone hills. If Cameron increased her perceptual range she could image 'everything' that was out there. It all depended on what wavelength of starlight or other cosmic radiations she chose to attend to. She ignored the possibility of scanning the night sky . Tonight her acoustic systems were locking in on energies much nearer, slower, longitudinal waves carried through the air.
"Shhh Jadey, Shhh, be still." Cameron stroked JD's head and JD sat down on the pavement in a pool of shadow fromn the row of Arizona Cypress Trees. The Resistance trained attack dog allowed Coltan fingers to run through its fur. It rolled its cheek against the back of Cameron's hand and looked up at her.
Cameron was listening hard filtering the spectrum of human noise escaping from houses and homes blended itself into a rush of white noise spilling and flooding around her in the street.
Strand by strand Cameron separated and cancelled each sound from her search until there was silence and only one strand remained. In her mind was the background silence of Deep Time and one single regular pulse of energy.
Leaning forward slightly she turned face towards its point of origin . Phum! Phum! Like the first falling rain drops sending up dust on a on a dusty track. Phum!, Phum! a faint fast living drum, four hundred metres away , in front of her.
Even though there was no one to witness it she smiled. Every human heartbeat has its unique signature .
"Can you hear it yet Jadey?" Cameron whispered above the human perceptual scale so only JD could hear her voice." No I know you can't, but I can. It's John's heart, its beating fast, he's been running, and now he's slowed down. Let's see when you can hear him , he's there, come on."
Jadey got up as she did she yelped in a way only Evolving, advanced Metal could hear. Cameron has trained Jadey to work at this level.
"Good girl . Let's find John."
John Connor sat in the darkness on a swing in the empty Children's Playground at the edge of The New Kit Carson Estate . He needed time to think. Headlights from the occasional car tuning on the roundabout cast a huge charcoal shadow of him across the grass and onto the concrete retaining wall at the other end of the playground, then things faded back to black.
John couldn't think his way out of any of this, or around it- it was all to big , way too big.
John had the sense he was being watched. He wasn't actually aware of the moment he this sense, all the remembered is looking up . John glanced up and immediately back down at his feet . His shoes scraped into the sand under the swing.
He could faintly make her out . She was standing about six metres away and JD was sitting next to her.
"How long have you been there Cameron?" John asked without looking up again.
"Thirty five seconds." She took two steps forward and stopped.
.John shifted his position on the plastic seat. The chain creaked as he tried to slow the movement of the swing.
Cameron and JD didn't move.
John tried to reason this out, he couldn't . After a while he looked directly at her .
"So If I asked you to stand on one leg you would?"
It took a few deliberate seconds for Cameron's reply.
"No I wouldn't stand on one leg , why should I, there's no practical reason for me to do so.- If I asked you to get up and do the same, John would you?"
"No I guess not."
She took another step forward. Eight steps away from John , Cameron unzipped her jacket, and put her hands in the pockets . From the faint street lighting he could make out her face. He watched as very slowly she took her right hand out of her jacket pocket and extended her palm towards him .
"JD wants to come and sit with you now, she's not seen you for a while."
John turned the swig at an angle as if considering things.
"Why's she called JD , is that like Judgement day or something? I mean , who calls a dog Judgement day?"
"You called her Jadey John, everyone calls her JD because they think it means John's Dog. Jadey's actually more mine than yours, by the way .
Jadey padded over the space between him, sniffed his legs and sat next to John and looked up expectantly at him
"Why did I call her Jadey?"
"Because in certain types of light her eyes reflect green."
Jadey pushed against John's hand asking him to stroke the top of her head.
"Cameron, you mean she's not a real dog, Jadey's a Machine. I might have guessed, you know what this is? It's the story of my life?"
"No, she's not a machine, she's an organic dog . Jadey got kicked in the head by a runnaway T8 in New metal Repro . The Techs replaced her optical sensors, part of her jaw, teeth and cranium. She would have died otherwise . Anyway, you're still stroking her head , so, I have to ask: do you have a problem with Machines in general , or is it a specific one?"
"Yeh I have a problem with a specific Machine , Cameron."
" Ok what is this problem?"
"You lied to me . "
"When did I lie to you John?"
"From the moment you turned up in my life ."
Cameron blinked and stared back at him "Most humans lie to me all the time, my mum doesn't , but Derek does, he lies to himself and everyone else. You didn't necessarily lie to yourself , but you constructed a convenient set of half- truths to make sense of me. I never lied to you John . You only saw what you wanted to see."
"But you used this- he pointed a finger at her-" to get close to me , I don't let anyone, anything in that close." John looked away and considered his position. "Ok look , I accept your point about lying ,I know this is your programme, what do they call you, an Infiltrator, what series are you?
Cameron without taking her hands out of her Jacket pockets she her hands on her hips and shook her head in disbelief. Her voice sounded angry and hurt.
"Oh , so I'm programmed to behave like this? By who? Who programmed me to get close to you ? My mum certainly didn't, the Techs didn't, so, John who programmed me to behave in this way towards you?" She inclined her head to emphasise the point
"But it's all just a string of numbers Cameron, it might not be a lie, buts its not real is it?"
"DNA is a just string of numbers John, and you saying this is like acting , or a TV show, but I'm not aware of it ? How could that be if we are both having this conversation about my self awareness ? Is that what you mean John, because all this feels real enough to me, standing here?"
The swing twisted John shook his head and laughed .There was bitterness and hurt in his voice.
"Cameron, I'm John Connor, aged fifteen years and ten months. My mum's been Shuttled off to the future this afternoon. Most other kids my age have first girlfriends hang out and play Nintendo with their friend.. Come on, I should have known, I was always going to end up, on my own, arguing the nature of perception and reality with female cyborg, at eleven O' clock at night, sitting swing in a deserted children's playground in the dark. It's your programme Cameron, it's what was bound to happen it's what you do. Get over it."
John felt he'd almost heard something else , when, way above of the level human perception , Cameron said "Jadey, come here, now." Jadey padded back over to Cameron and flopped onto the grass. Sphinx-like facing John, she licked her front paw. Cameron's expression hardened.
"You really want to see a Machine programme John? Just once, so you can tell the difference. Ok- You keep your eyes wide open , John Connor, and, and don't you even dare move a muscle."
John never saw her arm move, on moment her hand was in her Jacket pocket the next it was extended with a Glock 18 in her grip. The gun was pointing at dead centre of his forehead. John heard the safety catch being slipped and the trigger was on first-bite.
Cameron's eyes flashed sapphire blue. Her features rendered themselves totally into cold, soulless Metal. Suddenly this wasn't a sixteen year old girl standing in front of him. Two decades of clinical machine hatred had echoed back across time and risen up through her . This hatred was now personified and staring John back in the face . Whole continents on fire , were burning in her eyes.
Then without the slightest pause, or emotion Cameron pronounced his name In monotone.
"John Connor "
The sharp mettle of her words sliced through his being
"John Connor- You. Are . Terminate...."
John felt blood rush to his internal organs, the world tunnelled down to a gun-barrel- point. Then, things went black.
For John Connor it took moments for time to start again.
All his attention had been focused on the muzzle of the Glock and her finger on the trigger.
Cameron's hand shook for a moment and then she re-holstered the weapon.
She stood motionless, JD carried on licking her paws as if nothing had happened. John gulped for air., and after what seemed an eternity, both of them tried to speak at the same time.
Cameron tried to say "Neat trick, huh,"
John tried to say "Cameron, are you angry with me?"
Their words collided . Then there was another very long silence.
" John , you first,"
"Cameron, I'm sorry, this is all a lot for me to take in ." He gestured towards the swing next to him. "Will you sit down,please. Maybe we should start over again."
Cameron and Jadey stepped over the invisible demarcation line and walked across the grass to the swings. Cameron turned and soundlessly flowed into position on the plastic seat next to John. She mirrored his posture. Jadey lay down between them . Cameron and John and Jadey were looking up over the trees at the stars and moon.
Cameron reached in her Jacket pocket and pulled out a bar of chocolate. She broke off a strip, broke it in half again and handed the half it to John. She bit into her half and chewed slowly.
"You really like Chocolate Cameron?"
"Yeh, I like really Chocolate."
"Ok."
John stared out into the vastness of space after a while he asked : " Cameron :What does all it look like to you?"
"Pretty amazing ."
John touched her on the arm and held out his hand, he waited, then he felt felt her fingers curl across his and lightly squeeze to hold onto him. He said " sorry"
Slowly the the movement of swings became harmonised . When they did harmonise, Cameron spoke gently and her voice was melodic. Only John Connor will ever hear TOK 715 express herself like this. Sometimes, in the future he makes out he has no idea, but really, he likes to see the look on her face when he pretends not to notice.
"John, in the future , I have a really good friend. T-Bone. He's a Triple 8 , a Terminator like me. He's been totally in love with this human female soldier for ages . When I last talked to him he hadn't seen her for a long while . He told me , when she wasn't around and he thinks about her at night , he looks up, through the cloud cover to find the stars, and when he does he hears all of it, as music. When she finally gets back he says he's going to sing all those songs to her."
John smiled, "So ,er, in the future you Terminators get together and have like coffee mornings and gossip about us humans?"
Something hit John quite hard on the shoulder and then took hold of his hand again before he'd even noticed it had been left hanging in mid air.
"Did you do that?"
"No ."
"Did you just smile then?"
"No"
"Cameron, how much older are you than me?"
"Time travel , memory wiping, reset parameters and human years don't add up for me. Its a cyborg thing. So in evolutionary terms? Let' see. I've determined human females are definitely more advanced than males, and if I factor everything else in, that's about three million years more advanced than you John. You OK with that?
"Yep I'm Ok with that"
John looked down at his feet and carefully considered what he was trying to ask.
"When you uhm,"
"When I made like I was going to Terminate you?"
"Yeh"
"I Let the programme run and exited between the e and the d of "Terminated". That was actually a lot of time to me. It's an override John."
"Are you overriding anything else?"
"Yes"
John squeezed her hand.
"John. I believe the correct courtship ritual is to walk me home, holding my hand to make me me feel safe, and from what I have observed On Patrol, the male makes an excuse near the female's residence. They stop and he briefly kisses the female partner, then they continue home. "
The briefest smile flickered across Cameron's face : "I'm suggesting this as a strategy so we conform with local culture , not for any other reason, you understand. "
John let go of her hand, and stood up.
"Cameron, I think that's about how it goes, shall we try it?"
To be continued.