Have you ever noticed ? Deep Time has this curious habit of placing together humans (and Machines ) who have a compatible set of misconceptions about themselves and others. Maybe, its like the sea mindlessly matching the size, shape and weight of pebbles on the beach. Love is relatively straightforward , so, I prefer to think Deep Time places us all together so we can learn.
This is called Crossed Wires.
Warning : Some allusions to Hot Metal.
Earlier , when Cameron had been waiting around to go out to find John, and she'd begun pacing the hall , Yoshi had grabbed her by the arm of her jacket and taken her into the kitchen.
Yoshi closed the door behind them and spoke in a low voice, "Cameron , we have discussed this at length. When John comes home, I want him to walk in through that door and find a fully functional, family unit , no tensions . You might think I'm ancient, but many years ago I had a relationship-partner, and, I know how this works. John's still young , but older males need physical contact. Its a form of bonding and it can make everything much more efficient and positive , for all of us. Tonight I want John to experience Derek at his best."
Cameron stared at her incredulously ." But you, with Derek? Are these The General's orders?"
"No these are not his orders. I'm acting out of my own free will and choice. Cameron, please , one hour. -If it helps , keep telling to yourself it's completely normal and natural, for humans. You know what?" She added "Some women might just enjoy this. Now come on , don't scowl like that , you'll frighten him again."
"Cameron", Yoshi held her arms and kissed her on her cheek, " You know I love you, so trust me on this , huh?"
Yoshi had a quick shower and came back down to the living room . She reclaimed her territory on her side of the sofa . Out of the corner of one eye, Derek noticed her hair was dying. She now smelled of honey, peaches and almonds.
If anyone else made a cursory glance into the living room they might have been forgiven for taking Yoshi to be an older version of Cameron, curled up up with her bare feet inches away from Derek Reese. She was wearing layers of ballet vests and shirts and a pair of loose, black silk pyjama bottoms.
Derek crossed his legs and turned his body away from her resting his arm against the other end of the sofa.
Yoshi reasoned Derek was currently soaking up years of missed TV programmes. He was currently engrossed in a repeat of the 1980's series The World Beneath The Waves. On the wide screen bright fish darted in and out of a corral reef, and the omniscient narrators voice described the continual battle for survival between predator and prey on the reef.
In his mind Derek was out there , and his concentration on the TV reminded her of a domestic cat with a piece of string being dangled in front of it. He was attractive to women and he knew it.
Yoshi considered Derek . For her profession in the future, Yoshi successfully headed up a team which reoriented T-8's. Like Cameron, T-8's are inherently tidy , extremely hygienic , and don't make the slightest mess after their activities.
From the other end of the behavioural spectrum, Derek Reese had posed a different set of challenges. He was currently responding well to her domestic training programme . On their first night in the house Derek had crouched, with his back against the kitchen wall below the potential line of sight from the kitchen windows,and before she'd, noticed, he'd quietly opened a can of dog food . She observed him through the open door, as , bite for bite , Derek carefully spooned a half ration to himself and the other half to Jadey out of the can. With a mouthful of high grade dog food Derek looked up and told Yoshi " it was the best damn thing he'd tasted in years- 1999 was going to be amazing!." He'd blinked profusely when Yoshi turned on the kitchen light .
One month on , and Derek now sat in chairs, waited for meals to finish cooking, he let food cool and mostly ate with a knife and fork from a plate. He'd learnt to use a vacuum cleaner and an iron ( almost). He showered regularly and had been positively reinforced by Yoshi and Cameron to clean the shower tray, sink and toilet after he's used them . Females were making progress. On a number of levels level Derek was evolving.
Yoshi glanced over at him. She was plucking up the courage to say to Derek," Cameron will be five hundred metres away now, and we are out of her audio range, she said she'd be back at exactly eleven thirty...."
She'd been practising saying this in her head for the last hour. It wouldn't come out right, she knew it.
Instead Yoshi cautiously stretched out her legs , and , for a second the soles of her feet pressed against his outer thigh
Huh,"
"Cramp in my calves. Where exactly were you then Derek?"
"Uhm I dunno, I was watching this."
Yoshi's voice was intensely relaxed, for some reason Derek found himself thinking a voice like hers flowed like silk. He made himself not think of silk , particularly black silk. "Reese : get a grip." he told to himself : " Do not even let it cross you mind to begin messing with Yoshiko Yamanto. No one in their right mind, or without a death wish would ever mess with Captain Yamanto ."
"Derek ," Yoshi continued "we're all here for very along time, and you know, we could do that, load the truck drive to the coast, hire some scuba gear, spend a weekend maybe." She added "I've done my basic SEALS and Jadey would love the beach. "
Yoshi didn't withdraw her feet . They were right there a couple of millimetres from his thigh . . Derek turned and looked at her. He had noticed her in this way often , but hopefully he had managed to keep it hidden. Yoshi has this small raised scar on her cheek. It runs like the line that bisects two halves of a peach. Her scar accentuates her features. By any standards in any epoch in human history , Derek was sitting next to an incredibly attractive woman in her late thirties. She has the same dark brown eyes as Cameron, except some of the time, ( when Yoshi wanted him to) he could read Yoshi's eyes. The thing that made it worse was ,she carried her beauty unselfconsciously. He could switch off against arrogance in a good looking woman , but not this.
Living alongside Cameron and the Head Of Metal Reprogramming , Derek had subliminally acquired some Machine mannerisms , so unconsciously he tilted his head to one side , as if requesting Yoshi to define her intent and actions in more clarity and detail. When he did , Yoshi's dark brown eyes did the trick of becoming deep, liquid and sparkling at the same time . A month of high quality food and clean air had made her skin iridescent with health . He had noticed regular ballet practice with Cameron had toned her muscles . This was too much . He was trying not to let his mouth fall open.
What the hell do you do in a situation like this? Reese made himself think of Cameron scowling at him for months ahead and dropping things into his hands instead of passing them to him. For further reinforcement he brought the image of Yoshi's large, adoptive, highly protective Metal family back in 2027 . In his imagination he saw her "adoptive Metal" standing in rows striding forward and staring him . This usually did the trick. Reese he told himself: "Treat her with polite distance . She's only doing this because she knows she can, in safety. That's what women like this do . Its a game, and she knows no man in their right mind would risk making a play for her , so , she feels safe . Be like ," the image came to his mind : " John Travolta and Uma Thurman in beginning of Pulp Fiction. Only this is a thousand times more serious. "
To Derek's relief , the telephone rang. It was the second time that night since cameron had gone out to find John. The house telephone was cabled into a beige G3 Macintosh tower. When it had rung The monitor turned itself on, and against the blue , and a line of numbers filled a programme window. It wasn't `Cameron on the other end of the line, It sounded like an automatic dial up internet server was trying to make a connection.
"It's that Fax Machine again!" Derek emphasised the word machine
"It's not a Fax Derek, somethings s trying to make a connection, wait until Cameron gets back to analyse it . It'll take me hours."
Yoshi sighed, got up arched her body to one side and stretched from the ends of her toes to the tip of her fingers, Derek almost let out a groan.
"Derek, you want another coffee? "
"Uhm Please"
Derek's eyes followed as Yoshi balletically lightly stepped across the living room and out through the door. Her arms trailed lose at her sides and her hips naturally swung inside the loose silk pyjamas she was wearing. Despite his best efforts Derek still had an image of the line that bisected a peach in his head when she'd left the room. She was gorgeous but way out of his league, and she knew it. He let out the breath he'd been holding and quickly tried to meditate on something else.
Derek turned his attention back to the telephone and Beige Tower in the corner of the living room. It was the least attractive thing he could think of , and it was still making a electronic burbling and warbling sound The screen told him the external hard drive was downloading blocks, geometric cubes of numbers
To put the image of yoshi out of his mind Derek considered the recent appearance of Beige Towers: It seemed Cameron was filling up the house with Beige Towers. With he exception of Kitchen and Bathroom there was now a highly- rammed Macintosh G3 in every room and lines of different coloured neatly fixed cables ran under carpets and around skirting boards. They linked all the Beige Towers and monitors, external hard drives and black boxes together.
Last week ,when Cameron sat down in her chair , having finished installing the G3 in the living room, it occurred to Derek to ask :
" Hey, Cameron you know this tower, is it like some distant ancestor of yours, and maybe machine ritual to put it in the front room?"
On Secrets of the Sea, a school jellyfish were floating left to right across the TV screen accompanied by that omniscient narrators voice. Maybe she'd completed another level of her behavioural and psychological profile of him and pre-empted his question, because ,for a moment, she turned to look at at him, then at the jellyfish . She monotoned all expression from her face and returned to staring intently at the beige box until Yoshi came back into the room.
Subliminally he'd got the message.
Derek kept is mind focussed on his memory of the beige box and Cameron's bank expression. The living room still smelled of honey peaches and almonds. Maybe he'd take a shower before John got back.
In the kitchen Yoshi spooned coffee granules into her white cup and Derek's mug . She waited for the kettle to boil. Derek had just re-proven her lifetime's theory about herself. She might not be the most attractive woman in the world, but they were all stuck here for at least the next three years. If only the arrogant bastard Reese knew what Yoshi had turned down in the future , on more than one occasion. She cast her mind back and smiled to herself.
She had one memorable offer of physical relations since Judgement Day. Tracker had finished Reorientation and called to her at quarters night to see her. This was quite normal behaviour for reoriented T's. They consider what Yoshi needs and bring her otherwise unobtainable things, like light bulbs and still edible cans of rare fruit. Usually a visiting T-8 fixes things like light bulbs , checks she is safe and secure , makes very interesting conversation for a while,then goes back On Patrol.
During the week , Tracker had repeatedly noticed Yoshi obviously hadn't been sleeping , and appeared slightly unwell. This was the primary reason why Tracker had knocked on her door.
After a while in her company , the T-8 sensed Yoshi was deeply unhappy, and he was being both curious and sympathetic . With Yoshi ,T-8's are excellent listeners and keepers of her secrets. Sometimes she told them things she wouldn't share with a human. It helped their learning and appreciation of human nature.
Tracker ventured to ask why Yoshi had no partner. Yoshi objectively explained to him , over the years she had determined she was physically , sexually unattractive to human males, also she came with a good deal of emotional baggage, and for both reasons didn't wish to inflict herself on one. Some women were like that and remained single. Even when she'd been been a relationship before Judgement day the male took off an left her with a six month old child . Also there were other things, bad things after JD, that nearly happened to her before she joined The Resistance. Sometimes a woman felt like she needed to be with a man, at least one she liked , trusted and felt something for. Did he understand?
The T-8 reached over and placed its hand on top of hers and then withdrew . This gentle , amber-eyed, ox of a 'man' was contemplating.
Without realising it , she had thought back tor her one good, carefree pre-broken marriage, pre - Judgement Day relationship. Her heart beat had slightly elevated and her blood pressure had been raised. Involuntarily she had emitted the faintest traces of particular hormone and pheromone through the pores in her skin.
Yoshi recognised the slight pause when a deep Gestalt Programme found a solution to a complex set of interrelated variables. When it did, the T-8 looked at her up and down from toes to head, and then got up and began examining her small cabin quarters in detail.
"What are you doing ?" She asked , as calmly she could.
The T- 8 was prodding the wall behind her bed, and began talking with his back turned to her." I have rendered a specific related model of your anatomy and neurology and simulated your responses over a three hour period. I am calculating the total area of wall space and its current acoustic transmission values. There are forty eight sheets of effective soundproofing material and adhesive in the Mainainence Area on corridor seven . We require five sheets, a saw and three tubes of adhesive . I will also also need to strengthen the brackets fixing the headboard to your bed."
Yoshi's eyes widened, was he?- Then Tracker turned around and added by way of further explanation added: "I will be able maintain low audible output throughout , and not damage your bed, - you will not, you will have very high audible output peaks and during continuous peaks , my simulation suggests you may break the fixings to the headboard . He looked with concern at her finger nails again and asked quietly "Perhaps I should also return with a lightweight Kevlar under-vest to prevent you damaging the organic layer on my back ?" . Then he added, "Please locate a second clean cover for the bed whilst I am gone. It will need to be changed, afterwards. You will require a full body massage to help deeper muscular relaxation and ensure your endorphin levels do not fall away too rapidly , to enable the full beneficial effect. "
Tracker seemed to have thought of everything, and appeared to be heading out onthe first part of his mission, to acquire acoustic sound proofing and adhesive and a set of brackets from Corridor Seven.
First Yoshi swallowed. Then she composed herself. She reached out her hand and touched his. "Tracker that is really very thoughtful of you, but I think you misread a number of complex , organic variables . Perhaps, ... perhaps you could sit here and read to me instead, until I fall asleep , and then leave . Will you open the can , and scan each Lychee again, please, just to double check bacteria levels ?"
Yoshi had determined she wasn't going to give up with Derek Reese. Firstly there was no way she was allowing him to go out and find external relations, which he would. It would complicate things too much. She imagined the confrontation between Cameron and one of Derek's ex's on the doorstep. Ex, then moved quickly to the livingroom, and the resulting hushed excruciating logic reasoning arguments in the kitchen-" Yes it would be simpler, but no you can't ! -Why? Because I say so Cameron, that's why."
. Besides , Yoshi reasoned in 1999 other 'husbands' had less than attractive 'wives' like herself, and they seemed to cherish them. Maybe Reese could learn to do the same. Maybe he could turn out the light.
She picked up her cashmere jumper from the back of the kitchen chair and pulled it over her head . John and Cameron would be home in about forty minutes
One night , in the not so distant future Cameron will break off her Patrol, locate Derek Reese in a bar, she will enter that bar and coldly demand the girl sitting opposite Derek vacates her seat and leaves . Derek will have no option but to make excuses to the girl. Then Cameron will draw the still warm chair up, real close, in a way that only Derek is aware of the potential situation he is in , and having been made aware of his potential situation, Cameron will ask Derek quietly - "Why do you not find my mother attractive?" Then, they will take a long walk and for once in his life he will begin to tell her the truth, because that's what it takes with Derek Reese. After he has explained , and because Cameron has acquired many human mannerisms living in a human family, she will place her hand on her forehead and and say ,in a totally non-hostile voice , "I am so sorry Derek, I genuinely didn't realise this was my fault. I will try not to be so 'scary' in such matters with you again."
But, this will be only the beginning to Derek Reese's road to full realisation.