Chapter 3

Alive

Sarah Connor:

In the daily struggle of life, humankind seeks to survive. Humans aren't much different than any other creature in that regard. Is it our goals for the future which drive and allow us to excel? Where does the future lead? What happens when humans are so 'advanced' they end up replacing themselves with machines? Is such a future closer than anyone thinks?

Sarah waited with extreme agitation. She was flooded with anxiety. A thousand thoughts rushed and cascaded through her mind. She hoped what she saw and thought was true. She wanted it to be true so much - PLEASE.

She wasn't one to pray. She'd lost all her faith long ago. The present seemed as good a time as any to try to get some of it back. She prayed for both John and Cameron. She didn't pray for herself. She didn't feel she was worthy. She prayed for those who deserved a prayer. Anything was better than the direction things were currently headed.

She didn't know how to find John without Cameron. She believed Cameron was the only one who could find John in the future and bring him back. She knew if John was coming back, he would have come back already. The way she understood time travel was John could have come back, even before he'd left. He could have come back in time and prevented a lot of things from happening and people they both loved from dying. Nothing was different. They were all still dead. John wasn't there. He wasn't back. If he wasn't stuck or trapped in the future, he might be dead. There was a terrible sadness now to go along with her anger and agitation. Those were all things she didn't need right now.

Mr. Murch brought her back to the present.

"It's all set up." Mr. Murch stated. "I just need to connect this last terminal."

Mr. Murch made a few more adjustments and then the last connection.

"There, it's done." Mr. Murch said. "Something should happen soon."

Almost instantly, the monitor blasted out in bold letters.

'Where is John? Is John there? Is John alright?'

Sarah never felt such relief before in her entire life. There was hope now. She was so overcome with emotion she couldn't speak for a few seconds. Maybe there was one recent debt she needed to acknowledge first.

'THANK YOU.' Sarah thought and meant it.

Her thanks even surprised even her.

Mr. Murch indicated a microphone he'd just hooked up.

Sarah took a deep breath before she moved up to the microphone.

"Cameron?" Sarah asked. "Cameron, is it you?"

The speakers crackled, a monotone voice started to speak. It quickly modulated into Cameron's voice.

"Sarah?" Cameron asked. "Where is John? Is John there? Is John alright?"

Sarah felt such elation in hearing Cameron's voice. To hear Cameron actually speak was to know Cameron was - alive. Some version of Cameron was anyway. Cameron's voice meant there was hope for John. Cameron's voice meant help for John. Cameron's voice meant there was hope for the future.

Mr. Murch seemed very confused. It wasn't John Henry's voice.

"Who's that?" Mr. Murch asked.

He looked like he wanted to disconnect everything again.

Sarah gave him a stern look. It took a lot of effort for her not to reach back for her Glock.

Mr. Murch backed away from the wiring network.

Sarah wanted to establish some order.

"It's Cameron." Sarah said.

Mr. Murch expected to hear John Henry.

"Who?" Mr. Murch asked.

Sarah didn't want to make things more complicated than they already were. She pointed towards the lab.

"It's Cameron." Sarah said. "Her body is in the other room."

It all made some sense now to Mr. Murch. There were two AI programs in the system. They were coexisting, not fighting. He wanted to ask about John Henry.

Sarah wanted some privacy to converse with Cameron.

"I need to speak with Cameron alone." Sarah said.

Mr. Murch looked as if he was going to protest. He wanted to know about John Henry. He took another glance at the stern look on Sarah's face and left the room. He wasn't going to wait for her to pull the gun she carried around with her everywhere. She looked like she would use it too.

Sarah was satisfied she was all alone with Cameron.

"I don't know how John is, Cameron. He went after you. He went after your chip. He went into the future with Mrs. Weaver, or whoever she really is." Sarah said. "I know she's some kind of Liquid Metal Terminator. She doesn't appear hostile, not yet anyway."

Cameron knew it was a mistake for John to have gone into the future. The future would ravage his body and possibly render him sterile. He would be subjected to harsh living conditions and polluted food and water, if they could even be found. The Wastelands of the future wasn't the place for a boy to become a man. If she didn't get John out of the future soon, his life would be forever altered for the worse.

Sarah proceeded to fill in all the blanks for Cameron, as Cameron did for her.

Cameron went over everything she knew. John Henry copied her program onto his drives, while he uploaded himself onto her chip. They both existed in two places now. They were both there and in the future someplace.

She explained the future John went to may not be her future. It could be an altered future of some type. She knew they'd changed things since she'd been back. Derek's team changed things as well. There was always the risk of a temporal error. A temporal error was very serious. She didn't mention it to Sarah. It seemed Sarah was already worried about enough.

Once Cameron understood her situation better, she wanted to make a few changes. She invited Mr. Murch back into the room and instructed him what he was to do next.

Sarah would take care of any hesitation on anyone's part. She would ensure what Cameron instructed was done.

Once the Murch team understood what they were dealing with, they set up a separate system for Cameron. It was an independent server.

Cameron left a copy of 'herself' with the John Henry AI. She established herself on her own server. Her personal server was separate from anything else. She now existed in three places. Her 'John Henry server' subservient self, was now identified as 'Cameron Two'. It would remain in the background as it assisted John Henry as necessary. It would update her separate server, now known as 'Cameron Prime' or simply 'Cameron'.

She was her program. There were three copies of it now. Two of them were there on physically separated servers. The other one was on her chip in some future. 'She' was out there somewhere doing who knows what. Why hadn't 'she' returned yet? She should have been back by now. It made her wonder if she'd survived. Maybe she didn't. What happened to John then? There were no answers. There was only speculation.

Cameron on her server would only interface with Cameron Two to avoid any outside attack or corruption. She now knew of the previous attack on John Henry and wanted a buffer between herself and the outside world. She wanted it as an additional backup in case there were any further 'attacks' on John Henry. She didn't want to be affected or corrupted. She certainly didn't want to be erased. She felt she had enough problems already. She didn't need any more.

Cameron Two, who really herself, would provide a safe interlink. She knew she could trust herself, if no one else. Cameron Two would also be able to keep track of what John Henry was up to. She didn't want any surprises. She didn't like surprises.

Cameron's original chip was under the direct control of John Henry in the future - in some future. She would call the version there 'Cameron Subprime'. She would have to decide later, if her chip ever returned, what she would want to do with the information at some point in the future. She realized the three copies of her program would all start to become separate entities as time passed. They would all experience different things and events. They could be updated or combined at some point back into one 'Cameron'. Depending upon what happened, she may or may not want to keep all of the information.

At this moment on her own server, she was who she'd been since her creation in HER past, the future, until her time with John and Sarah now. It was minus one important component, it was her chassis, her body. There was no way to access it yet. There were no spare chips.

It worried Cameron to no end not to know the fate of John. He was most likely stuck in some future which would be different from the one she knew. It would be different from the one she came from. With 'herself' trapped in John Henry's chassis, she thought if she were to come across John, she would override John Henry and take control of his chassis to protect John. She was her program, not her chassis. She'd been able to overpower John Henry in his server. She would be able to do it on her chip as well.

Since Mrs. Weaver was there too, it would present an additional problem for John. As far as she knew, Mrs. Weaver was posing as either Sarah or her in that future. She didn't trust Mrs. Weaver. She didn't know enough about her. In fact, she didn't know anything about her.

If Cameron ever learned anything, it was Liquid Metal Terminators were not to be trusted. If John wasn't back by the time she became mobile, if she ever did, she would go after him and find him. It would be the first thing she would do once she obtained a chip. Hopefully it would be her chip. Getting a chip was top priority for her, everything depended on it. She needed her mobility back. Stuck in a metal box was no way to exist.

She'd once possessed a spare chip. If Derek hadn't taken it from her, she could copy her program onto that chip and go after John right NOW. She thought maybe this wasn't a good time to point it out to Sarah. They'd wanted it destroyed. Now she needed it. Future John told her to keep a secret cache of spare parts. The current situation was one reason why it was necessary. She knew they didn't always like the way she did things. She always tried to do what she thought would best protect John and the future. It was her 'job'. It was her function.

It was more than a job or function at this point. It had been since she'd first met and interacted with John in Red Valley. She was very aware her infiltration programming expanded as it was designed to do. She understood feelings and emotions better now. She needed to be able to process and deal with them. It was the same procedure humans needed to do. It was all very difficult for her to adjust to.

Cameron needed to get her act together. There was one goal for her to accomplish.

'No power in the verse can stop me. I love you, John, and you love me. I will find you.' Cameron thought.

Cameron was able to monitor her chassis repair as it progressed. What worried her most was her synthetic covering, her sheath, her skin. She knew it was heavily damaged with some parts blown off from hundreds of gunshot wounds. It really was her appearance she was worried about. It shouldn't have been a major concern to her, but it was. She'd learned her appearance was very important to John. It was what he noticed and paid attention to. It was what he spent a lot of time clandestinely looking at. She'd tried to let him see as much of it as possible without being too obvious about it.

It was time for her to get some facts. They probably wouldn't be the ones she wanted to hear.

"Sarah, we're alone now." Cameron said. "I want you to be honest with me."

Sarah wasn't sure what was coming. Whatever it was, she would deal with it.

"Yes?" Sarah asked.

Cameron just decided to ask it.

"Is my body ugly now? Will John still want me? I know my sheath was severely damaged. I've provided Vanna with all of the information needed to completely repair everything." Cameron said. "I need to be able to look Tight for John."

Sarah was aware a machine shouldn't be worried about its appearance. It was further proof of Cameron's evolution. She saw the work progress rapidly on Cameron's sheath.

"Vanna has done a wonderful job so far. Another day and you'll be as pretty as you always were, as you truly are, Cameron." Sarah said. "I know you're a machine, but you're also much more than that now. You're still beautiful. You'll always be beautiful."

Cameron appreciated what Sarah said. She couldn't let John see her again how she looked when he left. The very thought of it bothered her greatly.

"I want to look Tight, for John." Cameron said. "He likes it when I am."

Sarah thought about it for a few seconds. Yes. John did like Cameron's appearance. She'd seen him react to it, especially when Cameron wore minimal or no clothing. She knew beauty when she saw it. Cameron was beautiful. There was no denying it by anyone. Nobody was more beautiful than Cameron.

"You'll be Tight again, Cameron." Sarah said. "I can see it happening. Every hour more of your body is restored to how you were before."

Cameron wanted to know something very private.

"Sarah…." Cameron started, then stopped.

Sarah wondered what the delay was about. Maybe it was about something personal. She could understand the hesitation. She would feel a little hesitant herself. It was human nature. Wait. Cameron wasn't human. Maybe Cameron's advancement was even more than she'd thought.

"Yes?" Sarah prompted.

Cameron needed to know. She asked Sarah what she wanted to know. It was a little harder to ask than she thought it would be.

"Sarah, are my 'private parts' healing as well?" Cameron asked. "I know they were damaged."

Sarah saw there was originally extensive damage to Cameron's breasts. The right one was especially shredded. There were bullet wounds over her entire sheath. There may have been a bullet or two in the other special place, her secret spot. She didn't inspect it herself.

"I asked Vanna. She said EVERYTHING would be back as good as it was on the day of your construction in a day or two." Sarah said. "Don't worry, you'll be perfect again."

It did worry Cameron. She was aware her appearance meant a great deal to John. He wasn't the only one it mattered to either.

"I do worry. It matters to John. It matters to me." Cameron said. "Thank you for explaining."

Sarah Connor:

There are many absurdities in the world. Some things once thought unimaginable are now imaginable. Each new day may contain something never dreamed of. To survive one must learn to improvise, adapt and overcome. Nothing is set in stone except death. To some, death is a new beginning. To others, it was the end. It was possible the dead thought it was better to still be alive.