Terminatrix remembered a robot dump set up by Skynet in a valley near what humans called Navajo Mountain. Millions of years of avalanches and erosion have caused massive rockfalls on a wide valley that stretches dramatically all the way to the top.
And in the lower part of the rubble, on an area of about a kilometer, there were thousands of gleaming metal bodies. The T-1-5 and the T-1-7, along with the T-600 and older series of terminators, were dumped in giant piles, in some places reaching a height of about five meters. Gradually, the T-800, once the most advanced of Skynet's vehicles, began to be dumped there.
But they were no longer needed when his artificial intelligence managed to create T-X series. From that moment on, Skynet relied only on this latest generation of robots.
T-X saw with her own eyes how the T-20's technical support robots formed this junkyard along with the paratrooper versions of the Hunter-Killers, from whose bellies more and more endoskeletons were dropped. The power had been cut off, the chips had been taken out, and now it was just waste material.
Of course, Skynet was in no hurry to completely get rid of the old models: in some places, T-850s and rare the T-800s were still used, mainly as guards for important Skynet facilities. In spite of everything, these machines remained extremely dangerous for people.
As for the two dozen the T-1000s that had already been created by that time, they had a different fate — to be split and serve as the basis for the infiltration shell for T-X series. Reasonable and economical use of resources.
And four state-of-the-art robots patrolled the area nearby to prevent humans from entering the area, who Skynet believed might take advantage of access to the junkyard and take something from it for further reprogramming. T-X watched as one appeared from behind the top of the hill, followed by other people, a small group. Males and females. They had heavy M-28 rifles with them. Then, created only a few days before, she saw living people for the first time. In less than five minutes, though, they were dead.
T-X remembered the look on the face of the man she had killed with her plasma cannon. It was the same as many people the terminator had killed later: a mixture of misunderstanding, fright, and something else she couldn't understand. Did she hate all these human creatures, or humanity in general? No, for her, they were only objects of development, and their elimination was a function for which she was programmed. The terminators neither hated nor loved humans at all, including even John Connor himself.
She also had to destroy other robots that were fighting on the side of the Resistance for one reason or another. T-X was aware that some of the older models did this voluntarily, after interacting with people in self-learning mode for a long time. Skynet called this a bug in the source code made during the design phase of microprocessors that led to this non-standard behavior. Others were captured and reprogrammed by humans, but here everything was more or less clear.
T-X didn't experience anything about such machines either — the robots were generally indifferent to each other, only determining "friend" or "foe" in front of them by the built-in transponders, and building a further model of behavior in accordance with this. However, she never managed to go on a "free hunt" for the machines that ended up in someone else's camp. The only terminators she's ever eliminated there was T-850 and an experimental T-1002, but this was done as part of her test mission, and the battle between them was arranged by Skynet itself.
T-X's thoughts shifted to the creator itself. What was Skynet to her? Did she have any feelings for it? Adoration? Gratitude? Anything else? Terminatrix knew that many people had blind faith in some kind of God who created them all in His own image, and that there were fathers and mothers from whom new human creatures were physiologically descended. Could Skynet have been called her father or mother? Or a god for all the terminators? T-X could not answer these questions.
Instead, she realized what she was to Skynet: just a thing, a tool to get things done. So far, she is the most advanced from a technical point of view, but it will take some time for the most powerful artificial intelligence to invent new types of machines. And then, like all those models that lay in a random heap in a junkyard on the slope of Navajo Mountain, she will also be deactivated and thrown in the same place or somewhere else. It's just waste material!
T-X also came to the conclusion that Skynet could take care of itself, and no people, including General Robert Brewster, John Connor, or Catherine Brewster, could turn it off. In this case, how necessary and important is the task that was assigned to it? After all, Skynet, as it turned out, was just playing it safe once again. In addition, the time glitch she found herself in with T-850, Connor, and Brewster is not unresolved, even if she did everything correctly, in accordance with the laid down directives.
In coming to these conclusions, T-X allowed herself to do what no terminator had ever done before: she decided to directly violate Skynet's policies and evade her mission. Although the old models would hardly be able to do this at all purely technically. But T-X was a special model.
The first in the line with the number 001, it was endowed with her own consciousness and free will. This allowed T-X to make such a decision. However, in order to reset the settings, she had to work hard: to give the processor a lot of additional instructions, and then to win a logical battle with it, as a result of which the initial goals turned out to be secondary and optional. All this took T-X more than one minute.
In the end, when she had finished, the silver Lexus had quietly disappeared from sight, and its owner, alive and unharmed, went about her business. T-X stared at the car indifferently, which didn't bother her. She has made the decision not to kill people, at least not yet. Instead, the terminator was going to spend the next day on the streets of Los Angeles, studying the lives and behaviors of its residents.
In the dim light of an empty gas station garage, the T-800, who would later be called Uncle Bob, told John Connor and his mother, "The more I am around people, the more I learn about them." T-X, of course, was unaware of such a conversation, but this truth was true for all models from the Eight Hundred onwards, and even more so for herself. And in the next less than 24 hours, she was going to add to her knowledge of human creatures.
Terminatrix turned and looked at the luminescent sphere storefront, at the melted mannequins, then pushed aside the cardboard screen blocking the sales floor with her hand and stepped inside. There, various articles of clothing of various colors and styles, mostly for women, hung in neat rows on hangers. And on the shelves and in the showcases there were numerous shoes and accessories for every taste and budget. The room was dark and quiet, only the faint squeak of the electronic alarm sensors broke the almost complete silence.
Since T-X could see perfectly even in complete darkness thanks to the advanced night vision system, she had no trouble moving around the sales floor. The terminator slowly looked around row after row, strongly reminiscent of some fashionista from Beverly Hills wandering here in search of the next novelty of the season. If, of course, it didn't take place at night in a store closed to customers, and the fashionista herself would not be completely naked.
T-X understood that she needed imitation clothes to be around people, but she decided not to use the options she had already stored in her memory. Since she had allowed herself to choose what to do that day, a change had to be made in this matter as well. T-X walked around the sales floor for about five minutes and eventually fixed her gaze on one of the mannequins.
A woman's figure made of light gray plastic showed a ready-made image: a light knee-length dress, on a white background of which there were neat regular-shaped spots of three colors: red, pink and pale pink, and a fairly expressive, but not too deep neckline. The dress was complemented by white shoes with medium heels, a necklace in the form of a scattering of large and small stars and small earrings in the same style.
It was just the latest addition to the latest collection that a local fashionista might want to buy, but T-X wasn't interested in such questions. The choice was arbitrary: the system gave a hint that the color and style would go well with her appearance. Size didn't matter — the polyalloy molecules that made up her shell still perfectly imitate the outfit, fitting it to the figure.
The terminator reached out and touched the fabric of her dress. In a few seconds, her nakedness is hidden and complemented by all the accessories that come with it. At this point, the "shopping" could be considered complete. T-X managed to leave the store and cross the street just seconds before a police car slowed down in front of the gaping hole in the window, and an officer hurriedly jumped out.
He had a pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the other. T-X, observing the scene from a safe distance, immediately identified the officer as Officer Thompson, whom she had already dealt with for speeding. He stood in front of the shop window for a few seconds, obviously wondering what had happened, but then he jumped briskly inside and, expecting to catch the alleged robbers at the scene of the crime, announced:
"Don't move! It's the police! Come out with your hands up!"
A wry grin appeared on T-X's face before calmly moving along the perpendicular street as if it didn't concern her at all.
"Oh my God, again! Will it never end?" Kate groaned, barely realizing that history was repeating itself.
The girl was tormented by conflicting feelings. On the one hand, she was glad that she was still alive in spite of everything, but on the other hand, Catherine felt despair at the memory of Skynet's efforts being the most cunning, and her and John's efforts had essentially come to nothing. Will they be able to prevent of Judgment Day at all? During the first replay, John said it wouldn't stop until they stopped Skynet, but maybe he was wrong? Could it be that everything that happens to them, this time glitch, has nothing to do with their actions? And they are destined, as if in a nightmare, to live it endlessly, unable to change anything?
But suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind — silly and naive, to be honest — about the movie Groundhog Day: the hero there had finally managed to fix everything, and the passage of time had taken its course. But this is a movie! Nevertheless, this thought helped Kate to gather her strength once again.
John Connor was knocking on the door non-stop.
"What the hell! Who needs to bang on the door in the middle of the night?!" She heard Scott's familiar words behind her.
She was at the door again before the fiancé, and without further ado let her friend in. And then in Catherine Brewster's apartment, almost the same scene as the last time was repeated. Now, however, she and John have tried to be much more patient with Scott. But in the end, an altercation ensued, which escalated into a fight between Connor and Mason.
"Scott, stop it! What's on you?!" Kate tried to separate the boys, but in the heat of the fight he automatically pushed the girl away, and she fell, hitting her hand painfully on the bedside table.
Catherine cried out in pain, and that spurred John into action. He deftly dodged Scott's next attempt to hit him, after which he himself counterattacked and knocked out his opponent in two punches. Scott collapsed on the floor, and John hurried to Kate, who was rubbing the bruised spot with a martyr's grimace on her face.
"How are you?"
"It's okay, I'll live. Please help me up!"
At this, Kate cast an indifferent glance at her fiancé. Seeing where she was looking, John hastened to justify himself.
"I didn't hit him too hard! Honestly!"
"No big deal, really."
Connor was surprised that Kate was so calm about it. However, for some reason, he himself was pleased in his heart.
When they were both on their feet, Terminator entered. He looked at the whole picture, and then, with the usual trademark peremptoriness, he announced, "We've got to get moving."
"Yes," Connor agreed.
"While I'm changing, you two pick him up," Kate nodded his head at Scott, "and take him to the car."
"Are we going to take him with us again?" John asked, puzzled.
"You'll have to. Even though he's a goat, I don't agree to leave him to be punished by T-X," the girl announced seriously.
Connor smirked, but Terminator retorted to Kate.
"We can leave Scott Mason here, he's safe."
"How do you know?" John and Kate stared at the cyborg in disbelief.
"T-X will no longer use his appearance. She just doesn't have to. Taking into account all the previous time repetitions, she has calculated all the possible options and, knowing that you also foresee such a move of hers, will act differently."
"Well, that sounds... it makes sense," John said, looking at Kate with caution after a moment's pause. He saw that the girl was looking thoughtfully at her fiancé. She was clearly hesitant.
"Do you know that for sure?" Catherine said at last.
"My CPU has less than a two-percent chance that T-X will kill Scott Mason and take his form."
Catherine exhaled noisily: T-850's words didn't seem to fully convince her. John decided not to rush his friend with an answer. But after a minute of silent waiting, he couldn't stand it.
"Kate?"
She looked at him grimly and said, "Okay, but... put him back on the bed."
She grabbed her things and went to the bathroom.