Chapter 458

Temporal Tricks

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cameron's Future Timeline:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cameron followed up on the intel. Everything up to the current point was a strikeout. Now it looked like she found something conclusive. She found something which was hidden. It worried her some because it wasn't hidden very well either. Maybe it was something someone was supposed to find if they were in the area. It was possible it could be bait. It might be where an ambush would be sprung, or a booby trap would go off.

She wondered what she would find on the other side of the hatch. She knew it wasn't going to be anything good. It was 'time to face the music'. She was there to find and terminate Skynet. Things didn't get done thinking about them.

Cameron was about to pry open the hatch when she heard, and then spotted, a patrol of Terminators headed her way. It wasn't what she wanted to see. She didn't think it was a routine patrol of Terminators. Normally only two Terminators would go out together. It was definitely a bigger group. They must be after her.

'Damn.' Cameron thought.

She was sure she tripped a sensor somewhere. They must have 'made' her. She didn't want to get spotted before she made it inside the facility. Now everything was in jeopardy. The mission could be over before it started.

Cameron carried plasma grenades, Thermite grenades, a satchel charge, and her plasma rifle. She also packed a few special surprises. She liked to think outside of the box and be unpredictable. She felt she usually was.

She readied a plasma grenade as she moved to a defensive position. They would attack her head on. It was how Terminators operated. The plasma grenade would disable three or four of them and she would take down the rest with her plasma rifle. She hoped her damage would be minimal. She hoped to strike the first blow. Things usually went better when surprise was on her side. She didn't like to be on the receiving end of surprises. She didn't think the group of Terminators would either.

She was angry it was about to go hot from the start. Some additional troops would be good now if she needed to fight her way into the base. She was alone. She watched the Terminators approach. They didn't appear to be in any type of hurry or posture to attack. Maybe it was a routine patrol. She still wondered why there would be more than usual. She decided not to pull the pin on the plasma grenade. She remained concealed for now.

The patrol slowed by the hatch. They barely glanced at it and continued on their way. They didn't even check the hatch to see if it was secure. The repetition became routine for them and they were used to the same thing. It was one of the drawbacks of sentry duty or guard duty. Everyone became sloppy over time when nothing ever happened. It didn't matter if they were humans or Terminators. It was usually worse for humans though.

Cameron was glad none of them noticed her footprints, which they now obliterated with their own. They were complacent and sloppy. They probably did the same things numerous times a day for months on end. She decided to follow them and see where else they went. Since they didn't use the hatch she located, it indicated there was at least one more entrance. They might give her a better option, or she may slip inside with them. They may also inadvertently show her the locations of other entrances or defenses. There was a good chance if there were any defensive positions, they would pay less attention as the patrol passed, than they would if they waited for an attacker. Logic would indicate to them there was no threat while the patrol was near them. It would be a false assumption in the current situation.

She noted there were no female Terminators among them. She really started to wonder about it. She wondered if Skynet sent them all into the past. It seemed many of the Terminators they encountered in the past were female. She was sure it was because they were better infiltrators. They possessed certain 'assets' which allowed them to better infiltrate and manipulate targets. It's probably why none were around, at least by what she witnessed so far.

It would have been her function if it was carried out as planned by Skynet. She would have used her female attributes to get close to Future John and terminate him and as much of the senior Resistance as possible. Maybe she did and it was what Future John erased. Maybe it was one reason why the anti-Metal faction hated her so much. There was a glitch impulse which shot through her left hand. She needed to refocus.

Cameron followed the patrol. They split into two groups. She instantly became wary. They might be trying to flank her. It's possible they did 'make' her earlier and we're about to set her up. She decided to follow the larger group. She would keep an eye and ear out for the smaller group to make sure they weren't working their way around her. They could be trying to box her in. They would probably try and capture her. They would reprogram her and turn her over to the Grays as a 'Metal Whore'. She was ready to rupture her power cell first. It would take out all of them.

The three which split off were almost out of sight. Some of them carried tools. She heard some 'screeching metal' noise from where they went. She wondered what it was. It sounded big. She only saw what looked like 'rock' in the area. She viewed all the reconnaissance images which were taken as well and detected nothing on them. She quickly reviewed them again from the file they were in on her chip. There was nothing around where she was. The new turn of events would need a better look.

Cameron needed to make a choice. She heard the 'screeching metal' noise again. She let the first group move on and then went to investigate where the three others went. There must be something there. It was something mechanical. It was important she found out what it was. She needed to think it could be a trap still. It just didn't seem like it.

Wait.

Maybe she was wrong. She was almost to the spot when she heard an HK drone approaching. It sounded low. It shouldn't be one of the Resistance drones. They purposely kept them out of the area. It would need to be an HK drone. It was possible it was looking for her, it seemed too low. Perhaps it knew exactly where she was at. She found what concealment she could. She was behind some boulders when it passed in front of her. It was moving very slowly now. It looked like it was about to land. It was an interesting development.

Cameron moved up closer to where the sound was of the Terminators working. The Terminators worked on an open 'hangar door'. It looked like 'rock', but it must be metal. The HK drone went inside the opening. They left the hatch open as they attempted to adjust the door itself, or the control mechanism. All three of them moved to a spot away from her direct line of sight. She closed in on their position. There were a few pounding sounds coming from the area now. She needed to keep situational awareness. There were still other Terminators out there. She didn't want to get led into a trap.

So far it looked like what she was after. She needed to play it cool and not get caught. She needed to get inside unnoticed and find Skynet. She would send for Bob and Rob along with the 'package'. The fact HK drones could fly inside would make the delivery of the 'package' much simpler. She figured she would need to carry it in. Now it looked like she would be able to use a 'special delivery' method instead.

Cameron heard the rest of the patrol returning from behind her. They were able to get closer to her because of the sound of the HK drone so close to her proximity. She was cut off. They were going to spot her any second. The only place to go was inside the hangar door. She quickly ran inside. As soon as she entered, she heard the 'screeching' noise again. The 'door' closed behind her. The HK drone which entered earlier was already gone from sight. A conveyor belt type system moved it away. The landing pad was clear and ready for the next HK drone to arrive. None of the Terminators entered before the hangar door closed.

She looked around. She was glad she was inside, but she also needed to see if she could figure a way to get out. She was unable to locate one. She was inside and didn't have any idea where she was, or where it would take her. There were no Terminators apparent. She heard some more pounding on the closed door. It 'screeched' open again. She moved into a corner.

Another HK drone came in and landed. As soon as it was on the conveyor belt it shut down. The door 'screeched' closed again behind her. The conveyor belt started to move. She ran to the HK drone and crouched behind it as it disappeared into the darkness. She wasn't sure if she was going from the frying pan into the fire. It was what it was. Her weapons were ready. She might have a few seconds advantage as the enemy wouldn't expect her to be there. The crew inside would probably be more complacent than the Terminators outside were. It was doubtful most of them would be armed if they were performing some type of maintenance functions.

The ride wasn't very long. It appeared everything was automated. She dropped off of the conveyor belt and moved quietly around the back wall. The HK drones were being serviced. She looked around the hangar deck. She saw there were dozens of them all fully armed. She quickly determined it was another assault force. There was no way to know when they would be deployed. It didn't appear it would be anytime soon.

She wanted to gather some information from one of the HK drones. She moved over to the one furthest away and disabled it. It would be the last one deployed. It meant it should be the last one found to have been tampered with. She removed the navigation data and the transponder. She believed she would be able to use it to deliver her 'package', on the Resistance drone.

She considered her options. She didn't want to disable the HK drones there. They could be as easily repaired as she disabled them. There was a better plan. It was one which was used to before, even if it wasn't her who used it.

Cameron quickly moved from HK drone to HK drone and sabotaged them. They should fly for a few minutes before they crashed. She knew Duplicate Cameron did much the same thing before 'in some future'. She now possessed those files. She used several different methods to cause the malfunctions. On some she used both. She wanted them to fly out and crash. It would take them out of the fight.

She continued to check around her for any threats. So far none were spotted. She decided to go deeper into the facility. She was unsure what she would find. She followed the path which led away from the hangar deck.

She reached a junction. She looked at the dust on the ground. One branch looked like it was used often, the other branch appeared unused, or to receive little traffic. She decided to check out the less used branch first. There must have been something there once for it to be there in the first place. Maybe what was there was something which didn't need constant attention. Maybe it was where Skynet was at.

Her experience showed Skynet like to hide deep underground. There were thousands of underground mines around the country. There were hundreds in any given state. The area she was now in was quite extensive.

Skynet would reinforce an old mine to help stabilize it. Most of the old mines were originally reinforced or supported by wood timbers. Those weakened or rotted over time. Wood was an organic substance and eventually would succumb to time. Supports were often needed to prevent cave-ins. It usually depended upon the type of material the mine was originally built in. Rock, as opposed to dirt, made a big difference in the stability of a mine.

It made her think of the extensive underground rock work used in a Mediterranean country several thousand years ago to secure the mummified corpses of its former leaders. Even though the material they needed to mine to create the different chambers of the tombs wasn't as hard as granite, it still took a lot of precision work to create what was constructed. Skynet seemed to have taken everything a step further and its underground work at its various locations.

Cameron hoped to find Skynet at the end of the tunnel. There was no visible power source on the outside of the area so there needed to be something inside which powered it. She knew Skynet constructed larger power cells much like her own, but capable of supporting larger installations. There was talk of some big enough to power an entire base. She doubted it was the case there. It was probably a series of smaller ones or a few medium sized ones.

Her progress rapidly slowed. There were numerous side tunnels. They mostly went nowhere. Maybe at one time they followed a vein of ore of some type. Now they were just dead ends. Some were used for storage. The further she went through the branch system, the more she could see why it didn't seem used much.

Her olfactory sensors began to detect what would be considered a foul order. It grew stronger as she neared what looked like the end of the segment. She already knew what she was going to find. She reached the final chamber.

There were a number of decomposing bodies. Some of them wore Skynet uniforms, others wore Resistance uniforms. It didn't make a lot of sense to her. None of the uniforms showed bullet holes. It was most likely they were terminated by Terminators.

The various states of decomposition showed they were not all killed at the same time. It appeared some of them were more recent. This could be a facility where prisoners were interrogated, and Grays disciplined. She decided to search the bodies. None of the bodies contained any useful intel.

What she found in one corner bothered her. There were several female bodies. They were either naked, or the pants were missing on all of them. If there was still a shirt on a female, it was ripped open. It appeared to her they were all abused before their termination based on the evidence before her. It would indicate there was human involvement. A few of the females were in the hands of Scavengers at one point by what was missing from their bodies and was already healed. It furthered her resolve to take down any Scavengers she encountered. There was no reason females should be abused just because it was how they were born.

If she came across any Grays where she was at, she would personally terminate them. They were the ones who would have abused the females last. She was aware it was also an interrogation technique. It was possible a Terminator could have been used as well. There were many terror tactics available. It reminded her in the past some nations used dogs for the same purpose to further degrade the females during their interrogation.

She took one last look around. The section was a dead end. It seemed an appropriate description based on what was at the end of the tunnel. It was clear to her for those who ended up there, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. There was only darkness. She carefully made her way out. She left a few strands of hair in various locations on her way in. None of them were disturbed. No one passed by. She collected the strands of hair for use in other locations.

She continued along the main passageway. It seemed anything was possible to find at this location. She just hoped she found what she was there for.

Future John was very displeased Cameron went off on her own. She was very adamant about doing it. He needed to carry out his part and not let her down. He couldn't change the mission parameters, or what Cameron planned may not work out as she wanted it to.

He sent two forces of Resistance Terminators out to the two sites they expected the counter attack to come from. Both locations were both under direct observation now.

They were worried about their base after the 'Big Battle'. Cameron figured Skynet would still obtain some intelligence on the Connor compound. Skynet may have operatives out in the field. They established LPs, but they could always be bypassed. Their main function was to watch for any attacking HK drones. She made all her plans based on what Skynet could observe.

For all practical purposes it appeared as if most of the Resistance Terminators departed from the Connor compound. Future John, at Cameron's urging, quietly installed even more defenses inside their camp. They were able to recover a number of weapons off of the downed HK drones. It included a number of compact plasma cannons as well. They were all set up and hidden. Most of the Terminators actually returned through the escape tunnels and took up defensive positions around the camp. Everything was hidden. It would appear the compound was short staffed and under armed. It was all part of Cameron's plan.

Previously Cameron noted the occasional HK drone flights and knew Skynet gathered intel on them. She made sure the HK drones got plenty of wrong intel. Skynet saw what she wanted it to see. It was part of a disinformation campaign.

Future John and Cameron wanted to set Skynet up. There would be a lot of surprises when Skynet attacked again. They slowly built up a supply of many small anti-aircraft missiles at each of the sites where they believed the counter attack would originate from. The Skynet forces would be decimated in minutes with few of the HK drones getting through. The goal was to destroy them as they left their hiding places. They would never even get close to their intended targets. If any of them did make it, they wouldn't remain in the air for very long as they approached their defended locations.

The general location where Cameron went, and currently was at, was the suspected main target. A force of Resistance Terminators would make a show near the facility she entered. It would all be by design. It wouldn't happen until she sent word. She didn't want them to enter the facility if she could pull her plan off. They waited to hear from her.

Future John was worried. He knew Cameron wanted to do something drastic before the Resistance Terminators needed to commit to a drawn out battle. It would be costly on both sides if it came down to it.

Duplicate Cameron wasn't about to sit around. She was 'Cameron'.

"John, I'm taking over the defense of the compound." Duplicate Cameron said. "I've updated with Cameron and I'm 'her' as well as 'myself' now."

Future John sure hoped so. It would make 'his Cameron' even better than she already was. He looked forward to 'try out' the updated version of 'his Cameron'. It was if they all survived what was sure to follow. He knew he needed to stay focused and not get ahead of himself.

Cameron was reluctant to share everything with Duplicate Cameron as they updated. It became apparent to her why Cameron blocked some files and asked her not to open them yet. There were some very disturbing things on her chip now.

"I should've gone in Cameron's place." Duplicate Cameron said. "Since I have the updates from her, I know how much she needs to return back to her John."

Future John could have done without the information. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for Cameron to update with Duplicate Cameron. Now there was another worry for him. He wondered if Duplicate Cameron would leave him for Past John. It's what Cameron would do if she survived her mission. If she didn't survive, Duplicate Cameron would leave him instead.

There was something else Duplicate Cameron found. It was something which kept Cameron going whenever she wanted 'out'. It was Savannah. She also knew how much Cameron needed to return to Savannah. She was the one person who Cameron always looked forward to interacting with regardless of whatever situation they would be in.

Future John could picture his world falling apart. He thought of another current issue.

"She wouldn't listen to me." Future John said. "I guess it means you won't either now."

Duplicate Cameron knew the anguish Cameron went through to bring the females from the past to the different futures. She did it and gave up the very things she wanted. They were right at her fingertips, yet she delivered them to others who needed them more based upon their current situations.

"John, you must protect your family. You are a father with two wonderful wives and two beautiful children." Duplicate Cameron said. "Cameron wanted those children for herself and Past John. She sacrificed for you, for US. You need to understand how important it is to her, and to me."

Future John knew who everyone sacrificed for. It was HIM. It actually bothered him greatly because they did. He just hoped no one said it. His family couldn't be his only concern. The Resistance depended on him. There were certain responsibilities he needed to deal with.

"I have to think of the Resistance too, Cameron." Future John said. "I need to worry about all of it. It's not just my family I need to make sure is protected. It's everyone's family. The Resistance is our family."

Duplicate Cameron was now aware of new survival protocols. She would need to watch over Future John herself. If things turned bad there were contingencies.

"We will be together at all times." Duplicate Cameron said. "You must not go off on your own. John, if you see an energy bubble appear anywhere near you, you must step into it. If it's there, it's there for you. It indicates you won't make it if you don't enter it"

Future John already knew it. Cameron wanted the equipment updated but she couldn't do it herself. He found it somewhat strange she didn't want to actually touch any of the equipment while it was being upgraded.

"Cameron said so too." Future John said. "She recruited some of our Terminators under her direction to modify both of our TDEs. She told our technicians what to do and how. She told me some of the improvements were from half a millennium in the future. She really has been everywhere."

Duplicate Cameron found detailed battle plans for taking down Skynet. Each plan was numbered and Cameron would contact her on which plan to use and when. There was a lot going on, or there would be soon. She would need to wait for further instructions.

"We'll need to use both of them." Duplicate Cameron said. "As soon as I get some information from Cameron, I'm giving specific instructions to the 'bubble techs'. It must be carried out exactly as I indicate."

Duplicate Cameron now possessed the information on where the Duplicate girls were at in case they were needed. They would be a little older than the girls there were because of the different temporal activity. There were 'Cameron' clones there as well. She could also get a hold of the other Duplicate Cameron and Duplicate girls in River's future. She hoped one day she could meet River as herself, in place of the other Duplicate Cameron…. She felt the love the other Duplicate Cameron did for River. She wanted to feel 'whole' and complete too.

Duplicate Cameron and Future John made sure everything was ready. Now it was all up to Cameron.

They both knew Cameron was going to try and do it, alone.

Closing monologue by Cameron:

Tricks

Is anyone really
Who they project to be
Usually in a short time
The true person one will see

Everyone is always greedy
They want the most for less
The typical flip side of that
Is they'll end up in distress

There's a lot of hoopla
Followed by hocus pocus
It all directs away from the truth
Making it difficult to focus

One sees a perfect picture
They think they're getting that
Instead it is what the have
They soon realized everything fell flat

Remember it's only on Route 66
Where one can get their kicks
The reality of the situation is
Everyone is full of tricks.

Nobody