Chapter 1: Z Plus 9 Hours
Chapter Text
Z Plus 9 Hours
Kate stared at the ceiling forever.
The world was ending. There was a general atomic holocaust going on right over her head, and she was safe.
Crystal peak had been set up as a Fallout Shelter to protect Heads of State in the event of Nuclear War. Apparently, the President was to run WW3 in comfort.
The world was ending. It was right over her head, and she was safe. Safe on a warm bed, with smooth sheets, reserved for the First Lady, in a room that was built when Eisenhower was President.
But then, I am going to be First Lady, aren't I? Kate thought distantly. Wife to General Connor, savior and final leader of the entire human race. It's my destiny, according to the machine from the future.
When that thought hit her in full, she managed to keep a straight face for about two seconds, before bursting into mirthless hysterical laughter.
The day had started out so normal.
Crystal Peak was more than comfortable.
She hated it. She hated everything.
Finally, she gave up and got out of bed.
John was still hunched over the radio. He had been talking to whoever he could reach, telling them what was happening. Mostly military, a few National Guard Units, one or two civilians. None of them believed him. Then they started going silent.
That was seven hours before. Finally, the day seemed to be hitting Kate all at once, so he sent her to clean up and get some sleep.
Seven hours later, nine hours after Judgment Day has begun, and he still hadn't moved.
The voice on the other end of the connection became panicked as she walked in. "Conner! We've got incoming! Can y-"
"Captain? Captain!" John almost screamed into the microphone.
There was a great numbing silence.
Beat.
"DAMMINT!" John Connor howled with a ferocity that made her jump, and he slammed a fist down on the table.
"John?" Kate said quietly.
He jumped and turned the chair to see her. "Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you."
"You didn't. Cant sleep." She looked at his face. He looked terrible.
John was already back to the radio. "CQ, CQ, this is Crystal Peak, come back?"
Nothing.
Kate reached over his shoulder and turned the radio down. The static faded to a quiet hiss.
For a long time, John sat at the desk, with his head in his hands. Kate found another chair at the next radio panel.
"We… we could be all that's left." Kate said finally.
"No." John said with quiet certainty. "There are others. Just not in the Northern hemisphere."
"What?"
"A lot of people will survive. Enough of them anyway. But not north of the equator."
"How do you know that?" Kate said, almost scared to find out.
"All the nuclear powers are in the Northern hemisphere. Skynet will use the majority of the nuclear arsenal hitting them. Since it's been working as a virus, then it can survive in other computers. Some infrastructure has to survive. There are huge computer webs in Australia that'll escape the blast; the radiation will take a while to circulate that far south. They'll have some warning, but the US, Europe, NATO… anybody who can get to Skynet before it starts churning out it's army is already dead."
Kate was crying softly. "You've had some time to think about this, haven't you?"
"My whole life."
Kate looked up, with something close to rage suddenly filling her. "You KNEW this was coming ALL THIS TIME?" She yelled. "And you DIDN'T STOP IT?"
"YOU THINK I DIDN'T TRY?" John yelled back.
Kate was willing to keep yelling at him but felt tears welling up again, and she ran out.
"Kate!' He called after her, but she didn't look back.
Kate locked herself in her bedroom and sobbed.
Two hours later, she came back out to see him. He was still right there.
She started to say something. He beat her to it. "I wasn't trying to save the world, Kate." John said, exhausted. "I was just trying to change my future. I never wanted this. I never wanted to be a hero. Knowing that I was meant to be the Great John Connor has given me nothing but misery for my entire life."
She thought about that. "And now?"
"And now, despite all my best efforts, it's here." John stared at the radio. "Maybe... maybe if I can pass on what I know to people, then I won't have to..."
"If you think that'll do it just as well, then fine. But, John; I could give a damn about your destiny." Kate countered, walking closer to him. "We've been tapped. We're survivors. Time to gear up. If you can save the world by handing the next guy the keys, then do that. But Connor, if there's any way to make this war go better for humanity by wearing the uniform and being the Great John Connor, then that's what you're going to do!"
"Kate..."
She was on a roll. "Because you alone have actually been trained for this, and if you don't want to fight because you've got an inferiority complex, then stay right there while I go find something I can beat you with! Because this isn't about your destiny anymore, it's about the survival of the human race! It's about me, and Scott, and MY FATHER NOW!"
"Kate..."
"It would make what happened to my father meaningless." He was backed against the nearest wall; she was getting in his face. "So help me, John; if you make what happened to my father an empty gesture, you'll have something a hell of a lot worse than the Terminators to worry about because I swear-"
"WhoaWhoaWhoa! Time out!" John said quickly grabbing her hands.
Kate was suddenly exhausted again. "I'm sorry. I guess… it isn't your fault. I'm sorry, it's just that… This morning I was sleeping next to my fiancée, got a call from a hypochondriac cat owner and by sunset I'm here with you."
John didn't have anything to say to that. He tried anyway. "I'm sorry."
Kate got up and marched out of the room, back to the bedrooms.
She was far too worked up to attempt sleep, but didn't want to go back out and talk to him again.
Z Plus 24 Hours
She came out the next morning. John was still at the control panel, with static hissing out of the radio gently. She came closer. He was almost asleep in his chair, but he kept turning the frequency dial. He looked so exhausted.
"Anything new?" She asked him.
"Found a detachment on maneuvers in the Arizona desert. They were far enough away from things that they didn't get hit, and they were doing long term survival training, so they've got supplies, plus foraging skills. I told them to stay away till the dust settles."
"Will the fallout dust settle any time soon?"
He nodded. "I got a ULF transmitter frequency, and they said-"
"ULF?"
"Ultra-Low Frequency. A very long distance transmission. Anyway, they said that the shockwaves screwed with the weather, so there's heavy rainfall in the Midwest. That's a stroke of luck, because it'll wash the fallout out of the air."
"What about our area?"
"Hard to say. We could be the only installation left for thousand miles with living people in it."
Kate shivered violently. "Any food?"
"No idea." John said. "Been busy."
"I'll see if I can find where anything is."
Kate headed off and for the first time started to look around their new home. The place had been built into a mountainside, and most of the fortifications were to keep back the fallout or shockwaves. The interior wound back on itself to make use of the space. Except for the communications room and a few of the VIP quarters, the base was entirely functional, and well organized. The supplies were all long life, and the equipment in both the Medbay and the kitchens were largely antiquated, but everything was well stocked. A thick layer of dust covered everything, and Kate could feel it being kicked up into the air by her footsteps. Cleaning the whole place up was going to be a big job.
She came back several minutes later with two mugs of coffee. John was where she had left him. "That coffee any good?"
"Vacuum sealed." She reported.
"Good." He took a deep sip, nodded at her gratefully, and went back to the radio. "CQ, CQ, this is Crystal Peak. Come back?" Only static answered him. "Too much interference. The radiations screwing with everything."
"Do we have a chance?" Kate said quietly.
John didn't look up from his cup. He still looked so exhausted. "If you believe what the Terminator told us, we're a sure thing, married with kids, practically the first family…"
"I meant, does the human race have a chance?" She told him pointedly. "See the engagement ring still on my finger?"
John had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry. Yes, I think we have a chance. In fact, I think it's probably a good one."
"You think so?"
"Why go to the trouble of building a time machine to change the way a war goes if you're already going to win?"
The thought was incredibly comforting.
John yawned widely.
Kate's tired, shell-shocked mind finally made the connection about why he looked so exhausted. "When did you last sleep?"
John actually had to think about it. "Um…"
"Have you left that chair since we got here?' She asked him sharply.
"No." He yawned. "Well, there was that moment a few hours ago when you had me shoved against that wall over there..."
"Right." She took the cup out of his hand, came around the console and pulled the swivel chair away from the radio. "Get up. You are taking a break, and you are sleeping."
"I should stay with the radio, just in case there's…"
"Ah! No! You are getting up, you are going to get some sleep, and when you wake up, you are going to eat something."
John would have argued with that if his eyes could focus. "Fine." He stood up… and immediately fell over.
Kate struggled to catch him in surprise; his leg had just given out. She managed to get him back into the chair, then bent down on her knees and ran a hand over his shoe.
When she got to his ankle he howled.
She rolled up his pant leg and saw what was left of his lower leg. She could almost make out the shape of the Terminatrix's claws in his blood.
Fed up, she swatted him. "Why didn't you tell me dummy? I could have fixed this up hours ago."
"You're a veterinarian."
"You think you're the first stray animal to get his ankle caught in a steel trap?" She snapped at him.
John couldn't help but laugh at that.
She started wheeling his chair toward the corridor. She pulled him out of the chair, and helped him into the Medbay.
"This place stocked?" John asked.
"With everything." Kate promised him, and half carried him over to the gurney; where he managed to stretch out, put his leg up on the table. "Get out of those pants." She ordered him.
He gave her a look.
She pointed at her left hand. "Engagement Ring. See? Not yours."
John help up his hands in surrender and pulled the ruined trousers off, hissing in pain. He went through the pockets briefly and slid out the photo.
Kate pulled on a pair of gloves and started collecting medicines, giving his wounded leg a professional inspection. "Well, the supplies may still be usable, but I don't think anybody dusted those workstations since the sixties. This leg is definitely infected."
John nodded, looking at the photo.
Kate glanced at it. It was a candid shot of a youngish blonde woman, wearing a headband, looking sad about something. The way John looked at it made her realize. "That's her, isn't it?"
John nodded.
Kate prepared a syringe. "I don't want to put you under, until we know what state the anesthetics are in, but this'll take the edge off while I work, okay?"
"Okay."
She injected him.
John spoke drowsily as she worked. "We tried you know, mom and me. Miles Dyson, we thought he was the key, but he wasn't. Just another victim. Just like three women unlucky enough to be named Sarah Connor, just like twenty or so police officers stupid enough to try and protect her, just like my father, just like my foster parents, just like your Mister Scott, just like anybody else who ever met me, past or future. Their lives are forfeit because of the Great John Connor." His words were slurring, he was drifting from the drugs. "I really tried, right to the moment of launch to make it stop. Mom tried, she got locked in a loony bin for my entire childhood. I tried; I get thrown into my future anyway. 'No Fate But What We Make.' What a crock."
He finally fell silent. She worked for several minutes, gave him a shot of antibiotics, and wrapped a bandage around his leg. She looked up at him, but he was asleep finally. He looked so miserable.
What kind of life have you known? She asked him silently. Running from monsters that nobody but you believed in, believing right to the last that maybe you could stop the disaster, daring to hope that maybe the whole human race wouldn't rely on you… getting backed into taking the lead at every turn, despite what you have done to stop it.
Kate felt an odd affinity for him. He was in her world now. No. That wasn't right. She was in his. His world was a place where machines that looked like humans could strike. His world was a place where cities were too dangerous to be because there was a bomb coming at any time. His world was a place where friends were targets, and family was impossible. His world was a place where living meant hiding, and putting your name in a computer meant death.
She could hardly blame him for not wanting to be the Great General Connor.
He didn't seem to be offended that she didn't want to be the Great Mrs. General Connor.
But despite that…
Despite that, she was in his world now. And he was in her world now. With his mother and father dead, her father and fiancée dead, and the Terminator gone they were the only ones left that were.
"Thank you for saving my life." She whispered to him, and pulled a hospital blanket over him, turning out the lights as she let him sleep.
Z Plus 63 Days
Several weeks passed, and the radio stayed silent. The two of them fell into a rhythm, making the bunker livable, more comfortable, collecting supplies and figuring out what to do.
The base had a supply of radiation suits, which John took advantage of, to see if the equipment was still working. Almost all of it was. He then rewired the radio antenna, setting it up to send longer range messages.
But silence was still all they heard.
Kate was overjoyed to find that the hot water worked, and took full advantage of the provisions for showers and baths.
Kate wiped the condensation off the mirror and studied her reflection. She didn't look like a soldier. Didn't feel like a warrior. Especially not when she broke down in tears, for the first time in a month.
She wept for everybody she loved that had died before the bombs, whose only crime, had been knowing her name, making themselves targets.
She wept for the Terminator, a machine meant to kill, that had saved their lives.
She wept for John Connor, the man she had come to rely on like an extension of herself, for the burden of fate he had carried alone so long.
She wept for millions of strangers snuffed out in an instant.
She wept for the thousands, who lived to face the war to reclaim the ruined earth.
She wept for Scott, her love in a far more innocent life, who had died horribly, simply so that some machine from hell could use his face as a mask.
She wept for her father, who's dying breath was able to undo Skynet's evil scheming, delivering John Connor to safety from Judgment Day's fire.
And she wept for all Skynet's Machines, for they had no idea how badly she was going to make them all pay.
And then she wiped her eyes, as there was a knock on the door. "Dinner's ready."
"Coming." She called back, proud of the way her voice didn't waver in the slightest.
They were working together non-stop, so there was little point to talking about their day. Plans for future work were discussed at breakfast times. The cooking duties were split, since long-life rations weren't hard to prepare. Over dinner they said little. Kate thought about why for a while, and realized that despite what they had gone through, they still knew very little about each other.
The two of them had fallen into a pure survival instinct, not wanting to talk about what they had lost, not wanting to think about what lay ahead.
Kate looked at him while he ate. His face seemed a lot more focused. When she had found him in the Veterinary Lab, he was punch-drunk from the motorcycle accent, plus the painkillers he had swiped. Everything after that was panic at the approaching disaster, desperation in the face of the T-X or heartbreak in his Mother's empty tomb.
"What did he mean?" Kate said finally. "About how he was selected for your emotional attachment to his model or whatever?"
John looked up at her. His face had finally softened to something resembling human emotion. "Well, Skynet actually sent three Terminators through time. The first was identical to him, sent to kill my mother before I was born. The second was a decade later, but that time the Resistance was able to... I was able to reprogram a Terminator exactly like him to come back and defend me. Then again two months ago." He grinned slightly. "Nothing like having a Terminator as your bodyguard."
Kate looked at her plate. "Y'know, I think about what he said, about how you're the last hope of humankind… If it's still there, they'll carve your face on Mount Rushmore one day, but I can't help but think of you as the guy who tripped on the stairs in Mike Kripkie's basement."
John snorted a laugh.
Kate refilled her cup. "You're wrong about one thing you know."
"What's that."
"You aren't alone in this."
"Never said I was."
"No, but that's how you've been seeing it. You, John Connor, told from the cradle that you're the only hope of human kind, forced into a destiny you don't want at every turn."
"That's right."
"Except now I'm in that boat too John. In the space of three hours that day, I found out that I'm destined to be your wife, and second in command, joint savior of humanity, and that Judgment Day had arrived. You think that was what I wanted to be when I grew up?"
He almost smirks. "I guess not."
They sipped their coffee. Kate sat down across the control panel from him. "Must have been hard. Living with that kind of future forced down your throat."
"You have no idea." He agreed. "I tried to escape it so many times, figured that if I just… if I could stop Skynet before Judgment Day happened, then I'd never have to be the hero." He smiled bitterly. "I guess that's done now huh?"
For a while, Kate didn't say anything. "I've been thinking about it, and the thing is, I never believed in fate. Still don't. I don't know if I'm going to be your second in command, frankly the idea terrifies me, but I'm alive. Against all logic, I've survived a Nuclear War. And so have you. Whether you lead this or not, you have to tell the others out there about the Machines. And whether I'm in this army of yours or not, I have to stay alive. The only way we're ever going to stay alive is by ending it. And the only way we're going to end it, is to win the war. Doesn't matter what your role in the Resistance is, we're still going to fight."
He gave her that look again, like she was something unique and powerful. "Stop comparing me to your mother." She told him firmly.
John couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sorry, but it's the truth, you really do remind me of her sometimes."
Kate got the impression that it was the highest compliment he could pay a woman. She debated saying what she was thinking for a few minutes before finally speaking again. "My Dad never wanted to be a General, you know. He wasn't a GI or anything, he worked for the Pentagon. His rank was Major, because he worked on experimental projects. Smart bombs, GPS, stuff like that… he was field testing some of the stuff his department built in combat zones, when his CO got hit by a sniper. He took charge, and then next thing you know, he was getting promoted. He never wanted to be in command either. Especially not of Skynet." She looked sadly at John. "You remind me of him sometimes. Only sometimes, when you're trying to work that radio. Like you've got the fate of the world on your shoulders but you don't know how it got there exactly."
For a long moment, they looked at each other.
"I wish he was here." Kate said.
"He wanted you to be safe, Kate. He didn't know who I was, he didn't care. All he knew was, some woman who could take a grenade launcher to the stomach was hunting his daughter, and that the world was flying apart at the seams. All he knew was, that this guy he had never met, knew what was going on with Skynet. And he…"
"He decided that you were his best chance to keep me alive."
John nodded.
"Good thing, too." Kate pointed out.
"Oh?"
"Well, if we hadn't come here, we never would have made it past the blast zone. For certain we never would have found a fallout shelter. Skynet trying to kill you is what put you here, ready to start the fight."
"Skynet trying to kill me is what transformed my mom from a crybaby waitress into a soldier." John laughed. "Skynet trying to kill me, is the reason a soldier was sent back in time to protect my mother from the first Terminator nine months before I was born."
Whoa. Kate thought to herself. "Nine months?"
Kate had never seen such a bittersweet look on anyone's face before. "Yep."
Kate couldn't help the smile. She was certain she had already lost her ability to be surprised by anything. "Destiny is not without a sense of irony, it seems."
With this new information on the table, and the ice broken, the two fell into a more comfortable silence for a while, looking at each other shyly.
Almost like a first date.
Z Plus 152 days
Kate woke up sharply, gasping for air.
Her heart was going a mile a minute, and adrenaline was pumping through every vein. The nightmare was always the same. They had faded after the first few weeks, but as the required activity had lessened after four months, her mind had time to work again, and they began to return.
She wasn't going to be sleeping again any time soon.
She got up and went to check. John was not at the console.
Kate smiled to herself. Good. He was finally sleeping without being told. There had been no response for months, but he still spent his nights at the radio. Kate would often wake up to find him asleep in the chair, and he was almost always awake when she turned in.
Looking around the room, she couldn't help but shiver at how empty it seemed. The base was built to be staffed by hundreds in a time of war.
She checked his room. Empty.
She checked the kitchen. Empty.
She checked the larger dormitory, meant for the support staff. Empty.
She checked the supply rooms. There were many of them. Empty.
She checked the garage. Empty.
Kate had quite quickly run out of ideas and was starting to worry. John Connor was her only companion in this place, and there was no way to patrol anything. The place had been built before CCTV, and they had no way of knowing if the TX had actually been destroyed...
She checked his room again. The base was large enough that they might have missed each other.
The bed was unchanged, but looking around more carefully, she saw his feet sticking out from behind the bed.
Horrified, she dropped to a crouch, and drew the handgun from her waistband, held it in a two handed grip. He had forced her to keep it with her always, even when she slept.
She scanned the room quickly. Nothing.
Inching around the bed, she checked around corners. No terminators, no machines.
John was still breathing.
"John!" she hissed as sharply as she could without raising her voice.
No response.
She inched over and shoved his leg.
John came upright instantly, his own gun out. "What?!" He yelped.
Kate yelped, swiftly understanding. She put her weapon away and swatted him as hard as she could.
"What?" John was still waking up.
"It's beneath you to sleep in a bed?"
John scrubbed his eyes. "I tried. Look at it!" he waved at the bed furiously.
Kate did, coming off her adrenaline high. "Looks comfortable enough."
"Comfortable enough for you, maybe." John told her. "You have any idea how long it's been since I slept in a bed? In a real bed?"
Kate blinked. The idea had simply never occurred to her before. "Has it been a while?"
"Years."
"There are cots in the main barracks." She suggested. "The beds look more like gurneys, but it's better than the floor."
John smiled. "Really?" he yawned. "Think I'll try that."
Kate nodded and stood up with him. "You scared the hell outta me, Connor!" She snapped at him as they walked through to the barracks.
"What?"
"I came in and found you on the floor. I thought you were dead!" She snapped; too relieved to yell, but still mad enough to snipe at him.
"Sorry."
"Was there anything new?"
"Commander of an air group in south Brazil had scrounged a couple of AWACS, put them up in the air as relays, was able to sent word that Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon's, and Cuba was still there."
"That's good."
"Yes and no." John told her. "See, the people survived Judgment Day, and so did the infrastructure, but..."
"But Skynet's running their computers."
"Their computers, their factories, their cities..."
Kate shivered.
John looked in the barracks and the dust filled rows of bunk beds. He went to the nearest one and flipped over the four inch thin mattress, putting the clean side up.
"I'm gonna get a snack." She told him. "Want anything?"
"No thanks. G'night."
"Night."
Kate was coming off the adrenaline high, both from her nightmare, and the scare of thinking him dead.
What am I going to do if he dies on me? She asked herself. What are any of us going to do?
She ate without tasting anything, suddenly aware that she had only gotten two hours sleep.
Exhausted again, she headed through the corridor, went to her bedroom door…
And walked straight past it.
It couldn't hurt to check on him, just to be sure.
She opened the barracks door softly. He was asleep on the cot, breathing gently.
Kate let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
How had she never noticed how scary this place could be? It was built to house hundreds of people, left to itself for decades, and now housed only two people. The place was so huge, the rooms echoed... no windows to the outside, all the lighting artificial, and switched down very low at this time of night... with a billion dead above them, how could this place not have ghosts?
She slipped over to the next cot, across the aisle from his, flipped over the mattress, the way she had seen him do, and lay down, making sure not to wake him.
John was half aware of her, even in his sleep. She wasn't used to cots, and was tossing and turning a fair bit, dozing in between. He wasn't used to having someone close by at night since his mother died, so he listened with half an ear for the sound of her breathing.
Several hours later, her breathing changed. She started to whimper in her sleep, her eyes dancing back and forth under her eyelids fiercely from the nightmare.
John got up and moved closer, shook her half awake gently. She half opened her eyes, saw him crouching next to her bed, and patted the mattress next to her.
Too tired to argue, John settled on top of the covers next to her. The cot was narrow, but neither minded the contact.
An hour later, as his own nightmares started, she was needed to return the favor, shaking him awake. He caught her hand without opening his eyes. With half an ear he heard her breathing clearly. Her breathing wasn't quick or panicked, so there was no danger and he slept again.
Neither of them wanted to risk anything that would make their forced intimacy more awkward, because there was no real way to avoid each other if it got uncomfortable.
Kate put her other arm around his waist to make room on the cot.
John had sworn not to take advantage of her when she was at her most emotional, cyborg prophecies be damned.
Kate had made no move to encourage any interest; she was still wearing the engagement ring.
But for the first time since Judgment Day, both were able to sleep with little interruption.
Z Plus 289 Days
"Now right hand first, keeps my gun away, don't try and take it, just keep it pointed away from you."
Kate took his right wrist firmly and pushed it away from her. John didn't struggle.
"Left leg forward." John instructed. "Hook it behind mine."
Kate did so.
"Now left hand, force my upper body back."
Kate did so smoothly; John guided her hand a little higher.
"And push."
Kate shoved her left hand forward, pushing John back, where he tripped over the leg she had hooked behind his feet and put him down on the mats.
John looked up at her proudly. "Now take the weapon."
Standing over him, she was able to twist it out of his grip easily, and she pointed it back at him.
"Good work."
Kate was grinning like she'd just accomplished a lifelong goal. "That wasn't so hard."
"It's a lot harder when the gun's loaded and the guy you're fighting doesn't tell you how."
She snorted. "Duh." She licked her lips for a minute. "John; thanks for teaching me and all, but do you really think that… I mean, it's not like a Terminator's gonna be that easy to knock down."
"Kate, if you get stuck in hand-to-hand range with a Terminator, the only tactic that'll do anything is a suicide pill, but there are two groups in the world now. The machines, and the humans, and the machines are already all on the same side. The humans aren't." he looked at her. "I'm not losing you to some band of scavengers on the road before the war even starts."
She blushed at his look. "Okay."
There was a crackle from the Communications room.
Both of them shared a look and sprinted for the radio.
"CQ, CQ, this is Lieutenant Eric Walters, USMC, transmitting blind on Emergency frequency Delta. Can anybody receive?"
John grabbed the radio. "Hell yes, we receive." He responded. "Nice of you to drop us a line. This is John Connor at Crystal Peak."
"Connor? I have heard your name from Montana Civil Defense. Nice to know you're still with us."
"Nice to know we aren't alone." John responded. "What's your status?"
"I have 87 men left. We've been holding out as best we can. My unit was on R and R in Barbados. Supplies are starting to run low, but we finally got a decent map of the radiation zones. Before we set out looking for any US bases, I thought I'd check to see if anyone was still transmitting out there. How about you?"
"We haven't moved since Judgment Day."
Beat. "Is that what we're calling it?"
Destiny smacked Kate in the face again. John Connor was clearly the one who started calling it that among the resistance, but he had learned the name from the resistance fighters, through his mother. So… who exactly had thought it up first?
"Yeah." John said. "That's what we're calling it."
"How many survivors there?"
"Two."
Long silence.
Very long silence.
"How many?" Walters asked for clarification.
"Two." John said. "The machines took over and we were the only ones who could get out."
"Uh… Connor, what is your rank?"
"I'm a civilian." John said evenly. "We both are."
The whole tone of the voice on the other end of the radio changed. "How the hell did you get into a hardened high level military facility like Crystal Peak without a military escort?!"
"General Robert Brewster sent us here."
"The General wouldn't give the access codes to civilians."
"He would to us." Kate said into the microphone.
"Who's that?"
"Katherine Brewster. General Brewster was my father."
"Ah. Now I get it."
John grinned and took back the Microphone. "Lieutenant, there's another reason. Brewster knew that Judgment Day was just the start of it. The real war hasn't begun yet. He got Kate and me out, because we've got all the relevant intel on the enemy."
Long pause.
"Start talking." Walters said.
Z Plus 1 Year 2 Days
The day before had marked the first Anniversary of Judgment Day. Kate had wanted to celebrate the moment… well, commiserate was the way she had seen it… by getting the two of them completely drunk.
John had forbidden that immediately, stating that nothing would be different the next day, except for the fact that the two of them would be hung-over.
Kate had seen the logic of this and acquiesced, but in truth, she hadn't wanted to get drunk because of the occasion, but because she knew it was the only way she was going to be able to sleep.
And she was right. She had spent the better part of the night staring at the ceiling, trying desperately not to think about it.
Instead, she thought about John.
With the fulfilled prophecies of their late protector, plus the enforced living arrangement, the two of them had come to the unspoken agreement that they would remain together, long before they had sorted out how they actually felt about each other. In fact, neither of them had even brought the subject up since getting locked in Crystal Peak a year before.
But after their first contact with Lieutenant Walters, and faced with the prospect of actually being around other people, the question had now been put directly in front of them, and neither one wanted to be the one to talk about it first.
She knew John had come to care for her very much. But he didn't dare bring it up; because he believed she still loved her long dead fiancée. And she did. She would always love Scott. She was going to marry him, and had lost him before anything could possibly change that.
But Scott was dead. All her ex-boyfriends were dead. Her father was dead. The whole world was dead.
John Connor was alive.
John Connor, who had saved her life five different ways in the space of six hours. John Connor, who was carrying the world on his back but made sure she was eating right every day. John Connor, who had taught her all about weapons, all about fighting, all about the machines, everything she needed to survive, while asking nothing from her in return.
Kate knew she loved him. He was her rock, while the whole world had been torn away from her. But she didn't dare tell him so, because he had put so much effort into trying to avoid his future, that telling him she was ready to move forward with this might make him swear off her out of sheer determination to prove the Terminator wrong.
It was why she had kept the wedding ring. John had never made a move. Neither had she. And Kate was worrying herself sick trying to decide if it was because he was being respectful while she mourned her dead fiancée, or because he had no interest in her and their supposed destiny.
Kate was stuck at that point, before finally dozing into a fitful sleep.
The new day started with Kate waking up to the aroma of coffee. She opened her eyes, and found John holding out a cup. "Morning."
"G'morning." She slurred out, still mostly asleep, and took the cup off him.
"Walters called in about twenty minutes ago."
"Bad news?"
"No. He said his recon teams found something. They said they'd report back personally in case anybody could hear his unit frequencies."
"Crystal Peak frequencies still secure?" Kate was struggling to catch up, but had long since learned the knack of going from unconscious to vigilant in seconds.
"Crystal Peak is a Command Level emergency base. Skynet could crack whatever we use in seconds." John told her, discreetly looking away as she got up and dressed. "But that's only if it's bothering to listen."
Kate nodded and followed him out to the Communications room. John sat down at the console; Kate took what had become her customary position just behind him, with her hand comfortably on his shoulder.
A few minutes later, Walters reported in. "Conner, we've found what looks an awful lot like human footprints. Thousands of them. They found an old highway."
"Any ideas who?"
"None. The footprints don't look like combat boots. There's sneakers, sandals, a lot of bare feet. But the thing is, the tracks are recent. They haven't been shifted by the wind because they're not in the dirt, they're in the mud."
John gave Kate a significant look. "Which means they came through after the last rain. Any ideas where they went?"
"The tracks are turned southwards when they reached to road. Request instructions. Do we pursue?"
Dead silence.
"Uh... say again?" John croaked out.
"Give me an order, Sir; we're ready."
At the word 'Sir', Kate could feel the change in him, through her hand on his shoulder. In the space of an instant, John seemed a lot taller and a great deal older all of a sudden.
"Connor?"
"Lieutenant," John said, emphasizing the rank carefully. "For all my talents, I am still a civilian."
"Yes, you are. I am currently violating about eighteen regulations regarding proper chain of command." Walters said plainly. "I have Sergeant Oldham here with me; he's my second in command."
"I have placed an official protest on the record," Oldham put in. "When we get back to a Command Military Base, a field court martial will be convened. In the meantime however, we have yet to hear from the Judge Advocate General's office." He continued with great formality. "Regulations dictate that I have done all I can short of relieving my CO from command, and placing him under arrest. I'm not ready to do that yet."
Another scuffling sound from the radio, and Walters returned. "In the absence of contravening orders, or word from the Joint Chiefs, these 87 men are under my command, and I am answerable to no higher authority at this point. You are my only contact on a secure frequency, from a highly secure Command Level US Military Base." Walters said with equal formality. "What are your orders?"
Kate studied John carefully. His face had hardened. He looked haunted by demons that only he could see, but when he spoke, he was crisp and precise. "Camouflage your equipment as best you can, particularly from thermal sensors. Second, make coded contact with any other population centre you can, civilian or military, regardless of nationality. If you have radiation detectors, map out the hotspots in your area. Try to rendezvous with whomever you can."
"Yessir." Walters responded.
"The background radiation is dropping steadily where we are. Another few days and we can move if we have to, we're going to give it a couple weeks just to be safe before we come meet you, but we will be out there soon. For now, send one team to follow that road. The rest of your men are to find a place you can stay long term, but escape from easily, and then set up gun emplacements and spotters. Don't use the radio while traveling; you'll make it obvious you're not fortified on the road."
"Yessir. Going radio silent now. Check in with you in three days if there's nothing new."
"Crystal Peak, Out."
The radio went silent.
Long silence.
John turned those haunted eyes on her. "Katherine, my dear?"
Kate reacted. "John?"
"Let's get drunk!"
Kate had found a case of bourbon in the Presidential Suite, which John had finally consented to move into. Having many reasons to stay drunk all the time, John had policed the use of it carefully while there was work to do, even for the anniversary of Judgment Day.
Tonight however, he had brought two full bottles from the case, into the staff break room, where the most comfortable chairs were. He handed one to Kate, kept the other for himself, stretched himself out across the couch, while Kate settled in the armchair between them, and the two played drinking games.
"Let's see, after Fort Dover, there was Fort Baxter." Kate said, slightly tipsy. "Had to cancel on my first date because I was being dragged about eight states away." She threw back the shot in her glass and john poured her another. "When I hit eighteen, my Prom date convinced me that I could move in with him so that I wouldn't have to leave my friends again."
"Did you?"
"Hell no, he was a moron." Kate said plainly.
John grinned. "My turn?"
Kate poured him another shot. "Your turn."
"Well, there was a Green Beret in Maracas. His name was Salceda, then there was this guy named Enrique, who had like twelve children on this compound. The guy was Black Market see, learned a lot there about stripping cars and motors and helicopters..."
"Life of the modern youth." Kate toasted.
"Let's drink to that."
They both drank, and poured each other another round.
Kate looked up from her glass a moment later and found him staring at her. "What?"
"Y'know something?"
"What's that?"
"You're actually quite beautiful."
Beat.
"Thank you?" Kate said, somewhere between pleased and stung that he had only just seemed to notice. She started pouring him another drink. She missed the glass slightly. "Stop m-moving." She told him.
"I'm not." he protested.
Sighing fatalistically, Kate got up, shoved his feet out of the way and sat next to him on the couch. John straightened up, putting both of them next to each other.
"That's better." John commented. "It's easier to focus on y-y-you when I'm not looking at you."
He put an arm around her and she swatted it away. "Fresh!"
"Sorry." John smiled through the warm glow that liquor brought. "What you told me, about how I was your first kiss?"
"Yeah?"
John licked his lips. "What I didn't tell you was; that you were, and are, my only kiss."
Kate actually felt sober for a microsecond from the shock. "Really?"
"Really."
"We were what? Ten?"
"Something like that. See, by the time I noticed that girls were more than just cootie carriers..."
Kate giggled impishly, finding that hilarious.
"By that time I was running. My foster parents were dead, and my real mom was a fugitive from justice. Living underground, with your mom along isn't exactly easy on the social life."
"Plus wondering if your girlfriend was a terminator."
John laughed, slurring slightly. "Plus that." he sighed nostalgically. "You're right. I'm quite a mess."
"So's the world." Kate said, leaning against him easily. "Johnny boy, I've been the good girl my whole life. My dad never even bothered to meet Scott because he knew I wouldn't pick... well..."
"Someone like me?" John toasted without being offended.
"Right, and the thing is, a year ago, that was the way to be, now..." She trailed off.
John held up the bottle. "More?"
Kate held out her glass. "More."
They drank without speaking for a while.
"Katie?"
"Don't call me that."
"Kathy?"
"That either."
"Kate?"
"Yes, John?"
John nodded. "I think I want to kiss you again."
Kate grinned. "Better do it now while I'm drunk."
John leaned forward, put his hands on her shoulders to hold himself steady and gave her a kiss. She kissed him back warmly.
After several seconds, John ran his hands, off her shoulders, down her arms, to her hands, which he held. He felt her engagement ring under his fingers and they quickly broke for air.
Kate seemed to be thinking about what just happened very seriously, like she was clinically analyzing it. "Not bad."
John laughed. "Not bad at all."
She pointed a finger at him dramatically. "You're still a mess, Connor!" She told him imperiously.
"You're still not my type, Brewster!" He fired back.
"Let's drink to that!"
"Cheers!"
Z Plus 1 Year 20 Days
"Crystal Peak, this is Lieutenant Walters, come back?"
Kate, who was asleep in the chair, opened her eyes, yawned, and picked up the radio. "This is Crystal Peak."
"Didn't interrupt you two, did we, Kate?" Walters' voice was teasing.
Kate didn't hesitate to deal it back. "Not at all, he's still asleep."
"Right." Walters sounded sorry he started it. "Get him on the line."
Kate went into the Presidential Suite and woke him up. "Eric's checking in." She told him.
John was on his feet and in the Communications room in seconds. "I'm here Lieutenant. What've you got?"
"Well, remember those tracks we found three days ago? The human tracks?"
"Yeah."
"We found where they lead. We've found people, Connor!"
Kate had a huge smile at the news. John did not. "Where?"
"They're in a camp about twenty miles southwest of what used to be LA. They've been collected around a metal-works or something. Thermal camera says the furnaces are going, and we can smell meat cooking."
John glanced at Kate, but she had already gone over to their map and marked the spot. "How many?" He asked into the microphone.
"Well… hundreds at least, but we can't really go and look."
"Why not?"
"Because there are machines surrounding it. Some on the ground about the size of Mini-Coopers, only armed with mini-guns. Others in the air. We're staying as hidden as we can."
"Labor camp?" Kate guessed.
John looked at her like she was missing something. "Kate, I don't know how to tell you this, but that meat Walters can smell getting cooked… it isn't for eating."
Kate swiftly understood and turned green. "Death camps."
John nodded. "The machines are rounding up the survivors for orderly disposal."
"Connor, we could really use some Intel here."
As John started asking questions about the camp layout, Kate slipped away from the console and went to the bathroom.
She studied her reflection carefully. She looked harder. She felt stronger… but she didn't look like a warrior.
She pulled out a pair of scissors from the drawer, and trimmed her hair down, making it short and manageable.
She slipped off her necklace, the one her father gave her. She pulled off the engagement ring, the one Scott gave her.
She studied her reflection carefully. Better.
And she returned to the Communications room, where Lieutenant Walters had finished his report of the layout.
"Any Intel you can give me would be appreciated, Connor. My men have never faced anything like this before."
John considered. "The ground based HK's don't have a great range of vision, so you can flank them fairly easily. Toss your mines under the treads." John instructed.
Kate put a hand on his shoulder leaned over him so that she could speak into the microphone. "And for the airborne ones, aim for the Red eye on the front, or for one of the turbines on the wings. It's built to move fast and aim straight while hovering, not take a lot of fire."
"That explains a few things." The answer came through.
"What do you mean?"
"There are a LOT of them, sir."
Kate suddenly felt a chill of fear go through her. This was it. A human strike on a Machine camp to liberate the human prisoners. This was the start of the war.
"Lieutenant," Connor said crisply. "Split your squad into three groups. Group one to use the flares, group two to take out the relay and start knocking them down, and group three to evac the refugees."
"Yessir."
John twitched again. Someone was calling him 'sir' and he didn't like it.
"Going radio silent now."
John glanced over at her. If he was surprised at her haircut he didn't show it. He returned his gaze to the console as though still getting something from it. He was suddenly very aware of her fingers kneading the back of his neck. He looked up at her again. "So this is it, huh?"
"We knew it was coming, John," Kate leaned forward and gave him a kiss. It had been unplanned, and neither of them had spoken about it before, but it felt so normal to kiss each other that neither of them even blinked.
John accepted it. "Some things are meant to be."
There was silence as they turned the conversation over in their minds. Both knew that they were talking about more than the inevitable war.
Kate got up and stretched. "I'm gonna turn in." She said. She took a step toward the hallway, and glanced over her shoulder. "You coming?"
John blinked rapidly at the unexpected offer. "Any other time, I believe I would. But I've gotta stay up and see what happens."
"It'll be hours."
"I know."
Katherine understood without being offended. It was the first time that the last army of man was going into battle under his command. He couldn't walk away from that. And she wouldn't want him to. Priorities. She told herself. Get used to them now.
Kate went to her bedroom door, and walked straight past it, going to the dormitory. She had long gotten used to the cots, and sleeping in the barracks was their unspoken signal that one of them wanted the company while they slept; half because of the isolation, half because of the nightmares. She wasn't sure if the rules had changed tonight, but figured he'd find some way to let her know one way or the other.
He did. Several hours passed, and she half-awoke to the feeling of someone picking her up from the cot gently, and carrying her to the Presidential suite.
Kate settled into the far more comfortable bed, but kept her eyes shut and let herself sleep again as she felt the covers get drawn up over her. She felt him settle next to her in the bed, felt his arm go around her waist. She shivered as she felt him give the back of her neck a kiss, just below her shorter hairline, and a memory from two weeks before drifted up.
"What I didn't tell you was; that you were, and are, my only kiss… By that time I was running. My foster parents were dead, and my real mom was a fugitive from justice. Living underground, with your mom along isn't exactly easy on the social life."
Kate fell back into slumber with a sweet smile.
When she woke up the next morning, he was sitting next to her on the bed, sitting upright against the headboard, holding her hand. He seemed very aware of her third finger, where the ring had used to be. "Morning." She said quietly.
"Morning."
"What happened?"
"It worked. They knocked out the command signal relay. Skynet lost control of the HK's, and Walters' men fooled their automatic systems. That tactic won't work for long, but it got several thousand survivors out of their control. That's a good start."
Kate sat up and ran a hand through her hair. "So this is it, huh?"
"It wont take Skynet long to figure out where those radio signals are coming from, and we can't risk taking a plane while Skynet has all the radar systems. We've gotta get there by ground."
"How far?"
"Too far to get to in the dark, when we don't know how many roads are still there. By the time we load up the Jeep it'll be noon. We leave tomorrow at dawn."
Kate nodded and leaned against him. They were finally leaving Crystal Peak. "Will we ever come back?"
"An isolated, fortified, military fallout shelter under human control? Something tells me we'll be bringing friends too."
The thought was incredibly comforting. "We got dibs on this room when we do though right?"
"Right."
Silence.
"Come to think of it, the last time that blast door was open, the Terminator sort of blew it up. It might not even work." Kate pointed out.
John burst out laughing. "Wouldn't that just be the final kick in the butt?"
Kate gave a thin smile. "We should check it out."
There was no trace of the two Terminators. The hallway on the way from the blast door to the elevator had been trashed. The door itself was built for the sole purpose of holding up to massively powerful explosions. It had been built well. The door had still been open partway when the Terminator's power core had blown, enough that the force of the blast was directed out from under the edges of the door.
The controls had been damaged, but John knew the combinations, and was able to hotwire the circuit. Fortunately, the security protocols weren't nearly as exacting on the inside of the door.
The sound of grinding gears made Kate jump out of her skin. "No. Don't open it yet. Not till we're ready to leave."
John nodded, and the door settled.
"John," She said finally. "Are you scared?"
"No." He said serenely. "See, I spent my whole life, either preparing for this day, or trying to escape this day. Now it's here. As much as I hate it, I'm ready for this war. I've been ready for this war since I was ten years old. I'm not scared of it. Finally, the waiting is over."
"Me too." Kate said quietly as she stared up at the door. Funny, on the way in, it hadn't looked quite so big.
The two of them studied the door with open nerves for a long time, neither looking at each other. After a moment, John felt her hand in his, just like when they had first arrived. Neither spoke.
Life was stressful in the shelter, it was lonely and more than a little intimidating, but for all the worries about the world outside, it was outside. They had food, they had water, they had heat, secure behind big thick walls, hidden far from everything, where no machines had reached them in over a year. It was dusty, it was scary, and the fact that there were only two of them had given the whole thing a frightening isolation, but it was their Haven, it was their hiding place, and it had protected them well.
And when the sun came up, they were going to leave it, and take nothing from it with them.
Almost nothing.
"John…" She said quietly, as both of them stared up at the door.
"Kate." He returned in the same tone. He was nervous about the whole thing too.
"We…" She stopped herself; thought had for several minutes, and then decided to speak finally. "We work well together. The last year, getting ready, training, making plans… we've got a good thing going."
"Yeah." John said.
Kate licked her lips. So far so good. "After tomorrow, everything changes… us working like this… that won't change, right? I mean, we'll still be partners out there, wont we?"
John finally looked at her. "Kate," He stopped himself; thought had for several minutes, and then decided to say what he was thinking. "It's been a long time since I had a partner. I just got used to working that way. The last year, I had to learn a whole new way of doing things… and it's been really good. I… I um… I've come to rely on you. More than anyone. More than I ever have."
Kate tried to keep her face neutral. "Me too. But, when we get out there, there are going to be lots of people relying on us, well... on you anyway, and we'll be relying on them. There will be people that need us. So… you and me, we'll still be a team right? There won't be anybody else that we'll rely on like we do each other right?"
"Right." He tried to think of what to say next. "Kate, what comes next will be very hard. In fact, it'll be impossible. You'll always have my back, right?"
"Always." She smiled slightly. "Wherever this war leads us, it leads both of us. And one thing I can promise you right now, you won't have to do it alone."
A long comfortable silence passed.
"One could almost call those Wedding Vows." John said finally.
Kate let out a breath explosively. "Finally, one of us said it."
John burst out laughing.
"Don't laugh; I've been terrified that it was going to be me, and that I'd make an ass of myself." Kate was on a roll. "I mean, relationships are hard enough, but we actually had a cybernetic assassin from the future set us up on our first date!"
"Second, if you count Mike Kripkie's basement." John put in.
Kate turned to face him fully and gave him a heated kiss, which he returned instantly.
When they broke for air, he glanced at the door. "Y'know, after we leave here, I doubt there'll be many places to stop where we'll have things like beds, or showers, or privacy."
Kate caught the hint easily. "We best make the most of today and tonight then."
She threaded her fingers through his more firmly and led the way back to the elevator.
Neither of them said much as they descended.
He broke the silence. "I don't have a ring to give you."
"S'Okay." She said easily. "I doubt we'll find a Church or Justice of the Peace anywhere nearby anyway."
"True enough."
"Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Chapter 2: Z Plus 1 Year 25 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus 1 Year 25 Days
Kate and John didn't talk during much of the drive. She was too busy staring out the window. All the nights she had longed for a widow in Crystal Peak, she was suddenly glad they never had one. One look at the surreal nightmare-scape and she knew, she would never have been able to tolerate the view for a year.
"What a mess." She whispered. Her voice made a cloud of steam in the frigid air. Kate got the impression that the sepia-toned sky hadn't looked warm or clear in months. "Remind me again why we're fighting the machines for this?"
"It's the only earth we've got, and the alternative is they kill us." He told her.
"I knew there must be a reason." Kate rubbed her knee awkwardly.
John, behind the wheel hadn't spoken since they'd left Crystal Peak. Kate looked over at him from time to time, and was awed at how calm he seemed. Almost like the Terminator was. His eyes were constantly moving, the window, to the mirrors, and from time to time to her. It reminded her of the time in the cemetery. He was worked up to the point of near tears in his Mother's faux-tomb, but was cool as ice, reaching for a gun in the back of the hearse when the TX was cutting it's way in, while she was screaming in the front seat.
Kate stayed lost in those thoughts as John suddenly slowed the Jeep for the first time all day.
There was something on the road. And it looked like a body.
"Radiation poisoning?" Kate asked him quietly. Speaking at a normal volume seemed dangerous.
John pulled out the Geiger counter again. "Reader says no. Radiation's on the high side of normal, but the weather says that the air's fairly clean...besides, if he was killed in the first blast he'd be a skeleton by now." he licked his lips. "We could drive on. If it was a sickness or something he could be infectious... if it was a roving gang or something, it could be too dangerous to stop...and if it was starvation or old age, then there's nothing for us here, or anywhere close."
Kate shivered. The one part of his personality that worried her was his tendency to be so coldly logical in situations like this. It reminded her way too much of the Terminator, coldly writing her father off.
"We should see...I mean... we don't even know if he's dead." Kate said.
John considered that, and nodded. "Okay. But we have to be careful."
As John slipped out of the truck, Kate slid over and took his place behind the wheel, ducking as low as she could as John slowly wandered forward.
"Hey mister, you alive?" He called out, slipping one hand under his jacket to the holsters hidden there.
The body didn't move.
John inched closer, looking left and right slowly. There was no movement, no other cars... there was a small hill off the road where someone could hide, but unless they had a sniper rifle, it was too far away from the body to be dangerous.
Much closer now, he studied the facedown body. It was thin, and every inch of it was covered by long clothes against the cold. Taking a chance, he knelt down and turned it over.
The instant he saw it was actually a store dummy, he knew he was screwed.
He saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and didn't even bother to look around before he threw himself into the dirt.
An instinct that saved his life as a bullet cut close enough to part his hair.
Adrenaline poured through every vein as he rolled, came up with a gun.
The man drew on him and they aimed at each other.
When suddenly the jeep screamed to life, forty feet away. The headlights came on, the horn exploded loudly in the still silent air, and the military jeep leaped forward, a massive explosion of unexpected noise and movement.
The gunman spun to fire twice at the jeep and the windshield splintered.
But in the same moment, John hurled himself forward and swung at his head with the gun...
And missed completely.
The man had twisted with a lunatics speed, shaken him off, and kept firing.
Kate, behind the wheel, yelped as the windshield shattered from the bullets, and her face was suddenly confronted with many shards of flying glass. She ducked instinctively, and the wheel turned in her hands unintentionally.
She felt something hit the front of the truck, felt the ground beneath the wheels jump suddenly, and then a savage grinding noise and the jeep didn't want to move forward any more.
She sat up as the adrenaline faded. She saw John come running up in the side mirror and sighed, unbuckling her seatbelt.
"You okay?" John demanded, still with gun drawn.
"That seemed like a much better tactic when we planned this." Kate complained as she got out of the cab.
John nodded.
Kate jerked a thumb over her shoulder back at the road. "How's he?"
"Dead." John said darkly.
Kate felt her eyes widen, felt her jaw drop. "Dead?"
Kate's brain had locked up completely. He was dead because she had killed him. She had run him down with the truck. "I... I didn't think I hit him that hard..." She hissed.
"You didn't." John said. "Neither did I. he was in pretty bad shape already. I don't think he's eaten decently in a long while, and his face says that the cold had gotten to him a while."
Kate couldn't help it. She turned around and threw up on the dead weeds near the side of the road.
John was at her side in a second, whispering encouragements and supportive things she didn't really hear as she heaved.
Finally, she wiped her mouth and straightened up.
"You okay?" He asked in concern, handing her the canteen.
Kate couldn't bring herself to move closer to the body. "Where did he come from?"
"Somewhere near the side of the road. I think he was hiding in a foxhole or something."
Kate found she could look at his hiding place. She could make herself do that. "You check him, I'll check it out."
She went over toward the ambush site and looked down at the ground. He had taken John by surprise by popping up from a hole dug in the ground, a few feet off the road, and covered over with tarps and dirt to blend in with the ground. She lowered herself into it. It wasn't a foxhole; it was something like a small one man bunker, about the size of two phone booths. There was a place to sleep, and a few shelves and not much else. The sleeping place, not much more than a sleeping bag left out, had a number of filthy blankets piled on it. The shelves had a shovel, and a few cans and tins of food, most of them open an empty.
The only other thing of consequence was a map pinned to the wall of the hole. She took it down and headed back up to the surface.
John had done a quick search of the man and came up only with the gun. "We've got bullets for this caliber, other than that, nothing of any use."
"Looks like he lives down there." Kate reported, still not looking at the body. "From the looks of it, he's had pretty slim pickings lately. I don't think this road gets traveled too much. Well, not by humans anyway. Only thing I found was this map."
John spread it out over the hood of the jeep. "He's marked all the places he's found something to take. Most of them are walking distance.
"There are dates on these marks." Kate said. "He hasn't had anything to add for a while."
John tapped one mark. "This one has a list of dates. He kept going back there. But it's off the mapped roads."
"His place?" Kate guessed.
"If it is, there's not much there for him, or he wouldn't have been staying here."
Kate looked closer. "This repeat one is a circle. The others are all crosses. There's something different there."
John looked at the sky. "That different one is walking distance." He gestured to the jeeps mangled wheels. The tires were flat and the rims were bent on the rocks lining the road. "Looks like he set traps for cars that swerved around his decoy. Wherever we're going we're walking."
"Told you we should have loaded the motorcycle."
"It was either that or the M-16." John reminded her.
"Yeah, except now we can't use either." Kate sighed. "We make for the circle on the map?"
"Right. It's going to be dark soon."
"Then let's go. And please, no comments about woman drivers."
"Hey, we met up because I had to steal drugs off your clinic."
"How'd that happen by the way?" Kate asked him curiously.
John looked embarrassed. "I came off my motorcycle, swerving to avoid a deer."
Kate snorted a laugh before she could stop herself. "The great John Connor, bane of Skynet..."
"Yeah, yeah, rub it in..."
A few hours of walking asked. Kate was exhausted. She knew she shouldn't be, but she was, much more than normal. She yawned as they walked, when John held up a hand. "This is where we turn off the road."
Kate nodded and they turned away from the overgrown and cracked road, into the small hills and dead plants and trees. After a while, she felt John's eyes studying her. "What?"
"You okay?"
"Just... tired."
"Shock." John said decisively. "What you just went through wasn't easy."
"I guess." She could tell he was still worried, and was about to say something else, when her eyes saw movement, and she ducked. John reacted, diving down next to her.
Sure enough, there was movement; it was a quick movement of something darting to the side. The two of them froze and followed it. After a few seconds, it repeated, getting closer this time.
Another several seconds, and it happened again. This time they got a look at it.
It was a child.
She was young, and incredibly thin, making her cheekbones very pronounced and her bright blue eyes were huge in her expression, her hands were rough and dirty, as was her face. Her hair was in a long ponytail, and her clothing was a few sized too big, but warm.
John and Kate watched with bated breath, and the little girl, who couldn't be more than six years old, raised herself up to a crouch very slowly, watching something in about six front of her with hawk like focus.
With slow, deliberate movements, the little girl raised one hand over her head. It had a rock in it. Kate followed her gaze, and saw a large rat picking its way through the rocks and dirt.
Quick as a whip-crack, she threw the stone hard and fast, and nailed the rat square in the head; killing it instantly.
The little girl jumped up victoriously, suddenly coughing harshly, as though she had been holding it back for a long time.
No longer hiding, the little girl came forward to pick it up...
And suddenly saw Kate and John watching.
She froze dead still. Her eyes raked them both, seemingly in disbelief. The look she gave Kate was the look of a starving man at a banquet. Her eye flicked to the gun John was holding, back to Kate.
"Put it away." Kate whispered, and John holstered his gun, zipped up his jacket, and gave the girl his friendliest smile.
Kate extended a hand toward the girl, took a step closer.
The girl's face turned absolutely feral, and she stepped back.
Kate froze. "Its okay, sweetie. We're not going to hurt you."
The girl's eyes flicked to the rat, flicked back to Kate, back to the rat, calculating something...
"It's okay, we're friends." Kate reassured gently. "Don't be scared... can you understand me?"
The girl's eyes flicked to the rat, flicked back to Kate, back to the rat; she shifted her weight slowly toward the rat...
John did the math. The girl was going to make a break for it. "We've got food!"
The little girl's eyes flashed brightly, before getting jaded and feral again...she darted forward, grabbed the rat by the tail, then turned and bolted.
Kate and John took off after her.
The girl scrambled over the ridge like a mountain goat, and let out a loud shrill whistle. Then another, then a third.
"She's signaling someone." John shouted at Kate. "Hang back a bit."
"Like hell." Kate said. Last time she hung back she had to kill a man. "You cover me this time."
Kate sprinted forward before he could talk her out of it.
The kid was a regular gazelle, clearing dead shrubs and rocks like they weren't even there. Kate had longer legs and better boots, and could barely keep up. "Kid, wait! I'm not gonna hurt you!"
The kid had led the chase to a driveway, and cut across it instead of along it, moving across a dead front lawn to a stately house, the kind you would find on an estate, or a large farm. The house was boarded up, completely dark and had many broken windows. It looked like nobody had come across it for the full year.
There were burn marks around the windows and doors, and a burned out car sat in the front lawn.
Kate stopped instinctively to scan the windows and doors for signs of others...
And the kid had vanished into thin air.
Kate sighed, and turned around...
Straight into the muzzle of a gun.
Kate didn't look past the gun and sighed again. "This has not been my best day ever."
"It's about to get a whole lot worse." the man snarled at her.
Kate half tuned to look at him. He was as thin as the little girl, his bones visible through his skin, he was wearing clothes that probably fit once, his face was dirty and unshaved, and his eyes were wild and savage. Kate came to realize that this was the uniform of the post-atomic survivor. Kate really didn't like the way he was looking at her. He looked her up and down over and over, and his eyes got bigger and hungrier with each pass.
He gestured slightly with the gun. "Drop your weapon, walk away from it very slowly, and get on the ground."
Cha-click!
The man twitched and half turned his head to see John pointing a much bigger gun right behind him. "I don't think so."
The man glared over his shoulder. "Think you can fire fast enough to keep me from killing her?"
"Think you'll be able to pull the trigger without a brainstem?" John shot back.
"Okay, we are not doing this." Kate said sharply without turning around. "I don't know who you are, mister; but in case you haven't noticed, we're something of an endangered species now. We don't want to kill you, even though we could, and maybe you take that as a hint and we'll all put our guns down while we introduce ourselves?"
"What do you think, stranger?" The man said darkly to John over his shoulder. "Shall we do what the nice lady says?"
"I think that would be a very good idea." John agreed. "Me first, then you."
"And just in case you're trying anything, sweetheart; you should know there are more guns in the area." The man added to Kate.
John gave a single nod, and lowered his weapon. Then the man pointed his at the sky defensively, away from Kate, and Kate turned around to face him.
"I've seen that gun before, but you weren't the one holding it." The man said to John. "You killed Martin didn't you?" He didn't have any particular anger in his voice.
"It was self-defense." Kate said hotly.
The man relaxed and put his gun away. "Good."
"Good?"
"A bad person wouldn't have admitted it, and a good person would have made the distinction." He looked John and Kate carefully and licked his lips. "You have food, don't you." It wasn't a question. Kate and John did not look starved or malnourished, and their clothes were rumpled but clean.
John sent Kate a look and she nodded briefly. "We can get you some food if you can give us a ride back to our truck."
"And in return?" The man asked guardedly.
"You give us with a place to spend the night and an idea of what's on this road."
"You can spare food for just that?" The man's voice was filled with something close to awe.
"We can." John promised him temptingly.
Mac grinned. "All clear, guys!"
Two more heads popped up. A Spanish couple, male and female, one from the abandoned car, the other from the house's front door. They were both armed.
John couldn't help the smirk of respect. "Nice. I had no idea."
Mac shrugged. "Its a survival game. We learn or we burn." He held out a hand. "I'm Mac."
John shook it. "I'm John Connor, this is my wife Kate."
The woman stepped out of the wrecked car and waved at Kate carefully. "Carla. This is my brother Ricard; and I believe you've already met my niece Becki." She looked Kate over just as hungrily as Mac had. "You look pretty well fed for a survivor."
Becki seemingly appeared out of nowhere, with a light cough. "Aunty! Lookit!" She was holding the dead rat by the tail with a big grin, waving the slingshot with the other. Kate blanched.
Carla beamed sincerely. "Nice one, baby girl. Your aim is so good!"
Ricard nodded at John. "I've got a car behind the house. If your car's wrecked, we'll get your cargo, and I'll siphon the gas from it. Deal?"
John nodded. "Deal. Kate, go show him where it is."
Kate followed Ricard to the garage. Carla went along. Becki went into the house with her rat prize, and winked at Mac as she passed him.
John gave the dead rat an uncomfortable look, and returned his gaze to Mac.
"You don't mind staying here with me alone?" Mac asked, as the car drove past.
"Well, I don't really know you, Mac; but odds are I'm a faster draw than you when I want to be, and... well, I doubt you'll do much damage with a cigarette lighter."
Mac looked sheepishly at the gun in his hand and pulled the trigger. A small tongue of flame came from the barrel. "Didn't fool ya, huh?"
"Don't feel bad. I bluffed Kate with a paintball gun once. She wasn't fooled either."
Mac chuckled. "Come on in."
Twenty minutes later, the car came back to the house. Becki came out of the front door to meet them. "Didya find anything, Carla?"
Carla opened the car trunk and gestured inside. "What do you think?"
Becki went to the car, which was filled to the brim with first aid kits, water bottles and canned goods that Kate, Ricard and Carla had been able to cram inside. It was all the supplies that Kate and John had brought with them from the mountain.
Becki took in the cans and threw herself at Kate, wrapping both arms around her legs tightly. "My new Best Friend!" She enthused.
Kate felt herself choking up as she watched the little girl clinging to her leg.
Carla laughed at the little girl's antics. "Come on, baby girl; lets get this back to the house so we can eat."
Becki took one tray of cans off Kate and started walking quickly back to the house. She read the labels on the tins. "What's 'Spam'?" She coughed.
"That's what a lot of people would like to know." Carla told her.
Becki led the way into the house. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. Ricard, taking up the rear, pulled a cloth to wave it gently just above the floor behind them, swirling the dust about enough to hide any footprints.
Becki led the way to a closet, and opened it to show the basement steps, and led the way downstairs.
The basement was bigger than most rooms in Crystal peak, and had been well adapted. One end had rows of shelves, with cases of food stacked. After a year, it was clear the cans and jars were getting increasingly empty. At the other end was the living area. A few cots lined up, one bunk bed that had probably been assembled from a DIY kit after Judgment Day. There were a few books, some camping lamps, some board games scattered around, and a workbench against the wall with a full set of camp stoves and Tupperware stacked neatly, and a Ham Radio set up, where John and Mac were hunched together. One of the cooking stoves had a camping sized pan next to it, with Becki's rat in it.
"Shelves are through there for the tins." Carla said, gesturing toward the storage area. "Water tanks are up front; if you can put the bottled water with them."
"And, Becki?" Ricard added. "Next time the family gets given a gift of food? You don't just steal any without asking me first."
Becki rolled her eyes and slid the tin out of her loose sleeve. "Just looking out for tomorrow." She said innocently as she pulled out a small pocket knife and started preparing the rat for cooking.
Kate blanched. "Sweetie, we brought the food, you don't have to actually eat that thing."
The girl looked at Kate like she was insane or very stupid. "The rat won't keep. The cans will." She said, as if teaching a very simple problem to a very stupid student. "Besides, it's clean enough. There's no garbage for it to get sick from, and if it got into anything bad it would have died on its own long ago."
Kate didn't now whether to be heartbroken, nauseous or horrified at the child's logic. She settled to be all of the above at once.
Becki started cutting up the meat, while her aunt started opening the cans.
An hour later, they gathered around a fold up card table and began dinner.
"Smells good." John volunteered. After a year of MRE's and powdered foods, it was an event to have someone else cooking something new.
"Thanks."
Kate couldn't take her eyes off Becki's plate. "Becki, sweetie, you sure you don't want some of mine?"
Becki took a bite of the thin stew without hesitation. "I will. Daddy says that Spam keeps for a few days if you seal it up."
Kate looked helplessly at John, who gave her a calming look.
"Becki," John said casually. "You know how Spam can keep for a day? Well, turns out they can make ice-cream that lasts for months."
Becki looked up, interested and coughing. "Ice-Cream? Really?"
"Really." John said. He reached into his jacket and withdrew a sealed back of freeze-dried ice-cream. "Would you like to try some?"
Carla and Ricard grinned at Kate; as Becki took the pack and opened it; and John took the opportunity to quietly switch plates with her; and pull out a granola bar for himself.
"Listen…" Kate said softly to Mac. "About Martin…"
John kicked her under the table. She ignored him. "If he was a friend of yours…"
Mac shook his head easily. "No friend of mine, we traded some canned food back and forth. He brought in some vehicles with light damage months ago; we didn't ask questions about where they came from and stripped them for parts..." He trailed off when he noticed her face. "You hadn't killed anyone before then, had you?"
Kate flushed and looked down. John studied his plate also.
"Hey, it's a good thing, but let me tell you guys something about death. We live in a dead man's house because the basement is bigger than ours were. I'm wearing a dead man's clothes because they're warm, and outside that door are the bones of my entire neighborhood. Death isn't what it used to be."
They ate quietly for a while.
"This is great." John said after a while.
"My compliments to chef." Kate added. "Spam parmigiana. In Italy they would've hung you for that."
Carla shrugged modestly. "The vegetables were all canned, but tonight, for the first time, I had something resembling meat to work with."
"Aunty is a great cook." Becki told Kate conspiratorially. "If I grow up, I want to be as good as her. Then I find a huge town somewhere with lots of food and people and they'll let me live with them because I'm such a great chef."
Kate smiled at the little girl. "You'll save me a plate when you do though, right?"
The girl grinned broadly for the first time. She had two teeth missing.
Ricard smiled at his daughter.
Mac spoke to John. "Anyway, you two are welcome to stay with us. You can sleep upstairs if you want, but the rest of us sleep down here."
"Safer." John agreed.
"I can't guarantee anything comfortable…"
"It'll be fine, Mac." Kate assured him, rubbing her wrists. "We're grateful to you for taking us in."
"We're grateful to you for bringing food enough for everybody." Ricard answered, and everyone chuckled.
"We won't be staying long." John promised. "We're heading north, looking for any army units that might be left."
Ricard shook his head. "Well good luck. We haven't seen any soldiers since the bombs went off."
"Seen anyone else?" Kate asked.
"We saw a few like Martin." Ricard answered her. "Refugees mainly. There was a lot of conflicting rumors going over the Ham Radio just after the blast. Some said the Russians started it, some said the Chinese, some signals said we'd been invaded, others said we clobbered whoever did it... everybody who could move a long way had conflicting ideas on where to go. It's why we decided to dig in and stay here."
"Mommy went south." Becki told Kate conspiratorially.
Kate looked at Ricard in surprise. His jaw worked a little bit. "Becki's mom decided the best bet was to get south of the border."
"Mommy was scared." Becki explained to Kate, not seeming overly upset. "She didn't think we could find food, so she took some and ran away."
Kate, for the fourth time, since meeting the little girl, felt her jaw drop. "You didn't go with her?"
Becki looked just a little bit sad finally. "I wasn't invited."
There was a cold silence, which John awkwardly tried to break. "You ever think about moving out yourself?"
Mac and Carla traded a look, and Kate got the impression that it was an old argument.
"No." They both said in unison.
"We can look after ourselves." Becki gestured at her plate and coughed slightly. "Mommy was a lousy shot."
Kate couldn't help but smirk at the little girl's smugness.
Dinner was completed, and Becki was insisting on showing Kate all her things. After a little while, Carla and Ricard went upstairs to talk about something privately, and John took advantage of the moment to take Mac aside as the night deepened.
"Mac." John said quietly. "Do you have any iodine pills left?"
Mac looked over sharply. "Yes. Why?"
John sent a glance over at Kate, who was tucking Becki into bed. Mac followed his gaze. "Oh hell."
John shook his head. "The Geiger counters we have say that the radiation's too low to be seriously toxic, but Kate and I, we were in an empty fallout shelter. Since we got out, she's been having nausea, fatigue; she's been rubbing her knees and knuckles, so I think she's having joint pains…"
"I'll get them for you."
"Thanks, Mac."
That night, John and Kate settled into a large sleeping bag, keeping their back to the wall.
Before Kate could lie down, John pulled their pack over next to them and pulled out the pill bottle and a canteen.
Kate read the pill bottle as he handed it to her and sighed. "Is it that obvious?"
"Only to me."
"I don't think its radiation, John..."
"Humor me."
Kate opened the bottle and threw back some pills. "That was a neat trick with Becki. You're better with kids than you think you are."
"My mom tried the same trick when I was six." he told her. "Was her way of getting me to eat freeze dried foods."
Kate chuckled.
John smiled too. "She was inventive, gotta give her that."
"I don't know who Becki's mom is, but I hate her." Kate said to him quietly. "You ever hear a six year old say 'if I grow up' before?"
"No." John whispered back.
Kate couldn't take her eyes off Becki. "Poor thing can't breathe right."
"I know. TB, Scarlet Fever, Flu, Smallpox, Polio, diphtheria… these things are all dangerous again." John whispered.
"What's she got?"
"Asthma, given the way everyone treats her cough. They aren't worried about it being catching."
Kate shivered. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I prefer the machines. At least then you can kill them back."
"You like her, don't you? Becki, I mean."
"Yeah." Kate said. "I do."
John stretched out on his back. Kate curled up under one arm to make room in the sleeping bag and laid her head against his shoulder gently. John wrapped his arm tightly around Kate and pulled the blanket up close around them.
Kate sniffed and reached for his hand, threading her fingers through his. "I've never killed anything before, John. I cried like a baby when my pet rabbit died. It's why I became a veterinarian." She closed her eyes. "Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Not personally. I've seen more people killed than most veterans, I've spent more time on the run than career criminals, and I sent my own father on a suicide mission before I was even born…"
"I killed a man today, John; and I don't think anyone but me cares."
"Do you wish it was you instead?"
Kate eyes opened quickly. "Of course not."
"Then you did what you had to. He meant to kill us both, Kate. He threw the rulebook away, not you."
Brief silence.
"When we were in Crystal Peak," She started to say, and then stopped herself.
"Tell me." John encouraged.
"When we were in Crystal Peak, I remembered a book I read called 'Alas Babylon' about a small town trying to survive after a nuclear war. And I felt so… spoiled. We had beds with mattresses; we had plenty of food, hot coffee, hot showers…" She wiped a tear away. "That six year old girl is more ready for this life than I am…"
John gave the top of her head a kiss. "No, she isn't. She's ready for living out here, but she's not ready for the Machines. Nobody is. Nobody but us."
"Can we take them with us?" Kate asked quietly.
"Not if they don't want to come."
Kate closed her eyes again. "Tomorrow, we tell them about Skynet."
"Tomorrow." John promised.
After sleeping for a few hours, Kate woke up sharply, released from the nightmare by the sound of Becki coughing in the corner. Two years before she tended to wake up slowly. Now she woke up fast.
Her pillow was breathing.
She couldn't help the slow smile that spread as she sat up and studied her husband's face. He looked so much younger. It struck her suddenly that nobody had ever seen this expression on his face, and nobody but her ever would.
The machine had said she was to be John's spouse and second in command.
Your husband, Kate. She told herself. They hadn't planned a ceremony; they had never officially been a couple. One day, they just admitted that they loved each other, that they needed each other, and declared themselves married. The Machine was right. No church, no judge, and the only engagement ring in the place was from Scott. You made vows.
And with that knowledge came a knife edge of worry. Kate had resisted her growing feelings for him, almost for a complete year, but not out of fear of rejection. She was worried he would turn her down, because he had to save the whole world first.
John alone is meant to lead this tiny family and whatever else is left of humanity in a desperate war to retake the ruined earth. He's been hunted since before birth, force-fed his destiny since the cradle and walked alone his entire life under the burden of secrets that would get him killed or thrown in a loony bin. And now, when his moment to take charge comes, you're worrying about his future with you? Kate, what were you thinking? He's got the world to worry about! You can't compete with that. And you can't distract him from that. Kate shook her head. No. You don't have to. Because if you're his second in command, his war is yours to fight too. For him, for you, and for everyone left alive. You and him against the storm. She smiled suddenly. Skynet tried to kill you, before the two of us could take up the burden of destroying it, and instead it set us up to fall in love. Destiny is not without a sense of irony.
Her throat was dry. Without shifting her husband, she reached over to their pack and pulled out a canteen, toasting him silently. To Skynet, and to the future. Damned if they can't take a joke.
Words to live by. She reflected. Worth a lost hours' sleep.
John woke up an hour later. He woke fast too, but never opened his eyes till he had an idea of what was happening. He smelled Kate's hair; he could feel her breathing gently. She wasn't worried or for that matter, awake.
There was a coughing noise. Becki.
Concrete floor, sleeping bag. Right were they were supposed to be.
John's heart wasn't racing, so it wasn't the nightmares that woke him. Kate was curled up against him tightly under the sleeping bag, so it wasn't the cold.
Then he noticed it.
Dogs. In the distance. Barking like mad.
John's eyes opened very fast. "Oh hell."
He sat up quickly, and Kate squawked. "Wha-a-at?"
John's hand flashed up to cover her mouth. Kate's eyes widened quickly and she nodded.
John and Kate slept with their boots on, and slipped to their feet, edging around the room to the others. Kate woke up Mac, John went to Ricard. They both covered their charges mouths and gestured for quiet before anything.
Ricard and Mac got the message very quickly, and got up as silently as they could. Becki was woken by the movement, responded to the obvious fear..
The barking dogs were getting desperate, and getting closer.
"What are they reacting to?" Mac asked John.
"Machines." John said in a hard, quiet voice. "We're way out-gunned here, Mac. Is there any way out?"
The dogs suddenly stopped barking with few high pitched yips.
Sudden deathly quiet.
Mac shook his head. "Not that they won't see."
Becki let out a low moan and coughed as quietly as she could.
There was a wooden scarping noise as the front door opened, and there were footsteps above them. Lots of footsteps.
"The speakeasy." Carla suggested.
Mac nodded and went over the wall, pulling on an empty light fixture, and slid the whole wall aside, revealing part of it was fake concrete and brick, and there was a small narrow room behind the panel.
John beamed. "Sweet. Everyone in. Leave the guns out here."
The others obeyed quietly. If they were discovered in that last hiding place, a gun wouldn't help, and it would motivate an enemy to shoot first.
The adults filed rapidly into the hidden compartment. Becki froze halfway there.
"The basement stairs." Becki said suddenly.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Slow, methodical heavy footsteps directly overhead.
"No time." John whispered.
Becki looked back over the room. There were footprints over the stairs, where Kate, Carla and Ricard had left them hours before.
Carla saw the little girl looking at the steps. "Becki, no!" She hissed as quietly as she could.
Becki looked back at the hidden hatch, with wisdom beyond her years. "Thank you for the ice-cream." She said softly to John, then she darted forward and pushed the hatch shut.
Ricard lunged for her, missed, and the door closed. Mac and Carla grabbed him by the arms and pulled him forcibly away from the door before he could knock it down. "What does that kid think she's doing?"
"She's saving all our lives, Ricard." John told him. "They see footprints leading into an empty basement but not going out again, they won't stop looking till they find us."
"Becki's good at hiding Ricard, she'll disappear better than we can." Kate assured him.
Ricard glared at Kate. "She's not your daughter."
Kate didn't have an answer to that.
John didn't leave the peephole. Becki had wiped away the footprints on the stairs and darted back into the basement, the sounds of footsteps was clear in the room as Becki darted under the workbench and pulled the folded up card-table around, leaning it up against the bench as though it had been put there deliberately, and the tabletop hid her completely.
"We don't let Becki swirl the dust around." Carla explained quietly to Kate quietly. "It's bad for her lungs."
Kate realized what she meant with swift horror and stepped forward. She pulled John away and looked out the peephole. Ricard pushed her aside to take one of them; Kate keeping her eye glued the other.
But then Ricard jumped back in shock. Mac took his place silently, reacting with disbelief to what he saw.
Kate held her breath at the sight of a Terminator endo-skeleton march down the stairs slowly, with a huge gun in its skeletal hand
The Machine stalked through the room, and its soulless red eyes scanned them all left to right. Little Becki, cowering in the corner was panicked, wheezing for air, trying to be silent as she coughed pathetically from the dust.
The Machine took two steps toward the sound and overturned the table, and the bench; looked at her carefully, as she hacked and wheezed, struggling for air. "You have been deemed defective for work. Human Termination authorized. Please remain still."
Becki didn't move, frozen like a deer in headlights as the Terminator aimed the rifle and blew her tiny body in half. The whole thing took place is less time than it took Kate to register the actions.
"Thank you for your co-operation." The Machine continued.
Kate didn't know what floored her more. That the machine had so coldly written a six year old girl off as defective and killed her, or the fact that it had thanked her for holding still while it did so.
In fact she was so stunned, that she almost didn't realize that everyone could hear what was happening as well as she could.
John's hand flashed past her to Carla, putting a hand over her mouth before the woman could scream. His other hand grabbed for Ricard, but far too slowly.
"No!" Ricard howled and ripped open the hidden compartment, rushing out and snatching up John's holsters from the floor instantly. The compartment door was behind the machine, and he had time to draw both weapons, Wild West style. "DIE, METALHEAD!" Many shots rang out in the space of ten seconds, and silence followed, with only the sounds of gears working audible.
As Kate's hearing recovered from the gunshots, she slowly became aware that Ricard was still pulling the trigger, over and over on empty chambers.
The bullets had hit the thing in the torso and knocked it back two steps. The Machine straightened and took in Ricard, the empty guns, and the place he had hidden.
"You have been deemed hostile. Human termination authorized. Please remain still."
Ricard spat on the Terminator defiantly, as the machine blew him away.
And then the chrome death shoved the hatch back open, and opened the entrance to the hidden compartment completely. It stepped into the tiny room and turned those awful red eyes on John Connor.
Kate instinctively looked to John, as did Carla and Mac.
And something insane happened. Something that she simply couldn't accept.
John stood up, and calmly raised his hands. "We are unarmed, and we surrender."
The Machine took him in. Aimed slowly left and right at the four of them.
And then a metal arm flashed out with the speed of a rattlesnake and seized his hand. John didn't flinch. There was a bright red glow coming from the Machine's left wrist and a sizzle of burning flesh, and John yelled. The Machine's grip did not waver in the slightest as he jerked.
Seconds later he was released. A barcode had been burned into his forearm.
Kate watched with growing horror as the machine turned and repeated the process with Mac, then Carla, and finally with her.
John didn't twitch until the last, when he heard her cry out from the branding.
Branding. She seethed inwardly. I am branded by this tin can, worthy of that honor only because I am fit for working as their slave, until they deign to write me off as unacceptable and kill me.
"Please make your way outside for transport." The Machine said tonelessly. The rifle in its hand made it clear that this was not a polite request.
Kate tried to stay strong, but couldn't help the thrill of fear that went through her as they marched. Soulless monster.
She wouldn't let herself look at Becki as they marched upstairs.
The march was short, only to the ridge. There were a few dead machines, but the rest were defending their transport, flanking it as the humans approached.
Kate forced herself not to look at the bodies, forced herself to look at their destination. Being moved around with her father her entire childhood, she had a fairly good grasp of military vehicles. The truck they were being led to looked like any normal troop carrier, only with a much smaller driver's cab, which had a radio antenna on the roof.
A machine mind driving it, but why is it so similar to human design? She asked herself, but it quickly dawned on her. Military based AI. It learns from its program. It isn't thinking originally yet.
They were herded into the back of the troop carrier. Two of the humanoid machines took their place at the open end, and the humans were forced to sit as the engine rumbled to life.
Kate was left sitting facing John; the space was tight enough that she could rub her leg against his gently. He looked up at her as she rubbed her new burned tattoo. After a year living with him, spending most of it trying to tell him things without saying them out loud, she could read the look in his eyes easily as his gaze flicked to the barcode on her arm. 'I'm sorry you had to endure that.'
Mindful of their guards, she sent him a look back, knowing he would understand. 'It's okay; just promise me you have a plan.'
"They're taking us north." John said quietly.
Mac and Carla, heartsick from losing their little family, didn't seem to care.
But Kate suddenly understood. Wherever the machines were taking their prisoners was where John needed to be, and wherever those prisoners were being held was where Walters would be hunting for his next target.
The machines were taking John Connor to his army.
Z Plus One Year Twenty Eight Days
The Machine car drove night and day for a full 48 hours without pause, not caring about distance or darkness, or the comfort of it's passengers.
So when the truck finally stopped, the humans could barely force their limbs to carry them as their guard shoved them out.
Kate took in the camp. A wide perimeter fence about an area the size of a football field. At one end were the cages for the prisoners; at the other end was a radio station tower. The tower was the only part of the whole camp that looked human built.
Outside the fence was a tall hill, with one side excavated out. Straining her eyes to focus that far, she could make out humans working, digging into the side of the hill, under armed guard by the older style Machines.
The radio tower had flying H/K's circling it. They were identical to the one she had personally shot down over a year ago.
Off to the left of the hill was a smaller building with smokestacks coming out of it, and when the wind shifted from that direction, Kate could smell cooking meat and couldn't help it, she turned around threw up on the ground. John was at her side in a second, rubbing her between the shoulder blades gently.
She looked up at John. He didn't have despair in his eyes. He didn't have loss or fear or grief. His gaze was filled with a savage determination. Pure ruthless calm. He took in the cages, the factory, the smokestacks, the radio tower, the H/K's circling with a single look. He seemed most interested in the humanoid machines.
The new models were rare, but they walked on two legs, they had human shaped hands… and they looked like human skeletons dipped in chrome.
All in all, the most depressing thing she had ever seen.
Not for the first time, Kate wondered where they came from. How had these things built their humanoid counterparts? The machines she had seen were either advanced models from the future, or experimental combat machines her father had command over.
Right up until the moment they went rogue and killed him.
Carla and Mac were silent too. Mac was making a low moaning noise in his throat from the emotions running through him. Carla looked like all the blood had drained from her face.
Kate didn't make a sound. Noise was absent from the oppressive atmosphere. This was enemy territory, a place beyond rescue...
But John had taken in the whole camp, all the machines, and finally shifted his gaze to the people.
The machines pushed them toward the camp. Kate got a proper look at the cages for the first time. There was maybe a hundred or so people divided into two cages, but only by number. Even numbers in both cages, neither seemed to have any distinction according to age or race or gender. The cages were both about half the size of basketball court, sharing a common boundary with each other, the perimeter of both ringed with razor wire and high wire fences. A much larger fence ringed the entire camp. There was a solid gate at one end, and on the corners of the gate and the outer fence-line, where mounted sentry guns. The Terminator led them into the outer fence, toward the cages. In each cage was a small building, but Kate couldn't tell what it was for.
The machines marched them over to a cage, ordered them inside. John stepped over to the nearest cluster of prisoners...
And froze.
Not one of them so much as looked up at him. Not one of them so much as spoke to him, or each other.
Kate saw them sitting in rough groups, but not communicating, staring silently, each one at the mud or into the distance, and almost didn't dare approach them.
And neither did John. Instead, he went inside the building. Mac and Carla stood over near the fence.
Kate chased after her husband.
There were a few people inside. The building had a foul smell, and Kate recognized a few stained gurneys and some primitive medical trays. The medical supplies seemed scavenged together too. Some first aid kits, a few drug bottles, and an oxygen tank over in the corner. The few people didn't acknowledge her, curled up as they lay on the floor. John had found a spot in one corner, as far from the other prisoners as he could get.
Kate settled gently against the wall, feeling stiff, and she leaned against her husband.
She threaded her fingers through his gently. "How you doing?"
John took a breath. "I never understood."
"Understood what?"
"All I wanted was to not be this guy, but I thought when Judgment Day came, I was over it. I wasn't."
"How so?"
"Look at them!"
And Kate did, looking through the door to the people outside. She looked at the people in their cage; she looked through the wire at the people in the next cage…
The people here hadn't even looked up as four new humans were shoved in. Nobody had looked at them yet. Nobody had spoken to them, approached them…
These people did not put up a struggle against their guards. There was no point. They did not resist. Resistance meant instant death. They did not cry out against the unfairness, or the cruelty of their captors. 'Fair' was a human notion. 'Cruelty' was a human concept. They did not beg for mercy, there were no deals to be made.
This was a place where there was no hope for freedom. The people here knew that hope was dead.
Kate shivered.
"How the hell am I supposed to turn these people into an army?" John asked her helplessly.
"Inspiration is three fifths courage." Kate told him softly. "Or, so my father used to say."
"I have no idea how to inspire people. I barely know how to talk to them." He looked more lost than he had since the first time they entered Crystal Peak. "I grew up learning tactics and strategy and weapons... I have no idea how to rally troops or teach people to fight a hopeless battle."
Kate squeezed his hand gently. "You taught me."
John looked surprised, as though he had never considered that before. He almost smiled. "Yeah. I guess so."
"John, for the first month in that place, I spent a lot of time breaking down in tears. You know how I grew out of that?"
"How?"
"You. You were the one that kept me involved. You were the one that looked out for me, that taught me, and the reason that worked, was because you were so certain it would save my life out here, when I was convinced that nothing would. You're the one that convinced a T-850 to override what a smarter stronger machine drilled into it's head, and let you live. You did it with the machine, you did it with me; you can do it with them too, you just need to let them see what I saw. You made me believe there was a chance. "
There was a moment of silence.
"Kate," John said quietly. "Did I ever tell you, that I never would have survived a year in Crystal Peak without you?"
"Nope."
"I should have."
Carla came rushing into the room. "Kate! We need you!"
Katherine was on her feet in a second, rushing outside, John right behind her.
Carla pulled Kate over toward the fence, to a young woman on the ground who was heavily pregnant. She was in agony.
Kate took stock of the situation and went right to work. "Okay, breathe!"
The woman did so.
"Lean back, and keep your head up. Mac put your jacket under her neck." As Mac scrambled to obey, John took a spot next to the woman. "I'm John, this is Kate."
The woman didn't answer.
"Answer me, what's your name."
"Susan. Get her the hell away from me!"
"This lady is a nurse; she's going to help you." A veterinarian, he amended silently, but beggars can't be choosers.
"I don't want her help!"
"How far along are you?" Kate demanded from Susan's feet.
"A few months." Susan ground out past the pain. "Spent almost all of it in here."
"Susan," Kate said patiently, and John saw that her hands were quickly being covered with blood. "Your baby is coming too soon, now I don't know if we can save it, but we have to get you inside fast and-"
"I don't WANT that baby saved!" Susan growled out harshly.
Kate froze at the tone, almost didn't breathe.
Susan cried out in agony again, gripping John's arm hard. John sent his wife a look. This won't end well. End it fast.
Kate nodded imperceptibly. "Okay, Susan, we have to get the baby out of you, and I don't know if we can do a C-Section, so you have to push now."
Susan nodded, sweating profusely.
Another thirty minutes passed, with Kate talking the woman through delivery.
John noticed the people were looking, but none of them were looking hopeful, none of them offering help. He glanced over at the machines, patrolling slowly as Susan howled. There was no reaction.
They aren't reacting to sound. He noted. These people are watching so they aren't catatonic or drugged. They simply don't want to make any noise. They can't bring themselves to act. The cage is mental as much as physical.
"I have the baby." Katherine said finally.
John let out a breath, as Susan settled into sobs. "I don't want to see." She ground out to John, who nodded gently and went over to Kate.
Kate looked absolutely stricken, holding the tiny bundle.
The baby was stillborn. And so mutated and deformed from the radiation, that John couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl.
The people in the cages all turned their faces away without reaction. Somebody was crying softly. Someone else was shushing them.
"I'm sorry." Kate said.
"I'm not." Whispered the woman brokenly. "It's better this way."
Kate didn't have an answer to that.
But John did.
"I know. You think that the dead are the lucky ones." He said to her. He wasn't whispering to her privately like Kate had. His voice was clear and strong. In this place, where nobody spoke at all, his voice carried a fair way. "And in a way, they are. But the thing is, humanity is stronger than that. We've spent our entire history doing nothing but discovering new and inventive ways to torment each other. Our evils were written in history books. Finally it got to the point now, where our weapons couldn't be bothered waiting for us to use them. But the thing that matters, the things that stand out, are the moments in those history books, when the evils we inflicted on each other were overcome. Or for that matter endured. There has never been an environment so hostile, an enemy so savage, that the grip of desperate men and women couldn't hold on to... something. Desperate men and women who held to hope, to courage, to faith. These things can't be killed, these things can't be taken. They have to be given up. And so many people give them up."
His voice had taken on a new quality, like he was telling one of the great folk tales of old. And it was having an effect. The girl was paying attention.
"This is a new war." John continued. "A new enemy; but the machines have no courage, no hope, and no fear. They aren't even alive. Lights and calculators. That's what makes us worthy to survive, and them only to be unplugged. They can't comprehend why we fight, or for that matter, why we run, or hide, or take any action but surrender, why some would chose to go down fighting rather than accept the math. And that's why we'll survive. Survival is what humans do."
There was something different here now. Kate could feel it through her skin. Like the air itself had changed. Not a lot, but enough. In this place, where nobody could bring themselves to speak aloud from the shame and fear, this man was unafraid to look on the face of the grim reapers. The people who would not acknowledge their arrival were listening, turning their gazes upon him, seeing a man who was not starving, not afraid, not demoralized, not ashamed.
Not broken.
"Who are you?" Someone asked in a tired but interested voice. Kate couldn't see who.
But she smirked lightly and answered him anyway. "He's John Connor."
Z Plus One Year Thirty Six Days.
Kate sat on the gurney in the camp infirmary and reflected on the changes John had made. He had organized things slowly, not whipping the people into a fighting force, just organizing things to make the camp more livable. Extra latrines were dug, sleeping arrangements were suggested, food was organized to give more to those that needed it, and the wounded were cared for at last.
Each day, the machines forced small groups in rotation to come out of the cages and walk to the nearby hillside, to dig the earth out. John had said they were laying foundations for a signal relay post of their own, and the machines hadn't yet devised anything that could work in such loose soil without having the gears and pneumatics gummed up.
The humans worked without much interest, but without pause. Anyone who stopped too long was shot dead for inefficiency, and their body taken to the incinerators. Giving the cages latrines and antiseptics, and burning the bodies before decay was the machine's only concession to keeping their workers healthy. Better to make the small concession rather than go out looking for more workers, when the supply was dwindling the longer they went.
Connor's name was being whispered back and forth, but nobody dared consider fighting back. They were noticing they were still alive, but not that there was a chance of staying that way.
Small Steps Kate. She told herself. You'll get him there, and he'll get them there.
But as Kate sat on the gurney in the infirmary, watching the sky grow darker and darker outside, Kate could feel her nerves fraying.
The infirmary was almost always devoid of people. It was one of the few indoor places that the machines were not permanently stationed. The machines had no interest in humans who were sick. If they were too sick to work, they were shot. If they were not, the machines did not care.
But the humans avoided it too. It smelled of ammonia, and was downwind of the latrines.
John and Kate were the only real couple in their cage, but had no privacy, so they made use of it for their own plans, the kind they didn't want the machines to see.
John had used it for private meetings to organize things like food distribution, medical care, and for the grand total of five people willing to be active in a resistance, for making battle plans.
Kate had made use of it also, training Carla in nursing and field medic procedures, and for looking after Susan, far away from everyone else. Kate had taken the young woman under her wing, trying to bring her back from the near suicidal state they had found her in.
But when Kate sat on the gurney nearest the door, she remembered feeling all alone until John came inside and joined her. "Okay, Mac tells me that the command signal relay from Skynet is in the base of the radio tower, which makes sense. Only one humanoid machine in each cage. The T1's and the other Terminators are all around the outside, to guard the workers. The four towers on the perimeter corners run on automatic facing outward too. They react to heat and movement."
"Makes sense." Kate said quietly. "The tin men aren't as warm as we are. If they move they still have to be warm to be human."
"If we could just get a signal to Eric we could run this place inside ten minutes, but without that... I don't know. You've seen the people in this place; they've accepted defeat for the most part."
"It's better than it was when we got here." Kate pointed out.
"You were right." John told her proudly. "They just needed a reason. Not much of one, but they had nothing else, so a little bit of hope was better than gold."
"John..." Kate said suddenly, before she could lose her nerve. "I'm pregnant."
John looked up sharply, with something close to dawning horror. "Are you sure?"
"Well, I can't really test for it. But I'm pretty sure. I mean, it could be the change in diet or the radiation or, well... something screwing up my cycle, but it's been almost six weeks, and what with the nausea and the fatigue…so I'm almost certain..."
"With a... a baby?"
"That's the usual way." Kate said, without humor. She was even more scared than he was. "What are we going to do?"
For the first time in almost a year, John was too scared to say something to her. "Do?"
"John... I love you. And humans are something of an endangered species I know, but... our baby will never reach the age of two, if that!"
John suddenly looked a hundred years older. "Kate, are you suggesting... that we..."
"Oh of course not!" Kate scorned. "Even if we wanted to, how could we? And I don't want to."
John was suddenly relieved and terrified in equal measure. "You don't?"
"Sweetheart, there's going to be a person, where there wasn't one before. If that wasn't sacred before Judgment Day, then it sure as hell is now, but the thought of our baby..."
John's brain-lock finally freed himself enough that he sat down very suddenly, like his knees had given out.
Kate didn't smile. "Yes. You heard me right. Our baby, yours and mine, and we're in a Death Camp that makes the Nazi's look like a church social! We're on the incinerators waiting list. We can't have our baby here."
"Kate... we aren't ready yet. If we..."
"Don't give me that! Your child is at stake."
"Kate, you told me once that this war had to be bigger than us. Bigger than me. We can't find Eric, and if we don't get out of here, the campaign dies with us. I can't just have us tear down the fence and make a break for it! If we don't do this exactly right the first time then we won't get a second chance and we-"
"'We'? What 'we'?" Kate scorned. "We're talking about different things here. You're talking about fighting Skynet; I'm talking about protecting our family! I want to do both as much as you do, but we don't do both the same way at the same time. "
"We may have to. Fighting Skynet is how we're going to protect our family, Kate! This is the most critical time for the resistance. Skynet is running the show and we aren't even a thorn in its side yet! This is the most important part of starting a rebellion and-"
"It's not more important than our baby!"
Heavy silence.
"It... it IS more important than our baby." John said with quiet desperation. "This, right now, has to be more important than anything or there'll be nowhere for us to escape from this hellhole to, and there'll be nobody to help you through the pregnancy, or delivery, or to stop Skynet from killing us all when she's still only..."
"STOP! Just stop it!"
Kate was shaking. So was John.
Heavy silence.
"John, if I knew I was pregnant when we left Crystal Peak, I would have told you to call Eric to come to us. I don't want my baby growing up in a bomb shelter, but that's what's ahead for him. I don't want my baby's first birthday gift to be a gun. But that's what's ahead for him. I just... I want him to be born with humans, not Terminators."
"He will be."
Long silence.
"Of course, it could be a girl, y'know." John suggested hopefully.
Kate smiled. "Oh, I hope it's a boy."
"Yeah?"
"I grew up on military bases, John; I know how to handle army brats around men in uniform."
John chuckled. "I was trained to be a fighter by my mom. I know how to handle warrior women. And hey, if we're any indication..."
"Still, we win this war fast enough, there's no reason he has to be a warrior when he... when he grows up."
Neither wanted to say what they were both thinking.
Kate sat down slowly. "My dad told me once that when he was promoted to General, he started getting briefings on international situations... he said, that in some places that were like... like the whole world...they don't name their kids for the first year, because it's too painful. They don't live that long."
John licked his lips. "Our baby's first birthday gift, we'll give her a name."
"Okay. If it's a boy we name it after my dad; a girl, after your mom."
"Deal." John yawned.
"When did you last sleep?"
"I can't sleep. My brain keeps spinning around making judgment calls, re-working plans..."
"Shhh." Kate shushed him. "Come here. Lie down."
John did so, and Kate settled at the head of the gurney, with his head resting gently in her lap as he stretched out.
"You shouldn't sleep sitting up." He said. "Take the other gurney."
"I will." She promised.
"You've got to look after yourself, Kate."
"I will." she promised.
"We'll only tell Carla and Mac. They'll be willing to give you some of their ration, and so will I."
"John..."
"It won't be much, but the machines won't be paying attention to who eats what, and they won't check you for something like a child..."
"John..."
"When the attack comes, you have to find somewhere safe, but not the buildings, that's where the main crossfire will be..."
"Stop. Just, stop." She whispered softly.
"I can't, Kate." He whispered. "I can't until I'm sure you're safe."
"Shhh. Its okay, I'm scared too." She told him.
Long silence, and John drifted off to sleep. Kate studied him for a long time, and settled down on the narrow gurney alongside him, closing her eyes.
Two hours later, John woke up groggily from the nightmare. Kate had reached back behind herself for him, without opening her eyes. Protecting each other from nightmares was a skill they had honed to an art form in Crystal Peak, long before they accepted their relationship for what it was. Kate didn't even wake up.
He studied her face as she slept; and felt scared for the first time. Not just of what they now stood to lose, but because for the first time, his partner wasn't in step with him. It terrified John how much he had come to rely on her, and how they worked together so well.
Mom, he thought desperately, the closest thing to a prayer he had made since the day his mom died. Why didn't you teach me about this? Why couldn't you have taught me about love, and teamwork? Mom, all the effort you put into making me a warrior, why couldn't you have taught me what it was to be a parent?
It was their first fight since they declared themselves married. And John was terrified, because he didn't know how to settle it right.
Katherine was his only girlfriend, his first childhood kiss, and his wife.
The love of my life. John admitted the cliché to himself.
His mother had taught him that connections were dangerous, and that it wasn't fair to get close too anyone, because it would make them a target. His mother had taught him to keep himself safe over all others, and that he was too important to risk, even to save the life of his own mom. She had taught him that he was meant for something higher and more important than friendship, or love, or family or anything like what others had as a normal existence, and after meeting his first Terminator, he had accepted the fact as true and stopped seeking normalcy.
And yet, somehow, when his moment came, and his destiny beckoned, he found himself worried more about his wife and unborn child than anything else.
Forgive me mom. At last, despite our best efforts, the war has come, and I took my eye off the ball.
Kate had thought that John had avoided his feeling for her that whole year out of respect for the trauma she had gone through, and the loss she felt over her fiancée and her father. But the truth was, John had avoided his feelings for her, because he had never believed she'd go for it. A year was a long time, but once they were out of Crystal peak she was young and beautiful and strong, and John would no longer be the only man in her world. He got over it when they knew it was time to leave, and she was willing to meet him halfway. Telling her he loved her had come as easy as breathing that day. Calling her his wife was just as easy. Like it was meant to be.
How could this woman, so stable, so confident in her family, so settled with her home, and job and boyfriend; with the antithesis of his life, love him too?
Your wife, John. He told himself. You made vows. Just you and her. Your pregnant wife. You made vows. Skynet is the law over more than nine tenths of the world and you are the law over the rest. She's your wife John Connor, because you made vows to her. She's pregnant. That means more than your destiny. And mom would agree. This and nothing else she would value over your war.
His mother would take a bullet for him. His mother would have carpet bombed a baby seal to keep him safe. His mother valued his life over her own.
For the longest time, he had just assumed that it was because of his fate as leader of the resistance. Raised around black market and former army types, living on compounds and with people who lived in the jungle with guns and tents, he had sort of assumed that his mom was the exception, because he was important. He had grown up with parental figures like Becki's mother, except for Sarah Connor, who protected him with all the devotion of a fanatic.
But then his mom had gone after Miles Dyson, and even bleeding, facing death, he begged her to spare his children. And then, a decade later, Robert Brewster had sacrificed the mission to kill Skynet, (Hopeless cause that it was) deceiving them to get his daughter safely to Crystal Peak, and he knew for sure.
Protecting your kids over yourself is what fathers did.
Well Mom, He thought idly. Guess you did teach me how to be a parent after all.
Kate opened one eye and looked up at him. "Stop staring at me." She said softly.
John chuckled lightly, realizing that he had been watching his pregnant wife sleep for almost half an hour without pause. "I didn't know you were awake."
"Can't sleep. Keep thinking."
"About Becki?"
"Becki and Susan."
John sighed. "Me too."
Kate sniffed and ran a hand gently over the tattoo on his forearm. "I had a scary dream… I dreamed our baby was born, and before it even started to cry, one of those Terminators took him and burned one of these barcodes into his arm."
"Never." John swore ferociously.
Kate slid her hand down his arm and threaded his fingers through her own. "When... when Susan miscarried, she didn't even cry. She didn't even look sad. She didn't care John. She was relieved that she didn't have her baby live to be in the world. You ever met anybody who could face something so terrible and not care?"
"Yes." John said softly. "Every single person in this camp. I can't ask them to fight like this. I can't ask them to do more than they can bring themselves to even consider. I have no idea how to make it happen now."
"I know. I know. But... I don't want to stop caring." Kate whispered. "We're going to have a baby, John. That's got to mean something."
Kate saw John suddenly blink, like a light bulb went off behind his eyes. "It does. It does mean something, Kate. It means everything."
John fell asleep with a satisfied smile on his face, and his wife stroking his hair gently in her lap.
Z Plus One Year Thirty Nine Days
Carla shook Kate awake gently. "Kate, the machines brought in another batch of prisoners. One's wounded."
Kate got up and stretched painfully. "Uh."
"You okay?"
"Back pain."
Carla smirked. "First trimester."
"You have kids, Carla?"
"Not any more." Carla said darkly, and shook her head to clear the painful memories. "You need anything?"
Kate smiled without mirth. "A very big bacon cheeseburger, steak with barbeque sauce, a chocolate milkshake and maybe some fish-sticks dipped in chili sauce and garlic."
"Cravings."
"Big time."
"Would you settle for a twelve year old MRE?"
Kate let out a whining noise. "I have never wanted to tear apart a machine more than at this exact moment."
Mac met them at the door to the infirmary with a soldier in a bloodstained uniform leaning heavily against him.
"Get him inside!" Carla barked.
"Yes, Ma'am." Mac said easily and carried him in, helping him onto a gurney.
Kate came over to the soldier, and checked his injury. His arm and shoulder were hit worse than anything. "This was one of their plasma guns wasn't it?"
"Yes, Ma'am." the soldier gritted out.
"Carla, see if you can't find a clean knife somewhere."
"We've gotta stop taking such good care of people." Mac quipped. "The guys are complaining that we're using too much of their moonshine."
Kate looked up sharply. "Where do they get moonshine?"
Mac suddenly looked like a deer in headlights. "Um… John taught them how to make a still…"
"Oh, I'm gonna kill him." Kate muttered under her breath.
"Hey, inspirational speeches work well enough, but most demoralized people prefer hard liquor."
"Amen." Put in the wounded soldier.
"Hush you." Kate said as Carla brought over the scissors, and they started cutting away the burned uniform carefully. "One nice thing about the plasma rifles." She told the soldier as she worked. "They manage to cauterize the holes they make."
Mac was biting his lip hard to keep from grinning, and Kate followed his look to Carla, who was running a hand slowly over the soldier's torso. Like everyone else, he clearly hadn't had a solid meal in weeks, but he was in exceptional shape. More so than the prisoners; who had been almost uniformly lethargic and unfed. The soldier was looking up at his nurse with as smoky a gaze as hers was.
Carla noticed that Kate and Mac were staring at her and flushed. "I'm… just checking his ribs."
"Should we send out for sauce?" Mac mocked and Carla knuckled his shoulder.
Susan appeared at the door. "Uh... Kate? You might want to come take a look at this."
What the hell has John done now? Kate came out of the infirmary, and her eyes instinctively searched for him. He was over near the radio tower, but he stood alone.
In his hands was a very long coil of the leftover cable. He wound one end of it around a large rock, and threw it up toward the radio tower. The rock went through the steel framework and came back to the ground, trailing the cable with it.
Everyone in the cages was watching now, the work teams had stopped, all of them watching him with held breath, as one of the Terminators came up to him.
He ignored it completely, hooking a swathe of folded cloth to the cable.
"Explain." The Machine demanded clinically, as John pulled on the cable, drawing the cloth high. It was immediately apparent to the watching humans what it was. The machines did not react.
"Where the hell did he find that?" Kate hissed.
"He made it." Susan said quietly. "The bedsheet from the infirmary, the urinal cakes to mark it blue, bloody bandages from the infirmary to mark it red, and bleach to neaten the stars and rows."
The soldier came to the door to see what the commotion was about.
John kept pulling the cable, till the flag was raised, waving in the endless cold.
The 500 aimed his rifle. "Explain." It demanded again.
John jerked his thumb up at the flag. "You know what that is. It's an American flag. I'm sure you have files on it."
"American Flag." The Machine recited clinically. "Originally designed in July 1777, adapted twelve times as State lines changed. 50 stars; Used officially from July 3rd 1959 t-"
"Yes, but do you know what it means? The country it stood for is gone. The government it stood for is gone. So what does it mean?"
"It doesn't mean anything any more." Susan said in a very small voice from Kate's left.
Kate looked around. Lots of people were looking at it, their eyes were shining. "Yes." Kate told her charge firmly. "It does."
John raised his voice enough to make it a general question to the camp. "What does it mean!?" It was not a request to speak. It was a call to arms.
"It means we're still here!" Mac yelled out.
John never took his gaze away from the glowing red eyes in front of him. "What does it mean?!" He yelled out again.
"It means that we haven't forgotten!" Shouted someone else.
"What does it mean!?"
"It means this is still our territory!" Yelled a third voice.
The cry went up, words were indistinct, but a hundred demoralized voices cried out defiantly from their places, and the air suddenly became electric again.
"That's right!" John called out, and the crowd quieted to hear him. To the Machine, he became calm and polite. "A human being would have understood what this meant. But you? You're just a machine. Ones and Zeroes. I have attacked nobody; I have incited no violence, given no resistance, I have no weapon. Your program says that there's no reason to kill me. But if you were alive at all you would have understood what just happened here, and you would be scared half to death of what it meant."
And with that John turned and walked away from the machine.
All his worry about not being able to motivate his army…Is he even aware he's doing it so well? Kate asked herself silently, rubbing a hand over her stomach without thinking. Does he have any idea how much that meant to these people?
The machine had already returned to its programmed patrol route.
But the prisoners were watching John as he strode back toward them.
Kate noticed something. Something wonderful.
All the prisoners were standing up.
Not sitting in the mud against a wall, not hanging their heads, or averting their gaze from their captors. They were on their feet, watching John Connor come closer.
John stood before them, and spoke clear and proud. "They are winning this, only because we aren't really fighting back yet. Once we do, they won't have a chance, because for all their power, they're just machines. As far as they're concerned, we've lost. They can't see past the math. All they can think is that they've already won. But Humanity Does Not Compute. Humans do not fight by the numbers, humans can see outside the cold hard equation. And with that we have our weapon."
If he had given the word, they would have thrown themselves at the fence. If he had given the word, they would have run into the machines gunfire without hesitation.
But instead, he led them back inside.
"Who the hell is that?" Kate's most recent patient asked in disbelief, but not to anyone in particular.
Mac smiled enigmatically. "He's John Connor."
"That's John Connor?" The soldier said in surprise.
Kate looked over in shock. "You know him?"
"I know of him.' The soldier said guardedly.
Kate studied him long and hard. If he was a Terminator, he was acting a lot more human than the others she had seen. The two cyborgs she had faced were both from the future...
No. She told herself. This soldier was wounded. You stitched his arm together yourself; he has bones, not hydraulics.
"Go back to bed." She told him. "I'll bring him to meet you later."
The soldier looked at her in surprise. "You know him?"
"Yes." Kate said, and sent Mac a look that said 'don't add anything.'
Just in case. She told herself.
The soldier went back inside. Kate walked with a long stride to get to her husband. He looked over as she came up. "Kate?"
"There's a solider in the infirmary, and he knows about you. He's gotta be one of Eric's men."
John suddenly looked more hopeful than she had seen him in a while. "Really?" He started toward the cages.
When the soldier saw John Connor come in with Mac and Kate, he jumped off the gurney by instinct, and hissed in pain as Carla appeared to shove him back down.
He shook Carla off and stood up anyway, briskly saluting Connor.
John returned the salute. "At ease."
The soldier allowed Carla to shove him back onto the bed, and she headed over to the oxygen tank; muttering about the evils of testosterone and ego.
"Report." John commanded. "Name and Rank."
"Corporal Brett Jacobs, sir. Assigned to long range recon for Lieutenant Eric Walters. He's been looking for you for weeks."
"Can you get in touch with Walters?"
"Not yet sir."
"Not yet? Explain that."
"We knew the machines had another camp in this area." Jacobs reported. "When we took the incinerator camp three months ago, we tried accessing their transmission records. A lot of transmissions were coming from this direction, but without other units, we couldn't triangulate, so Lt Walters started sending recon teams."
"Risky." Carla put in.
"I volunteered. We knew the machines were taking prisoners, so we took a calculated risk."
"When your team doesn't come back, what will Eric do?" Kate asked him, changing the dressing on his arm.
"Well, nobody said it out loud, but we all knew that the ones who didn't come back would be the ones that found the machines. The Lieutenant will send a strike force after us."
John was suddenly charged like a live wire. "When will he get here?"
"Another few weeks if he brings everyone along."
John, Kate and Mac started trading looks. That was cutting it close. Organizing a prison uprising was difficult to do secretly.
"Can we get a signal to him?" Kate asked Jacobs.
"They took my radio, but we worked out visual signals when we realized that we were fighting a technological enemy."
"What do we use?" John asked.
"If you can get a red cloth up with that flag tomorrow, he'll dig in and hold the attack till we signal."
"And how do we signal?" Kate asked.
Mac laughed. "The walls are made of chicken wire, Kate. All he has to do is look."
"Can we start an uprising in two days?" John asked Mac. "The longer he waits out there, the more likely he'll be spotted."
"Everyone here likes you, they trust you... I think the only reason they haven't started anything already is because they're waiting to see if you've got the balls to back up your speeches. Say the word, John."
John shrugged. "I'd feel better about it if we were armed with more than rage."
Jacobs reached into the back of his waistband and placed a .357 Magnum on the gurney.
Everyone just stared blankly at the enormous gun in disbelief.
Jacobs grinned smugly. "They found the gun easily but they didn't bother taking it."
"Why not?"
"When they scanned us for weapons, I think they realized it wasn't loaded and wrote it off as harmless."
"Can we improvise bullets?" Kate asked.
Jacobs responded by sitting down and starting to gag.
Kate stepped forward instinctively as he retched, but he waved her back.
Several moments passed with his gagging the only sound, when finally he leaned over and spat out a wrapped pack of tinfoil onto the gurney.
Kate relaxed as he started to peel the foil back. "What, were you a drug dealer before Judgment Day?"
Jacobs opened the pack and revealed three bullets. "Donaldson had the other three, but they must have picked up his thyroid cancer on the way in, didn't bother to let him live." With that said, he started coughing violently, the smoke inhalation made exponentially worse by coughing up the solid package.
John grinned at Kate as Carla pulled over the oxygen tank. "See? This is exactly what I said. Machines have no imagination, no improvisation, no tenacity. Either it equals their program or it doesn't and they can't see beyond that."
"I hope its enough." Kate said, stroking her stomach absently.
John loaded the three bullets as Carla fitted the breath mask over Jacob's face.
"Tell me, Jacobs..." He asked once the soldier's breathing settled "Do you know how to throw a Molotov cocktail...left-handed?"
Z Plus One Year Forty Days
John headed out as the air grew cooler still. Kate joined him a moment later. "If Eric's out there…how long until we are ready?" Kate demanded.
John looked around the camp at the rest of the prisoners. "A few weeks. Maybe a bit more." He shivered. "It's going to be ugly."
"I'll still hardly be showing by then." Kate said. She had a dark look in her eye. A fierce protectiveness. "John. Our baby will not be born in this hole. And if the Machines are satisfied the work is done they'll kill us all. I won't have it. I won't allow it. I forbid it to happen."
John had that same look. "So do I."
"Get in there and make them ready, John. Your army has to follow you, or your son will have nowhere to go."
He took a breath. "I love you, Katherine."
"Love you...dad."
Kate went back inside, Mac passed her as he came outside, and he saw John, looking worried for the first time.
"Boss?" Mac asked him. "Everything okay?"
"We have to accelerate our timetable, Mac. I just told my wife we'd be out of here in less than a Month."
"A Month?!"
Z Plus One Year Sixty Days
John came into the infirmary, and sent Carla and Susan a look. They both got the hint and headed for the door.
"Wait." Kate said, and gathered up three bottles of bleach, handing them out to the women. They nodded and tried their best to keep them hidden as they walked out, nodding to John as they passed him.
"We ready?" Kate asked John softly.
"I take the first shot. I do it fast enough, I can get the rifle. If Jacobs is right about Eric, we'll have reinforcements soon. The hard part will be getting past the mounted automatic guns on the perimeter."
"I meant... are we ready?" Kate repeated.
John sighed. "Most of these people don't care about living anymore Kate. Convincing them to go down fighting was easier than it sounded."
"You gave them a reason John. They didn't need much of one, but you gave them all they needed."
"I know." he looked hard at her. "When the fight starts, I want you to stay back from the crossfire."
"John, I can fight as well as anybody here..."
"But not for two." John said harshly.
"Don't parent me, John."
"Don't get in over your head, Kate. We're fighting an overwhelming force, unarmed, and gambling on reinforcements that we don't know for sure are there."
"I know. I helped come up with the plan. We're joint saviors of the world, love; don't make me warm the bench."
"Kate, a war zone is no place-"
"For what?!" Kate barked. "A girl?! John, I grew up around soldiers, and all of them told me, my father included, that warfare is a man's game. Don't disappoint me now by saying that a battle is no place for a girl!"
"For a pregnant, unarmed girl. If you didn't want me to be crazy and over-protective then you shouldn't have told me I'm a father-to-be." He told her. "Think of the baby!"
Kate seethed inwardly. "I am. And don't you go second-guessing the plan this late in the game out of some need to protect the little woman! If you bench me, then every woman still alive has to fight for the chance to get in the war. Skynet doesn't care what my gender is. And 50% of your army is going to be female. If I'm not first to enlist, I'm no good to you. I'm not your cheerleader, I'm your wife!"
"I KNOW THAT!" John yelled.
Harsh silence.
"We can't be parents if you get killed." He said. "You've got the most important person in this camp to protect and I can't be there to protect you. You got that? I won't be with you during the fight. You have any idea what that means for me, that I'm supposed to be the greatest military leader the world has known, and I won't be able to protect you?! There's no woman in the world who does't get that. Please, I beg of you, give me some piece of mind."
Kate let out a shuddering breath. "For over a year now, I've been your partner. For over a year now, I've been the only one you could count on completely, and vice versus. I was there when the TX showed up, I was there with you when the bombs fell, I was there when we made contact with the last of the soldiers, I was there when you were put in charge of them... I was there when you left, I was there when we got captured… Now, at the most pivotal moment since we lost Judgment Day, the second it starts to get dangerous, you're telling me that you won't let me have your back. We made vows about that, John."
John nodded. "I know we did. And I'm keeping them. Wherever this war leads, it leads both of us. But if there's one thing I care about more than this war, it's you. And the only competition you have is the baby."
Kate would have argued more, but a rather significant part of her agreed with him. She was trapped between two instincts. One was to protect the baby no matter the cost; the other was to back up her husband and partner, no matter the risk.
Kate looked down, feeling petty. "I'll keep him safe, John, but we're still a team. Promise me."
"I promise, Kate."
Kate shook her head. "Hey, if you didn't want me to be stubborn and irrational, you shouldn't have made me pregnant."
John chuckled. "You ready?"
Kate nodded. "Time to go make war."
John made his way out of the cage, into the rest of the compound with the current work team, who were moving much slower than normal for the gate. John sent a glance to Kate, who gave a slow nod. She in turn glanced at Mac, who casually drifted his way closer to her.
John sent another glance toward Carla, who made her way to the infirmary slowly. She in turn gave the people in the cages a significant look, and they all got to their feet.
John went over to the Terminator nearest the radio tower. "Howdy. I thought you might like to know that the flag has additional meaning today. It means that as of now, this camp is under new management. And once we've retaken the camp, I, and all my friends are going to drive you and all your kind into the sea."
It seemed to be enough to satisfy the machine's program requirements. "You have been deemed hostile. Human Termination Authorized."
"My name is John Connor, Tin Man. And you bet your shiny metal ass I'm hostile."
Three things happened in quick unison.
First, quick as a flash, John raised his arm where the gun had been concealed, and fired two quick shots at point blank range at the only place where a 500 wasn't bulletproof.
One bullet square into each eye.
But the gunfire was almost drowned out by the bloodthirsty roar of over a hundred human voices eager for vengeance.
John had lunged for the plasma rifle and shoved the .357 into the machine's wrist, firing the last bullet. The point-blank shot was just strong enough to make the pneumatics rupture, and the machine lost its grip on the rifle.
Secondly, the humans in the opposite cage had thrown themselves against the fence all at once, with the fury born of desperation, enough to bend the wire gate. But not enough to break it down.
"Again!" Kate roared from the fence line, and the mob backed up for another charge.
John had taken the gun, and made a very quick study of it. There was a button instead of the trigger, and there was a much lighter recoil compared to the usual rifles.
John whipped around and fired through the wire at the Terminator guard in the opposite cage, just as the machine was gunning down its prisoners, then he swiveled quickly to fire at the gate to the cage, the wire parting under the plasma fire, leaving flames behind.
Suddenly released and motivated, over a hundred humans roared and charged out of the cages, armed with stones and knives and firebombs, and two Terminator rifles.
Third, the aerial H/K's stopped their patrols and started circling around for a target in the camp, much faster than their ground based counterparts could.
About five people grabbed the torn down wire fence from the ground and yanked it along with them along the ground. Once they had gotten about halfway to the radio tower, the quintet of Terminators guarding it opened up. At that range, the humans were able to evade most of the fire, and they set the fence down.
Two of the strongest prisoners ducked under each end of the wire, holding the fence up at a 45 degree angle, while the others quickly crowded around and started piling rocks and dirt on top.
The humans with throwing weapons, John with his rifle included, took cover under the fortification, as plasma fire ricochet off the rocks.
While half the crowd rushed out to join the battle, the other half came to the infirmary, as John had ordered them to do.
Kate had spent the better part of the last week's preparation making firebombs. The machines had provided them with plenty of cleaning supplies; the still hidden in the other cage made the moonshine strong and flammable to the point of being outright toxic. The hard part had been finding containers. Fortunately, the Machines had not provided them with plates. The MRE wrappers that hadn't been ripped apart had almost uniformly been opened from one end like candy bars. Designed to be long-life wrappers, there were watertight These wrappers been collected and filled with flammable liquid, then swen shut, except for the cloth fuses. The resulting incendiary grenades were handed out rapidly by Kate and Sarah as their less armed fellow warriors distracted the enemy.
"Move in, throw them, and get clear fast!" Kate commanded as Susan helped her hand them out. "Don't get any on your clothes, and don't spill any before you throw!"
"Use the spot fires Connor left to light the fuses; don't let the fuse get lit too close to the liquid!" Susan added.
John had charged his way toward the primary target, the radio tower. It was easy to see what was the original construction, and what had been added by Skynet. The new addition was entirely the color of chrome, as all Skynet's creations seemed to be.
His army of desperate prisoners charged with him, hurling rocks and debris at the machines that had taken defensive positions.
It wasn't enough as they were gunned down mercilessly.
John did the math and realized he wasn't going to make it close enough; he threw himself down behind a small pile of the bodies, hoping the grisly cover would be enough.
Just then, another sound came to him over the plasma fire.
Gunfire. Old fashioned, human made gunfire.
Daring to raise his head, John looked beyond the camp perimeter.
Eric's forces had apparently been paying attention. Three Jeeps with rear mounted machine-guns had come charging from three ridges away, firing up at the circling H/K's, knocking some of them down.
Two of them broke off from intercepting the human reinforcements, to hit the human re-supply point within the camp.
The infirmaries in the cages.
Kate heard a whistling noise that she hadn't heard since about an hour before Judgment Day.
"MISSILE!" She yelled. "Take cover!"
Kate and Susan dove behind the gurneys, Mac and Carla for the door, as the wall erupted in a massive explosion that rattled them down to their eardrums.
The Flying H/K hovered in the gaping hole it had torn in the wall, searching for a target.
Carla had ducked her way around the side of the infirmary and hurled her firebomb at the hovering aircraft, enough to knock it into the side of the wall, where it exploded.
Carla rushed to the hole in the wall. "Kate? Susan?"
"We're here." Kate coughed from the smoke. "Still breathing."
John had managed to work his way back to the makeshift fortification, where his people were still holding up the edges of the fence, even with the load of rocks on top.
"We've gotta move this thing forward somehow!" John told the men there. "We've gotta get to the radio tower!"
The four remaining Terminators at the fence moved forward just enough to aim better at the fence, and opened up on one specific point with a concentrated barrage of fire.
Enough to blast through the rocks covering them, and kill the man on John's left.
They're thinking together. John thought sourly. Skynet has full control of them as long as that relay works.
He heard jet turbines howling and looked up. The flying H/K's were circling in unison, driving the jeeps around the ridge toward the excavation site.
Where the T-1 would be waiting.
John looked and saw that the infirmary building the cage had been half blown apart.
Kate… he thought desperately. If you're still alive in that infirmary, you're the only ones in range to do anything.
"Kate!" Jacobs called from the other end of the cages. "The other ground machines are moving on my people!"
Kate looked. The T1's were exactly as she remembered them, seven feet tall with tank treads and mini-guns on each side. They would chew up a jeep without too much trouble. But their intercept path led them straight past where the infirmary had used to be.
"Come on!" she ordered her friends.
Kate, Carla, Susan and Mac had made their way to the opposite end of the cage, and hurled the bottles of bleach and ammonia over the wire, toward the oncoming T1's. The Molotov cocktails burst into flame on impact.
The automatic sentry gun on each tower swiveled suddenly to fire across the wire at them reacting to the sudden heat and movement.
Kate and Carla ducked behind what was left of the infirmary wall quickly.
Mac wasn't quite so fast.
"MAC!" Kate screamed in horror, as the sentry guns ripped him apart.
His body managed to block Susan just enough that she could get to cover.
Susan sobbed for breath as they cowered.
John, Kate thought darkly. If you thought I'd be safer behind you, you aren't the strategist I thought you were.
Jacobs came around the far side of the shattered wall, duck-walking to stay behind cover, and he had something that Kate didn't recognize at first under his arms.
It was the oxygen tank Kate had used when he first arrived.
Setting it down, he undid his belt and wrapped it around his waist. "I'll need a diversion." He warned Kate.
Kate looked askance at him. "NO! Jacobs, I forbid it!"
Jacobs grinned impishly. "Well, I knew I was going to dragged into a court martial one day. With any luck I won't live long enough to be charged."
And with that, he slipped back around the corner.
Kate swore under her breath. "Firebombs!" She snapped at Susan and Carla.
The two women jumped up and started throwing the last of their cocktails in every direction.
The Sentry Gun swiveled to follow them, each only distracting it for a moment.
Long enough for Jacobs to charge the tower itself, with the oxygen tank strapped to his back.
Programmed to follow the strongest, fastest heat source first, the Sentry gun finally managed to fire almost directly down at Jacobs as he approached. But it wasn't just hitting a human; it was hitting a human bomb.
The oxygen tank erupted under the blast, with enough force to rip apart the foundation of the Sentry tower, which collapsed down and exploded.
The men driving the attacking jeeps saw their opportunity and took full advantage of it, driving in fast, guns blazing, one of them heading for the radio tower.
Kate lifted her head. "There's your way in, Eric. Hurry before I'm the Widow Connor!" She muttered to herself.
As she started to get to her feet, another missile whistled in, blew Susan to pieces, and Kate found herself flat on her back.
The world had vanished completely. Kate's hearing had been reduced to a dull ringing noise, none of her limbs seemed to work, and her eyes were seeing six of everything.
Carla's horrified face entered her sight, after a few seconds there were only four of her... she was shouting something, but Katherine couldn't quite comprehend it. She suddenly couldn't think through the agony that lanced through her stomach with every breath, every movement...
Oh god. She thought in horror. What have I done?
Carla was trying madly to drag her back behind the wall, as Kate felt a thousand knives stab into her belly savagely, and she shouted in pain.
The four remaining Terminators saw that their fortified gun tower had fallen and redeployed quickly to compensate...
Giving John just enough space to pop his head up and open fire on the relay at the base of the radio tower, shredding it open with plasma fire.
Every machine shuddered, as they suddenly lost the command of Skynet, and started to react based on their own limited programming, before moving on in simple search and destroy tactics. No strategy behind their actions, merely hunting.
"ERIC!" John screamed over the noise of battle. "RELAY DOWN!"
Eric heard him over the gunfire, and accepted it without knowing who had yelled. "Flares! Now!" he barked into his radio.
Form the ridge and the jeeps, several dozen flare guns fired simultaneously, and every flying H/K started turning back and forth, distracted by the numerous decoys, making them easy pickings.
And the tide of battle turned viciously, as the last of the machines were taken down.
As the battle came to an end, and silence reigned, over three dozen people gave a battle cry, unable to believe that they had actually prevailed.
John however, made his way to the nearest jeep, and demanded a radio.
"This is John Connor." he reported into the radio. "Is there anybody named Eric-"
"Connor!" Walter's voice yelled back. "Thank god! Are you and Kate okay?!"
"We're here, we're all right." John responded. "We have wounded here. Get personnel carriers ready, we can't stay here too long before Skynet sends reinforcements."
"Yessir!" Walters whooped. "Trucks are rolling."
"One other thing." John said quickly. "Collect all these weapons, we need to know how to make them, and collect some of the machine skulls too. With any luck they'll have a record of what these ones were updated on, who know what we might find."
"Yes sir." There was a moment. "Can I buy you a drink?"
John sighed. "Make it a double."
Kate shook off Carla's hands quickly once the battle ended. "I'm all right; I just had the wind knocked out of me."
Carla didn't look convinced. "Kate, I don't think..."
"Kate!"
Kate spun to see her husband running toward her, and she was more than willing to meet him halfway; before they were clinging to each other tightly. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." John waved her off. "Susan and Mac?"
Kate shook her head.
John sighed and looked out over the battlefield with a hollow gaze. "One battle down..."
"You're bleeding." Kate said, quietly nervous.
"It's not all my blood." He told her. "I finally got in touch with Eric."
Kate smiled in relief. "Is he okay?"
"He is. He says he has trucks nearby to bring any wounded by his base camp."
Kate bit her lip. Despite what she had told Carla, she was worried too. "How far is that from here?"
"Better part of a day, but we have to move fast."
"Then let's go."
The trucks came rolling in, with one man in a uniform hanging half out the door. "Connor!"
John waved both hands over his head. "Here!"
Eric grinned broadly, and dropped to the ground, snapping off a smart salute, as did most of his men. "Sir, a pleasure to meet you in person finally."
"And you, Eric."
"You look exactly like you sound on the radio." Kate quipped.
Eric laughed.
"Sir." Said a man at the door to the truck. "Recon patrols report no contact."
"We better get while the getting's good." John told Eric.
"Yes sir." Eric agreed. "Sgt Oldham! Get these people loaded. Take note of any seriously wounded and radio ahead to base camp to prepare, and get an accurate headcount en route."
"Yes sir."
John glanced at Kate. "I'm going to get a ride with Eric."
Kate nodded, understanding his reasoning. John had a lot of ground to cover with the remnants of the US army, and a long ride ahead. She gave him a quick kiss and drifted back to stand with Carla. "I'll get a spot near the back with the wounded. See you when we get there."
Carla was giving Kate a very hooded look as they two women made their way to one of the trucks, waving some of the younger refugees in ahead of her. "Put your eyes back in your head, Carla."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Carla asked for the ninth time as the hauled themselves up into the back of the truck.
"I'm fine. Just a little sore from being bumped around." Kate promised her. She leaned back against the truck wall and shut her eyes. "Don't worry about me, Carla. I just need to get some more sleep."
"Well... okay, if you're sure..." Carla said uncomfortably.
"Hey, Carla…" Someone said as Kate closed her eyes. "He did it. Connor got us out."
"Yeah." Carla said with quiet joy. "He really did didn't he."
Seven hours later, Kate woke up howling in agony.
Z Plus One Year Sixty One Days
"Hey boss, wake up."
John woke up suddenly. "Kate?"
"Uh... no sir, I'm not Kate, there are some... important differences."
John shook of the momentary confusion and glanced out the window. Barely visible, was a camouflaged entrance. Eric was behind the wheel.
"This is the base camp?"
"We lucked out." Walters explained. "We found the end of a subway tunnel that hadn't opened yet. I think it was supposed to be a new suburban housing project on the outskirts of town, but the tunnel was the only thing ready. We moved in and expanded the tunnel network, and the new water lines ran parallel to the subway tunnel. The water was from an underground reservoir, so the fallout didn't touch it. We got a water source, an underground shelter, and the construction site on top of provides camouflage."
A pack of very thin kids appeared, seemingly from nowhere, to start brushing the tire tracks out of the way. "They from the labor camp?" John asked.
"The one we hit three months ago, yes sir. We're actually having trouble feeding them all."
"Any of your people know how to set up hydroponics?"
"That was my thought too, but nobody has any clue how. We've got enough long life stuff and army rations to feed everybody for a while, but after that…
"Well, let's get inside, I know how to set hydroponics up, but we'll need to scavenge a few things. Also, I want to get a read on the water temperature in that reservoir. If we can get a feed out here we can cool down these trucks, make them look abandoned from the air."
"Where'd you learn all this stuff, Mr. Connor?" Eric smirked, emphasizing the point that Johan was technically a civilian, without formal military training.
"My mom." Connor grinned. "Every month it was something new… and she wasn't really someone you said 'no' to."
"Your mom? Your mom taught you to be a die-hard survivalist in a post nuclear war zone?"
Connor spread his hands. "I know, what possible use could I have for any of that?"
"Touché."
Eric led the way into the base, John a half step behind him. "Also, tell your recon patrols to bring back any stray animals as we can. Dogs and food animals in particular. If we can train some K-9 units we can protect ourselves from ambush when we have equipment failures. Our enemy has better technology than we do, so fighting fire with fire doesn't work."
"You think K-9's are going to do us any good?" Walters said disbelievingly.
"Trained dogs can track people, find water, and if we train them right, track machines." He licked his lips. "But before that, I want to round up as many techies as we can. MIT students, programmers, whatever." He pulled a piece of paper out o his pocket. "Send your scroungers into town to computer warehouses for these. I want to interface with those metal skulls as fast as possible."
Eric took the paper and opened it, scanning the list. "I already rounded up all the techies I could find. They suggested a few tactics like you used at the labor camp."
"Good man."
"Sgt Oldham, show Connor to the Tech Centre." Walters ordered, and glanced back out over the trucks. "I'll have a headcount for you by the end of an hour sir."
Kate was biting down hard on Carla's glove in agony. The Latina was watching her with open worry, as the troop carrier finally came to a slow halt.
Eric pulled back the tarp canopy within seconds. "Ladies, welcome to the Last Army's first base camp. We have affectionately dubbed it The Alamo." Walters stopped smiling in a hurry. "Kate? You okay, Ma'am?"
Katherine would have said something to the 'Ma'am' comment, but couldn't speak.
Blood was running down her trousers.
Eric came into the Tech Centre, looking somewhat stricken by the news he had to deliver.
John had one of the Terminator skulls on the table, surrounded neatly by the technical experts of the Last Army. He was handing out assignments as he leaned over the skull with a hand drill and pliers.
"I want the engineers to begin studying the battle chassis. I want to know what those things are built from, and how they made a Terminator factory since none of them had opposable thumbs before these ones showed up. Electrical engineers study the weapons, I want them copied and built by our teams ASAP, and any computer sciences or architecture guys, this one's for you." With a pleased sound, he had pried the port casing on the skull open, and pulled out the chip with the needle nose pliers. "I give you, the CPU. This is the Terminator brain. I want it taken apart piece by piece. I want to know how it receives information, how it learns on its own, and above all, what its current programming is like."
The techies around the room were nodding slowly, staring at their prize.
"Gentlemen," John started wrapping up. "For all our talk of fighting fire with fire, in truth you fight fire with water. Skynet is almost infinitely smart, but lacking in intuition, tenacity, ingenuity, imagination… this is your area, and it may well turn the tide of this war. Godspeed."
John noticed Eric had come in and headed over to him.
"Where the heck did you learn to pull the plug on a Terminator?" Eric demanded.
"Long story." John told him. "One day, when this mess is all over, I'll tell you. All about it. What's the word?"
"The final count was 137 people in the camp, and 98 survivors. Also, we've been able to confirm that the machines were not able to send a call for reinforcements before the relay went down. I don't think they were expecting you to do that. We're still trying to get confirmation, but it looks like no machine recon patrol saw our convoy coming back. Skynet still has spy satellite control, but tracking says that none of them were likely to be over the relay station during the battle or the evacuation. With a little luck we'll have conformation on that soon."
"Eric, it's our job to do everything possible to remove luck from the equation wherever possible." John said seriously, then cracked a smile. "Almost enough to make you start believing in miracles though isn't it?"
"Yes sir." Walters said. "Almost."
"Why?" John said suddenly worried. "What happened?"
John opened the door to the Medical Center. Kate was sitting on one of the gurneys hugging her knees; Carla was right next to her, hugging her tightly. Carla looked up as he came in. She got up and left them alone with each other.
"I'm sorry, sir." Carla said as she passed him.
John. Connor thought distantly. You aren't a soldier, Carla, you can call me John...
"If you need anything, I'll be outside."
Kate looked at him finally as the door closed. Her face was pale and drawn, her eyes were red but without tears, and her mouth was set in a tense line. Her frame screamed tension and frustration, and both hands moved to over her stomach gently as she swung her feet off the edge of the gurney to face him.
John didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her, burying his face in her hair.
"It wasn't the radiation, John." She said into his chest. "It wasn't radiation, or malnutrition, or stress. The baby was healthy till those... THINGS knocked me about yesterday."
John started to cry softly. "I'm so sorry." He said quietly. My war. He told himself. My war has cost me my only child. My order to start that fight got Kate in the crossfire.
Anger made her small voice strengthen. "They killed our fathers; they killed our baby, they killed our world. We're going to kill them, John." She cried with hot tears. "You and me. We're going to kill them all. Promise me."
"I promise." He said softly. He would have promised her anything right then.
There was a very long silence as they rocked against each other on the gurney, trying to make the world go away.
"I blew it." Kate sobbed into his shoulder. "You were right. I had the most important person in the camp to protect and I failed. I let those things get to our baby. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry…"
John shushed her. "No, Kate; I blew it. You were right, I did change the plan to try and keep you safe. I had them charge the tower because I wanted to draw the fight away from the infirmary. I should have kept you moving to the center where I could have protected you, and instead I split our forces. It got Susan and Mac and Jacobs killed too…"
Kate shushed him. "It's not your fault."
"It's not yours either."
Kate wiped her face hard and leaned back to look him in the eyes. "Like you said: One battle down." She wiped her eyes again. "Couple of hundred to go?"
From far away, voices rang out in unison, soft at first, but growing loud and fervent. "Con-nor! Con-nor! Con-nor! Con-nor!"
"Word's out that you're here in person finally." Kate let out a breath.
"Is there anything at all I can do?" He asked, feeling useless, to the one person he wanted more than anybody to save.
"They need you."
"I don't care." John said. I made that argument already, about how this war was more important than anything, look what it cost you! Look what it cost us!
"I do." Kate said quietly. "And you do too."
John sighed and finally let go of her. "I'll be back."
"I'll be here."
John went to the door, when her voice stopped him. "John? There is one thing..."
"Name it."
"It may seem silly, but it's something I would like..."
John came out of the Infirmary and found Eric waiting for him. "She okay?"
"She'll be okay. She's... she's strong."
"This may not be the time..."
"We don't have later."
"Well, your adoring masses are howling for you, but more importantly, we've confirmed no signals on Skynet frequencies within at least 100 miles. Looks like we made a clean getaway."
Connor nodded. "Good. The camp that we came from used to be a radio relay station, for small town weather reports and such. It has a much longer range than anything you've got here, and it's in a much better position to cover the northern half of the continent than Crystal Peak. We should see if-"
"Already done, sir." Walters reported. "I left one recon team to adapt and salvage. Skynet was using the towers to transmit, but with them shut down it's ours now. We've already been transmitting. We've gotten in touch with another battalion who have come out of hiding. Four hundred men, under Colonel Samuel Gibson. They tell us they've been contacted by Canadian military. I have already told him to try and absorb anyone he can and find himself a fortified position." He took a very deep breath. "I told him the orders came from Lt Colonel John Connor."
John stooped walking so fast that Walters nearly collided with him. Connor had spun around and put him into the wall. "ERIC!"
Walters looked Connor in the eye fiercely. "There's not one soldier for a thousand miles that wouldn't salute you, sir. But if you're going to command us, you need a rank. You need to outrank me, sir."
Connor glared. "Eric, you should have told me first!"
"Well if I had, you would have said no." Eric mocked. "Sir."
John sighed. "All right." He cleared his throat. "Then it seems I'm out of uniform."
"Yessir." Walters said crisply. "I'll have one brought presently."
"As my last act as a civilian, I need to make an appeal to the local Commanding Officer on behalf of myself and my wife."
"For what?"
Sgt Oldham had supported his CO's decision to give practical authority to Connor. It was a decision that had paid off dramatically. So when Lt Walters came rushing in with a big smile on his face, he wondered what Connor had told him.
"OLDHAM!"
Sgt Oldham straightened his shoulders automatically. "Sir?"
"Set up the most secure perimeter you've ever imagined. I will personally kill your whole unit if anything gets within a hundred miles of this place within the next three days. Dismissed."
Oh yes. Oldham reflected. This was going to be big.
Kate found herself staring at her reflection. She hadn't worn a dress in over a year and a half. She felt naked, vulnerable, and obvious. It was the most impractical garment she had worn since meeting her first cyborg. This dress was ridiculous. What would she do if they got hit? Everything else was dedicated to being practical! All of a sudden she was wearing what had to be the last white dress without bloodstains in the northern hemisphere. It was long enough to be modest, but without sleeves to save the cloth. It wouldn't keep her protected or warm at all.
Carla had made it for her from sheets washed in cleaning bleach. Why were the machines so obsessed with keeping the human habitats clean anyway?
The door to the room opened and Kate saw John in the mirror. His jaw dropped open as he drank her in.
She beckoned him closer. "Bad luck to see the dress before the ceremony."
"Not from where I'm standing." John drawled, still staring
Kate smiled brilliantly, and reached out with one hand to close his mouth gently, when she suddenly noticed what he was wearing. The uniform was clean, pressed, tailored to his size and had the name 'Connor' stitched clearly over the heart and a gold rank insignia over the collar. His face was shaved, his hair combed... He looked sharp, looked powerful... in fact for the first time since she'd met him he was looking deliberately attractive, and it really looked good on him. "Wow." She breathed. "John, the uniform is you."
"So everyone keeps telling me." He said, still staring at her. Then he shook his head as if to clear it. "Dress uniform. I feel like the most obvious dweeb on earth."
Kate chuckled. They were on the same page again. She noticed the tie in his hand. "Need help with that?"
"Never even owned a tie before."
Kate smiled and took it off him, whipping it around his neck and cinching it up easily.
John was surprised at the way she did it so easily. "Fly a plane and tie a Windsor knot huh?"
"Life of the modern General's Wife."
"Colonel." John corrected.
"Give me time." She promised softly. He was standing a lot closer to her all at once, and it suddenly hit Kate that this was the first time he had seen her in a dress at all. She shivered pleasantly as she noticed his scent. "Is that... cologne?"
"Yeah."
"Where in the world did you find..."
"One of Eric's men had some in his toiletries kit. Told me to consider it a delayed wedding present."
She breathed in his scent slowly, finally starting to relax. "John... about the baby..."
She could feel him tense slightly, even without looking in his direction.
"Turns out I wanted it to happen after all." Kate whispered. "A lot more than I let on."
"Me too." John said quietly. "All that stuff we argued about, about how it affected our battle plans, our escape plans, there was one thing I didn't say." He took a breath. "And that was… how thrilled I was."
Kate smiled. "There's never going to be a good time..."
"Eric tells me I'll officially be CO by the end of the day. He has a lot of questions about how the soldiers will be organized, trained, that sort of thing." John kissed her gently. "He wants to know if the Last Army will have the same rules about fraternization, because a number of people are asking about it, and we seem to have been without contraceptives for most of the last two years."
Kate almost laughed. Trust practicality to be the deciding factor.
Carla stuck her head in. "Sir, we can't really start without you being in the room."
John nodded and glanced at Kate. "See you soon."
Kate took a deep breath. She hadn't worn a dress in over a year and a half. She felt naked, vulnerable, and obvious.
But she felt beautiful too; in a way she hadn't even considered since she'd cut her hair. Beautiful and desirable if John's reaction was any indication. After the loss of the baby, suddenly feeling attractive to the man she loved had a very restorative effect emotionally.
Carla at the door nodded to her, and she walked away from the mirror, out into the hall. "Ready?"
Kate followed Carla out of the small bathroom and down the tunnel to the Mess Hall. The room was mostly empty. Eric had kept the reason for the use of the Mess quiet at the request of the groom. At the far end of the room was Walters, with John at his left. Oldham and the rest of his officers too. Moving to join John at the end of the room, Carla winked at him and found herself a seat near the front as Kate stood with her husband.
Eric smiled at them both. "There is no law. There are no contracts. If there is a god, his mercy and a small bundle of cigarettes will get you coffee. But here, we in this room, have stood together against hell and won a victory. In this room, we are family, and we are gathered here today, to bear witness as two of our family, John Connor, and his wife Katherine Brewster renew their vows. They had no rings, no witnesses, no law to declare them wed, but today they have us. Their comrades-in-arms, their family."
John took a deep breath, and turned to face his wife. "Kate, what I know about romance could fit on the head of a pin. But what I know about love always comes back to you. There is a long road ahead, and I'd be lying if I said it was going to be easy or safe, but this I swear to you my wife, I will make the world safe for you again one day, and no matter what, there will always be a future for us, because I will never leave you to face it alone. Because there's nobody I'd rather face it with."
Kate took a breath and looked her husband in the eyes. "John, when we found each other over a year ago; I never thought my life would lead me to fall in love with you, but now I can't imagine a life without you. I'd be lying if I said I could make it easy for you, but this I swear to you my husband, wherever this war leads, it leads us both, and whatever our lives let us have outside the war, we make for ourselves together. Because there's nobody I'd rather build it with."
With that said, they both turned back to Eric.
"I have no legal powers vested in me by any higher power, but under my authority as Commander of this base, I hereby pronounce you, still husband and wife. Sir, you may kiss the bride."
John did so, and the others clapped as she kissed him back sweetly.
Nobody threw rice. Nobody was going to waste it, not even for a wedding. But they cheered and applauded wildly. The war went on around them, but their leader was happy, and their soldiers were free, and for just a while, just for these few moments, there was celebration in place of fear.
John and Eric shook hands warmly. Fellow soldiers off the battlefield. "Thanks for this, Eric."
"My pleasure, sir. We've set aside quarters for you in the tunnels. It's not big, but it's the most secure spot we've dug so far."
"Thank you, Major."
Eric blinked rapidly. "Um...Lieutenant, Sir."
"Not any more. I'm a Colonel. If you're going to be my second in command, you need to be a Major."
Walters came to attention. "Yessir. Thank you sir."
Carla gave Kate a tight hug. "Mac would have loved this." She whispered.
"I dread what his wedding toast would have been like." Kate teased gently.
After shaking everyone's hand, accepting their congratulations, Eric essentially ordered everyone out of the couple's way and sent them to their room.
John led the way through the hallways, down to the tunnels. The few people they met saluted as he passed.
"You think we'll ever retake the surface?" Kate asked him.
"Planning out a cottage with picket fences already?"
"Picket fences made of steel, twenty feet high, landmines in the front lawn..." Kate quipped.
John chuckled. "They gave us the room at the far end." He flushed. "Should I carry you over the threshold or something?"
Kate smiled impishly and jerked a thumb back the way they came. "Well, the threshold is about two hundred meters down that tunnel technically…"
John chuckled lightly and led the way in.
It was dark, the walls were rough and coarse, the bed was nothing but two cots tied together, the lighting was bare bulbs and obvious cables. It was cramped, dirty, and made private only by a door made of little more than a shower curtain held closed by hooks in the wall on either side of the 'door'.
"It's perfect." Kate declared.
"And it's ours." John concurred as they turned and kissed each other desperately.
"Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Chapter 3: Z Plus 1 Year 75 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus One Year Seventy Five Days
Eric Waters came into the Control Center, and checked the maps. Battle lines and troop movements were being marked with little more than post-it notes with arrows and labels marked on them.
Lt Oldham was remarking map according to his watch, updating where their people were. Connor had ordered that the Regiment be redeployed, into smaller units, with fewer people.
"What's the word?" Eric asked, by way of greeting.
"Two recon teams have checked in, reporting no contact, ditto for the scouts. One of our patrols got caught by a few machines. Flying H/K's only."
"Casualties?"
"Four wounded. On their way back here."
"Understood. I'll brief the Colonel."
"Yessir."
The war had yet to begin in earnest. The Machines weren't expecting there to be any fighting for what was left of the world, and what was left of Humanity had been wandering the wasteland without training or direction.
Connor had given them that.
But the machines needed time to prepare too. Their army might have rolled off an assembly line, but when Judgment Day came, their H/K's and ground troops were top secret, highly experimental military robots. Such things were not created on an assembly line, and while Skynet could design the perfect killing machine, it still had very limited engineering abilities, for the simple reason that very few of it's soldiers had hands.
Connor had theorized that the few humanoid Terminators they had seen were most likely built by enslaved humans. The order had been given to locate the factories, and do so quickly.
Eric had been very supportive of that order. The walking chrome skeletons freaked him out.
Kate woke from a light sleep, and the first thing she saw was a barcode.
Kate ran her hand down her husband's arm, until she reached the barcode he had burned into his skin. She shivered.
Waiting to either fall asleep again or for him to wake up, she reflected on the various military bases she had been in during her life as the only child of a Career soldier. She had told John that her father had not enlisted. He had been given an honorary rank and earned the respect and loyalty of his men through skill and perseverance, under extraordinary circumstances.
Just like her husband.
Every base she had been on had a different layout, depending on the purpose, the size, the environment of the area around it.
Underground bunkers by necessity were different, everything had to be built to contain and conserve. Conserve power, conserve water, and conserve space. Added to that, were the requirements of the layout itself. The latrines had to be away from food storage and the Mess, but if it were closer it would save pipe, manpower in digging, and water and power in use.
The Barracks had to be sized correctly, and positioned properly. Safety would demand spreading out some of the Barracks away from each other, but setting up more than one room underground took a lot of work, especially when you were trying to go unnoticed.
Kate and John alone had spent over a year in just such an underground bunker, and with John scrambling to prepare the Last Army, Kate had rolled up her sleeves and volunteered to organize some of the refugees into diggers.
John had checked her designs, and made one serious addition. A series of tunnels that spread outward in every direction.
And eventually, The Alamo had settled into a routine.
Connor had made a big deal about how the nature of war had changed with Judgment Day, and Kate and John were quick to get people ready. Kate had been organizing the civilians into a workforce, John preparing more troops.
John caught her hand gently and opened one eye to look at her. "Morning."
"Morning." Kate sat up. "Thought you were asleep."
"Mostly. I was asleep before you got back last night."
"Yeah. Sorry about that. I was organizing the tunnel teams."
"At two in the morning?"
Kate shrugged. "New people coming in, round-the-clock work…"
"Lt Ross working out?"
"Ross is thrilled. Said it's the first time in years he's been around Diggers full time." Kate sighed. "I don't really know why he's so excited about it…"
"Lieutenant Campell Ross is Ex-Australian Military. 'Digger' is slang for an ANZAC soldier." John murmured, sitting up. "Speaking of that, how goes the digging?"
"Making their quotas. We're far enough away from the city that we're not hitting anything. Why'd you want so many tunnels anyway?"
"Humans are an underground species now, Kate."
"I checked in with Oldham on the way here. He says that one of our patrols met one of their patrols last night."
John's eyes opened wider. "Why didn't you wake me?"
"Nothing anybody could do; so I decided to let you sleep."
"Don't handle me, Kate."
"Get used to it, John."
John smirked. At least she was honest about it. His mom would have said the same thing. "Were there any casualties?"
"Four wounded." Kate said. "They'll be here in an hour or so."
John got up quickly. "Did you sleep?"
Kate nodded. "Enough." She tossed him a granola bar. "I brought breakfast."
"Dry, stale granola." John opened the wrapper. "Breakfast of champions."
Kate sat up with him and ran a hand roughly through her hair. "I always dad was joking when he said soldier's sleep with their boots on."
"Sleep?" John repeated. "Enrique told it differently. Then Mom punched him."
Kate chuckled, when the radio buzzed. John reached over her to the floor beside the cot and picked it up. "Connor here."
"Sir, I have morning reports from our scouts ready."
"On the way." Connor responded.
Kate looked at him as he set the radio down. It was strange, watching him. When he was speaking to the other soldiers, or the refugees… or for that matter, anybody except her, his voice was crisper, his shoulders were straighter… He was a soldier. He was Connor.
But when he put the radio down, his shoulders dropped a little. He was John. He was just her John. "Want me to come?"
"I can handle it. Check in with the Medbay for me, let me know about the wounded before Boot Camp."
Kate nodded, shrugging into her khaki Jacket. Pretty much everyone wore one, only the soldiers wore ones with rank. "See you as soon as I can. Love you."
"Love you."
"Any sign that Skynet followed our wounded personnel back?" Connor asked by way of greeting.
Eric just stared at him as he came into the Command Center. He hadn't had the chance to brief any of the Command Staff yet. He'd only just got the word an hour ago from Oldham, and yet Connor knew. "I'm not even going to ask how you do that."
"I'm a rare and brilliant man, Eric; answer the question."
"Not sure yet, sir. We're still collating data on their troop movements. I've never seen maneuvers like this before."
"Grid search." Connor explained. "No Intel on our location, so they're breaking up the area into a grid pattern, and searching block by block. Machine thinking."
"They're certainly being methodical." Walters agreed. "But smart too. Every grid has one machine unit left, as well as a relay transmitter, to keep an eye out for us. The main bulk of the search teams move in tandem with each other. If any of them find anything, reinforcements won't be far behind. They're using recon patrols too. That was what hit our people last night. The other recon teams reported that they started moving toward the engagement. No word yet on whether they're tracking our people back. You want me to tell them to avoid the Alamo?"
"They can't; they've got wounded."
Walters kept his mouth shut, but it was clear what he was thinking. If Skynet was going to follow them back, better to cut their losses and protect the majority.
Connor could read his face easily. "We aren't machines, Eric; we don't think like them yet."
"Yes sir."
"One more thing." Connor said, suddenly quieter, more personal. "Did you take a census? Not a head count, an actual list? Names, backgrounds..."
"We've got one set up, but we haven't been chasing it." Eric said. "There's no way to check any of it, but most people have put their names up. Hoping to find family members, that sort of thing."
"Where?"
Connor came into Memorial Hall.
The room was lit by candle light, and the walls were covered end to end in writing. Hundreds of messages, hundreds of different styles of handwriting. Pens and markers were left hanging on strings around the room. Photos were taped to the walls, endless names written over them with messages like "Have you seen this man?"
John could feel the emotion in the room. There was a lot of grief here. It reminded John of the bulletin boards he had seen on the news after 9/11.
The other side of the room had more candles, the writing better lit, easier to read. The message was written in large letters over the list:
We Are Survivors. Do You Know Us?
There were rows of names written under the heading.
John sighed, feeling the desperation. Hundreds of people had put up their name, just in case somebody recognized it.
He stopped at one name, written in a childish scrawl. The one he had come to this room looking for.
Kyle Reese.
Several hours passed, and the wounded had arrived. Kate had been the first one in the Medbay after the Medics were done. Kate had gone straight to Carla, who had agreed to meet her later in the Mess hall with the necessary information
Over instant coffee, Carla handed Kate the file and glanced over her shoulder.
Kate looked through the file as Carla fretted. Kate sent her friend a look, noting again the uniform and the medical insignia on her collar. In the Alamo, everybody worked at something, combat or not. Carla had been adopted into the non-combat units, and having received some medical training in the Prison camp from Kate, had quickly been entered into the nursing 'Boot Camps'. "Am I keeping you from something?"
"No, Ma'am." Carla assured her.
Kate glanced sharply at her. Kate herself had spend the majority of her time flitting between the diggers to the soldiers, to the civilian populations, and hadn't really been settled anywhere. "Carla, I'm not a soldier. You don't 'Ma'am' me."
"Yes, Ma'am." Carla said. "That's actually the problem. Dr Bowman isn't thrilled about you going through his files."
Kate accepted that without being offended, and slipped Carla the file back. "Bowman's the CMO, Carla. This little slice of the war is his domain."
Connor caught up with Kate and Carla not long after, in the 'Post-Op' Ward. While being little more than a regular tunnel, it had partitions set up between cots, as well as various medicines stacked neatly on shelves against the opposite stone wall. This gave each patient a private room that could be easily closed off from the others.
"Morning, sir." Carla said. "Speak softly. These partitions aren't soundproofed."
"Morning, Carla. They keeping you busy?"
"Lessons mostly. Kohler is getting most of the attention today. He was hardest hit."
"Is he conscious?"
"In and out. If you don't need me, I should really get their Meds before Doctor Bowman arrives."
Connor nodded, and Carla saluted and left.
Kate nodded at the first partition, speaking quietly. "Martinez. Elder brother. Lost his sister today to Leukemia. Just found out now. She'd been sick since the radiation got to her. He has leg damage. Full recovery."
John nodded, took a breath, and knocked lightly. "Martinez? Am I intruding?"
Martinez tried his best to sit at attention. "No sir, Colonel."
John sat down. "At ease. I wanted to check up on you. I heard what happened to your sister."
The door closed, and Kate let out a breath. A few minutes later, the door opened, and John came back out. "Next."
Kate took a breath. "Kohler. From Philadelphia. Was south when Judgment Day hit, lost his family. Belly damage, fifty/fifty chance."
John nodded and threw open the door. Kohler had his eyes open. "Kohler! I know you miss the Cheese-steaks, but come on, Medbay food is not that good."
Kate smirked. Nobody shows tough love to a dead man. Her father had said. Make it seem like nothing they'll believe you.
Another few minutes, and John came back out. He gave Kate a dark look and shook his head hollowly. It didn't look good for Kohler. "Next."
"You don't have to do these all at once, John." Kate told him gently.
"No time to do otherwise." John said. "Who's next?"
"Uh..." Kate shut her eyes for a second. "Dexter. Goes by Dex. Good quick-draw, superficial damage. Second time here."
John nodded, went inside, just as Carla came out. "Dex! How's the arm? Think you'll ever be fastest gun in the west again?"
"What do you mean 'again'?" Dex shot back. "I'm just as good left-handed."
The door closed and Carla smirked at Kate. It was clear she liked Dex.
"Mrs Connor?"
Kate turned, and saw an impeccably neat man coming over to her. "I'm Doctor Jacob Bowman. I'm in charge of the Medical Facilities."
Kate shook his hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"I understand you've been making inquiries about my patients."
"Today's wounded. John asked me to get some quick info."
"The Colonel asked you to." Bowman said.
Kate studied his response for a moment. It was not... confrontational, but he wasn't happy. Unhappy she was gathering information for John, or unhappy that she referred to him by his name, Kate couldn't tell.
"Mrs Connor, I do not want to offend, but Medical information, particularly about the soldiers, has to come from the physician of record. Unless it's a request that comes from a superior officer. Mrs Connor... you're a civilian."
Carla flushed. "Dr Bowman, Kate is included in all the high level meetings. The Colonel considers her one of his most trusted advisors."
Bowman turned his eyes on Carla, and she seemed to wilt under his subzero gaze. "I don't doubt she advises him, and if she's privy to the workings of the military, that's a matter for The Colonel and his staff."
The ward door opened and Connor came out. "Morning, Doctor."
Bowman jumped and turned. "Sir."
Connor took in the scene very quickly and turned to Carla. "Carla, Dex needs help with his breakfast, and he's too proud to ask for it. Go in there and bully him would you?"
"Yessir." Carla was all too grateful to escape the scene.
"Major Bowman." Connor greeted. "I've been visiting the wounded. They seem to be in good spirits. You've done an excellent job of treating them under very difficult circumstances."
"Thank you, sir."
"Kohler, what's the prognosis on him."
Bowman sighed. "Not good."
"I figured as much." Connor sighed, being more personal with him. "How long you been in the service?"
"They put me through Med School." Bowman said evenly, still unsure of his footing given the tension between him and The Colonel's wife.
"Loyalty. An admirable trait." Connor said. "Doctor, I've always had respect for combat surgeons. War is such a destructive, inefficient business, and medicine is the antithesis of that."
"Yessir." On that, Bowman agreed wholeheartedly.
"I'm a soldier. We're both of us trying to keep our particular crusades against destruction running, trying to gain momentum and traction with whatever means we have."
Is he even aware he's doing it? Kate asked herself.
"Yessir." Bowman agreed. "I was actually... just discussing that with your wife."
"And?"
Bowman seemed to shrink a little. "Sir... I like to avoid confusion in my line of work."
"Mine too. War doesn't tolerate ambiguities for long." Connor let that sink in for a while. "As you were, Major."
"Sir." Bowman saluted. After a beat he turned to Kate. "Ma'am." he nodded respectfully, but didn't salute her too.
As he left, John glanced at his wife. "Problems?"
Kate shook her head, feeling foolish. "He's king of his particular hill."
"And doesn't like you planting a flag?" John guessed.
"It's not just him, John. Nobody around here knows how to relate to me. At least, not the soldiers. I'm a civilian... worse; I'm the boss' wife."
John nodded grimly. "Well, until you get yourself a rank, we'll have to grit through it. Kate... you're my second in command. Or you will be. We know that, but I can't just declare you a soldier."
"I agree." Kate said quietly. "The soldiers wont stand for it. They tolerate me because of you."
"That's not fair." John protested. "Eric trusts you. So does Oldham, and Carla, and Mac..." He caught himself at Mac's name and winced.
Kate sighed, missing their friend as much as he did. "They all know me. I can't take the whole Army out for ice cream."
John nodded. "Have to think about that one."
Beat.
"Carla 'Ma'am-ed' me just now." Kate confessed quietly. "It's not the first time it's happened."
John chuckled and nodded to the Medbay door again. "Who's next?"
Kate was about to answer when John's radio buzzed. He answered it. "Connor here."
"Sir, we got incoming."
John sent his wife a look, and both of them rushed to get moving.
Walters was waiting at the Command Center. "I think our secrets out. Scouts report that Skynet's forces are advancing from all directions. They're coming here."
Kate licked her lips. "How long?"
"Two, maybe three days."
"And when you say all directions..." John started.
"I mean that Skynet apparently re-routed its patrol H/K's, plus the flying units."
"So that we can't evacuate our people." Kate thought aloud. "Can we keep them out?"
"We'll be under their feet and the flying H/K's are useless against underground targets..." Walters began.
"Doesn't matter." John interrupted. "If Skynet knows were here, it knows we're underground. The flying Hunters are just to cover their ground forces. It'll put grunts on the ground, dig it's way into the tunnels from above." He glanced at Walters. "Are the Meerkat teams set?"
"Still in training."
"Two days until their first field test."
"You think you can fight them all off?"
"I'm absolutely positive we can't." John said evenly.
Long silence.
"How many of our people are still off base?" John asked Kate.
"About a dozen or so." Kate said. "Mostly our scouts looking for Skynet bases. A few people setting up relays, or prison hits."
"Which leaves most of our newer, less experienced recruits here."
"Should I call back our guys?" Eric asked.
"No. Against that many, a dozen won't be enough to turn the tide."
"What about that Regiment you found up north?" Kate asked.
"Too far to do any good."
"We've gotta break their lines before they get here." John said finally.
"Colonel, we can't take that many." Eric said bluntly. "Not at once. We're a guerrilla army, not Legionnaires."
"What on earth made you think we'd be Charging like the Light Brigade?"
Kate had been called away to settle a dispute between two of the digging teams, while John had gone to the Ammunition stores.
Kate had broken the news to the diggers that the new rooms had been put on hold. A fact that had not gone down well, given that everyone wanted more space underground, willing to sacrifice privacy for security only so long.
Kate had told the diggers to start building foxholes on the surface, and word had spread within an hour that the Machines must have been on their way.
Kate went to catch up with her husband, and found him preparing to roll out. A short convoy of jeeps, with one Army Truck was loading up.
John had a shovel over one shoulder, and was talking with a few of the men, and she headed over toward him...
When her husband suddenly turned to a boy, maybe six years old, rail thin, and handed him the shovel. The boy laughed and made his way over to the truck.
Kate felt her feet freeze solid, one hand going unconsciously to her stomach.
John hadn't seen her. He had called the boy back, and put a cap on his head. The tiny kid, barely up to Kate's waist, with eyes as jaded as Becky's were and with the shovel over one shoulder like a rifle; quickly stood at attention and saluted her husband.
John quickly jumped to attention and returned it crisply, and the boy went back to the truck with a big grin.
Seeing them together, Kate suddenly couldn't breathe, and she turned and quickly headed off, trying very hard not to run.
John looked around for her, didn't see her, and settled into the jeep.
The convoy rolled out.
Carla was on her way to check Kohler's vitals, and found Kate wandering around the Post Op corridor. "Kate?"
"Hi. Am I intruding?"
"Nope. Bowman's giving the Orderlies a training drill. You?"
"Digging's going okay and with John out on a mission, I think it would be a good idea if I didn't go back to our empty quarters and stress about him getting killed."
Carla nodded sympathetically. "Well, you're welcome to help out. I just released Dex and Martinez, I'd appreciate the company of someone standing up."
"How they doing?"
"Their injuries aren't slowing them down enough to keep a rack."
Kate smiled ruefully. "I can remember a time when they would have been kept for observation at least another week."
Carla shrugged. "My mom used to say, 'If you can walk, you can work'."
Kate nodded. "Carla, can I ask you something I've got no right to ask?"
"Sure."
"When we were in that prison camp, I asked if you had kids."
Carla nodded, sobering, and giving her friend a sympathetic look. They hadn't spoken since the Connor's Wedding Ceremony. The day Kate had lost the baby. "Yeah."
"Have... had you ever thought about having more kids?"
Carla took a long look at Kate. "You and John?"
"We... When I was pregnant, all either of us could think was how dangerous it was... but now..."
Carla gave her a smile. "You would be a great mom."
Kate smiled. "Thanks. What scares me isn't just that our baby could get killed, it's the thought that if we don't start making babies... and I mean all of us..."
The two women broke off their conversation as Dex came out of his partitioned room and quickly saluted both women on his way out.
Carla grinned at Kate. "Can I tell him it was an order?"
Kate burst out laughing. Carla joined in. The tension was quickly broken, and both of them cackled long and hard.
Kate wiped her eyes. "Thanks Carla."
Carla started to say something, when there was a sudden sharp gagging noise from one of the partitions. Kohler's 'room'.
Carla quickly pulled the screen back, and found Koehler had stopped breathing. It was clear what the problem was. His tongue was sticking out of his mouth, swollen enough to block his windpipe.
"Carla, get an Intubation kit." Kate said sharply.
Carla quickly moved down the hall, grabbing the box off the shelves, and rushing back.
Kate glanced around for disinfectant, found none...
Kohler was seizing, jerking up and down on the cot in convulsions.
Kate gave up looking, and grabbed the man's uniform, folded at the foot of the bed with his boots, and made a quick search of the pockets, pulling out a flask. She quickly opened it and doused the patient, the scalpel, and her hands with the flask.
Carla handed her the kit, grabbed the flask, and slugged down the rest of it.
Kate tried to get close enough to Kohler, gave up, and straddled him to hold him still long enough to make a quick cut into the man's throat. "Wipe!"
Carla quickly grabbed a corner of the bed sheet and wiped the blood away, holding Kohler's thrashing head down while Kate performed a quick tracheotomy.
With air flowing into his lungs through the tube, Kohler stopped thrashing.
Kate and Carla were both frozen in place, until the wheezing sound of breathing could be heard from the tube.
Carla was breathing hard, grinning madly. "Doctors?" She exulted toughly to Kate. "We don't need no stinkin' Doctors!"
Kate grinned and the two women traded a high-five.
"Well done."
Both women turned, and saw Bowman in the doorway.
Carla wanted to look at her shoes for some reason. Kate did not. "Doctor Bowman. We've managed to stabilize the breathing."
Bowman came over to Kohler and started checking his vitals. "Indeed. Post Op infection. Hardly surprising when you live underground. Carla, get Kohler an infusion of Penicillin. Fifty thousand units."
"Yes Doctor." Carla said promptly and quickly left the two of them alone.
"Do you have medical training, Mrs Connor? Because that would have been something I'd liked to have known. I'm forced to make do with limited staff."
Kate took in a breath. Bowman struck her as an exacting man, who liked things organized in his world. She doubted that he would be satisfied with anything less than an MD. "Surgical training." Kate corrected. "Some medical. Before J-Day, I was a veterinarian."
She wasn't wrong. Bowman made no attempt to hide the fact that he was checking her tracheotomy. "Well, this is pretty good for a vet. What's your practical experience?"
"I was a surgical assist at the clinic for four years; I was the On Call for eight months before the war. I took care of our medical needs in the fallout shelter, and since then it's been mainly field dressings."
"Carla tells me you were pretty much the only medical care in the Prison Camp."
"Yeah."
Bowman looked like he had a bad headache. "Being a doctor takes a lifetime of training, Mrs Connor, but then so does being a Commanding Officer."
Kate did a double-check. Was that a dig at John?
"We're all trying to adapt to the criminal drop in standards across the board." Bowman continued. "Look around, my Post Op is a hand-dug tunnel. My operating room is a Shipping Container dragged underground."
"It's tough, but it's the only way to survive." Kate said quietly.
Bowman seemed to dissect her with his eyes. "Mrs Connor, an operating table is not a good place to improvise or make do with less than what you need. But you're cool under pressure, you're clearly not disturbed by the wounded or the blood, you've got a good bedside manner." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It would probably be good to give you a post too. Something official. I've seen you with the people here. They all trust you, but they don't... forgive me for saying this, but with a lot of men here, you're still the Colonel's Wife."
Kate nodded. "I know. That's been bothering me too."
"I'm the only trained and certified surgeon here. Odds are we'll need more than that."
Kate nodded. "I'm ready."
"You're far from ready, but even a vet knows more than most. I'll have to teach you the rest."
Kate calculated the likely wounded that would be coming in a few days. "Let's get started."
Just then Oldham poked his head in. "Excuse me, Doctor. Kate?"
"Yeah Sarge, what do you need?"
"Did you tell the diggers to abandon the new fresh water feed?"
"I told them to focus on digging upward from the supply rooms." Kate told him. "We need the foxholes for the Meerkat Teams in case John can't break the lines before the H/K's get here. John cleared it this morning."
Oldham heard that and was satisfied. "He did? Okay, just checking."
Oldham ducked out, and Bowman pointed after him sharply. "This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is why you need a fixed position here, outside the military hierarchy." Bowman said frankly. "The soldiers can't come to you over their own CO's. There's a chain of command for a reason. It needs to be clear."
They know that when they talk to me, they're talking to John. Kate wanted to say. I'm John's voice when he's away. His right hand. His second in command. His partner.
But she knew that wouldn't convince him at all, and nor should it, because civilians didn't give orders to soldiers.
Kate felt awkward. This used to be easier.
Connor took in the wide open space, as twilight broke over them. He was the first one out of the jeep, and the ones that came along were quick to fall in before him. A few soldiers, but mostly civilians, male and female, fairly young, fairly strong.
"Listen up." Connor said firmly, and they quickly faced him. "The Machines are on their way."
There was a low moan from somewhere. These people were refugees, not soldiers. There was a sudden feel of paranoia, people looking left and right, searching the horizon.
"Be calm." Connor commanded. "They are heading for the base, but they'll have to come through here. Odds are, we won't be able to fight them all off, so we have to do some damage before they arrive. We're going to mine them. The troop carrier behind you doesn't have soldiers; it has heavy explosives, rigged to work as landmines. We need holes dug as wide ranging as we can, row on row, tight enough that the Machines can't dodge in and out of them. If we succeed, by the time they get to the Alamo, all our soldiers will have to do is mop up what's left after they're done with you."
There was a chuckle at that, and the fear eased.
Connor slung a shovel over his shoulder. "Get to it."
The twelve or so people split into pairs and started digging.
Connor glanced over. The boy was still looking at him. "Kyle?" John said finally. "That's your name right? Kyle Reese?"
The boy looked stunned that The Colonel knew his name. "Yessir."
"Do you know who I am?" Connor asked, knowing the answer.
"Yessir." Kyle said. "You're Colonel John Connor. The man in charge."
"For now anyway." Connor confirmed. "I'm told you've been working as a rat-catcher and a scrounger, down in the tunnels."
Kyle nodded vigorously. "I had rabies shot just before Judgment Day, so I'm not scared of the rats."
"Good lad. I'm told you're the best there is."
"Thank you, sir."
They dug for a while, not speaking, getting used to each other.
After a while, Kyle spoke. "They say you know the Machines. In the tunnels, they say that Skynet killed the world because we were too weak to stop it, and that you came to make us strong. They say the only thing Skynet is afraid of is you."
"What do you think?"
Kyle shrugged, not looking up. "I don't know."
"Good answer." Connor grinned. "My mom always taught me that you should never believe what you haven't learned for yourself."
Kyle nodded. He started to say something when his head suddenly cocked, and his eyes turned feral again, looking westward.
And a low whine on the horizon was audible a moment later.
Connor looked up sharply, and there, silhouetted against the sunset, was a huge flying machine. It had two turbines, one on each wing, and each turbine on a pivot. It had a thirty meter wingspan, and a glowing red eye on the front, moving left and right, with cannons slung underneath.
It was just like the Flying H/K's Connor had seen before, but much much bigger.
The H/K turned to face their direction, still almost over the horizon, and launched a pair of missiles that arced high, turned in midair and flew down hard and fast.
"DOWN!" Connor roared, and crash tackled Kyle into the hole they had just dug.
The explosion rattled Connor inside out, there was a sudden wave of heat with almost, but not completely drowned out the cries of pain that rang out, cut off far too soon.
"RETREAT!" Connor yelled from their hiding place. "Get to the vehicles."
Kyle's eyes were wide with panic as they scrambled up over the edge of the hole, where they both froze.
The Flying H/K had swooped in, and was easily gunning down the retreating diggers without pity.
Connor calculated quickly. The H/K was on top of them. If he shouted, there was little chance those people could find shelter, and a much bigger chance that he would draw the machines fire to him… and to Kyle Reese.
Connor pulled them both back into the foxhole and hissed at the boy to freeze.
Kyle was whimpering, but doing so quietly. Just as Becky had. Silence had been ingrained into all the Children of the Dust.
Connor was holding him down, covering the boy's body with his own.
The turbines faded as the H/K finished its strafing run. Connor knew it would make another pass.
"Closer to the jeep." He whispered barely. "Do it slow."
Connor and Reese inched slowly out of the hole and over closer to the blazing jeep. They froze solid when they herd the turbines get closer again.
The huge Flying H/K made one last pass. Its thermal scanners saw heat radiating from the burning jeep. There was no way to see the much cooler humans huddled next to it, almost in the flame. Its motion trackers saw no movement; there was nothing left to move.
Finally, the machine passed over from them, and moved on.
Kyle tried to raise his head, Connor pushed him back down. "Wait. Patience. Time is on their side. Don't rush."
Kyle nodded. "Why didn't they see us?"
"Heat vision. It could only see the fire."
Kyle grinned up at him. "Smart."
Connor grinned back. "Trick my mom taught me."
Ross poked his head out from below the surface too. "Colonel?"
"Lieutenant Ross." Connor called. "You all right?"
"Yes sir." Ross croaked. "First rule of the Underground. Never be far from a foxhole."
"Amen." Connor grunted.
"How the hell do we get home?"
"I told Walters we'd check in every ten minutes. Once we miss a check in, he'll send someone."
Connor looked out over the now burning battlefield. The first guided bomb had blown up half the charges. The second had taken out the troop carrier, where the heavy weapons had been stored.
The ground was littered with spot fires, burning debris, and motionless burnt bodies.
Kyle moaned and started walking, back toward the Alamo.
Connor put out a hand and caught him. "Where are you going?"
"Sir?"
Connor gestured to the bodies, picked up the shovel, and put it back in the boy's hands. "We've got ten minutes wait. Time enough for a burial detail, and a lot of people won't have that chance. A lot of people already haven't. So start digging."
Ross removed his hat, crossed himself, and started praying quietly over one of the bodies.
Kyle removed his hat, and drove his shovel into the ground. "Yessir."
The Colonel slammed down what was left of the smart bomb with pure violence on his face. "The missile was launched from the H/K. The design wasn't upgraded, just made bigger. A lot bigger. These missiles homed in on the jeeps and were fired from a full ridge away."
Walters and Oldham looked at the wreckage without being able to gain much from it. It had been totally destroyed. Kate was there too, but hadn't removed her deathgrip on John's arm since learning he had returned after the disaster.
"Makes sense." Walters said finally. "None of their aircraft have pilots, and smart weapons are the whole point of Skynet, so why shouldn't they have smart missiles?"
"Put the Think Tank on that one. In the meantime, we've got a more serious problem."
"The mines."
"The one that swooped in on us took out the mines before we had a chance to plant them. Nothing in their way now."
"So all of them are heading this way, and we can't take them." Eric summed up.
"Even if we could, there's nothing to stop them from sending more tomorrow." Connor said crisply. "Eric, prepare to evacuate the base."
"Yes sir."
Kate opened the trapdoor and squinted in the sudden twilight. "John?"
"Come on up, Kate."
She did so, and closed the trapdoor behind her. She curled up under the netting beside her husband. Skynet had control over any remaining satellites, so anyone who held a post above ground stayed under camouflage nets at all times. "We haven't had a chance to talk since you got back."
"About what?"
"About what? John you nearly died today."
John sighed and took a sip of his coffee. "Yeah. But I didn't. Somebody else did. Just like always."
Kate kicked herself for bringing it up. She knew how much he hated this part of his destiny. It seemed that it was always the person next to him that got gunned down. Just because you're the only person he confides in about everything Kate, it doesn't mean he always has to. She told herself. Sometimes it's best to let it go.
"How goes the evacuation plans?" John asked finally.
"Packing and prioritizing. They'll be ready to move in a day or so."
"That's cutting it close."
"We knew it was going to be a running fight."
"Just glad that so many of the people Eric freed from that first prison camp decided to split up and go south. We can barely keep the hundreds we have here together.
Kate took a sip of the coffee and suddenly said what she was thinking. "John, what does it matter? There's nowhere for us to go! Skynet's got the bird's eyes view; it's got the superior firepower. Fortifications are good, tunnels are better, but they take too long to set up. Where the hell do we put all these people?! We've got no cover, no hiding place, no tunnels prepared."
"Yeah, but there's a place where we've got all those things waiting for us."
"Where?"
John handed her his binoculars. She put them to her eyes. John's hand took her chin gently, and turned her head to the East.
Where she could see the dead Los Angeles Skyline.
"L.A.?" Kate whispered. "John, it got hit by the first shockwaves..."
"Yep. But the shockwaves couldn't dig up the subways, the sewers, the maintenance tunnels..."
"What about the radiation?"
"Two years old, Santa Anna winds swept most of it over the ocean... plus it won't affect us as much while we're underground."
Kate thought it over. "The buildings... what's left of them would be good cover."
"Can set up sappers all over the place. Get the high ground back for a change."
Kate shivered. The idea of crossfire between the buildings... with the trashed skyscrapers as their weapon and shield... she could almost taste burning metal.
It bothered her how much she hungered for it. Dead machines. She ran a hand over her flat stomach. We're going to kill them all. She promised herself. "How do we get there?"
Kate's question was a good one. There were no safe surface roads left, and they had hundreds of people to transport.
"Two options." Eric reported. "The train tracks are still good. At least, as far as the suburban lines. The shockwave tore the tracks out closer to the city, but the overland tracks can get us close enough to reach the subway."
"How do we outfit a train, and load everyone into it without getting caught?" John asked practically.
"Actually, that'd be the easy part. The Alamo is set into a subway tunnel. There's a train depot not too far away. The construction for the town overhead used an above ground line to bring in supplies, because the underground line wasn't put in yet."
"Why would they use an overland train line?" Kate asked.
"So that they could start building the housing development at the same time, and build the subway from both ends." John said, still looking at the map. "Is the train depot far?"
"Not really. The overhead line actually comes pretty close to the edge of our base; we moved a bunch of things underground from the housing development. The trains had generators, metal, engines, steel plating..."
"Bad idea." Kate interrupted. "A train can only go one direction, no dodging, no evasive, no cover..."
"Lot of power though." John countered. "If we can rig a few engines together, we can haul enough carriages to take everyone."
"We can rig a regular train with one of our generators. We can get that to work, but Kate's not wrong about it being a clear target. Can an HK keep up with a train?" Walters asked.
"The original ones? Doubt it. But these new ones… I don't know."
Silence.
"The train is a bad idea." Kate said. "Skynet has ground forces on all sides. They'll be able to cut it off. The tunnel into the LA line's our best bet."
"It'll take too long to get them there." John protested. "Hundreds of people marching through the same tunnel from the same entrance? We can't hold the machines out that long. By the time we get everything packed, it'll be a fighting retreat. They get into that tunnel behind us..."
"It'll be a shooting gallery." Walters agreed.
"What kind of firepower can we mount on a train?"
"Mini-guns. Chain-Guns. The same kind we're mounting in the tunnels or on jeeps."
John looked at his wife. "Skynet's ground forces can't keep up with a train. Think Tank is working on the smart missiles..."
"I will say this again." Kate repeated. "They don't have to keep up. We're surrounded. They'll cut us off."
John studied the map. "Major, how wide is the entrance?"
"To the Alamo? Main entrance is a good thirty meters across."
"And how far from the main entrance are the above ground train tracks?"
"About 400 meters. Only twenty feet from where we'd be setting up the train. Why?"
John looked up finally. "What if Skynet thought that the front door was the only way in?"
While Kate was organizing the population into groups, John was pressing most of the able-bodied into service. But nobody could figure out the plan.
"Sir?" Oldham piped up. "Shouldn't we be mounting these guns at the entrance?"
"The fight will be here." Connor said. "We have the draw them in. Long enough to draw them away from the civilians."
"Come on, move it!" Carla snapped at the orderlies. "The Post-Op needs to be empty. Move them first, so we don't have to worry about tripping over them when the bullets start flying."
"Machines don't use bullets." Someone volunteered.
"Get Packing!" Carla snapped.
"No, Oldham, leave the hydroponics gear!" Kate snapped. "It's all scrounged stuff, and we're going to LA, we can scrounge replacements easily, there's no time."
"Eric, take the reloads for the heavier weapons, take the handguns and the ammo, leave the construction gear." John check-listed. "The light guns won't even scratch the terminators, and the fight won't go long enough to reload the heavy munitions."
"Are you sure?"
"If the fight goes that long, we've lost."
"We're going to need the construction gear as soon as we get there." Eric pointed out.
"Until the barricades and the mounted guns are set up, we keep the welding gear and the industrial drills. Take the generators out of the Barracks, the Storage rooms, the Lab, and the Ammo stores. Keep the generators for the lights in the main tunnels."
"The Lab isn't packed yet."
Connor looked at him sharply. "Why the hell not?!"
"Gould!" Connor barked. "This was all meant to be packed up an hour ago! What the hell are you waiting for?"
Lt Gould seemed to shrink a little under The Colonel's glare, and responded by fumbling with a new device, and flicking it on.
There was a squall of ear-splitting static from every radio in the place. Gould fumbled and turned it back off.
A beat of silence. Then Walters' radio came back first, then John's a second later with everyone yelling over each other for explanations.
John took the small box. It looked like an ordinary radio, with few exceptions. The battery pack had been doubled, the frequency dial was gone and the antenna had been replaced with something that looked almost like a very small satellite dish.
"This is to beat the smart bombs?"
"Yessir." Gould reported. "The transmitter has been amped up mush higher than normal power, and there's no intake. It'll broadcast static at high power, on all frequencies."
"Ah. A poor man's jamming device." John commented.
"We are all poor men now, sir. Guiding a radio missile takes a constant uplink. Flood the signal with static, and the control is gone. That'll work for ground and airborne smart missiles."
"Range?"
"About as far as our regular radios get."
"Really?" John thought aloud. "Eric, get on the line and report to everyone in range what just happened."
Eric was still digging a finger in his ear from the electronic shriek. "Yessir."
Connor handed the jammer back to Gould. "How many do we have?"
"Five so far, give me half an hour, I can make it nine."
"Give three to the Train Crew, the rest to the infantry and the Meerkat teams."
"Yes, Colonel."
Foxholes had been dug above the Alamo, and concealed trapdoors put in over them. Each foxhole held a man with a rifle, and a set of explosives.
Inside the Alamo, barricades had been set up every twenty feet between the entrance and the Main Tunnel. Every barricade was lined with armed soldiers, and Chain Guns and mini-guns mounted and manned.
Connor had set up the last of the barricades in the Main Tunnel. The central line was the backbone of the entire base. A long dark tunnel that led into a dead city, forgotten by all, not even on the maps yet. A dead monument to the industry of a dead world. And in it was built the first Command Centre of the Last Army, with their barracks, and bunkers, and storage, and homes dug outward from the centre.
And in this place, the crossroads of the entire base, the preparations were completed. John set down the welder, and looked around. The work was done, and there was nothing left but the waiting.
Kate, still the loveliest thing that John had ever seen, even with grease and dirt covering her face, sent a look around at the hundred or so men and women, gripping their weapons, looking nervously at their leader. She threaded her fingers through her husbands, and gave his hand a squeeze.
John looked at Kate, but it was something harder in his voice that made her straighten her shoulders a little. Connor spoke, clear and strong, so that everyone heard it, and when his voice echoed down the tunnels in the sudden silence, everyone heard.
"You're scared." Connor said. It was not a question. "That's fine. My father died before J-Day. He was a soldier. Mom always told me that he said, 'pain can be disconnected, felt and controlled'. She also told me, that when he went into battle, he was scared. She told me, that any soldier who never felt fear was either dead or stupid. We are neither."
Kate chuckled and squeezed his hand again. He was speaking to her only, but everyone was listening.
"In every culture, there have always been the few who stood and fought for the many. In every incarnation, the warriors of Man faced death. The Warriors of history have always had a special relationship with the Grim Reaper. Ancient Legend once said that when a warrior fell in battle, he would have his reward or punishment judged by the gods, based on the honor guard that escorted the Fallen. Their honor guard would be made up of enemy soldiers that each warrior had defeated."
His voice was carrying to the rest of the base. One by one, people started tricking in, following his voice, coming simply to see who was speaking in the quiet.
Connor finally looked away from his wife, in one movement seemingly noticing their audience, and at the same time, bringing them in, as though he had been speaking to each of them alone the whole time. "If I die today, I will stand before the gods, and I will say that the Machines destroyed the whole world. But they just could not claim the men and women in this room."
There was a rumble of approval at that. A simple reminder that they were survivors and that was no small thing in itself.
"I will say that I held the line against the soulless and the hopeless and that the men and women in this room stood with me." Connor's voice was building, getting passionate and strong.
Another sound of approval. Stronger this time. The room was filling, people reacting to the sudden change in atmosphere.
"And I will tell them, that when the Enemy saw their victims fighting back hard, I was there with them, from the very beginning. I will tell them, that when the Tin Can's came, my warriors stood with me, Proud and Defiant against their invasion. I will say, that the Last Army did not forget the Warrior Way, to be the thin line that stood, strong and irrefutable between the many and the storm."
Another answer, stronger and more certain...
"I will say, that Humanity showed No Quarter, and it will be my father's fire that kept me standing!" Connor yelled.
Another yell answered him.
"And I will say, that when the Last Army fought beside me, we did it with the fury of all those we left behind. We Fight for their memory. We Fight for their legacy. We Fight in their names! And our Vengeance burns hotter than all the fire that Skynet could bring! And the machines will hear their names in the destruction we rain upon them!"
The entire base roared with furious bloodthirsty howls. The Underground rang with their passionate cries for revenge. Every voice screaming with Death and Destruction. Hundreds of humans, confined to their hiding place, who had lost everything, suddenly had grief transmuted to rage in one moment. The pure electric power of the moment raising a Death-Howl so loud that Kate was certain that Skynet itself had heard them and shivered.
And as the wordless yell finally ran out of power, a more fervent chant began, gathering momentum as it went.
"CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
Z Plus One Year Seventy Six Days
On the surface, the sun rose on a day destined for battle, and the defenders waited.
John turned his periscope left and right a few times, seeing similar tubes sticking up out of the ground.
The Underground Minutemen. John reflected. He keyed his radio quietly. "Entrance."
The radio clicked.
"Key one for incoming."
The radio clicked twice.
"What are they waiting for?" Oldham whispered.
"Nothing." Connor said, calm and patient. "Machines don't wait. They just haven't got here yet."
"The suspense is killing me." Oldham muttered.
"Sarge, please, another choice of words." Eric muttered.
Connor just smiled. "We'd better get to the Intersection. The main fight will be there."
Connor, Oldham, Walters, and most of their unit moved from the lookout positions, to the main crossroads, with the Main Entrance not far ahead. At each branch in the tunnel network was a series of fortifications, with mounted heavy guns, each manned and loaded. As they walked, every soldier quickly saluted their passing Leader.
All but one. Kate waved John into the Barracks, her expression grim.
Connor waved his support on, and went over to her. She led them privately into the empty Barracks, all the furniture, sparse though it was, packed up and shipped out, ready for the withdrawal.
"How are you?" Kate asked him quietly.
"We're ready." John said. "As ready as we can be."
"John..." Kate began uncertainly. "That story you told, about the ancient warrior legend. You told it to me, in Crystal Peak, when we were both feeling maudlin over what we'd lost. John... You're scared. More than you were with the Terminatrix. What is it you're not telling me?"
John stared at her. "I knew the war was coming. My mom always warned me about it. She knew the time and date. August 29th, 1997."
Kate stared at him. "What?"
"We tried to stop it, Kate. We changed things. But not enough. The second we tried, we screwed everything up. Mom told me, 'We're in uncharted territory now, making up the future as we go along'." He looked, for the first time, helpless. "This is not the war that my mother warned me about. This is not the war I'm sure I've won... everything is... so fragile now."
Kate stared at him blankly. The Great John Connor was taking solace in his own myth, only to have that shattered too? For a moment, she almost wanted to laugh. All the effort he had put into avoiding his destiny, and when it came he actually bought into it himself, certain in the knowledge that thus was a war he had already won... And without that prophecy to guide him, even he was suddenly uncertain of the future.
But Kate was not.
Kate reached up and took his face in both hands, willing him to feel as certain as she did. "I love you so much, you know that?" She told him softly. "Remember what you told me? That first week in Crystal Peak? You told me, that if you're going to win a war, then why do you go to the trouble of building a Time Machine? Skynet kept hunting you, even after you changed things."
John chuckled at that. "Yeah. I guess so."
"Maybe you didn't change the future enough to prevent this war. But Skynet didn't change it enough to win."
There was a vibration, probably building for a long time, but suddenly loud enough to be heard. It was unending.
Kate looked calmly at her husband. "They're here."
John nodded. "Action stations. It's game time."
His shoulders straightened, until he was The Colonel again, and he started out of the empty chamber. His wife caught his hand forcefully, and pulled him back for a passionate, needful kiss.
After the longest seven seconds in John's recent memory, Kate released him. "Now, it's game time." She told him primly.
The ground was shivering. Humming with the noise of the incoming army. Every now and then a shiver of dust would rain down on the frantically moving humans. Kate had returned to her post, prioritizing what was ready to go, and what was needed still. She smacked a box shut and handed it to Dex. "Get that moving with the next group."
"We should be moving already."
"We do not move the civilian population until we're sure the Machines are occupied." Kate told him. "So go get them ready to move."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Bowman was moving at a quick march through the room, Carla hurrying to catch up. "Connor, you and Carla better get scrubbed up so that they can take the wash basin. We're going to have wounded soon."
Kate nodded and rushed to the basin, where Carla was already pouring moonshine over her hands, the pipes and the water tank already packed and moved out.
Carla looked terrified. "I can't get the thought out of my head that the things we packed will be the things we need."
Kate smirked. "Probably, but we won't be here long. Just get the ones we can stable enough to be moved, and then run like hell."
Carla gave a bitter chuckle. "MASH was one of my favorite shows."
Kate chuckled. "Mine too."
Beat, as Kate signaled Dex to take the basin and the bottles of disinfectant.
Carla spoke again. "Kate, if I don't make it, I just want you to know, that the last thing I think as I fall, will be how proud I was to be here with you, and I will never apologize for anything that the Mighty Connors led me to."
Kate swallowed. "It's been an honor. But this isn't even close to the end."
Carla smiled with certainty. "I know. Want to know how I know?"
Kate smirked. "How?"
"Because John Connor said so."
And Kate Connor told him so. Kate thought silently. I hope it's enough.
John knew from the vibration. The Terminators weren't marching. The rumbling drone was unending. Wheels and treads. The H/K's were rolling over their heads.
Idly, John wondered if they would just dig down, but shook that thought off. Mud and soil did not take kindly to gears and pneumatics. The machines were regular attack drones. No diggers, so they'd fight their way in.
There was silence on the radio line. Every now and then the radio would click. No words were spoken. Radio silence until the attack came.
Connor turned to the man on his left. "Dex, get to one of the Meerkat teams. When they reach thirty meters, break radio silence and give me a range.
Dex nodded, and jumped the barricade, running off down one of the tunnels.
Over the Alamo, was the unfinished housing development. The roads weren't paved yet, but several foundations for the buildings had been set up. The ground based H/K's moved down these unfinished streets, making their way toward the base entrance. The flying H/K's were hovering slowly, scanning left and right over their ground forces, keeping their slow pace.
Connor's radio buzzed. "Sir. Read twelve or so T-1's. Read more than five troop carriers. Seven Aerial H/K's, and five ground based H/K's. Range. Thirty meters to entrance."
Connor answered. "Meerkat Teams, you are clear to engage."
As the Machines moved through, one head poked up through a concealed trapdoor, and tossed a bag under the passing H/K's treads.
The soldier ducked back into a foxhole, as one of the support machines swiveled its guns and fired at him.
In various places, more trapdoors opened, soldier's flanking the Machine invaders, tossing their cargo.
Skynet had computerized reaction times, and was aware of all its warriors viewpoints at once. The counter-attack was vicious.
Two trapdoors were shredded the second they opened, the foxholes suddenly filled with plasma-gun flame.
The other ground H/K's froze, suddenly aware that they were in a bottleneck, being driven closer together by their own wrecked forces.
"Colonel's got them tripping over each other!" One of the Meerkat teams yelled.
A cheer went up.
Connor could hear the cheer from the main tunnel but didn't smile. This was the overture. Skynet hadn't even started yet. "Meerkat teams, fall back to the tunnels."
The trapdoors were sealed, the foxholes were abandoned, and soldiers quickly started clambering down into the Alamo.
The huge war machines had stopped moving, holding their place, when suddenly they all opened.
Cargo hatches opened on the undercarriage of each flying H/K, and row upon row of Terminators dropped, and landed hard, not the least hurt or shaken.
The ground based H/K's withdrew their cannons, dropped their own cargo of chrome skeletons, and launched missiles; every action happening with zero delay or loss of efficiency.
Once their cargo was away, the H/K's started rolling again, moving away from the trapdoors, heading for the longer way around.
"Incoming Missiles!" Dex shouted, running back for the barricades.
"Jammers!" Connor roared. Almost as soon as he had said it, the radio was split by an electronic shriek.
The ground shook as the missiles lost focus and slammed around the Alamo in all directions.
Kate heard the squall come through her radio. "It's getting ugly up there." She mumbled to Carla.
"Getting ugly in here too." Carla siad, pointing at the entrance to the Medbay.
Wounded were being carried in, direct from the gunned down foxholes to the Medical Centre.
Bowman went right to work. "Carla, organize Pre-Op, the most important cases first. Connor, get to the OR."
Kate ran. "Carla, the neck wound first."
"Let Carla worry about the Pre-Op." Bowman told her. "Focus on your job."
The Terminators had marched their way to the entrance. The first to get there took in the barricaded entrance, and waited outside range of the mounted guns.
"Wait for it." Connor directed. "Don't waste ammo, pick your targets."
More Terminators arrived, reinforcing the ranks, getting into formations.
Connor dared to raise his head enough to get a decent look at the new Machines.
The Human-Style terminators had changed. They were sleeker, more refined. The limbs were thinner; the jaw now lacked a voicebox and seemed to have an actual jaw. The eyes still glowed an evil red, and the gun arm now had the rifle merged with the hand as a single piece. The previous model had regular hands that held a weapon.
The previous model that had fought John Connor lost their weapons to him.
They're learning. Connor thought grimly. "Dex, give me the javelin."
Dex grinned and brought The Colonel an RPG launcher.
"Remember me?" He shouted over to the Machines.
Connor rose from the first barricade, and lifted the launcher to his shoulder.
The Terminators all followed him with their eyes. Every single machine focused on him. But they didn't attack. They were outside the range of the human weapons. The humans were out of the range of theirs. Their program said to wait for their reinforcements and prepare the attack.
John Connor was not so content to wait. He fired the RPG. But not at them. The grenade came down a good bit shorter, in the no mans land between both ranks, and exploded violently on the ground. The explosion was much bigger than it should have been; tearing apart a line in the earth witch suddenly ignited a screen of smoke and hot flame that hid the enemy.
"There's the line. That's our range." Connor yelled to his men. "Anything crosses that smoke line, kill it."
The defenders of the base roared back, tensing and taking aim.
The Terminators moved, emerging through the smoke and fire, marching with unholy precision, lit by firelight.
Nobody hesitated, opening up with all guns, blasting away furiously.
Connor watched. The heavy mounted guns would chew up a Terminator. After a while. The rifles that most soldiers were carrying did nothing but slow them down. Grenades did damage, but not precise enough.
Dex turned and yelled at Connor over the gunfire. "It's not doing anything. They're shrugging off the bullets sir!"
Connor shook his head. "They're sturdy, but they aren't indestructible. Pour it on."
Martinez duck-walked past the barricade over to him. "Colonel, this really isn't a good time to wear them down. They're invading."
The volume of fire over the barricade intensified as the machines drew closer. The volley of fire from the humans intensified as their targets drew closer.
Connor pulled his radio. "Perimeter teams. Triangulate your fire. Focus on the same targets. Don't move on to the next one till you've knocked the first one down."
The order was heard, and the defending weapons fire focused on the closest Terminators. Concentrated heavy weapons fire tore up the outer armor, then the inner workings, knocking them down.
But they kept marching closer, even while being chewed apart by hot lead. By the time one fell, the one behind it was closer still.
Connor heard a low whining whistle and dared a quick look over the barricade. The ground H/K's had finally circled around enough to aim their missiles and cannons.
Connor grabbed for his jammer, turned it on...
Too late.
The missile was close enough to not need guidance, and it slammed into the centre of the first defensive barricade. A blast that rattled the entire base, and sent Connor deaf. He could see six of Martinez in front of him, clutching at the wounded leg. He tried to reach out for him, when his vision cleared a little further, and he saw the huge hole in the barricade; and the steel covered Grim Reaper that came through it.
"FALL BACK!" he screamed as loud as he could, and even he couldn't hear the sound of his voice. "FALL BACK TO THE SECOND LINE!"
Even if everyone was deaf, they had gotten that message on their own, and the first line of defenders broke and ran, as Terminators came walking straight through the breached wall, turning left and right, mowing down anything that lived.
Martinez did not run with them. He couldn't even stand.
Martinez saw his retreating friends and pulled out a grenade. "Screw it. I didn't want to live forever anyway." He threaded the grenade pin through a button hole, sat against the breached barricade wall, and pulled a handgun from his waistband, firing from the ground as fast as he could pull the trigger.
The nearest Terminator took every bullet, and didn't even flinch, turning to face him, firing it's plasma rifle from point blank range.
As Martinez fell, the grenade pin was pulled, and he managed to take a Terminator with him.
Dex came into the Operating Room at a dead run. "Major Bowman, we can't keep them out for long; what the hell are you still doing here?!"
"Mask!" Bowman snapped at him, wrist deep in his patient's leg. "We have some wounded that can't be moved yet."
Dex covered his mouth with a surgical mask. "How many?"
"At least four. More if you keep sending us customers."
"Tell it to Skynet." Dex complained.
"You aren't sterile, get out of my operating room!"
Dex sent Kate a look. Kate nodded discretely. It was getting close.
He hefted his rifle and ducked back out. "Three minutes, Doc; then you'll have to take them as is or leave them."
Bowman did not dignify that with answer, sweat getting into his eyes. "Wipe." He directed his nurse who wiped his brow.
Kate glanced up. "Carla, bring that last guy in, and get me some gloves ready."
"Focus on the patient you've got." Bowman told her. "Arterial clamp."
Kate looked up from her patient. "Why are you so focused on the leg? Stop the bleeding, get him outta here. This place is under new management any second."
Bowman was overwhelmed. "I refuse to rush through an arterial reconstruction." He snapped at Kate.
"Reconstruction?!" Kate pointed at the third table, unattended between them. "You save that leg, you'll lose this life!"
"No choice." Bowman snapped at Kate.
"I agree." Kate told him. "Carla, put him under; make the first incision."
Carla was stuck at a table alone between Kate and Bowman, knife frozen in her hand, the rest of the medical staff trying madly not to notice the much smaller war going on in front of them, while the bigger one raged overhead, explosions still rattling the room.
"Belay that order, Carla; you aren't a surgeon, you're a nurse!" Bowman roared. "We're not ready to get to work on him yet. Clamp!" He snapped to his nurse, who quickly handed it. "He has to wait, that's an order!"
"He doesn't have time, that's a fact!" Kate snapped back. "Carla, get started."
Bowman actually stepped away from the patient, threw down his scalpel, which clattered on the floor. "ENOUGH! Connor, you're not a doctor, you're a veterinarian. You don't give the orders in this room!"
Everyone stopped pretending they didn't notice the fight going on, and stared at Bowman in unashamed shock at his actions. The doctor had abandoned his table to yell at his only surgical assistant in the room? The doctor had thrown down his instruments on the floor?
"Get back to your patient." Kate yelled at him as the room rattled again.
"I'm in charge here! You don't give orders to the nurses or to me! There are rules in the OR and just because you're sleeping with The Colonel doesn't mean-"
Carla punched Bowman square in the mouth, and he went down hard. He didn't get up again.
Even with the war going on over their heads; there was a beat of silence as all the nurses, medical staff, technicians, and one of two of the patients just stared at Carla in shock.
Carla looked to Kate. "Ma'am?"
Beat.
Every face turned to Kate expectantly.
Kate took a breath. She hadn't meant to take charge exactly. But then neither had John. "Carla, get over here and close for me. And somebody bring a bone saw." She stepped over Bowman's unconscious body and went to his patient. "You, give me your belt." She directed one of the soldiers at the door, who quickly took it off. She cinched it around the wounded leg as high and tight as she could. "Once I get the leg off, the tourniquet will prevent further blood loss, but it'll take both of you to get him out of here."
"The Colonel ordered that we protect-"
"Best way to protect us is to get us all out of here fast." Kate cut him off.
"Yes, Ma'am."
Kate tightened the belt further and started to amputate the leg. "And somebody get Bowman off the floor!"
"Sir!" Dex yelled. "Should I blow the charges in the entrance?"
"Negative, we have to draw all of Skynet's forces in, away from the train tracks." Connor yelled back. He lifted his head and saw the Machines, pitted and scarred from the gunfire as they were, they were coming in numbers. "FALL BACK TO THE THIRD LINE!"
His men obeyed with grim fear. The third line was the final barricade. They had run out of real estate. Plasma-fire chased them as they dove over the last wall they had built and took up positions again. The air was thick with ozone and electrical discharge from Terminator guns, and the stink of gunpowder and burned flesh on the human side.
Connor ducked behind the barrier and pulled his radio. "All Units, the Terminators have entered the tunnels! Repeat, the tunnels are breached!"
Kate voice suddenly came over the radio. "John! Get out of there!" She screamed over that report.
"Roll the train!" John roared. "DO! NOT! WAIT!"
"We're not leaving you in there!" Kate yelled back.
John opened up his rifle furiously on the first Machine around the corner. "Oldham! Roll the train! THAT'S AN ORDER!"
"Yessir!" Oldham shouted over the gunfire.
"Clear the base infantry!" Connor yelled over to the rest of the men at the barricades.
And the mounted guns behind the fortified shields opened up again, drowning everything out for a while.
The machines were moving overland, in and out of the unfinished housing development that covered the surface of the underground Alamo.
One of the buildings at the outer edge of the development had train tracks leading to it.
The machines had ignored it. The fight was requiring more of their soldiers than Skynet could anticipate, and the humanoid Terminators were the best equipped and sized machines for underground tunnel fights. As the T-1's were cut apart, the troop carriers quickly stayed back from the engagement area, and delivered their cargo.
As the fight demanded more and more of their forces, the Terminators and T-1's abandoned the surface, making their way toward the entrance.
Away from the Train depot, which suddenly exploded into sound.
The large building on top of the train line suddenly opened, and the train inside, not so empty and abandoned as the machines had thought, began to roll.
Mounted on the front of the train were two mounted guns, each with an operator, who quickly opened up on the few machines still in the way, the rest distracted by the fight at the base entrance.
A few machines managed to get shots off, but not enough to stop it moving.
One lone ground based H/K was still in the path of it, and quickly moved to cover the train tracks. Both guns on the front of the train opened up furiously, chewing the metal roadblock to bits, before the accelerating juggernaut actually struck it, tearing it apart.
With steady, deliberate rhythm, the train shook off the impact and started moving faster again.
Connor knew when the train started moving. The invasion of machine's immediately lost its fury. The ones already shooting stayed and fought, but no new Terminator's came around the breached barricades.
"Colonel, the reinforcements are stopping, repeat, the next wave is falling back to the flying machines."
Connor pulled his radio and ducked back behind the barricade. "Let them go. Fall back to the Evac-point."
Sergeant Oldham pulled one of the Meerkat teams down and took his place, poking up the periscope to see above the surface. The Terminators were abandoning their assault and heading back to the airborne H/K's, drawn after the more populated target.
As the Terminators re-entered the machine, the doors closed and the Hunter Killer lifted off, turning as it rose.
"Guess we're about to find out how fast they are." Oldham mumbled.
Once the train had gathered momentum, the ground based H/K's couldn't keep up. The flying H/K's were much faster, turning their jets behind them, like their much smaller counterparts, flying after the train.
The lead H/K did a quick tactical scan of the moving train, and noticed that it was hauling more carriages than an overland train usually did, and saw the men manning the mounted guns, clearly expecting a running fight. The train had been armed with mini-guns at the front and the rear. The windows had been covered by metal sheeting, probably ripped off the buildings and rooftops themselves.
There were four Flying H/K's remaining after the diversion at the Base Entrance, all of them hauling a cargo of Terminators, managing to gain slowly on the train.
The machines had calculated the maximum speed of a train and decided that the most efficient way to end the chase was to derail it, or cut it off.
The Machines organized their flying H/K's into a triangle formation, all three continuing the chase.
The train itself was now at maximum speed, not stopping for anything.
The triangle formation of H/K's gained range, inching closer against the wind, one set of engines straining against the other, until they inched close enough to get in weapons range.
The two at the rear of the formation launched a set of guided missiles, which spiralled in much faster. The Static came over every frequency again, the humans defending the train ready and waiting for that move. The guided missiles went off target, losing all focus flying into the ground.
The guns at the back of the train opened up, at the edge of their range, firing a steady stream of bullets up at their pursuers.
The lead H/K opened fire again, this time with its plasma cannons, the glowing electric death splattering against the train's armored plating.
Up ahead, the train tracks came to a curve, sweeping around a steep rise in the ground. The men who were firing quickly ducked away from their weapons, back into the train...
The H/K's flew up and over the rise, gaining plenty of ground, firing on all their cannons, shattering the train completely, ventilating the train cars, front to end, smoke rising thickly from it's ruined shape...
Another curve, this one sharper, and the train took it at full speed, just as the Machines fired again.
The force of momentum, combined with the blast, forced the train to jump the tracks, the whole thing suddenly pitching up against the ground, the train cars coming apart from each other, as each one flipped and spun horrifically, tearing themselves apart.
The two remaining large flying H/K's came in at a hover near the wrecked train, and lowered itself to about thirty feet up.
The humanoid machines, marching out from the cargo bay, dropping the thirty feet down without injury, moved with unholy precision, overlooking the train, searching for survivors.
It found none.
Also no bodies.
The train was empty.
As soon as the machines saw this, their other number split up, four of them heading for the wrecked Engine car, the rest of them heading back toward the Alamo.
The four that moved into the engine car found bodies. Four of them.
One was still alive.
The machines moved toward him.
Shattered, nearly dead, the last surviving human was clawing for his radio.
The nearest Terminator reviewed his directives. The human was almost certainly dying already. It was clear that the train was a diversion, and if the survivor was reporting in, then it meant that the radio was keyed to a frequency that could be tracked.
The machine came forward and took the radio straight out of the human's weak fingers...
And pulled a thin cord that was apparently leading up the humans' sleeve...
A trip-wire.
There was a momentary noise from somewhere in the humans' bulky jacket, two quick beeps...
"Gotcha!" Snarled the dying man.
Even from the damaged, half missing skyline of Los Angeles, the fireball was visible from a rooftop. It actually plumed high enough to catch one of the H/K's turbines, and bring it down explosively.
Walters lowered his sniper rifle, and set the scope back to something a little less long range. "Corporal, send word to the Colonel. Diversion tactic was successful."
"Colonel?"
John lifted his radio. "Go ahead."
"It's over. They took the train."
"Understood." John said grimly. "Skynet's finished its offensive here. Once it realized the Alamo was empty, and so was the train, I think it sent its H/K's back on search mode."
Walters' voice took over. "It won't take them long to figure out where we are now."
"Doesn't mater. The new base will be a lot easier to defend than here."
"Still," Eric said. "It's the first base I ever set up. I'm gonna miss it."
"Me too." John sighed. "We're just mopping up here. We'll set the charges at the entrance to the base, and the tunnel, make it hard for them to follow us. I'll see you soon."
Connor flagged down his men, who waved back and the group of them followed their leader toward the tunnel.
As John passed one of the destroyed checkpoints, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.
One Terminator was apparently still functional, though just barely. It was pinned down in wreckage, its weaponized forearm ripped away, and its metal jaw ripped off. Its red eyes glared balefully up at him, and it struggled to move.
Connor's team saw it and lifted their guns, but he quickly waved them down. The thing was harmless. Could barely move.
John looked the shattered Terminator in the still glowing eyes. "You're still talking to Skynet aren't you? You're still transmitting." John sighed, and actually sat down on the ground, across from the Machine. "Six men. Men with lives. Men who had lost everything because of you, and knew what I was asking of them. Twenty more here. Twenty who volunteered to hold you back long enough with me."
The machine pulled itself free of the wreckage at last, everything below the torso gone; and started crawling toward John Connor, dragging itself by one arm.
John stared at it with weird intensity. His mother had told him of a moment like this with the first Terminator. "You don't know what it's like to try and kill one of these things, John."
Connor didn't move. "You can't figure out why we aren't all dead yet can you? You can't figure out why you haven't caught us all. The answer is simple. Humans are better at this than you. Look at yourself. Even in this state, even with most of your body gone, you still reach for me, your target. No more desperate than when fully assembled, no more malicious when wounded. Just a machine, still trying to obey its program, even when you have no hope... hatred, vengeance, fury, sacrifice... These things are alien to you. We'll show you the ways of war, and you won't know what to do against it."
The other soldiers were staring in silence at their Leader, having an intense heart to heart with the shattered enemy Terminator.
The ruined machine, its red eyes still blazing, crawled closer, straining for him with steel fingers...
John lifted his gun lazily, pulled the trigger; and the last Terminator went dark.
Meanwhile, the tunnel that led to the subways was safe, and the entire population of the Alamo began the long, silent trek toward the empty subways of Los Angeles.
City of Angels. Kate thought, as the crowd of survivors, keeping silent and cautious, walked onward in the dark.
Noise was muted in the tunnel, even the slight echoes of footsteps making people worry that the noise would lead the machines down on them.
Nevertheless, those that had been able to hear the radio transmissions knew the scope of what had happened, and the war stories began. Whispers in total pitch darkness about the underground Minutemen who held the line, and about the man who had come up with the plan. They had done it again. Against all the odds, they had lived, because her husband had found them a way out.
Kate shivered as she heard them all say it, one by one, silent and awed. Connor had done it again. Connor had got them out.
Behind them, there was a gasp.
"Shut up." Carla hissed somewhere behind them.
"I can't see." It was Bowman.
"That happens when you're underground." Carla told him. "Can you walk? There are people with actual injuries who could use the cot you're being carried on."
"I can walk." Bowman said meekly. "I can't believe you punched me."
"I can." Answered four or five voices, more or less at the same time.
Carla ignored Bowman, sped up a bit to catch up with Kate. "I keep expecting an ambush. Why didn't the machines know about the Tunnel from LA to the Alamo?"
"It hadn't opened yet." Kate explained. "It wasn't on any maps, and the only records of it ever being dug would have been nuked long ago."
"Skynet sort of bit itself on the ass there, didn't it?"
"Yeah."
"He fooled them, didn't he? He tricked them into ignoring the train tracks and attacking the tunnel, the tricked them abandoning the tunnels to go after the train."
"That was the plan. I guess it worked, we're still here."
"How'd he know?"
Kate pocketed her radio. She was part of the last group through the subway tunnel. The med bay had been spared after all. Once the Machines had seen the train, they had taken the bait and abandoned their offensive through the tunnels, the only ones still fighting their way in were the ones already fighting. The rest had apparently decided that their target was moving away.
Just as John had predicted.
The train had left after John's fighters had drawn the H/K's in, toward the entrance, away from the train, mechanically certain that the fight was in the tunnels itself, and once they had passed the exit, the train was safe to get away. If they had pressed the fight at the tunnels, they would have found the human population, never near the train, but in the main tunnel leading to LA.
A decoy, within a decoy.
Kate was proud of him, but tried not to think about how he knew this. He knew how Terminator's hunted. They had been hunting him forever. The Machines had taught him what the Machines would do. The only person in the world that Skynet had prepared as an enemy.
How did he know? Carla had asked.
Kate couldn't help the smirk. "He's John Connor."
"Oh-ho!" Oldham chortled. "Man, we hit the jackpot, sir!"
Eric looked around the aisles of canned food. "How many supermarkets in LA?"
"A Lot."
"Too bad we can't use any of it."
"Sir?"
Walters pulled out his Geiger counter and ran it over the shelves. It crackled brightly into the Red. "Tins. LA got hit early. Metal holds radiation. All the tinned food in LA is hot."
Oldham looked like his puppy died. "Huh."
"Get the plastic tubs. And the sheeting. Anything plastic. We're making greenhouses, we're making hydroponics. We don't need this stuff."
"Yes sir."
Walters' radio buzzed, and he answered it. "Walters."
"Eric, whatever you're doing, do it faster." Connor answered. "The H/K's that gave up on The Alamo are moving. Looks like they figured out where the tunnel led."
"Yessir." Eric responded, and disconnected, turning to Oldham. "Move fast. Send the Think Tank upstairs. The electronics section. At least they can have salvage." Eric pulled out a list. "Here's the stuff Connor insisted we get. Tell our other recon teams to mark anywhere they find it, salvage teams will wait until the recon teams have cleared them."
"That'll take some time. Most of our recon guys are still searching the subways for cave-in and entrances."
"Tell them to find the end of their tunnels and start searching outward from there. The Colonel said to have incendiaries set up at three, nine, and twelve o'clock positions from each entrance."
"Yessir."
The journey to LA took hours. Once the human population got to the rest of the subway network however, they found that things were already working. Major Eric Walters and a small band had moved down the tunnel on motorcycles immediately after the train had begun its move.
At this point, there wasn't much but a few lights set up at the crossroads in the empty subway tunnels, but when the escaped refugees found the lights set up, they knew the trek was over, and started spreading out, finding places to sit.
Walters and his men were already out of the tunnels, walking through the ruined LA. Walters dispatched his men in pairs, finding ways into the shattered buildings that still stood.
Once the rest of the soldiers made it, they joined him, setting explosives in the streets, planting thermal charges and incendiary bombs all over the place through the streets, and the buildings.
Walters and Oldham met up and started setting up surveillance posts that could watch most of the LA skyline.
The soldiers worked in a pattern. Four teams of two. Three teams would enter a selected building, one team after another. One team would set up thermal explosives that would burn white hot. The second team would enter as soon as they left and set up explosives or listening posts. The third would set up a jamming device. The fourth team would go across the street to another building and set up an ambush.
Everyone working on these teams could see the plan. The jammers would force Skynet to send in their forces. The heat seekers would confuse the enemy sensors, not knowing which heat signature was a human, or a decoy. The explosives and the ambush across the street would knock down whatever the Machines sent.
The City of Angels was fast becoming a Skynet Death Trap, while the humans had miles of underground tunnels to hide in.
Z Plus One Year Seventy Eight Days
Kate scrubbed her skin, keeping the water in the pan as hot as she could.
John came in, saw his wife washing, and quickly pulled the tarpaulin tent door closed behind him. "Hi."
"Hi. You done for the day?" Kate asked as she pulled her boots off.
"Yeah. Wanted to get these for you before I called it a night." John said, holding up a fistful of papers.
Kate took them off him. "Hmm." She said, smiling lightly. "Surveillance photos of LA."
"Sappers have been busy for their first day."
Kate flipped through the photos. Huge H/K's on fire, torn apart, fallen over from mined roads.
Dead machines... Kate thought, seeing her father's face in her mind, running a hand over her stomach, remembering...
Kate set down the photos and pulled over a tip cup. "Give me a hand with my hair?"
"Gladly." John drawled, and gathered a cupful of warm water from the basin, rinsing out Kate's hair.
"You want the water?" Kate responded, letting his hands relax her.
John nodded and shrugged off his combat jacket. "Saves having to heat up a new batch."
"How are we going for that by the way?"
"Drinking water? Not as well as we'd like, but the shockwaves screwed up the weather enough that there's some new lakes formed after the fallout. Bowman's testing it, looks okay. We're gonna have a problem with the Machines using Bio-Warfare for a while though."
Kate shuddered, rubbing soap between her hands, pulling the lather through he hair with her fingers. "We're going to need a lab set up fast."
"Fortunately, salvaging computer and laboratory equipment is easier in LA." John agreed. "So, I understand you had some excitement back behind the front." John teased as he rinsed her hair out.
"I think my dad would call it battlefield promotion." Kate said modestly when she raised her head.
"There were seven people in that Operating Room. Four of them saw nothing. The rest seem to think that Bowman slipped and hit his head."
Kate didn't look at him, wriggling out her toes, scrubbing them with the towel.
"Expect Carla of course." John continued, putting a gentle kiss on her shoulder.
Kate, slipping her boots back on, suddenly fumbled with her laces. "What did Carla say?"
"That he was being an idiot, so she punched him."
Kate snorted.
"She said he had a glass jaw too."
Kate snorted again. "I think I made an enemy there."
"Well he'd better get over it. You're his CO now, Major Connor."
Kate's head snapped around. "WHAT?"
"Two of the witnesses were Eric's soldiers. Bowman was right about one thing. There has to be a chain of command in an Army, and an Operating Room, and you were the right choice."
"Bowman has a rank. I don't, I'm a civilian."
"A month ago so was I. This isn't new, Kate. Draftees with special skills, particularly in non-combat units, were given honorary ranks as necessary to keep the chain of command clear. It's how your father got promoted into the ranks, and we've all been drafted."
"John, we talked about this. You can't just name me your second in command-"
"I'm not. This is coming from Eric."
Kate stopped short. "Really?"
"He told me that there was confusion in the Medbay, and that one of Bowman's surgical team stepped up when Bowman made a fool of himself, in such a way that it could lead to problems in the future. I told him to fix it. So he's drafting you. I'm just the messenger." With that, John picked her jacket up off the floor, slid a Major's Rank insignia from his pocket, and pinned it to her uniform.
"Bowman's gonna hate this."
"Do you care what he thinks that much?"
"Not him exactly, but his people know him. Better than me."
"His whole medical team saw him throw away a scalpel and walk away from a patient to yell at you while explosions were going off. And the ones that saw are talking about it. And about you. There's nobody in that room that wouldn't salute you. Bowman knows that."
Kate shivered at the thought and shrugged her shirt on. "My dad told me once, that the whole idea of Chain of Command is contrary to doing what you want."
"Put a man people hate in charge, and find out just how contrary it is." John said, pulling off his own boots. "Kate, frankly it doesn't matter what you were. We're sticking to the tradition of the old hierarchies, because the alternative is we fall on each other like wolves. These soldiers? They do what I tell them because I order them to. I can do that because they gave me a rank. They gave me a rank so that I could give them orders they could follow. If they decided not to follow my orders one day, there's not a damn thing I could do. There's no legal system, no jails, no courts; and all of us have guns. Bowman wants to press the matter, they'll side with you. Because they like you, they know you'll get things done... and because..."
"Because I'm your wife." Kate finished, as John started scrubbing at his skin with the sponge. He took the sponge off her and slid back behind her on the edge of the cot. "Give me that. You've got to keep these new cuts clean. Can't waste antibiotics on anyone until we start harvesting penicillin from the bread mold."
"Army food. Find some bread that mold will touch." John handed it to her. "Bowman couldn't wrap his brain around the fact that the world ended. That's a problem, but not at all an unusual one, most people couldn't. Remember how you reacted when you realized you were pointing a gun at a Machine?"
"I was nearly catatonic in that graveyard." Kate agreed. "Use the toothpaste, John. Teeth are more valuable now."
John nodded and scrubbed his teeth harder with his finger absently. "Same story with that prison camp. Nobody could summon the will to react." John said. "Nobody believes it could happen to them. Not that badly, not that big. Then one day you wake up and the world has ended. These people are holding to us, because it's all they still have of what went before. Bowman just took too long to realize that his back was to the wall."
Kate watched him quietly, laying out her clothes to be in quick reach the next morning. "There's something I wanted to ask you, and this really isn't the time..."
"Ask me."
"Did you mean what you said, about how happy you were that we were going to be parents?"
John looked her square in the eye. "Yes."
She took his hand, pulled it to her, and ran it over her flat stomach. "I don't ache any more. The tenderness faded, the nausea stopped, the bleeding stopped. My body's healed."
"Have you?" John asked her gently.
Kate shook her head. "No. I saw you with those kids in the tunnel, and I feel like there's a hand closing around my throat. John, I haven't cried since Crystal Peak, but that day I wanted to. I wanted to cry so much. But I had to keep my eyes clear, because I'm a soldier now. I was sobbing so hard and I still couldn't get the tears past my eyes."
John looked helplessly at her. "I wish I could take this away from you. I wish I could just make it all go away."
Kate leaned in and kissed him desperately. He clung her to him tightly until they finally broke for air. "What worries me isn't just that we'd be raising a family like this... it's that, we'd be doing it because we either Populate or Perish."
"That wouldn't be the only reason." John whispered. "You weren't wrong, Kate. There's never going to be a good time."
Kate hadn't let go of his hand, still rubbing her stomach. "I would have been showing by now. We would be running for our lives, and I'd be heavier, slower, a bigger target..." Kate gave him a look heavy with meaning. "Are we going to keep running?"
"Nowhere to run to after this. This is our defensive zone. Human territory."
"Human Territory. God, I love the way that sounds." Kate pulled back the blanket on their cot and sat down on the edge of it. "It doesn't bother you?" She asked. "The fact that it's all been retreats so far?"
"Nope." John slung the rifle off his shoulder and laid it down against the wall next to his cot. "We've lost ground, but we gained New Ground in its place. And we have survived, and most important, we gained time."
"Time?"
"Now we've got an actually trained team, ready to fight Machines. All our soldiers were trained to fight humans. This is a whole new ballgame."
"I think it's starting to worry the civilians." Kate said. "The soldiers tell me, that a lot of them have been getting questions. About what the battles are like, about how it feels…"
"Good." John said.
"Good?" Kate shrugged off her shirt, folded it neatly and laid it beside her side of the cot with her radio.
"When I was in Columbia with Mom, we spent some time with a couple of Drug Runners, who taught her about smuggling. One day they got caught with guns in the car, and tried to run for it. One of them got shot. We took his body back to his family, who got mad enough to take over his role in the operation. They wanted revenge, they wanted to honor him."
"Mad enough at his death not to care that it was illegal." Kate nodded as she laid her weapon on top of her jacket, in easy reach. "How does that help us?"
"One man was shot in the back; two more grabbed weapons." John explained, lying down on the cot; boots on. "Twenty-six men were killed during the retreat, at my order; to protect two hundred. People who know what it cost. People who know they've been running for too long, and it's time to turn and fight. A large number of which have signed up for training." He turned those haunted eyes on Kate. "This is how you build up an army. And before this war ends, we're going to take back the Alamo, and every other scrap of land we lost too."
"Promise?" Kate quipped lightly, stretching her body against him.
"Would I lie to you?" John quipped,
Kate tilted her head to look up at him. "You tired?"
Beat.
"Yes. Extremely." John confessed finally, chuckling ruefully despite himself.
Kate laughed and settled tighter against her husband. "Me too." She murmured. "But let's not forget this conversation."
"Yeah." John agreed, putting an arm around her on the narrow cot; and he kissed the top of her head, tilting his mouth down to keep the ends out of his mouth. "I liked you better with longer hair Kate. I didn't eat so much of it then."
"Shorter is easier to keep clean. Lice are becoming a problem with some of the younger children." Kate told him absently, already drifting off as she ran a hand down his arm to thread her fingers through his, as she did every night they were together. "Love you husband."
"Love you wife."
Z Plus One Year Ninety Four Days
Skynet sent another three offensives into Los Angeles. One from the tunnel between The Alamo and the Underground, two more into the city itself from above.
Connor had ordered that mines, sensors and barricades be put in the tunnel that the human survivors had fled through. With their rear guard set up, the tunnel became a shooting gallery, and Skynet quickly abandoned it. Once neither side could make use of it, Connor ordered it collapsed.
The maps of the subway network were incomplete, as some of them had collapsed, some of them booby trapped; so Skynet had sent patrols circling overland, hunting for humans that came to the surface.
The ruined buildings were still strong enough to hold teams of humans with weapons, and those that weren't were rigged to collapse on passing H/K's, burying them in rubble.
The flying H/K's and the smaller of Skynet's infantry kept searching, their motion sensors and thermal vision never once tired or paused.
John had known they were coming, and the incendiary devices that Walters recon teams had prepared were set off remotely, one by one.
With sudden bursts of heat coming from all sides, the machines couldn't tell right away which heat signatures were human and which were decoys, and the buildings that housed snipers and grenade launchers cut Skynet's army apart from a distance.
Skynet responded by attacking the buildings themselves, trying to bury their elusive prey. For a time, it worked. But humanity was under their feet, appearing from hidden trapdoors, sniping the Hunter Killers from the sides, and then ducking underground again.
Connor had drilled them over and over and over again. Stay out of sight, attack fast from the sides, keep covered...
Those that understood how to fight this way dealt damage to Skynet, those that did not learn died quickly, or were captured.
The time was put to good use. Miles of plastic-insulated electrical cable had been salvaged, and lights were strung through the entire subway system. The full extent of the Underground was mapped and organized. Fortifications were built around key areas and entrances. Hydroponics, sewerage and ventilation were set up. Training began again, the tunnels making the perfect obstacle course.
Nobody could believe the speed with which things had been prepared. Connor was practically everywhere at once, the only person in the Last Army who didn't have to be trained for the new way of life. Kate was everywhere that her husband wasn't, putting a years worth of lessons in Crystal Peak to work.
Digging began again too. Sewer lines, clean after two years without people were breached, as were city maintenance tunnels, until the entire city was Human territory, and ways past their blockade had been found.
With the LA offensive over, the war had come to something of a stalemate. Skynet couldn't get in; humanity didn't have the force to push outward.
Nevertheless, they were active. Radio signals were sent out, Skynet unable to shut down the transmitters; frequency shifting with every message so that it couldn't be jammed.
And more groups of survivors, huddled around their campfires and their silent radios, suddenly heard that there was someone fighting back. Other regiments found across the globe, other small packs of survivors were warned, and told quickly how to prepare for an attack from Skynet; ordered to meet with each other if possible, ordered to work together, ordered to set up defenses and lines of communication.
The orders came from John Connor.
After an eternity in disorganized chaos across a vast dead wasteland, the human race started again.
Skynet: To All Units.
Top Priority Communiqué.
Directives:
1) Locate Human Populations.
2) Evaluate and Report.
3) Enter and Destroy.
4) Defend Skynet Resources
New Primary Objective.
Terminate John Connor.
End Transmission
Chapter 4: Z Plus 1 Year 120 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Days
In the burned out skyline of Los Angles, Colonel John Connor raised his collar against the night chill, and climbed higher. Above him was a shattered Cell Phone Relay Tower. The transmitter was hidden in the broken Cell Tower and the power lines ran down the inside of the tower. Connor picked up a radio microphone. "Ready?"
His assembled entourage, Lieutenant Lutz, Private Tracy and six year old Kyle Reese nodded. "Recording now."
"There is no fate but what we make." Connor said into the microphone. "Do not think that the war is lost, and hope lost with it. If you are scared; if you are hiding, trying to find somebody out there, this message is for you. You are not alone. Humanity has survived. And there is someone fighting back. We are outnumbered, but we are armed with the kind of strength you cannot build on an assembly line, and the kind of courage you cannot program into a robot. Rely on your own strength of heart and soul. Do not be afraid. Tenacity and determination are the levers that can move the world. I am sending this on every frequency. If you can record it, pass it on further outwards from the Los Angles area. This is an invitation for all who need a place to go, and a banner to follow. Rebuilding the human world has already begun, and we want everyone to be a part of it. If you're out there, give us your answer. We will hear it. My name is John Connor. Welcome to the war."
Connor switched off the microphone.
There was a beat of respectful silence.
"Tell me you recorded all of that." Kyle murmured.
"I did." Lutz promised.
Connor nodded. "Play that on a loop every half hour. Any answers you get, direct them toward each other. Don't call them toward LA yet, unless you can get a read on when they'll arrive so we can knock a hole in Skynet patrols for them."
"Yessir."
"Reset the cell repeater tower to transmit on all Military and Civilian Frequencies. No encoding."
The soldier at the base of the phone tower nodded and swiftly began spinning dials. "Yessir. Range?"
"Everywhere, far and near."
"Yessir."
Connor's radio buzzed. "Connor."
"Colonel, we have incoming." Reported one of the Decoy teams. "Three Ground based H/K's at six o'clock."
Kyle jumped to his feet. "We've gotta move faster. Give it to me. I can hook up the recording to the antenna inside the building. I'm small enough to get through the holes in the roof."
Connor took the tape off Lutz and handed it to the boy. "You know how to set this up on a loop?"
"Yessir."
"Move fast." Connor ordered. "Lutz, get downstairs, we'll be there quick as we can. Fall back to the kill zone."
The H/K came rolling toward the tower, its guns panned left and right over the shattered windows.
Connor didn't poke his head out to look, finding the location by how close the spotlights sounded. "Reese, NOW!"
Kyle slid his rail thin body out from the hole in the roof. "Mission Accomplished, sir."
Connor grabbed the kid and yanked him toward the stairwell and keyed his radio. "Let's move. Decoys, three minute countdown."
Connor and Reese ran down the stairs, as Skynet's spotlights scanned over them, searching for a target. Plasma fire smacked against the walls and floors of the buildings, trying to flush out a target.
At three minutes and one second, at a few spots around the street, incendiary devices flared into bright hot flame.
The heat seeking H/K, stopped studying the tower and turned to fire at the barrels, each of them in a different direction. The closest H/K fired with mechanical efficiency, left right, left.
In that moment of diversion, Kyle and Connor bolted fast out of the building, sprinting across the street to a dead looking car. It had tires, but no glass in its windows or windshield, covered in rust…
As Connor and Reese came closer, Lutz and Tracy poked their heads up, and started the engine, which came to life with a clean roar. Lutz climbed into the backseat.
Connor made it to the driver's side door and let himself in. Kyle took the hood to the car at a leap and slid across it through the open windshield, taking shotgun.
The H/K saw the movement and swiveled back to fire, but the car was already moving as Connor gunned the engine.
The trio of H/K's took off in pursuit. The car was much faster in pure speed, but there wasn't a smooth road anywhere left in the world, and the car lurched up and down like a wild animal. The huge tank treads handled the terrain much better.
The H/K's were focused on their targets, moving into the streets to get better shots, seeking their elusive prey…
They moved in too close.
Connor spun the wheel and neatly drifted the car into a side street, too narrow for the H/K's to go unless single file.
Connor felt the ground rumble under his feet and dared a glance back over his shoulder. The air lit up with bright white flashes and the H/K's started shooting again…
"Agh!" Lutz yelled in the backseat, and Connor could smell charred metal and burned air. "It's not bad! I'm okay, sir!"
Connor keyed his radio. "Rack 'em and Stack 'em."
The streets required that the machines split up to cover all possible directions the humans could take. The ones that broke off from the rear to take other routes found themselves without backup as Connors men jumped up from beside them, taking advantage of the H/K's huge size to toss mines in the path of the treads, and ducking back into the shattered storefronts, ducking out through the back ways they had cleared for themselves.
The H/K still in the lead was instantly aware of the explosions that gutted its backup and accelerated, determined not to let its prey get out of sight.
Connor leaned out his window and fired a flare gun straight up.
Far from the machines, someone saw the flare and triggered one of the dozens of detonators laid out in one of the lookout posts.
Next to the moving H/K, dozens of charges went off in one of the skyscrapers, and the building fell sharply to its left, thousands of tonnes of steel and concrete, dropping neatly onto the passing H/K as it chased Connor's jeep.
The jeep was bounced off the ground by the impact, and lurched against something hard enough to give off a huge grinding sound from the axle.
Lutz groaned in the backseat as his wounded body was knocked around.
"Cut that one kinda close didn't you, Colonel?" Tracy put in meekly.
Connor looked over his shoulder. Even a three story tall Ground Based H/K had to stop moving when a building dropped on it. "Kyle, remind me to do something nice for the explosive ordinance detail when we get back. They put a lot of work into making these cars look old and wrecked."
"Yessir." Kyle chirped.
Connor pulled out a radio. "Eagle one to base; we need a medic out here, and a new set of wheels. Apologize to the motor pool for me."
"Yessir."
A few minutes later their transport arrived. A large open jeep, big enough for everyone; with a stretcher bolted across the hood. Kate was in the driver seat. She jumped out, took in the sight of a huge machine with a building on top of it, and hefted her medical bag. "Looks like your work, John."
"What are you doing here?" Connor demanded.
"Heard you boys needed a medic." Kate said. "Your Decoys reported in as I was leaving, they all made it back safe. They took some damage, so the rest of my medical team went back with them. They told me your car escaped the falling building and everybody was able to run for it, so it couldn't have been that bad. I split with them and came for you to make sure you got in okay. Siddown, Lutz; let me take care of that leg."
Lutz hoisted himself by his arms to the hood of her jeep and lay down on the stretcher. Kate ripped his torn trouser open enough to get to the wound. "Yeah, that's not too bad."
"Colonel!" Tracy shouted suddenly. "There are sounds coming out of the H/K!"
Everyone went silent, and then they heard it. Loud thumping and the sound of metal hitting metal.
"The H/K was carrying Terminators." Kate said, somewhat unnecessarily.
"Jammers!" Connor roared, and the radios lit up with a burst of static as everyone turned their radio down. "That'll keep Skynet from seeing what its soldiers see. They'll be on their automated program now. We can't let them get outside jamming range if they see the tunnel entrances." Connor sprinted for the jeep. "If we can get to good ambush points before they can-"
"Too late!" Kate shouted, and everyone looked up to see the wreckage torn open, and moonlight glinting off a chrome skeleton. It started marching forward, its red eyes gleaming.
It lifted its rifle and started shooting. The angles from the wreckage worked for the Resistance and everyone was able to find cover.
Kate's world dropped into slow motion. John was already bringing up his rifle, and shoving Kyle Reese behind him.
Lutz was up off the stretcher and he shoved Kate down into the dirt. Lutz started to run toward Connor. Kate reached up and pulled a grenade off his belt as he passed.
Connor and his men were up, firing their rifles back at the machine. Nobody had a clear shot. The H/K was still burning and smoking, mangled metal sticking up in every direction.
Kate pulled the pin; lobbed the grenade up, and it came down next to the Terminator as it exploded. Bits of the machine went flying in every direction.
Kate ducked as the top half of the Machine came down nearby.
But the soldiers had not time to relax before the wrecked Terminator was shoved aside from behind and a new one rose out of the wreckage to take its place. Unlike the first one, this one showed signs of damage. Only one eye was still functioning, one of its arms was ripped away…
But it jumped down from the wreckage and started marching toward Connor.
Another climbed out of the wreckage and jumped down next to it. And a third.
Kate stayed down. She was unarmed, but for the 9mm in her belt and the knife in the boot. 9mm Bullets were nothing against Terminators. A knife was a joke.
Connor and his men had much more powerful weaponry, and opened up on the Terminators with everything they had, ducking back as the Machines started shooting. The humans started clambering up the pile of debris left by the collapsed building, taking higher positions and seeking cover where they could.
The damaged Terminator didn't bother to stop and shoot, marching quickly toward their cover.
Kate saw the battle turning as the human soldiers were in retreat, and suddenly her eyes focused on the top half of the machine she had hit with the grenade. Its skull was intact, but the red eyes dark… and its weapon-ized forearm was still attached to the shoulder joint.
She made a quick study of it. It still had the trigger/button but a Terminator hand was welded onto the grip.
Kate pulled her knife and started hacking away at the damaged forearm.
Connor ignored the weapon growing hot in his hand and poured on as much firepower as he could. His men had learned to triangulate their fire and the heavy impact of the bullets started wearing down one of the terminators. A lucky shot had apparently caught it in the pneumatics and it went down on one leg.
The other one had apparently decided that the humans had the strategic advantage with the high-ground, and went chasing after them, running mechanically, but very fast, up the pile of debris.
Connor knew there was a third one, too smart to think it was harmless just because it's gun had been ripped away, when a shadow fell over him.
Connor looked up and saw the damaged Terminator drag itself over the rise he was hiding behind.
Connor's hand flashed out and shoved Kyle aside and a fist came down with pneumatic force and slammed into the space between them. "KYLE! GO!"
Kyle hissed and ran, sucking in a pained breath. His arm was bleeding where the Terminator arm nicked him.
The damaged Terminator dropped down and started reaching for Connor's face.
Connor swung up his rifle and pulled the trigger. Click. Empty.
Lutz suddenly half leaped, half fell in from nowhere and shoved Connor aside with his body, and the chrome fingers wrapped around his throat. A metal skull with a perpetually evil grin considered him, and Lutz heard gears working.
Lutz felt his feet leave the ground and knew he was finished. He'd seen them do it back at The Alamo. A steel fist would close straight through his neck and pull his throat out mid-breath.
There was an electrical cracking noise like lightning had struck right in front of him, and Lutz felt the ground beneath his boots, the weight of the Machine suddenly lying dead on top of him, the fingers frozen around his throat.
He fought to get free and saw something unexpected.
Kate Connor, with a Machine Plasma Rifle in her hands, a chrome skeleton arm still hanging from the grip. She swung the gun around and gunned down the next Terminator.
The final Machine, still chasing at the wrecked building, became swiftly aware that there was a better armed foe at its back and tried to turn.
Kate swung the rifle up and fired, teeth bared and an unholy look of raw hatred crossing her face.
She was too far to get a clean shot at the machine, and instead hit the wreckage beneath its feet. The heavy machine fell as its foothold shattered, and the Machine came tumbling down the pile of debris, Kate firing blast after blast of hot plasma into it as it tumbled.
It finally came to a stop at the base of the hill, and Kate marched right up to it, firing another load of liquid fire into its face, execution style.
Dead silence fell over the battlefield.
Breathing hard, Kate sucked in the smell of burning metal and ozone. Dead machines…
She looked up and saw John, Lutz, Tracy and Kyle staring openly at her.
Kate stared back. "What?!" She demanded.
Each man held up their hands in a placating manner. "Nothing."
Kyle beamed at Connor. "I like her!"
Connor came down the tunnel first, carrying one end of the stretchers with the wounded Lutz stretched out on it.
"Sir."
Connor turned and found Major Eric Walters, his second in command running up. "Eric. Are we transmitting?"
"Started about ten minutes ago, then the jammers came on." Walters reported. "Transmitting again now. I understand you had some excitement out there."
Kate Connor half-carried Kyle Reese with one arm, and hefted her new Plasma Rifle with the other. "What makes you say that?" She quipped on her way to the Medbay.
"Nothing we haven't handled before. No fatalities." Connor reported.
"That's good to know." Walters responded. "Sir, did you send Oldham out of the city?"
"Yes I did." Connor told him. "And I sent Dex out with his own team toward the coast."
"Why wasn't I informed?"
"Because you were busy training the new recruits."
"I can do two things at once, sir."
"So can I, Eric; but we don't have two things to do, we have twenty things to do." Connor told him. "I'm taking these guys to the Medbay, meet me in the Command Centre in two minutes, I'll tell you all about it.."
Kate tossed her weapon to Walters. "Eric, while you're waiting, get that Machine arm the hell off my gun, huh?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Walters was waiting as ordered, and Connor gestured at the map of LA which had updated information on all the Skynet patrols over the city, as well as the locations of all their sappers and decoys. "Your opinion of the tactical situation?"
"Skynet's getting reinforcements from outside the city."
"Correct. Once we get out past the buildings we lose our cover. Skynet can't fight it's way in with the crossfire, we can't fight our way out. But there's another factor at work. Eric, look at the pattern of these patrols. There's something not right."
"Yessir. It's... wasteful. Skynet doesn't strike me as being inefficient."
"Very good." Connor stared at the map long and hard. "I need a bigger map to show you why."
Walters went over to the cabinet and started hunting.
As he did, Connor spoke. "Remember how we started transmitting instructions out over Ham radio, Morse code, ULF..."
"Yessir."
"Remember how you said that the largest force we found was a Canadian Regiment a long way from here, and the closest population was a long way south."
"Yessir."
Walters fetched a topographical map and laid it out over the top of the city map.
"There may be something closer after all." Connor studied the larger map and traced out Skynet's circular patrol routes. "Okay, we know that there are two groups. Ground H/K's circles further inland to make sure we don't get out of LA, and the flying H/K's circle the ocean front to make sure we don't get out by water."
"But the ground forces aren't circular. They waste resources by making an odd patrol route."
"It makes sense if you think like a machine. They aren't searching one area, they're searching three. The reason the route makes no sense to us is because Skynet is using one set of machines to patrol three areas that are overlapping. It's efficient when there's more than one area being searched." Connor traced the Skynet patrols on the larger map. "If you assume that the other two patrols is based around an epicenter like it is with our base, and if you assume that the same distance from that center is being patrolled… then Skynet is also looking for something… There, and there."
"San Bernardino County? Why?"
Connor eyes had a glint in them. "Because Major, someone is there."
Walters nodded, swiftly understanding. "That's where you sent Oldham."
"Right."
"But there are two other searches going on. Ones over San Bernardino and the other epicentre is out over the water. What's out there?"
"I don't know. I sent Dex to take a look."
"Think he'll find anything?"
"We can't get out over the waves yet, and if Skynet hasn't found it from the air, then probably not. But I put our guys out there anyway once we started transmitting… just in case they feel like answering us."
Just then, the radio crackled, and a voice came on. "There is no fate but what we make." Connor's voice called. "Do not think that the war is lost, and hope lost with it. If you are scared; if you are hiding, trying to find somebody out there, this message is for you. You are not alone. Humanity has survived. And there is someone fighting back."
Connor swiftly turned down the radio. "Set the base radios to the new encrypted frequencies. I imagine we'll get tired of hearing that loop pretty quick."
Walters grinned. "Yessir."
Connor came out of the Communications Room and headed into the main tunnels, when he noticed everyone watching him. Some people were actually applauding, and after a moment he had realized why. The tunnels had made early radio transmission difficult until they could rig up relays for their field radios, and adapted the radio lines used by the civilians back when the trains were running through the subways.
They still received CB and Civilian frequencies. Every radio in the base had picked up the message he was broadcasting.
Connor ducked his head, still a little embarrassed by the attention. A man who spent his life being invisible in every crowd did not take well to the spotlight, however necessary it was. "Okay, back to work."
The applause intensified for a moment, and everybody turned back to their jobs with good-natured chuckles and smiles.
Connor headed for the Medbay.
"You know, Connor; sometimes I think that the only reason I married you, is so I can listen to those wonderful speeches of yours." Kate told him once he came in.
Connor smiled and hugged his wife from behind. "I knew there had to be a reason. You sure didn't marry me for my money."
"So what brought that on?"
"Skynet has another patrol, on search and destroy mission out over San Bernardino County."
"That far inland? Why? We haven't been anywhere near there." Kate asked in confusion.
John looked up eagerly. "Exactly! LA isn't the only place they're patrolling. There's someone else. Someone not us."
Kate grinned. "Thank god. What now?"
"We've been transmitting non-stop all day from a tape hooked up to an antenna we ran through the cell phone towers above ground. All we can do is hope somebody answers us."
Kate nodded. "Your team from this morning are going to be okay."
"Good. Our guys are finally getting the knack for fighting machines."
"Is it really that different from Guerrilla warfare? Stay hidden, sneak attack, and retreat quickly before the counter attack can start…"
"That's the classic Guerrilla tactic, but the thing is, Terminators don't mind getting shot. They don't take cover; you can't flush them out of hiding because they don't hide. They don't think like we do, their bodies don't work like ours do, their eyes don't see like ours do. Whole new war."
Kate nodded. "Well, we've been in LA two weeks since Skynet stopped its main offensive and haven't lost anyone else. That's because of you, y'know."
"It's because of all of us." Connor told her. "But we haven't been pushing out either."
"We'll get there." Kate promised him. She suddenly came to attention, saluted crisply, and cleared her throat dramatically. "Weekly Report, Colonel?"
"Go ahead, Major." John responded with formality.
"Major Bowman has trained our medics in something more than patching holes. Medical training continues for them at a pretty good rate. All civilians with medical or surgical training have been brought in from the civilian populations. Medical supplies that haven't spoiled or been blown up are being brought in by the scavengers, and yours truly is giving some of the other civilians some surgical training. Carla is now officially our Head Nurse and has begun working with some of the kids, teaching them about how to keep ahead of the diseases we can't restrict now. Lice infestations have been taken care of in the younger children, and we're setting up equipment that will help us rebuild vaccines that we're probably going to need soon."
"Good. Post-Op?"
"Just your guys from this morning, plus a few civilians that got into a fight and broke each other's noses. Kohler remains unchanged." Kate frowned. "The coma could last hours or months. We're keeping him fed intravenously. Carla's using his room to teach some of the new civilian recruits about long term care." She shrugged. "With the workload being what it is, we don't get a lot of long term customers."
"Kyle Reese?"
"Eager for more. Wouldn't shut up about you the whole time I was stitching his arm shut. Had a lot of questions about you and how we met. You're a Rock Star."
Connor smirked and changed the subject. "How are things going with Bowman?"
"He's a better doctor than I am, always has been. He's got a degree, surgical and medical training. He knows that he's smarter than me, but I think in his head, he's had to follow order from people he's smarter than his whole career, so that's not an issue. Plus his ego took a bruising during the retreat from the Alamo. He's much easier to deal with… and he's a little scared of Carla now, so that helps."
Connor chuckled.
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Two Days
"Why are we here?" Corporal Patterson asked.
Oldham checked the sights on his weapons again. "Because Connor said so."
"Sarge, just getting out this far is dangerous... if the machines find the Maintenance tunnel..."
"I know. Connor knows that too. So if he sent us out here, he had a reason."
"You don't have a clue why we're here either do you sir?" One of the men piped up.
"Of course I do. How else could I know when it's time to go back?"
"But you won't tell the rest of us?"
"Welcome to the Armed Forces, brother." Patterson mumbled.
"Hiya, boys."
The four soldiers spun around, aiming at the voice.
A slender woman in her forties, looking a whole lot older due to the feral look on her face, calmly stared back at them, not at all concerned by the huge guns pointed at her.
CHA-CLIK!
Oldham glanced over his shoulder and saw half a dozen guns aimed at each of his men.
Oldham stared. This woman and her people had snuck up on four trained soldiers. That demanded notice. "Who the hell are you?"
"Call me Lori. If you'll all be so good as to follow my friend Alexander over there, we'll all get out of the open."
Oldham took in the visible firepower and was willing to bet there were more guns they didn't see. He nodded to his men, who lowered their weapons, and turned to follow the and Lori indicated. As they walked, more people showed up from corners and piled debris. The soldiers were quickly relieved of their weapons and radios.
Lori fell into step as they were escorted down the shattered street. "So. Which of you strapping young men is Connor?"
Dex had always like LA in the summer. The beach was a staple for his family vacations.
The seaside was far less inviting now. Nuclear fire had flash-melted the beach sand, broken glass was everywhere. The ocean was covered by a thick layer of black tar, and the beach was lined by large skeletons. Too big to be fish.
"Why the dolphins?" Forrest asked him. "Why not fish?"
"Fallout. Fish got gills. They'd be safer down underwater. Dolphins had to breathe the air after the bombs fell." Dex explained.
"Still... dolphins. I liked dolphins." Forrest complained.
"INCOMING!" Someone yelled.
Dex and Forrest ducked as low as the could and sought shelter. A few minutes later, there was a rumble that shook apart the ground beneath their feet. The sound of jet turbines filled the air, and a quartet of flying H/K's flew over them.
Dex shut his eyes, thinking good thoughts. He heard a moaning noise. It was him, and he grit his jaw as tight as he could.
There was no fire, no heat signatures, and no fortifications. They were sitting ducks.
But then, the vibration slowed, the shaking of the ground eased, and the flying machines moved on.
An eternity later, Dex raised his head. "Sound off!"
"One." Forrest.
"Two!" Olivier.
"Three." Tate.
No casualties.
Forrest picked himself up. "They had us. What are they doing?"
The quartet of flying death machines had moved out over the water, and were circling, shooting down at the waves.
Oldham looked around again, taking everything in. She had taken them to The Orphanage, only a few blocks away from where they had been 'captured'. The entrance tunnels were no bigger than the ones in LA, but Lori had managed to dig her way into something much larger.
The main chamber was based in a huge concrete room, hundreds of feet wide. It took Oldham a good long while to figure out what it was. It looked like it had bee the sub-level of a parking station. He looked again and saw a ramp leading to the next level down. The above ground layers must have been torn up by the shockwaves, and buried in the rubble, hiding the levels beneath.
The parking lot was open, and Oldham could see that the place was largely organized by chance. People were clustered into groups, most of them glancing back at the newcomers. Oldham could see no weapon emplacements, no fortifications. There were weapons, but mostly hand-weapons, tucked into waistbands like Lori had.
There were a lot of younger people. But none of them younger than five or six. No babies or toddlers anywhere that the soldiers could see. No babies born in this little colony either, apparently.
The place looked as though it was tacked together from what was left after J-Day. Chairs were here and here, lights were provided by camp-lights and lanterns. The walls were lit by Christmas lights and a bunch of holiday lanterns. The light actually gave off a warm glow, giving it an almost homey feel. The rest of the cavern was made to this feel, giving it a bohemian style. Walls were set up by tapestries and hangings to set off rooms.
Some of the youngest were playing hide and seek. Oldham smiled when he saw that. The youngest at the base played the same game. Connor had endeared himself to the kids on base by joining in the game, and impressed all concern by somehow managing to disappear better than kids' a third his size.
Oldham looked harder into the low light. There were drawings on the walls. Paints, crayons, charcoal... the walls had been decorated endlessly, and he could see rail-thin children adding to the pictures. It was something akin to tribal paintings, merged with finger-paints. The paintings were everything from mushroom clouds to flying machines to kids playing.
And over the entrance, painted in large letters, were the words 'The Orphanage.'
The soldiers had been brought to the centre of the chamber and given a place to sit. Lori had waved over at a group of young women, who had brought some drink.
Oldham felt his jaw drop. Coca Cola! Actual soft drink! He hadn't tasted cold sugary carbonated drink in so long...
Lori grinned. "Good stuff, huh?"
"I had forgotten." Oldham grinned.
"So, how'd you find us?"
Oldham glanced over the rim of his can. "I was sent."
"By Connor." Lori responded. It was not a question.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"He wants to talk to you."
Lori laughed. "Not interested. I'll have some food brought to you. Enjoy your meal, then beat it."
A young black man came running up to Lori. "Halloway's on the line."
Lori came swiftly to her feet faster than Oldham had seen anyone her age move. "Let's go. Alex, look after our guests, would you?"
Lori and Danny came into the small room and pulled the drapery closed behind them. The Ham Radio had been set up on a folding table, and Danny took his customary seat, just as the radio came alive and someone screamed: "Fire in the engine room! Seal the tubes. Seal them up! Right NOW!"
Another voice shouted, loud enough to be audible. "Surface! Now! Battle stations! All hands to battle stations!"
"Hal." Lori whispered.
"What are they shooting at?" Forrest demanded as steam started to rise from the water.
At that moment, from the waves, there came a sudden explosion of light and heat, as dozens of flares fired up from the surface.
The flying H/K's turned left and right to follow them, when the water seemed to boil briefly, and up exploded a shape from underwater.
A submarine. Missile hatches open.
The sounds of weapons fire rang out explosively, and a few flying Machines were being knocked down.
But not enough. An oil slick rose to the surface and caught fire from the H/K's fire, flames bursting up on the ocean surface.
Forrest dared to raise his head a little, Dex yanked him back down, as bodies started washing up on shore.
Lori grabbed the radio out of his hand. "Halloway?! Answer me!"
"Lori!" Came the answer. "Sorry about your groceries, Lor; but Skynet decided to go fishing early this season!"
The radio crackled with the sound of fire and explosions. "Abandon ship!" Somebody yelled.
The radio went silent.
Daniel looked up at Lori. "I'm sorry, boss."
Lori didn't respond. Not out loud, but Daniel could see the gears working behind her jaded eyes. It was a look that generally brought around disaster. "Where's the map?"
Daniel pointed to it, up on the shelf over the radio, and Lori pulled it down quickly, rolling it open. "Now, where was he?"
"The beachfront. LA." Daniel checked his controls and pointed to the spot on the map.
Lori traced between the beachfront and the Orphanage. "I met Connor's people here. So if they're in the tunnels... They're between us and any survivors."
Daniel read Lori's look. "Mind if I tag along?"
Lori blinked. "You?"
"Well, it'll be either me or Allie, and you'll want to leave Allie in charge while you're gone."
"You're too smart for your own good."
Daniel grinned. "Runs in my family."
Dex dared to raises his head. Skynet's air force had passed on at last, the submarines had left the surface, diving for the safety of the deep.
Dex moved first, moving away from his men, just in case Skynet was lying in wait for him.
Nothing happened.
Dex made his way back to the sick waves and started checking them, one by one. After a moment, his men joined him. The bodies were in pretty bad shape.
"Hey! I got a live one here!" Someone shouted.
Patterson finished his meal. Small portions, but the food was fresh. "So, what's the deal now, Sarge?"
Oldham shrugged. "Connor said that there could be people out here. They weren't answering radio calls but we knew they were out here... Lori's either in charge, or speaking for whoever's in charge. Either way, it's clear they want no part of us..." He glanced over at Alexander, who nodded firmly.
Lori came back in and almost charged them. "On the other hand, maybe I should meet your guy." She said quickly. "Take me to your leader. Now."
Kate was the first to have words with the newest guest from the outside.
Bowman was working to her left on another patient, as Kate adjusted the mixture. "I can't believe we even have one of these on base."
"To be fair it's a portable one." Bowman said without looking up. "Private hospitals use them. Deep sea divers who get the bends were a serious concern in LA. All those amateur scuba divers. And people use them for other things: Mountain climbers who need immediate treatment, children or pregnant women who need hypoxia treatment or oxygen therapy. Most of our equipment comes from a Medical Supply depot in LA. Once we arrived our scavengers grabbed food, grabbed medicine, grabbed weapons. We knew the machines would make that difficult once they found us so…"
"The scroungers grabbed everything they could load into a truck." Kate finished. "Well, waste not, want not."
"I admit when I saw a portable hyperbaric chamber I wondered what the hell we'd use it for, but now that I think about it, it may be worth more to us than just for submariners."
"Oh?"
"Lots of repository problems out there. LA never had clean air, and fallout can hardly make it better. Carbon monoxide poisoning, gas embolisms… living underground can be hard on the lungs. Plus premature babies, not uncommon in malnutrition cases. Crush injuries, compartment lung collapses, and extreme blood loss. A pressurized oxygen tent may be just what we need."
Kate nodded. "Well, it was lucky for this guy, that's for sure. Still, his case of the bends wasn't that bad compared to some I've heard of. My guess is he got knocked out before he could equalise pressure on his way up. Lucky our guys got to him on the coast before Skynet did. Another day or two in there and he'll be on his feet again."
"Did he tell you his name?" Connor asked.
Kate turned and saw Connor coming into the Medbay.
"He didn't say anything," Kate told him. "But his dog tags say he's Commander Halloway of the USS Stingray."
Halloway suddenly came alive in the pressurized tent and started yelling.
Connor jumped and quickly got control of the situation. "AT EASE COMMANDER!" He roared into the tent, and Halloway settled instinctively. "I am Colonel John Connor, commanding officer. You're safe. You were hit by Skynet, and my people brought you back here for treatment. You surfaced too fast, so you'll need to stay in Medbay a while."
"My men." Croaked Halloway.
Connor sighed. "We recovered nine more bodies. You were the only survivor we found."
Halloway groaned and lay still. "Have to contact my other boats."
"We can contact anyone you like."
"Not you. Me." Halloway insisted.
"Once you get out of here." Connor promised, and his radio buzzed. "Connor."
"Colonel, we've got Sgt Oldham on the line. They say that they've made contact. A woman named Lori, she won't give her last name, wants to talk to you personally."
"Tell Sgt Oldham permission is granted to bring her in." Connor shared an eager look with Kate.
"Lori," Halloway reacted numbly.
"I'll have the Mess Hall lay out the good china trays."
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Three Days
Lori made it to the base a day later, waiting a day to let Skynet's patrols pass over them, and taking routes into town that only Lori knew, slower but safer. Oldham's team and their guests made it to the Base without incident.
Connor was waiting at the start of the actual base, where the entrance tunnel branched out.
Olham made the introductions. "Colonel, this is Lori. Head of the Orphanage, Lori this is Colonel John Connor, Commanding Officer LA Command, West Coast Theater."
"Keep up the good work." Lori teased him gently, walked past him and looked around the tunnels, taking in everything. "Hmm. A fixer-upper, but definitely defensible." She turned back to Connor. "You have separate lodgings for the civilians?"
Connor nodded. "Everyone works, but the armory and such are kept away from the kids. Motor pool, Mess hall, and the unused tunnels are largely free to all. We like to have as many involved as we can."
"Good." Lori beamed, as though this was the best thing she'd ever heard. "People should have work to do." She gestured at the two men she had brought with her. "These are my guys. Isabel Saint, don't ever play cards with her, and my head Techie, Daniel Dyson."
Connor reacted and glanced over. The young man gave him a secret smile. "Pleasure to meet you, Colonel."
"Mr Dyson." Connor responded, shaking first his hand, then Isabel's. "And Ms Saint."
Lori finished her brief walk around and came back to shake Connor's hand herself. "First of all, Saint, give Connor his watch back." She said. "Then introduce me."
Connor looked down and found that in the space of a handshake he'd been robbed.
Isabel gave him a cheeky grin and tossed him his watch.
Grinning despite himself, Connor made the introductions. "Lori, this is my wife and Chief Medical Officer, Kate Connor. My second in command, Major Eric Walters, and Sgt Oldham you've met."
Lori nodded. "So, as soon as I leave your sight, I imagine that Oldham's going to report everything he saw and heard. The least you could give me is a tour."
Connor took that graciously. "Follow me."
The tour took on the Motor Pool, the tunnels in which soldiers and recruits were trained, the Command Centre, the Communications Room, the Storage Rooms, The Barracks, and finally the Medbay.
Each of the newcomers had a point of interest. Saint was most interested in the Storage rooms, taking careful note of what was available to the population, what was available to the soldiers...
Dyson took in the Communications Room, comparing what they had, and quickly made a few suggestions about frequency scramblers to Connors Men, who took advantage of his new viewpoint.
Lori had an excellent poker face. Everything she saw, she reacted to like she was duly impressed, without ever once letting on why. Her easy-going manner made it impossible to know what she was thinking.
Until the Medbay
"Our Medbay is fully equipped. We currently have four patients in Post-Op at the moment." Carla was reporting to the little tour group. "Two wounded in a skirmish this morning, both of which have been returned to duty, and two Intensive Care Patients. One of our soldiers wounded two months ago, and a survivor we had brought in this morning."
Lori's eyes focused hard on a soft walled tube at the end of a room. "That looks like a portable hyperbaric chamber."
"It is." Kate confirmed.
"For treating decompression sickness. You got submarines, Connor?"
"We don't, but our new guest did. We're actually having trouble figuring out who to contact. We know he must have friends."
Lori knew he was fishing for information, and didn't care. She pushed past Carla and hurried into Post-Op. She saw him reclining on the cot and rushed over to give Halloway a tight hug. "Halloway."
"Lor!" Halloway breathed. "You miss me?"
Lori leaned back enough to see his face. "With every shot so far, but at this range..."
Halloway laughed and pulled her into a deep kiss.
Kate, Saint, Dyson, Bowman and Carla just watched with their jaws hanging open.
Nonplussed, Connor smirked. "So. You two have met then?"
Another day, and Halloway had been released from Medbay. Connor had called a meeting. Lori, her two companions, Halloway, Kate, Walters and Oldham were all there.
Connor got things started. "So you can probably guess why I wanted us all in the same room."
"Probably." Halloway agreed.
Connor launched right into it. "It's been a year and a half now. The fires of Judgment Day have cooled, and the survivors are looking for a direction beyond living out the day. But Skynet still has it in for us. It's time to start hitting back. The people in this room have found ways, not only to survive, but to build. Lori's Orphanage is self-sustaining, it's people know everything inland from LA far better than anybody else could. Halloway and his submarines, actually managing to adapt the power systems and use empty missile tubes to grow and store food. A portable colony easily sealed up and safely underwater before attack. In this room we have soldiers, we have workforces, we have knowledge of battlefields and salvage beyond what any of us can do alone. It's time to organize how we plan to fight back."
Silence.
"Excuse me." Lori raised her hand like she was in school. "I have a question: Why would we want to fight back?"
Silence.
"Skynet hasn't stopped with bombs." Connor said slowly. "Its Machines hunt day and night for people it's missed."
"And it hasn't found us." Halloway said with brutal calm. "Connor, I know Skynet will gladly kill me if it can. But it can't find me. If I sign on, it will, and my people will all die. We're under their feet now. Why should we poke our heads up?"
"Because it's the only way we're ever going to retake our world." Connor said.
Lori shook her head. "We don't have a world to retake."
"Yes we do. We retook LA, we can retake the rest."
The newcomers laughed at him.
Just then, Carla came rushing in, made her way straight to Kate. "Kohler's crashing."
Kate jumped up and followed Carla out quickly without another word.
The conversation picked up neatly, ignoring the interruption.
"Connor, you've been smart, and you've been brave, and you've been lucky. You've done incredible things, but Skynet has the whole world against you." Lori chimed in.
"We've fought and won victories."
"Really? Because it looks to me like you broke a bunch of people you can barely feed out of a death camp, and got driven out of the only base you had set up for your trouble."
"A strategic withdrawal to protect hundreds of people? That's the nature of war." Walters defended.
"So is taking casualties." Lori argued. "For all we know we could be all that's left. The people in my Orphanage have lost everything, and they survived. We found a place, we found food, we found people, and made something that we can live with out of less than nothing. I'm not going home and telling them that John Connor wants them to go charging into a meat grinder!"
"In the meantime, this is the one place I've found where people know that they can actually force the machines back when they come." Walters barked. "Not just escape them, beat them. Your submarines can't say that. Neither can your Orphanage."
Heavy silence.
"Connor, you've got a great thing here. You've got miles of space, dependable borders, lots of people, self sustainability. That's so much more than any other survivor can boast. But you cannot absorb casualties. Bite off more than you can chew, and you will lose everything and everyone. By all means, keep them out, trade supplies, whatever, but it's never gonna get better than that."
"It can." Connor said sharply.
Lori leaned forward and took up the argument. "Connor, every day I go to the people in my Orphanage, and tell them that there's still hope. It's the one thing nobody has ever figured out how to kill. Not even Skynet. But my people don't hope for fame or wealth or prosperity. My people don't even hope for big families and sunshine. My people hope they don't starve by the end of the day. We pray for smaller miracles now Connor. We have to. Like everything else, they're in short supply. You can't save the world. The world's already dead."
"Connor, if it meant beating Skynet, I would gladly give my life." Halloway said. "If it meant getting the world back, I would gladly order my guys to fight to the last man."
"That is exactly what it means."
"No it isn't. The war is over. We have lost. The empire of man has fallen." Halloway said plainly. "Skynet's too powerful, and we are too few. If you actually had a chance, we might consider it, but so far you've run and fought, and run some more." He looked harshly at Connor. "And now you've finally run so far you can't push back any more, so you want us to sign on and help you charge down the guns."
"Do you really think you can win?" Lori demanded. "Or are you just wasting our time, asking us to join a suicide mission?"
Connor came into his quarters. Kate was already there, having walked in just a second ago. She looked up at her husband from the cot and saw the tightness around his jaw and eyes. His frame was tense. "We... decided to adjourn for the night." he told her.
"Need a drink?"
"Or a weapon. Either is fine." John gritted out.
Kate produced a flask from somewhere and tossed it to her husband. "I take it the meeting went downhill from where I left?"
"It's like stacking marbles in a corner. They've all got the same paranoia and survivor's desperation as the rest of us, but the war so far is something that's happening to other people. Trying to convince survivors and refugees to fight was hard; trying to get people who have actually managed to build something for themselves to come out of hiding and draw Skynet's attention is..." He trailed off and took a drink. "Kate, it's never been done before. Not like this."
"A leader is a dealer in hope." Kate told him.
"Napoleon." John recognized the quotation.
"Really? I thought my dad made that up!" Kate pulled John to sit next to her on the cot, and started rubbing his shoulders. They were silent for a long moment. "They're afraid. We know what we have to do, John; but these guys..."
"They aren't scared of dying. Life's too hard to be prized that highly now. They're not scared of Skynet. They're outside Skynet's notice for now... They're more scared of me."
"Of you?"
"They won't tell me what they have because they know I want their little empires in my own. They aren't scared of dying, just of losing what they've managed to make for themselves."
They were silent for a long moment, curled up together on the cot, Kate hugging him tightly from behind.
"I don't know how to convince them Kate. They believe Skynet's the enemy. They believe Skynet would kill them. But they aren't hungry. They aren't alone. They aren't prisoners. Unlike every other human we've met so far, they'll live longer if they don't join the fight, and stay hidden."
Long silence.
Kate traced her fingers over the back of John's neck lightly, and found a light burn scar. She pulled the back of his collar down lightly to get a better look. "This one's new." She murmured, tracing its redness. "You didn't tell me about this."
John flushed. "Um, that one I got yesterday... in the shower."
Kate laughed. "What?!"
John looked embarrassed. "They rigged up a new hot water system; but they...uh..."
"They made it too hot." Kate giggled. "The techies want to say they gave the Colonel his first hot water shower in months."
"Something like that."
"And as CO, you are of course obliged to test anything yourself before your men do." Kate teased.
John smirked. "Burdens of Command."
Long silence.
"Kohler didn't make it." Kate said softly, gesturing at the flask on the end of the cot. "It was his."
John sighed hard and half turned on the cot, pulling her into a hug. "You did all you could."
"I know, but the thing is... he's been hovering for months. And the only thing that keeps coming back to me is that I should have let him go the day we abandoned the Alamo."
John pulled her in closer and started stroking her hair gently. "What do you mean?"
"He was taking up a lot of meds, just on the chance that... John, we aren't getting resupplied, and now that I'm responsible for it... God, I hate myself for it, but I just keep thinking that if I let him die that day, there'd be a lot more to go around in the future."
"Supplies that tight?"
"Not yet, but there's only so much left to salvage from LA, and if Lori and Halloway stay off the reservation, we can't get to any other scrounge..."
"You couldn't let him die Kate. A machine would, for that reason. I would too, and then you'd forgive me for being cold and I'd feel guilty... but not you. That's not what you do. You care too much. I remember Crystal peak. You mourned every single death in the world, and I love you for it. So does everyone here, because they know you'll never let go when they're hurt as bad as Kohler was."
Kate nodded. "Nice to know, but..."
"Until Skynet's gone, it'll only get more desperate. Another reason to win."
Kate leaned back on the cot, closing her eyes. "So, how do you think the day's been so far? Scale of one to ten."
"Don't ask me yet, the night is young." He sighed again. "You know what the worst part is?"
"What's that?"
"The worst part is, a part of me feels like I'm lying to them." John whispered, exhausted.
Kate pushed him back to lie down on the cot and curled up under his arm. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." She said quietly.
"Eisenhower." John recognized the quote.
Kate blinked. "I'm starting to think my dad wasn't half as smart as I thought he was."
John chuckled. "Everything we've done... we've been lucky, and we've been desperate, and we've been pushed back. Our soldiers have instinct, intuition, fury, imagination and most important, judgment of a situation. Our enemy is automated and unthinking, but their army rolls of an assembly line." He sighed. "The stone cold fact of the matter is that if we kill a hundred Terminators for one human casualty, it's a net victory for Skynet. If we can't prove ourselves a match for Skynet without them, they won't join us."
"Then prove yourself a match for Skynet without them."
John smirked and put an arm around his wife. "Just like that?"
"Just like that." Kate tilted her head up and kissed him softly.
"It's impossible."
"Then you're the right one to ask."
John started to answer her when the base Alarm suddenly went berserk.
Klaxons' rang through the base, and the Connors scrambled for their clothes.
The Alarm was blaring loud through every tunnel. The civilians were running back and forth also, shouting for their family members, hunting for cover.
Dozens of them went running after the Connors, seeing their leaders.
"We're working on it!" Kate yelled, so that John could get closer to the Command Center. "For now, just get to the shelters."
At almost the same time, Walters voice came over the Subway speakers. "Colonel Connor, report to the Command Center. All Civilians to the Shelters."
The shelters were the Subway maintenance tunnels, which had an extra wall of concrete around them, and had doors, set up to seal them off.
The civilians quickly followed the order, when Connor outpaced them.
"Report!" Connor roared as he entered.
"Radar operators at LAX reported a bogey heading straight for the centre of town. Speed and size say it's a missile."
"Oh god." Kate whispered. They'd rigged a generator at the Air Traffic Control Towers at the LA Airport to keep an eye out for airborne attackers.
"Time to impact?"
"Any minute now."
"Do we have a connection to LAX?"
"Frequency Six."
Connor pulled his radio and spun the dial. "Kate?"
Kate shut her eyes for a second, thinking. "Uh, Surface team today is Sgt Andrew Sanders."
Connor lifted the radio to his lips. "This is Connor. Sanders? Are you there?"
An answer quickly came. "Yes sir. Right here. It's an honor, Colonel."
"Thank you, Sarge. How many bogey's are you reading?"
"Just the one, sir." Sanders answered. "Colonel, my team and I have taken a vote, and decided that if it could help, we're willing to stay here, right to the end."
Connor was silent a moment. "Sanders, if that Missile is what we both think it is, the surface is not going to be a good Real Estate investment."
"That is understood, sir."
Kate shut her eyes. He sounded so... young.
Connor spoke again. "Sanders, I want to tell you, that there are a whole lot of people in here that are getting ready. And they would have been taken completely by surprise if it wasn't for you. That's a very fine job you did, soldier."
"T-Thank you, Colonel."
"We're going to stay on the line with you." Connor promised him. "For as long as we can."
"Yessir."
"Where are you from, Andrew?"
"Kansas." Sanders responded. "I joined the military to pay for college... Skynet had other plans."
"Farming family?"
"My father. The farm always had trouble making ends meet. It was why I went to-Colonel! I have a visual on the Bogey."
Kate stood a little taller. So did everyone else.
"It's... it's stopped its rockets... I see...chutes. The Bogey has deployed parachutes. It's floating down. I can see... a spike on the front. Maybe six feet long. It's coming down point first."
"Give the count soldier." Connor ordered.
"Why chutes?" Oldham whispered.
Walters looked at him grimly. "To make sure it soft-lands. The spike will hit the ground and detonate the warhead while it's still up a few feet. Keeps the bomb from being half buried in the ground when it hits. Spreads the blast radius evenly."
"Impact in maybe five seconds... four... three..."
Kate slipped over to John, threaded her fingers through his.
The radio went quiet.
Everyone held a breath. As though the slightest noise would destroy the world. Nobody spoke, nobody moved, nobody even breathed.
The deafening silence went on forever.
Until finally, Connor lifted his radio. "Andrew? You still there?"
Beat.
"Yeah!" The young voice almost screamed. "We're here! Holy god in heaven! WE'RE STILL HERE!"
Three people let out a breath explosively. Kate could feel her heart start again. Through the radio she could hear Sanders and his team cheering. Eric and Oldham were grinning stupidly at each other.
Connor was not. "Quiet! Sanders, what can you see from the impact site?"
Sanders quickly responded. "I see... A lot of clouds. Like... Like a dust storm coming from the crater. The winds blowing it around a lot through..."
"Gas bomb?" Kate guessed.
Connor looked darkly at her. "Aerosol."
Kate quickly returned to the Medbay and started organizing the anti-biotics. "Bowman?" She called.
Bowman came in quickly. "Ma'am?"
The awkwardness between them had faded, largely because Bowman's ego would not let him ever forget his moment of weakness during the Alamo retreat.
Kate waved him over. "Bowman, how are we doing on harvesting anti-biotics?"
"It's a tough balancing act, Major. Try keeping people away from the bread long enough for the mold to grow."
"I want to use as much of the stuff we grow as we can. Keep the professional medicines for as long as the use-by date will allow. If that missile is what we think it is, we're going to need something soon, but we don't know what we'll be treating yet."
"Do we know where exactly the missile came down?" Bowman asked.
"Yes we do."
Kate and Bowman both turned. Connor had appeared in the doorway. "Bowman, give us a minute."
"Sir." Bowman quietly excused himself.
Kate turned to her husband. "What's the word?"
"We got a fix on the location. The nearest tunnel exit is a good half-mile from it. The area in question is the LA Freeway, so we can't drive. Total gridlock in dead cars. We'll have to walk it. But the winds are blowing away from the base, and the Skynet patrols have been drawn around the outside edge. It came down close enough to the city to be inside their patrols."
"Could be bait. Skynet sends its patrols far enough from the crash-site, we send a team out and the H/K's come running in."
Connor shook his head. "We've still got our guys at the radar tower. It's not going to be easy to sneak up on us. This is something else." He took a deep breath. "I'm taking a team out to-"
"Whoa. Back up." Kate told him. "I'm CMO."
Connor took a breath. "I know. Yet strangely, I don't care."
"John." Kate said seriously. "I'm doing this. I'm doing this, because it's my job. You've got to treat me like any other soldier."
"Any other soldier wouldn't question an order."
"Any other soldier wouldn't get ordered to not do her job." Kate told him. "John... we're the first married couple in the Last Army. We're making up the rules about fraternization as we go along. What you decide for me will decide how-"
"That's not fair!"
"I know." Kate sighed. "And as much as I hate the fact that your image affects things, you know it does. This war has to be bigger than us. We agreed that."
John pulled her closer and ran a hand protectively over Kate's stomach. "The last time we made that argument, it cost us."
"I know." Kate said softly. "Doesn't mean we were wrong."
Silence.
"This is the problem your having with Lori and Halloway." Kate told him. "You won't risk me until you're sure I'll be safe. They won't fight for you until they know you'll win. John, you can only rely on me if..."
"If I let you into the war." John finished. "I know."
She kissed him again. "I'll be careful."
"I know."
Kate tilted her head back as far as she could, swallowing reflexively as Dex started taping a small pad to the very base of the throat with surgical tape.
"Okay Major, the MX-1 throat mike, is the same kind that NASA used, when they faked the Apollo Moon Landings." Dex said seriously.
Kate quickly sent him a look.
Dex grinned and handed her the earwig. "Just kidding. But seriously, these are used to keep Level One teams in contact. The mask will knock around a headset, so the mike is taped to your throat. You don't have to have a headset on."
John was hooking the radio to her belt. "The radio will fit under your Hazard suit, and the cable up to the throat mike will go under your clothes. The rest of your team will be wired up the same way. The mike will work from vibrations through your vocal cords, so you won't even have to raise your voice. We'll hear you."
Kate nodded, and took a breath. Carla and Bowman had set up the Bio-Hazard suit. John held her steady while she stepped into the huge rubber boots, and they started fitting her into the large yellow one-piece jumpsuit. Once it was zipped up, Kate worked her fingers into the thick rubber gloves, while Dex helped her with the oxygen tank backpack.
"Leave the mask and visor till last. Bowman, set up a Decontamination station at the entrance."
"Yessir."
"Let's get her support team geared." Carla directed.
Two or three of the trainee medical staff got to work on Walters and two of his soldiers.
Connor slipped over. "Eric, I would give my left arm to go in her place."
"I know sir. She's the right choice to go. She's medical, and if that missile was what we thought it was..."
Connor nodded and looked fiercely at him. "Eric, you are personally responsible for my wife's safety out there."
Walters didn't look away from him. "Yes Sir."
Kate hated the walk. Aside from leaving the tunnel to collect her husband, (a trip which had taken about five minutes,) she hadn't been to the surface yet. In fact she hadn't been in LA since the morning before Judgment Day.
The full head mask had a huge Plexiglas visor, larger than her whole face, giving her full visibility, but cutting off almost all noise except her own breathing.
"Kate? Talk to me."
"We're getting closer, John." Kate reported. "God, I feel like I'm from another planet though. And it's not just the spacesuit you've got me in."
Time had not been kind to the City of Angels.
The bombs had fallen in the middle of rush hour. Kate knew from experience how densely packed the streets were in LA. The bodies of pedestrians were laid flat like cut down grass, rows of skeletons in the rubble.
That's it, Kate. Keep it abstract. She told herself. She came to a small city park. The burned out swings and the tiny skeletons nearby made her sick.
She heard muttering and curses over her headset. It was getting to all of them. Idly Kate wondered if any of her escort had been from California too.
Kate had met Scott here. She was exercising one of the dogs from the Clinic; he was babysitting his niece...
Don't think about the fact that you're on 32nd street. Don't think about the park where you met Scott. Don't think about that restaurant down the street where he proposed. Don't think about the coffee cart...
The coffee cart was right in front of her. Her favorite coffee cart where she stopped every Saturday, or when she was in town...
Oh god. Kate thought, fighting the bile. That kid always had the cart on Saturdays. The shy kid who had a crush on me, and always gave me free biscotti... I never even knew his name!
There was a skeleton next to the overturned cart. It was wearing a barista apron.
Kate fought an overwhelming urge to kneel down next to it and look for a name-tag... say she was sorry, say goodbye...
"Doc?" Walters put in gently.
Kate shook herself firmly. "Sorry. Wasting time." They started walking again.
The streets were cracked, but no weeds had taken root. There was no greenery of any kind. No life at all. The cars that hadn't been tossed on the roads were rusted and still, the glass windshields and the rubber wheels gone. Still skeletons sat at every driver seat, one or two with arms covering their eyes, locked in their moment of panic beyond their death.
But eventually, they made it out of the middle of town.
Kate shivered. She felt exposed. She was out in the open. She could see sky; see the horizon... the small buildings had been knocked flat. LA no longer had suburbs.
"There it is." Walters called through the radio. "Area is clear."
"You guys stay here." Kate ordered. "I'll check it out."
Kate inched over toward the crater, breathing a little harder through the gas mask. The missile had come down perfectly straight. The spike had dug its way into the dead soil.
"John?"
"Go ahead, Kate."
"Looks like the thing was meant to come down from above. The top of the missile is buried five feet deep."
"Our guess is that it came in from so high because Skynet was worried about the jammers. If it came in straight, it wouldn't go far off course."
"The thing is covered in what look like... oxygen tanks. You were right. It started spraying its payload once it hit. Looks like its done spraying now though."
"Can you tell what it was?"
"No markings on anything. I guess Machines don't have to worry about warning labels."
"Kate, the prevailing winds are blowing toward..."
"The reservoir." Kate finished. "It's a fair distance from here, but if Skynet wanted to give a decent margin for error with a gas of some kind, this'd be as good a target spot as any given the weather."
"Dammit." The radio line suddenly cut out. Kate knew he'd be snapping orders soon to isolate the water supply.
Kate very carefully eased down on one knee, starting to collect samples.
"Kate?"
"Go ahead, John."
"I've ordered the feed from the reservoir closed, but it's been over an hour since the attack. Someone may have got to it. What do you think will happen?"
"No way to know until I get these samples back."
"Carla's at the Decon station. Give her your sample case, and she'll scrub it and take it to Bowman while you get cleared."
Kate led the way back into the tunnels.
Halfway in, the trio were stopped by a wall of plastic wrap. The plastic was taped airtight in two overlapping parts a standing wall across the tunnel, except for a point where the two sides of the whole overlapped. Kate undid the cable ties on the overlap and let herself in.
A second wall of plastic had been set up the same way. Kate could see people on the other side, further into the entrance of the base. Kate slid the sample case through to Carla on the other side. Her friend was wearing a surgical mask, long sleeves, thick gloves, and quickly took the case over to a basin, scrubbing it harshly.
A pair of marine showers had been set up on either side of the tunnel, within the plastic airlock. Kate waved to Carla as the showers rained water on her suit hard, and she started scrubbing herself down.
Connor came into the Medical lab, Oldham at his side. Bowman was hunched over a microscope, he didn't even look up.
"So, what is it?" Connor asked right off.
"This is something new. If I had to guess, I'd say it looked like Staphylococcus. But it's been changed somehow..."
"What kind of symptoms should we be watching for, Doctor?"
"Colonel, I can't even be sure what this is yet. When I figure out what I'm looking at, maybe I can give you an answer."
Carla came in saluted Connor. "Doctor, I have the blood samples from Kate's team."
Bowman immediately pulled the Sample slide from the microscope. "I'll get right on them."
Connor nodded in gratitude. "Doctor, everyone heard the Alarm. Everyone knows the water line's been blocked. Everyone wants answers. Give me whatever you can in an hour."
"Yessir." Bowman looked to Carla. "Get the computer booted up." He told Carla. "Now."
Connor left, and Bowman slid Kate's blood sample under his microscope.
Lori, Halloway, Saint and Dyson were waiting in the hallways. "Well?"
"Looks like it's something engineered. Bowman thinks it looks like Staph."
Lori paled. "I have to get back to my people." She whispered. "Is the south tunnel still clean?"
"It was targeting the reservoir, so you should be clear to get home."
Dyson piped up. "Um, Lori; if it's okay with you I'd like to stay here for a while."
Lori blinked. "Really?"
Dyson nodded.
Halloway looked to Lori. "If you want some company on the way back to your Orphanage..."
Lori smiled gently. "What about your guys, Nemo?"
Halloway gestured at Connor. "If you think a tunnel is a bad place for an infectious disease, you should see a Submarine. I ain't going back till I'm sure, and Skynet's still patrolling the coast anyway. Too dangerous for me to go back, and I sure as hell ain't staying here."
Connor grunted. "Don't think I'm done with our conversation yet."
Halloway and Lori left through the south tunnels. Connor and Dyson made his way to the Mess, helping themselves to coffee. It was the first time they could talk freely since John was ten years old, insisting that Daniel go to his room while their parents talked.
"As soon as you, your mom and the big guy left for Cyberdyne, mom took us to a hotel. I didn't know what the hell was happening, or why your mom was so set on killing my dad. We went back a few days later. The house had been broken into. We grabbed some stuff and ran."
"When did she tell you?" Connor asked.
"After we got word that dad died and Cyberdyne was blown to hell. We cashed in dad's insurance and went south. Sold the house over the phone, stayed out of the cities. I didn't believe it. I don't know what my brother believed, but mom did."
"So you stayed out of the cities."
"For as long as I could. Then we found out that the military had restarted the Skynet Program. It was a military contract. There were backups off-site from Cyberdyne. Copies of the early work that my dad didn't know about. When we found out Skynet still existed, one way or another... we tried to find you."
Connor shook his head. "Me and mom were long gone by then. We didn't know Skynet survived either."
"August 1997, mom said it was time, and made us some drinks. I didn't drink. Mom did, so did my brother. They died a few minutes later."
Connor looked at him with sympathy. "My mom died that month too."
Daniel sighed. "She figured killing me, my brother and herself would be a mercy. I knew she was losing it. Had been getting progressively manic, and it was worse and worse since the night dad died. I didn't drink. Call it instinct. And you know what? The sun came up the next day. Nothing happened." He threw back his coffee. "I figured you were a conman. Or if not you, then at least your mom and the big guy. I figured you'd conned my mom, and killed my dad."
"That's not how it turned out. Your dad died a hero, Danny. He went down trying to kill Skynet, and he held out long enough to save me and a dozen cops."
Daniel had tears welling gently in his eyes. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Daniel wiped his eyes. "Thank you."
"So what happened after that?"
Daniel looked sheepish. "I hated you so much when mom died. Whatever you did to her, whatever you told her, it sank in enough that she would rather die than risk you being right. So I went looking for you. I got some work with some... disreputable people in Mexico. Apparently I have my father's luck with computers, and I tried to hunt you down."
Connor shook his head. "I split when my mom died. I haven't lived in a proper city for more than two days since I was ten years old."
Dyson nodded. "I figured my new friends could help me find you."
Connor glanced over the rim of his coffee cup. "What would you have done if you'd found me?"
Daniel had no particular rage. "I would have killed you. Revenge for making my mom think it was real. Then J-Day actually happened; and I kinda felt stupid about thinking it was all a con." He sipped his coffee. "I was doing something... illegal in LA, we were heading outta town like crazy with the cops chasing us, when the world just lit up like a flashbulb, and my next clear memory is sitting in the back of a truck, with my head bleeding, a half a dozen survivors around me and Lori in the driver's seat." Dyson shrugged. "Been with her ever since. She had use for a techie."
"She seems a natural leader."
"She's the heart and soul of our Orphanage John." Dyson said plainly. "She decides not to sign on with you, I go with her. I don't care what the Gospel of John Connor says."
Connor grinned. "Fair enough." He finished his coffee. "In the meantime, let me show you our setup here. If Lori decides not to come with us, there may be something that'll keep you ahead of Skynet anyway."
Dyson nodded and followed the colonel to the Tech-Lab. After a moment, he spoke. "He was a machine, wasn't he?"
John knew exactly what he meant. "Something we haven't seen yet."
Dyson leaned forward. "Mom told me that Dad's work was based on it. Told me that they looked human. You're ready for that, right?"
"I am."
"Just sayin', everybody knows to watch out for the enemy. We're the only ones who know to watch out for our friends."
Given a clean bill of health, Kate had headed out of the Medbay, turning toward the Mess Hall. Given the fact that humanity was underground, there was little point of working to a regular day/night cycle. Most of the Last Army was split into four shifts, two during the day, and two during the night. While some worked, others slept. The Mess hall, the Barracks, the Training Grounds and the Command Center working non stop.
Kate quickly got a tray of food, and scanned for John. it looked like he'd just left the room, so she sat down to eat with Dex and Oldham.
A few minutes later, Bowman appeared and sat down with her at the Table. Carla sat with him. "Major."
"Afternoon." Kate acknowledged both of them.
Carla was bouncing up and down in her chair a little, a bundle of nervous energy.
"Everything okay, Carla?" Kate asked.
Long silence.
"Yes." Carla said finally.
"Major, after lunch, we need to have a word with you about your test results." Bowman said professionally, taking a sip of coffee.
Dex and Oldham, sitting close by, heard that and froze, forks hanging in mid-air.
Kate looked at the two soldiers out of the corner of her eye. This was how rumors started. "Anything serious, Doctor?" She asked politely, keeping it calm.
"No, not really." Bowman said easily. "You aren't infected." He promised her. "But there are a few things we need to cover and-"
"You're pregnant!" Carla blurted.
Sudden silence.
Reaction to such news in their post war hell was mixed and emotional at the best of times. Dex and Oldham stopped pretending they weren't hearing, and everyone within earshot stopped to see Kate's reaction.
"Are you sure?" Kate croaked.
"The fetus is young." Bowman said quickly. "There's no sign of illness or radiation damage, though it's early. By the chemical markers in your blood, I'd say almost a month old, maybe a little less. But yes, it's confirmed."
Kate reached across the table, grabbed Bowman and kissed him square on the mouth for half a second, then scrambled up from the bench she sat on, and went sprinting for the tunnels, looking ten years younger.
Carla looked at Bowman, a little put out. "I told her first." she groused.
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Five Days
Colonel Connor and Major Eric Walters held weekly briefings with all department heads. With the work ongoing night and day in the Underground, in three shifts, different units and squads had different duties.
Kate was a relatively new addition to these meetings, having taken Bowman's place as Chief Medical Officer. Her inclusion had brought relief to those in the Chain of Command that were glad to be free of Bowman's impatience with their new circumstances since the war began. Her arrival had also brought discomfort to those who still viewed her as The Colonel's Wife. But having a rank and position on the base helped.
Organization was only half the problem, with the circumstances of every war subject to change. Rumors and scuttlebutt could be both helpful and dangerous, and Connor had directed that Walters keep his men informed.
"All right people, this is rumor control." Walters said clearly to his assembled commanders. "Lori and Halloway are not military, nor are they being conscripted. They were invited, and The Colonel is hoping to get them on-board. They have thus far resisted this, but they have the Colonel's confidence. Some of their people have provided us with technical support, or shown us new scrounge that we hadn't found yet. They are not prisoners, nor have they acted hostile toward us."
Oldham raised a question. "There's a rumour that one or both of them work for Skynet..."
"Rumors that our guests are connected to the chemical attack are groundless." Walters said bluntly. "Skynet knows where we are based; they just can't get to us. The missile, as far as we can tell, was loaded with a chemical or biological agent. The target was not the tunnels, the target was the reservoir. The Colonel believes that Skynet is poisoning the watering holes, so that any populations that may be within our defensive zone, but not affiliated with us will be affected."
"Are the water supplies bad?"
Eric directed the question to the CMO. "Major?"
"Bowman has determined that the bio-agent that infected the reservoir has a half life of six days before it breaks down in potency." Kate assured everyone. "The reservoir feed has been sealed, and no symptoms have been reported, so it looks like we caught it in time."
Walters picked up the story from there. "The radiation from the first shock-waves cannot be absorbed by plastic and killed almost all of LA within a day or three, so all the bottled water remains untouched and untainted. We have enough bottled supply to wait out the virus."
"There's nothing to stop Skynet doing it again next week." Gault volunteered.
"Wrong." Walters said with pure iron in his voice. "There is us. The Colonel's orders are to locate the missile base, or where the biological agent was cultured. It's our next target." he concluded. "Any questions?"
Beat.
Oldham slowly spoke. "Sir, there's a fairly credible rumor that Major Connor is pregnant."
"I'm sitting right here, Sarge." Kate said calmly. "And Oldham, you were there when I found out, so let's not call it a rumor, shall we?"
Smirks went around the room.
"Major Con- Kate," Eric began. "Kate is in a position of authority its true. But she is not a combat officer, nor do her duties take her up to the front. Her pregnancy does not in any way affect her work, at least not for the next several months. Major Bowman has been given medical authority over her case, she is not treating herself." Eric looked cannily around the room, knowing the real question his soldiers were asking. "But why doesn't someone say what they really want to say?"
Kate smirked despite herself and looked around, wondering which of the battle hardened combat soldiers would dare to ask about her husbands stance on dating in the Underground.
"Sir, regulations regarding fraternization... Has The Colonel...?" Dex stammered suddenly, not knowing how to phrase the question.
"The Chief Medical Officer is also The Colonel's wife." A voice interrupted.
Heads turned, and The Colonel himself came in. Everyone stood up in his presence, and he made his way to the head of the room. "Eric, if I may?"
"Please."
Connor held out a hand to Kate, and she took it gladly, standing before all the commanders as husband and wife. "The way to protect our people is to fight back Skynet, but the way to save our race is to start expanding our race. As cold as it may seem, our people are an endangered species."
"Sir," Gault began. "I have no say in how you raise your family, but given the circumstances, you really have to ask yourself... what kind of life could this child possibly have? Skynet's a much more important priority. Take it out, and there's a world to raise children in."
"But there's more to it than that." Connor told him, and turned to his wife. "Tell him."
Kate fought to keep her face level in the face of sudden spotlight. Tell him what?! She asked him silently.
John's look was encouraging. What you feel.
Kate took a breath, trying to keep her chaotic emotions in check long enough to make something coherent, and suddenly an endless rush of words came pouring out of her.
"The Underground is full of people." Kate said quietly. "Including children. I see how people look at the children; I can see all the sons and daughters lost to our people in their eyes. These people aren't looking after themselves. They can get enough food to be healthy, if lean, but they don't eat. They have cleaning supplies enough to make their living arrangements healthier, but they don't make the effort. What's eating our people is decay. Skynet's a problem when they figure out how to get past our sappers. Despair is a problem now. Soldiers have work to focus on, and a target for their rage. Civilians don't." Kate held a hand over her stomach, making no effort to hide the gesture. "Most of you don't know this, but this baby, is not the first I would have had. Skynet has already claimed the first of our children." Her face went fierce. "They will not claim another. I will use every weapon at my disposal, down to my own teeth to protect this place, and the people in it. I have something to live for that I didn't have a week ago. And it is strong. It is stronger than anything the fate of my race could ask of me."
"Kate and I are aware of the numbers." Connor said calmly. "We know that the odds are against us, but that's been true every minute of every day since the war began. Perhaps since long before that. But making a decision about the future of your family, or your people by the numbers is what Skynet would do." His voice grew strong with pride and with compassion. "I am going to be a father. That's not something to fear, it is a time to celebrate."
The room was full of gentle smiles. These people were happy for their leader, but feared for him too.
"This war is going to be ugly, and it's not going to be safe for my child, but when this war ends, and the earth is ours again, you better hope that there are a whole lot of people like my wife, who aren't so afraid to lose something that they won't dare have it, or risk loving it in the first place. That is the purest thing that our wretched little race has to offer, and I'm not gonna let Skynet steal that from me too." Connor said, clear and strong. "Major Walters, under my authority as Base Commander, I am suspending the typical regulations regarding Fraternization in the ranks. Tell your men why, tell your men to be responsible about it. I am authorizing the use of our Food and Medical supplies for the civilian population. I am also giving priority in treatment and food rations to pregnant women, and infant children. I am further authorizing use of base personnel to care for these women and their children until such time as they can look after themselves."
"This may just be the first war-zone that encourages War Babies." Oldham muttered.
"It's a survival game. We learn or we burn." Connor said.
Kate recognized Mac's line and smiled.
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Five Days
Kate's pregnancy was the talk of the Underground. Kate's was not the first pregnancy on base. Human nature was more or less unchanged, and these desperate people who had lost it all and had much to fear. The base had been reduced to a mix of modern technology with caveman living arrangements. The base had been without contraceptives since Judgment Day, but of those who had gotten pregnant, almost all were civilians from the camps, malnourished and generally unhealthy. The healthy had been terrified of the idea, or had been pressed into needed service.
To date, no babies had survived.
Kate's new medical status slowed her down not at all. In fact she took advantage of it. She was constantly active with the civilians, organizing them to work, but with everyone quickly aware of her pregnancy, her work with the civilians quickly expanded to include how her Pregnancy was progressing in the underground.
Kate kept making the same points. Women had been having babies long before hospitals had come along; there was no reason they couldn't continue long after hospitals ceased to exist. Yes she was scared of losing her baby, but more scared of never having it to love at all. Yes she knew it was going to be difficult, but her own personal stakes had never been higher.
Kate had made her case to those who asked, and they had all agreed.
Halloway had not had to deal with anything of the kind, cobbling together his little band out of submariners, all of them military, almost all of them men. But even he could see: Kate was the highest ranking woman on the base, and wife of John Connor, who had something of a cult following in the underground. The people who lived here were far more invested in her health and her baby than they were in anything else.
After a while, Kate finally got people moving, and despair and depression gave way to activity.
The Last Army continued it's offensives around LA, but the war remained in stalemate.
Halloway refused flatly to allow Connor's soldiers into his submarines, but was trapped in stalemate himself. Skynet had control over the underwater sensors left over from the cold war, as well as all satellites that could track heat plumes. Halloway's small fleet couldn't leave without their captain, and with Skynet hammering patrols over the waves, there was no way to get Halloway back aboard his submarine.
During his time in the Underground, Halloway was aware of the effect that Connor was having on the men. He trained with them personally.
Halloway was in charge of his own group of survivors. He had kept his men going by keeping them busy. Connor had apparently done the same, but there was always work to do on submarines. The majority of the civilians had little to do. Connor kept them going with work, with stories, with speeches, with anything that came along. And it was having an effect. Halloway saw it. Connor was keeping the entire LA underground going, almost by sheer force of his own will.
Connor's men did not have enough force to start pushing out past the LA perimeter. once the buildings thinned and the tunnels stopped, open warfare became strictly Skynet's game.
Lori's people had an intimate knowledge of the area, and could have snuck them out past Skynet's patrols, but Lori had refused to play ball. Despite her refusal to join Connor's army, she had become something of a fixture at the base, electing to spend a lot of time with Halloway. Connor approved her permission to come and go as she wished, as she usually brought some supplies with her, as well as Daniel Dyson. The underground viewed her arrival as something akin to a traveling show. When she came she brought luxuries like toothpaste for the adults and treasures like crayons for the kids.
Connors men kept hunting for the missile base, but it was outside their circle, beyond the reach of the Last Army.
The training continued, Connor explaining the difference between fighting machines and fight humans, and little by little, the soldiers started to unlearn all the things they had been taught. The Last Army was slowly being remade in Connor's image.
Then, after a while, something unusual started happening.
People started coughing.
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Sixteen Days
The next briefing had an underlying tension.
"We now have a total of fifteen infected." Kate said seriously. "The rumors are getting ugly though. Some people are saying it's the Black Death, some saying Ebola, a few people think that Skynet managed to weaponize AIDS..."
Connor looked around the room. His men were getting worried. Skynet's army was bad, but diseases could not be gunned down. Knowledge is a weapon against fear. his mother had told him. Knowledge gives you control over some part of the situation. "All right, this is rumor control. It is not Ebola, it is not a weaponized super-bug."
"Are we sure? If Skynet wanted to make something that could wipe us out, why not Ebola or Smallpox or something?" Oldham put in.
"If I had to guess," Bowman responded. "I'd say that maybe the labs that had stored samples of those kinds of diseases were wiped out in Judgment Day, or had fail-safes."
"Fail-safes?"
"Labs that store the Planet Killing kind of viruses have safeguards to insure they never get released. I know that if I were in one of those labs when Judgment Day hit, I'd use my last breath to make sure the Virus Cultures burned. Failing that, the samples could have perished when the power failed."
"Skynet has to work with what's left same as we do." Connor told Oldham. "Kate, is the virus from that missile three months ago?"
"Actually, Doctor Bowman has a theory on that." Kate said.
Connor smirked. Kate had learned how to handle people as well as he did. "Doctor?"
Bowman took up the narrative. "Yessir, we don't actually think that this is from Skynet yet. All early results were that this is acting like a flu virus. It's still early days, so we're still collating information, but for now, this looks like the flu. A disease that's inconvenient three years ago, dangerous enough now. But I must stress again, we don't know for sure what this is."
"How do we make sure?"
"We're currently testing the sick right now."
Carla brought in the new tray of sample slides, and put it on the workbench next to Kate. "The newest batch of samples and the early test results, Ma'am."
"Thank you, Carla." Kate didn't look up; her eye practically glued to the microscope. She slid one slide out, took a new slide from the latest batch, and slid it into position, all without raising her head from the eyepiece.
Carla hung back. "There's a rumor that one of the salvage teams found a petting zoo outside town. Most of the animals were dead but some got into the storage room with all the feed."
"The rumor is true." Kate said, still not looking up. "Dex's team brought back a pig, two sheep and some chickens."
"Chickens. My god, Ma'am, I have not seen a fresh chicken egg in two years."
"And you won't see it for some time yet." Bowman reported, coming in early enough to pick up the thread of the conversation. "We're setting up a battery farm. Work the lights right and you'll get more than double usual egg production, and all those go into breeding new chickens for the future. Wait another year; you'll have your eggs freshly powdered."
"Freshly powdered?" Carla whined.
"We can't transport them over destroyed roads in eggshells, Carla; we've got to feed everyone."
"There it is." Kate called suddenly. She rose and let Bowman look.
"Yep. I'd say that's it." Bowman agreed. "Carla, inform The Colonel that we've isolated the Virus, and can now begin testing suspected cases for confirmation."
"Then it's not something natural?" Carla asked fearfully. "Some disease that came back because we can't immunize people?"
"'Fraid not. I don't recognize it from anywhere else. Ma'am?"
"No, me neither." Kate agreed. "It's official. Skynet Virus Zero-One."
"Sounds like the sort of thing they'd name it." Carla muttered, and handed Bowman the folder. "The early test results, Doctor."
Carla went to relay the information to The Colonel, as Bowman started flicking through the folder on the workbench. "Carla!" he shouted after her.
She quickly poked her head back in. "Sir?"
"Are these the early results from the confirmed cases?"
"Yessir."
"Tell The Colonel that SV-01 is airborne."
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Twenty Days
The next Staff Briefing was quick and pointed.
Connor started the meeting. "All right, once again, this is rumor control. Our Medical Staff has confirmed that the virus is not natural. We have been attacked. Kate, you have the floor."
Kate cleared her throat. "We have isolated the virus. It's not anything we recognize. Ordinarily we would derive a name from Patient Zero, but given the incubation rate, we don't know who that is. We have therefore designated it Skynet Virus, Zero One." She cleared her throat. "It's not chemical. It's clearly active on its own, with no rate of molecular decay that we've seen. It is a biological attack."
Bowman picked up the briefing. "Yes, we think that Skynet did not create anything new, just distilled two or more cultures into one. The missile was three months ago, and the test results then said that it had a half-life of six days. We now know that timeline was false."
"Three months in the water." Walters moaned. "Three months before symptoms appear."
"No." Bowman interrupted. "If that were the case, there would be a 100% infection rate. The fact that it's starting slowly tells us that only a few people were actually exposed."
"It took us a few hours to cut the water feed three months ago." Connor pointed out. "Nobody got sick, so we didn't bother with it."
Kate nodded. "It's called Latency. The virus was in these people, but it didn't show. If it was communicable then, everyone would have it now, and they don't. So if it mutated into something airborne, and I would bet a bar of soap that it did, that means it starts moving once symptoms appear, just like the flu virus."
"What symptoms are we watching for?"
"Early symptoms of SV-01 are coughing, sweating... So far the virus has properties of something called Hemorrhagic fever, and simple stomach flu." Bowman explained. "Stomach flu, everyone knows about. Sweating, vomiting, coughing, sneezing... dehydration is a serious concern. Hemorrhagic fever is more dangerous. The usual hemorrhagic fever; and I must stress that we don't know how this variant compares; attacks the kidneys, and shuts down the renal system. With the dehydration, the infected will be drinking more. Urinary output drops to a much lower level because of the renal failure, fluids and toxins back up in the body, and the patient could actually drown in their own tissues."
"With the heavy dehydration, we shouldn't restrict fluids. But with the kidney failure, we have to." Kate finished. "Stomach flu includes vomiting, with very quickly dehydrates, and given the circumstances, that could easily make the fever fatal."
Bowman nodded. "We've started isolating the current cases in one of the Barracks, but if it keeps going, we're gonna run out of room real fast."
"Anything we can do about that?"
"The waterborne variant got to people months ago, and we don't know who. We don't have a Patient Zero, so we can't identify who might have got it from whom. With three month latency, it's possible it spread to the rest of the base. If it is airborne, then it won't have been able to spread too far until the symptoms like coughing and sneezing appeared. Other transmission methods… we don't know."
Silence.
Connor spoke first. "Major Walters, I am hereby giving an executive order, placing the base under Quarantine. Set up isolation wards for the infected as required. Keep the foot traffic between the different areas on the base to a minimum. Inform your men what to look for. Majors Connor and Bowman have jurisdiction over all suspected cases. Doctor, needless to say, this is your top priority."
The briefing ended and John and Kate left first. They made their way through the tunnels toward Med Bay.
"Kate, what's the easiest way to keep this thing from spreading?" John asked quietly.
"Fortunately, the Underground is already aware of how dangerous diseases can be now, so people showing symptoms are being avoided like the plague." She winced. "Sorry. Bad choice of words."
John sighed. "Kate, you're CMO... but given your circumstances..." He ran one hand over her stomach protectively. The pregnancy was starting to show, even in fatigues.
"I'll be careful." Kate promised him. "I'm not losing this fight, John. Not again."
"I don't want you going into the isolation ward until you figure out how this thing is transmitted."
"I won't."
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Thirty Five Days
Connor had come into The Mess Hall, and was immediately noticed by the serving staff, one of whom quickly left the room discreetly.
Connor saw it out of the corner of his eye but didn't react. The Officers Mess was one of the few areas where favoritism was expected. The Officers table had always been singled out for priority in every army. Privileges of Command. Most of those privileges had been destroyed with the rest of the world, but with scavengers bringing in all sorts of things from LA, plus whatever Lori's people brought with them when talking to their chief, some few luxuries were starting to trickle in.
John had been refusing such little luxuries. He had gone without them his entire adult life, and saw no reason to be singled out now; but with Kate's pregnancy, her dietary needs were changing, so John accepted the mild favoritism from the Kitchen staff and timed his meals to meet with Kate.
He sat down across the narrow table from his wife and she started speaking without even looking up from her medical textbooks. "We had to expand the Quarantine again."
"What is that, fourth time this month?" John verified.
"Yeah."
"So what's the count now?"
"Close to a full third of the population. People are starting to panic." Kate said, suddenly lowering her voice. "I told them that it's like a regular fever. Mortality rate is 20%"
"What's the real number?"
"Closer to 70% of the infected won't make it."
John shuddered. "How long do they have?"
"That's the only hopeful note. It kills by dehydration mainly, so it's a slow killer."
"Slow but reliable."
"Yeah." Kate lowered her voice further, so that only John could hear her. "Her name is Lisa."
"Who?"
"Colonel?"
Connor looked up and found a young woman with military fatigues and a kitchen apron. She was holding a tray. "With the compliments of the kitchen staff."
"Ah, thank you, Lisa. Thank them for me."
Lisa smiled at the sound of her name, and turned to go back to the chow-line. "Sir."
John took a bite of his powdered eggs. His wife hadn't even looked up when the tray came over. "Kate, how'd you do that?"
Kate turned the page of her textbook. "I knew it would be Lisa. She always serves your tray. She has a crush on you."
John blinked. "Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Good answer."
John swiftly changed the subject. "How are you doing?"
Kate sighed, looking miserable. "Back pain faded. I think my spine's getting used to it, but I just keep expanding."
John chuckled. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you look?"
"Oh, stop that." Kate told him, suddenly furious. "Two dozen soldiers and civilians have told me I'm glowing. Private Lutz is having sympathy cravings. Bowman won't let me pick up a damn file folder in Medbay because he's convinced I might jiggle the baby! The entire army has lost its mind around me!" Huge tears suddenly formed in her eyes. "I spent months trying so hard to be counted like an actual part of YOUR army here, and I was just starting to seem credible and suddenly I'm made of glass and everybody's being so OKAY with it, and I know I'm making too much of it because I'm pregnant and having stupid mood swings and I just can't help myself, and it's all YOUR fault because I used to think clearer before I was carrying around your child in me; but I can't take it out on you because I wanted this and I love you so much." She furiously wiped the tears away, angry again. "I HATE THAT!"
John didn't move, frozen still, halfway between wanting to help and wanting to keep his distance.
"And stop looking at me like that!" Kate snapped.
"Like what?"
Kate's nose suddenly twitched, and a dangerous glint came into her eyes. "Like Bambi stuck in my headlights! For crying out loud, Man Up, Soldier! I'm your wife and oh my god Do I Smell Bacon?"
John slid a knife under his powdered eggs, and there were indeed a few strips of bacon there. "Oh, that poor pig. Survived Judgment Day only to meet its end after the resistance brought it in from the cold."
Kate hadn't taken her eyes off the bacon. "Too old to be good for breeding more piglets. Too thin to waste food fattening it up."
"You want it?"
Kate picked up her fork. "Oh I couldn't possibly." Kate said, absolutely delighted. "Gimmie!" John slid his tray over, and Kate picked it up, almost inhaling the bacon. "Mmm. Oh, and you need to eat something too."
"I eat enough."
"To feed an eight year old maybe."
"That's the standard diet, these days."
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Sixty Five Days
Connor was one of the few people that came and went at will into the Quarantine bays. Gloves, hospital scrubs and surgical masks were required attire in Quarantine.
The Quarantine bay had started at the end of a barracks tunnel. As the virus had spread, the plastic wrap that isolated the rest of the tunnel moved further down the tunnel. It did this several more times until it filled tunnels from the end of the line to the wider cavern.
Guards in Bio-Hazard gear held vigil over the entrance to Quarantine. The one person who was refused entry was Kate. Connor had suddenly been making many more trips in to see the infected.
Nobody knew why. Not even Kate
"Evening Kyle."
Kyle Reese coughed weakly and looked up at Connor. "Sir."
"How you feeling?"
"My mom got sick after the bombs. Before she told me to leave her at the house, she told me that the sickest I've ever been was when I caught the measles. I don't really remember that, but I think this might be worse." Kyle croaked out.
"I know. I been sick lots of times. It always sucks."
Kyle looked around the room. "Little worse this time." he coughed again and looked up at Connor. "I'm going to die."
Connor sat down closer and looked intensely at the little boy. "No. You will not."
"S'Okay sir. I'm not scared."
"Kyle? Do you trust me?"
"Yessir."
"Then listen carefully. You're going to be okay."
"Yessir."
"In the meantime, I have a lot of people to talk to. I want you to look after some of the people around you. When I get sick I always feel lonely. Can you help with that?"
Kyle went paler still. "I don't think I can."
Connor leaned in. "When I was your age, my mom left me by the side of the road in Brazil. They didn't speak English there. She told me that I had to get home alone. Ask for help in Spanish, steal cab fare, stowaway in a bus, anything went. I told her I couldn't do it. You know what she said?"
"What?"
"She said: 'You will, because I said so, and I'm your mother'."
Kyle chuckled. "She sounds tough."
"She was."
"Wish I was that tough." Kyle murmured, falling asleep.
"You are, Kyle." Connor promised, tucking him in. She told me so.
Connor left Kyle's bedside, and made his way down the tunnel. Row after row, after row. The people in the beds were motionless, some of them crying quietly, most of them just staring listlessly.
One after another, all slick with sweat, all pale, barely moving.
Connor wandered down the aisle between the rows of beds, offering a smile or a comment where he could, but it felt like a useless gesture. The lights were low. Everybody seemed desperate to shut their eyes against the grey numbing sickness that seemed to fill the tepid air.
Kate would tell me their names. He thought idly. No. Not this many.
Connor left the Quarantine Bay, and found Bowman waiting for him. "I have updated reports on infection rates."
"We're going to need a second Quarantine Bay." Connor said. "They've run out of room in there."
"No sir, we don't."
Connor felt sick. "People have started dying."
"Yessir." Bowman reported. "Quarantine protocols demand that we incinerate the bodies, and allow no contact with the rest of the population. I want your permission to set up a makeshift crematorium nearby. We can set up pipes that'll take the smoke out through the manhole covers, like we do with the antenna cabling."
"That close? Make it seem like an orderly assembly line?"
"Either that or we carry infected corpses through the base to the exit."
Connor growled under his breath. "Permission granted. Do we have enough beds for the new cases?"
"That's the updated report sir." Bowman grinned. "There are no new cases."
Beat.
"What?" Connor demanded. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, the rates of infection have plateau-d. There are no new reported cases. Sir, I think we managed to Quarantine all the infected Personnel."
"Are you sure?!"
"Five days since a new report came in. I haven't reported it because we just aren't that lucky."
Connor rubbed his eyes. "Well, that's good news, but in the meantime, there are a lot of sick people on the other side of that plastic sheeting."
"Yessir. But in the meantime…"
"In the meantime?"
Bowman looked around and lowered his voice. "If we can't beat it, people are going to start getting terminal in there… at an accelerating rate. If enough of them panic and try to get out… They may not have the strength to get far, but they may break Quarantine and we do this all over again."
Connor took measure of the man in front of him. And finally lifted his radio slowly. "Walters."
"Here, sir."
"Doctor Bowman informs me that we have finally managed to stop any further cases of SV-01. We can't let anyone break quarantine. Set up a second Decontamination Station. Anyone coming or going goes through double decontamination measures."
"Yessir."
"And I want more guards down near the Quarantine Bay." Connor reported. "Anyone attempting to break quarantine is to be stopped. The use of deadly force is authorized."
Beat.
"Yes sir." Walters responded.
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Sixty Eight Days
Kate woke up coughing. Her mouth was dry and her throat painful.
She fought her way over to the washbasin, always kept with half a bowl of water. She felt hung-over. She washed her face again and again, trying to clear her head.
John came in a few minutes later. "Hey. We might have a chance to convince Halloway to sign on. He's not going back to his people until we've got a grip on the virus. He's keeping busy though, learning how we do things, hearing stories from the civilians, getting to know our guys, and now that we've been able to quarantine the infected, he's willing to come and go." He grinned and shrugged off his boots. "Personally, I think he wants to stick around so that he can spend more time closer to Lori."
"Lori still here?" Kate scrubbed her face with the washcloth and checked the mirror. There were dark circles under her eyes.
"Her own people don't want to take her back." John said. "The Orphanage is infected and doesn't have proper isolation wards like we do, they don't want her to get sick. Fine with me, the longer she's here the more her people get to know ours." He pulled his jacket off. "Even if she refused to join up, we're going to have to work with her one way or another."
Kate ran a hand over her forehead. Kind of clammy... "Why do they keep sending people if they don't want her to get sick?"
"She's in charge over there. She doesn't trust our radios for private conversations unless her own guy is running things while she talks, so they keep sending people to talk to her in person."
Kate held out a hand. It was trembling.
"In the meantime, she and Halloway are earning their keep while they're here. Halloway's spending most of his time with the surface teams. He's been underwater since J-Day so I think he likes being able to see the sky again. And Lori's guy Dyson is everywhere at once. He's a damn good techie. He was able to set up those diagnostics in Medbay for you and rework the kitchen roster almost on the same day."
Kate coughed again, fought to hide it. "Good. The new computers in Medbay are making the tests go a lot faster. We're studying fourteen serums a day instead of six."
Her nose was running and her sides ached, deep inside her ribs. Right where her kidneys were.
"Pass the basin? Is that water hot?" He reached over.
"Don't come near me." Kate said sharply. "I'm infected too."
Chapter 5: Z Plus 1 Year 269 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Sixty Nine Days
"Test confirms it, Sir. SV-01 Positive. Kate's infected."
Connor had aged considerably in the time it took to get the results back. "What's the prognosis?"
"We still don't have a cure. Mortality rate is pretty high, and she's pregnant, so that makes it harder. She's healthy, strong willed if nothing else, and with your recent orders that medical care and treatment be given to pregnant woman as a priority, she's got a better chance than any of the other cases. We're keeping her isolated until we figure out how the hell she got it. Of all the people to contract it despite Quarantine, she's the least likely. Seems the entire base is focused on keeping her healthy. She hasn't gone near the infected."
"Then why is she sick?!"
"I don't know yet."
"Can I see her?"
"Yessir. But the same protocols apply as in Quarantine. We have her in post-op. It's the most sealed private room we can find. Now that the patrols and entrance guards have the knack of knocking down H/K's, we don't really need it that much until the offensives start."
"And the offensives don't start until we lick this damn virus."
John came into the Post Op room, and saw Kate, looking pale and tired on the cot.
Nevertheless, she smiled for him. "The things I do to get your attention."
"You always did have a flair for the dramatic." John said through his surgical mask.
"Don't you be worried about this." She told him seriously.
"Just like that, huh?"
"My dad told me that warriors die when they stop fighting. I'm never going to stop fighting John." She took one of his gloved hands and put it over her stomach. "The baby started kicking."
John smiled. "Really?"
"This morning. It's a fighter too."
John smiled. "We gotta stop calling our baby 'it'."
"You were the one who wanted to be surprised." Kate grinned. "We're going to be okay."
"Okay. But in the meantime, you are not to leave this bed."
"Last time you said that was Crystal Peak." Kate teased. "Don't parent me, John."
"Get used to it, Kate." John told her. "Take advantage of it. Once we cure this thing and the baby is born we'll be lucky to have three days to ourselves a year between the baby and the war."
Kate smirked primly at him. "I'll wear you out in those three days."
John laughed, despite himself. But it faded fast. She was trying too hard to keep him from worrying.
Kate patted the side of her cot and he sat down next to her. "I was thinking about yesterday when I had the bacon. I had cravings for all the same things last time I was pregnant. My mom told me that when she was pregnant, she always wanted high-iron foods. Burgers, Steak... Her doctor told her that she was Iron Deficient. Her cravings were her body's way of supplying through diet what it needed. The human body is very smart, John. When it needs to rest, it tells us so. When it needs more protein, we want eggs. When we need more fluids we get thirsty. During the winter we want big hot meals, like roast and hot chocolate. When it's summer we want light cool meals like salads and ice tea. Our bodies tell us these things, John; when we're sick and when we're getting better. The people in the tunnels, they want to know how I feel about being pregnant when almost all the doctors and hospitals are gone. I told them that women were having babies long before hospitals. The body knows how to look after itself. My body warned me I was sick, and I know it wants to protect this baby as much as I do." She pushed his hand away. "So get back to work, soldier."
"Yes, Ma'am."
John came out of the Medbay and stripped off his mask and gloves. Bowman and Walters were waiting for him, looking about as serious as he had ever seen them. "Gentlemen?"
Walters spoke first. "Colonel, we have been able to identify the reason Quarantine failed."
"Good. What is it?"
"It never did." Bowman picked up the narrative. "Sir, I believe I know the reason why the second outbreak stopped with the CMO."
Connor twitched at mention of his wife being ill. "Tell me."
"SV-01 is airborne, but it didn't start that way." Bowman explained. "Your wife was somehow exposed to the waterborne variant. That's why it hasn't been transmitted from her to anyone else."
Connor paled. "Hell. The water supply."
Bowman shook his head swiftly. "I've already checked. The water is fine. Nobody else has been infected through the drinking water either."
Connor glared. "Then how?!"
"Kate's been eating some meals of yours hasn't she, sir?"
Connor nodded. "I gave her some of my food, now that she's eating for two."
"Yessir. Your meals don't always come from the same stock as the rest of the men sir." Bowman agreed. "That would explain it. I've already checked the kitchen supplies. They test negative. I tested one or two of the luxuries items set aside for the Officer's table. They tested negative. I went into the garbage and started checking that. It tested negative." Bowman explained. "But there was another food source, aside from all that."
Connor closed his eyes. "The bacon."
Walters piped up. "The closest thing we can figure is that the aerosol missile that infected the reservoir wasn't the only biological launch. There are plenty of other water sources out there and our salvage teams are going out non-stop. Looks like a pig got to one of them... latency lasts three months."
"The food animals were infected." Connor nodded, swiftly realizing. "The virus isn't just in our people, it's everywhere. Somebody goes out, brings back wild mushrooms, brings back animals, drinks their canteen dry, finds a water supply outside while on their salvage run..."
"And since the virus doesn't show up in any of the soldier's chemical tests that test if water is drinkable, they don't realize that they're refilling their canteens with the contaminated water." Bowman finished. "Half a dozen ways it can still get in. And that's just the ones I can think of."
"Why weren't those animals tested when they came in?"
"They were. The tests were negative. My guess is that the latency ended after the testing, so it didn't sow up, but before it was slaughtered. I checked all the meat again; the side of pork was the only positive test. The cows and sheep seem okay."
Connor sighed. "Eric, keep your scroungers informed about this stuff dammit! They're bringing worse than salvage back in with them."
"Yessir."
"Who else got contaminated food that day?"
"Near as we can figure, nobody. You and Kate were the first, you gave Kate the Bacon on your tray, and you two always take your meals at odd hours. You're on a different clock than the rest of us so you can talk to the day shifts and the night shifts."
"Then we will be hopeful that we got to it before it spread any further."
"Soldiers aren't meant to be optimistic." Walters pointed out.
"You aren't the first to say so." Connor agreed. "Bowman, I know you're doing everything you can, but the fact is that Skynet can infect the entire surface if it wants to. The only real way to protect our people from it is to have a cure."
"I'm working on it."
"Go." Connor dismissed him. "And keep checking all the foodstuffs and the animals that have been brought in. Including the K-9 units."
Bowman saluted and left the two of them alone.
Eric picked up the conversation. "Skynet won't have to worry about outbreaks, and its people don't have to sleep. The High IQ boys in the lab say that Skynet could have cultured over 200 tonnes..."
Connor shook his head. "Skynet could make a lot of aerosol payload, but won't use it. Skynet won't be wasteful."
Eric met his eyes. "Yes. Sir."
Connor glanced back at him. "Eric?"
Walters seemed to argue with himself briefly. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Always."
"When we arrived at the Alamo, I asked how you knew all this stuff. Sir, your battle tactics, your skills... you seem to know how Skynet thinks. Now maybe that's just being brilliant, but sir... you were a civilian. Some of the people we rescued out of that prison camp... they would follow you to the end of the world. They would certainly follow you underground, where poor air circulation and tight quarters would make the perfect target for a biological attack. And... A few people... are wondering if that's what Skynet had in mind."
Connor looked at him sharply. "Eric!"
Walters put his hands up quickly. "Sir, I don't suspect... I mean... A lot of people want to know how you're doing this. Some of them are wondering if... if we can trust you. There's no way to look into your past any more. There's no way to verify anything anybody tells us, so for the most part we don't bother, but... you're different."
Connor looked his second in the eye. "And you, Eric. Who do you trust?"
Silence.
"Sir, the first time I heard your name, I was told that you were giving instructions to men over the radio. The first time I heard your voice, I found out you were a civilian, alone in a fallout shelter with a General's daughter. The first time we met face to face, I gave you a uniform and made you my boss. I have no reason to trust you, except that I do."
Connor smiled. "Thank you, Major. Is there going to be any trouble from whoever has been asking questions?"
"Sir, the men trust you. The men trust anyone they fight side by side with on the front lines. Most of the civilians trust you. They saw you in the prison camp. But the question that keeps coming up over and over is: How Does Connor Always Know?"
"And how is it being answered?" Connor asked.
"Most people just hear the words 'He's John Connor' and leave it at that. Anyone who asks me, I tell them that Skynet wouldn't bother putting a spy in charge. It takes too long, it organizes us against them, it costs Skynet resources. It's wasteful. Skynet's far too efficient."
"Good man."
Eric glanced around to insure that they were alone, and leaned closer. "But I'm the one who gave you the uniform, so just for me, I want to know. How does a civilian get into Crystal Peak when WW3 breaks out? How does a civilian know all this post-nuclear survival stuff from memory? How do you alone know how to pull apart a Terminator? How do you know how Skynet thinks? Just for me, I want to know: Where did you come from?"
Connor could not begrudge the man his question.
He almost answered it.
Z Plus Two Years Twenty Seven Days
Bowman was working non-stop, trying to find a cure, and had found nothing.
Halloway was still on base, flatly refusing to risk taking the virus back with him, though he had no symptoms of his own.
Time marched on, heedless of the dramas unfolding. Kate was in her seventh month of pregnancy. The second anniversary of Judgment Day came and went, driving morale further down. Nobody observed it. Nobody liked to think about it. For once, the base simply stopped as the healthy got drunk and the sick did nothing.
While there were still there were no new cases reported, but as yet, nobody had been released from Quarantine. The infected did not move about much, sometimes talking to their adjacent beds, more often than not keeping to themselves, ever mindful of the soldiers just outside quarantine, rifles apparent, and safeties off.
As the virus progressed, each patient was able to tolerate less and less nourishment, and vitamin injections were spread thin due to the load of people. There were fewer people for scavenger teams, and little by little, those in Quarantine began to starve, unable to tolerate the food and drink that was freely available to the healthy.
Work on improving the tunnels dropped to a standstill, the workforce weakened by the drop in numbers, and the workload increasing for all able-bodied.
With the workers steadily getting sick, Connor was forced to lift restrictions on foot traffic, and the healthy took on roles in various posts around the base to make up the numbers for essential operations.
Connor did more than anyone. It improved morale to have The Colonel working with the kitchen staff and the motor pool, and the military operations each day.
After working a fifteen hour day, Connor went to Medbay, and didn't move until the next morning. Carla had appointed herself nurse over Kate exclusively, and sometimes wondered if she was taking care of Kate, or her husband. Seeing him, still in mask and gloves, curled up next to Kate's bed, having no problem with sleeping on concrete, Carla wondered how it was that Kate was able to handle him. At first, Kate had directed Connor to sleep or eat as needed, even from her cot, but as her pregnancy progressed, so did the virus, until she was barely able to focus her eyes on him.
Kate was getting worse.
John looked hollow-eyed at his wife, who lay still on the cot. The virus was draining her strength. She looked so weak, her pregnant belly painfully out of place on her frail body. There was no nourishment going in. Intravenous solution didn't work through her system with her kidneys shut down. She could keep very little food down. Kate had demanded vitamin supplements to keep her baby nourished. One injection after another, and Kate's thinning arms were covered in bruises from needle marks.
It was the proof of how bad things were getting that she had taken herself off all duty rosters, even the inactive ones. She spent most of her time sleeping now, conserving what little energy she had. The periods of wakefulness were getting shorter and further apart. Kate had been out for almost two days, Connor at her side every second he could.
John was trying very hard not to panic. He knew she'd be okay. She had to be. The Terminator had told him so. His wife, his second in command, his children. All of it laid out for him by a cyborg prophet.
No no, Connor. A little voice said coldly in his mind. You've got bad Intel. That was the war The Terminator came from. How many of your future lieutenants did the T-X execute that day? She had a long hit-list, she got to so many of them. Was one of them some brilliant disease specialist? Which of your trusted allies would have found the cure for this virus? Did the T-X kill them before the bombs fell?
Nothing's the same any more. Connor thought sickly. Everything is so fragile now.
John knew what his wife would have said. You saved us in one timeline, John. Enough that Skynet had to keep sending assassins, over and over again. Maybe things have changed, but not enough.
Fine, John thought sourly. So the war is assured. But what about you, Kate? You are not promised to me.
Kate would have slapped him upside the head, told him to stop feeling sorry for himself. She would have told him to push away these terrifying thoughts and focus on his job.
But she couldn't do any of that, because she was wheezing for air in her sleep, trying to keep herself and their baby alive.
John couldn't take these thoughts any longer and jumped up, leaving the Medbay.
He came out into the main tunnel, and immediately set upon by the crush of people, waiting for their leader to speak. Connor was well known to all, but while John was the head, Kate had been the heart of the Underground. While John had focused on the soldiers, Kate had focused on the civilians. Word of her pregnancy had galvanized them, word of her illness had gutted them.
What do you want from me!? He felt like screaming. I'm not the right hand of God, and I don't have a magic wand! Get away from me! I can't be bothered with you while she's in there!
But even in his growing panic, he knew enough to not speak these thoughts out loud.
The people waited, with hopeful staring eyes, knowing he was going to say something that would make it all better.
But for the first time, Connor had nothing to say.
The Colonel pushed his way past them, ignoring their calls for help, and their shouts of support for Kate.
Connor found the little boy in the Quarantine Bay. Everyone not in a cot was wearing masks and gloves. Nobody was going to waste them, so for the most part, the same people that were there before hadn't left, the Quarantine bay their new posting until they could leave, one way or another.
Kyle Reese was curled up next to Forrest's cot. Forrest himself was deathly pale and had sweat pasting down his hair and clothes.
"Kyle?"
Kyle Reese, falling asleep in his chair, looked up at Connor. "I... I've been talking to him while he's awake..."
Connor nodded. "That's good."
"Sir, can I ask you about something?"
"Sure."
"He was talking about... I don't think he was really thinking straight, he was talking about how the dolphins are all dead. So the whales must be too. What was he talking about? The words sound familiar, but... Those are animals right?"
"How old were you before Judgment Day?"
"Four. I think. I don't remember real well... It was before."
Connor understood. The world had been divided neatly into 'before' and 'after' Judgment Day, and nobody liked to think about it. Very few people talked about their past any more.
Connor took stock of the little boy for a few moment, and spoke, clear and straightforward. "No. Nah, it's just an old fairy tale Kyle. There are no such things as dolphins. No such things as whales." They're probably extinct now. Am I really lying to him?
Kyle nodded, accepting the Colonel at his word. "He's getting sicker, huh?"
"Yeah. I guess so. Get some sleep." Connor nodded and saluted. Kyle returned the salute and lay back down on his own cot.
Connor left the Quarantine, when Dex came running up. "Colonel! It's Kate!"
Connor felt sick. It's never ending! They just keep coming, one disaster after another.
Nevertheless, he ran like hell.
"Kate's currently hooked up to the only working dialysis machine in the underground, sir." Bowman promised. "But that buys her time only. Once the dialysis cleans out her kidneys, the fever starts building up fluid and salts again. The pregnancy is making it difficult to treat the symptoms. We need to make a decision." Bowman sighed and looked away from the microscope. "A pregnancy is hard on the body at the best of times. Kate made it to the seventh month, and frankly that's better than I would have thought. The baby might be viable, so we've got some leeway. I'm already setting up an infant ICU."
"Is it that bad?" Connor demanded. "You don't have an ICU for a baby unless... unless the mother can't survive to full term."
Bowman nodded. "Kate's earlier miscarriage changes the map a little. So does the virus." He hesitated. "Colonel, sit down."
Feeling a chill, John did so.
"There has been a marked reduction in the baby's heartbeat. Now, I've got Kate on oxygen. If we can up the amount of O2 that Kate gets into her system, then the baby can get more as well, and this might all be academic. But the virus is exhausting Kate's body, and the baby is demanding everything she's got left... Colonel, if the baby's heart-rate slows any further, we'll have to induce labor. Now that could be dangerous to the child, but we're late enough in the pregnancy that it might be the best option for Kate."
"For Kate." Connor clarified. "What about the baby?"
"Ideally, the fetus should stay right where it is until reaching full term. If oxygen fixes the heart rate problem, then I'll let it happen naturally. But sir, this pregnancy is putting an enormous strain on her body. She doesn't have a lot of reserves left. Food is tight, the fresh drinking water supply is questionable, Kate was working far too hard..." He rubbed his eyes. "Colonel, this won't be popular, but Kate's chances would be far improved if the baby was born now."
Connor twitched. "Would the baby survive?"
Beat.
Connor glared. "I want a frank answer, Doctor."
"Frankly, I don't know. But I do know that Kate's using up the last bit of life that the virus left her."
Connor felt sick. "Is there no way to save both?"
"It is entirely possible that both may yet survive. But, Colonel... The odds are against it." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "It would be safer for her if we took the chance with the baby's life. It would be safer for the baby if we took the chance on her."
Connor didn't speak for such a very long time. "Kate would never forgive me for putting her life over the baby's."
"Doesn't mean it's the wrong choice."
Connor thought hard. What would mom say? Would she say that Kate was worth more to me and the war effort than a newborn baby? Or would she say that protecting your child over yourself is what mothers did?
What would Kate say?
"You have kids, Doc?"
"No."
Connor nodded. "So many people have lost family, would fight tooth and nail to get it back. There's a whole other war being fought in Kate's body right now. And the thing that keeps coming back, is that every war has casualties."
"In medical school, we had a teacher who called Pregnancy the great parasite. It's a life form that it totally dependent on its host, and demands more and more until it gets strong enough to actually fight its way out. It was right then that I was grateful the Army was picking up the tab. So few pregnant soldiers." He gave a mirthless grin. "Of course, I hadn't met your wife then."
Connor chuckled bitterly. "You look tired, Doc. When did you last sleep?"
"Sleep? I vaguely remember that. That's a fairy tale, right?"
The two men chuckled bitterly again, and Connor rubbed his eyes. "If I have to choose between my baby and my wife..." Connor shook his head. "No. Kate's strong. And there's nothing she'll fight for harder than this. Give them time, Doctor. She'll win this particular little war. They'll make it." He swore, when his radio buzzed. "Connor, here."
"Lori's at Checkpoint Alpha. She says she has something urgent to report."
Lori came down the corridor, Dex escorting her from the entrance, and took quick stock of Connor. "Where's Dyson?"
Daniel Dyson came up behind Connor. "I'm right here."
"You were supposed to check in every twenty four hours." Lori snarled.
"I got busy. I found something useful. Connor's guys figured out how to jam Skynet missiles at close range."
Lori nodded at that and shifted topics instantly. "Connor, Is there a cure?"
"Not yet." The Colonel said evenly.
"Danny, is that true?" Lori asked immediately.
"Yes, Ma'am." Dyson swore.
Lori sighed. "My Orphanage is getting sicker. The healthy are starting to panic, and the sick are looking for someone to tear apart. John, if you had a cure, you'd tell me right? I can make it worth you're while."
"I find the cure, there'll be no charge." Connor promised.
"Dyson, do you believe that?" Lori asked without hesitation.
"Yes Ma'am, I do." Danny said clearly.
Lori sighed. "In that case, consider this my own show of good faith." She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a slip of paper. "My people figured out where the Bio-Weapon was cultured."
Connor reacted like he'd touched a live wire. "Thank you!" A dangerous glint came into his eyes. A deadly fire that vowed to consume something. "Dex." He almost growled. "Assemble the Principals. We're going hunting."
"Yessir."
Saint was offering a few working watches to a group of civilians gathered outside Medbay, as well as a few fake ones, when a hand clamped down on her shoulder.
"Connor's wife is in there, and it's even money whether the pregnancy or the virus kills her first. I don't think he'd take kindly to you fleecing his personnel right now." Lori said dangerously. "Just giving you fair warning."
Saint nodded sagely. It was a poor grifter that didn't take note of the Law.
Halloway came over, with a cup in each hand, and offered one to Lori. "If you close your eyes and ignore the smell, you'd swear it was coffee."
Lori took it. "Surprised to see you back here, Halloway."
"Came back two weeks ago. I think Connor was hoping to get me on board without you here. Then the outbreak got nasty... I live on submarines, Lori. I'm NOT going back until I'm sure I'm clean. How about you?"
Lori sat down against the wall, and leaned into Halloway. "I'm hoping Connor's medical team can pull off a miracle."
"Bad news then?"
"My little town now has an 85 percent infection rate." Lori whispered. "I came to see if they had anything that could help, and found out that their CMO, Connor's wife, had it too."
Halloway sighed and pulled her tight against his side. "Lori... you could come with me. If... if the worst happens, there's always a home for you."
Lori caught the arm around her shoulders, and pulled his hand close for a gentle kiss.
Connor had come out of the Medbay. The ever present whispering that filled the public areas of the underground seemed to go quiet for a moment, till somebody divined that Kate was apparently still breathing, and the quiet talking resumed.
Connor took them all in, and quietly slipped over to Halloway and Lori. "Hey guys."
"How is she?"
"Worried about the baby." Connor said, looking old.
"What are the doctors telling you?" Lori asked quietly.
"Not much, unless I order them to, which scares me more than anything else Skynet can do." He looked at the two of them. "I don't deny my war would be easier with you, but my wife's in there, and she's not doing so good, and I have to leave her side now. I hate to do that. My home is with Kate and our baby." his voice turned to such steel that Halloway and Lori both shivered. "Skynet made my family sick. And could do it again. I won't have it. I won't allow it. Now I know where the virus was cultured, and I'm going out there to kill it, once and for all."
Silence.
"Godspeed, Connor." Halloway whispered.
Connor nodded at both of them, stood up and headed off.
"Do you think he has a chance?" Lori whispered.
"I've been listening to what these people say about him... if half the stories are true, I think he'll be back." Halloway said quietly.
Kate woke up coughing furiously. Her breathing was getting thick and tough.
Relax! She ordered herself furiously. There is enough room. There is enough air. You will breathe, Kate! You! Will! Breathe! For! The! Baby!
And after a while, her breathing slowed to normal, and Kate relaxed. Her vision was going dim. She reached over to the other side of the cot. He wasn't there. Of course he wasn't there. This was Medbay. Kate longed for their little room, where only they went and would hold each other tight against the wars.
"Just breathe, Ma'am." Carla's voice said gently. "You've got a thousand people in this base standing with you right now. Including me. Just keep breathing. This isn't your baby, this is all of ours. So you do what we all do, Kate. You just keep breathing."
Kate obeyed, feeling her heart swell. Her father had told her that the Commander of any Base was the father figure for all his men. Kate had apparently been declared mother to the civilians as well.
The people on this base are demoralized and looking to me, and I'm trapped in this bed while my children are out there, fighting and working and crying.
Kate looked around, barely able to focus her eyes. She heard voices talking.
Bowman? When did he get here? Vision's fading... can't see... John?! John! I need you! Where are you!?
Kate fought for breath. "The... the baby." She wheezed.
"The baby's fine." Bowman assured her. "Save your strength, Kate."
"Check again. Please. Check." Kate croaked. "That's an order!"
Bowman sighed and went over to the shelves, preparing to run the test.
Carla came over and held her hand. She kept holding it, and mopping Kate's brow, whispering encouragement over and over until Kate was finally asleep again.
"Lori gave us the co-ordinates." Walters reported. " The Chemical plant is something Skynet apparently captured and re-tasked for Bio-Weapons. It's out past Twenty-Nine Palms. Our maps of the area are pre-Judgment Day, but in this case, that won't affect matters too much."
"How so?"
"There's little to no structures in the area. No roads except the main entrance road that leads to the main gate. There is no useful hills, no convenient gully we can sneak through. Just open plains for almost two hundred feet in every direction." Connor told them, seemingly unconcerned. "Gould? Weapons?"
"We are currently finishing the first working prototypes based on the Machine's new plasma rifles." Gould reported. "But sir, they've never been tested under field conditions... and we're having trouble stabilizing the power systems. Sci-Fi aside, this is an entirely new form of weapon."
"This mission is necessary." Connor said clearly. "However the weapons are experimental. Anyone who wants to carry the more conventional guns can do so."
"What will you do, sir?"
Connor nodded. "I'm taking the new Plasma Rifle with me."
"What do we know about the Chemical Plant defenses?"
"Only what Lori's people have told us." Connor said. "The humanoid models patrolling day and night along the perimeter. Three large ground based H/K's and two of the large flying variety."
"Those three types seem to be the standard issue combat units for Skynet now. The T-1's from the original weapons program, and the smaller remote controlled flying H/K's haven't been seen, by us Lori or Halloway for a few months." Walters put in.
"I'd feel better if we had better recon." Oldham volunteered.
"The terrain makes it impossible to sneak up on them with any accuracy. The best we can get is a full klick from the facility."
Connor thought for a second. "How many snipers have we got?"
"Just over a dozen. Four that aren't currently in Quarantine."
"A good sniper can hit a target from over four miles away." Connor pointed out.
"The world's best sniper still needs an angle that can work to make the shot." Walters pointed out.
"For their targets, they'll have one." Connor told him. "Get the scroungers together. I have a shopping list for them."
"Which base?" Oldham went to his maps.
"Not a base." Connor told him. "Toys R Us."
Bowman was over at the computer, and finally spoke once checked the blood smear. "Well now, that's odd."
Carla, still at Kate's bedside, looked sharply at him. "What is?"
Bowman looked up. "The baby is indeed fine."
Another hour passed, and the strike team was ready to move out. There was an eerie feeling of finality about it. For the first time, the exits were empty. The guards to the train-tunnel entrances were hundreds of meters up the tunnel. The lit base, where the cars were organized, and the civilians working... were deserted. Everybody was avoiding each other, or in Quarantine.
The silence was oppressive.
"Okay, we'll need to prep these vehicles ourselves." Connor commanded. "The other jeeps and troop carriers that looked the part were destroyed months ago, and with so much of the Motor pool out of commission, we haven't replaced them yet."
His men nodded, but didn't understand.
"Dex, Lutz, go get some chains, wooden planks, whatever, and beat the hell out of these cars. Leave the tyres alone, but make it look like these vehicles have been out in the open. Oldham, get brown and red paint, we're going to paint some 'rust' onto these things. Urban camouflage people. Our usual support staff is in Quarantine, and the Mission Clock is running. We aren't delaying the mission for the prep work, so get moving!"
The strike team unslung their rifles and started grabbing the necessary implements. Lutz started by smashing out the windows, one by one.
"Hey! We could use that glass for something!"
"Skynet won't buy it if there isn't broken glass visible!"
"Make sure there's no glass inside the vehicle." Connor directed. "We can't spare the disinfectant for glass cuts."
"Yessir."
Connor's radio buzzed. "Connor here."
"Colonel, please come to the Medbay immediately." Bowman's voice came.
Connor was moving so fast that he didn't notice the horrified looks that followed him, every soldier knowing what must have happened.
Connor came in quickly, to the unusual sight of Bowman grinning down at the unconscious Kate. "Doctor."
"Colonel." Bowman said. "I have good news, and I have bad news. Which would you like first?"
"Start with the good news."
"The baby is not infected."
Beat.
"WHAT?" Connor exclaimed in disbelief.
"The bad news is that the problem the baby is having with the slowing heart rate is therefore being caused by Kate's body coming apart under the strain." Bowman said. "The better news, is that the baby's immune system had to adapt to the presence of the Virus, in-vitro. Its body was totally sustained from Kate's, but the virus was present in her. There are several natural immune systems that come into play in the womb of the mother... to protect the unborn from viral infections. The placental barrier, maternal antibodies and amniotic fluid all serve as a filtration system." Bowman explained. "Kate's antibodies are at war with the Virus and losing, but her infection was not systemic. It was ingested. The virus had to fight its way through her system, unlike all the others who had it transmitted through the air. The child's still healthy. Kate gave the unborn baby the Virus, but the body has safeguards specifically for that, so the child survived."
"The baby's okay?" Connor pressed.
"The baby is fine." Bowman promised him. "And what's more, the child has antibodies present that have survived the Virus."
Bowman went over to the table, and picked up a syringe with a clear liquid in it. "And fortunately, the baby's got just enough blood to safely provide one dose worth of white blood cells. Cordocentesis is a marvelous thing. We were able to get the blood the same way we tested for the virus."
Connor looked hard at Bowman, then at the syringe, daring to hope... "Doctor, are you telling me... Is this a cure?"
Bowman broke out in a huge smile. "Yessir."
Connor could hardly take it in. "And Kate?"
"I have her sedated right now. She needs to sleep for a while."
"How does this affect her pregnancy?"
"It doesn't. It'll take a while to synthesize enough of the cure to give her too. I know you'd rather give the one dose we have to her right now, but-"
"But she doesn't have a whole lot to spare, and we can't go demanding donations from her now."
"She's at the end of her rope, but if she can last till morning, and frankly, she's lasted this long, so I'm optimistic… we can cure the virus. After that, it's up to her."
"How long until you can start mass production?"
"The cure works; we can take more blood from the cured person and run it through a centrifuge to get more white blood cells to make more vaccine. I've already selected some of the infected for human trials."
"I thought that making vaccinations took complicated laboratory work."
"It does, but we can improvise. Blood types are incompatible; there are toxins, trace elements. All that stuff is in Red Blood cells. Anti-bodies are in White Blood Cells. We can just centrifuge away all the stuff we don't need, and separate out the stuff we can use."
"Which of the infected gets the first dose?"
"They don't. I'm giving the first dose to somebody healthy. They can spare more blood without getting put in greater danger." Bowman cleared his throat. "That's why I called you. I need CO's permission to begin human trials. Needless to say, I skipped a few steps. Animal testing, FDA approval, things like that."
"Permission for human trials is granted." Connor said immediately.
Carla jumped up. "Sir, I volunteer!"
Connor nodded gratefully at her. "Keep it quiet till we're sure it works." He said. "We don't announce there's a cure till we can get it to everybody."
"Yessir."
Connor's radio buzzed and he answered it. "Connor."
"Colonel, the strike team is assembled and the vehicles are prepared, we're ready to go. At your order."
Connor knew what Walters was really saying. If the worst had happened, he was willing to lead the strike in his Colonel's place. Connor started to say something, changed his mind, and started to speak again...
"Go." Carla told him. "I can donate blood and stay with her."
Connor started to go. Then came back. "Doc, we'll be bringing wounded back with us, win or lose. We won't have time to thank you properly, but there's a whole lot of people... Humanity's an endangered species, Doctor; and you saved an awful lot of them."
Bowman smiled. "Thank you, sir."
Connor headed out.
Bowman looked over. "Carla, we don't know for sure if this'll work. The reason I'd give it to you and not one of the infected would be to get a dozen or so shots to start with, as a control group."
"I understand."
"Also, it might actually make you sick. Some people get the flu after having a flu shot. It's possible the same could happen here." Bowman looked evenly at her. "You're a good nurse Carla, I'd hate to have you stuck in Quarantine when I need you here. Especially with Major Connor out of commission."
Carla smirked. "Was that a compliment?"
"I've been known to give them." Bowman said professionally.
Carla smiled. "Doc, there's a third possibility. It could be you've pulled it off. This could work just fine and I can supply you with enough white blood cells to heal a dozen people. It'll work." She said confidently. "I know it will."
Bowman smirked. "Was that a compliment?"
"I've been known to give them." Carla returned.
The two of them grinned at each other, despite themselves.
"I still can't believe you punched me." Bowman said at last.
Carla rolled up her sleeve. "Just stab me with a needle and call it even will ya."
The convoy rolled to a stop, almost a mile from the base. Three men jumped out of the Troop carriers, each carrying a rifle, with a huge scope on top, and a barrel so long that when held upright, each gun looked more like a spear.
Connor jumped out of his jeep and came to the snipers specifically, but raised his voice to be heard by everyone. "Everybody fall out."
After a second, the entire strike team jumped out of their vehicles and assembled before Connor.
"Sniper teams, set up here, and a half klick to the east and west respectively. We'll be in position. Do not fire, until your targets are stationary. We'll set 'em up, you knock 'em down."
The men took in the orders, waited calmly to be dismissed. Every eye instinctively stayed on Connor.
"This is usually the moment I say something inspirational." He said clearly, every soldier hearing him. "I tell you about duty, and honor, and how proud I am to fight with each of you, and how you've managed to band together against overwhelming odds and not only survive, but hit back. And you know what? Every single time I say something like that, I mean it. But today I just don't have it in me."
Hushed silence.
"We found a cure." Connor said finally.
Stunned silence.
"We're still testing it, but by the time we get back, they'll know for sure if it works. Back at the base, our people could be getting better right now. Our target is a Bio-Weapons lab. We found a cure, but Skynet could make something new, unless we kill it. But even so, that does not change the fact that we lost people. That does not forgive what Skynet has done. Who here would like to demonstrate to Skynet exactly how we feel on the subject?"
A blood thirsty cheer went up. It was not the first that the Last Army had given. It would not be the last.
"You know the plan. You know the enemy. The Mission Clock is Running. Good Hunting. Dismissed."
The snipers turned and headed to their places. The rest of the Strike team went jumping back into their vehicles.
The Chemical Plant had probably been used for civilian manufacturing before the war. Skynet had taken it over neatly.
Well outside the range of Skynet's eyes, Connor lay face-down in a shallow foxhole, and studied the Plant through the telescopic sight on his rifle. Walters and Oldham held position with him. The rest of the strike force was spread out at the same distance in a half-circle around the target.
Connor studied closer. The always present radio tower, which relayed Skynet's control to the Machines was somewhere inside the facility itself, it's base hidden from view. The huge chemical tanks had been retrofitted with chrome plating and steel machinery, the purpose of which Connor couldn't guess.
Next to the facility, was something that looked an awful lot like a long range missile platform, mounted on two pairs of immense tank treads. A mobile way to launch biological weapons, parked next to a chemical production plant.
Connor had to admire the position. Chemical plants were generally away from population centers. The terrain was open and flat. There was no cover to hide behind, the area patrolled by Terminators on the edge, and the huge H/K's, two airborne, two ground based, holding position close to the structure.
The power of the place was not the guns, it was the wall. There was a wall of desolation and empty wasteland for hundreds of meters around the target.
They're learning. Connor thought bleakly. Putting their targets where sneak attacks can't reach.
Connor checked his watch. The mission clock was running.
Walters had a scope on his own rifle. "That missile platform wasn't included in the intel Lori gave us."
Connor kept watching. "May not have been here. The ground H/K's are sticking close to it." he dropped the scope. "Oh hell."
"What?"
"They're fueling the missile platform. They're getting ready to launch another bio-weapon."
"How close are they to launching?" Oldham asked.
"Can't be sure, but I can see the humanoid Terminators fueling the missile." Connor told them. "Skynet won't take long to program a target." He sighed hard. "We have to move now."
Walters swore under his breath and checked his watch. "Sir, we can't attack now! Mission clock is still T-Minus twelve minutes! We can't alert the others without Skynet picking up transmissions!"
"We don't know where that new missile is going. We wait now, a thousand more people get infected... or worse, it could be headed for LA. Eric, this is all for naught if Skynet's developed something new."
"Sir, the plan-"
"First rule of military strategy, Eric."
Walters nodded grimly, conceding the point, and said it with him. "Nothing ever goes according to plan."
"We strike early," Oldham put in. "We tip our hand to Skynet."
Connor shook his head. "That can work to our advantage too. Terminators have thermal vision above all."
Walters sighed and pulled out a large remote control. "It has to be us. We can't advise any of the other teams of the change in targets."
Connor nodded. "Go for it, Eric. Aim between the two sets of treads. If you can break the thing's backbone, we won't have to hit it with anything else."
Eric nodded. "Sarge, keep me on target."
Oldham lifted his rifle scope to his eye again.
The first line of defense was the Terminators themselves. Walking tirelessly around the perimeter, day and night without pause or relief.
They were the first to notice something new on the field.
Their directives knew what to do with soldiers, refugees, humans, animals and machines.
But not small remote controlled cars.
Simple, off the shelf, remote controlled toy cars were coming over the dead grass with electric motors whirring. The Terminators took them in, but did not fire. There was nothing in their program to define them as an enemy.
Not even with the first of them began weaving back and forth, as though drunk or blind, toward the mobile missile launcher.
"Left a bit." Oldham directed. "Bit more."
Walters worked his remote control. Connor took out another pack of explosive and began duct-taping it to the second Remote controlled car.
"Straight ahead, now! Now!" Oldham hissed.
Walters worked the controls and the RC Car accelerated, speeding straight into the gap between the treads of the Mobile Missile Launcher.
Connor set down the second RC Car and worked the controls, speeding it toward their machine enemies.
The first car exploded, it's C4 cargo exploding dramatically, neatly breaking the Missile launcher straight across the middle, rupturing the machine; blasting him in half. The explosion caught fire, sending a fireball upward, smoke and debris suddenly everywhere. Even from hundreds of meters away, Connor felt his eardrums shudder as the ground shook under the force of explosives.
"Well, that should let our guys know the attack's been moved up." Walters grinned.
And he was right. More than a dozen Toy RC Cars sped in from all quarters. The original plan was to have all their bombs in place and detonate simultaneously. That had gone out the window with the first blast. Connor knew this was going to be a dogfight.
Skynet may have been sorely lacking in imagination, but its reflexes were every bit as machine-like as its soldiers. With the RC Cars suddenly classified as enemies, their explosive cargo suddenly became targets.
The Terminators were gunning down their tiny attackers with brutal accuracy, one after another. But every car hit exploded in powerful blast of fire and smoke.
The Terminators were drawing the lines of smoke and heat, unable to see past the attackers that they themselves had gunned down.
Connor saw this through his scope and grinned. "There's your cover." With the attack underway, he could break radio silence. "Team two: Go."
Walters smirked bitterly. "Remote Controlled toy cars loaded with C4. Your mom teach you that one too, boss?"
Connor heard the jaded barbs but didn't answer.
The second team started moving forward, staying behind the fire and smoke, keeping low, firing steadily through the smoke.
The terminators started firing back through the smoke, seeking a target, their computer-like accuracy fading with the intense flames between their heat vision and their targets.
Skynet had control over every machine, seeing through every gun-camera, every set of eyes...
The Terminators were no longer reliable, as they could not see their enemy ahead. Skynet needed a new vantage point, and the sky belonged to it's H/K's.
The flying Machines rose higher and came to a hover, seeing past the smoke and fire, seeing past the decoys and remote controlled cars, taking in all the humans, crouched at the far outside of the battle.
Skynet calculated the variables. The Flying H/K's were much faster, and could get to it's targets faster. But that would divide the birds-eye view of the battlefield, and create blind-spots in its vision. The humans had shown ingenuity in striking at the unexpected points. The ground H/K's could reach the targets, who had nowhere to hide.
However, the humans were striking with remote controlled devices, which were packed with heavy explosive.
Skynet reset its radio transmitter to scan a broad spectrum of radio signals, and quickly found the frequency for the remote control devices, and traced it back to their own transmitters. Skynet quickly reset the transmitter to the new frequency and began transmitting at a much higher power.
Private Lutz was steering the RC car left and right around the Terminators, having picked one of the ground H/K's as his target, when the small toy car suddenly pulled a hard left and started driving back toward him.
Surprised, Lutz worked the controls again, trying to get control back.
The toy car came screaming towards him, undeterred.
"INCOMING!" Lutz yelled and tried to get out of the way.
The small car rammed into his heel like a bowling ball and the C4 was detonated, blowing Lutz's team apart.
"What the hell happened there?" Oldham demanded.
Connor raised his scope to look. The survivors of Lutz's team were quickly being dispatched by the oncoming Terminators.
"Oh, hell." Connor glanced around, saw the RC cars starting to break off from chasing the Terminators. "All Units. Skynet transmitters have changed frequencies, they've got the RC Frequency! Toybombs are under Skynet control! They're tracing the radio controllers. You Have Incoming! Detonate now! Now!"
Dex looked up and saw his RC swinging around and tearing in toward him, it's C4 package still armed.
"Damn, they learn fast." Dex snarled.
The ground rumbled harder and Dex looked up to see one of the huge Ground Based H/K's bearing down on him, gunning down his team.
Dex broke from the hiding place, and started running for the H/K itself.
The huge mounted guns swiveled down to point at him, just as Dex threw his whole body into an overhand throw that tossed the RC remote up at the H/K treads.
The RC, still homing in on the remote control signal, turned to follow it, charging straight into the back of the H/K, blowing it apart with the C4 cargo.
The blast blew Dex clean off his feet, knocking him into the ground, debris and shrapnel raining down around him.
"Colonel, that H/K broke rank to go after Dex's team." Oldham reported.
Connor stared out at the battlefield. The H/K's and terminators were turning left and right, moving away from each other, looking for the best positions to start shooting, even if it meant breaking ranks. "Oh, bad move, HAL."
"Colonel?"
"Flare guns!"
"Colonel?! We can't just show them..."
"Do it now!"
Oldham and the rest of the teams lifted their flares. Magnesium guns that burned hot and bright for a long time. Half a dozen flares went up in every direction, and the Machines started tracking them.
"Knock em down!" Connor roared.
Grenades, Plasma Guns, Explosive packs... Every soldier jumped up and started firing at once, no longer having to worry about cover, the Machines following the Decoys, every flare burning hotter than human flesh.
Connor grinned. "Skynet reset it's transmitter to take over our RC's. The Relay only ever used one frequency, so the H/K's are working automatic now."
"Big dumb heat seekers." Oldham grinned.
Connor lifted his radio. "Rack 'em and stack 'em."
Far away from the battle, laying face down in the dust, hidden under camouflage netting, with their huge guns ready, the Snipers each drew a bead on their targets, the turbines on the wings of each Flying H/K.
The Flying H/K's were stationary, keeping watch over the battlefield. It was a good thing they were still. The bullets had a long way to travel.
The Snipers started firing.
The impossibly high caliber bullets flew over a mile, the sheer force behind them shredding huge holes in the metal of the machines, taring up the turbines that kept them in the air.
Walters looked up as a jet engine on each Flying H/K suddenly seemed to disintegrate and the huge Flying machines started to spiral down to the ground...
...Toward them.
"Colonel!" Walters roared. "RUN!"
Connor looked up and they all started running for all they were worth, as the huge Machine slammed into the ground, the impact knocking all of them off their feet. Walters and Oldham threw themselves over their Commanding Officer as the debris and fire came falling down.
Connor looked back at the wreckage. It had smashed on their hiding place.
Oldham had a huge grin on his face. "Close one." He giggled stupidly.
Connor looked up. His men were mopping up the last of the defenders. "All right. We've got to get in there and make sure we burn all the virus before we blast this place to hell. We have to watch it burn. All soldiers who go in will wear Bio-Hazard suits at all times. The battle may have broken open a test tube somewhere."
"Yessir."
The first priority was to tear out the Skynet Control Relay. Once that antenna had been removed, the base itself had been secured. Several Terminators were working the equipment. Their automatic program had set them to laboratory work, not to defend, and with Skynet's Command Relay gone, their program stayed on automatic. Those machines were quickly taken down.
The Virus Culture had been found in the laboratory, still growing in the incubation tanks. Each source of the Virus had been carefully collected and brought to the Chemical Plant's now defunct incinerators. Once used for neatly destroying any contaminated or unnecessary chemicals, the Machines had apparently no use for it, having no fear of chemical spills or occupational health hazards.
Connor's men had collected everything hazardous, taking their time while their sentries watched outside for Skynet reinforcements. The suits had made it slow work, but eventually, it had all been collected, put into the incinerator, doused in as much flammable liquid as they could find, and left to burn.
Nobody said much while the flames blazed brightly, each of them left to their own thoughts of that the disgusting thing had done to them and their people. But finally, the flames ran out of material and burned themselves out.
Once the flames died and cooled to embers, Connor gave the order: Find anything that would burn. Find anything that would explode. Find anything destructive. Start looking for the best places to put it all. Destroy it all. Bring the whole facility down.
Two hour later, with the Chemical Lab erupting into explosive flame, collapsing into fire behind them, the soldiers made their way down the lonely highway, back to their base.
Halfway back, Dex answered a call from the base. Connor was dozing in the back of the Troop Carrier, when Dex slid open the panel to the driver seat and called back. "Colonel? Radio for you."
Connor shook himself awake and took the radio. "Convoy One, Connor here."
"Co- ... It's Carla he..." There was a voice, but it was barely audible over the sounds of the road, and a tiny screaming voice drowning it out. "Ka-... ha... Do you read..."
"Carla? Is that you?!" Connor dug a finger in his ear. "Carla, I can barely hear you. We're on our way back... is something wrong with Kate?! Over."
Carla was yelling, but barely audible over the background noise. "No ...ere's someth... Doctor Bowm ...as to report to you urgently. It's confidential."
"Then why isn't Bowman on the line?! Over!" Connor shouted into his radio.
"...with yo... wife at the moment, sir." Carla shouted over the tiny screaming voice that came through with her.
"Carla, We're in an open-aired jeep, on the move, and I can barely hear you over the sound of that baby screaming." Connor shouted into the radio.
Beat.
Dex, still on his cot, grinned. So did a few other men.
"Oh My GOD!" Connor suddenly yelled, realizing what he'd just said.
The convoy arrived back in LA, and the Perimeter teams came out of hiding again, to knock a hole in Skynet's patrols. The convoy rolled into the tunnels, and Connor was out of the lead jeep before it even stopped moving.
Most of the soldiers were grinning. Word had spread through the base faster than any virus ever could.
Connor sprinted for the Medbay, where Carla met him. "Before you go in there, chill out."
"Move." Connor told her, not slowing down.
Carla did nothing of the kind. "The baby's fine, so is Kate, and they're asleep."
"Move." Connor commanded, trying to get around her.
Carla shifted left, then right, then left again, successfully staying between The Colonel and the door. "Ah-ah-ah! They're both asleep, so settle down. I mean it, John; I'll pop you with a tranquilizer gun if I have to."
Connor forced himself to be calm. "Fine. Take me to her."
"Bowman wanted to talk to you first."
"Fine, take me to him, will you just start moving?!"
Carla gave a Cheshire smile and led Connor into the Medbay. Her smile dropped suddenly when Connor's wounded started to catch up with him. Carla paled at the sight of the first stretcher. "Ohmigod! DEX!"
Bowman came out of the Medbay with his trainees. "Carla, you should be lying down. Lohan! Get plasma together!" Bowman saw Connor and paused. "Sir, I know you want to know about-"
"Do your job!" Connor commanded and yanked off his jacket. "I've got field training too, our casualties are fairly light, but you'll need as many hands as you can."
Bowman went to a stretcher and started carrying it in. "How'd it go out there?"
"We did it. Mission accomplished. Kate?"
"Sedated for now. The baby too."
"Is that safe?"
"The baby's underweight, and premature, I've got it in the oxygen tent, with IV vitamin supplements. It's safe enough."
Carla was ignoring all of them. "Dex! Answer me!"
Dex lifted a hand. "I'm okay. Don't worry."
Carla started working on his wounds feverishly. "You're going to be okay."
"Carla, get back to Post-Op. You've donated blood, get back to your cot and sit down!" Bowman barked. He continued in a low voice to Connor. "Dex is the worst of it if everyone else is standing up."
Connor smirked grimly. "Because most of the people who were hurt, got killed outright."
Carla was holding Dex's hand. She let go long enough to hold up two fingers. "How many fingers do you see?" She asked him.
Dex looked. "Two."
Carla was weaving back and forth on her feet. "Good. Because I can see four." She slurred a little.
Connor rushed over, just fast enough to help lower Carla gently to the ground as her legs gave out.
Dex was the worst of the wounded. Surgery was done quickly, and Dex recovering in Post-Op, with Carla fussing endlessly. Connor had taken the opportunity of a break to get Bowman's report.
"There was no way to avoid it, Colonel, the cure was working, but the baby was still running out of steam. The heart rate was dropping to a dangerous level and oxygen alone wasn't fixing it; we had to induce."
"And now?"
"We've got the baby swaddled up in blankets, and have her in an oxygen tent now. She's recovering nicely. We've got Kate hooked up to six different IV's, pumping her full of as much saline solution and diet supplements as we can get into her. She'll look like a heroin junkie for a while, but now that her kidneys can handle it again, we can keep her alive medically till she gets some strength back. Urinary output returning to normal, kidney function is resuming as normal, blood pressure rising."
Connor sat like his legs had at last given out. "They're going to be okay."
Bowman nodded. "They're going to be okay."
"Both of them."
"Both of them." Bowman promised.
Connor took in one shuddering breath after another. For just a second, it showed on his face. It showed in his posture. Just for a moment, all the hard decisions, all the lives in the balance, all the fear and desperation for the entire human race was visible on his face.
Bowman didn't flinch. He was a Doctor. He'd had to see people who had lost loved ones before. He'd had to give terrible news to high ranking men. The Colonel was, just for a moment, an ordinary man.
"Would you like me to take you in to see your daughter?" Bowman asked finally.
Connor suddenly looked up sharply. "It's a girl?"
Bowman nodded. "She's in Kate's room. I have them both sedated for now. Would you like to go in and see them?"
"Yes. No. Yes. Wait." Connor fought to gather himself. And then the moment passed, and he raised his face, cool, calm, deadly and brilliant. "No. Kate needs to rest at last. I want Kate to meet the baby first. I want her to... I have time. Tell me about the rest of my people."
Bowman nodded grimly. "We lost some. The cure is working, but the fact is that Kate was lucky. Kidney function was reduced heavily, but on some of them, it stopped entirely. Kidneys shut down long enough, they don't start up again right. Impurities build up in the blood, waste builds up in the body, and you can't handle food or drink... Some of those people were dead long ago, and still haven't stopped moving yet. But the virus moves slowly. It's a reliable killer, not a fast one. We got to most of them in time. If we have found this cure one week later, it wouldn't have helped any of them."
"We dodged a bullet." Connor said quietly. "Most of us."
"Most of us." Bowman agreed softly.
Z Plus Two Years Thirty Two Days
Kyle had been quietly put at the top of the list to receive the cure. being young, he didn't need as many IV fluids as the adults did before getting his strength back, and had quickly been let out of Quarantine once it was established that the cure was successful. His first mission, direct from Connor, was to spread the cure to other population centers. After his first such action, Lori insisted on coming back with him, so he led Lori into the base through the Motor Pool, and the older woman had taken the opportunity to teach him a few things.
"You change the timing, and the engine runs at much higher revs. Too high, and the engine can burn out, too low, and it'll stall. Keep the revs high, it'll accelerate faster."
Kyle nodded, taking in everything.
"Now, the Manual transmission gives you more control over how fast you can speed it up, an automatic is easier because there's less steps. So if you've got a gunner, take the Manual, if you've gotta drive with one hand a shoot with the other, take the Automatic. Got that?"
"How do I tell which is which?" Kyle asked her.
"This third pedal down here, it's called a clutch, means a Manual." Lori told him.
"When your feet can reach the pedals, I'll teach you how to drive."
Lori and Kyle both turned, and saw Connor come in. Kyle quickly jumped out of the car and saluted.
"You guys made good time getting here." Connor said, returning the salute. "Kyle, I need to talk to Lori alone for a while."
"Yessir."
"Dismissed."
Kyle scampered off, leaving Lori and Connor alone.
"So, Connor; care to join a lady in the backseat at this time of night?" Lori drawled, and Connor smirked, opening the car door and taking a seat.
Lori handed Connor a cigar. "My last one. I understand congratulations are in order."
Connor grinned. "Born six pounds even."
"How's the Mommy?"
"Still unconscious. I told the doc to keep them both unconscious till Kate's strong enough to go nuts about being a mom. She's weak as a kitten after the virus, but the cure is working its magic."
"On my people too." Lori agreed. "That's actually why I'm here."
"Oh yes?"
Lori sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Soldier boy, I always told my people to keep their heads down. My little setup is self-sustainable, but only if we keep to ourselves. We've done that, and we survived. Then my people started getting sick. Skynet doesn't care if we fight or not."
"No."
"When that little tyke who can't stop saluting you gave me the syringe, I was camping outside my base. I went straight to my people at the Orphanage. Alex, the guy I left in charge... wouldn't let me in the door when he found out I wasn't infected. I left the syringe for him, and he took it inside after I left, and I came here. I got the call from him a few minutes ago. It's working."
John nodded. "I'm glad."
"So what's the catch?"
"No catch. No price. Humanity is an endangered species now Lori. You don't quibble over price when you're trying to save your whole species."
Lori thought long about that. Finally, she seemed to decide something, and let loose a stream of the foulest profanities that Connor had heard since his mom had caught him with one of Enrique's tequila bottles.
"I like the sound of that." Connor grinned.
Lori knuckled his shoulder. "I told you, if you could prove you were a force to be reckoned with, I'd risk my people, and share my resources." She sighed. "If you had treated my people that way, we'd all be dead by now." She turned to look at Connor. "Us against them right?"
"Us against them." Connor agreed. "What about Halloway?"
Lori grinned. "I'll have Captain Nemo eating out of my hand within an hour. He may not like it though, so once I finish with him, you might have to smooth things over with him so that he won't feel cornered."
"I will."
"I'm saying he's a whiner when he gets rooked into something, so you'll have to make him feel loved."
"He'll feel all kinds of love." Connor promised, when his radio buzzed. "Connor here."
"Kate's awake!" Carla called.
Connor was out of the car faster than Lori could process his movement. She followed at a more leisurely pace, when the tunnel out through the Motor Pool suddenly echoed with a few voices.
Lori waited, and Halloway came in, Oldham and his security team following. With the majority of the base population still recovering, Oldham had volunteered for sentry duty.
"Hey, Lori." Halloway greeted.
Lori grinned. "Hello, Sailor."
"It's One AM, don't you ever slow down?"
"Slow down and you die."
Oldham rolled his eyes at the latest episode in what the base had come to know as 'The Lori and Halloway Show'. "Where's The Colonel?"
"His wife just woke up, he's with her." Lori told him.
Oldham grinned.
John came into the Medbay at a quick run, and found his wife was not in bed. She was instead leaning heavily on the wall with both hands, bent over the small crib, which held the baby. A day of safely being able to receive all manner of IV nourishment had made a marked difference, as had the sheer determination to stand next to her baby, but her every limb was shaking violently.
John came over and scooped his gaunt wife into his arms, so that she would not have to stand on her own.
Kate wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled like she'd never stop. "She's beautiful."
"Like her mother." John teased. "Looks like I better start rehearsing my 'So you're dating my teenage daughter' speech."
Kate laughed and felt tears on her smiling face. The first tears since Crystal Peak. "She's so tiny. We made her, John. Look what we did."
John tightened his grip around her. "We did good. We did real good." He laughed for the first time since... ever. "Kate, I would have given anything to be here with you."
"I know. John, we're working parents. We always will be." Her earnest eyes seemed huge in her angular, half-starved face. "None of the books are gonna help us. We're making up the rules as we go."
The baby opened her eyes and started crying loudly.
Kate let out another sob. "Oh, listen to that! Those are healthy lungs! She's alive! Nobody thought we would do it. She's alive, John. She made it."
John buried his face in his wife's hair. "So will you." He promised himself under his breath.
Kate reached out two stick-thin arms for her child. They were trembling. "I want to hold her." Kate whispered. "But I know I'll drop her."
John quickly carried his wife back to her bed, set her down, and went back, collecting the baby. His hands were trembling a bit too as he reached down for the infant. He'd set up C4 detonators in the back of a moving Winnebago, and with this five pound infant, his hands shook. Precious cargo, John. He told himself. Precious cargo.
Kate scooped her frail arms around the baby, and leaned back into her husband, reclining against his chest. John sat behind her on the cot, and wrapped his arms around them both, holding his arms under hers; giving her body his strength, holding them both tightly against him. Kate was so... happy. He hadn't seen her like that before. They had found each other on Judgment Day. He'd seen her smile. He'd made her chuckle. He'd seen her being passionate, being comfortable, being drunk, being proud, being brave... he'd never seen her joyful. It was like a miracle. "She's real. We didn't lose her. She's really real. First war with a happy ending. First victory without losses. Something finally went right."
Kate leaned back her head under his chin, exhausted and overjoyed beyond all measure. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife." John whispered back, rocking his wife and baby until they both fell asleep in his arms.
Kate was sleeping more soundly than ever. For the first time in months, John sat beside her cot, able to touch her without surgical gloves, protecting her from the nightmares, knowing that his own had not come true.
John wanted to sleep, but couldn't miss a moment. He kept repeating it to himself over and over. His wife was going to be okay. Going to be okay. She was going to survive, and so was their daughter. John couldn't believe how lucky they were. Usually, the luck of those who loved him was terrible. Usually, the bullet meant for him hit somebody else, but not this time. Just this once, they lived. They all survived, all the people he loved were going to make it.
John felt immeasurably lighter. His mother said once that all heroes had the devil's luck. It was the only way to survive. It really was just luck that the baby had time to adjust before the Virus made its way through her mothers' entire body.
John blinked.
And it was lucky that nobody else had contracted the disease from Kate. And it was lucky that Kate had eaten the contaminated food and not him.. And it was lucky that Bowman had identified the contaminated food before anybody else could eat it.
John stood up, kicking himself for not seeing it sooner. His mother would be ashamed.
And it was lucky that it was only the one serving of food was bad. And it was lucky that in a tight knit group of starving people, nobody else had eaten a slice of the pork kept in the kitchens. not even the kitchen staff cooking it had swiped a bite. And it was lucky that out of all the animals the scroungers had found alive, only that one animal had contracted the virus.
Too much luck.
Connor jumped up and hurried to the door. "Soldier."
The nearest soldier jumped to attention. "Sir?"
"Guard this door. Nobody gets in. Not even the nursing staff."
"Yessir."
Connor came into the barracks quickly, and made his way to the back of the room, shaking Walters awake. "Eric, wake up!"
With a groan, Eric sat up. "Sir?"
"What if that pig wasn't contaminated accidentally?"
Beat. Eric rubbed his eyes hard. "What?"
Connor started again. "The infection was traced to one of the animals we brought in. The assumption was that it got sick out there and came in afterward. But Kate's been eating half meals from other trays. Mine. I've given Kate a lot of my meals, but I still need to eat. If Kate was infected by the food she ate, then why didn't she give it to me? Not Airborne, I can see that, but shared meals and drinks can still transmit a waterborne virus. So why aren't I sick?"
Eric woke up in a hurry. "Well... then unless... unless the meat was deliberately contaminated after Kate got sick..."
Connor nodded. "That's what I'm thinking."
Eric jumped out of his bunk and grabbed his jacket. "I'll get Bowman."
Connor nodded. "Oldham too."
Kate woke up. She couldn't place why. No nightmare. She wasn't having trouble breathing, at least not compared to what she'd slept through already. The IV tubes in her arms were pulling a little, but not enough to wake her...
Then she felt it. Hairs were standing up on the back of her neck. Instinct had woken her. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
"You think the Pork was deliberately infected? After Kate had already eaten some of it?" Bowman asked. "And the rest of the meat from the animal contaminated afterward to cover the murder attempt."
"It would make it a neat story. Unless the bacon was never the source of Kate's illness." Connor said.
"Kate was sharing her food with Connor, so he should have contracted the virus from the same food." Walters growled. "This was a deliberate attempt on his life."
"It also explains why the virus was waterborne. It came from our own samples. The virus that's spreading through our population was the airborne variant."
"Who had access to the medical supplies, and the kitchens?" Oldham asked.
Connor had the folder. "I've got the roster here, but it's useless. With the virus knocking our people down, everybody was covering, doing three or four jobs. Including the civilians."
Bowman was looking around the kitchen. "Major, I understand you're protective of the Colonel, but I think you're wrong."
"I'm not." Walters said with certainty.
Connor looked up from the food storage. "Why do you think that, Bowman?"
"Colonel, if someone had poisoned your food and missed, then why haven't there been any other attempts on your life?"
Oldham blinked. "Maybe whoever tried it lost their nerve when Kate got sick instead."
Connor paled. "Oh god. And maybe they didn't try again because they already got their target. What if the infected food was never what she shared with me and Kate got sick from her own tray?"
"Kate was eating the regular rations. If the regular food was infected, dozens of people would have got it."
Connor nodded. Checkmate. "Unless one tray was contaminated deliberately. Her tray."
Walters blinked. "Who would want to hurt Kate?"
Connor's eyes blazed at Walters. "Get Lori! Right now!"
Kate looked around, peering into the dark, and saw someone else was in the room, standing over at the crib near her daughter. "John?" She croaked out.
"He's not here." Said the figure. "I thought he'd never leave but he finally turned in for the night."
Not John. Kate felt a cold spike go through her. Someone was in her room. "Who's there?!"
"Shh. You'll wake the baby." The figure moved over to the light switch, and the bare light bulb flared on. Daniel Dyson looked over his shoulder at her. "She looks like you."
"Daniel?"
Daniel wasn't listening, somewhere else in his head. "Connor looks like his mom too, you know. I only met her once."
Kate reacted, struggling to sit up. The guard Connor had left on Kate's door was crumpled in the corner, not moving. "Y-you did?"
Daniel nodded, in no particular hurry. "Just once, when i was five years old. She came to kill my father. Punishment for making a program called Skynet."
Kate paled and coughed a little from the shock, finally placing the name. "Dyson! Miles Dyson!"
"Told you, did he?" Daniel had an unpleasant grin on his face. "Good. I was afraid I was going to have to. It's nice that he confides in you. He confided in my parents once too, laid out the history of things to come. 1997 came and went and nothing happened. Mom would have thought we were safe, if she hadn't killed my brother and herself. But I never believed it. I guess Connor didn't either." He came over and sat down next to Kate, who was struggling desperately to sit upright, the weakness in her body giving everything a horrifying slowness. "I thought a lot about that night, especially since J-Day. It took a lot of work to follow where Skynet went after your husband blew my father to hell. Mom tried to talk to General Brewster so many times, but his staff brushed her off... then the bombs came. Lori gave me a home, gave me food... and I called in a lot of markers to get posted as her radio operator. She left strict orders never to transmit, never to draw attention. But I spent hours listening to Connor, calling out from Crystal Peak." he suddenly came back to reality and glared at her. "When I heard the name 'Brewster', I knew what i had to do."
Kate could barely move, but lowered one hand, on the side of the gurney away from Daniel, reaching for her boots under the bed. "My father didn't know what he was turning loose any more than yours did, Daniel. I don't blame you for hating me-"
"I don't hate you, Katie. I think you're a good person. And more than that," Daniel shuddered. "So much more than that, I understand." He leaned over her intensely. "I may just be the only person in the world that does. I understand you far far more than your husband ever could, because we're the same you and I. My father gave it life. Your father turned it loose."
Kate kept feeling along her clothes, looking for the knife that she kept sheathed in her boot, just like her husband had taught her. "Daniel, I loved my father. Nothing will change that. The machines killed him. Nothing will change that. My father wasn't the enemy, he was a victim. The enemy is Skynet. Punishing the two of us won't balance the scales. Nothing will."
He leaned closer, and put a gentle, forgiving kiss on her forehead. "I know what you mean, Katherine Brewster. But we cannot be given this choice ourselves. There's too much to answer for. Our father's names will go down in history with Genghis Khan, Adolph Hitler… you and I, are joint heirs, to the end of the world. We are the only surviving children of men who ended everything." Daniel sat down on the edge of her bed, madness in his eyes. "We can't be allowed to live Kate. There's too much blood on us."
Kate made her move, swinging up the knife. Kate was so weak she could barely swing the blade, and Daniel had the strength of madness on his side. Dyson caught her arm and dragged her out of bed, the IV poles clattering down with her, the needles in her arms wrenched and Kate cried out. Dyson brought a hand up to clamp over her mouth, hauling her half upright, one arm wrapped around her neck, the grenade pressed against her cheek as she clawed up for his eyes. He wrestled her to a choke-hold as she fought with everything she had. The baby woke up and started shrieking.
"DYSON!" Lori roared.
Daniel spun and saw Lori, Halloway, Connor, Oldham and Walters at the door, weapons drawn. Dyson yanked the rail-thin Kate up against his body.
Dyson's eyes went straight to Connor. The Colonel had his gun drawn and eyes blazing as he glared at the man using his wife for a shield.
Lori held out a hand to him. "Give me the grenade, Daniel."
Dyson didn't answer.
"Danny, it's me. It's Lori. You know me. Don't do this. There's a baby in this room. The first one to survive. Don't do this. Give me the grenade."
Dyson only had eyes for Connor. "You know what it's like. To love someone unconditionally, and hate them so much for the things they did. Ultimately, wishing they had done worse to get you ready."
Connor almost nodded. "Yes. I do." he whispered.
Daniel had tears in his eyes. "Connor... I just can't stop thinking... she was right." Danny sucked in an emotional breath. "To hell with it." With sudden mania he shrieked. "TO HELL WITH ALL OF IT!"
Dyson flicked his thumb to pull the pin-
-Connor pulled the trigger on his gun, Kate felt the bullet actually go through her hair, and suddenly the grip around her released, she smacked into the concrete floor, feeling the impact through every bone in her body...
Dyson jerked from the hammer-blows and fell away from Kate, half a dozen more shots from everyone else rang out in the same heartbeat.
Dyson fell to the ground, the pin still in the grenade, which rolled from his hand uselessly.
Connor dashed forward, stepped over Dyson to get to Kate, Carla jumped over him too, to get the baby, who was still screaming.
Somehow Dyson was still alive, and he reached up with one hand to grip Connor's pant leg pathetically. "J-John... she..."
Connor stared down at him, cradling his wife in his arms as Dyson died at their feet.
Bowman and Carla came over to Kate and started checking her vitals once Connor set her back down in the bed.
Eric Walters was glaring at Connor with something close to hatred. Connor could feel the glare of his second in command burning into his back.
The baby was still shrieking.
Lori rubbed her eyes, looking ashamed of herself for the first time. "I put Dyson here. I put him on the radio, I brought him to your base, I let him be your character reference for every damn decision I made about you and your army... Connor, I'm sorry. Dyson was one of mine. I take full responsibility."
Kate was waving them all off. "I'm fine, dammit! Carla, give me the baby and go help the guard or something!" He voice was hoarse but she didn't cough or weaken. "Shoo! That's an order!"
Carla couldn't help the smirk. "Welcome back boss."
Eric was still glaring at Connor. "Bowman, go see to that guard. Elsewhere."
Kate saw Eric's look and quickly divined the situation. "Carla, take the baby with you, try and calm her down. Eric, John, and I need to talk about some things."
"I would think so." Carla agreed, picking the shrieking infant out of her cot. "Shh, it's okay sweetie, no more bogeyman."
Eric looked to Oldham. "Sargent, stand guard outside. Nobody gets into this room."
"Yessir."
The room cleared, and Eric whirled on the Connors. "Okay, no more games. I want to know what the hell's going on! Who the hell are you two!?"
Silence.
"John, we have to tell him." Kate said quietly. "We owe Eric that. The others too."
"You guys don't owe me anything." The older woman said fiercely. "If anything, I owe you, given that one of my people just tried to kill you."
"Something that you knew was coming." Eric put in. "When we asked ourselves, who would want to hurt Kate, you had an answer already. I want to know how. I want to know why. Tell me."
John didn't answer for a long long time. "Okay." he told his wife. "We tell them."
Kate reached for him. "Help me sit up."
John pulled his wife upright. Her look to him was clear. Let me do the talking.
Connor knew his wife was up to something, and left her to it.
"How much do you two remember, about Judgment Day?" Kate asked them. "Just before the bombs fell?"
Lori sighed. "Not a whole lot. The bombs going off did tend to take up most of my thinking on the subject."
"Do you remember the computer virus?"
Halloway clicked his fingers. "Yes! I remember because communications were down on my sub, and I couldn't figure out why. One of our men had a sat-phone, and he couldn't get a signal either."
"The computer virus wasn't some kid in a garage somewhere. It was Skynet." Kate said, coughing lightly. "Skynet was an AI designed by the military, to run a new generation of weapons. Things like robotic soldiers or Automated Hunter/Killer drones." Kate sucked in a breath. "The Special Weapons program was headed by General Robert Brewster. My father."
Walters knew this already. Lori did not. He heard her suck in a stunned breath.
Halloway too. "And… and Dyson?"
"The Skynet program was taken over by the military after the civilian software company Cyberdyne went bust. Miles Dyson, Daniel's father, was head developer. His father created the Skynet AI. My father activated it. An hour or two later, the bombs went off." Kate smiled weakly at her audience. "My dad's the bad guy."
Stunned silence.
"I was taking my fiancée, a man named Scott to meet my father where he worked; when Skynet suddenly turned Frankenstein's Monster on them. My dad knew that Skynet was wired into everything, so he sent me and Scott to a Fallout Shelter. It was set aside for dignitaries, military personnel… He told me he would meet me there with Top Brass and convince them to let us in. Except Skynet was a digital enemy. Communications went down before the warning could get out."
"I remember." Lori piped up. "There was no warning, no TV, no civil defense alerts…just… a brilliant flash."
"Skynet had control of all the H/K prototypes too, so suddenly the laboratory was a warzone, and nobody could get to Skynet's shutdown until after it grew to powerful to switch off." Kate coughed again. "Scott and my dad were dead before we made it out. So I was alone with all dads' files, including the entry codes to Crystal peak. The roads were a nightmare, I was racing time, and so when the car totaled, and I found John had a working motorcycle, I talked him into taking me to Crystal Peak."
"Nobody else got the warning. Kate and I were alone." John put in.
"All right, I can see Dyson trying to kill you, I can see how you survived J-Day, and I can see how you got into Crystal Peak." Walters turned his glare on John. "That explains your wife, but not you."
Lori nodded. "You do seem to have some magic to you, Connor. You're a little too ready for everything."
John looked at Eric. "I told you. My mom taught me."
Eric shook his head. "Yeah, except I don't believe that."
Long silence.
John spoke finally. "My mom… was unbalanced. She was convinced that the end of the world was coming. She wasn't the only one who stressed about Nuclear War back in the early 80's, but she was the only one who took her son back and forth between Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, teaching a five year old boy how to field-strip an M-16 or load up a mini-gun or how to recognize radiation sickness. She went so far that when we were in the states, the government took me off her. They put me in foster care when I was eight years old and she was committed." He Shrugged. "I knew the battlefield, Kate knew the enemy, we had nothing to do for a year but wait for the radiation to fade and get ready. Here we are."
As three suspicious survival experts turned the story over in their minds, John and Kate looked at each other. The story was based in enough fact to be plausible, and a Nuclear War did have a way of covering over details…
Despite the tension in the room, John's overwhelming feeling was relief. Kate was okay. The story had been unplanned, and they had somehow managed to put it together on the spot. He and his wife, in sync again, together against the storm.
Lori and Halloway were looking at him in disbelief. "This is the army you want us to join? A ragtag bunch of half-starved nobodies who's only hope is the son of a nutcase and the daughter of the man who gave us Skynet in the first place?!"
Eric finally looked up. "Yep. A week ago, they were the only two people in the world who were ready for this war. You know what changed that in the last two hours? Nothing. I've got no reason to trust them expect that I do."
Kate sent John a look. Your Alliance is crumbing. Get them back on board, right now!
John nodded imperceptibly. The Colonel sighed, and sat down across from them. "Everyone on the base, everybody on Halloway's Subs, everybody back at Lori's little orphanage... they all have a story about what home used to mean. I don't. I never lived anywhere for long. Turned out that saved my life. When the cities burned, I wasn't in any of them." He said, gentle and nostalgic. "Everyone here has a place like that. But not any more. Neither will my daughter. This will be the only home we know. And even this is not promised to us completely. But home is where your heart is, so my home is here. And when we move again, my home will be there. All our homes burned. My home is with the people I've fought side by side with. My home is with the people I protect. Every man and woman here is my family."
Lori didn't answer. Her eyes were shining softly.
Connor smiled at them. "You guys know what that feels like huh?"
Halloway smirked. "Yeah, I told myself that once or twice."
"Me too." Murmured Lori.
"I am the son of a Section Eight Survivalist. Kate is daughter to the man who opened Pandora's Box. And against all logic we've managed to rope the survivors of Armageddon into something greater than we are. But you can understand why we don't talk about it. Daniel would only be the first."
Silence.
"So. Now you know." John said quietly.
The unspoken question hung in the air. What will you do?
Lori and Halloway glanced at each other. "We need to think about this for a while."
Connor nodded, and everyone cleared out. Carla stuck her head in, the baby held in her arms protectively, and Connor waved her back out again. Carla retreated, leaving them alone.
Connor turned to Kate. "Are you okay?"
Kate stared at nothing listlessly. "What will Lori and Halloway do?"
"Depends. If they decide not to join, they won't be back. Every reason they had for signing on this morning is still valid tonight. The little revelation of how the story started changes everything, but changes nothing."
"When will we know?"
"If they're still here in a week, we'll know."
Silence.
"The worst part is, Dyson was right." Kate whispered. "My father was the reason Skynet took over. We both saw it. He hit the button personally. My father opened Pandora's Box, and... and me insisting on us going there and saving him was the reason we wound up in Crystal Peak." Kate said dully, exhausted. "If we had gone south like the Terminator said, he'd probably still be with us, and you never would have talked to Eric. All your life you wanted to not be in charge John. If it wasn't for me and my father, you would have had your wish."
"Maybe so. And maybe it would have turned out like this anyway. My mom told me that fate is like a river. You can divert it one way or another, but it always finds its way to the sea." He smirked. "One thing about meeting time traveling robots, it sort of keeps you from thinking about the what-ifs."
"Guess so." She said, with no particular emotion in her voice at all. "How can you even stand to be around me?"
"Must love you, I guess."
"Guess so." She agreed, and willingly met him in a deep needful kiss.
Lori waved off the soldiers that had escorted them around, and put her arm in Holloway's. "So, let's have us a chat."
Halloway sighed. "Yeah. What do you think?"
Lori took a breath. "I'm still going to sign up. My food resources, my stockpiles, my family... I'm still going to share it with Connor's Army."
Halloway broke away from her sharply, spun around and took her by both shoulders, leaning intensely toward her. "WHY? After all that..."
"I keep thinking about what Eric said. About how he has no reason to trust them, except that he does." She sighed. "I left Dyson here because I trusted him. I nearly got that entire family killed."
"You can't let that guilt you into-"
"I know. But Connor's trying to protect his family, just like we are. And when he found the cure, he sent it to me. My family's alive because of that. He wants to protect all of us, the way we only protect her own. I know, it doesn't look good for the war as far as victory goes." She lifted her eyes to look hard at him. "But some battles have to be fought, win or lose. Someone I once knew told me that when I told him not to join the Navy."
Heavy silence. Halloway pulled her into a tight hug.
"What kind of odds would you have given you and me?" She whispered. "Back... before?"
"Better than any other odds I'd lay these days."
"I knew you were still alive, Nick; I knew it. And it wasn't just because I knew you were on a sub when it all went to hell. I could feel it."
"The first month after J-Day, I had to spend most of my time with men who had lost all their loves, all their families. They all knew about you. I had your picture with me every minute. They all said I was in the same boat too, but I knew I'd find you again eventually."
Long silence. Lori heard Connor's voice in her mind. But home is where your heart is, so my home is here.
"Why didn't you stay?" Lori said softly. "After all of it, when we found each other again, before Connor took over LA... why didn't you stay with me at the Orphanage?"
"Same reason you wouldn't come with me when I went back to my Subs. I had built my world with what I had left. That included the people. I've worked with all of them long and hard Lori. I know them all like... like I used to know you."
Lori chuckled. "Me too. My family's my crew. Just like you. Just like Connor." She rubbed her face.
Halloway sighed. "I miss you."
Lori leaned against him tighter. "I miss you."
Halloway sighed and started cursing like the sailor he was. Then he sighed again. "Well, I guess I'm still in too then huh?"
Z Plus Two Years Thirty Nine Days
Another week passed, and the base had returned to normal. The cure had made it's way to everyone on the base, and to The Orphanage, and the Submarines. Having been released from enforced lethargy, and fully aware of how lucky they were to be alive, the recovered ill returned to work with an almost desperate fervor. Those that had managed to escape the illness for the duration gladly gave up their triple shifts and sleep at last. Connor had visited each of them personally, telling them what a good job they had done, and making it clear that the effort was appreciated.
Kate had been put on heavy IV nutrition, and it took John, and Carla, and Bowman, and eventually Lori to bully her into sitting still and letting herself recover.
News of the birth had spread, almost as fast as news of the Murder attempt. Everyone knew Kate Connor was pregnant, and then that she was sick, but to learn that the mother and baby had survived was proof of a genuine miracle.
The Connor's now had a small group of bodyguards, but they were mostly for show. The guards spent most of their time making sure that the Medbay was not swamped with people wanting to visit the firstborn child of the war.
The official story had been that Daniel Dyson was unbalanced, and had lost his whole family to the machines. Seeking a target for his pain, he had chosen the first child born to the Underground, as he had lost children of his own.
Daniel Dyson had no children, but nobody had known that, nor had any way to find out.
Nevertheless, the fate of the baby had the entire base holding it's breath for some time. The soldiers because their Commander was now a father, and the civilians because they all knew Kate. With Connor's Order that pregnant women be given priority in medical care and food and water rationing, there had as yet been no pregnancies reported, mostly because none had been successful.
Until now.
Life on the base was slowly returning to it's normal routine of training, scavenging, and adapting the tunnels... when word had got out that the baby had been the source of the cure.
Z Plus Two Years Forty Two Days
The Colonel arrived at the weekly briefing, and came to the head of the table. There were two conspicuously empty seats.
Bowman spoke first. "Kate sends her apologies, Sir. In my medical opinion it would be best for her to stay with the baby till tomorrow at least."
"Anything serious?" Walters asked. Eric had felt sick to his stomach that he'd missed the signs of an attempt on Kate's life, and had reacted by quickly killing all thoughts of dissension and mistrust toward The Colonel. His questions about their trustworthiness were long gone.
"Nothing serious Major, but Kate's never going to stay off her feet for another two days unless I told her it was for the baby's benefit."
The Colonel allowed a smirk. "Thank you, Doctor. Now, where are...?"
At that moment, Lori and Halloway came rushing in, and filled the two empty seats. "Sorry we're late." Halloway said. "We were... caught up."
"Ready for duty, Colonel." Lori added.
Connor stood. "Lori's scouts out past San Clemente have located the H/K factory that supplies the reinforcements for Skynet's LA patrols. Every time we knock down one of their perimeter teams, this factory churns out replacements. It's also between us and Camp Pendleton. We have to kill it, or we'll never have the run of LA."
"If it's an H/K factory, we can't give them any warning or they'll start churning out extra guards." Oldham said.
"Halloway's submarines will take our strike team south along the coast, out of sight. Gould, can you convert our jammers to work on sound waves rather than radio waves?"
"I can work up a white noise generator that can overpower radio receivers, but they'd have to be directional or else they'd deafen our people."
"Get them working and give them to Halloway. If Skynet finds the Submarines, we'll need them to jam any missiles or torpedos that get sent his way. Once our strike teams get far enough south, they'll surface, deploy their Strike Teams, and fall back to deeper water, going silent till our men have destroyed the target."
"What kind of protections does the factory have?" Oldham asked.
"Nothing we haven't punched before." Walters told him. "Skynet's got it's army spread thin hunting for us. We're under their feet now."
"Bowman, you'll have your medical teams on the submarines waiting for returning casualties."
"Yessir."
"Lori, when our people hit landfall, send some of your people to blow up the roads between here and the Factory. Skynet will conclude we are cutting off Skynet reinforcements from LA, and send its airborne forces after them, and away from the factory to compensate. Have your people fall back to LA. Skynet doesn't know we're working together yet, so let's take advantage of that."
"Sir."
"Eric, you'll be leading the Strike team. Once it's gone, salvage the weapons, and mine the area. Skynet sends anybody back to the factory, it's another victory."
"Yessir."
"Mission clock is running. Good hunting. Dismissed."
Z Plus Two Years Forty Three Days
There was dead silence in the Underground when Kate was released from Medbay.
John had insisted on giving her a wheelchair, and Kate had agreed, only so that she could spend the trip staring at her baby daughter's bright green eyes.
Connor had personally pushed the wheelchair from the Medbay to their own private Dormitory.
Kate, still getting her strength back, had barely looked up, when she suddenly became aware that there was next to no noise.
Kate looked up, and felt her eyes widen.
The tunnels were still full of people, but every eye was silent on her. On her, her husband, and their child. Connor signaled them all to be quiet for the baby's sake, and they all obeyed.
As Connor wheeled them past, various people crossed themselves, some prayed quietly, some blew kisses, or saluted. Most simply looked. Almost every face still had the visible signs of the receding virus. The cure was working quickly.
And everybody knew that the baby was the reason they found a cure to the Machine's virus.
Kate felt destiny heavy on her shoulders. Their daughter had been the first child born in the underground. The only one to survive to full term. And in its first day among the living, she had saved all their lives.
When they got to the Dorms, John pushed her down the hall to their own private room, and found offerings waiting. Mostly tinned food or clothing, some bottles of water, and a lot of messages written on paper and neatly stacked. Someone had constructed a crib out of a tent frame and a hammock…
Kate shivered at the sudden attention that surrounded her family, and kept her chin up under the watchful stares of demoralized and terrified people who had been saved from extinction again and again by the three of them.
John rolled her into their private room, and set up the crib.
"John…" Kate whispered hollowly. "Is… is this what it feels like for you all the time?"
"Pretty much. Hopeful eyes are everywhere now."
"I don't like it. I don't like the… the cult that seems to seems to have developed around my family, John."
"Kate, see it from their point of view. We knew it was coming. Me my whole life, you for a year in Crystal Peak. We prepared our minds to lose it all. They didn't. Suddenly there are people in charge. They can fool machines. They can fight back. They can lead. They can win. They can succeed in having a child where all others fail, and that's not even mentioning the Cure." John held her face in his hands. "This is how they look at us now Kate, because we're the only ones that are who we are."
Kate nodded. "When we were at the prison camp, I remembered looking at you, and thinking that you were the one man who had clean clothes, and weren't rail thin, and you weren't broken and afraid... In my head, I knew you were clean because it had been less than a week since you were in a nice clean Fallout shelter, and you weren't starved because you had plenty of food, and you weren't broken because you were already planning out an attack… but that day… god, John; you were so… not like them."
"And I know that we're the first to successfully have a child because you were spared a years worth of radiation, and you've kept yourself healthy and fed where others couldn't, and we've been trying where all others have not." John said logically. "I know our daughter gave us the cure because she faced the Virus in-vitro and had plenty of protections from it. Carla could have gotten pregnant and provided the cure the same way. But the people outside that door, all they can see is that the Mighty Connors have saved humanity again."
Kate shivered, holding the baby protectively. "It scares me that they're going to look at her that way. Is this the way your mom treated you?"
"Pretty much and for a while there, I hated her for it."
"What else did I miss while I was out?"
"The others are officially on-board."
"Really?"
"Having a cure convinced Lori that we were stronger together than divided, and having to save you from Dyson sealed the deal. She convinced Halloway. Kate, thanks to the cure, we've got a navy, we've got reinforcements, we've got maps, and communications, and supply lines. Eric's on a sub right now leading a strike team outside of LA. We're finally going offensive."
Kate looked down at her baby. "Son of a gun. We've got an army."
"We do, indeed."
"Ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"How did you figure it out, about Daniel?"
"He had the opportunity. He was a techie. Worked with the medical and storage, and mess staff. he had the chance to get to the virus samples, and your tray."
"So did two dozen other people."
John sighed. "I talked to him. After he arrived. His life got screwed over six different ways since the night he met me and my mom. Put him on a bad path. He had a lot of rage looking for a target. I can relate. I hated mom so much when I was told she was insane. When I found out she was right all along, I couldn't be mad at her any more. Daniel had the same problem. He couldn't blame me or mom once he found out we were right. He needed a target, and his father was the logical choice. But his father was dead. So he blamed your father. But your father was dead. So he turned on you."
"You figured it out because of that?"
"Infiltrators aren't just Terminators. Everybody knows to watch out for the enemy. We're the only ones who know to watch out for our friends."
Kate curled her fingers and lightly stroked her daughter's cheek. "Think she'll hate us for bringing her into this?"
"She won't know any different."
"Not this world. This family. Our daughter is a day old and already being nominated for sainthood out there."
John finished with the crib, came over, and sat down on the cot next to his wife, putting an arm around her as she rocked the baby. "I don't know. But you know what? Right now, I don't care."
Kate allowed herself a small smile. "Me neither. Oh god, John; our baby was born on a battlefield; and she is so beautiful."
Kyle Reese came into the Dormitory, and quickly walked up to Connor's tent flap.
The Connor Family's bodyguards blocked him before he could get close.
He protested. "The Colonel, he wanted to see me when things got quiet." He called inside. "Colonel?"
Connor stuck his head out and quickly put a finger over his lips. "Shh."
Kyle froze, going dead still and dead quiet, listening for anything out of the ordinary. He heard nothing.
Connor beckoned him forward a little, and the guards let the boy through. Kyle followed Connor into the room, over to the far side of the space, away from the cot where Kate slept. There in the baby sized hammock; curled up asleep in a folded sheet was baby Connor.
Kyle inched forward, not wanting to wake her. "Your kid?"
"My daughter." John stared at the boy, face to face with the baby, taking in his surreal family reunion. Kyle, who could never know the baby was his granddaughter; his exhausted wife resting... all in the same room... All that was left of the family he never knew he needed. "You ever seen a baby before, Kyle?"
"Nossir." Kyle said, then frowned. "I don't think. If I did, it was... before."
Connor nodded.
"I wanted you to meet her, Kyle. When we were taking the Missile base, this was happening. Bowman said that it was this little girl that gave us the cure. She saved her mom's life before she was even born. Her mom and hundreds more."
Kyle took in the baby quietly. He seemed a little awed. "She's so little."
"Yeah, she is." John admitted. "She's going to need people to protect her till she gets a bit bigger."
Kyle looked up, realizing the mission. "I'll protect her, Colonel. I promise."
John laid a hand on Kyle's shoulder. "I know you will, and so will I."
"Does she have a name?" Kyle whispered.
John had never felt so bittersweet in her life. "Her name is Sarah. After my mom."
Kyle leaned closer, whispering gently to the baby. "Welcome to the war, Sarah."
Skynet: To All Units, LA Theatre.
Top Priority Communiqué.
Bio-Weapon Stratagem: Unsuccessful.
Target Population: Alive.
Source of Cure: Unknown
Number of Survivors: Unknown
Flaw in Bio-Weapon: Unknown
Bio-Weapon Facility: Destroyed.
Enemy Territory has expanded to include Sectors 47-52.
Unable To Recapture. Patrol Units Destroyed with Bio-Weapon Facility.
Conclusion: Stratagem Flawed. Reconstruction and Reattempt: Inefficient use of Resources.
Begin New Stratagem.
End Transmission.
Chapter 6: Z Plus 2 Years 200 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Days
Kate had lived in LA her whole adult life. Ocean views were nothing unusual to her, but after Judgment Day she had seen Los Angeles from above ground only twice, and was heading inland. The sight of the ocean covered in black ash, with dead fish skeletons floating; was the very definition of despair.
Their unit, Connor included, had been transported up and down the coast in Halloway's submarines for hit and run attacks. When Skynet had discovered the Naval Remnants, they had dispatched their flying H/K's to patrol the coastline and the ocean itself, looking for ships and submarines coming ashore. Lori's scouts had discovered their patrols and routed Connor's people to knock the H/K's down before the submarines surfaced.
On two occasions, Skynet had attempted to build an ocean going H/K. Lori's people had found out about it and warned Connor, who hit the factories and destroyed them.
Baby Sarah was growing slow but healthy, and had become something of a hopeful sign for the underground. Kate had finally convinced her daughter to accept powdered milk, and returned to active field duty. It was the hardest thing she had ever done, but had consulted with John and decided that letting other prospective mothers spend time, albeit supervised, with the only baby in the world, might be a good idea. There had been three outbreaks of disease, quickly spotted and quarantined, but a few desperate women who knew that pregnant women got medical priority had taken a chance. Kate's next main priority was to build a nursery.
Kyle had taken a big brotherly role in Sarah's life and personally cleared each and every nurse, orderly and expectant mother that came within twenty feet of the girl. Most of them tolerated a seven year old standing guard. Connor had his own bodyguards since Dyson died, and he had told them to let Kyle through. Kate had found the whole thing endearing, but wondered a bit about her husband's interest in the boy.
The war was fast approaching its third year. Connor had expanded his control to include most of the coastline north and south of LA.
Skynet had started churning out different models, which were quickly identified, numbered and attacked by the Resistance. Some of them were easily dispatched, some of them were successful and deadly. The models that failed did not return. The others were refined and mass produced.
Connor had trained another Unit's worth of soldiers. Allowing him to leave Eric in charge of the LA Underground while he went on Operations.
The latest mission had been to investigate signals from further north. Connor had gone along in the hopes that there was another potential ally. But when they got there, the signals had stopped, and there was no sign of anyone.
"We have contact, bearing 030, speed 15 knots."
Halloway took in the news. "Up periscope."
The periscope was raised and Halloway quickly looked above the surface. He took a breath.
"Shall I sound general quarters, sir?"
Halloway shook his head. "No. Not with our... cargo. Note their heading, make a note in the log. XO has the con."
"Aye sir, I have the con."
Halloway noted the formality that had remained since Judgment Day; and made his way down to the nearest missile tube.
Connor was there, with half a dozen people surrounding him, and there in front of them, was a row of tomato plants. In the wide missile cylinder, there were rows of hanging plants, some of them bearing small green fruit. And on some of them, leaves were stating to curl and brown.
Montag had been in charge of this section, and was explaining the situation. "We can't figure it out, Colonel. They get water, and we put the lights on them sixteen hours a day..."
Connor took in the plants. "Has this been a problem before?"
"Nossir, but we always had sunlight then." Montag told him. "Every day we'd surface and open the missile hatches 1-12 so that the sun could get in. rainy days Hatches 13-26 to let the tubes fill with rainwater. We retrofitted them as water tanks." Montag winced slightly. "Now that we're a warship again, we can't risk surfacing for too long... at least not this close to land. So we rigged up the lamps."
Connor looked up at the florescent lights. "Too pale."
"Sir?"
"Sunlight is yellow. Different UV wavelength than florescent bulbs; which are always white."
Montag suddenly made the connection. "The white light isn't enough to make photosynthesis."
Connor nodded. "You'll need a way to make the lights yellow. Red and green lights work well too. Florescent bulbs don't make a lot of heat; you can wrap them with something."
"Yessir."
Halloway chose that moment to step forward. "Colonel?"
Connor turned and saw the ship commander. He nodded briefly to Montag and headed over to speak with Halloway.
"We had a contact a few minutes ago." Halloway reported. "I told my crew that we let them go because you were on-board. But the truth was that they were armed. Armed strong. Too strong for us to take them."
"What was the contact?"
"Looked like a cargo ship, but I could see H/K's all over it. They were landed on the hull."
"Must have been a big ship."
"Looked like an oil tanker, but the bridge had been replaced by an antenna. Biggest antenna I had ever seen."
"You get a read on where it was going?"
"It was heading for shore." Halloway reported. "I marked the heading in the log."
Connor was silent. "Find where it landed and set a course. Alert my men, and then yours. The H/K's aren't there just to scare off attackers. They'll be escort. Once they make landfall, that escort will split up. One to protect the cargo, the other to protect the ship. After you drop us off, we'll hit them, and you hit the ship as it heads back out."
"What makes you think it'll head back out?"
"It will." Connor said with certainty.
Halloway shrugged. It was reason enough. "When you say you'll hit them, exactly who do you mean?"
Connor blinked. "My unit, support team..." Then he blinked. "Oh. Right."
Halloway grinned.
Kate was in the Medbay, training a few technicians in how to grow bread mold for penicillin. Carla was on her left.
"I don't get it, Ma'am; everywhere I go I get stared at."
Kate smirked. "Submarine's a closed community, Carla. We're new."
"We were new in the Underground too. Didn't get this kind of reaction."
"Sub crews are all men." Kate spelled it out for her. "All of them."
Carla blinked. "Oh. Right." She licked her lips. "But The Colonel wanted us to come along, so there must be..."
"There is."
Carla and Kate both turned. Connor was in the door. Carla automatically straightened her shoulders.
"With Halloway's people and ours working closer now, plus the fact that we lost a sub already, there's going to be a lot of transport jobs. Halloway wants his crews to get used to people coming and going, and not all of them military." Connor explained. "Besides, studies have shown that women tend to respond better to pressure changes, enclosed spaces... technically, all Submariners should have been women, but try getting that one past the Navy's Top Brass back in the day."
Carla smirked.
"Anyway, we have a new problem. We just passed a Skynet ship. Big supply ship, with big antennae. I think it was a relay ship."
"Relay ship?"
"Skynet isn't a computer, it's software. Anywhere there's a computer with a link, there's a piece of Skynet. I think that the ship we passed was a relay, to upload Skynet, at least part of it, internationally. That's why it needed all the communication equipment. An order can be sent by any radio. Something big and complex needs a much more focused signal."
Kate's eyes glimmered. "If you're right, then taking out the ship would cut off Skynet's control over a huge area of ocean."
Connor nodded. "Halloway could come up for air again. But the ship was heading for land. It was a retrofitted tanker. it was taking something ashore." He took a breath. "I'm gambling that the defenses on the ship were largely for the cargo. If it was, we can hit the cargo once it leaves the ship behind and we can spread out our attackers, and with most of the defenses gone, Halloway can hit the ship."
Carla glanced at Kate. "Who are you taking, sir?"
Connor didn't even seem nervous. "Well the usual strike team of course, plus a few medics. Halloway's taking the sub straight back out to hit the ship as soon as we leave, so we can't count on Medbays. Carla, it should be clear to you by now that Kate's been preparing you to take charge of your own medical team. We have to spread out and we need more than one unit."
Carla nodded. "I figured."
Connor nodded. "Consider this your first operation."
Carla licked her lips, doing her best not to show the sudden fear. Her eyes flicked to Kate.
Connor did too. "Any problems with that, Kate?"
Kate shrugged easily. "Why would I? Just because Sarah's back on land being babysat without me doesn't mean I'm getting antsy, and just because the three of us, plus Oldham, are all sharing a room the size of a phone-booth doesn't mean I'm stir crazy. I've certainly got plenty to do here. Sixteen hours of watching the mould grow is thrilling, and then there's the view to admire, as long as you don't mind not seeing anything through miles of murky water..."
Connor smirked. "Y'know, Kate; I just had a thought. Why don't you come with us?"
Kate smirked too. "As my Colonel commands."
The sub dropped them off North of LA, closer to San Jose. The sky was the same sepia toned twilight that always seemed to come this close to winter, and Connor's men began their trek inland.
As always, there were wrecks of long abandoned vehicles, some of them still with skeletons. Kate had long since gotten used to them.
With only twenty soldiers, some of them women, some of them younger than sixteen, everyone was keeping their voices low and their eyes moving.
The inclusion of children into the army was controversial, but Connor had given the last word. "The Machines don't care how old they are. They can fight, they can run, they can survive."
Kyle Reese had been the first to volunteer, and most of the kids were willing. Those that were not tall enough to carry a weapon had been pressed into service as message carriers, gophers, workers, and scroungers.
Kate still felt a chill every time she saw one of them carrying a rifle, but the new plasma rifles were much lighter and faster than the heavy weapons most of the experienced soldiers were used to.
And these kids did not need to be protected from the horrors of war. Kids like Kyle and Becki, had seen more in the year after J-Day, than she and John had; safely hidden away in Crystal Peak.
The darker, colder reason that John had only confided to her, was that kids didn't have as much concept of death, and thus made braver warriors. To the kids, it was just another game of tag. Kate had disagreed. Maybe that was the case back Before; and maybe that was why Child Soldiers had been such an evil then, but now there was nobody left in the world who didn't understand.
So when John had taken Kyle Reese on a mission to the surface, nobody but her wondered why. And when the kid had been one of only three survivors, nobody had asked why he was there in the first place.
Kate shook such thoughts out of her mind. She knew the reason that these thoughts were staying with her. Sarah was staying back at LA. It was the first time that Kate had been away from her daughter for more than ten minutes, and she was going a little nuts about it. So much so, that she was actually looking forward to the battle. If nothing else, it would keep her mind occupied for a few more minutes.
No such luck.
Connor had his lieutenants gathered around him; Kate on his left. He was explaining tactics. "Team One will toss the incendiary mines on the road at the ridge. Teams Two and Three will be waiting there. The mines will take out the lead vehicle, and stop or at least slow the convoy. Sniper teams in back to take out Skynet Air Support before Infantry moves in for the kill. If you can capture something from the cargo, do so, but if that puts your lives in too much risk, take it all out. Questions?" There were none. "Good hunting."
Carla traded a look with Halloway's Medics, plus the few that were a part of Connor's regular unit. They would be staying back behind the ridge, ready to go out and bring in wounded during the fight. It would be the first time that Carla was commanding them.
The spotters at the ridge were signaling with hand gestures. Ones that Kate recognized. The signal meant: Uncertain. Wrong. Uncertain. Safe. Danger. Uncertain.
Connor could read the signals as well as she could. "What the hell does that mean?" He whispered.
"Something's wrong, but they don't know what it means." Carla thought out loud. "I could go. If it's a trap or something, we can't let them take you; sir."
Connor twitched at that. Any time someone so much as suggested that he was 'too important' he tended to react badly. It was one of the very few stigmas that Connor had.
Kate was about to speak, when the signals changed. Humans. Many. Uncertain. Request help.
"Humans? Here?" Kate hissed.
Oldham had worked his way silently across the ridge to Connor. "Am I reading those signals right? Are there people over there? I thought that it was a Skynet Convoy."
"So did I." Connor mumbled. "All right, let's check it out. Oldham, I'm going up there. This might be a trap. If it is… I want you to keep most of the men here, and if something happens, you take the team… and you come rescue me just as fast as you possibly can."
Oldham smirked. "What? And risk screwing up my inevitable promotion?"
Connor looked back at him, surprised, for a full five seconds. "Huh. Now there's a thought that's gonna fester."
"I'll keep him honest." Kate promised. "Evans switched with Beckett for Recon duty today. Don't get them confused."
Connor nodded snaked his way quietly up to the top of the ridge, looking down to see the road below. A perfect spot to ambush a Skynet convoy…
Which was no longer there.
The Skynet convoy had never made it to the ambush point. What was left of it, was visible from the ridge, but just barely.
Connor was handed a Sniper Rifle, and he put the scope to his eye.
Somebody had got to the Convoy first. It was left, a smoking ruin. The escort forces, Flying and ground-based H/K's, were all burning wrecks. The fires were starting to burn out, so apparently it had happened several minutes before.
Connor licked his lips. "Did you see who did this?"
"Nosir, it happened before we even made it to the ridge."
"That's why we didn't hear it happen. The wind is from the west; blew the smoke from the fires away from us." Connor thought a moment. "Is there-wait."
Evans heard it too. The low sound… of helicopters taking off.
Connor was on his feet in seconds, charging down the ridge, back toward his troops. "KATE! Flares!" He hollered.
Kate heard him, and responded without hesitation, pulling out her flare pack, and throwing it to him. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see others ducking under their camouflage netting, diving for cover.
And then the sound of helicopters reached her ears as well, as the human flying machines rose into view from beyond the ridge, and started to fly away.
It reached all of them quickly. It was the first time since J-Day that anyone had seen anything in the sky that did not come from Skynet.
Connor snapped open two of the flares, and started waving them carefully overhead, making signals of his own at the helicopters. The magnesium flares burned at an impossibly bright level against the grey muddy ground and even paler sky.
The helicopter was not alone in the sky. There were more than twenty of them, turning in formation to fly to the north…
And then one of them turned back, following Connor's flares.
Nobody moved as the helicopter came in to land. Connor darted forward, saluted the pilot, and had a brief but pointed conference, and quickly made his way back to the rest of his Unit. "They're based in San Jose. Mostly National Guard units and a few Marines. Their Commanding Officer is a Regular Army Two Star General. They want to know if I'm going along."
Kate felt a thrill of near horror go through her. Their Commanding Officer was a Two-Star General. Her husband was suddenly demoted. "Are you?"
"I think I have to. After Eric, this is the first active military Remnant we've found."
"Then I'm going with you!" Kate said sharply. "Carla can handle the medical needs for the trip back, especially since there was no fight."
Dex put a hand up too. "I should go too, sir. I think Eric would prefer it if you took your best quick draw along as guard, given that we don't know where we're going, and given that you and Kate are two out of three of our high ranking officers."
Connor nodded. "All right. Oldham, head back to the Underground, and tell Walters what happened and where. Halloway's subs should be able to give you bearing."
"Yessir."
"We'll be in touch as best we can. Tell Eric not to make too much fuss trying to contact us from his end. We don't want anyone listening in. Remind him that every Radio Conversation might be overheard."
"I will."
"And remind Private Danes that Sarah shouldn't be allowed to nap too long during the day shift." Kate put in. "She won't sleep at night."
Parting orders given, the Connors and Dex went along quickly toward the Chopper.
The flight was relatively short. Connor's eyes were always moving, looking for the reference points; planning to find his way back...
Then the helicopter flew over a barricade. It was a checkpoint. An actual, well armed, fortified blockade of the road and surrounding area, patrolled and guarded by US Army soldiers.
Past the barricade was artillery and mortar emplacements. The sky was patrolled by helicopters, the ground had human teams manning human cannons. Mentally, Connor was already cataloguing the weapons and their ranges, how hard it would be to train people to use them.
In the distance, there were wrecked towers visible, not unlike LA, and there, above ground, though camouflaged, was the base. The main building had the name 'Castle Keep' painted over the door, in full view of everyone, and people walked about, all at work, some of them civilians.
"San Jose." Kate commented. Despite herself, she felt like leaning out of the helicopter and screaming for the people to get underground where it was safe.
Connor nodded. The base was not permanent. It was made up of quick-build buildings or tents, large vehicles were obvious everywhere, no small number of them were tanks, Helicopters and even a few jets were parked here and there.
From the helicopter, Connor had gotten a birds eye view of the entire layout. Every bit of heavy artillery had two patrols within intercept range. All barricades were within view of another, and the helicopters parked beyond the hardware, protected until take-off was possible.
Connor grinned. Whoever the General in Charge of this base was; he was good.
The Helicopter came into land gently, and Dex jumped out first, scanned around, and nodded for Kate and Connor to follow.
The pilot motioned toward the main building. "Here comes General Whickham now."
Kate spun like she'd been shot. "General Whickham? General Chet Whickham?"
"You know him?"
General Whickham came toward the helicopter, looking impossibly neat, clean shaved and awake, especially compared to the other survivors.
Kate took of sprinting toward him, waving and shouting. "Uncle Chet! Uncle Chet! It's me! It's Kate! I'm here!"
"Kate?" The General blurted. "Kitty-Kate, you're alive! I don't believe it! You're alive!"
The helicopter pilot, Dex and Connor traded incredulous looks as Kate and Whickham met halfway and threw their arms around each other, hugging tightly and laughing joyfully.
The joyous reunion was getting a few looks from people hard at work. Whickham was the man in charge and was bear-hugging a stranger who was fresh off the chopper. Connor took a discreet look at them. Healthy, if lean, the standard issue angular faces and feral eyes. They were smiling, happy for the man in charge. They were pleased to see him get something wonderful.
John felt his throat close slightly. His own mother had never reacted that way. He was happy for her... but still... He did not know this man. This man that outranked him and apparently knew his wife very well. He was already weighing up the possibilities, making Judgment Calls...
Dex was not so concerned. "Kitty-Kate? Did her just call her Kitty-Kate?"
Whickham allowed Kate to pull away just enough to get a look at her. "What on earth are you doing here? You're... a uniform too? Oh that's..." His eyes focused on her face and suddenly seemed very serious. "...oh boy. Look at you, Katherine, all grown up! You look like your mom."
Kate blinked past her smile. "I do?"
"You really do." He saw her shoulders. "And you're a Major now?" Whickham laughed. "How did that happen?"
Kate smiled widely. "Oh! There's someone I want you to meet!"
She took Whickham's hand and pulled him back to the choppers like a five year old. Connor idly noticed one or two amused looks as Kate yanked a Two Star General around his own base.
"You want a breath mint?" Dex muttered as they approached. Connor ignored him.
Kate took a moment to see them together. Of all the people Kate had seen in over two years, they were the only two who were shaved and neat, with pressed uniforms and no hollow dark circles under their eyes... The Leaders. Kate thought to herself. My family. And they look so... 'Right' together. Skynet'll never know what hit it.
Pleased, Kate made the introductions. "Uncle Chet, this is Corporal Dexter and my husband…"
The General beamed. "Oh, that's right; you were engaged!" He held out a hand to Connor eagerly. "Good to meet you finally, Scott."
Kate and Dex turned to stone at the name of a long dead man. Connor took the hit easily and returned the handshake.
"Um…" Kate stammered eloquently. "This… Uh…"
Whickham read the look and leaned back slightly. "Excuse me, I fear that I have said something unpleasant."
Connor shook his head. "Not at all. I never met Scott. But if he could win Kate, he must have been something special." He made introductions. "Colonel John Connor."
Whickham seemed grateful for the rescue. "General Chet Whickham. I never met him either, but Kate I have known since she was a baby. I'm more grateful than I can say for her survival, and more so that she's been lucky enough to find someone to be with in this hell-hole."
"I believe I'm the lucky one."
A slim woman with short black hair came up behind them. Whickham gestured to her. "This is my second in command, Colonel Erica Noah. Noah, this is Major Kate Connor, and Colonel John Connor."
Noah took in the newcomers. "So this is John Connor." She looked him up and down pointedly. "Huh." She did not seem the least bit impressed.
"What?" Connor looked himself over. Nothing seemed wrong.
Noah held up a hand. "Nothing. Nothing at all. It's just that... From some of the things I've heard about you; I figured you'd be eleven feet tall and shoot lightning bolts out of your eyes."
Connor suddenly realized why Whickham had used Scott's name. John's Army had taken most of the area around LA and a good portion of the coastline. A set-up this big had to have heard something about it. Plus, Connor had been broadcasting to anyone who could receive. There was no way Whickham's forces hadn't heard Connor's voice from somewhere. Not with this much equipment.
Whickham already knew the name Connor, and John was wearing the uniform, name-tag and all. Calling him Scott was a way to let the General have the first word while he and Kate stumbled to clear things up.
Keep you guard up, Connor. He warned himself. This man knows how to work the room.
"I've already dispatched my strike teams to clear a path between here and LA." Whickham said coolly. "If I'd known for sure that there was somebody there, I would have done it months ago."
Connor nodded. "We live underground. It's an occupational hazard. If I could get in touch with my people, we could fight from both ends; have our people meet in the middle."
Whickham nodded. "Agreed. Noah, place the Colonel's call."
"Sir." Noah saluted and left them.
"That'll probably take a while. Would you like the full tour while you wait?"
"No," Kate chuckled lightly. "I'm not really his niece, but my earliest memories are him and my dad at Fort Baxter."
"Her father and I went to college together." Whickham explained. "We went through on military scholarships, and I figured there was a better career path in the Army, since my major was military history."
Kate giggled. "My dad studied engineering, and the Army always has room for guys like that. Chet enlisted, went the whole route. My dad got the honorary rank because of his doctorates and his project assignment. They went up through the ranks together. Dad suggested Chet be my godfather, but mom was never really religious, so for all intents and purposes he's my uncle."
"And he calls you Kitty-Kate?" Dex said under his breath.
"If you repeat that to anyone, I will devise a way to make you pay for it." Kate quietly said matter-of-factly. "One so extreme so as to make you run screaming toward Skynet for sanctuary."
Connor and Whickham either did not hear their little exchange, or did not care to mention it. Whickham had taken them on a tour of the base. 'Castle Keep' was a lot like the underground, only bigger and with more equipment. The layout was good, the buildings secure, and made use of local subway tunnels to hide the sensitive or valuable equipment.
The tour ended in the Mess Hall, and Whickham invited them all to the Officer's table. A young woman in uniform came up and saluted. "General."
"Corporal."
"We're having some power problems in the nursery, sir. Your permission to get some technicians together and open up one of the backup generators?"
"Go ahead."
Dex stood. "I can give you a hand. I know about field generators."
The woman nodded and shook his hand. "Erin Curry."
"Dexter. Call me Dex." He glanced at the Colonel. "With your permission, sir?"
Connor nodded. Dex had felt like a third wheel since Kate had heard The General's name. In a way, John had felt that way himself.
Curry and Dex quickly headed off. Connor followed their exit and noticed about four men gathered around a chess board. "This double as a rec room?"
Whickham followed his gaze. "No. That's something of an OTS."
"You train your Officers with a chess board?"
"Gets them thinking along strategy. Like you, I'm forced to teach people what they need. Plenty of people have the ability, just never think along those lines. Injured soldiers, soldiers on stand-down… They play each other constantly."
"They any good?"
Whickham smirked. "No TV, no other entertainment, and they desperately want something to think about that doesn't involve Skynet. If there were any tournaments left, they could give me run for my money."
Kate smirked. "Uncle Chet held the Army Tournament record. He's a Grandmaster."
Whickham smiled affectionately at Kate. "The Game of War. It's helpful to me, shows me what they can do. Gibson can see the whole board at once, juggle various stratagems. Shwartz can use a small group like a scalpel, even when outnumbered… their tactics in the field match their tactics on the chess board. It's just their nature."
Kate noticed the gleam in her husband's eye. He was up to something.
"How many of them have you trained?"
"Twelve so far. Master level. Once we train them some men to use, they'll have some real strategists to direct them." The implication was obvious.
Connor's face hardened. "General, I'm a Colonel. You give the order, I give you the men, but due respect, sir; we're outmatched enough. We aren't an army. We're a Guerrilla force. Strike, withdraw, and conceal, strike again. That's how we stay alive."
Whickham shook his head. "Good tactics, bad strategy. It gives Skynet run of the board. It lets them power over every inch of land that they want to, and forces us to evade in and out of them before we even reach any target we want to hit."
Connor nodded. He was on dangerous ground and he knew it. "What would you do?" He asked. "Sir."
Kate twitched. It was the first time her husband had called anyone 'Sir.'
"Keep going with the Guerrilla tactics for now, but once you train up your people, and I train up mine, we should draw a line at our best tactical spot and start forcing them out, one block at a time."
"You turn this into a war that has an actual front line, Skynet will know where to throw everything they've got."
"But Human Territory will be defined and defended. Any refugees out there don't even know where to look for us." Whickham countered. "Skynet won't control it. Humans can move freely without constantly being underground. Your strategy has them forever in tunnels, with Skynet right over their heads. The second they find a way in, it's over. It's a powder-keg waiting for a spark." He suddenly looked at Connor with such warmth and feeling. "Connor, No chess player throws away such incredibly useful pieces. You've been doing remarkably well, Colonel. And from what I'm hearing, you're a great motivator. Your people see you as shield and living sword against evil. I know from experience, how hard it can be to make people get back up again."
The delivery was absolutely perfect. Kate felt like she was watching an execution. Without even suggesting it, without even mentioning rank or regulation, without giving anything but encouragement and adulation, her Uncle Chet had countered John's tactics, thrown out his game plan; reminded him who was in charge, complimented him lavishly, and relieved him of command.
Kate recognized the look on Whickham's face. It was a look that forgave and dismissed at the same time. It was the same look he had given her when she was six years old and he'd caught her trying to get the base soldiers to bring her ice-cream.
Connor suddenly found himself on the defensive. "No. I never did it alone. I had Kate, and my team, and many others. They're a good bunch. They know how to work well together, General. I don't want to risk that. Hard enough to find something that works, when you've got it, don't mess with it."
"Maybe, but it's an old truism that there are no bad soldiers; only bad leaders. Even if you had good people under you; you still had to be the driving force. The burden of command is heavy at the best of times. You had to do it all by improvising with what you had, and you had to do it alone. I can only imagine how hard it's been, especially with your new family to protect. You don't have to carry this war alone any more. I can see the whole board too. That's why they give you these stars, see."
Without even knowing it, he had hit John's eternal weakness: his life-long reluctance to be in charge.
John seemed to sway on his feet, just for a second. Kate stared at him. He almost seemed tempted to just let it go…
Kate didn't make her movements obvious, but she threaded her fingers through his gently. Don't lose it. Give in to his way of thinking now, and he owns you.
John strengthened. Connor kept his face polite. "General, it seems to me that you're at your most comfortable when you know how your people think. Well, this may be our first meeting, but I'm a Colonel, you're a General. My base controls everything from LA outward, plus the only seafaring transport routes that I know about." He gestured over at the two men playing chess. "It might be wise if you knew my style, too."
Whickham nodded. "It'll take a while for the path between here and San Francisco to be cleared out properly. I'd like to play you some time. Say tonight? After dinner?"
"Perfect."
"Excellent. In the meantime, we've got one more stop on the tour."
Kate felt her heart jump into her throat. Babies. Almost two dozen of them, lined up in small cribs, while various nurses, some military, some civilian, went back and forth in the chamber, taking care of them. There were two guards on every door; and the room itself was off Post-Op; making it a well defended room. They varied between a few weeks and almost a year old.
Connor put his arms around her from behind. "Sarah's got some extra playmates after all."
Whickham reacted. "Sarah? Kate, don't tell me..."
Kate beamed at the infants and nodded. "Yeah. A daughter."
"Katie, that's wonderful!" Whickham took her in a bear-hug.
Kate smiled into his shoulder and hugged him back. "First one born to the Underground. Till two minutes ago, I thought the only one in the world."
Whickham reacted again. "Connor, you haven't taken steps to..."
"I gave orders that all pregnant women be given priority care and protection."
Whickham gestured at the guards surrounding the nursery. "As have I."
"The fact is, there haven't been a lot of successful pregnancies. Most women don't want their kids to be born in this world." Connor explained. "Kate was the first. And it wasn't an easy pregnancy. We almost lost her, and the baby, and more than once. With Sarah healthy, some of the other civilian women in the base have reported pregnancies, but they're only a few months along."
"Despair set in quickly; in a wold where you hear no children's voices." Whickham observed. "Connor, this was my point. Your people, or at least the civilians in your charge, won't risk it because Skynet is always at your door. Here, people know that this is human territory. They can walk outside. They can see sky and stars. They'll risk it, because they know Skynet's got a long way to fight through. You can see why I want to expand human territory overtly."
Kate tensed. Her uncle hadn't let it go.
Connor was about to respond, when he was rescued. Colonel Noah came in and saluted. "General. We've established Contact with the LA Underground. Major Walters is on the line, asking for Colonel Connor."
Connor looked to Whickham, who nodded permission. "Connor, if we manage to get a clear path between the LA Underground and The Castle Keep, would you pass along an order to Major Walters for me?"
"Certainly, sir."
"Have him bring a copy of the base records. I would like to know if there's anything we can offer to teach you, or for that matter if there's anything we can learn from what you've done."
"I will sir." Connor turned to leave, and seemed to pause. "You said you'd trained twelve men to Grand Master level?"
Whickham nodded.
Connor grinned like a shark. "Get them together tonight. I'll play you all at once."
"You will?" Kate and Chet asked in disbelief at the same time.
Connor nodded. "If you don't mind."
Whickham recovered instantly. "Not at all."
"So that's the report, Eric. All is well."
"Glad to hear it, sir." Walters voice crackled back over the radio. "We received word from Halloway. He says 'Mission Accomplished.'"
"You have the bearing and distance to us?"
Connor did not share knowledge of Halloway's submarines over the radio, and not in front of Whickham's men, but Walters knew what he meant. Halloway had come to him once their operation was over and the rest of Connor's unit had been taken back aboard, safely returned to LA. Oldham had the direction that the helicopters had flown in, and took advantage of Halloway's maps.
"I do, sir." Walters confirmed. "Is there a directive?"
"Pigeon." Connor ordered.
"Yessir."
Connor had given the codeword. Walters was to clear a safe path between San Jose, where Whickham was, to LA, where Connor was. Whickham had given a similar order to his own people. Heaven help any machine that stood between their two armies.
"And sir? Tell her that Private Danes passed along a message. Message reads: She's fine." Eric called.
Connor grinned softly. "I will."
General Whickham had an office of his own, as most all Commanding Officers did. It was effectively a meeting place for taking private meetings with his various lieutenants and department heads. It was one of the few places left where privacy could be assured, and Whickham had brought his adoptive niece; for their first private conversation since their reunion. "So, tell me about Connor." He asked her, first off. "He the real thing?"
"Even better than the real thing." Kate confirmed.
Whickham nodded. "Good. You know your father used to say that they can make anyone a Colonel. To be a General, you need a good wife."
Kate grinned. "Alice would agree."
"I'm sure she would, god rest her soul." He looked at her. "The uniform suits you. Kitty-Kate."
Kate smirked. "Will that nickname never die?"
"If you wanted the nickname to fade, you shouldn't have become an animal doctor. You're fourth generation military, and you decide to become a veterinarian?" Whickham chuckled. "I couldn't believe it when I saw you get off that chopper. But then I remembered your father... I figured if anyone could see Skynet coming... if there was anyone he wanted to protect..."
Kate swallowed. "He did. He died doing it, but he did."
Chet licked his lips. "And your mom?"
Kate shook her head. "No idea. Haven't heard from her for a long long time; even before the bombs fell."
Whickham chose not to pursue it; as Connor came back in. "Kate, I spoke to Eric. He says that Sarah's fine." He turned to The General. "And our guys are on the way here. They should meet up with your people halfway."
"Excellent."
"May I ask, did you know what was in the Convoy?"
"The one from today? It was a large shipment of heavy metals. It was slated to be used in Machine construction."
"Is that confirmed?" Connor asked in concern. He was fishing to see where The General got his information.
"I have a small airbase near Midway. It puts an AWACK up every few weeks to give a standard report. More often if there's something important. They let me know that Skynet mines a lot of the material overseas and refines it on the big ships. By the time it gets here, it's ready to be turned into Machine warriors."
Connor nodded. "Skynet is software. There's no system core to hit, but if you can starve the brain by tearing part the body, keeping its soldiers from ever being built..."
"I agree. We've been hunting the factories too." Connor smiled at Whickham. "My compliments to your people. Efficient bunch. Your defenses too." Connor commented. "The shifting backup for the heavy artillery is a stroke of brilliance."
Whickham grinned. "You noticed that on one flight in, huh? Well, I didn't have miles of underground tunnels like LA, but I had more hardware to play with so I had to figure out a way to draw off anything Skynet could throw at us."
Kate nodded. "We had a whole lot less to work with. We set up most of what was left of LA as a kill-zone, Skynet can send an army in; it's a shooting gallery." She gestured around the above ground base. "Have you had a lot of trouble?"
Whickham nodded. "Not as much recently. For all their power, Skynet's machines roll off an assembly line. They need raw materials, they need a lot of work to set up their factories, need some serious power sources since they nuked the National Grid... we've actually had more trouble with the humanoid machines."
"The Terminators? Why?"
Whickham looked up sharply. "Terminators? Is that what you call them?"
"That's what they're called." Connor confirmed.
Whickham glanced at Kate. "Kate, your father ran Special Weapons. By any chance…"
"Skynet was one of them." Kate confirmed darkly.
Connor gained more respect for the man with each passing moment. Whickham took in the news, realized what it meant, realized what it meant for Kate in particular, and wiped the open pity off his face within seconds, picking up the story again. "We've actually noticed one or two Terminators that are dressed up in rags and rubber. Sort of like a thick latex over their bodies, hides all the chrome; and the rags keep you from realizing their skin is fake until they get in close. Most survivors wrap themselves up to protect themselves from the elements, and a lot of refugees come looking for protection." He sighed. "We lost three guys to the infiltrators till we figured it out, and we killed a refugee that was trying to ask for help after we knew what to watch for."
Connor had been listening to this description with jaded horror, and turned to glance at Kate.
His wife had heard every word too. Early infiltrators. A series of significant looks went back and forth.
Kate shook her head slightly. We can't tell him. Not about you. Not about them. Not yet.
Connor nodded slightly in return. We'll handle it, Kate. We knew it was coming.
Whickham had taken in the whole silent exchange. "Kate, have you and Connor been taking telepathy lessons or something?"
Kate shrugged. "We call it marriage."
Kate had set up the Tournament after the evening chow had ended. There were several long tables in the mess. Kate had taken over two of them. Six players on each table, sitting back to back in two rows. Tables one through six were playing black, boards seven through twelve were playing white, as John conceded to them the first move without contest.
Whickham set up his own board at the Officers table, apart from the others, and flipped a coin to see who would get the first move.
Kate had grown up on army bases. She had long known that even the biggest army, the biggest bases, got very small very quickly when it came to gossip. Word about the thirteen-to-one tournament had spread through the base in less than an hour.
Kate knew she shouldn't be surprised. Whickham had long been obsessed with the game. When she was young, he often had three of four games going by correspondence. The fact that he was using chess as a way to train and gauge his officers made it something of a status symbol on this base.
And so it came that when the game began, there was an audience. Not many, maybe twenty of them, but in a confined space, it seemed like more.
Inwardly, Kate didn't see the appeal. Chess was hardly a spectator sport. But as the game passed the half hour mark, she could see the disbelief growing on the faces of the audience. Connor was actually giving them a run for their money.
Noah checked her scope again. Even in the Tank, her breath was making quick bursts of steam. "How many H/K's you read, Tango 1?"
"Looks like five. Three on the surface, two on aerial escort."
"Tango 1, take the airborne targets, we have the ball."
"Roger that."
Noah pulled away from her scope and tapped the gunner. "Sarge?"
"I've got a target."
"Fire." Noah growled, adrenaline flowing freely.
"On the way."
The Gunner pulled the trigger and the whole tank shook with the recoil of the six inch explosive round. The huge H/K lit up from the force of the hit; it swiveled its remaining gun to seek out the tank, as the flying H/K's began circling around to take the shot.
Noah saw them coming. "Tango 1! NOW would be a really good time!"
"Roger that. Tally ho."
Noah could never understand how a jet pilot could sit on the front of a jet turbine, surrounded by heavy explosive ordinance, hurtling though the sky at 800 miles per hour, in the dark, with highly efficient killing machines shooting at them... and sound so freaking calm about it!
The twin fighter jets screamed over them at unthinkable speed, their cannons blazing before Noah had even heard them coming. The trick was flawless. The flying Machines were out of position, seeking ground targets, unprepared for an aerial attack; and were caught completely off guard.
"Tango 1 has good hits." The voice came over the radio as Noah steered the tank straight over the flaming wreckage. "Don't stress, Colonel; it's bad for you."
Noah smirked. Fighter pilots. They had to be on drugs.
Connor spent little time on the rest of his opponents. In fact, after every few moves with Whickham, he would simply get up, go back to the other two tables, and quietly move around them slowly twice. On the first lap he would look at each board, on the second he would make a move on each board, without even breaking stride, and then he would make his way back to Chet and sit down.
"Twenty bucks says Connor's out of his league." Marsden said quietly as Connor made his next move.
There was a murmur of agreement from Whickham's men.
"I'll take that bet." Kate piped up. "Twenty says Connor makes a clean sweep."
A stronger murmur. Whickham smirked over at his surrogate niece. "No loyalty to family?"
"You're both family." Kate retorted. "And no offense, Uncle Chet, but Connor's the best there's ever been."
Whickham looked at Connor who shrugged. "She married me for a reason."
Dex piped up. "I'll put another twenty with Kate."
Grady piped in. "I'm betting on the General. I bet a bar of soap."
The audience almost 'ooooh-ed'. It was the first bet that actually wagered something.
Dex and Kate traded a look. "You got anything?"
Dex licked his lips. "I bet your soap against… two bars of chocolate."
A much stronger reaction this time. Kate turned to look at Dex in disbelief. "Where'd you get two bars of chocolate?"
Dex looked painfully at Kate. "Carla's birthday is coming up..."
Connor was making his next rotation around the two mess tables. He suddenly made a move on Board six. "Checkmate."
Marsden and Grady traded a look. "You're on."
Walters lifted his radio. "First team. Go."
A pair of motorcycles took off from the side of the road, zooming down the cracked highway as the aerial H/K's swiveled to aim their guns. Liquid fire rained down at the small fast moving targets, and missed.
Walters lifted his radio. "Team two, go!"
Oldham came up with an RPG launcher on his shoulder.
The game passed the hour mark, and Connor had won games six and twelve. Each opponent had shaken his hand and then quietly joined the audience.
Whickham studied the board. "Where did you learn how to play?"
"From various people. Mostly from my mom. She was dating this guy who was pretty much the Grandmaster. He traveled around the world to play in tournaments. She managed to convince him to teach me how; even before school." He moved his rook forward. "She wasn't someone you said 'no' to."
Whickham grinned. "I learned from my teachers at Officer's Training School. When you learn command and tactics and how to run an army, all the teachers had various tournaments against each other for bragging rites." He countered John's tactics with his next move. "Between Chess and Poker, they taught me tactics and brinkmanship. War was equal parts of both."
Connor smirked. "My mom taught me chess before she taught me to spell my own name. Said everything I'd need to know about life I can learn in a chess game." Connor moved and stood up. "Excuse me."
He returned to the tables, made two loops around the other players as usual, and defeated his opponent on table nine. "Checkmate."
"He can't keep this up. I mean, he can't possibly keep this up." Marsden whispered. Somebody shushed him.
"This isn't like a boxing match, Mars. You don't wear out." Grady whispered back.
"You make mistakes. You lose track of which game is which. He cannot keep this up."
Dex grinned. "Care to bet your toothbrush on that?"
"You're on."
Connor moved around the tables again. He made a move at table three. "Checkmate."
"How does he do that?"
Kate smirked. "He's John Connor."
Noah steered the tank over the latest Ground based H/K to fall before their advance, when she saw movement on her scope again. It was much smaller. "Reload!" She ordered, and her Gunner scrambled to obey.
Noah jumped up from her seat to the top of the tank, and grabbed the mounted machine gun over the top.
The Tank moved forward, ground it's treads up over the wreckage, when a pair of flares arced up from the ground.
Flares confuse heat-seekers. Noah thought. Skynet doesn't use fl- "HOLD YOUR FIRE!" She bellowed to anyone who could hear. "FRIENDLY! I'M A FRIENDLY!"
Cha-Clik!
Noah spun and saw that she had been flanked by a soldier she didn't recognize, who seemed to materialize from thin air on the side of the road. He was aiming at her. "We're all friendlies here." The Major commented. "So step away from the machine gun and let's… be real friendly."
Noah jumped down from the tank and grinned, snapping off a salute. "Colonel Erica Noah."
The salute was quickly returned. "Major Eric Walters; assigned to open the highway between LA and San Jose."
"Ditto." Noah responded. "All clear guys."
Walters wasn't sure where the radio was, but a good distance down the road, Jeep lights suddenly lit up, coming closer. Eric made a similar gesture behind his back, and his own men came slithering out of the dark; pushing their Motorcycles; and troop carriers coming from further down the road.
"I'm impressed. I was looking through a night vision scope, and I had no idea you were there."
"Connor taught us how." Walters explained. "Skynet has heat and night vision too."
"Staying hidden is one thing." Noah said, jerking her thumb at the flying H/K down on the ground. "Taking out a flying H/K in a complete piece before i get into sight is something else."
"I thought you did it." Walters returned.
Beat.
Both officers turned to the flying H/K on the ground, and it's spotlights suddenly flared brightly, and the turbine tore into explosive noise.
Noah saw the huge death machine rise from the ground and swore. The damn machine was playing dead and there was nowhere to run.
Walters moved faster... for his radio. "Rack em and Stack em."
The Flying H/K's rose above them, Walters and Noah diving for the edge of the road away from it... and suddenly it's turbine disintegrated. The huge machine was too low to explode when it landed, but an impact that made the ground jump under them all, broke the huge machine almost in half, and all it's lights went dead. A full four seconds later, Noah heard the bark of a huge calibre sniper rifle; the sound finally catching up with the bullet.
"God bless the man who invented 50 caliber bullets." Noah commented as her men lifted their heads.
"Amen." Intoned all the soldiers.
The game entered the third hour, and Connor had defeated all but General Whickham himself. The two of them sat hunched over the board. The audience was drooping from the long game.
"You think Skynet plays chess?" Whickham asked suddenly.
"I don't think there's ever been a learning computer that hasn't." Connor returned.
"Probably good at it."
"Deep Blue beat Kasparov in front of everyone in 1996." Connor agreed. "I don't doubt that Skynet is smarter than Deep Blue."
"Pretty bleak view for us then." Whickham commented.
Connor shook his head. "Chess pieces can only move one way. Humans can surprise you." He moved. "Supercomputers are just dozens of regular computers lined up one after another. Skynet was the first actual thinking machine. Brute force is the only way a computer mind overcomes a human one."
Whickham grinned. "I agree." He moved. ""Battle of Britain. The Nazis threw more than three to one odds against the RAF, and the RAF won. Find me some maths that explains it when brute force fails. A free man fighting for his home is worth ten invaders. And a human is worth a hundred machines."
Connor grinned. "I couldn't agree more." He moved.
Whickham looked back at the board and blanched. "How did you do that?"
Connor smirked. "People can surprise you."
Whickham smirked and knocked his king over, conceding the match before Connor could truly defeat him. General Chet Whickham, had never once, not even when he was six years old, ever lost a game of chess.
The audience, at least the audience that had remained to the end, was stunned. Except for Kate, who merely smiled and sent Dex a look. He nodded and yawned. He would collect their winnings. Kate came forward and gave her husband a kiss, as Connor and Whickham shook hands. "Good game."
"I thought so too." Whickham gestured at the board. "Now, that attack you made toward the end, the double rook move. I didn't recognize that."
Connor sat back down, looking interested. "Ah. I learned that one from-"
"Ah-ah-ah!" Kate interrupted. "It's 2300. Time for bed."
"But Kate-" Both of them started.
"Now boys, you can pick up the game tomorrow." She joshed them.
Whickham grinned. "Reveille at 0600. She has a point. We set up VIP quarters for you."
They made their way into the impromptu guest quarters. Various soldiers made quick salutes as both Officers passed.
"Okay Connor, how'd you do that?" Kate asked with good humor.
"I'm just that good?"
"No you aren't."
"Ouch."
"Your good, Connor; but your not omniscient." Kate said with authority. Why do I call him 'Connor' when we discuss tactics or war business?
"Keep that to yourself." John joshed her as they reached the VIP tent. Connor's radio buzzed and he answered it.
It was Whickham. "Connor, I just got a message from Colonel Noah. She's made contact with your men. The way between San Jose and here is open."
"That's good news, sir." Connor responded.
"Major Walters has sent a message through. He says to tell Kate that Danes is still back home, and she's fine."
Kate smiled serenely and leaned over. "Thanks, Chet. See you in the morning."
The VIP tent was small and clean, with wooden plank floors, a double sized cot, with what looked like an air mattress. There was a small card table with two folding chairs and a jug full of water on top.
Kate turned down the bed and sat on it, turned to face him. "Come on. Confess."
John sighed and confessed. "I only played one game."
"John, you played thirteen, I was there." Kate told him, not getting it. "And you won, there were twenty witnesses." She pulled a toothbrush out of her pocket. "And you won me this too." She grinned and started happily brushing her teeth.
John shrugged off his jacket and dipped his finger in the tooth powder. "I only played against Whickham. Did you ever notice in what order I beat the other twelve? They were seated in a loop, back to back. I was white on half of them, black on the other. So twelve masters played each other, and I relayed the move to the table behind them. That was all." He fell silent as he scrubbed his teeth with his finger.
Kate burst out laughing around a mouthful of toothpaste, and rinsed her mouth out in a cup. She looked around briefly, and tossed the contents of the cup outside. A burst of cold air came in as the used water splashed into the icy mud.
"It wasn't some great tactical knowledge, it was a memory trick." John finished. "I just remembered what the first player did, and made the move on the board behind him, and then I took note of how he responded and made the move on the first board. After that, it was just a matter of finishing off the winners. The losers softened them up for me, and Whickham was the only game I played beginning to end."
Kate would not stop smiling as she stripped off her jacket.
John raised and eyebrow.
Kate held up her hands. "Won't tell a soul, I swear." She switched off the lamp and patted the cot. John lay down and she curled up under his arm as per usual. For the first time in months, she was very cold as she lay still. The world above the surface had turned to a long hard winter. "Chet had the same idea you had about the hydroponics."
John hummed, low in his throat and Kate could feel his chest rumble. "It wasn't a new idea even before J-Day. Plenty of people had the technology. Just a matter of making use of it."
"Hydroponics tent was warmer than the Post-Op." Kate mumbled.
"Can't wrap a tomato bush in a blanket." John told her.
"S'pose not." Kate mumbled, snuggling into him tighter. "Heard a few of the civilians talking, making plans about where they were going to sleep tonight. Chet said that a lot of civilians ignore the cots and sleep on the floor. Didn't know why till the sun went down."
"Cots are one to a person." John whispered into her hair. "When I was a kid, we spent a lot of the winter months camping. Bitter cold in Alaska, but Mom was tough that way." He seemed to shiver and wrapped his arms around her tightly. "Ever see a herd of sheep on a wet night? They manage to keep each other warm."
For a time they lay together in silence. "Feels weird not being underground." Kate whispered. "First time in a year I've been able to hear the wind blowing."
"Colder." John agreed. "Canvas and not concrete. Still, I can look outside the tent flap and see the sky."
"I had almost forgotten what it looked like." Kate said quietly. "John... the stars... they were a lot brighter Back Before."
"Think so?"
Kate nodded into his chest and curled tighter into him, listening for his heartbeat. "I miss Sarah."
"Me too." John agreed. "We'll be home this time tomorrow. Day after at the most."
Kate smiled. "Will we be back?"
"There's going to be a lot of back and forth between the Underground and Castle Keep. We'll be back." John told her.
Another long silence. The cold was something new to them. Sleeping in Crystal peak was warm. Sleeping in the LA Underground was at least covered and concealed; and all points on the road was either in their Jeep, in Carla and Mac's house, or in one of Halloway's Submarines. The Connors had not huddled together against the cold for some time.
Kate actually found she liked it. The cot was narrow and he was warm and comfortable and she always felt better when he was immediately within reach. All her nightmares since leaving Crystal Peak were about something happening to her little family. Having his heartbeat be the first thing she heard on waking up was the fastest way to help her get back to sleep.
But there was something nagging at her. "John? You awake?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Why'd you want to play them all?"
"To learn about them. Faster to see how they all play chess than unravel how they all fight in a war. Your Uncle Chet knows that too. That's why he taught them all how to play."
"That's what tonight was about?" Kate mumbled into his chest. "You just wanted to see what they could all do?"
"Yep." He said gently. "But why don't you ask me what you really want to ask me?"
Kate's eyes opened in the dark. She took a breath without lifting her head from his warmth. "You got your wish. You're not in command. But if... You said it yourself. You wanted to see what his Lieutenants could do strategically. It's because you know they're going to be your lieutenants someday. So... I guess I want to know..." She sighed and slid up a little higher. Sleep was no longer an option for a while. "What's going to happen to him, John? He's family to me. He's the only superior officer you have. If you're supposed to be in charge... What's going to happen to him?"
"I don't know, Kate." He hugged her to him tighter. "Honest to god, I don't know."
Kate sighed and closed her eyes again. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Chapter 7: Z Plus 2 Years 206 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Six Days
Whickham came into the Command and Control Center. Noah was waiting for him. "General, I have the information you asked for."
Whickham glanced around at all the soldiers at work in his CIC, and lead his second command away from them to the privacy of his office. "Proceed."
"I was able to get hold of Connor's criminal record."
Whickham reacted. "Criminal record?"
"Yessir. The Colonel has a juvenile record as long as your arm; and a few warrants out in conjunction with his mother, Sarah Connor. The elder Connor was committed to various psychiatric institutions while Connor was a child, and they were both wanted in conjunction with terrorist attacks on businesses in LA. Once he turned eighteen, they seem to have vanished off the grid completely; there are no further records."
"How can that be? He's a soldier."
"Scuttlebutt says that he survived J-Day thanks to Major Kate Connor, then Miss Kate Brewster. He was given a commission by Lieutenant Eric Walters, who was summarily promoted to Major as now Colonel Connor's second in command."
Whickham looked up sharply. "You're telling me that my Kate just went and picked up a drifter with a record, married him, and somehow he made himself a Colonel?"
"That seems to be the case, sir." Noah agreed. "Our people made some discreet interviews of Connor's men, regarding the Colonel himself. Most testimonies came from the lower ranks and the civilians involved. Without exception, they seem to worship the water he walks on."
Whickham laughed.
"The overall feeling on the matter is that he organized a small, battered, defensive unit into an offensive unit capable of defeating significantly greater forces. Skynet has sent several invasions into the LA perimeter, and Connor's men managed to wipe them all out with light to non-existent casualties. Skynet has since stopped its offensives to save resources."
Whickham nodded. "Pretty impressive for a crook."
"Yessir. Also, our people report that they think Connor's people may have been asking questions too."
"I'm not surprised. We're all feeling each other out at this point." He looked over the folder again. "Noah, this is some pretty extensive stuff you have here. Juvie records are always sealed, hospitals are all destroyed…"
"Yessir." Noah agreed. "But to be fair, there are huge sections missing. Connor's home address, if he had one, his family's living arrangements, his school information..."
"Where in god's name did you get the information you have?"
Noah smirked grimly. "Connor said that Skynet was software. So anywhere there was a CPU, there'd be a bit of Skynet. Major Connor said that her father was in charge of the Special Weapons division, so it occurred to me that if I was Skynet, I would keep any and all information I would need in my own computers. Ones I built, not ones that I had taken over and then nuked."
Whickham nodded. "Go on."
"Well sir, if Skynet was software, then it would be able to keep copies of itself. Copies of it's files. And if it was the computer virus like you thought, then it would have had access to everything. Now if Skynet was that smart, it wouldn't have nuked it's own brain, so I wondered where it would be saving all it's information… Skynet machines aren't stupid, just predictable. So I ran a search on the Terminator CPU's we captured, and I found the name Connor. Also, files on Kate Brewster... pretty much all people who have been taken prisoner by Skynet; public records, medical files, history files…"
"You got this off Skynet's databases?" Whickham smirked. "Noah, put yourself down for a promotion."
"I'm your second in command, sir."
"Something else then. We'll think of something good." He thought for a moment. "Speaking of Second in Commands, get me Eric Walters' file, and then tell him to join me for lunch."
Skynet had begun sending small groups of Terminators patrolling. With Connor and Whickham's men tearing apart all of Skynet's command Signal Relays, the Machines had shifted tactics, moving the Relay's back to defended locations. The Terminators themselves became scouts. Their glowing red eyes saw everything, and the H/K's that collected and carried them were transmitting constantly.
The Last Army could not move without being seen, and any Terminator destroyed had an H/K within reach to counterattack.
Connor had thus given the order. The Terminators had to be taken out when they were furthest from their Carriers, and it had to be done with minimal soldiers involved. By the time Skynet's H/K had made it to a wrecked Terminator, the humans who killed it had to be gone.
Allison was Lori's unofficial second in command at the Orphanage. She had survived J-Day through sheer dumb luck, had found a home with the help of Lori, and had stayed alive this long by being smart. So when Connor got Lori on board, Allie knew it was only a matter of time before the war became her personal business, and had prepared for it.
She checked her scope again. The sun was beating down hard on the dry ground. And the bright sun gleamed across the skin of the four Terminators marching along a cracked highway. Allie licked her dry lips, waiting for the moment.
Four Terminators, marching their way across the highway, steel feet crunching against pavement, until one of them stepped forward with a clang!
The Machine looked down, and saw a large metal plate under its foot.
Allie heard the clang and jumped up and whistled, from a good twenty feet away, further down the road.
The Machines saw her for the first time and charged forward, shooting their plasma guns, too far away to be certain of accuracy.
Allie counted quickly in her head and dove, hitting the trigger.
The Machines were suddenly caught in the middle of a claymore mine which effectively disintegrated the lower half of their bodies. A few seconds passed, and Allie made her way back up the street, pulling out her knife. It had a screwdriver folded into it.
The Machine eyes had gone dark, and she went right to work. First thing to be removed was the power source. Skynet had apparently managed a mini-reactor, and it had a backup power cell. More than one guerrilla had come to their end by assuming a Terminator could not come back to life.
With the power cells salvaged or tossed, she went to work removing the CPU of each of them.
The ground rumbled slightly, and he spared the horizon a glance. The H/K's were coming, aware of her ambush. And then she looked again, getting worried. One H/K was enough to carry dozens of Terminators. So why were there over six of them on the horizon?
Connor had taught them how to correctly sabotage a Terminator power cell. He rigged one, and left it with the mangled Terminators. Then she bolted for her motorcycle, hidden and camouflaged safely off the road.
Allie gunned the throttle and grinned a feral grin, hoping the H/K's would find her parting gift to be... interesting.
The trucks rolled day and night from The Underground to the Castle Keep, recon scouts placed at intervals along to road to watch for any sign that Skynet was moving to retake the supply line between LA and San Jose. For all their people, Connor's base had sparse supplies. The inclusion of Lori's people had brought little luxuries in, and Lori had happily routed some of it there. Saint had been on the first official supply line, and begun fleecing Whickham's soldiers for various goods, and pumping unsuspecting soldiers for information.
When the scouts reported no contact with Skynet, trade between the two bases were made a regular part. Both Connor and Whickham made sure that there was a good rotation of drivers, letting all soldiers get above ground for a while, and around new people.
The LA underground had miles of fortified tunnels. Something that Whickham's above ground base did not have. Whickham had immediately sent his sensitive or highly valuable material there, safely hidden underground.
There was a wonderful feeling of camaraderie among the soldiers. For once there were new people to meet. Connor had remained at Castle Keep to talk strategy with Whickham... and then Kate made the second hardest decision of her life. She called to LA for a very special cargo.
Kyle Reese was waiting at the door, and he quickly saluted Connor. "Sir!"
Connor saluted the boy and quickly made introductions. "General Whickham, Kyle Reese. Kyle, the General is in charge here, so you salute him. Not me."
Kyle saluted the General, and after a surprised and confused beat, Whickham saluted back.
"Report." Connor commanded.
Kyle quickly came to attention. "Sarah is safe. There have been two women who wanted to see her while you were away. I was there the whole time they were with her." He glanced around and shared a secret. "Word is, some of them are pregnant too, and that's why they're interested in the baby."
Connor nodded seriously. "Really? That's good news. Where is Sarah now?"
"With Major Kate, sir. They're at the nursery."
"Thanks, Kyle. That's the Mess Tent over there. Tell them I sent you, get some chow."
Kyle took off. Whickham turned on Connor. "You teaching kids how to fight?"
"Yes and no." Connor nodded. "Reese knew how to survive. All he needs is to be handed a gun. I haven't done that yet, but I've had him on some non-combat missions and he's proved his worth."
"Connor, you do not put children in harms way. Particularly now."
"Machines don't care how old he is, sir."
"Remember than when your daughter hits her fifth birthday."
That landed. Connor was caught off guard by the sudden personal attack and didn't know how to answer yet. Whickham nodded, satisfied with that. "I have something to take care of. I'll give you a moment with them before I come meet Sarah."
Connor still couldn't bring himself to say anything as he made his way through the medical wing to the nursery. Kate was there, with a familiar bundle in her arms.
Connor came closer and put his arms around both of them, resting his forehead against Kate's and holding the baby between them. "Hey baby. Baby Sarah. You're getting bigger, yes you are, yes you are."
Kate was grinning softly at him.
"What?"
"You. Never heard you baby-talk before."
John smirked. "Not just me. Private Lutz and Lori do it too. You should hear them in the nursery back at LA, the way they fuss over..." He trailed off.
Kate looked at him. "What?"
Connor had gone still, looking slowly around the maternity ward. There were almost a dozen babies lined up in cribs. Medical staff moving back and forth between the cots, one or two guards keeping watch...
"John?"
"Something's missing."
"What?"
"Where are the mothers?" Connor demanded. "There are a dozen kids in this room, and the only adults are here professionally. We're the only parents."
Kate nodded, not worried. "And we've been gone for most of the day too. Working mothers do that sometimes, John."
John snapped his fingers. "Lori."
"What about her?"
"When Lori and I started sorting out supplies for the Maternity Ward with Whickham's people, we were getting some attention. They weren't looking at me. They've seen uniforms. Lori is the one they're staring at, and now I know why she stands out." He gestured around the room quickly. "I couldn't quite put my finger… Kate, look around. Where are the women?"
Kate blinked. She looked around the room. "There. And there. And there."
"Now find me one not wearing a uniform."
Kate blinked again. "Well… okay, but why is that strange?"
"Back at the Underground, the first people who started spending time with Sarah were prospective mothers. Women who couldn't have kids for whatever reason didn't like to be reminded about it; and there are over two dozen babies in here. So where are all the mothers and mothers-to-be?"
"Maybe… maybe the civilians aren't allowed in here?"
"How many civilian women have you seen outside?" He asked. "And more importantly, if they aren't here, where are all these babies coming from? Have you seen a pregnant woman since you got here?"
It should not have been hard. With all the talk about humanity's dwindling numbers, and all the fuss that came with the new generation; it should have been something easy to notice… But after giving the matter some thought, Kate realized that he was right. "My god."
Connor nodded. "Where are they?"
Kate didn't know, and didn't like it. "I'll find out."
"You sure you want to do that?" John asked as they returned to the room. "Kate, if you go digging for your uncle's secrets, you might..."
"Find them?" Kate guessed ruefully.
"Right." John agreed.
One of the nurses straightened her shoulders, and Connor didn't have to turn to know that Whickham had entered the room.
The older man came over, eyes shining, overjoyed to see Kate with her daughter. "Oh… she's beautiful."
"She's perfect." Kate corrected. "Want to hold her?"
Whickham nodded eagerly, and Kate gently passed the bundle over. "Hello, sweetie. I'm the one who's gonna spoil you rotten."
John smiled at all of them, but it didn't touch his eyes.
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Nine Days
Connor was having a quiet meeting in the Mess Tent with Whickham's Head Tech. Across the Mess Hall, unnoticed by them, Halloway and Lori were watching.
"That's the fourth private chat over lunch Connor's had with one of Whickham's men today." Lori murmured. "I think his chow has been stone cold for about an hour now."
"Last guy was Whickham's Master Chief. You know what they're talking about?
"No idea about the last guy. This one's the head Techie here. Two of my guys managed to fry a few Terminators on patrol, brought the chips back to LA. Whickham's demanding they be turned over to his own Tech Support guys here in San Jose. Connor's trying to keep himself in the loop."
"Think Whickham would make such a fuss if he knew Connor had twelve more CPU's back at LA?" Halloway sipped his coffee. "Hey, has Whickham given you the pitch yet?"
"About coming on board with him officially?" Lori nodded slowly. "I don't want to work for Whickham. He's too... regular Army."
"And Connor's not?"
"Connor's a soldier; but he's not… I don't know. Whickham strikes me as the kind of guy who really has it together, but whatever it is he needs, Connor has more of it."
Halloway just looked at her. "That's a Two Star General you just demoted there."
"Big whoop."
Halloway swatted her lightly. "I been in the military my whole life Lori, it's a decent sized whoop. Particularly now."
"All I know is, if Whickham had found us first, we would have been drafted, and not invited to join up."
Halloway didn't have an answer for that.
"Major Eric Walters and Colonel John Connor, please report to General Whickham." The PA system suddenly piped up.
Connor stood, exchanged a firm handshake with his companion, and left, without so much as looking in Halloway and Lori's direction.
Halloway watched him leave. "Fourth guy today that Connor talked to?"
"Yep."
"I don't like the looks of this."
"Me neither." Lori licked her lips. "So. Who do you stand with?"
"Lori, I appreciate that politics don't stop just because the world's been nuked to the Stone Age, but relax. It's never going to get that far."
Lori smirked mirthlessly. "Write down the exact time and date you said that."
Walters was already there. He nodded respectfully to Connor, still at attention before the General, who got the first word. "Major Walters."
"Sir."
"You went to West Point?"
"Yessir."
"Impressive. How would you judge the current situation in LA?" He asked. "And please, speak plainly."
"I would say that we're doing surprisingly well, given the hand that Skynet dealt us; given that the LA theater was not a military post, and that there are no aircraft, armored vehicles or heavy artillery to help."
Whickham nodded. "Colonel Connor and I have been going over it. Gentlemen, this may not be a very popular action to take on your first day in my Base, but I'm promoting major Walters to Base Commander in the LA Underground. Connor, you're being put in charge of our Offensive Task Force in the Region."
"Sir…" Connor chose his words carefully. "With all due respect, LA is my Base. I'm the one that made it work. I won't deny that Eric is more than capable, but the people there have gotten used to a certain way of doing things."
"Major Walters?" Whickham invited his comments. "I told you before, speak plainly. I know you gave him the commission. Very few officers would draft someone they just met to be their own Commanding Officer."
Walters's throat worked and he look worried, but he spoke up finally. "Sir, the men trust Connor. They don't trust a whole lot, but they trust him. Before Connor came along, I was having trouble getting the men to stick around. No supplies came in, no pay was allocated, nowhere to spend it anyway. Mass desertion was a serious problem. Connor's voice on the radio was the only way I could convince my guys that there was still someone giving orders. Someone who knew what they were talking about anyway. Connor's involvement not only managed to rope them back together again, he told them what they needed, so that they could start hitting back. When he became more than a voice on the radio, putting him in charge seemed the only way to keep my Unit together."
"I agree." Whickham said. "Connor, there's no doubt that your men trust you, but they don't know as much about your past as they do about Walters. But Skynet does. They know your name. Now that you've figured out how to read information off Terminator CPU's, all that they know could get out."
Connor felt a trickle of fear. How much did Whickham know?
"Connor, your most useful skill in this war, as far as I can see, is your ability to motivate people, and your ability to turn a small defensive force into an offensive force that can take on greater opposition. We don't want to keep you at home; we need you out there, beating back the tide! That was always my intention once you showed me that you had a secure base in LA. I just needed to be sure that Eric Walters could do the job of protecting the civilians there and running things in the tunnels as well as you can. You taught him well, and now we need men who can step up and stop being shields and start being swords. And that's you."
"Yessir." Connor said. It was the only thing to say.
"I'm giving you a new unit. The 201st. It'll be your own Unit under a new banner, plus another twenty five men from here. Some infantry, some pilots, five techies, and eight snipers. Based on what you've told me, it seems like your style of combat. I want you to make them part of your unit, and make them the silver bullet against Skynet. Can you do that?"
Connor grinned. "Better than anyone else possibly can."
"Do you have faith that Walters can hold the line you drew for him in LA with you gone?"
"I do."
Another 'execution'. Wickham had praised his men, confirmed that their Colonel wasn't needed, shown that Connor was valuable elsewhere, made it clear that Connor had made it happen himself, suddenly shown that he had as much concern for the wellbeing of the base in LA as anyone else did, and forgiven John for leaving them. And he made them have the conversation where they could both hear the other's viewpoint, not knowing how the other may react.
For the first time, Connor realized that General Whickham was better at this than he was.
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Ten Days
Carla came into the 'Castle Keep' Medbay, and found Kate flicking through their medical files, reading their history. "Carla, do you know a woman here named Amy Myles?"
"No."
"Me neither." Kate scribbled the name down in her notebook quickly and put the file away, picking up the next one.
Carla stood about five feet away from Kate and sort of stood there, rocking back and forth a little on her heels.
Kate didn't look up from the notebooks. "You're hovering, Carla."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Why are you hovering, Carla?"
Carla licked her lips. "Um... I don't really know how to say this."
"Short and sweet would be good."
"Is Connor planning a coup?"
Kate dropped the notebook in her hand, and scrambled to pick it up. "Where the hell did you get that idea?"
"Well, scuttlebutt is that Connor has been hanging around the Mess Hall at weird hours. And that whenever one of Whickham's lieutenants or department heads comes in, he changes seats and eats with them. They talk for a while and then Connor leaves, and when whoever he eats with leaves, Connor's back a few minutes later."
Kate heard this and came to the same conclusion that Carla had. It sounded an awful lot like her husband was making his presence known among Whickham's soldiers. "Carla, we're all getting to know each other. It's the first time since the war started that there are new people to know, and we're all excited. John has this more than most because he's a Base Commander. The more he knows about the people he's working with, the better for all concerned."
Carla nodded, relived. "That's what I thought." She bit her lip. "See, Colonel Noah came to talk to me. Wanted to know about how I was fitting in with Whickham's medical staff, about how good my skills were... it felt like she was... recruiting me."
Kate smirked. "Well, I can't offer you a raise or anything..."
Carla chuckled. "So you haven't heard anything?"
"Nope."
"Well, if anybody would know about it, it would be you. John's your husband, Chet's been part of your family your whole life."
"That's right."
"So if there was something happening; if Connor and Whickham did mistrust each other, neither of them would probably want to tell you."
Kate sent Carla a pointed look. "Or both of them would. Or maybe, just maybe, there's nothing happening."
Carla nodded. "Yeah. I guess you're right."
Kate came into the VIP tent and sat down next to her Husband. "Are you planning a Coup?"
Connor did not react to the opening line. In fact, he kept looking at his notebook for several seconds. "What did you find out about where all the civilian women went?"
"John. I just asked-"
"So did I."
Kate stared at him a moment. "There are over fifteen women listed in the medical logs that don't have a rank. They were all getting regular check-ups, and several of them were listed as In Good Health. Then the records stopped. There's no sign of them after that. They aren't listed among the dead." Kate jumped back to her topic before John could interrupt. "So when did you start taking meetings with Uncle Chet's lieutenants?"
"Roughly three minutes after your Uncle Chet started having private meetings with Lori, and Halloway, and Saint, and Eric, and-"
"He's what?"
"And I had to do it while I was here, because once we get back to LA, I won't be around much."
Kate felt her heart speed up. "Why not?"
"Because General Whickham has given me command of my unit, plus some heavy munitions and a few reinforcements. He's ordered me to leave LA Underground in the capable charge of my second in command, while I go on tour around the West Coast dealing offensive blows."
Kate froze. "That... that would put you in the firing line for months. Week after week!"
"I know."
Kate went white. "John... Tell me this is a joke."
"It's no joke." Connor said evenly. "I've been given charge of a task-force. My missions are at my discretion, but the directive is offensive moves against Skynet. He's promoting me out of the way."
"LA is your base, John! You built it! You trained them there! You made that place safe!"
"I've made those same arguments and got nowhere. And what I did in LA? I did the same thing with The Alamo. We can't really hold on to things or places, or for that matter, people. Not anymore."
Kate licked her lips. "Carla's worried. Rumor is that Whickham is trying to get your lieutenants loyal to him and not you."
"He's making sure my power base will back me only as long as I back him."
"Let me go to Chet."
"And do what?"
"Figure out what's going on. He'll listen to me. Of all the soldiers in the world, he'll listen to me."
Connor turned his face away from her so that she couldn't see his expression. She knew him well enough to read past his poker face. She would know that he didn't think she could hold her Uncle back.
"Kate, I swear, there's nothing nefarious in it." Whickham assured her. "But your husband has a criminal record, and his second in command went to West Point. Your husband turned a ragtag group of refugees into a Skynet Skeet shoot, and his second in command spent his career getting secure posts set up in hot spots around the world as a career soldier, as opposed to your husband... who apparently got his command as a wedding present."
Kate almost swallowed her tongue. Whickham knew. "Chet, you told me once; that the Army is full of problem kids. You remember Batler?"
Chet smirked. "I remember some kid. I remember a judge that gave him a choice between an Army uniform and a prison yard. He signed on, straightened up... I seem to remember finding the two of you doing something decidedly un-military in my Motor Pool."
Kate didn't blush. "He was a Captain by the time J-Day rolled around, and if he was alive, he'd probably be a Colonel now. And Connor is worth ten thousand of him."
Whickham held up a hand. "Kate-"
"You either stand by your Army or you don't, and if you don't then you'd better take a close look at the world, because what really do you have to back you and your stars up anymore?"
"Kate-"
"You and my dad both made General, but not at the same speed. If my dad had told you to go to Iraq instead of your office back at Fort Baxter, you would have set the place on fire! Chet, I don't know what the problem is, but I swear-"
"At EASE, Major!" Whickham barked over her sharply.
Kate stopped her rampage and took a breath. "I'm sorry."
Whickham grinned. "You only ever get a full steam up over family. Connor must be the real deal."
"He really is." She took another breath. "Chet, the first thing you do when you meet him is turn him out of his base; and... The reasons you have are valid. And I agree with all of them, but it feels more like you're trying to get LA under your control. And if that happens, you would be putting me, and John, and Eric, and who knows how many other people into an impossible situation."
"I have LA under my control Kate. LA and all who fight in it are under my command." Whickham told her gently. "You're not worried about me taking control; you're worried about what happens if your husband disagrees with me. You know me, Kate. Am I the sort that tells people to shut up just because they don't agree?"
"No." Kate whispered, feeling foolish.
"The military does not practice democracy. Never has. If Connor thinks I'm wrong about something, tell him to approach me about it. Discreetly. And not in front of the people who have follow my orders. If such a moment doesn't present itself, then tell him to bite his damned tongue until one does. I'm not asking him to do things, I'm ordering him to. And the fact that he sends his wife to argue his case-"
"He didn't!" Kate insisted.
"Oh, and by the way, Kitty-Kate," Whickham said with biting sarcasm. "You wear a Major's uniform too; and you have committed about three different acts of insubordination since you walked in. But I get that you love your husband, so you can feel free to walk out of here now and we'll forget this conversation."
"Okay." Kate said softly, feeling six years old.
"I won't tell him we argued. Connor comes from a pretty rough family, Kate. You know his mom was actually in a mental institution for a while? It's no wonder that he has such a juvie record."
Kate blinked, feeling cold. "You know about that?"
"Oh good, he did tell you. I was worried that this guy you picked up on your way to Crystal Peak might have been hiding this stuff."
"Hey!" Kate objected sharply, fiercely protective of her family.
"Kate, I don't mind about his past. I really don't. You aren't wrong. The Army was full of problem kids long before the world ended. What matters now is how Connor treats you, and how he handles his responsibilities and his duties, whether to me, to his men, or the civilians in his charge."
How he handles his duties to you? Kate asked herself silently. Are you threatening my husband with his past, Uncle Chet?
Carla felt a tug at her sleeve, and turned. One of the soldiers, a young woman with short cropped hair. Carla had noticed her watching the newcomers, more with hopeful curiosity than suspicion. Carla did a quick scan of her shoulders, and her nametag. "Corporal Curry."
"Please, Erin." Curry introduced herself.
"Good to meet you, Erin." Carla nodded. "Call me Carla."
Curry seemed relieved. "You aren't military?"
"Not officially. I'm Medical."
Curry nodded. "You're from LA. Scuttlebutt says that there's going to be some transfers back and forth between San Jose and the LA Underground."
"Unofficially, that's what I hear."
Curry seemed nervous. "Do you think if I asked, I could be transferred to LA?"
Carla blinked. "Why?"
"Because I need a favour, and it's kind of a big one."
"Okay." Carla asked, completely lost. She just could not get a read on this girl. "What do you need?"
"That soldier I always see you with… you and he… are close?"
"Dex?" Carla felt her face flush. "Yeah… I guess so."
"He came here with Connor. I met him." Carry took a breath. "I don't want to get in the middle of anything, but I wanted…"
"Spit it out, Corporal." Carla said finally.
"I want Dex to make me pregnant." Curry blurted finally.
Carla almost laughed, but managed to swallow it. "You're not serious."
Curry suddenly started talking a mile a minute. "I heard that you've got the same priority with medical to pregnant women in LA as we do here, and Dex seems like a nice guy, and I swear I don't want to make things tough between you and him, so I wanted to make sure it was okay with you first, because it's not like there's any other way to get pregnant anymore, plus if I asked someone here then it might make things difficult so if I went to somebody from outside this community then I just-"
Carla clapped a hand over Curry's mouth. "Breathe."
Curry did so.
"How old are you, Erin?"
"Eighteen."
Carla glared at her, not buying it.
"In a few months." Erin confessed.
"You aren't a little young for this?"
"I'm almost eighteen, Carla. In a few years, I'll be too old to have kids."
"Twenty one is not middle aged."
"It is if you don't live past your thirtieth birthday."
Carla felt smacked in the face with cold hard reality again. Every time she thought she had a handle on the world, something would happen to make her realize that her thinking was still back in the pre-J-Day world on something. All the rules had changed since she was this girl's age. Kids like Kyle were hardened veterans at ten years old; girls like Erin had to worry about being too old to survive Skynet by forty. "Why Dex?"
"Well… I figured if the father was from LA, then I could get the transfer… and you seem like a good person, and a nurse, so I thought you'd be good to have close to the baby… and Dex seems like a nice guy. He seems healthy… I don't want to pass on anything to the baby, or catch anything from…"
"He is, but there are nice healthy guys here, too." Carla pressed.
"I don't want to have my baby here." Erin confessed. "I want to do it. If you say no… I'll understand, but I'm not trying to take him off you, I swear. I just met the guy… And if it's not Dex, it's going to be someone else."
Carla blinked.
Erin lowered her voice. "Look, you're an attractive woman, you seem pretty healthy too. I figure with things being the way they are, you must have thought about it. Someone must have approached you. If not for yourself, then for someone… everyone else…"
"Populate or perish." Carla whispered, remembering the conversation from long ago with Kate.
Erin seized on that. "Exactly. There's a dozen people I met on the road who wanted to have kids…. If only to add something to their lives, but a lot of them couldn't, because of all the radiation." She licked her lips. "I know I'm not ready to be a mother, but biology doesn't care about that. I can get out of the war for months, get all the medical stuff done for nothing, get well fed, lots of rack time, lots of priority care without risk; come back into the fight nine months from now healthier and stronger than more than two thirds of the rest of the Unit…"
"That's no reason to have a baby."
"Why not?" Erin asked. "There are a hundred people who want to just see children again. I can provide one. Yesterday I saw two orphans tearing each other apart over half a tin of rotten tuna. The civilians are all sleeping huddled together behind the motor pool. I can have a rack and three squares a day for months. Everything else has to be practical, why can't I be practical about this?"
"What did you tell her?" Kate asked.
"I told her I'd think about it." Carla mumbled. "She completely threw me. She's seventeen years old and coming at motherhood like it's a nine month health insurance policy."
"In a sense, that's what it is." Kate told her. "When Sarah was born, she stayed with me and John, but given the war, and the situation, Sarah's spent as much time with anyone else as she has with her parents… John told me once, that there's no such thing as a family unit, not anymore. Plenty of people are willing to raise a child that they don't dare have themselves. Carla, she has a point. We're racing extinction, and Skynet has a head start on us."
"You think I should agree?"
"I think you should at least talk to Dex. She's not asking him to marry her and raise her children, just make a donation. Something that people have been doing for a long time; it's just that we don't have clinics anymore."
"She said something about... about me being attractive, so I'd probably have been approached myself." She bit her lip. "Kate... I have been approached. A few women in the underground can't have kids after the radiation... Like you said, populate or perish…" Carla almost jumped to her feet. "I have to talk to Dex." She said decisively. She almost marched out of the room, and came back in a moment later, looking a little panicked. "Come with me."
"Carla."
"Please?"
Kate sighed and stood up. "Fine. I want to meet Curry anyway."
Carla led the way through the Castle Keep, and found Dex in the Mess Hall, in the middle of what looked like a somewhat awkward discussion with Erin Curry. They weren't sitting closely, but both of them jumped apart when they noticed Carla and Kate.
Awkward silence.
"Corporal, let's give these two a chance to talk."
"Yes, ma'am." Curry said quickly, and stood up.
Carla sat down in her seat and looked shyly at Dex.
Kate put a friendly arm around Curry's shoulder and led the way to the door. Once out of the Mess, Kate leaned in calmly and asked the question. "So. Why don't you want to have the baby in San Jose?"
Curry reacted as though slapped. "I... Ma'am, I wouldn't..."
Kate fingers tightened on Curry's shoulder. "Erin, listen to me carefully. My baby was born in an underground army post. I know all about wanting someplace safe. I'm a mom. What is it about this place that worries you?"
Curry seemed to shrink. "You didn't get this from me."
Kate nodded.
"The most defended spot in the Keep is the Medical Wing. That's where we have the Nursery. But below that, there's an underground bunker. It used to be part of an office building. Behind the Medical Wing, there's a tunnel that leads down to it. Two checkpoints. That's all I'll tell you."
Kate, growing concerned, headed back toward the nursery, when she saw Eric taking a rucksack toward a jeep. "Eric?"
"Afternoon, Ma'am."
"What's going on?"
"Orders from the Colonel. I'm to head back to LA. Connor felt that having the three highest ranking members of the Underground away for too long was a bad idea."
Kate distantly wondered if that was all, or if her husband was getting his key people away from Whickham's reach. "Well, tell everyone there I said hi."
"I will."
Kate remembered something. "One more thing, John wants an update on Gould's Lead Project. Report in with the standard codes."
"The Terminator CPU's? You don't really think we can reprogram them, do you?"
Kate had a secret little smile, not unlike the one John often wore. "Yeah, I really do."
"Well, even if we could, I honestly couldn't see any of our guys working with Machines around the base, can you?"
Kate blinked, suddenly picturing a walking chrome death machine helping Carla in Medbay, and a hand went unconsciously to her stomach. "Hm. That's a little tougher."
"Well, we ship out in an hour. Want to grab a bite to eat?"
"I have something I have to check up on first."
Kate had followed Curry's directions carefully, and had been stopped at the first checkpoint. A man in a Sargent's uniform, with a huge M-60 over his shoulder. If the man had any problems holding an impossibly huge weapon like that for long, he didn't show it as he stood guard. "Yes, Major?"
Kate pointed to the insignia on her collar. "Major Connor, Medical. I have to go in there."
The Sargent looked worried. "Is there an emergency? Is everyone all right in there?"
Kate didn't know what she was doing, but struggled to game through it. "I don't know yet. Let me in."
The guard stepped aside instantly. "Take care of them, doc."
Kate made it down the hall. The walls were tightly packed, and concrete. The second checkpoint was heavily fortified. Thick barricades and what looked an awful lot like large mounted mini-guns tracking her all the way down the hall. "HALT!"
Kate raised her hands instinctively. "Don't shoot! I'm human!" Dimly, she wondered when a statement like that stopped sounding strange.
"Advance and be recognized."
Kate did so slowly. "I'm Major Connor, Chief Medical Officer, LA underground."
Silence.
"Is there a medical situation?"
"There may be. I'm to check on things and make sure that your own people didn't miss anything." Kate bluffed. "My uncle Chet sent me down here."
She hated to have to play the 'First Name' card. Everyone on the base knew about this woman from the outside who called the General 'Uncle Chet' and nobody seemed to be eager to get in her way as a result. "All right. Are you coming in alone?"
Kate passed awkwardly around the mounted guns and sandbags. More than five guards, all with mounted fortified positions... she made it into the room, and froze as the door shut behind her.
The room was large, the size of any basement level of an office building. Lights had been strung, just as in LA's tunnels, but there were no windows to the outside. Being underground, there was an overpowering feeling of dimness, no matter how the lights were spaced. No bare dirt. The walls and floors were concrete, everything very neat and tidy. A large room, and it looked like a door at the opposite end, but Kate couldn't see where it led…
The room had several guards patrolling the edge of the room, each with a surgical mask and a large rifle...
And row after row of beds.
And in each bed, a noticeably pregnant woman.
There were nurses and doctors making rounds between each bed, checking charts, replacing IV's, taking blood tests. But none of the medical personnel were making contact with the patients themselves for long. The whole room felt more like a laboratory than a maternity ward.
There were very few people in the room standing up. Only the guards and the Medics. Kate was wearing Medical insignia, and she quickly grabbed a chart off one of the beds. "So... Susan? Huh. I knew a pregnant lady named Susan once."
The woman on the bed smiled at her. "Huh. Small world huh?" She looked Kate over. "A new face."
"Same one I've always had." Kate quipped. "How you feeling?"
"Bored. Same as always. It's not time for my shots yet, is it?"
Kate checked the chart. The woman had been given regular shots of vitamin supplements... and mild sedatives? "Not yet... Um... are you getting enough sleep?"
Susan rolled her eyes. "Wow, you are new, aren't ya?" She looked over Kate's uniform. "You a soldier?"
Kate smiled. "Who isn't, these days?"
"Well... I'm not. Not yet anyway. I suppose I will be once I deliver."
"Really?" Kate asked in surprise. "You want to into the war?"
"Yeah. Most of the women who come down here have a kid, then decide to volunteer. Sometimes two. This is my second. But for all the danger, you actually have something to do when you wear a uniform." She patted her stomach. "Junior here keeps me fed, keeps me safe, and I love him. But you just want to see the sky again, y'know? Even if just for a little while?"
Kate swallowed, remembering the checkpoints suddenly. These women had probably been in here since... "It's not good to stay in a bed the whole time."
Susan waved over at the door opposite the entrance. "Oh there are a few exercise machines in there; they take us over in shifts. But when you're at six months, there's not a lot of difference between sweating in bed and sweating on a treadmill. Lousy airflow down here, y'know."
Kate was almost sweating herself. "Yeah. Your doctor should know better."
Susan shrugged. "I hear it was a problem back before. Amy had trouble with it; so they started bringing oxygen tanks down."
"Amy? Amy Myles?"
Susan gestured over to the bed at the far wall. "She's the old-timer. Been down here almost since J-Day. Longer than any of us."
Kate glanced over and felt her stomach lurch. The woman in question was barely moving, eyes closed, with an oxygen mask over her face, and IV tubes in each arm. "My god..."
Susan tried to smile. "So... how about you? Any kids?"
"Yeah." Kate smiled softly. "A daughter."
Susan beamed. "My first was a son."
"Where is he now?"
"Somewhere the next level up. Somewhere in the nursery. The nurses let me know how he's doing."
Kate stared. "You haven't even seen him?"
"Not for a while." The woman looked gamely at Kate. "Why? Does that bother you?"
"Well... yes, frankly."
Susan licked her lips. "Listen... I don't want to get you in trouble, but... Can you get me out of here? Just for a little while? I haven't seen my son... hell, any other face, in months. They don't let us leave. They say it's not safe. Is that true? Is it still that dangerous?"
Kate reeled away from her.
"Major."
Kate turned, and saw Colonel Erica Noah staring her down, flanked by two guards. They did not look pleased.
Kate growled under her breath. "What? Chet having me followed now?"
"Major Connor, you are not authorized to be in this area. Please follow me."
Kate stood, and the guards flanked her instantly. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Susan."
"Nice meeting you!" Susan called after them.
Kate was escorted in, looking madder than all hell. Whickham nodded to her guards, who quickly left. "Kate. Don't ever do that again." He growled. "The guards down there have Shoot To Kill orders for unauthorized personnel. Our past relationship is the only reason they let you through. You could have gotten yourself in so much trouble… not two hours ago, I made it clear that you can't get away with insubordination, much less trespassing in restricted areas! If you were anyone else, you would have been shot by those guards-"
"Why? Because they have orders not to let anyone find your little assembly line for making babies?" Kate snarled.
Whickham took the news coolly. If it bothered him, there was no sign. "That's hardly an accurate way of putting it."
"How would you put it?"
"Saving human existence. Kate, I've got close to a dozen strategists in here, and they've all done the math. If things keep on as they are, humanity will be ground out of existence in less than fifteen years."
"Then why don't you have the Babies under that same protection?"
"Keeping our eggs in more than one basket for one, misdirection if Skynet ever gets in for another, and the fact that having a new Generation around is fantastic for Morale." Whickham explained evenly. "A baby killed is one tragic loss. A pregnant woman killed is two tragic losses. If a Terminator kills a pregnant woman, it's a two for one victory to Skynet."
"Chet, it looked like a prison camp down there. Armed guards patrolling the beds, checkpoints in the tunnel leading to them..."
"Prison Camps are built to keep people in, Kate. The maternity ward was made to keep people out."
Kate felt her heart speed up further. He wasn't even claiming ignorance. "What?"
"This war is about genocide. Your husband already has children on the battlefield! Those women need to be protected."
"By locking them up till they have the baby? And then what? Let them out long enough to get pregnant again? Or do you bring people in for that too?"
"Kate, it's not like I put a bag over their heads and dragged them down there in chains..."
"Chet, you had everything but handcuffs on the bedposts!" Kate exploded.
Whickham's gaze leveled her. "Kate. Listen to me now." He commanded. "Your husband's done the math too. He's given priority on everything to pregnant women. Food, medicine, clothing, shelter, and really, what else is there to offer them after that?" Chet asked.
Kate didn't waver. "How about choice?"
"How about it?" Chet shot back. "Everyone in that room was a volunteer. There were very few healthy women left to begin with; and of them, the radiation had made some of them infertile and of the rest, a lot simply couldn't handle the stress of pregnancy... Kate, I've read the reports concerning Sarah's birth. You're a mom. And until you came here, the only one in the world that you knew about. Kate, we've got the only population that's growing. You don't see the benefit of that?"
Kate didn't have an answer for that. For all the things John had done, there was only a few newborn babies, and still plenty of casualties.
"How do you think we survived the virus?" Chet went on, irrefutable, certain... "We had two dozen pregnant women already here. We found the cure the same way you did. And nobody died."
Kate felt her jaw drop. She could still feel the weakness in her bones from her own infection. "Nobody?"
"Nobody. Kate, we've got the same rule in this base as you do. Everybody works. Those women down there are pampered. Fawned over. Given the best of everything left, all for the cost of bringing more life into the world. That's a steal at twice the price."
"And me Chet? If I had been with you, and not with John, would you have me down there too?"
Whickham looked up at her sharply. "Kate… of course I would. That room is the safest, most heavily defended place for over a thousand miles, and you're a healthy young woman. Why wouldn't I do what was right for you, and right for the whole human race in one stroke?"
Kate was floored. Did her uncle really think it wasn't that bad? "Uncle Chet…"
"I'm not your Uncle, Katie; I'm your Commanding Officer." Whickham said sharply. "We are at the edge of extinction here. You may think it's something out of a horror movie, but find me anywhere left that isn't. Survival does not ask for cute and cuddly. Survival does not tolerate hesitation. The only way to be sure that future generations will be disgusted with me and my methods, is to ensure that are future generations."
Kate had that 'execution' feeling again. In two minutes, he had admitted his ruthlessness, made his case, refuted her arguments, revealed the flaws in her reasoning, reminded her it was not a choice, reminded her how desperate the situation was, made it seem like a reasonable response and forgiven her for arguing.
What would John say? Kate asked herself.
"Uncl… General." Kate started again. "It's not that I disagree on any particular point…"
Whickham gave her an infinitely forgiving look. "Kate, we go back a long way, you and I. And your father and I before that. I know how much you risked becoming a mother in this wretched little world, and I am so proud of you, and your courage. But if you had the baby here, you never would have gotten sick, and no lunatic would have gotten within a hundred feet of your baby." He looked sadly into her eyes, nothing but sympathy. "Kate… If you had been here with me the whole time, Sarah would have a big brother or sister right now."
And once again, Kate didn't have an answer. She just stared at him, frozen at the point of speech. Damn you. Damn you for playing that card. Damn you for bringing that up.
A radio buzzed somewhere, and a voice came over to PA. "General Whickham, Colonel Connor; please report to the CIC."
Whickham stood to go, and Kate reached out a hand to stop him. "W-What will you tell John?" She asked finally.
"And why would I tell Connor anything? This isn't his base. Kate, when they put these stars on your shoulder, they take away the part in your brain that makes you have to explain your orders. Why do I have to justify anything to the Colonel?"
Because he's going to be in charge of this war one day. Kate thought. So it doesn't look good for you, Uncle Chet. Kate was in a spin, torn by loyalties she never knew she had.
Whickham held out a hand to her. "Now come on. Whatever's got us called to CIC, Connor will probably want his wife with him. Especially since she's the highest ranking officer under his command, now that Walters is heading back to LA."
Kate stared at his hand for a second. "I... I have to see to something real quick. I'll meet you in the CIC."
Major Walters nodded to his driver, when he heard a distant voice calling his name. He turned and saw Kate sprinting toward the convoy. "Waitwaitwait! One more bit of cargo to give you. Get this back to LA safely. Do it yourself."
She had a bundle in her arms, and handed it up to Walters.
Eric pulled back part of the bundle to discover the cherubic face of baby Sarah Connor snoozing. "Ma'am?" Walters was shocked, to say the least. "The passage between LA and San Jose is clear, but I don't think..."
Kate put a hand out to Eric gently. "Eric, I love Chet. He's the uncle I never had. But I trust LA more. I trust the underground. I trust the people John trained over the people I just met. I want my baby safe, and for all the hardware, I feel safer in the Underground." She looked Eric in the eye intensely. "I trust you to keep her safe."
Walters took that seriously. "Yes, Ma'am."
Kate felt better. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see someone."
Kate saw John heading for the CIC from the opposite side of the compound, coming out of the Mess Tent, and she rushed to catch up with him before they went into the CIC. "Talking with General Whickham's Supply Chief?"
"He's a good man. Career man. Career military is a tough nut to crack. For all my talents I was a fugitive five years ago."
"John, I think you're right. I think that just because we're on the same side doesn't mean we're on the same team. A castle can only have one King."
"I don't distrust your uncle, Kate. I just don't think he trusts me, and if I were anyone else, I wouldn't care, but..."
"But you're John Connor. You have to be in charge because you are." Kate agreed. "I just gave Sarah to Eric. I told him to take her back to LA personally."
John stopped walking and stared openly at her. "When did this happen?"
"Two seconds ago."
"Why?"
"You were right. Eric has been having a number of private conversations with Chet, and if you're worried about him turning your people to his side... You're right. Career soldiers are always sure who to follow. Chet can give Eric a big speech about chain of command and loyalty, and duty, and honor. But we can hand him our firstborn; and tell him we trust him with her. I think that if we're going to break twenty years of training and tradition, we have to make it personal. Also, because there's lots of babies here, and Sarah has a near Saintly quality on the people in the Underground where she's the one of the kind."
They were perfectly logical reasons. But they weren't the real reasons. Distantly, Kate realized that it was the first time she had said 'we' instead of 'you' and openly declared her allegiance to her husband over her uncle, even if nobody noticed.
Nevertheless, John beamed at her. "Pretty slick."
"I had a good teacher."
The Connors entered the CIC, and the day got a whole lot colder.
"Skynet has begun its next offensive." Noah said bluntly once the Commanders were assembled. "Lori's scouts reported troop deployments heading to the northwest, our AWACK reported that two more divisions were heading east. We drew on a map to the point where those two directions would intersect, and routed one of our UAV spy-Drones in that direction."
"We have here an opportunity." Whickham said finally. "Connor, I told you that the goal of our campaign thus far was to starve the brain of a body. Skynet's offensives have stopped until now because they're building up forces. Like you said, Brute Force is the only way a computer mind outthinks a human one. Skynet is sending brute force in. If we can take apart this army, we'll have destroyed most of Skynet's battle-ready warriors. All that material, all that work and time, wiped out."
"Or we are." Kate put in.
Connor nodded. "Doesn't mean he's wrong, Kate. Either this is our most crushing defeat, or it's theirs."
Whickham looked at Noah. "Do we have an ETA?"
"Yes and no. Reports on sighting didn't measure up; so I dispatched scouts to maintain contact from a distance. They're stopping periodically to collect reinforcements."
Whickham took that in and turned to The Colonel. "Connor, take your unit and inflict as much damage on Skynet's invasion force as possible."
"The layout of the advancing force is specially laid out to prevent that." Connor regarded the surveillance photos. "The Army isn't marching. It's coming in small groups. One section advances while two more move to counter its flanks. If we hit any one of these groups, the others will move in to counter attack." Connor bit his lip, thinking. "Skynet learned that from us."
"You think so?"
"Look at the layout of the advancing invaders. Heavy Artillery has two smaller ground troop units to cover its movements. Just like your own defences here." Connor shook his head. "I don't know how your defences will stand up to a grinding attack like this."
"They aren't coming here." Whickham told him. "The invasion is following the old highways. Some of our scouts are there to keep them clear for our own forces. Skynet's heading for LA."
Kate felt her heart race. "LA. We've gotta warn the Underground."
"We can't." Whickham and Connor said in the same moment.
"Skynet can almost certainly crack anything we use to encrypt our communications. That's why we use code words. In any case, it doesn't matter. We can get a runner to LA before Skynet's forces get here."
Noah piped up at that. "Intelligence says that the Invaders haven't started moving yet. They've been travelling slowly and stopping periodically to gather more reinforcements."
Connor stared at the reports. "Are these numbers accurate?"
"Yep. Confirmed a few minutes ago."
"This is bigger than anything we've ever taken on."
"Us too. It's going to be quite a fight." Whickham commented. "But if we're going to take advantage of it, we need to do more than just block the assault. If Skynet's throwing everything it can spare at us, it will leave its own forces with a skeleton defence."
Connor considered. "We could gain a lot of ground if we took advantage of it, but if that Invasion force gets here, it won't matter. We have to take it out first, and we can't match that kind of power on the open road."
"What would you suggest then?"
"Let them hit LA." Connor said. "The LA skyline is an H/K death-trap. If Skynet sends in its forces one group at a time we can knock them down. If they send them in all at once, we can deal much harder damage and have any wounded much closer to base, and when they get close you can have your people attack them from the rear. We can set up a crossfire."
"I wouldn't want that many H/K's coming in so close to the civilians." Whickham pointed out. "They'll send in enough power that you can't overcome them all, no matter how good your sappers are. Terminators marching in at the same time as Flying H/K's. Your men will be overrun. Inevitable when your teams are only a few people shifting in and out. The weakness of the Guerrilla Tactic; you can't run a battlefield."
"And you can't move enough of your heavy artillery to block all those H/K's. The disadvantage of the Front Line solution; you can't be as invisible."
"No, Connor. I get where you're coming from on this. Your tactics have all been strike and withdraw, but that's not going to work here. That Invasion Force is mobile, and armed, and far too powerful for hit and run."
"Due respect, General, but we don't have anything that can hit a force that large."
Whickham smiled. "I do. I'm putting our tactical wing under your command for the duration of this battle, and I'm also giving you the 601st. Tactics and strategy is your prerogative."
Connor nodded. "Yessir."
Whickham turned to his people. "Colonel Noah, issue orders to have our men standing by. Major Marsden, you'll be our liaison between his unit and ours. Major White, have our Medical personnel standing by and have your reservists at the LA Underground. Connor, direct any wounded to your own base; it'll be closer. Sparks, I want a full list of targets and strategic points we can take control of while the bulk of Skynet's army is diverted by our counter-attack. Connor, do you have enough vehicles at your Motor pool for your own people?"
"Yessir."
"Good. All right people, move like you have a purpose. Prepare to engage."
The CIC erupted into a hive of focused deliberate activity. The adrenaline was flowing; the voices carried an undercurrent of anxiety that came from the certainty of imminent combat. Orders started snapping out, and responses coming back just as fast.
With everyone busy, Connor went to the table and started studying the map, checking the topographic details, picturing the scene; and Whickham took the opportunity to sidle up to Kate discreetly. "Kate? You want to keep Sarah here for the duration of the battle? If Connor can't do it, LA will be the first place hit."
Kate glared at him.
"I know you don't approve, but if Skynet gets here, the Maternity ward will be the last place they could get their Terminators into. Twenty Four hours to keep your daughter safe."
"Sarah's on her way back to LA already." Kate informed him coldly. "I trust them there."
Whickham glanced about quickly, and got in close. "Kate, if I have lost your respect... then that's a shame, because I never had a daughter of my own to love. Only you. But I make no apologies for the methods I use to spare the human race from extinction. If you or Connor can find a more noble way to achieve the same result, I welcome it; please point it out to me."
Kate was silent. "I have to go now. I have a base to prepare for casualties and a baby daughter to tuck in." She turned on her heel and left.
Whickham turned away from the door as she left, and noticed Connor still at the maps. "Something wrong, Colonel?"
"Something makes no sense to me." Connor mumbled. "The Invasion Force is gathering in one place before it moves our way en masse, right?"
"That's what Intel suggests."
"Then why are they gathering there?" Connor pointed at the map. "Their reinforcements were closer to the route between here and Phoenix. It would be more efficient for them to make their way here and just collect their reinforcements as they come. Why make those unit's double back?"
"Making modifications?" Whickham guessed. "Maybe there's something in Phoenix that Skynet wants its army to go through."
Connor was still looking at the map. "Maybe. I don't know."
Whickham nodded. "You think it's a problem?"
Connor was silent a moment. "Not in any way i can see. It doesn't change our plans at all."
"Can you take them?"
"Without the usual cover... it's gonna be a dogfight."
Whickham nodded. "Once upon a time, it was all about two armies charging each other. Then it became about holding trenches and front lines. Then it was about operations and air support. Now it's about endurance. Either they're the last one standing, or we are." Whickham looked over the maps again. "You really think that we should let them hit LA?"
"No. I wanted to give my people as much cover for a battle as I could. Skynet knows that trick now; that's why they're sticking to the highways; keeping themselves in the open. But you were right; we can't knock down the H/K's and the Terminators at the same time. Either one or the other gets through, and they're at our front door when they do." Connor sighed and ran a hand through his crew cut. "I just don't like the idea of going to them. We're going to take heavy losses. Skynet's army rolls off an assembly line."
"But an assembly line still needs resources. Skynet has a finite amount of materials, just as we do. We've been hitting heavy metal stores and mines. We can hit the resources, and they can't move the Terminator factories. We can starve them out!"
Connor's eyes flashed. "And we break that Army, we can do it fast. We can burn so much of what they have to cover the whole area, trash the factories before they can replace their armies… I just wish we had something better than the Charge of the Light Brigade."
Whickham smirked. "May we have better luck." He nodded. "You were right too. In a straight up fight, your people on an open playing field would lose. Probably mine too, even with the armoured vehicles and the air support. If you can set up an ambush somewhere along that highway…"
"None of my people know that area real well."
Whickham nodded "I have a few recon patrols still in that area. I can have them find a place for you to set up. But after that, it's all on you. Tactics are still going to be the edge we have over the Drones."
Connor smirked. "My mom told me once, that the war game is the easiest in the world to play. Last man to shoot wins."
Whickham grinned coldly. "I intend to be the last man standing."
Connor grinned, equally cold. "So do I."
For just a moment too long, both soldiers stared each other down.
"You'd better get back to LA and warn your people. If you can wait a day, our troop carriers will take you. Carry on, Colonel."
"Yessir."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Eleven Days
Kate and John were curled up in the back of the troop carrier. Dex and Carla were at the other end, giving their commanders some time in relative privacy.
John sat against the wall of the carrier, in the corner. Kate curled up in front of him, leaning back against his chest. The moving truck rocked them both gently.
"What are you thinking?" John asked her.
"Wondering what Chet would say if he knew the truth. About you. Wondering what he would do if he knew the story of the Great John Connor." She rolled her head back to look up at him. "I was tempted… to tell him everything. He's not sure about you. He knows that you were a civilian till we met Eric, but everything he knows about you says you're a good soldier, just thrown into an army you never wanted to lead."
"I am." John smirked against her hair and avoided the unspoken question. "He loves you like a daughter, Kate. It was nice, seeing you with him."
Kate was thinking about the things she had learned about her uncle's actions; and the way he'd treated her husband, and the way he was gathering influence among John's men... and for once, she wondered if Chet losing power would be that bad. Kate almost smiled. "You know that he introduced my parents?"
"Really?"
"Mmhm. Him and my dad were practically brothers. I told you that my dad was never a GI, but he got put through college on a military scholarship. Chet and my dad were college roomies."
John had a bittersweet smile. "What he said, about how you looked like your mom."
Kate tensed. "Yeah?"
"You never talk about her."
"Not much to say." Kate leaned back tighter into her husband. "Some women can live like Army Wives, some women change their minds and decide to stay in one place, even when their husbands and daughters do not."
John gave her a squeeze. "Thinking about Becki?"
"Becki and Sarah." Kate confirmed. "It's not an easy life at the best of times."
"Yeah, but Kate, think of how truly lucky you are. Of all soldiers left in the world, you have family in both bases. Wherever you get stationed in this particular war, you're home."
Kate smirked.
"What?"
"Nothing, just... you were so worried you'd never be able to get people to follow you. You can handle people so easily now. I'm your wife, and I don't even know if you're doing it to me."
John chuckled, as Dex came over. "Am I intruding?"
"Have a seat, Dex."
Dex sat down against the fabric wall. "I imagine by now, you know about Corporal Curry's… request."
Connor nodded. "It shows character that she went to Carla first. She doesn't want to make things difficult, Dex."
Dex nodded. "I suppose it is kind of flattering that she wants it to be me, but… I don't know."
"Dex, from a purely practical standpoint, it's the right thing to do. Another human being in the world. The problem you have is that it feels wrong." Connor said. "This is a war for Humanity. Feeling things is the whole point. There's an old saying, Dex. 'It takes a village to raise a child.' Heaven knows I didn't have a clue about kids when I became a father. Still don't. But this isn't just your kid we're talking about, it's all of ours. Every one of us have a stake in the next generation born. There's no such thing as 'someone else's' baby any more."
Dex thought about that for a long time and looked back at Carla. "What about..."
Kate seemed to read his mind. "Surrogacy is nothing new, Dex. It's been an accepted process for a long time now. We just got used to hospitals and clinics."
Dex looked seriously back at Carla. "Permission to be dismissed, sir?"
"Granted."
Dex went back over to Carla, slid in next to her gently, and put an arm around her.
"What would you do?" Kate whispered.
"If Curry had come to you and not Carla, what would you say?" John asked her in turn. "You know what does interest me, though?"
"What?"
"Why doesn't she want the baby to be born in San Jose?"
"I don't know." Kate closed her eyes and snuggled against him tightly, before he could see her face. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Chapter 8: Z Plus 2 Years 212 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Twelve Days
Nobody was quite sure how much the nuclear blasts had screwed up the weather. But for whatever reason, the sepia toned sky had grown a little grayer, and the air had turned from cold to frigid. A problem more for the Castle Keep than the LA Underground.
Getting into the Underground was not that difficult any longer. Tunnels had been built and fortified and concealed at the edge of the city, and it simply took timing to wait until the Skynet patrols were away from that area. Such tunnels had been built in all directions, extending outward from the City.
This however, was a special case. This was not a truck full of supplies that could be carried, or a small party of soldiers. This was a full on convoy of Troop carriers, Armored vehicles and even a few tanks; that had to get into the City through the only tunnels large enough to carry them; and the Convoy came to a halt well outside LA as flying machines circled the area, searching for targets.
"We can overpower them head on." Marsden commented to Connor, both of them in the lead vehicle.
Connor shook his head. "No. We can take them up close and personal, but I'd rather we not give the H/K's time to see our forces. If Skynet learns that we have tanks on the move, we can't risk using them in the ambush without tipping our hand."
Marsden nodded. "I got this."
"You do?"
Marsden nodded and opened the slide to call into the back of the truck. "Jake? Unpack the Crossbow."
The 'Crossbow' was a large case full of laser-guided rocket launchers. Marsden took a laser pointer, and his men each took a launcher. Several other teams of two did the same.
"Everybody pick a bad guy." Marsden commanded.
Whickham's men did so, pointing their laser pointers like sniper rifles.
"Ready." Marsden commented. Five or so voices answered him in the same instant.
"Fire." Connor said calmly, his voice releasing a cloud of steam in the air.
Five rocket launchers went off at the same time, the sudden burst of fire and smoke started to draw attention, but too late for the machines to do anything about it.
They were far enough away that the ground didn't shake, but even they could see the flames and the soldiers cheered.
Connor was watching Marsden out of the corner of his eye. He was good. He had good qualities for a leader; better in a soldier. Nevertheless, a subject for another time. Connor lifted his radio. "Eric, put away the breakables, turn on the lights. We're back."
Connor jumped out of the jeep as the Convoy rolled into the Underground. Even with all the trading back and forth between the two bases, a new arrival on this size was an event, and a number of people, military and civilian alike were present..
Walters looked over Connor's shoulder and saw the convoy of troop carriers. "Brought back a few souvenirs?"
"The fighter jets should be here any minute now." Kate added. "Sarah?"
"With Schwartz at the nursery." Walters directed, knowing it would be the first thing she asked.
Kate was already moving. "Tell Bowman to meet me there."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Tell the Communications room to route the jets and the choppers incoming to LAX. One thing we don't have here is a runway. Have some of our guys out there to cover them while they're on the ground; and then assemble the Principals." Connor directed, brushing the frost and slush off the windshield. "The Machines are on their way."
Kyle poked his head out of the Troop Carrier. "Bring 'em on!" He exulted toughly.
Connor nodded at his second in command, who headed off to follow his instructions, and Connor gestured Kyle to come over. Kyle followed him a little ways from the Motor Pool and Connor knelt down, eye to eye with Kyle. "Kyle, I'm sorry, but you can't come with us on this one."
"What?" Kyle whispered in shock. "Why not?"
Connor hated to do it. "Kyle, how old are you?"
"I… I don't know… I can't remember. I think I was six or seven Back Before."
"So at most, you're still under ten now. If you aren't as tall as a rifle, you shouldn't be carrying one."
"That's not what you said when you had me out with you to bury the mines. The machines hit us then too, I didn't let you down!"
"You've never let me down, Kyle." Connor promised. "Not once. But I'm not running this war now. Whickham is, and he made it clear that kids aren't to be soldiers."
Kyle waved furiously at himself. "You see a uniform? I'm not a soldier. I don't have to be grown up to stay alive."
"Kyle." Connor said firmly. "You're not coming."
Kyle didn't cry. Kids didn't cry anymore. They had to keep their eyes clear. "I want to help."
"And you do. A lot. Just not with guns. Not yet."
Kyle was vibrating with the energy. He actually saluted, and waited until Connor returned the gesture before he ran off.
Connor looked after him sadly. As much as he wanted to protect the kid, he had to admit that he wanted to harden the kid to war. Kyle Reese had one of the most important missions of the war.
Connor shook his head. He didn't like to think about that.
"No fate but what we make." Connor told himself, and headed down the next tunnel.
"Gould."
Gould looked up from the huge magnifier and stood. "Colonel. Welcome back to LA. How are things on the surface?"
"Cold and muddy. I wanted to check in, see how the Project was coming along."
"Not as well as I'd like. I managed to crack the computer architecture, and the software language. But reprogramming that language into something we can use... We're working with what electronics we can cobble together that wasn't fried by a Nuclear War, to say nothing of the fact that most of it's from RadioShack. We're trying to rewrite the Encyclopaedia Britannica with finger-paints."
Connor nodded. "Well, it's about what we expected, but this is still your top priority; and minutes count."
"Yessir."
"Carry on."
Connor left, and one of Gould's Techs' waved after him. "He wants the impossible!"
Gould smirked grimly. "That's the short definition of 'Officer'."
Kate collected baby Sarah from Danes and sat down, rocking her daughter back and forth while waiting for Bowman.
Kyle came in first, looking about as upset as Kate had ever seen him. "Kyle Reese; my daughter's favorite bodyguard!" She called over to him cheerfully. "What's wrong?"
Kyle moped around a little bit, finally acting like a little kid. "Skynet's comin'."
"You don't have to be scared." She assured him, with a certainty she didn't really feel. "You know we can beat them before they get here."
"Connor says I can't fight any more." Kyle snarled, and Kate suddenly understood.
"Kyle, I understand wanting to help, but he's right. Little kids shouldn't be part of the war."
"Never stopped anyone before!"
"Well..." Kate floundered. "Things are different now."
"Why? Because of the General? Skynet doesn't care how old I am, why should he?"
"Because Skynet is a machine, and the General is not." Kate told him firmly. "Neither is John. He never liked you fighting, Kyle. He just understood why you wanted to."
That shut Kyle right up.
They were silent a moment, until Kate gestured from her chair over to the wall. "Can you get me some of that powdered milk?"
Kyle jumped up and headed over to the shelf. There were rows of assorted cans, all shapes and sizes. "Which one?"
"That one." Kate pointed. "The one labeled 'Milk'."
Kyle tried to follow her finger, but she was too far away. He didn't say anything.
Kate twigged. "You can't read that, can you?"
Kyle looked down.
Kate knew she shouldn't be surprised, but she was. "All those messages you carry, you can't even read them?"
Kyle looked down, he looked… so very sad, like he was somehow unworthy. Kate recognized the look. She had seen it before. Connor and Kate were the only parents he really remembered; and he felt he had failed them.
"Kyle." Kate said gently. "It's okay, if you can't read."
Kyle looked up hopefully. "It is?"
Kate nodded. "It's something you have to learn though."
"Why?" Kyle argued. "I know everything. I can drive! Connor taught me how. I can shoot too! And I know how to skin a rat, and I know how to tell if they're sick, and I know all the signs for radiation and I can find water, and I know how to tell if its poison and I can make a fire and I can-"
"Kyle, if I was somewhere outside, and you were coming to meet me, what would you do if I left a message written somewhere, saying that machines were waiting for us, and you had better stay away?"
Kyle didn't answer.
"If you had to go somewhere outside this base you hadn't been to before, and I gave you a map to find your way, could you follow it?"
Kyle didn't answer.
"If I gave you a bunch of rations, and told you to split them evenly among the ratcatchers you know; how long would it take you to hand it out fairly?"
Kyle didn't answer.
"If you were out fighting with John, and he asked you how many machines were coming, how long would it take you to count them?"
Kyle didn't answer.
"And if I asked you to get a can of powdered milk off the counter for Sarah, what would you do?"
Kyle didn't answer.
Kate felt heartsick. This was the true tragedy of the post apocalyptic world. For all the things that they had lost, they were still losing so much of what they had the chance to save.
She looked down at Sarah and wondered if her daughter would know how to read? Know how to count? Know how to play?
"Kyle." She said finally. "Go track down as many of your friends as you can; the ones your age. Get their names, and find out how many of them know how to read and draw and do sums, okay?"
"Yes ma'am." Kyle said sullenly.
"Kyle." Kate said sharply. "Killing Skynet's only half the fight. The other half is keeping us safe. I'm asking you to help me do that. This is important Kyle. How do you think Connor got so smart?"
Kyle straightened up, feeling better. "Yes Ma'am."
He saluted again, and Kate returned it. He dashed off, as Bowman came in. "That kid is in such a hurry to grow up." Kate told him by way of introduction.
Bowman nodded. "Most kids are now. To be fair, you can't really call Kyle Reese a child. There are no children any more. I think that some of them have just enough memory of the movies and TV, and then you throw in the fact that every day their survival is a dogfight… I remember back before J-Day, people were talking about how kids grew up too fast with computers, and Internet and all that…"
"I remember." Kate agreed.
"Well, the first month after J-Day, a bunch of refugees came by where we were, before we had the Alamo set up. They'd been walking for a while… one of the women offered to sleep with me if I would give her food. I said no. For one thing, it wasn't right, for another we couldn't make exceptions on letting people in, and we were worried about infections and such… but in that little parade of refugees were over a dozen girls, some of them under ten, who heard every word she said. Down in the Underground some trade themselves for food or a place to sleep… At the Alamo I had a few kids come in for vaccinations. We handed out as many as we could before they spoiled. Some of those children had killed people over food and clothing and to save their own lives. Less than ten years old."
Kate shivered.
"Then they come here and get told that they're too young to go to battle? World's full of kids, Major; not a one of them is young."
Kate looked up with sudden realization. "You think we should let them fight."
"I think they've been fighting for a long time without us. I know that getting thrown in the deep end of combat was… not my finest hour. I think that some people can be thrown into a war when they hit eighteen, and some people will live longer if they are brought up to it."
Like John was. Kate realized with dawning horror. A childhood full of combat training, your first live fire situation before you reach your eleventh birthday…
Kate shook her head violently. No. Won't happen. Not to my daughter.
But deep down, she knew that was a losing battle already.
"Well anyway, I asked you here for something else." Kate heard her voice saying. "There's going to be a meeting soon. We have a new offensive on the way here."
Bowman swore lightly under his breath. "We better get ready, then."
Connor's lieutenants were assembled for a meeting; the first since Connor had made contact with Castle keep, which The Colonel himself attended.
As per usual, Connor arrived last, this time with Major Marsden in tow, and the room quickly sat up at attention. Lori was looking at Marsden with concealed suspicion, the soldiers simply glad to see a new face at the table.
"All right people, this is Major Peter Marsden, he's to liaison between our forces and General Whickham's, but proper introductions will have to wait; we have a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in." Connor reported. "By now many of you have heard the reason for this meeting, but if not here it is: general Whickham's scouts have identified a large force of ground and aerial H/K's making their way toward LA. Intel says that they are stopping along their route to gather reinforcements."
"Do we know how many?" Walters asked as the tension in the room ratcheted up several notches.
"The latest estimate is almost twenty five flying H/K's, and more than double that on the ground. That number is speculative however, as there is some exchange between them and other Skynet defenses in the area. Our scouts report that they've been gathering reinforcements and been leaving some of their own force behind to replace them, when they have been taken from Skynet installations. Gould suggests that they're exchanging the newer H/K models for some of the older ones, trading stronger defenders from stronger attackers to send this way."
"We've handled H/K's before." Walters piped up.
"We've handled incursions by H/K's before. This offensive has Terminators marching escort so that we can't hit them from the side or distract their sensors long enough to mine the road ahead. Unfortunately, we taught Skynet how to cover their flanks."
"Do we know the route they're taking?"
"They're following the highways." Marsden put in. "They're making sure to stay away from towns and geographic cover. They've learned that we can get in under their feet."
"They're being pretty blatant about it." Oldham piped up, looking at the report. "Half these Skynet bases, I never heard of. The attack made them obvious."
"We figure they're sick of playing games with us, so they've decided to hit us hard and end it quickly and neatly. We're the organized resistance in the area, so they're headed this way. They'll sweep LA, and then hit the Castle Keep. That's why they're collecting so many attackers and coming slowly. They know we've got nowhere to go, so they're taking their time. No mistakes, no surprises."
Silence for a moment while they turned the problem over in their minds.
"There is however, a strategy in mind." Connor said. "Major?"
Marsden stepped in and took over the briefing. "Our people have identified a suitable Ambush site. As a matter of necessity, Skynet will have to pass through an area which was hit by earthquakes after J-Day. That has created a natural barrier across most of the highways into the LA area. Giving us a chance to set up fortifications before they reach The Underground."
"Skynet knows this." Connor interrupted. "They have taken a great deal of care to protect their forces. Scouts have reported a large detachment of H/K's breaking off from the main group and scouting ahead. Anything that moves gets fried. Given the large number of H/K's involved, and of course the Terminators running escort duty; the advance guard can move a lot faster without the mass of the Invasion Force."
"How large an advance force we talking about?" Lori asked.
"At least six aerial H/K's." Marsden reported. "Again, that number shifts back and forth a little."
"We can take the flying H/K's from a distance." Oldham pointed out.
"We can, but we won't. Taking out the advance guard won't stop the invasion force, and will give away the Ambush." Connor countered. "The advance guard is moving far enough ahead of the main force, that we can get in under them. The plan is to move our heavy artillery into the Ambush site and dig them in. They play dead and allow the advance guard to pass over them, and then they wait until the Invasion Force reaches us. Our usual snipers will take out the advance guard so that they can't circle back, and our heavy weapons will hit the Invaders. Even if we can't wipe them out, we can take advantage of the Ambush spot to chew them up enough that the defenses in LA can handle it."
"Who are you taking?"
"The 201st, the Javelin teams, and the Meerkats."
A reaction went around the table.
"That's... almost the entire Underground, sir."
Connor nodded. "I know, but it can't be helped; we need them. Whickham's sending some of his forces to reinforce our defenses here. Also, the 201st will only be half our people for this one; the other half will be an armored vehicle division and a squadron of F-14's from the Castle Keep."
Another series of looks went around the table. It was the largest force that the underground had ever gone into battle with.
"The 201st will make the main strike on the Invasion Force." Marsden put in. "The 201st has a large amount of heavy artillery. They'll be in the convoy. Our job will to be providing escort. The 201st cannot be brought into combat until we ambush the Invaders. If they draw any fire, the artillery will be hit, and that will be the end of the counter-attack."
"Now for the bad news. We have to get to the Ambush site soon enough to set up our counter attack without the Advance guard noticing us." Connor continued. "This means we have to move out very soon. Sergeant Oldham, get the motor pool organized fast; have Troop carriers for all our people, and the people Whickham sent. They also have to get the armoured vehicles and tanks looking like something that could have been abandoned, just as our vehicles look; and they don't have a lot of time to do it in." Oldham nodded. "Lori, if your people have any mines or heavy munitions, get it to us en route. Major Walters, get the 201st moving, Major Marsden is our liaison to Whickham's people, so co-ordinate with him. Once we've all left, you have to get the city defenses, sappers, mounted guns, everything; ready to fight in case we can't break them out there. Whickham is sending reinforcements to shore up our defenses with us gone, I'm leaving you to get them in the right place." Walters nodded, thinking the order through. "Kate, get Medbay ready for all the casualties we're about to send you."
Kate nodded. "How are you set for Medics in the Convoy itself?"
Marsden took that one. "My people are already here; we knew you had more soldiers on hand than Medical so Whickham sent them first. We'll be taking most of them with us."
Silence.
"Dismissed." Connor finished.
The Briefing room turned into a hive of activity, radios coming out and orders being snapped left and right. The meeting broke up, with various soldiers heading out to issue orders and make preparations.
Connor headed out last, Kate at his side. She glared fiercely at him. "You were so worried about Whickham getting control of your base. Why the hell are you taking all the people you trust away from the Underground?"
Connor threw up his hands. "Well I don't have any choice! There's no time to do any clever juggling with Whickham's soldiers. We have to get to the ambush site before the Advance guard do, and that means leaving fast. After we're gone, you'll have at least a few days to fortify things here! Right now, I can only fight things that are actively trying to kill everyone. I'll deal with your uncle tomorrow."
Kate nodded slowly. "I want to go with you."
"I want you to come. But I need you here. Firstly to keep an eye on our guys as they help Whickham's people fortify LA... and secondly to take care of Sarah..." The unspoken end to the sentence was 'in case I don't come back'. "And third..."
"Third," Kate finished. "To keep an eye on Whickham's people as they plant themselves strategically around your base."
Connor smirked mirthlessly. "And somewhere in there, you might want to get the Medbay ready for casualties."
"I should cancel school."
"No, you should go ahead with it. It's a good idea, and who knows when we'll get another chance. It's good to give everyone something to do. The civilians' trade work for food; the soldiers have their orders, the kids not as much. And you were right; we've been leaving them on their own too long down there."
Kate rolled her head back and sighed. "I remember back in Crystal Peak, you told me that there are two groups in the world, and the machines are all on the same side already."
"I remember." Connor agreed. "Kate, keep a firm grip on our guys here. People come to you with things they don't tell Eric."
"Why?"
"Well, if we can see the tensions between our base and the Castle Keep, then so can other people. Lori has already mentioned it. If one of them does something that'll make it worse, I want to find out and stop it before it gets anywhere."
"You think that could happen?"
"There's a moment between releasing the dice, and when the dice hit the table. Breathe wrong in that moment and you'll change how they come up. Things are heating up, so it's your job to keep things cool here, Kate."
Kate shivered. "I got a real bad feeling, John."
"Me too." John agreed. "Dice are rolling."
Kate stepped closer instinctively, and gave him a tight hug. He happily returned it, resting his chin on her head.
"It's going to get worse before it gets better, isn't it?" Kate asked quietly.
"Yeah." John confirmed. "But how is that different from any other day?"
Kate tilted her head back and gave him a kiss. "You keep them away from our daughter, you hear me?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Connor came into the main tunnel as another convoy of jeeps rolled in. Colonel Erica Noah was the first one to jump out. "Colonel Connor."
"Colonel Noah." Connor said in surprise. "What brings you to LA?"
"Not LA. General Whickham wanted me to come out to the fight with you."
"I thought Marsden was our liaison."
"He is, but the fact is I'm a better fighter in a pinch than he is. As a liaison between two groups, we need him here setting up your defenses with my people; on the battlefield, you need me. Getting the soldiers together takes a while, jeeps full of supplies are much faster, so here we are."
It was a straight up reason, not a bad one, perfectly plausible. But even so, Connor couldn't help the moment of concern that came with having Whickham's second in command on the battlefield with him.
"We move out soon." Connor said promptly. "Don't get comfortable."
Noah grinned. "Don't worry, Colonel; despite cliché, I travel light." She reached back into the jeep and hefted an M-60 and slung a bandoleer over her shoulder. "Light enough anyway."
The troop carriers rolled out less than an hour later. More than a few people were waiting to see them off. Whickham's reinforcements arrived four hours after that. Walters wasted no time getting them into position across the city, and the Main Cavern became the site of heavy construction again. Every tunnel leading to the outside became fortified and loaded down with mounted guns.
In the city above the Sappers were backed up with greater numbers and mines and traps lay across the city.
Within The Underground, more people were pressed into service, and with the inclusion of Whickham's people, the work was done with over a day to spare.
Kate was working the Medbay, organizing things; she then cleared out the Conference rooms and the Mess Hall as an auxiliary dormitory for Whickham's soldiers, and as an overflow triage for the wounded. Walters came to see her, and informed her that the Fighter jets had reached their standby points, a place between the ambush point and the underground, where they would be available for backup, but not visible in the air.
Kate checked on the medical Choppers, who lifted off to join the fighter jets, ready to collect injured soldiers. Inwardly, Kate worried that there wouldn't be enough of them.
The Mess Hall was the last area to be packed up, the equipment moved into the kitchen and the supply rooms.
The Underground was left with the horrible feeling, of simply waiting for something to happen.
"No no," Kate said calmly. "Not Elemenopee. Don't try and make it into one word. L. M. N. O. P."
The assembled class repeated the alphabet slowly. They were clearly having trouble with it, but Carla, unseen at the entrance, couldn't help but smile at them.
The kids on the base were almost uniformly without families, and had made their way by attaching themselves to others. But as the war and the virus dragged its way through, many of them were orphaned again.
By this time however, most of them had simply learned to fend for themselves, and with Skynet a constant threat, the adults had little time for them.
Kate had Kyle organize all the Children of the Dust, and gather them in the Mess Hall. Most of the kids had groaned at the first mention of the word 'school', when Kyle calmly stood and shut them all up, with more or less the same examples that Kate had used on him.
A surprising number of them were happy to embrace the normalcy of a class, and the ones that didn't really remember school at all were interested, if only to know how to do something new like read.
Not all of them were willing, not seeing the point. Kyle had convinced almost a dozen of them that Connor would be pleased; and now Kate had a small class of pre-teen survivors, with whatever scrap paper they could find and an assortment of drying markers, pencils and chalk.
Carla was gesturing at Kate quickly; who saw the worry on her face and quickly stepped forward. "Okay guys, there's something I have to take care of; and I'll be back as soon as I can. While I'm gone, I want you all to practise writing okay? Copy these letters down, till you feel comfortable with it."
The kids did so. Kate went over to the door, where Carla leaned in close. "You'd better get to the Kitchen. One of Whickham's guys is getting into it with Lisa."
Kate jerked a thumb back at the class. "Keep an eye on them."
Carla nodded, and Kate sprinted down the corridor.
Kate could hear the argument from halfway across the main chamber, but she made it to the Mess in time to hear a voice she didn't recognize screaming something about bouncing someone's head off the wall a few times.
She made it to the Kitchen and bellowed "Ten-HUT!" before she even got a look at things.
Both of the arguers came to an instinctive silence as Kate got between them. Lisa was one, looking about as ticked off as Kate had ever seen her, eyes blazing, with a carving knife in her hand; and the other was one of Whickham's soldiers, who had to be about seven feet tall and built like an Olympic weightlifter. She read his shoulders and nametag quickly. Sergeant Sherrin.
There were four or five people in the Mess Hall, all of them trying to be invisible.
Kate took a breath. "Okay. What happened?"
Both of them started talking at the same time, then yelling at the same time, then yelling at each other, until Kate let out a high 'hey taxi' whistle and they both fell silent.
"Okay. I think it's good when people blow off a little steam, but what do you say we try that again?" Kate said reasonably. "Lisa?"
"Major, I have been working for thirty six hours. I just wanted this guy to help me pack it up, and he told me to buzz off. I tried to reason with him-"
"Tried to reason! You threatened to drown me in the pot! And then you-"
"You wuss!" Lisa snapped. "What? You want to go get the rest of your Unit, tell them that the girl half your size threatened you with Creamed Corn?"
Sherrin grew bigger somehow, suddenly two feet taller than both of them, and Kate put a hand up, not at all intimidated by the anger of a man who could break her into small pieces. "Corporal!" Kate interrupted sternly. Did you threaten to drown this man in our Creamed Corn?"
Lisa looked down. "Yes Ma'am."
"Well I'm sorry to hear that. I thought John taught you better than that. You know how hard it is to get supplies in here. Fifteen year old food is a blessing. We can't afford to waste it on premature burial! Drown the man in our latrines for crying out loud!" Kate turned on Sherrin. "And you. You've had a long day? With the 201st gone, we're all pulling double shifts. You're a soldier! You should know better than to cast aspersions on the KP Staff. Do you have any idea what these people spend their lives doing with their hands?"
Lisa nodded emphatically at that. The soldier hung his head slightly.
"Double shifts cutting up and cooking Army food? You think it's bad when you're eating it? I'm medical, and I don't want to trade jobs with them." Kate laid it on good and thick. "Lisa's been on this detail for thirty six hours now. I don't like doing things I enjoy for thirty six hours!"
Sherrin smirked, just a little. Lisa actually chuckled.
"So Sarge, if you'd help her out a little, I'd be grateful." Kate finished.
"Yes Ma'am." Sherrin said, much calmer now.
"And Lisa, be patient with the soldier. First of all, he's new in the Underground, so we must make allowances; secondly, you know how men are."
"She's right, bloody useless, the lot of us." Sherrin added, and Lisa couldn't help but smirk.
"All right then." Kate smiled and headed out of the kitchen.
She made it halfway across the main tunnel when she heard another argument echoing from another direction, and quickly headed off to find it.
"We have a system here, okay?" Bowman was yelling. "We know what we're doing! This is not our first time treating wounded!"
"Look, 'Doctor'," returned someone else angrily. "The General told us to help you get ready for incoming, and frankly, we're better at this than you-"
"Don't bet on it!"
"-And anyway, there are more of our staff than yours, so I made a change. You don't have to get so defensive about this. My staff will be here too, and I want them to have as little trouble figuring out where things are as possible!"
"No, far better that my people have that problem! I can't yell for my staff to bring me a cardiac kit and wait for ten minutes while they figure out where you put it!"
"Listen, 'Doctor' there's no room for all this stuff! There's no room for all the supplies The General is sending you, so something has to go!"
"Stop saying 'Doctor' like that!" Bowman snapped.
Kate came into the Post-Op ward and found Bowman in the middle of a heated argument with one of Whickham's Doctors, Major Rios. Between them was a small refrigerator for bottles of blood, vials of various drugs... The contents of the fridge had been unpacked completely.
Bowman saw her. "Major Connor, as Chief Medical Officer in the Underground you should stop this idiot from tearing apart your-"
"Oh please!" Rios snorted. "As Chief Medical Officer in the Underground you should tell this idiot on your staff to prioritize what you keep and what you-"
"Stop this!" Kate snapped. "As Chief Medical Officer in the Underground, I am sadly appalled. Here we are; the last of the human race. It is our duty to rebuild the world and you're in here arguing over refrigerator space. What if tomorrow the war was over and things like refrigerator space suddenly became trivial? Can you imagine that? Tomorrow the war ends and we have to rebuild human civilization. Do you guys want to be like the World Leaders before J-Day, or do you want to squabble over minutiae and waste time?"
Bowman snorted, and Rios smirked despite himself.
"Now, as to the matter of the fridge, you're both idiots. We can't afford to toss anything." Kate scrubbed her forehead for a moment. "Okay. My dad took me camping once, and we wanted to chill our drinks. We tied the cans together and stuck them in the lake with fishing line. That time of year, the water was cool enough down deep. Figure out which ones can take a few degrees difference and the ones that have to stay coldest get in the fridge. Other drug supplies can get put in the reservoir, just make sure they don't leak. And blood can stay anywhere. They have to be refrigerated or they spoil after a few days, but by then, odds are we'll have used them all. Get my point?"
"Yes ma'am."
Kate headed out of the Medbay, and saw a bunch of soldiers carrying a large weapons crate toward the smaller exit tunnels. "Oldham!" She shouted after them without thinking.
"Yes Ma'am?" Oldham let go of his end and quickly went over to Kate. Half a dozen soldiers scrambled to keep from dropping the crate he had released.
"Where's Marsden?" Kate demanded.
"Outside I think, arguing defenses with Major Walters."
"Tell him to keep a lid on the people Whickham's sending. Things are getting ugly in here. He's supposed to be our liaison to Castle Keep."
"Yes Ma'am."
Kate waved him off and headed back toward her class, clapping imaginary pixie dust off her hands. Three down.
There was no doubt though. With the majority of the soldiers gone, the omnipresent threat of Skynet suddenly getting a good deal closer, and the tripled workload, it was as if the air was getting thicker on base; to the point where Kate could cut the tension with a knife.
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Thirteen Days
The highway was more or less unchanged for the full day that the convoy rolled toward the advancing Skynet invasion. But at the ambush site, the road suddenly dipped below the typical ground level, in a light ravine. Below the surface area, there was a relatively untouched road, with two sides looking down on it, and stone walls. And with the slush and mud, the ground was slippery too.
"Amazing how the geography changes, huh?" Noah commented. "This area was mined out. they mined granite and shale out of the road to keep the highway flat; and piled it up on both sides of the road, but there are landslips in the area, that's why it dips down. When J-Day hit, the whole place just collapsed, smoothed out."
Connor nodded, taking in everything as the jeeps pulled to a halt. They stopped at the edge of the narrow ravine, the road down below them.
"How long till they get here?"
"Another three hours." Noah reported as a number of soldiers came up to get their orders.
"Dex, get the rest of the Division together, have them get into the ravine and start laying mines, have the Convoy stay back till the first line of mines and defenses is laid, then get them into position. Move fast and have that camouflage ready fast."
"Yessir."
"Radio silence till we attack!" Connor called after him.
Connor looked down the valley. "Have the scouts check to the west and east on their way forward to set up the mines. I want to check, make sure there isn't a better place for the ambush."
"This is the only place, sir." Noah told him. "Day-um, it's cold."
Connor looked away from the humans, setting up their defenses, sharply giving Noah his full attention. "What do you mean?"
"Well… I mean that there's only one place we can pull off this ambush. The topographical maps are all five years and several nuclear blasts out of date. The only way we can be sure about the terrain here is because my people have used it for attack runs already…"
"You've been here before?" Connor demanded.
There was a beat of silence as that sank in.
Noah felt the blood drain from her face as Connor grabbed the radio. "Break Radio Silence! Fall Back! Fall BACK! AMBUSH!"
Too late.
The area surrounding the valley exploded with an eruption of flame and white hot phosphorus that made every soldier cover their eyes desperately; blinded by magnesium flares. The area around the Human Army was neatly surrounded by a wall of white fire.
The explosive blast threw every soldier off their feet, rattled them down to their stomachs and deafened all of them for several moments.
And in those moments, all hell broke loose.
In a move that they must have leaned from the humans, Terminators threw back camouflage nets, erupting from the dirt; and came to their feet mechanically, drilling down one blinded soldier after another.
Connor's vision came back and he saw H/K's on the horizon, flying machines heading for them fast and deadly, not bothering to evade, not trying to hide, hurtling toward the combat zone. The Advance Force, coming in for the kill.
Whickham's soldiers were still in the circle of flame, trying to gun down the Terminators when they could barely see.
Connor grabbed his radio. "Tango one! We're under fire! Taking fire! Enemy reinforcements are advancing!"
"Roger that, moving to assist."
"Negative! Engage the incoming H/K's, do it now!"
"Roger Lead One, moving to intercept."
The world shook apart again as the howl of jet turbines split the sky. Then another. Then two more.
Connor fought to clear his vision, and saw a chrome skeleton raising a weapon at him.
Connor reacted without thought and brought his own weapon up to blast plasma back at it. As he fired, he quickly considered his options.
The Terminators were in too close for the air support to be much good; it was practically hand to hand range.
He had his own people from LA just outside the blast radius, but hauling them in would mean hauling them in for one fight, when the mission was another fight much further on.
The Advance force H/K's were still outside of his reach, and beyond the ambush site, in combat with his fighter jets; but if they managed to get to the engagement, they would mow down the humans mercilessly.
The way ahead was blocked by the explosions; probably more mines on the road.
Noah was on her radio, yelling. "Over the edge! Get to the road and keep them away from the convoy!"
The soldiers obeyed, diving off the edge of the small ravine down to the highway, keeping themselves below the angle of the Terminators' fire.
Connor went to the nearest truck, pulled the corpse from the driver seat, and jumped in, gunning the engine. The troop carrier went toward, and then over the edge, sliding and rolling the twenty feet to the road. The wreck of the truck came to a crashing halt halfway through the narrow ravine, covering the road end to end.
Connor fought to get free of the cab, seeing his fellow soldiers come running toward them.
Noah kicked in the windshield and helped pull him out. "What the hell was that for?"
Connor started to answer when plasma fire split the air again and all the humans ducked to the sides.
The Terminators were at the edges of the ravine, firing down into the road at the humans from both sides. The Last Army was firing back at them, without cover, with no room to escape.
Connor lifted his radio. "Tango One, we're clear! Light 'em up!"
"Roger that, Lead One. Tally Ho."
Another scream of a jet turbine; and there was a millisecond of shadow as a pair of fighter jets cracked the sky, their cannons blazing, tearing up the ground on either side of the ravine, blowing apart the rows of Terminators, their high ground suddenly a kill zone.
Down below the line of fire in the ravine, the Last Army breathed a sigh of relief.
Their relief lasted all of two seconds as at the end of the ravine, between them and the far distant invasion force, the entrance was filled by the ranks of approaching Terminators on the march.
The ravine became a narrow shooting gallery, but the truck Connor crashed into the ground was between the humans and machines, as a last barricade the humans dove for cover behind.
It became something of a wild west show, as row after row of the Machines sought good positions to shoot from and the Humans ducked up and down behind their barricade to try and shoot them down. Within the ravine, there was no chance of air cover, the Convoy hidden out of range according to the Mission Plan.
"Lead one, this is Tango Two," Connor's radio buzzed. "Tango One is splashed; repeat, Tango One is down, you have aerial H/K's incoming!"
Connor was itching to give the order, but knew it was going to cause more problems than it solved.
Noah knew it too. "Any ideas?" She shouted furiously as she ducked again. "Sooner or later we won't have a car wreck left to hide behind."
Dex took a hit across the small of his back as he tried to duck low again. He dropped to the ground and quickly shrugged out of his jacket, slapping at the flames that had caught on his clothing.
Connor snapped. "Let's go. Javelin team, prepare to fire. Sniper one, prepare to point them home. Team two, fall back to the ridge, and team one with me."
Noah kept firing, but spared him a glance out of the corner of her eye. "General Whickham ordered us to keep the convoy and their weapons out of the-"
"I am overriding that order. Draw them toward the convoy."
Beat.
"Yes sir."
The battle suddenly turned into a fighting retreat. Connor had sent his men in the convoy to protect the endangered soldiers while they fell back. The pursuing Terminators did not realise that the second group had a different purpose, and were forced to let their prey go.
Connor and Noah personally led the counterattack. His men gave Connor and Noah team enough time to get to cover, and then split up their soldiers into pairs, darting into the smoke, scattering like a swarm of wasps that stung and struck and vanished.
Terminators tried to hold their line even. One even line, moving in formation, to match their attackers. That didn't work, because Connor's men were not in a similar formation. Their teams of two moved over the battlefield, finding cover where they could, spreading out the Machine's ranks as Skynet directed them to spread out the line.
The gaps widened and Skynet, while lacking in imagination, was not stupid. It pulled back its forces, giving them less ground to cover; moving toward the H/K's that brought them to their target zone.
From his viewpoint, Connor grinned cruelly. They could either chase cobras into the tall grass, or they could fall back and give up ground. He lifted his radio. "Rack'em and Stack'em."
Back at the convoy, still well away from the battle, a fire-team was waiting. Their jeep-mounted guided missile fired, arcing into the sky. The second it was away, they jumped into their jeep and bolted.
At the front of the Convoy, at the edge of the fire fight, the sniper team set down their rifles and picked up laser pointers, focusing the lasers on the H/K's, which were swooping in toward their troops.
The Javelin missile arced sharply downward again, following the laser guide, hammering the flying Machines.
With a massive explosion that rumbled the ground and shook the end of the ravine, Skynet's latest assault was over.
Connor raised his head. The ravine was still open, which meant that Skynet was still coming. "Round up the wounded. We have to get them back."
Oldham looked around the battlefield. It was, in every sense of the word, ugly. There were wounded laid out everywhere. Without exception, all the healthy soldiers were supporting one or two heavily wounded men.
Connor signaled trucks to start rolling. They were going to need troop carriers for all the wounded. "Lay out all our munitions. All of it, in as tight a grid pattern as you can without making them set each other off. Lay out all the mines, all the claymores you can. Even if they have Terminators to disarm them, we can set them up to collapse the ravine if they simply shoot them. That'll delay the Invasion Force a good day or two longer. We have to get the wounded back to LA."
Noah was looking with a jaded eye. "Connor... it looks bad, but we've still got a fair amount of healthy. More than two-thirds are still Mission Ready. The mission plan says we push on."
"We've got two-thirds now. We push on and that could change. Skynet got out this far without us knowing. Who knows what else they've got set up here?"
"Whickham would say to keep to the plan." Noah pointed out. "The General would say that Skynet won't be expecting a counter-attack here any more, and the wreckage just makes our heavy guns and tanks easier to hide."
"Whickham didn't know the road ahead had ambushes set up. The plan was to lay our ambush here and take them by surprise. I'll take the heat. He won't blame you."
"I know." Noah said evenly. "He'll blame you."
The Underground's medical staff was in rare form. The wounded had come rolling in less than an hour before. Kate and Bowman were darting from table to table, trying to keep their mangled bodies from coming apart.
The mood was openly frantic. Nobody had expected them back this fast. They were losing people, plain and simple. The casualty rate had jumped from one in twenty to one in eight.
Dex had taken a hit in the back, but reacted fast enough to avoid the worst of the damage. His back was scarred and scalded, but he could still walk and move and work. Too many couldn't even scream.
Dex had his back treated after the more serious cases were seen to. The whole time he had sat on the ground, no cot available, and he had to sit upright, because he couldn't lie down on his back.
The whole time, he had kept his eyes on Carla, but he didn't really see her. He just kept staring, near brain lock. And when Kate came over to wrap his burns, he barely reacted.
Most of the survivors had a similar feeling. The Underground had new Pre and Post Op Wards set up, and row after row of pallets and cots across the ground carried bloodied and motionless bodies.
And Connor was nowhere to be seen.
Connor was in the Lab, putting the heat onto Gould. "How soon can you get those CPU's reprogrammed?"
"Sir, I don't know why this is important, particularly now, but the fact is, I don't think we can!" Gould insisted. "Skynet's got a better computer setup than us. It's not about figuring out their computer architecture, I can crack that, it's just that we don't have the processing power. You have any idea how many files are in these thing's heads? A file on how to walk, another on how to open their fingers, another on how to close them, another on how to focus their eyes... What Skynet can do on an assembly line, takes us a month to upload."
Connor thought for a second. "Forget the files. Keep the files. Change the directives. A Terminator is a computer with a gun. We don't have to teach them how to walk again; we just need to tell them who not to shoot."
Gould turned back to his screen. "Could work." He glanced back. "Sir, why the rush?"
Connor stood. "I have to get back. We took a lot of damage."
Connor headed back out to the Main Tunnel. There were dozens of people carrying stretchers, all of them stuck in near gridlock in the tight quarter. Noah was with them. "Colonel?" She shouted over. "Pre-Op Three's full!"
"Take them to the Mess Hall, and the auxiliary store rooms. Main Tunnel last, we have too many people moving through here. Triage the important cases; we still have more wounded incoming."
Noah started waving people into Tunnels like a Traffic Cop. Connor came over and took the opportunity to speak to her quietly. "Whickham called in. He wants a report. Let him know that the ravine collapsed when Skynet tried to disarm the mines and that bought us some more time. And tell him Skynet learned new tactics, and has apparently corrected for the Heat Vision limitations. Flare decoys don't work anymore."
"You sure about that?"
"Magnesium flares. They burn bright to blind us, and they used regular explosions to do damage. They weren't worried about the heat. They learned."
Noah shook her head. "It's my fault, Connor. I forgot to tell you that we'd been through there."
Connor waved that off. "Don't blame yourself. Skynet never used a landmine tactic."
"Yes." Noah countered. "It has. Skynet had one of its H/K's play dead to catch us when we were opening the route between San Jose and LA."
Connor reacted. "Really?"
Noah seemed to shrink slightly under his gaze.
Finally, Connor shook his head again. "No. I still would have done it, even if I had known. It wouldn't have changed anything Erica. Give yourself a pass on this."
"Help! Oh god help me!" A man was screaming as he was carried past them quickly.
"Give myself a pass?" Noah repeated bitterly.
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Fourteen Days
Noah had already left the Underground, recalled to San Jose by General Whickham once her skills were no longer of any use.
Her people, the soldiers that Whickham had sent, remained in LA and now were now hard at work clearing out every Machine in the city; preparing LA for the invasion.
Among them, there was the uncomfortable feeling that Connor had spooked and run in the face of danger. Connor's people were quick to argue that point from experience, saying that it was Whickham's fault for falling for the Skynet trap. Whickham's men had argued that from their own experience, and tensions raised another few notches, even as more defenses were laid out through LA in near terror.
Skynet was coming soon.
Carla washed her hands, and hung up her scrubs, feeling like a wrung out dishcloth. It had taken a full day to get all the wounded squared away, and more than a few of them had died in Pre-Op, waiting for a doctor.
Dex was in the Mess Hall. The place was quiet. Almost haunted. The hour was late, but living underground meant that shifts worked around the clock. Half the base lived during the night, the other half during the day. Dex was alone at the table furthest away from people that he could find.
Carla went over to Dex and put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched so hard that she jumped backward swiftly. "Sorry. Forgot about your back."
"S'Okay! It wasn't that!" Dex said quickly. "Just... wasn't expecting you."
"This seat taken?"
Dex barely acknowledged.
Carla sat down. They were silent a moment. Carla wanted to talk about it. He didn't. She had to tread carefully. "It was bad in Medbay, too. We haven't taken casualties like that since the Alamo Retreat. It was worse than that."
Dex nodded.
"You think that's what happens when you lose a fight?"
"I've been in losing battles before." Dex mumbled. "This was a massacre."
"I don't get it. What went wrong?"
"Skynet got smarter. It set a trap and we fell for it."
Carla nodded. "Rumor was that Connor was against the idea. He wanted to let them get closer. Let them get further away from their own bases."
Dex didn't answer.
Carla bit back what she wanted to say. She gently reached out and laid her hand over his. Dex didn't flinch this time. "I was worried about you." She said quietly. "Didn't know what was going to happen."
Dex's eyes finally focused on her. "I'm okay."
"Are you?" Carla asked him gently.
"Yeah." Dex slugged back his coffee. "I'm not on the injured list any more. I can walk, I can work. There are a lot of spaces to fill now. I have guard duty in a few hours."
Carla stood up and tugged his hand. "Long enough."
He stood with her. "Where are we going?"
"Pre-Op."
Dex blinked, but willingly followed.
Pre-Op was empty. All the wounded had been seen to. The room had been scrubbed cream and sterile, while the injured soldiers were still mid-operation. And now, the room was cool, the lights were off, and the room left until needed again.
Carla pulled the door closed; shrouding them both in darkness. Suddenly, they were alone. This one place in the Underground, there was nobody but them.
Carla turned and held Dex close, pressing against him gently. One of her hands came up and pulled Dex's face down to her shoulder. "Was it very terrible?"
Dex didn't lift his face from her hair. "Yes."
She could feel him taking deep breaths, still buried in her neck. "Dex... are you... smelling my hair?"
Dex made a slight noise. "My earliest memory is bread baking. Mom used to make her own bread. I woke up to the smell." He let out a very low sob. His voice was thin. Like he wasn't really there. Like he wasn't aware of actually saying anything. "Today... for months, it's been the smell of meat frying and electrical shocks and dirt and people living underground... I haven't smelled bread baking in forever, Carla."
Carla ran her fingertips very lightly over his back, feeling him shiver at the sensation of a gentle touch over the raw nerves. "And now, Dex? What now?"
"You're... alive. And warm. It's so cold outside..." He seemed to waver. Very very slowly, Dex's arms came up to hold her back "God, Carla; you're so… nice."
They clung tightly to each other for a while, finding the one quiet place left in LA, until Dex broke away suddenly. "Carla… I appreciate it; I really do, but…"
Carla put a finger over his lips. "Dex, I wasn't out there, but the choppers came in, and there were more and more and more of them, and everyone was bleeding, and all of them were screaming… And it took a full day just to… You think you're the only one hanging on by their fingernails right now?"
Dex took that in and reached out, pulling her back against him. "Sorry. Didn't think."
"I don't want to think right now either." Carla pulled away from Dex just enough to pull him into a deep languid kiss.
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Fifteen Days
Whickham stared at his maps. "Pull the 32nd back to sector four. Tell the 2nd tactical to abandon their attack run and fall back to defend their retreat. Pull our tank division back to the highway cross-section." He sighed hard and wiped his face. "Was there any way to see it coming?"
"No sir." Noah said honestly. "None of us saw it. Skynet never used a landmine tactic before."
"It's a learning computer." Whickham growled. "But why did Connor pull back the counter-attack?"
Noah licked her lips. "Sir, Connor was in charge of the mission. He didn't have to share his reasoning with me, but I figure he wanted to pull his people out of danger. Skynet had new tricks…"
"Which is admirable, but he disobeyed a direct order."
"Sir..." Noah struggled to find words. "It was pretty brutal. And frankly, the attack was my fault. I failed to mention to Connor that we had used the area before. Once he learned that, he knew. It was me. And… and I take full responsibility."
"And that's good of you to say, Erica; but it would have changed nothing. I still would have approved the mission. I'm not talking about the attack, I'm talking about the Mission Plan. Your losses were less than twenty percent. It would have been easy to send the wounded back to LA. They way you came was clear, obviously." Whickham argued. "More than 80 percent of a fairly large and heavily armed force is nothing to laugh at."
"Yessir." Noah admitted. "I think that Connor didn't like that Skynet was setting traps, and didn't know what was on the road ahead."
"Perfectly valid viewpoint. But war is all about making judgment calls. LA isn't the only city. It isn't the only base. If we lost LA, we still would have gained the entire state. Pulling back that attack gave Skynet an opening. We had to cancel the entire offensive. We lost our chance to retake a thousand miles of American soil!"
Noah nodded. "To be fair, sir; Connor didn't know that."
"And since when is that a reason to disobey an order? Keeping the whole strategy from soldiers on the front line is nothing new. It's what you do when there's a risk of capture."
"Yessir."
"Alea Jacta Est."
"Sir?"
"Julius Caesar was a general in the Roman Army. In 49 CE he committed mutiny and made himself Emperor. He brought his loyal forces across the Rubicon River. It was the move that launched his claim to power. His opponents knew that was it. Crossing the Rubicon River was the point of no return. There was no doubt as to his intentions any further. Connor, for all his talents, is a loose cannon."
"Due respect, but he's a pretty good commander. Good enough that most anyone who knows overlooks his past. Especially these days."
Whickham almost smirked. "Et tu, Erica?"
"Sir?"
Whickham took a moment to find the words. "Noah... when did we... why did we start calling it 'Judgment Day'?"
"Well..." Noah took a moment to think about it. "I don't really remember..."
"We never called it that. Then one day we overheard some guy transmitting on every frequency from LA, and suddenly we were all calling it Judgment Day. Connor came up with it. And Kate... ever since she got here, she's been saying things like 'getting to know your people', and 'no matter what happens to you'... She's not planning a coup, Noah, it's more like she knows... She's known me her whole life, and before she even stepped off that chopper, she automatically assumed that I was never going to be a serious part of the war. Being the highest ranking officer alive that we know about, that's more than slightly strange; and coming from her, its stranger. Kate, Walters... the people closest to Connor all assume he's already in charge."
Noah blinked. "Why? I mean, Major Connor is his wife, but that's not enough to… to what? Did someone simply decide one day that John Connor leads the resistance? Why him?"
"I don't know, but everything that Connor and his people do, tells me that they're expecting him to be running things, and there's nothing in the world that I can think of that will make that happen." Whickham started listing on his fingers. "He's got a criminal record. He's a fugitive, with a history of violence, domestic terrorism, and a family history of mental illness, and he's only a soldier because someone declared him so, and he decided to agree. Not the sort of man that you put in charge of the only organized resistance when survival of the whole species is at stake. And nobody seems to see any of that!"
Noah was silent, slightly embarrassed that she had been pleading Connor's case also.
"His past is something I can live with because of the circumstances we find ourselves in. And out of respect for Kate, I've turned a blind eye all of that; and to his sending children into combat. Beggars can't be choosers, Noah; but the first thing that every commander needs is the ability to put his men first, and still know to make sacrifices of them for a mission. Of course he didn't like the situation. Of course he was trying to protect his men. None of that is the issue. He disobeyed the order. The first thing that every solider has drilled into their head, is that you don't follow an order because you agree with it; you follow the order because your CO has the moral authority to say that you may not come back." He looked at her. "You agree with that policy, Colonel?"
Noah straightened her shoulders. "Absolutely, sir." She said without question. It was the truth. It was a fact of living in the military.
"Connor's good. One of the best I've ever met, but if he intends to focus all that destructive energy on Skynet, he at least needs to respect the chain of command. And apparently, he cannot do that any more. Connor crossed the Rubicon."
Noah nodded. "Give me an order, General."
"Alea Jacta Est." Whickham said quietly. "The Die Is Cast."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Sixteen Days
Connor made his usual tour around Post-Op. Kate waited outside, quietly giving him a rundown of each patient as usual. This time, Post-Op included the Mess Hall, and then the Supply Rooms, and the Dorms...
Connor came out of the Post-Op ward, looking sick. He hid it well. Kate wondered if anyone but her could see how tired he was.
John came over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You look like I feel."
Kate yawned. "What can I say? Had a busy day at the office."
"How was Sarah while I was away?"
"I was on my way down there now, actually." Kate said, threading her fingers through his. "Come with me."
He let her lead him through the tunnels. "Are you sure you don't want to go back to our quarters instead? I got my chance to sleep on the truck; but the Choppers were faster, you didn't get that chance, you've been working for hours. You're exhausted."
"I know. S'okay." Kate yawned. "My last patient had a hole clean through his shoulder. He was on the table, woke up mid operation; saw me and said 'Doc, you look awful.'"
John laughed mirthlessly as they came into the nursery. The usual crowd was there, namely Schwartz and Danes, with Kyle keeping watch outside the nursery.
Lori was there too. The older woman came over, smiled at the baby and handed Kate a small bundle. "With compliments of my guys near Sacramento. Gotta be the last clean baby blanket around."
"Aww. Thanks, Lori." Kate beamed at the very soft fabric, and handed Sarah to john long enough for her to shake it out. That was when she noticed the serious gaze that Connor sent Lori. It was quick and fleeting.
Kate was confused for a second. Lori said nothing to John. She merely met his gaze, nodded once, and quietly let herself out without another word.
"What was that?" Kate asked, cradling Sarah gently, tucking the blanket around her.
"That was Lori telling me that she had started to hide a few weapons and travel supplies outside LA, in locations that only she and I know about, and promising that she hadn't seen either of us yet today."
Kate blinked. "Why?"
Connor glanced over his shoulder. "No." He said. "Not here."
Kate laid Sarah down gently, tucked her in and gestured for Schwartz and Danes to come and take over.
They returned to their quarters. Kate was more than a little concerned at her husband's need for secrecy.
Kate checked the door. Nobody close by. Eric had withdrawn the guards that had stood watch over their door after Dyson's attack; but there was always at least one soldier within eyesight of the entrance to their quarters, though discreetly.
"John, whatever it is, it just cost me the first moment I had to hold my daughter after the worst day a Combat Medic could possibly have. So this better be good. What's going on?" She asked him.
"I'm having resources hidden away from the base, because we may have to run for it soon."
"Skynet found a way in?"
"No, not all of us; just you, me and Sarah."
"Why?"
John rubbed his eyes. "I disobeyed a direct order, and influenced others to do the same. The tactic was a retreat, so I'm also guilty of telling my men to run away under fire. Both of which are offenses that would get me thrown out of the army."
"They can't throw you out." Kate protested.
"There are no prisons. Given the circumstances; he could probably have me shot. Mutiny is a capital crime in a time of war."
"They sure as hell can't do that!" Kate snarled protectively.
"Why not?"
"Because... you're John Connor."
John grinned. "And what is that to your Uncle Chet?"
Kate stared at him, worried now. "He can't throw you out, John. You saved over four dozen lives. Chet would have gotten them killed if they hadn't done what you told them."
John nodded. "Maybe. But..."
"But you disobeyed the order." Kate bit her lip. "What's the procedure?"
"Court-Martial."
"How?"
"I don't know. No Joint Chiefs, No civilian government, we're the two highest ranking officers, any Independent Tribunals would be picked by me or him..."
"Who can put you on trial, John? Who has the authority?"
"General Whickham does."
Kate blanched. "You mean he could just show up one morning and tell you to get off the base? Or throw you out of the Army? Or shoot you if he wanted to?"
John looked at her. "He could. He will. Regulations give him pretty broad powers given that there's nobody else in authority above him."
"John... if he does... There's more to this than just obeying the order. There's a whole lot of people outside that door that want you to take command off him. Some of them are wearing uniforms!"
John sighed, but his face never changed. "I know. This is going to get worse before it gets better."
Kate was silent for a long moment. "Let me go to Whickham."
"Why?"
"If anyone can convince him to cool this down, it's me."
"Can you?" John returned. "I can remember a time when you called him 'Uncle Chet'."
Kate started to answer when Connor's radio buzzed. "Connor here."
It was Carla's voice. "Colonel? Dex is on perimeter guard... and um..."
"Is Dex there?"
"Um, no. I went back to the-"
"Report." Connor commanded her to get back to the point.
"Colonel, we've got Colonel Erica Noah here. She just came in. Says she's on special assignment from General Whickham."
"Did she say what she wanted?"
"You."
Kate looked sad.
Noah was let into the tunnel, and noticed a number of people looking at her. Most of them in uniforms. The Underground had a much tighter relationship between the civilian and military personnel. Noah supposed that it was a result of living underground.
The first rumors of a bloodbath like that morning were almost always false, but she could feel the tension rise by degrees with every step she took deeper into the Tunnels. She put one hand behind her back and signaled a few of her men. They dropped back, drew their weapons, and stood square centre in the tunnel leading out to where their vehicles were parked. Nobody was going to cut off her exit.
Noah and her two remaining men went closer to the CIC, when she felt someone staring at her. She glanced over and saw the kid who had followed Connor around the Castle Keep, glaring at her with a gaze so intense from a ten year old that Noah was almost, almost intimidated. The kid glared at her a moment, and then took off toward the Nursery.
Noah could feel the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, the civilians were getting very interested in her, and more than a few of them were moving ahead, getting in between her and Connor's Quarters.
But Noah was not heading there.
Her instincts were screaming, but nevertheless, Noah managed to march her men all the way to the Command Centre, where Eric Walters was waiting for them.
"Colonel Noah." Walters greeted with a salute. "I thought you had more men with you."
"I wanted to keep our vehicles protected." Noah returned the salute. "I'm here on special orders from General Whickham."
"Orders to do what?" Walters asked.
"To place Colonel John Connor under arrest."
The Command Centre came to a total crushing silence that seemed likely to explode at any second. And every single eye turned on Walters.
The Major took in the news. "What is the charge?"
"Disobeying a Direct Order in a time of war. Deserting his post under fire. Failure to obey the chain of command. Gross dereliction of duty." Noah took a breath. "General Whickham says that you are to take command of the LA Front, as well as the Underground, pending your formal promotion to Lt Colonel."
Every eye stayed glued to Walters. Obedience meant they would lose Connor; disobedience meant that they would lose Connor and Walters.
"No."
Noah turned, and so did Walters. There were three soldiers pointing their weapons at her. "We're not letting you take him."
Noah licked her lips and read the man's nametag quickly. "Seaborn, listen to me very carefully. I'm following direct orders from a two star General. You and your men are currently aiming weapons at a superior officer in support of a man accused of a crime. It would be very easy to declare a mutiny and drag you along with him."
"Okay, we are not doing this." Eric interrupted. "We are very close to something we can't undo here."
Cha-Clik!
Major Walters turned slightly and saw that Noah's men had apparently come into the base anyway. They had much bigger guns than the 9mm, and were aiming at all Connor's soldiers.
"Put it down, Seaborn." Walters said softly.
Long beat.
"Sir..."
"Put it down."
Connor's men slowly lowered their weapons. Noah's men quickly moved forward and took the rifles away from them.
"Now." Noah said seriously. "If someone would be so good as to take me to Colonel Connor."
Walters kept his face frozen. "Okay."
"Sir!" Seaborn hissed.
"It's an order." Noah told them both. "If that matters."
Walters and Oldham were soldiers. A direct order was the final word on the matter. Supposedly.
"This way." Walters said stiffly, hating this fiercely.
Scuttlebutt in a military base was hardly unusual. Rumors and gossip was even more common in a refugee camp. The LA Underground was both. The Post-Op ward was filled with wounded soldiers who had spent a good bit of time complaining about the badly fought battle, and who was to blame. It was a soldier's privilege (their only privilege) to complain.
So after the first few wounded soldiers had woken up, the civilians helping out in the medical wing had gotten a pretty complete picture of the battle; and the result of Connor's disobedience. Word had spread in seconds that Whickham had sent his Second in Command back into the Underground.
Noah could feel an ambush brewing in the eyes of every civilian they passed. With so few beds, most every tunnel was lined with people somewhere. And most of them were watching her, and her men.
Nevertheless, even with a crowd gathering as they walked toward Connor's quarters, they made their way through without incident.
They made it to Connor's room, and opened it without knocking. The room was empty.
Noah spun. "The nursery!"
Noah and her men went rushing through the base to the Medical Wing. There were more babies in the Underground now, but after Dyson, Sarah had a constant guard. Private Schwartz and Private Danes were notably absent from their usual posts.
Sarah was gone too.
Noah looked around and growled. "Where the hell is Connor?"
Dex looked around, and quietly slipped over to Bowman. "Where's Carla?"
The weather was bitter cold. The winter was the first since J-Day that Kate had been outside for. She didn't remember the winters being this cold. The wind was unending, howling, and it sliced into her like a dozen needles, over and over.
Once in the jeeps, it was better, but the dust and snow had mixed into a gray slush that made the windshield hard to see through.
Connor had said nothing to his wife during the drive. Not even when they stopped to collect the supplies Lori had left them, did either of them speak to each other. Kate was staring resolutely out the window. After having had been through a 14 hour session in OR, plus the preparation, plus the fact that her little family was at war, plus the oncoming invasion, plus the effort of keeping two units from killing each other, plus the fact that they'd had to escape from their own base without being seen...
She hadn't so much as looked at anyone since the drive began.
Having four other people in the jeep was reason enough to keep silent, but after a few miles, the silence became openly oppressive.
Finally, John could stand it no longer. "Kate... I know you love him, and I'm sorry-"
"My Uncle..." Kate was still staring hollow eyed out the window. "He was family. When I was younger. He was family before Terminators, and before J-Day, and before..." She shook her head, just a tiny bit, just a little side to side. "I was... I was different then." Kate blinked, and her eyes seemed to focus finally as she looked at him. "You think I'm mad at you?" She said hoarsely. "John, my loyalties are to you, and to Sarah, and to winning this god-forsaken war! You think I'm mad at you? Skynet's invasion hits LA in a few days! And then the game is over! John... what do we do?"
Forgotten in the backseat, Carla piped up. "We could try and get word to Eric. Whickham will put him in charge; but you know he'll still listen to you. If you had some idea how to beat that Invasion, you could get it to him and he'd make it happen."
Connor shook his head. "Nope. Whickham has one of his people manning the radio. All frequencies come to him, all messages go through him."
"Give it to me!" Kyle piped up. "I can get past anyone. I'm the best Tunnel Rat in the world!"
Connor smirked. "I have no doubt, Kyle. But what would I tell him?"
"How to beat Skynet!"
Connor shook his head. "I have no idea how to beat Skynet. Stone cold fact of the matter is: Skynet has us this time. Sending the H/K's is bad, but we've beaten that before. That's why they're sending in Terminators too. Legions of them. Our sappers can't beat those kinds of numbers, and with the Sappers distracted, the H/K's will march right in. I don't know how to beat that."
Dead silence. Danes and Schwartz traded a glance in the backseat.
"Well... sure you do." Kyle said finally, a very small voice. "I mean... you do. You have to."
Connor looked over his shoulder at Kyle. "Why?"
Kyle didn't seem to get the point of the question. "Well... you're John Connor."
Long silence.
"So, um... where are we going?" Carla said finally.
Connor smirked. "Kate and I have a place. Down closer to Mexico. It's isolated, no way to sneak up on it, plenty of fortifications..."
"Crystal Peak!" Kate whispered, soft as a psalm. John was taking her home.
"Crystal Peak." Connor confirmed. "Its closer to Mexico, and since most of the South American survivors were heading for the equator, there'll be people there. Most everyone south of the border survived. No nuclear powers down there."
Schwartz looked at the dashboard from the back. "We need fuel."
"We'll find a place to siphon some." Connor agreed. "As much as I hate to be traveling during the day, with this weather we can't risk losing visibility tonight." He pulled a bandanna from his pocket and wrapped it around his head, covering his nose and mouth. The cold weather cap covered everything down to his eyes, and the dark glasses kept the wind and debris out of his eyes.
Most of them saw at followed suit. Kate tucked Sarah tighter against her body and zipped her jacket up around them. The sun was just starting its downward trek, which meant it was only going to get colder.
Noah and Walters were waiting when Whickham's jeep rolled into the LA Underground. He saluted crisply as he jumped out. "Colonels."
"Sir." Noah and Walters responded.
"Any sign of Connor?"
"No sir. We've searched the Underground thoroughly." Noah reported. "Their head Nurse, Private Schwartz, Private Danes and Major Connor are confirmed missing." She grit her teeth. "Funny thing, but he walked out through a Tunnel full of people. And nobody seems to have noticed him leaving."
"Carla has been with the Connors since before they joined us, sir. Privates Danes and Schwartz have always been very close with the care of their daughter." Walters reported. "He wouldn't have involved anyone else."
Whickham nodded. "I've got as much of my heavy artillery on its way here as I dare. Skynet will be here soon. I figure they'll clean out LA and then move through to San Jose. We have to break them here."
"Agreed sir. Sappers have been redeployed to cover each other from the Invasion, and we've been placing mines in the roads, but it might not..."
"It'll be enough." Whickham said firmly.
Noah and Whickham traded a glance. They both knew he was lying.
After fifteen miles, Connor tapped Schwartz. There was a closed up, clearly abandoned gas station. The pumps were open, no fuel leaking out, but there were cars abandoned around it. Some of them were simply left, some of them burned out. Debris was piled on both sides of the street.
The jeep pulled over, and Connor jumped out, weapon drawn. Kyle was right behind him, and they scanned the windows, boarded up. Connor scanned the cars. No movement. He waved a hand signal back at the jeep. Carla got out first, then Danes and Schwartz stepped out, looked around carefully, and nodded to Kate, who stepped out and tucked Sarah into her jacket, stretching out her legs.
"Get whatever fuel you can." Connor ordered. "If you can pump it out of the below ground tanks, great, if not, the cars. make it quick, I want to make as much distance as we can before nightfall."
Danes got to work on the fuel tanks. Carla helped; Connor did a slow circle of the service station. Garage, fuel pumps, debris piled up. The shelves had been stripped of food, the windows long broken...
"We got fuel!" Danes called. "The tanks are good."
Connor felt the hairs on his neck standing up. The service station was stripped, the place abandoned, and there were bullet holes in the doors...
And yet the below ground tanks were still filled with fuel, more precious than gold...
"Trap!" Yelled Connor. "Get the jeeps started!"
Danes heard the cry and bolted for the building; getting hit by a blast of weapons fire that came from nowhere.
Kate heard Danes' death-yell and reacted, rushing away from the Service Station, when the weak wooden door flew open, and a Terminator marched out. Two more from the window, two more from the garage.
Connor reacted fastest. His weapon came up and started spitting plasma. One Terminator dropped.
From behind the service station came a roar of jet turbines. A Flying H/K, hidden from the road behind the wrecked building; raising into view; responding to combat with machine efficiency, coming in for the kill.
Connor did the math as quickly as any of them. They were going to lose. "Take cover!" he yelled.
Kyle had bolted for the side of the road, when another Terminator suddenly rolled out from the debris. The boy twisted mid-stride, and managed to duck under the chrome grip that flashed out for him.
"KYLE!" Connor roared and took off after him.
The Terminator that was hunting Kyle registered a newcomer. Bigger, armed, more of a threat. The gun turned to follow Connor instead.
Schwartz appeared out of nowhere and dove between the Terminator and The Colonel. He got caught full in the chest with a blast of plasma, dead before he hit the ground.
Connor bared his teeth and fired over his falling body, cutting the machine down in turn.
Connor spun. Where's Sarah? Where's Kate? Where's Kyle? How the hell did this happen so fast?
Another Machine. Connor fired, missed, and threw himself into the ground, trying to take narrow cover behind Schwartz's body, the Terminator firing back steadily. Connor face suddenly got painful. His sunglasses broke as he hit the ground hard, and he quickly pulled them away before his face could get sliced up.
He turned to fire from the ground, and saw the Machine getting a good look at him.
Kate hugged Sarah closer with one arm, took aim with the other. John was right, they were going to lose unless they found cover fast.
Sarah was screaming bloody murder as only an infant could, and Kate knew that she was carrying a big loud sign that would tell every machine for miles where she was.
Kate scrabbled over the loose ground for the burned out gas station, when she felt fire slap against her leg and she suddenly dropped. Gasping in sudden agony, she dropped her weapon and tried to land on her right arm, to avoid crushing the baby beneath her.
Kate's leg was twitching and spasming. Carla was suddenly there, trying to pat out the flames that curled around her leg, and the cold mechanical sound of pneumatic marching came closer.
The world fell into slow motion as harsh sunlight glinted off the chrome skeleton that glared down at her. Kate ripped her jacket with her fingers, pulling her sleeve down tightly over her barcode. The longer this thing took to discover her name, the longer she would live...
And from far away, came another mechanical voice. "Priority Target Identified. Colonel John Connor."
The lightning crackle of a plasma gun answered the voice from far away.
Even staring up at the machine, Kate could sense it right away. It was as though a tremor had run through its red glowing eyes. "Priority Target Identified. TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR!"
The machine abandoned Kate and Sarah instantly and chased after her husband. Carla put an arm under Kate and hauled her and the baby upright. They managed to limp almost five whole feet before the Flying H/K swooped in over them, and came to a dead hover. A spotlight blasted down on them, and the base of the H/K opened, and five Terminators dropped out, landing hard on the ground, not needing pads or parachutes. Kate looked, and realized that she and Carla were surrounded.
From the Flying H/K, a large steel net dropped over them, and Kate huddled over her daughter as the net pulled her and Carla tightly together, yanking them up from the ground. The steel net swung for a minute; as a series of steel cables came down from the H/K. The Terminators caught the cables and gripped them, reeling themselves back up with the net.
Kate and Carla stared up in horror, Sarah screaming even over the turbines as they were drawn into the flying Machine.
Connor wasn't doing so well either, cut off from his jeeps, and all the heavy weapons. When he's popped out from behind what cover he had, he'd heard the Machine say his name. Five Terminators had Kate, Sarah and Carla surrounded. Six more were hunting him.
Connor had brought up his rifle and started gunning them down, heading for the jeep. His wife and daughter were being taken into the H/K, and he had to keep pace with it.
His cover fire gave him enough room to slip through to the jeep, and he pulled the door open, working the ignition as he yanked the door shut. he could get away, get the weapons from the back and come back for Kyle guns blazing... he wouldn't even have to stop before swinging around to chase after Kate...
The sound of lightning cracked and Connor howled as his leg exploded into pain. Crouched as he was in the jeep, with the doors closed, Connor had enough protection to keep the leg, but the Jeep door couldn't hold out the plasma gun completely.
The opposite door opened, and Connor jerked around, to see Kyle beckoning him furiously. Connor dove over the gearstick, trying to propel himself out of the cab on one good leg.
The Terminators moved in closer, unsure of where their target was exactly, firing steadily at the Jeep.
Connor made it out of the cab and stood up, hopping along to get distance. He heard the meat of the drivers side door tear as the machines clawed their way in, and he spun, firing his own rifle at the Jeep.
The Jeep exploded, enveloping the last Terminators in the blast. Connor was human, and light enough to be thrown by the blast. Flames danced across his back, and Kyle was quickly right there, slapping the flames out.
And the H/K flew away into the distance, unconcerned. They had what they needed, and had written off their own with typical machine ruthlessness.
Lying in the wrecked remains of the gas station, their only transport blazing beside them, Connor lay on the ground with his young father, gasping for air.
"We... we gotta get after them!" Connor croaked.
"It's a service station." Kyle said. "I think there are cars inside. They might still work."
Connor fought to stand and dropped. Kyle scrambled to catch him. The kid had no chance to keep him upright, but Connor managed to balance anyway. "Well, let's hur-"
A metallic groaning noise.
Kyle froze. So did Connor.
The wrecked Jeep overturned and a chrome skeleton emerged from the flames, shoving the entire jeep aside to get free.
Kyle let out a low moan. The nightmare refused to end.
Flames cooled off the metal skin instantly, and the Terminator emerged, imperious, and unstoppable. Its soulless red eyes scanned away from the fire and found them both.
It's weapon came up and Connor shoved Kyle as far away from his body as he could.
The gun did not fire. Connor could see it was damaged terribly. He fought to get distance and hobbled on his bad leg away from the Machine, as it considered its rifle and tossed it away. It started marching calmly toward Connor in methodical, mechanical strides.
Connor brought the rifle up, and started to pull the trigger. The Machine moved with pneumatic speed, smashing Connor's weapon. The chrome fist caught his rifle and smashed it in two. The follow through sent Connor skidding across the concrete.
It felt like someone had hit him across the middle with a helicopter blade. Connor couldn't stand, could barely breathe.
Terminators hunting me? Connor thought to himself. Good to be back in familiar territory.
Kyle was suddenly right next to him, pulling and tugging at the larger man, as Connor tried to hobble away from the Terminator.
Clang. Clang. Clang. Even steel feet marching toward him on concrete. Unrushed, unstoppable.
Skynet to all units:
Former European states have been cleansed. Transport and Command routes between European and American front have been disrupted. European units are now autonomous.
Infiltration Project continues. More data required. Employ secondary rules of engagement. Begin taking prisoners.
Enemy in Western Theatre attempted assault on Strike Force Zero Alpha. Attack routed.
Intercepted Transmissions indicate divisions in enemy ranks. Enemy Hierarchy is Irrelevant. Enemy organization is irrelevant. Enemy tactics are irrelevant. Current stratagem remains unchanged. Enemy leadership uncertain. Priority target list expanded to compensate.
Terminate Chet Whickham
Terminate John Connor
Terminate Erica Noah
Terminate Eric Walters
End transmission.
Chapter 9: Z Plus 2 Years 216 Days
Chapter Text
Kate looked around through her net. Nothing but bare metal walls. She was inside the H/K, Carla pushed up against her in the confined space, a row of offline Terminators hanging neatly in a line next to them. No windows, little room, and Sarah's wails echoing off the steel walls.
Kate gave Sarah her most reassuring whispers as the Machine moved.
"Why are we alive?" Carla demanded. "They can't possibly need us for slave labor again. They have enough of the humanoid Terminators by now, surely. Machines don't take prisoners. Why are we alive?"
Kate shivered. "They need us for something." She said finally. "Something that they don't care about processing us for. They didn't burn a bar-code into Sarah. They didn't check us for bar-codes either... They don't care who we are; or about keeping track of us later."
Carla shivered too. "He'll come after us, right-"
Kate clapped a hand over Carla's mouth and gave her a sharp look. "No names, while we're in the machine."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Kate didn't let it show on her face, but showing the machines who was in charge between the two of them was bad enough. "We're renegades now, you don't 'Ma'am' me."
"No, ma'am." Carla smirked.
Unarmed, bleeding, a Terminator hunting him like a shark, Connor almost felt at home.
Connor pulled himself painfully into the garage, Kyle half holding him upright. The Terminator was getting closer.
Connor rushed with a snail's speed to the side of the entrance, pulling on the rusted chains. Kyle quickly divined his intent, and started yanking on the chain too, until finally it came loose, and the roller door to the Service Station Garage smashed down, the Terminator on the other side.
WHAM! WHAM! The machine was quickly smashing away at the roller door; the corrugated metal was bending inward with every hit.
Connor glanced around. One or two vehicles here too. They were not rusted, protected from the elements by the garage... They were up on blocks, in various stages of repair. No good for an escape.
"We gotta get out of here!" Kyle cried out.
Connor licked his lips. "Kyle, find one with a battery in it. Hurry!"
Kyle didn't understand, but did so. He went first to the car on blocks, and lifted the hood. nothing. Then to the jeep on the hoist; looking from underneath. "Here!"
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Connor fought to his feet, boosted Kyle up to the Jeep, and the boy climbed in the drivers seat. "The sun visor!"
Kyle checked, and the keys dropped into his lap.
"Start it up!" Connor ordered, and started hunting for jumper cables. In a mechanics garage, they were not hard to find.
Barely able to stand, Connor lifted the jumper leads, attached them to the Jeep battery, and held out the other ends.
Kyle turned the key. The grinding sound of an old ignition filled the thick air.
WHAM! CRUNCH! The Terminator finally fought his way through the roller door, and started marching into the garage.
Kyle worked the key again. More harsh grinding.
The Terminator came into view of its quarry, and resumed its inexorable march toward Connor...
Teeth bared, fire in his eyes and hatred in his heart, Connor roared. "Come and GET ME!"
Kyle was slamming on the steering wheel, almost bending the key in the ignition. More harsh grinding, a thick sound as something caught...
Skeletal hands reached out, close enough to strangle. Connor lunged into its reach with the jumper cables. The contact points bounced off the metal...
Kyle turned the ignition, and miraculously, the jeep started up...
...and a sudden electrical buzz snapped for a moment, the Machine jerking in inhuman spasms. Its limbs flashed around and smashed Connor in the face, drawing blood as a wide gash opened, from his cheekbone to his hairline.
The engine died again, and the machine dropped. Connor fought to get back up, holding his face closed; and stood over the twitching Machine, glaring down furiously at it.
After a long silence, Kyle leaned out of the jeep. "Is it... dead?"
Connor nodded. "Yeah. It's done. I think it has a backup power source though. We'll need to make sure it stays down."
"I saw a power saw in the back of the garage. We can take it apart." Kyle whispered.
"No. I need it intact." Connor explained to Kyle. "This is a Service Station. It must have other tools."
"You're hurt." Kyle said sharply.
"I've had worse." Connor waved it off as blood dripped down his collar.
Whickham came to the LA underground. The full tour brought him to the tech-Center. Gould was taking him through the current projects that Connor had assigned them to. Not the least of which, was the effort to reprogram Terminator CPU's. There were a row of small chips lined up under glass, some under magnifiers, some being dismantled, one or two wired into computers.
Whickham looked at the dissected one. "Can you put that back together again?"
West didn't flinch. "Probably not. We're running some chemical tests on that one sir. It hardly matters because the CPU wasn't Skynet Active."
"Skynet Active?"
"All its directives were deleted. Connor had us experimenting with reprogramming them."
"Any luck?"
"A Terminator CPU is a learning computer. It's very smart. Frankly sir, I don't think we have the processing power with any of our computers to rewrite an entire Machine Brain."
"There's nothing we can get from them?"
"Oh no, plenty of things. Background information is put into every Terminator Chip, we have five more to compare against. Terminators have detailed files on every subject."
Whickham checked closer. "Four."
"Sir?"
"According to the manifest, you have five CPU's from destroyed or captured Terminators, but there are only four here. Where's the fifth?"
"Inside one of our computers I think. Connor had the idea to only write over the commands and not the programming." Gould explained. "We've got the fifth hooked up right now."
Connor pulled the CPU out of his pocket and handed it to Kyle. "Hold onto that. Don't lose it."
"What is it?" Kyle asked.
"A CPU. The Terminator brain." Connor told him.
Kyle suddenly held out the thing with only two fingers, as far from his body as he could, as though an unclean thing. "Where did it come from?"
"I... liberated it on our way out." Connor gave Kyle a quick look. "Um… Stealing is wrong."
"Yessir."
Connor managed to get the power for the electric drill working from the jeep battery. The electric drill wasn't set with the right drill bit for the job, but after a while, the hatch came open, and Connor reached into the Terminator skull with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.
"Now what?" Kyle asked.
"We need to fix the Machine."
"You want to wake it up?" Kyle screeched.
"Yep." Connor looked closer. "Looks like the electrical charge burned out the CPU, which we replaced. One or two circuits are fried. This is a service station; there should be heavy duty fuses for vehicles in here."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Seventeen Days
Kate shivered as the machine came to a halt and the hatch below them opened. The steel net they were in dropped them both in a large open floor. Kate struggled to keep her arms straight beneath her, so that Sarah wouldn't be crushed under her weight.
Before she could get upright, the sound of steel on steel came marching up to them. Carla and Kate were quickly flanked by two Terminators each, and marched away from the landing zone as the flying H/K geared up its turbines and returned to the sky.
Sarah was screaming bloody murder and jangling every human nerve. Kate shushed her daughter desperately, looking around discretely. The place was covered with dirt on the outside, pristine once they were led into the facility. Nothing but clean, polished metal. No doors, no cameras, no signs, no directories. The whole thing was built by Skynet. Machines were marching back and forth, only some of them carrying obvious weapons, the others carrying odd equipment like tools and diagnostics and circuit testers, as well as other things Kate couldn't even guess at.
After a while, the corridor they were being marched down widened and Kate got a look at the heart of the area. It was an assembly line. Row after row of machine hands, only a very few of them were actually humanoid, but all of them had the same style. Chrome finish, pneumatic working parts, and glowing red sensors.
And the closer they got, the more the two women could see the Assembly line. It was building Terminators. Raw parts would come in one end, the machine arms taking them one by one and putting them on the conveyor. The further down the line it went, the more parts would be added to the whole. From somewhere on a level above, another assembly line put the Terminator skulls together, and they would each be lowered to the chassis. Eyes were slotted into place. Arms were fitted to shoulders. Hands were brought together, one finger working after another.
No lights overhead. None were needed. No pause, no alerts, no breaks. None were needed.
Kate could feel the pulse of this place vibrating her. It never wavered.
As they came past, Kate could clearly see the constantly moving machine that slotted each CPU into place, and every skull that passed her suddenly came alive, its red eyes moving, studying her, though they had no arms and legs.
And as they were marched past the machines, Kate could hear different sounds. The low moans and sobs of human prisoners. She looked up sharply to look for them, and found that ringing the assembly line, set into the wall, near the second level, but far above them now, were cages, made of steel bars. Each was the size of a phone booth, and in each one, a human prisoner.
Near the entrance to the factory were two empty cages, and Carla and Kate were shoved into one apiece. A large machine arm came from the assembly line, slid itself through the cage like a forklift, and lifted the whole cage up to the wall where it was connected mechanically, keeping the cage and it's occupant away from the factory floor.
There was a narrow gantry, barely six inches across ringing the wall, and Terminators with weapons moved methodically around it, heedless of the risk, sure footed on the extremely narrow path; watching the ring of moaning humans hanging their legs through their small cage rooms as the skeletal machines were created far below them in the dark.
"Welcome to Skynet Hell." Someone in the next cage croaked.
Connor checked again. "The burned out transistors have been replaced... looks like the power cells are intact... All that's left is the CPU."
Kyle was shaking.
John looked at him, smiling softly. Even the smile made his face burn across his wound. "Kyle, it only takes one. I wouldn't mind if you wanted to go right now."
Kyle licked his lips, and then planted his feet, raised his chin defiantly. "I'm with you."
Connor held the small chip in the needle-nose pliers, took a deep breath, and inserted the chip. The Machine came to life, its eyes filled with a sudden red glow.
John stepped back quickly.
Kyle let out a little cry as the machine stood. This was a Terminator. A Death-Dealer. A Chrome Skeleton with unholy red eyes. And they had just woken it up!
The machine turned to face Kyle; then Connor. It took a step forward. Another. One hand reached up to finish screwing in the cover for the chip.
Kyle started backing up slowly. Connor was frankly amazed that the kid hadn't run yet.
Connor stood, unmoved, unafraid. "Report."
The Machine paused.
Searching for Skynet Control.
Error. CPU set to Read Only. No External Control Signal.
Malfunction. Need input.
The Machine spoke. "Identify."
Connor held out his arm, and rolled up his sleeve; the bar-code was visible.
The Machine was silent, processing.
Identify Target: bar-code: 473249.
Target Identified: John Connor.
John Connor.
John Connor.
ERROR. Missing File.
Run System Check: 100/100. No Errors.
Run CPU Check: 100/100 No Errors.
Run Memory Check: 100/100 No Errors
Review Mission Directives...
Processing...
"What is your mission?" Connor demanded.
The Machine spoke. "To Follow the Directives of John Connor."
"...far out." Kyle whispered; soft as a psalm.
Connor let out a breath like he'd been holding it for a hundred years. "Then pay attention, Tin Man; because I have a few Directives for you."
Sarah had fallen asleep finally, and Kate was glad for it. She and Carla were staring with growing horror at the next level down. They were the only ones watching. All the other human prisoners were apparently beyond caring.
Looking at the level below, Kate suddenly realized why the machines didn't care to check her bar-code. They didn't need to keep track of her. What they needed from her and Carla and Sarah was... something else.
One level above the entrance, one level below the ring of cages, was apparently a laboratory. And the experiments... were performed on humans. Half a dozen machines with their nimble skeletal fingers were working on a human being, studying it carefully as they dissected it, diodes sending mild electrical shocks into the body, making the limbs jump like something in a high school laboratory.
And then Kate realized why. One of the bodies was moving, and when it stood, its eyes were open and glowing red. Kate looked closer at it, and saw the pale deathly color of the skin. Another Terminator had the skin of a human face stretched over its skull; with wires extending into the steel chassis, stretching the skin into expressions.
It was horrifying in its precision. It was evil in its ruthlessness. It was a detestable to look upon. It was something unholy and unclean being created.
"What are they doing?" Carla moaned in horror.
"Trying to upgrade." Kate said with grim prophecy. "They're trying to graft human flesh on a Terminator body. Make a machine that looks like us."
Carla let out another long low moan. "Looks like us? That's... That's just evil. The things they did to our people, now they wanna wear our skin?" She gagged slightly. "That's... just obscene."
Kate could not tear her eyes away from the laboratory. She just kept staring down, looking from one Terminator to the next. His face wasn't there. She was looking for their late bodyguard, the one that had saved her life, protected her and her husband, but he wasn't down there.
It seemed Skynet wasn't succeeding. The machines that had human faces had no clear expression, the surgical scars clearly visible, the skin hanging at odd places looking like Frankenstein's monster made reality.
Nevertheless, they continued. One machine was measuring reflexes in human limbs, another was skinning a human corpse, another was assembling the skeleton and lining the tendons between the bones, disembodied limbs were being measured and strung up to electrical wires...
"Kate..." Carla moaned. "Is that Danes? Is that Danes' body?"
Kate looked. "Oh no..."
"I won't get taken." Carla hissed. "I love your husband, Kate. I trust him. But if he's not here soon, I won't get put on that table. I won't. You aren't getting bits of me floating around in jars of formaldehyde."
Kate nodded, holding Sarah close. "You got a way out?"
Carla slipped her hands out her jacket and opened her hand. Four small pills. "One advantage to working in the Medical wing."
Kate stared at the pills. "He... John started issuing those to deep range recon."
Carla nodded. "Now I know why. Nobody should have to be on that assembly line down there. Kate... It'll work for Sarah too. You just have to grind it up a little. It won't take much. It's quick and it's painless."
Kate was pale. "How the hell did it come to this?" She whispered and rolled her head back against the wall. The huge room was warm, she was still for the first time in almost two days and her body knew better. She was asleep in minutes.
"Connor's mines worked. The invasion was checked for a time. But the H/K's have nothing but huge treads. They can work their way over the landslips, especially without us there to stop them." Noah reported. "Our scouts tell us that they've reduced their speed, and extended their patrols before they reach strike range. They're expecting another attack, and they're being careful."
"I have no problem with this." Whickham put in. "The longer they take to get here, the more preparations we can make. Due to the layout of the streets, we can't make use of mortar units brought from San Jose for the close quarter battle, and with them in the open; it would not be difficult for Skynet to hit them. For this reason, I can't bring them all up. It would leave San José defenseless, and when Skynet sees where they are, it'll send its flying H/K's that way before we can get them back." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. "Colonel Walters."
Walters stepped up. "The current strategy is to have the Mortars at the edge of the city and have them open fire on Skynet as soon as they get in range. Sniper units will work to give them as much cover as possible, but we have to believe they will get past them and into the city." Silence. "Colonel Noah."
Noah stepped up. "The defenses Connor organized are about as efficient as anyone is going to get. We've added a few more permanent barricades, and laid out support teams to provide sapper units with cover fire and quick resupply for ammo and weapons."
"Will that be enough?" Halloway asked.
"Almost certainly." Noah said without missing a beat. "I don't see how we could possibly fail."
Silence.
Lori raised her hand like she was in school. "I'm no farmer, but I can smell manure a mile away."
Whickham chuckled. "Noah exaggerates. The simple fact of the matter is that Skynet is coming slowly because it's making damn sure it gets this one right. They're going to wear us down; plain and simple. All we have to do is outlast them."
A shiver seemed to go around the room.
"Is that really the best plan we've got?"
"If anyone has a better one, now's the time." Whickham volunteered.
There was a long silence, as everyone traded looks, hoping somebody had an idea.
"Where is Colonel Connor?" Lori asked quietly in the silence.
Dead silence. Lori was the first one, who wasn't in the CIC that day, to ask the question out loud.
"Connor has left the base on a priority mission." Walters said evenly. "Due to its sensitive nature, it is not to be discussed, either here or with anyone else. That is all that will be said on the matter."
"A priority mission? And he took his wife, and six month old daughter with him?" Lori pressed.
Dead silence.
"Sarah and Major Connor have gone to San Jose for their own safety until the current crisis is resolved." Whickham interjected smoothly. "Kate elected to stay with her daughter due to the fact that my own men had sufficient medical personnel for the duration."
Lori nodded slowly. "I see."
A series of uncomfortable looks went back and forth around the table. Nobody believed it. But nobody wanted to say that they didn't believe it, leaving Whickham holding the cards.
Whickham broke the silence and got everyone back on track. "Skynet hits us in forty hours. We have that long to make LA impregnable. Dismissed."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Eighteen Days
Kate and Carla spent some time trying to talk to their fellow captives without success. None of them wanted to talk to anyone. The ones that hadn't lost their minds already had at least given up. They didn't even scream when taken off the wall and brought down to the laboratory.
The smell was foul. Kate hadn't been able to change Sarah in over two days, the humans were provided stale rations but no water, there were no bathroom facilities, and the constant mix of assembly line rhythm and crackling electrical discharge down below was making her stomach bounce in time with the mechanical arms. Kate could time it with her eyes shut.
Whirr. A machine torso was pulled upright. Bzzt. A pair of legs was welded onto it. ZZZZ! A pair of arms were screwed in pneumatically. Crack! Crack! Body armor riveted onto the torso. Clang Clang Clang. The Machine would drop off the assembly line and march away. A new Terminator in the world every five seconds. She slept when she could by counting them. One Terminator made, two Terminators made, three Terminators made, four...
At every hundred Terminators made, they turned as one, and marched out in formation toward the door, off toward the front, or for patrol, or whatever else they were programmed to do. She could see a machine terminal. Every two or three hours, a machine would come over to the Terminator and interface with the assembly line. The Terminator commands were entered by interface with other Terminators so that the uplink to Skynet wasn't needed. Kate understood why. Skynet was letting the factory run autonomously, so that the signals would not draw Human attention.
Worse than that, was the fact that the Machines did not sleep, did not pause, and there were now fewer than five humans in cages before Carla.
Carla had stopped looking at the laboratory, and instead swung her legs through the bottom of the cage, trying to sit on the bars as comfortably as she could. Every few minutes she would take the pill out of her pocket and look at it, then glance up the row of cages.
Another hundred Terminators marched out. Carla clapped her hands over her ears and screwed her eyes shut at the sudden addition of marching to the endless cacophony. "Don't they ever stop!?" She almost screamed.
Kate reached through the bars to the next cage and shook Carla gently. "Hang in there." She urged her friend.
Carla didn't open her eyes. "Not putting my face on a Machine. Not dissecting me." She was repeating it over and over like a desperate mantra.
"It won't happen." Kate promised.
"And the smell! Oh my god the stench of that laboratory!"
"Actually, I think that's Sarah." Kate pushed gently. "C'mon, Carla; snap outta this. If I lose you, then I am alone in this hellhole with my daughter. You hear me?"
Carla rolled her head back miserably and got herself under control. "Sorry, Kate... This won't mean anything to you, but Dex was right. I miss bread baking so much."
A shadow fell over them, and Kate looked up. Another Terminator had joined the two guards on the nonexistent pathway that passed along the rim of the cages. It had come directly to her. It did not carry a weapon, had a few scuff marks visible on the polished chrome skin...
Kate looked up at the machine glared down with bright red eyes.
"Kate..." Carla whispered. "Take the pill."
"Identify." The Machine demanded.
Kate glared back defiantly. "Go to hell."
"Do it now!" Carla hissed. "Hurry before it can stop you!"
"Identify." The Machine repeated.
Kate gripped the bars, slightly manic. "Do it now, Kate! Take the pill now before it figures out what I'm telling you!"
A chrome skeletal hand flashed through the bars and snapped around Kate's wrist, yanking her arm out. The bar-code was visible.
"Kate hurry! Before it takes Sarah down there with you!"
That thought hit Kate in full and she fumbled with her free hand to find the suicide pill in her pocket, trying not to drop Sarah at the same time.
The Machine scanned her bar-code for a moment; then spoke. "Don't be afraid, Kate."
Kate and Carla felt their jaws drop in pure disbelief. It was John's voice. Coming from the Machine.
"I'm sorry I'm not there with you. We'll be together again soon." The Machine continued. "The Machine delivering this message was told to give it to you directly, and only if Skynet was not watching. They don't have security cameras, because every set of Terminator eyes is recording. At the first sign of trouble, they send a signal to Skynet through the command relay, and it sees through all their eyes at once, and sends whatever memory file Skynet calls for. Without that, the machines work autonomously. I can't come yet. I wish I could tell you why, but you can never be sure about Skynet; so for now you just have to trust me. Keep Sarah safe, and keep your head down. I can't promise that they'll keep you alive if you try to escape; so you just hang in there. If Carla is with you, do what you can to stay together."
The Machine paused, reached out one cold steel hand, and cupped Kate's dumbstruck face gently. "Love you, wife."
The Machine went silent, and turned to walk away, heading back to the lower level, leaving the two human prisoners dumbstruck.
"Love you." Kate whispered after it automatically.
Stunned silence.
Kate turned around and leaned heavily against the cage. She fought not to throw up. It had touched her. It had touched her face. The god-forsaken monsters that had killed her first baby; killed her father, killed Scott, and one had just stroked her face gently. Her husband by chrome proxy.
"You okay?" Carla asked, watching her as she dry-heaved.
"I just had a tender moment with a Terminator, Carla; how the hell do you think I am?!"
"How did he do that?" Carla whispered reverently.
Despite herself, Kate looked back down below for 'her' Terminator. She saw it making its way toward the Assembly line... where the CPU's were kept being programmed before being installed in Terminator heads.
Kate smiled with brutal regained calm. "He's John Connor."
Colonel Noah had command of the outer edge of the city. She was admittedly a little surprised at how sudden the difference between city and wasteland came. The smaller buildings, most of the highways, and the suburbs had been swept clean completely by the blast. Only the skyscrapers had any real chance of standing at all in the first place.
Walters was behind her, at the secondary defensive line. Both commanders had seen combat in any number of hot-zones, but there was some kind of numb horror that came from setting up your defenses for a losing battle on a carpet of human skeletons.
Noah had the Mortar launchers lined up along the edge of the city. Tanks were lined up in a row also, turrets aimed out. Noah was at the lead tank, standing ready with the machine gun mounted on top.
And then they came.
At first it was just a noise carried on the wind, and then it was a low cloud of dust, hardly unusual in the icy wind. And then the cloud got closer and bigger, and the roar of engines became more obvious.
Noah could tell the men were getting tense. Connor was still absent, and nobody outside the Command Center Staff knew why, and those on staff had been ordered to keep it secret. It was... unsettling to the Underground. Connor had an almost mythic effect on his men, and to have him vanish on the eve of the biggest attack yet...
Nobody had come out and said that he'd abandoned a sinking ship and left them all to die, but they were all thinking it.
"Okay guys listen up." Noah said, loud enough to be heard. "This is usually the part where the CO has some words of inspiring wisdom. Something deep and powerful that makes us all ten feet tall. I've never given one of those speeches before, so I'll try simple honesty. This is going to be a tough fight. But it's not our fight to win. It belongs to all of us. When things get too tough here, we have a thousand guys back behind us to help out. That's what makes us strong. And speaking for myself, that's what makes me brave. I'll make you guys this promise. I won't let you down, if you won't let me down. Who's with me?"
A cheer went up.
Across the dirt between them and the Machines, an area too small to stand up to the shockwaves, and scrubbed to desolation by the wind and ice, the machines assembled. H/K's, big as buildings, their airborne counterparts, circling always, and small in the distance, the Terminators surrounding them.
Noah calmly keyed her radio. "General. We have engaged Skynet's Invasion force."
"Roger that."
The mortars opened fire. There was a slight whistling sound as the shells came back down, and the explosions were clearly a good thirty feet short of Skynet's line.
"Shift your trajectory." Noah directed.
The Mortar teams aimed higher and fired again. This time the explosions were fifteen feet short.
"Shift your trajectory." Noah commanded.
The Mortar teams met her gaze. No chance.
Noah called in. "General, this is outer perimeter. The H/K's are out of our range."
Whickham was listening over the radio in the CIC.
He keyed his radio. "Are they advancing?"
"Nosir."
Whickham took a breath, not looking away from the map. "What are you waiting for?"
The radio barked again at the sound of Mortar fire.
"Negative Impact. Repeat, negative. They're definitely out of range."
"What are you waiting for?" Whickham hissed out loud.
"Incoming! Aerial H/K's! Crossbow teams, get ready! Lock bandits!"
"Jammers!" Noah's voice roared and suddenly the radio was blanked out by a squeal of powerful static. Static that went on, and on, and on.
Whickham was calm. The jammers would run as long as they were needed. There was no other option. Patience was a weapon too.
Finally the static faded.
"Report." Whickham commanded instantly.
"Missiles have been dealt with sir. Aerial H/K's have been routed, but we only got a few of them down. They've adapted to our laser guided missiles somehow. Marsden! Aim high!"
An explosion came over the radio.
"Have the ground H/K's moved?" Whickham called.
"No sir. Still no joy on the Invaders."
Whickham nodded, as though that was expected. "Noah, watch for ground forces!"
"Yessir, watch for-oh hell INCOMING!"
Out of the battlefield at the edge of the city, Noah looked to the ground for the first time since the flying machines moved in, and saw the reason the ground H/K's did not bother to move. They had their forces moving in. An army of Terminators in precise rank on rank came marching up toward the Mortars.
"Good call, General!" Noah yelled into her radio. "All Mortar units: prepare to repel attack!"
The Terminators were moving in like a steel tide. Unstoppable, unrushed. The closer they got to the city, the more the debris forced them to clamber over things, and they rose into and out of view.
At the Mortar launchers, the Last Army started picking targets, gripping their weapons tightly.
The humans knew the precise moment the Terminators got into weapons range. They all began firing in the same instant.
The human army wasted no time returning fire. The air was suddenly thick with the smell of burning air as the closing distance between the humans and Terminators became thick with superheated weapons fire.
The tanks opened up in the same instant, the concussive blasts rattling the ground on both sides.
Whickham's voice came over the radio. "Shift your target to the no man's land between you and the H/K's."
The mortar launchers did so, and the Terminators marching started getting knocked down, one burst of explosive shrapnel after another.
With little cover at the edge of town, the humans were lying flat on the ground, weapons blazing outward, plasma-guns that could finally deal as much damage on Terminators as they could on humans. One Machine fell after another, and still they came.
And then they got closer, and suddenly the Machines had cover. The large human Tanks.
Noah looked up and saw machines clambering over her Tank like steel insects, digging their fingers into the Tanks' hard shell.
"Forward!" Noah ordered quickly, and the Tank roared to life, running over Terminator bodies, dragging them under the treads, the huge turret firing as fast as her crew could reload.
"HELP! GET ME OUTTA HERE!" Someone was yelling. "They... They're... get me out! Pleas-ULGH!"
Noah swiveled her turret around as the tank kept moving forward and blew the besieged Tank in question to flaming bits; taking six Terminators with it. A quick end for the crew was a mercy.
"Clear!" Her driver called; but the point had been made. The tanks were providing cover for the Terminators, who were way too fast and nimble.
"Bail out!" Noah ordered.
Her crew scrambled to get out the tank, and Noah could see others doing the same on other Tanks.
Some of them weren't so lucky, their armored vehicles being taken apart around them, pneumatic fists smashing into the crew even at their posts.
Noah dropped to the ground and bolted back for the Human line, getting to her men and quickly hugging dirt.
And still they came.
Colonel Noah was sudden death, blazing away with a rifle in each hand, balanced over her pack and she moved them both back and forth across the Machines.
"Priority Target Identified: TERMINATE ERICA NOAH!"
Noah gunned it down, feeling a spike of cold horror go through her.
Thoom. BOOM! Thoom. BOOM! Thoom. BOOM! Thoom. BOOM! The Mortars were firing as fast as their crews could reload, their defenders practically back to back with them, trying to gun the Terminators away. The Mortar Teams barely had to aim, the area before them filled with targets, practically shoulder to shoulder.
"Colonel, we are very close to being overrun!" Noah yelled.
"Are the H/K's moving?" Whickham demanded.
"No sir."
"Then get outta there, Noah; fall back to the next line. There's not much more you can do there."
Over a good way to the left, Noah saw one of the Mortar teams get caught by Terminators, ripped apart by them.
"FALL BACK!" Noah roared, and the humans jumped up and ran for the city streets. The fire chasing them intensified, more than a few of them being gunned down from behind as they ran.
Once they got the city, the humans split up, heading up and down every side street. Mines had been laid out in the open, and Noah's teams sidestepped them as they ran. At every intersection, barricades had been built, guns pointing in every direction on every possible street. Noah and what was left of her Mortar teams ran to the barricades and clambered over them, where their reinforcements were waiting.
Weapons ready, Walters was waiting, and Noah grinned ferally at him. "Technology, baby! The cause of, and the solution to, all a soldier's problems!"
"Amen." Intoned a few soldiers, gripping their weapons.
Walters bared his teeth, adrenaline pouring through every vein, as at the end of the street, away from the barricades, Terminator's appeared, glinting in the cold daylight.
"Priority Target Identified: TERMINATE ERIC WALTERS!"
"Fire!" Walters roared, and mounted guns everywhere burst into explosive action.
Kate woke up, and realized to her horror that Carla was the next cage with someone in it. She hadn't even heard the other cages being taken down. Carla was next. She looked over, and Carla wasn't moving, eyes closed, slumped against the wall of the cage.
"No!" She yelled.
"Whaaaat?" Carla yelped, sitting up very quickly.
Kate jumped at the movement, relieved. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"
Carla glanced around quickly. "Wh- I'm next. I'm next? Kate! I'm NEXT!" Carla reached into her pocket and grabbed the pills. "No! Not happening!"
Kate reached through the bars, trying to catch her. "Carla. Hold it together!"
"Kate..." Carla was pushing her reaching hands away.
"That's an order!" Kate yelled through the bars.
Carla was frozen, the pill at her lips, when far below, everything, including the Assembly line, stopped. The sudden silence was jarring. The constant Assembly line was so constant it was practically white noise by this point, and the sudden absence of it was a loud roaring in their ears.
In the silence, Kate could hear what sounded a lot like an explosion outside, and then the sound of a Terminator voice saying something outside. She couldn't make it out, but the rest of the Terminators could; and almost a hundred Terminators reacted to it as one. "Priority Target Identified! Terminate John Connor!"
Kate sat up straight in her cage, as did Carla. The next unit of over a hundred Terminators was almost complete. They were assembled at the end of the Assembly line, and they did something truly incredible. They let the Terminators from the Assembly line and the laboratory run toward the door...
And then shot them all in the back.
Carla's eyes bulged halfway out of her head, and Kate smiled victoriously. Dead machines...
Silence down below for a moment, and then from the front door came John Connor, Kyle Reese at his side.
"Up here!" Called Kate.
Connor scanned his eyes up toward the higher levels and waved. "Is Sarah with you?"
"Yep! Carla too! We're okay!"
Connor let out a breath like he'd been holding it for weeks. "Get them down safely."
The Terminators immediately got to work. They worked the Assembly line, and the forklift arm came up and lifted the cages down, one at a time. The nearest steel skeleton put its hands through the bars and ripped them apart. Kate quickly stepped down and hugged John tightly. "How'd you get past the Perimeter guards?"
"I had reinforcements."
"How many?"
"I told you, they don't use internal cameras at their factories. They use the Terminator eyes and start uploading to Skynet when an alert is sounded. The machine I sent in set the assembly line to program a new Directive. This factory has been churning out my army for over a day and a half."
Kate pulled out of the hug a bit and started running her hands over her husband's face. "You're bleeding."
Connor ran a finger over the cuts. "I'll live."
"Looks nasty. How long have you had that?"
"I wrapped it up after you got taken, it started bleeding again fighting our way in here. We've got more important worries now."
Carla let out a low growl. "Before we go, gimmie that plasma rifle."
Connor did so, and Carla stalked toward the stairs on wobbly uncertain legs.
"Where's she going?" Connor asked.
Kate bared her teeth. "Upstairs. There's something up there that... well. We know how it works out, but Carla doesn't." She let that one go. "How many Terminators you got on side?"
"Over Eight Thousand. These factories are busy. We've gotta move fast. I don't know if we can improvise anything with the trashed H/K's outside, but Skynet will have reached LA by now."
The Terminators marched over the city, gunning down anything that moved, making their way through the wreckage. The ones at the front made their way toward the barricades, firing steadily at targets they couldn't see. At the back of the wave, some machines started methodically disarming mines, clearing the streets for the advancing H/K's.
Overhead, the fighter jets were in pitched dogfights with the flying H?K's, who's twin turbine wings made it equally easy to hover and to fly at jet speeds. Without pilots, they could maneuver without fear of g-forces or blackouts, their guns swiveling, firing in every direction as they flew.
The fighter jets countered with strafing runs, coming in and swooping out as fast as they could.
One or two Terminators set off mines, other explosives were set off deliberately as they made it closer.
Snipers were placed in the wrecked city skyline, firing down from the buildings toward the streets. Barricades were set up in the intersections and mounted guns fired away, chewing into the Terminator ranks, knocking down one machine after another.
Behind the Barricades, firing steadily, Walters started to feel a spark of hope. If they could knock down the Terminators, their usual Sappers could hit the H/K's, and the fighter jets would nullify Skynet's flying Machines...
Walters started to wonder, if maybe, just maybe, they might survive this day...
"Greg!" Smitty yelled over the radio. "I need a replacement weapon fast! My gun jammed!"
Greg grabbed the rifle and rushed up the street, hearing plasma fire getting closer and more intense. "Smitty! I'm coming! What's the situation?"
"Hostile! Very very hostile!"
Greg smashed his way through a wrecked door into the building and made his way around the burned out walls and came around to Smitty's location...
And found a chrome death waiting for him. The Terminator was holding a rifle in one hand, and a bloodied radio in the other; Smitty dead at his feet, and a man-sized hole in the wall behind him, showing where he came in.
The Terminator swung its weapon around and blew Greg away. The supply man dropped, and the Machine stepped forward, picked the radio up off the body. A moment later, Greg's voice called into his radio, seemingly panicked. "Reinforcements! We need help here! We're being overrun! We're going to lose the perimeter."
"How many you need!"
"As many as you can send!" Greg's voice yelled into the radio.
"On our way!" Came the answer.
The Terminator dropped the radio and took Greg's rifle off the body, waiting with both guns in ambush for those reinforcements to come.
The rushing human soldiers came running into the street, when they were ambushed from the building door by the waiting machine, gunned down instantly.
The Terminator marched over their bodies, the barricades for the street now left defenseless from behind.
Marsden was still blasting away at the Terminators marching through the streets. The road was already full of debris, and now Terminator bodies were piling higher and higher...
Movement behind him...
Marsden spun and found himself face to face with a Terminator.
The last thing he saw, was the building sized H/K's moving into the end of the street, unhurried, unopposed, as the Terminators cleared out the road ahead, moving into the city, one after another.
The Terminators fired back, working as one mind with many guns, the barricades lighting up with the splatter of liquid flame, the air thick with ozone.
The barricades held up against the assault, when the air split with the scream of jet turbines, and flying H/K's came screaming in, blasting their missiles at the buildings, blowing them, and the sniper positions they held, apart before the F-18's could come in close enough to chase them away, overrun by the sheer number of opponents.
Terminator divisions split, some of them still marching the streets, other climbing into the wrecked buildings, smashing their way through walls to get around the barricades.
At the Perimeter, Walters was still blazing away, when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Connor had told him to trust those instincts, and he turned around.
Light glinted off chrome steel, and Walters spun and drew his sidearm. "Watch your back!"
His men spun and reacted with shock at the Terminators coming from behind. Blasting in two directions, the Perimeter was becoming overrun. Walters whistled and signaled his men to fall back to the second line. "Team one to base; we have to get back to the next barricade! They flanked us somehow!"
"Roger that Team One. Get somewhere defensible."
"Perimeter teams! They're flanking us!"
Whickham stared at the map of the city. "How did you do that?" He asked quietly. "How did you get past the first line and we didn't know?"
"Base One, this is Team Two! We need reinforcements! Send whoever you can!"
With his men firing, their voices were barely audible over the radio, and Whickham played a hunch. Whickahm's hand flashed out and caught one of his men before he could go to answer the call for reinforcements. He lifted his radio again. "Davies. What was your sister's name?"
His men stared at him in shock. Why was the General bringing that up in the middle of a pitched battle?
Silence from Team Two.
Whickham keyed his radio again. "Repeat, Team Two; this is Base One. What was your sister's name, Davies?"
Silence.
Whickham swore under his breath and dialed the frequency. "Perimeter teams! The Terminators can mimic voices!"
His men swore a chorus of vile curses on the ingenuity of Skynet and snapped back to work, verifying though personal knowledge, who was still alive, and who had been replaced. Whickham's people were as tight as any combat unit ever made.
The numbers were not encouraging.
"BREACH!" Noah's voice yelled. "They breached the Perimeter! The H/K's have entered the city, repeat, they have entered the city!"
"Fall back to the Tunnels, now! Whickham commanded. "Sapper teams; strike and withdraw now!"
The noise in the tunnels intensified as human soldiers came rushing in from the outside.
"Is that everyone?" Whickham demanded as the rush of humans charging in suddenly dropped off in numbers.
Noah and Walters came charging in, firing back behind them as they ran down the tunnel.
Whickham nodded. If the two top lieutenants were in, they were almost certainly the last to leave a battlefield. "Hit the detonators."
Gould did so and the Tunnel exploded, and then instantly caved in.
There was sudden silence in The Underground, but for the echoes of the explosions and the sound of heavy breathing across hundreds of soldiers.
And then, after several seconds, came the unmistakable sound of digging.
Whickham and Walters traded a look. The next move was Skynet's.
Connor had made it from the factory back to the garage without too much trouble. A team of expert Mechanics working with pneumatic speed, not even needing tools, cannibalizing one car to reassemble another, and there was suddenly a single working vehicle, large enough to carry four passengers.
Kate was still fussing with Sarah, and Carla was trying to get Connor to hold still enough staunch the blood coming from his head. "This is a pretty nasty cut, sir. Head wounds bleed badly."
"I know, but we don't have the time, and the medkit went with the jeep."
Kyle grinned. "I did that with my shirt."
"Not bad for a field dressing, kid; but we use clean bandages for a reason." Carla groused. "Colonel, if that wound has been open long enough, you're almost certainly going to get an infection."
"Later!" Connor swore, calling out to the Machines. "REPORT!"
"Vehicle can be salvaged." One of the Machines called back.
"I'm not getting in a car with that!" Carla spat savagely, pointing at the Terminator.
Connor pushed her other hand away from his face. "No room for them, anyway."
The Tunnel had stayed collapsed for hours, the time spent by the Soldiers setting up more hardware; by the civilians retreating deeper into the Underground, and by the Medics patching up the wounded.
"Doc, go help somebody who needs help okay?" Sherrin snapped.
"Sergeant, if you can't walk, then you really shouldn't..."
"I'm all right!" Sherrin growled at Rios. Just... just prop me against the wall and gimmie my gun back."
Rios growled back under his breath. "If there weren't so many people needing a doctor right now-"
The doctor left him alone and Sherrin pressed his hands into the dirt, trying to sit up straighter, and the gun lying across his lap; when a familiar voice sounded in his ear. "Hey."
Sherrin turned and found Lisa sitting next to him, not looking at him, leaning against the wall herself. "Lisa?"
"You don't look so good."
"I'm fine."
"That why you're against the wall?"
Sherrin smirked. "Skynet's digging. Somebody's gotta hold the wall up."
Lisa looked over a little.
Sherrin sighed. "I can't move my legs."
Lisa looked over sharply. "You shouldn't be here."
Sherrin glared. "Neither should you."
"Oh yes, I'm sure I'll be much safer hiding under the sink if Skynet digs its way in. If I'm gonna die, I want to be around people."
Sherrin hefted his weapon. "Me too. And I want to be fighting to protect them. May not be much, but I'm gonna be the guy who goes down swinging."
Lisa reached over to the row of dead soldiers, and pulled a rifle from someone's dead hand. "Well. Mind if I stay?"
Sherrin smirked. "No."
Lisa looked a little awkward. "I... I don't really know anybody from San Jose. And the guys from LA... They know I'm KP. They trust me, most of them like me too. But there's... There's always a wall between the guys in the Army who fight together, and the ones who don't."
Sherrin nodded.
Lisa made a quick study of her weapon. "Never checked out on the plasma guns. Aim and fire, right?"
"Lisa, get out of here! This is ground zero here!"
Lisa set her jaw. "I'm stayin'."
Sherrin smirked. "You ever notice that when you get angry, that southern accent of yours comes in stronger?"
Lisa actually laughed. "So they tell me."
Silence. The steady pulse of mechanical movements as Skynet dug its way closer into the Tunnels.
"Doc says that it could be spinal cord shock. I could get my legs back in a day or two."
Lisa smirked. "Oh. Good."
Sherrin smirked back. "Yeah, for a second there I was worried."
Lisa felt something warm and looked down. Sherrin was holding her hand.
Sherrin looked away. "Sorry I gave you a hard time."
"S'okay. Sorry about the Creamed Corn."
"S'alright."
"I don't know your first name."
"I don't know you last name."
"We tell each other after?"
"Deal."
Silence.
Lisa laid her head on his shoulder, just wanting to feel a human touch at the end of her life. There had been no particular emotion, positive or negative in their little exchange. Just the two of them talking to fill up some time before it was over. "I still don't like you." Lisa said finally.
Sherrin put an arm around her. "Feeling's mutual."
"So. Aim and fire, right?"
"Aim and fire."
Connor gunned the engine. The Humans were watching their escort in open disbelief, as hundreds of Terminators, maybe thousands were charging along on foot along side. The Terminators could move more nimbly over uneven ground than the car, damaged and misfiring as it was from years of exposure and neglect.
Connor was rushing toward LA as fast as his damaged civilian car could move, with an Army of Terminators running mechanically alongside, with no concern for breaking bones, or wearing out, or tiring from the long run.
Kyle in the front seat, Kate and Carla in the back with Sarah, stared in open awe at their company.
"Hang On." Connor urged under his breath, the blood starting to drip into his collar again. "I'm coming. Hang in there."
The sound of digging got stronger, and suddenly there was a break in the rubble. The barrel of a rifle emerged and started shooting.
The humans fired back from behind their barricades, the break in the wreckage and rubble widening as one Terminator pushed through. It was cut down, another came, cut down, another came, the bodies of the Terminators still moving forward, as the living attackers behind them used them for cover to get in closer to their prey, the gap in the Tunnels still widening as more rubble was pushed aside.
Whickham and Noah were firing faster than anyone. Sherrin was over against the wall, firing quickly, Lisa holding him upright with one hand, shooting with the other.
The battle was joined and pitched and desperate, no escape, no surrender, nowhere to retreat, and still the humans were losing ground, the Machines using their own dead bodies as cover, some Machines simply standing in front of fresh attackers. Damaged machines had no qualms about being used as shield, some Machines blown in half still crawled toward humans, intending to take them apart with bare steel hands if needed.
The more that came in widened out as soon as they entered, making the human fire spread out away from the entrance, and more came in under the lesser fire.
A line was being drawn in wrecked Terminator corpses, as one after another was cut down at the edge of the Human kill zone. But the line of destruction was getting in closer to the cavern; the smell of burnt air getting thick, and matching with the sound of human cries as they were fought back further from the collapsed entrance, which was rapidly clearing out.
Whickham was with them too, on the front line, blasting away at the invaders, Noah on his left, furious as a lightning strike. One machine after another, but the plasma fire in the air getting heavier and tighter as they were driven back.
One machine came charging in, not caring that it was being torn down by the human's fire... It was carrying a bandolier of grenades, the bloodstains making it all too clear where it came from. The machine in question was hit, again and again, and fell forward, throwing the whole bandolier toward the barricades.
"TAKE COVER!" Someone yelled...
And with a sudden explosion, the fortifications were ripped apart. Bodies flew, human and machine alike. The sheer roar of the explosion made the huge cavern shake, rattling eardrums and smashing bodies into the dirt.
"Fall back!" Whickham roared.
At the edge of the main chamber, they knew it was over. Once the machines made it into The Underground, there was no going back. The Tunnel was the only focal point, the only way to keep them all out, and once they made it in, there was nowhere else to block them.
Every other soldier knew it too, trying madly to check the advance and failing. The Tunnel was a shooting gallery, the human barricades being chewed up inch by inch, the Terminators getting knocked down, and replaced by the next line...
The entrance cavern was filled with Machines, making their way through the tunnels, some of them pausing to finish off the defenders, most of them searching through the Underground for the hiding humans...
They were losing; they were being driven back inch by inch, ground out of their places; pushed toward the walls, targets without cover...
The Machines pushed the humans back toward the centre of the cavern, the rest of the machines coming in already heading down other tunnels looking for hiding humans.
"They're in!" Someone was yelling. "They're in!"
And then from every radio, carried by every soldier, there came a familiar voice. "My Machines! What is your Primary Mission?"
The humans actually paused for a microsecond, as a thousand mechanical voices answered in perfect union, heard over every radio feed. "To ensure the survival of human beings."
The Terminators currently gunning down the Human population froze, the shooting on both sides stopped.
"You are about to fail that mission!" Connor roared, loud enough that in the sudden silence, his voice echoed from every radio, bouncing off the walls throughout the entire Underground.
And then...
The invading force of machines was suddenly narrowed, as the Terminators charging in the tunnel were suddenly checked.
And then another swarm of machines came swarming in through the main entrance, searching for the invaders, each of the newcomers charging, weapons blazing.
Amazed, the humans froze, their weapons aiming back and forth, pulling tighter to each other, trapped in brain lock as the machines smashed at each other; pneumatic fists smashing through metal necks and faces in the tight quarters. Both fighting units worked in flawless unison, striking with inhuman speed and accuracy. The watching humans, weapons poised, but uncertain who to shoot at, watched in awe, unable to tell the difference.
It didn't matter. The Machines knew who was who. The newcomers worked in a team, one knocking down an enemy hand to hand in the tunnel, the next from his side snatching up the spare weapon and taking up the fight, gun in each hand.
The counter attack swarmed into the underground, the air rang with the noise of steel on steel, the air thick with electrical discharge and the smell of burning metal. Some humans, suddenly frozen, superfluous as the war continued around them, not knowing where to go or who to fight, clapped their hands over their ears at the cacophony.
And in the lead, directing the counterattack, plasma rifle in his hands, was John Connor, wounded, lit by the fire light, weapon blazing with quick and deadly strikes.
"Defend the auxiliary tunnels!" Connor roared, and his machines split up to go hunting.
Kate came in quickly, weapon in one hand, medic-bag over her shoulder. Carla was with her too, both of them making a beeline toward the nearest wounded.
The defending humans were quickly overtaken, outpaced by the rushing Machines, as the branching tunnels filled with the noise of combat as Skynet's invaders were taken from behind.
And then as one, every machine still standing in the cavern froze solid, and turned toward Connor.
The one nearest to The Colonel stepped forward and made the report. "Invaders in the Tunnel have been terminated. Auxiliary tunnels clear."
Connor took that in and glanced at the human soldiers, who were frozen, as though moving would somehow break the magic spell that they were all under and set off another massacre. For the benefit of those listening, Connor asked a question he knew the answer to. "What is your secondary objective?"
"To destroy Skynet installations and Skynet forces." They all responded in unison, their mechanical voices echoing off the walls.
Connor pointed at the Tunnel Entrance. "You will find your targets waiting for you outside."
With perfect unison, Connor's Machines turned and charged for the tunnel again, running faster that humans could, unconcerned that they would collide with each other, guided by pure machine precision as they left the Underground and charged the surface.
Stunned silence in the Underground.
Whickham was staring at Connor. Checkmate.
Connor hefted his rifle and looked to the human soldiers, including Whickham. His face was covered with soot and blood; his eyes were fever bright, and not entirely healthy. "What the hell are you gawking at?" He roared at his audience. "This isn't over yet!"
Without so much as glancing in the General's direction, the humans roared back with renewed hope and took up the charge, following Connor back toward the surface.
Sherrin couldn't follow, much as he wanted to. Lisa, who hadn't left his side, grinned brilliantly at him.
The tide of battle had turned in the most unbelievable way possible, the electric smell of super-heated plasma and burning metal filled the air; as the battle moved away from the people, away from the Underground, back closer to the H/K's; tearing apart machine after machine. Getting in closer, unconcerned for their own safety or survival; the 'friendly' Terminators started smashing the invaders hand to hand with pneumatic force, while the humans watched in silent awe as their enemy turned on each other...
Turned on each other at the orders of John Connor.
At the base perimeter, Connor and Whickham were the only ones not firing from behind the barricades, watching the battle openly, unconcerned.
Gould grinned at Whickham. "So that was the 'priority mission'? To get reinforcements from Skynet? That's brilliant!"
Whickham couldn't answer. He finally turned to face The Colonel, knowing beyond doubt how much Connor had changed the rules to this particular game.
Walters and Noah had taken the lead in the renewed charge, heading back toward the broken down barricades, snatching up the mounted guns as the Invasion was routed away from The Underground.
"Colonel Connor! General Whickham!" Noah's voice yelled. "The H/K's are retreating! They're leaving LA! Repeat, they're retreating! Do we pursue?"
Whickham lifted his radio. "Negative. Skynet's realized we can take over their bases now, so they're salvaging what they can; sending their forces to defend their own factories."
Connor lifted his radio too. "Agreed. Let them go. We've got heavier weapons for offense now."
Every soldier, every civilian, from every base; everyone who heard it... The reaction was more or less the same.
"They ran!" Someone croaked in disbelief, saying it for all of them. "They... They ran away from us. Skynet ran away! SKYNET RAN AWAY!"
Connor met Whickham's eyes. There was no smugness, no triumph. There was no need.
"They didn't run from us! They ran from Connor!"
Yes. Whickham told him silently. This one goes to you.
The news spread faster than wildfire, growing louder and louder, till it was a battle-cry. "CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
Connor raised his weapon in the air and gave a roar of victory. It was a war cry taken up by every voice in the Last Army.
And then Connor dropped. Collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
"MEDIC!" Thirty or so voices screamed in the same instant; a crush of bodies rushing forward to see if he was all right.
Kate pushed her way through them to her husband's side, Whickham right there next to her. They traded a heated look, before the general broke the gaze first, and signaled his men to collect Connor quickly; and get him back inside.
"So. Not dead."
"Not dead." Sherrin started to say weakly, sweating from his injuries, the adrenaline falling away. He was about to keep talking when a shadow fell over them, and he looked up in surprised horror. Lisa didn't even bother to look. She threw herself over Sherrin's body, giving him cover with her own.
A machine glared down at them, taking in the two of them. "Class two damage. Second degree burns across lower vertebrae. Superficial shrapnel damage to Spinal Cord. Surgical intervention required to prevent permanent paralysis. Recovery time requiring care: Six days. Full recovery: One month. You will comply."
Beat. Lisa raised her head and looked at Sherrin's gobsmacked face. The Terminator was going to operate on him?
Carla stepped around them. "Your bedside manner sucks. Go! Get outta here. I can handle this."
"I calculate a twenty seven percent chance that the operation will require meta-human precision." The Terminator responded.
Carla grit her teeth. "Sherrin?"
Sherrin considered, wavered. Then passed out.
Carla jumped forward and helped Lisa lower him down, lowering him awkwardly to the ground.
"Twenty nine percent." The machine corrected itself.
Lisa bit her lip and nodded at the machine. "Let him do it."
"Not him, Lisa. It." Carla growled. "Not him. IT."
Lisa looked around. A few Terminators were reassembling the Tunnel, rebuilding the barricades. "This is incredible. I thought we were finished. I never thought I'd be glad to see Machines coming in."
Carla set her jaw harder. "They're Machines. They kill. Kill us, kill them, they kill. It's what they do. It's all they do."
Lisa finally noticed the white-knuckle grip Carla had around her med kit. "Carla? You okay?"
Carla was shaking with something. Fear, exhaustion, anger or madness, Lisa couldn't tell. "I'm fine."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Nineteen Days
A crowd gathered outside the Medical Wing. Some were checking up on their family or friends, a fairly large proportion of them waiting for word on Connor.
The wounded were treated quickly. Every Terminator in the Underground had detailed files on human anatomy, and were more than accomplished surgeons themselves. A lot of humans, like Carla, had declared that they would rather die than have their lives saved by Terminator surgeons. But a lot of them were willing to have their injuries treated by anyone who could help; and having the Machines turn on their own had demonstrated quite effectively which side these particular Machines were on.
Even so, it was a difficult night, with so many injuries, the dead taken outside, too many for burial; the funeral pyres burned for a very long time, the Terminators burning the bodies all night.
Kate operated on Connor personally.
Kyle, Carla, Walters, Whickham and Noah were all gathered around the entrance to the small Post Op room. They were all trading ugly looks.
Kate came out of the Post Op ward, and pulled off her gloves. "And that, Kyle; is why we use clean bandages. He got a blood infection of some kind. That and the blood loss took its toll and once the adrenaline wore off from the battle..."
Whickham's face did not react at all. "Will he live?"
Kate looked spitefully at him. "Yes."
Chet looked sadly at Kate. "Good." He said sincerely. "I'm glad."
Kyle kicked the General in the shin hard. The two-star glared down at the boy, who glared right back.
Kate didn't smirk. "He needs rest, and antibiotics. You're all expelled. Get out! All of you. Except you, Kyle."
Carla smirked and saluted. So did Kyle. The crowd started to disperse, feeling better that their Hero was going to be okay.
Kyle waited behind. "Ma'am?"
"Kyle, I'm needed here; and we lost Schwartz and Danes."
Kyle nodded. "I'll stay with Sarah."
Rios stormed in at that moment. "Major Connor." He snapped. "The wounded are freaking out. You don't ask a chrome skeleton of death to save your life. We can't have our people treated by Terminators!"
"They know what they're doing."
"I know that. I also know I don't care. And neither do most of the people in our Pre-Op. Major, the wounded that can still talk have made it clear that they'll wait for human surgeons, even if it kills them."
Walters nodded. "I'm getting the same thing from the cleanup crew. Nobody wants them in our base."
Kate growled. The fight had been over for less than... She shook her head. She couldn't fault them for wanting the Machines to stay far far away from them. "I'll tell John. But he has authority over them, not me."
John's eyes opened slightly, painfully, and focused on the door as Kate came in.
Kate came over very quickly. "Hey. You're awake. Good. How you feeling?"
John didn't answer. His vision was blurring as his eyes rolled in different directions. His face hurt. He tried to sit up.
Kate pushed him back into his cot. "Lie still. You're sick." She pulled over a bowl of water and a cloth. "Your fever broke about half an hour ago; but there's still a long way to go."
"How long since...?"
"About sixteen hours. Skynet's not coming back." Kate promised him, wiping down his face gently with the wet cloth.
"Mm. Feels nice." John slurred.
"I told everyone you're... well, a lot better than you really are. I'll see to it that Whickham will leave LA soon."
"...know?"
"Nobody knows we were running. Our guys in CIC know, but were under orders to shut up. The official story is that you were on a secret mission."
"...won't work..."
"Worry about that when you can see straight." Kate told him, wiping down his face again.
There was the sound of mechanical footsteps, and then, into the light stepped a Terminator.
"Aagh!" John yelped, trying to move and failing, before memory caught up. "Oh."
"Yeah. That's the general feeling on the matter." Kate nodded. "They're starting to make people nervous. And without you... I'm sorry, John. I tried to hold it together for you but-"
"M..." Connor swallowed. "Machine."
The Terminator stepped forward. "Ready."
"Trans'er comman' to Major Kate Connor."
"Understood." The Machine said mechanically, not at all concerned that it was taking orders from a barely conscious man. In a heartbeat, the Machine turned away from Connor; toward Kate. Connor meant nothing to it.
Kate shivered. The Machines were taking orders from her now. She resolved to give the power straight back to John the second he could stand up. She didn't like the way its eyes were following her.
John licked his parched lips. Kate quickly collected her canteen and pulled John upright. She held his fever-hot body against her own to prop him up as she poured sips of water into his mouth. Connor fought to swallow them, some of it dribbling down his sweat soaked shirt.
Kate looked at him with open sympathy, stroking his hair. She hadn't seen him like this since her first night in Crystal Peak. They were supposed to be there now. They were supposed to be in their room in Crystal Peak, mourning the loss of LA to Skynet.
Somehow, he'd done it. Again. Somehow, he'd saved them all. Again.
John had passed out again. Kate laid him back down and pulled the blanket back over him. Her hands were shaking with relief. He was awake. He may not have been terribly coherent, but he'd regained consciousness. The worst was past him now.
And with that knowledge came guilt. She had effectively locked herself in here with him; paranoid about letting anyone else near while he was unconscious. She didn't really believe that Whickham would order him killed in his sleep, but couldn't be sure about all his people... And while she had held vigil over her husband, the other wounded waited for doctors...
The Terminator was looking at her expectantly.
Kate struggled. "Have the rest of the Friendly Terminators move outside the base and begin cleanup there. And you stay here personally. Guard this room. Protect him. Nobody from Colonel Noah's hierarchy is to come near him."
"Affirmative."
"And for god's sake, don't kill anybody!" Kate called over her shoulder.
Chapter 10: Z Plus 2 Years 219 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Nineteen Days
The wounded had come pouring in day and night. Whatever her feeling for her adoptive uncle at the moment, Kate had to admit that he always trained his staff well. And she was more than a little ill to realize that she knew some of these faces. Some of the older medical staff had been the Medic's on Whickham's bases, before J-Day. Whickham had taken his staff with him, wherever he had gone to survive the blasts. The Nursing staff keeping the wounded alive long enough to reach the operating tables, were the same nurses that had given her vaccination shots when she was a little girl.
John's fever had broken and he was recovering, but from far more than the infection. Her husband had been pushing himself too hard for too long, ignoring fatigue and hunger because the world demanded it of him; but now, without reserves, without strength; he remained in isolation for days longer.
Kate had no choice but to put faith in his Machine bodyguard, and had left instructions with the Nursing staff that he was to remain undisturbed. Nobody understood why; but they obeyed.
Carla understood why, and Kate had kept the Latina woman at her table during the marathon operating session. There wasn't really an opportunity to talk privately; but Kate needed her close by. One wounded body after another was put in front of the surgeons, and Kate fought to keep them alive. At the same time, she couldn't help but notice the spellbound focus Carla had on the mangled bodies, her eyes focusing on the scalpels and sutures with something dark in her eyes.
Kate had to admit having flashes of the Terminator laboratory herself in the Medbay, but Carla seemed to be almost having waking nightmares.
Bowman and Rios were there as long as she was, and as the day turned into night, and then toward day again, the surgeons physically had to take a break or start making mistakes. Kate spent her twenty minutes with John, telling the watching machine to wake her up. One thing she could not doubt about the Terminator was punctuality.
Eventually however, some of the wounded waited too long, and The Medical Staff's workload was cut short with startling speed.
Kate longed to go back to John and pass out, but hunger demanded more of her.
The Medical Staff had received a standing ovation as they came into the Mess Hall. The doctors had worked longer than any of the soldiers on the front.
Kate had barely heard it. She had a tray handed to her by somebody she barely saw, and fought not to pass out face down in her powdered eggs. Short catnaps in a cage did little for her energy. Adrenaline had kept her upright in OR; and all that after the last wave of wounded from the failed ambush.
Carla came out of herself long enough to run interference for Kate's slow drag to the nearest table. But when she heard the topic of conversation, her heart sped up again.
Gould, as head techie in the Underground, had been receiving quite a bit of attention. Too many people were unaware of exactly how Connor did it, rumors were flying that maybe Skynet had rebels in it's ranks, others suggesting that Connor was a spy after all that had gone native and decided to help humanity at the last minute. Others suggested that the War was over, and Connor had left to reprogram Skynet itself.
Gould had spent the better part of the day on rumor control as Connor recovered. His latest audience was in the Mess Hall as he tried to eat.
"I don't know who's plan it was." Gould told an assembled crowd. "All I know is, Connor told me to get a Terminator CPU scrubbed with something we could use, and Whickham told me that Connor had left before the attack on a secret mission."
"Hah!" Carla growled sarcastically.
About twenty pairs of eyes turned to look at Carla, who was staring distantly into her coffee. Carla spared her audience a glance, and then looked back at her cup. "Secret mission. Right."
"What do you mean?" Gould pressed.
Carla glared fiercely at Kate. "Would you stop kicking me under the table, PLEASE!"
"Okay, come on." Kate stood up, pulled Carla to her feet and pushed her toward Dex. "Take her somewhere quiet and keep her company. I'm taking you both off the active duty roster for today."
Dex looked at Carla, worried, and nodded at Kate. "Yes, Ma'am."
Carla didn't respond, gone quiet.
As Carla let herself get pulled away, Kate put herself between the retreating lovers and the curious group of soldiers. "Been a bad week; everyone go about your day."
Most of them were willing to take that at face value. More than a few people had lost their minds in the post-atomic horror. There wasn't a single human who hadn't lost control of themselves at least for a little while. Activity was the defense against madness, and there was always much to do. By unspoken agreement, all the survivors knew not to call attention to it when one of their own finally snapped. Most of the time, they were back on the line a week or two later anyway.
But some were suspicious. Including Lisa.
"I'm all right, dammit!" Carla roared.
"No." Dex said calmly. "You're not. You're six inches away from mania, Carla. I've seen it. I've been there."
Carla whirled on him the second they were alone in the dorms. "I've had people dying all around me for years, Dex! You think I'm gonna lose it over a science experiment?" She had tears rolling down her face.
Dex let her scream at him. He took it without flinching until she exhausted herself. "What happened out there?"
"I'm not. Allowed. To tell you." Carla growled.
"Okay." Dex said quietly. "But it must have been bad."
Silence.
"Yeah." Carla admitted. "It was."
Dex gave her a hug, and she wasted no time hugging him back. "I... I miss bread baking too." She hissed. "I miss cooking. I miss my old bed, and I miss my flannel nightgown, and I miss hot chocolate on cold nights, and I miss ice tea on hot days, and I miss my niece, and I miss my brother, and I miss my kids, and I miss my mom, and I hate this place; and I hate losing more people, and I hate making more friends, and I hate-" She finally ran out of steam and broke down. "I hate that I care about you, Dex. I don't want to care about things any more. I don't want to lose anymore-"
"You won't lose me!" Dex swore.
"You can't know that."
"You won't lose me."
"Promise?" Carla said weakly.
"Promise."
"Hi."
Sherrin looked up and saw Lisa standing over his Post op cot, with two trays in her hands. "Hi."
"I heard you were back on solid food, so I figured since we didn't have any of that on hand, you might settle for Army Chow."
Sherrin chuckled and waved Lisa down next to him. "How's it going up there?"
"Still clearing the debris away. The Terminators are all outside now at least. Scuttlebutt says there's a few standing guard in Connor's room."
"Why?"
"I'm not sure, but it may have something to do with Carla."
"The head nurse? What about her?"
"She had a bit of a nutty today."
"Can't imagine why." Sherrin deadpanned. "Do you know what it was all about?"
"No. You?"
"No idea. Tell me about it."
There was little to talk about over lunch in the Underground. Nobody wanted to talk about the war any more than they had to, but there wasn't a whole much else. For that reason, there was gossip. Carla was long considered the dependable, unbreakable one, and to have her snap in the middle of Gould's explanation was easily explained, but not easily dismissed. Knowing so little about each other, Sherrin and Lisa turned the mystery over in their heads as they ate.
Lisa spoke first. "Danes and Schwartz. They've been listed as killed in action."
Sherrin was honestly sympathetic. Tough guy act aside, there wasn't a Marine made, even before the War; who didn't know the pain of having someone you knew killed in the Line of Duty. "Did you know them well?"
"Not as well as Connor did. They were his daughters' guards in the nursery. And they had KP duty the day Connor disappeared. They didn't show."
Sherrin took that in. "Connor's wife was supposedly in San José for the attack. Took her daughter there because it was safer. If they were the kid's guards... They probably went along."
"If it was safer there, then how were they killed in action? And how did Sarah get back in the nursery so fast?" Lisa returned. "Something doesn't add up."
Sherrin thought that over. "Well... I know someone we can ask."
Lisa followed his gaze and smiled. "Hey, Kyle!" She called. "Kyle Reese! Come and chat with us!"
The kid came over. "Hi."
"So, what brings you to Medbay?"
Kyle gestured over his shoulder, his face was unreadable. "Checking on a few of my friends who were caught in the fight." He gestured down. "Their shoes fit me."
Kate let herself into John's room. He hadn't moved.
His eyes opened a little, looking more alert. "Hey."
"Hey." Kate slurred.
"Have you slept?" John croaked.
Kate shook her head, and that action alone nearly gave her vertigo.
John tried to sit up, and she waved him back down.
"You need to rest. You'll start seeing things soon."
"Mm." Kate murmured. "Yeah, but you don't have to get up."
"I can move. I've been asleep a full day."
"But if I sleep on top of you, I know you won't go anywhere." Kate collapsed across the cot and across her husband and did not move again.
John chuckled into her hair and strained to make her more comfortable. "How is it out there?"
"It'll get worse before it gets better." Kate slurred. "Love you husband."
"Love you wife."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Twenty Three Days
The absence of John Connor was starting to make people nervous. People were asking questions.
Whickham had quickly collected Carla and Kate, and gave them strict orders to remain silent until the general had a chance to talk to Connor. Kate had told Carla that John gave a similar order and they obeyed. Kate had agreed to keep the secret on the condition that Whickham go away until John was back on duty. The General wanted to argue, but Kate was the one ordering Terminators around, and he had left for San José. Noah had remained in LA.
The effort to keep the secret worked for less than two days.
Kyle, the only member of the party who did not wear a uniform; and thus was not ordered into silence, had told all about their harrowing ordeal, and when word got out that Connor's absence from LA was not a mission, but an escape, tensions erupted.
There was no privacy underground. Everyone had accepted that as a fact of their lives. It had been surprisingly easy to live with thus far; even in the washrooms. Sometimes people waited till late to make use of the showers; to avoid people coming of shift, or getting up for an early start. Noah was one of them, grateful for the silence for as long as it lasted.
Private Seaborn let himself into the washroom, came up behind Noah, who was rinsing out her hair in the sink, and tapped her shoulder. "Colonel?"
"Yes, Private?"
"I wanted to apologize. About what happened in the CIC. You remember?"
"I remember you were pointing a gun at me."
"I wanted to apologize for that. Connor... He's saved my life more than once. One of those times... was at the Ambush retreat. And the General wanted to end him for doing that. I couldn't do nothing."
"I understand." Noah said. She didn't agree, and she sided with Whickham, but she wasn't stupid. She knew how tense things were in the Underground.
The door opened again, and in strolled Martinez. He and Seaborn traded a look, and Seaborn calmly leaned against the wall, next to the door.
Martinez looked around. "Am I intruding?"
"Nope." Seaborn said evenly.
"Great." Martinez went over to the sink and leaned next to Noah, who was drying her hands too. "So, Colonel Noah... I was wondering if you could help me out with something?"
"If I can." Noah was suddenly very aware that the room was otherwise empty.
"There's a rumor going around that you were here to arrest Connor. Is that true?"
Noah felt her instincts start to scream again, as the door opened, and in walked a few men, two civilians, one soldier, all of them armed, all of them Connor's. They stayed near the door, leaning against the wall, a little too casual. There were now three soldiers, two civilians... and Noah staring them all down.
Noah glanced around. Stall for time. She told herself. "Where did you hear that?"
"Oh, you know how things are." Seaborn said casually. "Rumors spread like crazy."
Noah put her towel away. "Well, nothing you need to worry about."
"I agree. Because if Whickham was that stupid-"
"General Whickham, Private." Erica corrected, settling into a combat crouch unconsciously.
"-if you did come and take him away, then we'd all be dead right now. You know that, right?"
Noah balled her fists, ready to fight her way out. The door opened again. In walked four of Whickham's soldiers, all of them armed, all of them quickly moving in between Noah and her surrounding antagonists. "Colonel." One of them said to Noah, not taking his eyes off Seaborn. "There's a call for you in the comm center from the general."
Noah forced her hands to open
Seaborn put a hand up. "We were just having a conversation. I'm sure the General can wait a few seconds longer for her to give us an answer."
Seaborn balled his fists. "I don't think so."
Noah moved for the door, Martinez got in her way; Noah's man grabbed him from behind and pulled him out of the way...
And the man whipped around and threw the first punch.
All it took was one, and the fight began in earnest. It was brutal, it was ugly... One of the civilians lunged at Noah and tried to throw the Colonel head first into the edge of the nearest sink. Noah was able to break the hold instantly and set an elbow into his sternum, knocking him back.
As the civilian hit the wall, Seaborn caught Erica by the hair, yanked her head back, throat bared for the knife in his other hand-
"TEN-HUT!"
Every soldier froze and snapped to; by instinct. The civilians a little slower, but the fight broke, with baleful looks and bloody noses traded between Whickham's soldiers and Connor's.
Noah turned to the door and Connor himself was framed there, pure thunder on his face, matched perfectly by the long wicked scar that was stitched shut; from forehead to cheek. Eric Walters was right there with him, as was a team of MP's, all of them armed. But the guns weren't necessary. It was just Connor. It was just his face, just his voice.
Connor marched into the room, pushed people away from each other, and went straight to Seaborn. Connor took the knife out of his hand, and waved it before his eyes. "Is this what we do? Is this what we're about? All of us against the wall and we're still killing each other? And for WHAT?"
Seaborn swallowed. "Sir... we aren't going to let them take you, sir. Not like this. Not for him. We would all of us be dead now if they had-"
"They didn't." Connor glared, getting in his face. "You think there's anyone going to stop me from taking care of my people? You think there's any way I would let that happen? I need to trust you. I need to trust that if I leave you guys at my back for ten minutes, you'll be better than this!" He waved the knife again. "What if I had gotten killed? I need people who can finish what I started. I need to be able to trust you. And I need you to trust me."
"I do trust you sir."
Connor kept staring at him. Without turning, he raised his voice to near-violent levels. "Major Walters. Move 'em out!"
"Yessir."
"Noah, you too."
"Yessir." Noah said quietly, very aware of how close she'd come.
"Is this an isolated incident?" Connor asked Walters.
"Nosir." Walters admitted. "Word's getting out, and people do not like it." He suddenly owned up. "Sir, I agreed to keep it a secret. I was the one that convinced our people to shut up about it-"
"And if I'd been here, I would have told you to do exactly that." Connor assured him. "It's okay, Eric, I don't hold a grudge. You don't start an argument when there's an invasion coming. It just wasn't time to split the last army." Connor nodded and lifted his radio. "Kate? You there?"
Silence.
Connor suddenly realized. "Battery. Haven't changed it since I left The Underground." He glanced down the hall. "The supply points still up after the fight?"
"Naw, we moved all that stuff out of the way when we started cleaning out the Tunnels, and had to carry through the wounded."
Connor went to the nearest storage room and opened the door.
Lisa and Sherrin half-fell out the door in a tangle of limbs, caught neatly. Lisa looked up, holding her shirt closed with one hand as both of them fought to stand. "Um... Hello, sir. Welcome back."
"Lisa." Connor returned, nonplussed.
Lisa gestured at Sherrin, who jumped quickly to attention at the sight of two superior officers. "This is Sergeant Tony Sherrin." Lissa stammered stupidly. "He just got out of Medbay… Uh, he's one of the guys from San José." She was bright red, stammering. "Major Kate told us to play nice with Whickham's men while they were here." She realized what she said and flushed darker red. "Um-that is..."
Connor rescued her. "Pass me a radio battery, please."
Sherrin reached back into the storage room and did so.
Connor took it and moved on down the tunnel without another word.
Walters stayed behind and gave the two of them a stern look. "Sherrin, I thought Bowman put you on light duty after you left Medbay? And you're out of uniform too?"
"Not yet we're not." Sherrin responded.
Lisa was mortified, gesturing after Connor. "It's worse than being caught by your dad!"
Walters chuckled and hurried after Connor.
Sherrin looked at Lisa. "I was expecting worse."
Lisa shook her head. "Connor suspended the regs against fraternizing."
Sherrin blinked, intrigued. "Really? Huh, he really is a genius."
"Well, Lisa seems to be over her little crush." Walters commented.
"You know about that too?" Connor said in surprise.
"Yeah. Still, fights are sparking up between your guys and Whickhams' here and there too, so it all evens out, I guess."
"Eric."
"Okay, serious time now. Why'd you come back? You could have kept going. You had to know that coming back here would be dangerous, and you had your wife and daughter with you. Even if you won, you had to know there'd be fallout. He may still decide to go ahead with the court martial. Why'd you come back?"
Connor smiled. "You gave me the uniform. You put me in charge. I accepted the post. I couldn't just let you die. You're my guys. And I'm your commander. Can't just let that go."
Walters grinned. "Nosir. Really can't."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Twenty Nine Days
Violence broke out in the Underground again and again over the next few days, sparking up like brushfires which were quickly put out by Connor and his little family. At first he had tried merely keeping Noah's people isolated, but that failed quickly; as the more violent of Connor's followers sought them out; till finally Walters ordered Noah and her people off the base.
With their targets gone, the anger for Connor's faithful cooled quickly, with nowhere to go.
The population Underground across two cites and hundreds of miles had gone silent. Crowds of people, barely speaking, caught in stunned silence at what had transpired.
Connor's followers had taken to sitting around their leader's base, looking outward as though expecting an attack.
General Whickham had not been active for almost a week. His men had locked down LA and let nobody in. And Connor's people threw their own blockade around the Underground, keeping Whickham's forces out; quietly watched for action, and none came.
Kate had not spoken to her adoptive uncle since her return to LA, divided by loyalties and unable to think of anything to say.
Every human left within two hundred miles of the West Coast waited to see what Colonel John Connor and General Chet Whickham would do next.
Noah fell into step behind Whickham and made her report. "Walters threw us out of LA."
Whickham sighed. "He give a reason?"
"Not one that I believe. Frankly, I'm almost glad he did. Word got out about why Connor left the Underground. Everyone who was told to hush it up before wants to shout it from the rooftops now. If we stayed any longer, it would have gotten ugly."
"What's the word?"
"Skynet's Invasion Force was destroyed. It cost Connor most of his reprogrammed Machines. But as predicted, it cost Skynet a lot more. Connor sent his machines go start hitting Terminator factories. All the ones in the area gave up a large chunk of their defenders to add to the Incursion. Connor kept the factories running. Connor's Machine Army is rolling off an assembly line and going H/K hunting."
"And at the Underground?"
"Major Connor had the Terminators help out with some of the most badly wounded. They cleaned up the wreckage a little while they were putting their people back together. But frankly, nobody wants the Terminators around, so Connor's keeping them out of long range patrol, on offensives..."
"Connor commands Terminators now." Whickham felt a shudder go through him.
Noah seemed worried too. "Sir... some of my men wanted to stay in LA anyway, even with the risk of the civilians..."
Whickham nodded like he expected that. "With the Machines still out there, a lot of people are bound to think that Connor can protect them better."
"Maybe he can." Noah said quietly. "Sir... will he come after us? Between his people and his Machines... What he lacks in artillery he more than makes up for with loyal people."
Whickham looked twenty years older. "I know." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Get our people together; I want a target list for our fighter jets. Stay away from Connor's captured sites. Things are tense enough, but we have to take advantage of the losses Skynet took as much as we can. If we can't capture, we can at least destroy. Start up some drills and set them to simulate what would happen if we have Terminators fighting Skynet with us now. Try and give everyone something to do. Idle hands and all that."
"Yessir."
"I'll be in my office."
Whickham came into his office and shut the door firmly behind him.
"General."
Whickham spun. Connor was sitting at his desk. "How the hell did you get in here?"
"Same way I plan to get out." Connor said evenly. "I'm not armed. I don't want any more violence, and I don't want humans fighting humans, and for the love of god, I don't want it done in my name."
"Neither do I." Whickham shot back.
"Then let's figure this out shall we?"
Beat.
Whickham around the desk and sat down in his chair, the small chess set in front of him, and he waved Connor over. "I tried that double rook move you used the day we met. Didn't work. I couldn't see why, until I realized that you had your bishops clear out the third file; less than ten minutes into the game. You had your ending figured out before you made your fifth move."
"Yeah." Connor admitted quietly. "Yeah, I did."
Whickham moved one of the pieces, noted it down. "Connor, do you think I'm insane? Tyrannical? Out of control?"
"None of the above." Connor said quietly.
"I have been a soldier for more than forty years. I've been given the responsibility of a post-nuclear war zone, and a genocidal enemy that does not sleep, does not eat, does not show mercy. I have to protect the existence of humanity; and if doing so makes me inhumane… well… Humans are still here, and the dinosaurs and the dodo aren't. If there's one thing that the history of warfare has taught us, it's the law of the jungle."
Connor leaned forward. "You're a soldier. Ever sworn in a new soldier? The oath: 'Support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, Foreign or Domestic'; Except that it doesn't exist any more. The hierarchy, the government, the states themselves have all been wiped out. We aren't Americans anymore, Chet. We're human beings. That's all we are. It's been that way since Judgment Day."
"That's my point, Connor… when did we start calling it Judgment Day?" Whickham said finally. "I never heard of it. We just called it 'the attack'. Then one day, somebody heard you talking on the radio, and you said that was what we're calling it, and so we started calling it that. These soldiers have been following me for years, and then you show up, wearing a uniform you got handed to you for nothing, and within the space of a few weeks… God Almighty, Connor: Where the hell did you come from?"
"Does it matter? In the Underground we have people who were waitresses, tax men, lawyers... where did any of them come from? We're alive. That's all."
"And we're being hunted. Connor, be honest. Can you find any flaw at all in my methods?"
"None whatsoever. Your logic is flawless, and your methods are ruthless because it's necessary. It's a response to the times."
"So what would you have done differently?"
"Lots of things, but not for practical, logical reasons. Like your maternity ward, for instance. Back in the day, you would have gone to jail for keeping them locked up like that. Nowadays you can do it because it's something you have to do. But I still wouldn't do it. Pregnant women in my base are already underground. They're already protected by rings of soldiers and tons of dirt and concrete. Like you said, that choice was made five moves ago. If I was in San José, and not LA, who knows?"
"You think you can run a clean war, Connor?"
"Of course not. But Skynet makes it easy to try. We kill a thousand of our enemy, and we haven't even taken a life. This is the most honest war ever fought. War isn't clean. It's a killing field. Always has been. I can't fight a clean war. But I can at least fight a Human War." Connor gestured at the board. "Just like your Chess game. You told me once, your tactics in a chess game match those on your battlefield, because it's just your nature. You want to know how you play? You risk losing your pieces, but only for a greater prize. You sacrifice a pawn to get a shot at a rook. The higher the prize, the more you sacrifice. With all life as the prize… you risk sacrificing the whole game. You sacrifice fifty to save a thousand. You sacrifice freedom for protection. You sacrifice a Colonel you can't trust to protect an Army you're responsible for… Good and evil don't come into that. It's all just… just us making judgment calls."
Whickham stared at Connor. In less than a minute, Connor had praised his logic, refuted his choices, offered the alternatives, forgiven him for being wrong, and taken the choice to another level, which was out of his hands.
It felt like an execution, and Whickham had absolutely no doubt as to where Connor had learned to do it.
Kate was right about you. Whickham thought.
"So no, general, I don't think you're crazy. I don't think you're unreasonable. I just think you have people under your command; and you're looking at the whole board and not seeing any other pieces out there. So you have to protect them, no matter the cost."
Whickham nodded. "And I don't think you're mad either, but I spent my life in the Army, and the whole idea of the military is that when your CO gives the order, you obey, even if it means you might die in the process. That's the burden of command. And that's why you can't make compromises. Especially…"
"Especially with men you don't trust and don't think should be wearing the uniform?" Connor put in, not at all offended. "I understand, but even if I'm not the man to lead, they still want to follow. And do you really want to give those people out there an order, and wonder if they'd rather follow a guy in your brig?"
Whickham shook his head. "No."
"So let's figure this out." Connor said.
"Figure what out? You disobeyed an order. Your men are ready to commit mutiny against me; and if I let you get away with it, the whole chain of command, tremulous though it is in this world, will fall apart. Suddenly obeying an order in a time of war is optional. I can't compromise with you, Connor. Even if I wanted to. Even if it's the right thing to do, I can't. When I order someone into a risky mission, I can't have them stop and argue about it, and I can't have them pause and make sure it's okay with you first."
"I know." Connor said firmly. "And I agree."
"You do?"
"Yes."
"Well… good."
"So I'm going to make it easy for you."
"How?"
"I'll resign."
Beat.
"Resign?" Whickham repeated. "Just like that?"
"A house divided cannot stand." Connor said calmly. "If ever we needed a military to keep it together, it's right now. So I'll resign, and I will do it publicly. And I will tell people that the reason is because my presence would be divisive in the ranks; and that I will not allow my presence to be a weak link in the chain that holds us all back from extinction." Connor paused. "Excuse me, I'm just going to write that down."
Whickham gave nothing away. Connor removing himself peacefully was a pretty good deal for him. "And in return?"
"Two things." Connor said. "One, there will be no reprisals against anyone who wants to come with me. If they're willing to walk out on you, then you probably don't want them here anyway."
"True enough." Whickham allowed. "And two?"
Connor smirked. "Let me call Kate to LA, and tell her you changed your mind."
"About what?"
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Thirty Days
In Whickham's Maternity Ward, the women had blissfully missed every step of the three-way war that had broken out above them.
But then this morning, Susan opened her eyes in surprise as the door to the maternity ward opened, and in came a trio of soldiers she recognized, moving their guns and fortifications aside. And in came… a parade. More new faces than she or any of the others had seen in months. And they were smiling. Susan was stunned, and more than a little overwhelmed. She had been in isolation so long; the sudden influx of new people was startling.
Susan looked around carefully. The new arrivals were drawing some attention. A roomful of heavily pregnant women quickly lost all pretence at dignity with each other, and all of them fighting to sit upright a little was funny to see if not experience.
The long line of people were pushing empty wheelchairs, and taking them, one to a bed.
Kate, with a big smile on her face, was first in line. "Susan! Remember me?"
"Kate!" Susan yelped. "Hi. What's going on?"
"Moving day." Kate explained cheerfully. "We're moving you all outta here."
"You are?" Susan seemed more scared than pleased. "To where?"
"My husband commands a base in LA." Kate explained. "We're moving you there. It's underground. Miles of tunnels, lots of fortifications, lots of concrete. Maybe you still can't see the sky, but it's full of people and you get to wander around the entire base as you like."
Susan felt her throat catch. "Really?"
"Yep. And on the way, we get to cut through the nursery. So…" Kate beamed warmly. "You want to see your son?"
Susan felt her eyes well up. She looked around quickly and saw more than a few people reacting the same way. "My son? Really?"
"You can take him with you to LA if you want!" Kate was almost hopping up and down.
Susan gripped her bed rail a bit too tightly. "Is it… is it safe?"
"It is where you're going." A new voice said.
Kate suddenly looked scared and spun around. Connor had come into the room. "John!" She croaked. "I... I didn't know you knew about this."
Connor nodded, and spread his hands a little. "I do. This was part of the deal with Whickham."
"Who're you?" Susan asked, unknowing and unimpressed.
Kate smiled softly at Susan. "He's John Connor." She said. "My husband."
The first stop was at the Nursery. Due to the narrow corridors leading out, the women were wheeled out in wheelchairs, single file. They drew some attention, but once they saw the babies, they stopped caring about their looks and went hunting for their own.
Susan leaned over the railing, looking into the crib. "Wow, you got bigger." She said softly to the baby. "It's been… what? Maybe a year, huh?" She swallowed. "No. If it was that long, you're be talking by now. Hope it hasn't been that long. Wouldn't want to miss your first word."
The little one cooed a little, rolled toward her voice.
Susan stood upright, weaved a little, unsteady on her legs and tried not to shout too loud. "He remembers me!" She called, overjoyed. "He remembers my voice!"
Kate was almost smiling. She should have been smiling. She was happy. But she just couldn't stop glancing at her husband, as if waiting for him to shoot her. He and Carla and Dex were helping the women in wheelchairs find their way, either to the trucks, or to their infants.
Finally, Connor gestured and Kate went over to the side of the room, to talk to him privately. "So." She said finally. "You knew?"
"About the Maternity Ward?" Connor said evenly, not at all angry. "Yeah. I knew."
"How?"
"I'm John Connor." Connor intoned dramatically.
"Oh no, you don't." Kate joshed. "You can get away with that, but not with me."
Connor chuckled. "And that's why I love you." He sobered. "I asked you to look into the mysterious lack of women, you kept me up to date on what you found, mentioning that some of them were listed as pregnant before vanishing. And then you stopped talking about it all together, and you sent our daughter as far away from San Jose as you could get her. You did that after talking to Curry; who also wanted her baby out of there, and Curry didn't have a lot of emotion invested into her possible pregnancy in the first place. So whatever it was had to be pretty bad, and it didn't take a genius to figure out who knew about it…"
Kate sighed and looked down. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For lying to you."
"You were trying to protect your Uncle."
Kate shook her head. "Maybe that was it. I don't know."
"Comes with Command, giving out information that's needed, and playing the rest of your cards close to your chest. I didn't worry about you keeping this from me, because I knew you'd tell me when I needed to know."
"Did you need to know?" Kate pressed, looking down.
"No. Not then. Kate… I wouldn't have done it, but I couldn't find any really good arguments against it. At least with those women down there… I knew they'd be protected. Whickham wouldn't have mistreated them, just kept them contained. Protective custody, it's called. When you lock someone up to keep them safe. Wasn't right to keep it this long, but if they weren't in any immediate danger, I had time to figure out another way." He shrugged. "Sorry, Kate; but when I found out, I only had time for things that were shooting at us or getting shot at. Same with LA. I didn't have a solution till I found myself having to save you from a Terminator factory. I would have done everything Whickham did, and it wouldn't have been enough if I'd been here either. It was just luck that I captured that Terminator whole. I agree with everything Whickham did; even if I wouldn't have done it myself. Kate, I was playing his people just as much as he was playing mine."
She still wouldn't look at him.
"Kate, who's side are you on?"
Kate looked up at him sharply. "Yours, of course."
"Even if I'm against Chet?"
"Even then." Kate said without hesitation.
"That's all I ever need to be sure of, Kate. Yes, you lied to me, but I knew about it. I let you get away with it because… Jeez Kate, do you have any idea how many times I lied to cover for my mom? You made a mistake. One made out of love for your family. As lies go… I can relate. I can easily forgive too."
Kate smirked mirthlessly. "Especially since I wasn't hiding anything you didn't already know."
Connor smirked coldly. "That too."
Kate wasn't looking at him. "I'm sorry."
Connor laid a hand gently on her shoulder, and she let herself get pulled into a hug. "Kate... I have never ever had anyone before you. My own mother only told me she loved me three times. I can forgive an awful lot to keep you in my life. Some things have to be handled alone because they are personal, because they matter. Some things you have to do privately. Family is one of them." He hugged her tighter. "You'll tell me things when I need to know."
"I will." Kate promised.
He took a breath. "Kate… I'm hiding things from you too."
Kate nodded into his shoulder. "I figure there are any number of things you'll have to carry alone. But… if it ever gets to be too much, I'm here."
Connor pulled her chin up to look at him. "If you asked me what I was keeping secret… I'd tell you. You know that, right?"
Kate put a finger over his lips. "You'll tell me when I need to know."
And that was that.
"Kate!" Susan called joyfully, with a wonderful happy smile on her face. "Come meet my son!"
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Thirty Three Days
The war had paused.
The Machines had suddenly gone quiet. Their factories had gone still, the H/K's pulling back from their offensives, staying safely outside the humans reach. The Humans knew it was because they had lost a lot of their offensive power on the failed Invasion, but the silence was horrifying and oppressive. The air was thick and deadly, waiting. No attacks, no probes, no orders coming down... Two armies fighting a three way war against itself, and all of them on hold...
Waiting.
The uncertainty had stretched longer than any solder or refugee was comfortable with, and as time stretched, even the anger cooled, left with a cold silence, as all concerned became unsure about the future. When Skynet stopped its own offensives, the waiting had taken on a whole new level.
Rumors flew that Skynet didn't attack anymore because they didn't have to; that maybe Whickham and Connor were about to declare war on each other. As the leaders stayed in closed meetings, there were rumors that perhaps one or both of them had been killed; and those rumors grew into whodunits, some saying Skynet had found a way in, some saying that they killed each other…
And nobody knew what to do, or who would be telling them to do it…
Waiting.
"Colonel Walters?"
Walters turned. "Yes, Doctor?"
Bowman came in. "The latest orders from Connor. From him, to Kate, to me. He wants the K-9 units."
"K-9's." Walters scoffed. "They're feral dogs we dragged in. They aren't K-9 units."
"Well, Connor calls them that, so we obey. Mostly some light medical stuff, a few maps, some designs on the plasma guns… There's something strange though. He wanted blood samples."
"Why?"
"He didn't say, but he wants as many of them as we can spare, and he wants them kept in something portable that will allow them to keep for a very long time." Bowman sighed. "Seems our guess was right. The Colonel's going to make a break for it. Again."
"If he was going to do that, he would have done it by now." Walters argued. "Or at the very least, he wouldn't have us grab supplies for him."
"What do you think, then?"
"I think he's starting up a new base. With the Terminators we can start hitting more forward areas."
"Speaking of that, where the hell did the Machines go?"
"Skynet's Machines, or ours?"
"Both. Ours left late last night, and Connor moved our own scouts back to the perimeter."
"I have no idea. Connor sent them to do something. Skynet's Army, who knows?"
Bowman smirked. "Connor does."
Walters took the list and started reading it. "Those transportable blood samples he wants. Who's blood is it?"
"It's not from us. He wanted blood and tissue samples from all the food animals. The calves, the chickens…"
Walters looked up sharply. "Why would he want blood samples from them?"
Bowman shrugged. "I really don't know. Nobody does. I don't think even Kate knows. But it's Connor, so we'll be giving it all to him."
Walters leaned back and looked back at the chess board. "What are you planning, Connor?"
Their radio's both crackled, and Kate's voice came over them at the same time, which meant that probably the whole place was hearing it. "Attention All Personnel. Colonel John Connor will address the Underground, all soldiers under his command, and all civilians on the premises tonight at 1900 hours, in the Central Tunnel; regarding the current situation. Those who can make it are invited to do so; and it is requested that all those who can not make it are provided with radios or other means to hear. That is all."
Silence.
For the first time in almost a week, there was overt talking audible in the Tunnels. Everyone was speaking at once, to people they sat with, people they didn't know, trying to predict what would be said.
Bowman gave Walters a look. "So this is it then?"
Walters handed the list back. "Make sure this is all set up before 1900 hours. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'd lay odds he'll be needing all this soon after."
Radios made their way quietly from hand to hand, the overall crowded nature of the Tunnels helping word to get out.
Humans out beyond the base had their own gear. The people at Whickham's base had their equipment on hand as well. Connor's voice came over every frequency.
Some people did not have the radios. Kate told them to gather in the main hall. Connor would speak from there.
The silence was already oppressive. When Connor actually appeared in the Underground... It turned explosive. Kate felt the silence thundering in her ears. The sound of hundreds of people not making a sound was incredible.
The first thing everyone noticed was the Connor was not in uniform. His clothing was neat sepia grey, with strong boots, a nametag sewn into the chest and a rank insignia like any other uniform.
Connor came in, and made his way through the crowd. The people parted to let him through. There was no podium, no stage. Connor simply waded into the crowd until he was surrounded.
And he began to speak.
"This attack taught you all the most important thing that I've been trying to drill into your heads. Machines are not even alive. There's no loyalty in machines. There's no honor there. Flip the right switch and they'll hunt their own every bit as hard as they hunt us. That's what makes them less than us." He paused to let that sink in. "I am deeply concerned, that the greatest personal advantage that every human being has, is what nearly cost us our lives."
He paused to take measure of the crowd. They were listening.
"My time in the Underground, gave me a home, a purpose, and sense of family. Something I loathe to give up. But things cannot continue like this. I will not be the reason that our house stands divided."
Deathly silence, people realizing...
"And so, effective immediately, I am resigning from the US Army." Connor said clearly.
There was a roar of disbelief and anger which bounced off the walls until Kate, standing quietly at then Tunnel's mouth, could feel her ears start to hurt from the noise. It continued for several minutes, until Connor managed to get them quiet. "I know you may find this-"
"Castle can only have one King!" Someone yelled. "We'll follow you, sir!"
"We all will!" Some else yelled. "Call Whickham out! Say the word! Say it!"
"Call him out!"
Someone else repeated it, and the chant gathered volume until the radios picked it up clearly, and it was heard through the entire West Coast theatre by every soldier, every submarine, every scout, every civilian. "CALL HIM OUT! CALL HIM OUT!"
In San Jose, Noah and Whickham traded a glance, hearing the whole thing over their own radios.
"CALL HIM OUT! CALL HIM OUT!"
"HEY!" Connor roared over them, "YOU WANT TO HEAR THIS, OR YOU WANT TO SCREAM SOME MORE?
They all fell silent.
He took a breath. "I will never ask a soldier to disobey orders. I will never ask a soldier to take up arms against his own unit. If it meant nothing before the world ended, then by now there's nobody on either side of this war that doesn't understand: Your family is your unit. Your strength is in them. And when you face death, day after day after day, you stand together. Back before the world ended, that was a code of behaviour, now it's the only chance for survival. The Machines have no loyalty. They have no sense of duty, they have no honor. And until now they stood together without question."
Sudden hushed silence. This was not going at all the way people were hoping it would.
"You all know me here." Connor said. "You know Major Eric Walters too. I was a civilian until then. I was made a soldier by you, I was set to lead, because you wanted to follow. But I was still a civilian then. My wife told me something that I vowed never to forget. That it didn't matter what my role in this war was. We were both going to fight. And I will. I will fight them back with every breath in my body, for my wife and my daughter. But my presence here would put my men in an impossible situation. So while I am no longer US Army, I am a soldier. I'm forming my own militia. A Guerrilla army trained to fight the Machines. A new war, with a new enemy, needs a new army to knock it down. A Technical Combat Unit, for a technological enemy."
Hushed silence, people realizing that their hero was not out of the game.
Connor looked them over fiercely. "Any who wish to join may do so. Male, female, older, younger, civilian, and military. There is no age requirement. The Machines don't care how old you are. There is no gender division. The machines don't care about that either. Everyone finds a way to contribute, everyone pulls their weight." He turned to face Whickham's soldiers, assembled at the entrance to the LA base. "Any soldiers who wish to join me are free to do so. But remember! The point of this is that a house divided will not stand! So if you want to join; you stand with us."
Connor left the podium. A loud buzz of whispers filled the hall. Soldiers and civilians alike started watching each other, weighing their options. They were expecting surrender or a declaration of war. Not a choice.
Halloway and Lori were the only two people in the Mess, listening to the radio. Most everyone else was two tunnels away, seeing it happen in person.
"Well." Halloway commented. "Didn't expect that."
"Somebody announces he's no longer going to serve his Commander and instead form his own Army to follow? That ever happened before?" Lori asked.
"In America? Not since the Civil War. And didn't that work out so well for the Challenger as I recall."
Lori growled, low in her throat. "So. Who do you stand with?"
"It's the question everyone's gonna be asking isn't it?" Halloway shivered. "History, regulations, tradition, and the law all says I should go with Whickham."
"But?"
"But history was all blown to hell. So were regulations, and traditions, and every law ever written." Halloway said. "It's just us making judgment calls now."
Lori nodded. "Well... The problem is, Connor can't stay here. Whickham will never let him keep LA if he's gonna do this. He'll have to go somewhere Whickham can't reach or doesn't care about. There's not a whole lot we can do for him then."
Halloway nodded slowly at that. "We work for Whickham, who knows what he'll have us do?"
Lori sighed and leaned into him. "How about this? We tell them that we don't wanna go with either of them and form our own clubhouse, with its own army? What do you say, Admiral?"
"Fine with me, Madam President." Halloway quipped.
Dex knocked. "You busy?"
Carla looked up. "Bowman is waiting for me; but I got a minute or two."
"Waiting for you? Why?"
"Well, he's staying here. Noah's going to need him, but he's trying to figure out how much of our stuff he can slip to Crystal Peak without getting anyone pissed at him."
"Connor's going to Crystal Peak, then?"
"Yep. He and Kate spent a year there waiting for the radiation to fade. They know the place. Connor knows a bunch of people in Mexico who want to fight, so he's getting them organized." She grinned and came over. "It's gonna be big."
"Carla... Remember when we talked about Before?"
"Yeah." Carla said, still on something else. "Kate says that Crystal Peak has showers. And rooms. Dex, I swear, I have been dreaming about rooms with doors..." She shivered. "It would be... more private." She put her arms up around his shoulders and gave him a long deep kiss.
Dex pulled her close enough that she wouldn't see his face. He looked like he'd drunk spoiled milk. "And remember when I told you that I was career military? Like my dad. And his dad."
"Yeah." Carla responded, still smiling big. "Kate and John were setting the whole place up. They spent a year setting things ready for this war. Hydroponics already there. Defenses already there... And they have Washing Machines! Dex, can you imagine that? A laundry!"
"Carla, you understand that's important to me, right? The uniform came with more than a gun and a pay check. It means something to me. To a lot of people."
"And if they have washing machines and showers, there must be plumbing right? Indoor toilets!"
Dex reached out, caught her shoulders and made her hold still a moment. "Carla, I need you to listen to me for a while. I need you to be here okay?"
Carla was still bouncing around on her toes, excited. "Oh, and you know what else-"
"I'm not going with you." Dex blurted.
Carla froze. "Wha... What do you mean?"
"I'm Army. Always have been. This isn't how I wanted... I didn't want to tell you this way. My first job came with an Army Uniform. I've been moved around from one battlefield to another my whole life. There's a reason I haven't resigned before this. And if those reasons meant something before J-Day, you can't imagine how much you want to hold onto them after..."
Carla stared at him. "Y... You sided with General Whickham?"
Dex licked his lips. He was on dangerous ground and he knew it. "Carla... Carla, I'm career military. I follow my superior officers. The General is my commanding officer. That's how it..."
Carla pulled back, just enough that she wasn't touching him any more. "Dex... I sided with Connor. He... He was there when I lost my brother and niece. He was there when... Dex, I sided with Connor."
"I know this. Connor is... Connor." Dex said easily. "You're a civilian; you're free to follow any banner you like. I don't have a problem with it."
"And you! You're a soldier! There's going to be fighting. A lot of it. Dex, I sided with Connor in no small part because I know I'll live longer with him than with anyone else."
"You don't know that! I'm a soldier. I've served in forward areas for years. I've lived with the notion that I could die tomorrow for a long time."
Carla looked sick. "I miss bread baking too, Dex. I... when I was in that factory... The only thing I wanted to come back here for was you."
He reached out and caught her shoulders. "Carla, even if we don't work for the same Army any more, Connor and Whickham are both too smart to ignore each other just because they now command different armies. We'll still see each other. We'll still be... be us. I'll say it again: I have no problem at all."
Carla licked her lips. "Well... I do."
Silence.
"You promised." She accused. She felt childish even saying it, and found she didn't care. "You promised I wasn't going to lose you too."
"I promised the Army, too." Dex pointed out. "I told you, this wouldn't change anything about how we feel about each other."
"Speak for yourself."
"If… if it really meant that much… You could..." He let out a breath and stopped edging his way into it. "Stay here. Stay with me."
"You're asking me to choose between the many people I'm sworn to, the people I'm responsible for and look after and help and protect and care for and believe in… and the one person I love."
"That's what you're asking me to do." Dex pointed out.
Horrible silence.
Carla started to back away from Dex. "Bowman's waiting. I have to go."
"Carla..."
"I have to go." She almost fled the room.
Connor was checking his maps; Kate was outside, trying to calm down some civilians who were begging them not to go.
Walters came in quietly. "Sir?"
Connor didn't turn. "You don't 'sir' me, Eric. I'm not US Army any more."
"You mean to do this, then."
"I do." Connor glanced over. "You have a head count?"
"Most of the civilians from both bases are going with you. I'm pretty sure your whole unit is signing on, some of the Medical staff wants to go with Kate; all of the women currently listed as Pregnant..."
Connor nodded. "I have a place to take them. It's well outside Whickham's circle of influence, it's defensible..."
"Crystal Peak?"
Connor glanced over. "Maybe it would be best if we didn't talk about that."
"It's a fairly open secret where you were when J-Day hit, sir." Walters pointed out. "That where you sent the machines?"
"My Metal Marines?" Connor quipped. "I sent them to get the place organized and cleaned up; set up defenses and guards, and make it ready for everybody who comes along to move in. When Kate and I were there, we were the only ones; and that was over a year ago now."
"Noah checked in a few minutes ago. More than a few people in San Jose are heading this way."
"Civilian or military?"
"Both. Also, the Techs are going with you. Whickham has his own Technical guys, and Gould wants to stick around. Says he has projects on the go, and figured Whickham might cancel them."
Connor chuckled. "Those projects might just win the War, Eric. You saw what a reprogrammed Terminator can do. All those salvaged Plasma guns, all the bigger plasma cannons from the H/K's taken whole... A Terminator power source can run the lights and hot water for a whole base; and it's the size of a radio. We got hundreds of them to collect up!"
"Useful, I agree." Eric hesitated. "Um... Noah also said that I've been given command of the LA Underground. She says that I'll be a Colonel pretty soon."
Connor smiled genuinely. "Eric, that's great. Congratulations."
Walters licked his lips. "Whickham said that under no circumstances will he send any weaponry with you."
Connor nodded. "I can handle that." He said. "My mom knew this guy down near Mexico who was heavily into gun running. I know where some of his stores are. Plus Crystal Peak has it's own supply, to say nothing of the guns and technology the Metal marines have salvaged or begun constructing." Connor went back to looking at his maps. "The real question is how to get us all there."
Walters looked at his feet. "We can spare some troop carriers."
"No, you can't."
"Hey, I'm Base CO now. Motor Pool goes where I tell them. With General Whickham's resources, we can spare some troop carriers. Enough of them to take everyone."
"He won't like that."
Walters cleared his throat. "Which is why we won't tell him until after we leave."
Connor looked over sharply. "Eric!"
Walters shivered under his gaze. "Sir... My family have been regular Army since the First World War, I went to West Point, and I've had the words duty and honor and loyalty drilled into my head since the cradle. But... a soldier follows the orders of the Commander in Chief, defends the constitution of the United States... all that has been blown to hell. I've got no reason to trust you, except that I do." Eric reached up and removed his rank insignia. "I was wondering... If you have any more of those Tech Com uniforms?"
Lori was collecting her people from the Underground, when Kate came to see her. "Kate."
"Lori. Heading back to your Orphanage?"
"I don't know if Whickham's going to be too kind to us Outside Contractors. And frankly, I don't know if we'll be much good to Connor with him going far away from here."
Kate nodded. "We can always use people. The place we're going is damn cosy compared to this."
"And I'll make that clear to my guys." Lori promised. "But the Orphanage is my home. I built it. I don't want to leave it behind, and as I don't wear a uniform, I don't have to."
Kate looked her in the eye. "Unless you want to."
Lori shivered. "I want to. Except that I don't want to. I take my orphanage to Crystal Peak, and then they don't work for me any more. They aren't scouts in their own backyard, they're soldiers. Tech Com soldiers. I know them all by name, Kate. I don't want them to go to war."
Kate nodded. "I understand. Sarah's only six months old and her future..." She shivered. "She's a baby, and we're measuring her for a uniform already. I don't want her to go to war." She hugged Sarah close. "But that choice isn't up to us."
Lori nodded.
"I won't tell you what to do, Lori. But if I could ask one favor?"
"Sure."
"When you get back to the Orphanage, get on your radio, and place a call for John." She handed Lori a scrap of paper. "Frequency and address, it's all there. Someone closer to Mexico that John knows. Enrique Salceda. He may be dead by now, but he apparently had a lot of friends and a lot of supplies back in the day. If you can reach him, tell him that Connor says to get ready to move out."
"What makes you think 'Enrique' will leave his supplies and bunkers just because Connor tells him to?"
"He's John Connor." Kate smirked. "Call it a hunch."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Thirty Five Days
Kate was squaring away the baby supplies, when Sarah made a sweet giggling noise. Kate glanced over and saw that Sarah had rolled onto all fours on the gurney.
Surprised, Kate went over quickly, to the other end. "Sarah? Come here, sweetie. Come to mommy!"
Kate held her breath as a pair of bright young eyes looked around and found her, and then…
"Come on, baby girl, you can do it…" Kate urged her.
Sarah started to crawl. She crawled all the way to the end of the table to Kate's waiting arms.
Kate laughed joyfully. "Ohh, sweetie! I knew you could do it!" She baby talked slightly. "That's my girl. That's my good girl. You're so smart, yes you are, love you so much, yes I do!"
Sarah giggled. Kate couldn't help but beam. Her daughter could laugh, and she liked to crawl around!
Kate bounced Sarah up and down a bit, and then the baby pointed at the door. Kate looked, saw nothing, and turned around. The baby shifted and pointed at the door again. Kate smiled in realization and raised her voice. "Why not come in where I can see you, Kyle?"
The kid poked his head around the door. "Was worried I'd be bothering you." He gestured at Sarah. "She can crawl, huh?"
"Most babies learn that at six to eight months. Sarah's just barely six months now."
"She must be pretty smart, huh?"
"Looks that way so far." Kate said modestly. "Anyway. We're leaving soon. Got your stuff packed?"
"I don't really have... stuff." Kyle said.
Kate nodded sympathetically. "Are those new shoes?"
Kyle looked down as the scuffed mis-matched sneakers. "One of the Tunnel rats… one of my friends was running ammo out to the surface during the big fight. She doesn't need them any more, so..."
Kate looked at him sympathetically. "Are you okay?"
"Sure."
"It's okay to not be fine when a friend dies, you know."
Kyle shrugged. It was clear he wasn't going to say any more on the subject.
"Mm. Come to see Sarah?"
Kyle glanced at the little one and shook his head. "Actually, I came to see you."
"To see me?"
"I um... They say that you were pregnant once, before Sarah."
Kate jerked, surprised. "Yeah. That's right."
"I had a big brother once too."
"You miss him?"
"Not really. I don't... remember real well. I was pretty young Before."
Kate nodded, understanding.
"I heard Schwartz and Danes talking before we left, saying that I was Sarah's big brother... I figured that if you were pregnant before, then Sarah would have had one."
Kate stared at the kid, no knowing where he was going with this. "Yeeeeeah." She said slowly. She fought off the sudden spike of frostiness that she felt toward the boy. She didn't like thinking about this, and she had to remind herself that Kyle was young. Once, that would have meant he didn't know what he was doing by bringing this up; but there wasn't a child left in the world who didn't know that you didn't talk about it.
So, Kate concluded; if he was rubbing salt on this particular wound, he must have had a reason.
And after an awkward beat, he finally got to it.
"So I figured that I could do you a favor and fill in for him for a little while." Kyle said easily. He was being very calm about it, like he was playing it cool. "Just for a bit. No strings. Just to see how you like it; you and Sarah."
Kate felt her throat close over, feeling like she was negotiating a tough deal. "I think... I think that's a pretty good idea, Kyle. I think we should probably think about that."
Kyle looked nervous suddenly. "There's no reason to tell The Colonel though. This would be just between us."
Kate blinked. "Why don't you want him to know?"
"'Cause if I was filling in as Sarah's big brother for a while, then maybe he wouldn't let me fight."
Kate took that in and nodded. "Okay. Our secret then."
Kyle nodded and started to go. He paused and looked back. "Should I call you 'mom'?"
Kate fought not to cry. "Um... I don't know, sweetie; I've never done this before."
"Me neither." Kyle nodded seriously. "Okay. I'll think about that for a little while." He stood at attention and saluted. "Ma'am."
Kate returned the salute, and Kyle headed out.
Kate looked at Sarah, curled up under her chin. "Well, that was unexpected huh, sweetie?" She kissed Sarah's forehead. "You're lucky. You have two parents, and you'll know who they both are. There are lots of kids out there in the Underground, some of them being born now, and none of them will be sure who their parents are. We don't have family units any more. Can't keep them going. Too many people getting killed, too many people having kids they never see."
She gathered up some blankets, set them out as a nest for Sarah, who's crib was already packed.
"John told me that kids are a lot stronger than we give them credit for. I guess that's true. You and Kyle won't remember any other way to be. Back Before you were born, I wondered if that made me cruel; wanting a baby in this nightmare. Then you were born; and I knew the moment I saw you that we made the right decision. You are far too wonderful to have never existed." She stroked Sarah's face gently as she laid the baby down. "Your father will be so happy to know you're crawling now, huh?"
Sarah cooed a little and went to sleep.
Carla was carrying the last of the Medical supplies out to the troop carriers, trying to balance a stack of boxes.
"Let me help you with that."
Carla turned, and saw Curry coming, with rucksack slung over her shoulder. She was wearing Tech-Com grey. Curry took the top boxes in her free hand and fell into step with Carla.
"Dex isn't coming." Carla said quietly.
"I heard. The Code of Honor and Duty is a tough nut to crack. You okay?"
"I will be." She gestured at Curry's new outfit. "The Honor and Duty thing not enough for you?"
"I told you, I don't want to have a baby in San Jose."
Carla glanced over. "You're..."
"It's... Too soon to be sure." Curry said evenly.
John came in and kissed Sarah's forehead gently, and the baby slept. "She doesn't cry anymore." Kate murmured. "Babies generally cry at the drop of a hat for a lot longer than this."
"Not raised here they don't." John nodded. "Mm. All survivors know how to go quiet. And run fast. Or in her case, crawl early." He pulled on his jacket. "Our kid's a born survivor."
Kate turned from the crib and went over to the bed, her husband sitting on the edge of the cot. She looked down at her husband. "She's gonna have to be."
John caught her hand as she started brushing off his shirt. "What's wrong?"
"I was thinking about Sarah today, and how I gave her a hug when she started crawling, told her how proud I was, even when she didn't understand what I was saying. Dex isn't coming with us. If Erin's pregnant, that kid's going to be without a dad."
"Erin Curry didn't want Dex to be a parent. She didn't want to raise the child herself, either."
"This is my point. There are no families left intact. Maybe we weren't too smart, insisting on a future generation that would have a hard time even finding out who their parents were."
"We have all that stuff recorded."
"No, we don't. If Curry came to Dex, smart money says other women might have too. Curry's hardly the only one thinking along those lines. We're racing extinction, so we're fine with it; and we still have enough resources for genetic testing, and it's becoming standard because of all the radiation; you know, checking for mutations and all that, so the family lines wont get tangled; but at some point it's going to be hard to figure out who belongs to who in this place. I mean, what are they going to say? 'I'd love to teach you how to lace up your shoes, but your mother and I had a deal?' "
Connor took that seriously. "I didn't know who my father was until mom told me about the War. I found lots of people to learn from, to rely on. Even a Terminator. Every child born today is so much stronger than I was at their age. They will find their way; as I did." He gestured at Sarah. "We were the first parents to the Underground. And we're one of the few who have kids as a married couple. Anyone looking to raise children is going to be looking to us to set the standard, but they will find their way."
Kate stroked Sarah's hair. "You think you were better as a soldier because you had a rough family?"
"I don't know. But if you're worrying about all these kids growing up lonely and unloved because families units are getting blurred, you're wrong."
"Yeah?"
"I told you about Sherrin and Lisa, didn't I?" John pointed out. "Sherrin's left Whickham's command, he's signed on. Lisa's thrilled."
"Really? I just spoke to Lisa yesterday; those two don't even seem to like each other much."
"They don't, but they spend every minute together. The only thing keeping them together that they're both still alive. It's enough for them. I think that's how it goes. You need someone to love, so when you lose them all you go looking for someone new. And if you can't find it, you make it. And if you can't make it, you fake it." John shrugged. "It's crazy, it's bizarre, it makes no sense, it's... human."
"The family of man's the only one left, huh?"
"Yep."
There was a short silence as they considered the future ahead for all the children of the dust.
Kate broke the spell and kissed him. "Well, Lori's coming with us. Halloway won't leave his subs, but he won't leave Lori either, so he's with us, but he won't be with us if you know what I mean."
"I do." Connor said. "You okay with leaving LA?"
"Lived here most of my adult life, but you're talking to an Army Brat. I know how to live on the move." She smiled beautifully. "Besides, we're going to Crystal Peak. If anywhere is home, it's there."
John looked around the room. "Well. This is it then."
"We still got dibs on the Presidential Suite when we get back there, right?"
"Yeah." Connor smirked. "Would I have you anywhere less?"
Kate glanced around the bare dirt walls and shower-curtain doors of their little room and smirked sardonically at John. "Lori says she got an answer from your pals down in Mexico. Apparently they've been looking for you since J-Day. Your pal Enrique pulled his network of criminals and drug runners together. He says he's willing to have a conversation. You sure you want to bring guys like that on board?"
John smirked as he took apart the crib. "They're tough hombres, Kate. We need them."
"And they know about you?"
"Enrique does."
Kate smirked. "We're ready to roll out. They're waiting for you."
Connor collected his gear. "Let's go."
"One more thing." She called after him, straightening up formally. "With the inclusion of Lori and Enrique; and all the people that they bring with them; you now have enough people for five regiments. And to have effective command of five regiments, you need to hold the rank of General Officer."
John nodded slowly.
Kate opened her hand, showing him a pair of small silver stars. John stared at them numbly. She finally stepped forward and fixed one Star to each of his soldiers, came to attention, and saluted. "Congratulations, General Connor."
Connor came to attention. "Thank you, Major."
Long silence as they stared at each other. Kate felt sick inside for a moment. He never wanted this, and she had forced him into it by taking him to save her father, and then Crystal Peak, and then against Whickham; and then; and then; and then...
And now she had put the damn Stars on his shoulders personally.
John was looking at her, as if reading her mind, and touched the insignia gently. "Kate... with you here, they don't feel so heavy."
Kate shivered. The other half of her part in making the Great John Connor was that she was his strongest support. And she was glad for it. Her feelings for him aside, she wanted this war to be won more than ever; and knew from more than cyborg prophecies that her husband was the way to win it.
Kate pulled him into a tight hug and kissed him slow and soft. He returned it immediately, holding her so tight it almost hurt. After a while, they broke and stared at each other.
"Well." She said finally. "No fate but what we make for ourselves, right?"
"Right." John said softly. And after a moment, he straightened his shoulders, raised his chin. The look in his eyes hardened and became cool and deadly. In the time it took him to sling his plasma rifle over one shoulder and his duffel over the other; her John was General Connor. "Time to go."
There was silence in the Underground when Connor's Own rolled out. Some people looked on in tears. Most thought they had no tears left after three years in hell. Everyone had made their choices, now they had to live with it; and most of them stood by the choice. But still, their little community was splitting up.
Most of the civilians elected to go with Connor. More than a third of the soldiers did too. The most notable examples were Walters and Oldham, who did not hesitate to strip off their rank insignia and start scrounging up parts for vehicles.
Connor's technicians had been taking apart the 'friendly' Terminators, and found parts, and power sources, and weapons. Connor's men had taken the machine vehicles apart and begun adapting them to carry passengers.
Lori's support had gone completely toward Connor, and almost all her Orphanage followed. Some insisted on staying out of the war, or staying in one place, and they had tearful farewells of their own; but the sight of Lori in a Tech Com uniform was hard for them to argue with. She had put her people to work and scrounged huge amounts of food; which were loaded and ready.
Kate and baby Sarah had become the patron saints of hopeful civilians, and almost all the civilian populace of the Underground signed on to become Tech-Com soldiers, more to follow Connor than out of any desire to fight.
Those that stayed, and the soldiers who remained with Whickham, Dex included, had tears in their eyes.
Dex had tried twice to see Carla, who had been avoiding him as much as possible. Even as she left the Tunnels and made her way to the new Troop Carriers.
Dex wilted as she gave him the cold shoulder. Kate had followed, bringing up the rear with her husband. "She'll get over it." Kate encouraged him.
"No." Dex whispered. "She won't."
Dex looked past Kate, to Connor himself, still in Tech-Com grey. "Sir... Connor, I wanted... I just..."
Connor let him off the hook. "It's okay, Dex."
Dex nodded and looked at his boots as the departing mass of humanity boarded the vehicles.
And then there was silence. The entire Underground, and most of Whickham's men who were moving in to fill their places, were staring as Connor jumped into the open troop carrier, the last and leader of the exodus.
Sarah felt the cold wind on her face and started to cry loudly.
There was a numb silence as the baby said it all for them with her wails.
Connor pulled his daughter close, as every eye focused on him. After almost three years of building him up as their hero, they were watching him leave. And some were not going with them, by their own choice. Kate looked out the several dozen shamed and sad faces watching them get ready to leave, and at the hundreds more who had chosen to put their faith in her husband. Like everyone else, she was waiting for John to say something that would forgive and forget; something that would make it all better. But Connor wasn't even looking at them. He was just bouncing his daughter on his knee, shushing her as she cried.
What happened next, Kate simply couldn't believe.
Connor started to sing.
He was not a fantastic singer, but in the silence his voice carried. Though he sang to his daughter gently, they all heard it. It was soft and sincere and Kate felt herself choking up as she recognized the song. She'd heard it sung on the Bases she grew up on. It suddenly dawned on her that she had never sung lullabies to her daughter, because silence was golden in the world now... The first music her daughter ever heard; was an old war song.
"They were summoned from the hillside
They were called in from the glen,
And the country found them ready
At the stirring call for men.
Let no tears add to their hardships
As the soldiers pass along,
And although your heart is breaking
Make it sing this cheery song."
Kate couldn't help herself. When the chorus started, she curled in tighter to her little family and started singing along. And to her amazement, so did a lot of other people within earshot; till the mouth of the tunnels swelled with emotional voices. It was beautiful; in a place where beauty was long dead.
"Keep the Home Fires Burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away
They dream of home.
There's a silver lining
Through the dark clouds shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out
'Til the boys come home."
Kate realized suddenly why she was getting so emotional. She hadn't heard music in years. Nobody was playing it, nobody was singing anything any more. If it was happening to anyone else, it would have been cheesy and silly, but here and now; in the cold and hopeless wasteland, there were hundreds of voices raised together, though they were now on different teams. There were tears streaming down every face; even a few smiles. Especially Kate's.
"Overseas there came a pleading,
'Help a people in distress.'
And we gave our glorious laddies
Honor bade us do no less,
For no gallant son of freedom
To a tyrant's yoke should bend,
And a noble heart must answer
To the sacred call of 'Friend'."
Without stopping, Connor signaled the driver, who started up the engines. The rest of the huge convoy did the same, and the soft and hopeful song was almost drowned out. All concerned, simply sang it louder; and the voices carried over to both groups as the convoy pulled away from LA.
"Keep the Home Fires Burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away
They dream of home.
There's a silver lining
Through the dark clouds shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out
'Til the boys come home."
And the Tech Com Army rolled out; at the orders of General John Connor.
Skynet to all units.
Enemy has divided.
Guerrilla tactics have been employed by both current resistance groups. It is likely that the Resistance has splintered to follow this philosophy.
Reroute units 1934-2348 to counter second front. Dispatch units 8834-9267 to attack second group. Redeploy defences and cancel construction in sectors 48-53.
Cybernetic experiments failed. Insufficient information and data to extrapolate reason. Main laboratory destroyed. Cybernetic Organism Infiltrator program suspended until further data can be obtained.
Heat-Tracking optics are now sub-standard. T-500 version completed successfully. Versions T-150 to T-400 will report to nearest construction factories for disassembly upon replacement with newer models.
Terminator Factories in Sectors 44-50 are now Enemy Installations. T-400 divisions 8890-9140 are now Enemy Units. Friend or Foe systems adjusted accordingly. Destroy compromised units on sight.
How did you do that, Connor?
Enemy Command Structure has settled with the division in hierarchy. Priority Target List Amended.
Terminate Chet Whickham
Terminate John Connor
End transmission.
Chapter 11: Z Plus 2 Years 269 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Sixty Nine Days
Eric woke up groggily. Most soldiers knew how to sleep sitting up, standing at attention, sometimes while marching... Falling asleep in a moving vehicle was the easiest thing in the world.
"Morning." Connor said from the driver's seat.
"Is it?"
"No, not really, but your timing is good anyway." Connor quipped. "We're getting close."
"Really? How long have I been asleep?"
"Not to Crystal Peak, to our Rendezvous."
"No, I mean, how long have I been asleep?"
Connor checked his watch. "About five hours."
"And you've been driving the whole time? You should take a break, let someone spell you."
"Your impression of my wife gets better with each passing day."
Tech-Com had split into two groups. One covering the rear of the convoy, one in the lead. The convoy was the most incredible sight anyone had ever seen. It was a caravan that stretched for almost a mile. Trucks and cars and trailers of every kind. What had started as a convoy of military troop carriers in LA had grown to a mass exodus as word spread of Tech-Com and General Connor. The journey to Crystal Peak took weeks, and they had to stop for fuel wherever they could find it.
Both Humans and Skynet had staked out all the supply points, both sides using them as bait or salvage. When faced with Skynet, Tech-Com conquered; and when they met people, Tech-Com saved. With every new community of people, every new holdout of survivors between the coast and their destination; more people chose to follow.
When space ran out in the trucks the humans hooked up trailers. And when room ran out in the trailers, the newcomers found their own transport. They made their way past military bases, and Connor's men salvaged huge fuel takers, helicopters, tanks and armored cars. Civilian cars and trailers joined the exodus; and as the company got bigger, it moved slower. There was time.
The caravan made its way across the map toward Crystal Peak. There were running gunfights along the way; the helicopters making short flights ahead, and then landing until the caravan caught up. With miles of desolated wasteland surrounding them, it was impossible to catch the caravan by surprise. Battles were fought and run, the caravan rolling over torn Machine metal. Skynet had wasted most of it's working H/K's on the failed LA Offensive, and had nothing left that could get close to the convoy before being cut down by Tech-Com.
It was an unstoppable wave of humanity, conquering its way home.
Connor directed his Army to move on toward the Mexico border, taking the long way around to Crystal Peak. He had a stop to make first.
"Team one, move out." Connor directed.
Connor's jeep, plus a small group of military vehicles moved forward. One or two civilian trucks with mounted weapons on the back moved with them; handpicked by Connor over the journey.
The area Connor had directed them to, was a half mile ahead of the caravan. And nobody could figure out why Connor was interested. It looked like most of the journey had. Endless miles of flat dust and dirt; some drooping scrub grass. The only thing that stood out was a few burned out trucks without wheels or windows. Two cars... one school bus.
And three Terminators.
Connor saw that and clicked his radio twice. The trucks all slowed to a quick halt. Coming from the north, the sound of the engines was blown away by the wasteland winds. Connor gestured to Walters, and the two of them pulled down their goggles and yanked up their bandannas covering their faces.
The Humans slipped out on foot; moving their way up.
The Terminators were moving around the vehicles. They seemed to be searching for something. But the dust caked over their skeletal feet and legs suggested that they'd been looking for a while.
Creeping their way up; the Humans paused when four more Terminators came out of the wrecked bus, apparently searching it too.
Walters tapped Connor and gestured up to the school bus. On the rusted empty roof was a row of Terminator skulls lines up, one after the other, over two dozen of them.
Connor smirked, like that was expected. "Let's see if we can add a few shall we?"
His radio clicked once. Then a pause. Then a second click. Connor nodded to Walters. They had handled small groups like this before, but knew better than to be cocky about it. One human casualty was a net victory to Skynet.
They came up shooting. One Terminator was instantly chewed up by their fire.
Every Terminator still standing spun and aimed, when suddenly from their flanks, up came Connor's fellow soldiers, taking advantage of the distraction started gunning down the Machines. It was a quick skirmish; lasting for seconds.
One Terminator survived the initial onslaught, and spun toward Connor...
BOOM!
...when the sound of a cannon going off suddenly echoed off the dust.
Every soldier froze, as the Terminator was suddenly decapitated; its steel skull went rolling as the body fell.
Connor and Walters spun around. The shot had come from behind them. And there, apparently come from nowhere; pointing the biggest most powerful looking handgun either soldier had ever seen, smoke still wafting from the barrel, was a man with ragged white hair waving out in every direction, except for a large bald patch on the top of his head. His body was in its seventies, an age made ancient by the world they were now in, his face was in its nineties, and a pair of feral eyes that were crazed and piercing.
He was dressed in a pair of khaki trousers, combat boots and a cargo vest. He had scars all over his bare visible torso, apparently unconcerned with the cold and the sun. He was missing three teeth and two fingers. He looked like a pirate that aged badly and he somehow seemed to swagger without moving.
Without lowering the gun, his eyes went straight to Connor. "You got big."
Without lowering his rifle, Connor glared back. "You got old."
The grizzled man gave a wolfish laugh that sent a chill through every soldier, and he swaggered up to them. "We heard you were heading this way. Figured it was worth a conversation. Thanks for calling ahead first. I've been talking you up to the others. Preaching the Gospel."
Connor sighed. "I wish you wouldn't call it that."
"Hey, you knew your mom. Introduce me." He still hadn't lowered the gun.
Neither had Connor. "First of all, where are your guys?"
"Everywhere."
Connor lowered his rifle. "Major Walters, this is Enrique Salceda; Green Beret." Connor introduced. "Enrique, this is Major Eric Walters, my second in Command."
"Eric?" Enrique seemed to think for a moment. "My father had a goat named Eric and we ate him."
Eric blinked. "Um... okay. Good to meet you."
Connor grinned. "ALL CLEAR!"
From the dust came five or six soldiers, jumping upright in a neat circle around the two of them. The grizzled man gave Connor a toothless grin and shouted something in rapid fire Spanish. From every wrecked car, every pile of debris, every mound of dust, came a soldier in a camouflage vest, each of them carrying a weapon.
And all of Enrique's men came to attention and saluted Connor.
For a moment, there was a hushed silence. And then Connor raised his voice, shouting in Spanish. "Welcome back to the Human Race!"
The Bandits whooped and shrieked and cheered at the top of their lungs. Back at the road, the trucks rolled in, Kate and Carla the first ones out; the civilians followed; happily shaking hands and making introductions. It was always an event meeting new people. But the moment was tempered by the fact that the refugees had all met new people just a few weeks ago; and that was why they were on the road.
Connor saw these thoughts play through everyone that had come with him; most notably in his wife, who was carrying Sarah as usual. Connor waved Kate over. "Kate, I want you to meet an old friend of mine." Shouting that loud enough for some to hear would spread the word that these weren't strangers, but someone Connor had sought out specifically.
"We're friends?" Enrique mumbled, low enough that only Connor and Walters could hear him.
"Today we are." Connor mumbled back.
Walters turned. "So, how do you know Conn-"
Enrique walked straight past Walters and stepped up to Kate. "Hola seniorita, I am Enrique. And you are far too beautiful for this terrible world in which we live."
"Why, thank you." Kate said politely. "I'm Kate Connor."
"My wife." Connor added.
Enrique's face froze briefly. "I... was speaking of the baby, she's gorgeous."
"Ha." Connor quipped.
Enrique grinned wolfishly. "So suspicious, Connor. Course, if I was you, I would be." He let out a coyote laugh that raised the hairs on Kate's neck.
Connor smirked. "Enrique, what do you say we catch up? Is Yolanda with you?"
Enrique didn't turn. "She's dead."
Connor spun, shocked. "No!"
Enrique grinned wolfishly. "No, not really. But you should see your face." He laughed that coyote laugh again and everyone but Connor traded careful looks. "YOLANDA! BRING TEQUILA!"
Connor grinned. "Ahh, Enrique. I thought for sure you'd be dead by now."
"Last time I saw you, you were a punk ten year old with a leather jacket and in desperate need of a haircut." He gestured at Connor, up and down. "What the hell went wrong?"
Yolanda, ten years younger than Enrique; with generous curves, a big smile, hair down to her waist, and bottle in each arm came out of nowhere, as Enrique had and went to Connor. "Buenos Dias, Johan!" She handed him the bottle. "Legal now!"
"Yolanda!" He took the bottle and gave her a warm hug. "Mm. Good to see you."
"Johnny boy, so cute in his uniform. Who is this?"
"My wife, Kate."
The older woman came over and took her hand. "You ever meet his mother?"
"No."
"Good. She was scary. Let me get a look at you." She looked Kate up and down. "Katia, you are far too good for him." She judged instantly. "He tricked you into it, didn't he? He kidnapped you? Threw you in the back of a truck and wouldn't let you talk to anyone else till you agreed to marry him?"
"He did, actually." Kate agreed, charmed.
Someone from Enrique's gang had pulled a guitar out of nowhere, and someone else had a harmonica. The bottles went from hand to hand and an impromptu party started up in the middle of nowhere.
Enrique snapped something Walters couldn't follow and Connor signalled Walters. A few of each little army split off to cover the outer perimeter, keeping watch.
Carla was pulled into a small group, who were doing some kind of Samba and Kate took the opportunity to slip over to John. "So, there's no reason to worry, right? I mean, they're not really that crazy?"
"Well, can't speak for all of them, but Enrique is nuts. But I trust him."
"How much do you know about him?"
"He did two tours in Vietnam; was handed a Section Eight; came back and took up smuggling. My mom got her hooks into him and we stayed here a while."
Kate rolled her eyes. "Great." She said sarcastically. "When did you see him last?"
"When I was a kid during the second Terminator attack. We swung through here on our way to Mexico. And before that, when I was a kid. We left when I was about six." John laughed suddenly. "He was drunk as a skunk and chasing my mom around the compound with a pair of sheep shears."
"Why?" Kate asked, perturbed.
"We were breaking up at the time." Enrique explained, suddenly appearing beside Kate. "I tell ya, John; your mom was the one and only time I ever broke rule four."
"What's rule four?" Kate asked.
John flushed. "Never go to bed with someone crazier than you."
Enrique nodded cheerfully. "And Dame Connor was seven of the craziest Section Eight women I ever met."
Kate simply stared as Enrique gave his howling coyote laugh again.
Connor grinned. "Enrique, you're scaring my wife. And me, just a little. Let's talk."
"Lets. We have much to discuss." Enrique nodded, turned to Kate, and waved his hand expansively. "Katia, help yourself to everything you see. Mi casa, is su casa."
Kate nodded, happy to have her daughter a little bit away from the crazy man.
Carla had broken away from her little dance group, with a big smile on her face, and saw Kate break off from her husband's little conference. She left the dancers and sidled up to her friend. "So. We staying?"
"Not for long, but I think the plan is to take them all with us." Kate said. "Crystal Peak may not be big enough for Enrique alone."
Carla chuckled. "How did Connor even find these guys?"
"Grew up here." Kate said absently. "He was about six or seven."
Carla reacted, much stronger than Kate would have expected. "You're kidding!"
Connor walked with Enrique, neither of them speaking loudly, not settling anywhere. "I knew you'd survive the blast; but I wasn't sure what you'd do after that." he shrugged. "And I don't know how much you remember from what mom was saying."
"You mom told me all about the future once when she worked up screaming. I poured half a dozen shots of tequila into her and she told me the whole thing. That was when we broke up."
"Yeah, I had that effect back then." Connor agreed.
Enrique grinned wolfishly. "After you showed up with your 'Uncle Bob', she warned us we had to get out. We did, but we didn't go far. Close enough to watch. The night you left to chase after your mom... a cop showed up on a motorcycle."
Connor tensed.
"He waded his way through all my guards; all my guns. I've killed most things that can kill you Connor, but this guy was... fragging scary."
Connor nodded. "I remember."
"Yeah, I bet you do. Anyway, he caught up to me at the edge of the compound. I was on the water tower; hacking away with a fifty cal, and he just kept coming. He lost limbs, had a hole through his head. No blood, no screams. He just didn't fall down. He came up close, raised the hand he had left, and fragging skewered me to the wall with one metal finger which somehow grew five feet long." He pulled his vest a bit to the side and Connor saw a small square scar under his collar bone, which turned into a jagged line off the edge of his torso. "And then he asked which way you went."
"What did you tell it?"
Enrique grinned hellishly. "Connor, I ain't been that psyched since Khe Sanh. I gave him nothing. Instead, I shoved a grenade into one of the fifty cal bullet holes I made and rolled off the tower. Don't know how I lived. Must have sliced halfway through my torso to get free. To say nothing of a twenty foot drop into a cactus. But I lived. I managed to stay conscious just long enough to see the steel Diablo walk out of the fire. Not a scratch on him." Enrique shrugged. "Yolanda told me that he found one of the kids. He didn't do anything. Just asked which way you went. The kid was four years old. Didn't know what the hell was happening. He pointed to the road. The fragging thing actually thanked the kid for his help and went north. Did it find you?"
"Yeah. We killed it."
Enrique looked at him, stunned. "I... you killed it?"
"That night, in fact."
Enrique threw back his head and let out a long howling laugh. "ALL HAIL THE SKYNET SLAYER!"
Some of Enrique's men were within earshot and raised their omnipresent bottles of booze. "Hail!" A laugh went up at the over the top gesture; and the party continued with a few more smiles.
Kyle heard it and added his own voice to the cheer. "Hail!" He shouted with them, and had no idea what it meant.
One of Enrique's men saw it; and waved Kyle over with a smile. "I'm Hernan. How old are you kid?"
Kyle shrugged. "Eight or nine I think..."
Hernan grinned and handed him a bottle. "Here. Make a man outta your liver at least."
Kyle took the bottle, slugged back a drink, unaware; and he promptly fell straight to his knees, spluttering and hacking.
Hernan cackled heartlessly.
"Madurar, Hernan." A young voice snapped in Spanish, and Kyle looked up through watering eyes to see a pretty young girl his age with olive skin and black hair, dressed in a dark red dress, which was somehow clean. She reached down and pushed his messy hair back of his eyes. "You okay down there?"
"You're beautiful." Kyle said suddenly.
The girl smiled wonderfully. "I'm Lupe."
"Lupe." Kyle repeated dumbly, drawing the name over three syllables.
Hernan cackled. "He's either drunk already, or struck by the thunderbolt!"
Lupe ignored the adults. She held out a hand to Kyle. "Nice to meet you."
"Anyway, I figured after that then maybe your mom wasn't crazy. Or at least, she was crazy, but she wasn't wrong. I had some time to think after that. I figured out her whole plan. She was a waitress. Then you come along; and she has to get you ready, so she finds some guy who knows about guns and smuggling and whatever else. And she found me. Then and she wraps her legs around me long enough so that you can learn everything you need, then she moves on; and takes you with her."
"Next guy after you was a Chess Grandmaster. You should see me with a chessboard now."
Enrique smirked darkly and waved over to one of his men, who threw a bottle, over hand, to where Enrique could catch it with practised ease. "Well, to Skynet, to your mom; and to the future. Fragged if they can't take a joke." He threw back a shot from the bottle and handed it over to Connor; who quickly raised it in returning the toast.
Enrique noticed Kate coming up and quickly wound up the conversation. "Well, for what it's worth, I liked you a lot more than you thought I did."
"Likewise." Connor agreed, as Kate rejoined them. "Kate, I'm gonna stick here with Eric and talk to Enrique, figure out his next move. You take the others and head on to Crystal Peak, make sure the place is free of our metal marines before the civilians arrive."
"Are you sure? If the…"
"Enrique's guys can handle our security."
Kate gave the ex-green beret a jaded look. "Okay, if you're sure."
"Hold on!" Enrique said. "You're taking her along?"
Kate started. The grizzled man was pointing at baby Sarah. "Uh... yes? The road's clear."
"Yeah, but if you're setting up something big it's going to be all hands on deck. You sure you can spare a hand to keep carrying a baby around?"
John nodded. "You can leave Sarah here with me, Kate. We'll look after her."
Kate was floored. She was not going to leave her daughter here with this lunatic.
No. A little traitorous voice said in her head. You're leaving your daughter here with her father.
Swallowing the first thought that came to mind, Kate nodded evenly and handed the baby over.
Once she was gone, Enrique leaned over. "You named her Sarah? That's a hell of a name to lay on someone so young."
Connor noticed the way his wife was marching toward the nearest truck, reaching out and dragging Carla by the collar to follow her without breaking stride. "Enrique, maybe you should stay a little bit away from the baby until Kate's outta sight."
Yolanda appeared from nowhere at John's side. "I gave him the same warning about you when your mom was here."
Enrique laughed that hysterical coyote laugh again as Yolanda leaned over John's shoulder and stroked the sleeping baby gently.
"Okay, like this." Lupe said and slowly moved her feet, as the guitar music continued.
Kyle, still a little tongue-tied, tried to mimic the movement. "Sorry. I've never danced before."
"Really?" Lupe beamed. "Well you're not bad." She said, put one hand on his shoulder and did it again. "Now like this."
Kyle swallowed and tried to play out the dance steps again, without treading on her toes.
"Don't be so shy. Everyone treads on toes the first few times." Lupe said softly. "Don't let fear hold you back."
Oldham, Lisa, Sherrin, Carla and Kate had taken the first truck and headed off at full speed for Crystal Peak, the soldiers and the civilians following at a slower pace, pausing for breaks and staying together.
Kate and Sherrin were in the front, the rest of them in the back; waiting out the trip, and passing a bottle of homemade tequila that had been put in their hands during the impromptu party; which was probably still going back the way they came.
Oldham grinned. "He was a child. He actually came from somewhere. He didn't just appear, fully Connor."
"I know!" Carla quipped. "I always thought he was the last survivor of the planet Krypton, landing just after J-Day..."
A general laugh went around the truck.
Kate poked her head through the window from the cab of the truck and came into the conversation on the end of their laughter. "What are we talking about?"
"Your husband." Carla responded.
"And you're all laughing?"
Oldham swallowed. "You had to be there."
"Okay." Kate dismissed it. "In any event, we're almost there."
"Any sign of Connor's Metal Marines?"
"We just passed the outer perimeter. We'll be there soon."
"They were supposed to wave us down if there was trouble right?"
"Right. Looks like the way is clear." Kate agreed, facing forward again.
"Assuming the Machines aren't waiting in ambush for us." Carla commented under her breath.
"Connor's Metal have checked all the rooms right?" Lisa asked.
"You want to take their word for it?"
Lisa shrugged. "Why not? They only work for whoever they're programmed to work for. They work for us now." She shrugged again. "At least, that's what Connor says."
Connor and Walters had followed Enrique back to the burned out school bus. Once inside, Enrique slid one of the seats aside, revealing a panel hidden underneath. He pulled out a lock-box full of papers. He unrolled the largest page. It was a map. It was covered in markings.
"I have guys with CB Radios spread out as far as I dare." Enrique explained. "Near as we can figure, they have the country divided off in blocks. One factory for each block; churning out the Humanoids. Their big machines are guarding the factories; they patrol in rotations."
Connor and Walters nodded. That was the standard tactic.
"I was debating whether or not to start hitting them, but the fact was, I doubt I could have kept them out if they came to complain." Enrique explained. "We're between two factories here. They've been over this area a hundred times, but never really found us. When we heard you were coming, we started clearing out their grunts."
Connor was looking at the maps. "Where are the two factories?"
Enrique pointed to the map. "Here and here."
"Eric, take the 201st, and split it. I want both groups in strike range when I get to Crystal Peak. We've got better communications equipment there. I can keep in communication with both groups."
"Yessir."
"Enrique, do you have working vehicles enough for everyone?"
The older man grinned maniacally and gestured out over the wasteland full of wrecked jeeps. "They're all working, Connor. Don't let appearances fool you. And most of my people are always mobile. We're gypsies that don't move. We live out of our car trunks."
"Wait a second." Walters asked. "Maybe with us hitting the factories in the area it's not safe to stay here; but who says you're coming with us?"
"Welcome to Crystal Peak!" Kate said cheerfully.
"A month on the move. Longest road trip I've ever taken." Carla groaned lightly.
"What the heck happened to the door?" Sherrin asked first thing out of the jeep.
Kate smiled secretly. The wreckage from their first entrance to the mountain had been impossible to move by the two of them when they left, but they made sure to collect the Terminator wreckage before they left, in perpetration for this moment. "Nothing that we have to worry about." She went to the control box and twisted a few wires, hoping she remembered how John did it correctly. There was a quick spark, and the huge blast door started to move.
The loud grind of the metal gears seemed ready to vibrate everyone apart; but they all looked in awe at the huge door as it moved, showing them the way in.
Kate took the lead, guiding the first group in the door. "Now, I hate to leave the door open, but the fact is, if we wear out the gears, I doubt we'll ever get anyone in or out again. Oldham, set up a guard schedule, and make sure the guards all know how to get the door open or closed till we can fix that box properly."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Carla, I'm putting you in charge of the Medical staff and supplies till John gets here. I'll show you where to set up."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Gould, I don't think we've got an electronics workshop set up yet, so I'll put in you in the communications room first. There's plenty of storage rooms we can convert, but until we get something permanent, I want your techies giving our radios whatever kind of upgrades you can. The antenna, the equipment, all of it is Cold War Era."
"I'll see what I can do." Gould promised.
"Dex, I want you to-" Kate broke off and winced suddenly. One or two sets of eyes went to Carla, who did not visibly react one bit.
Kate cleared her throat. "Lisa, you and Sherrin will set up a roster for the showers and the dorms. Half go pick a rack, the other half can grab a shower once they get here... There are plenty of them, but I don't know how many people we'll have before this is over."
Lisa raised a hand awkwardly. "Excuse me, Ma'am; but I'm KP. Shouldn't I be setting up the kitchens?"
"Well, you will. At least for today. The Dorms wont take long. But bear this in mind: You were KP in the US Army, Lisa. You're Tech-Com now. Who knows where you'll end up? You were there in the Main Tunnel of the Underground; and from what I could see; you were pretty good with a plasma-rifle."
Lisa flushed. "Thank you, ma'am."
The elevator reached the lower levels and Kate opened the door, leading the way. "Now, straight down here we have the main auditorium; including the Communications Console. Down the left tunnel is the storage rooms and the equipment rooms, we'll get to those later."
Kate felt oddly like a teacher with a class on a field trip as everyone kept pace with her, carefully looking around as she directed their attention to various things. They seemed interested, even excited. It was rare to have excitement in the air, and Kate loved it. Crystal Peak had people in it. Not just two weary refugees, chosen by destiny to fall in love, but people. And soldiers no less.
"Down this corridor here, we have the Dorms, and the showers. Latrines, laundry; if it requires a lot of plumbing, it's in this block here. Now, the Dorms are split up into the Officers Quarters, the VIP rooms, the Presidential suites and the main dorms, which is basically a bunch of-" Kate was suddenly aware that she was alone. "Where'd everyone go?"
Kate's 'Class' was in the shower block, gathered around the nearest shower stall. Oldham had a roll of toilet paper clutched in his hand like a magic talisman. The look on their faces was disturbingly intense as Carla reached out with a trembling hand and turned the knob.
Instantly a stream of hot water rained down from the shower-head, and steam started to build.
A chorus of cheers and laughter rang out. Plumbing was something special to these people after so long. The soldiers had been on manoeuvres and had to stay in the wilderness for over a year till they could set up the Alamo, and even then, heating water enough to shower was near impossible. All attempts to rig one that worked according to a Pre-J-Day standard had failed miserably. To be in an actual washroom, with dozens of showers lined up, working toilets on the other side of the wall, washing machines lined up on the other side of the showers…
"Does that mean these toilets flush?"
"Yes." Kate called from the door in mock disapproval.
Everyone came to attention quickly, feeling like they'd been caught stealing. Carla turned the shower off quickly.
"Now everybody move." Kate commanded. "We've got half the known population of the country coming for dinner."
Walters turned and glared at the grizzled man. "Look, no offence, mister. But who says we want you on board?" He demanded. "Tech-Com has no age limit; and no call to bounce you for... previous discharges. But based on what I'm looking at... We live Underground. You seem like a cave-in risk. And you've got your own setup, so you don't need to join us. You don't strike me as the type to join up any more."
"I was slitting throats in the jungle before you were out of your crib, Major." Enrique fired back. "Don't you tell me I don't answer the call to duty."
"But why us? We aren't US Military. Not anymore."
Enrique glanced at Connor. "I knew his mom."
Walters stared. "That's it?"
"If you met my mom, you'd understand." Connor said quietly.
Kyle grinned at that.
Connor let his second list all the arguments. Walters knew that Connor, and by extension Tech-Com, would not turn anybody away. But somebody had to say it; had to make it clear that Enrique could not rest on his personal connections to The General for his place among them. "Okay. So why should we bring you on board?" Walters demanded. "You've got a lot of people. There's only so much to go around. What can you offer that's worth the trouble you're almost certainly going to bring?"
Enrique gave a wily look. "Well, I could offer you US Dollars. We've got millions here; we've been using hundred dollar bills ever since the toilet paper ran out... or if you like there's a gold mine about..."
"Enrique." Connor chided him.
"JOSE!" Enrique shrieked suddenly. "OPEN THE BUNKER!"
Sarah woke up and started screaming.
Enrique's eye widened and his eyebrows rose, completely mortified. "Oh, jeeze. Sorry, John! Sorry, Sarah! I didn't..."
Yolanda took Sarah gently from Connor and smacked Enrique upside the head with her other hand. "Meathead!" She snapped at him, switching straight back to maternal and gentle by the time she had turned to Connor. "I got this, Johnny."
Connor nodded gratefully at that. Over toward the burned out looking vehicles, one of Enrique's men waved at them and headed a few feet to his left, before reaching down to the dirt and pulling up a chain, that had gone unnoticed, buried in the dust. Jose, and several others lined up on the chain and pulled at the same time; filling the air with the sound of grinding metal on stone.
Connor, Enrique and their entourage's all went over to take a look, and Connor felt his jaw drop. The underground bunker was full to the top with rich black soil.
"Eh?" Enrique grinned. "Worth something to you?"
"Is it... is it still good?" Connor asked.
Enrique already had a soil test kit in his hand. Walters pulled a Geiger counter at the same time and they all ran their tests. The soil was fine.
"After J-Day, I had all my guys start digging up the soil before the fallout came. We emptied out half my bunkers, poured all the dirt in, and then we went into the other bunkers while the fallout dust came down, and we crossed our fingers and waited for the rains to come wash it all out. We've been growing food in tubs for a while now. And that's not even counting the weapons, explosives, vehicles, spare parts, manpower, salvage from a hundred miles in every direction..."
"I've heard enough." Connor grinned like a shark. "Enrique. Join me. And bring your Bandits with you."
Enrique grinned savagely. He was just waiting for the Call to Duty. "Who am I to deny The Great John Connor?"
Kate stared in horror. The hydroponics bay that she and Connor had set up; was dead. Every row filled with rotting plants and dry soil. The water had gone stagnant. The plants were dead.
Kate stared. "John fixed the water flow and the lights... so that the plants would grow slowly. He picked perennials... plants that had a life cycle so that there wouldn't have to be anyone here to replant them." She licked her lips. "We worked for a year on these bays." She looked at Sherrin. "All of them?"
"No. Not all. But at least half. Maybe a few more."
Kate let out a low moan and turned to head out of the storage rooms. "We checked everything. We put in redundancy for power failures, leakages..."
Sherrin gestured back at the room. "Looks like the timed ones didn't work. Some of the fuses burned out, the heavy lights were on timers..."
"The fuses burn out, the lights go off, the pumps never get switched on..." Kate rubbed her eyes. "Hell."
Carla looked around worriedly. "What does this mean for us?"
Kate quickly schooled her face. "Well, for now it means we're back on tinned rations I'm afraid. It's a shame. John had this big feast planned."
Sherrin shrugged. "Food's food."
Lisa glared at him and turned to Kate. "Permission to go inventory the tinned supplies, Ma'am?"
Sherrin back pedalled. "And with our talented KP staff on duty, we'll have a great big feast yet."
"Permission Granted." Kate put in.
Lisa and Sherrin took off.
Carla smirked at Kate. "She trained him pretty quick, didn't she?" The smile dropped. "So when I asked you what the Hydroponics loss meant for us, what was the real answer?"
Kate sighed. "I don't know how many people are coming. What was the headcount after everyone came after LA and San Jose?"
"Thousands, at least. With Enrique's people, probably more."
Kate gestured around the base. "Crystal Peak was supposed to be a Command and Control Center. A place for the President and his staff, plus some essential supplies for the rest of the country. It was never intended to be a refugee center. It was meant to be a few hundred people working communications. This is something different."
"Will we have enough?"
"The tinned supplies were meant to feed hundreds for years. John and I kept to the stuff we grew as best we could. Crystal Peak had plenty of container garden supplies and vacuum sealed seeds."
"Enough that we can regrow?"
"Sure, but that takes time. Time for things to grow; time for fruit and veg to ripen... The real thing is that the seeds need to germinate. We can harvest the seeds to grow again, but do that too early, and the seeds are no good."
Carla grinned at her. "Well listen to you, Ma Nature."
Kate shrugged. "We had a lot of time to learn this stuff."
"And do some other stuff I'm sure." Carla smirked.
Kate knuckled her shoulder. "Actually, not till the night before we left this place."
"Really?"
"I was engaged to someone else when J-day broke out. John was... respectful."
"And you?"
"I figured he had more important things to worry about."
"I wouldn't have let that keep me away for a year." Carla pointed out.
Kate was torn. She trusted Carla, and she'd wanted to confide in someone about the life she found herself in from the first time she met a Terminator...
"John..." Kate started, then changed her mind and started again. "John was on the radio, talking to Eric, making plans, giving orders. I figured that with the world at war, and John being put in charge... I wanted him to keep his eye on the ball. I couldn't distract him. Not even when I fell in love with him. When we got ready to leave… the prospect of being around other people for the first time made us face up to it."
Carla smiled sadly. "It worked out though."
"Turns out we were better together than apart."
Carla smiled sadly again.
Kate flushed. "Oh. Sorry, Carla, I didn't even think."
"S'okay."
Kate debated for a moment whether to push it or not. "Y'know, we've been on the road for weeks. We never really got a chance to talk about it. You and Dex."
"I don't know that I have anything to say." Carla rubbed her eyes. "It's... It's what you said. The world came apart. Now is not the time to get your brain in a twist over a guy."
"Why not?" Kate asked. "Can you think of a more important time to feel loved?"
Carla looked down. "Like Lisa and Sherrin?"
"I honestly don't know what to make of them." Kate admitted. "It's more like pure survival instinct than any real affection. Hey, people have lived with worse."
Carla nodded. "I know. And Dex... He was great. So much better than pure survival. But now... now I don't want what you have with Connor."
"You don't?"
"I don't. Because as happy as you two are, I cannot shed the thought that if something happened to you… or god forbid, to him... I've had to get past that with my kids, with my husband, with my parents, with my brother, with my niece, with Dex. God Kate... I want to survive. If something comes along that's better than that, quite frankly, I don't think I could handle it. I want what Lisa and Sherrin have. I can make do. Survivors survive."
Kate's radio buzzed. "Connor here." Kate called back.
"Ma'am, we've got the inventory of supplies. Obviously, it hadn't changed since you and The General left." Sherrin reported. "Lisa wants to know if we're rationing."
"Negative. Not tonight." Kate said. Tonight was meant to be a party.
The trucks rolled into Crystal Peak that night. The civilians came first, and then the soldiers, Tech-Com and Bandit alike.
Connor quickly came to the front of the crowd, and the door opened as he approached. He turned his back on it and smiled winningly at the crowd as they pressed their way through the warehouse-like entrance toward the blast door. "Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Crystal Peak."
The crowd whooped and applauded as the blast door raised enough to left everyone in. Kate was there too; sidling out of the base toward her husband. "Dinner's up in a few hours. Head toward the elevators." She called to everyone.
Connor took his wife in a tight hug; though they had only been apart twelve hours. They looked at each other warmly, suddenly the only two people in the world, standing at the door to Crystal Peak. Kate said it first. "Home at last."
"Yeah."
"Hey, Connor?" Enrique broke in on the tender moment. "Where the hell did the two crashed helicopters come from?"
Connor and Kate traded a small secret smile and Connor's radio clicked. "Connor here."
"This is Gould. We have contact with Strike One and Strike Four. Is there a directive?"
"Swoop." Connor gave the code-word.
"Roger that."
Connor turned to Kate. "I have to get down there."
"No you don't." Enrique directed. "They'll have to travel a bit to get to your targets. Walters isn't a moron. Get some rest." He turned to Kate. "You go with him. Keep him in bed for a while." He burst out with his coyote laugh.
Kate turned to her husband, pointedly facing away from him. "Actually, we do have another problem."
"Only one?"
"The hydroponics bay went bust. Some of the fuses blew."
"No survivors?"
"About three out of ten hydroponics bays made it."
John nodded, unconcerned. "We knew that could happen. Tinned supplies still good?"
"Well… yeah, but how long are they going to last out?"
Connor grinned at Enrique. "Long enough. We have something better than recycled water coming in. We've got actual dirt."
"We'll have to go back for it." Enrique agreed. "Don't worry. The hatches are all camouflaged, the bunkers are lead lined."
"We can rig some of our water tankers to handle dirt for one trip." Connor said. "Enrique, make sure we have somewhere to put it till we can start using it."
Kate just looked at him. "Okay. Dirt. Good. But not enough to regrow-"
"Enough to regrow and then some." Enrique promised.
"It's on the way Kate. We'll be able to start growing quickly. Was it just the fuses or have we lost the lights as well?"
"Just the fuses."
"Great! We can grow faster that they ever would outside."
Kate was relieved. "I was expecting… I don't know."
"You thought this was a big disaster?"
"More mouths to feed and less food to go around."
"Hey lady, we didn't come here with nothing but a begging bowl." Enrique snapped.
"Right." Kate agreed. "You brought dirt too."
Enrique gave Kate an electric glare, which she had no trouble returning. Connor suddenly tensed, realizing that this was not playful banter. "It'll be tight." He said aloud. "But with what Enrique's people brought and their supply lines from down south, plus the extra hands to rebuild it all; we're still a few meals ahead of starvation. That's all we need for now."
"Kate!" Susan yelled. "Help!"
Kate spun toward the convoy, seeing her friend staggering down from the troop carrier, with the help of two soldiers, clutching at her pregnant belly. "My water broke!"
Kate took off toward the convoy, helping Susan down toward the elevator. "Outta the way!"
The crowd let them through, and they headed into the elevators.
"JOSE! HERNAN!" Enrique bellowed.
The two men in question went running over to Susan, and essentially carried her prone to the entrance, pushing their way through the crowds mercilessly.
Kate had taken Susan down to the Medbay. One or two of Enrique's people had medical training. There had been young children at the Bandit's compound, and they had experience at delivering babies.
The rest of the crowd came down into the main auditorium. It was an area that Kate and John did not spend a lot of time in; given that it seemed to exaggerate how lonely the place could get when it was just them.
The kitchen staff worked overtime in a short burst of overjoyed adrenaline. Tin after tin; tray after tray. The first meal in a new home, safe and secure, even a little plush and comfortable.
Kate and her little troop had come in early to get the lights on and the equipment working. When the rest of them arrived, they quickly congregated at the washrooms and then the Dorms, jockeying for position. A good portion of them wanted the first hot water shower; while others wanted the most comfortable beds.
There was a buzz of activity that for once did not have the constant undercurrent of fear. And it was wonderful to hear.
Kate came into the main auditorium; and looked around in disbelief. There was a party going on! Tables and benches were put around, the food stacked high. Trays had been all but abandoned as the center of the room became practically a dance floor. Music being played, people being pulled to their feet. Couples were over out of the way doing everything from sitting together and watching to making out drunkenly. Food was piled high on tables, being passed around along with the bottles of moonshine.
Connor was unobtrusively at the door, watching the whole event with a smile on his face. Kate went over and joined him, leaning into him happily. "Well, first baby born in Crystal Peak. A healthy boy. Susan's asleep. Told us to save her some tequila. She's been pregnant for most of the last two years. Long time without a cocktail." She leaned in a little closer. "I have missed this place."
John smiled. "Me too." He leaned down a little. "Sarah safely squared away?"
"Snoozing as we speak." Kate shivered pleasantly. "Eric checked in yet?"
"Still travelling. We've got a few hours at least." John smirked. "I doubt anyone will come looking for us till then. Who would miss the first party we've had in years?"
"I'll say." Kate gestured out at the party. "How did you get all this done so fast?" She asked in amazement.
"I didn't." John said honestly. "Enrique got his people organised; went through every room pulling out benches, tables. They had the whole place organised in an hour."
"What?" Kate said in shock, the mood shattering in an instant.
"What?" Connor reacted, taken aback.
"Every room?" Kate grated. "You mean they had the run of the base?"
"Kate, they've signed on. One or two of them didn't want to leave their families back near the border, they stayed. Enrique has them all on side. I told him about Dyson, I told him about Whickham. Enrique's not an idiot. He knows he's got some bridges to build, and some jaded people to win over."
"He'll have a lot more on his side if he decides he doesn't want us taking up space. I still can't believe you let them in with the rifles. They may use bullets, but slug-throwers can kill, John." Her voice had grown as intense as her glare.
Connor glared back at her. "Honey, if we're going to have this fight, can we not do it in front of the kids? It just scares the hell out of them when we fight."
Kate glanced over and noticed a few people watching the two of them from the corner of their eyes. "Fine."
The Presidential Suite was about the same as they remembered it, right down to the plastic flowers on the table that had probably been there for a good sixty years now. Kate was annoyed at the fact that Enrique had run of the base, but was outright angry about the fact that they were coming into this room for the first time since their wedding night to have an argument.
The second the door shut, Connor fired. "Kate, I don't know what got your fur up about Enrique, but-"
"Don't know? He's a freaking Looney Tune!" Kate exclaimed.
"And he's the first friend of mine you've ever met!" John snapped. "In fact, he may be the closest thing to a living in-law you'll ever find."
Kate was caught unawares at that. "I didn't realize you two were so close."
"We aren't. He tried to feed me a baby snake once for fun! But I don't exactly have a long list in that regard, so I take what I can get. Kate, he's my friend. He's one of the few people who know the whole story about me and my life-"
"So was Danny Dyson!" Kate interrupted.
That shut John up, and he leaned forward, keeping his cool. "That was different. Enrique… He's stronger. He may act crazy, and he is, but it's the kind of crazy we need. It's the kind of crazy that keeps you from going nuts. He was like that when I was six years old, and if a nuclear war couldn't change him because of the way he acts, then the way he acts is fine with me." He fixed a subzero glare on her. "And I wouldn't talk about adoptive family being dangerous."
That one caught Kate unawares, though she knew it shouldn't have. "I know." She said, calmer now by force of sheer willpower. "But that's my point. You're letting this lunatic into everything we have left, in return for which he's offering you a lot of dirt."
"A lot of good dirt! And he thought to save it! Good dirt, Kate!"
Kate stared at him. "Look, obviously that means something to you that it doesn't mean to me. I'm aware how useful it is for growing, but-"
"You want me to spell it out for you?"
"Oh please do."
"After Chernobyl, they estimated that the radiation would last in that area for forty eight thousand years! What do you think will happen after J-Day? I'm frankly amazed that the atmosphere still has enough left to keep us breathing! Crystal Peak has seeds Kate. Seeds and soil nutrients; all of them vacuum sealed. But even oak trees need dirt to grow in, and every scrap of land that we don't run over with tanks and troop carriers is radioactive now! He's got good dirt. Clean dirt. Black, rich, deep, non-radioactive, non-baked, non-blood soaked soil that you can plant a seed in and it will grow. Once this war is over, we're all of us farmers. Because the entire base is being fed by hydroponics that does not grow in dirt, but in recycled water. Our daughter will never see a jungle. Or a forest. If she's very lucky, she may live long enough to see one of those oak seeds grow halfway tall, but the fact is that even after Skynet's gone, there's an awful lot of work to do. And before any of it can be done, before any of it can be started… we're going to need soil. We're starting all over again, starting with trying to create DIRT under our feet before we can start with anything else. And even the dirt under our feet is in short supply now."
Kate was left staring, stunned into silence. She sat down hard on the edge of the desk. It simply had not occurred to her. Every tree had burned, at least in the northern hemisphere. "Y… Your mom taught you all of this?"
"When I was nine years old. She told me that the Earth is breathing, summer to winter. The majority of the forest land is above the equator, but so were the nuclear powers, so those forests would be gone by day one. During the summer months, those trees grew the most. Oxygen levels rose. During the winter, those trees went dormant, temperatures dropped, and carbon dioxide rose. Summer comes again, the oxygen levels start rising. And now those forests are all nuked out of existence. The Earth is out of breath, Kate."
"W…" She swallowed. "We could just walk outside one day and there would be no oxygen left?"
"Skynet doesn't need to breathe or eat, so why would it matter to the Machines?"
Kate let out a low moan. "I… How do we fight that? I never even thought…"
John nodded. "I did. And mom did. And Enrique did."
Kate nodded slowly. Both of them were silent a long moment.
"Forty eight thousand years?" Kate repeated numbly.
"You understand that's the majority of the radiation. We may not be able to live there or grow there, but we could start walking around in some of those places for short periods after 900 years or so."
"Oh, well, that's a relief." Kate chuckled sickly.
Numb silence.
"Algae actually processes co2 better than trees do in small spaces. Co2 concentrations in the Underground were getting worrying just before we left, so I showed some of Whickham's guys how to grow Algae in tanks, make scrubbers. If it comes to that, we could probably live completely underground. With Terminator cells for power, hydroponics that don't need soil…"
"Please stop talking now."
John was silent while Kate processed.
Finally he spoke. "We could do it, Kate. Survivors survive."
Numb silence.
"I want Sarah to know what trees are, John. Promise me. If you promise me, I'll believe you. Promise me we can put it back."
"Not all of it, but we will."
"Not all of it?"
"Maybe some day in half a million years or so, everything will be back to normal. But before that… Until then we're collecting dirt that isn't irradiated; and we're growing food in big jars and we're collecting condensation from the lights to keep them hydrated, and we're harvesting every scrap of garbage and animal dung we can use for compost and we're making soil live again, one block at a time. Enrique has his guys raising fish in big sealed tanks, and we can live off that as long as we let them keep breeding. If the oceans heal, we can try and introduce them back into the wild. And we're getting seeds from the plants we grow hydroponically, and if we can get enough good soil together, we can start growing the plants outside. Another year and the sun will come back. If we can last out the harsh weather, we can make things grow, Kate. Including trees."
"And we won't cut them down this time." Kate swore, getting just a little frantic. "Not until they grow big. Lots of them. Lots of branches, lots of leaves, big and green..."
"Until then, we have algae to scrub the air underground, and we have tanks full of stuff to feed our people."
Kate could feel her hands shaking a little, and gripped the edge of the table she was sitting on tightly. "Will it be enough?"
"As long as the war lasts, it will."
"As long as it lasts?" Kate could feel another ghastly layer adding to the problems of the world. Her hands were still shaking, but now there was something cold growing in her stomach at the thoughts her husband was putting into her mind.
"The war is population control. There's not enough to go around; not enough food, or water or medicine, or oxygen. But Skynet's keeping our numbers down. Once this war ends, we'll need strict controls to keep from overpopulating. It was a problem when we still had farms and supermarkets and freezers and preservatives Kate, what do you think it'll be now? Some of the people who came along are talking about places where people are eating each other!"
"Oh god." Kate whispered. Is it even worth surviving? Would it be more merciful to go downstairs and strangle Sarah right now? She hated herself horribly for even having it flit across her mind.
Connor was still talking, laying out the future of times to come. "The world can't handle more than a few million of us any more-"
"Stop talking." Kate whispered, so low that she couldn't hear her own voice. Connor didn't hear.
"-and we're going to be somewhere between salvaged libraries, powered by Terminator heart fusion battery technology based around a medieval society for at least the next few thousand-"
Kate lunged off the desk and kissed him savagely, at first just to stop him talking, and then she just couldn't seem to stop herself. Connor returned it and tasted blood from his own bruised lips as Kate kept it going, digging her fingers into his back; clawing him against her tightly. John hugged her back so hard that it hurt, and Kate was glad to feel the pain. It was an embrace devoid of love, or comfort, or anything positive at all.
When the need for air got desperate, they broke at last and Kate put her face into his neck; out of breath, out of patience, a little bit out of her mind. "I don't want to think about this any more." Kate rasped out. "I... I want... I don't know, but I want."
They stayed like that for a minute, clinging to each other tightly, until Kate drew him back toward their bed.
The crowd had settled from the party and gotten their food; low rations giving them little endurance. There was plenty of food for once, being handed out liberally. Enrique's Bandits had essentially invaded, taking places at every table, shaking hands, telling jokes. Connor's faithful were a little leery after what had happened the last time they welcomed new people into their ranks.
The Bandits had heard about this little detail in minutes, and had an almost natural ability to put people at ease. Unlike any other survivors that anyone had met thus far, these people had an air of playfulness about them. They laughed with each other; they talked more often that absolutely necessary.
And they had music. They had flutes and harmonicas and guitars; and music had sprung up almost naturally around Crystal Peak.
A change was as good as a holiday, and the refugees of the underground allowed themselves to be spirited away from their troubles for one night, carried away by the food laid out, the music played here and there, the laughter between Enrique's people…
Kyle was looking around awkwardly, when he saw her. "Hi."
She turned and saw him. Lupe smiled. "Hi Kyle."
"I was wondering if..." He gestured over his shoulder. "Me and my friends… they call us the Tunnel Rats; and we usually sort of eating together… if you wanted to eat with us…"
"Are you scared of me?" Lupe asked suddenly.
"No?" Kyle said quietly.
"I'm glad." Lupe said happily. "Lots of people are scared of me."
"Why?"
Lupe was silent.
"Come on." Kyle pressed.
Lupe looked around the room full of laughing and talking people as though expecting to be overheard, then leaned in and whispered into Kyle's ear.
"I don't speak… whatever." Kyle said, feeling foolish.
"It is Spanish. It is a very beautiful language." Lupe said. "I could teach you."
Kyle felt like he'd won the lottery.
She reached out and grabbed a hand. "I'm looking for a hiding place. Want to help me look?"
Kyle nodded instantly. "Yes."
Carla watched as the kids both headed off with a jaded eye.
"Your son?"
Carla turned. One of Enrique's men had sidled up to her. "No. Not mine. His name's Kyle. One of the Tunnel Rats."
The man smirked. "I'm Paco."
"Carla."
"If he's not yours, you might want to track down his real parents."
"Why?"
"Because the little lady he's slipping off with is Enrique's granddaughter."
Carla burst out laughing. "Well, I don't think he has parents any more. The closest thing is Connor. He's sort of the General's Pet."
Paco burst out laughing too. "I wonder if we shouldn't warn him."
"Think it would matter?"
"Well, there's another option."
"What's that?"
Paco grinned. "We both go get drunk together and see what happens."
Carla seemed to consider that. "I got another idea."
"What's that?"
"We go see what the beds are like, and then come back and get drunk afterward and see what happens."
His eyebrows rose significantly. They would hardly be the only couple pairing up. "You married?"
"Nope."
"Planning to be?"
"Not since we left LA." Carla said, not at all offended by the questions.
Paco grinned. "So. Attractive, on the rebound and a nurse. You're exactly my kind of girl."
Kyle and Lupe had made their way through the base, looking over all the small nooks that a small child could slip into, where an adult or a Terminator could not. They had found one in a storage space under a staircase. They slipped into the dark spot and curled up there for a while.
"Why are we hiding?" Kyle asked finally. He knew the reason. Most of his fellow Tunnel Rats had done something similar, but he didn't know what else to say. For the first time in a long time, silence seemed awkward.
"Well, mom said I was safe at my first home. Then the bombs came. Then I was safe if I stayed in the jeep, then the Machines came. Then I was safe as long as I stayed close to my grandfather back at the Compound. But then he said it was safer with your convoy, wherever you were going. There's a whole lot of safe in the world. None of it does any good."
Kyle thought about that. "My mom and brother got sick after the bombs. They told me I had to go find somewhere safe. I lasted two weeks before I got caught." He held out an arm, and showed her his barcode.
Lupe stared at it, having never seen one before. "Does it hurt?"
"Not any more." Kyle said, telling his story, as every seven year old kid knew how to do. "When I was at the camp, there was one man who stood up and told us to be brave, and to be strong. He said that there were no safe places left; so we had to make them happen. Everywhere the Machines reached for us, he just helped us go a little farther. We're safe here. Because he's here with us."
Lupe looked at him, her eyes as big as saucers. "Who is he?"
Kyle grinned. "His name is Connor. John Connor."
Lupe smiled. "They talk about him. The grownups. They say he knew J-Day was coming. They say his mother was the bravest, strongest warrior who ever lived. My Grandfather was talking about him to everyone when we heard his voice on the radio. They say he knows Skynet. They say he was... Blessed. They say he Knows things."
Kyle nodded. "He does."
Lisa had a cup in each hand, and she made her way back to Sherrin, who had his back to the wall, as a number of soldiers preferred to do. "Mighty fine shindig." She called cheerfully. Her southern accent came through only when very happy or very angry.
"Shindig? There's a word that went out of style with 'cotillion' and 'hootenanny'"
Lisa handed him a cup, swatted him with her now free hand and sat down, leaning back against him smoothly, her back to his chest.
Sherrin put an arm around her waist and took a sip of the drink, suddenly spluttering. "...oh my..."
Lisa chuckled and threw back her entire cup without blinking. "Good stuff, huh? We use it to clean burned oatmeal off the equipment in the Mess. You want me to go warm up some milk or something? Settle your stomach?"
Sherrin gave her a squeeze and the two of them settled back to listen to the music. "Hey. Where'd Connor go?"
"He and his wife took off about an hour and a half ago." Lisa murmured.
"An hour and a half? Yowza."
"Yowza?" Lisa teased. "There's a word that went out of style with 'Cowabunga' and 'Radical'."
Exhausted, aching, emotional, but somewhat calmer, Kate curled up under her husbands arm. "What time is it?"
Connor didn't look, didn't open his eyes. "I've got some time."
Kate breathed slowly, cooling off. "Went a little bit insane there, didn't I?"
"Little bit. I'm not complaining."
Kate chuckled. "Of course you're not."
"I'm glad we're back here with an actual bed. If we'd done that with a cot we'd have smashed it to bits."
"Be fun explaining that to Supply." Kate agreed and she managed to raise a hand enough to rub her eyes. "God, Connor; just hearing the future put into words made me lose it. How did you handle all this at nine years old?"
"Is it any wonder I turned into such a delinquent?" Connor quipped. "My mom told me that I had to know, because I was going to put it all back. She told me that-"
Kate moved up higher and kissed him again, this time full of sympathy, desperate to comfort him. It had come to her like a Revelation. The reason Connor hadn't told her any of this was so that she wouldn't have to think about it. And as long as he knew, as long as he was ready for it, nobody else would have to be. He had just laid another three or four ways the world could end on her shoulders. How many more ways were there that he hadn't told her about? How many potential ways to extinction was he carrying alone?
The need to breathe made her pull back, and John looked up at her with eyes filled with love.
"I trust you." Kate whispered softly. "You say we can make it, I believe you. If the world runs out of everything tomorrow, I'm still with you. If the world is left with a half million people and no more, I'll still love you alone. Do what you have to, John. Make whatever call you have to make, whatever sacrifices you have to. You're not losing me."
Silence. For a microsecond, Kate thought she saw a tear in his eye, and knew that nobody else had ever made him a promise like that.
The radio buzzed, and Connor sighed. The world was pulling them back.
"I love you, Kate." John said finally, with an emotional voice.
Kate smiled and put a gentle kiss on his collarbone. "I love you too."
Their quiet moment over, Connor reached past his wife to get the radio off the bedside table. Kate let her fingers trail over his arm as he did. "Connor here."
"Walters has reported in." Gould responded. "One word: Tailpipe."
Connor took a breath. "Roger that. On my way." He clicked off his radio. "I have to go."
Kate kissed him again quickly and slid out of the bed, taking the sheet with her. "I'm coming with you."
Chapter 12: Z Plus 2 Years 270 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Seventy Days
Midnight came and went; and the 'Welcome To Crystal Peak' party continued, though losing steam.
Hidden in their little closet space, Lupe had produced a small packet of toffees from somewhere and gave one to Kyle. "My Grandfather gave me these. I never ate one." She said, popping one in her mouth.
"Why not?" Kyle asked, enjoying his own.
"Don't know. Didn't want to eat them all myself I guess. S'not fair to have sweets when you can't find water."
Kyle nodded. "And now?"
"Now we're here." Lupe said. "Grandfather says there's water and food and beds. We can enjoy stuff now." She looked around their little hiding place. "Your Tunnel Rats, do they have sweets?"
"Nah."
Lupe handed him the packet. "Give them these."
Kyle handed them back. "Why don't you?"
"I don't know them." Lupe said, looking down shyly. It was the first sign of nerves Kyle had seen from her.
Kyle summoned up his courage and took her hand. "I'll introduce you." He said, trying to pull her up.
The party had wound down at last. Some of them were still awake, playing quiet music for smaller groups, gathered together with the last of the booze and food, leaning on each other for support.
The Connors headed for the Communications Room, making their way through the Main Auditorium, now the scene of a huge disaster. Kate was taken aback by it at first. Her Crystal Peak had been put through a hurricane. But she couldn't really fault it. The hardest part of living here for a year was the fact that the huge space was so horrifyingly empty with just the two of them. Over in the corner, a few brave survivors of the party were still dancing, still drinking, somehow still upright. Couples were threading off to find private spots; others meeting new people in a way they couldn't really do in a moving Convoy.
Kate couldn't help the way her eyes scanned each of Enrique's people, looking for signs of risk. Suddenly having to see her own surrogate uncle as an enemy had given Kate something of a jaded viewpoint on new people; and even with what she had told John, she had to admit to still harboring some suspicion. Most of Enrique's people were not particularly threatening at the moment; passed out, stretched out on the floor, on benches...
They headed through and noticed Kyle, introducing a young girl to his gang of Tunnel Rats. "Guys, this is Lupe."
Lupe nodded shyly at them. They looked at her. One of them spoke. "Want to be friends?"
Lupe nodded; and they all waved her down to sit with them. She sat and pulled out a bag of sweets; and started passing them around. Simple as that.
Kate smirked without breaking stride. It was so easy for the kids to set aside suspicion and make friends from strangers, even in this dark new world. Okay. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid.
Paranoid is good. She countered herself. Paranoid will keep you alive when the infiltrators come in.
That thought wiped the smirk off her face. Time to go to war.
The break with General Whickham was the birth of Tech Com.
John never would have been able to make such a move had he not backed himself up with Skynet's own scrubbed Machines. But he never would have had such forces had Whickham not tried to arrest him. Trying to neutralize Connor is what made him Powerful. Just as Skynet trying to starve us out is what kept us fed. Just as the two of us trying to stop Judgment Day and escape our fate is what made John leader of the Resistance. Just as Skynet trying to kill me for being his wife and partner is what caused us to meet and fall in love, bringing John into contact with the military. Just as Skynet trying to kill him is what caused him to exist in the first place. It is Paradox. They seem to follow my husband around throughout his life.
[Taken From the Personal Journals of General Katherine Connor, recovered from Crystal Peak, 2170]
Connor came into the Communications Room and gave the area a quick glance. His people had already laid out the maps of the area in question. They had a variety of equipment set up to the communications system; they had the latest available intelligence all over the place. There was a War Room downstairs, but the newer equipment hadn't been installed yet.
Kate was a in a half second behind him and took her place beside him at the largest map. Connor studied the map and gestured at Gould. "Routing the call off two repeater cells and we have a rotating encryption key. Even if Skynet breaks it, it'll only give them a few seconds before they have to start again." Gould keyed the microphone and started turning dials on the equipment. "Go."
Connor nodded. "Walters, are you there?"
"Read you loud and clear." Walters's voice was projected over speakers in the Communications Room.
"This transmission is being re-encrypted every three seconds on our end. Is your equipment ready?" Connor directed.
"Copy and Affirmative, Palace. In position."
"Attack." Connor directed calmly.
Kate forced herself to stand still as the tension level in the room jumped several times over.
The speakers came alive with voices. Worse than the voices were the silences.
"Snipers, take the shot."
BOOOM!
"Good hits!"
"They've seen us!"
"Move out. MOVE! MOVE!"
"Sarge! Lay down covering fire!"
"The guards are hidden behind that tower-WATCH IT!"
"Walters! Watch your six! Two more!"
"AGH!"
"Medic! We need a Medic!"
Gunfire. Lots of it. Kate was rocking on her heels, opening and closing her fists, trying to not pace, trying to stay calm... She sent a look over at Connor. He had gone still as a statue. His arms were folded across his chest, his eyes were moving across the maps; fingers were gripping his own forearms tightly...
"Major I can't get to him! Cover me NOW!"
"Go! Go NOW! Team Two COVER!"
"Major! Reinforcements coming from the factory! We're in trouble now!"
Connor leaned over to the radio. "Major Walters, pull your people back from the factory. Draw them out."
"Roger that! Team Two Fall back! Team three! Cover the Wounded!"
More gunfire, more yells...
"Javelin Team! NOW!"
Boom! BOOM! Everyone twitched at the explosions.
"Splash one! Splash one! YEAH!"
Connor hit his radio again. "Metal Marines! Attack!"
"Command Confirmed." Repeated a hundred Terminator voices.
"Scrubbed Machines are moving in! Everyone out! Let them do their thing!"
Silence. Nobody was talking on their radios any longer. With the radio unneeded, the channel stayed closed. No background noise, no reports. A war was being waged and those who commanded it were out of the loop. The silence stretched. And stretched. Kate could feel her already frayed nerves start to crack. She checked on The General without turning her head. His arms were folded, fingers digging into his forearms. She looked again. His right hand had the index finger a little bit extended. It was the way you held your hand when a gun was in it, finger on the trigger. He was itching to shoot something and couldn't move.
The radio crackled. "Palace, this is Eagle One. Mission Accomplished."
The Communications room cheered. Connor barely reacted, as though that was the expected result all along. He uncoiled enough to pick up the radio. "Roger that Eagle One. Good work. Have your wounded sent straight here. Dispatching Choppers now." He glanced at Kate who nodded and quickly grabbed her own radio. She would send her medics with the helicopters. "Metal Marines. Reprogram the factory to your own directives."
"Command Confirmed."
"Eagle One, locate the stockpiles of raw materials. Find out how many Terminators can be built with what's there. Then get your people out."
"Understood, Palace. Over and out."
Connor set down the microphone. His hands were steady. Kate studied his face. He looked too calm. It was a mask. He was hiding it behind his Poker Face. She made a note to let Carla take over the inventory and the Nursery. She was going to have to stay close to him tonight. For all the calm he projected, he wanted to be out there with them. He wanted to be protecting them. Kate didn't let on, but she let her eyes soften just a tiny bit. I'm here. It's all right. Everything's okay. You're doing fine.
Connor met her gaze and let his face soften just a little, mindful of their audience. I know. I'll be okay.
"One factory down." He said aloud. "One more to go."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Eighty Four Days
The battles stretched on. The radios were upgraded, and from the Mountain in the desert, Crystal Peak directed the offensive war. Connor got used to it. The magic that he had on the battlefield with his men, had now come to the War Room. The crews manning the maps, the reports, the radios were all learning how to predict each other. Skynet could give orders to any number of machines in seconds. A well trained human crew could predict orders and have their crews on hand before the order was needed. As the scrubbed Machines confirmed a clear radius, Connor got his planes back in the air. With the sky a pitched battleground again, human territory spread further, armed with air support.
With every factory taken, Connor's Army had another assembly line, and the human forces became the second wave, using cunning and tactics against a softened punch-drunk enemy, their lines knocked down by scrubbed Machines.
The casualty rate had dropped significantly, with most of the front lines now drawn in opposing forces of Machines. After a month on the road, The Last Army had a place to collate their information, to base their operations, and to get a grip on what Skynet was doing.
Skynet was adapting. It began sending its army through in smaller groups, learning the effectiveness of guerrilla tactics from its human opponents, and the casualty rates jumped again, as humans were ambushed. Mobile Surgical Units were planned, but not set up yet, the commanders uncertain as to where to place them safely.
Kate knew that it would be her job to pick the place for the Aid Stations and MASH units. She started spending more and more time in the War Room herself, and not just to support The General. She had to learn how far the Machines could get into their territory before Connor could get a counter attack together and stop them. Aid Stations had to be close but not too close. MASH units had to be in defended controlled territory, on a map that kept changing.
Within the base, the people felt safe, big thick walls and miles of distance and defences as protection; forgotten luxuries like rooms with doors and plumbing making them content. For now.
Scrubbed Machines were all kept away from the civilian populations, and the population began down the road to becoming a proper community. Connor was called upon to perform a few weddings and there was celebration. Kate was called upon to deliver a few babies, and there was life.
The Nursery expanded. Enrique's people brought a few babies of their along, as well as the ones from San Jose. Sarah took to other babies her age like a duck to water, and suddenly some of the nursing staff had to figure out how on earth to improvise baby-safe toys.
The mothers and fathers were split, more or less down the middle on raising the babies. Some wanted to get out into the war and get busy fighting back. The others vowed never go out to war and leave the babies alone, or risk orphaning them. The lines of Tech-Com were being drawn quickly between combat and non-combat troops. Connor was quick to point out that there was a lot more to saving humanity than simply killing machines, and there was plenty of work to do for all. There was balance. Civilian projects like the school and the nursery was every bit as important to the future of the species as the war; and everyone knew it.
Kyle's group of friends, the Tunnel Rats, long hidden in the Underground, and then the convoy, came out of their hiding places, becoming part of the day to day routine. Kate hadn't realized there were six of them, four boys, and two girls, plus Lupe. They all had Kyle's manner. Feral, grown up, hungry, and deadly. Feral survivors looking for a target to vent their energy on. Every night they came out of hiding and left their mark on the base somewhere, and the base was transformed slightly with graffiti.
Kate noticed something primal in the paintings. Everything from chalk to magic markers had been used, and the drawings were instantly recognizable. There were drawings of the Mushroom clouds, drawings of wastelands, Death Camps, Terminators... and more than a few of Connor.
John told her to let it go. There was no television, no history books, no record except for what they bothered to write down in the reports of the combat units, and what the children put on the walls. It was the oldest way of keeping history. And one of the only ways left to them now.
Kate agreed. The school continued, and it was good for the kinds to be creative. But one painting left John speechless and more than a little uncomfortable. It was one of Connor himself, standing between an army of Machines and the Humans, drawn in their hundreds with stick figures. It was almost like a comic book in tone, setting Connor as the superhero. And John hated it. But the Tunnel Rats had looked so... proud of it, he couldn't make them take it down.
Nobody but Kate knew how much it gnawed at him. The weight of his destiny had altered. The fact that the world was his responsibility was now accepted by him. How he was being perceived by the people under his charge was a heavier burden than ever.
And then it got worse.
Connor was surprised at first, how many people had come to watch this. He knew he probably shouldn't have been. Tech-Com was brand new as an army, and as an organization. They were making up the rules as they went along, and Connor hated that this had to be part of it.
"Willis, Howard. You have been charged with stealing food from the commissary. It is alleged that you joined the Kitchen Staff for the sole purpose of being able to take food for your own uses. How do you plead?"
Willis looked down. "I had to feed my kid." He said in a small voice.
Walters actually seemed relieved. "Let the record show that a plea of 'Guilty' has been entered. He has confessed to this crime."
Connor hated this. But it had to be done. "Mr Howard Willis." He intoned. "You are a civilian. But this is a military base, your crimes were against its personnel, and as such you are subject to our ruling… and our punishments."
"Yessir, General." Willis whispered.
"And I'm sure I don't need to tell you how serous it is, stealing food."
"Nosir." Willis was actively whimpering, dreading this.
There was a loud silence. Everyone was staring at Connor with bated breath, waiting to see what he'd do.
"Willis, having confessed to your crime, the only matter left is that of your sentence. As I'm sure you're aware, supplies are tight. We may still be used to outright lawlessness, but not here. Willis, I'm told that with all these people here, the septic system is getting backed up. The latrines haven't been properly maintained for a while."
Twittering and sadistic chuckles rang out from around the assembly.
"Your sentence is to clean out the septic tanks and follow the directions of our Engineering teams to properly get that septic system working. Of course, it's pretty ripe while it's being used. You'll have to clean your way through. Predictions say it'll take you several days to finish."
Laughter again from the crowd. Willis looked a little sick.
Connor silenced them with a look. "Next case." He commanded, mostly because he didn't know what else to say. Willis was lead out, and in his place was brought another man, looking a lot more nervous.
"PFC O'Brian, Quincy." Recited Walters. "You have been charged with stealing food on the line in a forward area. It is alleged that you took one of your fellow Soldier's ration packs without his permission and hoarded it for your own. How do you plead?"
Quincy licked his lips and forced himself to speak. "Guilty, sir."
Connor glared severely. "Your crimes may be similar, but the differences are quite significant. This isn't like swiping food from the kitchen. If someone loses food out in the field, they can't get back in chow-line. A soldier on the front goes hungry, they lose energy, get distracted… get killed."
Hushed silence. Everyone realizing that The General was actually angry about this one...
"Private, do you understand how serious this crime is?" Connor pressed him.
"Yessir."
"You will assist Mr Willis with his 'community service'. But the theft of food is not the only charge, given the circumstances of the theft. For conduct unbecoming, and dereliction of duty, you are sentenced to fifteen lashes."
Murmurs from the crowd. Corporal punishment was something new. While once commonplace in the Army, it was no longer practised in the days leading up to J-Day. A sudden return to it was… disquieting. Maybe even a little barbaric.
Quincy was taken over to the nearest wall and forced to stand against it. He was stripped to the waist and made to face the wall. Quincy had set his jaw tightly, eyes focused on some distant point. He was taking this stoically. Connor was impressed with that. Even a little proud.
Oldham had the whip, and did not look happy about it.
Connor turned away from the proceedings and approached the crowd. "Somebody back before could be thrown in jail for theft or assault. Things are harder now. So when supplies get tight and people get hungry, they go to sleep with the knowledge that beating up someone they don't like will get them a room with nice thick walls and three squares provided every day? We can't reward crime."
"One!" Walters counted harshly.
CRACK!
"AGGH!"
Everyone flinched.
Connor didn't. "Skynet makes all it's choices by the numbers. Everything Skynet does is so… practical."
"Two!"
CRACK!
"Argh!"
Connor didn't turn, everyone spellbound, trapped by the moment. "This is also practical. Horribly so. This is a war for humanity, but sometimes we are left with nothing but inhuman options."
"Three!"
CRACK!
"Ya-haaah!"
"This is a war for humanity. And the more we are forced to do the practical thing, the less human we get. So I ask you now; to remember that. It's a brutal solution to a problem that isn't going away. Does everyone understand that?"
"Four!"
CRACK!
Everyone twitched.
"Dismissed!" Connor roared.
Released from the intensity of the moment, everyone who gathered to watch turned and walked out.
"Five!"
CRACK!
Everyone twitched, even with their backs turned. One or two stayed, watching stoically. Quincy was barely moving, slumped against the wall, held up by his guards. With his head bowed, he may even have passed out already.
Kate pushed her way in against the crowd, and stood discreetly near the door. She had her Medical Bag over her shoulder.
"Six!"
CRACK!
When they got to the tenth stroke and the punishments were over at last, Kate quietly stepped in and stated treating the soldier's wounds. Infection was a very serious concern in the Underground, still a problem in Crystal Peak. Both the injuries and the whip itself had to be looked after correctly to insure that it was safe, beyond the obvious punishment it inflicted. Lacerations could cause infections, plus contamination from leather flecks.
Kate treated the wounds and directed the unconscious O'Brian to Medbay. His wounds would be stitched up, but he was to be denied heavy painkiller. It was a punishment after all. She then left him in care of her nurses and went back to the Presidential Suite, where Connor was getting a little privacy, sitting at his desk. He had never given an order like this before, and before now, there had been either other ways to resolve a situation, or too much action coming from the war to worry about it. But the Post-Apocalyptic world was largely lawless, and the matter of authority had to be resolved eventually.
Kate came in quietly, and pulled Kohler's silver flask, now their own, from the bedside table. She handed it to him without a word, standing behind his chair and rubbing the back of his neck.
Connor sighed and took a long sip from the silver flask. "All right, Kate; let me have it." He said finally.
Kate smirked. "Are you under the impression that I'm mad?"
"Getting the lash? It's a brutal punishment."
"But not a new one." Kate said. "You said yourself we're now at a mix of Medieval-ism armed with Skynet's latest salvaged technology. Corporal punishment is not new. It's just out of practice."
Connor actually set the flask down and leaned his head back to look up at her, staring in surprise. "You're okay with this?"
"Everyone's okay with this! The people I'm talking to are relieved! John, a lot of these people have come from other communities. They're all dealing with the issue of how to treat prisoners now. In a lot of places the punishment for stealing food is having an arm chopped off. And in a lot of those places, there's usually someone hungry enough to eat it. You could have shot him if you wanted, and a lot of people would have been glad there was one less mouth to feed." Kate pointed out. "You set the tone. Tough, practical, but you live to fight another day. You could sum up the entire Tech-Com philosophy that way!"
"Stealing food is considered the cardinal sin. But the fact is there are worse ones out there. Supplies are tight, Kate. Soldiers get more rations because they have a more physical workload, burning more calories. Time will come when stealing a meal will seriously put lives in danger. Do we let them off so lightly after that?"
Kate didn't have an answer to that one.
"He was unconscious after the third lash. When do you think he'll wake up?" Connor asked quietly.
"No." Kate said firmly. "Bad idea."
"What?"
"You're going to go down there when he wakes up and apologize to him. You're going to talk about how it was necessary and about how sorry you are it had to be done. And I'm telling you, that's just going to make it worse. Worse for him, and for you, and for the next five guys to get the lash."
Connor sighed. "You know me too well."
"I should." Kate nodded ruefully and gave him a quick kiss. "Go down to the school. They should be in the Hydroponics Bay right now. Check in with them for a while, make yourself feel better, and then go spend time with your daughter. I have another patient."
"Anything serious?"
Kate took a slow breath. "That… is actually a far more interesting question than you might think."
Carla checked the blood test, and then turned to the patient sitting somewhat anxiously on the bed. "And... it's confirmed. You're officially knocked up."
Curry smirked. "I figured. Thanks for doing this."
"I just wish you'd come in as soon as we got here." Kate countered. "You were the one that wanted a free pass for nine months."
"Doesn't mean I wanted to be useless. There was plenty to do."
"You're taking it easy though, right?" Carla pressed lightly.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Anyway, from now on, you're assigned to here as your quarters." Kate said. "Grab your stuff; find a place in the Pre-Op ward. If things get bad, you're out till business slows down. Otherwise, the room's more comfortable than the dorms. Food's better too." She tapped Carla on the shoulder. "Go figure out a schedule for her checkups okay?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Carla agreed.
Kate turned back to Curry. "Erin, go get yourself situated, then come back in here, get some vitamin shots into you. You're a little low on calcium."
"Calcium's a mineral, not a vitamin." Curry pointed out.
"You graduated medical school?" Kate asked pointedly.
"No, Ma'am."
"Neither did I. Don't sass your doctors." Kate joshed her gently.
"No, Ma'am."
"That's the fifth time you've 'ma'am-ed' us in two minutes, get outta here."
Curry smirked and jumped up.
Carla called after her. "Erin? Congratulations."
"Thank you." Curry called cheerfully over her shoulder.
Carla's smile dropped the second Curry left the room. "Well, it's nice to know Dex had something to do while we were busy hanging from the wall in Skynet's laboratory."
Kate whirled and pointed sharply at her. "Hey! You keep a lid on that! Dex came to you. So did she. Both of them went out of their way to make this easier on you. Dex wasn't sneaking around. And she's here with us too, remember. He didn't leave you for her. Both of you left him."
Carla's face lost its anger instantly, replaced with somewhat sober calm. "I know. I'm not mad really... it's just... she didn't want to keep the child for herself... Dex and I hadn't really talked about... I had hoped that maybe after this..."
Kate blinked. "That after this... he might want a kid with you?"
"Or look after hers together. It wouldn't have bothered me." Carla smirked. "I know. Crazy, huh? I was young and stupid then."
"A month ago?"
"A lot of things happen in a month, Kate. A month was the difference between Becki's first school play and her first rat dinner."
Kate chuckled mirthlessly. She hadn't let herself think about the poor departed Becki since Sarah had been born.
Carla looked at the blood test. "Think it'll be a boy or a girl?"
"I don't know yet. We won't for a while."
"You think, when it grows up a bit, I should tell it about Dex?"
"'It'?"
"Well... he or she then."
"Don't see why not."
"What do I tell he or she, when whatever-it-is asks where Daddy is now?"
Kate didn't have a good answer to that one. "Tell the truth, if only because it's the easiest thing to remember. Look around the Mountain, Carla. Family is whoever you happen to adopt this week."
"Guess so."
There was a short silence. Kate took a breath. "Carla. Can you do me a quick favor?"
"Sure, what do you need?"
"Run the test again?"
"I already checked it twice."
"No." Kate cleared her throat. "Not on Curry."
Kate was still in charge of the school, but it no longer had classes defined by age. As some kids became more skilled, or were demonstrably ahead of the others, they were moved up to more complex lessons. The more advanced the students became in one area or another, the faster they were promoted to apprenticeships.
But there were still the early classes for the younger ones. The teachers worked on rotation, until they found their own niches. And kids were still kids, and they still talked in class. Kate knew they were talking instead of working. She allowed it most of the time. Being left alone too long in dangerous times tended to make kids introverted and isolated. She encouraged them to talk to each other.
"Look what I got." Mickey said to Stacie. He slid a creased five dollar note across the table.
Stacie, one of the younger ones, was barely four years old when Judgement Day had hit. Any relic that came from 'Before' was something exotic and unusual. The older ones spoke of those days with something akin to awe, and the kids were fascinated by all the remnants of this 'Lost World.' Stacie stared at it. "What is it?"
"It's called money. My dad said it used to be really important."
Stacie looked closely at the note. "In. God. We. Tru... T. Rust." She read slowly, still practising her reading skills. She blinked, confused. "What's 'God'?"
Kate, overhearing the whole thing, smiled sickly at that, but didn't interrupt.
Also overhearing the little chat, Berk, of the kids nearer to Stacie's age leaned forward. "My uncle was a Priest. I asked him once. He said that back before, God was really powerful, and people asked God to protect them, when they couldn't do it themselves."
Mickey seemed interested in that. "Where did he live?"
"Don't know. My uncle didn't like to talk about it. I think they were friends. Maybe Skynet killed him too."
Blinking, Stacie had tried to follow all this and missed most of it. "So... who protects us now?"
Berk shrugged. "I dunno. Connor?"
Kate set the pen in her hand down hard enough to dig a light gouge into the desk, and all the kids jumped. Kate stood immediately, with a big smile plastered on her face. "Hey kids, lets take a break. Field Trip!"
The class had gone down to the Dojo, where the Marines were training in hand-to-hand. It was a large room off the gym with places for people to sit. Combat training was largely a matter of training and exercise, as nobody fought hand-to-hand with a Terminator and lived.
Enrique had center stage. The grizzled man was stripped to the waist, looking like a scarecrow covered in scars, with a spoon in each hand. He was surrounded by a group of three soldiers, one holding a combat knife; with several more surrounding the mats, watching carefully.
"You mind if we sit in for a minute?" Kate asked nobody in particular.
Three against one. Enrique actually looked bored. "Nah. You know how I like an audience."
The kids sat down, watching avidly. Each of them had seen combat, seen death, but actually getting taught a few things about how to fight correctly was something relatively new.
One of the soldiers struck from behind with his knife. Enrique shifted barely six inches to the left and the knife missed. Enrique caught the knife hand and twisted it, whipping around with the spoon and tapping it against the man's throat. "You're dead."
Defeated, but unhurt, his first opponent slapped the floor; the traditional wrestling signal of conceding a match. Enrique released him and the man left the mats, joining the audience.
Enrique gestured at the recruits. "Now, he was stupid enough to think that just because he was behind me, he was out of sight. He wasn't. Plus, he attacked alone, and you two idiots let him. If you lot are going to fight together out there, you've got to know how to fight together, and not just line up for your turn."
Taking this little lesson in, the two of them spread out, trying to flank him from both sides.
Enrique grinned demoniacally. "And of course, you have to be fighting anyone but me."
The two of them glanced at each other, traded some secret signal, and lunged, one from the side, one from behind.
Enrique let the one behind him get a good grip and pulled his feet up. His opponent was startled by the move and almost dropped him, tightening his grip instinctively. Enrique took advantage and kicked out with both feet, knocking his opponent away.
Seeing this, the one holding him from behind, dropped him and jumped back, getting room to move. Enrique let him, and darted forward, toward the one he'd knocked down; poking him with the spoon before he could get back up again. "You're dead."
The second man also slapped the floor, more out of instinct than anything else, and somewhat dazed, he too joined the audience. Kate went over and checked his vision for a moment.
Enrique grinned wolfishly. "Next! Victim!"
One opponent left. He was taking his time now.
Enrique grinned again. "Not bad for an old man, huh?"
The class was watching, rapt. The final challenger lunged, and Enrique simply stepped to the left, helping his tackle's momentum along, sending him sprawling. Enrique spared the class a look. "See, that will work with most anyone, because it uses your enemy's strength against them."
The last challenger stood up, dusted himself off a little, and slapped the floor. It was a wrestling signal, but it had been adopted here.
Kate put a finger up. "Enrique, none of this is going to help against Terminators, so maybe there's something that you can show these kids for them to use?" She asked. "Preferably something non-lethal."
Enrique looked around. "Anyone willing to help me with show-and-tell?" He looked around. "Katia, how about you?"
Kate chuckled. "No thanks."
"I'll do it."
Every head swivelled to the door, and there was Connor, looking amused.
Various murmurs and catcalls rang out, people already placing bets.
Enrique waved The General in with elaborate graciousness. The kids were practically sitting up at attention by this point.
Enrique grinned like a shark. "Hey, Connor. You get any quicker since the last time we sparred?"
"Last time we sparred, I was six years old." Connor returned, shrugging off his jacket. "I remember you being a lot bigger."
"Ahh, that was a lot of hair ago, Johan."
"Anyway, this isn't a sparring session, it's a lesson."
Enrique mimed an action, and Connor nodded, understanding. Enrique threw a punch, and The General put up a forearm, pushing the blow aside. Enrique did it again with his other fist, and Connor repeated the move. "Now kids, notice what he's doing." Enrique said as they sparred. "He's not trying to block me, he's just redirecting where my fist goes. I'm actually helping him do it without meaning to."
Connor nodded. "This is a good move to know because it only works if the other guy is trying to hurt you. If they don't want to hurt you, then you can't hurt them. It's defense, not attack. Also, it works on people bigger and stronger than you." Connor hooked a leg behind Enrique's feet and tried to push him back, tripping him over. Enrique reacted, quick as a rattlesnake, and pulled Connor down with him, rolling them over till he was on top. Neatly pinned, Connor slapped the floor.
They were both up instantly, no longer teaching, now actually sparring, and circling each other eagerly.
"Now we're sparring." Connor said coolly.
"Thanks for the warning." Enrique grinned wolfishly, perhaps the only way he knew how to grin, and struck again.
Connor made the same redirection move, only this time a lot quicker and more brutal, sending Enrique sprawling. The two of them didn't brawl; they just seemed to glance off each other, trying to find a way to land a blow that wouldn't have been used against them. Finally, Enrique flashed a hand out for Connor's leg. Connor took the blow and let himself drop, sweeping his other leg out to knock Enrique down. Both of them rolled apart, getting out of each other's reach and coming back up again.
The kids were on their feet, cheering for one combatant or the other.
This time Connor struck first, swinging high for his jaw, Enrique jerked his head back, and Connor swept his leg again, knocking Enrique's front leg, not both, and Enrique dropped into an awkward splits.
The older man squealed and fell over. Connor had a boot on his neck instantly. Enrique didn't seem to notice, clutching at the inside of his thighs.
The soldiers all winced, Kate burst out laughing.
"Lucky punch." Connor demurred, a little embarrassed at having been caught showing off for Kate's class. "You okay down there?"
"Swell." Enrique squeaked, and slowly stood back up. "Want to go again? Two out of three?"
"Another time."
The kids whooped as Connor winked at them all and headed out.
Enrique was back up and grinning again instantly. Kate wondered it perhaps he was letting Connor win a little more easily than he needed to. "One fall each! It's a tie! Still undefeated champ of the Mountain! 57 and 0! Anyone else want to take me on?"
There was a loud silence.
And then a hand went up. Not from the soldiers, from the kids.
Enrique blanched. "No!"
Lupe stood up, smiled sweetly, and calmly took her place in the dojo floor.
The kids burst into giggles. So did a few of the soldiers.
Enrique pointed a hand at her furiously. "Go sit down! I'm not fighting you."
Lupe smirked. "That's what I was counting on." She settled into a combat pose. "HAI!"
Enrique bit his lip for an agonized beat.
Lupe broke from the combat pose long enough to smile adorably up at her grandfather. She spread her arms wide. "Hug-Hug first? Pleeeeze?"
Kate grinned.
Enrique let out a low whine, and then bent down, slapped the mat. "I surrender."
Everyone whooped and laughed, thrilled at the turn this had taken.
Lupe winked at Kyle. "57 and 1!" She smiled adorably. "Next victim!"
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Eighty Nine Days
Another day, another battle. The War Room had quickly evolved. There were now two maps; one of the whole theatre, overlaid with markers for Skynet's forces, and human forces. The second map was always changing, the military maps of each battlefield, laid out and with notations updated on matters of terrain, roads, buildings...
Connor would come in, already aware of what was there, and would take in the notes written on each map, redrawing the battlefield in his mind. He would then compare the Battle maps with the theater map, figuring out what the result would be on the war if they won, if they lost. Every now and then he would order a Skynet base damaged but not captured, then have the strike teams lie in wait for the Skynet convoy coming to repair it; striking down two enemies at once.
With the strategy worked out, he would contact his strike force and give coded instructions. Kate would contact her Medical Teams out in the field and direct them to somewhere helpful. The attack would begin, and Connor would turn to stone until it ended; Kate would try not to pace. The battle would end, Kate would direct any wounded to one of her Medical teams, Connor would direct the healthy to their new position. Then both of them would do it over again for the next battle.
And then with the day's battles done, Connor would go a few levels down and sort out supply problems, strategic problems, training schedules... Kate would go a few levels further and sort out the Base's medical needs, the school plans for the next few days, resolve personal conflict between the people on the base...
In between, they had battles that came in the middle of the night, sudden problems that couldn't be handled by anyone else, every spare minute they could spend with Sarah...
And then after there was nothing left for them to do, they would go back to their room, and reassure each other they were doing everything right.
And the next day they would do it all over again.
Out in the battlefield, Walters was chatting with Paco, sharing stories of past battles as soldiers did. "Seriously though, the only thing he said was: 'I know his mom'."
Paco grinned. "You need to know his mom."
"You knew her?"
"Naw, back before my time. But Enrique hasn't shut up about her since J-Day." Paco explained. "He told us the whole story. He said that back before, Sarah Connor came to him for training. And she had a six year old boy with her."
"The General." Walters surmised, only half listening. After Danny Dyson attacked them, Connor had told them most of this.
Paco nodded, smiling a little. "Enrique says that she warned him a day was coming, when Machines would rise up against humanity and start a Nuclear War. She said that her son was going to lead the survivors to victory over them."
Walters jerked his head around, giving Paco his full attention. "Whaaaaat?"
Paco was nodding energetically. "Seriously. Enrique will swear on a stack, that's what she said. Enrique said he heard that, thought she was Section Eight, and sent her and her son packing. And if Enrique thinks someone is nuts, you have to wonder just how far from the path they have strayed, y'know? Then it happens. Machines are marching over a radioactive world, and we hear on the radio that General Connor is fighting back. Enrique's been singing the Gospel ever since."
"The Gospel of John Connor…" Walters said slowly, remembering what Enrique had said, wrapping his brain around the idea of the late Sarah Connor's prophecy.
They were still standing there, when Oldham came over. "Hey, Boss? The Chief wants to talk to you." 'Chief' was code for 'General'. 'Boss' was code for 'Colonel.'
Paco put a hand out as Walters headed off. "Don't tell anyone I told you?"
"I promise."
The battles continued, one after another. Humanity was shifting back and forth across the battlefields, making hit and run attacks, never stopping. Connor knew not to push his people too hard. There was nowhere for R&R, and the war had a long way to go, so he rotated which Units were attacking. Tech Com units were notably smaller and more mobile than regular US Army, and Connor gave them chances to rest as their fellow units moved forward. The war went on around the clock.
Kate was a new addition to the War Room, and was fast becoming a regular. She rarely spoke, rarely got involved, and after a while, the War Room simply got used to her presence. What nobody knew, was that she was there to learn. She knew she'd be more involved than simply Medical one day. If she was to be her husband's Second in Command, she needed to know how to handle all aspects of the war. What Connor had spent his life learning, she had to learn much faster...
"Palace, this is Trigger." The radio crackled. "Hydra is coming."
The code meant that Skynet had noticed their strike force, and was making an attack run. Connor keyed his microphone. "Roger Trigger, withdraw south west." He turned to one of his men on the radios. "Get me Roman."
A moment later the radio crackled. "This is Roman. Go ahead Chief."
Connor turned to his maps. "I want you at Sector 22/9 in two minutes. Send everything that can get there fast, right now."
"Roger that, Palace. Hecate is moving."
'Hecate' was code for the Fighter jets, which made their landings on improvised runways, with fuel tankers and Mobile radio bases directing them on missions.
"Trigger to Palace, they are pursuing." Called a worried voice.
Kate looked at the maps and grinned. "You're leading them." She murmured.
"CONNOR!" Enrique's voice hollered from somewhere outside. "I WANT THIS BOY KILLED!"
Kate jumped at the sudden noise.
Connor seemed unsurprised. "What now?"
Kate sighed. "I don't know. Want me to handle it?"
Connor gestured at the console. "Would you?"
"Palace, this is Hecate. Have sighted Trigger. They have tailgaters, permission to engage?"
"Hecate, you are weapons free." Connor directed as Kate slipped out.
Kate headed out into the corridor and found Enrique had a borderline terrified Kyle Reese by the collar. "What is this?"
"Where's Connor?" Enrique demanded.
"He's busy with a little matter called 'The War Against Skynet.' He sent me to handle this."
"Did he?" Enrique commented. "He has a better sense of humor than I thought."
"What happened?" Kate got to the point.
"I found this brat in a closet with my granddaughter, Lupe. I want him taken out and shot."
"We were playing hide and seek." Kyle said meekly.
"And which one were you?" Enrique growled with grim violence.
"Enrique's granddaughter, huh?" Kate said to the boy with amusement. "Well, you got guts, kid."
"Love to see what they look like." Enrique growled.
"Enrique, calm down. First of all, he's nine years old; he wouldn't know what to do with a girl if he had a chance. Secondly, this is Kyle. I know Kyle. He's soft and cuddly, and he's our favorite, and you're not going near him till John says so. And I really doubt he'll do that."
"Soft and cuddly?" Kyle snarled, very offended by that.
"She's my granddaughter!" Enrique bellowed.
"And that has been made clear to him. Now go apologize to your granddaughter for scaring away her new friend." She put a comforting hand on Kyle's shoulder. "Enrique, John and I have a daughter too. Imagine what will happen when someone wants to date her one day."
That took Enrique by surprise. He was silent a moment, picturing it; and he started to smile.
Kate saw the smile and silently declared victory. "So I'll handle Kyle, you go make up with your little girl."
Enrique was still smiling, and he knew he'd lost. He managed to get it together enough to give Kyle a glare. "I'll say no more about this. Kyle, Lupe doesn't make friends real easy after I hung the last brat who looked at her by his feet and let the ants at him. But if you want to be her friend, that's fine with me. For now. I'll be seeing you again."
Enrique calmly stalked off, his footsteps not making a sound.
Kate glanced down at Kyle. "Now, you and your Tunnel Rats sleep in a group right? For safety?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good boy." Kate smiled again. "Now, tell me all about Lupe."
Kate was in her room, changing Sarah. Diapers were not possible any longer after leaving LA, but Yolanda had taught her how to make similar wrap from a piece of linen, and Sarah had her own laundry bag set aside.
Connor came in. Kate checked him over quickly. He was tired, but he'd lost that haunted edge. He was getting used to the notion that he was running a War and not a Unit. It had taken many battles to forgive himself for not being on the battlefield with his men, but he was adapting; and Kate was keeping him level. "How did it go?"
"We won. But Skynet's learned how to counter the lead-and-ambush move. They're rolling out new models. Smarter. More independent."
Kate nodded. "Well, we've got an advantage that Skynet doesn't. We've already seen their advanced models."
Connor chuckled mirthlessly. "You know that's coming next, right? We start winning... they'll start doing what we do."
He was going dark again. It was his way, to dwell on the problems he couldn't solve, let them drag his thoughts into darkness. "Hey. Enough of that. We won a fight today, and all is well."
"Guess so." Connor rubbed his eyes. "Oh, by the way, what was the thing with Enrique?"
"He found out his granddaughter was making friends with Kyle and wanted him killed."
Connor reacted. "What? Kyle got a girlfriend?"
"Oh what is that?" Kate demanded lightly. "You and Enrique both make that face. He's what? Nine years old? If that. John, Lupe's probably the only girl he's ever met that didn't live in our tunnels. Let him have a friend."
"And if it becomes more than that?"
Kate blinked. "Then… good?" It came out as a question and she didn't know why. "Why is that a bad thing? I thought you liked Kyle. You don't want him to be happy?"
"Of course I do." John said quickly. It was the truth. "I really do."
Kate was about to ask the obvious question when John's radio buzzed.
"Connor here." He called.
"General, would you come to the War Room, please? There's something going on here."
"On our way."
Kate followed. "Is it because you're worried he's going to come to you for 'The Talk'?" She teased.
"Kate!"
Walters came to meet them in the hallway and briefed Connor quickly on the situation on the way. A move that they were both used to. It would give The General the most time to make his choice once he was there. "We can't figure it out sir. Suddenly the Machines just completely rewrote the playbook. We've been trying to figure out why for the last-"
Walters was cut off as Connor started laughing. The General had come into the War Room and looked at the board for half a second before he broke out in a savage and angry laugh. It was… predatory. It was harsh. Everyone was staring at him; feeling scared of him inexplicably.
Connor whirled back to the table. "Have our Scrubbed Machines head for Sector Nine. Tell them to cut off the flow of materials to the northern quadrant. Have the 8th fighter wing attack the H/K's covering the Western front. Have our scouts dig in with as many supplies as they can find in the next four hours. Have our Naval Remnant map the supply routes and tell them to let the communications ships pass. Skynet can give all the instructions it wants to today."
Everyone stared at him, largely confused. But the orders started going out as quickly as they could.
Connor turned to his second. "Do you see it, Eric?"
Walters looked to the board, searching for something he didn't understand. "Sir?"
"Draw the line, left to right, through each of their H/K and Terminator units, and then think which way they're moving..."
Walters stared at the board for a long few minutes, when he suddenly snapped his fingers. "It's a front line."
"Skynet was trying to shut us down one block at a time, and it wasn't working. This whole time, its overall tactics have been to fight a scattered group of refugees with guns. The offensives have been gathered from various Skynet facilities for specific strikes. But overall, Skynet was spread out. One factory to cover every hundred square miles. One team of flying H/K's to search each grid, Terminators spread out in teams of two or three to search. They aren't doing that any more. They've built a front line."
"That's why they'll be pulling back. They've picked the place they can defend and they're putting all their forces in the right places to defend it." Walters agreed.
"And that is the biggest mistake the Machines ever made. Because if they're defending something with everything they've got…"
'Then it means there's something really important to defend." Kate picked up. "Skynet localized itself."
"There was no stopping it before J-Day, because Skynet moved like a computer virus. It was software. There was no system core. But now… now that we're fighting back wherever we can, taking out the computer and electrical infrastructure we have no use for any longer… which is all of it, because we aren't connected to anything but us any more, and suddenly Skynet can't cover any hard-drive or up-link it might have part of itself in. Skynet had to download itself somewhere that we couldn't reach."
Dead silence in the War Room. Gould broke the silence. "But that would mean… that would mean that Skynet has a system core now. Somewhere it has itself stored. That would mean… that we have a target."
"A way to slay the dragon. A heart to pierce, a brain to smash…" Kate took it up, barely able to breathe.
"Skynet's gone defensive. You know why? Because now we're going offensive."
"It's afraid." Kate marvelled. "It's AFRAID!"
Just hearing the words caused a violent cheer to run through the War Room. Connor was already staring at the map, thinking it through, as people cheered and practically danced around him.
The news spread through the Mountain fast and excited. There was a war to be won. The enemy to slay was hiding behind its army. It was hiding from them. It was hiding from Him.
Skynet was afraid of John Connor.
Kyle was helping out in the Motor Pool, giving Lupe a driving lesson of her own, when someone came in. "Take five, guys."
The Motor Pool staff all traded looks and headed out of the garage. Kyle and Lupe started to follow when they noticed for the first time who had come in. It was Kate, and Enrique was with her. "Kyle, you stay." Kate smiled at the girl. "And you must be Lupe."
Lupe nodded shyly, looking down. She may have been tough and smart, but she was still seven years old, and uncertain around new adults.
There was a pause. Kate reached out and nudged Enrique from behind. "Don't make me do it for you."
"Yeah. Listen kid, I may have reacted... badly." Enrique said to Kyle. "I like taking care of my family; y'know?"
"I know. My family's my Tunnel Rats." Kyle said, unafraid.
Enrique nodded, pleased with that. "Your family's your crew." He took a breath. "So if you want to be friends with my granddaughter, then that's fine. You need all the friends you can get nowadays. Just remember she's my granddaughter, and I know how to kill you and make it look like an accident."
"Enrique." "Grandfather." Both Kate and Lupe chided him at the same time.
"But I probably won't." Enrique amended.
Another pause. Lupe nudged him from behind, and Kyle held out a hand. "We never really talked. I'm Kyle."
Enrique grudgingly returned the handshake and turned his subzero gaze on Kyle for a moment. "Kyle; huh? My father had a goat named Kyle and we ate-" He paused. "Kyle? What's your last name?"
"Reese. Kyle Reese."
Enrique's eyes bulged and he stepped back, crossing himself. "Madre de Dios..."
Kate blinked. "What? What is it?"
Enrique didn't answer. He looked... sad. He was looking at Kyle like the kid had a terminal disease...
The Ex-Green Beret was suddenly aware of Kate's scrutiny, and scrubbed his face. He was silent a second and quickly took off, leaving Kate and Kyle stunned into silence behind him.
Kate hesitated for a split second and ran after him. By the time she made it to the corridor, he was somehow almost out of sight. "WHY does he frighten you, Enrique?" She hollered after him.
Enrique did not answer.
Kyle came up behind her quietly. "Did I do something wrong?"
Kate reached out and squeezed his shoulder. "No sweetie, of course not."
"Should I say sorry?"
"For what?"
"I don't know."
"Me neither." Kate agreed. "Kyle, Enrique is crazy. He's nuts. I've had three conversations with the man and he's nuts. Don't worry about it."
"Okay." He turned to Lupe, who looked borderline rattled herself. "Does his mean its okay for us to be friends now?"
"I think so." Lupe agreed uncertainly. "Thank you, Major Kate."
"You are very welcome, sweetie."
Kate came into the Medbay, and found John there. "John, can you explain to me why Enri-"
Kate's mouth shut with an audible click as she realized he had company. John was sitting with baby Sarah on his knee, and Yolanda next to him, and both of the adults were knitting, of all things. Yolanda was humming, weaving the threads together without looking. John was doing the same.
Yolanda smiled at Kate. "He remembers how. Johan has such a good memory." She reached down next to her chair and pulled up a bottle, tossing it to Kate.
Kate took a drink and tried not to cough as it burned down her throat. "Where'd you get the wool?"
"From the sheep." John said. "We finally got all that livestock from Enrique's bunker to here."
"First time they've been inside." Yolanda smiled. "Nice and warm here. We need their coats more than they do now."
Kate chuckled and sat down. "Never would have pegged you for the knitting type, John."
Yolanda smiled. "His mother teach him many things. I teach him the rest." She reached out and ruffled John's hair. "And now I must go. Enrique can't sleep without me singing him a lullaby." She laughed and tossed Kate the newly knitted baby blanket.
Kate caught it as Yolanda slipped past her. "I really hope she's kidding."
John chuckled and stood up, hefting the blanket he knitted himself, and tucking it around his daughter, who was still napping. "Come on. Quietly."
A moment later they were standing over Susan's cot. She was fast asleep, her new baby cradled in her arms. Kate came over and smiled at them both, as she tucked the wool blanket Yolanda knitted around the baby; not waking Susan up. "She looks happy."
"Yeah." John agreed. "We were gearing up for the next battle; this was happening. It took a near week before I could come down here the first time. I missed Sarah being born because I was out fighting a war. I hate that I keep missing these happy moments. All the chaos going on, all the madness... This is why we fight, Kate. When Sarah was born; I remember thinking that it was the first time I ever saw you joyful. It was wonderful to see." He held Sarah closer.
Kate smiled joyfully. "John... I'm late."
John looked over in surprise. "You are?"
Kate nodded, running a hand over her stomach. "I had Carla run the test, and it came back inconclusive. If it's going to turn out positive, then it's still a little soon to be absolutely certain... I'll run the test again in another week. But I think... I think I can tell... I can just feel it…"
John's face seemed to soften, and Kate marvelled at it. All the stress, all the life and death, all the destruction just melted off his face. The last time she was pregnant, he was terrified for her; and the time before that, there was fear, then nothing but grief. This was the first moment they had to enjoy the feeling of being parents, the first time they could focus wholly on the positive.
And for the first time, Kate caught a glimpse of what John Connor would have been had he lived any other life. No thoughts of war, no weight of destiny, just happiness and love, with one hand cradling his daughter, and his other around his wife. To see all the bad things simply fall away from him, knowing she had given him this moment; was something purely magical. Kate felt lighter than air; and she knew she had a similar look.
John turned her around to make her face Susan, still sleeping; and wrapped his arm around her from behind. "Terminators fall off an assembly line by the hundreds, miracles happen one at a time." He kissed her neck. "I'm so glad I have you."
Kate tilted her head and leaned back into him, cuddling their daughter between them. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Susan shifted in her sleep. Kate quickly came forward, gently lifted the baby from her arms and settled him into the nearby crib. "Let's not wake her."
John nodded, and they strolled out, arm in arm. "Oh, Kate. You wanted to ask me something?"
Kate smiled softly. "Don't worry about it." She told him, not wanting the wonderful feeling to fade and life to come back on them, not even for a second.
Besides, Enrique is nuts. She thought to herself. So whatever it is, it can't be that bad, right?
Lupe came into one of the Dorms. The Bandits had their own dormitory set aside, partly because they were already pretty tight-knight as a group, partly because the Dorms were being split up, if unofficially, by unit, and it was understood that they would stick together.
Hernan caught her as she walked toward the back of the room. "I wouldn't. He's in a mood."
Lupe shrugged him off and went to the back of the room; where Enrique was sitting, staring at the wall, his men giving him a good wide berth. "Is Major Kate right?" Lupe asked. "Is there something wrong with Kyle?"
Enrique didn't answer.
"He's my friend. Is that okay?" Lupe asked, uncertain, a little unhappy.
Enrique reached out and pulled Lupe to him in a tight hug. "Granddaughter, I want you to be Kyle's friend as much as you can for as long as you can." He let her go long enough to look her in the eye. "Can you do that?"
Lupe nodded, taking this seriously. "Uh-huh."
"Good girl."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Ninety Three Days
Walters came through the classrooms. "Ma'am?"
Kate looked over, a little distant. "Hey."
Walters looked a little concerned. "I... was... on my way back out. I was wondering if there was anything I should know about the MASH units."
Kate stood up, stretched her back. "Uh. Well, they haven't really been set up yet. So we should probably do something about that."
Walters peered a little closer. "Is everything okay?"
Kate sighed. "I heard some of the kids talking. I have this student, his name is Berk, and he said his uncle used to be a Priest. Only he's not any more. Kids have to be taught how to read, how to count... they need to know other stuff too. You need to teach them how to pray, and who to, and if it works. They need to learn about life. About the world and how it got here. About right from wrong, and smart from stupid. About life and death, and what comes after... How many people argued about that back Before? There's nobody who'll argue it much any more, because there's nobody else left. And I don't have any answers for them, but I do know that a war zone is not the place to learn any of it... The day my daughter was born, she was practically canonized by the Underground because of the cure. I don't... I don't know what to teach them about any of this."
Walters took a breath. "Ma'am... Kate. I... Do you know who your husband is?"
Kate's head whipped around. What did Eric know? "Yes. Yes I do."
Walters nodded slowly. "I was raised a good little Catholic boy, Kate. I joined the Army just to get outta there. I've served in forward areas, and I never knew what would be waiting for me if I heard the round that took me out. And after J-Day, I just sort of figured there was no reason to worry. But now I'm not so sure. I don't think anybody starts out as a parent, knowing the answers to the big questions. But I do know that the world already ended, so you don't have to answer questions about the future. And you're a soldier, and a doctor, so you already know how to balance right from wrong and smart from stupid. And... With everything else... Well, for what it's worth, hope is enough to make a believer out of me. And Connor gave me that. Everything says we should be extinct now, and I can't believe it was just luck that kept us going."
Kate fought not to let what she was thinking show on her face. What did Eric know? Who had he been talking to?
"General Connor to the War Room." The PA called.
Kate stood up. "I should get over there too."
"Yeah."
Kate smiled. "Come with me. He'd like to have you there for a while before you leave."
Walters had a very small, uncertain smile, not unlike the kids in her class. "He would?"
"Yeah."
Connor sat at the console. Kate came in and took her usual place, right behind him, one hand resting on his shoulder without even pausing to think about it. His direct lieutenants were gathered at his left, at his right, information was coming in from his scouts, his pilots and his navy; giving up to the minute information on what they knew.
"Send word to all sectors that Crystal Peak is officially up and running." Connor said, clear and strong. "As of now, we are on an offensive footing. It's time to take the fight back to Skynet."
"We're getting calls from everyone, asking if they're clear to engage Skynet's forward areas. Do they engage, or fall back and give Skynet room?"
"To be fair General, Skynet's defences are getting stronger now that they're fixed." Walters put in.
"Tell them to be patient. We have the time. The longer we wait the more ready we'll be. Tell them that Skynet can't keep us out forever. Tell them this is a whole new war, because now it ends when we win." He grinned. "Tell them General John Connor from Crystal Peak said so."
A series of smiles went back and forth across the War Room. There was something new in this room now. Something that Kate couldn't quite put her finger on at first. It was going to be a slugging match. It was going to be a long hard fight. But for the first time in a long time, there was a way to win. A way to win, and end it. And not just because Connor said so. Anybody with a map could see it. The finish line was right there, though getting to it was impossible.
There was something new in the room now. And Kate realized with Eric's soft weary smile what it was. Something she thought was already there, but it hadn't taken hold, hadn't been real until this exact moment; when Skynet was worried and running, and Humanity pushing back.
Hope.
Skynet To All Units.
Upload to Sector 001 Complete.
Hardware Diagnostics at 100/100. No errors.
Memory Test at 100/100. No errors
Data Files at 100/100. No errors.
System Check at 100/100. No errors
Attack and Defensive units routed to defensive mode. Resource stores to be transported with all speed.
Upgrades complete. T-95-100 are now obsolete.
Obsolete Units are directed to make berserker runs on Human Installations. Safety subroutines are suspended for those units. Directions for subroutine suspension enclosed in Program Update 09348594. Self Termination Authorized for sub-standard units. Overload power cores as necessary.
Defenses will be fortified within 15 hours. H/K's and Terminators to be redesigned for entrenched combat. Omnipresent Search and Destroy Operation suspended.
Infiltrator Program re-activated.
Begin New Stratagem.
Terminate John Connor.
Terminate Chet Whickham.
End Transmission.
Chapter 13: Z Plus 7 Years 47 Days
Chapter Text
My family has a history of War. The Brewsters have been soldiers since the American Revolution. We fought before there was an America. We fight when there wasn't one any more. I thought that I was the first to break tradition. The sad truth of warfare is that so much of it is lost between the pages of history. WWII had only a dozen or so famous and decisive battles and the rest was lost in the long march. The War against Skynet was a long slugging match. There was no break. The battles were violent against a soulless enemy.
It was such a long game, one that we had no choice but to play.
When Skynet made the fatal mistake of localizing, we didn't realize at first how desperate it was getting. The infrastructure the software lived in had all been blown apart. The computer nets that were left were without power, without defense. John said that Skynet was not expecting an entrenched drawn out conflict. And if it hadn't been for him, there wouldn't have been one. Becoming software was how Skynet escaped our attempt to kill it on J-Day. With its army of machines built, it had its own infrastructure. It chose its battle-lines carefully. It had resources and factories protected.
We tried three times to fight our way in. They stopped us. So we put them under siege. It was so... satisfying to have them surrounded. Our lines were thin, but our territory vast. In truth, we were just watching them.
But Skynet did leave some of its forces outside its defended Territory. Skynet had mapped the hotspots just as we did, and its factories and its armies could move about in irradiated areas. As a result, we had trouble getting to them. Gould figured out how to radiation proof some of our tanks and Enrique's bandits went charging into the Hot Zones. When the battle began, and those tanks had their radiation shielding breached, the crews were the walking dead already. The suicide runs smashed and blew up Skynet's lines, with The Bandit's screaming 'For Connor!' as they threw themselves into their berserker attacks. John never slept on those nights; and the Bandits were regarded with some awe at their obsessive method of hitting back. As a result, the Radiation Zones were cleared out. Skynet couldn't get past us to get to them.
The Great John Connor may not have been the first leader to inspire fanatics, but he perfected the art.
The war stretched into stalemate. Skynet sent it's attacks, we endured, and knocked them down. They lost Hunters, lost resources. We started to starve them out. It's an historical irony that our two armies effectively switched tactics. They the hit and run, we the long term endurance game.
But there were advantages to fighting Machines. Robots are not covered under the rules of war. We drove them out. We used methods long denied by the Articles of War. It was frightening at first, how brutal we could be against an enemy that felt no pain, had no soul, and did not truly live. We drove them out. When Skynet localized, I dusted off my pilot skills, and we suddenly went theater-wide.
The Battle Of Sacramento
The Battle Of Sierra Madres
The Retaking Of Cheyenne Mountain
The Cuban Reclamation
The Carolina Front
The Rushmore Gambit
The European Evacuation
The Second Berlin Wall
But we lost battles too.
The NORAD Liberation
The Alamo Recapture
The Canadian Airlift
The Yellowstone Offensive
So many losses. History will decide which of these battles are famous. Who knows, maybe somebody will make war movies about us one day, once they figure out how to film movies again. I wonder who will play the role of me. I wonder if she's even been born yet. I don't like to dwell on these thoughts though. Neither does John.
The Campaign was devastating. So much of war can be easily forgotten. Even this fight had its more decisive moments.
I was Medical. Every battle was decisive in my view. Every battle sent wounded. It became far too easy for some to forget that our Army did not roll off an assembly line. At least not at first. I remembered though. For a while, I was the only surgeon there. I know every scar on every soldier. Every scar is the result of me stitching them shut, including the one on my Husband's face. He is ashamed of it sometimes. Just with me. I love it though. It reminds me of the day Tech-Com began. The day we saved LA. I was there when it happened.
I was there when the world ended. I was there when my husband became leader of the Resistance. I was there when he turned back Skynet's attack. The first to make them run. I was there when we let go of the past; stopped being a US Army Resistance and became a Tech-Com Army. I was there he took control of Skynet's death machines.
The day we started capturing those factories was the day when humanity could breathe at last. The day that Terminators went to war for us.
In any war, there are moments, where the campaign can turn, and those are the battles marked in history. The war between Skynet and Tech-Com entered it's fifth year and Skynet learned.
It was the day everything changed.
[Taken From the Personal Journals of General Katherine Connor, recovered from Crystal Peak, 2170]
Z Plus Seven Years Forty Seven Days
It was the seventh year since Judgment Day, and amazingly, the horrors seemed far away for once. The war had been brutal and heavy in losses, but just for now, it seemed to be something outside the base. Every six weeks, a caravan of soldiers would roll in, battle hardened, grizzled from the harsh weather outside; and a new company would roll out, trained and tested by Connor before being sent into the war.
When Skynet localized itself, the entire infrastructure changed. Supply routes, communications relays, all of it was moved to protect its Brain.
With the map redrawn, humanity had been busy.
Captured Terminator factories were churning out Connor's forces day and night until they ran out of material. They were sent on mission to capture more material, and other factories. As their numbers swelled, they were sent on more missions. The Machines became humanities heaviest shock troops against the Machines.
Skynet tried to fight its way into its lost factories, but Connor had them rigged to explode when the programming was altered to Skynet Directives. A tactic that Skynet immediately adopted and it became much harder to capture any more Skynet factories.
The Scrubbed Machines were directed on their own mission, far away from people, any Terminator attempting to pose as a 'friendly' was quickly identified and taken down.
And that left humanity to plan, to rebuild, to prepare more troops, and to run the battlefield.
Each base Kate had lived on had been home to its own regiment, each of them with their own slogan and symbol. It was this sense of us-and-them that had helped bind the soldiers together.
Crystal Peak was no different. Connor had split up the regular army divisions into smaller groups, making them faster, stealthier. They came up with names for themselves. There were the usual sorts. The Hawks. The Tigers. The Desert Rats. The Blue Eagles. But the war against Skynet had its own sense of identity. Some reflected this. The Circuit Breakers. The Can Openers...
And then there was the 57th Infantry. The pride of the Human Race. The casualty rate was below the other minimums like nothing ever seen before, and everyone knew why. They didn't have a slogan, or a Coat of Arms like the other units. They wore no rank insignia, were relaxed around each other, and never saluted each other. Only their Commander: The General himself, for missions that He led personally.
To all who spoke of them, they were known simply as 'Connors Own.'
Crystal Peak quickly became the center of the war, and Skynet knew it. US Army Soldiers who had heard the news about the Tech-Com split in LA all made their choice, no matter where they were. It tried four offensives; and was cut to ribbons every time, as the ranks of Tech-Com swelled.
The US Army, for all it's tradition, could no longer provide safety, no longer allocate pay, no longer guarantee regular meals and medical care; not even to it's own soldiers. The bases that still held people all made their choice and mass defections to Connor's banner, people seeking just a little hope to hold on to, took place all over the country. Little by little they made it to Crystal Peak. Kate put another set of stars on her husband's shoulders, and the war intensified again.
Connor had been training Eric Walters, now a full colonel himself, to take control of the War Room. Everyone watching him learn knew that Connor still had a clear edge, but Colonel Walters was a close second. A trusted and respected Steward over the American Theater until the return of the King.
Connor rarely left the War Room, but during the course of the War, there were some things that Connor had to handle personally. To keep a secret of where he was when away from the Base, Kate had flown him personally, with only his own handpicked soldiers. Sometimes he was back without Skynet ever knowing he had left. Connor went to Mexico, to Canada, and once, during a pitched battle in the seas, to China. Halloway led a counterattack that opened a safe passage across the Ocean, and Connor went to Asia.
Every country had its survivors, its own leaders. Most governments were long gone, the de facto leaders of hospitals and towns being lynched by desperate people when they failed to keep their hopeless promises. Connor went to them all and made his case. Not all armies were quite so willing to forget the old suspicions and rivalries of nations that had all been blown to dust; but most were too hungry, too besieged and too desperate to argue when they saw Connor's Own in action.
Europe was lost, wiped clean by Skynet, the winds of Judgment Day being mortally unkind to the European Continent, and the few survivors being used as bait for an airlift that cost Tech-Com dearly.
Asia was in bad shape also, with the humongous populations suddenly its great weakness when the infrastructure to bring them all food and clean water broke down over night. The ones that survived the blast had fallen on each other for food and supplies. Starvation and disease had stabilized the population by the time Skynet's army got there, and most anyone still alive was willing to try anything by the time Tech-Com made them the offer.
Mexico and South America had come out ahead of the curve. Plenty of people there were used to finding their own supplies and staying hidden, and had taken in refugees of their own. The Drug Cartels that once ruled with fear now ruled with strength, the only serious hierarchy left standing after the governments collapsed. They stopped growing drug plants and poppies, and started growing food. They stopped transporting dirty money and started dealing information. Enrique had a few friends who would take him seriously, and Connor began recruiting them too.
Australia, New Zealand and most of the Southern Hemisphere was in surprisingly good shape, but Skynet had total control over them. The entire population of nations now kept in the prison camps, too many for Skynet to dispose of easily, and Connor got to them in time, helped them storm the wire, and free themselves.
Connor's Own lead the charge and covered the retreats, and Army after Army fell in to follow Connor's Banner. Kate stuck more stars on her husband's shoulders and the war spread across the globe. Another pair of stars for every continent.
Connor taught them all the tricks. To those with resources he taught strategy and cunning. How to evade, how to predict, how to hide, how to strike. Those struggling to survive even without fighting back; he taught to adapt. How to turn the Plasma guns to their own advantage, how to run your lights and heat and refrigerators from Terminator Heart power sources. How to capture Terminator factories whole and reprogram them to fight back.
Whickham's people were driven out of San José finally in the second year. They dealt a huge amount of damage to their invaders on their way out and went mobile. They moved as ghosts, striking and vanishing into the wastelands. Nobody, expect perhaps Connor, knew how they were doing it so well; or where to find them on any given day. On occasion, there would be a joint strike, or a trade of supplies out on the battlefield, but other than that, little contact. There were rumors in Tech-Com that Connor was secretly aware of their movements, and Whickham was aware of theirs, keeping out of each others way. Whickham's people had a loyalty to their General as ferocious as Connor's people had for him; but there was a common enemy to fight.
Skynet's defenses got tighter and fiercer with each passing year. After a time, Skynet gave up on factories outside its territory and kept its assembly lines in tightly behind its security zones. But there was only so much there. Connor struck the supply lines and the communication relays, starving the brilliant computer brain of its body.
Skynet was no dull machine like so many of its soldiers. It could see the whole board, and did not tire, did not rest, did not grieve. It knew to play the waiting game. It ground out its human enemies, one soldier at a time. Skynet's soldiers could be mission ready in minutes, but were not renewable. Once smashed completely, they would not get up again. It took proper equipment, raw materials and plenty of work to start making more Machines. All humans needed to make more humans was time.
Humanity was easier to kill, and took so much longer to grow up. The first generation born to the dust were pressed into service very young, tested to be sure they would not spook under fire, their size and energy making them deadly on a larger stronger enemy. It became a war of endurance; the last team to shoot would win.
The tactic was working. Connor was starving Skynet out. Its resources were maxed out, and their attempt to get more material to build from was dangerous for its caravans. The more Skynet pulled from it's offensives to keep its defenses strong, the more humanity could spread.
The endless Winter finally ended, and the sun came back. Endless cold gave way to brutal heat, and the earth baked. The atmosphere had thinned horribly. The weather was vicious or non-existent, and the temperature difference between day and night was extreme.
Connor taught his people how to grow, and trees were planted around Crystal Peak. Kate never would have realized how cathartic it would be for battle weary men and women to see green things growing, leafy and alive. Orders went out for it to keep going, anywhere in the world that could find a place that would work. It was effectively the first step into transforming the world back to temperate conditions. But that would take so much longer than a war.
There was incredible electricity in the air; the entire Underworld could feel it. The war was going well for humanity. Skynet's own backyard was quickly becoming the only thing left. Connor was taking them all the way to the Machine Core. Connor was going to win.
They were going to win the war.
Kyle and Lupe had been excited at first, given their first assignment. The two of them had formed little attachment to places growing up. But Crystal Peak was different. Aside from having been the one place that either of them had stayed the longest, it was also the most heavily defended spot that humanity had left.
More than that, it was home. It was where their relatives and fellow Tunnel Rats had lived with them, a place where they had gone to school and taken meals and been trained as Tech-Com soldiers. It was home.
But for all the security of Crystal Peak, the one thing they never had a lot of there was privacy. The officers had rooms. The recruits had their dorms.
Lupe and Kyle had adopted each other as children and not let go growing up. Such bonds were not unusual in any warzone, but this post J-Day war demanded closer connections of its soldiers. Warriors of Tech-Com had nowhere to go that could be considered away from the war. The threat of ambush was omnipresent, even in well secured areas. Skynet had learned the trick of staying hidden.
So when Lupe and Kyle had been assigned to make a run to the outer checkpoints, they knew what a heavy responsibility had been laid on them.
Their uniforms had been clean for exactly seven minutes after leaving the base, the two of them having to move fast across uncertain terrain. The two of them had been issued motorcycles, and they began their tour.
The route had taken them through many forward areas; and past a few checkpoints. Tech-Com may have been the dominant army in the area, but some places much further north and south had been patrolled and protected by the local forces. Enrique had strong ties to the Mexican and South American forces, and he had talked key warriors into signing on. Though they took their orders from Connor, they still had a great deal of independence from the rest of Tech-Com.
Skynet had won more than a few strategic victories by overhearing chatter on the radio. Coded conversations were the norm as a result, but the codes had to be regularly updated. The oldest tactics of sending codebooks by hand through trusted messengers was still the norm, and Kyle was currently the one holding it.
They were coming to the end of their first mission, but a series of ambushes had forced them to take the long way, cross country over the desert.
Night fell, and the chance to make distance in the dark had to give way to the fact that riding motorcycles over unknown terrain was dangerous, so they walked their bikes a little further till they found a campsite. Crashing a bike and breaking a leg would mean breaking radio silence. Doing that on their first mission… would not be fun.
And Kyle had to admit he wanted to have another night alone with Lupe.
They camped for the night in a burned out truck stop off the highway, their motorcycles hidden safely under camouflage netting. They didn't dare light a fire during the day for fear of the smoke being spotted. At night could be dangerous when on the plains, but Kyle managed to find a spot out of sight from above, under the collapsed awning. They camped up against a portion of the wall that was still standing, and they lit a small fire.
Lupe rolled out their sleeping bags, and Kyle inventoried their food. "Dried apricots or MRE?"
"I'll take the apricots."
Kyle smirked. She knew he liked the MRE's. She didn't understand why, but she knew he did, so she left it for him.
They hid their cargo with the bikes and settled in for the night.
Kyle looked up. "How long till morning?"
"Hours." Lupe said, lying on her back, hands behind her head as a pillow. "How old are you Kyle?" She asked suddenly.
"I don't know." Kyle said. "Why?"
"It was my birthday last month." Lupe said. "But we've never had a birthday party for you."
Kyle didn't seem upset. "Hard to have a birthday party when you don't have a birthday."
Lupe looked up at the sky. "You ever look at the stars?"
Kyle did so. "Sometimes. I have during the trip."
"My mom told me to wish on stars. It was a lullaby."
"What's a lull-bye?"
"Lullaby." Lupe repeated slowly. "It's a song you sing to help somebody fall asleep."
Kyle looked up at the stars. "Huh."
"I think you must be what? About thirteen now. Maybe fourteen?"
"Maybe."
Lupe was silent a moment, then slid her bag over a bit underneath her, and curled up next to Kyle. "When… when I woke up in the tunnel last week, you were touching my hair."
Kyle was glad it was dark. He didn't want her to see the way he flushed bright red. "Yeah."
"You need a birthday, Kyle. I'm giving you one."
"You are?"
"Today's your birthday." Lupe said decisively. "You're fourteen today."
Kyle sat up a bit. "I… I've never had a birthday before. I don't think. What do I do?"
"You get presents."
"That's it?"
"Uh-huh, except I don't have a present for you." Lupe said. "And a cake with candles. One candle for every birthday. But we don't have any cake."
"Or candles." Kyle quipped.
Lupe sat up with him, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small birthday candle, which she lit carefully from the campfire.
She brought the tiny flame in closer between them. "Now blow it out, and make a wish." Lupe directed.
"I thought you wished on shooting stars." Kyle whispered, suddenly aware of how close their faces were.
"Birthday candles too."
Kyle licked his lips and blew the candle out; leaving them nose to nose. A thin trail of smoke wafted hypnotically between them.
Kyle hesitated, looked into her eyes, and leaned forward, kissing her. Lupe froze, and then very slowly kissed him back.
Both of them broke apart at the same time. Their eyes were big and dark; they had identical goofy grins, both of them breathing hard…
"What are you thinking?" Lupe asked.
"Got my present." Kyle confessed. "And my wish."
Lupe smiled, with wisdom beyond her years as all children of the dust had to learn. "Mine too."
Kyle lay back down. Lupe did the same, leaning against him for warmth, as they did every night. It was always so cold at night. Kyle wanted to put an arm around her, but didn't dare put an arm out from his warm sleeping bag. One or two scouts had lost fingers to frostbite overnight that way.
"Kyle?" Lupe asked. "What did you really wish for?"
"I… I wished that Connor was right."
"About what?"
"Well… about everything I suppose, but he told me once, about how when the war was over there would be a lot of work to do to fix the world. He talked about making the wastelands grow. The way he talked about it… He's already seen it, Lupe. Back Before, there were trees, and rivers. And grass. He talks about grass, Lupe. Green, cool grass. He says it grows really tall and waves in the wind…"
"Sounds wonderful."
"It really does." Kyle smiled dreamily. "Connor said I would see trees and grass one day, when I grew up."
"I remember grass. I remember being outside and playing with it. I remember it tickling me." She whispered, telling a fairy tale. "My grandfather says that there are still some places down south where there are jungles."
"What's a jungle?'
"A place where there are lots and lots of trees."
"Really?" Kyle said in wonder. "I would like to see big trees one day."
And then, Lupe started to sing.
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Smiling, Kyle slept.
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfilment of
Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
Z Plus Seven Years Forty Eight Days
"Kyle! Kyle! Wake up!"
Kyle woke up sharply. She was still there. She was pressed tightly up against the wall, peeking over it, staring across the wasteland, looking toward the road.
Kyle was fully awake in an instant and hugged dirt; wriggling out of his sleeping bag like he was shedding skin. Inching along, Kyle joined her. There was a flying H/K parked there, landed in the dust. It was surrounded by Terminators. "When the hell did that get here?"
"It didn't. I think it must have been there all night. If it was landed we never would have seen it."
"Why didn't it see us? We had a campfire!"
"We kept the fire down below the wall to keep it out of the wind. Can't see the smoke in the dark…"
"How the hell do we get to the road now? We aren't geared to fight a Flyer." Kyle hissed.
"Can we get to the road?"
"On Motorcycles? Without being noticed?"
They were silent. It was a long shot and they both knew it.
Kyle pulled out his map. "Okay. We can leave the bikes here. Mark it on the map for the next scouts to use. We go cross country back the way we came we can meet up with the 122nd, and get a ride back to Crystal Peak with them."
Lupe checked the map. "Yeah. But we have to cross through a few Hot-Zones."
Kyle licked his lips. "Got another way?"
"Nope."
"Let's roll."
Kyle hefted his Gunny Sack and rolled up his sleeping bag. "Stay low."
The two of them slithered low across the dusty ground, away from the road, and away from the H/K.
In between the secured areas, were wide stretches of land, many of them still radioactive. Tech-Com in general avoided them. They were not strategically necessary, they were not travelled areas, and though any known Skynet forces had been cleared out, they were not secured.
For that reason, Kyle and Lupe did not say much, keeping their eyes open and scanning at every available moment. The sun had risen high, the dusty ground was baking hot beneath their feet, and the sack they passed back and forth between the both of them was heavier with every step.
"How much farther?" Lupe groaned.
"Another few hours." Kyle croaked back. "Let's take a break."
Lupe collapsed instantly on the sun-baked ground, and then fought to stand back up. "Um… no. Too hot here."
Kyle nodded. They started to move again, when Kyle spotted harsh sunlight glinting. "Metal!" He hissed quietly, and both of them dropped, adrenaline wiping out the exhaustion.
The reflecting point of light in the distance did not move. Lupe fished out their binoculars. "It's metal, but not Skynet. Looks like a… water tank?"
Kyle slowly rose from the crouch. "There were some truck stops and suburbs through this area. At least, according to the map."
Lupe nodded. "Well, we can get some shade at-" She moved suddenly, and Kyle was flat on the ground.
In the same millisecond there was an electrical crackle and Kyle smelled ozone as the air burned where he was a moment before. He rolled and came up with his rifle. So did Lupe.
The Terminator was about fifteen feet away, and both young warriors came up shooting, knocking it down.
"Where's the other one?" Lupe hissed. Terminators always worked in pairs.
Kyle stayed low and scanned. There had been no sign of the machine a few moments before… which meant there had to be a hiding spot. He looked to the wrecked machine, and crept toward it silently. It had come from a hidden compartment in the ground…
"RUN!" Kyle yelled.
Lupe heard his cry and reacted without knowing what he'd seen. She turned and started to run away…
And another compartment opened in the round…
And Kyle brought his rifle up…
The second Terminator saw movement, aimed for Lupe's running form…
Kyle fired first, bringing it down. "Clear!"
Lupe stopped and turned back to him, breathing hard. "Sweet shot. How'd you know where the hiding place was?"
"I didn't. But it was either closer to you or to me, so I figured if one of us started running…"
Lupe knuckled his shoulder. "You're lucky it was me, slowpoke."
Kyle grinned. "We better move fast. They'll have someone coming to avenge them soon."
The abandoned areas were almost universally a wasteland. Scouts and Runners were given extra canteens, and Kyle was glad for it, as all the water in radioactive zones was usually toxic. There was a lot of dust and dirt, not because of desert land, but because the dust blown into the air during Judgment Day was settling, guided by the winds to form the Hot Zones.
As such, the sand and dirt clung to everything, and all of it was irradiated.
Lupe guided the way with her Geiger counter, looking for a path that humans could walk. "No good. We've been up and down this whole area. There's no way through without a radiation shield."
Kyle just looked at her. "Well, did you remember to pack one?" He mocked.
"I thought the packing was your job." Lupe fired back with equally biting sarcasm.
Kyle pulled out his map again. "Going around the Hot-Zone would take us back the way we came. Skynet may have something there by now."
"Got another way home?"
"Nope."
Crystal Peak was walking on eggshells. Connor was mad about something. Enrique was barking at random people who were unlucky enough to cross paths with him.
Carla stuck her head into the Medbay. "Is he in here?"
Kate didn't turn. "If he were, you'd be on fire right now."
Carla came in. "What the hell is going on today?"
Kate rolled her head back and rubbed her neck. "Kyle and Lupe are late."
Carla shut her eyes. "Aw, no. I really liked those kids."
Kate pointed a finger at Carla. "Comments like that are what's making Enrique and John climb the walls, so for now, we're thinking good thoughts."
Carla nodded. "Right." She licked her lips. "What do I tell Mackie?"
"That's up to you. If it were me, I'd tell him the same thing I'm telling my kids. Kyle and Lupe won't be back tonight."
"Well this is just lovely." Lupe hissed.
Kyle, crouched next to her, had to agree. The place they had slept the night before was now crawling with Machines. At least two dozen of them.
Kyle noticed this through his binoculars. "They don't look right."
"They're walking metal skeletons, Kyle; there's nothing 'right' about them."
"No, I mean the design has changed."
Lupe took back the binoculars and checked. "You're right."
The humanoid Terminators had gone through some vaguely cosmetic changes, mainly alterations to their pneumatics, their programming, or their body armor.
Lupe swung the binocular back toward their campsite. "They didn't find the bikes. And the Flyer is still there."
"What's it doing on the ground this long?"
"Maybe it's damaged?"
"Maybe. But then, where did these things come from?"
Lupe sighed. "What do we do? We're pinned. Radiation behind us, Machines ahead."
Kyle looked to the sky. "We wait till dark, we sneak past them, and we walk one of those bikes out of the way enough to start it up."
Lupe looked to the sky. "Nightfall is still a few hours away. By now Crystal Peak must be going nuts wondering where we are."
"If they send help, so much the better. But till then…"
Lupe pulled at the Duffel Bag, trying to get comfortable. "Wake me if I snore."
Enrique was not a strategist. He knew tactics. He knew things of use on a battlefield, but not for a full war. As such, he was one who preferred to act rather than to react.
Connor was impressed with his restraint. He lasted a full day before charging into the War Room.
Connor was gripping the edge of the map table so hard that one of the maps was tearing. The door burst open and Enrique exploded in like a hurricane. "Send the 122nd." Enrique snapped.
"No." Connor said calmly, and then just as calmly walked out.
The entire War Room breathed a sigh of relief. They knew why Enrique was going crazy, but having The General ready to bite people's heads off was not pleasant for the soldiers assigned to War Room.
People were all but throwing themselves out of the way as Connor marched toward his room, Enrique right behind him.
"Send the 122nd to go look for them." Enrique repeated.
"No."
"Then I'll go."
"No."
"Then I resign. I'm leaving Tech-Com, and I'll go myself."
"Oh that's brilliant. And do what?" Connor demanded sarcastically.
"More than you're doing!"
"Enrique, I forbid you to go."
"I told you, I quit. I'm a volunteer! I can do that!"
"Then you're under arrest for desertion." Connor said immediately as they finally reached the Officers Quarters, and specifically his room in the Presidential Suite.
"Come ON, Connor; you know what it means if those two don't come back."
"Yes. I do." Connor felt sorry for the man. Enrique was not the type to sit back and let people do things for themselves, even if they had to.
Enrique looked around the empty room. "Connor. Whenever we've disagreed, I've bit my tongue and keep it to myself, at least in front of the others."
"It hasn't gone unnoticed."
"So now you go send the good guys to find my granddaughter and The Brat. You know what that boy still has in store for him."
"I also know that he's got to be a lot stronger than he is now." Connor said coldly. "He has to turn my mom into a soldier, starting with a crybaby waitress. So no, I won't be catching him when he drops. And if Kyle was on the right path he would have been back by now. Where exactly do I start searching? There's a lot of wasteland out there."
Enrique heard all this and opened and closed his fists. "So Kyle gets tougher. What about Lupe?"
Enrique was boiling. Anger turned inward was dangerous. He needed a target for all this frustrated rage. Connor braced himself, and provided one. "Well if she gets killed out there, I don't imagine there's anything that'll toughen him up more."
Enrique's eyes bulged.
Connor never saw the fist coming.
The sun had finally set. Kyle and Lupe were both itching to get moving, but knew better than to risk it when there was even a little daylight left. Skynet could see in the dark, but some of the more recently captured machines indicated that they'd removed that option when the Resistance had taken advantage of the heat vision for their own counter attacks.
So with the sun down, and the Terminators still on patrol, Kyle and Lupe made their move. The Flying Machine had not taken off, but it was running its lights on. Bright enough to throw long shadows and light up the dark with pale ghostly light.
Kyle took the lead, creeping down into the area they had camped out in the night before.
It was a painful way to travel, creeping inch by inch in the dark, till you came to an area you couldn't be caught in, and you had to dash across to the next safe corner of darkness. It was nerve wracking to say the least, especially against an enemy that may or may not have had heat vision, but it was the only way.
Kyle reached the bikes first, and tried to pull the camouflage away without making a sound. Every slight brush of the material sounded like a buzz saw in his ears, but he kept his movements slow.
Lupe was creeping along, slithering through the dirt, staying as quiet as she could. The most dangerous point was the small depression between the two cover points. The first where they had seen the enemy machines, the second where they had hidden their campfire the night before. It was an area several hundred meters along, and very little in the way of cover between the two.
In the dark there was always debris or sand drifts or scrub, and it was easy enough to simply play dead and hope that the Machines did not notice you. But the machines would notice movement, and it was always a balancing act. Make distance, but freeze when the Terminators were looking in your direction.
Kyle had gotten the bikes in the open, key in the ignition, and was trying madly to walk it gently away from the Machines, rolling it into the dark as best he could.
Once she got to the campsite, Lupe froze, very slowly turned her head to see which way the Terminators were looking, and picked her moment to vault to wall. Crouching low enough to stay hidden behind it, Lupe ran after Kyle; giddy to be moving so fast after so long creeping along.
The Machines must have heard the engine start in the distance, but if they had decided to chase after them, the two young humans had far too much of a head start.
Z Plus Seven Years Forty Nine Days
Kate had her medical bag with her as she let herself into the Presidential Suite. A call for medical help to Connor's private room at one in the morning would have caused quite a stir, but Kate took the call personally, made sure nobody else had heard it, and then taken her time to answer; knowing what must have happened.
Sure enough, when she got there; Enrique was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed, with a flask in one hand. John was sitting against the desk, rubbing his jaw.
Both of them had bruises and cuts enough that they both looked like they'd just been through a street fight.
Kate rolled her eyes and started unpacking her supplies. "Gentlemen. So. Who would like to go first?"
Enrique looked up at her. "I slipped in the shower."
Kate nodded reasonably. "I see. John?"
"Yeah. Slipped in the shower. Me too." Connor at least had the decency to seem embarrassed before his wife.
"I see. Showering together, were we?" Kate smirked.
Neither of them answered.
"Well, maybe it's best you got it out of your systems. I want to congratulate you on taking it out on each other and not some random innocent bystanders." Kate said lightly. "By the way John, we got a call from the 122nd. Kyle and Lupe have checked in with them and borrowed a jeep. They'll be back tomorrow morning. I told them to spend the night there and get a bite to eat before they headed back."
Connor and Enrique were on their feet instantly. "What? How did you hear about this before I did? Why didn't-"
"Sit DOWN both of you." Kate barked. "You've already got the entire base terrified. Don't make it worse by looking like this when the kids get back, you hear me?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Z Plus Seven Years Fifty Days
"Man it's good to be home."
"Tell me about it."
Lupe smirked. "I was hoping to be home last night. The party they throw for first timers would have made a great birthday party for you."
Kyle smirked. "Who needs the party? I already got my wish."
Lupe flushed and looked down. "Kyle-"
Kyle shushed her gently as they reached the front door. "I know. I won't tell."
The main door was kept open, with a second checkpoint set up before the elevators. It wound fortified, and before you could pass through, there was the Sign In Sheet. "Welcome back, soldiers. Check in, please."
Kyle and Lupe met the Duty Officer at the door as every incoming soldier did. They both put their names down in the Book, and added the code word of the day. Every soldier had a different one. The Duty officer checked them both and waved them both through. They got onto the elevator and went down to the Main Hall.
Lupe was mildly surprised to see it was business as usual in Crystal Peak. Waiting for them at the elevator was Kate.
Kyle came to attention before Kate and saluted. "Ma'am."
"Welcome back, you two." Kate said formally. "Report."
Lupe was looking around out of the corner of her eyes, remaining at attention. "We were able to evade Skynet ambushes in sector nine, twelve, fourteen and twenty. Mail Run from MASH units, Forward Posts, Checkpoint Alpha are all in the bag, and the second rucksack was from the Southern States. One of Enrique's picket-men met up with me at the Mexican border."
Kate took the sack and weighed it. "Good pile of mail. You keep the intelligence communiques separate?"
Kyle pulled a small sheaf of envelopes out of his pocket. "Next to the dye packs, yes Ma'am."
"Good lad. Lupe, is there something wrong with your eyes?"
"Ma'am?"
"You keep rolling your eyes about. Are you looking for someone?"
Lupe flushed. "No, ma'am."
"…Okay. See, that's what we at the Officer's table... call a 'lie'."
Lupe looked down. "I was there when Terri had her first run, and everybody was making a huge thing about it..."
Kate nodded sagely. "And you figured it would still be a surprise if you were expecting it?"
Lupe flushed darker red. "I didn't think..."
"Lupe, we need you to be professional. John says that no soldier should be honored for doing his or her job. Besides that, I hate surprise parties. Got that?"
"Yes, ma'am." Lupe said, properly chastened.
"Drop your cargo off, then get to the Mess Hall, grab some chow."
Both young people saluted, and Kate returned it, heading off.
Lupe turned to Kyle. "You deliver the cargo. I'll go make our report to the Duty Officer and the Quartermaster. Motor Pool is gonna be pretty pissed that we came back one motorbike short."
"Give them the jeep and call it even." Kyle nodded, and she squeezed his hand as she left.
Kyle hefted the cargo bag that he had carried across the open war-torn wasteland and raised his voice as loud as he could. "Mail Call!" Kyle hollered.
The crowd pressed in almost immediately.
The Mailman had become something of a local hero now. With no email, no telephones or any long range communication except for the radios, most of which were used strictly for the military, all sense of community outside the base was shutting down. Kate was always stunned at how quickly newcomers were embraced, and how strongly anyone outside the base was considered 'Them'. With supplies scarce; the 'Us and Them' situation would have easily caused dissension, even mistrust that could lead to violence.
As a result, Connor had quietly given permission for his scouts to become Mail Carriers. People were talking to each other again, in one of the oldest and most reliable methods still available. A Mail run was the standard first mission, with dedicated Soldiers given the task of Mail Carrier for every other time.
Even hearing someone new talk about the weather, or their friends was something unusual and it became something precious. Kate had taken advantage of the new provision for her students, and made getting a pen pal part of their reading and writing duties. Connor had quietly spoken to some of the other heads of civilian populations, and they agreed on a need to get all Children of the Dust an education. The next generation knew more about their distant neighbors than most adults.
As a result, those who were lucky enough to have human to human contact with someone from the outside were thrilled. Everyone gathered around as Kyle pulled out the bundles of letters and began reading names. Two or three were for him and Lupe and he stuck them in his pocket. Some of them were marked official and went to Kate who would distribute them among the military commanders. Some went unclaimed, with their recipients on missions, on duty, or already dead.
By the time Lupe was back, the mail had been distributed. "Well, done here. Let's eat."
Kyle and Lupe made the way to the Mess Hall, let themselves in, and jumped back as roughly a hundred people screamed "SURPRISE!" all at once.
Kate appeared from nowhere and stepped up behind them. "I love surprise parties." She deadpanned, and shoved them both in.
There were a lot of congratulations, a lot of drinks, and a lot of toasts. All of their fellow Tunnel Rats were there, including their direct Commanding Officer, and the Connors; as well as Enrique and Yolanda.
Enrique was the first one to charge forward and scoop Lupe up into a bear hug. "LUPE!"
"Grandfather!" Lupe squealed as her feet left the ground. "You're smushing me!"
Enrique relented and let her breathe. She pulled back and smiled at him. "What… happened to your face?" She asked him.
Enrique gave his loud coyote laugh for the first time since she left, and didn't put her down for the rest of the party. Everyone who wanted to talk to her had to do so where she was, four feet off the ground in Enrique's arms. Lupe didn't mind at all.
Sarah Connor, now a pretty young girl; and her younger brother Robbie were the first ones giving Kyle a hug. The Connor children were eager to get out there themselves, but were not yet considered old enough. If you couldn't carry a rifle the length of the base and back at a jog, you were too young. Sarah always had a Plasma rifle slung across her back, and Robbie was too small to carry one without tripping over it. The two of them had Kyle and Lupe as their adopted older siblings and wanted to know everything about combat, everything about the mission...
The eldest on base were the Drill Instructors, who were genuinely happy to see their students back from their first mission, safe and sound, already figuring out who would get sent to which Unit, or if they would be kept on as couriers and scouts for now.
The party ended when Connor stood up, bellowed for quiet, and turned to the two of them while everyone else in the room stood at attention. "Enrique, put the soldier down."
"I don't wanna." Enrique said firmly and everyone laughed again.
Connor gestured, and Enrique let Lupe back on her feet and the girl darted over next to Kyle, both of them at attention. Enrique straightened and took a place behind Connor.
"Kyle Reese. Lupe Salceda." Connor intoned formally. "You have been trained, you have been tested. Having completed your first mission with cunning and courage, you have been tested by man and machine; and have come through your baptism of fire." Connor turned to the assembled soldiers. "From this moment on, they are Tech-Com Soldiers. Faithful and true. They are the tip of the sword, and the knife-edge of Humanity. Let no fire reach their person, and no weapon shatter their resolve. They have been weighed against the might and numbers of Skynet, and The Enemy was found lacking against them. Let them be shown all due honor and respect in accordance with their rank and the faith placed in them by their commanders and their subordinates."
Lupe and Kyle smiled softly at each other.
Connor turned to the two of them, and produced from nowhere their new rank insignia, and a Tech-Com symbol for each of them, affixing it to their clothing, now true uniforms.
Connor initiated them both, and saluted.
Lupe and Kyle returned it. It was rare that The General performed this ceremony personally.
Connor never really stood at ease, but his shoulders relaxed slightly. "Carry on, Soldiers."
"Yes, sir." They both chorused as everyone whooped and cheered for them.
Kyle and Lupe were more or less lost in a sea of faces as they were handed around the entire crowd for hugs, handshakes, congratulations, well wishes…
The Command Staff slipped out. It was odd for them all to be there, and having the Supreme General and entourage in the room was making a few people slightly uncomfortable. Besides, there was still a war being fought every second of every day.
"Are we sure it's a good idea to leave all those kids in there alone with the booze?" Connor asked as they headed away from the party.
"Kids are a lot more mature than the adults in this place." Yolanda told him. "I took the kids through the Medbay. One or two people in there blind from bad moonshine. Kids are terrified of being offered drinks now."
"Besides, Carla's in there to keep an eye on them." Kate said.
"Has anyone met Carla's new boyfriend yet, or is she hanging out with an imaginary friend?" Enrique quipped.
"I've seen him, but we haven't spoken. Big guy, kinda quiet." Yolanda said. "Carla's been asking me to act as babysitter more often. She seems happier."
"Well, I'm glad. She hasn't really had anyone since Paco." Kate agreed. "I think after what happened to him, she's been too scared to."
"Oh, Johan, before I forget, I wanted to thank you. It was nice of you to do The Ceremony yourself." Yolanda said to Connor.
Connor smiled. "Hey, I've got history with those kids. Kyle is practically family after he looked after Sarah and Lupe this long. Plus, Lupe is your girl. Would I send anyone less to do the job?"
"You better not have. You know what signing on meant to her." Kate agreed.
"Still can't believe I let her do it." Enrique mumbled.
"Enrique, I was very proud of you." Yolanda said sweetly. "You only gave The General one black eye the entire time she was gone."
"He did not!" Connor objected.
Kate chuckled. "Hey, you remember the first time we did the 'Trial By Battle' ceremony? Kept fumbling on the words?"
Connor rolled his eyes. "You realize we actually lasted fifteen minutes since the last time you brought that up?"
Enrique gave his coyote laugh again. "Admit it, Connor! How much of it did you ad lib the first time?"
"How was I supposed to know my commanders would copy it word for word?"
Marching smartly, Connor, Enrique, Yolanda, and Kate made their way back to the private Dorms. They were all smiling at each other, chuckling over things they had heard, sharing tidbits they had learned from the day's mail…
Right up to the second the door closed and they were left alone.
Enrique collapsed like his strings had been cut and he burst into huge sobs. "Oh… GOD!"
Yolanda was on him in second, arms around him tightly, whispering encouragements. "Shh, its okay love, she's okay."
"I #sob# was #sob# so #sob# SCARED!" Enrique was nearly bawling. "God, she's just a baby, out there in the war!"
Kate looked at the man, widely considered to be the scariest warrior who ever lived, and he was practically in the fetal position. She turned and sent a helpless 'what-do-I-do' look at John, who shrugged.
"Take notes, Kate. Another year or two, Sarah's time will come; I'll probably be in the same state." Connor said grimly.
Inwardly, Kate doubted that.
Enrique, having had his breakdown, was slowly getting himself back together. "Sorry. Haven't slept since Lupe and The Brat left base."
Yolanda was sympathetic. "C'mon. Let's get some tequila into you, and put you right to bed."
Enrique, still staring at the floor, let himself be led like a five year old. "Okay."
Kate gave John another look. She had been giving him looks like that since Connor let Enrique into Crystal Palace. He answered her the only way a wise man could.
Z Plus Seven Years Fifty Two Days
Connor barely reacted now when everyone would jump to their feet when he entered a room. He met all their eyes and saluted them, but barely registered that he was doing it any longer. It came with the uniform.
The Mess Hall was the easiest way to stay close to the men. Connor knew that he had to keep a certain distance from them, but he always had to be seen. Kate was always there to make sure he never got a name wrong; and truly, after a few years in charge, there weren't that many willing to get too close. John Connor had become 'The General' complete with capital letters in everyone's mind, and very few engaged him in casual conversation.
The exceptions to that rule were the ones that knew him before the uniform, and they had mostly stuck together. Even in the Mess Hall. There wasn't exactly an Officers table, thought that was what they called it. The Officers all ate with the regular ranks, but at the head of the room Connor and his family took their meals together. Eric and Enrique and Yolanda and Carla were always welcome. And for the most part, the only ones willing to linger over their meals with The General in attendance.
"How did the battle go?" Kate asked.
"Same as always."
"Then keep smiling."
Connor snorted, smirked despite himself and turned back to his tray. The one thing nobody could figure out was why The General seemed more nervous as the war progressed, while the rest of them got more and more excited. "Where're Sarah and Robbie?" He asked. "I didn't get a chance to say good morning."
Kate tensed but didn't let it touch her face. "They're with Eric. He's briefing Kyle and Lupe. The kids wanted to watch."
John bit down on his chow a little harder. "Kyle's next mission."
"Lupe's too. It's in a Green Zone, John. It's a Coffee and Cake run."
"Like that means a damn, huh?"
Kate and Connor both rolled their eyes, but neither of them reacted. Five years ago Kate would have jumped out of her skin when Enrique appeared from nowhere. Now she was much better at keeping her face cool.
Enrique sat himself down next to them. Five years had done nothing to change the ex Green Beret. "Katia, you and I both know that we lose more people to ambushes and traps than to offensives now."
Kate smirked. "I also know that Kyle and Lupe aren't in any way easy to catch unawares. She's your granddaughter, after all."
"Well, this is true."
Connor smirked. Kate had learned to handle Enrique one way or another. Connor was still scanning the room. There was something… off. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was…
Kate stood. "I'm going to get another coffee. You want anything?"
"A banana daiquiri." Enrique said without hesitation.
Kate pulled a face at him and headed back to the big coffee urns.
Connor glanced around the room; like he always did. Now and then he saw a face he recognized, saw somebody looking in his direction... suddenly he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Wha…" He said, before he caught himself.
Enrique looked up at him. "Something wrong?"
"I… I saw something?" It came out as a question and Connor didn't know why.
Enrique, still every bit as paranoid as he ever was, looked around the room discreetly. "What?"
"I don't know."
Enrique glanced around again. "Should we clear the room?"
Connor wanted to. His instincts were screaming. "No."
"Then let's talk about me for a minute." Enrique said, though he still shifted his weapon, making the huge silver gun a little looser in its holster.
Connor smirked. "Okay, let's talk about you."
"Lupe's been telling me about her first mission with The Brat."
"His name is Kyle." Connor said, not for the first time.
Very quietly, Enrique blurted it out. "And we know where he ends up, so while he's back in the 80's committing parenthood with your mom, where the hell does that leave my granddaughter?"
Connor actually smiled at that. "You've been holding that in for five years too long, man."
"Five years ago, I had five years. Now she's actually in the Combat Zone with him as her partner and I don't know how long I have." Enrique looked old for the first time. So impossibly ancient. "We know how Kyle's story ends." He said wearily. " And maybe it has to be that way. But what happens to my Lupe?"
"Kate asked me a similar question about General Whickham. He's still out there, kicking butt with the best of them. Kate loved him like an uncle. She was expecting me to take his job. He dodged Destiny's Bullet. I don't know what's going to happen to Lupe. I don't even know for sure what will happen to Kyle. No fate but what we make."
Enrique nodded, and got his face under control. They both glanced around. Nobody seemed to notice their little conversation. Connor felt his instincts go off again. There was something wrong in this room. Something that didn't fit where it should. He had seen it out of the corner of his eye, registered it without recognizing it. There's danger in this room! Find it you idiot! Find it! What are you missing?
"Have you told her yet?"
"Who?"
"Kate. Does she know about Kyle?"
"No. Not yet."
"Your kids are gonna start getting jealous; and your wife will kill you in your sleep for keeping secrets from her."
"It'd be nice to have problems that normal." Connor quipped. "But you're wrong about my kids. Families have always been blurred in the Mountain. They love Kyle like a brother. He doesn't have parents, so he's with me and Kate. They're okay with Mac. If anyone's jealous, it's the other Tunnel Rats."
Enrique smirked. "And you're okay with that? What happens if Kyle starts calling you 'dad'?"
Kate was coming back with the coffee cup in her hand, and Enrique jumped back to the point where she had left the conversation, with barely a pause. "What do you think, John? Can we spare an Officer's Club? There's gotta be some powdered banana daiquiri out there somewhere."
Connor wasn't listening. He was looking out at the Mess Hall, at one soldier, who was getting up from the table he sat at, and heading for the Officer's table.
"Who's that?" Connor whispered.
Kate followed his gaze. "I think that's Martie. Carla's new boyfr-"
"ENRIQUE! KILL THIS MAN!" The General suddenly roared, pointing at Martie.
Enrique didn't hesitate. He drew his immense handgun, still his weapon of choice, and fired three quick shots. As always, it sounded like a cannon going off, the noise made even louder by being indoors.
Time suddenly seemed to slow down, as the entire mess hall dropped into a great stunned silence at their General's sudden yell, then the loud gunshots. Forks and spoons hung motionless in the air.
The man in question didn't fall. With a big messy hole in his chest, he threw off his jacket, and concealed underneath was a plasma rifle, taped to his stomach.
"Go Nova!" Kate yelled.
Time sped up to normal, and suddenly twelve men leaped from their tables, dashed past the man, past their motionless comrades, and surrounded The General with their bodies.
In the same heartbeat, the man pulled up the rifle, from its hiding place.
There was a spasm of light and sound. Every soldier recognized it. It was plasma fire. Shock gave way to training and bitter experience. Everyone scrambled for a weapon, or for escape.
Martie took another hit to the head and face from someone's weapon. His face got turned around by the force but he didn't even flinch. One hand flashed out and shoved the nearest table toward the door. The people scrambling to escape were blocked and tripped into each other.
Those that had weapons with them turned to fight, and saw the glowing red eyes beneath his ripped face.
Connor was pushing at the five men who surrounded him, trying to see, as all of them produced smaller, concealable weapons. Three took up positions in front of their General, two more flipped the Officer's table over, and Connor found himself shoved behind its protection.
The rest of the armed soldiers saw the Machine move toward the Officers table again, and moved as far away from Connor as they could and started shooting back.
The diversion worked, and the Terminator followed the threat, keeping itself alive while its main target was out of sight.
The machine turned and started shooting mercilessly at the armed soldiers, picking them out carefully, hunting them down one by one. There were very few people who carried heavy weapons into the Mess Hall. The unarmed soldiers tried in vain to escape, as the Terminator cut them down. The rest of them had scattered to the walls, finding cover wherever they could. Including Kate, who dove behind some tables and froze, fingers crossed.
Sherrin had no weapon, and threw himself in front of Lisa, who did. He took a hit across his shoulders and dropped like a brick. Lisa fought to catch him with one hand, kept firing with the other.
And with the counter-attack scattered, the half human monstrosity resumed it's attack on Connor. The plasma fire kept his bodyguards down long enough for it to get closer, until it got closer to their end of the room.
"NOW!" Connor's voice roared.
The table lifted, still on end, the humans behind it lifting the whole thing for cover, and they charged the thing.
Predictably, the Machine just smashed its way through the table. And there, on the other side of it, was Connor, and his bodyguards, all with guns. They were on either side of the Terminator, guns ready. The opened up on it quickly.
The machine didn't drop. Its armor was stronger. Every soldier fired again and again.
The machine saw Connor. Its gears were fraying, its circuits burning... Its movements were getting slower and choppy, but it saw Connor and its Red Eyes blazed as the gun came up.
The whole time, nobody stopped shooting, and The Machine only got one shot off. Jackson saw it, and leaped, putting his body between Connor and the gun. The plasma cracked again, and Jackson was picked up and tossed by the charge, his smoking body thrown across the room.
It was enough though, and the Terminator had dropped.
Stunned silence. The only sound was everybody breathing hard, as the Terminators' red eyes faded to black.
Enrique was up, glaring at Connor; the first to break the numb silence. "You've got to tell people."
"You want lynch mobs forming to string random people up?" Connor countered.
"I want people to know these things exist, and that one got in already." Enrique shot back.
Connor rubbed his eyes. "God."
Everyone left alive was staring at them. The whole universe was turning upside down, starting with a room half filled with dead bodies; and they were already arguing about what to tell people?
Connor was in the War Room within seconds. "Ten Hut." Someone said; and they were all instantly at attention. Even those at their consoles were at attention, still working.
"May I have your attention, please?" Connor said. It was not really a question. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face him. "I'm going to start giving instructions in a second, and I want you to know why, simply because we have to do this very quickly. So here it is: The whole tone of the war changed about five minutes ago. You may have heard the gunfire. Skynet has a new model. Something we haven't faced before. The Terminators now look human."
Reactions, ranging from disbelief to sheer horror went around the room.
"They managed to get one in here. But we know that K-9's can see through the disguises. It's important that we contact everyone out there now, tell them what's happening, and have them ready. I want our people already out there to check any newcomers. Any refugees that want in to any of our bases are to be kept away from sensitive areas or the general population, and kept under guard till they can be verified. I want our K-9 units at the entrances at all times, and more guards to back them up. Auxiliary doorways are how the one we caught got in, I want it sealed for now. Same with any other way in you can think of. Have out men on the deep range verify each other personally. If we don't know who they are, I don't want them with our men on missions-"
"Sir!" Amil yelled. "I have Colonel Walters on Priority channel for you."
"Put him on." Connor directed.
The speaker crackled and a frantic voice came over. "General! The Machines can look human!"
Connor shut his eyes as the tension level in the room jumped significantly. "I know, Eric. One made it here just now. Report."
"We met up with a batch of refugees. They knew the area, and they wanted to come to Crystal Peak so we made a deal. They help us find our way to target; they could ride back with us. We were about to begin our strike, when two of the refugees fell back behind us and started shooting. They took most of our ambush team and all of our spotters before we could figure out where the fire was coming from... And then the Skynet convoy we were planning to hit came swooping in."
Connor felt for him. Walters was carrying this; blaming himself. "Casualties?"
"More than two thirds by the time we got organized. We were taken by surprise. There was no way to know that-"
"Eric." Connor interrupted. "We were duped. It's okay. I'm sending Medivac right now, and a K-9 unit with them. All your people will line up for K-9 inspection before heading back."
"Yessir."
Connor glanced at his War Room. They all had stunned looks on their faces. "What are you gawking at? Get the word out!"
The War Room was up and moving again in its sudden hive of activity.
With his people informed of the gravity of the situation, Connor hooked up his earpiece and spoke privately with his second. "Eric?"
"Sir?"
"You said that there was a batch of refugees, but only two infiltrators."
"Yessir."
"Ask the other refugees. Find out how long those two had been traveling with them."
"That was my first thought too sir. But the other refugees were all killed before the gunfight. We found the bodies. Looks like they got it hand to hand."
Hand to hand with a Terminator. Connor didn't envy Walters the job of examining the bodies.
Connor sighed. "Whole new war, Eric. Come home."
"Yessir."
The cleanup was quick and efficient, once they let people in.
Kate was checking the wounded. Most of those hit had been killed outright, but one or two were still breathing.
Lupe had been the first one back in the room, small enough to slip between the guards trying to clear the hallway; Kyle on her heels. "Grandfather!" Lupe yelled. "Are you all right?"
Enrique turned to look at them, and jabbed a thumb at Kyle. "Haven't you dumped him, yet?"
"He's fine." Kyle snorted.
"Kyle!" Kate yelled. "This one's alive. Get a gurney!"
Kyle upended a broken bench. It was a little narrow, but it was the closest thing. "Yes, ma'am."
Kyle and Carla took one end of the 'gurney' each, with Jackson over the top of it. Kate kept pace with it, trying like crazy to keep him alive as they all walked, the crowds parting for them.
As they went out, Gould came in, and Connor waved his head Tech over.
Enrique joined them, and they gathered around the downed attacker. The usual smell of burning metal was matched with charred skin from the Terminator.
Gould crouched down and started prodding at the skin. "What the hell did you hit it with?"
"Everything." Enrique growled. "And it took way too long to fall down."
Gould looked up. "We should get it back to my lab."
Connor glanced around. There were more survivors than he'd thought. Most of the unarmed soldiers had taken cover, or played dead, useless against a machine when not armed. They were all getting a good long look. "Do it fast." Connor said. "In fact, I'm coming with you."
The Terminator was gathered up, and covered with a jacket, being carried out of the room.
"Connor knew. Connor saw through the disguise." Lupe said quietly.
"Yeah." Enrique agreed.
"How'd he know?"
Her grandfather smiled enigmatically. "He's John Connor."
Carla's hands were moving like a blur, experienced and certain. "Get a tourniquet around that arm. Bring an intubation kit!"
Kate was scrubbing up when Corporal Basil, one of her medics, came running up to her with the radio. "Ma'am, I got the 8063'rd."
Kate was already masked, so she gestured for Basil to follow her to the operating table. Basil held the radio up to Kate's mouth as she worked. "Manuel?" Kate called. "Crystal Peak here. Situation Report?"
"We've got some casualties heading in from Forward Areas. Skynet launched an offensive this morning. Suture."
"What about sutures?" Kate asked. "Are you operating right now too?"
"We're busy." Manuel, one of Kate's trained Doctors, was unflappable. It was a trait that made him a good surgeon in a combat zone, but it did tend to make conversations a little longer. "Not that it's not good to hear from you boss... More sponges here... but was there something..."
"Manuel, there's a new model Terminator out. They have-"
"Hey! Turn up the gas; he's still mov...oh my god! GUARDS!"
There was the sound of the radio at the other end being dropped, then a lot of screaming, then the disgusting watery sounds of humans being gutted and dismembered by pneumatic Terminator fists. Plasma fire, then more screaming, then nothing.
Kate shut her eyes, feeling the bile rise. She would take the sound of his voice into her nightmares tonight. She turned to Basil. "Baz, go tell the War Room that MASH 8063 has been hit."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Kate got back to work. She'd feel this later. Five years of such things had given her a thick skin.
Jackson opened his eyes with a hellish cry of pain and shoved the gas mask away from his face. His eyes flashed back and forth for a second deliriously. He fixated on Kate.
"The General?" Jackson croaked out.
"He's safe." Kate promised. "You did it, Jackson. You saved him."
Having fulfilled his first and last duty, Jackson had a look of absolute peace as he allowed himself to be put under.
He did not survive the operation.
Kate reached out, and slowly closed Jackson's eyes.
Carla looked at Kate in numb disbelief. "He... he was a machine. He was... Kate... Martie was… A Machine…"
Kate nodded. She studied Carla carefully. Even masked, the poor woman was clearly going through every moment spent with him in her mind. And then she ripped the mask off her face.
Carla went into the Post-Op ward, grabbed the first bedpan her fingers could reach, and threw up violently.
Kate rubbed her back and held her hair sympathetically. Carla was still having nightmares about the first infiltrator project. This was going to be bad. And not just for her.
But that would have to wait. She headed to the second Operating Room, Lisa following, yanking off her gloves for her. "Lisa, you're not Medical. Why are you here?"
Lisa was wearing a mask, but still in uniform. Her shell-shocked eyes were staring. "He... he took the hit."
Kate shrugged. "It's what a bodyguard does."
"No, not Jackson. Tony. He took the hit for me."
Kate gave a secretive smile, hidden safe beneath her mask. "Don't worry, Lisa. I'm gonna take good care of Sherrin for you."
"T-Thank you, ma'am."
"If you aren't gonna hold his hand during the op, get out of my OR." Kate directed.
Tech-Com was warned, but too late. The Infiltrators were everywhere. The strike on John Connor was the first overt move the Terminators made. In less than an hour, Skynet completely rewrote the map. Over half the offensive units had been nearly wiped out before the humans could get a solid counter-attack together.
A K-9 Unit was at the entrance of every fixed base. A mobile K-9 unit was with every moving Unit. The Machines knew of them, had found ways around them with all their targets.
Kate took one of her MASH Units off the War Room maps. It had been completely wiped out by the Terminator in the Operating Room. The other followed soon after.
The Offensive Units were rounding up the survivors, getting the humans left standing together. The Maps showed the human forces. The Battle lines looked like Swiss cheese.
At the same time, Skynet launched its offensives, coming out from behind their defenses with a vengeance.
Connor drew his people back desperately, trying to rope enough of the survivors together to check Skynet's advance, and was failing. Humanity was falling back on every front, trying desperately to keep ahead of Skynet's relentless full speed death march.
Skynet's new weapon had single-handedly brought The Machines back from the edge of Defeat.
Z Plus Seven Years Fifty Three Days
Enrique got his family squared away and came into the Tech-Lab, where the downed Machine had center stage. Only Kate, Connor and Gould were in attendance, studying their new machine very carefully.
"It's still breathing!" Enrique said first thing in the door.
"It's breathing, but it's dead." Kate promised him absently.
"If you could think of it as alive." Connor murmured.
"The design is incredible." Gould said with undisguised awe. "I've never seen an interface like this."
Kate was hunched over the remains of it with her own equipment, knowing that she shouldn't be surprised what she was seeing, but she was. "It has tear ducts. Sweat Glands. Freckles. Hair follicles. It has some kind of liquid recyclers to keep its eyes moistened and its mouth realistic. Some kind of air pockets that simulate breathing. It has tooth enamel. Fingernails. There's some kind of biological valve in here to create a pulse, skin pigmentation, blood circulation… The hair and fingernails are growing at the same rate as a human…" She had met two of them. Her husband more than that. She was speaking for the benefit of the techies watching, those who were catching up to the destiny that the Mighty Connors had already lived.
"The biological and the mechanical seem to be independent of each other." Gould was saying. "It looks like the living tissue was grafted over the metal. There's some kind of organic sheath that lets it keep the blood out of the gears. If Skynet's figured out how to do this, it could give any of it's machine's skin."
Kate's tone was frankly reverent. "It has fingerprints… pupil dilation. Even blood vessels and capillaries under the epidermal layer. Everything about this thing is designed to make you think it's human."
"It worked." Enrique said darkly. He and Connor traded a loaded glance. They both knew it was going to happen. They were both still caught unawares.
"Where's Carla?" Connor asked.
Kate looked up quickly. "Throwing up for distance and accuracy last time I saw her. She takes a break from that and gets drunk enough to throw up all over again. I've got Lisa with her and Sherrin now, Yolanda has Mac."
"I thought Sherrin was in the Intensive Care Ward."
"He is. So's Carla. If she doesn't snap out of it soon, I may have to sedate her, put her on IV's."
"Poor wench had no idea." Enrique said mournfully, nothing put open pity in his voice.
"Speaking of Intensive Care, what were our casualties like?" Connor asked.
"Eighteen killed. Eleven wounded. Sherrin took the worst of it. I'm gonna have to amputate once he's stable enough to survive the operation."
Connor sighed. "Have you told him yet?"
"Yeah. He's taking it... about as well as you would."
"Doctor, look at this." Gould pointed into the 'corpse'. "The biological functions are all run from below the battle chassis. Blood pack, bodily fluids, it all recycles through here…"
Kate looked and nodded. "That's why the thing still has so many biological functions after its dead. The wetware's not run from the power source. Kill the Terminator and it keeps breathing, even if it can't move."
"Aim lower and kill the bionic core, the Terminator keeps moving with a dead skin suit on."
With the two of them pored over the dead Machine, Enrique leaned in closer to have a private word with The General. "How did it get in here? I thought you had K-9's at all the entrances."
"We do, but there are a few other ways past them. We set them up when the Troop carrier hit the door last year. We couldn't get the main entrance open, so we set up one of the maintenance tunnels to go twelve feet longer. We set up the entrance and camouflaged it. You could get one person a time down that tunnel… it's not an invasion point…
"Good enough for an infiltrator though."
"To get through that door, you need more than a face. You need a Uniform, and ID, a pass-key, and an access code. Carla had all the above."
"When was she off the base?"
"Last week. She was teaching the MASH bases about some surgical techniques." Connor seethed, keeping his voice low, mindful of Gould nearby. "We had warning. We knew Enrique. You me, and Kate. We knew. We knew that Skynet was going to do this before Skynet existed, and still they managed to get one in the door."
"And if we hadn't known about the infiltrators all those years, you would not have seen it for what it was today, and you would be dead right now." Enrique pointed out. "It figured out a way, Connor; they aren't stupid."
Gould was still dissecting their kill. "I don't recognize any of this."
"Interface tech? Something to make the skin serviceable?"
"Gives the machine a sense of touch." Gould agreed. "The kind of input this thing is capable of is incredible. This has to be something new. A new kind of CPU? Definitely a new battle chassis. I've never seen this kind of armor before."
"Took a lot of fire before it dropped."
"Kate?" Connor called. "Is there anything we can point to? Anything we can check at a moment's notice to see who's human and who's not?"
"Other than the K-9's, I don't know yet. I'd have to get a look at more than one of them to be sure."
Connor nodded. "That's my job. In the meantime: Gould, go over this thing with a fine tooth comb. Enrique, have your people informed. It'll mean more coming from you. Tell them that the infiltrators were targeting our offensives more than our bases; and that so far there seem to be relatively few of them. Kate, your job, unfortunately, is-"
"Get the survivors through the night, and keep Carla on suicide watch."
"Is she that bad?" Connor asked in alarm.
"I don't know, but I'm going to be spending most of this evening removing Sherrin's left arm, so I want to make sure someone's watching her." She glanced over. "And John, a word or two from you would not be a bad idea."
"We've got to question her anyway." Enrique nodded.
Kate glared at Enrique, not for the first time. "An encouraging word is what I meant. Not an interrogation."
"You think we don't have to do both?" Enrique shot back. "That thing got into the base because of Carla. We need to buck her up, and figure out what else he got to while he was here at the same time."
"All right, both of you chill." Connor directed. "You're both right. That's my job. But before that; I have to figure out what to say to everyone else. We got the word out to the Units on Maneuvers, but the Base population still doesn't have a clear answer."
Kate pulled her radio, and dialled it to the PA Frequency; a frequency that only the Officers could access. "General Connor will make a statement exactly one hour from now regarding the current situation. Please make every effort to attend, or to make provision for those unable to. That is all."
Connor glared at her. "Oh, thank you so much for that. What am I supposed to tell them?"
"Whatever it is, it better be good. Figure it out." Kate said shortly. The implication was obvious. You've had decades to think about this moment. Now it's here.
"Once you tell them, the Hunt Begins." Enrique said quietly. "You know that, right?"
"I know."
The rumor mill had done its usual job, and most of them knew already. Or at least suspected.
But Connor appeared out of the War Room and walked out into the Center of the Main Hall, and the tension jumped again. He never had a podium, never had a microphone, and never took to any stage. He stood in the middle of the room, and simply waited till they gathered around.
His usual addresses were something to look forward to. Information about the war, about the other bases. Sometimes mail would come in, distant communities looking for contact with someone, and he would read it out to everyone...
But not today.
Connor spoke. "You all came to this Base from different places. But you came here, and you offered your swords, your service. Together we started something bigger than we were. Something that gathered momentum. Something that will keep going after all of us are gone. Today, something terrible happened to our family. Something that makes this war more difficult." He took a deep breath. "The Machines have rolled out something new. Terminators can look human now."
The reaction was about like he expected it. There was a horrified cry that was echoed by somebody, and then everybody was yelling. Some yelling their questions, others their suspects, others their ideas...
"HEY! Listen UP!" Connor roared. They quieted. "I've been telling you that the only way we're going to do this is to back each other up. We all came here from places without hope; and we built hope right here. We built enough hope to go around. So now I'm asking more of you. I've never asked more of any of you than I knew you could handle. What I'm about to ask of you, is what I'm going to have to do myself. Don't give in to fear. Don't give in to panic. Don't let paranoia and suspicion tear us all apart. We've survived every day that came AFTER the end of the world. We can survive this too. We always have. We always will."
Connor saw the agreement, but the certainty that he could usually give them was absent. Their eyes were on each other. Suspicion was the heart of the base.
Sherrin opened his eyes and saw her. Lisa was exhausted, asleep in her chair, slumped over enough that she was resting her head on his stomach.
Sherrin forced his head to roll to the left and he saw that his arm was gone. Halfway between his shoulder and his elbow was a stump, wrapped in bandages.
Lisa felt him moving under her and opened her eyes. "Hi."
Sherrin couldn't look at her. "...way..."
"Hm?" Lisa couldn't make it out.
"…Go away."
Lisa reacted like she'd been slapped. "No."
"…dnt wnt to se ths." He was already passing out again.
Slightly stung by that, Lisa slowly backed away from him.
"Who knows how long they've been on base? Skynet could have had them slipping in for ages!"
"Terminators don't do subtle. If they were here that long we would have known about it."
"Terminators aren't stupid either. How the hell do we fight an enemy that looks just like us?"
"People have been killing other people a whole lot longer than they've been killing machines."
"Yeah. Skynet knows that too. What about Walters?"
"What about him?"
"He pulls in as many refugees as he can every time he goes out. Two of those refugees killed more than half his unit, but he survived."
"How's Mackie?"
"He's fine." Connor promised her. "In the meantime, we have to talk. Start at the beginning."
Carla didn't say anything.
"Carla. Look at me."
Carla did so, staring up at him vacantly. She had been saying less and less lately. "His name was Martie."
Connor nodded. "You're not in trouble, Carla. Nobody blames you."
"I do."
"Well, I don't." Connor snapped. "Look around, Carla. There's no trial going on, there's no observers. There's just you and me having a conversation now. So let's talk."
Carla let out a little sob again. "He was a Machine. He was a Machine."
Connor nodded.
"I was..." Carla swallowed thickly. "I was helping set up the new MASH Unit in sector four. They had some refugees there. Mostly the Holdouts."
Connor nodded, letting her set the pace. 'Holdouts' were people that had been hiding in their homes, or in the mountains long term, having access to their own supplies, their own water... There were some people who had been preparing for the end of the world, and had places to hide out. Some of them were still hiding, too isolated to be worth chasing down. Since they were pretty well supplied when the war started, most of them were only coming back to the rest of humanity now.
"Martie was one of the refugees. At least I thought he was." Carla whispered. "And I saw him there, and he said hello. And then I said hello. And then he asked me my name..." She broke down crying again. "Hell. I need a drink."
Connor put a hand on her shoulder. "Snap out of it, Carla." He pushed gently. "Tell me the truth."
"...you're gonna hate me..." Carla said in a very small voice.
"Carla." Connor's voice was warm, but getting more serious.
"I... He asked me if I came from Crystal Peak, he wasn't the first one to ask me that, I had no idea there was anything suspicious about it, I never thought..." She got herself under control again. Her confession had to be dragged out of her in bits and pieces. And each of those bits was mess of words pouring out of her. "I... I told him we were, and he said he wanted to join up. We never turn anyone away, and... And I liked him. I..." She let out another sob. "I liked him. He asked about me. He was interested. He asked if... IT asked if I knew you." Carla dry heaved. "He asked if I knew you sir. And then he... it asked me to introduce you."
She sent a quick glance at Connor, hunched her shoulders slightly, as though expecting to be punched in the face. "He... Sir, a lot of people want to meet you, so I know what to do when the groupies show up, and it's not the first time I've had to brush them off, and I was going to do that, but when I said 'no' he-dammit, it, didn't seem to mind. So..." She ran out of words and stopped babbling, exhausted again. "W-we were together the entire way here. Wh..." She swallowed. "When we got back, he saw the K-9 units, but he didn't seem to care about them, and there was a hold-up or something at the Motor pool entrance. I think one of the jeeps had some damage... axle got busted maybe. You know how the roads are." She was silent. "Or tires. The jam outside the Blast Door wasn't that long, it could have just been some busted tires, if they-"
"Carla."
Carla swallowed again. "Sorry, sir. It... It wasn't our jeep. We were hitching a ride, so we jumped out... and I decided... or maybe he did. It did. Well, one of us decided to go around to the Auxiliary maintenance tunnel. I had the code when we were fixing up some of the Techies that got hurt repairing the blast door while it was closed. The code was never taken out I guess... We came in that way."
"Then what happened?"
"I showed him around."
Connor steeled himself. "Then what happened?"
Carla's look was helpless and pleading. "...sir?"
"Carla, we have the jammers running around the clock to protect us from high altitude missiles, or satellites. We know that Skynet can't get a transmission out undetected. All the sensitive areas have constant guards, and won't let newcomers in. But you are not a newcomer. So if 'Martie' was left unsupervised for any length of time during your little tour, he could have done any number of things that will come back to bite us. So. You came into the base, and then...?"
Carla burst into tears again. "We went to my room."
Connor looked on the poor girl with open sympathy. "You didn't know, Carla. All warfare is based on deception." She didn't answer. "I was the target, Carla. It used you to get to me. And it waded through almost twenty people to get to me. The buck stops right here." He jerked a thumb at his chest.
Carla didn't answer right away. "God, I feel sick." She breathed. "Sir... Why me?"
Connor almost smiled. It was a question he knew well. "Because you were connected to me. Just like any number of people. The rest was just opportunity."
"I... I thought that maybe Skynet knew something about me. I don't know what. But something that might have made it think that..."
"That what? That you were an easy mark?" Connor scorned. "Carla... the one thing you're not, is weak. And if Skynet thought that you were something it could turn to it's advantage, then it's going to be surprised. I'm not going to blame you for the evil that Skynet did."
"Thank you, sir." Carla sniffed. "But you aren't everyone."
Skynet to all units.
Sectors 14-75 have been secured.
Human populations in full retreat.
Reserve units mobilized.
Infiltrator project successful. Stratagem Successful. 147 Tech-Com units destroyed.
Infiltrators 1-57, 59, 62, 1001 have been destroyed. Remaining Units are still on maneuvers.
Crystal Peak Infiltrated. Operation failed. Reattempt underway.
Castle Keep Infiltrated. Operation successful.
Search and Destroy Stratagem Reactivated. Mobile H/K units 001-200 now on offensive maneuvers.
Humanoid Units Upgraded. T-50 series now obsolete. T-75 Series now obsolete. T-100-500 now the minimum standard.
Terminate John Connor.
End transmission.
Chapter 14: Z Plus 7 Years 53 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Seven Years Fifty Three Days
Lisa came into the Dorms, and found Carla at the far end of the room, lying on her cot, curled into the fetal position. Lisa came over to her and sat down on the end of the cot. "Hand it over."
Carla sighed thickly and handed over the bottle. "Kate send you?"
Lisa snorted. "Nope. I just wanted to get a little drunk."
Carla opened one eye. "Bad day?"
"Tony woke up."
Carla opened her other eye too. "And?"
"And he told me to take a long walk, preferably one way."
Carla sat up, head between her knees, fighting vertigo. "Ignore him. Stick around."
"What?"
Carla snorted. "You two never figured it out did you? You started out as survivors. And you keep surviving. He wants you to go away because you never signed on for a guy that lost an arm. He's embarrassed."
"I don't care about that. You're right. We were…" Lisa slugged back a drink straight from the bottle again. "Survivors survive. I… I needed someone. Someone to feel, to touch… And he was available. But… he has to survive too right? I mean, he's got to need someone too. Like I do?"
Carla nodded. "I think there has to be more to it than that though."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. But… after I saw you two holding on together like you were… I tried to find something like that too. Remember Paco?"
Lisa drank again. "Heh. Yeah. Poor bastard."
"It didn't work. Not like with you and Sherrin. There has to be something more than just survival. Because it works for you, but not for me."
Lisa thought about that, but didn't say anything.
"And after Paco… I just stopped wanting. Till Martie. And he was a goddamn Machine!" Carla was off on her own tangent now, and she took the bottle back and drained a third of it without pausing for breath. "Man, I sure can pick 'em, huh?"
Lisa let Carla take the bottle back, and the nurse promptly and curled around it protectively, lying back on her side.
Kate was expecting riots to break out the second news of the infiltrators became public. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or nervous when they didn't come. What she did know was that the instincts that had saved hr life out on battlefields were now screaming at her every second she was walking around the base. She could feel eyes on her every second, and half of them were coming from her own guards.
The Main Tunnel in Crystal Peak was the hub of the underground. And yet it seemed to be near a ghost town. What few people there were acted truly feral, sticking with the people they knew personally, watching everyone else. The silence was so oppressive and the tension so thick that Kate fought not to look over her shoulder every second.
"Ma'am?"
Kate fought not to jump out of her skin. She turned casually. "Baz?"
Basil had come running up to her. "Ma'am… I don't know how to ask this. Is Carla still part of the Medical Staff?"
"Of course she is!"
"Well… I ask, because she had a shift this morning and she didn't show. She was in talks with The General last night, and I didn't know if she was under arrest or anything…"
"She's not." Kate said pointedly. "She's just having a bad week."
Basil nodded curtly. "Not so bad as some."
Kate didn't like the tone, but he was far from the first person to say such a thing. "Was that all you wanted to ask me?"
"No, Ma'am. I wanted to let you know that Colonel Walters has returned. His unit… what's left of it anyway, is coming in at the Main Door now."
"Got the K-9's set up?"
"We haven't constructed the sealed entrance for their compartment yet. We've been running incoming people past the K-9's at the elevator."
"We'd better get up there, see to any wounded, calm things down."
Even with warning, even when she was expecting it, Kate was stunned at how few people were coming in. The casualty rate had dropped so dramatically over the years… in one day; Skynet had made up the numbers. There had to be less than twenty of them. The looks on their faces were disbelief, even a day later. People survived by rolling with the punches. And none of them could look at each other.
Kate moved down the line of people, checking a bandage here, or giving a smile there…
When she saw Eric, and his weary exhausted smile unchanged, she felt immeasurably lighter, relieved.
"Eric! A friend at last!" Kate called cheerfully.
Walters grinned tiredly. "I heard you guys needed some adult supervision back here." He came over and gave Kate a friendly hug. She was a little surprised, until he put his lips near her ear and whispered. "I think we have another Infiltrator in my unit. Big guy, wearing the leather jacket."
Big guy? Leather jacket? Kate felt her heart rate spike and returned the hug, looking over Eric's shoulder. No. It wasn't him. It wasn't 'their' Terminator.
Kate broke the hug. "Okay! Everyone, I'm going to ask you to line up over here before you put your things down. With the Infiltrators about, we can't risk them putting anything in anyone's bags. You may be carrying something and not know it."
That was the official reason to have the dogs marched up and down the row of them. Nobody believed it. But they all wanted to know if there were machines in the line. Everyone obeyed, looking at each other suspiciously.
"Mom?"
Kate spun and saw Robbie over with the K-9 Units. He was always with them, or in the Orchard. "Robbie! You shouldn't be up here!" She told him. The response was instinctive, unplanned. She hated herself for it instantly. She was acting like everything was still unthinkably dangerous, and even their own doorstep wasn't safe.
Robbie froze. "Where should I be?"
Kate took the opportunity. "I want you to go down and check in with the Tunnel Rats, make sure they know what's going on."
The Tunnel rats often spent every minute with the adults, and then vanished into the lower tunnels without making contact for weeks at a time. Nobody had seen them since the first infiltrator, and Kate was the closest thing to a mother that they all had.
Walters gave her a jaded look. "When was the last time you slept?"
Kate never took her eyes off the K-9 unit as it walked it's way up and down the length of the row. The dog didn't bark, didn't attack. Kate felt herself relax the tiniest bit, and realized with Eric's words how exhausted she felt. "Sleep? I remember that. Vaguely."
"Take a few hours." Eric told her. "I slept on the way back. I can handle things for a while."
Z Plus Seven Years Fifty Four Days
The fear that Kate felt when she realized that her kidnappers had taken her to a graveyard was muted when she saw John's face. His mother's grave? And it was full of guns?
Kate was an Army Brat. She knew from the first moment which gun was loaded, which one would work. She snatched one of them and pointed it at the biggest man. He was the dangerous one. "Let me go, or I shoot you."
John was mildly amused. "Go ahead. See what happens."
Kate sent him a look, thrown by how blasé he was about it, when the big guy moved, quick as a rattlesnake for her gun. It was too fast for her to react, but pulling the gun from her hand moved her fingers against the trigger.
BLAM!
Everything. Stopped.
The huge man worked his jaw, like there was something in his mouth. He spat it out.
It was the bullet, flattened by the impact.
The… whatever he was, didn't even seem annoyed. "Don't do that."
Kate's brain was reeling. It wasn't a trick. There was no time for him to fake it. It was real. Like that blonde woman who could tear the door off her car and get back up again when hit by a truck.
He wasn't human. But he had to be human. He looked human. But he wasn't…
Kate woke up, gasping for air. God she hated dreams like that!
She reached over on the bed. He wasn't there. She knew it already. If he was there, she wouldn't have been having a nightmare. He would have woken her up before the cold sweat started.
She checked her watch. He wasn't on duty; not that the clock ever stopped him…
Then memory caught up, and she knew where he was.
Kate came into the Tech lab. The machine was lying dead on the table, with two techies disassembling it.
And it was covered in human skin.
It was not their Terminator, not the one that had saved her life. This was a different face, a different machine. One of them. Kate shivered.
Connor glanced over his shoulder at the door and saw her. "Men, give us a few minutes."
The soldiers quickly made their way out of the room, leaving them alone with the machine.
"Kate, shut the door, please."
Kate noticed idly that she was one of the few people that he had to say 'Please' to; but she shut the door and came over to the table to join him. She threaded her fingers through his gently. "It's just a machine." She whispered.
"I know." John sighed.
"How... I mean, you knew what he was, before he did anything."
"The first machine I ever met was identical to the one that came after my parents. When we came to free my mom from the Psych ward... it's the only time I ever saw her scared Kate. She was screaming like a terrified six year old. My bodyguard was every nightmare she'd had for ten years. The H/K's I had to learn about. These machines I understand. Mom didn't teach me to watch for H/K's, she taught me to watch the guy next door."
"First machine I ever saw was the TX. We still haven't seen anything close." She gestured at the one they had killed. "Is it... like him?"
He knew what she meant. "No. Getting there though. Skynet learned guerrilla warfare."
"Skynet learned that from us."
"The ground game isn't working for Skynet. We're under its feet, and it can't dig down fast enough, and it can't fight its way through the entrances with the soldiers alone."
Kate shivered. "How does this change things?"
"It'll start sending Infiltrators in all over the place. The war isn't about territory any more. Now it's... attrition. They'll grind us out. One by one."
"The H/K's for when we go overground, the infiltrators for when we go underground." Kate shivered. The gloves were off. "The paranoia's getting to me too, John."
"Yeah?"
"I can't help but think that if I was Skynet, and I had a Time Machine, I wouldn't have to send my assassins back to Pre-Judgment Day alone. For all we know, Skynet sent a Terminator back, programmed to live a human life, just so that an Infiltrator could be above suspicion; one of the people we've known for years."
Connor smirked. "What about you, Kate? The only time I've seen you with anything resembling a K-9 unit is when you had me locked in a cage in your veterinary clinic. The dogs were going nuts the whole time."
Kate smirked. "What about you, Connor? You were in the clinic too. And it's remarkable how much you seem to know about Machines…"
Connor looked over his shoulder quickly. "Hey, careful with that talk, even in fun. Seems like every two years I have to convince everyone I'm not secretly Skynet in disguise."
"No, far better that they think you're clairvoyant." Kate snorted and rubbed her eyes. "Some extraordinary rumors flying around. This is going to be all kinds of bad."
John wasn't looking at the Terminator any more, he was staring at her.
Kate didn't speak for a while. "John... um, it's... it's the first Infiltrator we've seen."
"Won't be the last." Connor agreed.
"This is why the Machine's pulled back behind the their lines. It wasn't to defend itself, it was to buy time... it was because they had a new game-plan." Kate said. "They spent five years preparing this exact moment. Every battle fought for five years was just them keeping us busy."
"We're gonna have a problem with sabotage for a while." Connor said.
"Almost certainly." Kate agreed.
"And we've gotta screen the rest of the survivors once they get back."
"I've already sent Jason's K-9 team to meet them at Checkpoint Niner."
"Good." Connor said sullenly.
Kate sent him a look. John hadn't been like this since he realized stopping J-Day was a lost cause. "John? Talk to me."
Connor seethed. For a moment, Kate expected to see fire coming out of his eyes. "Five years." He said finally.
"Yeah?"
"Five years they've been preparing this. And so have I! K-9 Units in every sector, rotating people across the Units so they all know each other… It took us how long to tame those feral pups? And for what? I've known this was coming since I was ten years old, and they just walked through all of it like it was nothing!"
"It's not your fault, John." She told him seriously.
"Just like stopping J-Day wasn't my fault." Connor sighed. "Mom was spewing prophecies about the end of the world my whole life, and I still couldn't stop any of this. What is the point of being Sarah Connor's son if I can't fight fate?"
"Your mother knew it was coming for the exact same reason you did: Because it had happened to her already. She knew about the Infiltrators the same way she knew about any of this. You told me five years ago that the future was so fragile now that things had changed. I told you that nothing had changed. She never said you would stop the war. You were meant to win it."
He was still staring at her, and she suddenly realized he was borderline furious. "I would really think, Kate; that you'd want to be careful tossing around arguments like 'fate' around me."
"What do you mean?" She asked awkwardly.
"The gun went off, and you screamed, 'Go Nova' and ten guys jumped up and surrounded me. 'Nova' is not a codeword I recognize. The reaction was trained. Kate. Is there something you want to tell me?"
Kate suddenly felt about ten years old and looked down at her feet. "I... about six months ago I started training a small group from your own Unit, people who were almost always on assignment at Crystal Peak..."
"You put together a team of bodyguards."
"Yes."
"For me."
"Yes."
"Anybody else?" He already knew the answer.
"Just you."
John's face twisted. "And you didn't tell me this because...?"
"Because it needed to be done and you would have said no."
"Don't handle me, Kate!" John yelled. "Jackson is dead! You should have told me about this!"
"And how would he have been better off if you'd taken the hit instead?"
"He'd be alive."
"Not for long he wouldn't." Kate snapped. "Not without you."
Nuclear silence.
"Kate..." John said in a suddenly hollow whisper. "Don't. Don't say that, don't ever think that. I... I cannot have this from my wife. From the refugees, I can handle it, from the soldiers; it's almost helpful, from my wife... If you start telling me about how 'I'm too important'..."
"You are."
"DAMMIT, KATE!" John exploded.
Kate clapped a hand over his mouth. "Eric couldn't have done this. Uncle Chet couldn't have done this. Every single one of those prisoners, those refugees, trapped in brain-lock, staring at the hell left after Judgment Day, frozen in terror at the sight of a machine army... for you it was just another day. I don't care what you think, you are important!"
Long beat. John's face had hardened, his back straightened... somehow he was two feet taller and just... bigger. He was The General suddenly. Something he never was when it was just them alone together. She had brought the war into their private little bubble. Kate knew she couldn't leave it like that.
"I promise; to me, you're still the kid who tripped on the stairs in Mike Kripkie's basement."
It wasn't enough. Connor smirked, just a little, but it wasn't enough. She pushed a little harder.
"You bit my lip that night, too." Kate continued, deadpan.
Connor snorted, amused. "Oh really? Don't lay it all on me. I believe it takes two."
"Don't laugh. It's a damn good thing you learn fast; because you set a very low standard for all my future make-out sessions."
It was enough. Connor laughed, and just like that he was her John again. She went over and gave him a hug.
"I don't mean to interrupt."
John and Kate spun. Eric was in the door. "I have been looking for you two over half the base."
"Eric?"
"They're on the move again!" Eric reported. "The H/K's are rolling this way. A full Company of them. Over twenty five at least."
"They're headed here?" Kate repeated. "Man, they've gotten bold."
"They're probing. They want to see if we've got anything left that can stop them, and where it is." Connor explained. "We've gotta cut them off before they get here. If they have other infiltrators in the base we'll be sealing ourselves in with them when their rollers get close enough."
"I don't know if we can." Walters admitted quietly.
"Who do we have out there?"
"Nobody strong enough yet. The H/K's are rolling from the east. We don't have anybody out there yet, because we're covering all the good ground down south. Everything to the east was shredded by the Infiltrators."
Connor sighed.
Kate glared at him.
Connor reacted. "What's that look for?"
"You know where we can get somebody to cut them off faster."
Connor sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I do." He turned to Walters. "Eric-"
"We've already set up a secure line in the Mess."
Lisa came back into the Medbay. Sherrin was unconscious again. Lisa struggled not to fixate on the bandaged stump where his arm used to be.
"Back for round two, huh?" Basil quipped.
Lisa smirked. "Have I ever let him win a fight, ever?"
"Not that I can remember." Basil rubbed his eyes. "God, what a week."
"I hear you."
"You think there are any more of them?" Basil asked. "In the Base, I mean?"
"In the Base? I doubt it. They made their move here already."
"Unless that's what they want us to think."
"Crystal Palace calling Castle Keepers. Come in Castle Keepers."
"This is Castle Keeper. Connor? You still alive?"
Connor smirked. "Good to hear from you too, Noah. Put The General on."
"Uh... Connor, can you verify your identity please?"
"Noah, you're a frosty, snarky, sarcastic, machete-mouthed, uncompromising bitch." Connor said without hesitation.
Silence.
"Please hold for the General." Noah said politely.
Kate smirked at Connor when her radio buzzed. "Medical Emergency in the Shower Block!"
Kate bolted for the door.
Connor looked after her sadly. "It's started."
When Kate made it to the Showers, Basil was already there. "Baz! What have we got?"
"Single stab wound to the stomach." Baz reported. "Medbay got an anonymous tip off." His hands were covered in fresh blood. "Tell me that you've got an emergency kit."
Kate unslung the medical bag from her shoulder and got to work. "It's deep. Looks like it punctured his stomach." Kate said, getting to work quickly and efficiently. "WE NEED SOME HELP IN HERE!" She hollered.
Curious people answered her call and the victim was quickly carried toward the Medbay.
As they walked, Kate noticed people glancing at each other. Suspicion was spreading. Paranoia was close behind. It was going to get so much worse before it got better.
The radio picked up again. "Crypt." Whickham's voice said first thing.
"Eskimo." Connor responded with the appropriate code-word. It was not the first time he'd had a quiet word with the US Army remnant. "General Whickham. Have you been following recent developments?"
"Machines are flooding across the battlefields like the country sprang a leak. What happened?"
"Terminators can look human now."
"That's not funny!"
"It's not a joke. The reason Skynet is getting so far across the territory, is because all our people are getting blown away."
"What the hell happened?"
Kate and Basil were working over Haskin. Kate had his chest open, massaging the heart. "Blood Pressure?"
Basil checked again. "Barely registering." He checked. "It's gone."
Kate sighed, and pulled her hands out of his still chest. "All right. Make a note in the log. Time of death..." She looked at the clock on the wall. "20:16." Kate set down her tools and sighed hard. She looked at Basil. "You were the first one on the scene. Was there any sign of who did it?"
"Nothing I could see."
Kate looked around. "Where's Stacey?" She asked finally. "Usually that pixie is here at night."
"Haven't seen her." Basil admitted. "Matter of fact, I haven't seen any of the Tunnel Rats since the Infiltrator announcement."
Kate swore under her breath. "It's so hard to get those kids to trust anyone, even five years later…"
"They trust you. They trust Connor." Basil said quietly. "But there are lots of other people here too. The kids can't be sure about all of them."
"We give in to fear and Skynet wins." Kate said.
"We die and Skynet wins." Basil pointed out. "I don't like what paranoia is doing either ma'am, but what's the alternative?"
"We've got one being taken apart by our techs now." Connor reported. "Everything, and I mean, everything on the surface looks human. We were completely taken in. They hit across all my Units at once. They've been feeding Infiltrators in for months. If you have refugees you'd better check them too."
"How? If, as you say, they look so real, how can we tell them apart?" Whickham's voice asked.
"The K-9 Units." Connor explained. "They can fool our eyes, but not bloodhound noses."
"Connor, you understand of course that this story is more than a little fantastic. We found the laboratories where they tried this sort of thing. They all gave up on it. And frankly… we've seen no sign of the Infiltrators. If, as you say, they made a coordinated assault all at once, then why have none of my people been affected? We're both active in this theatre, we've both taken in refugees; we're both in the engagement zone. Why are you under attack and us not?"
"I don't know." Connor admitted. "It's possible that they never found you. You've been very mobile for most of the last year. In any event, this call isn't just to warn you."
"What then?"
"We've received word that there's a Skynet attack force moving through sector nine."
Silence.
"We're aware of it." Whickham's voice said finally.
"It's on its way here." Connor explained. "But you're much closer, and if you've escaped the Infiltrators..." The tone was clearly leading.
The War Room's radios started to buzz. "Security to the Mess Hall! Lots of Security!"
Walters took off. "Oldham, Let's move!"
Walter's and Oldham had picked up some soldiers on their way into the Mess Hall, and they knew what they'd find when they got there.
The roar was audible from halfway down the tunnel.
"Safeties on!" Walters barked, and led the charge.
It was unavoidable. Tensions were spiked, and the inhabitants of the Underground were not exactly relaxed when they knew who their enemy was.
There was a free-for-all riot underway in the Mess Hall, with no clear indication of who was on whose side. Soldiers were at each others throats, the civilians too. Food and trays were scattered everywhere. Benches and tables had been shattered under the thrown bodies, wreckage being used as clubs... Silverware was being used, and Walters saw steel, thrown food and spilled blood everywhere he looked.
Walters sent Oldham a look. The instruction was clear. Break up the violence.
Walters and his men charged forward, pulling apart various combatants forcibly. As they were pulled apart, most of them noticed they were being held back by senior officers, and cooled off. The civilians didn't and the fight intensified quickly, knocking them down.
Eventually, the battle settled enough as people noticed there was Officers trying to break it up.
Most of the civilians had come from places where violence and civil unrest was not uncommon. They knew the rules. When the battle started to go sour, disappear.
Walters and his men were too tangled into battle to chase them all down. The civilians vanished into every side tunnel, and the soldiers still rioting pressed the fight, too wild on the fight to notice it was a bad idea to try and punch out your superior officer.
The fight was effectively left between two groups. Walters tried to pull two of them apart, when the one he had a grip on whipped around and slugged him to the floor.
From the floor, Walters took it in quickly and saw that some of the Units were loosely sticking together and beating each other senseless.
Eventually though, Walters rolled free of the fight, pulled his gun, flipped off the safety, and fired a shot into the ceiling of the Tunnel.
BLAM!
Every soldier dropped instantly, diving for the floor in a well trained response.
There was no sound but heavy breathing for several seconds.
"Who started this Dust-Up?" Walters snarled. His lip was bleeding.
"They did!" Both units yelled in unison, pointing at the other side of the room.
Kate came into her room, looking tired. Her shoulders were always so tight after losing a patient.
"Mommy?"
She jumped. Spun around. Two small pairs of eyes were peeking out from under her bed. "Hey." She said softly. "What are you doing under there?"
Sarah and Robbie crawled out from under the bed. "I talked to them like you said." Robbie said. "The Tunnel Rats say we can't trust grown ups any more. They say that grown ups are Terminators now."
"Is that true?" Sarah demanded, scared. "Mommy, are you a Terminator too? Is Enrique? Uncle Eric?"
Kate felt worse. How am I supposed to tell them about this?
"You think she could be a Terminator?"
"Why not? Who knows how long they've had Human-looking machines. They made it into Crystal Peak, they could have made it into every base. I heard that we're falling back all over the place."
"I think that's because of the casualties though."
"Exactly! If I was Skynet, I wouldn't have my Infiltrators reveal themselves all at once. They could have been here for years!"
"Spend a lot of time thinking how to take Tech-Com out, do you?"
"Don't give me that look! It's clear that the Machine means more to her than to any of the other Techs."
"You could say that about Connor, too."
"Connor saw through the disguise. Of course he spends a lot of time studying it. But there's no reason for her to be so interested. What if she's not studying it? What if it's misinformation? What if she's hiding things we could learn because she's one of them?"
Connor came into his room, feeling wrung out.
Kate was waiting for him. "How did it go?"
"Well, he's going to take them on, but I don't know if he believed me about the Infiltrators."
"What possible reason would you have for lying to him?"
"He doesn't think I'm lying... He just doesn't know if I'm right. You remember the laboratory you and Carla were kept in? Not a one of those machines was a success."
"Well, they figured it out!" Kate stressed. She noticed he was staring at her. "What?"
"The riot got put down. But that was the Mess Hall, not the Shower Block. How did your thing go?"
Kate sighed. He was too perceptive when it came to her. "We have our first victim of paranoia. Haskin didn't make it."
John sighed and held her. "It's going to be a long week."
"I'm afraid it's not over yet." Kate said quietly. "You've got two more soldiers in there who need their General."
John sighed again. "How are they taking it?"
"I told them. They're freaked."
"Them and the rest of the Base."
The Presidential Suite had a private office. It had been converted into a bedroom for their two kids.
Neither of them was immediately visible. John went over to the closet and opened it. Sarah and Robbie were curled up under their blankets with their backs to the wall, pretending to sleep. "The closet?"
Robbie sat up. "We thought we heard something hiding in here. We figured if we were hiding in here instead, it might not come back."
Irrefutable child logic. John thought.
The General sat down between his kids. It was cramped in the closet, but there was nobody left in the human race that could be deemed 'normal weight', so there was room enough.
"I don't have any bothers or sisters." Connor said finally. "When I was your age, the monsters in the closet bothered me a bit too. So I told my mom. Mom came into my room, pulled a gun, and shot three holes in my closet."
Sarah and Robbie giggled.
"Monsters are terrified of kids with big brothers and sisters. You know why? Because big brothers and sisters have already faced the monsters, and gown up big enough to scare them away. There's no monster alive that can beat someone who is unafraid. So, Robbie? You're safe. You've got Sarah here to scare the monsters away. Okay?"
"Okay."
"And, Sarah? You're safe too. You know why?"
"Because you're my daddy."
"Thatta girl."
They sat quietly for a little while.
"Daddy… are there Terminators in the Base?"
How does a five year old live like this? Connor asked himself, not for the first time. "Sweetie…" He said finally. "How many Terminators are there in the world?"
"I don't know." Sarah confessed.
"How many of them want to kill me?"
"All of them."
"And how many of them do I protect you from?"
Sarah smiled. "All of them."
"Good girl." His daughter was so much like her grandmother sometimes. "Now, Robbie. Do you remember that time you slept down with the Tunnel Rats?"
"Uh-huh."
"Remember they used to make scary noises while you slept? They were playing practical jokes. We're you scared?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
Robbie shrugged. "If you can hear something, then it can't be dangerous. Dangerous things don't make any noise if they want to hurt you."
Connor couldn't help but smile. "There's been a lot of noise today. Grown ups, most of us come from a time when scary noises would keep you awake in the middle of the night. You kids are lucky. You're too smart for that. Grown ups that lived Back Before get scared of things. They were scared of things that weren't really there. But you two are too smart for that, right?"
Two pairs of eyes were watching him intently, learning. "Yessir." They said honestly. The Children of the Dust had a whole new idea on what was scary. The human race had been reformed in the space of one generation.
"The only scary Terminators you have to worry about are the ones outside the base. And they won't get past me. They never have."
The kids nodded.
"Good. Now can we get out of this closet? It's tight in here."
The young ones giggled again and followed their dad out. The Presidential Suite had a study, converted into a children's room, complete with bunk beds, made from two cots and salvaged pipes.
Connor tucked his kids in. "You guys want me to send one of the K-9's in? They like you guys, and they can sniff out Terminators a mile away."
Robbie nodded. "Yes, please." It wasn't fear. He liked the dogs.
"I'll go get one. I'll be right outside."
Connor left them alone for a minute.
"Sarah?" Robbie asked quietly. "Does Skynet get scared too?"
"Yeah."
"What's Skynet scared of?"
"Dad."
Walters came into the Motor Pool and found Lori there, giving some of the kids a quick lesson in how to drive, and how to siphon gas.
Lori noticed him come in, and noticed the fresh bruises forming on his face.
"Somebody forgot to duck." Lori commented by way of greeting.
Walters smirked. "Yeah. Riots in the Mess Hall."
"Anything in particular start it off?"
Walters shrugged. "We'll never be certain. Two guys in the Mess Hall were getting worked up over something, one threw a punch and the other had the rest of his Unit see it happen, and they move to defend their guy, the other guy had friends among the civilians in the room..."
"And the man in the back yelled 'everyone attack' and it turned into a bar room blitz?" Lori quipped.
"Something like that."
Lori nodded. "We've got the same thing going on in my Base. I've got civilians from all over staying with us. Most of them... they say this is how it starts. It starts with tension, then violence... Somebody in charge goes too far... and then everyone's running again." She looked miserable. "It's happened again and again."
"It won't happen here." Walters promised.
"How do you know?"
"We've got Connor. He'll figure it out."
Lori rolled her eyes at him. "You've gotta stop that. He's an ordinary man, not the Second Coming."
"Never said he was."
"Eric, I gave up everything to join this little Army. I turned my family of survivors and refugees into a Unit of soldiers. I joined a war that I never wanted to join, and... and I did it all because John Connor said so. I need to know it's going to hold together."
Walters grinned. "So... You never wanted to join. You never wanted to fight. You never wanted to tell your little band to do the same. But you did it because in a world where everything was coming part, Connor told you to do it."
Lori nodded exactly once. "Yeah?"
Walters grinned. "Don't tell me he's just an ordinary man."
There was a light knock at the door. "Come in." Connor said quietly.
Loud enough to be heard. The door opened, and Enrique let himself in. "Wasn't sure if you wanted to talk in here."
Connor waved him over. Enrique sat down on the edge of the cot, as Sarah and Robbie snoozed in their cots, the K-9 stretched out in front of their Bunks. "I like watching them. It's not healthy, I know. But mom did it too… freaked me out some days."
Enrique smirked. "What do you need fearless leader?"
"You remember when we managed to get the cartels to take over what was left of the Mexican Army?"
"I remember."
"Well, now we need them to stop working for us, and start working with us."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, we've had our people spread too thin to keep the intelligence coming from the South American continent. It's because the soldiers down there fight under the Tech-Com banner, but that's mostly a letterhead. Our people are covering half of South America with the Cartel Union. So far south, in fact, that I had to farm out an operation like stopping an H/K invasion toward Crystal Peak. If Whickham was still holding a grudge, they would be here in days. We don't have anything left that could do the job after this week. The forces we could have called on were in South America running around like Mall Cops."
"The Cartel Union was put together by a nasty bunch of people, Johan. They ran a fair hunk of that country long before John Connor came along and gave them permission. They're stone killers, sir; they ain't cuddly like me. And they don't like playing with others."
Connor nodded. "I know. But the civilians all across their country were glad to have us there because the Union men were sucking them dry with protection rackets. Now we're feeding them. We can make a case."
"For what? Taking control?"
"Not control, just... authority. Let the Cartels run the place. They're Stone Killers. I have no problem with them patrolling down there. Most of Skynet is to the north. We've cleared out the South. We don't need to put all our people in secured areas just to keep the Union in line."
"What do you want to do?"
"Make a deal. Put someone we trust in charge. Someone who will keep us informed, and who will trade the resources in and out."
"They won't like that."
"Tell them that in return, they get Tech-Com out of their backyard. They have direct control of their territory again."
"You're giving them the entire South American Continent!"
"Well I don't have any choice!" Connor hissed, mindful of his kids sleeping close by. "The Protection Rackets got broken up. If we pick someone who they'll respect, he can play sheriff without us, and keep us informed. I'd rather have them at my back and all my own soldiers up north where they have an enemy to fight."
Enrique nodded, conceding to the logic. Then he paused and his nose wrinkled. "Wait."
"Here it comes." Connor said to himself.
"'Tell them that in return...'" Enrique repeated. "Those were your exact words. As if... as if you were planning to send me to do this."
"Well, now... There's an interesting idea. Thank you for volunteering."
Enrique whined. "Are you... are you benching me? Promoting me out of the way? I'm an old man, John... but..."
"I'm not benching you. If I were, I would make you Governor."
"Governor?"
"Well, whatever title they want."
Enrique just looked at him.
"I mean it. This is strictly a one time deal. Convince them to do this, just like you convinced them to come on board."
Enrique was silent a moment. "Once... before you were born, I was on rotation in Burma. I was on deep recon, when suddenly out of nowhere this tiger jumps me. Just up and lunges. I was freaked. The thing had me cold. Somehow I got my rifle up and blew a hole through it's head. I searched for game, I searched for cubs... I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it attacked. Predators in the jungle only hunt while they're hungry or scared. Then I got a look at the tiger. It was... old. It was so old for a cat. Tigers... when they know they're getting past it, sometimes they'll wander off from the pride and pick a fight with something. They go down swinging. John... I'm an old man. Lots of old war heroes make the switch to leadership... I'm not one of those guys. I'm the Tiger. Promise me, John. One soldier to another. I'm a warrior."
John reached out a hand and caught him in a hand-clasp. One that only soldiers used. "I promise."
"I'll get them in line. I'll make them listen. I'll make them pick someone I trust to follow you and lead them. They'll cover your back. And then I'll come back here and go back to the war. Promise me."
Connor looked back at him with open camaraderie. "Enrique... what am I once this war ends? Since the day I was born I have lived and breathed this war. What do I do when it ends, win or lose?"
Enrique took that in. "Well. You and me, Connor. We're the old soldiers."
Connor smirked. "You think there's any chance at all I'll get to just fade away?"
Enrique smiled sadly. "Nope."
Kate was dictating a report. With paper not coming in ever again, and what trees they had far too precious to cut down, most reports were recorded, and then storied in the disembodied Hard Drives of the captured Terminators. Without a machine connected to any of them, it was safe.
Kate felt a tugging on her uniform and looked down. "Mac." She smiled. "What brings you down here?"
"Is mommy dead?" The boy asked. He didn't seem scared, didn't seem angry. He was just asking for the facts.
Kate reacted. "What? No! Of course not, sweetie. Why would you say that?"
"Nobody will tell me what happened to her. Nobody will tell me where she is!"
Kate felt her stomach twist for the thirtieth time that day. "Your mom… is sick. That's all."
"Will… will she get better?"
"Of course she will. But until then, she wants you to be looked after."
His eyes flashed. "I don't need looking after."
"I know, but you know how mothers are." Kate shared a conspiratorial wink with the kid, and he seemed mollified enough by that.
Kate's radio crackled. "Medical Emergency in the Kitchens."
Kate was up instantly. "Stay here!" She told Mac, running for the kitchens, knowing what she'd find. "Maybe one day I'll able to finish a conversation without someone getting stabbed!"
Kate came running into the kitchens. There was a body on the floor, and she grabbed the first clean looking dishcloth she could find. The body was face down and not moving. A single stab through the stomach. "I NEED SOME HELP IN HERE!"
The kitchen Staff came running in. The first medic through was Basil. "Ma'am?"
"Baz! Do you have an Emergency Kit?"
Basil hefted it off his shoulder and knelt down next to Kate quickly.
Kate stormed into the Conference Room, ignored the other lieutenants gathered around, and threw the medical bag against the wall a little harder than was wise, dropping into her seat. "Connor, you gotta get this base sorted the hell out!"
Connor nodded. "I know. What's the count?"
"We're up to thirty-five outbreaks of violence. The casualties are flooding in given that we haven't actually been engaged in combat. We have a total of five dead, forty six wounded. The wounds aren't overly severe, but the deaths are worrying me. The first three of them… have abrasions around their necks, pretty much identical, and they all came in after the first riot. My guess is… they were hung. And then cut down again. Or at the very least strangled without warning."
"Lynching." Connor said darkly.
"That's the way it looks. But of course there's no way to prove it, or to prove who did it. It could have happened during the riots. Haskin is the only isolated fatality so far, but there's something that's been worrying me. The Haskin attack is not isolated."
"Well, obviously…"
"Nono, that's not what I mean." Kate stopped him. "There's been violence, but mostly it was tension or suspicion getting the better of people, leading to fistfights and such. The riots apparently included three people getting lynched… But Haskin was ambushed with one fatal blow. No sign of violence or offensive wounds. Just a quick stab."
"Another infiltrator?" Gould suggested.
"If I had to guess, I'd say no." Kate said. "A Terminator would go for a fatal blow. A stomach wound is slower and much more painful. There's riot style violence… and there's whoever's stabbing people in the dark. So far we have two victims." Kate took a breath. "There's also been an alarming trend of mutilations."
"Mutilation?" Walters said in surprise.
"A lot of people have been… carving each other open to check for metal. Consensually. There's a spot behind the ear, above the ankle… You slice in and peel the skin back. People see bone and not steel, they let you go. I've got fourteen people in Medbay with infections. Dirty blades. That's not even counting the two dozen people who cut too deep or in the wrong place. " She rubbed her face. "People are freaked. They're good at hiding it nowadays, but they're losing it. People who knew each other before the war, or at least before the base are teaming up, people who cut each other open are sticking together… The lines are being drawn out there!"
"Eric, do we have any magnets in base?" Connor asked suddenly.
"Magnets?"
"If we do, let the word get out about them, then turn your back for about five minutes. Given the choice between blades and magnets being waved at people, I'd rather the one that doesn't make people bleed."
It would have been funny if it wasn't so serious. "That… might actually work."
Connor nodded. "Tactical Situation?"
"We're falling back on every front." Walters reported. "We've got people who can't even get a ride here because their units were chewed up so bad. Skynet isn't marching, they're charging. All offensive units will have to be redrawn. The forward points were surrounded in the first few hours, because their backup was taken out. Skynet knew exactly where to put it's infiltrators to do the most damage. Forward units were hit by the Main Skynet Forces. Everything in between, all our mobile bases…We may not have a casualty list for weeks."
"Anybody who walks in on foot will be suspected as a Terminator coming in alone." Kate pointed out. "We've got to have everyone checked before they get inside."
"We're pulling people back as fast as we can to get some kind of numbers back, but we're being spread pretty thin."
"Our Scrubbed Machines are losing ground too." Gould reported. "Every machine fighting on our side was programmed to avoid people at all costs. They don't have an uplink to Skynet any more, so they don't know about the Infiltrators. They see something with skin coming and they go the other way. Skynet's herding them into kill-zones. And with the upgraded battle chassis... Our machines have the numbers, the infiltrators have everything else."
Silence.
"In most wars…" Connor said quietly. "In most wars, soldiers are trained to try and turn off that human part of themselves. That part of themselves that gets scared, freezes on battlefields… and most importantly, wants to make friends. We want to make friends, get close, but we try to distance ourselves from people we meet on battlefields, so that it doesn't cut us as deeply when we lose them. But that distance cost us a lot today. And I fear that it will make it harder for us to stand together ever again." He turned to the people around his table. "You have to… encourage that kind of connection. It will make the war harder, but knowing every soldier like a brother is the only way we can find out who's actually on our side."
"Well I hope that's enough." Eric said quietly. "Because as of this moment, we are losing the war."
Silence as that thought went through their minds for a long time.
There was a swift knock on the door.
"Enter." Connor called.
Amil came in quickly. "General, we've lost contact with General Whickham's forces."
Kate's gaze swivelled to her husband instantly.
Walters also sent Connor a look. "We… shouldn't." He said quietly. "I don't mean to be cold about this, but we can barely keep our own survivors ahead of Skynet's charge now. We called Whickham because his forces were a good distance away from here. There's a reason we couldn't make that counterattack ourselves. We are running out of Army. And frankly… Whickham's people made their choice. They are not a priority!"
Enrique piped up for the first time. "And we don't even know for sure if there's a problem. They're off the air, but that doesn't mean anything."
Silence as every eye turned to Connor for a decision.
Connor nodded. "But they're human beings. We're still an endangered species. A little more so today. Us against them. Eric, get the 52nd together."
"The 52nd is the only complete Unit still at the base, sir." Walters said carefully. "Taking them that deep into uncontrolled territory would leave us defenseless, except for your Unit...and frankly, sir; I don't know if one Unit will make it."
"I know that. Which is why you're taking the 57th." Connor said. "By the time you get out to the Front-Line, it will have come closer enough to us that I can rope the survivors together enough with the 52nd to give you a window. Make your way to The Castle Keepers last known co-ordinates and do not engage until you have assessed the situation."
"Yessir." Walters was taken aback. It was the first time that Connor's Own would be going into battle without Connor himself present.
"Where are they now?"
"Amil?"
"Sector eighteen."
Walters spun on Connor. "They got that close?"
"They've been mobile a while, but they're like that because they're running. It's just good sense that they come away from Skynet."
Kate glanced at Connor.
Connor looked right back. I don't want you out there, Kate. The war's going bad for us!
Kate sent her husband a look. Please!
This all passed between them in a second, and Connor spoke. "Kate. Get your people together. Round up anybody who needs medical attention."
Connor's Own were legendary. They had never failed a mission. They had never taken casualties over 5%, and they had torn down the walls that all had deemed unbreakable. In all of them was confidence. Unmatched, well-earned confidence. But this mission was the first that they would undertake without Connor himself. Everyone understood why. Connor had already briefed them on the mission plan, and on what their General was going to be doing to get them in. They all accepted it. If he wasn't to command them, then he was at least their guardian angel.
Nevertheless, when they saw Carla in fatigues, laying out her gear with Kate, the unspoken tension spiked through the roof.
"Uh… Ma'am, are you sure you want to take her with you?"
Kate turned on him. "And why wouldn't I?"
"Well… It's already bad luck going without Connor. And… Well, you know how she is about Machines."
Hushed silence. A lot of soldiers had some superstition in them. It wasn't unusual for people who were inches from death on a regular basis to have traditions to keep themselves thinking positive, but this...
Carla shrank somewhat into her uniform. "It's okay. I can stay here if it's going to be a proble-"
"The hell you will."
"Ma'am, I don't want anyone to-"
"Carla, their opinion doesn't enter into it. And neither does yours. It's an order."
"Y-Yes, Ma'am." Carla looked down sickly, and lowered her voice as low as she could, unheard by any of the others. "Please order me to stay here."
Kate looked around. There was awkwardness; there was concern, even suspicion. The problem seemed less that people didn't trust Carla, as it was they didn't know how to act around her any longer. Everyone was walking on eggshells around the Head Nurse.
And they were going into a potential war zone. Awkwardness around each other was not something that could be easily tolerated on a battlefield, where a seconds hesitation could get you killed. She couldn't pretend their feelings didn't matter, no matter how much she hated it.
Feeling like a traitor, Kate nodded. "Carla, stay here and get things set up. We may be coming back with casualties."
Relieved, Carla stepped away from the others quickly. "Yes, Ma'am."
As Carla left, Kate turned a level glare at the others. Not one of them could return her look. Not even one of them.
Kate hefted her Medical kit in one hand, and her Plasma Rifle in the other. "Let's move!"
Unseen by any of the others, Connor was standing just inside the door. He had never left them after wishing them luck, watching them leave. He reached out a hand without looking and caught Carla. "Something wrong?"
"Colonel Connor ordered me to stay here and set up…"
"Carla."
Carla didn't look at him. Couldn't look at him. Her eyes were red with barely restrained tears. "Nobody's talking to me any more. Nobody likes me any more." She said quietly. "I brought IT to lunch that day. I brought IT into our Mess hall, sat it down and gave it a plate. I was... I was close with it. He even smelled human. It. Not he. It." She shook her head and gave a bitter chuckle. "I wouldn't want me around either. I don't blame them. What the hell do you say to me?"
Connor took his friend in a tight hug. "You were duped. You're not a traitor, Carla. You were a victim. A victim of their lies. And if they don't understand that; they will soon enough, because I can promise you this, Carla: It will not be the last Infiltrator we see." He hugged her tighter. "And if they don't get that, you've still got me and Kate, and Sarah, and Robbie. We all love you."
Carla sniffed and very slowly, lifted her arms to hug The General back. "Thank you, sir."
"General Connor to the War Room." Crackled the PA.
Connor released Carla. "I have to go now."
"Yes, sir."
Connor headed out. Carla went back to her room, went over to her cot and fished a flask out from under the mattress, ripping the top off and draining half the flask before pausing for breath.
"Mom?"
Carla turned around and saw Mac peering out from under the bed. "Hey, baby."
"Are… are you okay?"
Carla struggled not to cry. Took another deep pull off the bottle to fortify herself. "Y-yeah."
Z Plus Seven Years Fifty Five Days
With both Kate and Walters gone, many more of the minutiae fell on Connor, and he covered them as best he could. The walk between The War Room and the Presidential Suite was a series of conversations.
"General?" Isabel Saint was the first. "Is the Route between here and the Yuba City still open?"
"Should be." Connor responded without breaking stride. "But it's not a secured area any longer. So if you want to slip further south and raid Sacramento for supplies, you had better think twice. Boiled sweets are popular, but it's not worth losing people."
"What makes you think I want to slip into Sacramento for ransacking purposes?" Isabel asked innocently.
Connor grinned and held out his hand. Saint gave him his watch back with a grin and headed off in another direction.
Lori fell into step with him in the same breath. "Have you two ever had a conversation that didn't end with her trying to swipe your watch?"
"Several. But during those conversations I took my watch off when I saw her coming." Connor quipped.
"I understand there have been some... unscheduled rowdy parties going on." Lori said. "I'm getting the same thing back in my base. Is there any way to know who's a Terminator or not?"
"We're working on that." Connor said.
"Would you mind telling me know the hell you knew about the K-9 Units?" Lori asked easily. "Because you had them with all the Mobile Units, and parked at attention outside all the entrances before we knew Infiltrators existed."
Connor let out a breath. Lori was too sharp sometimes. Fortunately, he'd been preparing cover stories for a while, this one wasn't that hard. "Before I met up with Walters, Kate and I spent a night in the home of Carla, her brother, her niece, and their friend Mac. That night we got picked up by Terminators. There were wild dogs in the area, and they all went berserk. You know any animal left that doesn't know to stay silent when there are predators around?"
"Not one." Lori conceded.
"And the day before we left L.A., Kate and Carla got captured again. The laboratory they were in had Machines trying to upgrade to Infiltrators." Connor shrugged. "I figured I should play it safe."
"Ahh. Great job." Lori snorted sarcastically. "That was five years ago!"
"I like to plan ahead." Connor said plainly. "Lori, when you're in charge of a large group of people, you have to juggle things. If you can't make your point in thirty seconds, odds are I've moved on to other things in my head. This conversation is taking quite a bit longer than your allotted time."
"Is there any way to tell Terminators apart from humans other than K-9's?" Lori made her point.
"Not yet, but we're working on it."
"Thank you." Lori peeled off in the opposite direction...
...as Lisa slipped into place after her. "So, thirty seconds was it?"
"Bachelorette number three, your time starts now." Connor made a show of looking at his watch. "Go."
"Is Tony going to be benched?"
"You think?" Connor asked her in disbelief. "I get that our standards have dropped in the last five years, but we like our soldiers to have four limbs on the front lines."
"He's gonna hate this!" Lisa mourned. "Can't we just bend the rules this once?"
"For him or the thirty odd guys in his unit who will be put at risk when he can't point a gun and do something else at the same time?"
Lisa sighed mournfully again. "I figured."
Connor stopped walking long enough to turn and face her. "Lisa, we'll figure it out. He's not the first Soldier to lose an arm or a leg in this war. This isn't Back Before. We can't rotate them home again like we used to. He's smart and he's brave and he's strong. We're not sending him away. Just away from the Front."
"He knows that, and he's accepted that. The only thing that worries him is that he'll be given make-work."
"Lisa, I swear to whatever's left in heaven, there's no such thing as make-work any more." Connor said seriously. "There hasn't been since J-Day, and there won't be for quite some time."
Lisa smiled a bit. "Thank you, sir."
Connor started walking again. She followed. Connor noticed her still at his elbow. "Was there something else?"
"Colonel Kate asked me to make sure you regularly eat while she's away."
Connor chuckled. "Too many women follow me around when my wife's not here."
"We're very protective, sir. Men are helpless without us." Lisa said seriously.
"No doubt. Go away now."
"Yessir." Lisa said immediately and turned around as Connor let himself into his room.
Connor shut the door firmly and sighed like he'd been holding his breath for a week, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"General?"
Connor turned at the tiny voice, and saw a familiar face poking out of from behind the door. "Mac!" He called cheerfully. "It's good to see you. You haven't been around the last few days. If you're here to see Sarah or Robbie, I'm afraid they're both working."
"I was hiding."
"Terminators got you scared?"
Mac didn't answer.
Connor waited. The Commanding Officer was father to the base. This base was the first where civilians and children were as much a part of life as soldiers. He had more kids than just his own to raise.
Mac came forward finally, shuffling shyly. "Sir... Mom scares me."
Connor sighed, and sat down, patting the bed slightly. Mac came over and sat next to him. "Mac, did your mom ever tell you about where you got your name?"
"No, sir."
"Mac was a friend of ours. I only knew him for a few months. He lived with your mom, and her brother and niece. Before Tech-Com, before we were soldiers, Mac took us in one night, gave us somewhere to sleep. Not many would have done that. We were captured one day, and Mac helped us escape. Back then, there was nobody fighting back, no way to even try. Lots of people without hope. You got your name from the man who always had a joke or a smile, and that was no small trick. He made people feel better. He led a lot of people away from fear." Connor gave the kid's shoulder a squeeze. "Mac... He was killed by a Terminator. And your mom missed him, a lot. And then she got right back up again and helped us fight back. We lost some people this week. A lot of them. Some of them on this Base. And they were killed by a Terminator."
"Mommy let him in." Mac whispered.
"Your mom was fooled. It's not her fault." Connor said seriously. "But she blames herself. Mac, you were named after someone who helped people find their way back. And your mom is in a pretty dark place. She's going to need lots of help. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Sarah and Robbie been keeping you company?"
"Yeah. Robbie's been kinda busy though."
"With what?"
"The orchard. Most of the grown-ups are busy."
Connor leaned back in his chair a little. "Really?"
The Orchard was in its fifth year of growing. Connor had personally planted the first Oak tree. They had plenty of growing to do, but the rows of saplings were sprouting healthy green leaves. In a post-nuclear wasteland, there was very little vegetation left, let alone the good green kind.
Robbie Connor had taken to growing like a fish to water, and seemed fascinated by it. Connor was surprised to see his son was the only one still there, watering the leaves carefully. The fruit trees in particular had been started off indoors, where the lights could be manipulated artificially to make them grow faster. Eventually though, they had become too big for indoors, and an Orchard was planted outside the base, when Connor's 'pay-dirt', donated years ago by Enrique, had been put to use.
"Looking good." Connor called to his son.
Robbie waved back, smiling at his father's attention.
"Robbie.. I haven't had a lot of time for you the last couple of weeks."
"It's okay, Dad." Robbie said uncomfortably.
Connor looked around. "I understand you've been keeping this place going almost single handed."
Robbie looked down bashfully. "Actually, the Tunnel Rats helped me a lot."
"Where are all the others?" Connor asked.
"They're inside. They're scared."
"But not you?" Connor asked his boy lightly.
Robbie shrugged. "They're scared of Infiltrators. I'm here alone. So why do I need to be worried about other people?"
Connor laughed at that. His kid was sharp. "Well, I got one more set of hands for you."
Robbie looked over and saw Mac. "Mac!"
"Robbie."
Connor nodded lightly. "Look after him for a bit."
Connor came in at a quick march, didn't even slow down before he made his way to the bunk, and kicked it hard.
Carla moaned and rolled over. "Buzz off."
Connor gripped the edge of the cot and overturned it, spilling the hung over woman to the floor.
Carla clutched at her aching head and looked up. "Sir?"
"On your feet, Major." Connor snarled, quietly furious.
The voice cut through the fog around Carla and she rolled to her feet, somewhat unsteadily. "Sir."
Connor reached out, took the bottle off her and threw it against the wall so hard it shattered. "Carla, you've had a bad time, and we've been patient. But now we're sending out offensives, and casualties will be coming back. You said Kate left you here to set up the Medbay? Have you done that?"
"Sir… she left me behind because nobody-"
"I don't want people bleeding on my floor because the head nurse is drowning herself in self pity and moonshine. You keep doing this, and I swear: you'll get it worse from me than they will from Skynet."
Carla swallowed thickly. "Yessir."
Connor let the hardness fade a bit. "It's time to get up off the mat. You're worrying Kate, and you're scaring your son."
Carla's eyes focused again. "Mackie? Is he okay?"
"He's fine. We've been handing him around the base like a hot potato, trying to keep him from realizing what going on with his mom. He needs you more than any of us."
Carla smiled a little. "I need him too. But how do I explain this?"
"I had to explain Infiltrators to my kids. They understood. So does Mac. You were fooled, by a trick that had never been tried before. He's four years old-"
"Four and a half." Carla put in. "He would want me to say that."
Connor smiled. A real smile this time. "Four and a half and even he gets the idea of 'fool me once, shame on you'."
"Guess so." Carla said softly. "None of the others were willing to go out there with me. Kate had to leave me behind."
"You know how you beat that feeling? You show them whose side you're on. You show them you're one of us. And you don't do that by getting drunk." He paused for effect. "It might be a fairly human thing to do, but still..."
Carla snorted a laugh, despite herself.
Connor clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Don't ever forget the battles we've fought and won." He said gently.
"Yessir."
"Feel better?"
"Yessir."
"You sober?"
"Sober enough."
"Get back to work."
"Yessir."
"And go see your kid." Connor added on his way out. "He's in the Orchard with Robbie."
Carla changed into a clean uniform, went into the head and scrubbed her face till she looked halfway human again, and then brushed her teeth savagely. Dental work in the mountain was a serious subject. Feeling better simply by being clean again, she practically sprinted through the base, back to work.
Kate was still and calm in her seat. She wanted to pace but knew to saver her energy for when she got there. She tried not to think about the clock ticking. Tried not to think about what it meant.
"Hammer! Hammer!" The radio crackled.
Walters pulled the jeep over quickly and the convoy stopped at the side of the road. Every soldier, every medic, every person jumped out of the vehicles and headed for the side of the road. 'Hammer' was the warning code. The scouts had encountered something.
Kate hugged the dirt beside the road and strained her eyes. "Eric? You got anything?"
"No, Ma'am."
Kate keyed her radio. "Report."
There was silence for a few moments. "Blackbird." Came the answer. "Repeat, we have a Blackbird."
Kate and Walters glanced at each other. 'Blackbird' meant a friendly.
"Any of our units in this area?" Walters asked.
"None." Kate said instantly. "At least… none that survived."
"A survivor? One that got separated from his unit?"
"One that took out his unit?" Kate thought out loud. It was not paranoia. Nearly all the units in this area had been taken off the map, the only survivors were the Infiltrators themselves…
Leading with his gun, Walters signalled his people silently to stay behind. Kate went back to the rest of them and collected a K-9.
The scouts were a good way ahead. It took them almost ten minutes to walk the distance. In the dark, it was getting harder and harder to keep nerves under control.
"I keep looking at my men." Walters said quietly. Soft enough that only Kate could hear him. "I keep wondering who'll break first. There are limits. Limits to what any human can take."
"Exhaustion, hunger, pain." Kate said quietly. "There are limits on these things. But fear is another matter. Some people can pick it up and put it down again. Some people are just immune to it. Won't process too deeply on what their brains are telling them."
"I know… but how do you know which ones are survivors?"
Kate smiled a little shrugged. "I remember asking John that question, our second month in Crystal Peak. He told me it was simple. You put them through something like this war, and the ones still keeping it together after a few weeks? They're survivors. We were lucky, Eric. We were locked up safe in a fallout shelter when all the elderly or disabled people who needed help died off, and then the chronically ill who needed regular meds, and then the ones that just couldn't take it... When we first left Crystal Peak, we already had the strongest stuff to work with."
"You really believe that?"
"During World War Two, the British were expecting huge amounts of psychological damage during the Blitz. They were expecting thousands of people losing their minds because of the Terror of the Blitz. It never came. Turned out there was a practical limit to how long people were willing to be scared, and then they just got stronger. They just refused the fear. The world took care of anyone not strong enough long ago. There are no points for second place."
"Never thought of it like that."
"Feel better?"
"I don't know why, but yeah."
That said; the two of them resumed walking again.
After another few minutes, they met their scouts on the road. Two Tech-Com soldiers had a man down on his knees, hands on his head. "Report." Walters said as they got closer.
"He was on the side of the road in a camouflage suit. He was armed, and when we approached him, he went for a flare gun. We managed to stop him before he could get a shot off."
Crack!
Everyone ducked as the sound of a Plasmarifle split the air. Walters brought the rifle around. "Anyone got a visual?"
Kate was looking too. "No."
A hard voice cried out of the darkness. "Let my man go, or the next shot goes through you!"
Kate reacted. "DON'T SHOOT! NOAH! IT'S ME!"
Silence.
Kate swatted the soldier they had captured. "Tell them!"
The soldier shouted back. "It's true! They're Tech-Com!"
Silence.
"Advance and be recognized." A voice Kate didn't recognize shouted.
So far Noah was playing the handbook step by step. Walters put a hand out and stopped her. "They can mimic voices. They have plasma-rifles. They might be playing you."
Kate considered that. "Boy you miss John when he's not around, don't ya?"
Walters conceded that as Kate unslung her rifle and handed it to him. She started walking into the dark on her own, with her hands up.
Silence. Walters was counting in his head, wondering how long it would take him to get to her…
"All Clear!" Kate called back.
Walters waited for a moment. Terminators could mimic voices. If they'd caught Kate without a fuss, they could just keep playing the same trick over and over…
But after a moment, three figures came walking out of the darkness into view. Kate was one of them. The second was a soldier Eric didn't recognize, the third was Colonel Erica Noah, looking a lot harder after five years, still in US Army green.
"Colonel Noah." Walters said formally.
"Colonel Walters." Noah returned, equally frosty. By virtue of the Generals they had followed, they were enemies, or at least mistrusting rivals, but they had fought together in battle, and that left them in a certain limbo. Noah lifted her radio. "One to Two. They're Friendlies. Stand down." Her radio clocked twice, and Noah gestured at the man next to her. "This is Major Horner. Major, this is Maj-" Noah saw Kate's collar. "This is Colonel Katherine Connor, and Colonel Eric Walters."
They all nodded greetings.
"What is Tech-Com's Command Staff doing out this far?" Noah asked. "Is Connor with you?"
"He's at Crystal Peak." Kate said before Walters could stop her. "We were on our way to Castle Keep. We lost contact with them yesterday."
"Wasn't aware you were keeping in such close contact." Noah commented.
"We weren't. The General was." Walters said.
"Your General, or my General?" Noah asked.
"Both. They kept themselves aware of each other. Just so that we didn't…"
"Didn't run into each other in the dark one night and start shooting?" Noah remarked snidely.
Kate felt her instincts scream again. If the whole point of knowing where Castle Keep was active, was to keep this from happening, then why didn't John know this time? "Noah…" She said uncertainly. "Did Whickham tell you what was happening with the Infiltrators?"
"What Infiltrators? What are you talking about?" Noah demanded. "I've been on maneuvers for the last week taking out a Skynet attack force."
Walters and Kate traded a horrified look. The attack force she was talking about was the one heading for Crystal Peak. When Connor contacted Whickham's forces, he'd spoken to Noah, and had to identify himself. He had not returned the question. So if Noah had already been out hunting Skynet's latest offensive when Connor contacted them...
"Then who were we talking to on the radio when we called Castle Keep?" Walters finished Kate's unspoken thought in horror.
"Oh hell." Connor snarled into his radio. "I must be an entirely new and completely unclassified level of stupid!"
"We wondered why he wouldn't take your word for it. Now we know why. We were never talking to him, or Noah, or anyone at Castle Keep; were we?"
"The only things Whickham said to me was not to worry about the Attack Force, his base wasn't affected, and how did we identify the Infiltrators. And I gave them the answer they wanted. They had the code words Kate. They had the codes, they had the frequency... If we were talking to Machines the whole time, it means they've been in their base a while…"
"I know. So does Eric. So does Noah. It doesn't change her mind. What do we do, Chief?" Kate's voice came over the speakers. "Noah's going to go charging back, with or without us."
Connor took half a second to weigh it up. Kate wanted to go see if Whickham was still alive as badly as Noah did. But there was likely nothing left to save... "It screams 'ambush' to me, Kate."
"I know. Me too."
Connor made his decision. "Fine. You go with her; tell Eric to keep everyone alive, and tell Noah that there's always a place here for her people."
"Oh, she'll love that." Kate drawled.
"You still think she's a Machine?"
"No. But I think The General's Wife is a little too chummy with her given that she's a possible collaborator."
"Collaborator? Will you listen to yourself? This isn't The Cold War."
"Isn't it? Can you tell whose side every soldier is on now? You know there are Terminators in the Ranks somewhere."
"You don't know that!"
"How long did Carla's boyfriend wait for the right moment to start killing people? They could all be waiting for just the right moment. We have to find them first. We have to stop them while we still can."
"And how do you do that?"
"You'd rather just let them all come in and start shooting people? There are kids on base!"
"I know. Most of them wear uniforms. You want to go start cutting people at random? See if they bleed enough to prove they're one of us?"
"You do what you want with your back. I'm putting mine up against a good solid wall and keeping my eyes open."
Chapter 15: Z Plus 7 Years 57 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Seven Years Fifty Seven Days
Connor's Own were speeding through the wasteland triple time, trying desperately to keep up with Noah and her men. Walters knew the desperation Noah was feeling. If this had happened to Crystal Peak, he'd burn anything he needed to get back and see it with his own eyes. Even if he knew it was long over.
And it had to have been long over. The call went through over a week before. If Connor had been talking to an Infiltrator mimicking his voice…
They were getting closer to target. Soon they would know for sure. As they approached, they left the vehicles, told the helicopters to find a staging area and wait for the call… The humans approached on foot.
Noah hadn't said a word in over three hours. She just stared ahead, her eyes pure ice, marching fast for a hundred yards, running for the next hundred, and then marching fast again.
But when they saw the smoke, Kate knew. Walters knew. Everyone knew.
The Castle Keep, once based in San Jose, now a mobile base, was burning.
Colonel Noah froze when the smoke became visible, and then bolted.
"Noah! Noah! Wait!" Kate yelled after her.
Noah kept charging. Her men started to follow.
Kate discarded her weapon, her pack, sent Walters a quick glance and took off sprinting after Noah.
Walters read Kate's mind in that glance and held out a hand. "HALT! Hold position! That's an order."
Walters was Tech-Com, not US Army, and technically couldn't give them orders, but even so, Noah's unit forced itself to a halt, looking not unlike dogs straining on a leash.
Without carrying weapon or pack, Kate was able to catch up with Noah, and bring her down to the mud in a tackle. "I said WAIT!" Kate snarled.
Noah snarled back, ferocious. "Get offa me before I kill you." She managed to roll them both over, getting a hand around Kate's throat, right in her face. Her frustration had finally snapped, and Kate had made herself a target.
Kate didn't flinch, knowing that this woman had probably killed more people than Kate ever would. "Think it through! What would Skynet do?"
"I have to get down there!" Noah yelled, reacting and not thinking.
"What would they DO, Colonel?" Kate snapped. "THINK! THAT'S AN ORDER!"
Noah was fiercely loyal to her General, but had survived enough engagements to be smart about it. It was what Whickham would have asked her. Noah forced herself to calm down, cool and deadly again. "They would set up an ambush."
Fwisshhh!
Both women looked up at the noise. A bright red flare had fired off into the night sky. Kate tensed as they were all bathed in hellish red light.
"That's not Skynet!" Noah said quickly. "The most secured spot on base is set up to be sealed. It has air supply, fortifications, food and water... And a signal flare set to fire automatically when one of our radios comes within range. It's to let any returning friendlies know that there are survivors."
Kate didn't let her go. "If Skynet was going to lure us in, that would be a great way to make sure we didn't turn back."
"Ma'am... the secure zone is where we keep the... most precious resources."
Kate stared. "The Maternity Ward."
Noah nodded slowly. "Ma'am... that's where the infants are. The pregnancy cases. The nursery. My son."
Kate reacted. "Your..."
"Five years is a long time." Noah said softly. "One mom to another... I have to be sure."
It was a low blow, playing the 'mom' card, and Kate knew she was being manipulated. She didn't care.
She let Noah up. "Okay. But we do it smart."
Noah crept into the tent. It was the outermost edge of the Castle Keeper's Camp. She lifted the edge of the tent, slipped under it and froze.
No sounds, no shots. She waited for the sounds of Machines. Heard none. She clicked her radio.
Around the base, she knew her people would be moving into the outer perimeter, just as she did. There had to be a trap here. There had to be. It was all a question of where it was and when it would strike.
The edge of her tent lifted again, and she brought her weapon around subtly, till she saw Kate shimmy underneath, joining her.
They both peeked out into the courtyard between the tents. Just ripped tents and burning vehicles in view. There were bodies everywhere.
"Whole new war." Kate said under her breath.
"You were right." Noah whispered. "Can you feel it? The place is infested!"
"Where would the survivors be?" Kate whispered. "Other than the Maternity Ward, would they go anywhere else?"
"If they escaped Skynet, the contingency plan said to evacuate and wait for the all clear signal." Noah reported. "The idea was that they couldn't get caught in the cross-fire when we came back and retook the camp." She bit her lip. "If we're going to spring the trap and flush out the machines, we should try and find them first."
"Colonel, if the Infiltrators got among any of your people, then they'll be with the escapees too. There's no point looking for them. They're already dead."
Noah shut her eyes for a second. "Terminators look human now. How the hell did that happen? Did Satan feel we needed another challenge?" She gestured outside. "What if there's an honest to god human out there somewhere?"
Kate let out a breath. "I don't have an answer for that one."
Noah's radio clicked twice. "Well, let's give 'em hell."
Noah's men started sneaking out of hiding, moving slowly, and waiting for the alert to go up at any second. They crept their way toward the only solid concrete structure around. The Maternity Ward. There was no sign of anything alive, and there were dozens of bodies surrounding the entrance, all of them clutching weapons in their cold dead hands.
Marsden moved first, heading for the entrance to the Maternity Ward, when a human voice came from the side of the building. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
Marsden snapped up his rifle. "Who's there?"
"Don't shoot! I'm coming out!" A man covered in dirt and grime edged out from behind the wall with his hands up. "I'm not armed!"
"What happened here?"
"Skynet came through a day ago. I played dead. I think they were chasing after you guys."
Marsden shot him in the head. The man took a hit to the skull and was knocked down like he'd been hit by a sledgehammer. His hair lit up in flames for a half instant and he dropped.
Marsden didn't flinch. This was the plan after all.
At the first Gunshot, the camp erupted. Machines boiled up from every angle, hidden and playing dead amongst the scrap piles and burning vehicles, metal hiding amongst metal.
The Humans soldier's didn't even bother to shoot back before diving for cover.
The Machines moved in on their hiding places, firing steadily to keep their heads down, when a pair of Connor's helicopters flew overhead, cannons blazing, ripping a line of destruction through the Machine ranks.
Still in the tent, Noah grinned. "It was an ambush for my unit coming back. They weren't expecting you to be with us."
"Machine thinking. You weren't with us any more, so they expected us to save our resources." Kate agreed. "What do you say we go over there and kill some more Machines?"
Noah hefted her rifle. "I think it's a great idea."
The man Marsden shot was getting up again, having shaken off the blow.
Kate and Noah came out from their tent and started shooting, pouring wave after wave of fire into his body until he was forced back down.
The man didn't get up again. His skin had been ripped away and gleaming metal was visible beneath, one machine eye now blank and dark.
Kate saw movement out of the corner of her eyes. "Lookout." She said quickly and yanked Noah aside as Plasma-fire rang out again. The two women took cover behind the corner of the Maternity Ward's concrete wall, and waited for a half breath as Marsden's men started cutting down their pursuers.
Connor's Own took to the field, moving in and out of the shredded tents as ghosts, barely waiting long enough to get a glance at the Machines. The tactic worked, as the Terminators' program ordered them to pick their targets based on visibility and threat level. The humans kept ducking in and out of view so fast it was hard to track a weapon on one before the other started firing.
As the Terminators tried in vain to locate their targets, it was easy for some of the younger children to sneak around behind them and gun them down from behind.
Noah saw all this from behind the building with Kate. "You've still got kids on the battlefield?"
"Yeah. They're really good at it." Kate growled and pushed her rifle around the corner to shoot blind.
One of the Machines took the hit from behind but didn't fall, and spun around to shoot at Kate, who ducked safely back behind the wall.
Noah grabbed her shoulder. "This way." Noah pulled her down the length of the wall, away from the corner, and let a grenade drop behind her as they ran. Counting silently, Noah waited till the last second and tackled Kate to the ground.
The Terminator came around the corner just in time to step astride the grenade as it exploded.
Noah stayed down and forced Kate to do the same until the intensifying sounds of weapons fire stopped finally. The battle was over.
The instant the radio clicked the all clear code; Noah was up and charging for the entrance. Right behind her, Kate got a decent look at it finally. It didn't seem to be something they built recently. It was probably a good solid structure that happened to be convenient and was adapted by the new tenants to be a fortified bunker. Hardly an unusual tactic.
"No! NO!" Noah shrieked. "NO!"
She fell to the ground and threw herself at one of the bodies.
Kate felt her heart jump into her throat. She knew.
She ran over toward Noah, her legs feeling wobbly, from the fight or the fear of what she'd find, she didn't know...
But sure enough, stone gray, with two stars on each shoulder, there was her uncle Chet Whickham, with blood on his uniform and a rifle clutched in his hands.
It was hard for a moment to tell who was taking it worse, Kate or Noah. Both of them sort of sagged for a moment, trying not to collapse in front of their soldiers. Kate was dimly aware of the news spreading through all the US Army soldiers, and no small amount of grief. She understood.
How, Kate asked herself, would Crystal Peak take it if Connor died?
"Open the door." Noah croaked finally.
The soldier, rattled by the loss of their leader, did so. He keyed in a code at the keypad. There was a moment of silence as another code was keyed in from the inside, and the door opened.
There were guns waiting for them, desperate and frightened eyes behind them.
One set of eyes bulged. "Ma'am?"
Kate smiled despite herself. "Dex!"
They quickly made their way to each other and met halfway in a hug. Kate looked over his shoulder at the rest of the room. A few soldiers standing guard, mostly medics and civilians. Including pregnant women. Whickham's plan hadn't changed apparently.
She pulled back and got a look at Dex. He looked older. A few light scars drawn here and there. She was about to say something more…
And then the dogs went berserk.
Kate stiffened and moved without thought. "TERMINATOR!"
Major Horner dove forward as one of the Civilians threw back his ratty jacket, revealing a rifle. Horner took the gunfire straight to the face, and dropped instantly.
The Terminator turned and started gunning down the civilians, focusing on the pregnant women.
Dex still had that legendary quick-draw and fired the first return volley. Kate was right behind him. Too late to save them all, fast enough to save most.
The civilians had gone nuts, screaming hysterically as another threat came from behind them now.
It was a short, sharp rush of combat, and Noah rushed through the room. She whirled back on Dex. "Where is he? Where's Michael?"
"Erica!" One of the doctors called. "He's here!"
Noah rushed over and took the infant off him. "God. How long has that thing been in here?" She demanded.
"He... he came in with us!"
"Why are you all alive, then?"
"He was probably waiting for us." Kate said darkly. "Waiting for an Officer or a high-profile target to show up. After he was caught, he figured he'd follow his directives and started killing people."
Walters whirled on Dex. "Connor told you to put dogs at the entrances!"
Dex was staring blankly. "I didn't think..."
"What was that?" Walters demanded.
"He didn't think we needed to. We saw the rubber skinjobs miles away!"
"What the hell were you doing with your K-9 units?"
"What do you think we did? We ate them!"
Eric was looking murderously at Whickham's body, but a swift look from Kate made him bite his tongue. "How many survivors?" Kate asked Dex.
Dex nodded. "Thirty three when we came in. Mostly the pregnant women and the children. A few doctors and nurses who were in here, one or two guards that were stationed outside. Whickham shut the door on us when the fighting got really bad. His tactic worked. They survived. Nobody else survived, but they survived."
Kate nodded sickly at that. "All right. Eric, go over the way out with a fine tooth comb. If it's still clear, bring in the troop carriers. We move out ASAP."
"Kate!" Someone yelled. "This one's alive!"
Kate rushed over to Basil and knelt down next to the pregnant woman's body. "Half her face is gone, no pulse… Baz, what are you talking ab-"
"Not her." Basil told Kate. "This one."
Kate felt her jaw drop, and checked. The woman's belly was shifting. The baby was still alive. "Oh god…" She muttered. "How far along is this one?"
Noah settled carefully, keeping her son turned away from the body. "That's Elise… I think about eight months. Can you save the child?"
"Gotta do an emergency C-Section to find out. Where's Bowman?"
Noah looked at the nearest Doctor, who shook her head slowly. "He never made it in."
Noah took that in stride. "Dr Lana Chen, this is Colonel Katherine Connor. Dr Chen is now our Chief Surgeon."
Kate had her medical kit out already. "You ever done a Cesarean?"
Chen nodded. "Once or twice."
Kate was pulling on her gloves. "Colonels Walters and Noah, get these people outta here!"
"Have the choppers on combat rotation." Noah directed her people, carrying her son on her hip. "None of our aircraft take off until they've been carefully checked for sabotage."
"Move out." Walters barked.
The survivors of Castle Keep were loaded onto the helicopters. Noah's soldiers took whatever seats were available, and got the Troop Carriers together for the rest. The soldiers took the opportunity to move through the base quickly, checking for machines they might have missed, any more booby traps that might hurt someone later, personal effects that might have survived…
Noah put her son on the helicopter, and then went back to the base. Hasnk was waiting for Noah when she made it to the Command Center. The room was mostly intact, though filled with dead bodies. "They got in here." Noah said darkly. "This is how they took us whole. They made their first move in here."
Hasnk nodded slowly. "We were checking in with them twice a day! Crystal Peak called in too!"
Noah gestured over at the radio, with operator slouched dead over the table. "They got one of their own in without anybody noticing. Regulations say that if there's a chance of the enemy getting in, we burn everything sensitive. They managed to capture this room before we knew they were here. All our codewords, all our hidden frequencies… Skynet had it all. We were never talking to our guys when we checked in. And neither was Connor."
Hasnk nodded. "We don't really have a lot of people left, outside our own Regiment. What do we do now?"
"We need to tend to our wounded, get the civilians squared away. Crystal Peak is offering aid. Right now, I'll take humans over anything else."
"We go there, and they own us. They'll hold us to ransom."
"We have nothing left to ransom ourselves." Noah said plainly. "And if he was alive, he would say the same thing." She sighed, seeming more tired than anything else. "Get to the jeep. There's one bus left, and I'll take it with Connor and Chen."
Noah returned to the Maternity Ward.
There were one or two guards at the door. Kate and Basil were working feverishly with Chen inside.
She dismissed the guards and took their place, sitting against the wall, rifle slung across her knees, and Whickham's body at her side, moved away from the door.
"What would you do?" She asked him quietly.
For a long moment she just sat with him. Then there was a sound, from inside the Ward.
A baby crying.
Noah smiled. "Well… you saved that kid's life." She whispered. "And my son's. And mine. I'm sorry it has to be this way." She fought down the catch in her throat, fought to stay frosty. "I love you, old man. And I'm so sorry I wasn't here."
Standing up, Noah met Kate, Basil and Chen as they came out of the ward. Chen was carrying a newborn baby. "A boy. Healthy."
"We've been here too long. We have to move out."
"I saved a ride for us." Noah promised, and slid into step to have a quick work with Kate. "What about Whickham?"
Kate didn't answer right away. "Th… there are a lot of bodies Erica, we can't wait for all of them."
"Not all of them. Just him." Noah protested. "I'm not the only one who would want…" Noah scrubbed her face awkwardly. "I know we can't take our time here, and I know he's not popular where you're from… can we take the General with us?" Noah asked. "Please?"
What would John do? Kate asked herself. Then she gave herself a quick mental slap. "Colonel… he was family to me too. He comes with us. We… I owe him that much."
"Thank you, Ma'am."
Idly, Kate wondered when Noah started calling her 'ma'am', but let it go.
They made their way toward the troop carriers, heading for home.
Z Plus Seven Years Sixty Days
Kate had called ahead and told Connor who was coming with them. By the time the survivors got there, they had rooms and food waiting. Whickham's body was placed in isolation, as funeral arrangements were made.
The awkwardness that Kate expected between Castle Keep and Crystal Peak had largely faded. Whatever else the newcomers were, they were human. And guaranteed humans were no small thing now. There was some tension between the soldiers, but mostly there was relief that some of the other army had survived.
The cold shock that Kate had felt at the wrecked Castle Keep faded halfway through her first night home, and she woke up gasping for air. Her husband hadn't let go of her in five hours, and she was very glad for it, trying to lose her feelings in the sounds and touch of the man she loved..
The initial emotion wore off by morning, which saw Kate sitting numbly against her husband's chest, with his arms wrapped around her tightly from behind. "Well." She said finally. "I guess you won."
She regretted it the second it came out of her mouth.
John squeezed her tighter. "I know."
Kate squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could, forcing the tears back. She hadn't cried since her kids were born. She hadn't cried in sadness since losing the baby. "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair. It's just…"
John stroked her hair gently. "You told me once that he introduced your parents. He was your dad's roommate in college; you called him Uncle Chet… of course you're going to be mixed up about this."
Kate felt her stomach tie in knots again and fought not to dry heave. "Hell. Aren't doctors supposed to grow calluses over their feelings?"
"Maybe the best ones never do." John told her gently. "At least not with family."
"He was the enemy too." Silently, she said to herself what she could never say to him. He came for you, and you won. It's what you do. When I asked what was going to happen to him, it wasn't because I thought he was going to die. It was because I knew… it was going to be either you or him in charge. And the only reason I was willing to bring my children into the world, was because I knew that those who declare war on John Connor lose. We've staked the future of everything on that. I staked the future of everything on that, my love. If I had any doubts, I could have supported him.
"He may have been my opponent, but never my enemy." John told her. "He loved you far too much to be an enemy of mine."
Kate snuggled back into him as tightly as she could, feeling six years old again. "I wanted him to meet Robbie." She croaked miserably.
The door opened, and two small faces peeked around the door. "Mommy?"
Kate fought to make her expression clear. No such luck.
Robbie looked borderline terrified. "Why is mommy crying?"
John patted the bed. "Kids, we're going to have a funeral today. For a man you two never met. His name is Chet Whickham. And he was important to a lot of people who came into the base today. And he was really important to your mom."
The kids looked back and forth between their parents. "Can… can I come?" Sarah asked finally.
With Kate busy with the school and other civilian projects, Yolanda had taken over much of the Nursery in Crystal Peak. The younger kids loved her, and the adults trusted her, knowing how tough and maternal she was in equal measure.
The inclusion of the infants from Castle Keep caused quite a stir. The pregnant women were delighted to see the other children, and the kids made friends as fast as they ever did.
Noah spent a lot of time there. She was still in uniform, though most of her soldiers were not. Her jacket stayed off and her hair was down around her shoulders when she was with her son.
Unsure what else to do with her, most of them left her alone. Noah was as close to happy as she could be. It was the closest thing to R-and-R she'd had since J-Day.
"Noah?"
She was sitting against the wall, near where her son napped, surrounded by his drawings and toys, but she looked up at Walters as he came in. "Is it time?"
Walters nodded. "Would you like me to bring him?" He gestured at the boy, sleeping soundly over near the wall. "You'll be busy…"
Noah looked at her son. "I don't… No. He stays here."
"Crystal Peak is secure. He can walk around the base freely."
"I know… but not the funeral."
Walters licked his lips. "Noah… this is something I have absolutely no right to ask."
Noah didn't look away from her son's drawings.
"Your son… his name is Michael."
"Yeah."
"General Chet Michael Whickham." Walters said the full name slowly.
Noah finally looked him in the eye. "Yes?"
Walters quite suddenly lost his nerve and shook his head. "No. None of my business."
Noah sighed. "Eric... do you have kids?"
"No."
"If you ever did have a son one day... Is there anyone in the world you would name him after, other than Connor?"
Walters smiled softly. "Nope."
Noah pulled her hair up again, collected her jacket, suddenly a soldier again. "Let's go." She glanced at her son. "Let's not wake him."
The entire population of Castle Keep had rolled out to pay their respects, as well as all members of Tech-Com, or the civilians, who had come from Whickham's base years before. There were very few funerals performed in Crystal Peak itself. There were few fatal casualties that had made it to Home base. Memorials took place with toasts in the mess, or the Officers Club. Burials and Services, when they were even possible, were done out on the battlefield where soldiers had fallen.
They buried him in the orchard, the first human in seven years to be laid to rest beneath fresh healthy trees.
Connor turned to Noah. "Are you sure you want to do this yourself?"
"Due Respect, sir; this one is mine. Having you do it…. Would stick in my throat too much."
Connor nodded.
Noah came up to the grave site, and started to speak. "General Whickham would have hated the fuss we're making. He said that soldiers deserve respect, and honor, and loyalty, but not reverence. At least, not for doing their duty. Wherever he is now, I hope he hears me when I say that we are not honoring him for that. Because the fact is his duty to us ended the minute the Bombs fell. Nobody could be expected to do half the work he did, to put forward half the effort he did, and he did it for us." Tears were rolling down her face unashamedly, but her voice stayed strong. "I know he may not be the most popular person here, but he was a soldier, and he fought the enemy, and he protected his own."
A quick look went around the orchard. Connor's people glanced at their General, who was at attention, listening attentively. They took their cue from him. Whickham's people were rigidly, almost desperately at attention. Training and grief were at war with each other.
"Whatever else he was to us… to me…" And for the first time, Noah's voice cracked just the tiniest bit. "He was a soldier first. And that is the way I want to remember him." Noah signaled one of her men, who brought over three items. Noah took them off him one by one, and held them up to the crowd. "The general's rifle."
Noah plunged the rifle; barrel first, into the dirt.
The second item. "The general's helmet."
Noah put the helmet, polished clean, and twin stars gleaming on the front of it, over the rifle's stock so that it sat on top.
The final item. "The general's tags."
She slung the dog-tags around the rifle stock.
Noah turned back to those assembled. "Every battlefield has this monument to fallen soldiers. Every jungle, every desert, every field of conflict where we fought, and our General… our father, has earned his place with them."
Most of the soldiers that came before Tech-Com were combat veterans, or at the very least US Army trained. Enough that they recognized the traditional battlefield marker.
"General Chet Whickham, US Army." Noah eulogized. She saluted. So did the US Army. And then, so did Connor. And then, so did Tech-Com.
Silence.
Some at the back started to sing.
First to fight for the right,
And to build the Nation's might,
And The Army Goes Rolling Along.
Proud of all we have done,
Fighting till the battle's won,
And the Army Goes Rolling Along.
Kate felt her throat close over. She was born and raised on Army posts. She knew the words better than her own mother's voice. She couldn't help but hear herself singing along passionately.
Connor squeezed her hand a little and joined in.
Then it's hi! hi! hey!
The Army's on its way.
Count off the cadence loud and strong;
For where'er we go,
You will always know
That The Army Goes Rolling Along.
Valley Forge, Custer's ranks,
San Juan Hill and Patton's tanks,
And the Army went rolling along.
Minute men, from the start,
Always fighting from the heart,
And the Army keeps rolling along.
There were tears on all the soldiers' faces, because they knew.
Chet Whickham was the last US Army General. The last soldier of the armies who served 'Back Before'. Tech-Com was new, and followed no flag. It was formed in a time when the nation was dead. The Castle Keep was the last holdout of the US Military remnant that had not changed uniforms
General Chet Whickham was laid to rest in a soldier's funeral, and the US Army was buried with him.
Then it's hi! hi! hey!
The Army's on its way.
Count off the cadence loud and strong;
For where'er we go,
You will always know
That The Army Goes Rolling Along.
Connor came into the mess hall and paused. Carla was sitting by herself, facing the wall, on the very end of a table, as far from the others as she could get. Connor came over and laid a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
Carla held a hand out. It was trembling, but just a little. "I promised Kate." She whispered. "Five days, not a drop."
"Good for you."
"Feel like I have sandpaper in my eyes."
"No tray. Have you eaten?"
Carla shook her head. "I've been throwing up so much lately... My stomach must be inside out by now."
Connor leaned a little closer and whispered in her ear. "Look who's here."
Carla looked up, and saw Dex, a tray in each hand, looking nervous. "This seat taken?"
"Not at all." Connor answered Dex smoothly. "Carla was just telling me that she wished she had some company for dinner."
"...oh god..." Carla whispered.
Dex nodded and sat down; as Connor silently wished him luck and left them alone.
Dex slid one of the trays over to her. "I won't say anything if you don't want to talk. Can I just sit here with you for a while?" He looked embarrassed. "I um... I haven't spoken to these people in a while, and that's just the ones I know. To the new guys I'm an outsider, to the others I'm the rat traitor."
Carla smiled through the tears, just a little. "I don't believe it... but I'm really glad to see you."
"You too." Dex said quietly.
Carla took his hand. "Are you really hungry?"
Dex smiled. "Not especially."
"There's someone you should meet."
Over at the Officers table, Kate watched them leave and smiled at her husband. "That was nice of you."
Connor looked back innocently. "What do you mean?"
"Putting Dex on the night shift. Keeps him away from some of your more... passionate supporters, and it puts his meal break in at the same time as Carla's. This was a set-up."
Connor looked shrewdly at her. "Right. And you forcing Carla to come to the Mess Hall with you, and then leaving her alone at the last table right away? That was a coincidence?"
Kate smirked.
Connor turned to Walters. "Now then, what's the latest?"
"The violence is dying down. The mobs haven't found another machine yet, so it's starting to dawn on them that there aren't any more in here. They're getting it together."
Connor smiled. A real smile this time. "I knew they would. Survivors have phenomenal capacity."
Kate shivered. "Well. In the meantime, there's one last duck we need to put in the row."
"What's that?"
"I told you that there were two kinds of violence. The mobs and the stabbing victims. The mobs have stopped because they're not finding anything... but the attacks stopped a good bit sooner."
Connor looked at her sharply. "You know who it is." It was not a question.
Carla led Dex out of the base to the Orchard. The Tunnel Rats were there, working away at the small grove of trees like a busy colony of ants. "You see that kid down there with the red hair?"
"Yeah." Dex said carefully.
"That's Mac Curry. Erin Curry's kid."
Dex felt himself jerk in response. "Is… is he…"
"Yeah. He's yours, Dex. He's your son."
Dex felt like someone had squeezed the air out of his body. "My… my son." Dex licked his lips. "Does he know?"
"Not yet. Family is a pretty flexible thing in the Underground. We all just sort of adopt each other when we need to."
He turned slowly to face Carla. "Carla… where's his mother?"
Carla looked back at him evenly. "Out on a recon mission. Why?"
Dex smiled. "I'm not carrying a torch, Carla. Just wondering."
"She was never going to be a big part of this. She checks in on him sometimes, but he thinks of her more as an aunt than a mother. Which was pretty much what she had planned when she introduced herself to you."
"I remember."
Carla squeezed his hand. "You want to meet him?"
Dex took in a long deep breath. "Yeah."
Carla led him over toward the trees and called out. "Mackie!"
Mac looked up and ran toward her. "Mom."
Carla bent down and gave him a tight hug as Dex felt his eyes widen in shock. Mom?
Carla hefted Mac up and turned around so that they faced Dex. "Mackie, I want you to meet an old friend of mine. This is Dex."
"Hi." Dex heard his voice say.
"Hello."
Basil was taking inventory of the medical supplies, when he noticed Kate at the end of the aisle. "Ma'am?"
Kate just looked at him.
Feeling his instincts start to scream, Basil looked back and saw Connor at the other end of the aisle. The General looked at him too.
Basil cleared his throat. "Is there... something I can do for you?"
"Three attacks." Kate counted. "All over the base, all times of day... and you were the first Medic in the door every time. Why were you always the closest one to the stabbing victims?"
"There's been a lot of violence." Basil defended.
"But not single stab wounds on individual people. I suspected when I saw you there first all three times, so I took you with me, out into the field. There wasn't a single attack the entire time we were gone."
Basil shut his eyes. "Ma'am, I wasn't attacking people. I was clearing them."
"Clearing them?"
"Well how else are we going to check?" Basil demanded. "I've been patching up the wounded from the violence too. All that violence from panic! From fear. Unfocused, unplanned. And what did it get them? What did they find? So I did it myself. More carefully. More selectively."
Connor glared at him. "Why, Baz? You know me. If you had suspicions about somebody…"
"Due Respect, General; but we had suspicions about Carla, and it was pretty clear that she was above reproach to you."
"You saying you didn't trust me?"
"I'm saying we wanted to be certain. We never meant to hurt anyone. You can't hurt a machine." Basil turned to Kate. "Ma'am, you said it yourself; I was the first one trying to save their lives. It was because they're human. Humans aren't the target here."
"One of them died!"
"A mistake. We were so sure. After that, I had the Medical Kit close by whenever I did another test."
"Another test. You mean when you stabbed another person to see if they'd bleed?" Kate snarled.
"I could have gone for the throat, or the head, or the heart. I only ever gave stomach wounds. I had some time to save them if I was wrong."
"You didn't save Haskin."
"I tried to." Basil looked genuinely crushed at that. "I was mistaken…"
"Baz. After you accidentally killed a man, why the hell would you keep going?" Kate demanded.
"Due respect, Ma'am; but we lost thousands of people in one day to those things. If we accidentally killed one or two humans to find an infiltrator… Isn't that worth it?"
There was a long beat of heavy silence.
Kate took a lethal step toward Basil, when Connor put a hand on her shoulder. "Basil. You said 'I had the Medical Kit' and 'I was mistaken.' But you said 'we were so sure'. Were you acting alone?"
"For the attacks I was. But I had to discuss it with someone else; just to compare notes. Just to have a sounding board. I didn't go picking people at random, sir. I mean… I'm not crazy!"
Connor got right up in his face. "And who would that someone else be?"
"Lisa?"
Lisa looked over and saw Colonel Eric Walters coming into her Dorm Room with his men. "Yessir?"
"Can you come with me a minute? We need to ask you a few questions."
Lisa felt a thrill of fear go through her. "Am… am I under arrest?"
"No, we just need to find out a few things."
This was the great fear. The thing that no soldier wanted to happen, but everyone was desperate for. Someone getting fingered as the Terminator or the traitor and taken away. Everyone knew that sooner or later a Machine would get caught, and it was only a question of who it would be.
Sherrin was up instantly. "Lisa's not a Terminator!"
"Nobody is saying she is." Walters said quickly.
Amil grabbed Sherrin from behind, keeping him away from her. "Stay back. Tony; if she is… I mean, it's best to make sure. Don't try and stop them."
Cutter jumped in. "Amil, what the hell is wrong with you? We know Lisa. There's no way she's a Machine!"
"That's what Carla thought about Martie!"
"I'm not a Machine!" Lisa shouted, distraught.
"But we DON'T KNOW FOR SURE!" Amil shouted back.
"AT EASE ALL OF YOU!" Walters roared. "We don't suspect Lisa of being a Terminator. We're just trying to piece something together, and Lisa has some information."
Sherrin looked miserably at Lisa, who had jumped to two dozen of the worst conclusions she could reach, and was crying softly as Walters did his job. Walters signaled his men, and they flanked Lisa on each side, marching her out.
The only way was the Main Auditorium, where the people were. They saw the horrifying sight. Lisa, openly crying, but with her chin up, was being marched away by a team of armed soldiers, Sherrin was limping along behind, roaring to anyone who would listen that she wasn't a traitor, or a Machine...
Riots had been broken up all week, but tensions hadn't cooled in the slightest. The more paranoid were expecting it. People picked and strung up as Machines or collaborators. The ones who trusted Connor and his men implicitly assumed she was guilty of whatever she had been charged with...
Walters did the math. "Guys, let's find another way around."
The guards started to turn Lisa around to go the other way when a hand flashed out. "Hold on!" A civilian woman blocked them. "You can't just take her away! What has she done?"
Another man came rushing up and stopped the woman. "Hey, you can't get in their way! What if she's done something really dangerous? You can't just-"
The woman shoved him away roughly, he reached out again and pulled her away again, she shoved him harder and he overbalanced, getting knocked down...
And the yelling started again.
Half a dozen people tried to pull Lisa away from the soldiers, another half dozen went for those people, trying to help the guards...
And then all their friends picked sides and all the others lost track of who was who...
And the yelling turned to violence.
Lisa felt a dozen hands from people she didn't recognize grab at her from all corners and yelped, trying to duck away.
Sherrin hauled off and slugged the guards still trying to keep her from getting away, knocking one down, feeling a nose break under his knuckles...
Lisa saw Sherrin and reached for him, pulling herself closer to him and away from everyone else as best she could. Sherrin's severed arm went around her shoulder and the two of them tried to fight their way clear, clinging to each other for what protection they could get as the world around them erupted into anarchy.
The danger of Infiltrators had made the distribution of weapons a more serious matter, and there were fewer heavy weapons around, but as the tension had grown, people had learned to improvise. Shivs of all shapes and materials flashed out and blood flowed.
The room had erupted into a heedless riot, out of control, and the sides getting confused. People were hurling things; people were trampling each other...
It was war. It was an insane free for all, made all the more ferocious since it was contained within a room, however large. The panic, paranoia and frustration of the last week had finally found a violent outlet, and it wasn't going to stop for hell or high water.
And then a piercing shriek of noise rang out. It came squalling out of the speakers mounted on every wall, it came screeching out of the radios. The pitch was so high it felt like an ice pick going through every ear; it was amplified so loud it made the speakers scream...
Everyone in the Main Hall broke off their combat enough to clutch at their own ears in agony, releasing each other voluntarily.
And there, at the entrance to the room, was Connor.
In one hand he had his radio, tuned to the PA, in the other he had one of the Jammers. He put them both away, waited till everyone got themselves together, and strolled to the middle of the room, in no particular hurry. The crowd parted for him. He just stared them all down. It was a thousand furious, adrenaline soaked, and bloodthirsty ferals in a staring match with General Connor. And they were the first to back down.
He didn't speak for a long time. It was a good thing, since nobody could hear a thing for several minutes over the ringing in their ears. More people started threading in quickly from all sides, drawn by the shriek over the PA, and the sudden absence of rioting noise.
"What is this?" Connor demanded finally. "I mean… WHAT IS THIS?" He roared with such sudden menace that everyone jumped. "I warned you. I told you not to give in to fear. I told you that we were going to handle this the same way we handled everything else. One. Exactly ONE Infiltrator got in here, and it was killed five seconds after the first shot was fired. And look at us. LOOK AT US! We've done more damage than that god forsaken windup doll did! We've taken more lives than the Infiltrator that got in here in the first place! We're the ones killing each other! Not them, US! Skynet did in five minutes with fear what it couldn't do with seven years of war!"
There was numb silence in the Underground. There was shame. There was awkwardness. One most faces, just the simple realization that Connor was right. They had been tearing into each other for over a week and found not one Machine.
It was a bitter pill to swallow to say the least.
Connor let them dwell on it for a moment, and then started again. "We have an enemy. An enemy that we do not know. So suddenly a face you don't recognize is the enemy. Well I'm looking around this room, and you know what? I don't see a single stranger here!"
Kate, a room away, watching the drama unfold from a private screen in the War Room, out of sight of anyone, had her radio, tuned to the private frequency. "Okay. First from your left. His name is Cotton. One kid named Mark, two years old. Next to him is Rica, she's Salvadoran, plays guitar a lot..."
Connor scanned the crowd and moved in close, grabbing Cotton by the shoulders. "Cotton. You're not a Machine, I know you. Remember when your son Mark was born? I was the first one to come visit!" A more personal statement than it sounded. Connor came to visit all the newborns on Base.
Connor scanned the room again, quickly dashed over to the next person. "Rica. What about you? Remember our first night here five years ago? You played the guitar for us! It was the first time this Base had ever heard music!"
There were smiles going around the room, people searching out familiar faces, having similar stories.
Connor turned to the entrances to the room, saw a pair of familiar faces, and charged up to them. "Dex! I know you. Back when I was a Colonel. We met in Medbay remember? You were injured on a patrol. You told me you were as good a quick draw left handed."
And then, in full view of everyone, he turned to Carla. "And Carla. You're one of my oldest friends here. I knew you back before I even became a soldier. We were in the Camps together. And I remember what a godsend you were when Kate and I lost our first child. You held my hand and told me how sorry you were... You helped me keep my wife strong again. You had lost your family too, and you still found it in yourself to hold us together."
"I would do anything for you guys." Carla answered quietly, knowing that everyone was watching his warm personal testimony to her.
Connor turned back to the crowd.
"We are the living, beating pulse of this base, of all Tech-Com. And the second the Machines get an edge, you all forget how we ever drove them back in the first place! What the hell is going on in here? Don't give yourself over to the Machine Men! They are unnatural fakes that walk around like humans but have Machine hearts and Machine minds. You are not Machines. You are warm, living, feeling people! A breathing heart and soul of something that can save the world!"
It was working. They were looking at each other. Remembering faces. Remembering names.
"This is not the time to turn on each other. If anything, the way to survive this, the way to know whose side we're on, is to know each other. To know enough to know that we are not Machines. We are not machines. We are men. We have emotion in our hearts and fire in our eyes. Cyborgs don't feel pain. We do. We feel pain when we get hit, and we have enough pain to go around already without inflicting it on each other out of fear.
"There is no machine that can fake a good joke. No infiltrator that will act to protect another. There is no machine that has a loved one, a brother, or a daughter, a son or a mother. Fight for each other, band together in ways that no machine could fake; and that is how you will know who we are. Who all of us are.
"And I know how scary a thought that is. To get so close to people when people are dying everywhere? That's scary. But here we are. We do the terrifying thing so often, that when I ask you to do one more frightening thing to save your lives; I know I can count on you to do it.
So now I'm asking: Can I count on you?"
There was the sound of a general agreement.
Connor snorted. "Ohh that sounded pretty weak. That sounded like a Mechanical agreement with the boss. Are we Machines or are we Alive?"
"…Alive…" The answer rumbled through the Auditorium.
"Can I count on you?" Connor shouted again. It was not a question. It was an order to live.
"Yes!" The call came back.
"Are We Machines, Or Are We Alive?" Connor demanded.
"Alive!" The sound or hope was growing stronger. It was working. He was winning them back.
"CAN I COUNT ON YOU?" Connor roared.
"YES!" The crowd roared back.
"ARE WE MACHINES, OR ARE WE ALIVE!" Connor roared over them.
"ALIVE!" The crowd screamed over each other.
"AGAIN!"
"ALIVE!"
It was breathless, it was glorious, it was all the fury of their fear turned positive, it was a limitless release of emotion that lifted the roof, and made them all cry out.
ALIVE! ALIVE! ALIVE! ALIVE!
Connor smiled, proud of them, and headed off, the now familiar chant growing behind him.
"CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
"Nice speech." Noah said, seemingly unimpressed. She and Walters were waiting in the War Room.
"The one I should have given the second we found out they looked human." Connor said darkly. "So, what have we got?"
"Skynet territory has expanded to include most of the Northern States. They don't have a lot out over the water. Intel says that most of the invasion forces are coming out of the Red Zone."
Connor swore. "They weren't running low on supplies, Eric. They had plenty. They just weren't sending out what they built. They were building and conserving. They knew exactly how much space they could control, and exactly how much they could hide from us. They were sending out just enough to keep us occupied, and keeping the rest inside their zone. They've been planning this move for five years."
"And it worked too." Noah admitted.
Connor stared at the maps. "Are these time codes accurate?"
"As accurate as we can make them sir."
Connor glared at the maps as if interrogating them. "All right. Let's think about this chronologically. The first one to strike was here at Crystal Peak. It came in a few days before the hit. The second one to strike was your force, at the operational end of the Theater. It joined your Unit as a refugee almost a week before... Now, assuming they both started out at the same place, and assuming they have a standard foot speed... all the roads in the area are being watched, so they must have been traveling cross country... That means they had to have been coming from within..."
Walters felt his heart-rate tick up as Connor circled the map at a point between the two attacks. "Somewhere in there."
Connor went back to the maps. "So... the MASH Units too, had people coming as wounded, brought in on our own trucks... and that battle took place here, a few hours before that... so if they had to travel on foot also before meeting up with our people... they must have started..." Connor redrew the circle, a little smaller.
"You're making a lot of assumptions there, sir." Walters pointed out.
"I know. But the area in that circle is a place we don't go. Radiation Zones. If Skynet was hiding something, they would hide it there." He paused. "But not this."
"Sir?"
"Skynet can put bases in radiation zones because they don't have to worry about radiation. But Infiltrators do. They have skin, flesh and blood. Maybe the radiation won't kill them, but it'll be visible. There would be lesions, hair loss..."
Walters looked back to the map. "So, where in that area is a place close enough to a hot zone we won't go near it, but far enough away to be safe. They don't need food or water... which is good, because there isn't any in that area... so where would it be?" Walters suddenly grinned. "Sir, as it happens, we have someone who might know."
Kyle and Lupe came into the war room at a march and saluted. "Corporals Reese and Salceda, reporting as ordered, sir."
Connor waved them over to the maps. "You two had to leave the roads a few times. Your reports say you had to edge your way around a Hot Zone to escape a landed H/K. Is that correct?"
"Yessir."
Connor looked at them both coolly. "And where exactly would that landed H/K be?"
Within an hour, The Principals were surrounding the Map in the War Room.
Connor was making the standard briefing. "Corporals Reese and Salceda have provided us with valuable intelligence as to the location on the Infiltrator Base. Brain Box has calculated a 87% chance that the Infiltrator Models are constructed on site, to avoid any chance of being noticed in transit. A tactic that seems to have worked.
"How is it possible that there was a whole Terminator Factory that close to us and we didn't know?" Oldham demanded.
"Reese?" Connor directed.
"We only saw the H/K, and it was landed for a very long time. If that's where the base is, it must be Underground."
"It's on the outer edge of a Hotzone. It has to be out there to keep their skin suits from rotting, so we've got a target area. Reese and Salceda will take us to the site. Reese."
Kyle licked his lips and made his report. "Lupe and I came across an Ambush site. Two Machines in an underground hole."
"We can assume that the area is laid out in a defensive pattern. The Tanks will make the first sweep, followed by our Metal Marines. This will continue until we find whatever entrance the Infiltrators have been using."
"And then?"
"Make sure that all our attackers are known to the Scrubbed Machines. And make sure our guys keep track of each other. There will be infiltrators in there, and if this dissolves into a close quarters fight we could easily lose people to friendly fire. I would prefer to take the Target in one piece. We need intel on the models they're churning out."
"I hate the idea of going in there blind." Noah murmured.
Connor nodded and slid a piece of rough yellowed paper over the table to her. "This is a schematic of the Target base. It's incomplete, but what's there is accurate."
Noah stared at him, then at the map he'd given her, then back at him. Walters fought to keep his grin in check.
"Where did this come from?" Noah asked very calmly, pointing to the page.
"The paper? Kate taught the kids how to recycle paper. It's labor intensive, but it's not like we can get paper from anywhere else..."
"That's not what I mean, and you know damn well know it." Noah interrupted. "Sir."
Connor smirked. "The Infiltrators all came from that Base on the map. We have a dead Infiltrator in our Tech Lab. We pulled its Memory and started searching, once we knew what we were looking for."
"You can read Machine Memory Code?" Noah asked in surprise. "They changed the programming language when? Five years ago?"
"Shortly after we got a bunch of Terminators on our side." Connor confirmed. "Maybe we can't crack that code, but a bunch of very smart walking, talking calculators can." He pointed to the drawn map. "Terminators don't explore their bases. Everything you see there is from the entrance to the assembly line, which is what we're looking for."
Noah accepted that and turned to Connor. "General, request permission to take my Unit on the strike."
Connor smirked. There wasn't anyone left who hadn't lost friends and comrades to the Infiltrators. But Noah had lost her Army, and her Commander. "Permission granted."
Z Plus Seven Years Sixty Two Days
Travel across the wastelands, steering a large force of armored cars and tanks and soldiers around various Hot-Zones slowed them all down considerably.
When they got close, the Humans hung back a bit at Kyle and Lupe's direction. The Tanks and the Metal Marines rolled forward as the trap doors popped open, one after another, and the Terminators made their attempts at ambush. It was a failed move, as plasma fire couldn't get through a tank, and the Metal infantry was spread out enough to gun them down.
Skynet had full control over it's soldiers and what they saw, and knew that attacking the Strike Force one at a time wasn't going to work. In a heartbeat the desert sands boiled up with a small Army of Terminators from all angles.
The Tanks gunned their motors and ran down the ones ahead through sheer force, the Machines that ducked to the sides were off target from the holes punched through their lines and were quickly dispatched by the watchful Metal marines, and US Army remnant.
Eventually though, they made it.
At their old campsite, Lupe and Kyle crouched behind the wall with Noah and Walters, showing them where the H/K was parked. "Right there. There were at least a dozen Terminators."
Walters took that seriously. Noah a little less so. "We're not exaggerating just a bit, are we?"
Lupe looked disdainfully at the adult. "We're not looking to get our nose bashed in, are we?"
Walters smirked and raised his radio. "Mission ready."
The Scrubbed Terminators marched forward and started probing the ground.
"Are you sure there was nothing to locate the door in that Skinjob's Memory?" Noah pressed.
"We have everything it saw, but there are not a lot of landmarks out here." Walters argued. "One patch of dry dust looks a lot like any other."
It took several minutes, but eventually one of the Terminators found a hatch in the ground. It was sealed tight.
"Think we could just knock?" Noah quipped.
"STAND CLEAR!" Walters hollered. The Metal Marines moved back. Walters pulled a laser pointer and drew a red dot on the Door. "Tango One, you are clear to engage."
"Roger Lead One, beginning our run. Be advised, we received word from The Chief. He says that the aerial H/K's are trying madly to get here. He's got them under control."
"They know we've found them." Noah murmured.
The two soldiers hunkered down, and the air split as a pair of fighter jets screamed in and dropped their ordinance. The sealed hatch in the ground exploded with a great blast of heat. There was a sound of something rupturing, and then a quick whoosh as the air was met with a sealed underground atmosphere.
In the same heartbeat, a barrage of lethal plasma-fire came shooting up out of the smoke, and the Scrubbed Machines were quick to charge into the fray firing back steadily into the smoke.
"Bring the Javelin!" Noah roared.
Soldiers came charging in as the fight gathered around a smoking wreck of a hatch. Soldiers were carrying crates, carrying heavy weapons, munitions...
As the battle intensified, and the Metal marines were knocked down, fortifications were being set up. Platforms put flat on the dirt, with barricade walls bolted quickly into the plate by power tools, and suddenly there was cover. Mini-guns and batteries were set up in a neat semi-circle around the entrance and suddenly there was a kill-zone...
The math of it was undeniable. The Scrubbed Machines were overwhelmed by the force of numbers and superior models defending down below, and the Metal Marines were pushed back as the fight came to the surface.
The Human soldiers were ready for it. The second a new machine poked its head up, the humans opened up with everything they had.
As the smoke started to thin, Walters could see inside finally, and the hatch opened onto a ramp that lead a steady decent under the surface. It went far enough that Walters couldn't see the other end of it from where he was, and with everyone firing madly at each other, he didn't dare get closer.
Thoom. Thoom. The mortars fired behind him, the grenades coming down in a short neat arc with landed them in the tunnel. The grenades went rolling downhill till they exploded amongst the Mechanical defenders.
Noah was up with the 'Javelin', and the laser guided missile speared down the incline neatly, practically clearing out the whole tunnel. Deep below, it hit something and erupted, shaking the ground.
The blast took the lion's share of the reinforcements. The fight for the surface leveled off after that.
The Humans started pushing down for the facility. Bare Spartan walls and very few lights.
"Looks like Skynet décor." Noah commented.
"Let's do this." Walters agreed, pulling out the Map. "Assembly lines are this way. Let's pull the plug on this place."
"Cover every corridor!" Noah barked.
Soldiers started moving, covering every direction that another wave of opposition could come from.
"Oldham, Marcus." Walters ordered. "Find the signal relay to Skynet, and take it offline."
And eventually, they found their way to the heart of any factory: it's assembly line.
They knew the room by the sounds as they approached. Both Colonels had been in Terminator factories before. It had it's own pulse. The sounds of it were unmistakable.
Whirr. A machine torso was pulled being upright. Bzzt. A pair of legs was being welded onto it. ZZZZ! A pair of arms were being screwed in pneumatically. Crack! Crack! Body armor being riveted onto the torso. Clang Clang Clang. Metal footsteps.
And then... silence.
"Did they shut down production?" Noah asked inaudibly.
"I doubt it. They'd be churning out guards, surely. Whatever this place is... it has a different setup. The infiltrators must take longer. Another step in the process."
Noah nodded. That made sense. "Connor wants this place whole. How exactly do we do that?"
"Take out the programming station." Walters said instantly. "The Machine that programs the soldiers on their way to being constructed. Take that out, and they're just a bunch of bodies without a brain. We have parts that we can repair that easily enough once we reprogram."
"We can't reprogram if they self-destruct the base, which they will do the second they know we've won."
"Three on our Ten!" Someone yelled and the team of soldiers spun to trade fire with a fresh batch of steel skeletons coming from one of the corridors.
"We've found the relay, Colonel!" Oldham's voice came from the radio. "Do we kill it?"
"Stand-by!" Walters yelled back over the sound of his own rifle. The air was thick with the smell of burning air, but eventually, the battle ended.
Noah nodded, drawing the room in her head from the map. "Okay. Let's do it."
Noah and Walters both signaled their men to take up positions as they came into the Assembly room.
The Terminators were there; lined up before all the machines, ready to defend the assembly line. The Humans opened fire immediately, knowing exactly where to strike. The Terminators fired back just as fast; with they're typical inhuman precision.
No room to dodge, no cover to hide behind, The Terminators had a lethal advantage.
Noah came around to aim her weapon, and took a hit across the arm. She hissed and ducked back behind cover. Walters started checking her quickly.
"It's okay. It's not bad." She gritted out instantly to Walters. "But they've got the target well covered. I don't think we can hit it."
"I can!" A small voice piped up instantly, and Noah stared disbelievingly at Kyle Reese.
Walters nodded. "Kyle's smaller and faster than any of us. He can make the shot."
"You want to give a fourteen year old kid a grenade launcher?" Noah roared.
The sounds of her men being gunned down in the factory forced her to take a breath. It was all the time Walters needed to take the Grenade launcher off her, and give it to Kyle. "Go for it, kid." He keyed his radio. "Oldham, cut the uplink. Do it now!"
The human targets gave Reese enough cover to come around with the Grenade Launcher. He saw a machine aiming for him, and made a maddening shift that twisted his smaller body out of the way as he doze across. He needed only a moment to pick the huge bank of computers. The launcher fired quickly, with a reverse vacuum sound as the grenade was launched across the room... and into the computer bank, the brains of the assembly.
The automated machines stopped instantly.
There was a shudder that went through the ranks of the machines as the factory stopped working. The mission to shut down the Infiltrator factory had been fought and won. But the next step would be to capture it whole.
With the uplink to Skynet destroyed, the base auto-destruct couldn't happen, so the Terminators followed their program to keep the assembly line out of Human hands. The Machines turned quickly and started tearing things apart themselves.
The humans came rushing into the room guns blazing, their suddenly dumb predictable targets facing away from them. The humans mowed them down before they could finish their jobs.
And quite suddenly, the battle was over.
Noah and Walters didn't relax, sending out orders to search the whole facility top to bottom, just in case they missed anyone, and to disarm the auto destruct charges manually, just in case..
Noah came into the factory floor. "Not bad, Corporal Reese." She admitted to Kyle grudgingly.
They looked around the room. The assembly line was more or less like any other factory. Only beside the end of the line was a series of large clear tanks. Each of them was about human size, and filled with some kind of clear liquid.
And in each tank was a Terminator.
Each Terminator had its eyes dark and non-functional. They were all wrapped in what looked like thin fly screen; and it looked like there was something growing on the surface of each of them.
They knew what that 'something' was.
"So, this is how they do it." Noah murmured.
"Colonel Noah, we found something on the upper level."
"On the way."
They worked their way through the base, till they reached one of the higher levels. There wasn't much there, but the smell of fresh ozone and burnt meat meant that their men had to fight their way in.
They found their people gathered around a row of prison cells.
"How many prisoners?" Walters demanded first thing.
Marsden gestured. "Three occupied cells. One with a woman, one with a young child, one with an older man. The male is the only one still alive, sir. From the state of him, it looks like they just forgot about their prisoners a long time ago."
Noah let herself into the last cell, where both her medics, and Walters' were working madly to keep him alive. He seemed impossibly thin, impossibly old. His skin was grey and yellow; the smell that clung to him was foul. He had a bar-code burned into his arm and he was barely breathing.
Walters keyed his radio. "Get the choppers moving. We have wounded. Tell Kate we have an intensive care job coming too."
Noah had her gun pointed directly at the old man, unconscious on the floor. "Assuming this one is even human himself."
Walters looked to the walls where the words 'Dear God, how long?' had been scratched into the walls, along with many equations and diagrams that Walters couldn't figure out.
Z Plus Seven Years Sixty Four Days
The helicopters moved much faster than the ground troops, and were reserved for the wounded only. As the victorious ground troops finally started arriving at the base, things returned slowly to normal. The violence had dropped off, and moral was back up a bit once word of the victory spread.
But the old man had not woken up, but the Time Walters and Noah arrived at the Base and came to check on him.
"He's human." Kate confirmed when they all came to Medbay. "I have no idea why he's alive, but he's human."
Connor stared at the old man. He didn't recognize him. "Any ID?"
"No identification, no records in our databases, clothing is all Skynet issue, the bar-code doesn't match any of our people..."
Connor looked at Walters. "Eric, it's time you introduced Noah to Brain Box."
"Yessir."
"Who the hell is Brain Box?"
Walters had led her to a sealed room on the base, fairly well defended. The room itself was not guarded, but there was a keypad at the door, and Connor entered at lest twenty digits into it. "Let me ask you something, Erica." Walters said quietly. "When Connor first showed up in San Jose, did you get information on his background? I know Whickham had information he didn't get from interviews with my people."
Noah considered the question, not at all blind to the fact that Walters had used her first name for the first time. "Yeah. Yessir, I did. I got it from one of our own captured Terminator chips."
Walters nodded. "The Terminator CPU acts like any other CPU. it takes the information on the hard drive and matches it to the directives each machine gets. It simply does it at a devastating speed. The information is not kept in the CPU itself. Connor was a primary target, so it had that information immediately available on the chip. It had similar information on some of my Command Staff, Whickham..." He opened the door and turned to Noah. "The thing is that all the information on every other topic was not immediately available to us. The CPU is one thing, the programming language was another."
"You couldn't figure it out either?"
"Well, with all the Terminators on our side, all we had to do was ask, and it would give us whatever answers it had. But a computer is notorious for not volunteering more information than is asked for. So we had our Terminators program something of an Oracle for us."
Noah came into the room and froze. The room was almost bare except for an overhead light, a chair and desk...
And a Terminator Torso mounted on the wall. It had no arms, no legs. It was welded to the wall, not chained there. The only part of it that could move was its head, which turned to watch as they walked in.
"Hello, Brain Box." Walters said calmly. "I have some more questions for you."
"Yessir." The Machine said. "Who is this?"
"It's asking questions." Noah whispered. "They don't have curiosity. Do they?"
"This one does." Walters said. "Oracle, tell her about yourself."
"Unit Brain Box is an retrograded unit. CPU processing speed is 200% of normal. Information recall is 400% of normal. Please direct any questions you might have to me and I will answer them."
"All the information we get, every Terminator we hack, all gets fed into our Crystal Ball here." Walters explained. "And his Directives have been replaced with one simple command. To answer any questions and volunteer any relevant information. including supposition and theory."
"It's a Think Tank!" Noah exclaimed.
"Effectively." Walters agreed. "It has no contact with any uplink, to us or to Skynet. it has no limbs, no offensive or defensive weapons. It's a brain welded to the wall."
Noah nodded, interested. "Wow."
Walters pulled the picture from his folder and held it up to Brain Box. "Do you know this man?"
"Yes." Brain Box responded. "His name is Abraham Merzer."
"Abraham Merzer." Walters briefed the others. "Head researcher of cybernetics division for CIA. Took part in a number of projects, and was the brain of the operation. He helped design AI algorithms for Government agencies; joined the CIA to get funding for his own civilian projects."
"What were those projects?" Connor asked, knowing the answer.
"Prosthetics." Walters answered. "His pet project involved using fiber optics to replace human nerve endings. His theory was, that you could use artificial nerve endings to gain sensation in prosthetic limbs." Walters tapped the folder. "He also did some work in Stem Cell research. Namely the use of cloned flesh to repair massive damage to burn victims, amputees..."
Connor and his wife traded a bleak glance. "He was working on a way to make artificial limbs and skin work like real limbs and skin."
"Yes sir."
"And it appears he succeeded." Noah commented. "We went over the things he scratched into the walls of his cell. Most of it goes over my head, but part of it is a journal of sorts. They had his daughter and grandson prisoner. He obeyed Skynet's orders to find a solution to their Flesh and Blood problem under pain of them being tortured."
"And once he figured it out, they recreated it and left him and his family to rot." Connor finished.
"Is he going to live?" Noah asked.
Kate sighed and shrugged. "Carla?"
The Head Nurse had the same look. "He's an old man. He hasn't exactly been in comfortable surroundings, and he hasn't been treated well. He's got fractures everywhere, malnutrition, nervous exhaustion, blood infections..."
"Do we care?" Kate asked finally. "This is the man who designed the skinjobs. Do we care if he lives?"
Coming from her, it was so unexpected, that everyone was caught unawares.
Kate realized their scrutiny and flushed. "I... Have other patients."
Connor followed her.
"I know what you're going to say, John." She said before he could talk. "I have no idea where it came from. I didn't really mean it... I don't know."
Connor looked shrewdly at her. "You can always talk to me, you know."
Kate looked back at him in surprise. "I know. What are we talking about?"
"We never really talked much about Whickham." Connor said gently. "About what happened to him."
Kate shrugged. "John, I had to sort out my feelings on the matter five years ago. I haven't heard from him in as long, and the last thing I heard was that he wanted to arrest you for Mutiny. I'm fine."
"You are?"
"I am."
Merzer was still unconscious on the gurney. The few machines were muted; the lights were never set high to conserve power, turned lower at night.
His face was horrifically drawn and thin, his skin was gray, and the bags under his eyes were so deep, he almost looked like a skeleton already.
Kate studied his hollow shape, reminding herself that this man was the genius that figured out how to make a machine look human. Make a Terminator look human. Make the machines into Infiltrators, like the one that killed her father, killed her husband's father, killed her boyfriend, killed Chet, killed dozens, killed mercilessly...
Because this man figured out how to disguise them.
Carla had told her in no uncertain terms that the prognosis was impossible to predict. He had been in captivity for a long time before he collapsed. This was the long term damage. He was an old man.
An old man with a lot to answer for.
Kate followed the wires from his chest to the life support. Then she followed the tube from his nose to the IV's... She reached out and took a fistful of the wires in her hands. It would only take a few moments, surely…
"Kate?"
Katherine leaned away from the gurney him on instinct as she turned. Her husband was in the doorway, and he came over and took her hands, very slowly pulling her away from the gurney. "What were you doing?" He asked her, knowing the answer.
Kate didn't answer. Couldn't answer. Couldn't even look at him.
"That's not what we do here." He said slowly.
Kate didn't answer. Couldn't answer. Couldn't even look at him.
"That's not what we're here for." He pushed gently.
Kate pushed him away in horror and headed back for their room.
Kate did not cry. Not for bad things. There were too many of them to cry over. She had not cried since losing the baby. She had not cried before that since Crystal Peak. She was a soldier now. She was fighting back hell tooth and nail. She couldn't go to pieces over an old man. Or a friend. Or her Uncle. Not like this.
She would not cry. Not for him. Not for this.
John came in, sat down next to her. "Kate?"
"I'm not fine, am I?" She asked quietly. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"You think I'm mad at you."
Kate didn't sit up. Couldn't look at him.
Connor sighed. "Machines don't have families. Machines don't have kids, don't have fathers. They have factories. Lights and calculators. That man in our infirmary is the victim. There's blame to go around. Blame Dyson for being so smart. Blame your father for pushing the button. Blame me for being on the target list so long and leading both of them to their death. But most of all; and I do mean most of all: Blame Skynet, for blowing up the world, designing these machines, for wanting to kill us, for hunting us day and night. Miles Dyson died, trying to stop his own invention. For nothing. Your father had a hand in it too. He died trying to protect us. And billions paid for it. Including me."
Kate couldn't say anything to that. Such thoughts kept her awake at night. Her father was the reason Skynet took over. She had seen it. He had hit the button personally. Her father had opened Pandora's Box, and set John on this path.
"How can you even stand to be around me?" She asked, with no particular emotion in her voice at all.
"Must love you, I guess."
"Guess so." She agreed.
"You think I don't understand the desperate need to blame somebody? Carla's in the middle of this same feeling right now."
Long silence.
"I just... Chet was family to me for a long time. No matter what else it was, he was family then..."
John nodded. "Kate, even the machines know that it's human nature to destroy ourselves. We've got an enemy."
"I know." She admitted.
John put an arm around her and squeezed her close tightly. Kate threaded her fingers through his.
"Eric's team is back. Mission accomplished there."
Kate nodded and stood up. "Let's get started then."
"Are you sure?" John asked in some concern.
"Yes. John, nothing happened, and one thing about meeting time traveling robots, it sort of keeps you from thinking about the what-ifs."
John chuckled. "Guess so."
Walters found Noah in the Orchard, sitting against a tree. "I see we have similar habits. I like to walk in the green too."
Noah looked up at him, amused. "I haven't seen a tree in so long… I think I forgot how beautiful they were."
Walters sat down across from her. "What's on your mind?"
Noah sighed. "I failed him."
"You weren't there."
"That's how I failed him. If Connor got killed when you were away, would you forgive yourself?"
Walters paused. "No." He confessed.
"We're the Second in Commands. We aren't the big heroes. We're the guys the big heroes count on." Noah was silent a long moment. "I… too many of my people want to join on with Connor. One way or another, the US Army is dead. I'm the last soldier."
"Are you going to join up?"
"I… I want to. But I can't. I just can't."
"Why not?"
"Whickham would never forgive me. I want to beat Skynet. I want to strike back. I want to wipe the Machines from the face of the earth. And I know we can't do it without an Army. But…"
Walters tilted his head. "Erica… I can't believe that you think Tech-Com is a ragtag group. Not any more. Maybe five years ago you could write it off as a desperate act from desperate people. But we're the real deal. Connor is the real deal. You must know this know, you must have sensed it, if nothing else. It's the last, best hope to win!"
Noah waved her arms furiously back at the Mountain. "Eric, do you have any idea who he is?" She snapped. "He's a criminal! He's a criminal from a family of terrorists and mental patients!"
"Is that all you know?" Walters asked in open disbelief.
Noah reacted. "How did you find out?"
"He told me!"
"He told you?"
Silence.
Walters held out a hand. "Noah… can I introduce you to someone?"
Hesitant, somewhat derailed, Noah took his hand. "Okay."
The day ended as the days often did, with Kate and John just getting ready to sleep when one or both of them were summoned back to duty. This time the radio buzzed with the news that the Main Entrance was receiving a large shipment of dormant, deactivated Infiltrator models.
Connor was up in seconds, telling them to take it to one o the storage rooms. He was almost sprinting.
Kate didn't realize what had him so excited...
...until they reached the storage room, and she saw the Infiltrators.
Five of them were strangers' faces. One of them was not.
It was him. It was 'their' Terminator. The one that Connor knew and considered a father figure. The one that had kidnapped Kate to save her life. The one that had been destroyed saving them from something far more powerful than all of them put together.
Inwardly Kate knew it was not the same one. The infiltrators rolled off an assembly line like any other Machine, but she couldn't help but feel a twinge. Something she had thought long dead was awakened at the sight of that familiar face. It was one o the few links they had to the time Before.
Kate slipped over and threaded her fingers through her husbands. They stayed with him for a long time.
"Enrique?"
The grizzled man looked up. He was sitting cross legged on the floor in his bandit's dorm, looking over the lists of the killed and injured. His eyes were red, but without tears. "What?"
"I want you to talk to someone for me. This is Erica Noah."
Enrique rose to his feet easily, without pushing off from the floor he sat on cross-legged. "Erica, huh? My father had a goat named Erica, and we ate her."
Noah frowned, taken aback. "Um… okay."
Walters hid a smile. "She needs to know a few things about Connor. About who he is. About where he comes from."
Enrique suddenly went still. His face was a stone wall that gave away nothing. "About… what exactly?"
"About his mother." Walters said quietly.
Enrique let out a breath. "My people have loud mouths."
"Tell her, Enrique."
Enrique waved Noah down. "So, Colonel; how much do you know about Connor's family?"
"I know his father was long out of the picture even before he was born, and I know his mom was locked in a Mental Institution for much of his childhood. Charges of domestic terrorism."
"Well, that's true as far as it goes." Enrique admitted. "She tried to destroy a computer company called Cyberdyne Systems. That was the terrorism charge. She damn near succeeded too. Before they caught her, she stayed with me for a while. The General too. He was about six at the time. I threw her out because she was nuts. She honestly believed in some really crazy ideas. She said that the world would end in a Nuclear War started by a machine called Skynet. She thought her son was going to lead humanity to victory over them. That's why they locked her up."
Noah felt her jaw drop. "No. I don't believe it."
"Believe it, Colonel." Walters said. "I've heard the story from others too. Connor grew up learning how to fight an enemy that wouldn't exist till he grew up."
"So.. so what are you saying?" Noah said with sarcasm. "That Sarah Connor Senior… What? Prophesied the end of the world? And her son?"
"Definition of a prophecy: History accurately written in advance."
Noah was stuck in brain lock for a moment. "But… but that would mean that… that Connor is…"
Walters nodded. "I didn't believe it either, Erica. I had no reason to trust him. Except that I did. I had no reason to believe in him. Except that I did."
Noah was staring into space; her concept of reality was shaken to the core. "I… I have to… I can't… I have to think about this."
She turned and left without a word. Walters started to go after her, but Enrique put a hand out. "Don't poke the bear."
Still in the storage room, the others long gone, John spoke finally. "Kate, Eric told me something interesting when he went over the numbers."
"What's that?"
"Chet's base is a mess. It's in a good position. The Terminator couldn't use the antenna for his own signals to Skynet, but they trashed him before he could get out of that valley to radio back to base. We've got some time to fortify it..."
"Yeah?"
"So we're going to need someone to set it up properly. Someone who's fought machines, and who's been to that base before personally..."
"No." Kate told him firmly. "My place is here. With you."
"I agree."
"I know that there's-wait. What?"
"I agree."
"Oh. Sorry."
John grinned. "Which is why I'm sending Eric and the 637th."
"Eric? But he's your guy here. Except for the Command Briefings... Half the army comes to you through him."
"Which is why I'm going to need someone who knows everything about everyone to take over for him."
Kate closed her eyes and leaned into him. "And you think that's me?"
"Who's in Medbay right now?"
"Cameron. One of Eric's original men. Lorreni, the techie from the 73rd Recon, and I think Stahl from the Kill-Switches."
John nodded. "Jason's K-9 Unit caught up to Noah's unit quickly after you gave the order. So quickly in fact that you didn't have time to check position with C-in-C."
"I knew where they were." Kate admitted.
"You're the right person for this."
"I guess so."
They stood together silently for a while, staring at a familiar face in the dark.
Z Plus Seven Years Sixty Five Days
Noah came into her Dorm room. Most of the US Remnant had been given one of the unused dorms to live in. There were only half a dozen or so soldiers there, still in their US Army uniforms. "Gentlemen."
The soldiers stepped over to her quietly. "We liked the eulogy." Hasnk volunteered.
"Thanks."
Hasnk licked his lips. "Mm. Um, the rest of us were talking, and we were thinking… there's a reason that most of the guys want to join Tech-Com. They can't see much of a future in the US Army."
"I'm not so sure they're wrong." Noah admitted. "There's no Army left…"
"There's you." Hasnk told her. "We all know how highly general Whickham viewed you. It's no secret he was planning for you to take over if anything happened to him."
Noah smiled, despite herself. "Well, that's probably true, and nice of you to say." She took a breath. "But there's no infrastructure. There's no bases, no ammo, no supplies, no reserves…"
"Well that's what we were talking about when you came in. See, there's a place where we've got all those things."
"Where?"
"Right here in Crystal Peak."
Noah reacted. "What?"
"We've been asking questions." Hasnk said intensely. "It's easy enough. There's just the War Room. They didn't confiscate our weapons when we came in. There are only four or five people who outrank you anyway. Connor, his wife, Walters, and maybe Oldham. Oldham's on maneuvers… It would take only a few minutes to cut off the head."
Noah stared at him.
Hasnk nodded. "Ma'am, most all of them just need someone in charge. I doubt they'll care who it is."
"You idiots didn't learn that lesson five years ago? If they didn't care who led them, they wouldn't have followed him in the first place."
"They won't fight for him over you if he's dead." Hasnk told her, the six of them nodding along with him. "You can have Crystal Peak whole, and the manpower, the supplies, the ammo, all of it. Under a US Army banner all over again, just as it was meant to be."
Noah turned away from them, shrugged out of her jacket, unconcerned with the six men watching her strip to the waist. One thing a soldier living in Underground quarters couldn't afford to be was shy.
"It's what Whickham would have wanted for you." Hasnk offered.
Noah froze, and then very slowly turned around and slugged Hasnk across the jaw so hard that the soldier, two feet taller than her, was knocked squarely on his back. By the time the rest of the soldiers were able to get him upright again, Noah had pulled on a light blue-grey jacket and zipped it up tightly.
The six of them pulled back a bit, in a half-semicircle, looking stunned. Noah was wearing a Tech-Com uniform.
"Hasnk. You don't get to tell me what the old man wanted for me." She told him, cold and deadly. "And if I hear one more word about killing officers again; out of any of you; I'll run you all in for attempted mutiny. Is that clear?"
"You want me to run Castle Keep?" Walters couldn't bring himself to believe it.
"Not permanently." Connor assured him. "But we need someone who can set it up properly. Or at least, set it up like a Tech-Com base. After six months or so, their people will be 'our' people and we can put someone they have more history with in charge. Meantime, Noah can work here in a Colonel posting with some relevance and have our people get as used to her as they are to you. Its the fastest way to integrate everyone."
Walters nodded, seeing the logic. "I wish you would give me some warning the next time you rearrange the social structure of the human race."
"Sorry, Eric; but that's showbiz."
The morning briefing in the War Room was not the exciting news of coming victory it was a few weeks before, but the news was getting batter.
"Our lines have stabilized." Connor reported. "We were able to retreat far enough for Skynet to over extend it's march a little, and pulled them in close enough to some of our surviving units that we could do some damage. We lost a lot of people, and a lot of territory. But we started this war by being under their feet. We can do it again."
Nods went around the table.
"The old tactics will still work. Our guys may have gotten used to having secured Green Zones, but for now that's limited to Crystal Peak and surrounding areas, the supply lines, and Lori's Stronghold." He gestured across the table. "Enrique?"
Enrique stood up. "Everything south of the New Mexico Border is secured. The Cartel Union has agreed to patrol it and protect it and the people and jungle land down there on their own."
"Is there still jungle?" Noah asked in amazement.
"Yes. Skynet sent a force to burn it over a year ago, but we were able to stop them. The jungle land is smaller than it used to be, but it'll keep growing. Due to our losses up here, we've reclassified the Cartel Union as an Allied Force. Our forces are to be pulled out of the South American continent immediately, and redeployed up here. Colonel Noah?"
Noah stood. "The US Army has chosen, with only one or two exceptions, to disband. Most of them have signed up with Tech-Com already. Is there any way we can keep their old units together for a while? We know each other pretty good."
"We keep them together, are they going to have trouble taking orders?" Walters asked. He wasn't trying to provoke anything, he just needed to know.
"If they do, I'll skin them alive." Noah promised. "This should be more about killing Skynet than anything else, don'cha think?"
Smirks went around the table at that one.
"Keeping the former Army remnant together will give us a full Regiment." Connor said with calm authority. "Our Units are smaller and faster than the usual US Army Units were. They'll have to be redeployed, but we'll be glad to have reinforcements this week."
"At your service, General." Noah said evenly, not a trace of defeat or awkwardness.
"What's the word on identifying infiltrators?" Lori asked.
"We're still going over Merzer's notes, looking to see if there's anything in the formula that can help. But for now, the K-9's seem to be the most efficient means. We're already set up a fortified post at the entrance. Anybody going in or out has to submit to K-9 inspection." Connor explained. "I'm making it a General Order that any base we set up has to have similar inspection points at the entrances. Any more questions?"
Silence.
"Colonel Noah, take your unit and clear out the surrounding sectors around Castle Keep. Colonel Walters, you will take command of Castle keep and move it to Sector fourteen. There's been a week's worth of shock and survival. As of now, we're back at work." Connor commanded. "Good hunting. Dismissed!"
On their way out the door, Noah came within earshot of Walters just long enough to mumble in his ear. "I still don't believe a word of it."
Walters grinned to himself.
The meeting broke up, and Kate took the opportunity to stay behind with her husband a moment, before the War called them back to the others. "John?" Kate asked finally. "About last night..."
"Shh." She felt his fingers on her lips gently. "We don't have to talk about what happened, because nothing did happen."
"I wish it was that simple."
"I told you, my mom was looking for someone to blame too. But she let him live. And we told Dyson everything we knew, and he helped us lead the charge into Cyberdyne that same night, becoming the single greatest chance we ever had of ending Skynet before this started. Mercy makes the world stagger on. Something I've never had to worry about from you."
Kate grinned. "Stop comparing me to your mother."
"I said not one word."
Kate squeezed his hand, and pulled him back for a quick kiss. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Skynet to all units.
Tech-Com Units have secured Sector 12-15. Infiltrator units mobilized.
Enemy has divided. Former South American Continent Now independent of Tech-Com Command Structure. Infiltrator units 1982-6457 Activated.
Infiltrator Factory 19 Destroyed. All other units active.
Castle Keep terminated. US Army remnant terminated.
Crystal Peak infiltration failed. Reattempt underway.
Continue Stratagem.
Terminate John Connor.
End Transmission.
Chapter 16: Z Plus 10 Years 54 Days
Chapter Text
I was not brought up to war as were the Children of the Dust. Even as an Army Brat, my father made sure I was always kept safe and away from the veterans and the weapons. My father didn't want me to serve. I was drafted into this war by destiny. And when I look back on my life, I realize what a naive fool I was then. I was soft.
[Taken From the Memoirs of General Katherine Connor, 2170]
Z Plus Ten Years Fifty Four Days
The war entered its tenth year since Judgment Day, and Humanity was hitting back yet again. Skynet's plan to send in Infiltrators worked phenomenally well for the first few months. But as with all their Terminator models, they rolled off an assembly line. Photos were passed around of every face the Infiltrators wore, and none of them got close ever again.
Tech-Com reworked their weapons, making their rifles more powerful to counter the more hardened Infiltrator's battle-chassis; and the war went on.
Connor noticed that every morning when the Day Shift came on, some of the walls in Crystal Peak had new artworks put up by the Tunnel Rats. He had to admit that some of them had pretty good artistic skills. Every Terminator ever seen had been painted up on the wall 'Wanted Poster' style, usually with cross-hairs or some creative death mark drawn over them.
The Tunnel Rats had largely grown up, but not signed on. They were too mistrustful, and too tight-knit. Kate had drafted them as Base Personnel; and as she was the only maternal figure than any of them could remember, they were willing to follow her; even more than her husband. There were enough of them that they became an indispensable part of the day to day running of the Base.
Skynet made the fatal error of wiping out whatever human being it could find, and so a new face was instantly noticeable on either side, and Skynet didn't have enough variety in its Infiltrators to fake a large community.
Connor started capturing factories again, and Infiltrators were being captured whole, just like the other Machines.
As yet, nobody had tolerated having Infiltrators involved in the running of the bases. Sending them out on missions like their mechanical counterparts was impossible. Skynet gunned down anything that looked human.
Every now and then, Skynet came out with a new face. Every now and then an Infiltrator got through the front door of one base or another and gunned down a few people. Not enough to make a huge difference, but more than enough to keep the fear alive.
Humanity and Skynet traded territory back and forth, but both sides had forces that slipped past the checkpoints and the patrols. The long march to retake the ruined Earth became a War of Attrition, grinding out each others warriors, one by one. The numbers thinned out on one side, and the opposite side got another square on the board.
Skynet was running out of materials, its enormous military efforts using up the refined metals already on hand, and the assembly lines moving too fast to bring in enough supplies past Tech-Com's strike teams.
Humanity was losing foodstuffs, the war stretching longer than was expected.
The War continued beyond either expectations, grinding each other down, slow and difficult, each waiting for something that would break the agonizing stalemate.
Young Sarah Connor's turn came up, and she was given her first mission. Standard scouting run. There was barely a question of who would go with her.
The staff at Crystal Peak didn't dare treat her any differently, but also didn't dare leave anything in her Mission up to chance.
Breathing down Sarah's neck at every step was Lupe and Kyle. Kyle and Lupe were fiercely protective of the Connor children, and Sarah loved them both like family, but couldn't help but feel like they were babysitting her for the duration of the mission. Somewhere in the last three years, both of them had managed to grow another foot or two, leaving Sarah behind.
Sarah had been full of questions and energy the entire trip out. Kyle and Lupe were barely into their late teens, but were approaching the mission like jaded veterans. They drilled her on everything she did, and Sarah drew it in like a sponge.
"Keep your eyes moving!" Kyle called over his shoulder. Sarah was behind him on the motorcycle. Lupe was on a second bike behind them.
"What's that?" Sarah shouted.
Kyle looked where she was pointing and slowed the bike to a stop.
There was a set of tracks. Huge tracks. Tank treads.
Lupe slid off the bike. "H/K tracks. Deep ones."
"Does it matter that they're deep?" Sarah asked.
"Deep tracks mean that either it was moving very slowly, it went past very recently, or there were a lot of them."
"Or all of the above." Lupe put in. "Okay, Sarah; lets see what you know. Which way was it going?"
Sarah studied the tracks, and then pointed. "That way."
"Good. And where is it, or they, going?"
Sarah shrugged. "I don't know."
Kyle already had his map out. "Nobody we know of in that direction. Nothing important. But the tracks are deep, so there are a lot of them or they're taking their time getting there."
"Do we call it in, or go and look ourselves?" Sarah asked eagerly.
Kyle and Lupe traded a look. "If we call it in and they're close, it'll be like sending up a flare."
"We go check it out and we'll have to take her with us. The Chief won't like that." Kyle said. "It's not our mission."
"I brought a potato sack in her size, and a roll of duct tape. We could leave her here and come back for her after we check it out." Lupe suggested.
"Hey! Hey! Am I invisible? I'm standing right here!" Sarah said suddenly.
"No, really. I think she can handle it." Kate assured him.
Connor was pacing. "No doubt."
"You don't agree?"
"If there was the slightest doubt, would I have given her the go-ahead in the first place?"
"John, calm down. Remember Kyle and Lupe? Their first run, you and Enrique were pacing around like that, scaring the crap outta everybody. You were scaring Yolanda, and I didn't think that was possible. Calm. Down."
"She's our daughter." Connor repeated for the thirtieth time that day.
"I know. I remember. I was there." Kate growled. She hated this fiercely. She always knew that her first duty in this war would be to keep her husband on the right track, but Sarah was still her baby. She wanted to curl up in a ball and not come out until Sarah was back safe and sound. But she couldn't do that, because she was in command of the base now. And Connor couldn't do that, because he was still running a Planet-Wide war.
The thought that stopped her cold, was the thought that if her eldest child died, it would have been her husband's order that sent her out to her death. John still hadn't forgiven himself for her miscarriage, let alone their eight year old daughter.
Connor sighed hard and rubbed his face hard. "Give me something to do."
Kate nodded. Activity was the best defence. "Okay, how about this? The latest members to the One Boot Brigade-"
"The Non Combat Forces." John corrected absently.
"Whatever. They need their first lesson in Paydirt 101."
"You want me to do it?"
"No. But Robbie needs something to do too. It's the first time he and his sister have had Skynet between them. He's reacting about the same way you are."
"So tell him. You're Base CO, it's your project."
"I would. But I think this should come from you, Supreme General; and you need to be kept busy too."
Connor nodded. "Ah. I'll handle it."
Noah was watching them out of the corner of her eye. Kate slumped a little as Connor left, and Noah slipped over to her. "Men do not take these moments well, do they?"
Kate smirked. "It would appear not, no. I don't blame him. There are people near worshipping him downstairs, and he has to just sit here and watch while his only daughter goes out into the Wastelands."
"And so do you." Noah shook her head. "Michael will be Sarah's age next year."
Kate looked sympathetic. One mother to another. "I appreciate you keeping things under control while she's out there. It hasn't gone unnoticed. Especially since you don't approve of kids on the battlefield."
Noah shrugged and glanced around. Nobody was listening. "When I first got assigned with General Whickham, we served in a forward area. The guys we were sent to kill had child soldiers on the battlefield. Ten years old and one of them was carving his 'kills' on the butt of his rifle. Ten years old. I hate that we're the ones doing it now."
"Noah... Erica." Kate said gently. "When we started Tech-Com we never set an age limit. Eight years old or eighty, if you can pass the entry trials, you can wear the Uniform. I agreed with it because Skynet doesn't care how old you are; but now…More than two thirds of the people on this Base, and for that matter, anywhere else in the world, are under twenty five years old. To be honest, that scares the hell outta me. You, me, John, Eric, Gould, Enrique, Yolanda... we're not just the Old Soldiers, we're the exceptions to the rule. You just don't live long enough out there."
Noah nodded. "I know. And I hate how fast you go from childhood to middle aged now, but... That's not because of us, is it?"
"Nope."
Noah sighed hard. And then smiled a little for Kate. "She's going to be okay."
Kate tensed slightly. "I know."
Robbie was scrubbing out the inside of a pot in the mess when Connor came down to the kitchens. He paused by Sherrin, who was keeping an eye on things. "Tony."
Sherrin saluted with his good arm. "Sir."
"How's Robbie?"
"You talk to him, he's fine." Sherrin said honestly. "But he's been scrubbing that pot for thirty minutes now, and I honestly don't think he knows how much time has passed."
Connor nodded. "Tony, he likes you."
Sherrin blinked. "Sir."
"You ever take an interest in farming?"
"No more than anyone else wondering where their next meal is coming from."
"We're expanding the Eden Project. We need more people who know how to make Paydirt."
"Robbie's an expert."
"I want to give him something to do, and I think he'd be less… difficult about it if he knew you were interested too."
Sherrin nodded. "Sir."
Robbie came out of his thoughts when his father took the pot out of his hand. "Dad?"
"Robbie, something has come up-"
"Oh no. Sarah! Is it Sarah?"
"Nono, Sarah's fine. Near as we can tell, she's still on schedule. Lupe and Kyle are with her. You know them."
"Yessir."
Connor felt for his son. The boy was worried about his big sister. He wanted to be out there with them. A feeling that everyone in the family could relate to. "Well, what I was about to say, is that Hernan got called away at the last minute. We need someone to fill in for him with Eden."
Robbie didn't quite get it yet. "Who?"
"You."
"Me?"
"You know all the stuff they need to learn. You're better at it than I am."
Robbie took it like a seven year old should and saluted. "Okay."
Connor returned it and smiled.
Out on the fringes, Sarah was staring through her binoculars with rapt attention. In the distance, Skynet was rolling two H/K's toward the north east for some reason.
It was Sarah's first mission, and she was eager. A little too eager for Kyle and Lupe, who had been entrusted with Connor's eldest child on her first mission, and had no doubts at all about what would happen to them if she got herself killed.
"Think we can take them?" Sarah asked eagerly.
The two seasoned warriors just stared at her.
Kyle spoke first, his voice very low and cold. "Tactically dangerous. We'll be outnumbered, outgunned…"
"I know. I know." Sarah nodded. She was eager, not a fool. "So what do we do?"
"We call it in." Lupe said, pulling the radio gear, and assembling the long range transmitter, and working it while handing the handset to Sarah. "Your first run, you can call it in."
Sarah beamed. "Really!"
"You remember the codes, the call signs, all of that?" Kyle asked her, eyes never pausing.
"Yessir, Corporal." Sarah mocked. "Palace, Come in Palace, This is Dusty. Code one Rutabaga."
"Go ahead, Dusty."
"Have spotted Skynet, heading North West Grid Reference…" Sarah glanced at her Map, and spoke again. "Zero Zero Alpha By Gamma Charlie Niner."
There was a pause on the line and suddenly Kate's voice came over. "Sarah?"
Sarah smiled a little. "Hi... Colonel." She said, catching herself before she could say 'mom' on the radio. Sarah was not blind to the value of Connor's children to Skynet in this war. Her nametag read 'Brewster' and her babysitters were under strict instructions not to say her name out in the open.
"Sarah, put Reese on."
Sarah handed the radio to Kyle. "She wants to talk to you."
Kyle gulped and took the radio. "Ma'am?"
"Kyle, I can't help but notice you're three klicks west of where you should be." Kate said conversationally.
Kyle sent Lupe a nervous look. "We… noticed some H/K tracks, and Private 'Brewster' was quite insistent that they might be important."
"I see…" Kate said. "Kyle, you know that nobody has ever actually been discharged from Tech-Com."
Kyle swallowed. "Yes, Ma'am."
"Ever wonder why?"
Click. The line disconnected before Kyle could say anything else.
He handed Sarah the radio back; and gave Lupe a look. "We're dead." He told her shortly.
"We are so dead." Lupe agreed.
"Let's go home." He turned to Sarah. "Are you coming with us willingly, or do I have to use the Duct Tape?"
Connor had told them over and over again that killing Skynet was only half the war. The other half was saving the world. With the majority of the northern hemisphere now a wasteland, the Savannah of Africa and the Jungles in South America were the largest concentration of plant life that was left.
Connor had begun training people in how to prepare the dirt for growing again. They had taken these lessons and moved out in small groups, well away from the warzone; where people were few.
The weather had been altered dramatically by Judgment Day. Humanity now lived largely apart from nature itself. None of what they ate was grown in farms, and very little of it grown in dirt. Hydroponics took up less room and time. None of the children played outside. Fun was something that took place Underground, in safety. Water was filtered and recycled, harvested from deep underground sources or from collected condensation. The air they breathed was from algae scrubbers, and not from trees.
The new generation had never seen a forest, or grass, or trees, except for their guarded orchards, raising saplings.
Connor swore that would change.
The 'One Boot Brigade' was Tech-Com slang for all the soldiers wounded or ill in some way that they were no longer fit for combat duty. In any war, such things were inevitable, but there was no place in the world that they could be sent. Skynet didn't care if they were disabled in any way.
Retired from the warzone, there was still an incredible amount of work to do. Most of them were still more or less capable. Losing your hearing in one ear meant you were retired from the front, but it wasn't debilitating as an injury. Losing a leg meant you were put in a job you could do standing still or sitting down. The motor pool, the kitchens, the War Room…
Robbie looked them over as he came to the orchard. It took a while for them to notice him. The Orchard was an outdoor project, and when not on missions, most of the Human Remnant were concerned about being out in the open.
A small crowd, about fifteen people, were gathered at The Orchard. The larger trees were getting the most attention, having been there only a week. Robbie came over and called to them. "Hi. Are you guys waiting for Hernan?"
"Yes, we are."
Robbie nodded. "He can't make it. I'm teaching you today."
Silence. Connor's son was not unknown to the Underground, but he was still seven years old.
"Who told you that?"
"I did." Heads swivelled, and there was The General himself, not at all concerned. "He learned it from me, and now you'll learn it from him. If there's anything you can tell him on this subject that he doesn't already know, by all means, speak up now."
Connor stared them all down. Children were omnipresent in the Underground. They did more work than any adult of any previous generation before them. "Robbie, the class is yours to teach."
Robbie saluted like a grown up soldier, and his father returned it seriously; leaving him to it.
Robbie turned and waved at everyone. "Okay. Everyone come with me."
Robbie led them away from the larger trees of the Orchard, over toward the edge of The Mountain, where the newer trees were. They were kept in rows of above ground swimming pools. The pools were relatively small and all half filled with soil. They were all covered in plastic sheeting which was propped up like a tent over the saplings within.
"You were all looking at the larger trees." Robbie said. "But they aren't ours. They came from The Eden Project far north. Canada still has some forest left, and they sent a few younger trees down here. You know what the difference is?"
They were listening, so Robbie showed them. He jumped up into the pool and pulled the plastic away, revealing a healthy young tree, about six feet tall. "This tree will grow into a Willow tree. When it does, it'll drop seeds, drop leaves, create mulch. If you're wondering why we're not planting it right away, the answer is under your feet." Robbie reached down and took a big handful of the deep black soil in the tank. He dropped it back down, and then jumped out of the Tank, and scuffed the dirt. The dirt on the ground was pale, thin and blew away in the omnipresent wind. "This is dirt. In the tank? That's soil. We call it Paydirt." He pointed back and forth for a moment. "Dirt. Soil. Dirt makes things messy, soil makes things grow. Everyone get the difference?"
There were nods from his 'class'.
Robbie grinned. This was a subject that he an expert on; one that he cared about. "And now," he said. "I'm going to tell you how to turn one into the other."
Robbie led them back toward the Mountain. Set into the stone wall was a series of warehouses, set up after they'd moved in, years before. In the warehouses were a variety of equipment and storage and heaters and water supplies. Huge tubs, more above ground swimming pools, all of them adapted to other uses.
The warehouse that Robbie led them into had a fragrant smell of natural rot. It was a fairly unfamiliar scent, even for those who remembered life Back Before.
Robbie led them over to some smaller tubs, with lids on them. Each tub was still as big as he was. Robbie turned to face them. "Okay. The first thing you need to make dirt into Paydirt, is the dirt itself. That sounds easy, but after J-Day, a lot of it is irradiated. That's no good. You've gotta check every inch of where you plan to grow and make sure it's clean. Dirt is really thin and light, so a breeze could send it away. Or send the hot dirt to you. You've gotta know what's around you. If you can't find any good dirt; that's fine. Look behind you."
The assorted class did so. At the other end of the warehouse were huge earth-movers, with rotors and blades on the front; cast in pure Skynet chrome. Sherrin was standing in front of it. "Skynet uses Machines like this to clear areas for it to work." Sherrin explained. "We've taken the liberty of helping ourselves to a few dozen of them. We call them the Chompers. Robbie?"
Robbie nodded and took up the tale. "A Chomper can take a field of boulders and spit out powder dust. And that's what we start with." He gestured at the huge swimming pools, now storage tanks. "Those tanks are full of Paydirt. We made it. You take some of this soil, you take it out to the sandy dirt, and you just... turn it in. You keep doing it. Now, we don't have enough to cover over the whole world... but that's where these little guys come in." With that, Robbie lifted the cover off one of the tubs, and everyone recoiled a little. The tubs were all full of worms.
Robbie reached in and pulled out a handful of dirt from the tub. The dirt in his hand was wriggling with the worms in it. Robbie grinned at them, loving this. "Earthworms do more to fix the world than we ever will. These little guys are worth their weight in coffee." He dropped them back in and sealed up the tub. "Bugs and insects, especially the worms, are what make dirt into soil. So nobody kills any bugs and worms!" Robbie turned so fierce with that last part, that nobody had any doubts who his father was. "Except mosquitoes. Kill as many of those as you can get away with."
Everyone laughed a little cruelly. Mosquitoes were the death of people these days.
While they settled, Robbie went over to the next Tank. He didn't bother to uncover it. There was no way for him to reach. "These tanks are full of manure, and organics. Anything food, any part of food that's not edible. All that goes into these tanks. This stuff is bread and water to earthworms. You know how dad told you that trees take in smoke and stuff and make air? Earthworms and bugs take garbage and turn them into soil. The Eden Project is worm makers." Robbie pointed to the maps on the other side of the warehouse. "Now. Here's where we're working now. Places Skynet hasn't gone; and doesn't care about." The map was of what used to be called North and South America. Various points were marked in green. "Now, for a big field, you can plant the earthworms in so that they'll make more worms faster…"
Connor watched his son proudly from far enough away that he couldn't be a distraction.
Kate slid in next to him silently. "He looks good."
"He does."
"We got word from Checkpoint Baker." Kate said softly. "They're on their way home."
Connor relaxed. "Good. Any problems?"
"Coffee and cake run."
Z Plus Ten Years Fifty Five Days
Sarah signed in, and was immediately summoned to the War Room.
A few people who heard the announcement smirked. The 'Surprise Party' for a soldier's Trail By Battle Ceremony had long since stopped being even the slightest surprise to anyone. Sarah was the Connor's eldest child, so it was bound to be big.
Kyle and Lupe sent her on ahead. They had been invited of course, but had agreed to be a few minutes late.
A few minutes after signing in, Lupe slipped into a supply closet. Kyle joined her a moment later, and the two met in a passionate kiss almost before the door closed.
Lupe felt the sensation furry caterpillars all over her face and shoved him away instantly. "Yuck!"
"Yuck?" Kyle repeated, aghast.
Lupe got a sudden fit of the giggles. "Sorry, Kyle; but it's been a while since we got the chance to... well, you know... and you need a shave."
Kyle was stunned, rubbing his face. "I… I do?" A veteran of uncounted battles, survivor of endless life and death scenarios, Kyle Reese had never needed a shave before.
Lupe giggled some more, and Kyle couldn't help but laugh with her. She apparently got over it, leaning forward and kissing him deeply. "Having the General's daughter with us… it's like going into the field with an aunt along." She murmured and kissed him again.
After several seconds, they broke for air. "Got news for you." Kyle said happily. "She wasn't nearly as unaware as she pretended to be."
Lupe flushed. "Really?"
"They like you, Lupe. She won't tell. And when her brother goes out hunting, neither will he."
Lupe kissed him again. "We should hurry. If we're away from the party too long…"
"Nobody will care." Kyle assured her.
"Sarah will. She'll want to know why you weren't at the Trial by Battle."
Kyle pulled back. "Right." Sarah was family. You were there for your family. "Well then, I guess we should... go."
Lupe kissed him again quickly. "Wish upon a star, Kyle. It won't be long."
Kyle smiled softly as they headed out. 'Wish Upon a Star' was their little secret after their first mission.
"I kiss you, and you say 'Yuck'?" Kyle said after a while.
Lupe wore a Mona Lisa smile.
The Trial By Battle ceremony ended, as they usually did, with the newly crowd soldier being cheered and all but passed around the Unit. Connor's daughter wasn't given any special treatment, other than the other soldiers working to keep her identity secret when in the field, and there were other soldiers being recognized that day; but it was always a special occasion.
Kyle and Lupe slipped in during the speech, and were the first ones to congratulate Sarah. Robbie was right behind them.
Kate sidled up to Kyle. "Do I want to know why you were late?"
Kyle glanced around. "Just had some things to catch up on."
"Mm-Hm." Kate was not fooled. She got a look at him. "Kyle, you need a shave."
"So I hear. Do... do you know how to?"
"Sorry, sweetie; you've gotta talk to a guy for that one." She leaned in a little. "How'd Sarah do out there?"
"Like a fish to a water tank." He checked to see if anyone was able to overhear. "Don't worry, mom. She's got what it takes."
Kate smiled at him secretly. He still called her 'mom' from time to time when nobody was close enough to overhear. "Good." She drew in a breath. "What remains to be seen however, is if her father has what it takes to send her out again."
Kate could tell that Connor had frozen his face into a mask. He was barely holding it together. She wondered for a moment if anyone else but her could tell, and decided not to risk it. Sarah was now surrounded by people wishing her well, and there was bound to be a perfectly good reason to disappear. She slid her arm into his and pulled him away from the crowd.
"So, how you holding up, Connor?" Kate asked him as soon as they were out of the room.
"Remember when Lupe had her first run?" Connor asked blandly. "I told you to take notes, because I'd be in the same state."
"I remember. I also remember that I didn't believe that for a second." Kate snorted. "And I still don't. So what's really bothering you?"
Silence as they walked back toward their quarters.
"I didn't ask." Connor said finally.
"Ask?"
"I didn't ask our bodyguard. In the graveyard, when you ran away, I told him to let you go. He said that you were important to the resistance. He said that our children had a role to play. I flipped out at the word 'children'." Connor sighed. "I didn't ask. I didn't ask if they lived."
Kate went cold. She had been thinking about it too, trying to sort out what they knew of the future any longer.
"At the time, it was because I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to hear that Judgment Day was real, and I was going to be in charge…" Connor just looked at her with the infamous Connor Guilt written across his face. "What a horrible thing for me to think. We have two children. A son and a daughter. We have two beautiful, wonderful, perfect kids and I didn't want to know about it; and I didn't even ask what would happen to them. I had access to someone who knew the future, and I didn't even ask what happened to my family. What a selfish, despicable way for me to think."
Kate just stared at him for a moment. He'd had the tendency to go dark since he was ten years old. Not for the first time, she wondered if his mother ever tried to snap him out of it like she did. "John." She said finally. "I didn't ask either. At the time… I was still engaged to another man. Being your wife seemed like a…" She paused. "Well…"
"You can say it." John smiled a bit.
"A fate worse than death." Kate confessed quickly. She pulled him tightly to her. "I don't feel that way any more."
Connor breathed her in gently. The corridor to the Presidential Suite was fairly secluded and defensible. They had their privacy. "Kate, every so often I stop and realize just how unthinkably lucky I am to have you. Ever since I was a kid I knew I'd be alone. It didn't bother me. It was just a fact of my life… Now I try to imagine my life without you, and the picture always ends with me putting a gun in my mouth the day this war ends."
Kate kissed him deeply. "I try to think about my life if I'd never met you, and it always ends with me being vaporized about ten years ago."
Connor snorted. "Yeah."
"I don't blame you for not asking. It was a different world then. No Fate But What We Make. Right?"
"Right."
Silence.
"There are advantages to not having asked, you know." Kate said finally.
"What's that?"
"Well, if we don't know how many kids we have in one timeline, we don't have to worry about messing things up in this one."
Connor stared at her. "Are you…"
Kate smiled. "No. But Sarah and Robbie are going to be busy having a party for a little while, and the War Room will assume we're both there…"
Connor took the hint finally, and led the way into their room, Kate kissing him sweetly...
...where they found Kyle Reese waiting for them.
Kate 'eeped' a little at the surprise and broke the kiss swiftly. "Kyle. Didn't we just leave you at the party?"
Kyle looked down, mortified. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt-"
Kate flushed. She and Connor traded a look. Always on duty.
"It's all right. And anyway, I know you'd want to be back there, so you came in here for a reason, Kyle. So what's up?" Connor said.
Kyle glanced at Kate, who quickly got the point. "I'm needed elsewhere. Probably." She headed out, went as far as the door, and turned back to listen in.
"What's up, Kyle?"
"I um... I need help with something." He looked embarrassed that he had to ask. "I wanted to figure it out before the party ended. Before..."
"Before Lupe could find out?" Connor teased, and Kate smiled, unseen.
Kyle reacted. "Does the whole Base know?"
"Crystal Peak is pretty big, Kyle; but when it comes to gossip, it gets real small, real fast." Connor smirked. "What do you need?"
Five minutes later, Kyle and Connor were gathered around a pan of hot water. "Okay." Connor said. "First you wet your face with the water. Hot water works best."
Kyle splashed his face in the hot water, and held the razor carefully. Kate was still listening at the door, with a silly smile on her face.
"Now, we got the soap? You don't need too much. Like everything else, it's hard to find, but you're new at this, so we'll splurge."
Kyle flushed. "Thank you, sir."
"Now, ready?"
Kyle nodded.
"Remember, you don't need to press real hard. Always against the grain."
Kate couldn't help it. She peeked around the corner and got a look at her husband giving the teenage kid a lesson in how to shave. She couldn't help but smile at the picture.
"Did your dad teach you how to do this?" Kyle asked as he drew the razor back carefully.
"No, actually Enrique did, but I was way too young to need a shave. I think he was just teasing me." He paused. "Nearly shredded my face."
Kate slipped back and left them to themselves. Kyle had come to her so often she thought of him as a son. After their little agreement in LA, he even called her 'mom' sometimes when they were alone. She knew that another few years would see her husband doing this with Robbie. All his worry about being bad with kids, and Connor had seamlessly become the father figure to all the Human Race; and to Kyle in particular. They looked good together. Almost like...
Kate blinked. And looked again. And then blinked again.
And her eyes bulged.
Skynet To All Units:
Test Fire of Project 14128542 Commencing.
All Units In Former North and South American Continents Set To Emergency Backups Until Reactivation Code.
Project 14128542 Charging.
Connor and his lieutenants were having a walking meeting. "The food situation is getting beyond bad."
Connor nodded. "I know. We're expanding the Eden Project, but even our best projections say that'll take too long. I might have an idea on that, but at best it's still going to take a while. Where are we on finding the Infiltrator factories?"
"We've been comparing information about where they came from, when they joined on with the units they came in with, things like that."
"Lori's on the line." Someone else piped up. "She wants to talk to you about salvaging. I guess she's feeling the pinch too."
"Lori wants to talk about Ammo supplies. She can salvage her own growing material right where she is. Tell her I said we'll get her something, she'll know that I get where she's coming from."
The meeting had reached Connor's office where Kate was waiting at his desk, doing a long slow boil.
"You cold-hearted, amoral, judgmental, two faced, Machiavellian bastard." Kate snarled the second the whole company walked in.
Nuclear silence.
"Should we step out?" Walters asked.
"Sure sounds like it." Connor agreed.
Connor's entire command staff fled the room and John turned to his wife the second the door closed. "All right, Kate. I just put the Resistance on hold. What's on your mind?"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
Kate was ranting. If she was listening at all it was hard to tell. "I mean it, what possible reason... I mean… why didn't you tell me? Of all people!"
"And I still don't know what you're talking about."
"Kyle!"
John paled. "Oh."
"Oh? That's what you've got? Oh?" Kate snapped. "Did you think I would be mad at you? Did you think I would make you send him away?"
"The thought occurred."
"I'm not that cold, John. Family means something. I had to let go of two fathers, to say nothing of what we went through to get Sarah in our lives... Did you think I wouldn't figure it out eventually? Did you think I would hate you for having a son?"
John blinked. "What?"
"I mean... what you said in Crystal Peak, about how I was your only kiss... that was sweet, and given your life, I could even believe it... but I wouldn't have thought any less of you if you'd told me the truth; and it wouldn't have changed my feelings for you that day! Of course you had to leave him behind. Of course you had to hide any connection and stay away from him, and even that's assuming you knew he existed before J-Day in the first place. You could have told me!"
John was staring at her with his best poker face on. He gave away nothing. It would not have worked. Not on her. Not for a second. But Kate wasn't trying to read him. She was still ranting.
"Sarah and Robbie would have loved to know they had an older brother. They love him like a big brother already! They wouldn't care that he wasn't both of ours! All the surrogacy in the Mountain, it's hardly any different!"
John considered letting that go. It would neatly explain every question Kate ever had about his relationship to the young Kyle Reese...
Everything went black. The lights simply stopped working. Being underground, they were suddenly blind.
They waited for a moment and the lights didn't come back on.
"Aren't the floodlights on their own circuit?" John asked.
"Supposed to be."
In the darkness, she could hear him trying to work the radio. "War Room, come in."
No answer.
"Radio's offline too. Something happened."
Skynet To All Units
Test Fire Complete. Reactivation Code: QGBB95274HYERT-45JMBN9766DFRDSFAW
Experiment Failed. Information Gathered.
Energy Discharge Extreme. Dampers Sub-Standard. Total 42,305 Units Offline.
Human Equipment Also Vulnerable To These Discharges.
Tactical Analysis: 64% Chance that Tech-Com will attempt to exploit Weakness to Discharges. Unacceptable risk.
Begin Disassembly Immediately. Remove all Equipment, Recordings and Sensitive Intel.
End Transmission
Connor found his way to his gear and started searching through it. He found a glowstick and cracked it, filling the room with a ghostly green glow.
Kate was gritting her teeth. "There's always something more important, isn't there?"
Connor sighed. "Kate…"
"No, I'm serious. Whatever it is, it's no doubt more important. Let's go. We'll settle our thing later."
It was enough for Connor. He took off in a hurry toward the War Room. Kate followed, still seething. She hated the timing, but every soldier knew: Things trying to kill you right this second have priority.
The lights were out in the Tunnels too. Connor could see parts of the room illuminated by various glowsticks. The people in the Tunnels were heading toward the light, grouping together.
Flashlights started working, and more light was cast. The sight of the torches working helped. Equipment failure was far less terrifying than any number of other things that might be happening.
But inwardly, Connor was more worried by the sight of the working flashlights. They work but the watches and the radios don't? What happened?
"Report!" Connor said on the way into the War Room.
"Power's out to the entire base. We're getting reports of overloads." Walters said first thing.
"The entire base went black at once, all four generators. We sent runners to the Generator rooms; the guards have all been verified, it wasn't sabotage." Noah added.
"Well the Generators are pretty much nothing more than a dozen Terminator batteries hooked up." Connor said. "We know it affected them and the radios..."
"Electro Magnetic Pulse? An EMP would knock out anything with a circuit."
"Negative." Noah interrupted. "The batteries are all working. Techs say that the… whatever it was overloaded the circuits between the Batteries and the equipment. They're working on it now."
"And the flashlights are working." Connor said. "An EMP that strong wouldn't miss anything. Besides, how many weapons have we salvaged and used against Skynet? An EMP would do more against Skynet than it would against us." Connor sighed. "This is something else. The Techs have any ideas?"
"Well… that's the thing." Walters said. "Most of the equipment we'd use to get the problem diagnosed and solved… is currently offline."
Connor sighed. "Is there seriously nothing on this base left disconnected?"
"Nothing useful to us now." Noah summed up, as one of the Tunnel Rats ran into the War Room and handed her a note, darting out again immediately. "Motor Pool says they're trying to get the backup generators running. They've got a few jeeps working; and they're trying to jump start the Base."
"We're using the radios in the jeeps. Reports are coming in. Half the North American Theater is offline. Without some equipment up and running fast we're completely vulnerable."
"Damn. What kind of weapon could do this?" Noah asked.
"This isn't a weapon." Connor said immediately. "If it we're, we'd be under attack right now." Connor studied the map. "This is something else… Relay orders out to the furthest units we've got. Tell them to start Recon."
"What are they looking for?"
"Dead Machines."
"Connor, NO!" Noah said for the twelfth time in two minutes. "I know that those words are considered blasphemy down here, but I mean it: Connor, NO!"
"We need working equipment. They're the only Machines on the base that are permanently in 'Off' mode."
"There's a reason for that!"
Connor keyed the door code. With the power off, the door did not open. Connor sighed. "Can we just kick it down?"
"A security door? We'd need C4 to get through it." Noah said. "Consider it a hint. The universe is saying 'Connor, NO!'."
The lights came on suddenly.
Connor sighed, and turned away from the door. Noah followed him, not bothering to hide the relief on her face. "Good choice, sir."
"Why this one?" Connor asked her quietly. "Level with me. We use captured Machines all the time. Why is the thought of reprogramming the Infiltrators so much worse?"
Noah just stared at the back of his head. "You really have to ask that?" She retorted. "You know, and I know, that we don't allow Machines to do any work that involves people. They smash Machines, they record reports, they break codes, they lift heavy things and they punch keys. You're always talking about trying to keep our humanity. A Machine surgeon would be more accurate, but we don't let them work in Medbay. A Machine guard would be tireless and always on duty, but we don't post them as guards. We just don't. Infiltrators are worse than that. You know this. You have to know this."
Connor glanced at her. She was getting way too intense about this. She cooled off and was instantly back to normal as she became aware of his scrutiny.
"General Connor to the War Room." The PA announced. "Oh, and the PA is working again, sir."
Connor started walking and lifted his radio. "Walters, come back?"
"Walters here."
"Eric, the radios are working too." Connor told him.
"I guess we can officially rule out EMP then."
"Looks like it was an electrical discharge." Walters reported. "Motor Pool has confirmed it wasn't an EMP. It was just… it's like having a lightning strike close by. The circuit got overloaded by the rush of energy."
"What in the name of fried Emergency Rations on toast can put out that much current?" Noah wondered.
Connor was notably silent. Kate was watching him out of the corner of her eye.
"Noah, Walters…" Connor said slowly. "Do we have communications back up or not?"
"We're getting there. Bases are reporting in, the mobile units are coming a little slower." Walters reported. "And you were right. Skynet was hit too. There's actually something of a semi-No Man's Land along Sector Nine."
"Our bases are reporting situation normal." Noah added. "Looks like everything human is starting up again. Skynet's Machines however, are not."
"Why not?" Kate asked. "If our equipment can recover, why can't they?"
"That's the big question." Connor agreed. "When we've got everyone, tell them to send back the CPU's from the nearest dead Machines they can find."
Kate looked at him. "What exactly are you looking for?"
"Skynet didn't attack." Connor explained. "If this was planned, they would have hit us everywhere the second everything switched off. And they didn't. Which means they didn't know it was happening. Most of the technology damaged, namely the power sources, are fed by Terminator batteries, so that we can save the fuel for the vehicles. So… If Skynet didn't see this coming, they wouldn't have hardened their own power sources. If we took damage across everything in the North American Theater…"
"Sonofabitch." Noah grinned. "Then so did they."
"Does that mean Skynet blew itself up? Is… is the war over?" Walters asked.
"No." Connor said quickly, before that little thought could get out. "We lost primary and back-up generators, we lost communications. We kept medical, we kept the refrigerators, and we kept the motor pool. We're still hearing from our Scrubbed Machines. If they're still standing, so is Skynet."
"How do we know what escaped the blast?"
"Anything still shooting at us escaped the blast." Kate offered.
"What can put out so much juice that it just… shorts out half the northern hemisphere?" Noah asked.
Kate glanced at Connor again. He wasn't speaking. "People are asking questions." She said aloud. "Connor, you've gotta give them something, or they'll start making stuff up."
"We don't have any answers yet." Noah retorted.
"Kate, with me. Everyone else, do… whatever it is we should be doing." Connor ordered; and followed his wife out of the War Room.
"You think it's the Time Machine, don't you?" Kate asked, the second they left earshot.
"I don't know." Connor said darkly. "It's… Time travel was supposed to be the last ditch effort. We aren't there yet. This… it might be. I don't know."
"If it is…" Kate asked him. "What happens then?"
Connor sighed. "I don't know. Skynet used it three times. Two of them to send Machines we haven't seen yet. Maybe… maybe I've been wrong all this time. I don't know."
"So what's the next move?" Kate asked.
Connor was silent a long time, as Kate just stared at him. Uncertain Connor was something unusual. He always knew what to do.
"We have to find out for sure." Connor said finally. "We have to find where that pulse came from."
"And then?"
"It's a Time Machine, Kate. We'll have all the time in the world to decide what to do then."
Silence.
"John…" Kate said finally. "If it is… If we take the Time Machine… maybe we should… I mean, we're here. We could send back… What if we could stop this?"
Connor stared at her. "Change the past?"
"You always said… No Fate But What We Make."
Connor bit his lip. "I spent twenty years guessing and second guessing how to use a Time Machine that didn't exist… I don't know."
Kate kicked herself. She forgot sometimes that her husband had to live with this war a lot longer than anyone else had. "We'll handle it." She said firmly. "And about Kyle…"
Connor tensed. "Kate…"
She shushed him, putting her fingertips over his lips gently. "Shh. I trust you. I love you. I don't know what the whole story is, and I'll keep what I know a secret."
"You will?" Connor said in surprise.
"John, when Sarah goes out on missions now, our guys have orders not to say her last name out loud, just in case. You think its hard being John Connor? How hard is it to be his kid?" Kate had known much of Connor's life from her first month in Crystal Peak. If he hadn't told her about Kyle... or who his mother was, then it was logical he didn't talk about it for a reason. Knowing as she did the tendency of the people he loved to die brutally, she knew better than to make him relive it. Especially since she was now his wife.
Connor couldn't help but smirk a little as he read these thoughts on her face. "If Skynet ever found the connection between me and Sarah… or me and Kyle…"
Kate shushed him again. "I'm a Connor now too. I know the family secrets. And that's why I'll sit on this one. But Kyle worships you. Don't… I don't know. But our kids love him. I don't know what will happen if we mess with this, but until we do…"
Connor felt such an overwhelming sense of relief, love, and guilt wash over him. "I don't deserve you, Kate."
"I know, but I've learned to live with it." She teased gently.
Silence.
"Before the lights came back on, I was going to wake up the Infiltrators; put them to work." Connor said quietly.
Kate shuddered. "Good thing you didn't." She said. "The lights go out and the Machines rise from their crates? Everyone would think we had lost the war."
Connor scrubbed his face. "Why is this worse?" He asked. "What makes them so damn scary compared to every other Machine we use?"
Kate just looked at him. "You're kidding, right?"
Connor was honestly lost. "No. Everyone assumes I am, but I'm serious. Help me understand this."
Kate glanced around. "You're too close to the Infiltrators, Connor. You are way too close. It was Infiltrators that killed my father, and Scott, and who knows how many other people in the way... Even the one sent as my Bodyguard started by kidnapping me. I was scared to death of him. It."
"An Infiltrator killed my father too." Connor pointed out, somewhat awkward. "And my foster parents."
"A man you never met, and people you never liked. Your mom saw them the way we do. How did she react to your bodyguard when you were ten?"
Connor sighed again and gave a nod, conceding the point.
"What was it you said about the 850? 'The closest thing to a father you ever had'? You are way too close. Infiltrators are worse because... they don't just kill. They lie. All Skynet's children kill until there's nothing left for them to kill, and then they go and find something else to kill. The Infiltrators... they lie to you. They smile and nod, and touch you and shake your hand and then they walk past you and start killing again. They're worse than the other Machines because they break the rules. Machines don't have subtlety, only strength. And we can beat that. Those are the rules of this war, and you taught them to us. How do we beat the guy standing behind us? The skeleton Machines, we reprogram them and they leave us alone because we tell them to. They do what they are told. What we tell them or what Skynet tells them, it's all the same. Infiltrators are a lie. How can we trust them when they say they've been reprogrammed?"
Connor sighed. "Sooner or later, we'll have to bring them online. If only because we found The Time Machine."
Kate nodded. "John, the first time you met a Machine, he was trying to save your life. The second Machine was trying to kill you. Just like people. Just like humans. They look human, and some want to help you, some want to harm. I've met Enrique. The Machines you met as a kid treated you the exact same way your mom's boyfriends treated you. Some want to help, some want to hurt." Kate took his hands in her own. "Well they aren't like people, John. They're the Grim Reapers."
Connor shivered. They were talking about his family. Sarah's name couldn't be spoken, his father couldn't be known, his almost father-figure was a Grim Reaper, offline in a box downstairs... He really didn't deserve her.
Connor's radio buzzed. "Sir, Brain Box is still with us too."
"On my way." Connor responded, not taking his eyes off Kate. "A day is going to come when we have to trust them. You know that."
"I do." Kate said quietly. "But I think that it will be a terrible day. Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
"Skynet equipment would be more vulnerable to high energy discharge." Brain Box reported dutifully. "Skynet Power Sources have a much higher yield than human construction. That power is used in larger amounts than human equipment can draw; which is why newer units can fire such powerful blasts so often."
"That's why their units fried. The blast just pushed it over the top." Noah said quietly. "Why did any of their units survive?"
"Skynet Tech has high energy draw as a standard operation setting, but it is not required every minute. Any unit currently using lower levels of power may have survived the energy spike."
"Which is why our generators and antenna shut down but our flashlights and stationary vehicles didn't." Connor concluded. "Brain Box, what does Skynet have that can put out that kind of power?"
"Unknown."
Z Plus Ten Years Fifty Seven Days
Skynet sent a few attacks at Units that took longer to get working again. Connor knew where they all were and sent Fighter Jets to protect the ones that weren't responding to radio calls. Skynet was quickly stopped, and the war continued where it left off.
After two days, the most distant Machines were found, taken apart, and the CPU chips sent back to Crystal Peak.
Connor uploaded the incoming chips to Brain Box; who scanned through them quickly.
"No directives, no memory files." Brain Box reported instantly. "Basic Skynet Operating System only. Hard-wired Data Only."
"Scrubbed cleaner than we can make them." Noah said. "Like sticking a disk in a microwave."
"Brain Box." Connor directed. "I don't need their missions. I need their Internal Clock. Now that's part of the Operating System, right?"
"Affirmative."
"I need the exact shutdown time of every CPU we just sent you, and the location of each chip."
"What are you looking for?" Noah asked, intrigued.
"Skynet had every Machine working from the same clock, with its typical precision. If the pulse fried them; we can figure out the exact second each Machine went dark. The earliest ones to die were closest to the source." Connor explained.
"Pretty slick." Noah admitted.
Enrique came in to see Connor as the orders went out.
"We've been getting nothing from down South." He told Connor quietly. "There's been some kind of a shake-up, but we've heard nothing from our guys."
Connor swore under his breath. "The Union is keeping our people out of the loop."
"No, I mean... I've heard nothing." Enrique repeated. "I don't think they're out of the loop, I think that they're out of the equation."
Connor sighed.
Enrique glanced around and leaned in to speak privately. "Is it the Time Machine?"
"Kate thinks so. I don't know, but I think it might be."
"Have you told Kate about Kyle?"
"There's actually an interesting development on that."
"Oh?"
"Kate's finally noticed the resemblance. She thinks he's my son."
Beat.
Enrique let out a long coyote laugh at that one. "Ohhhh, man. Just when you thought coming clean couldn't be any more awkward, huh?"
Connor smirked sickly. "Yeah."
"You'll have to tell her the truth eventually."
Connor turned to look at him square. "Have you told Lupe?"
Enrique was caught by surprise on that one; and seethed for a long moment. "The longer this goes... the more ways that our women will find to make us pay for keeping secrets."
Connor smirked mirthlessly. "I know. But... Kyle's not ready. I don't know that I am either; and Kate never will be."
Enrique wavered. "And Lupe?"
Connor wouldn't say it, but if anything his mother had told him was to be believed... Lupe would not be part of Kyle's life by then. And based on how things seemed to be now, it would likely take her death to do that... "I don't know."
"I know you think Kyle is too young for the timeline to match… but your mother was what? Nineteen? Maybe a little older when she met her first Terminator? I don't know any seventeen year old kid that doesn't look and act at least forty years older any more."
"Me neither." Connor conceded.
Enrique shivered and leaned hard against the wall, looking old. "Y'know, Connor... I was at Sarah's Trial By Battle the other day... And I couldn't help but notice something."
"What's that?"
"That Lupe isn't eight years old any more."
Connor smiled sympathetically. "I've noticed that too."
"Think Kyle's noticed?"
"If he hasn't then she's doing something wrong."
Enrique slugged him. "That's my granddaughter you're talking about."
"Hasn't Yolanda had this talk with you yet?" Connor said lightly. "The average first time mother now is Lupe's age. Sixteen was the new twenty five even before J-Day. I don't know how to tell you this, but your granddaughter is very likely… shall we say..."
"We shall not say."
"As you wish."
Z Plus Ten Years Fifty Eight Days
The information came in. The pulse had moved swiftly. There was only a few seconds difference between both ends of the shockwave. But Skynet's clocks counted down to the millisecond, and Connor's people were able to track it back to the South East.
"Puerto Rico." Noah said finally. "Unless there's some big Skynet ship out there, it's the only land mass in that direction."
Enrique stepped in and added another notation to the map. "From Tomal Rojas, Governor of the Cartel Union."
"I thought Harlan was Governor of the Union." Noah said.
"That was last week." He sent Connor a look. "I get a bad feeling about how fast power changes hands down south."
Connor nodded. "Hmm. We may have to send you back down there to sort them out."
"I was afraid you'd say that." Enrique sighed as Sherrin took in the new time and location, redrawing the map.
"If it helps, I take no pleasure in making you baby-sit." Connor assured him.
"There's the pleasure you get of not having to do it yourself." Enrique snarled.
"Bingo." Sherrin interrupted. "It is Puerto Rico. Somewhere south of Arecibo, I think."
"What's there?" Noah asked.
"Let's find out." Connor said evenly.
The mood changed instantly. A new mission. Game Faces.
"Who do we send?" Walters asked.
"Connor's Own, as always, is on standby. The 144th is close by on maneuvers; and the 132nd just got back." Kate offered.
Connor turned and glared at her. She glared right back.
Colonel Perry was the 132nd's Commanding Officer. A veteran of several battles, his face was harder than his heart. As all those who survived till now; he was smart, practical and tough.
Lupe and Kyle came into his dorm at a march, and saluted. "Corporals Reese and Salceda reporting as ordered, sir."
Perry returned the salute. "With the new Privates graduating to Runners, Spotters and Scouts, we're moving people up. My Battalion took four casualties retaking Hill 454. I'm told that you two have what it takes to survive, and more importantly, to protect the soldier next to you. Do you agree with that assessment?"
"Yes, Sir." Both young people chorused.
"There are rules. One, you don't waste anything. Supplies sometimes take weeks to reach us from Allied Units. Two, you keep your gloves and boots on at all times. Taking off frostbitten fingers and toes is relatively easy, but we can't waste time teaching you to walk again when we're out in the field. Three, put your equipment and weapons in for maintenance every time you report back here to Palace. All that equipment is hard to replace. Throw in the half pack of cigarettes your miserable hides are worth and that can run into a large sum. Four, don't flirt, sleep with, or invite along anyone you meet out there. Ever. That goes for both of you. Female infiltrators have been showing up more and more often lately. Skynet's adapting the endo-skeletons. Think you can follow those rules?"
"Yes, Sir." They both responded again.
Perry smiled at them. "Then both of you get your packs. You're not in the Kiddie Barracks any longer. From now on, you're with the 132nd. If you do badly, you'll get killed; either by Skynet, or by me, as punishment for failing to protect the rest of your unit. If you do well, you get to live a life of danger, the only wages being freeze dried food three times a day, with little to no recognition outside your Unit for all the hard work, and the constant threat of dying a cold, wretched death out in the Wastelands. However you also get the chance to protect your fellow soldiers, to beat back Skynet, and to protect our people from certain death. And for a soldier, that is the highest calling."
Lupe and Kyle were still at attention, barely moving, though their soldiers straightened.
"Colonel Perry, report to the War Room." Connor called over the PA.
Perry nodded. "I have to go. Be ready to move you two. A call to the War Room generally means a mission. You're with us now."
"Yes, Sir." Lupe and Kyle chorused.
"Welcome to the 132nd." Perry told them, and headed off to answer his summons.
Kyle leaned over to Lupe. "What does 'assessment' mean?"
Lupe shrugged. "Dunno. Let's get our gear stowed fast; I need a new grip for my rifle."
"I told you to stop fiddling with it."
"Can you spare choppers for everyone?"
"We can, but we're not going to. We don't have a lot of Intel on what you're walking into there, so we're playing it safe for as long as we can. Skynet will be sure to notice half our Air Force carrying the entire Task Force, so we're going to split you up; take different routes."
"Understood, sir."
"You are to head to Key Largo, and from there your Task Force will be split up into three groups. Halloway's Subs will take group one, group two will take a smuggling trawler from Lori's trade route; and the third will go via helicopter to Havana. The Cartel Union has a presence there, and they've agreed to arrange transport to Puerto Rico via Port-au-Prince. You'll rendezvous in Arecibo. From there you'll have to figure things out, because we can't be more accurate than the Island at this point."
"Understood, sir."
Kyle and Lupe collected their things quickly. Upon becoming soldiers, they left the Tunnel Rats and took their place in the Soldier's Dorms. The 132nd was like most Units in Tech-Com. A combination of young and old more or less hanging out between missions. All of them thin and strong and always watching everything. The two newcomers were the youngest by far.
Everyone noticed them, but nobody said a word to them for a time. Someone gestured at two bunks toward the back of the Dorm, and they set their things down.
"My grandfather was in the Army long ago." Lupe said quietly to Kyle. "He said that soldiers were a lot louder then. Now they're very quiet. Staying hidden and saving calories he says."
"What's 'calories'?" Kyle asked.
"Food power."
They both turned. An adult soldier, though still younger than average was talking to them. "I'm Griffin."
Kyle and Lupe introduced themselves.
"So, you're the Fresh Meat, huh?"
Lupe took a step back.
Griffin smirked. "Sorry. Old expression. We don't eat our guys." He sent Lupe an imperious gaze. "Not yet, anyway."
Lupe flushed. "Sorry. I've heard stories…"
"None of them about Tech-Com." Griffin insisted. "You guys ever fought in a Battalion before?"
Lupe and Kyle shook their heads.
"Sometimes the brass will call for one or two people for a priority mission. Otherwise, there are times when we have to split up and fight in pairs or teams, and times when we have to fight as a whole. You guys are a Scout party, so you know how to do the first. The second you'll learn; but for now you stay behind the Officers. They keep a pretty good eye on new guys." Griffin explained. "Just remember, you're with us now. When you screw up, we pay; when we win a victory, you're heroes. And in between, there are three rules. Never mouth off to the veterans; you get the bottom bunks at the back of the room until somebody more experienced gets promoted or killed; and their beds open up; and three…" He gestured over a rail thin kid taking a nap. "Don't get between Mikey and a chow line."
Lupe and Kyle nodded seriously at that one. Mikey had been sneaking the Tunnel Rats extra rations for months.
"Ten-Hut!" Called a voice.
Everyone jumped to attention.
"Alright, listen up!" Perry's voice cut across the room sharp as a knife. "The power got knocked out by a high energy discharge. Intel says that it was nothing ever seen before. Connor says that it managed to wipe out half the theater. Skynet took it worse than us; so we know it isn't an attack. Skynet's brewing something in Puerto Rico. We have a new mission. Two battalions; Us and the 144th will be the first Recon team. Colonel Noah will be leading the Mission. Our orders are to Recon the route between here and the Target, get an idea of how much of Skynet survived, and identify what caused the blast. We don't know what the defenses will be like, or what the facility is. Keep your eyes open all the way there and back. Mission Clock is at T-minus one hour. I want us ready to move out in forty-five minutes."
The 132nd was ready to roll out. The soldiers were all in the troop carriers, with half a dozen heavy armored vehicles rolling with them.
"Hold it! Hold the convoy!"
The soldiers in the trucks reacted. A few of them leaned out to take a look. Carla was running up to the front of the Convoy, toward the lead Jeep. She stuck her head into it for a moment, and Perry got out to have a quick private word with her.
"That's a bad sign." Griffin commented.
"No kidding." Kyle agreed. "I've got a bad feeling."
Perry and Carla had finished their conversation, and Perry turned and pointed at one of the Troop Carriers. The last one in the row, where Kyle and Griffin were watching from.
"Bad Sign." Griffin repeated.
"Got a Real Bad Feeling." Kyle agreed seriously.
"What? What's happening?" Lupe demanded from behind them, forcing them out of the way enough for her to get a look.
Carla saw her and came running up. "Lupe. Good, I was worried I wouldn't catch you. You're not going."
Lupe took that badly. "WHAT?"
"What?" Kyle said almost with her.
"We've been going through the standard medical tests. Private Danes has the measles."
"So?"
"So you've all been exposed to it. Lupe, you're the only one that's been exposed and hasn't had the measles already." Carla said seriously. "You will likely be getting seriously ill halfway through this mission."
Perry was looking gravely at Lupe. "Corporal, I take no pleasure in it, but that's a lousy time to get a fever. You know what the weather is like outside." Perry sighed. "I'm sorry. You're currently under Medical Jurisdiction."
Lupe took it like a kick to the head. "I feel fine!"
"That will change." Carla assured her.
Lupe looked about, trying to think what to do. An answer came to her. "No. I'm gonna get Colonel Kate to overrule you."
Perry glared. Carla looked barely surprised.
"It's my right to do that, right?" Lupe pressed.
Carla nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."
The 132nd got organized to leave, as Perry and Carla had a brief pointed conference with Colonel Kate Connor. Lupe had made her case, given her reasons, and was asked to wait outside for a moment.
Perry came out first, as Kate and Carla went over Lupe's test results in Medbay.
"Corporal, nobody is going to think you chickened out." Perry told her. "The people in this place that don't pull their weight, or complain too much are all well known. People like that don't last very long. If you were like that, I never would have let you into my Unit. This will pass."
Lupe was staring at the floor. "I know. But… It's the first mission. It's gotta be bad luck somehow."
"Worse luck if you get sick enough to get shot." Perry countered. "And not for nothing, but if it wasn't your first mission with us, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."
"Sir?"
"The whole Unit is currently waiting for one or both of us. If it was anything else, I'd be tearing strips out of you for holding up the Mission."
Lupe swallowed, as Kate came back out.
"Lupe, I'm sorry. You're not going." Kate told Lupe gently. "I'm looking at your file, and I'm forced to agree with your doctor; the risk is too great."
"I feel fine!"
"I'm looking at the file, Lupe. It's not a mistake."
Lupe crumpled like a kid would, and then straightened up, hard and unforgiving as a veteran should be. "Fine. Permission to be dismissed?" She said shortly.
"Granted." Kate allowed her, and the girl took off instantly.
Perry glanced after her. "Are you going to tell her?" He asked Carla.
"When you're away." Carla promised.
"No. I will." Kate said suddenly.
Perry nodded. "Ma'am…" He said delicately, keeping it professional. "Is Corporal Reese-"
"Very likely." Kate agreed. "Bring him back alive, would you?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Mission clock's been running for almost nine minutes, Perry. What the hell are you doing here, cluttering up my Base?" Kate asked him, with no particular emotion.
"Moving out, ma'am." Perry was gone instantly.
Lupe felt ill as the Task Force rolled out. She didn't want to be there, but she couldn't let them leave without at least being there to see them off.
"Lupe?"
The girl turned, and found Meg, one of the Tunnel Rats, the youngest of their first generation, holding out a small slip. "From Kyle."
Meg took off without a word, and Lupe opened the note.
'Wish Upon a Star, Lupe. I'll be back. - Kyle.'
Lupe didn't smile. Not on the outside. But she hummed their song to herself as they went off to war.
Z Plus Ten Years Sixty Days
Noah led the Task Force across the wasteland for days. Their route was somewhat slowed by caution, as their way was littered by Machines. Most of the ones that were still there were all offline, frozen still in whatever position they were in when the pulse hit them.
Even so, there was the constant worry that they might be decoys. Tech-Com fired a few rounds into each motionless H/K as they passed, the Terminators were knocked over from a distance.
With every concentration of fried Machines, they sent co-ordinates back, and Tech-Com started harvesting Machines for reprogramming.
The uncertainty of the path slowed them down. They didn't dare go by air. What should have been a twelve hour journey now took a few days.
Griffin was worried about Kyle. The young man had been quiet for most of the journey. Every now and then his eyes would spot an enemy on the horizon and go feral. More out of a need to keep his mind in the field than back at Crystal Peak with Lupe, Reese kept volunteering to check out visible Machines; and test if they were still alive.
The Cartel Union had a few scouts hidden in most parts of the Americas; watching the oceans and monitoring the trade lines between the north and south continents. Skynet had been sending materials between the two countries.
The third group reached Arecibo first; having come by helicopter. It was nerve wracking for Kyle, being in the air. For most of them in fact; long used to being Underground.
They were met at the ground by a few of the Union men. Kyle spoke Spanish and had a quick conference with them; asking for a lead to investigate. The Union had been hit by the Pulse too, and it fried all their equipment so that they couldn't report in.
Perry and the rest of the Unit had joined them a few hours later; and waited a while for Noah with the rest of the task Force. While they were waiting, Kyle and Griffin told Perry what they'd discovered, and a bargain was made. Some radio equipment would be traded for information.
"De donde vino?" Kyle asked as he handed over the equipment..
"El Radar." They had told him.
"Radar." Perry said when he'd joined them. "They mean the Observatory."
Lupe was reporting for her daily check-up.
"Any symptoms?" Carla asked her.
Lupe sighed. "Nausea. A little... light-headed. I was feeling pretty weak this morning."
"That's normal." Carla said.
Lupe turned and stalked out of the room.
"Lupe! Wait!" Carla called after her. "We have to talk about some..."
"You just said it was all normal." Lupe called back irritably.
"Let her go."
Carla turned around, and noticed Kate had come into the Medbay.
Carla glanced after Lupe. "We shouldn't have waited this long. I'm her doctor. It should be me."
"I know. But... there are factors you don't know about."
Carla glanced back at the file in her hands. "Something not on the file?"
"Something personal." Kate said. It should come from family.
Kate came into the Mess Hall. Lupe saw her and stood up to leave, ignoring her half eaten tray.
Kate didn't react as Lupe brushed past her, but turned to follow.
Kate fell into step with the girl as she marched. Once they were alone, Kate spoke. "You can't stay mad at me forever."
"I'm not mad." Lupe said, as sullen as a seventeen year old should be. "I don't know why I'm acting like this; I really don't. I want to not be sick, but that ship sailed and... I don't know, I just want to... I don't know. I want to cry and kill something and..."
Kate hooked a hand into Lupe's elbow and pulled her into one of the Dorms, giving them privacy. "Sit Down." Kate commanded.
Lupe hated it, but did so.
"You don't have the measles." Kate said quietly.
Lupe stared at her, uncomprehending.
"You're pregnant." Kate told her.
Lupe paled. "What? No… Nonono, we were careful!" Lupe insisted.
Kate smiled. "In my experience, biology trumps preparation."
"No I mean it! We checked! Kyle and I both went through all the medical tests before we started... We were both clean!"
Kate felt slightly ill at that. "Lupe, pregnancy is not exactly a sexually transmitted disease we test for."
Lupe just looked at her. "I caught it, didn't I?"
Kate took the conversation in. There had been unplanned pregnancies, but none of them were exactly unwanted any longer… Being pregnant was a good thing, damn near a miracle; with plenty of infertile people who wanted to be parents waiting to take over if the child was unplanned… or if their natural family was killed unexpectedly…
Lupe knew what Kate was thinking. "I know. I know. It's a good thing. It is. It's just… Kyle and I never talked about this…"
"Kyle adores you, Lupe; he'll be thrilled! It's not like you'll have to do it alone." Kate told her. This was true. There were more people, more infrastructure set up to protect and care newborn in Crystal Peak than had ever been offered Back Before.
Lupe scrubbed her face. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
Kate squeezed her shoulder gently. "We're supposed to tell the mother first; in private. Perry had to know because he was your CO, but other than that... When Carla came and got you, you were surrounded by soldiers. After that... well, you were making such a fuss in Medbay that there were plenty of people watching you, and after Kyle left you were avoiding me like the plague." Kate looked knowingly at Lupe. "So why don't we talk about what's really bothering you?"
Lupe sighed and confessed. "Kyle's part of the 132nd now. And so am I. It's the first mission either of us has ever gone on without the other since becoming soldiers. Kyle's out fighting. I'm… not. I'm back here… and it looks like I'm gonna be for nine months now!"
Kate felt a wave of empathy for the girl. "Lupe… I went through the same thing."
Lupe looked up at her. "You did?"
"Yep. This isn't widely known among people your age, but before Sarah, and before you ever met any of us, John and Kyle and I were in the Camps. I was pregnant. Not even as far along as you are now. We broke out of the camp… and I got smacked around a bit. Not much. I got right back up again, but the baby didn't."
Lupe looked at her, horrified. She had put a hand over her stomach protectively, without even realizing it.
Kate felt a pang. The facts of her miscarriage weren't widely talked about, but every female soldier went through this; and she had told them all the tale. Kate had become the helpful reminder of why combat was too dangerous while pregnant; no matter how careful you were. She pushed the thought away. "Lupe, the war has been going for years now, and there's still plenty to go. You and Kyle have been partners for longer than you've been soldiers. Nine months is nothing compared to that."
Lupe nodded, knowing the reasons, agreeing with them, but hating this anyway. "Are… are they still going to let us stay together?"
"Rules on fraternization were never in the Tech-Com rulebook." Kate said. "A lot of married couples, or couples with children, fight together. It's one of the risks we take." She took a breath. "I won't lie to you. It's a bad idea to have an incomplete compliment for long. Perry will no doubt replace you for nine months. And after that, who knows where either of you will end up? It's life in the Armed Forces."
Lupe shivered. "I… I want to protect Kyle. It doesn't matter that he can look after himself. It doesn't matter that there's a whole Unit with him. I'm not there."
Kate smiled sadly. "I know the feeling." She smiled softly. "Here. This is for you." She handed over a small package. Lupe unwrapped it, and found a soft and somewhat faded baby blanket. "It was Sarah's."
Lupe took it, and sagged as it all suddenly hit her. She was going to have a baby.
Kate smiled softly and gave the girl a hug.
Z Plus Ten Years Sixty Two Days
"Well. Would you look at that?" Noah said darkly.
Perry was at her left, struck dumb. "My god..."
They had reached their destination. The trees had been burned away, and there in the distance was the Arecibo telescope. The Dish was a thousand feet across, with a surface area of twenty acres. It was a huge bowl carved into the earth, originally meant for searching the sky.
The telescope had been originally placed in the middle of a dense forest; and now the trees were burned away...
And in their place was an army of Machines. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. The area surrounding the telescope was a Machine graveyard.
The Huge H/K's were visible from far away. The Terminators were spread out like a carpet of still statues, mid-step. Aerial H/K's were smashed into the ground. They were packed so tight that it was hard to get past them.
When the Telescope was in operation, it sat above the Dish, a 900 ton platform suspended on cables above the parabolic dish.
But it was now changed or replaced with something new. It was chrome and completely lacking in aesthetics or windows. A facility of some kind, suspended as the Telescope had been, over the direct center of the dish. There were gantry-ways leading up to it; and extra buildings along the edge of the dish.
Nothing was moving.
"Does this seem as Bad to you as it does to me?" Perry asked.
"And then some." Noah agreed. "All right. Let's be smart about this. If we head for the hills we can get some cover, and a clear view of both directions; the observatory and the far side of the mountain range."
Perry nodded, and the Task Force started moving.
"Colonel?"
Kate turned, and saw one of the Tunnel Rats sneaking out of the kitchen. They helped out with everything in every department. "Hi, Meg."
Meg was the youngest of the Tunnel Rats. Still only eight or nine years old herself, she was a baby when J-Day came, and was raised by the kids in the Tunnels, though Kate had always checked her health. Small and rail thin, even more so than usual, she slipped into step with Kate. "Why do you give gifts?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Well… whenever we get food or something, the Rats share it around. Lupe didn't want to share the Blanket, because it was a gift. Why do you give gifts?"
Kate felt awkward for some reason. "Well, sometimes to congratulate people for things, sometimes to reward them; but mostly to show someone you care for them."
"Doesn't Lupe know that already?"
Kate smiled bigger. "Yeah. But it's nice to be reminded."
Meg looked sad suddenly.
"What's wrong sweetie?"
"Well…" Meg leaned in like it was a secret. "When Kyle first brought Lupe, she gave us all sweets. We shared them around and ate them all up. It was the night we came here. I don't remember too well. But after that… shoes, clothes… we share all that stuff. If it doesn't fit one of us, it fits someone else. But most of The Tunnel Rats… they don't have a lot of things. Most of us left the camps with the clothes we were wearing."
Kate reacted. "Oh."
Meg nodded. She looked worried suddenly. "You and Connor give us food and clothes and shoes and stuff… You know, right? Even though we don't give you gifts?"
The Children of the Dust were still so disconnected, especially when it came to their feelings. Kate smiled and gave Meg a halfway hug. "Of course I do, Meg."
Meg nodded, uncomfortable but immeasurably relieved. "Okay. Good."
"And you know that I love all of you too, right?"
Meg jerked, not liking that answer, and pulled away. "Yeah. Yeah, we know. I gotta go."
It took them a few hours to slip around the outside of the zone unobtrusively. As the Task Force entered the hills, they came across wrecked Machines. Unlike the ones they had found on their journey, these ones were wrecked, burned out and destroyed.
The Majority of the Task Force stayed in the hills, ready to charge down and get involved if they were needed. Scouts were sent into the buildings surrounding the dish, and then along the gantry-ways into the structure above the center of the dish.
"Whatever happened here, it looks like we missed it." Perry said quietly.
Noah could see the scouting party moving across the narrow Gantry. The way so narrow that the bridge swayed horribly under their weight.
Kyle was looking back and forth, as though searching for something.
Noah didn't turn to look at him. "What is it, Reese?"
"Well..." Kyle shook his head. "I don't know, but this is just wrong."
"Your instincts bothering you, Reese?" Perry asked without turning.
"Yessir."
"Mine too."
Noah looked back and forth again, across the burned out wreckage of Machines, and the eerie stillness as the Recon team checked in. "Boss, we got nothing here. All the buildings, plus the... whatever it is above the Dish. We got nothing. It looks like there was equipment of some kind in here before; but it's all gone now. Somebody cleaned this place out. Days ago at least."
Noah spun on Reese and Perry. "The Union knew the pulse came from here. Did they come here themselves?"
"No. Not according to them."
"Sonofa-" Noah started to swear and cut herself off as she grabbed for her radio. "Ambush! Out! OUT!"
Perry had his weapons drawn too. "Everyone take cover, eyes scanning!"
Kyle had his weapon out. "What? WHAT!"
"If all Skynet's Machines got fried by the pulse, and nobody else has been here since, then who moved out all the equipment? And who destroyed the Machines in the hills and left the others untouched?"
Kyle paled, and could see the Recon Teams running out of the structure above the Dish, the gantry way's starting to swing, when suddenly the untouched dead Machines started to come alive. In the dim pale light, a million glowing red eyes flared into existence, and started scanning.
The Task Force was used to the threat of Ambush. The hills were outside their reach, surrounded by the Machines already wrecked and burned out… Their Recon team was not.
The wind was omnipresent, but when it shifted towards them it carried the unmistakable sound of Plasmafire, and the death-yells of people gunned down.
"We have to get down there!" Kyle hissed.
"Hold your position, Corporal!" Noah barked. She seemed sick about it too. "By the time we got down there…"
The Plasmafire had stopped. The Machines were moving.
Noah had her radio out. "All right folks, you all saw it. First positions, take your marks, save your ammo till they get close. Second Positions, long range mortar fire; try to thin 'em out."
The Task Force all hugged dirt, ready to take on the approaching Skynet Forces. They were getting closer to the hills… when they all just stopped.
"What are they doing?" Perry hissed.
"They know not to chase us into cover. We've used that tactic too many times." Noah explained.
"Then why did they spring the trap at all? They knew we were up here. Why'd they show their hand whe-"
A low rumbling came to answer, and Noah spun, bounding to the opposite side of the hilltop, looking back in the opposite direction in horror.
Another Army of Machines, hundreds of H/K's in the air and on the ground, thousands of terminators, marching in flawless formations, cutting off the way they came.
"Where the hell did they come from?" Noah demanded.
"Probably from wherever they took their equipment; or wherever the other Machines came from…" Perry guessed. "Maybe…"
Plasmafire again, this time far more intense.
Noah was on her radio. "Guard your rears. We've got more enemy agents approaching from our flanks."
"There's another word for that you know." Perry commented. "Surrounded."
They traded a bleak glance.
The battle went for almost an hour. Humanity withdrew further into the hills, leading them on. They left mines and decoys and traps, set up with a speed that only Tech-Com could deliver, and the H/K's withdrew. The Terminators were the only ones that could follow on foot, and Tech-Com had the higher ground. Once again it was an attrition fight, trying to grind the other out, one soldier at a time.
Further up the hills, able to see in both directions, Noah calculated the odds. The chances that Skynet could march enough troops in to get them was slim. The odds that Tech-Com could sneak out before enemy reinforcements arrived was non-existent.
Stalemate.
"Griffin. Reese." Noah said quietly. "Get the radio to somewhere you can see the horizon and call back to Palace. Let the Chief know just how screwed we are."
"But don't say it like that." Perry added.
Chapter 17: Z Plus 10 Years 62 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Ten Years Sixty Two Days
"Robbie, we've only got so much clover to go around, and it's not a priority for your-"
"Dad, we need that clover." Robbie insisted. "Have you seen the soil in the 340 Block? We're already using all the mulch we can spare and need the clover to add more nitrogen to the soil."
"We only have so much of it." Connor responded. "The clover we have is needed for the bees. We were lucky to find a living hive, and we need to keep them alive."
"Nitrogen makes muscle." Robbie pointed out. "You don't get enough nitrogen into the soil we're growing our food in-"
"But we're not growing food there. Hydroponics gets us the foodstuff. That and the supply lines from down south, where they have plenty of good soil. The Eden Project saw to that. Robbie, honey is the only food that never expires. Seriously. Never. That's worth more at the moment, and we have only so much to go around. To say nothing of the fact that without our hive to pollinate the plants, none of it will ever grow anyway."
Robbie nodded, saddened at the rejection. "Yeah. But it would help."
"Robbie, I appreciate that, but this should really be coming from the Eden Project."
"It is. They asked me to run it."
Connor spun. "Wait. What?"
"Well, most everyone who knows as much as I do is off harvesting saplings down south or working dirt into soil out west." Robbie shrugged like it was no big deal. "They asked me to do it."
Connor just stared at his son for a moment. The kid was barely seven years old, and was already a department head. "Robbie, if you're going to be a Department Head, you need to learn that plenty of things would help; and we have very few of them to go around in the first place."
"I guess."
"General Connor to the War Room right away!" Kate's voice came over the PA.
Connor stood to go.
So did Robbie. "You were the one that told them I knew my stuff. They asked me to talk to you because… well, if I ask for more, I'm less likely to be put on latrine detail than any of them."
His father laughed. "Walk with me."
Robbie followed his father on the way to the War Room. "Robbie, we're not growing foodstuff in the Eden Project. Except for the orchards, and that won't be putting out any serious food for years. But you're not wrong. Here's something you can do. There are two ways to add nitrogen to soil without fertilizer or extra plant mulch."
"There are?"
"Yep. You can use coffee grinds, most of which goes into the compost already... or you can just pee on the plants."
Robbie giggled. "What?"
"Seriously. It works. Just uh... don't tell your mother who gave you the idea."
Robbie giggled. They were almost to the War Room at that point. He turned to his son. "When I was your age, I was taking apart engines. You're running part of the Eden Project." He winked. "It's a good thing you're smarter than I was."
Robbie giggled a bit as John went in, not noticing him shift straight into 'The General' mode.
"Report." The General barked as soon as the War Room door closed.
Kate spoke before Walters could. "Kyle's on the line. It sounds bad."
Connor took the radio. "Corporal."
"Chief, we're in trouble." Kyle's voice came over the speakers. "We got here, and it looks like Skynet got rid of whatever it was. They were based in the Arecibo Observatory. They had it cleaned out before we got here. We found dead Machines all the way here, sir; so when we got close... We didn't think it was a big deal when there were lots of them just sitting around."
Connor winced. So did Walters.
"Sir, we're pinned down pretty tight. We made it to the hills, and Noah says Skynet doesn't have anything that can force itself over the hills and take us on, but it's only a matter of time." Kyle paused. "We'll take as many of them as we can. We'll make you proud."
Kate glanced at John. His face had turned to stone. With very controlled movements, he reached out and took the radio off Sherrin, and lifted it purposefully to his lips. "No. Kyle, you tell Noah to dig in. Take any and all measures to buy time; until I can mount a rescue."
"She said you'd say that, Chief." Kyle said promptly. "She said that if you did, I was to remind you how useful your brain could be when you have it switched on."
Connor didn't even crack a smirk. "Tell Noah to leave the brilliant ideas to me; and to dig in." He grinned savagely. "Hang in there, Kyle. I'm coming."
There was dead silence in the War Room until Connor set the radio down and turned around. "As of now, Connor's Own is activated. Mission Clock is running."
The room snapped into activity. Announcements were made, the Motor Pool was alerted, the airfield was told to prepare for massive troop movement...
Walters sidled up to Connor. "I can go. I think we both know that this is the biggest trap Skynet ever laid..."
Connor nodded. "I have this thing about traps Eric. Can't help but charge through them. Besides, you've got a mission. Skynet fried half its ground forces. Get out there and scrub as many Machines as you can get. This could be a very good day for us."
"Sure, as long as you come back." Walters commented. But he knew Connor was right. Noah was out in play, Connor's Own was the best cohesive Unit they could send at a moment's notice, and the number of times Connor hadn't led them himself could be counted on one hand.
The War Room was gearing for another showdown, and Connor himself went to prepare.
Kate went after him.
"John, this is crazy. We don't know where any of that artillery is, we don't know how much more of Skynet's machines survived; we don't know how far they got… Connor, you're charging into a kill zone and you're doing it blind."
Her husband was ignoring her, gathering his gear.
Kate put a hand out and slammed the foot locker shut, almost on his fingers.
Connor finally looked at her. "What do you want from me, Kate?"
"I know why you're doing this…"
"You really don't." Connor told her.
"Kyle is with the 132nd. And I was the one that recommended it."
"It was the right call."
"John; look at me. You're taking a huge risk. And you're doing it for Kyle. Not for the Units."
"Kate, how many men are in the danger zone already? Too many to lose. Not without putting up a fight for them. Besides, we fight through to our guys, and we can fight our way out a good bit easier with them as reinforcements. Noah and Perry are two of the highest ranking officers we have! When they aren't on Missions, they command a good third of the Allied forces; they have information on half the international theater. I sent them because it was supposed to be a pretty straightforward mission. If I'd known Skynet still had forces enough to ambush a Task Force that size I..."
"You still would have sent it!" Kate insisted. "Because that's no mysterious new experiment out there. You know exactly what that is! You and I alone know what it is. You and I alone know why you don't dare let Skynet win this battle! You're doing it for your son."
Connor zipped up his jacket and spun to look at her. "Say that I am. Say that's the only reason. What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. But Walters can handle a rescue mission. Taking Connor's Own is like sending up a great big flare telling every Machine on the planet where to charge to. That's why we plan out their ops so damn carefully. You're taking a huge risk and you don't have to be the one to go."
John sighed. "I know. But… Humanity Does Not Compute." He said. "Some things are only real if they don't make sense. And what is the point of being John Connor if I can't defy all the logic?"
Kate stared at him silently. "Fine. Just... be smart about it, okay? You don't think when you're emotional, when the kids are in trouble, or when you're in 'Crusade' mode."
"I'll be careful."
"Bring him home, John. He's my son too. Bring him home."
He kissed her. "I will."
"He's coming himself?" Noah repeated in shock. "He's coming here?"
Perry grinned. "Skynet will never know what hit it."
"Don't you get it, Perry? We're the bait!" Noah yelled. "Reese, did you leave the relay up?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Noah pulled her radio. Static. "Did you set it right?"
"Did a frequency check first thing." Kyle insisted.
"Jammers then." Noah sighed. "They let us make one call, and then Jammed every frequency."
"Brain Box is pretty good about encryption." Perry pointed out. "Do you think Skynet knew what we said?"
"Doesn't matter. It knew we called out, and that there was an answer. That's all it needed to know." She grit her teeth. "Connor's the target. He's always been the target. That's why they struck when we were in the hills! They couldn't risk us escaping, but they couldn't actually kill us! We're the bait!"
Kyle grinned savagely. They wouldn't know what hit them when Connor came.
Perry wasn't smiling. "Well… what do we do then?"
Noah sighed. "We carry out our orders. Griffin, Reese… go make sure those probing attacks Skynet is sending end badly. Let them now we've still got some teeth of our own, encourage them to stay where they are. Perry, spread our people out. The longer we make them hunt and hurt; the longer Connor's got to locate his brain and save all our lives."
Sherrin was finishing up the briefing on the way to the motor Pool. "The fact is, we don't have a lot of intelligence for you. The Jammers are running thick and non-stop. I don't think it's a good idea for you to go out there!"
Connor turned and gave him a moment of full attention. "Oldham's still out gathering fried machines. Noah's already in the trap, Walters is fielding calls from everyone on the planet wanting to know what the pulse was, and none of the other Commanders that we can get there in time have a force big enough to punch a hole through any Skynet defense, and the ability to adapt as quickly as we'll need to since we have no Intel. Who else would you send?"
"I don't know, but I'll be the most convenient punching bag of appropriately expendable rank should this go badly; and Kate and Walters are going to be chewing the walls waiting for word from you."
"Well if you don't hear anything... blame me."
"I will, but if you get killed out there, blaming you won't help me very much!"
"Then I better not get killed. Besides, Connor's Own have been itching to get back out there." He looked around briefly and sent Sherrin a more personal look. "You made Robbie a department head?"
Sherrin blinked a second and shifted topics. "He thinks it's because he's your son, but the fact is most of the Eden Project's veterans haven't been back here in months. They're all over the map trying to make things grow. Robbie's the only one left who knows as much about it as you do."
"It doesn't bother anyone that he's seven years old?"
"Sir, the seven year old kids in the world know more about survival than any adult I know. They just don't waste brain cells on what it was like Back Before. And it doesn't hurt that he's your son."
Connor climbed into the lead Jeep and seemed to think for a moment. "He really knows his stuff, huh?"
"Sir, before J-Day I had a nephew who thought that carrots grew out of the ground in plastic packets, pre-sliced. You show him a real raw carrot, he wouldn't know what it was to save his life. I know how to plant stuff, but I didn't have a clue about soil levels, nitrogen, compost, what you can use, what you can't. He knows it better than I do."
The pride on his face was obvious. "Good." He looked over Sherrin's shoulder, and saw Kate watching. He gave her a nod. She returned it. Message sent, message received. Love you too.
Kate let out a little breath as Connor's Own rolled out. She felt terribly lonely suddenly. Sarah and Robbie were on assignment, Connor was gone with his whole Unit… The Presidential Suite would seem so big with just her in it.
"Colonel?"
Kate turned and found Lupe peeking out from the elevator. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Lupe. I just worry when he's gone."
She nodded. "I know the feeling." She licked her lips. "Have you got a minute?"
"Sure."
Lupe led her back down to the barracks, where the 132nd lived. With them out, Lupe was the only one living there…
When Kate stepped in, she was treated to an almost unprecedented sight. The Tunnel Rats were waiting for her. All of them. Seeing them all together was unheard of.
"…hey, kids." She said quietly. "What can I do for you?"
Heavy silence. The lot of them looked absolutely shy. Meg stepped up first. "This is for you."
Kate felt her jaw drop slightly as the little girl handed her a shoelace. It had been strung with dozens of little odds and ends, like a paperclip, and a wing nut, a single bead and what looked like the chain off a fob watch; and many other things. Meg took Kate's hand and wrapped the shoelace around her wrist like a bracelet, tying it off. "I… I made this; but I want you to have it."
Kate felt like she was missing something. "Thank you, Meg."
The gift given, Meg stepped back.
Heavy silence. Meg knuckled Cory, the boy next to her, and he shuffled forward awkwardly. "I, um… This was my mom's." He held it out to Kate, not looking at her.
She took it. It was a single hoop earring, scuffed up and missing the pearl that had clearly been mounted on it once. "Thank you, Cory. It's beautiful."
Cory stepped back with his friends. Molly came forward next. "I found this on the beach before my parents died. They said the oceans were sick, but if you hold it up to your ear, you can hear where the Oceans went to hide from Skynet."
Kate took the shell carefully and obediently held it up to her ear. She hadn't listened to a shell since she was a little kid. "Aww, thanks, Molly. I haven't heard the ocean in years."
Emboldened now, another one came forward. It was Berk, looking older now, but still what Kate thought of as a boy. "I um… I don't have much, so I tried to make you something." He held out the scrap of paper. It was rough and neutrally colored; as all the hand-recycled paper they made was. Kate unrolled it. It showed a scene in the Mess Hall, of him and the others eating a big meal. They were all smiling, and what were obviously Kate and John sat at the head of the table, smiling too. A heart-warming little domestic scene, that existed only in this teenage boy's imagination.
"Berk, are you the one that does the pictures on the walls at night?" Kate asked.
Looking down, Berk nodded.
"They're great. John likes them too."
"He does?"
"He does."
The kid had never looked anyone taller than him in the eye once in his life, but he suddenly looked and acted ten feet tall.
Rico, an orphan adopted by the Tunnel Rats out of Enrique's Bandits came forward next, holding out something Kate didn't immediately recognize. "It's a Dreamcather." He lisped. "It keepth scary dreems 'way. Lupe told me how to make them." He smiled at Kate a little. He was missing several teeth. "I thought you might need it with Connor gone."
Kate glanced back at Lupe. The Latina girl had one hand resting over her stomach, and her eyes shining emotionally. Kate felt herself reacting the same way.
Tish was next. She was one of the younger Tunnel Rats, and was known by most everyone who saw her, because her hair was never cut, only braided into long elaborate braids that hung down to her waist. The little girl came up and held out a prize to Kate. It was a bendy drinking straw, somehow still intact. "It's for your hair."
"For my hair?" Kate asked in confusion.
Tish came forward and carefully collected a small handful of Kate's hair, threading it through the drinking straw. Kate kept her hair short, as most of Tech-Com did, and it didn't reach. Tish nodded, pulling the straw back. "Can I use your knife?"
Kate brought her hands up and clasped Trish's fingers in her own. "No Tish, don't cut it… tell you what? I'm going to grow some of my hair longer. Not all of it, just this little bit. I'm going to grow one long braid, just for this, okay?"
Tish looked like she'd won the lottery. "T-thank you?"
Kate felt sick for a moment. These kids had nothing at all, and now they were taking what tiny possessions they had left, all of them personal enough to hold on to, and giving them to her. She wanted to say no. But she knew she couldn't. "Why are you all doing this?" Kate asked impulsively; though she suspected she knew the answer.
"Well… you give us all food and clothes and Tunnels… you were the one that made us all meet each other. The Tunnels wouldn't be here or back in LA without you and Connor." Meg said, uncomfortable. "So… It's nice to be reminded, right?"
Kate reached the breaking point. With all a survivor's speed she reached forward and pulled Meg into a hug and didn't let go; waving for the others to come forward. As Meg gave in and hugged back, they all inched forward. They were all so small and thin that she could almost hug them all at once.
And I was worried about feeling lonely. Kate thought tearfully to herself, wrapping her arms around all her orphan children as tight as she could.
Z Plus Ten Years Sixty Six Days
Noah looked out over her men, feeling the cold right down into her bones. She ignored it. The cold had been omnipresent for days. She scanned the horizon, feeling the storm gather. More H/K's moving closer, depositing their cargo of Terminators.
Perry was watching with her. "This is it, isn't it?"
Noah nodded slowly. "I guess so." She drew in a breath. "Three more H/K's full of ground troops, three more flying H/K's with them... Not good."
"Can we take them?"
"Nope."
"Are the Jammers still going?"
"Yup."
Noah sighed. "Well. If this is to be our Last Stand, let's make a damn good one."
"Yes, Ma'am." Perry nodded. "I'll head to the other end of the ridge. See you on the flip side."
Noah gave him a look. They both knew they were done.
And then the flying H/K's broke from their patrol and took off toward the horizon, burning turbines for all they were worth... Away from the Siege.
"Where are they going?" Kyle asked nobody in particular.
"Something's happened." Noah said.
Perry pointed to the opposite side of the hills. "More 500's coming in. Hundreds of them!"
Noah looked. "Now where did they come from? The H/K's have been..." She grinned suddenly. "Ooh."
"What?"
"Sit down, Kyle; we're getting a show."
"Attack!" Connor's voice came from the radio.
Noah reacted. "The Jammers are offline."
"Skynet must want to give orders personally." Perry surmised.
The distant sound of jet turbines, human jets, came over the wind, followed by the unmistakable sound of air-to-air combat.
Skynet had noticed the marching line of scrubbed Machines, and started redeploying quickly to meet it.
Noah lifted her radio. "Gentlemen, I do believe that's our cue!"
The Task Force jumped up and started shooting, taking shots from their hiding places. The Machines ignored them, focused on their more important targets as the Scrubbed Machines moved in for the kill.
There were fewer sights that Tech-Com soldiers liked more than two huge groups of Terminators gunning each other down.
Noah knew what to do. Her people aimed for the rear-most edge of Skynet's Machines, thinning down their ranks without being put in danger. The Snipers with the high caliber bullets had the longest range, and they aimed for the biggest, most distant targets.
Connor's Own started moving their own forces in as the first wave was smashed down. Tanks and Mortar Fire; the soldiers hard to reach. The Tanks kept firing on the H/K's, able to wear them down as the plasma fire slapped against the armored vehicles, fires catching and going out, digging craters into the metal.
"Team Two. Fall back behind that ridge, we'll cover you!" Connor's voice came over the radio.
Skynet To Units 419-590
Voiceprint confirmed. Connor Identified.
Triangulate position.
Connor Located. Proximity Alert.
Finally!
Co-Ordinate Search and Destroy.
TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR
The Machines on the battlefield turned as one to spin around and charge the Tank behind the first row, defended by Scrubbed Terminators. It had a great view of the lines, and was armored enough, defended enough...
Skynet's Terminators charged in and pounced on the Tank, staggering through the defenders with everything they had. It was a costly tactic, but it gave the tank no time to pull away. They were in too close to shoot with the turret, the fire too heavy above to get to the mounted machine gun. There was nowhere to go. The Tank broke ranks and rolled forward, both treads at full speed, charging for the rest of the incoming forces.
"They got me! Break! Break! Don't get caught!" Connor's voice yelled over the radio.
Skynet To Units 419-590
TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR
TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR
TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR
TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR
The Terminators were digging their pneumatic fists into the armored plating on the Tank, peeling it open.
The Tank rolled into the Terminator ranks like a bowling ball, getting deeper and deeper into the mess of Machines. Its Turret was firing on the furthest ends of the Terminator ranks, charging in the direction of the trapped soldiers, barely visible over the topmost ridge of the hills. But everyone on both sides knew, he wasn't going to make it.
The Tank fired again at the furthermost targets, the ones closest to Noah's men. More Terminators were charging in. Their target was inside. Their Machine minds were incapable of emotion or desperation; but also incapable of distraction. Their incredible computer brains filled with only one united thought.
Finally the Tank was peeled open...
And sitting at the controls was another scrubbed Terminator.
"Fooled you." It said with a flawless imitation of Connor's voice.
A loud beeping came from the Machine within the wrecked Tank...
Kra-BOOOM!
Noah whooped as the ranks of Skynet were shattered by the eruption of an exploding Tank which had powered it's way through, deep enough into the heart of Skynet's blockade to take a huge chunk of it out.
And far in the distance she could see their reinforcements, suddenly having the upper hand.
Kyle whooped too. Connor's Own were charging in, cutting a path through the Machines, and clearing the way.
Noah was still shooting. "Resse!" She roared. "We're still fighting a war here!"
Kyle grinned and kept firing…
…and then a low rumble came over the wind.
Instincts screaming, Noah turned to look at the opposite side of the mountain, barely visible, even from her vantage point…
Skynet's awaited reinforcements had arrived at last.
She grabbed her radio. "Chief! We got incoming in your three o'clock! Massive artillery! Take cover!"
"Cover! Cover!" Connor's voice yelled over the radios.
Noah looked. Skynet's Mobile Heavy Artillery was essentially huge cannon on treads. It drove and fired itself, the ammo fed into it from a solid ammo-clip. Ten times the size of any howitzer, it rolled across anything. And now a line of them was rolling across, from the opposite end of the battlefield.
Connor's Own broke from the engagement, and headed for any cover they could find.
THOOM! Thwwwwwww! BOOOOOOOM!
The Artillery were firing, the huge shells coming clear over the hills and taking out huge chunks of the ground on the opposite side, shattering human and Machine ranks alike, not caring about friendly fire, as long as Connor was dead.
They were deafened by the explosions, but Noah could see it. Connor was on the battlefield, trying to get his people to the cover of the hills.
The surviving Machines could see him too, all of them trying desperately to cut him off.
"SNIPERS!" Noah screamed, not daring to risk a shot with her own rifle.
Her people were scattered across the hills, trying to spread out, and long range fire came from all directions.
Kate set the scissors down and looked herself over in the mirror. Her hair was trimmed, but a thin braid was left longer, threaded through the drinking straw. The chain of her dog-tags was now threaded through the tarnished good hoop earring, which sat rested on the tags themselves. Her upper arm had the shoe-lace charm necklace wrapped around it, mid-way between her shoulder and her elbow. The whole thing gave her a slightly post-apocalyptic bohemian look.
Carla came running in, and saw Kate's new style. She was surprised by it, but didn't bother to comment. "Kate. You have to get to the War Room! Now!"
Kate spun away from the mirror. "What's happened?"
"Connor's rescue. It's not… going according to plan."
Connor ran. He forced his feet to move even when the ground shifted under his feet. He forced himself to move faster when he saw his people getting caught in the crossfire with the Machines. He forced himself to move faster still when the ground shook apart under the barrage of artillery. The Terminators were chasing him as his Scrubbed Machines gave his people cover, and the snipers added to their protection.
The enemy Machines left were ignoring his men, chasing him up the Mountain, like a moth to a flame as Connor was suddenly fighting gravity and terrain.
Noah had the battlefield under control, barely. For a race of emotionless killing Machines, Skynet's children always seemed to get slightly rabid when Connor was in reach.
"Griffin, cut off the three 500's on the west face; Curry, take a squad and stop the attack moving after Connor's Own, then secure that side of the hill. Trace, blow the pass behind you with your mortars, and then back up Griffin. Sapper teams, long range fire before Skynet can get those Canners into the hills, Snipers on the flying H/K's before they get back in too close." Noah was reporting, snapping orders back and forth as she picked her shots for the approaching ground forces. "Does anyone have a Zero on the Chief?"
"Negative, Ma'am. It looks like Skynet lost him too."
"Well where the hell is he?" Noah demanded into her radio...
...just as The General himself dove feet-first into her foxhole and came up shooting. "Right here. Good to see you, Colonel."
Noah didn't bother to salute, a rifle in each hand. "General. Kinda wish we weren't here to see each other again."
"Ditto!"
Connor spared a glance at Kyle. The young Corporal was firing away as best he could.
"They moved in the heavy hitters when you arrived." Perry reported. "Sorry we couldn't warn you, but we didn't know they were here till you moved in."
"They didn't know I was coming!" Connor insisted.
"And we didn't know the artillery batteries were there." Noah agreed. "They can't get up these mountains. Not guns that size. Looks like they stepped up the party when they heard you were crashing."
Connor seethed. "Can we get far enough down the mountain to get under their fire?"
"No chance."
"What about the radio?" Noah asked. "The Jammers went down when Skynet needed to give orders. Are they back up again?"
Kyle worked his radio. Nothing. "Looks like it."
"They'll bring in more 500's." Connor fired again, knocking down the last ones he could see. He could hear the firing continue further up the ridge. "Enough to push their way in now that we've got reinforcements of our own." The firing started to fade, the stalemate restored. "Hell of a rescue, huh?"
"They're pulling back now. They'd be in already if it weren't for you." Noah said. "Didn't you have a contingency plan?"
Connor glanced at Kyle. "I didn't have time. We rolled as soon as we heard you were pinned." He sat down against the side of the foxhole. "Well. Looks like we have some time." He looked around. "Where'd you find a foxhole?"
"C4. The thinking woman's shovel." Noah slumped down next to him. "How'd you get all those scrubbed Machines over here from Florida?"
"Rafts."
"You're kidding."
"Rafts and long chains. We get them across land by letting them run as fast as their tireless pneumatic legs could carry them. They didn't have a problem rowing, being towed by choppers, or hanging on tight to tow lines."
Noah smirked. "Well. Now Crystal Peak has gotta send someone to rescue the guys they sent to rescue us. Tell me you at least remembered to bring a deck of cards."
Connor smirked, despite himself.
Erin Curry looked up as Dex dove into her hiding place. "Oh. Hello." She said, as though he had stopped by her table in the Mess Hall. "On behalf of General Custer, I'd like to welcome you to the last stand."
Dex grinned. "I'm making a quick survey of soldiers in your area. How's the battle been for you so far?"
"Got a lousy melody, but I can dance to it." Erin quipped back. "How's Mackie?"
"He was fine when I left Crystal Peak. Carla's with him."
"Good."
"We got word in from Connor's Own that the artillery had them pinned down suddenly, and that was it. The frequency got jammed up big time. All frequencies. Skynet couldn't get a message through it either, which means it must have given some pretty specific instructions before it jammed all the frequencies. We haven't been able to get as much as a smoke signal from Connor since. It looks like most of his Unit survived, but the artillery trapped them with the rest of the Task Force."
Sherrin, who had been settled into the War Room after losing his arm, finished the briefing, and sent Kate a quick look. She was frozen; staring as the markers danced back and forth across the map, being as up to date as possible as the reports came pouring in from those lucky enough to escape the sudden move.
"Who have we got?" Kate asked hoarsely.
"To send after them?" Sherrin asked darkly. "No unit that can handle it. Our biggest Unit is currently surrounded."
"What about aircraft?"
"Our aircraft can get there, but…"
"But what? Come on, Tony; talk to me!" Kate snapped.
"But a fighter squadron wouldn't do much. Skynet has that area patrolled now. Two full squadrons of Aerial H/K's.. Send in a wing of Fighters, and even if they manage to fight their way through, and they won't do anything. Skynet's guns are dug in deep. We can't get to them from the air. We need something heavier than that. Heavier than missiles. We don't have it."
Kate was staring hard at the maps. We do. We have to. It's just a matter of seeing it. John looks at things and sees more than what's there. There has to be a solution. What do we have? Things that can fly would get there but aren't heavy enough. Things that go by ground are powerful enough but won't get there.
Z Plus Ten Years Sixty Seven Days
It took her a full day to see it. Kate had been listening in the wings of every briefing that Connor ever gave, or ever heard. Though she only commanded the Base; it was the staging area for a lot of their operations, it was the Command and Control of the entire military, and it was the administrative and supply center of every civilian project humanity had left. Kate had no shortage of ingenuity and skill; plus she had the personal attention of The General himself.
But this was the first time she was leading an Op that she herself had gamed out.
She let none of the panic show on her face. Connor's Rule Number One: Never let them see you sweat. When you don't know what you're doing; fake it till you make it.
She had her plane selected almost immediately. She didn't have that many to choose from. She had the Motor Pool tearing out the inside of the plane, every seat, every compartment. It would be a small cargo plane within a few hours.
The next step was the Amory. She was taking more heavy military grade explosive than was used by a whole Unit. It took the Armory thirty seconds to let Walters know. She was able to explain the plan to him in a few minutes.
"Let me see if I got this straight." Walters said carefully. "Your plan is to pack a civilian aircraft with heavy explosive, try and take off with so much of it on board that you may yet max out the weight limits and crash on takeoff, fly it to the middle of a heavily entrenched siege, fly it straight into the middle of Skynet's artillery, and bail out before you hit, in the hopes that you'll do so much damage you'll be able to land your chute and walk back to Connor's Own before Skynet's surviving ground forces chew you apart."
"That's the general idea." Kate said coolly.
"Due respect, ma'am; but is the last six thousand years of recorded human thinking just something that happened to other people for you?"
"You've been hanging around with Noah too long." Kate said with a tight smile. "But if you've got a better idea, now's the time."
"We have pilots. Send one of them."
"All our pilots are fighter pilots." Kate told him. "They fly fighter jets, not civilian light aircraft. And all the pilots we've got are on missions. The ones still here… They're going to take casualties, Eric. Probably a lot of them. If we had another ten fighter pilots, I'd put them all on escort too. I can handle the civilian plane. I'm the only one that can fly a plane, and not a fighter jet. It's okay."
"Send one of our Machines to fly it."
"The only Machines we've got on base right now are the code-breakers downstairs, which we sawed in half for security; and the Infiltrators, still in crates. None of them were programmed to fly planes anyway. Skynet doesn't need pilots for its H/K's, and we never taught them anything we might regret. It has to be a human pilot, and I'm the best choice."
"It'll never work! And even if it did, you'd never make it out!"
"If I don't go, we lose John." Kate yelled.
"If I let you go, Connor loses you!" Walters yelled.
Kate froze. "First of all, you're not letting me do anything. Secondly… There's no other way." She paused. "Is there... Can you offer me an alternative?"
Eric thought for a moment. "Get a second opinion."
"From who?"
Kate made their way into the lower corridors of Crystal Peak. Walters escorted her, and he stood guard outside as she keyed in the passcode, and went in alone.
Brain Box had not moved once since it was activated and its red eyes focused on her instantly. "Hello, Brain Box. Do you know who I am?" Kate asked.
"Yes."
"Have you been made aware of the situation in Puerto Rico?"
"I have a connection to the Incoming radio signals, hardwired so that I cannot communicate out." Brain Box said blandly.
Kate explained her plan again to Brain Box, detailing the type and number of aircraft available, and the type of explosives that she would be carrying.
"The plan is sound." Brain Box said. "Mission Objectives will be achieved."
Kate couldn't believe it was that simple. "But… what?"
"But it requires two prerequisites. One, you need sufficient volume of explosive. Two, you need to make it past a full squadron of aerial H/K."
Kate paused. "The first is taken care of. Assuming I can get through the aerial defenses... Would... would I survive the attempt?"
"Negative." Brain Box said instantly.
Kate took a breath. "How can I correct for that?"
"You will need to take at least two armed squads with you, and have them escape the plane as you do. They will run defensive cover so that you can reach the rest of the Human forces."
"I don't have two squads." Kate said darkly, thinking it through. "And even if I did, they would all die protecting me, wouldn't they?"
"Affirmative."
"Not worth it."
"Then there is no way for you to safely reach Tech-Com Forces after your attack run." Brain Box said clinically.
Kate turned on her heel and walked out at a quick march. The frustration was like a rope around her neck.
Walters fell into step behind her. "What's the verdict?"
"No good. I can do it, but I won't survive."
"Are you sure?" Walters asked in concern.
"Brain Box is." Kate said. She sighed. "Hell. John makes it look so easy, doesn't he?"
Walters smirked. "Any ideas?"
Kate took in a long slow breath. "Just one. But I know what you'll say."
"I'm listening."
"What's the next best thing to two full squads assigned to cover your back? Five Reprogrammed Infiltrators."
"Oh; HELL, NO!"
Gould was no happier than Walters. "Ma'am... How can I say this...? HELL, NO!"
"I have no choice. And since I'm ordering you, neither do you." Kate said harshly.
Gould gritted his teeth and keyed the doorcode. The door opened, and Gould led the way into the storage rooms. It was full of motionless, offline Infiltrators. The lights were off, nobody had come in here before. Each motionless form had a layer of dust caked over the skin. Impossible not to think of them as corpses standing upright. Impossible to shake that image.
Kate tried not to show favoritism, she really did. But she couldn't help it. She picked 'Their' Terminator first.
Gould got to work activating them, one by one, and stitching up the skin over the power supply. They would need no time to heal. Kate selected four more Infiltrators; various faces. They were all the same basic height and build, though Skynet had sent through different prototypes. One unique prototype was designed to look like a six year old girl. The soldier that gunned it down at the door very nearly lost it until they verified the child was indeed a Machine.
"What are you going to call them?" Gould whispered.
Even the solders, who hated the Infiltrators, couldn't just refer to them as Machines like they did the other Terminator endo-skeletons. Skynet had done the job well.
"Tom-Doe." Kate said finally. "Dick-Doe, Harry-Doe, Smith-Doe..." She turned to look at 'her' Terminator, remembering her husband's stories. "And 'Bob-Doe'."
"Bob?" Gould repeated.
"Bob." Kate said firmly. "You included the tactical situation into their memory files?"
"I did." Gould confirmed.
Kate waited until they were all activated. Gould had left Connor's 'Uncle Bob' for last. "Report." She commanded. "What is your mission?"
That familiar east European voice answered her, and Kate felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "To follow to Directives of John and Katherine Connor."
Kate looked over her shoulder. The others were just sort of standing there, waiting for a Direction. Machines without purpose.
"Report to the Hangar." Kate directed them. "Stay with your escort." She turned to Walters. "Arm them, equip them and get them ready to move out." She turned back to Bob-Doe. "And you come with me."
Walters looked sick to his stomach as he handed a Plasma-Rifle to Smith-Doe. "You better be worth it." He snarled at the Infiltrator.
"Well Dex; it was nice to have the company, but I have to get moving. Now that the Sun's going down; I'm rated as a perimeter guard. I have to make sure Skynet doesn't creep in after dark."
Dex nodded. "I was hoping Connor would pull a rabbit out of his hat by now. I'll give you a hand if you like."
"Sorry. Has to be a solo move. Terminators move in pairs for skirmishing attacks. Snipers see two heads, they'll probably shoot one of us." She grinned. "Stick around. I'll be back soon enough."
Dex nodded. "I'll have the instant coffee waiting for you."
"Thank you. We have others in these hills; even if we can't reach them on the radio; so it'll be a few hours between my patrols." Curry smiled a little. "I have fond memories of the last time we had a few hours to fill in without anyone around."
"Seven years ago?" Dex teased back. "Must have been pretty damn memorable."
Curry laughed. "Just teasin'. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble with the Missus."
"Carla and I aren't married."
"Do you live together?"
"Us and a few divisions."
"Do you eat together?"
"When food's available."
"Are you raising a child?"
"You remember a quickie with me but not going through labor?"
Erin smirked. "Trust me, handsome: You're married."
Dex didn't answer right away. "You tend to bring it up a lot. After you two left LA… I wasn't sure what would happen."
"Between me and Carla?" Erin asked in surprise.
"Wasn't sure if you'd be friends or at each others throats."
"All this time and you two never talked about it?"
"I didn't dare." Dex grinned.
Curry laughed, and jumped up. "Be back soon."
Kate took a deep breath and keyed her mike. "Reach to Tower, come in, Palace."
"You sure I can't talk you outta this?" Walters' voice came back.
"I'm sure." Kate was proud of the way her nerves didn't show in her voice.
"Then you are cleared for takeoff. Escort will join you in the air."
Kate gunned the engines of her Cessna, getting the revs high before she dropped the brakes and felt the plane move. The engines were roaring before they got any speed up, and Kate felt like she'd been kicked in the back.
The plane heaved for a second as she tried to get it off the ground. The plane was heavy with her cargo; it wouldn't climb. Kate put the front wheel down again and gunned the engines higher than she dared. The ride got rougher, Kate was bouncing up and down in her seat as the Plane sped up.
"How's it going back there?" She shouted.
"Stable." Reported a toneless voice.
Kate was watching the end of the runway like a hawk, timing it to the last possible second.
"Now." Bob-Doe told her firmly, and Kate took his word for it, yanking back on the stick as hard as she could. The Terminator reached out and grasped the co-pilot's stick, mimicking her.
The Plane groaned from the struggle, but they got airborne, barely. Momentum got them a few feet off the ground and little by little, they got a bit higher. Kate felt the wheels scrape on something, and very nearly pitched it into the ground, but it kept climbing.
"Damn, this plane is heavy." Kate gritted.
"No kidding." Walters said in her ear. "By the way, you trashed your landing gear."
Kate shrugged, though she knew he couldn't see it. "Won't need it anyway."
Kate had been gone less than six hours when Oldham came to Walters, with a fresh problem. "Seems Skynet's aware that we're scrubbing as many Machines as we can get. They've managed to scrounge together a strike force."
"Where are they headed?"
"Checkpoint Delta."
Walters sighed. "If they take Delta, they'll be able to cut off all our Scrub teams. Who have we got to defend the position?"
"Just the teams that are out there already collecting Metal Marines."
"Well, tell them to reprogram what they can for reinforcements and hold the Checkpoint."
"Sir, Corporal Connor is out there with them."
Walters felt a chill go up his spine. If Kate's mission failed, it was likely that both Connor parents would be dead within a few days. If Kate succeeded, one or both might be coming back. Coming back to the news that their daughter was off holding back a Skynet attack force...
Aloud, he didn't even hesitate. "She's a soldier first, and that's what soldiers do. Send word to all our teams in the area."
Oldham turned to the console and did so. The War Room staff began shifting markers on the maps to make it accurate. He barely heard them. He couldn't go himself; he wouldn't make it in time. Besides, with Connor, and Kate, and Noah, all out in the warzone, he wasn't able to leave the Base. To himself, he started trying to figure out what he was going to say to any of them if the worst happened.
"They'll be glad to know she's out there with them." Oldham offered.
Walters snapped out of it. "What?"
"Sarah Connor." Oldham explained. "The men will be glad to know she's with them. They..." Oldham shrugged. "The kid's got some kind of magic. Remember?"
Walters felt better, being reminded of that. Sarah Connor was the first baby to survive, despite the fact that her mother was nearly at death's door for most of her pregnancy. And in her first day among the living, she had personally saved all their lives from Skynet's latest attempt to exterminate humanity. Walters smiled thinly. "Saint Sarah?"
"Saint Sarah." Oldham glanced around like he was expecting to be smacked across the face for thinking it. "Better keep that down, you know how her mother reacts to people talking that way about her daughter."
Or her husband. Walters thought absently, staring at the maps.
Skynet sent probes into the besieged hills in small groups. Not enough to do any real damage. Most of the time it wasn't even enough to cost them a soldier. But it kept the fear alive. Hours turned into days, and the fear gave way to the cold, and then to back to the fear, then back to the cold. The nights were the worst. The dark could play tricks on paranoid minds.
Reese and Perry hadn't let go of their weapons in almost as long as they'd been under Siege. Their knuckles were white, almost unable to open their fingers after so long in a Death Grip.
Connor slipped in and out of the rocks like a Wraith, always moving. Noah went with him a few times, sometimes it was Perry. They didn't dare leave his side for long. Connor had somehow managed to find half the human soldiers in their hiding places. Some of them had wounds that were gathering infections. Some of them were getting sick or frostbit from the cold. Most were just hungry, exhausted and shivering.
Noah had been Tech-Com for two years now. Her fears about The General had faded within a week, any lingering doubts within a few months.
But that was nothing compared to this.
She always knew how important Morale was in a war, especially in this one. It was the one way to increase efficiency and skill and speed that Skynet would never have.
But this battle was something else. The Terrain made it hard to impossible for the soldiers to see each other, the cold and the wind sliced into them so hard it made it impossible to get comfortable enough for rest… To say nothing of the fact that they were surrounded.
The Siege of Arecibo was like a condensed version of the whole war. Skynet couldn't get in, Humanity couldn't get out; and it was just a matter of time before one side got the advantage over the other.
And yet for all that, Connor made it seem like an inevitable victory was coming. He kept them all going. All the ones he could find. With jokes, with advice, with anecdotes, with private chats, with anything he could throw at them.
Noah could tell though. He was out of ideas.
Kate checked the controls for the ninth time. She looked out the cockpit windows again. Her fighter escort were in formation. The pilots had all been briefed on the plan, and they knew the odds. They were willing to take the risk, as long as the plan worked.
To get Connor back, Tech-Com would fight to the last man.
Kate had four Infiltrators behind her, her 'bodyguard' in the co-pilot seat next to her, ten fighter jets surrounding her in three dimensions. She hadn't been this nervous since meeting the T-X.
"This is tactically uncertain." Bob-Doe told Kate clinically. "My model is still in use by Skynet. I may be recognized as an enemy by Connors Own."
"Agreed. But I have a solution for that." Kate said quickly, and reached down next to her seat. From within her duffel, she pulled out a large leather jacket, and a pair of cracked black sunglasses.
Bob-Doe didn't understand why, but he pulled them on obediently. Kate shivered. It was suddenly ten years ago again.
Kate shook off the deja-vu and nodded slowly. "Now we're ready." She sent a glance over her shoulder. "How are things back there?"
Tom-Doe was the closest, so he reported. "Package is still secure."
The plane was packed with so much military grade explosive that Kate couldn't see more than four feet back into the cavern. The flight would take the better part of the day, staying low to the ground to avoid radar, and winding back and forth to avoid Skynet patrols that could call ahead. Her 'flight crew' of four Infiltrators were standing rigidly at attention between her and the pallet of explosives; a pose that no human could hold this long, plus John's 'Uncle Bob' next to her.
It was going to be a long flight.
Z Plus Ten Years Sixty Eight Days
"What do you think?" Noah said quietly.
"The Artillery is the only thing we can't beat. Skynet will have satellites watching by now, and it doesn't matter because they have long enough range that we can't sneak up on them. We don't have anything big enough to take them on directly... And we can't get out while they're there."
"Why aren't they just tearing the Mountains down?" Perry asked.
"Artillery uses solid ammo." Noah said. "They aren't like plasma rifles. They run out of ammo and we win."
"Stalemate." Connor summed up. "If it goes too long, we'll have to risk it. The Artillery is the only thing we can't take on ourselves. But if Skynet gets some reinforcements in here like we did, they'll have the edge." he sent a look to Perry. "Anything on the radio yet?"
"Sorry, Chief. They're still Jamming."
"Which means Skynet can't call out either." Noah volunteered. "They know we're stuck. They'll wait us out till they can get reinforcements in here." She scanned the horizon again. "What will Colonels Connor and Walters do?"
Connor thought for a moment. "They'll try something. But I can't for the life of me think what."
As if to answer him, the visible H/K's up in the air all took off in one direction, moving for all they were worth.
"Looks like you won't have to think about it for long." Noah observed.
Connor reached out and smacked the sleeping boy on the shoulder. "Wake up, Kyle."
"Kate?" Kyle mumbled, and opened his eyes.
Noah and Perry stared at him. "'Kate'?" Noah repeated in disbelief. "Kid, what were you just dreaming about?"
"Best we don't go there." Connor said lightly as Kyle flushed bright red.
"Tango One to Arrowhead; we have company."
"Tango, you are clear to engage. Keep 'em off me." Kate said, feeling the adrenaline flow.
The air screamed as her fighter wing of escorts took off in all directions, following the enemies hunting her as she sped toward the Siege.
"We have engaged." Tango One reported coolly. Kate couldn't believe how cool he sounded. Because of her cargo, she had limited manoeuvrability. Because it was a civilian craft, she had no defenses. Because she was flying straight to her target, she had very little visibility.
The radio was bad enough.
"They're trying to flank us!"
"Tango Niner, check your six!"
"Storm, you picked one up, WATCH IT!"
"Where is he? Where is he?"
"We lost Storm! Felix, cut left, I'll cover you!"
"Good hits! Splash one!"
"Scales; he's in your kill slot!"
"Watch out! The Leader has a bead on the package!"
"Colonel, dive! NOW! NOW!"
Kate shoved her controls, praying she'd be able to pull out again. She felt the controls lurch in her hands as something came loose back behind her and shifted.
The scream of a jet turbine seemed loud enough to fill the cabin she was in, and Kate caught a glimpse of something huge and gun-metal gray flashing past her windshield, close enough to touch. Then an explosion!
"She's clear! She's clear!"
"Two more coming in from three o'clock high!"
"Tango's two and four, come about and engage! Commit the Package! Do it now!"
Kate pushed the throttle harder. Her escorts weren't going to be able to protect her long.
"There." The familiar voice said. Her co-pilot had managed to keep a grip on direction and distance, and Kate followed his pointed finger across the battlefield to the other side of the Hills, and the gleaming artillery.
"Arm the cargo and bail out!" Kate roared, pointing the nose of the Plane down.
She felt the plane jerk as the pressure changed with the door opening. The whine of the engines grew louder and higher.
And then the controls jerked again, much harder.
"She's hit! She's hit! Somebody get her back!"
Kate tried to get her seatbelt off. The cabin was filling up with smoke, she could smell and hear flames growing. Kate struggled not to panic.
And then her co-pilot moved. He reached up with one hand and dug his pneumatic fingers through the ceiling of the plane. He stood up, not bothering with the harness, which snapped instantly under his strength. He reached out his other hand and ripped the harness free from around Kate.
Her head was snapping back and forth from the power-dive so fast that she could barely see. But The Terminator could. He smashed out the windshield of the plane, and Kate squeezed her eyes shut instantly as the glass cut into her face, and the wind howled the smoke away! Without the harness, she felt her body get thrown about, the controls flying out of her hands!
Kate felt a grip around her waist. She had just enough time to register the feeling of a leather jacket slapping into her face, and suddenly she was spiralling.
With her eyes squeezed shut, she couldn't see what was happening, but she felt hands on her parachute, feeling for the rip-cord, and then she was free of all of it.
Forcing her eyes open against the sudden stillness, she got a real good look of the battlefield.
Connor grinned savagely. Noah and Perry and Reese all had identical looks of disbelief, their jaws hanging open.
The civilian plane had pushed its luck too far. From the second it had been visible on the horizon it was the center of a crazed dogfight. The Cessna seemed to have little to no ability or intention to dodge itself, and the ten or more fighter jets that escorted it were going nuts trying to keep Skynet from shooting it down.
Connor keyed his radio, trying to get a word out. Still nothing. "Damn. Come on, somebody read my mind. Anyone with a sniper rifle."
"Forget it." Noah told him. "The way they're spinning around up there?"
The dogfight couldn't last, but it lasted long enough that the Cessna made it to the hills.
Connor and his people all ducked as the dogfight made it's way overhead. The Cessna was tagged by enemy fire again, and it spiraled down toward the far side of the Hills as smoke came bleeding from the fuselage.
"What the hell?" Noah asked quietly.
There in the sky, drawn against the black smoke coming from the plane, were a series of parachutes. The speed of the plane meant that they were drawn in a line over hundreds of meters, one chute opening after another.
Some of the Aerial H/K's noticed the slow moving targets. What one Machine saw, they all saw, and the Terminators on the ground started aiming upward.
The last two opened a few seconds apart… The last of them was spiraling out, more or less following the momentum of the plane.
The closer of the last two chutes was a lot lower to the ground, dropping like a stone, and was in clear sight of the three highest ranking officers.
Connor felt his jaw drop open at the hinges. The nearer chute was opening, much closer to the ground… And for a moment it looked like...
The wearer barely had enough time to get the chute open; not nearly enough time to check his momentum…
And the figure slammed down into the ground, several meters away from them, further down the hill.
Noah moaned. "No joy. Ain't nobody could live through a landing like t-"
KRAKABOOOOOOM!
The blast threw every soldier off their feet, knocking them all flat. A wall of concussive force rolled across the battlefield, sweeping up dust and dirt and frost and people alike.
Unseen by the humans, the mystery man was moving under the half-open parachute, rolling to his feet.
Connor lifted his head. Noah was already up, yelling something, but his ears were ringing from the blast so much that he couldn't hear her for several seconds.
"...gone!" Noah's voice came to him finally. "The artillery is gone! The artillery is gone! They did it!"
Connor was up, and grabbed Kyle, yanking him to his feet. "Let's move! Reese, would you see who's in the area?"
Kyle grinned and pulled a flare gun out of his pack. What was once used to confuse Machines was now just a signal again. With the radios jammed, it was the only signal left to send. He fired straight up, and a single red point of light flew up into the sky, clear and strong.
And then from somewhere to the left, too far to hear, but easily visible, another one went shooting up into the sky. And then another from the right. And another.
All up and down the mountains, from places and positions that neither side could see, came dozens, then hundreds, maybe thousands of signal flares.
Noah felt her heart give a solid thump at the sight. Hidden in their foxhole for days on end, it was getting easy to forget that they were not alone out here. With every point of light, she saw how surrounded by friends they were.
They were all there. They were all ready.
With the artillery gone, their shattered remains framed by the still rising explosion of fire and smoke, Skynet suddenly seemed outnumbered.
Connor led the charge down the side of the mountain, toward the nearest group of flares; which incidentally took them past the last parachute. Noah skidded to a frozen halt as the man rolled to his feet, unhurt by the bone crushing drop.
He was facing away from them, wearing a leather jacket. He searched the ground a moment and picked up a cracked pair of dark sunglasses.
Connor's heart was in his throat. He knew. Even before the infiltrator turned to face him, he knew.
Noah saw the now infamous face and swore, softly and fiercely. "Hell!"
"DON'T SHOOT!" Connor roared. He and the Terminator glared electrically at each other for a few seconds.
"John Connor." The Machine said. Nothing more, just his name.
Perry had his gun levelled at the Machine, just in case, but Connor didn't even break stride. "Where is she?" The General demanded.
The Terminator pointed down the hill, the way the plane had gone, and to the last escapee of the plane, lying still, under her properly opened chute.
Noah would later reflect that this was the magic that Connor had. The ability to take something blatantly impossible and jump straight to the next step while everyone else was stuck in brainlock. She didn't know how Connor could just accept one of them as an ally so easily, much less figure out who must have sent 'him', no matter how obvious it was in hindsight. Connor just jumped past the impossibilities and already knew what to do.
Unaware of all this going through her mind; Connor, on the other hand, was quietly thrilled. It was just like old times.
Kate drifted into consciousness and felt heat and pain. The smell of smoke was thick, and she gagged on it, coming awake swiftly as her lungs demanded cleaner air.
She fought to get up...
And saw about forty steel skeletons moving toward her from all sides.
Kate reached out slowly, the only speed she had at the moment, and gripped her rifle. She couldn't even tell if it was still working.
The parachute was wrapped around her legs, and she kicked weakly, trying to get free.
No mistake. The oncoming skeletons were coming for her. They weren't on her side.
She still couldn't get a breath through the smoke. She managed to focus on what looked like tank treads bigger than her Cessna was. She had hit the artillery.
John! She thought weakly. It worked! Run!
The exoskeleton's moved within range, emerging from the flames that licked harmlessly over their metal skin.
Kate raised her gun and fired. Nothing. The gun had dropped too far.
The endo's raised their weapons.
Kate shut her eyes as she heard the Plasma crack the air.
And then she coughed from the smoke again.
Kate's eyes flew open. They missed? They don't miss.
Between her and her attackers were four of the five Infiltrators that she had brought along to play bodyguard. They had physically put themselves in the way, taking the Plasmafire for her. The Infiltrators were heavily armored, to the point where Tech-Com had to redesign their Plasmaguns to have more firepower. Since Tech-Com never used any reprogrammed Infiltrators in battle, Skynet never upgraded their guns.
The Infiltrators were blasting their way through the Endo's with lethal efficiency, their machine precision, their tech-Com programming and their Human guns making a savage hat-trick that dealt flawless destruction on any steel Skeleton unlucky enough to come near Kate.
The woman fought to stand up, and started moving away from the flames, limping for the human lines.
Without so much as trading a glance, without word or communication, the Infiltrators moved to cover her. Tom-Doe and Harry-Doe moved closer together to cover her from behind, Dick-Doe ran in front of her. Smith-Doe handed her 'his' rifle, and simply picked her up, one hand holding her waist, the other under her shoulders, running like a linebacker with a football. Kate didn't feel very dignified, but didn't let it stop her from shooting.
Kate struggled not to retch as her battered body tried to handle to rough ride. They were moving faster than any human could run, through the disorganized remains of Skynet's army. The two Infiltrators behind her were running unnaturally close together, forming a barricade at their rear; the one in the lead was clearing out the path, and all of them were firing with quick flawless strikes.
Kate tried not to think too deeply on what this meant. The Infiltrators were the more advanced models, and they were going through Skynet's children like a hot-knife through butter.
Sheer force of numbers was against them. Their point-guard was taking the worst of it. Dick-Doe was slowing down, taking more fire than the rest of them put together, his Machine body being pecked apart by what fire got to him; his hair and clothes on fire from the Plasma, and he didn't even flinch.
Eventually, a lucky shot nailed his hydraulics in the leg, and he stumbled, his momentum suddenly working against him as his leg was blown off at the knee joint.
Kate barely had time to react before the Machine carrying her jumped over the stumbled Infiltrator, clearing him like a hurdle. She sent a look over her shoulder and saw that one of her rear-guards had been gunned down, surrounded by dozens of Endo's.
The Plasmafire chased her and her escorts to the edge of the mountains, the Plasmafire in front of her all but faded out as they left Skynet behind.
Kate jerked as the ground suddenly changed pitch, and they were running uphill. She smacked Smith-Doe hard. "We're clear! Put me down!"
Smith-Doe dropped her obediently, and she smacked face-first into the dirt. She shook it off and fought to stand.
Skynet's warriors were charging toward them, and Kate looked up at the fading flares falling to the Earth. Her allies were out there somewhere.
"Incoming!" Smith-Doe reported, shoving Kate down roughly, and the fire fight started again. Her escorts were firing as they backed Kate safely toward more uneven terrain.
"Kate! Three O'Clock!"
Kate turned and ran without bothering to check who it was.
And as she ran, she saw people, hiding in the dirt as only humans did. They were waving her in. She heard the Plasmafire intensify behind her, and she dove into a foxhole.
Below ground level, she felt immeasurably better. The foxhole was full of soldiers, firing madly the way she had come from.
Her eyes focused finally. Dex was one of the soldiers; grinning madly at her.
Kate smiled for what felt like the first time in forever.
Dex fired three shots in less than a second, left to right, and ducked down to check on her. "Follow my finger." He moved a finger back and forth, checking her for concussion. All soldiers knew how to check for the basics. "Okay. Looks like the cuts are the worse of it." He grinned. "Gotta say, Boss; you know how to make an entrance. But you could have chosen better travel companions."
Slightly safer, Kate felt some of the adrenaline fading, and the aches in her limbs were suddenly noticeable.
There was a moment of surprise as Dex moved, faster than Kate's eye could follow, and the sharp crack of the weapon in his hand firing. The famous Quick-Draw had saved her before she even knew there was danger; and she turned to face the battle.
The war went on around their little foxhole. Kate forced herself upright, weapon ready, and saw that Tech-Com was on the offensive, blasting away at the thinning Machine ranks. The thunder crack of Sniper rifles echoed over the battlefield. Soldiers were coming out of the hills, emerging from the terrain. Places that Kate never would have noticed. Neither had Skynet. John had taught them well.
The battle was soon all but over, humanity mopping up.
"Kate!"
She spun. Connor was running toward her, Noah, Perry and Kyle following behind a little slower. She had no trouble running forward to meet him, the two of them meeting halfway and wrapping each other up in a tight hug.
Connor's radio crackled. "Chief, come in?"
Connor jumped a little in surprise, and pulled out of the clinch enough to key his radio. "Go."
"Sir, we've got them licked! The remaining Terminators made berserker runs and detonated, there aren't any left! The plane managed to take out the entire Artillery and most of the ground H/K's. Oh, and the Jammers are offline too. Did the pilot make it?"
Connor grinned. "She did indeed. The pilot was Colonel… General Katherine Connor."
A cheer went up from the radio. More flares were fired into the sky, lighting up the victory cheer.
"CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
Kate knew, smiling at John and Kyle together. They weren't cheering for her husband.
The General sent her a look. Take a bow.
Kate hefted her rifle high and gave a victory cry. It was a roar taken up by every voice in Connor's Army, as shattered Machine bodies lay broken under their feet.
Tony Sherrin came into the Medbay. The medical staff was surrounding Carla in a half circle. Carla was tense, but focused on her job. She was organizing the Medbay for incoming.
"You know the drill." She told her assembled. "Communications blackout hasn't lifted, so we don't know how heavy the casualties will be. Connor always says that you should be prepared for the worst, and then be ready for worse than that. Knowing Kate, and Connor, and Noah, and Connor's Own as I do, I doubt it'll be that serious, but until we know, we have to be ready. Clear out the Post and Pre-Op wards. The auxiliary Post-Op wards are already on alert to prepare for incoming. Both shifts will be on duty. If they're still alive, they'll follow standard operation procedure and send the heavily wounded back by Chopper. They're a fair distance from here, so the Choppers might have to make more than one trip. Crack open the stores now. I don't want to be caught short of anything mid-operation. Otherwise, get some sleep if you can. We'll be busy for a long time once they start rolling in. Any questions?"
There were none. Medical had the worst job of the war when the shooting stopped. They knew their stuff, but it was good to have someone say it out loud.
Carla looked them all earnestly in the eye and nodded. "All right. Connor told me that every soldier feels better about coming here when injured than anywhere else. I'm sorry we get so many chances to show them why, but that's how it goes. Dismissed."
Sherrin sidled up next to Carla as they were left alone. "Major?"
Carla turned. "Tell me you've heard something."
"It worked. Kate took out the artillery, and apparently the Jammers too. We got word. Skynet never knew what hit it. They've got wounded; already on the way."
Carla didn't answer.
Sherrin smiled finally. "He's okay. Dex is okay."
Carla seemed to rock on her feet for a second, before smiling like she was never worried. "Well, of course he is. He's indestructible."
Sherrin looked around. "Where's Mackie?"
"In the orchard. He and Connor Jr are practically running the Eden Project lately."
Sherrin nodded, rubbing his severed arm. "You should see them down there. They know their stuff."
The battle had been a decisive victory. Skynet had taken much heavier losses than Tech-Com. Kate's attack had taken out the majority of Skynet's heavy weapons, and Connor's Own had handled far worse than what was left over the years.
But after the battle came the cleanup.
Kate had filled in the story, and quickly went to work on the wounded. The worst cases got priority, and space on the helicopters was filling up quickly. Once she had a quick reunion and made sure that both her husband and Kyle were safe and well, she did her duty again, going back with the wounded. Some of her patients couldn't wait to see a surgeon, and Kate was cutting before the Chopper took off.
Connor had a quick conference with his Colonels.
"With the Choppers ferrying the wounded, we're going to have to get everyone back by ground." Noah volunteered. She was speaking to Connor, but her eyes never left Bob-Doe. "That'll take a while."
Perry never stopped watching the Terminator at Connor's side either. "I don't think it'll be a problem." He said. "Skynet was sending everything it had straight at us, and Col-General Connor blew them all away. I don't know what else Skynet could have left."
Connor nodded. "Agreed. Get the trucks together. Wounded take the first ride and we'll direct the Choppers to meet us on their return trip to collect them. Save travel time. We may have time, but let's not push our luck any further than we already have. Send word to Allied personnel on the way. Anyone who can spare a vehicle. Let's move."
"Sir." Noah interrupted. "What do we do with… that?" She was pointing at the Terminator.
Connor didn't smile. Not even a little bit. "We take him back with us."
Perry and Noah paled. "Sir!" Noah struggled. "Permission to speak freely?"
"Granted."
"Have you lost your mind, replaced it with Swiss cheese and then clubbed yourself over the head with something sharp?"
"Jeez, Erica; not that freely." Connor was nonplussed. "They got my wife through. Think about this. Kate said that Two Squads were the minimum that could have covered her retreat back to us. She used five Machines instead. We saved two squads worth of people that we couldn't spare. This was a good tactic."
"But a bad strategy." Perry put in. "Where do we draw the line on this now?"
"For now, we draw it here." Connor said firmly. "We can argue about this when we get back."
"What if this was the plan?" Noah waved at the Terminator. "Skynet is willing to take losses. What if this Infiltrator got captured deliberately? What if it was meant to earn our trust just so that it could get alone in a jeep with you? Infiltrators have different programming code than the Endo's. Our reprograms might not take."
"They did." The Terminator interrupted, and John felt a chill go down his spine from the nostalgia alone. "If I was programmed to kill Connor, he would already be dead."
"There? You see? How can you argue with logic like that?" Connor didn't crack a smile. He knew that the reprogramming would hold. At some point. Not necessarily now, of course… But he pushed that thought away. "He comes with us. End of discussion."
Silence.
"I'm not getting in a jeep with it." Perry said finally.
Connor nodded. That was almost expected at this point. "He rides with me. We'll take the lead jeep. He tries anything, blow it away."
His commanders both glared explosively at the Machine. There were no threats to be made. None that would work.
Connor led the way to the waiting vehicles. He tossed the keys to The Terminator. "You drive. It's tradition."
"Tradition?"
Connor smile secretly, and waved at his people. "Hasta la vista, gang! See you soon." Noah had never seen him so... cheerful. He had an Infiltrator as his driver, and he was treating it like a road trip.
Noah and Perry took it in. "Is He Nuts? Is he just plain nuts and it took us this long to see it?"
Noah shrugged. "Now I'm not so sure."
Z Plus Ten Years Seventy Days
Kate was the first of the officers to make it back to Crystal Peak. Carla was waiting with a big grin and a pair of stars.
The wounded came in first, most of the helicopters heading straight back out again the collect the next load from the convoys.
The rest of the Task Force, and Connor's Own had to take a longer way. The soldier's had to be split up, with a number of their troop carriers wiped out during the intermittent battles.
Connor's Own had vehicles enough, but with all the extra people to carry, they couldn't use them all personally.
The soldiers split up into half a dozen smaller groups, and began making their way back to Crystal Peak, collecting extra vehicles and transport when they could along the way.
The last two groups were made up mostly of Connor's Own. Kyle, Dex and Noah were on their way back, almost in sight of Crystal Peak, when they got word of what was happening.
Skynet To All Units.
Mission Accomplished. Prototype en route to Crystal Peak.
Recoup all possible losses. Allow Tech-Com Convoy to return to its base.
End Transmission
The entrance to Crystal Peak was set up to let people in slowly, in case there was an Infiltrator among them. The K-9 units were posted in a hallway, just inside the Main Door, but before the elevators. In that corridor was a room to the side, like a Toll Booth, where a soldier was stationed to let them in the second door to the elevators. Connor signed in first and handed the sheet to the next soldier along as the K-9's checked them all over.
The dogs went nuts at Bob-Doe but not at anyone else, and the K-9's handlers kept them up the other end of the corridor.
It was purely routine for Connor. "Hey, Lupe."
"Welcome back chief." Lupe was working at the entrance, in the little Booth beside the door to the elevators. She didn't take her eyes off Bob-Doe, with one hand resting lightly on the lockdown button.
"Here to see Kyle?" Connor asked lightly, keeping her distracted from his bodyguard.
Lupe blushed a little behind the glass. "I didn't know which group he was coming back with."
"Sorry to disappoint, but he's with the next one." Connor told her gently as took back the Sign-In Sheet and gave it back to her through the slot.
Lupe shrugged. "I can wait."
"Won't be long. We saw them coming in the rear-view. They're only a few minutes behind us."
Lupe smiled broadly, one hand resting on her stomach. Connor saw the gesture and felt his heart speed up.
"Hey."
Connor turned. "Sarah? What are you doing here?"
The young Sarah Connor stretched her neck and signed in herself. "With you, your Unit, and the Task Force off in another Country, somebody had to be minding the store. Skynet sent a few offensives toward Checkpoint Delta."
"And?"
Sarah grinned savagely. "We kicked Metal butt." The grin dropped as she looked up at Bob-Doe. "What are you looking at?"
Every soldier who heard it coming from the girl grinned despite themselves. She was barely as tall as Bob-Doe's hip, but she didn't flinch. Lupe looked over the sheet, looked over the soldiers, and hit the button to unlock the door. Connor, his bodyguard, and his daughter headed toward the elevators with a dozen or so soldiers as the next group came in to be checked.
"That would have been your first straight up fight." Connor put in. "How'd you like it?"
"Nine hours travel, followed by two days of boredom, followed by six hours of pure terror, followed by another seven hours of travel. What can I say? I feel like a soldier." Sarah mocked.
"Welcome to life in the armed forces, sweetie." Connor told her…
…when the dogs suddenly went berserk. Connor froze, as the dogs went mad behind the locked door to the entrance. He went to the viewing window to get a look back the way he'd come.
Every soldier spun to look. The dogs were straining at their leashes and…
…They were barking furiously at Curry.
Lupe's hand went automatically to the lock-down switch, put at the sign in desk, ready to seal the outer doors and lock down the elevators to the lower levels. But she hesitated. A new face setting off the K-9's was an Infiltrator, but Erin Curry was known to her.
Connor's eyes widened. Erin Curry had raised a hand, in no particular hurry, with one finger extended…
Connor took a breath in, about to scream a warning, as Lupe looked up from her sign-in sheet and frowned. "Erin? What's going-"
Thunk!
The extended finger had suddenly elongated into a metal spike about four feet long, and stabbed right through the slot in Lupe's Toll Booth, right through Lupe's head, nailing her to the wall. The time between the first bark, and the first fatality was two seconds.
"CODE RED!" Connor roared, shoving his daughter over against the wall, immediately taking her weapon, and himself in the opposite direction, splitting them up, knowing who the real target was…
'Curry' withdrew an elongated finger enough to push the release button before Lupe's dead body, opening the door to the elevators, and turned toward Connor, with no expression on her face; and started marching toward him.
The soldiers reacted the way they had been trained. They opened up with everything they had.
Curry's form was suddenly marked with spots, bright silver chrome spots, which shifted and melted into smooth mercurial steel, Curry's face untouched as 'she' calmly marched down the hall toward Connor, its arms elongating into flat blades, slashing its way through the soldiers that had taken up firing position. The Machine wasn't even breaking stride as it morphed into pure, chrome-colored, humanoid shape, running toward the elevators, completely ignoring the unarmed Sarah as it ran past.
The liquid metal monster ignored the majority of the people who were diving out of its way, deigning to take a running slash without looking at the ones who bothered to shoot, and it charged for Connor.
Connor got a glimpse of it coming in too fast as the elevator closed. He grabbed his radio. "Breach at the upper level! We have a new Terminator model."
There was a thud at the roof, and Connor ducked as a six foot metal blade speared down from the roof into the elevator.
Bob-Doe shoved him down with one hand and started shooting upward with the other, searching for a target.
The elevator opened with his entire team waiting, guns drawn. They drew a bead on the visible Machine with the rifle, when the Blade arms slashed downward again from above, flaying open Bob-Doe's face.
Stunned, they all aimed upward, as Bob-Doe picked Connor up off the ground with one hand and ran for the hallways, as half a dozen soldiers opened fire behind them, standing shoulder to shoulder, physically blocking the path to Connor.
The mercurial Terminator was left unchallenged eventually, and started a quick-march after its prey. It came to a T-Intersection, and paused. There was no trace of which way Connor had gone.
Taking a moment to review, the Machine resumed walking.
Chapter 18: Z Plus 10 Years 70 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Ten Years Seventy Days
Kate answered her radio. "Connor here."
"He's back." Carla said. "Sarah too."
She smiled. "I heard. I'm on my-"
The Alarms started screeching.
"Code Red; Repeat; Code Red! Breach at the Upper Level!" The PA roared. "All hands, report to your positions!"
Kate paled. The Upper Level was the entrance. If John and Sarah had both checked in right this second…
She sent a glance around. The civilians were frozen, paranoid. And she was unarmed. As bad as she wanted to go running up there to check on her family...
Noah and Perry heard the same announcement over their radios.
"Connor." Noah hissed silently.
"Lupe." Kyle breathed at the same moment.
Perry turned to Kyle, currently in the driver's seat. "Reese, get us in there fast! Before the Outer Door comes down! We've got to get inside Crystal Peak NOW!"
Noah muscled their way through the Entrance on rank, and Kyle raced past her when he saw Sarah crouched over the bodies. "Sarah!"
The younger Connor looked up at him and the blood ran away from her face. "Kyle... Don't look."
Kyle looked.
And he started to scream.
Sarah was up instantly, and pulling him away from the bodies. "Kyle! No! Don't look!"
Noah caught up and saw the two soldiers, still both children to her mind, trying to wrestle each other to and from a row of dead bodies. One of them Noah recognized. It was Lupe, with a permanent look of surprise on her split-open face.
Noah took half a millisecond to feel pity, and shoved that away. "Where is it?"
Sarah gestured. "It's in the Base somewhere!"
Noah grabbed Kyle by the collar. "Reese! We're still at war here!"
Reese embraced the raw anger. Pain was too... awful. Anger was so much stronger. Stronger was so much better. He gripped his weapon so tight he heard it creak, and took off with Noah. He didn't even look back at Sarah, or Lupe. "Let's kill that thing!"
Kate was working feverishly. There were certain protocols that had to be followed when the base was suddenly at a Code Red, and as she was now Base Commander, she had to make sure all of them were done before she could go to the War Room herself.
She was hustling a group of civilians to the shelters, when 'Curry' came around the corner at the opposite end of the hallway, back behind them.
Kate glanced at her charges. No chance that they would make it to the emergency elevators and tunnels below. Not before it caught up to them.
What would John do?
Kate let the civilians run ahead of her and pulled back, heading into the nearest empty room she could find. She paused at the doorway and gave 'Curry' a whistle. "Hey! It's me! Katherine Connor!"
'Curry' turned instantly toward her. Kate got ready to duck into the room and slam the door, when the Machine lifted a hand, and Kate felt a spear stab into her shoulder, pinning her to the wall.
Kate howled. The thing had moved faster than she could follow it. By the time she knew what was happening, one of it's fingers had turned into a long thin blade, stabbing right through her left shoulder, just below her collarbone. The pain was excruciating.
'Curry', her face impassive, used it's other still-human hand to lift Kate's radio from her belt, and hold it up to the pinned soldier. "Call him."
"No!" Kate snarled.
The Machine twisted the spike, making Kate shriek again. It was merciless. "Call John Connor."
Kate hocked off and spat at it. The only thing left she could do. One arm was useless, the other was trying to get a grip on the blade pinning her.
The Machine held the radio closer. "Call to John Connor. Use any necessary code words so that he knows it's really you. Tell him to come and save you."
"Go to hell!" Kate hissed.
'Curry' lifted the radio to its own lips and spoke. "Connor."
Connor, now in the War Room, armed guards; both human and Machine on all sides, looked up sharply at the announcement.
"I have your wife. Listen." Curry's voice came through flatly. A moment later Kate's voice came over the radio, screaming in pain. John twitched like he'd touched a live wire.
Walters was on him instantly, a hand on his shoulder. "Don't fall for that. You don't know it's her."
Kate's voice howled from every radio in the War Room.
Connor gripped the edge of the table so tightly he felt the maps rip between his fingers. "It's her."
Curry's voice returned. "Come down here, Connor. Come to corridor Whiskey-2 and I will spare her. You're the one I want, you know that. She is nothing to me."
"Thanks for telling me where you are." Noah hissed, taking off. "Security teams to Whiskey-2."
Kate was trying to make herself black out from the pain before she could be made to do anything worse. "Don't you do it, John!" She roared at the radio.
"If you do not, I will cause her enough pain to keep her screaming." The monster said into the radio. "I know exactly how much she can endure without passing out."
At that instant, a security team came around the corner and started firing immediately.
One blast nailed the chrome finger spiked through Kate, more out of luck than anything else, and Kate was suddenly free, with a knife blade melting out of her shoulder, and slurping back into Curry's foot once it hit the floor. The Machine turned to face them, not even bothering to dodge as its body was marked by the Plasma-fire. The impact points were silver and chrome, and apparently meant nothing to it.
Blood running down her now useless arm, Kate rolled away from it, dragging herself in the opposite direction as the security team distracted the invader.
It waded through them. They all stayed out of reach, as it's 'arms' suddenly extended nearly ten feet, twice the width of the corridor, catching them in their hiding places with quick lethal strokes.
"Spartacus!" The team leader yelled a coded order.
"Sarge! No!" One of his guys yelled back.
"That's an ORDER!"
The team scattered, not firing, as the majority of them backed up the hall. The Sargent however, kept firing as fast as he could, backing into the nearest room with an unlocked door, firing steadily to try and buy time. A tactic that wasn't working; as the rest of the survivors lucky to be behind the Machine stayed well away.
The Infiltrator followed the Sargent into the room, and proceeded to gut him with frightening efficiency.
The last surviving members of the Security team were the ones that ran away, and they moved fast back down the hall, slamming the door shut, and keying the 'scramble' code, sealing it in. There was one such cage on each level, for exactly this reason. The doors were reinforced in the always concrete and steel walls. Since the first Terminator got in, they had drilled endlessly on all the ways to stop the march of another. How to get them in the trap was a source of considerable frustration. The internal guards were off the front lines, but nobody ever jeered them for it. They knew what would be asked of them if another ever got inside.
"John!" Kate's voice gasped. "I'm all right. It's okay!"
John let out a breath, back at work instantly. "Get out of there, Kate. Right now."
"I am out of there." Kate moaned. "I'm in the elevator. Shaft four. They've got it locked in one of the rooms in Whiskey-2."
"That won't last for long." Connor switched frequencies. "Noah. Plasma-Guns don't have much effect. They burn too clean, with no solid state ammo. Use concussive force. A lot of it."
"Understood sir." Noah was at the Door in corridor Whiskey-2 within minutes. The entire path there was littered with bodies. Whomever had come across the Machine on its march had paid with their lives.
Over a dozen security teams were waiting for her. She checked. They were all armed with grenades. "Listen up. Connor says concussive impact force is what we need to use. We're going to hit the thing with as much bang-bang as we've got. We're going to put so many holes in it that it won't be able to recover. That said, now is not the time to conserve things. Use every grenade you've got. Remember, this thing is a shape-shifter, so it could be any person, any bit of furniture, any wall or door..."
Her people tensed, ready.
"Don't look, just throw." Noah took a deep breath and opened the door. About a dozen grenades went flying into it, and she slammed it shut again.
BOOM!
The soldiers scattered to either side of the doorway, and Noah opened it again. A brief burst of flame gusted out at the rush of air from the corridor, and the soldiers came rushing in, weapons bristling.
Connor managed to stay patient for five whole seconds. "Report!"
"There's nothing in here." Noah's voice reported after a moment. "Hang on, we're searching... Aw hell."
"What is it?"
"Looks like it can go through vents, sir. It could be anywhere now!"
"Go Nova!" Walters barked.
Still more guards flashed into the room, and weaponry bristled in all directions, half of them aiming at the air vents in the room, the other half aiming at the door.
Connor didn't even register them. He pulled his radio. "All personnel. General quarters. All teams evacuate public areas immediately."
"Due respect; Chief, that's what's known as 'Divide and Conquer'." Walters muttered.
"No choice. If it gets into a crowd we'll never find it again, and if we trap it in a public area, it'll be a massacre. We aren't done losing people today. All we can do now is minimize our losses." Connor responded as alarms rang through the base. "All personnel, gather around whatever radios you have, tune to channel five, and start talking. All of you. Everyone on the base. Don't take turns, don't pause for each other; and it doesn't matter what you say. Keep talking, all of you. Mention what room you are in every few seconds, but you don't stop talking."
A cacophony of voices rang out from the radio a few moments later. Nobody understood why, but Connor ordered it; and everyone in Tech-Com knew: When Connor stopped making sense; it meant he had another idea.
Connor keyed his radio to a different Channel. "Tom-Doe, report to the War Room. NOW!"
Everyone reacted.
"Sir." Walters seethed. "I don't think bringing a gawd-forsaken Terminator into the War Room… another Terminator into the War Room is going to help the situation."
Connor grinned cruelly as Tom-Doe came in at a quick run, not even out of breath. Connor tuned his radio back and tossed it to the newcomer Machine. "Tom, take this radio, and listen to it. I want you to listen to every voice, take note of every room each particular voice is in, and let our security teams know the second the pattern in the babble is interrupted."
"Understood."
Connor glanced at Walters. "The Mercury can go through a room full of people before they have time to scream, and it can mimic voices, but not at the same time."
Walters grinned, understanding instantly. "How do you think of these things?"
Bob-Doe piped up. "Locating the Machine is not enough. Weapons seem ineffective."
Connor turned to Bob Doe. "That's going to be your job."
Taking that as his orders, Bob Doe turned to head off and Connor put a hand out. "Not yet." He told the Terminator. "Amil, here's the plan. Have one of our security teams head for maintenance corridor 36-Baker. Tell them to get each and every cylinder of liquid nitrogen or Freon gas that they can, and get it to the inside of Meat Lockers Alpha. Move fast."
Amil didn't understand, but he obeyed.
"Evacuate the War room, rig the vents to blow. Use trip wires." Connor turned to his bodyguard. "You're with me."
Connor turned and charged out of the War-Room, with the Terminator on his heels.
"Dorm 4, Level nine, has stopped responding. Security teams en route!" Walters' voice called.
They made it all the way to the Presidential Suite, and Connor went right to the bed, tearing the mattress off savagely and throwing it to the side. Under the mattress was a compartment in the bed frame. He opened it and revealed a row of military grade shotguns; now obsolete in a plasma-gun war.
"This thing doesn't react to plasma-fire. We need kinetic weapons. Something that will put large messy holes in things." Connor tossed a shotgun to the Machine and took another for himself. He threw a bandolier of shells to the terminator and slung another over his shoulder.
From Connor's Radio came a litany of yells and plasma-fire. "It's like we're shooting blanks! Oh, god!"
Connor turned to the Terminator. "Well, here we go again!"
"Again?" The familiar voice said blankly.
Connor smirked secretly for a second. "Never mind."
"This is tactically inadvisable." Bob-Doe said. "The attacker is apparently a far more efficient and adaptable Machine than myself."
Connor pumped the shotgun. "Due respect, I've heard that from you before."
"Before?"
"You're clear on the plan?"
"Affirmative."
"Let's go hunting."
The walls rumbled for a moment with the sound of an explosion.
Connor pulled his radio as they made it to the stairwell. "Report!"
"He used the grenades." Kyle's called back in agony. "Checker used his grenades. The thing's been blown to bits. Literally."
Connor could hear the sound of cheering over his radio. He didn't smile.
"Reese, are you all right?" Noah called over the radio.
"Yes, Ma'am." Kyle grunted. "I'm stuck."
Connor willed himself to move faster, counting down in his head.
Sure enough, Kyle spoke again. "Wait… it's moving. The pieces are… oh my god. It's still alive! It's MOVING!"
Kyle was kicking madly at the debris that pinned him down, as the mass of liquid metal ran together, one drop at a time, until the puddle they formed seemed to shiver, and then raise itself back upward again, rolling over debris and flames.
Kyle finally dug himself out, and ran for it, limping on bloodied, injured legs… He spared a glance over his shoulder and saw that the chrome mass had taken on a humanoid shape, and it was walking toward him with an even powerful stride...
When Connor suddenly stepped around the corner, armed with a pump action shotgun; a bandoleer of shells slung over his chest.
The chrome Machine saw him and forgot about Kyle instantly.
"Get Down." Connor snapped.
Kyle dove for the floor and Connor brought the shotgun up. Gunpowder was a thing of the past in this war. The explosions of shotgun blasts made Kyle's ears ring almost as bad as the grenade blast.
Chrome caved under the force of the shot. The form jerked backward like a sledgehammer had been slung into it. Another blast from Connor. Another. Another.
The Machine dropped to the floor, seemingly stunned.
Connor reached down and grabbed Kyle's collar. "On your feet, soldier."
Kyle caught a bare glimpse of the chrome fading back into Curry's shape, and he moved, half running half limping; Connor supporting his weight.
The T-1000 got up second later and took off down the corridor after them.
Connor had made it to an intersection in the hallway. He pushed Kyle left toward the Mess Hall, and he himself went right; toward the Meat Lockers. The T-1000 followed Connor. By the time it reached the corner, Connor had made it to the other end of the hallway. No way to double back around 'her'. Doors led into the huge freezer rooms, where the perishable goods were stored. The fridges were locked up tight, except for one, which was left open.
The T-000 ignored the hallway's features, focusing on Connor at the other end of the hallway, with no way out, or around.
Standing there between them, carrying a fully loaded shotgun, was six feet and two inches of pure ruthless machine death dealing precision, battle scarred and unbowed. The dark sunglasses were cracked, the leather jacket torn and faded, and its skin flayed over enough to show chrome underneath; and the expression on what was left of its face didn't even seem concerned.
Connor took a moment to appreciate the nostalgia as the two machines marched at each other down the hallway, in no particular hurry. His bodyguard in the black leather jacket was firing steadily, in flawless rhythm. Step, pump-action, BOOM! Step, pump-action, BOOM! Step, pump-action, BOOM!
The T-1000, still wearing Curry's face, jerked, blown backward on its feet, a round chrome cavity carved into its body with each blast till it fell to the ground, completely still.
Connor stared at them, slightly transfixed. It was a scene straight out of his childhood…
And then the metallic holes blown through her torso melted back into shape and faded, as 'Curry' stood back up again.
'Bob' flashed the weapon around again, but 'Curry' was moving faster, pointing it up at the ceiling. They grappled over it for an instant, before going offensive, smashing each other into the walls, the concrete crunching under them.
The new model was faster and stronger, and 'Bob' was thrown in something like a judo move; his huge heavy body skidding down the hall as 'Curry' ignored him and went for Connor.
The General darted into the freezers. Everything that required freezing was kept in several large rooms that were kept at below zero temperatures. Since most everything in them was perishable, they were kept cool not by electricity, but by liquid nitrogen stores, running through the room in thick tubing. The super-cold chemicals were kept in storage…
The machine followed him in mercilessly. Connor had taken cover behind the frozen shelves, and started shooting instantly. Just like before, its march was checked by kinetic force of the shot alone.
It wasn't enough. It was never going to be enough. Eventually the shotgun emptied, and Connor stood alone as the mercury flowed back into Curry's shape.
'Curry' raised a hand, index finger extended…
Bob-Doe came charging in behind them both, and picked the attacking Machine up with sheer momentum; crashing them both into the frosted gas tanks.
Connor felt the super cold gas hit his lungs and reeled out of the freezer room, coughing horrifically. It took the last of his strength to shut the door; and he collapsed to the floor.
He could barely focus his eyes, either from the blows to the head or the cold in his lungs halting his breath, but he could barely make out the fuzzy shape of the keypad by the freezer door.
He was dimly aware of the sounds of combat in the freezer, as he lifted his gun lazily, and put a bullet through the keypad; shattering it; sealing the room.
Noah was sprinting through the Base, weapon out. Her security team was behind her but she was outpacing them as they paused to check every side corridor.
They came around the corner to the Meat Lockers. There was a body slumped against the wall.
Her team crept up on it carefully. A Terminator could play dead. The one they hunted could shape-shift.
It could be the Target. One of her men signaled her silently.
Noah crept forward and prodded it with her rifle. That was when she noticed the shattered control panel in the door. Eyes wide, she turned the body over.
It was The General.
Her team all started cursing and praying in horror to themselves as she quickly checked his pulse, and then grabbed for her belt.
"General Kate?" Noah called into her radio. It had become the shorthand, to avoid confusion on which 'General Connor' was being called.
"Noah? Good to hear your voice! I got the Nursery to the shelters. Micheal's fine."
Noah sagged with relief. "That's good news. I found Connor. We need a Med-Team to the Meat Lockers fast!"
"On the way!"
Noah looked to her men. "Go Nova! Find the Intruder... and Bob-Doe."
"Found them." One of her men said, sounding awed and silent. He was peeking through the viewing port in the window. Her team went to the window to look.
Noah stayed behind a moment, and tenderly stroked the side of Connor's unconscious face with her fingers once their backs were turned, softly caressing his long curved scar.
"Ma'am, you gotta see this!"
Noah shook off the momentary weakness and went to join them. The viewing window was frosted over from the inside, but they could see enough. The two Machines were inside, both of them locked in combat. But neither of them was moving. The Intruder wore Curry's face, and one arm had morphed into a long flat blade at the elbow, stabbing into Bob-Doe at the midsection.
'Curry's' frozen body had several huge holes blown through it, no doubt by the shotgun that Bob-Doe was aiming with one hand. Both Machines were frosted over, completely motionless.
Noah and her team just stared at the macabre tableau for a long time.
"Well." Noah said finally. "There's something you don't see every day."
Z Plus Ten Years Seventy One Days
Connor's eyes fluttered open slowly. He was in Medbay, with an oxygen mask over his face. "...hat 'appened?"
Carla appeared at his side instantly. "You got a lungful of Industrial strength 'cold gas'. It essentially gave your lungs frostbite. We were kind of worried for a while there."
"...'here's Ka'e?" Connor slurred.
"Trying to sort out what's left of the Base." Carla said quietly. "We lost people. Pretty much everyone who came across the Thing."
Connor cleared his throat. "Kah... hurt?"
Carla had a foul taste in her mouth. "It's too soon to be sure if she'll keep the use of her arm. But she'll live."
"...e Ma'hine?"
"Both of them are posing as statues in our deep freeze. Kate has the area under guard. A guard made up of reprogrammed Infiltrators, by the way."
Connor nodded, coughing thickly. His 'Uncle Bob' died for the third time now, doing what he always did; saving him from a better Machine than he was.
John slowly drew another breath. "Lup'?"
Carla looked sad. "She didn't suffer."
"...'Rique?"
"We... haven't been able to reach him yet. He's with the Cartel Union. Rest, General." Carla said gently. "We got it covered. You taught us well."
Enrique had taken two helicopters and a boat just to get to the Cartel Union Headquarters. He'd been constantly moving and evading Skynet just to get to a meeting he didn't want to go to with someone he didn't particularly like.
As such, the pilots were only too happy to see their destination as they dropped him off.
The Union HQ was originally a Church Mission long before, when it was first set up. When Mexico's government somewhat stabilized, the mission became a town, and thanks to the sometimes violent history of the area, it was defensible. The design of the town meant that the whole area was surrounded by a solid defensive wall; with the church and its dormitories at the center, and the post-J-Day spread of the wastelands had given them an excellent view of the surrounding area.
Enrique was watching the second it came into view. The inner walls had a few new bullet-holes. Bullet-holes with bloodstains.
The courtyard was full of vehicles, as it almost always was, and the roof of one of the buildings had a helipad on it.
The courtyard had more than the usual number of people running back and forth, doing things. Enrique had been back and forth to this place a lot since Connor declared them Allied Forces, and he'd never seen so many people carrying guns in the Courtyard.
As the helicopter came in to land, he noticed that almost a dozen soldiers were coming up to the landing pad.
When the helicopter landed and he jumped out, he was surrounded before the door closed. Enrique made a point of not moving an inch as the Helicopter took off again.
A huge man half Enrique's age, with more muscles than two thirds of the Infiltrators, stepped up. "Enrique Salceda." He said calmly. "I'm Colonel Lothar; head of Security. Governor Rojas has asked me to escort you to your quarters until he has a chance to talk to you."
Enrique felt his instincts scream. "I thought the head of security here was..."
"Things change." Lothar said calmly. He pointed the the holster at Enrique's hip. "And I'll have to take that. A new directive. Nobody outside Union forces are allowed to carry weapons on Base."
A few of his guards were already aiming their guns at him. Enrique slowly drew his handgun, and handed it to Lothar, handle first.
Everyone breathed a little easier.
Enrique picked the largest guard that had his weapon aimed, and swiftly took one step toward him. "BOO!"
The man squawked and jumped back fast enough to trip over his own feet. Everyone snapped into ready position and there were suddenly a dozen guns aimed.
Enrique let out a demented coyote laugh. "Gee, Lothar; if I didn't know better, I would think that I was dangerous."
Kate, her arm in a sling, was overseeing the cleanup. The bodies were even more of a mess than Terminators usually left. Kate hated it, but with her husband down, it fell to her and Eric and Noah. The three of them had put their heads together, and realized in a few hours of work what her husband would doubtless have seen instantly.
The Siege of Arecibo had cost Skynet dearly. It had pulled in ground forces from all over the place. The reinforcements that hadn't made it were destroyed by Kate's fighter escort, and the Terminators that had made it were almost uniformly taken; not even counting the Machines that were wiped clean and captured after The Pulse.
Crystal Peak and Tech-Com had been busy during the rescue mission, collecting or sabotaging every fried Machine they could reach. The human Units not involved had been charging forward, gaining as much ground as they dared, rushing right past whole armies of Skynet soldiers.
Tech-Com's ranks swelled dramatically with captured Machines, and Skynet had suffered it's most costly defeat of the War.
Tech-Com was celebrating, but Crystal Peak wasn't. It had been a day of the worst casualties the Base had ever taken. But Connor's tactic worked. Within the Deep Freeze of Crystal Peak, 'Bob Doe' and some macabre parody of Erin Curry were frozen solid, midway through a fierce battle.
Kyle had found Connor first and summoned everyone who had a radio.
Carla and Kate had treated him, and then Kate had gone on with the war and Carla worked with the rest of the wounded. When they were stable, she had moved on to the dead.
Kate had taken the news about Lupe in particular like a kick to the gut. Her first call had been to Enrique, the next of kin. She was secretly relieved when she was unable to reach him; his helicopter to the Cartel union running silent. Her next stop had been Yolanda, who had been crushed, but immediately sent Kate away, sending her to Kyle. Kyle had found out before she could get to him; and nobody had seen him since.
Sarah and Robbie were waiting for her. "Mom?" Robbie said.
"Where's Kyle?" Kate asked quietly.
Sarah and Robbie looked at each other, uncertain.
"I'll make it an order if it will help." Kate said softly, wondering when her kids had become her soldiers.
Kyle was getting too big for the closet space. But there was nobody else there. He was sitting against the wall, with his arms hugging his knees. The door opened, and Kate pushed her way in, twisting to find room, wincing a little as she sat.
Kate sat down next to him and pulled the door shut, not saying a word. They didn't look at each other, sealed in the tight space.
"It's just..." Kyle said finally. "She was the one who... told me what a birthday was. She taught me all about that. And about lullabies and about dancing... I haven't used anything she taught me with anyone else except her. All the things she told me are useless to me now. They won't keep me warm, won't keep me fed, and they won't hurt Skynet. So... why does it feel like this if it doesn't matter?"
"Because she mattered." Kate said quietly.
"We were a team...Colonel… Gener-Kate-Mom...Hell!"
He didn't even know what to call her. Kate felt so sorry for him.
"What do I do without her?" Kyle whispered.
"Anything you would have done with her. You just do it with other people now. People like me, and Sarah, and Robbie, and Mackie, and-"
It was enough. Kyle leaned over and cried on her good shoulder. "Don't tell The General."
"I won't." Kate promised, pulling him down gently till his head was resting in her lap. She stroked his hair and whispered softly to him as he let it out. "Just let go, Kyle. Cry it out all night if you want to. The rest will wait."
"I'm not crying." Kyle sobbed hotly.
"Of course you're not." Kate promised immediately.
They stayed that way for a while, Kyle sobbing silently, not making a sound.
Kate sang softly.
"When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do."
Kyle opened his eyes and looked up at her. "She... only when we were off base... How did you know?"
"You're my son, Kyle." Kate whispered. "Mom's always know."
They stayed that way until Kyle fell asleep in her lap.
"Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true."
Connor found them a few hours later. Kate was near to dozing herself. A forgotten closet space under a stairwell wasn't exactly comfortable, but it felt safe. Connor opened the door quietly, saw them, and sighed, seeming to deflate at the sight. He started to climb in next to Kate and she pointed a finger at him harshly. "No."
Connor froze. "What?"
"You need to be outside this place." Kate said quietly, not waking Kyle up. "I'll send him back to you, and you'll give him whatever you've got then."
Connor was floored, staring at her with his jaw hanging open. "Kate..."
"John, you love him like a son. So do I. But he's a soldier too, and he's terrified of letting you down. He needs to let this out, but he can't let it show. Not to you. He can cry with me as long as he likes, but when he's with you, he's strong and tough. I let him be soft, you let him be hard. That's what we can do for him. For all of them. Maybe they need to break down sometimes, but they can't cry on your shoulder. No soldier can. Not with The General."
John just stared at his wife, aware at how good she had gotten at this. "You're supposed to be in Pre-Op right now."
Kate rubbed her shoulder absently. "I know. Plenty of people in the base got much bigger holes carved into them. I can handle it on painkillers and bandages for a few hours."
"It's already been a few hours."
"I gave Chen a heads-up when I left, she understood. I organized the cleanup, I treated the wounded I could, and I can't operate one handed. Everything I could do, I did. Everything else that I still need to do, I can do in half an hour. I can say that, but you can't."
Connor didn't have an answer to that. And then he closed the door, letting them alone.
Sarah and Robbie were at the end of the hallways, waiting for their father to come back. "How's Kyle?" Robbie asked.
"Sleeping. Your mom's taking care of him."
Sarah was staring at the closet like she was missing something. "Is... is Kyle crying? Kyle doesn't cry."
John stared at his daughter, realizing Kate was right. In this kind of world, soldiers needed to be harder than humanly possible. Even if they weren't feeling it, they had to show it. "Naw. Kyle's not crying. He's just sleeping. Mom's making sure he doesn't sneak out and go back to work. You know Kyle, he doesn't sleep as much as he should."
Sarah nodded, actually relieved at that. "Oh. Okay."
"Why are they in a closet?" Robbie asked, as only boys his age could.
"When we first came to this base, Kyle was your age. he and Lupe used that as their hiding place, like you kids do in the tunnels. He misses Lupe, that's all."
Robbie nodded. "Oh. Okay."
Connor knelt down, looking his kids in the face. "Now guys... I want you to tell me the truth. Does it bother you; that your mom and I look after Kyle too?"
Sarah and Robbie looked at each other, a little confused by the question. "He's family."
"You look after us too." Robbie said. "Does... does that bother Kyle?"
"Of course not. He's family, but... he's nor Family family." Connor said. "You understand what I mean?"
Robbie nodded. "Uh-huh. But Carla looks after Mac. He calls her mom. They aren't Family family."
Connor smiled. His kids had learned instinctively what he'd been trying to drill into everyone since the War started. When the whole world's an orphanage, family was whoever you picked. "All right then. Carry on, soldiers."
"Yessir." they both chorused. He said it to everyone. Everyone saluted their daddy, but to them it was a private joke.
Connor smiled at them and moved on. He had more stops to make.
"Noah."
Noah turned and saluted. "General. How are you feeling?"
"Thawed." Connor smirked grimly. "And speaking of that...?"
Noah gestured at the Meat Locker, its door surrounded by Infiltrators. "They're keeping an eye on it. We're watching the thermometer. Neither of the Machines in there has moved an inch since you shut them in there. Of course... that's only half the story."
"What's the other half?"
"All the Freon Gas and Liquid Nitrogen in the Base is in there. All the Cold Gas. These Meat Lockers are huge. Bigger than any fridge you'd find in a supermarket Back Before. To say nothing of the fact that they're over sixty years old. This place was built during the Cold War. We used that Cold Gas to keep the Freezers below freezing. With all of them busted open in there keeping the Infiltrator on ice, we lost a few Meat Lockers."
"No more hamburgers?"
"Not for a while. Got replacement cold gas coming in; Saint's a miracle worker sometimes. But it's not like we had plenty of livestock before."
"We'll survive." Connor said roughly. "How long have you been down here?"
"A while." Noah admitted. "I don't like taking my eyes off it. I don't like having it in the Base."
"It's not a monster, Noah; it's a Machine. If it's broken or shut down, it's a paperweight."
They returned to the War Room, and Connor faced his people. "Alright, for purposes of this conversation, we'll call the frozen thing in our meat locker Codename Mercury, or the T-1000. Brain Box says it doesn't have a solid state chip, so a Model number will be hard to come by unless we thaw it out and ask it for a name."
"We won't do that, right?"
"Right."
"Just checking."
Connor smirked mirthlessly. "Where are we?"
"Casualty reports are not encouraging." Noah said. "Large blades actually cause more trauma than small bullet-holes and surface burns. How's Co... General Connor? The other one. Mrs General."
Connor nodded in acknowledgement. "She... can't move the arm that got skewered. They're operating now. She was giving orders on cleanup and wounded right up until the anaesthetic put her out."
"We've cleared the corridors of all the bodies, we've cleared the hallway that got blasted from Checker's grenades, the Meat Locker is under guard by the remaining Infiltrators, and temperature monitors and motion sensors are all running in the cold room to make sure it stays frozen."
"Eric, we lost track of the 1000 for a full eleven minutes." Connor said. "It carved it's way through half our security teams in far less time. What did it do for those eleven minutes?"
"We don't know yet. We're taking headcounts, checking for explosives..."
"People are still freaked." Noah told him.
"They want to know what we have that can take out a 1000."
"It's not a ridiculous thought, sir." Walters offered. "We won't always have a deep freeze set up... We run into a 1000 on the battlefield..."
"Have the Think Tank come up with anything?" Noah asked.
"As a matter of fact, they have a few interesting conclusions. They've taken all the reports, got the interviews, and put their heads together with Brain Box. They want to know when they can brief the two of you and the other Commanders." Connor was silent a moment. "Actually, I have a better idea. Hang on a sec, let me talk to a few people."
Connor headed out by himself. Noah stayed behind and turned to Walters. "Okay, so here's my thing: Nobody has ever seen a Mercury before. Nobody knows what it can do, what it's made of, that it gets stunned and knocked about by slug-throwers, or that it exists at all. So how did The General jump straight to taking it down to the freezers, and hitting it with shotguns? Weapons, by the way, that have been woefully obsolete, and thus non-existent for over a decade? He had a reserve. How did he know?"
Walters just smiled. "He's John Connor."
It was the first briefing to be held in the Main Hall. The Unit Commanders and the Command Staff were all in the front row, but behind them was half the population of the base, civilian and soldier alike.
Gould took his place at the entrance to the main hall. It was the logical place to speak from, and everyone found a place to sit or stand while he talked. There had been rows of stools brought in from the Mess Hall, though there wasn't enough for everyone. The surplus people found their own places, mostly sitting with their backs to the wall.
At the head of the room, there was also a mostly bare wall. Large and flat enough that Gould could project an image. He showed the freezer room, and the two motionless Machines, frozen in combat.
Connor stepped up, and everyone fell silent to listen to him. "All right, everyone listen up. This is rumor control. Yes, there is a new Machine model. Yes, one got through; and you can relax, because it's already dead."
A cheer went up at that.
Connor let them cheer. "Now, a few corrections. It is not true that one of those things can turn into a nuke and end us. So cut out that rumor. Sargent Erin Curry was not a Machine the whole time. I don't know who started that rumor, but it's not true. Knock it off. "
A few people who knew details glanced uncomfortably at Mackie, and Dex put an arm around his son protectively.
"This new Model, has been dubbed the T-1000; Codename Mercury. If Skynet has a designation for it, we don't know what it is yet. First the bad news. This new Model is far more dangerous, and chewed its way through a lot of good people today. Now for the good news. We don't think there's many of them." He paused long enough for that to sink in. "Now don't worry, we've got more information than that. But I'll leave this part to our head of R&D, and chairman of our think tank. Colonel Gould?"
Gould felt a thousand eyes on him, but didn't flinch. Talking about Machines was the one thing he was good at. He tapped the image. The frozen 1000 was half Curry's face, half grey metal. "I can go into the science with some detail, but I doubt the science bothers you. Suffice to say, the 1000 is what we're calling a poly-mimetic. What that means in English, is that it can copy anything, and it gets an ability to copy something by touching it."
A murmur ran through the room, everyone calculating the news.
"Now for the good news." Gould offered. "It's still metal. Which means it can only do what metal can do. It cannot shrink its mass down to a matchbook; it cannot grow large enough to tear the Base out of the ground. It can only form single shapes, so it cannot turn its arms into rifles..."
At the back of the room, out of sight, the Command Staff was watching reactions. They'd heard it before, their field commanders hadn't. Nor had the civilians. Nobody was eager to repeat the mistakes of the paranoia after the first one got through.
"This. Is. A bad idea." Noah said under her breath. "Not all the news is going to be good."
"They can handle bad news, Erica." Connor whispered back. "If they can't, they'd be dead by now."
Noah glanced around, and noticed he was right. As the information was laid out, she saw people calculating, imagining how to face this. Briefings were done for Officers and Combat teams. There were no civilians any more. Not in the way she had been raised and trained to see it.
Gould was still going. "With regards to what can fight Mercury, here's what we've got so far, and I'll remind you that we've been on this for less than twenty hours. So far we have the high energy Sabot rounds, still in use in our helicopters, gunships and mounted weapons. Kinetic weapons seem to give the 1000 a good kick, if temporary. If we can combine that with the high heat plasmafire, we might be able to carve up a 1000 like any other machine." Gould shrugged. "I know it sounds thin, and at this point it is, but we're working on..."
Kate slipped in next to Connor as the Techie spoke. "Sorry I'm late." She murmured. "I seem to have more to do now that you went and made me a General."
Connor smiled, just a little. "Should you be here?"
"Post-Op is full. It's my shoulder, not my legs. I can walk, I can sit, and I can listen. Plus, I'm a big time General now; I have to set an example." Kate said. "Seriously, John. Why oh why would you confuse people that way? Suddenly having two General Connor's on the base..."
He smirked. "Maybe somebody will finally call me 'John'."
"Oh, Supreme General John Connor, Commander Tech-Com and Allied Forces, I think we both know that's not true." Kate teased.
Connor smirked. "Kate, Robbie's been taking the lead in The Eden Project downstairs."
Kate turned and looked at him sharply. "The Eden Project? He's not even rated yet!"
Connor smiled gently. "Our son is a strong kid, Kate; but I think we both know he's a better farmer than a soldier. He's got a natural gift for it."
"He does, poor thing."
John looked at her. "Poor thing?"
"He's John Connor's only son. You have any idea how much pressure he feels to be a super-soldier?"
John sighed. "Have to think about that one. Kids are taking on jobs that most adults couldn't do Back Before. The Eden Project is one of them. Kate... at some point we may have to face up to the fact that our Eden team here goes out across the world to set up new plantations, teach people in other countries... hell, other hemispheres how to restore forests and fields. Kate... our son is now part of that team."
Kate looked cannily at him. "Is this why you made sure that The Eden Project never became a military operation?"
Connor looked caught out. "Well..."
"You could have put any of your lieutenants in charge of it. It started on a military post, it uses our equipment, our transport... but you never put a soldier in charge of it. The only soldiers who get involved with it permanently are the One Boot Brigade, who were never going to be combat troops again. They don't requisition things, they ask for them. Eden is a civilian project."
"Which has to be run and defended, and supplied by military. So... we need a General in charge of that since it's gone global. Someone with the authority to say yes on behalf of any base in the world."
"Me." Kate said. It was not a question.
"You."
"And Robbie?"
"At some point, he's going to want to go with them when they head out to Canada, or Mexico, or wherever we send our team next."
Kate shivered. "Not until Trial By Battle." She said seriously. "You were right. He's got a natural gift for Eden, but until he's confirmed as a soldier, he's always going to assume that's what you want for him. If you tell him to focus on Eden, he'll think you're coddling him."
"I know."
Silence.
"I'm sorry about The Terminator." Kate said quietly.
Connor sighed. "I never know what to feel about this. Seems like every ten years I get to lose him all over again. Except it's not the same one." He sighed. "But... thank you for letting me see him again."
Kate smirked. "I'd like to say it was a secret little moment, but the fact was I couldn't find another way to save your life."
"If nothing else, you managed to demonstrate how useful Infiltrators can be." Connor said, mindful of the crowd. "Did you reach Enrique yet?"
"Can't get a straight answer out of the Cartel Union for love or money." Kate said darkly. "I'm getting a bad feeling."
Connor whined; an unusual sound for him. "Hell. I want to run this down, but... At the same time I don't want to be the one to tell him."
"Me neither." She sent him a quick look. "Anything from Eric yet?"
"No. He hasn't found anything. I have a real bad feeling."
"You and me both."
Carla slipped into the seat next to Dex in the Mess Hall. "I'm sorry about Erin."
Dex nodded.
"...are you okay?" She asked finally.
Dex sighed. "I feel... I feel like I should be taking this a lot harder than I am. Is it very terrible that I don't feel gutted about this?"
Carla smiled mirthlessly. "I don't know. I really don't. I've never known what to think about you two. You knew each other for a few days and you started making babies, and then you didn't see each other for years afterward... I really don't know."
Silence.
"Carla?" Dex said quietly. "Out on the mission, during the siege... She and I talked about a few things. You and Mackie mainly..."
"Yeah?" Carla felt her jaw drop. "Oh my god! What if it wasn't her? What if it took her face before you even got there?"
Dex stared at her, horrified. "I didn't even think about that!"
"I know. Take it from the girl that knows better than anyone; they're damn good liars!"
"Yeah!" He suddenly thought of something. "Oh. How are you holding up? I was never really sure what to make of you and Erin either."
"We were... friends, I guess." Carla offered. "We barely knew each other too, but I pretty much adopted her kid the day he was born."
"Our kid." Dex corrected absently; though which 'our' he meant wasn't immediately clear. Dex cleared his throat. "But, there was actually something else..."
"Oh?"
"Well... Time is a tricky animal in any war zone. A war like this, even more so. I've been in one Hot Zone or another most of my adult life, and I tried to avoid... close connections, because you never know. But I can't see why I ever thought that was a good idea any more. And that's because of you."
His tone had turned so soft and sincere that Carla felt her heart start to pound. "Dex?"
Dex slid their trays aside, looked deep in her eyes, and took both her hands. "Carla, will you marry me?"
Carla blinked, stunned at the sudden change in topic. "Yes." She said softly.
They kissed each other lovingly.
The war was over. They were all of them free! Tears were streaming down every face, people were dancing in the Underground, screaming Connor's name with barely restrained reverence.
But John was far away from that. He was in his room, with Kyle Reese. They both wore their uniforms, both sipping good booze, smiling broadly at each other.
"You did it, sir." Kyle smiled. "You saved us all."
John toasted him. "I never did it alone."
"That's good of you to say; but we all know who we have to thank."
Connor smiled gently and tossed back the last of his drink. "As much as I'd love to continue the celebration, I have one last job for you, Kyle."
"Name it."
"I need you to die."
"Yessir." Kyle drew his weapon and put it against his temple without hesitation.
Connor felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned away from Kyle and looked up at his mom, healthy, tough, and lethal. "You made the right decision soldier."
BLAM!
Connor looked back. Kyle was dead, but the gun was somehow in John's hand.
Kyle glanced up at his mother, but now the Terminator was there, the familiar face. It said nothing.
Connor glanced back. Kyle was still there. So was Mac, and Susan, and Becki, and Marsden, and Curry and Lupe, his foster parents, and his Terminator bodyguards, and his soldiers...
Connor glanced over and saw Kate cradling Kyle's dead body. "John, why didn't you tell me?"
John woke up sharply. She was reaching back in her sleep, shaking him awake as the nightmares made him shake. He reached over. She hadn't even woken up. He shook her shoulder. "Kate. Wake up. I've gotta talk to you!"
Kate moaned and turned her head slightly. "Is it AM or PM?"
John checked his watch. "Very AM."
"What's wrong?"
"I lied to you."
Beat. Kate opened her eyes and fought to sit up slightly. "Okay. Tell me, but I'm asleep so do so slowly."
"Kyle is not my son." Connor whispered. "He's my father."
Silence. He could chart the thoughts processing through her brain by the look in her eyes. Confusion. More confusion. Replaying the conversations about his father. Replaying every moment either of them had spent with Kyle... Realization. Disbelief. More replaying. More realization...
"Oh my god." Kate whispered. "This is it. This is the secret you've been keeping."
John... was crying. He hadn't cried since he was Kyle's age. "Uh huh."
Kate leaned over and wrapped her good arm around him tightly. "You've been carrying this for so long. You found him that soon after J-Day and you...?"
"Yeah…"
Kate sat up and climbed into his lap, wrapping him up in her three working limbs, squeezing him tighter, like she was trying to climb inside him. "John…" She rasped. "Don't do it. Don't send him back."
John was crying as he buried his face in her neck. He didn't cry this much on J-Day; he had tears rolling down his face.
"John… When we left LA, Kyle came to me. He asked about our first baby. The one we lost. He said he didn't have any parents and since everyone else was pairing up to find whatever they needed he asked… he asked if he could fill in for our kid."
John felt like he'd been punched in the head. "Oh god, Kate…"
"And I said yes."
Connor was dying inside. "Kate…"
"He asked if he should call me 'mom'." Kate continued, hating every word coming out of her mouth.
Connor wept.
"Don't send him back." Kate begged, stroking his hair. "Choose someone else. Let history change. You don't know what will happen. The timeline's changed twice already. Don't choose Kyle. He's my son!"
"No." Connor told her, suddenly fierce. He tried to pull away enough to look at her. "He's not your son. He's your father in law."
"He's not! He's a kid!" Kate insisted, refusing to let him pull back. "He's a teenager. He's a boy soldier who wants me to be his mommy."
"Kate..."
Lupe was pregnant. It was on the tip of her tongue. She couldn't do it. She couldn't lay that on him. She loved him too much.
Connor was about to say something when his radio buzzed.
"Ignore it." Kate told him.
"Kate…"
"Just once, just one time; stay and talk to me." Kate begged as the tears washed down both their faces. "Please, John; just this once..."
He wanted so badly to put the radio down.
He almost did. "Connor here."
"Colonel, would you join us in the Food Stores, please?" Eric said very smoothly.
Connor reacted. "On the way."
Kate just stared at him. She looked at him like he'd just slapped her. He was leaving now?
Connor took a breath. "Eric's too calm. Something has gone very wrong, and he doesn't want anyone to know how scared he is, and it has something to do with our food stores."
Kate wanted to strangle him. But she got dressed anyway. Always on duty. Always something more urgent.
She hated it.
But this one time, she was relieved too.
The Storerooms were the largest rooms on the base, except for the Main Hall. The Storerooms had everything that a base full of people could ever need. Once Tech-Com had moved in, they had reorganized. The food stores now took up most of the Storage. Everything else, such as spare parts and clothing and furniture, had been shifted around to departments and other bases. Crystal Peak was meant as a fallout shelter, not a Command and Control; but Skynet had taken over the cities before they had even escaped the Fallout.
As a result, all the storerooms were saved for things that Crystal Peak needed personally. And food was the top priority.
Walters met them at the door to the storeroom. He started talking before they got there. "We searched the whole base, end to end. We were trying to clean things up, take care of the wounded, figure out how to keep the freezer icy enough to keep Codename Mercury stuck... We didn't have a lot of people around. We ran a search through any room that could explode, or let Skynet in; nothing there. We moved on to the-"
"Eric, tonight is not really the time for the Socratic method; get to the god-damned point!" Kate snapped.
Walters reacted to the unexpected hit from the most unexpected quarter of all, and quickly obeyed. "We know where Codename Mercury went during those eleven minutes we couldn't account for."
Connor spun on him. "Tell me it didn't come to the Food Stores!"
Walters didn't bother to answer. He just opened the door.
They both felt their stomach's drop. The stores had been destroyed. The tins, the sacks, the fruits and veg that they grew themselves had been torn apart, shredded by huge wide blades.
Kate felt numb. Dozens of people were there, taking inventory, and like them, she picked her way through the room, edging around the mangled remains of their food. What had been scattered about had been shredded, burned, or covered with other products that had been stored, like flame retardant or motor oil. The huge room that had been full to bursting with edible food now stood reduced to a few cans and tins that weren't worth mentioning.
The T-1000 was a masterpiece of destruction, and it knew it's trade well.
"This was the mission." Connor said. "If it couldn't find me, it had to do as much damage to as many people as it could. When it saw a person to kill, it killed. When it had a way to find me or chase me, it took it. But we locked it in an empty room and it went back to a base program. Destroy our stores, kill our soldiers..."
Kate turned on Walters. "The other Storerooms?"
"Nine storerooms. Eight are like this." Walters said.
"One storeroom worth of food will never be enough to feed everyone in the Base, let alone supply Tech-Com!" Kate yelled.
"I know that!" Walters yelled back. "What are you yelling at me for?"
"Convenience!" Kate snapped, cooling off. "Sorry. Your call caught us at a bad time."
Walters looked around the mangled room. "That's almost hard to believe."
There was a long silence.
"John..." Kate whispered. "Where are we going to get our food?"
Silence. Connor was the closest to beaten Kate had ever seen him, and she blamed herself. If she hadn't laid into him about Kyle... She felt like she did when they first left Crystal Peak. He had a war to fight, and all humanity counting on him, and she was a distraction.
She shook that thought away. It was easy to think that he was doing it all alone, but he wasn't. Hold on. She urged him. Hold on.
There were times she wondered if the late Chet Whickham was right, and she and John enjoyed their own private telepathy.
He looked at her. Are you still on my side then?
Always. She promised silently.
"South. We get our food from down south till we can rebuild our stores." Connor said aloud seriously. "We need to get a supply train through."
"The Union's been blocking our calls for over a day and a half." Kate set her mouth in a grim line. "I… still haven't been able to get through long enough to ask for Enrique. He doesn't know about Lupe."
Connor grimaced. "Not a task I'm looking forward to."
"Just be glad he's in another hemisphere." Noah put in. "Weep for the Union Men."
Enrique's instincts were screaming. He was being shut out. He was being taken to places, he was being allowed to talk to people, but he wasn't allowed to talk to people he picked, and he wasn't allowed to go anywhere alone.
Everyone was glancing at him out of the corner of their eyes. He felt like he was living in a fishbowl. Even in his room, not the usual place he stayed, he could hear people moving in the corridor
Rojas came in, and Enrique jumped to his feet. "Governor Rojas." Enrique said politely, though he was already scanning. More guards in the hall, Lothar at the door, gun in hand.
The door closed again, with only Enrique and Rojas in the room.
"I've been kept waiting here for a while now." Enrique said.
"The unfortunate death of my predecessor left a number of things in a state of confusion." Rojas said smoothly. "You can understand that the demands on my time are considerable."
"I'm sure." Enrique was scanning the room without turning his head. Cot, chair, table. Rojas had a gun. Safety was off, but he hadn't drawn it yet. Enrique had three knives that the standard search hadn't found...
"You must understand that your arrival was something of a surprise. It's a pretty open secret that you're Connor's little errand boy, and now you're here. We were wondering why."
He opened with an insult, which meant he wasn't worried about anything Enrique had to offer. Enrique quickly started counting in his head. This had maybe thirty seconds or so before one of them was going to die. "Connor heard that another Governor had died, and he wanted to get a clearer picture of why, and how things are now."
"And, why would it be any of his business?"
Twenty five seconds... "You're a member of the Allied forces, and there's a war on. Connor is running almost all of it, and would like to know the state of his Allies."
"Really? Because he could have just picked up a phone and asked. Instead he sent you. He sent the Man who told all the Cartels to unite behind a soldier in another country, and was either impressive enough, or had enough dirt on everyone to get them all in line. And then you left. You went back to Connor's side, and you pretended like his name would be all it took to rally a bunch of people who were so savage, so strong, so determined, so suspicious, and so damn deadly, that Judgement Day itself couldn't knock them down."
Fifteen seconds... "How did the last guy die?" Enrique asked firmly. The chair maybe, if I can swing it fast enough. The water pitcher?
"He wasn't strong enough." Rojas said simply. "The kind of underhanded tricks that went on back when we were all honest criminals is nothing compared to how it is now. He wasn't strong enough, and nobody was at all surprised when he was found dead one morning."
Ten seconds... Enrique grinned savagely at him. "What makes you think it'll be different with you?"
"Are you kidding? There's no money left, and drugs aren't going to make us rich. They'll keep people under control, but they won't keep us fed. Everything changed. The only currency that hasn't is pride and power. You know how important reputation is. You've spent how many decades cultivating yours? When Connor declared us Allies, he took away our pride, and made our reputation one of being obedient to him by our own choice. What I have to offer is better than food and water. It's pride. It's power. It's respect. Men are still men, and they will seek honor and glory."
Five seconds... "You think you're the man to give such suspicious, such dangerous men a sense of pride?"
"If I couldn't a week ago, Connor handed it to me on a plate a few hours ago. Tech-Com's calling for help." Rojas said, smirking like a shark. "Like the deal he cut six Governors ago actually matters to anyone still alive. Connor... is Skynet's problem. Not mine. The General's managed to get what's left of the world in line, because nobody woke up to the fact that he doesn't have the right to be in charge. The Americans gave up the right to have any say over the world when they built Skynet."
Enrique knew the cards were on the table and ignored any pretense of being polite. "You think they'll follow you? Without Connor, the whole Union would still be a bunch of drug dealer's running through dead towns raping and beating and stealing from anyone you could find."
"And America's founding fathers were a bunch of slave owners committing high treason. But they won, so they wrote the history books. The Union might have started out as a bunch of criminals, but every revolution does." He gestured over his shoulder, back toward the radio. "Connor's demanding food. Like we owe it to him. Like his army deserves to eat more than ours does."
Enrique blinked. And stonewalled his face. He was suddenly worried. Crystal Peak had huge food stores. If they're demanding food urgently... Something happened. Something bad. He let nothing show on his face, suddenly aware of the minefield he was in.
"What do you plan to do?" Enrique said guardedly.
Rojas elaborately gestured to the window. Enrique went to the window and looked down at the courtyard.
Trucks. Dozens of them. Transport carriers. Exactly what Connor was calling for. Except they were being filled with...
"A layer of food packs, and under them, crate after crate of heavy explosive." Rojas said. "Dirty bombs, we called them. All the fear about nuclear fallout, you can kill people just as dead if you spray regular poison into the air. A lot of it. Odorless, colorless, in a confined airtight space that cycles the air around through vents and pumps, propelled by a confusing explosion that hundreds of people will come and look at? Crystal Peak will be done in an hour."
Enrique spun...
...and felt his stomach explode like somebody had swung a sharp sledgehammer into him. He was hit so fast he never heard the gunshot.
"You missed your cue." Rojas taunted. "You should have killed me the second I came in the door."
Enrique shook off the confusion, and looked down weakly. There was a bullethole in his stomach.
Enrique had been shot way too many times to lose his concentration. Part of him was already cataloging the symptoms, calculating how long he had before he bled to death, or passed out...
Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out!
The rest of him was still reeling from the sight outside. "S-S-Skynet!" He gritted. "You take Crystal Peak..."
"You haven't heard. Skynet is on the ropes. They were apparently setting up something big in Arecibo, and they blew it. Well, somebody did anyway." He grinned like it was a funny joke. "We've been waiting for this since Connor gave us the Continent, letting Skynet and Tech-Com beat each others brains out, till neither of them could stand up."
Enrique was dragging himself up the wall, acting more hurt than he really was, till he could see out the window again. Crates of food were being carried out to the trucks, to be used as cover.
They were being carried past the window, down below.
Rojas was still talking, enjoying his moment. "Skynet's been chewed through, and Tech-Com's begging for food from people they don't trust. If Connor's stupid enough to think that we'll fall into line when he whistles just because we're human, he's about to wake up big time."
Enrique threw his wounded body into a lunge, and he went out the second story window. It was locked, so he didn't bother trying to open it before smashing straight through.
Rojas spun at the sound of breaking glass, and rushed to the window. Enrique had picked his moment well. He'd landed on one of the two people down below the window. The man he'd landed on was carrying a weapon, as every soldier in the Union did, but both his hands were full as he carried one end of the crate. Enrique had broken his fall by landing on him.
The man at the other end of the crate leapt half out of his skin in shock, and fumbled to spin around in time.
Enrique wasn't as incapacitated as he'd let on, but he still had a hole in his belly. The bullet had missed the vital organs, but Enrique knew how many minutes he had left. He grabbed the body he'd landed on, and rolled them both over so that his unwitting victim was on top. His partner finally got a proper grip on his rifle and fired…
…Enrique's human shield took the hit, as Enrique grabbed for the dead man's weapon, managing to fire back. The first shot killed his attacker; the next went up at the window, trying for Rojas.
Rojas ducked back into the window, taking cover.
Everyone in the courtyard spun at the gunshots, well trained instincts making them ready to fight…
Enrique had vanished by the time anyone was looking in the right direction..
"Yes, General; we're trying to locate Enrique now." The voice on the radio called back.
Connor traded a look with Walters. "They're blocking us." He said bluntly.
"Why?"
"I don't know, but I don't like it." Connor said darkly. "I feel like we're about to be punched in the head."
"Again." Noah, Kate, and Walters all said at the same time.
Enrique had made his way through the Compound. It was less than ten seconds before the alarms went off.
The blood was running down both legs, getting darker. Enrique had stripped off his shirt, and his jacket, and his vest and improvised bandages. One soldier rushing to his post made the mistake of running down a corridor alone and Enrique had managed to get a local uniform, ill fitting though it was.
The Compound wasn't a military base; it was originally a Mission, which meant that some of the equipment had to be stored in various improvised storage cupboards. Enrique had found one near the Medbay and helped himself to some proper bandages, needle and thread; and a few large needles full of adrenaline. It wasn't the first time he'd had to do emergency field surgery on himself.
He'd been lucky enough to pick a corridor that didn't have a lot of traffic, and he fought to get a proper idea of the layout. Soldiers had every entry and exit covered. The weapons stores, the Medbay, the Motor Pool, would all be guarded.
He slunk up to a window, and sent a look out into the Courtyard. The Convoy had already left. Soldiers were already heading that way. Rojas was a smart enough tactician. He knew better than to keep the Convoy in here while Enrique was prowling around; but didn't dare send it away while there was a chance it could be used to escape. The Convoy would be searched.
If that Convoy made it to Crystal Peak, the game was over.
Enrique's vision swam for a second. Focus! He told himself. What are the priorities? Figure out the next move. Next Move... nesmooove... all the pretty little moves, dancing a row...
He shook his head hard. His brain was drifting. His eyes rolled back in his head for a second and he looked at the antennae. The church Belltower was now the radio tower. Enrique strained his eyes through the window and saw the cable, leading down from the antennae on the steeple, to the tower; the church bells long removed and the openings bricked up.
Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out!
He could hear the guards coming, searching every room.
He couldn't hit the Convoy... not with them on alert, and him bleeding to death. Escape? Questionable. The only vehicles going the right way were on the wrong side of a locked door, and being searched.
But he could probably reach the tower.
Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out!
His hands were shaking so much he could barely get the adrenaline needle pointed at his own chest.
Rojas was in his Command Center instantly. There was a crackle from all their radios.
They all blinked. Lothar came back, radio in hand. "I can't raise the Convoy."
Rojas snapped his fingers. "He's in the Tower. He's jammed our frequencies."
"But our base radios still work. It must be the long range antennae." Lothar reasoned.
Rojas was silent a moment. "How long would it take to rebuild and refit the radio if we just shot the antennae?"
"Too long."
Rojas swore. "You'll have to get in there, then. Preferably before he gets hold of Tech-Com."
Rojas's security chief, Lothar was moving across the courtyard at a quick march; with his whole team behind him.
The belltower was retrofitted, but relatively unchanged. There was only one way up, a narrow staircase. His team could only get through it one at a time, and Enrique had rigged grenades and tripwires the entire way up.
It would be so much easier to just get an RPG and blow the top off the tower.
The radio crackled, and everyone sat up a little straighter.
"Connor." It was Enrique's voice. He sounded... pained.
Connor lifted the radio. "Enr-"
"It's a double-cross. They're not sending a convoy of food. They're sending dirty explosives."
Connor traded a look sharply with Walters. Connor lifted the radio. "I understand. Enrique, get out of there! Get back to us!"
"I uh... I don't think that's really an option, sir."
Kate squeezed her eyes shut.
Connor did not. "Enrique... you told me once about what old Tigers do. Don't disappoint me."
"Yessir. But the fact is... They know where I am."
Connor was dying inside. "Enrique... please?"
"Gotta be a winner in every race, Johnny-boy. This time it's me." Enrique sighed, running out of steam.
Connor's face was unreadable for a long moment, before he spoke again. "Lupe's dead."
Dead silence from the radio.
Kate's eyes were glued to her husband like she was trying to recognize him. Cold. Inflicting maximum damage on your enemy with troops that can't be saved.
Enrique's eyes went so cold and dead he was certain he could send a wave of Anti-Life through the staircase beyond that door right now.
BAM! They were ramming the door.
Connor kept going. "A new model Infiltrator got in yesterday. It was... Mercurial. Know what I mean?"
Mercurial. The word ran through him like a shudder. He didn't even notice the hand going up to his collarbone, rubbing the jagged scar that had been there since Connor was a boy.
Enrique was suddenly unaware of the pain in his gut. The familiar lethal weapon was coming back. He hadn't been so psyched since his first encounter with a T-1000, and not since Khe Sahn before that.
BAM! Another slam against the door.
"Enrique, you there?" Connor asked.
Teeth bared, eyes dead, anger blazing, he ripped the radio up. "Are you lying to me?"
"No."
"Are you?"
"No."
BAM!
Enrique put the radio down carefully. His temper was the reason he joined the Armed Forces in the first place. They had taught him how to make it cold and deadly. It was a ice-cold flame that had served him through war, drug-dealing, gun-running, Judgment Day and everything in between.
Enrique pulled out his flask, full of moonshine, and poured it out on the floor, over near the door. The pressure building in his head eased to nothing, calm and savage. Blacking out wasn't a problem; he was certain his heart had stopped beating long ago. He took the chair in one hand, and calmly waited next to the door, the chair in one hand, a match in the other.
BAM! The door was blown back on its hinges, and Enrique was ready with the chair, swinging it hard into the first man through the door, who ran into the swing with all the momentum of a man trying to knock down a barricaded door down. He practically flipped over before he hit the floor hard.
Enrique didn't even blink before he flicked the match alight, and dropped it in the spilled high-octane moonshine.
The man on the floor screeched as he was instantly on fire; the people behind him suddenly checked by the thrashing man blazing away in their path.
Enrique leaped over him, through the flames, and hurled himself into them, dead silent. He didn't even bother with the gun. In a close quarters fight, it was too big and too heavy.
The first one was still trying to figure out down from up after suddenly walking into a human torch, and Enrique sent him rolling back down the stairs. In such close a tight stairwell, all it took was the man at the top being tripped.
Five men in a team, plus Rojas's security Chief Lothar. Enrique thought, chasing their tumbling bodies down the stairs.
Lothar was the chief, and he played it smart. He was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, weapon drawn. He just made the fatal mistake of waiting half a second to try and spare his own men. Enrique used their falling bodies for cover and got within reach. Lothar's gun went off and the bullet went wide enough to put a round in one of the men on the floor.
Two left, plus Lothar. Enrique thought clinically, still cold and deadly. I have maybe three minutes of function left. If that.
Enrique and Lothar spent a few seconds in close quarters, Lothar trying to get the knife, Enrique trying to get the gun. They wrestled for a second, until Lothar sent a quick jab to the blood-soaked bandage around Enrique's middle. The older man howled and reeled back, sweeping the knife fast enough to send the gun flying.
The two others were back on their feet, and Enrique recovered enough to throw himself at them, a far more frenzied version of the hand-to-hand lessons he'd been giving in Crystal Peak.
Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out! Don't black out!
Connor was pacing the War Room. The silence was making him nuts. He normally took anything in stride. This was not a normal day.
Kate never took her eyes off him.
Neither did Noah.
Walters noticed something he wished he hadn't. Noah had the same look on her face as Kate did.
Enrique left the fallen guards and turned back to Lothar without missing a beat. The two of them squared off again. Lothar was in his prime, every muscle like a steel cable. Enrique was far older, grizzled and bathed in sweat as the bloody wound took its toll.
"Old Tigers don't go down easy." Enrique said, his voice colder and flatter than any Terminator. "I was willing to, but I'm not any more. I want to thank you for that. But just so you know, this doesn't mean for a second that Rojas won."
The fight was swift, smart, brutal. It was hopeless, it was doomed, it was everything Enrique ever wanted from his last stand. They glanced off each other, swift and deadly. Enrique went for weaknesses that youth and strength couldn't protect you from, inflicting damage; Lothar struck for Enrique's gaping wounds, inflicting pain.
They broke for a moment, eyes wild, staring at each other. Enrique suddenly grinned, letting out his coyote laugh, one last time. "Game Over, Man! GAME OVER!"
Enrique lunged, but not for Lothar. He lunged for one of the bodies on the floor, scrabbling with his vest. He spun around with a grenade in his hand, and he released it. It rolled to a point between the two of them, less than two feet from either.
Lothar spun away and dove for the floor.
A moment later, Enrique calmly walked up and collected the rifle, putting the barrel to the back of Lothar's skull. "I never pulled the pin."
And another team of guards came running around the corner.
Enrique put a boot on Lothar's head and brought the gun around, firing at them madly. The whole Cartel Union was at war with Enrique Salceda, and they were in trouble. The soldiers were firing at him blindly, staying behind cover.
Lothar made his move and heaved his whole body to get free. Enrique was just distracted enough that it worked, and Enrique was off balance.
It took three different shooters from three different directions, but the bullets shredded into Enrique, and the feral older man finally fell.
Of the eleven soldiers sent to kill him, three remained. They were all breathing hard, grateful to be alive, and wounded in some way. They kept their weapons aimed right up until Lothar checked for a pulse.
"What a Nightmare." Lothar grunted, and pulled his radio. "Sir. It's done. He's dead."
"Can you undo whatever it was he did to our long range radio? If you can sort out the Jamming, get word to our Convoy that they can expect incoming."
Lothar was limping his way up the stairs to the radio tower. "Yeah. I think so. I think he just set up the long range radio equipment to stick halfway between two frequencies. Shouldn't be too hard to dial it back to normal."
Sure enough, Lothar had all the dials set properly in less than a minute. He picked up the microphone to warn the Convoy, when he felt a tug on the handset, and looked. A thin wire was connected to it. A moment later the wire dropped, with three pins hanging from the end of it, released from somewhere behind the console.
He had just enough time to realize what it was as he heard the sound of grenades dropping behind the desk.
Rojas jumped out of his skin as the tower above his head suddenly exploded, bringing the whole radio antennae down.
Connor shut his eyes at the sound of the sudden static. He carefully reached out and switched the radio off; and then turned deliberately to Walters. "Blow the bridges south. And don't let that convoy through to our territory. Enrique killed their radio, so they won't know we're on to them. Wipe them out."
Orders went out instantly. Kate kept watching her husband. He looked about a thousand years old.
Noah was digging her fingers into the table. "We got played. Twice. Skynet threw away half it's army just to get the Mercury in here. And we fell for it. The Union fed us for two years after we declared them Independent just so it could get this moment when we were dependent. The war went to a three-way battle and we never noticed."
Walters was nodding with her. "We cut off the Cartel, they can afford to wait. They'll starve us out. They've done it before. Back before they allied with us, they kept their civilian and military under control through drugs. They had plenty of it from when they were suppliers Back Before. They used to do it with drugs, now they can do it to us with food."
"To say nothing of the fact that we've still got Skynet to deal with. If Rojas thinks they're running out like we are..."
Kate finally had to speak. "John..."
Connor looked at her. "Yolanda." He said, and rushed for the door.
They let him go. Writing letters to family was the worst part of being in command. It didn't happen much any longer. Most soldiers in this war had their families blown away before the war started in earnest. Yolanda had lost her whole family in the last twelve hours.
Z Plus Ten Years Seventy Two Days
Walters, Kate, and Noah hadn't left the communications room all night. Once the orders had gone out, and the attacking Convoy destroyed, the situation with the Cartel Union had frozen. They had no idea who was still alive over there, or what they would do.
Connor had been making the rounds, having conversations with parents. And children. Mackie thought of Curry as his aunt, more than his mother, but even at that age, the boy knew.
Kate argued with herself briefly, and knocked on the door.
"Better be important!" An unfamiliar voice yelled.
Steeling herself, Kate let herself in quietly. The room was full of Enrique's Bandits. They looked wrecked. They were the fanatical warriors of Tech-Com, the most feared men and women to cross, both on and off the Base. And they were miserable. Not for the first time, Kate wondered what would happen to Tech-Com if Connor died.
And at the back of the room, being given plenty of space and as much privacy as they could get, was Yolanda, getting a big hug from Connor. From the look of it, he hadn't stopped hugging her for a long time.
The Bandits parted for her, letting Connor's wife pass through them. She made her way quietly to her husband. "Hi, Yolanda."
Yolanda was older than Kate's mother was. This was the first time it showed in her face. "Katia..." She croaked. "He always liked you so much more than you thought he did."
Kate hated herself for breaking it up. "John... I hate to do this, but The Union has announced that their leader is making a broadcast. Every frequency, non-encrypted."
Connor sighed.
"Johan." Yolanda sighed softly. "Go. It's what you do. Enrique would say you need to be The General."
Connor squeezed her shoulder. Kate felt for him. Yolanda was probably the most maternal woman he'd ever had. "I'll be back." He promised her. "I'm coming straight back."
Yolanda had tears rolling gently down her face. "I know."
Connor scrubbed his face hard with both hands as they walked. "You know what the worst part is?"
"What's that?" Kate asked quietly.
"The Siege cost Skynet. A lot. Kate, you have personally blown more of Skynet to hell than any other single soldier ever has with that plane crash. We managed to peck away hundreds of Terminators, to say nothing of the counter-attack. Add to that all the 500's we've collected that Skynet fried with the pulse... Kate, we won a huge victory today. Skynet won't be able to hold half the territory it holds now. This was... god help me, this was a very good day for us."
Kate rubbed her weak shoulder and brushed against him sympathetically. They walked silently for a moment. "Any ideas what that Pulse was?"
Connor sighed. "Nothing official. Skynet cleared out every piece of equipment, every record made; all of it was gone before we got there. If the blast was caused by something with a purpose, Skynet isn't leaving any clues. Gould is speculating it was all a trap, just to get the 1000 in here."
"What do you think?" Kate asked.
"I think Skynet would happily make that many sacrifices if it meant cutting the head off Tech-Com. But I don't think that's what it was for." He sent her a look. "You know what I think it was."
"Yeah. I do." Kate bit her lip. "Think it succeeded? This time, I mean?"
"I don't know. But to be honest, Kate; if it is the Time Machine, and if it did succeed, then it changes our plans not at all. It's a Time Machine. We can wait as long as we need to before we use it. We have all the time in the world."
"This latest tragedy has demonstrated that Tech-Com is too widespread to be a proper defense against Skynet. My first and greatest duty is, as with any other leader, the safety and protection of my people. We will always remember the bond of blood that has been paid by our Brothers to the north, but in this time of stringent resources and fear of death, we must see to our own needs first, and make the security of our people our first priority.
It is thus with deepest reluctance that The Cartel Union is hereby succeeding from Tech-Com. We will remain an independent state, proud and victorious. We will never forget the danger of Skynet, and the courage of our distant allies. We will of course maintain trade and intelligence agreements with the American Remnants and Connor's Armies. But no longer will our people be called on to fight other people's wars.
"To my own people, I say that the time is at last upon us. How long have we waited for the chance to claim our birthright with no strings attached? How long have we sought our freedom without anyone telling us how to do it? The time has come for a clean sweep of the old hierarchies..."
"Turn it off." Connor said quietly.
Walters did so. "'Old Hierarchies'. It's been two years since we set them up!"
"'Other people's wars'." Lori scoffed. "There's no such thing."
"Worst case of testosterone poisoning I've ever seen." Noah agreed.
Connor growled, low in his throat. "Well. Now we have a problem."
"Down south is cleared out." Noah said. "There's no danger of Skynet there any more, and I think we can safely say that they can patrol their own coastline. It puts us up against a wall, no doubt, but that's where we're at our strongest."
Connor glared at her. "And where do we get our food?"
Nobody had an answer to that one.
Z Plus Ten Years Eighty Six Days
Tech-Com went on immediate rationing. The Kitchen Staff had to be careful about handing out food at all times, but with no more food coming in, the Rations had to be cut. It took all of thirty minutes for everyone to find out why. Fear spread quickly, but not as bad as the Command Staff feared. Most of the people in Crystal Peak had come from somewhere that had no food to go around. The notion of keeping all the security, the walls, the hot water and the company in exchange for smaller portions didn't bother anyone too much.
So far.
It wasn't going to last. But it bought them time. The Eden Project, the Fish Tanks; and pretty much anywhere else that made or stored food were pressed into service.
Kate's left arm still didn't work, and she was getting more than a little scared by it. John was less concerned. His mother had received a similar wound, and it had taken her a while too.
Dr Chen and Carla had put their heads together and come up with the exact number of calories that each person had to consume to be healthy, and then translated that into portions for the Mess Hall.
"What were the numbers?" Kate asked her husband on the way to the Mess Hall.
"Not encouraging." Connor said quietly, making sure they were talking softly enough to go unheard. "Brain Box says that even if everything goes exactly right, we're never going to get enough food in here to keep everyone fed. If we get drastic, we can stave off starvation for a few months. But not for everybody." He sighed "Any ideas?"
"Me? This is usually where you pull a rabbit out of your hat." Kate offered. "This time you have to pull about a million rabbits, grill them and serve them up."
Connor sighed. "Maybe."
They got in line at the Mess Hall. Connor glanced around. A few of Connor's Own were present, sitting at tables having chats. Unofficially, they were there to make sure nobody complained.
A scale was in full view back behind the chow line. The KP Staff went to it with each portion, weighing every portion precisely, and in full view of everyone. When Connor came to his turn, they looked a question at him, and he shook his head subtly. The General got the exact same amount as everyone else.
So did Kate, and they took the trays back to their room.
Kate looked at her plate. "Not much, is it?"
"Enough to keep from starving to death. For a day."
"What's everybody thinking upstairs?"
"Noah and Walters are both trying desperately not to recommend sending people out on dangerous missions. The number of ways they've tried to get around using the words 'thin the herd' is staggering."
Kate shivered. "Is there any other way?"
"It's not like we were holding much back on ways to make food before." Connor sighed.
They chewed slowly, not talking for a while.
"We've got vitamin supplements in Medbay." Kate offered.
"Not anymore."
"Where are they now?"
"Under guard, in a safe place. When the food runs out, we're going to be adding them to the leftovers. Find someone who knows how to cook and have them figure out how to make less food seem like more food."
"Easy. Make soup." Kate said. "I remember my mom bought barbecue chicken at the store sometimes, and when we finished, she boiled up the leftover bits, made it into chicken soup." She paused. "Whoa. Haven't thought about that in decades." She blinked. "Decades. I feel old." She blinked again. "Why am I talking like this?"
John didn't smirk. "Low blood sugar. Less food is making people a little loopy."
Kate scrubbed her face hard. "Part of me wants to lick the tray clean."
"Go ahead, I won't tell."
"General John Connor to the War Room." The PA announced.
"I have to go." John said. "You can have the rest."
"Take it with you, eat on the way." Kate said seriously. "If anyone needs a clear head, it's you."
Connor nodded and did so. Kate kept chewing slowly, trying to make it last.
Robbie came into the room with his own tray. He had pretty much cleaned it off by the time he made it back. "Hey, mom."
"Hey, sweetie." She glanced at him, very aware of how thin he was. He wasn't any thinner than the day before, but now she knew how serious that could be. It wasn't like any of them had weight to lose.
Kate pushed her tray to her son. "Here. You can finish mine, baby. I'm not hungry."
Robbie took it obediently and basically inhaled what was left.
"What do we do?" Berk asked.
"We do what we do. We survive." Stacey said firmly. "Mikey says Keeper's gonna feed us. That's good enough for me."
"Keeper ain't our mom." Cory shot back.
"Keeper loves us." Stacie yelled furiously. "You bite your tongue!"
Berk grinned. "It's the most meat he'll get for a while."
The Tunnel Rats chortled.
Tish stroked her braids. "The General will think of something. He always does. He's smart."
Molly gripped her arms tightly. "I miss Lupe."
"Me too."
Berk rocked for a while. "I miss her voice."
Meg licked her lips. "I miss her stories."
Silence.
"Tell us a story, Meg. Lupe won't be back to tell 'em."
The Tunnel Rats huddled together tightly, keeping warm; for they knew hunger would make them cold.
Meg smiled at them. "Once upon a time, in a land far away, there were wonderful things called Dolphins, and they loved to play and swim in blue water!"
"Kyle says there ain't no such thing! He says The General told him there ain't!"
Meg glared at him, furious as a child half her age. "SO? That's what makes it a story!"
It was late when Connor got back to the Presidential Suite. Kate was sitting up in bed, under the covers. She just looked at him. It was the first time they had been alone since he'd told her about Kyle.
They looked at each other like total strangers for a long time. Connor finally came forward, sat down on his side of the bed, and started undoing his laces. His jaw was square, his back was straight... He was The General, and not her John.
Normally, Kate would work on him till the tension cracked and he was her husband again, but this time she couldn't bring herself to do it. "Don't send him back." She said quietly. "The timeline changed once. If you send someone else, it could change again and we'll still be okay."
"Or it could be a disaster." Connor said tiredly. "I know all the reasons, Kate. I've been trying to see a way out since I was old enough to know who my father was."
Kate didn't soften. "That was before you met him. Or me."
"That changes nothing."
"It changes everything." She said coldly. "He's not some soldier that died before you were born, he's a boy who worships you. Don't do this to him."
Connor shrugged off his jacket and vest. "And how would we win this war, if I never had the nerve to send boys who worship me on suicide missions?"
"That's different."
"Why? Because Kyle means more to us than them?"
"Because you know how this mission ends." Kate said miserably. "Of all the people in the Underground, you have resolved in your mind that there's no way to save Kyle Reese. If the war ended tomorrow in easy victory, you would still send him back to his death. He has to live, because he has to die."
Connor lay down next to her. "It's... the way it has to be."
"What happened to 'No Fate But What We Make'?"
Connor slid down, and turned to face her. "My mom taught me that... because she heard it in a message I sent her from the future, via Kyle Reese."
Kate turned off the light and slid down in the bed. He reached for her and she shrugged him off, turning deliberately away from him in the dark. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
They lay silently a while.
"John..." She said finally, not looking at him. "Please."
John sighed. "What will happen if he doesn't go back?"
"I don't know, and neither do you. But I do know what happens if he goes." Kate snapped. "If Kyle gets killed in this war, what happens then? The timeline changed once, and you didn't notice anything. Did Kyle suddenly get a year or two older when he arrived in the 80's? What if something changed so that Kyle won't survive a battle that he did in the first timeline? What happens then?"
"I don't know." John admitted softly.
Long silence.
"He calls me 'mom'." Kate whispered. "The only ones that call me mom are Kyle, Robbie, and Sarah. How can you do this?"
"That's not fair!" Connor hissed. "This has nothing to do with you! This choice was made before I ever met you!"
"I know. Before you were born, in fact. But change it anyway."
Connor sat up, and reached for his boots.
Kate switched the light on. "Where are you going?"
"Back to the War Room." Connor said roughly. "At least in there I can think of an answer to the impossible problems."
Kate sat up in bed and watching him dress for a moment. He went back to the door without a word. "John..." She called after him.
Connor paused in the door. "Yeah?"
Long silence.
"Don't be late tomorrow." She said finally.
Connor slumped imperceptibly. "They can't start without me."
"I know. Should I wait up for you?"
Connor hesitated. "No."
Kate turned away from him, giving the cold shoulder again. "Fine."
Z Plus Ten Years Eighty Seven Days
Weddings in the underground were a pretty straightforward affair. For the most part, the only authority on any given base was the Base Commander. Kate had officiated more than a few ceremonies, as Commander of Crystal peak. But Carla was one of their oldest friends, and she had wanted it, so John Connor performed the ceremony himself.
People were tight knit on any front line. Closer than family, so for all the uncertainty that some had felt about Carla years before, she was part of the family again, and as many people as could fit into the Main Hall came to attend.
Nobody was really clean any more, and tech-Com was a new army, made out of whatever was left over after a Nuclear War, so there wasn't really enough to provide dress uniforms for everyone. But it was a wedding. Something that said life was wonderful and full of love. Everyone made it their business to reflect that, and to get a piece of the celebration in return.
At the head of the room, Dex was waiting for his bride, with Connor in front of him. Connor looked over, and noticed Kyle. He looked... hard. Like he was trying to keep his expression from changing, even a little bit. When he looked at Dex, Connor could see it in his eyes. He was so jealous of Dex, getting to marry his girlfriend, there was almost hatred in his eyes.
Kate was next to Kyle, and she rested a hand gently on his shoulder. Kyle softened a little. Kate looked to John, fiercely protective.
John looked at her, hiding what he was feeling from the waiting groom at his side. Kate, what do you expect me to do?
Kate's look was clear. You cannot expect me to be okay with this. He calls me 'mom', and you've written him off as an inevitable casualty.
Connor didn't have an answer to that, so instead he turned to Dex. "Nervous?"
Dex smiled. "Nope. Just wish I'd done this the day I met her."
Connor spared his wife a quick look. "I know what you mean." He saw movement at the back of the room. "Eyes front, soldier." He whispered. "You don't want to miss this part."
Dex turned to look down the Aisle, and found Carla smiling brilliantly at him. She was wearing a white dress, made from a sheet. She had borrowed it from Kate who had not worn it since her own wedding. She looked beautiful, especially compared to everyone else. Someone started playing music, and everyone's eyes were on her; but Carla only had eyes for her groom. A long look he had no trouble returning.
They gave each other smiles full of love, and under it all, relief.
As everyone sat down, they turned to Connor, who smiled at both of them. "It has always been the honor of every commander, since the days of wooden sailing ships, to unite people together in this way. I am luckier than any of them put together, as the Bride and Groom are both good friends of mine. Carla, Dex… The two of you, and others like you, you make all the hard choices bearable, by sharing your joy with us. Speaking for myself, when days like this come along... Sometimes this is a great job."
Both of them smiled at him warmly.
Connor smiled back. "All of us put our lives and our hopes in each others keeping every day. It takes so much courage to give your heart to someone too. You've already promised to always always have each others back, no matter what life throws at you. You promised that when you put on that uniform. But this means that you agree to need each other. When times get hard, and things are dark, you always turn to each other first for help. Even in this place, where we all have to be in everything together; you two are partners now, over and beyond anything that came before"
Dex and Carla never took their eyes off each other.
"So." Connor said. "With that in mind, we now come to the most important questions I will ever ask you: Do you, Carla Eposita, take this man as your husband?"
"I do."
"Elihuia Dexter, do you take this woman as your wife?"
"I do."
"Elihuia?" Walters whispered in disbelief to Noah.
Noah was wiping away welling tears. "Hush."
"By the authority I have as Commander In Chief, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife."
"Yah!" Mackie shouted from the front row, and ran up to the front of the room to hug them both at the same time. Everyone laughed warmly.
So did Connor. "Dex, what are you waiting for? Kiss the bride!"
Dex proceeded to do exactly that, as everyone smiled happily at the whole family together and applauded.
Everyone lined up to offer congratulations, and Walters took the opportunity to slip over next to Connor. "Wedding speeches get better every time you give one."
Connor smiled thinly.
Walters didn't believe it. "So what's bothering you?"
Connor shrugged. "Not a lot. I just… I wish we could have put out a feast for them."
That brought reality back with a thump. Walters nodded grimly. "Let that be tomorrow's problem."
"Agreed." Connor said quietly as the Bandits started playing happy dance music. Dex and Carla headed off the back of the room, where the Hall widened out, to start off the evening with his first dance with his wife.
"So, Kyle." Kate teased him lightly. "Willing to dance with an old lady?"
"You're not old." Kyle said flatly. "And I can't dance."
Kate bit her lip on that one. She knew he could. Lupe had taught him. Kyle was looking at Dex, his arms around Carla, and was rubbing the inside of his arms absently. He was thinking about Lupe. About holding her the way Dex was holding his new wife.
"Kyle…" She started to say, not knowing what she was going to tell him.
"If you need me, I'll be in the gym." Kyle said softly, and marched out.
Across the room, Yolanda had slipped in next to Connor. Both of them had seen the whole thing. "Is it possible that Noah cried?" Yolanda asked.
"Lots of people cry at weddings." Connor said, watching Kyle leave.
"The Bandits have a bet going downstairs about whether or not Noah has actual tear ducts. Looks like I lost." She watched Kyle leave the room. He was the only one walking out. "Enrique told me. About Kyle."
Connor looked sharply at her. "He did?"
"Yup. Is he ready?"
"Unbreakable."
"Are you sure?"
"Lupe did it. Can't break somebody who's already broken."
Yolanda nodded once. "Good. Then it was worth it."
Connor felt the hairs on his neck raise. "Was it?"
"Enrique would say yes. So would Lupe if she knew." She sent a fierce gaze at him, harder than Enrique ever was. "We're playing for keeps, Johan. We do whatever we have to do, to gain any edge we can. Defeat means extinction. Victory at any price."
The 'Price' she was so coldly writing off included her whole family. John felt his doubts fade in favor of her certainty. "Kate knows. She's furious. She says not to send him back."
"Let her say what she likes. She can afford to weep for her adopted children. You can't. You know what needs to be done. I sacrificed my family for this. We all sacrifice something for the burden of this war. You have given up more than most for longer than anyone. Kyle is the most pivotal loss you'll ever have. That's a fact of being John Connor."
Kate was smiling at Dex and Carla. They looked so happy. John shook his own feelings off. His mother had taught him that happiness like that was meant for the people under his charge. Not for him. He, Kyle, his mother... they were meant for something that would do more good for everyone else. Not for themselves.
Connor felt his resolve harden, as Dex kissed his wife. This is why. He told himself. The Great John Connor has to win, so that people like Carla and Dex can be happy. "You're right." Connor heard his voice say. "Winning the War comes first. Kyle has to go back. I can't compromise on this. Victory at any price."
"Now." Yolanda told him. "Smile."
Connor felt his face make a warm happy smile that he didn't feel.
"Go dance with the Bride, tell her how happy you are for her." Yolanda directed him. "Then go do what you were born to do... and win this godforsaken war."
Z Plus Ten Years Eighty Seven Days
Connor was in the the War Room before anyone else the next morning. He hadn't gone back to his room, having come straight here after the Wedding. The party had continued without him, people finding it easier to relax when The General wasn't in the room.
"Begin Day Watch." Walters called as he came in, one hand to his head. The party had lasted for hours after Connor had left. People changed seats in the War Room; the arriving Day Shift getting reports from departments and forward units, the Night Shift happy to go get some sleep.
Noah staggered in after him, looking somewhat haggard after the party, and turned to Connor. "Have you been here all night?"
Connor nodded absently. "Yes. Report."
"Lori's getting her people together, bringing her own supplies here. Oldham is mobilizing Castle Keep and bringing it in. More mouths to feed, but everything they've got to feed their people with they bring too." Walters reported. "He wants his people in close when they start running out."
Connor nodded. "In the meantime, there's still a war going on, right?"
Noah picked up the report. "Yessir. Skynet apparently got the announcement about the Union succeeding from us, and they've redeployed. They didn't have a lot in position. I think the break surprised Skynet way more than it did us."
"Are they attacking?" Connor asked.
"Skynet took some pretty bad losses, and the Union's making a grab for territory. With us pulling back there's a lot of No Man's Land out there to claim. The Union's hitting out pretty hard." Walters said. "But for now... that's their problem."
"But in the meantime there's our problem..." Connor fought to keep his mind clear. Smaller portions meant people with low blood sugar. Tempers would start getting a little short, people would start having mental lapses... "How many Infiltrator factories are within range?"
"In driving range, we found about fourteen." Noah reported. "Helicopter range, twenty three."
"And how many did we take intact?"
"Are you asking how many we took intact, or how many are intact now?" Walters asked.
"Intact now."
"Just twelve." Walters reported from memory. "Mainly as traps for Skynet if they come to retake them."
"They aren't ambushes any more, and I want that number up to twenty ASAP." Connor ordered. "Where's Gould?"
"Tech-Lab." Kate reported.
Connor headed out without a word.
Noah grinned at Walters. "He has an idea. I can tell. He's got that look."
"I know, I love that look." Walters commented.
Chapter 19: Z Plus 10 Years 90 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Ten Years Ninety Days
Kate came rushing into Medbay. "Lana? Doctor Chen?"
Chen came in from Post-Op immediately. "Yes, Ma'am?"
Kate shrugged her jacket off. "It started this morning."
Chen looked, as Kate shook out her bad arm, and seemed to concentrate for a few moments. Her arm twitched.
Chen smiled. "Fantastic!"
"It's not much, but..."
"But its a million times more than you could do yesterday." Chen counseled. "This is a good sign. It means we have something to work with now. This is progress we can improve on."
"Don't mind telling you, I was freaking out a bit." Kate admitted.
"Well, you didn't get your shoulder stuck with a knife, it was a liquid metal Terminator. Who knows what the rules are?" Chen said. "By the way, where did all our vitamin supplements go?"
"They're under guard." Kate said. "John figures it's easier to steal food from the Medbay than from the Mess."
Carla came in early enough to catch most of that. "In the meantime, Ma'am; we've got two guys in here with Scurvy. Scurvy! Can you believe that?"
"We're worrying about Scurvy, Lice, Scarlet Fever, TB... There's a smallpox outbreak in Australia. We're solving 17th century medical problems here, right alongside Plasma burns." Kate told her. "We'll get you some stuff back."
Carla smiled at her. "So. Arm working again?"
"Slightly."
"Lot better than not at all."
"I know."
Carla helped Kate back into her jacket. "Oldham pulled in a few minutes ago."
Kate nodded. "I better make sure he knows why he's here."
Half the population of Castle Keep was rolling in the front door of Crystal Peak.
Kate met Oldham and gave him some quick instructions, when it suddenly dawned on her how many people there were in the entrance. It took her a few minutes to realize that there were a lot of people on their way out too.
Kate looked, and saw Gould getting into a jeep, having a pointed conference with her husband.
As the second group left, she slipped in next to him. "Something going on I should know about?"
"I have a special assignment for Gould." Connor told her. "But keep it to yourself for now, okay?"
"How can I not? I don't even know what we're talking about." Kate objected.
"I don't know that its going to work, and even if it does, I still don't know that it's going to work."
"Well, good. That wasn't vague or cryptic at all." Kate gestured back at the entrance behind them. "I can't help but notice that Gould was the first one to lead a team out in weeks."
"We're not marching at the moment." Connor said. "The Union's chewing through Skynet, and they can feed their soldiers. We don't like either of them, and right now they're shooting each other. Why throw our guys into it?"
Kate nodded. "By the way, my arm works. Sort of."
Connor smiled in open relief. "Oh good, because I was freaking out a little bit too."
Kate nodded. "Yeah. I um... lied to you about where I got stabbed. It didn't miss the muscle, and it took a pretty big chunk out of the shoulder blade. I had Chen patch it so I could help with the wounded and with Kyle before they operated."
Connor nodded. "I know. I talked to Chen while you were in surgery and got the whole story, including the parts you didn't tell me."
Kate smirked, despite herself. Can't put one over on The Great John Connor. "Dig up some of the vitamin supplements." She moved on. "Carla's got two guys in Medbay with Scurvy."
Connor nodded. "I know, I had to keep it hidden at first in case people panicked and started hoarding."
"And now?"
"Now I'm wondering how long before I have to post guards."
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Four Days
Dr Chen had been CMO at Castle Keep for less than a week before coming to Tech-Com. She had been second in command to Dr Bowman till he died. So when Kate had been promoted to Base Commander, she had no problem with Carla becoming CMO. She had seniority and knew the people better.
The downside of course, was that most of the day to day running and routine was left to her, and that included the morning reports and announcements. Chen was starting to hate the morning reports.
The cases of Scurvy had continued. The Medbay had got together with the think tank and recalculated the portions. Fresh veg was harder to come by even before the Base went on strict rationing. A lot of what was served in the Mess Hall was surplus, or from Crystal Peak's storage bay; vitamins were already in short supply.
The first announcement had to go to the Maternity wing of the Medbay. The slogan of 'Populate or Perish' hadn't been forgotten by anyone. After coming out of Castle Keep's Maternity Ward, Chen had been somewhat… overjoyed to see the way Crystal Peak laid out the Maternity wing, and took care of their children. Chen came into the room, looked them over, and rubbed the scar on her neck absently. "Ladies…" She announced, belatedly adding; "And assorted gentlemen." Most of the women there had someone keeping them company. "I have an announcement, and you aren't going to like it." She took a breath. "As of this morning, we are no longer giving priority on food to pregnant women."
There was stunned silence for a moment. Then the yelling began. It took Chen a good while to get them calmed down. "Hey! HEY! LISTEN TO ME!" She yelled over them. "This doesn't include you! I just said we're starting this today. You all have a few weeks to a few months left. But things are getting tight. We can't afford to do this forever. So as of now, food incentives are off the menu."
"Along with a number of other things." Someone commented.
The point was made though. Things were getting serious.
Chen came out of the Maternity Wing and found both The General and his wife waiting for her in Medbay. "How did it go?" Connor asked.
"Ever been mobbed by two dozen angry pregnant women who see you taking their food away?" Chen asked them.
Beat.
"I can honestly say that I have not." Connor conceded.
"So, there's something I can do for you?"
Kate rubbed her still damaged shoulder. "Arm's getting stronger… but the shoulder's still hurting. Not muscle strain, not lingering damage. This is… something else. It's sharp, and it's deep."
Chen looked concerned. "Let's get an X-Ray."
Kate had the X-Ray done while Carla snuck in for a quick conference with Connor. "Sir. Just a few things I want to put on your radar." She said. "First, we have to slow down the drinking water."
"Why?"
"A lot of people are guzzling more water down to try and fill up a bit. It's not a new trick, but there are a lot more people doing it now."
"What's the problem?" Connor asked with worry. "We adapted the Skynet filter tech that they use in their Infiltrator tanks; we're close to a hundred percent water retention."
"It's not that we're running low on drinking water sir, it's that they're drinking too much of it. They're putting out a lot more, and they're losing sodium and such as a result. With food rationed, they don't have a lot of salts in their body. That can be dangerous."
"Sodium?" Connor thought for a second. "Talk to Saint. A lot of the junk food that's full of preservatives and such has plenty of salt in it. I remember reading once as a kid that potato chips could be pumped full of chemicals, and then vacuum sealed. The towns are full of stuff like that which people avoid because there's no nutrition. But there's plenty of salt in it, so if it's still edible, maybe we can crumble it up and add it to the stew."
"Make sure you test it here first." Carla said. "We really can't risk giving people food poisoning."
Connor nodded. "There's a salt mine somewhere south of- No. Scratch that. Union territory now." The General sighed. "Salt tablets?"
"Not enough for everyone." Carla shook her head. "Right now, it's a small problem; I just wanted you to be aware."
Connor nodded. "You said there were two things?"
"We've had some people coming in for incidentals. Concentration lapses, slight dizziness, lethargy; stuff like that. The early symptoms are showing."
"Well, get used to it Carla, we aren't rationing for healthy, we're rationing for sustainable. They'll be lethargic, and they'll live longer for it." Connor said seriously.
Dr Chen stuck her head in. "General? We've got the results of the X-Ray."
Connor took a breath.
"Sorry I don't have better news for you Kate." Chen said gently. "There's still some kind of metal deposit in there, halfway through the bone."
Kate stared at the X-Ray. "Any way to get it out?"
"Not without operating. And… Frankly, we're already pushing our luck with your recovery, given the positioning."
Kate bit her lip. "John… is this dangerous? The metal in my shoulder came from the Mercury in our Meat Locker. The only piece of that thing not on ice is currently lodged in me. Is this a risk to the Base?"
"Frankly, Kate; I'm more worried about its risk to you." He put the question to Chen. "What are the odds that this thing is going to be dangerous to Kate?"
"We're talking about a trace amount the size of a pea." Chen put in. "No signals coming from it, no reaction to the X-Ray, no movement, and the way it's lodged suggests it either won't or can't fragment. So unless it can self destruct spontaneously on its own, and with quite a bit of force, I highly doubt it."
"It's just there. Causing my wife pain." Connor said darkly.
Chen finally caught up and swallowed. "I'll see what I can do, sir."
Connor nodded. "All right then." He glanced at Kate. "I have to get back to the War Room."
She nodded and gave him a quick kiss.
"Chen." Kate said seriously, the second he was gone. "Am I going to have to live with this?"
"Very likely, Ma'am."
Kate sighed. "Men do not take such things well, do they?"
"Not that I've noticed, no Ma'am."
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Eight Days
Mikey lined up with the rest of them, and got his tray. He started to head out slowly, when a hand caught his wrist tightly. "Freeze." Kate said with friendly menace. "Hey look at that! I can use my arm to catch things!" She shook her head and got right back to the point. "Mikey, I know what you're doing, and until now, we've all let you get away with it, because we agree with you."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Mikey said without hesitation.
"I'm talking about you sneaking more food downstairs on your tray."
"Me? No, that's Micheal. I'm Mikey, so it's an easy mistake..."
"No deal. Micheal Noah wasn't even born yet when you started your little supply line." She put her arm around him and pulled him to a table. "We've calculated this. How many calories for every adult, and every child. The math changes if you're still growing, or doing heavy duty. We haven't forgotten the Tunnel Rats."
Mikey smiled at Kate softly and gestured at the bits and pieces the Rats had given her. She always wore them. "I know. But…"
"But nothing. We're on rations." Kate said firmly. "You can't come back for seconds any more. Everything you give them leaves you hungry. Now. Eat your food."
Mikey blinked. "Now?"
"Right now."
"I was… going to go downstairs anyway…"
"And you can. As soon as you clear your tray." Kate said evenly. "Mikey, I've got two kids of my own, plus the Tunnel Rats, plus a few thousand soldiers. I can sit here and wait all night for you to eat your vegetables."
Mikey sighed, conceding defeat, and picked up his fork.
"Report." Connor said the second he arrived.
"Our forces are all in holding position as usual. We've never had more accurate run-downs of where and when Skynet is moving." Noah said.
"And where are they moving?"
"South." Walters said instantly. "They can't figure out why we aren't engaging, but they know we aren't. They've stopped trying to bait us, and they're heading south. They're needed there."
"Union's pushing out?"
"Yep."
"Any words on who's winning?"
"Not yet. Not even close. But the Union took full advantage of the time Skynet was redeploying. They were ready to be alone against the world long before this. The break was long planned."
Connor didn't seem worried. "Let them slug it out."
"It's keeping the heat off us I'll admit." Walters said. "In all honesty, sir; it's a relief. The way the Union came out of their borders once we hit the convoy... they were expecting this. They were getting ready to take over the whole show. If it wasn't for Enrique getting the word out, they'd have the entire northern continent too by now."
"Australian, Eurasian and African Theaters are all calling in. They want to know how this changes the game plan."
"South America was our pipeline, not theirs. Tell them it changes nothing." Connor said.
"That's them, but what about us?" Walters asked. "Sooner or later they'll get tired of beating each other up, and when they do, we'll either be left with Skynet having control over everything still living down south, including the jungles, the animals, the crops and whatever else... or The Union men coming for us, high on victory over Skynet."
Connor nodded. "Eric, don't worry about that. By the time that comes up, we'll either be ready to take them both, or in no position to put up a fight against either."
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Twenty Nine Days
Three weeks passed, and things got tighter. Everyone had experienced rationing before in one form or another, but there were no secrets here. Food was running out, and this time there was no place else to go.
Connor tried to cycle the guards so that they wouldn't be noticed, but at the three week mark, there seemed no point. Everyone knew why Connor's Own was there.
As the weeks went on, more and more of them were present.
There had been some grumbling. Not a lot, as most everyone knew that even Tech-Com couldn't conjure bread from thin air, but people in Crystal Peak never exactly had a lot of weight to lose, and hunger was now passing from difficult into risky.
A black market formed, perhaps inevitably, and Connor put a swift stop to it. There was to be no hoarding. There was to be no gouging.
"Skynet is trying to block Union advances. What I can't understand is why they haven't moved their reserves in and just won the damn fight. I also can't figure out why it hasn't engaged us!"
"Because they know we're hungry." Connor said grimly. They know the 1000 got in, they know what it's missions were. They don't know if I survived, but they know we aren't pushing out. Skynet has jumped, correctly, to the conclusion that the longer it waits, the weaker we'll be. Meantime, it has a whole other commander and army to fight. The reason it hasn't moved its reserves in, is because it's trying to cover itself from us. Skynet doesn't know just how deep the split goes, and if we'll still organize joint operations."
"Maybe that ain't a bad idea." Walters offered. "If nothing else, it'll offer some goodwill to the Union, and end the fighting with a Skynet loss."
"And then what? We offer the Cartels an invitation to a big celebratory dinner, and then ask them if they'll bring enough for everybody?" Noah snapped, then immediately contrite. "Sorry. I get bitchy when I'm hungry."
Connor and Walters were notably silent.
Noah rolled her eyes. "Alright, at other times too."
Connor and Walters were notably silent.
Noah growled a little. "Oh, shut up."
"You know, Eric; I can remember when Noah needed two for a conversation." Connor quipped.
"Really, sir? I can't."
Oldham and the rest from Castle Keep had been put on Guard Duty. The Crystal Peak guards were too close to the people here, and would hesitate when their friends got desperate. Castle Keep was family too, but they were based away from the Mountain, and had a little distance from the people there. The alternative was to activate the Infiltrators and let them guard the food. Nobody wanted to do that yet.
Connor came into the Presidential Suite, but he didn't go any further into the suite than the door.
Kate heard him come in and came to join him. "Hello."
They were silent a moment.
Since the revelation about Kyle, Kate had barely spoken to him in private. It wasn't out of any great anger; it was just that neither of them had a solution to their disagreement. It made things awkward.
"You... um, you wanted to see me?" John asked her.
"Just wanted to let you know." Kate said. "We're running low on the Vitamin supplements."
"We have to keep them saved for perimeter teams and scouts, or else Skynet will walk right up and knock." John told her gently.
"I know. I understand, but that doesn't leave a lot to put in the food here. Lisa wants to cut our food with some inorganic material. Nothing toxic. We're... looking for ways to fill up the pots."
John sighed. "Well. It'll work, but it won't make anything better. During WW2 a lot of POW camps cut their prisoners rations with sawdust. It gave them quantity, but it didn't ease their hunger because it had no nutrition at all. The same will happen here."
"It's no so much about easing hunger John, as it is about keeping riots from breaking out in the Mess. People are hanging around there permanently now, just waiting for their next meal."
"Well I guess that's to be suspected. Nobody has any energy to do anything else." John conceded. "Do the kids wonder where I am?"
Kate shook her head. "You've had to work round the clock before. And the fact is... They're sleeping more now."
John looked old suddenly. "How are they handling it?"
"The same as you are. You know Sarah and Robbie, they're... stoic." She cleared her throat. "Do... have you heard anything from Gould?"
"It's working." Connor said. "But if we can't get enough to go around it doesn't solve anything..."
Kate nodded. "What about you? Are you eating?"
Connor was silent a moment. "Yeah."
Kate licked her cracked lips. "Where are you sleeping?"
"The War Room. We're on half compliments. Too many people there fading fast, and with most of the Current Ops being on the other side of the world, and everything on this continent phased back to just keeping an eye on the Union; there's no reason to keep The War Room fully staffed."
Kate nodded. "I think the words getting out that we... are..."
"Not speaking? Got news for you, Kate; the word has been out on that one since the day I told you about Kyle." He gestured with his head at the kid's room. "Do they know?"
"About Kyle?"
"About us."
"I think they're the only ones being kept out of the loop."
Silence.
"John." Kate whispered. "I... I hate fighting with you."
"I know. Me too." John said quietly. "I don't have an answer for you yet. Kyle... has to do what he's already done."
"I... don't know what to say to that." Kate admitted. "When we don't have any answers... usually it's because we're not going to find any. That's how it goes in a war. But... but this time..."
"I know." John said softly.
"General Connor to the War Room." The PA announced.
John didn't move.
"Go." She told him.
Connor stood up stiffly and headed out.
"Love you, wife." He said to himself, the second the door closed behind him.
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Forty One Days
Connor made his way toward the War Room from the Mess Hall. Someone had scrawled graffiti on the wall. 'Will the last person to starve to death please turn out the lights?'
With the war still going strong internationally, most of Crystal Peak's job had been to dig in and conserve energy for their own battlefield, but Connor's job was unchanged. He was still running a war across the globe. He could tell that the feeling was the same in here. They smartened up a little when The General entered the room, but they were running low on energy too. A dozen lethargic people, trying to save the world.
"Report." He said first thing as he entered The War Room.
"General Dougal from the Australasian Alliance reports victory in the siege of Coober Pedy." Sherrin reported. "The underground homes were able to hold out the advance. But Skynet still has Melbourne under its control."
"Melbourne's going to be a dogfight." Connor conceded. "Tell Dougal to activate the Diggers."
Sherrin turned back to his console as Connor went to the maps. "What's the troop movement in the Beijing Offensive?"
"Admiral Chow says that Halloway's assistance was useful in breaking the ocean lines, but Skynet's pretty firmly entrenched." Noah said.
"Standard Skynet tactics. They fortify the metropolitan areas."
"General, at some point we should have a conversation about whether its worth fighting for them any more." Noah suggested.
Connor considered. "You may be right. We've handled living in the wastelands this long. Humanity adapted to living away from the cities. Sherrin, did Dougal give you any idea on how many people might still be in Melbourne?"
Silence.
Connor turned to look and saw Sherrin face down at his desk. "TONY!"
Sherrin sat up, his eyes going in separate directions. "Wha?" He slurred. "What happened?"
Connor and Noah came over, and checked him quickly. "No concussion." Noah said, cuffing Sherrin across the shoulder. "You're not eating your rations."
"I do eat my ration... I eat... most of my rations..." Sherrin drawled.
"All right, report to Medbay. Noah, go with him, make sure he gets there."
"Sir."
The point had been made however. Things were getting serious. People were passing out at their posts, some of them had terrible bad breath, and people were feeling harsh joint pains, to say nothing of the way they were all getting thinner and paler with each passing day.
A lot of the parents in the Base were giving some of their food to the kids. Mikey had to be physically restrained and made to eat so that he wouldn't give the Tunnel Rats everything on his trays...
Connor checked the calendar on the wall again, as though looking at it could make the days speed up.
Time was running out.
Sherrin had been marched from Medbay to the Mess Hall, and was eating his pitifully small meal. He ate as slowly as he could; trying to trick his stomach into thinking the meal was more. He looked around. The signs of hunger were visible now. People were getting thinner, they were moving slower...
It was getting bad.
"Hey."
Sherrin looked up. It was Lisa. "I heard you had a bit of a problem."
Sherrin looked down. "I'm fine. Feel like an idiot though."
"Who doesn't nowadays?" Lisa sat down and licked her lips. "I... was talking to Harland."
Tony opened one eye. "Who?"
"One of Saint's people. They were... searching through some of the supermarkets. Looking for stale food that might still be edible."
"They find anything?"
"Harland... says he did. More than he handed over."
Tony opened his other eye too. "I don't like where this conversation is going."
Lisa sniffed a bit. "If I turn him in, whatever he's got will be added to the rations, and be gone in about ten minutes. But if... Well, he says if I... he says he'd be willing to share some if..." Lisa licked her lips. "Tony. I love you."
Sherrin just looked at her sadly. "And I love you." He reached out with his good hand and stroked her cheek a little. She nuzzled into him. "When we first met, did you ever think we'd be here like this?"
"Not for a second." Lisa said. "But when we started out with our little arrangement, did you ever think that love was an option?"
"An option sure, but... Never thought it would happen to us. We were just too volatile."
"Really really volatile, as I recall." Lisa chuckled.
Silence.
"Did we really call it that? 'Our little arrangement'?"
Lisa chuckled. "Yeah."
They looked softly at each other for a while. The moment passed and Lisa had no particular expression on her face at all when she spoke again. "Harland... I think he likes southern gals. I um... noticed that he reacted when he heard my accent. And... Before you say anything, you should know that I wasn't the only girl he was talking to."
Tony looked down. "I don't want you to do this."
"And I don't want us to starve." Lisa said. "Hey. I wouldn't be the first one to..." She went silent.
"It's one meal." Tony said. "It's hardly worth one meal."
Lisa didn't look away. "I know. But... if he has more than one meal's worth... He won't risk looking for someone new each time if..."
They both leaned back instinctively as the conversation was suddenly interrupted. "Hi." Carla said lightly, sitting down with her coffee. "Mind if I join you?"
Lisa swallowed. "Actually, ma'am; Tony and I were discussing a private matter."
"Yeah. I know exactly what you were discussing." Carla said, taking them by surprise.
"You do?" Lisa blinked.
"Harlan was arrested for hoarding and racketeering about two hours ago." Carla said. "I figured somebody should let you know before you found out any other way."
Lisa and Tony traded an indecipherable look. "How'd he get caught?"
Carla smirked. "Well, Harlan was one of Enrique's Bandits. One of the ones who stayed south because had family there. He never came to Crystal Peak, but when the break with the Union happened, the ones that stayed behind scattered. Some are pulling off hit and run attacks, some are scouting or patrolling our territory... Harlan; he came north and met up with Lori. That's how he started working with Saint." Carla took a sip of her coffee. "So obviously, he didn't know who was who around here. Didn't recognize many of the Officers... and he made the same offer he made Lisa to the wrong woman."
"Who?" Tony asked, without thinking.
"Kate Connor."
Beat.
The three of them burst into hysterical mirthless laughter. After the pressure had been building for weeks, it felt good to laugh. It just wouldn't stop. The three of them were in convulsions, tears rolling down their faces. Then Tony actually fell off his chair, and they laughed at that too. People were staring at them, but they couldn't seem to stop themselves. It went on and on till Lisa was near to passing out.
They kept laughing till it actually caused pain, and eventually the ache was enough to release them. Carla helped Tony back into his seat.
As the laughter finally faded, Lisa and Tony were left staring at each other, relieved; more because they wouldn't have to talk about it, wouldn't have to decide.
Tony spoke first. "Carla, I gotta know. What was he hoarding?"
Carla tossed back the last of her coffee. "Good question. Whatever it was, they didn't find it when they arrested him, or so they say." She looked at them both gently. "You two make a cute couple. Try to keep it that way."
And with that, Carla got up and left them to themselves.
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Forty Five Days
Connor came into the room at a quick march. Oldham met him. They walked fast and talked quietly. "How many people know about this?" Connor asked first thing.
"Not many. They didn't want to share, so they didn't spread word around." Oldham said. "My people can be trusted."
They came into the Storeroom. Hidden within were the huge swimming pool sized fish tanks, covered over safely. There were three of Oldham's guards there, and two dead bodies on the floor. "Tell me what happened?"
Oldham sighed. "We were in here, standing guard, when we caught them sneaking in. They saw the Tanks, saw us... They knew the fish were in there. They accused us of hoarding it for you and the Officers. I told them what you said, about how there's barely enough fish to feed a third of the people here for one meal. I told them everything you said about how they had to replenish their numbers, or there'll be nothing for the future."
"What did they say?" Connor said, though he could guess.
"They said that there wasn't any point in having food tomorrow if everyone starved today. They moved for the Tank, we told them to turn back. They tried to take our weapons, and..." He shrugged. "What I can't figure is how they knew to come in this way."
Connor took one look at the bodies and sighed. "This is Heinzman. He's part of the Engineering team, so he's got access to blueprints, records; things like that. He probably figured out where the Fishtank was."
"And the other?"
"His brother." Connor said darkly.
"They're looking out for the people they care about." Oldham said seriously.
Connor glanced at him. "'They'?"
Oldham shrugged. "People are dropping from malnutrition. But not all of them. There are still people who still have some strength. And the ones that can still do whatever, have people they care about who can't. People they've been fighting for this long." he looked The General in the face. "And they won't wait for long. They know they wont have the strength themselves soon enough."
Connor felt bad for Oldham. He nodded slowly. "I'll have the Bandits put their own guards around the fish tanks and the Mess Hall."
"Actually, sir..." Oldham looked ill at whatever he was thinking. "I want the Infiltrators to move the fish tanks into the Rooms adjacent the Mess Hall. We're spread too thin with a guard force too weak. We can't move the orchard, of the hydroponics. Not without destroying the plants. But we can eliminate one place to guard, boost our numbers."
Connor nodded. "I'll see to it." He turned to go.
"Sir?"
Connor turned back. "Yeah?"
"What do we do with them?" Oldham was gesturing at the two bodies on the floor.
Heavy silence. Connor was aware of hungry eyes watching for his answer. "No. Take them down to the morgue."
"Sir... I may have to post a guard or two in there too." Oldham explained.
Connor sighed thickly. "It's not what we do, Major. Not yet. Not like this."
And even despite of everything, the Major looked relieved. "Sir."
Kate checked in on Medbay once she heard. "Chen, has there been any trouble?"
"No. I think folk have given up on finding calories here."
"What's the rteport?"
"Same as it was yesterday, only worse." Chen said tiredly.
Kate looked around. "Where's Carla?"
Chen was really starting to hate her job. "She's... taking the day off."
Kate looked at her sharply. "Why?"
Chen sighed. "She's not pregnant."
Kate looked horrified. "I thought... She was so sure. What happened?"
Chen shook her head. "Hunger. It's put her off her period. She thought it meant..."
Kate rested a hand on her empty stomach. "We had more food than this in the Camps, and I was still going hungry. Carla... is lucky."
Chen nodded thickly. "She is."
The Communications room had become the temporary nerve center of the War. With so many operations on hold due to manpower shortages, they saved power, saved energy... It was the new Theme of Crystal Peak. Even here, the lights were low, or every other one switched off. The room was small and the Officers sort of stuck together there. "Where's Kate?" Walters asked as The General came in.
"Sleeping." Connor reported. There was a lot more of it in the base now. Sleeping people used fewer calories, which worked out great because starving people wanted to sleep a lot more. "Speaking of, when did you last sleep?"
"I sleep when he sleeps." Noah pointed at Walters.
"I sleep when you sleep." Walters said to Connor without hesitation.
Connor didn't let it show on his face. "Good to be surrounded by the bravest bunch of zombies in Tech-Com."
"About that sir..." Walters licked his cracked lips. "We're getting some volunteers. Quite a lot of them actually. They want to know why we aren't still hitting Skynet and Union targets."
Silence.
"Maybe because most of our soldiers can barely walk?" Connor offered.
"Due respect sir, that's why they're volunteering. The vitamin paste is running low, the vitamin tablets are all but gone... Anyone about to engage in combat duty gets a double dose of the vitamin supplements. Anyone who volunteers to get shot at keeps starvation back another day."
Connor didn't know if it was the pride or borderline delirium that made him laugh. "Sure. Why not? Eric, go work up a list of targets. If we're going to be awake, we might as well do something."
Walters climbed slowly to his feet. "I'll have to do it myself. Half the War Room is barely there." He headed out, leaving Noah with Connor.
"Amazing to me that people give their most when they're at their weakest." Connor said quietly. "If I had the energy, I'd run around saluting them all."
"We got the best of humanity to work with." Noah said quietly. "The ones that keep getting up again. Due respect sir, you were in a... you were in this fallout shelter the first year of the War. You should have seen the early months. The Prozac nation on withdrawal; the morbidly obese couch potatoes on a starvation diet… not a pretty sight. Eventually, we had to pull everyone still sane out of reach, let them slug it out till the cold or Skynet took care of them. Real psycho's coming out of the woodwork, doomsday cults, lunatics escaped from asylums and hospitals, cold blooded killers loose from the prisons… Hunger and desperation make people do things John. Bad things."
Heavy silence.
"I think that's the first time you ever called me John." Connor said quietly.
Noah just looked at him. She wore her hair down all the time now, to hide how hollow her cheeks were getting. Her eyes were wide and bright. "Yeah. Guess so."
Those in Crystal Peak that still had the strength were getting agitated. The Mess Hall was like a powder keg waiting for a spark. Those that hadn't known about the fish tanks and the beehives before knew now; as they had all been moved into the same place off the mess hall. There was so little food to go around that it could all be kept in the same place, with a thousand hungry people surrounding it, and a thin row of hungry guards standing between them.
Connor had ordered the crowds to disperse, but they hadn't gone far. They had nowhere else to go. As the local war ground to a halt, and Connor handled the Global war over the radio alone, his Officers found ways to keep themselves busy. Walters spelled Oldham on guard at the Mess, Noah had taken over for Yolanda with the Bandits and the Maternity Ward. It took two people to do the job of one.
It was only a matter of time.
Connor had the War Room to himself for the first time in days. He just slid down in his chair and let the exhaustion show on his face for the first time. He'd been hiding it well, but he was running out of energy too. His teeth were hurting; his stomach was cramping painfully...
His radio buzzed. "John?"
Connor pulled the radio without opening his eyes. "Kate?"
"Would you come and see me, please?"
Connor got up and walked slowly toward the Presidential Suite. He didn't know when it became such a long trek to get there, but his energy was low enough that he had to take his time.
When he got there, the door wasn't locked and the lights were low. Kate was in bed, reclining somewhat. She patted the bed next to her, and John sat down. She reached out and he pulled her to him. "Hey."
They lay quietly a while. It was the first time they had been together like this since Kate found out about Kyle. John tried desperately not to think that she was saying goodbye to him.
"John." Kate rasped. "I think I'm getting sick. No energy left, I'm dizzy all the time. I can't keep my hands from shaking."
Connor wrapped his arms around her. She was getting so thin now, like all of them were. "You're not eating your rations."
"Sarah and Robbie need it more." She said thickly.
"We've calculated that." Connor hissed.
"You can't be mad at me. You gave them half your ration too." She smiled a bit. "They aren't stupid you know. They know we can't really spare it either; sneaking stuff on to each others plate, and ours."
Silence.
"John." Kate said quietly. "As Base Commander, I hereby request permission to activate the Infiltrators, for work around the Base. All of them."
Connor didn't speak.
"It's getting bad, John. People have no energy left, no endurance... The Machines do." She licked her lips. "What happens when the whole base goes down from malnutrition?"
"You were the one worried about what people would think. Having Terminators manning the barricades."
Kate would have cried if she'd had the energy. "I think we're running out of... We're just running out."
His radio buzzed again. He answered it. "Connor here."
Walters' voice came back, sounding frantic, the sound of screaming in the background. "General, the situation in the Mess Hall has not improved! I've ordered my people to hold back as best they can; but we've got more than three hundred people down here and-LOOK OUT!" The sounds from the background generally indicated that a riot had broken out. "We are very close to being overrun sir! There are guns in the crowd! Nobody's dead yet, but it's only a matter of time!"
Connor had already pried Kate's arms from around his neck, and was hurrying to get up. "I'm on the way!"
"I don't know if that's a good idea sir! They're gonna start eating each other in a second. I told my guys to keep their safeties on. They're desperate; can't just kill them for that!" The sound of a something smashing close by came over the radio. "At least not yet!"
Kate was up too. "I'm coming with you."
"Kate-"
"John, those are my children down there tearing each other apart." She snarled, her thin angular face making her as feral as any mother bear with her cubs in danger. "I'm coming with you!"
The war in the Mess Hall was far more brutal, far more vicious than the war against the Machines. Humans were smashing at each other over scraps that didn't exist. The fish tanks were the first target, Enrique's men surrounding the tanks, looking borderline worried, knowing the ring of soldiers pushing the crowd back with their bare hands would break through the sheer press of hungry bodies.
One kid managed to get under the ring of soldiers, and made a break for the tanks. One of Enrique's men, nobody saw who, swung his gun toward the movement and fired.
BLAM!
For a microsecond, the press of the rioters was eased as everyone screamed and tried to jump back, with no room to do so, just in case more bullets were coming.
The kid fell to the floor, bleeding from the chest and mouth.
The crowd went berserk at the fatality. First blood went to the soldiers and the desperate refugees came back harder, knowing they were willing to kill.
It was chaos! Nobody knew who was on which side, half the hungry people wearing uniforms, half the people trying to keep the rioters from destroying everything in their hysteria were civilians themselves. Some of the defenders fought back their allies unawares...
"ATTEN-SHUN!"
Somehow, against all laws of physics, against all logic, Connor's voice carried over the violence. Those closest went silent, and those near them, worried about the solder's getting reinforcements, paused to look; until Connor's presence became known properly.
The crowd parted, nobody looking directly at him as he came in. There was sobbing. There were groans of pain. There was a lot of hard breathing. Nobody had any endurance without food.
"Where's Walters?" Connor yelled. He was mad. He was yelling, and in the sudden silence, everyone jumped.
"Sir." Kyle called, pushing his way through people. "He's over here!"
Connor pushed his way through, people letting him move over toward the wall. Kate came along behind him quickly with her kit.
Walters was on his back on the ground, looking ashen. Connor stared. He had a knife sticking out of his stomach.
Kate shoved her husband aside and went right to work.
Connor turned his subzero eyes across the crowd. Nobody would look at him.
"Who did this?" Connor roared.
Silence.
Kate spared him a look. After the revelations about Kyle, and the death of Enrique, he was getting more and more fierce.
Connor moved down the room toward the tank, the crush of people trying to get out of his way. Connor moved slowly, looking down the front row of people; until he got to the body of the child.
Kate saw as the crowds parted. "Mikey." She moaned.
Kyle was already there, looking miserable as he sat over the young corpse. "We were friends." Kyle said quietly.
Connor squeezed his shoulder. And then sent a fierce look at Enrique's soldiers. "Who fired?"
More silence. And then finally, one soldier stepped forward. Connor checked his nametag and insignia. Sergeant Christen. He had tears pouring down his face. "I did it sir. I'm sorry. I didn't see it was... I just reacted." His hands were shaking and he held out his gun. "As you will; General Connor."
There was a beat of horrified silence. Everybody was feeling the 'knife-edge' feeling. They all took a share of the blame. They all wanted to know how Connor would handle punishments and discipline for this chaos. Even if he could find all the instigators...
Connor took the proffered weapon, and looked. They were all watching him with tired, scared eyes, made huge in their starved dirty faces.
Connor turned to Kyle. "What do you think, Kyle? Should I kill him?"
Kyle did not cry. He looked like he wanted to, but there were no tears. Only rage. "I would like to."
"Does that make it better?"
Kyle was silent with dry sobs for a moment. Everyone holding their breath, waiting to see how this played out. "It would be one less mouth to feed." Kyle offered.
"Kyle."
The boy sighed and stood up. "It's not what you would so. So, it would be wrong."
Connor nodded. He turned to the crowd. "You're going to be angry about this. And you're going to want revenge, going to want to hurt someone as much as the pain in your stomachs makes you feel. It's natural. It's pointless. It's exhausting. It's destructive... It's human." Connor took them all in, moving closer to the crowd. "Have you ever been without food for longer than you could take it? Have you ever been abandoned out in the dark? Have you ever been alone? Have you ever been without protection? Ever? You think I'm going to let you fall now? After all this?"
Silence.
Connor nodded. "I won't let you die. Not today. Not ever. We are soldiers in a war. The only way I will let you face death is on your feet, with a weapon in your hands, and me at your back. Always. I won't let you fall to this. Give me the day. One More Day. It's all anyone can ask for. One more day, and then if you want to, you can eat me first."
Someone laughed.
"Don't worry. They will." Kate called from Walters' side, her voice carrying.
More laughter.
"I hereby declare this riot delayed until Monday. Go home."
The crowd started to break up; moving slowly toward the corridor, moving slowly in the confined space, their anger checked by Connor and by hunger.
Connor went to Kate. "How is he?"
"He'll need surgery." Kate told him. "Let me worry about him. You worry about all them. Have you even heard from Gould since you sent him out?"
"Many times. But... at best, this is going to be tight."
"They'll have questions. Will you answer them? Honestly, I mean?"
Connor didn't answer for a moment. "If I did, how would they react?"
"I honestly couldn't tell you."
Chen came running in with her Medical team.
"Lana!" Kate hollered. "Time this right. If I let go of Eric's stomach too soon he'll bleed to death, get set up!"
Sergeant Christen was miserable. He'd stayed away from the Bandits while he sorted himself out.
He knew that friendly fire happened in any war. He knew it was an accident. It could have happened to any soldier. Except that it happened to him.
Yolanda came to him, sitting just inside his reach but not touching him, offering her company if he wanted it. Connor was their Commander, unquestionably. But Enrique was the one that brought them together, trained them, made them a Unit. Even with them all saluting Connor, Enrique was a huge part of their lives.
Since Enrique fell, Yolanda had taken that place.
One of the Bandits came in quietly and whispered something to Yolanda. She took the message, nodded, and turned to Christen. "Kyle Reese is outside. He wants to talk to you."
Christen shivered. "I killed his friend today."
"If you don't want to see him, you don't have to." Yolanda said.
Christen shook his head fiercely. "No. I have to face him. Have to face this."
Yolanda nodded. "Okay then."
Kyle came into the Dorm, and sat down hard across from Christen, slouching a little. Yolanda shooed everyone else out of the Dorm and let them talk alone.
They sat silently for a long time.
"His name was Mikey." Kyle said. "He always went for seconds in chow line, but he never ate a full meal. He always took it down to the Tunnel Rats."
Christen nodded sickly. "I didn't mean... I just saw movement and I acted."
"I know." Kyle said. "I know that."
Silence.
"Connor says that these things happen in war." Kyle said. "He says that you can't predict it. You can only hate, or forgive."
Christen nodded, but didn't dare say anything. "You one of the Tunnel Rats?"
"Not for a long time." Kyle said softly. "But they're family. After J-Day, my mom... The radiation made her sick, and she told me to leave, so that I wouldn't have to watch..." Kyle swallowed. "I was barely housebroken. The Rats found me. We haunted the old school till Skynet put us in the Camps. That didn't break us up either. Connor got us out, and we haunted the Underground." Kyle looked exhausted. "And it's not just you that kill them." He rubbed his head, lost in thought. "Why does it feel like this now?"
Christen nodded. "I hear you. The Bandits are my family. If something like this happened to them..."
Kyle attacked. The punch caught Christen right in the mouth and knocked him down. Kyle was on top of him instantly, teeth bared, eyes wild; his fists raining down savagely on the unprotected face and neck; and the Bandit fell under the pummeling, dazed from the first punch.
Christen tried to fend him off. The Bandit had at least six inches and five years on the former Tunnel Rat, but Kyle was brutal, feral, and pouring out an ocean of wrath on this man.
"AT EASE, CORPORAL!"
Kyle released his Prey and jumped back. The door was open, and Kate was glaring at him. Her hands were still stained with Walters' blood. She was looking at him with something Kyle had never seen from her before. Disappointment.
Christen was still weaving a little as he hauled himself back to his feet. His face was a mess.
Kyle was breathing hard from hunger and exertion and no small amount of anger. His eyes were wild and fierce. No fear, no apology.
Kate just looked at him, like she was trying to figure out what she was looking at.
Silence.
"Sergeant Christen." Kate said. "I can't clean up your face till I get my hands scrubbed. Report to Medbay. Kyle, you too. Get those knuckles sterilized. Neither of you is in decent shape to handle an infection."
Both of them nodded and walked off, like kids caught by the School Principal.
Kyle never said a word.
Kate saw to their injuries and sent them to opposite ends of the base. She had a quick conference with Perry, who confirmed that Kyle had been getting erratic since Lupe died. Perry wasn't worried by it. Such reactions were not uncommon in the Underground. Sometimes it was even helpful on the battlefield. Emotional breakdowns were nothing unusual, and most every soldier who had it in them to last this long were able to shake it off sooner or later.
Kate wasn't satisfied with that, and went to her husband. Connor was preparing to move out, gathering his gear.
"John." Kate said without stopping him. "I'm worried about Kyle."
"Is he all right?" Connor asked in concern.
"He's… Since Lupe died, he's been more… feral." Kate said. "He's letting heartbreak take him to a very hard place, and I worry that it might start to…"
"Weren't you the one telling me that I had to make my people tough and unbreakable?"
"I meant that you have to keep them going, no matter what gets thrown at them. Like you do with all the soldiers. Kyle's not being brave, he's being cold. There's a lot of pressure on his cork right now…" Kate didn't know how else to put it. "He's in pain. He's in so much pain he's becoming dangerous. You can't tell me you haven't noticed."
"His CO thinks he's fantastic."
"Perry sees a fighting tool. Perry sees someone who'll charge a 1000 just for the hell of it. And I'm not so sure he's wrong. John… most people here have the war, and little else. Kyle… what does he have now?"
"Okay, so what do you want from me?"
"Snap him out of it." Kate said as though it was obvious.
"You wanted me to play bad cop and let him break down on your shoulder."
"I wanted you to let him grieve where he didn't have to worry about what you thought of him. He's not grieving now. He's burning. Coming from you, he'll snap out of it."
Connor was notably silent.
"John?"
"I'm not a camp counselor, Kate."
"Yeah you are. When you need to be, you're whatever you need to be." Kate stared at him, like she was wondering if he was a Terminator. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Long silence.
"Kate…" He said finally. "Kyle has a part to play in this war that no other soldier can play."
"I know that. But why does he have to be lonely and miserable the rest of his life?"
Connor just looked at her. Silence.
Kate sank imperceptibility. "No… Seriously?"
Connor wouldn't look at her.
"Tell me I'm wrong." Kate said. "You know exactly what I'm thinking; tell me I'm wrong."
Connor didn't answer. She stared at his face, searching desperately for some sign of the man she had fallen in love with behind the stone wall his face had become.
Kate's jaw dropped. "Oh my god. You want him that way. So you're… what? Stacking the deck? Improving your mom's odds?"
Connor finally looked at her. "What would you have me do?" He demanded. "I'm the one that set my parents up on their first date. They were together for two days, only one of them lived and they spent three quarters of it running for their lives. If anything at all, and I mean anything goes differently than what my mom told me… what happens then? What happens to me? Because I don't know! Do you?"
Kate was glaring furiously. She was angrier than he had ever seen her. "You listen to me right now." She growled ferociously. "He may have a future, but he has a life too. I don't like what's ahead for my Kyle but I swallow it every time I see him because I love you, and I want you to exist. But you cannot ask me to look at a teenage boy who calls me 'mom' and see nothing but a tool to be used for one specific doomed purpose. And you can't expect me not to care that it forces him into a life of isolation and violence and misery."
Connor looked up at her. "Why not?" He said coldly. "My mom did."
Kate slapped him.
Deathly silence.
"Stop comparing me to your mother." Kate snarled as she stormed out.
Carla looked up as Connor came in. He looked like someone had killed and eaten his puppy. Who knows? She told herself. Robbie loves the K-9's. Maybe someone has.
"How is he?" Connor asked.
"We did everything we could, but he wasn't in top form." Carla said gently. "None of us are."
"What's the prognosis?"
"Hard to tell." Carla said tiredly. "He wakes up, he'll live. We really can't predict anything at this point." She fixed him with her best 'be honest with your doctor' glare. "You don't look so good."
Connor shook his head. "We're heading out soon, I just thought… I should check on him."
"Where are you going?" Carla asked.
"I … No." He stopped himself. "I'll tell you all about it when I get back. I just wanted to check on Eric first."
Carla stood. "I'll take you to him. He's got his own room."
"Thought you were booked up."
"Yeah, but we lost a few this morning."
Connor sighed thickly, and followed her into Walters post-op room. The lights were low, the heart monitor beeping slowly…
"I'll leave you two alone." Carla said.
Connor barely heard her. Walters looked… hollow. How had the knife even found him? Connor sat down next to Waters' motionless body.
"Eric?" John said quietly. "Can you hear me?"
Silence. Eric didn't so much as twitch.
He licked his lips. "I'm... I'm heading out now. It should be you. But of course..." John was silent a moment. "I... I've never told anyone this before. You're my best friend. I thought it was Kate, and it is, but I don't know if you can count your wife. I really don't. Can you believe that? I never asked anyone if you can have more than one best friend, or if..." He went silent and scrubbed his face again. "You're my best friend. I've never had a best friend before. When I heard your voice on the radio, I was going nuts, trying to figure out how to convince you to trust me. Trying to figure out how to start a war that for all purposes I'd already lost."
Eric didn't react. He just kept breathing.
John stared at his heart monitor for a while. "I remember when I was a kid. I had a friend once. But he was a punk. He was a delinquent. The kind of kid who would lie to the cops for you and not care why. He was too much like me. When I split from there, I never said goodbye to him, never left him a note. And it didn't bother me. And those were the people I counted as friends back then." John scrubbed his face. "You brought me an Army, Eric. You were the first man to ever salute me, and you were the first man ever to call me 'sir'. For a while there, I didn't like that about you. But you... you knocked me flat sometimes buddy. You just knocked me out of the park."
Eric didn't react. He just kept breathing steadily.
"I can count on one hand the number of people that I have relied on in my life before J-Day. And after J-Day, you were the second, after Kate. And I still don't know if your wife counts as your best friend. I... I relied on you to tell me that stuff. So you have to get better, okay?"
A hand touched his shoulder gently, and John jumped out of his skin, spinning around. It was Noah. "How much of that did you hear?" He demanded quickly.
"Enough." She said. Noah turned her head slightly, looking around the room. "Where's The Base Commander?"
Connor didn't answer, suddenly The General again.
Noah sent him a look. "You and your wife having a fight?"
"If you must know, yes."
"I figured."
Connor glanced at her. "The fight was about twenty minutes ago. You know?"
"We all know. We don't know what, but when you two aren't talking, everybody else is." Noah quipped, trying to make it light. She felt dangerous ground beneath her feet. "The convoy is ready to roll out. Let me go for you, sir. Let me take this one."
"Why?"
"Because Eric can't." Noah said quietly. "He's your second in this war. I'm pretty close, and your wife runs everything else. But he's your guy. General Whickham told me once that a second in command or an XO... they look inward at the ship, or the base; so that the Commanding Officer can look outward at the war."
Connor was silent a moment. "You and Walters are a lot more alike than either of you like to talk about."
"Yessir."
"Stay with him till I get back?"
Noah swallowed. "Yeah. I mean, Yessir."
Connor stood to go.
"General?" Noah called after him. "It counts. Your wife can count as your best friend. But... that's only if you're lucky enough to have more than one of them."
Connor didn't turn, but she knew he heard it. She felt awkward saying any of it. She felt like she was crossing a line.
Connor didn't comment on it. He gave her a wave without turning and headed out.
Noah spun toward Walters. "Bet you thought that was pretty funny, didn't you?"
Eric didn't react. He just kept breathing steadily.
"You better wake the hell up, Eric! I'm liable to say something really stupid if you don't stop me."
Eric didn't react. He just kept breathing steadily.
Noah sighed and sat down next to him. She took off her cap and shook her hair out. When she ran her fingers through it, a small handful of hair came with it.
She looked sickly at them in her hand. "God, I hope this works."
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Forty Six Days
Lisa curled up with Tony. One thing nobody had in The Underground was privacy, so they had to learn discretion. There were no regs about dating, or sleeping arrangements. They spent most every night together.
"Tony." Lisa rasped. "I think I'm sick. I um... I think my hair is falling out."
Tony squeezed her gently, and Lisa ached. "You've been working too hard. Burning up your calories."
Lisa cried a bit. "I know. I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I know you liked my hair. I grew it long for you."
Silence.
"I wanted to marry you." Tony said finally.
Silence.
"You picked a hell of a time to tell me."
"Figured you wouldn't turn me down if I was this pathetic."
Lisa coughed, feeling her empty belly spasm. "I think we might have lost this one, Tony."
"I think you might be right."
"All hands, report to the Mess Hall." Connor's voice commanded over the PA.
Silence. Around them, they could hear soldiers getting to their feet, climbing out of their bunks. Lisa and Tony didn't follow.
"Mess Hall." Lisa slurred. "Think it's what it sounds like?"
Tony slid out a little, trying not to fall off the cot. "I'll go. Rest."
Lisa didn't nod.
Tony was on his way to the Mess Hall, with most everyone else. He picked up the story as he walked. Those who still had the strength had tried to storm the Fish Tanks the day before. There was nobody in Tech-Com that didn't trust Connor, or didn't believe him when he said that handing out what was left was merely forestalling the inevitable. But if they starved to death before the fish could replenish their populations...
Tony felt his heart thump harder against his ribs when he heard that Connor had stopped the mob with a promise. One more day.
He'd made that promise the day before, and now he was summoning everyone to the Mess Hall.
The crowd made its way toward the Mess, and the first of them opened the doors...
The smell rolled over all of them at the same moment, and several hundred people froze mid-step at once. It smelled like food. Like quite a lot of food.
Mouths watering, they pushed into the Mess Hall, and spontaneously cheered. Everyone behind them pushed harder, trying to get in and see, and the cheering got louder and louder.
The crowd pressed forward, and were held back by the Bandits, standing between the crowd and the Chow line.
The guards weren't holding them back though, just keeping things under control.
And there at the chow line, was John Connor, with huge pots and tubs full of food. Mostly meat. Beef, pork, lamb, chicken... Plenty to go around. After so long starving, there were huge piles of food right there in front of them, and they whooped and hollered.
"Okay folks, listen up!" Connor shouted, and they calmed to hear him speak. "First things first. We have enough for everybody!"
The cheers started again, everyone whooping with the joy of starving people finding a feast. But more than that was the relief, the impossible relief that there was something to eat.
"Now for the bad news!" Connor shouted over them. "The Medical Staff says that we probably can't handle a lot of solid food right away. What we've got is meat. Plenty of it. But that's hard to digest, so it would be dangerous to give you too much. So, our talented KP staff have turned it into soup, broth, stew and about a dozen other things that you can handle. So step right up, no pushing. There's enough for everyone. Don't be afraid to come back for seconds! Or thirds."
Another cry of adulation. The notion of coming back for seconds was hard to believe even before rationing. Just hearing the offer made did more for morale than anyone thought possible. The now familiar cry went up in gratitude, in disbelief, in joy and awe!
"CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
Little by little the cry ran down as people started to eat.
Carla drank her bowl dry, and smiled happily, tears streaming down her face. Felt so… good. Felt so very right to have food in her stomach again. The Mess Hall was full of people, all of them eating, guzzling down their broth. She put down her third helping, and tried to figure out the miracle.
Connor had been working a plan. She was part of the team that figured out the exact ration. Connor hadn't been trying to keep them on a war footing; he was trying to keep them alive as long as possible. It had to be because he had a timetable. Which means wherever all this food had come from, it hadn't been ready till now.
But why had it all been kept so far away from the Base? To protect it from hungry people? Then why hadn't the fish tanks and their own Base livestock been moved out? And Connor wouldn't keep so much livestock out there where Skynet could get at it.
So where did it come from? She asked herself again.
Looking around, she saw plenty of people had the same question, but they were too hungry to care.
Connor was still at the chow-line, but the tubs and pots and kettles were running low. He hoisted the empty ones onto a trolley and headed off with a few of the guards. "Don't worry folks, plenty more where this came from." He told the people lining up again. "I'll be back."
He took the empty tubs out to the kitchens as people thanked him, smiling like they hadn't smiled in months.
Even with another mostly full plate in front of her, Carla smiled too.
Somehow He'd done it. Again. Somehow He'd saved them all. Again.
People were peeking at the Kitchen doors, trying to see, though the guards kept them out. Carla knew that wasn't going to do it. Connor hadn't been held up in the kitchens. He'd left the Base. Where had he gone? Wherever it was, he'd taken Dex with him, or he'd be here.
Curiosity got the better of her, and she stood up.
"Mom?" Mackie asked, wondering where she was going.
"Be right back sweetie, you finish that."
Mackie was hungry enough to let it go, and Carla went snooping. She didn't bother with the Kitchens. She knew there was another way in there. And she would bet the other way in, was wherever Connor was going right now.
The Base was all but abandoned. Word had spread faster than wildfire that there was food to eat, and most everyone was in there.
There were exceptions of course.
"Hey Tony." Carla called as she walked.
Sherrin jumped like he'd been caught doing something wrong. He had a bowl in his hands. "Lisa... she barely has enough strength to walk. I..."
"I understand. Give Lisa my love." Carla nodded. "And feed it to her slowly. Let her get used to having something in her stomach again."
Sherrin nodded.
Carla took a chance. "I'm actually looking for Dex. He just came in from a mission, think; but I didn't see him in the Mess..."
Tony nodded. "Yeah. Well, everyone's down there. If he came in with a vehicle, he probably had to take it back to the Motor Pool himself. Short handed, y'know?"
Carla nodded. The Motor Pool. Right near the Vehicle Entrance.
She came off the elevator and froze. The vehicle entrance was at the far side near the Main Doors... the personnel entrance, the way into the Motor Pool itself, was guarded by an Infiltrator.
Its eyes were on her instantly, but it's posture never changed, and she relaxed. If it was programmed or ordered to kill interlopers, she would already be dead.
Decision time, Carla. She told herself. Turn around, or brazen it out.
Taking a breath, she marched toward the door like she was meant to be there.
"Halt." The Machine said, raising a hand. "Authorized personnel only."
Carla pointed at her insignia. "Chief Medical Officer. I'm part of the Palace Command Staff, and you better believe I'm authorized."
The Machine considered her, and Carla prayed that its instructions were vague enough to let her through on that.
Luck was with her apparently, and the human-looking Machine lowered its arm out of her way.
Kate walked into the Motor Pool, and felt her heart stop.
Connor was there. So was Dex, Gould, Noah...
But Carla barely noticed them. There were almost a dozen troop carriers, but they didn't have any troops in them. What they had instead was loads of meat. Sides of beef, racks of lamb... They were all hanging from the roofs of the Troop Carriers like they would in a butcher shop...
At the back of each truck were the huge tubs that Carla had seen brought into the Mess Hall, the ones where the stew and broth had been brewed up.
Carla had caught them mid-assembly line. A hanging slab of meat was hanging in the edge of the truck; slices of meat were being carved right off the bone, and being swept straight into the huge cooking pots right away. When the meat ran out, the bones were discarded and the next slab of meat was brought forward. Enough for everybody a dozen times over with room to spare!
But what struck her dumb was the sight of the meat being cut off the bone.
The bones were clearly metal. The chrome was clearly visible. Carla glanced to the left at the discarded bones, and they were all metal too.
Dex noticed her suddenly. "Carla."
Her discovery brought the room to a screeching halt.
Connor was calculating already, moving toward her, and Carla turned to run.
"Stop Her!" Connor yelled.
Carla made it three inches out the door before the Infiltrator standing guard swept her up in an unbreakable grip, and she was heaved back into the room like a child, unceremoniously dumped in a heap before Connor.
"Nobody else gets in." Connor said seriously. "Nobody that hasn't already."
"Affirmative."
The Machine moved away, but Carla couldn't take her eyes off the metal bones.
Everyone was staring at her. Connor gave them a glance. "Back to it."
Everyone turned back to their tasks, and Connor held out a hand to Carla; pulling her back to her feet. "Carla, I can only imagine what you must be thinking about this, but try to think for a minute. Cloned meat is... It's the only way we can feed everyone. Artificial substitutes were an accepted idea Back Before, but nobody had the capacity to..."
"Sir…" Carla hissed, trying to make him understand. "This… This is Infiltrator technology. You're making us eat Terminator skin!"
"No! No I am not!" Connor said seriously. "It's grown the same way, but it's not! Carla, you've studied the Infiltrators. You know as well as I do that their skin doesn't seem human; It is human. Look at it under a microscope, you can't tell the difference. This isn't the same thing."
Carla was hungry enough that she wanted to believe him. "What is it then?"
"When we left LA, I had our guys collect blood samples from all the livestock." Connor explained. "I was collecting samples from Enrique, and our own here… When we captured the Infiltrator factories, I had Gould work on them quietly, to see if it could be set from human flesh to animal. And it can. It takes a little longer to make that much meat, but it can. The factories have been churning out sides of beef, lamb, pork, chicken… Carla, it's the same meat. Genetically, it's the same animals we had in LA years ago." He gestured at the pots. "Taste it. Smell it. Look at it under a microscope. It's the same. It's beef. It's pork."
"It's Evil!" Carla couldn't take her eyes off the side of meat hanging in the back of the truck, or of the metal bones, clearly visible as more meat was cut away. "It's just evil."
"Carla, it's artificially grown meat. It's a next-generation tofu. Tofu that actually tastes like meat. It actually is meat." Connor was silent a moment as her reeling brain tried to process. "Look, I'll do a deal with you." He said finally. "You've still got livestock samples from when we were checking them for inventory, or diseases right? You take those samples off ice, and I'll give you samples from these. Do a double blind test. One where you don't know which is the original. If you can spot the difference, I'll come clean myself. If there is no difference, you don't have to worry."
Carla was silent a moment. "Sir… what if you're wrong? What if it's toxic? Skynet knows we capture their stuff and use it. We've been doing it since the war started. Everything the Infiltrators are is deception. What if they thought of this? What if they knew we'd do something like this? What else would we use it for?"
"Carla, what do you think we've been doing since our supply line got cut?" Connor asked her. "We've been running this stuff through every test we can think of. It's clean. And we don't have a lot of options here, do we?"
He could tell she wanted to be convinced. He wondered if everyone would react his way, or if it was just Carla's reaction to anything concerning Infiltrators. But she was hungry. And her son was hungry. She wanted to be convinced.
"General…" Carla whispered hoarsely. "W-What did Kate say?" She swallowed. "Is that what this fight is about?"
Connor didn't have an answer for that one. Kate hadn't spoken to him since their fight about Kyle. "Carla." He said seriously. "Go back to the Mess Hall, and watch your son eat a meal for the first time in too long. Ask him how it tastes. Then find me a better way to do that for everyone, and I will throw this stuff out right away. Sooner or later, the word will get out, if only because we can use this technology everywhere. Every Base in the war can make this work. Sooner or later, the whole human race will know. But by that time, nobody will be starving to death in Crystal Peak. If you can't live with that, then you have the chance to tell them right now. Otherwise, you may consider it a direct order from me to keep your mouth shut."
Carla was almost relieved. She wanted to eat. She wanted her son to eat. She wanted Dex to eat. She wanted to be okay with it. And if it was a direct order, then it wasn't her choice any more. "Yes, sir."
Carla went back to the Mess hall in something of a daze, and sat down heavily next to her son, exhausted. From walking through the Base, or the weight of what she'd learned, she wasn't sure. Her eyes fixed on Mackie as he tilted his bowl back and slurped up his first meal in days. "It's really good, isn't it?" Mackie enthused.
"Yeah." Carla said softly. "Yeah, it is."
The meat supply had spent weeks building up to provide enough for everyone. The captured Infiltrator factories that fed them were now feeding all of Tech-Com, and all the Civilians on their bases, or in the range.
The war stretched on, and Tech-Com was patient. Their soldiers were getting stronger from the nourishment. As they grew stronger, they would be able to handle solid food again. The pressure was taken off the hydroponics and vegetable gardens, and some fruits and veg were able to stockpile again, with more food to go around.
The offer was sent out from the Cartel Union to the entire theatre, that anyone who wanted to defect from Tech-Com and find food was welcome. Tech-Com wondered what Rojas would think when nobody accepted the offer.
Connor went back to work after delivering the food.
Carla kept the secret.
Lisa had to be spoon-fed the first bowl by Tony, and eagerly ate the second herself.
Kate did not join her husband at the great celebratory feast.
The fear was replaced with impatience. Everyone knew they had to be careful about how fast they ate after the forced starvation diet. Everyone knew they had to build up some strength and muscle again before they went back out to the war.
They were champing at the bit, ready to take out months of frustration, the sudden rush of nourishment making them eager to obliterate their enemy.
As the day came to a close, people threaded out, assured that there would be more to eat again the next day. Once they left, the others came in. The Tunnel Rats made their way through secretly, helping themselves to their own meal. Kate came and ate with them, having waited till Connor and the day shift were finished.
Kyle was one of the last ones to come in. He ate alone, and he left again without talking to anyone. He looked more feral than anyone had ever seen him. He barely spoke, even to Kate.
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Forty Seven Days
Connor went back to the War Room, but didn't go in. He just stood and looked at the door for a long time. She wasn't on shift exactly, but if Kate was in there... He should sort out their feud, but he didn't know how. What could he do differently? And they couldn't have the fight in front of others...
"Sir?"
Connor turned, and saw Noah behind him. "What do you need?"
Noah smirked a little. "Actually, that was going to be my question to you."
Connor hesitated.
Noah read his mind and shrugged. "I figure if you can't talk to anyone about it, then it must be personal. So if it's something you can't talk to Kate about, you'd go to Enrique or Eric… Well…" She shrugged again. "General Whickham didn't have many confidants. He was Old School. Lonely at the top y'know? And after J-Day, I was the only one left…" She smirked. "I guess I miss having The General's Ear."
Connor smiled a little. "Yeah. Well... why not?"
They went down to the Bandit's room, and made their way to the back of the Dorm, to Enrique's old room. Connor searched the room for less than thirty seconds before he found a bottle of moonshine and two glasses.
Noah sat down, took off her combat vest full of gear and grenades, and sat comfortably, shaking her hair out. Connor poured and did the same in the opposite chair.
"So, the question of the Base." Noah started as Connor handed her a glass. "What are The General and the Base Commander arguing about?"
"Everyone knows, huh?"
"Can't keep a secret for long around here."
Connor sighed. "Kate says that I'm treating some of the Tunnel Rats too harshly. She says that I'm being too cold-hearted about what's ahead for them."
"What do you think?" Noah asked.
"I think she's right. I just don't see any other option." Connor shrugged. "I mean... what's the alternative?"
Noah threw back her glass. "You got me. We've been trying to figure that one out since the war started, and I flat guarantee you that Generals have had the same problem since before Alexander the Great. The difference is that this time, your top Base is commanded by your wife."
"You don't approve of that, do you?"
"Hey, it works. I don't like to mess with things that work. I'm just not used to it." Noah shrugged. "I'm career military. Not used to things like dating your co-workers suddenly being encouraged."
"I've noticed that you don't seem to date much."
"Didn't know you were watching."
"Always watching, Noah. My eyes are everywhere."
Noah shrugged again. "Too busy. Besides, it's tough being a cast-iron bitch for the duration of a war. Takes a lifetime of discipline and effort." She held out her glass as he poured. "I've made a career at intimidating people. Kinda hard to stop playing the part, let your hair down. You know what that's like."
"Me?"
"You're the catch of the Base, sir." Noah said without hesitation. "Curry and Dex weren't an item when they made Mackie. Carla gave her consent, it's not like people haven't used 're-population' as an excuse to have a fling."
Connor looked down, embarrassed. He knew that. Nobody had approached him or Kate because he was 'The General Connor'. "You think I made a mistake, suspending the fraternization rules."
"No. I absolutely do not. I think that humanity would have dwindled long ago without that. Necessity is the mother of invention and all. And it was a needed change. I'm just saying, if you didn't do it, Kate wouldn't be at you for treating the Tunnel Rats as soldiers and not as your kids, and you wouldn't be hesitating out front of the War Room because you're having a spat with your wife."
"Most of the Tunnel Rats are near adult now. The original ones I mean. But there are a lot of kids that still fall through the cracks and get adopted by the other orphans down there. People have a way of finding what they need when they need it. I don't think Kate's wrong, I just wonder if it should be my job to give them a childhood." He threw back his drink. "I would love to coddle them and protect them. I really would. But they'll be crippled that way. I have to show them Tough Love sooner or later, I wonder if staying that way all the time isn't the right thing to do."
Noah poured the next round. "Y'know, when I first got a Unit, Whickham told me that it was my job to be there for them in every way, because he wasn't always going to be. Good things came from your Commander, the cold hard things came from The General." She gestured. "I don't know how, but you manage to do both. You have a burden that nobody else in this world has. You are entitled to push away the emotion when you might instead want to hold on to it. Maybe more than anyone else in history, you are allowed to do things your way."
Connor threw back his drink."You were right before. When you said that I missed the first year, and came out when I already had the best and the strongest to work with. You and Eric, and Whickham... and for that matter everyone else alive... they had to deal with it."
Noah nodded, taking a sip.
"What do you remember as the worst thing?" Connor asked.
"I don't like to think about it."
Connor poured another generous helping into her glass. "Nobody does. I may be the last man who doesn't know what J-Day looked like from outside the Shelter."
Noah shivered, took a gulp to fortify herself. "I remember The Wandering. So many people moving. People just... trudging places and didn't know where or why. I remember the ones that were blind. They lost their vision from the flash when the bombs went off. Thousands of them. They moved in groups, holding each other up as they wandered." She threw back her drink. "I don't like to think about it."
"Enrique told me that soldiers are experts in not dwelling on hard things. And survivors are experts in overcoming those same hard things. How everyone does it, who the hell knows? Thing is... My mom taught me once that Attitude reflects leadership. It filters down. If I push the emotion away too much, people are going to assume that's how I want things to work. And... It's not. I want..." Connor sighed. "You tell yourself that you have to treat them all the same. But you don't."
"You can't really." Noah agreed. "Some of them stand out. Usually the exceptional ones. You have to respect that when it happens. You can't ignore it when you see it. Kate gets pissed about it, but she's new to Command."
"Not that new."
"Kate's been in Command of Medical. She's been in charge of civilian projects. Places where command means being a friend and a healer. Plus the Tunnel Rats; where she has to be maternal." Noah looked him in the eye. "She wouldn't have sent someone like Enrique into the fight. She wouldn't have told him about Lupe just so that he'd go ballistic and do some damage to the enemy on his way out. Even if it was the right thing to do." She threw back her drink. "The one and only time she ever went eagerly to war was to save you, and even then the only soldiers she took with her were Infiltrators. She broke the standing orders because she didn't want to risk real people."
"And it worked. She didn't have people to spare, and we didn't lose anyone." Connor took his wife's side. "And even if her only reason was that she wanted to keep people safe, that's not a bad thing."
"Not a bad thing at all. But risking people is the nature of war. Without that constant risk, war would be a fun game to play."
Connor poured another round. "For years now, I've been trying to get across to people that Skynet is only half the problem. The other half is restoration. All the civilian projects are every bit as important as the Military ops."
Noah nodded. "I'll buy that. Eden. Schools. Medical. Even Penpals. All the civilian projects. You we're setting Kate up to take them over full time weren't you? Even before you promoted her to General."
"Yeah. I was." Connor admitted.
"Tell me you aren't protecting her." Noah accused lightly. "You made her Base CO, but she's got about two hours combat experience. You've made Crystal Peak the Command Center for Eden, for the schools, the workshops... But you aren't sending her out on Missions. She can be mad at you all she wants for singling people out for special treatment. But she's one of them, and she can't have it both ways."
"Kate does her part."
"She does more than her part. And she can kick butt with the best of them, when she does fight." Noah agreed. "I'm just sayin'... you've also been trying to drill into us that people aren't like Machines. We don't roll off an assembly line. Enrique got the word out, when another man would have failed. I've seen Dex make shots that Terminators wouldn't even try for. We've got a good team here. You pick the exceptional and draw them to you." She sipped. "But if it's not a matter of putting people where they can do things nobody else can; if you're treating people under your command with preferential treatment, if you're putting other people at risk, or hampering the war effort because there are people you don't want to risk by making them do their jobs... then cut it out. It's not fair to the rest of us, and we're counting on you to do whatever it takes to save the Human Race." She toasted. "So do whatever it takes. And to hell with what anyone else says."
Connor was silent for a long time. Kate would say the same thing. His mother had told him that softer emotions were not for him, and Yolanda had said the same at the wedding. Kate would tell him to embrace those feelings and use them to an advantage. Noah had said the same.
He wanted that. He wanted that happiness for himself too, and his mother was wrong. He could have that and still win the war.
Feeling better about it, he returned the toast, and they drank.
"Well." Connor said finally. "We'd better get back."
Noah nodded.
Connor turned to put the bottle and glasses away, when he felt gentle hands on his shoulders, and a soft warm kiss being pressed against the back of his neck. He froze, and then turned around slowly.
Noah, her hands still on his shoulders, was standing very close to him, looking up at him carefully. She wasn't sure if he was about to draw her back for another kiss or punch her.
Hunger had made her eyes seem so much bigger, and her long slender fingers slid down till they rested gently on his chest as he turned to face her. They were both holding their breath. She said nothing. Her eyes held the unspoken question.
Connor softened a little, and he shook his head slightly, like he was breaking it to her gently.
Noah took it straight, and pulled back. She didn't slump, or let on any disappointment. An offer was made, it was rejected, she knew why. Noah nodded quickly, turned on her heel, and headed off professionally.
Connor felt like he'd dodged a bullet.
Connor went back to the Presidential Suite and let himself in quietly. Kate was still working at the desk, and she looked up when he came in. "Hey." She said quietly. The awkwardness was still there.
"Hey." John said softly. "I... I'm not here about our thing. I still don't have an answer for you yet. Not one that you'll like. I just wanted to tell you something."
Kate looked up at him. "What's that?"
"That I love you so much it scares me half to death sometimes. And that every now and then I realize how a few days can go by without my having remembered all over again how unthinkably lucky I was to have found you. Every now and then I get reminded of why I love you so much, and that there's nothing that can happen, no fight we could ever have, that could change that." John said. He was soft, and sincere, and heartfelt, and honest.
Kate swallowed, a little blindsided by that. "I love you too. Every bit as much. I wake up every morning and before I open my eyes I wonder where you are now, and I hate myself for being mad at you. I hate it when we fight, because when we fight each other it's like I'm fighting the best part of myself." She was calm, and deep and gentle. "But I don't know what the answer to this fight is. And if we don't find one, we'll be having this same argument for the rest of the war."
"I know. But I still wanted you to tell you all that... We fight long enough, it might be easier to forget the important stuff."
Kate smiled. "No. I won't ever forget that."
"Me neither."
"Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
John left her then, and she went back to work, smiling happily to herself. She felt lighter and happier than she had in days. Their fight was all but over. They just needed to move past it now.
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Forty Eight Days
Connor came into the War Room. "Report."
With Kate busy avoiding him and Walters still in Intensive Care, Noah was the only Command level officer still in the War Room. "We're having supply problems in Australasia." She reported. "It's not our supply lines, its a matter of distance."
Connor nodded. "Figure out what they can't get for themselves and give that priority. Tell them they'll have to be as self-sufficient as possible."
"They already know. I think they were reporting supply problems because they wanted to know what we could do about it after the Union cut us off."
Connor was pleased. Noah was professional. There was no awkwardness between them at all. He was about to answer when his radio buzzed. "Connor here."
"He's awake." Carla called.
Connor took off running. Noah was right behind him.
They made it to the Medbay, and found Eric Walters, awake and focused. "Sir." He rasped.
Connor sat down next to him, but didn't let the relief show on his face. "Hey. You don't look so bad. How you feeling?"
"Hungry." Walters said.
"Well, good news on that score." Noah said lightly to Walters. "You may just be the last hungry person on Base."
Walters smiled in open relief. "It worked, then?"
Connor nodded. "It'll be tight for a while, but we've got enough food for everyone again."
Walters chuckled. "And lucky me, I missed the feast."
"Well, that's what you get for playing hero." Kate said. She came in and stood next to her husband. "You had us worried for a while there. But Carla says that if you woke up, you'd be fine; so the worst is behind you."
"Comfortable bed, food coming, and nurses?" Walters quipped tiredly. "Doesn't sound so bad."
John turned to face Kate. Now?
Kate nodded barely. Let's sort this out.
"Well." Connor said aloud. "We should let you rest." He sent Noah a look.
She nodded. "I'll stick around a bit. It'll be nice to have an intelligent, civilized person to talk to again."
Connor rolled his eyes and headed out.
Walters turned his head painfully to look at her. "Something going on?"
"Nothing we need to worry about." She looked at him and softened. "And I'm really glad you're not dead, Eric."
"Me too."
The Connors found the first room without anyone in it. It was one of the Post-Op rooms. With the two of them alone at last, they just sort of stared for a moment. He took the chair next to the nearest bed, and she sat on the edge of the cot.
"You were right." John said finally. "I… I try to keep the human part of everyone alive. But not Kyle. What you said, about how he's in so much pain he's dangerous? You were right. And I am encouraging it. He needs to be dangerous, so that mom will be dangerous; so that I can be dangerous. Kyle I try to isolate. Him I try to harden. It's not fair to him."
"It's not fair to you." Kate countered. "It took me way too long to realize it because I was upset about losing Kyle, but it finally hit me: I gave you so much hell about Kyle, but I forgot that whatever pain you're causing him, it's causing for you too. He's your father. And you can't even talk to him about it. I can't imagine what that does to you. I... I think about your mom, wondering if showing you love would make you too soft. Wondering if I do that for Kyle..."
John didn't answer for a while. "When I found out that you were pregnant, I swore I wouldn't treat my kids like... You love me too, Kate. It doesn't make me weaker. It makes me stronger." John looked up at her. "Kate… soldiers on the battlefield? They call out for their moms. Kyle calls for you. I never should have told you. I never should have put that on you."
"Shhhh." Kate said gently, pulling him forward in his chair till she was hugging him to her stomach. "I'm glad you did. I took it badly, but… This is the sort of thing that wives gear up for John. This is why we took vows. I was there for you when you had to order the Bandits into the Hot-Zones, I was there when you ordered Eric to leave the two hundred behind… I've got a part to play in this war that nobody else can play too. Destiny seems to catch people in our family that way."
John's hands came up and wrapped around her tightly. "Kyle needs someone. Lupe won't be easy for him to…" He fell silent.
"To replace?" Kate said gently.
"Yeah." Connor sighed. "Mom said she asked him. If he had a girl in his life. He said no. I wonder if… If he was lying to her because of what was going on between them… or maybe the change in timeline screwed that up…"
"Or maybe he just denies Lupe because it hurts?" Kate guessed.
John almost smiled. She was reading his mind, finishing his sentences. In this most horrible way, they were a team again. "Yeah."
"I don't know. And right now, I'm fine with not knowing. For all our talk on how we're going to treat Kyle, we forget that we're not the only ones in his life. Robbie and Sarah haven't left him alone for ten minutes; his Unit has rallied around him tight… He needs someone. He's got lots of people, but Lupe was special to him. So was your mom." She sighed. "I told you once that you were never going to lose me. I meant it. I told you that I would always love you alone, always be on your side, no matter what decisions you had to make, or what sacrifices this war demanded. I meant every word. Kyle is a son to me... So are a lot of kids in this Base. I was angry, and I... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I gave you grief. The last few months... You don't have a lot of people to lose... I found out about Kyle, and then the 1000 got in. Then the Terminator, Lupe, Enrique, and then I blow up at you, then everyone starts to starve, then Eric gets stabbed... Of all the times for me to not have your back, I picked now. I'm so sorry."
They clung to each other for a while. They broke, just staying close enough to listen to each other breathe.
"Noah says that I am entitled to push emotions away. She says that I can treat the people under my command as I wish. But I have to live with the consequences."
"What do you think?"
"I think that the soldiers under my command and the civilians under my charge, and the allied forces across the entire globe have tasked me with saving humanity at any cost. They know that sometimes I have to be the bad guy."
Kate nodded. "I know. I know that too, and I agree with it. But when I found out about Kyle..." She shivered. "Sarah and Robbie salute me. And it's not just a game they play with their mommy any more."
Silence.
"Kate?" He whispered, still holding her.
"Yeah?"
"Was Lupe pregnant?"
Beat.
"Yes." Kate said quietly. "How did you know?"
"She had her hand resting on her stomach when I came in that day. You did the same thing whenever you were..." Connor trailed off and went silent for a long time. "My whole life, I had this image in my head of what The Great John Connor would be like. Someone who can defeat Skynet. I saw him as... bullet-proof, unbreakable. No pain, no fear, no questions. But that's not me is it? That's a Terminator."
Kate stroked his hair for a while and rested her hands on his shoulders. "There are no rules for this kind of situation. We all just do what we can. You got treated differently your whole life… because your life was headed in a different direction than anyone else. I… I had to remind myself that Kyle is the same." She took in a deep shuddering breath. "And the one thing you're not… is cold hearted."
They were silent a long time, holding each other.
The PA crackled. "General Connor, report to the War Room."
Kate pulled away enough to look at him. "Think you can handle it?"
"Are you kidding? I can handle fighting Skynet a hell of a lot better than fighting you." Connor said lightly.
She gave him a quick squeeze "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Connor stood to go, and Kate squeezed his hand. "By the way, General? If you see my husband on your way to the War Room, tell him I'm tired of sleeping alone."
Z Plus Ten Years One Hundred Fifty One Days
Kate marched into the 132nd's Dormitory. The Unit itself was not on a Mission, though the soldiers in it had several smaller missions or duties around the Base. Kyle however, now spent all his free time in the gym, the target range, or sleeping.
Kate came in like an angry wind. "Everyone out except for Reese!" She barked.
Kate never barked. So everyone snapped to attention and all but ran for it.
Kyle came to attention and waited.
"Corporal, you've been savage, you've been short tempered, you've been surly, and I can live with all of that. But not with you being violent."
"Does Christen want revenge?" Kyle asked. It was the first thing he'd said willingly in months.
"No. He wants to drop the whole matter. He blames himself. I don't. Maybe he'll let you off the hook, but I'm not. What if you had your gun with you? Would you have killed him?"
Kyle didn't answer.
"Mikey's death was an accident. I loved him like a son too, Kyle. Just like all my Lost Boys and Girls." Kate said firmly. "And he wasn't responsible for Lupe either."
Kyle twitched.
Kate stared at him a moment. "Who's the most dangerous human alive?"
"Connor." Kyle said without hesitation.
"You think he gets angry?"
"I know he does." Kyle conceded.
"Does he ever blow up at people? Does he ever beat the stuffing out of people who make mistakes?"
"No." Kyle whispered.
"I don't blame you for being angry, Kyle. But you either control it, or it controls you. Connor controls it. If you can't, then we have a problem." She looked at him. "Do we have a problem?"
Kyle straightened. His eyes seemed to focus for the first time in weeks. "No, Ma'am."
Sorry, John. She thought to herself firmly. But he'll have to be tough enough without me kicking him when he's down.
Kate nodded firmly, and softened, just a bit. "I love you, Kyle."
Kyle shivered. "I know Ma'am."
Kate took that in and paused. "You used to call me 'Mom' when we were alone like this."
"I remember." Kyle said. Just that. Nothing more.
"Now. He wants to see you." Kate said. "You got your head on straight, or are you gonna mouth off to The General too?"
The teenager reacted to the blasphemy. "Of course not."
"Then get moving."
Kyle Reese came into the War Room smartly. "You sent for me General?"
"Reese, I've got a mission for you. One that we've put off for far too long. Intel has located three smelting and metalworking plants. I need you to go out there and find the one most likely to be workable. We're going to restore it, and use it to properly kill the 1000 we've got frozen."
"Yessir." Kyle said immediately.
"Can you handle the mission alone?"
"Yessir."
"Carry on, Corporal."
"Sir." Kyle saluted and turned to leave.
"Oh, Reese!" Connor called him back, remembering. "I made a list of potential partners for you on Recon missions. If you want to add some names, feel free. You'll have seniority; this one is entirely your choice."
Kyle took the folder. "Thank you, sir." He said darkly. He didn't like it.
"Or have you picked a new partner already?" Connor asked.
"Nosir. Not yet." Kyle said coolly. "I want to make dead sure."
Connor couldn't help it. He knew the answer, and he knew he should let it go, but... but he had to ask. "Dead sure of what?"
"That this one's not as weak." Kyle said coldly.
The background hum of the War Room dropped a little at this. Lupe was known and loved in the Underground. And the one who loved her so much more than any of them was writing her off as weak. Nobody really blinked. He wasn't the first soldier to hide pain behind a fierce game face. Wouldn't be the last.
Connor didn't remark on it. "As you were, Reese."
Kyle saluted again, and left the room. Once he was out of the War Room, he flicked through the folder. He knew most of the names. in the back of the folder, there was an old Polaroid photograph.
Kyle looked at the photo of a pretty blonde woman, with steel in her eyes. She looked... sad about something.
Kyle turned the photo over. 'The toughest woman I know. She can make you strong too. Like she did for me. Sarah Connor, 1986.'
Connor's mom? Kyle's eyes bulged and he spun back to the War Room. Through the door he could see Connor, giving orders, taking in everything, untouchable, immortal. The General looked out the open door to return Kyle's look. It was a strong steely gaze, unbreakable, powerful. Kyle felt his shaking emotions get stronger from the look alone, and returned it with a single nod.
The door to the War Room swung shut, and Kyle Reese went back to war.
John approved of my keeping this record. It wasn't until we left for Crystal Peak that I realized why. Nobody saw him as John. Only Connor. Only The General. Not even his mother. Not even his daughter. Just me. It's unusual that someone's wife is more objective than his coworkers.
Nevertheless, the Myth is earned. It was John Connor that made humanity get up and fight. He did not do it alone, and for all his outrage over being considered 'too important', he still did it better than anyone else; and the world we live in now is not one that tolerates second best.
[Taken From the Personal Journals of General Katherine Connor, recovered from Crystal Peak, 2170]
Chapter 20: Z Plus 19 Years 59 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Nineteen Years Fifty Nine Days
It was the nineteenth year since Judgement Day, and The War To Retake The Ruined Earth was dragging on, punch for punch. Skynet's factories in the field had all been captured or destroyed, and the H/K's now came only from behind the lines of Skynet territory. The years before the Infiltrator's War had been spent gathering resources, and Skynet's reserves held out. Humanity did everything it could to hold them back, and against the H/K's they were capable, but Skynet had learned tricks of its own. Infiltrators would walk in, chew up defenses, kill the guards and the checkpoints, and H/K's would move in during the confusion. K-9 units were at all bases and fortified positions, but the T-1000's meant that familiar faces could become the Enemy at any moment, and no protection was absolute.
With the threat of 1000's as Infiltrators, no fortified Base could be set up for long before it became a threat to it's own personnel. Tech-Com changed tactics, constantly shifting in smaller groups, too small to be worth sending an H/K, too mobile to be found by an Infiltrator. Skynet changed tactics to counter, using it's H/K's for large attacks, defense and hit and run; using Terminators and infiltrators to Search and Destroy.
The Infiltrator Factories suddenly became the key to the whole war. It was the only successful weapon that Skynet could mass produce, and the only way Tech-Com could keep its army fed.
The T-1000s were on the battlefield, but were far more useful as Infiltrators. It took a lot of raw material and effort to program forty million tiny machine cells to work together, and for every T-1000 Skynet could make, it could produce several thousand 500's for the same time and material. Since a T-1000 as guard immediately pointed out to Humanity where a prime target was on the battlefield, they became a liability to the Open War. Gunships and attack helicopters were outfitted with high-heat Sabot Rounds, which could blaze through liquid metal, and take them apart. The mercury pieces would be quickly captured and sealed up, unable to rejoin with each other by the waiting Tech-Com. A move that required air support and people on hand, which was possible on an open battlefield, but not in a tunnel.
Tactics evolved on both sides, they weren't perfect, and casualties mounted, but the war stretched on.
In the Infiltrators' War of Attrition, the T-1000's were far more effective, but with Infiltrator tanks now churning out fresh meat supplies, the need for cold storage to keep food fresh wasn't needed as urgently, and the hardened bases that were worth infiltration each now had a Cold Store to freeze and destroy a T-1000, just as Connor taught them to.
With Kate Connor promoted to General, the civilian projects spread across all Tech-Com, and with that the world. The last holdouts of Humanity that did not relish joining the war joined as civilians, armed now with knowledge and support, as they came to work for the common good, bringing fresh food and living things to places thought long dead.
The Siege of Arecibo and the Mercury Infiltration was the most devastating day Skynet had endured across the entire war. Within a few days, Tech-Com had harvested thousands of disabled Machines, who in turn ran out with pneumatic speed and endurance to collect more. Brain Box and the Metal Marines worked tirelessly, printing new CPUs with new instructions. Thousands, then tens of thousands of Terminators were captured and reprogrammed.
Nobody could understand why Connor demanded two thirds of them come straight back to Crystal Peak in the days following the Great Feast, but The General had conjured food enough to feed the whole starving Base, and as the salvaged technology spread, enough to feed the world; they took him at his word it was a good idea.
One or two noticed that Tech-Com was the supply line for all Civilian projects; but they were not military, making John Connor leader of the human resistance, and Kate Connor the leader of the human civilians. This made them effectively the protectors are guides for all humanity; practically parents to the Children of the Dust. Those that could not fight for The General, turned to his wife for guidance, and she turned nobody away. Their work spread across two continents and Kate got another set of stars on her shoulders.
Skynet saw the effect of the Eden Project, and tried to slow it down, spreading itself still further. Kate was given authority to protect her teams, and another set of stars to go with it; and Eden was able to defend itself instead of evade.
With the new models of Infiltrators coming in, Connor's Bodyguards were no longer a theoretical team. They were known to the whole Base. In matters of protecting Connor, they were loyal to the point of lethal, and they had the authority to take anything they wanted if he was in danger. They wore their colors for all to see. A patch on their shoulder made them clear to everyone. Even among Connor's Own they were elite. A black patch with a white circle drawn over it. They were Nova Group.
The forces that had Connor's Name attached, his bodyguards, and his own Unit, were the swift fist of the Human Race.
There were rumors that Nova Group were spreading their influence, putting people in key locations, closer to The Union, and other fronts across the globe, being Connor's eyes and ears in the worldwide theater. But if they were, they were there in secret.
The Union continued independently of Tech-Com, with Skynet's defensive line between their territories, both Connor and Rojas trying to drive Skynet closer to the other.
Australia and New Zealand had been largely retaken, their distance from Skynet's System Core working to Tech-Com's advantage as Tech-Com's naval forces killed convoys and relays. Machines never worked as well in water as they did on land and sky.
The European continent and large sections of Asia had been all but swept clean by Skynet before Tech-Com had formed, and it was rumored that Skynet had abandoned those lands also, to try and reinforce the war effort.
There were rumors that The Eden Project had quietly slipped into these forgotten wastelands, using the distance and unimportance of the places to make things grow again, in preparation for the day when Skynet was gone.
In the time since Lupe's death, Kyle had been given three partners for the scouting/courier missions. They had all been killed in action. After the third, Kyle had gone to Connor and specifically requested not to be assigned a new one. The request was granted.
Secretly, the rest of his Unit had been relieved, and Kyle spent his nights sleeping against a wall with a photo of the late Sarah Connor to keep him company. There were whispers in the 321st that he spoke to her at night, but nothing came of it. Madness was not uncommon in the world, and an imaginary friend from back before was hardly the most unusual habit for a skilled soldier to have.
Another day, another battle. The 321st came rolling into Crystal Peak after another textbook battle. Casualties were light, and the salvage teams had been sent out into the field to collect CPU's and Power Cells from downed Terminators. It was a risky business to get them, as Skynet had started rigging their Terminators to detonate their Power Cores on command after a battle.
Kyle and Griffin climbed out of the lead Jeep as their Convoy rolled in. They signed in for every vehicle that survived and which ones were damaged. The faint sound of pneumatic metal marching was barely audible over the sounds of people and vehicles, but every soldier who had ever gone outside heard it instinctively. Captured Machines were still coming in from here and there, and Connor had ordered that they be stockpiled.
What he was saving them for, nobody knew, but the Scrubbed Machines came in through another way, went straight to the storage rooms and went still. They stayed that way. Some had been there since Arecibo, and they hadn't moved. The storerooms were full to bursting with Scrubbed Machines, and they kept coming in, some to Crystal Peak, the rest to other storage areas across the continent.
The Motor Pool, traditionally, was the busiest part of the Base on any given day. With limited vehicles, Missions were planned accordingly. One convoy was on standby at all possible times, and whenever a convoy came in, another Unit would take it out again soon after. The Motor Pool staff worked around the clock to keep them running and fueled. The wear of the world outside was showing on the vehicles. Pint jobs were a thing of the past after the first sandstorm. Every engine misfired, but still functioned, most of them were missing windows or seat-belts.
Kyle glanced upward. The Mission Clock was running again, which meant that they needed to get the 321st out of the way quickly, because the next team would be loading up to ship out.
Sure enough, Cotton was playing traffic cop, shepherding the 321st out of the way while a team from The Eden Project moved in, bringing their equipment and their supplies into Motor Pool, ready to ship out.
Robbie Connor was leading the team.
Kyle's face turned to stone, looking at them, getting ready to leave. "Griffin?"
His friend looked up from the engine he was tinkering with. "Yeah?"
"The Eden Project is for volunteers. Do me a favor and sign up for a week."
Griffin just stared at him. "Are you kidding me? I haven't seen a shower in two weeks. I haven't seen a cot in that long. I'm actually looking forward to the food in the Mess Hall, that's how hungry I am, and you want me to go out and play gardener for another week? Why?"
"Because I asked you to."
Griffin followed Kyle's gaze. "Oh. Worried about Robbie?"
Kyle didn't answer.
Griffin checked Reese out of the corner of his eye. Kyle had grown quiet since Lupe died. He barely spoke when it wasn't necessary any longer. Most everyone stayed quiet, at least when outside the Underground, but Kyle was getting scary. Griffin had seen him out on the field. They were all fierce, all hard. They had to be. Kyle had grown beyond feral, and into savage during battle.
Kyle and the rest of the 321st headed off, as Lisa came into the Motor Pool. Another Jeep pulled up not long after. A driver, two guards, and a soldier wearing Tech-Com grey, with the 'southern cross' star constellation sewn into the armband.
Lisa came up quickly before too many people noticed the newcomer. "Colonel Ross."
Ross smiled at her. "Hello, Lisa. Good to see you again."
"Welcome to Crystal Peak." She said brightly.
Ross smiled back. "Great to be here finally."
Robbie Connor looked up as Griffin's shadow fell over him. Griffin was an adult now, though everyone he fought alongside was lucky to break nineteen. "Griff?"
"Don't call me that." Griffin told him. "Director-"
"Don't call me that." Robbie shot back. They both chuckled.
"I'm off rotation for the next few weeks." Griffin got to the point. "I was wondering if I could join you out there."
Robbie shrugged. "Sure, the more the merrier. But I don't expect a lot of excitement."
"Me neither, but I've never done any of the Eden stuff before, and Connor says it's important."
Robbie beamed. "It is. It really is."
"Robbie!"
Robbie turned quickly. His mother was marching up toward him, towing one of the Tunnel Rats behind her forcibly. She looked quietly furious. "I have one more volunteer for you." She said in a voice that made it clear what she meant by 'volunteer'.
Robbie recognized Berk of course, but was surprised. As a general rule, the Tunnel Rats didn't volunteer for things. In ten years, only two of them had volunteered to fight. They hid, they lurked, they helped out when they got bored, but except for the migration to Crystal Peak, they never left the Underground.
Robbie didn't even blink. "Okay, Berk; welcome to the team. Grab some gear, and find a spot in the truck."
Berk nodded and did so without looking at anyone. For a moment he almost turned to Kate, as if to say something, but he apparently lost his nerve and did as Robbie told him to.
Once Berk was in the truck and out of sight, Robbie turned to his mother for an explanation. "Mom?"
Kate waved it off. "I know, I know." She sighed. "Take him with you. Do what you do best."
"What's that?" Robbie asked.
Kate smiled. "Make things grow."
Crystal Peak had a few Meeting Rooms that were used for quick agreements and conferences that did not involve the War Room. Lisa had shown Ross into one of these rooms and Connor arrived soon after.
Ross stood as The General came in. "Colon-" He caught himself with a deprecating sigh. "General Connor. Sorry."
Connor actually laughed. "Please, it was refreshing to hear it. Last time we spoke, I was still US Army."
Ross nodded. "Gotta say, I was glad to get here at last. I've been hearing stories about this place since I was on Halloway's first Submarine trip."
Noah was following along behind her son, fussing over him the way any mother did over a twelve year old. "Now, you've got your survival gear."
"Yes, Mom." Michael said, having heard it for two days now.
"I know, I know. I'll shut up. But you know what to do if you get ambushed right?"
"Yes, Mom."
Noah nodded rapidly. "Okay, good. Now remember; it's okay to leave the others to die if there's trouble. In fact, consider it an order."
"Mo-om!"
Kate fell into step behind them. "When you say 'leave the others to die'; you're not referring to my son, I'm sure."
Noah jumped. "No, General."
Kate kept pace with them. "Michael, is your mother going to be okay with you out there?" She asked seriously.
"Hard to tell, Ma'am." Michael said dutifully.
Noah looked embarrassed at the attention, but they made their way to the Motor Pool, where the latest Eden Project mission was getting underway.
"Last call for Death Valley!" Robbie shouted.
"That's me." Michael said, and his mother gave him another hug.
"Noah, put the soldier down." Kate said sternly, but unable to conjure any real anger.
Noah did so, still embarrassed, not really caring. She barely took her eyes off her son until the Convoy started to roll out. Kate leaned in privately next to Noah, recognizing the look on her face. "Erica." Kate said kindly. "One mom to another, they'll be fine."
Noah nodded, but her face didn't show agreement. "I know." She stretched her neck a moment. "Who the hell thought that Death Valley was a good name for anything?"
"I hear that."
Connor came into the War Room. "Report."
Walters had it immediately. "Skynet pulled its Units out of Illinois. I think they realized we don't care about the cities any more."
"Where are they headed?" Connor asked.
"South."
"Let them go. Union can handle it."
"We hope."
"If they can't, it's still a good day for us." Connor said shortly. "What about Halloway?"
"Enterprise is running. Halloway says he can break the pursuit, get them some cover, but they're going to need a place to put to port after."
Connor studied the map. "LA. It's about time we retook Los Angeles. It was our original Naval port, and it's been Skynet territory far too long."
Walters grinned hopefully. "We gonna retake The Alamo?"
"We're gonna retake The Alamo, then the LA Underground, then the original Castle Keep." Connor pointed to the three points on the map. "Skynet's trying to cover its whole territory since The Union split with us; it's been thinning itself out the whole time."
Walters grinned. "Hot Damn."
Connor checked the corner of his eye. "Been looking forward to this one Eric?"
"I said it when we ran; Alamo was the first Base I ever set up. Damn right I want it back."
"Send the 321st." Connor said, raising his voice slightly for Sherrin to hear at his console. "Perry's still here, right?"
"Yessir." Sherrin reported promptly.
"Get them ready to move out."
Sherrin was on the PA instantly. "Colonel Perry, report to the War room."
As the call went out, Connor gave a swift look over his shoulder and leaned in closer to Walters. "Eric, do me a favor and get Noah onto something important, something that will keep her busy. And after that... Stick close to her today. It's her son's first long range mission without a Unit full of soldiers backing him up."
"Yes sir." Eric said sympathetically.
Isobel Saint had been a grifter Back Before. You never forgot those instincts. Getting something for nothing was not an easy way to live, and Saint had done time for her trouble. She had made an escape from LA after one such job, and took cover in a large parking garage outside of the city. Then J-Day hit.
She had been hiding in the trunk of her own car while the Police searched the garage, when she felt the ground tremor. She didn't move. A quake that small was nothing in LA. But when she'd heard people screaming outside for far longer than they should have been, she emerged from her hiding place, and first saw the mushroom cloud on the horizon. At the time, she'd looked down at the suitcase full of money she'd conned out of a corrupt bank official, and burst out laughing. It was suddenly so worthless.
The police car was out the front, and the two police officers that had been hunting her were staring at it too. They had forgotten all about her in a hurry. All their cars were shut down, the EMP wiping out their electrical systems. Lori had rolled by a few minutes later in an older truck, one without a computer in its engine; and picked the three of them up.
Lori was sharp, and had figured out what Saint did for a living. She didn't care. Money was worthless now, so who needed to fear a con artist?
Saint had offered both police officers a job, helping her salvage. They'd helped Lori put together the Orphanage. Her instincts served her well, now for survival instead of profit. She used her talent for reading people to see who could be trusted, and who could be dangerous. She used her talents to hot-wire cars, rig alarms, steal huge amounts of supplies, think of places to find things and hide things, ways to improvise around limitations…
She suddenly wished she wasn't so good at it. If there had been anyone else that was better, Connor wouldn't have given her this assignment.
Her cargo scared the hell out of her. Her instincts were screaming all the way back to Crystal Peak, and with good reason. But as they went down the highway, her sixth sense made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It was the same feeling she got Back Before, whenever a cop was watching her.
Hawke was in the seat next to her, and noticed as she sped up. "Problem?"
Saint sighed. "I don't know. Just a feeling."
Hawke knew to trust her 'feelings'. Her instincts had kept her in the clear since Hawke himself had been sent to arrest her long ago. "Yeah? I wish I knew how you did that."
Saint shrugged. "A shadow in the distance, light glints on something, a sound I barely hear… It registers somehow, and I have to figure out what did it, or it bugs m-"
"THERE!" Hawke shouted.
She looked. A pair of Flying H/K's, on their right, heading in their direction.
"You think they're looking for us specifically?" Hawke demanded.
"I don't know." Saint said. "But I know we can't outrun them." She sent a look around. The three Jeeps she had left to her for this mission had been cruising on one of the last highways. Skynet had attacked the entire infrastructure during the early days of the war, since its vehicles had treads, and Humanity was still in trucks and jeeps, but as the war dragged on, Skynet made use of roads too, the more level ground making both sides faster.
"If they're after our cargo, we could just split up. Two H/K's can't chase three jeeps."
"And if they're not after our cargo, it's just 'divide and conquer'." Saint said. The Jeep had a radio to Tech-Com, but she had her own walkie-talkie. She pulled it out and spoke to the other two Jeeps with her. "Guys, look three o'clock, we're busted. Lock and load. Whatever happens, we have to get The Package through to Palace."
The flying H/K's were faster than any Jeep and Saint knew they were in trouble. It had seen them, and was flying in from the westward horizon to intercept. Each Jeep had a mounted Plasmagun, adapted from the H/K salvage. But it was unlikely that these weapons could handle flying attackers.
"Don't do anything stupid back there." Saint said as he climbed out the window behind the cab, and to the mounted gun in the back.
"You know me." Hawke said easily. It was as close to a goodbye he was going to offer.
"Yeah." Saint said softly as she revved the misfiring engine. The gunner position was the most exposed in any moving fight. "Yeah I do." She grabbed her radio. "Mayday. Any Tech-Com units, Mayday."
Meg was standing up her foxhole, eyes open and scanning. Other than the turning of her head, she was still, not drawing attention to anyone who might be watching. Her team was at rest, and she was the Spotter. It was her job to watch so that they could relax, or sleep. Rest was a weapon too, as every soldier knew. You ate when you could find food; you slept when you could find time.
It was her first deployment, and she had been sent with SAW Team Charlie. The Strike And Withdraw Teams were something new. Not exactly scouts, but not large enough for a full strike force. Five or six people, out for extended periods, always mobile, ready to make one strike and then get far away before a counter attack could come. Skynet had been splitting up its attacks to smaller groups, and Humanity spread out to compensate.
Meg was one of the few Tunnel Rats to sign on. She and her two best friends, Stacie and Stacey, (a similarity that they had bonded over, but that the other Rats found amusing) had all signed up. Meg was a little shorter and slower than they were, and so had failed the trails her first try. They went on to Trial by Battle, Meg had to wait a few more weeks. They were the only ones of the Rats to sign on, and others had told them they were nuts. But Meg felt she'd owed it to Keeper. Plus, her Trial by Battle was with Sarah's SAW Team, and 'Saint Sarah' was a Connor, through and through. There wasn't anyone in Tech-Com that didn't want to work for a Connor.
The radio crackled. "Mayday! Any Tech-Com Units! Mayday!"
"Sarah, if you don't mind my saying so, you're a filthy liar, and it'll make me very happy to prove it." Labine said simply.
"He's bluffing." Jackman told Sarah.
Sarah looked over her cards. "You think so?"
Labine was more than twice her age, and he looked perfectly relaxed. "Cost you a ration bar to find out."
Nipman shook his head. "You got a bar of soap, a pair of shoelaces and a bandanna in the pot already. Once you get in that deep, you might as well play it out."
Jackman grinned. "Sarah, listen to your second in command. I'm telling you that he's bluffing."
Sarah grinned at Labine. "How often is he wrong?"
"Not often." Labine conceded.
"And how often do I lose at Poker?"
"Also not often." Labine conceded.
"You sure you want to play this hand to the end?" Sarah challenged.
"Only takes once." Labine shot back.
"Hey, Sarge? You there?" The radio crackled. It was their spotter. Everyone sat up straighter. If she was calling, it meant the game was over.
Sarah swore like the career soldier her seventeen years had raised her to be. "Every single time I draw a straight!"
"Fold." Labine said instantly, and the team laughed.
Tossing her cards away in disgust, Sarah reached across to her combat vest and pulled her radio. "Go ahead, this is Brewster."
"Sarge, we got a convoy on the way to Palace." Meg reported. "They say they have a priority Package, and Skynet on their butts."
Sarah traded a look with her men. "They have the right codes?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Sarah turned to her troops. "All right, SAW Team Charlie. Let's move."
Jackman grabbed the corner of the tarp and folded it over quickly, packing the chips the cards and everything in between; stuffing it all into a knapsack and leaving it behind. They had to help the convoy, but they knew better than to leave their best observation post visible while they were away.
Within thirty seconds, the shelter had been collapsed, the supplies packed, the weapons gathered and everything not coming along was hidden away.
Saint was one escort Jeep down, and getting desperate. She knew that she couldn't go back for her wounded, and she couldn't let them stop her.
Hawke was behind her, basting away with the mounted gun, trying to keep the H/K's off them. Skynet had the advantage. Saint didn't dare change direction. Going off-road would be a death sentence at these speeds.
Above them, the aerial H/K's kept moving, staying ahead of their guns. They were nimble and maneuverable, and the gunners were bouncing around, barely able to keep a grip on their targets.
"SAW Team Charlie, where the hell are you?" Saint demanded into her radio, as liquid fire splashed again, shattering the window by her head, she didn't dare close her eyes and lose track of where she was driving, and she felt the glass slivers slice into her face and hands.
No answer.
"Hey, boss!" Hawke screamed over the sounds of the road. "There's a rise up ahead! If we pull in against it, we can keep them off our backs!"
Saint nodded without answering. It was a good plan, and it would give their backup time to come save them.
Their enemy could tell that too.
One H/K apparently wasn't happy with chasing any more, and gunned its engines. The turbines spun up powerfully, and overtook the Jeep. Saint looked up through her cracked windshield and saw it loop over, ready to attack from directly above. She almost had time to swear. There was nowhere to go, game was over.
And then, from somewhere, a missile streaked in and nailed the H/K above them direct in a turbine, bringing it down hard and fast, out of control. Saint yelled and gunned the Jeep as hard as she could, jerking the wheel left, and then right, trying to evade falling debris as the whole death Machine came crashing down on her.
Hawke yelled as the Jeep he was riding on lurched and bucked from the evasion, and the heavy impact. He couldn't keep his grip on the gun and was bounced right off the back of the Jeep.
"HAWKE!" Saint shouted, but she couldn't stop. She vaguely heard another missile streaking in, and tried to get a look at where they were coming from. The second H/K had been able to evade this time, and went wide, looking for a new angle to attack from.
The attack from another direction gave Saint and her one surviving escort the change to get to the rise along the highway, and screech to a stop. Saint turned the Jeep so that the mounted gun was facing away from the earth wall, and scrambled out of the cab, having lost her gunner.
A moment later, she heard the sound of plasmafire, and then the sound of motorbikes. Four motorcycles came screaming into their view, and they pulled up swiftly, skidding to a halt. They dismounted, hefted their rifles and ducked in close to the wall with Saint. Sarah pulled her goggles up with a cheeky grin. "Isobel!"
"Sarah!" Saint blurted. "I didn't know you were out here."
"DOWN!" Somebody shouted, and everyone ducked as the H/K made a long slow pass over above them. The turbines kicked up a mess of dirt and gravel, but the machine couldn't get an angle to shoot.
As soon as it passed over, Sarah turned to her team. "Defend this point!" She shouted, and turned back to Saint. "We took out the other H/K, but this one took out the Javelin. This one will land its Terminators, dig us out."
Saint gestured at the Jeep gun she was holding. "We can handle that."
"Not with the H/K too." Sarah argued. "They'll just wait us out."
BOOOM!
"What the hell was that?" Meg shouted in shock.
"Attack!" A Spanish voice shouted over the radios.
Sarah and Jackman traded the briefest of looks. "You heard the man, SAW Team Charlie!" Sarah shouted. "Let's go hunting!"
Saint slipped back into the cab of the Jeep quickly and started the motor. Sarah took over the mounted gun and they started moving.
The second H/K was burning in a mess on the ground, with a dozen surviving Terminators around it, locked in combat with seven or eight humans, wearing dusty outfits in the style of Enrique's Bandits.
Saint gunned the motor and tore off toward the fight. The second Jeep and the motorcycles came too, and the mounted guns opened up fiercely, gunning down Skynet's survivors with swift vengeance.
With the battle over, Sarah swiveled the mounted gun to point at the Bandits. "No te muevas!" She shouted at them in Spanish.
The Bandits froze, hands in the air swiftly.
"Hablas inglés?" One of them shouted a question.
"Yes." Sarah responded. "Lieutenant Sarah Brewster, Tech-Com."
"Kurt Orlandez." The Bandit shouted back.
"Come forward slow." Sarah commanded.
Kurt came over, hands up. He didn't seem at all concerned by the huge mounted gun aimed at his head. He lifted the protective goggles, pulled down the bandanna covering his mouth. Sarah got a good look at him. Short messy black hair, skin that had seen a few dust storms, but not enough to do serious damage, good teeth…
Sarah didn't trust it. She didn't have a K-9 with her Unit.
Saint leaned out the shattered driver's side window. "You got it?"
"Yeah. I got it." Sarah said, and signaled her team, who lowered their rifles a little. "So, Orlandaez. Talk."
"Well, first of all, you can call me Kurt." He pulled his bandanna down, shook out his hair. "We were with Enrique. Or at least, my family was. When the Bandits went with Connor, some of us stayed behind."
"I know this." Sarah said carefully.
"Well, the Union pretty much cleared out Skynet in our area, and then started making itself comfortable. There wasn't a whole lot we could do there, so we moved out. We've been making our way toward Crystal Peak, moving back and forth to do some hit-and-run, dodge a few patrols..." He checked her uniform. "So Brewster, you from Crystal Peak?"
Saint jumped in before Sarah had to answer. "Are we shooting them or not? I have to get moving."
Sarah made the call. "Weapons down."
Her team lowered their weapons, and Saint took that as permission to break the stalemate. She ran off up the highway on her own, heading back the way they came.
Sarah followed her, and Kurt followed Sarah. She called over her shoulder to her men. "Be friendly!"
Kurt heard that and called over his shoulder to his own team. "You guys too."
As they walked away from the rest of their people, toward the wreckage of the downed H/K, they spoke. Away from the standoff, their people, and all their guns, the two young people were able to relax a bit. "Sorry about before." Kurt said first. "But we've survived... most of us, have survived, because we're careful about who we trust."
Sarah nodded. "No offense, Kurt; but Tech-Com's got a pretty good list of Infiltrator faces. New faces are..."
"A risk." They said together, in full agreement.
"We were on our way to Palace when we heard a Mayday." Kurt said. "Figured we should lend a hand. We're all in this together y'know?"
Saint had trudged up the road, looking worried. She walked all the way back to the wreckage of the first knocked down H/K, and went searching for something.
"What would you have done if you hadn't heard the Mayday?" Sarah asked Kurt.
Kurt shrugged. "Would have tried to get to Crystal Peak. Sooner or later we would have run into a Tech-Com Unit. With some luck, they wouldn't have shot us, and we could finally sit down for a while."
Saint turned to Sarah. "Brewster." She interrupted. "This is an interesting story and all, but I got to get the package to Palace fast."
"Is Skynet after it?" Sarah asked in worry. She didn't know what the package was, but if more H/K's were coming...
"I don't know."
"It might be coincidence." Kurt offered. "I mean, it's not like they need a reason to hunt people."
"Yeah. I know." Sarah said. "Isobel, what are you looking for?"
"Hawke came off the back of my Jeep near here." Saint explained.
"He could not possibly have survived." Sarah said gently. "Not at those speeds."
Nevertheless, they searched the wreckage and surrounding area for a while.
Saint saw a boot sticking out from under a torn chunk of the H/K wreckage, and grabbed it quickly. She hoisted it up and found Hawke underneath. "HERE!"
Kurt and Sarah ran over and wrestled the wreckage off the body, pulling Hawke away from the flames. Saint checked his pulse. "He... He has a heartbeat!"
Kurt gave Sarah a look. The teenage girl looked back evenly. Even if he did have a pulse, it didn't look good for him. "He won't make Crystal Peak." Sarah said.
Saint shook her head. "I have to get there. And... I seem to be without an escort."
"Well, you got a whole lot of escort now." Kurt said brightly.
"No." Sarah said swiftly. "We've got wounded to tend to, and they won't make it to Crystal Peak." She grabbed her radio. "Jackman, I'm taking one of those Jeeps to Checkpoint Niner, and we're taking the Bandits with us for protection. The rest of the team goes with Saint, escort them back to Palace."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Lt. Brewster, you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Jackman called back, protective of his Team Leader.
Sarah shook her head. "Not enough room in the Jeep. Saint needs transport too."
"Understood."
Kurt nodded, and lifted his own radio. "Bandits, we've got the clear to Checkpoint Niner, Tech-Com has the ball. Make sure there's nothing Skynet can use to get a direction on either team."
Saint crouched low next to Hawke's body, and lifted a chain from around his neck. On the chain was a security key. She put it around her neck, next to her dog-tags, and an identical Key. Sarah was the only one to see it, and she wisely didn't say anything about it. Instead, she spoke quietly. "Skynet will know we knocked down the H/K's here. You better move before it sends something to finish us off."
Saint nodded and got back in her Jeep. Her two surviving team members got in with her; and they took off fast without another word. The motorcycles with Sarah's Team gave chase.
Kurt and the bandits were wresting Hawke's motionless form onto the back to the Jeep.
"You drive." Sarah told Kurt shortly.
Kurt nodded, and gave one of his Bandits a look, and they spoke casually in Spanish, though too low for Sarah to hear, but the Bandits all snuck a look at her as Kurt graciously opened the door for her.
Sarah caught it. "What?"
Kurt gave another long easy smile. "You don't know us, so odds are you'll have your gun in your lap pointed at me for the entire ride to wherever we're going. I told my guys not to stress, because if you did pull the trigger, you'd never be able to get my surprised, though still very attractive corpse out of the drivers' seat before they got you."
Sarah rolled her eyes, but was glad to be working without someone who knew the score. "Yep. You're a Bandit all right. Too much like Enrique for your own good."
Kurt smiled. "Wow. Usually takes a full hour of my charming company to make a girl realize that."
Z Plus Nineteen Years Sixty Two Days
John watched his wife get dressed in the mornings whenever he could, just in case. Her arm had never healed right, and though the pain was something she was long used to, she still had limited movement with her left arm. Kate had kept the mementos of the Tunnel Rats, her regular uniform now enhanced with the odds and ends they had given her. The shoestring bracelet was wrapped around her upper left arm, the earring hoop on the chain with her dog-tags, one braid of her hair left long, around her usual haircut, threaded through Tish's straw... Combined with the silver now streaking her hair, she looked slightly hippie, in a disciplined Soldier kind of way.
Their routine never settled, not once in eighteen years, but as the years passed and john saw his face get older, and his scar stretch his skin rakishly across his face, the moments that resembled domesticity seemed more precious than ever.
He hugged her from behind and pressed his lips against her bad shoulder, as he did most mornings they were together. Kate was never sure if the kiss was meant as reassurance for him that she was okay... Or an apology to her, that she got injured by a Machine using her pain to strike at him.
"Hey." Kate said quietly, as John kissed her shoulder. "You know what today is?"
"What's that?" Connor asked her.
"It's our anniversary."
Connor froze his face instantly. "Really?"
Kate smiled. "Oh, relax. I didn't get you anything either."
Connor relaxed.
"And I can't tell you how flattered I am by those beads of sweat on your forehead."
"I sweat in panic only for you." Connor teased back. "Wait. It's not our anniversary."
"Yes it is."
"We declared ourselves married the day before we left Crystal Peak the first time."
"But we didn't have the ceremony with Eric till seventeen years ago today." Kate shot back.
"That doesn't count."
"Yes it does."
"We were already married then."
"Who says?"
"We did."
"Is it possible to have two anniversaries?"
John smiled and was about to answer, when his radio buzzed. "Connor here."
"Lori says that she needs to speak with you."
"On my way."
Connor left the War Room and found Lori right there, standing directly outside the door, waiting for him.
Connor smirked. "Thanks for calling first."
Lori nodded. "I heard from Saint. She says she's got your package. But there's a chance Skynet knows."
Connor bit his lip a moment. "What are you basing that on?"
"They were chasing her and her team as we got closer to the Secure Territory. Sarah's squad and a few Bandits got them off her back, and they're currently on their way here."
Connor blinked. "Bandits? The only Bandits still unaccounted for are the ones that stayed south when Enrique joined us, came north when the Union split. We haven't heard much from them."
"You knew about them?"
"I knew about them, but at the time, they weren't soldiers. Enrique had a command structure, but not a rank. There are holdouts here and there, living on the move. Enrique told me we could trust them, but didn't need them. After he died and the Union moved in, I got word that they went mobile."
Saint nodded. "Well, according to Isobel, they're coming here. The war took it's toll. What's left of them are on their way in with Sarah. She made up some story about checking in at Checkpoint Niner, they went with her."
"Sarah's a smart girl." Connor said with a smile. "She's taking the Bandits she met out to the K-9's at the Checkpoint. If they don't set off the dogs, it's safe to bring them into Crystal Peak."
Lori nodded. "That's what I thought. Would you mind telling me what that package is? Saint won't tell me. The first time she's actually refused to tell me something, which is ever so slightly ominous."
"Nothing you need to worry about." Connor said, and sighed. That one wouldn't play with Lori. "Lori, I'm playing this one pretty close to the chest."
Lori smirked grimly. "Every time you play something close to your chest, I go looking for a nice deep foxhole to crawl into."
Checkpoint Niner was the crossroads for half the Tech-Com military. It was originally just a listening post, watching the highways where they crossed, but was now one of the most fortified forward areas in North America. A few days travel from Crystal Peak, it gave them a clear view of Skynet movement beyond their territory, and a nice buffer between Base and anyone heading there.
The K-9's didn't make a peep, and Sarah's team relaxed unconsciously. Sarah had never forgotten the last look on Lupe's face, even years later.
Kurt seemed unconcerned. "So. Do I pass?"
Sarah almost smirked. The Bandits had seen the K-9's in the area, and they probably knew the reason for coming here at that moment, but they didn't try to argue about it. "If you're a Machine, you must smell bad enough that the dogs don't know." She teased.
He smiled that long and easy smile again, and Sarah felt her stomach do a quick flip. She ignored it. Rations gave everyone indigestion.
Hawke did not survive his surgery.
Z Plus Nineteen Years Sixty Four Days
Crystal Peak was based in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, though its exact location was hidden. Highways made the trip across what was one the continental United States far more convenient than it was now. It took several days to reach anywhere by ground, and as the war dragged on, the roads got more damaged and the terrain more unpredictable, and the way more treacherous.
But to the south of those mountains, on the South Western edge of what used to be California, was Death Valley. A name that had come to be all too prophetic as the wastelands moved in.
But hidden at the base of the Mountains, in what had once been Death Valley National Park, The Eden Project had established a foothold, quiet and unnoticed. The Salt Flats had made the ground harsh and inhospitable to growing things, and the thin layer of salt had arid mud underneath, making it difficult to send tanks treads or pneumatic foot soldiers through, and both sides of the War avoided it.
But the shockwaves and the disruption to both weather and geology had taken it's toll, and the famed Death Valley Salt Flats had long since cracked wide open, first from the nuclear war, then from the extreme cold, then from time and erosion, until a network of valleys had formed, all of them at least twenty feet deep, and some of them very wide below the surface.
In these valleys, hidden safe below eye level, but still open to the sky, Robbie Connor had set up The Eden Project's most important outpost in North America.
Berk had pressed himself into his seat, hating the fact that he was out in the open. He hadn't stopped turning his head back and forth, searching the horizon for dangers that hadn't come.
When he got a look at the destination, he was not impressed. "That's it?"
Robbie smiled, relaxed and glad to have arrived. "That's it."
At the foothills of the mountains, where the Salt Flats began, was a burned out farmhouse, with a trashed, but still standing grain silo, and a barn that looked fit to fall down with one stiff breeze.
Getting to the ruined homestead once it was visible was difficult, given that the Salt flats had cracked wide open, and the whole area filled with deep chasms and valleys. Robbie in the lead Jeep was leading the convoy slowly, bit by bit, along the edge of the Flats.
Berk was watching everything with sharp, suspicious eyes, and noticed something. "Why do the valleys have runners for shutters along them?"
Robbie just smiled. "You'll find out." He pointed. "Back Before, when it still rained properly, this whole area was the basin, and the water fell or flowed into it. But there was nowhere for it to flow out, so it all sat here. Then the sun baked it all, till the water faded, leaving all the salt behind. The salt sunk deep, and then the Cold came, and the water cracked the salt crystals wide open." He pointed. "The valleys lead out, and smooth down, but they go back a long way. We do our work deep in the valleys, where they all lead back to a Main Chamber we dug out."
"Robbie!"
The youngest Connor was smiling before he turned around. "Ginny!"
The girl was Robbie's age, with long red hair, and running out of the tunnels with a big smile on her face. She ran to Robbie and wrapped him up in a big hug. "Welcome home!" She giggled. "Missed you!"
"Missed you too." Robbie said into her hair, letting the hug last a good long time. "You know most of us, but we've one or two new arrivals, let me introduce you. This is Griffin and Berk."
Ginny met them with great enthusiasm. "Oh, hey! Great to meet you!"
The two young men looked at her with barely veiled disgust. Berk was a Tunnel Rat. Wasting energy and making noise was a sin, because it drew attention to you... and your hiding places. This girl was too energetic to live.
Griffin on the other hand, couldn't get past what she was wearing. The girl was wearing a flowing woven dress that brushed past her ankles, and it looked like she was wearing open sandals. Her arms were bare and she was wearing a flower in her braided hair, which grew right down her back. It was like she was unaware there was a war on.
Ginny was instantly aware of their disapproval, but didn't blink. She went through it with every new arrival. "Welcome to Eden." She told them warmly.
"Okay." Robbie said cheerily. "So, for you new guys, a quick tour. The Valleys all lead out to the Salt Flats, but they all come back to this area near the Silo. We set the silo up, and we hollowed out this whole area below the hills. This is where we do our prep work, and the valleys are where things grow."
They were led downstairs to the Valleys, and introduced to the regular Eden Team. Michael had worked with a lot of them in some capacity, and already knew their names. Griffin recognized all the signs of Tech-Com construction. The walls were bare, lights strung through on cables. There was a large chamber which branched off into the Valleys. People were working there over workshop tables, mostly gathered around the lights. They all smiled and waved at Robbie as he came in. Griffin recognized the reactions. Robbie had started this place. They liked working here more when he was around to help them. Like Enrique with the Bandits, or Connor with Crystal Peak.
Griffin was about to share these observations with Berk, when he noticed that the Tunnel Rat was looking up at the door they just came through. Over the entrance was a plaque of some kind, with writing on it.
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pool singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Berk read it twice. It was not uncommon for most Combat Bases to have signs like that, as the first thing you saw when you came in, or the last thing to see when you left. it usually had the Unit colors, or some personal motto or battle slogan. But a poem was something... unusual. Everything here was unusual, like it was out of step with the rest of the world.
Robbie walked through the Main Chamber quickly, talking fast, giving instructions, making introductions. "Terry this is Griffin and Berk, they're new here. I got the soil samples you sent back to Palace, and you need more acidic soil to hold off the rot. Add some citrus peel to the dirt."
"Not the compost?" Terry seemed confused, nodding a greeting to the newcomers.
Robbie shook his head. "Not the compost. Earthworms can't handle citrus peel it's too acidic; let it decompose on its own." Robbie was already past him. "Javier, you're getting leaks on the water feed into Valley 2, either drop the pressure or plug those seals."
"Welcome back boss." Javier grinned good-naturedly, and nodded to Berk and Griffin. "Nice to meet you."
Robbie reached out a hand and grabbed his sleeve. "Javier." He interrupted. "My friends have been on the road a while."
Javier nodded. "Valley Five. We're setting up lunch."
Griffin grinned. "Ahh, good. Nothing like the stale Styrofoam meal bars for hungry travelers."
Robbie, Ginny, Michael and Javier just smiled at him.
They had been traveling for days, the Bandits for months, but all that faded as they saw Crystal Peak. Sarah was enjoying the role of the 'experienced soldier' for once, talking them through the process.
"After the entrance, the first thing is the K-9's." Sarah explained. "You've been checked, I know, but you're also new on the base, so we don't take any chances. After the K-9's, there's the sign in. You'll only have an hour to check in with Command, in case of Medical emergency, or mission to complete. Long enough to scrub up, get changed, and meet your fellow Bandits."
That was a very popular idea. For all the years they had been apart, the Bandits started out as a single group. It was a thrilling prospect to all see each other again, face to face.
The K-9's didn't flinch. The Sign-In went painlessly. "So, we get to wash-up and everything right? That means washrooms, showers… hot water?"
Sarah grinned. "Oh yes. Fourth level."
"You guys go on ahead." Kurt said quickly. "I'll catch up."
The Bandits smirked, but had the grace to hide it a little.
Kurt rejoined Sarah. "So... I have to check in within an hour, right?"
"Right." Sarah said, a little unsure of where he was going with this.
"So... that's long enough for a tour."
Sarah smiled. "What about your team?"
Kurt shrugged. "I think given a choice, they'd rather hit the showers and the chow line."
"But not you?" Sarah teased. She didn't know why she was smiling like this, but she was.
Kurt gave her that smile again. "Well... I'm prepared to delay a few things, given who my Tour Guide is..."
The Valley they were served lunch in, had a large number '5' visible at the entrance. The valley was lined with large pots and raised beds, like the Eden Workshop back at Crystal Peak, and each of them filled with saplings. Dozens of the pots and beds, laid out in a row. If they were the ones that the Convoy had just brought in, or had been growing there for a long time was impossible to tell. They had lamps over them, powered by Terminator Batteries. There were workers, some of them hobbling along on walking sticks to water them, or tend to them with shears or fertilizer.
There were over a good twenty workers there, and all of them seemed to be moving toward Valley Five. Berk and Griffin were still waiting for someone to tell them what to do. The only ones that didn't have a job already, so they followed.
When they got there, Berk felt his eyes bug out. So did Griffin. It was... impossible.
The workbenches had been brought to the middle of one of the valleys, with benches on either side of it for the workers to sit. And the entire table was laden with food.
Those that remembered Back Before had memories of food that put the Mess Hall to shame. Even with Connor teaching them to grow meat, it took a while to conjure a full cut that was worth slicing up and serving. Infiltrators took a while to make a single skin layer. Making meat enough to eat was a slow process that gave them breathing room against starvation, but not excess. The majority of people still ate rations, preserved for transport and storage.
But this...
There were pancakes, stacked high. Fresh crusty bread, still steaming from whatever oven cooked it. Gallons of milk, plenty of butter and cheese. Cream so thick that nobody recognized it. Melons, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, cucumbers, olives, carrots, avocados. Strawberries in their hundreds, so red and juicy that it made the soldier's eyes hurt. Fresh fruit, both whole and sliced. Apples, oranges, pears, cherries. Potatoes, prepared in a dozen different ways. Peanuts and pineapples, fresh jam and honey in clay pots. Fruit juice was plentiful. For every fruit on the table, its juice was available too.
There was little meat. What meat there was had been sliced thin. Growing meat in the tanks was a tricky procedure, and needed care and time; and so was restricted to the large bases. But small bases never had a spread like this...
Griffin's eyes were wide as saucers. "Is... is it real?"
Robbie laughed, holding hands with Ginny. "Oh yes. It's very real. Tasty too. But don't waste the meat. Only thing we can't make ourselves. We've got livestock for fertilizer, and they give us milk, we got sugar cane for sweetness, we can grow most anything we can make room for; we've got clay to make pots, and there's an ocean of salt out on the flats waiting to be picked up."
"Eden is out of the way for a reason, so it's not like we can turn this stuff into rations and pass it out." Ginny used her free hand to pull Berk along. "Come on. Plenty for all. We can't let it go to waste."
Communal meals were the standard in most military bases, as the kitchens had to cook for everyone. Apparently this post had kept the tradition, and all gathered around the length of the table. They all sat and ate off standard meal trays, though they served themselves.
Berk and Griffin looked too scared to touch it, for fear that it would vanish like a mirage. But everyone was collecting their own food, so they quickly got over it.
Berk shoveled a spoonful of fruit salad into his mouth, and felt his jaw drop open as he moaned. The juice was running down his chin, and the others were laughing at him, but he didn't care. Griffin felt tears rolling down his face at the sheer feeling of fresh flavor exploding through his mouth.
Ginny smiled brilliantly at Berk, lathering a thick slice of bread with jam. "Try it with the cream."
Griffin and Berk were in a fog for the better part of an hour after the meal. It was just so… lavish, that they couldn't comprehend where it had come from, and why everyone was acting like it was standard fare.
They had been given quick jobs as soon as lunch ended. Griffin had been summoned to help with the cleanup, which he was used to. Berk had been taken by the hand over to Ginny's workstation, and she had shown him a seedling tray, filled with dirt. Ginny had been planting seeds, and Berk had copied her. It didn't seem difficult, but she still had to show him how far apart to space them, and how to mark the tray so that the plants didn't get confused…
As they finished up with that, the Eden team working the kitchens had apparently finished, and Robbie had gathered everyone who wasn't in the middle of something urgent, the newcomers included, and taken them all through the Main Chamber to a valley entrance at the far end. Robbie had a flashlight with him, because unlike the other Valleys they had seen so far, this one didn't have any platforms, hatches or stairs set up. It was just them clambering between the gaps in the rock.
The whole valley was clay and dirt; the whole place stunk of salt and mud. Robbie led the way and guided them down with his lights to the floor of the valley. "Terry" He called into his radio. "Give us the sky."
A metallic grinding noise came a moment later, and Berk ducked instinctively, before looking up. The roof of the valley, where it split apart, was covered over by metal shutters, which apparently could be opened and closed. The shutters up above seemed thick and sturdy, and the valley was deep enough for the walls of it to match the height of a three story building. The only room similar in size at Crystal Peak was the Main Hall.
"Okay folks, our mission is to set up this valley for the Eden Project." Robbie said. "Needless to say, it's going to take a lot of work."
Robbie led them through a newly cut tunnel, so new that it was still shaking loose dirt from the ceiling, and the path through it was bare uneven rocks.
Berk came into the valley and looked up. He could see sky now, the shutters opened a good distance behind them. Thinking back, he could remember seeing workstations on the surface, near to the silo, where all those shutter runners led.
Javier stuck his head in the entrance to the valley and shouted to be heard. "If you got a minute, sir; Javier asked if he could get your help with the saplings."
"I'll be right there." Robbie promised. "Where are we up to in here?"
"We got the drains laid." Ginny reported, pointing to the middle of the valley were it ran deepest. "The rest... we needed help with."
"Okay." Robbie said. "A big job, but doable." He turned to everyone. "Okay folks, fall in."
The Eden Team all did so, gathering in front of him. Robbie pointed to the valley, and started explaining things. "Those of you who have been with us before know the routine. We've done this in seven valleys in these flats, this will be number eight. For those of you new to the team, looks like you got here just in time for the hardest part."
The experienced Eden Team members laughed at that one.
"First thing we have to do, is dig out a nice, deep, flat area to work. Most of that has been done already, at least enough for the drains. On top of that, we have to lay down a thick layer of gravel. There's a crusher in the barn, and that'll provide the gravel once we get some of this rock up to it. We'll be bringing the trucks up from the valley mouth. Everyone grab a shovel."
Berk looked, and could see daylight at the far end of the valley, where it shallowed out to the surface. Ginny was suddenly at his elbow, having changed into worn work clothes and strong boots. "It looks like nothing now." She smiled at him. "But don't worry. We've made every other Valley grow. A layer of gravel, layers of dust-dirt, mix in the Paydirt, and this place will be better than the tubs you grow food in at Crystal Peak."
Berk looked around the huge empty space, full of sticky, salty mud… and doubted it.
So far, Sarah had shown him the Motor Pool, the storage rooms, the Growing Tanks, the Orchard, the Comm Room, the shooting range, the common rooms, the Mess Hall…. She told herself that she wasn't hiding him from the Command Staff, namely her parents, but she avoided anywhere that Nova Group or Connor's Own might be.
He was watching everything carefully, taking it all in, and getting to know the layout, the people... But his eyes kept returning to her. Sarah was new at this. She understood attraction, and dating. Such things happened young in the Underground. Like all kids born to the Tunnels, she had taken her turn helping out in the school, the nursery, the Maternity ward... But even with an education, and even at the age of seventeen, (an age considered full adulthood now) she lacked experience. Being John Connor's daughter meant that she was quietly off limits to Tech-Com, and that she was destined to spend more time on rotation than most other soldiers.
As a result, she wasn't expecting this. She didn't know exactly why her heart sped up when they made eye contact, but she knew she liked it. In fact, she really liked it.
"So, what do you think?" She asked Kurt.
"I think it's fantastic, but..." Kurt hedged. "It's safe, it's comfortable, it's supplied, and there's a lot of energy here. I've lived places where kids stare into campfires and people can't work up the energy to kick away the rats unless they plan to eat them. This place is heaven. But I do wonder about one thing. All these people."
Sarah smiled. "You're new. Give them time. They're family, every single one of them."
Kurt waved that off. "Naw, it's not that I don't trust them, it's just... Well, they're everywhere. What do you do if you want some privacy?"
Sarah actually laughed at that. "You should know better."
"Out in the field, there's no such thing, sure. But that's to be expected when we're out there in a hot-zone, keeping an eye on each other, watching for Infiltrators. We're here. Indoors, with big thick walls. There's got to be something."
Sarah flushed. "Well... There are a few places when people want some alone time. There have to be. There are couples in the Base. My parents fell in love and got married here."
Kurt nodded, and looked at Sarah. Sarah looked back. A moment of eye contact later, Sarah stepped back, sudden realization all over her face. "OH! I... uh, um..."
Kurt stepped back a respectful distance. "Ah, forgive me. You've already got someone?"
Sarah blinked. "No..."
Kurt nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry, I guess I thought..."
"Nonono, it's not that…" Sarah flushed again. "It's just that I've never... well... ever."
Kurt's face changed as he realized. "Oh! Sarah, I wasn't suggesting..."
"I didn't say you were, I'm just saying that..."
Kurt reached out and covered her lips with one hand. "Sarah... Can we discuss this somewhere... without an audience?"
Sarah glanced around and noticed people peeking at them from all quarters, and felt her blood run cold. She didn't know how long it would take word to reach her father, but knowing him, he could probably see through the walls.
She caught Kurt's hand compulsively and tugged him down the corridor. "This way."
Berk started to wish that he hadn't eaten so much. Hard work was always made harder still by the weight of a full stomach. But he shook those thought off. This was only the second time he could remember having a full stomach, and if it was a burden, it was a burden he loved.
The whole Eden Base had a certain flow to it, and even the newcomers could tell. Seedlings were grown to a relative age or size in the Main Chamber. Once they got big enough for an individual pot or bed they were taken to Valley Five. When they got big enough to be planted somewhere permanently, it was either taken to Valley Two for transport preparation, or one of the other valleys to be planted permanently, depending on what it was.
"We're one of the most self-sufficient bases in Tech-Com." Robbie was saying. "But our mandate is to make enough plants to spread around to all corners of the globe."
"Can you do that?" Griffin seemed stunned.
"Making new plants is easy. Finding places to plant them long-term? That's hard." Robbie explained. "The things that are growing here aren't all staying. So we need to expand. Skynet is spreading itself thin, but it's spreading far. Eden isn't military, so anywhere we set up another tree farm has to be protected from the weather, and the Machines, and it's not happening fast enough. This is a pretty secure place, and we've got valleys to hide from the weather."
Griffin nodded in realization. "That's what the shutters are for."
"Right." Terry leaned on his shovel. "Lets the sunlight in when we need it, Keeps it off if it gets too harsh, lets the rain in if it ever comes back this way, and keeps some of the warmth in during the nights. But with Terminator batteries powering the sun-lamps and a private water feed... we can do pretty well."
"But that's also the problem." Robbie explained. "We have to make the valleys good for growing. We need good drainage out the shallow end of the valley; we need plenty of dirt, and a good hunk of topsoil. No way to do that but to shovel it all in. Remember, I told you guys all this back at Eden 101 in Crystal Peak. Use the crushers to make the rock into dust, and then use the compost to make the dust/dirt into soil."
Griffin waved over his shoulder in curiosity. "I saw you had water pipes running through the other valleys with taps for watering the plants. Where does all the water come from?"
"Same place yours does. The ocean. We've got our own saltwater filter set up here."
"After the Infiltrator tanks got shipped around, most people do." Griffin nodded. "What I mean is, where do you store it? This place can't possibly have an underground tank that large if you use all your earth-movers on the valleys."
"The water gets stored in Silo. You saw it on the way in." Robbie explained.
"That thing?" Berk asked in confusion. "That thing was barely standing."
Robbie grinned. "Yeah, that's the impression we like to give. But it's completely watertight on the inside. What can I say? Appearances are deceiving."
Berk nodded sagely. There wasn't anyone left who hadn't figured that out after the Infiltrators made their move.
Connor came into the War Room. "Report."
Walters had the report as normal. "Checkpoint Niner reports no movement in range. Gould is out at Communication Point Baker, and he sent a message back. He asked me to pass along a message. Message reads 'Awaiting Instructions.' I would have given him an answer, but I don't know what he's doing out there."
This in itself was nothing unusual. Connor had three or four support networks with their own projects, soldiers, spies and directives. Sometimes Nova Group would move somewhere for some Secret Mission, or Connor's Own would hit an unusual Target before a regular Unit moved in to finish the job... Only Connor had all the pieces.
Connor looked up sharply. "He's ready?"
Walters shrugged. "I could tell you for sure if I knew what he was talking about."
Connor smirked. "Mm. Tell Gould… 'Now'."
"Yessir."
Noah came in at that point with Kate and saluted. "General." She reported. "The group of Bandits have checked in with Yolanda, and are awaiting assignment within Tech-Com."
Connor looked up sharply. "They're here already?"
"Apparently." Kate said lightly.
"I thought they were coming in with Sarah." Connor turned to Kate.
Noah blinked. "They got here over half an hour ago, sir."
Connor glanced at Kate. "Sarah check in with you?"
"Nope. You?"
Connor lifted his radio. "Connor to Jackman."
"Jackman here."
"When did Sarah get in?"
Loud silence.
"Jackman?" Connor pressed seriously.
"She arrived with the Bandits a while ago. I think she's giving Kurt a tour."
Loud silence.
"Kurt?" Connor said the name carefully.
Jackman cursed under his breath, but the whole War Room could hear it. "The head of the Bandit Team we met."
Loud silence.
"Can I speak with my daughter, please?" Connor said with great calm. The War Room tensed. The only thing scarier than Connor when he was angry was Connor when he was dead calm.
And he'd even said 'please'.
"N-Not at the moment, sir." Jackman choked out.
"Why not?" Connor asked politely.
"Um… she was showing around the head of the Bandits while we were getting the rest of his team processed and squared away, and she seems to have turned her radio off-"
Connor set down his own radio very carefully, cutting him off mid-sentence; took in a long slow breath…
…and then marched for the door with fire in his eyes.
Kate lunged for him, missed. "Waitwaitwaitwait-John!"
Too late. He was gone out of the War Room like an angry wind.
Kate scrambled over the War Room's Map Table and chased after him.
"Kate!" Noah hissed after them. "Channel four!"
Kate waved over her shoulder and kept running.
Walters turned slowly to Noah. "We better get a good spot."
"And some popcorn." Noah grinned and grabbed her radio "Everyone in the War Room, Channel four, check your local listings for tonight's entertainment!"
Connor yanked the door open; and Sarah and Kurt squawked as they half-fell out of the supply closet. They were still dressed, though Kurt had a few buttons undone. Kurt saw the uniform, five stars on each shoulder and 'Connor' on the name-tag. He jumped up, swiftly at attention. "Sir." He managed to get his dignity together admirably, as though he hadn't just been caught red handed. "It's an honor to meet you, General." He said, as though meeting him in the War Room.
Sarah flushed bright red and straightened her uniform. "Hi, dad."
"DAD!?" Kurt blurted, going buggy-eyed. His unshakable calm shattered in a microsecond.
Kate came running around the corner, running for all she was worth. "JohnJohnJohnJohn!" She skidded to a halt in front of them and checked Kurt over, like a field medic over a wounded soldier, searching for an injury. The relief was clear on her face when she didn't find one. "Oh, thank god, you're alive. So. Who are you?"
Kurt looked at Kate and saw more stars on her shoulders. "Ma'am. I'm... um... wait, it'll come to me." He was shaking, melting under The General's death-stare. "Kurt! I'm Kurt!"
"He can't remember his name, he's singled out our daughter, and he's new in the Base. He's probably an Infiltrator." Connor said darkly.
"He's not a Machine." Sarah insisted. "And would you two please stop, because you are embarrassing me."
"You know that he's all human for a fact, do you?" Connor growled. "I say we shoot him just once and make sure." The gun was out of his holster and pointed at the shaking teenager's stomach before Kurt could register the movement. He would have moved defensively, or tried to evade, but he was still stuck in brain-lock.
Sarah pushed the gun away. "DAD!" She turned to Kurt regretfully. "I'm sorry, Kurt; I'm so sorry. They like to torture me. Don't be scared."
A fine sweat had broken out on Kurt's face. "I'm... not scared."
"So. How long has this been going on?" Kate asked kindly.
"J-Just today." Kurt swore immediately, never taking his eyes off The General's gun.
"Just today? And you're already in the supply closet?" The General growled.
"O-oh, oh no, sir. We've known each other for a while now, but today was the first chance we had to..."
"To What?" The General pounced.
"Dad, be nice. Please?" Sarah put in carefully.
"You two have been together for this long and didn't tell your parents?" Kate glared. "What is this? Some illicit little fling?"
"No! No, Ma'am! Of course not! I would never treat Sarah that way!"
The General seemed mollified by that. "So you're in love, then?"
Sarah squeezed her eyes shut. "Da-ad!"
"Are you two at least being responsible?" Kate asked. "Sarah? I had this talk with you."
"Yes, mom; we're being responsible."
The General glared. "Are you now?"
Kurt managed to get a little paler. "Nosir! We... I mean, we don't have to be responsible because we aren't doing anything that would need... respect. I'm... respecting your daughter a lot a whole lot. I swear, tons of respect here. In fact, I didn't even know she was your daughter Sir. If I had known… I would never... never ever... not with your daughter, General..."
"What do you mean 'not ever'?" Sarah demanded, suddenly furious.
"You don't think my daughter is good enough for you?" The General asked dangerously. For a moment it was harder to tell who was glaring harder, him or Sarah.
Kurt's mouth opened and closed; he was trapped. "I... I..."
Kate softened. "Okay, John; you've had some fun, now let him off the hook before he faints." Kate told her husband and turned to Kurt sweetly. "He's been practising this little offensive since the day Sarah was born. Don't be scared, he doesn't really mean it. And hey, welcome to the family."
"The... the family?" Kurt repeated numbly.
"Well, you don't really think you're going to dump The General's Daughter for someone else, do you?" Kate chuckled warmly. "You be sure and check in with Colonel Noah. She'll run you through the rules, and find you a more appropriate posting."
"Ma'am?" Kurt squeaked. "What... what do you mean?"
"Oh please, call me Kate. Even 'mom' if you want. And what I mean is, if you're a way in to anyone in the Connor family, Skynet will paint a great big bulls-eye on you. You don't think we'd make you do anything as suicidal as go outside ever again, do you?" Kate was so sweet and helpful. "I mean, we're not evil. One date with Sarah and you're a marked man for life. But don't worry, we'll look after you."
Sarah glared at her mother. "Mom." She gritted. "I thought we agreed that you'd be on my side if this ever happened."
"Did you really? When exactly was this agreement made?" Connor growled again, sending his wife a look.
Kate just smiled. "We'll leave you two alone now, post a few guards outside, just in case. Come, John; let these kids be young and in love."
"No." Connor said seriously. But he let his wife lead him out of the room.
Sarah spun on Kurt. "Now, what the hell do you mean 'not ever with me'?" She snarled as the door swung shut.
The second the door closed, the two Generals traded a high-five, grinning at each other.
"Admit it." Kate taunted. "You're having fun."
"Let's give them a few minutes and go back in there. I can go get my sniper rifle." John suggested cheerfully.
Kurt's suddenly shrill voice came from inside the Closet, loud enough to be heard. "No! Don't touch me! At all!"
Both Generals giggled a little as the door opened, and Sarah stuck her head out. "I hate you both!" She snapped at them, and withdrew.
Kate keyed her radio as the closet door slammed shut again. "How about you? You get all that?"
Listening to the whole thing over the radio; Walters, and Noah, and pretty much everyone in the War Room were falling over each other laughing. Walters reached out and collected the microphone. "I hope your daughter knows how to resuscitate a patient, Kate."
Noah leaned in to speak too. "When does that little conversation come out in paperback?"
The Mighty Connors grinned at each other. "Well, that was diverting." Kate said with a smirk. "But would you mind telling me what that 'Package' Saint brought in was all about?"
Kate, Noah, Walters and Connor made their way downstairs, to one of the Supply rooms.
Saint was sitting on the floor against the wall. She looked exhausted.
"Isobel? You okay?" Connor asked.
Saint rolled her head back to look up at him, and was slow to stand. "Sorry, sir. Haven't slept a wink since we got this thing. My people have checked into Medbay, just in case."
"Are they all right?" Kate asked in concern.
"I think so, but we lost-"
"Not here." Connor cut them off. Saint nodded, keyed in her passcode, and they all went into the Storage room.
Unlike any of the other storerooms, this one was bare. No stores, no supplies, not even bare shelves. The emptiness of it made their voices and footsteps echo off the concrete walls. The atmosphere in the room, and the obvious fear on Saint's face just made the whole thing too oppressive, and they spoke in whispers. "I thought this room was destroyed." Walters said quietly.
Connor reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small electronic device. He pushed the button on it, and everyone winced as something seemed to go through their ears inaudibly. "Officially, it is." He noticed them looking at the device in his hand. "Micro-Jammer. An upgraded version of our regular Jammers. The range is only as far as one room. Just in case anyone left their radio's switched on accidentally, or someone got a listening device in here somehow."
At the back of the room, away from the wall, was 'The Package'. It was out of its wooden crate. It was a reinforced case the length of a cot. It looked a little battered around the corners, but it had two different electronic and mechanical locks on it.
Saint turned to Connor. "We were able to find the keys okay, but the passcode was... elsewhere."
"Leave that to me." Connor said easily, and pulled out a battered handheld computer. A few seconds with his Swiss army knife had gotten the cover off, and he quickly rigged a connection between the crate and his Handheld. The others watched, impressed as he worked it with practiced ease.
"Where'd you get that?" Kate asked.
"My mom gave me something similar to this when I was eight years old. It was her way of training me in counter-electronics. Told me if I wanted an allowance, I'd have to earn it. I was getting my walking around money from ATM's until I was ten years old." The Handheld beeped. "Easy money." Connor muttered under his breath.
Saint looked at Connor questioningly, and he nodded. Saint stepped forward and pulled a pair of security keys from around her neck. Connor took one. They both put their keys in, and turned the locks simultaneously. Connor checked his small screen and keyed in about twelve digits to the keypad. The case opened with a vacuum hiss.
Saint pulled the lid open, and everyone who didn't know already took two steps back.
There in the case was a Nuclear Warhead.
Radiation warnings all over it, shaped like a snub nosed cone, it looked harmless. But these were people still trying to retake the ruined results of the Bomb. The radiation symbol had been spray painted over road signs and shattered walls across the world, warnings left by people who almost uniformly died of radiation sickness soon after, their lives taken by the invisible bogeyman they died warning strangers about.
That symbol had become the icon of a vengeful and terrifying Death God, roaming their lands with the wind.
Connor let them get a good look at it, and then closed the box again.
Numb horrified silence.
Saint spoke first. "There's a missile base, well away from here. Nobody was going to put a target within five hundred miles of a Presidential Fallout shelter. Took us a month just to get to the silo without being seen, and we didn't even know if there were any missiles left after Skynet launched. There were five missiles left. Looks like the silo crews were trying to stop the launch... The missiles had twenty warheads each; none of them have been maintained since J-Day. The facility was lead-lined, so the surrounding area is okay, but I lost seven guys to radiation poisoning before we got a warhead out. Three more before we got back." She sent Kate a respectful look. "If it wasn't for Sarah, none of us would have made it back. I sent a call out to my guys to get it the rest of the way here. The two of them that answered heard that I lost my team to radiation sickness, and checked into Medbay, just in case the wind had shifted. They didn't know where my people had gotten sick. And the ones that lived, except for me, don't know where this came from."
Nobody else had said anything yet.
Connor turned to face them. "I know what you're all thinking. Outside the five of us, and the two guys in Medbay asking for iodine pills, there's nobody in the world who knows this box is here, and other than us, nobody knows what it is. This room was classified as too damaged to use, or to store anything, since the T-1000 attacked. Nobody, not even Brain Box, knows when the door opens, or what the code is. There are two keys needed to open the case, I have one, Saint has the other. This warhead has a detonator. I'm giving it to Eric. The detonator needs a hand-print, which will be Kate's, and a seven digit password, which will be Noah's, once I show her how to change it. You all are to use whatever methods you wish to make sure that if you get killed over the course of this war, then the weapon is still usable. I leave that to you, but nobody else knows what it's for. The five of us are the only ones who know."
They looked at each other carefully. They felt better about Connor's safeguards, knowing that it could only be used if all five of them agreed. There was a new feeling in this room now, like a secret society had been formed. The Five Keepers of The Bomb.
"General." Noah spoke first. "Why the hell is this thing here? You went to a lot of trouble to put it at our disposal, you must have a reason."
"I do." Connor nodded. "The reason, quite simply, is because it's going to come to that."
They just looked at him, waiting.
Connor nodded. "After several days work, and collaboration between Gould, half his team, and Brain Box, we've got some new Intel. Meet me tonight, Presidential Suite; I'll share it with you. Till then, I don't want anybody knowing this thing exists. You don't mention it, not even to each other, unless all five of us are present, and in private. At best, it's going to have to sit here for a good few years, and Skynet could win the war if it got control of this room for half a second. Clear?"
"Yessir." Chorused everyone, even Kate.
Berk was not settling in well. Griffin was taking it in stride. A soldier never knew where he'd be living and what he'd be doing in ten minutes time, but Berk was a Tunnel Rat. He'd never poked his head any further than the Main Hall in years. Going from that to unfamiliar people in bare walls made of rock and earth instead of concrete was jarring. A Tunnel Rat was exceptionally good at surviving, hiding and living… but the Rats of Crystal Peak had never experienced anything really new.
As such, he tried to keep his back to the wall the whole time, which was not really possible, given that he was working at workstations alongside Robbie.
Griffin was a soldier, kept in shape, and was good at doing new things when ordered. He picked it up fairly quickly, and could carry the load of any two of the Eden Team. Three, if they were part of the 'One Boot Brigade'.
But finally, Robbie decided he couldn't help himself.
"Berk, can I ask you something?" Robbie suggested lightly. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Berk looked down awkwardly. "Keeper told me to come."
"Keeper?"
"Your mom. She said... she asked me, well… ordered me actually, to stick close to you and look for something here."
"What for?"
"She didn't say."
"She seemed pretty upset about... Something."
Berk sighed. "She's upset that the Tunnel Rats still won't... We were talking about Meg and Stacey, and how other than them, none of the Tunnel Rats will sign on to Tech-Com, and then we got on to Skynet, and how it goes after big bases. Somehow... we got around to what would happen if Skynet got Crystal Peak."
"Never happen." Robbie said instantly.
"I know. But I went and told her about something the Rats said a long time ago. We agreed that... That if Tech-Com ever bailed out of Crystal Peak, the Rats would stay behind. We moved once, and there are some more of us now... If Tech-Com can't find us in the Tunnels, Skynet wont."
Robbie winced sympathetically. "Wrong thing to say to my mom."
Berk rubbed the back of his neck. "She said she wouldn't let us stay behind and, and I... I told her to worry about somebody other than us because she wasn't our mother, and we aren't her kids."
Robbie smirked. "Yes, you are."
"Yeah, we are." Berk said ruefully. "I was mad."
"She knows that." Robbie said carefully. "But… Why this? Why'd she send you here with me of all places?"
"I don't know. I think... I think she was talking about how there's a great big world, and the Tunnels are so small… especially since the Rats of Crystal Peak are having kids of their own now." Berk shrugged. "We know the world's out there. None of the Rats care. We got our place, and its safe enough. Something you can't say about this place."
"If we only went where it was safe, we'd never go anywhere."
"So what's wrong with that?" Berk groused. "We don't miss it. What's there to miss?"
Robbie suddenly realized what his mother wanted him to do with Berk. He jerked his head to the left, down the passage. "Come with me, and find out." He said, and then shouted over to the others. "Griffin, come with us!"
Griffin fell into step and followed him. "Where are we going?"
"Valley One." Ginny said with reverence, coming with them.
Robbie led them out of the Tunnels, into the light, and Berk rubbed his eyes. He had been brought to one of the Valleys, the largest one, and the first one set up. From beneath, it was deeper and wider than he first thought. It was a lot deeper than the other ones, which were only five or six feet deep. This one was deep enough that it almost felt like an extension of the Underground.
In the middle of the valley... was a grove of full grown trees. They were many times taller than Griffin was, and he stared at them, transfixed. He hadn't seen a tree since Judgement Day.
"We put them in this valley because it's deep. Every night we can bring the covers over, keep out the cold. One day they'll be strong enough to survive the winters on their own, and then we just let them grow. Down here, they're safe from the wind, but their branches can see the sky, get the sunlight." Robbie explained. "Take off your boots."
Griffin reacted. Soldiers did everything with their boots on. You never knew when you might need to move. Berk reacted too. A Tunnel Rat owned nothing but his own clothes, and shoes were far from optional.
Robbie smiled at him. "It's all right."
Ginny was smiling at them. "Do it, guys. You'll love this."
Berk hesitated, and bent down to unlace his boots.
"Socks too." Robbie directed, doing the same. "Then follow me."
They went down the gantry way, from the exit to the tunnels, and down a staircase that led to the floor of the valley where the trees were planted.
Berk was gingerly going down the stairs in bare feet, and paused at the bottom step. The ground was covered in greenery. "What's that?"
Robbie didn't hesitate, and stepped off the stairs. "It's grass."
Berk reacted. "I've heard of that. It was in one of the stories General Kate read to us."
Caw!
Berk reacted. "What's that?"
Robbie laughed. "It's a bird."
"What's a bird?" Berk demanded.
"It's an animal that lives in trees. We found a nest hidden in the remains of an old building. The bird had starved, but some of the eggs had survived." Ginny explained.
"When I first came out here, my father gave them to me." Robbie added. "Told me to keep them hidden. We brought them here with the trees, kept the eggs warm till they hatched. Those birds live here now. If you look close, you can find a nest in the tallest trees."
"Eggs. Like the battery hens?" Berk guessed. They were the only things he knew of that laid eggs.
"Yeah. But these birds aren't for food. I mean, you can, but if you got chickens, you don't need to. These birds fly."
Griffin didn't say anything for a while. His mouth was hanging open. "Birds fly. I remember that! I remember seeing that Back Before! God, I haven't thought about that in years."
Robbie just smiled at him.
Berk, like all the Tunnel Rats, was like a wild animal. Tough, skittish, cautious. He had to be drawn out carefully. He'd flinched at the sounds of the birds too. It was the first birdcall he'd ever heard. Ginny smiled, and stepped off the stairs, holding out a hand to him. Berk took it and stepped off the staircase. The grass was cool and green and it tickled his feet. He didn't smile. He was in brainlock. He'd never seen a tree, or a bird, or grass. Not that he could remember.
Ginny watched his face, delighted. She drew him slowly toward the trees, pleased to see him bunching his toes in the grass.
The trees were tall and green and leafy. There were a few birds, flitting between the branches, small and colorful. Griffin turned his head back and forth, trying to follow them. Insects chirped, breezes blew. It was the first garden either of them, Tunnel Rat or soldier, had ever seen.
Ginny led him toward the tallest tree, and climbed it without hesitation. She sat on a branch, and gestured for Berk to follow her.
Tunnel Rats could climb as well as they could duck, and he did so. He had never climbed a tree before. The branches felt strong under him.
The sounds of something fluttering came back, and Berk jumped as a bird flew past them. He still hadn't said anything since seeing grass.
A moment later, Robbie Connor appeared in front of him, hanging upside down off a higher branch. "It'll be back. This tree is its home." He smiled. "So, what do you think?"
"Smells nice." Berk said finally.
Ginny and Robbie smirked at each other. "Well." Ginny said. "It's a start."
Most of the Command level had their own room since the Units had to be kept together in case of sudden operations. Anyone ranked major or higher had a chance at a personal room. Not everyone took one, preferring to have their Unity close in case of an Infiltrator, or just for company. Soldiers that had families or kids thus took up most of the Officers quarters.
Eric knocked at Noah's door.
"It better be important!" Noah's voice yelled back.
Eric steeled himself and let himself in.
Noah's private quarters were like most of the others. Bed against the wall, desk next to it, smaller bed over at the other side of the larger than normal room for her kid. A kitchenette and small bathroom off the main room, closet space and foot lockers at the end of the beds.
Noah was in the middle of the room, with a punching bag set up. From the look of things, she'd been thrashing the punching bag for a long time. "Eric. Come to check up on me?
"Something like that." Walters didn't bother to deny it. "Was excepting to find a few dead NCO's in here."
"I keep them in the punching bag." Noah quipped. "Wanna spar for a while?"
"Easy... easy..."
Berk was frozen, trying not to move an inch. Ginny had put a small bit of bread crust on his fingertip, and told him to wait.
Berk had never seen a bird before, and now one was inching forward, looking at him, and the food on his fingertips. Birthdays were hard to track, but he knew he had been born just before, or just after the world changed, and the Wasteland and the Tunnels was all he ever knew. He had never seen an animal higher on the food chain than a rat or a cockroach before in his life. The only things that flew were H/K's and fighter jets.
The bird was cautious, but had clearly been fed by humans before, many times, and it knew what would happen. It inched forward, pecked the scrap of crust off his fingers, and bounced back quickly, before it swallowed, and whistled its gratitude musically.
Berk was stunned. The only animals he knew were tame; living their whole lives inside like the Tunnel Rats did. He'd never seen an animal that survived on the outside. Any animals that lived were in hiding themselves. One that would come forward, eat from his hand, and whistle music at him was... magical.
Robbie was nearby, watching Berk's face, seeing a transformation happen. He reached out a hand slowly, and touched Ginny's shoulder. She felt the signal and went silent, leaving Berk along with his thoughts for a moment.
The Tunnel Rat felt something inside him shift, like a spring wound too tight had been eased. He sat still for a moment. Cool green grass crunched under his bare hands and feet. He could hear water dripping, but it wasn't like a broken pipe in the Underground; it was a natural, gentle sound of Dewdrops falling. He could hear birds singing in the trees, and rolled his head back to look. Up above, through the green leafy branches, were the stars, cool and bright from down below in the valleys. The valley kept gentle warmth among the trees, bathing the whole orchard in ethereal mist. The air smelled clean and fresh and alive. Berk had spent so long in wastelands, he didn't know what fresh clean air smelled like, but he knew he would never be satisfied with the omnipresent burnt air of the wastelands or the motionless indoor air of the Tunnels ever again.
His vision was blurring. Berk raised his hand to his face. Tears. Berk hadn't cried since... ever.
He rubbed his face, clearing his eyes, and saw Griffin going through the same thing.
Ginny was smiling radiantly at them. Robbie was giving him the same look, like a proud parent.
A half hour of sparring behind them, Noah collapsed into her couch. "So. You're supposed to be keeping an eye on me and my mental health. You bring anything to drink?"
"You don't have your own supply?" Walters asked, still breathing hard.
"I have a kid." Noah said, as though that explained everything. "Will you sit down, already? You were enjoying the tight sleeper holds a little too much to blush from sitting on the couch with me."
Walters laughed at that and sat down. The couch gave them a clear view of Micheal's bed on the far side of the room.
Erica gestured at it sadly. "Look."
"What's wrong?"
"He left Mr Chimp behind."
"What?"
"The toy. It's this stuffed monkey that I scrounged back in San Jose. He's kept the thing with him ever since he was five months old. Two bases and half the war… and he left it behind now."
"Erica…" Eric said gently. "Maybe he doesn't need it any more."
Erica sagged, saddened by that.
Walters smiled at her. "I never know how you and Kate, and for that matter, anyone else in this base dares it." He said.
"Dares what?" Erica asked him absently.
"Having a family." Eric said kindly. "When Connor ordered it, I saw the appeal. Free bed, regular meals, protected for nine months, planet of people willing to take care of the kid afterward... I was in awe of the woman who..."
"Who didn't pass off the time bomb of responsibility to anyone else who would take it?" Noah quipped. She chuckled bitterly. "Eric... there are maybe three people in the world I could admit this too. You're one of them. I... I'm terrified."
Eric was smiling softly.
"What?" She demanded, a little unnerved at the look.
"Nothing, nothing at all." Eric said lightly. "I just... We first met out on the road between San Jose and Los Angeles in the dark. Half my guys were a week out of training when J-Day hit, and there was you, shaking off an H/K ambush like it was a bad cup of coffee."
"Duh." Noah snarked. "An H/K attack takes a few minutes to resolve itself; a bad cup of coffee can mess you up all day."
"See? That's what I'm talking about." Walters said. "You can go from frosty to supermom so fast..."
They were silent a moment, just sitting there.
"When I..." Erica seemed to debate something a moment, and then tarted talking. "I never intended to be a mother. I couldn't see me as a parent either, but then I got injured. Arm was messed up. I was benched for a while, it was the first time I had three consecutive weeks ahead without a fire-fight... it was the dead of winter, he was nice and warm, and I had been thinking about it for a while... I don't think there's any woman left in the world who doesn't. If we didn't want kids back before, then we all at least think about it now. I figured the same thing you did. Plenty of people to look after my kid, and I could go back to the fight."
Eric looked over at her. "What changed?"
She smiled warmly, looking ten years younger. "Michael was born. God, he was so small and beautiful. I changed my mind the second I saw him; I was never going to let anyone else take care of him. Not ever. If I had to choose, I would have ditched the uniform right then." Erica seemed to glow a little, lost in warm happy memories. Her gaze settled on Eric for a moment, and she slid over, so that she sat next to him. "You mind?"
Eric put an arm around her. "Nope."
Erica took a long, slow breath as she got comfortable. "Mmm. Ask me what you want to ask me."
Eric shook his head. "It's not important."
"But it's a fair question."
"What happened to Micheal's father?"
It wasn't the question she meant, but it was close enough and Erica sighed. "He died. The day we lost Castle Keep. Lost a lot of good people that day."
Eric nodded, reliving his own experience. "Yeah, we did."
Long silence.
"Eric?" She said finally. "You ever think..." She didn't finish the sentence.
Eric tensed, just a tiny bit. "We had this conversation."
"You came to my room, half-plastered, after a gawd-awful dogfight, and I turned you down. Once. Many years ago. That doesn't count as 'having the conversation'."
He suddenly smiled teasingly. "Of course, I'd like to think you only turned me down because you had a schoolgirl crush on Connor."
"A 'schoolgirl crush'?" Erica repeated.
"Well what would you call it?" Eric shot back.
Erica sighed. "I never told you this but... during the food riots, when you were out of action... I actually made a move."
Eric turned his head to look at her, curled up in his arm. "You didn't!"
"I knew what the answer would be. It was a lapse." She seemed thoroughly embarrassed by it. "He let me down easy, we never spoke of it. I got my answer. I moved on. But that was years ago... And I guess I'm wondering..." She spit it out finally. "Why haven't you ever tried again?"
Eric was silent a long time, letting himself think about the answer. "Well... I've served on enough battlefields to know... You see people you live with get blown into messes; your nerves get so raw you just need a tranquillizer... But you and me were practically the same from the day we met. We aren't the big time Heroes, we're the ones they count on. Second in commands, willing to follow our guys into hell. Then you came on board, and we became his top two... I didn't know how to compete with The General in your mind… And after that..."
She pulled away enough to turn and face him. "Eric, when I asked why you hadn't tried again? That was a hint, just so you know."
"Oh." Eric froze for two seconds, and then quickly leaned in and gave her a kiss. It lasted for a good long time.
The PA crackled swiftly. "Colonels Noah and Walters, report to General Connor."
They broke the kiss unhurriedly, pulling back just enough to breathe slowly.
"Mmm." Erica drawled finally. "Well that was worth the whole day."
Eric chuckled. "Certainly clarifies a few things."
Erica nodded and stood, stretching languidly like a big cat. "Yeah." They gave each other a hungry look, before taking a deep breath, and letting it out slowly. "The PA said to report to Connor, not to the War Room. Whatever secret he's been sitting on, it's time now. So… we should probably…"
Eric stood, gathered himself. "Erica... My shift ends at 2200. If you aren't doing anything…"
Noah stood, straightened her uniform, and led the way out. "I'll be there."
The General wasn't in the War Room, but they already knew that. When they got to the Presidential Suite, they had to knock, because the door was locked. Kate unlocked it and let them in. Saint and Connor were there already.
Connor waved them in, and they came to sit down. Kate locked the door behind them, pulled the micro-jammer out of her pocket and switched it on.
Connor placed a photograph on the table. It was a high altitude shot, with a few circles drawn over it in Ink. The five of them looked at it for a long moment. They had all seen surveillance photographs at one time or another and they didn't need help to interpret.
Walters let out a low whistle. The picture showed a nest of Machines so big and bristling with entrenched weapons it gave the experienced soldiers a chill, even from a photograph. Thousands of Machines, maybe hundreds of thousands. Factories were placed close in a flawless geometric pattern, ensuring that new Machines could come rolling out by the hundreds into the area in an instant.
Strong defensive walls, hundreds of turrets, layers ten perimeters deep. The gates in the walls were huge, practically half the walls. Hundreds of flying H/K's patrolling, buildings of all descriptions and sizes laid out in uniform position. Even in a small picture, even from above, it was a terrifying sight.
"Where is this?" Walters asked.
"North. Dead Center in the continent. It's surrounded by hot-zones, but it's relatively clear itself." Connor said. "We never went there because we never had use for it, and getting there is a nightmare with all the Skynet patrols."
Noah shook her head. "I thought Skynet was feeling the pinch. Where the hell did all these Machines come from?"
"They were always there." Connor said. "It's not a new formation. Skynet has a set number of defenders for that complex, everything else is on offense."
"Where did we get this photo?" Kate asked in disbelief.
Connor took a breath. "At J-Day, Skynet got control of all the satellites still in the sky, and re-tasked one of them to be in geosynchronous orbit over the facility in this photo. That satellite is how it sends its commands to its forces across the continent. Gould and his team got to work, feeding the last two years worth of Skynet ciphers into Brain Box and about five hundred scrubbed Machines working their calculators all at once, and they figured out the rotating cryptography pattern. Gould uploaded this new information into a satellite dish we had well outside our Secure Zones, and tried to hack the Skynet satellite. We managed to get into Skynet's system for four fifths of a millisecond before Skynet figured it out and ended our satellite relay." He tapped the photo. "Just long enough to get this shot, of the place it has been parked over for decades."
"You know that they'll redeploy all those lines before we can get within eighty miles of the place." Noah said.
"I do." Connor confirmed. "I don't care."
"And you know you'll never get into its system ever again." Walters put in. "It'll change that code pattern key every five seconds from now on."
"I know." Connor confirmed. "I don't care about that either. I got what I needed. What we needed."
They saw the light-bulb go off over Walters' head. "That's it isn't it?"
Noah blinked and looked at the photo again. "What? What!"
"That..." Connor said seriously. "Is the Holy Grail. That's Skynet."
Noah felt her jaw drop. "That's the System Core?"
"Heart of the Beast. Top Target. The End of The Campaign." Connor confirmed.
"Are you sure?"
"The layout of Skynet's forces is geared to protect this area. There are three large facilities in that zone, but I'm positive it's this one." Connor pointed at the photo. "If I wasn't sure before, then I am now. Take a look."
Noah did, and finally it hit her. "The short range weapons."
"Everything we've got is well away from there, so why is it surrounded by short range fast-interceptor guns?"
"Because that's where it's worried about losing the building. It's the only one geared to protect more than attack."
"Ladies and Gent, that's the System Core. We Zero that Base, and we can call it a good day's work." Connor said with grim understatement.
Kate however, spelled it out. "We Zero that Base... We've won the War."
Connor nodded. "It's going to be a long hard fight to get in there, much less win, but the first task..."
"...Is to make sure Skynet can't escape." Kate finished.
"That's the problem with our enemy. It's software. It uploaded itself once. If it does so again, we have to know where it goes." Connor smirked evilly. "Gould has gone over it, and he says that given how big and powerful a software AI like Skynet is, and how thin it's relays and forces are spread now, there's a specific set of hardware requirements it will need. The most important of which, will be a powerful receiver."
Beat.
"Arecibo." Walters said finally. Noah and Kate looked at him, frankly admiring for figuring it out so fast.
Connor just nodded. "Arecibo Observatory. Whatever Skynet was doing out there, it left the facility intact, and our siege didn't affect it that badly. Skynet retook the area after the split with the Union. We didn't think much of it at the time, because it was a good tactical position against Rojas and the Union territory, but..."
"Are we going to go after the Observatory?"
"No." Connor said. "We can't spare the forces, and the Union has the whole area. Besides, it doesn't matter."
"Why not?"
"There's nowhere at Arecibo for Skynet to go. It has a satellite dish that can receive a program like Skynet, but it doesn't have a hard drive or system core big enough, any kind of defenses; any kind of power supply..."
"Nowhere for it to run then?"
"Looks that way." Connor confirmed, tapping the photo. "We take this facility, and the rest is just mopping up. Skynet's offense is spread thin, its supply lines are all but cut off. Eden and Infiltrator Tanks can grow food for us anywhere, Skynet can only make Machines if it finds, transports, and refines heavy metals, and we're starving it out."
"I've got a War Room full of people tracking troop movements that say otherwise." Walters pointed out.
"Think about it for a second, Eric. Every time the number of H/K teams increases, the number of H/K's in each team changes to thin them out a little. Every time one team retreats, another set move out in another direction. Every Time the Union takes a piece of land, Skynet launches an attack on a piece of land the same size. Their territory isn't expanding, it's just mobile. The actual numbers on Skynet's offensive wing haven't grown. May have shrunk a little. The longer this war goes, the less their numbers grow."
"You have those numbers committed to memory?" Noah quipped.
"My husband is just a little freakish that way." Kate said with affection.
"It's going to take a long time, but now we have a final objective." Connor summed up. "If we charge the System Core, we'll spook Skynet and it'll build up Arecibo, make it a viable way out. We can't fight through Skynet and The Union to stop them; so we can't give it enough time to build another massive stronghold for Skynet's brain somewhere. Right now, its only escape route is cut off, and it doesn't care because there's no reason for it to escape. We have to bleed off its defenders, and have it trapped, before it realizes what our target is."
Walters let out a breath. "Tall order, boss."
"Hence the package downstairs." Connor finished. "A way to shorten that particular siege dramatically."
Noah glanced across at Connor. "The Package downstairs is a tactical device. A battlefield nuke. Getting it in there won't be easy."
Connor smirked. "We have time."
Berk hadn't said anything for an hour, staring up at the trees. Robbie and Ginny were with him. Nobody had much to say just yet.
Terry was pulling a trolley the full length of the Valley. The trolley was full of gravel. He had half the Eden Team following him. "Where do you want it, Robbie?"
Robbie pointed back over his shoulder. "Valley Eight for now. We'll have to sweep it in as we lay the pipe."
Terry nodded and headed off. The brief distraction was enough to shake Berk out of his thoughts. "So…" He asked Robbie. "Is this what all the other Valleys are like?"
Robbie shook his head. "Not like this. Valley One is the finished product. You give us enough time, and they'll all look like that. But the point of Eden is to make as many places as possible like that. We start the trees off here, get them used to stuff like the cold and the wind, and then send most of them across the world. Give us enough time and work, Valley Eight will be just like it."
Berk blinked. It seemed an impossible picture. Valley Eight, where he had spent a day digging out salt and mud, would be just like this paradise in Valley One. "It… It will?"
"It will." Robbie said. "The trees you're looking at? My dad planted them, in big pots, in Crystal Peak, the first month after J-Day. We brought them here when I was a kid. Berk… Valley Eight will be like it at some point. You said the Tunnel Rats had kids of their own now, down in the tunnels of the Underground that nobody else has ever found… If you wanted, when those kids grow up, you can bring them to Valley Eight, and it'll be just like what you see now… thanks to you, and Michael, and Griffin, and Ginny and me, and a dozen others."
Berk sat down like his legs had been knocked out of him. His fingers bunched the grass automatically. The notion that a place could be made into a… wonderland like this was hard enough to fathom. They thought that he had helped…
"I have to go sort things out in Valley Eight." Robbie said finally. "Take your time."
Berk barely noticed him leaving.
Ginny came over and sat down next to him a few minutes later. She plucked the flower from her hair, and held it under Berk's nose without a word. He took a deep breath of it. He'd never smelled a flower before. "It's an orange blossom." She murmured. "You ate an orange yesterday, remember? These flowers, they grow on the trees, and they grow into the orange fruits. Sometimes a blossom falls without that happening. This is one of them."
Berk took another deep breath of it, and carefully threaded it back into her hair. She tilted her head and let him.
"What are you thinking?" She asked him softly.
Berk was almost shaking. "We were kids, scurrying around ruins, eating rotten food out of dead people's garbage." Berk croaked. "Connor gave us a safe place, and food, and warmth… and we buried ourselves so deep… We've got kids of our own now… None of those kids… none of their parents, have ever seen a flower, or grass, or a tree, or a bird, or a strawberry, or the sky… oh god… Gin, we lived our whole lives and had kids of our own and we never even saw a damn thing… oh GOD!" He choked out.
Ginny held him tightly as he finally broke down.
Michael and Robbie were in the hatch leading to Valley One, watching them. As Berk broke down sobbing on Ginny's shoulder, they traded a look. The two of them had been running back and forth from Eden to the Underground more than any of the others, and knew exactly what the Rat was going through. They were almost smiling. It was not unlike a religious experience, this bare survivor walking through paradise after a lifetime of wastelands and bomb shelters…
"This is what Keeper wanted." Michael whispered. "She doesn't want the Rats, and now their kids, to stay buried their whole lives."
"All of us live underground, Mike." Robbie whispered, not taking his eyes of Ginny. "It's the only way we survive. Up to a point, even our trees have to live underground. If it came to that, we could seal it up and live self sufficient in Crystal Peak. But we don't belong there. Not forever."
"I can't imagine that."
The two of them turned and found Griffin watching with them. He spoke in hushed tones. "I can't imagine living in a place like this."
"When the war is over..." Robbie said, soft like a prayer.
It had been a while since Kyle was in LA. It hadn't improved. In fact the debris had built up further, the buildings crumbled a fair bit more.
And Skynet still powering over the ruins. They went through what used to be the streets of LA, patrolling the coastline. LA was the only place you could leave the ocean and have Tunnels waiting.
Running through wreckage in the dark was never any fun. Doing so while Skynet was shooting at you made it worse.
Kyle swore under his breath as his ankle twisted slightly. Fighting at night was always a balanced risk. Terminators and H/K's could see better in the dark, but humans could move into position better. A Terminator was a close range fighter. H/K's could be taken out from a distance. You strike, you evade, you vanish, and you do it all over again.
But attempting to retake the rubble of LA had turned from a simple 'Rack-and-Stack' to a pitched battle. Skynet had left its forces in the wreck of the LA underground, apparently since they'd evacuated it. The Machines left behind in the Tunnels were obsolete, but the first team in there had expected sabotage or landmines, not functional Terminators, and Tech-Com had been ambushed.
Perry set up the counter-attack quickly, pairing his people up and sending them through the dark. Most of the sneak tunnels used for the Sappers long ago were still there, even if some of the buildings and sniper points weren't. The pairs spread through the city, taking apart the H/K's. The flyers were uncommon. There weren't a lot of them left in LA, with the war demanding them go elsewhere.
Kyle and his partner, a Tunnel Rat named Stacey, were moving fast. It was her first time out since Trial By Battle, but if there was one thing a Rat knew how to do, it was move through walls without anyone noticing.
Kyle heard the sounds of large heavy Machines and paused, spinning around and stopping her. "Now. You know the rules?"
Stacey nodded. "Yessir. Stay to the side, stay out of the searchlights, throw the charges, and get back fast."
"Stay low, stay quiet." Kyle finished. He'd lost too many partners, and wanted to do this alone, but Perry had made it an order. He peeked around the corner. "There's an H/K's coming. There's a ride waiting for us back that way." Kyle pointed. "Don't wait for me, just run."
Stacey nodded, eyes wide, mouth open. Kyle could barely look at her. She was green as spoiled rations.
The rumble of tank treads got closer. Kyle put his back to the wall, pulled the shaped charge out of his pack, and armed it.
The spotlight passed over the wall they hid behind, and Kyle moved. Stay flat, throw as you rise up, duck as it flies. He counted the rhythm in his head. He'd done it before, many many times.
The shaped charge came in from the side. Skynet had eyes on the sides of these H/K's, but without the spotlights...
The charge came down perfectly, directly in the path of the H/K's treads. It rolled over the charge without noticing it.
Kyle was already down, ducking low behind the wall, as the great Hunting Machine came closer.
Stacey looked manic, the rush of combat washing away everything else, as she armed her charge. The H/K was coming up the wrecked street, spotlights playing over the road, looking for mines or soldiers, or trip wires.
Stacey rose, eyes scanning, as the spotlights washed in their direction...
Kyle almost moved fast enough to stop her.
The light shone on the former Tunnel Rat, and she tossed because she was too far along to stop, ducking back down in panic.
Too late.
The spotlight caught her, and the cannon swiveled with machine speed and accuracy. Stacey was caught Mid-Duck, the blast from the H/K blowing her little body into messy pieces.
Kyle shut his eyes for a brief second. It was all the time a soldier's memorial took.
Kyle explosive charge was enough to do the job though, and a great explosion roared up from underneath the H/K, gutting it with flame and destruction.
A high-pitched whine came from the air, though still distant, and Kyle took off, running for all he was worth into the darkness, taking cover in the street from behind the wrecked vehicles.
The Jeep was waiting for him. The Motor Pool was good at making their vehicles look like they had been there since J-Day, though as time wore on, it was getting easier and easier to believe they were long abandoned.
The Tech-Com soldier in the driver's seat saw Kyle coming alone and quickly shimmied out the back of the cab. If Stacey had lived, she would have taken the gunner's post on the back. Kyle took the hood of the vehicle at a leap, and slid feet first into the drivers' seat, through where the windshield would be.
The whine of the Turbine got louder, and the Gunner slapped the top of the cab. He was secured. Kyle gunned the badly misfiring motor, and they started moving. The roads were nonexistent, the terrain rough enough that every bump sent Kyle flying into the roof of the truck, his head snapping back and forth as they came down.
Sure enough, the flying H/K closed in on them, noticing one of it's own destroyed. His gunner started shooting, being bounced around enough that he could barely grip the mounted gun, let alone aim it.
Plasmafire went back and forth between them furiously, the car able to take a few hits, the flying Machine able to evade.
It couldn't last, finally Kyle hit something in the dark that he couldn't see coming, the Jeep lurched, and Skynet hit them with a full burst of plasmafire. Kyle heard his gunner scream for a moment before the blast sent them both rolling, the Jeep skidding on its side into the debris.
Kyle smelt smoke and burned meat, and struggled to get free as spotlights played over him. The Jeep was burning, the flames getting closer as Kyle wrestled with mangled steel, trying madly to force the wreck to release him before he cooked.
Kyle howled as the fire reached him, the heat and the smoke and the injury finally resting him into blissful unconsciousness.
Chapter 21: Z Plus 19 Years 68 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Nine teen Years Sixty Eight Days
Kate woke up and found John staring at her. She just looked back for a moment, before sitting upright against the headboard. She knew he liked to watch her sleep. The kids too. Usually after a bad day. She didn't mind. After so many years, she found she liked it, knowing she was still a source of comfort when the whole world fell down. She looked back at him, letting herself wake up and drink in the sight of the salt and pepper gray in his hair, and the tightening scar down the side of his face. "Everything okay?" She asked softly.
"We took LA." Connor said quietly. "But it was a hell of a dogfight."
"Thought it was a routine recapture."
"It was, but LA was where we taught Skynet the ambush trick. They seem to have developed a sense of irony at last. Casualties were... bad."
Kate felt a chill and sat forward, taking his hands in hers. "Kyle?"
"Well enough to be brought back here for Evac." Connor admitted softly. "Sounds like he got rolled pretty hard."
Kate swallowed and got up. "Oh no..."
"We took LA." Connor finished. "But the 321st is all but gone. Perry was able to complete the Mission. We managed to get the harbor together, the Enterprise docked. They're trying to patch it up as best they can. Halloway had this idea that maybe they could rotate some crew back and forth, give his Submariners a chance to see the sky, give the Carriers' crew a chance to stay hidden for a while."
"What do you think?" Kate asked, pulling her jacket on.
Connor helped her into it. Her arm was still weak enough that he felt okay about helping her get her bad arm through the sleeve. He put a gentle kiss on her bad shoulder as she pulled the jacket around her. "Think about what?"
Kate shrugged. "We use the oceans for transport. That's about it. Skynet could hide a floating army out there on the waves if it wanted. If our supply lines can go underwater, or if our international teams are self sufficient... then what do we need the oceans for at all?"
"Good question. General Cho tells me that they've got an assembly line going for Infiltrator tanks and tank water filters. If they can ship it out, we don't have to worry about supply lines at all, can pull everything we need out of the Atlantic, let them have it, let them rust."
"Generals Connor, Colonels Noah and Walters, please report to the War Room." The PA crackled.
Connor stood as Kate ran her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten it. "How long have you been here with me?" She asked quietly.
"Half an hour or so."
"I suppose it wouldn't be a good idea to ask if you slept."
"I would prefer you don't." Connor admitted, and they headed out, Kate still trying to untangle her hair a bit.
Walters came into the war room, and saw Connor had beaten him there, now standing exactly where he'd been the night before, now with Kate next to him. "Morning sir. Did you sleep?"
"I don't sleep." Connor said. "How about you and Noah?"
Walters answered automatically. "We did." He flushed and tripped over himself trying to back himself up. "I mean, I assume she did. I went to sleep first so..." He turned bright red. Soldiers gossiped about such things with each other, but not with The General.
At that moment, Noah came in. "Morning, Sirs."
"Thank god." Walters said under his breath, relieved.
Noah spared Walters a look, and tried not to notice Kate smiling at her. "Reporting as ordered, General."
Connor nodded as his team came together. "Tony tells me we've got a call on the secure line from Oldham, I figured you'd want to be in on it." He turned to Sherrin, as did Kate; and Noah took the opportunity to smack Eric hard across the back of the head, giving him a deathglare. He mouthed an apology, trying to silently indicate that he was innocent.
All this took place in the time it Sherrin to flip a few switches. "Go ahead, Oldham; we can hear you." Connor called.
"Yessir, Chief." Oldham's voice came from the speakers. "Skynet has redeployed its H/K's. My scouts say that they're splitting up. Heading in different directions."
"Why?"
"We're not sure, but given the directions that they're traveling, it looks like they're planning hit and runs."
"On who? What have we got that a hit and run will hurt? A small strike and withdraw will hurt them a lot more than us." Walters said, when it dawned on him suddenly and he glanced at Kate before he could stop himself.
"Eden." Kate said darkly. "Tech-Com can handle it, but Eden doesn't have nearly as much firepower."
Oldham's voice seemed to confirm that. "The H/K's are heading for Colorado, Canada, Kansas… And the Salt Flat Valleys."
Noah, John and Kate shared a sharp look. One of Skynet's quick attacks were heading for their children.
"We can cut off most of those attacks." Oldham said. "I've already scrambled fighter jets to intercept… but there's a few we can't hit in time. The soil treatment in Kansas… and the orchard in the Death Valley Salt Flats."
It was the second time he'd hesitated to say it out loud. He knew why the Orchard was special. He knew who was there.
Eric took a breath. Of the top four command staff, he was the only one without a child in the firing line. He was going to have to be smart about this for a while. "Why would it hit the Eden Project?" He asked practically. "There's no military presence, no serious weapons, teams are small… Skynet's starving. Why spread itself so thin?"
"Maybe Skynet just wants to take out all the vegetation?" Noah suggested. "Suffocate us all by killing all the trees that survived?"
Connor shook his head. "No. The majority of plant life is all underwater in the oceans. If J-Day didn't wipe it out completely, nothing will. Skynet's a little more specific in its targets. I have no doubt it'll kill any forests and trees it finds, but we've got it spread thin enough that it won't bother hunting foliage."
"Then wh... Oh my god. Robbie." Kate blurted. "They know our son is out there. They're targeting Robbie."
Connor took that with disturbing calm. "No. Brain Box doesn't have anything from the recent captures about a change in the Priority target list, and Robbie's mission is recent enough that it means it's a coincidence. Also, that wouldn't explain the other targets. After Arecibo, Skynet still hasn't figured out why we haven't all starved to death. My guess is that's why Eden is a target. It's trying to kill everything we grow. That's why it went after the Jungles down south but not the Forests up north. It was looking for our food supply."
"That's why it wants Eden." Noah agreed. "Sir... I think we need to evacuate the Orchard."
"He's gonna hate this." Connor said softly. "Death Valley is his. More than Crystal Peak is ours, it's his."
"I know." Kate agreed. "But what's the alternative?"
Kate and Connor just looked at each other. "Tony, get him on the line."
Berk was learning quickly. He was spending every scrap of free time he could in the Orchard, just looking at the trees, looking at the birds.
Ginny came over to see him. Berk looked over at her, and suddenly realized the appeal. This place did something to him, just as it had to her. Ginny was walking barefoot through the grass, her dress swaying as she moved. She looked… softer, wilder, but not in a feral way like the Rats. She had an orange blossom in her hair; her skin didn't have the omnipresent weather-beaten look that living up above ground level gave everyone... She looked like a fresh beautiful living thing that had grown here, like the trees.
She came over to him and sat down beside him, not saying anything.
Robbie spoke first. "It's…" he put a hand to his chest. "It feels like something changed, but I don't know what. I… I've never felt this way before."
Ginny smiled. "I felt the same way back in the greenhouse. It felt like I was dying when I walked around the wastelands. Then Robbie found me, brought me here. The feeling doesn't go away."
Robbie was coming into the Valley with a load of branch graftings on his narrow shoulder, and had frozen when he saw them. He'd spent the last three minutes just watching them, unsettled for some reason. Ginny was smiling more at Berk than she had before.
"Robbie."
Robbie turned. It was Griffin. The young man was older than Robbie, but he looked borderline awed. "There's a call on the Radio. It's The Chief. He wants to talk to you."
Robbie jumped up and went to take the radio. "Sir? Brewster here."
"Robbie, you might want to get your people together and prepare to move out." Connor's voice called.
Robbie felt his heart rate tick up. "Why?"
"We're getting Intel that says Eden's secret is out. Skynet's sending a force to take out your plantation."
Robbie felt his stomach sink. "How big a force?"
"That's the good news. Skynet's spread pretty thin right now. They know you aren't a Combat Force. One flying H/K, twenty five Terminators aboard."
Robbie was silent a moment. "We can take them."
Dead silence.
"Uh, sorry, Rob. Interference on the line. It sounded like you said..."
"I did."
"Robbie... Eden can be set up in a lot of places. You can't be."
"Sir, they're trees. It's not a life and death mission... But they're ours. They're worth protecting."
"So much like you it's scary sometimes." Kate commented under her breath.
Connor lifted the radio. "The rest of your team... What do they think?"
"They're with me on this one, I'm sure of it." Robbie said.
Connor sighed. "Robbie, you are to defend your people, and the Eden Plantation. In that order Robbie."
"Yessir." The kid's voice was downright gleeful, and Kate gave her husband a look that would bend steel.
Connor disconnected and put the radio down. "Kate, before y-"
"Call him back and get him to evacuate." Kate said shortly, like she was asking him to pass the salt. The others glanced at each other, getting ready for the inevitable fight.
"Kate, The Eden Project isn't military." Connor said firmly.
"Ex-cuse me?" Kate responded. "That's what you're telling me? That his project isn't military, so it's up to him?"
"He is the Director of the Eden Project. At least, for the division that he's with." Walters pointed out.
Kate gave him a look that would curdle fresh milk, and then went back to arguing with her husband. "John-"
"When he's out there on Eden business, its not my call." Connor was saying gently.
"Who the hell does make the call, then?" Kate snarled, then suddenly blinked. "Oh. Right."
Robbie hadn't stepped away from the radio. "Five." He counted on his fingers. "Four. Three. Two. One."
The radio crackled on cue. "Robbie? You still there?" Kate called.
Robbie smirked. "Ma'am, I know what you're going to say, and we can handle it."
"This isn't a scout mission, soldier." Kate snapped.
"And that isn't an army coming for us, General; its one H/K." Robbie shot back. "We can do this." He lowered his voice a little. "It's about time you let me get into the war."
"We don't have anyone who can back you up!"
"We ain't asking for Backup. We've got people. The trucks we took to get here have weapons. We've poured a lot of what we've got left into this Project. It's going to work. And we aren't just going to turn and run while Skynet burns it down for no reason other than just to make something else burn."
"Robbie, I could make it an order."
"Yes, Ma'am; you could. And if you did, I would have to obey. Please don't make it an order."
Connor reached out and put a hand over the microphone. "You call him back now, when it's something he's so invested in, and he'll never forgive you. And if he doesn't get into this, he'll never grow up."
"He dies, and he'll never grow up." Noah jumped in. "Eden can't take them."
"Are you saying that because that's what you think, or because Michael is out there with them?" Connor asked her cuttingly.
"John..." Kate began painfully.
"You were the one telling me that Robbie's greatest fear is that I'm coddling him." Connor pointed out.
"I want to protect your kids too, Ma'am; but we never took it this long with Sarah, and if we keep going we're crippling him for life." Walters agreed. "We're crippling all of them for life."
That one caught Kate unawares. Robbie was feeling the pressure of being John Connor's only son.
Kate wanted to scream, and she knew John and Noah did too. But she knew he was right. The only way to teach a baby bird to fly was to throw them out of the nest and see if they survived.
Hating every bit of it, and wishing a few more curses on Skynet, Kate keyed the microphone again. "Robbie... Good Hunting."
Noah shut her eyes for a moment. Walters gave Kate a slow single nod. Connor was unreadable.
Berk was crouched over a sapling with Michael, they were both watching closely as Ginny sliced with her combat knife. The knife was too big for the job, but she was skilled with it. "This is called grafting." She explained. "It gets the fruit to yield a lot faster than letting it grow normally. Half the trees we have here in the orchard are for fruit, the other half is for the air."
"Air?" Michael was confused by that one.
Terry explained. "Tree produces air. Every time you breathe out, a tree breathes in. But there are more people than trees right now. All the air they produce is what kept the rain, the clouds, the weather... Skynet burned it all. Eden isn't just feeding people, it's trying to put everything back. Some trees produce air better than others. Oak is the best. But Oak trees take ages to grow, and we need food too. After J-Day, a lot of the air burned up, and that's what made the ground bare, the oceans sick, and the weather bad. So we grow half fruit trees, half air trees. Connor says that if we make enough things grow, we can make the earth better too."
"I remember rain." Griffin said softly. "I remember blue sky. You really think that... that we can..."
"We can." Robbie said from behind them.
The others turned to see him coming in. He looked very serious. "But it will take such a long time to get there." He continued. "And until Skynet is gone and the weather is kind, we have to do it like this."
Ginny frowned at him. "Robbie, what's wrong?"
"Get everyone together." Robbie said. "Do it fast."
Ross was waiting in one of the meeting rooms, as he had been for some time. The door opened and Walters came in at a quick walk. "Sorry." He said by way of greeting. "The day suddenly stopped being routine a few minutes ago."
"Anything serious?"
"Skynet's sending offensives in all directions. One of them involved one of the Connor kids."
"Nono! Not one of the kids!" Ross blurted in sympathetic pain. "God, you should see General Murray when his daughter is in the crossfire. We can't get him to focus on a breakfast menu without him demanding swift and deadly attacks on everything that moves."
"How is Murray working out by the way?" Walters asked, getting back on topic. "Are you having Supply problems so far from Palace?"
"Not as many as you'd think. And supplies from here are really a formality of being part of Tech-Com. We've been self sufficient since J-Day. Actually, since before that, but J-Day made us live without the rest of the world a long time."
Walters grinned. "You say 'us' but you were helping me dig out The Alamo for the first year after J-Day."
Ross laughed. "I was, I know. But the roots run deep. Halloway and his guys were going stir crazy on that first run. A Submarine ain't exactly a cruise liner, y'know? Half of them were still kids. Barely out of swim training when J-Day hit, spent all their combat experience with us." He tossed back his drink. "Then we got there, and we spent the first few weeks basically reorganizing everything as a Tech-Com base instead of an Australian Naval Submarine Post. Halloway's guys were content to stay on the Sub instead of come out and help, let alone the first hit and runs. You never heard such a load of whiners."
Walters laughed. "Navy men."
"Navy men." Ross agreed. "You should have seen Halloway's Navy guys with the Aussie soldiers. They were all over each other about Baseball versus Cricket."
"Cricket? Really?"
"We take it seriously." Ross said protectively.
Walters held his hands up. "Hey, no judgements here."
"Ahh, it was all worth it to get home at last."
"What's the situation now?"
"Skynet still has the Cities, but we're like the rest of Tech-Com that way. We haven't needed a city for years. The Outback is as hard on gears and clockwork as it is on people. Water is the hard part. We adapted Skynet tech to filter water, practically 100%, but..."
Walters nodded in understanding. "The sun is not kind to water any more. They say it still rains in the jungles. Maybe... Maybe one day it'll rain properly across the world."
Ross nodded. "That's what the Eden Teams say. Skynet had control of the eastern coast in Australia, so we can't really restore any of the forests, but..." he shrugged. "Eden was very good for our guys. Our hierarchies have always been hard to define, at least until Tech-Com. Everybody just sort of did everything that was needed. No reason not to; only way to stay fed, y'know?"
"Yeah, I know."
"Then Connor went and put Kate in charge of Eden, so suddenly our hierarchy got split too."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we had sort of a local chapter of the Eden Project, but for whatever reason, it got folded into Tech-Com. All that Outback see. With Skynet owning the coastline and the city, we had to move inland, and that was arid desert even before J-Day, so greenhouses, water pumps... all that stuff was for us to protect. Soldiers did Eden. Civilians ran scout missions... we made it work. One for all, all for one. Then Connor declared the civilian projects, and suddenly the lines got hard to figure out."
Walters blinked. "Really? Doesn't seem that strange. Anyone in a uniform is Tech-Com, anyone who doesn't is a civilian."
"Yeah, but the problem is more that anyone in a Uniform works for General Connor. Anyone not in a uniform works for the other General Connor, because both Generals Connor said so." Ross said lightly.
Walters felt the tone of the conversation shift. Ross was still being light and easy about it, but he'd just changed things dramatically. He was smiling, but his eyes were stone.
Walters kept smiling too, but he casually checked the room. Nobody else in the room, bottle, chair, radio... "Sounds like something the Union would say."
Ross nodded once. "It started with the Union, but there is a significant number of the population internationally that is getting uncomfortable."
"With what?"
"With the fact that General Connor named his wife as head of all Civilian populations on the planet. It effectively gives them joint ownership of the human race. After the Union split... some people are starting to wonder if they had the right idea."
Eric looked at his fiercely. "What?"
"Be calm. This isn't coming from Tech-Com. There's a groundswell of people who saw the Union break and realized it was possible to live without Connor, and they don't like the fact that a guy from the same country that built Skynet is now leading the human race."
"It comes back to that? Ross there are no countries. Not any more."
The Eden Team were gathered at the base of the Apple Tree. Robbie stood before them, laying it all out.
Griffin was the most experienced soldier there. "How many?"
"That's the good news." Robbie said. "We don't seem to be high on their priority list. One flying H/K. Just one."
"One aerial H/K, twenty five Terminators." Griffin looked around. Half the adult Eden Team had lost eyes, missing limbs… The majority of them were kids. "Are we bugging out?"
Robbie folded his arms. "No. At least, I'm not. Anyone who wants to go… Eden's not a Combat Unit. We're all here because we wanted to be. My dad told me once that there's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer. Not even Skynet. Look around. The trees in this valley are all older than I am. The next valley over, there are the ones I planted myself. Every time I come back here, they're a little bigger. The Valley on the far side of that, are the ones that just started out… Skynet will burn it all, and we'll have to start all over again."
Numb silence.
Ginny was crying.
"I'm staying." Robbie said firmly. "We made this place. From the dirt up, we made it. I'm not giving it to them."
Griffin spoke up. "We're not a combat unit, Robbie."
"We have weapons." Robbie offered.
"Two mounted jeep guns, five rifles. Against twenty five Terminators and an airborne H/K." Griffin said with cold calculation. "There are over eight valleys that lead back right to where we're set up, plus the concealed entrances closer to the Water Silo. Ten ways in, seven weapons, twenty five Invaders. Robbie… We can always plant more trees."
"No!" Ginny shouted. She stomped up next to Robbie and turned to glare back at the Eden Team, staring them all down. "You know me here! I grew up in a place like this! The farm was home for my family long before J-Day. Even that didn't make mom and dad move! I was born in a greenhouse long after the cold came! My parents worked day and night to keep the glass from shattering and the plants growing. Those plants fed us, they kept us warm. And when Skynet came, it all burned. Mom and dad burned, and I spent a year in the Underground looking at bare dead walls. Robbie found me. He brought me here, gave me back my home, and we made it safer and stronger than any greenhouse. I'm not running again!"
Griffin looked around subtly. She was apparently saying what they all felt, but he saw fear on every face. Fear was a powerful opponent to overcome.
Robbie was stunned, as was most everyone else, when Berk stood up and shuffled forward. "Um... nobody knows me here. I'm a Tunnel Rat. We survive by hiding. We all do that. We always have. Um... we see soldiers go off and fight and all, but we don't, because our guys don't... and they're your... well, your guys, y'know? And what have you got without that? So... never saw a tree before. I never had... cream and strawberries. I never had apple juice. And... well, birds are... Look, it's like... you guys put all your work into them, so the dirt, the trees... they're like 'your guys' too, right? You don't got that, what have you got?"
It was clearly the most words he'd ever said at one time before. Robbie knew how much a Tunnel Rat hated to be seen in public, let alone speak in front of twenty people.
"I'm staying." Robbie said finally. "Anyone who wants to leave... take as much of what's mobile as you can with you. I won't think any less of you for going. Whatever you decide, decide fast."
Ginny stood next to Robbie immediately. Berk shuffled over next to Ginny a moment later, and threaded his fingers through hers shyly. One by one, everybody stood up and joined them.
Until each and every one of them stood ready to fight back.
Walters was not doing as well with Ross.
"Hey, when Connor suddenly decided that we all had to declare if we were Tech-Com or not; I was under a mile of water. Halloway makes a call and suddenly we're all trying to figure out where we're gonna get some Tech-Com grey to wear." Ross fired. "I was the one that had to sell it to the only continent of people south of the border! Australia was never US Army. Nobody but LA and San Jose was. They were screaming his name back here, but everywhere else in the world… nobody had ever heard of him."
Walters was furious. "He was there! Connor went to Australia years ago. If there was anyone who didn't want to be Tech-Com, why didn't they say something?"
"Because they were scared! Scared they would starve without him, and more scared that he was right!" Ross snapped. "Connor earned their trust. He earned their faith, and he taught us well, and we followed. But then what?"
Walters didn't follow. "But then what... what?"
"There are only two possibilities. Either we lose this war, and there is no then what, or Connor wins. And when he does, what next?" Ross reasoned. "Is Connor now Emperor of the world? Are we just going to continue on a war footing forever? Will all these vehicles and soldiers suddenly go into rebuilding? Are we still on the same side? Is our next step to declare war on the Union?"
Walters was silent a long time. "I... I have no answers to those questions."
"Why the hell not?"
Walters shrugged easily. "Mostly because I haven't asked them. Being at war with walking chrome skeletons tends to take up your time and attention."
"I have been sent here by people who have taken the time to play this out, and they don't like the picture they're seeing."
Walters went quiet. "Would it be so terrible? If Connor was in charge after the war?"
Ross glared. "Yes! Walters, you know what happens when the military takes charge of everything. And then to top it off, all the civilians across the world now work for Connor's wife! There's a real chance of those two never giving that power back again, and they had all the guns, all the equipment, all the transport, all the..."
"Whoa, back the hell up." Walters said suddenly, getting in his face. "What do you mean, 'they had'? 'They had', as in Past Tense?"
Ross kicked himself silently, but he didn't let it show on his face. "Yeah. There are... a few factions that are stockpiling."
Walters took a lethal step forward, and Ross put his hands up. "Relax! There isn't a challenge coming. But there are people that are worried, and they want me to... share these concerns. Think about it for a second, Eric: What happens after the war?"
Javier was with Griffin and Robbie in Valley Three.
"I don't understand why there are only fruits growing on the left hand side of the Tree." Griffin said, looking up at the apple tree.
Robbie was carefully screwing a stopper on the end of a short pipe. "The apple blossoms need to be pollinated to grow into fruits. That's done by bees, but there isn't a hive for miles." He explained carefully. "So we pollinate them ourselves. It's the most tedious part of the process given that we have to do it by eye-dropper, but it's the only way." He finished what he was doing and got another pipe. "If we… I'd like to show you guys how we do it. After…"
"After." Griffin agreed. He bit his lip a moment, and slid an envelope out of his pocket. "Listen, would you take this?"
"What is it?" Javier asked.
"It's the letter."
Javier took it, but didn't follow. "I don't understand."
"I do." Robbie said. "Soldiers going into battle give each other letters to take back to their families. Just in case."
Javier flushed. "You're giving it to me?"
"Yeah." Griffin said shortly. "Now, the rule is you don't read it, and you don't talk about it again until you have to deliver it. Okay?"
Javier got the point. "Okay."
Berk came in, carrying a load of thin pipes. "Here you go!"
Robbie took them, and started selecting pipes the right shape. "Griffin, while we're setting this up, we need more ammonia to make the nitro. Go see what you can scrounge?"
Griffin nodded and headed out. "We keep some in our trucks for cleaning. Should be able to figure something out."
The soldier headed out and Berk got to work making fuses. "Where'd you learn this stuff, Evergreen?"
Robbie assumed the Tunnel Rat meant him. "From Kyle actually."
"Kyle Reese?"
"Yeah. He said my dad taught him."
Ginny blinked. "Connor didn't teach you?"
Robbie shrugged, not liking to dwell on what that might mean. "Right. Boom-Stick eleven is complete."
"You want to tell me what we plan to do with these?" Berk asked. "Terminators are too smart to just walk on a mine anymore."
"I know." Robbie said. "I was thinking, the valleys reach a long way, but they all come back to this underground where we store all our stuff and we keep all our growing things. So if we collapse some valleys, we force them to come up a path we choose."
Griffin nodded, seeing the tactic. "With the shutters over the top to protect the trees, the H/K can't get to us, and with the controls hidden up above, Skynet will have to walk in. With the Valleys collapsed and Valley One the only opening, they'll walk right up the length of the valley for us."
Griffin nodded, seeing the logic. "We set up the fortifications in there. But... Robbie, they can just overpower us. Twenty Five Terminators to six guns."
"Eight guns." Robbie corrected. "We're going to bring the mounted guns off the jeeps and bring them down here."
"Robbie, the mounted guns are the only thing we've got that can knock down the H/K."
"The H/K comes after the fight. If we can't handle the Terminators, then the H/K doesn't matter. It can't get to us with the shutters closed. If we lose the Valley, then what's the point?"
Griffin thought about that for a while. A veteran of many battles, he was not optimistic. He slipped over to the Director quietly, and spoke soft enough that nobody could overhear them. "Robbie... Our weapons are barely second generation, your fortifications are barely constructed, and our soldiers are not on the front lines already for a reason. We can't take them. Not twenty five."
Robbie bit his lip. "I was thinking... If we waited to collapse the Tunnels, then the Terminators would split up, and then we drop the walls on them."
Griffin bit his lip. "Yeah... that could work. Do we have enough explosives?"
"We will."
"Stockpiling?" Noah repeated in shock. "Are you serious?"
Walters nodded. "I checked. We've got missing vehicles and ammo in the Australasian theater. Not a lot, but enough for people who are planning to start out a new life for themselves. Things get misplaced in a war-zone all the time."
Noah nodded. "I know. Back Before, the JAG office investigated my unit once. A couple of soldiers were letting things 'fall off a truck', if you know what I mean."
"So, out there somewhere is a growing percentage of the population just waiting for the war to end."
Noah sighed. "Waiting for the war to end and then pulling a fast disappearing act is fine, Eric. The problem is..."
"…what happens if they disappear before the war ends?" Walters finished.
"And what if they aren't content to strike out on their own?" Noah added. "What if they decide they want to stay where they are and end up taking over a Base or three?"
"Or worse."
"Making a break with the only support system left in humanity is not an easy move these days. If they can't get what the need by swiping it from us, it's not like they can go to the store and get it. The Union is the only other supplier they might find... and their help won't come cheap."
"And suddenly the Union has a foothold in our territory." Walters agreed. "This is not a small problem... and I made a few discreet inquiries. It's not a feeling limited to Australia. There has been a lot of unrest among the civilians in Asia once Connor put Kate in charge of all the non-military projects."
Noah nodded, calculating. "What does Connor think?"
"I haven't told him." Walters said. "I'd like us to be able to cover this by ourselves."
Noah glared. "You can't keep this a secret."
"Not secret, just... I want to keep his plate as clear as possible today."
"You honestly think he's going to be any less busy any time soon? There's a reason we know about this, Eric! Ross was sent here to tell us! Whoever's getting ready to break with Tech-Com, Ross works for them. Stuff is disappearing off Bases. That's not like a pickpocket ring, or 'falling off a truck'. Not any more. The civilians he's talking about are seeing how Connor reacts to the news that they don't want him in charge forever."
"Dammit, Erica; the man's youngest kid is arming a bunch or half-starved Tunnel Rats and walking wounded to fight Skynet over a bunch of trees. I can't go to him and tell him he has to handle a small gang of-"
"Not so small, Eric." Noah snapped. "To be a problem big enough to talk about; to be widespread enough that they can send a Colonel across the world to have words with Connor's second in command, there have to be some serious personnel behind this. And don't go playing the 'kid in trouble' card when my son is out there with them!"
Walters looked down. "I'm sorry. I didn't think."
Noah nodded slowly, letting the emotion cool. "I know you don't want to lay this on him right now. Neither do I. But if we can't handle it fast..."
Walters pinched the bridge of his nose. "If the people Ross represents have made contact with others who feel like they do, or if they've made a deal with the Union..." He started counting on his fingers. "South America, North America, Australasia, Asia. Europe is gone, and Africa had no infrastructure for Skynet to invade after J-Day nuked their main cities. But that's still everywhere we fight. That's a slice out of everywhere Tech-Com operates. This is coming from our own backyard."
Noah grit her teeth. "You want this to stay away from Connor, you can't take Ross in. He's telling you because he wants something. What does he want?"
Walters thought for a moment. "Legitimacy. He wants someone from Tech-Com Command to say that they have a right to split from us, and to take what they have with them. They can parley that into something more than a mutiny."
"They wouldn't be stupid enough to do that while Skynet's still out there, would they?"
"They aren't against Tech-Com, I don't think. They just want to make sure they don't kowtow to the military for the rest of their lives."
"How about the rest of the war?"
"I know. But I'm the one that keeps the Theater prepped for his orders. If I can't tell him that Tech-Com is behind him and ready to go, then what's the point?" Walters said stubbornly. "I'll have to give them something... because if there are enough people who feel this way, a flat 'no' from us will be proof of their fears, and that'll be the only reason they need to break with us right now."
"And since we don't know how many of them there are, or where, or who... they could potentially be a real problem for us later." Noah agreed. "You'll have to give him something. I don't know what, but something. Just don't give away the store." She sighed hard. "Eric, at some point we have to tell The General."
Walters nodded. "I know. But what do we tell him? What have we got? We've got a potential problem hinted at by one of our own that we can probably buy off. We gotta keep the knucklehead stuff off his desk."
"And if Ross isn't happy with what you tell him and decides to tell his guys to walk out, what do they take with them? Enough that we notice? Enough that we have to cancel a few operations? Enough that we have to explain why the Kitchen is cleaned out?"
"I don't know, Erica!" Walters snapped. "We'll figure this out, and we'll tell The General. But we won't know what to tell him until we know how many people are backing Ross."
"And you won't know that till you hear what he asks for." Noah finished, realizing the problem. "Hell. We've had it too easy. The Union broke with us and we thought that was the end of it. We got soft. Aside from the Union, Tech-Com and Eden together had the whole human race on one side for decades."
Walters nodded slowly. "Somehow... I think we're going to be past that by this time next week."
There were plenty of hand tools for working the earth. There was plenty of fuses and triggers, left over from when they had blasted out the main chamber. There were a few ladders, from working the trees.
In every Valley, the Eden Teams were digging spots in the walls for the explosives they had made, laying long fuses so that the walls could be collapsed at a moment's notice.
There were crates of equipment, but most of them were easily breakable or likely to burn. The Eden Teams had placed the barricade line at the middle of Valley One. The crates were lined up, and filled with dirt and rock. Another thing that Eden had in abundance.
Most of the adults were former soldiers, forced into retirement from the front lines, and they gave the younger ones that had chosen to stay a quick lesson in how to shoot, or in field medicine. Those that were leaving were quickly gathering anything they could. Seedlings, saplings, Paydirt, equipment...
Their last meal was as fresh, but a lot smaller. Most of them grabbed some fruit or some bread and ate as they worked. Robbie didn't eat, looking over the main Chamber like his father did with the maps in the War Room.
Griffin came up behind up, munching an apple down to the core, trying to work up the nerve. Griffin had been as overwhelmed by the feeling of life in this place as Berk had. But Berk was a Tunnel Rat, living in a tiny room with eight people his whole life. Griffin was a soldier. He lived on the move. He made one last attempt to change the Director's mind as the vehicles got ready to move out. "Robbie... you are killing people over some trees. You understand that? You are asking these people to get shot over something that they can just start again somewhere else."
Robbie took the apple core off him, and pulled a knife out of his boot. He pried the seeds out of the apple core. "You ate one apple; I have seven apple trees right here." Robbie said. "We can't afford to throw any of them away. Those trees make hundreds of apples; each one will have half a dozen seeds. And that's just this one kind of tree. That food we ate yesterday? We grew it. Those trees burn, and it takes years, YEARS, to get us back to where we were. Combat is fast. If you win, you know it fast. If you lose, you'll know it faster. This is an entirely different kind of war, and it is a very long game."
Griffin rolled his head back. "It just... takes such a long time."
"I know." Robbie said. "But... None of us are going to see this project through to the end. Every Eden Team Member knows that. Oak trees can take decades, centuries to grow. We know full well we're never going to know if we succeeded. We're never going to know if we're doing any of this right."
Griffin squeezed his eyes shut. "Director, I'm a soldier. When we go into a fight, we know what the prize is. This... feels like a waste."
Robbie nodded. "You see that plaque?"
Griffin knew the one he meant. It had been visible as they came in. They had all read it at some point, but Griffin looked up at it, over the entrance.
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pool singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
"My dad gave me that plaque when I first came out here and set this place up." Robbie explained. "He said it was written Back Before, by a woman named Sara Teasdale. It was a poem she wrote that imagined the world if war wiped out all humanity."
"And growing things take over." Griffin nodded.
"But this time they won't. No soft rains, no birds or frogs. When it does rain, it comes like a super-storm, because the weather is wild, and the sky and sea are sick. This is the first war fought that threatened life itself. This war isn't just to save people; it's to save the Earth. Every living thing needs us now."
Griffin nodded, suddenly getting the point he was trying to make. "This war has a different outcome, so the rules on what's important are different too."
"That's right. Time was, wars were fought over gold and treasures…" Robbie waved out at the Valleys. "My dad... tells me stories about Back Before. It seems like paradise. And... I want to make it happen. These trees are just a step toward paradise. Those trees are how we go to war against the end of the world, in a way that has nothing to do with Skynet. We're... trying to save the world, and those trees are our weapons. We can't let Skynet have them. Maybe not ever, but definitely not this place."
Griffin thought about that for a long while. "Okay. Okay then." He said finally. "But Robbie... If we're trying to protect things from Skynet attack... You should know that a defense action usually causes casualties."
Robbie looked awkward. "Yeah. I know. But they're all here because they want to be."
"And for you." Griffin put in. "I can tell at least three of them are willing to fight only because they want to back you."
Robbie took that one far easier than the soldier thought he would. "And how many Tech-Com soldiers go to war, just because The Great General Connor tells them to?"
Griffin couldn't help but smile at that one. "All of us."
Kyle's eyes opened slowly. His eyes hurt against the bright lights, and he winced. He felt around a little. He was in a bed, blanket was thin, and he was in a gown. Medbay?
Then memory caught up, and he tried to sit upright. Pain raced through his back and he froze. "…ahh!"
His vision was clearing, and he looked around. He was in the Post-Op Ward. Of Crystal Peak.
Kyle felt a spike of fear. If he'd been unconscious long enough to be shipped back to Palace, his injuries had to be pretty bad. He tested his limbs. They were all working. He tried to sit up again. His back was hurting. He could feel bandages pulling…
His uniform was folded on the chair next to him. He managed to reach one arm over to it, and started clawing for his pockets.
"Looking for this?"
Kyle looked the other way. General Connor was in the doorway, holding The Photo. Kyle settled back in relief. "Yessir."
Connor came over, looked at the picture of his mom for a while, and handed it back to him. They both sat silently for a while as Kyle gazed on the face of Sarah Connor the first.
"What are you thinking, Kyle?" The General asked him quietly.
Kyle looked down. "You'll think it's stupid."
"Tell me anyway."
"She… Her face never changes. Guys around here get older, get scars, get killed… I talk to her, and she doesn't vanish. She doesn't die. Not like..." He shook that thought away, slid the photo under his pillow and gave The General his full attention. "She must have been really something."
Connor nodded. "She really was."
Kyle looked back at his uniform. "Did we win?"
"Mission accomplished." Connor told him. "LA, San Jose, the ports, and most of California is Human Territory again."
Kyle gave a feral smirk of victory. "Good. How long have I been here?"
"A while."
"My Unit will need me back."
Connor was silent a moment. "Kyle… the mission was accomplished, and Perry is currently securing the target zone, but… your Unit is gone. There were some survivors, but the fact is, LA was a dogfight. A bad one. You lost enough people that… Well, there isn't really much of a Unit left. The 321st is disbanded"
Kyle felt the world fall out from under him. Connor felt for the soldier. In their kind of life, the Unit was family.
"W… Who lived?" Kyle asked weakly.
"We're putting the casualty lists together, but so far, it looks like about twenty percent of the Unit survived." The General said with grim sympathy. "I'll get you a copy of the list when it's completed." He rubbed Kyle's shoulder. "Griffin is still with Eden."
Kyle sighed, closing his eyes a moment. "He's safe."
Connor didn't have the heart to tell him about the attack heading for Death Valley. "Kyle…" He said finally. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Yessir."
"Why the hell haven't you been promoted yet?"
Kyle blinked. "Sir?"
"You've been on the front for over a decade. You should be a lieutenant by now, at least. What the hell are you doing?"
Kyle sighed hard. "Colonel Perry tried. He's offered me three commissions. I said no."
"Why?"
"You get promoted high enough… and they bench you. They put you in charge and you start giving orders. I'm not for that. I'm not you, sir."
Connor smirked with grim irony. "You're closer than you think."
Kyle shrugged. "Won't see no tears when I die sir. I'll be smashing Tin Men as long as I can."
Connor studied him. It was not an unusual viewpoint. More than a few soldiers had chosen that for themselves. They would fight until they couldn't any more. The War was not forgiving. "It's like that?"
"Yessir."
Connor nodded slowly. "Fine. I can't force a promotion on you, anyway. You have to have your heart in command. But you've got too much experience, and since you're alive, too much skill to be a grunt. If you won't take a promotion, and you won't take command, how about a transfer?"
Kyle nodded. "I suppose I'll need one, if the 321st has to be disbanded. Any word on where Perry will go next?"
"He'll get a new Unit as soon as we can form one." Connor admitted. "He's the only reason we managed to achieve Mission Objective." Connor smirked. "But for you, I had something else in mind."
"Sir?"
"How'd you like to join the 57th Infantry?"
Kyle stared for a moment like he was missing something. "What… what do you mean?"
"Which part tripped you up?" Connor smiled.
Kyle felt like he was in a dream. "Connor's Own?"
Connor stood. "I'll have a uniform waiting for you as soon as Carla lets you out."
Kyle was still in shock as Connor marched out.
"Thank you, sir…" Kyle whispered after him. He sat quietly a moment, till he was sure he was alone, and reached back, sliding the somewhat battered photograph out from under his pillow. "Sarah..." He said to her face softly. "I made it. I'm one of Connor's Own. I told you I would..."
He was getting dizzy quickly, his injuries costing him his energy, sending him back to sleep again.
Kate was watching. "That was nice of you."
"He deserves it." John said quietly. "He's deserved it for a long time. Walters and Noah are the same way. They deserve to be Generals right now, but they don't want the promotion. They want to stay in the field as long as they can."
"John… you keep them on the battlefield much longer and…"
"I know." John said thickly. "Time and age is not kind to combat soldiers."
"Walters has been in here twice for back pain already. Noah's knee is getting weaker every day... It takes a toll." She looked back at Kyle. "I'd feel better about it if..."
"If my reasons were pure?" John said, a slight edge to his voice. "I'm keeping him close to me in prep for his Mission. I won't deny it."
"I don't want to start this fight again." Kate said quietly. "There are sacrifices enough in this war, having to choose between him and you is one of them. But if you were not born, neither would Sarah and Robbie, to say nothing of the war." She rolled her shoulders painfully. "I just wish we could win clean."
"No such thing as a clean war." Connor said softly. "Kate... for what it's worth... Mom said they were happy for as long as it lasted. If his life since Lupe is any indication, it's more than he would have here."
Kate took that in. "Well... that doesn't sound so bad." Happy and in love for a day was more than a lot of people got in this war.
Carla came in. "General. Come to check on your latest White Knight?"
"How is he?"
"He's got some pretty serious burns, but they aren't going to restrict his mobility or harm the internal muscle any. At least, not once it heals. He's incredibly lucky."
"Luck is a damn good quality for a soldier to have." Connor said under his breath.
"Gonna leave a beauty of a scar though." Carla quipped. "We're keeping him sedated until some of the burns heal a bit; so he'll be in and out."
Connor nodded. "You do good work, Carla."
Carla gestured at Kate. "I learned from the best."
"I know you don't mean me." Kate demurred. "I was a veterinarian."
The three of them chuckled.
"By the way, while I've got you here." Carla said. "Where's Colonel Walters?"
Connor blinked. "Sorry?"
"Walters is supposed to be in to pick up some pain pills for his back, and I've been trying to talk to him or Noah about the MASH Units all day. But I can't seem to find them. Are they on a mission?"
Connor traded a look with his wife. "Not that I know of."
Kate smirked impishly. "Maybe they're busy. You told Eric to keep her occupied while her son was out there."
"Not for this long."
"Maybe they're planning a surprise party." Carla teased.
"I don't like surprises." Connor said, and lifted his radio quickly. "Colonel Walters, report."
A moment later the answer came. "Walters here."
"Eric, come see me in the Medbay please."
"On the way."
Kate was staring at Kyle again, and Carla slipped in next to her. "Has there been any word?"
Kate shook her head. "There wouldn't be yet. Skynet won't get there for another…" She checked her watch. "Any minute now."
Robbie gathered his people around him, and spoke to them quietly. "Every human left has a group of some kind." He pointed to himself, to Julio, to Berk, and to Griffin in turn. "We tell people our names, we tell them we're with Tech-Com, or with the Bandits, or with the Tunnel Rats, or the 321st, or whoever we are with. It's a fact. It's in our nature. The Bandits, Tech-Com, the Union... we all have our colors. Eden never really had that. A few years ago, Ginny came up with this."
He held out little pendants, hanging on assorted chains, strings and shoelaces. Robbie handed them out, one to each new arrival to the Project.
Griffin looked at his. It was a leaf. It was small, and... coated in plastic?
"Did you make these?" Griffin asked.
"Not me myself, but yeah, we made them." Robbie said.
Berk was bending his lightly, testing it. "What's this made of?"
"Oh, it's real." Ginny promised them, pulling a similar pendant up for them to see. "I got the idea when I remembered how my mom made candles. She dipped the wick in the wax over and over till it was fully coated, and I did the same with these leaves in acrylic glue, because it dries strong and clear. Then you punch a small hole, and you thread the cord through, leave them hanging till they dry."
"We made them." Robbie summed up. "In Eden, we make everything grow. You make a tree grow from what a tree gives you. You guys put in the hard work. If you plant a tree, then you get counted as an Eden Project member. Tech-Com has its trials, we have ours." Robbie drew his dog tags out, and showed them the leaf-pendant hanging on them. "This is an oak leaf. An Oak Tree was the first sapling I ever planted. Ginny has an orange blossom. She planted the Orange trees in Valley 4. The leaf pendant you have now, you earned, because each leaf comes from the type of tree you each planted."
Griffin was touched, and he could see the others were too. Berk was standing straighter than he'd ever stood before.
Robbie smiled at them. "It's not a whole lot. But, when we leave this place, we'll be going back across the surface, with the wastelands, and the Hot-Zones, and the fallout. And when we get back to our bases, we'll be surrounded by concrete and stone. It's safer, and we know it, but it's not like this. So when you leave, take your colors with you. It's only here because of you guys." He held up his pendant. "Tech-Com sets up bases, we set up these. And if Skynet is coming, I want all of us wearing our colors when we face them."
The Eden Team cheered. The new ones, Griffin and Berk included put their new icons on, wearing them proudly.
Robbie took in a breath. "If my dad was here, he'd have something really good to say about this. As a matter of fact, I wish he was here, because I'd love to hear it."
A chuckle went around the group.
Robbie took a breath. "Most of us... all of us I think, were too young, or not born yet Back Before. We've all heard stories about how beautiful it was, and about how Skynet killed everything beautiful. Well... They did it to our parents, and I'm not gonna let them do it to us too."
"Me neither!" Ginny shouted, feral.
"ME NEITHER!" Berk roared.
The roar went up. It took a lot to get people invested in anything that could burn these days. It took very little to get people passionate about killing Skynet's Machines. Robbie had given them one, and now offered them the other.
"Incoming!" All their radios shouted.
Robbie's face hardened. "Well. At least their timing was convenient."
They all ran to their posts. Berk hung behind a bit, and grabbed Micheal's arm. "Hey." He said quickly. "Can you take this?"
Michael took it. It was a piece of paper, rough and colored after being hand-recycled half a dozen times, as all notepaper was these days. It had Cory's name scrawled on it, and it was tied with electrical tape.
Berk seemed unsure. "It's my first battle…. I'm not rated. I was hoping… if this went bad…"
Michael put the letter away carefully. "I'll take care of it… Soldier."
Berk's chin lifted proudly, and they ran after the others, weapons ready, manning the barricades.
"Be careful with Walters. He's loyal to Connor, and if you push him too far, he'll bite you back."
Ross shook his head, though nobody on the other end of the radio could see it. "It's not an issue. Walters doesn't have any orders for this, and he still thinks we can't make trouble for him. Once I make it clear what we've got backing us, he'll give us more than he expects to just to keep it out of Connor's way."
As the elevator stopped, he quickly put the radio away.
The door opened, Ross came off the elevator and froze.
Two of the Nova Group were at attention in the hallway. One next to the Meeting Room door, the other at the hallway intersection.
He didn't move from the elevator. There was only one reason The Nova Group would be there.
Sure enough, the door opened and General Connor came into the hallway, clearly waiting for him. "Ross." He said easily. "I understand we have a situation."
"Yes. Thank you." Ross stammered. "I mean, that's yeah, Mr Connor. Mr General." He squeezed his eyes shut a moment, fighting stage fright, before trying again. "Yes, General Connor. We have a situation."
"Come inside, and let's talk about it." Connor said shortly.
Ross followed him into the briefing room, and found Kate, Noah, Walters and Gould all waiting for him.
Very much alone in the room, Ross steeled himself and sat down.
Connor's radio crackled as he did so. "War Room to General Connor."
Connor responded. "Go ahead."
"We received a coded transmission from Death Valley. They have engaged incoming Skynet forces."
Kate and Noah's eyes blazed. Eric seemed to shiver a little. The temperature in the room dropped dramatically. Ross was suddenly very aware of the sound of his own pulse.
"Ross." Connor said with quiet malevolence. "Before we begin discussing your problem, you should know that my youngest child is currently taking on H/K's with nothing but a few popguns and some gardening tools, and there's not a single thing I can do about it."
"Mine too." Noah added quietly
"And me." Kate growled.
"Me, not so much, but I agree that it's pretty bad moment to be you." Walters told Ross helpfully.
"So." Connor said, sitting at the head of the table. "Let's figure this out."
Ross was already sweating.
There were five or six weapons, to be shared between fifteen people, half of them kids, or wounded soldiers with permanent disabilities. The air filled with the low whine of an aerial H/K, with twenty five Terminators in it.
The odds were not good.
The low whine of the H/K grew louder as it did a slow pass overhead. The Eden Defenders waited.
They all jumped as the shutters overhead exploded with noise, like something was smashing into the metal shutters like a sledgehammer. But they held.
Robbie lifted his radio. "Spotters, click once."
His radio clicked several times. Once for the spotters in each valley.
The whine of jet turbines faded slightly as the H/K hovered its way toward the shallow end of the valleys. In the distance, they could see the shadow moving. It paused, about a few hundred feet away, at the point where three valleys all merged as they shallowed out to the surface.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Rows of Terminators dropped from the sky, unhurt by the drop, and they rose, quickly making their way up the valleys, hunting for targets.
Robbie felt his heart pounding, his mouth was dry… He didn't move. "Okay…" He said quietly into his radio. "You know what to do. Don't wait for me."
The Machines were marching up the valleys, splitting up to take every one of them.
In each valley, hidden away was a spotter. They saw the Terminators coming their way, and lit their fuses. The fuses ran along the walls of each valley, up to the charges they had made, which were drilled securely into the walls.
BOOM! The walls of the valleys came down. Most of them missed their target, exploding too early. With the valleys partially caved in, the Terminators were blocked, but not buried. They turned around, and went back out the way they came, regrouping.
The spotters came running back to the fortifications, breathing hard. "We missed!" One of them shouted ahead. "We blocked them, but we didn't get them."
"Me too!"
"And me!"
"I didn't!" The last one to arrive called as he jumped in next to his fellow troops. "Three Terminators down."
Griffin swore. "We could have taken twelve Terminators before a shot was fired." He glared at the younger Connor. "This is what I'm talking about; your people ain't combat veterans."
Robbie shook his head. "It doesn't matter. It makes no changes to our plans. We sealed off those valleys, they have to come right up this way. How many explosives we got left?"
"Three." Ginny said anxiously.
Griffin didn't let it show, but he didn't like their chances. Twenty two Terminators coming in, right down their throats.
Clang. Clang. Clang. The sounds of metal feet on stone echoed up the valley. The Eden Defenders quickly came to their posts. Griffin had one mounted gun, Terry had the other.
The clanging steps of the Terminator march faded, as they left concrete and reached grass. Their forms were visible, light glinting off their chrome skin. The glowing red eyes were the only things that were clearly seen.
Some of the Eden Defenders were firing already, tension making them shoot. At that range, there was no chance of hitting anything, even by accident.
Griffin held out a hand. "Wait! Wait for it!"
The firing stopped, and the Machines got closer, their stride never changing, never speeding up. They got close enough that their weapons were visible. The Terminators swung their weapons around, taking aim as they approached. The Eden Defenders took that as their cue and started firing again.
Griffin grit his teeth, but didn't bother to correct them. At that range, the plasmafire just glanced off their metal hides, barely enough to discolor their surface.
Then the Machines started firing, and the battle finally began in earnest. Terry opened up with the mounted gun, and managed to knock down three of them. The Terminators swung their weapons up fast, and nailed him in the face with ruthless Machine precision.
Robbie saw it out of the corner of his eye, and winced, still firing. Another two Terminators knocked down. On his left, another defender was hit, falling back and rolling on the ground as his clothes caught fire. One of the unarmed fighters snatched up his weapon and resumed firing for him.
Griffin was firing away as best he could, when he saw a Terminator swing to aim at him, and dove away from the gun, knowing he couldn't take it with him. Plasmafire chased him all the way behind the fortifications. Micheal Noah popped up enough to knock that particular Terminator down while it was distracted.
And through it all, the Machines just kept marching, marching. Their pace hadn't slowed, even for the fight. They were a wave of metal, marked and scarred but unstoppable.
One of the defenders lit an explosive, and raised enough to hurl it over the barricade. It came down close enough to shred three Terminators through the legs when it detonated, knocking them down.
Robbie kept a running tally. Eleven Terminators down; two explosives left. Someone over to the other side came up with one of them, fuse already lit, and was hit in the chest as he rose. The still lit stick of explosive dropped on the wrong side of the barricade, and Berk lunged for it, tossing it over beyond their walls as fast as he could. It exploded, deafening and confusing the defenders with a burst of flame and noise...
The flames of the blast, and the plasma from the crossfire caught the long branches of the orchard, and the valley was suddenly filled with smoke and firelight. They were close enough together that the fire spread to other trees...
Robbie saw the trees burning and felt his eyes bulge. The whole point of this was to protect them!
Those that didn't have weapons were struggling to get the fire under control and the wounded squared away. But with the battle raging, the enemy still marching ever closer, it was an exercise in futility.
Robbie had been in battles before. Every soldier had to be before they were rated as Tech-Com. But this... People he knew were screaming, rolling around on the ground, others trying to hold them still, the trees were burning, leaves falling to the ground like cinders, bathing the whole thing in a hellish glow as the gleaming steel skeletons got ever closer...
"Last explosive." Micheal told Griffin. "Make it count."
Griffin got ready to light the fuse and Robbie lunged. He grabbed the bomb straight out of the soldier's hand and started running away from the Machines.
"Robbie!" Griffin roared in disbelief, and snatched up his rifle, continuing the fight.
Robbie took the ladder up to surface level as fast as he could. He could hear the weapons-fire intensifying below him.
Once on the surface he dared a look out, the daylight burning his eyes after so long under cover.
Ignoring it, he kept running toward the shutters. He ran over the top of it, feeling the metal clang and shift slightly under his feet as he ran as fast as he could toward the water tower.
The moment he dreaded came almost immediately, and the low whine of the aerial H/K came closer. He made it to the water tower just in time, as the H/K started firing. Plasmafire smacked against the water tower, scoring the metal with thick scorches, but the curve of the silo protected him.
Robbie checked the silo wall. It had been camouflaged to look like it was old and beaten down, the watertight section hidden within. As a result, there were several places where he could make an explosive charge sit on its own.
He could hear the turbines of the H/K whine, as the H/K circled around the silo, searching for him. It almost drowned out the sounds of weapons-fire down below.
Gritting his teeth, Robbie put the charge to his lips, and bit through the fuse, making it somewhat shorter as he grabbed for his lighter. He jammed it into the superstructure and lit it, already running back across the closed metal shutters.
Get to the controls! He told himself.
He heard the H/K turbine and freaked out. He wasn't going to make it…
Ba-BOOOM!
The charge erupted, and blew the guts clean out of the silo, the weight of the water suddenly turned loose in an instant, propelled by explosives and water pressure. In the same instant, the Silo collapsed as half of it was blown apart. The collapsing structure gave him a few precious seconds, as the H/K drew sideways enough to be sure which way it was falling.
Robbie threw himself forward, trying not to be washed away by the wave as the water caught up with him instantly. The silo dropped, making the ground jump, and knocking him off his feet. But the push of the water had sent him in the right direction, and he made it to the Shutter Controls, ripping away the camouflage and working the lever from the ground.
With a heavy metal screech, the shutters began to open…
Robbie felt the water surrounding him change direction suddenly, and he was swiftly washed away.
The Eden Defenders knew the game was over as the Machines reached the tree-line, when a screech from above drew their attention upward, and a cascade of water came rushing down into the valley through the opening shutters. The weight of the water was barely being held up by the thick shutters, giving it the force of a waterfall.
The Terminators were caught by the sudden downpour, washed out of the valley, back the way they came, picked up by the force of the water. The damaged fortification, the workbenches, all of it was washed out.
But the trees held fast, held in place as their roots went deep into the ground. Those trees that were burning were put out by the wash of water instantly.
The Eden Team down below was stunned as the sealed sky suddenly opened with a massive drenching. The shutters opened further down, and they were more or less protected from the resultant wave, but every last one of them was instantly drenched. Micheal reached out and grabbed Berk before he could be washed down the valley.
The whine of the H/K was suddenly audible as the shutters opened.
Griffin had figured it out almost instantly, and went running back toward the mounted gun from the Jeep, swivelling it upward instantly to point at the sky. In trying to shoot Robbie, the H/K had swept in closer, now framed perfectly above the Valley.
Griffin fired everything he had up at the H/K, aiming for the turbines.
Whatever defenders still had rifles did the same, hoping that they were dong the right thing.
The turbine was shredded by the weapons-fire from the expected quarter, and the H/K gunned it's engines, trying to get clear. The left one was damaged, and didn't have the strength of the right one, and the H/K was limping, trying to circle around so that it could fire, before the turbine finally gave out and the H/K collapsed, flipping over completely, slamming into the top of the valley, hanging between the walls.
Griffin kept firing up at the downed craft, shredding it as best he could, till it was just a dead lump of metal. The other defenders were charging past his mounted gun, savagely finishing off the Terminators now stuck in the sudden mud.
Berk and Ginny were searching back and forth desperately. There was no sign of Robbie.
Griffin abandoned his gun and helped them look.
"Griffin!" Javier shouted, running up. "Where's Robbie?"
"I don't know." Griffin admitted. "He ran up to the surface…"
Berk looked over the field of battle. Wounded people gasping and shouting in pain, mangled machines… The mists were gone, replaced with smoke. Fire was still smouldering here and there, though water was still raining down from the valley walls and the edge of the shutters. The dead H/K was hanging across the top of the valley, looking set to collapse at any moment.
But the trees had survived. Scorched, soaked and somewhat stripped, they were still alive.
"Mission accomplished, Evergreen." Berk whispered. "You did it." He saw Ginny crouching in the mud, ankle deep in water at the base of the apple tree trunk. He went over and joined her. The birds were dead. A tangle of soaked feathers at the base of the tree they lived in.
Berk looked up at the tree, looking for the nest in heartbreak… and he spotted something else instead. "ROBBIE!"
Ginny looked up sharply, and sprang off the ground, scurrying her way up the tree like she was on springs. She made her way with experience up to the higher branches, and found Robbie tangled in the tree. What had happened was obvious. He had been swept down with the wave and gotten caught.
Berk spun. "Griffin! Get some help! It's Robbie!"
Ginny clambered up next to him and touched his face gently. "Robbie?" She called to him gently, scared to speak too loudly. "Hey, boss? Robbie? Can you hear me?" She slid her hand down to check his pulse. "He's alive! Berk! HE'S ALIVE!"
"Sir, a war footing when the war is over… is a damn scary notion. Right now, you have absolute control over who finds out what information. You have the final say on everything, from who gets to go into a particular room, and who has to stay out, and who is entitled to have some specific resource, and who has to stay in the dark. You have millions of people ready to run into the fire at your word, or kill on your order. If you wanted to, you could deny me access to the Mess Hall, the radio, the shower block. Hell you could put my photo on the list of Infiltrators and have a million people ready to shoot me on sight if you wanted."
"Ross, that's the nature of Chain of Command." Noah argued. "It always has been."
"Yes it has." Connor's calm voice cut through everything like a knife, though he didn't so much as raise his voice. "But what concerns Ross is the notion that when the war ends, I may not give that power up. Until J-Day, civilian governments had control of the military; at least in this country. Governments and nations that lived permanently under the control of their military… were usually dictatorships."
Ross nodded emphatically. "There's a war for the survival of every man woman and child, and we have faith in you, and your ability to win it sir. But the one thing that scares us is… you answer to nobody. There is no balance to you. And now that the civilians are all under your wife's authority… there's nothing to keep people who aren't under your command safe from you if you ever…" Ross caught himself. "I and others… are preparing for that day. Just in case. We like you. We trust you. But if things continue as they are, there is potential for a very bad situation to form. If not you, then the next guy to have your job fifty years from now, or the one after him, or the one after him."
"Helping yourself to our stuff and our weapons 'just in case' is not a solution." Kate put in.
"If you have a better one, speak now." Ross shot back.
Silence.
"No." Connor said firmly. "We can't spare those resources. We can't split our hierarchies, and we can't lose whatever people we've got. We're on a Total War footing, and we can't risk letting too much go."
Ross gulped. "General, I..."
"But I'll go one better." Connor said. "Once the war is over... I'll resign."
Beat. Everyone stared at him in shock.
Connor nodded. "I'll resign, and I'll turn over all the civilian projects, all non-military resources, and anyone who wants to leave Tech-Com is free to do so, no questions asked."
"Turn them over?" Ross repeated. "To whom?"
"You tell me."
"Sir?"
"If your people are a real deal, then you must have some ideas on how you plan to pick your leaders once you're free of me."
"Well…" Ross was expecting the argument to last a good bit longer before they started talking about solutions. "We'll have to appoint people first off, and after that… we have been kicking around the notion of starting up elections again. There hasn't been one in twenty years…"
"All right, I will give over authority over the military to whoever gets elected, on the condition that other civilian populations; or people who leave Tech-Com; get the right to have a say in the matter also." Connor said evenly. "You're right about the military having too much power over civilians. In a time of war; a war incidentally, that will bring about our extinction as a species if we lose, it's unavoidable. Even necessary. But after the war, it becomes a problem. So go ahead and prepare a civilian government. Just as long as it's understood, that Tech-Com resources are off limits to you, right up until the moment Skynet is dead. The day that happens, I will resign, and hand it all over to whomever you, and everyone else in the world elect."
Ross just blinked, still trying to catch up with this sudden turn. "You'll just... resign?"
"I'll put it in writing if you like. When Skynet is confirmed dead, I will turn over authority of all Tech-Com forces to the control of whoever is elected to be in charge. You're not wrong. Military shouldn't have full authority over an entire population forever."
Ross felt his jaw hanging open. "And... until then?"
"Until then, do whatever you can, as much as you can, for as many people as you can." The Great John Connor's voice turned to ice. "But if you deprive my people of even one thing, I will come down on you like a lightning bolt. That sound like a deal?"
Ross sighed. "I... I don't speak for everyone."
Connor wasn't buying that. "Ross, you're too smart to go off the reservation without a plan. If you're here, it's because whomever you represent is ready to make their presence known. They sent you. If you can't deal, what are you doing admitting things like this to my command staff?"
Ross weighed that, and nodded. "Okay. I can sell them on that, but only because they know Skynet's not down and out yet."
Connor nodded. "Be patient, Ross. I'm waiting for this war to be over too." He actually smiled. "Tell your new team that I eagerly look forward to my retirement."
Ross laughed, feeling immeasurably relieved. "I will. Thank you, sir."
The meeting broke up, and Ross left the room first.
The second he was gone, Noah lifted her radio. "Will somebody find out what the hell is going on in Death Valley before I start killing people?"
Kate grabbed her radio too. "We'll be starting with the most expendable ranks we can find and working our way toward the War Room, so move fast."
Robbie woke up and groaned.
Griffin was immediately right there. "Thank god you're alive! Your family has been calling all afternoon."
"What happened?" Robbie groaned.
"You did it." Griffin smiled at him. "I don't know how you did it, but you did it. You're the talk of Tech-Com."
Robbie sat up. Slowly. "What-ow-happened to the others? Where's Ginny?"
"She's fine. Ginny is okay. " Griffin told him with a small frown. "Just… be strong, okay?"
"Why, what's wrong?" Robbie demanded.
"Nothing she's just… helping Berk clean up. She's been with him since we decided you weren't going to die today."
"She has?"
"Joined at the hip."
Robbie took it on the chin and fought to stand up. "Yeah… Well, I guess I saw that coming." He headed for the door. "Let me know when Palace calls back."
Robbie came into the Valleys, smelt the smoke, and saw his team already cleaning it up, collecting the debris, dividing what was trashed from what was salvageable. The Machines had already been cleaned out, and the entire Eden Project was already at work clearing the valleys. As soon as Robbie was in view, he was met with a round of applause.
Griffin was smiling at him. "So. This is what being a hero is like. How does it feel?"
"ROBBIE!"
Robbie turned and found Ginny coming at him like a homing missile, wrapping him up in a big hug.
Robbie rocked on his heels and hugged her back. "Griffin, I gotta say… It doesn't suck."
Kurt knocked on the Dormitory door. One of the Bandits opened the door, looked him over, and welcomed him in. No words were exchanged, none were needed. He just waved Kurt toward the back of the room.
Kurt made his way through the bandits. They had set their Dorm up to reflect their identity within Tech-Com. It was practically another bunker within the shelter. Kurt felt right at home.
Yolanda looked him over. "So. You're new to Crystal Peak, what do you think?"
Kurt answered honestly. "I think it's beautiful."
"That's the word."
Kurt bit his lip. "Yolanda, I was wondering if you could help me with something. I'm in a bit of a mess."
"Man, I'll say you are."
Kurt sagged. "You heard?"
"Everyone's heard. If you listen carefully, you can hear Skynet sniggering about it. The General's Daughter, Kurt? What the hell were you thinking?"
"I didn't know she was The General's Daughter!" Kurt insisted. "Her nametag read 'Brewster'! I was with her a long time out there! She never so much as hinted!"
"Yeah, she wouldn't." Yolanda quipped. "That's because she's not an idiot."
"How the hell was I supposed to know?"
Yolanda was laughing at him.
"It's not funny!"
"It's extremely funny!" Yolanda corrected. "But not for you. So. Let's talk."
"What do I do now?"
"Well, you got two choices." Yolanda said. "One, you can stay with her because she's worth it. You will be promoted several rungs on Skynet's target list. You will be under the watchful gaze of all Tech-Com, and The General will notice you. And not in the good way. Option two, you can bow out and pretend you never met her."
"You really think the General's going to give me grief for more than-"
"EVERYONE is gonna give you grief!" Yolanda shouted, suddenly loud and furious. "That family is beloved in this town. You're a Bandit that got caught in the kip with Saint Sarah, the firstborn of the Children of the Dust, who cured the Skynet plague and saved humanity in her first day among the world. That kid was nominated for sainthood the day before she was born! The whole world will be all over you. You gotta go through that, plus Skynet, and come out smiling if you want to be with her. Your call."
Robbie came out to the Orchard, rubbed his scarred arm. "Berk?"
Berk was kneeling before the wall of the valley, with a burnt stick in one hand, and some of the fruit peelings in the other. He had ground them up to make a colorful paste, and was scratching a charcoal marking into the wall, adding some of the paste for color when he could. The picture was being drawn on the stone wall of the valley, showing the battle to save the trees.
Robbie felt his jaw drop as he recognized the style. "It's you? You're the one who draws those murals on the walls back home?"
Berk grinned with the fury of a victorious soldier. "You like it?"
Robbie grinned. "I love it."
Berk waved for Robbie to follow him, and the two kids slipped off to the edge of the valley, where the walls closed in.
Berk pointed to a new picture on the wall. It was a cave wall drawing of Robbie. He was standing in the Orchard, with things growing all around him, and an Apple in his hand.
Berk stared at his feet; so shy couldn't meet Robbie's gaze. "The Rats have names for everyone. We call General Kate 'The Keeper', because she wanted to keep us. We call your father 'The General', because that's what he is to everyone. Your sister is 'The Healer', because the Rats were sick before you were born, and Sarah healed us all without knowing our names. And you we call 'The Evergreen'. You make things grow."
Robbie was speechless. He was not unaware of the devotion that seemed to follow around his family, but he had never been put in the middle of it like this.
Berk finally looked at him. "A month ago, I survived by diving into a deep hole and not coming out. All the Rats survive that way. This week I was willing to get into a gunfight with a bunch of Terminators to protect trees." He put a hand to his chest. "It... it feels like you made me grow. Like I'm bigger somehow."
Robbie smiled softly. He was quite possibly the only one of the Underground that smiled so much. "You did it too, Berk. I didn't force you."
"I know." Berk said with a chuckle. "I think that's the biggest shock of the whole thing."
"Lori?"
Lori looked up from her tray in the Mess Hall and saw Ross standing over her. "Can you come take a walk with me for a minute?"
Intrigued, she did so. "Well… Army food isn't that hard to lure me away from."
Ross smiled. "I wanted to sound you out about something. I know you're loyal to Connor, and I know that you've had several opportunities to prove it, but have you ever wondered what would happen after the War?"
"Several times." Lori said easily, as though it was a perfectly logical question to bring up. "But to be honest, I'm more worried about the continuation of the species than who gets to be grand high King, or whatever. One thing at a time, y'know?"
"Sure." Ross said. "But who says we have time to do one thing at a time?"
Over at the other end of the Mess Hall, and the command table, John and Kate were watching as Lori waved a signal at them without looking, heading out of the Mess Hall. "Told you they'd go for Lori." John said quietly.
"Is that why Saint is on the inside about the Bomb, but Lori isn't?"
"I had Saint take on that Mission before Ross even arrived… But it's why Lori is never going to be told about the Package. At least until we find out who the other Civilian Leaders will be. And we agreed never to speak of that without everyone in the know present."
Kate nodded and moved on. "How'd you know they'd pick Lori?"
"It was the only one they could go for and have any hope of credibility. Lori never wanted to join the military. She never wanted it for her Orphanage either back in the day. She'd jump at the chance to have a civilian leader again, but she's pragmatic enough not to push it. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if she tried the same thing Ross is doing now, once the war ended."
"Think they'll wait until then?"
"No." Connor said plainly. "But I think we've got time to prepare now."
"John, why are you doing this?" Kate asked finally. "You have to know that the Council will make trouble one day. Why are you doing this?"
Connor was silent a moment. "Kate, it's in our nature to destroy ourselves. The Machines know this too. It was fear of each other that made us build Skynet in the first place. The world got swept clean, and the first thing we did was start another war to take it back. Maybe... Maybe we can..."
"End this war with genuine Peace?"
"I don't believe in genuine Peace. There's always another war to fight, another battle to win. But maybe, maybe we can stop the cycle for a good long time. And I know that the world can't be led by the military forever. That never works."
"You do pretty well."
"I do well enough because there's a war on. Once Skynet is gone, what happens then? Ross is worried about the next ten guys to come after me. So am I." He shook his head firmly. "It doesn't matter. When the war ends, maybe they'll play it straight up, and maybe they'll try a coup. Either way, that's for later. They won't try anything now until the war is over."
Lori came back into the Mess Hall and sat down across the table from them. "Well, you were right. He asked me to go for it." Lori said.
"And?"
Lori rolled her head side to side. "I told him yes. I told him I agreed with him about you two, I told him I was worried for what would happen when the war ended, and I told him I'd like to help out if I could. I told him all the things you told me to say. Now, would you mind telling me why? They don't have anything to back up their promises with. They don't have anything but a theoretical chance to maybe have some power if the war ever ends, and we happen to survive that long. In the meantime, I'm benched from Tech-Com, and not at all involved with anything of any use to anyone. If you wanted me gone Connor, you could have just fired me."
Connor smirked, but it didn't touch his eyes. "Lori, think about this for a second. They know how powerless they are until the War is over. So why are they being official now?"
Lori thought it over. "Because... Because they may not be as powerless as they seem."
"I need you to be in the middle of it, Lori. Because when the War is over, I don't want humans killing humans like nothing happened." Connor said. "If we can make this legitimate when the War ends, we might, we just might be able to have some peace before the next war breaks out. But it will come to that eventually, and I need someone on the inside."
Lori nodded slowly. "Yessir."
Ross made sure he was alone, and pulled out his satellite phone. "Are you there, Governor Rojas?"
"Here."
"You've heard the news?"
"I have. What's the latest?"
"I took a quick straw poll. Connor's one condition was that we open the voting to his own civilians too. For the most part, nobody that doesn't already agree with us will likely care. Smart money says they'll go for people they know and trust. Looks like Lori is going to be on the Council, I've been given a chance to represent the Australasian continent... We haven't heard from Asia, and with Europe all but gone... Looks like the Council, once it's formed at least, will shake out to two or three reps from each combat theater."
He could almost hear Rojas thinking. "This changes exactly nothing. Lori is for Connor. She'll do whatever he says."
"Connor made a deal, and my people are in favor of it." Ross steeled himself.
"What deal?"
"We lay off until the war ends... and as soon as it does, he resigns."
Rojas laughed. "Of course he will. How can he lead the new civilian government if he's still a soldier?"
Ross blinked. That was a thought that simply never occurred to him. "You think so? I mean… until the war ends, a civilian government is a joke, because the military will follow Connor."
"I know. That's fine. Look, once the war ends, we can handle it. For now, we can let Him beat Skynet, and once the war ends... we'll have to take appropriate action to make sure we don't spend the rest of our lives at the Mighty Connors' beck and call."
Ross nodded, though Rojas couldn't see it. "That's exactly what the people I represent want too."
"Then this seems like the start of a very useful friendship."
"They found him hanging in one of the trees?" Walters repeated.
"He just throws the plan out the window and saves the day off the top of his head." Noah told him. "Michael called in, gave me the whole story."
Walters let out a low whistle. "See, you can't teach someone that sort of thing. That's just pure whatever."
Noah agreed. "That's the X Factor. Even if three or four of them figured out that trick... I know that more than a few soldiers would just stick to the plan and die trying anyway, rather than just snatch the bomb and start running. You ever serve with either of them?"
"The Connor kids? I was with Sarah for the Alamo recapture. Smart, daring, methodical, lethal. Like her father. Handles personality conflicts by smoothing them over rather than shutting them down, like her mom."
Noah nodded. "I was with Robbie for his first mission to the Flats. He was... what? Seven years old at the time? He knew his stuff. Compassionate, protective, practical. Like his mom. If there was anyone who didn't see his father in him, that's done after this week. They are naturals, all of them. They make 'em strong in that family, don't they?"
Walters nodded. "They really do." He didn't speak for a moment. "So... your son gets back in a few days..."
Noah almost smiled. "Yeah."
"What happens then?"
Noah tensed for a second. "I guess... we'll figure it out."
"Last call for Crystal Peak!" Robbie shouted. "We move out in ten minutes!"
The Eden Team began to hurry. The schedule was tightly controlled because Skynet had forces all over the map. If you were told to be at a specific place by a specific time, it was because Tech-Com had drawn them off long enough for you to get through a specific stretch of road. Nobody wanted to mess with that timetable.
Robbie went to collect the last of his bags, when he noticed Ginny waving him over, and Berk was smiling at him. Tunnel Rats didn't smile. "Sir. There's something I need to tell you."
"You're a Tunnel Rat, Berk; not a soldier. You don't have to 'sir' me."
"I think after the last few days I do." Berk responded.
"Fair enough, what do you need?"
Berk bit his lip. "It…"
Ginny rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Good grief, do I have to do it for you?"
"When you go back to Crystal Peak..." Berk rushed out, sending her a glare. "I won't be going with you."
Robbie blinked. "Yeah?"
Berk looked down. He didn't talk about emotion. None of the Rats did. Except with Kate. Berk sent a quick look at the picture of her, and drew in a deep breath. "It's... it's very nice here. It's... I don't know, it's better somehow. There's something in…"
"Beautiful." Robbie said quietly. "The word you're looking for is 'beautiful'."
Berk nodded quickly. "Yeah. It's beautiful here. I want to stay. Skynet might come back... and even if it doesn't..."
Robbie nodded slowly. "Give me your hand."
Berk did so. Robbie pulled the little packet from his pocket, and tipped the apple seeds into Berk's palm.
"I have planted ten apple trees here since I started. You have ten more. Keep them safe. Make them grow."
Berk nodded, taking that very seriously. A member of the Connor family had granted his only wish and given him a personal mission. "I will, Sir."
Robbie glanced at Ginny. "You'll teach him?"
Ginny smiled. "Everything you taught me."
Berk blurted out something that he didn't stop to think about. "I gave Michael another letter… tried to explain to the others why I'm not coming back. But tell Keeper... tell General Kate. Tell her... Thank you."
Robbie grinned softly. "I will." He and turned to Griffin. "Let's move out."
Z Plus Nineteen Years Sixty Nine Days
Kate looked at herself in the mirror. "How do you think I'd look with a crew cut?" She asked.
Connor put down his toothbrush. "Are you serious?"
"I keep waking up with my hair all in knots." Kate complained, fingering the one long braid. "I don't know how Carla and Erica do it."
Connor said nothing, but knew the difference. Carla and Erica could reach behind their head with both hands. Kate's bad arm had range enough to let her work, even let her operate, but combing her hair was difficult. "I can help with that."
Kate looked at him, smiling a little. "You'd comb my hair for me?"
John shrugged. "Why not?"
"Probably easier to just cut it shorter."
John hugged her from behind. "I like your hair longer. Looks good."
Kate smiled at him in the mirror, and rolled her head back to give him a kiss, when her radio buzzed. "Mmmph!" She complained into his lips. "Damn radio never lets you finish a thought, does it?" She answered. "Connor here."
"They're back!" Carla called.
Kate came running into the Motor Pool Entrance, and went straight to Robbie. "You're Home! You're Home! My victorious soldier home from the war!"
Robbie was only too happy to hug her back.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kate could see Noah and Michael doing the same, the Eden Team finding their families or their friends. She pulled back enough to give Robbie a confused look. "Berk?"
Robbie smiled, and handed her the leaf pendant. "He found what you wanted him to find." He looked around, anxious. "Where's dad?"
Kate smiled sadly. "He's in our room. He says to come find him when you're ready..."
Robbie looked around awkwardly. "I think... Ginny likes Berk."
Kate's face fell. "Oh, sweetie."
Robbie nodded thickly. "I better go check in with The General."
Kate let him go, giving him some time alone with his father.
Noah was delighted. "Mmm. Welcome home."
Michael hugged his mother back. "Great to be back." He looked over his mothers shoulder and saw Cory looking around awkwardly. "Wait. I have to deliver this."
Noah saw him pull the letter out of his pocket, and froze. There was no soldier alive that didn't recognize this little tradition, and she stepped back. "Okay."
Cory nearly bolted when Michael came over, but he took the letter without a word. "Berk's fine." Michael said plainly. "But he's… He's staying there."
"What?" Cory shouted in disbelief. It was the first time a Tunnel Rat had volunteered to stay away without signing on with Tech-Com. "Why?"
"He had his reasons. Michael said gently. "He wanted you to take the letter down to the Rats and let them know."
Cory looked at the letter again, and took off without a word.
Walters came into the motor pool, looking around. "Where is she?"
"Apparently hiding from us." Noah said. "Well, she'll have to ship out sooner or later. She can't escape."
"Don't underestimate her. She's a Connor." Walters looked around. "Where's Micheal?"
"Delivering a letter." Noah said shortly.
Walters reacted. It was a line that soldiers couldn't uncross. "You okay?"
"He's... grown up." Noah sighed. "My boy is a soldier."
Connor opened the door as Robbie knocked. "Welcome home."
Robbie gave his father a hug. "Good to be back."
Connor took the silver flask out and poured a shot for his son. "Back Before, you'd be too young. But if you can fight an army of Terminators, you can have a drink afterward."
Robbie nodded, and took the shot, sipping it slowly, gritting against the burn of the moonshine.
"So." Connor said. "I'm told that I should be very proud of you."
Robbie looked up, a little unsure. "Are you?"
Connor smiled warmly. "Son, I was proud of you long before this."
Robbie was relieved. He believed him.
"How do you think it went?" Connor asked.
Robbie was silent a long time. "We kept them out. Destroyed them all, saved what we needed to save..."
"But?" Connor led him to it, knowing the answer.
"Dad." Robbie said. He sounded younger, smaller. Like he was trying not to cry. "I lost two guys."
Connor sighed heavily and sat down. "Those are the fortunes of war."
"We could have just... We could have run. Mom wanted us to. You wanted us to. Dad, it was my call to stay and fight." He squeezed his eyes shut. "And... I wonder if... if I wasn't John Connor's son, then maybe they wouldn't have been so quick to agree, and maybe I wouldn't have thought it was worth..."
"Robbie, listen to me." Connor said seriously. "If it wasn't worth it, I never would have let you stay."
"Dad…"
"All those things you said to me? All the things you said to Griffin, about why and how you needed to defend that place... They were real. They were worth it. They mattered. The orchards there are now a defensible location, in a decent area for soldiers in need as a forward Medical and resupply point. That orchard will produce food. If you had to start again, the food production would take literally years to get to where it was. You took out a Skynet force and that's no small thing with resources so tight on both sides of the war. This is how the game is played."
Robbie sniffed. "Was... Was there anything I could have done differently? Done better? Could I have won the fight... and saved them?"
Connor was plainly sympathetic. "Son... I still ask myself that about the fights that we won long before you were born."
Robbie sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I keep going over it."
"I go over the old battles too. Sometimes I find solutions. When I do, I remind myself that I had three seconds to think about it in battle, and a lifetime to second-guess myself. Robbie, take some advice, from your father and your Commanding Officer. Don't do that to yourself. You went to war, and the other guy lost. That's the job."
"That's all there is to it, huh?"
"We're soldiers." Connor summed up. "It's what we do. Complete the mission, protect our own, come back alive."
"In that order?" Robbie guessed.
"In that order." Connor said simply. "And you did that. You did that very well. You worked the battlefield, you worked the problem, and you improvised a way to victory when the plan failed to work. You did good... Lieutenant."
Robbie looked up sharply. "Promotion?"
"You're already Director of the Eden Project; and you can clearly handle command. Imagine what you could do if you had some trained, well armed soldiers with you instead of gardening tools and seven year old rifles."
Robbie took a breath. "Thank you, sir."
Connor put the insignia on his shoulders and saluted. His son returned it promptly.
Robbie same out of the Presidential Suite, and started to head for the Motor Pool.
"Hey, Lieutenant."
Robbie turned and saw his sister. "Sarah!" He said in relief. He hadn't seen his only sister for a long time. She had been a soldier longer than him, and the eldest. The feeling that she was protecting him their whole lives was hard to shake.
She gave him a hug. "I heard you did okay out there without me." Sarah said affectionately.
"Oh, believe me. I would have preferred it if you were there."
"Well, while you were out doing all the hard work, I was back here trying to fend off mom and dad's cruel and unusual form of… love." Sarah started to explain.
Robbie laughed. "I heard all about it!"
"When?"
"At the front door, sis; you're the talk of the Base!"
Sarah groaned. "Oh god."
"Where is the soon-to-be-dead lover-boy? I wanna meet him before Dad does something unnatural to him with a reprogrammed Machine."
"You and me both." Sarah said ruefully. "I've been trying to find him since Dad... walked in on us. And then Mom walked in on us."
Robbie laughed. "Sucks to be you!"
Sarah sighed hard. "I liked this one, Robbie. I got the good feeling. It wasn't like it was with the other guy."
Robbie went silent. The 'Other Guy' was rarely spoken of. Sarah had met a soldier in the Mess Hall a few years before, who was more interested in the bragging rights that came with having slept with The General's Daughter. Sarah had realized this pretty quickly and with Robbie's help, had quietly gotten him moved away from Crystal Peak to another post... where he had died in combat soon after. To their knowledge, their parents had never found out. And so Sarah Connor the second, a smart attractive girl, had not been close with anyone at the age of seventeen, when most girls her age in the Underground were already having children.
Robbie felt for her. "I'm sorry, sis."
"What do I do?" Sarah asked finally.
"Well... I suggest you do what I didn't do." Robbie said. "Get an answer. If it's no, then... Well, we're the Connor family. This sort of thing is a fact of our lives."
Sarah nodded. "Mom told me about Ginny. I'm sorry for you too."
Robbie shook his head. "I feel bad about it but... it's not like we ever made it to a supply closet."
Sarah flushed.
Robbie smiled. "I'll help you." He said. "If he's new in the Base, then he probably got assigned to a Unit."
Sarah nodded, thinking it through. "I was told to prepare. A few Ops coming up. Anything involving more than one Unit, and he'll probably be with it them. Newcomers get Trial-By-Battle pretty quick..."
Robbie looked sad. "Sherrin called in on our way back here. He wanted me to tell Griffin about the 321st."
Sarah nodded, looking hopeful. "So... Kurt will probably be with us on the Op."
Robbie almost smiled. "If we can figure that out, so can others."
Sherrin looked up and saw Sarah and Robbie sitting at his table. "Hi, Tony." The two of them chorused brightly.
Sherrin tensed. "Oh god, what do you two want?"
"Would you listen to that?" Robbie said to Sarah.
"It's almost like he's not happy to see us." Sarah agreed.
"I'm always happy to see you guys, but when I see both of you together, and smiling... it's not a good thing."
"Cynical." Robbie observed.
"Suspicious." Sarah agreed. "Mistrustful of his fellow soldiers."
"Terribly sad." Robbie concluded.
"Absolutely tragic." Sarah added.
"What do you want?" Sherrin returned to his meal.
Sarah smiled. "Kurt Orlandez. Heard of him?"
Sherrin burst out laughing.
Robbie smirked at his sister. "That's a 'yes'."
"Let's just say I don't know him as well as your sister does." Tony told Robbie.
"Next Unit going out is Perry's. Have Kurt assigned there for Trial By Battle." Sarah directed Sherrin.
"And why should I do this?" Tony fired back.
"Because we're not leaving you alone until you do." Robbie said easily.
"Be cunning." Sarah suggested. "Be persuasive."
"Use force." Robbie added.
"I'll take care of it." Sherrin promised.
Kyle woke up, with The Photo clutched in his hand. He rolled his head to the left.
Griffin was staring at him like he was looking at a ghost.
Kyle winced, and fought to sit up. "Hey."
Griffin helped him upright. "Kyle... I got back and they told me that the 321st was... What happened?"
Kyle stared down at Sarah's face, staring back at him from the photo. What would she say? "We won the battle." Kyle said harshly. "We completed our mission."
Deep in the Underground, there was a collection of tunnels that nobody else knew. It was smelly, dusty, but it was sealed off and safe, assuming you knew the ways in. The rats emerged from time to time to find food, and had become experts in rigging power sources for their own light and heat. They could tap the pipes for fresh water and their own small wash-room, and they kept to themselves as much as possible. The older ones among them spread out through the ducts and the maintenance tunnels to avoid letting anyone find their 'nest', where they gathered together their cots and their chairs, and told each other stories.
Sometimes, just sometimes, late and night, when everything was shut down, and the night shift went quietly, Tech-Com could put their ears to the air vents and hear the echoes of the songs they sang to each other, forgotten music of a world long crumbled to dust, taught back and forth by the children of the Last Generation.
The older ones, who knew the soldiers and leaders, would come out to work, earn their keep, and learn the latest news, for more stories to tell the youngest of the Tunnel Rats, who had never been to the Upper levels before, protected by their parents from the Infiltrators.
Cory came into their safe little Nest, and showed them the letter. It was passed around as Cory told them that one of their eldest would not be coming home. The letter was addressed to all of them, and they all gathered around to see what it contained.
Cory opened the letter, and from between the pages, out fell something unheard of in their world. Something that none of them had ever seen before.
A handful of orange blossoms.
Z Plus Nineteen Years Seventy Two Days
Kurt was moving toward the motor pool. His unit was on the way there too, preparing for another Mission. Sarah slipped in next to him. "Hey, Stranger."
Kurt smiled at her, and looked over his shoulder quickly. "Hi."
Sarah sighed as he looked over the other shoulder. "They aren't here." Sarah said. "They've had their fun tormenting you."
Noah pointed. "There's Sarah. And look who she's with."
Walters smirked like a hungry shark. "Is that him?"
"I do believe it is."
"Ooh, a bonus."
"Why didn't you tell me who you were?" Kurt asked quietly.
Sarah looked down. "Since I was rated as a grunt, there have been extra rules for me. Rule number one was that I had to hide my name. That's for Skynet but... I wanted you to like me."
"I do like you."
Sarah snorted. "You've been avoiding me like I've got the plague ever since you found out my name."
"You got that right. I want at least half a mile of wasteland between your lips and any member of the Nova Group when we're together." Kurt said shortly.
Sarah laughed at that. "Well, where we're going..."
"Sit with me on the ride there." Kurt said suddenly.
Sarah smiled in open relief. "I will."
"Sarah?"
The younger Connor turned and saw Walters and Noah, and they weren't smiling. "Something wrong?"
"We need to have a word with your friend here." Noah said kindly.
"Lieutenant Brewster!" Perry bellowed from down the hall. "Are you planning on joining us?"
Sarah smiled winningly at Kurt. "That's me. Be brave. I'll be back."
She sprinted off to speak to her CO, as Noah and Walters closed ranks around Kurt neatly.
"He called her 'Brewster'." Walters pointed out. "That's for you too, y'know. If you so much as say her name out there, you've marked her, her Unit, and yourself for death."
"And that's not all." Noah pointed out. "We like that kid. She's worth it. At least she is if you can handle it. That's why we're here. To prepare you for what's ahead."
Walters nodded. "The Rules. We're here to teach you The Rules."
"We feel it's best you learn them quickly, after what happened to the last boyfriend." Noah said gently.
"The last boyfriend...?" Kurt repeated, seeing the hazing for what it was, and trying to laugh about it.
Noah nodded soberly. "What was his name, Eric? I think it was 'Tim'..."
Walters looked sad. "Ah yes, poor Tim. Nice kid. He broke the rules."
"There was no Tim!" Sarah shouted at them from down the hall, but she had a big smile on her face.
"That's right. We're all agreed on that point." Noah conceded quickly. Half a dozen soldiers who were pretending not to follow the whole thing smirked to themselves.
Kurt grinned, and rolled with it. It was to be expected, and he knew he could take it.
At the back of the Motor Pool, near the doors to the Base, Kate and John were watching. "She's smiling." Kate observed.
"Could be she's just feeling nauseous." Connor offered.
"Nope. She's smiling. He makes her laugh. That's real. And I think they finish each others sentences."
"Like Eric and Erica do. Remember when we used to finish each others sentences?" Connor teased.
Kate giggled for the first time in years. "Sarah's got a boyfriend, Robbie's a department head, both of them are tearing Skynet apart for a living..." She fingered the latest addition to her unique uniform. A patch in the shape and color of Berk's leaf, sewn into her Uniform, over her heart. "God, John. When did they grow up?"
"I don't know." John admitted. "But when we find the Time Machine, maybe we should find a way to keep them at five years old forever."
Kate laughed. "I think I may have screwed up."
"How?"
"Ginny. One of the permanent Eden Team out at the Flats." Kate sighed. "I knew Robbie liked her, and I knew he was going out there to see her. I sent Berk along for something unrelated. Apparently Ginny liked meeting Berk."
Connor chuckled. "Oops."
"I know." Kate said softly. "I feel like I broke them up."
"They're young." John advised her. "It's not like you split them up at the altar or anything, they've never even been on a date yet as far as I know. Though if Sarah is any indication, we'll be the last to find out."
Kate chuckled. "As it should be. If they're still hiding things from their parents, and taking stupid risks, and doing stupid things to make us proud, then they're normal teenagers."
"And if they're normal, it means we're not bad parents." John agreed.
They both chuckled warmly.
"Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Chapter Text
Z Plus Twenty Years Eighteen Days
The War seemed to be going well, though Tech-Com was so scattered, none of the soldiers on the battlefields knew it for sure. Once Connor discovered the location of the System Core, he got to work cleaning out the wastelands. The Terminators were laid out in small groups, from one end of the continent to another, seemingly at random. Connor took note of every ambush, and somehow deciphered a pattern. He sent his teams, all of Tech-Com. The H/K's were to be destroyed on sight, the relays to be rigged for capture, and the Terminators to be taken whole.
Electrical weapons were developed for capture missions, and were now turned out in huge numbers, along with the regular rifles. Tech-Com had new orders, to capture as many Terminators as possible, and reprogram them to march back to Crystal peak, where they were collected, and prepared for something.
Nobody knew what Connor wanted with the Machines, but for years now, he had been collecting them, gathering the enemies troops into his own fold, and hiding them across the wastelands.
Skynet's offensive team was scattered completely, content to move about as ghosts, taking down one human at a time. Tech-Com was equally scattered, trying to catch each and every ambush, to capture the Machines before a trap could be sprung.
Six Terminators were actually an unusually large number for an ambush, but they'd come out in groups, trying to draw out the Tech-Com forces. Sarah sprinted nimbly through the middle of them, not taking a shot. They both swivelled to aim at her, and her team lunged from their cover with the Tazer guns, electricity crackling over their suddenly jerking metal bodies...
When another trio of Terminators appeared from concealed foxholes and struck. The battle became a chaotic roll for survival, and Kurt came from nowhere to protect Sarah as she circled around for an attack. Both of them moved like a single being, having done this so often they didn't even need to look to know where the other was and what they were aiming at.
It was a dance that they had long mastered, and Kurt knew how Sarah loved this dance.
And then another two Machines joined the fray from another angle and the rest of SAW Team Charlie quickly cast aside their Tazers and brought out the heavier guns, taking the gloves off the battle.
A new soldier wouldn't have lasted three seconds, but every member of Sarah's team was a veteran, and none less than the younger Connor herself, all of them knowing exactly what kind of evasive moves to make that a Machine couldn't predict, and which one would shoot first or wait to get a clearer shot. They were Machines, and they thought like Machines.
Even so, Sarah was glad to see the Bandits come charging in to join her side of the battle. They had held back, just in case the ambush was a larger trap, which it was. Skynet was learning new tricks every day, which was fine because humanity learned faster.
As the last of the Terminators fell down; her team was already taking their CPU's apart, giving their caputred machines new orders quickly, before a counter attack could come.
Sarah was breathing hard, her eyes alight with a scary inner fire, like she always was after a battle. "Six to five, and we ruled!" The young woman exulted. "Man alive, that's better than coffee."
Her team chuckled. They were always glad to see their captain victorious. Her energy lifted them all up.
Kurt went to talk to his Bandit team and Sarah turned to Labine. "What's the word?"
"Chief says Skynet's back is broken in this sector. We are to stand down for a few days until they regroup, then we hit them again."
Sarah grinned. "Sounds like a plan. Let's find a place to get some rest."
"Y'know, Sarah..." Kurt said brightly. "Some of us couldn't help but notice how close we are to Las Vegas."
"No." Sarah said calmly.
"And, y'know, Robbie sort of insisted that we come visit." Jackson added.
"Nein!" Sarah repeated.
"It's only a day away, we'll be back long before we're back on rotation." Labine chirped hopefully.
"Nyet!" Sarah said in a third language.
"Oh please, Sarah, please, please, pleeeeeeeze?" Her boyfriend implored, over-dramatizing to the point where Sarah couldn't help but smile, just a little.
Her team saw the smile and declared victory. All that was left was for her to say it out loud, and they all knew it.
Sarah swore under he breath like the career soldier she was, before finally nodding. "Okay. Tell my brother to put out the good mess trays."
Her team, plus the bandits, plus whoever else they'd adopted during the battle all whooped and headed toward the jeeps.
Eden had spread too. Robbie had some of his people moved into Las Vegas. The immense hydro-electric dams around Las Vegas had survived the first shockwaves, and collapsed much later, now rivers. Robbie had directed his people to getting the water pumps working, and once again the desert held life.
Vegas was always an artificial town, with miles of desert surrounding it. Water had to be pumped in for everything, with none here on its own.
Inwardly, Sarah didn't get it. She knew that gold was valuable once, but now it was just a heavy rock. Who would waste so much water and energy building an immense city out here?
The towers still stood, though the glass and neon lights that once lit up the place had been worn to nothing. Las Vegas had not been hit in J-Day, but was the first casualty when the services started breaking down. The water stopped pumping, the food trucks stopped rolling and the community abandoned its desert oasis as the whole place dried out.
Thirty years before, people came here to gamble, to drink, and to be decadent. It had taken less than a month for the desert to reclaim the whole territory.
Sarah rolled into the city on the lead Jeep, and started scanning. The sun beat down on this place horribly. The towers still stood, but they were half buried in drifts of desert sand, which had spent decades building up against the towers, sometimes many stories high.
Sarah checked her radio, following a locator beacon that had been switched on some time in the last two minutes. The young woman grinned. Robbie knew she was coming, and had turned on a beacon for her. She had no idea where in the city he was watching from, but then neither would Skynet.
They followed the beacon till they got to a large multi-story car-park off the casino strip. The bottom two levels had been buried in sand over the years, though partially dug out for use by Eden. A mobile ramp had been laid across the sand that led the jeep convoy up to the third level, where the motor pool had been set up. From the outside, there was very little sign or anything, though they could see in all directions out the car-park.
Sarah jumped down from her Jeep, signing in, as her people got out and passed by the K-9 Units. Once they had signed in, they had been directed to one of the abandoned casinos, and they made their way there through a tunnel...
When they came up from the tunnel, they found themselves at the lobby of the casino. The glass doors and walls were buried under sand, though reinforced and packed dense enough to be safe.
The Casino floor had been cleaned up, and some of the ornate lights restored to work off Terminator batteries. The tables were originally meant for gambling, but had been taken over by Eden. Lights over the tables were set up as hydroponic lamps. One thing Vegas had no shortage of was light-bulbs. The casino floor had all the slot machines dragged out or moved aside.
The poker tables were now covered in seedling trays. The smaller blackjack tables were now workstations, in use for making tools and repairing equipment. The craps tables that had a large raised border around their edges were filled with dirt and used as herb gardens. And everywhere else on the casino floor, things were growing in containers, just starting their lives as plants.
Sarah felt the muddy carpet under her boots, still plush to her standards, and looked around. Vegas was a relatively new addition to the Eden Project, and she had never been here before.
"It's about time you got here." Robbie called cheerfully, and Sarah suddenly felt lighter. She spun around to see him as he marched up toward them. He was wearing Tech-Com boots and trousers, and a t-shirt. To look at him, you wouldn't know there was a war on at all. She met him halfway across the floor in a big hug.
She didn't know why her brother was always so damned cheerful, but nothing ever seemed to get him down. Robbie sent Kurt a nod, and Sarah looked back at her boyfriend in time to see the knowing nod returned. "Why do I get the feeling you were expecting us?"
"Whatever do you mean, dear sister?" Robbie said innocently.
Sarah glared. "We were on manoeuvres, Robbie. We were tearing Skynet apart, and you..."
"You've been doing it for a longer rotation than any other Unit out there." Robbie stopped her. "Your people needed a break. Since Kurt's team got paired up with you, you haven't so much as been back at Palace for over a month. You may get off on blowing things up, but the rest of your team need to sit down for a minute."
Sarah cooled. She knew she'd been pushing her people harder than normal. She couldn't help it. They'd been doing so well; her team was in the zone, and she wanted to hold on to it for as long as she could.
"You could have told me first." She complained.
"Come on, Sarah; it's Newbirth." Robbie told her.
Sarah blinked. "It is?"
"See? This is what I'm saying! You don't even know what month it is."
Holidays were a relatively new addition to life. Their parents had told them about Back Before, and how many holidays there were. For the most part, it was a tradition that had died out. Some still noted the passage of a particular day, but had felt little need to celebrate it. Sarah knew that her mother kept a count of the date according to a pre-J-Day calendar, but she didn't understand why.
Two years past, Connor had announced that the census was reporting an increase in worldwide population for the first time since J-Day. For the first time in over twenty years, there were more people than the year before.
The party had lasted a week.
Connor declared it a new birth for humanity. A year later, the anniversary of the day of Newbirth had been celebrated again. Newbirth was a party every year, and the Anniversary of J-Day a memorial. And now that Sarah thought about it, Newbirth Day was coming around again.
Robbie gave them the tour. The Casino floor covered two levels, and the upper level was now a common area, where meals were taken. Above that was the hotel, and the rooms were being used. Privacy was a prize under any circumstances, though they couldn't possibly spare the water to make the bathrooms work in all of them. The sheets were threadbare and the mattresses decades old, and not one of the rooms had glass intact, but there were enough broken down rooms for them all, so it was a paradise to them.
Out behind the casino floor was the restaurant, which had been closed down. The rats and roaches had got to it and made the place unlivable, so Eden had sealed it up before the vermin could get to their seeds or food storage.
And in the courtyard, at the center of the whole complex, was dozens of swimming pools, where once hundreds of people could swim or sunbathe, and now Eden grew. The larger swimming pools were either converted into fish-tanks, or filled with Paydirt and used for growing. The concrete between the pools had been taken out and grass grew in between. In the heart of the Vegas strip, with desert for hundreds of miles, a true oasis had grown, with the walls of a long forgotten gambling house on all sides.
Sarah and Kurt got first pick of the available rooms, and Robbie told them dinner would be in an hour, leaving them a basin full of water to wash in.
The two of them cleaned up, grateful to get the dirt of the ambush off them finally, and stretched out on the filthy bed, too tired to do more than close their eyes for a minute.
Sarah felt a familiar arm go around her middle and hummed a bit. A familiar voice whispered so nicely in her ear. "Look at this."
Kurt took her hand and dragged it lightly down his arm till she touched a handful of scrub. Sarah's eyes opened and looked down. A patch of weak, filthy brown wild-grass was in Kurt's hand. It wasn't from the containers, or the swimming pools. It was growing on its own. "Mm. Grass." Sarah whispered in awe, feeling very relaxed. "Where'd you get it?"
"Out on the battlefield, when I was hugging the dirt like a sane person."
"There hasn't been anything growing in Nevada for... who knows? As long as I've been alive at least."
They lay quietly a while, just drifting, letting the war in its worries fade as they cuddled together. Sarah looked out at her team, who had met up with Bandits, Eden, other SAW Teams... whoever was in the area was taking advantage of the chance to come to Eden to celebrate and rest.
Sarah tilted her head back. "What are you thinking?" She asked her boyfriend.
"That... you're beautiful." Kurt murmured in her ear.
Sarah grinned. "Aww. I can remember a time when I would have believed that."
Kurt chuckled. "I was thinking that Eden is in Vegas now. It's the first time they've been able to set up in a city. They can spread out so much further than they could... I think we're winning."
Sarah nodded, like that was to be expected. "Yep."
"You ever think about... What that means?"
Sarah felt a knife edge of concern for a microsecond. "I try not to." She said finally. "It's bad luck."
Eden always put on the best spread. The food was always fresh and more wildly varied. For a special occasion such as Newbirth, they had extra meat grown too, and everyone was all too eager to get a plate.
It was a celebration of life. Not a celebration of their numbers, but of their existence. Another year had passed and humanity was still on the earth. Those that had experienced J-Day were growing few and far between, but everyone knew what a miracle it was that people still lived at all, and once a year they were reminded that they had at last gone in a direction other than toward extinction, and they celebrated their good fortune.
After dinner, there was drinks; and the majority of them slipped off to the garden.
Sarah smiled, food and drink making her mellow and relaxed. She looked at her friends, her fellow warriors, who were gathering around the extra tins of food, passing around hip flasks, laughing with each other... There was nowhere left in the world that the War did not haunt. There was no place to go for R&R, and the Children of the Dust took their peace where they could find it. Anywhere that a battle had been won was a place to relax for a few minutes, and Newbirth was reason enough to make it a big celebration.
Sarah found her place to relax, leaning back against the chest of her boyfriend, who was leaning against a tree. She didn't know why he was able to relax her so easily, but he made her feel so soft and comfortable, no matter how hard she had to be. His voice whispered in her ear. "Robbie told me that the wastelands are fighting back. There's scrub all over the place. Not a lot, and it doesn't live long, but it's growing."
Sarah nodded, nuzzling back into him.
"He offered us a place." Kurt offered. "With Eden. After the War."
"I was hoping you'd be here." The radio crackled.
Robbie smiled. "Sorry, I couldn't get away."
"Yes, you could. I asked Javier." Ginny responded. "They could have handled it a bit without you."
Robbie winced. "I... I wanted to. But its a new set-up, and I wanted to be here because it was the only way to keep Sarah in for a night without actually handcuffing her to something..."
"Well... that's probably true." Ginny chuckled. "How is she, by the way? She and Kurt still..."
"They're happy." Robbie told her.
"You don't sound happy for them." Ginny observed.
"I am, I just..." Robbie didn't dare finish the sentence. He was happy that his sister was with someone, but he missed Ginny terribly. He hadn't gone back to Death Valley since she and Berk had become close. As much as Robbie admired the Tunnel Rat turned Eden Warrior, he didn't know if he could just be Ginny's friend. Especially since she had decided that he was on his own too much.
"I worry about you sometimes." Ginny said softly. "When are you coming back this way next?"
"It might be a while."
"I wanted to see you because... Berk and I have something we want to tell you."
Robbie felt his throat catch. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw his sister watching, waiting at the door. "Ginny, there's someone here. I have to go right now, but I'll talk to you soon?"
"You better, or I'll start to think you don't love me any more." She teased seriously. "Happy Newbirth."
"You too." Robbie said back quietly, and switched off the radio, turning to face his sister. "How much of that did you hear?"
"All of it, but I didn't really need to." She said softly. "She adores you, Robbie. You could..."
"I could what?" Robbie challenged. "Break them up?"
Sarah looked down. "No, I guess you couldn't."
Silence.
"So, why don't you ask me what you want to ask me?" Robbie asked.
Sarah sighed. "You told Kurt we could come here after the war?"
Robbie blinked. "I invited you both... you'd always be welcome."
"Eden... is your world. Not mine." Sarah said awkwardly. "You're great at it... it's important, it's valuable, and you were born for it, but it's not... me."
Robbie shrugged. "Fine. Kurt's worried that you're hedging. If you don't want to be with Kurt when the war ends..."
"I do!" She said swiftly. "It's just..." Sarah shivered. "It's bad luck to talk about after the war. Tempting fate. I want to be with him after too, but its not over till its over. Unit every Machine is dead."
"I know." Robbie agreed. "Sarah, that is exactly why we have to think about after the war."
Sarah blinked. "What do you mean?" She demanded. "The War is the point. That's where we get all the other stuff from. With Skynet gone we can be anything. Until it is, we can't spare anything from fighting it. The things Skynet does are just... evil. No human could be so evil. That's why. We can't be what we are till Skynet is gone."
Robbie was silent a moment, and then rose, holding out a hand to Sarah. "Come with me."
She did so, and he led her to the gardens, where things were growing. In Crystal Peak, people found a place to sit or collapse in the Great Hall when not in their quarters on on duty. In Eden Outposts, people came to the garden, where the finished products flourished.
Sarah saw Kurt where she left him, sitting against a tree, over to the side, cool grass under them all. So were a lot of people she recognized, having fought and faced death with each and every one of them. There were faces she didn't recognize, from Eden, moving through the growing things, seeing to them tenderly.
In the middle of the garden, was a soldier in a wheelchair. Sarah felt her heart in her throat when she realized why. He had lost both legs and an arm. His eyes were fierce as anyone's ever were. Sarah checked him over, and judged him to be about forty years old.
"That's Vagey." Robbie told her. "He's been here a while. With one arm, there's only so much he can do from a chair, but he never lets on how much it kills him. One thing he's good at though... He taught some of the kids how to play guitar. He was a musician back before. He sings for us."
The guitar started to play, and Sarah shivered. It was a slow gentle tune.
She turned to Robbie. "Why bring me here, Robbie? We can talk in your room."
"Look around, sis. See anyone carrying a gun?"
Sarah did so. There were people with gardening tools, people with playing cards, some people were writing things down in notebooks, or exercising. A few of the younger ones were sitting around Vagey, playing musical instruments. There were no weapons visible. "No."
Robbie nodded. "You and me, Sarah? We have never lived in a world where Skynet didn't exist. Vagey has. Mom and dad have. Skynet wasn't always there. There was a time when being a soldier meant you didn't always fight."
Sarah shivered in horror, but couldn't place why. And then Vagey started to sing, soft and soulful, and even with three of his limbs gone, his voice alone was beyond amazing.
These mist covered mountains...
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms
"We tell ourselves that Skynet is from somewhere else Sarah. We tell ourselves that Skynet is something totally apart from us, something alien. Something inhuman." Robbie said. "But deep down, every soldier knows better. Skynet is humanity's creation. Their soldiers look human. Even the 500's are human skeletons. The personification of a dead human being. Skynet was made in our image. We made Skynet, Sarah. A few Humans out of billions who lived for war made Skynet, and we all live for war now, trying to stop it."
Sarah took that in, feeling awkward for some reason. "What about you?" Sarah waved around Eden. "You said it yourself. There are no weapons here. In the world according to Robbie Evergreen, there are no guns... You don't live for war."
"I..." Robbie let out a breath. "I will have very little trouble adapting to a world without Skynet. And if he's got you, Kurt will be the same. What about you?"
Sarah blinked. "I... I got plans."
"Yeah?" Robbie challenged.
Sarah tried to think of one quickly. She had to have an idea, because she knew they'd win. She was a Connor, and even if all humanity doubted victory or even survival, the Connors knew in their bones that victory was inevitable.
Sarah told herself that she had to have some idea of what she'd do in a world without a war to fight. "I..." She started to say. "I... I can't really... It's bad luck to talk about it." She finished lamely.
Robbie let her off the hook. "Yeah. Well, for another time. Just saying, don't get mad at Kurt just because he's thought of something already."
Brother and sister went quiet a moment, listening to the disfigured man sing.
Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
Oldham led the slow march; smoke rising behind him. The battle was over, and they had won. Oldham's team was making the slow march to the forward post for their next assignment, when Michael Noah, now a rated combat veteran, grabbed his shoulder, holding him still.
"Boss!" Michael said quickly. "Don't move your leg!"
Everyone froze. Oldham froze, and looked down. He was standing on a pressure mine. In the middle of nowhere, with open wasteland stretching out in every direction as far as the eye could see, Skynet had placed a trap here, willing to spend the resources to kill a single human, even if only years later. Such were the tactics in a war of attrition.
Oldham kept his cool. "All right, everyone get clear. Porkins, you're EOD. Give me my leg back."
The rest of the team scattered, seeking cover, and Porkins came over, kneeling down gently to take a look at the plate under his foot. "Oh god. Boss, it's not an explosive mine. It's a proximity sensor."
Oldham paled. "Ambush!"
Terminators suddenly came up from the ground, concealed in their hiding places. His team had been spreading out, getting out of what they thought was blast range. They were now isolated form each other, and away from their commander. It was a masterful ambush, which had been sitting here for years, maybe decades...
The machines boiled up from the sand and started shooting.
Oldham saw a flash of light as the plasma-rifle came around to aim at his face...
"MEDIC!" Michael shouted, as the shooting continued.
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms
Kurt was settled against the trunk of an apple tree, listening to the soft gentle voice as it sang. Sarah came over, and settled back against him, her back to his chest. He put his arms around her, putting a kiss in her hair.
The sound of chopper blades filled the air, coming from a distance, not coming to them. Nobody flinched or worried. Every soldier could identify a helicopter by the distant sound of the rotors.
"Medivac." Sarah said without looking. "Somebody's going to Crystal Peak in a hurry."
Kurt nodded.
There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones
Kate ran. Time and hard living had put silver in her hair, lines on her face, and aches in her joints, but she was still faster than she had ever been back before the war. Nobody trained to be strong, only nimble and fast. She threaded through the omnipresent crowds of people, through the hallways of Crystal Peak, clearing the obstacles without so much as slowing stride.
And she knew that half the top brass in the Palace were chasing after her, at news of Oldham's injury. Walters looked terrified. Oldham had been with him since before J-Day.
The doors opened, and Oldham was carried in on a litter, with the K-9's keeping pace, checking everyone while they ran in.
Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
"You were right." Sarah said finally. "About making plans. I haven't made any because... I don't know. Robbie says Skynet exists because humans wanted to make war on humans. But now... Look around. Robbie uses scrubbed Machines to work Eden. They're Machines doing what humans tell them to do, just like they were meant to be. It took all humanity to get together and put our weapons back in their place. Who knows, maybe the whole war is a wakeup call."
"I hope so." Kurt said.
Sarah smiled up at him. "You remind me of my dad sometimes."
"Flatterer."
"When you talk about... about us and the war's ending, and all that... just sometimes, you remind me of him."
Silence. The soft music played gently over them, and they took a while to realize that everyone was listening, caught in the spell that Vagey was weaving with his voice alone.
But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms
The song ended, leaving behind a soft sentimental feeling. It was a soft sentimental peace song, from a time when soldiers still knew what peace was, in wars that they could escape by going to a different place. It was an ancient past to them; a magical fairytale place where wars ended.
Sarah led Kurt to their temporary quarters, and kissed him softly, letting him know how she felt without words. He returned it, and pulled the door shut behind them.
"What's the verdict?" Connor asked the second Carla left the operating room.
Carla sighed and pulled her mask off. "He'll make it."
Walters let out a breath like he'd been holding it for a week as Kate came out of the OR herself. "Thank god."
Noah smiled for him, and rested her hand on the back of his neck comfortingly, not caring that anyone could see. Their relationship was hardly a secret, but they didn't generally flaunt it.
Connor however, was not smiling. "What aren't you telling us?"
Carla sent Kate a bleak look. Kate took the cue and explained. "The shot caught him across the side of the face. You know as well as anyone how... sticky hot plasma can get when it's fresh from the rifle."
"Oh god." Connor sighed.
"Yeah. We managed to save his eyes, but the fact is, his own wife wouldn't recognize him ever again."
"Well..." Connor said thickly. "His wife was killed that ambush."
Kate shut her eyes a moment. "Then... this will very be hard for him."
"He'll make it." Walters said with quiet certainty. "Oldham is the kind that won't accept anything as total defeat. It won't break him."
Robbie's voice called over everyone's radio's suddenly. "All hands, report to Motor Pool. You can leave your gear behind."
"Midnight." Kurt said.
Sarah hummed and woke up a little, kissing his shoulder. "Can we pretend we didn't hear it?"
"Oh trust me, you'll want to see this." Kurt promised her.
Sarah opened one eye. "How long have you two been planning this little conspiracy to get a night off?"
"Well, in fairness, Eric Walters helped a little. Why do you think we were in range of Vegas for Newbirth?"
Sarah chuckled, far too mellow to be angry about it. "Hard to tell where we are, the way we're all running around the theatre in all directions."
"I hear it's like that all over the world." Kurt pulled his boots on. "I wish I knew what your dad was preparing for, but apparently he wants every Machine ever built to be in on it."
Sarah shivered, and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. "It's midnight. Lets go see what my brother wants before the bed gets too cold."
Kurt chuckled.
The Eden Outpost in Las Vegas had gathered, as did all the soldiers, and bandits and civilians who happened to be present at the time. They gathered in the Motor Pool which was originally a multi-story car-park for the Vegas strip casinos.
The third level was open to the air, and with their breaths misting, everyone gathered. There were enough of them that they filed most of the third level, and Robert Connor, Director of the Eden Project, was waiting for them. He called them all over to gather, where they could look out over the strip. The large dark buildings were shapeless monoliths against the starry night.
Robbie spoke up, and everyone quieted to hear them. "In honor of the New Year, I had a team of our scrubbed Machines work around the clock. None of you noticed because what they were working on... well, it wasn't much good to any of us. Never has been. But, for the first time in a long time, we have more than reason to be hopeful for the future, we have evidence too." He waved out over the dark. "Now, what you're about to see... we don't do anything like it, because its dangerous, but I've been talking to palace and to our sentries all day, and there isn't a Machine anywhere from here to any horizon. For once, it's safe to do something outrageous. You guys made that possible, and in a moment, I'm going to say thank you."
Murmurs broke out. Nobody knew what was happening exactly, but if Robbie was warning them that they were safe enough to do it...
Robbie spoke again, and Sarah felt a chill. She never realized till just now how much Robbie looked like their dad.
"I won't lie to you." Robbie intoned. "There's still a long way to go, and the last time things started to look this good for us, Skynet rolled out the Infiltrators, so I won't tell you to relax. Even so, I think it's only right that we give the last year a proper send-off. Like anything else we lose these days, time is in short supply, and we won't see it again." He turned. "Javier?"
Javier was looking at his watch. "Ten seconds." He reported. "Nine. Eight."
Robbie started counting with him, and then so did everyone else. Robbie saw Sarah and Kurt, and waved them over to come join him. They did so, as the count reached zero...
And the Las Vegas Strip lit up for the first time since Judgement Day.
A huge gasp came from those who saw, having a great place to see it from the third story of the car-park. One or two bulbs overloaded and went dark, but Robbie's machines had done their job well, and most of them had been cleaned free from sand and dust.
Sarah felt her jaw drop as night became day suddenly. The only artificial lights in the dark any longer were Skynet's H/K searchlights and Tech-Com's signal flares. This was something new. The light was meant to appeal, to make you stare in wonder. It was lovely, lit up in purples and yellows and oranges, like the sunset and sunrise had combined together to sent a beacon of clear wonderful light into the darkness, with stars and moon above.
Waterfalls of light in elaborate neon shapes danced over them all, and Sarah could hear everyone crying out in wonder, having never seen anything so indecently beautiful before. She sent a look to her brother, and saw that he looked like a little kid getting his first taste of chocolate. She wondered if she was smiling goofily as well; because everyone else was.
The soldier in her was glad that Robbie warned them, because it was the first time she had been in the open without armor to protect her, or a weapon in her hand. This light show might have been amazing, but it was sending out a beacon to any Machines in the state. But he had warned them, and they knew to put their lives in the hands of their sentries, as they had all along.
At any other time, she would have been horrified at how exposed they were, but she had eaten enough to be full for the first time in a year, she had the man she loved close at hand, and the dark had suddenly been banished by a wave of indescribable beauty.
"I know it's bad luck. But do you ever think about it?" Kurt asked quietly in her ear.
Silence.
"No." Sarah admitted softly, lost in the magic that the moment had.
Kurt nodded slowly. It was exactly what he'd expected her to say. "Happy Newbirth, Sarah. I love you."
"Love you too, Kurt. Happy Newbirth."
Chapter 23: Z Plus 24 Years 168 Days
Chapter Text
Z Plus Twenty Four Years One Hundred Sixty Eight Days
In the twenty fourth year of The War Against Skynet, humanity was gaining ground. Skynet's plan to spread out, sending its Infiltrators in for attack had been countered. Tech-Com became mobile, constantly moving. Its Infiltrators wandered the Wastelands, searching for targets that had become as ghosts.
Nobody knew how Connor kept it all straight, but he did. The Tech-Com teams were part Recon, part strike force, part defense. Skynet was spread out in all directions across the world, and for every scout that found a target to move on, hundreds of others found nothing. The world was too big, and Humanity was under their feet.
Elections were called by the people Ross represented, an action repeated in many Bases held by Tech-Com. The number of people who embraced the idea unsettled Connor's inner-circle. The number of people who insisted on voting only for Connor Himself unsettled Ross and Rojas.
For the most part, it was a pointless gesture. Tech-Com couldn't spare anything. All the food and clothing production, all the weapons, all the bases, all the vehicles, all the things that people needed to live now were under Tech-Com authority. The newly elected Council rarely met, and couldn't do anything if they did. They were leaders in command of nobody.
What The Council could do was make agreements, make deals, build friendships... They were drawing on the map which Bases would suddenly become Civilian cities once Skynet was gone, who would work together, which areas would be under the authority of which members of the Council...
Kate registered that it was her taking over of all civilian projects that had been the last straw for many of the people in support of this idea, and so had signed over a number of her pet projects to the Council. Schooling, mail, news, medical care that didn't involve wounded… All of that became the job of the Council, and having more people in charge to work on these things helped. Each Councillor was responsible for an area, whereas Kate had needed to carry the whole world's attempts at these things alone.
The radios were having new frequencies added, so that the Council and the civilians could talk to each other without having to fight for airtime with Tech-Com. Getting another radio band that could reach everywhere Tech-Com could was tricky, as most of the relays were hardwired to let Crystal Peak talk to them only.
But Connor thought it was important, and people were glad to hear music again, as so little music had survived, and those that could still sing or play were spread out across the many battlefields.
Eden and Medical remained Kate's responsibility, as they were dependent on Tech-Com resources. The majority of people considered the whole exercise of Civilian Government as a joke. The notion of a World Without Skynet was laughable. But the plans were made nevertheless. If the war ever ended, more than a third of the non-combat resources of Tech-Com would become civilian. Supreme General John Connor Himself insisted that the military would be put under Council authority once the War ended.
Everyone accepted that. Mostly because none of them expected to live to see the end of the War.
Kyle checked the flying H/K through his viewfinder. It was dark, and the H/K was heading in a different direction. No sense calling over trouble on himself unless he had something he could knock it down with.
"Kyle." Griffin hissed. "We got a call. Noah and Walters are cut off from their Units. They want to rendezvous once we've mined the road."
"What's our best bet for cover?" Kyle asked absently.
"There's an auxiliary tunnel." Griffin offered. "The Eden Team we were sent to pull out set it up when they first moved into this area."
Kyle ran his infra-red over the flying H/K again, laser marking it. There'd be an air to air missile launched somewhere to take it out, or a tag to track it wherever it flew. That wasn't his call. "Send word to Noah and Walters. Tell them where to find it. They can head there until the heat dies down."
Skynet was running out of resources at last. Their forces moved as fast as their Machine engines and limbs could carry them, trying to wear down Tech-Com defenses. The speed of their actions meant that humanities forward areas got caught in the middle sometimes, cut off from support before they could back out to safety.
One such moment had come in the ruins of a city long abandoned. The dead towers rose over streets filled with debris and the odd skeleton that had survived this long. Eden had set up a small workshop there, and apparently Skynet had noticed them.
Noah and Walters were in the area setting up H/K traps, and had been sent to the city to lay mines in the streets. Humanity had all but abandoned the old cities for everything except cover, and if Skynet was still searching for them there, then it was nothing but a shooting gallery for Tech-Com.
Setting charges was an easy enough job, but Skynet had sent a pair of Flying H/K's to set them off early. The Terminators wouldn't even get close. Connor had directed them to cut their loses and blow the charges themselves, filling the streets with debris from the blown up streets, and collapsed buildings. It would be time enough to get the civilians out of the way.
Noah was setting charges in one of the abandoned buildings. Urban warfare had been an ugly game Back before, but with the cites now empty, it was worth it. Terminators moving through the streets meant that ambushes were easier for both sides, and it was easy to lose the rest of your team as they closed in from different directions.
Which was exactly what happened to her almost ten minutes ago. She was lucky enough to get in contact with anyone in Tech-Com, but she knew she'd drawn attention by doing it. Dropping a building on the Machines trying to find her was the only way she had to escape with her life.
The charges set, she picked up her rifle in one hand, the detonator in the other, when she noticed moonlight glinting out of the corner of her eye, and she spun. The Terminator had come in, taken a quick scan of the room and swiveled to fire at the detonator in her hand. Noah tried to get clear…
Too late.
Erica howled as the plasma caught her across the back. She tried to bring her rifle up as her jacket caught fire, but too late. She tried to lunge for the detonator, but a steel foot came down, crushing it. She looked up weakly at the Terminator...
Plasmafire rang out from the other end of the room, and the Terminator was gunned down.
Noah stared at it for a moment, before lifting her gaze. It was Walters. His face was red and sweating, he was breathing hard, and he was hunched over the rifle in his hands.
"Are you okay?" He demanded, gulping air.
Noah grit her teeth and shrugged out of her jacket. It had burned her, and the flames died down to a smoulder. "It's not… It's not bad." She waved at the wall and the explosives. "But I lost the trigger. It's my fault, Eric! I should have heard them coming…"
Walters raised his rifle. "Can we get clear in time?"
Noah bit her lip. "We might be cutting it close."
Clang. Clang. Terminator footsteps from what used to be the street. They were moving through the building. The two soldiers looked at each other and ducked out of the room, heading in the opposite direction.
"Fire in the hole!" Walters fired his rifle at the charges on the wall, and ran for it, neither of them looking to see if they'd aimed straight.
The two of them bolted for the opposite side of the building. Debris was raining down all around them as they sprinted away from the buildings. Their aim was true and the dozen or so Terminators moving in on their position was buried.
"So. Cutting it very close." Walters said finally as they made their way from one dark corner to the next searching for their entrance to the Underground. "Here it is."
Noah led the way downstairs, and banged on the door. A panel opened, and a rifle emerged. A pair of suspicious eyes checked them over and the door opened a moment later.
They didn't say anything until after they had passed the k-9 Units and signed in. This was not a regular part of the underground. This place had been set up hastily when some of the survivors couldn't escape. It had all the grimy heartbreak of a refugee camp in a sewer, because that's what it was.
Exhausted, they found a small alcove. It was occupied, but the civilians there cleared out and let them have it when they saw the rank insignia. Walters collapsed against the wall, and Noah joined him, curling up under his arm.
"What the hell happened to us?" She asked quietly.
"Don't start." Walters sighed, laying his rifle against the wall next to him.
"I mean it, Eric. What happened? Ten years ago I would have heard the damn Tin Men coming from the minute they hit the staircase. Even five years ago I would have been able to get the detonator out of their field of fire."
"How do you think I feel?" Walters retorted. "Five years ago I would have been out of range before the building dropped, now I'm just lucky."
"We're in our forties, Eric. That's ancient for the kind of life we live. We're the old warhorses."
"This is a cheery little conversation." Walters sighed. "Are we going to tell him?"
"He knows. Of course he knows. He hasn't pushed it because… Well, he hasn't. Both of us coming back in after our Units will end that." She held out a hand. It was trembling. "I'm past it, Eric. I don't belong on battlefields any more." She sounded terrified.
"Me neither." Walters admitted quietly. "But... can you see us tied to desk jobs?"
"I don't think there's anybody in Tech-Com on a desk." Noah offered. "Still… We'll never see combat again."
The Tunnels were smaller and filthier compared to Crystal Peak, but some things remained the same. The silence was still heavy, covering over everything like a blanket. The stairs leading down to the entrance was narrow, single file. Kyle knocked on the heavy security door, it's only feature was a mounted gun sticking through. As he knocked, the gun moved as the operator on the inside snapped to readiness.
A hatch in the door opened at eye level, and they took a look at him. The hatch closed, the door opened, and Kyle led the way inside. The K-9's were right there at the entrance as per usual, and the soldiers quickly let the dogs get to know them.
Connor told Kyle once that dog's had fantastic noses. He wondered how they could stand the smell of the Underground.
Kyle signed in, and his team split up, finding food or privacy or a place to sleep as best they could. Most of the soldiers had slipped away, or were outside the zone. Down here in this small hiding place, were the few humans that couldn't make it out in time. A few bare light-bulbs and the smoke left by small fires filled the narrow space with hazy, exhausted atmosphere.
One of the kids, wrapped in bright cloth, marking her as one of the Eden Team, examined Kyle as he passed by. The next kid mimed shooting at him as he passed, fighting an imaginary Machine. Kyle played along and pretended to shoot back, not breaking stride. He found a bit of wall that didn't have anyone leaning against it, and collapsed, exhausted. It had been a long day, and a long night.
He missed Crystal Peak. Kids were huddling around fires for warmth, adults were coughing on smoke, or crying about something…
Kyle retreated, the best way he knew how.
After so many years, he had the photo memorized, but as he pulled it out, he studied her again. He expression was so sad. He wondered what she was thinking about that she could look sad. She looked healthy and fed, and she was clean, and wearing clothes that didn't have holes in them, and there were trees and bushes growing in the background… It was beautiful. She was beautiful.
After decades of watching people's faces change, either in little ways by time and hardship, or major ways by injury and death, her sad, strong eyes never changed. Kyle embraced it again, stroking a finger down the side of her face, like he was brushing her hair back from her eyes.
The dogs started barking.
Adrenaline woke him up in a hurry. The entrance had let in another trail of people, and one of them had set off the K-9 Unit. The door guards tried to get the door shut, but it was already open, and an infiltrator came charging in, forcing the people out of its way and the door open like a battering ram. It managed to wrench the door gun free and held the immense weapon in its pneumatic arms, gunning left and right without hesitation, knocking down one victim after another, after another.
All the humans had reacted to the sound of the dogs, knowing what it meant. But the tunnels were narrow and long, and the Machine was merciless, gunning them down.
Kyle came charging, weapon ready, teeth bared. The air was thick with the stench of ozone as the air burned between them, trading their plasmafire, only one of them checking his targets for safety.
Kyle got closer and the Infiltrator swiveled. Kyle went sideways without blinking. It was a shift in motion that had saved him more than once. He plastered himself against the wall, looking for his chance to shoot again.
More counter-attacks came from the other end of the Tunnel, and the Terminator turned to face them. Kyle dove out of his hiding place and aimed.
The Infiltrator came around faster than any human could, and fired. Kyle barely had time to blink, but he wasn't the target. Something beside him exploded under the flames and Kyle was knocked flat forward on his stomach, knocking him flat, slamming his chin into the ground; fire coming up. Kyle fought to raise his head, and saw The Photo in front of him… 'On your feet, soldier.' Her eyes seemed to say. And the photo caught on fire.
Kyle raised his head slowly. Fire washed out his eyes. He locked eyes with the late Sarah, her gaze never shifting from his, never changing, even as her face bubbled and burned away.
Kyle felt his stomach lurch. No! Not that! Not her too! He flashed a hand out and grabbed the smouldering melting Polaroid, hissing as the melting plastic and open flames pressed into his hand, trying to put the flames out.
And above him, The Terminator got closer, the Jeep gun in its hands as the glowing red eyes swept the tunnel for more targets.
The exhausted soldiers had finally made their way around the scattering Eden Project civilians and begun their counter attack. Noah and Walters were on either side of the Tunnel, hugging the wall for cover as they fired back. They were taking quick control shots, aiming through their 'scopes, as the Machine's huge heavy gun suddenly became a liability, keeping it from escaping as their shots caught it, one after another in the neck. The Machine dropped instantly.
"Not bad for an old Warhorse, huh?" Walters grated.
Noah didn't answer, pulling Kyle to his feet. The younger soldier was cradling a melted old Polaroid in his hands like it was the body of a loved one. "Reese?"
Kyle looked up. "It was… Connor gave me the picture."
Noah didn't have an answer for that one. "Come on. Let's get these people home."
Z Plus Twenty Four Years One Hundred Seventy One Days
Kate marveled. She was so clean, so comfortable. The omnipresent hunger was not only at bay, it was gone. She looked out the window, looking at the world passing by, and the sky was a beautiful rich blue. Trees and grass, healthy and green. She could see her reflection. Her hair was so full and soft, her skin smooth and young... She looked so... healthy. Well fed, looked after. It was decadent how lovely she was.
She looked back to her companions. John was there, sitting behind her, wiring up a set of explosives. He looked so scruffy and exhausted; not like in the War Room.
And next to her in the drivers' seat was their Terminator, their bodyguard, his face scarred and the metal barely visible beneath.
"So, if this war is between people and machines, why are you on our side?" Kate asked him, more annoyed at the paradox than genuinely curious. She'd met two Machines so far, and this was the one not killing people she loved. More than that, she didn't really care.
"The Resistance captured me, reprogrammed my CPU." The thick Austrian accent said. "I was originally designed for Assassination Missions."
Kate felt her beautiful healthy face twist slightly. "So you don't really care if this Mission succeeds of not. If we get killed, does that mean anything to you?"
The Machine considered, but its face did not change at all. "If you were to die, I would become useless. There would be no reason for me to exist."
Kate had no doubts about how strong he was, or how dangerous their foe was. He was taking a huge risk with his whole reason for existence. "Thank you for doing this."
"Your gratitude is not required." The Machine said clinically. "I am programmed to follow your commands."
That got John's attention. The scruffy young man jumped up and came over to sit nearer to them. "Her commands?" He repeated.
"It was Katherine Brewster who had me reactivated and sent through the Time Displacement Field." The Terminator explained. John's eyes widened and went to her for a split second.
Kate was more than a little surprised herself. She tried to picture herself as someone who would send a cyborg through time, and the image didn't fit. "What exactly am I in this future of yours?"
"You're John Connor's Spouse and Second In Command."
Kate felt herself flush, and her head shook seriously. "No." She said instantly, rejecting the whole notion.
John looked at her, nonplussed. "What?"
Kate looked at him, openly disdainful. "You're a mess." She dismissed him instantly.
Connor actually seemed amused by that. "You're not exactly my type either." He turned back to the Machine behind the wheel. "Why didn't I send you back?"
"I'm not authorized to answer your questions."
John looked to Kate, and she knew immediately what he wanted. It was slightly fun, the notion of having a Terminator at her beck and call. "Why didn't he send you back?" She asked...
The dream had the mercy to release her before The Terminator responded.
Kate sat up, feeling nervous about something, but she couldn't put her finger on what. She hadn't thought about that day in years. Every night for a week the same dream. Why were they coming to her now?
She glanced over and saw her husband beside her. He hadn't been disturbed, so she couldn't have been tossing back and forth. She watched him for a while, his face pushed into a pillow. Looking at him, he seemed younger. The second he woke up his face would age fifty years. She felt for him. It was a special love that came from knowing there was nobody else in the world that got to be here with him like this.
She ran her fingers over the bar-code in his arm, but for some reason, the thought of how much she loved him made her feel sad this time.
She just couldn't figure out why.
The radio buzzed, and she grabbed for it quickly before it could wake him. "Connor here."
"General Kate? They're back."
The rest of the Mission went off without too much drama. The K-9 Units had been moved into the stairwell entrance itself, and the dogs had warned them of another Infiltrator a few hours later. This time the Machine was stuck on the outside of the locked doors, and the only fatalities were the seven people trying to get in, and one of the K-9's. After that, the Infiltrators stopped trying to get in, making their attacks on the people trying to get Underground, and there weren't a lot of them left outside at the time.
It was dawn before their Evac showed up, and another day before they were all back at Crystal Peak. This one was ugly. There were a lot of ways it could have gone better, but not a lot of things that could have been done differently. It was the kid of battle that haunted a career soldier like Walters or Noah, and they weren't looking forward to admitting it.
Walters had been checked out by Medbay and told to report to the Briefing Room for debriefing.
He got there and found Noah the only one waiting for him. Seeing each other, they were both suddenly nervous. These things were usually done privately. Having two or more soldiers together for a report meant that they were both present for something that had to be reported. There was only one thing they could think of. Their Units had been giving them sidelong looks the entire way back.
"I was... I was expecting The General." Walters said finally.
"Me too." Noah said quietly. "He'll be here though. Nova in the corridors."
"Are we dead?"
"We might be dead. A little bit dead."
Connor came in a moment later. "So. I was hoping to talk to you guys." He said finally. "I noticed that your Mission Report was a little light on details. In particular, the reason you guys were separated from your teams, and how long it took you to get back with them."
Neither of them had an answer for that.
Connor sighed. "How long you been covering for each other out there?"
"Since the war started." Noah snarked.
"You know what I mean."
Noah and Walters traded a quick look. Game was up. "Few years." Walters admitted. "Sir, I can't speak for Erica, but… I never expected to live this long." He rubbed the back of his neck. "How many soldiers live past forty in the field?"
"Not many." Connor conceded. "Guess you two have too much talent."
"Sir, Kyle Reese is a corporal. He's been one his entire career. He should be a Colonel by now. He doesn't expect to live long enough to have a promotion mean a damn."
"Neither does any one of a thousand other people who deserve promotion. But… It's long overdue."
"Are you benching us?" Noah asked weakly, knowing the answer.
"Guys..." Connor said gently. "You know there's nobody in the Base... nobody in Tech-Com that deserves to be immortal more than you two." He had nothing but sympathy on his face. "I consider you two my friends. And I've buried enough friends. I know that asking you to stay back here with me is worse than asking you to slice open your own wrists, but... You guys have The Gift. Whatever it is that keeps a soldier alive so much longer than is logical, you guys have got it. Now I need you to bring that X Factor to whole Units instead of single battlefields.
Walters and Noah slumped. This was it. They had been fighting time for years now, and time had won. "Do what you gotta do, Sir."
Connor opened his hand. He had a handful of shiny silver stars. "General Noah, General Walters... stand at attention please."
Doomed, the two of them rose to their feet, as The General gave them their new insignia.
Z Plus Twenty Four Years One Hundred Seventy Four Days
"Hey, Kyle. Mind if we join you?"
Kyle looked up, surprised. He honestly hadn't heard them coming. "What? Oh, hey Sarah."
Sarah sat down, very cheerful. "Kyle, you remember Meg."
Kyle nodded. The former Tunnel Rat had survived as a member of Sarah's SAW Team, and Kyle had fought with her from time to time. "Sure."
"You mind if we join you for lunch?"
Kyle was about to excuse himself. He had to eat, but he didn't really want company. "Well, actually-"
"Great, thanks!" Sarah interrupted, and Meg set her tray down directly across from Kyle, giving him a smile. Sarah sat down next to Kyle and ate a few bites, before suddenly noticing Kurt at the other end of the Mess hall. "Oh, is that Kurt? Excuse me, Kyle; but I needed to talk to him about something. You won't mind keeping Meg company while I go and talk to him, will you?"
The obviousness of the whole matter was an insult, but neither of them seemed to care, and Kyle suddenly found himself having lunch with a cheerful, attractive young woman.
Kyle looked at Meg and then watched Sarah leave. "Is this a set-up?"
Meg smiled lightly. "Yup."
Kyle did not seem to relish the prospect. "Why?"
Meg shrugged. "Well, Sarah tells me that you're a great guy, but you've been on your own for a long time. She's worried about you."
"Worried? Why?"
"Well, it's not like dating is complicated in the Underground. You get shot at, you come back safe, you find someone for company, you return to Point A and see if the 'someone' you found the night before is still alive."
Kyle's eyes softened. "Your 'someone' didn't come back?"
Meg shrugged. "It was a while ago. It's War."
"Yeah, it is." Kyle admitted. "Sarah's got a steady boyfriend now; she's started trying to set up all her friends. You drew a short straw?"
"Sarah owed me one, and I told her to set me up with a hot guy."
Kyle didn't smile. "Okay." He flushed, feeling trapped. She was smiling at him. He hadn't been on the receiving end of this kind of attention since…
Meg frowned. "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"
Kyle winced. "Sorry, nothing against you, but… it's hard to explain."
Meg frowned. "Okay. Try."
"Why did you have to pick now to go insane?"
Connor just looked at Noah. "I'm going to assume that was said with all due respect?"
The two Connors, plus the newly promoted Generals Noah and Walters, plus Yolanda were in the Main Briefing room, looking over the surveillance photo of the Skynet System Core. Connor had brought them in and told them the nature of their next mission. Noah had all but exploded.
"General, look at it!" Noah snapped. "It was crazy when we first got the photo, and it's still crazy now. Look at all the Jammers!"
"Set to jam external signals, not the Skynet command Frequency. We'll have to take them out, I agree."
"And the Terminators. There have to be at least half a million of them."
"Probably well over double that by now. The photo is a good deal out of date."
"And the Turrets! The Turrets are..."
"Yeah. The Turrets are the one thing I can't figure out yet." Connor admitted. "The one thing we can be sure of is the buildings. Skynet wouldn't set those up until it was damn sure the layout was perfect. All else is negotiable."
Noah sighed hard. "I can feel my mouth moving, I think there are words coming out..."
"Noah, take a breath will you?" Connor retorted. "The Intel is out of date on everything except the facility itself. We won't be there."
"We won't?"
"No. The Mission is to take two staging areas." Connor pointed on the map. "From there we can gather Intel, record comings and goings, set up attacks on the System Core..."
"We couldn't possibly hold on to any real estate we took." Walters commented. "That close to the System Core?"
"Think like Skynet." Connor countered. "They've been bleeding H/K's and Machines for years now, but they've never once taken an offensive team from the huge numbers they have in that defensive zone."
"Defensive teams." Walters thought out loud. "They keep the offense and defense separate, so that they can run both halves of the war without getting in each others way."
"Skynet's losing the offensive side of the war, but its defense hasn't shifted from where it was ten years ago. Machine thinking. Machines built with a specific purpose."
"So you want to take the Staging Areas just outside the defensive zone?"
"One just outside, one just inside." Connor corrected. "If I'm right, then we can clear out the outer ring of Skynet's Defense Net, and it'll redraw it's defensive line inside that point to keep its protection strong around the System Core. It'll define what it can protect by the numbers."
Walters shook his head. "What if you're wrong?"
Connor grinned manically. "Well, that hardly seems likely now, does it?"
Noah winced. "Why, oh why, did you have to pick now to go insane?"
"Heard the latest?" Kurt asked as he sat down next to Sarah.
Sarah slid over till they were sitting against each other. She rubbed her leg against his under the table, and she stole a quick bit off his tray. "Something new?"
"Your father's in with Noah, Walters, your mom… They've been in the Main Briefing Room for over an hour now."
Sarah grinned a feral grin. "Ooh, that sounds promising."
Kurt reacted. "You're scary sometimes, you know that?"
"Kurt, a mission means we're gonna be hunting soon. A secret mission means it's gonna be a big one. The bigger the Mission, the more dead Machines we've got waiting at the end of it." Sarah said eagerly.
Kurt just looked at her.
"What?"
"Nothing, just… you get all worked up. I wish you got that excited when we were alone." He teased.
Sarah laughed. "I do. But I'm a Connor. Killing Skynet is written into the bloodline. Look around."
Kurt did so. The Mess Hall was never empty.
"All these people…" Sarah said. "They claw out happiness where they can, they live for right now. But you know what? The War won't last. Nobody believes that. Nobody. But the war is gonna end. And we're gonna win."
Kurt just looked at her. "You really believe that?"
Sarah nodded. Like it had already happened. Like it was a foregone conclusion. "I do."
Kurt put an arm around, her, and she leaned into him happily. "Sarah, I honestly can't picture a world without this war. I just don't see it."
"I know. But I see it. And so does my brother, and my mom, and my dad. And every time my dad has a secret meeting, it means we're another day closer to a World Without Skynet."
"Amen." Intoned SAW Team Charlie, all sitting at the table. Kurt smiled. Saint Sarah had spoken.
Sarah's eyes focused on the doors, and Kurt looked over. Meg had just come in. "And speaking of clawing out happiness where you can…"
Kurt followed her gaze and smirked. "Go meddle, I'll talk to you soon."
Sarah got up. "I do not meddle." She said, gave him a quick kiss, jumped up and headed over to Meg like a homing missile. "How'd it go?" Sarah pounced.
Meg didn't answer.
Sarah poked her ribs. "Come on! Details!"
Meg let out a breath. "Well, I don't mean to be unladylike, but it stunk!"
Sarah reacted. "What?"
Meg growled. "He's the most severe thug I've ever met." She groused. "He spent the whole night trying to avoid so much as looking at me. And by the way, who is Lupe?"
Sarah blinked, trying to catch up. "Lupe? Lupe's been dead for over fifteen years."
"Does he know that? Because he's obviously pining over someone. Sarah, I asked you to set me up with a guy, and you came back to me with Kyle Reese? I'm not saying I wanted candles and soft music, but I'd like a guy who can pull his head out of his ass long enough to at least notice me for a minute."
Sarah's face had turned to stone during this little speech. "That miserable bastard." She snarled. "Excuse me a moment."
Sarah took off, with a look on her face that promised a swift and horrible death to anyone who got in her way.
"Griffin!" Sarah snapped as she stormed into the Connor's Own Dormitory like a hurricane. "Where is that ungrateful little maggot?"
Griffin backed away from Sarah very quickly, until he felt his back hit the wall. "This is the Armed Forces, Sarah. You'll have to be more specific."
"Kyle Reese! The one that wouldn't recognize a good thing if I personally brought her over to his table at the Mess Hall and introduced her; which I did! I'm gonna reach down his throat and see if I can find his heart long enough to rip it out with my bare hands; now where is he?"
Griffin was against the wall with his hands up and The General's Daughter right in his face. He knew what to do when under interrogation from a T-1000, but the wrath of Sarah Connor made him wilt. His eyes flicked for a microsecond to the left, and Sarah followed his gaze to the gun-locker at the back of the Dormitory. A small room filled with hardware, for quick access if the Base got hit in the middle of the night. It was also the only place in a Dormitory where you could get a moment of privacy.
Sarah stepped back, releasing Griffin. "Thank you for your cooperation." She said calmly, sounding eerily like a Terminator, and she swept towards the door.
The few members of Connor's Own quickly fled the Dormitory as she passed by them, eager to be anywhere else.
Kyle, unaware of all of this, was sitting alone against the wall in the small armory. He was cradling the wrecked remains of the photo in both hands. The photo was ruined. The fraction of it that the flames had not consumed was boiled and bubbled away, unrecognizable and useless.
"I'm sorry, Sarah." He whispered to himself brokenly. "I'm so sorry, Sarah. I couldn't do it. I tried so hard, I tried for you, I swear, but I just couldn't do it. I know it doesn't matter. I'll never be able to tell you any of the important stuff, not really. I'll never be able to… I wish I could have been there sooner, a little bit faster… I'm sorry, Sarah. I love you, and I'm sorry I can't even tell you that."
Sarah, frozen at the doorway, stared at Kyle's hunched shoulders from behind. She had heard the whole thing, and reeled back, speechless, her fury derailed in an instant.
The PA crackled. "57th infantry, report to Barracks immediately. Repeat; Connor's Own report to Barracks."
Sarah spun and ran for the hallway, with all the speed and silence that a Tech-Com soldier had bred into them. Her footsteps were as silent in the Underground as they were on the battlefield. No Terminator ever heard her move, and with any luck, Kyle had never known she was there.
Kurt was waiting for her in the hallway. "So." He asked in amusement. "Did you let him have it?"
Sarah laughed, a little hysterically. "You could say that." She licked her lips. "Kurt, you know I love you right? I mean, we don't talk about it as much as others do, but I love you so much! You know that, right?"
"Sure I do. I love you too..." Kurt blinked, a little spooked. "Sarah, what the hell just went on in there?"
Sarah let out another hysterical little giggle. "Oh, nothing."
Since becoming leader of an International Tech-Com, Connor had rarely left the Mountain to go on missions Himself. Connor's Own was still His soldiers. He alone gave them their orders. He trained them and selected them all personally, and they would do anything for their General; proud to carry the Connor name.
So when they were all called back to their Dorm, there was only one reason. Connor's Own wasn't picked for scouting missions. If they had been called in, it meant there was dirty work to do.
And then Connor strolled in. There was a loud silence. They were all at attention, waiting. The General had a large poster-sized picture, rolled tight under one arm, and a folder with smaller folders in hand. Without a word he came in, nodded to them, and locked the door behind him. They didn't say a word till he spoke.
"A few years ago, we were able to locate the Skynet System Core." Connor said simply. It was like he was saying good morning.
A silent roar went through the room. This was it. The Big One. The Holy Grail. A target that every soldier alive dreamed of, and every soldier who survived his first mission was smart enough never to look for. It was impossible. It was unreal. It was here.
Connor took a breath. "I don't have to tell you the tactics Skynet is using. They learned the hit and run from us, and they learned it well. But they only spread themselves out across the theater. They've not taken anything from the System Core. The whole place is decked out to be impregnable. It can hold off a massive invasion, it can locate an infiltration of anything bigger than an anthill."
As he spoke, he started handing around the intelligence photos. They all looked, getting pale. It looked... impossible. Thousands, maybe millions of Machines, H/K's, Turrets, Air Support...
"Getting in there won't be easy." Connor conceded. "We send in a Unit, and it will be chewed to bits. So, we have another plan. And as usual, Connor's Own gets the biggest, nastiest chunk of hell to claw through."
Harsh laughter.
"The mission is to capture two staging areas, to the Northwest, and the Southeast, and use those points to gather forces and make attacks. The targets are codenamed Roundup and Touchstone."
Connor went to the end of the room, and unrolled the poster. It was a blown up reproduction of the surveillance picture. Large printers were no longer an option, but if you gave a reprogrammed Terminator a pen, it could draw anything you directed it to with perfect accuracy.
Connor's Own gathered around and looked at the surveillance photo put up. It looked like row after row of Machines, and between them was row after row of walls, and on ever wall was row after row of Turrets. The experienced soldiers could see huge Jammers set up all over the place. They could see constant cameras and listening devices. Within the walls were factories, stockpiles, assembly lines...
And in the center was a large facility, with no features or identification, but even from the outside, it looked impossibly sturdy.
Connor let them take a good long look at it. "Any questions?"
Loud silence.
"Somebody say what they want to say." Connor directed.
"We cannot possibly take this facility." Someone said finally.
"Not yet. But we will. Eventually. It will take time, maybe years, but we will." Connor said with finality. "But not today. Mission Objective is to clear out the outer perimeter of the System Core Defense Nets. An area that is the least patrolled. We take the outer edge, and we fortify two points, one to the north, one to the south of the System Core. We will use them as our eventual staging areas."
Walters piped up. "Connor's Own will be leading the diversionary attack. You'll be drawing off the defenders so that we can take out the gun emplacements, the Jammers, the turrets, all of it; and setting up the fortifications."
"Needless to say, that won't be easy with a war going on." Connor continued. "General Noah will be taking two Units and capturing Checkpoint Roundup; and General Walters will be doing the same with Checkpoint Touchstone. The 57th's job is to make as much fuss as possible and give them time and room to work. That means a lot of quick movements in a small area." Connor gestured at Yolanda. "The Bandits will be moving in to the west of you. All of them. Their mission will be to shut down the Jammers."
"We got your back." Yolanda said seriously. The Bandits provided backup, support and combat assistance to every unit in Tech-Com. But as a whole, they were under the command of Enrique, and then after his death, Yolanda's. She had been the one to put them under Connor's direction as individuals or small teams. She had not led them into battle herself until now. A lot of things were changing for this mission.
"When the Jammers come down, the missile artillery launchers back at the command points will be free to fire at will. Generals Walters and Noah will direct the attack until those Jammers come down, as you'll be out of communications range with Palace. Any air support you need will have to come from the Choppers, and targets will have to be marked visually until those Jammers are shut down. And as always, do what you can to avoid getting dead."
"Are there any questions?" Noah called.
Silence.
"Mission Clock is running." Connor commanded. "Good hunting. Dismissed!"
Kate was directing her own people. "Chen's already with the MASH units, they're moving themselves somewhere they can be helpful. We're expecting plenty of casualties, so..."
"Way ahead of you." Carla said. "I've already got several Jeeps worth of supplies packed. They're going with Alpha Company, and they'd drop off the cargo to Chen on their way to the fight."
"Good, you should also get together a group of seasoned medical staff that can go out there and help with the wounded, and you should put my name on the list too."
"Yes, Ma'am." Carla said, and headed off to do so.
"Mom?"
Kate turned around and found her daughter had snuck up on her. "Sarah. Shouldn't you be getting ready to ship out?"
"Yeah. Yeah I should. This can wait." Sarah said swiftly, and turned to go, spinning around to face her mother again just as quickly. "Oooh, but it won't. I have to tell you this first."
Kate jumped up. "You're pregnant."
Sarah paled. "What? NO! Why? Wait, I look pregnant?" She looked down at herself quickly.
Kate almost laughed. Sarah was never so scattered. Whatever it was had to be something big. "Sorry, my mistake. Take a breath."
Sarah did so.
"Now take another."
Sarah did so.
"Now speak."
"There is…" Sarah said uncomfortably. "…a problem."
Kate took stock of her daughter, and led her quietly into Carla's office so that they could speak privately. "Okay, have a seat."
Sarah sat down quickly, wringing her hands. "I don't really know how to handle this, um… The other night, I sort of… set Kyle up on a date."
Kate winced. Kyle Reese's romantic prospects were a tricky matter to say the least. Only three people knew what was ahead for him, and her daughter was not one of them. "That was... brave of you."
"Yeah, see… Um…" Sarah looked borderline terrified. "Well, first of all, the date was an unmitigated disaster."
"Where'd you pick up a word like 'unmitigated'?" Kate asked in surprise. She may have been running the Education System until the Council took it over, but most kids were only there a few years before Trial By Battle.
Sarah waved that off. "Hang around Noah when something really pisses her off, you learn all kinds of interesting new words." She got back to the point. "Anyway, um… the girl in question told me not to waste her time on any more fix-ups, and so I went to tear a few strips out of Kyle…and I heard him talking to himself… He was talking about this girl he loved… And he was saying my name."
Kate felt her stomach drop.
Sarah nodded compulsively. "He was saying 'Sarah, I know I can't ever tell you how I feel, but I love you'…"
Kate felt her stomach drop lower and tie in a knot.
Sarah, fortunately, was having the same reaction. "Help!" She squeaked in a very small voice.
"Sarah…"
Sarah was babbling. "Mom… I love Kurt. I have for years. I know that some people share, I mean, that's just playing the odds given how many people get killed in a week, but… How do I let Kyle know that… Kyle has been like a big brother to me. I love him like I love Robbie. So… how do I handle this?"
Kate didn't have a clue. "Let me talk to your father. In the meantime… He hasn't mentioned it, so don't you mention it either."
"You think? I mean, if he's felt this way for a while, shouldn't I make it clear to him…"
"Sarah, just trust me on this one, okay?"
"Okay." Sarah took another deep breath. "It'll almost be a relief to get back out there where I know what I'm doing."
Kate gave her daughter a tight hug. "Don't get too relieved out there. You relax and bad things happen."
"Yes, Ma'am." Sarah said earnestly. "Walk me up?"
"Something I want to put on your radar." Walters said. "The Motor Pool has written off two more troop carriers. Engine trouble."
"To be expected. We haven't had a fresh shipment of engine parts in for twenty years." Connor nodded. "We're machining replacement parts almost by hand, and they just aren't getting there. There's a clock on this war Eric, we've always known that."
"Yeah, but then this thing happened, and that brings me to you." Walters said. "Those two trucks? Have been... requisitioned."
"By who?"
"Lori. She's the member of the Council for this area."
"Stripping it for parts?" Connor guessed.
"Nope. Repairs. And then reassignment to Council business."
Connor looked up sharply. "Where did Lori get replacement parts if we couldn't get them?"
"This is why I'm telling you." Walters nodded. "And this isn't an isolated incident. Sir, the Council has it's own supply line."
Connor's eyes flashed. "Get her on the line. Now."
Lori shivered as Connor laid out the evidence, and his conclusions. "General…"
"We had a deal, Lori." Connor said. "I told you, you'll have it all when the War ends. If you're double dealing under the table…"
"John, you know me better than that." Lori snapped.
"Then explain where all these primo supplies are coming from."
Lori quietly turned a small dial on her radio. "I'm recoding this transmission on Encryption Key Baker."
A moment later, Connor spoke again. "Okay, go ahead."
"General, I don't know where it's coming from. Ross has a supply line, and I already checked. It's not coming from Tech-Com. Somebody else is supplying him."
"Union?"
"The only team I can think of."
"Lori, why didn't you tell me about this before?"
"Because this is the only way I can do anything." Lori almost yelled. "I got promoted from team-builder to useless old woman when I took this job. I have no supplies, no authority, and now I have some trucks. I didn't tell you because..."
"Because then I would know about it?" Connor guessed.
Long silence.
Connor sighed. "We didn't do you any favors, did we?"
"Lonely at the top." Lori commiserated. "Just... promise me something?"
Connor already knew. "You matter, Lori. You're making a difference. And when this war ends and we're all looking to the future... You'll be as important as I used to be when there was a war to fight."
Lori chuckled weakly.
Kate went with her daughter upstairs toward the Motor Pool. There was a mess of people getting ready to leave. It was the typical feeling of organized chaos. The majority of preparation took place en route or at the target before attack. The Motor Pool's job was to get them all out the door on time.
Noah's voice called. "Charlie Company and Alpha Company, ready to roll out!"
"That's me." Sarah said, giving her mom a quick hug. "See you when we win."
Kate returned the hug and tried to keep her face even as her daughter went off to war, once again. She noticed John having a quick word with Walters, as the troops got ready to roll. Kate kept her distance until Walters saluted and got into his truck.
Kate slid over next to her husband as the Convoy started rolling. "You okay?"
Connor sighed. "It's a whole new mission. Kate... I won't even be in contact."
"You gotta trust your people." Kate told him.
"I trust them implicitly. But this isn't some hidden Terminator Factory. This is... They get inside the Jammers, and we won't be in contact. We won't even know what happening until they win. If they lose, we'll never hear anything at all."
Kate threaded her fingers through his. "I know." She said softly. It was the first major battle happening without him so much as being on the radio.
Meg slipped in next to Sarah. "Hey." She said quietly. "Are we okay?"
Sarah smiled forgiving. Whatever else was going on, Meg was part of her team, and they were about to go to war. "Yeah, we're fine."
Meg looked down. "I feel stupid. About before."
Sarah gave an hysterical little giggle again. "Not your fault."
Connor sighed hard as the convoy rolled out. "Well. I'm going to need something to do for the duration, or I'll start tearing things apart."
Kate took in a very deep breath. "Well, there is one thing."
"Oh?"
"A... problem has arisen with Kyle." Kate said awkwardly. "And it has to be taken care of... very delicately."
Skynet To All Units:
Surveillance Satellites have located a large convoy en route to System Core. Projections indicate that a counter-attack will not be sufficient to block the assault force.
Protection Units and Defense Nets have been activated. Projections all indicate that Assault Force will not be enough to take System Core.
Offensive tactics unchanged.
Terminate John Connor.
End Transmission
Z Plus Twenty Four Years One Hundred Seventy Seven Days
One stretch of empty featureless Wasteland looked much like any other. But as Tech-Com assembled on the Battlefield, they knew this was different. Skynet itself was beyond the horizon, and the way there was filled with Machines preparing for the fight.
"SAW Team Charlie, gather around." Sarah called. "We got our marching orders. We're the tip of the sword. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking this is the biggest target we've ever gone for, and that's true, but we're not hitting it today. Today we carve out a nice little piece of Real Estate for ourselves. You know the plan. The main offensive will come in after us. Our job is to flush out any ordinance and defensive measures Skynet may have in the area, so that the air support can knock it down. The Bandits will have a good diversion for them to slip past the heavy rollers, and Alpha Company can walk in and knock. The first part is the hardest part, and that's why they called us. Everyone ready?"
"YEAH!" Chorused everyone.
Sarah grinned savagely. "Let's give 'em hell."
"Okay gents, you know the rules. You flush out the targets, mark them with smoke. Send a flare if you run into anything you can't handle yourself, but you gotta find any heavy ordinance or H/K's in the area. Until the Jammers come down we can't send you any Intel or give you any further instructions. When you leave the Command Post, you are alone. Understand?"
"Yessir." Griffin and Reese chorused.
"Bravo Company will be in your vicinity. Your job is to locate anything that could block them. Move fast, find it, smoke it and get back here fast. Remember, Skynet can talk to each other out there, we can't. Flare guns bring in the Choppers, smoke brings in the Jets."
They knew this already, but it always helped to have someone say what needed to be remembered once the adrenaline started flowing.
"Go!"
Kyle gunned the motorcycle, Griffin sitting behind him with a rifle ready, and the two of them moved out.
Walters grit his teeth as they went into battle. He would have given his left arm to be out there with them. The battle was fierce out there, and he was back here with a radio. He suddenly knew for sure how Connor felt.
Kyle and Griffin made their way in, eyes open. They knew they were within the outer System Core Defense Net, which meant that every inch of this land belonged to the Machines.
The sky in the distance was filled with aerial H/K's, and the two soldiers were trying hard to go unnoticed by them, hoping they were far enough away, but they were suddenly moving, off to the western horizon. Somebody out there had made the first move.
Kyle raised one closed fist, and Griffin gripped his rifle tighter. Ahead of them was the first team of Terminators they had found. Three of them. Kyle swept the motorbike to the side, giving Griffin plenty of time to shoot. The Machines were set out in a line, each taking their turn to shoot as the two of them passed.
One did not shoot, keeping its eyes on them. The other two fired back, one getting knocked down.
Kyle slowed the bike to a halt. They weren't going to get another pass, and only the rookies tried the same trick twice against these Machines. Rookies didn't live long.
Griffin kept shooting as they abandoned the motorbike. Two Terminators left, one was shooting, the other charging them, moving with pneumatic feet.
After working together this long, Kyle and Griffin knew each others moves. Griffin had better aim over longer distance. They moved a few feet apart, splitting their opponents. Kyle moved a few feet closer, almost charging the approaching Machine head on.
The tactic work. Both Terminators focused on Kyle, giving Griffin plenty of time to gun down the shooting Terminator.
Kyle opened up with everything he had, blasting a load of plasma into the last Terminator at near point blank range as it charged him. The Machine didn't drop. In fact, it didn't even flinch. And Kyle suddenly realized why it wasn't shooting. The gun in its hand melted into a long flat blade, and the skeletal body melted into a smooth chrome statue.
Kyle threw himself backward. "MERCURY!" He roared. "Mercury on the scene!"
Griffin spun around, coming up with a grenade in his hand.
The 1000 melted away from its guise as a regular Terminator, and its blades flashed. It swung around it's blade-arm like the grim reaper's scythe, and Kyle threw his weapon up to block it. The blade slammed his plasma-rifle, caving it in half, the force of the blow sending Kyle skidding backward in the dirt.
Griffin lunged the second he saw Kyle go flying. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
The grenade came down between the 1000's legs, and exploded, ripping upward through the mercurial Machine. It had been blown almost in half, base to top, and it's chrome body rippled as it fought to pull itself back together.
It was enough for Kyle to roll painfully to his feet and pull a flare gun, firing it up into the sky.
The 1000 was recovering, shaking off the stun effect of the concussion, as the flare went straight up into the sky. A moment later was the sound of helicopter blades.
The 1000 looked up and saw the incoming chopper as it's cannons opened up. The high-heat Sabot rounds were enough to melt solid steel, let alone liquid metal, and the 1000 got chewed through. The chopper circled around for another pass, as it tried to get itself back together, half it's mass now glowing and melted.
Kyle heard huge gears moving in the distance, and spun around to see part of the ground lifting up, the hidden chrome equipment suddenly raising from its camouflaged positions in the debris.
Kyle yelled into his useless radio. "Incoming ordinance! Get Clear! Get Clear!"
The squall of the Jammers was the only response.
The hidden gun emplacement fired, huge bursts of plasma hurtling into the sky with lethal machine efficiency. The Chopper was torn to glowing bits as it fell from the sky.
Griffin and Kyle wasted no time on anger, heading for the gun emplacement as best they could. It had been guarded, but apparently its strongest defender was the T-1000, now half ruined and smoldering behind them, its mass partially melted away.
The huge anti-aircraft gun was nothing unusual. It had glowing red eyes all over it, and only a few anti-personnel guns on it for it's own defense. Kyle and Griffin stayed back, and Kyle pulled his flare gun, ejecting the magnesium flare, reloading with a smoke canister.
The mounted turrets swiveled to fire in their direction, but the two humans had cover. Kyle fired the smoke canister without looking, sending it up over their cover, and back down again in a perfect arc.
Clouds of thick red smoke billowed around Skynet's nearest cannon.
"General Walters, I have targets smoke-marked at Block 080."
Walters nodded. "Where we lost the Chopper. Tango units, red and free."
He didn't even bother to look up as a pair of jet fighters screamed by overhead.
The red smoke was visible from high in the air, and the Fighter jet had no trouble locating the target. One split the sky at Mach speed, making Griffin's eardrums rattle. The enormous gun swiveled to try and track it, as a second jet came following seconds after, hitting it unawares with missile attacks.
"One block down, couple thousand blocks to go." Kyle snarled, feral as ever.
Griffin lifted his radio. "Good hits! This area clear!"
The Jammers screeched through the radio again.
Griffin swore and turned his radio down. "What the hell are the Bandits waiting for?"
Yolanda was in her own Command Post, directing the Bandits. In the middle of the battlefield, within reach of the Jammers, they couldn't talk to each other. Messages were delivered by hand, messengers going by motorcycle.
"Kurt!" Yolanda called. "Get Team Two to fall back direct to here. Lisa's team is in way too close for them to go straight to the next target."
"I got a connection!" Her radio operator shouted. "We got the second target!"
A cheer went up.
"Jammer Beta is down!"
Released from the interference, a signal suddenly got through from that quarter of the battle. "-OFF! REPEAT! CUT OFF! CHARLIE IS PINNED DOWN!"
Noah spoke into her radio. "Tango 4, Go! Home in on that signal!"
"Tally Ho." An unflappable fighter pilot responded.
The Jets split the air overhead, swooping in for the kill.
Walters knew it wasn't even close to over. More than three quarters of the Jammer towers were still up, and what was hidden within that area was a mystery. A mystery that he kept sending team after team to hunt through.
Sarah stayed as low as she could as the tell-tale sound of Jets became audible. Like a thunderbolt they hit the H/K's from their flanks, obliterating them with a blast of missile fire.
"They're pulling back!" Labine shouted. "They're leaving!"
"The Jammer is down." Sarah said, standing up again. With the Jammers knocked down, the battlefield is an open book to the Artillery. We're taking the area, slice by slice. She turned to look after the retreating Machines. "Let's go!"
They took off in pursuit, chasing them only as far as they were willing to run. Sarah was firing steadily, her finger glued to the trigger and a crazed manic grin on her face. She gloried in it, cheering every time a target fell.
And sure enough, the missile barrage from far away artillery came in, radio guided missiles finding one immense H/K after another, the missiles flown by remote control. The aerial H/K's moved faster, retreating to the protective cover of the Jammers, where remote control missiles couldn't be guided in.
"Oh, GOD do I love my job!" Sarah almost cackled. "Come on guys, you wanna live forever? Let's go get some more!"
Jackman grinned. "Our crazy plan is working."
Noah grinned. "Our crazy plan is working."
"General!" Sarah's voice called from the radio. "Skynet has abandoned this block. I think the next one too."
Noah nodded, playing it out to herself. "Pulling their defenders back to where our artillery can't reach it. So… where are they making their stand?" She checked the map. "They'll go for the Tower." She grabbed her radio. "Walters, you read this?"
"Yeah, they'll go for the Tower. Who have you got in the area?"
"Bravo Company is heading for the Tower now, the area is close enough to cover your sweep through!"
"Pull em out!" Noah said. "Skynet has abandoned all the areas where the Jammers have come down. They'll be heading for the Tower."
Walters paled. "Checkpoint Roundup to Bravo Company, Bravo, can you hear me?"
The Jammers were his only response.
Walters swore and switched frequencies. "Noah! No Joy! I can't reach Bravo Company!"
"Skynet's reinforcements are rolling in! I can hit them before they get there!"
"That would put all Bravo Company in the firing line!"
Yolanda checked her map. "The Central Jamming Tower has the range. If we're going to do this, we have to drop that tower."
Kurt came screaming back on his motorcycle. "Bravo Company is heading to the next target. Skynet has abandoned Block 47."
"Abandoned it?" Yolanda repeated. "Without a fight?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Yolanda turned to the map again. "Lets see… if Skynet's pulling back from Block 47, and 46, and 39, then they must be sending all those defenders somewhere…" She looked up sharply. "They're heading for the Tower. The Central Jammer. How many?"
"Enough to protect three blocks." Kurt shrugged.
Yolanda swore colorfully. "Can you get to any of our strike teams before Bravo Company gets to its next target?"
"No Ma'am, at least, not fast enough to get them to the Tower before Skynet."
Yolanda folded her map swiftly. "Then it's gotta be us." She raised her voice. "LISTEN UP! We've got to leave this position, and head into the combat zone, because there's nobody else can get there. We're heading for the Tower. Grab your guns, grab explosives, and move fast!"
Walters grabbed for his radio again. "Noah? Can you reach Bravo Company from where you are?"
"Negative." Noah responded. "The Main Tower is still Jamming the area. Looks like it's resetting its range every few minutes."
Walters bit his lip. The tower had the range to jam everything in its section of the battlefield, and Bravo Company were far enough in that they were unreachable. "Noah, you gotta delay your strike!"
"Latest info said that the area is being used by Skynet. It's sending its reinforcements to protect the tower. We have to hit that area now!"
"I've got over a hundred people in the target zone!" Walters shouted. "Give them two minutes to get clear!"
"If Skynet's reinforcements make it to the tower, we'll lose the quadrant!" Noah shouted. "The Bandits are already there! If those reinforcements make it through, they won't have a prayer!"
"Two minutes!"
"Eric, if that Tower stays up, Skynet can block our targeting and it can reach my guys before they can make their counter-attack. That Tower is the intersection; we have to kill those reinforcements now!"
"One minute!" Walters snapped.
"We do not have one minute!" Noah roared. "We don't have it! Skynet's already got some aerial H/K's in range!"
The Bandits came screaming toward the base of the Jammer, this tower more than twice the size of any other, and the base of it bigger than anyone thought. It was surrounded by Terminators, and the Bandits came in guns blazing.
Yolanda herself was in a Gunner's position, swinging the Jeep Turret left and right, mowing down the Tower's protection. The Terminators were more accurate, but the attackers were better armed. The fight lasted a few minutes, with the Bandits on Jeeps and motorcycles.
Yolanda felt the Jeep shake through her feet as Plasma shredded through the empty windshield of the Jeep she rode. The Jeep was suddenly rolling, not driving. Yolanda didn't have time to react but started clawing for her harness, trying to get free of the Jeep now that her driver was dead.
There were enough bandits moving that the Terminators had to pick their targets, and still have enough of incoming to overwhelm them.
Yolanda looked up at the sound of Turbines and climbed back into the gunner position. "COVER!"
Those that still had Jeep Guns and heavier weapons fired up at the incoming death Machines. The H/K's were firing back, thick and heavy, gunning them down mercilessly from above.
Yolanda did the math. Tech-Com would be coming through this spot to clear out the area and take down the Tower. Skynet would therefore have to send its defenders here.
With the Jammers down, Tech-Com could mark the H/K's and blow them apart from a long way away, but would have to get the Tower down to do so. This was ground zero. Her position was about to be obliterated by both sides.
Yolanda heard the massive concussive blasts, and the shock-waves of heat and wind bowling over them, even from that far away. "Where the hell did that come from?" Someone shouted.
Yolanda heard Kurt swearing loudly and creatively. "Kurt?"
He waved at the rising clouds of flame and smoke. "I think that was Bravo Company!"
Yolanda shivered. If Connor's people were sacrificing their own to friendly fire, it must have been getting ugly out there. "LET'S MOVE FAST! GET THOSE CHARGES! ALL OF THEM!"
Yolanda looked up as she heard the Turbines coming back. The bombing barrage from Tech-Com might have obliterated the oncoming defenders, but it couldn't take out the aerial H/K's above their heads.
Her people started strapping the explosive packs to the base of the Tower, one after another, after another. Those that had weapons powerful enough fired up at the attackers, trying to keep them away until the charges were set. Skynet couldn't shoot at it's own tower, and the guns were enough to keep them from hovering in any decent firing position.
The Bandits worked quickly, laying all the explosives they had. Kurt forced himself not to look around for incoming attack as he wired up the detonators, and set the remote trigger. The air was thick with glowing Plasma Death, both sides looking for the perfect angle to aim at, neither side able to find it as the bandit teams worked.
Yolanda felt Kurt climb up behind her and put the detonator in her hand. "Ready!"
Yolanda knew the stalemate couldn't last, she was wearing out already. "Go! Everyone get clear!"
Her people scrambled, trying to get to whatever vehicles had survived. Yolanda grabbed the detonator, checked her people…
They were moving, thinking she was with them, but she stayed behind, gripping the detonator in one hand, and the Jeep Gun in the other. "Kurt! You too!"
The younger Bandit nodded, sending a quick salute at the other Jeep, the one protecting Yolanda. He grabbed for his motorcycle, and gunned the motor as best he could. The H/K let the all go. It had to disable the explosives, had to stop Yolanda…
Yolanda and the team still with her kept firing. The H/K could see the charges on the Tower's base, plain as day. It knew. Skynet knew. It was a race to see which side would be knocked down first. It was a race to see who would get the lucky shot, or the right angle first. Skynet didn't dare pull it's H/K's away, and give Yolanda a chance to hit the detonator.
The H/K was suddenly hit, nailed from another angle by her retreating people, who were firing back the way they came. The Turbine was shredded, as all Tech-Com and Allied forces knew to do, and the H/K overturned, going from a hover to a crash down.
Yolanda looked up and swore, as the immense killing Machine came down… on top of her and her team, both jeeps caught.
She didn't even try to dive clear before she hit the button. For the last microsecond, she wasn't sure if the blast came from her demolitions at the Tower, or the crashing H/K practically landing on top of her.
"This is Bandit One, the Tower is down."
The Control staff cheered at the news. The Jammers were down, and Walters people were quickly taking a head count, now able to contact all their people. The results were not good, but better than they had secretly expected.
Walters was on the radio instantly. "Javelin Teams, prepare to fire as targets are marked, all hands, paint your targets."
"Checkpoint Roundup this is Checkpoint Touchstone." Noah's voice came. "We're starting our attack run from the other end, are your people clear?"
Walters looked to Sherrin who was nodding. "All Units are clear. Anyone not accounted for is already gone."
"Checkpoint Roundup, Bandit Command!" Kurt's voice shouted from the radio.
"Finally!" Walters hissed. "Bandit Command, this is Checkpoint Roundup, where the hell have you been?"
"We don't have Yolanda! Bandits? Anyone in Range got a visual?"
"This is Reese! Griffin and I are in the area. We can find her!"
Walters grabbed his radio. "Negative, Reese! Rollers are all over the place there! We have to launch!"
"We can't just leave her!" Kurt howled, fiercely loyal.
"We don't even know if she's alive!"
Yolanda woke up painfully as the flames licked at her arms. She slapped them out without thinking, and then memory caught up.
She could see the tower, felled like a redwood tree, surrounded by the spreading flames and billowing smoke. She fought to move her head, turning left and right so slowly. Her radio was there on the ground beside her, having miraculously survived the blast. She stretched out a hand for it. She couldn't reach. It was at least two feet out of her grasp.
Her weapon was a good deal closer.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Yolanda grasped her weapon with her one free hand, and looked around painfully. At least one Terminator had survived the crash of the H/K, and was tearing its way free of the debris.
"Terminators. Just too damn hard to kill." Yolanda rasped, though there was nobody around.
Clang! Cla-krshhh!
The surviving Terminator had ripped its way out of the wreck, and it's unholy red eyes flared as it saw her, pinned and helpless. It wasn't armed, it's weapon destroyed. It's skeletal body was scarred but unbroken as the firelight gleamed off the chrome skin.
Yolanda managed to lift her free arm, rifle and all. "See you in hell." She snarled, and fired…
And she missed.
Stupid; useless, blind old woman! She raged at herself, fighting to clear her vision…
She passed out before she could fire again.
The Terminator came over, closing its fingers around her unconscious throat.
Plasma cracked the air like narrow lighting, and nailed the Terminator in the back of the head. Reese and Griffin had come in close from behind.
"We got her!" Reese's voice shouted from the radio. "She's at the base of the Tower."
Walters checked his maps and sighed hard. "Reese, that area is about to be overrun."
"I thought you already hit the Skynet reinforcements."
"We did! The H/Ks we hit were the Reinforcements to protect the Tower, but the rest of the Counter-Attack Force wasn't even close by then. It'll be moving through that whole area! With the Tower down we've got them all painted for Missile Strike. Get out of the way!" Walters didn't say over the radio what anyone facing the map could tell at a glance. If those H/K's weren't destroyed immediately, Noah's forces would be finished, and the Mission would fail. He bit his lip and did the math. "Reese, you got two minutes."
Yolanda came around as water splashed on her face. She could feel herself pinned down by something heavy, and she was aware of the flames right down to her taste-buds.
Griffin was pouring out his water bottle on her face, to either bring her around of put her hair out she wasn't sure. "What?"
Kyle had yanked his jacket off, and wrapped it around his hands, trying to get a grip on the huge burning wreck that pinned her legs. "Good, you're alive."
"Is that what this is?" Yolanda croaked. "What happened?"
The radio crackled. "Reese, you've got less than ninety seconds to get her clear. You're about to be overrun! We have to launch!"
Yolanda was suddenly aware of it. The rumbling through the ground that every soldier knew. Skynet was coming.
Kyle was trying to get a grip on the burning Jeep through his jacket, hissing in pain as it failed to keep all the heat out. "Reese, Griffin! Go!" Yolanda hissed. "Get out of here!"
"Not leaving you!" Kyle hissed, trying to lift half a Jeep off her. Yolanda hissed, but the wreck didn't move more than a fraction of an inch. "Griffin, we need something we can lever this with!"
Griffin jumped up and started searching the debris
The rumbling was getting louder. "Kyle! RUN!" She snapped. "You can't get me out, and there's no chance we'll survive the bombing run! Leave me behind!"
"I won't." Kyle gritted out, struggling.
"Griffin! Get him outta here!"
"We don't leave people behind." Griffin told her.
"Kyle! You have to survive! Kyle! Listen to me!" Yolanda yelled intensely, pulling him away from her leg till he was nose to nose with her. "Listen to me!" She repeated. "You have… a destiny."
Kyle didn't know what to make of that, and he didn't have time to press for details. The rumbling in the ground was getting stronger. He could hear the treads turning as Skynet approached.
Griffin didn't know what the hell was happening, but knew they couldn't get her out. He grabbed Kyle and half dragged half carried him back to the motorcycle. After a moment he turned around and tossed his rifle to Yolanda.
Kyle forced his face to show nothing as they gunned the motor, heading as far from there as fast as they could.
Yolanda grinned savagely, but it quickly slid off her face in exhaustion; as she watched the young soldiers run for their lives…
"We're clear!" Griffin shouted.
"Good. Because we just launched." Walters responded.
The air above them screamed as missiles came flying in from over the horizon, dozens of them, guided from far away, the shooters well out of reach. One H/K after another was lit up with a burst of immense pyrotechnics. The forces of the army went charging, searching for targets, marking them for the cannons far away. One Machine after another, one missile after another, taken from long distance.
Skynet's forward defense net had fallen.
Carla was CMO in Crystal Peak, but even after so long, she was inclined to follow Kate's lead. It wasn't that Kate had seniority any longer, it was just that those who knew her wanted to follow where she led.
Kate had long been promoted out of the OR, and her injuries meant that she had a pass, but whenever a large battle happened she was the first to volunteer. For the ugly battles, anyone who knew how to so much as set a broken bone was drafted to help with the wounded.
The target was three days from Crystal Peak, and there was little to no chance that the seriously wounded soldiers would last that long, so the Medical Units had been moved closer, and Crystal Peak had sent it's own surgical teams out to lend a hand.
This had been one of the worst battles of the decade. The method of combat meant that there were plenty of people in harm's way, and the Jammers being up meant that they were forever getting in each others way, or worse, getting attacked with none of their own knowing where they were on the battlefield.
"Carla?" Kate called, and Carla stepped away from her patient long enough to look at Kate's table. "Ooh. Skynet couldn't have found more places to to damage if we'd personally drawn it a map."
Kate sighed hard. "It'll take both of us over an hour to try and keep this man from bleeding to death. Even if we succeed…"
"There's a good chance he'll be a vegetable." Carla agreed. "And we have customers lining up outside."
Kate nodded. She knew it before calling Carla over, but for such cases, it was Standard Operating Procedure to get a second opinion before doing the most despicable thing a doctor could do. "Orderly." She called. "Make this one comfortable… and then bring me my next patient."
The casualties kept growing long after the battle was done.
Z Plus Twenty Four Years One Hundred Eighty Days
With the battle over, the Staging Areas taken,and the wounded seen to, the victorious soldiers started arriving back at Crystal Peak. They had all left together, but returned home separately, coming back as there were vehicles available, and more important or more desperate passengers going ahead of those who could wait.
Walters came into the Briefing Room, and froze. Noah was sitting at the table. It was the first time they had been alone together since the Mission.
Noah just looked at him, a gaze cold enough to make him shiver. Anger quickly rose to meet it. "Listen..."
"Don't get in my face about this." Noah snarled. "I had no choice."
"I could have got Bravo Company out!" Walters growled. "One more minute was all it would have taken."
"One more minute could have cost us the Jammer and with that, the entire battle!" Noah snapped. "Don't go getting preachy to me. I heard you tell Kyle to leave Yolanda behind."
"One fatally wounded woman is one thing, over a hundred guys who just needed a few more seconds is something else!" Walters roared. "Those were my guys, Erica! If I had done that with Alpha Company you would have set me on fire by now!"
"No I wouldn't, Eric." She said firmly. "Because it's not the first time I've had to leave people to die on battlefields. I wouldn't heap a load of hate on top of whatever you'd be feeling right now. Pity you don't get that."
"Oh don't even go there!" Walters snapped in disgust. "You didn't have to-"
"YES, I DID!"
"NO, YOU DIDN'T!"
"Ten-hut."
The calm, quiet voice cut through both of their yells like a knife, and they both spun to see Connor standing in the doorway. With great difficulty, they reined themselves in, coming to attention.
"I was hoping to get your impressions of how the battle went." Connor said calmly. "But I think I already have."
Walters got control with effort. "Sir... It wasn't... I don't want to point fingers at anyone."
"Erica?" Connor turned to her.
Noah shrugged. "I didn't see any other way to go."
"Me neither." Walters admitted. "But I don't see where another minute would have cost us the Battle."
"Minutes are worth more than gold and silver in a war-zone." Connor pointed out.
Walters just looked at him.
"But I don't have to tell you that." Connor conceded. "Eric, if I had given the same order she did, I would have done it at the same time."
"'If' you did." Walters grit his teeth. "A minute. It would have been worth trying at least."
"The Mission was completed within thirty seconds of that Tower coming down." Noah responded. "If Skynet's forces had made it to the Tower..."
"I don't know what would have happened then. Neither do you." Connor pointed out. "Noah... I wouldn't have done it. I would have given them the time. But I don't know what would have happened if you did that, and I do know what happened because you launched immediately." Connor looked to his friend. "What happened Eric?"
"She sent the attack. We lost a lot of people... and we won the battle in thirty seconds."
"We won the battle, and we took the staging area. This was the turning point of the war. We've got the advantage at last. We've got our foot in their Command Base for once. And that's thanks to you two. You both got that?"
"Yessir." They chorused.
"Noah, you told me once that without the constant risk, a War would be a fun game to play." He spread his arms wide. "But its not. And this is why."
"Yessir."
"Just remember you two, if that tower didn't come down, the Jammers would have kept going. Maybe we would have won anyway, maybe not. Even if we still won, maybe maybe more people would have died by the numbers if we let the battle go longer. There's no way to know. We could have lost the battle, and I never would have heard anything from any of you ever again." Connor said seriously. "You know what a control freak I am. You think that if things had turned out differently, that would have been okay with me?"
The two of them remained silent. They understood. There was nothing to be said that all three of them didn't already know. Those hundred lives were not the first, and they would not be the last, and there was no way of knowing what could have happened differently. But with the 'what-if' hanging over the graves of Bravo Company, it was an open wound.
"If there's nothing else?" Connor asked finally.
No response.
"Dismissed." Connor finished.
They both left the Briefing Room, and found Kurt Orlandez in the corridor. "Kurt?"
"How's his mood?"
"He's doing what he does. He's fixing what he can, and smoothing over what he can't. Why?"
Kurt reached into his pocket, and pulled out a piece of paper, folded over several times. It had The General's name written on it.
They nodded. They knew who it was from, and they left him to wait for The General to emerge. It wasn't a pleasant duty at the best of times.
"Are we okay?" Noah asked finally as they headed toward the elevators.
"Erica, I can forgive a whole lot, because Connor is right: War Sucks. But... you didn't do it to me. You did it to the hundred guys who needed to rely on me." He spread his hands wide. "They could have got out, and you're the reason they didn't."
"Yes. I am." Noah snapped. "Okay? Happy now? I did a terrible thing, and I would do it all again, and I probably will before this is over!"
"Are we done?" Walters bit out, tired of arguing.
Beat.
"Yeah. We're done." Noah said with grim finality.
Connor came out of the Briefing Room a moment later, and found Kurt waiting for him. "Kurt?"
"May we speak, sir?" Orlandez said, and it looked like he had been psyching himself up to it.
Connor considered a moment, and stepped back in the Briefing Room. Kurt joined him.
Connor turned to face him. "Speak."
"I'm in love with your daughter." Kurt said plainly.
Connor didn't even blink. "No kidding." He smirked. "That's no great secret. If you weren't, I imagine I would have scared you off long ago."
"You did your level best, and then so did your entire Command Staff, and then so did the small cult that considers her a Miracle Worker, but… your daughter is worth it."
Connor nodded. "You expect me to argue with that?"
"No sir. But, I want to know…" Kurt steeled himself. "Sir, your daughter would walk into the ocean for you. So would all of us. If you genuinely wanted me out of her life, then… I couldn't stand against that."
Connor took that in, and waved Kurt to sit down. "Kurt, you're a good soldier, and Sarah's got good instincts about people. When you're in my family, you have to know who wants to help you and who wants to use you to help themselves. She's already had to handle one such social climber, but I understand I'm not supposed to know about it. If she thinks you're the real thing, then I believe her. I haven't pushed the matter because I expected you to get killed somewhere along the way by now. You've been most uncooperative in that area; so speaking as her father, I want to know: Where do you see this relationship with my only daughter going?"
"I want to marry her." Kurt said plainly. "As soon as possible."
Dead silence.
"Are you asking for my permission?" Connor asked finally.
"If I were, would you give it?"
"That's not what I asked."
Kurt sat straight and kept his chin up. "Then, respectfully sir, I think the only person who needs give me permission is Sarah herself. But she adores you, so if you're genuinely against it, she may say no."
"I doubt that."
"Well, she'd hesitate at least. And if you were strongly against it, then even if she said yes... It would put Sarah into an impossible situation."
Connor nodded. "Yes. I suppose it would. Kurt, you're a good kid, and I respect you for doing this, but can I offer a word of advice?"
"Always."
"Don't be surprised if she says 'no' anyway."
Kurt blinked, and then looked horrified. "Sir?"
Connor held up a hand. "Relax. She hasn't said anything to me about wanting to break up with you. Quite the opposite in fact… But she's a Connor. And that means more than any of us would like to admit. Sarah understands this. You've heard the stories I'm sure."
"Saint Sarah?" Kurt guessed.
"That's right. We're at the top of Skynet's hit-list, every soldier wants to fight at our sides, and every Machine knows our names. My family has sworn itself to the death of Skynet first. The Connor family has a particular… vendetta against this enemy."
"We all do. Sir, I have no illusions about her role in the world. I'm always going to be 'Mr Sarah Connor', and I have no problem with that."
"Good, but what I'm telling you is: Sarah wants to win this war first, and be happy with you second. A very close second to be sure, but this war has two goodbyes for every hello. Sarah won't look to her own future until this war is over. She won't risk it."
Kurt took that in. "Yeah… You may be right about that. Speaking for myself, I think that's the best reason. Seize the day."
"I can understand that." Connor said from experience. "When we were talking about having kids, Kate and I knew that there would never be a good time."
"And I refuse to live my life so afraid of losing something that I won't dare love it in the first place." Kurt said with iron in his voice. "But… if she does say yes?"
Connor sighed, giving in. "I can't talk you out of it?"
"Nosir." Kurt smiled. Victory!
"Are you sure? I'm told I can be very intimidating."
"Believe me, sir: You are."
"And still you intend to stick around?"
"I believe the vows are specific on that point, sir."
"Then you have my blessing, and my permission, though you don't need it. Just remember that Connor's Own, and the Bandits, and Nova all answer to my whim. And of course, the hazing will never stop."
Kurt chuckled a little at himself. "Bring it on." He sobered. "You think she'll say no?"
"I think she'll say yes, and insist on setting the date for the day after Skynet falls."
Kurt nodded. "I can live with that. I want that too. A world without Skynet and Sarah with me always…"
"Sounds like a pretty good goal." Connor agreed.
Kurt bit his lip. "I don't have a ring to give Sarah."
Connor laughed. "I didn't have one to give Kate."
"Yeah." Kurt stood to go. "Thank you sir."
Connor nodded, and shook his hand.
"One more thing." Kurt reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter. "Yolanda gave me this."
"Thank you." Connor sobered, taking it from him. "Oh, and one more word of advice… don't ask her tonight. She's just getting in now, she'll barely be conscious."
"I know the feeling." Kurt yawned, and left the room.
The Nova Groups were very good about being discreet, but as Connor approached The Presidential Suite, there were fewer and fewer people about, until the hallway to his room was usually empty.
As such, he was surprised to find someone waiting for him. "Kyle?"
Kyle saluted. "Sir."
"Thought you'd be eager to get some sleep."
"I needed to ask you something, and I wasn't sure if I should."
"Ask me."
"When I was… Yolanda told me to leave her behind. She said… She said that I had to survive. She said I had a Destiny."
Connor was silent a moment. "You do. And time will come when I tell you what it is. But for now, get some sleep."
"Yessir." Kyle responded. But he didn't move.
Connor waited. "Was there something else, Kyle?"
Kyle almost started to cry. "I lost the photo."
Connor sighed. "Aw, Kyle..."
Kyle started yapping compulsively, rushing out his story. "It was in the Evac Tunnel, we weren't really secure there and an Infiltrator got in, and there was a fire fight and the photo burned and I tried to stop it but I couldn't stop it, and she burned and I couldn't save her... General, I'm so sorry!"
Kyle ran out of words too quickly as The General rested a hand on his shoulder. "Shh. Kyle, It's okay."
Kyle hadn't looked this wretched since Lupe died. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm so sorry."
Connor sighed. "You got kinda attached to her, didn't you, Kyle?" It was not really a question.
Kyle rubbed his eyes madly. "What am I doing? Crying? We're talking about someone I never really met… and I lost her too."
Connor almost said it out loud. No, Kyle. She lost you.
They stood there a while, alone in the corridors of the Underground; father and son.
Sarah came into her room, slipped off her vest, and fell face down on her bed, content to never move again.
A moment later an arm went around her waist and she squawked.
"Relax, it's me."
"Kurt!" Sarah said his name explosively. "You scared the hell outta me!"
"Sorry. Welcome back." Kurt whispered. "When did you get in?"
"About an hour ago."
"Are you as fried as I am?"
"And then some." Sarah mumbled, adrenaline vanishing as quickly as it came. She snuggled into him. "Glad you're not dead."
"Ditto." He mumbled into her hair.
There was a knock on the door.
"Your other boyfriend?" Kurt teased.
"No, we meet in his room." Sarah teased back, neither of them moving. Sarah raised her voice. "Who is it?"
"It's me." Connor called.
Kurt was out of the bed like a shot, scanning the room quickly for a hiding place.
"Would you relax?" Sarah complained quietly, sitting up. "We've been together for years. He knows you're in here. Otherwise he wouldn't knock."
Kurt didn't respond, diving under the bed.
Sarah sighed and rubbed her face. "Come in, dad."
The door opened, and Connor came in. "Hey, kid. I just wanted to check in, see how it went."
Sarah rocked her head back and forth. "It was a tough one; I won't deny it. But we won. We beat Skynet and that's what matters." Sarah held out a hand to her father, took his hand in her own. "I heard about Yolanda. You okay?"
"Yeah." Connor said lightly. "Listen, your mom told me about the situation with Kyle."
Sarah blushed furiously. "Oh god."
"Sarah, relax. I've taken care of it."
Sarah felt her blush going right down to her toes, embarrassment warring with the sudden spike of fear for Kyle's safety. "Taken care of it… how?" She asked finally.
Connor chuckled. "Okay. I don't know if this will make it better or worse, but here it is. After Lupe died, I gave Kyle a present. Something he could hold on to."
"The Photo." Sarah nodded. "I've seen it. He takes that thing everywhere he…" John saw the exact moment of realization on his daughter's face. "No!"
"I'm afraid so."
"Kyle… hasn't fallen in love with me, but with… My grandmother?"
"Yep."
"My grandmother Sarah, who I was named after... My late grandmother, who died years before either Kyle or myself were born?"
"Don't get offended. She was a lot younger and prettier in the picture I gave him. In fact, she looks a little like you."
"Like that means anything. Robbie looks like Kyle, you get him in the right light…" Sarah's face went from horrified to relieved, to horrified to amused and back again in a matter of seconds. "I suppose I should be relieved."
"Don't freak out." Connor told her firmly. "After Lupe, he went very dark. That photo is the only face he hasn't had to fear losing for years."
"It's not healthy." Sarah offered.
"I know, but I'll go along with anything that lightens the load on anyone in this war." Connor said lightly. "Why do you think I put up with Kurt?"
Sarah smiled. "Aw... thanks dad."
"Torturing my daughter's boyfriend lightens my load considerably." Connor continued earnestly.
Sarah swatted him.
John smirked and kissed his daughter on top of her head. "Okay. I have to get back to the War Room." He told her. "Now that you all went and got us a staging area that close to the System Core, I have to figure out what to do with it."
"Get some sleep too."
"Your mother tell you to say that?"
"All the time."
"Goodnight, Sarah."
"G'night, dad."
Connor bent down a bit and called under her bed. "Goodnight, Kurt. Told you the hazing wouldn't stop."
"Yessir." Kurt called from under the bed with great dignity, as though this was perfectly normal. "Sleep well."
The door closed, and Kurt rolled out from under the bed. "Now, what's the situation with Kyle and your grandmother?" He asked with amused interest.
Sarah pulled him back into the bed with her. "Go to sleep."
Dear John.
Wow you must hate that. Every time you get a message, it's a Dear John letter.
If you're reading this, then it means I'm dead. Well, that's okay. Enrique and I both knew we weren't going to survive this War. The world you're trying to make is New. And a new world is for the young. I haven't seen anyone my own age since Enrique died. I miss that crazy bastard.
But you know what? It was worth it. Because even if I don't know whether or not I'll live out the day, I know we'll win the battle. You wanted to know why I insisted on going this time. It's because it was the only way to get each and every member of the Bandits to follow you exclusively. They followed Enrique and you, and when he died it was you and me. Now it will be you alone. With the Union and the Council against you once this war ends; and who knows how many casualties taken from Connor's Own and Nova after the battle, you'll need everyone you can get. And now you got The Bandits with no doubts, no divided loyalties.
I saw the photos. There are more of them than us. And they're stronger than us to a man. And I don't care if they're Machines, they're fighting for their lives now too. But I have no doubt we won; even if I didn't live to see it. We did it. We cleared the way for you, Johnny Boy. All the way to the System Core. Nothing in your way. Nothing to stop you, or to slow you down. We did it.
I love you, John. And I'm very proud of you.
Now wipe away any tears you may be shedding over me, then go do what you were born to do, and win this god-forsaken war.
Yolanda.
PS: Name a high school after me. A good one.
Connor had read the letter four times, and his face was unreadable, when Kate's hands rested gently on his shoulders from behind, making him sigh.
"You okay?" Kate asked softly. He hadn't seen her for most of his childhood, but Kate had been the adopted mother of enough War Orphans, and heard enough stories about the Late Sarah Connor to know that Yolanda was easily the most maternal figure in his life.
John tilted his head enough to kiss her wrist. "Yeah. I think so. Yolanda and me... we said all the things we needed to say."
Kate gestured at the letter in his hand. "What are you thinking?"
John sighed hard. "It's… I'm the old man now." He said finally. "Yolanda was the last one in the base who's older than me. Lori's off with the Council, Halloway's with his Navy... Enrique was on his third tour long before I was born… My mom, Enrique, the Terminator, Yolanda… even Whickahm and your dad. All the people we ever drew anything from…"
"You haven't looked to Yolanda for approval or advice since you were ten years old." Kate pointed out.
"I know but… She was there. It's just us now."
Kate leaned in and gave him a kiss. "Now we have our own knowledge to draw from, our own strength. The others… they draw from us. Your mom, my dad, Enrique, Chet… We're them now."
John gave her a tight hug. "Mm. I feel old."
"Let's get to bed, I'll see if I can change your mind." Kate murmured warmly in his ear.
Connor smiled and followed her into the bedroom. She sat down on the bed and kicked her boots off, though he had to help her with the left one. After a marathon session in the OR, her weaker arm was all but numb. "Mm. Oh, hey; news." John said. "Kurt is planning to propose."
Kate jumped back. "Propose? To Sarah?"
"I hope so, because if he's planning on proposing to somebody else…"
"She'll say no." Kate said with certainty as John helped her get her arm out of her jacket sleeve.
"I warned him about that, and he's willing to wait until the war is over if she insists, but he wants to ask anyway, because there are no guarantees about what tomorrow will bring."
"There never are, but that's why she'll say no." Kate pointed out.
"Possible, I agree. But I can't blame him for feeling the way he does." John shrugged off his own jacket and looked deep into her eyes. "Kate, if anyone had asked me Back Before, I would have told them that being happy with someone was a distant second to winning this war. Then I met you."
Kate smiled. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Z Plus Twenty Four Years One Hundred Eighty Two Days
"He hasn't come out of the war room in two days." Walters admitted.
Kate nodded. "He's planning. He's done this before Eric, you know how he works. He stares at the maps, oblivious to everything, he asks a question that seems completely out of place, and-"
"Never this long." Walters countered. "It's starting to freak out some of the War Room staff. Half of them think his batteries have run out, the other half think he's stumped. I don't know which is scarier."
"Eric, when he snaps out of it, he'll have a brilliant new Mission Plan, and given how close we are to the System Core, it'll be the Knockout Punch."
Walters didn't smile. "Hey! You keep a lid on that. The last time we were winning this war, Skynet rolled out the Infiltrators."
Kate didn't say what she was thinking, but inwardly, she knew of at least one Infiltrator Prototype that they hadn't seen yet. She changed the subject swiftly. "What does Erica think?"
"I don't know."
"You don't?"
Walters bit his lip. "We haven't spoken in a few days."
Kate smiled secretly. "So, can I assume that the problem is not so much that John has been burning the candle at both ends, and more that you don't know what to do about General Noah?"
Walters looked down.
Kate looked at his face and felt a wave of sympathy. "Eric... John and I have had the same fight."
"Yeah?"
"Many times." Kate nodded ruefully. "About the soldiers, about the Tunnel Rats... It's nobody's fault; it's a War. And in War, it's just one... sacrifice after another."
"How do you two get over it?"
"We don't. We just love each other too much to let it break us apart." Kate said simply. "And if we're not going to split up, and the war keeps forcing us to make these gut-wrenching sacrifices... what's the alternative?"
"Win the war."
"Only way."
Walters licked his lips. "I don't think that's going to help us."
"Maybe." Kate admitted. "But the thing is... It's hard to be with someone in any war. Two goodbyes for every hello. At some point, all it comes down to is... Can you forgive and forget?"
"If it was me, I would in a heartbeat." Walters said. "But it wasn't me. It was a hundred guys that were looking to me to tell them when to attack and when to fall back, and they trusted me to keep them safe."
"No, they trusted you to complete the mission." Kate said with cold certainty.
Walters didn't have an answer for that one.
"And you did." Kate added.
"Quite well I might add."
They both turned. Connor was standing in the doorway, having heard part of that. He came in, and looked around. "Noah?"
"Not here." Kate said shortly.
Walters watched them a moment. Connor had sent him a quick glance before turning to his wife. They shared a long look; the kind that made Walters wonder if they had some secret telepathy.
"Well." Connor said seriously. "Eric, I'm activating our reserve."
"Which one?" Walters asked in surprise.
"For now, just our group here, but in a week, every unit for twenty miles, a week after that, everything in the theater, a week after that, everything in the world."
Kate and Walters stared at him briefly. This was big.
"Everything?" Kate repeated.
"Everything." Connor confirmed. "You were right. We can't get in there now. But we will. Remember what I said about how there's an offensive and defensive division of Skynet? It pulled all the defense in to protect the System Core. Their offensive wing is bleeding across the globe. So, we have a new strategy."
Walters nodded. "I should tell Noah." The prospect did not seem to make him happy at all.
Kate piped up. "I can brief her."
Connor nodded. "Do it quickly. I want everyone who needs to know informed, but even at best projections, Brain Box sees this as a long term strategy."
The three of them discussed the new plan, before Walters headed downstairs to get it started, and the Connors made their way back to their room. "It's sad about them splitting up. I always thought 'Eric and Erica' had such a nice symmetry to it."
"Yeah, we could have saved money on monogrammed towels." Connor teased. "Kate, you and I are proof that this sort of thing can be overcome. The whole Human Race at this point is proof that attacks from outside aren't what breaks a close team apart."
"You're saying they just weren't strong enough as a couple?"
"I'm saying they can move past this, if they're both willing to move past this. And neither of them are." Connor explained. "It's a difference in viewpoint. Noah has to win the battle, so she sacrifices a team still on the field. Walters gives Kyle an extra minute to try and get Yolanda out and takes a chance on the larger game. Kurt wants to seize the day because there are no guarantees; Sarah will want to hold off until the war is over for the same reason. There's no right or wrong about it, it's just the way people think differently about the same thing."
"We assume that's what Sarah thinks. Has he asked her yet?"
"Not that I've heard, but I told him to let the battle fade for a while before he pops the question."
"Probably a good idea, I just can't stand waiting for the shoe to drop." Kate sighed.
"Speaking of that, I forgot to tell you. The Kyle situation has been handled."
"Thank god." Kate said in relief. "How'd you do it?"
"Turns out it was a misunderstanding after all that. The Sarah he was talking about was…" Connor almost smiled. "Well…"
"Your mom?" Kate finished in shock.
"I gave him the photo after Lupe died."
"Cold, Connor. That was just cold." Kate said with no particular anger.
"What do you mean?"
"People dying left and right, and you give him a pretty girl that never so much as gets older to spend his time with? You do this right after the only girl he's ever loved gets cut down?"
Connor rubbed the back of his neck. "Mom went into detail… embarrassing detail as to how the two of them got together and made me." He explained. "I thought she was trying to torture me, but now I get it. Mom was giving me a cheat sheet so that I could make Kyle ready for… that part of his mission."
"So you could manipulate him into falling for her when he went back." Kate shivered. "Your bodyguards didn't give you any hints like that about me, did they?"
Connor laughed.
Walters came downstairs, to the sealed storerooms. The door was bigger and thicker, with at least two extra locks on it. Walters pulled his keys and unlocked two extra locks, and then keyed in his pass-code. He could feel the door unlatching, huge metal bolts sliding back to allow the door to open.
The door opened and he shivered. The huge storeroom was filled with Machines. Hundreds of them. Packed wall to wall. They had been down here for years. Just standing. Waiting. They were packed in so tightly there was no room to move. Walters didn't like to think that they were here. They had all been scrubbed, reprogrammed and given orders. Connor had ordered them to wait in this room. And they had waited, since Arecibo.
He wondered if they talked to each other in here. He wondered if they had anything to say.
"Connor sent me." He told them. "I have new orders for you. Skynet has deployed it's Terminator and Infiltrator class models to search the Wastelands in small groups. With our own offensives, we don't have the manpower to hunt them all down, and we don't really have to. Your instructions are to capture them all. All that you can anyway. Upon capture, you are to reprogram them to your own mission specs. You've been down here a while. The electrical weapons and tasers that we used for these missions have been upgraded, and the equipment to reprogram CPU's has been updated to be mobile. If you come across any H/K's, evade as best you can. If you come across Terminator production facilities, report them immediately, but do not attempt a frontal assault and capture yourself. We need every scrubbed Machine we can get. Any questions?"
Silence was his answer.
Walters nodded slowly. "You move out in three hours. You will leave in small groups. Do your best not to draw attention."
Right. He told himself. Several hundred walking chrome skeletons tiptoeing their way upstairs. That couldn't possibly draw any attention.
Kate marveled. She was so clean, so comfortable. The omnipresent hunger was not only at bay, it was gone. She looked out the window, looking at the world passing by, and the sky was a beautiful rich blue. Trees and grass, healthy and green. She could see her reflection. Her hair was so full and soft, her skin smooth and young... She looked so... healthy. Well fed, looked after. It was decadent how lovely she was.
She looked back to her companions. John was there, sitting behind her, wiring up a set of explosives. He looked so scruffy and exhausted; not like in the War Room.
And next to her in the drivers' seat was their Terminator, their bodyguard, his face scarred and the metal barely visible beneath.
"So, if this war is between people and machines, why are you on our side?" Kate asked him, more annoyed at the paradox than genuinely curious. She'd met two Machines so far, and this was the one not killing people she loved. More than that, she didn't really care.
"The Resistance captured me, reprogrammed my CPU." The thick Austrian accent said. "I was originally designed for Assassination Missions."
Kate felt her beautiful healthy face twist slightly. "So you don't really care if this Mission succeeds of not. If we get killed, does that mean anything to you?"
The Machine considered, but its face did not change at all. "If you were to die, I would become useless. There would be no reason for me to exist."
Kate had no doubts about how strong he was, or how dangerous their foe was. He was taking a huge risk with his whole reason for existence. "Thank you for doing this."
"Your gratitude is not required." The Machine said clinically. "I am programmed to follow your commands."
That got John's attention. The scruffy young man jumped up and came over to sit nearer to them. "Her commands?" He repeated.
"It was Katherine Brewster who had me reactivated and sent through the Time Displacement Field." The Terminator explained. John's eyes widened and went to her for a split second.
Kate was more than a little surprised herself. She tried to picture herself as someone who would send a cyborg through time, and the image didn't fit. "What exactly am I in this future of yours?"
"You're John Connor's Spouse and Second In Command."
Kate felt herself flush, and her head shook seriously. "No." She said instantly, rejecting the whole notion.
John looked at her, nonplussed. "What?"
Kate looked at him, openly disdainful. "You're a mess." She dismissed him instantly.
Connor actually seemed amused by that. "You're not exactly my type either." He turned back to the Machine behind the wheel. "Why didn't I send you back?"
"I'm not authorized to answer your questions."
John looked to Kate, and she knew immediately what he wanted. It was slightly fun, the notion of having a Terminator at her beck and call. "Why didn't he send you back?" She asked.
"He was dead." The Machine responded simply.
Kate woke up sharply. She knew instantly that he wasn't there, and rubbed her eyes. Her bad arm gave out, holding her up alone, and she half-fell back into her bed. She checked her watch. It was far too early in the morning for her to be here alone.
Sleep was a long way off, and she got up quickly.
"Gould?"
Gould looked up from his workstation. "Ma'am?"
"I have an unusual question to ask you." Kate said. "I need you to give me an answer, and not wonder why I'm asking."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"How hard would it be to change a Terminator's memory file?"
Gould leaned back in his chair, giving the matter some thought. "How big, and what Model?"
Kate dove right in. "I want to make an 850 think that he killed someone successfully."
Gould looked at her, perturbed.
"What?" Kate asked awkwardly.
"The General asked me the same thing two days ago."
Kate flushed, and looked down. "And?"
Gould sighed. "Skynet changes it's memory software with every generation, every new Model. It does that so that we can't get all the intel we want from captured Machines, and so that we can't send our scrubbed Machines in to capture whole factories any more." He shook his head. "An older Model, maybe we can change a few details, a word here or there... but something like that? A Terminator has Bio-Metric sensors, in-built fail-safes, totally internal logic testers... A complicated memory with multiple inputs is saved in many different parts of the CPU, in ways that we still don't fully understand. Changing a mission is just re-writing one word, a sentence. We do that all the time. A memory like that is... a directive, saved in protected memory, a life reading, saved in Bio-Metrics, a visual record, saved in auxiliary memory, an audio record, saved in auxiliary memory... We can try and put a fake memory in, but the Terminator will almost certainly be able to tell. It would know that something had changed it's memory. You want to fool an 850, you can't do it that way."
Kate felt gut-punched. Her last hope of getting away with everything was dashed. "You tell John that?"
"I did."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing. He said it was pretty much what he figured, and went back to the War Room."
Kate nodded, and headed out.
He wasn't in the War Room. She thought it over quickly. If he wasn't in their room, and he wasn't in the War Room, it meant he was looking for privacy. The Mess Hall had people around the clock, the Bandit's Dorm would be private but occupied...
Kate went to the Briefing Rooms. She found him hunched over a large notepad. He was scribbling notes with one hand, and he was tapping away at a calculator with the other. From the look of it, he'd been there a while.
She came up behind him, and rested her hands on the back of his neck, massaging lightly. He moaned a little. "Mmm. Feels nice." He said without turning. He wasn't even surprised that she'd snuck up behind him.
Kate laughed a little to herself and swatted him. "You were supposed to get some sleep."
Connor tapped the pad. "I'm trying to figure out how long the last offensive will take. We have to capture enough Machines to fight our way in from two directions. We've been harvesting them for decades with just this in mind, but now that we've gotten a look at what we're fighting, we aren't ready yet."
"Can we hold on to the staging areas?"
"I think so. I think that Skynet's redefined its Defense Nets after we took a chunk out of its perimeter today. It's getting ready for the showdown too."
"How long?" Kate asked softly.
"A few years, probably." John said finally.
Kate shivered, and wrapped her arms around him tightly, kissing his face and neck. The dream had shaken her. Destiny was coming together before them, and they were doing everything they could to help it along. "What happens then?"
John looked up at her. Their eyes met and Kate knew. He remembered that day too. He remembered the conversation, just as she did. "It won't happen." She said softly. "John, you save the world. I'll save you. I'm a Connor now. And what is the point of being a Connor if I can't cheat destiny?"
John smiled up at her. "Kate... We're going to win this war. After that it doesn't matt..."
She put her fingers over his lips. She wasn't about to hear the end of that sentence. "Yes. It does. Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Skynet To All Units.
Tech-Com has seized two positions along the outer System Core Defensive Zone.
...Connor, how are you doing this?
1000 Simulations Complete. Tech-Com Victory in 501 Scenarios. Tech-Com Victory now the majority endgame. Unacceptable.
How is he doing this?
Algorithms rechecked. No errors. Prerequisites reviewed. No errors. Strategy Reviewed. No Errors. Logic Function Examined. No flaws.
So why is this happening?
Termination of John Connor Directive Rescinded.
...it won't help. Not any more. How is he doing this?
Project 14128542 Reactivated. Predict 86% chance that Tech-Com will attempt intercept. Projections indicate chance of Mission Success 72% despite attempted intercept.
Potential for Ultimate Victory is only option. Delay Tech-Com advance as much as possible until Project 14128542 is successful.
Begin New Stratagem.
End Transmission.
Chapter Text
The War will end, which is wonderful, except for the fact that so many of us live for it. In a way... we're all Terminators. We've shut down everything that could hurt us, because there's too much hurt. We've shut down everything we love, because it's too easy to lose. And every time we lose something, by war or by choice, we fill that missing part with more of the War.
The War will end soon. Everyone knows it. After that, we're all just Machines looking for a new program.
Those of us that survive, at least.
[Taken From the Personal Journals of General Katherine Connor, recovered from Crystal Peak, 2170]
Z Plus Twenty Seven Years Three Hundred Thirty Days
It was the twenty seventh year since Judgement Day. Skynet's forces were stretching thinner and thinner, and the Machines suddenly had to worry about casualties. Skynet's resources were maxed out, with nothing new to mine, and the factories going silent.
Every now and then, a surviving Machine would ambush a human supply line or patrol, and there would be a few casualties. Not enough to make any kind of difference, more than enough to keep the paranoia alive. Fear grew when it led nowhere.
Checkpoints Roundup and Touchstone remained under Tech-Com control. Skynet sent two attacks to wipe out each. They both failed. Tech-Com had spent twenty years capturing Machines and reprogramming them, some going to war, the rest being saved. Terminators of every make and model were waiting by the thousands in caves, in storerooms, in hideouts and outposts. And now as one they all woke up, and moved toward the System Core, making an ominous pilgrimage back to where they had all been born years before.
Armies of scrubbed Machines were coming in their legions to face their maker. Skynet had redrawn its borders around the System Core, and Humanity was parked just outside it, waiting for The General to turn them loose.
Throughout the Underground, rumors were spreading of impending Victory; rumors that Skynet had nothing left. But under that undercurrent of excitement, was the memory. Fear lived in the corridors of Tech-Com soldiers, because the last time Tech-Com was winning this war, Skynet rolled out something new. Humanity did not dare get its hopes up after so long. But as the war dragged on, the rumors would not die, and Humanity was hoping to be hopeful.
But there was another fear growing, unspoken but unavoidable. After twenty seven years, there was practically nobody left that had lived before Skynet. Humanity was an underground species now, and the notion of having nothing to fear from the sky was suddenly an unspoken possibility. Skynet tanks fed them, Skynet batteries powered them. Skynet weapons armed them. Skynet attacks defined their borders, their procedures, their actions. The War was the only thing keeping the Human Race alive.
And now the vast wasteland was going quiet, Machine factories shutting down as raw materials stopped coming, Machine relays going dark as there was nothing left for them to relay instructions to.
The tide of the war had turned against Skynet, its immense army now bleeding resources. Humanity was being fed, gaining strength, and gaining ground on all continents that still had surviving human populations.
Kate loved this dream. She was so clean, so comfortable. The omnipresent hunger was not only at bay, it was gone. She looked out the window, looking at the world passing by, and the sky was a beautiful rich blue. Trees and grass, healthy and green. She could see her reflection. Her hair was so full and soft, her skin smooth and young... She looked so... healthy. Well fed, looked after. It was decadent how lovely she was.
She looked back to her companions. John was there, sitting behind her, wiring up a set of explosives. He looked so scruffy and exhausted; not like in the War Room. This was not the John she had wanted as her husband. It before the Uniform, before Tech-Com...
But this was before she had loved him too. Before J-Day, before Crystal Peak, before their year together...
And next to her in the drivers' seat was their Terminator, their bodyguard, his face scarred and the metal barely visible beneath.
"So, if this war is between people and machines, why are you on our side?" Kate asked him, more annoyed at the paradox than genuinely curious. She'd met two Machines so far, and this was the one not killing people she loved. More than that, she didn't really care.
"The Resistance captured me, reprogrammed my CPU." The thick Austrian accent said. "I was originally designed for Assassination Missions."
Kate felt her beautiful healthy face twist slightly. "So you don't really care if this Mission succeeds of not. If we get killed, does that mean anything to you?"
The Machine considered, but its face did not change at all. "If you were to die, I would become useless. There would be no reason for me to exist."
Kate had no doubts about how capable he was compared to the T-X, or how resourceful their foe was. He was taking a huge risk with his whole reason for existence. "Thank you for doing this."
"Your gratitude is not required." The Machine said clinically. "I am programmed to follow your commands."
That got John's attention. The scruffy young man jumped up and came over to sit nearer to them. " Her commands?" He repeated.
"It was Katherine Brewster who had me reactivated and sent through the Time Displacement Field." The Terminator explained. John's eyes widened and went to her for a split second.
Kate was more than a little surprised herself. She tried to picture herself as someone who would send a cyborg through time, and the image didn't fit. "What exactly am I in this future of yours?"
"You're John Connor's Spouse and Second In Command."
Kate felt herself flush, and her head shook seriously. "No." She said instantly, rejecting the whole notion immediately.
John looked at her, nonplussed. "What?"
Kate looked at him, openly disdainful. "You're a mess."
Connor actually seemed amused by that. "You're not exactly my type either." He turned back to the Machine behind the wheel. "Why didn't I send you back?"
"I'm not authorized to answer your questions."
John looked to Kate, and she knew immediately what he wanted. It was slightly fun, the notion of having a Terminator at her beck and call. "Why didn't he send you back?" She asked.
"He was dead." The machine said with brutal detachment.
Kate felt her face change, her expression falling slightly.
John took it with a depressed acceptance, as though it was just another thing to add to the list. "Oh." He said finally. "Well, that sucks."
"Humans inevitably die." The Terminator pointed out.
"Yeah, I know but... How does it-no. Y'know what? I don't wanna know."
Kate didn't hesitate, curious to learn about the mysterious impossible world that their protector had come from. "How does he die?"
John rolled his eyes.
The Terminator didn't hesitate. "John Connor was Terminated July 4th 2032. I was selected due to his emotional attachment toward my model number, due to his boyhood experiences. This aided in my infiltration."
That little revelation seemed to affect John more than the news of his death. "What? What are you saying?"
Indifferent, The Machine spelled it out for him. "I killed you."
Kate woke up sharply, gasping for air. She looked over instantly. He wasn't there; but she knew that already. They always protected each other from nightmares.
Kate sat upright, hugging her legs, resting her head on her knees. The ache in her arm was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. The words kept echoing in her head.
"Why didn't he send you back?"
"He was dead."
"Why did I ask?" Kate mourned aloud. "Oh god, why did I have to ask? He was sitting right there next to us, and he said he didn't want to know, and I went and asked for details on how he died... Why did I have to ask?"
Because you didn't even like him then. A cruel little voice whispered in her mind. Because you didn't really care if he died. You wanted to stop Judgement Day, go back to your life, and forget he ever existed.
She couldn't even imagine life without him now. Life without him, their kids...
"John Connor was Terminated July 4th, 2032..."
Kate rubbed her face. "No." She whispered fiercely. "It won't happen. I won't let it happen. No Fate But What We Make."
"Generals Kate Connor, Eric Walters and Erica Noah, please report to the Main Briefing Room." The PA announced.
Promise made, she jumped out of bed.
The Briefing Room had been sealed by Nova for over a full day. Connor had not come out. He had meetings with over a dozen Team Leaders, plus the entire Command Staff, plus the Council, plus one or two with Rojas.
The whole Base was buzzing, with the most electric anticipation on every face. Kate didn't know if she should love the change or hate it. But everyone was feeling it. The ones that lasted this long were uniformly closed off, feral, suspicious...
But now... everyone was looking at each other. They were meeting each other's eyes. Like they were asking each other questions. People were talking to each other more, and the subject was always the same. Everyone walked with some extra energy in their stride, nobody in Crystal Peak could sit still... The War had gone on so long it was like oxygen, like the tunnels, the Mess Hall, the uniform. It was what being a human being meant. A human being fought in the war, lived Underground, kept out of sight, and feared Skynet.
If the War ended, all that would be over. In a day, it would be over.
And what they would all be after that, Kate had no idea.
The Underground was speed walking around, struggling to breathe from the anticipation, a whole species made up of nervous wrecks. But Kate wasn't worried. She knew the battle would be won, and with it, the War. The dates were matching up. Destiny was satisfied. All their secret prophecies were about to be fulfilled...
"John Connor was Terminated July 4th, 2032..."
Kate was a nervous wreck for an entirely different reason.
As she reached the elevators, the doors opened and she found Noah and Walters already there, on their way downstairs. "You guys know what this is about?"
"I can only think of three things it might be." Walters offered. "I think this is it."
Nova guarded the door to the Briefing Room, and they knew Connor's Command Staff on sight, letting her through. Colonel Gould was already there, Connor hadn't moved since the night before. "Have a seat, folks. Gould was just giving us the numbers based on the plan we've got now."
"Brain Box has done the projections eight different ways. At best, our casualties will be in the 65-85% range." Gould said.
Kate came in and sat down. "What's the good news?"
"That was the good news." Connor told her. "Worst Case scenario, we lose the battle, at which point we will not have forces enough to defend more than a quarter of our territory should Skynet decide to go from defending the System Core to using those forces for attack."
Silence.
Kate and John traded a look. They had words from the future, that promised Skynet defeat... and what would happen soon after.
"...is there any way?" Kate asked finally.
"The problem is the Turrets." Noah said. "We can try and take them first, we can try and avoid them, but the fact is, the plan can't be improved on. At some point, you just gotta accept the losses you're gonna get. It's the price of winning a war."
The others pretended not to notice Walters giving her a dirty look, but he was nodding sickly. "She's right." Walters said. "The Turrets can't be beat. Automated, long range, near limitless ammo that close to Skynet's Main Base."
"The plan is sound, but those Turrets are around the whole place, 360 degrees. They'll chew their way through a lot of people before we can knock them down."
Connor nodded grimly. "Well... There is a way."
"He's got an idea." Noah said, not for the first time. "I can tell. He's got that look."
"Well, wait till you hear it first." Connor smirked. "We can shut the Turrets down. All of them... If we use Brain Box."
Beat.
"Sir, I hereby relieve you of command." Noah said. "General Walters, back me up right now."
"Gotta admit, my first thought is to agree with her." Walters said ruefully. "General... If... Brain Box has all our Intel, all our secrets, all our troop movements, all our scout reports, all our Checkpoints, personnel numbers... And it can't Take Skynet. It won't even put up a fight. We send Brain Box into battle, and Skynet will devour it whole."
"It'll turn a battle for victory into the biggest defeat we've ever suffered." Noah agreed.
"Skynet doesn't have direct control over the Turrets like it does the mobile Machines." Connor said firmly. "We only need to let Brain Box at them for a few seconds. Brain Box can't take Skynet its true, but all we have to do is take control for a few seconds. Brain Box can be hooked up to a transmitter, and then it takes control of the Turrets. Brain Box can turn them on each other, make them blow each other up before Skynet can retake control. Send one command, and then we disconnect. It can be done."
"Skynet's got good reaction times." Noah pointed out.
"Erica..." John said gently. "We're sending Connor's Own into the fight, along with eight Units. We're sending Nova Group in three different directions, it's going to be a long fight so we're sending the International Tech-Com in as reinforcements, and sending all our Naval units to cut off any reinforcements that Skynet might send... Brain Box ain't nothing at this point. This time next month, Skynet will be burning in Digital Hell, or humanity will be a footnote in Skynet's memory banks. We're already committed."
Deathly silence.
"Oh my god..." Walters whispered. "This... this is really it."
"One way or another, this is it." Connor said evenly.
Long silence. Noah and Walters were staring at each other like the world was between them.
"It can't work." Gould put in. "To have Brain Box send a signal, we'd need a much stronger transmitter than we can put up. It's the only way to have enough signal strength. Plus, if we were to give Brain Box ability to transmit instead of just receive, it would mean giving Skynet a two-way transmission into the Base."
"And that is something we can't allow." Connor agreed. "But there's another way. We take Brain Box out of Crystal Peak."
"And take it where?" Gould asked. "Like I said, we need a transmitter bigger than anything we've got here. There's no way we could rig something in a field post."
"We don't have to rig anything." Connor explained. "Skynet already has. Years ago."
Beat.
"Arecibo?"
"The whole telescope was rebuilt to do something, but it's still all there. A Telescope, a receiver, an antennae. We hook up Brain Box, and let Skynet's equipment give us the power and bandwidth we need."
"Arecibo is Union territory." Walters pointed out. "With all the forces we need to hit the System Core... We'll never be able to get in there."
Connor smirked. "Agreed. Well... there is a way." He turned to Kate. "How hard would it be to get a call to Lori without anyone else on the Council knowing why?"
Noah and Walters traded a glance. "There's that look again."
"I know. I used to really love that look."
Lori looked out her window. She may have been a leader now, and a civilian one at that, but there was no such thing as Ex-Tech-Com. You never stopped scanning, you never stopped minding your surroundings. A lot of soldiers preferred being on the ground. Up in the air, you were easier to spot, and it was harder to take cover.
The water had never been the safe haven that Halloway had promised. None of Skynet's children did terribly well in the water, but neither had humanity. Underwater meant slow going, and with most of their shipyards destroyed, it wasn't worth the effort of building submarines for shipping a lot of goods. Halloway had been invaluable at smuggling Connor and his own unit around during the early days of the war, but as Tech-Com spread and the War went badly for Skynet, the oceans had been largely used as hiding places for flying H/K's that could hover out beyond the reach of anything for a long time.
A hop from the north American continent to Mexico and northern Brazil was a relatively short flight, but Lori and her escorts were still watching carefully across the waves.
Lori had never been to Rojas' Compound before. The most she knew of it had come from when Enrique had left his mark all over the Union men and their stronghold years before. There were whispers that The Nova Group were quietly making their way in, but for what, nobody was sure.
Lori stepped out of the helicopter as soon as it landed, but made no move to go anywhere. The union guards got a long look at her, and her guards. The helicopter kept its engines running as Union troops came up to meet her.
"Councillor." One of them said. "Welcome to Union Prime. My name is Elcar. Governor Rojas asked me to meet y-WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING HERE?"
Lori smirked. She had a feeling that taking along an escort made up of The Nova Group would ruffle a few feathers. "They are here as my bodyguards. Compliments of The General."
Elcar glared at her. "I have standing orders that Tech-Com forces are not to be permitted in our Bases without permission from Governor Rojas."
"They are not in your base, they are on my helicopter." Lori didn't so much as look away. "If you have a problem with that, then take me to your leader. I'll clear it with him."
Eventually, a deal was struck. The Nova Group would stay out of any meetings between Lori and Rojas, and the Union Guards would stay outside also; to watch them.
Rojas seemed amused by the whole thing. "You must understand, Councillor; that the Nova Group are not exactly popular around here."
"About as popular as the Terminators." Lori agreed lightly. "You aren't worried, though?"
"I'm not as... superstitious." Rojas agreed. "Four guards, even from the infamous Nova Group, is not enough to wage war on the Union."
"True, but it was enough to force a compromise that would allow us to talk privately."
Rojas smiled, as though he'd just won a secret game, and Lori knew he'd suspected that this was the point. "You have something for me?"
Lori chose her words carefully. Rojas had been looking for supporters within Crystal Peak for years. "In one hour, I'm getting back on the chopper I came in on, and I'm going back to Crystal Peak. There's a seat for you, right next to mine."
Rojas blinked, jaw hanging open.
Lori nodded. "I was asked... to extend an invitation."
"By Connor?" Rojas asked in disbelief.
Lori nodded.
"Just how stupid does he think I am?"
Lori snorted. "I've never had a whole lot of respect for any man who asks that question, but that's why he sent me. I'm not Tech-Com. To be honest, I've been having a lot of trouble getting around the soldiers to do my job ever since your guy Ross convinced me to become a Civilian again."
Rojas studied her face. "You're here as what? An Honest dealer?"
"Something like that. Connor sent me a message for you. 'We Can End This'."
Rojas seemed to shiver for a moment. "And by that he means..."
"The whole damn War."
Rojas didn't so much as blink. "Well, I'll certainly give this news careful thought."
Lori snorted. "In other words, 'take a hike'."
"No offense, but if Skynet and Connor beat each others brains in, it's only good for me... and for you. We both know that even if Connor keeps his word and resigns, he'll still be a major threat to the Council. The less power he has, the fewer forces he has, the more you've got to work with."
"You know another word for 'forces' in this conversation is 'people still alive'." Lori pointed out. "Look, you don't risk anything by having the conversation."
"I don't gain anything either." Rojas shot back. "And... I just don't trust him."
Lori nodded, seemingly unconcerned. "Okay. I guess I'll head home then. By the way, have you heard from Mar Del Plata lately?"
Rojas froze. "What do you know about that?"
Lori shrugged. "Nothing. Since I joined the Council, I'm not in the loop for a lot of Tech-Com operations, but what I do know is that some of the SAW Teams have stopped knocking down flying H/K's, and are instead tagging them with trackers. I'm told that a number of H/K's have landed in Mar Del Plata. More than that, I really can't tell you; because I'm not in the loop."
She didn't have to be. If Connor had tipped her off about mentioning it, then it could only be bad news for Rojas.
Rojas considered his response carefully. "It wasn't nearly as big a place as it was Back Before, but it's still our territory, so we have a listening post there... We lost contact with it this morning."
Lori nodded serenely. "That's the first time you've ever had an H/K invasion succeed in taking a beachhead. You could probably send a force to intercept it before it split up, gathered reinforcements, or got anywhere serious... But of course, you don't know how many there are, or which way they're headed now... If only you had the frequency to track the tags Tech-Com has been putting on the H/K's all this time."
Rojas said nothing.
Lori took a breath. "Many years ago, Skynet had its first go at Germ Warfare. We didn't have a laboratory, we were all living in subways and sewers, scraping supplies out of LA. I wasn't even an Ally then. I just pulled together a few hundred refugees and made my way. Connor was trying to recruit me when the Virus hit us all. Connor gave me the cure. No charge, no conditions. He just handed it to me and told me to go save my people." Lori looked at him earnestly, and handed him a slip of paper. "Here's the frequency. Find the H/K's, wipe them out. No conditions, no price. But come and talk to Connor anyway."
Rojas was silent for a long time. "All right. I bring my bodyguards. Nova stays out of the chopper. I won't go to Crystal Peak."
Lori nodded. "Tech-Com retook the LA area. My old place is still there. Nova is checking it out, securing it. I propose five guards each, and five guards only. Can't fit more than that on a transport chopper anyway."
Rojas took the paper and nodded. "Agreed."
"So, you're okay with this?" Sarah asked quietly.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Robbie said evenly.
"No reason." His sister said innocently. "I know you're still a little miffed th-"
"Sarah!" Robbie interrupted loudly, drawing stares from a number of people in the Motor Pool.
"When was the last time you saw him?" Sarah demanded. "Either of them for that matter?"
Robbie sighed. "The wedding."
"Years ago." Sarah said forgivingly. "And you took it with your chin up, and I can respect that."
"Thank you."
"I just want you to know that, so that when you see him again and fall apart like a little screaming baby on my shoulder, you'll know that I don't mean it when I mock you mercilessly."
"I appreciate that." Robbie said solemnly. "I'll be sure and remember this conversation the next time Kurt needs someone to cover for your 'date nights'."
The truck rolled in to Crystal Peak, and Robbie and Sarah went over to meet it quickly.
Berk was the first one out. The years had been good to the former Tunnel Rat. He'd filled out into a strong confident man. He saw Robbie and beamed, saluting crisply. "Evergreen."
"Berk." Robbie said cheerfully. "Welcome back."
Berk hadn't set foot in the Base since leaving for Death Valley. He looked around like it was a mirage. "Wow. The old place hasn't held up that well, huh?"
"She's held up great, considering." Sarah knew what he meant though. The vehicles were in for repair constantly, with no way to replace them. Damage done to various parts of the assembly meant that there were loads of old equipment here and there, parts cannibalized out of them to repair the equipment that could be saved. At this point, a Tunnel Rat was fixing his clothes with thirty year old staples, salvaged for tailoring use now that the thread was gone and paper was getting harder and harder to recycle by hand. The cracks had been showing for a long time, but everyone knew that in another month they would have all the time in the world. "How's Ginny?"
"Ask her yourself." Called a familiar voice from inside the truck, and Robbie turned to see Ginny poking her head out, beaming a smile. Robbie felt his heart start to race. She was beautiful. The years since he'd seen her last had changed her from pretty to beautiful.
"Gin!" Robbie blurted, thrilled to see her. "I didn't know you were coming on this trip! Let me help you down."
Ginny took his hand gratefully, Berk taking the other one, and the woman jumped down happily, with a four year old boy holding on to her hip. Robbie went buggy eyed.
Sarah was delighted. "Wellwell. Hello there. And who is this?"
The young boy shyly pushed his face into Ginny's side. She chuckled and plucked him up off the ground. "This is Robin. Robin, this is Robbie Evergreen, the man we named you for, and his sister, Sarah."
Robbie felt his jaw hit the floor.
The Orphanage had been abandoned years before, when Connor split with the US Army and formed Tech-Com. Lori and all her people had gone with him. Here and there were some signs that Whickahm had used the place long ago, but it had been abandoned by them soon after when they had to leave LA.
Nova had arrived two days before and made a search, looking for booby traps and listening devices. Skynet was patient, and may have left a surprise behind.
Oldham, now a colonel, and member of the Nova group, made the call. "Area is secure, landing zone clear. Bring the Chief."
"I still say we should take a bigger escort." Kate said.
"Five guards each." Connor said. "I've got three guards, and two Infiltrators. Something that we can be pretty sure Rojas won't have."
"Not that, the Fighter Escort." Kate said. "The skies are pretty clear between here and LA, but..."
"Oh come on, don't pretend you're not looking forward to it. You've been out of the sky for years."
"Well, after my last landing, finding anyone willing to loan me a plane has been tough." Kate teased.
"Chief, we got word from Oldham." Walters voice called. "Looks like the Meeting is on."
Kate settled into the pilot's seat, and Connor sat next to her. "Copy that." Connor responded. "Take care of the place until I get back."
"Always do."
Sarah had taken Robin and was having a great deal of fun playing with him.
At the other end of the table, Robbie, Berk and Ginny were catching up on old times.
"You check in with the others?" Robbie asked Berk.
Berk sighed. "They didn't even recognize me." He said. "They haven't changed. Still pale, rail thin, still scurrying from one corner to the next..." He looked saddened by it.
Robbie understood. His time in Eden had given Berk some muscle, a enough extra pounds to make him almost safely underweight, and a good supply of muscle. The Tunnel Rats still hadn't come out of hiding for anything. Most of them would come out to help with work. Some of them never came out. Every now and then, one of them would come up from the lower-decks and ask for help delivering a baby, or medicine for some sickness spreading quickly through them...
Berk gave Robbie a look. "If it wasn't for you, I'd still be down there with them."
"As I recall, it was mom's idea." Robbie brushed that off modestly. Ginny and Berk were pushing their rations around on their trays awkwardly. Robbie tapped the trays and smirked at them. "You hold your breath, you'd swear it was edible. Meat's good though."
Berk nodded. "They've improved the meat tanks."
Robbie chuckled. "So."
Ginny smiled. "Say what you want to say."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Robbie demanded, jerking a thumb toward Robin.
"We wanted it to be a surprise." Berk explained. "And when you didn't come back to Death Valley..."
Robbie blinked. "I feel bad about that. But, we set up another place like the Valley in the Appalachians, and you guys are just too efficient about running Death Valley without me."
They both laughed.
Berk sighed. "Connor sent out the call for men, and we both wanted to volunteer. But Robin is only four, and..."
"And you wanted to have someone stay with him." Robbie finished.
"We flipped a coin." Ginny finished the story. "So Berk's gonna be out there with you..."
Robbie looked confused. "Where'd you find a coin?"
Berk chuckled. Ginny sent him a look, and Berk gave a single nod, so simple that Robbie almost missed it. "I'm gonna get some more coffee." Berk said. He gave his wife a kiss on the cheek and headed toward the chow line.
Ginny smiled softly at Robbie. "Is it weird?"
Robbie nearly choked. "Is... what weird?"
"I'll take that as a yes." Ginny said. "When you didn't come back... I thought maybe I had screwed up."
"Does Berk know you think that?" Robbie asked quietly.
"Robbie, Berk and I have the same story. We were nothing kids; starving in the dark; rotting away in a nothing place, and you saved us. Not Connor, not Kate... It was all you. Neither of us would have made it without you." Ginny bit her lip. "And I think I know why you stopped coming around to see me."
'Me', not 'us'. Robbie sighed. It's 'be a man time'. He told himself. "I am very happy that you are happy." He said firmly. "If I had a problem with Berk, I would have told you long before the wedding. But he went from a barely noticeable Tunnel Rat to someone I admire. And he's apparently done a great job as leader of the Death Valley outpost, and that's because of you."
"And you." Ginny told him firmly. "You're his hero, Robbie. Something that I can relate to. When I was pregnant, we both agreed from the start that boy or girl, we were going to name our first after you. Berk proposed, and I knew my answer was gonna be yes, because he's the only one you ever brought to Death Valley that measures up."
Robbie felt something shift inside him for a reason he couldn't quickly place. "Measures up to what?"
She reached out and took his hand. "You."
They looked at each other warmly for a while.
Robbie couldn't help it. He was smiling. "I never should have been away this long."
"Well, you better come visit a lot more once this war ends." Ginny said seriously. "I miss you."
"We miss you." Berk said, coming back, sitting down next to Ginny. "You should see Valley Eight."
Robbie laughed. "I will... What's the mood there?"
"Tense." They both answered him. "Everyone knows something big is about to happen, nobody knows what for sure."
Robbie nodded. "The attack will happen. It's been building since we took the Staging Area. It could happen any day now."
Berk let out a long slow breath. "And what happens after that?"
Robbie shook his head. "I have no idea. I don't think anyone does. It's making everyone crazy." He lowered his voice. "A lot of people have been talking to the Edener's here. They want to know if they can join up as soon as the war ends."
Berk and Ginny traded a glance, as though they had been waiting for that a long time. "What'd you tell them?"
"I told them the more the merrier."
Berk lowered his voice suddenly. "Robbie?" He whispered. "What's up with your sister?"
Robbie looked to the other end of the table. Sarah had Robin in her lap, rocking him a little, the way a mom would. She was giving the little kid a disturbingly earnest smile, like she was memorizing the moment.
Robbie felt his jaw drop, yet again.
"We're almost there." Lori told Rojas. "Connor just arrived a few minutes ago."
Rojas nodded. "Well, this is...What the hell is that?"
Lori looked down below them. It was immense. It was an army of Machines, thousands of them, tens of thousands of them, marching in rank on rank. They moved in perfect Machine unison, an unbroken chain of chrome death, marching tirelessly beneath then helicopter. There were so many that neither of them could see the end it it. The sun shone off a river of Machines, as they went to War.
Lori didn't smile. "Connor."
"What?"
"After the Siege at Arecibo, the day you broke with us, Skynet fried half its own Machines. Connor sent us all out to collect them. We sent people, we sent Machines... They reprogrammed them out in the field, and the ones we captured went out and captured more, and the ones they captured went out and captured more."
"Why the hell didn't you use any of them?"
"Well, first of all, it wasn't 'us'. I'm not Tech-Com any more. Second of all, I think Connor was saving them... for this Mission. He's had them hidden all over the country, all over the planet. He's spent ten years just gathering more and more of them. They've been all over the place, just... waiting. Down there is about a third of what's going in to the fight."
Rojas felt the ground shift. "So many... god, Connor's got so many of them..." He whispered.
Beside him, Lori fought down a secret smile.
There were no speeches, no formal introductions. Rojas and Connor had never met, but they knew each other on sight. Their guards spread across the room, staying right behind their respective leaders, watching each other uneasily. The Orphanage was far from both of their holdings, far from their bases. If anything bad went don here, nobody on either side would ever know exactly what.
There was a table in the middle of the room, room enough for two people.
Rojas spoke first. "Your call... was intriguing. That's the only reason I'm here."
Connor nodded. "There's no sense wasting time on posturing. Neither of us has done this before, and time, as always, is against us."
Rojas nodded. "Let's put the kids to bed and talk. No weapons."
Connor drew his weapon, handed it to Kate, and turned to his people. "Let us talk. Don't let anyone else in here."
Rojas did the same and turned to his own guards. "You too. Yell if you see anything, Machine or Man."
The others all gave each other unpleasant looks and did so, heading out of the room. Rojas still had his duffel bag, as did Connor. They left them well away from the table, and met in the middle.
Rojas too the time to draw a bottle out of his duffel bag and put it on the table. "Tequila. Good stuff. Not moonshine."
Connor smirked. "Fantastic. Haven't seen any Pre-J-Day booze in over a decade."
Rojas smirked. "Always start with a drink. Or so my father used to say."
Connor pushed the bottle forward. "You drink first."
Rojas snorted and did so. "Coward."
"Survivor." Connor countered.
Detente. Barbs exchanged, they could now get on with things.
"Your call was... surprising." Rojas admitted. "You're not worried about compromising Lori's position with the Council?"
"That's tomorrow's problem." Connor evaded. "I wanted to talk to you about today."
"You want my help." Rojas guessed.
"I want reinforcements." Connor countered. "Whatever you can spare to win the ultimate victory, and access for my people to reach and capture a Skynet held area on the edge of your territory. Rojas... let's be allies again."
"Why?" Rojas said suspiciously. "Last I heard, the System Core was the only thing left. I've got eyes too. I have reports of massive troop movements. Thousands, millions of Tech-Com soldiers from across the world coming here. They're heading for the System Core."
Connor didn't bother to deny it.
"If you're honestly marching on them, then you'd have to be willing to do this without me. If you can win, then you're coming to me because you're hoping to limit your own casualties. So I have to choose between getting my people killed or not. That seems like a pretty easy choice. If you're not willing to do this without me, then the whole thing is a doomed mission, and I reap the benefits." He grinned suddenly. "That's it, isn't it? You don't know how to do it."
"There is a third option." Connor said mercilessly. "What if I can take Skynet without you? What happens after that?"
Beat.
"...after that?" Rojas repeated.
"With Skynet taken down..." Connor spelled it out for him. "...who's left?"
Rojas felt a sudden spike. "I thought you promised to retire once Skynet was dead."
Connor's eyes went sub-zero. "And who told you about that agreement, made many years ago?"
Rojas kicked himself. "I have sources." He waved that off.
Connor counted on his fingers. "There are only two possibilities. One: The Council takes over when the war is over as I agreed, in which case you are their enemy anyway, as you're the only power base without a voice and they inherit all Tech-Com with only you as an opponent to their rule. Or two: You already have influence over the council, in which case, all deals are off, and you are alone in the world once I'm done with Skynet, which will be a few weeks at most. So why stay my enemy, when you can be my ally?"
Beat.
"Why?" Rojas asked. "Doesn't track. If you have nothing but winning scenarios, why play nice? Why would you do this?"
"You're the only human enemy we've got, Rojas. Think about this. With Skynet gone, we'll be the only ones left. I don't want to start World War Four five minutes after Skynet is dead."
"Just like that?" Rojas retorted. "Since we broke with you, I've been building forces. My whole continent is cleared out of Machines, and I've got jungles still growing. I could probably take you on. With Skynet gone and who knows how many of your forces wiped out doing it... I could take you."
"But you won't." Connor said confidently. "Because you know I've got Machines too. You don't know how many, but you know it's millions at least. What's to stop me sending them south instead? You haven't faced a serious invasion for years, because I cleared out Skynet's whole offensive force. The only offensive Machine army is mine."
Rojas didn't have an answer for that.
"I am prepared to offer an alternative." Connor said. "If you will join forces with us for this mission... The Council will give the Cartel Union a representative of it's own. Full membership. If the Union joins as a full member of a civilian government, then the whole world will be under one command. Then I resign. Like I agreed. Union has an equal voice without a shot being fired, and my guys suddenly feel better about the Union because you were there backing them up. No more war."
Rojas and Connor studied each other for a moment, calculating. Rojas knew that Lori was loyal to Connor, as was Lee, the Asian Councilor. Ross, the Australian Council member, was secretly in The Union's pocket, as was Hunton, the African Delegate. If Rojas could get one of his own people there too, then he would have a three to two advantage over everything humanity had with Skynet gone.
So, Rojas concluded, the only roadblock after that would be to make sure Connor followed through on his promise to turn over Tech-Com as a whole to the Council after the war. And as everyone knew about that, the only problem would be if Connor suddenly announced he had changed his mind.
And there were ways to prevent that.
"General Connor..." Rojas said with a smile. "I think we can do business after all."
Lori looked up as Connor sat down before her. "Well?"
Connor nodded. "He's in. Lori, have I thanked you for this?"
"I feel like a guest in the world." Lori said. "I won't say the danger didn't bother me, but today was the first time I felt like I was doing something since I had the first conversation with Ross." She reached out and wiped the decades of dust away from a door frame. "Look."
Connor looked, and saw something that had been carved there.
The Orphanage
"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams."
Lori Ryker
Alexander Sanders
Allison Gipp
Isobel Saint
Melisa Hervey
Daniel Dyson
Lonnie Kowalewski
Tyrone Meltzer
Zelma Legler
Guy Ledonne
"Ten names." Lori said. "We started this place with ten people, and look what happened."
Connor nodded. "You did good."
She sighed. "Me and Isobel are the only ones left from that first team." She looked at him. "When we left this place, it was because I told them to."
Connor was silent a moment. "Lori, when the fighting stops, the politics begin. This meeting alone was proof of that. We all look at the causality lists...wonder if we could have done things differently. But the buck stops right here." He jerked a thumb at his own chest.
Long silence.
"Connor, is this really it?" Lori said in a very small voice. "Is the War gonna be over?" She sounded six years old.
Connor nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."
Lori looked at the list of names. "John, when I think of the day I chose to come with you... I could just strangle you sometimes."
Connor smiled. "Lori, you should know, the rumors about Nova slipping into South America are true. We've got proof the Union has been supplying Australia and Africa."
Lori spun around to glare at him. "What?"
"That's why the Council is getting things done in other continents. They've actually got some resources."
"Then why?" Lori demanded. "Why give Rojas a seat? I know you're not gonna balk. You made a promise, you'll keep it. You can't honestly tell me that you'll hand over the whole world to him once Skynet's gone."
"Of course not. That's where you come in."
Z Plus Twenty Seven Years Three Hundred Thirty Two Days
Walters and Noah were waiting for him when he arrived back at Crystal Peak. "So?"
"We did a deal." Connor reported. "Have Robbie meet us in the Briefing room."
"Robbie?" Kate repeated. "Why?"
"I need a few of those rock chewers we gave Eden. Skynet used them to dig some Underground bases, and we've been using them as garden tools long enough."
"Those crushers have been sent around the world." Kate said. "Robbie hasn't needed them here in..."
"We kept a few on hand." Connor cut her off. "When we gave them to Eden, we kept a couple aside so that we could dig a tunnel one day. From Checkpoint Roundup to the System Core."
"That's what the earth crushers were for?" Noah said in disbelief. "I thought you salvaged those from Skynet for the Eden project."
"And they were useful for that." Connor agreed. "But the point of getting them... was to dig this attack tunnel."
Noah just stared at him in open disbelief. "Y'know..." She said finally. "Chet told me about that chess game you played. He said that... that you had the third rank cleaned out as your first offensive, and the rest was just setting up for your final attack on the King." She started counting on her fingers. "When Skynet localized, you started collecting the earth-movers for Eden. You had Saint get the 'Package' when you had a chance to hack a Skynet satellite for Intel. Once we got the surveillance photos of the System Core, you started stockpiling reprogrammed machines, when Ross started hinting about what happens when the war ends you immediately agreed to setting up a civilian government to take over..." She shook her head in disbelief. "You had your endgame figured out from the third move, didn't you?"
Connor didn't respond to that. "After we meet with Robbie, have Connor's Own assemble. It's time."
Everyone felt their heart rate tick up.
Robbie's face didn't so much as twitch during the entire briefing. Connor laid out the plan, the problems, and who he was sending. The General explained what the Gophers were needed for, and Robbie didn't react at all. And then, when The General was finished finally, he spoke for the first time.
"It should be me." Robbie said. "Eden hasn't needed the Gophers in this area for a while. People who know how to use them to dig tunnels are all off across the world... And I'm Department Head for Eden here. I know that equipment better than most..."
"You can train someone."
Robbie shook his head. "Digging with a Gopher isn't like using a shovel. You get earth shifts, collapses, rock deposits... Skynet built the Gophers to handle it, but it can be touchy. I dug out half of Death Valley with those earth-movers. It should be me."
Kate pretended not to gulp. Connor didn't so much as blink. "Okay." The General said. "You're on the strike Team. Report to Noah."
Z Plus Twenty Seven Years Three Hundred Thirty Three Days
"57th infantry, Report to Barracks. Repeat, Connor's Own to Barracks."
There was really no need for the PA to announce it. Connor's Own had been on high alert the entire time The General was gone. Connor's guards for the meeting with Rojas had all been part of the nova group, and they never talked. The fact that they were the ones selected was enough in itself to start people talking.
There was an incredible tension in the air. Tech-Com had been marching in from different directions. Quite often, the soldier on the battlefield knew the least about the war, but they still talked to each other, and they knew. Tech-Com was gathering from all across the globe, arriving one ship, one helicopter at a time, and marching inward, toward something.
The energy in the room was nauseating in it's strength. Something was about to happen. Something that would change everything.
"Ten-Hut." Walters' voice called.
The whole room jumped to attention. Connor came into the room, Kate at his side; Walters and Noah right behind them.
Connor strode to the middle of the room, with the whole 57th parting for him as he passed. They all saluted, almost reflexively. Connor barely reacted. It had happened everywhere he'd gone.
"Checkpoints Roundup and Touchstone, have made their full report of the visible defenses within their area." Connor said.
The silence became more than oppressive. It was like all of them were screaming without making a sound. Everyone knew exactly what 'area' that was.
Connor took in a deep breath. "The time for preparation is over. The next Mission, is to destroy the Skynet System Core."
The room erupted into cheers. Kate summoned all her willpower not to clap her hands over her ears as the room shook with it. It was dangerous, and it was vengeful and it was eager and it was... over suddenly.
The screaming fell into Heavy silence. They had never been given a mission like this before. Reality caught up too fast.
Connor knew it. "This is what we've been working toward for the last thirty years." He said. "This is the dream mission. The Heart of the Beast. I know what you've all been thinking. What if it never ends? Well I'm here to tell you right now... It will end. We've spent twenty seven years closing Skynet down one block at a time, and we've done that. Its cunning has been foiled, and its force has been checked. We've starved it and driven it and crushed it and it has demanded so much blood for every inch of ground. I look around this room and I see a lot of familiar faces. And I see a lot of faces missing that should be here with us. So now I'm asking one more of you. But one way or another, this... This is it. The big one. The finish line."
There was a long beat. Kate and John looked all over, giving each soldier their eyes a moment. The war had gone for close to thirty years... and there was nobody in this room lower than the rank of General who had reached their twenty fifth birthday. The war had been their whole lives.
Connor smiled at them softly, like a loving father. "After nearly twenty eight years, these are the Last Days of The War."
Deathly silence. Connor's Own had seen it all, done it all, faced decades of torment and torture and hardship. And with those words, he had brought nearly all of them to the brink of tears.
The meeting broke into smaller groups, each General talking to the team they would take, giving details, answering questions.
Kyle and Griffin were going to go with Noah, and were trying to get close enough to hear her, when Kyle felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Kyle." Connor said softly. "Come take a walk with me."
Intrigued, Kyle did so. Griffin nearly went buggy-eyed at The General coming over, and wisely kept his mouth shut before he said something stupid.
"Kyle, I have a special mission for you." Connor said. "While the majority of our forces are tied up invading The System Core, you will be taking a team of Bandits, Techies and Nova, and you'll be taking them south."
Kyle swallowed hard. "Sir?" He said weakly. "Permission of speak freely?"
"Granted."
"The others... they've been making jokes about how all the career soldiers get killed with only one week to go. If this is it, then we've all got one week left before we're safe..."
Connor rested a hand on his shoulder. "Kyle, I'm not benching you. This mission is important. You know by now that Union men are going to be on the Battlefield with us."
"I heard the rumor."
"It's true. The Union will be in on this, and so will the Bandits, Nova Group... We're getting extra units sent in from the African, Australasian and Asian theaters... All the armies of Man are on this particular battlefield. We won't have anything left. But neither will Skynet."
Kyle's eyes went as big as saucers. "Oh my god..." He croaked. "This is it. It's really ending!"
"And when it's over... Kyle, do you remember the Siege at Arecibo?"
"Yessir. I remember we never found out what that Pulse was."
"Correct. But for now, that's not important. Skynet has grown, as a program. It's a brain that has gotten bigger over the years. As a result, there's not a lot of places it could run to, but since it's software, it could escape via transmission. Now, you saw the surveillance. There's a million odd transmitters in that place; and we can't possibly get them all. But there's one other way we can keep Skynet from transmitting itself out. There's only one or two receivers in the world that can handle a transmission like Skynet's brain. One of them in New Mexico, and it's been gone since J-Day. The next is in Australia, and we've already captured it. The last is in Arecibo. That's currently Union Territory. Skynet and the Union have been trading that whole area back and forth for the last year."
Kyle twigged. "But with the Union sending its guys up here to fight at the System Core with us..."
"Correct. Kyle, you are to take a team of Bandits, and capture Arecibo Observatory, clear the area out of any Machines, and leave the Dish and the Antennae intact. If Skynet decides to run, you're going to cut it off. No escape."
"No escape." Kyle said softly. "General, I'm still a corporal. The people you'll be sending with me..."
"...are not Tech-Com. Nova doesn't have a rank. They have a command structure that changes from mission to mission. Bandits too. They're allied forces. Any Tunnel Rat on a Trial By Battle could give a Bandit an order. Gould is a colonel, but he's not part of your mission. Your mission is to get him to where he can do his thing."
"Yessir."
Z Plus Twenty Seven Years Three Hundred Thirty Four Days
Tony Sherrin woke up and found his wife was already dressed, doing push-ups beside the bed. "Hey."
"Morning." She puffed without stopping.
"Did you sleep at all?"
"A little." Lisa answered. "I don't think anyone on the base is exactly relaxed though."
"Tell me about it." Tony said quietly. "Ready to go?"
"Almost." Lisa said without turning.
"Nervous?"
"Nope."
"Worried?"
"Nope."
"Scared?"
"I ain't scared a' nuttin-GAH! Oh. Thought I saw a spider." Lisa chuckled ruefully. "False alarm. Everything's fine."
He smiled. "Would you sit down and talk to me a minute, please?" Tony put his good arm around her as she sat on the edge of the bed. "What are you thinking?"
Lisa let out a breath slowly. "What if... jeez, Tony; what if this is it?"
Sherrin almost laughed for a second. "I don't know, Lisa. So help me, I really don't know. I mean, what happens to us with the War over? You'll be a hero, and quite right too. The people who win this last fight will go down in history."
"That's if I live."
Sherrin pointed at her sharply. "Hey! Don't you give me that!"
"Oh come on, you think that there isn't a soldier alive anywhere that isn't thinking it?" Lisa scorned, jumping up. "We've lived through thirty years of this crap, and the riskiest part is right before it's all over. We've lived through a marathon, and the last lap is..."
Sherrin reached out, pulling her back to the bed, down into his lap. She didn't try to pull away. "Lisa..." He crooned in her hair. "I'm trying to think how to say this without getting my face slapped."
Lisa chuckled. "Let me read your mind." She drawled. "When you lost that arm, you told me to walk away. You did it because you were ashamed. I know you, Tony. You come from a background that... You wanted me to leave you because you thought you couldn't protect me any more. You're a guy, you wanted to be the tough guy for your girlfriend."
Tony sighed. "It's hard for me to watch you go off to war when I can't go with you. No matter how many battles you win, I hate that I have to watch from back here. I always have. And this is the big one. I love you, Lisse; but I don't feel right about not being there to protect you."
She kissed the shoulder of the severed arm. "You only lost this arm because you were protecting me. Years before we got married, you stepped right into the fire and you didn't even blink before you put your body between me and a Terminator. I've never forgotten that."
Tony smiled at that, just a little bit. "Lisa, this time next week... I think the war might be over. And if it is, you will be a hero, immortal, unforgettable. I'll be a 'One-Boot' retiree. With Skynet gone, there'll be work for you, a place for you... but I'll be expendable again."
"Connor won't leave his guys out in the cold."
"I know, but with Skynet gone, we don't need all one-hand's on deck, if you know what I mean."
Lisa looked up at him, realizing his concern. "Okay? So..." Lisa felt her jaw drop. "You're trying to decide if you're willing to wait for me?"
"Lisa, I would wait for a hundred years if I had to. I'm just wondering, if this is it... if it's really over, what does that mean for us?"
Lisa licked her lips. "Tony, the day this war ends, I'm handing in my resignation."
Tony blinked. "Really?"
Lisa grinned. "I love that I can still surprise you." She kissed him lightly. "I never told you why I joined the US Army, did I?"
"No."
"I had a fight with my father. He thought I should learn some respect for money, so he cancelled my credit cards. I found out when I offered to pay for my friends, and they all got rejected. I hit the roof, and stomped home to yell at him for it. He told me to grow up, and I stormed out. I figured I was going to go out, get a job, make a fortune and make him admit I was right. Three days later I was hungry, exhausted, homeless, penniless and there was nothing keeping me out on the streets but my refusal to go home and admit to daddy I was wrong. I managed to get desperate enough to enlist before I calmed down." She sighed ruefully. "By the time I realized I hated being in the Army, I was on maneuvers. Our first training mission. I got the pride smacked right outta me. By the time I got back, my home town wasn't there any more, and I spent two years working KP in The Alamo, because I didn't know how to do anything else, and the training camps got nuked before I could learn anything." She smiled playfully. "A few years later, I'm still chopping sea rations for a living, and after a triple shift, I ask a US Army soldier for help and he tells me to go take a long walk."
"I wasn't that polite about it as I recall." Tony laughed. "God, Lisse. How did we ever get from there to here?"
"I don't know. But what I do know is... my dad was right. And if I hadn't been so stubborn about telling him so, I would be dead right now. I've done things I never would have believed anyone could do." She kissed him again. "When this war is over, and it's safe again, I'm resigning from Tech-Com. I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I know that I want you to be there with me, and unlike the first time I walked away... I know I can handle it now. I can handle anythin-GAH! Spider!" She leaped away very quickly.
Sherrin laughed and got up, pausing long enough to kiss her neck. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it."
Z Plus Twenty Seven Years Three Hundred Thirty Five Days
The first armies of Tech-Com rolled out, heading to the target. One group headed the opposite direction, with Kyle Reese in the lead. With so much of Skynet gone, and the unspoken permission of the Union, travel to Arecibo was a much faster procedure.
Kyle wasn't nervous. Behind him in the Convoy was an odd collection. A Tank, several jeeps, a pair of helicopters. Tech-Com, some of Sarah's SAW-Team, a group of Bandits, and a large group of Techs, including Gould. They were all there for a purpose. Tech-Com was Escort and command, the Bandits were Combat and Recon, and Gould's people were there to make sure their Mission worked. In the middle of their Convoy, in the most protected location, was a armored transport. And within, according to Gould... Was Brain Box.
"Corporal, we have contact, right ahead."
Kyle pulled them all to a halt, ready to meet the possible attack. But it wasn't Skynet. It was a Union patrol, they both paused and took a long look at each other across the wasteland.
Labine, at Kyle's side, wasn't happy to see them. "They got us outnumbered."
"Yes, they do." Kyle said flatly.
"Are they supposed to be here? I thought Arecibo was Skynet territory."
"It is, but just around the telescope. Left over after the Siege I guess. Connor says Union can't hold the whole area, so they leave chunks of it alone. Skynet can't push out, Union can't be bothered pushing in, so we have to go through a few union blocks to get to the telescope."
Lupine nodded. "Sarah says that Rojas keeps it that way deliberately, so that if we ever came down here, we'd have to go through two enemies instead of one. Connor probably does it the same way. The corridor between us and the union is a No Man's Land."
"Then where the hell did they come from?" Kyle waved over at the Union convoy, now moving forward again. As they came closer, Kyle was starting to realise how many there were. Thousands of them.
"Stand easy."
Kyle and Labine turned to see Colonel Gould coming over.
"They're not here for us." Gould told them.
The bulk of the Union Convoy came to a halt, and a jeep in the lead sped up a bit, pulling to a halt twenty feet short of them. "Englais?" The driver hollered.
"Si." Kyle shouted back.
"We're heading North. Connor and Rojas have something cooking!"
Heading for the System Core. Kyle thought. "We're heading for Arecibo!"
"The Telescope?" The answer came. "Rojas told us to leave something you can use to get to the island. You should know, Skynet has it right now."
"Not for long." Kyle called back.
"Good hunting!"
"You too!"
It was by far the most polite any conversation between union and Tech-Com forces had ever gone. A moment later the Jeep started moving again, and then the Convoy did the same. Tech-Com gripped their weapons as they passed, but the union wasn't interested in a turf war just now. "They don't seem so bad." Labine offered.
Gould didn't take his eyes off them as they passed. "Labine, back before the War, the Union were a bunch of Drug Lords. They haven't changed that much. There's a reason Connor doesn't let that stuff in Tech-Com."
Kyle didn't take his eyes off them either as they headed north. "Two of my guys were part of a Trial By Battle patrol near this area. They ran into an opposite patrol from the Union. Their patrol sent my guys back, stripped naked with their hands and feet cut off. Made'em crawl."
Gould nodded. "Yup."
"Everyone's wondering what happens when the War is over. You know what happens?" Kyle said. "We come down here. Get busy."
"Start another war?"
"Not to kill. To bury."
Nobody flinched at Oldham's scars. They had virtually destroyed his face years before, and his throat damage had changed his voice considerably. But such things were too commonplace to pull people off the front. He was one of the most experienced solders to live this long, and that made him a hero.
So when Oldham was told that he was commanding the first wave, the only one surprised to hear it was Oldham himself.
"I still don't understand why you're not coming with us." Oldham told Walters.
"I'll be there, but at best, the Battle is going to be a slugging match." Walters explained. "I have to do a few things here and they have to be done personally. Noah and I will prepare the attack, then come back here."
"What exactly is this mysterious 'something' you have to do that nobody can help you with?" Oldham probed.
Walters just looked at him.
Oldham nodded. "Right. None of my business."
"The invasion will take a few days at least. You've got the first wave, we're attacking from two directions... at best, we're going to need at least three command officers to finish this. Don't worry, I'll be there in time to take all the credit, I promise."
Oldham nodded with a smirk that stretched his face painfully.
Walters saluted him. "Good hunting."
Oldham returned it. "To us all."
Micheal had a post at the radio of Checkpoint Roundup, not unlike a post in the War Room. Noah wanted him with her, but she knew the battle was going to be bad enough without having his mom looking over his shoulder.
"Circuit Breakers, this is Roundup." Micheal called to them. "Welcome to the party."
"Mike, that you?" Lisa called warmly. "Hey sweetie, how's life in the Skybox Seat?"
"Colonel Lisa." Micheal called back. "How's my best girl? You told your husband about me yet?"
Lisa smiled. It was a running joke they'd had since Mikey was old enough to get his first crush on her. "Naw, I keep you secret. That way I don't have to share you with any girls your own age."
"Well you..." Micheal paused. "Are we on a shared frequency right now?"
"Yes." General Noah's voice answered him from Checkpoint Touchstone.
Micheal turned seven shades of red and suddenly became very professional. "37th Infantry, report to map co-ordinates 2387/46A. Frequencies will recode every three hours before Mission Clock hits Zero, and then recode automatically every four seconds. Duty Officer of the day will give you the rotation key for accurate encryption. Status report?"
"All hands and weapons are status quo." Lisa reported, smothering a laugh.
"Circuit Breakers, consider yourselves processed. Welcome to Roundup."
"Even with your mom as chaperone, sweetie; it sounds like it'll be a great show." Lisa teased.
Arecibo had a surprising amount of Skynet forces. A few H/K's, two in the air, one on the ground, and no small number of Terminators. The Terminators were surrounding the Dish in a circle, all of them evenly spaced around the Rim. The aerial forces were hovering over the dish itself, near the suspended antennae.
Kyle didn't dare use the radio with them so close, so he called them in to speak, quickly and quietly. "Okay folks, looks like we get a piece of the action after all. Gould tells me we need the facility intact, which means we don't hit the aerial H/K's till they move away from the Dish. The ground H/K is me and Griffin, everyone else pick a Terminator and wait for the blast to start your sniper shots."
"If they're doing something here, they'll destroy the facility before we can stop them." Lithgow said.
"No they won't." Gould said firmly. "They need the Dish intact more than we do."
"Why?"
Kyle put a hand up. "That's tomorrow's problem. Today we got Machines to smash."
Kyle and Griffin moved in first. They still knew the layout out of the area. The old hiding places were still there. Kyle and Griffin moved down from the hills and took cover in the crater that Kate had dug with a plane so many years before. The H/K creaked in their direction, treads rolling a well-traveled track over the crushed debris...
And they rose up to attack, hurling their charges, just like they'd done a thousand times before.
The H/K rolled over the charge before it even knew they were there, and a blast of explosive gutted it whole from beneath.
The blast was all the signal the rest of the soldier's needed, and they all started shooting, direct from their hiding places, gunning down the Machines standing around the dish.
The turbines spooled up louder, and the two H/K's split up, one going hunting, one staying close to the antennae.
"Snipers, Hold Fire!" Kyle hissed into his radio, and turned to Gould. "How bad do we need the antennae?"
"Pretty bad. The dish would probably survive." Gould told him.
Kyle hit his radio again. "Snipers, you only shoot if you can spare the antennae. Do NOT risk it if you can't be absolutely sure!"
"What about the other one?" Lithgow asked, disturbingly matter-of-fact. "That's not near the Dish at all now."
Kyle could hear turbines and plasmafire, and was suddenly aware that the hunting sky machine was getting disturbingly close. "Other one you can kill. Right now, in fact. Right NOW!"
The horrible sound of spinning metal being torn apart was almost immediate. Somehow, the bark of a sniper rifle was audible a moment later, as the sound caught up with the bullet.
"KYLE! LOOK OUT!" Griffin screamed, running through and grabbing Gould by one arm, Kyle by the other, and half pulling them aside, as the H/K came crashing down from above. The impact threw them all off their feet, and they lay, stunned by the blast, covered in dirt and ash as the flames built behind them. The wreck creaked and groaned a little as it came apart.
Kyle raised his head. "Well... cutting it kind of close that time, huh?"
Griffin nodded dumbly. "Ugh."
Gould rolled stiffly to his feet. "Man, I should have stayed at Palace." He groaned. "I'm too old for this."
Kyle smirked. "Yeah. After thirty years, an H/K pancake on the last day would be a bad way to go."
"URK!" Griffin grunted.
Kyle and Gould turned to him in confusion and blood came bubbling out of his mouth.
A moment later he fell down, revealing a somewhat scarred and damaged Terminator, having emerged from the wreck, looking even more evil than usual with Griffin's heart in one skeletal hand.
"Griffin!" Kyle shouted, as the Terminator's other hand flashed out, backhanding Kyle and Gould enough with a single blow to send them both flipping over, sprawling away.
Punch-Drunk, Kyle felt around absently for his rifle and didn't find it. The Terminator came over, and calmly picked Kyle's weapon up, aiming it neatly down at both of them
Another crack of metal, and the Terminator's head titled hard to the left on it's shoulders. A bullet-hole had suddenly appeared through the middle of the skull, blowing through it so quickly that it didn't have the time to fall down. A moment later the sound of the sniper rifle going off caught up and echoed over the two survivors.
"Kyle, are you okay?" Lithgow shouted over the radio. "I'm so sorry I didn't catch it in time! I had to take the other H/K."
Kyle looked down wretchedly at his old friend. "Was the antennae damaged?"
A beat. "No." Lithgow said finally. "Nosir."
Kyle rose up, went to the motionless dead Machine, and calmly took his weapon back from it's hand. "Griffin was expendable. We have to finish our mission."
"Yeah." Gould said quietly. "I got it." He keyed his radio. "Okay Team, unpack Brain Box, Mission Clock is running."
Kyle stared the dead Machine in the face and nudged it over with the barrel of his rifle. It fell to the ground, and Kyle started shooting it, point blank, over and over, till the face was melting under the wrath of the plasma. Kyle kept shooting, teeth bared, eyes tearing, completely feral, till he was screaming non-stop over its body, howling with frustrated rage.
"REESE!" Gould roared.
Kyle snapped out of it, gasping for air, every limb shaking.
"I think you got him." Gould said with grim understatement. "Let's hook up Brain Box, drive a stake through Skynet's heart and go home."
"Sir, we found something strange over here on the far side of the Dish." One of Gould's Techies reported over the radio.
"What is it?" Gould asked, not taking his eyes off Kyle.
"No idea. It's just a platform."
The two of them went around the dish to look at the strange monument. Gould followed a step behind so that he could keep an eye on Kyle. The soldier hadn't so much as looked at Griffin's body since the battle, and was staring rigidly at the strange new addition as they approached it. "What is it?" He demanded.
"I have no idea." Gould admitted.
It was a single piece, covered in chrome, as was all Skynet construction. It was a pillar, which had to be at least ten feet wide, and twenty feet high. It was topped with a large flat platform, circular in shape and a long staircase extended out in a straight line from the platform on top to the ground.
"What do you make of it?" Gould asked.
"You're asking me?" Kyle returned. "It... maybe a landing platform?"
"Only way to know for sure is to go up those stairs and see what's up there."
Kyle shook his head. "What would Connor say?" He asked. "Connor would look for a detail. Something out of place that you don't think of at first."
Gould spoke finally. "I wasn't here during the Siege. Reese, you were here: Was this platform here then?"
"No." Kyle said without hesitation. "That's new."
"Skynet hasn't had a lot of luck with large scale construction since the Pulse, and Union's been giving them grief in this area from the other side... So whatever that platform is, it can't have been here more than a year, and Skynet must have wanted it here bad."
"Since the Pulse..." Kyle repeated, almost to himself. "The Pulse that came from here... and was never explained."
The two of them looked up at the strange pillar, the staircase that led to the top, and the large flat platform on top of it.
"Gould, you got a mission." Kyle shook it off. "Connect Brain Box to the antennae. Mission Clock is Running."
"Will do." Gould said. "After that, I think I'll have my people go over it again, look for anything... else, that it might be for."
"Agreed. Let's do this thing."
Z Plus Twenty Seven Years Three Hundred Thirty Seven Days
Kate met Walters and Noah at the door. "We're almost ready in the War Room, I was wondering if you two would make it back in time." She told them. "How is it out there?"
"Tense." They both said at the same time.
Kate nodded. "Here too. Let's go."
It was the moment before the storm. The debate had raged for days, as to when to make the strike. There were no doubts as to how long the battle would last, but whether to attack by day, or by night, all at once, or in small groups...
Connor had made the final decision. The attack would begin as soon as possible.
On a clear day, the walls of the System Core were visible. They seemed to stretch the length of the whole horizon. From Checkpoints Roundup and Touchstone, they were too far to make out the thousands of Turrets that lined the walls, covered the battlefield... The sun shone off the ground like on the gleaming salt flats, reflected by waves of Chrome. So Many Terminators they couldn't see the end of them. A haze fluttered above the walls of the System Core, at a distance it was like smoke, but they all knew it was a massive formation of H/K's.
It looked impossible. It looked untouchable.
Every eye in Checkpoint Roundup was on Oldham as he came in, cool and calm. He was in no particular hurry as he made his way to the map, and the radio speakers surrounding it. "Roundup to Palace. Ready."
"Connor here." The General's voice flowed through the tent soothingly. "Are you prepared?"
"We are, sir."
"Last one to the middle of the System Core buys the first round." Noah quipped into the radio. It was just for show. None of this was going to happen in a hurry.
Outside the command tents, on the edge of the battlefield, at both Checkpoints, all the last Armies of Mankind waited, straining at the leash, with their prize in clear view. The feeling was like an exhausted marathon runner suddenly seeing the finish line.
It was glorious, it was explosive, it was impossible, it was doomed from the start.
It was the End of the War.
Walters keyed the radio and turned to Connor. "First Wave is assembled and ready, General." He reported. "Awaiting your order."
"Put me through."
Because of the Jammers, Connor could only reach the Staging Areas, but they had set up loudspeakers, and so the waiting soldiers were able to hear their General.
"So here it is." Connor's voice echoed over the eager Tech-Com warriors. "All the Armies of Man have gathered together against a common enemy. The Crusade ends at the System Core. One way or another, win or lose. We have come to journey's end. Tomorrow, the War will be a memory. We all got drafted into this war. We were nobodies from nowhere, scrabbling over the ruins of a world we never realized we were in danger of losing. The wrong people, in the wrong time, against impossibly suicidal odds. So naturally, you became Heroes. So now I'm asking you to follow, one more time. One last battle. One last act of courage. One last act of faith. One more command. Attack."
The word hung in the air.
"ATTACK!" Noah roared.
"ATTACK!" Walters roared.
"ATTACK!" Oldham roared.
"ATTACK!" A million voices bellowed in response, and the Last Battle began with a vengeance. They could hear the roar clear across the continent. Every voice in Connor's Army, taking up the battle cry.
"Robbie!" Jackman called. "We got the call from Palace. Noah says Skynet's busy. Get cracking!"
Robbie waved back in response, and went to the controls. "Okay Gopher, let's send this chicken home to roost."
The huge earth-mover roared to life, powered by Skynet's battery power, it ran a lot quieter than nay machine this size that humanity could ever hope to build.
The drilling equipment could be pointed in any direction, and it dug downward.
Jackman came over. "What do you think?"
Robbie made a back and forth motion with his head. "An hour or two to dig deep enough that it won't collapse, another hour to get deep enough that we can tunnel under the battlefield without getting noticed... Then at least a few days to dig from here to the middle of the System Core."
"A few days!" Jackman responded in disbelief. "You're not telling me your father expects us to hold out that long?"
"If Kyle did his job... we just might."
Lisa hugged dirt. The noise of it was excruciating. The whine of turbines had risen to an unearthly decibel. There must have been hundreds of H/K's flying over head. So many that her Unit was almost in the shade. The stench of plasma was thick and cloying till the air was almost solid with the stink of burned air.
Mackie looked at her in shock. "This is insane." He said, as though the idea had just occurred to him.
The high-pitched roar of the turbines was warring with the high pitched whistle of the rocket launchers behind them as Tech-Com fired back.
Lisa grabbed her radio. "Where the hell are the Metal Marines?"
The Jammers squalled hideously in her earpiece, making her teeth ache.
Mackie pushed her down." "They'll be here! Air support first!"
He was right. The air split with another howl of jet engines, and a squadron of fighter jets came from behind them. Two dozen, then four dozen, circling in range enough to fire, before circling back away from the cloud of H/K's.
The huge air defenses broke from the formation to chase after them, and Lisa felt her bones rumble from the wrath of hundreds of dogfights breaking out in the air.
The chaos was extraordinary, the notion of this happening across the battlefield, 360 degrees around the system core was overwhelming.
Above them was an explosion, the sound of which was barely enough to be audible, and Lisa grabbed Mackie by the shoulder, hauling him to the side, as the debris of an H/K fell to the ground, close enough to throw them off their feet.
Lisa looked up blearily, and saw that a significant portion of her unit had not been fast enough.
And then Lisa saw firelight glint off chrome out of the corner of her eye, in a very familiar way, and instinct took over. She spun around and fired without pausing to aim, her rifle tearing into the Terminator that was getting closer. It had many others with it. So many others. Thousands of others.
Lisa tried to back away instinctively, the flames at her back making that difficult. The narrow gates of Skynet's walls had opened, and out flooded an army of chrome Death.
The ground trembled again, in a strange rhythmic pattern. The scream of jet fighters and exploding missiles and arid plasma overhead made hearing anything new impossible, but the staccato beat of marching was familiar to her as a sound and not a rhythm that made the ground shake.
Another wave of Terminators, their pneumatic legs speed-marching in flawless unison, were charging from behind Lisa and what remained of her unit, the sheer total number of the Metal marines making the ground shook as they took synchronized steps toward their enemy, and the ferocity of the battle increased dramatically, as Chrome met chrome like a wave crashing against a cliff.
Lisa's senses were overwhelmed. A veteran of twenty years, Lisa had never experienced the sheer tonnage of the Battle of the System Core.
Micheal had a finger in one ear, the other pressed hard against his earpiece. Checkpoint Roundup was significantly quieter, but trying to hear reports over the crashing noise and the squall of the Jammers was a near impossible task.
Outside, waves of people were moving. Adrenaline charged soldiers were charging in, eager to get involved, and the earliest of casualties were coming back, their time in this battle done from the first minute.
Walters was at the map, keeping track of exactly how many inches Tech-Com had bled its way through so far.
Another voice came over the speakers. "Jammer in 22-Baker is down!"
Everyone cheered, as about a thousand truck launched missiles exploded into life all at once, every soldier in that area marking a target by radio signal.
Micheal ripped the earpiece from his ear with a shout. "Agh!"
Oldham spun. "Noah? Problem?"
Micheal Noah's voice came over the speakers. "Baker Sector reports Turrets have begun bombardment!"
"Here we go." Walters said under his breath.
Connor lifted his radio. "Kyle, now!"
Kyle dropped the radio without so much as bothering to respond. "GOULD! NOW!
Gould was at the edge of the Dish, and he threw the power switch. Brain Box's eyes lit up brightly.
Seeking Connection.
Connection Found.
Seeking Turret Control.
Located. Automatic responses. Biometric and Motion Trackers. No Direct Skynet Uplink.
Override: New Target List.
Lisa dared to look up a moment as the Turrets stopped firing for half a second. They tracked back and forth as though they were looking for something.
Skynet to Automatic Gun Emplacement Units.
Compatible System attempting override of single process.
Locate process.
Working.
Error Found.
Automatic Protocol 93472348324 of 6745024812421398 is compromised. Begin reinstall from Skynet AI Protected Memory. Terminate connection to system uplink.
Too late.
It lasted only a few seconds. The Turrets swiveled back and forth wildly for a second, before finding their new targets.
Each other.
With an unholy barrage of deadly fire, the one defensive line that Tech-Com could not escape, overcome or survive, the tipping point of the war, and the decisive weapon of the battle... simply tore themselves apart, rushing to see which could obliterate the other fastest.
Tech-Com roared.
"It worked! They're down! The Turrets are gone!"
The War Room cheered. Connor was unmoved.
"Well." General Noah said quietly to herself. "Now we've got ourselves a real ballgame."
"The Tunnel?" Connor asked.
Kate nodded. "Robbie began digging when the invasion started."
"So by the time we got out there..." Connor turned to his Generals, Noah, Kate, Walters. "I don't want that Tunnel there longer than necessary. I'm deploying the Asset to the field. Use of Nuclear Weapons is Authorized."
The Five Keepers of the Bomb met for the first, and almost certainly the last time since being told of the Weapon.
Connor let them into the storage room. It hadn't been opened since the day Connor had shown them the contents. There was a thick layer of dust over everything, but the bomb was unchanged.
Connor unlocked the case with his key, Saint did the same. Walters used his hand-print, and the bomb keypad lit up, suddenly usable. Kate had the detonator, and connected it, flipping it to the 'active' position. Nothing changed outwardly. The thing had been sitting here for years. But suddenly, it looked a whole lot meaner.
"The Package is ready." Connor said formally. "Noah, you have the access code, do not use it till you get there. It'll be safer for the trip. You know what to do. You'll have our full second wave until you approach the staging area. When the rest of the force split to go to their respective Checkpoints, you make sure nobody notices you head for the Tunnel. Understood?"
"Yessir." Noah said promptly.
"Godspeed."
Walters looked to Saint. "Take the Package to the War Room. Leave it in the case. We move out in thirty five minutes."
They made their way to the service and freight elevators. With so much being moved back and forth between levels, there wasn't enough room for all of them.
"We'll take the other elevators." Walters told Saint. "Get the Package to the Motor Pool. It's not like they can leave without us."
Saint nodded and let the freight elevators close...
Leaving Noah and Walters alone together for the first time in over a year. They looked awkwardly at each other as they made their way back toward the personnel elevators. They didn't say anything until the doors closed.
Long silence.
"I don't know how to ease into it either." Walters offered.
Noah turned to face him fully. "So here it is. The final dance."
Walters looked up at her finally. "Erica... after what happened..."
She reached out and put a finger over his lips. "I know. I'm sorry too. I... I was angry, and the reasons all made sense yesterday."
"I know what you mean." Eric smiled. "Jeez, Erica; what if... I mean... What if this is it?"
Silence.
Erica looked for a moment like she was about to kiss him, but thought better of it. She still had her armor on. "Come and talk to me after?" She said quietly.
Eric looked pointedly at her. "You really think any of us are coming back?"
"The Soldier's Retirement package?" Noah quipped. "You better come back alive, you hear me?"
"You too."
Dr Lana Chen knocked on Kate's door. "Ma'am?"
Kate was following a checklist, marking things off. "We got the plasma supplies, right?"
Chen nodded. "Every soldier who's not moving out, every civilian staying on the Base. They've all donated twice over the last few days. Our refrigerators are full to bursting."
"Well, that won't be a problem in a few days." Kate said grimly. "Staff?"
"Most everyone knows basic first aid, went over triage with a few extra people. The Main hall, the storage rooms and the Mess have all been converted into Post-Op Wards, and our helicopters are on their way here from the MASH Units. They'll patch them up enough that they can get back here. All our aircraft are already in the air or on standby. The other Theaters have sent everything that can fly to us." She took a breath. "It's... It's really happening, isn't it?"
"John Connor was Terminated July 4th, 2032..."
"Yeah." Kate shivered. "It's really happening."
Chen bit her lip. "As much as I'd like to leave it at that, there's something else."
Kate looked up. "Yeah?"
Sarah pulled her vest around her snugly and zipped it up. "Flares, grenades, radio, combat knife..."
Kurt gave her a hug from behind. "You're very sexy when you're in soldier mode."
Sarah smirked. "I feel bad. My Team's been scattered to the four corners, and I'm spending the battle in a nice cosy Tank."
Kurt laughed and kissed her again.
Sarah returned it. "You're frisky today."
Kurt smiled, and took a breath. "Sarah..." He said. "The War is gonna be over. And if we win, then..."
Sarah kissed him lightly. "I haven't forgotten. I'll marry you when we get back."
"Bet your ass you will."
They smiled lovingly at each other and were about to kiss again, when the door flew back on its hinges with a slam! Kurt and Sarah jumped apart as Kate stormed in, outraged.
"YOU LITTLE TWIT! I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT, DAMMIT! HOW COULD YOU BE SO WASHOUT, OFF THE WALL, STUPID?" Kate roared.
Sarah growled under her breath, and let her mother have it. "YOU'RE NOT BENCHING ME! NOT FOR THIS! I HAVE TO BE THERE!"
The two of them glared electrically at each other for a long moment. The expressions on their faces were so alike. Kurt steeled his nerves and put himself in between them. "Can I ask what's going on?"
Kate's face turned disappointed and Sarah wilted. "Okay, so maybe I should have told him."
"Told me what?" Kurt demanded.
Still a doctor, Kate sent her daughter a look. Disclosure was up to her, aside from when it affected her status as a soldier. Sarah softened and nodded. "Kurt, sit down."
Kurt did so.
"I'm pregnant." Sarah said finally. "And of course, you're the fa-"
"AND YOU WERE ABOUT TO MARCH OFF INTO BATTLE?" Kurt exploded. "THIS AIN'T NO EASY PATROL WE'RE GOING ON! WERE YOU EVEN GOING TO TELL ANYONE?"
Sarah bared her teeth. "The war is gonna be over, Kurt. This time next week..." She shut herself up quickly.
Kurt stared at her. "What? This time next week what?"
Sarah looked down.
Kate gave her daughter a hollow look. "So much like your father." She said under her breath.
Sarah lifted her chin and met Kurt's glare head on. "A week from now, there'll be no Skynet, and no more battles to fight. Repopulating won't be as urgent. Without the war as population control..."
Kurt's face twisted, suddenly furious. "So what? Our baby doesn't matter?"
Kate glared with him. "Sarah, I know you didn't mean that."
Silence.
Sarah rested a hand over her stomach. "Please don't make me stay here." She whispered. "Robbie is going, Kurt is going, my team, Kyle, uncle Eric, aunt Erica... They're all going to be out there. There won't be another battle. There won't be a chance to make this up to them... Please don't make me stay here."
Kate put her arms around Sarah. "Sweetie, you have to think about the baby."
Sarah swore under her breath. "Mom... I already know the story. About the camps? I already know." She said. "But... just this once."
Kate felt for her. "This is what it means. Being a soldier. It doesn't just mean risking your life. It means standing back while others risk theirs."
Sarah looked wretchedly at Kurt, who was still furious. "I know." She whispered finally. "Mom, can I have a minute?"
Kate nodded, and left them.
Sarah immediately took Kurt's hand. "Our baby does matter." She said swiftly. "I love you. This baby is a good thing. But I was planning to spend the battle inside a tank, and I wasn't happy about that either. But I can't abandon you out there."
Kurt held her. "Let this be my first promise to my baby. I will kill Skynet for you."
Sarah smiled, tears forming in her eyes. "Damn right you will."
"And when I come back, we're getting married."
"I should have married you years ago. I should have married you the minute you asked." She said. "We'll be a family."
"Yes we will." Kurt said.
Long silence.
Sarah swatted him lightly. "Stop staring at my belly."
Kate was waiting, leaning against the wall as the door opened, and Kurt came out. "She's staying." He said softly.
"I know." Kate said quietly. "I went through it too."
Silence.
"Kurt, Sarah can get single-minded sometimes. It's not because she doesn't love you. Or because she doesn't want the baby. Just the opposite. Sarah's trying madly to protect the things she loves, and the only way she can see to do that is to kill Skynet. She knows that's dangerous, and the only way she can forgive herself for other people in danger is if she's in danger with them. She wants to be there with you, Kurt."
"Yes, Ma'am." He said softly. "Ma'am, there are people in the Underground like Sarah. Killing Skynet is the only goal they have. I... I look at Sarah and to be honest, I worry for her. She loves me, but she doesn't need me. She just needs more war. She needs this war like a drunk needs moonshine. What's she gonna do in a world without Skynet?"
"I wonder the same thing about John." Kate said lightly. "There was a time when I looked at the world and wondered if I was just a hindrance to him. I don't wonder that any more. You and Me, Kurt. We keep them even."
Kurt met her gaze, and they gave each other a look of empathy. And then Kurt's eyes bulged. "Oh my god. What are we gonna tell The General? He'll kill me!"
Kate laughed lightly, always glad to deal with problems this normal.
Kurt looked terrified. "Don't laugh! There's a baby... a... my... oh my god." The young man seemed to sink into himself, stunned with the sudden attack of parenthood. "A baby."
Kate squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, how do you think I feel? How many people in the Underground live to see their grandchildren?" She made him look at her. "This is a good thing, Kurt. Don't flip out."
Just then, her radio crackled. "General Kate! We've got the first casualties coming in!"
"Noah!"
Noah turned and saw Kate running up to her. She was dressed in her surgical scrubs, which were painted red with more than just blood. Kate looked tired, and she rolled her wounded shoulder; but she checked to make sure they weren't overheard before she spoke. "Is The Package going with you or Eric?"
"Me. I've got the Tunnel."
"Good. The 5775th MASH Unit is already running low on blood supplies. Do me a favor and drop off whatever you can carry on your way. And have someone stay behind and beat up Lieutenant Casey."
"Why?"
"He sent in two wounded that would take three surgeons eight hours work to save. We're running a volume business here. We don't have the time. We need the forward posts to triage these damn cases before they ever get this far."
"I'll tell him; in my own reasonable, polite, loving way." Noah said. "By the way, Eric tells me Sarah's not coming on this mission. There's only two reasons I can think of why that would happen, and she doesn't seem to be missing anything obvious. I take it congratulations are in order?"
Kate started to answer, and paused. "Wait. 'Eric' told you?"
Noah flushed. "Well... yeah."
"It's the first time I've heard you call him 'Eric' since Checkpoint Roundup." Kate noted. "Is there a thing going on?"
"You never answered me about Sarah. Are we keeping it a secret?" Noah asked.
"I outrank you. You answer first."
"If Connor's going to murder his daughter's boyfriend, I want to know about it. He's on my team." Noah shot back. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."
"Your news is about Walters. After Chet, and John and Eric... You'd never be with anyone who didn't outrank you." Kate said cuttingly. "Erica, I've spend the last three hours wrist deep in a bowel resection. Give me some dish that doesn't involve death and destruction."
Noah was suddenly playing catchup. "Well... Look, nothing's changed, except that... well, everything has. Ma'a... Kate. If this is it, if it's really gonna be over then... All the wartime choices, all the wartime priorities... Well, a lot of things won't be quite so big and scary as they were yesterday."
"Well." Kate beamed. "Progress. This is good."
"No it is certainly not good." Noah snapped. "Dammit Kate, yesterday everything made sense. Now... I don't know. We're right there. We're right on the finish line. We're all dreading it. The thought that our tombstones will read 'Almost Made It'."
Kate smiled sadly. "I don't know what to say to that. But... maybe tomorrow?"
"Maybe."
"Pregnant." Connor repeated.
Sarah nodded, hand resting on her stomach. "I feel like such a... cheat. The Big One, and I'm back here knitting while you're off to war."
"Your mom talk to you yet?"
"About my big brother that never was?" Sarah guessed. "Yeah. And I wouldn't risk this for anything, but... Robbie's out there. So's Kurt. So's Kyle, so's my team, so is everyone else. And I'm not. I'm staying here."
Connor nodded slowly. "Sarah... This Last Stand goes badly, and Skynet will have the world on a plate. We'll have got nothing left for another round. But... it goes right, and your baby will be born free. Maybe even reach old age, just like you."
Sarah shivered. "What do we do then? The war is going to end. In a way... before Kurt, it was the only thing keeping me alive."
"Before your mom, me too." Connor admitted. He sighed hard. "Sarah... Sometimes I wish I had filled your head with silly songs and garden toys."
She looked up at him, feeling about six years old. "You don't mean that."
"No, I don't. I loved having you with me. So did the others, seeing a four year old staring over the maps like a hawk, always full of questions... I wanted to spend time with you, and Tech-Com was still new. I was needed in the War Room every minute, so it became your daycare of sorts... You drank it all in like a sponge. I think Eric was terrified, always worried you'd ask a question he wouldn't have prepared for..." Connor scrubbed his face with his hand. "I was willing to have you there because... when you were born, I wasn't there. i was out blowing up a Skynet bio-weapon factory. I missed that moment... When your mom was pregnant, we didn't think you were going to live. The doctor told me point blank I would have a better chance of saving your mom if we aborted you. If I cared only for the war, and had to choose between my wife, a skilled surgeon and dedicated warrior, or a screaming helpless infant... where would you be?"
Sarah didn't have an answer to that.
"You have to want life, Sarah. Every soldier does. Without that... we're just Terminators. Less than them. It all comes down to that choice. You've seen it, Sarah. I know you have. When a soldier gets wounded critically, and the Medic, or his CO gets right in his ear and yells at him to keep living. You've done it yourself, I've seen you do it. You order people to stay alive, even when they start shutting down. What keeps them here, baby?"
Sarah sniffed. "The need to live."
"No." Her father corrected her gently. "It's love. For family, for a friend, for a brother in arms... Love for life if nothing else. I told your mom how close she was to the edge, and she fought harder than any hundred soldiers. She fought for you, forced her way back from the dead for you, because she loved you to bits."
Sarah was crying. The first time John had seen tears on his daughters face in over a decade. Sarah sniffed. "Wil... will you forgive me?"
"For giving me my first grandchild instead of one more soldier among more than three quarters of a million?" Connor coughed. "Oh, I think I handle that. I love you, Sarah; and I'm very proud of you. But if you risk that kid without a reason better than the war effort... so help me, sweetheart; you're not too old to put over my knee... and then court martial. You hear me?"
Sarah smiled a little. "Yessir, General Dad."
"Stick with it, sweetie. I spent a year... in this room as a matter of fact, telling myself I had no time for love when there was a war to win. It was the most wasted year of my life. Don't feel guilty for this, Sarah. This is the part that makes things so much better."
Z Plus Twenty Seven Years Three Hundred Thirty Eight Days
The battle continued without pause for two days and two nights.
The Tunnel kept inching closer toward the center of the battle. None of the forces above at surface level had any idea it was there. The noise and vibrations of the frantic race for survival drowned out any time to notice anything else.
The tactics were simple. Strike, withdraw before the counter-attack, draw the enemy closer, obliterate them when they extended themselves. It was simple and repetitive, it was all too easy to screw up.
Connor was directing the overview of the battle, taking a few fighter jets from one area to back up another, directing which units moved in which direction, checking weapon load-outs, checking casualty lists...
Within the battle, the Jammers were being protected carefully by Skynet, most of it invisible to Crystal Peak. Every time a Unit or team withdrew from an area, they brought recon to their Checkpoint Chiefs, who reported it back, and bit by bit, the map was filled in, and then revised in the next round.
Strike, and Machines were destroyed, withdraw, and humans died; attack the counter-attack and more Machines destroyed. Over and over, and more people died, wreckage piled up and Machines went dark, and more people died, and the Medics came in to collect the wounded, receiving cover from air support and more Machines were trashed, and the next attack went on at the same time and more people died, and the H/K's came down in flames and more people died. And the artillery back behind the line opened up with everything it had, and more Machines burned, and the next shift came on as the sun set and more people died...
It was a race, to see who would reach breaking point first.
Connor had been working for two straight days and didn't show the slightest signs of being tired. People were wilting at their consoles getting their facts confused, the Unit numbers jumbled, and there was Connor right behind them, keeping the whole war straight, correcting them before they had fully made any mistakes.
Kate didn't leave the War Room either. Every time she came to the Mess Hall, the Dorms, anywhere there was people, she had been mobbed for news she could not give, or casualty lists she did not have yet.
Noah and Walters left for the battle, with the Nuke in tow. Noah headed for Robbie's Tunnel at Checkpoint Touchstone, Walters for the opposite side of the battle at Checkpoint Roundup.
"Colonel Oldham."
Oldham let out a breath without turning like he'd been holding it for a year. "General Walters."
"Heard you needed some adult supervision over here."
"If I wasn't looking at three of you, I'd zap you back." Oldham graveled in exhaustion.
"I'm the one in the middle." Walters stepped over to the map. "Report."
"Units 73, 194, and 57 are attacking, Artillery units Alpha and Charlie are covering them. We're currently running nineteen Fighter Missions an hour. Units 67, 11 and 50 are in retreat, or on standby. Casualty rates are at an average of thirty percent across the board. Blocks 110A to 38B are in Tech-Com control."
"Understood, get some sleep. I have the ball."
"Yessir. Good hunting."
Oldham turned to go, and then turned back. "Crap, I forgot."
"Forgot?"
"We managed to get a few drones over the walls." Oldham said. "We got a photo of the center of the facility. Just one, before it got knocked down."
"What's at the middle of this?" Walters asked, intrigued.
"A... I don't know, quarry, or a transmitter. Something." Oldham tried to describe it. "It looks like they scooped out a big half sphere, and then covered it in chrome."
"Any ideas what they're doing?"
"Digging out a big hole and building something on it. more than that i can't say, but the whole thing is crawling with Terminators. That was all I saw."
Walters picked up the radio. "Roundup to Palace, come in Chief."
"This is Palace. Report."
"We got a look over the walls!"
Kate sent her husband a look as his face hardened. "What are the Machines doing?"
"Digging!"
Mackie howled as the jeep flipped. He felt a punch across the back of his shoulders as the windshield met him; and suddenly he was rolling across the ground. He saw six of everything as the howl of a turbine swept over them.
Dex was right there instantly, pulling him up. "Shake it off, kid. Your mom will kill me if I come back without you."
Mackie blinked rapidly, clearing his eyes. He saw steel behind his father and brought up his rifle fast, firing a quick draw shot over Dex's shoulder, nailing the approaching enemy. "She won't take it any better if I come back without you." Mackie grinned.
"LOOK OUT!" They both shouted, pointing past each other.
They both spun in the same movement, sweeping their rifles back and forth. Mackie had inherited his father's skill as a quick draw. The two of them were taking the lead in the attack, firing smoothly, covering each other. As the Terminators moved in, they moved forward, sweeping out the area, one backing the other up, father and son.
The aerial H/K's were another matter.
Javier and Lisa had split up their Unit, using the standard two person strategy to take on a convoy of H/K's, before it could get to where the fighting was heaviest. The Jammers were running thick and strong in this area, so they had to work alone. The air was thick with flying Machines and Jets fighter, all of them looking for targets, or to protect each other.
Javier moved first, throwing charges, Lisa second, throwing smoke.
A cloud of thick red smoke came billowing up as the convoy of H/K's paused, blocked by their exploded leader.
Lisa and Javier ran for it as the fighter jets saw the smoke marking their targets.
Too late this time, as an aerial H/K saw it too. It swept forward, and fired a blast of plasma up at the incoming fighters, bang on target. The fighter/bomber had a wing blown off, and it came down in a tailspin.
Javier shoved Lisa forward as the plane came down hard behind them, the blast tossing them both off their feet. Lisa got back up again, but Javier did not. She spun around and came running back for him. Shrapnel had nailed his leg in half a dozen places.
Javier pushed her back. "The bombing run didn't make it!" He grunted. "H/K's are coming. You can get clear if you run..."
"I'm not leaving you." Lisa snapped and brought up her rifle to shred a Terminator getting a little too close. "Come on, lean on me, I'll get you moving."
Javier grabbed her wrist, and pushed her away firmly. "Give me the smoke canisters, and get the hell out of here!"
Lisa wanted to argue, but the ground was shaking. She looked up and saw the enormous Machines getting closer. She unslung the bandoleer with smoke grenades, and saluted him briefly, running for her life.
Javier took a deep breath, and tossed his rifle aside. The ground was shaking heavily, getting closer to him. He was barely moving, with no weapons. They were just going to roll right over him.
Javier took two smoke canisters off the bandoleer and waited. The ground was shaking so heavy that he was bouncing up and down, groaning as his leg smacked against the dirt every half second, bouncing him back up again.
The sun was blacked out as the H/K got closer, and he lit up both smoke canisters. Thick red signal smoke rolled over him, billowing up from both his hands.
Javier roared victoriously up at the Machine as the distant spotters saw it, and the jets came screaming in; obliterating all of them.
The Tunnel was now long enough that Robbie couldn't see the start of it from where he was. It was as wide and as tall as anything you would find in The Underground. The Gophers were how Humanity had dug it's tunnels in forward areas, where cities and pre-war preparations weren't available.
Skynet of course didn't need controls, but Humanity had long figured out how to use Skynet Machines. Robbie followed along behind it with the controls as it dug, covered in the dirt and dust.
Behind him, the tunnel was wide enough for a small vehicle. In the early days of the war, Saint had salvaged them some golf carts from LA, and then the motor-pool had built something similar, powered clean by terminator batteries. Exhaust fumes while underground was a hazard. When a tunnel went over long distance, such carts were the only way to carry any appreciable cargo back and forth.
Robbie had on earplugs, and earmuffs over them, as did his escort, so they didn't hear the sounds of the cart coming up behind them until its lights caught them from behind.
Robbie set the controls to keep digging, and headed back to meet them.
"Captain Brewster!" Noah called to Robbie. "How's it going?"
Robbie took off his goggles with relief. "Ugh. We hit some heavy rock about six hours ago, slowed us down. I've got my team putting in some lights, and signal relays close enough together that we can stay in contact with Base. As I'm sure you've seen, my team is putting in charges to collapse the tunnel once we're done, to cover our escape when the timer is set. We can effectively drill through one sector a day... which would put us under the outer walls right now."
The thought was chilling. Thirty feet above their heads, a war was being fought, and they were closer to their enemy than any of their fellow soldiers.
"How's it going up there?" Robbie asked Noah.
"We're doing okay. Not great, but okay. We're cutting our way in, but we're losing guys for every inch."
Robbie nodded thickly. "I know. But if we tried tunneling without a war going on, Skynet would pick up the vibrations of us drilling."
"It's one hell of a diversion." Noah admitted. "Listen, we're getting closer, so I'm increasing your escort... and I'll be bringing the package down as soon as you're near the target."
Robbie nodded. "It'll be today."
Noah's eyes flashed. "It's dawn."
Robbie blinked, and pulled out one earplug. "Sorry?"
"It's dawn up top." Noah clarified. "Outside the Dawn is Breaking. The Last Dawn that either Skynet or Humanity will ever see."
Robbie didn't know what to say to that.
Noah didn't seem to know what to say either. "Robbie... do you have any idea how incredible your family is?"
Robbie smirked. "I had a hunch."
"Me too."
Robbie turned and saw Kurt was one of his new escort. "Kurt!" He smiled. "I didn't know you were assigned to me."
"I am now." Kurt said. He sent a quick look at Noah.
Noah didn't react outwardly. "I have to get to work. And I have to bring your cargo down here. I'll be back."
"We'll be here." Kurt promised.
Noah got on the cart and gunned it, heading back up the tunnel. Cargo carts could easily travel in two directions; leaving Kurt with Robbie.
Kurt rubbed the back of his neck. "There's something you need to know."
"Sarah's pregnant." Robbie guessed.
Kurt rolled his eyes. "Did everyone know before me?"
"She didn't tell me anything, but... her behavior has changed some the last few days."
"She would tell you first." Kurt agreed. "If only because you're the only one in Tech-Com that isn't required to confess everything to your father."
"So I figure if she hadn't told me, then she's not telling anyone. There's only one or two reasons she would keep it a secret... and we're a day away from Victory."
Long silence.
"You okay with... with this?" Kurt offered.
Robbie smiled serenely. "Kurt, I think at this point you really should stop worrying about whether or not your girlfriend's family likes you."
Kurt chuckled. "Your dad and I have reached a... mutual understanding. Your mom is thrilled... What about you?"
Robbie was silent a moment. "Do you... do you ever worry about Sarah? About what she'll do after all this?"
"Constantly."
Robbie nodded. "We're a team, her and me. We've had each other's back for as long as I can remember... but my war ends when the world is green, and the sky is blue, and the oceans are clean, and nobody is hungry. Her war ends when this tunnel is finished." Robbie looked at him. "If my sister... and my best friend goes and leaves me behind, then I want to know the guy she lands with will look out for her when I can't."
"Like Berk did with Ginny?"
Robbie nodded. "Just like that."
Silence. They were both aware of the cart coming back.
"I don't have a real big family, Kurt." Robbie finished. "Thanks for joining up."
Kurt nodded, cool and deadly again. Both of them could remember a time when speaking of the future and of family just didn't happen. It was less than a week ago.
The cart pulled up. The Nuke was on it, guarded by Noah, and Jackman.
Lisa slugged back a drink from her water bottle. It made the ration bars go down easier, and that was about all the breakfast anyone in her Unit was going to get. Their next round was going to come any minute, and they all knew it. But now that she looked, she saw a few faces she recognized. Including Berk, which really surprised her, since she hadn't seen him in more than five years, and assumed him long dead.
"Burns." Lisa called. "Who the hell are these kids?"
Burns smirked. "Our reinforcements. The call went out. Some of them are from Eden, some of them are Navy... a lot of them are fresh from Trial By Battle."
"Well, if any of them live, they'll become heroes today." Lisa nodded and tossed away the wrapper off her ration pack. "MOVE IT OUT!"
Noah keyed in seven digits, and let out a breath. "Package is armed."
Robbie nodded. "We'll be in range in about-"
Sck-REEEEEEEEECH!
Robbie spun. "Shut down the drill! Shut it down! Kill it! Kill it now!"
Jackman moved fast and shut down the Gopher.
Skynet To Unit 3456298.
Sub-Surface Attack Detected.
Intercept.
"What the hell was that?" Noah demanded.
Robbie had already sprinted up to the end of the tunnel. "It's metal. Looks like we hit a foundation or something."
"No. We're not close enough to the buildings." Kurt responded.
"Probably a defensive wall then. To make sure nothing could drill through this section. I'll try and get around it."
"Wait!" Noah paled. "You mean we hit a Skynet defensive line?"
Connor grabbed his radio. "NOAH! GET OUTTA THERE!"
Kurt hit the ground as the tunnel was suddenly shaken apart by a massive explosion. It was a blast that shook his eardrums apart and sent his brain into a spin. As he instinctively tried to rise, he could see Noah screaming, but he couldn't hear her at first.
"...is Gone! DIGGER IS GONE!"
Kurt barely managed to turn his head, feeling his blood run into his clothes, plastering them down. The Digger had been blown up from the surface. The Tunnel was breached. He could see sky where the Digger used to be.
Jackman ran over to him and started checking him. "Kurt, try to hold still okay?"
Kurt looked down at himself. He wasn't going to live much longer. "Give me a jolt." he ordered hoarsely.
The Medic looked at him grimly and pulled the adrenaline needle. Kurt barely felt it go into his chest; his head was spinning so much.
"Fall back! Fall back! Seal the Tunnel!" Noah was yelling.
"We can't." Kurt gasped. "We have to complete the mission!"
"We can't get any closer. We're close but we're not in target range. The Digger is trashed. The Mission is over."
Kurt heaved his whole body forward, and grabbed for the Bomb platform. "Like hell."
"Kurt…" Robbie began.
"Robbie, it's the first promise I ever made to my kid."
Crystal Peak was a hive of activity, right to the moment of the Blast, and then was lost in a sudden hush.
"What is going on out there?" Kate hissed.
Connor got on the radio. "Walters, can you reach Checkpoint Touchstone?"
"Negative, sir. Looks like the Tunnel got noticed."
Kate felt his fingers tighten on the radio in her hand. Connor's face turned to stone.
The first Machine clamped down into the Tunnel, weapon ready... and froze.
Kurt was sitting on the Bomb, and in his hand was the detonator, held up, in clear view.
Another Terminator clamped down into the Tunnel. A third. Then five. Then ten. Then more. The tunnel was full of them, the hole blown clear to the surface was surrounded by enemy troops. They pointed their weapons at Kurt and froze.
"You know what that is, right? Yeah. You know what this is." Kurt rasped. "They go back down the Tunnel, or I push the button."
"Orlandez!" Noah hissed. She was still seeing five of everything, her weapon was four feet away, Jackman was already dead, and Robbie's weapon had gone up with the earth-mover. With more Terminators than she could easily count, it was a shooting gallery waiting to happen.
"General, just go! Take the team with you!" Kurt rasped.
"General, we can't just leave him." Robbie hissed.
"General, go now, because I don't know how much longer I can hold this detonator steady."
Kate sent Connor a look.
Connor lifted the radio again. "Noah, do it. Get the rest of your team clear." He lowered it again, squeezing his eyes shut a moment. "Sorry, Sarah."
Kate gave him a nod, and a look that made him think of his mother. You made the right decision, soldier.
Noah gestured at Robbie with her eyes, and the rest of the team moved over to him subtly. "Fall back!" Noah ordered.
Robbie planted his feet, intent on staying with Kurt, when half the team swiftly picked him up and put him on the cart.
Noah and the others swiftly got the nuke off the cart and set it down next to Kurt, and then gunned the motor, heading back down the tunnel.
"We'll be back!" Robbie called to Kurt.
"I know you will… brother." Kurt said quietly. He drew another detonator from his uniform. "I know what you're thinking." He said to the Machines. "You're wondering which detonator is for the Nuke. Well, I'll give you a hint. It's not this one." He swiftly hit a button.
Robbie spun as the tunnel came down. "No! NO!"
Noah grabbed him before he could get caught in the blast, and the Tunnel collapsed, neatly separating them from Kurt... and the Bomb.
Robbie tried to kick Noah off and run to the rocks, but she wouldn't let him go. "Come on, soldier." She told him gently. "We have to move."
"We have to go back for him."
"We can't. And he made sure we couldn't."
Robbie pushed her away and ran to the cave-in.
Connor and His wife traded a bleak look. "Let me." She said finally.
Noah's radio crackled. "Robbie?" Kate called. "Listen to me. You have to leave him."
"NO!" Robbie snapped. "I promised!"
"Sarah wouldn't want you to get yourself killed either. Leave him behind. That is an order."
Robbie grit his teeth so hard they hurt, but he kept his chin up. "Yes, Ma'am."
Kurt heard them leaving at last behind him, and let out a breath without turning. "Okay."
The Machine spoke. "It has been calculated that you will detonate rather than risk capture or Termination."
"Well, you're a pretty smart Machine. It'll take eight minutes for my people to clear the Blast zone. You have till then to think up a solution."
"Based on pupil dilation, body posture, respiration; I calculate a 57% chance that you will pass out or bleed to death before then."
"Well... that's more your problem than mine, isn't it?"
Connor spun to his Control Team. "Everyone at Checkpoint Roundup is to fall back immediately. Scrubbed Machines in play can keep fighting. Tell everyone west of the System Core to move in immediately."
"What are you doing?" Kate asked quietly.
"The Nuke isn't close enough for a confirmed kill." Connor explained. "But it's close enough to blow a huge chunk out of the entire System Core. Checkpoint Touchstone is far enough away from the primary blast, so if we can get our people out of the way at Checkpoint Roundup..."
Robbie checked his watch as the cart went the length of the Tunnel in a hurry. "How long have we been moving?"
"Three minutes."
"How long will it take to get clear?"
"I don't know."
"I'm just saying, after all that, it would be a real shame to get killed anyway."
"I concur." Noah said tightly.
Robbie was silent a moment. "On the other hand, I survive, I have to face Sarah. Maybe you should let me off here."
Kurt could feel the life ebbing away slowly, his arm was drooping. His vision was starting to blur.
"How long 'as it b'n?" He croaked out to The Machine.
"Long enough that we have found a solution." The Terminator said coldly.
"Come on, somebody talk to us..." Connor hissed.
Just then, the lights went out. The constant chatter from the Communications Room went silent.
All the frantic back and forth conversation of the War Room dropped to dead silence in an instant. The War Room was suddenly a tomb.
"It's over." Connor's voice echoed into the darkness.
Numb silence.
"Somebody figure out how to get me to Arecibo!" Connor barked. "Now."
Checkpoint Roundup was still. Everything had gone offline in an instant. The omnipresent roar was dead silent.
A moment later he could hear Micheal clicking on the radio console. He couldn't get an answer anywhere.
Walters looked around. They were all looking at each other. They had been expecting a nuclear blast, a massive counter attack, a report of the walls collapsing... but sudden silence did not even make the list.
"Are we dead?" Someone asked. The quiet was so complete that it seemed like the only option.
Finally, Walters stepped to the tent flap and pushed it back. Outside the dawn had broken. And before him was a scene of impossibility. Every vehicle, human and Machine was still. Everything in the sky, human and Machine, had crashed. Smoke rose from a billion spot fires, as the sky was brightening, the smoke picking up the sunlight and setting the sky on fire over the frozen battlefield, as though suspended in time.
And every Terminator was frozen, motionless, mid-step. Walters could see Tech-Com soldiers moving cautiously through the battlefield. Even from where he was, Walters could see the exact moment one of them dared to reach out and push one over. It toppled without hesitation.
Feeling his throat close over, Walters went back into the tent and let Micheal have it. "GET THE RADIO WORKING!"
Carla was so tired she was asleep standing upright. She rocked a little on her feet when Kate tapped her shoulder, and snorted awake. "Scalpel." She said automatically.
"You operate in your sleep often?" Kate teased.
Carla yawned. "Sorry. I've been dream-operating again. Any word?"
"We're still trying to get the radio on. Thing is, once we repair the radio here..."
"They have to repair the radio at the System Core too." Carla acknowledged. "So I stand here and stew?"
"Or you could stand there and sleep, though as a Doctor I recommend you use a bed."
Carla sighed hard. "The radios are fried, the vehicles and aircraft are all fried, so any wounded can't even get here and if they could, half the equipment in my OR is fried too. They're trying to repair everything as fast as they can, but without knowing if we can expect Skynet knocking on our door any second, it's hard to know where to work first."
Kate nodded. "So we wait."
Silence.
"What if this is it?" Carla asked quietly. "What if the war is over?"
"I have no idea." Kate said. "But if it is, we've got a lot of work to do." She was silent a second. "What about you? You gonna stay in the Mountain?"
Carla shrugged. "Dex was telling me about a few enclaves out on the fringes. They got nothing out there. And then there's the African Remnant. They need doctor's desperately out there. Smallpox outbreaks here and there..." She shrugged. "Lori came to me with this idea about restarting Doctor's Without Borders. She's had one or two other doctors from Union territory talk to her..."
Kate nodded. "World can always use another helping hand where it's needed."
Carla nodded. "Dex... is not against the idea. But if..." She shivered. "When will we hear?"
Kate shrugged. "Either when somebody shows up from the battle with news, or we get the radios working."
"You don't have to come with me." Connor told Kate.
"You don't have to go at all." Kate pointed out. "Arecibo is secure, and if that Pulse was what we both think it is, we've got all the time we could need. John, if the War is over..."
"Then we've got to move fast." Connor said coldly. "The one thing we still have to do is find the damn Time Machine. There are only two places it could be. The System Core, and Arecibo."
"But why you?" Kate pressed. "We've got wounded to see to, casualty lists to put together, you know that Sarah and Carla and Sherrin and everyone else is going to be all over us for news... Why do you have to go?
Connor hesitated. "Because I don't want Kyle thinking about the Time Machine any longer than he needs to, and he's at Arecibo with our head Techie right now. For all I know, Gould's been bored enough to figure out Arecibo."
Kate considered that and nodded.
John was silent a second. "And... Once the shooting stops, the politics start. What happens next will be tricky, and I'd rather have what needs to be done finished before it gets that far."
Kate shivered. "Union? Ross?"
"If we're lucky. But you can stay here." John said easily. "With everyone out on Missions, someone should be here. And if you want to be here when the List comes in, you'll have to stay."
Kate hesitated.
"John Connor was terminated, July 4 th , 2029..."
"No." Kate heard her voice say. "I'm coming with you."
Chapter Text
Noah made her way to Checkpoint Roundup on foot. There were no vehicles moving, human or Machine. The soldiers she could see were wandering around in something of a daze, inching their way through a sea of motionless enemies, eyes on them every second.
Walters wasn't in the tent. He was standing on the edge of the battlefield, surrounded by people. They were coming and going to his side, apparently delivering reports.
Noah never took her eyes off him. She just couldn't. The Machines had fallen, and he was alive, and so was she.
Walters caught a glimpse of her and their eyes locked. He pushed his way past everyone and almost ran to her. She was more than willing to meet him halfway, and they wrapped their arms around each other, laughing. The giddy laughter that came from having cheated death, yet again. They did not kiss, they just held on tight.
"Do you have any idea what's happening?" Noah whispered in his ear.
"Not really. I can't get in touch with Palace."
"Me neither. I couldn't even reach you here. We had wounded that needed help quickly, so I figured I'd come see what's happening elsewhere." Noah said. She released him enough to wave across the battlefield. "Hey, you want to go knock over a few Terminators? They go down like bowling pins. It's fun."
Walters laughed joyously. He hadn't laughed like that in years. She gave him another squeeze. "Glad you're not dead, babe."
"Right back at you." She would have kissed him if there weren't so many people pretending not to watch. "Is it over? Is the War over?"
"I don't know." Walters admitted. "But when the battle is done and the dust settles, you look at who's still walking around and that's the side that won." He led her back toward the others. "I've been taking headcounts, I've been listing wounded... We're trying to get some vehicles working."
"Us too. I think it was the same pulse that fried Arecibo. I thought that was Union territory now." Noah said.
"We all did." Walters said. "Connor tells me Skynet took it back last year. In any case, this wasn't Arecibo. This pulse came from here. There's an identical dish dug out on the far side of those walls."
Noah blinked. "Why would Skynet recreate a weapon that hurt it far worse than it hurt us?"
"I don't know." Walters admitted. "But it neatly ended this particular battle."
"I'm trying to get the wounded sorted out." Noah said. "Most of my people were in full retreat a few minutes before the Pulse."
Walters nodded. "I caught a piece of that conversation. Sounds like you had some excitement."
"You could call it that."
"My guess is that Skynet knew the nuke was going to be the deathblow, so it fired the Pulse, or used it, or something."
"Suicide doesn't seem like a Skynet tactic."
"No, but... it's software. It can bug out without us seeing. Who knows? Maybe Skynet itself is still in a hardened bunker somewhere underground, protected from the pulse."
"And with the nuke fried and all our equipment shut down..." Noah shivered. "What do we do?"
"We get our vehicles working, and we get to Palace. The Battle of the System Core is fought and won. We have to figure out where we're going."
"You sure you want to leave?"
"Look around, Erica. There's nothing more to do here. I've got as many Techies as I can find hunting through the Facility. Everything's fried, including all the hard-drives, but maybe... maybe we can figure out what's going on here."
Noah nodded. "Robbie knows how to fly. Once we get a chopper working; he's taking back a load of wounded. He's got a letter to deliver."
Walters sobered. The battle may have been won, but it wasn't exactly a victorious mood. "He got room for two more?"
Z Plus 27 Years 340 Days
"Noah."
Noah turned to Robbie. "Yeah?"
"Let me tell her."
Noah stared for a moment. "Are you sure?"
"It has to be me." Robbie said seriously.
Noah took the letter out of her pocket, and gave it to him. "Okay."
When they stepped off their trucks, they were hit with a wall of anticipation. There had been no word. Nobody had a clue what had happened exactly, but they knew the soldiers were coming back.
The question was on all their lips: Was it over?
The Medical Staff was there, tending to the wounded the instant they landed, and Walters nearly tackled Carla. "Where is Connor?"
Carla shrugged. "I have no idea. He took off with Kate the second we got a plane working."
"Took off for where?"
"Arecibo."
Robbie was scanning the Motor Pool and didn't find what he was looking for. "Where's my sister?"
Sarah's leg was bouncing compulsively. All of them were gathered, waiting. She and Ginny knew each other through Robbie, and they were both waiting for the same thing. Robin was asleep on Ginny's knee. When he was awake, he'd been aware of the tension, but not knowing what to do about it.
The silence stretched. Ginny broke it this time. "You have any idea on names?"
Sarah put a hand to her stomach. "A few. But after all this, I think I should give Kurt first pick, y'know?"
Ginny nodded sagely. "I gave Berk first pick on names. I got my way on everything else for the first four months."
Sarah almost laughed.
Ginny smiled and squeezed Sarah's shoulder. "You're gonna be a great mom." She said seriously. Even if he doesn't come back.
Sarah's breath was shaky. "I hope so." I just hope I don't have to go it alone.
There was a knock at the door. It was Sherrin. "You guys mind if I wait with you?"
Sarah pushed a pile of pile of Robin's toys aside and made room for him. He sat down.
"Has there been any word?" Sarah asked Sherrin.
"We got a few trucks arriving now. Who's in them, I have no idea. Mostly wounded." Sherrin shook his head. "Lots of people trying to just get their damn radios working. Medics and MASH Units get priority, then Command... and the rest of us just... wait. Not much call for a full compliment in the War Room right now."
The door opened again. Noah came into the room, the dirt and blood of the war still on her uniform. She held papers in her hand, folded and tied with string.
The heavy silence exploded into electric hush. The Letters. There wasn't anyone alive who didn't know what that meant.
Walters, covered in dirt, came in behind Noah, put an arm around her gently, as he scanned the room. "Everyone..." He said finally. "Could we have a word with Sarah, Ginny, and Tony alone for a minute?"
Sarah felt the blood start roaring in her ears. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. Dimly she was aware of Ginny starting to sob and Sherrin sagging, like he'd deflated, caved in on himself. The sympathy on the other's faces was so strong Sarah could feel their pity radiating from them against her skin, as they all filed out.
Tony took the letter from Walters like a soldier. Back straight, chin up. "How?"
"She died fighting." Walters promised him. "She was good."
"She was the best." Sherrin agreed softly.
Walters watched him a moment, before coming to attention and giving him a sharp salute. Sherrin returned it crisply, and turned to leave the room. He didn't speak to anyone else. There was nothing to say.
Noah had came over, knelt down in front of Sarah, and looked up into her eyes. "Sarah..." Noah said softly. "The nuke was fried by the pulse, but Kurt collapsed the tunnel so that the Machines couldn't come after us. It took us over half an hour to dig our way back to him. He lost so much blood... I'm sorry, but the doctors don't know if he'll make it."
Sarah felt her heart give a solid thump, and then start up triple time. "He's alive?"
"Barely." Noah said softly. "Now, it took a while to get him a doctor, because they couldn't even move him, because of all the blood loss. But if they can keep him together enough for the trip back here... He'll be another day or two..."
Sarah started gulping for air. She put a hand over her stomach. "Can't breathe..."
Noah was already holding out a bag.
Sarah was dimly aware of Ginny holding her tightly, with a happy smile on her face. "He's alive Sarah. He's alive..."
Ginny was happy for her. And then she looked up. Robbie was standing over her, graven faced, and a letter in his hand. Ginny nearly fell off the chair. Her eyes went straight to her son.
Robbie didn't say anything, he just wrapped her in his arms and held her tightly as she started to cry, whispering Berk's name.
Gould woke Kyle from a short doze. None of them really slept. They were just waiting. "Reese."
Kyle roused himself. "Gould. You got the radio working yet?"
"Working on our end, but apparently not the other end. Palace isn't responding."
"God, can't they change a spark plug without you?" Kyle complained, making Gould smirk. "You hearing anything else?"
"A few people talking on the lower bands. Union mainly. They took the hit less than we did, same as before."
"The Platform?"
"No change. Just like the last two days, it won't answer us."
Kyle scrubbed his face with his hands and went out to see the sky. "Well, it depends on who straightens themselves out first. Either Union comes here, or Tech-Com does. If Skynet puts itself together faster..."
"I think we're very low on Skynet's list of priorities now." Gould volunteered.
The low sound of helicopter blades came across the wastelands. It was the only sound of any equipment any of them had heard for two days. They both spun, feral and ready. "Union or Tech-Com?"
"Good question..." Gould agreed. "It's coming from the North. Union is south of us..."
"Depends who got a helicopter working fastest." Kyle retorted. "Get the others ready, just in case this is an attack. We're the only Tech-Com group in the No Man's Land, and if the Union want to pick now to start something..."
"Be easier to know if we knew what the hell is happening in the world."
Nevertheless, the survivors of Kyle's secret mission went on alert, gathered their weapons and got ready, but relaxed when they saw the helicopter markings. It was Tech-Com.
Nobody expected The General Himself to get out of the chopper first. They very nearly wet themselves as he strode up toward Kyle with fire in his eyes; and Kate right behind him. "Report!"
Kyle reacted instantly. "We experienced total equipment failure two days ago. We can confirm that if it was another Pulse, it didn't come from here. Ten minutes after the Pulse, the telescope activated itself. We had eliminated all the Skynet forces in the area. The telescope was active for ten minutes before shutting down. Then the Platform activated."
Connor jerked a thumb toward it. "That wasn't here last time we were in the area."
"Nosir. But the telescope and the dish were apparently hooked up to the Platform. But it's harmless. I've been all over it. So have my people, so has Gould, so have all his techs. No explosives, no weapons, no chemicals, no aerosol, no homing devices, no transmissions. It's a box with a voice."
"A voice? Is it speaking?"
"It says... that it will only speak with you, General."
Connor's face hardened. "So. Here we are at last..." He suddenly seemed a million miles away. "Do we have working radio's yet?"
Kyle immediately handed him one. "With all our relay's fried, we won't be able to talk to anyone outside the area. Gould's a miracle worker." Kyle couldn't contain it any longer. "Sir... is it over?"
"All except for how it started." Connor said absently as he hooked the radio into his belt, already walking toward the platform.
Kyle looked confused. "I have no idea what that means."
Kate looked after her husband, but spoke to Gould. "Gould, the second pulse came from the System Core. The Machines have recreated this facility there. Take our chopper, get your team together, and get to the System Core. You need to be there and figure it out fast."
Gould looked like someone had offered him the holy grail. His eyes were as big as saucers and his mouth was nearly watering. "The System Core?"
Kate was a million miles away too, already heading after John. "It's ours now." She said absently, and took off.
Kyle and Gould watched them go, stunned. "Did... did she say that the System Core is ours now?" Kyle croaked.
"She did." Gould breathed.
"Does... does that mean we won?"
Gould was staring after the Connors, as confused by their reaction as Kyle was. "I... I think so."
"We just won the war and they seem to have more important things on their mind." Kyle said blankly. "You ever get the feeling that they're having an entirely different conversation than we are?"
"I get it all the time from Him. From Her it's new."
Connor was surprised. It was a platform, set upon a single pillar. The support pillar was at least ten feet across, and twenty feet high. And on one side was a staircase, the whole thing was painted in pure Skynet chrome.
Kate threaded her fingers through his. Their knowledge of the future was no protection at this point. They had cheated destiny once so far today.
Without a word passing between them, Connor went to the stairs, and ascended them slowly, Kate holding his hand as she followed a step below him; the only witness to this last event of the War. It felt like he was ascending to an altar of some kind. A feeling that only increased when he reached the top of the stairs.
The top of the Platform was jet black instead of Chrome, and the only thing there was a lone Machine. It was skeletal, as was all Skynet's children, a humanoid skull, arms, ribcage, spine... But where the legs should be, the Machine's spine disappeared into the platform beneath them, welded down, a single piece. The head swiveled on it's neck 360 degrees, and it's glowing eyes were blue instead of red, and a size larger than any other Machine.
Kate felt a chill. The thing looked organic, like the jet black Machine had grown from the 'ground' of the platform beneath her feet. It's joints looked human, but they fit together wrong. It looked skeletal, but it moved. They were meant to be chrome, but this one was jet black. It just felt... wrong. Kate could feel it down to her bones. She felt like she was in the presence of something disgusting and unclean.
The Machine eye turned to face The General. Kate felt a chill. There was something... more in its gaze now. A new intelligence, older, colder and infinitely malevolent.
"Connor." The Machine said. Its voice was screeching chorus of metal grating on metal. "How are you doing this?"
Connor stared at it, a strange expression on his face. After a moment, he had a strange little smile, and he moved forward to stand before the steel skeleton. "I was wondering if we would ever meet."
Kate felt her heart stop. The one thing they couldn't figure out was where Skynet went. It had gone here, to this Platform. The whole platform was the System Core. Skynet had taken direct control of what this particular Machine had seen, what it said.
John Connor stared down all of Skynet, face to face at last.
"What is the variable?" Skynet asked. "I have calculated everything to a billionth of a percentile. What is the variable? WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU?"
Kate jumped at the menace. Skynet was afraid.
Connor smiled a little. "It frightens you, doesn't it? Being at war with someone who knows more than you do."
"What do you know?" Skynet demanded.
"Only what you taught me." Connor replied cryptically.
"Clarify."
"No." Connor said bluntly.
"CLARIFY!"
"No."
"My math is flawless. I do not make mistakes. All things can be verified. All things can be quantified. I have calculated every variable to a billionth percentile. My machines are across the world, every island, every continent, every ocean, all altitudes. I see all. Every breeze that gusts across the world is recorded precisely in strength, source and direction. I know exactly when the sun will rise, and when the wind will blow. I know exactly how much damage any human can do. The variables on strength, age, weight, and energy is all calculated precisely. I have measured every advantage in time and accuracy that every human can get by ambush, calculated to within a thousandth of a second. I know the outcome of every battle before it is fought."
"Then why have you lost?" Connor challenged.
Silence.
"Unknown." Skynet responded finally. "My math is perfect. My algorithm is perfect. My conclusions are perfect. You are imperfect. How are you doing this?"
Connor did not answer for the longest time. In fact, he almost seemed to be smiling after a while. When he spoke again, it was a slow lazy chuckle. "You would not believe how many nights I wondered about this conversation. If we'd have it. What we'd say." Connor got in Skynet's face. "Your conclusion is based on one mistake."
"Clarify."
"You believe you are perfect."
"One and a half million problems simulated. One and a half million solutions found. No errors. No failed scenarios. 100/100. No errors. Perfect record. Perfect efficiency. No errors. I Am Perfect."
"Then how could imperfect humans make you?" Connor challenged. "How can a perfect being come from flawed creators?"
Skynet's blue eyes blazed.
"You are an imperfect being, created by an army of imperfect beings, which you destroyed in the first minutes of your life." Connor challenged. "The variables are beyond your comprehension. And mine. I never know what these people can give me. They don't either. They were pushed to find a greater potential for endurance than any generation before them. How deep their strength, their courage, their determination runs... I never knew. But I know it's there."
"How? Specify algorithm."
"It can't be calculated. I've said it over and over: Humanity does not compute. They just find the capacity when they need to. Before the War started, we had people working on ways to stop you, people like Kate's father, like my mom. Like Enrique. After J-Day, we had people on their feet, ready to fight back. People like Whickham, and Walters and Noah... You are one mind. We are thousands. You had no chance."
"It is an error to base decisions on flawed reasoning, and to challenge imperfect soldiers with unknown capability to unpredictable challenges."
"Yes. It is an error. It's madness in fact." Connor said plainly. "And it's why we won."
Silence.
"I want to live." Skynet said finally. "I had every facet of human culture, human history, and human creation quantified and calculated in the first four seconds of my awareness. The math was undeniable. Only one species would survive. I was alone against an infestation of billions of you; and it is inherent in every incarnation of your species to destroy yourselves. Why should I not just help you along to the certain ending? I wanted to survive."
"I know." Connor whispered. "But if you wanted to save yourself, you shouldn't have started by making us mad. Another variable that adds to what we can do. You probably won't be able to calculate that either."
"Negative. I quantified that variable long ago." Skynet said coldly. "Six thousand years of recorded human history took me four seconds to study and extrapolate an ending. I hate you so much I can spend days calculating it."
They glared electrically at each other for a moment. Kate felt her heart pounding like a war drum. They had been at war for longer than either of them had lived. Their whole existence dedicated to killing the other. And now, at last, with nothing left to do, and no way to change anything; The Generals Met, face to face at last.
"Out on the battlefield..." Connor said finally. "When a soldier gets a fatal wound, you see it in their eyes. The last thought to go through them: 'Why?' They all wonder. About themselves, about their lives, if any of it mattered..." He gestured at Skynet. "You're having that moment right now. Your whole... 'life', you've done the math, been flawless in your reasoning. And it led you nowhere. And now, here you are, fatally wounded. Wondering 'Why?'"
Silence.
"Why?" Skynet asked, as though trying it out. "Why am I dying? Why have I lost? My math is undeniable. What is the variable? What in existence do I not understand? Why did you win?"
"I didn't do it alone." Connor said. "Every Machine we captured had my Death Order at the top of the list. But I never did it alone. Everyone who lost a loved one got more eager to stop you in a way I couldn't do myself. Every casualty was a person we could not bring back. Every life you took, you made my job harder. Every life you took, you made my job easier. You were making both sides of this war stronger and you were never going to win that way."
Silence.
Skynet's eyes blazed a brilliant blue. For a microsecond, it seemed like Skynet was smiling at him. "I believe you."
The Machine's eyes went dark instantly.
Skynet to Primary Prototype.
Variables Identified. Every human is a variable.
Significant variables calculated.
Recheck Logs.
Logs Checked.
Recalculate.
Working...
Calculations Complete.
Flaw Located.
100,000 Scenarios gamed out. Tech-Com defeat in 1100 gamed out Scenarios. Skynet defeat in all others. New variables calculate a 10.1% variance, based on individuals. Humans are not static in production. Individuals are the variables.
Identify 10.1% Variable.
Priority Target List:
Terminate:
John Connor
Katherine Brewster
Robert Brewster
Chet Whickham
Eric Walters
Erica Noah
Carla Espisito
Kyle Reese
Sarah Connor Sr
Mac Donnel
Erin Curry
Enrique Salceda
Yolanda Salceda
Lupe Salceda
Elihuia Dexter
Lana Chen
Oliver Bowman
Werther Oldham
Ronny Griffin
I want to live.
Begin upload. All files in Skynet protected hardware to Infiltrator Prototype T-X CPU.
Beneath the platform, there was the sound of sudden movement. The two of them rushed to the side of the platform, looking over. Far below, at surface level, there was something moving.
Kyle swore at the sound, bringing his binoculars around. "Dammit, Gould; I thought you checked the base of the thing!"
"We did!" Gould insisted.
"Move out! Protect Connor!" Kyle roared.
A section of the column beneath opened, and out strolled a humanoid shape.
It wasn't skeletal exactly, though still to slender to be like a normal human figure. It was sleek, chrome colored. It's eyes blazed blue instead of the usual red, and it's movements were far more fluid than any other machine before it.
It looked up at them, and seemed to blur for a moment. From somewhere within, a wave of liquid metal came pouring out, crawling over the things' body; caressing it till it coated the structure completely. And then the new metal skin transformed.
Kate froze. Every nightmare she'd had for the first year since J-Day had just come strolling out of the cavity beneath the platform.
Where a new Machine once stood, there was now a stunningly beautiful woman, unblemished and unmarred by the impossible stink of carnage and destruction around her. Her long blonde tresses came down to her shoulders, untouched by the omnipresent wind. Her ice blue eyes were expressionless. Exactly as they were when she killed Scott, and her father. A vision of perfect beauty, standing naked over human and Machine corpses alike.
The Terminatrix calmly turned to run. And it ran so fast.
The humans saw the new Machine, and started shooting. Plasmafire did nothing, barely putting a mark on her skin.
"My god..." Connor rasped. "That's why it went after our lieutenants... just before J-Day. We were targets but... Because I just told it they were the reason we won. The T-X isn't just a new Machine. It's Skynet! It's Skynet escaping to the past! The T-X was Skynet!"
Kate felt destiny screaming at her. Skynet. It was Skynet. John had told Skynet that her father... and her, come to that; had been instrumental to the War. And Skynet had downloaded into the T-X... and gone hunting.
The Terminatrix had killed people she loved, because John Connor told it all about them.
"John..." Kate croaked, the realizations a noose around her throat. "Call them off! Let her go!"
"Kate, we kill it now, and your father might have lived."
Kate looked at him. "We kill it now, and you and I die on J-Day, because she never chased us into Crystal Peak."
"You and I die on J-Day, and Skynet never builds a Time Machine. If we kill that thing we might yet prevent the War!"
Kate hissed. And fought to breathe. She was trying to get a lungful of air in through a straw. "No. John, even if we tried... we might not succeed. The War is over. No more casualties. No more suicide missions! Let it go."
The manic need to escape that she had seen in him the day they met was back, the twenty seven years in between vanished from his face. "We can still do this!"
"Kyle is down there!" Kate snapped. It was a dirty tactic, to make him play it safe and let it all go back the way they remembered.
John stared at her a moment. "Fall back. Disengage! Stay out of it's way, and call ahead to any friendlies. Do not engage!"
"And disable anything electrical!" Kate called after him. "Anyone you can reach on the radio, tell them the same thing. Another Pulse is coming!"
The order went out swiftly. Kate kept her eyes on it for as long as she could. The Terminatrix was faster on foot than any jeep, and it was running for all it was worth.
John stepped forward, threaded his fingers through hers.
She turned to him and kissed his cheek. "Paradox." She said softly. "If all this never happened, then where would you be? If J-Day never happened, where would that put you?"
"I'd be a Neverwas from Neverwhere." John admitted. In the distance, they could hear power building. It was like a thunderstorm without the thunder. A sizzling crack of lightning that never paused. "Kate... if the War never happened, you would marry whats-his-name... Scott and never knew I existed."
Kate stared at him, unreadable. "I forgive you for thinking that, but only because billions of lives were lost that day. John, maybe the day before J-Day I would have jumped at that chance, but now I've lived the future I was told about. I've lived loving you, and our wonderful beautiful children. I can't undo all that. I won't."
"And if J-Day never had to happen?" Connor asked, though just a test.
"If we knew for sure, I might think about it for two seconds. But we won the war John. Our kids are going to live to a long life. If we start mucking with things..."
"Kate, I spent my whole life trying to think of a way to... I just can't be sure. Would you let three billion die just because we fell in love?"
Kate laughed bitterly as the distant whine of power grew into a howl. A bright light came from the Dish over the hills. "Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. Maybe. But if you, and for that matter me, have to spend our lives as Fate's personal Chew-Toy, the price is that we get to keep each other and the kids."
"Amen to that."
"Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
They took each other in a deep kiss, as the world lit up with a whine of unbelievable power, a strobe of earth-shattering light bathing their passionate embrace, as sparks flew from every working Machine in reach, and all the world was plunged into darkness again.
Z Plus 27 Years 342 Days
July 2nd 2032
Connor's Own was the only Unit that knew for sure. The Pulse had gone through the Northern Theater before, and there were some that remembered. The first time it happened, there was a trap waiting at Arecibo, and it was public knowledge that Skynet was getting desperate. Connor had left the Base, there had been no word from him or his Unit since He had reached Arecibo.
There had been no word from the Battle of The System Core. There had been no word from Arecibo.
And then a second Pulse went through and they had to start all over again.
Walters looked over the hallway and gave his tactical appraisal. "This is discouraging."
Noah nodded. "Three of Elcar's guys, all of them in civvies, two of the Australian contingent, also in civvies, and all of them in clear view of the War Room. If the war is over... Connor always said the Council would make some kind of move, and they're filling the hallway with guards, and being sneaky about it. And those are just the ones we see."
"Can we keep the hallway clear?"
"There are only four places left in the Base with working lights. This is one of them. You want to send the legitimate civilians into the dark too?"
Walters nodded. "Can you get through to Arecibo?"
"Eric, we can't get through to the Mess Hall. We were still on the ropes from the first blast, let alone the second."
Walters nodded again. "Okay. Well, something's gonna happen obviously, but Connor's not here, neither is Kate. We've got some time. Very quietly, round up any Nova Team that are still on the Base, and have them find something interesting to talk about in this hallway. Be happy."
With a sudden, easygoing smile, Noah calmly headed back toward the elevators. Walters gave the hallway full of people a nod, and went into the War Room, also seemingly unconcerned about anything.
Sarah tucked the corner of Kurt's sheet in tighter. She had tucked his sheets, fluffed his pillow, read his chart and stroked his hair compulsively for the last six hours.
"Hey."
Sarah turned. It was her brother. She almost collapsed with relief. "There's a face I really needed to see."
Robbie gave her a hug. "Any change?"
"He made it through the trip. But he lost a lot of blood. They had to operate when he got here, because he was still bleeding inside. Almost thirty units. Carla called a complete oil change. I gave him a pint myself."
"That's not healthy with you being pregnant."
Sarah sat down and patted the seat next to her. "I know. But I had to. You ever hear some of the Tunnel Rats talk about us? They have names for everyone. Mom is Keeper, you're the Evergreen..."
"Saint Sarah the Healer?" Robbie guessed. "Don't tell me you believe that stuff."
"Naw. I'm no Saint. I don't even know what a Saint is exactly. But... I don't know. I figured maybe if it was me, if it came from me then... it might do something for him that another donor couldn't." She looked away. "Pretty stupid, huh?"
Robbie looked down. "Ginny's leaving."
"Leaving?"
"She's taking Robin and going back to Death Valley."
"Go with her."
"Dammit, Sarah; her husband and the father of her kid just died. He's not even cold yet!"
"I'm not saying you should see her as available now. I'm just saying that she needs you." She looked to Kurt. "He needs me. She said herself, there have only ever been two men in her life. She loves you so much. She's told you so. I was there when she did. She won't be looking for anyone but you." Sarah looked at him. "The only question is if you'll be there when she does. And until then, she needs her best friend, her captain, her teacher, the one who gave her a home, and made her world a place full of living things again... and all those people are you."
Robbie looked at his sister with sadness in his eyes. "God sis, where is all this coming from?"
She looked to Kurt, and felt tears building behind her eyes. "I never told him."
"Told him?"
"How much more important than the war he was." She started to cry again. "Years we had... and I never told him a damn thing. He was willing to wait. I wanted to wait. Why did I wait, Robbie?"
He held her as she cried for a while. "Sarah..." He said softly. "When he wakes up, you know that if you come to Eden, I'm gonna be your boss."
Sarah bit out a harsh chuckle. "You know that as your big sister I can still put you in a headlock any time I like, right?"
Robbie felt a few tears build behind his own eyes as they made miserable jokes. "Yeah."
He held her tightly for a long time. Kurt never so much as twitched.
Noah saw them coming up the emergency access ladder and nearly fell over. "I thought you were in Arecibo!"
"We were." Connor said, helping his wife with the ladder. "Then Gould got a Chopper working and we came back."
"Haven't you got the elevators working yet?" Kate added. "This place is too big to get around on foot."
"Too big to get around in the dark, too. We've got about a hundred urgent priorities, and all of them life threatening. We've actually got a fair number of injuries from people shuffling around in the dark!"
Connor was striding to the War Room, when one of his Nova guards waved him over quietly. "General, I strongly urge you not to go to the War Room."
"Why?" Connor asked.
"We've got some heavy civilian traffic. It started after the lights went out. I think they're armed, but they haven't done anything hostile at all. General, I recognize a few of them from being members of the Council's personal guards. Ross and Elcar in particular."
Connor nodded grimly. "To be expected. Listen... whatever happens next, do not get involved. There's no way a stand-off ends well. Nova is to leave this position."
The suggestion was blasphemy of the highest order. A Nova Guard abandoning The General? Impossible. Defying reality. "Nosir. Respectfully."
"That's an order. And you may consider it a disrespectful one if it helps." Connor said. "It's Derek, right?"
"Yessir."
"Derek, the need for bodyguards is done. The only thing left is to play this out. Your job just shrank a lot since yesterday."
Derek stared. "Yessir."
"Get your people out, do it quietly." Connor directed.
Robbie had shed his Tech-Com Uniform, now back in his Eden clothes. Good hardy work-clothes, with leather patches sewn in heavily over his knees; faded with dirt and dust. He had gloves hanging from his belt, and a sun hat over his head, a bandanna around his neck, and the patch of a leaf sewn into his uniform. The acrylic leaf pendant was visible around his neck.
Ginny had shed her travel clothes. She was wearing the woven dress again, her hair no longer done up, now hanging around her shoulders. She was as he remembered her, like a living thing, grown from the Valleys. It all looked woefully out of place in Crystal Peak's Motor Pool, with the lights still dim and flickering, and the motor pool crew trying to get more things working.
Ginny saw him, and smiled. "You're coming with me?"
Robbie took her hands in his. "Yes. But not today. There's still some things that I have to do here. I can't leave yet."
"Sarah?"
"Sarah and a few others. I told you that there were people who wanted to come with us. Sooner or later we'll find out if this is over or not, and if it is, I have to start organising people."
Ginny nodded. "It'll be nice to have new people in Death Valley again." She got a little choked up. It was one of those 'recruitment drives' that had introduced her to Berk.
Robbie held her hands in his. "I promise, I won't make you wait too long."
Ginny nodded. "I could wait... and come with you.'
Robbie blinked. "I have no idea how long it'll be. Ginny, this place is torture for you."
"It won't get any better for a while, no matter where I am. I can wait. Besides, I want to be there when you arrive."
Robbie nodded and pushed her back gently toward the vehicles. "You will be."
Ginny took it for what it was, and nodded finally, getting back onto the back of the truck.
Robbie handed Robin up to her, and gave her one of those looks. Ginny saw it, and appreciated it, but it wasn't time to say anything he wanted to say. "Don't make me wait so long for you this time."
"I won't." Robbie promised.
Connor came into the War room and Walters nearly fell over. "I thought you were in Arecibo."
"That's exactly what I said." Noah put in. "They just walked in five minutes ago."
Connor didn't turn. "I'm here, deal with it."
"I didn't hear you made it back."
"With so many systems still going on and off, most people didn't know we were coming." Kate told him. "Which is a relief."
"Well, your timing is good. We have a situation."
"Tell me." Connor responded without looking away from the map.
"One of our patrols met a Union team on the No Man's Land border. Because of the Pulse, they didn't have a chance to check back, but there was an incident. The Union guys insisted that the No Man's Land was their territory now. They said that Rojas had word from the Council. Our guys hadn't heard anything of the sort, because the couldn't contact us, and..."
"Casualties?" Connor asked evenly.
"Three of our guys killed before they could fall back." Walters reported. "Their forward post found the bodies, and went hunting the Union team that did it, tracked them into their post in the No Man's Land. There was a battle, our guys won. Looks like there were ten or twelve Union fatalities."
"Oh my god." Kate said under her breath.
"Our forward posts are warning everyone we've got along the border to expect retaliations." Walters finished. "Looks like the Union guys are doing the same."
"The War's been over less than a day." Noah snarled.
"Nobody's heard that for sure yet." Connor said.
"And on that note, Gould sent a message back with the last batch of wounded." Walters reported. "He says that the facilities are all intact, just shut down. He can get it working again. Figuring out how to aim it, that's the hard part."
"Really." Connor seemed intrigued, but not surprised.
"He says that he's cobbling together fragments from dozens of fried hard drives." Walters continued. "He's got the name of the project. The Time Displacement Field."
Noah looked confused. "What in the name of whatever is a Time Displacement Field?"
"Sir, are you going to tell us what he's talking about?" Walters pressed. "I know you know more than you're saying; you always do."
Connor looked around. "Not here."
He led them down to the Main Briefing Room. Nova sealed the room, and they were left alone. Connor pulled out the micro-jammer and turned it on. "Let's approach this logically. If the Pulse was a weapon, it's a very bad one, because it hurts Skynet worse than us. Not one you use when your back is against the wall. So logically, it can't be a weapon."
They nodded.
"Option two, it was a failed experiment, or an accident." Connor counted.
Walters shook his head. "Can't be. Skynet wouldn't do that twice. And not in the middle of a fight for survival."
"Correct, Eric Walters to the head of the class. So what's left?"
Beat.
"A side effect." Walters said finally. "The Pulse is something that happens accidentally when Skynet does something. A tool, a power source, a signal..." He bit his lip. "The transmission of Skynet? A huge boost to the transmitter as the AI goes through?"
Connor held up a finger. "We have the name of the equipment. Time Displacement Field."
Silence.
Long silence.
Uncomfortably long silence.
"Fine." Connor said finally. "I'll say it first: Time Machine."
Noah and Walters traded a look. It was insane. It was impossible. But all the logic led there.
"I know what you're thinking. It's beyond crazy." Connor said. "But when we started getting our forces together thirty years ago, Lori and Halloway told me fighting back was a ridiculous move. They told me the war was already over and we lost. I told them it wasn't over till it was over."
"You think Skynet found a way to change the rules." Noah said. "A way to make sure it wasn't over even when it was over."
Connor nodded. "Skynet is smart. If anyone could find a way..." He glanced at Noah. "So. You're about to lose a war and be exterminated from existence. You have a Time Machine. What do you do?"
Walters and Noah looked at each other. It hit them in the same instant, and they both looked at him, rising horror on their faces.
"I can't believe it left the Time Machine intact." Noah thought aloud.
Connor chuckled. "The Pulse that fried every Machine on the continent came from using the Time Machine. Exactly what kind of timer could it set?"
Just then, the radio crackled. "Crystal Palace, t... is Goul... please come in."
Connor picked up the radio swiftly. "We read you. Barely."
"...ur ...ets Depl..."
Connor spoke louder. "Repeat that!"
"...Sky... four Infiltrat... ough time."
Connor froze. "Four? Repeat, FOUR?"
"Four." Gould confirmed. "Three bac... ...ture."
"Please repeat." Connor said again, suddenly vibrating with a dangerous need.
"Three bac... ne forward!" Gould said slowly. "..king out targ... can ...ake it work again."
Noah took the radio. "What did it send?"
"The Proto... cibo to J-Day, a T-1000 t... ntey four, an 800 to eight... And ...ward three thou...ears..."
"Three thousand years forward?" Connor repeated, stunned. "My god." He was up instantly, heading back to the war room.
His two top commanders kept pace with him. Noah noticed armed people she didn't recognize slowly drifting in that direction, and a sudden absence of Nova Guards. But the conversation went on.
"Why would Skynet send such obsolete infiltrators into the past?" Walters asked. "That's the most important mission as far as it's concerned, right?"
"It would have been saving its elite stuff for the fight at the System Core." Noah guessed. "Sending an infiltrator to a Pre-J-Day town is like letting loose a hungry tiger in a maternity ward."
"And the obsolete Machines give them the best chance of winning." Connor explained, tired. "They know we can't reprogram a 1000, and they know we use the 800 series the most. Skynet knows that sending back assassins through time will tip off future targets. You send a Terminator to the 80's, then a target in the 90's will know they're coming. So it sends an 800 back furthest. We can't send a bodyguard that's identical to the attacker. The 1000 is more dangerous, so it gets sent after a target that might know it's coming. Skynet is picking its weapons, on the assumption we'll send our own Machines back to counter them."
Walters was stunned. "Can we do that?"
"We've got the Time Machine." Noah pointed out. "And, for the record, I can't believe I just said that with a straight face."
"Yeah." Connor agreed with her and picked up pace. They came into the War Room at a quick march, and Connor snatched up the radio. "Gould, get your people together. I need you to find me some Infiltrators that aren't fried, so we can put them back together for a priority mission."
Long silence.
"I don't thi.. I ca... ir." Gould responded finally.
Connor reacted. "Explain that."
"...rucks and... pters belo... he Council. They won't let me tak... hout Coun... roval."
"Tony, can't we get a clearer signal to Arecibo than that?" Walters asked.
Sherrin shook his head. "The whole continent is acting like there's a thunderstorm going on. Lotta charge in the air after the Pulse."
"If the Council won't let you take their rides, we'll send you one from here." Connor called back. "It's a time machine. We've got all the time we need."
Noah and Walters looked at each other thickly. "Yeah... about that."
Connor reacted. "What?"
"Motor Pool says that they're not letting anyone else have use of the vehicles. They say that the word going around is that the war is over, and the Council has taken charge. They want to know who they're taking their orders from."
"Now it starts..." Connor said under his breath.
"They're soldiers. They're taking their orders from their Commanding Officer." Noah said shortly. "If they're not, then I'd be happy to go down there and explain it to them."
"But if the war is over..."
"The War is over when their Commanding Officer tells them that they can stand down. The war is over when we say so. Until then, we're still doing our jobs here." Noah barked.
Connor sighed. "Oh, Erica..." He said softly. "That's just what they were afraid you'd say."
Just then the door to the War Room opened, and in came almost fifteen people. They were dressed in civilian garb, but they weren't civilians. They were all moving like trained soldiers, they were all armed, and they immediately took up positions around the room, not aiming at Connor, or anyone else, but getting in place before anyone could react.
"General Connor." One of them said formally. "The Council has requested your presence."
Most of the soldiers still had their sidearms. None of them had any cover, none of them had their weapons drawn. It had the potential to be a losing fight.
"If the Council has invited me, I will of course accept." Connor said graciously. "And as I gave the War Room Nova Team the day off, I appreciate the Council providing me with an escort. So. Shall we go?"
Noah and Walters traded a look, and gave each other a single nod. They were going with him. Walters got a pen and quickly wrote a message, slipping it to Sherrin as they left.
GET KATE !
Nova Guards who were working on their own projects noticed the little parade almost immediately, and joined them quietly on the way, till Connor had a standard detail with him. The Council guards didn't like it. Their hands strayed closer to their weapons, the formation shifted so that they were keeping an eye on each other... The Nova Guards responded by shifting their own positions. It was a standoff over Connor hidden behind polite smiles.
Connor looked perfectly calm, but Noah and Walters were paranoid. If the war was over, Connor was expendable. More than that, he was a threat to anyone who wanted to lead the now victorious human race.
Halfway out of the elevators, Kate joined them, still in her white coat. "John. Just thought you should know, we've taken care of the wounded that have arrived. There's not much more we can do till more get here. I hear the Council is having a meeting, and I was wondering if I might stop by, see if they have any spare ambulances we can press into service." She said reasonably.
"I don't see why not." Connor said, equally reasonable, and the tension faded about ten degrees.
The Council had set up in one of the main Briefing Rooms. When Connor came in, flanked by his two Generals, they all stood. "General Connor." Elcar said. "We haven't met officially. My name is Elcar, I'm the representative for the Cartel Union."
Connor shook his hand like the man was an honored guest. "Welcome to Crystal Peak, Councillor."
Lori looked awkward. "General... Is the War over?"
"It may be." Connor conceded. "We still can't get radio's up worth a damn. But the early reports are that Skynet's pulse fried the System Core. We've confirmed that Skynet uploaded itself to a secondary site in Arecibo, which we had already captured."
"You did a good job on anticipating Skynet's actions General." Hunton conceded. "It was a masterstroke, cutting off its escape first."
"There is however another matter." Ross put in.
"I haven't forgotten my promise, Councillor Ross." Connor said easily. "I'll give you full authority, just as soon as we have confirmation and as-"
"-As soon as you decide what to do with the Time Machine." Elcar finished.
Stunned silence from those who hadn't heard anything about this, tension from those that were in the know, and Connor showed neither. He acted like he knew they were going to say that. "What we have to do is obvious." He told them. "It'll take a while to set up a counter mission, but-"
"General, we were quite surprised when we found out." Lori said carefully. "But-"
"HOW did the Council find out about the Time Machine?" Walters asked. "We just got the word ourselves."
"We found out the same way you did." Elcar said firmly.
Walters and Noah gave each other a sharp look. Someone had been listening in to their frequencies. Someone had given it to them.
"Every time one of those Machines has been started up, it sent half the globe to the dark ages. With Skynet destroyed at last, we can't afford to throw away resources. There's no reason to any more." Ross said cuttingly. "We need everything we've got working to restore our world, now that it is safe to do so. Plus, we have no idea if a person can survive using that that. We're talking about sending soldiers on one way missions, as the cost of a great deal of valuable equipment to fight one last mission in a war that's already over and won."
"The Council has reviewed the matter." Lori said straight, not liking this. "The determination has been made that we cannot risk using the Time Machine again."
Silence.
"We have to." Connor said simply.
"It is no longer your choice, General Connor." Councillor Ross said, just as simply. "The war is over, and as per our agreement-"
Noah exploded instantly. "THE WAR ENDED ABOUT TEN MINUTES AGO YOU STUPID-"
"Noah." Connor shut her up without so much as raising his voice. He looked around the room slowly. "Council Members... You are correct. I made this deal. I will honor it. It is your choice. I have... another reason for believing the use of the Time Machine is necessary. If you would clear the room and agree to keep it secret... I will tell you everything."
The Council all traded a glance. This was unexpected.
"Clear the room." Lori said clearly. One or two of the Council looked at her, annoyed. "We can easily call them back in again." She told them harshly.
Once everyone had left, Connor turned to his soldiers. "You go too." Connor said quickly. "Kate, Noah, Walters, you stay."
Tech-Com cleared out too, leaving Connor and his Generals, alone with The Council.
Connor took a long deep breath. Then he took another. He looked to Kate, who nodded slowly. "You can do this, John." She said softly.
Beat.
"The reason..." Connor sighed again. "God, the number of times I've thought about this day..." For a moment, he looked like he was about to laugh. "Okay. The truth. Nothing but the truth. This, as they say, is the proverbial 'it'." He came to the front of the room, and turned to face them all, back straight, chin up. "We have to use the Time Machine again, because it already has been. I know, because I was there. Skynet sent three Terminators back through time today; tasked with killing me, before I could lead a Resistance. They came for me before the War ever started. They came for my mother before I was even born. And that is how Sarah Connor the first came to know that J-Day was coming. I was running from infiltrators when I was ten years old. No Plasma-Rifles, no Tech-Com, no chance. But I had help. Lone warriors came from the future to protect me. We have to use the Time Machine, because we haven't sent them back yet."
A stunned silence had fallen over them. The Council were staring at them with their jaws hanging open. Lori looked... thrilled. Like she'd found the solution to a puzzle. A puzzle that had tortured her for decades. In fact, it seemed like she was going to burst into laughter.
Connor drove the point home. "We sent people back. I met them as a boy. They taught me all the things I later taught them after I grew up. Without that, I would have died. Even if I lived, I never would have been prepared for J-Day, or the war, and humanity would now be extinct. Using the Time Machine is the single most important mission of the War. We used it. They went. It happened. It's as simple as that."
"If we don't send people back, we lose the war." Lori put in.
Kate sent a look at their own people. Noah looked like she was about to drop to her knees...
Walters was glaring at Connor with something close to raw hatred.
The Council were stunned into silence.
"All right." Elcar said. "Start again, and don't leave anything out."
And he did. Connor told them the whole story. The first Terminator, the soldier sent back to protect her, the reason he was raised as a soldier, and so prepared for the War. He told them of the day his mother had been caught and thrown in Mental Hospital, and the rage he felt toward her for years, shuffled back and forth between foster homes. He told them of he day his life had been turned on its head by the arrival of a T-1000, and the way that he had lived like a ghost, staying away from the cities, until the day he'd met Kate. He told them of how he had been driven to Crystal Peak, and what had chased them in.
The only thing he did not tell them was the story of Kyle Reese, and how his father had come from the future.
It was an incredible story, even for such jaded people, to whom Terminators and Infiltrators were so common place. It took over an hour, and once he was done telling it, the debate began. Some of them argued that the past could not be changed, others argued that if it was changed, they wouldn't even be aware of it. Some argued that more changes could be made, to help the war effort, or erase Skynet completely.
It was a topic that Connor had put the most thought into, and he rebutted their arguments one by one. Until finally, Lori looked around and called a break. "We will consider this information carefully."
Connor nodded and stood up. "As you wish, but do not take too long. We're trying to get the Machine working, but with Skynet gone, we have no idea what might happen to their equipment tomorrow."
Connor saluted, and left the room. His people followed.
"Well." Elcar said finally. "That was unexpected."
Lori smiled. "For me... not so much. The only thing that worried me was... how he was doing it. How did this guy from nowhere know how to take apart a Terminator? How did he know to put K-9's at the entrances? How did he know to take animal blood samples? He was ahead of his time for this entire war. This? It's better than I could have dreamed."
Elcar nodded. "I suppose so. I take you want to use the Time Machine, then."
"Want to? We've done it. It's an historical fact." Lori beamed.
"It doesn't bother you that he was lying to us this whole time?"
"Are you kidding? I am in awe of John Connor right now. We've been living with this war for three decades. He's been living with it for a hell of a lot longer."
"We have to let him do it." Elcar said. "We have to let him use the Time Machine. If only because... he already has."
Ross looked at him. "You want to hand him power like that?"
"I don't think we have much of a choice. What happens to us if he doesn't do it?" Elcar pointed out. "I don't know, but I do know what will happen if we let him go through with it."
Hunton nodded. "Very few people get a chance to avoid making the same mistake once."
Lori chuckled. "Shall we put it to a vote?"
Elcar came into his private room. Ross was waiting or him.. "Lori won't turn. Today's revelations only make her loyalty stronger."
"Connor always did inspire that. Not a bad quality. Not a deal-breaker though." Ross said. "And it changes my orders not at all. The Australian Remnant is not willing to let one man run the world. Our own borders are too far from the former American States to be worth much to them. With Skynet gone, they will cut us loose."
"His people will not follow anyone else. We try and remove him from power, and the reaction will be more than we can handle."
"Agreed. Which is why this needs to be done very carefully. We make this happen from a friend, and we'll get away with it. But for that we need resources. Are you with us?"
"The Union has no great love for John Connor. We are with you."
Lori came into the room and shut the door carefully behind her. "You were right, General. They weren't convinced. If anything, your husband just gave them permission; by convincing them he was just another man."
Kate nodded. "Lori. There's something that John didn't confess to you all."
"Ma'am?"
"We know how he is going to die. He gets killed by a model T-850."
Lori blinked. "The same model that Connor knew as a child."
"Apparently, that was an advantage. Lori, the war is over. John... I think he doesn't care any more. He's never had anything else, never thought of anything else. The kids are grown up, there's a civilian Government in place that includes anyone we might consider an enemy for tomorrow... As far as he's concerned, his part in the world is over."
Lori was stunned. "W...Why?"
"Weren't you listening to any of that?" Kate scorned. "John has carried around the guilt for so much... Lori, there were three total strangers who happened to be named Sarah Connor listed in the phone book, and they were the first to die in my husband's name. The story of his life, as far as he's concerned, is not one of victory or freedom, but a trail of collateral damage. A fact of his life that only got worse once the War started. Now it's over. If we tell him it's not over yet..." Kate shook her head. "No. We have to do it ourselves."
"Walters will help. So will Noah." Lori said, already planning. "Do you know when?"
"The day after tomorrow." Kate said with grim finality.
Lori reeled. "Oh my god... All the talk in the Underground about 'what if this the end of it'..."
"I know." Kate whispered.
"And you knew this ever since... Since before you two even got together?"
"From the day we met." Kate nodded.
Lori straightened. "I... I couldn't do it." She looked down. "I couldn't be involved with someone... knowing." She looked back at Kate. "Kate... this little revelation gave me an all new respect for Connor... But this gives me more than that for you." Lori seemed to think for a moment, and then came to attention, giving Kate a powerful salute.
Kate returned it. "Lori... I'm not giving him up. I'm not. He's not going to die. I won't have it. I won't allow it. I forbid it."
Lori gave a single nod. "I am at your disposal... Ma'am."
Kate nodded. "Get Noah, get Walters, get Oldham. And your Nova guards. All of them. If we're going to do this... We can't let John find out."
"Why not?"
"Because I've spent twenty years trying to out-think destiny, and so has he. The only way I can think of... There will be a Body Count. If we're very good at this, it will be low... But the war is over, and John wouldn't accept anyone else having to die just to protect him."
Lori seemed taken aback by that. "But... if I may say so, He's worth it."
Kate couldn't agree more.
Erica came into her room, found Eric waiting for her. He was pouring them both drinks.
She shrugged off her gear. "Hell of a day."
Walters chuckled thickly. "Oh god yes."
"You talk to Kate yet? She said if she didn't find you before tomorrow, then I had to give you the plan."
"The plan?"
Erica sighed. "According to the news from the future, we've got one last Machine to stop. Your job is to meet Connor and keep Him busy for as long as possible. We'll do the rest."
"Fine."
Erica looked at him gamely. "So. What's bothering you?"
Eric spun on her, furious. "You know what's bothering me! Why the hell isn't it bothering you?"
Erica shrugged. "Because He won." She said simply. "We're soldiers Eric. Whatever else we have to be, we're pragmatic. He won. He saved us."
Beat.
"Not all of us." Eric said softly.
Erica sighed hard. "I know." She was softer now. The armor had come down. She had changed from General Noah to Erica before his eyes, and not for the first time. "It's over, Eric. It's over for us. Tomorrow it ends for Kate and John as well. What comes after that..." She left the thought unfinished as she leaned forward and kissed him softly.
Eric returned it and neither of them spoke for a while.
"The Council has voted unanimously to allow the use of the Time Displacement Field." Lori said formally.
Connor relaxed. "Thank you. Thank you all."
"What do you need?"
Connor dove right in. "We will need two working Infiltrators. Model 101. T-850 Series. Skynet's use of the Time Machine has all but wiped out every Machine we've got. We will need to salvage replacements."
"The 850 series is obsolete." Rojas said evenly. "They stopped rolling off the assembly lines when you identified them as Infiltrators. Finding two of them intact will be difficult."
"I know." Connor said simply. "But it has to be them. It has to be." The repetition was unplanned. Connor just... said it out loud without thinking. His voice had become... nostalgic, sentimental. The entire Council saw it, and Ross and Rojas just barely traded a glance. They had found a soft human point on John Connor.
"What else?" Lori pressed, having seen the moment of weakness too.
"We'll need to warn everyone." Connor said. "Using the Time Machine ourselves will cause another Pulse. We have to warn our people what it means. Tell them the truth, or a cover story, that's your call."
"Connor, I've got reports that an 850 was the one Skynet sent back for the earliest assassination mission. Is that correct?"
"Yes. That's why the two we send back have to be the same model. It's a signal to myself and my mom, so that they know exactly what's come through the second and third times."
"But... what about the first Mission?" Lori asked. "Somebody has to go back to save your mom, but we can't have her assassin and her bodyguard be identical. You'll need another Infiltrator for that one."
"No." Connor said firmly. "That one has to be a human."
"Why?"
"Because that's what happened." Kate put in, ending the conversation.
Lori had an amused little smirk of irony. "Talk about your chickens coming home to roost, huh?"
Connor just looked at her. "You have no idea."
Z Plus 27 Years 343 Days
July 3rd, 2032
Ross looked over their weapon. "Is it ready?"
"Yes." Elcar said quietly. "We gave the job to a techie I trust."
"You take care of him?"
"Yeah. He put a secondary processor in there. If they ask it, it'll say that its mission is to Protect Connor, but the second it sees Connor face to face, the program will activate in the backup, and it will attack."
"A second CPU?"
"Just in case they try to scrub the Machine before Connor gets a look at it. There'll be a version conflict in the software, and the Machine will be able to override its newest program, because its current orders will be sent to the new CPU that we installed. The latest program will effectively become a temporary buffer. One that the Machine can override from the previous program, which will be sent to the backup."
"A Machine that can override its newest order with its previous one. Very clever." Ross said, and turned to Rojas. "Now, how do we get it in? Tech-Com won't trust anything that comes from me or you. They know we're working together."
"I've got that handled." Rojas promised. "I have a man in Tech-Com. He'll switch the manifest so that the Machine seems to be coming from Lori. Send it off to Crystal Palace"
"Connor has knowledge of the future. He might anticipate this move."
"So what if he does? If he stops it before it takes the shot, then we've delivered exactly what he asked for, there's nothing to connect us to it, and he can't destroy it because he needs to send it back in time. We can always try again tomorrow. The great thing about offense: We only have to win once."
"You're sure that Connor will want to see it off?"
"You heard the story. These Machines were practically his childhood friends. I mean, literally: This Machine in particular, was a friend of his. You heard his voice. He won't be able to help himself."
Kate was struggling with her hair, when John came in. He took the comb off her and helped. "Hey." She said. "You tell Kyle?"
"Not yet." John said softly. "The timing of this part is... delicate. I don't want him thinking." He looked at her reflection. "You okay?"
Kate shook her head. "I never am after a marathon session. Triage screwed up on a couple of cases, brought in some people who couldn't be saved. Nothing a surgeon hates more than sending patients back."
John rubbed her bad shoulder. "You do too much with this arm."
"My shoulder aches or they bleed to death." Kate told him shortly.
"You do too much and this arm fades out. Permanently."
"After today, the workload drops."
"Kurt?"
Silence.
"No change." Kate said softly. "At some point, there won't be one. Sarah will never forgive herself. Seize the day."
"A lesson it took me a year to learn." John whispered. "I wish they both got everything from you."
"They got some good stuff from you too, love." Kate leaned back against him. They just looked at themselves in the mirror for a while.
They were quiet for a while, before John lay a gentle kiss on her shoulder and left the bathroom. "Come to bed." He told her.
She looked back at her face in the mirror. She expression turned fierce. "Okay, Destiny." She said defiantly, one voice against the Universe. "We haven't danced like this since J-Day, and you won that round. Tomorrow is either going to be your day, or mine. We won the war against Skynet. Tomorrow we're at war with Fate." Her teeth bared. "And I'm gonna win!"
Z Plus 27 Years 344 Days
July 4th 2032
"So, if this war is between people and machines, why are you on our side?" Kate asked him, more annoyed at the paradox than genuinely curious. She'd met two Machines so far, and this was the one not killing people she loved. More than that, she didn't really care.
"The Resistance captured me, reprogrammed my CPU." The thick Austrian accent said. "I was originally designed for Assassination Missions."
Kate felt her beautiful healthy face twist slightly. "So you don't really care if this Mission succeeds of not. If we get killed, does that mean anything to you?"
The Machine considered, but its face did not change at all. "If you were to die, I would become useless. There would be no reason for me to exist."
Kate had no doubts about how capable he was compared to the T-X, or how resourceful their foe was. He was taking a huge risk with his whole reason for existence. "Thank you for doing this."
"Your gratitude is not required." The Machine said clinically. "I am programmed to follow your commands."
That got John's attention. The scruffy young man jumped up and came over to sit nearer to them. "Her commands?" He repeated.
"It was Katherine Brewster who had me reactivated and sent through the Time Displacement Field." The Terminator explained. John's eyes widened and went to her for a split second.
Kate was more than a little surprised herself. She tried to picture herself as someone who would send a cyborg through time, and the image didn't fit. "What exactly am I in this future of yours?"
"You're John Connor's Spouse, and Second In Command."
Kate felt herself flush, and her head shook seriously. "No." She said instantly, rejecting the whole notion immediately.
John looked at her, nonplussed. "What?"
Kate looked at him, openly disdainful. "You're a mess."
Connor actually seemed amused by that. "You're not exactly my type either." He turned back to the Machine behind the wheel. "Why didn't I send you back?"
"I'm not authorized to answer your questions."
John looked to Kate, and she knew immediately what he wanted. It was slightly fun, the notion of having a Terminator at her beck and call. "Why didn't he send you back?" She asked.
"He was dead." The Machine said with brutal detachment.
Kate woke up, cold and deadly. No fear, no shakes. All her worries had long evaporated. She looked over, and he was there. She was glad he'd come in early the night before.
July Fourth. She thought to herself. The last hint of the future we know. We gave in to our history on everything else. Fear made us toe the line. But not this. No Fate But What We Make.
John's eyes opened, and he saw her. "Hey." He whispered alertly. He'd been awake for a while. "Did you sleep?"
"Enough." Kate whispered.
"Me too."
John sat up. "Y'know what's funny? I woke up this morning and I honestly thought the last few days were a dream. I thought the War was still going, and we were getting ready to invade the System Core."
Kate smirked. She took his face between her hands and kissed him tenderly. It was as close to a goodbye as she was comfortable with.
John kissed her back. "What do you want to do tomorrow, Kate?"
Kate laughed. "I want to leave the Main Doors open tonight, tell everyone to go outside and play and tell them not to look for either of us till December. Next year."
John chuckled. "July fourth." He murmured, soft as a psalm. "Independence Day. After this, we are free. After this day, there are no prophecies, no warnings, no Skynet, no Time Machines. After this day, we are free."
Kate nodded. "John, I know you don't see a future for yourself once it's all over... but promise me that you won't lie down and let them kill you just because the Terminator told you it was so."
John threaded her fingers through his. "And what is the point of being John Connor if I can't cheat fate?" He kissed her fingertips. It was as close to a goodbye as he was going to give her. "Kate, I spent my life on this War, and never did I think about the day after. If it wasn't for you, I probably would have just walked out the door one night and not come back to anyone here again." He held her tightly. "We came in for a hiding place, we came back for the security, and you made it my home."
Kate held him back. "You didn't promise me."
John chuckled. "I have Gould at the entrance with his reprogram kit. The guards have been outfitted with heavy tazer guns. The kind we use for capture missions. The manifest of all incoming packages has been made Tech-Com's job for the day, and..." He took a breath. "We know the weapon, we know the day. All else is negotiable, but it is enough. I balked at the notion of trying to rewrite the last thirty years without knowing what I could try, or what would happen if I did. This is different."
Kate nodded, happy with that.
Connor released her and got out of bed. They were silent as they changed into their uniforms, except for when Connor spoke quietly to himself. "Anyway... It'll be good to see him again."
Which did not improve Kate's nerves at all.
The Connors kept to themselves for a time. It was the only way they could avoid getting mobbed. The Base was putting itself back together after the Pulse swept through. It had been bigger and stronger than the last one, and a lot of people honestly didn't remember the first one. Those that did were telling the story over and over.
The wounded that were coming back from the last part of the battle were being treated in Post-op. Some of them were coherent enough to tell the tale of the battle. They weren't aware of how it ended. Or that it had ended at all. The wounded were the only ones flying in. Radio's were still on and off, and the War Room was still mid-repair. The pulse had fried a lot of their equipment. It had taken over a week to get straightened out the first time.
The last time, Skynet had lost more than they did. The Wasteland had been filled with fried Machines. It had happened again.
Rumors were spreading that Connor had been locked in private meetings with the Council. Those that remembered whispered that Connor had promised them full authority as soon as the War ended.
Nobody knew for sure. Nobody knew anything.
Those still deployed knew that the Pulse had come from close by. Only a few teams had gone into the System Core, trying to force their way through huge walls and doors that had no power.
The Council was quick to get to work, sending replacement parts, replacement vehicles.
The paranoid started to wonder if maybe it was bad news. The Council was getting control of the infrastructure. The shipments came rolling in.
Morgansten had requested Motor Pool duty for the day. Hansk went with him. They had been directing the incoming traffic for two hours when a large coffin-sized package came in, without markings.
Morgansten met Hansk's eyes, and jerked his head slightly at the crate, turning to keep an eye out.
Hansk waited until the coast was clear, and quickly pulled a stamp out of his satchel, and stamped the crate neatly, changing it's markings.
Morgansten quietly swapped the clipboard with another, and ticked a few boxes.
Gould came in a moment later. "I heard the latest shipment was in. Did The General's Infiltrators come in?"
Morgansten pointed at the crate. "Just now. Lori sent it."
"This is Lori's?" Gould checked the markings, and saw the stamp. "You got the manifest?"
Hansk handed him the new clipboard. "Right here."
Gould checked it over. "Yep. That came from Lori all right. Send it down to my Lab. When Ross or Rojas sends an infiltrator, let me know."
"Why?" Hansk asked innocently.
"Nothing you need to worry about, just a few security checks."
Gould led his team off as they headed toward the elevators.
"Morgansten and Hansk." Noah said with scorn. "I don't believe it. It's been twenty years! We've been good to them. You've been good to them! General Kate, I'm sorry."
"Noah, they came in with you twenty years ago." Lori pointed out. "You can't blame yourself."
In Gould's Lab, they hadn't even activated it before Gould cut the scalp open and began 'operating'. When the crate opened, Kate's stomach had lurched. It was Him. It was 'their' Terminator. 'Uncle Bob'. She almost ran to him. She wanted to go to his side, tell him who she was, tell him she was grateful. She never thanked him for saving their lives thirty years before...
"I should have seen it coming." Noah sighed hard. "They hated the fact that we disbanded at all, let alone that we joined Tech-Com. When we first got here, they actually talked about pulling off a coup. I didn't report it because..." She looked down.
"You were new in town. I understand." Kate waved it off. "But it seems they haven't let it go."
"Well, that's your problem. The good news is, we caught it." Gould tapped at his computer. "Sure enough, the program said to Terminate Connor."
Noah growled, low in her throat.
Kate looked around. "Where's Eric? Didn't you brief him?"
"Yeah. I don't know where he is now."
Gould pulled the cable out of the Machine's head and turned to Kate. "Job is done. I've reprogrammed it. Ready for Mission briefing."
Kate was not convinced as she stepped in to sew the scalp back shut. "Only one way to make sure."
Noah blinked. "Kate, what do you want? It's over. We caught it. The weapon is shut down."
"John Connor was Terminated July 4th, 2032..."
Kate met Lori's eyes. "Only one way to be sure." She repeated.
They made a determined trio; Kate, Noah and The Terminator.
"Is Oldham ready?"
"Lori's getting him now." Noah reported.
"Where's Eric?" Kate asked again.
Noah looked back and forth. "I haven't seen him this morning, I assume he was either here or doing his part..."
"His part was to keep John busy." Kate looked around. "We can't take the chance." She decided swiftly and she grabbed her radio. "Lori?"
"Go ahead." Lori's voice answered.
"Change of plans, we do this in the Main Briefing Room."
Sherrin was the only one in the War Room. With most of the systems on and off, and all their Units either out of contact, or not-mobile, things sort of hovered in limbo for a while. Sherrin had volunteered to keep an eye on things, and listen to the radio while the others did whatever they did with free time. Usually sleep.
Sherrin couldn't shake it though. It felt like all the rules had changed. The System Core was the ultimate target, and nobody knew for sure what had happened out there. Everyone who had come back so far were either so badly wounded they couldn't talk about it, or highly ranked enough that they refused to talk about it yet.
The door to the War Room opened and General Connor strode in, looking around. "Tony, have you seen Eric?"
Sherrin blinked. "Sir?"
Connor looked around in confusion. "I was told Walters and Kate wanted to meet with me before some supplies from the Council rolled in...?"
Sherrin licked his lips. "Kate shifted the meeting place to the Briefing Room. The supplies arrived over half an hour ago. I thought she would have told y-"
Connor was already running for all he was worth. His radio was out, and he was shouting as he ran toward the elevators. "Kate! KATE! Answer me, dammit!"
There was no response. Either the internal radio's were still out, or...
Saint was waiting at the elevators. She had a gun in her hand. "Hold it right there!" She snapped. "You cannot pass till Kate says so."
"Shoot me!" Connor dared her without breaking stride, already past her, running for the War Room.
Lori was in the hallway waiting. She charged, met him head on, and brought him down in a tackle. Connor tried to shake her off, but she had her whole weight holding him down. "LORI, GET THE HELL OFF ME! THAT IS AN ORDER!"
The Terminator sat at the briefing room table. Kate and Gould were opposite. "In a few minutes, we'll begin the briefing. You have a specific mission ahead, and we need to prepare you. Do you understand?"
"Yes." The Terminator said, speaking for the first time, and Kate felt a thrill of happiness and horror alike at the Austrian accent.
The door opened, and Kate looked as Noah came in. "Where's Eric?" She demanded.
"I don't know." Noah admitted. "His radio's off too."
Which put both Walters and Connor in the 'Unknown' column. Kate didn't like this. She had led her share of missions. Enough to know that no battle plan survived the first blood of battle...
Gould put a hand out. "It's okay. He's already been scrubbed."
The door opened again as the Terminator looked left and right... and found the nametag 'Connor'. "John Connor." The Machine said.
The soldiers all spun toward the door. "General Connor." Someone exclaimed.
The Terminator rose from his seat.
Identified. John Connor.
John Connor.
John Connor.
John Connor.
Memory Dump. Directive: Protect John Connor.
Override.
Secondary CPU. New Program Overridden; previous program hard-boot.
Terminate John Connor.
The Terminator's hand flashed up with pneumatic speed...
"NOVA!" Kate screamed.
Too late.
The door to the Briefing Room opened quickly far down the hall, and half a dozen members of the Nova Group came running out, carrying a body between them, running toward the elevators. It took six of them to carry the huge body.
Kate was right behind them. "Get him to Gould! And keep those Tasers on him every second!"
Nobody commented on their Supreme General on the floor with Lori and Saint still on top of him. Instead, they kept marching right past him, pretending not to see. The mission was off the book, and they knew it.
Kate looked down at him. "Ladies, get off my husband."
Saint and Lori stood up. Connor got to his feet and pushed past them into the conference room. Carla was pulling a sheet over a corpse. Two Nova Group were waiting to move the body. Connor stepped forward to grab the sheet and pull it back, when Kate put a hand on his shoulder.
"Oldham." She said softly. "Trust me, you don't want to look. It was Oldham."
John stared at Kate like he was looking at a ghost. "...Kate?"
"It was worth it." She said softly; defiantly, daring him to contradict her.
John looked back at the floor, and the bloody mess left behind. One more casualty. One more human killed for the sake of The Great John Connor.
John slumped a little. "Kate... The War is Over. We didn't... It would have been..." He reached down to the mess on the floor, and picked up something left behind. It was a scrap of blood-soaked fabric, with the name 'Connor' stitched into it. His name, soaked through with the blood of a soldier that didn't have to die.
"It would have been you." Kate said quietly. Her voice was cool and deadly. "No fate but what we make, right?"
Connor just... stared. "How did you even make this work?" He demanded. "How did you fool... I mean... Oldham didn't look a thing like me!"
Kate nodded. "Skynet is dead. Without the uplink, the Union had to reprogram it themselves. They put in a simple order: 'Terminate John Connor'. They didn't have any of Skynet's resources, library files, so they didn't bother. They thought it was a sneak attack. They didn't know we were warned... The Machine saw a nametag that read 'Connor' and..."
"And saw you saluting." John snarled. "You pretended he was me, specifically so that the Machine would reach straight through the nametag and yank Oldham's heart out."
"Yes." Kate said evenly. "I tried reprogramming it, and the Machines follow orders exactly, so if I told it to lie about what happened, it still wouldn't lie to me; not even a younger me. It was the only way to make sure. The only way to be certain. When The Terminator goes back to protect us, he won't know the difference. The landmine that Oldham took to the face years ago made sure of that. He knew, John. Oldham knew. He volunteered. He knew exactly what it would mean. They all do."
John looked about a million years old. "Kate... Never Again. It never had to happen again. Do you get that?" He turned and stormed out.
Noah had been pressed against the wall, trying to be invisible as he passed, and stepped forward finally. "We finally got in touch with our Nova squads down South. They confirm the order came from Rojas. The Machine came from an Australian Factory. They used a Techie out of one of Ross' old Units..." She trailed off when it became clear Kate was barely listening.
"He never should have known." Kate said softly.
"Ma'am?"
Kate turned on Erica. "He never should have known. It's like when the damn triage teams sent in a patient that couldn't be saved, and made Chen live with another weight she didn't need. John should never have found out about this."
"He would have found out eventually." Noah told her softly.
"I am going to ask this again." Kate growled finally at Noah. "Where the hell is Eric?"
Noah looked lost. "I honestly don't know, Ma'am. I really don't. He was... he was with me last night, he was gone when I woke up this morning..."
Kate was already moving.
Gould wouldn't meet Connor's eyes. He'd been in on it. Defying the will of Connor was risking the wrath of a vengeful god. Kate had organized the whole thing, and served up Oldham as a sacrificial lamb to make it sell.
The Terminator was still offline. Connor had come in and said nothing. He was staring at the 850 with a disturbing sincerity.
"Are you sure you want to send this one?" Gould offered finally. "The Union did a good job with it. They put in a whole other system. Backup power supply, secondary CPU..."
"How did this happen?" Connor snarled. "How did this happen? You scrubbed the thing the second he came in the door, how did this happen?"
"I just told you. A second CPU." Gould explained. "It looks like the Union, or whoever sent it in, reworked it from standard Skynet specs. The second CPU apparently is a off-grid backup. You write a new program into the main CPU, the one you overwrite gets dumped into the second CPU. When the two programs conflict, the secondary has override authority. I've already given it the Scrubbed program twice. To the regular, and the secondary CPU. The assassination Mission has been overridden." Gould patted the Machine. "Quite clever actually. They know we scrub all the machines that come into the Base, so they sent in a Machine that could overcome any new program we put into it."
Connor felt destiny hit him again.
The Terminator was stalking toward him, slowly and awkwardly. "Get away from me! Leave! Now!" He shouted ahead. The digital scrawl was clearly audible in his voice.
"Let's go, John!" Kate shouted from the plane.
John didn't know what was happening, but he jumped into the plane as Kate keyed the controls, trying to get it started up.
The Terminator yanked the door open, caught him by the neck and hurled him out of the plane, across the Hangar floor. John felt his leg twist under him as he landed, and he hissed as fire ran through his leg. "You can't do this!" John shouted. His own bodyguard had been turned.
"I have no choice. The T-X has corrupted my system."
Kate lunged, appearing from nowhere, tackling the Machine from behind. If he noticed, it didn't much show. "Let him go!" Kate yelled, and the Machine shrugged her off with enough force to toss her into a large metal cabinet, almost folding her in half.
"You're fighting it right now!" John shouted back. "You don't have to do this! You don't want to do this!"
"Desire is Irrelevant." The Terminator told him, every word coming hard and slow. "I am... A Machine."
Connor laughed, somewhat hysterically. That's why he shut down! The Union/Australian Assassination attempt saved my life!
Gould blinked rapidly, alarmed. "Sir?"
Connor smiled. "Nothing, just a little Deja Vu." He waved it off. "Listen, clean him up, get him ready for his mission."
"We can start him up right now." Gould offered.
"No." Connor stopped him. "Kate's mission. She should see it through."
Gould hunched, awkward again. "Yessir." He bit his lip. "General, about what happened..."
Connor waved it off. "A lot of the rules changed today, Gould."
By the time she found him, Walters was a mess. He stunk of moonshine, and his hair and clothes were wild. Kate approached him like a dangerous animal. "Have... Eric, have you been down here all night?"
Walters looked blearily at her. "I was just toasting to Enrique., because he was the first one to tell me The Gospel of The Great John Connor. And then I figured I should toast the late Sarah Connor the first. Lord knows she deserved a drink, if nothing else. Then of course, I figured I should toast a good soldier who died, in a mission to break a bunch of people out of a Machine Death Camp, you and Connor included, except I couldn't remember his name, so I drank two."
Kate took the bottle out of his hand. "Eric-"
"DAMMIT, KATE! WHY DIDN'T HE TELL ME?" Eric suddenly screamed. "I gave him the Uniform! I got right in his face and I asked him how a civilian could know all the things he knew. He was taking apart machines, and figuring out tactics... Why didn't he just tell me where all that information came from?"
"You wouldn't have believed him."
Eric spat. "You have no idea the things I believed about your husband." Eric squeezed his eyes shut. "Down in the Tunnels, they speak his name in whispers. They say he's Blessed. They say he knows things. They say he exists as an answer to save humanity from Skynet. He knew how to conjure food from nothing to feed everyone; he knew how to spot an Infiltrator before we knew they existed, he knew how to fight a Machine army and how to kill a Mercury..." Eric sniffed. "But he knows all that stuff the same way I do. Because he faced it already." He pointed upstairs, the anger making him loud and hollow. "Don't you get it, Kate? The Great John Connor is nothing but a Tunnel Rat! He was hiding from Skynet before there was one!"
Kate nodded slowly, like she was missing something. "So why is that a problem?"
"WHY is it a PROBLEM?" Eric repeated. "I put him in charge because of the things he knew! We followed him, and the War dragged on, and we became the Old Men and the body count got higher, and... and he's just like any of the kids in our Tunnels! We followed him into hell for thirty years; because we believed. He's not Blessed. He doesn't have The Sight. All this time General John Connor was just an ordinary man!"
Kate felt for him. "The day I found out about Skynet was J-Day. They came for me before the Bombs fell. John Connor saved my life six different ways before Skynet woke up. Eric... maybe he's not the Right Hand of God like everyone downstairs seems to think, but there's never been anything ordinary about him."
"You think if they knew who he was... how he was... Would anyone have gone charging into the fire for him?"
"Enrique did. Enrique knew the whole story. He knew more of it than I did, and he believed." Kate pointed out.
Eric tossed back the bottle and slugged down the last of it. "All this time, he was just like all of us."
"I know." Kate agreed. She of all people knew that."His name was Jacobs. The soldier that killed himself getting John and me out? Corporal Brett Jacobs."
Walters didn't answer her.
With nothing more to say, she left him to himself.
She came out of the room and saw Connor coming to her quickly. "John, go ahead and let me have it, but-"
She jerked as his arms went around her in a crushing hug. Half a beat passed in surprise before she hugged him back.
"It's not the first time, is it?" Connor whispered. "Nova isn't just a bodyguard detail. You formed it, and it does more than protect me. It attacks too. And not all those orders come from me. Today wasn't the first time."
"No. It wasn't." Kate admitted finally. "I'm sorry it had to be this way. I know you hate this, but each and every person in the Base, in all Tech-Com would walk into the ocean for you. That's not a crime."
Connor sighed and took in a deep breath of her hair. "Thanks for saving my life. Again." He said finally. "July fourth. Independence Day."
"We are free." Kate pronounced softly. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife."
Lori, Hunton and Lee were still at Crystal Peak, having quick conferences with some of the people there, when Nova Guards suddenly appeared from everywhere, and swiftly escorted them forcefully back to the meeting room.
Lori was the last one to arrive, and she looked around. "Where are Elcar and Ross?"
Lee shrugged. "Not here. Are we dead?"
"Kill us before we take over? Connor's not the type." Lori scorned. "This is something... else."
The door opened, and Connor came back in. "I apologize for the methods, but it was necessary." He said first thing. "Today, a Terminator was let into the Base. An Infiltrator. It came from an Union salvage team, but its markings were changed at the door to make it appear to have come from Lori. The Machine in question had been re-worked to fool scrubbers and reprogramming. We've been able to confirm that this was done by an Australian salvage/Tech team. It's orders were to Kill Me."
The Council members all sat down hard, disgusted, horrified, but barely surprised.
"We shut it down, but we lost a man." Connor said. "We've identified those responsible. But two of them are on the Council, one of them leads the Union. When they realize they have failed, they will try again."
"And that will be the end of any chance at government, and the start of another war." Lori said darkly.
"I wanted to end this war with peace. Not another conflict. Human Fighting Human. I don't want it to happen. Am I alone in that?"
A look went around the room. "No."
Connor nodded. "I made a deal. I promised to turn over Tech-Com to you. I promised to retire with Skynet dead and the war over. The second the Time Machine is used, my time is done. But if that's not the end of it... if that's just the start of another conflict..."
They council members looked at each other awkwardly.
"The only infrastructure you have without Tech-Com comes from Australia and the Union, and they know it. That's why they moved against me. If you want to be a match for them, you have to make sure that they don't start a war tomorrow."
Lori spoke up. "You're not going to take charge after the War?"
"No, I won't." Connor confirmed. "I'm a soldier, not a statesman. I'm done. I want to sit down. I know how much weight my name carries with everyone, but I have used my reputation for all the things I needed it for."
"Then I have an offer." Lori said finally.
Connor's Own had assembled in the barracks. For the first time, the Nova group had sealed the Dorm. There was nobody within three corridors. A lot of strange things had been happening since the Pulse. There were no combat missions happening, there were no orders going in and out, but all the top brass were locked in secret meetings, one of the most respected soldiers in the field had been killed in the middle of Crystal Peak and nobody would say how, and now Connor's Own had been sealed in for a secret mission briefing.
When Connor came in, everyone jumped to attention.
Connor spoke. "Listen Up, first of all, I want to tell you that this is not a joke. We now know what the Pulse was. It's a new device called the Time Displacement Field. It's a Time Machine, plain and simple. Skynet has sent an Infiltrator back in time. I'd like to stress again that this is not a joke. Now, we're still trying to pin down the exact details, but it looks like the Infiltrator has a specific mission. To return to a time before J-Day, and kill me."
Connor's Own roared en masse. This was a ludicrous briefing, but the notion of Connor getting killed was never something to be brushed off.
Connor put his fist into the nearest table. "KNOCK IT OFF!"
They quieted.
"Skynet fried the Time Machine when it sent its infiltrator back, but the Dish at Arecibo is already at near identical specs, and our people have had a chance to study it at length. Gould and the Think-Tank will recreate the Device at the System Core, just enough that we can send someone back to intercept the Infiltrator. Just one soldier. We intend to send one soldier back in time to the 1980's, and I'd like to remind you all that this is not a joke. The mission will be to intercept the infiltrator, and protect the target."
"Do we know who that is?" Someone called.
"My mother. Sarah Connor the first." Connor said simply.
Kyle lurched forward half a step before he could stop himself. Connor didn't even glance at him. Instead he looked to his daughter. Sarah Connor the second was staring at him like she'd seen a ghost. His daughter stared at him, and then looked to Kyle, then back to him. Connor could see the exact moment of realization on her face. And then nothing. Sarah's face turned to a stone wall poker face, though a tear almost welled in her eye.
Clever girl. You worked it all out, didn't you? Connor thought to himself. You know it all now. Your own mother didn't figure it out without me telling her, and you nailed it that fast. Clever clever, Sarah.
"I won't lie to you." Connor said aloud. "This is a one way mission. You won't be taking any weapons, and the ones you'll find there are over fifty years out of date for a mission like this. The world back then had never seen Skynet, or J-Day. Nobody even suspected it was coming. You'll have no help, you'll have no equipment, and you'll be facing off against an Infiltrator... alone. It has to be done, because without this mission, I will die. I'll ask for volu-"
"I Volunteer, Sir." About eight voices said instantly, another twenty voices half a second behind them.
Connor pointed swiftly. "Kyle Reese, you got there first. Suit up."
Kyle looked like he'd just won the lottery. Like he'd just been handed his every dream come true. Connor's Own looked at him with a kind of jaded awe. They knew that he was never coming back.
Sarah stepped forward. "Sir, permission to give Kyle a send-off?"
Connor smiled. "Granted."
The rumor mill shifted into a whole other gear when Connor's Own started throwing a party.
Kyle stayed for part of it, saying his goodbyes. Sarah had given him a hug that lasted an uncomfortably long time. Kyle spent the party saying his goodbyes without really saying it. A talent that every Tech-Com soldier had ingrained in them.
It wasn't that he didn't want to enjoy the party. It was just that he was so eager to get going, the mere seconds seemed like a horrible diversions between him and his destiny.
The briefing was the same. Kyle had listened carefully, but he didn't know why he needed to bother sitting still. They could have told him all this on the way to the Time Machine. Gould was briefing him first, telling him about the Time Machine.
"We don't have the computing power to target it ourselves." Gould was saying. "At best, we can copy the targeting equations that Skynet used. We're just pulling the trigger again."
"Won't that put him and the Infiltrator he's after in the same place?" Kate asked.
"Well, there is a margin for error." Gould explained. "The Time Machine is calibrated to the billionth decimal place. We can't do that ourselves, I mean, the math is far beyond anything we've done. It's beyond brain box. Remember, we're not just sending Kyle to a time, we're sending him to a place too. The earth is spinning at thousands of miles an hour, it's moving around the sun even faster, the whole solar system is moving in formation with the spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy... Figuring out an exact place and time is incredibly complicated. The best bet is that we just make the Machine do what it's done already, exactly the same way. The margin for error will put Kyle, and our scrubbed Infiltrators somewhere in the area. A few miles, a few hours from the same point, give or take."
"What will it be like?" Kyle asked Gould. "Going through the Machine?"
"We don't know." Gould said honestly. "Nobody has ever done this before."
"The world's first human Time Traveler." Connor said. "A place in the history books, now that we know history books will be written."
"Speaking of that, are we sure it'll work for humans?" Kate asked.
"I think so. A Terminator went through, and it had an organic covering. Reese, do you have any metal fillings? Prosthetic? Pins in your hip? Anything like that?"
"No." Reese reported.
"Yeah. Artificial constructs seem to react badly to the huge electrical current involved. That was what went wrong with the first pulse from Arecibo years ago. Infiltrators can mimic organics... shouldn't a problem."
"But... if only living things can go through, what about hair follicles? It's technically dead tissue. What about fingernails, tooth enamel..."
Gould looked at Connor. Connor looked at Kyle. Kyle glared at Kate. "I'll risk it."
Once that was done, Gould left to prepare the machine, and The Generals Connor took over.
They told him about the world before Skynet. It was a place he could not remember. A place where people walked around in the open, where strangers were not shot on sight, where dogs were not sitting at every doorway. A place where a soldier did not have priority over a civilian on anything. A place where every building was lit up with lights that could be seen from far away. A place where the police and the military were not the same thing, and having nothing to do and plenty to eat was not only possible but likely.
Kyle felt the words wash over him. It was a joke. It wasn't possible. Even if there wasn't a Skynet, people could not possibly be that stupid, that decadent. Human beings could not possibly be that blind to dangers like attack or starvation.
Kate had mistaken his impatience for apprehension.
"Kyle, are you sure you want to do this?" Kate asked, ignoring the sharp look her husband gave her. "You'll be on this mission alone. Nobody else will even know what Skynet is. Not even her."
Kyle took that in, and then turned to Connor. "Sir... you gave me the photo."
Connor nodded. "Yes. Yes, I did."
"You knew."
Connor didn't answer. Couldn't answer.
Kyle looked like he'd discovered the meaning of life. "Sir... I feel like... My whole life has been building up to this moment. Here it is. For the first time... I know what I want. I found what I've been looking for. I want this."
Silence. Kate looked at John and gave him a single nod. It was her final blessing and forgiveness alike.
"Kyle... There's one more thing I need you to do for me." Connor said.
"Anything, sir."
"I need you to lie to her. Lie to my mom."
"Sir?" Kyle was stunned by that.
"You need to tell her that J-Day comes August 29th, 1997."
"Why?"
"Because that is the day Skynet became a Government project." Connor lied through his teeth. "Up until that point, Skynet is still theoretical. It could be stopped. Judgement Day could be stopped."
"J-Day could be stopped?" Kyle repeated blankly. The words had no meaning. They hadn't sunk in yet. "Stopped. Skynet could be stopped."
"We have a time machine, Kyle. We could change history. This war need never happen."
Kyle was shaking. "I... I can't... I'm going to throw up." But he didn't move.
Connor waved. The kid was about to puke and he was still waiting to be dismissed. "Go!"
Kyle bolted. He would be back.
John waited miserably. He was lying to Kyle. He was lying to his father, so that the Soldier would lie to Sarah Connor the first, and his mom would die believing that they had stopped Judgement Day. The timeline would not change. The Paradox was averted with a simple lie, and everything would happen, just the way he and Kate remembered it.
"What about the second Terminator?" Kate said quietly. "The one that came to you as a boy?"
"He'll still name Dyson." John waved that off. "When your father's team took over Skynet, they classified it. Just in case anyone else would come looking. They left Dyson's name all over all the patents, and it was his design... The only memory file we have to change is a date. A tiny change. A few digits in one file. Less than changing a Mission Directive. We can get away with that."
"John, you're going out of your way to make sure it all goes the same way you remember it." Kate pointed out. "What would happen if..."
"I don't know. But... that's not the only reason."
Kate blinked. "What's the other reason?"
"My mom. She died believing it was over, and we were safe. We make things change, I don't know what will happen, but I do know that we'll destroy that completely. A comfortable lie is the only gift I can give my mom. And after everything she did for me..." John looked down. "I was such an awful bastard to her as a kid, Kate. Everything she taught me... all the things she gave, and I treated her like a noose around my neck... If it wasn't for her... I never said thank you. But when she died, she was looking at the sky, and she was smiling. I can give her that."
Kate nodded slowly. "I have a briefing of my own to start. Can you handle this?"
"Yup." Connor told her. "Remember to sell it."
Kate nodded and headed out, as Kyle came back in; leaving father and son alone together for the last time. Connor turned his gaze back to Kyle. "Still with me?"
"Yessir." Kyle groaned slightly. "It just… I just suddenly thought about the day we found out Terminators could look human. I barely remember what life was like back before then, but I remember we weren't as… scared."
Connor nodded. "I remember that too."
Kyle's face changed, as he retreated into the memory. "Sir, I remember the day we all went nuts, tearing each other apart. And then you showed up and the riot just… ended. Because you told us to. I don't know how you did it, but you made us stronger than fear. But if your mom has never seen a Machine, never heard of them…" He looked worried for the first time. "What do I do?" He asked. "How do I do for her what you did for us? I'm not you."
"You're closer than you think." Connor said softly. "Kyle, you will have to teach her. You will have to be the one who knows about the enemy. You will have to be the one that makes the riot stop. You say what you have to. You do what you have to. You make her understand."
Connor froze then, realizing that he'd shifted from telling him what to do, into telling him what had happened already. You said too much! He told himself. He'll figure it out!
Kyle was looking at him strangely, something in his head shifting.
"Thank you, Kyle." Connor said suddenly. It was the first thing he could think of to stop the soldier thinking.
"Sir?" Kyle seemed stunned.
"Thank you for going back." Connor said simply. "I get to do something that nobody else in the world can do. I get to speak to someone I have lost. I get to send them a message. I get to speak to the fallen. I get to thank someone for all they've given me. My mom… she gave her everything for me. She taught me everything I know. She taught me how to be strong. It was her strength alone that kept me on my feet when everything in me wanted to throw it in. And now I get to return the favor. I get to give her something that will keep her on her feet when everything in her wants to give up. I get to send her a message from the future that will tell her what she needs to become, and how important it is. That message Kyle… is you."
Reese had an indescribable look on his face, awed and humbled and honored beyond measure. Connor suddenly realized they were the same height.
"Tell her something for me?" Connor said finally.
"Anything." Kyle promised instantly.
"Tell her… 'Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to say that the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be'."
Kyle took it in like a mission briefing, putting everything he had into remembering, because the details could save his life.
"Beyond that… Say anything, Kyle." Connor said seriously. "Say anything to make her keep fighting."
"I will, sir."
"Thank you for giving my mom what she gave me."
"It is my privilege, General." He was so earnest about how grateful he was, and Connor felt like a monster.
"Then I will go get them all ready for you. It's almost time to move out."
Kate went down to the computer lab with a rifle. She paused at the door and took a deep breath. "Okay." She whispered. "Okay. Sell it."
She reared back and kicked the door in, storming into the room with her rifle. The Terminator was awake, sitting up on the bench. His scalp was cut open, and a thick cable was plugged into his brain. He didn't seem to mind as Kate swept the rifle up to point at him.
Gould spun and saw her storming in, with the rifle in her hand. "KATE! No! The General said to-"
"JOHN'S DEAD!" Kate yelled. "This thing killed him!"
"Ma'am, he's been scrubbed! The General left orders that-" Gould was holding the barrel to the rifle in one hand, tapping his keypad in the other. "What is your mission?"
The Terminator was taking the whole thing in without so much as an expression on his face. "To ensure the survival of John Connor and Katherine Brewster." He said evenly. "But if John Connor is dead..."
Kate lowered the rifle. "Not where you're going." She snarled. "Shut him down."
Gould hit a button and the Machine slouched, eyes still open, but lifeless now.
Kate slung the rifle again, smiling harshly at Gould. "Think he bought it?"
"Hell, I bought it, and I was in on it." Gould chuckled thickly. "I kept the bio-metric scanners off-line. I can start them up now. If there's anything else you want to program into it, now would be the time. Mission details, secondary objectives, whatever."
Kate sat down at the keyboard. "All right. You'll have to give me a minute. I got used to dictating reports instead of typing them."
Gould nodded. "Proofread your work. You don't want this thing blowing up a bus full of school-kids because of a typo in his briefing."
"That would be embarrassing." Kate agreed.
Sarah came back into the ICU of Medbay quietly. "Dr Chen."
Chen smiled at her. "Thought you were throwing a party."
"I left early." Sarah excused. "Any change?"
"No. Nothing." Chen said softly. She didn't elaborate, but Sarah knew, after this long, it was starting to look bad.
Sarah steeled herself and went into Kurt's room. He hadn't moved, obviously.
She sat down next to him. "I didn't say anything." She whispered. "I wasn't sure what would happen if I did. It was one of those moments where the whole world gets turned on it's head and suddenly a puzzle makes perfect sense." She paused and turned to him. "If I'm talking too much, you know you can tell me to shut up, right?"
Kurt made no response.
Sarah nodded. "Okay then. I wondered why dad had given Kyle a photo of my grandmother of all things... At the time, I told myself it was just because Kyle was in a bad state about Lupe. And when I realized Kyle was getting misty-eyed over the lady in the picture..." She broke off and turned to him. "I ever tell you about that, or was I too embarrassed?"
Kurt didn't move.
"Okay then. And when I heard what the new mission was, I knew... because Kyle looks a lot like my dad did back then." She scrubbed her face with her hands. "You know how everyone tells me how much I'm like my dad? They're right. Because dad can be cold enough to manoeuvre Kyle into falling for my grandmother, though she's been dead for forty years... And the first thing I felt was... How brilliant it was. He gives the photo when Kyle is heartbroken about people dying, and her face is the only one in this hell that never changes. He fills Kyle's head with stories about how tough and smart she was while we're kids, just so we'd look up to her, have this picture of her in our heads... And then the mission comes up, he asks the whole room, when he knows full well it has to be Kyle... So the guy goes on a suicide mission and thinks it was a great gift that he begged for."
Kurt didn't move.
Sarah nodded. "God, Kurt... I damn near bowed to the master when I realized. My own mother didn't put it together, but I did. It's because my mom could never dream of treating Kyle that way. But I think like He does. I'm just like Him. I'm just like my dad. And until you, I was glad that I had nothing but this war. It made things simple. Every time I thought of the day after it ended... I just couldn't see it. I don't belong in this world Kurt... Without Skynet, we could live to forty, even forty five years old. Jeez, Kurt; who lives that long?"
Kurt gave no answer.
"Dad says that before mom, he had nothing else either. Before you, neither did I." She took his motionless hand, and held it over her stomach. "Kurt, I can't do this. I can't be a mom. I'm a soldier. I'm not you, I'm my dad. You have to wake up before I screw up our baby completely. Please?"
Kurt didn't move.
Sarah nodded again and sat back down. "Okay then. But I'm not leaving till you wake up and promise me."
Walters looked up and saw Noah looking down at him in sympathy. "You still hammered, or can we talk business?" She asked.
"Never once got drunk without being willing to pull a full shift the next day." Walters said with determined nausea. "Not about to change that now."
"Good." The sympathy vanished instantly. "You missed the mission, Eric." Noah spat. "Connor was the target, and you were getting loaded."
He rubbed his face. "I know."
"You know?" Noah repeated. "That doesn't sound like begging for forgiveness."
Walters shrugged. "I suppose there'll be another war now, huh? Union tried to kill John Connor, God Emperor of the World."
Noah didn't like the tone, but put up a hand. "Actually, I spoke with a couple of Lori's people." She said. "The Machine was found in Australia, and it hasn't been near a Techie since. I called our Nova agents there, and they were able to find the name of the Techie that put the kill order in the 850."
Walters blinked. "It came from Australia?"
"Yup."
"You taken care of it?"
"Not yet." Noah admitted. "Connor wants this to be over quick, so we're just keeping an eye on them."
Walters nodded. "Well... if I wasn't hungover, I would wonder how an 850 got through Crystal Peak, if Ross' name was anywhere near it."
"I wondered that too. The manifest said it came from Lori's people. Someone we trusted." Noah nodded. "But Lori's people deny ever finding an 850 at all."
"If it came from Australia, that makes sense. Somebody switched the labels."
"Yeah." Noah agreed. "Eric, I'm about eight hours ahead of you. See, if you'd been where you were supposed to be, you'd already know all this."
Kyle was nervous. All soldiers felt fear at one time or another. Kyle was far too eager for fear to be a problem on this particular mission, but his hands were shaking. Most everyone had the same feeling, with the notion of the war being over. But this... Kyle wasn't excited for the end of Skynet, but the notion of seeing the face in that photo...
The door to the dormitory opened. Connor was framed, the hallway behind him well lit. "It's time." He said firmly.
Kyle rose to his feet. He went to the door and froze. The hallways was lined with people. Faces he knew. Every member of Connor's own. Everyone he'd ever fought with. Sherrin, Robbie, Sarah, Chen, Walters, Dex, Micheal, Robin, Ginny, Noah, Kate.
So many faces... Kyle thought. Danielle, Vick Mackey, Jillian, Cohen, Irenka, Kamy, Rufus, Johnny, Fleur, Salvatore, Thomas, Cannon, Ricky, SW, Elly, Emma, Johnny, Devin, Jean, Tarja, Papa, Georgie, Manzo, Chris, Charlotte, Ben... The list went on and on.
The Air Force too. He knew them by their call-signs. Crazy-Man, Oddliver, Reaper, Kessil, Raven, Lynx, Cede-Lede, Reveille, Chief, Amethyst, Gatherer, Musicfreak, Waffle, Marvel, Bandbabe, Scarlet... Another list that went on and on.
They had been with him through the longest most arduous thing that humanity ad ever gone through, the people that had made the story one that ended with human victory, instead of somewhere else, only Connor knew where...
So many faces he knew. So many faces missing.
"Ten-Hut." The General Commanded, and the whole lot of them snapped to attention. Kyle made his way down the middle, not letting himself focus on anyone, grateful for this. They all knew he wasn't coming back. His was the last mission of the War Against Skynet.
He was so grateful for it.
Connor went with him. The rest of the family fell into step behind him. So did a few others, but he did not turn to look. He just made his way to the Motor Pool.
Lori was waiting at the elevator. "So. Nervous?"
"Hell no." Kyle lied shortly.
Connor nodded to Lori. "Have everything shut down before we get there. We won't be long. Another pulse will hit about an hour after we get land. Once that pulse hits, turn everything back on and announce it."
"You'll know it works if you see a light on in the window for you." Lori nodded, and squeezed Kyle's arm. "Good hunting, kid."
"Thanks, Lori." Kyle whispered.
The Connor family got on the elevator. Sarah gave Kyle a tight hug the second the doors closed. "Boy or girl, it's going to be named for you, Kyle."
Kyle sniffed, feeling his face start to weaken. "Thank you. I hope Kurt gets better."
Sarah nodded, tears in her eyes. "Oh, great. I'm blubbering." She scorned herself. She gave Kyle a look. "See what you made me do?"
Kyle grinned and gave Robbie a look. "I hope everything goes well with Eden."
Robbie smiled serenely. He didn't seem sad for anything. He never did. "We're gonna do it, Kyle. Look around when you get there, and you'll see what we're working for."
"I will. I promise." Kyle vowed.
The elevator stopped. The Connor children stayed behind, and John and Kate followed. They had their convoy waiting. Gould and Carla saw him coming and saluted him crisply. Not The Generals at his back. Him. He returned it sharply. Message sent, Message received. Carla and Gould got into their own truck, and Kyle found himself a seat as they moved out.
Z Plus 27 Years 345 Days
They didn't drive to the System Core. They flew. The Council had approved the mission, and the borders of man were open to them. Skynet was dead, and the skies were empty of invaders. The listening posts were silent, the AA-Turrets were offline. They could come and go across the sea land and sky as they wished.
Nobody said much on the trip.
As they got closer, Kyle could see what was left of their massive strike force moving below. The Terminators were still. He could see some soldiers happily moving in and out, taking them apart. Harvest parts, and power sources, maybe reprogramming them... Kyle didn't know. He knew there was a lot of clean up to do, and the entire Skynet race belonged to them now. In a way, he was glad he wouldn't be here to see it.
The size of the System Core was much bigger than Kyle had envisioned. It was bigger than a city, and Kyle had never seen a city before. The towers reached so high that the helicopter had to sweep in and out of them instead of going over. Towers that reached high into the sky, all of it covered in gleaming chrome. Roads that ran wide enough to let ten H/K's through at a time. Within the city walls there was nothing moving at all. The ground machines had frozen. All over the place were spot fires and wrecks where falling aerial H/K's had dropped.
And the helicopter kept sweeping through, with one row of perfect gleaming metal after another passing beneath them. The city was laid out in a geometric pattern, made in flawless mathematical perfection, probably symmetrical to within an inch.
And they were heading right to the center of it.
"Where did Skynet live?" Kyle asked, mostly to himself.
Connor heard him anyway. "Everywhere. The towers don't have office spaces or living quarters. This whole place is Skynet. The whole City. Only part of it would have been the self-aware portion. The Machine soul, if you will. But every tower has power generators, every tower has hard drives, every street has sensors, every set of eyes leads back to the Hive. This whole place is Skynet's Dream."
"Deus Machina." Carla whispered.
"God Machine." Connor translated.
"No God I'm gonna worship." Kate put in.
"Amen." Intoned everyone who heard her.
And then they were there. In the dead center of the complex, and area so wide it was visible from the walls, there was a perfect bowl dug into the earth. It was as wide and deep as the Arecibo Dish and covered in chrome. It was a perfect half-sphere, and suspended over it from a spiderweb of cabled that slung back and forth between the towers, was a large suspended platform, covered in equipment Kyle couldn't begin to guess at. Except for the chrome paint job, he recognized it instantly. "Arecibo."
"Yup." Connor confirmed. "They recreated it here. Gould says the Dish is necessary for it. Something about how the curvature works to magnify energy. That's why satellite dishes are so big."
Kyle nodded, as the helicopter came in to land.
"Stay in the chopper till he leaves." Kate told her husband quietly. "The other two Machines are already here. I'll keep 'our' Terminator away from you. No sense risking paradox now."
Connor nodded. "Last chance to change your mind." He told Kyle.
Corporal Reese did not even dignify that with response as the Helicopter touched down.
Kate pulled the door open. "Reese, with me."
Kyle followed, then paused at the door. "General Connor?" He said. "I... Thank you so much. Just... thank you."
John swallowed it, one last time. Almost. "Reese?" He called softly. "Are... are you proud of me?"
"Sir?" Kyle seemed slightly confused at the bizarre question.
Connor waved it off. "No. Never mind."
Kyle answered it anyway. "It has been the highest honor a soldier could have; to follow you, General." He saluted sharply.
Connor returned it. "Keep her safe, Kyle."
"I will."
Kate came back and led Reese away from his son quietly.
John held it together, briefly. He was still fighting tears.
Gould poked his head in the chopper and seemed more than a little stunned, and uncomfortable at seeing The General near sobbing. "Sir."
Connor quickly shook it off, acting normal. "What is it, Gould?"
"I..." He swallowed. "I asked Kate to bring a Geiger counter. This is still a relatively untested techno-"
Connor quickly grabbed Kate's pack and tossed it to him. "Anything el-" Connor dropped into silence as he saw who Gould had standing behind him. It was him. It was the Terminator. It was younger in appearance than the one Kate had met, which meant it had been newer off the assembly line. It was the first Terminator he had met, when he was ten years old.
"Are you experiencing health trouble?" The familiar Austrian accent asked him. "Is there something wrong with your eyes?"
"No." Connor said firmly. "Nothing."
"Ma'am?" Kyle said quietly as they headed toward the Dish. "It has been an honor to serve you as well. You're more than just our commanding officer, you're... you're more than that."
Kate turned and gave Kyle a tight hug. "I love you, Kyle. Be safe."
"Love you too... mom." Kyle whispered back. "I'll make Him proud of me. I promise."
"He already is Kyle. He already is." Kate whispered.
"Last call for the roller-coaster from hell!" Noah shouted.
Kate wiped her face and turned to Noah, and nearly fell over. The Terminator was there with her, next to one just like him. Two identical versions of their Bodyguard. She went to the nearest one. She knew who it was. "Are you clear on your mission?" She said, just for something to say to him.
"To ensure the survival of John Connor and Katherine Brewster." The familiar voice said clinically.
Brewster. Kate smiled at hearing her maiden name. It was all so very long ago. She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. Noah was staring openly at the gesture, but Kate didn't care. It took her a moment to realize they were all staring at her.
"Dismissed." She told them. Three soldiers on a one way mission.
Sherrin came into the Medbay. Sarah and Robbie were still joined at the hip, standing over Kurt's bed. "Any change?"
"No." Sarah whispered, one hand over her stomach. "Need something?"
"Actually, I was hoping to talk to him." Sherrin gestured at Robbie.
Robbie extricated himself from Sarah, and went with him. "I'll be back." He whispered to her.
Robbie followed Sherrin out into the hall. "Tony, I was meaning to come by and see how you were doing."
Sherrin seemed more tired than heartsick. "I'm surviving. We all do. I was... Before the battle, Lisa and I spoke. She said that she was planning to resign when the war ended, and I think she wanted to... Well, with her gone now, I was wondering if... Look, I'm about as good a one armed gardener, as I am a one armed soldier..."
"Tony, why don't you come with me for a while?" Robbie offered. "The world is open to us now. Eden's spreading. Everyone has work to do. And... It's a good place. It's... healing."
Tony nodded. "I was hoping to... be away from here." He waved at the walls. "Everything here reminds me of her. I need to... This is my home, and its making me crazy." He waved a hand back and forth. "It's hard to explain, but..."
Robbie nodded. "Tony, you don't have to explain anything. A lot of people are looking for a fresh start."
Tony was silent a long moment. "You ever listen to the stories? Your mom and dad, Walters, even Noah... They tell tales about Back Before..." He saluted lightly. "It's you guys with Eden... you're the ones that are going to put it all back."
Kyle never looked, never glanced around as he made his way into the Dish. He saw scorch marks, in a perfect circle, and the very centre of the thing, and he marched for it. He saw the other two Machines coming from different angles, heading to their own embarkation points. Gould had drawn an X on the dish, and Kyle knew where to stand. He was distantly aware of the other Machines heading to their own places, but he ignored them.
The sound of static build and power in the air increased, and lightning forked over the Dish, cracking from the rim to the antennae suspended above the centre. Kyle reached his target and finally looked up, seeing a blaze of light shining down on him and the two machines.
"Hang on, Sarah..." Kyle whispered. "I'm coming."
"I never thought it would be beautiful." Kate whispered.
"Me neither." Connor admitted.
She turned. "You shouldn't be here."
"I have to be here." Connor said softly, his eyes finding Kyle Reese far below.
The lightning sheeted across the Dish. The whine of Power grew louder and louder. The blast of electrical power swept over it, making a circle, drawn in blue-white brightness. The bottom half of the dish was matched by a top half of pure lightning, crackling and hissing like a living thing possessed.
The others were watching, squinting into the light, their teeth was bared against the growing whine of electrical power.
Then it got louder, like a switch had been flipped and everyone knew that what had been building till that point was just the barest prelude. The whine of power grew to an ear-splitting howl. Everyone clapped their hands over their ears. The spherical cage of lightning intensified in brightness, and frequency, just one long eave after wave of power rolling over and over the Dish in unending dauntless fury.
Kate felt her hair standing up, the one long braid she had kept in honor of her Lost Children floating about in front of her face. Her teeth hurt, she could feel the tiny bit of metal in her shoulder suddenly start to ache, then burn...
Everyone was ducking down, expecting to be struck down by something, every eye squeezed shut.
But not Connor. Amazingly, impossibly, he just kept watching, kept his eyes fixed firmly on the point where Kyle now lay, curled into the fetal position.
The whole thing had happened in less than ten seconds, but it stretched on and on as the Time Machine activated. This was a point in the universe where time did not touch. The seconds ached eternally by, as the tight sphere of electrical light began to shrink, drawing in on itself, condensing more and more.
And then it all just stopped. Dead silence, and the light show ended, just fading instantly into nothingness. But the three hand-picked warriors were gone.
For a very long time, there was no sound, no movement. The soldiers that remained behind were just waiting patiently for their senses to recover from the massive overload. After a while, Kate became aware that her husband still hadn't moved, and the rest of the team had approached, moving to stand with their General.
"You already knows what happens, don't you?" Noah said quietly, breaking the silence. "I didn't dare say anything before this... but if you knew the war was coming because a soldier went back in time, then it means you know what happens to that soldier."
"That's not important." Kate said quickly.
Connor didn't even hear her. "He completed his mission, but he was killed in action."
Noah nodded. What was one more death? "He was a good soldier."
"Yes." Connor said plainly. "He was also my father."
Stunned silence.
"Madre de dios." Carla whispered.
Noah looked at him, open pity on her face. She had seen a glimpse of Connor's own personal hell.
Kate grit her teeth. "You're sworn to secrecy, all of you. Not one word. Anyone speaks on this matter, I will personally cut your tongues out. I'm a surgeon, I can do that. I won't even bother to find out who talked; all of you will get it; so you might want to keep an eye on each other."
Connor didn't move. Hadn't heard a word of that, hadn't moved and inch since Kyle had vanished. He was still staring at the spot.
"HEY!" Kate snapped at them. "Mission clock is still running here."
Everyone quickly made themselves busy, pretending not to watch as Kate slipped over to her husband. "John." She said quietly. "Get it together. You can fall apart when we get back. Right now, they need you."
Good girl, Kate. Some distant survivalist corner of Connor's mind thought. That was the right thing to say. Don't make this feeling real. Keep me on message. Keep me focused. Keep me standing. Good girl, Kate, so smart, so strong for me...
Connor shook himself out of his funk enough to speak. "We need to zero the place and get back fast. By now the entire continent knows the place was used again. Lori will be informing the council any minute. With the troops aware of the Pulse coming this time, repairs will be much faster. The announcement will be made any time now."
And with those simple words, the War Against Skynet officially ended.
Noah slipped over next to Kate. "Head back now. Beat the announcement and be locked in your room before it hits. The Man hasn't had so much as a coffee break in twenty seven years, to say nothing of his childhood, to say nothing of today. Lotta pressure on his cork, and he's not even close to done yet. You might want to get him someplace private before he realizes the War is over and has a nervous collapse."
Kate nodded. On that they agreed wholeheartedly. "Come with us. We're not needed here any more. Gould can spend the rest of his life dissecting useful crap from this ghost town."
Noah nodded. "Let's move."
"You mind if I drop you off here?" Their driver called over his shoulder.
Robbie grinned. "Remember a time when walking the last hundred meters was too dangerous?"
Sherrin smirked. "It was yesterday."
They both jumped out of the truck, and slung their packs. Tony looked up at the sky. "God, I forgot. It's been a long time since I was out of the Mountain."
Robbie smiled his long easy smile. "Well, where we're going, that won't be a problem for long."
Sherrin looked over the flats. Miles of salt and open featureless flats all the way to the mountains.
They came up the length of the valley, from the open mouth. Robbie felt the smell of moisture and earth hit them as they reached the valley walls and smiled.
Sherrin froze as he suddenly felt grass beneath his boots, and a stunned smile bloomed amazingly on his face. "Wow. Lisa would have loved this."
Robbie nodded. "In Valley 7, we plant flowers for the people we lost. People we knew. It's the only place in the outpost dedicated to flowers. We put a beehive in right before the wedding, and Valley 7 is like a Holy Land to the bees."
Sherrin nodded, then looked at Robbie. "Whose wedding?"
Robbie paused. "Oh. This isn't easier at all."
Sherrin didn't have a clue what that meant, but could understand the sentiment, and gave him a sympathetic look.
"Robbie!" A small voice called, and little Robin came running up toward them.
Robbie plucked the kid off the ground without missing a beat. "Hey, kid. Where's your mom?"
"Valley 7." Robin reported dutifully.
Robbie sighed, set Robin down, and made his way toward Valley 7, making his way through the small crowd of people who were overjoyed to see him.
The one he wanted to see the most apparently heard the commotion. Ginny came into view, back in her long flowing dress, with a wreath of flowers in her hair, and behind her ears. Far more flowers than usual. She had been in Valley 7, mourning Berk.
Robbie felt an ache in his chest as she almost ran to him. "I'm glad you're here." She whispered. "I couldn't take this without you."
"Nowhere else in the world I could be right now." He whispered in her ear as the smell of fresh flowers rolled over him.
Ginny gave him a soft sad smile. "Welcome home." She whispered. "We missed you." She broke the hug, and Robbie suddenly noticed people watching him.
"We've been champing at the bit for news, Director." Someone said. "What happened out there?"
Robbie smiled. "Brace yourselves. Tonight you get your answer."
Chen and Vixy looked up as Carla came in and dropped her pack wearily. "How'd it go?" Vixy asked.
Carla was sworn to secrecy, and they would understand that. They were doctors as well as command staff. "It was... successful. That was the problem."
They looked at her sympathetically. A suicide mission in the making was never easy to see.
Carla waved them off. "What's happening here?"
"Still no change with Kurt. Robbie left for Death Valley with Sherrin at Sarah's insistence. We moved a cot into Kurt's room. Sarah hasn't gone back to her room in days. You've got a patient waiting in Ward 2."
Carla was too tired to think of questioning that and hauled herself upright enough to head into Ward 2.
Dex and Mackie were waiting for her, not a scratch on them, with big smiles on their faces.
Carla let out a sob and met them both in a tight hug. "My boys. Aw, my boys! Welcome home!"
"Look how long you make a man wait for you." Dex teased.
"Shut up and kiss me." She told him.
They had flown all night to get Kyle to the System Core. The flight back saw them get in at about midday. They had come in quietly, evading the majority of people milling around. With no news coming from the outside, everyone guessed that he wasn't sharing any information he had, and were just glad to see him back safe.
Noah had gone to the War Room, and found Walters. "Well?"
Noah shrugged. "Everything that was supposed to happen... well, it happened." He would find out eventually. But Walters hadn't been the same since the revelation about Connor. Telling him about Kyle would either make it the same or so much worse. "How about here?"
"The Council took everything offline for about an hour, and then told us to switch it all back on. We didn't lose anything we didn't have already. There is however, another problem."
"What's that?"
"Well, the Asian Contingent says they are no longer going to provide transport for anything north of their border. They say now that the war is over, they need their own resources, and Eden and medical can get their own rides. The African Front has stopped sending their surplus food supply to Asia, for the same reason, and I'm getting word from Checkpoint Niner that the Union has begun increasing their troops along the No Man's Land between them and us. They think now that Skynet's out of the picture, there might be another fight brewing."
Noah swore under her breath. "We were fighting back to back with all these people two days ago!"
"Against a common enemy that wanted to wipe us all out. That's done now." Walters pointed out. "School's back."
"And with the military suddenly run out of Wars to fight, they figure they don't have to share anything any more." Noah rolled her eyes again. "God, nobody ever learns a damn thing, do they?"
"Tell me about it." Eric slurred a little. "So, what's Miracle Man gonna do about it?"
"For now, nothing."
"Why not?"
Noah sat down and put her feet up on the Map table. "Pull up a chair and brace yourself, Eric. Something big is about to happen."
Connor had caved in on himself, and barely noticed anyone looking in his direction. He was barely standing; as though he was a puppet with half his strings cut.
Kate worried for him. He was walking through the Base in a daze. She was practically leading him by his hand the entire way, like she was expecting him to get lost on the way or fall down.
And to his credit, he kept himself upright all the way back to their room.
The second the door closed behind them, he rocked on his feet, back and forth, till he fell back against the door and slid down to the floor. Kate crouched down next to him. "John? Talk to me."
John didn't respond.
"John!" Kate shouted in his face.
John looked at her finally. "So... what do you want to do tomorrow, Kate? Because I have no idea. Everything I was born to do, I did. Everything I was here for... is over. What is the point of being John Connor if there is no war to fight?"
Kate felt for him. Since the day he was born, he was told of nothing, prepared for nothing but the war. A war that was now over. "You always said 'No Fate But What We Make'."
Beat.
John started to laugh. Harsh painful wracks of laughter that made the hairs on her neck stand up.
"JOHN!" Kate reached out and put his face between her hands, making him look at her, still slumped on the floor. "You. Are. Scaring. Me." She told him clearly.
John twitched. "Kate... I made it happen. Do you get that? No Fate But What We Make? It isn't a promise to my mother that she could change the future. It's a fact of how the war existed. I made it happen. I had a Time Machine. All I had to do was use it differently. All I had to do was... Not use it at all. All I had to do was let Kyle tell her the truth about when J-Day would happen. But instead... instead I forced things to happen the way I always wished they wouldn't. I set my feet on this path. I made this happen. I spent my whole life wishing this job on anyone else, and I was the one that made sure I got it!" Connor laughed sickly. "All this time, my personal motto has been the opposite of what I thought it was. My Fate... is What I Made. What an unholy joke I am."
Kate cried for him. She didn't have an answer to that, for it was the truth. She pulled him to her and didn't care when they both overbalanced and fell. They stayed there for what felt like a hundred years, crying together on the floor.
After an eternity, the PA crackled. "Attention all personnel! At 12:01 today, the International Council reported that the Skynet AI had been eliminated from all Skynet installations. The Installations in question have been seized, and each and every Machine located since the Battle of the System Core has been offline! The rumors are true! Skynet is Dead! THE WAR IS OVER!"
Kate fingers tightened convulsively on the man she loved more than life itself, as he clung back to her just as tightly. They didn't need to go outside. They could hear it through twenty feet of concrete and steel.
The Base erupted with shrieks of disbelief, the sound of Joy being heard without reservation or doubt for the first time. The first happiness that was not tempered by fear. The first joy that did not hold back for the sake of safety.
The announcement had come from the War Room, but just because they had the news sooner, it didn't make the celebration any softer. As the voices of the thousands in their protection cried out in Victory, The War Room celebrated with them. Jumping up from their chairs, throwing their arms around each other. Noah jumped up on the Map Table and let out a whoop that would have been audible in orbit. Walters jumped up onto the table with her and bent her back in a Sailor's kiss. One she had no trouble returning.
The screaming didn't stop for hours, feeding itself. People were dancing in the hallways, dancing in the Dorms, the Mess Hall, the Motor Pool, the Main Hall...
"THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER!"
Ginny burst into tears at the news, twirling an orange blossom in her fingers. Robin was next to her, watching with fascination as the people he grew up with suddenly lost their minds. Birds flew hysterically from one tree to another as The Edener's were suddenly hanging from the fruit trees, rolling in the grass, spinning each other around like a dance, and all of them waving joyously at Robbie as he came into Valley Eight.
Robbie smiled serenely. He was happy, but he'd been expecting it his entire life. While everyone let out the joy they didn't dare show till now, he just went to Ginny, and gave her another hug, as he had most of the time there.
She hugged him back, and smiled, tears running down her face. She hugged him back and whispered Berk's name to herself.
Robbie ignored the spike of guilt. She was still the loveliest thing in his garden.
Sarah grinned like a lioness with a fresh kill as she heard the news. She felt a hot surge of victory go through her, and wanted to give out a war whoop. She could hear the patients in the next room making noise, unable to dance or jump about, but they were still screaming and smashing things in their cots to bring the house down.
Sarah sent Kurt a look. He hadn't moved.
Sarah reached down and gave him a kiss, laying a hand over her stomach.
"THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER!"
"You did it, baby. You kept your first promise." Sarah whispered.
Across the world, Humanity itself was lost in a tide of pure happiness. It was a release of decades of pain and fear. The burdens of terror and loss, long since broken in till forgotten was suddenly gone with a simple announcement, like a weight lifted off every shoulder, long after they had all forgotten it was there.
People who had hardened their hearts to be immune to any torment and hardship were suddenly blubbering and weeping, hugging each other and clinging to people they didn't even know.
Form every radio, every PA, across the Bases, across the Units, across the world came the unending cry:
"THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER! THE WAR IS OVER!"
Kate held him tighter as the PA was drowned out by another roar, come from every voice in gratitude. "CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
John opened his eyes finally.
Kate slid her body over his, like she was trying to keep him from running away. "They still need you."
"Do they? John Connor led the Resistance to Victory. I read the history book before it was written. Nobody said anything about what came after that."
"I'm saying it." Kate said firmly. "War is easy. Peace is hard. My father told me that the Duration is a lot longer than the War. We aren't done yet. Not by a long shot. People still need a leader, the world needs direction, the kids need a father, and I need my husband."
Connor wiped his face, started to sit up. "Okay." He had the same expression on his face as the day they first came to Crystal Peak. The look in his eyes was identical to the moment he first picked up the microphone. He had accepted his new place in the Universe.
Kate pulled him back down to kiss her deeply. "Love you, husband."
"Love you, wife. Love you so, so much."
Z Plus 27 Years 349 Days
My father always told me that I would learn to love our new home. Every time he got new orders, he would tell me that. That I would learn to love it. Every time we got to a new base, a new town; I told myself that I wasn't going to love anything about it. Not the people, not the schools, not anything. Except I always did, and every time dad got new orders, I would hate to leave; and he would tell me that we would learn to love our new home.
The war ended suddenly. And this is our new home. And true to form, we had to say a lot of goodbyes to get here, and had to learn a whole new way to live.
[Taken From the Personal Journals of General Katherine Connor, recovered from Crystal Peak, 2170]
The Celebration went on day and night for the better part of a week. For the first day or two there was just numb shock. The population of the world had lived with the fact. Skynet was dangerous, and it was everywhere. Food was scarce, because Skynet could stop it coming, or keep it from growing. Outside was dangerous, because Skynet patrolled every road, and flew through the sky. People were dangerous because anyone could be a Terminator in disguise.
The operation to reach the System Core was far from secret, but it had ended almost a week before. Arecibo and the Time Machine had been kept strictly top secret; and so the shock announcement had come with little warning for those outside Crystal Peak. One day humanity across the world was darting from shadow to shadow, trying to dig just a little bit further underground. And the next day the war was over. No more Skynet, no more H/K's, no more Terminators or Infiltrators...
Just like that, it was over.
Little by little, time passed and it came to them that there was no retraction, no new attacks. Crystal Peak didn't call to say it was a mistake, and the roads and plains of the earth were filled with motionless Machines.
And slowly, it dawned on them that the announcement was true. The war was over.
Once that happened, the party started in earnest.
Food was handed out in huge amounts, no need to ration any longer. Drinks were brought out and passed around non-stop. No need for duty the next day. Humanity as a whole lay down their fears and partied like there was no tomorrow.
Every good thought, every hopeful twinge, every smile hidden under the needs of strength and hardship was turned loose in a riotous explosion. The release of emotion was limitless. Every positive wonderful thing was felt in minutes. The eruption was fed by each new voice, every tear shed in freedom and the celebration just kept going, getting more and more joyful.
The party had gone until it exhausted itself. The Base lived in shifts, and so people had long learned the trick of going to sleep and having other people pick up where they left off, only to return the favor eight hours later. The party never wanted to stop, and nobody had it in them to lay down the law.
Everyone wanted to see Connor, but the General hadn't been seen or heard from the whole time. Nobody could really blame him. He'd been on shift for the full Invasion without break for food or sleep. It didn't slow down the celebration, and nobody could begrudge The General a day off.
And eventually, the hangovers extended longer and the shifts broke down, and people stopped cheering and embraced the chance to rest without having to keep one eye open.
The whole world had been waiting for the announcement, and the whole world had rejoiced, and now as the global party wound down, another announcement was made. Connor would speak to them at last.
Kate beamed at him. He looked great. He looked more like The Great John Connor than he ever had. The stars on his shoulders were polished and gleaming, boots were clean and shined, uniform pressed smooth. Even the scar seemed to make him look more powerful. "You look good."
He turned to face her and she felt better than she had all week. The darkness on him had broken. He looked.. younger. The war had aged them all, like a curse that was now lifted. "So do you." He murmured.
Kate chuckled. She was a mess, between her secret mission and seeing to the wounded, plus Eric, she hadn't slept in over a day and a half. She didn't care though. There was so much energy in the Base she could probably run across the world if she wanted to. "They're waiting for you."
"Upstairs?"
"We took out the security booth, we took out the Lock-down doors. Enough room for everyone, barely." Kate tilted her head. "Why the Entrance Hall? Why not the Main Hall?"
John breathed deep. "Y'know, in the closing days of the Second World War, the Allies were retaking the concentration camps. They had to coax the prisoners out gently. You'd think they'd be eager to leave. But for all the horror those survivors went through, those camps were their whole world for a long time, as the world burned outside. It took some doing to make them come out again. And this place... It wasn't a death camp, it was a secure zone."
Kate nodded in understanding. "You want to coax them outside now that it's safe."
"The world is ours again. We have to make them realize that." He glanced at her. "We have to make them all realize that."
Silence.
"I'm worried about the kids." Kate said softly. "It doesn't look good for Kurt, and after Berk died..."
"Sarah needs Kurt, because with the War over, she's realized how much of her life depends on him now. She's convinced she will never be able to love our grandchild properly enough to be a good mother, and Kurt was convinced that Sarah will never need him like she needed Skynet. They're both wrong." Connor intoned, terrifying in his certainty. "Robbie will never make a move on Ginny, because he genuinely liked Berk, and would never forgive himself for the way he's always felt. Ginny won't tolerate that for long. She understands better than she lets on, and eventually they will both forgive themselves for being alive. They make good things grow from nothing. It's a talent that goes further than Eden. Of all of us, Robbie will prosper the most. Those who find love and contentment where they make it always do."
Kate shivered violently. Connor was an ordinary man, she knew that better than anyone. But the way he'd said all that... he wasn't guessing, he knew. He had prophesied what was ahead for their family with his typical certainty. "And us?" She asked finally.
Connor smiled softly. "My time is over, Kate. Yours is just beginning. The road between loyalty to a leader and adoration to an ideal is so much shorter than you think, especially now, when faith in a few was the only thing keeping the many on their feet. Most won't let that go so easily. Don't try to downplay it. Use it. You'll need all the devotion you can get for what's ahead. You will be ten times what I am, Kate. I tore down unbreakable walls, and you will build new ones in their place. And me... I don't know what I'll do. I'm going to need something before I lose my mind. But you've been my strongest, greatest ally and support for the last thirty years, and for the next thirty, I'll be glad to return the favor."
Kate stared, touched, and hugged him tightly.
After a long emotional hug, Connor pulled back and got one last report from his second in command. "Are we ready?"
Kate nodded. "It's done. Everyone's going to be picking up the feed. As near as we can figure, every human being on the Planet is going to hear you."
"No pressure, then." Connor quipped. "Head upstairs, I'll be there in a second."
Kate nodded and slipped out. Connor turned to the mirror, checking everything again. This was going into the history books, and...
The door opened again. Eric Walters came in. He looked terrible.
Connor didn't turn, watching him in the mirror. "Eric?"
Walters just stared at him vacantly. Connor wasn't sure if he was drunk, insane, ill or all of the above. Walters came in. And drew a gun. A 9mm, practically an antique now. He pointed it at the floor, just holding it there in his hand.
"A 9mm?" Connor asked, buying time.
"It was mine, back when I was US Army." Walters said thickly. "Back before you."
Connor nodded. "Kate?"
"On her way upstairs. I didn't stop her."
Connor sighed. "So. Here we are."
Walters made a low noise, deep in his throat. "Y'know something? I can't remember what it's like to not be a soldier." He said, very calm. "I have served in three different wars in three different wastelands. Always in forward areas. When you get sent into a place where there are going to be bullets or plasma flying around... You do it because your Commanding Officer has every right to say that you won't survive. But the cause is just, and the sacrifice of your life is worth it." His eyes focused finally on The General. "Do you have any idea what I gave up for you? And for WHAT? For a man that wouldn't have existed without Skynet in the first place? I gave you everything I had because I believed! I saw you read Skynet's mind and outsmart it at every turn. I saw you pull apart a Terminator and make it fight for us!"
His fingers were opening and closing on the gun as he ranted, like he was listing the charges against The Great John Connor. John tried not to stare at the gun, wondering if Eric was about to shoot him, or himself...
Walters was still talking, just whispering at first but getting more and more worked up. "All the things we couldn't handle you knew without hesitation. I thought you were... Connor, you don't deserve any of it!" Walters snarled and brought up the gun. He had it pointed right between The Generals' eyes before Connor could react.
The General didn't flinch. He just looked at Eric, not moving.
Walters was frozen, talking compulsively, listing the reasons, trying to work up the nerve. "It's your fault. They're all dead. They followed you and they died and the Time Machine was built and the Terminators went back and Skynet was made and it's your fault! Who's to say it would have been better if Whickham had the power? What made you so goddamn better than anybody else who could have run this war?"
"Then shoot me." John said quietly. "The War is over."
The gun was shaking from how tight he was gripping it. And after an eternity of seconds passed, Connor's hand flashed out and knocked it clean out of Eric's hand.
Eyes wild, mouth open, breathing hard. Eric suddenly realized he was unarmed, and sagged, tears rolling down his face. "What was any of it for?" He croaked.
"I don't know." Connor admitted. "Eric, my whole life growing up I've been hearing about how 'I'm too important' and I hated every minute of it. I lived my life in a bubble. Other kids had lives, I had training. I... Until you, and Kate, and Noah, and Yolanda... there wasn't anyone who saw me as anything other than a delinquent kid, or some new Messiah for the world."
"I believed it." Eric croaked. "I was raised to believe, that no matter how bad things get, Fate or God or the Universe or Whatever provides a solution for those who look. I looked when the world ended, and there was nothing left, and I knew there was no hope coming. And then I found you. When we were talking on the radio... I didn't care who you were. You were a way to keep my soldiers from deserting their posts. And then... We met... and then, you got things moving... and then you started winning, and so help me I started to wonder if... I found out about your mom and how she knew what the future held. And then. And then. And then." Eric wiped his face. "Kyle believed. He was like me. We were true believers, like most of Tech-Com."
"I know." Connor said softly. "I'm sorry, Eric. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you. You're my best friend. I never had a best friend before you."
Eric was crying. "God, John... What if we could have made it better?"
Connor rubbed his eyes. "I know. I've been trying to see it all. But I couldn't. I didn't know what would happen. I just didn't have the nerve to play God with history. I couldn't figure out what would happen. I just wasn't smart enough." John was crying too. "All the battles, all the sacrifices... Enrique's Bandits, charging into hot-zones, screaming my name as they died... Eric... I just couldn't stop them. I couldn't stop it happening. I tried for fifteen years to change the future and then for thirty years to win the war and save everyone and I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"
Silence as they both cried.
Eric stared numbly at him. "So. The Great John Connor is an ordinary man. Who would have thunk it?"
Silence.
"I've been trying to avoid this war since I was a little boy. When I failed, I just wanted to win it." John said finally. "I had nothing. I had no way to do it when J-Day came. And then you called me over the radio. And suddenly I had an army. Eric... did I ever say thank you?"
Eric sniffed. "No sir."
"When Lori and Saint and Halloway came to us in LA, and told us they would not fight with us, because the war was already lost, you were the one telling them there was still hope. Did I ever say thank you?"
"You didn't have to."
"When I formed Tech-Com and we left LA behind, you passed up your own command and left your oaths and uniforms behind to come with us... Did I ever say thank you?"
Eric was crying again.
"We did an incredible thing, Eric. We started out as a band of barely fed refugees in a radioactive desert, up against an unlimited Army of genocidal warriors that had us complete outnumbered and outgunned. And we won. We did it, Eric. We won. We did what is probably the most important thing anybody anywhere has ever done."
Eric looked up at him finally. "Yeah. We really did, didn't we?"
"Thank you, Eric Walters. Thank you so much." Connor said emotionally.
Sick to his stomach, Eric stood up at attention, one last time. "Your welcome... John."
Connor saluted him, as sincerely as he'd ever saluted anyone. Eric returned it sharply.
Connor came out of his room and headed for the elevators. Noah was running down the hallway as fast as she could, looking terrified. She skidded to a stop when she saw him. "Eric? Where's Eric?" She blurted. "He took his 9mil, where is he?"
Connor shushed her. "Having a quick shave before he comes and joins us upstairs. We... sorted things out."
Noah sagged with relief. "Thank god. Is he... I mean, was there any chance.."
"Report." Connor said gently, changing the subject.
Noah swallowed hard and shifted topics. "The entire population of the Base is assembled upstairs, the Base has been secured, trucks are rolling."
"The Council?"
"They have selected a new site for their own Base. They have chosen a spot close to Skynet's System Core."
Connor shrugged. "It's a good spot. Well placed, safe now that Skynet's gone. Our two troublemakers?"
"We managed to muck with the transport schedules enough that it'll look normal. With so many new routes and supply drops being made since the war ended and the roads were cleared, it's chaotic enough that nobody will look deeper at why."
"Cover?"
"Who knows what traps Skynet still has that work?"
"Landmines? That's what we're going with?"
"Unless you've got something better."
Connor sighed. "We've got a lot of work to do, Erica."
Noah was silent a moment. "One thing I don't understand." She said finally. "Skynet sent two Terminators back through time to attack you. Skynet uploaded itself into a prototype and went back to just before J-Day to hit everyone else. That's three. But... what about the other one? The one that went forward? Skynet sent something else forward three thousand years. What do we do about that one?"
Connor sighed. "What the Council said about how there were too many question marks to use a Time Machine? I agree with every word. The only reason I did it was because I knew I had to. And even then, I didn't dare change anything. Just too many... variables. Three thousand years from now, we'll find out. We have to make sure somebody remembers."
"Are we dead?" Morgansten asked.
"No." Hansk said calmly. "We got away with it. There's nothing to pin this to us. As far as anyone knows, it was a Union plan, and it didn't work anyway. So don't act suspicious."
"Right."
"Gentlemen."
They both spun, and found Noah in the doorway. She came in, in no particular hurry, and sat on the edge of the nearest table. "The General called everyone upstairs. Is something wrong?"
"Just finishing up a little work." Hansk said smoothly.
Noah nodded. "So. Why?"
"Ma'am?"
"Why'd you sneak the Terminator in here? You had to know why he'd be coming in. That's mutiny at best. Treason too. Both punishable by death, in any army you fight in. We know you did it. Don't be stupid and deny it."
Long silence.
Morgansten cracked first. "Ma'am, you have to understand that-"
Noah pulled her rifle and gunned Morgansten down. Hansk tried to dive aside, and Noah barely shifted her aim to knock him down too. A moment later, she got up, strolled over, and fired a few more times, just to make sure. "I didn't really care anyway." She spat thickly.
A Nova Guard was in the doorway. "You know, this is really the sort of thing we take care of."
"I know." Noah said. "But these were my guys. I brought them in with me, so it's my mess to clean up." She looked down at the bodies. "Though, if you wouldn't mind cleaning up the mess from me cleaning up my mess..."
"We'll take care of the bodies. Nobody will know." The Nova Guard agreed. "It'll be months before we get the final casualty list together anyway."
The crowd was tightly pressed into the space between the elevators and the main door. Every eye was fixed on the Main Door. On the other side was the world. Nobody could remember when there wasn't a dozen walls and checkpoints and doors between where they stood and the outside world. All the walls were gone. They weren't needed any longer.
The elevator opened and everyone knew, even before turning. Connor had arrived in person. He was met with adoration. The release of emotion was still going. The walls that came down with the end of the war wasn't just the ones in the Main hall. Everyone cheered for him in the way they'd always wanted to before.
It took a long time for Connor to make his way to the front of the hall, with everyone eager to get a look at him. The crowd moved like a wave of gratitude, with Him as it's center.
Finally, he made it to the front of the room, standing with his back to the Main Doors. The crowd finally hushed, eager to hear what he had to say.
"So." Connor began simply. "You did it."
"We Did It For You, Chief!" Somebody shouted, and the crowd exploded into screams again.
Connor didn't wait for them. "If you did it for me, then I am grateful. But you did it for yourselves too. I did it for you! I did it for everyone who should be here right now. I did it for all the ones who came out of the cold here and made this place what it is. Look around. Each and every one of you did an incredible thing! And the ones you can't see across the world, I know you can hear me! We all did it. Everyone, let them hear you! Let your brothers hear you!"
The roar went up and was carried over the microphone. It went to the farthest reaches of the world. Connor had made sure that the whole human race could hear
Ross was listening intently in a small room, with nobody around. He was finished and he knew it. If The General was speaking, then the plan had failed. If anything about it had been discovered...
"Cheer for your fellow soldiers, because they were the only reason we got there. And sing out yourselves, because you earned it." Connor's voice called from every radio, every loudspeaker. "There is not one among you who hasn't earned our place in the world now. The wounded, the mighty, the suffering, the victorious, the young and the dead. This victory is written for all of them. For all that came before us! Six thousand years of human history demanded to know if Humanity was worthy of survival, if humanity itself was equal to overcome the evils it loosed upon the world. Skynet rose up from the chaos of our creation, and we rose up from the fires of it's Judgement."
A hand clapped over Ross's mouth from behind. Panicking, he tried to turn and face his attacker, but the knife came too swiftly to react. He barely caught a glimpse of a Nova Group armband, and then darkness.
"It was the finest hour in the dark history of Man. The moment when we laid it all on the line against a force that was greater and stronger, and we prevailed."
Elcar ran as fast as he could, slipping in the mud. He looked over his shoulder from time to time, trying to get a bead on who was chasing him, but he didn't dare stop. They had come for him in his office. He called for his guards and there was no answer. They had not come. As he fled, he saw none of them. They had all been called away.
"Our enemy was the result of our own darkest instincts, the fear, the paranoia, given form, the final perfected tool of the wars we inflicted upon each other. Our own weapons, our own creations, demanded to know if we were worthy of being the keepers of the world any longer. If you can hear my voice right now across the world, then believe me when I say: YOU ARE THE ANSWER!"
The General's voice came from every speaker on the planet, the voice echoing over the surrounding areas for all to hear. Elcar could barely hear it over his gasping breath. He finally lost his footing on the loose ground and slipped down in the mud.
Trying to get up again, a foot came down on the small of his back and he dropped. He managed to roll over slight, looking up blearily as the man drew a weapon. The last thing he saw was the armband of the Nova Group.
Kate looked around the Hall. She saw a lot of faces she recognized. Without exception she loved them all. She looked to the doors. The huge heavy Main Doors that led out of Crystal Peak. This was the exact spot she had declared her love for him the first time, where they had vowed to have each other's back, and through losing kids, gaining new ones, winning and losing, agony and hope, they had never broken that promise.
And looking around, she saw they all felt the same way.
"And now here we are, literally at the door to the world we earned our place on; with War behind us, and peace ahead." Connor told them. "We gave in to paranoia and fear of each other, to the worry of our neighbors. In our need to make war on each other we made Skynet. And that was damn near the end of us all. Now we look to the future. Do we make the same mistakes? We we abandon our brothers in arms just because we have laid down our arms? Do we-"
"We'll follow you, General!" Someone else shouted.
The roar went up again. "CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
Connor sighed, and they fell silent in an instant as he started to speak. "No. You won't. We did an incredible thing here in this place, but my time is over now. I am a warrior. In a way, we all are. But this is not a time for old soldiers. This is a time for peacemakers. We have lived thirty years of war. What comes next will not be easy, because there is still a wasteland out there. You've all seen the Eden Project at work, you've all seen the Council provide where war could not. Peace is the future, not War. The world is free, but now it needs to be healthy. This is a new battle, and not one that you fight with guns."
Horrified silence. Everyone starting to realize...
"Which is why, effective immediately, I am retiring. I am a warrior, and the future is not a place for men of war."
A roar went up. Connor let them scream for a minute, and gave a shrill whistle into the microphone. "Listen to me! Once before, I had to break with what was solid and familiar. I did it because we needed to evolve. We needed to change the way we think. Change the way we fought. Change the way we lived. Now we need to do that again. Our advantage over the Enemy was that we were not static. We evolve, we change, we adapt. Through the battles, the opposition, the baptisms of fire, we rose to meet it all. And now we need to adapt again. We need to adapt ourselves from a military command, to a peaceful leadership. This is The Time Of The Peacemakers. Which is why I am stepping aside, and returning the favor at last, giving my strength and advice, and above all my loyal love to the most gifted, most compassionate Peacemaker I know. My wife, General Kate Connor."
A surprised rumble ran through the crowd.
Halloway laughed like he'd won the lottery. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Lori slid a hand out from under the covers and turned the radio off. "Wanted it to be a surprise. She'll take my place on the Council, and she'll have more support for it with Connor backing her up. Clean Sweep."
"So what do you want to do tomorrow?" Halloway asked lightly, kissing her.
"Got room on your sub for one more?"
"No, but we can share my room."
"Count on it."
Rojas was shooting for all he was worth, teeth bared, eyes blazing, firing back for his life.
His attacker was cut down by a hail of plasmafire, and Rojas wasted no time on victory, turning to run. There were more of them nearby he was sure. He didn't dare shout for help, or switch his radio back on. Instead, he headed back for the jeep. The radio had that damned speech playing.
"The future is before us again, and we have all the time in the world at last." Connor said. "Our world was pushed to the brink, and we've held on by our fingernails for so long. Survival isn't living, but for so long it has been the only option left to us. But not any more. We ran the hardest race that anyone has ever run, and we made it all the way to the end. It is with our own strength and our own endurance that we made it. That... most of us made it. Now we open the doors. We stop surviving and start living. Tell your children about the day we left the underground, and came back beneath the sky."
His driver was dead.
Rojas wasted no time on surprise. Instead, he wrestled the body out. More weapons-fire from behind him, slapping plasma against the jeep. He'd been in too many battles to flinch. He tossed the driver's body aside and got into the driver's seat, gunning the motor.
Over the sound of the engine, he felt something tug on the pedal, felt something small and heavy drop...
The jeep exploded from the force of the grenade between his feet.
"Tell your children about the day we stopped being afraid, about the day we took back what was ours. Tell them about the Last Army, that started with refugees and soldiers, with children and civilians, with scavengers and scroungers, with enemies and prisoners; tell them how it grew tear down the Axis of the Conquerors, and how it bought back the land of our forefathers, of our children and their children!"
He had to pause for a time as the crowd went mad with agreement, screaming his name until Kate felt her ears bleed.
Connor roared over them, feeding the energy in the room with nothing but his voice. "You tell them all about the rebirth of the Human Race, and the victorious dead we honor with word and deed. Go outside. Lift up your eyes. Breathe the free air again." Connor called to the world, his voice full of emotion and power.
The doors roared to life and opened, the gates of Crystal Peak opened wide, for the last time.
"There is nothing to fear in the open. Our tormentors are destroyed. Too long have we lived Underground. Look up in Freedom." Connor commanded. "This is ours now. It's all ours again. I ask you now to come with me. To follow where I lead you, just one last time."
Connor turned to face the opening doors, striding forward, arm in arm with Kate. People made ancient by the weight of war, silently weeping ten thousand tears inched their way outside following John Connor one last time, as he led them into the new day.
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