T2 - 03 - The New John Connor Chronicles - Times of Trouble

by Russell Blackford

  The T-1000 had now become the transporter. It assessed the outcome of its attack. Of the twenty-four endos that had been transported here, seventeen had been terminated—their CPUs destroyed—or severely damaged, unable to operate effectively. Those that remained were still a formidable force to confront humans, but the T-1000 made a further assessment. Caught in the open, without the transporter's laser cannon to back them up, they would be defeated by the combination of Terminators and heavily armed humans that confronted them. As the T-1000 observed, some of the Terminators ran from cover, armed with weapons that the humans must have given them. They now outnumbered the endos. High-explosive projectiles flew over the Terminators' heads, striking the endos as they marched down the slope of the knoll. More endos fell. The firefight was now as good as over.

  Having confirmed that, the T-1000 activated the transporter's forward thrust, and flew a short distance to where another group of humans and Terminators, including the other T-1000, fought an advanced T-XA. The T-1000 considered attempting to merge with the T-XA and reprogram it, but rejected that option. It had been programmed not to attempt that tactic with Skynet itself or with any of its most advanced machines, such as a T-XA. It would very likely backfire. Better to use cruder methods.

  For some seconds, the transporter hovered over the tops of the trees, its tiny, armored sensors observing this second battle zone. Humans and Terminators fired on the T-XA with laser rifles and explosive weapons. If they could keep it unbalanced for long enough, they would survive its attempted counterattacks and eventually destroy it, but the T-XA was too dangerous to leave functioning. It was time to lend assistance.

  With the merest thought, the T-1000 lowered the transporter until it brushed the trees. It locked the laser cannon on the T-XA's body and fired. Even bolts from the laser cannon could not destroy the T-XA quickly, but hundreds of bolts striking it per minute had a discernible impact. They burned off layers of the giant Terminator's liquid-metal.

  The humans and Terminators must have understood what was happening, for they made no attack on the transporter. Those with laser rifles took a step back, but joined in firing more laser bolts into the T-XA. It was visibly withering under the attack, shrinking down, becoming more and more manageable. After ten minutes, it was clear that it would eventually be destroyed. Some of the humans returned from the battle with the endos, and immediately joined in to attack the T-XA. Then the rest appeared...along with the Terminators.

  A voice spoke to the T-1000. The transporter was not equipped with any machinery for reproducing human sounds, nor could the T-1000 itself do so in its current attenuated state. But its sound sensors picked up human voices, and the liquid-metal Terminator's artificial intelligence understood the sounds. The teenage boy, John Connor, was shouting into the air.

  "Are you listening?" he said. "Do what I say—right now."

  Whatever its own plans, the T-1000 was programmed to obey.

  John, Sarah, Jade, and the two Terminators left their weapons behind for others to use. Now that Krystal and the others had returned, the T-XA seemed beatable. John knew how quickly and fully one of those monsters could recover, but it was weakened for now, and getting weaker.

  None of them was unhurt. Sarah had had a slight limp, invisible to anyone but John, since a bullet had wounded her high in her leg, near her buttock, back in 1994, and she'd had to fight on regardless—then she'd had to drive through the night to escape from Los Angeles. Though the wound had healed, she'd never been quite the same. Now she was limping visibly. John himself was battered—if he slept, he'd wake up unable to move.

  As John had told the T-1000 in charge of the transporter, they would meet it in the same landing zone that the transporter had used before. They followed the low-flying machine, brushing aside vines and branches. They took the other T-1000 and one of the T-799s with them, and the two Terminators ran on ahead. Jade easily kept pace, but she sometimes stopped for John and the others to catch up. Not only was she faster than an Olympic sprinter, she actually seemed unhurt. Any wounds she'd taken in the battle had healed up already.

  The transporter dropped down out of sight, below tree level, but John could still hear its engines. He put on an extra burst of speed, then stumbled as they hit a sudden rise. He never stopped running, catching himself with no more than a stagger in his step, plunging on breathlessly. The T-1000, the T-799, and Jade were out of sight, but they couldn't be far ahead. He started counting his steps as he ran...ninety, ninety-one. He reached a count of one hundred, then kept running, giving up the count. Just ahead, the jungle cleared, and he saw the transporter on the knoll where it must have landed before. Wrecked endos were scattered around, but there was no sign of Jade and the Terminators. They must already be inside.

  John and Sarah ran to the knoll, then up its slope. As they got in, the transporter was already lifting. The door shut behind them, leaving them almost in darkness. They crawled to the back wall, where Jade and the Terminators had already taken positions, braced against the wall with their feet outstretched. They'd also helped themselves to laser rifles from a collection kept here: racks provided for Skynet's army of endos. John and Sarah followed the Terminators' lead, fumbling in the semi-darkness to arm themselves with laser rifles.

  "I have given the T-l000s more instructions," Jade said.

  John sat next to her, trying not to think too hard. This might be a suicide mission. "They know what they've got to do?" he said.

  The transporter turned. "They know," Jade said.

  SEVENTEEN

  BRAZIL/VENEZUELA JUNE 12, 2036

  The T-1000 ignored its human passengers, and the other Terminators that they had brought with them. For now, it had what it needed: orders from the enhanced human called Jade to fly to Skynet's supply/communications node three hundred miles to the north. That node was in direct contact with Skynet itself, so Jade had said, and commanded operations here in South America.

  Though it controlled the mechanical functions of the transporter, directly interfacing with the vehicle's wiring, there was much that it did not know. The time had come to take over the CPU itself, currently isolated from all of the transporter's mechanical, communication, and attack capabilities. For weeks, Jade and the other humans had equipped it for this, teaching both T-l000s everything that she knew about the operation of Skynet's nanotechnological hardware in her world. Now the T-1000 put it into practice, connecting tiny filaments of its own substance into the circuitry of the transporter's CPU. The T-1000 was free to work at a superhuman speed, making decisions without hesitation, and acting upon them immediately.

  The CPU's layers of memory and programming were not so different from the T-1000's own. It had specialized modules, almost like a human brain, files on Skynet's operations and technologies, records of the transporter's own activities. It was not well-designed to resist a cyberattack at this fundamental level. For a swift, logical, yet innovative mind such as the T-1000's, finding its way through the CPU's defenses was almost easy. It took several paths at once, discovering more all the time, brushing away the CPU's feeble attempts to counterattack. Soon, the T-1000 had what it wanted: the transporter's log of interactions with other machine intelligences, including the controlling intelligence of the South American node. It cleaned out everything it wanted, then wiped all traces of where it had been and what had happened in this latest battle. If the CPU were ever interrogated by a higher computer intelligence, it would show no signs of having been tampered with.

  For the T-1000, time was a meaningful concept, but not in the same sense as for humans. Some events had to be brought to fruition before others, if tactically useful outcomes were to be achieved. But the liquid-metal Terminator had no feelings of impatience, no sense of anxiety. It simply calculated its best options, based on the available information as it became known. It continually reassessed the situation, taking into account the need to produce outcomes in an efficient way. Patiently, it formulated a plan of attack from the information it no
w possessed.

  The transporter climbed higher, following the terrain. One hundred miles from its target, the T-1000 provided the necessary code to request admission.

  Once inside the complex, the transporter would be heavily outnumbered by other machines, outgunned many times over, but the Terminator had the advantage of surprise. It would strike cleanly and suddenly.

  John had read stories about travel in intelligent ships, aircraft, space vehicles—the difference was, in all those stories you could communicate both ways. But it wasn't the same here. The T-1000 could use the transporter's sensors to listen to them. You could even give it orders, as Jade had already done, but it couldn't answer back. It was bad enough being in semi-darkness. You had to guess what was really going on, what the T-1000 was thinking.

  "I wish the ship could talk to us," he said to the others. "I'd like to know what's in its mind."

  "There's no need to worry about that," said the other T-1000, the one that had joined them in the transporter's cargo bay.

  "No?"

  In the dim light, John saw the T-1000's arm suddenly stretch, becoming a long spike of metal that stabbed into the ceiling. "There, John—this will solve your problem."

  Are you connected with the other polyalloy Terminator?" Jade said.

  "Just a moment, Jade." The T-1000 paused. Then it spoke with what seemed like a mix of concern and condescension, like some kind of know-it-all repair-man. "I am now. I've linked up with its circuitry."

  "Cool," John said. "You can tell us what it's thinking, what it's planning?"

  "Oh, sure. What, exactly, do you want to know?"

  The transporter slowed down, and flew lower. A pair of heavy steel doors slid open, letting it into a huge chamber of stone, ceramic, concrete, and metal, built back into the hillside. There were dozens of endos, some of them servicing H-Ks and other war machines, some running production lines for machinery and munitions, others moving objects and materials from place to place. To the T-1000 controlling the transporter, the scene was not strange. It was not so different from what existed in its own world, on some floors of Skynet's underground facility in the Rockies, or within other facilities that the war computer had built. Nor was it so different from the factory that the T-1000 had guarded in Spain, at Skynet's command—though this single floor stretched for hundreds of yards, larger than anything of the kind that the liquid-metal Terminator had seen.

  Among the milling endos sat an army's worth of larger machines: six massive Juggernauts, like a cross between a human-made army tank and the land H-Ks of the T-l000's world; three transporters, the same as the one that the T-1000 currently controlled; a much bigger megatransporter, built on a scale to carry Juggernauts within its belly; and eight of this world's aerial H-Ks. There was space for still more machines to land here. The information that Jade had given the two T-1000s, before they even came to this world, was that this base contained much of Skynet's firepower in South America—everything that was not deployed, at a given time, on attacks or patrols.

  The transporter opened fire with its single laser cannon as it flew at low speed over the top of the war machines, aiming first to take out all gun turrets capable of pointing in the air. The aerial H-Ks, in particular, were designed to attack human positions below them on the ground. In a matter of seconds, the transporter eliminated the worst threats to its safety. Then it fired on the aerial H-Ks, quickly destroying the engines of three of them.

  It had to care for the humans. It opened each of its doors three feet, sufficient for them to exit, while still protecting them from attack. Then it plunged at twenty mph, heading straight for a fourth H-K. It plowed into the H-K headlong, with a shrieking sound of metal tearing through metal. It pushed the H-K before it, slamming into one of the Juggernauts, close to it in line. The transporter's own engines crumpled, as the three huge machines—transporter, H-K, Juggernaut—slid across the floor, striking sparks against its hard concrete surface. Endos scurried out of the way, but one was caught by the hundred tons of fast-moving metal rubbish, losing its footing and getting dragged along underneath.

  Seconds later, the mass of twisted, torn, steel and hyperalloy slammed into a bank of machinery. Coldly, the T-1000 analyzed the damage to the transporter. One side was buried in steel, leaving almost no space for entry or exit. The craft would never fly again, and even its gun turret had been reduced to mangled wreckage. But some of its sensors still worked. Its cargo bay was a rigid cage of steel, designed to survive impact and protect the transporter's cargo, even when the rest of the aircraft crumpled. Within that space, the humans and Terminators that it carried had survived, though the T-1000 lacked sufficient sensory information to assess what injuries they might have suffered.

  Outside, on the huge floor, the worker endos moved quickly, efficiently, without any panic or rush, arming themselves with laser rifles. Soon, the crippled transporter would be under attack. The T-1000 considered its options, and refined its action plan.

  As the doors half-opened and the transporter dived sharply, John, Sarah, and Jade flattened themselves out on the floor of the cargo bay, face down, arms over their heads. The T-799 and T-1000 braced against the front wall of the bay, not for their own protection, but to avoid being flung around and colliding with the humans. Metal tore, and screamed in protest, as they hit, slid, and hit once more. The rigid walls of the compartment held, but John was tossed about on the floor. He bounced against the T-1000, which went liquid at the moment of impact. Instead of hitting steel, it was like diving into a pool of honey.

  Jade reached her feet instantly. They had to stop any endos they could before the red-eyed machines could attack.

  It was still dark in here; the doors of the complex had closed behind them, cutting out natural light. John only half saw as the T-1000 that had controlled the transporter poured itself back into the cargo bay. It plopped like molten glass from the hole it had made in the metal wall paneling, then rose up like a jet of water. An arm shot past John's head to snatch a rifle from the wall racks.

  Endos moved outside the transporter, visible mainly by their glowing eyes. John, Jade, and the three Terminators fired again and again, aiming above the eyes, where they knew the CPUs were located. At this range, the laser rifles were effective to stop an endo, if it didn't hit them first. A perfect shot from Jade took out one endo. John followed with a kill of his own, then retreated from the part-open doorway, taking cover until there was a better chance to fire. Return

  fire—laser pulses—entered the transporter's bay, glowing vividly in the dark.

  They were pinned in here. There was only the one practical exit, since the other side of the transporter was jammed against metal wreckage. Attempting to leave would mean running directly into a dozen lines of deadly, amplified light. They might as well impale themselves on a row of spears as try to escape. Beside him, John smelled flesh burning as a laser bolt hit the T-799, but the Terminator fired in return. The endos had not yet worked out that they were dealing with another machine, that the T-799 could stand most wounds. About the T-l000s they must have no idea.

  Another shot struck the T-799's laser rifle, rendering it ineffective. Lying there in the dark, his death not far away, John cursed to himself. He rolled closer to the doorway to hand up his own laser rifle to the T-799, which snatched it with one powerful hand and began returning fire. More laser bolts stabbed into their bay. Others burnt holes in the armored door. John could imagine the endos moving out there, getting closer. He had no idea of how many there'd been at the start, or how many they'd managed to destroy. But one thing was clear: Even one of those hyperalloy skeletons could kill him and Sarah with ease, once it got its clawlike hands on them. In hand-to-hand combat with an endo, Jade might have some chance, but not an ordinary human.

  The T-799 leaned across the doorway, and fired again. Return fire hit it, but didn't take it out. It kept firing, shot after shot, until an endo worked out to hit it in the head, and it stopped altogether. In the end, the T-799
must have been a damaged, deformed monstrosity, after taking so many shots to different parts of its body. It had fought on. Terminators were not hindered by fear or pain.

  But that was one of their team gone. Counting the T-l000s, there were five to go.

  John sensed Sarah's movements. She must have been hurt in the crash, but she was obviously still alive. "Are you okay, Mom?" he said.

  "Of course not," she said. "But when has that ever stopped me?"

  "I think we need to take a different approach," one of the T-l000s said.

  Two laser rifles clanged on the floor. John grabbed one, and went back to work.

  "Just fire, and keep firing," Jade said, squeezing off a laser pulse at yet another endo. "The T-l000s have gone."

  "No need to tell me that, teacher," Sarah said. She took aim, and fired into the dark—then retreated to cover, just ahead of answering fire.

  John wasn't sure what he'd seen, except that the T-l000s had moved to the other side of the cargo hold. The way out on that side was blocked, but he guessed there were gaps. If anything could get through, it was the liquid-metal Terminators.

  Still stretched out on the floor, John and Sarah leaned into the doorway. Sarah got a clean shot at an endo, then another—this one just a few feet away, looming over them in the dark. The light bolt struck under its chin, penetrated upward into its skull, and did enough CPU damage to send the red-eyed demon off dancing in another direction. Nearby, Jade's rifle moved about in the semi-darkness like a demented bumblebee, as bolts of light shot from its barrel. She was ducking and weaving at crazy angles, dodging the enemy laser fire, and firing back unerringly.

  Without her, the battle would have been all over by now. Skilled with guns as John and Sarah were, they were not the equal of the endos. Even firing from cover like this, against enemies who fought out in the open, they'd not have lasted for long. Jade gave them an edge.