T2 - 02 - The New John Connor Chronicles - An Evil Hour

by Russell Blackford

  "What will it be like?" John said. "The pain?"

  Anton shrugged. "I can't describe it. It's bearable, but only just"

  "I've probably been through worse," Sarah said with a touch of bravado. She didn't add anything, and John wondered what she meant—the pain of childbirth, maybe? Or what she'd suffered in 1994, fighting the T-1000, when she'd taken serious wounds? He thought it best not to ask.

  Jade listened to this with arms folded. "I will be honest. The pain is very bad. I can control it better than others, but it is even bad for Anton. You should take painkillers before we go, but nothing that could slow your thinking, or your reflexes. We will all need to be alert and capable."

  They'd discussed this before, and they knew they had to face it. Rosanna found glasses of water and a packet of painkilling tablets. All of the human time travelers swallowed them carefully: John, Sarah, Anton, even Jade. Al-- most time to go. As the rest of them watched, Rosanna programmed the time vault. Soon they would power it up, and five of them would leave here, maybe never to return.

  Jack shook Sarah's hand, then John's. "Make it back," he said.

  "If we do, you won't know about it," Sarah said. "We'll trust you to keep out of our lives-and deal with Cyberdyne."

  "Yes, it's our problem, now. We can deal with it."

  Sarah looked unconvinced, but there was nothing they could do. Jack had agreed that they destroy the laser rifle and the remains of the T-XA, and they'd seen it done. Rosanna had annihilated them in the time vault. He'd also promised to cremate Selena's body, and he'd fulfilled that as well. But they knew he'd had samples taken from her tissues. No one could stop him doing that. And he still had the time vault, and Rosanna to work with him. God only knew what they might do with it.

  John supposed that the time vault was a prize for Jack and Samantha, something to report to their masters in Wellington. At least the time vault could not be used as a weapon; there was no use in trying to change the past. It couldn't even be used as a teleportation device, not for military purposes... or not on any scale. There was little point in teleporting an army of naked, defenseless soldiers across the world, just to get slaughtered on arrival in enemy territory. Still, Jack and Samantha were driven by one main motive: their plan to transform the U.S. armed forces with extraordinary new technologies. That had its good side. in a dangerous world where freedom had to be protected, but it could also lead to monstrosities like Skynet.

  John hoped he could trust Rosanna now. She still wanted scientific immortality-that Nobel Prize, and a place in the pantheon with Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. But she'd seen what could happen with technology. Per-haps the new Rosanna, however much she was the same as the old, would turn out to be a good person and make wiser judgments.

  As Rosanna powered up the vault, John felt terror all through his body. He was close to choking with panic, but they had no choice. The engines thrummed beneath their feet, and Rosanna came around from the console to say goodbye.

  Sarah offered her hand, and Rosanna shook it They'd learned to live with each other. John shook Rosanna's hand, too, and Anton clapped her on the shoulder, accepting her as a colleague. Jade embraced her, as Rosanna stood awkwardly, her arms held stiffly at her sides.

  Then Rosanna eyed the Terminator, making no move to touch it, or go near it. "Good luck," she said. "Thank you for your help." She frowned thoughtfully, maybe asking herself what use it was thanking a machine.

  uNo problemo," the Terminator said.

  John gave Eve a smile. He'd been teaching the cyborg well.

  "I hope we do see you again," Samantha said, looking mainly at Sarah. "I'm glad to have worked with you."

  Sarah gave her an appraising look, the "crazy" exile sizing up the well-groomed, clever official, the Pentagon guru who'd been behind so much of their trouble. As she'd done with Jack, then Rosanna, Sarah offered her hand, but that was all. She kept a guarded silence.

  Though Jack and Samantha were helping them with their journey, they had their own selfish reasons. The work on the vault had gone ahead at a speed they would have considered impossible. The Specialists had made all the difference. What were John and the others getting in return? The government had not provided servicemen, or done anything official to recognize the existence of Skynet's World. In that sense, they were now on their own. They'd debated it all for days, wondering what they could do to help.

  If they ever returned, it would not be to this moment They would find a point slightly in the future-some time months, or years, ahead. John and Sarah had discussed it from every angle. If they left a gap when they simply didn't exist in this world, that would remove some pressure.

  In that time, the cries to find them, charge them, and commit them to trial could die down. Jack and his people could deal with Skynet's mindslaves-do whatever they had to do.

  Now to put it all into practice. Perhaps the vault would not function as it should. Perhaps in a minute or two, there'd be no more John-the lights would just go out. He swallowed as he thought of that.

  "All right," Rosanna said. "Please enter the vault."

  Jade walked first toward the time vault, shedding the robe from her shoulders when she reached its open metal door. Anton followed her, then Sarah, John, and the Terminator. They took up positions on the metal center of the floor all facing outwards from the center to form a star, as seen from above. The metal was cold beneath John's feet. His heart raced as the floor beneath them vibrated; the sound of the engines seemed to go all through him.

  Outside the vault, Rosanna entered a code, and the metal door slammed shut, sealing them inside. At the same time, brilliant lights shone from the edges of the vault's ceiling. There was no way out of here, no way back. This was a vacuum-sealed, cubical prison—totally inescapable. Though he'd never suffered claustrophobia, he'd never been so hopelessly locked away in a confined space, with no windows, no points of weakness, no way to attract the world's attention.

  "Is everyone okay?" he said, trying to make light of it. "So far," Sarah said.

  Just why had he volunteered for this, he wondered for the thousandth time. The T-799 could not have forced them to go to its world. They could have sent it away empty-handed. But it seemed that they all recognized a responsibility to that other world, the world that had sent back John's father-a world where Skynet had almost been beaten, but still held on. And they recognized the danger of a Skynet triumphant in even one world.

  The vault vibrated more strongly. A sense of enormous energies.

  Then blinding white light, and terrible pain.

  PART SEVEN

  SKYNET'S WORLD

  CHAPTER

  FIFTEEN

  COLORADO JULY 2029

  They'd sent back the T-800 to 1994 without changing its briefing. John's earlier self didn't need to know how badly the war had turned out, that Kyle Reese's story was wrong. Let them do what they had to do, still feeling hope—a feeling John was fast losing. He had survived in 1994 with the hope that Kyle had given to him and his mother. May it always happen like that, he thought. There was no need to tamper with the past.

  But they could send a second Terminator. It was a wild idea, but it could do no harm. Perhaps they could find help from across time. There might be realities where time travel was more advanced, and there'd been no Judgment Day. It was a slender hope.

  They'd fight back with every resource they had, until Skynet was finally defeated... even if no help came. But still, there was that hope: so much to gain, perhaps, from an hour or so of work.

  He needed to choose a Terminator. Only a Terminator could do the job, living for as long as it took, never growing older.

  Carlo pointed. "Why not one of those? We had to fight one on Level B, and it gave us Hell. It seemed to think it was Skynet's personal protector."

  "He's right about that," Cecilia said. "That's a tough model."

  It was all the same to John. "Yeah," he said. "Why not?"

  The Tejadas had chosen one of the white-blon
de "female" Terminators. Once again, they'd trim its hair to make it look more respectable, using the style of some of the Terminators that they'd destroyed in the fighting. Once back in time, it could find its own clothing, shelter, transport.

  Danny and John patched into the circuitry of an ecto-genetic pod, then broke into the Terminator's files. These identified it as a T-799 model, identical to the first cy-borg Terminator that Skynet had designed. John whistled at that So this design was the original—and maybe still the best if the Tejadas were to be believed. The Terminator's files showed a default name of "Eve" to use with humans, unless it was reprogrammed with a different identity. John passed on that one. Why make a change? "Eve" seemed somehow appropriate. Back in the past, it could use that name, for want of something better. If it needed more, it could learn.

  Its files seemed much the same as those of the T-800 that they'd already sent back. If it returned here, with any help for them, it would need to fight T-1000s with them. So John gave it more information on the shapeshifting Terminators, just as he'd briefed the T-800. Then he programmed in its new mission parameters, keeping them short and simple. The Terminator's CPU had some capacity to interpret natural language, so there was no need to be too precise, but he hoped he'd left no room for misinterpretation.

  In the present time, Eve must obey his orders. In the past it must find the younger John Connor, obey his direct orders, but not where inconsistent with its mission. If it found itself in a world without Judgment Day, it must obtain help. John Connor—that other John Connor, in another world—was its contact point.

  He gave Eve some last data: a summary of his own movements prior to Judgment Day; as much as he could about Enrique Salceda and his family. Some personal information about himself that few people knew. He instructed the Terminator that Enrique's compound would be John Connor's natural place of retreat. He hoped that applied to the other reality. He gave it a special message for Sarah, if it found her in that other world: The future is still not set Our world depends on you.

  That was enough. He drained off the nutrient liquid raised the pod to vertical, and opened it.

  The T-799 opened its artificial eyes.

  John couldn't believe the pain tearing him inside, like huge hooks pulling every way. He vaguely registered the shock of landing hard on some kind of stone. The pain went on and on, and he clung to himself, doubled over as he got to his knees. There were people gathered round, but he could hardly think of that. The T-799 was beside him. What about the others? Were they all right? Anton? Jade? Mom? He looked around. They were all there.

  His body seemed to be whole. What was this place? They were on the side of a mountain—that was as it should be. The sky was a dirty gray overhead. No plants. It was like a lunar landscape. He tried to get up, but that was still too much.

  The Terminator stood, unwinding from its position elegantly. Jade, too. John just wanted to howl with the pain. His muscles felt torn; his skin felt on fire. Every tooth, every bone ached. He heard Jade say, "We must see John Connor."

  They were surrounded by men and women in ragged military uniforms, pointing guns. He recognized some of the weapons as phased-plasma laser rifles, a similar design to the one that they'd had taken from the T-XA. Others had assault rifles. There was shooting from somewhere nearby, and the sound of rocket-propelled grenades being launched. The air was full of strong smells, amongst it sweat, smoke, and ozone... beneath that, it was different in essence from the air of his time. Alien. In this world, so much must have changed.

  Anton had also found his feet, then John and Sarah managed to stand. John was hardly conscious of his nakedness, but he folded into himself from the ongoing pain. One woman stepped forward, removed a heavy coat she was wearing, and offered it to Sarah, who must have seemed most vulnerable. Others followed her lead. Now John was starting to recover, he realized it was bitterly cold; almost without him noticing it, his body had started to shiver and his teeth were chattering.

  Someone offered him a coat, and he took it.

  The first woman said, "You're human, aren't you?"

  "Most of us," Anton said. "Near enough."

  Someone else said the words, "Sarah Connor."

  Jade spoke up. "Listen to me." John had never seen her so commanding. She was in her element, even here, still naked, after the light and the pain. She was like a goddess, or a beautiful fighting machine. "Get us to John Connor quickly. If you can deliver him a message before we see him, do it." She stopped and considered. "Tell him he must activate the time vault. Don't send anything back in time, just keep it activated. I can't explain why, just do it. If you value your lives, do as I say."

  More explosions, not that far away. Shouts, the sound of running feet. Someone spoke into a radio. Jade shrugged on a long woolen coat, then embraced John. He realized what she was doing: just giving him her body's warmth. It was so cold here, even in the coat they'd given him. They needed more clothing, quickly. So cold.

  Danny watched as an armed escort entered the huge space of Level H. Five people had come to him come from another world. They'd answered the call for help.

  They'd all been clothed hastily in fatigues, boots, jackets, and coats, some of them doubtless taken from the dead. Many of the clothes were too big on them, or too tight, but at least they had some protection against the cold. In fact, there were four human beings—plus the Terminator they'd sent back. Danny had been hoping for much more.

  Someone had even dressed the Terminator in boots, fatigues, and a tight-fitting sweatshirt, though the machine was immune to cold. It must have been a soldier with a sense of modesty.

  It was quiet within the mountain, except for the humming of the engines that controlled the time-travel machinery. The newcomers and their escort approached Danny and John, where they sat on the concrete floor to operate the machinery. Both of them stood, but neither spoke for a moment John looked at them hard, but he seemed puzzled, just for once, lost for appropriate words.

  Danny looked from one of the newcomers to the other. There was the Terminator. Then a six-foot man with gray hair, massively built; even his hands and wrists suggested enormous strength. A young Oriental woman who carried herself like an athlete. A teenage kid who also looked honed and tough. And the woman who was with them. He'd known her when he was younger, until her death, seventeen years before. Even since then, he'd seen countless old photographs and posters. She was younger than when he'd met her, and her hair was in some style that must have been fashionable in her world and time—he'd never seen it like that. But would have recognized her anywhere. Sarah Connor.

  And the kid, of course, a few years younger than when Danny had met him.

  John.

  The Terminator said, "Mission completed."

  "Who's your leader?" Danny said, addressing them all generally.

  "We don't work like that," the big, gray-haired man said. "Not this group."

  The Oriental woman said, "Anton is right. But perhaps you should talk to me. I best know the technology... the time vault." Then she added, "My name is Jade."

  John—the forty-four-year-old John that Danny had known all these years and fought alongside—cleared his throat. "I don't know what to say. You came. . .'

  "Yes," Sarah said. "We had to."

  He looked at her with feelings that Danny could hardly identify. Some mixture of disbelief and admiration. But then he said, "But there's so few of you. Is this the most your world could do for us? I don't want to sound ungrateful."

  The teenage John said, "As a matter of fact, you're lucky."

  The two John Connors stared at each other in what looked almost like a contest of wills, but was clearly something else. Embarrassment? Curiosity? Sheer astonishment at the situation? Then the older John smiled, and actually broke into a laugh. "Lucky are we? Let's see what you can do."

  Sarah Connor walked up to him. For a long moment she simply held his face in her hands.

  Jade went to the rigged up controls for the time vault
, the screen and keyboard that Danny had set up. She grasped what they were straightaway. Danny followed her as she tried to operate the device.

  "I can't do this," she said, sounding angry with herself. "I don't understand the format."

  "Let me help you. What do you want to do?"

  She looked at him sadly. "Thank you, Daniel."

  "You know who I am?"

  "Yes, I knew you in another world."

  "Call me 'Danny'; there's no need to be so formal."

  She seemed to think hard about that. Then she said, "Very well. If you insist. Now here's how you can help..."

  * * *

  John's pain from the journey across time refused to go away entirely: he was still holding himself stiffly against it, his jaw set He felt himself wincing when he spoke, but the first agony had passed quickly.

  The man he was looking at must be his future self—his future self of Skynet's World. He was as tall as Anton, an inch or two taller than John had grown so far. Big John looked fifty, at least from the lines on his face, but his body seemed lean and fit His scars and the set of his mouth gave him a hard look. "At least the machine worked," he said. "The time displacement machine."

  "We call it the time vault," John said. The man that Jade was working with was a grown-up Danny Dyson— the Danny of this harsh world after Judgment Day. So how many of John's friends had joined with him in this world as leaders of the Resistance? What about the Tejadas, the Salcedas? Come to think of it, where was his mom in this world? He did a quick calculation. It was 2029. She'd be about sixty-five, or so, if she'd lived this long. Too old for active combat.

  "We were hoping for more of you to come," the grown-up John said. "I'm sorry if we sound disappointed. You must have had trouble in your world."

  “It's kind of a long story. Where we came from, we're not too popular."

  Big John nodded. "You can tell me about it later. You wouldn't have come if you didn't think you could help. so what is Jade doing?"