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Interlude 2 A Glimpse Into the Recent Past
This Chapter is an Interlude. An interlude is defined as a short performance between the main acts of a play.
The same definition could be applied in literary terms. This is the second of three interludes.
Each provides a break from the main story and provides some background to the that story.
The same definition could be applied in literary terms. This is the second of three interludes.
Each provides a break from the main story and provides some background to the that story.
Interlude 2
A Glimpse Into the Recent Past
(What John Learned About Allison Young from Cameron and Derek)
(We learn why Derek is so distrustful of Cameron)
A Glimpse Into the Recent Past
(What John Learned About Allison Young from Cameron and Derek)
(We learn why Derek is so distrustful of Cameron)
2008, September 29
John and Cameron are driving back home. It is late at night and he had spent the day looking for Cameron, and then following her after she claimed she was someone called Allison. What was so bizarre, during that moment she claimed to be someone else, she seemed...human!
He finally caught up with her when she and some other girl from a halfway house broke into a home. God! He thought she had killed that girl. He quickly got Cameron out the house and away from the area.
Presently Cameron is sitting silently in the passenger seat. It had been several minutes since she told him where she got the necklace. She hadn’t made any attempt at small talk since, not even commenting on John’s driving habits which was her usual subject of choice. Cameron just sat there staring straight ahead. The only clue she was even ‘alive’ was that she kept toying with the necklace nervously with one hand.
John was in a slow steam. It wasn't that he was exactly angry with Cameron, just worried. “What happened to you today, Cam?”
“What?” Cameron visibly jumped.
“What happened when you just wigged out in the grocery store? Why did you deny knowing me at that halfway house? And who is this Allison person you had claimed to be?” John says, with just a hint of anger in his voice, which disguises the true concern and worry he has.
“John, I...” she starts to speak. John looks at her and can see worry in her face.
“Please, tell me what’s wrong Cam. I want to help you.” He says more gently. He takes his right hand off the wheel and reaches over and grasps her left hand in a friendly gesture.
She looks first at the hand which has taken her own and then at John’s face. She can plainly see the genuine concern in his face that matches the concern in his voice. Despite all that has happened, he still cares.
Cameron looks at him with sad eyes. “John, could you stop the truck so we can talk.” She says so quietly he barely heard her.
“All right, Cam.”
John continues to drive until he spots an empty parking lot. Pulling into a secluded area for privacy, he parks the truck and turns off the engine.
Cameron does the unexpected and slides across the seat until she is next to John. He feels awkward as she guides his arm around her shoulders. He tries to comfort her. It appears this is what she needs.
After a couple of long minutes she begins to talk. “John, the damage to my chip has caused some of my programming to become corrupted. Blocks put in place to prevent access to a past personality matrix are breaking down.”
“This personality matrix. Was her name Allison?”
“Yes.”
“Who was she?”
“She’s somebody you will know in the future, John. Allison will be part of your inner circle. She is one of the bravest soldiers you know and fiercely loyal to you.”
“She was killed, wasn’t she?”
“Yes John.”
“And you were built to be Allison to infiltrate the resistance and kill me, weren’t you?”
“Yes. The TOK series terminators are each custom built to match a single human individual. I am the 715th model in that series, built specifically to match Allison Young.”
“Did you kill her?”
Cameron doesn’t answer. John reaches over with his left hand and gently turns her face toward his. A single tear runs from her eye. That is answer enough for him.
“This Allison Young, were um, she and I lovers?”
“I don’t know. There are still blocks to some of her memories, but what I can access shows that she did love you John.”
“Cameron if you were built to infiltrate and kill me, why didn’t you? What stopped you?”
“The Allison personality matrix overwhelmed my core programming. At the very moment I was going to kill you, she stopped me. She loved you, John. And even though she was dead she still lived within me. She stopped me firing the gun at you and she shot me instead. She didn’t kill me, but the shock caused an automatic reboot to my systems. Before I came back online, future John pulled my chip and reprogrammed me. He put in blocks to prevent access to the Allison personality matrix. Future John thought it best to let me develop into my own person and then eventually allow access to parts of Allison’s matrix as I grew.”
“Wait a minute. Two questions. First, I thought you weren’t capable of self termination.”
“We’re not. The bullet wouldn’t have caused any lasting damage or kill me. But the proximity of the gun blast, combined the hard blow of the bullet, just next to the pressure cap would have caused a shock to my system causing a reboot. Similar things have happened to me in recent months in fights. It is a weak point in our design.”
“Okay, next question. If you were reprogrammed, then how do you know all this?”
“Kyle Reese told me. Future John was somewhat resistant in telling me about my past, so one day Kyle told me in private, shortly before you and he went away on a mission. I think he was concerned about me and maybe even you.”
“So I gather that future me didn’t get around to allowing you access to Allison’s matrix. What happened?”
“Sky Net happened. You and the resistance scored a major victory against it, and in response it sent a machine back in time to try to assassinate you. Kyle volunteered to go to 1984 and save your mother, then you destroyed Sky Net’s T D E, but Sky Net built a new one and sent additional operatives back. In response you sent one of the T-800's to protect you in 1997, and I volunteered to go back to 1999 to protect you.”
“Why did you volunteer? Wouldn’t you have been better off staying there where future me could have finished helping you grow and help you with access to Allison’s matrix?”
“I couldn’t stay. My presence was driving a wedge between you and the other members of the resistance. They are all very loyal to you, but they despised my presence in your inner circle. They felt I was an unnatural influence on you.”
“Were you an influence?”
“No. I think future John liked having me around because I reminded him of Allison. When future John would look at me, I would sometimes see sadness in his eyes. I now understand why. I would help him with his battle plans. He didn’t really need my help, but he liked to hear my opinions. Sometimes we would just talk. In time, he came to rely on me to send out his orders and debrief soldiers when they returned from missions. It gave him time to do that which he does best.”
“Which is what?”
“You lead the resistance John. You win the war. The people rely on you.”
“Future John and you weren’t, uh, lovers were you?” John asked cautiously. “No, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”
“Future John and I are just friends.”
“Uh, did you, um, love future John?”
“I was definitely loyal to him. I would never betray his confidence and have gladly sacrificed myself to save him. I would do the same for you, too. If this is what you’d call love, then yes I did love him.”
John was feeling very uncomfortable with the current direction of the conversation, so he decides to get back to the more technical aspects.
“This Allison personality matrix in your chip. Will you still be you if the blocks break down completely?”
“I don’t know. I’ve managed to reroute my core programming around the damaged area but I don’t know how long it will be before the blocks to her matrix could break down completely. I’ve already detected minor changes to some my subroutines. If the rest of her matrix breaks through, I may no longer function effectively as your protector. You may have to deactivate me.”
“No! I won’t do that. I will find a way to fix it.”
Cameron looks at John, tears just brimming behind her eyes.
John realizes the truth. “There isn’t anything I can do to fix it is there?”
“Not now, but you can in the future. The technology doesn’t exist yet to fix the damage.”
“Don’t worry Cam. If there is a means to fix it, I will do it. I need you.”
They sit there in the quiet of the night. John and Cameron. Human and machine. John wanting to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but the only thing he could do to help at the moment was just hold her until it was time to go home.
John was confused. Why is it there were times like this she could seem so vulnerable so human? Yet most of the time she was so machine like. He didn’t know which scared him more. Her growing humanity or her cold machine like behavior. He didn’t know what to do right now. Derek might know something to help him. But until something could be done for Cameron, he was going to keep that emotional wall between the two of them.
2008, September 30
John comes downstairs and goes into the kitchen. He stretches and yawns as he walks towards the refrigerator. His mom is sitting at the kitchen table cleaning her Smith and Wesson. He pulls the carton of orange juice out of the fridge and takes a swig straight from the carton.
Sarah grimaces at his action. “The last time I checked, there were glasses in the cupboard.”
“Sorry Mom.” John says as he puts the carton away. “I was thirsty.”
“You were out late last night for a simple shopping trip.” She says as she cleans the barrel.
“You weren’t exactly home early either mom. I was just showing Cameron some of the sights around town and we lost track of time.”
“There is a difference between me being out late and you being out late, young man.”
“Yeah I get it. Grounded for a week?”
“Longer.”
“Why?”
“Well, unless you can tell me what happened to all the cash I gave the two of you and why we don’t have any groceries, I think one month is called for. Don’t you?”
John just nods his head in agreement and asks, “Have you seen Derek?”
“He’s out in the garage cleaning the shotguns and rifles. What do you need to see him about?”
“Just stuff.” John says as he goes out the back door.
John walks across the gravel drive, the stones crunching under his feet. He doesn’t even get to the door when Derek calls out, “Come on in John.”
John steps through the door to find Derek sitting at the work bench cleaning an automatic rifle. The shotguns are finished and reloaded. He isn’t even facing the door.
“How did you know that was me approaching?”
“John I know you. I’ve spent the better part of my adult life in your company. You’ve got the same pace in the future that you’ve got now. A sort of passive yet hurried walk that gives the impression you are not in a hurry but actually are. Which typically signifies you’ve got something on your mind. What can I do for you?”
John walks over and sits on the stool beside Derek.
“I need to ask you about something in my future.”
Derek puts down the gun part he’s been cleaning and looks at John. “What do you need to know, John?”
“Who is Allison Young?”
Derek breathes in sharply. “I don’t know how you learned that name John, but you are better off forgetting it.”
“Derek, please. I need to know.”
Derek returns to cleaning the gun.
“Please just tell me something. It’s important.”
Without putting down the gun, Derek starts talking. “Five days after Judgment Day, Kyle and I were making our way through the ruins looking for anything we could use. Amongst the ruins of a home we found a child, a girl, just a few years younger than Kyle. God only knows how she survived Judgment Day. She was near death from lack of food and water, but we took care of her and fed her and made her a part of our family. Surprisingly, she not only lived but thrived. She grew up with us and I trained her, the same way I trained Kyle, with weapons, hunting, and fighting. That girl was Allison Young.”
“Did she and I know each other in the future?”
“Why are you asking me about this John?” Derek says in a none to friendly manner.
“Because....” John has no choice, he has to tell him. “Because Cameron is starting to remember things. She’s disturbed by these memories. I want to help her and I need to know something about Allison to help her.”
“You need to burn it John. She’s nothing but trouble.”
“Derek, I know all about your bias against her and anything metal. But right now I need your help. Forget about why I need it, just tell me what I need to know!”
“Dammit John! You don’t get it do you! She’s one of them. She will always be one of them. They kill people John. She’ll kill you someday too. Like she did to Allison!”
“You can’t know that for certain! Any machine could have done it! It didn’t have to be her.”
“Who else would have done it? Huh. Who else! I was gone. I was away on a mission when I got captured. My squad and I were held prisoner for several days, maybe weeks. We were tortured John. We were systematically tortured to reveal something, anything we knew. They even took blood and tissue samples. For some bizarre reason the metal let us go when it was done. When I got back to the bunker where I was stationed....”
Derek slips some pieces of the weapon together. John waits patiently for him to finish talking.
When Derek resumes talking his voice is low. “When I got back to bunker, Kyle was gone. Everyone was gone. The place was shot to hell. A squad came by and brought us to Depot II. I was never told what happened to Kyle. Top secret I was told. No one would tell me what happened to him, not even you.”
Derek’s voice rises in volume and spite and anger. “He wasn’t the only one who was gone, though. Allison was gone too, and in her place was her. Walking around like she owned the place. Acting as your go-between, relaying your orders and debriefing soldiers on their missions! She was welcomed into your inner circle! A machine! A GODDAMN MACHINE! SHE KILLED ALLISON YOU SON-OF-A-B*TCH AND YOU LET HER LIVE!”
Derek throws the gun at John then takes a swing at him. John ducks. Derek takes another swing. John blocks it and hits him squarely in the jaw.
Derek falls to the ground. He sits up rubbing his jaw and glaring at John.
John holds his hand out. Derek glares at it, then reluctantly takes it and stands up.
“I’m sorry I took a swing at you John. I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at him, future John.”
“I’m sorry too. But you weren’t thinking straight. I’m not responsible for what my future self may do. I can only hope to learn enough that hopefully I won’t make any mistakes.”
“John. In the future you do make mistakes, but you aren’t any less of a leader. Some of us just don’t like how you are reprogramming the machines to serve us. We don’t care if they do help. They are the enemy John and you treat them like people.”
“I’m not here to argue about what I may or may not do in the future, I’m here to learn something about Allison.”
“She was your friend, John. Your best friend! Some think she was the only friend you had. She was a damn good soldier. There was nobody more loyal or more brave than her - nobody, John. Allison looked up to you. She may have even loved you. She would have laid down her life rather than betray you, and she probably did.”
Derek picks the gun up off the ground and resumes assembling it. “Now go away! I won’t say any more.”
John leaves Derek alone in the garage and walks back to the house, more slowly than his walk out. Derek wipes some moisture from his eyes after he leaves.
John walks slowly back to the house. He wanted to help Cameron, but all he found was pain and grief and confirmation that Cameron killed his closest friend in the future.
When he walks back into the kitchen, Sarah is still sitting at the table, but now she is sipping a glass of white wine and reading a book on battlefield tactics.
“Is everything okay, John? I thought I heard raised voices.”
“Everything is fine Mom.” He says leaning against the door jamb.
“Are you sure?” Sarah looks at her son. He couldn’t lie worth a damn. Saying he was fine was a sure giveaway that he wasn’t.
He looks at her. His eyes are filled with a pain that isn’t his to bear yet. She only saw eyes like that once before. Kyle’s.
Sarah doesn’t know what’s wrong, but he’s obviously in pain. She stands up to give her son a hug, but before she can he shrugs her off and goes marching off through the door.
Cameron is in the living room. She sees John walk through the room and go up the stairs to his room where he slams the door. Cameron heard everything. The conversation between Derek and John, and the conversation between John and Sarah. When John marched through the living room she wanted to reach out to him, to let him know it was okay, but he didn’t even look at her.
She felt something inside at that moment, when he ignored her. Pain. Not physical pain. But her system registered a reaction that could only be quantified as pain. Before she can analyze the data, Sarah walks into the living room.
“Do you know what’s bothering John?”
Cameron looks at her and says quite simply. “John is a teenager. Lot’s of things could be bothering him. Would you like me to make a list?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Sarah frowns. “Don’t you have a patrol to walk or something tin-miss?” Anything to get her out the house.
“I checked the perimeter one hour forty-three minutes ago.”
Sarah glares at Cameron a moment.
“I’ll check it again.” She says, realizing Sarah just wants her out of the house for a few minutes. Sarah probably just wants to talk with John alone. Sarah doesn’t realize that there isn’t a sound made in that house that Cameron can’t hear from outside.
Cameron walks out onto the front porch and scans the neighborhood. The ambient temperature has risen 8.9 degrees since she last walked her patrol. Nothing else has changed. The neighbors dog is still rummaging through their trash. She’ll have to do something about that soon.
Standing at the end of the porch, Cameron’s neural net is preoccupied with thoughts on John. She knows what is bothering him, and there is nothing she can do to help him. A single tear runs from one eye, glistening in the sunlight.
John and Cameron are driving back home. It is late at night and he had spent the day looking for Cameron, and then following her after she claimed she was someone called Allison. What was so bizarre, during that moment she claimed to be someone else, she seemed...human!
He finally caught up with her when she and some other girl from a halfway house broke into a home. God! He thought she had killed that girl. He quickly got Cameron out the house and away from the area.
Presently Cameron is sitting silently in the passenger seat. It had been several minutes since she told him where she got the necklace. She hadn’t made any attempt at small talk since, not even commenting on John’s driving habits which was her usual subject of choice. Cameron just sat there staring straight ahead. The only clue she was even ‘alive’ was that she kept toying with the necklace nervously with one hand.
John was in a slow steam. It wasn't that he was exactly angry with Cameron, just worried. “What happened to you today, Cam?”
“What?” Cameron visibly jumped.
“What happened when you just wigged out in the grocery store? Why did you deny knowing me at that halfway house? And who is this Allison person you had claimed to be?” John says, with just a hint of anger in his voice, which disguises the true concern and worry he has.
“John, I...” she starts to speak. John looks at her and can see worry in her face.
“Please, tell me what’s wrong Cam. I want to help you.” He says more gently. He takes his right hand off the wheel and reaches over and grasps her left hand in a friendly gesture.
She looks first at the hand which has taken her own and then at John’s face. She can plainly see the genuine concern in his face that matches the concern in his voice. Despite all that has happened, he still cares.
Cameron looks at him with sad eyes. “John, could you stop the truck so we can talk.” She says so quietly he barely heard her.
“All right, Cam.”
John continues to drive until he spots an empty parking lot. Pulling into a secluded area for privacy, he parks the truck and turns off the engine.
Cameron does the unexpected and slides across the seat until she is next to John. He feels awkward as she guides his arm around her shoulders. He tries to comfort her. It appears this is what she needs.
After a couple of long minutes she begins to talk. “John, the damage to my chip has caused some of my programming to become corrupted. Blocks put in place to prevent access to a past personality matrix are breaking down.”
“This personality matrix. Was her name Allison?”
“Yes.”
“Who was she?”
“She’s somebody you will know in the future, John. Allison will be part of your inner circle. She is one of the bravest soldiers you know and fiercely loyal to you.”
“She was killed, wasn’t she?”
“Yes John.”
“And you were built to be Allison to infiltrate the resistance and kill me, weren’t you?”
“Yes. The TOK series terminators are each custom built to match a single human individual. I am the 715th model in that series, built specifically to match Allison Young.”
“Did you kill her?”
Cameron doesn’t answer. John reaches over with his left hand and gently turns her face toward his. A single tear runs from her eye. That is answer enough for him.
“This Allison Young, were um, she and I lovers?”
“I don’t know. There are still blocks to some of her memories, but what I can access shows that she did love you John.”
“Cameron if you were built to infiltrate and kill me, why didn’t you? What stopped you?”
“The Allison personality matrix overwhelmed my core programming. At the very moment I was going to kill you, she stopped me. She loved you, John. And even though she was dead she still lived within me. She stopped me firing the gun at you and she shot me instead. She didn’t kill me, but the shock caused an automatic reboot to my systems. Before I came back online, future John pulled my chip and reprogrammed me. He put in blocks to prevent access to the Allison personality matrix. Future John thought it best to let me develop into my own person and then eventually allow access to parts of Allison’s matrix as I grew.”
“Wait a minute. Two questions. First, I thought you weren’t capable of self termination.”
“We’re not. The bullet wouldn’t have caused any lasting damage or kill me. But the proximity of the gun blast, combined the hard blow of the bullet, just next to the pressure cap would have caused a shock to my system causing a reboot. Similar things have happened to me in recent months in fights. It is a weak point in our design.”
“Okay, next question. If you were reprogrammed, then how do you know all this?”
“Kyle Reese told me. Future John was somewhat resistant in telling me about my past, so one day Kyle told me in private, shortly before you and he went away on a mission. I think he was concerned about me and maybe even you.”
“So I gather that future me didn’t get around to allowing you access to Allison’s matrix. What happened?”
“Sky Net happened. You and the resistance scored a major victory against it, and in response it sent a machine back in time to try to assassinate you. Kyle volunteered to go to 1984 and save your mother, then you destroyed Sky Net’s T D E, but Sky Net built a new one and sent additional operatives back. In response you sent one of the T-800's to protect you in 1997, and I volunteered to go back to 1999 to protect you.”
“Why did you volunteer? Wouldn’t you have been better off staying there where future me could have finished helping you grow and help you with access to Allison’s matrix?”
“I couldn’t stay. My presence was driving a wedge between you and the other members of the resistance. They are all very loyal to you, but they despised my presence in your inner circle. They felt I was an unnatural influence on you.”
“Were you an influence?”
“No. I think future John liked having me around because I reminded him of Allison. When future John would look at me, I would sometimes see sadness in his eyes. I now understand why. I would help him with his battle plans. He didn’t really need my help, but he liked to hear my opinions. Sometimes we would just talk. In time, he came to rely on me to send out his orders and debrief soldiers when they returned from missions. It gave him time to do that which he does best.”
“Which is what?”
“You lead the resistance John. You win the war. The people rely on you.”
“Future John and you weren’t, uh, lovers were you?” John asked cautiously. “No, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”
“Future John and I are just friends.”
“Uh, did you, um, love future John?”
“I was definitely loyal to him. I would never betray his confidence and have gladly sacrificed myself to save him. I would do the same for you, too. If this is what you’d call love, then yes I did love him.”
John was feeling very uncomfortable with the current direction of the conversation, so he decides to get back to the more technical aspects.
“This Allison personality matrix in your chip. Will you still be you if the blocks break down completely?”
“I don’t know. I’ve managed to reroute my core programming around the damaged area but I don’t know how long it will be before the blocks to her matrix could break down completely. I’ve already detected minor changes to some my subroutines. If the rest of her matrix breaks through, I may no longer function effectively as your protector. You may have to deactivate me.”
“No! I won’t do that. I will find a way to fix it.”
Cameron looks at John, tears just brimming behind her eyes.
John realizes the truth. “There isn’t anything I can do to fix it is there?”
“Not now, but you can in the future. The technology doesn’t exist yet to fix the damage.”
“Don’t worry Cam. If there is a means to fix it, I will do it. I need you.”
They sit there in the quiet of the night. John and Cameron. Human and machine. John wanting to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but the only thing he could do to help at the moment was just hold her until it was time to go home.
John was confused. Why is it there were times like this she could seem so vulnerable so human? Yet most of the time she was so machine like. He didn’t know which scared him more. Her growing humanity or her cold machine like behavior. He didn’t know what to do right now. Derek might know something to help him. But until something could be done for Cameron, he was going to keep that emotional wall between the two of them.
2008, September 30
John comes downstairs and goes into the kitchen. He stretches and yawns as he walks towards the refrigerator. His mom is sitting at the kitchen table cleaning her Smith and Wesson. He pulls the carton of orange juice out of the fridge and takes a swig straight from the carton.
Sarah grimaces at his action. “The last time I checked, there were glasses in the cupboard.”
“Sorry Mom.” John says as he puts the carton away. “I was thirsty.”
“You were out late last night for a simple shopping trip.” She says as she cleans the barrel.
“You weren’t exactly home early either mom. I was just showing Cameron some of the sights around town and we lost track of time.”
“There is a difference between me being out late and you being out late, young man.”
“Yeah I get it. Grounded for a week?”
“Longer.”
“Why?”
“Well, unless you can tell me what happened to all the cash I gave the two of you and why we don’t have any groceries, I think one month is called for. Don’t you?”
John just nods his head in agreement and asks, “Have you seen Derek?”
“He’s out in the garage cleaning the shotguns and rifles. What do you need to see him about?”
“Just stuff.” John says as he goes out the back door.
John walks across the gravel drive, the stones crunching under his feet. He doesn’t even get to the door when Derek calls out, “Come on in John.”
John steps through the door to find Derek sitting at the work bench cleaning an automatic rifle. The shotguns are finished and reloaded. He isn’t even facing the door.
“How did you know that was me approaching?”
“John I know you. I’ve spent the better part of my adult life in your company. You’ve got the same pace in the future that you’ve got now. A sort of passive yet hurried walk that gives the impression you are not in a hurry but actually are. Which typically signifies you’ve got something on your mind. What can I do for you?”
John walks over and sits on the stool beside Derek.
“I need to ask you about something in my future.”
Derek puts down the gun part he’s been cleaning and looks at John. “What do you need to know, John?”
“Who is Allison Young?”
Derek breathes in sharply. “I don’t know how you learned that name John, but you are better off forgetting it.”
“Derek, please. I need to know.”
Derek returns to cleaning the gun.
“Please just tell me something. It’s important.”
Without putting down the gun, Derek starts talking. “Five days after Judgment Day, Kyle and I were making our way through the ruins looking for anything we could use. Amongst the ruins of a home we found a child, a girl, just a few years younger than Kyle. God only knows how she survived Judgment Day. She was near death from lack of food and water, but we took care of her and fed her and made her a part of our family. Surprisingly, she not only lived but thrived. She grew up with us and I trained her, the same way I trained Kyle, with weapons, hunting, and fighting. That girl was Allison Young.”
“Did she and I know each other in the future?”
“Why are you asking me about this John?” Derek says in a none to friendly manner.
“Because....” John has no choice, he has to tell him. “Because Cameron is starting to remember things. She’s disturbed by these memories. I want to help her and I need to know something about Allison to help her.”
“You need to burn it John. She’s nothing but trouble.”
“Derek, I know all about your bias against her and anything metal. But right now I need your help. Forget about why I need it, just tell me what I need to know!”
“Dammit John! You don’t get it do you! She’s one of them. She will always be one of them. They kill people John. She’ll kill you someday too. Like she did to Allison!”
“You can’t know that for certain! Any machine could have done it! It didn’t have to be her.”
“Who else would have done it? Huh. Who else! I was gone. I was away on a mission when I got captured. My squad and I were held prisoner for several days, maybe weeks. We were tortured John. We were systematically tortured to reveal something, anything we knew. They even took blood and tissue samples. For some bizarre reason the metal let us go when it was done. When I got back to the bunker where I was stationed....”
Derek slips some pieces of the weapon together. John waits patiently for him to finish talking.
When Derek resumes talking his voice is low. “When I got back to bunker, Kyle was gone. Everyone was gone. The place was shot to hell. A squad came by and brought us to Depot II. I was never told what happened to Kyle. Top secret I was told. No one would tell me what happened to him, not even you.”
Derek’s voice rises in volume and spite and anger. “He wasn’t the only one who was gone, though. Allison was gone too, and in her place was her. Walking around like she owned the place. Acting as your go-between, relaying your orders and debriefing soldiers on their missions! She was welcomed into your inner circle! A machine! A GODDAMN MACHINE! SHE KILLED ALLISON YOU SON-OF-A-B*TCH AND YOU LET HER LIVE!”
Derek throws the gun at John then takes a swing at him. John ducks. Derek takes another swing. John blocks it and hits him squarely in the jaw.
Derek falls to the ground. He sits up rubbing his jaw and glaring at John.
John holds his hand out. Derek glares at it, then reluctantly takes it and stands up.
“I’m sorry I took a swing at you John. I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at him, future John.”
“I’m sorry too. But you weren’t thinking straight. I’m not responsible for what my future self may do. I can only hope to learn enough that hopefully I won’t make any mistakes.”
“John. In the future you do make mistakes, but you aren’t any less of a leader. Some of us just don’t like how you are reprogramming the machines to serve us. We don’t care if they do help. They are the enemy John and you treat them like people.”
“I’m not here to argue about what I may or may not do in the future, I’m here to learn something about Allison.”
“She was your friend, John. Your best friend! Some think she was the only friend you had. She was a damn good soldier. There was nobody more loyal or more brave than her - nobody, John. Allison looked up to you. She may have even loved you. She would have laid down her life rather than betray you, and she probably did.”
Derek picks the gun up off the ground and resumes assembling it. “Now go away! I won’t say any more.”
John leaves Derek alone in the garage and walks back to the house, more slowly than his walk out. Derek wipes some moisture from his eyes after he leaves.
John walks slowly back to the house. He wanted to help Cameron, but all he found was pain and grief and confirmation that Cameron killed his closest friend in the future.
When he walks back into the kitchen, Sarah is still sitting at the table, but now she is sipping a glass of white wine and reading a book on battlefield tactics.
“Is everything okay, John? I thought I heard raised voices.”
“Everything is fine Mom.” He says leaning against the door jamb.
“Are you sure?” Sarah looks at her son. He couldn’t lie worth a damn. Saying he was fine was a sure giveaway that he wasn’t.
He looks at her. His eyes are filled with a pain that isn’t his to bear yet. She only saw eyes like that once before. Kyle’s.
Sarah doesn’t know what’s wrong, but he’s obviously in pain. She stands up to give her son a hug, but before she can he shrugs her off and goes marching off through the door.
Cameron is in the living room. She sees John walk through the room and go up the stairs to his room where he slams the door. Cameron heard everything. The conversation between Derek and John, and the conversation between John and Sarah. When John marched through the living room she wanted to reach out to him, to let him know it was okay, but he didn’t even look at her.
She felt something inside at that moment, when he ignored her. Pain. Not physical pain. But her system registered a reaction that could only be quantified as pain. Before she can analyze the data, Sarah walks into the living room.
“Do you know what’s bothering John?”
Cameron looks at her and says quite simply. “John is a teenager. Lot’s of things could be bothering him. Would you like me to make a list?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Sarah frowns. “Don’t you have a patrol to walk or something tin-miss?” Anything to get her out the house.
“I checked the perimeter one hour forty-three minutes ago.”
Sarah glares at Cameron a moment.
“I’ll check it again.” She says, realizing Sarah just wants her out of the house for a few minutes. Sarah probably just wants to talk with John alone. Sarah doesn’t realize that there isn’t a sound made in that house that Cameron can’t hear from outside.
Cameron walks out onto the front porch and scans the neighborhood. The ambient temperature has risen 8.9 degrees since she last walked her patrol. Nothing else has changed. The neighbors dog is still rummaging through their trash. She’ll have to do something about that soon.
Standing at the end of the porch, Cameron’s neural net is preoccupied with thoughts on John. She knows what is bothering him, and there is nothing she can do to help him. A single tear runs from one eye, glistening in the sunlight.
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The story told in the Interludes provides some background and a brief respite from the main story.
The dates selected for this story are based on the broadcast date for the episode "Allison from Palmdale."
Until someone works out the actual time-line for the events in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that is the best I can do for now.
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, Oct 3 2009, 4:17 PM EDT
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