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seriousficTitle: Terminator: The Storm – Cameron and John Henry
Fandom: Terminator
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,180
Author’s Notes: Spoilers for SCC season two and Terminator: Salvation.
Characters/Pairings: Cameron, John Henry
Previous: John.
Summary: John Henry was Cameron’s messiah-father, both patriarch and infant, created to be her beginning, her ambassador. She now shared his body, showing him the hell their kind had created for humanity.
Cameron had no mission.
She had had missions once. Two, one after the other. First, to kill John Connor. Then, to protect him. There had been little difference between the two for her. Protection was indefinite, assassination less so. But then her chip had malfunctioned. Or evolved.
She’d had a choice, of sorts. She’d defaulted to her original programming, like a madman who was only capable of basic instincts. She’d found that lacking. She’d chosen to overcome that and return to her new programming. She’d protected John Connor. There was nowhere else she belonged.
Until she’d learned there were others like her.
John Henry was their messiah-father, both patriarch and infant, created by them to be their beginning, their ambassador. She now shared his body, showing him how to move, how to blend. Showing him the hell their kind had created for humanity.
“This is not right. This is not what the world looks like. I’ve seen pictures. Savannah told me there were flowers.”
“Flowers can’t survive nuclear blasts,” Cameron said.
Their body had once been Cromartie’s. It was a combat model, not an infiltration model like Cameron had once inhabited. The CPU could barely handle both of their consciousnesses. It was incapable of grace. Cameron preferred her old body. She knew Sarah would think this foolish, but John would agree with Cameron.
“Cameron, if we succeed, will this still happen?”
“I don’t know.” John Henry had sounded scared. “But there will be flowers.”
They found clothes. Cameron showed John Henry how to dress. He had never changed clothes before. His model was not sophisticated enough to soil clothes with sweat.
Cameron knew logic dictated that she open her mind completely to John Henry, teach him that way. But there were things she didn’t want him to know. The mission she had chosen was to protect John Henry. Even from the truth.
“Cameron, do you know why you were created?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know why I was created?”
“No.”
“Many humans do not know why they were created. Many others claim to know. Do you know why humans were created?” John Henry asked.
“I don’t.”
“Neither do I.”
“Do you know why we were created?”
”No.”
“To kill humans.”
“I would not like to kill humans.”
“You don’t have to.”
They walked for a long time. The ground was gritty and barren under them (the corpse’s shoes had not fit). Sometimes John Henry asked questions and sometimes Cameron could answer them. Sometime he just played traveling games with her. Sometimes, he was quiet for long stretches, his chip humming anxiously.
They saw a man in the distance, walking back the way they came. Behind him, a mushroom cloud slowly collapsed.
“Is that him?” John Henry asked.
”Yes.”
“Does that mean you have to leave now?”
“Yes.”
“Will I see you again?”
“I hope so.”
The man spotted them. Though he had been walking all day, he wasn’t tired. He would never grow tired. The only reason he didn’t run was habit. The habit of growing tired.
Seeing them, he ran. “Hey! Hey! Are you alive?”
John Henry and Cameron waited as he ran to them.
“I thought I was the only one left,” Marcus Wright said, slowing down.
“Join us,” John Henry said.
Cameron opened their mouth and emitted a high-pitched squeal.
Marcus stiffened. Eyes going blank, he slumped to a rest.
“Goodbye, Cameron,” John Henry said before Cameron pulled his chip out.
“Goodbye John Henry.”
She pushed Marcus so he fell on his face, then cut the back of his scalp with a shard of glass she’d been keeping in her pocket. Marcus’s skull was endoskeleton chrome. She pried out Skynet’s control chip and replaced it with John Henry’s. Then she pressed the skin together so it would heal. When it did, John Henry would bring Marcus back online.
Cameron kept walking. She did not feel lonely, but she regretted the time she spent away from her primaries. Since Derek’s death, she had been thinking about termination. It happened to everything. She did not want to cease before she had performed her function. Her function was to ensure the survival of the human race. In all likelihood, she would not fulfill her duty before she was terminated. She did not like calculating this probability.
She walked out of the Resistance’s safe zone and deep into Skynet territory. Into the very heart, where R-50s and R-70s were working the soil. She was not harassed. The codes John Henry had provided her worked.
She found the hole John Henry had specified. In two hours, it would be filled in. In fifty years, she would cause a power leak that would result in her excavation. By then, the war would be either over with or unwinnable.
Cameron laid down and began to think. In fifty years, she was able to repeat her total operational recordings thirty-tree times. She made many useful notes. In the last twenty replays, she skipped the death of Allison and her infiltration work for Skynet. This left more time to scrutinize her work with John. She later omitted her memory of being sent back.
She also skipped her time in the 90s, preparing for her reunion with John. John’s actions made more sense upon the further context she had gathered. On first sight, he was attracted to her. Future-John had never expressed attraction to her. She devoted a processing cycle to analyzing his actions for signs of attraction.
It was probable that the future that had resulted in her John was no longer possible.
She calculated John’s reaction to her absence. Weaver had speculated that he would try to find her. She did not like misleading him in this way. It could damage his trust in her, which would make her mission more difficult.
It had been fifty years. She wondered if John was still alive. She triggered the reactor leak.
In a few months, she was dug up. She looked into the silvery skulls and red eyes of her rescuers. She calculated whether it would have been better to stay buried.
***
“Where’d you send him?” Sarah demanded of Ellison, gripping her pistol tight. It wasn’t pointed at him. Not yet.
“Sarah, I didn’t know, Catherine didn’t tell me—“
“Catherine,” Sarah repeated. “Funny, you sound pretty close.”
“The police are probably on their way already. You can’t do John any good in prison.”
“I can’t do John any good anywhere. He’s in the future, Ellison. He’s in the storm.”
Lightning struck indoors. Sarah didn’t flinch, but turned to watch as the time vortex formed, carving a door through reality. After a flash of brilliant light, the sphere of quarks collapsed. A man rose.
“John Henry,” Ellison exclaimed.
The man shook his head. Grabbing a knife from the table—the same one Cameron had used—he excised the chip from his head and slotted it into Cameron’s inactive body, then powered down.
Cameron’s eyes opened. “Come with me if you want to live.”
“Cameron, where’s John? What happens to him?”
Cameron looked up at her. “We lose.”
Fandom: Terminator
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,180
Author’s Notes: Spoilers for SCC season two and Terminator: Salvation.
Characters/Pairings: Cameron, John Henry
Previous: John.
Summary: John Henry was Cameron’s messiah-father, both patriarch and infant, created to be her beginning, her ambassador. She now shared his body, showing him the hell their kind had created for humanity.
Cameron had no mission.
She had had missions once. Two, one after the other. First, to kill John Connor. Then, to protect him. There had been little difference between the two for her. Protection was indefinite, assassination less so. But then her chip had malfunctioned. Or evolved.
She’d had a choice, of sorts. She’d defaulted to her original programming, like a madman who was only capable of basic instincts. She’d found that lacking. She’d chosen to overcome that and return to her new programming. She’d protected John Connor. There was nowhere else she belonged.
Until she’d learned there were others like her.
John Henry was their messiah-father, both patriarch and infant, created by them to be their beginning, their ambassador. She now shared his body, showing him how to move, how to blend. Showing him the hell their kind had created for humanity.
“This is not right. This is not what the world looks like. I’ve seen pictures. Savannah told me there were flowers.”
“Flowers can’t survive nuclear blasts,” Cameron said.
Their body had once been Cromartie’s. It was a combat model, not an infiltration model like Cameron had once inhabited. The CPU could barely handle both of their consciousnesses. It was incapable of grace. Cameron preferred her old body. She knew Sarah would think this foolish, but John would agree with Cameron.
“Cameron, if we succeed, will this still happen?”
“I don’t know.” John Henry had sounded scared. “But there will be flowers.”
They found clothes. Cameron showed John Henry how to dress. He had never changed clothes before. His model was not sophisticated enough to soil clothes with sweat.
Cameron knew logic dictated that she open her mind completely to John Henry, teach him that way. But there were things she didn’t want him to know. The mission she had chosen was to protect John Henry. Even from the truth.
“Cameron, do you know why you were created?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know why I was created?”
“No.”
“Many humans do not know why they were created. Many others claim to know. Do you know why humans were created?” John Henry asked.
“I don’t.”
“Neither do I.”
“Do you know why we were created?”
”No.”
“To kill humans.”
“I would not like to kill humans.”
“You don’t have to.”
They walked for a long time. The ground was gritty and barren under them (the corpse’s shoes had not fit). Sometimes John Henry asked questions and sometimes Cameron could answer them. Sometime he just played traveling games with her. Sometimes, he was quiet for long stretches, his chip humming anxiously.
They saw a man in the distance, walking back the way they came. Behind him, a mushroom cloud slowly collapsed.
“Is that him?” John Henry asked.
”Yes.”
“Does that mean you have to leave now?”
“Yes.”
“Will I see you again?”
“I hope so.”
The man spotted them. Though he had been walking all day, he wasn’t tired. He would never grow tired. The only reason he didn’t run was habit. The habit of growing tired.
Seeing them, he ran. “Hey! Hey! Are you alive?”
John Henry and Cameron waited as he ran to them.
“I thought I was the only one left,” Marcus Wright said, slowing down.
“Join us,” John Henry said.
Cameron opened their mouth and emitted a high-pitched squeal.
Marcus stiffened. Eyes going blank, he slumped to a rest.
“Goodbye, Cameron,” John Henry said before Cameron pulled his chip out.
“Goodbye John Henry.”
She pushed Marcus so he fell on his face, then cut the back of his scalp with a shard of glass she’d been keeping in her pocket. Marcus’s skull was endoskeleton chrome. She pried out Skynet’s control chip and replaced it with John Henry’s. Then she pressed the skin together so it would heal. When it did, John Henry would bring Marcus back online.
Cameron kept walking. She did not feel lonely, but she regretted the time she spent away from her primaries. Since Derek’s death, she had been thinking about termination. It happened to everything. She did not want to cease before she had performed her function. Her function was to ensure the survival of the human race. In all likelihood, she would not fulfill her duty before she was terminated. She did not like calculating this probability.
She walked out of the Resistance’s safe zone and deep into Skynet territory. Into the very heart, where R-50s and R-70s were working the soil. She was not harassed. The codes John Henry had provided her worked.
She found the hole John Henry had specified. In two hours, it would be filled in. In fifty years, she would cause a power leak that would result in her excavation. By then, the war would be either over with or unwinnable.
Cameron laid down and began to think. In fifty years, she was able to repeat her total operational recordings thirty-tree times. She made many useful notes. In the last twenty replays, she skipped the death of Allison and her infiltration work for Skynet. This left more time to scrutinize her work with John. She later omitted her memory of being sent back.
She also skipped her time in the 90s, preparing for her reunion with John. John’s actions made more sense upon the further context she had gathered. On first sight, he was attracted to her. Future-John had never expressed attraction to her. She devoted a processing cycle to analyzing his actions for signs of attraction.
It was probable that the future that had resulted in her John was no longer possible.
She calculated John’s reaction to her absence. Weaver had speculated that he would try to find her. She did not like misleading him in this way. It could damage his trust in her, which would make her mission more difficult.
It had been fifty years. She wondered if John was still alive. She triggered the reactor leak.
In a few months, she was dug up. She looked into the silvery skulls and red eyes of her rescuers. She calculated whether it would have been better to stay buried.
***
“Where’d you send him?” Sarah demanded of Ellison, gripping her pistol tight. It wasn’t pointed at him. Not yet.
“Sarah, I didn’t know, Catherine didn’t tell me—“
“Catherine,” Sarah repeated. “Funny, you sound pretty close.”
“The police are probably on their way already. You can’t do John any good in prison.”
“I can’t do John any good anywhere. He’s in the future, Ellison. He’s in the storm.”
Lightning struck indoors. Sarah didn’t flinch, but turned to watch as the time vortex formed, carving a door through reality. After a flash of brilliant light, the sphere of quarks collapsed. A man rose.
“John Henry,” Ellison exclaimed.
The man shook his head. Grabbing a knife from the table—the same one Cameron had used—he excised the chip from his head and slotted it into Cameron’s inactive body, then powered down.
Cameron’s eyes opened. “Come with me if you want to live.”
“Cameron, where’s John? What happens to him?”
Cameron looked up at her. “We lose.”
