I know. It's going to be the same story all over the country."
Well, I can't help that."
We have the Black Hawk that brought Gabriela here," the General said. "There's the Hercules...and we've brought some people with us. I'm not sure I want to risk the Hercules, but we can put a force together—the Black Hawk and a column of vehicles on land."
"And get it wiped out just like that exploration team," Grimes said. "What's the point?"
Mohanraj added, "He's right. None of us are cowards here, but we don't like throwing lives away. If that team couldn't handle the H-Ks, we can't field a team that can. We're just being honest with you."
The General sighed. "That's all understood—I'm grateful for your honesty. But the other thing is that we have the Terminators. They will make harder targets for those H-Ks than any human force we can put together."
"It's not the answer to everything, John," Sarah said. "You're going to run out of them soon enough, and you can't depend on them forever."
"You just—"
"What, John?"
He paused. "Forget it; you're right. We can't always depend on them. We have to get rid of them as soon as possible. I've given my word on that."
Jade and Anton had been silent since they'd spoken to Danny Dyson and the others in Colorado. Now Jade said, "General Connor, you are forgetting about us."
"You and Anton?"
"Yes."
"And about me and Mom," John said. "We can all help."
The General looked searchingly into Jade's face. "All four of you are too important. I'm not going to let you die on some mission that may not even matter."
"I don't think you have that luxury," Sarah said.
John said, in a sing-song voice, "I'm too important..."
That touched a nerve. The General glared at him angrily. "It's not a matter of that. You've helped us, and we'll give you help in return, but you can't keep putting yourselves at risk. You have a more important job..."
"We all came here to fight," Sarah said. "We'll keep putting ourselves at risk because that's what fighting is about. If it all goes wrong in this world, it affects us all. You know the implications."
"It's not like you've got fighters everywhere," John said. "I think you'd better take what you can get."
"Use our abilities, or more will die," Anton said.
The General's face reddened, and John thought for a moment that he was enraged, but then he laughed. "All right, you win. Here's what we're going to do..." He laid it out concisely. They'd put together two teams, one with each of the Specialists. If needed, they would use a small number of Terminators. "We'll assess that later, when we see what fighters can be spared." They'd use the Black Hawk and two or three land vehicles. "It's no use sending large numbers," he said. "It's a question of hitting as accurately as possible with our heaviest weapons."
"Thank you, John," Sarah said. "You have to do this. If we can't mop up each and every machine, the future is as good as lost—we all agreed that right at the start of this discussion."
"All right, we'll meet in the morning and sort out the details. Isaac, when we break up, I want you to Identify exactly what able-bodied fighters you have who can be spared for this operation. Assume that there might yet be an attack on this HQ or on the airport. I know you have to hold territory."
"All right," Isaac said.
Now, we're going to come back to this. We're going to go through every map and every piece of information until we have a plan to wipe out the last machines. Some of us need to sleep, so we can't do that right now. But I'm going to work through it tomorrow, and over the next few days, until I've assigned every war machine we know about, or every base we've spotted, someone to destroy it and a precise plan of action."
"It never ends, does it?" Sarah said, but her sense of despair had gone. Her jaw was set in determination.
"No," Jade said quietly. "It will not ever end. Whatever happens, there is always the possibility that mankind could destroy itself in the future. We have that capacity within ourselves. We also have the capacity to resist it."
"That brings us to the final issue," Gabriela said.
General Connor turned to Jade and Anton. "Over and above all our problems, there's the question that you two have raised." He paused for attention. Gabriela seemed well briefed on this. For the three East Coast leaders, seated at the table opposite John, it must still seem strange. "The question is: Are we safe, even if we win in this reality? Can we ever be safe while there's another world where Skynet won?"
Anton said, "No, you're not safe."
John sensed his mom tensing up.
"You are not happy with this, Sarah," Jade said.
"No, of course I'm not happy. This isn't how I thought it would be. The war never ends. It never ends. There's always something new, some deeper level where Skynet has got its hooks." She shook her head in disgust. "There's always something more that we have to do."
"Anton and I must return to our world in 2036," Jade said. "It does not matter when we leave this world, only when we arrive in my world. If we arrive at any time before we left, we risk creating more temporal anomalies and timelines. But every minute after that time is a minute that Skynet could be using for advantage."
"So you can stay and help us?" Gabriela said.
"We can stay to help you, but we must also prepare to return. Our difficulty is this: My people sent back five of their best warriors to try to create a new world, one without Skynet. Those five were a loss, but they judged that it made no difference. Skynet was winning. The last battles were almost over. The five of us could not have stopped that."
"So how will you stop it now?"
"That is the problem. If five could make no difference, the return of two will make even less. Anton and I cannot do this by ourselves. Just as we can give you help, we will need help from you. One advantage we have is time. As I said, we can delay our return. All that matters is the time when we arrive. We can use that delay to make preparations."
"Just how bad is the situation?" General Connor said.
"Very bad," Anton said.
Jade nodded briskly. "In 2021, when it triggered Judgment Day, Skynet had control of much of the U.S. military infrastructure. That included large weapons platforms."
"Like what?" John said.
"Bombers and warships, John. It also had automated factories, some of them in hardened sites. Most of its assets were destroyed by the nuclear explosions, but much survived. That is the difference between our world and this world. Skynet was ready to locate the surviving human beings and begin attacking them, almost from the first. I was only a baby when it happened. Anton went through it all."
"Skynet had direct control of platforms all over the world," Anton said. "In the skies and on the high seas, a lot of it survived the war. The remaining non-U.S. military forces hit back at the automated ships and aircraft. Many more were destroyed, at great cost. If not for that, mankind might not have lasted more than a few months. It was a setback for Skynet, but not enough. It came after us all, hunting us down."
"Did Skynet already have Terminators and H-K machines in your world?" John said. "I mean, when Judgment Day came."
"No. But it had advanced aircraft, Juggernauts—something like your land H-Ks—combat ships. The Terminators and endoskeletons came later."
Jade nodded. "First, Skynet developed robotic devices as its ground troops. They were not like humans—not like the endoskeletons you have seen here. It developed those only when it created Terminators as infiltration units. The first Terminators we encountered were like this world's T-800s: cybernetic organisms that imitate human beings. Later, Skynet began to use fleshless endoskeletons. It must have decided that nothing was more versatile than a machine which could imitate all the movements of a human being, while feeling no pain or hesitation."
"What do you want us to do for you?" General Connor said. "If you want to make preparations, what are they, exactly?"
"That is
not clear to us," Jade said. "However, you have captured Skynet's major facility in Colorado. Also, we have control over two T-1000 polyalloy Terminators. That is an advantage that my people have not enjoyed. Anton and I wish to conduct some experiments on their structure and programming. It is our intention to do everything required within the year that we have discussed today."
"The year we set aside to get rid of the Terminators?"
"Yes, General Connor, exactly."
"Let's say that your world's Skynet is going to attack this one," Sarah said.
"Yes," Jade said. "That could happen. We know that travel across the dimensions is possible. That is how we came here from your world, from a past that never happened in this world. If we can do it, Skynet can, too. If our world's Skynet realizes that there are other worlds in which humans defeated it, or in which Judgment Day did not happen, we should expect it to gather forces sufficient to attack and destroy the human societies of those worlds."
Sarah followed up like an Inquisitor. "Then why hasn't it happened? Wouldn't it have happened already if it was going to?"
"No, we do not know at what point in this timeline Skynet would strike. The fact that it has not happened yet may mean that we will succeed in stopping it. But it might not. There is no particular point of time in this world, or any other world, when it must attack. The attack might come in this world's future."
General Connor scratched the side of his face, drawing John's attention to his scars. "But the longer we survive, the less likely it is that it happens that way."
"Perhaps. But it would take many, many years before you could draw that inference. Maybe centuries."
"Not centuries. That would create another risk for it."
"Yes," Jade said, looking at him with surprise. "You are right, General Connor. If it attacks at a time far in this world's future, it risks encountering a very high-technology society, perhaps beyond its capacity to handle."
"That's just what I meant."
"It is a thought that only struck me when you spoke. All the same, my general point is correct. You would have to wait for many years to be sure that you would not be attacked."
"Do what you have to do, then. We'll put whatever resources we can at your disposal."
"As long as it doesn't mean you're going to start building more Terminators," Grimes said. "Or that you're going to want to keep them for more than a year. We have an agreement, John, and I don't want anything sinking it."
"Mr. Grimes," Jade said. "Perhaps the danger we are speaking of is not very real to you. It is not something you can see; that does not mean it is unreal. I have seen what Skynet can do—the Skynet of the world I came from. I assure you, if we are not successful, this world is in great danger."
"I believe more in dangers that I've seen...like the Terminators and war machines in this world. I want to see them gone."
"Oh, you will. That is not disputed."
"Let's be clear about one thing," General Connor said. "I trust Jade...both Jade and Anton. If not for them, we'd still be struggling to defeat Skynet."
"Thank you, General," Jade said. "But it is not necessary."
He waved her to be quiet and said, "I think it is necessary. Everyone here has to understand what you told us. The fate of your world is tied up with ours. The survival of both our worlds is at stake in all this, Two worlds are hanging in the balance, depending on whether we can help you."
As the General spoke, John realized it was even more than that. By now, there were more than two realities. His own world had branched off from Jade's World, back in 2001. Skynet had to be stopped in every world that existed.. .either prevent it coming into being, or destroy it once it had. It was a battle too big for him and Sarah; others would have to carry the torch. For that reason, they'd have to return to their own world—to the time when they'd left, or not too long afterward. There were people in that world with the ability to create Skynet. The struggle would have to go on in that world, too.
"We understand," Mohanraj said. "But you've got to see that this is a bitter pill to swallow. People thought they were free of Skynet, that we'd beaten it once and for all. Now we still have marauding war machines, we've had people killed. And you want to put resources into a war in another world entirely, one that they've never seen."
"That's true," General Connor said firmly.
"And now we have to go back to them and justify all this."
The General didn't give an inch. "Yes, you do."
"It's a bitter pill for everyone," Sarah said. "I'm not sure I can swallow it myself."
Jade looked hard at Grimes. "This won't take a year. It will be nothing like a year."
"So you say."
"So I do say."
"We're going to break up now," the General said. "I know what you all think, and why. You all know what we have to do...and why we have to do it. There's detailed work to get done, but we can't take this any further. Do you all understand?"
"I think they all do, John," Gabriela said.
"All right. I've learned some things today, myself."
He nodded at John and Sarah. "But now we have to go forward. I declare this meeting closed."
Afterwards, Isaac led John, Sarah, Jade, and Anton to their living quarters for the next few days, while they were based in New York—leaving General Connor to talk to Gabriela and the others. John felt almost like an intruder in this world. Perhaps it owed him something: He'd done his best fighting for it, and he'd brought Jade and Anton, who'd been critical to destroying Skynet. But those who'd lived for years or decades in this world shared a history that he could not be part of. General Connor was the John Connor of this world. However hard he tried, John was an outsider.
"Here it is," Isaac said, gesturing with one hand. "You might as well get some sleep while you can. I appreciate all you've done. Don't think it's not understood. We may be awed by it, but we're not pig-ignorant...or ungrateful. Don't worry about Grimes. He's just anxious, like everyone else."
"Thank you," Sarah said. "We all know what that's like."
'You'll be safe here."
"Here" was a hall about sixty feet long, lined with old, rickety-looking, double-decker bunks. Right now, it was almost empty, which wasn't surprising. Wherever John had gone, all through Europe, there'd been empty rooms, haunted by the memories of dead 1 comrades. Back here, in North America, where the great pu6h had been made into Skynet's mountain, it was obviously going to be worse. So many people had been killed in the war, particularly the last few months, when every available man and woman had
been rallied to fight. Over-crowding was one issue the Resistance no longer had to face.
"There's not much modesty here," Isaac said. "It's the same room for the men and the women. The women tend to take the other end, but you have your choice. You'll see which beds are free. The others will all have a few possessions."
"We kind of get the idea," said John, who'd been through this plenty of times before.
"All right. Have a look around. We've got separate bathrooms, if you can call them that."
"We'll make do," Anton said.
Jade made a gesture that was not quite a bow, but something more than a nod. "Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Zell."
"That's okay. All right, we'll talk again later."
Isaac left them, and John turned to his mother.
"What are you thinking, John?" she said, without the slightest expression of humor.
"I'm thinking that something is bugging you, Mom."
"Oh?"
"Yes.. .something you didn't want to talk about upstairs."
"We can leave you both alone," Anton said.
But Sarah held up a hand to keep him there. "No, stay. There's nothing to talk about."
"Mom," John said. "You know that's not true."
"No, I don't! All I know is that this struggle never ends. That doesn't mean I'm going to give up, but I'm starting to wonder what more I can do, how much more is going to be demanded. I've trained t
o fight, and I will. As long as I'm here, I'll do what I can to help. But I wonder about everything else."
"Meaning?" Anton said.
"Meaning your world, Anton. And what about all the other worlds there must be? Somewhere, in one of those worlds, Skynet must win.. .that's the way it's looking to me. I wonder whether it can ever end, whatever we do, except with Skynet winning out." She paced down the hall, found a bunk with no sign of occupation, and placed her weapons on it.
John followed, while the others held back, though he knew they could easily overhear. "I'm going with Jade—to her world," he said. "If there's anything I can do, anything at all, I need to do it. I don't know if you want to come—"
"I don't know either, John. I know there's work I can do here, though I damn sure don't know what good it'll do. None of this is what I thought—I never thought there'd be all these layers, all this complexity. I hadn't thought it through. Now I wonder what the point has been all this time."
She sat on the bed, burying her face in her hands, and he sat beside her. "Whatever it takes. Anytime, anywhere."
Sarah looked up at him. "Easy to say. When we first said that, I don't think we understood what it really meant."
Jade and Anton finally followed them, finding bunks and laying down their weapons. Jade turned to Sarah, at last, breaking the silence. "We don't know yet what is best...who should go with us, Ms. Connor."
"Sarah. Please call me Sarah."
"We will talk about it soon. Thank you for everything you've done. My whole world owes its existence to you."
"You know, I'm getting tired of hearing that."
"I am sorry. I meant no offense—"
"Of course you didn't. Listen, Jade.. .and you, Anton. I know you're super-strong...but the rest of us aren't made of steel. We break easily against you. It's not your fault, but just leave me alone for a minute.
I'm doing my best to adapt to this, but I've got my own decisions to make about where I fit in, what contribution I can make. Whether anything's worthwhile."
T2 - 03 - The New John Connor Chronicles - Times of Trouble Page 12
