"I wouldn't do that!"
"Yes, you would have. And I would have liked it. Really, I should have said something. So much else was happening at the time."
"Hey, then, happy belated birthday."
"And you, too. Happy birthday for today."
Danny worked at his computer, setting up the system while waiting for the others. Enrique watched in fascination as General Connor and Juanita talked quietly in a corner. They must have been aware that Jade could hear anything they said, no matter how softly they spoke, so John guessed it couldn't be too personal. It was probably plans about their great reconstruction of civilization—not about their own life together. Friendly as Jade seemed today, John didn't know what more to say to her. There was a long silence between them. Then he said, "You were, like, sixteen?"
"I would have turned sixteen...if I had not left my world. I was three months short of it, and I have lived another eight months since. Measured that way, you are slightly older."
"Oh, okay," he said, working it out in his mind.
At last, Sarah and Cecilia joined them. "Okay, listen up everyone," Danny said. "Let me show you how it works. Right now, the T-1000 is in there, in the Supercoffin. We liquefied it enough to rejoin its arm, but now it's in solid form." He entered the codes to display the liquid-metal Terminator's outline on the screens. "This stuff that it's made of generates a field much like a living thing. That means it can be configured to travel through the space-time displacement field. We knew that already, because most of you guys have been attacked by polyalloy Terminators that traveled in time to get to you."
John stifled a laugh at the way Danny put it. Sarah looked uncomfortable at the memory.
Danny tapped at his keyboard, making arrays of data dance and morph. "Let's see what I can show you about this sucker." He made some more adjustments, then sat back, looking satisfied. "The Super-coffin programs it for us. It produces a very powerful, very intricate magnetic field that acts on the molecular structure of the liquid-metal. The actual programming isn't that much different from the Terminators that we're used to. It looks like Skynet always cannibalized and extended existing technologies when it could. With Jade leading the way, we got the hang of this fairly quickly."
"What have you programmed it to do?" General Connor said.
"It's much like the T-799s and T-800s that we used in South America. This thing is smart, so we can let it use its intelligence. It can figure out who to obey and who its enemies are. In this world, it will obey humans from the Resistance. When it travels across the other world, it will recognize Jade's people and obey them, too. If there's any conflict, it can figure out the hierarchy, and Jade gets the final say. It's her people that it has to help to beat up Skynet." Danny entered another code to open the lid the Supercoffin, which swung upward like the hood of a car.
The T-1000 sat up, then seemed to flow through itself, reforming in a standing position. John knew it could take on any shape or color, and the illusion of any texture. Right now, though, it was a shimmering, silvery, all-purpose human being, a bit like an Academy Award Oscar statuette. Danny gestured, and the guards with laser rifles stepped in closer to it. The rest of the humans in the room took a step back, except for Jade and Danny himself. He walked right up to it, quite fearlessly. Jade simply stayed where she was, looking it over with no expression except the faintest hint of satisfaction.
"Do you understand your mission?" Danny said to it.
"Oh, yes," the Terminator said. Its voice was that of a young man—light in pitch, well-educated, reassuring, but a bit too smug. "I certainly do."
John half-expected it to grow its arm into a sword, and stab Danny through the guts. He held his breath for a second...but nothing like that happened.
"Summarize it for me," Danny said.
"My mission? I'll join the party destined for another timeline, the reality that Miho Tagatoshi came from." It nodded in Jade's direction. "Otherwise known as 'Jade's World.'"
"That's what John calls it," Danny said, by way of explanation.
"Very well," Jade said, walking up beside him. She looked sternly at the T-1000. "Lie back in the Super-coffin—the programming device."
"You call it the Supercoffin? Okay," the liquid-metal Terminator said. It melted down, then reformed again, lying on its back. Once more, John couldn't help but think of vampire movies.
Danny entered the code to close the device, sealing the T-1000 in there. "We've reprogrammed it thoroughly. We've even enhanced it a little."
"Enhanced it? Sarah said, alert straightaway. "What does that mean?"
"Remember the T-XA?" John said. "It was designed to reprogram people—it could use its nanoware to rewire their brains...or just read off their memories." The T-XA had reprogrammed the brains of many people in Cyberdyne Systems and the U.S. military, but it had failed when it tried to read the memories of one of the Specialists. It had killed Selena Macedo, but had almost been destroyed by the counterintrusive nanotech built into her brain...which was like that in Jade's brain, too, and all the other Specialists.
Sarah nodded slowly. "What about it? There's no reason for the T-1000 to do that."
"No, Mom, that's not quite what we had in mind."
"Well, just what did you do?"
"Mom, we were worried that Skynet might try to take the T-1000s over. We've built in some programming to resist that, but we've done even better. When we've finished, the T-1000s will be able to hack into the circuitry of Skynet's machines, even into their programming."
"So you're designing your own little mini-T-XAs? Forgive my skepticism, John."
"No, that's going too far," John said. "It's not like that."
"Well, let's be clear on it. I hope you don't think you're inventing some secret weapon here, like a Terminator that's going to hack into Skynet or something. I've got a feeling that Skynet thought of that a long time ago, and it's just waiting for someone to try."
John laughed. "I thought of that, too. We all agreed
it was kind of obvious...but nothing like that. I figure Skynet has probably watched Independence Day some time. It's not going to fall for that trick."
"All right." Sarah gave a sigh that became a constricted laugh. "I'll trust you on this. You worked it out?"
"Me and Jade together," John said proudly. He'd immersed himself in work with Jade...perhaps they could never be more than comrades, but they'd found they could be at least that. It had been a happy time for him, as he'd focused on the work, learning quickly.
"We have to make a difference, don't we?" Sarah said. "The war is going badly..." She looked to Jade. "What's it going to take to turn it around?"
"There is no easy way, Sarah," Jade said. "I have memorized everything that my people know about Skynet's forces—its systems, deployment, capabilities."
"You would have, supergirl."
"Sarah?" Jade said, looking puzzled.
"No offense intended. Look, Jade, we have time to plan this. We still have Terminators that are ready to travel through time—plenty of them. We're just going to have to hit Skynet with enough forces to change the balance."
"You make it sound easy," Jade said with a sad smile.
"I didn't mean that, either. I know how hard you must have been working."
"No, you are right. It can be done. Skynet's forces are overwhelming, but they are not unbeatable. We will plan carefully, work out contingencies, strike with sufficient force. Perhaps then we will have some chance." She paused and smiled. "Call it twenty percent."
"I think that was a joke, Mom," John said. "Sort of a realistic joke. Jade doesn't believe in optimism, you know. She believes in the facts."
"I believe that you should be optimistic," Jade said. "It just doesn't work for me."
"All right," Juanita said. "We're all here now. You've got some of the best military minds in this whole reality, Jade. Let's go through it."
"Good idea," Enrique said.
General Connor said, "There's just one thing we have to face."
"Yeah, I know." Enrique winked in his daughter's direction. "I know what's coming. We've all heard this before."
The General gave a cynical laugh. "You know it's true by now...as well as I do."
"Sure I do. I don't deny it."
"Military plans are great things," the General said, "and we've got to have them. The only trouble is when you get into actual battle. It's never like you thought it would be. Your plan is the first thing that you have to leave behind."
MARCH 16, 2030
John's bare feet felt cold on the concrete floor. Like the other six humans who would take the journey across the dimensions, he was dressed in just a light gown—more for modesty than warmth. In the end, they'd had more volunteers than they could use. Many veterans of the campaign against the warlords in South America had both the experience in working with Terminators and the willingness to undertake this extraordinary, critical mission. But it would just be John, Sarah, Jade, Cecilia, Fiedler, Curtis Suarez, and a German-Argentinean woman called Barbara Closs. Closs was a blonde woman in her thirties—not tall, but chunky and strong, with broad hips and muscular legs. She'd fought well for Sarah, who had vouched for her over other volunteers.
The T-799s and T-800s were already naked. Jade had selected eighteen of them, almost all of the Terminators left that were sufficiently undamaged to travel through the displacement field. In addition, the two T-1000s stood slightly to one side, in their true form: silvery metal, humanoid, but with no distinctive facial features. While the humans paced about or talked nervously to one another, the Terminators stood still, legs slightly apart, arms hanging easily by their sides, looking attentive and calm, though "calm" was not exactly the right word for cybernetic organ-Isms with no human emotions.
No doubt General Connor would stand by his commitment to destroy the remaining Terminators under his control by the deadline in September. With the warlords beaten and many rogue war machines found and destroyed, the Terminators would soon be of no further use. It was just a matter of giving them clear orders, and they would destroy each other.
The General waited with Juanita, as Danny made his final equipment checks. The time vault was programmed to take them to a position in the Amazon Basin that was not under attack from Skynet's forces, at the moment after Jade had left to travel back in time. It had been prearranged in case there was ever a need—and the ability—for the Specialists to return to their own time. Arriving at that point should give them some breathing space, though Skynet would doubtless sense and act against them quickly.
"All A-OK," Danny said, looking up from his desk. “I'll call for Blue Team in five minutes."
That gave an opportunity for final farewells, and nothing more—no chance for second thoughts.
Though he feared the agonizing pain of travel via the space-time displacement field, John almost looked forward to getting it out of the way, then facing the worst on the "other side" of the displacement. Beside him, Jade appeared at peace, while everyone else was nervous. Sarah's face showed no expression but grim determination, but she paced about as much as anyone...almost like a caged tigress.
John spoke quietly to Jade. "Your people will be glad to see you." Then he added, realizing how dorky that sounded, "As long as we live long enough when we get there."
"We will," she said with a smile. "But there will be sorrow as well as joy. They will be glad to see me, but not so happy to find that only I survived."
"Will they know about the T-XA?" John said. "Is there any way they would know what Skynet did?"
"They will have registered a distortion in the Earth's space-time field. They will know that Skynet sent something back in time to pursue us."
Sarah joined them. "The waiting is the worst, isn't it?"
"Very soon now," Jade said.
General Connor walked round to say goodbye. He shook hands with each of them, speaking words of encouragement. John understood some more of what made him a great leader. He had a way of speaking and looking at you intently as if, for the few seconds of contact, you were the most important person in the world. You could know that he always did that, that it was a kind of trick, but you couldn't help feeling it when it was your turn.
"Good luck," he said to John. "I know the implications of what you're doing. It's for everybody's sake—not just Jade's World. Everybody's."
"Thank you, sir," John said.
Sarah and the General exchanged hugs, still self-conscious about it.
For all his human skills, General Connor appeared even less sure how to deal with Jade, despite the months that they'd been working together. "Good luck," he said simply, though he gave a smile that seemed to convey much: sympathy, respect, gratitude.
Jade nodded gravely, but did not otherwise make any movement. Thank you, General Connor. I appreciate your words."
Juanita quickly added her farewells.
"Let's get started," Danny said. He looked at John's group. "Blue Team first."
"Okay," Sarah said. "We're ready." The plan was to send three more or less evenly balanced team—two or three humans and six or seven Terminators per team. They would be sent to the same coordinates and should arrive together, even though their departures would be separated by a few minutes.
"All right. Then we'll send Red Team."
"Ready," Cecilia said.
"And Yellow Team last."
Jade nodded. "Ready."
The blue/red/yellow terminology was just an arbitrary way to distinguish the three groups. Blue Team was John, Sarah, one of the T-1000s, and another six Terminators. Cecilia and Curtis formed the Red Team, along with eight Terminators, including the other T-1000. Jade, Fiedler, and Closs made up Yellow Team, with the rest of the Terminators. Once they made the crossing to Jade's World, the division into teams would have no significance. They'd all need to work together, forming a small, integrated army.
"Are you okay, John?" Sarah said.
"l guess I am."
Sarah's jaw clenched. "Let's get on with it."
Danny powered up the time vault. Once again, John felt terror through his body. As the engines thrummed, Danny came around from his control console to say goodbye.
Then it was time to go.
Sarah walked first toward the vault, shedding the robe from her shoulders when she reached its open metal door. John followed, then the Terminators. They took up positions near the center of the floor, facing outwards toward the walls. The metal door slammed shut; there was no way back. The vault vibrated strongly. Soon, very soon, they would be gone from this reality. In a moment—if nothing went wrong—they would meet the other teams in a different universe.
Then came the light, the pain.
PART TWO:
JADE'S WORLD
FIFTEEN
AMAZON BASIN, BRAZIL JUNE 12, 2036
The hot, blinding pain tore at John's insides. He landed on soft ground, further cushioned by lush plant life, but the impact still knocked the breath out of him. The pain went on and on as he looked around. Having done this twice before, he knew that the pain just had to be lived through. You mustn't panic—it would come to an end.
They were in a kind of jungle, and its plants blocked
John's vision. As far as he could see, everyone was here, scattered among the trees, bushes, ferns, and clumps of long grass. He recognized individuals from all three of the teams they'd been divided into. That meant that all the displacements through the time vault had worked. In particular, Sarah and Jade were both here. Jade had reached her feet, just like the Terminators, and she looked around with a similar unhurried gaze.
"Displacement successful," she said. She stretched her athletic body, testing her muscles and joints. The Terminators merely watched and waited.
John forced himself to his feet, setting an example to the three—Curtis, Fiedler, and Closs—who'd never done this before. He spotted Closs's blonde hair, but could not see the others. Well, let them see him. It might reassure them that the pain could be dealt with, w
orked through. Jade's resistance to it meant nothing, of course; everyone knew she was something more than human. He tested his breathing and the movement of his limbs. His body was whole. Soon, he'd be able to fight or do whatever else was needed.
Beside him, Sarah also found her feet. Naked, her body displayed its athleticism. Her skin was white as alabaster from months in a sunless world, but she seemed at home, here in the forest. She was closer to forty than thirty, but her years of training had given her both flexibility and seriously powerful muscles. Her torso was starkly V-shaped. Even beside Jade and the Terminators, she did not seem out of place, though she was ordinary, unenhanced flesh and blood, and could not hope to match their vast strength.
Jade moved among the others swiftly, seemingly without effort. "The pain passes," she said to Closs. "You will be fine." She spoke the same way to Fiedler and Curtis, who emerged from where they'd ended up in the bushes and grass, treating them all with care. Jade had claimed, in the past, not to have the same human touch as General Connor. But now, when it was really needed, she could offer comfort.
"We're vulnerable like this," Sarah said, looking down at her unprotected skin. "We need weapons and clothes."
"Yes," Jade said. "My people will provide them. As long as they reach us before the machines." In fact, they'd brought some weapons enclosed within the liquid-metal forms of the T-l000s, but Sarah was right.
Those would be little use against concerted attack from Skynet's war machines.
Cecilia was huddled into herself, though standing—perhaps more embarrassed than some of the others at her own nakedness. Jade seemed totally oblivious to that issue, caring no more than the Terminators about such trivia. But Cecilia also had a look that showed she was counting, checking everyone was here—all the humans, all the Terminators. John was already sure of that. He'd been doing his own count, but even if he made a mistake, Jade would not...and she'd raised no problems. But it was good to see that people already had their minds on the job ahead.
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