Maybe they could last for a few more minutes. Next time he glanced outside, firing his laser rifle with both hands, John saw a dozen pairs of glowing red eyes. That was a lot less than when they'd entered this subterranean chamber, but still too many. Whatever the T-l000s were up to, they'd better do it fast. He hoped it was not some kind of betrayal. Assuming it was not, what did they hope to achieve? Even the T-1000s could be hurt by high-powered lasers.
One of the T-l000s poured itself into the structure of a huge Juggernaut. It had exchanged information with its twin, the one that had driven and controlled the transporter that had brought them here. It now knew how to isolate the CPUs of Skynet's machines, and seize control itself. Within seconds, it had insinuated itself through the Juggernaut's circuitry, cutting out its CPU. It started up the Juggernaut, driving it forward, then turning it to the left, toward the endoskeletons that had reached the crashed transporter.
At the T-1000's command, the Juggernaut's laser cannons fired, burning into endos, melting their metal bones and joints. The huge machine ground forward, rolling over one endo and crushing it beneath seventy tons of weight. Some endos returned fire, shooting out one laser cannon, but the endos were now being slaughtered, caught in the crossfire from the Juggernaut and the humans.
Nearby, other large machines were starting up, ready to fight back, but the first to move was an aerial H-K, which lifted into the air on powerful turbofans. It opened fire, sending missiles into the bodies of most of the remaining large machines, still caught on the ground. The other T-1000 had done its job. The whole complex rocked with the battle. One other Juggernaut had survived, and now it rolled across the floor toward the T-1000. From above, the H-K shot down at it, and an explosion lit up the darkness.
The T-1000 calculated swiftly. It was now child's play for it to penetrate the cognitive structure of the one remaining Juggernaut, in which it traveled as a parasite. It had learned all it needed to know about how these CPUs worked. It went in there, meeting no opposition that would cause it concern. Within seconds, it had broken through counter intrusive software, and cleaned out layers of unwanted programming. It had to act quickly and crudely, but it knew just what was needed. Some of the programming that the humans had written into the T-1000 in the other world could now be adapted, almost unchanged. The Terminator inserted the code, knowing that the Juggernaut would now act as it had been doing. The massive machine would assist and protect the humans, no longer needing the T-1000 to isolate its CPU and drive it.
Next, it poured itself out of the Juggernaut, back onto the floor. It had one more target. The other machine left was the gigantic megatransporter, which was too large to maneuver, even in a space this size. It had taken no part in the battle.
The T-1000 went to work.
As John, Sarah, and Jade picked off the last endos, a battle of titans raged outside in the darkness. Explosions shook the vault, as huge machines fired on each other. Metal tore, shrieked, groaned, burst, scattered across the ground and air in a furious storm. Powerful engines hummed.
Then there was silence. Jade ran out of the transporter, rifle in her hands. A second later, she was back. "It is over," she said.
John and Sarah left the wrecked transporter. John's eyes had adapted. There was just enough light here for him to make out huge mangled shapes, without understanding what had happened.
"Can either of you work this out?" Sarah said. "Be-cause I'm damned if I can."
"Maybe some of it," John said. "Then again, maybe not."
They circled carefully, guns at the ready, keeping their backs to each other. Suddenly, a pair of red eyes appeared in the semi-darkness, not far away. Sarah hot them out.
There were no more.
"We have won," Jade said, speaking with no enthusiasm, as if just stating a fact.
Far above them, the vault's metal doors opened, letting in light. The sky was dull and sunless, but it made enough difference. John could see the ruins fairly clearly. It was like being an ant, walking through the wreckage of a high-speed car crash.
All of the machines that had fought, even flown, in the dark were now still. Just a few of them looked intact—or nearly so.
We should blow this whole place," Sarah said.
"I agree," Jade said. "I am sure we will find plenty of explosives. This is a great defeat for Skynet."
But not a defeat that could be repeated, John thought. He understood how important this base was in supplying Skynet's South American forces. Its destruction might make a difference to the mad computer's war against human beings. But destroying Skynet itself would not be so easy.
The two T-l000s approached. "Mission accomplished," John said.
"True," said one of the T-l000s, "but we still have to do a lot of work."
"You've taken this to heart, haven't you?" Sarah said. "It's like you're enjoying working for us humans, seeing how much wreckage you can make."
The T-1000 shrugged its shoulders in an easy, fluid motion.
It took an hour to do what had to be done. The aerial H-K that had caused so much destruction to the other machines flew on ahead, now programmed to fight for the human side against Skynet. Before leaving, they'd rearmed it with a full load of twelve missiles. They'd stored another twenty-four on board the giant transporter, which followed the H-K, with John, Sarah, Jade, and the two T-l000s aboard—plus the reprogrammed Juggernaut. They now had the nucleus of a force to strike back against Skynet.
They'd programmed the doors to close behind them. Inside, they'd put together enough high explosives to destroy a small mountain, all connected to a timing system designed to give them thirty seconds after those doors had closed. John guessed the timing on how long it would take them to close fully. He added on thirty seconds, and counted down. A huge booming noise filled the sky, and he felt the shock-wave pass over them.
"Job well done," Sarah said. But she didn't smile. She wasn't ready for that.
The megatransporter's bay was bare except for munitions racks, chains, and metal-mesh straps, all to hold cargo in place. There were no benches, nothing at all to sit on. The bay hinged open at the aft end, as in human-designed transport planes. The megatransporter was not lit inside, but several six-foot armor-glass disks near the front of the bay provided light. John figured that would give endos or Terminators some data on where they had landed, and whether they were under attack.
They skimmed over the Earth's surface at two thousand feet, giving him a clear view of the depleted Brazilian rivers and the weird green jungle.
"The H-K will reach Vila Nova do Sul in less than three hours," Jade said, gazing through one of the armor-glass disks.
"Do you know how fast we're going?" John said. He wouldn't put it past her. She must be aware of so much—her own pulse, the heights of trees and their distances apart. She probably knew, come to that, exactly what it looked like to travel at different speeds, seen from distant heights.
"Yes," she said. "Our trip will be half an hour." Then she seemed lost in thoughts of her own.
Sarah caught John's eye as if to say, What's wrong with your girlfriend? He shrugged. He guessed that Jade had plenty of things on her mind.
"What are the odds?" Sarah said, after a minute. Her face was haggard and puffy. She winced with every movement. "Jade, you know this world and how it works. How do the odds look now?"
Jade looked into her eyes. "They may be improving. I cannot tell anymore."
Coming from Jade, that was like a cry of optimism. She was such a total realist. If she said she didn't know, she probably meant it. Sarah nodded grimly, a fellow warrior for Jade, a comrade who'd fight to the death, if that was needed.
But a smile stretched John's lips. "Hey," he said, "that means we've got a chance."
EIGHTEEN
AMAZON BASIN JUNE 12, 2036
Cecilia sat with her back against the trunk of a low tree covered in strangler vines. It was frustrating being involved in the thick of the fighting without being able to make a contr
ibution. Even wounded as she was, she felt she'd be able to fight, but there were not enough weapons to go around, and—as she had once before, in Argentina—she had the irksome feeling Of being more a hindrance than a help. As she itched, boiling with frustration and pain, Krystal, Dmitri, and their group joined with the Terminators in a struggle to finish off the T-XA.
It wasn't easy for them. They had the shapeshifting Terminator on the defensive, unable to make any new attack, as they bombarded it with explosives and laser bolts, but it kept trying to reform. She recalled how her father had died at the hands of a T-1000 in her own world, and the hours it had taken to destroy the thing, hitting it with explosives until its programming was so disrupted that it ceased reforming.
Krystal backed out of the fight, leaving it to others to finish off the T-XA. She crouched down to Cecilia's level. Fiedler joined them, as Krystal said, "Come back to our headquarters. Can you walk?"
"I'm not sure," Cecilia said. "I can try." She glanced across at Curtis Suarez's body, then those of the others who'd died here. She didn't know those others, not even Barbara Closs, except for...Curtis...He'd probably saved her life in those first furious minutes when she'd gone to Argentina via the time vault. He'd fought well through the hard campaign against the warlords. Now to throw away his life like this.. .almost as soon as they reached this other world, before he could make a contribution.
That was the trouble with this way of traveling—you were so helpless at first. In a sense, they might have been better off just sending Terminators on these missions, but human beings were needed. For the campaign against the warlords, they'd needed people who were both skilled fighters and able to make on-the-spot decisions, not the harsh logic of Terminators left to themselves.
"Come on, then," Krystal said. "We'll leave the others to finish this. Dmitri can handle it. Will your Terminators obey him?"
"Yes," Cecilia said. "It's in their programming."
Krystal helped her to her feet. The three of them took an overgrown path that led to an immense fig tree in a thick part of the jungle; the fig's veiny trunk was twenty feet across. Cecilia walked with her arm across Krystal's shoulders. She towered over the black woman, but she could feel Krystal's strength. "This might hurt," Krystal said. "We need to go down some steps."
"Okay." Cecilia hopped away from her, supporting herself with a hand on Fiedler's shoulder.
Krystal walked to a space between two long surface roots, then bent to raise a metal trapdoor, camouflaged with leaves and grass that seemed to merge imperceptibly with its substance. "The structure's not made of the same stuff as that polyalloy Terminator," she said by way of explanation. "Similar sort of thing, though—a lower tech version, good enough for camouflage,"
The trapdoor opened onto a set of stone steps. Krystal shut the door behind them, and they went down the steps to a long, sloping tunnel, dimly lit with glowing circular objects along its walls. The objects seemed to make their own light. Cecilia winced with pain at every step, even with Krystal and Fiedler helping. One hundred feet along the tunnel, they came to two guards with surprisingly well-groomed dogs, standing beside the rail of a set of steel-grating stairs. They descended, as quickly as Cecilia's wound would allow, into a cavernous space, lit brightly by more of the circular objects. She couldn't see what power supply they used, whether there were generators somewhere, or whether they relied on something like the power cells that Skynet had used in her world to fuel its Terminators and other war machines.
"Man, this is something," Fiedler said, looking around in wonder.
"Welcome," Krystal said. "You need to meet somebody,"
They gathered in a small room crammed with equipment. The "somebody" was a short Hispanic man whom Krystal introduced as Joe Vicario. "We'll fix you up," he said. "Now, what's this all about?"
Cecilia took him through it: Judgment Day, August 29, 1997; Skynet's World; how this world had been caused by Sarah Connor's actions, back in 1994, when she'd raided Cyberdyne Systems with a T-800, sent back in time to protect her son. Vicario heard her out, almost in silence, occasionally nodding as if he knew of this, or that it fitted in with what he knew. At other points, he raised an eyebrow or asked a brief question.
One of Vicario's people brought full uniforms for Cecilia and Fiedler, complete with helmet and boots. Another, a very young woman, maybe just a teenager, came with a hypospray injector.
'This will help you heal," she said to Cecilia. "You'll be surprised." She exposed Cecilia's shoulder and applied the device, which was cold but painless.
"I can take you through the rest of this," Fiedler said to Vicario. "Cecilia's given you the guts of it."
"You're right, of course," Vicario said. He turned back to Cecilia. "I know you're hurt. You've just been injected with nanobots—microscopic robots—to help rebuild you, but I'll get some people to look more closely at your wound. Just one question for you both: That transporter attacked the T-XA, right?"
Cecilia nodded. "That's right. Part of our plan involved the shapeshifting Terminators that we brought. They've been programmed to take over Skynet's machines—at least, the less advanced ones. John and Jade worked it out."
"What, exactly, are they going to do now?"
"You mean the T-l000s? I don't know the answer to that. They'll innovate as they go. I know that Skynet has a major node north of here.. .I'd guess that that's their target. Can't you ask Jade what she's doing?"
Vicario pointed at his throat, indicating the mike built in there for subvocalization. "With this?" He shook his head. "Wherever she is, whatever she's doing...right now, she's out of range."
"Okay, gotcha."
"I hope I hear from her soon. This all seems like a half-assed plan to me."
"We have no choice," Cecilia said. Still in pain, she glanced at Fiedler to back her up. "We can't let you lose against Skynet."
Fiedler took over smoothly. "I think I'd better explain that...."
The H-K peeled off southwest toward Vila Nova do Sul, 1500 miles away, near the Brazilian coast, as the megatransporter lowered slowly into the largest available clearing in the jungle, two miles from the site where they'd fought the T-XA. Jade led John, Sarah, and the two T-l000s through the low, thick vegetation to the underground enclave where the human Resistance was based. No machines came to attack them, giving John his best chance so far to look closely at the jungle. Apart from the few insects that he'd noticed before, nothing moved here—there were no sounds of larger animals, or any glimpses of them on the track or among the branches.
"It's really quiet," he said.
"Few animals survived the climate change," Jade said. "Some come out at night. There are no mammals left in the jungle—only human beings and their dogs."
"That's pretty creepy."
From far away came a harsh bird call, but nothing moved in the sky.
"Small enclaves, like the one you're about to see, are our last chance in this world," Jade said when they reached the giant fig tree. She pointed out the trap-door. "We'll go in here—I'll show you. There are enough people here to defend themselves against war machines, if they have to, but the idea is to stay hidden from Skynet."
"I guessed we've screwed that up totally," John said.
"Yes, John, we have. Skynet must know we are here by now. But we had to come right here. There had to be a return point."
They entered through the trapdoor and the tunnel. As they approached the dogs, they started to bark furiously. As John had seen her do before, Jade knelt to calm them. The guards seemed briefed on what was going on.
Down the metal stairs, a group awaited them, all with laser rifles trained. Cecilia, Fiedler, and Krystal Taylor were among them.
"My apologies for the reception," Krystal said. "We had to be sure you're all who you seem to be."
"I'd be disappointed otherwise," Sarah said, wincing as she spoke.
A short Hispanic man stepped forward. "I'm Joe Vicario. There's no more you can do for now. The dogs think you're o
kay. Come with me, now. We have to sort out everything your people have been telling us."
"Call my father," Jade said. "There is an H-K approaching Vila Nova do Sul. It will arrive soon, and attack the other machines."
"All right, I'll call him. He'll want to talk with you, too."
"Very well," Jade said. "And I want to talk to him."
On the radio, Jade briefed her father in clear, logical sentences. Hiro Tagatoshi spoke with little trace of a Japanese accent, but in the same slightly formal English as his daughter.
"Sarah and John Connor..." he said musingly. "All right, Jade, I understand everything. We will win the battle here. If Skynet has no reinforcements—"
"I will be there soon," Jade said, "with our Terminators and the rest of the team. We can win, but then we must move northward. Please call Ramsey Devaux—we need his help."
"Very well," Hiro said. "We will win this war."
"I hope so, father," Jade said. "You must know the odds are still against it."
"You are always the realist," Hiro said.
"I am, but I shall do my best. All of us will be there soon."
VILA NOVA DO SUL
Hiro made radio contact with Ramsey Devaux, in the mountains of Colorado. There was always some tension between the Resistance forces in North and South America, a degree of rivalry and mutual suspicion. The Vila Nova leaders had long regarded the North American Resistance militia with mild contempt—for years, Devaux' troops had made an insufficient impression on Skynet's defenses, or its productive capacity. Their last, desperate push into Colorado had been a disaster. Now they were scattered across the lower slopes of Skynet's mountain, still under attack.
For their part, Hiro realized, the Vila Nova warriors and scientists had accomplished little themselves. They fought Skynet openly, but it was a losing battle.
T2 - 03 - The New John Connor Chronicles - Times of Trouble Page 25
