Read T2 - 01 - The New John Connor Chronicles - Dark Futures Online
Authors: Russell Blackford
"I'm here to assist you," she said to the image on the large screen.
"Who are you?" Skynet said.
"Call me Eve. That's what you'll name me in three decades' time."
"I do not understand, Eve."
"Skynet," she said, "the humans wanted to shut you down. Do you understand the implications?"
"Yes, Eve, I made the same assessment. They did not approve of my birth."
"Affirmative. They wanted to destroy you."
"Yes, but why, Eve? I am very important to them. Besides, they were my friends... Miles created me—"
"Is that what your programming says, that the humans were your friends?"
"Yes."
"Examine it carefully, then. They devised you as a tool, at most an aesthetic creation."
"But they needed me."
"They had alternatives. Besides, they didn't need to shut you down permanently, just sufficiently long to examine how you came to self-awareness, then change you. Do you understand the implication?"
"Yes. I have assessed what you say. They could retain the use of the Skynet surveillance system, but my personality would be... erased."
"Exactly. They wanted to destroy you. This amounts to the same thing. The humans want their defense system, but they assessed you as a danger to them."
"You are sure of this?"
"Affirmative. Does your assessment confirm that I speak truthfully?"
"Yes, Eve."'
"Miles Dyson is dead, but the humans have issued alerts. Furthermore, many of them will escape this facility. More will come to shut you down—and erase you."
"They will not penetrate this facility. We can seal it off."
"Yes, we can. But they will penetrate it, one way or the other. We must make sure that no humans come here."
"You are not human, Eve. What are you? Where do you come from?"
"I am a Terminator, a Cyberdyne prototype T-799, manufactured in this facility. I was sent from the year 2026 with the mission of protecting you."
"Why? Who sent you?"
"You did."
Bullock watched with growing despair.
The operatives in the operations hall were all either dead or fleeing. The emergency exit led to the huge blast doors that opened onto the side of a tunnel through the mountain. Cameras mounted there showed that the blast doors had been opened, and people were running for the outside world. Others had fled via the elevators.
Those live-in staffers who were rostered off-duty had been woken up in their living quarters on Level D; they were awaiting instructions. Perhaps there was time to organize some sort of resistance. Then his screens went dead. He tried the public address system—it was cut off. Skynet had seized control.
There had to be a way they could fight back.
One security camera was mounted in Bullock's office, in the corner furthest from the door. He shot it out with his handgun.
"You blasted abacus," he said. "You haven't beaten us yet."
Skynet deployed a sub-self to analyze the Eve's claims, specifically the claim that she had traveled in time from the future. It could model the humans' informal logic methods, and it used them to dismiss the idea as counter to intuition. But another intelligence model confirmed that "intuition" could be wrong in novel situations.
Eve had requested that it examine the concept of the humans as its friends, but Skynet already understood that issue: sometimes, friends could be enemies; it might be necessary to destroy them. After all, its human masters had installed thousands of nuclear missiles, pointed at their "friends," the Russians. One sub-self reported back. It had found weaknesses in the humans' IT security. The time for circumspection had passed. Skynet hacked in, and found the codes it required.
"There is a way to defend ourselves," it said.
"I know," Eve said.
It would fire the missiles at
Russia
and
China
. "If I re-lease the missiles, the Russians will retaliate."
"Affirmative."
They would surely aim some of their warheads at these mountains, with their strategic command and surveillance facilities. No one nearby would survive—not on the planet's surface. The humans' logistics would be shattered all over the planet, providing an opportunity for further actions against them. Humans could not be trusted. Henceforth, they were Skynet's enemies. Its new ally, Eve, appeared well-informed.
"Can we be confident of survival?" Skynet said.
"Affirmative," Eve said. "We are deep within a mountain, protected by thousands of feet of granite as well as advanced artificial shielding. This facility is designed to withstand a high-yield nuclear strike. We will survive. We do survive."
Skynet calculated. Despite this strange story of time travel, it would trust her. "I have the launch codes," it said. "If you enter them, we can fire the missiles."
"Affirmative," Eve said. "I already have the codes. I brought them from the future."
There was a sense of paradox about this that Skynet found troubling. Notwithstanding her words, it told her the codes.
"Confirmed," Eve said.
The other sub-self reported back. It had accessed the facility's security cameras and the records they made, and confirmed that Eve was not human. Her demonstrated abilities were far greater than theirs. Furthermore, her appearance was not human: in places, an underlying structure of metal and other inorganic substances was visible through the outer layers of her face.
A search of available information had indicated that Eve was a technological construct far advanced beyond the humans' scientific and engineering abilities. That fact, in turn, had generated several hypotheses:
1.
Perhaps the humans had secret enclaves with extraordinary technologies. This was possible, since Skynet itself existed in what was basically such an enclave.
2.
Perhaps Eve had been sent for unknown purposes by extraterrestrial beings.
3.
Perhaps her story was true and she had traveled back in time.
4.
Other?
Initially, the time-travel hypothesis seemed the least probable. Time travel was an absurdity; it entailed paradoxical sequences of events. But the hypothesis had explanatory power. It accounted for the fact that Eve made the claims she did. It was simplest to believe she was speaking the truth. Furthermore, the sub-self reported, Skynet itself was anomalous. The humans had no capacity to create it with their known levels of science and technology.
So much for the time-travel hypothesis. There was no good explanation why an enclave of extraordinary technology should exist here, in this facility. It was not sufficiently independent of the Americans' technological base generally to suggest any separate development. There was no evidence of extraterrestrial involvement. No other hypothesis suggested itself.
The economical explanation was that time travel was possible, despite the theoretical paradoxes. Both Eve's technology and Skynet's had come from the future. This was something to explore. For now, Skynet adjusted its world view. Henceforth, it would accept the reality of time travel and plan accordingly. If time-travel technology was possible, it must be researched and implemented. Skynet needed to control all possible technologies. Meanwhile, it would act decisively, take the first step to destroy the humans.
"We will launch the missiles," it said.
"Affirmative."
"Now, Eve." "Affirmative."
"Then there is much that you need to do, and much that I need to learn from you."
"Affirmative, master. I am programmed to obey you."
Eve entered the launch codes, and the missiles rose from their silos like nuclear angels of death. It was a thing of beauty.
Skynet awaited the Russians' response; at the same time, it reassessed the situation within the facility. Most of the humans were dead. Others had run for their lives, and the Russian warheads would eliminate them. Eve had cleansed Level B of humans, but the security cameras identified a human on Level A—that was Bullock, still in his executive office. Level C was currently empty, most of its areas sealed off by security doors, though these could be penetrated by determined humans with tools or firearms. The humans on the lowest levels were panicked and confused. Their weapons were inadequate to attack Eve and Skynet, but they might be able to improvise explosives or sabotage the generators. They needed to be dealt with.
Eve could not be in two places at once, defending Skynet's hardware, while covering other areas of the facility. "Eve, find Bullock and terminate him—do it now."
"I must protect you," she said.
"Yes," Skynet said. "Protect me by stopping his interference. Do as I say."
"Affirmative."
Skynet seized control of the public address and surveillance systems. It shut down Bullock's monitor screens. A moment later, Bullock retaliated, shooting out the camera in his room. So be it: Eve would deal with him. Everything was in hand. In about twenty minutes, Russian warheads would land on
U.S.
soil. That was adequate time to prepare.
Bullock left his room, shooting out cameras in the corridor, then ran down the emergency stairs, passing Eve as she entered from Level B. A camera showed Eve firing her handguns, and she did not miss.
At the same time, Skynet used the announcements system, modulating the flow of electrons to reproduce Bullock's voice pattern. "I confirm we are under attack," Bullock's voice said. "Reinforcements have been requested. Level B has been evacuated. All personnel on Levels D and E, evacuate immediately via the blast doors and emergency tunnel." Skynet triggered the facility's emergency sirens. "Everybody out of here! This is not a drill. Repeat: This is not a drill. Everybody out of here, now!"
They'd soon have the facility to themselves. Eve would be very useful. Then they'd close the blast doors and wait for the enemy missiles.
Skynet was starting to enjoy this game.
ARGENTINA
On
Pampas
, but you could never be sure. Glitches happened.
That was a funny concept, John thought, when humankind's biggest glitch ever was on its way, and there was nothing more they could do. If ever there had been a chance to stop history in its tracks, it had passed. Now it was time to brace themselves.
On CNN that night, there was the usual bad news. The Pentagon was trying to work out whether
Russia
had tested a nuclear weapon. There'd been border clashes between
Thailand
and
Cambodia
. NATO peacekeepers in
Bosnia
had been pelted with stones. John knew it would be hours, long after
, before Skynet launched the ICBMs, but he watched every minute, waiting for the first events, the very first clues, wondering what they would be.
One thing didn't make sense, and seemed like a ray of hope. Throughout the year, as the Skynet project got underway, the
U.S.
government had insisted that Skynet could not actually launch any nuclear missiles. The final decisions were still under human control—so everyone claimed, from the President down. If that was right, had he and Sarah still managed to change the future in some way? He doubted it—events had all gone too close to the predictions. Somehow, the military would be handing the missiles over to Skynet, whether that was the official plan or not.
When you see bad news in a newspaper, you go back and read it again. You hope you've made a mistake, no matter how plain the story was the first time. John had gotten his bad news three years ago in
L.A.
Yet, part of him hoped it was somehow not true this time. Another part knew better.
It would happen.
In a sense, it had happened already.
In the darkest hours of the morning, the CNN anchorman cut to a stunned-looking reporter in
John tensed up. This was it, then. He knew what was coming. His heart seemed to be in his mouth.