Time Loop 41
Title: Time Loop 41
Author: wkgreen
Fandom: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pairing: Hints of Cameron and Sarah
Rating: PG
Length: ~2000 words
Summary: Cameron has a hand in who gets back to save Sarah.
Disclaimer: I don’t own them; they belong to FOX television and Warner Brothers.
Note 1: If you haven’t read Time Loop yet, please do so before reading this one. It sets up the premise of this ongoing AU, other Time Loop stories can be read in any order.
Note 2: Ralst/Passion & Perfection and Slayers Time has permission to archive all Time Loop stories.
Note 3: Betaed by 1shinyboat, thank her profusely, she makes my writing readable. Although ultimately all errors are mine. Saying "Thanks" is all I need.
Note 4: Please leave a comment, even if it’s just one word. Comments tell authors their stories are being read and enjoyed.
Note 5: And Chunk P gave me the idea for this time loop, although I probably took it in a different direction than expected.
Cameron walks past destroyed Terminators into a room filled with advanced computer equipment and a strange machine. Seeing John and a bunch of the scientist studying a computer screen, the ageless brunette walks up behind John; “Well?” she asks her friend, the leader of the Resistance, meaning laden in the tone of her voice.
John frowns, not looking over his shoulder. “It sent a terminator after Mom alright.”
Cameron doesn’t bother nodding. Sometimes she does, it makes humans more comfortable when she uses body language, but no one is looking at her right now. “We knew this was going to happen,” she reminds John. They have had a lot of arguments about changing the future, but she has yet to see it happen in any significant manner. Details have changed, but not the overall path.
“Yes,” John draws out aggravatedly. The scientists studiously ignore the sniping going on between their leader and his bodyguard, right hand, and best friend.
“I can hope though, can’t I?” John looks over his shoulder at Cameron.
Cameron rolls her eyes at John, pretending to be the teenager she looks like, “Sure, you can hope,” pitching her voice to sound like a put upon teenage girl.
John glares. “Go get Sgt. Hicks. We just about have this figured out.”
Cameron’s face goes completely blank. “Are you sure you want to send Hicks. You do have a choice on who you send back,” she reminds John of their previous ‘discussions’ about how he has a choice about who he sends back to protect his mother.
John all but growls, “Look, you said that Hicks was my father. My mother told me he was my father and that she loved him very much. I’m just trying to make her happy, while she gets her life completely shattered.” He looks intently into the eyes of the person that knows his mother better than he does. He notes how unaffected she appears and how much she actually disapproves. “Look, Hicks is a good man. He’s a good soldier. He finds Mom very attractive and will protect her to the best of his considerable abilities.”
Cameron nods neutrally, “Yes, he is all of those things.” She turns on the balls of her feet and walks away.
“Cameron, where are you going?” John asks, a look of confusion passing across his face. He was all geared for an argument, not her abruptly dropping the argument and walking away. John glances around; all the scientists are studiously not paying attention to the small argument between them, but knowing it’s going to make the rumor mills before the end of the night.
Before she reaches the door, Cameron throws over her shoulder, “I am going to find Sgt. Hicks,” as her steps move away without missing a beat.
30 minutes later Cameron finds Hicks, a worn down, brown haired soldier, huddled in a room by himself, “Sgt. Hicks.”
The man looks up at the cybernetic girl and swallows nervously. “They found it didn’t they? He wants me to go back,” The soldier gulps nervously.
Cameron eyes the soldier dispassionately. “Yes.” She notes his physiology - the sweat forming along his brow, the increase in body temperature, the nervous shifting of his eyes and trembling of his fingers.
“Look he can’t make me go back.” The soldier looks down and away as his cowardice rears up, “What if it doesn’t really work. What if it just vaporizes whatever is in it? What if it turns me inside out when I arrive in the past? We have no guarantees that that machine actually works,” the man rambles nervously, coming up with things that could go wrong.
Cameron tilts her head and lets her face soften. “He is asking,” she gives the man a chance to step up and be the hero he is when others are watching him. She knows he won’t.
The fearful man looks up into Cameron’s soft brown eyes and whispers, “I’m not the right person for this. I can’t do it. If I’m sent back, I‘ll just go run and hide.” The man looks down, whispering, “I’m brave out of fear - about how people will treat me if I don’t do my job. I can’t be brave if no one’s watching me.”
Cameron nods her head in understanding. “I know.” She steps up and puts her hand on the man’s shoulder, causing him to look up, relief in his eyes. The understanding and acceptance in her voice relaxing him, “I am not going to let him send you back. He will have to find someone else.”
Hicks face suddenly whitens. “But people will know I turned him down. They’ll whisper about me behind my back.”
“Shhh..,” the cybernetic woman hushes the man in front of her, rubbing his shoulder, “No one will ever know. Everyone will remember you as a hero.”
Hicks hears the sound of a plasma rifle discharging at close range, feels a brief flash of pain and sighs in relief, “Thank you…” His eyes close as he realizes that he can’t be made to go to the past, his reputation will be intact and slowly collapses to the floor at Cameron’s feet.
Cameron slings the rifle back over her shoulder, reaches down, taking Hicks radio, “Command, this is Hicks, I heard a noise in Green Sector, heading over to check it out,” the cybernetic woman says, in perfect imitation of the dead Sgt Hicks’ voice. She hears command acknowledge with a word to be cautious.
Cameron reaches down and grabs Hicks collar and drags him into a covered corner of the room. She steps out into the hallway and finds two deactivated terminators and carries them into the room, positioning the terminators in flanking positions on the cornered dead soldier. Looking carefully at the arrangement, she looks satisfied and walks over to Hicks. She reaches down and hits various switches on his plasma rifle, setting it to overload. She walks away emotionlessly as the up spiraling whine of the plasma rifle builds.
“Command, Terminators!!!” She hisses sharply into Hicks radio, mimicking his voice again. She tosses the radio over her shoulder to land beside Hicks’ dead body as she walks out of the room and turns down the corridor.
She pulls out her radio, “Command I am on my way! Hold on Hicks!” She listens as Command responds and sends reinforcements to Green sector. Just as she reaches a safe distance, an explosion rocks the building, a gout of flame comes out of the room where she left Hicks and then down the corridor in both directions, stopping two feet from her. “Command, there was an explosion.” She stands still as a statue for a couple of minutes, “Command, Hicks got cornered. It looks like he overloaded his rifle to take out the terminators hunting him. I am not detecting any other terminators in this sector.”
“Roger that Cameron. We are changing Alpha Squad’s mission to recon.”
Cameron resumes walking, heading to John to tell him the bad news. Several minutes later, she turns into the control room and makes eye contact with him. She notices the look of mourning on his face, nodding in satisfaction as he suppresses it quickly and focuses on business. “You heard,” she states without preamble.
“Yes, but now who am I going to send?” John sighs as he runs a hand through his hair, looking harassed. Tilting his head at his friend, he questions, “Why don’t I just send you back now? You love mom, you can protect her better than anyone else.”
The woman sighs, “She is not ready for me. She has to grow and toughen up; otherwise we would not be equals. Her emotional strength balances my physical strength.” Cameron’s eyes look inward as she remembers the past, remembers a time when she did give into temptation to go back early. Snapping back into focus, she looks at John, and addresses the needs of the moment, “I have a list of good soldiers who can work on their own. Good at improvising. They are also loners, with no family,” she lists the important qualifications and then tosses out, “and Sarah will like any of them.” Cameron shrugs nonchalantly, “You can see if any of them would volunteer.”
John looks at his best friend suspiciously, but lets it go as being something best to discuss in private. Although, once he does get her alone, he’s going to ask her some pointed questions. “Okay, gather them in the room down the hall. Don’t tell them anything until I get there. We want to keep the time machine ultra secret.”
Cameron nods, “Of course, John.” She spins around and leaves the room, pulling out her radio.
An hour later, Cameron is looking over the dozen soldiers she has gathered, waiting for John to show up. The men talk amongst themselves quietly, taking glancing looks at her, knowing that whatever is up is big if she’s involved in it. She monitors their vital signs, pleased to note that all of them are registering excitement and curiosity, instead of nervousness and fear. Sensing John approaching the door, she calls out, “Attention!” All the soldiers snap to their feet, bodies ramrod straight with hands saluting towards the opening door.
John finishes opening the door and sees a dozen soldiers standing at attention and saluting him, hiding a sigh he returns the salute, “At ease.” John glances to the side where Cameron is leaning against a wall, examining her sparkly purple fingernails distractedly. He sends a quick glower her way, she knows he doesn’t like to stand on ceremony and she obviously called the men to attention before he entered.
Cameron ignores the glower as she catches a couple of appreciative nods from the soldiers, glad she gave them the advanced warning. John’s wishes on this don’t really matter. It’s for the good of the soldiers and their morale that they are able to show their appreciation and respect for their leader. Without him, they believe mankind wouldn’t have survived. Cameron goes back to dusting off her nails gently, wanting to preserve the polished coating as long as possible.
John shakes his head as Cameron ignores him and turns back to the soldiers, “I am asking for a volunteer for a one way mission. It is vitally important that it succeed. It is a rescue operation. I will only go into details to the person who volunteers.” John looks at the dozen hardened soldiers, none of them flinching at the news of a one way trip. “There is no coming back from this mission, so think carefully before you volunteer. I can send only one person and you will be fighting a terminator without any of your standard equipment.” The leader of mankind looks over the men carefully as they look at each other, communicating with their eyes only.
Sgt. Kyle Reese looks back at their leader. “A one way rescue mission, Sir?” he asks, seeking any clarification of how that works, rescue missions usually involve getting the rescuees back to a safe location.
“Yes, Sergeant. You will be sent to keep a person integral to our survival alive. You will have no support, no backup and you won’t be able to take any of your equipment. You will have to acquire what you need there. And you won’t be able to come back. As long as the person stays alive, the mission is a success,” John clarifies.
Cameron stays leaning against the wall as she observes the men quietly communicating amongst themselves as John stands at the front of the room waiting patiently. With a couple of shrugs and nods of heads, the soldiers seem to come to a consensus as Sgt. Kyle Reese steps forward.
“I volunteer, Sir,” the young, battle hardened man says proudly.
John nods at the man. “Follow me Sgt. Reese and I will give you your mission brief.” Sgt. Reese steps up to stand behind John as he turns to the rest of the men, “Thank you for coming and you can return to your units. Do not speak of this meeting to anyone.” John turns and leads Sgt. Reese out.
Cameron waits until John is gone and turns to the rest of the men, “Thank you for coming. You did as I requested.” The men nod at her, glad to repay the favors they owe the powerful woman, filing out of the room and heading back to their units.
Cameron wanders around the rest of the day, avoiding John and the questions he has. After midnight has come and gone, she enters the room where the time machine is and bars the door. She writes out a quick note for John, folding it closed, she sticks it where it will be found readily. Studying the controls, she nods in satisfaction at when Sgt. Reese was sent. She makes a couple of adjustments, steps onto the platform in time for blue lightning to surround her and she disappears. She is returning to her love, Sarah.