Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

C.29

Connor and Kate ducked behind one of the outcropping electromagnets as the T-X's plasma weapon fired, the intense blue beam missing them by inches.

The noise in the tunnel was increasing in volume and pitch as the coils around each of the toroidal magnets were cooled by liquid nitrogen. The closer to absolute zero the wiring got, the more electric current it could pass and the stronger the magnetic field became. It was building exponentially now.

Red warning lights began to flash as Connor charged his AK-47 and stepped around the magnet to fire at the oncoming T-X.

A klaxon began to blare, blotting out even the powerful noise of the vacuum pumps and the hum of the magnets.

The T-X was less than twenty feet away. The blue glow at the transmission head of her plasma weapon was so bright it was almost impossible to look at with the naked Connor lined up on her head and started to pull off a round when the AK-47 was ripped from his hands. It smashed into one of the electromagnets with a resounding metallic clang and held fast.

Connor looked from the T-X to his weapon. He stepped back a pace. "It's working," he shouted to Kate.

The T-X raised her weapon arm directly at Connor, but it was jerked violently to the left, dragging her to one of the magnets.

She looked at Connor, and then tried to pull her arm free, the metal shell around the accelerator tube distorting under the pressure she was putting on it.

But she was caught fast, and as the magnetic field intensified her entire body was drawn to the tube, stretched out as if she were on some medieval torture rack.

Even the T-X's tremendous power was not sufficient to free her, and as the field continued to build, her features began to distort, her mouth and eyes sliding to impossible angles, her entire body flowing toward the core of the magnet.

Her endoskeleton began to vibrate like a horribly stretched violin string, shrieking and squealing, as the artificial liquid steel that was used to lubricate her mechanical joints was slowly forced through her body and into the center of the magnetic field.

Still, the T-X continued to fight with every gram of her strength, her programming forcing her to continue up to the very point of her own destruction. She had no other option.

Her mouth opened, and as if she were a human being in pain and anguish at being burned to death at the stake, she emitted a powerful scream.

Kate stepped out from behind the magnet, and stood behind Connor, watching what was happening to the monster.

"Just die," she screeched, not able to take any more. "You bitch!"

Connor lingered for just a moment longer, fascinated by what was happening to the T-X, but then he turned and with Kate raced down the tunnel in search of the way up to the flight line in front of the hangars.

Most of what could be thought of as Terminator's artificial intelligence, his main CPU circuits, were intact As were ninety-five percent of his subroutines.

But the rest of his functions, mental as well as physical, operated as if he were in a fog. As if he were a human trying to wake up after a particularly deep sleep, or an alcoholic whose functions were impaired.

His motivational programs had been especially affected. Much like a schizophrenic who realizes that what he is experiencing is not real, and yet can do nothing about his fantasies, Terminator understood that he had been altered by the T-X.

But there was nothing he could do about it.

Terminator slowly raised his hands to his cranial case, which he lifted into place on the three support strut ball joints, and snapped them back into place.

Able to sit up now and hold his head upright, he got to his feet where he remained for several moments, his head cocked to one side as if he were trying to figure out where he was, what had happened to him, and what he was supposed to do next.

He didn't feel as if he were under the direct control of the T-X, but he couldn't be certain.

A small hole had been drilled into the temple of his cranial case, and it crackled with blue plasma energy, but he could feel no pain in the human sense, only the dull fog obscuring a portion of his motivational programming.

He headed to the nearest emergency exit, his movements jerky at first but smoothing out as if he was learning all over again how to move and function.

Millimeter by millimeter the blade edged against the wall of the accelerator tube.

At first nothing seemed to happen as the saw made contact, but then a long streak of sparks shot away, and seconds later all the air in the tunnel seemed to be focused in a hurricane-strength gale past T-X's saw hand, and into the breach of the accelerator tube's vacuum chamber.

An impossibly loud whistle rose from the widening gap, and the powerful hum of the electromagnets immediately began to wind down as the entire system went into its automatic shutdown mode.

T-X slid down from the tube, her features beginning to coalesce into their normal shapes, her strength and ability to function returning as the magnetic field rapidly died off.

T-X was fully cognizant of all her neural paths. Her body was bound to the electromagnet by a force that by sheer dint of strength she could not break. But she was not unconscious, in the machine sense of being on standby, nor was she without her reasoning powers and her still considerable abilities.

Slowly she was able to morph her plasma weapon back into its containment field, and just as slowly morph the diamond-tipped cutting saw into place.

Her mental acuity was up to speed, but her electromechanical functions were sluggish.

The saw came to life with an angry whine, and millimeter by millimeter the blade edged against the wall of the accelerator tube.

At first nothing seemed to happen as the saw made contact, but then a long streak of sparks shot away, and seconds later all the air in the tunnel seemed to be focused in a hurricane-strength gale past T-X’s saw hand, and into the breach of the accelerator tube’s vacuum chamber.

An impossibly loud whistle rose from the widening gap, and the powerful hum of the electromagnets immediately began to wind down as the entire system went into its automatic shutdown mode.

T-X slid down from the tube, her features beginning to coalesce into their normal shapes, her strength and ability to function returning as the magnetic field rapidly died off.

Something had gone wrong. The accelerator was turning itself off. Somehow the T-X had managed to wreck something.

The placard at the base of the shaft read emergency

EXIT — WARNING AN ALARM WILL SOUND.

Connor pulled down the access ladder, slung the musette bag of explosives and fuses over his shoulder, and started up first A siren suddenly began blaring in his ears.

There was no telling what they would find when they got to the surface. The diagram he'd studied in General Brewster's office showed that this shaft opened behind one of the hangars across from the west wing of the main R&D building.

They'd seen what the T-l robots and the H-Ks had done, and it was more than likely that they were still up there searching for live humans to exterminate. He didn't want Kate poking her head up into a maelstrom.

Steel rungs rose up the inside of the shaft. At the top was a steel hatch, with a locking lever.

Connor looked back to make sure Kate was okay. She gave him a reassuring nod, and he slid the latch to the left, freeing the hatch.

Girding himself, he eased the hatch open just enough so that he could see outside. There were wrecked cars and trucks on fire. A couple of helicopters and a military transport were also damaged, and bodies were scattered everywhere.

But nothing moved so far as he could see.

He eased the hatch all the way open, climbed out, and keeping low, scurried the ten feet across to the rear wall of the hangar.

His sudden appearance drew no response. The T-ls and H-Ks were nowhere in sight for the moment.

Kate poked her head up out of the escape shaft and he motioned for her to come ahead. She climbed the rest of the way out and ran over to him.

When they had driven in through the main gate, he thought he remembered seeing several small aircraft and helicopters parked inside this hangar.

"This way," he told Kate. Together they raced along the back of the hangar to one of the small service doors that Connor eased open.

There were several aircraft inside, light planes and a couple of bigger helicopters. They seemed to be intact, and there were no robots here. From this angle he could better see the burning transport across the flight line and more bodies. The scene looked like a war zone.

Kate lit up. "My dad's plane," she said. "I trained on it."

She led Connor across the hangar to a single engine Cessna 180 with a blue stripe and wheel pants. The civilian registration painted on its fuselage was N3035C.

She checked in the window to make sure the key was in the ignition, and she and Connor pulled the chocks away from the wheels.

Connor looked up as Terminator entered the hangar, and all of a sudden he felt as if they had been delivered. The fight wasn't over, but with Terminator back it was less of a lost cause.

"Yes," Connor said. "He made it." He started over, but something wasn't right. Terminator's movements were stiff and jerky, like a puppet's.

"Get away from me," Terminator said. There was something wrong with his voice too. It was distorted.

Connor stepped back, closer to Kate. Whatever shit was going down now was definitely not right.

"Leave," Terminator warned. "Now!" It seemed as if he were fighting something inside of himself. "Let's go, John," Kate said.

Connor nodded, but he kept his eye on Terminator as he climbed into the right-hand seat, and Kate got in on the pilot's side. Without thinking they locked their doors.

Kate frantically threw switches, the gyro compass, the radio, VOR and DME, and set the altimeter to what she remembered was the field elevation.

"Come on, come on," Connor urged her to hurry. He pulled the knapsack off and tossed it in the backseat.

Kate turned the key to engage the starter but nothing happened. Nothing was working. She had missed the master switch. "Shit, I forgot to—"

Terminator was at Connor's door. He pulled it open, popping the flimsy lock, and yanked Connor out of the plane, tossing him on the concrete floor.

Connor tried to scramble away from Terminator who was right on top of him. "You can't do this."

"I have no choice," Terminator said, his voice still badly distorted. "The T-X has corrupted my system."

The Cessna's engine came to life suddenly, revved up, and then settled back to a few hundred rpms.

"No! You can't kill a human being," Connor argued, still scrambling backward, trying to get out of Terminator's reach. "You said it yourself."

Kate leaped out of the airplane, ran directly at Terminator, and jumped on his back, tearing at his optical sensors.

"Let him go!" she screeched. "That's an order!"

Terminator threw her aside as easily as batting a fly off his shoulder, sending her sprawling against a big, rolling tool chest.

He stopped for a moment and looked at his raised hands, almost as if he knew that he had done something bad.

"You can fight it," Connor shouted. "You're fighting it now."

"My CPU is intact. But I cannot control my other functions." Terminator advanced another step toward Connor who continued to back up.

"You don't have to do this. You don't want to do this." "Desire is irrelevant," Terminator said, still advancing. "I am a machine."

"That's not true! You're more than that!" Terminator grabbed Connor by the jacket and tossed him onto the hood of a Humvee parked just outside the hangar's main doors.

Before Connor could move, Terminator was on him again, grabbing his neck with one hand and drawing the other back into a fist that could crush a man's skull like an eggshell.

"What's your mission?" Connor shouted in desperation.

Terminator's head jerked as if he had received a jolt "To ensure the survival of John Connor and Katherine Brewster."

"You're about to fail in that mission!"

Terminator's entire body began to tremble. As if fighting a tidal wave force inside of himself, he cocked his fist farther back and drove it down, with every kilo of his force.