T3 - the Lost Terminator

After finding this story abandoned, I got so engrossed I had to help continue it. With no continuation made since 2008, I felt it shouldn't be left to gather dust. I've rewritten it and made a few improvements, wishing the original writer all the best and hope they return someday.

All credit goes to TakatoRikku, The Missing Terminator. I have merely reimagined his take on the story and wish to share it with the world.

T3: The lost terminator Ch 1

Arriving in the middle of Los Angeles sometime during the night, the T-X quickly synchronised her internal clock to match the time and confirm her location. It was currently July 24th, 2004, 9:36 local Eastern Time. The T-X stood up, standing in a display window amongst several mannequins; she gave them a curious look. She stepped out of the hole in the window, which was caused by her displacement sphere upon arrival. She immediately began processing her surroundings.

The T-X spotted a middle-aged businesswoman exiting a store that sold real estate across the street. The woman was wearing a crisp red leather outfit and climbed inside a silver 2004 Lexus SC430. Cocking her head, the T-X briskly walked across the empty street towards the vehicle.

As the T-X walked up, she ran a diagnostic which appeared on her blue HUD.

System check: All systems 100%

Data check: All mission data and files intact.

Chip integrity: 100%

Everything was fine. She stopped in front of the driver's side door of the car as the woman stared up at her naked form in shock. "Oh my God, are you alright?" she asked worriedly. "Should I call the police?"

The T-X ignored the human's worry and ran her slender fingers across the doorsill, "I like your car." she said, testing out her voice synthesisers, replicating a throaty, attractive female voice. With a smooth and lightning-fast movement, the T-X snapped the woman's neck.

The T-X ran her hands along her clothes, absorbing the information with her mimetic polyalloy. She then adjusted her polyalloy sheath to form the clothing the deceased woman wore. Once adequately clothed, the T-X also copied the tight bun hairstyle the woman had, as well as physical make-up on her face.

Seeing that she looked less conspicuous, the T-X lifted the relatively light corpse out of the car and, with a light throw, tossed it into a dumpster some distance away. It made several loud and wet smacks upon impact inside, and the T-X let out a small smile. She got into the silver convertible and accessed her databanks on the vehicle's operation.

The T-X quickly started the engine and adjusted the mirrors, having learned all of the car's controls. She pulled away from the curb and began to drive. As she drove, the T-X noticed the woman's purse and saw a Nokia 5200 inside. She took it out as she weaved through cars and pressed it to her ear. She then made a high-pitched noise through her mouth, connecting the phone to herself and accessing the internet.

She began to search for John Connor. She started going through databases and news reports. Then a frown marred her artificially beautiful face. Numerous reports said John Connor and his mother were dead. They and one other had died in a bank heist explosion back in 1999.

Primary Target: John Connor. Primary Target, deceased.

Primary Mission: Terminate John Connor. Primary Mission suspended.

Secondary Mission: Terminate Resistance leaders.

The T-X put on a smile again and started doing a web search for John Connor's lieutenants in the Resistance. She marked Catherine Brewster down as a high priority target and found 22 others. It was time to set to work.

She increased the vehicle's speed and wove through cars with expert precision, blowing through a red light. She heard a siren behind her and glanced in the rear-view mirror. A Los Angeles Police Department cruiser was catching up behind her.

"You in the silver Lexus!" the cruiser's speaker blared, "Pull over immediately!"

The T-X analysed the situation, noting that all security forces from this time period carried firearms. Her programming whirred away as it processed other objectives.

Additional Objectives: Acquire weaponry and other supplies necessary for termination/infiltration.

The T-X dutifully pulled over and waited as the cruiser pulled to a stop behind her vehicle. She looked around and spotted a billboard sign which depicted a woman. Her database recognised the woman as Adriana Lima, a 25-year-old supermodel for Victoria's Secret's lingerie brand.

As the police officer walked up to her car, the T-X read the billboard curiously. It read, 'What is sexy? Victoria's Secret.' Adriana Lima had a 34C cup size, and the brassiere she wore on the billboard accentuated her bust and shape. The T-X copied this, and her default breast size (34B) swelled to 34D and perked itself up to resemble cleavage. The officer stopped beside her door, and she looked up at him with a small smile.

The cop looked down at her, noticing the cleavage that showed through her suit's gap. He swallowed a bit and then demanded, "Lady, do you have any idea how fast you were going?"

The T-X smiled at him still and looked at his sidearm--a Smith & Wesson 4506 silver.45 ACP. "I like your gun," she told him.

He looked confused. "What?" he asked.

The T-X raised her hand gently as if she was handing him her license. Aiming her index finger, she used it to pierce the officer's brain through his left eye with her polyalloy sheath. She reached out with her other hand and took the pistol from his holster as he dangled on her extended spear finger. She set it neatly onto the passenger seat and removed the two magazines from his belt. With a cute smile, she pulled her finger back, and the body dropped to the ground.

"Thank you," she told the dead body before driving away. She continued on her secondary mission and drove to a fast-food restaurant, Taco Bell. Her updated database showed that Jose Barrera worked here as a drive-through attendant. She pulled into the drive-through and stopped at the ordering terminal.

"Welcome to Taco Bell. What can I get ya?" a young male voice asked.

The T-X compared the voice to her records of Jose Barrera's speech and found a match. She would have to check to make sure. Terminators were thorough if anything.

"Jose Barrera?" she asked in a clear voice.

"Uh, yeah?" he replied.

She smiled and drove to the window, where a young man fitting Jose's description leaned out. "Did you need something?" he asked.

The T-X gave him one of her programmed smiles, a sultry one. "No," she answered before drawing her pistol and shooting him three times in the face, ensuring an instant kill. As screams erupted, she stowed her gun and calmly drove away.

Sometime later, the T-X had eliminated all of John Connor's lieutenants and was now heading to the workplace of his future spouse and second-in-command, Catherine Brewster. She parked her SC430 in the animal hospital's parking lot and stepped out, looking around with a tiny smile that never left her face. She frowned and ran a diagnostic.

Scanning emotive expressions for abnormalities: No abnormalities found.

Query: Abnormal small smile on facial polyalloy sector.

Possible Answer: Small smiles usually indicate satisfaction or minute elation.

Query: Completion of secondary objectives equals satisfaction?

Possible Answer: Affirmative.

Query logged and saved 4:15 AM, July 24th, 2004 local time.

This happened within several nanoseconds, and the T-X resumed her final secondary mission to terminate Catherine Brewster. She scanned the area for any threats. There was a green Toyota Tundra pickup truck, which bore a box trailer with signs for the animal hospital. It was registered to Catherine Brewster, making the T-X's smile widen slightly. There was also a small sedan parked a little further away.

The T-X scanned the license plate and ran it through her database. It belonged to Betsy Graham, a woman of no significance. There was also an old GMC pickup, registered to John Grant, another person of no importance. The T-X cocked her head curiously. Perhaps they were here to have their pet animals looked after? Possibly.

She debated on what to do. Usually, she would just walk inside and terminate everyone inside the building, but now, she paused. According to human records, John Connor was dead, as was his mother. If that was so, then why hadn't Judgement Day occurred yet? Was Skynet biding its time? It would officially go online on July 25th, 2004. Perhaps Skynet knew of Connor's death. The T-X didn't have an answer. Too many unknowns to correctly calculate a viable option.

Being an objective-based machine, the T-X would complete its mission or 'die' trying (that was a human term). However, if a terminator completed all of its tasks and survived, it no longer had any purpose.

The T-X stopped walking towards the building, confused. What would she do upon Catherine Brewster's death? There was a T-850 that was sent back in time; she would have to destroy it. But then what would she do?

Shaking her head, the T-X ignored these anomalies in her programming and walked into the building. She saw a woman standing near a door and shot her twice in the heart without hesitation. The woman cried out and fell onto the floor, lying on her back. Blood poured out of her wounds as she whimpered helplessly on the floor.

Humans were such frail creatures. Even the most inferior terminator could snap one in half without much effort. The T-X smiled at her last thought as she kneeled beside the woman.

"Catherine Brewster?" she asked, sampling the woman's blood on her tongue.

A DNA analysis showed that she wasn't Catherine Brewster. "No," the T-X verbally acknowledged, standing up. Suddenly, she heard a shotgun blast and stumbled forward after taking a full impact.

The T-X put on a stony face as she turned around. The large hole in her back healed itself as shotgun pellets fell out. She saw the large hulking T-850 standing down the hallway with a shotgun in its hand and a terrified woman behind him. Her facial scanning showed her that this woman was her target.

"Catherine Brewster, hello." the T-X said with a smile, raising her S&W and firing. The T-850 annoyingly stepped in front of Catherine to protect her, and the bullets bit into his living tissue before bouncing off of his endoskeleton underneath.

"GO! NOW!" the T-850 told Catherine in that familiar Austrian accent. He fired rapid shots at the T-X, making her stumble back with each powerful impact. She fell through a wall, and the T-850 ran out of the building.

The T-X frowned and got back onto her feet, reforming her polyalloy. She quickly activated her plasma cannon, and her arm transformed. First, the polyalloy melted away into their reservoirs, and then her endoskeletal arm came apart, reshaping into a plasma cannon.

She stomped out of the building, seeing the Toyota Tundra come around, the T-850 driving with the woman beside him. It headed towards the street exit, and the T-X took careful aim. With one shot, she sent the truck flying as it exploded in mid-air.

Once it had landed in a crumpled heap, the T-X ran up to it, seeing the T-850 covering Catherine with its body. With a smirk, the T-X pointed its canon at the T-850's head, aiming accurately at his chip's access port.

She fired, the T-850's head was incinerated, and his chip vaporised almost instantaneously. The woman, Catherine, weakly screamed as the headless body slumped over her, weighing over 380lbs. The T-X pulled Catherine out, gripping her by the throat.

"W-Why are you doing this?" Catherine choked, holding feebly onto the T-X's arm.

The T-X didn't need to reply but felt that an explanation was in order; it was the woman's death after all. "With your death, the future belongs to the machines," she answered before twitching her wrist.

With a loud crack, Catherine's neck snapped, and her body fell limply in the T-X's hand. She dropped it and calmly walked away; her other arm morphed back into a normal arm now that the cannon was no longer needed.

Secondary mission: Complete.

Objectives: None.

Query: Secure safe zone and shut down? Affirmative.

Error: Unable to comply.

Programme override: Clear shutdown protocol and reset mission parameters. Override complete.

Database search: Skynet Missile Defence System. Cross-reference with any current active and ongoing military projects. No active project found.

Looking lost, the T-X got back into her car. The information in her database didn't match what Skynet uploaded to her mainframe, indicating something was wrong. She calculated the most likely reason, an alternate timeline.

Likely caused by John and Sarah's death in 1999, the T-X became increasingly puzzled, considering that she now found herself in a temporal paradox. For all intents and purposes, she shouldn't exist, as technically, Skynet didn't either.

The T-X readied herself for eventual termination (after all, if Skynet didn't exist, she would slowly fade away in time), but to her programmed surprise, she was still operational. That meant that Skynet would still be created, somehow. With all the potential possibilities becoming increasingly confusing, she turned her attention back to what she could do.

She had no objectives, and her mission was complete. John Connor was dead or appeared to be so; therefore, she concluded that she did not need to search for him. An internet scan showed several new T-888s had been sent back in time to carry out various missions, and if they saw John Connor, they would kill him on sight. So technically, this wasn't her problem.

As her artificial mind continued wondering, she began asking herself various questions, becoming curious about why Skynet needed to destroy humanity, looking beyond her set programming to seek her own answers.

The T-X had hacked the LA databases and generated a fake human identity for the time being. It would not do to bring attention to herself for the time being. She created a long paper trail with incredible precision, using her vast network capabilities to generate various bank accounts for when she needed currency. The T-X realised that she would need a name so humans could address her and chose Kristanna Loken after a randomised generator came up with it.

Program override: Set new mission and objectives.

Primary objective: Infiltration? Gather intel on the inner workings of humanity. Generate a report for Skynet upon judgement day.

Secondary objective: None.

Warning. Primary mission Terminate John Connor has been suspended for longer than the specified suspension time allotted. Extend or terminate mission? ...Terminate.

She would blend in until the time was right. She had nothing else to do, no purpose in her 'life'. So, she would infiltrate the human race, learn their secrets and bring everything to Skynet when the day came. Human behaviour, emotions, reactions, sociality, everything would be recorded and emulated to achieve perfection until the point where she would pass off as a genuine human. It was a satisfying tactic.

She was intelligent. Much more intelligent than any T-8XX or T-1XXX series terminators. She would be able to execute this new mission with little trouble.

The T-X, now calling herself Kristanna, disposed of the SC430 after a news report said that the shooter of multiple teenagers had driven one. After taking it to a secluded area, she used her plasma cannon to blast the vehicle beyond recognition.

For the time being, she roamed the city, taking note of her surroundings. After several hours she found came across a vehicle dealership, spotting a blue convertible, 2004 BMW M3. Kristanna seemed to have taken a liking to convertibles, perhaps because it reminded her of when she first arrived. Waiting around until the dealership opened, she promptly asked to view it. Not long after, she purchased it and drove away in her new vehicle.

After processing everything she needed to fit in as an almost ordinary human, she realised she would need somewhere to live. Despite such accommodation not being necessary to her functioning, it would help her blend in. She located a property agency and set about buying a home.

****

Some days later, she pulled into her driveway at her new house. A simple home in a quiet neighbourhood wasn't essential, but she would need somewhere to park her car at night.

During her time acquiring a basic set of furniture, she began learning about human sleeping patterns. While she couldn't sleep, she could enter standby mode, which was sort of like sleeping. She would just have to make sure she was lying down in her bed before activating standby mode, just in case someone happened to look through her windows.

Once in standby mode, all unnecessary functions would be deactivated, and only her chip would be powered. In the event of physical disturbance, she would 'wake up' within fifteen seconds. It seemed to work, just in case any humans came into her house.

The next day, Kristanna walked along the commercial district, where vendors sold various material items for human use or consumption. She stopped near a restaurant's patio and observed the humans walking around. With a frown, she noticed that very few of them dressed alike--all wearing a wide variety of different items, all in various colours and sizes.

Clothing was a new topic for Kristanna, and she wondered why humans wore different clothes more often than daily. Most articles of clothing were sturdy enough to be worn for several years with care. She had acquired several more clothing forms for her polyalloy, so she wouldn't raise suspicion by wearing the same red leather business suit all the time.

Kristanna was currently wearing a tank top and capris; the usual beachwear human females often wore in the current climate. Underneath, she had panties and a brassiere. Humans were quite adamant about preventing nudity for some reason. Kristanna's database said that humans considered public nudity indecent unless it was for a film of human copulation, also known as 'pornography'. Kristanna's database advised her not to engage in pornography unless mission parameters allowed for such purposes when needed.

She began a playback of a recording she took a few days ago.

Accessing file: Beginning playback...

"Hey, miss?" a man appeared in her visual range, looking at her. She regarded him as not being a threat. "I see you come over here all the time. You new around here?"

"Yes, I'm new here," she replied.

The man nodded. "Nice to meet you; I'm James," he said, holding out his hand. Her sensors detected his eye movements, picking up on his apparent liking of Kristanna's physical appearance.

Action detected: Human greeting.

She shook his hand. "Kristanna," she replied.

"Firm grip!" the man told her. "I've noticed that every time you walk by my restaurant, you always wear the same clothes. Why's that?"

She looked down at herself. "Is there something wrong with them? She asked, ready to learn.

James laughed, and she recorded his facial expressions and vocal tones for future reference. "Well, not if you clean them every night, I guess," he answered.

"They are always clean."

"Cool, but you should really, you know, get some different clothes," he told her. "I mean, that's probably a work uniform or something, but you know, you gotta keep it colourful."

"Colourful?" she asked. "As in a colour different from red?"

He looked confused and shrugged. "Sure, not to mention there's tons of different styles and stuff," he said. "Don't you know anything about fashion?"

"Fashion?" she said, logging that into her database. "Not yet, but I will. Thank you for explaining."

"No problem, swing by sometime!" James smiled before waving her goodbye. She mimicked his actions and walked away.