Terminator: Infinity

DEN OF THE BEAST

Underground, it was thought Skynet had been located. As predicted, its mainframes sat in a cool room. Not too cold, but enough that you could see your breath every time you exhaled. It was bigger than thought. Two floors. The mainframes, hundreds of them, lined the walls and were spread out just enough for a person to walk through. The center had the only thing resembling a workstation that ran from the ground to the ceiling of the floor above. Aside from the soldiers moving about to plant explosives, it was where everyone else stood. One man, wearing a Tech-Com badge, and having to stand as he worked on his computer that was connected to the workstation, typed away furiously.

John stood close by, looking closely at the center of the workstation, where you could fit a 10x10x10 cube. It was now empty, which bothered him to no end.

Nearby was Shawn. He spoke to a soldier before approaching John. "Charges have been set, Sir," he said. "What's wrong?"

John nodded and held his hand out to the obvious empty spot where a cube should be. "Is it me," he said. "Or is something missing?"

Shawn looked at the Tech-Com soldier. "Did you find anything?"

"No, Sir," the soldier replied. "Nothing about Skynet yet. However, I have come across data for a new Terminator that uses some kind of mimetic poly-alloy."

Upon hearing that, bad memories stirred up in John's head. He couldn't say much without giving himself away.

Shawn pat the soldier's back. "Ok good job," he said. "Clear out with everyone else ASAP. We'll join you shortly."

"Right away." The soldier said as he disconnected his computer from the workstation and left in a hurry.

Shawn turned back to John and noticed that he looked lost in his thoughts. "What's up, you seem preoccupied."

John played it off with a chuckle. "Nothing, really," he said. "Thinking about the intel Quin and I got about Skynet's location. We were sure it'd be here."

Shawn folded his arms to rest against the workstation. "Please, tell me," he said. "What was it like? Time travel. I mean I was a little kid when this all went south. I barely remember what it was like to play in the grass."

John thought. Memories of his Kate flashed in his mind. 'His' meaning the Kate of his reality, not as if he owned her. "Beautiful," he answered, before going on to the question, "The world had a lot more color, that's for sure. Lots of smells, people walking around, and less violence from cyborgs," he then chuckled. "A lot less."

Shawn tried hard to imagine that world, closing his eyes and relaxing his breathing.

Another soldier came up and tapped Shawn on his shoulder to get his attention. They spoke for a few seconds before the soldier saluted and left.

Shawn turned to John. "No real signs of Skynet," he said. "Everyone's cleared out and you have an urgent call from Kate."

John began to head for the exit. "Let's get out of here then," he said. "Don't want to keep the wifey waiting."

Outside, everyone was packing up or loading up on the transports.

As he stepped out, John burst into a light jog to a tent with the radio equipment. Right behind was Shawn, following him all the way.

John sat down in front of the transceiver and grabbed its microphone. "It's me, Cupcake or Football, or whatever. Go ahead, Kate."

"I'll stick with Cupcake," Kate replied. "It's more funny."

"Gimme a break," John said. "I only changed it because of Quin."

Kate giggled. "That's what you get for letting him use Sext."