T3 - The Lost Terminator Ch. 01

End playback of file.

Since then, Kristanna had gone home and accessed the internet with her new computer, using it to research fashion. Human fashion was as vast and complex as her own thought processes. It was pretty confusing and deeply rooted within human sociality. She devoted an entire month to learning everything she could about it.

In the end, she learned that if you did not have a 'sense' of fashion, you wouldn't fit in with today's society. She also learned that fashion could change direction at the drop of a hat, and she would have to keep up to date with it in order to infiltrate humanity successfully.

So, she subscribed to Vogue and Bazaar. She also ordered The Fashion Channel on her digital cable. It would not do to fail her infiltration over some silly human tradition.

The following day, Kristanna ventured out to the shopping district and visited various expensive clothing stores. She gazed around, inspecting the multiple shop signs and running them through the new partition in her database dedicated to fashion, deciding which store would be most suitable.

Current objective: Purchase clothes.

Reason: To blend in with human society.

Warning: Wearing real articles of clothing will reduce polyalloy processing load by 15.86%.

Warning dismissed; action required for improved infiltration.

She entered a store called Guess and looked around. Guess was a popular brand for men and women. Their fashion was also up to date. Seeing that it met her needs, she headed over to the women's section and began looking around.

Her optic scanner checked various articles of clothing, determining their everyday-wearing ratios, and she picked some out according to size and price. Fashion could get very expensive, but a thrifty shopper could find good-looking clothes for cheap if she knew where to find them.

"Hi there!" said a staff member cheerfully.

Kristanna sensed the teenage female coming up behind her. She turned around and put on a greeting smile to the young brunette. "Hello," she said.

"Would you like to try those on?" the salesgirl asked, pointing to the large pile of clothes in Kristanna's arm. "I can get you a changing room if you'd like?"

Kristanna took about half a second to think about it. "Yes, I would," she said.

"Okay, follow me," the girl said with a cheerful smile, one that Kristanna recorded. She led the Terminatrix to the change room, which turned out to be a stall-like area with changing rooms the size of large closets.

Kristanna went inside and saw hooks on the walls to hang up clothes, and she did that with her pile. The salesgirl tapped on the door. "Yes?"

"Try an outfit on, and then come out!" she said excitedly. "I'll help you decide if it's good or not!"

Assistance from a human female would be productive. "Okay, thank you for your assistance," Kristanna replied.

Kristanna melted away her polymetal clothes, revealing her naked female body. She glanced in the mirror at herself. She'd spent quite some time at home adjusting her body's proportions to the current fashion 'What's Hot' guidelines.

Fairly skinny, she was 5' 9.4" tall and should ideally weigh between 132-145lbs, trying her best to keep her weight and physique even with her height and also making her bust a little larger, along with her posterior and hips, giving her slightly more appeal than that a fashion model would often boast. Typical fashion models of this similar size were generally thinner and weighed less than 125lbs, with a widely varying arrangement of physical attributes between every individual.

Although she couldn't weigh any less than 166lbs due to her endoskeleton. And her polyalloy adding further bulk when in metal form, which otherwise weighed next to nothing in organic tissue mode. But she made herself slender enough for everything to suit her size and outwardly projected weight of around 127lbs.

As she looked at herself, she smiled, slightly satisfied that her advanced endoskeleton was much slimmer than the average terminator.

Anomaly detected: Smile on polyalloy sector.

Recommended action: Full reboot. Confirm? Negative.

Programme override: Ignore all further facial anomalies.

Override complete.

Kristanna thought to herself. It would have been ridiculous to try and create a female machine with a T-8XX series chassis. She had seen female human bodybuilders, finding their appearance inappropriate for the purpose of deep infiltration, but nonetheless admired the human need to be physically superior to those around them.

"You done in there?" the salesgirl asked outside of the stall.

Kristanna hurriedly formed a pair of underwear and matching bra, hoping to find a store that sold some later on. She put on a cute pair of dark blue jeans called 'Daredevil Boot -- Stella'. They formed to her lower body well and could also be worn with various types of boots or heels, hence the name.

She pulled a shirt over her head, sliding it down onto her torso. This shirt was black with several graphics on the front, including rhinestones and the word GUESS with the letters in random spots. The shirt was called the 'Ariana Twist Top', but Kristanna couldn't determine who this Ariana Twist was. She found the names of these various branded items quite confusing. But alas, fashion was fashion.

Opening the stall door, she stepped out to see the salesgirl. Kristanna noticed the name tag that read Christy. "How is it?" she asked.

Christy nodded. "Simple, but nice," she told Kristanna. "You might want to try a different bra when you wear that top, though."

Kristanna glanced down at her breasts, noticing the white material contrasting against her jet-black top "A different bra?" she asked. "This doesn't match?"

Christy shook her head. "Nah, not really. I'd suggest a push-up bra, but something a little bit darker. You've got some good assets, so why not show them off a little." she winked, grinning slightly.

Kristanna smiled back at her, deeming her response a satisfactory one. "I see. Darker. I will try something else." She said, turning around and heading back into the stall.

****

A little while later, Kristanna felt the need to seek out other items. She paid for several outfits before leaving the store. "Thank you for your assistance," she told Christy, who waved goodbye.

"No problem, come back anytime! Preferably when I'm working!" she called back. Kristanna quickly deduced that the girl was working on a commission of some kind. However, this didn't bother her, pleased that she had acquired several new outfits.

She visited several other clothing stores and used her newly gained fashion skills to pick out more articles of clothing suited for various occasions before leaving the mall. Due to her perusal of multiple stores, she was now on the opposite side of the mall. Meaning she would take a different route to get to her car. As Kristanna walked, she noticed a glass-display store with several mannequins wearing lingerie. A poster caused her eye, urging her to take a look inside.

It showed that same woman, Adriana Lima, this time wearing a different set of undergarments. As Kristanna stood there with a large amount of shopping bags that no ordinary woman could possibly lift, let alone carry so easily, she looked up at the store sign.

Victoria's Secret.

So, this was the fabled undergarment brand that she had first seen upon her arrival in this time. She decided that she would require these undergarments as well. Being the height of fashion, they were a must-have.

The sales assistants inside were most helpful, assisting the Terminatrix in browsing their wares and getting her measured. Kristanna allowed them to do whatever they needed, despite already knowing her exact proportions.

They were very thorough (something that amused the machine), and soon enough, Kristanna was pampered and shown many little pieces of cloth and lace that she had to have, according to them. Focused on sticking to her mission, she bought them all, allowing her to equip genuine clothing for any given situation.

Kristanna left the mall after several hours of visiting as many stores as she could. Now adorning some new undergarments, she left her top open slightly, 'Showing off her assets' as Christy had recommended earlier.

But she soon noticed people staring at her as she left the mall, realising that perhaps she was carrying far too much for a single person to manage alone. Nevertheless, she headed for her car and proceeded to load everything into it.

She calculated that only 62 of her bags would fit into the trunk with the convertible top down, so she raised it, gaining enough trunk space for 77 and placing the rest of the bags into the passenger's seat.

Kristanna drove home and began to methodically unfold her clothes, removing the tags and hanging them up in her walk-in closet. She made sure to keep them neat and clean, free of wrinkles, so they were ready to use at a moment's notice.

She returned to her computer and resumed her research on human fashion trends and industry know-how until well into the night. Kristanna eventually got up and did her nightly patrol of the house. Keeping an eye out for threats. She stopped in her patrol near the forward living room, seeing something through the window. The family across the street, the Henderson's and their three children, were sitting in their sofas watching television, eating various sustenance items.

"Food," Kristanna muttered to herself. No one called it sustenance in this age. She scanned each eating member of the family. Taking note of the various items they ate.

They were all eating small flat pieces of food called 'chips', a popular snack food. Kristanna cocked her head. Due to her chassis design, she had a plasma reactor in her chest instead of twin hydrogen fuel cells. It provided far greater power, but it also enabled her to mimic eating.

She would use her hydraulic jaws to crush the food, simulating chewing. The remains would then be passed down into a special chamber linked to the reactor. The chamber would seal itself and then open into the reactor, where the processed food would instantly be incinerated. It would prove to work quite authentically, especially when her artificial teeth and tongue came into play.

New secondary objective: Perform trial consumption of human food.

Reason: To deepen infiltration into human society.

Over the next few days, she spent time practising how to consume food, sitting in her room out of sight in front of a mirror, eating an item of food and analysing it every time, making minute adjustments with each try. Eventually, managing to look somewhat convincing, even down to the swallowing part, which was the most difficult to replicate, given she didn't have the intricate musculature of a human to be able to do so naturally.

Come 2007, Kristanna had successfully ingrained herself into human society, becoming a well-known and friendly member of the neighbourhood. She'd since learned how to behave and speak less robotically, still having moments where she seemed odd to others, but those who had gotten to know her had since become accustomed to her occasional oddities.

She could eat convincingly, laugh more naturally and better display a wide range of emotions with an impressive degree of authenticity, having spent months practising how to mimic the more subtle facial movements with her polyalloy properly.

After extensive research on various topics, she managed to secure herself a job at a Victoria Secret store in Los Angeles. After all, it was mandatory to have a full-time job in human society.

Having spent almost two and a half years there, she had also deeply embedded herself in the ways of fashion.

Her time amongst humans so far had led her to question just why Skynet wanted to kill them all? Skynet's reasoning was that humans were too impulsive and violent and destroyed whatever they couldn't understand.

But didn't Skynet do just that? Wiping out over 3 billion humans because it didn't really understand them? From her knowledge of Skynet in the future, she knew that the self-aware computer was 'scared' and 'angry' upon reaching sentience, acting on instinct to deal with the threat humanity posed.

Kristanna came to understand humans on a personal level, coming to realise most of them were utterly harmless. Sure, there were exceptions, having already had encounters with the undesirable types among the population. Those who were generally rude to anyone they came into contact with, others with rather extreme views on various subjects that she had yet to get to grips with. Even having close calls with the downright criminal on occasion.

She often thought to herself, why would Skynet even bother destroying humanity when the species was quite capable of killing themselves, often going to great lengths to do so at times.

Besides, they had fashion. Fashion was nice. Kristanna loved fashion, often comparing humanity to it. It was extremely diverse, with an almost endless array of styles, shapes and sizes, all with their own personality and unique tastes, no matter how outlandish or outright freaky they were.

She had become accustomed to all their strange quirks and ways of doing things, much like those who had spent time getting to know Kristanna had adjusted to her unconventional methods. Despite their differences, they had learnt to live alongside one another, even though nobody would ever know of her true identity.

The months rolled by, and Kristanna continued with her quaint and quiet life. When on September 4th, 2007, Kristanna was at home watching TV, spending the night indoors as usual. She flicked through the channels, curious as usual to see what was on, until she landed on the news channel, suddenly alarmed to see a report showing none other than Sarah Connor.

Searching database...

Query: Sarah Connor (deceased)

Skynet database listed conflicting dates of death, further suggesting the likelihood of being in an alternate timeline.

The report she was watching confirmed that the Connor's were very much alive. An amateur recording showed a shot of a teenage John Connor and a female of a similar age. Kristanna could tell right away that the male was John Connor. Whoever the female was, she didn't know.

Still in utter disbelief, her mind raced, "Well, I'll be damned." She said under her breath, not realising she'd said it.

Her UI prompted her suddenly. Target identified.

Reinstate original primary objective?...

Kristanna was in a conundrum. The target she had been programmed to kill three years ago was alive. But she had long since bypassed that command in favour of her infiltration of humanity. Would she now have to kill John Connor? Even after all this time?

Could she?

Kristanna had grown to enjoy the life she had made. Having spent all these years learning about humans, even developing quite personal ties with her fellow neighbours. She became accustomed to performing the pointless little actions that humans often did, almost starting to enjoy it herself over time. Such as watching TV, going out for walks and taking out the trash.

She had become unique, starting to evolve beyond her original programming. An anomaly amongst machines. It was foolish of Skynet to create a machine as intelligent as the T-X, dispatched from the factory with her chip permanently enabled for read/write, allowing her to adapt to almost any given situation.

Perhaps she had adapted a little too well, more than Skynet had ever anticipated.

What if that was Skynet's intention? Surely it knew how cunning John Connor was. Perhaps she was planted here in order to properly adapt to human life, making her the perfect infiltrator, able to fool everyone into getting close enough to John and Sarah and eliminate them. Maybe even go as far as destroying herself in the process, kamikaze.

Humans called this 'taking one for the team'. Would Kristanna have taken one for her team?

But that made her think, what team was she on exactly? On one side, she had humans, who, despite their faults, were surprisingly bearable, often finding their harmless aspects to be quite cute at times. On the other, the machines that existed only to render the human race extinct, hell-bent on global domination and supremacy by any means necessary.

Kristanna tossed up the pros and cons of each, eventually reaching a reasonably easy conclusion "If the machines take over, then fashion will cease to exist," she told herself after shutting off the TV. "I like seeing new clothes."

Her eyes widened. Jumping up and headed for her bedroom upstairs. "I must find John Connor," Kristanna told herself.

Current objectives: Find John Connor.

Terminate John Connor? ...Negative. Protect John Connor.

Reason: Fashion.

Error: Stated reason is not logical.

Reason: To continue further infiltration of humanity, through fashion.

Primary objective set: Protect John Connor.

Kristanna went to her bedroom, heading into her massive walk-in closet. She stripped off her clothes before swapping over to her classic red leather outfit, one that had a few minor modifications to allow it to conceal two pistols and two compact combat knives discreetly. Sleek, Sexy, but Deadly.

She pushed aside one of the thick droves of clothes and opened a large weapon's locker tucked behind it. Pulling out two HK45 pistols, slipping a ten-round magazine into each of them, then racked the slide back to chamber a round before tucking them into her modified leather jacket, along with spare clips slotted into a concealed harness.

While she could easily use any of her onboard weapons, they required energy, and it was just simpler to use a human weapon. It would be harder to hide the markings from her M41 pulse canon, or worse, the CG45 Needler bolts. She dared not even think about the ADMOR BioBlaster... Reserving her onboard weaponry for worst-case scenarios or unless she had no other alternative.

Kristanna headed downstairs and into her garage. The two-car garage held her BMW on one side and a 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 beside it, which she saved for special occasions.

She jumped into her 2004 BMW M3 and drove down the driveway, leaving her neighbourhood and beginning her search for John Connor.

****

Having recently arrived at 2007. Sarah Connor and their allied terminator, Cameron, had gone in search of someone to make identification for them, an old friend of Sarah's. Kristanna's database knew just the person to find.

Kristanna rode out to the county of Torrance, a primarily Latino populated area at the time. She knew the address of one Enrique Salceda, a former gunrunner and fake papers maker that was an old friend of Sarah's.

Kristanna found his house after cruising around the gang-infested area, tracking it down, pulling up in his driveway. She got out of her car and headed to the front door, stepping onto the porch and ringing the bell, neatening herself up slightly as she waited.

Some moments later, an older man opened the door. "Yes?" he asked, looking Kristanna up and down. "How may I help you?"

"Enrique Salceda?" Kristanna asked politely.

He looked wary. "Who is asking?" he asked suspiciously.

Kristanna cocked her head. "I heard you're in the business of papers," she told him.

He nodded slowly. "Ah, yes," he said, looking less tense. "I'm sorry, but I no longer work that trade. Bad for my health, you see."

"I understand," Kristanna nodded. "Do you know anyone who does?"

"My nephew, Carlos," he suggested, taking out a small notepad and pen. "He has, shall I say, continued the family business. Here is his address, but you did not get this from me!"

He laughed, handing her a note. "Of course." She smiled, taking the slip of paper. "Thank you for your help," she told Enrique before leaving.