Set ten years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor and his mother, Sarah Connor, are off-grid and separated in 2005. While Sarah is at Norfolk, Virginia, for matters too personal to tell her own son, John is surviving on his o...
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"On your feet, plebe." Angel's voice calls out from the entrance of Reyna's cabin.
Reyna blindly throws a pillow in Angel's direction as she stirs awake. "I'm not a plebe, Zarytska."
"Don't call me by my last name, Reyna."
Reyna, age 20, Homo nova 10, is not supposed to be alive after surviving Judgment Day, a day that ended the lives of millions on earth. However, Reyna, age 20, Homo nova 10, is alive and well. More than alive and well.
Reyna shuffles out of her metal cot, washes her face, and pulls on a shirt over her tank top. After tying her short hair away from her face, she laces on her boots.
"What's it today?" Reyna asks, stretching. "Another drill? I swear if I get assigned reinforcement again-"
Angel, Homo nova 3, tosses Reyna's pillow back to its rightful place on the bed.
"Actually, General Connor wants to speak to you. After breakfast."
Reyna freezes. What had she done? Worse, what hadn't she done? She followed all of his orders exactly, never stepped out of line, or rough-housed with any of her fellow soldiers. She couldn't afford to let loose, not after what happened the last time she did.
"Reyna?" Angel asks as she puts a hand on the shoulder of the youngest Homo nova. "Are you okay?"
Reyna nods. "Yeah. Just... hungry."
She couldn't taste her hearty but carefully rationed breakfast of eggs and bacon. Reyna feels her stomach rebel against her, threatening to reverse the pathway of food.
"Hey, Reyna." Mars-short for Maurice- Homo nova 6, slides into the seat beside Reyna. "You okay?"
Mars was a Homo nova like her and Angel and seven others, who began to fill the seats around her. Reyna shifts in her seat. The only similarities she shared with the other Homo novaes were that they were genetically enhanced and they wanted to fight. They shared a greater bond with each than she did with any of them since they were all older than her and she was the last to become a Homo nova. Considering that they were all soldiers in war who could be disposed of at any moment, she didn't want to make any close attachments to them. But that didn't stop them from including her in conversations and befriending her. Reyna didn't mind. After all, they were all fighting the same battles.
"I'm fine, thanks Mars."
"The General told her to report to his office after breakfast." Angel explains to Mars.
"A mission, maybe?" Enzo, Homo nova 7, suggests through his mouthful of eggs.
"I've never been on a mission by myself, though." Reyna counters. "I doubt he'd trust me on my own."
The Homo novae argue about the General's request for the youngest Homo nova. Meanwhile, Reyna finishes her breakfast and slips out quietly. There were better things to talk about.
As she walks to General Connor's office, Reyna couldn't help but notice the stares of soldiers, officers, and Homo novae lingering on her. Bile rises to her throat.
Reyna stops by the shoulder of the corridor and clutches her stomach. Stop it. You don't even know if he's going to lay you off. Besides, he has no reason to release you. You have done nothing wrong. You have done nothing wrong.
Reyna knocks on the General's door.
"Come in."
Reyna opens the door, which nearly slams into her face if she hadn't entered so quickly. Officers rush past her, yelling orders. Intel and mission control type furiously into the computers and study maps. Amidst all the chaos, John Connor leans over the main desk.
She walks over to him and salutes. "Reyna Dahyun, Homo nova 10, reporting."
"At ease, soldier." He says without looking up. John intently studies diagrams depicting a sleek robotic model similar to the blueprints she'd seen of the T-1000. He then unfurls a map of North and South America when it still had lush green forests, bubbling bodies of water, and life. Must be an old map now that both Americas were decimated beyond recognition. Reyna reads the copyright stamp: 2005.
John finally looks at her. Gone were the reckless days of his youth. A battleworn, but ready general stood in the boy's place. "Do you know why I've requested you?"
Iwas just wonderingthesamething. "No, sir."
"The machines have created a new Terminator model: the JEM-9. Its mimetic poly-alloy design was taken from its parent model, the T-1000, only that it has a new feature: manifold replication. The JEM-9 can replicate itself how many times it wants."
Reyna was processing her General's words as the breakfast in her stomach turned into battery acid. A new model? Didn't John already prevent Judgement Day in 1995? If he had, the present they know now would be forever changed. Unfortunately it was still the same cold, dark present-times.
Reading her mind, a grim expression crosses John's scarred face, deepening his wrinkles. "We failed to completely terminate the T-1000 in 1995. After it was blown to shards and rearranged, it left a part of its chip behind. When the workers from the steel mill returned the next day, that part of the T-1000 found a new host in one of its workers, a man named Robert Beischel. With Beischel as its host, the T-1000 was able to recreate Cyberdyne under the name Techro and move its corporations to Virginia.
"However, my mother, Sarah, secretly kept one of Dyson's rejected projects from 1995 and began to experiment with it. She was convinced that the world still needed protection and that we still needed to be prepared. The project she kept was the Homo novae project.
"Coincidentally, she was also in Virginia at the time, working with retired geneticist turned college professor, Walter Klevens, to produce the Homo novae formula."
Reyna crosses her arms. It was a lot to process, even though she was genetically enhanced to retain information at a faster and longer rate. "So what does the JEM-9 have to do with any of this?"
"As we speak, the JEM-9 is preparing to time-travel to 2005 and terminate my mother and I while protecting Beischel. If the JEM-9 succeeds, we risk losing the war and any possible chance of freedom."
John turns to look at her with a hesitant expression on his face. "I need you to travel back to 2005 and find me. Around this time, I should be in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on my way to visit a friend of my Mom's. It will be difficult to find my mother in Virginia since she kept a lower profile than I did, which is why you'll need to track me down first. I'll take you to her, where we'll plan to terminate Beishcel and Cyberdyne once and for all. Do you understand, Reyna? ...Reyna?"
The anchor of fear drags her stomach to her feet just as her heart soars with trepidation. Did her General seriously trust her on a mission by herself, not to mention the fact that she has never time-traveled? But most importantly, why her specifically? Why not Una, Homo nova 1, who is the first and supposedly most skilled of the Homo novae? In fact, why not any other soldier or Homo novae?
"I realize that this is a dangerous mission and I will send reinforcements if needed. I trust that you can do this by yourself, though."
Reyna gulps. For once in her career as a Homo nova, reinforcements didn't seem so terrible. Yet, it seemed like he wanted her for this mission. Besides, he wasn't asking and her training had to come to some kind of closure.
