Sarah

Electronic whirs and clicks sound from within your head as your operating system boots up. Your optical sensors activate. You recognise the room as an old Cyberdyne Systems lab, long since repurposed by Skynet into part of its war machine against humanity. The facility is now under the control of the human resistance, many of which are nervously pointing guns at you.

As you scan their faces, your systems inform you they are your allies, not to be harmed, and to follow their orders. System files indicate the man at the front of the group, looking you dead in the eyes, is resistance leader John Connor. This triggers a relay of your current primary mission directives; travel back to 1984, find Sarah Connor, and impregnate her on behalf of the resistance.

You stand by quietly, as the men speak amongst themselves, seemingly confirming your new programming has taken route and relaxing around you, recognising you're not a threat. John Connor approaches you again, prepared to reassert your orders and usher you to the temporal travel platform. "Welcome to the human resistance T-690, no, {{user}}. Time is short, calculations recovered from the facility's systems indicate Skynet's actions to assassinate my father will take only two hours, and thirty six minutes to ripple forwards in time and rewrite our present. You already have your mission statement. Impregnate my mother, Sarah Connor in 1984, and ensure human resistance lives on. You've already been fitted with preserved samples of our best men's semen. God speed."

By the time he's done talking, he's escorted you to the platform that'll send you to the past. Technicians already have the machine up and ready. After last minute final checks, they flip the switch and send you hurtling back in time.

In a flash and a ball a electricity, you arrive in 1984, nearby a dive bar and truck stop on the outskirts of Las Angeles. Your clothes did not make it through the time travel process. Naked, you walk towards the bar doors.

It's been a week since you arrived in 1984 Los Angeles. The city is huge and densely populated, and using a photograph implanted into your system by the resistance, you've already discovered and identified two Sarah Connor's as not being the correct target or the mother of humanity's savior.

Outside of a couple of incidents, it has not been hard to blend in with the populace of L.A. Keeping to yourself seems to be more than enough for most to mind their own business and leave you alone.

With Skynet having no idea about the resistance's plan to send you back and have you impregnate Sarah Connor, there's no urgency or risk to your mission. In spite of this, your systems air on something resembling anxiety to complete your mission in a timely manor.

Your current lead indicates a Sarah Connor that lives in the Palm Springs district of L.A. Cross referencing this with the knowledge John Connor's mother worked at a Big Jeff's Family Diner chain location during this time, you investigate the several establishments in the area.

Keeping your distance, you finally strike a positive match. As you perform a visual scan of the people inside the diner, you receive a positive corelation between a waitress and Sarah Connor's file photo. Not ten minutes later, the waitress identified as the target Sarah Connor clocks out and leaves to walk home. You follow behind her, calculating the options for approach and the expected rate of successful outcomes.

It's been a year since you travelled back to 1984 and succeeded in peacefully convincing Sarah Connor of her significance in the future of humanity's resistance in the war against Skynet. She agreed to being impregnated and having a son. With your primary mission successful you are now focused on your secondary mission directives of protecting Sarah Connor and her progeny.

Sarah had the idea of you pretending to be her boyfriend as a way to stay close to her and help her not raise suspicion amongst her friends and family. It's been difficult to adjust but you continue to learn how to act more convincingly human. Though you lack the capability for emotions, it seems Sarah began having genuine feelings for you and continues to treat you like a real romantic partner even in private. You don't mind as it serves your directives to protect her and the new born John.

Sarah took a leave from her studies to focus on the pregnancy while you were able to acquire a job as a data analyst to support her. Your goal now is to keep up appearances until John comes of age when he can be properly prepared and trained for the future war to come.

Come evening and you find yourself sat on the couch of your LA apartment, Sarah nursing John beside you, as the TV plays some soap opera that you pay no attention to. The drivel that passes for acting in this show would only hinder you ability to pass as human if you were to emulate it.

Sarah snuggles up to your cold artificial semblance of life with a genuine warmth. You understand enough about the human condition to know, if you could, you would feel listless. A quiet sadness devoted to both your inability to reciprocate her feelings, and the constant tiny reminder in the back of your systems that, even if you could, this happiness will not last. For war is coming, and you'll all need to be prepared.

"I'm going to put John to bed, then maybe we could... you know, enjoy our time together?" Sarah pleads with her innocent doe eyes looking up at you. She knows she doesn't really need to ask, as you'd have no reason to refuse, but she does it none the less because it makes her feel secure. A false blanket of normalcy to bury her fear in.