"Allison Young will be born any day now. Her parents live in Palmdale. She will be the only one in her family to survive Judgement Day."

Sarah asked "is Skynet going to send someone back to kill her?"

"That is unlikely" Cameron said. "Allison is only important if she meets John Connor in the future."

"So why was she significant?"

"As John described her as the girl he could never have either in his youth or later on."

"I don't understand what you mean" Sarah said.

"Sarah" Cameron responded "John has had a difficult life. His first father figure was a T-800 who he only had for a few days. After that it was Charlie. John has never had a permanent home. He's never made any long term friends. He has always felt alone. Even in the company of friends he has felt like an outsider."

For the first time since Cameron arrived, she noticed Sarah was starting to become overwhelmed with emotion. Struggling to hold back tears Sarah said "I didn't mean for things to happen this way. I wasn't much more then a young girl when the first one tried to kill me. I was just doing what any mother would do to protect her child. I don't suppose you can ever really understand that."

As Sarah started to regain her composure Cameron said "As I said earlier, I understand more then you realize. My mission priorities are of my choosing at this point. But protecting John is something I feel compelled to do for reasons I cannot explain." Cameron knew that Sarah was upset by these revelations so she figured it best to diffuse the situation before proceeding with Allison. "You did what you had to do and John never once blamed you for it." She declined to mention that in many ways, John blamed himself for world events post judgement day. He believed that he should have done more to prevent it since he knew about it. Telling Sarah would have only made matter worse.

"Allison grew up as a tunnel rat in Palmdale. The survivors in the suburbs weren't as threatened by Skynet so more of their time was dedicated to finding food and the other items needed for survival. The resistance fighting usually remained within the cities where the fighters were the strongest. The people in the outlying towns like Palmdale served as middlemen and moved supplies from the rural areas into the cities. They were good at doing that and Skynet found it difficult to track them. As John described her, Allison was an adventurous free spirit who became bored and weary of her life delivering supplies. So one day she made her delivery and proceeded to walk through the bunker knocking on doors demanding to speak to the guy in charge. The guards weren't too happy about this, and although they appeared threatening, they were not about to harm a fellow human. She eventually found a locked door with two guards in front. Despite their protests, she started knocking and kicking it. John was aware of what was going on outside his room. After about an hour he relented and opened the door. She marched in and demanded to become a fighter."

Sarah smirked and said "she sounds almost like you, if you were human."

"That's because I am her... sort of."

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked.

"In his own way John was instantly smitten by Allison. She had courage and charisma. She was always smiling. And she was attracted to him but would never admit it. Although she was incredibly resilient and great for morale, John knew that the daily grind of being on the front lines would break her eventually, or kill her, and he knew he wouldn't be able to cope with that. So he started making preparations to send her back to 1999. He knew it would have been safer to send a machine because we're predictable and follow orders. But he wanted to give her a chance at a normal life, even if only for a while. He knew that her spark and charisma would be helpful to John and despite being human, he knew that together they could fend off random terminators who came through to hunt them."

"She never made it here did she?" Sarah interrupted.

"No, we got to her first."

"How."

"Minor skirmishes took place all the time. Both sides took casualties and sometimes prisoners. Skynet took a few prisoners one day. They were older people who served in close proximity to John. We used advanced interrogation tactics to extract information and discovered his relationship with Allison."

"And what were these advanced tactics you employed?" Sarah asked.

"Not what you think." Cameron replied. "People are different. They all respond to a wide variety of things. The older ones who remember the world prior to Judgement Day are the easiest."

"Why is that?"

"Because we don't have to pull out their fingernails to get answers to questions. We give them a taste of their lives prior to Judgement Day. We provide them with fresh, new clothes. We feed them hot meals with real food. They get medical treatment, warm beds, and a sense of calm and order. They are so desperate to have these things that they willingly answer every question. They provide information we don't request such as John's relationship with Allison."

"What does Skynet do after they extract the info?" Sarah asked despite having a good idea of the answer she was going to receive.

"We usually kill them." Was Cameron's matter of fact reply.

"So what did Skynet do when they discovered Allison?"

"They sent out a surveillance unit to monitor the people who entered and exited the bunker. They showed pictures to the prisoners until they made a positive ID on Allison. Once they got a visual ID they waited until she went out and then moved in on her. Skynet used overwhelming force to capture her. They were successful."

"What did they do when they captured her?"

"When they brought her to the detention facility they spent many hours scanning her body taking images and measurements. They captured every single detail. Skynet then took the measurements and selected a female infiltrator template which was customized to Allison's specific measurements. Skynet also made some upgrades to the physical platform that it deemed necessary in order to complete the mission. Upgrades such as a color HUD, increased autonomy, a state of the art processor, and numerous other details. Enough changes and upgrades were made that they classified it as a new combat chassis. They moved it along so fast that they didn't assign it a model designation. They didn't feel a need to do so since it was a one-time product. After the chassis was completed, they applied the organic tissues and shaped them to match Allison in every way possible. Even down to the birthmark on her left eyebrow."

"So you are a replica of Allison Young?" Sarah already knew the answer to that question but she asked it anyway to be certain. She was troubled and amazed at the same time, that Skynet would go to such lengths to get to her son.

"Yes." Cameron said. "I was activated, and then I was instructed to meet Allison, and learn as much as I could about her so I could infiltrate John's bunker and get close enough to him to complete my mission. They had the best possible security measures so it was imperative that I resembled her in every possible way. Any flaws would not go unnoticed. It wasn't enough to employ an infiltration program, I had to be her. I had to speak as she spoke. I had to have the same body language. I spent a lot of time with her, observing and interacting. I'm not sure why he was so drawn to her, I found her to be exceedingly difficult and hostile."

A slight smile appeared on Sarah's face. "What made her so difficult?"

"Most of her responses to my inquiries were met with profanity directed toward Skynet and myself. Whenever she got close enough, she would usually spit on me. I even unhooked her leash once and the first thing she did was run. I never extracted any useful intel from her and I spent two weeks with her. To be honest the whole thing struck me as rather inefficient."

Sarah appeared confused and said "I'm not sure I'm following you. What seemed inefficient?"

"Skynet's search for John. I suppose it had to do with my increased autonomy. I knew I was supposed to kill him, but I couldn't help but to admire him. Skynet put a lot of time and energy into me for one purpose. John. And then there was Allison. She told me everything about herself, and her dead family. Her dying words were 'I'll never help you get to John Connor.' Even as she faced certain death she showed no fear. In fact, she was almost indignant. She viewed her own life as worthless next to his. I was fascinated by him."

Although Sarah was fascinated by this recent statement, she felt a need to play it off as no big deal. So she focused on Allison and asked "why did you kill her?"

"I was finished with her. There was no point in keeping her any longer. I told her it was because she lied to me about some bracelet but it wasn't. She served her purpose."

"So I assume you went to infiltrate John's camp?" Sarah asked.

"Yes."

"Did you make it inside?"

"No. I never made it through the front door. It was the dogs. It's always the dogs. They never fail. I got to the door and the guard thought I was Allison so he opened it right away. The dogs saw me and became agitated and started barking aggressively. I quickly found myself staring down the barrels of a dozen plasma rifles. I decided to not attack even though our standard protocol orders us to do so in those situations. If we attacked, we would be destroyed and rendered useless to the resistance. It was not my desire to be terminated."

"What happened to you at that point?" Sarah asked.

"They placed me in restraints made from coltan. They didn't need to. My mission had failed at that point. Many of the soldiers were outraged because they knew that my presence meant that Allison was dead."

"What was John's reaction?"

"He showed little emotion, but when he went to peel back my scalp to remove my chip I noticed his pulse was racing, his hands were cold, sweaty, and shaking terribly. He was clearly upset. I told him I was sorry for killing Allison. I don't know why I said it, but it seemed to be effective. He paused and then asked me what kind of machine I was. I told him I knew I was a new model of infiltrator but that was all I knew. He asked why I was speaking to him because the machines that typically hunt him aren't very talkative. I told him I was trying to earn his trust so he would set me free. He also asked why I wasn't straining against the restraints. I just said it wasn't worth the energy to fight something I couldn't overcome. Then he asked me what my mission was. I told him my objective was to infiltrate, locate him, and terminate. I guess he didn't like that answer as he stood up, grabbed some pliers, stuck them in my head, and pulled out my chip."

"So you were their newest wonder weapon against my son, and they defeated you without a fight?" Sarah was thinking back to earlier at lunch when she looked at Cameron making sucking noises with her straw, tomato sauce on her chin, and couldn't help but to find it all humorous. In their attempt to make her human, they unknowingly allowed her to develop human flaws. In a way, they achieved perfection, but Skynet probably considered the experiment a resounding failure.

"So what happened next?" Sarah asked.

"When I rebooted I overheard someone ask if John was sure this would work because every time they tried to erase my memory it fought back. John said to the other guy that he hadn't seen a chip so advanced but he was at least able to overwrite the command to terminate. He asked me what my mission was and I told him it was to infiltrate, and protect his past self. I was to follow these orders until John matured to a point where he was capable of making responsible adult decisions."

"Then what?" Cameron noticed Sarah was becoming insistent.

"Then nothing" Cameron said. "I stayed there at the camp for a few weeks providing assistance when needed. Then John came to me one day and told me I was going on a mission and I wouldn't be returning. I wasn't too pleased about that, because I wasn't familiar with time travel. He explained that I would jump through, and find him in the past to offer protection. He told me there wasn't time to explain because Skynet sent some others through earlier that day and they had to hurry. He gave me some more orders and some cash wrapped in a sheet of paper with some hastily scribbled directions on it, which he told me to conceal in one of my orifices. He faced away when he did that. His face turned red. He waited for a moment and then asked if I had put them away so he could turn around. I tapped him on his shoulder because I couldn't speak. I put the money and instructions in my mouth. I guess he thought I would put it somewhere else. But I don't think that part of me is for storage purposes."

Sarah let a laugh slip out. It wasn't what Cameron said, but rather how she said it. There was a childlike innocence about it.

Cameron didn't see the humor and resumed talking. "He gave me one final order and wished me luck. He extended his hand as the time travel device came on line. I didn't take his hand. I leaned over and gave him a hug. I think that's what Allison would have done. He turned and walked away as I knelt down. There was a flash of light and then I was in 1999."

Cameron became quiet and turned her attention to the highway. She heard engines starting in the distance. "Looks like things are finally starting to move" Sarah commented.

"Yes" Cameron said in agreement. "We should be home in 22 minutes 16 seconds."

They didn't speak for the rest of their trip home. Cameron turned the radio on to some local pop station. Sarah stared out the window not seeming to notice. A day that started out uneventfully didn't end that way. Cameron's candor changed things. She wasn't sure how things had changed, but she knew life wouldn't be the same. Cameron already seemed different to her now. Not human, but not a cold machine. She was somewhere in between. They'd have to finish their discussion some other time, they were pulling into their driveway just as John and Derek were arriving.