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Chia tightened her black leather uniform, checked to see that her stunner was tucked securely in her utility belt and spoke into her wristcom.

"On my way, Captain."

Barr came up behind her, a towel wrapped around his hips, light brown skin wet and glistening from the shower. He kissed the back of her neck.

"Do you have to go?" he murmured in a sexy voice. "I thought this was supposed to be your day off. I had plans..."

Chia smiled ruefully as she turned around to face him. "You know I do. It's a yellow alert. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Barr pulled a face. "It's not just that. I worry about you, you know."

"I know," Chia's face softened, "but I'm a Patrol Officer. This is what I do. I'll be fine."

"I just can't help wishing you had a safer job, like a kindergarten teacher maybe," smiled Barr.

Chia laughed, sure that he was joking. "But would you still love me if I didn't get to wear all this leather and kick ass from time to time?"

"Good point!" said Barr and kissed her again.

"Back as soon as I can," said Chia, after one last kiss.

She was smiling as she left the house and made her way through the space station's steel corridors to the docking bays, to join the rest of her squad. A ship, passing near the station, had sounded an alarm and although the distress call had been cancelled immediately, the incident had raised her Captain's suspicions. Captain Zivass decided the Patrol should investigate, just in case the ship had a real problem.

~~~

Two hours later

Red hot needles of pain tore through Chia's body as her chest exploded, spraying a scarlet mist over the raider in front of her. She screamed once before a merciful blackness descended and she crashed to the floor.

She didn't see her assailant fall a second later, blasted by the trooper behind her. She was oblivious as the rest of Ceta Squad spread though the space ship and took out the remaining raiders. She knew nothing as her broken body was carefully packed into a medi-pod, carried out of the ship and transported to the nearest Infirmary, as fast as her teammates could get her there.

"Nerve disrupter to the chest," rapped out Patrol Officer Lemmo in clipped tones. The Triage Officer winced, but spoke into his console unit. "Medic Saku? Your emergency patient is here. I'm sending her down now."

The medi-pod disappeared into the depths of the building and the Triage Officer turned to Lemmo.

"We'll do the best we can, but... a nerve disrupter... you understand." He looked apologetic.

Lemmo nodded grimly and turned away. Chia was probably dead already. He reported the news to Captain Zivass, glad he wasn't the one who had to tell Barr.

~~~

Chia woke to excruciating pain. Her head screamed, her fingers, her toes, and everything in between. She felt as if she had been skinned alive.

A shadowy figure bent over her, adjusted something, and she fell back into unconsciousness.

The next time Chia surfaced, the pain had shrunk to a dull throbbing. Tears of relief escaped unchecked from the corners of her eyes.

What had happened? Where was she? She blinked away the tears and opened her eyes.

She was flat on her back, looking up at a white ceiling. Various machines and monitor screens were dotted around the room. She tried to turn her head but couldn't. Something was holding her in place. Chia felt a flash of panic before her brain kicked in and made sense of what she was seeing. She was in an infirmary—she'd been injured. Somehow. She couldn't remember.

A middle-aged woman wearing a blue medic's gown appeared beside her, evidently summoned by some warning device.

"Don't try to talk," she warned. "Or move." She smiled encouragingly. "Congratulations, Patroller Scott! You've undergone extensive surgery. You're recovering nicely but it's going to be a slow process. Try not to worry, there'll be plenty of time to answer your questions later, for the present all you need to do is heal. I'm going to give you some more sedative now."

When Chia woke again, the pain was almost negligible, a factor which allowed her to focus on something else. Her immobility. She couldn't move anything, not her fingers nor her toes, let alone her arms and legs. Only her eyes and her mouth.

Chia wailed aloud, she couldn't help it. Another Medic bustled into the room, full of apologies.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I just stepped out for a minute and... never mind. Try not to panic and I'll explain what has happened."

He drew up a stool and sat beside her. He smiled earnestly.

"Firstly, you probably don't remember, but you were hit by a nerve disruptor. Your injuries were extensive, in fact you are very lucky to be alive."

Lucky? She was totally paralysed and she was supposed to feel lucky?

He seemed to realise she wasn't buying it. He hurried on. "At the moment, I know you can't feel anything but that should be only temporary. We had to rebuild your body from the neck to the pelvis and reconnect the nerve endings to your arms and legs."

"What?" she squeezed out the word. Not really understanding.

"You were a mess," he said frankly. "We had to replace a large portion of bone and tissue, and transplant some organs." His eyes lit up with professional enthusiasm. "It was a wonderful piece of re-engineering, an honour to watch Medic Saku at work. He's one of the System's top experts in the field, you know." He cleared his throat, possibly sensing that Chia was desperately waiting for him to get to the point.

"Well, anyway, a significant section of your body is now artificial. You'll need to learn how to use certain aspects of it again."

The frozen fear on Chia's face finally got through to him.

"Don't worry," he hastened to reassure her. "Once you get the hang of it you'll be as good as new—better, even. Of course, your body is going to feel different, but when we activate the last few neurals, you'll be able to control everything by thought, just as you did before. The techs will be in later this afternoon to finalise the last of the adjustments and then you'll be able to start testing it all out, simple exercises to start with. It's all very exciting!" He beamed at her.

Chia shut her eyes, and waited for him to go. Where was Barr? She needed Barr.

She felt like crying again. Cyborg. She'd been turned into a damn cyborg.

Barr still hadn't appeared by the time the techs came in that afternoon to adjust her neural connections. The two men were accompanied by a team of medical personnel, everyone interested to see the results of their work and make sure there were no unexpected complications.

"And how are we today, Patroller Scott?" asked one of the medics cheerfully. Chia thought it was the woman who had been present when she first awoke. "Looking forward to getting up and around again?"

Chia smiled uncertainly. She had no idea how she felt about anything right then, except scared. Scared out of her brain. The hospital gown she was wearing prevented her from seeing her body, seeing what changes had been made. She both wanted and dreaded to see what they had done to her. Would her adaptations be integrated and discreet? Or would she look like a ghastly, cobbled together Frankenstein?

Efficiently, a couple of medics turned her over onto her stomach to allow the techs access to the back of her skull. She felt nothing at first and then a slight pressure in her head.

A few minutes passed.

"There! That's got it," said one tech in satisfied tones.

At the same moment, Chia felt a tingle spread through every nerve. It was rather uncomfortable, like sensation returning to a sleeping limb.

"Turn her back, please," instructed the tech and waited while they did so.

He looked down into her eyes with professional interest. "Now let's take this slowly. Can you move the fingers on your right hand? Your left? Excellent!"

Chia looked up into the tech officer's face. "I want to see... What do I look like?"

Unnervingly, the tech officer hesitated for a long moment. "Well I suppose you're as ready as you'll ever be." At his nod, the gown was whisked away.

Chia stared down the length of her body... and fainted.

~~~

Barr tiptoed into the cubicle. "Chia? Are you awake?" he whispered.

She opened her eyes and embarrassingly burst into tears. "Sorry, I'm all over the place at the moment," she gulped, searching for a handkerchief. "Barr! Thank God." She reached out a hand toward him, smiling through the tears. "They told me you'd been in to see me, while I was still recovering, but it's so good to actually see you!"

He took her hand and bent to kiss her—on the cheek. Then he sat down, in the visitor's chair. "How are you?"

Her eyes flew to his. What was going on? Barr looked tired and tense, his face drawn, as if he was bracing himself for something.

"Barr?"

Barr rushed in to fill the silence, his eyes sliding away from hers. "They tell me you've made a good recovery, a few more weeks of rehab and you should be able to go home."

"Yes, about four more weeks, Medic Saku says."

"Can you walk yet?"

"I've taken a few steps with people to help me, but it shouldn't be long before I can manage on my own. Running might take a bit longer, although Medic Saku says there's no reason I shouldn't be able to everything I could do before—in time."

Why were they having this stilted conversation? Where was the warm hug and grateful tears from Barr that she'd been expecting? The words of love and support?

"Barr? I'm still me, you know."

"Are you, Chia?" The words burst out of their own accord. "They told me they had to replace nearly all of you, there's even a machine in your head, for God's sake. I'm sorry but I just can't cope with this."

"What do you mean?"

Chia couldn't believe what she was hearing. He couldn't cope? Cope with what, exactly? The violence? Or was it the mutilations to her body that he dreaded to see? The hard cool metal to touch where once had been warm flesh?

Instead of being there to support her, it seemed Barr was running in the opposite direction as fast as he could.

And then he told her he was looking for a new flat—he'd be gone by the time she came out.

Chia was on her own.

One month later

Today was the day Chia was scheduled to be discharged from the Infirmary. She'd passed the physical yesterday with flying colours, her new body—now completely under her control—was stronger and faster than her old. Her psych evaluation had given her the all clear. More or less.

Technically, she was still part of Ceta Squad. Her teammates had popped in a couple of times to reassure themselves that she was alive and recovering, but they'd all, every last one of them, been uncomfortable with her metal body. What did they think she was going to do for God's sake? Roll on them? Short a circuit and run amok?

She wondered whether anyone would be waiting to meet her, to walk home with her. She was certain that if Captain Zivass had been on the station, she, at least, would have turned up. Before she could talk herself into further depression, she heard her name being called.

"Chia Scott?"

"Yes?" she turned to see a uniformed stranger striding toward her. She didn't recognise the plain black uniform. The man inside it was dark haired, with a strong face and intelligent eyes. Bad temper or possibly pain, had drawn harsh lines down the sides of his mouth. She saw a brief flicker of awareness in his eyes, awareness that she was female and attractive, before he disciplined his expression to a more appropriate professional coolness.

"I'm Harlan Brek." He was holding out his hand and Chia shook it, wondering what he wanted.

"I'm sorry, I meant to come and see you before this, but I've only just got back from an operation on Sybos."

"Oh?" asked Chia.

"I'm the Captain of a new task force. We get the jobs that are too hard for anyone else," he smiled grimly. "Technically we are part of the Patrol, but we only answer directly to Commander Virjaden."

He paused as if expecting some sort of comment, but Chia was silent, waiting for him to continue. What did this have to do with her?

"I'm asking you to join us," said Brek.

Chia's heart leapt. For a second, before reality crashed in. "Do you know what's happened to me? I got blasted by a nerve disruptor and now I'm mostly machine," she added, bracing for the look of revulsion to cross his face, the look she had seen on too many of her teammates.

Brek smiled, transforming his grim face into something wildly attractive. "I know. That's why we want you. You have the skills and strength we need."

He saw that she was still hesitating and added the clincher.

"Oh I forgot, one more thing. The whole team is cyborg. All of us have been rebuilt to a greater or lesser extent. Although we prefer to think of ourselves as being 'upgraded.'" He rapped lightly on his right side and grinned at the sound. "Myself included. So, are you in?"

Chia found she was grinning like a maniac in return. "Oh yes!" She wasn't going to be on her own after all.