"Alright. Its been over four hundred years since humans started slapping genetic templates on each other. You've got the really rare stuff... someone having their own genes customized... and then the stuff like what was done to you. A... template, of sorts. An overlay on the existing genes. I can go through the technical basics, but really... the important thing is that you're going to need to change your diet up a bit, and are currently suffering from a bit of malnutrition."

Seraph frowned at 'Doc' as she followed him into the medbay... a clean white room that had some sort of field that gave her a strange buzzing sensation as she entered... there were four coffin-shaped tubes mounted to the wall, right at the corner, clearly made to orient themselves as the ship changed direction, one of which was sealed, clearly occupied. "...Malnutrition. I.... thought augs didn't need to eat as much, or even breathe as much?"

"Well, yes. But you're a combat augment, whose body is trying to replace all of its bones with a set of denser, more durable ones, as well as its musculature. The muscle is easy to replace, the bone takes longer.... and if you don't get enough carbon, you may end up with stronger muscles than bones... and break them if you over-exert yourself. We'll give you a booster, and a more in-depth scan. But for the next few months... tons of greasy, fatty foods is what you need."

She nodded... as the rotund man stopped next to one of the coffins. She looked at the open container... which seemed to be smaller, much smaller, on the inside. "...I... need to get in?"

"If you would, please. You don't have to... but it'll cut your reliance on painkillers for the next few weeks dramatically. And unless you plan on staying with us, you're probably going to be waltzing into danger the moment you step off the ship. So.... I'd prefer to take care of this."

She put a hand on the coffin, and looked back at Doc. "...Why would I be in danger? I thought that I'd be mostly safe, outside the Alliance?"

"They've got people... both their own and mercenaries... all over the place. I'd recommend getting a new ID, wherever you go. Honestly, if you explained why, most nations would offer you asylum and do that for free. If you want to wander the galaxy for a bit, I'd recommend one of the smaller, independent systems. If you want to settle down... I'd go with the dubs. Usually I'd say the Imperium, but we're too close to the Alliance, and are just crawling with their operatives."

Seraph hesitantly climbed into the device, laying down; the inner walls actually shifting to match her own dimensions; and barely even noticed the needles pressing into her skin; she didn't feel them go in.

"So. The solution I'm pumping in right now is gonna give your body some of what it needs to help you develop properly. Do you know what all is involved with the new you?"

She sighed, looking down at him."...No. The guy who did it just told me it was a combat augmentation package mark five, an infiltrator variant, that it really hurt for the first few minutes, and would keep hurting, just not as much, for a long time after. We didn't talk for more than a few minutes before he decided to kill me, and the cops showed up."

Doc blinked. "That's... gotta be an interesting story. Alright. So."

He tapped a few buttons on his console, whistling to himself. The security officer stepped closer. "He decided to kill you? I gotta know... a dose like that is expensive as hell, a whole syringe full of nanomachines. You could buy a backpack load of nukes for that, or maybe even a used passenger shuttle."

Doc glanced at her, shaking his head. "This is the ASU. They probably get dozens of doses directly from the dubs for exactly this sort of operation. Now! The important stuff."

He looked up at Seraph. "Your bones are going to be heavier, more dense, and durable, much higher carbon content, but still show up as normal on a scan. You won't grow the redundant organs that a normal combat aug gets; but many of your organs will become multi-purpose. Your lungs, each of them, can act as a substitute heart if the regular one were to be taken out, just for an example. You're much more resistant to radiation, somewhat resistant to just about anything else... fire, poison, cold, sheer kinetic impact... and should get roughly doubled muscle response time and capacity."

She looked down at herself, squeezing her fists. "I... don't look any different?"

He chuckled. "Well, that was a deliberate choice on the folks who made the augment. Looks normal, passes scans, but costs you a fair amount of capacity." He glanced behind himself, and nodded at the security officer.

"Jenny there was engineered for a heavy-gravity world. Only weighs eighty pounds... can lift well over eighteen hundred. They weren't built specifically for combat, but the dubs love using heavy-worlders for marines; they can actually carry a suit of power armor without the power until its time to power on and start the fighting."

Seraph looked down at the tiny figure beside him. "...But she's obviously not a baseline human."

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"Not even close. And a normal combat-aug might look mostly human so long as you don't look at the eyes too close... but that's skin deep. Skeletal structure, musculature... all different."

She could feel something cool flowing into her, her muscles relaxing. "...So if I were a regular combat augment I'd be... stronger? Faster?"

"A little. Not a huge difference, but there's like... seventy different varieties of combat augment out there, and each one is a little different. There was even a discontinued one that turned people into berserkers."

She closed her eyes. "...So there might be people trying to kill me as soon as I leave the ship. And some of them might be much faster, stronger, everything, than I am." A deep inhalation. "...That drone, the carrier. I don't actually need it to carry me around, but I'm sure you know that. There's a person inside it, an ASU man. Would it be a problem if he kept following me around, and we pretended I was still crippled?"

"Your muscles and bones are going to rebuilding themselves at an accelerated pace now that they have what they need. You might have periods of weakness, spasms, for the next day or so.... honestly I'd recommend keeping it around in case you need to be carried. I was going to have it delivered here anyway, they stuffed it in lockup."

She looked down at her arms and legs for a moment. They felt... strange. Tingly. "...Oh."

***

When Seraph awoke the next morning on the tiny bed in her cabin, the ship was underway once again... and her body still felt... cold. As if she'd just climbed out of an icy pool, despite the heat of the room. She was shivering, but felt hot. It was... terrible. But supposedly there was a point to it, so... she'd live with it.

She sighed... looking down at the carrier currently standing on the wall with its magnetic grips, having not moved since the ship had gotten underway.... and held down the button on her comm, reactivating it. "So. Mister Proxima."

A few audible clanks, then a beep. ~Miss Glass. I'd ask how long I was out this time, but there's a handy clock, so I know exactly. Going for another walk, or what'll it be this time?~

"We're going to be arriving late this evening, or early tomorrow morning, depending. The Sim Expo is apparently a bit deal, so there's gonna be a whole traffic jam on arrival; we might be waiting our turn to land for a few hours, or more; they actually added in some wiggle room to the schedule for it. This... Tybalt system is fairly safe, a big, powerful independent nation, embassies for all the big five, nothing dangerous. You know I want to go to the dub embassy. Should I?"

~It'd be my recommendation; we don't work for them, but the dubs have hired my people to do jobs before outside Alliance space. The only place it would be bad to go would be the Directorate. Everyone else refuses to turn augmented fugitives over to the Alliance, no matter what the crime. They'll likely get you a good new ID, pay you for recovering the others, maybe even some gene-tweaking so you can look different if you like, and then poof; you can go on your way. Even attend the convention.~

She nodded... and sighed. "Okay. I'm disabling the remote functions on that carrier so they can't disable you, or remotely make your new body shoot me, if they have the codes. Please don't shoot me... and if something happens to me, get my luggage to the embassy."

A soft beep. ~If something happens to you, and I can manage it, I'll also get your body to the embassy, if possible.~

"Great. Now... just to hope there isn't anyone else waiting to try to kill me."

***

A tiny display, floating over her phone, showed the diagram of the Tybalt system as they arrived; currently out at the far edge, several light-hours away. There was nothing she could do to influence the ship's course, nothing she could do at all until they arrived; she was confined to quarters until departure, as there was likely at least one other Alliance operative on board, and they didn't want to have to follow her around all day. Tybalt didn't allow entry too close; it had its own navy, its own rules; and entering any closer than the furthest planet would likely be met with missiles.

Tybalt was fairly typical; one of the terraformed worlds, a fairly uniform, boring sort of place.... centuries ago. From its humble colonial origins, it had grown hundreds of cities, vast orbital infrastructure; mostly due to a fairly unique mountain range that extruded so far out of the breathable atmosphere that the spaceport was in a functional vacuum. She could see a strange, domed city, surrounding a spaceport atop the mountains, bigger than anything she'd seen back home... not that she'd ever left home...

In orbit, there were thousands of craft of varying sizes; small personal shuttles, enormous cargo ships... a vast mining infrastructure... just a few seconds of looking was enough to confirm that just the ships and stations in orbit held more people than her entire homeworld.

She felt a slight shift... and there was a knock at the door.

As the door slid open, the form of that heavy-grav augment, Jenny, glanced inside. "Go ahead and load up your luggage. Your ride's on the way."

Seraph frowned... and rose slowly, checking the carrier... and sliding the luggage out from under the bed... glancing up at her. "...My ride. What do you mean? Aren't I getting off at the docks?"

Jenny tilted her head, frowning. "You... didn't call for a ride? I've got an old UW destroyer heading in to give you a direct ride, orbit to embassy, supposed to make sure you get down safe."

"...No. I didn't."

The diminutive guard studied Seraph for a moment, and grunted. "Well. That's...." She glanced out at the hallway. "That could be a problem. They're sending a shuttle to come get you. Claim that you asked for a ride to the embassy, for asylum purposes."

Seraph grimaced. "That's..... well, fuck. I didn't call anyone. But the Alliance guys might have. Are we sure its UW?"

"...It's an older UW ship. Not current. We need to talk to the captain. The dubs make those things in bulk and sell them to mercenaries, independents... about the only ones they won't sell em to are known pirates and the Alliance. Which... doesn't mean that they can't get hold of them... if they want to."

"....If they're after me, it'd probably be safest for the rest of you to just hand me over, wouldn't it."

Jenny nodded. "Of course. But if they're just pirates paid off by the Alliance, the safest route would be to just blow them out of space, none of us would be safe. Not our choice. Come on." Seraph could feel sweat dripping down her back as she followed the woman down the hallway, the solid metallic thunk of the carrier following behind her. She wondered whether she'd ever actually make it to the ground alive.