Avery grimaced at the sweat stinging her eyes, doubled over with her hands on her knees as she gasped for breath. There was a reason she didn't exercise, and this was it.

"All right, that's enough," Anderson called from the door at the other side of the room. The junior cyberneticists gathered around a long desk full of monitors and holograms showing her reactions to the heavy cybernetic exoskeleton he'd coaxed her into all started typing furiously on their datapads. He'd been gone for the last half an hour, claiming her cybernetic arm needed some touch-ups while she tested his new model, so her first test session for the military cybernetics Anderson and his lot had cobbled together had been overseen by students whose names she couldn't be bothered to remember.

"Are we done?" she said, hardly daring to believe it. She swayed on her feet. The exoskeleton was clearly built for someone much bigger than her, and her skull burned where the brace for her head connected directly to her brain through the panel on the shaved side.

Anderson nodded and the two students who had been hovering at the edge of the room rushed over to help her out of the contraption he'd hooked her up to. "For now."

"Thank fuck. Get these things off me!" she yelled at nobody in particular, scrabbling at the sticky heart rate monitors stuck all over her body. They reminded her far too much of her first days as a cyborg, when her every breath and heartbeat was logged.

One of the students batted her hands away and started removing them, none too gently.

"Was the exoskeleton comfortable?" Anderson asked mildly.

She stared at him as the other student unstrapped the frame Anderson had shoved her into as soon as she'd arrived. The afternoon had consisted of the scientists testing various load weights and how they interacted with her cybernetics, which Anderson wanted to somehow merge with the frame to give her more control over its movements. In theory, she shouldn't have been able to feel any of the additional weight. In practice, her aching muscles were making her feel like an old lady. "You lot have been using me as a human guinea pig all fucking day," she snapped. "Infrared vision, lifting frames, an arm that isn't even fucking mine," she said, waving Anderson's shitty prototype in his face. It had a suction cap on the palm for climbing, a different attachment in each finger, a powerful laser, and a Ghraal-designed blade for slicing through carapace that sprang out of the forearm. It was also too heavy for her, the cybernetics fused weirdly with the socket in her shoulder, and she wanted this pimply fuckwit to get it off. "You tell me how comfortable you think I am."

The student raised his eyebrows and glanced at Anderson. "You weren't exaggerating about her temper, Doctor."

Lukas merely smiled, which for some reason just made her more furious.

They were turning her into a war machine, and he stood there smiling. "Don't look so scared, Tom, she won't bite. Avery, I hope our soldiers are more coordinated with our tech than you were."

"It doesn't even fucking fit me!" she said, throwing her arm up to show how the limb dug into her skin when she did so.

Anderson rolled his eyes, holding up her old limb. The wrist flopped pathetically. "Here. Tom, take the new one off before she rips it out and slaps me with it."

Once they'd freed her from the exoskeleton and given her arm back, Avery's temper improved. Marginally.

"Please tell me I'm not gonna have to come in for more experiments," she said after the students had scuttled off to compare notes. She flexed her arm as she felt the final few connections to her nerves snap into place. She didn't know exactly what Anderson had done to it, but the joints moved more smoothly, the sensation from the breeze when she blew on her fingers was clearer than before, and the various scratches she'd accumulated had been buffed out. There was something else that was different, though. If she didn't know better, she'd say it felt a lot heavier than before.

She shrugged the sensation off. She probably just needed to re-adjust from the military monstrosity they'd just had her testing.

She could tell Anderson was almost pained from having to rip his eyes from his data. "No, not for a while. You've given us enough data to work with for now. Oh, and we're in the process of vetting our first batch of volunteers. The ones that pass should get to the Hub in less than a week."

"Oh," was all she said. Soon, those men and women would sacrifice parts of their bodies for the good of the Commonwealth. Anderson wasn't going to mess with their brains on the scale he had hers, but still. Soon they would give up their humanity to be like her. Not quite a machine that didn't care for love or acceptance; not quite human enough to blend into their world unnoticed, stares and whispers following everywhere, one foot in each world. Literally, in her case.

Maybe some of them would get lucky and go down on the battlefield in a blaze of glory.

Anderson raised his eyebrows. "I'd have thought you'd appreciate having more cyborgs around."

She shook her head. "They won't be like me. They'll still have human brains and they can say they sacrificed their human bodies for the sake of the galaxy. They're not like me. They won't get it, and neither do you."

With that, she turned around and walked out.

She found it hard to pinpoint the dark fury that clouded her mind as she stalked through the huge Centre for Medical Care and Research. Anderson's experiment had been taking place in a part of the sector she wasn't familiar with, so that didn't help, and she spent ten minutes trying to look like she knew where she was going. Even the thought of using her netlink made her head hurt, so she didn't even attempt it.

She knew she was angry she was being used as a test subject again, and that she was conscious enough to remember every little poke and prod this time, and this research would be used to irrevocably alter the lives of dozens so they would become killing machines.

But there was another source of her rage, one so deep and dark that she was afraid to search for it in fear of what she might find.

So she ignored it.

She got into the personnel elevator and her finger hovered over the button for the human sector. She could press it and spend the rest of the night alone in the tiny flat she'd moved into when the increased noise and activity in the docking bay became too much for even her to bear. Just her and Charon, the cranky old cat Cass had made her promise to take care of.

Her internal chronometer told her it was nearly six o'clock. Was it too early to drink?

She decided she didn't care, and slammed the button for the Undercity.

Even as she descended into the Quays, the lowest sector of the Hub (apart from the spaceport, obviously), she felt herself unwind. She stood straighter, her cybernetic limbs felt lighter, she fixed her eyes on something other than the floor. She watched as the elevator entered the upper part of the Quays and she was bathed in the ambient golden light that flowed from the streets, the glass walkways, the towering casinos and the hotels that served the rich merchants, alien royalty, and wealthy travellers that came to the Hub from all over the Commonwealth and far beyond.

This was not her destination.

The elevator continued its descent, and the light faded. She looked down. At first it seemed as though she was being lowered into a dark pit, but she smiled as her light filters kicked in and the darkness became speckled with neon signs and dim street lights from the lower city. There were regulations on how much light the Undercity could emit, so as not to disturb their neighbours on high. That was exactly how Avery liked it.

As soon as she stepped off the elevator, she felt more at home than she ever had in Anderson's lab. Sure, some of the people hanging around the streets weren't the type you'd turn your back on, but to a lot of people, neither was she. At least here she wasn't the only one whose body glowed with cybernetic light, not the only one who stood out. Eyes didn't follow her here like they did elsewhere.

Nebula was a ten-minute walk from the elevator in the centre of the Undercity. At this time of day it was almost empty, and when she walked into the dim bar area her boots squeaked on the floor, her footsteps echoing. The only customers were a ghraal couple in a corner, their heads close together as they argued over something on a datapad, their drinks forgotten.

She found Nuah Kishu behind the bar. Nebula's hauna owner glanced up at her with one pair of eyes, then all six of her turquoise eyes widened. Avery suddenly had the full attention of a hauna, a rare honour. Even Nuah Kishu's many, ever-busy limbs faltered in their frantic motion as she polished a set of glasses while cutting fruit for later that night. "Avery Williams," she said. Nebula was mostly silent except for the faint music coming from one of the speakers in the corner and the low murmur of the other patrons' voices, and Nuah Kishu's voice was strange and sonourous in the quiet. "I haven't seen one of your group for a while."

She shrugged as she slid onto a bar stool. "We're all busy. Khora's got a job running supplies to one of the mu'ka outposts, Erri's on Earth." She was proud of how she kept her voice steady when she said that. "Single vodka and lemonade, please."

"Not feeling adventurous today?" said Nuah Kishu as she made her drink and scanned her ID chip for payment.

"It's not even evening yet, and I'm already drinking vodka. That's enough adventure for me, thanks."

Nuah Kishu glanced at her sideways as she went back to her work. "Anderson is not working you too hard?"

She rolled her eyes. "He thinks he's doing me a favour. It's easier just to let him."

The bartender snorted. "That's the kind of thinking that gets girls like you in trouble."

Avery stared at the bar, tracing her finger over a dent in the steel. Her drink fizzed on her tongue. "I guess so."

She didn't look up when the door opened a few minutes later, but Nuah Kishu's quiet hiss caught her attention. She glanced up; all six of the bartender's eyes were fixed on the newcomer. "The fuck do they want," she breathed.

Avery twisted to see, and raised her eyebrows at the sight of the slim, elegant folna manoeuvring easily through the tall chairs and tables between the entrance and the bar. She recognised the pretty, drooping yellow flowers and the intricate ceremonial patterns carved into the wood-like torso from the newscasts.

"Plagasa, welcome," Nuah Kishu said, her voice suddenly honey-sweet. "Not in trouble again, am I?"

Avery had spent enough time around Akhilf, her folna friend who worked here as a bouncer, to recognise the shifting of Plagasa's face plates as a smile. "Not this time, Nuah Kishu. I have been looking for you, Avery. You were not at your home or with Doctor Anderson, and he said I should check here."

Avery and Nuah Kishu shared a glance. She tried to think of anything she had done or fucked up recently that could warrant a visit from the Chief Executive of the Hub. Surprisingly, she could think of nothing.

"You're not in trouble either, Avery. I just want to talk. Five minutes of your time, and then I will be gone."

Avery sighed. She swivelled around on her bar stool, but did not stand up. "All right," she said. "Five minutes."

Plagasa moved closer, their rhizomes snaking over the sticky tiled floor, as Nuah Kishu made some muttered excuse and went into the back room. "I read over the minutes from the meeting a few days ago," they said, sparing no time on small talk, which Avery was grateful for. Now that they were alone, Plagasa's voice had become low and intense, and Avery found herself leaning forward despite herself. "Let's just say I have concerns about the ethics of the doctor's research. Do you agree?"

She took a sip of her drink to give herself time to think. "I don't know. The peacekeepers they're upgrading will be volunteers, but I don't know how much Anderson has told them. About this." She waved her hand vaguely over her body. "What it's really like."

Plagasa's black eyes narrowed. "I see, but I was thinking a little before that. He's testing the new upgrades out on you, isn't he? You weren't built for combat. I hope his tests aren't hurting you. That was what stood out to me in that meeting. Did he ask before he showed everyone your schematics?"

She pursed her lips, the memory of having a room full of strangers staring at diagrams of her cybernetics making the heat of remembered shame flood to her cheeks. "No."

Plagasa's face was unreadable. "I see. And are you comfortable with the knowledge of what this research will be used for?"

Avery fixed her eyes on a spot behind Plagasa's uppermost limbs. She flexed her cybernetic fingers; her arm still felt heavier than it should. "It's to protect the Hub. We need to be able to defend ourselves if the aliens find us. Right now, there's nobody. You know what happened to that ghraal colony."

"I know very well what happened to Kari. Regardless of the ethics, Anderson will never be able to complete the procedures without agreement from the mu'ka. I really don't need to be dealing from the fallout of that kind of political disaster."

"I think Anderson wanted a meeting with Councillor Oormu, to discuss things."

"Yes, so I've heard. His staff are trying to arrange something. I suppose it's worth a try." Plagasa's tone told her that they would be wasting their time.

"Do you think he'll agree?"

"No. But I'm not sure if Anderson will care, if he thinks it's this or succumb to an invasion. Still, I'm going to try to be at the meeting if I can. You may need a moderator."

Avery shrugged as Nuah Kishu emerged with a few fresh bottles of spirits for the back of the bar, apparently having run out of things to do in the back room. "Can't hurt. I've heard Oormu has a temper."

Plagasa's datapad chimed, and they frowned as they glanced at it. "I am needed elsewhere. I think I've said all I need to. I'm transferring you my contact information, in case you ever need me. My job is to keep the Hub in order, and sometimes threats come from unexpected places," they said as they started backing away. "Stay safe, Avery. It has been... illuminating."

She nodded as Plagasa turned to leave. "You too," she murmured at the folna's retreating back.

"Trouble?" Nuah Kishu said from behind her.

Avery shook her head. "It was nothing." She put her glass back on the bar and stood up. "I'm gonna go home now. I've had enough." Enough of drinking, enough of people, enough of everything.

"Go and get some rest. You look like shit." Nuah Kishu nodded as she turned to leave.

She trudged back to the maglift feeling worse than when she had left Anderson's lab, if that were possible. The compartment was empty when she reached it, and she waited until the doors had sealed and she was moving upwards to rest her head back against the cool glass and close her eyes.

"I think I like that folna," someone whispered in her ear.

Avery jumped, looking over her shoulder with wild eyes, but of course the elevator was empty. She turned in a slow circle, heart pounding.

She was alone, and yet that voice wasn't hers. First laughter, now a disembodied whisper.

Stars, she was going crazy.

She mashed the button for the human habitation sector, wishing the elevator could shoot her up to her floor like a rocket instead of trundling along at its glacial pace.

Finally it stopped. She couldn't get back home fast enough, making sure the doors locked behind her before she leaned back against them, head tilted back and eyes closed and ignoring Charon yowling for his dinner somewhere in the distance.

It felt like the whole universe was closing in on her.

She burst into tears.

Avery couldn't remember the last time she had felt this lost, this alone. Maybe it was when her mum died, or when she woke up on Lukas's operating table and everything she no longer was came crashing in on her.

At least those times there had been a single cause she could point to, a specific event she could internalise and bury until the pain was nothing more than a dull ache. It was harder to ignore the swirling vortex of shit she found herself in the middle of. Cyborg soldiers, hearing voices, everyone she loved facing an alien armada at the other end of the galaxy.

She wanted to scream.

She wanted to go find Anderson's 'volunteers' and tell them to go home, that they wouldn't know what they were giving up until it was gone.

She wanted her Erri back.

"Nobody on the Hub cares what you want," the voice hissed in her ear again.

She was inclined to agree.