Broken Republic and all affiliated Chapters and characters are copyright Steven Swanson 2000-2001. The characters and events in this document are purely fictional, any resemblance between the characters and any person, living or dead, are purely coincidental. UNATCO, the FBI, the CIA, the NYPD, INTERPOL, the Spetznaz, the Mossad, and the NSA are all real organizations and should not be cited as the creation of any single person. Mason Industries is not affiliated with any existing corporations in the real world. Due to mature content, reader discretion is advised. No part of this document may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission of the author. Steven Swanson is not responsible for any difficult reading caused by the influence of drugs, alcohol, or just plain idiocy. If you are offended by some of the content in this script, that's your problem. Conspiracy theorists are warned not to take this seriously, and that this disclaimer is to simply cover my ass and make aware to plagiarists that ALL the aforementioned agencies feel that that practice could be bad for your health. Uh, well, that's pretty much it. Don\x92t say you haven\x92t been warned, and get reading!

August 18, 2018

Dana Carver looked out the window of her apartment on the 56^th story, which overlooked the entire south side of Toronto. She remembered how the place had looked when she was a kid. Only a few skyscrapers poked through the sky, and historic row houses lined the streets only blocks away. The CN tower was once the tallest man made structure in the world. Now the Aquilina Insurance Plaza dominated the skyline, robbing the tower of its beauty and prestige. Not the tourist attraction it used to be, the Canadian Government bought it cheap, and now its once beautiful concrete plume was lined with ugly wires, its dome latticed in crossbeams and transceivers. Still, judging by the lack of mountains, the CN tower was still a strategic advantage, just so long as nobody fooled around with its base. She reminisced about how beautiful it was, especially in the spring and autumn. Now the rowhouses had been torn down to make room for Military Temporaries, ugly aluminum buildings for the growing Canadian military. It was hard even for her to believe that just 15 years ago, the independence of Quebec was a wild dream. Now it was a harsh reality. A second cold war swept over the frozen land, and now the slowly separating Quebequa government was only kept within Canada\x92s jurisdiction thanks to the worldwide economic collapse and the Spirovirus pandemic. Then again, she was quite lucky. Canada was one of few nations to see the coming collapse and created strong economic restrictions. Aside from England, Canada was the only nation safe from the devastating poverty sweeping the world. What good is wealth, though, when the streets are filled with the dead and dying? She thought to herself. It was almost ironic. It used to be that all of Canada\x92s good actors and actresses moved to the warmer climes of the United States, who casually poked fun at Canada as does a casual friend or a big brother. Now Americans were begging to get in, and the mutual open door policy could do nothing to stop them. Canada\x92s military was once considered a trivial, inconsequential threat, thanks to the fact that they had no enemies. Now because of the Cold War, 30 percent of the workforce was in the military, 45 percent in Quebec. So close to the borders of the U.S. and Quebec, you could barely walk the streets without stepping on some soldier\x92s boots every ten seconds. All those soldiers. Yes, even as much as Paul talked about how he was more of a cross between police and military, she still regarded him as a soldier. She had nothing against them, nothing against anyone, really. Dana was open-minded, always inquiring as to why people did such seemingly unreasonable things so that she may better understand their motives. She was attractive, too. Her black hair flowed down to her shoulders like silk and had a shiny luster in the dull gray light. Her face was white, the result of living in a cold country her entire life, and her blemishless face could be compared to porcelain, but with more life and fleshier tones. Beautiful, sparkling eyes, a deep cyan, rounded out her face. She was half-Greek by ancestry, but always considered herself a patriotic Canadian. She also had a curvaceous figure to round out her pretty face, but underneath she was quite strong, the result of being a doctor and a person who knew the importance of exercise. She ran her fingers through her hair, thinking about Paul, twisting the engagement ring on her left hand. A Canadian half Greek and an American half Italian. The world really was changing. A sudden rapping at the door lifted her out of her contemplating trance.

"I\x92m coming." She walked to the door casually, striding quickly to meet her fiancée. Opening the dull, fiberglass coated door, two men were revealed. One was Paul, dressed in his fatigues, which were a traditional American wood camouflage pattern, and a large, sturdy black man with a shorn scalp and a well-groomed moustache. She remembered his name\x85 Captain Anthony Jefferson. They had met some time back under the same circumstances.

"Paul! I was wondering where you were."

"Sorry hon, got a bit tied up in New York. You know how the airports are there." She walked up and gave him a kiss on the lips, restraining herself to a certain extent in front of his escort.

"\x92Evening Mr. Jefferson. Paul didn\x92t cause too much trouble, did he?"

"Only his gratuitous Canadian humor."

"Hey!" Paul protested mildly.

"Come on, Paul, you know I\x92m just playin\x92. Yeah, he was a real sweetie, in case you wanted to know." He laughed with a powerful, good-humored chuckle. "He was talking about his new role in UNATCO. Pretty smooth move, if you ask me.

"What new role? A promotion in rank?" Dana inquired.

"Actually, a revolutionary new program for their agents. I think he\x92ll want to talk to you about it."

"That would be great. Thanks for letting me know. Someone\x92s got to keep tabs on my man in the field."

"No problem, Miss Carver. I\x92ll see you later. You too, Calabrese."

"Yeah, bye." Paul said, unconcerned about manners or the world around him. After Jefferson left, Paul plopped down on an elegant looking sofa covered in simulated leather and cast his duffel bag aside.

"Congratulations, Paul. Looks like you\x92re moving up in the world."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Paul, are you alright? You seem troubled."

"Well, it\x92s about the promotion he talked about. I always liked the idea of augmentations, but now that I\x92m so close, I\x92m just not so sure." Dana sat down next to Paul, half lying down. Paul joined her in her half-reclined position.

"Paul, you know I don\x92t mind a bit about what you decide to do to your body, I completely understand. Your job is really important, and it\x92s comforting to know that people like yourself, including yourself, are willing to sacrifice their private lives for a greater cause." She paused, stroking his chest. He sat stoically, staring blankly at the equally blank floor nearby.

"I had to kill a lot of people last week. They were criminals, and I felt no remorse at the time, but now I wonder if I\x92ve been slaying innocent people. What makes any of those men different from me? They\x92re just fighting for their lives or what they believe in. I just don\x92t know what it\x92s all for." He sat up and cupped his head in his hands, stroking his thick hair as his hands slid back.

"Paul, I\x92m surprised at you. You did your job, and you got rewarded for it. Sometimes even that\x92s hard to get in modern society. Those men weren\x92t innocent. They kill, maim, rape, and manipulate for a living. UNATCO tries to protect people, the exact opposite of what criminal organizations stand for." She paused, noticing Paul\x92s unchanged emotions. "You were never worried about this before." She paused, not receiving a response. "It\x92s not that, is it? Is this about the augmentations?"

"Yes, actually both, but more like what you said. I\x92m not concerned for myself. I\x92m concerned for you. My family\x92s gone, except for my stepbrother, and I have no obligations except to him and to you. He\x92s already in the same program, and it\x92s unlikely that I\x92ll see him all the time anyway, but this next step is a real commitment for you."

"What\x92s wrong? I thought there would be some simple modifications to your body, maybe even nanobots, so they won\x92t have to do anything with your body at all."

"It\x92s different, there\x92s hardly any electronics involved at all. That\x92s the purpose, to try out something new." He paused to concentrate. He was no fool. The meeting with Verkerke wasn\x92t a suggestion, it was an order. If he refused, his military career would either stay stagnant or a conspiracy would take him out of the ranks and put him on the street\x85 or into a military prison. The superiors had planned it to the last detail, even picking out the species they wanted him to cross with. He had no choice, and he hoped to God that she would accept the facts. "Dana, they\x92re going to genetically alter me."

She seemed stunned. She hadn\x92t known that this would be a problem. All the publicity she had seen until now showed that people could be amazingly altered without any outward change in appearance, but those were just movies, wild depictions of fantastic situations. "Well, it\x92s not extreme, right? Just some simple changes, some invisible modifications?"

"Quite a bit more. They want to genetically cross me with a wolf. They don\x92t have the means to modify a person without changing their appearance dramatically. They don\x92t even have a way to completely get rid of the change, but they can reverse it pretty well. There aren\x92t any side effects, either, at least none that they know of."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"I\x92m going to change. A lot. You probably won\x92t even recognize me a few weeks from now. It\x92s a three-week period just for the transition, an extra two for retraining and getting accustomed to the new body. After that, I\x92m stationed in New York until further notice. Chances are I won\x92t see you for a long time unless you decide to visit."

"New York\x92s just a stone\x92s throw away from here. That won\x92t be a problem." She thought about his words. How drastic could the changes be?

"Well, it\x92s going to be a bit harder to kiss, I know that much to be true, and I doubt we can meet too often in public. My\x85 virility might also be affected as well, but I don\x92t really know yet. The question is this: Will you still love me enough to live with me after I change?"

"I think so, but you didn\x92t really answer my question." Not having the chance to continue, she ceased as Paul reached for his wallet. Groping around inside, he pulled out a tiny nanodisc, roughly the size of a quarter. He knew where to put it. Walking up to the nearby simulated fireplace screen, he flipped off the switch and pushed the disc into a built in console. The video played, showing the transformation, then shorts on the physical performance and an infinite amount of information on genes and DNA strands. She was intrigued as much as Paul was when he first saw the information, not showing shock, but rather intense interest. He halted the disc, turning the fireplace back on.

"That\x85 will be you?"

Paul nodded. His face broke a cold sweat, fearing her disapproval. She was very important to him. They shared many beliefs, interests, and had endured struggles together. They had also been engaged for three months. He remembered that day. One cold wintry night with crisp air and a clear sky inside the Statue of Liberty, before it was bombed, he claimed to be short on change for a soda, so they had to check the payphones. There, placed in one of the change slots, was the ring, the one she still wore with pride. Now all that could evaporate at any second. She knew the risks and sacrifices that a UNATCO operative had to make at a certain point, but Paul never knew her what her real reaction would be to something as drastic as this. He hoped to God that he had made the right decision.

"I\x85 don\x92t really know what to say." She smiled with the corner of her mouth. "I always did value sacrifices for your job, and this is no exception." Pausing, she continued calmly in a stunned manner. "Will your personality change?"

"No. I\x92ll always be Paul Calabrese, whatever skin I\x92m wearing."

"And you said this is reversible."

What was he thinking? Dana didn\x92t care about how he looked. She just didn\x92t want his personality to change. Still, he had to be sure.

didn\x92t marry you for greed or lust\x85 well\x85 okay, some lust. I\x92m surprised you didn\x92t trust my affections.

sacrifice of sorts. I just didn\x92t know how you\x92d feel. Dana, this is a cold, cruel world. With the famine and the hatred and the death\x85 even a soldier like me can\x92t take it without you.

"Nor I you." She thought for a moment, contemplating the repercussions of Paul\x92s actions. It was a true sign of valor that he was willing to sacrifice his livelihood in noble service, but would this be at her cost?

She denied it. UNATCO was more sympathetic than the Army or any true military organization, and even those people had compassion at times. A change in face didn\x92t have to mean total isolation. She carefully worded her final decision, praying that she had made the right decision. "Paul, you know that every relationship has tests of integrity and strength, right?" He nodded. "I understand that. You have full trust that I could never truly love anyone else, just as I have the same feeling about you. This program you\x92re entering\x85 is just a test God has made to see if we really love each other. If you\x92re ready, then I\x92m ready to accept the challenge. Besides, I guess I could get used to having a fiancée and a pet at the same time. How hard can it be?"

He smiled, his face brightening up. For once in his life, he was genuinely happy. He had never quite felt the same love for anyone in his life. He was notorious for his outward stoicism, but around Dana that all melted away. Nothing else had ever gained this power over him. His foster family never did, his job never did, not even his real relatives ever did. It was official. Paul had found his soul mate. No government in the world could change that fact. He broke out laughing, starting to chuckle and eventually placing his arm over her delicate, smooth, almost bare shoulder.

"You know, I\x92m feeling kind of tired after all this worrying." He laid down again next to Dana, slowly embracing her and feeling her. "I think I\x92ll just\x85 lay down with you for a while."

She embraced him mutually after a slight giggle, accepting his kiss, and relaxed her back as his hand caressed her smooth skin, stroking up and down as the two sunk comfortably into the sofa. It was about then that Paul realized how much he enjoyed shore leave.