John Douglas Powers

Retiree John Douglas Powers

Cybernetic life didn't live up to the marketing buzz. The thoughts inside the organic replacement brains seemed as real to their owners as their original memories, which were recorded before their deaths. But their emotions were very different. When asked, as she often was, "What's it like to be a cyborg," Alana would either offer a sanguine reply that it was better than the alternative, or make a snide offer to give the questioner the opportunity to find out. Thirty-five years ago, Detective Alana Graves was killed by a terrorist's car bomb. Two weeks later, the police paid for her resurrection as a cyborg-a process euphemistically called, "retirement." In the intervening years, she rose to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, despite constantly bumping into an invisible "silicon ceiling" of cyber-discrimination. Alana took well to police work, immersing herself in her career. The dangers were of little concern, as she could be resurrected again, as long as she remained on the good side of the law. However, when her close friend and long-time assistant, Detective Benjamin Rhys, is killed in the line of duty and then denied the same cybernetic retirement benefit she had enjoyed for decades, something inside her ostensibly calm exterior snaps.