Chapter 7

The Hub was nearly dark and quiet save for the hum of the equipment. Jack and Ianto had left hours ago to go Weevil hunting and Owen had waved them off not wanting to even know where they might actually be going. He was still sitting at his computer going over the new scans they had taken of 7494. Owen knew no matter how much longer he stared at them it wasn't going to improve their chances in the morning of successfully removing the chip.

The medical units had provided the necessary information on how the microchip worked. It contained all the programming needed to perform whatever task a unit had been assigned. An incision was made in the temple, the chip inserted and then closed. Once their task was assigned, upgrades could be performed externally much like the current RFID, when a new assignment was given that information was added on top of their former skills. The rest was simple conditioning to make them think they were no longer human. The domestic units' upgrades weren't complete until they arrived at their designated site when they would be given specific instructions on how that location should be taken care of. Without complete programming they may still be able to reach the children.

That bit of information had come as a bit of relief to Owen, it could mean their 10 domestic units, who were all under 13, may still be helped. Each unit's personality was overridden by whatever new program they had been given essentially burying their humanity and it explained why 5618 had seemed so unaffected by everything. It wasn't that she couldn't feel anything for those around her; she was just unable to process or express anything but her assigned duties. For all he knew, behind her dead eyes was a tortured 7 year old little girl crying for help. When they had told 7494 of what they would be doing he had given them the same flat expression, but Owen wondered if he was stressed over the whole situation and panicking that he may not recover.

But first they had to get through tomorrow's surgery before they could focus on the next steps. Even with the odds stacked against them, he didn't want to screw up. Losing a patient was never easy. Owen sighed and picked up his mug, only to find it had been emptied. Maybe it was just time to call it a night. He was in the process of closing the open files when a pair of brown eyes and a nose appeared at the edge of his desk, just barely looking over the top. "Olympia" he exhaled, "aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"

The little girl came around the side to stand beside Owen, "I couldn't sleep" she confessed.

"Why not?" she shrugged her shoulders, "bad dreams? Are you cold?"

She shook her head no, "I don't have dreams any more. Dr Owen, is it true you are going to fix us?" Owen turned in his chair to look at her, "I heard some of the others say you were going to fix us".

"I don't know Oly, we're going to try" he admitted.

"Are you going to fix us like they did on Cyberia?"

"No. What they did was very wrong".

"I don't want to be a Cyberian" Olympia said quietly.

Owen reached down and gathered her up into his arms and pulled her close, "I promise you won't be a Cyberian", she tucked her head under Owen's chin huddling in close.

"What about when we get to our assignments?"

"There aren't any assignments. You are safe here. You've traveled so far back in time that you landed on the original Earth, there is no Cyberia and no Cyberians. Just people who want to help you and once we figure out how to do that, we can find you a nice family who will look after you and when you grow up you can be whatever you want to be".

"Can I stay here with you? Everyone is nice here".

"Oh no, there are much better places than this. There are families, with houses and yards to play in".

"Are there puppies? We got a puppy just before…"

"There are all kinds of puppies", Owen leaned forward pulling his keyboard closer and pulled up videos of puppies on youtube. The pair sat and watched so many videos Owen was sure his eyes were going to bleed from the cuteness, but Olympia giggled at all of them and he didn't want to take that away from her. Maybe he could fix them all with viral videos, if only it could be that easy. Jack and Ianto returned and both looked at him as if he had grown a second head, and considering where they worked that was saying a lot.

While they continued to watch the puppies and then kittens, Ianto brought over a fresh mug of coffee of Owen and hot chocolate and cookies for Olympia, despite the fact it was nearly 3am. At some point Owen fell asleep and didn't realize it until he was startled out of his sleep and found he was asleep in his chair and Oly was missing. He jumped up looking around for her and ran face first into Jack. Jack put a hand on his shoulder steadying him, "easy. She fell asleep about an hour ago and I took her back to bed".

Owen scrubbed his hands over his face as if he could erase the panic, "Jesus Jack, I nearly had a stroke". He ran his hand over the back of his neck, "it was like I was caught in my own mind and couldn't get out, but could see everything happening around me".

"You're lucky you didn't end up on the floor. It's nearly 6 if you want to go home and clean up".

"Yeah, yeah" he pulled on his jacket and turned off the monitor and started to walk off, "Jack, we don't need to tell the others about this".

"Tell the others that our cold hearted bastard Owen has a soft spot for kittens, puppies and little girls? Never. Your secret is safe with me" Owen nodded and hurried out of the Hub.

Hours later Owen returned showered but looked haggard, "busy night?" Gwen asked coyly.

"Yeah. Tosh, I'm going to get stuff prepped, if you want to bring up 7494. Let's get this over with". Tosh nodded, she too had been awake most of the night as well worrying about the surgery they were about to perform. Both agents headed in separate directions leaving Gwen on her own. They hadn't meant to leave her out, but they all had things to take care of involving the Cyberians and didn't have time for her opinions and after the previous day they each took care to avoid her.

When Tosh returned with 7494, Gwen realized that Jack must have authorized them to perform surgery on him. She started to open her mouth to protest, but Tosh glared at her, and she tried to remember what Jack had said. A half life was still better than none and they were about to take that away from him. Hadn't he asked her to help them settle into that life? Gwen noticed Ianto had come down stairs from Jack's office with a stack of folders and put them on Tosh's desk. "You're going to catch flies" he said.

Gwen snapped her mouth shut; "I can't believe they are just going to…" she waved in the general direction of the medical area, "Jack approved this?"

"Yes. Yesterday, Tosh and Owen went over the best options for surgery and talked to 7494 and the medical units".

"And you're okay with this?" Ianto sort of gave her a shrug of indifference, "after everything you did for Lisa you approve of what they are about to do?" she pushed.

"Yes. Because there was nothing left of Lisa to save, I thought there was, but I was wrong. She never had a chance and if she had, it would have been a life of being a half converted cyber person, she is better off dead. Jack made a decision then and he's made this one, and he was right both times. And don't you dare bring Lisa up again. Ever" Ianto turned and went back up to Jack's office to let him know that Owen and Tosh were about to start with the surgery.

Owen hated head wounds, they always bled excessively and made everything look worse than it really was, but for not being a nurse Tosh was doing her best. An extra set of hands would have been helpful but he wasn't about to ask Gwen to help. Once he had gotten the side of the man's head open they could clearly see a metal sliver wedged in the bone of his skull. They had seen it on the scans they had taken but they hadn't been able to tell if it had been fused to the bone or was just stuck in there. 5618 had been too quick to remove the last one he hadn't gotten a good look at it. Even the medical units hadn't been certain. The planting of chips was only performed by humans.

"What do you think?" Tosh asked, mopping up the blood that had surfaced around it. Owen poked at it a little to see if it had any give.

"Gimme the tweezers" he held out a hand for them. "You're a terrible nurse, but I think-" he paused mid-sentence focusing on his task. "I think it's that easy", he straightened up holding the chip between the tweezers. Tosh held out a dish for the chip and Owen dropped it in and handed her the tweezers. "I also think I am going to leave that hole alone, it's so thin the bone should grow closed and it would be better than anything artificial, so let's get this closed".

Toshiko handed him the threaded needle, "why didn't we use the laser saw again?"

"The same reason we didn't use the singularity scalpel, because I don't want to fry his brain by accidentally. How are his vitals?"

"They look good; everything looks within a normal range". They finished closing the wound and bandaged 7494's head, then left him to recover from the anesthetic.

A half hour later he started to come too and Owen, Jack and Toshiko were all waiting. "How are you feeling?" Owen asked shining a light in one eye and then the other, "responses look good".

"I don't know" the unit said.

"Sorry, we don't have the technology you do. You are going to be sore and groggy, but you shouldn't be in pain. Let me know if you are and we can give you something".

"No pain".

"Good. Get some rest and I'll check on you in a bit", Owen pushed Jack and Tosh up the stairs.

"Did it work?" Jack asked.

"I think it's too soon to tell. His primary functions are still working, so that is good. We'll have to wait for the rest of the anesthetic to wear off before we can really check his memory. He could use some quiet and rest for now, and I'll keep you posted".

"Good work guys. Get some coffee", they did as they were told and then each went back to their stations to wait for 7494 to recover enough to talk to.