A/N So look, I know I said I wasn't going to write too much for a while but this idea sort of jumped into my head and just would not let go. I had to get it out, so I wrote it down. It's not like anything I've ever written before and it's actually not like anything I've ever read before! Hopefully you'll enjoy it, but I can certainly understand if it's just too weird!

I don't own Chuck

Chapter 1

3 tendays ago

"Bartowski, we've got a problem!" The gruff, and not particularly welcome, voice of General Diane Beckman sounded in his ear.

No way Chuck groaned to himself as the last vestiges of his dream departed. He'd just been getting to the good bit. Sarah was down to her underwear and- "Bartowski!"

"Receive Beckman," he commanded and then replied, "Yes, General," trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Luckily she was on audio only so she couldn't see what he was currently wearing. Or not wearing, as it happened. He'd thought he wouldn't have to be in touch with the irascible general for another few tendays, but clearly she'd over-ridden his comm, which probably wasn't good news. He did, after all, have another two tendays of his leave left. He was sorry that he hadn't been able to get leave with Sarah, but they'd both agreed that they needed to keep their fledgling relationship a secret for the time being. So here he was, chilling in Ellie's spare room in Landing City while she and her husband Devon were doing night duty at the Fleet Central Hospital.

He'd said fledgling relationship. Actually they'd known each other for nearly three years already, but they'd only been together as a couple for a few months. Finally he'd managed to break down Sarah's steely resolve and she'd admitted that his feelings for her were reciprocated. It had been hard work. There was no denying that there'd been an attraction between them from the beginning. But the Alliance's Special Operations Agents were not known for their humanity.

In fact, Special Operations Agents were hardly known at all. Barely acknowledged as a reality by the Alliance, they were the operatives that were thrown at situations when everything was going to shit. The Special Operations Agents patrolled the frontiers of known space and were most often called only if the manure hit the rotary turbine. Special Operations Agents were physically impressive and mentally focused. But the training, and the nature of how they operated, often meant that they ended up losing a grip on their humanity. Certainly that was the case with the two agents with whom Chuck was most familiar.

Special Ops Agents rarely had leave and generally went from one emergency to another. Due to the nature of their job they didn't have too much contact with civilians and hence weren't particularly empathic either with them, their own colleagues and most certainly not with their enemies. Policing the frontier, operating alone with only their ship's computer for company, weren't the best drivers of a sunny disposition. If you wanted someone to fight themselves out of an ambush by Patek soldiers then choose a SOA. If you wanted someone to tell about your sister getting married (and expect to get more than a grunt), then better to choose someone else.

But Chuck was a firm believer that Special Ops Agents didn't entirely give up their humanity, they just had to bury it. Certainly he felt that was the case with Sarah and Casey.

They hadn't met under the most auspicious circumstances. They'd rescued him when the ship he'd been serving on, the Chukka, had been attacked by pirates. Their own ships had practically been destroyed in the action as well. He remembered Sarah's surprise when he'd rescued her with his ship's shuttle. She'd been expecting to die and had been prepared for that. Such were the requirements of the job for Special Ops Agents of the AIA.

But not in Star Force. In Star Force it was all about the team. And these agents had risked their lives for Chuck and his crew, so he'd happily risked his life for them. He'd managed to get the injured agents on board the shuttle, transferred and stabilised in the Chukka's sickbay. Unfortunately the sickbay was overpopulated with the few crew that had survived the attack as well. The Chukka was a small outdated frigate, really just a scientific research ship, and wasn't set up to survive an attack by military grade beam weapons. Her screens had collapsed after the first pass, the Bridge was hit on the second and the engine room destroyed on the third. If the SOAs hadn't turned up, Chuck didn't know what would have happened. Whether the attackers would have destroyed the Chukka or whether they would have boarded her. Given that the SOAs had completely destroyed the enemy ships, he never would.

The SOAs had recovered much faster than the regular crew, due to the nanites and other funky stuff which were part of their bodies. But, absent their ships and their computers, they hadn't been able to help with the situation they all found themselves in. With Captain Ramirez and most of the other officers dead, it had fallen to Chuck to find a way to send a distress signal, because he was the computer and engineering specialist. But in the three tendays what was left of the Chukka had drifted in the ether, they'd all been forced to communicate. When the rescue ships arrived, all the survivors had been evacuated to the nearest hub planet, where Chuck had been pulled into and helped with a mission to save an important General on a frontier tour, and thus a bond had been formed between the three of them. The team had worked so well together that Beckman had seconded Chuck to the Intelligence and Border security division, and they'd become her best team over the past few years.

Casey was the oldest of the agents, and certainly the most sarcastic. But he'd saved Chuck in a few firefights and in return been saved a few times himself. Chuck knew Casey had come to respect him, just as he respected the older man. He thought that Casey might even like him. He would probably never know though. Casey wasn't one for what he termed "lady feelings". He wasn't really one for any type of feelings at all in fact.

Sarah was different. Seemingly harder and even more focused than Casey, she was deadly in martial arts. Casey was the long-distance man while Sarah was the most dangerous at short range. When she activated her skin-tight, armoured skinsuit she was beautiful and deadly, and many an enemy had underestimated her. But underneath the hardness was an empathy that amazed him. Sometimes, even though her face was hard and emotionless, you could see in her eyes how much she cared about something. Often him. They'd been drawn to each other almost from the beginning. Emotionally to start with, and eventually physically. Sarah had seen something in the nerdy Chuck that was better than him, and Chuck had seen the emotion in Sarah that she tried to hide. As Sarah got in touch with her emotional side she had actually become a better agent, not a worse one as she'd feared. And as Casey and Sarah trained Chuck to function in their world, his social and computer skills had helped on many of their missions.

Chuck had slotted in as their data analyst, tactician and they often used him undercover on missions because he was much more able to empathise with civilians than they were. Oftentimes though he simply stayed on the ship and provided support from range. He was good with that; the work the SOAs did was often direct and extremely dangerous. He would help where he could, but he didn't have the training or the physical modifications and abilities that they had.

"Bartowski, we've got a priority one emergency!" The General's voice issued directly into his ear, pulling him back to the present. With the longer sentence he was able to pick up the tone of concern and urgency in the older woman's voice, as well as the normal gruffness. "I need you back as soon as possible. There'll be a courier waiting for you at Station One, once you get there."

He bit off his objection. Priority one meant a real emergency; certainly enough to cancel a leave for. Even one anticipated for as long as this one.

"Sure, General," he responded through his implanted throat microphone, already thinking about what he was going to tell Ellie. It was the first leave he'd had in two years and he hadn't seen his sister in more than 18 months. As a Star Force medical officer she was assigned many light years away from where he operated along the Arosis frontier region. "Will I meet up with Sarah and Casey on the ship, or when I reach base?"

"Uh," the General paused, and Chuck was immediately alert.

"General?" he questioned, concerned.

"I'm afraid they're part of your mission Bartowski," the CO's voice sounded guarded.

"Explain, General," he requested. "I thought they were recertifying while I was away? You told us no missions until I got back."

"Unfortunately, that wasn't possible Bartowski." Now the General sounded slightly apologetic. "We got a report that another SOA went missing. That's the fourth this year. I had to send my best."

"General, we're your best because we work together," Chuck grated out dangerously. He knew he should guard his tone with the Boss, but he'd worked with her for long enough now to develop some sort of relationship. Even though she was gruff on the outside, she was very competent and she genuinely cared for her people.

"That's exactly what Walker said," the General acknowledged. "But I thought you could follow when you got back from leave." She paused. "Turns out I was wrong."

"What happened?" he asked, now worried. Sarah and Casey genuinely were two of the best SOAs in the service but the three of them working together were somehow more than the sum of their parts. His analytical and scientific skills often made a difference in their missions. Something that the Brass had been slow to acknowledge. While he knew that his partners valued his contributions, the bosses had never really understood how a nerd could contribute to their elite team. He had hoped he'd started to convince them, but obviously not.

"Their last contact was on Omskirk," the General explained. "They sent a full data download. They fell out of contact shortly after that. I'll get the data sent to your jump ship for when you board. Then you can evaluate it and decide how to proceed."

"OK," he acknowledged. There was no point in recriminations now. He needed to get off this planet and back to help his partners as soon as possible. "I'll need Morgan."

"I knew you were gonna say that," Beckman groaned. "I'll get the bearded moron cut loose and on his way now."

"OK," Chuck confirmed. "I'll be up on the Orbital ASAP. Bartowski out."

"Beckman out."

"Ah, Commander Carmichael, please do come in," the older man greeted him, rising and holding out his hand. He had dark hair, a short goatee and was about two metres in height. At least that's how he looked today. Chuck didn't know if it was a chameleon suit or the man had had surgery. It wasn't the look that the man had had in his file but that didn't really mean anything. The older man pushed the grey-furred poodle with the red bowed top knot off his knee as he stood up. The poodle let out an irate noise and jumped out of the way. "Do behave Graham, or it's out to the woodshed for you." The mild tone was gone and now his voice was hard as ice. The poodle mewed and slunk away with its tail between its legs.

Chuck strode over to the man, holding out his fist for a bump. "The pleasure's all mine, Mr uh Orion." He was pissed with himself that he stuttered.

"Oh, just Orion," the man clarified, mild tone back, bumping fists with Chuck. "Please do take a seat. What is it I can do for the Alliance Star Force?"

After working through Sarah and Casey's notes it was clear who they thought was responsible for the disappearances. Through some pretty impressive detective work his partners had traced the disappearances back to the reclusive scientist Orion who lived on the outskirts of Freetown, a small village in the wilds of Ormskirk's equatorial zone. While it was cloyingly hot outside in this area (the average daytime temperature was 40 degrees centigrade), it was also extremely beautiful.

The scientist was apparently working on engineering research to advance hyperspeed travel, although Chuck hadn't been able to find anything he'd published on that topic ever. He had however found a number of papers from over 30 years ago on mind transfer, before the man had disappeared off the face of Old Earth. Chuck had only seen that degree of clean up once and it had been for someone who had been recruited by the AIA.

It had taken a lot of browbeating to get General Di to open up about Orion. That was made even more difficult given he was doing it remotely. She'd really given Chuck the runaround for days before apparently deciding she needed to answer his questions. Apparently she'd known Orion previously. There seemed to be no love lost. Beckman generally wasn't a fan of those who left the AIA, particularly when they had lots more to give, and she let them know it. Orion had left nearly 15 years ago and quickly vanished, it now seemed, to the fringes of the frontier. It had taken even more effort to get details on his research.

Personality shifting. Orion was using technology to try and shift the traits of one person into another. It had started as a way to upskill special operatives and give them the sort of memories and skills they'd need for deep undercover missions. But it had started to go off the rails when Orion had discovered that the AIA had apparently manipulated his past (although in what way, Chuck had been unable to ascertain). Then he'd quit and apparently run away.

Given that the scientist had seemed to suss out that Casey and Sarah were undercover agents and discover them in short order, Chuck had decided to go in with an official cover. He'd only changed his name and his job slightly. 'Always hide a lie inside a truth' was, after all, one of Sarah's favourite expressions!

"I've been sent to try and track down some missing operatives," he stated. "They disappeared in this system and I wonder if you might be able to help?"

"Oh?" The man looked surprised by his straight up approach, but his poker face was fully in play. "Why would you ask me?"

"Well, we initially approached the planetary government," Chuck explained. That was in fact true, but only just in case Orion had informers in the government. "They drew a blank, but they did suggest that you had monitoring equipment throughout the system." At least the planetary security rep had after he'd all but guided him down that line. "They told us how you'd caught that asteroid that they missed last year. They suggested that you may be able to help track down our operatives' ship."

"Do you have their course and any details?" Orion enquired.

"Yes, we have an estimation," Chuck confirmed.

"Well, let's feed it into my computers," the scientist offered. "I estimate it'll take a few days to do the calculations."

This was strange. Why was Orion offering to help when all their intelligence suggested that he was responsible for Sarah's and Casey's disappearance?

"Oh, that's very kind," Chuck replied, wondering how to play it. He decided to play it safe. "I don't want to impose. I'll make arrangements to come back in a few days."

"Nonsense, Charles," Orion replied. "You must stay with me. When's the last time you spent any time on a planet?"

"Well, it has been some years," replied Chuck. Seven years, eight months and four days actually. Not that he was counting. Since a tenday after the day he'd come back early from work to find his fiancée Jill in bed with Bryce Larkin, his so-called best friend from the Fleet Academy. He'd requested a transfer to space duty, and it had immediately been granted. Since then he'd visited planets for a day or two at the most but almost all of his time had been spent in ships and on stations.

"You must stay here then," the scientist replied. "So long as you don't mind dogs? I've got quite a few of them here. They keep me company. Brilliant companions."

Chuck didn't actually have any strong feelings about dogs. He'd seen them around and about. He knew they originated from Old Earth. His family had never had them as pets, but he'd known people who had. They seemed quite cute, so he was sure he could put up with them for a few days until he could find some leads as to whatever had happened to his partners and the other missing agents.

"Thank you for the invitation," he replied.

The scientist crinkled a smile. There was something familiar about the smile, but Chuck couldn't put his finger on it. "Great. I don't often get guests so it's nice to spend time with someone for a while. Why don't you call your ship to tell them your plans? It would be better to do that from here because there's a dampening field over the rest of the compound to protect my experiments. When you've done that, I can show you to your room and round the compound a bit."

Chuck had called up to the ship. In the spirit of pretending it was a straight up search mission, they'd commandeered a destroyer for the job. It was thought that with a destroyer in orbit, Orion would be less likely to try and make Chuck disappear. Plus, Chuck might need to make use of the ship's Marine detachment if it came to making a raid. The Churchill's captain hadn't been that chuffed to have her ship commandeered for this mission but General Beckman had told Lieutenant Commander Rogerson to just grin and bear it. He'd left Morgan up there on the ship and they'd agreed several code words in advance so that his friend could get the gist of whatever the plan was.

After the call Chuck had been led to his room, where he'd dropped off some gear, keeping his utility belt and backup weapons with him, then Orion had shown him the computer room where he'd set up the search program, the rest of the house, and now he was guiding Chuck around the grounds. It was a beautiful compound, covering many hectares, filled with trees to provide welcome shade from the sun, and a selection of beautiful flowering plants, both native and from Old Earth. Chuck was rather struck with the Old Earth rhododendrons, which had been one of his father's favourite plants.

They had encountered various dogs during the tour, either relaxing in the sun or running around, but it was in the shade next to the rhododendrons where they encountered a group of five or six running around together, almost choreographed. Chuck was just about to comment about how strange it looked to see dogs doing almost organised exercise when Orion called. "There you are, you troublesome lot! I'd like to introduce you to Commander Carmichael from Space Force. He's here looking for some missing agents."

Chuck decided not to correct the man on his rank, even though this was the second time he'd got it wrong. Most civilians wouldn't know the difference between a lieutenant commander and a commander anyway, even though the two and half rings, not three, on his sleeves should be a dead giveaway to anyone who had even a passing knowledge of the Fleet.

He had already been surprised about how Orion spoke to the dogs around the compound almost as though they were human. But why was he now explaining Chuck's role to his pets? Chuck didn't know enough about dogs to judge if their reaction was atypical, but they all perked up and then scampered over to the newcomers. Like all of the dogs they'd already encountered, these ones seemed to be different breeds.

"Wow, I've never seen so many different breeds," Chuck exclaimed, "What are they all?"

Orion grinned. "Well this one here - B - he's a Whippet. J here is a German Shepherd, A is a Yorkshire terrier, S is a Chow Chow, G is a Golden Retriever, and C is a Shih Tzu." All the dogs seemed to be known by initials, except Graham the poodle (a breed which Chuck had recognised) and a pug (or so Orion had explained) called Roan, who'd been sniffing the arse of a very pretty dog that Orion had explained was a King Charles Spaniel (H). Orion had shouted at Roan to stop being such a randy bugger, and aimed a kick at his backside, forcing him to run off.

By now the dogs had all reached them and they ran up to the two humans, seeming to pay special attention to Chuck. While all the dogs were pretty cute and fluffy (with the possible exception of the German Shepherd which looked rather stern) Chuck was drawn by the rather striking Chow Chow which looked like no other dog he'd ever seen. The medium-sized, cream-coloured canine was covered in fur and looked like a powder puff, with just its ears, tail and snout sticking out.

"I've never seen one of these before," Chuck admitted, "What a beautiful animal!"

Orion had given a somewhat sad smile, "Yes, she is rather striking. An unusual breed. Very protective of their families."

The Chow Chow rubbed herself against Chuck's legs as Chuck knelt down to run his hands through her silken fur. "She seems to have taken a fancy to you as well," Orion observed.

"She is beautiful," Chuck repeated.

"Well, why don't you take her for a stroll?" Orion suggested. "Dinner is in three h-units in the dining room, so I'll see you there. Feel free to explore the compound for yourself. Only my bedroom and my lab are off limits, if you don't mind." And with that, the scientist turned and left. Most of the canines wandered off, only the Whippet and the German Shepherd staying nearby, while Chuck continued to pet the Chow Chow who seemed to enjoy the attention.

Stranger and stranger. Chuck had seen the compound's plans and Orion's lab was not really big enough to keep two agents prisoner, and neither was his bedroom. Maybe there was a secret part of the compound, or the agents were being held off site? Chuck supposed that there were worse places to spend time while he tried to find out.

Deciding to start exploring the compound to see if he could find any clues or secret entrances, Chuck looked down at his companion. "Do you fancy joining me for a walk?" The Chow Chow looked enthusiastic, wagging her tail so vigorously that her entire backside wagged with it.

Chuck couldn't help but grin. "I'll take it that's a yes then."

Chuck sighed, feeling slightly fatigued. He'd been walking around in the heat for what he calculated was nearly two local H-units. While it wasn't any warmer than Lizzie, the planet where he'd grown up, it had been many years since he'd been to Lizzie and he'd spent the intervening period inside ships and stations where the temperature was kept cooler. Apart from the Academy and Fleet HQ, which were on Queensland, this was practically the only planet he'd visited for ages. And Queensland was much cooler than Lizzie had been.

He'd calculated a search system in his head and followed it, making sure he made his movements seemingly random so that it was not obvious that he was covering every square metre of the ground. So far he hadn't found anything out of the ordinary. Just beautifully landscaped grounds. His new companion had been at his side every step of the way but now even she seemed to be flagging. She kept veering towards a shady area surrounded by trees and bushes. He looked down. "Ready for a break?" he offered.

The Chow Chow looked excited, wagging her tail, and once again veered towards the same area, leading him into it and lying down next to a rock. Chuck paused, trying to keep the doubt off his face. The angle of the trees and bushes in this area seemed to block off the security and surveillance cameras sprinkled throughout the property. That, in itself, was cause for interest. And if that wasn't, then the behaviour of the German Shepherd certainly was. It (he didn't know if it was male or female and didn't really want to check) had trailed them all afternoon, hiding behind bushes and trees, almost like it was on a surveillance operation. It was all very strange. It was only the anti-surveillance training that Casey and Sarah had drummed into him that allowed him to work out what was happening.

Deciding he had paused for long enough, Chuck decided to follow his companion and went to take a seat on the rock. Pulling his flask from his utility belt, he gestured with it to the animal.

"Want some?" he asked. The dog looked up at him in an almost a perky way, wagging her tail. He squirted some of the energy drink into a hollow in one of the rocks, and the Chow Chow immediately went to lick it up, making a low sound of appreciation. Chuck grinned to himself and had some more conventional sips, leaning back to relax against a rock.

He waited for the Chow Chow to finish her refreshment, which she did quickly, looking up at him but still panting slightly in the heat and with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. He asked, "Will your partner be joining us?"

The Chow Chow's eyes shot up to his, and he could see an almost-human expression of surprise in them. Then it was like there was almost pride. She looked down and to the left and then to the right. It was almost a human negative expression.

"That's a no?" he asked, and she yipped and wagged her tail. So she understood him. Perfectly.

"Perhaps you'd better explain what's going on?" he requested, realising as he said it what a daft suggestion it was, even as he was transfixed with a doggy glare. "Sorry," he added.

The Chow Chow huffed then started pawing at the damp earth, continuing for a while. Chuck wondered what she was doing, but she kept going. He got up to look. She'd made a letter S. That was how she'd been introduced after all. But she kept going. That looked like an A and now an R.

"Wait," gasped Chuck, causing the Chow Chow to stop what she was doing and look up at him. "You know where Sarah is?" he looked at the dog as she huffed out an exasperated sigh.

"I don't understand," he confessed as she pranced around over the letters. He crouched down next to her. "What are you trying to tell me?" She pressed herself against him then and then got up on her hind legs pushing her body against his. The pressure was unexpected and Chuck fell over on his back.

She stretched her body on top of his chest, laying her paws on his upper chest. And her head just below his. She regarded him with intelligent blue eyes. Wait! Blue eyes?

Chuck couldn't believe it. No way. "You're Sarah?!" he gasped. She gave a yip and leaned down to lick his cheek.

"Ah, gross!" he exclaimed, recoiling in disgust. "Sarah that was gross!" he re-iterated, wiping at his cheek. He saw the momentary sadness in her eyes, but then she yipped and wagged her tail. "No way!" he gasped, realising that in fact the love of his life was currently inhabiting a dog's body. "Oh my God."

His mind was moving a mile of minute. So "S" stood for Sarah. But that would mean - "No way?! Casey's a Shih Tzu?" he couldn't help it, it just came out. There was a low and dangerous growl from the bushes behind him and then it struck him. "Oh, J for John. Sorry Casey. Quite right, a big butch German Shepherd. A protector, ideal." He managed to bring his spiralling under control as Sarah snuffed out what could only have been a laugh.

"So, Orion did this to you?" he asked, determined to find out what was going on.

Sarah did the side to side thing with her head, which meant No.

"Someone else?" he asked, receiving an affirmative yip. "Who?" he asked, and she went back to spelling again. He took his time this time, letting her work, waiting til she made four whole letters.

"V-O-L-K…Volkov?" he asked. "Alexei Volkov?" She yipped to confirm that was the case. The smuggler was well known to Alliance Security and they'd butted heads with him or his operatives many times in various situations.

"He's here in the compound?" he asked.

Receiving a negative, he thought about how to phrase the next question, but Sarah was staring intently up. He followed her gaze. "He's monitoring through the cameras?" he asked, receiving an affirmative yip.

"Is Orion under duress?" he asked, again receiving an affirmative yip.

"Does Orion know who I am?" This time the reply was confusing. It was sort of a mixture of the two reactions. He thought about it for a second. "Orion knows I work with you, but he doesn't know my identity," he offered, receiving an affirmative yip.

"Does Orion have a plan?" he asked, again receiving an affirmative yip which was repeated after he asked, "Does he need me to help?"

The obvious question was how? Chuck took a deep breath, wondering how to phrase the questions to find out what was going on. He sank back down on his rock and Sarah took the opportunity to press herself against him, resting her head on this thigh. He buried his hands in the soft fur on her head.

It was a bit shattering. He was expecting to find his partners captured and held prisoner somewhere. He could just fly in and rescue them and then they could get back to work. This was nowhere close to what he was expecting. Getting them out of here wouldn't be a problem. Reversing what had been done to them? Now that was gonna be an issue. He'd never heard of anything like this before. This was way outside his expertise. How were they gonna fix this?

Any readers from colonies derived from AmFed might be a little confused by the archaic grammar and vocabulary of this story. It all comes down to the history of how this part of the galaxy was colonised. Ancient history suggests that this part of the Galaxy was colonised by a Martian consortium, the Londinium Group. The founders of that group hailed from a little-known part of Old Earth, located in the far west of the EuroFed, an area known as Anglan. Once, it was a promised land of rolling fields, until the major conurbation of Londinium all but took over the country. The Martian colonists left to try and set up their own bit of paradise on Mars, post terraforming. The founders of Londinium Group insisted that their ancient and strange dialect of the more accepted Common English be used in all meetings and communications and that's why the whole of The Alliance uses this weird dialect.

A/N1 So, as you've probably guessed by now, this isn't a Green Feet story. Apologies to those waiting for the next GF story but unfortunately this would not go back in its box! This is effectively a short story but I've split it up (into four chapters) because I think it was a bit long on its own. It's obviously very different from my usual fayre so please tell me what you think!

A/N2 I thought personality shifting is as close to the Intersect as you'd get in a sci fi story set in the future. I'm thinking the shifting is a bit like in Old Man's War by John Scalzi (excellent, if you've never read it), although with noticeable differences which will become clear later on.