It's all to set up the thing in Season Six where it looks like she's trying to get the chip removed so she can wreak havoc upon the world, but the last-minute twist is that she's getting her soul back.

Or something.

And you should buy it. It's full of awesome.

It fits better in your mouth that way.

(I used to have an English Mastiff whose party trick was that he could fit an entire slice of a large pizza in his mouth. As long as you gave it to him point first.

He also sang along with Elvis.

I miss that dog.)

Two And A Half Betas? Renee is moving in too... but nobody remembers.

It's fairly impressive to me on re-reading how Dr Frost avoids pronouns for her bodies here.  She refers to them as the decedent;  there are 'it's sprinkled about, but they seem to refer to the bag, the skull, the body parts, not the person.  She does use pronouns with living persons without much difficulty.  But if she hadn't referred to them as male in the report, you would have no idea what she thought.

Often at medical lectures, on the evaluation sheet there's a spot to request future topics.  For about a year now in various venues I've put down transgender issues, but I have yet to see that come up as a topic yet.  Maybe next year. 

Had there been something in an earlier story about her growing up in an abusive household, or possible homicide?  It rings a bell, but I saw nothing in Ballistics.

The DDOS attacks are annoying me greatly. I wanted to bid on things today... /whine.

If the pan makes twelve, I'll so take the other six. (Cardamom vanilla!)

I call dibs on tending bar. Who's playing the band?

Ahem.

http://www.elizabethbear.com/darthvader.html

I, uh. Wrote that in 1997 or so.