Awakening — Donna Maree Hanson

Bring out the cold soldiers who lie in frozen sleep.Do not wake them nor let their tranquil faces beguile.They are purveyors of death.They must burn!What soldiers? Colony Five has been proudly peaceful since before living memory. The cryptic new orders make no sense to Deleen Milo... until she sees the burning bodies in the stasis sarcophagi. She tries to uncover the truth behind the mysterious soldiers, only to become adrift in a colony suddenly full of secrets and threats. Who wants the soldiers destroyed and the colony defenceless?Pursued into hiding, Deleen manages to revive Rik Chesson, a Cold Soldier trying to understand the new world waiting for him after 134 years of cryosleep. Deleen has never trusted easily, and Rik's nanotech-infused posthuman form sets her nerves on edge. But they are the only ones who can rescue the surviving Cold Soldiers and defend the colony against a deadly new threat. They have to work together, and as they begin to truly know one another Deleen realises that however Rik's body may have changed, the man inside might just be one she can love...