What if we just had an NPC that slotted it in the second slot? And/or an NPC that when you hand him any aug, he gives you a Version B of that aug. Only the version A's could be combined, so youd have to hand him the B back to make it an A before doing any combines.

Now we just need to find a way to remove the carpel tunnel from the UC1 combine

I have to agree, the way the pets are now makes it very difficult to do any sort of trade or turn in. It also VERY distracting when walking to have them port to you over and over.