The building sat as its own small complex upon the Arcadia hospital complex. It had three sides, and a large courtyard annex stuffed full of trees, benches, and a single large fountain. A local sculpture had been commissioned to create the statue in the middle, a two-part artwork depicting a Drev and a human clasping hands. The little plaque that sat on the edge of the fountain dedicated the fountain as the Drev war memorial and if you looked close enough into the burbling water of the fountain, you could just see the delicate white outline of names carved into the dark stone, human, drev, Tesraki, and Rundi names all mixed together.

The main entrance sat on the left wing of the building, leading straight into intake.

Over the door, large silver letters glittered in the light of artificial suns.

Steel Eye Health and Wellness

"How many do we have?" Adam asked, taking the clipboard from the SE representative's open hand. Up until this very moment, the SE manufaturerers had been so exclusive, they didn't even have their own facility. When Adam had asked the rep, why not, he stated that they used all of their money specifically on R&D, so there wasn't much room for their own facility.

After Adam made his offer to fund SE, they had agreed Arcadia could be their main base of operation .

"There are Fifteen volunteers all together." The rep said, motioning to the clipboard. Eight women and seven men, but we imagine that number is going to double if not triple over the next month or so. A lot of governments have shown interest in our project, and a few of them are looking to sponsor a human of their own"

Adam nodded, "Never got it to work on aliens."

The rep shook his head, "Not as of yet. As you know we have rigorous testing standards. Owing to.... Our predecessors, it is important that we don't move through things too quickly. When it comes to modes that will work on nonhumans, we have yet to leave the inanimate object testing face, much less move onto live subjects."

Adam's eyes scanned quickly down the list.

"Why not, Drev seem more than durable enough."

"It has nothing really to do with durability." The rep said, "But more to with nerve clusters, how they fire, how they experience pain and movement. The human body is an odd mixture of durability and easy access to major nerve clusters. The human spine for instance allows for easy access to the most major nerve highway in the body. The Drev are harder to work with considering their backplates. That is not to mention the fibrous connective tissue and their already tough skin. Past that you would be surprised how sensitive Drev nerves are, so as of yet, SE enabled Drev arent viable."

Adam looked down at his hand, flexing his fingers and watching as light glimmered off the metal edges of his exoskeleton.

Eventually, he turned his eyes back to the clipboard running down a list of demographics. There were at least Seven volunteers from Arcadia, six from Earth, one from Mars, and one from Hathor to his surprise.

"President Kelly sponsored most of the ones from earth. The martians are still debating on the subject, but they decided to give one a go. The rest are up in the air. We are in negotiation with the jupiter colonies. As you know they are a little less wealthy than Earth, so they won't be able to sponsor as many, but we think we can work with them.

Adam nodded slowly, "If it comes down to money, just tell them a lower price and i'll pay off the rest. I care more about the safety of this galaxy than how much money is in my pockets.

He would have liked to do all of this for free, but that was hardly a viable option. The SE suits were incredibly complex to manufacture, and that meant paying for the raw materials, the refinement of those materials, advanced computer components and processors, not to mention that actual implantation itself which lasted over the course of a few weeks, less so now that krill was helping to perform the operations, but still.

Adam motioned towards the door, "May I...."

The rep motioned him inside, 'Go on in, might as well have your name on it."

Adam nodded, stepping through the door, all the while fully conscious of the Se exoskeleton that augmented his body. Usually it was something he could ignore, but lately he had become acutely aware of his own fragility, and wondered what might have happened to him if he didn't have the augmentation. Adam had been a part of the original group that received a permanent implantation of the SE exoskeleton, which they were later able to develop into something that could be taken off and put back on.

This included a line of connection ports that went directly into the body, to which the SE suit could be 'plugged in

Many of the people he knew had this generation of augments, including maverick who, he noticed, wore her exoskeleton for longer and longer periods of time, until the point where she had stopped unplugging it at all. Wearing an se exosuit indefinitely was completely possible, but Ramirez had made his opinion on the subject very clear.

He didn't think it was mtally healthy to do so.

Ramirez had been as tactful as possible when voicing his opinion, but that opinion had ben very clear. Maverick Adam and everyone else who had an SE augment became emotionally reliant on the SE suit to create the sensation of safety. It was his opinion that this emotional reliance was incredibly unhealthy.

For maverick it was bad enough, but he had also insinuated that, for Adam the choice to wear the SE suit indefinitely was actively holding him back from recovering fully from the Drev war.

Again he hadn't presented that so blatantly or without tact, but Adam had understood his meaning.

He tried not to get defensive, and spoke to Sunny about it, who he was surprised to find agreed almost completely with ramirez.

"If you trusted me as much as you trusted that suit we would be unstoppable." The observation hadn't been in a nagging way, or even angry. In fact, she hadn't looked up from the spearhead she was sharpening as if this sudden revelation was a reality she had been aware of for a very long time.

Adam had protested, saying that he did trust her, but she had simply smiled at him, "You do trust me, I never said you didn't, but if you took that suit off, I don't think I would be able to make you feel as safe."

She had a point, and he felt horrible for it, but a more stubborn part of him pushed those thoughts aside as something he could deal with later. Even so, he tasked Riss with helping to evaluate new SE candidates to make sure they had the mental health required to take on an augment this serious.

He followed the rep inside passing down white halls and into the waiting room.

He saw faces there he did not recognize, and shook hands whose warmth was unfamiliar.

A few of the curious volunteers asked politely to view his augments, and he gladly let them standing and holding out his arms as they touched gently and asked questions.

"How well do you sleep?'

"Does it make it difficult to find clothes?"

"Do you ever snag it on anything?"

"IS there ever any pain."

He answered all the questions, and then some, before being led out of the waiting room and down the hall.

"Intake generally takes a few days. We start with general demographics and a wellness checkup. You won't be surprised to find that our specifications are very important, this includes bone density, genetic testing for nerve related diseases, including neurodegenerative that can result in the random firing of nerves. There are a few skin conditions that we don't recommend when paired with the SE including severe forms of eczema."

Diagnosis that precluded you from getting an SE augment included, MS, Parkinsons, and Huntington's diseases including all other movement related or neurodegenerative diseases specifically that affect movement or the demyelination of neurons. A history of Alzheimer's especially early onset, epilepsy, and tourettes would do it as well. Also anything that adversely affected bone density.

Other diagnoses that could potentially stop you from joining the program was hypermobility in the joints, to the point where it would be dangerous to augment, extreme cases of Eczema, and a whole list of other things affecting the skin, the bones, the tendons and the joints.

He was led down another hallway, with open doors on either side that led into well stocked exam rooms. Somewhere in the distance, he could heart the whirring of machines, "This is where we do all of our exams."

Peering in through the doors, he could see patient figures sitting on exam tables waiting for a doctor.

Behind closed doors he could hear the murmuring of voices.

It was almost towards the end of the hall when Adam did a double take, screeching to a halt against the marble floor. Peering in through the open door he almost didn't believe who he saw there.

But the unlit cigarette he twirled between his fingers was enough for Adam to be sure it was him.

"Lindsay?"

The Ex Steel eye soldier lifted his head and smiled, "Adam!"

He backtracked to stand in the doorway, "I'll be damned, you old dog, what are you doing here."

"I have a kink for probing."

Adam laughed hoping that was a joke.

Lindsay tuckd the unlit cigarette into his pocket, "I am here as a volunteer, thought that was obvious."

Adam frowned, "But.... do you really think that's healthy...."

Lindsay's eyebrows inched up towards his hairline, "You pot, me kettle,."

Adam flushed a little red,, "Look I get where you're coming from but I.... what about your family...."

"All arguments I could make to you." He shot back, "And no offense kid, but out of all the returned Steel eye soldiers, I am definitely the most psychologically sound plus I talked it over with my wife, and we have come to the conclusion that my involvement is more important than whatever risks I might be running. It's been quite a few years so all of my children are old enough to understand that as well."

Adam frowned at him, "Kid?.... No offense, old timer but my hair is whiter than yours."

"And I'm only about seven years older than you." he glanced towards the rep, "Is this where you do the psych evals.... And yes, Mr. Lindsay passed with flying colors."

Adam still stood in the doorway hands nervously gripping the doorway, "Look, Lindsay, I am grateful and I admire your bravery, but this is not something that you have to do, and it's certainly not something you should have to do. You did your time, and I think maybe its time you get some peace.'

The man huffed, "Ain't gonna have no damn piece until these void assholes aren't threatening to blow up the universe, now am I. I would like to make sure that my children have a future, so don't sit here and lecture me, while you stand there in a puddle of your own hypocrisy."

He was right, it stung but he was right.

He lowered his voice again, "I am well aware of the consequences, more so than you probably were when you offered to put on that suit."

That was probably also true.

But that begged the question.

Were there any other Steel eye soldiers dumb enough to make this decisin again?