Marn began reading from the first line and did not skim. The decision itself was uncomplicated to him. Either the restrictions and risks were acceptable in exchange for the work Blackwatch required, or they weren't. What interested him more was whether the language matched the organization they had been preparing to join.

Reed leaned back slightly, PADD held in one hand. He'd signed enough documents during his career to know that anything requiring six lawyers in the same room deserved more attention than the usual scroll-to-the-bottom treatment. For once, he resisted the urge to find the signature line first.

Documents like this were well know to Khalil, but he began to read the PADD anyway. He kept an ear open for the Captain to continue. He knew he'd likely sign once he was done reading. While Kaelen gave her full attention to the Captain, Jaxom gave the PADD his, carefully reading the Starfleet legalese to the best of his ability.

Adrian had been expecting most of the finite details, and he found himself appreciating everything laid out and defined, doing it's best to leave no doubts at all.

Solana's eyes moved more slowly than the others once she reached the security provisions. Medical agreements were usually concerned with consent, treatment, and who was allowed to know what. This one was asking for something considerably broader. She took another drink of coffee and kept reading.

Wade glanced toward one of the nearest rows.

"I'm not going to read it to you. You're adults, and if you're going to agree to something this serious, I expect you to read every word of it yourselves."

He gestured toward the officers seated along the sides of the cargo bay.

"You'll also notice six JAG officers in the room. They're here for you, not for me. If there's anything in that Covenant you don't understand, anything you're uncertain about, or anything you want explained before you agree to it, speak with one of them."

A few heads turned toward the legal officers.

"There is no penalty for asking questions. There is no requirement that you decide quickly, and nobody here is going to report back to me that Chief whomever needed clarification on paragraph twelve."

That earned a few more looks around the room.

"If one of those officers tells you to slow down and think about something before you sign it, I strongly suggest you listen."

Wade let that settle before continuing.

"The Covenant explains the information you're agreeing to protect, Blackwatch security authority, restricted material, the security implant required for final induction, and the consequences of deliberately compromising this organization."

There was a noticeable shift in the room at the mention of the implant.

Solana stopped scrolling.

Of everything Wade had listed, the implant was the first item that pulled her attention completely away from the text. The nurse in her immediately had questions: placement, function, contraindications, removal, what exactly constituted activation. She suspected most of those answers were somewhere further down the document, and equally suspected some of them weren't going to be provided at all.

Reed's expression changed only slightly. "There's always a catch" he muttered quietly enough not to carry.

Jaxom looked up from the PADD and then at Khalil, "are they serious?"

Khalil shot him a stern look "As serious as the red carpet, Pup."

Jessica heard him but kept her attention on the PADD. The implant bothered her less than the implications surrounding it. Blackwatch expected capture and compromise seriously enough to implant every operator with a classified safeguard before they ever went into the field. That said more about the assignments ahead than Wade's description had.

Marn reread the implant section once.

Permanent security measure. Voluntary activation. Automatic fail-safe under specific physiological conditions. Possibility of death.

He considered it for several seconds before moving on. The risk wasn't hidden. That mattered.

The shifts in a room both physical and psychological when something like this was presented had always been something fascinating for Oksana. She felt for them; what was being asked was certainly not easy, and many would likely not truly wrap their minds around it even though they thought they understood. For some, they never did until they were direct witness to what would happen, and she prayed that particular number would remain few and far between. Her eyes finally moved back to Wade with an intense curiosity of how he was going to approach the rest.

Wade didn't try to soften it.

"Some of what you're being asked to accept is extreme. That's intentional. So I'm going to make something equally clear."

He folded his hands behind his back.

"Blackwatch is voluntary."

The room remained silent.

"Nobody is going to order you to sign that Covenant. Nobody is going to threaten your career because you decide this isn't what you volunteered for. And nobody in this room gets to look down on somebody who decides the price is higher than they're willing to pay."

Wade looked from one side of the bay to the other.

"If you read it and decide you don't want this, you are free to get up and leave at any time. You don't need to explain yourself to me. You don't need permission from your Team Leader. You don't need to wait until everyone else is finished."

He motioned toward the cargo-bay doors.

"If you choose to leave, you will report to Starbase 234 with your personal belongings after clearing your quarters. There are folks standing by to help you pack and the officer of the watch will clear you as soon as you are done. Personnel on the starbase already have instructions to arrange your reassignment for those of you that so decide."

His gaze moved briefly toward the JAG officers before returning to the assembled candidates.

"If you're unsure, ask questions. If you need ten minutes with JAG, take ten minutes. If you need an hour, take an hour. I'd rather have one hundred and fifty people in Blackwatch who understood exactly what they agreed to than two hundred who signed because everyone around them did."

He paused. "Once you sign, however, I'm going to expect you to understand what you agreed to. So take your time." Wade then stepped back from the edge of the platform.

For several seconds there was almost no movement at all. Then the sound of fingers moving across PADDs began to spread through the cargo bay.

Some read quickly. Others slowed considerably as they reached later sections. An Andorian lieutenant near the center went back several pages and read something a second time. A Human petty officer leaned forward with both elbows against his knees, staring at the display.

Jessica reached the end and went back rather than signing immediately. She reread the sections covering Special Security Jurisdiction and SEALED material, checking the wording more carefully the second time. It wasn't hesitation so much as habit. If she put her name on something, she wanted to know precisely what she'd agreed to.

Beside her, Marn was still reading.

"You've been on the same paragraph for three minutes" Reed observed quietly.

"Two minutes, forty-one seconds."

"That's much better."

Marn ignored him and continued.

Reed himself had reached the penalties section. The dry humor had disappeared for the moment. Indefinite imprisonment and Administrative Erasure were serious enough. The line concerning High Treason and the possibility of death kept his attention a little longer before he finally continued down the page.

Solana found herself returning to the implant language again. She understood why it existed. That didn't mean she particularly liked accepting a piece of technology capable of deciding that her knowledge was more dangerous than her continued survival. The Covenant wasn't pretending otherwise, though. Wade had given everyone the opportunity to leave, and six lawyers were sitting twenty meters away if she wanted someone to explain exactly what she was agreeing to.