An e-hair body pulls large amounts of electrical energy through human flesh. A parasite body produces its own power from inside the alien parasite bonded to the host's nervous system. Both generate heat the human body cannot dissipate on its own. Cooling tubes are the industry's answer. Thin flexible tubing runs through incisions in the skin, carries fluid from reservoirs worn on the body, and routes heat away from the sites the chip or the parasite concentrates it at. The tubes are plumbing. They are also, more and more, fashion.
How the system works ¶
A standard e-hair suit carries two to four fluid reservoirs, typically worn at the hips or integrated into a backpack rig. Incision ports at the torso and upper arms connect to the reservoirs through soft tubing. Fluid circulates continuously at low speed, spiking during combat events when the chip predicts a heat event. Modern reservoirs include a drug injector that meters calm-inducing compounds into the circulation automatically for parasite hosts — the drip system that makes a jumpy parasite manageable in a fight. Earlier models ran hot and required manual intervention. Newer models self-cool well enough that some wearers stop wearing the external rig in non-combat situations.
The experimentation chamber ¶
On-Grid laboratories and Off-Grid Northern Dominion facilities both run a characteristic piece of kit: a transparent chamber where a subject sits in a bath of cooling fluid threaded with drug lines. The subject is conscious, connected at every major incision, and instrumented for telemetry. It looks like a research asset and it is one. The chamber is where the limits of any given chip or parasite are tested at safe temperatures that would kill an unassisted cyborg in seconds. The Off-Grid elites call the chambers the forge. The On-Grid scientists call them the lab. Both names describe the same object.
Why it matters ¶
Cooling tubes are the unglamorous layer under every glamorous cyborg silhouette. A citizen who glows yellow in a combat frame is a citizen whose fluid system is doing its job silently underneath the aura. When the tubes fail, the aura goes with them — the cyborg overheats, the chip protects itself by shutting down, and the combatant collapses mid-fight. Fashion designers have noticed. High-end Off-Grid suits now expose the tubes on purpose, running them along the outside of the jacket as luminous vein-like detail. The implication is direct: I have the hardware, my hardware is working, and I want you to know.