Psychic Warrior by Bob Mayer Page A

what you need in order to be able to go in there." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the tanks. "We call these isolation tanks. The embryonic fluid not only cools your body, but suspends you so that you have no sense of physical contact with the outside world, not even gravity."
    Dalton could read the mood of the team. Hammond had not led into this well at all. He stepped up next to her.
    "Remember how you all felt in airborne school at Fort Benning," Dalton said, "the night before your first jump?"
    Hammond turned in surprise at his interruption.
    "I don't know about you guys, but I was scared," Dalton continued. "Not so much of jumping, but because I’d never done it before. It was a new experience and everyone gets a little nervous before trying something new." Dalton turned sideways so that he was half facing the team and half facing the tanks. "But as you can see, it works. Just like you knew at Benning that all those people before had jumped and been all right. That doesn't mean it's perfectly safe," Dalton added. "But the more you learn about it, the safer it will be for you." Dalton turned back to Hammond. "Sorry, Doctor. Go ahead."
    "Let me explain why these isolation tanks are important," Hammond said, walking between the team and the tubes. "Your brain works on several levels. What we want to do with the machines is allow you to remove all other inputs and distractions to your brain and allow you to concentrate on the virtual plane."
    "I don't call breathing a distraction," Staff Sergeant Stith remarked.
    Hammond ignored the comment. "There will be two major aspects to your training here. In the mornings, we’ll work on adapting you to the equipment. In the afternoons, we’ll work on adapting you to your own bodies and minds.
    "Come with me." Hammond guided the team out of the main chamber into a classroom. She waited until they had all found seats. There was a large table in the front of the room, crowded with various machines.
    She picked up a helmet, the twin of the one on the bodies in the isolation tanks. It was solid black and large, about twice the size of a football helmet on the outside.
    "This is the key." Hammond turned it so that they could see inside. She shone a light into it. There was a thick lining that she ran her finger across. "This is the thermocouple and cryoprobe projection assistance device, or TACPAD for short. This is the breakthrough that has changed everything and makes the Psychic Warrior concept possible.
    "We’ll be fitting each of you shortly for your own TACPAD. What the TACPAD and the isolation tank allow us to do is-" Hammond paused, looking at the eight men in camouflage fatigues. She sat on the edge of the desk. "All right let me try to explain this as best I can.
    "What we tried to do in Trojan Warrior was focus your brain. To bring out capabilities that each of you has but that have remained dormant. But it goes beyond the training you received there. I know you may not believe it but trust me when I tell you there is a residual telepathic capability in every person.
    "Many, many thousands of years ago the first human beings didn’t have a verbal language. We were just a step, a slight step, up from being monkeys. But there was a big difference: our brain. It was larger and more complex than that of any other species on the face of the planet. At some point the human brain made a fantastic leap. We became telepathic."
    Dalton raised his eyebrows. "I've never heard of this."
    "Most people haven't," Hammond said. "But if you went to a university and talked to a physiology professor, he or she would tell you that this was indeed likely but it’s still only an unproven theory. But we aren't in a university here, and I'm telling you the breakthroughs we have made prove to me that this theory is valid.
    "This telepathy was not as big of a deal as you might think. It wasn't like these early people could 'talk' to each other with their minds. The reason they couldn't was