EARTH TIMELINE--THE PRESENT
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, CA
Dane watched as they lowered the dolphin that was to be his link into the larger tank. It looked none too pleased at being encased in the black suit and rolled a baleful eye at Dane as the derrick put it in the tube filled with thick green liquid. A woman in a wetsuit was on the edge of the tube, holding the large black helmet that would cover the creature’s head.
“What’s the green stuff?” Dane asked which he figured was a reasonable question given that he would soon be in it.
“We call it embryonic fluid,” Talbot said. “The tanks are important because we use them to reduce to almost zero the physical sensation coming into your brain, allowing you to focus on the mental task at hand.”
Dane watched as the woman slid a tube into the dolphin’s mouth. The creature did not seem to like what she was doing, thrashing back and forth, occasionally hitting the surrounding glass with a solid thud.
“What’s going on?” Dane asked.
“She’s putting the breathing tube in,” Talbot said. He paused, glanced at Dane, then continued. “That’s not the worst part. Watch.”
The tube appeared to be in and the woman gave a thumbs up to the scientist manning the console between the two tubes. He hit a button. The dolphin thrashed even more wildly for almost a minute before becoming still.
“What the hell was that?” Dane demanded. He was beginning to have second thoughts about his plan of action. “That doesn’t look like oxygen.”
Talbot led him forward to a bulky machine that had clear lines coiled around the outside. A pump was moving, pumping a reddish liquid into the breathing tube that led up to the dolphin.
“It’s a cooled, liquid oxygen mixture that is pumped directly into the lungs,” Talbot said. “We--the navy--perfected it for deepsea divers so they could handle the pressures at extreme depths. The machine is doing the lung’s jobs because once we go into operative mode the autonomic nervous system doesn’t function properly anymore, and we can’t count on either occupant of the tube to be able to breathe on his or her own.”
“I’m going to be breathing a liquid?” Dane asked, knowing the question was stupid as the answer was right in front of his eyes.
“It’s not too bad,” Talbot said, sounding completely unconvincing and belying his earlier statement about the worst being yet to come. “Come with me. Let’s get you geared up and explain what you’re going to experience.”
“Great,” Dane muttered as Talbot led him along a short corridor to another room filled with equipment and consoles. A cluster of scientists waited, eyeing Dane as Talbot went to a table and picked up a black helmet, the human version of what had been placed on the dolphin. He turned it so Dane could see the interior. There was a thick padded liner.
“This is the thermocouple and cryoprobe liner,” Talbot said. “Our goal is to allow you to focus your brain more clearly than you ever have before in your life. More than even the best trained monk. More than any human has ever been able to achieve.
“I was faxed a top secret report from your boss, Mister Foreman,” Talbot continued. “In it he described some of the unique aspects of your brain. Your capabilities. We can help you with that. We know about the speech center on the right side and we tap into it with this”--he held up the helmet--“It is indeed the center for a residual telepathic capability, which apparently isn’t so residual for you and those like you.”
Talbot paused and his eyes got a distant look. “If only we had known about you and your kind. We could have--”
“Ditto,” Dane cut him off. “If I had known this technology existed, we might have been able to do a better job against the Shadow. But let’s stop the what ifs and get on with it. What are you going to do to me?”
“All right. First, we’re going to focus on your parasympathetic nervous system. This helps the body relax. Your pupils will constrict, heart rate slow, the digestive system shuts down, and-most important--your muscles all relax. We do this by lowering your body temperature.”
“How low?”
“Low enough,” Talbot said. “Then we give you some juice--electricity. Not much. And only in targeted areas. Thus, we can increase brain activity in those areas we want to. And in those areas we don’t want to be active, we insert a cryoprobe that lowers the temperature in the brain target areas to around ninety-three degrees. The neurons in those areas stop firing.”
“What parts of the brain do you shut down?” Dane asked.
“Those connected with the parasympathetic nervous system since those bodily functions are taken care of by the isolation tank,” Talbot said. “Every milliamp of power we can save is critical.”
“What exactly is the microprobe?” Dane asked.
“A microscopic wire that is inserted directly into the targeted areas of the brain.” Picking up Dane’s unease, Talbot hurried to continue. “The wire is so small that you won’t even feel it go in and when it’s removed there is no bleeding. The wire is less than point zero zero eight millimeters in diameter.”
Dane sat down in a chair. He felt old and tired. He heard Talbot’s next words but didn’t really care. Explanation wasn’t that important anymore.
“The thermocouple does the opposite of the cryoprobe.” Talbot said. “We direct thermal probes into those areas we want to emphasize. The wires we use are so thin you won’t even feel them go in.”
That did little to reassure Dane.
“After you’re in the tank and hooked up,” Talbot continued, “we then establish a link between you and the dolphin.” Talbot shrugged. “My RVers use the link to draw power. I’m not sure exactly what you’re going to do.”
Neither am I, thought Dane.
“Are you ready?” Talbot asked.
“Yes.”
**********
Dane stared at the dolphin in the other tank as he was lowered into his own tank. It was a bizarre sight, floating in the water completely still, its head covered with the black helmet and the body with the skin-tight suit.
Dane was surprised that the fluid was warm, given that Talbot had said it would be used to lower his body temperature. He was lowered to neck level, then one of the scientists in a wetsuit climbed to the edge of the tank holding the black helmet and a flexible tube.
Dane reluctantly nodded. The scientist slipped the end of the tube into Dane’s mouth. He gagged as it passed into his throat, his body automatically trying to reject the foreign object. He could see Martsen and Ahana watching, and he sensed Earhart’s attempts to send him calming thoughts and emotional support.
“Easy,” the scientist whispered as she placed a hand on the back of his head, holding him still. His throat was still spasming when the woman nodded. Dane could see the red fluid coming in the tube and it took all his strength to remain still and not rip the tube out of his mouth. He felt a ripple in the tube.
Dane’s chest heaved as liquid poured into his lungs.
“Take it easy,” the scientist advised. “Try to relax.”
That was impossible. Dane was drowning, his lungs filling. His diaphragm heaved as he tried to expel the fluid in a basic survival instinct. To no avail as more was pumped in.
Although Dane knew the liquid contained oxygen and was sustaining him, his body couldn’t accept it for several minutes. Finally, however, his body stopped fighting the invasion and became still. Dane suddenly realized that the solution around his body was cold, very cold. They must have been lowering the temperature even as they poured the solution into his lungs.
He couldn’t move. He watched with wide eyes as the helmet was slipped on and then his world went dark. He was lowered farther down, until he was completely immersed. He had little sensation other than an overwhelming feeling of cold.
“I know you can hear me,” Talbot’s voice sounded loud in his head. “The cold feeling will go away very quickly. You’re doing all right.”
Dane felt a buzzing inside his head and a light flickered in his eyes. He knew he couldn’t actually see anything so he had to assume the image was being fed into his brain via the various probes.
“Watch the dot,” Talbot said.
Dane focused on the small white spot. He realized it was changing colors, going from white to blue.
“It should be changing colors,” Talbot said.
Dane realized he could feel nothing. No sensation at all from his body. It was as if he were asleep yet awake at the same time.
“All right,” Talbot’s voice now had a distant echo. “Your peripheral nervous system is shut down. We’ve got control of your breathing and your heart beat. Everything is working fine.” Talbot’s voice was growing fainter, as if he were moving away. “We’re going to--” and then the voice was gone and there was total silence. There was only the dot, now bright red.
Then an explosion of pain that blanked out the dot for several seconds and brought only complete and utter darkness. It felt as if someone were tearing the top of his head off. Dane wanted to scream, but he couldn’t feel his lungs or throat or mouth to even make the effort. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming.
Then the dot was back and the pain began to fade.
And there was noise. A very faint noise. Clicking. Something Dane had heard before. Where? When?
It was a dolphin. Rachel had made the same noise.
The ocean. Dane was in the ocean, swimming. Not using arms and legs, but his entire body. The water was gliding by on his skin, so smooth. He’d never felt so powerful. So free. He could see sunlight glinting above and darkness below, but he was in a warm band of cobalt blue. And he wasn’t alone. To his right was a dolphin, keeping pace with him.
It was all so natural that it took Dane a little while to realize he had the same form as his companion. He was a dolphin, swimming with thrusts of his flippers. He realized this was the avatar that Talbot had talked about. He was being projected into the psychometric plane in the form most suitable to do what was needed.
Dane had no idea how long he swam alongside the dolphin before he remembered why he was here. He turned toward the dolphin and focused his thoughts. The Ones Before.
The dolphin halted and floated still, staring at him.
The Ones Before.
The ocean was gone and Dane realized he was in a tank. Trapped. Darkness. But there was a sound. A steady throbbing sound. He felt pressure all around. He was moving, he knew that, but how?
Then the pressure was gone, although the sound remained. Dane realized he was not only floating in water but the tank was floating inside whatever enclosure it was in. He realized he was in space, in zero gravity.
Then the sound was gone. There was light, but artificial, not sunlight. All around, from all directions. Dane was moving but he was still in a tube. A long one. The water was pushing him forward.
Then he was in open water, but under a strange bright light. And there were other dolphins. A half dozen. All around him. Staring at him with their dark eyes.
The Ones Before.
Then Dane understood. As if the information were a bucket of water that was poured into his brain and absorbed by the cells with instant awareness.
The Ones Before.
The Shadow.
And, most important, what he had to do.