Chapter 6

"Whew! That was quite an experience! Well, Jase, I hope I never have to use all that I have learned about weapons in the last few hours, but I am looking forward to using some of the knowledge I gained."

"Yeah, your job as a legal secretary should really become easier, now. Just think of the time you will save on research, though you will have to fake some of it, just to look legitimate. Just think, you can take your laptop to the library and play solitaire while they are paying you to dig through dusty files!"

Seven interrupted with, "I'm sorry to break up the family discussion, but we need Jase to do some work with us on developing a new kind of body armor. Jase, can you come with me, now?"

"Sure, lead on."

There was the usual blurring of his vision, and Jase found himself standing in a room with Seven and several other ETs. A few were of Seven's species, but two were entirely different. Jase thought that they looked a lot like octopi, but they had too many arms. Jase counted 12 arms, or, more correctly, tentacles growing from the top of the torso and 3 legs growing from the bottom of the torso. Seven said that they called themselves funfzhen, but everybody else just called them "fifteens." Other than their big heads relative to their bodies, the fifteens were proportioned about as one might expect, though they were less than 5 feet tall and had a bright red skin color.

The fifteens were the research scientists and engineers for the Galactic PD, and were engaged in developing a new type of body armor. They had picked Jase to try it out because his next assignment would require some added protection. The armor was a full body and head covering, including the face. Jase didn't need eye holes to see because of his X-ray vision, he didn't need breathing holes because he didn't need to breathe, and he didn't need ear holes because his increased hearing sensitivity would make up for the muffling of sound by the armor.

The armor fit tight to the skin and was as flexible. It had the property of becoming rigid if something pushed on it. Thus. it was impervious to bullets and knives, and it would resist club blows by distributing the shock of the hit over a wide area. The reaction time of this hardening of the armor was so fast that the wearer would not detect any depression in its surface.

The armor had the practical effect of rendering the wearer invisible by passing the light striking it on one side around to the other side. So, no matter what angle the light struck the wearer, it was simply passed around and released on the other side without being reflected. The only flaw was a slight apparent waviness in the air as the wearer moved. This wasn't likely to be noticed, unless the observer was looking for it.

This light transfer worked for all other forms of energy, as well. A laser beam would simply travel through the armor without causing any effect, even in the X-ray or infra-red range.

The engineers had not yet solved the heat problem. The wearer could still be injured or killed by too much heat, such as the blast from an RPG or a flame thrower. A long fall could also be fatal, and there might be other problems they hadn't thought of, yet. However, the armor was ready for a field trial, and they wanted Jase to give it a run.

Jase agreed, so he put it on and went through a complete simulation of all the attacks that the armor was supposed to resist. Jase had to learn to utilize the armor's properties to best advantage, so the testing and training was more than just donning the armor and walking around while people shot at him and stabbed him and clubbed him. Jase spent nearly 7 hours in acclimating himself to the armor before he was fully comfortable with wearing it and utilizing its properties.

Once he had removed the armor and relaxed, the ETs had him spend a few minutes with one of the special metal training "hats" so that his experience could be transferred to others as part of their normal training. Specifically, Judy would be given the training through the "hat" before she joined him on their next assignment.

Jase said to Seven, "It has occurred to me that the new armor is going to make it hard for team members to communicate with each other. Can you implant micro-sized radios in us so that we can talk to each other over a range of about a mile. I read in a story one time that people consciously think by actually talking to themselves. Can these nerve pulses be tapped and used to drive a radio? The signal could be received conventionally and transferred to the ear by bone conduction."

"That's an excellent idea. I'll bring it up to our engineers before we leave. Please wait a minute." Seven disappeared and reappeared a moment later. "Come with me, and we will give you your implant right now."

"OK, but tell me, did you have such a device already available and just waited for me to request it?"

"No, we had never thought of it. I just made a time jump to ask for the development of such a device, and it was promised to be ready by the time we could get to a hospital room."

"Wow! Time travel sure has its advantages."

Judy was brought in and trained while Jase was getting his implant. She got her implant as soon as she finished her training spell with the "hat." When they returned to consciousness, the were told to try out the radios.

<Judy, can you hear me?>

<Loud and clear, Jase. This is a wonderful device, darling. How did you think of it?>

<I don't know. The idea sort of popped into my head. But I like it. Now we can talk in a crowded room, and no one else will suspect a thing.>

<Right! I can use it to tell you how sexy you are and how much I love you any time I want to!>

<Watch out, or people will wonder why I am blushing.> They both laughed at that.

Seven said, "Jase, you had asked for an FTL calling device to reach me at any time. We couldn't shrink the FTL communicator any smaller than it currently is, but we came up with a 'work around.' Carry this small signaling button with you at all times. Press it, and I will get a signal that you need me right away. I will jump to you whenever I hear it."

"Great, thanks. Can I use it when I have an emergency need for a roll in the hay?"

"I'd rather you save it for more life threatening calls, but it does bring to mind a separate signaling device for that."

"Jase, let's test the armor on the kids, tonight. If they don't spot us, I don't think that anybody will."

"Good idea. Let's just wear it home and see what happens. Seven, what kind of weapons do you envision us using with this armor? A weapon floating in air is sure going to get noticed."

"We are working on that and should have something ready for you to test tomorrow. If everything works out, I think that you will be pleased with the result."

Judy and Jase wore the armor around home, getting comfortable with it and the internal radio. Their biggest problem was in acclimating themselves to using X-ray vision full time. It was confusing at first, with seeing nothing but shadows overlayed on more shadows. Once they began to distinguish objects, their brains began to supply color and texture to what they were seeing without their conscious input. It took about an hour for them to be able to use the X-ray vision without conscious effort.

Ann arrived home from school and never noticed her mother and brother, even though they stood right in front of her. Judy said through her radio, <It looks like she has no idea that we are here. I'm going to try something.> Judy flipped off her head covering, and Ann screamed.

"Mom, what happened? Where's your body? Are you OK?"

"I'm OK, Ann. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm wearing a new kind of body armor that Seven gave us. It's supposed to make us invisible, and I figured that if it could fool you, it could fool anybody."

"Oh, Mom. It was quite a shock to see just your head floating in the air! Is Jase here, too. I can't see him, either."

"Here I am. Can you understand me OK through the hood?"

"Yeah, there's no trouble with that. But it sure is spooky talking to Mom's disembodied head and your voice in the air. Let me see you."