Apprentice Lost in Parallel. Kevin Colbran

finishes. This gun is the practice unit and doesn’t trigger a ray. The unit also has a camera to confirm the target.”

      Handing me a full face helmet, “Put this on, pick up the sleep pistol, point it at the target taking up the first tension, you should now see a target grid.”

      I did this. A circle with crosshairs appeared and as I moved the gun around, so did the crosshairs.

      “So that you can hit the target where you are aiming. The range is line-of-sight, so if you can see it, you can hit it. The pellet is a tiny rocket and therefore has a flat trajectory. There is a lockout which prevents the pellet being fired too close. The sleep ray, of course, is unaffected.” The demonstration finished, Senior gestured for me to remove the helmet.

      Senior went on, “Depending on the requirement of the customer, the noise at the delivery end, can be varied from soap bubble pop through to 110 decibels or a three-penny bunger.

      At the weapon, there is hardly any noise or recoil. The weight is also variable from eight ounces to up 2 pounds; the lightest is as durable as a standard pistol, with fewer moving parts and waterproof. The extra weight in the latter only makes it nearly unbreakable and more stable.”

      “Want to try the Fearnaught suit?” Senior asked.

      “Why not. Try anything once,” I answered.

      So we adjourned to the next room. Opening a cupboard, Senior started handing me the components of the suit. As Senior gave me each piece, I put them on with the edges overlapping and forming an unbroken join. To finish were boots, power pack and lastly the helmet.

      The suit totalled up a healthy weight, though well balanced. Senior advised me to say “assist 1.”

      I said this, and the apparent weight diminished to what felt like standing in stomach deep water. Partly supported and when prompted to walk felt lighter than normal with no resistance. While I was walking around becoming used to the feel, Senior was equipping himself similarly.

      “Follow me,” Senior instructed as he led the way into a side room apparently a trans-world gate. This door opened onto a forest, open with scattered trees.

      “Now I will explain the purpose of this exercise. In about a month’s time, I am putting on a demonstration for the SAS. Together with a couple of employees, myself and if you are up to it, you can join us.”

      “Great, what do I have to do?” I responded.

      “Apart from getting in a lot of practice with the suit, so that you are entirely familiar with it. You will be doing some exercise to build up your stamina,” Senior said, “Another task will be to practice infantry minor tactics with the rest of the team. As this can coincide with the suit training shouldn’t be a burden.”

      Senior talked on, this over the inbuilt radio. ”For today, we will start with having some fun.”

      “Just stay with me if you can,” Senior said as he then moved off at a slow trot. Seeing that I was keeping up, increased his pace until I was having trouble maintaining my balance, eventually tripping up and crashing into a bush. As he helped me back onto my feet, he commented; “With a few more crash and burns, you will be an expert.”

      “Now I will show you the camouflage feature, ‘Suit camouflage.” With this command, he disappeared into the background, with a little flashing figure 1 replacing him on the inside of the faceplate. “You may now see a number on your screen instead of me, if you now say that command, to me you will come up as a 5, that being the designation of your suit.”

      So I said, “Suit 'camouflage'.” Lifting my arm up into view, I could just see it as a distortion of the background.

      “We will now just walk to the gateway and return to base, ‘Suit camouflage off',” Senior said as his suit flashed back into view, I joined him with the same command and as we turned back the way we had come there was a small flashing rectangle on the screen. “You should now see a symbol for the gateway.”

      “Yes if it is a rectangle,” I affirmed.

      The return was uneventful, though it seems that we had covered quite a lot of territory and at walking pace, this took some time.

      On the way, Senior chatted about what he intended when the demonstration happened. “We will join in with an SAS selection course, wearing the suits, of course, first showing that otherwise, we would have Buckley’s chance of qualifying, due to age in my case, youth and inexperience with the rest of the team. With the suit’s enhancement on 2, we should then have no trouble keeping up with them.”

      Finally arriving back at the weapons facility, the suits removed, cleaned and stowed away, Senior suggested a shower, followed by a swim in the company pool. Even though the suit had done most of the work, I was quite sweaty and somewhat tired. “Yes sounds good, just don’t expect much apart from floating around.” I agreed.

      By the end of the month, my enthusiasm had waned somewhat, as the routine involved distance training every second day, together with lectures on the current military equipment and tactics which of course had changed in the intervening 30 years.

      Still, when the day arrived, I was waiting patiently, over in Western Australia at the SAS base, for the start of the exercise. The program for the first day was a 30-kilometre route march, which with regular breaks took most of the daylight hours, followed after by a night navigation exercise under patrol conditions, i.e. no noise or lights. This mode was easy for the suit wearers as we had an inbuilt infrared viewer and satellite navigation. In the wee small hours, a minimal camp was set up.

      ‘Turning to’ just before dawn, the group was reformed into ranks as we returned to the starting point.

      As we approached the area, Senior gave the prearranged signal, “Link to me, suit power up to 4 and ‘cam up’.”

      Senior then redoubled the speed, and to the SAS troop, our group just disappeared except for leaving some dust puffs as our team zipped up the road, finishing several minutes before the rest came in. Enough time to strip off the suits and hit the showers while Senior waited for the instructors to arrive and debrief.

      While finishing like that may have annoyed them, they couldn’t help but be impressed with the style and endurance demonstrated. Leaving the soldiers with several suits to test at their leisure and form their test program, with the assurance; “If you can break the suits just to let us know.”

      Packing up our gear and returning to base, Senior debriefed us. “Well done boys, the army reps are very impressed, and I expect them to lobby for the Army to purchase a full set. If only just to make sure they have first go at the technology.”

      The next demonstration I was involved in was helping show off the police equipment to the Australian Federal Police at their Academy in Canberra.

      The exercise began by first lining up a squad at one end of the football field, with our group and the observers at the other end. The challenge set for them was by any means while remaining in the area, to reach our end. After first reassuring them that the gun would not harm them, gave them the signal to start.

      At first, they just started walking, but when the first man slumped as an orange puff appeared in front of him, the remainder began running and dodging. All to no avail, as the last handler and police-dog, were stopped with 20 yards to go before reaching the finish line. The first people hit were just rising back to their feet with a puzzled look on their faces; the police dog especially needed reassurance.

      The bosses were all for doing it again with them having a go at the weapon. Senior said, “Okay, they are your troops, I’ll just load while you reform them.”

      Handing over the sleep pistol, the observers became the shooters and with the same results.

      “The dye fades to yellow after the initial sleep period, which is adjustable to over 10 minutes if they are at a distance, and the residue brushes off after an hour in the meantime marking someone of interest,” Senior explained.

      We then proceeded to the firing range where a vest