t telepathic projection?"

"About what?" O'Connor said. "Do you mean nontelepaths receiving some
sort of ... communication from telepaths?"

"Right," Malone said. "Mind-to-mind communication, of course; I'm not
interested in the United States mail or the telephone companies. How
about it, doctor? Is it possible?"

O'Connor gnawed at his lower lip for a second. "There have been cases
reported," he said at last. "Very few have been written up with any
accuracy, and those seem to be confined to close relatives or loved
ones of the person projecting the message."

"Is that necessary?" Malone said. "Isn't it possible that--"

"Further," O'Connor said, getting back into his lecture-room stride,
"I think you'll find that the ... ah ... message so received is one
indicating that the projector of such a message is in dire peril. He
has, for instance, been badly injured, or is rapidly approaching
death, or else he has narrowly escaped death."

"What does that have to do with it?" Malone said. "I mean, why should
all those requirements be necessary?"

O'Connor frowned slightly. "Because," he said, "the amount of psionic
energy necessary for such a feat is tremendous. Usually, it is the
final burst of energy, the outpouring of all the remaining psionic
force immediately before death. And if death does not occur, the
person is at the least greatly weakened; his mind, if it ever does
recover, needs time and rest to do so."

"And he reaches a relative or a loved one," Malone said, "because the
linkage is easier; there's some thought of him in that other mind for
him to 'tune in' on."

"We assume so," O'Connor said.

"Very well, then," Malone said. "I'll assume so, too. But if the
energy is so great, then a person couldn't do this sort of thing very
often."

"Hardly," O'Connor said.

Malone nodded. "It's like ... like giving blood to a blood bank," he
said. "Giving ... oh, three quarts of blood. It might not kill you.
But if it didn't, you'd be weak for a long time."

"Exactly," O'Connor said. "A good analogy, Mr. Malone." Malone looked
at him and felt relieved that he'd managed to get the conversation
onto pure lecture-room science so quickly. O'Connor, easily at home in
that world, had been able to absorb the shock of Malone's sudden
appearance while providing the facts in his own inimitable, frozen
manner.

"So one telepath couldn't go on doing it all the time," he said.
"But--how about several people?"

"Severa