SOLVED. Teleportation to Other Planets - Aquatic ESP Creature [s]

[Kinsey]

This is yet another sci-fi book I read in the mid-80's. A technological breakthrough in the future allows for instantaneous teleportation to distant planets. Since no one knows beforehand what the destination will be like, the explorers have to be in special suits that will allow them to survive in any conceivable environment. Each trip lasts a very precise amount of time, which differs from trip to trip. The explorers must be at their location of arrival when the teleportation reverses. Otherwise, not only will they not return, but they will disappear from the planet as well. There is a loophole, though. If a pregnant woman gives birth on another planet, the baby stays behind. The government uses this as a way to establish colonies on other worlds. On one planet, the explorers discover a small aquatic creature. The first to come in contact with it develops a high level of ESP. Each subsequent person develops ESP in progressively lower levels. The problem is that the first person invariable dies after a certain amount of time.

[Kinsey]

I'm still looking for this book.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Still?

[Kinsey]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Still?"

Yes. If I manage to find it on my own, I'll come back here and post the name of the book.

[Michele]

Hope someone finds it, this sounds really interesting.

[Cheryl]

bump

[Kinsey]

Thanks for the bump. :)

[Michele]

Would you say this was a YA book or more aimed at adults? Short, medium, long? Was the main part of the book colonization in general, or just this one planet with the aquatic ESPers?

Do you have any idea if it was a new book at the time you read it, or an older one? Do you recall anything about the cover? Was it a mass-market paperback, hardcover, etc?

[Kinsey]

Good questions.

--I wouldn't classify it as YA, but it also wasn't a difficult and dense read.
--It was about medium in length, definitely longer than a novelette, but probably less than 200 pages long.
--I'd say it was more about exploration than colonization, with a lot of exposition thrown in about the history and peculiarities of the technology. The aquatic ESP creatures are not the main focus of the book.
--The book was newish when I read it between 1984 and 85. I'd be really surprised if it was more than ten years old at the time.
--The cover may have had a black background with a blue and white title, but I'm very unsure about that.
--It was definitely a mass-market paperback.

I also have some additional memories about the story, but I don't know if they will be helpful:

--The man in charge of sending out the missions and getting the timing right is under so much constant time-related pressure that he awakes every morning instantly knowing what time it is to the minute.

--The ESP creatures are revealed to be a remnant of a long-gone race of immortal beings who used them as a component of some sort of recreational game.

--The teleportation technology was discovered by accident when a lightning strike hit some lab equipment (possibly a microscope), causing a chunk of something to disappear. The event was reconstructed and then scaled up, without anyone ever figuring out how the process works.

--The way it was discovered that children born on a teleportation mission don't return to earth was that one of the astronauts hid her pregnancy from mission control before one of the longer missions on nothing more than a hunch. She gave birth on another planet, left the baby behind, and investigators went back and found the baby was still there and alive.

--At one point, the main character travels to a colonized planet on a reproductive mission. He is assigned to have sex with a local woman to enrich the gene pool. They have to wait a few hours to get started, because her hormone treatments take longer than expected to kick in. This is difficult for both of them, because along with the hormone treatments, they had also been given aphrodisiacs.

--The astronauts have to be careful to eat very little of the local food, since molecules of digested food incorporated into their tissues do not go back with them. They can have a small amount, though. The main character had some shellfish the night before he returned to Earth, and there is a description of the slight queasiness one feels from being teleported when some of your molecules don't go with you.

--The astronauts (and they are called by some name other than "astronaut" in the book) are well-paid and well looked after on Earth. They have uniforms that identify their profession, and they can walk in unsafe areas late at night anywhere on Earth without fear, because anyone who messes with them will be tracked down immediately by the authorities.

--And here's a very trivial memory. I recall the main character asking to use the phone in a restaurant in Paris. The restaurant owner allows it after making sure that the call is local.

[Cheryl]

bump - still sounds interesting to me ;)

[Serena]

Not your book but you might likeEndless Universe?

I would also check into Andre Norton...

[Kinsey]

Serena, thank you for your recommendation. I've added it to my "to read" list.

[Jim]

Mindbridge by Joe Haldeman? It's been a long time since I read it, but some of your memories ring true. Others don't. The book description is pretty long, though.

[Kinsey]

Jim, thank you! That is definitely it. I had to read the long description and several reviews before I was sure. (It was actually a review written in Italian that matched up most with my memories.) I'm so glad to finally know the name of the book.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

One from 2009 solved! Wow!