human
He'll be all right now, said Paresi.
gpt
Forget it.
human
Don't tell me he fainted! Not Ives!
gpt
Of course not.
human
Anesthox! Why did you use that on him?
gpt
For the reason one usually uses anesthox. To knock a patient out for a couple of hours without hurting him.
human
Suppose you hadn't?
gpt
How much more of that scuttle-and-slither treatment do you think he could have taken?
human
Surely more than that. He looked up suddenly.
gpt
Where the hell _did_ that vermin come from?
human
Ah. Now you have it. He dislikes mice and spiders. But there was something special about these. They couldn't be here, and they were. He felt that it was a deliberate and personal attack. He couldn't have handled much more of it.
gpt
Where did they come from?
human
snapped Paresi.
gpt
Sorry, skipper ... I'm a little unnerved. I'm not used to seeing a patient's hallucinations. Not that clearly, at any rate.
human
They were Ives' hallucinations?
gpt
Can you recall what was said just before they appeared?
human
Uh ... something scuttled. A mouse.
gpt
It wasn't a mouse until someone said it was.
human
By God, it was Hoskins. Hoskins--what made you say that?
gpt
Another retreat. It's no use, Captain.
human
All right. Something scuttled and Hoskins defined it. Let's accept that without reasoning it out. So who called up the spider?
gpt
You did.
human
Don't sit there like Miss Muffet!
gpt
I'll be damned, said Anderson.
human
Maybe we'd all be better off saying nothing.
gpt
You think it makes any difference if we _say_ what we think?
human
Perhaps....
gpt
Nup, said Paresi positively.
human
Look at the way this thing works. First it traps us, and then it shows us a growing darkness. Very basic. Then it starts picking on us, one by one. Johnny gets machines that don't work, when with his whole soul he worships machines that do. Ives gets a large charge of claustrophobia from the black stuff over there and goes into a flat spin.
gpt
He came out of it.
human
Johnny woke up too. In another subjective time-track. Quite harmless to--to Them. So they left him alone. But they lowered the boom on Ives when he showed any resilience. It's breaking point they're after, Captain. Nothing less.
gpt
Hoskins?
human
I guess so, said Paresi tiredly.
gpt
Like Johnny he escaped from a problem he couldn't handle to one he could. Only instead of regressing he's turned to chess. I hope Johnny doesn't bounce back for awhile, yet. He's too--Captain! He's gone!
human
He won't hear you, said Paresi bleakly.
gpt
Come back, Captain. Come back.
human
Why him? Why Johnny? They've done everything they could to Johnny; you said so yourself!
gpt
Come back, Paresi said again, soothing. Then he spoke briskly:
human
Can't you see they're not doing anything to him? They're doing it to us!
gpt
To us,