mystery.

"I'd suggest we keep circling the planet until I have a chance to form a
few definite conclusions," Ren said. "If that can't be done I'd suggest
we retreat far enough so we can."

"Yes sir," Commander Dunnam said quietly. He repeated the suggestion in
the form of an order to the first mate.

Ren studied the image of the planet. He left the pilot room and wandered
over the ship aimlessly. He talked to the members of the crew he ran
into.

He slept at his usual time. He ate his meals as usual. He stopped
talking to the crew and just wandered about, occasionally going to the
pilot room and studying the strange sphere of matter.

After three days he ordered the ship dropped to an orbit about five
thousand miles from the surface. Almost as soon as the ship reached its
new orbit changes began to be noticed.

Ren had the commander issue an order that every crew member was to
report all unusual happenings within the ship. Twenty-four hours later
he issued an order that each crew member was to write out a brief report
of his movements during the past twenty-four hours as he remembered
them.

Ren studied these reports. And gradually he was building up a picture
that was wilder than the wildest of fantastic imaginative creation.

He and Commander Dunnam had grown very close to each other. Finally Ren
broke his long silence and talked to him about what he was discovering.
They were in the dining room. Crew members were eating their "evening"
meal. They listened as Ren tried to explain.

"I think I've formed a few permanent conclusions about things here," Ren
began. "They aren't an EXPLANATION of things, but just a description of
the way things are behaving. I'll try to make it clear as I go along."

He chewed his food slowly while trying to think of a good way to begin.

"Take any number, for example," he said. "Take the number five. Back on
Earth you can count five apples and say there are five apples. You can
count out five eggs and place them in a box, and say there are the same
number of eggs as there are apples. There are five of each. Actually
that isn't true. There aren't five of either. There is no such thing as
the number five. The number is a mental thing, a concept. The apples
have a basic property which would more accurately be called a
'fiveness'. The eggs also have a basic property called a 'fiveness', and
the fiveness of the eggs and the fiveness of the apples are NOT the
same. They are peculi