I am no longer frightened. I am no
longer lonely. You are good for me."

I was relieved because I wanted to be. I believed the other _Marl_--no,
the _Pat_--because I wanted to believe. I did not bother to
rationalize. I felt elation.

"Then in that other time, that other place we both belonged to a--a
common group, with another name?" I suggested.

"I believe so," the _Pat_ answered.

"How was it when you came awake?" I asked. "Can you remember?"

"I think so. I recall I was born here in fright because it was all
wrong. I was not in my natural state, so it was not right." The _Pat_
paused to think. "I remember there was great speed and I was born in
fright. Were you?"

"No," I answered. "I was not frightened at first. And I was never
frightened to the degree you were. I was mostly lonely, which is related
to fear. But when I first conceived of my existence here I was coolly
logical. I awakened _reasoning_--realizing that I existed."

"I suppose it has to do with our emotional differences," the _Pat_
beside me or with me or within me communicated.

"Do you recall where in space you came from?" I asked. "I must have been
doubting my existence at first so intensely I did not observe. You seem
to have taken your own being for granted, thus you were, perhaps, more
observant."

"I--I think so." The _Pat_ hesitated and I knew it was observing the
stars around us. "Yes. Come with me. I think I know where."

I stayed with the _Pat_, a part of it, and we lurched through space.
Rather, we ceased to exist at one point in space and existed in another.
How far? Distances meant nothing.

"It was here," the _Pat_ informed me finally.

* * * * *

Something was wrong here. The interweaving waves of force were all
wrong. There was a disorder, a great cancer in space. The waves
interfered with the progress of each other all along a great barrier. It
was not natural, not like it was elsewhere.

"Something is wrong with the waves of force crossing this area. They
interfere with each other. New forces are created. Do you detect it?" I
communicated.

"I feel it," the _Pat_ answered. "It is a sickness in space like--like
our loneliness."

I knew the comparison was ridiculous but I let it pass. "You said you
came alive at great speed. I could have been traveling too. We must have
plunged into this barrier. It seems to me that emotions must originate
in a _physical_ being; perhaps reason could