ad
followed the advice of her family physician, years ago. If she had only
put the boy under the proper care, none of this would have happened._

"Is there _any_thing we can do, Doctor?" she asked.

"We don't know yet," he said gently. He considered for a moment, then
said: "Mrs. Stanton, I'd like for you to leave both of the boys here
for a few days, so that we can perform further tests. That will help us
a great deal in evaluating the circumstances, and help us get at the
root of Martin's trouble."

She looked at him with a little surprise. "Why, yes, of course--if you
think it's necessary. But ... why should Bart stay?"

The doctor weighed his words carefully before he spoke.

"Bart will be what we call a 'control', Mrs. Stanton. Since the boys are
genetically identical, they should have been a great deal alike, in
personality as well as in body, if it hadn't been for Martin's accident.
In other words, our tests of Bart will tell us what Martin _should_ be
like. That way, we can tell just how much and in what way Martin
deviates from what he should ideally be. Do you understand?"

"Yes. Yes, I see. All right, Doctor--whatever you say."

After Mrs. Stanton had left, the psychiatrist sat quietly in his chair
and stared thoughtfully at his desk top for several minutes. Then,
making his decision, he picked up a small book that lay on his desk and
looked up a number in Arlington, Virginia. He punched out the number on
his phone, and when the face appeared on his screen he said, "Hello,
Sidney. Busy right now?"

"Not particularly. Not for a few minutes. What's up?"

"I have a very interesting case out here that I'd like to talk to you
about. Do you happen to have a telepath who's strong enough to take a
meshing with an insane mind? If my suspicions are correct, I will need a
man with an absolutely impregnable sense of identity, because he's going
to get into the weirdest situation I've ever come across."

_[14]_

The Nipe squatted, brooding, in his underground nest, waiting for the
special crystallization process to take place in the sodium-gold alloy
that was forming in the reactor.

_How long?_ he wondered. He was not thinking of the complex
crystallization reaction; he knew the timing of that to a fraction of a
second. His dark thoughts were, instead, focused inwardly, upon himself.

How long would it be before he would be able to construct the
communicator that would span the light-years of inter