"No, except the solitude of her mind. Hypnotics. We tell her she's getting the regular injections and it's these which cause her to want to be left alone." It was more stringent than he cared for but he didn't have a better suggestion. "How long can she continue on hypnotics?" "Depends. The reaction varies with the person. She can tolerate quite a bit more." Docchi's face darkened. "You said you can't transfer tissue from any of us. Is that also true of hormones concentrated from blood donations?" "Let's put it this way: blood won't help Maureen at all. We can't extract the complete hormone spectrum from blood--the basic factors she must have to utilize the rest just don't exist there. If I thought it would help I'd have asked for donations long ago." Docchi tried to shut out the pictures that were coming fast. Maureen alone in a room in which she had darkened the windows so she wouldn't look outside. The door would swing open at the touch of her hand, but she would never touch it. The lock was intangible and hence unbreakable. It would break when her mind broke. "That's all you've planned," said Docchi, "wait and see what happens?" "Hardly. I'm having Jeriann work solely on synthesizing those hormone fractions we can't extract from blood. If she gets even a few we'll call for blood and between the two sources we'll have Maureen out of trouble." Docchi refrained from asking what chance of success Jeriann had. It might be better not to know. Before he could question the doctor further Jordan wandered in, buoyant and cheerful. Tacitly they let the subject of Maureen drop. "Where have you been the last few days?" said Cameron. "I've been wanting you to fix some of my equipment." "I've been busy tearing down a robot." "That's important but the hospital comes first," said Docchi. "Not before this one," said Jordan. "It was erratic and I had to get out those faulty circuits before it decided to look into a nuclear pile. If I'd let it go there might be no robot, power plant or asteroid. Not to mention a hospital." "You're exaggerating." "No I'm not. You should have seen it. It had more curiosity than--well, Anti." "Or you?" suggested Docchi, smiling faintly at the man's good nature. "Get to the doctor's equipment when you can." "I'm not in a real hurry," said Cameron. "By the way, I saw Anti yesterday. She's coming along nicely with your treatment, looking almost human." "She always did seem human to me," said Jordan. "Sorry. No offense." "Sure, I know. It was a compliment." The tension left Jordan again; he was relaxed and easy. "Anyway, you should see her today. Better yet. I don't have to rig the scale in her favor. I can let her read the honest figures." "Good. But don't overdo the encouragement. It will make it harder when she finds she won't be walking for years."