The light from my lamp reflected crazily, and my own image gaped back at me from their distorted, reflecting curves. Like the fun-mirrors at the crazy-house, only crazier ... and not funny at all. Fear is never funny. And I was afraid. I'll swear I could _taste_ the terror. It was salty on my tongue. When I tried to cry out, the roof of my mouth felt like old concrete. Then one of them spoke. "It's alive! Intelligent! It senses our presence!" I was receiving pure thought, not words. But man thinks only in words. And their thoughts fished suitable words from my subconscious to frame them for my assimilation. Telepathy? Impossible! What common points of reference could I have with these two unthinkably alien life-forms? The answer whipped back at me on an intuitive, sub-vocal level: Thought is a universal energy manifestation. _Language is only the clumsy vehicle for thought._ Between me and the aliens lay no such barrier. "Obviously intelligent," the other agreed. "Feel those gamma radiations? Too bad they're so weak. It would be interesting if he could communicate with us." I stammered aloud, "But--but I _can_ communicate with you. I understand every--" They were paying no attention to my raspy words. "Yes, that's typical of these ancient, organic life-forms. As I recall, they use some form of physical vibration of their gaseous medium for communicating among themselves--" "Speaking of which," the other interrupted, "this particular gaseous medium seems to contain oxygen. We'd best not remain overlong or we'll corrode and catch hell when we return." "Exude a little nickel if it irritates you. We'll catch hell anyway when mother--" Yes, that's the word that came to me! "--discovers _when_ we've been. I'm curious about these flesh and blood creatures. I wonder who invented this clumsy monstrosity." * * * * * He meant me. He rolled a foot nearer, and the other followed with an uncertain wobble. "I turned out better in the third grade." "Liar! You nearly flunked meta-plastics." "Well, you did flunk it, so who are you to--?" "Just don't be over-critical. I think this one looks fairly practical. Well-balanced--" "That's just what I mean. Observe the unimaginative bisymmetry. Two arms, two legs, two eyes, five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot. Surely, the inventor was a mechanic and no artist. In this light gravity there was no need for--" "And how would you improve the design, your high-and-mightiness?" "First let's remove the covering." My clothes left my body gently, but with the sound of violent tearing. In two seconds I sat naked, my garments laid back like split bandages. I shouted, "See here, for God's sakes!" The aliens had made no visible move, yet they had wielded powerful forces to strip everything I wore from my body, shirt, slacks, underwear and even my shoes ... without so much as pinching my flesh.