He lay relaxed on the bed in the little room, his eyes closed, his face calm and quiet. Pulse normal, temperature normal. Above and in the walls recorders and cameras purred almost silently with the bland indifference of omniscience. _Harkins._ _Yes._ _Can you hear me?_ ... _no_ ... The strain of the question twisted the man's face into a grimace of pain. Pause. Then: _You are Richard Harkins._ _Yes._ _Colonel...._ _Yes._ _Can you hear me?_ _I.... No._ Anxious contortion. _All right. It's all right._ The man's face returned to relaxation. _How old are you?_ _Thirty-two._ _Have you always been thirty-two?_ ... _Have you always been thirty-two?_ ... _no_ ... Hesitantly. _You were once younger._ _Yes._ _You were once a child and grew to be a young man and grew to be thirty-two._ ... _yes_ ... _Why do you hesitate?_ _I don't understand all the words you say._ _What words don't you understand?_ _Well--Man._ The expression of pain and anxiety flitted across his relaxed features. _I will explain the words later. Don't worry about them now._ _All right._ _Richard Harkins, we are going to move back to a time when you were nineteen. You are nineteen years old. You are nineteen._ _How old are you?_ _Nineteen._ _What are you doing?_ _I--I'm a cadet, I--_ _What kind of cadet?_ ... _SpaServ_ ... _All right, now we'll move ahead two years. You are twenty-one years old. Twenty-one. How old are you?_ * * * * * Gradually Colin brought Harkins forward in time, carefully, feeling his way gingerly along the dark corridors of his mind. He brought him through cadets, graduation, his marriage to Martha (touchy: gently, gently)--his service in the planetary fleet. Then: a mysterious phrase; rumors--Phoenix Project. --_nobody seems to know. Something secret, but no telling. Everything's secret this year. Testing officers right and left and up and down. But nobody knows what for...._ ... _card waiting for me at breakfast_ ... Months of testing. Still nobody knows, but the rumors are running fast and heavy. Whole base preoccupied with the misty Phoenix Project. Secret construction hangar, security precautions to the point of absurdity.... ... _I'm it!_ ... ... _it's faster-than-light drive, that's what Phoenix Project is. Faster-than-light. The big dream, the dream of the stars_ ... Training. Slower through the two years of intensive training. This may be a critical phase. Two years, endless repetitive drill, drill practice drill drill drill.... Colin's forehead feels cool as he sits beside the bed. Perspiration. A glance at his watch shows him two hours since they began. _How did you take to this intensive training?_ _All right. It was all right. Dull, you know, but it was all right generally. After the first year it was pretty automatic. Conditioned response, I didn't have to think. If and when such and such happens, press this button, throw that switch. Automatic._