Then the first one fired, and Roysland's mind went blank, as did everyone else's aboard the X-69. * * * * * For a long time, Roysland Dwyn watched a play. He was a disinterested spectator, who had not one iota of interest in what was going on. He was much, much, _much_ too busy with his own thoughts to be interested with such trivia as his bodily reactions and his exterior environment. In the first place, he had solved the problem. And such a fascinating problem! The broad ramifications of the whole concept were appalling in their immensity and scope! Some people came into the control room after a long while and asked him some questions. He answered them politely, but without paying any attention whatsoever to what they were saying. _After all, what could possibly be so utterly absorbing as my own problems? Who could be more important than I?_ The people asked him to walk to somewhere, and he did; but he didn't have the slightest notion where he was going, nor why, nor how. And he really didn't care. They put him in a bed and fed him soup and stuck needles in his arm and several other utterly meaningless things, but it made no difference. _Introspection. Know thyself. And then get going around and around and around on the ever deepening spiral-helix that goes lower and lower as it closes in on itself. Self-analysis. What are my motivations? Why do I want to know what my motivations are? Why am I analyzing myself? Why do I want to know why I am analyzing myself?_ _What do I know about the motivations for desiring to know about the reasons for analyzing myself? Why do I feel that the motivations_-- After a long period of being left alone, he was in a place that was different from where he had been before, but it wasn't any different than the place where-- A sudden blazing shock crossed Roysland's mind. With the awful brilliant clarity of a man seeing suddenly into a darkened room when the lights have been lit unexpectedly, Roysland snapped agonizingly back to awareness. Only for a fraction of a second did he realize what had happened. Then his mind blacked out under the shock. When he came out of it again, a nurse was standing by his bedside. She smiled at him when he opened his eyes, and said: "How do you feel, sir?" He thought for a moment, taking inventory of exactly how he did feel. Then he smiled. "I feel fine. What happened?" The girl touched a relay plate. "The psychometrist will be in right away, sir. He'll explain things to you." She gave him another flash of white teeth and stepped out of the room. Less than a minute later, the door opened, and the psychometrist came in. It was Bilford. "Well, well," Roysland said. "I get special treatment; the chief cheese is in to see me." Bilford grinned, ran a hand through his hair and nodded. His thin face seemed to almost sparkle from within. "Yup. You're important. I knew you'd want to see someone as soon as you came to."