He could picture Hale only vaguely; a big man--man; that was a new term--a big man, whatever a man was, with a deep voice--voice, another new term--and a great temper--temper.... Rahll slowed his pattern in confusion. Man, voice, temper, Hale--all of these; he had never been aware of them before, nor of things like them. Why was he aware of them now? * * * * * And then he realized why. This alien being's patterns, even though scattered and unmethodical, were influencing Rahll's patterns as Rahll came into close contact with them during the process of absorption. Just as Rahll's patterns must be influencing this alien being's. Rahll formed and reformed thoughts for a moment, and then decided that this was a good thing. For now he would have new weapons with which to trick this other electrical impulse; new and better weapons. Hale, man, voice, temper. At that moment, Brenner was experiencing much the same phenomenon as Rahll was. Brenner's panic died suddenly as he searched his thoughts and found, with a shock, that he knew why he could not hear. He could see the answer only dimly, but it was there; something completely alien to him, something outside the ship, a crystal-like pattern of electricity--of electrical impulse--was--was doing something else alien to him which had caused him to lose his sense of sound. He sat down and concentrated on this answer. There must be more to it, he thought, more to it than.... Yes, there was more to it. He received jumbled thoughts concerning frequencies alien to each other, and then pulled out the one totally clear impression he had. Illusions were being used to dupe him. He wasn't quite sure of exactly how they were being used--something to do with alien frequencies cropped up again--but he did know that the alien being outside his ship was using illusion to slowly destroy him. But wasn't there a way out? Yes, there was. If he didn't _accept_ the illusion, whatever it was, as being normal, he could not be touched by this creature outside. If he did not accept the illusion as being normal.... Brenner turned on the electric generator. The room flooded with light. Rahll tensed when he felt the other, larger impulse that he had first felt rise up again. The impulse was far too huge to absorb; and, furthermore, there was something about it that almost repelled Rahll. It was impulse, yes, but it was a different kind of impulse, of a type Rahll had not run across before. If he had been strong enough he could have consumed it, but he was not sure that he would have wanted to.