Harris nodded. "The strange thing is--they really _want_ to sit down there. They're completely rational; they could do something else, but they just don't care to." "Well?" Cox said. "What are you going to do? Have you found anything? We're counting on you. Let's hear it." "I couldn't get anything out of them directly," Harris said, "but I've had some interesting results with the shock box. Let's go inside and I'll show you." "Fine," Cox turned and started toward the hospital. "Show me anything you've got. This is serious. Now I know how Tiberius felt when Christianity showed up in high places." * * * * * Harris snapped off the light. The room was pitch black. "I'll run this first reel for you. The subject is one of the best biologists stationed at the Garrison. Robert Bradshaw. He came in yesterday. I got a good run from the shock box because Bradshaw's mind is so highly differentiated. There's a lot of repressed material of a non-rational nature, more than usual." He pressed a switch. The projector whirred, and on the far wall a three-dimensional image appeared in color, so real that it might have been the man himself. Robert Bradshaw was a man of fifty, heavy-set, with iron grey hair and a square jaw. He sat in the chair calmly, his hands resting on the arms, oblivious to the electrodes attached to his neck and wrist. "There I go," Harris said. "Watch." His film-image appeared, approaching Bradshaw. "Now, Mr. Bradshaw," his image said, "this won't hurt you at all, and it'll help us a lot." The image rotated the controls on the shock box. Bradshaw stiffened, and his jaw set, but otherwise he gave no sign. The image of Harris regarded him for a time and then stepped away from the controls. "Can you hear me, Mr. Bradshaw?" the image asked. "Yes." "What is your name?" "Robert C. Bradshaw." "What is your position?" "Chief Biologist at the check-station on Y-3." "Are you there now?" "No, I'm back on Terra. In a hospital." "Why?" "Because I admitted to the Garrison Chief that I had become a plant." "Is that true? That you are a plant." "Yes, in a non-biological sense. I retain the physiology of a human being, of course." "What do you mean, then, that you're a plant?" "The reference is to attitudinal response, to Weltanschauung." "Go on." "It is possible for a warm-blooded animal, an upper primate, to adopt the psychology of a plant, to some extent." "Yes?" "I refer to this." "And the others? They refer to this also?" "Yes." "How did this occur, your adopting this attitude?" Bradshaw's image hesitated, the lips twisting. "See?" Harris said to Cox. "Strong conflict. He wouldn't have gone on, if he had been fully conscious." "I--" "Yes?" "I was taught to become a plant." The image of Harris showed surprise and interest. "What do you mean, you were _taught_ to become a plant?" "They realized my problems and taught me to become a plant. Now I'm free from them, the problems."