"Come out of the mountains. Send us volunteers--blood donors--we might, if we had enough blood to work on, be able to isolate the right fraction, and synthesize it, in time to prevent the epidemic from really taking hold. Jay, it's a tough mission and it's dangerous as all hell, but somebody's got to do it, and I'm afraid you're the only qualified man." "I like my first suggestion better. Bomb the trailmen--and the Hellers--right off the planet." Jay's face was set in lines of loathing, which he controlled after a minute, and said, "I--I didn't mean that. Theoretically I can see the necessity, only--" he stopped and swallowed. "Please say what you were going to say." "I wonder if I am as well qualified as you think? No--don't interrupt--I find the natives of Darkover distasteful, even the humans. As for the trailmen--" (I was getting mad and impatient. I whispered to Forth in the darkness, "Shut the damn film off! You couldn't send _that_ guy on an errand like _that_! I'd rather--" (Forth snapped, "Shut up and listen!" (I shut up and the film continued to repeat.) * * * * * Jay Allison was not acting. He was pained and disgusted. Forth wouldn't let him finish his explanation of why he had refused even to teach in the Medical college established for Darkovans by the Terran empire. He interrupted, and he sounded irritated. "We know all that. It evidently never occurred to you, Jay, that it's an inconvenience to us--that all this vital knowledge should lie, purely by accident, in the hands of the one man who's too damned stubborn to use it?" Jay didn't move an eyelash, where I would have squirmed, "I have always been aware of that, Doctor." Forth drew a long breath. "I'll concede you're not suitable at the moment, Jay. But what do you know of applied psychodynamics?" "Very little, I'm sorry to say." Allison didn't sound sorry, though. He sounded bored to death with the whole conversation. "May I be blunt--and personal?" "Please do. I'm not at all sensitive." "Basically, then, Doctor Allison, a person as contained and repressed as yourself usually has a clearly defined subsidiary personality. In neurotic individuals this complex of personality traits sometimes splits off, and we get a syndrome known as multiple, or alternate personality." "I've scanned a few of the classic cases. Wasn't there a woman with four separate personalities?" "Exactly. However, you aren't neurotic, and ordinarily there would not be the slightest chance of your repressed alternate taking over your personality." "Thank you," Jay murmured ironically, "I'd be losing sleep over that."