“Note: If John Wendt comes up, he is to have sedation for full trip. Copies to all Earth launch sites. Request special handling. Full sedation, delivered as much as possible according to pre-Messenger routine, without comment, as if still normal procedure. That’s all. “Excuse me,” he said to the doctor. “I’ve been meaning to get that notice out ever since he said he was coming. Didn’t want to forget it again. I just don’t want to take any chances.” “Good idea,” Phil nodded, then, explosively: “Damn it to hell anyhow!” “That boy really is under your skin, hey?” He watched the doctor’s face with interest; it was the first time he had seen the professional mask completely gone. “Well, hell, we were old buddies, and--That’s not it, though, really. I used to be fond of Johnny, but I don’t think that’s even specially true any more. It’s just--well, put it this way: “Suppose a patient comes in and tells me he keeps imagining that he’s chained to the floor of a dungeon and that a gorgeous babe comes in every evening to give him a good time? Chances are, I’ll nod my head like a wise old doctor and start explaining about erotic fantasies, masochism, and all that. _But_-- “Supposing, for instance, this guy really _is_ getting chained up every night, and this gorgeous doll really _is_ raping him each time? It’s so damn unlikely, the guy might even think he was dreaming if it _did_ happen. Right? “_Or_--supposing this fellow was sure enough imagining things, only he wasn’t having erotic or masochistic fantasies at all? Like, let’s say he works in a bicycle chain factory, and hates his job, and maybe there’s a supervisor who’s a beautiful dish, and she’s always giving him a hard time. So maybe his fantasies are fear and revenge instead? “Okay, so this I’d find out a lot easier than I would anything about the guy who’s really getting tied up. But that’s because everybody talks about their jobs and bosses, on the couch or off it. So you take Johnny Wendt, and Doug Laughlin for that matter, too. Here are two guys who got psych-tested inside out and upside down before they left. They also got all kinds of training and preparation for the things they might encounter, and I’ve taken the trouble to find out--you probably already know--that homosexuality was an eventuality the training program prepared them to cope with. Plus, neither one of them showed any appreciable tendency to panic over anything like that, if it _did_ happen.” “Okay. I know all that,” Chris said. “It still happens to be what _did_ happen. So, like with the guy who really gets the chains and the babe, maybe there was something in the psychological--I don’t know--atmosphere?--that we couldn’t prepare for and don’t know about, and--Hell, whatever the reason was, at least you found out _what_ happened. _Why_ is something else.”