*Eyes closed… five minutes, then… picture… What's he—* Then an image of herself tangled in an exaggeration of Medart's visualization, a confused jumble that reminded the Ranger of multi-colored spaghetti. She started probing at it, using his actual visualization to guide her as she finally tugged at what appeared to be a key strand. That made the `spaghetti' disappear, releasing a flood of concept/imagery/experience into her mind, understandable only in fragments that seemed to flow past and through her.
"Pattern rapport," she breathed in wonder.
"Right, I got that much," Medart said. "But what is it? I'm not sure I understand anything about it but its name."
"It is an extremely unusual stress phenomenon," Corina said, picking her words with care. "It occurs when two very similar mind patterns are in close physical proximity and under considerable stress. Something—the Order is not sure what, but the most respected theory is both underminds acting as one—apparently `decides' to relieve the stress by combining whatever memories can be used to accomplish that purpose."
"But aren't human and Irschchan patterns too different for that to happen?" Medart objected. "That's what you seemed to think earlier, at least."
"I believed so, yes," Corina said slowly. "Yet the Order's millennia of experience cannot be totally wrong. It had to be pattern rapport."
"Then either human and Irschchan patterns are closer than anyone's ever suspected…"
"Or it is our own two basic patterns which are in phase."
"Uh-huh, that could— Hey! Remember, I told you I had more trouble reading Sunbeam than I did reading you?"
"That must be the case, then, but I would like to know—" Corina cut that thought off before it could go somewhere she didn't want to follow.