He caught Mallory's thought, a frightened, anxious thing. Something's wrong! Something's wrong. I feel it. What is it?
Kent Knight felt It flow into him, saw Mallory's puzzled face, apologized to his mind and braced himself against the pain.
He kept his eyes fixed upon Mallory's face, saw puzzlement spread over it, and laughed at the raging Thing. He would have thought that It could match the previous hurt, but the pain this time....
The sound of his own sobs still was echoing in his ears when he awakened. His whole body ached, but his mind was numb and only partially felt the signals. He opened his eyes, and there was Sammy.
"Hello," Sammy said matter-of-factly. "I do hope you had a pleasant sleep while I battled over your body."
"It wasn't a pleasant sleep, Sammy. But what do you mean, battled over my body?"
"Exactly that, my good man," Sammy reported. "They moved us all to the SP ship, taking us to Earth for observation. Earth! Just imagine it, Kent. For the first time in three years, we'll be seeing home." He upended his bottle, his adam's apple bobbing.
"And I can obtain some honest-to-gosh Earth whiskey. No more of this stuff I've been distilling myself. Oh joy, oh rapture."
"Back up, Sammy," Knight said softly. "What's this about battling over your body?"