"Because the one thing that permitted you to gain access to our research was the thing that licked your pals."
"And?" she asked, puzzled.
"People too often try to divorce the mind from the body," he told her. "It can't be done."
"I don't follow."
"Infants are all brought into this world alike from a mental standpoint. Yet within a few short months each is a separate identity with a different personality, no matter how similar the environment and heredity. This is because the mind of man is but the accumulated result of what his sensory channels bring it.
"An alien you were once, Rhine. But from the instant that you took over that very nice Terran body your mind began to receive information and experiences through the sensory channels of a Terran body.
"Every item, every experience, brought to your mind through Terran channels forced your mind to interpret it in terms of Terran nervous stimuli. Therefore, from the second instant after taking over, you began to change subtly to the Terran."
"Go on—tell me the rest," she said with a smile.
"Day by day, week by week, you will become more and more Terran. Eventually, your alien experiences will fade and you will be as one of us and no longer alien."
"You know," she said shyly, "someday I intend to present you with a little alien."