"Is that what This is?"
"It's a matter outside our field," said Dr. Howard Sprinnell carefully, "and a matter of choice as to name. But mystical evidence seems to point that way."
One of the girls laughed. "You're embarrassing the Solar Government, Fred. They are not supposed to have any sectarian views. But that's what we Divers think the This is. My name's Milly. This is Pat, and Joan, Bill, Ed, Al, John, Anthony, Ricardo and Mitch. Welcome to the Divers, Fred."
Fred Williams smiled around. The women were attractive, all brown-haired and nicely shaped. The seven men were just regular guys you might meet anywhere. But then, he wasn't anything to win a prize himself.
"So far as we are concerned, Fred," Dr. Howard Sprinnell said, "and this is official, there is the normal conscious mind, the subliminal mind of which we are not usually conscious but which is apparently a parcel of regional physical minds and the mind you roam in, and there is the unconscious mind, which does not seem to belong to any one person, although everyone has it, and which you people embarrass me by referring to as the This.
"All we know, officially, is that the This is the natural or original home of the universe, and the only reason we know that is because we don't want Divers to disappear into it and not come out. You're all too rare. I gather it is almost unbearable to come out of. But you'll just have to avoid the temptation to go home, as it were. After all, it has taken several million years to get man out here where he is and what he is. And the second reason is that the entire Solar Government depends on the people in this room for information."
Fred Williams looked at the others. They were serious. The smallest of the girls, Pat, caught him looking and smiled.
She turned to the doctor. "Can I tell Fred?"
"You followed him, so you may as well. I don't know what you Divers feel. But the Defense Council is waiting for the rest of you and we must hurry along."
Dr. Howard Sprinnell patted Fred on the shoulder as he passed. He stood aside for the other Divers to leave the room, nodded to Pat and Fred, and shut the door behind him.