Benton sat down, sweating.
"I'm still doing the sort of thing I was built to do," said Urei, soothingly. "Solving man's problems. Quit shivering and shaking; it might be contagious, and if I start shaking, there'll be an earthquake."
Benton's throat was dry but he swallowed and got it working. He also got control of his nerves. This was what he had come here for, wasn't it? "I can't see what problem will be solved by slowly driving me crazy," he said.
"You're doing that, not me," Urei charged. "Which might tend to prove you weren't very sane in the first place."
"Explain that."
"You're worried and upset," Urei said. "From a simple observation which no more than proved that I'm sentient, you've drawn conclusions which aren't warranted by the facts. Thalamic reactions, instead of reason."
Benton pondered for a second. "Partly," he admitted. "But it is a fact that you made me do something I had no intention of doing. You took over my body for a second or two; that was a hostile act. And if you committed one overt move against a man, it is reasonable to suspect that, if it becomes convenient, you might take over all mankind. What's thalamic about that?"
A hearty laugh issued from the intercom speaker. "I don't suppose you knew I had a built-in sense of humor, did you? Of course that laugh was manufactured, inasmuch as I have no diaphragm, per se. But a sense of humor is actually an intellectual attribute, even if you do express it physically. It is not so?"
Benton grunted. "Isn't that a little off the subject?"