iverse, pulsating with energy,
it was a kind of blue I had never seen before.... I had never seen
color before. There was a red plastic safety guard over one of the
toggle switches. Suddenly it seemed alive, rather the _red_ was alive,
the color was no longer part of the object, it was an entity in
itself, blazing like flame, liberated from matter, it was a living
drop of blood, afire.

I closed my eyes, trying to escape from color, but that was much
worse. The colors inside my head blazed out even brighter, more
savage.

I turned my head, trying to find something in the cabin to look at
that was not bright blue or green or red. With horror I focused on the
spacesuit locker. I had left the locker open, the suit hanging on its
wire stretcher. I saw immediately that the spacesuit was alive. It
stood there motionless, returning my stare, I could not look away from
it. I could not move, with fear. Slowly, very slowly, the spacesuit
raised an arm and pointed at me. I stared at its single, oval eye,
recalling childhood nightmares. Then the suit came out of its locker
and began to advance toward me, still pointing its gauntlet at my
face. It seemed to take hours to walk across the cabin toward me. I
held my breath, waiting. I thought I would scream if it did not reach
me, it was taking too long.

Then it did reach me and, bending low above me, wrapped its metallic
arms around my body. I turned my face from its mechanical, fiery
breath. It began to crush me, I could not breathe, I felt my ribs
begin to bend, slowly splinter. My face was pressed against its
metallic chest, it was a thin gray wall....

Then there was nothing but the wall itself, dark, thin as a membrane,
but impenetrably strong. I was pressing toward it, forcing my way,
flattened against it, being crushed slowly between this thin, gray
membrane and the tremendous weight of darkness at my back. I knew that
if the membrane did not give, if I did not break through at last, I
would suffocate and die. In fact I was already dead, the idea came to
me with a weight of horror, I twisted, lashing out in total panic.
Then the thin gray wall split and gave way, and I was free.

I was still strapped to my crash couch, regarding the instrument panel
with absolute calm. Bronson had been right. I was aware of everything.
I took in every meter indication simultaneously and correlated their
data in my mind, without the help of the computer. I was aware of
every sound, the f