_For man's sense is falsely asserted to be the standard of
things: on the contrary, all the perceptions, both of the senses
and the mind, bear reference to man and not to the universe; and
the human mind resembles those uneven mirrors which impart their
own properties to different objects ... and distorts and
disfigures them ... For every one ... has a cave or den of his
own which refracts and discolors the light of nature._
--Sir Francis Bacon
(1561--1626)
It was the Captain who moved first. He went to the remaining bulkhead,
spun a dog, and opened a cabinet. From it he took a rack of spare radar
parts and three thick coils of wire. Paresi, startled, turned and saw
Hoskins peering owlishly at the Captain.
Anderson withdrew some tools, reached far back in the cabinet, and took
out a large bottle.
"Oh," said Paresi. "That.... I thought you were doing something
constructive."
In the far shadows, Hoskins turned silently back to his game. The
Captain gazed down at the bottle, tossed it, caught it. "I am," he said.
"I am."
He came and sat beside the doctor. He thumbed off the stopper and drank
ferociously. Paresi watched, his eyes as featureless as the imprisoning
dark.
"Well?" said the Captain pugnaciously.