The Creature Inside

A scientist develops a device that projects saturating streams of concepts into a subject's mind while an atomic duplicator supplies sensory needs, intending therapeutic exploration of imagined experience. A misdiagnosed patient with grandiose fantasies becomes trapped in a self-generated universe that resists external intervention and may be fed by the duplicator, while two rescuers vanish inside. A Contact-trained lieutenant is sent into the opaque room and finds psychological constructs rendered as convincing, mutable environments; the narrative follows his attempts to navigate shifting perceptual realities, confront competing wills, and prevent the inner world from expanding beyond containment.