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But now I was more second matter than any man in history. "It's the old question of Achilles' Ship," Dr. Erics told me. "Never heard of it," I said. "It's a parable, Treb, about concretised forms of a continuum in its discrete aspects." "I see the theoretical question but what has Achilles' Ship to do with it?" He furrowed his protoplast brow that looked as youthful as it had a century ago.
Her courage and support made all the difference and I went into the second matter chamber, ready for whatever fate awaited me. Nothing happened. I came out of the chamber all protoplast except for the spinal zone. Yet I was still Treb Hawley. As the coma faded away, the last equation faded in, completely meaningful and soon followed by all the leads I could handle for the next few years.
So here, at the outset, I want to say my life has not been a tragic one whose life is in this day of advanced techniques and universal good will? but that, on the contrary, I have enjoyed this Earth and Solar System and all the abundant interests that it has offered me. If, lying here beneath these great lights, I could only be as sure of joy in the future.... My name is Treb Hawley.
When I came out of coma Marla was standing at my bedside, smiling down at me. "Do you feel," she stumbled, "darling, I mean, do you feel the way you did?" I was puzzled. "Sure, I'm Treb Hawley, I'm your husband, and I remember an awful fall of rocks but now I feel exactly the way I always have."
I feel as well as I ever have." "Your 'feeling' is a dangerous illusion." His face was space-dust grey and I realized with horror that he meant all of it. "I had to tell you the parable and show the possible alternatives clearly. Treb, you're riddled with Centaurian Zed virus. Unless we remove almost all the remaining first growth organisms you will be dead within six months."
"How could it?" "Suppose, Treb, just suppose you do come out of it all right. You'd be the first man to be completely of second matter!" "Erics, it can't work. Forget it." "I won't forget it. You said we're not immortal but, Treb, your survival would be another step in that direction. The soul's immortality has to be taken on faith now if it's taken at all.
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