this one. But what if there
was no way out?

I pushed myself to the aft bulkhead, turned and looked forward to the
instrument panel. I picked out the smallest meter face. I could just
read the numbers on it. I told myself: When I can't read the numbers
any more I'll know my vision is blurring from the beginning of anoxia.
I thought: When that happens I'll key in the transmitter and tap out,
TELL SANDY GOOD-BY.

It would be dramatic anyhow.

A withered mummy in a flying tomb.

* * * * *

The receiver began clicking again. They're still worried about my
morale, I thought. I went over and pulled out the tape. It said:

BRONSON HERE. SUGGEST YOU TRY LAST RESORT.

Dr. Bronson was the project director. It was a moment before I
realized what he meant. When I did I hesitated for several minutes.
Then I shrugged and tapped out, O.K.

I knew what had been happening down there. They had fed all the data I
could give them through a computer, and the computer had said no dice.
There was no solution to the problem, at least none that a computer
could think of with the data available. There was still the Last
Resort.

I wondered if cyanide might not be more pleasant. Well, the exects
would have scientific interest anyway. The Last Resort was still Top
Secret. And highly experimental. It was a new drug with a name a foot
long, called LRXD for short. It had come out of the old experiments
with lysergic acid and mescalin. I had never heard of its existence
until a few hours before lift-off from Lunar Base. Then Dr. Bronson
had given me a single ampule of the stuff. He had held it up to the
light, looking through it. He said, "This is called LRXD. No one knows
exactly what it will do. The lab boys say the 'LR' stands for Last
Resort."

What it was _supposed_ to do was increase mental efficiency in human
beings. Sometimes it did. They had given it to one volunteer and then
shown him an equation which it had taken a computer ten minutes to
solve. He wrote down the answer at once, apparently having gone
through the entire process in his head instantaneously.

Dr. Bronson told me, "It isn't just a matter of I.Q. It increases the
total level of consciousness. Ordinarily the human brain screens out
thousands of irrelevant stimuli. You're not aware of your watch
ticking, or the fly on the wall, or your own body odor. You just don't
_notice_ them. But under LRXD, the brain becomes aware of everything