The Project Gutenberg EBook of Man Made, by Albert R. Teichner

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Title: Man Made

Author: Albert R. Teichner

Release Date: March 30, 2008 [EBook #24955]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MAN
MADE

By
ALBERT R. TEICHNER

_A story that comes to grips with an age-old
question--what is soul? and where?--and
postulates an age-new answer._

If I listed every trouble I've accumulated in a mere two hundred odd
years you might be inclined to laugh. When a tale of woe piles up too
many details it looks ridiculous, unreal. 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. As far back as I can remember in my childhood, I
was always interested in astronautics. From the age of ten I specialized
in that subject, never for a moment regretting the choice. When I was
still a child of twenty-four I took part in the Ninth Jupiter Expedition
and after that there were many more. I had a precocious marriage at
thirty and my boys, Robert and Neil, were born within a few years after
Marla and I wed. It was fortunate that I fought for government
permission that early; after the accident, despite my high rating, I
would have been denied the rare privilege of parenthood.

That accident, the first one, took place when I was fifty. On Planet 12
of the Centauri System I was attacked by a six-limbed primate and was
badly mangled on the left side before breaking loose to destroy it.
Surgical Corps operated within an hour. Although they did an excellent
prosthetic job after removing my left leg and arm, the substituted limbs
had their limitations. While they permitted me to do all my jobs,
phantom pain was a constant problem. There were new