rn? If any such person past the childhood sixty years
did, _he_ would be the freak.

Then at ninety new difficulties arose. A new Centaurian subvirus
attacked my chest marrow. As is still true in this infection, the virus
proved to be ineradicable. My ribs weren't, though, and a protoplastic
casing, exactly like the thoracic cavity, was substituted. It was
discovered that the infection had spread to my right radius and ulna so
here too a simple substitution was made. Of course, such a radical
infection meant my circulatory system was contaminated and synthetically
created living hemoplast was pumped in as soon as all the blood was
removed.

This _did_ attract attention. At the time the procedure was still new
and some medical people warned it would not take. They were right only
to this extent: the old cardioarterial organs occasionally hunted into
defective feedback that required systole-diastole adjustments.
Protoplastic circulatory substitutes corrected the deficiency and, just
to avoid the slight possibility of further complications, the venous
system was also replaced. Since the changeover there hasn't been the
least trouble in that sector.

By then Marla had a perfect artificial ear and both of my sons had lost
their congenitally diseased livers. There was nothing extraordinary
about our family; only in my case were replacements somewhat above the
world average.

I am proud to say that I was among the first thousand who made the
pioneer voyage on hyperdrive to the star group beyond Centaurus. We
returned in triumph with our fantastic but true tales of the organic
planet Vita and the contemplative humanoids of Nirva who will
consciousness into subjectively grasping the life and beauty of
subatomic space. The knowledge we brought back assured that the fatal
disease of ennui could never again attack man though they lived to Aleph
Null.

On the second voyage Marla, Robert and Neil went with me. This took a
little political wrangling but it was worth throwing my merit around to
see them benefit from Nirvan discoveries even before the rest of
humanity. Planetary Council agreed my services entitled me to this
special consideration. Truly I could feel among the blessed.

Then I volunteered for the small expeditionary force to the 38th moon
that the Nirvans themselves refused to visit. They tried to dissuade us
but, being of a much younger species, we were less plagued by caution
and went anyway. The mountains of t