Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 285: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ALL RIGHT, Daryesh, go ahead. | suppose your idea Is the best, if anything can be made to work at all. But I’m listening, remember. “lam all that is left of this planet,” he said tonelessly. “This is the ego of Daryesh of Tollogh, Immortal of Vwyrdda, and in one sense | died a million years ago.” She remained quiet, but he saw how her hands clenched and he heard the sharp small hiss of breath sucked between the teeth. Briefly, then, he explained how his mental pattern had been preserved, and how it had entered the brain of John Laird. “You don’t expect me to believe that story,” she said contemptuously. “Do you Nave a lie detector aboard?” “| have one in this cabin, and | can operate it myself.” She got up and fetched the machine from a cabinet. He watched her, noticing the grace of her movements. You died long ago, llorna—you died and the universe will never know another like you. But | go on, and she reminds me somehow of you. lt was a small black thing that hummed and glowed on the desk between them. He put the metal cap on his head, and took the knobs in his hands, and waited while she adjusted the controls. From Laird’s memories, he recalled the principle of the thing, the measurement of activity in separate brain centers, the precise detection of the slight extra energy needed in the higher cerebral cortex to invent a falsehood. “| have to calibrate,” she said. “Make up something | Know to be alie.” “New Egypt has rings,” he smiled, “which are made of Limburger cheese. However, the main body of the planet is a CORniclooo SS CO