I closed my eyes. The matter transmitter--a strange device. A field, not distorting space, but accentuating certain characteristics of a matter field in space-time, subtly shifting relationships.... Just as the mind could compare unrelated data, draw from them new concepts, new parallels.... The circuits of the matter transmitter ... and the patterns of the mind.... The exocosm and the endocosm, like the skin and the orange, everywhere in contact.... Somewhere there was a beach of white sand, and dunes with graceful sea-oats that leaned in a gentle wind. There was blue water to the far horizon, and a blue sky, and nowhere were there any generals with medals and television cameras, or flint-eyed bureaucrats with long schemes.... And with this gentle folding ... thus.... And a pressure here ... so.... I opened my eyes, raised myself on one elbow--and saw the sea. The sun was hot on my body, but not too hot, and the sand was white as sugar. Far away, a seagull tilted, circling. A wave rolled in, washed my foot in cool water. I lay on my back, and looked up at white clouds in a blue sky, and smiled--then laughed aloud. Distantly the seagull's cry echoed my laughter. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of End as a Hero, by Keith Laumer