"I don't wonder. Well, if it comes to that, I can do the same. You _can_ convert me, then." "Yes, sir. But before we do it we must do enough preliminary work to be sure that you will not be harmed in any way. Also, there will be many more changes involved than simple substitution." "Of course. I realize that. Just see what you can do, please, and let me know." "We will, sir, and thank you very much." IX As has been intimated, no Terran can know what researches Larry and Tuly and the other Oman specialists performed, or how they arrived at the conclusions they reached. However, in less than a week Larry reported to Hilton. "It can be done, sir, with complete safety. And you will live even more comfortably than you do now." "How long?" "The mean will be about five thousand Oman years--you don't know that an Oman year is equal to one point two nine three plus Terran years?" "I didn't, no. Thanks." "The maximum, a little less than six thousand. The minimum, a little over four thousand. I'm very sorry we had no data upon which to base a closer estimate." "Close enough." He stared at the Oman. "You could also convert my wife?" "Of course, sir." "Well, we might be able to stand it, after we got used to the idea. Minimum, over five thousand Terran years ... barring accidents, of course?" "No, sir. No accidents. Nothing will be able to kill you, except by total destruction of the brain. And even then, sir, there will be the pattern." "I'll ... be ... damned...." Hilton gulped twice. "Okay, go ahead." "Your skins will be like ours, energy-absorbers. Your 'blood' will carry charges of energy instead of oxygen. Thus, you may breathe or not, as you please. Unless you wish otherwise, we will continue the breathing function. It would scarcely be worth while to alter the automatic mechanisms that now control it. And you will wish at times to speak. You will still enjoy eating and drinking, although everything ingested will be eliminated, as at present, as waste." "We'd add uranexite to our food, I suppose. Or drink radioactives, or sleep under cobalt-60 lamps." "Yes, sir. Your family life will be normal; your sexual urges and satisfactions the same. Fertilization and period of gestation unchanged. Your children will mature at the same ages as they do now." "How do you--oh, I see. You wouldn't change any molecular linkages or configurations in the genes or chromosomes." "We could not, sir, even if we wished. Such substitutions can be made only in exact one-for-one replacements. In the near future you will, of course, have to control births quite rigorously." "We sure would. Let's see ... say we want a stationary population of a hundred million on our planet. Each couple to have two children, a boy and a girl. Born when the parents are about fifty ... um-m-m. The gals can have all the children they want, then, until our population is about a million; then slap on the limit of two kids per couple. Right?"