"But it's true." His voice was only a whisper. "There's Amelia. I love her. What will happen to her?" "Your wife? Why, she will be reassigned. There are other tasks--in our factories--our farms. Her memory of you and of your marriage will be erased. We aren't barbarians, you know." "Not barbarians?" His laugh was raw. "Not cruel to force reconversion on me? And what about my memories? Can you erase them?" "No, but you will adjust. You did before." His tone turned ironic. "You didn't call me cruel when your arms were gone, and your body shot to pieces. I was your saviour then, your healer. You couldn't thank me enough, or praise me. You--and all the men like you that I salvaged out of the Great War." His eyes blazed at Jim. "Only half a million of you left. Half a million men out of a world of billions. I took those with minds and hearts and gave them new bodies. And almost all of them used those new bodies to work in my Body Parts Bank, helping me experiment and recreate the real thing. Except the few--like you--who ran to hide out on farms, in caves of the mountains, even in sailing boats. "I even manufactured wives for you--moving, talking, mechanical dolls with memory tapes for minds--just to keep you from loneliness till the time when I found the way to give back the bodies you had lost. And now when I give you the chance for the greatest gift--the chance to bear children, to repopulate our dying world--you hide! You reject it!" * * * * * Dr. Tiel ended on a thunderous note. He glared at Jim. Then made an angry imperious gesture. From behind and above someone lowered an anaesthetic cone. Jim turned and twisted. He fought the straps. But inexorably they brought the cone down over his face. It muffled him so that his words came through, muted and broken: "But I don't want to be human again. Please.... Please.... I don't want to be human...." After a while his voice died. His wonderful android body gave a final twitch of protest. And then was still.