ague resistant strain and then evolved a rational brain.

Civilizations rose and toppled in cycles, he knew. Sometime in the
near future or even the far future, another civilization would emerge
on Terra and another race would conquer the stars.

But what value was that to him, if he would die in a few days from
lack of oxygen?

No, if he were to be rescued, it had to be soon. By the Venusian
colonists? No hope lay there, either. The second planet was an infant
world, and its people--even if they succeeded in making space travel
common--would be apt to avoid the Earth-Luna system like the--

He choked: There was no other word for it:--like the plague....

Again, he was conscious of his brief chill. It aroused some elusive
connection in his brain with a piece of information he had nearly
forgotten. What was it? Cerebration set in, as he sought to pin down
the clue he wanted.... He felt his body chilling....

_Chilling_, he thought. That was it, _deep freezing_.

What cold was colder than the eternal absolute zero of outer space?
Where could a person find temperatures lower than those in the
celestial icebox that extended everywhere around him? Just outside his
port window lurked enough chill to keep his body intact for a million
years!

And in a million years, who knew what cultures would learn to pilot
vessels through space and come his way to revive him? Possibly alien
cultures whom his superior genius for organizing would enable him to
dominate. Already, the contemplation of such a possibility rendered
the prospect so alluring he wondered why he was holding back. Why not
step out of the airlock immediately?

* * * * *

It was calm reasoning that deterred him, the realization that if his
scheme for survival were to meet success, he would have to lay his
plans deep enough to meet every contingent possibility.

Two things became immediately apparent as essential: (1) He would have
to adopt a method of self-freezing that would assure instantaneous
cessation of his life activities without injuring his body cells by
converting the water to ice. (2) He would have to leave behind him an
explanation of what he had done and sufficient directions concerning
his revivification that he would not be restored so slowly as to alter
his molecular structure, a turn of affairs which would in fact make
him unalterably dead long before he approached normal body warmth.

Now, thoroughly aroused