The counselor was pleased. "That's right. You're beginning to use some
of the information we've put back into your mind. Earth, Mars and
Venus are the main population centers. But there are also Mercury and
the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the asteroids. We can
check to see where you might have come from, but there are so many
places and people that you can imagine the results."
"There must be _some_ way," the man said painfully. "Pictures,
fingerprints, something."
"Something," Borgenese nodded. "But probably not for quite a while.
There's another factor, you see. It's a shock, but you've got to face
it. And the funny thing is that you'll never be better able to than
now."
He rocked back. "Take the average person, full of unsuspected anxiety,
even the happiest and most successful. Expose him to the retrogression
gun. Tensions and frustrations are drained away.
"The structure of an adult is still there, but it's empty, waiting to
be filled. Meanwhile the life of the organism goes on, but it's not
the same. Lines on the face disappear, the expression alters
drastically, new cell growth occurs here and there throughout the
body. Do you see what that means?"