Astonishingly enough, this felt incredibly familiar. I’ve remembered with perfect clarity everything up until now, yet I couldn’t quite place this person’s face. For all I knew, it might have been my own – but it’s been well over 10^100 years since I last had a face that I didn’t have to conjure from photon interference.

He had some funny ideas about something called a “soul” – my listening skills aren’t what they once were, as disconnected as I am – and a rather clear intention to sell it for the ability to live forever.

I’ve had this request before, a billion billion times from the members of a billion billion races. Anything, it seems, that feels it necessary to survive thinks that the logical extreme thereof would be a good idea.

I usually don’t even bother with it, but this time there was a certain amount of smugness I couldn’t stand.

“Well, have it,” I thought.

It was strange. For the first time in – in a timeframe there aren’t words for – I could feel the bliss of my consciousness fading…