 What is the "thing"?
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] The golden Moon and the silver ship, symbols of greed. "'Memory Jump,' you mean. All my great-grandfathers have it. It had happened a few times right after I first found him, but now it was worse. You don't have any quarter, not if I say so. I was bent double, but I got from the floor to the chair and found my notebook and orb-point in my hands. They told everything I needed to know to become the most powerful man in the Solar Federation. I remembered that he was somebody very important whose name and work I had once known, even if now I knew him only as Doc.
 An agent of time travel.
 A state of pure thought.  A book that doesn't exist.  A vehicle to find coffee.  An agent of time travel.