AS has been said, the Stretts were working, with all the of their but minds, upon their Great Plan; which was, basically, to and either or every other all the length, breadth, and of total space. To that end each Strett had to and immortal.
Wherefore, in the past, there had been put into a program of and of carefully-calculated treatments. It was that this program would result in a of beings of pure force—beings having no material whatever.
Under those upon of Stretts had died. But the thousands had almost their goal. In a more hundreds of thousands of years perfection would be reached. The hundreds of perfect beings and would to any number in no time at all.
Hilton and his seven fellow-workers had all this in their one and only study of the Strett, and every other Ardan had been informed.
A dozen or so Strett Lords of Thought, male and female, were about in the atmosphere—which was not air—of their Assembly Hall. Their were of lightning. Inside them be the of immense, less-than-half-material brains, through and through with and and of pure, force.
And the bodies! Or, rather, each brain had a material and as organs. There were no mouths, no ears, no eyes, no or nostrils, no lungs, no or arms. There were, however, hearts. Some material through those living-fire-outlined tubes. There were organs of with which, by no of the imagination, any of or of love be connected.
It was a good thing for the race, Hilton had at of the things, that the Stretts had out of themselves every of the finer, higher of life. If they had not done so, the of would have so long since that the would have been for ages.
"Thirty-eight ago the Great Brain was with the total of Strettsian knowledge," First Lord Thinker Zoyar to the assembled Stretts. "For those thirty-eight it has been scanning, peyondiring, data and hypotheses, theories, and conclusions. It has just me that it is now to make a report. Great Brain, how much of the total have you studied?"
"This Galaxy only," the Brain radiated, in a of as hard and as as Zoyar's own.
"Why not more?"
"Insufficient power. My is that set up the for me is a fool."
TO say that the First Lord out of at this is to put it very indeed. He fulminated, with: "... instantly!"
"Destroy me if you like," came the calm, cold reply. "I am in no alive. I have no of self any for existence. To do so, however, would ..."
A of activity the thought. Zoyar was in the to the brain. But, he act, Second Lord Thinker Ynos and another female him into a mixture of and energies.
"Destruction of any and all minds is mandatory," Ynos, now First Lord Thinker, to the minds. "Zoyar had been less and less by the period. A good not his tools. Go ahead, Great Brain, with your findings."
"... not be logical." The brain the where it had been off. "Zoyar in unlimited performance, since knowledge and ability not only and power, but also time. Nor is it either necessary or that I should have such qualities. There is no for the that you Stretts will any number of the millions of now this one Galaxy."
"Why not?" Ynos demanded, her almost, but not quite, as and cold as it had been.
"The answer to that question is in the second error in my construction. The into my banks, that the Stretts are in the strongest, ablest, most in the universe, proved to be false. I had to it I do any thinking."
A of all to a boil. "Bah—destroy it!" "Detestable!" "Intolerable!" "If that is the best it can do, it!" "Far have been for much less!" "Treason!" And so on.
First Lord Thinker Ynos, however, calm. "While we have always it to be a that we are the in existence, no proof has been possible. Can you now that assumption?"
"IHAVE it. I have not had time to study all of the of this Galaxy, but I have a sample of one seven hundred ninety-two thousand four hundred sixteen different intelligences. I one which is and more than you Stretts. Therefore the is than point nine nine that there are not less than ten, and not more than two hundred eight, such in this Galaxy alone."
"Impossible!" Another of and anger through the minds; a which Ynos out with some difficulty.
Then she asked: "Is it that we will make with this in the future?"
"You are in with it now."
"What?" Even Ynos was now. "You that one of who—far too late to do them any good—barred us from Fuel World?"
"Not or only those humans, no. And your may or may not be valid."
"Don't you know they are or not?" Ynos snapped. "Explain your at once!"
"I am of data," the brain replied, calmly. "The only of which I am are: First, the world Ardry, upon which the Omans and to which the in question went—a which no Strett can peyondire—is now abandoned. Second, the Stretts of old did not the of the world Ardu. Third, some from Ardu and the world Ardry. Fourth, the Omans were on Ardry, by the from Ardu and their descendants. Fifth, the Omans to those as 'Masters.' Sixth, after on Ardry for a very long period of time the Masters elsewhere. Seventh, the Omans on Ardry maintained, and for a very long time, the left by the Masters. Eighth, upon the from Terra of these present humans, that long-existing was broken. Ninth, the called Fuel World is, for the time, by a screen of force. The of this screen is as follows."
The brain gave it. No Strett either or interrupted. Each was too studying that and its and connotations.
"Tenth, that is one full order of anything to your science. Eleventh, it not have been by the science of Terra, by that of any other world population I have examined."
THE brain took the minds to Terra; then to a thousand or so other worlds by beings; then to a thousands of populations were near-human, non-human and monstrous.
"It is therefore clear," it announced, "that this screen was and produced by the race, it may be, that is now on Fuel World and full of it."
"Who or what is that race?" Ynos demanded.
"Data insufficient."
"Theorize, then!"
"Postulate that the Masters, in many thousands of of study, in science that were not to practice; that the Omans either this knowledge or had to it; and that Omans and in and in with all the thus available. From these three the can be that there has come into a new race. One the best of and Omans, but with the of neither."
"An thought, truly," Ynos thought. "But you can now, I suppose, design the and of a to that screen."
"Data insufficient. I can equal it, since and are in the formula. But the data so are in themselves ahead of anything in my banks."
"Are there any other in this Galaxy more powerful than the one now on Fuel World?"
"Data insufficient."
"Theorize, then!"
"Data insufficient."
The minds upon the problem for a period of time that might have been either days or weeks. Then:
"Great Brain, us," Ynos said. "What is best for us to do?"
"With screens it a question of relative power. You should the size and power of your to something the maximum of the enemy. You should more ships and than they will be able to build. Then and only then will you attack their warships, in and continuously."
"But not their defenses. I see." Ynos's was one of complete understanding. "And the will be?"
"No can be to of power to by of such powerful as their planet-based must be to be. Therefore the itself must be destroyed. This will a of mass. The best such is the tenth of their own sun."
"ISEE." Ynos's mind was ahead, hundreds of possibilities and making and computations. "That will, however, many of time and more power than our can supply."
"True. It will take much time. The fuel problem, however, is not a one, since Fuel World is not unique. Think on, First Lord Ynos."
"We will attack in maximum and with maximum violence. We will the planet. We will maintain maximum and until most or all of the enemy ships have been destroyed. We will then on Ten and it into with Fuel World, meanwhile that not so much as a spy-beam above the enemy's screen. Then, still precaution, we will until the last possible moment the collision. Brain, it cannot fail!"
"You err. It can fail. All we actually know of the of this neo-human is what I have learned from the of its screen. The that the Masters to and to learn for millions of while you Stretts, of your supremacy, upon your from the material to a non-material of life and performed only limited into of and power."
"True. But that was then justified. It was not and is not logical to assume that any would a at any level of ability its maximum."
"While that once have been defensible, it is now that the Masters had stores of knowledge which they may or may not have from the Omans, but which were in some way available to the neo-humans. Also, there is no for the that this new has all its potentialities."
"Statistically, that is true. But this is the best plan you have been able to formulate?"
"It is. Of the many thousands of plans I set up and tested, this one has the of success."
"Then we will it. We are Stretts. Whatever we decide upon will be through to complete success. We have one in you."
"Yes. The that I can perform on a and larger scale, and almost faster, than can any or any possible of such organisms."
NOR was the Great Brain bragging. It in moments the scientific knowledge of over a planets. It tabulated, correlated, analyzed, synthesized, and concluded—all in of time. Thus it more progress in one Terran week than the Masters had in a years.
When it had gone as as it go, it reported its results—and the Stretts, hard as they were and intransigent, were and overjoyed. Not one of them had such possible. Hence they that it was and all space.
What the Great Brain did not know, however, and the Stretts did not realize, was that it not think.
Unlike the mind, it not or from incomplete, insufficient, data. It not gaps. Thus there was no more than that they had exceeded, or matched, the of the neo-humans of Fuel World.
Supremely confident, Ynos said: "We will now discuss every detail of the plan in sub-detail, and will every sub-detail with every other, to the end that every action, minor, will be performed perfectly and in its exact time."
That discussion, which for days, was held. Hundreds of thousands of new and were and and to work. A fuel-supply line was to another uranexite-rich planet.
Stripping away the surface of soil, sand, and low-grade ore. Giant and and and and concentrated. Storage by the hundreds were and were filled. Hundreds upon hundreds of concentrate-carriers their through hyperspace. Many of time passed.
But of what are of time to a that has, for many millions of years, been to a pre-set program?
The of the operation, and the attention to detail with which it was prepared and launched, why the Strett attack on Ardvor did not until so many later than Hilton and Sawtelle it. They also the fury, the intensity, the savagery, the almost power of that attack when it did come.
WHEN the Orion on Ardane Field from Earth, the of immigrants, Hilton and Sawtelle were almost as much as that the Stretts had not already attacked.
Sawtelle, that his were ready, took it more or less in stride. Hilton worried. And after a of days he to do some about it.
The result of his was a with Temple. As soon as she got the drift, she called in Teddy and Big Bill Karns. Teddy in turn called in Becky and de Vaux; Karns wanted Poynter and Beverly; Poynter wanted Braden and the twins; and so on. Thus, what started out as a of two a full Ardan staff meeting; a meeting which, starting after lunch, ran through into the afternoon.
"To up the consensus, for the record," Hilton said then, studying a of paper with symbols, "the Stretts haven't yet they out that we are than they are. They that out by our web—which, if we had had this meeting first, we wouldn't have put up at all. Unlike anything to or previous Strett science, it is proof against any of attack up to the limit of the power of its generators. They will attack as soon as they are to that screen at the level of power to our ships. We can not arrive at any as to how long that will take.
"As to the of our off their fuel supply, opinion is divided. We must therefore assume that fuel will not be a factor.
"Neither are we on the as to why the Masters as they did just they left Ardry. Why did they set the so their top ability? Why did they make it for the Omans ever, of themselves, to learn their higher science? Why, if they did not want that science to known, did they complete records of it? The majority of us that the Masters their records in such fashion that the Stretts, if they the Omans or them, that code; since it was to the the Strett and the human. Thus, they left it for some to find.
"Finally, and most important, our and are not able to extrapolate, from the analysis of our screen, to the the Masters' of offense, the first-stage and its final end-product, the Vang. If, as we can safely assume, the Stretts do not already have those weapons, they will know nothing about them until we ourselves use them in battle.
"These are, of course, only the points covered. Does anyone wish to this as recorded?"
NO one did.
The meeting was adjourned. Hilton, however, Sawtelle and Kedy to the captain's office. "So you see, Skipper, we got troubles," he said. "If we don't use those against their it'll to a God only how long. It will be a of attrition, outcome on which can the most and biggest and ships the fastest. On the other hand, if we do use 'em on defense here, they'll 'em and have out in a day or so. The thing they'll do is up their to match. That way, we'd all their ships out of space, easily enough, but Strett itself will be just as safe as though it were in God's left-hand pocket. So what's the answer?"
"It isn't that simple, Jarve," Sawtelle said. "Let's from you, Kedy."
"Thank you, sir. There is an mass, a point of maximum of as against of maneuverability, for any designed for attack," Kedy thought, in his most professional manner. "We assume that the Stretts know that as well as we do. No such to structures, but the Strett and ours must be designed for attack. We have and are many hundreds of thousands of ships of that type. So, undoubtedly, are the Stretts. Ship for ship, they will be well matched. Therefore one part of my strategy will be for two of our ships to one of theirs. There is a that we will have in speed of to make that operable."
"But there's another that we won't," Sawtelle objected. "And maybe they can more ships than we can."
"Another point is that they may build, in to their big stuff, a of small, ultra-fast ones," Hilton put in. "Suicide jobs—crash and detonate—simply super-missiles. How sure are you that you can stop such with ordinary beams?"
"Not at all, sir. Some of them would of and some of our ships. Which up the second part of my strategy. For each one of the heavies, we are many small ships of the type you just called 'super-missiles'."
"Superdreadnoughts superdreadnoughts, super-missiles super-missiles." Hilton that for minutes. "That still wind up as a stalemate, for what you said about control. That isn't much to on, since we won't have the time-lag you Omans had before. They'll see to that. Also, I don't like to a Omans, either."
"IHAVEN'T the yet, sir. There will be no Omans. Each ship and each has a built-in Kedy brain, sir."
"What? That makes it worse. You Kedys, unless it's necessary, are not expendable!"
"Oh, but we are, sir. You don't understand. We Kedys are not similar, but are in identical. Thus we are not entities. All of us together make up the Kedy—that which is meant when we say 'I'. That is, I am the total of all Kedys everywhere, not this that you call Kedy One."
"You you're all talking to me?"
"Exactly, sir. Thus, no one of the Kedy has any need of, or any for, self-preservation. The of one element, or of thousands of elements, would be of no more to the Kedy than ... well, they are to the ends of the hairs, every time you a haircut."
"My God!" Hilton at Sawtelle. Sawtelle back. "I'm to see ... maybe ... I hope. What that would be! But just in case we should have to use the boosters...." Hilton's voice died away. Scowling in concentration, he his hands his and to the floor.
"Better give up, Jarve. Kedy's got the same mind you have," Sawtelle began, to Hilton's back; but Kedy the almost in the moment of its inception.
"By no means, sir," he contradicted. "I have the brain only. The mind is different."
"Link up, Kedy, and see what you think of this," Hilton in. There an of so fast and so mathematical that Sawtelle was in seconds. "Do you think it'll work?"
"I don't see how it can fail, sir. At what point in the action should it be put into effect? And will you call the time of initiation, or shall I?"
"Not until all their are in action. Or, at worst, all of ours that one task-force. Since you'll know a more about the of the than either Sawtelle or I will, you give the and I'll start going."
"What are you two talking about?" Sawtelle demanded.
"It's a long story, chum. Kedy can tell you about it than I can. Besides, it's late and Dark Lady and Larry give me every time I supper on plus time unless there's a good for it. So, so long, guys."
