The affected part of the computer has been removed from all contact with the main banks. A totally separate life support and communications system has been installed, and tests made to discover the cause of decay. Results to date show that there is no apparent protoplasmic degeneration, the condition was not induced by defective maintenance and there is no trace of any external infection.'
From where he stood at one end of the Desk Yandron said, 'How did you arrive at your conclusions?'
'Ten units were detached, dismantled and inspected. I chose those showing most signs of aberration.'
Ten brains destroyed. Ten intelligences, the seat and repositories of accumulated knowledge, totally eliminated. Yet, thought Nequal dispassionately, it was a thing which had to be done. Again Yandron anticipated his question.
'Your suggestion as to the cause of the decay?'
'Psychological.' Quendis touched a sheet of paper covered with fine markings. 'The conclusions of three different lines of investigation. The cause could be based on the necessity for the brains to rid themselves of programming, by the means of paradoxical sleep. The need to dream.'
'That is easily arranged,' said Nequal. 'There are drugs which can achieve the desired effect. Have they been used?'
'Yes, Master. The results were negative. To use the term paradoxical sleep in its widest sense. It could well be that the affected units have lost all touch with reality. This could be due to their extreme age, in which case the maintenance of units is limited by a time factor of which we have been unaware. If this is correct the decay of all units is, in time, inevitable.'
'But manageable,' said Yandron. 'New units can replace the old.'
'That is so,' agreed Quendis. 'Once we determine the efficient life-expectancy of the encapsulated brains, arrangements can be made for routine elimination. However the present danger lies in the possibility that the paraphysical emanations of the deteriorated units could spread the contamination.'
Nequal said, 'Has the affected bank been questioned?'
'Yes, Master. On seven occasions. Each time the response was sheer gibberish. The units seem to lack all coordination.'
Yandron said, 'Cannot something be done? The units separated and placed in cyborg mechanisms?'
'Separation has no effect.' Again Quendis touched his papers, as if to reassure himself that all had been done. An odd gesture for a cyber to make and Nequal noted it. The man was more concerned than he appeared. 'Rehousing the unit had no effect on the decayed intelligence. If anything it showed a marked decline. Three attempts were made. On the last the unit did nothing but scream.'
Alone, distracted, terrified perhaps; torn from the close association with other minds which it had known for years. A great many years, longer by far than any normal lifetime. And yet why should any cyber scream? Certainly not from reasons of emotion. But from what else?
'Destroy the bank,' ordered Nequal. 'Total extinction.'
'Master!'
Nequal ignored Yandron's voice, his gesture.
'Continue your investigations,' he said to Quendis. 'Test the entire installation down to atomic level and conduct molecular examinations of all units.'
A thousand dead brains to be ripped apart and probed with electron microscopes. Tons of metal to be checked for any wild radioactivity or unsuspected crystallization. Every drop of nutrient fluid to be scanned for random chemical combinations which could have occurred, despite the monitoring devices.
And still, perhaps, they would find nothing.
As they left the office Yandron said, 'Master, it could be that the decay is not from the cause Cyber Quendis suspects. The aberration could be due to the units using different frames of reference. The intelligences, old as they are, could have progressed to a higher order of relationship, using mental concepts of a type we cannot understand.'
'You are saying that I may have destroyed a superior intelligence,' said Nequal. 'I had considered the possibility.'
'Naturally, Master, but-'
'Why did I order the destruction? The answer should be obvious. If ancient brains could progress to that point then others, growing old, will reach it also. Therefore, we have lost nothing. If, however, the decay is not of that nature, then we have avoided the risk of contamination.'
'Yes, Master.'
Was there a hint of doubt in the carefully modulated voice? Nequal looked keenly at his aide. A man remained at the apex of the Cyclan only as long as he was efficient enough to do so. Was his aide already searching for signs of mental weakness? Questioning the destruction only after it had been ordered, so as to build evidence?
Nequal said, 'There is one point which you appear to have forgotten. The affected brains were questioned and responded only with gibberish. It may be that they were using unfamiliar forms of reference, but of what use is that to the Cydan? We deal in a world of men and must work within familiar boundaries.'
Men and the problems they could cause; the normal inefficiency which grated on his desire for regulated order and logical patterns of thought.
He said, 'I am returning to my office. Find Cyber Wain and join me there.'
* * * * *
The simulacrum was in full life when they arrived, the chamber full of color, flaring greens, blues, reds and yellows; the depiction expanded so as to show a region of space in which worlds now could be revealed in multi- hued array.
Nequal stood facing it, his thin, aesthetic features painted with shifting color; the brightness accentuating the skull-like contours of his head, the mask of his face. Without turning he said, 'Cyber Wain, report on your progress.'
'It is slow, Master.'
'Too slow.'
'Agreed, but in this case time cannot be accelerated. The affinity-twin developed in the laboratory on Riano is composed of fifteen molecular units, the reversal of one unit determining whether or not it will be subjective or dominant. This we know. We also know the nature of the units. What we lack is the knowledge of the correct sequence in which they must be joined.'
'And the number of possible combinations is very high,' interjected Yandron. 'If it were possible to try one new combination each second, still it would take four thousand years to cover them all.'
'It cannot be done in a second,' said Wain. He was shorter than the others, but aside from that could have been their twin. 'It takes a minimum of eight hours to assemble and test a chain.'
The figures were numbing. Nequal considered them as he studied the depiction. Allowing for the possibility that only half the possible sequences needed to be investigated before success was achieved, it would still take close to sixty million years. For one team, of course; more workers would reduce the figure, but still the amount was staggering.
He felt again the impatience which gripped him each time he recalled the stupidity of the guards at Riano; the willful neglect of the cybers in charge of the laboratory concerned. They had paid for their inefficiency but the damage remained. The secret of the sequence chain had been lost.
Lost, but not destroyed; of that he was certain. And what had been lost could be found again.
He said, 'With the decay affecting the older brains of Central Intelligence, the matter must be moved to a higher order of priority. I have advocated this before, but my predecessor did not agree.' One of the factors which had led to his replacement, but Nequal did not mention that. 'The secret must be regained.'
Wain made a small, helpless gesture.
'Agreed, Master, but as yet all efforts towards that end have failed. We know that the secret was stolen by Brasque, who took it to the woman Kalin. We know too that she passed it on before she died.'
'To the man Dumarest,' said Yandron. 'Earl Dumarest. How could one man have eluded us for so long?'
For answer Nequal gestured towards the depiction, the host of glowing worlds.
'One man,' he said. 'Moving as a molecule would move in a heated gas. One man among billions, moving from world to world, and he has been warned. At first, when unaware he held the secret he could have been taken, had
