"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 12 - Eloise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

beneath the planetary surface; the entire complex buttressed and
reinforced to withstand even the fury of thermonuclear attack.
They would see the serried rows of vats, the laboratories, the
hydroponic farms; the whole tremendous installation which was
the headquarters of the Cyclan.

And then, assured, their gestalt finned, they would become a
part of it.

They would be taken and drugged. Trepans would bite into
their skulls and expose the living brains. Attachments would
keep them alive, as they were lifted from their natural housings
and placed into containers of nutrient and that the intelligences
would remain awake and ever aware. And then, finally, the
living, thinking brains would be incorporated into the gigantic
organic computer which was Central Intelligence.

To live forever. To share in the complete domination of the
universe. To solve all the mysteries of creation.

The aim and object of the Cyclan.


***

Nequal watched them go, wondering if they would have been
so eager had they known what he knew; the problem which
threatened to overshadow all others. As yet it was a minor
incident; but he would not have been a cyber if he had not
known where it must invariably lead if unchecked.

A passage led to the laboratories; the office of Cyber Quendis,
the papers and graphs lying thick on his desk.

"Master!"

"Report on the decay of the older intelligences."

Quendis was direct. "There is no improvement. The
deterioration previously noticed is progressing into all increasing
decay."

"Action taken?"

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