. There were
starkly functional organs of reproduction with which, by no stretch of
the imagination, could any thought of tenderness or of love be
connected.

It was a good thing for the race, Hilton had thought at first perception
of the things, that the Stretts had bred out of themselves every iota of
the finer, higher attributes of life. If they had not done so, the
impotence of sheer disgust would have supervened so long since that the
race would have been extinct for ages.

"Thirty-eight periods ago the Great Brain was charged with the sum total
of Strettsian knowledge," First Lord Thinker Zoyar radiated to the
assembled Stretts. "For those thirty-eight periods it has been scanning,
peyondiring, amassing data and formulating hypotheses, theories, and
conclusions. It has just informed me that it is now ready to make a
preliminary report. Great Brain, how much of the total universe have you
studied?"

"This Galaxy only," the Brain radiated, in a texture of thought as hard
and as harsh as Zoyar's own.

"Why not more?"

"Insufficient power. My first conclusion is that whoever set up the
specifications for me is a fool."

* * * * *

To say that the First Lord went out of control at this statement is to
put it very mildly indeed. He fulminated, ending with: "... destroyed
instantly!"

"Destroy me if you like," came the utterly calm, utterly cold reply. "I
am in no sense alive. I have no consciousness of self nor any desire for
continued existence. To do so, however, would ..."

A flurry of activity interrupted the thought. Zoyar was in fact
assembling the forces to destroy the brain. But, before he could act,
Second Lord Thinker Ynos and another female blew him into a mixture of
loose molecules and flaring energies.

"Destruction of any and all irrational minds is mandatory," Ynos, now
First Lord Thinker, explained to the linked minds. "Zoyar had been
becoming less and less rational by the period. A good workman does not
causelessly destroy his tools. Go ahead, Great Brain, with your
findings."

"... not be logical." The brain resumed the thought exactly where it had
been broken off. "Zoyar erred in demanding unlimited performance, since
infinite knowledge and infinite ability require not only infinite
capacity and infinite power, but also infinite time. Nor is it either
necessary or desirable that I should have such qualities. There is no
reasonable basis for the assumption