tructure. He was
thrilled at sight of the selectors and analyzers of processed beryllium,
the logic-and-semantic circuits in complex little bundles, the
sensitized variant-tapes waiting for transferral impress, all revealed
by a flick of Arnold's fingers that threw open entire sheathed sections
to bare the inner secrets. The thousands of tiny transistors amazed
Beardsley. The endless array of electric eyes startled him. And the
spongy centers of synaptic cell-clusters horrified him, recalling too
vividly to mind what he knew of the physical human brain.

Along the monstrous length he trailed Jeff Arnold; he trailed and he
watched and he listened, not interfering once by word or gesture. And
before it was over his heart was surging with a great revelatory beat
because suddenly _he knew_ ... _he knew_....

Arnold seemed in high good humor as they paced back. "So," he nudged
Beardsley in the ribs, "we'll have no more of this nonsense between you
and ECAIAC. Eh? You're just _bound_ to be good friends now."

Beardsley didn't answer. The revelation was still too much with him. He
watched as Arnold conferred with a group of his techs about a
micro-chron, and the time was carefully noted for Central Record.

Then the first of the tapes went in. The Basic Invariant--Amos Carmack.

It reached synapse and a tiny blip registered on cue.

The rest of the tapes fed in, razoring through the rollers, past the
selenic-sensitized tips of the relays. There was no progressive order.
After the Basic Invariant progression didn't matter. Possible or Logical
or Prime, all factors would correlate or cancel; any divergent
status-shift would be duly handled by transferral impress.

Beardsley counted the tapes. Twenty ... twenty-one ... twenty-two.

The techs dispersed, taking up their various posts where special
eject-tapes clicked out a second-by-second record of the progression.

* * * * *

Nothing much happened. The sound of ECAIAC became a steady inundant
drone; or did Beardsley just imagine that he detected something of the
_gleeful_ in it? With an effort he put the thought from him, and keeping
a cautious distance he took a turn around the monster, up one side and
down the other.

He stopped by Jeff Arnold, who was jotting down figures from the chrono.
That seemed silly, as nothing had happened yet.

Arnold glanced up and grinned at him, as if totally unconcerned that
this was the most repercussiv