h a different approach. Since
it had been demonstrated that it could be done, there was no question
that in time the trained men of the Machine would achieve their goal.
Then the armed might of the Machine would move into space to take
control of any colony established by the Mars Convicts and their
descendants.

That was the basic plan. The task of developing a stardrive remained a
huge one because of the complete lack of information about the
direction organized research should take. That difficulty would be
overcome easily only by a second unpredictable twist of
fortune--unless one of the Mars Convicts' FTL ships ventured close
enough to Earth to be captured.

The last had now happened. The ship had been destroyed before it could
be investigated, so that advantage was again lost. The ship's pilot,
however, remained in their hands. The fact that he disclaimed having
information pertinent to the drive meant nothing. So far as he knew,
he might very well be speaking the truth. But he had piloted a ship
that employed the stardrive, was familiar with instruments which
controlled it, had been schooled in their use. A detailed
investigation of his memories could not fail to provide literally
hundreds of meaningful clues. And the Machine's scientists, in their
superficially still fruitless search for the nature of the drive, had,
in fact, covered basic possibilities with such comprehensive
thoroughness that a few indisputably valid clues would show them now
what it _must_ be.

* * * * *

The prisoner, still demonstrating an extraordinary degree of
obliviousness to what lay in store for him, appeared to welcome the
opportunity to be heard by the directors of the Machine. Menesee,
leaning back in his chair, studied the man thoughtfully, giving only
partial attention to what was said. This was the standard opening
stage of a Tribunal interrogation, an underplayed exchange of
questions and answers. Innocuous as it seemed, it was part of a
procedure which had become refined almost to an unvarying ritual--a
ritual of beautiful and terrible precision which never failed to
achieve its goals. Every man watching and listening in the Machine's
auditoriums across the world was familiar with the swift processes by
which a normal human being was transformed into a babbling puppet, his
every significant thought becoming available for the upper echelons to
regard and evaluate.

They would, of course, u