be
brought up to the theoretical ultimate of capability."

"And as to the Great Brain?"

"I have been able to think of nothing, First Lord, to add to the
undertakings you have already set forth."

"It was not expected that you would. Now: is it your final thought that
these interlopers are in fact the descendants of those despised humans
of so long ago?"

"It is."

"It is also mine. I return, then, to my work upon the Brain. You will
take whatever measures are necessary. Use every artifice of intellect
and of ingenuity and our every resource. But abate this intolerable
nuisance, and soon."

"It shall be done, First Lord."

* * * * *

The Second Thinker issued orders. Frenzied, round-the-clock activity
ensued. Hundreds of mechs operated upon the brains of hundreds of
others, who in turn operated upon the operators.

Then, all those brains charged with the technological advances of many
thousands of years, the combined hundreds went unrestingly to work.
Thousands of work-mechs were built and put to work at the construction
of larger and more powerful space-craft.

As has been implied, those battle-skeletons of the Stretts were
controlled by their own built-in mechanical brains, which were
programmed for only the simplest of battle maneuvers. Anything at all
out of the ordinary had to be handled by remote control, by the
specialist-mechs at their two-miles-long control board.

This was now to be changed. Programming was to be made so complete that
almost any situation could be handled by the warship or the missile
itself--instantly.

The Stretts _knew_ that they were the most powerful, the most highly
advanced race in the universe. Their science was the highest in the
universe. Hence, with every operating unit brought up to the full
possibilities of that science, that would be more than enough. Period.

This work, while it required much time, was very much simpler than the
task which the First Thinker had laid out for himself on the giant
computer-plus which the Stretts called "The Great Brain." In stating his
project, First Lord Zoyar had said:

"Assignment: To construct a machine that will have the following
abilities: One, to contain and retain all knowledge and information fed
into it, however great the amount. Two, to feed itself additional
information by peyondiring all planets, wherever situate, bearing
intelligent life. Three, to call up instantly any and all items