Like a pig roasting on an automatic spit, the problem kept turning over and over in Mike"s mind. And, like the roasting pig, the time eventually came when it was done.

Once it is set in operation, a properly operating robot brain can neither be shut off nor dismantled. Not, that is, unless you want to lose all of the data and processes you"ve fed into it.

Now, suppose the Computer Corporation of Earth had built a giant-sized brain. (Never mind _why_--just suppose.) And suppose they wanted to take it off Earth, but didn"t want to lose all the data that had been pumped into it. (Again, never mind _why_--just suppose.)

Very well, then. _If_ such a brain had been built, and _if_ it was necessary to take it off Earth, and _if_ the data in it was so precious that the brain could not be shut off or dismantled, _then_ the thing to do would be to build a ship around it.

Oh _yeah_?

Mike the Angel stared at the microcryotron stack and asked:

"Now, tell me, pal, just why would anyone want a brain that big? And what is so blasted important about it?"

The stack said not a word.

The phone chimed. Mike the Angel thumbed the switch, and his secretary"s face appeared on the screen. "Minister Wallingford is on the line, Mr.

Gabriel."

"Put him on," said Mike the Angel.

Basil Wallingford"s ruddy face came on. "I see you"re still alive," he said. "What in the b.l.o.o.d.y blazes happened last night?"

Mike sighed and told him. "In other words," he ended up, "just the usual sort of JD stuff we have to put up with these days. Nothing new, and nothing to worry about."

"You almost got killed," Wallingford pointed out.

"A miss is as good as a mile," Mike said with cheerful inanity. "Thanks to your phone call, I was as safe as if I"d been in my own home," he added with utter illogic.

"You can afford to laugh," Wallingford said grimly. "I can"t. I"ve already lost one man."

Mike"s grin vanished. "What do you mean? Who?"

"Oh, n.o.body"s killed," Wallingford said quickly. "I didn"t mean that.

But Jack Wong turned his car over yesterday at a hundred and seventy miles an hour, and he"s laid up with a fractured leg and a badly dislocated arm."

"Too bad," said Mike. "One of these days that fool will kill himself racing." He knew Wong and liked him. They had served together in the s.p.a.ce Service when Mike was on active duty.

"I hope not," Wallingford said. "Anyway--the matter I called you on last night. Can you get those specs for me?"

"Sure, Wally. Hold on." He punched the hold b.u.t.ton and rang for his secretary as Wallingford"s face vanished. When the girl"s face came on, he said: "Helen, get me the cargo specs on the _William Branch.e.l.l_--Section Twelve, pages 66 to 74."

The discussion, after Helen had brought the papers, lasted less than five minutes. It was merely a matter of straightening out some cost estimates--but since it had to do with the _Branch.e.l.l_, and specifically with Hold Number One, Mike decided he"d ask a question.

"Wally, tell me--what in the h.e.l.l is going on down there at Chilblains Base?"

"They"re building a s.p.a.ceship," said Wallingford in a flat voice.

It was Wallingford"s way of saying he wasn"t going to answer any questions, but Mike the Angel ignored the hint. "I"d sort of gathered that," he said dryly. "But what I want to know is: Why is it being built around a cryotronic brain, the like of which I have never heard before?"

Basil Wallingford"s eyes widened, and he just stared for a full two seconds. "And just how did you come across that information, Golden Wings?" he finally asked.

"It"s right here in the specs," said Mike the Angel, tapping the sheaf of papers.

"Ridiculous." Wallingford"s voice seemed toneless.

Mike decided he was in too deep now to back out. "It certainly is, Wally. It couldn"t be hidden. To compute the thrust stresses, I had to know the density of the contents of Cargo Hold One. And here it is: 1.726 gm/cm. Nothing else that I know of has that exact density."

Wallingford pursed his lips. "Dear me," he said after a moment. "I keep forgetting you"re too bright for your own good." Then a slow smile spread over his face. "Would you _really_ like to know?"

"I wouldn"t have asked otherwise," Mike said.

"Fine. Because you"re just the man we need."

Mike the Angel could almost feel the knife blade sliding between his ribs, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that the person who had stabbed him in the back was himself. "What"s that supposed to mean, Wally?"

"You are, I believe, an officer in the s.p.a.ce Service Reserve," said Basil Wallingford in a smooth, too oily voice. "Since the Engineering Officer of the _Branch.e.l.l_, Jack Wong, is laid up in a hospital, I"m going to call you to active duty to replace him."

Mike the Angel felt that ghostly knife twist--hard.

"That"s silly," he said. "I haven"t been a ship"s officer for five years."

"You"re the man who designed the power plant," Wallingford said sweetly.

"If you don"t know how to run her, n.o.body does."

"My time per hour is worth a great deal," Mike pointed out.

"The rate of pay for a s.p.a.ce Service officer," Basil Wallingford said pleasantly, "is fixed by law."

"I can fight being called back to duty--and I"ll win," said Mike. He didn"t know how long he could play this game, but it was fun.

"True," said Wallingford. "You can. I admit it. But you"ve been wondering what the h.e.l.l that ship is being built for. You"d give your left arm to find out. I know you, Golden Wings, and I know how that mind of yours works. And I tell you this: Unless you take this job, you"ll _never_ find out why the _Branch.e.l.l_ was built." He leaned forward, and his face loomed large in the screen. "And I mean absolutely _never_."

For several seconds Mike the Angel said nothing. His cla.s.sically handsome face was like that of some Grecian G.o.d contemplating the Universe, or an archangel contemplating Eternity. Then he gave Basil Wallingford the benefit of his full, radiant smile.

"I capitulate," he said.

Wallingford refused to look impressed. "d.a.m.n right you do," he said--and cut the circuit.

7

Two days later Mike the Angel was sitting at his desk making certain that M. R. GABRIEL, POWER DESIGN would function smoothly while he was gone. Serge Paulvitch, his chief designer, could handle almost everything.

Paulvitch had once said, "Mike, the h.e.l.l of working for a first-cla.s.s genius is that a second-cla.s.s genius doesn"t have a chance."