Part 33 (2/2)
”Data insufficient.”
”Theorize, then!”
”Postulate that the Masters, in many thousands of cycles of study, made advances in science that were not reduced to practice; that the Omans either possessed this knowledge or had access to it; and that Omans and humans cooperated fully in sharing and in working with all the knowledges thus available. From these three postulates the conclusion can be drawn that there has come into existence a new race. One combining the best qualities of both humans and Omans, but with the weaknesses of neither.”
”An unpleasant thought, truly,” Ynos thought. ”But you can now, I suppose, design the generators and projectors of a force superior to that screen.”
”Data insufficient. I can equal it, since both generation and projection are implicit in the formula. But the data so adduced are in themselves vastly ahead of anything previously in my banks.”
”Are there any other races in this Galaxy more powerful than the postulated one now living on Fuel World?”
”Data insufficient.”
”Theorize, then!”
”Data insufficient.”
The linked minds concentrated upon the problem for a period of time that might have been either days or weeks. Then:
”Great Brain, advise us,” Ynos said. ”What is best for us to do?”
”With identical defensive screens it becomes a question of relative power. You should increase the size and power of your wars.h.i.+ps to something beyond the computed probable maximum of the enemy. You should build more s.h.i.+ps and missiles than they will probably be able to build.
Then and only then will you attack their wars.h.i.+ps, in tremendous force and continuously.”
”But not their planetary defenses. I see.” Ynos's thought was one of complete understanding. ”And the _real_ offensive will be?”
”No mobile structure can be built to mount mechanisms of power sufficient to smash down by sheer force of output such tremendously powerful installations as their planet-based defenses must be a.s.sumed to be. Therefore the planet itself must be destroyed. This will require a missile of planetary ma.s.s. The best such missile is the tenth planet of their own sun.”
”I see.” Ynos's mind was leaping ahead, considering hundreds of possibilities and making highly intricate and involved computations.
”That will, however, require many cycles of time and more power than even our immense reserves can supply.”
”True. It will take much time. The fuel problem, however, is not a serious one, since Fuel World is not unique. Think on, First Lord Ynos.”
”We will attack in maximum force and with maximum violence. We will blanket the planet. We will maintain maximum force and violence until most or all of the enemy s.h.i.+ps have been destroyed. We will then install planetary drives on Ten and force it into collision orbit with Fuel World, meanwhile exerting extreme precautions that not so much as a spy-beam emerges above the enemy's screen. Then, still maintaining extreme precaution, we will guard both planets until the last possible moment before the collision. Brain, it cannot fail!”
”You err. It can fail. All we actually know of the abilities of this postulated neo-human race is what I have learned from the composition of its defensive screen. The probability approaches unity that the Masters continued to delve and to learn for millions of cycles while you Stretts, reasonlessly certain of your supremacy, concentrated upon your evolution from the material to a non-material form of life and performed only limited research into armaments of greater and ever greater power.”
”True. But that att.i.tude was then justified. It was not and is not logical to a.s.sume that any race would establish a fixed status at any level of ability below its absolute maximum.”
”While that conclusion could once have been defensible, it is now virtually certain that the Masters had stores of knowledge which they may or may not have withheld from the Omans, but which were in some way made available to the neo-humans. Also, there is no basis whatever for the a.s.sumption that this new race has revealed all its potentialities.”
”Statistically, that is probably true. But this is the best plan you have been able to formulate?”
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