"Maybe," Romero said. "But I could re-program it for a negative result easier. Same results, lacking a short circuit."
"Okay. Do it."
"Well, if you say so, Ben."
NO. STAY AWAY FROM ME.
The Brain's communication screen flashed a blinding white scream as Romero laid hands on it.
"Lieutenant Frawley's in charge now," Starbuck explained to Percy Kettleman, who was sitting on his bunk with his head between his legs. "Birdsel seemed all right after the brain finished changing him back. But we all thought we better keep him under observation for a while."
Kettleman straightened up. "Sorry I passed out on you. But seeing the old man in that shape was quite a shock."
Starbuck nodded agreement. "I don't like to think about the next step the calculator would have taken him through. Not just a physical change, but a mental one too. That was the brain's whole reason for existence—to find the unknown. It was programmed to be even more basic than sex or self-preservation are to us. The trouble was, the more it learned, the more readily it could see some similarity to the familiar in the most outer things."
"That was why the captain was acting so nutty? He was trying to appeal to it."