Soon after the start, they went mad, the three powerful, disembodiem human brains that should have guided them for the 200-year journey to Tau Ceti. Could they manufacture a replacement before emerging from the Solar System into nothingness ? Would the circuits reproduce the characteristics they needed, characteristics like conscience, love and guilt ? Or would they end up with a zombie ? a monster ? a power-crazy fanatic ? - or a genius ? What they did build was fantastic, unguessable. Yet, looking back, it was always on the cards.