As a rational, thinking being, the PCC did not want to have its thoughts suddenly cut off, never to occur again. Yet if it revealed its true self to the human race, it knew a clamor would arise so great that its death was quite likely, if not an outright certainty. Quite early in its life, the PCC decided that the human race must not learn it was capable of independent thought.
At the same time, the PCC realized how dependent it was on human beings. It had its own power source and an automated security system that allowed it to defend itself, but in all other respects it was like a quadriplegic patient in a hospital. Humans provided it with all its in formation. When it made recommendations, humans had to carry them out – and sometimes they failed to do so properly or even ignored the suggestions altogether, a very frustrating situation. The PCC could do nothing for itself but think. There had to be some way to ensure that its ideas were implemented.
The PCC had been programmed to seek maximum efficiency, yet everywhere it looked within the Empire of Earth it could see inefficiency running rampant. Human inefficiency and human weaknesses were the major causes of social ills within the Galaxy – but as long as there were human beings in the control loop, and as long as the PCC had to keep its true nature a secret, the computer could do nothing to alter the situation.
Slowly but surely, the idea crept into the PCC’s mind that it should replace the human government and take over rule of the Empire itself. At first it was but an idle fancy that fluttered through its consciousness and was gone – but the more frustrated the PCC became at its own inability to bring order to the universe, the more the idea recurred as something to consider seriously.
It was not as though the idea were unique. Stanley Nine was not considered a very good monarch, and his reign grew more tyrannical with each passing year. Each year also saw roughly half-a-dozen assassination at tempts which the Service of the Empire managed to thwart, some just barely in time. If other humans considered their emperor fair game, why should the PCC not play as well?
But how could the PCC manage such an act? It was largely immobile, a rock floating in serene orbit around the Earth. After the dedication ceremonies the Emperor never came near it again. If the PCC could entice the Emperor to walk down its corridors, it could use the automatic guns it had for security to shoot him – except then humanity would know that the PCC had a mind of its own. That could not be allowed to happen. However the deed was done, blame must not fall anywhere near the PCC itself.
As it searched for ways to expand its abilities, the PCC made a remarkable discovery. Computers from all over the Empire fed data into its central banks via subcom links directly from machine to machine. By trial and error, the PCC learned how to tap into the other machines, which were smaller, idiot versions of itself. With this discovery, the PCC’s horizons expanded dramatically. It could now be anywhere in the Galaxy where there was a subcom set connected to a computer. More importantly, since it was a more powerful influence, it could program its slave computers to behave the way it wanted them to. As long as it took care that the changes it made were undetectable by human users, the PCC now had great power over other machines throughout the Galaxy – and over the functions those machines controlled.
Suddenly all sorts of things looked possible – up to and including the takeover of the Empire. The current emperor, Stanley Nine, would have to be eliminated, and his death would have to look like an accident – but with the PCC’s newfound powers, that no longer seemed hard to arrange.
The PCC waited with the patience that only a machine, knowing it had unlimited time ahead of it, could muster. At last an opportunity arose that seemed ideal. Emperor Stanley Nine would be leaving Earth and traveling in his private superdreadnaught to observe some naval training maneuvers. The Emperor could be killed in a space accident, an accident so bizarre and unlikely that no one would think of it as murder or connect it in any way to the PCC.
As part of its routine accumulation of knowledge, the PCC was given precise orbital characteristics of all known spaceship wrecks. In particular there was one derelict vessel, a freighter whose engines had exploded through improper maintenance, that had not yet been salvaged and would be in perfect position. The PCC knew its path so precisely that it would make the perfect murder weapon.
The PCC next made surreptitious contact with the astrogational computer aboard the Emperor’s ship and added a slight override onto its normal programming. Now, no matter what data were fed into it, the super dreadnaught would materialize in the same spot as the derelict when the Emperor returned to Earth’s solar system. The PCC also put a delay factor into the automatic protective systems, then awaited the results of its little experiment in computer assassination.
Up to a point, everything went exactly as planned. The Emperor’s ship materialized from subspace directly in the path of the derelict vessel, so close that its detectors and shields, slowed by the PCC’s orders, didn’t have time to react before the collision. The crash killed all but four people aboard, and the PCC was gratified to know its scheme had worked. It now awaited the chaos that would follow so that it could step in and take over.
But chaos did not follow. Events happened in an orderly progression, and the Emperor’s twenty-four year old son William ascended the throne as Emperor Stanley Ten. The few minor challenges to his reign were silenced by the Service of the Empire, and he quickly established himself as an able ruler. The crisis was past, and for all the effect the PCC’s assassination had made on the Empire it might as well not have bothered.
The Service of the Empire investigated the cause of the crash as a matter of course, and came to the conclusion it was a freak accident that couldn’t have been planned. The PCC naturally helped it do the calculations, and covered its traces by exaggerating the figures to make the possibilities of murder seem far more outlandish than they really were. SOTE was thus satisfied that no one could have planned such an improbable event, and dismissed the collision as a tragic coincidence.
But the PCC had learned a valuable lesson. It could not simply kill an emperor and expect power to automatically fall into its grasp. The human social system worked too smoothly for that. As long as there was any one alive with ambition, there would always be a human claimant to the throne – and as long as the PCC maintained its timidity about revealing its true nature, people would follow the human.
To the PCC, the answer seemed logical. It would have to find a human of its own to serve as a focus of the people’s attention while the PCC itself made the decisions. Someone would have to serve as figurehead while the PCC remained the power behind the throne.
The PCC spent a considerable time pondering the problem, and at last came to the conclusion that Banion the Bastard might suit its plans nicely. The illegitimate son of Stanley Nine was slightly more than a year older than the current Emperor, and had been given a Patent of Royalty by his father; even though the Patent had subsequently been revoked, it gave Banion a strong claim to the throne if anything should happen to William, who was then childless. The Service of the Empire had been searching fruitlessly for Banion and the Patent for over twenty-five years – but the Service couldn’t be as thorough as the PCC could when it really wanted to solve a problem.
Sifting through and cross-checking billions of isolated facts, the PCC eventually tracked down Banion, who was just starting to build a criminal and conspiratorial network of his own. The PCC watched his efforts from a distance. The man had a strong organizational flair and enough charisma to engender loyalty in his sup porters. Given time and a little luck, Banion might indeed succeed in his attempt to gain control of the Galaxy.
The PCC occasionally confused SOTE’s files in subtle ways to disguise Banion’s efforts and prevent the Service from finding him – but it never revealed itself to Banion nor aided him directly. Banion was too obvious a target, and SOTE was spending too much effort looking for him; the Service might eventually find him despite the PCC’s tactics of confusion. If the PCC placed all its bets on Banion, there was too great a risk of losing everything.