The starship Earthling, filled with thousands of hybernating colonists en route to a new world at Tau Ceti, is stranded beyond the solar system when the shipâ€s three Organic Mental Cores—disembodied human brains that control the vesselâ€s functions—go insane. An emergency skeleton crew sees only one chance for to create an artificial consciousness in the Earthlingâ€s primary computer, which could guide them to their destination . . . or could destroy the human race.Frank Herbertâ€s classic novel that begins the epic Pandora Sequence (written with Bill Ransom), which also includes The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, and The Ascension Factor.