Read "Empire" by Clifford D. Simak online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Russ hunched over the keyboard set in the control room of the _Comet_ and stared down at the keys. The equation was set and ready. All he had to do was tap that key and they would know, beyond all argument, whether or not they had dipped into the awful heart of material energy; whether, finally, they held in their grasp the key to the release of energy that would give the System power to spare.
His glance lifted from the keyboard, looked out the observation port. Through the inkiness of space ran a faint blue thread, a tiny line that stretched from the ship and away until it was lost in the darkness of the void.