Read "Empire" by Clifford D. Simak online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The new apparatus was set up, a machine that almost filled the laboratory. a giant, compact mass of heavy, solidly built metal work, tied together by beams of girderlike construction. It was meant to stand up under the hammering of unimaginable power, the stress of unknown spatial factors.
Slowly, carefully, Russell Page tapped keys on the control board, setting up an equation. Sucking thoughtfully at his pipe, he checked and rechecked them.