A stranded starship's crew races against time to create an artificial consciousness in this epic by the New York Times -bestselling author of Dune .   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 ship's three Organic Mental Cores--disembodied human brains that control the vessel's functions--go insane. An emergency skeleton crew sees only one chance for survival: to create an artificial consciousness in the Earthling 's primary computer, which could guide them to their destination . . . or could destroy the human race.   This classic novel by Nebula Award winner Frank Herbert begins the epic Pandora Sequence (written with Bill Ransom), which also includes The Jesus Incident , The Lazarus Effect , and The Ascension Factor.