It took better than thirty years of continuous labor by hundreds of thousands of androids to build Orrork. There was no record of the deaths that occurred within that time, but the number must have been phenomenal. By that time, the original deserters, even with their one-year on/one-year off schedule, were getting old. They knew that, under normal circumstances, they would not long outlive their creation. And so they took the unprecedented step of establishing the system of perpetual suspended animation. Their bodies would lie in a bath of nutrient solution, being eternally cared for, while their brains would remain active. Linked into the computer, they would still be able to control the progress of life among their slaves. With the system of spying and terror they imposed, they made Das
