Six-Hundred & Sixty Six

Tallman: After the destruction of the Vatican and the bombings in Florence, it seemed as though World War 3 was inevitable. Now, that was before The Man took power. And there were those, including the club of Rome and a large number of scientific and cultural societies throughout the world who became quite concerned about saving the great works of mankind. The literature, art, the artistic expression, scientific thought; because we all knew what enormous damage the next war could bring. So we decided to store all the cultural treasures into the memory banks of computers and then bury those computers beneath a mountain, where they would be safe. This took many years. But now it's nearly all here. The accumulated knowledge and wisdom and artistic expression of an entire civilisation called Earth. Follow me, Colonel Ferguson?

Col. Ferguson: Yes, I think so.

Tallman: And if a final war does occur, and it seems to be building up now, then this treasure is here, where the survivors can pick up the pieces and we won't have to begin again as savages.

Col. Ferguson: If the final war occurs, we're savages already.

Tallman: Strange words for a military man.

Col. Ferguson: I suppose so.

Tallman: Well, the assignment is obvious; we're curators of a sort, curators of the museum of Man.