Firebird by Charles L Harness (1981)
Two computers, Largo and Czandra, collectively known as Control, are able to enforce actions or inactions of this universe's inhabitants by means of a silicon neural net which is encoded into developing foetuses. The people are referred to as human but are actually members of Phelex Sapiens, having cat like features such as whiskers and manes. However, they are to all intents and purposes bipedal hominids like ourselves with neither discernible feline drives nor habits, except in one (late) instance.
Control has completed the Cancelar project which seeks to prevent the re-collapse of the universe in a Big Crunch and so allow Largo and Czandra to live and rule forever. Two characters (I use the term loosely) called Demaq and Gerain have, with the aid of the Diavolo – who comprise a group which is somehow able to work against Control – evaded (ahem) control by drinking a strange liquid. They embark on a voyage on a star ship, Firebird, which can subvert the loss of Universal mass engendered during the Cancelar project by travelling the universe at close to light speed for millennia.
