THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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arrived, and had to be pounded into obedience and taught the work. At
the same time, Litchfield was getting a steady influx of job-seekers,
and a secondary swarm of thugs, grifters and gangsters who followed
them. Klem Zareff, having gotten all his melons pressed, came out to
Tenth Army, where he selected fifty of the best men from the work-gangs
and began drilling them as soldiers to guard the next operation. The
manual of arms, drill and salute he taught them was, of course, System
States Alliance.

A week later, the ship arrived from Storisende; a hundred and sixty
feet, three thousand tons, small enough to be berthed inside a
hyperspace transport, and fast enough to get a load of ammunition to
troops at the front, unload, and get out again before the enemy could
zero in on her, and armed to fight off any Army Air Force combat craft.
The delay had been in recruiting officers and crew. The captain and
chief engineer were out-of-work shipline officers, the gunner was a
former Federation artillery officer, and the crew looked more like