THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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near where Conn's map showed the head of the vertical shaft. The rest
followed, first a couple of combat cars that circled slowly, scanning
the ground, and then the /Lester Dawes/ with her big guns and her load
of equipment, and behind a queue of boats and scows and heavy
engineering equipment on contragravity and troop carriers full of
workmen and guards, flanked by air cavalry, which circled above while
everything[Pg 57] else landed, then scattered out over a fifty-mile
radius. Occasionally there was a hammering of machine guns, either
because somebody saw something on the ground that might need shooting at
or simply because it was a beautiful morning to make a noise.

The ship settled quickly and daintily, while Conn and Anse and Rodney
Maxwell sat in the car and watched. Immediately, she began opening like
a beetle bursting from its shell, large sections of armor swinging
outward. Except for the bridge and the gun turrets, almost the whole
ship could be opened; she had been designed to land in the middle of a
battle and deliver ammunition when seconds could mean the difference