THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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There was just a little truth to that, too. A few woolen socks were
coming out from under mattresses, and a few tin cans were being exhumed
in cellars, since the new flood of Federation equipment and supplies had
gotten on the market. He'd seen a freshly lettered sign on Len
Yeniguchi's tailor shop: QUARTER PRICE IN FEDERATION CURRENCY.

That night, however, he had one of the nightmares he used to have as a
child?a dream of climbing up onto a huge machine and getting it started,
and then clinging, helpless and terrified, unable to stop it as it went
faster and faster toward destruction.

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Klem Zareff's patrols were encountering larger outlaw bands, the result
of gang mergers. They were fighting with prospecting parties, and
prospecting parties were fighting one another. Much of this was making
the newscasts. One battle, between two regularly chartered prospecting