THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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companies, lasted three days, with an impressive casualty list.

Public demands were growing that the Planetary Government do something
about the situation; the Government was wondering what to do, or how.
There were indignant questions in Parliament. Finally, the Government
dragged a couple of armed ships off Mothball Row?a combat freighter like
the /Lester Dawes/, and a big assault transport?and began trying to get
them into commission.

And, of course, the market boom was still on. The newscasts were full of
that, too. He had started worrying about /if/ a bust came; now he was
worrying about what would happen /when/ it did. Another good reason for
wanting to get to Koshchei and getting a hypership built; when the bust
came, he and his father would want one, very badly.

In any case, it was time to begin getting an expedition[Pg 69] ready for
Barathrum Spaceport. Quite a few of the new companies had large