THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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After the surface had started to congeal, gases, mostly carbon dioxide
and water vapor, had come up to form a secondary atmosphere, the water
vapor forming a cloud envelope, condensing, and sending down rain that
returned immediately as steam. Solar radiations and electric discharges
broke some of that into oxygen and hydrogen; most of the hydrogen
escaped into space. Finally, the surface cooled further and the rain no
longer steamed off.

The whole planet started to rust. It had been rusting, slowly, for the
billion or so years that had followed, and[Pg 103] almost all the free
oxygen had become locked in iron oxide. The air was almost pure carbon
dioxide. It would have been different if life had ever appeared on
Koshchei, but apparently the right amino acids never assembled. Some
attempts had been made to introduce vegetation after the colonization of
Poictesme, but they had all failed.

Men went to Koshchei; they worked out of doors in oxygen helmets, and