THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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After twelve hours, with a few short breaks, they had the reactors
going. Jerry Rivas and a couple of others took a heavy-duty lifter and
went looking for conversion mass; they brought back a couple of tons of
scrap-iron and fed it to the converters. A few seconds after it was in,
the pilot lights began coming on all over the panels. They took two more
hours to get the oxygen-separator and the ventilator fans going, and for
good measure they started the water pumps and the heating system. Then
they all went outside to the ship to sleep. The sun was just coming up.

It was sunset when they rose and returned to the building. The airlocks
opened at a touch on the operating handles. Inside, the air was fresh
and sweet, the temperature was a pleasantly uniform 75 degrees
Fahrenheit, the fans were humming softly, and there was running hot and
cold water everywhere.

Jerry Rivas, Anse Dawes, and the three tramp freighter fo'c'sle hands
took lifters and equipment and went off foraging. The rest of them went