THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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Coming in, the first day, Conn had seen an almost completed hypership
bulking above the domes and roofs of Port Carpenter in the distance. He
saw it again on screen from a pickup atop the central tower. As soon as
the party was comfortably settled in the executive apartments on the
upper levels, he and Yves Jacquemont and Mack Vibart and Schalk Retief,
the construction engineer, found an aircar in one of the hangars and
went to have a closer look at her.

She had all her collapsium on, except for a hundred-foot circle at the
top and a number of rectangular openings around the sides. Yves
Jacquemont said that would be where the airlocks would go.

"They always put them on last. But don't be surprised at anything you
find or don't find inside. As soon as the skeleton's[Pg 115] up they put
the armor on, and then build the rest of the ship out from the middle.
It might be slower getting material in through the airlock openings, but
it holds things together while they're working."