THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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They put on the car's lights, lifted to the top, and let down through
the upper opening. It was like entering a huge globular spider's web,
globe within globe of interlaced girders and struts and braces,
extending from the center to the outer shell. Even the spider was home?a
three-hundred-foot ball of collapsium, looking tiny at the very middle.

"Why, this isn't a ship!" Vibart cried in disgust. "This is just the
outside of a ship. They haven't done a thing inside."

"Oh, yes, they have," Jacquemont contradicted, aiming a spotlight toward
the shimmering ball in the middle. "They have all the engines in?Abbott
lift-and-drive, Dillingham hyperdrives, pseudograv, power reactors,
converters, everything. They wouldn't have put on the shielding if they
hadn't. They did that as soon as they had the outside armor on."

"Wonder why they didn't finish her, if they got that far," Retief said.