THE COSMIC COMPUTER

Back Forward Menu

continued at right angles down the long building in which the apparatus
which converted nuclear energy to electric current was assembled and
packed; at the end, the finished power cartridges came off, big ones for
heavy machines and tiny ones for things like hand tools and pocket
lighters and razors. There were stacks of them, in all sizes, loaded on
skids and ready to move out. Except for the minute and unavoidable
leakage of current, they were as good as the day they were assembled,
and would be for another century.

Like almost everything else, the power-cartridge plant was airtight and
had its own oxygen-generator. The air-analyzer reported the oxygen
insufficient to support life. That was understandable; there were a lot
of furnaces which had evidently been hot when the power was cut off;
they had burned up the oxygen before cooling. They put on their oxygen
equipment when they got out of the car.

"I'll go back and have a look at the power plant," Matsui said. "If it's