THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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like the rest of this place, it'll be ready to go as soon as the
reactors are started. I wish everybody here had left things like this."

"Well, we'll have to check everything to make sure nothing was left on
when the main power was cut," Conn said. "Don't do anything back there
till we give you the go-ahead."

Matsui nodded and set off on foot along the broad aisle in the middle.
Conn looked around in the dim light that filtered through the dusty
glass overhead. On either side of the central aisle were two production
lines; between each pair, at intervals, stood massive machines which
evidently fabricated parts for the power cartridges. Over them, and over
the machines directly involved in production, were[Pg 119] receptor
aerials, all oriented toward a stubby tower, twenty feet thick and fifty
in height, topped by a hemispherical dome.

"That'll be the control tower for all the machinery in here," he