THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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some kind of salable cargo for each one, without depriving themselves of
what they needed for themselves. Some of the ships came back loaded with
provisions and bringing new recruits?for instance, the teaching of
physics and mathematics almost stopped at Storisende College because the
professors had been virtually shanghaied.

Conn found himself losing touch with affairs on Poictesme. Ships had
landed on both Janicot and Horvendile and were sending back claims to
abandoned factories. By that time they had all the decks into the
/Ouroboros II/, and he was working aboard, getting the astrogational and
hyperspace instruments put in place. The hypership /Andromeda/ was back
from the Gamma System; there was close secrecy about what the expedition
had found, but the newscasts were full of conjectures about Merlin, and
the market went into another dizzy upward spiral. Litchfield Exploration
& Salvage opened a huge munitions depot, and combat equipment, once
almost unsalable, was selling as fast as it came out. The Government was
buying some, but by no means all of it.