THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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Page 1: Conn Maxwell, at the armor-glass front of the observation ...
Page 3: Valises, two; trunks, two; microbook case, one. The last i...
Page 5: When the ship's airborne and out of reach of help, they'll...
Page 7: The few stands of original timber towered above the second...
Page 9: These were more recent, and dated from Poictesme's second ...
Page 11: The Airlines Building, so thick as to look squat for all i...
Page 13: Blackout curtain cloth. It was fairly new, but the coat ha...
Page 15: Now, Franz, put away the recorder; save the interview for ...
Page 17: Well, it'll be a couple of hours. Suppose we all go up to ...
Page 19: Conn turned to his father. "This our stuff?" he asked. "Wh...
Page 21: As they entered, Tom Brangwyn went to the long table and t...
Page 23: When this new crop gets pressed and fermented...." "I don'...
Page 25: Most of them had been expecting precisely that. His father...
Page 27: I know where all of them are." "Space attack!" Klem Zareff...
Page 29: It was capable of scanning all its data instantaneously, a...
Page 31: Then," he said, "we will build a hypership. On Koshchei th...
Page 33: Some of these days Blackie Perales and his pirates'll sack...
Page 35: Why didn't I just grab a couple of pistols and shoot the l...
Page 37: Under normal gravitation, his life would have gone out lik...
Page 39: I didn't know you were the village atheist, Father." "In a...
Page 41: This isn't the only planet that has problems they can't so...
Page 43: Maybe if we had a few ships of our own, these planters wou...
Page 45: I wonder how[Pg 23] that sneaked up on me; I honestly neve...
Page 47: I'll pass the word to Kurt to get a meeting set up for tom...
Page 49: IV The alarm chimed softly beside his bed; he reached out ...
Page 51: Finally, he zipped up the short waist-length jacket and we...
Page 53: I suppose they'll want Conn to take them right to where Me...
Page 55: It kept on like that. Conn and his father tried several ti...
Page 57: Well, do you think it would be a good thing to find it?"[P...
Page 59: Maybe what he had told her was logical, but women aren't i...
Page 61: That was the reason for the original, pre-War depression: ...
Page 63: It was green, with black trimmings, and lettered in black,...
Page 65: No, Fred; there is a Blackie Perales," Tom Brangwyn said. ...
Page 67: He went into the routine about Merlin being still classifi...
Page 69: Pg 33] Lucas nodded. "A bankrupt government, an unemployme...
Page 71: In the long run, I'd say, more valuable than everything el...
Page 73: He started to say something like that, and then thought be...
Page 75: Would you take the chair, Judge Ledue?" That stopped it. N...
Page 77: He's telling you about real things, things worth millions ...
Page 79: A computer can only process the data that's been taped int...
Page 81: Conn Maxwell gave you a thousand-year-old quotation; I'll ...
Page 83: Silence for a moment, then a bedlam of cheering. "Well, le...
Page 85: That a motion? I second it." Unanimously carried. They had...
Page 87: Conn, you mentioned an underground duplicate of Travis's g...
Page 89: There are two entrances, a vertical shaft and a horizontal...
Page 91: When the meeting finally adjourned, they went up and got i...
Page 93: Nice," Conn said. "Where did you dig it?" "Where we're goi...
Page 95: Rows of warehouses, empty after the War until taken over b...
Page 97: Then, there's another one down on that bench, a couple of ...
Page 99: A Planetary Government sol was worth about ten centisols, ...
Page 101: At least they wouldn't have to sell it by the ton. The tun...
Page 103: Anse Dawes simply didn't believe that. When they got back ...
Page 105: Now, outlaws are sure-thing players. They want to be alive...
Page 107: But watch where it goes after we open Force Command." ----...
Page 109: And Lester Dawes is in Storisende now, trying to find us a...
Page 111: Oscar, deaf as the adder, kept on. Conn yelled at his moth...
Page 113: We're having a time. Another two hundred tramps came in on...
Page 115: Klem Zareff did. "Four 115-mm rifles, two fore and two aft...
Page 117: He stopped arguing about armament. Instead, he began worry...
Page 119: Why don't you steer them onto Wade Lucas?" Conn asked. "If...
Page 121: So ever since, they've had people here, listening, watchin...
Page 123: Pg 55] "Uhuh. I suppose, in Klem's boots, I'd be just as c...
Page 125: They christened her the /Lester Dawes/, because Dawes had ...
Page 127: The rest followed, first a couple of combat cars that circ...
Page 129: Power shovels began grunting and clanking and rumbling; du...
Page 131: The gang on the mesa-top had discovered something else; a ...
Page 133: The snooper still had its light on and was moving about. O...
Page 135: Bring the gang in; it's safe as far as we've gotten," his ...
Page 137: Storerooms, mile on circular mile of them. Not the hasty p...
Page 139: It's Merlin!" Fawzi almost screamed. "We've found it!" One...
Page 141: Ashtrays full, many of the forty-year-old cigarette ends l...
Page 143: Conn wondered if he still had a job. A later edition corre...
Page 145: Some fled at once; the rest needed only a few warning shot...
Page 147: That's farming country; that stuff'll be useful down there...
Page 149: The cold vitrifier was still standing in the middle of the...
Page 151: Yes. He'd help get things straightened out." At home, he f...
Page 153: A few woolen socks were coming out from under mattresses, ...
Page 155: He wanted to get out there before anybody else did. Maybe ...
Page 157: If so, we'll need heavier weapons than we have. This space...
Page 159: Fred Karski was at the /Goblin's/ controls; Conn, beside h...
Page 161: Captain Poole, will you please make ready aboard your ship...
Page 163: Conn, on his feet, flung his arms around an upright stanch...
Page 165: We had to get rid of it. We took a hit. Gun turret's smash...
Page 167: Transmit what you see back to the ship. Fred, you take a p...
Page 169: Fred Karski and Charley Gatworth went aboard their craft a...
Page 171: He knew what he'd have put into it if he'd been defending ...
Page 173: They could see enemy missiles approaching in Zareff's fron...
Page 175: We'll have to win this one pretty soon," Rodney Maxwell sa...
Page 177: You know them better than I do. We'll need working equipme...
Page 179: Beyond was another passage, almost as wide as the Mall in ...
Page 181: By the time the jeep grounded, the men in the pit were sta...
Page 183: They burned our home and killed our servants," the girl sa...
Page 185: Don't worry about that; we know where to get arms. The tre...
Page 187: They got the prisoners into them, the combat-effective men...
Page 189: Find about half a dozen we can load with blasting explosiv...
Page 191: Sylvie Jacquemont could handle robots; she would ride in t...
Page 193: Look for us in about an hour; it's going to take time gett...
Page 195: They used the women and some of the old men to do[Pg 86] h...
Page 197: Take a quick look around, and then pull him back. We'll ne...
Page 199: In peace or war, screen communication was a wonderful thin...
Page 201: Sommers and his gang from the number one lorry were also a...
Page 203: Well, nice seeing you," he greeted. "How did you get in?" ...
Page 205: As soon as the real prisoners saw and recognized him, they...
Page 207: So had Jacquemont, though he had contented himself with tr...
Page 209: Yes." He told him why. "If we could get to Koshchei, we co...
Page 211: They were horrified at what they saw. The /Harriet Barne/ ...
Page 213: We don't want to be tightfisted. After all, you fought a g...
Page 215: Conn stayed at home for the next few days, luxuriating in ...
Page 217: Some of these days, they're going to realize that they had...
Page 219: He knew about her; the T. & O.'s been losing money on her ...
Page 221: I'm staying here in Storisende; we're opening an office he...
Page 223: Pg 98] "Well, are we going to make the whole trip in free ...
Page 225: Rodney Maxwell flew in from Storisende; he was accompanied...
Page 227: Oh, I stopped carrying a gun; I'm a city man, now. Nobody ...
Page 229: Stuff that's in short supply anywhere and that we could ge...
Page 231: The one under construction seemed to be of cruciform desig...
Page 233: There was a lot of it. The fourth planet of Alpha Gartner ...
Page 235: There had been mines, and smelters, and blast furnaces and...
Page 237: Rodney Maxwell and Wade Lucas had assembled a cargo of med...
Page 239: I wish I hadn't suggested that you stay there, now." "Oh, ...
Page 241: After a long while a sunset glow, six hours past on Barath...
Page 243: Everybody was enjoying the new sense of lightness, romping...
Page 245: But don't you think Merlin's important?" Charley Gatworth,...
Page 247: Beside him, Yves Jacquemont put on the radio and the scree...
Page 249: The mushroom-topped tower rose from the middle of a circul...
Page 251: Anse Dawes held up the cigarette he had lighted; that was ...
Page 253: The inside telemetered equipment, of course, was self-powe...
Page 255: Neither the converter nor the reactor had sustained any da...
Page 257: There were a good many things that had to be turned on man...
Page 259: What? Another one?" His father nodded, grinning. "Koshchei...
Page 261: He saw it again on screen from a pickup atop the central t...
Page 263: They'd had it; they wanted to go home." "Well, we're not g...
Page 265: I'm not even interested in the original Merlin. This is wh...
Page 267: They found the on-the-job engineering office for the ship ...
Page 269: There were stacks of them, in all sizes, loaded on skids a...
Page 271: Anse, suppose you and I go take a look at it." "We'll take...
Page 273: The lights went out and the screens went dark.[Pg 120] "It...
Page 275: At lower altitude, a dozen assorted worker-robots were mov...
Page 277: Jerry Rivas was shouting: "Hey, whattaya know! I killed on...
Page 279: One of them seemed to have dumped something close to where...
Page 281: Ham, where are you? Are you still alive?" "I'm back at the...
Page 283: All the reactor-repair robots are there; don't get /them/ ...
Page 285: The aircar was a hopeless wreck, but its radio was still f...
Page 287: All the bands in Storisende seemed to have been combined; ...
Page 289: Genji Gartner's soul stopped marching on, but the speeches...
Page 291: Anyhow, the engagement is /phttt/! Conn, is my father goin...
Page 293: Flora simply will not speak to me, and your mother begged ...
Page 295: No, of course not; a hypership of our own. But...." He loo...
Page 297: That might have been nothing but professional habit. Conn ...
Page 299: I want to see if you do. Do you?" "Merlin would answer so ...
Page 301: If it wasn't for Conn Maxwell, you know where we'd be? Bac...
Page 303: Leibert thought of," Franz Veltrin suggested. "Then why in...
Page 305: Bless you, young man! It is to you alone that we owe our t...
Page 307: After it was made, no human touched it. The men who were h...
Page 309: When she had been the pride and budget-wrecker of Transcon...
Page 311: Those ships that are building at Storisende will be finish...
Page 313: Roughly, it compared to shooting hummingbirds on the wing,...
Page 315: That is precisely Jake Vyckhoven's idea," his father repli...
Page 317: They were putting a set of Abbott lift-and-drive engines t...
Page 319: What's happened, has Carl Leibert had another revelation?"...
Page 321: President Vyckhoven proclaimed planet-wide martial law, an...
Page 323: The aircraft was down, now, below the crest of the mountai...
Page 325: All right, class dismissed," he said. "You have twenty min...
Page 327: We'll have that on. Jerry Rivas is gathering it up now." "...
Page 329: Ship-guard," his father told Yves Jacquemont. "All your cr...
Page 331: Robot control, probably; could have been launched from any...
Page 333: Worse than that; it'd be a smash worse than the one when t...
Page 335: He thinks this whole thing's a plot against the Federation...
Page 337: And J. Fitzwilliam Sterber, the lawyer. And reporters, pho...
Page 339: Fitzwilliam Sterber was declaring that anybody who called ...
Page 341: Trying to keep him alive, for one thing. You heard about t...
Page 343: They're going to operate on Jurgen and Horvendile. We'll s...
Page 345: Work on the interplanetary ship at Port Carpenter, had sto...
Page 347: Things have turned serious. I don't like to[Pg 152] talk a...
Page 349: But they found one thing, a big empty fiber folder that ha...
Page 351: Why would he lie to me?" "Why did you lie to Kurt Fawzi an...
Page 353: Have you done anything with those audiovisuals of Leibert?...
Page 355: You haven't found any passage leading into it?" he asked, ...
Page 357: Nobody said anything for a few seconds. Carl Leibert state...
Page 359: I am not drunk. I am not crazy. And I am not exercising my...
Page 361: Maybe after we get this thing open, I'll know." ----------...
Page 363: Cargo was being collected for her; instead of washing thei...
Page 365: Digging away the rubble with which the pit had been filled...
Page 367: It was peaceful and harmonious; everybody, regardless of t...
Page 369: But you didn't, and I couldn't see what you were trying to...
Page 371: That's why I'm here, instead of on Koshchei. I want to kee...
Page 373: A music program was just ending; there was a brief silence...
Page 375: now he thinks he's my keeper...." He wasn't in evidence, a...
Page 377: The only calm voice in the room. "That was a most excellen...
Page 379: Knock it off, Franz; he was only doing his duty," Conn sai...
Page 381: I'll bet that beard was grown aboard ship coming out from ...
Page 383: We're down to it; we can start cutting the collapsium any ...
Page 385: He's to be questioned later." As soon as Rodney Maxwell wa...
Page 387: What was going on where that tiny rotating beam of cosmic ...
Page 389: Well, they caught up with you," he said. Evidently he had ...
Page 391: I suppose it would blow one subcritical mass into another....
Page 393: We'll take care of him." Shanlee woke instantly; he sat up...
Page 395: Yet both of you have lied, deliberately and repeatedly, to...
Page 397: No, we don't," Shanlee said. "We don't want the whole Fede...
Page 399: We fed Merlin every scrap of available information on poli...
Page 401: So we ran another computation; we added the data of public...
Page 403: We spent the rest of our lives trying to suppress any ment...
Page 405: It must have been visible for hundreds of miles; it was, f...
Page 407: If people thought it was breaking up, they'd be desperate,...
Page 409: But whether we do or not rests solely with you. "We came h...
Page 411: I'm not worrying about whether they'd do it or not," Conn ...
Page 413: If we send the /Lester Dawes/ in, do you think you might t...
Page 415: The only thing we can do is get that infernal thing uncove...
Page 417: And if we don't, how long do you think civilization will l...
Page 419: They let a ladder down the hole and descended?Conn and his...
Page 421: Below, back of the Commander-in-chief's office, there was ...
Page 423: They could see no way out. If Merlin said that Merlin had ...
Page 425: The majority relaxed, ashamed of their hysterical reaction...
Page 427: Forty years of history for almost five hundred planets had...
Page 429: Retranslating it took five hours. In the beginning and for...
Page 431: There was also a statement that, after fifty years, suppre...
Page 433: The house was crowded today. All top-level Litchfield seem...
Page 435: He saw his mother break away from a group of older ladies ...
Page 437: They daren't do it with me, Mrs. Maxwell. If I get into it...
Page 439: There was a crowd in Rodney Maxwell's little office?Fawzi ...