computers as gospel.
"It was only designed to handle problems in astrophysics. The Brain,
being built for space war, would have to handle any such problem. And if
half the stories about the Brain are anywhere near true, it handled any
other problem--mathematical, scientific, political, economic, strategic,
psychological, even philosophical and ethical. Well, I'd say that a
hundred million cubic feet would be the smallest even conceivable."

They all nodded seriously. They were willing to accept that--or anything
else, except one thing.

"Lot of places on this planet where a thing that size could be hidden,"
Tom Brangwyn said, undismayed. "A planet's a mighty big place."

"It could be under water, in one of the seas," Piet Dawes, the banker,
suggested. "An underwater dome city wouldn't be any harder to build than
a dome city on a poison-atmosphere planet like Tubal-Cain."

"It might even be on Tubal-Cain," a melon-planter said. "Or Hiawatha, or
even one of the Beta or Gamma planets. The Third Force was occupying the
whole Trisystem, you know." He thought for a moment. "If I'd been in
charge, I'd have put it on one of the moons of Pantagruel."

"But that's clear out in the Alpha System," Judge Ledue objected. "We
don't have a spaceship on the planet, certainly nothing with a
hyperdrive engine. And it would take a lifetime to get out to the Gamma
System and back on reaction drive."

Conn put his empty brandy glass on the table and sat erect. A new
thought had occurred to him, chasing out of his mind all the worries and
fears he had brought with him all the way from Terra.

"Then we'll have to build a ship," he said calmly. "I know, when the
Federation evacuated Poictesme, they took every hyperdrive ship with
them. But they had plenty of shipyards and spaceports on this planet,
and I have maps showing the location of all of them, and barely a third
of them have been discovered so far. I'm sure we can find enough hulks,
and enough hyperfield generator parts, to assemble a ship or two, and I
know we'll find the same or better on some of the other planets.

"And here's another thing," he added. "When we start looking into some
of the dome-city plants on Tubal-Cain and Hiawatha and Moruna and
Koshchei, we may find the plant or plants where the components for the
Brain were fabricated, and if we do, we may find records of where they
were shipped, and that'll be it."

"You're right!" Professor Kellton cried, quivering w