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 with excitement.
"We've been hunting at random for the Brain, so it would only be an
accident if we found it. We'll have to do this systematically, and with
Conn to help us--Conn, why not build a computer? I don't mean another
Brain; I mean a computer to help us find the Brain."

"We can, but we may not even need to build one. When we get out to the
industrial planets, we may find one ready except for perhaps some minor