Part 24 (2/2)

”We're working on it That's all I kno”

He went back to work getting a classroom ready for his students If he'd accepted that instructorshi+p at Montevideo, he wouldn't be a full professor now, but none of the rest of this would be happening, either

That night, he had the drea able to stop it again

There was street-fighting in Storisende between the Cybernarchists and Government troops There was a pitched battle in the west between the Arue (Merlin-is-the-Golem), with heavy losses and claims of victory on both sides President Vyckhoven proclaimed planet-wideto enforce it with

Luther Chen-Wong screened him from Port Carpenter His voice was almost inaudibly low at first

”Conn, I just had a call from Jerry and Clyde I think we can knock off work on that shi+p we're building now We won't need it”

”Have they found a shi+p?” If they had, it would be the first one anybody had found ”Where?”

”They haven't found _a_ shi+p, Conn; they've found all of them All the shi+ps in the Alpha Syste at Storisende The place is marked on the map as Sickle Mountain Naval Observatory It's just a bitty little dot, but the map was made before the evacuation started It's where most of the troops in the system were embarked on hypershi+ps, I think Wait till I show you the views”

Conn put on another screen; the first vieas from an altitude of five miles He didn't need Luther's voice to identify Sickle Mountain; a long curve, with a spur at right angles to one end, the naested itself to whoever saw it first The observatory had been built where the handle of the sickle joined the blade; as the shi+p frorew plainer At the same time, it became evident that the plain inside the curve of the sickle was powdered with tiny sparkles, like tinsel dust on red-brown velvet

”Great Ghu, are those all shi+ps?”

”That's right Look at this one, now”

The view changed The aircraft was down, now, below the crest of theslowly above the plain Hundreds, no, over a thousand, of them; two- and three-and five-hundred-footers, and here and there a thousand-footer that could have been converted into a hypershi+p if anybody had wanted to take the trouble The view changed again; this time from an aircar dropped from the shi+p, he supposed; it was down almost to the tops of the shi+ps, and he could read names and home ports: _Pixie_, Chloris; _Helen O'Loy_, Anaitis They were froen _Sky-Rover_, Port Saunders; she was from Horvendile shi+ps from Storisende, and Yellowmarsh on Janicot, and

”Noe knohere they all went”

It was logical, of course Most of the hypershi+ps used in the evacuation had been built here It had been less trouble to lead the troops and the civilian workers from Poictesme and the other planets onto s the shi+ps away on short interplanetary runs to the other planets

”Have you screenedto knock the botto those shi+ps at Storisende, I'h luck”

”It could be everybody's tough luck Both those co stock, and there's been a lot of speculation in it This ht blow the whole thing out”

He knew that He shrugged ”Father will have to think of so

Tell him I'll screen him from Sickle Mountain”

Then he went back to his classrooht, class diss packed We're going to work for real, now”

Airboats and airshi+ps flocked to Sickle Mountain; some of them hastened back to Port Carpenter for loads of food, for there was none in the storehouses at the embarkation camp They inspected shi+p after shi+p, and chose two three-hundred-footers They sent airshi+ps and freight-scows to the dozen-odd cities and industrial centers that had been already explored, to gather cargo, as far as possible the items in shortest supply on Poictesme