The Cosmic Computer Part 34

"When'll we have our wedding, Sylvie?" he asked as they went off together.

"Well, before Dad goes to Aditya with the _Genji_. That'll have to be in a month."

"Two weeks? That ought to be plenty of time to get ready, and let people recover from this one."

"Everybody's here now. Let's make it a double wedding tomorrow," she suggested.

He hadn't been prepared for that. "Well, I hadn't expected.... Sure!

Good idea!" he agreed.

There was a crowd in Rodney Maxwell's little office--Fawzi and some others, and some Storisende people. One of the latter was vociferating:

"Jake Vyckhoven's no good, and he never was any good!"

"Well, you have to admit, if he hadn't ordered the banks and the Stock Exchange closed that time, we'd have had a horrible panic--"

"Admit nothing of the kind! Jethro, you were there, you'll bear me out. About a dozen of us were at Executive Palace for hours, bullying him into that. Why, we almost had to twist one of his arms while he was signing the order with the other. And now he has the gall to run for re-election on the strength of his heroic actions at the time of the Travis Hoax!"

"I know who we want for President!" another Storisende man exclaimed.

"He's right here in this room!"

"Yes!" Rodney Maxwell almost bellowed, before the other man could say anything else. "Here he is!" He grabbed Kurt Fawzi by the arm and yanked him to his feet. "Here's the man most responsible for finding Merlin; the man who first suggested sending my son Conn to Terra to school, the man who, more than anyone else, devoted his life to the search for Merlin, the man whose inextinguishable faith and indomitable courage kept that search alive through its darkest hours.

Everybody, get a drink; a toast to our next President, Kurt Fawzi!"

Conn was sure he heard his father add: "Ghu, what a narrow escape!"

Then he and Sylvie began chanting, in unison, "_We want Fawzi! We want Fawzi!_"

If you enjoyed this novel, you will also want to read:

s.p.a.cE VIKING by H. BEAM PIPER

After a galaxy-wide war had left the planetary federation in ruins, every surviving civilized world was on its own. And that was a perfect setup for the marauders from the far-out rim.

Trask was one of those dreaded s.p.a.ce Vikings, a warrior s.p.a.ceman with a crew and a ship that struck terror to a thousand worlds. But Trask had a special personal interest In scourging the stars--he wanted to draw upon himself the fire of a certain enemy--a renegade planet-wrecker with a yen for galactic empire building.

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F-240 WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES by H. G. Wells

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"Is there really a Merlin?"

Everybody on the war-torn planet Poictesme believed it existed. And they all believed that when this super-gigantic computer was located amid the mountains of surplus equipment that was the planet's sole source of revenue, it would mean Utopia for everyone.

Conn Maxwell knew different. He had studied the records on Earth and he thought he knew the true facts about this cosmic computer. To tell them would be to panic Poictesme, so instead he set about a new search in his own way--with startling results.

H. Beam Piper, author of s.p.a.cE VIKING, has again produced an original and unusual novel of the s.p.a.ce future.