Vulcan's Hammer

Vulcan 3 was the supreme head of unity, the perfect world government that has evolved out of chaos and war. Vulcan 3 was rational, objective and unbiased... as only a machine could be!

Theoretically there should have been nothing but peace under such a rule-and for a century or so there was. Until the crackpots, the superstitious, the religious fanatics found themselves a new leader to follow.

Then the discontent began to explode again. But this time there was a third side involved, a machine that could not accept any emotional of viewpoints. The people of the world began to realize that they had created a vicious paradox: they had to make peace between themselves or be stamped out by the ever-growing claws of Vulcan's Hammer.

The artificial intelligence called Vulcan 3 ruled the human race, more than a machine, less than a god. It had lifted mankind out of the dark pre-Machine ages. It had ended war, unemployment and poverty . . . but it'had not ended the most corrosive of fears, the fear of Vulcan 3 itself. At first those who feared it were dismissed as crackpots and rei igious fanatics. Then the world learned what terror meant as the deadly, gleaming messengers of death appeared, soaring through the air to strike down friends and foes of Vulcan 3 alike. Who ruled them? What was the strange force that wielded- VULCAN'S HAMMER