PHOENIX SHIP, by Walt and Leigh Richmond: ~ ~~ ~

1. Earth had everything going for it. Not only was the mother planet top dog in the solar system---her weak colonies hanging on by the skin of their teeth had to heed her every whim.

2. Her spaceships were tops; her armament invincible; and she had just developed a new method of computerized schooling that seemed certain to develop an army of superminds to do Earth's bidding.

3. Yet, if all this was truly so, how was it that the pesky little mining ships of the poorest colonial offshoot of all---the barren rocks of the asteroid belt---had beaten Earth's fleet to a frazzle and her homemade strategists were outthinking the best of the whole Earth High Command?