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Show it been triggered by the warning system in the shuttle, pray? And, Saint Isaac bless us, had the warning system been triggered by the turmoil inside the cabin? The astonished Phrapp gazed out of the shuttle port and pondered these questions to the full, since forty years as a Bauercrat in the BauerNetwork created in him vast surprise when anything, in all verity, worked. But indeed-it hadn't altogether worked. The litter and ambulance had pulled directly up the shuttle's ramp and into the airlock, and there soon developed a jam-up in the forward aisles-converging as they did toward the tip of the flat, triangularly shaped shuttle. One of the stewards was calling for order over a crescendo of muttering among the stalled passengers. Phrapp sighed for the third time, arose, and climbed over the empty seats behind him with a good deal of grunting effort to the unconscious maiden three rows back. He then picked her up in his arms and pushed with brute force throu'gh the press in the main aisle. Though slim, his burden was easily as tall as Phrapp was, and the man began quickly to sweat. Besides, he was fair wild to get out of the devilish ship. "Make way! Make way!" he cried, his heavy voice booming over the passengers' heads. He arrived at length in front of the two stewards who looked at him, exasperated, and purposefully blocked his way. "Marry, good sir," said the female of the pair, "we will none of this, pray." She folded her arms across her blue and rose bodice. "Bertram is the one who should . . . " began the other and turned, with his colleague, to the unhappy Bertram sitting by that time in one of the forward seats, applying a BioPak to a spot just under his left ear. He 11 |