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Show It had been many hours since Dr'Anya had received that first, horror-filled impulse from her daughter in the shuttle. She had spent a full three hours of the elapsed time persuading a legion of Bauercrats at the Bureau of ESP Affairs (or BESPA, as the people were wont to call it) to grant her the privilege of seeing the fair Janni, deep in tranquilized slumber in the NewOxbridge MedBattlements. Yet another hour dissolved while she pledged a Commendium1 s worth of bond credits, signed affidavits, and otherwise swore to the Great Heaven that she would not spirit the child away from the Battlements if she were allowed the visit. Even the Needlesmith name shrank before the curtain of red tape that came tumbling down before a BauerWorlde Doctor's child evincing signs of the Skill (or Stigma as all but the Bauercrats called i t ). And how it came about that the good Janni's Skill was discovered was like this: A certain one of the Assistant Vice Managers, taking time out with a cup of greenberry tea, had looked up by chance and noticed that lo! he was sitting before the monitor displaying the Portage shuttle's visual. Odd it was that the visual be here, thought the AVM, for he was sitting in one of the more remote rooms in the BIDBattlement. But then not sb odd, verily, with androids hastening here and there, equipment under their arms for delivery, yet with software all amiss. The man peered at the scene on the visual-Janni screaming, stewards running to and fro-and reckoned things rightly, which was a happy thing for him and not a little unusual. And what he'd reckoned was that the maiden on her way to the NewOxbridge MedBattlements had "caught" some level of spacephobia from one of the other passengers-an open reception to end all. Moreover, he knew of the young Janni and her family and they were seasoned 25 |