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Show IV "The problem with administration, my d e a r s , is that it seemeth always to take two dogs to wag one tail." from The Ancient Words of Saint Isaac Marry, how one's feet could ache and ache, and one could nevertheless get up again and walk on them! Dr'Anya had been full right-she had indeed to fight her way through the pipeline. She'd been sitting in the central chamber of the ThirdStage Sanctums of BAA for close on to the halfhour. Androids dressed in flowing white plissons and bright blue and rose livery whirred and booted it between the many rooms opening onto the chamber, carrying files, boxes of BubbleMemories for the Governor's DaySlots, stacks of audio d i s k s , t r a n s c e i v e r s and videophones, steaming pots of greenberry tea, and p l a t t e r s of biscuits and sandwiches. One robot, a s q u a r i s h , hollow receptacle topped with a deferential head, neck, and fixed smile, existed, it seemed, for the sole purpose of t r a n s p o r t i n g hardcopy from one room to another-a different kind of c e n t a u r . Dr'Anya looked at the quantities of paper piled in its hollow back and closed her eyes. But BauerWorlde was fortunate in having such a sophisticated android and robot technology, or the s t i l l - s p a r s e l y populated Commendiums could scarce have manned a bureaucracy of such Augean proportions. As it was, two out of every ten wights in the Commendiums' one million served as Bauercrats in the BauerNetwork. And what did it all mean? What did they 31& 32 |