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Show job of programming the new era into the Governor. The Visitor nodded his head wonderingly. "And so that's why this place is s o . . . s o . . . - " He searched for a prudent word, "...eclectic," he said finally. Ivan nodded his head, and spread honey on a pepper roll. "Truly, mining technology began with all haste after that, down in the DragonsBundSaddle, but marry, the installations were builded most religiously in the Earth's late Gothic style." He shoved the roll into his generous mouth and began shaking salt onto his BauerSpud. "And warpdrive," he said, talking around the spicey bread, "'twas ingeniously developed withal by a small clutch of Doctors and Techs in the dungeon of a Manager's ironstone castle in the SouthernSteppes." "And the a n d r o i d s . . . " prompted Andrus, brushing away her veil. Ivan took a long drink of wine and put down the flagon. "The Good Techs developed that most blessed of all our technology in the CloistersLaboratories at NewOxbridge, under ionic lights curiously wrought and flickering like the OldeWorlde flares in our courtyards. 'Tis a blessed wonder they went not blind as Tartary bats." He started forking up his baked BauerSpuds while the Earthski Visitor looked on, fascinated. "Indeed, BauerWorlde android technology surpassed mightily even the most outlandish dreams of the Earthskis, and that most assuredly," Ivan said, his voice muffled by masses of Bauerspuds, "and applied they it to the whole totality of human endeavor-from mining and agriculture to manufacturing textiles and p o t t e r y . . . ." 72 |