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Show the place was as dark as a tomb. In fact, it looked like a tomb, with its vaulted ceiling and stone floor. He had expected, somehow, wheels and lights. This was BauerWorlde, after all. Then the young assistant passed his hand over an illumination sensor and the whole place stood revealed in bright, white light. Visitor Householder drew in his breath. He was standing in an aisle which disappeared into infinity. In fact, as far as he could see in any direction were rows upon rows of tubing. He pulled himself together and asked a question. "And you say that this is all connected?" the Visitor asked, waving an arm. They had begun by then to walk down one of the aisles. "Aye," said the young man. "They connect in curiously wrought patterns. 'Tis like a vast maze." "And how do you have all t h i s . . .uh. . .categorized?" "Oh, we none of that." " You. .uh. . .none of that? " "NaynaynayNay." The assistant smiled indulgently. "Everything is on line and the Governor sees to the categorizing. We but input-ye understand?" "So ye. . . u h . . .you have no idea what's in all this here?" The Visitor gestured to the tubing on his right. "Nay, we need not know, ye see." "But if you should have an explosion, a catastrophe of some kind, and this along here were destroyed..." "Oh, 'twould then be the Governor's concern," said the young man, 287 |