An Immigration agent came over to them. "Your ship is here, Mr. Asher. Come with me. Can your wife walk? You want some help?"

"Already?" He was dumbfounded. And then he realized that the ship had been there all this time. Immigration was routinely prepared to deal with emergency situations. Especially of this kind. Or rather, what they supposed this situation to be.

"Who wears a metal mask?" Herb said to Elias as he drew the blanket from Rybys. "Pushed back up over her hair. And has a straight nose, a very strong nose-well, let it go. Give me a hand." Together, he and Elias got Rybys to her feet. The Immi- gration agent watched sympathetically.

"I don't know," Elias said.

"There is someone else," Herb said as they moved Rybys step by step up the aisle.

"I'm going to throw up," Rybys said weakly.

"Just hang on," Herb Asher said. "We're almost there."

--------------------

Big Noodle notified Cardinal Fulton Statler Harms and the Procurator Maximus, and then, to all the heads of states in the world it printed out the following mystifying statement:

ON THE STANDARD OF FIFTY THEY SHALL WRITE: FINISHED IS

THE STAND OF THE FROWARD THROUGH THE MIGHTY ACTS

OF GOD, TOGETHER WITH THE NAMES OF THE COMMANDERS

OF THE FIFTY AND OF ITS TENS. WHEN THEY GO OUT TO

BATTLE, THEY SHALL WRITE UPON THEIR WPSOX TO FORM A

COMPLETE FRONT. THE LINE IS TO CONSIST OF A THOUSAND

MEN MEN MEN MEN MEN EACH FRONT LINE IS TO BE SEVEN

SEVEN SEVEN DEEP, ONE MAN STANDING BEHIND THE OTHER

STOP REPEAT ALL OF THEM ARE TO HOLD SHIELDS OF POL- ISHED BRONZE REPEAT BRONZE RESEMBLING MIRRORS THESE

SHIELDS

The statement ended there. Technicians swarmed over the A.I. system in a matter of minutes.