This was no Cuss Two drill, like the landing of a ship. It was an all-out alert. As soon as the warning whistle quieted down, the rest of the Wheel did, too. The workthings turned themselves to standby and stood frozen. The lights dimmed themselves to murk. The internal sensors that monitored the spin of the Wheel gave their mass shifters one more pat into place and shut down; so did the vertical lift cables; so did all the other nonessential inorganic-and organic-machines and intelligences of the Wheel. The deck of the Wheel felt dead under Sneezy's cheek. No buzz of air pumps or whine of cable motors. No irregular, satisfying thump and rumble as the mass shifters worked to keep the Wheel turning true. Sneezy waited. Why was this particular drill lasting so long?