"What I want to know is, why is this damned water-pump overloading? What's the circuit?"
"You must be ... yes, you are pumping against too much head. Five levels above you are dead, you know, so...."
"Dead? Can't you raise anybody?"
"Not yet. So you're pumping through dead boosters on Eleven and Ten and so on up, and when your overload-relief valve opens...."
"Relief valve!" Jones almost screamed, "Can I dog the damn thing down?"
"No, it's internal."
"Christ, what a design—I could eat a handful of iron filings and puke a better emergency pump than that!"
"When it opens," Stanley went stolidly on, "the water will go through the by-pass back into the sump. So you'd better rod out one of the glory holes and...."
"Get conscious, fat-head!" Jones blazed. "What would we use for time? Get off the air—gimme Emerson!"
"Emerson speaking."