––––––––
“HELP! HELP ME.”
Aubriot squinted groggily as he tried to focus. The chirrup of his ear comm had dragged him from a deep slumber.
“What?”
He hadn’t caught the announcement of the caller’s name.
“Who is this?”
“M-Marcus. It’s Marcus. I can’t see. I think she...God, I can’t see anything! My eyes! My eyes.”
Another man’s groans sounded faintly in the background.
“You can’t see?” Aubriot echoed. “Has there been another fight? Comm sick bay. I’m not a medic.” He angrily cut the comm, took out the ear device, and put it on the nightstand. After punching his pillow into shape, taking out on it some of his annoyance at being woken up, he tried to go back to sleep.
Why had the man comm’d him for help? Sure, he was the one who’d invited Marcus to come on the voyage, reasoning they
