AND I WOKE UP WITH the room dark, alert. Scanning the room, I found nothing had changed. I was still fully dressed, the jacket as I had left it. The light that had come in the windows was gone. Evidently the earth had rotated out of the sunshine. How long we had been in shadow or how long we would be, I could not tell. For I didn't know what time it was here.
The darkness didn't wake me. It was my own reflexes. Something had made a subtle sound. Or something else had wakened me.
Calling for lights didn't affect their status. I quickly scanned the room and felt my clothes and jackets for weapons. All present. Nothing had changed while I dozed.
Standing up failed to turn the lights on, waving my arms had no effect.
A sudden realization came to me. This was a mechanical age where they had
