The world could not know aboutthis, and there was no way they would once Schubert stepped into it.Schubert would never let Mark step back into the wor...d given the changeshe'd made."How?" Susan asked accepting Mark's assessment and logic of a totallyillogical set of circumstances. Mark had shrunk. There was no denyingthat part of this, and still alive, and that too was pretty remarkable.Cycloplast had worked, and if that didn't beat all. "Been thinking about that how part Susan. Listen, as silly. He'd obviously, therefore, not been a Marine for very long. "There's something on the sensors – we're going to have company, and soon, and it isn't Confederacy. I've alerted the pilots in orbit." Great," muttered Samantha fiercely. "Who's the senior duty officer?" I am." Who is the senior officer on the planet?" By rank, me. By seniority, that would be you." He had the grace to blush. "I came out on the last transport. I haven't been fully trained yet – the rank's still provisional."Samantha. It was as if he wanted to wave a huge flag for the Sa'arm saying, "Look here! There is a reason you keep running into trouble when you come this way."The Sa'arm might be stupid, but it was like waving a red cape for a bull. (Or at least that's what Tanya noted when I asked her about it, I have no idea what that means.) [Oh, Tanya is Captain Tanya Walker. She commands Freya. I'll tell you more about her later in the letter. I first want to write about what happened to Erica.So what happened was. In summation, Jordan realized, last night was, "reallyfucked-up shit." It was an accurate description, and one to be repeatedmany times over the course of his ordeal.IOne of the absolute worst things anyone can do when they have a hangover-or any kind of headache-is to listen. Sound can be a person's worstenemy in a situation like this. Every noise sounds like someone taking asledge to any and every exposed segment of the brain. This is occurring,keep in mind, when the brain has tricked itself.