How long ago it had ceased to move beneath the earth's surface, Nicholas didn't know. He had been drifting in and out of a wonderful prismatic sleep that had promised no end to the pleasures of dreaming. Eventually he had noticed that everything around him was quiet and still. Lexie lay beside him, cocooned and naked in the folds of a blanket. She looked rapturously sated and slept like the dead. The air in the compartment seemed cleansed, but Nicholas still felt the soporific effects of the genna . He coughed. Whatever genna was, it was easily the most powerful mood-altering drug he'd ever known. Even through his haze, the Bore's lack of motion bothered him. It took several long seconds for the world to arrange itself. While it did, Nicholas looked for his metallic uniform and boots. He wanted to find out what was happening up front. The Bore rested at only a slight angle from the horizontal, so the rungs in the floor were flattened into invisibility.
