"I can't get used to it," Abner said as they moved back into the camp area. "Sleeping and waking in four hour bits!"
MacMartree laughed at that. "Abner, you're getting old. You can't adapt anymore."
Abner laughed, too, and unrolled his sleep-kit for the night.
MacMartree walked to the place where Phillips and Cole lay on the ground, talking casually and watching the stars.
"Time to switch on the screen, Phillips," MacMartree reminded the younger man.
Phillips nodded, sat up and reached for the control box that lay on the earth beside him. He closed the circuit, and the force-screen bloomed around them, glimmering softly like a thin veil of glowing fireflies.
"Kind of useless, that, don't you think?" Cole asked.
MacMartree sat down beside them.
"It's one of the rules, and no patrol ever came to grief by following the rules."
Phillips lay back on the turf. "No patrol ever came to grief at all, you mean. I'm bored to death."