FICTION: THE STAR DUNES
A DROP OF WATER splashed onto Cruz’s forehead.
“Emmett,” he moaned, feeling the bead roll down his temple. “One more minute.”
Cruz was drifting off again, when another drop tapped him on the bridge of his nose.
“OK, OK.”
His roommate was right. They’d be in big trouble if they were late to class. Cruz yawned, his eyelids fluttering.
“You win, Emmett. I’m …” The creamy white ceiling he expected to see was, instead, a forbidding black hole. “… up,” he gulped.
He remembered now. Cruz was not in his soft, warm bed in cabin 202 on board Orion, Explorer Academy’s flagship vessel. Not even close. He was huddled at the bottom of a cold, damp cave somewhere outside of Aksaray, Turkey.
Cruz’s neck was tipped back. His head, rather than being cradled in his
