Neither...

Sam Marsowe ducked back down into the tunnel. The bush hid the mouth very handily, and Ryan Leman was coming up to replace him. He pressed against the wall to let Ryan slide past in the narrow passage. The young man looked fit and alert; he'd be fine. Sam, however, was tired; he'd been posted on watch for eight long hours. He left the watch rifle for the younger man to take. It was one of their precious firearms, rugged and weatherbeaten but lovingly cared for. You didn't leave your tools out in the cold and then just expect them to work with you. You had to tend them, cooperate with them. The watch rifle was one of the best tended in the unit, because it was the most frequently carried, and also the most frequently, but mercifully not often, fired.

He heard the rustle of the bush as Ryan climbed up behind it and started off down the passage, head ducked low because of the close ceilings. Sam was rather taller than the women that had originally built, or dug, this outpost. He passed the internal guard station, the low wall that limited traffic through the already narrow passage. He nodded to the guard and the man grunted in reply. He too had just come on duty, changing shift at the same time Ryan had been heading up to replace Sam. A torch flickered in the slow breeze from the mouth of the tunnel. Every time Sam passed, he thought about how medieval this place was. Low-ceilinged tunnels, torches, the guard armored in padded leather with a short cutting blade and a wooden shield. Further down the passage he might find King Arthur's Court. He turned around the corner into the parade cavern. Nope, still the same old tunnels and torches.

The parade cavern was scarcely deserving of the title, since it could only hold a couple dozen people. Even so, that was nearly half the soldiers in the outpost. Dim light currently lit the cavern from tunnels that let it in from above. They were lined with white rock, polished as bright as they could make it, to send as much light down to the largest room in the complex. In the late afternoon it wasn't much, but everyone in the place had developed good night vision. It got very, very dark below ground, and they could all navigate the tunnels with their eyes closed and hear other people coming from ten steps just by their breathing. He crossed the parade cavern to the "patio," the three rough tables next to the short tunnel leading to the mess, and sat down with a tired sigh.

Next to him, Marina smiled. "Hey, soldier. Home from the wars?"