He had done it again, falling asleep in mid-conversation. The time and lack of sleep was catching up with him and his body couldn’t figure out how to cope. He glanced over and saw one of his friends working a short distance away; this was not the first time that he had done this, nor that she would simply resume their conversation when he awoke. It was one of those things that friends did for one another: some people went bowling together, some offered to put up with your insane sleep schedule.

It wasn’t so bad, working like this, thanks to the years of practice back on earth. The ship computer was very happy to wake him every 4 hours – or at least he had imagined that it would have been cheery about this task – and all of those short nights back home were finally paying off. His mind felt sharp the moment he woke, making it feel as though an entire day had passed. He didn’t need to look at the clock to know it had only been 20 minutes, however, which really messed with his body. The inner clock was a funny thing; it could tell you all sorts of things about the day you were currently in, but ask it to span several days and things got very strange. It was almost an immortal feeling that passed over you when you awoke, like you had this new concept of time and space because you were not bound to a normal day. Given his surroundings, he had convinced himself that this was the case. “Maybe this is what vampires felt like.” he mused.

Reaching for his communication device, he noticed that it had fallen from his side while he slept. It bounced and rolled down a small incline near the foot of his chamber, coming to rest on a small window he used for checking the external antennas. He wondered if it would just fall though, if space would claim his device just as it had his life, sucking it into the void and leaving him with less of himself than he could bear.

The phone vibrated in his hand, alerting him to an incoming message. This late-night communication had been going on for some time, thanks to the various overlapping shifts he and his roommates worked. He climbed into his car and drove to their office, stopping along the way to retrieve some food to keep them company. It was a lonely graveyard shift and they could use the distraction; his friend would enjoy the company while at work – Daniel just wanted to talk with someone.

A soft alarm began to beep at the console near his resting place. He reached over and turned it off, having woken several minutes ahead of schedule this time. He clambered over to the kitchen and ate to take the edge off of his rest, wishing desperately that the black and green console would converse with him while he ate. The worst part of being up here was the lack of communication. He felt cut off, forgotten. The normal schedule of discussion seemed to have just fallen away after he left, like there was nothing to say while he was in stasis. “Perhaps that’s what they think I’m doing,” he said aloud “I guess that WAS the plan.” He laughed at the irony and smiled ruefully at the screen across the room. “There’ll be no living this one down, will there now?” He wasn’t sure what he expected, staring at the tiny computer, but it didn’t happen. He stared for several minutes before taking another bite of the had-been-freeze-dried meal before him, and thought of food back on earth.