The world rushed around her. Sarah sat bolt upright in her bed, awoken once again by the nightmare that had plagued her for her whole life. The window looked out at the empty, dark hangar around the ship, and at the shadowy silhouettes of equipment strewn across the floor.
The day had been long, filled with prep work for today. Lance and Panda had gotten the engines ready, Michael had set up the sickbay, and Cali had set up her controls before helping Nova with the AI, and she'd set up the weapons and sorted the armory. She swung her legs out of bed and tapped a floating patchwork of light that appeared in front of her until it produced the desired result.
"Athena?" She called into the dark room. Suddenly a small lavender figure of a young woman appeared on her desk, composed of nothing but light. The tiny girl responded quickly. "Yes, Commander Skye?"
"What time is it?"
"It is currently 0230 hours, shipboard time."
"Is everyone asleep?"
"With the exception of yourself, yes-"
"How do they do it?"
"Excuse me, Commander?"
"Nothing."
The tiny girl and Sarah sat silently for a while, before the AI spoke. "I have observed during my time aboard human ships that nightmares are often caused by loneliness and cured by social interaction."
"How did you know I was-"
"The same way I know an anomalously high thermal signature from the Captain's and Commander Alistair's room likely wasn't a sensor error."
Sarah turned red at the AI's gossip. Athena, unfazed, continued.
"Perhaps, in order for you to operate at full efficiency tomorrow, you should seek a conversation tonight. Perhaps... Commander Alistair? You do have much in common."
She thought about this for a few minutes, before Athena once again spoke.
"She's awake, you know. And initiating a very similar conversation with me."
Sarah threw on a shirt and left her room, after saying, "Thanks, A" and watching the bright figure fade away.
Their room was identical to hers, except that in this bed there were two girls. One leaned against the wall, completely naked and fast asleep, the other, sitting up and twitching her fox ears while tapping at an ancient black device. What sounded like dance music played softly on the room's speakers. Cali looked up as soon as she entered, red faced and covering her lace bra.
"I... uh... didn't know you were coming..."
"It's... I can go, I just..."
The two girls stared awkwardly at the ground, before Sarah tried to break the tension.
"What's that? In your hand?" She asked, speaking softly with Nova's motionless form sleeping just feet away.
"Oh, this? It's- ah- a family heirloom, really. An old, really old, music player from the early 21st century." Cali held up the scarred device, which had a silver apple engraved on the back, as well as a few buttons scattered around the rim of it's rectangular body.
"Is it playing this?" Sarah gestured to the quiet music that filled the room.
"Yea, I think it was someone's favorite song, too. It's been played over a thousand times."
"That survived the war? Cool."
They sat for a moment, the piece of history in Cali's hands creating a sense of ease between the two, so much so that Sarah spoke, and in a very different tone.
"I... I don't sleep very well. I lost both my parents in an accident when I was 10. I had to take experimental medicine to live and it had affected my body in certain ways, and... and I had to fight to survive, literally..." She became a sobbing mess that Cali hugged and quieted not only for the girl's sake but to keep her overworked girlfriend asleep as well.
May as well share something of my own, she surmised.
"You aren't the only one without parents, you know."
Sarah, teary-eyed and red faced from crying looked up at her. "But you... I mean, wouldn't they mention it about your brother if you didn't..."
"I'm adopted. My actual parents died in a shuttle accident 25 trillion miles from where we're sitting. My other parents saw a news story about how a baby was orphaned in the crash, and that she was deaf." She twitched her ears. "They had next to nothing... and they bought these, what was at the time worth almost everything they owned. Luckily, my brother got real rich, I bet you've heard of him, and they can finally live like they aren't scraping together pennies. No thanks to me."
They fell into a quiet conversation about their pasts. from Sarah's fighting to Cali's move to Earth when she was 16. When Sarah walked out the door, she had made a friend.
When Sarah returned to her room she fell asleep quickly.
She dreamt not of accidents or family, but of friends, and futures brighter than she'd once thought possible.
And, in 3 hours, her alarm rang.
Time for the big day...

YOU ARE READING
Superluminal
Science FictionThis story follows the flight of a six-person expedition and their adventures flying the first ever faster-than-light ship through the 22nd century.