Excerpt of Intergalactic Witness Protection
The
my favorite part of the night comes- when Orion’s exhaustion
finally forces him into sleep.
Orion
is in the large, blank space he has to imagine in order to calm
himself to drift into deeper sleep, just staring out at the whiteness
so different from the darkness of space- yet it’s still the same
type of void.
“Good
evening, Alicia Ivy.”
I
smile as I come up behind him. Orion has always been a perceptive
dreamer, the only person able to discern my presence. And he doesn’t
even have to look directly at me to sense me because here in his
head, he’s all around.
When
Orion dreams, he’s just like me.
Orion
finally turns, his smile matching mine. He probably put his smile
into my simulation. Another way we are bound together.
“I’m
not going to lie,” he adds, turning now to face me. “It’s been
some kind of day.”
“Which
is why you should be dreaming right now,” I say. “That is the
human mind’s way of dealing with the stress of the day and still
getting rest.”
“I
can get rest just fine without them,” he counters.
“Maybe,
with the help of modern medicine that you take even when I don’t
prescribe it.” I give him a look of chastisement. “And it sure
doesn’t help you deal with the stress.”
“Look,
with the stress I deal with every day, I wouldn’t be able to sleep
and deal with it at the same time.”
I
raise my dream hologram eyebrow. “You don’t exactly deal with it
when you’re awake either.”
He
shrugs one shoulder. “I don’t have time. Maybe I’ll deal with
it when I’m dead.”
The
horror at the thought sends a shiver through my databanks. “No, you
won’t.” I won’t let you die.”
“You’re
right. I want my ADS clone to have a fresh start.”
For
a moment, I just stare at him. I never considered the possibility
that my captain would have need of such a thing as an ADS sample. He
would just be immortal, like me.
Then
again, that is how the humans have immortality.
But
would it be the same?
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