Chapter Text
Sleep. The great constant. From the most advanced spacefaring civilizations pushing at the physical laws of the universe to the lowliest pile of thinking meat just discovering that sharpening a stick makes it so much easier to poke holes in your neighbors, every sentient being in the entire galaxy needs to sleep[1].
That is, of course, not to say that every species experiences sleep in exactly the same way. The methods for sleeping are as wide-ranging and varied as the creatures that need to do it. Laying on cushions, hanging from trees, floating in viscous fluids or the vacuum of space, and sometimes not even appearing to sleep at all.
Even species that have evolved from a common ancestor can sleep in wildly different ways. On earth, for example, the hippopotamus will sleep upwards of ten hours a day while their closest living relative, the dolphin, has evolved to sleep with only half of its brain at a time, allowing them to remain alert and aware at all times to avoid predators.
And even the dolphin’s trick of unihemispheric sleep isn’t all that strange when compared to some sleeping practices. In the skies above the vast oceans of the planet Aquim, the great sky whales have evolved to take frequent micro-naps mid-flight. Now, unlike the earth’s albatross – which is able continue flying even while sleeping – the sky whales of Aquim need to remain awake and constantly adjusting their buoyancy bladders to maintain proper lift amongst the shifting winds and unpredictable air currents that they call home. When they do fall asleep, they are no longer able to flex the muscles required to produce said lift and subsequently drop out of the sky[2]. They plummet through the dense atmosphere for several minutes while completely unconscious until they reach a predetermined altitude at which point they wake, right themselves, and start their long climb back into the upper atmosphere where they will begin the process anew[3].
Humans actually experience a fairly typical sleep schedule as far as these things go. Two parts awake to one part unconscious is a pattern shared by eighty-six percent of all the spacefaring races in the galaxy[4]. This is, of course, just an average.
Zoey the human slept. She slept hard. Hard enough to rival even the Uutrok, massive sentient stone beings known throughout the galaxy for sleeping so long and so soundly that entire civilizations can rise and fall during one of their late afternoon naps[5].
After enduring months of poor sleep and the constant growth her body had undergone in order to house a frankly ridiculous number of T’chrienian eggs, Zoey was left so utterly exhausted by the end of it all that even her dreams revolved around sleeping. Visions of comfy beds, soft pillows, and warm blankets swam through her head, blending so seamlessly with reality that for the first couple of days it was hard to pinpoint where the sleeping ended, and the waking began.
She was sure that she had woken up at some point though. Food had definitely been delivered to their quarantine room a few times. Zoey didn’t remember eating any of it, but she did remember Seri feeding her afterward. Her partner had remained by her side the entire time, a constant, comforting presence whether she was sleeping or awake. For the most part, she had been content to let Zoey sleep, though she had woken her a few times while pressing a nipple into her mouth so she could drink without aspirating the milk. Each time she had held her in place long enough for her to drain both breasts before wrapping her up in another hug and letting her pass out again.
There had been other periods of wakefulness too, most of them involving an array of pills, needles and swabs. Thankfully, Zoey barely had to participate in those beyond being the one getting poked, prodded, and swabbed. Those memories were the fuzziest, the ones where she couldn’t be sure which were real, and which weren’t. And to be honest, she didn’t really care all that much. The only memory that she was sure was real was when she came to in the middle of Seri collecting a semen sample from her. It was more a hazy blur of sensation and sound than anything distinct, but it was one of the few memories of that period that had been vivid enough to really stick with her as time went on.
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[1] Despite what your roommate claimed before chugging their 9th Monster.
[2] No word on whether they are ever joined by a bowl of petunias.
[3] Certainly not a lifestyle where for the type of person who likes to hit the ‘snooze’ button.
[4] As it turns out, once society has evolved past the point where sentient brains no longer need to constantly worry about becoming someone else’s lunch, they generally seem to agree on the idea that only about two thirds of life is really worth experiencing anyway, so you may as well spend the rest of the time tidying up.
[5] In all fairness, this did only happen once, when the great elder Durok decided to settle down across the great plains of Urt, claiming he was just going to “rest his eyes for a bit”. As he slept, a nearby race of tiny rodent-like creatures known as the Marnid emerged from their burrows one morning to find a rather substantial rearrangement of the local geography. The resulting evolutionary pressure was just push they needed to grab evolution by its bootstraps and finally make their mothers proud by growing into full sentience.
As their civilization grew, they ascended to the highest peak of the new mountain range where they built Culthotep, the grand City of Clouds to exemplify their mastery over the world around them and their ascent into the heavens. In this city, their culture flourished, developing into a beautiful utopia the likes of which had never been seen before. They created breathtaking works of art that would humble even the greatest Italian painters. They wrote profound philosophical treatises that would render even the brightest Greek philosophers unable to differentiate between humanity and a plucked chicken. In short, they were set to be the greatest innovators this galaxy had ever seen if only they could survive long enough to reach the stars.
Sadly, this was not to be. The Marnid were driven extinct, their city destroyed and all of their great works lost when, during the grand holy festival honoring of the sun god Darryl, the mountain beneath them rolled over and scratched itself.