Eternity in a Bottle

A fanfic by: Berk Watkins

Sol Bianca is the property of AIC.

#include disclaimer.h


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Feb's drunk again, I caught a snap of it as I was jolted out of my
sleep.  She sings pretty well when she's plastered, but it's a jarring
effect on me, since I live in the apartments next to her's.  I've never
ben able to quite puzzle out why hearing something like that twice can
shock me out of a sound, physical sleep quite that easily.  It was never
something predicted when I agreed to this little experiment...  How long
ago was it now?

I can't even remember.

They say the first thing to go's your memory.

It took a moment longer to sort out my senses.  In one eye I could see
the swirling of hyperspace around me as I swam through it like a fish,
and with the other I could se the gloom of my apartments.  I could smell
both the afterbirth of long-dead stars and the scent of clean cotton at
the same time.

That's another thing I hate.

But I've gotten used to it.

Three decks down and quite a few meters aft my cerebellum finally got
the whole matter sorted out and woke up my somewhat dumber twin to take
over the menial tasks of being a starship, allowing me to get up and
walk around, through the wonders of whatever they crammed into my skull
to let me perform this minor miracle.  Not even I understand all the
principles behind the trick anymore, the mechanics of the subspace
linkage was someone else's department.

I'm gonna have to do some research one of these days in case something
breaks down and my reptile brain and my higher brain stop talking to one
another across the separate containers they reside in.

There wasn't going to be any more sleep for me that night.  By the time
I'd managed to figure out which set of senses I was supposed to be
using, Feb had degenerated from being mildly drunk to being roaring
drunk.  Her little tune, which was a little too bawdy for my tastes, was
slipping further and further off key.

Girl needs to get a boyfriend.

Or at least laid.

Something to get her quiet at night.

Some people who know about me and my history might marvel that I
actually enjoy getting a lot of sleep.  After all, I've spent the larger
part of the decline of human civilization snoozing away in a cryogenics
pod about ten meters divorced from the upper section of my brain.

I'll figure out what they did with my heart one of these days.

Anyway.  I digress.

I don't consider myself having caught up on my sleep for the next few
hundred years.  I like to think of it as a hobby of mine.  May collects
stuffed animals, April collects guns, Jani collects extra pounds of
muscle and Feb collects liver cells that want to kill her.

Me?  I collect sleep.

Lots of it.

I'm very good at it too.

Dead on my feet, but too rattled to really get anymore rest, I wandered
out of my quarters after shrugging on a robe and wandered down towards
the common area.  The waterfall was always a soothing thing and, who
knew?  Maybe it might lull me back to sleep.  I knew it must've been
around five in the morning at that point, because between the time I
wandered through the common area and into the galley, and back with a
glass of warm milk, Jani had decided to make her scheduled appearance
for her gods-its-too-early-for-anyone-to-be-doing-this morning jog.

I kinda feel sorry for her.

I've offered to turn the gravity up higher in her quarters so she won't
start getting sickly from being away from her homeworld, but she's
adamant about the nearly constant exercise and constant dietary
supplements.

I guess she considers it cheating.

I managed a grunt as she nodded to me and took off for her circuit of
the Core room. It was as regular as clockwork, really.  She would go
around that room a hundred times before she stopped for stretches.  And
then she'd start wandering the corridors in a pattern that'd taken me a
year to sort out.  The price of pushing the genome a little farther than
it was meant to go, I guess.

I closed my eyes as I sipped and looked at the Core room through G's
eyes as Jani arrived, about five seconds ahead of schedule, and started
on her run.  She'd taken a wound to her abdomen in that mess back over
Earth a month before and had been taking it a little easy until it
healed.  I supposed that she was probably testing herself to see wether
or not she could take the strain again.

And then I drifted back towards my own eyes and the sound of falling
water.  This room had been my idea, back when she was under
construction.  Originally there was going to be a big, dull holographic
display over on the far side of the room, where the grand stairs from
the forward decks come down to meet the residential section.  It took a
little persuasion... but I got my water projection holograph.

A moment later I realized that I wasn't alone; May has developed a
talent for appearing out of nowhere, or coming up when my perceptions
are trained elsewhere.  "Can't sleep, Honey?" I heard myself ask aloud,
thankful I'd taken a sip before I checked on Jani.

The most recent addition to our crew just nodded once and wandered over
to the couch and sat down next to me.  We've had this arrangement as
long as she's been on board.  I guess that out of the rest of them, I'm
the most approachable.  Jani's a little younger than I am, but I think
she scares the poor thing a little.

She was a little scared of me when she finally found out why I fell
over, comatose when those bastards in Terra Force hacked G.  I'm glad
she got over it, though.

I kinda like our arrangement.

She reminds me a little of my kid sister, from when I was growing up.

On our last raid, May fell in love with the largest stuffed bear I've
seen in years, tucked away in a packing crate destined for some spoilt
little monster's birthday party and declared that she was going to adopt
the poor animal before it was shipped out to someone who had more than
enough toys already.  He'd taken up a place of honor in her collection
and she was rarely seen without him when she was asleep, half asleep or
just waking up.

That night was no exception.

So I, my glass of milk which was rapidly assuming room temperature, May
and that bear the size of a large dog wound up on the couch together,
cuddled up and chatting quietly, so as not to disturb the wailing she-
witch down the hall as she worshiped her bottle of wine.  She hasn't had
the most restful nights since we left Earth, but she's been sleeping
longer and better every night since then.  I guess she's getting used to
the pirate lifestyle; gotta love a kid's adaptability.

It didn't really take that long for her to nod off and go back to sleep,
though it left me in a slightly awkward position with regards to my
drink.  Surrendering it to become spoilt, I rested it carefully on the
coffee table in the middle of the lowered section where the couches were
circled, and pulled a folded up blanket off of the back of the couch we
were on.  Throwing that over her, I rested my head back on the back of
the couch and closed my eyes, listening to her breathing slowly.  I was
rather shocked when I found my senses had completely withdrawn from my
body and back into that limbo state halfway between merging with G and
being separate.  Deciding that G could handle just about anything that
came up long enough for me to wake up properly, I withdraw contact from
G completely and went about the process of shutting myself down the rest
of the way.

I might be missing several major organs and have the upper part of my
brain living in a transparent aluminum jar in the central computer, but
even I need my beauty rest.  Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I can even manage
to catch a dream.

Or some echo of one.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Writer's Afterward...

Hmm.  What an odd note to break silence on.  Just my way of letting
those who might remember who I am that I'm writing again.  Don't expect
any 'Zodiac Grand Tour' stories, or anything ELSE with some of my old
characters in them.  I'm just going where the wind takes me for the time
being.

'Nuff said.

                                                          ~ Berk Watkins
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'