Challenge #02508-F318: An Asynchronous Encounter in Ships' Night
You ever fall asleep on the couch only to wake up in your own bed? Ever fall asleep in your bed and wake up realizing you're standing in your living room? Sleepwalking can be from stress, it can be from night-terrors, it can be from many things. When they hired their young warrior / linguist, they didn't realize he sleepwalks. It wasn't in the file, after all, and this was the youth's first assignment. Though they would find him asleep in the oddest places. His kitchen, standing up as if looking out the window, sometimes wandering down the hall, until someone turned him back toward his quarters. When awake, though often tired, his skills were very much the high quality they'd hoped for, patient, soft-spoken, and yet strong. But these poor havenworlders had to deal with a sleepwalker, what in Power's name were they to do? -- Anon Guest
"Human Wyn... these are your scheduled rest hours, are you having a problem?" Shrui asked. Ze had never seen Human Wyn so unprepared for duty, in fact the Human was dressed only in hir Skins, and barefoot with it.
"I've come seeking the crystal of enclave," said Human Wyn. There was something strange about the way ze said it. "I have been through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. I have fought untold foes... I have endured decades of pain. It is my right."
Shrui attempted to process this information from what ze knew of Human Wyn's file. "You have given your age as seventeen. You can't have endured decades, and your health profile was High Green with no problems..."
Human Wyn said, "Time is relative in the fortieth dimension."
"Wait. What?"
Human Wyn snorted, blinked, stumbled in hir place and said, "What? Aw shiiit... Have I done it again?"
Shrui was more than confused. "I do not understand how this conversation has proceeded," ze said, getting hir facts straight from this new beginning. "You were speaking of a crystal, and a fortieth dimension?"
"Yeah, that was a weird dream." Human Wyn scrubbed hir eyes. "Bad news for you little fluffies, I get Night Terrors. That means I can move around and talk even when I shouldn't be. The good news is that my shipment of an adult-size sleep sack will be arriving at our next port in a couple of days."
Ah. This must be a crazed Human thing. One of the many, many misfires that seemed to go along with everything else about them. "And how often do these 'Night Terrors' occur for you?"
"That's... the bad news..."
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / iofoto]
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Send me a prompt [57 remaining prompts!]
Something like that isn't considered a medical condition with treatment plans/instructions for what one is to do when encountering them in the somnambulent state?
In their favour, it's a rare condition and doesn't pop up in Spacers very frequently. One of those things that gets left out of the Human Manual because its mention causes too much panic.
As you might guess, the Human Manual is frequently revised and this story happens in the relatively early days of Human integration into Galactic Society.