Muscle memory, we do things so often our body remembers how - even though we don't think about it. Most common is dance moves, and the slap that turns off the morning alarm. Then there are the reach in the dark for tablets or weapons. Go with it and see where the Idea takes yo. -- Knitnan
Human Sar could arrive at a trouble site in their full livesuit before ze completely woke up. Hir successive companions would learn that Sar's livesuit was programmed to give directions and deliver stims as a fine mist to hir mouth. It would continue to do so and play an alarm until Sar actually woke up.
It took a much, much longer time for Sar's companions to learn why. Sar was the quiet type and didn't like talking about hir past. It took more than a little while to get hir to open up, and Sar tended to change postings frequently. Ze preferred it that way.
Thusly, it was only when the Twitching Feeler was on an extended tour that Sar opened up to Companion Gorx. It had taken a little over a year of companionship to get that far. They had just survived defending from an angry beast that had mistakenly believed they were messing with its young. "Smallest mama bear ever," said Sar. Ze had been asleep when the attack began. They were walking off the stims and the stress, now. "That was a thing to wake up to."
Like most of the Ships Human's expressions, this one was slightly nebulous in its meaning. It was certainly a tautology, but there was a hint of deeper expression within the words. "I am not certain I understand. Were you not awake by the time you defended us?"
"Not until I had a face full of mouth," said Sar. "Been there before. Never nice. Bloody army training, I swear to the Powers."
This was the first glimpse of backstory that Companion Gorx had heard since they had met. "Which armed forces were you with?"
"UFTP Vorax Response Initiative. That was one hell of a time. The alert went off, you got up and into your livesuit whether you were awake or not. Or you died."
Gorx boggled at their Human. "Obviously you survived, but... How?"
Sar tapped hir suit, where the ROM program unit was. "Ingrained habits and preventative programming. Spent two weeks in safety training myself to get up and into my livesuit. I'm a very sound sleeper."
"Evidently."
"I also had an implant to give me a degree of somnambulism. It helped then. Still helps now."
Gorx had to look up somnambulism. Walking and doing simple tasks even while sound asleep. That was... alarming. A Deathworlder malfunction of mind and body that must have been a survival trait at some point, but had since become debatable. Humans had a knack for finding uses for what they would otherwise view as "an embuggerance." This made it difficult to tell what was a survival mechanism or something turned to subsequent use. "You never find it... dangerous?"
"Less dangerous than letting you die. I do have a kind of reflex to jump into my livesuit whenever I hear an alarm. Even when I'm wearing it. It's why I do that little two-step when the fire alert goes off in the kitchen."
"I thought it might have been a trained response. I did not say anything. Humans do not like feeling like they are being mocked."
"Thanks. Yeah, it's.... well, even if I do walk out of an airlock, at least I'm in my livesuit first. There's a subset of alerts to help if that happens. Good news, it hasn't triggered yet."
The implied bad news was that it still could. "So if I catch you sleepwalking?"
"Play an alarm. Odds evens, I'll get enough stims to actually wake up. Then you have to tell me I'm safe. Then it's all hot tea and walking until it all wears off."
Just like they were walking now. "Does it stress you? Waking up in the middle of an emergency?"
Sar scanned the horizon, still twitchy and on guard thanks to the stims. "It used to. These days? It's more of the same old..." That was all ze wanted to say about it, since Human Sar turned around and said, "We should get back to camp."
It would be three more months before Human Sar revealed anything more about hir history. Considering the inherent horror involved in all of it, Companion Gorx was glad of the chance to rest.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / jonnysek]
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