Resting my head on folded arms I tucked my chin in deep to my chest and by straining my antenna a bit I could just see the stars outside the tiny port
hole from where I was sitting across the room.
I wondered if I’d ever see anything out there besides stars.
Like the other Ship we were supposed to be nearing, or planet Earth beckoning me for a visit.
Right now, all I saw was an eternity of waiting, light years of waiting.
Complacency had changed the view I’d first found so dazzling and full of possibilities into nothing more than empty promises.
Just endless blackness with tiny lights twinkling a facade.
I was beginning to view this whole *part of the crew* business as not quite the thing at all.
I had my Friend Carpet, I told myself. But I was growing tired of the awkward sit - half in and out of my door - if I wanted to talk to him, and even
then I never could relax, my antenna constantly on guard patrolling the corridors so as not to be surprised by a Regalian.
Staring without really seeing I continued my list of complaints, the window to my room and the stars beyond quite forgotten.
The food was great - but I missed my pretzels.
My new clothes, I loved the way mine looked - as long as they were hanging up, the wearing of them I despised.
My boots were nothing less than torture devices and while in my room they stayed flopped at right angles in the corner, not on my feet.
My Ships headband was irritating to wear, it itched to no end and every time it sounded off the buzz always startled me sending whatever was in my
hands flying to the four corners of the cabin.
And the room? Ugh. The whole cleaning thing was a galactic drag. Who’d a thought the price tag for security in having my own room would mean
I’d have to clean it.
As for my sleeping platform, sure, I didn’t have to wonder each day where I’d go to ground that evening, but how horrid was that, tucking into the
same bed each night.
But all in all what I couldn’t bare was the eternal brain numbing energy draining stuck-in-a-rut waiting.
I shuddered.
It was turning me peevish and churlish and into a whiner.
Focusing my eyes I caught sight of an errant nut that had rolled far under my sleeping platform.
Anything for a diversion I sunk out of my chair onto my hands and knees to crawl to the plastiscine palette.
My arms, not as long as Regalians (and for that I gave thanks) were still well proportioned to my body, but too short to reach to the farthest corner
where the nut lingered just out of my grasp.
Wiggling my way under the sleeping platform I snatched the kernel and half propped on my elbows eyed it critically.
It looked ok, though a little dusty, but after brushing it off on my sleeve I had to admit, it looked good as new.
Squeezing it open with a deft *pop* I held the husk to my lips and wrangled the nut out of it’s shell with my tongue.
Whether my headband sounding off or the door to my room opening and someone calling my name caused me to bang my head on the pallet above me, it
really didn‘t matter.
What mattered was I gasped and sucked the nut deep into my throat where it lodged painfully.
I choked. Then panicked. Badly.
In a deep physical distress I couldn’t morph, just another failing of my make up I despised.
Morphing would have solved the choking problem and allowed me to escape whoever was attached to the shiny black boots making their way from the door
to the sleeping platform I was stuck under.
“Hey, Attendant Silo, you in here?” A muffled voice came from above me.
The boots came closer, so close I could see my face in their reflection, my mouth gasping fishlike, my eyes bulging.
“ATS Silo?”
I could hear the question in the voice and tried to respond, but couldn’t.
Not a gasp, not a wheeze, not a peep was going to squeak past the nut, no air exchange at all.
Frantic my mind spun, bright white stars blurred my vision, my lungs seized, my body bucked.
The pressure in my head increased, now blinding me.
"Carpet," I screamed, my heart busting in my chest it's galloping beat breaking stride, skidding to a tripping stop.
The fight to remain cognizant was lost, the lack of air too much to overcome.
My body gave in, the pendant near my center shuddered and I fell into a blackness devoid of stars.
Edit by request of author
[edit on 9/5/09 by masqua]