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Sleep is an odd thing for humans. It does not seem restful at all. How can a human get any rest at all while moving and making so much noise?
Grace is currently sleeping on the soft pad they’d dragged into our tunnel, curled up under the thick fabric covering. The Good Luck quilt, they’d called it. Their eyelids are covering their ever-moving eyes. Even in sleep there is the sound of frantic movement just under that thin fleshy covering. They’d said it was ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ sleep or whatever. No wonder humans have to eat so frequently. Rather inefficient use of energy if you ask me.
While I watch Grace sleep, I work. Right now it’s less of actual projects and more of making models. We’re working on creating a model of the Tau Ceti system so we can communicate through the language barrier we’re both struggling with. At least Grace figured out how to get the thinking machine to make sounds now.
Having spent so long in zero-g, I somehow neglect the fact that we have the centrifuge creating artificial gravity. Mostly for Grace’s benefit. I did not forget!! Eridians don’t forget! I’m just preoccupied! I place my xenonite weaver in the air next to the in-progress model of one of the planets in this system, fully expecting it to stay floating there as it has been doing since before I met this weird alien. The tool slips from my grasp and lands solidly on the floor of the xenonite tunnel, producing a loud clang that reverberates through me, my ship, and the human ship. I can hear both ships all at once. But that’s fine. That’s normal for me.
What’s not normal is how Grace wakes up.
Their heart rate jumps to a rate I’d only heard when they’d first entered our tunnel. When they’d been anxious about our meeting. It had quickly settled down when we’d begun to interact as scientific curiosity took hold. But this was frantic. And loud.
Their body jolts upright, almost hitting the xenonite ledge above their sleep nest. I hear the ends of the hair on top of their head brush the panels. Their long legs kick off the quilt and they pull themself into a sitting position. They tilt their face toward me, where I’m frozen with the weaver still lying on the floor. The intensity of their heartbeat brings their face and body into full focus for me. Their eyes are wide and searching until they land on me. Somehow my presence begins to slow the loud thumping of their heart. They place one of their hands on their chest and take a few deep breaths.
“Jeez, Rocky, you scared me,” they say.
“Apology apology,” I chirp. The translator on the human thinking machine echoes out my purposefully simplified speech. “Drop tool. Loud noise.”
Grace bobs their head in affirmation, taking a shaky breath. “Yeah, very loud noise. That woke me up real fast.” They rub the heels of their hands into their eyes. Both their heart rate and breathing appear to have returned to their normal frequencies.
I step closer to the xenonite barrier, abandoning the project I’d been working on in favor of curiosity. I’d never been as interested in biology as Adrian. They were enamored with the inner workings of our biological systems. Sometimes, they’d confide in me about the thoughts they had regarding life on other planets that they wouldn’t share in the thrum. What would that look like? How would they behave? Would they look like us? I can’t wait to tell them once Grace and I figure out this star-dimming problem and we can go home.
“Always hear in sleep, question,” I ask with two taps of a claw against the tunnel floor.
Tiredly, they reach for the quilt and pull it back over their body as they settle back onto the pad. They lazily blink their eyes as if struggling to keep them open. “Yep. If we can hear something big coming, we can wake up and get out of there. Evolutionary thing, I guess.”
Oh. No wonder Grace had been so confused when I first suggested we watch each other sleep. Even in sleep, humans aren't immune to outside stimuli. Sound, touch, temperature. Is that why Grace sleeps with the quilt too? Their atmosphere is so cold compared to mine. Eridian sleep must look as strange to them as their sleep does to me. Adrian is going to love hearing about this!
“Rocky make sure not drop,” I trill, settling in close to the barrier. I tuck my legs under my carapace. “No loud noise.”
Grace’s mouth opens wide as they inhale deeply. A yawn. “Thanks, Rock. Good night. Oh, and remind me to tell you about sleep paralysis when I wake up. Saw the Hat Man last time I had it.”
The what?