{"id":2823,"date":"2025-10-20T16:13:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2823"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:13:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:13:36","slug":"wanted-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/wanted-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Start your story with the sensation of a breeze brushing against someone\u2019s skin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chill breeze raised goosebumps on Li\u2019s leg that dangled off the side of the bed, free from the constraints of the blanket. Her sleep-addled mind didn\u2019t register why at first, but it jerked her from sleep to an alert wakefulness. She\u2019d thought the \u201cgraveyard\u201d shift, four days between returning traffic to the station, would be a nice chance to relax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She lay without moving, feeling the movement of cold air across the floor. Something about it was wrong. Not just a little odd, but full-on \u201dsound the alarms\u201d wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The silence. The air handlers were in a down cycle, meaning they weren\u2019t responsible for the air movement that had woken her. In addition, the cold air didn\u2019t come from them, so where did it come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li rose from her bed and padded across the sleeping room with bare feet. She grabbed the stun baton that had been propped behind the door since before she\u2019d been assigned to this station. She\u2019d never touched it and had no idea whether it was charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m armed,\u201d she called out. \u201cAnnounce yourself!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only answer was a metallic clink from somewhere down the hall, followed by the sound of hard boots on metal. She wasn\u2019t alone, and whoever was there was walking on the walls or ceiling. Magnetic boots. The carpeted floors would\u2019ve hidden their approach better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li set the baton down only long enough to slip into her coveralls. With one hand she grabbed the baton and rubbed her thumb on the button. With the other, she pulled her telescoping inspection mirror out of its pocket and extended it with a flick of her wrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the three-centimeter mirror close to the floor, she edged closer to the door until she could see the entirety of the hallway by rotating the mirror. To one side, a creature hung from the ceiling, holding a wire noose. The other direction showed three more of them moving with slow, quiet steps toward her door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were tall, thin despite the bulky suits, with four arms and two relatively short legs. Truchian, she realized, and most likely draft dodgers or deserters. They had been losing badly in their war against Arcalla. The one on the ceiling appeared to be struggling to keep itself up and \u201chidden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The air handlers cycled on, warm air rushing through the station. The intruders froze, startled by the sudden noise and wind. Li took advantage of the momentary confusion. She ran across the hallway to the command room and sealed the blast door behind herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She checked the docking ring monitors. They had somehow managed to dock a mid-bulk cargo ship to the innermost docking ring without setting off any alarms or notifications. The ship reported as Arcallan which Li took to mean it was stolen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li hit the emergency override on the console. She locked the docking clamps on the ship and sent out an automated distress call on the emergency FTL comms band. The intruders had gathered around the door, as she saw on the video feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of them pulled out a tool and began cutting through the wall near the blast door to get to the locking mechanism. She didn\u2019t know how long it would take, but she thought they might well have the door opened before any help arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switching through the cameras in the station, she found another half-dozen Truchians, busily looting anything not nailed down. Determined to slow them down, Li sat down at the ring control station. Stopping the rotation would remove gravity, but they had magnetic boots, so that wouldn\u2019t do much. If she sped it up, though\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The station was built to maintain rotation up to two-point-seven Earth gravities for up to forty-eight hours. It hadn\u2019t seemed all that important when she read it in the training manual before taking the \u201cgraveyard\u201d shift, but the information came in handy now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She turned up the spin, the rockets that controlled it ramping up in turn. She felt the lateral acceleration and the increase in centrifugal force pushing her down in the chair. Once the station reached two Earth gravities, Li set it to maintain that level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intruders were all on the floor, struggling to crawl back to their ship. Not that it would do them any good, as the station had the ship locked down tight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li stood in the high gravity. She felt as though she was wrapped in lead. She lifted the baton, which felt far more substantial than it had in the normal three-quarters Earth gravity of the station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReady or not, here I come!\u201d she shouted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Beside the door hung restraints. She grabbed all of them and keyed in the open sequence for the blast door. The blast door swung open and Li stepped out into the hall where the Truchians were still struggling to crawl away. \u201cStop moving. You are under arrest. If you continue to move, you will be hit with the stun baton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They continued to crawl, cursing in a mix of their own language and Trade Common. She repeated her commands in Trade Common, but they didn\u2019t stop. She touched the baton to the nearest and pushed the button. Nothing happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShit!\u201d Li swung the baton down on the Truchian who grunted in pain and stopped moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m stopped! I\u2019m stopped!\u201d he yelled out. He called out something in his own language and the others stopped as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li restrained their hands and feet before making her way to the cargo lockers where the other Truchians were located. Only after all of them were in restraints did she return to the control center and slow the station back down to a standard three-quarters gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of the exhaustion that pushed all the way to her bones, she dragged all eleven of them into the holding pen before allowing herself to collapse back on her bunk. The intruders were all too tired, and too restrained, to fight back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li was almost asleep when the docking notice sounded. She pushed the comm button by her bed. \u201cTaki Station.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is Captain Sievert, Sol Interdiction Unit Seventeen. Request docking at inner ring bay four.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRoger, SIU seventeen. The autodocking sequence will pick you up on approach.\u201d Li got up from the bunk and padded back across the hall to the command center. The intruders had done a fair bit of damage while cutting into the wall. She\u2019d have to write that up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaki Station, we\u2019re docking now. Can you reduce gravity to one-half Earth? We have guests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReducing spin rate.\u201d Li ran on autopilot to slow down the station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She waited for the officers by the holding pen. Three human anti-piracy officers and two Arcallan military police officers approached. \u201cWe were helping these guys track their stolen military transport, and lost sight of it in the area,\u201d Sievert said. \u201cFigured it would probably be our target when we got the automated call. Who was driving?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li turned on the lights in the pen, allowing them to see the tied up Truchians. \u201cThere\u2019s your guys. They were probably going to strip the station once they got me out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the Arcallan officers said something in their own language. Sievert sucked his teeth. \u201cAwkward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d Li asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey want to arrest the Truchians as POWs since they stole a military vessel, but SIU rules say we have to ship any arrestees on Sol stations or in human space to Sol for trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li groaned. \u201cDoes that mean you guys aren\u2019t just going to get them out of here and tow the ship away?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfraid so. This is a crime scene, and about to turn into a political circus.\u201d He turned back to the Arcallans, and they argued for a bit before they turned around and headed back to the interdiction ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOfficer Philby, and that\u2019s Officer Kurtz,\u201d one of the other officers said. She looked around at the silent halls. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be here for a few days. Any place good to eat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. Everything\u2019s closed for three more days. Graveyard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOuch,\u201d Philby said. \u201cWho did you piss off to get this shift?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one,\u201d Li said. \u201cI was hoping to get some solid sleep for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooks like that\u2019s out of the question,\u201d Sievert said. \u201cHow did you manage to get them all wrapped up in their armor?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spun the gravity up to two Earths, and when they wouldn\u2019t stop crawling, I tried to stun them. Guess I should charge this up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t charged?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. Just had to hit \u2019em with it like a club. That did the trick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philby held her hand out, and Li handed her the stun baton. She looked at the bottom, clicked a switch on the bottom, pushed the button and watched the arc from the baton to the wall. \u201cIt\u2019s charged. You just have to turn it on.\u201d With that, she clicked the switch on the bottom again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li took the baton back and looked at the bottom. She felt silly for not knowing how to turn it on  and sighed. \u201cI told you I need sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

prompt: Start your story with the sensation of a breeze brushing against someone\u2019s skin. available at Reedsy A chill breeze raised goosebumps on Li\u2019s leg that dangled off the side of the bed, free from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pxT7i-Jx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}