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mtxref_ficAuthor's Note: Written for "fic_promptly"'s "Firefly, River, It's always night in space.
Night time. In space, it was always night time, the sky always black, picked out with stars. Constellations that would not be possible on or visible from any planet. She would wile away the long night by putting names to them, starting with Egyptian myth and moving on to Babylonian and Chinese. She wasn't running out of names by any stretch of the imagination, but she tired of it after a while. But she had to keep doing it.
There were beasts out there, under the bed of the stars, growling, hungry. Couldn't sleep, constant dark messed with the circadian rhythm; Simon gave her pills to sleep properly, but she couldn't sleep. Can't sleep when there's beasts out there. No blanket over her head could keep them out. No blanket big enough for the ship. They'd cut the blanket off the bed anyway and tie you up with them. She had to keep putting names to constellations or she'd hear their voices. So much screaming from the raggedy ships with the shredded men, so many orders coming from the solid ships with the buttoned-up men.
Had to keep the ship flying between the two of them, where she couldn't be seen. Let the shredded men unbutton the buttoned-up men, let the button men start to scream and let them shred the shredded men even more and make them scream all the more. Let the monsters fight among themselves and keep the firefly glowing serenely, a moving star among the fixed stars....
Night time. In space, it was always night time, the sky always black, picked out with stars. Constellations that would not be possible on or visible from any planet. She would wile away the long night by putting names to them, starting with Egyptian myth and moving on to Babylonian and Chinese. She wasn't running out of names by any stretch of the imagination, but she tired of it after a while. But she had to keep doing it.
There were beasts out there, under the bed of the stars, growling, hungry. Couldn't sleep, constant dark messed with the circadian rhythm; Simon gave her pills to sleep properly, but she couldn't sleep. Can't sleep when there's beasts out there. No blanket over her head could keep them out. No blanket big enough for the ship. They'd cut the blanket off the bed anyway and tie you up with them. She had to keep putting names to constellations or she'd hear their voices. So much screaming from the raggedy ships with the shredded men, so many orders coming from the solid ships with the buttoned-up men.
Had to keep the ship flying between the two of them, where she couldn't be seen. Let the shredded men unbutton the buttoned-up men, let the button men start to scream and let them shred the shredded men even more and make them scream all the more. Let the monsters fight among themselves and keep the firefly glowing serenely, a moving star among the fixed stars....
