Dream? Nightmare?

I have got to get more sleep -- otherwise things like this happen when I sit down to write:



It's Too Early For This
When I walked into the control room, John M----, the Star Pilot for this Jump, had a steaming mug sitting on the console in front of him and was methodically dunking what I took to be a teabag. It didn't seem to have a tag on the end of the string but the sodden lump on the other end of the string was about the right size and color.

The Jump Co-ordinator and Preset Tech were staring at him in horror, their eyes following each slow dunk as if hypnotized.

John lifted the teabag a little higher and it twisted at the end of the string, suddenly no teabag at all, curling up towards his hand to reveal bright, mad-looking eyes and a tiny mouth filled with sharp teeth. "Oh, no you don't" he exclaimed, hastily returning it to the hot water. He looked over at the producer. "There's nothing like the smell of a wet mouse in the morning," he said, as if that were explanation enough.

Lifting the creature back out of the mug, he gave it a narrow look. "That ought to learn you," he told it. "Now stay...out...of...my...lunch!" On the last word, he flipped it toward the door, narrowly missing me. It landed in the hallway, bounced once, and tore off down the hall like -- well, like a mouse who'd just been waterboarded and wanted to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible.

And people wonder why I avoid the early shift!


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It's only a nightmare. The mouse problem in the Tech Core has never been that bad.

Plus, you can't have open containers in the Jump Bridge, especially not when Lupine is bumping her way in and out of normal spacetime.