Sleep Deprivation

[rosetto 0]

Sal stared out into the vast emptiness of the space ahead as he waited Joe's next moved. His thoughts were elsewhere which was hard to believe considering the given situation of Raiders, but with Sal, he worked better under pressure. He always had. It was something that he just couldn't explain but he was always thinking of nine things at once. The current thought that was bothering him was the night before; what had caused him to oversleep; what he had read in the Zoalus' documents from the first expedition. He still could not determine whether he had been awake or asleep. His mind was mush and he didn't know what to believe. All he knew was that he had to get back to his tablet. He felt like a fugue.

 

 

 

A fugue? What the hell was a fugue? He searched his memory for references. The term was almost as alien as this script that he had been deciphering. It was back on the El Paso; where he'd first heard the term. He had not been sleeping well and went to see the doctor on duty. She described it as "a disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed".

 

 

 

He recalled the events prior to his panicked awakening where he had rushed to the bridge to find QoB under attack by raiders. It was a struggle but he forced himself to remember the moments.

 

 

 

Sal found his head lying on the tablet. He had a scribe in hand but he couldn't remember exactly what he was working on. He slowly regained consciousness and rose and looked around the room. It was dark except for the study lamps receded under the upper storage cabinet above his desk. His half empty glass of tea sat on the back shelf and the tablet had gone into stand-by mode. Sal had no concept of the current time nor did he want to know. Something had wakened him and he scanned the room to find what.

 

 

 

The green ready light was flashing on his other tablet but Sal didn't see it right away. He shuffled some papers and looked on the QoB-net via his console logon. He had no messages, not that he'd expected any. The last message that he'd sent home included the caveat of 'will be out of contact for several weeks'. But he thought that perhaps Joia had overlooked this. It wasn't uncommon, but he'd hoped that Harry would have reminded her nonetheless. There were no new messages and so he concluded that the net had not caused him to awake.

 

 

 

Then he saw the other tablet with its ready light beckoning his attention. He pushed some papers out of the way and pulled it closer. It sprang to life. As the display filled Sal slowly recalled instructing the tablet to analyze the differences between the "Selek" vowels and the "West" vowels. The result included several references to the way one constructs their mouth and/or moves it when uttering the defined sounds. It would seem that Dr. West had used a visual methodology in her assignments and having never spoken or heard the language there would be no other method that would have been better. Any method chosen would have been equally good.

 

 

 

It was coming back to him now. Why then did the "Selek" vowels not work on the diagram? He tried the "Selek" vowels on another passage recovered by the first expedition:

 

 

 

"When there was in the beginning a man's advent into the plane known as Koal, it became a living soul, amenable to the laws that govern the plane itself as presented, the son of man entered the plane as the first man. Hence it was the son of the first cause making manifest in a material body.

 

 

 

This is not the first spiritual influence, spiritual body, spiritual manifestation on the planet, but the first man – flesh and blood; the first carnal house, the first amenable body to the laws of the plane in its position in the universe."

 

 

 

This definitely wasn't a scientific document. They didn't have a resident theologist, not even an amateur one as far as he knew. Perhaps one of the members of the team on the Verbistul had studied the religious sciences. Dr. Phantos had not mentioned it in any of the documents he had sent. He read on.

 

 

 

"Then, though he were the first man, the first son in spirit and in flesh, it became necessary that he fulfill all those associations, those connections that were wiped away in the experience of man that which separates him from his maker.

 

 

 

He, that first consciousness, is that first spoken of the beginning and that first light manifested. First it became physically conscious in this body, the body of first Chial. And as in Chial we all die, so in the last Chial – the savior, becoming the Jeshudah—we are all made alive.

 

 

 

For know that he who was lifted before the crowd when Shelok turned red was also he that first walked among men at the beginning of man's advent into flesh! For he indeed was and is the first Chial, the last Chial; that is the way, the truth, the light!"

 

 

 

Sal had experienced some bizarre beliefs in his travels. It never seemed to amaze him just how many takes there could be on the same theme. His father had been religious, a spiritual man who had spoken to God in his own way. They had lived too far away from town and so as a youth, Sal never attended any church or belonged to any specific organized religion or anything. They had the family Bible, of course. What household on Mars didn’t? Live there, rural life at least was Hellish and brutal and anytime man is faced with such desperate situations he has always turn to God to get him through.

 

 

 

So now Sal was standing over his helm console, hands on the buttons and ready for anything and what was he thinking about…God. Was this one of those desperate times? He didn’t believe so. Although this wasn’t exactly a picnic in the park, Sal was comfortable with the turmoil. Mental multi-tasking was simply Sal’s way of managing the stress levels. Back in Southgate in intense business meetings with suppliers, Sal would always be thinking about Joia’s latest musical piece and the last run of the merlot at the new facility and Harry’s new dress that she had been showing him the night before. This was no different to him.

 

 

 

But the question was, why did the “Selek” vowels work on this document? Sal needed to look at the documents again, all of them. There had to be a reason that some of them translated fine with the “Selek” vowels while others remained gibberish. If he had learned anything in his years it was that all things make sense. There was always a reason that things were the way they were. Nature was simply following its own rules. Sometimes when we first look at things it seems like it is just the opposite, but, never had Sal found this to be true in the end. The laws of nature were an ultimate truth, sure as Sunday.

Edited March 23, 2011 by rosetto