Let's Get To The Bottom Of This?

Posted on Sun Oct 5th, 2025 @ 2:56pm by Captain Kagami Izumi & Lieutenant Commander (Soghla') Thorillo Son of Drej & Lieutenant William Neil & Lieutenant Maki Nishikino 'Bones' & Lieutenant Marina Kelea & Lieutenant (Sogh) Vep Ka of the Empire & Tadao Yoshikawa

1,540 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Midnight
Location: Starbase Frontier

By the time his alarm finally sounded and he hadn't managed to get any sleep, Tadao reluctantly acknowledged that today just wasn't going to be his day.

Staring up miserably at the ceiling of his quarters, Tadao was equal bits stiff, sweaty, itchy, and just about every other adjective his tired brain could think of to describe "uncomfortable." And it wasn't like he was a night owl or anything; he'd endeavored to get to bed early the night prior, so he could come in early and start planning out a new Sonno-themed meal with his chefs. And yet, no matter how hard he tried to force himself asleep, the only thing he even remotely accomplished was an intense itching fit.

As much as he hated to admit it, there was no way he was coming into work like this; he wouldn't even be in the ballpark of thinking correctly, and with his response times no doubt delayed as a consequence of the night prior, he couldn't hope to be as efficient as he usually was. Fortunately, as he was laying there and contemplating calling in, his bedside phone started going off, adding to the cacophony of noise that was already coming from his alarm. With a groan, he reached over, shut the alarm off, and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Uh... Boss?" came the voice of his assistant manager. "I think we've got a little situation down here..."

"It's nothing major, is it?" Tadao yawned. "I didn't get the best sleep last night, so I can't guarantee I'm on top of my-!"

"No, Boss, you don't understand," his assistant manager cut him off. "Literally no one got any sleep last night!"

Tadao's eyes widened. "What?"

---

Kagami literally dragged herself to main operations that morning. The corridors seemed full of people who looked tired and many yawning. Truth to be told she looked like death warned up herself, bags undrr her eyes and she hadnt even tied her hair up. She lifted the cup of coffee to her lips as she stepped into the room.

"Morning..." she yawned. "Is it just me? Or did everyone here sleep badly last night? If at all?" Kagami asked followed by a yawn.

The drowsiness was present but never got to the point where his eyes forced to close. Thor yawned as well, loudly as he stood near Kagami. "I think you mean didn't sleep," he stated and glanced around.

"Or that..." Kagami replied taking another sip of her coffee. "Luckily I'm used to sleepless nights." She added. "Hatsune was a difficult child... still is..." she chuckled to herself.

Thor smiled with the resignation that sleeplessness gave one. "Yes, raising children is a worthy battle. Are there any extra duties that will lessen your burden?"

"I wish," Kagami replied. She tapped her comm badge with her hand. "Izumi to Nishikino, can you come upto Ops for a moment."

An audible groan could be heard on the other end, which was unusual coming from the doctor who was more often than not on top of her game.

=A=I'll be there momentarily,=A= Commander Nishikigi yawned. =A=Just... gimme a few minutes to get some coffee, alright?=A=

Kagami turned to everyone after hearing the doctor. "Ok. Either we are all on edge or something, or there is a reason not one person on this base managed to sleep." She stated. "This is not normal." She paused. "It's not normal us it? I'm not the only one thinking this right?"

"Depends on whether or not you consider an "intense and uncomfortable itching fit that keeps an entire station up" as normal..." one of the Ops officers lamented.

Entering the room Marina stifled a yawn, she’d managed brief cat naps but nothing near a restful sleep, from reports she’d had practically no one was sleeping, which wasn’t a good thing. There was only so much sleep deprivation the body and mind could take. She took a seat waiting to see what would come out of the gathering.

"I haven't felt this tired since Hatsune needed feeding every two hours..." Kagami sighed before letting out a long yawn. "I can see the replicators are going to be making a lot of coffee today."

"You'll have to make your own pots, I claim dibbs on this one."

All heads turned as Doctor Nishikino stepped off the turbolift, her scarlet locks mangy and unkempt, and with dark bags visible under her eyelids. In her hand was entire pot of coffee, the sweet black nectar carried within threatening to spill out as her hand struggled to keep it upright.

"Reporting for duty," she muttered as she made her way over to the center pit. "But don't expect anything labor-intensive out of me today, I'm not exactly up for the task."

"Ok doctor. Let's not beat around the bush. What's going on? Why are we all so bloody exhausted yet can't sleep?" Kagami asked.

"Well, I've got some theories," Maki yawned, pausing momentarily to take a sip directly from the pot. "Unfortunately, given that my brain has the consistency of mush right now, I can't exactly guarantee how reliable my information is going to be..."

“There have been cases of races with psi abilities, such as telepathy, affecting the r.e.m sleep of others. If frequencies of r.e.m. sleep intermix then they can interfere, unfortunately results aren’t good.” Marina stifled a yawn, but still looked more awake than some others. “I didn’t really sleep, but I did manage to cat nap, as the saying goes.”

"Lucky you," Maki grumbled. "All I got for my troubles was an itching fit."

Marina nodded understandingly. "As Doctor Nishikino will tell you, lack of sleep in the short term isn't a huge problem, but over a longer period it could cause a whole host of problems."

"There have been times in the Empire that sleep has been forgone in pursuit of various efforts," Thor commented before another yawn. "That did feel different to this." He gestured to Nishikino. "Doctor, perhaps adjusting our sensors to those frequencies and that may shed some light on this mystery."

"That, of course, is only one possibility," Maki was quick to point out. "We had also floated the possibility that this might be some sort of biological phenomenon that could be causing an overproduction of cortisol."

"Well, make it a top priority." Kagami said. "We need to be at our best."

"What a strange biological trait to have evolved..." Thor commented to no one in particular.

"If it is biological in some way, we should find a way to block its effects." Kagami stated hiding a yawn. "Until then, lets make sure we're all stocked up on coffee."

"Unless there are any other questions, we should get started?" Thor asked those at the table.

"Funny you think we're cognizant enough to be asking questions," Maki mumbled as she threw back another gulp straight from the pot. "And that's a no over here, by the way."

“I think that’s probably a good idea” Marina offered as she stifled a yawn.

William walked into the room and looked around. He sincerely hoped that whatever was affecting the station didn't affect him, or if it did that it would be solved soon. "Not sure I've met any of you yet, but I'm the new Chief of Operations and I am probably the only one who got any sleep recently."

"Lucky you," Maki grumbled, shooting the newcomer the stink-eye.

“Well I did get a few cat naps” Marina grinned at the new arrival. “I’m Marina, Chief Counsellor. Welcome onboard.”

William nodded and sighed. "Guess I deserved that. Hello Marina."

Sitting down at the table, William looked around before back down at his padd. "I've got no questions to start, but I hope to help narrow down some solutions."

"Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Neil," Thor greeted, deciding to ignore the backtalk from Maki.

Her falls preceded the steps of Vep'Ka entering, humming under her breath. Catching Maki and the pot.

"I was going to inquire about anyone with insomnia?" VepKa started. "But I can see I am not the only one knowing how many imperfections are in my ceiling." she moved to a seat; smooth her skirt portion of the uniform as she took a seat. "Just for a question to our Doc'tor. "Is it normal that double doses of sleep aids failed to work last night?"

"For you all to have experienced this," William began as he looked around the table. "Means it was station-wide. The question really is was something keeping you awake or not allowing you to sleep? Same symptom, but two very different problems. And we know that it was contained to the station."

"And it started when our guests arrived," Kagami yawned. "But they seem peaceful, eager to trade. So I don't get it at all..." she rubbed her eyes. "Anyways, let's get to work. Coffee is on the house."

To be continued...

 

RSS Feed