Sunrise was still hours away and the dark gray light from the waxing moon poured in through the window and pooled around the small chessboard on the table. Kaysee sat there, staring at the pieces and occasionally making a move, first for one side, then the other. Her pajamas were rumpled and the bed behind her was disheveled, evidence of her failure to fall asleep. A soft blanket hung around her shoulders to keep her warm. The room itself was small, perhaps ten feet long on each side. The bed, table, and solitary chair made up the only furniture in the room. A small stack of folded clothes sat in a shallow bin beside the bed.

“Kaysee,” a bored voice spoke from some unseen source, “you should be sleeping.”

“I can’t sleep,” Kaysee replied without looking up from her game of chess.

There was a brief pause, followed by a soft, slightly metallic sucking sound and a panel in the wall beside the table opened up. Inside was a glass of water and a small plastic dish containing a couple of pills.

“Take these,” the voice droned, “and go to bed.”

Kaysee removed the glass and the pills from the wall panel but just set them aside.

“I want to finish my game first,” Kaysee said.

“Need I remind you that any breach in contract will result in your immediate termination?” The voice was growing more agitated.

“Technically,” Kaysee began, still not taking her attention away from her game, “my contract doesn’t start until tomorrow morning at eight o’clock when I report for assignment.”

“You’re reporting for assignment today, technically,” came the replay.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kaysee waved a dismissive hand at the disembodied voice. “I’m almost done and then I’ll go to bed.”

She began to move the pieces faster, as though seeing some pattern or knowing some predetermined order to the moves. Even still, the game went on and the minutes ticked by.

“Why do you do this?” The voice interrupted suddenly, shaking Kaysee out of the flow of her game and she paused, mid-move.

“Do what?”

“Play chess by yourself! I’ve never seen you play with anyone else.”

Kaysee finished playing the piece she was holding before finally looking around her room.

“You’re kind of creepy sometimes, you know?” She said.

“Don’t think you’re special,” the voice told her, “it’s my job to watch everyone here.”

“And do you talk to them as well?”

“Only when I need to.”

There was another pause while Kaysee studied the game board. Her eyes were itchy from lack of sleep and it was becoming difficult to bring the pieces into focus. She rubbed her eyes, yawned, and stretched. She’d been building up to something in the game but now her strategy was forgotten and she was trying to remember what it had been.

“You can checkmate white,” the voice said suddenly and Kaysee sat bolt upright, unable to believe that such a move had escaped her notice. “Move the king side bishop—

“Stop!” Kaysee cried out. “This is my game!”

It was too late, however. She’d seen the move the voice was talking about and the fact that she hadn’t seen it upset her. There was no point in arguing over it though and she made the move, tipping over the white king in defeat.

“Now go to bed,” the voice said with finality.

Kaysee tossed the pills to the back of her throat and downed them with a gulp of water. They’d still take time to take effect but she climbed back into bed to wait for sleep to come to her. Behind her eyelids she could almost see outline of a massive ship, slowly turning in space. Before long, that would be her home.

She turned over onto her left side but it was no better than her right. After a few more minutes she tried lying on her back, and then her front. Nothing was comfortable and all she could think about was that ship.

“You’re still not asleep,” the voice observed after what felt like an eternity to Kaysee.

“I took the pills, I’m in bed,” Kaysee said, “what more do you want from me?”

“You’ve never exhibited difficulty sleeping before,” the voice said.

“Well, I’m not doing it on purpose.”

“No, I didn’t think you were,” the voice replied and there was, perhaps, a bit of humor in it this time. “Some individuals find it difficult to sleep while anticipating certain events. While this is not unusual, it could interfere with your ability to perform your duties. Would listening to some music help?”

“I don’t think so,” Kaysee said. “I just keep seeing the ship whenever I close my eyes.”

“Are you afraid?” the voice asked.

“No,” Kaysee said, honestly, “It’s just…it’s a big change, you know?”

“Certainly there will be adjustments,” the voice agreed, “but most people report their surprise at how mundane life is up there. You get up, get ready for the day, go to work, go home, go to sleep, and then repeat it all again the next day, and the next, and the next, until your contract is up.”

“But the views must be amazing,” Kaysee said and she recalled the poster that had first grabbed her attention and led her to applying for the job. “Being surrounded by space, seeing all new constellations.”

“The views are unique,” the voice agreed, “but given time they become commonplace.”

“How could anyone get use to that?”

“You were amazed by this facility when you first arrived and began your training,” the voice said, “and yet now you accept such things as normal and unimpressive.”

Kaysee mused on that for some time. The voice was right. When she’d first arrived, everything had seemed to amazing and wonderful. The wall panels that delivered everything from pills to pillows had been a particular favorite of hers. Yet, just this night she’d barely thought twice when she’d been sent the sleeping pills. She hoped the voice was wrong. Space travel couldn’t become commonplace, could it? Sure the daily work may not be exciting, but she couldn’t help but think of the mariners from history who sailed across uncharted oceans and their own sense of wonder and exploration.

“Have you ever been up there?” Kaysee asked the voice.

“You should be asleep.”

“You’re the one who started this conversation,” Kaysee retorted.

The voice was quiet for a moment before answering.

“I am up there,” it said finally.

“What’s it like?” Kaysee asked.

“It’s…it’s hard for me to explain. There is no weather here, obviously, and so there are never cloudy days, but neither are there blue skies. Just an endless black, with stars scattered like salt on a dark sheet. The sun is glaring but the windows filter out so much of the UV that you never feel any heat from it. And even though you can see the sun practically all the time, it never feels like it’s day because what we think of as the night sky is so dominant. People on the ground talk about their last night on Earth before coming up here, but really, this is just a continuation of that last night.”

Kaysee lay there in bed, stunned for some time. She’d never heard the voice speak so candidly before.

“Do you regret going up there?” She asked.

“No,” came its immediate response. “Now go to sleep.”

Kaysee shut her eyes again and this time instead of a ship, she saw only blackness and she felt herself fall gently into it as sleep finally took her, In her last moments of consciousness she wondered if she, like the voice, would come to see space with such mundanity or if she would find a way to keep her sense of awe. She’d just have to wait and see.