In the tangle of limbs he found himself in, there wasnâ€™t much for it but to lay there a moment. Just a little whileâ€¦ â€œIf this is a complaint, Iâ€™d love to see approval.â€ He hadnâ€™t meant to say that at all.<br/><br/>It was like the chimp had asked, wasnâ€™t it? Humans did need to fill up space. Quen had lied to it, told it that the reason humans spread out and built such grand civilizations was so they wouldnâ€™t be so easily extinct. But a computer wouldnâ€™t have understood. The chimp had meant physical space, but it wasnâ€™t that at all. He didnâ€™t think so anyway. It was about an emotional response.<br/><br/>Heâ€™d turned off the chimpâ€™s simulated emotions a long time ago. Even if he hadnâ€™t, even if heâ€™d given it a female voice and a femaleâ€™s pet name like some of the others, it wouldnâ€™t have been the same, would it? Of course not. It would have never responded to him likeâ€¦ well, like Zilah for one. There was another point in her favor; she wasnâ€™t broken and she didnâ€™t act like a computer.<br/><br/>Hardly a ringing endorsement though.<br/><br/>Quen didnâ€™t have such an easy time falling asleep. When he heard her breathing even out, he started to lift her arm, thinking instead to shower. It would help, maybe. He paused, fingers laced into hers and couldnâ€™t bring himself to get up. It wasâ€¦ at another time, in another place, with another person, he might have called it nice. He wasnâ€™t entirely sure what to make of it now. Zilah was prettier when she was quiet.<br/><br/>And when he did finally sleep, it was plagued by one single nightmare, repeating.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">He woke up alone, in complete silence. Not even the regular hum of the oxygen scrubbers in the background. That in itself was frightening. When he called for the chimp, there was no answer. The deep silence echoed back at him. No Zilah either. No sign that anyone had been on the ship at all. Nothing worked. The illumination went out, turning the corridor slowly grey, then black. Stars specked the void outside, but nothing else. He tried to scream when he realized how absolutely alone he was, but nothing came out. The ice came then, freezing the sound utterly.</span><br/><br/>Every time it woke him and every time he was more relieved than he thought he should have been to see that Zilah was still sleeping against his chest. The fourth time he opened his eyes in a cold sweat he gave it up completely. Quen knew what was bothering him; heâ€™d put off fixing that hole for too long, heâ€™d turned off â€“ broken entirely â€“ the only company heâ€™d had for months. One of those could be solved.<br/><br/>Quietly as he could manage, he unwound himself from Zilah, showered, and pulled the suit back on over his underclothes. â€œTime, chimpâ€¦â€ Oh, right. What happened to his watch? Without the chimp thatâ€™s all that expensive thing was now anyway.