It was embarrasing. We had firechasies loose on the ship. One or two were annoying. They liked to toy with people, maybe singe hair. They were psychic, and imbued people with a little fear. They thought it was funny.

But this was maybe 40 or 50. The richies who rented the ship thought it would be good fun, but of course, the chasies got loose. This was a real hazard. We would have to vent the ship.

But did we? Were we just playing into their silly littly game? How long could people last with the cabins purged, Could we cram everyone somewhere safe and keep the chasies out?

I went to the cockpit, and looked out the window. Beautiful. We were low over a thick dust ring around a gas giant. Anyway, back to the plan.

I needed to make sure that others were safe if we lost control of the ship. Only one ship nearby.

“Pegasus, how many on board?”

“Pegasus Crew Transport, 51 souls on board.”

I could see them now. They looked like a lolipop with two long pontoons. Reminded me of the Precursor ship on Star Control.

They were moving fast, lower against the dust rings. They had to be hitting pebbles, but they were gone in less than a minute.

OK. We have 3 minutes of venting. Any longer, and we won’t have enough air left. Hope we can get all of the chasies out.

I feel a twinge of guilt. They’re sentient. Not overtly evil. Some people even keep one as a pet. But there’s no other choice.

And then I woke up.

I don’t always remember dreams. Sometimes not as much detail, but sometimes very elaborate, multiple scenes, etc. Usually not vibrant, like me visualizing or remembering when awake. Usually happens when waking, and usually gone if I go back to sleep. I remembered more when I was younger. Probably because I had untreated sleep apnea in my 20s. (UPPP/Tonsilectomy did wonders for sleep quality.)

I have others in text files, livejournal, wordpress, facebook, reddit.