The all encompassing blur of sleep unexpectedly receded. Something had intruded. Kali registered random flashes of sensory input. Ghastly jawed faces and twitching antennae. Garbled voices. Humidity. Darkness. All about her was the damp, clinging feel of earth. She felt a squirming, writhing sensation in her abdomen. She felt heavy and swollen, and her body felt vast and unyeilding. She panicked, the unfamiliar mass of her body making her feel as if she was sinking through the floor. Then the pain began, intense spasms that tore right through her.

Kali sat bolt upright; a floundering swimmer in the sea of dreams suddenly washed up on the sands of reality. She clawed slowly back up that slick black beach, gasping for air, heart hammering, the vestiges of the nightmare as surf breaking at her heels, surging around her. Despite her air-conditioned quarters the sweat soaked sheets clung to her body. She clutched her stomach, as spasms of pain blazed through her. Then she detected the unpleasant warmth seeping beneath her. She reached down. A smear of thick, dark blood, glistening in the half-light, coated her fingers. A cold rush of shock flooded through her. The sheet below was warm and sticky. She folded back the sheet. A blood stained mass of purple flesh no bigger than her palm met her disbelieving gaze. The foetus had tiny fully formed limbs and recognisable features. It was a girl. Hot tears streamed down her face. It was what they had wanted. They needed children if the colony was to survive. She choked back a sob. She was filled with horror with the thought of the lost baby. Kali struggled against the vestiges of heaviness that contaminated her limbs. She attempted to free herself from the pit of her bed. Maybe the med-techs could save it? She twisted half upright, leaned forwards and dragged herself to the edge of the sleep field. She flailed her arm, desperately reaching for the com-link panel’s emergency button. A wave of dizziness hit her and she felt her senses rushing away from her. She struggled to regain her balance but was too late, plunging awkwardly from the bed to the floor in a dead faint. Blackness rushed in, and the jet back surf swallowed her once again.

Kali peered blearily at the clock, wiping the sleep from her eyes with the back of her hand. A brief moment of panic struck her. Why the hell am I on the floor? Why does everything hurt so much? A stabbing pain came from deep inside her abdomen. She felt half-trapped between awareness and dream. The rushing surge of dizziness slowly faded as the room moved gradually back into focus. She shivered. The room was cold. Her belly ached. She struggled upright, head pounding. A wave of nausea rose into her throat. She staggered to the bathroom, and collapsed into the shower tray. "On" she croaked, between retches. The water jetted down upon her curled up form, the reddened water spiralling into the drain holes of the shower tray. When Kali finally managed to get back into her sleep field, she sat upright, her body wracked with sobs, hugging her knees and rocking gently. She clutched at any rational thoughts that would ensure the unwelcome feelings did not return. Oh my God, she thought, what am I going to tell Krieg? It was four thirty-seven, local time. She didn’t want to wake him at this hour. Those dimly glowing digits anchored her to reality. She wouldn’t be able to see him until after her next shift. However, every time she drifted off into slumber, the invasive sensations that had disturbed her sleep stole back. She jolted awake again. Her mind had been filled with a vision of a little girl walking down a sunny, tree-lined street towards a tall, red brick house from which the smell of her mother’s cooking came. Home? She whispered in incredulity. Jesus Christ, it was her. She was dreaming of her child. Her mother was calling her home for tea. The girl had climbed the steps, and gone inside the house. But instead of a hallway there had been a long dark tunnel, going down into the earth. Kali lay still, waiting for daylight and the start of her next shift. A cold determination had formed in the now empty space inside her. She had to find out what had caused this miscarriage…