F is for Fish
F is for Fish
by GateGremlyn
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Fish don't sleep. Well, no, that's not entirely true. We sleep. We just don't sleep the way you lumbering, bipedal creatures do. How you live with all those appendages flailing about is beyond me. You all look like distorted starfish. And how come you never move up or down but only side to side? But that's for another time. Fish don't sleep. We hover. We move our fins. We become one with the air. But we don't really sleep. It's great-if you're a fish.
Jonas doesn't sleep either. He's not a fish; he's just a poor bipedal who moves only sideways but never up and down. Actually, that's not true. He moves up and down using his... legs I think they're called... to crawl on rocks and retrieve big square things (books?) to put in front of him. But he doesn't sleep. He puts his head down on another square rock called desk, and he does the most bizarre thing: he loses his eyes. I'm not sure how he does it, but pieces of skin cover up his eyeballs. Yech! Then, minutes later, he's up and moving again. His fins-arms, they're called arms-move constantly. He'd make a good fish.
Sometimes his movement brings him here to our world, and when he comes we fly up to meet him. He feeds us; sometimes he talks to us. Sometimes he watches us dance for him. But he never comes to join us, although he sticks his digits in our air and makes it move. Mostly though, our protective shield keeps him separate from us. Just as well, the size he is. It's nice to have him visit but I wouldn't want him to live here.
Sometimes he disappears and the space beyond our barrier is empty of bipedals. Then I can see only weird rocks all made of eerie straight lines-which is not natural, I tell you. But Jonas... when he flies away, he's gone for a long time-a long time. The place through which he disappears is called door, and he must vanish into another universe because I can't see him. When door opens again, we usually get fed. I hate it when door opens and we don't get fed.
I've heard of a place beyond door that's called ocean, but I've never seen it. One of the big fish Jonas brought to join us told us-he was a bold colorful creature with glowing fins and a big appetite-he told us of Ocean and a world outside Door. I'm sure he was delirious because he didn't last long, poor fella. He was hovering on the edge of the barrier by the next morning. But it does give me something to think about. I'd like to travel outside of our air and into the mysterious vacuum world beyond, but not yet. Exploration is dangerous, you know, and I'm too young to die-even in a search for Ocean.
Anyway, Jonas often disappears and then comes back. He always feeds us before he does anything else. Often when he's back, he moves to another container that has fish in it. I think he calls it computer. The other fish swim past him in computer until he shoos them away. I've tried to call to them but they don't hear me. They're pretty stupid, too, those fish, because they swim the same way all the time. It's no wonder Jonas shoos them away. I'm not sure what it is he's staring at after they're gone, but it's better than deaf, moronic fish. Of course, he always comes back to us.
Sometimes other bipedals come to join him. Sam, Teal'c, and Colonel: that's what Jonas calls them. They seem nice even though they often drag Jonas through Door and make him vanish. Sometimes they even feed us.
Jonas has been gone for a long time now, and the room is filled with another bipedal who never sleeps. I don't know his name yet, but Colonel, Teal'c, and Sam come in to see him all the time. The new bipedal feeds us and talks to us, but he's not Jonas. Sometimes he goes through Door and disappears, but so far, he always comes back.
I wonder if Jonas went exploring through Door and found Ocean in another universe? If so, I hope he's happy out there.
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