Dream a Little Dream

A short story— Originally published in Savage Planets Magazine, July 2025. When the future calls, he doesn't have a choice.But in cryogenic sleep, he'll live a lifetime of nightmares before the mission truly begins.Jack never wanted to travel the stars. Drafted into a deep space mission against his will, he's not a hero—he's a terrified xenobiologist conscripted to make first contact. His only refuge? Forty-three years of cryogenic slumber aboard a sleeper ship bound for Proxima Centauri.But there are no dreams in stasis—only waking nightmares.As the voyage unfolds, Jack finds himself trapped in recursive horrors, haunted by isolation, death, and abandonment. When he finally awakens—for real this time—he must confront what it means to be human, to be alone, and to face the unknown with nothing but memory and hope.A haunting, mind-bending journey through the psychology of deep space, Dream A Little Dream is a tale of fear, transformation, and the fragile thread of connection in an infinite cosmos.