The Death of Sleep

Dr. Lunzie Mespil, a distant relative of Sassinak, is the central figure in The Death of Sleep, a science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye. Published by Baen Books in 1990, it serves as the second installment of the Planet Pirates trilogy and continues the Ireta series McCaffrey began with Dinosaur Planet in 1978. The other two books in the trilogy were co-written by Elizabeth Moon and McCaffrey.

The narrative is divided into four parts, each marking a new phase in Lunzie’s life. She leaves her young daughter, Fiona, who is about four or five years old, on Ceti for what she expects to be a short, well-paying job aboard Descartes Mining Platform 6. Carrying a hologram of her daughter and two duffel bags, she boards a ship as the ship's psychologist. She comforts a man suffering claustrophobia after 12 years in cryo, but a collision alarm sounds: two asteroids threaten the ship. The crew rushes to lifeboats, but Lunzie is separated and must board one alone. She learns the other lifeboats will hibernate until rescue, so she enters stasis, ending the first part.

The story resumes decades later. A miner from the now-74-year-old Descartes Platform 6 is led by a Thek—a silicon-based, pyramidal lifeform—to a large asteroid containing a dated escape pod. Lunzie is revived after 62 years in cold sleep. Her daughter is now in her 70s; the rest of the crew were recovered long ago, and the claustrophobic man does not remember her. Lunzie decides to move forward, retraining in medicine to learn new techniques. She returns to her old university, falls in love with a technician named Tee, who is also behind the times due to his own stasis, and they move in together. After qualifying again, she receives an invitation from her extended family, including her daughter Fiona, whom she believed had been killed by pirates. Lunzie takes a job on a space cruise liner heading to Alpha Centauri, but the ship’s engines fail, dragging it into orbit around a gas giant. Passengers escape in pods, leaving many crew members, including Lunzie, behind. Injured by a door, she is placed into cold sleep once more.

When she wakes 12 years later, Tee has spent most of that time searching for her, signing up with the FSP fleet. Their reunion is bittersweet: he has moved on to a new relationship, but they part as friends.