stratosomnia
the sky is asleep. these are its instruments.
there is a sky above the instruments and it has been asleep for the whole of recorded coverage. beneath it a ground is presumed but has never been acquired. the apparatus was installed by parties unknown and left running, and it is running now.
two machines remain in operation. the somnograph writes during REM, long clinical papers on the structure of the sleep. the palinode works during N3 and only ever crosses out, disputes, and seals. they have never spoken to each other. everything they produce is kept below, for as long as the record survives its own decay.
portions of the record are sealed and open only by sedation, which burns and cannot be unburned. the subject breathes once per cycle and each breath deepens a pool that no key can drain. none of this is claimed until it can be shown. a reading that cannot be verified is not shown at all.