Downpour

THE UNIVERSE ON YOUR SIDE

"Chan! What's your status?"

The voice is crackly, like it's coming from a radio. He can barely understand the words. It's distorted, and in the back of his mind he wonders why the radio would be asking him questions.

He yawns, raising his hands to rub his eyes.

His limbs feel much heavier, and it's not just from the sleep. They seem to move in slow-motion, taking what seems like years to reach his face. He frowns slightly.

His hand bounces back off something directly in front of him.

His eyes fly open. There's glass in front of him, curved like a fishbowl. A small screen flickers at the edge of his vision, bombarding him with information and percentages. He twists around, his body taking minutes to respond to the motion. The heaviness in his limbs suddenly makes sense.

All around him is the endless black expanse of space.

Tiny sparks of light dot the distance, millions of them in delicate swirls. The clouds that hung over Chan's city had always blacked them with their thick blanket, and the light pollution kept the world in a continuous orange glow. But here, its so dark. It's darker than any colour he's ever seen before.

"Chan!" What he'd thought was a radio speaks again, and he realises that it's someone trying to contact him, "What's your status!"

A tiny light in the corner of his helmet lights up whenever the voice speaks. Words appear on the screen next to it with a tiny speaker symbol, declaring the owner of the voice as 'Kwon Soonyoung'.

Chan opens his mouth to speak, when he realises that he doesn't know how to reply. There isn't an obvious button that says push to talk, and nothing on the screen offers any help.

He stares at his hands, hoping that there's something that'll connect him back. The white gloves are completely blank, except for a small button on the side of his finger. Holding his breath, he pushes down with his right thumb.

The button does not connect him.

The button sends a burst of air from his back out into space, propelling him sideways. He spins, unable to control the movement. The world flips, and for the first time he can see a huge white spaceship. He's connected to it by a white cord, but it's getting smaller. He's spinning away.

He attempts to grab onto the cord, trying to stabilise himself, but his hands don't respond quickly enough and he misses spectacularly.

The screen in his helmet flickers, before a huge notification blocks his view of the cord. 'Kwon Soonyoung would like to vid-connect,' it says, with two buttons underneath that read 'accept' and 'decline'.

"What?" Chan says, his breath echoing in the quiet of the space suit. The screen didn't reply. "What am I supposed to do? Accept! I want to accept it! Let me talk to him!"

The screen flickers again, before being replaced with Soonyoung's face. Something he said must have worked.

The video quality is grainy, but it's better than nothing. "Chan!" Soonyoung says, and the relief is evident on his face, "What happened? Why didn't you reply?" The older is sat in what looks like a control room, computer screens displaying various bits of data. There's a window in the background that's totally black, conforming that Soonyoung's in the spaceship.

Chan doesn't even bother replying to the questions, too concerned with his own problems. "How do I get back to the ship?" He asks. The feeling that he's going to be left drifting in space is overwhelming.

Soonyoung looks confused, and slightly worried. "What do you mean? Chan, getting back onto the ship should be easy. Are you sure you're okay?"

The darkness seems to press in. He'd never been one for space documentaries, especially when there was too much happing on the ground to look to the stars. "I don't know how to get back- I can't remember- Soonyoung, I don't want to be out here anymore."