Detached

Prompt:  First person point of view. Floating in space. Over a red planet. Timing is running out.
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Space is vast; there's no doubt about that. But it's also beautiful, full of bright stars in a near-ending darkness. Very few people really know what space looks like, about all of the wonders it holds. I am floating in front of one right now.

"Oliver, you seein' this?" Liam voiced over the mic. His voice came across staticy and at certain places it broke up. Liam is the ship's driver. He makes sure that she stays on track so he rarely comes out of the bridge; practically lives there.

"Yeah. Isn't it beautiful? I respond, not moving an inch from where I float. I'm Destiny's mechanic, i make sure she's still running. There had been a problem with the hyper-drive so I'd gone out to see what was wrong. When I saw the gorgeous red planet behind me I'd gotten a little distracted.

"It is red" he said. I could tell he wasn't as entranced by the planet. "Ollie?" I didn't respond. "Oliver! The hyper-drive?"  It was just so red.

From where I was I could tell that the red color it had was actually clouds. They swirled across the planet's surface, almost like dancing. I was so captured that I didn't notice when it started getting closer.

"OLIVER!" Liam screamed in my ear and snapped me out of my trance. I looked back at the ship and saw that the cord attaching me to Destiny had been cut and I was being pulled towards the planet by it's gravitational pull.

"LIAM!" I yelled back, my voice cracking with fear. I knew that if I entered the atmosphere of this planet I would burn up, unless I ran out of air first.

"Hold on, I've gottcha" he said calmly. The beauty of this planet; the red color and the dancing clouds, melted away and was replaced with horror. I looked down at the oxygen meter and saw I only had a minute of air left in the tank.

"Hurry! I've only got a minute of air left!" I was panicking. Frantically looking anywhere but the planet. It looked so haunting now, so dangerous. With the violent swirling red clouds coming nearer and nearer. Then there was the heat; I was getting close to its atmosphere. "It's so hot. Liam!" I turned my back so I was facing away from the planet. I couldn't watch the thing that was once beautiful in my eyes turn ugly.

"I've got ya. You'll be fine." His voice was cracking up more than it had been before and I shut my eyes. The heat was starting to burn me; I could feel my skin blistering. I began breathing slower, trying to save oxygen. I could feel myself falling unconscious as I relaxed, letting my body float through empty space. "I've got you Ollie." I heard Liam say as two mechanical hands wrapped around my body and brought me safely away from the red planet.