The alarm was blaring. The deafening noise filled the room as he was trying to fight the lack of gravity.

His hand clenched the picture of his wife and children. It was the only thing he had time to take with him as it was constantly near him. Hector rushed as fast as the zero G would allow him. Often spinning in place for no apparent reason. Cursing loudly. He had to stop several times to adjust his trajectory and push off of the walls towards his suit.

He wasn’t an astronaut, just a lowly stage hand, a blue collar worker. The man was a low class manual worker. How did it come to this?

“I thought we had more time,” he yelled.

The sound crackled as it carried a disembodied voice, “We thought so too. It’s imperative you wear your suit and start the procedures. You need to shut down the space station. Fast.”

“How long do I have?” Hector yelled over the alarm.

The voice was silent for few seconds before mournfully stating, “Not long.”

He cursed again, the suit sat weirdly on its clamps. Jerked by the unseen force that sent ripples through the massive structure only moments before. Hector had no time to figure out what went wrong, he just sprung towards it and jumped into it. It took him few minutes before he had everything locked in its place. The only thing that was left was his space helmet. As he started flying towards the consoles in the command he grabbed a check list.

Finally, he was sitting in the command center.

One by one he ran his fingers over the check list. Hurriedly he started flicking one button after the other. The station had to be shut down in a specific order or else there was no way of powering it back up. He never paid attention to the correct order of how to do this, who would? Once a station is operational it should in theory never be shut down.

His helmet beeped, “This is command center. We have timer on for you. You need to relax and do your job properly.”

He cursed loudly, “I am calm.” Hector said anoyed.

He was silent for the next several minutes. The check went one by one. He was on number 49 as the radio sounded again, the brow on his forehead started to show beads of sweat.

“Hector, my man. I need you to breathe. Calm down. What number are you up to?” A familiar voice sounded in his ears.

“Number 50.” The man said as his hands started to shake, the red numbers in his helmet attracting his attention, “Am I reading the numbers right?”

The numbers inside the helmet showed how much time he had left.

There was profound silence. Hector thought for a moment he lost contact with mission control.

“I’m afraid that’s affirmative,” The voice in his ears sounded hopeless.

He heard it plenty of times during his other jobs.

Tight a wrong nut and everything is for nothing. Once, during his youth, a whole 30-hour job fell apart and had to be redone because he tightened one far too hard.

This time he wasn’t so prepared to hear the voice of impending failure. It caught his body completely by surprise. The man stopped what he was doing and listened for few moments. The check list slowly drifting away from his fingers.

He swallowed hard, he was in plenty of inescapable situations before, “I’m getting into the pod as soon as I’m done here. The space station will be shut down.”

Another drawn out silence before the same voice said, “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

He was afraid of that, “How so?” he had to fight back the tears.

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“There isn’t time to get you back to ground in time. And this energy will fry every living thing not protected by a magnetic field.”

Hector sat back, “Alright. I want you to tell my wife I love her. I’ll always love her.” He could feel his eyes watering, “Tell Mikey too. I love him to death. This was for them.”

Heavy silence ensued. He reflected at the times in his life where he thought he deserved better fate than being fried by cosmic energy. Hector thought he lived a good life. He was a good father, a great husband, and a hard worker like no other. Why would any God do this to him? He wanted to be anywhere else but here.

He wanted to go back into the deep bowels of ship covered in soot and grease. Swinging his hammer and yelling at the captain for not listening to his words of wisdom.

The mines of Petoria, pushing the gold filled carts until he passes out. His callused hands knew just how much grief those people go through every day. Covered in blood, sweat and tears.  

At this time anywhere would be better than here.

Finally, in the zero gravity he saw the picture of his wife and child spinning slowly, and he broke. Tears started flowing freely.

He started damning everything.

Finally, the beeping noise of his helmet calmed him down enough to reassess the situation. He was going to die. But on his terms. The station was almost shut down. He started pressing the final buttons to fully shut her off. As a precaution he set the backup generators to turn on 10 minutes after the energy had passed. The space station would start the automatic process of re-ignition and reposition in the correct trajectory around the planet’s orbit.

“I’m not going to die shaking in a corner.” He whispered with finality.

He had plenty of time. Hector went into the airlock and closed the hatch.

He took few breaths of air inside his suit.

Once.

Two times.

Enough to calm him down. Hector’s fingers unconsciously pressed a button.

The planet looked so beautiful from space. He stood still for few moments enjoying its majestic beauty. The pressure equalized. Last few moments of contemplation. Seeing if he missed anything as he hurried through the station. Without him knowing his hand pushed the door open, with one final sigh, he was out. Drifting through space.

He wanted to see the enemy without substance that was about to kill him. The mysterious energy that confounded scientists around the world. He turned around using his suits thrusters and gazed into the nothingness. The sun blotted by something dark.

His entire body shivered.

A strange terror started to take over his senses. Somehow he calmed himself down. A breathing technique he learned so long ago. Working beneath the ground where at any point the mountain could just collapse on his head was something unnerving. As a child the breathing technique helped him through countless hours mining.

 Seeing the sheer size of the dark energy almost made him lose his mind. Yet, somehow he remained whole.

Everything went quiet.

Not a sound from his suit, the timer or his breathing could be heard.

“INTERESTING…” A sudden voice echoed all around him and in his mind.

The voice was so abrupt that he yelped in shock. He knew he did. But he didn’t hear anything. Before he could think anything the voice again echoed loudly in his mind.

“I AM EVERYTHING…” the voice simply said.

Everything stood still. Hector watched his arms flail around. The jets were working but nothing was coming out. It was like time itself stood still.

“CORRECT… “

The voice again echoed. He spent few seconds pondering. What was next? Does he die? Disappear? Would he reincarnate?

“THAT COULD BE ARANGED…” he could feel the voice smile, “EVERYTHING COMES TO AN END.”

Hector’s mind went through years of his life. From the moment he was born until he was pushed into a spaceship and fired into space. No one ever asked him if he wanted to die. He was told to.

He remembered his first love. His wife. Their child. The boundless love he felt for her. Finally, he was certain everything wasn’t so bleak. He felt his actions were going to save a lot of people’s lives.

But doubt reared its ugly head.

Why him? Why did he have to die? His life was cast away by a mere lottery. Like an animal.

Then again, the world was full of people who deserved to be alive, much smarter than he was. Again he squared his shoulders and gazed into the dark abyss.

“I’m ready.” His mouth moved, but no sound came out.

“INTERESTING YOUNG ONE. MANY, MANY BEINGS GO INSANE ONCE THEY SEE THE ENERGY THAT LEAKES FROM ME. VERY WELL. I’M GOING TO SHOW YOU.”

The entire system suddenly lit up. All the stars in the sky disappeared. The void was suddenly filled with something. His mind couldn’t grasp what. Like he was watching something through stained glass window. The shape moved this way and that, but his mind couldn’t decipher what.

“TRULLY SAD. YOUR MIND IS TOO YOUNG TO GRASP WHAT YOU SEE.”

 “What are you going to do?” Hector asked.

Before the entity could say anything Hector’s body disappeared.

There were no thoughts. He drifted through nothingness. Hector didn’t know how much time had passed. A second, minute, a year. Everything he thought and felt was brought to a single point.

He experienced countless lives at the same time. One without a family, one where he was a recluse. In an another he was a puddle jumper. In yet another he was flying a Starfighter into a giant space ship.

It was like watching a movie. He was amazed on diversity of lives he has led. From one universe to another.

“Magic,” a sudden voice echoed in the pitch black darkness.

Was that his voice? How did he sound anyway?

His mind was picked apart by something. Disassembled and then reassembled. He felt his past disappearing one by one. Finally, he was nothing.

“AS YOU WISH.” The being smiled with finality as it watched the man’s soul drift off.