Have you ever wondered what it takes for humans to survive in space? Let’s do a little thought experiment. Imagine you suddenly find yourself somewhere out there in the solar system. Not on a planet, but somewhere between them. What would that be like?
Suddenly out of nowhere you find yourself floating. There is no up or down anymore. You are surrounded by – nothing. You look around and see countless stars. In the distance, you see the Sun. But it’s less than half the size you used to know. Somewhere among all the stars, you spot a small blue dot. In surprise and awe of the view and probably the experience, you exhale.
You’re still enjoying the view and the sensation of weightlessness, when you want to breathe again. That’s when you realize, you can’t. There’s no air to breathe. Panic starts creeping in. And a few seconds later, you realize your skin starts to swell. At some points on your skin, you can even make out veins underneath it. Luckily, they don’t swell so much, that they would burst.
The panic begins to rise, as you still can’t breathe. That’s when you realize that something starts to bubble on your tongue. Which, for a moment, turns your attention away from your skin. Before the panic gets even worse, you start to feel dizzy in the head. There’s no time left to think about what’s happening, as a few seconds later you pass out.
To be continued…
Read my background post, if you want to dive deeper into the topics in this part.
There will be more stories in this series, as well as posts about the background of the stories.