My exposure was building. I was already bleeding internally, and I knew the effect would magnify enormously in just a short amount of time. My options were limited; the sun was bearing down on me, frying me with its enormous heat and radiation, and here I was floating in the void wearing only a vacsuit with three spare oxygen bottles. Oxygen! My heart thudded in my chest as I realized that only a few seconds of the suit’s original supply remained. My alarm had already sounded; somehow I had missed it. Was my hearing going now as well? I grunted in frustration and switched all alarms to visual. I couldn’t miss the flashing light inside my helmet unless my sight went too. I sucked every last breath I could from the bottle, straining even after the oxygen monitor read zero. As my lungs heaved in agony and my sight began to grow dim, I quickly attached the vacsuit’s auxiliary hose to my first spare, fingers fumbling slightly with the valve.
