“Dear passengers. Just a moment ago we have been grazed by a meteor in diameter of 72 meters. We have suffered minor hull damage and are now beginning the repairing process. We apologize for any discomfort caused by the impact. We ask all passengers to kindly stay calm and not panic. We will keep you updated with any further changes. Thank you.”

Hongjoong hummed, listening to the telltale melody that announced the message from the speakers. When it stopped, he casually reached over to the test tube rack, pulling one of the glass objects out. He lifted it close to his face, shaking it lightly to see the clumps at the bottom dissolve. He turned to add it to the machine reading the stats. With gentle fingers he tipped it over, watching the dark liquid spread beneath the microscope.

“KYS I need you to shake those again. Add some heat so their centrifugal force doesn’t get messed up.” He swiftly nodded toward the rack, not waiting for the android to move. Swiftly he grabbed some tweezers, adding the outmost layer of strange shed skin they had found floating around in the void into the culture dish. He soaked it completely in the black liquid, waiting for the machine to read it and send its findings over to his android.

He sighed when he leaned back, listening to the chatter coming from the other side of the room.

There were three people in the lab right now. Jongho, Lydia and Hongjoong himself. All three of them had their androids close to their sides, quietly working on their respective tests as Jongho and Lydia themselves were distracted, excitedly discussing the recent announcement.

“…have always been so interested in repairing ships and such! Once I finish up here, I’ll swing by there and get my hands dirty! I want to learn!”, Jongho was just happily sharing, making Lydia laugh at his childish fuss.

It made sense. Jongho was pretty young for a researcher.

Hongjoong did not mind or complain about them talking, just lazily leaning back against the counter to listen to their conversation.

Lydia however seemed rather unsettled, her dark hair slipping out of her usually impeccable bun and she didn’t even move to try and fix it. “Are you sure it’s safe though? What if there’s this big gaping hole in the ship that sucks you right out into the cold dark nothingness?” she shuddered and, her eyes widened with horror at the thought. “Ugh, I wouldn’t want to get too close.” She was so occupied with the terrifying imagination that she nearly walked into her android when she turned. The android caught her with an amused grin, putting her back on her feet before passing along.

Jongho laughed, his face scrunching up cutely and his gums on display. It was incredibly soft and Hongjoong felt his heart warm a little. As annoyed as he’d been getting that kid on his team, he certainly made up for it with his adorable self. It gave Hongjoong something to look forward to every day when he came in. Especially on boring days like this.

Their conversation moved on and Hongjoong turned to get the tubes from KYS. He avoided the robot’s uncomfortably blue eyes, silently putting down the tubes on the counter next to himself. Idly, he prepared the other culture dishes too.

“No, no, you’ve seen too many movies. That can’t ever happen! You know that there’s this huge force field around the ship that keeps us from...” Jongho went on and on, gushing about technical details about the ship while Lydia listened with rapt attention, her worry fading the slightest bit.

Hongjoong could only roll his eyes at them. It was literally just minor hull damage. Nothing worth worrying about.

A few minutes later he finished with his work, carefully setting the dishes aside to go wash his hands.

KYS took over then, syncing with the machine to have it keep him updated about its data.

Hongjoong sighed and gave his coworkers a curt nod. “I’ll step out for a moment. Anybody want coffee?”

Both of them turned their Cheshire grins to him and he merely nodded with a faint smile as he snapped his gloves off. Hongjoong was desperate for a coffee break after hours of analyzing the same boring samples. He was just taking his glasses off to put them in the little basket by the door when the sequence of melodies sounded once again.

“Update. Update. The danger caused by the hull damage suffered earlier has risen to level yellow. Please keep your designated androids close and make sure to stay in your work rooms. The repairing process has started. We will keep you updated.”

The computer voice resounding from the speakers shut off again, leaving behind nothing but silence.

Hongjoong gave a huff, stepping out of the room anyway. He was just about to close the door behind him when KYS got in his way, grabbing onto the doorknob. Hongjoong turned impatiently when he was called, looking up at the human-looking face that was only disrupted by those unnaturally blue eyes.

It was still uncanny to Hongjoong, no matter how often he had seen the android around work.

“Stay inside the lab please, sir. The danger level might continue to rise.” His voice was deep and smooth, not letting anything on about his non-humanness.

Hongjoong rolled his eyes and scoffed. “The coffee room is literally no more than three rooms away from here. I’ll be back in a second. You stay and watch the objects of investigation for any changes. If they grow big and start to take shape you need to stop them.” He ignored KYS and stepped out into the corridor. It was the same old story as always and it bored KYS enough to recede.

As if that would ever happen.

Hongjoong continued on his path with a content smile on his lips. He reached the Break Room, nodding at another scientist who had disregarded the rules and was just sneaking back to his lab. Hongjoong held the door for him, sharing a collaborative smile before he stepped in himself.

Bold of them to assume danger level yellow would stop Hongjoong from getting his fix of energy. He was only human. He had been here for too long and had seen too many level yellows to care about another one.

He was just tapping his fingers on the counter, waiting for the water to boil when the annoying melody played again, resounding in his ears uncomfortably.

“Update. Update. The danger caused by the hull damage suffered earlier has risen to level red. I repeat. The danger caused by the hull damage suffered earlier has risen to red. Please keep your androids close at all times. We are now evacuating in order to prevent further safety issues. All scientists are required to move to the life pods first. Make sure to take your designated android with you.”

Evacuation? Hongjoong rolled his eyes. He had only done it once, many years ago when a smaller ship he was working on had suffered some internal damage from machine failure. He and KYS had floated through the void for three days before they had been collected and brought back to their base.

It had not exactly been fun and Hongjoong played with the thought of ignoring those orders again. It was only a precaution after all.

He ended up deciding against that, however. At least he could take his coffee with him.

He stopped the coffee machine after it had finished one out of three tall cups, taking a sip before moving to leave. He sure hoped KYS would not be slowed down by some pseudo-dangerous culture dishes. He chuckled to himself.

Hongjoong had just stepped up to the automatic door - he actually had to open it himself due to the warning signal going on - when suddenly a little tremor went through the whole ship, making his body vibrate with it.

Hongjoong lost his balance and grabbed at the doorframe, observing the floor critically. Had they hit something else?

He felt himself grow concerned. He moved forward a little more carefully as the ground was still shaking beneath his feet. His heartbeat had picked up by now and he stayed close to the walls when he slowly stepped outside, looking around. There was nobody else to be seen out in the hallway. When he took notice of the heavy steel door to his right, he blinked in confusion, unsure where it had suddenly come from.

Realization then slapped him across the face. Of course. To avoid panic they had separated the parts of the ship with these heavy doors. He could still get out fine in his section but there was no going back to KYS now.

Hongjoong ended up regretting that he’d left the safety of his lab for some coffee.

With a mumbled curse on his lips, Hongjoong swerved to the left, his hand touching along the wall beside him as he followed the signs pointing him to the life pods.

Hongjoong was so not prepared to feel another tremor travel through the ship, this one far more powerful than the last one. He nearly dropped his coffee and instinctively leaned against the wall, his only stronghold in the empty hallway.

“Update. Update. The danger caused by the hull damage suffered earlier has risen to purple. I repeat. The danger caused by the hull damage suffered earlier has risen to purple. Please keep your androids close at all times. We are now evacuating the entire ship. I repeat. The entire ship will be evacuated. All remaining scientists are recommended to hurry to get to a life pod immediately. All other passengers are urged to evacuate as well. Make sure to take your designated android with you.”

Purple? Hongjoong had never heard of danger level purple before. Of course, he knew the appropriate procedure, but purple meant actual, life-threatening trouble.

Evacuating in red was more of a precaution. They got the scientists off the ship in order to ensure their survival while they fixed whatever problem.

But evacuating everyone? Ditching the Aurora? This ship was huge, how would ditching it because of minor hull damage make any sense?!

Hongjoong felt the adrenaline in his veins urge him forward, hurrying down the corridor with fast steps. He was only about a hundred meters away from the life pods. He would manage on his own. Any life pod had its own computer built in. He didn’t have to worry about his survival. He just needed to get there.

The next tremor caused him to stumble into another wall. He could barely keep himself on his feet this time and he felt his hands tremble by now, blood rushing in his ears as he gripped his coffee more tightly. It had long lost its purpose as a beverage, rather becoming a lifeline for him to hold onto.

Hongjoong was just moving to push his body off the wall when he heard something creak, lifting his head a little too late.

Next thing he knew was the door of the medical cabinet swing open, letting a big heavy medical kit fall out and hit Hongjoong right in the face. There had been no way to dodge it as gravity – along with fear – kept him pressed against the wall.

It should absolutely not have happened. Everything inside of the ship had to be secured and unmovable especially for such occasions. Someone must have not closed it properly or something.

Hongjoong dropped his coffee to reach up to the stinging pain spreading across his face, feeling the blood starting to drip from his nose. He cursed and stood there for another second, trying to regain his balance as another announcement blared through the speakers. Everything was rumbling and creaking, and the entire ship was shaking and vibrating dangerously. Soon, even the power went out, leaving only the pale blue emergency light for Hongjoong to see where he was going.

He couldn’t even hear the announcement and it didn’t matter, he had to get out, now.

He stumbled forward, forcing his legs to follow his mind’s orders. It was hard to navigate through the dark, and the fact that Hongjoong’s senses were burning with fear and anxiety didn’t help either. The shaking got even worse and Hongjoong felt himself lose his balance and fall.

He tried to get up, tried to move, but he found his legs too weak to listen to him, not budging an inch.

Hongjoong whined helplessly, pressing the white sleeve of his lap coat against his nose while his hands scrambled over the smooth wall for something, anything. There was nothing he could hold on to, nothing to pull himself to his feet with and he felt cold dread creep up his spine.

Of course nobody was here to help. He was in a section with no rooms for work and everybody had been supposed to stay at work after all. They had probably escaped into the life pods by now anyway.

Hongjoong cursed again, more desperately this time, trying to get his trembling legs to move forward somehow, even if he had to drag himself across the floor somehow. It was a lot harder than expected, especially with his nose still bleeding and the fear robbing him of his strength.

The pain in his face mixed with the taste of blood in his mouth was starting to make him nauseous. He was so close, only a few steps away from the life pods and he would be safe, so why, why…

Hongjoong let out a scream when something suddenly touched his arm. He was already expecting another - or the same - medical kit to assault him again.

It wasn’t. It seemed to be a person.

“Please evacuate immediately.” The man said it as if Hongjoong was crawling around on the floor on purpose. He was ready to yell at him in frustration, his panic rising even further when more blood-soaked his once perfectly white sleeve, making this all the more bizarre and horrible than it already was.

When Hongjoong still didn’t move the man took matters in his own hands - quite literally. He roughly grabbed Hongjoong and pulled him along, getting the two of them inside of the pod. Hongjoong was thrown into some corner rather unceremoniously and curled up there, his body shaking with fear and anxiety.

It was dark inside, the power not yet set up, but the man who had thrown him in moved with scary accuracy and calmness. He hit exactly the right buttons in the correct order that had been pounded into their heads during countless practice runs.

Close the door. Turn on the light and gravity. Disconnect from the ship.

Hongjoong yelled when he suddenly felt them falling. Were they not supposed to float? Like little clouds in the void? Why were they falling right now?

The man didn’t react to his screams, and Hongjoong felt shock seize him even more, his body trembling and convulsing uncontrollably. He didn’t calm down until the man came over to kneel beside him, giving him some meds and telling him to close his eyes and breathe deeply and evenly.

Hongjoong followed his instructions, weakly grabbing onto the man’s arms as he gave his best to calm his breathing. It worked and he slowly started to come back to his senses.

Where were they going to land? Falling meant that there was gravity pulling them down. And that meant a planet.

Hongjoong could only hope it was inhabited. Preferably by species that were considerate towards humans.