*24*

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There's a ragging whole punched in the hull. Outside, stars burn in the vacuum of space. A tornado of escaping air screams out through the hole. Red lights flash. Claxon's sound. The door begins to close. Hyunjin pulls a hammer from his belt and jams it crossways in the doorway, propping open the door. The door's motors whine. Hyunjin dives inside. Skids to a stop beside Y/n. Pulls her loose from the column and shoves her toward the door, fighting the wind. Y/n scrambles through the doorway. Hyunjin tries to follow - but the hammer suddenly bends and springs out of the doorway.

The door slams: Y/n outside, Hyunjin in the airless room. The last of the atmosphere flashes away into space. Y/n screams and pounds on the other side of the door, but Hyunjin hears only his own thudding heartbeat. The last air leaves Hyunjin's lungs in a silent shout, vapor whipping away between his teeth. He spins. Scans the room desperately.

Y/n re-enters the override code. But the code is denied. She drops to her knees. Scans frantically through her manual.

Hyunjin rips open a wide metal drawer built into the wall. It's full of computer components: Hyunjin sweeps them onto the floor.

Y/n tears open an instrument panel beside the door, revealing a yellow emergency button marked "PURGE." She flips back the safety catch and slams the button.

White jets of compressed air blast from the ceiling, turning the room into a whirling tornado of debris. Hyunjin clings for his life, gulping air as flying fragments batter him. The wind tears him from his handholds and hurls him toward the jagged hole in the hull. He falls across the hole. Metal fangs inches from his body. He strains to avoid being speared or sucked out into space. The air jets stop. The wind dies as the air escapes. Hyunjin lunges back to the open drawer. Pulls the laser cutter from his tool belt and cuts the entire drawer free. He turns back, holding the metal drawer like a shield – and staggers, half fainting.

Y/n sees Hyunjin falter. Slams the PURGE button again.

Compressed air blasts into the room, renewing the windstorm. Hyunjin rides the wind, sliding across the steel deck and slamming the steel drawer across the hole in the hull. Air screams away through the gaps.

Hyunjin lunges to an emergency locker and pulls out an epoxy foamer - a steel canister like a fire extinguisher. He aims it at the hole in the hull and pulls the trigger. Orange foam blasts out, stiffening into a hard plastic. Hyunjin buries the steel drawer and the hull breach in foam. His eyes flutter closed. Starved of oxygen, he falls limp.

Y/n hits the PURGE button. White jets of air blast into the sealed room. The pressure comes up. The door slides open. Y/n dashes in. Falls to her knees beside Hyunjin. Takes his pulse. Listens for breath: he's not breathing. She presses her mouth over his and blows air into his lungs. After a moment Hyunjin coughs. He opens bloodshot eyes. She props his head on her knee.

"Hyunjin. Are you okay?" Y/n asks frantically. Hyunjin breathes deeply. Blinks his eyes.

"I think I'm all right," Hyunjin's eyes then goes wide, "Look," In the centre of the room a round column houses the CORE COMPUTER. There's a CRATER blasted in the machine. "That's the core computer," Hyunjin hauls himself to his feet, leaning on Y/n. He approaches the blasted computer. Reaches into the hole. Strains. A creak...and Hyunjin pulls a melon-sized METEOR from the crater. An orb of pitted metal.

COMMAND DECK - DIAGNOSTIC CENTER

Hyunjin and Y/n sit at the worktable. The meteor sits between them on the table. "A meteor," Hyunjin said almost admiring the rock.

"A rock," Y/n says. They stare at the meteor: the cause of it all. A beep: on the Diagnostic Computer's console, more green lights turn red. new errors pop up on the diagnostic report. "I don't get it. This thing hit down on Deck One. But there are failures everywhere," y/n says.

"The computers are networked. Ever since the core computer got blown away, all the other computers must have been carrying the load. Running at full capacity around the clock for two years. They're burning out," Hyunjin said.

"And every computer that burns out increases the load on the others," Y/n continued.

"Yeah. The breakdown accelerates. If we don't stop it, the whole ship will go down," Hyunjin says.

"We're trapped on a sinking ship?" Y/n's heart practical sinks.

"Chan said there's spares for everything. If we replace the core computer, it'll pick up the load. The burnouts will stop," Hyunjin says as another beep. Another green light turns red.

"Let's go," Y/n said.

SUBDECK A - SHIP'S STORES

Hyunjin pilots his golf cart at breakneck speed through the cargo racks. Y/n rides shotgun, reading an electronic map. "Two more rows, then left!" The cart squeals around a corner.

CENTRAL COMPUTER FACILITY

Y/n buries the hull breach in another layer of epoxy foam. Hyunjin wrestles a massive crate off the golf cart's cargo deck. Wearily uncrates the replacement computer.

CENTRAL COMPUTER FACILITY - LATER

Y/n inspects the replacement core computer, a manual in her hands. The pages she's consulting are covered with Chan's handwritten notes. Hyunjin sits on the floor with another manual. Cables and connectors lie around him on the floor. "First you connect the data bus, then the sync cable, then bridge the power and backup power...you're supposed to run a start-up checklist, but  Chan made a note. He says you can skip straight to power-up as long as you...Hyunjin," Y/n softly says his name. Hyunjin is nodding off over his manual. He looks up, blinking. "You need to sleep. We can't make mistakes here,"

Hyunjin gives a yawn, "I'm fine,".

"You just got sucked into outer space. Take a break," Y/n says rubbing his shoulder.

ELITE DECK - BERLIN SUITE - NIGHT

Hyunjin lies asleep in sweatpants and shirtless, dead to the world.

DECK NINE – Y/N'S CABIN - DAWN

Y/n wakes. Rolls out of bed.

COMMAND DECK - DIAGNOSTIC CENTER - DAY

Y/n sips coffee. Surveys the Diagnostic Computer's warning lights. Turns to stare thoughtfully at the meteor itself. She exits. The console flickers. A green light turns red. And another. The pattern of red lights spreads like a bloodstain.

ELITE DECK - BERLIN SUITE

Hyunjin still lies sleeping. He hasn't moved a muscle. Y/n looks in on him and slips quietly away.

DECK TWO - SWIMMING POOL

In a bathing suit, Y/n dives into the pool, cleaving the water cleanly and striking out in a crawl stroke. She reaches the end of the lane. Kick-turns and swims back...and the gravity cuts out.

The water heaves itself into weird humps and tentacles. Y/n flounders in the weightless water.

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