The intergalactic cruise liner

Sunday, August 3, 2025 at 12:57 PM Coordinated Universal Time

A short story exercise I did a few years ago. I like it enough to keep it.

The intergalactic cruise liner lurched, throwing DJ-I's hand off the laser turntable, causing a horrible screech over the speakers and snapping DJ-I's costume spacesuit visor shut. The ship's life support sensors detected a small leak and automatically dropped the ship out of hyperspace. DJ-I opened his visor and exhaled a large plume of vape smoke he'd held in a little too long to be comfortable. He noticed the smoke move toward the wall next to him and form a cone, as if it was being sucked through a tiny hole in the wall. Not thinking, he touched the spot with the oversized glove of his spacesuit and took a puff of his vape. He exhaled another large plume of smoke and tried to pull his glove away from the wall with no luck. His finger was suctioned to the wall; only now he realized the only thing on the other side of the wall was space. After a moment, he noticed the cloud of vape smoke he'd just exhaled start to move back toward his face and begin to slip past his cheeks into his suit. From his face down to his pointer finger began to rapidly get cold. Thrown into a panic, he flailed his body, trying to break the oversized pointer finger of his glove free from the vacuum of space. The visor of his spacesuit snapped shut, and quickly the spacesuit gripped his body as all the air escaped to the other side of the wall. He screamed into his helmet, exhaling the only oxygen left in his suit.

He tried desperately to take another breath but could not.