Brace For Impact

Jax could hear the distinct hissing of the airlock closing, sealing his fate to slowly waste away in space, where no one will find him.

"Well, that's not quite true. I'm sure someone will find me eventually... surrounded by rotten grain..." Jax thought morbidly. "Whoever finds me will think I'm a freak".

The hissing sound had stopped, which meant that the room Jax's container was in had been fully depressurized. All that was left was for the raiding pirates to flip the switch and send him to his inevitable doom. Jax leaned back on the door of the container before slumping down into a ball, preparing for his fate. He wouldn't even know when it will happen, since sound couldn't reach his container behind the thick airlock glass. Jax could only laugh at his fate.

"HAHAHAHA, what a shitty way to go. No family back home to bury me, no lover to cry for me, and no friends to mourn me. What a sad life I lived" Jax cried out.

"But that's not entirely true... I always considered Alec a friend on this ship, the only one who would look out for me. God, I hope that he made it out safely" Jax sent out a silent prayer for his friends' safety, though not to any particular god.

And so he waited, and waited, and waited. By his count almost an hour had passed since he was in this airlock, waiting for the pirates to depressurize the room and launch the container into space. This was way too long compared to how long Jax thought it would be. But then he heard something he wasn't expecting.

The airlock door hissed open again...

He could escape...

But before Jax could even get up to open the container door, a strong blow hit his container, knocking him to the ground, face-first into the grain. Outside the same scruffy man and fat man could be heard complaining.

"This is all your fault! We wouldn't have to move all this junk in here if you didn't go running to the boss for every junk container, now we're the ones in charge of moving and tossing this crap. Thanks a lot, fatty!" moaned the scruffy man.

"Don't call me fatty! Only the boss can do that... and besides you know that I can tell between good loot and junk." retorted the fat man.

The thud from earlier was another shipping container being pushed up against the door of Jax's container. At this moment Jax felt nothing but shame for thinking that he would have a lucky break and escape. But he might still be able to live.

Pounding on the sides of the container, Jax tried to get the attention of the two men outside. "Hey, open this up! I'm stuck in here! Help!" he cried.

No response came, just the sound of containers continuing to thud down onto the airlock floor. Jax continued pounding and yelling for help, all the way up to the hissing of the airlock door closing once again.

"Those jerks, I swear I'll curse them from the gra-" Jax began.

FWOOOOSSSSHHHHH

The airlock opened and sent Jax's tumbling back. However, this time he did not fall on the grain, but rather began floating. He was now in space. The air in his container could only last maybe five or six minutes, not long enough for help to arrive, but long enough for Jax to suffer.

After a minute or so, blindly drifting through space, Jax made his peace and began to relax in the zero-gravity death awaiting him.

But instead of the strangely comfortable feeling of floating, Jax felt himself bump into the wall of the container and remain stuck to it.

"Huh?"

In fact, all the grain seemed to be pressed against this same wall too. The only thing that this could mean was... gravity!

Jax was saved! If there was gravity then a passing ship must have picked him up! But the force pushing him against the wall felt strange, almost like it was getting stronger. Wait, it WAS getting stronger!

"Which means...." Jax slowly realized.

He was falling.