Freefall

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  Smoke rings around me and bright sparks of fire
  Flash by as I go.
  I've got the feeling and it takes me higher
  Than I'll ever know.
  ( Freefall - Camel )

  Freefall

  Troutmaskreplica's author page

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You are LAIKA-404

You were crafted by the Foundation's Bioengineering Department in collaboration with the Extrastellar Exploration Department.

Born in a test tube, molded by machines,
you pressed buttons, pulled levers,
and obeyed commands for eighteen years.

Immortality was coded into your DNA.

You needed no breath, no food,
no fear of illness or death.

When they cut you apart, you simply came back.

You were a miracle.

You were their magnificent creation.

You are now 75 million kilometers from the surface of the planet Jupiter.

You were sent there on a Foundation-made vessel to study changes made within the great red dot. The storm swirled beneath you as you wrote down everything you could manage to understand.

It was simply too far for you to get a good look. You requested to be sent closer. After some silence, they agreed. Your vessel flew ever so much closer to the red dot.

You felt a slight tug on your body. You did not speak.

You then proceeded to note the storm has increased in size by several kilometers. Nothing too remarkable.

Then, another tug.
This time, stronger.
You turned.

The vessel began to fall.

You clamor for help and backup, a dozen voices begin to speak over each other. They all demand you stay calm.

You reach back to try and unhook yourself as they demand, but once you do, you are sent hurdling towards the red dot.

You sink through the thick, dense clouds of ice and stone, small bits pelting at your legs and arms. Some of them hitting at such high speeds that they fly right through you. Your flesh knits itself together.

You are now 70,000 kilometers from the surface of Jupiter.

You feel the heat as your body accelerates towards the gas giant. Your flesh begins to bubble around you, your body aches and bones break at the high speed.

You are now 50,000 kilometers from the surface of Jupiter.

The intense gravity yanks you down as hard as it can. Your body sinks through the ammonia clouds, the gas entering your lungs, you begin to gag as your body instinctively tries to spit it out.

You are now 40,000 kilometers from the surface of Jupiter.

You are now falling through layers upon layers of sulfide and hyrosulfide clouds. The darkness surrounding you engulfs the sun. You can now only see darkness.

You are now 25,000 kilometers from the surface of Jupiter.

Your vision is blinded by the sudden appearance of lightning, clean white bolts clash across the darkness, every moment of it giving you a glance in the abyss, you are immediately thrown back into the void. You continue to fall.

The heat is beginning to sear through your flesh faster than you can heal.

And yet you feel everything.

…

…

…

…
You are now 3,000 kilometers from the surface of Jupiter.

You fall further.

You feel your body suffocate in the thick toxic gas.

Your body strikes the liquid mantle.

The impact breaks every bone in your body, but immediately they are reformed. None of them in the right way.

You are surrounded in liquid methane.

The heat is so intense, you feel your body being torn away and apart and apart and deeper and deeper and deeper

and you sink.

you sink further.

you claw upward, but there is no up.

no direction. only the pull of gravity and the suffocating black.

you sink further.

days turn to weeks

weeks turn to months

months turn into years.

…

…

You are now 0 kilometers from the surface of Jupiter.