[ WP ] The sun just flickered .

“ Hey babe, look at this, ” Josh motions his girlfriend over from her perch on the couch to the glow of his cell phone. “ What is it? ” she said. “ I don ’ t know, it ’ s like feed back or something on our security camera. It picked up motion like an hour ago, but i don ’ t see anything but this flash. Did you notice anything? ” “ No, not that I can think of. ” He shows her the footage. “ Why is it black and white? ” she asks. “ Oh, that ’ s just because it ’ s dark out. It ’ s inferred ” “ Oh. ” They keep watching in silence for the first ten seconds. Her face lights up as the phone screen goes totally white for the length of a breath. “ Weird… ” she said unimpressed. “ Right? It ’ s probably nothing, but still kind of freaky. ” He says. “ That's one of the more boring things you ’ ve shown me, Josh. Like, ever. ” 
 
 They watched some tv, fucked and went to sleep, totally unaware that on the other side of the globe, there was chaos in the news as it was reported the the sun had flashed blinding light for 4 seconds. Scientists across Asia scrambled to find answers as the Americans slept. 
 
 A door slams into the wall as it ’ s shoved open. “ John! ” someone screams, “ John, wake up! ” His hands come up to block the blinding light, his head throbbed and he felt like he had a bowling ball in his gut, too many drinks, what mistakes did he make last nigh…where ’ s my wife? … “ What, what is it? Jesus. ” He felt like he was underwater. “ John we ’ ve lost contact with the ISS. ” His head was screaming, the nausea spread in his gut like an inflating balloon. “ What do you mean last contact. ” “ I mean they blacked out, no radio, no communications, it ’ s like they disappeared right after the flash. ” “ Do we have a visual on them? ” “ Yes, ” Jess said, “ we can see them, the station looks intact. We ’ re assuming the flash completely fried all of their systems and if that ’ s the case they ’ re running very short on time. “ What? What do you mean after the flash? ” “ There was a massive flash from the sun. ” “ Like a coronal mass ejection? ” “ We don ’ t know, it sent off massive amounts of energy in every spectrum, we ’ ve never seen anything like it. ” The heaviness in his stomach was to much to bear, he leaned over and the director of nasa threw up on his cashmere carpet. 
 
 Five astronauts huddled together in there EVA suits in a pitch black compartment of the ISS, beams of light cutting through the space like razors from the earth, drawing its way across their faces. 
 
 They sat in silence. Andrew was the captain up here, and he was lost. They had now coms and no way of contacting anyone on earth. They were totally adrift above earth. They ’ re suits were dead but the mechanical functions still worked, allowing some oxygen, but now, if his math was right, they only had about 4 hours left, unless he could figure something out, a way to get out of orbit, a way to contact control…something. 
 
 Then it hit him.
