If Atlas Slept

As a technician on an important but uneventful space mission for NASA, Danny couldn't be happier. But things aren't always as they seem... and his ghost hunting past might be closer than he realized.

The headset wrapped around his head crackled to life. "Fenton, this is Houston, over."

"Houston, this is Fenton," Danny responded automatically, a small smile on his lips. "Just taking a morning stroll."

Stroll in this case meaning floating in the vast, scintillating void that was outer space. He drifted at the end of the space station's tether, his long legs stabilizing his movements like a swimmer in a bottomless sea.

The earth hung off to his right, two hundred miles distant but still nearly filling his line of sight. The eastern hemisphere had just fallen into shadow, leaving the western hemisphere splashed in a bright patchwork of blue ocean, green land and white clouds.

"How are things down there?"

"Wet and stormy," the control operator replied. "Why don't you send us some of that sunshine?" Danny glanced down at the swirl of clouds that currently covered south Florida. He tried to imagine the sheets of rain, the wind lashing across parking lots and yanking boats out of their moorings, the palm trees bent in half.

Space was calm, empty; thousands of miles of silence and open air. It was hard to get a grasp on that kind of chaos while surrounded by such perfect peace.

"There's plenty of sun up here to go around." Danny could feel the heat of the sun even through the insulated suit, like a vast, warm hand pressed against his back. "I should've packed more sunscreen."

"Fenton, we've got a reporter here to talk about the space program. Feel like doing a little Q&A?"

"Why not?"

There was the click and rustle of the transmission being transferred. A female voice cleared her throat. "Ah, good morning Mr. Fenton."

"Good morning! And call me Danny. Mr. Fenton is my father."

"Of course, Danny. And speaking of your parents, how do they feel about you volunteering for the first year-long solo stay in the space station?"

"They couldn't be prouder," Danny said with a grin. He still had bruises from the bear hug Dad had given him when he'd announced his acceptance. "My parents have always supported me. It's been my dream to go to space ever since I was a kid."

"The space station you're on isn't much bigger than a mobile home, right?"

"It reminds me of a certain RV that my parents fixed up," Danny responded. "After all those family vacations with four people crammed into that old rustbucket, this feels like the lap of luxury. Besides, you know what they say about real estate." He gestured to the stars that surrounded him, even though the reported couldn't see it. "Location, location, location."

"What do you like the most about being up there?"

"Not the food, that's for sure. Meatloaf surprise at my high school cafeteria had better flavor than this stuff. You getting that, Houston?"

"Loud and clear, Fenton," the operator interjected dryly. "We'll pass on your complaints to the chef."

"But in all seriousness, tell us what you love about space. Was it everything you'd dreamed about when you were young?"

"Yeah, it is. It really is. It's..." Danny licked his lips, trying to find the words to put to the feeling—the deep-seated contentment that he could only seem to find miles away from the planet. "You hear people talk about the weight of the world, right? It's just the opposite of that. Perfect peace. Perfect freedom. Anything you're worried about, whoosh. It's gone. It can't burden you."

He gave the tether a gentle tug, turning around. With the earth at his back and the sun flashing bright on his left, perfect nothingness ahead of him, just vastness and space and the glittering array of stars layered on stars. It was infinite, grand, beautiful. All the things he'd dreamed about, and more.

"I wonder if Atlas ever got tired?" Danny murmured, half forgetting the faceless reporter on the other end of the line. "Trudging along with the whole world on his shoulders… did he ever get a break? Maybe he just got sick of it all and flung the world away, and that's why we're hurtling through space like we are. Or maybe he just fell asleep, and it drifted off all by itself."

"That's very philosophical for someone with a degree in astrophysics."

Danny laughed. "Scientists make the best dreamers, ma'am. Our imaginations have a lot to work with. I come out here, look at the stars, see the size of the the universe, and I guess... I guess in the grand scheme of the galaxy, little worries don't seem as important." He shook his head with a half-grin. "Okay, that might sound cheesy. I guess you could call it the world's most fantastic stress reliever."

"No, that's wonderful," the woman said. "Our readers will love it. So... you could say, even inside that tiny space station, that right now you're freer than any of us."

"If you're talking in terms of physics, that's a certifiable fact."

Houston cut in. "At least until re-entry, when you'll have to rejoin gravity with the rest of us."

"Don't I know it," Danny retorted. "Houston, you're gonna enjoy that part, won't you?"

"We're happy anytime we bring our boys home safe," Houston replied. Danny rolled his eyes at the diplomatic answer, but in reality he knew that he would trust his life to the ground crew. Did trust his life, on a daily basis. They would never let him down.

"Time to move on to the fun part of the job," Danny said with a glance at his suit's clock.

"Anything unclassified you can tell us about?"

"Calculations, telescope adjustment and data recording. Thrilling stuff, but I'd better wrap this little chat up."

"Thank you for your time," the woman said.

"Sure thing," Danny responded, tugging at the tether and sending himself drifting toward the space station's nearest hatch and airlock. "Anything else you want to ask me?"

"Just one more question." The microphone crackled, the voice distorted, became tinny and distant. Danny tapped at his helmet, trying to adjust the signal. "Whe01010 you going t0 stop dream1ng?"

Danny blinked, glancing around. His eyes were wide open. He was awake as anyone could be. "Uh, ma'am?"

"I s01101 you01 nee0d t101-"

It was really breaking up now, twisting with some eerie, high-pitched static. Adrenaline spiked through Danny's veins. It was probably nothing, just some minor interference, but.. "Houston, is there an issue with the feed? Status."

No answer.

He felt suddenly exposed. Space no longer felt empty and calm. It watched him, like a vast, unspeakable entity, its billion glittering eyes fixed on the lone intruder. Only a few bare layers of rubber, glass, and fabric separated him from the devouring void.

"Fent—0110 thi-ston, ove01001? 011ton, please cop001."

Danny yanked on the tether, launching himself toward the hatch. An icy chill crawled up his spine; his breath clouded inside his helmet, fogging the glass. Was his suit damaged?

Something was definitely wrong.

"Wake up," the woman snapped, her voice suddenly clear and sharp-and strangely familiar.

"Ma'am, I'll have to ask you to get off the line. There's a problem up here, Houston,and I don't know what it is."

"001019u've 000sgot t001102o wake 0100—wake up!"

"I..." the voice had changed completely, and even through the static, he recognized it. "Sam?"

Wasn't she studying art in Europe? Why was she in Florida?

"Damnit, Danny! Wake up!"

Danny sat upright with a gasp. His scalp burned with pain and he could feel something warm and wet trickling down around his ears. Sam-teenaged Sam- knelt next to him, wearing the heavy Fenton Gauntlets and holding a small, headset-like device.

He blinked at the thing stupidly. A thin semi-circle of metal, the interior ringed with tiny metal spikes that sparked and fizzed with electrical energy. They were coated in bright red liquid. Sam crushed it with steel fingers.

What the…

Wait. Danny ran his hand through his hair-no helmet, no headset, and it was longer than he'd thought. Messy hair that felt clumped and damp around his temples, where his head ached the sharpest. He looked at his hand. Streaks of red mirrored the spacing on the circlet.

Memory and knowledge crashed together, and it all began to make sense. He was still fifteen. He had never joined the space program. With the way his grades were trending, he never would. Not that it mattered anymore. The accident had changed everything. Danny Fenton, astronaut hopeful, was now Danny Phantom, ghost hero.

He glanced around and realized that he sat on the floor of the lab, right in front of the portal; the blast doors were closed, dented from the inside but still holding. The Specter Speeder listed on the floor next to them, dark with scorch marks.

Nocturne. The dream guy. He'd been caught. It was all a dream. All of it.

"Sam? Am I…" he trailed off, not sure what, exactly, he'd wanted to ask. Am I back? From where? He'd just been dreaming.

"No time!" Sam seized his hand and yanked him to his feet, tugging him up the laboratory stairs two at a time. "Nocturne is making a deal with Fright Knight, he's going to trap the whole town in nightmares! Tucker's stalling, but it's not gonna last. You've got to do something."

Danny transformed mid-stride just as they hit the kitchen. Cool energy swept over him, turning black to white, white to black. He changed from human to ghost, from boy to hero, in less time than it took to make a step.

Gravity vanished. For a split second, Danny felt like he was back in space. As a ghost, free from gravity, he had that same peaceful, weightless freedom. Then he glanced down at Sam's worried face, and it all fell back on his shoulders.

He had a job to do.

_end_

A/N: This was a phanniemay thing from a year or so ago, I think? I rather like it.

Thanks for your reviews, guys! I'm glad you're enjoying my little oneshot series. It's fun to bring out these stories that play with the wider world of Danny Phantom, instead of just the SoaD!verse with all its complicated character interplay. Which I enjoy, but it's fun to step out of that box a bit and do shortform fiction.

Till next time!

-Hj

ETA: Made some minor edits 4/15/16. Thank you Amitra Day for the concrit!