A switch was thrown, the sound lost in the vacuum around it; the radio silence was instead filled with a voice, tired yet alert. "Switching to upgraded battery modules A-1 and A-2. Diagnostics are green. Stand by for link, in 3... 2... 1."

A beep and a crackle preceded the reply. "That's a negative on the link Commander, we've got no data on the ground. Engineering recommends a diagnostic check on the comms subsystem." The voice on the ground dripped with cool confidence. Even when things went wrong, mission controllers prided themselves on sounding as though it was just another day at the office.

"Roger. Endeavour, Commander Lindsey requesting a lift to HST equipment bay number 5."

A third voice now joined. It sounded like Dr. McArthur, speaking from the relative safety of the space shuttle just a few yards away. "Roger that Commander. Mission Specialist Phantom, do you copy?"

Danny Phantom jolted back to awareness. The 15-year-old had been caught up staring out into the vastness of space, looking for landmarks. He had spent enough nights in his life outside looking skyward from hillsides or rooftops that he knew his way around the night sky quite well. Sirius to Rigel. Rigel to Orion's Belt. Orion's Belt to Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse to Alhena. On and on he went, with nothing to obstruct his view.

Sadly, the view would have to wait. "Copy that Endeavour. Unclip your tether and hold onto your hat, Steven!" Danny grinned behind the helmet visor as he glided back toward the Hubble Space Telescope at a speed not much more than a brisk walk, but certainly faster than the astronaut would be expecting.

"A helmet doesn't count as wearing a ha-aaaaaahhhh...!" Commander Lindsey was cut off abruptly, first by the sensation of two arms grabbing him around the waist of his spacesuit, followed by a cold tingle as his entire being was turned intangible and shunted directly through the telescope. The pair re-emerged on the other side, directly where he needed to be.

Danny came to a complete stop before letting go. "Equipment bay 5, here you are Commander."

"Thank you Phantom, although a little bit more notice would be appreciated next time," replied the astronaut. The reply had been dry, but even if the two hadn't been facing each other, Danny would have heard the smile in his voice. "Houston, this is Commander Lindsey. Mission Specialist Phantom and I have been through the Hubble and can verify that its internal structure seems sound. Now preparing to run diagnostic."

Another beep before the calming voice was back. "Copy that, Commander. Phantom, while we're all immensely grateful for your assistance up there, Medical wishes to ask that you try harder to avoid giving Commander Lindsey a heart attack. His heart rate and BP haven't spiked like that since launch. They... Also wish to know how you're feeling."

The teen kicked back against the empty space and folded his arms behind his head as if he were lying down on the ground. "I feel fine Houston, I'm just enjoying the view from up here. Please remind Medical that a heart rate of 0 and a core temperature of 40 are completely normal for me."

"Roger that. The Flight Surgeon just wishes to add that we have your temperature at 5 degrees Celsius, not 40 degrees Fahrenheit. He also wants me to mention that you've already told that joke twice this week."

The radio lapsed back into silence. For a while, all there was to distract Danny from the field of stars before him was the low drone of the air circulation fans in his suit. Merak to Dubhe. Dubhe to Polaris.

One of his earliest memories came unbidden to the front of his mind. It had been the family camping trip to Wyoming in 1994; just him, his sister, and their parents. Far away from city lights, the view was crisp and clean, if not quite as immaculate as it was from space.

"Do you remember why we call it Polaris?" asked Maddie Fenton.

"Because it's points straight up!" Danny had replied happily. It was at least 9 pm. Jack had left to put Jazz to bed in the RV, leaving Danny and his mother to watch the stars by the dying embers of the fire.

His mother chuckled at that. "You mean straight north, sweetie. All the stars are 'up'."

That got the 4-year-old curious. "Mom," Danny said with a slight frown, "what's up in space?"

"I don't know," she replied, turning to face him, "but maybe you could find out some day. The people who help us find out about space are called 'astronauts'. They're a kind of really brave scientist."

"You mean like you and dad?"

She had just laughed at that. They stayed up until well past 10, just looking up and talking. Danny listened with rapt attention every time his mother would point out a constellation or a unique star. It became a frequent occurrence over the next few years, although their nights of stargazing became less and less common as he had grown up. First, there was the ghost research. Next came her ghost hunting with his dad. Funnily enough, Danny mused, it had probably been his own competing ghost hunting that had really been the final nail in the coffin.

He was once again snapped back to attention by the voice of Steven Lindsey. "Houston, Commander Lindsey. Diagnostics reveal some strange interference patterns on the low-gain antenna. It seems to be unrelated to the upgrade work. Am I go to reroute through the auxiliary signal processing unit?"

"Roger that Commander, you are go. Switch to the high-gain if necessary, Engineering wants to see those diagnostic results just as soon as we have telemetry."

"Copy all Houston. Rerouting to the auxiliary system. Link in 3... 2... 1."

"Roger, we have the link." Applause could be heard in the background, before quieting down enough for them to hear the mission controller again. "That clapping you're hearing is for you guys. These upgrades will leave Hubble capable of operating until well past 2010. When you get back to Florida I think you'll have a few people wanting to buy you a beer. Most of you, anyway."

Danny couldn't hold back a laugh. "I think I can settle for a cola, Houston."

"Copy that Phantom, it would be the least we could do. Without your maneuverability, STS-122 wouldn't have been able to get the telescope repaired and refurbished in only 2 spacewalks."

"Happy to help. I had always wanted to be an astronaut," Danny paused for a moment before adding, "The fact that I probably hold the record for most hours outside a spacecraft without a tether is just the icing on the cake."

"It might be a while before that makes it to the records book, Phantom. Remember, officially, you weren't on this mission, nor do you work for NASA."

The droll voice of the mission's commander interjected. "If we're done discussing the top-secret nature of this whole mission, any chance we can get back to the shuttle, Phantom?" he said before adding, "150 meters seems a lot farther when you can't fly."

An observer situated a few hundred feet away would have seen an astronaut propelling themselves through the vast emptiness as if by magic, a smooth motion that should have been impossible even without the bulky spacesuit. They would have seen this astronaut grab onto the other, now floating freely about 3 feet away from the Hubble. Finally, they would have seen the second astronaut drop a power tool in shock as the two suddenly started hurtling back toward the space shuttle Endeavour, barrel rolling as they went.

This observer would not have heard a thing, of course. The sound would be lost on human ears in the vacuum of space. But the sight was not lost on a pair of very non-human eyes.

Author's Note:

I have decided to start posting some fanfiction here. Since it is October, the show involving ghosts seemed the natural choice to me (although the exact contents may have been just as much influenced by recently watching the film Gravity...). I do not write nearly as often as I should, so feedback of any kind is very much appreciated. You can expect part two up tomorrow, most likely.