It pulses brighter, for a second.

"… Do you understand me?" he tries. "I don't understand you, but– uh, if you can change colors at will maybe go darker for 'yes'?"

It pulses brighter again, and turns yellow.

"… I'm taking that as a no," he says, sighing.

It pulses bright again, then returns to being magenta.

Unless the orb has anything else to convey, he returns to his phone.

The orb returns to impassively floating and glowing.

Games! Woo!

Checking outside intermittently to make sure it's still dark.

Same for checking if he can contact Relay.

Outside remains dark, and Relay remains un-contactable.

After another fifteen minutes, he tries communicating with the orb again.

He doubts it'll work, but maybe it understands some hand gestures? Like a wave?

It pulses brighter again, but does not change colors or move.

… Does it respond to a shrug?

It turns yellow again.

If he shrugs again?

It pulses brighter.

… He thinks he'll go back to his phone unless the orb continues to communicate, then, because it seems like trying to learn what the different pulses mean will take a lot of effort and he's not sure if the orb is even going to stay on the subway for particularly long.

The weird subway into the void that sort-of-probably abducted him from his home planet.

Ugh.

After about 15 minutes of this, by his phone's clock, tiny far-away pinpricks of light begin appearing amid the darkness through the window.

Okay, well, that's a thing.

He gets up to try to see some more detail.

Little dots of white light, very far away. They're scattered fairly evenly, but some seem to be closer than others. The car seems to be moving past them, some passing out of view at the edge of the window and some new ones coming into view every few seconds.

Presumably there is still no more water around him.

Are the dots in the weird void? Or has the weird void become less void-like?

The weird void is still void-like. Possibly moreso now that it is clearly not just a dark tunnel, but now it contains lights.

How's the orb doing?

The orb is still floating and glowing calmly, although at some point it must have turned magenta again.

Hm.

Well, he'll wait for the lights to do things. Like get closer or something.

The lights continue to drift slowly past.