This is very rough
Skena Frolicfay, a business woman from Ganymede, a business moon of Jupiter. She was watching a monitor as the planet Earth, was about to be swallowed by the sun, currently in its Red Giant phase.
The screen went blank, as her boyfriend, Culbert Bloodlocks, wanted to communicate.
“Hi honey, I’ve got us a holiday on the ocean moon Europa. Can you take a full orbit off work?”
“Sure, it’s funny, we have a business deal that is taking forever. There’s a guy that won’t make up his mind. We’d need to rent a shuttle, got any ideas?”
“There’s an old company called Max-Travels Ltd. giving cheap flight trips for this orbit. I’ve got a deal. See you later.”
Skena’s screen returned to the scene of the Earth being eaten by the Red Giant Sun.”
*****
Skena and Culbert arrived at the docks. Skena noticed Max-Travels Ltd. was only one guy and his beautiful girlfriend that was servicing an old shuttle. Skena said, “Hello, we booked a return flight to Europa.”
“Oh… yes, I’m sorry. I’m Maximus Blackglove, and this is my business partner Deidra Magic, I’m the owner of this company. It’ll be 20 to 30 minutes… ok!”
“Isn’t that oil dripping into a bucket?”
“Yes oil, it’s working, we’ll be on our way in 30 to 40 minutes, ok! The former shuttles are still in excellent shape.”
*****
On arrival at the ship hotel sailing on the sunny side of Europa Skena and Culbert had unpacked in their room and visited the wine bar that evening. They had a bottle of wine. Culbert said, “I’ve got you something, and this is an excellent location to ask you. Look in your handbag, there’s a small box.”
“Oh yes, where did this come from?”
“Open it.”
“Awww… it’s an engagement ring.”
“Skena, will you marry me?”
“Oh, of course, we are a good team together.”
Culbert went to the bar for another bottle of wine. While he was away Maximus and Deidra could be seen by Skena, they were dancing together with little clothing and very sexy together. Later that evening the engaged couple were eating, and Skena’s Phone rang. Skena looked at the phone, and it indicated that her business manager wanted to talk. “Oh, it’s Tawnee, my marketing director, I’ll take this call just outside the room.”
On her return to the dining table, she said she needed to visit Callisto, another moon of Jupiter, to have a sales talk with the undecided customer. It shouldn’t take long, and she would be back within a tenth of an orbit.
“What do you have to go?”
“Look, I’ve got responsibilities too. You men don’t run the show everywhere.”
“Ok, be safe and come back quickly.”
“I’ll have to use Max-Travels again.”
*****
Skena tapped on Maximus’ door, it was open, and the force of her knocks pushed the door wider open. She could see Maximus and Deidra on the bed together having some fun. Maximus noticed Skena and jumped from the bed and used a sheet to cover himself. “Yes?”
“I need to take a short visit to Callisto for my business. I’ll give you an extra 500 credits.”
“Well I don’t know, we are on holiday too.”
“600 credits.”
He turned and looked at Deidra, she looked upset and dropped to sheet she had been using to cover herself. He turned back to Skena and said, “This is an upper management meeting.”
“A thousand credits.”
“Well… you’ll be back here soon?” said Max.
“Yes, a very brief meeting.”
“Ok, we’ll take another trip. One thousand credits.”
*****
During the flight, there was a radio warning that solar flares could hit. “Damn, this is bad, we’ll have to go back to Europa to wait this one out,” said Max. After he finished speaking, the shuttle shook, and the electrical equipment was emitting sparks all over the shuttle. “Oh shit, we are going to have to land fast.”
“Where, we’re a long way from Europa.”
“Jupiter has 69 moons, there’s one just a minute away.”
There was a loud crack, and a bright light filled the shuttle. Max crash landed the shuttle on a small moon. The communication circuits were broken and one of the rockets that propelled the shuttle, no longer worked.
“We are going to get rescued aren’t we?” said Skena.
“Look, our radio is not working, but we are in one piece, and I think this moon is Thebe, and there’s a beacon on this moon, so we turn the signal off and someone comes to fix it. We can call for rescue through their radio. We’ll both have to look for the beacon, I’ve got another suit for you.”
*****
Max and Skena were out on the moon and Max had a map of where the indicator should be. They followed the map to the location of Thebe’s beacon. But it wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Max frowned, and said, “Ok, this is probably not Thebe. It could be Amalthea, another similarly sized moon close to Thebe. This moon doesn’t have a Beacon.”
“So how we going to get rescued? What’s on Amalthea?”
Max stared at Skena and said, “You and me. We could be here a long, time.” Max started to shake his fists and scream, “Agh… No…”
“Look, calm down. I need you to be the courageous and confident Captin.”
Max finally calmed down, and said, “We need to go back to the ship and see if we can fix the radio and work out how to make water and food. Don’t worry water is just Hydrogen and Oxygen, we use them for fuel, and there’s plenty of that on board. The food will be little bags of emergency rations.”
******
Back on Europa more than an orbit had passed. Culbert and Deidra were called into an accident room together and told that Maximus and Skena had not reached Callisto and was overdue and Max didn’t answer his radio, and both of them assumed dead. Things were not looking good, so Deidra clung close to Culbert and asked, “We should go to my quarters and have sex. Everyone has sex when they find out someone close has died.”
“Not everyone,” said Culbert while wiping the tears from his eyes. He was tempted by her very sexy look and attitude. He was still very upset about Skena.
*****
A full orbit had gone by; Maximus and Skena were still on the moon unable to fix their radio. While looking out of a window, Skena saw two small shuttle craft landing close together. She screamed and said, “Ohh, there is two other craft not too far away. Yay, we could signal them and be rescued.” Max and Skena left the shuttle and walk on the moon towards the two new ships. There’s a bright flash, and one ship explodes. Max says to Skena, “Shit, they are pirates, and if they find out we are here they will kill both of us. We must get back to my shuttle and risk taking off with one thruster.” Climbing back into the shuttle there is another bright flash and Max collapses. Skena manages to push Max into the shuttle. Max is almost unconscious but says, “Look, sit in the pilot seat, and I’ll show you how to fly. Bu-but, if the thruster stops working at any point, w-we will just continue moving on that trajectory for ever more.” The shuttle lifts off the moon, and Skena gets them back to Europa. The shuttle loses the last thruster, and it splashes into the water. Max is now unconscious, but close to a ship that saw the crash. Both of them are rescued, and Max is taken to a hospital.
Skena and Culbert talk about what happened, and Skena finds out Culbert slept with Deidra. Skena says to Culbert, “I think I’ve fallen out of love with you and fallen in love with Max.”
*****
In the hospital, Skena visits Max’s bed and discusses what has happened. Skena says, “It looks like you are getting better.”
“Yes, it was a bad concussion, but I’m slowly getting over that.”
“What’s the situation with us?”
“What do you mean?”
“Over the last orbit, I think we both discovered something about ourselves and each other.”
“Look, I’m not moving to Ganymede and be your secretary, and you are not likely to become my co-pilot. My life is too simple for you and yours is too complicated for me.”
“I don’t know, I could convert to a simpler way. It’s often not what you do, but with whom you are doing it. I think I’m in love with you.”
Crime Fiction: Hardboiled Detective 