Five women went to space for eleven minutes.
Didn’t you see it? It was all over the news. No hiding from it, Blue Origin in black and white amongst the stars. A few moments of weightlessness, that a lifetime of ozempic couldn’t deliver.
Bezos even took advice. That was rare for him to do. Musk had a word, Zuckerberg chimed in. The capsule had to be just right, the mission was vital. For once he couldn’t go and get the parts off…well you know where.
His bride to be, the licensed helicopter pilot herself Lauren Sanchez leading the charge, looking every bit the Astronaut as others snickered and muttered ‘yeah, more like Astropassenger.’
Of course the terminally online sneered and poked holes in it. The hatch opened the wrong way, it was directed by the guy that did the Moon landings, it’s not even real space. But even they couldn’t deny the truth as the capsule lolloped its way over the Karman Line one-hundred kilometers above the earth’s surface. A boundary so sweet it made Katy Perry want to name her child after it. She’ll just need to figure out the timing between her next tour and album.
There were others. People forget that, but a Civil Rights Activist, a Morning Anchor, a film producer and even a rocket scientist. No one really cared though, even Katy faded from memory. She kissed the stars and she liked it. Good for her.
Lauren was the story, Bezos the catalyst. When you can buy anything on earth then logically the next place you look…isn’t. It’s all in the details though, all the Billionaires will tell you that. Not that they need to concern themselves with the little things, rather the little people they own do.
But it was there, on a small document, filed away in error that the plan to pioneer was forged. Lauren’s crew mates were mere collateral, padding in the room, meat on the bone for what was the single most expensive mistake in history.
Bezos and Sanchez were meant to be married. It’s not marriage in the way us plebs recognise it, but more a multinational merger, an aggressive takeover, an abhorrent acquisition complete with the reams of paperwork that would make your eyes bleed and blood boil.
See, a prenup is an important thing to a man who has everything. It’s the document that decides whether he can lose it all.
Someone got it wrong, and Lauren stood to inherit a whole rainforest. Well half. But half is too much for a man like Bezos, so there could indeed be no half-measures.
The conspiracy theorists were right about one thing, the hatch didn’t work the right way.
And so we need a coda, a proper ending.
Five women went to space for eleven minutes, and never came back.
By Louis Urbanowski – Inspired by the prompt: ‘Five women went to space for eleven minutes’
Stories by Louis Urbanowski 