The voice spoke to Maeve again. “Okay, our trajectory is still a bit off. Look to your right. Do you see the orange line? I need you to hold your finger on it for ten seconds. Now.”

Maeve lifts her hand to the right and holds it there.

“Peerrffect. Well..” The line goes dead, and the holographic display disappears. Maeve looks around the room, her pulse racing.

In Moon Sector C, Derek stares at a blank screen. The room is dark except for a red, hazy light coming from the four corners of the room.

Nathalie shouts, “What in the Earth just happened?”

Derek shakes his head. “It must be some sort of power cut. I think we’re on emergency power.”

“Yes, you’re right. I think I remember reading it somewhere in the Emergency Protocols.” She walks over to the door and looks through the transparent top. “We’re not the only ones affected. Scary, what if we run out of oxygen?”

“No, there is an emergency supply. I’d be more worried about the ship that I’m pretty sure is now on a direct collision course. Whatever the problem is, I hope they fix it fast. At least it would be quick.”

Nathalie stares at him, “You are a strange one.”

He cannot be serious.

“Can you hear me, Maeve? Please respond”

Her mouth stayed shut.

“Can you hear me?”

Maeve pressed the button to respond. “No, I’ve never taken control of the ship. I’m sure the Captain would be much better; she is much better.”

The male voice responded. “I have been examining the schematics of the ship. Your control room is set up for internal communications only. It must be done from your location, and it needs to be done now, I’m afraid.

There is a backup ability to take control at your location. You need to listen and do exactly as I say.”

Maeve bites her lip. “Okay.”

“Come on, you have ruled large Empires. You can do this. First of all, I need you to press the orange button on your console.”

Was he referencing the games I play? How does he know about that? There’s no way. Look, need to concentrate on the here and now.

She presses the button. Her screen momentarily turns a bright orange. “What’s happening?”

The male voice calms her. “It’s okay. I now need you to enter the following code. The screen may go blank and the communications may be temporarily interrupted, but don’t be alarmed – C865322567.”

She enters the code.

Maeve takes off her communications headset.

That call ended quickly. What was his problem? Guess I’ll have to work with him either way,

She sends a message to her mother in the control room, updating her on the conversation.

Now she is left with a wait.

Perhaps Derek is online.

She checks all the usual gaming sites on the console in front of her,

Where is he?

She bites her lip.

This is silly. I’ve never even met the guy. Yes, I can talk to him for hours; he is considerate and funny. But I’ve no idea what he looks like or even what he sounds like. I’m so ridiculous. Oh, Derek, where are you and what are you up to? And why are you so inscrupable? Are you afraid of me or something? I wouldn’t destroy you in reality like I do at the gaming.

A beep goes off. It’s a message from her mother.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE. HYSTERIA BREAKING OUT UP HERE. PEOPLE ARE NOT HAPPY THAT THEIR TRIP IS BEING CUT SHORT. THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO. BETTER FOR YOU TO CONCENTRATE ON WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Maeve smirks. Very good. I told you not to use all caps in your messages, though. So rude.

Hours pass as she awaits the next communication.

“You have a go C4365. You are cleared for the emergency landing at Moon Sector C. Please acknowledge”

“Thank God,” she replies.

Derek magnifies the screen and, using his mouse, draws a tangent from the ship to the landing area. “It will be six hours till we can start the landing procedure. I am going to familiarize myself with your ship. Reopen communications at five hundred hours. What’s your name by the way?”

The reply is swift. “Maeve”.

“Sorry?” Derek goes cold.

“You can call me Maeve. What’s your name?”

“Yeah, as I said, we’ll communicate again.” Derek clicks the mouse, ending the transmission.

Nathalie looks over at him wide-eyed. “Everything okay?”

“It’s my Maeve. She’s on the ship. I’ve just spoken to her!”

“No way, what are the chances? You’d better make sure that ship lands safely.”

Derek lets out a groan

Nathalie frowns. “That bad?”

He nods as he looks up at the ship’s specifications. It’s a thirty-year-old W-Class Transported. Not only is it far larger than anything he had attempted to guide to land before, it wasn’t built to land at all. Damage from a solar flare had not been countenanced.

Oh, Maeve, how am I going to get you out of this?

It is a female voice. “This is C4365 over. Please acknowledge. I repeat. This is C4365 over.”

Derek clicks on the screen to respond. “This is Moon Sector C acknowledging. What is your status? I repeat, what is your status?”

Her voice is cackling and breaking up at times. “C C C4365 in diff difficulty. Need permission.. repeat permission is needed to land in Sector C.”

Derek frowns. Emergency landings on the moon are rare, and unheard of in Sector C. This would be a management decision. “C4365 Keep your communications open. Your request is being determined.”

He ends the call and instead sent a communication request to Moon Sector A, to his manager Selena Basque.

Selena is forty-four years old with long, black hair and a tanned complexion. She is short and has a fuse even shorter. “Yes, Derek.”

“A ship is requesting to do an emergency landing in Moon Sector C.”

He hears a groan before she replies.

“Look, you’ll have to step up. You can do this. This flare has caused carnage. We already have multiple incoming here.”

The communication came to an abrupt halt.

I guess that’s a go, so Derek. Time to step up and get this done.

Maeve walks out into the main corridor. It is filling up with guests, many with questions about what happened. They look at her, mouths wide open. She brushes past. This is the first “urgent” message she has received; her heart is throbbing.

A few minutes later, she reaches the small lift that will bring her to the deck. A few years earlier, this lift was strictly off limits. It became somewhat magical in her mind, a portal to a forbidden land. No longer.

The door opens to a panoramic view of the Earth in the distance. A wrinkled woman with long grey hair, her mother, glances back at her while looking at a holograph display of the ship. There are two other people present. One is a bald, pensive-looking man, her father, and the other is the head of customer care, Helen Johnson. Helen, a short, chubby woman, is usually happy and good-natured. Now, she is pale and vacant.

“What’s happening, Mum?”

Her father speaks. “It’s nothing to worry…”

Her mum glares at him. “The solar flare has damaged key circuits in the ship

Maeve is dumbfounded. “But how?”

Her Mum averts her eyes. “Too many cutbacks over the years.”

An hour passed with little conversation between them. Derek focused on the three little green dots that represented spaceships traversing the sector he was responsible for. One had blasted off the moon’s surface a half hour earlier, another was lunar orbit and the final one heading to Lunar City itself.

Natasha threw a paper plane at him.

Derek didn’t even look. “What are you like? You’re supposed to be the old and responsible one.”

“Ya cheeky git. I’m not even forty!” She pouts her lips. “How is your lady friend anyway?”

Derek nods his head from side to side. “I knew I should never have that.”

“Ah, don’t be like that.”

“She’s fine as far as I know. You do realize we’ve never met. I’ve no idea what she looks like or anything.”

Natasha smiles. “Well, you should go meet her. The two of you seem to really click.”

“I’ll probably never meet her. She’s always mentioning how she’d love to stay in close Earth orbit.”

“Her loss.” Natasha insists.

An alert appears on both of their screens.

“What’s Alert forty-one, Derek?

“Solar flare, high probability. Send the warning to all ships. Then we need to get underground. We have ten minutes.”