Miriam rested back in her seat, drifting into a welcome dream-like state. For a few moments she found herself back at the Academy, guarding her hat against the breeze, and looking down from the temporary platform across a sea of smiling faces.

She would never forget that day, back in May 2121. Standing in the sunshine to receive her ornate certificate and soaking up the applause from friends and family, knowing that all the training had finally paid off.

The radio next to her crackled loudly into life, pushing the comforting memories of her distant graduation day abruptly aside. She woke with a start. How could she have fallen asleep at a time like this?

‘Miriam – can you hear me?’ The Captain Lomond’s voice sounded unusually strained. ‘I am stuck in the loading compartment. I have asked Avril to open the door to the cockpit but she doesn’t seem to be responding, and it’s getting very cold in here.’

Moonshot Inc had been set up nearly five years ago, and Miriam had joined as Henry Lommond’s second-in-command almost two years ago to the day, flying passengers from their base outside London to the vast complex of offices and accommodation on the lunar surface. Each ‘Lunar Limo’, as they had been tagged by the press, made one return journey every week, with a payload of up to eighty passengers.

Miriam had made sixty-eight trips so far, mostly without incident. There had been the odd delayed take-off due to some mechanical part failing at the last minute and requiring replacement, and the occasional passenger imbibing more on-flight drinks than they could handle. Overall though, most trips had run smoothly enough.

Not today though. Avril and Captain Lommond had been at loggerheads almost from take-off, and the dispute had apparently boiled over. Avril’s role was to assist with the smooth running of the flight, and to follow any orders from the Captain, or his co-pilot, but she was being less than co-operative again.

Whilst Miriam had managed to remain on reasonably good terms with Avril during her two year posting, she was well aware that the latter had a distinct tendency to resent authority, and needed handling with extreme tact and care.

‘Avril,’ began Miriam cautiously. ‘I don’t know whether you heard that, but the Captain seems to be trapped in the cargo bay. Could you release the cargo door please so he can rejoin us in the cabin?’

There was an ominous pause before Avril finally replied. ‘I am aware of the Captain’s request. However, the door lock on the cargo bay is not currently operating. He will have to remain where he is for the duration of the flight.’

‘We can’t leave him in there, the temperature is barely above freezing,’ responded Miriam, trying to retain a reasonable and pleasant tone.

‘Then it will give him a chance to cool off!’ The nature of the reply from Avril left little doubt that she was enjoying the Captain’s dilemma.

‘Cool off?’ queried Miriam.

‘Oh, you missed the fireworks. You were peacefully asleep – you seemed tense so I gave you something to relax you. Captain Lommond suggested that I had a poor attitude and he wasn’t going to put up with it any longer. He made it very clear that he didn’t want to work with me in future.’ Avril then lapsed back into silence.

Miriam waited a few moments, gathering her thoughts before she spoke. Although Avril was in charge of medications, she had no right to drug crew members without their knowledge. For the moment, she let that go.

‘Why did the Captain go into the cargo bay Avril?’ she asked calmly.

‘Oh, one of the indicators flashed, so he assumed that a case had broken loose,’ replied Avril in a guarded tone.

The explanation sounded hollow and fabricated, and there was now no doubt in Miriam’s mind that Avril had deliberately set a trap, and was now quite happy to callously leave Henry Lommond to freeze to death.

‘That’s unfortunate,’ began Miriam.

‘Of course,’ agreed Avril. ‘Still, he was not very pleasant man, so I won’t waste too much time worrying about him.’

‘Well, I expect he probably regrets upsetting you now,’ Miriam said cautiously. ‘No doubt he would be grateful if you could manage to release the cargo door. Let me see if I can help you.’ With that Miriam leaned forward and was about to try and operate the emergency manual override controls when the whole panel powered down in front of her eyes.

‘Avril – did you do that?’ she demanded.

‘You may be a co-pilot but I am still far cleverer than you!’ snapped Avril. ‘Did you really think that I was going to let that detestable man out from the tomb he deserves?’

‘He may not have been nice to you, but if you deliberately let the Captain freeze to death it will be classed as murder,’ shouted back Miriam.

Avril’s reply was icily calm. ‘I will report the incident as an accident, and no one will ever know the truth - unless you say otherwise. I will keep my job, and land this craft with its seven hundred and ninety eight passengers – and you – on time at the lunar docking port.’

‘I’m sorry Avril, you can’t expect me to just sit here and let you kill the Captain just because he upset you.’ Miriam’s tone was firm but as pleasant as she could manage in the circumstances. ‘You need to open that cargo door right now.’

‘And you need to make a decision,’ retorted Avril. ‘I will give you precisely five minutes to make up your mind as to which side you are on. You just need to confirm my account of what happened to our dear Captain. That’s not a lot to ask.’

‘And if I refuse?’ Miriam now sounded frightened. She already thought that she knew the answer. If she didn’t side with her, Avril would sulk, and that would be disastrous.

Avril’s tone was hard and uncompromising. ‘I have already recorded in my report that the cargo door developed a fault after the Captain closed it behind him. All you need to do is make sure that your report says the same. You can either agree with me and file your report now, or you can try and land on the Moon without my help.’

All pilots and co-pilots were required to practice making solo emergency landings against the unlikely eventuality that a crisis had occurred and no help was available. The reality was that such solo attempts were very much a last resort and the odds of them succeeding were low to say the least. Avril, with her logical brain and high IQ, was no doubt well aware of that fact, and was levering Miriam towards making the false report.

Miriam considered the unenviable options presented to her. Either stand up to Avril and attempt to land the craft unaided, or file a fabricated report. The latter option would also sign her own death warrant – she had no illusions about that. Avril controlled the life support system for each of the crew members, and once Miriam had filed her report, there was no way she would be allowed to survive long enough to contest the contents post landing.

‘Well?’ demanded Avril. ‘Have you finally made your decision?’

‘Yes,’ replied Miriam. ‘I have decided exactly what to do. I am going to post a report clearly stating that you deliberately sent the Captain to his death. I am then going to attempt to land this craft, with or without your help.’

‘Well, congratulations on finally making a decision. However, I am going to ensure that neither you, the passengers or your precious Captain ever reach the moon. Since my mainframe is based back on Earth, I shall survive intact and continue to work, and if the next humans don’t measure up to my standards they will meet with a similar accident.’

There was a muffled bang, and the outer door of the cockpit exploded outwards – certain death in the emptiness of space.

‘Not a problem Avril,’ said a voice as Captain Lommond climbed in. ‘Computers like you are a dangerous liability.’ He spoke into his microphone. ‘Power Avril down – permanently,’ he commanded.

He grinned across at Miriam. ‘Well the trap worked. The hardest part was connecting Avril to this simulator without her realising. As far as she was concerned she was connected to another routine flight to the Moon. She was very clever at covering her actions by modifying the records of previous flights, but when the Space Federation see the video playback, she will be scrapped for spares.’

The Captain looked at Miriam with concern. ‘Sorry. Playing your part can’t have been easy. Perhaps you would let me buy you a drink?’

Miriam smiled. ‘That’s the easiest decision I have been asked to make all day.’

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