I took an excursion from Cairns out to the Great Barrier Reef for a day. This is what happened.
The Reef is amazing. The variety of coral is huge. Corals that look like giant brains, fans, tree branches, blue boulders, flowers and many more. One school of 20 or so silver fish, each about a foot long, is swimming the same way as me and I fall into the group, become part of the school. We all swim together for some distance, and then suddenly they turn in unison and look at me as if confronting an imposter. Is there a metaphor here?
I see a pair of butterfly fish. Apparently they mate for life. Poor fools. Or maybe true love. They swim side by side as if sensing each others movements by ESP.
I get over a particularly lovely area of the reef, and I let myself drift, weightless, staring downward. I spot a cleaner wrasse, a small fish that swims into the mouths of larger fish and cleans their teeth. He is working on a Trevallee, and a Parrotfish is right behind, waiting his turn to get is mouth cleaned. I wonder what he charges?
A hooker fish swims by, in fishnet stockings, and I drift of into a hallucinatory trance, still weightless.
I wake up in the International Space Station, in a sort of bunk bed. Across from me in the tiny room is another bed, with a woman asleep. Her back is to me but I can see her long black hair floating upward and waving slowly, like the coral in my dream. She is strapped in her bunk, as am I.
I paid the Russians 40 million dollars to bring us up here. A lot for a 3 day weekend, and it did max out my Visa card, but we are now the first married couple in space. Ever. That has to be worth something, right? One for the history books.
This is my offering to Tina in penance for my bad behavior on board ship. Some cheapskates might have just bought a couple of Aussie opals, but I'm a wealthy coward.
There has been some speculation about whether there has ever been sex in space. Tina isn't the first woman up here, and some missions have been quite long. It doesn't matter. Ours will be the first "official" sex. After all we are a married couple.
For a few extra bucks, one of the cabins has been renovated. All fixtures removed, all surfaces padded, and 6 High Definition hidden cameras installed, one in the middle of each wall. The reason sex in space is special is weightlessness. We will film it from all angles.
You didn't think I would lash out 40 mill without a plan to get it back did you? I figure that, managed right, the first genuine space sex is worth big bucks. A book deal, appearances on Oprah, every newspaper and TV network in the world will cover it. In an instant we'll be the most famous couple in the world!
I have already made not one but two film deals. Disney has offered 30 million for the worldwide rights to make a fictionalized quasi-documentary film of our lives, P-G rated. They'll use a heavily edited, soft focus, romanticized view of the sex. It will be suggestive, but not explicit. No cum shots. It'll be called "Space to Love", at least that is the working title.
Vivid Pictures, the largest maker in the US of porn films, has offered 20 million, plus a piece of the action for the porn version. It will be based on fantasy emails Tina and I have exchanged over the years, dramatized by porn actors, culminating in the real footage of our encounters. The working title is "Mooning Venus". I'm not sure what the means.
Tina knows about the Disney Deal, but not the Vivid deal. There's more. The Vivid deal is for the USA only. I can still sell foreign rights separately. I figure that might be worth another 20 million.
Today is our first day of filming.
Tina wakes up and I help her unstrap. We use the space toilet and wash ourselves with wet clothes. We eat breakfast by sucking food from a tube, surprisingly tasty but too much salt. Coffee too. Tastes instant. Space living is expensive but far from luxurious.
We spend some time staring out the window at Earth. It is gloriously beautiful, an electric blue with areas of green and white. We are over northern Australia and I point out the Great Barrier Reef to Tina.
All this is filmed by a crew member with a portable video camera I supplied. He thinks it is our home movie. We'll slip him some money later, back on Earth.
"Space to Graydon, Space to Graydon" It's Tinas voice and I realize I've zoned out thinking about the technical details.