One Misstep For Man

“You are sentenced to three years on the planet Venus.”

All eyes were on me as I stood before the judge. The courtroom fell deadly silent, and I could hear my own heart beating. I gave a pleading look to the judge, who just stared back at me with a cold, fixed gaze. There was no changing his mind. My fate had been sealed, and I would spend the next three years of my life floating throughout the gaseous, noxious planet. I closed my eyes and stood there a moment to reflect on what led me to my sentence.

My wife and I had filed for divorce several weeks prior to my arrest, claiming irreconcilable differences. In an attempt to recover some of my personal assets for use in the trial, I had apparently violated a restraining order she had filed against me, without my knowledge. It was a startling surprise when I walked through the door of our house to find a cop waiting for me. How convenient.

But why Venus? In this day in age, we had already colonized the moon and several other planets, and prisons all over were now being used. For me, however, I was doomed to be sent to an unexplored planet, where I’d either end up dead or maybe even grow insane from boredom first. I opened my eyes and sighed.

Two men in dark colored uniforms escorted me out of the room and down a long narrow corridor. I felt like the main character in the old almost-forgotten classic novel 1984, on his way to room 101 filled with imminent fear.

“Your vessel will be the Trojan,” one of the men explained to me.

Panic flowed through my veins, and I rooted my feet against the floor, refusing to budge. I was quickly brought down to my knees by a sharp blow to the back from a captors’ billy club. Watery-eyed, I regained my footing and allowed the men to lead me the rest of the way down the hall to a round metal door.

The launch chamber for the Trojan was flooded with bright white fluorescent light. Due to my blindness while my eyes adjusted, I couldn’t see the exact detail of the my transport vessel, but I did notice that it was shaped like a large egg, and the words: “Prisoner Movement System” were stenciled in bright red above the entry hatch. The uniformed pair guided me inside and began to strap me in to prevent my escape until I made it to the planet.

The last thing I saw was the laughing faces of my guards and the launch crew before the hatch closed, immersing me in darkness. Then a sudden uneasiness churned in my gut as I felt like I was flung from a slingshot. I floated for what felt like endlessly through space, wishing I could at least see my new home for the next three years before landing. Locked in my mechanical cocoon, I wasn’t even granted a window or porthole.

I had plenty of time to reflect and think about random nonsense crap on my trip. After all, what else could I do? I thought about many of the books I had and hadn’t read on the large bookshelf my ex-wife and I had shared. One of the books I remembered seeing was one that always made me laugh. A relationship book, titled Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. A funny thought crossed my mind, about my landing on a planet inhabited solely by women. My fantasies got the best of me as I imagined these women would be rather desperate, as I was the only male present on the whole planet. What a fun three years that would be, I thought to myself with a large grin.

I laughed off the idea, knowing that the ideas were not only foolish, but delusions of a lonely man awaiting his fate on a gas planet. Reality returned to me as I heard a digital voice filtering through a speaker near my head, counting down until my descent into the atmosphere of Venus. I took a deep breath as I awaited the landing. Six...five...four...three...two...one!

A loud crash surrounded me as I felt myself tumble several times. Apparently I had hit land, or a station near the planet’s core, or something. The cockpit door hissed, and I could hear a voice on the other side. It was a woman’s voice, with a clear British accent, and by her tone she sounded like someone in a position of authority.

Finally the door began to open. My heart pounded in my chest as I awaited for what I would see. What I did see went against all my logic, and tapped into my fantasies. It had turned out that below the thick gassy layer was a firmament inhabited by nothing but females, just as I had imagined on the ship. The woman with the British accent had unruly dark hair but had an air of sexiness about her. She approached me and said, “So the cards were true after all. A man would finally come to us again, so we can have pleasure.”

So they had been expecting me, and what better purpose to serve than to give all these women pleasure. My sentence wasn’t as bad as I had thought after all, and I knew I would love the next three years here. “Thank you for your warm welcome.”

“I must warn you that the conditions here are quite horrendous, and the last man who came to us has passed on. I hope you brought protection with you.” She patted the crotch of her pants with a smirk as she spoke. “You did bring some, didn’t you?”

A lump grew in the pit of my stomach as I looked back into the ship with some hope that I had been given some kind of supplies. I hadn’t even been given a toothbrush, much less a package of rubbers. Then I finally felt the true weight of my predicament. Three years on a contaminated planet of sex-crazed women without any protection. One misstep for man, one giant mistake for mankind.