LOVE IS BLIND

guylane.com
Charlie watches the commotion with Mr Poo-Poo with grim
interest. Once the shouting has ended, and the dispute resolved in
favour of Inter-Planet, there is nothing much left to do but prepare
for launch. He wanders around the shuttle to see what else it
contains.
In one area, there is a table and chairs, a bookshelf and TV screen.
There is a metal tin on the floor with the word ‘smokers’ written on
the side. On the wall are two signs. One says, ‘Pool Room’ and the
other says ‘No Selfies’.
“What is it with the selfies?” Charlie wonders.
The reason why Inter-Planet is so anally-retentive about people
taking selfies, is that most people who interact with the company are
f**king miserable. So, when they post images to social media showing
themselves scowling and angry, it is really bad PR for the firm.
Of course, an organisation that was governed by enlightened human
beings would make the necessary changes, so that staff and customers
were happy. But the Inter-Planet directors aren’t like that.
Instead, the Governors are greedy, selfish psychopaths who have no
interest in the well-being of other people, per se. Instead, they care
only about a minute subset of the human race: namely the
shareholders of Inter-Planet Inc. On behalf of the shareholders, the
Inter-Planet governors would willingly throw every other human
being – and every other living species – under a bus. Their
psychopathy is well known in the space industry, an industry already
known for psychopathy.
The Inter-Planet staff are miserable – poor young Trudy, for
example, wasn’t even getting paid. However, because all the staff are
on employment contracts with strict non-disclosure clauses, the
company is safe.
With the passengers it is a different story. They are kept happy with
cheap tricks and distractions, right until that moment when the
refund policy expires – an hour before launch. After that, the misery
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