SONG STORIES

The Kiss Of Venus: Captain On The Bridge

HMS Strawberry Fields is facing its greatest challenge. Well, the only challenge it’s ever faced

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

The bridge doors open with a stunted swish. Partially opened. They hadn’t worked properly since last year, but the maintenance crews were busy working on real starships.

Captain Maxwell S. Hammer needed several moments to catch his breath after climbing up those three flights of circular steps from his quarters. It was like going to the top of a helter skelter only to find there was no fun slide down.

He composed himself, hoped his red face wasn’t too obvious, and slid sideways through the jammed doors. He pushed out onto the bridge of HMS Strawberry Fields with a squeeze, catching his paunch on the way.

[This is the second instalment of The Kiss Of Venus — Part 1 can be found here. The story contains several Beatles and solo Beatles references. See how many you can find.]

Hammer stepped over a young ensign from engineering trying to fix a hole in the floor caused by a slow leak in a water pipe that had rusted the metal. The ensign was taping a piece of plastic over the damaged area, deciding that plastic wouldn’t rust, so it was easier than replacing the floor section…