Celestial Flagellation – A Space Opera
So we’re calling it a space opera, despite the exclusion of arias and inclusion of accordions. The story is simple: a 1961 NASA test monkey named “Ham” reluctantly leaves his expecting chimpanzee wife to make his fortune in space. During a space walk to perform routine maintenance on a heat plate, he becomes separated from his craft drifts through the vacuum, uncertain of his future. A passing meteor nudges him gently but at great speed toward an unknown corner of the universe that bustles with commerce and romance.
Ham trades his favors for rocket parts in a far-flung bazaar, sleeping on the couch of a lonely synthonium player while he builds a new craft. Hitching his contraption to a comet, he speeds back towards Earth, the bosom of his wife and the soft breathing of his infant daughter.
