F.O.B. Venus

On the creaking space‑lugger Saturn, a veteran captain and his jittery radioman scramble to keep a precarious freight run from Venus on track. The ship, a relic from the early days of interplanetary travel, is already a magnet for trouble, and the arrival of Lancelot “Mister” Biggs—an over‑eager, clumsy second mate with a powerful corporate patron—only deepens the mess. Hanson, a hardened skipper who’s never seen dry‑dock in thirty years, battles a crew who seem as fragile as the cargo they haul.

The latest blunder sees Biggs accidentally seize the manual deflector, sending the Saturn three hundred thousand miles off course and draining precious fuel. With a valuable load of mekel‑root and clab‑beans bound for New York and the Space Safety Control Board looming, the radioman must improvise a quick fix before the whole operation collapses. Their uneasy partnership teeters between comic disaster and reluctant ingenuity, promising a tense, humor‑spiked ride through the vacuum of space.