Shuttle from Aik-II/Stranded is a story that ended up stretching to a two-parter with a nice cliff-hanger in the middle. It starts off with some important stuff about the nature of Kristoph’s work as a diplomat. The delegates are trying to ensure that a planetary system with desperate problems with famine and poverty gets the help it needs – not in charitable aid and handouts, but in trade agreements that will bring real economic benefits to the region. That, of course, is the only way poverty-ridden places in outer space or on Earth will ever really see real progress.

The next part of the story deals with the nature of the delegate spouses on the shuttle from the planet. Only a few of them are women. The intergalactic diplomatic corps is not the preserve of men, and not everyone has heterosexual or monogamous relationships. Of course, there are the Haolstromnians who can be any gender they choose. Marion is aleady friendly with Hillary who comes from that world. Here, I introduce a new friend for her, Claudia Jean or Jean Claude, depending on choice of gender. Jean Claude, of course, is a fairly common French name for a man. Claudia Jean I actually got from my favourite character in the TV series The West Wing, CJ Cregg, a lady who would make Daleks think twice about messing with the Human race.

The male spouses of the Bassina Coppa delegate are an example of a matriarchal and polygamous society. They are a rather insipid pair who are used to being told what to think by their wife. This is just a bit of role reversal since it is women generally who are expected to be merely ornamental to their husbands.

The male only society of Mizzone was first introduced in a New Lords of Time story called Davie’s Baby. On that planet there is only one gender – male. Relationships are monogamous, but between two men. When they want a child, one partner fertilises the egg then passes it to the partner who gestates it and later gives birth in the way described in some detail in these stories. This is a concept that has upset a few straight-laced readers of my stories. But, on the other hand I know a great many gay couples who would like to move to Mizzone as soon as possible.

The collision with the one man shuttle from Aik III bears some slight resemblance to the accident in one of the classic 1970s disaster in ther air films, Airport '75. A plane with a big hole in it, injured crew, desperate passengers was the plot. Transfer that to space and see what you get.

Well, they get a dead pilot, injured co-pilot and navigator and the Bassian Coppa spouse howling in agony with a sprained wrist. Meanwhile Marion and Jean-Claude have to look after Bertin the Mizzonian spouse. Yes, of course, they are in desperate straits with a broken shuttle stranded in space and what happens – somebody goes into labour. It’s the stuff of 1970s disaster movies, of course. Pile on the jeopardy. Not only is there an imminent birth, but the air is running low. They need help and they need it fast.

And until they get it, everyone pulls together. Even the Bassian Coppan men prove useful in the end. Their respiration that takes in carbon dioxide and gives out oxygen is exactly what the newborn Mizzonian needs.

And, of course, Kristoph turns up in his TARDIS to rescue everyone. What else would he do? All’s well that ends well in this 70’s disaster movie in space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_1975