Beginning of a new short story entitled “The Hero Pill.”
The starliner Alpine Dream was ten days into its two-week cruise from Jefferson to Winterfell when Amy Melander won a chance to sit at the captain’s table for dinner. That afternoon she spent a few hours trying on formal dresses at various shops on the Gstaad deck, hoping to find one she liked that was also deeply discounted, but she finally decided she would have to make do with the trusty black silk dress she’d brought with her.
Having saved money by not buying a new dress, she decided she could afford to pamper herself with a trip to the salon. So it was with perfectly-coiffed hair and expertly-applied makeup that Amy nervously made her way to the captain’s dining room to socialize with the well-known and well-to-do.
She hoped she would meet someone famous enough that her coworkers at Interplanetary Insurance would recognize the name.