Elle was a rich girl. She'd had it all, the expensive education, the pony, the sailing holidays, the personal trainer... But now she'd got her sights set on space tourism. This was a bit expensive, even for her doting father, but he knew the right people and pulled some strings. A week later, Elle was set up with an apprenticeship on a shuttle that was taking a month's trip into the great unknown.

Elle wasn't entirely sure what the 'apprenticeship' might involve; but she'd been a chalet girl in Switzerland one winter and it hadn't been like a real job at all. So she had high hopes that this role would involve little more than being friendly to the other passengers every so often, and maybe handing out a few leaflets at the beginning of the flight.

So the actual nature of her position came as an extraordinary shock. Elle realised, too late to back out, that her role was to be a sort of live installation in the atrium of the shuttle. She would indeed be greeting the passengers when they came aboard; but she'd be doing so from the most humiliating position imaginable!

But strangely, when she was ordered by a dashing uniformed officer to put herself into the frightening-looking metal restraints; she found that she didn't really mind at all. After a lifetime of getting what she wanted, it felt quite refreshing to be treated so disdainfully. And the admiring glances from the passengers filing past her was surprisingly flattering. Elle looked forward to a very interesting month ahead...