Destiny

"I just have to ask one question--there isn't a part of you that finds some of this really sick?"

Marrick Bowman just wasn't getting through to Stan Keane. After nearly two hours, Stan had conceded nothing, refused to make any changes, blithely dismissed all of Marrick's concerns. Stan's face was the symbol of sarcasm, and Marrick just didn't know what to do.

"What you call sick," Stan replied, scratching his chin, "is what the people will call cool."

"Cool. Oh boy."

Marrick sat down next to Lianna O'Connell and sighed. Lianna lightly stroked his arm and tried to calm him down.

"I know it won't be everyone's taste, Rick, but it will be interesting. Everyone will be talking about it."

"Yes, but what will they say?"

"Oh, you're too negative!" Stan shouted. "This is an opportunity people would beg for, and you're second-guessing it!"

"I'm not second-guessing it," Marrick retorted. "I just think some of this...is a little..."

"A little what?"

"Sleazy."

"Oh, sleazy. Give me a fucking break."

Stan sat down next to Marrick. "Look, I want you for this. I only want you for this. You are going to be so talked about because of this role...you're going to be...I can't even tell you how big you're going to be! Look...just trust me, OK? Just trust me."

Sure, Marrick thought. Trust your ass. Sure.

"Don't you think you're insulting Annie? She doesn't think it's sleazy. Right, Annie?"

Lianna cleared her throat. "Well, like I said, it won't be everyone's taste. Some people might even find it a little, uh, confronting. But I think most people will like it."

"See, Rick? Trust me. And trust Annie, too."

--

Marrick drove away from the First Fleet Pictures offices and headed to the nearest In-N-Out Burger. He never ate fast food unless he was really stressed out, and this was certainly one of those days.

The 2018 Juilliard graduate and Brooklyn native had been cast as the lead in "Destiny," a science fiction/horror film that Stan, the writer/director, had envisioned as the scariest picture ever made. Marrick would play Tyrone Winter, the commander of the Space Shuttle Destiny, who leads his crew to the first-ever manned trip to Neptune. Lianna would play Mission Specialist Zoe Andrews, his longtime fiancee; during the voyage to Neptune, Tyrone and Zoe have the first-ever wedding in space. However, an alien spore unknowingly penetrates Zoe's body on the final day of the mission, and after Tyrone and Zoe return to Earth and consummate their marriage, he's stunned by her unusual behavior--and horrified to learn that his unborn child may have taken over his wife's mind, with plans to take over Earth as well.

Marrick was not a fan of the sci-fi/horror genre and found the premise a little far-fetched, but the $3 million First Fleet was offering would be the largest paycheck he had earned to date--and he knew playing an astronaut was a heck of a lot better than playing an athlete, a slave, a rapper or a convict. Plus, he would have the chance to work with Lianna, a 2019 NIDA graduate who had garnered significant critical praise, and two Best Actress AACTA Awards, for her work in Australian independent films.

Marrick's main sticking point was that the script ended with Tyrone being forced to kill Zoe to stop the alien's reign of terror. Marrick pleaded with Stan to change the ending so that Zoe would somehow survive, but Stan insisted that it would dilute the emotional power of the ending if Zoe lived.

"Look, I really don't want to go there..." Marrick argued at one point during the afternoon's discussion.

"I think I know where you're gonna go," quipped Stan.

"Do you know how bad that scene will look? Me killing her? It's gonna make people think of O.J."

"Dude," Stan replied, "that was 30 years ago! You weren't even born when O.J. happened! I was only 15!"

Marrick groaned in frustration.

Lianna smiled. "Rick, I think people can tell the difference between reality and fantasy."

"Are you sure about that?"

--

Marrick was a little irritated with Lianna for not backing him up; he figured that she was so obsessed with her big American break--and the chance to play a villain for the first time--that she wouldn't also raise questions about the optics of the film's ending. Yet he couldn't stay mad at her for long. Lianna was just too charming: her long honey-blonde hair, her sharp green eyes, her regal nose, and her freckles--oh, her freckles! He just loved to look at her.

When it came time to film the scene where Tyrone and Zoe consummate their marriage, Lianna insisted that an intimacy coordinator was not needed. "Rick's a sweetheart and a gentleman," Lianna told Stan, "and I know he respects boundaries." Before they filmed the first take, Lianna whispered in Stan's ear. "Let's really go at it. I mean, not for real, but let's try to show 'em just how crazy they are for each other. It'll make the ending all the more tragic, don't you think?"

Stan filmed at least seven or eight takes of the love scene, each one steamier than the last. Marrick was stunned by how aggressive Lianna was in each take: she seemed to have no boundaries at all, gripping every inch of his muscular body, pounding wildly against him, moving around the bed like a crazed panther. At one point, Lianna threw Marrick on his back with a strength he had not anticipated, and began kissing down his smooth chest as though she were actually preparing to go down on him. By the time the last take was filmed, Marrick was fully erect, and Lianna's eyes bulged at the size of his hard-on.

She laughed and stroked his goatee as she whispered, "You do know with that thing, you'll always find work in movies, right?"

--

After principal photography concluded, Marrick was consumed by thoughts of Lianna. With every spare moment, his mind drifted in her direction; he heard her sweet Brisbane accent in his dreams. He wasn't one to date co-stars, but he wanted to go out with her badly. However, he figured such a relationship would be doomed; once "Destiny" was released, the tabloids would surely make fun of him for dating a woman he had killed onscreen (even though a body double was ultimately used in the death scene).

Luckily for Marrick, the film had a number of bad test screenings--viewers were turned off by all the extreme violence and gore--and just weeks before "Destiny" was due to be released, First Fleet Pictures announced that it would neither put the film in theaters or premiere it on their streaming service, Next Fleet. Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, World of Reel and Deadline all reported that First Fleet executives decided it was better to cancel the release and use "Destiny" as a tax write-off. Stan was furious, vowing never to work with First Fleet again. Marrick, however, was delighted, and called Lianna hoping for a chance to take her out.

Lianna was stunned by the news of the film's cancellation and didn't want to go out, but she invited Marrick to come over to her place. He expected her to still be a bit sad by the news, but he was surprised when she immediately hugged and kissed him on the cheek as soon as she opened the door. She was wearing a pink robe, and his eyes marveled at how cute she looked in it.

"Come in and sit down," she beckoned, and something about her body, her voice, her personality, her presence just overwhelmed him.

"I just wanted to say that you were right," she smiled, her green eyes shining. "It would have been too weird to see that ending, particularly in America. I should have pushed back a bit more."

"No need to apologize," he replied. "It's OK."

"Well, there is one problem--no one's gonna get to see that love scene! That was wild, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Suddenly, Lianna opened her robe, and Marrick froze as he gazed at her nude body for a second time.

"So, you wanna do one more take? Just for us?"

"Oh my..."

Lianna approached him and kissed his earlobe.

"You know what every girl says when they get to Hollywood...what they really want to do is direct."

"Uh-huh."

She winked as she caressed his hardening cock.

"Action!"