Cockpit for Love

Set in the forests of Oregon, this science fiction love story follows MICHAEL
DONOVAN, a world champion Formula One driver, and JILL VAELARIS, a space engineer
and princess from the distant planet Islip.
After surviving a violent crash during a Formula One race, Michael suffers a mysterious
condition that leaves him overwhelmed by severe nausea whenever he sits behind the wheel of a
car. Unable to race, restless, and emotionally adrift, he retreats alone to his remote cabin in the
Oregon Cascades to recover. There he discovers Jill and her servant-guardian, OLIVER
SOLVANE, secretly living inside the cabin after their spacecraft, Junior, crash-landed nearby.
Determined to protect Jill’s identity, Oliver convinces Michael they are ordinary travelers
from the East Coast stranded on their way to a wedding. While hiding in the woods, Jill and
Oliver secretly repair Junior and discover that certain Earth-made electronic components can
temporarily replace damaged alien technology. Believing Jill is simply fixing a strange vehicle,
Michael helps her obtain parts from a nearby town.
As the days pass, Jill develops feelings for Michael, though she is troubled by his
womanizing lifestyle and reckless charm. Their growing relationship becomes strained after
Michael and his crude friend Doug humiliate her with careless jokes, while the sudden arrival of
one of Michael’s girlfriends deepens Jill’s emotional conflict.
Still unable to drive professionally, Michael reluctantly enters the town’s annual horse-
cart race. His fame attracts the attention of MARY and MICK, a violent mother-and-son
criminal team who decide his isolated cabin is the perfect target for robbery. When the intruders
attack the cabin at gunpoint, Oliver intervenes and saves Michael and Jill. Facing death together
brings Michael and Jill emotionally closer, and they finally become lovers. Jill reveals that she
comes from another world, but Michael struggles to believe her story.
Meanwhile, Jill discovers that Junior’s damaged auto-cruise system can no longer control
the ship during takeoff and landing. Someone must manually pilot the spacecraft. Oliver notices
the similarity between the controls of Michael’s Formula One car and those of Junior, and
realizes Michael may be the only person capable of flying it. Jill asks Michael to pilot the ship,
but when he sits in the pilot seat, the same crippling nausea returns.
Feeling responsibility to bring Jill back to Islip, Oliver secretly practices driving
Michael’s race car himself so he can better understand the controls. Unaware the car has
damaged suspension from the earlier accident, Oliver crashes during a test drive and dies from
his injuries.
At the same time, NASA and AARO investigators begin analyzing strange aerial
phenomena connected to Michael’s Silverstone crash and mysterious sightings in Oregon. PHIL
CONNORS, a NASA UAP liaison, becomes convinced that extraterrestrial visitors have arrived
on Earth, while AARO investigator BILL NORMAN gradually accepts that the evidence points
to advanced non-human technology.
Government agents eventually capture Jill and separate her from Michael. Before they
can fully investigate Junior, global tensions erupt into World War III. As enemy nations search
for the alien spacecraft, NASA headquarters is destroyed in the chaos of war. Michael reunites
with Jill, and together they fight to prevent Junior from falling into the hands of world powers.
In the end, Michael overcomes both his fear and mysterious illness. Finally able to sit
behind the controls again, he pilots Junior into space alongside Jill, leaving Earth behind forever.