Nora's Pique

The Alaskan wilderness was not at all what she expected.  Her normally bright green face darkened with disappointment, which is common for residents of Titan when they become disappointed.

Nora Drenalin was in command of Saturn One, the first ship from Titan to explore the inner solar system.  She pitched the ship at a forty-five degree angle, held tight with her six fingers on her command console, and peered out her porthole.  There beneath her was Alaska, the great wilderness, vast stretches of tundra, winding rivers, brown and white mountains, flows of caribou.  Nora rattled, then hummed like an old harmonica and turned an even darker green.

“O pal-ease!” Nora blurted, “They call this a wilderness!  This is not a wilderness--on Titan we have wilderness!”

Murtha Radon, second in command and chief science officer, flipped a bunch of switches on her science console and then gazed out her porthole, cued by Nora’s comments.

“What is it you expected, Commander?” Murtha posed, her bright green face full of genuine concern and query.

“This is a different world, this is Earth,” Murtha continued. “It’s a wilderness, it’s an Earthly wilderness; why have any expectations at all?”

Suddenly Murtha felt self-conscious, feeling like she may had said too much, so she returned to her panel of dials and glowing gizmos, pretending like a serious analytical problem had just arisen.

Commander Drenalin put the ship in a holding pattern above the side of a glacier filled mountain and continued her Alaska ragging:

“Well, don’t you remember that report we got last year from Ganymede?  They sent one of their probes to Earth, and it sent back pictures and data.  They mentioned this place Alaska, and there was a consensus of opinion--they talked up this Alaskan wilderness really big!”

“I remember,” Murtha replied, “But those pictures were very poor.  They put a used camera aboard that probe, a camera purchased from a consignment shop.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” piped Nora, “but they still had data, and they made this Alaska sound like the methane valleys of Titan!”

“Well, it is what it is,” lamented Murtha, and as she said that, she spotted some creatures in the large bay off to their right. 

“Look there, Commander.” 

Nora looked, and she saw some humpback whales breaking water and blowing great streams of air and water from their blowholes.

“We have nothing like this on Titan,” Mutha said matter-of-factly.  This planet has much life that lives in the water; this is a water world.”

Nora pushed the control stick forward and the ship zoomed down closer to the water. 

“Those are beautiful creatures, aren’t they?”  Nora offered, suddenly mellow, as if she had no inkling of her wilderness faultfinding.

“Beautiful creatures, indeed,” Mutha chimed in.

As Nora hovered the ship five hundred feet above the Prussian blue water, she turned to Murtha:

“Does this place have a name?”

“Yes,” answered Murtha, “It’s called Valdez.”

Murtha quickly pulled up some information on her computer screen, and continued:

“Years ago they had a big oil spill here.  Seems one of their oil tankers ruptured it hull, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil, and the environment...”

“Oil!”  Nora exclaimed, interrupting her. 

“Millions of gallons of oil, Commander.”

Nora’s green face took on an almost serene look, like she were staring at the methane rich pools back on her beloved Titan.

“Prepare to land, science officer,” Nora commanded.  “Oil is definitely worth our time and effort.  Maybe we can find some.”

The ship landed on a rocky escarpment in the stark wilderness of Valdez, Nora once again her bright green self.


606 Words
Writer’s Cramp
July 10, 2013