Miles above the surface of an alien planet, a sperm whale is called into
existence by nothing but the capriciousness of fate (well, of the author). We
get to hear the whale’s yearning, excited internal monologue for exactly one
minute and 37 seconds: It’s happy to be alive, intrigued by the wind, delighted
by its tail, and absolutely enthralled by this big flat thing, the ground,
coming at it very, very fast. “I wonder if it will be friends with me,” the
whale wonders, and then, in the most repulsive yet poignant sound effect
description ever written, we hear a “sperm whale hitting the ground at several
hundred miles per hour.”
