That Semich Dick

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.”