(NASA): That’s all very nice but we won’t be taking the female programme any further
Erin (Jerrie Cobb): But why? We worked so hard. Some of us lost our jobs or our husbands
— Urla/NASA waves her hands dismissively —
Urla (NASA): There are many reasons
Erin (Jerrie Cobb) (SMIRKING): Give me one good reason
Urla (NASA): Er. I’m, er. I am not authorised to divulge that information to third parties who are not associated with any official NASA programme
Erin (Jerrie Cobb) (LAUGHS/MOCK ANGER): Well, why the hell not?
Urla (NASA) (DRAWLING): Let it drop now. You’re like a dog with a bone. Do you have a husband? Think of how you’re making your husband feel. If not think about your daddy. You know your daddy wouldn’t want you up there
Erin (Jerrie Cobb): But gee. All the tests show I’d do just fine
Urla (NASA): The tests are not fully conclusive. You might well get up there and just faint or something. And what if you got to space and got yourself raped by an alien? Imagine if you were the courier for an extraterrestrial being back on our planet
— Urla straightens up and wags a finger on her free hand pointedly
— continues in her best pretend-self-righteous voice —
We will not continue the female programme because of the risks it would bring to the American public. My word is final
— at this Erin/Jerrie Cobb screams in frustration and throws her walkie-talkie into the duvet — Urla jumps and her rocket hat falls off — both the girls are laughing —
CUT
NOT THE WHITE BULL JUPITER SWIMMING
INT. CABIN — MORNING — Erin is sat on the bed with laptop — Urla has camcorder — zoom in — Erin’s face — zoom out — sudden noise from outside —
Larus (SHOUTING): GIRLS — GIRLS COME — SHI—
— Larus bursts into cabin, knocks into Urla with camera — Urla turns — camera focuses on Larus — excitement —
Larus (WHISPERING): Girls. Come quickly. Outside
Erin: What? What is it?
Larus: You’ll see. Come quickly. Quietly.
— girls follow Larus into corridor — Urla is in front with camera — Erin out of shot — out onto deck — Larus looks over deck — girls gather round — water slaps against side of boat — Greenland is faint on horizon — iceberg — no whales/dolphins —
Erin: What are we supposed to be looking at?
Larus: Shush. You’ll see
— the group stands silently for fourteen seconds —four metres away from the boat the water breaks — gush of air from blowhole — ridged back of sperm whale breaks surface — Urla shrieks —
Erin (YELLS): OHMYGOD—
Larus (SHOUTING): CHRIST. It’s nearer than before
— boat rocks —
Urla: Is it safe?
Larus: Jesus. Sorry. It took me by surprise. Yes, we should be safe. Just no more screaming, girls
Urla (LAUGHING): You screamed loudest. I have it all here.
I can play it back to you
Erin: It’s so big. I’ve never seen anything so big. Is it a sperm whale?
Larus: Yes, it’s a sperm whale. We will be safe, they’re not that curious. But it’s very close
— creature resurfaces further from boat — Erin jumps —
Erin: Oh god, it got me again
— nervous laughing — group stand and watch the whale resurface twice more before sinking into the calm water, its mass leaving its imprint in tiny bubbles —
CUT
THE COMMUNISTS ARE IN THE FUNHOUSE
KULUSUK: looks pretend. It is a tiny island ‘settlement’ with only five hundred people in it, which is, apparently, quite large for Greenland. The houses look like they were erected from a flat-pack box, as if they could be neatly folded away and taken with the people if they migrated. They are painted block primary colours: little toy houses, stage props. They are set into the rocks at jaunty angles. The slopes sit vertical against the still water, as if the island is built on the tips of a mountain range that lies just below the surface. The water must not get stormy because some of the houses sit just metres from its edge.
Urla is glad to be back on shore. She was short and restless and pacing in her catlike way, flitting between being happier reading on her own in the bedroom cabin and coming into the wheelhouse to sit with us but not saying anything, as though to remind us of her presence before slinking off back to her book.
I can’t sleep now, my womb feels like it is full of acid and lined with tar, and I can’t flail around like I would in my own bed because I will wake Urla. One of the nearby houses has huskies and they have been howling all night at the moonless sky. My eye mask itches, my Mooncup is uncomfortable and I am scared of leaking on the sheets on our last night with Larus.
This is the kind of period that requires a big fat nappy towel but I am trying to be good to the environment. I am still so glad to have my periods back that I feel no resentment towards it. The pill had stopped them and I went without for the whole time I was on it. I went on it like a lot of teenage girls do, because my periods hurt a lot and would interrupt that steady forward march to the drumbeat of patriarchy, making me take time off work and school. As though being female is an ailment to be cured with medicine.
I have been staring at the first ever picture of Earth for about an hour now. The one taken from the Apollo mission where they flew around the moon to take pictures of craters, the mission before they actually landed. They went up there to take these pictures of the moon’s craters but the astronauts decided to turn the camera around and film Earth rising from behind the moon.
At that moment, for the first time ever, images were appearing on the screens at NASA of Earth from outside Earth. They were watching themselves watching themselves almost in real time from 238,857 miles away. Right then, they reached a new level of self-consciousness that will probably never be recreated outside that room and moment ever again. A Copernican Revolution.
In
