terra firma
noun
******************************
Terry had never understood why characters in shows kissed the ground when disembarking from a ship. Now he did. He wanted nothing more than to lie on the ground and not move, reveling in its stability. He did not even care that the ground was hard and a bit rocky. All that mattered was that it was solid and unmoving. While he did not quite get to the point of fully reclining, he did get down on his knees and nearly hugged the dirt.
“What are you doing?” Leslie asked. She was the second member of the crew to disembark, and she looked at Terry with a look that spoke volumes about what she thought about his intelligence.
“What’s it look like? I’m enjoying the lack of movement of the ground. The stability of solid earth under us. There’s nothing else like it.”
“Oh, come on. The trip wasn’t that bad.” She said, rolling her eyes. “Also, should you really be calling it earth?”
“Don’t ruin this for me, Les. Besides, you know what I mean.”
“I’m just saying, you can’t really call it ‘earth’ considering Earth is several light years away.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m just glad the ground isn’t moving. Nice, solid ground that won’t shift suddenly. It’s beautiful.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. So we had to dodge some debris fields. Most of the trip was smooth flying and you know it.”
Terry finally stood. He became aware that other members of the crew were disembarking and looking at him with a similar expression to Leslie’s. They just chose not to comment. None of them carried equipment. That would come later.
“Don’t tell me you’re not happy to be back on a planet. I heard how you spent three days in the med bay due to nausea during one of those ‘not so bad’ debris field maneuvers.”
“That was not because of nausea!” Leslie said quickly. “A few tools and screws came loose. I got a few bruises and cuts. I said it was fine and nothing major, but you know how medical is.”
“And now that we’re on a planet, we don’t have to worry about that sort of thing.” Terry said proudly.
“Well, to be fair, we don’t know the geologic situation here. This area could be prone to earth…planet quakes.”
Terry shuddered. “Don’t say things like that. You’re just asking for trouble. I had trouble dealing with shaking on the ship. I don’t know what I’d do if the ground started shaking as well.”
Leslie looked at him for a moment. “How you got chosen for this mission, I’ll never know.”
“Oh you know I’m not the only one who thinks the same. I’m just the only one who’s voicing them.”
“Right. Sure. You keep thinking that, Terry. Now then, if you’ll excuse me, some of us have work to do. But you enjoy your…ground hugging session.”
“Thank you, I will.” Terry said quickly as Leslie turned and started off.
Terry did hate to admit it, but she was right in a way. There was a lot to do, and he should really be doing his own job. That did not mean he couldn’t take some time to just enjoy the stability of the ground though. For a few more minutes, at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment