Read Set Sail for Europa :: S1-EP04: What's an Arizona?

Perseveranced strolled, or rather, roved away after the small conversation we had. Landsat-9 was still analyzing all the lines and legends on the map, as if that was his first assignment to do. I was trying to see where it was I had to go for orientation, but it was quite distracting with him in the way. Not physically --well maybe a little-- but he was rather...in the way of my thoughts.

He was the first spacecraft I have ever met, the first of my kind that I've seen. And I don't know if it's like this for all spacecraft, but honestly, I think he's really interesting. He piqued my curiosity once he mentioned he was new. I stared down at Landsat-9 momentarily. This was an Earth satellite from somewhere else, this so-called "Arizona" which was entirely new to my vocabulary. It was hard not to bombard him with questions, or maybe not? He was looking at the map until he caught me.

"Uhm, is something wrong?" He asked. Was there? Was I doing something wrong? I was only looking at him. Should I ask? Oh my stars this was incredibly embarrassing. Again.

"Uh, no?" I just simply replied with. Nothing else, I didn't tell him anything else.

"...Okay..." he said. Blast it, did I scare him? He's probably thinking how silly I look with my wires in the wrong boards and my louvers on backwards. Come on, Clipper, say something! Start something and just slowly get to the point where you can casually ask him stuff.

"So..." he turned back at me, and I redirected my eyes down to the ground, "...Landsat-9, huh? That's your-uh-your name?"

"Ee-yup." he replied, "Soon to be a part of a proud continuous neighborhood up in Low Earth Orbit." Continuous neighborhood? Interesting, maybe that's part of being an Earth satellite.

"What do you all do?"

"Well, I guess the usual, taking multispectral images of Earth's vegetation and land, some infrared heat vision here and there...but we have a knack for gardening." He fixed his instrument payload, "Library seems easy to get to, maybe I can find some books to show ya!" He led the way there and chuckled with his hands away from his body, until he stopped and had a pondering gesture.

And, also, we have a library? This I got to see! At least after what Landsat-9 is doing...

"Well, I don't know how it works here, heh. Like I said, I'm really new here." That's my time to try to get him to explain what an Arizona was.

"Yeah, uhm, you're from Ariiii--" I held the vowel there, waving my pointed finger just a little.

"Arizona. Gilbert, Arizona." He had his arm on his lower body, "I'm here in California for Vandenberg." he pointed his thumb to his right. California was the only word, or rather a place, that I was really familiar with in that sentence. Whereever this school was in, it was in California. It could have been as small as this property or as big as a hundred miles across, but we were in California. Now I can ask him more. Or try to.

"Oh...So, uh, what was it like over there?" We continued down the corridor.

"I think it was great. When you're not in orbit, you can do a lot of gardening in 24 hours. It's super sunny over there, but also wicked hot for some people. Not too much going on back there, either, it's a nice and easy environment."

So, Arizona sounds like a good place for gardening. It makes sense if it's so sunny and hot, so I can kind of understand why they from there. It must have a very beautiful environment, perhaps some pretty forests and fields of grass. Okay just to confirm this, I'll actually try to ask. For real this time, no waiting.

"Alright...so, what's an Arizona?" I asked.

"Huh?" Goodness was it something I said again? "It's the state next to us, of course. You don't know?" Was I supposed to know?! Wait, but I didn't know! Was I? Did they mess up the program?! Gah, how do I not know?! Nobody told me! I'm sorry!

He was staring right at me and my silly little face, "Ah, I forgot you're still super new, like, just from the cleanrooms. And I suppose it's not necessary information to be programmed with."

"I'll be more than happy to explain at the library." Thank you for not being super upset with me, "Do ya at least know what California is?"

"Y-yes. It's this place...uhm..." I glared right back at him but it felt like I had to be the most dumbfounded spacecraft in this Solar System right now, "Sorry."

He chuckled, but I didn't know if he was laughing at me, "It's completely fine. I was confused on what Vandenburg was, so, ya ain't alone." And there I sighed the biggest relief I've had all day. Though, I still felt silly about the way I acted.

Right when we took a turn, I remembered after I had completely forgotten about my orientation. Gragh!

"Hey, uhm, Landsat, uh I kind of remembered I had to do an orientation, uhm..." He stopped in front of me.

"Ah, no problem! I'll walk us back to the front office, I think that's where they start ya off if you find the right person."