On the ninth day of Yuletide my true love gave to me, nine hours of footage from Earth radio transmissions
Eight model moons for my model Saturn
Seven meal tickets for up coming astrobiology conferences
Six sided crystals
Five instrument ideas for a Titan mission probe
Four record discs for the radio telescope
Three UV fluorescing samples
And two microscope slides
To go in my science laboratory.
On the eighth day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, eight rings for my model Saturn
Seven tour tickets for telescopes at up coming astrobiology
conferences
Six sided crystals
Five environmental suit options for Titan
Four record discs for the radio telescope
Three UV fluorescing samples
And two microscope slides
To go in my science laboratory.
On the seventh day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, seven
event passes for up coming astrobiology conferences,
Six-sided crystals
Five mock-up tourist brochures for Titan
Four record discs for the radio telescope
Three UV fluorescing samples
And two microscope slides
To go in my science laboratory.
Tani fussed over her research
Fiddling with notes on presentations
Rerunning demonstrations
And becoming derailed by a new experiment
Because what if she incorporated a six-sided crystal
Infused with bioluminescence into the Titan space probe
plans…
Time passed, Enceladus turned, and Tani muttered away in her
lab.
A tinkling at the door caught her attention
Tani looked up, elongated head angled towards the door
Her true love approached and passed over the tinkling
objects
Tani ran an arm over the objects and gasped
The words inscribed on the metal described them as event
passes
For seven different upcoming astrobiology conferences
(Which is precisely what she had been preparing for)
Tani squealed and hugged her true love.
He also passed over a box compiled by various people in her
life
A box with six-sided crystals
Five mock-up tourist brochures for Titan
Four record discs for the radio telescope
Three UV fluorescing samples
And two microscope slides
To go in her science laboratory.
On the sixth day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me,
six sided crystals
Five Titan space-probe design options
Four record discs for the radio telescope
Three UV fluorescing samples
And two microscope slides
To go in my science laboratory.
Tani undulated happily through the water
Arm in arm with her true love
They squirted out of the heated submarine
Wearing heated suits
And ventured into a great cavern
In the seafloor of Enceladus
A tour guide flipped a switch
And the cavern filled with light
Light caught in towering crystals
Grown over centuries and uplifted
In this cavern
Six-sided crystals filled with light
Towering pillars
Dainty smaller crystals
Shining in the dark ocean.
Upon leaving Tani’s love bought her
A lovely six-sided crystal
To remember the day by.
And back in the lab Tani found
Five Titan space-probe design options
Four record discs for the radio telescope
Three UV fluorescing samples
And two microscope slides
To aid in her research.
On the fifth day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, five budget signatures
For a space probe to Titan,
Four record discs for the radio telescope
Three UV fluorescing samples
And two microscope slides
To go in my science laboratory.
Tani floated in her warm cave
And dreamed of Titan
Of oceans and rivers and rains
Of hydrocarbon
Of a world where you could see the sky
From the ocean
Of a sky filled with vapors and gases and weather
Of spectrum spanning rainbows arching across the sky
Rather than billowing plumes
And the dark night of space
But still the hovering giant of Saturn
Would fill the sky.
It had been a good sixth of a year
Since the last mission to Titan
And Tani had hope
That this time she would go
That this time
She would travel the space between moons
And visit the famed Titan.
It was thus with great glee
That she heard the message left for her
In her lab
That five more benefactors
Had signed on to support the next Titan mission,
And in a neat box
Tied up with a bioluminescent ribbon
Tani found more materials to help her studies,
Four sound recording discs
Three UV fluorescent specimens
And two more microscope slides
All for her science laboratory.
On the fourth day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, four
antennae for a radio telescope
Three samples that fluoresce under UV light
And two microscope slides
To go in my science laboratory,
Tani hummed happily to herself
As she listened to the music of the stars
A recording based on radio wave signals
Attributed to the stars far beyond Enceladus
The crackle and rise and fall soothing
To her scientific soul.
Turning off her audio device
She squirted out into the water
Beyond the sheltering cave she called home
Towards the science laboratories at which she worked,
There she had the great honor
Of snipping the ribbon
In celebration of the new radio telescope
With four antennae strategically positioned
In a field of stone
Near the lab,
She hooked it into the sound system
And broadcast the sound of the stars
Throughout Enceladus’ ocean.
Later that night in her personal lab
She found three samples
That fluoresce in UV light
And two new slides to examine under her microscopes
In her very own science laboratory.
The silver of the tinsel
Where it swoops along the rafters,
The gleam of the lights
Colored bright in their bulbs of glass,
The sparkle of the ornaments
Where they hang on the tree,
The laughter filled with love
That rings throughout the house,
Shiny.
On the third day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me,
three UV-lights
And two microscope slide sets
To go in my science laboratory,
Tani undulated happily
Beside the incandescent plume
Of hot water
From Enceladus’ core
The heat seeping into her very bones
The nutrient rich waters
Soothing her skin
As she relaxed arm in arm with her love
Feeling little currents
Twirl off from the great plume
Bringing swirls of heat
Into the greater ocean.
Later they returned to her lab
To find three mysterious objects
On the central lab bench
Tani turned them on
And squealed in delight
For her friends had gifted her with
Three ultra-violet lights
With which to study
Things here on Enceladus
In preparation for the study
Of worlds beyond,
Furthermore, were two small boxes
Containing prepped microscope slides
To further her understanding
Of life on Enceladus.
On the second day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me,
two microscopes
To go in my science laboratory,
In the dark of Enceladus’ ocean
The warmth from hydrothermal vents
Wraps around the citizens of the ocean
And on a towering autotroph
Of branched ribbons
Waving in the current
Anchored to the stone
The citizens of Enceladus hung globes
Filled with phosphorescence
That the gleaming ribbons were outlined
With pale blue-green light
Undulating in the eternal night
Of the ocean’s depths.
Tani smiled as she watched the festive lights dance
From where she floated arm in arm with her true love
Light was rare and precious in the here-below
And the photons filled her soul
Even as they scattered off into the water.
Later in the day Tani was once again led to her lab
Her lab!
And there on a central lab bench
Were two microscopes
One for large objects
And one for thin slices
That she might examine life as it was on Enceladus
In the hopes of understanding
What life might be like in the great-beyond
She turned on the microscopes
And red light filled the lab with cheer
As if two Red Dwarfs
In binary orbit
In the dark of space
Had ignited.
On the first day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, a
science laboratory,
Away from the Sun, beneath the ringed splendor of Saturn
A tiny moon gleams with reflected light
It glitters with plumes of water
That shoot up from its icy crust
Sending wisps of ice crystals into space
To join their brethren in a ring
Around Saturn.
Below, down below, beneath the icy crust
Beneath the fissures that channel curtains of water
Up towards space
Is an ocean
And down, down, in the depths of the ocean
In citadels encircling hydrothermal vents
Islands of warmth on the seafloor
Are the sentient cephalopods
Among them the elegant and graceful
Blue skinned, slender armed
Tani.
Tani is a curious creature
And her large eyes are as full of wonder
As they were when she was a tiny squirt
Only now they are enhanced by the telescopes
Through which she peers
Searching for answers
To the mysteries of the universe.
In the coldest time of year
They hold a celebration
Twelve days of warmth and love
Twelve days of Yule-tide,
And this is a year of special importance
For Tani has been working at the astronomy laboratory
For a full third of Saturn’s year,
Her significant other, her true love
Promised her a Yule-tide like no other
And led her to a site of recent construction
Into the astronomy laboratory
And through the arching doorway,
“Surprise!” The
soundwaves rippled through the water
Tani ran an arm over the door and found the inscription:
Tani’s Lab
Overwhelmed with joy she twirled through the water
As her friends and family and coworkers celebrated
For the first day of Yule-tide
Her true loves one and all
Gave Tani a science laboratory.
