The North Slope oil and gas environment is, in some aspects, surreal. Visiting in spring, it reminded me in many ways of the Star Trek universe. So much of daily life is provided for: free housekeeping, free food, free access to health clinics, et cetera. But you’re stuck on the “starship”; there’s no popping off for a jaunt if you’re feeling restless; there are limits to your activities; you don’t really choose who you’re interacting with most of the time. Some days you’re just maintaining engines or providing transport or working in the kitchen. Some days there’s a polar bear outside. The mundane is combined with the awesome in unpredictable ways.

In Star Trek, a giant spaceship is dwarfed by the vastness of space; on the North Slope, huge trucks, massive rigs, and large buildings likewise could be easily lost in the endless expanse of tundra. The scale of everything is just greater, yet somehow that emphasizes how the most significant works of the human race are dwarfed by nature in its many forms.

And then, on Rig 272, descending to the ground level, we were met by the massive wheels that allow the whole rig to just pack up and move when the job is done. It was impossible not to feel small. It was impossible not to feel I was connected to something special, when my fellow human beings are able to produce such an incredible machine.