Card prompts: a letter to the editor, a person who has never left the city.
Initially I had an idea to try to make it a comedy letter where the person that never left the city was especially paranoid and skeptical of things outside of city life. But I had such a hard time thinking of the reasoning they would use, and wasn’t sure if my comedy chops were up to par for the project. Then my brain started to veer sci fi, so we get the following instead:

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Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my disagreement with recent opinion videograms posted by your very own Dean Candle in regards to whether it is time to leave our city. There has been growing support for the idea in recent years, and Mr. Candle is one of the most vocal proponents. The fact that the esteemed Colonizer Update gives a voice to this dangerous sentiment is disappointing.

As everyone is aware, the terraforming process was always meant to take at least 150 years. Changing the atmosphere and environment of an entire planet is time consuming and difficult, and every hiccup in the process adds nearly a decade to the estimate. I understand that to an individual of Mr. Candle’s generation, Paradise has been a great disappointment. When they made the choice to leave their home planet, they had high hopes of finding a world that, according to all known data, would be ideally suited to hosting human life. Instead, they arrived to find a planet with air we couldn’t breathe, water we couldn’t even touch, let alone drink without first processing it to potable. They found a barren wasteland devoid of life. For the pioneering individuals that wanted to be able to walk under an alien sky and send news back home that we had established the Promised Land, the entire venture has been tinged with a degree of shame. They had faced so much doubt and scorn back home, made so many sacrifices, only to have the naysayers proven right. And then to have to simply make the best of it and put secondary colonization plans into action. Plans which included the building of our massive underground city and adjoining surface domes, and building and programming the robots for mapping and terraforming. It has truly been an undertaking the likes of which the human race has never before accomplished. And if successful, the entirety of our planet will stand a marvel, a true planetary Wonder more magnificent than anything we have ever created before.

As a native Paradisian born quite early to this planet, I understand that I am part of a generation that will likely never truly experience being “outside.” That is a gift that we will leave to our children’s generation, if things go as planned. I have worked in the surface domes and have seen the progress we have made, and it is substantial. I understand the temptation to say that we have done our part and to throw our doors open and begin our true lives here. But I have also talked to our scientists and technicians and know the work is not done yet. The air may finally be breathable, and the vegetation looks wonderful, but the rains are still acidic enough to cause pitting in the dome surface.

Even if we do venture outside, other things will have to be taken into consideration. First and foremost, the creatures that continue to wreck our terraforming bots have not been identified. I know that many believe that the bots are malfunctioning and that there has been scant evidence of native animal life on this planet, but the damage that we have been able to see on the cameras does not look like a mere malfunction. Beyond native wildlife or inhabitants, there could also be a whole host of unseen dangers – viruses, bacteria, or fungal spores that could carry diseases the likes of which we’ve never experienced. Part of the reason the time estimates are so long includes the vast amounts of study that needs to be put into making sure everything is truly safe. The first individuals that eventually do venture out will not be able to return. They will be subjected to a permanent quarantine as they determine whether the planet has truly become habitable. And if we are too enthusiastic and send those individuals out too early, we are dooming them to one of two outcomes: a premature death, or a life separated from the rest of us.

If Mr. Candle and those that share his opinions are willing to undertake that risk, I will not object to them volunteering to be the first to leave, granted that they understand they may never be able to return. But the general impression I have gotten from everyone that shares Mr. Candle’s opinion is that we should stop being afraid as a whole and simply open the city to the world of Paradise. And that is a dangerous idea that puts our entire population at risk. As such, it is an idea that cannot be entertained or tolerated. If the Colonizer Update wants to continue to give Mr. Candle a platform for his ideas, they should also provide measured responses and disclaimers from our scientists working so hard on the terraforming project, so that his misinformation can be balanced and scrutinized and the public can remain truthfully informed.

Thank you, and Respectfully,
Teresa Garret
Head of Dome-3 Security