Visit Alpha X-12

The waves bring in electric blue specks of bioluminescence scattered in the wet, glass sheets left on the coast. You sit there with the shimmering sea washing over your legs. You look out across the water at the green mountains rising above the horizon. You heard the opposite coast hasn't been inhabited yet. There's a cargo ship hovering over the surface transporting the materials to build a landing dock.

You lean your head back and rest on your arms. The sun reflects in Saturn's golden rings and reaches out to touch the nebula behind the clouds. Somewhere in those clouds of dust is your old home, floating in the void of space across the solar system.

The air is filled with the gentle crashing of the waves and solar wind blowing through the purple palm trees. You turn your head and see the the sand glittering with a sprinkling of native diamonds. Back home, this beach would have been picked clean by scavengers looking to make a quick buck at the pawn shop. Here, they're worthless.

As otherworldly as this planet feels, there's something infinitely comforting about living a life free from economic woes. Happiness isn't a given anywhere, of course, but you would rather cry against the backdrop of a tropical sunset. People were much too unhappy on Earth, lacking too much of what they need to thrive. This place is supposed to be the first step in humanity's second chance.

You needed a second chance. A do-over to reset all the mistakes of years past. You didn't pick the right school or job or friends. You were never going to retire over there. You were going to work up until the end, still thinking of all those vacations you never got to take. You might have ended up meeting someone and raising 2.5 kids who will never have a college fund. Or you could come here.

So, you thought about those imaginary kids and how they would grow up even worse off than you had with the way our world is going. Home base just doesn't feel like a home anymore. You thought about taking a trip to some island nation a few thousand miles away, where the sand is littered with broken glass and the less fortunate beg tourists for scraps of food.

That's when you walked into my agency. I showed you this poster and you couldn't take your eyes off it. A new start, you said. So, we packed you up for your new life in the 12th colony. Half of the previous 11 planets had turned out to be uninhabitable; the other half we made uninhabitable.

In a way, this is a destination agency. Travel is so... transient. We get you to where you need to truly be. Here on Alpha X-12, we don't let fate's wicked hand make the rules. We give people like you the new life they were looking for. Call it retirement, or vacation. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable. What we're doing is building the future — a post-economy society surrounded by more riches than you can ever imagine.

So lay out on the diamond-studded powder and catch the meteor shower in the evenings. Relax. There's nowhere else you need to be. There's nothing else you need to do but give this planet the life it so desperately craved. You're finally home.