Letter from a Traveling Nine Year Old
Hello to everyone back on Earth! Mommy and Daddy are down at the Ark Level looking at all the animals, but they said if I wanted to stay here in the cabin then I could. I don't like the animals. Whenever they're not sitting like lazy faces in the corner then they're crawling all over each other. I don't see why we're supposed to bring them with us, but Mommy says because they are an important part of the Earthen ecology.
Get this! This spaceship is FULL OF BUGS. They're also on the Ark level and the cages they're in are SO GROSS. I asked Mommy and Daddy why we had to bring them along, and they said that bugs are the most important species of all. How do you say the plural of "species"? I don't know. Daddy said that once we get to Neo Earth then the bugs are going to join the ones already released onto the planet, and they will all help terraform it and transform it into the Earth that we know. Except better than the Earth that we know because everything will be green and fresh and abundant. Because of spiders? Um, NO.
Being on this spaceship is the best fun I've had in a long while. There's a school here, and a zero gravity playground, and stores, and all sorts of other things they had back home. Today I learned in Biology that everyone on the ship is considered a perfect biological specimen. That means we've all never had the Degeneration and are educated and clean of toxins and we'll all grow up to be strong and hale and hearty. (I learned that word today, "hale", it means "healthy". I don't know why people don't just SAY "healthy".)
Things are REALLY QUIET around here, too. Not at all like back home. Daddy says I should stop saying that because our home is now this spaceship, and then our home will be Neo Earth. I can't help but say it, though, and last night he yelled at me for saying it. So I said that home had things like my room and my friends (you) and where we were going didn't have any of those, so it wasn't home. And neither was here. Then Mommy got up and walked Daddy out of the kitchen and when she came back in she said I should write to you all. Which I didn't know I could do. So here it is! My letter!
I wish you were all here with me. I'm SO GOOD at zero-g dugball. I nailed like seven boys before one of them got me! Nyah!
My bed is under a porthole (which is what they call a window here). When we're in jumpspace (which allows us to go faster than the speed of light and get to places faster than and blah blah blah blah. I asked Daddy to explain it once but it was all boring) sometimes I like to shut all the lights off in my room, sit on my bed, and stare out the window. The stars are all stretchy and they jump and down as they streak by. One time I tried to count them and I got dizzy. They're sparkly, too, and sometimes, if I'm staring long enough, I can make out words that the patterns spell. Any time I see a word I write it down in a little file that collects all the words I see in the stars. It doesn't mean anything yet, but I bet it will.
Sometimes I wish you could look up at the sky and see me waving in the stars, but then I remember that you can't see stars back home unless you're at Top Level and have a Dampener. Daddy says that we'll be able to see the stars all the time from Neo Earth, with our own eyes, and there will be new constellations to name and all sorts of new sites to see.
I'm going to name some constellations after you guys. I'll be the first one off the ship! Nobody will have a chance if I run!
Get this! This spaceship is FULL OF BUGS. They're also on the Ark level and the cages they're in are SO GROSS. I asked Mommy and Daddy why we had to bring them along, and they said that bugs are the most important species of all. How do you say the plural of "species"? I don't know. Daddy said that once we get to Neo Earth then the bugs are going to join the ones already released onto the planet, and they will all help terraform it and transform it into the Earth that we know. Except better than the Earth that we know because everything will be green and fresh and abundant. Because of spiders? Um, NO.
Being on this spaceship is the best fun I've had in a long while. There's a school here, and a zero gravity playground, and stores, and all sorts of other things they had back home. Today I learned in Biology that everyone on the ship is considered a perfect biological specimen. That means we've all never had the Degeneration and are educated and clean of toxins and we'll all grow up to be strong and hale and hearty. (I learned that word today, "hale", it means "healthy". I don't know why people don't just SAY "healthy".)
Things are REALLY QUIET around here, too. Not at all like back home. Daddy says I should stop saying that because our home is now this spaceship, and then our home will be Neo Earth. I can't help but say it, though, and last night he yelled at me for saying it. So I said that home had things like my room and my friends (you) and where we were going didn't have any of those, so it wasn't home. And neither was here. Then Mommy got up and walked Daddy out of the kitchen and when she came back in she said I should write to you all. Which I didn't know I could do. So here it is! My letter!
I wish you were all here with me. I'm SO GOOD at zero-g dugball. I nailed like seven boys before one of them got me! Nyah!
My bed is under a porthole (which is what they call a window here). When we're in jumpspace (which allows us to go faster than the speed of light and get to places faster than and blah blah blah blah. I asked Daddy to explain it once but it was all boring) sometimes I like to shut all the lights off in my room, sit on my bed, and stare out the window. The stars are all stretchy and they jump and down as they streak by. One time I tried to count them and I got dizzy. They're sparkly, too, and sometimes, if I'm staring long enough, I can make out words that the patterns spell. Any time I see a word I write it down in a little file that collects all the words I see in the stars. It doesn't mean anything yet, but I bet it will.
Sometimes I wish you could look up at the sky and see me waving in the stars, but then I remember that you can't see stars back home unless you're at Top Level and have a Dampener. Daddy says that we'll be able to see the stars all the time from Neo Earth, with our own eyes, and there will be new constellations to name and all sorts of new sites to see.
I'm going to name some constellations after you guys. I'll be the first one off the ship! Nobody will have a chance if I run!
posted by greenland at 6:15 PM
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