From: Piper
To: Mom
Subject: A Dangerous Planet?
Date: April 10th, 2038
Mom,
Here is why your concerns for my safety are grossly misplaced:
1) There are no guns on Mars and no reason to have them. No one's going to break in. There are no banks to rob, no drive-by's, no gangs, no rival nations.
2) We very rarely get sick. Each of us was healthy at the time we blasted off, and any small viruses we had played themselves out during the journey out. It is rare for anyone in the Hab to suffer as much as a sniffle. Oh, and there are no insect-born or animal-born diseases here. There's no rabies, no plague, no Hanta-virus, no chagas, no malaria, not even bee stings.
3) There is no child abuse on Mars, so therefore, no nightmares about the stuff you see at work.
So you can see, your worries for my safety and happiness are silly. Mars is far more peaceful than Earth. It is, literally and figuratively, a huge weight off.
I, on the other hand, am concerned for your safety. Earth is a violent, dangerous place, with wars and crime and disease. I demand you leave your home and your career immediately and move in with me. While at first, you might feel at a loss with no pedophiles to incarcerate, I am sure you could apply your skill set to almost any project we've got planned up here.
Honestly, I really do wish I could bring you and Dad up here with me.
To: Annie
From: Jack
Subject: RE: FW: A Dangerous Planet?
Annie,
Aside from the fact that this entire email is a poke at you, I'd just like to clarify paragraph number 2. They have been both very careful and very lucky not to have any huge epidemics up there. Both NASA and MSC are extremely careful about infectious diseases. An astronaut shows up at the launch pad with the sniffles, they're replaced, just like that. If someone comes down with a virus during the refueling stage in orbit around the moon, they'll bring 'em back down. Because of that, most of them voluntarily isolate themselves for weeks before their scheduled launch date. They became absolute germophobes--nitrile gloves, Lysol in public, the whole thing. There's a very funny bit on one of the episodes about it.
One the other hand, remember the epidemics of Boat Plague we used to suffer when we worked on the tall ships? Well, if they ever do have a colonist who shows up with an undetected case of whatever, they're all getting it, and they may never be rid of it.
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The Astronaut's Mom
Science FictionA mother struggles to deal with the fact that her daughter has chosen to participate in a one-way mission to Mars. Dedicated to my wife, all the foster children we've had so far, and the child that will someday grow up with us. Major Influences:...
