"I can't believe that just a few centuries ago the atmosphere would have crushed this city into a molten mess in a few minutes." Adrian said.
Marveling at the largest manmade city in history, simply called Venus City, Adrian couldn't help but admire how much humans can accomplish.
It is year 804 of the Venusian calendar and Adrian Khabane has finally left Earth behind to start a new life on Venus.
"Yeah, its something" said Jacob Seth his orientation officer.
Every new arrival to Venus is assigned a orientation officer, who are to help guide them in adjusting to the new environment. Orientation officer are essentially a gig as they are classified as paid volunteers by the government. Even though the inward traffic of new settlers has been increasing every year, Jacob still get about 2-3 assignees a month, but it is enough to make a decent wage for a comfortable life for himself, his wife and two kids.
Today he's taking Adrian into Central Plaza the mammothic skyscraper in shape of a gaint pointy thorn sticking out of the ground. From a distance it looks like black obsidian due to it dark black color, however it is regular glass coated with special composite material to absord the sunlight and transfer its energy.
Adrian took a deep breath in the thick Venusian air as he admired everything about his new surroundings.
"So this is real pork?" Adrian asked.
"Yes" Jacob replied.
"This taste nothing like what we had on Earth"
"Here on Venus the farms have abundant feed for the livestock and clean air, so the meat produced here has the original taste what Earth grown meat would have had in the past"
"Wow, to be honest I have never had a hot dog before so I have no idea"
The food cart vendor smiled at the remark, after selling hot dogs in front of the Central Plaza he has probably gotten used to see outsiders being amazed by trivial things.
Adrian was amazed by just how clean everything was even with the frequent storms.
"I am always curious, why do people choose Venus over Mars. I am glad they do, but isn't Mars more technological advance and probably going to be the capital of the solar system, almost all of the governments on Earth have already moved there." Jacob enquiried in his friendly tone.
"I actually never wanted to leave Earth, despite it being polluted and unsafe it is... was home." He took a breath as nostalgia gripped him.
He continued "My father said that he was birn on Earth and will die on Earth, I was poised to follow in his footsteps, but on his deathbed he told me to leave Earth and start a new life on a different planet. So here I am."
Jacob in a sympathetic way said "I was born here on Venus so I don't know how it is there on Earth, but as a father myself I know that he just wanted a good life for you."
"Thanks man"
Jacob checked his watch and it was still sometime for their appointment with the immigration officer.
"How are you finding Venus so far?"
"It's pretty great, I thought I'll feel lighter here but I feel exerted"
"After a long few months in transit through zero gravity of space, it takes time to get use to being on a planet again. I heard Mars is easier in this regard"
"I wouldn't want to be on Mars to be honest"
"Why is that?"
With a sigh Ariand replied "The weak gravity will eventually transform you, I have heard that people being born on Mars look quite different. Almost distinct from rest of humanity, I can't bear to see that happen to me or offsprings. On Venus you don't have that problem."
Jocab felt a bit stinged from the comment, he couldn't tell why.
The cool breeze of the Venusian air brew a chill across the park. The founders park as it is called, stood at the front of the Plaza building with it many entrance gates. At the center of the park stood a black marble monument with the names of the first settlers.
"Tell me" Adrian enquired "what are my chances?"
Jocab replied "Mostly everyone gets through immigration and is assigned a job depending on their skills in a few days of getting approval. The problem comes when the assigned job conflict with someone's religious beliefs, they don't report to their job and without any other job just become bums. I would advise you that if you don't like the first job you are assigned by the department, then don't quit till you get a new job. You can always look for a new job while doing your assigned job, but without a job it gets hard to make rent and it can become difficult to find another job if you don't have a residence."
"I am not religious, don't worry."
After a deep thought Adrian says "I have never seen a blue sky, from New York all you ever see is the smogy grey. Venus is truly more amazing than I could have ever imagined. Who knew that simply with a powerful quantum computer and a few nuclear rockets you could knock a few astroids into a planet and terraform it"
"It is a bit more complicated than that" Jacob said with a smile.
"I know" Adrian smiled in return.
"You have all your documents?" Jacob asked
"Yeah, all here" Adrian replied pointing to the folder in his hand.
"By the way, what is your favorite thing about Venus?" Adrian asked.
"Well, it's home, so that's that"
"Yeah, but besides that"
"Well, people are nice and if you roam around the city you can find and taste different types of foods"
"On Earth, we have so many cities but they are all in some form of decay. Here everything is so new and full of life. Perhaps this is what the people who settled in the Americas in the old centuries would have felt like."
"Are you missing Earth?"
"No, I thought I would. But coming here on this planet now, Earth seems like a distant memory."
"Lot of people feel differently when they come here, some forget everything from the past, some can't adjust and want to go back."
"What happen to thise who can't adjust, or fail immigration?"
"Rarely anyone fails immigration, but I have heard about someone who did. Those that fail or can't just mostly end up in detention or in the streets, they can't just ship them back to Earth."
"Hmmm"
Jacob looked at his watch and said "We better be going, don't want to keep the immigration officer waiting"
"Okay"
As they got up and started walking towards the Central Plaza building, Adrian asked "So how long you're required to be assigned to me?"
"At least 1 more month and after that I can submit my report on you and then you'll get your citizenship papers"
"Hey, can be still be friends after that? I don't know anyone here"
"Of course, call on me anytime. This is a beginning of a beautiful friendship"
