Colonist

"There's no reason not to make a better world. If not here, then somewhere else."

In the last few centuries, the material wealth of humanity has exploded. The advances that allowed the peoples of Earth to reach for the stars were the same ones that enabled them to consume ever greater amounts of their solar system's resources. The space elevator was constructed to exploit the resources of the solar system for the people of Earth to enjoy. Though man's mastery of nature was not enough to ward off the effects of climate change on Earth, it was enough to weather it, at least for some.

As much as some might have wished for it, a united humanity never materialized. A more centralized humanity perhaps, with increasing amounts of political power and wealth concentrated among those nations that controlled great scientific and industrial capital, but not a united one. As mankind's increasing technological capital allowed for many to lead lives of leisure and ease, it left others in the dust.

The opening of the first Tein Gate to another habitable system presented both an opportunity and a conundrum. While Mars had not become a viable candidate for off-world colonization, Phenix E was another thing entirely. The first forays into the new world were scientific in nature, but it soon became obvious that in order to truly plant their flag on the new world, they would need people. Lots of people.

It is hard to convince someone who wants for nothing to do something, especially when that something is leaving their home and everything they've ever known. The collective resources of humanity in the late 21st century could've ensured utopian abundance for all of its people. That they did not do so was a political failure, yet it perhaps fueled humanity's ascent into the stars.

The first colonists were those left behind by the nations of Earth. Bengalis whose homes had slowly sunk beneath the waves. North Africans whose ancestral lands had boiled away to the point where a man outside would suffer heatstroke and die within the hour. People whose accident of birth had not given them a seat at the table, had not made them into a constituency that could demand their share of the spoils of humanity's common success.

For them, Phenix E was an opportunity. And for the corporations and governments running the first extrasolar colony, the existence of desperation and poverty that humanity could've long ago stamped out provided an opportunity as well.

To colonize a virgin world requires a special spirit. From a world where most things are already built, going somewhere where there is nothing but what your hands can create for yourself is a radical idea. Those who do it are possessed of either superior ambition, or they did not have very much to begin with. Most colonists to new worlds are drawn from the lower classes on Earth, especially those who are not citizens of the more powerful, established nations. As some of the older colonies have become more established, they have also begun to be a source for potential colonists. Attracted with the promise of land and property of their own, as well as a political voice in the new society, the offer is tempting for those dispossessed by their home planet. Some colonies have even, in an unfortunate echo of history, used convicts to kickstart their new populations. This has had many issues however.