Written and read by Kimberly Rockwell
Text of the story:
Proper Introductions
The terraformers declared victory: air calibrated, oceans obedient, soil productive. Success!
The children disagreed. The planet had been reconstructed, but her soul remained, bereft of everything once familiar to her.
They knew that this world’s essence responded not to machines, but to attention. Kindness strengthened the trees. Anger diverted rivers. Empathy quieted storms. They went to work.
The adults congratulated themselves for their brilliant engineering. The children never corrected them.
Years later, when the planet fed everyone and failed no one, the records credited flawless design…but the children knew the truth: you don’t terraform a living thing.
You introduce yourself—and you listen.
Music Credits:
“Blue Aukai” by Humans Win
Sound Credits:
Sound Effects from Storyblocks and by L. Stephanie Tait
Sound Design by L. Stephanie Tait
Sound mixing by L. Stephanie Tait
Image credits (everything was made by a human):
Poster image, Earth Crew 2042 logo, and animation by Brian Carroll
All copyrights of Proper Introductions belong to Kimberly Rockwell. All permissions for this production of Proper Introductions belong to Sisters of Sci-Fi. No permissions given for reprinting, reposting, recreating, rerecording, using as a prompt or for expanding into another story, or using for machine learning. Contact Sisters of Sci-Fi for permissions to use in all usages and scenarios.