People are always needed on faraway planets. If you’re not a specialist and you don’t want to become cannon fodder in wars with other people’s wars, the choice is simple: either you’ll exist on Earth, working from sunset to sunrise for pennies, or you’ll fly to a new planet. There your chances are 50/50. If you don’t get lucky, you’ll die from the teeth and claws of wild animals—or you’ll be killed by more fortunate colleagues. But if you do get lucky, you’ll become quite a respectable and respected person in a new, being-built world—a world that you helped build too.