my name is Lina Vogt, nine years old, living in housing block 3-A of Planet New Berlin. I’m writing with very shaky fingers, because Mama told me I should only write to you if I am very brave and very honest, because you do not like children, who waste your time. I hope I am doing this right, and that you won’t be angry with me.

There are three things I want to tell you, things I wish for this year:

1. A more alert and active Rheinland government,

that listens to what its citizens need again. Many adults whisper — so no one hears — that applications collect dust and replies disappear for months. Maybe you can show them your strictness, so they work faster and more justly again.

2. That the promised expansion of Bioproduce processing finally happens.
Papa says that Bioproduce — all those important non-edible organic materials like fibers, wood-analogues, pulp and the sticky stuff they use for medicines and construction — is piling up unprocessed in some places and running short in others. If the government would finally approve the new harvesting and processing plans, the labor camps could work normal shifts again instead of exhausting the inmates. And the factories outside would get the Bioproduce they need to make enough Consumer Goods — clothes, housewares, toiletries and all the small everyday things that help people feel normal. If this delay goes on, everything will become even more expensive, and both workers and guards will grow restless. I don’t want anyone to suffer because important materials aren’t handled properly.

3. And better cloaking devices.
The old ones are slow and sometimes shimmer before they activate properly. Papa often flies patrol, and I’m scared that without good cloaking he can’t disappear quickly enough when an enemy arrives. If you enforce stricter discipline on the devices — the way you do with naughty children — I’m sure they’ll work much better.

I know that such wishes are only granted if one deserves them. So I must tell you this as well:

• I always ate all my Synth Paste, even the grey one that tasted like slag.
  
• I’ve never been criminally charged, not even a tiny bit, and that’s why I never had to dig ore in the Hammersee Mine. Mama says, that shows I’m a good child.
  

If you want, you can grant me just one wish. I’d already be thankful. But if you grant all of them, I promise to be even better next year - more careful, more obedient, and never causing trouble.

With great respect
and a little fear,
Lina