Martian Law Part Two: Martian Law series, #2

By Johan Jagnert

Humanity no longer exists.

Eradicated by a large comet.

Or almost.

A few hundred people still live on Mars.

But for how long can they survive?

Their lives are hanging on a very thin thread, and if anything goes wrong regarding food or energy supply the history of mankind is over.

But as always, humans have a way of complicating things and make an already catastrophic situation worse.

The biggest threat to mankind is not lack of food or energy, it is internal conflicts.

 

Are Emma, Nikolai, Anna Sven and Helena doomed, or will they find a way to solve their problems?

 

If not, then humanity's short appearance in the history of the universe is over.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Johan Jagnert
• Release date: Jan 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201738143

Book preview

Emma

So fucking embarrassing! How could I be so damn stupid?!

Emma was lying in one of the beds in the infirmary and luckily, she was alone in the room, as it felt like she could explode any moment. Every time she replayed the event in the canteen in her mind, she just wanted to pull out the needle in her arm, get out of bed and run out of the room.

But she didn’t. It would only give people one more thing to talk about behind her back. The humiliation was already total, and above all, the humiliation was planned into the smallest detail. Nikolai had certainly not forgotten what she had said about him. Instead, he had cleverly and methodically planned a way to get back on her, and to his aid he had used her worst enemy. She couldn’t even imagine all the threads Nikolai must have pulled to make it possible to get that psychopath to Mars. He must have had very powerful friends on Earth. And Henry? He had probably always had a secret dream of going to Mars, otherwise he wouldn’t be here now.

Now she understood why Nikolai didn’t want to talk to her. He wanted her as far away from him as possible. He would never give her the possibility to interfere with his leadership, and now he had a secret weapon in his little war against her. At any time, he could use Henry to undermine her in different ways. Perhaps by suggesting that she was mentally unstable or that she was in other ways unreliable. And now she had proven him right regarding her unstable psyche? There was probably not a single person in the colony who didn’t know about her collapse by now. And it wouldn’t surprise her if Henry just now was in the process of trash-talking her.

She sighed heavily as she imagined how he said things like, I tried to dissuade the board from sending her on several occasions, but they didn’t listen to me… Sure, it’s true that she has extensive knowledge of the colony, but we must not forget that she is very impulsive and has difficulty controlling her temper.

The sentences echoed in her head as she imagined Henry's idiotic grin. It became almost too much for her and she eventually had to bite hard to stop herself from screaming in frustration.

I have to stop thinking about that idiot, otherwise I’ll go crazy, she thought, while picking up the tablet that lay on the table beside her. She quickly found the laws that Nikolai was talking about at the meeting. She skimmed through the text and at first glance there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. She also realized that things had to be controlled and regulated in order for the colony to function optimally.

But weren’t some of the rules excessively hard and controlling? For example, they now had to follow very strict rules regarding their calorie intake. She studied a detailed chart that listed factors such as age, weight, gender and occupation of work, and noted that she herself would be assigned two thousand calories a day.

Was that really enough for her? She didn’t have an energy-consuming job, but with a maximum of two thousand calories a day there wasn’t any margins. She would have to think about not moving around too much, otherwise she would slowly but surely begin to lose weight. I hope they follow up this with regular medical examinations. And above all, they have to be extra careful with the children. Isn’t there a great risk that they will stop in their development if they have too low nutrient intake over a long period of time?

Well, hopefully they know what they are doing, she thought, scrolling down to the penalties regarding food theft. Okay, this was rather hard! At a first offense, no meals were served in a day. If someone stole food a second time, no food for three days. At a third…

Oh my God, he’s insane! Emma quickly sat up in the bed and read the lines again.

If someone is stealing food a third time, the perpetrator is sentenced to death. The citizens of the colony cannot tolerate repeated food thefts and to emphasize that, capital punishment is the only way to go. Nobody should be allowed to claim private benefits and thus risk the entire colony's survival.

Capital punishment?! Hadn’t humanity managed to get rid of this heinous punishment nearly thirty years ago? And now Nikolai decides to reintroduce it. Not for murder or manslaughter, but for a minor thing like food theft! If food theft results in the death penalty, what else lead to the same fate? she thought bitterly. She quickly scrolled through the penalties for various misdemeanors and found that death penalty was included for most of them. For murder, for manslaughter, for rape, for theft, for sabotage, for refusal to work and for negligence with the colony's resources. Negligence? Anyone could do something by mistake that could perhaps be interpreted as negligence? She sighed and flipped through the documents. The heading family planning got her attention and she started to read.

We are near the limit regarding how many people we can provide food for, and we cannot tolerate an increase in population. All couples must therefore always use contraceptives. If, however, an pregnancy occurs, abortion must be performed. This rule applies until the colony produces a large surplus of resources.

Okay then, my dream is gone forever, she thought cynically and moved on to the paragraph which was about work.

Hard work is the only thing that can save us from doom. The colony demands that everyone contribute to the best of their ability. If the situation demands it, you may be ordered to work far beyond normal working hours. If it turns out that someone doesn’t contribute as much as can be considered reasonable for that person, they will be severely punished.

Well, then we're suddenly Nikolai's slaves, Emma thought. He might as well have said, Do as I say, or you die!

She could hardly read anymore. This whole manifesto, (she didn’t know what else to call it), was completely absurd. Nikolai seemed to be of the opinion that the only way to success was to control their lives every detail, and that a constant threat of punishment was the tool that would ensure that no one dared to defy his rules.

The next headline was about healthcare and she reluctantly began to read.

Medication and medical equipment are available in limited quantities and in most cases, we will not be able to reproduce them. Therefore, only absolutely necessary medical care will be provided. As people grow older, many will suffer from various age-related diseases. These will not be treated, but instead we will simply be forced to let life…

Hi Emma!

Emma jerked and looked up from her tablet and saw Anna standing beside her with a smile so wide that it almost looked like her face would crack. But at the same time, her eyes were glossy, and when Emma said in a surprised voice, Hi Anna, where did you come from? she threw herself around Emma's neck and held her tightly while she mumbled between the crying attacks, Oh, Emma, I've been so worried... I've missed you so...

At first Anna seemed completely inconsolable and the only thing Emma could do was to hold her tight. In the end, however, Anna calmed down and leaned back slightly and looked Emma deep in her eyes.

How do you feel? Are you sick? she said as she tried to wipe her tears with her arm.

There is nothing wrong with me. I feel okay. I guess it was the moist heat in the room that became too much for me. I probably got heatstroke. I don’t really know, because I haven’t seen the doctor yet and I don’t get any information from the nurses. But I hope they let me go as soon as they’ve rehydrated me.

She pointed at the half-empty bag that hung on the stand next to the bed.

You really scared me, Anna said. It looked like you were dead when they carried you away.

Yes, I can imagine it looked scary. I don’t remember anything myself. Everything just turned black and then I woke up here in this bed. But enough about me now... How did you get in here? Didn’t the nurses stop you?

No, no one said anything. I just said I would visit you. They didn’t seem to mind, they just told me which room you were in.

But your mother? Does she know you’re here?

Anna hesitated at first, but then replied, Well, no, she doesn’t know where I am. She and Dad were completely engrossed in reading about those laws, so they hardly seemed to notice when I left. I only said I would meet some friends.

Okay Anna, but you probably shouldn’t stay here for too long, otherwise, your mom might start to suspect something, and I don’t feel like meeting her right now… But let’s not think about that now… How have you been since we arrived? Does it feel like you’ve come to terms with everything new?

Anna sighed and looked down.

Well, I don’t really know. Somehow the colony was smaller than I imagined. Perhaps what bothers me the most is that there is nowhere to go. And there are so many places I’m not allowed to enter... I hoped I would feel freer on Mars, or at least freer than on the spaceship. But it feels worse, like I am in a prison. I haven’t even been to the surface since we came down with the space elevator… And walking around in these dreary small hallways every day makes me crazy.

Yes, I understand, Emma said, and tried to sound cheerful. But haven’t you met a lot of new friends now that the second ship has arrived?

No, not really. Sure, I’ve talked to some of them in school, but I haven’t done anything with them after school, not yet anyway.

Anna remained silent for a short while and then continued with a lower voice:

I miss you. Why can’t we hang out? Maybe I can find some new secret hiding place that no one else knows about? I have my own room now, so I don’t think it would be a problem for me to sneak out at night without my mom noticing.

I don’t know if that’s such a good idea Anna. And we can’t keep on meeting in secret. It will not work, and your mother will find out sooner or later.

But what should we do then?

Anna had a desperate tone in her voice and it almost looked like she was about to start crying again.

Take it easy Anna. We just have to come up with a way to get your mom to change her mind. It is obvious that she doesn’t want to talk to me, so I thought we might be able to get some help from your dad.

Dad? How could he make her change her mind? They hardly talk to each other anymore.

I don’t really know. I may be wrong, but I’ve got the feeling that he doesn’t mind us hanging out. Or what do you think?

I don’t know. He hasn’t said much about it. But that doesn’t change anything, it’s still Mom who makes all decisions in the end.

But no one knows your mom as well as he does. Don’t you think that he somehow could persuade her to change her mind?

Well, I guess so, Anna replied a little hesitantly. But I still can’t quite understand how he’s going to do that? Mom seems very determined.

Well, I understand that, Emma said, smiling slightly. But a good start might be me telling my view of the matter to your father. He doesn’t really know that much about us, does he? Therefore, I wonder if you could arrange a meeting between me and your dad, so we could discuss the issue in private… What do you think Anna? Don’t you think it might be worth asking him anyway?

Yes maybe… I can at least try. I don’t think he would get angry anyway.

Angry? Why would he be angry? Ask him when he has time to meet and ask if he knows any place where we can talk privately, and then ask him to send me a message about this.

Emma looked at Anna and smiled, Don’t worry Anna. We will find a solution to this, I promise you. I’m sure your Mom will change her mind in the end…

I don’t know... She’s very determined. But okay, we have to try anyway.

Good, that’s more like it, Anna! We must be positive, right!

Emma glanced at her watch and said, "I think it’s best that you leave now, before they