White mars by Brian W. Aldiss & Roger Penrose. Chapter 12, 13

I considered these intellectual ideas but, even when practising my pranayama, I taunted myself with the thought of what it would be like to be in bed with Paula, with her dark tempestuous body against mine. These images crept in upon my meditation…

At this juncture Vance Alysha and Bevis Paskin Peters were the two rivals for Paula’s love. Both were men of spirit and worked on the computer simulations necessary for episodes in Paula’s drama. Alysha was Caribbean; he had been a star on television in his native Jamaica, and remained proud of it. Peters had won a prize for paranimation at the age of six; he was vain and had a quick temper. And he was said to dress privately in his own flamboyant women’s costumes.

An argument arose between the two men over the interpretation of a turn in Paula’s narrative: was a certain character’s decision to retreat into the wilds a brave or a cowardly act? This developed into a quarrel over which of them best satisfied Paula’s sexual needs. Happily, Alpha and I were not present.

They fell on the floor, wrestling with and punching each other. Peters seized on a length of computer cable and wrapped it round Alysha’s neck. Paula entered the workshop at this point and screamed for Peters to stop. He did not stop. Although Alysha struggled, he was choked to death.

Mars City had no police as such. Paula called for the guards – those men who maintained the integrity of our structures. They hauled Peters away, unresisting. Since there was nothing like a prison on Mars, they shut Peters in their office, where he sat and wept, overcome by what he had done.

The guards summoned Tom. Tom and Guenz called our legal forum together to discuss the case. It assembled under the blow-up of the incandescent Hindenburg.

We were silent, rather sullen this time. Everyone was miserable in their own way. I sat at the rear with other onlookers, holding Alpha, next to a grim Paula. She shed no tear, but her face was ashen. I put a comforting arm round her waist, but she shrugged it off.

Thinking back to that time, I am surprised that we had faced no such crisis before. There had been animosities and quarrels, certainly, but all had been settled peaceably. Without the aggravation of money or those inhibitions of marriage so wrapped up in old-fashioned notions of property, the levels of discontent had been considerably lowered.

Jarvis Feneloni was one who spoke up for Peters’s execution. Since the sallow-complexioned young man had attempted to leave Mars with his brother – nothing more had ever been heard of Abel and his ship – he had gained something of a reputation by being unruly. ‘We have no doubt the man is guilty. He confesses to the crime. We have nowhere to imprison him. In any case, the traditional punishment for murder is death. Why muck about? We must execute Peters. Let’s discuss how that should be done.’

‘His confession lessens the case against him, while his remorse is his own punishment,’ Tom responded. ‘How exactly do you suggest we should kill him? By the methods he used on Alysha? By throwing him out on the Martian surface? By cutting off his head or his oxygen? We have no more right to kill than he. All methods of deliberate killing are distasteful to civilised men.’

‘Well, I’m not civilised! We must set an example, take strong measures. This is our first case of murder, particularly the murder of a—’ He stopped himself. We guessed what he was about to say. Instead Feneloni finished lamely, ‘Particularly the murder of one so young. We must set an example, so that it does not happen again. And we must build a prison.’

Tom replied that he agreed an example must be set. But they had to set that example for themselves. If a family has a boy who misbehaves, punishment will probably make him worse; the family must seek to discover what makes him misbehave and remedy it. They will in all probability find that they themselves are in some way at fault. Far from punishing Peters, the assembly should try to see what provoked him to violence.

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