Eva’s Revenge

Chapter 2 – A New Beginning

Chapter 2 – A New Beginning

In the year 2077 scientists of the Free Minds Community, also referred to as the New Age Hippies, finalise years of research and development of their version of the Alcubierre drive. In the 1990’s a Mexican theoretical physicist, Miguel Alcubierre suggested that travel faster than the speed of light may be achieved by contracting space in front of the spacecraft and expanding space behind it. Although this theory was widely criticised, Guenther and Heidi saw potential in it and together with the rest of the scientists at the commune they started working on developing this theory. After eighty years of development, the community was at last ready to travel into deep space, their target the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, was now within reach. It took another seven years of preparation before forty-two spacecraft left earth on 4 October 2084 for humankind’s first inter-galactic colonisation mission. On board were 4 197 men, women and children, building materials, plants and animals chosen for their high nutritional value, scientific equipment and the most important, atmospheric water generators. As per their wishes, the ashes of Guenther and Heidi were also on board. The destination was twin planets discovered, and kept secret, by the Free Minds Community. The atmosphere and temperatures on both planets were similar to that of earth. Water was also plentiful on both planets. They named these planets after the twin brother and sister in Greek mythology, Apollo and Artemis. Apollo did not only move the sun across the sky on a daily basis, but he was also the god of light and the god of truth. He also gave man the science of medicine. Artemis was the goddess of chastity, virginity, the hunt, the moon, and the natural environment. There were a few who wanted to replace Artemis with Athena as she was the goddess of reason, intelligent activity, arts and literature. The women of the community associated more with these qualities, but as these are twin planets, it was decided to name them after the twin children of Zeus and Leto.

They were determined to start a new life away from other humans, a life where everyone would be free to pursue their own ideas and live out their own fantasies and desires. The only rules would be that no humans should be harmed without consent and that consent could only be given from the age of eighteen for decisions which could cause harm and twenty-one for decisions which may result in serious harm or death. Although this may seem extreme, the Free Minds Community believed that each human should have full control over his or her own life and consequently his or her own death if they so desired. On 21 July 2127, after sending probes to both planets, advanced parties of 30 people each was send down to each planet. Their mission was to build basic shelters and test the living conditions on the planets. Both parties confirmed that the atmospheres on the two planets were similar to that of earth and that humans could breathe the air. However, after about two weeks, all men on Artemis and all women of Apollo became ill. Years of research identified the viruses causing the illness, but a cure was never found. Artemis became home to women only and Apollo to men only. Marriage became something impractical and s*x tours became the norm for both men and women. Short visits to Artemis for men and Apollo for woman had no effect on them and these visits were generally limited to seven days, with at least a month break before the next visit.

One of the s*x tour companies introduced oil wrestling matches between women to establish who had first choice of the available males. This was soon broadcasted on television on both planets and proved to be extremely popular. Other shows with boxing, MMA and catfights followed. Some fights were for choice of male companionship, some for other prizes and some to settle arguments or grudges. A show called ‘Catfight” eventually decided to relax their rules. Women were allowed to fight with minimal rules, or even no rules. Soon, a fight with baseball bats was arranged. More followed and soon resulted in the first fatality in the fighting ring on live television.

After various court cases, the constitutional court ruled that every citizen over the age of eighteen is allowed to decide whether or not she wants to participate in fights with basic safety rules. It further ruled that any citizen over the age of twenty-one may decide whether or not she wants to participate in any type of fight, even if the fight may result in serious injury or death. Duels were no longer against the law, as long as both women were of legal age and both agreed to it. The court also ruled that nobody could interfere with a duel and that only a fighter who is clearly winning a duel may stop the contest before one of the fighters are dead. This rule was introduced by the court to make sure that a third party does not influence the outcome of the duel. If they did, they could be charged with murder. Some women fought duels the old fashioned way with pistols or rapiers, but most preferred to settle their differences like the gladiatrices of old, some fighting with bladed weapons, others preferring to fight unarmed. The owners of the “Catfight” show used the media attention on the court ruling as cheap publicity to launch a new show called ‘Duel’. Live death matches on television were suddenly a reality. Despite some protests, this show proved to be even more popular than “Catfight”. They used a combination of unarmed and armed combat between women who agreed to duel. Although there were a few exceptions, their fights were held in a metal cage and the first ten minutes were fought without weapons. If both women were still alive after ten minutes, the weapons chosen by the fighters were made available to them. The fights continued until one of the combatants were killed. On the rare occasion a woman would spare the life of her beaten opponent, however, as women who challenged each other to a duel generally hated each other and as the crowd was always baying for blood, the death of at least one of the fighters was almost guaranteed. Although doctors were always next to the ring to treat the winner, they were occasionally unable to save the winner from dying as a result of wounds obtained during the fight.