Chapter 1- The Martian Month

It's not only my parents; it's also my grandparents. We've become Martians. Naturally, there are debates about whether we're still human since we're no longer Earthlings. I am human, yet distinctly Martian—a second-generation Martian. Earth is a three-month journey on outdated commuter ship navigating through an asteroid belt. Very few of us ever depart, and no one arrives anymore. The most pressing issue we face is the growing population, which is our most contentious subject.

I've spent my whole life here, born, raised, married, and trained to excel in my community. I can't discern the differences between here and Earth. On Earth, people can freely go outside, but here, stepping outside without a suit means certain death. Our buildings are enormous, and everything is contained within. The botanical dome is my sanctuary; it's where the enchantment unfolds, and I believe it's the closest experience to being outdoors on Earth.

I am from Colony 1. We are responsible for the technology and communication systems; we work with the artificial intelligence, helping us run the governing bodies and keeping all the 5 colonies in communication and working together. If we cannot work together, we will all face certain death.  My family was one of the first families to come here. My Grandparents came here knowing they would never leave. It began with 200 other people, supplies and robots to build an infrastructure. They began with small structures build out of the cave systems and connected them with subterranean tunnels and later installed domes around them to see the surface. This planet was not meant to sustain us, this is our singular task.  

After the first 10 years, several births, new buildings, and domes, 2 more colonies came and were established. The 3-colony developed into a botanical garden and became where all our food grows. A man named Robert Metzger, a botanist from Earth, was fascinated with the atmosphere and what could be grown or developed on Mars.  He bred plants, created two new hybrids of sweet potatoes, (our main staple), and also carrots, parsnips, and onions.  He found he could grow them best because the Martian sunlight did odd things to the squash, broccoli, and tomatoes. He became the real hero by feeding all the first colonists and establishing a steady food source. I love visiting this area. The walking paths and the oxygen that comes from it is amazing. It doesn't even have the same filters as the rest of us have because the plants are excellent at absorbing the carbon dioxide. There are also less people living in 3-colony, which probably means less of the oxygen is actually getting used. 

Each of the colonies are run by the same rules and regulations and we all have the same functions we have to adhere to and several of them are very necessary. Like the airlocks. We have ways to get in and out of the buildings even though they are connected by tunnels, underground and above ground skyways. These air locks are few and far between, but they exist for people who have the right equipment to go out and explore. I've only been out 5 or 6 times, but that's a lot for some of us who were born here. 

We mark the passage of time with ceremonies for birth, death, marriage, and coming of age. One ugly part of our colony is the reckoning. The reckoning occurs once a month and this is when two seemingly random individuals from different colonies are chosen, it's similar to something I read about America on earth, jury duty. Once a month two people are selected. One to be eliminated and one to do the elimination. It is a particularly gruesome part of our peaceful society. The artificial intelligence helps us with the selection. It watches us and gives us advice, helps us when necessary. It's run out of colony 1, but it watches everything and hears everything. It began as a way to control population and crime. It also keeps people productive, which is one of the factors it uses to choose the sacrifice. In order to avoid being a chosen person you can volunteer to leave. They take maximum 50 people every eleven months. This is 100 less mouths to feed and air to breathe. 

A Martian year is 687 days, so the founders decided to break it up into 22 months, 21 have 30 days and one has 31. A week is 5 days and each month has 6 weeks. Mars has two moons, so months are not broken up by the moons like Earth, it's just regular man-made months. We do have seasons, but we don't typically feel them because we are in the dome or underground. Each of them last about 6-9 months, the only one we care about is the windy season. We can feel the dust stir and hit the domes. Sometimes cracks occur if enough debris hits them.  

I was married 11 months ago during the windy season. My husband, Carl, was selected for me as a proper mate. He is not an attractive man and he's also a little bit cruel. I think he sees our marriage as a convivence, and he thinks I'm pretty. He's done well in colony 1, he also comes from one of the founding families. Neither of us had a choice in this matter. I'm sure he would've picked otherwise; he hints at it occasionally. 

It doesn't seem like he actually cares about me, more about work. He works in construction and builds some of the new structures in the domes. As I make the sweet potatoes he likes with the protein powder, I think about why Carl can't be chosen to be reckoned. He has his moments when I think we might actually have something together, but then he does something crappy, like doesn't come home or ignores me for days. Sometimes I find residue from gel packs, which are a controlled substance, which means he's been getting ultra caffeinated. 

I visit the gardens every few days to buy fresh sweet potatoes and I'm always on the look out for cashews. It makes excellent butter, when I'm there I like to talk to Edgar Metzger, grandson of Robert Metzger and every bit as Brillant. He is always showing me new ways of watering and he also developed a way to grow tomatoes which don't taste like dirt, he let me try it and it was heaven. It was wet as I bit into it and I never tasted anything like it.   

I was still thinking about our visit today while I was preparing the sweet potatoes and trimming some herbs from my tiny kitchen microgreens garden when the communication tablet went off. I touched the screen, and the video came on at first I thought it was Carl, it wasn't. It was the Video everyone dreads. The video no one wants but 22 people get every single year. 

"Sarah Tinsdale, you have been summoned to preform your civic duty to colony 1." Thus began the video that would change my life. It was being delivered by a man in a black Kato mask. I tried imagining who the person was, but it looked like they were wearing a terrible wig on top of their head. "You must eliminate Heather St. James of Colony 2. She resides at Red Brick Lane and the end of the Red Rock community. You must choose one of the five ways for elimination. This must be completed by the end of the 5th week of this month." 

The man continued to tell me the time, date, and place to go to get more instructions. This would also be the place where I get the choice of how to complete the mission. Referring to it as a mission gave it too much credit and didn't make it any less terrifying or inhumane.