Dueller

Earthlings entered the twenty-second century with a new and even greater surge in crime. The thirst for profit, to provide oneself not only with comforts but even with necessities, no longer stopped anyone. The courts could not keep up with criminal cases, colonies and prisons were overflowing, and the inmates were on the verge of rebelling against the inhuman conditions of detention. The governments of both hemispheres had to do something urgently and solve the long-unresolved problem of mass lawbreaking. And so a law was passed permitting duels. Anyone could challenge a person who had offended them and fight in an honest battle. Duels were allowed for everyone, regardless of social status and age. The restrictions concerned only sex: men with men, women with women, and the type of weapon: any, but only melee weapons, with no ranged attack. In the first months after the law took effect, the number of crimes dropped sharply. But then something went wrong…