After the major resolutions had been made regarding the immediate actions to be taken over the current situation, Zon turned to his friend and said, “Now my dear Zenith, I told you to take some time off and that's what I want you to do. I know you said you didn't want to, but I am insisting that you need a little while to yourself to arrange Zelda's funeral and to give yourself a little breathing space to get over this horrible shock.”
Zon put his arm around Zenith's shoulders and felt the sadness oozing out of the poor man's body. “Go now and let my brothers and I start to sort out this mess. When you feel a little happier, then come back, but not until you have had enough time to grieve properly, do you promise?”
CHAPTER 2
Zon had been advised by some of his top geological experts, some time ago, that the planet was gradually drying out and its crust was wrinkling and could possibly implode in the not too distant future.
Most of the experts were of the opinion that immeasurable problems would occur quite rapidly when the tectonic plates folded back on themselves, and trouble had already been occurring in the lithosphere whereby deep gaps had been opening up along the African Rift Valley and also in the Grand Canyon.
These gaps extended down into depths that had not yet been fully measured, but it was quite clear they were extensive and very dangerous. These particular areas had been closed off to everyone but the robotic force that kept a close check on the widening holes and notified the Zelites if any new major fissures appeared.
Although a few scientists were still of the opinion that the ancient theory of the Jaramillo Event, proving that the planet's magnetic fields had reversed, was correct and this was causing the major movements in the sea floor spread, most geologists hypothesized that the problem was not with the planet's magnetic profile, but with the cooling down of its central core. The geologists and other scientists had advised Zon that whatever the accurate scientific reason was for the changes to the planet's crust, measures should be taken as soon as possible to evacuate Planet Zero before further damage to the planet's mantle could endanger the entire population. At that time Zon obviously did take the advice quite seriously, but on discussing the matter with his brothers and sisters, he decided that they would take no further action until another suitable planet could be found to which the Zelites could be satisfactorily transferred.
He said to them, “If we notified the population what a dangerous position their planet was in, there would be mass hysteria and panic amongst them. I am not yet convinced that the right spot had been discovered for us to make a feasible wholesale planet transfer.”
Zon explained to his siblings that he was still convinced that the danger was not too imminent and they still had sufficient time to seek out a perfectly congenial replacement planet on which they could live happily and comfortably, with the least possible trauma incurred in the transfer. More exploration was instigated to seek alternative suitable living space on any available vacant planets and a few vague possibilities had been found.
So the search continued, with his geologists constantly hounding Zon to remind him that there was now some extreme urgency about this transfer, but still Zon was reluctant to sanction an agreement to move off Planet Zero. He was aware that the planet to which they would eventually transfer had to be exactly right and he knew that no second best planet would be good enough for them.
However, the episode of the meteorite hit had once more brought the urgency of the move to the forefront and Zon instructed his investigators to double their efforts in seeking out a compatible location for the Zelites and other inhabitants of Planet Zero to live. He was still insistent that wherever their new abode was, it had to be completely viable and able to sustain the Zelite way of life.
Most of the initial explorations had been carried out within the planet's own solar system, but the danger of the current situation forced Zon to instruct his teams to look even further afield because he was now even more aware that they had to find something compatible extremely quickly.
The only really suitable planet they had found that was anywhere near to being apt was their neighboring world, Planet Uno. Although Planet Zero and Planet Uno were not particularly akin to one another, Zon had never had any trouble or problems from them and he had hoped that his search parties would be able to find another planet without resorting to domineering the Unos and taking over their habitation on Planet Uno.
These people were gentle and congenial, and although they were an extremely intelligent and very healthy race of people who were in many ways similar to the Zelites, Zon knew that they endured quite a difficult time surviving on Planet Uno. The great problem with Planet Uno was the shortage of water and they relied on supplies of this commodity from other sources such as Planet Zero. Steps were being taken to improve this situation and it was hoped that this water shortage would be overcome by building reservoirs and underground tanks to conserve their natural water received via the atmosphere, but Zon was aware that they were still nowhere near to sorting out this problem yet. The Great Leader still hoped that another planet could be found soon to which they could transfer themselves without having to push out the Unos. He knew that this might have to happen as a last resort but, due to the problems on that planet particularly with the water shortage, it still would not be an ideal situation for the Zelites.
CHAPTER 3
Zon really was a smart guy. Very, very cool. But he did have a weakness—his Achilles heel was that he had a soft spot for a beautiful feminine face, and this often landed him in a load of trouble. Even though he was a bit of a naughty lad in that respect, Zon was still considered to be the greatest all-round person on Planet Zero.
He had been chosen as the High Leader of the Zelites because of two major factors. One was that he had the highest IQ on the planet, and the second was that he had proved himself to be the most agile, strongest and healthiest person to be nominated.
Zon was also blessed with all the accoutrements of a handsome body and face. His hair was long, falling into black shining ringlets around his shoulders. His olive skin was perfect with no blemishes. His eyes were normally a deep licorice-colored brown, but anyone drawn into gazing into them for long would feel they were looking into liquid dynamite. They had a magic quality about them. Changing with his mood from a soft, deep, dark brown velvet color into a hard, hazel shade, almost the color of a tiger's eyes. The change in his eye color could happen within a flash without the onlooker being aware of any change in his mood.
Zon was very tall, muscular and strong, and had been a top-ranking footballer before he was chosen as Planet Leader. He also possessed the extraordinary nature of a sympathetic and diplomatic person. In fact, he was as near as dammit to a perfect specimen of the human race that could possibly be. There had been a huge contest for the position of High Leader and many virile, handsome, strong men and beautiful, intelligent women had taken part in the elections before the final decision was made that it was Zon who fulfilled all the criteria required of such a leader.
Zon and his brothers and sisters were orphans. Their parents had been very cruelly killed, an eon ago, during an inter-galactic journey when their Space Vehicle had been attacked and bombarded by rogue aliens.
Zon had taken over as head of the family and they all loved and respected him for being a very just and kind man. Of course, their parents were sadly missed, but they all accepted that life must go on, and Zon was the next best thing to having a real father, so his siblings were quite content with the decision that had been made for Zon to become High Leader.
They were a pretty close-knit family and shared all their problems and joys with one another. It would indeed have been difficult to find another such perfectly harmonious set of people. They were admired and respected by all who came into contact with any of them.
Planet Zero had been blessed to have such an admirable group of rulers, and many other planets were perhaps just a little jealous of them. This jealousy did cause friction every so of
ten, but as a rule Zon and Planet Zero managed to keep a well-balanced alliance with most of their neighboring major planets.
Very often when the inhabitants of another planet had a serious or delicate situation to be solved, they would call on Zon to sort out their problems. He was admired and respected by just about the whole of the cosmos, and everyone acknowledged that he was as near to perfection in a man as one could ever get.
The Zelites had replaced the Bilderberg Group who had for many years held the power to rule the world planet. This Group had finally been disbanded due to the inability of their members to agree on a united front as to who would be their High Leader. It had been this same Bilderberg Group that had renamed the Planet from Earth to Zero.
The leaders from the nine major planets had agreed that it was time to make some significant changes to the naming of their worlds, and a system of using numbers instead of names was unanimously agreed on. Planet Zero being the most significant and important planet was given the job of allocating a unique number to each of the significant planets according to its importance in the hierarchy of the universe.
By renaming the planets, the Bilderberg Group, which then became the Zilderberg Group, planned that the identification system for determining where a visitor came from would be much clearer and would obviate undesirable aliens from outer space, and other illegal immigrants, penetrating the safe zones of the nine principal inhabited planets in the major universe.
The moon still retained its own old title because it was not actually occupied by any particular race of people, being such an arid satellite, and only a skeleton staff of various nationalities lived there to administer the running of the landing and departure procedures and the hospitality facilities. Robots and GM overseers carried out the majority of the mundane work.
The sun, of course, remained the star giving the source of heat and light for all its planets, and its name also remained unchanged.
CHAPTER 4
The Zelite race had discovered the secret of Eternal Youth. They could live forever, unless something really drastic happened to them such as a fatal accident or someone was murdered. It was, therefore, still possible for them to die, but only in extremely rare circumstances.
So as to avoid overpopulation, due to the fact that nobody died naturally any more, the Zelites had made a ruling that no one was to have any more children and everyone had to be sterilized, except for the chosen leader, Zon, and his brothers and sisters.
Shortly after the incidence of the meteorite disaster, and due to the consequent loss of so much of the planet's population, it was decided that contingency plans had to be made to ensure the continuation of the human race on Planet Zero in case of any possible future disasters.
The problem now was that all the Zelite females had been forced to become infertile except for Zon's own sisters, but, obviously, it would have been biologically insane for Zon to mate with one of his sisters. Even if they simply employed a system of using his sperm to artificially inseminate them, this still carried the risk of creating an imperfect embryo. Their genes were too closely connected and could have caused a malfunction in the fetus.
A program of creating clones had been instigated, but this had long since been abandoned after it was discovered that the cloned specimens always proved to have so many diverse health problems. In particular, the cloned people, when reaching adulthood, always developed a particularly nasty and virulent strain of arthritis causing their bone structure to fuse and rendering them immobile. Many attempts had been made to overcome this setback, but without success, and even with all the knowledge and technology that was available to the Zelites, nothing could be found to produce perfect clones. Consequently the idea of using a bank of clones as replacement Zelites, when required, was temporarily shelved.
The only person still being cloned was Zon. It had been decided for security reasons that Zon should still maintain this copy of himself. Zon decided not to meet his clone, as he knew he would feel some kind of compassion for his duplicate for, after all, in many respects it was part of him and must have feelings just as he did. Sometimes he would enquire as to what was happening with his clone and made sure that it was being treated with respect and kindness.
Zon's clone was housed in a security compound that had sufficient space and gardens to allow it to lead a simple but comfortable life. So far the clone had not been required to act for Zon as he always insisted that he should carry out any serious functions in the flesh himself.
At the onset of any health problems occurring with the existing clone, it was to be imbued with a euphoric lethal gas that humanely destroyed it. The clone's vital organs were then to be removed, frozen and safely stored for future use in case of an emergency situation when they might be needed for replacement parts for Zon.
Thus, so as to enable the continuation of a healthy and ethical strain of the population of Zelites, it was decided that Zon himself should travel to Planet Uno to create a liaison with a suitable female from there.
There was, in actual fact, only just a scattering of inhabitants left on Planet Uno, as the water situation there had not yet been solved. Even though huge inroads had been made into irrigation and the planting of oxygen-producing plants, they had not yet been able to create a truly congenial living environment for the Uno population, and water still had to be imported from Planet Zero.
This had been one of the main reasons why Zon had been so hesitant about transferring his race of people to Planet Uno; he knew that there would be such tremendous problems with water when Planet Uno could no longer import it from Planet Zero whenever Zero finally collapsed.
The Unos, like the Zelites, had also learnt the secret of quasi-immortality, although they were still vulnerable to certain types of incurable diseases and weaknesses in their bodies. They were certainly just about on a par with Planet Zero in their knowledge of technology and science. The major difference between the Unos and the Zelites was that the Unos, due to their lack of population numbers, had not enforced a sterilization program on their people and were still very reproductive folk.
Zon had decided to find a lover on Planet Uno, as on a previous visit there he had realized that the Unos were an attractive race of bodily near-perfect people. They were all fair-haired, blue-eyed, very handsome people, and above all it appeared pretty obvious that they enjoyed making love.
“And,” he thought to himself, “there is nothing wrong with that!”
Eventually a young beautiful Uno girl, named Uvarna, had come to an agreement with Zon that she would be willing to accept him as her mate. The arrangement was that Zon and Uvarna could provide Planet Zero with a child, should a mortality arise on their planet. However, if there were no deaths among the Zelites and yet Uvarna became pregnant, then the child would remain as an Uno citizen.
This arrangement suited both planets as the Unos needed to increase their population as well as being desperate for water supplies from Planet Zero, and on the other hand Planet Zero would be assured of a replacement Zelite in the case of an unexpected death amongst their people.
Zon had approached Uvarna on an official visit to Planet Uno. He had been arranging for a huge consignment of fresh water to be beamed to Planet Uno, in exchange for which he would be able to pick a partner from among the Unos. He was introduced to many beautiful, young, healthy women and then he saw her—he knew straight away that this was the woman he was looking for!
She was standing beside a stunning white, tame snow leopard at the top of the marble stairway leading away from the official Negotiation Chambers. He was temporarily awestruck with more than admiration for her. Zon felt a surge of desire run through his body as he gazed at this beautiful girl and he knew instantly that she was going to be his lover.
“Hell, that is the woman for me. I know that for sure,” he thought.
Initially the Uno Council had refused to allow this liaison to take place, but eventually conceded that the necessity for water supplies on Uno was more impor
tant than the fact that Uvarna was the daughter of the Leader of Planet Uno and consequently a very revered member of society. Finally an agreement was reached with all the parties and it was arranged that Uvarna should accompany Zon back to Planet Zero.
At first Uvarna was reluctant and quite apprehensive about the plans, but grudgingly admitted to herself that this handsome Zero man definitely aroused an exciting turmoil of feelings inside her and, after some gentle persuasion on the part of her mentors, it did not then take her long to accede to their wishes!
The Unification was a splendid affair, as befitted the Planet Leader, and everyone from both planets was quite satisfied with the arrangements.
CHAPTER 5
Zon and Uvarna spent the week following their Unification in his oceanfront apartment, often slipping out onto the huge terrace facing the ocean and, although they could not actually venture outside into the open air due to the pollution, the safety cover encasing Zon's apartment was of such a fine construction that it was almost invisible and they were able to gaze out at the huge expanse of clear blue water without the cover marring their view.
Uvarna continually marveled at this beautiful sight. She had never seen such a wide expanse of ocean before. This had not been possible on Planet Uno as there were no huge seas or oceans there to enjoy. One day while they were sat together gazing out at the fantastic panorama, Zon turned to Uvarna and asked her, “What would be your choice if you were granted a special wish to come true?”
Uvarna hesitated for a moment before replying, because she knew that Zon would be a bit disappointed with her reply. She guessed that he would imagine she would say something like, “To remain with you forever and have your children”. Instead, she softly answered with a mischievous grin twitching at her mouth, “I would love to catch a falling star from the sky and make it my own special place. Where everything would be as I would wish it to be.”
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