Zero Time

by M. P. Swinnerton

  The Guidance Leader placed his hands under Zon's arms to raise him from the floor and indicated to Zon to follow him to the Counseling Rooms. He was then left alone in one of these amazing rooms. Zon sat on the padded white seat that was situated in the center of the room and placed the earphones over his head. He closed his eyes and followed the instructions beaming through his brain, advising him to empty his mind of all other thoughts except for the problem he wished to solve. The machine pointing into his face began projecting flashing lines and bright colors, confusing Zon's thoughts. This projector then began to change the images into soft, beautiful muted designs covered in tranquil colors and this, accompanied by the gentle sound of water lapping on a seashore, caused Zon to lapse into a trance-like state. Zon had been to this stage before and knew what was expected of him now. He began to ask the Counselors what was the right thing for him to do.

  He asked how he could be strong enough to overcome the integration problems that would occur if he allowed the Dropouts to cohabit with them, and he also asked what he should do about the immorality that had been happening to him and his people. Zon really knew in his heart what had to be done, but could he, or rather would he, carry out the reforms that had to be undertaken and would he be able to resist the temptations of partying and satisfying his flesh rather than keeping an eye on the smooth and good running of Planet Zero.

  Although he explained his problems to the Counselors, imploring for help, on this particular occasion Zon received no guiding message from them. Zon knew that the Universal Counselors had no other different advice to give him. He gathered from their refusal to advise him that the answer rested in his own hands only. He acknowledged and accepted that he must try to reform and clean up his act.

  Zon knew he was the only one really responsible to take charge of the deteriorating situation on Planet Zero and it was now up to him to set an example to his followers.

  CHAPTER 15

  Mademoiselle Zorfiere, returning from a meeting at the Cultural Offices decided to call it a day and thought it was time for her to have a relaxing shower and then to curl up with a good romantic book and a delicious mojito cocktail.

  Mademoiselle was a music tutor and also a very accomplished ballet dancer; apart from these skills she possessed a veritably acclaimed soprano singing voice. Naturally, being such a talented person she was very much sought after in the theatrical world, aside from from the education value of her services, but sometimes she felt that although her life was wonderful and very fulfilling, it would be great just to forget it all on occasions and drift away into a less strenuous way of life.

  She sauntered into her bedroom and, slipping out of her day clothes, picked up her bathrobe and stepped into her shower room. She programmed the shower to ensure that she had an aromatherapy jet combined with soft, bubbly, warm water to gently caress her skin from all angles.

  The soothing warmth of the delicate water jets and the calming soporific effect of the lovely music, piped in through the audio system installed in her apartment, was sheer bliss and she only felt a very slight degree of irritation when something appeared to have wrapped itself around the calf of her left leg.

  Mademoiselle Zorfiere bent down to push away what she had presumed to be a flannel or towel that had wrapped itself around her leg, but instead of, as expected, feeling a wet soft cloth, she stiffened when she realized that the object was something more like a hard rubber tube encasing her calf.

  She felt for the switch to turn off the shower jets, as it was impossible for her to see clearly through the spray. When she had cleared the water from her eyes, she lowered her head once more to try and identify the thing that was now beginning to squeeze her calf tightly.

  With a suffocated scream, Mademoiselle Zorfiere saw that the thing was dark brown and hairy. It appeared to be trying to extricate itself from the wet room draining section.

  She desperately tried to disentangle herself from this horrible abhorration that was clutching at her leg, but it had such an all-embracing hold on her calf that, tug as she might, she just could not release herself. The thing had two feeler-like tentacles extending from its head-parts and she felt sick at the thought of that beast touching her.

  For a while Mademoiselle Zorfiere remained paralyzed on the spot. This ghastly sight mesmerized her until she finally came to her senses again and started to scream and scream as loudly as she could, but no one could hear her cries for help.

  In her attempt to get some peace and solitude this evening, Mademoiselle Zorfiere had switched off all the outside contacts when she had arrived home. She had purposefully decided to let nobody interfere with her rest that evening and had deliberately closed down all contact with the outside world before entering her wet room, by turning the apartment onto the complete isolation system.

  The following morning when Mademoiselle Zorfiere had not arrived at the Drama College and also had not contacted them to indicate that she would be late or was otherwise engaged, as was the normal procedure for a ‘no show’ at work, the College Administrator decided that a check must be made on her apartment. He instructed the Search Monitors to investigate the Mademoiselle's rooms and to report back to him.

  The Search Monitors could be switched on from an override system when anything untoward or an emergency happened in any of the staff's apartments. The administrator gazed at the screen of his mobile computer and stopped the scrolling at the scene of the Mademoiselle's wet room.

  He choked in revulsion at the sight that unrolled before his eyes. Sat in the middle of the shower room was a massively huge cockroach. It had pieces of human arms and legs dangling from its mouth, and other remains of Mademoiselle Zorfiere's corpse were lying abandoned at the edge of the drainage exit.

  Brushing aside the nauseous feeling that was engulfing him, the administrator contacted the Security Robots to proceed immediately to Mademoiselle Zorfiere's apartment to endeavor to deal with the situation. He knew this was not going to prove easy and warned the Robot Administrator that contingency back-up would probably be required. When the Robot Administrator received the call, he knew that the problem was going to prove extremely difficult and decided to contact Zon to explain what had happened, as he knew that Zon would probably wish to investigate the reason for the cockroach managing to reach the apartment.

  As far as Zon was aware, all the rogue cockroaches had been destroyed in the Mediterranean Sea when they had tried to reach Europe. Now it seemed that one, at least, had survived. Even if they managed to destroy this monster, were there others in the vicinity?

  Zon got into immediate contact with his brothers and his adviser, Zenith. After discussing the predicament, it was decided that the whole of the apartment block where Mademoiselle Zorfiere had been residing should be cleared immediately and probes were to be sent through all the drainage systems. To be extra sure that no other routes of invasion by other such anomalies as the giant cockroaches were available, all possible such entrances and passageways were to be completely probed and searched in the whole edifice. Instructions were also given for the robots to build extra-secure covers on all drainage exits. Zenith also insisted that any possible route that the cockroaches could utilize must be made entry-proof everywhere.

  The robots under the supervision of the GM Robot Administrator undertook the destruction of the roach discovered in Mademoiselle Zorfiere's quarters, and whilst this proved to be quite a difficult operation, the roach was finally eliminated and disposed of. The remains of Mademoiselle Zorfiere were given a somber and respectful cremation with a number of her drama students attending the service. As the Mademoiselle had been a Zelite, there was now a vacant citizenship to be filled.

  CHAPTER 16

  Zon soon became completely engrossed in the arrangements that had to be made for the Dropouts to come and live safely among the Zelites.

  He had made up his mind to try and become the good person that was expected of a leader such as him. He spent a lot of time and energy planning a sui
table area for them to have their own village and space but within the protection and confines of the Zelite safe underground area near Rome in Italy. He realized that to avoid any confrontation with his staff, he must still keep the Dropouts segregated from the Zelites and the best solution to this problem was to allow them to have their own space within the protected zones of the Zelites.

  Unfortunately, therefore, being so busy with the Dropouts, he let some months pass without visiting his darling Uvarna. This was not altogether Zon's fault, but was also partially due to the fact that she was pregnant again and was not too keen on their usual closeness.

  It was the time for Uvarna to give birth and she had delivered triplets when a message arrived for Zon telling him that he was needed urgently on Planet Uno. He was concerned at the news and zoomed straight to Uvarna's bedside. He was shocked when he saw his lovely Uvarna. She was only a shell of herself and he became angry that no one had told him that she was expecting a multiple birth.

  As he had seen very little of Uvarna during this pregnancy, for various reasons, he cursed himself now for not having paid more attention to her.

  He had wanted to prove to his people that he really was a truly good person and wasn't just interested in carousing and partying. He had dedicated so much of his efforts to improving the lot of the Dropouts that he had neglected his own sweet Uvarna.

  Zon ordered the Unos to contact his top medical specialists in the States and to let him speak to them direct via the satellite-viewing link. When he was connected to the specialists, he explained Uvarna's condition and coupled up the specialists to the visual channel on his link monitor so that they could see for themselves what a poor state Uvarna was in. He said, “I am devastated to find my wife in such a poor condition and I cannot believe that I wasn't notified earlier of the risk to Uvarna, but I think there must be something that you specialists can do to help her.”

  After discussing the situation in detail with his consultants, Zon decided to transport Uvarna and the triplets direct to the Medical Cure Center in Miami, and although the Unos objected profoundly to his plans, he managed to persuade them that as Uvarna's very life hung by a thread, this could be the only way to save her.

  He made sure that Uvarna was well protected with medical padding encasing her body and watched while she was lifted very carefully into the space vehicle. He ordered two medical attendants and a qualified medic from Planet Uno to accompany her on her journey. Zon was to follow immediately in his own Spacemobile, but he decided that he would first go and visit the triplets whom he had not bothered to even look at during his visit to Uvarna, having already been assured that they were quite healthy.

  The nurse looking after the triplets took Zon's hand and led him down the corridor to a warm but airy room furnished with three tiny incubator beds. He gazed at the babies tenderly. The nurse told him that of the three, one was a girl and the other pair were identical twin boys.

  This was a very rare occurrence and Zon conjectured that perhaps the children had two separate fathers. He was still jealous of Uvarna's continuing residence on Planet Uno and could not rid himself of that niggling concern he always felt that she would be attracted to various other males.

  “This is unbelievable! How can I be sure that I am the father when there is such an anomaly with these babies?” he thought to himself.

  He demanded that DNA tests be carried out on the triplets and said he wanted to be notified immediately of the results. As soon as the nurse returned to the Visitors’ Waiting Area where Zon had been pacing backwards and forwards awaiting the results of the test, he could tell from her face that he need not have worried about the fatherhood of the children.

  “As you can see for yourself, Leader Zon, there is no doubt at all who the sperm donor was,” she happily advised him, handing him the test results to read. Zon could not help feeling elated at this news and, forgetting his jealousy now, he returned once more to gaze at his offspring.

  “How strange,” he thought to himself, “Why should the little girl be so dark, just like me, and yet the boys are as fair as the snow?”

  Arrangements were also made for the triplets to be flown to Planet Zero as soon as possible, and Zon, blowing kisses gently to each of them, made his own swift departure from Planet Uno.

  Upon his arrival on Planet Zero, he headed straight for the Medical Cure Center in Miami and asked to be taken to Uvarna's bedside. Uvarna was staring at him, but Zon realized, with horror, that she was not looking at him. She had an uncanny vacant expression and when he took her hands tenderly in his, there was no response from her.

  “My darling Uvarna, what has happened to you?” he asked her desperately, but to no avail. There was still no reaction in Uvarna's eyes or face, nothing but a blank emptiness.

  After a few minutes, one of the specialists with whom Zon had consulted earlier regarding Uvarna, appeared in the room and the man, holding Zon by the arm, gently led him back to the seating area and explained to Zon that Uvarna had suffered massive cerebral clotting in the brain during the delivery of the babies. He also clarified that unfortunately the damage caused was irreversible. He gently but firmly pointed out that when it had become known that Uvarna was expecting triplets, she should have been brought to Planet Zero immediately so she could have been under proper specialist care. He added that although the Unos’ medical facilities were more than adequate for normal births, the complications that had arisen with Uvarna had not been foreseen by the Uno doctors and they had no way of dealing with the problems once the delivery had started.

  Even though the Unos did have the knowledge of eternal life, this state of eternity only existed as long as their bodies did not develop any flaws. Unfortunately in the case of Uvarna, her brain had been so badly damaged, there was no way now to remedy this.

  It took a few minutes to dawn on Zon what the Consultant had been trying to explain to him, but when it did he started to rant and rave at the Consultant. “There must be something that can be done. With all our medical knowledge you must be able to cure my Uvarna. It's impossible that she is totally brain-damaged,” he screamed. “You have to keep trying. You can't give up.”

  The consultant then told Zon that not only was Uvarna suffering from brain damage, but also her womb had been so badly ruptured during the birth that she would no longer be able to become pregnant again anyway. Zon could not contain his anger at the laxness of the Uno medical team who had assisted Uvarna when she was giving birth, and he ordered those responsible to be brought to Planet Zero to be put on trial for murder if Uvarna died.

  However, the Unos were not going to surrender their crack obstetricians to these, in their opinion, bumptious Zelites so easily, and downright refused to allow them to be deported. The situation became tense now between the two planets and Zon began to think up plans to punish the Elders on Planet Uno for not advising him earlier about Uvarna's plight. He even contemplated withholding delivery of fresh water supplies, but his friend Zenith persuaded him that this would be an extremely cruel act of revenge and not really suitable behavior for the Planet Leader.

  CHAPTER 17

  Most of the Zelites had survived the meteor disaster due to the fact that they were already living mainly underground at the time and the few casualties were the unlucky people who happened to be space traveling at the time, plus a few inferior races inhabiting some of the remotest spots on the Planet.

  Zon still recalled how he had been badly shaken by the calamity of the meteorite hits and decided that this occurrence had to be used by him as a lesson that he was not acting as a good and true leader. He acknowledged to himself, once again, that he should start to clean up his act and give proper leadership to his people.

  So, after the initial problems of dealing with the flooded reservoirs and re-building the edifices that had been badly damaged, Zon and his Council set about creating a more stable and clean environment for the people to live in.

  One of the first things that Zon did was to fly to Pla
net Uno and make peace with the Unos. His initial anger had now been spent and he realized that no one was to blame for the sad disaster that had happened to Uvarna. He spoke to the Elders on Planet Uno and promised that he would arrange for water supplies to be sent to them with no charge in the future. In return, all he asked was that his sister, Zeileen, would be allowed to take an Uno male as a mate to replace the role of Uvarna. Zon had two sisters, Zargaret and Zeileen and after discussing the matter with these two women, it had been agreed that Zeileen would be the one to provide children in the future, if and when a replacement Zelite was needed.

  He constantly visited Uvarna and prayed regularly that she would recover from her coma, but eventually he accepted the fact that she would never become his lover again. The Great Leader could not bring himself to replace Uvarna by taking another woman from Planet Uno to provide him with offspring. That is why he was grateful that his sister Zeileen took over that responsibility without too much protestation. Although the specialists did all in their power to cure Uvarna, she eventually slipped into a deeper coma and the inevitable finally happened.

  Zon was meeting his brothers for a discussion on the new tunnels that were being built to replace those damaged during the meteorite bombardment when he received an urgent bleep from his personal scanner ’phone. As he answered the caller, who was speaking from the prestigious Miami Clinic where Uvarna was hospitalized, Zerek and Zeter both guessed immediately from the distressed expression on Zon's face that the worst had happened and Uvarna was now dead.

  Zon agreed to allow Uvarna's body to be returned to her people on Uno. He himself accompanied Uvarna's coffin and declared a state of mourning to be in effect throughout Planet Zero. All the population, including the GM people, had been instructed to wear black clothing until Zon's return. Uvarna's sister arranged for the funeral to take place as soon as the coffin arrived in the Uno Capital. This service was a very strange event—not at all like the funeral rituals carried out on Planet Zero. Uvarna's body was carried to a very high mountain on Planet Uno and then it was completely encapsulated in a huge deflated silver balloon. This, in turn, was attached to a small but powerful rocket, which carried the coffin capsule into outer space where it released the coffin. The huge silver balloon, carrying the coffin capsule, automatically inflated and floated off into space. At the same time as Uvarna's own personal balloon capsule was released, millions of other smaller silver balloons were floated up from Planet Uno into the sky to accompany her.