“How did you ever guess?” retorted the flushed woman jokingly.
Zon rang for the GM maid and told her to bring some champagne and chocolate truffles straight away, which she did. The maid asked Zon if he needed her to refresh him and was slightly surprised to hear him refusing her services. Stef, however, was delighted as she had never been able to accept Zon's closeness with this GM maid and had always felt a nauseating jealousy toward her.
“No, just leave us fresh towels and toiletries and I will summon you if we require any more help,” Zon dismissed the maid quite curtly.
Stef was smugly satisfied about Zon's attitude to the GM maid and was glad now that she had not yet dismissed the woman from Zon's service. She realized that if she had got rid of the maid that would have angered Zon no end and could have led to painful repercussions for herself. Stef was quietly confident that she could slowly manipulate Zon into doing anything that she wanted, but she was also very much aware that, should she upset Zon, he might punish her very severely.
After a while Zon excused himself and said he was going to his own bedroom to sleep for a few hours. He good-humoredly pointed out that he knew he would not be able to sleep with Stef by his side, as he would be sexually driven to wake every hour or so to make love to her, and what he really required now was a good rest. Stef was quite happy, needing some rest herself and, being content in the fact that she had washed her husband herself, she felt no jealousy lurking in her mind even though he was retiring to his own personal bedroom, which was still quite an alien concept in her opinion, but who was she to question the Great Zon?
After a few hours, Stef rang for the GM maid to bring her some tea, but to her dismay it was another woman who answered her summons. Immediately she suspected that the GM maid was likely to be attending to Zon! She grabbed her flimsy sari and raced, cheeks ablaze, to Zon's private bedroom. She hammered and banged on Zon's locked door and, sure enough, the GM maid eventually opened it. Zon was not to be seen, but she heard his shower running and she stormed into the shower raining blows on Zon's body, screaming at him that he was a two-timing son of a bitch! The GM maid discreetly made a hasty exit and left the two to fight. Zon was indeed angry this time. He grabbed Stef up in his strong arms and threw her onto his bed and, ripping off her sari, he entered her roughly time and time again until she could take no more and begged him to stop.
“Now, you silly woman, do you still believe that I am using the maid for sex? When I have a gorgeous female like you, why on earth would I take a second-rate woman like a GM, eh?”
Stef waited in trepidation for the expected painful zap of the Taser Gun, but, to her relief, Zon did not reprimand her in that way for her jealousy this time.
“Come here, my woman, I will tell you once again, I need only you, no one else. You satisfy my every wish sexually, your hot blood drives you crazy, which in turn, I find exciting, you know. Your quick temper makes you completely and uncontrollably wild and it is this wildness that makes you very, very desirable.”
Zon held her closely and then, to lead the conversation discreetly away from the subject of the GM maid, he gently reminded Stef that it was time to go and get ready for dinner. Stef's initial anger had by now subsided and, feeling the comfort of her lover's arms enfolding her, she calmed down and with a grin confirmed that she could eat a horse. These strange expressions were still pretty unfathomable to Zon, but he guessed she meant that she was ravenously hungry and, nodding his head, he agreed that it was time for some food.
CHAPTER 32
When the Ottos returned again to Planet Zero, the removal of the dinosaurs was completed without any mishaps and they were shipped off to Planet Otto in massive container crates towed by pre-programmed powerful rocket-guided craft.
Before the final departure of the Ottos, Zon thanked them for their help with this situation. He asked General Ottovio if there was anything he could do to express his gratitude for the assistance of the Ottos. The General said he had just one small request and that was that they wanted the GM women that had been provided for their comfort, whilst they were in Washington, to accompany them back to Planet Otto. He lecherously and explicitly described to Zon the delight these women had provided.
Zon was very reluctant to accede to this request, but knew he had no option other than to provide the Ottos with the GM women. His sister, Zeileen, begged on behalf of the GM women not to allow this to happen, but Zon was not to be moved on this occasion. He knew it would be unkind to the females, but he also knew that he really had no alternative if he did not want to upset the mighty Ottos. The weeping women were unceremoniously bundled into a separate Space Ship and Zon, heavy in heart, knew they were going to suffer a diabolical existence on Planet Otto.
Zenith was extremely disturbed that his friend and Great Leader of the Zelites could allow such an atrocious thing to take place and he decided to take matters into his own hands without consulting Zon. The GM man knew that if the Otto warriors were allowed to carry away these poor women, their fate was brutally sealed.
He was fully aware that it would be a risky operation, for when General Ottovio would come to realize what had happened, he could quite well turn back and counter-attack the Zelites, but Zenith was also sure that the General did not really have sufficient attack forces accompanying him to try and retaliate in such a way. Zenith relied on the fact that if no harm came to the General himself and his own Space Ship, then when the General had had time to get over his anger regarding the loss of his female playthings, he would have already encountered some other mischief to take his mind off this loss.
The GM man arranged for the Zelite Robots to launch a deadly but swift missile attack on the airborne Space Ship carrying the distressed women, knowing full well that apart from killing some of the cruel Ottos, he would at the same time be massacring the unfortunate females. However, in his heart he was convinced that their death would be quick and painless, whereas if he allowed this Space Ship to continue on its journey, the women would endure horrendous long-term suffering.
His plan was carried out effectively and the Ottos’ ship carrying the doomed women disappeared without trace in a matter of seconds. When Zenith caught up with Zon and admitted what he had done, Zon was thunderously angry with his friend. Zon paced across the room towards his friend and punched him directly in the face. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Zenith, taking matters into your own hands? I am the leader of this planet, not you, and don't you ever forget it. Nothing as major as that action must ever be undertaken again by you or anyone else without my express permission.”
Zon's face became almost purple and his expression of rage increased as he shouted at Zenith, “Do you understand? I had plans to persuade the Ottos to sell or give us Planet Uno, as this would have been an ideal solution to our problem of transferring ourselves to another planet. But boy, have you now gone and blown any chances that we had of that ever happening!”
His friend just stared blankly at Zon who, prickling with anger, stormed away across the room and told to Zenith to clear off. Zenith silently left his friend without a word of apology for what he had done, as he knew in his own heart that he had done the right thing and he also knew instinctively that it would not take long for Zon to accept that the decision he had taken was the right one.
The outcome of Zenith's action was, however, to be unbelievably disastrous. The Ottos had clearly seen what had happened to their space ship and, being as evil as they were, they could not let things lie. General Ottovio instructed his captains to fire a rocket, aiming it at Planet Zero's central chemical plant situated on the European Continent.
This chemical plant had been built some long time ago and was very rarely used now, but the stocks of various explosive substances were still stockpiled there just in case they were ever required for experimental purposes, etc. These compounds were highly inflammable, but, although various robots were kept in place to keep a guard on the plant, not much interest had been taken in the chem
ical depository over recent years.
When the Ottos’ rocket hit the plant, there was absolutely nothing the robots could do to prevent the wide-scale destruction that was about to happen. The massive explosion that was created blew up the resident robots and a huge fire blazed through the premises and out into the surrounding countryside.
The depository had been built into a cliff top on the European German Coastal Area, miles away from any human habitation and in what was at the time of its construction considered to be a relatively safe and secure place. However, due to the direct hit from the Ottos’ lethal rocket, none of its protective walls or roofs was effective enough to withstand the mighty fireball that burst out from these premises.
The explosions were heard hundreds of miles away from the site, and people rushed scared into the safety bunkers that were available in all the European cities. The Rescue and Fire Services were all alerted and immediately rushed to the scene, but, due to the fierceness of the heat and the chemical fumes that were pouring out of the store, they could not get near enough to be of any use to quell the fire.
The chemicals continued to burst out of their secure containers and flowed downwards, seeping out of the chalky cliff tops into the fields sloping away towards the nearest towns because, believing, at the time, that the best place to locate such a chemical depository would be high up on a cliff so as to prevent any leakage of fumes from drifting across towns in the mistaken belief that they would rise upwards. But, contrary to what had been previously anticipated, the perilous liquids, not just fumes, now were flowing swiftly downhill away from the cliff top, causing massive destruction on the way.
The fire caused by the explosions was so intense that it burned through the fields, forests and woodland just like a match being struck to tinder-dry paper. The whole landscape was like some horror movie. Nothing was safe, and the poor inhabitants of the surrounding towns just did not stand a chance of survival, even in their safety bunkers. The heat was too intense: it penetrated and cooked them like a microwave.
Unfortunately for the Central European Zelites, the intensity of the problem was too much and they panicked; jumping into their underground transportation, they tried to flee away from the coast, but the subways were soon swamped with chemicals and fire, and most of these poor people perished in a horrific manner. They ran screaming along the indoor roads and tried to find space vehicles to fly them out of the danger zones, but, of course, the flames had already reached the space stations before they could escape.
The warning system had alerted the Zelites living in North America that something dreadful was happening in Europe, and they quickly dispatched GM investigators and robots to find out what was actually happening. The heat from the fireballs had damaged most of the normal routes of contact with Europe and the satellites were not beaming back sufficient information due to their viewers being obscured by the smoke emanating from the fires. Luckily for Uvella and the children, the largest part of the destruction was taking place in the German territories, and she had managed to commandeer a space ship to airlift her and the children away to safety. They headed for Washington and, as soon as they landed, Uvella managed to contact Zon to advise him of their arrival.
“Oh my dear God, Uvella, I have only just heard about the fire and I have been trying to arrange a Space Pilot to go and pick you up. Are you all okay? Don't try and come out to Santa Barbara. I will travel to Washington to meet you and I will make the necessary arrangements for you and the kids to be safely and comfortably accommodated in my pad out there. Just wait in the Hospitality Unit until I arrive and then I will make sure everything is properly organized for you to stay there.”
Uvella was perplexed as to why Zon wanted her to remain in Washington. Surely it would have been more sensible and more comfortable for all of them if she and the children traveled to Santa Barbara? But Zon was adamant that she should remain in Washington and she knew it would be useless for her to argue with the great man.
It was not long before Zon appeared on the scene and, hugging Uvella, he explained that all the necessary arrangement were in place for her and the kids to stay at his condo in Washington for the time being. He swiftly went on to explain that he must return to Paris to find out what was to be done about this huge European fire. Uvella made an attempt to persuade him to stay at least one night with her, but he was having none of it. “I'll be back as soon as I can sort out this mess in Germany, my sweet lady, but you will understand, I am sure, that I will be badly needed to lead the undertaking to clear up this sorry situation in Europe.”
Zon had already arranged for Zenith to meet him in Paris and he knew that, although their friendship was stretched at the moment due to Zenith's arrogant stupidity, the GM man was possibly the only person who could sort out this situation for them.
After various suggestions from different sources, it was decided that the chemical store and the area of the main fire should be completely evacuated by all Fire and Rescue personnel and a perimeter fire should be started, about 100 km from the main burning area, to burn out all vegetation and trees, thus creating a barren section to act as a barrier against the oncoming fire. It was estimated that this would then put a halt to the progression of the fire. They were lucky in one respect that the fire had started at the coast and therefore could not progress too far in a northerly direction, as the natural salt content in the sea would extinguish most of the flames running into the water, but to the south there was so far no stopping it. Then nature stepped in to help them. Fortunately, the wind direction changed and started blowing the major force of the fire back on itself towards the coast and the fire situation was soon swiftly brought under control.
The chemical leakage was proving to be a massive problem and all that could be done was to keep the area completely stripped of housing and vegetation and covered with a blanket of sand until the chemicals had soaked deep enough down into the earth so as not to cause any more damage. This natural process was going to take hundreds of years for the chemicals to break down, but so far no alternative solution had been put forward. So this was the decision that was taken. Many lives had been lost and a huge monument was eventually erected at the site of the origin of the disaster to commemorate this dreadful tragedy.
Zon put out a mandate that any other existing older depositories or warehouses and suchlike of any materials that could cause any similar hazard in the future were to be carefully and systematically destroyed.
This had been a hard lesson for the Zelites to learn and they accepted that they had been complacent in their attitude to safety and possible consequential disasters. To cover all aspects of any such future danger, a major research project was started to seek out and investigate any other sites where such a horror could possibly happen.
CHAPTER 33
Shortly after the fire disaster, one of Zenith's compatriots brought his attention to a phenomenon that was occurring in the crop-growing areas of the Outlanders’ territory. Amongst the strange fresh crops that the Outlanders cultivated in their restricted (but sufficient for their needs) open lands, they had been growing a variety of fly-eating plants, such as Dionaea muscipula (the Venus flytrap) and Drosesa (Killer Slime). There had been an increase in the fly population over the last few years and as the Outlanders refused to use chemical pesticides, they had agreed to adopt the more organic way of decimating the flies by growing the insect-eating plants to do the job for them.
A system of hydroponics had been used to encourage the plants to mature and grow larger and quicker than they would under normal cultivation. This operation had been fairly successful in keeping the flies down to a manageable level, but slowly and insidiously the plants themselves had somehow or other grown to such massive proportions that, not only were they catching and digesting flies and insects, they had managed to grab and absorb cats and other small pets that were playing in the vicinity of the cannibal plants. Members of the staff were advised to keep pets away from the site in order to avoid any acci
dents happening with them being devoured by these plants, and the plants themselves were trimmed as often as possible to keep them down to manageable sizes.
One day, a horticultural manager had been cutting back some of the larger plants when, to his horror, he saw his little daughter's pet hamster running up the stem of one of the particularly massive plants that he had not yet found time to trim. He saw the little rodent disappear inside the center of the plant. The man tried to rescue it by putting his arm down into the tubular growth into which the animal had disappeared, when suddenly, without hesitation, the plant squeezed the unfortunate man's arm and, sucking forcibly, it dragged the poor man down into its carnivorous depths, leaning its tentacle-like outer leaves over him so that he was soon obscured from view, and the more he struggled, the more it sucked and pulled him into oblivion. His screaming had attracted the attention of other members of staff at the far end of the horticultural greenhouses, but they were such a long distance away from this particular section of the greenhouse that by the time they arrived in the vicinity of the yells, the man had completely disappeared and no sound could now be heard from him.
Nobody, at this stage, suspected the poor man had suffered the terrible fate of being devoured by a plant. The staff searched the greenhouses and also his living quarters in vain for hours. His partner and all his close friends looked for him in places where he could possibly have gone, but eventually it was concluded that unknown aliens from outer space had possibly abducted the missing man.
It was a known fact that, although the main city of the Outlanders was covered in a protective bubble, the actual horticultural sections, in particular the greenhouses, which were sited outside the protected area, were only actually sheltered by their glass roofing, which had many weaknesses. The roofing was only sufficiently proofed to stop the entry of carbon dioxide, along with other poisonous fumes lurking in the atmosphere, from penetrating into the greenhouses, but was not constructed in such a fashion as to prevent an intruder from outer space. There had been rumors spreading about the sighting of strange alien space ships in the vicinity and it was remotely possible, therefore, that extraterrestrials had, in fact, seized the unfortunate plant attendant.
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