Zero Time

by M. P. Swinnerton

  A watch was instigated to monitor the sky above the area of the greenhouses, while day and night time cameras were installed to watch out for any predatory aliens. Zon was not immediately notified at the time of this incident, as the missing man was not a Zelite.

  Another member of the horticultural staff was nominated to take on the responsibility for the care of the carnivorous plants and, although a few other pets went missing, the insect-eating plants were kept under careful vigilance and regularly trimmed so that they were not considered much of a danger. Although it was known that the plants were dangerous to small animals and had to be carefully monitored, nobody yet had any inkling as to what had happened to the disappearing manager.

  One morning the newly nominated Acting Manager was carefully carrying out a scrutiny of the Venus flytraps when suddenly he felt a tugging at his elbow. Turning round, he gasped in horror at what he saw. The medium-height plant that had been perhaps one meter high at the most, just a few minutes ago, now loomed high above him and had tentacles and spiked hooks attached to ferocious-looking leaves that were waving and encircling him from all angles. He could do nothing to save himself from this treacherous beast of a plant. He fought and kicked with all his might and yelled to his staff to come and help him, but he was sucked in and devoured so quickly that nobody else could visualize what had happened to him, although some trepidation was creeping into the thoughts of a few of the members of staff as to why the plants were enlarging so vastly and so swiftly.

  This episode of a second missing man now sent alarm bells ringing to the rest of the management and finally it was decided that there was nothing for it but to call for help from the Zelite experts. A team of horticultural experts was dispatched to the Outlanders’ aid to try and fathom out the mystery of the disappearing men. These experts were horrified at the sight of the massive plants and cordoned off the area so that they could carry out some research without endangering anybody else's life.

  Zenith was notified of the situation and he, in turn, got in touch with Zon, feeling that something really odd was taking place. Zenith decided to take a look for himself at the massive plants and, when traces of human DNA were discovered in one of the dissected pieces of the carnivorous vegetation, and after discussing the position in detail with the Outlanders and the experts, it was pretty well apparent that here was the culprit for the disappearance of the two men. Zenith came to the conclusion that the plants must be destroyed completely. It would be too hazardous to keep them alive, and the risk of losing other personnel was too dominant to allow the continuance of this project. The Outlanders were ordered to use other means of reducing the fly population in future. Zenith instructed the Zelite experts to remain in the greenhouses until the destruction of the deadly plants was satisfactorily completed. Zon had asked Zenith to bring a biopsy sample from one of these insect-eating plants with him and they would study it under a microscope to investigate why the plants had gone haywire in such a manner. The two men had by now become pretty good buddies again and Zon never mentioned anything else to Zenith about the Otto space ship massacre. These two friends loved nothing better than to sit together in a laboratory and study any phenomenon that occurred on Planet Zero, and this was one of those occasions when the two friends could really pit their knowledge and brains against each other to sort out what had caused this strange thing to happen.

  Of course, it was not long before they exposed the reason why this had taken place. In the process of trying to develop a perfect hybrid that would be capable of killing any flying and crawling insects in the greenhouses, the horticultural staff had been carrying out too many cross-pollination projects, and in this particular case a problem had been created with massive malfunctioning growth in the newly grown hybrids.

  Zon let out a derisive laugh when he realized what a stupid mistake the Outlander horticulturists had made, but Zenith reminded him that what had been blatantly obvious to Zon when he immediately realized that there was a fundamental mistake in the program, had not been so obvious to the Outland staff who did not have the superior knowledge that the Zelites possessed. He also pointed out that the Outlanders did not have the facilities, or the robotic help, to guarantee success in their projects when they carried out such fundamental experiments, as the Zelites had at their disposal.

  “Zon, my friend, you should be more compassionate to these people. They do not have the facilities that are available to our scientists and we should try and help them a bit more than we do.” The Great Leader walked across the room towards his friend and put his arm around his shoulders, giving him a manly hug, adding, “Dear Zenith, you really are one of the kindest people I have ever met. Thank you for your advice, and you are quite right, there is no call for me to be so derisive of these poor gentle people. In future I must make a point of ensuring that more aid is available to them in their research. But quite honestly, Zenith, you know only too well, they are such a proud race of people, they would probably refuse any help that we can give them, but I promise you I will try.”

  The problem was fully explained to the Outlander horticultural staff, who, in turn, thanked Zon and Zenith and promised they would promptly act on the useful advice to eliminate the error in their cross-pollination system. A completely airtight new protective roofing system was also installed for the greenhouses, which now contained more sophisticated air-conditioning systems, and Zenith ordered for a new disinfection unit to be installed to help cut down on pollution in their experimental stages.

  CHAPTER 34

  Zon realized that his quest to gain control of Planet Uno had been pretty well thwarted now by Zenith's untoward exploit and he ordered immediate exploration into other planets for a suitable home for the Zelites and the remaining Unos.

  There had been one planet that Zon had visited once, many years ago, which could be a possibility: Planet Mer. A very unusual race of part-fish people lived here. They consisted of mermen and mermaids. Most of the time they lived on land, but just occasionally when an urge overtook them, they retreated to the sea. When a full moon was overhead, they became Merpeople. Their top halves still retained their humanoid features, but their bottom halves developed tails like fish.

  Zon had actually seen the transition take place once. He had been visiting the Mer Planet on a goodwill mission and it happened to be at a time when the moon caused the Mer people to be lured into the sea. He watched in amazement when the man he was talking to asked Zon to back away from him for a moment. The man then removed his shorts and lifted his two legs up onto a bench. Zon then saw the most amazing sight as the man's legs became slowly encased in a single fish-like scaly tail and his two feet became joined as two tail fins.

  On Zon's unannounced arrival on Planet Mer, the Chief Merman had already warned Zon that he would not be able to meet him as it was their transition time, and unfortunately it was not a convenient moment for them to be able to have any worthwhile conversations. Zon had been totally unaware of this strange event that took place on Planet Mer, and was ignorant of the fact that soon all the inhabitants would be slithering into the sea.

  One official did come and greet him, warning him that he would not be able to carry on with their conversation for long, as it was time for him to slip into the sea. He assured Zon that he would be back in a few weeks’ time to carry on with their discussion, and apologized to Zon for cutting him short, but this was in the nature of the Mer people and they could not stop this metamorphosis taking place.

  With that, the Merman started developing gills and, slipping gently off the bench, slithered into the waiting tide. Zon was absolutely fascinated by these phenomena and was enthralled by the sight of the beautiful mermaids and mermen slithering and sliding into the water. He just sat totally mesmerized by the scene.

  “I am living inside a fairytale,” he thought to himself.

  These gorgeous young women with long flowing hair were naked to the waist and looked completely human until you saw their tails shimmering in the sunlight
. They were all so happy. None of them took any notice of him as he sat staring at them; they were totally absorbed in racing into the water. A lot of the Mer people had been sitting on the rocks waiting for the transitions to happen and they were able to slip swiftly into the sea without having to slither along the sands like the people arriving from further inland. It seemed that most of the race of Mer people just waited for this moment and congregated on the rocks and shore until their metamorphosis was complete. They were just so happy and content—hugging one another and laughing and kissing until they finally disappeared into the water, chasing one another along the ridges of the waves and then ducking under the surface to come up further out to sea until eventually they all vanished from sight way out into the ocean.

  On his return to Planet Zero, Zon got in touch with Zenith and described to him what he had seen. Zenith smiled and said that he was aware of these strange people, telling Zon that there was a legend about a young girl who had been swimming in the clear, warm blue waters in one of the coves around the shores of the planet when she had been approached by a dolphin. The story went on to describe how the dolphin had gently pushed the girl to lean on a rock lying in the middle of the bay, and there the dolphin had entered her and the girl had subsequently given birth to a Merbaby. The legend was that the girl and the dolphin fell in love and produced many more of these Mer people until a race of mermen and mermaids was established. Whatever was the truth of the story, Zon had to admit that he had seen with his own eyes the exciting metamorphoses take place, and it was indeed true that during certain phases of the moon the mating rituals of the fish people took place somewhere way out in the oceans.

  Zon knew that it would be easy enough to conquer this Planet whilst the Mer people were in their fishlike state and swimming somewhere in one of their oceans, but he felt a little reluctant to take over this planet. He felt he would be intruding on a very special act and he thought that it would not be right to interfere with these enchanting fish people. However, if nothing else came to light soon, he knew they might be forced to compel these dear people to accept them as companion inhabitants of their planet.

  Zon decided to put the question of the transfer on the back burner for the time being, and prayed that one of his exploration teams would come up with a viable answer to their predicament very shortly.

  CHAPTER 35

  The three brothers sat relaxing in their recliners. Today was what they called their ‘Tranquility Day’. They did this once a week, whenever possible. They met in the comfortable lounge room set aside for their own private use, and instructions were given for them not to be disturbed on any account, unless a major catastrophe occurred.

  Their sisters were not invited to join them on these purely masculine days, but the girls never complained as Zargaret and Zeileen usually spent this time enjoying some time together themselves, having a chat and a moment or two of peace and quiet, without their brothers around.

  In fact, the two sisters normally talked about clothes and fashions and quite looked forward to these feminine days doing their own thing. Even though the Zelite ladies could order and obtain anything they wanted regarding all their clothes and associated fashion accessories directly through their link computer systems without having to bother to go out of their own living space, most of the women still preferred to go ‘shopping’ at the specialist shopping malls. They had fun meeting one another and stopping to sit and chat together at the refreshment boutiques. It was like a kind of relaxation for them and they nearly all loved it. It seemed to be an inbuilt instinct for the females, this need to shop.

  Every luxury was at the disposal of the brothers to enable them to relax together and catch up on their male bonding time. They smoked hookah pipes, exchanging various flavors and different substances with one another. They also had many alcoholic drinks and delightful sweets that had been specially made for such occasions.

  During these special times together they shared any worries or concerns with one another, and after bantering with a few jokes, Zon asked the usual question as to whether any of his brothers had any special dilemmas. Zerek hesitatingly stood up, walking away from the other two men towards the other side of the room, and Zon, turning sideways in his chair to get a better look at Zerek, asked him if there was a problem.

  “This may sound really stupid and odd to you lot, but I think I am succumbing to an illness called Alzheimer's disease.”

  The other two brothers looked quizzically at Zerek.

  “What on earth are you talking about? What is this disease called Alzheimer's?” asked Zeter.

  Zon, however, already had some knowledge of this disease when his friend Zenith had described the symptoms that some of the GM folk were displaying some time ago. He hesitated for a moment, trying to spare Zerek from embarrassment, but decided he should speak out.

  “It is a nasty problem if somebody develops this illness,” Zon told his brothers. He went on to explain what happened to the brain and what caused it. Then, after getting his brother Zerek to describe some of his symptoms, Zon asked his brother to go with him to the Research Hospital, as he knew that there were drugs and medicines available that could alleviate many of the distressing symptoms, but he also knew that sometimes the patient could eventually suffer complete memory loss.

  Zerek described to the specialist exactly what had been happening to him and why he thought he did have this almost extinct and unheard of disease. He outlined the onset of the problem and depicted how one day when going to meet his brothers and sisters for a family get together, he had tried to program his personal carrier to transport him to their meeting place. Zerek explained that it had always come very naturally for him to be able to punch in the relative coordinates without even giving a second thought to the sequence of the numbers for the codes and then to leave the machine to transport him accurately to wherever he wished. However, on this particular occasion, Zerek just could not remember the digits that would unlock his safety code to allow him to program the machine. He tried two or three times, in vain, to remember his code and punched in various obvious sequences, but just could not get it right. He told the specialist that panic almost overcame him when this happened, but he had pulled himself together and walked back into his condo to have a drink of a mind-refreshing liquid that he and all the rest of the Zelites always kept in their medical cabinets. As he opened the medicine cabinet the code suddenly flashed across his memory and he wanted to kick himself for not remembering such a simple thing.

  “What a fool I am. What a stupid fool!! ” he had remonstrated with himself. He told the specialist that he had also been angry with himself once for arriving late to meet his brothers due to a stupid moment's lack of memory, but he had made some excuse or other to his siblings without mentioning the real reason why he had been late.

  Zon, who had an exceptionally good memory, told the specialist that he did in fact remember that day and had often thought it had been quite out of character for Zerek to appear late at one of their bonding meetings, but had more or less dismissed it from his mind as it appeared to be an unimportant thing at the time.

  Zerek, getting up from his seat, started to pace up and down the room in an agitated manner and then went on to explain that nothing like this had happened again for a few months until one day while talking to a lady friend, she had asked him what his plans were for that evening. Zerek had told her that he thought he might go to a Pleasure Dome, but she looked at him rather whimsically and reminded him that he had been with her to one of these Domes on the previous evening.

  Zerek described how she had looked at him quizzically and had said to him, “But Zerek sweetie, didn't you enjoy yourself enough with me last night? I had a fantastic time with you and some of our other friends and I really don't believe that you could be going there again tonight!”

  He went on to describe how the woman had glanced at him, shaking her head in disbelief and holding her hands up in front of her with mock horror. Zerek told the sp
ecialist that he knew that after attending one of these Pleasure Zones, most of one's memory slots were erased, but he also knew that most people, in actual fact, did remember a snatch or two of the entertainment and would normally quite clearly remember that they had been to one of these sessions. He had been horribly disturbed that he just could not resurrect any memories at all of the night before.

  Zerek went on to describe the gradual distress he had been feeling at finding that he was losing his marbles, or so he thought, until he finally decided it was time for him to seek advice. The best thing to do, he guessed, was to go to the old medical encyclopedias and read all about his symptoms.

  He went through all the programs on his personal computer, but could find nothing at all that remotely resembled his problems, so he reverted to searching through the old hard-copy books that were kept in the archives in the city's book library, which had been kept more as a museum than for practical use. Eventually, he explained, he had found that the disease he thought he might be suffering from was called Alzheimer's, which was described as normally being a symptom of old age and which had been overcome with the correct dosages of stem cells, years ago.

  Now that had become a problem for Zerek because he was not able to find any information on how to obtain such stem cells, and even after discreetly enquiring from the GM doctors, no one was able to help him, so he had finally decided to confide in his brothers. It was decided that Zerek should be accepted as an in-patient at the neurological unit until research could be carried out as to how he could be cured and what had caused this frightening incidence. Zerek, at first, declined to become a hospitalized mental patient, but after some gentle persuasion from his brothers, he reluctantly accepted that it was probably for the best.