Zero Time

by M. P. Swinnerton

  Luckily for Stef, Zon, being aware that the change that Stef was feeling was not due to her being pregnant, but was, in fact, due to the effect that the transfer of some of his genes into her body was creating, let him artfully get around the truth by not instructing her to terminate the pregnancy and cunningly allowed her to think that any child of their creation would be welcome to him.

  CHAPTER 45

  The following day, Stef returned to Rome to keep an eye on what was happening out there and, kissing Zon goodbye, promised to call him again shortly. No sooner had she returned to her own quarters than Stef had a message from Natasha, urging her to come quickly as she was about to give birth. She mentioned that her own mother was already with her, but could Stef come as well?

  Stef called Zon and asked him to accompany her to Liteland, explaining with excitement that the first genuine Litelander was about to be born. Zon dismissed his original plan to meet with the weathermen. He decided that the meeting would just have to wait and instead took himself off to Liteland to meet with Stef.

  They both arrived just too late to be present at the birth, but Zarn was holding the baby in his arms when they entered the parturition room, and tears of joy were flooding down his cheeks. He looked so overjoyed that Zon felt he could almost forgive his son now for raping the girl. Surely the boy had made up for his cruelty by standing by the girl during her difficult time of carrying this unwitting creation!

  Zarn extended his arms to Zon to place the baby in his hands and, as Zon looked down at the tiny bundle, he acknowledged a stirring of love and tenderness for the baby. It was a female and as he gazed at the infant, Zon made a promise that this female was going to have the best of everything, including his love and blessing. Stef asked if she might hold the baby for a while and reluctantly, Zon passed it to her. After all, he thought to himself, she had no call on this baby. There was none of her blood coursing through its veins, but Zon knew that Stef had a great interest in ensuring that Natasha and the baby girl would be well cared for, and eventually released the little one into her care.

  “How is the mother of the baby?” Zon asked. “Is she being taken care of properly?”

  After listening to the pleasantries of the current situation, Zon dropped his bombshell. “Now that the birth is over and, more importantly, as this is the first Litelander to be born, I wish the child to come back with me to live in Santa Barbara until she is old enough to make her own decision about where she wishes to reside. I will have no arguments about this. I have made up my mind and the baby must come back with me. Of course, if the mother wishes to remain with the baby, then let it be so. I will allow Natasha to accompany me back with the baby but you, my son, are one of the Leaders of the Litelanders and you must remain in Liteland. Naturally, I will allow you to visit your wife and baby on various occasions and I will allow Natasha to return to you as soon as she is able to leave the baby. But one thing is not negotiable. The child remains with me until she is sixteen and then we can ensure that she has the genes of longevity, naturally or otherwise.”

  Stef was shocked and stunned by Zon's decision and begged him to reconsider his order, but nothing would move Zon's determination to take the baby with him.

  “Where is it going to live?” Stef enquired, “Are you going to allow Natasha and the baby to return to Outland, or are you determined to keep the baby in Santa Barbara? Also, my dear, what about our own expected baby: will you give it the same love and attention that you seem to want to lavish on Natasha's offspring?”

  Zon had detected a tiny inkling of jealousy in Stef's voice and, putting his arm around her slender shoulders, told her that she was now talking a load of nonsense and anyway, she did not even know if she was pregnant yet or not, particularly as she was getting to that age in the Outland female's life when they went through what they called ‘the change’. Stef was really annoyed by Zon's offhanded reply to her question and retorted that she definitely was not yet at that age.

  Zarn was dumbfounded at his father's decision, but knew better than to argue with him at this stage. His mouth tightened in anger, yet he restrained himself from letting his temper get the better of him. He just turned on his heels and strode out of the maternity room and went to seek out his wife, Natasha, who was resting in the private room set aside for her to be alone after the laborious birth. The girl was sleeping profoundly, so Zarn did not have the heart to wake her, but, kissing her very softly, turned around again and left the hospital.

  When the girl eventually had to be aroused to feed the baby, Stef broke the news to her as kindly as she possibly could. Stef had already spoken to Natasha's mother, who was overjoyed at the thought that her daughter could return with her to Outland and, when Natasha started to sob at the thought of Zon having such power over her baby, her mother and Stef assured her that in time, Zon would probably allow her and the baby to return to Zarn and Liteland if she so wished.

  There was nothing further anyone else could do. The Great Leader had made up his mind and nobody was allowed to contradict his decision. So arrangements were made for Natasha and the baby girl to be flown straight away to Santa Barbara and they were to be accompanied by Stef and Natasha's mother. Natasha and her baby would then be allowed to go to the Outland area and remain with her own mother until Zon had made the necessary arrangements for them to come and live with him comfortably in Santa Barbara.

  After the women had left, Zon asked Zarn to take him to find his other son, Ston. He wanted to see what kind of establishment was being set up for a Senate, etc. in Liteland. Ston showed his father the arrangements he had in hand, and Zon was quite pleased to see that the young man was taking his task as ruler quite seriously. Zon patted both his sons on their backs and told them that they seemed to be doing a fine job. Ston smiled at his father and remarked that Zarn had actually carried out most of the hard work.

  Zarn, however, did not speak with any affection towards his father. He just replied with the bare minimum of words to acknowledge whatever his father said, for deep inside he was churning with fury at his father for separating him from his wife and baby so soon. Zarn was aware that he was beginning to feel a sense of the need to seek revenge creeping into his brain.

  Zon was utterly aware that he had caused quite some friction with his decision to take over the upbringing of his granddaughter. However, he knew in his heart that he was able to ensure that no harm came to this little girl whilst she was with him, whereas if she remained with her father in the Litelander country, many dangers were still lurking there to harm her.

  The two men knew that Zarn was no match for the power of Zon and nothing further was said between the pair of them about the situation. Zon did try and convince Zarn that he was making the right decision to remove the baby and explained to the young man that no harm would befall the girl whilst she was under his protection. He assured Zarn that Natasha would be able to visit him as often as they wanted, but he remained adamant that the baby girl was not going to return to Liteland again until she was sixteen and old enough to know what she wanted herself.

  CHAPTER 46

  Zarn had intended, but never got round to telling his father about the problems they were having with the giant eagle owls that lived in the mountainous regions of Liteland. These birds were huge with wingspans of about 2 meters and with horrendous, huge hooked beaks. They had been frightening the Liteland children and very often when they were sat in their classrooms studying, these birds would land on the perimeters of the school fences, screeching loudly. As Liteland had been declared a zone free from air pollution, they did not have the benefit of overhead protective canopies as were in operation in the northern parts of the Americas, and therefore these birds of prey were free to roam fearlessly. Usually nocturnal, these particular birds had relished the fact that there were many rich pickings to be had during the daylight hours and had developed into diurnal creatures.

  There had been an incident when a little boy had been walking home with his friends and one
of these massive eagle owls had swooped and picked up the unfortunate child in its claws and carried him screaming to its eyrie in the mountains.

  Now that Zon had left, Zarn wondered how he could deal with this horrific problem and decided to get in touch with his father's friend the GM man, Zenith. Zarn knew that, if anyone could, it would be Zenith who would come up with a solution.

  When Zenith received the urgent call from Zarn, he immediately went to visit the young man and, after hearing the description of the eagle owls terrorizing their territory, Zenith advised Zarn to place net traps above and around the perimeter of the schools and other vulnerable spots until all these rogue birds had been caught and exterminated. This proved to be a satisfactory solution for a short while and no more problems were faced from them until one day a flock of these huge birds was sighted over the state's main reservoir.

  The robot in charge of maintaining the flow of water from this lake knew that the flock was most probably endeavoring to catch the fish stocks that were farmed and harvested for food for the Litelanders. The robot set off the noisy warning bang to frighten the birds, but after the initial shock of the loud explosion, the birds immediately returned to their greedy raiding of the fish stocks. The robot was flummoxed now and decided to call the Litelander Water Authority office to seek instructions.

  A group of Litelander officials soon appeared on the scene and decided to target the thieving birds with special missile guns to kill them off. The massacre of the birds began in earnest and it was not long before hundreds of corpses of these dead eagle owls were strewn around the perimeter of the reservoir. These officials shook hands at a job well done and instructed the robot to shoot any other such birds that strayed into this territory in future. They advised the robot that they would be making arrangements for the corpses to be incinerated as soon as possible.

  Zarn was only too relieved to hear that his local people had managed to sort out the problem without any further help from the Zelites, and was quite proud of the fact that they, the Litelanders, were beginning to be able to stand on their own feet. This, he felt, was a feather in his cap, and perhaps now his father would appreciate what a good leader he was proving to be.

  CHAPTER 47

  Stef was disappointed to discover that she was not pregnant and wondered then why she had been feeling so crook for the past few weeks, so she decided to go and have a medical checkup with a Zelite Health Specialist.

  The Medical Center was strangely quiet and the white walls of the entrance corridor echoed eerily as Stef's high heels clattered along the marbled floor. The subdued lighting was both restful and yet displayed every item clearly along the passageway. The doors drifted open as though some magic hands were at work whenever a person approached them, and thus caused no noise to disturb the peace and tranquility of the building.

  The temperature was set at just the right heat to be wonderfully comfortable and yet the air inside was still clean and fresh. Stef found that she was feeling an immense sense of utter tranquility in her mind and body as she stepped into the cubicle illuminated with her name for the appointment. It had been with a slight emotion of trepidation that she had made the arrangement for a full medical check, but now she felt completely at ease and was not in the slightest bit worried that there was anything radically wrong with her health.

  Haunting, but sweetly melodious, background music drifted softly through the building. As she slipped into the white gown provided for her in the cubicle, she heard a soft voice asking her to step through the curtain at the back of the little room and follow the instructions that she would be given. The room she stepped into was full of various computerized machines and robotic people. One of them came over to her and gently led her towards a bed and carefully laid her down. A voice machine soothingly led her through the various tests and, before long, the robot came towards the bed and cautiously lifted her onto her feet. She was advised that she could now return to her cubicle and get dressed, as the health check was complete.

  As soon as she was dressed, Stef was asked to report to the reception area, where she would be given the findings of the test. The reception area was very easy to locate as messages were passed constantly to her through hidden speakers as she walked through the strange corridors.

  When she arrived at the reception desk, a dulcet voice informed her that the findings of the health check revealed that Stef was in exceedingly good order and needed no corrective measures. The machine reeled out the report in hard copy and told Stef to take her copy. Stef was delighted to hear that she had no health problems and guessed she was probably feeling a little under the weather due to monthly hormonal problems, which sometimes upset her well-being.

  Arriving home, she made some tea and sat down to read the lengthy full report that the Medical Center had produced for her. Most of it was straightforward, giving details regarding her cholesterol levels, thyroid and blood pressure, which were all quite normal, except for a slightly raised blood pressure, which could have been caused by her anxiety in attending the Health Center. However, Stef gasped with incredulity when she came to a section that detailed her lifespan expectancy levels. This was unbelievable! It stated that her lifespan expectancy was at a high level and would not need any attention for at least another 100 years, when she should book in for another check on her levels.

  “Oh, my lord! What has happened? How could this be possible? It must be a malfunction of the tests,” Stef murmured to herself.

  She contacted the Medical Center to ask them to re-check the results, and explained to them that, as she was an Outlander; it was impossible that she should have such a long life expectancy.

  The Medical Center checked their tests and immediately notified her that their results were absolutely accurate, confirming that she was carrying the unique life expectancy genes in her body that were indeed usually found only in the Zelite race.

  It then became apparent to Stef that someone had tampered with her body unbeknown to herself, and the only person who had access to her body, apart from herself, was Zon. She knew how badly he had wanted her to convert to the Zelite way of living and how hard he had tried to persuade her to have the injections necessary to make this possible. But how had it happened? She had always refused Zon's advances in this respect and had categorically rejected any such change in her way of living and belief.

  The atmosphere was not very welcoming the next time Zon came to visit Stef, and she gave him the cold shoulder for the first few days. She was polite to him, but would not allow him near her in other respects. Zon shrugged to himself that it must be pre-menstrual tension, which he had learned from Stef the Outland women suffered from quite frequently, and he gave her quite a wide berth for a while until it became too much for him. They had always experienced such a fantastic sex life that this just was not right; something must be drastically wrong for Stef to ignore him like this.

  Eventually Zon grabbed Stef by the shoulders and, staring hard into her face, asked her why she was acting like this to him. “What had he done?” Zon knew he could force the woman to submit to him, but he loved her too much to take such an advantage of her. The air was electric as the two lovers faced one another. The Outland woman was too angry to speak, but let her thoughts blaze into Zon's mind by transmission and, clenching her fists, she stormed out of the room.

  The days passed without a word being spoken between the couple until Zon, feeling a great annoyance inside him at the ingratitude of the woman for not thanking him for allowing her the privilege of receiving eternal youth, decided to take the matter into his own hands.

  Night was falling quickly and the soft artificial lights were gradually coming into spontaneous function throughout the living quarters. Music of a strange, barbarous sound to Zon's ears was permeating through the whole quarters and Zon was beginning to feel that he had to put a stop to this crazy state of affairs. He buzzed his GM assistant to ask Stef to come to him, but the man returned saying that Stef was not willing to come and ha
d sent a message that if he wanted to speak to her, he could come himself and visit her in the relaxing lounge room.

  Zon was starting to see red! He marched into the lounge where Stef was reclining on a comfortable tipped-back chair with her feet raised onto a soft extension to the chair.

  The woman did not move or make any visible signs of acknowledgement when Zon entered the room.

  This was just too much for Zon. He had never come across such arrogance and disobedience before in his life and he was not going to accept it now, either from Stef or any other man or woman. He was the leader and he had to be obeyed!

  Grabbing Stef by the arms, he pinned her down and before she could do anything about it, he had forced himself on her, time and time again until his lust was satisfied. He felt the intensity of Stef's resistance dwindling rapidly as she began to enjoy the excitement of this raw sex and, realizing that she too had relished this diversity of love making, he felt no remorse about his action. As he let go of his grip on her, Stef slid to the ground in an exhausted, crumpled heap. Zon turned to leave the room, curtly adding that this must be a lesson that she must never forget.

  “If that is a punishment,” Stef thought to herself, “then surely I must be a glutton for punishment!” Stef was, however, still feeling deeply hurt that the man she always thought really respected and loved her would take such an unforgivable action, as he must have done, to get the genes of longevity injected into her somehow. She was still determined to find out how he had managed this, and vowed that one way or another she would pay him back for this outrageous act of defiling her body so atrociously.