Zero Time Read online

  Zero time

  M. P. Swinnerton

  Copyright © 2010

  All rights reserved—M. P. Swinnerton

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, from the publisher.

  Eloquent Books

  An imprint of Strategic Book Group

  P.O. Box 333

  Durham CT 06422

  www.StrategicBookGroup.com

  ISBN: 978-1-61204-387-6

  Printed in the United States of America

  Book Design: Suzanne Kelly

  Dedications

  For Deborah and Anita, my lovely daughters.

  Also for Ron, Derek (deceased), Eileen and Peter,

  my dear brothers and sister.

  Acknowledgements

  With thanks to:

  My daughter, Deborah, for her time and patience in reading my manuscript and for giving me many kind and useful suggestions.

  My daughter, Anita, for helping me to put my manuscript on disk, and for her guidance in the emailing technology that far too often eluded me.

  Bruce, Vice President, Print Production, Strategic & Eloquent Books, for his kind directives and advice in bringing Zero Time to print.

  All at Strategic & Eloquent Books who managed to coax me along,

  Georgina, Senior Agent, Writers Literary Agency for boosting my morale.

  Main Characters

  Zon—Leader of Planet Zero

  Mr Ron Johnston—Man in Coma

  Stef Brown—Leader of Outlander Tribe

  Sister Stef—Coma Nursing Officer

  Zenith—Genetically modified male, Zon's Blood Brother

  Kenneth—Hospital Intern

  Uvarna—Zon's first love from Planet Uno

  Mrs Johnston—Mr Ron Johnston's wife

  Zarn—First son of Zon & Uvarna

  Ston—First son of Zon & Stef

  Uvella—Uvarna's sister

  Zerek—Zon's brother

  Zargaret—Zon's sister

  Zeileen—Zon's sister

  Natasha—Zarn's wife

  Zeter—Zon's brother

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 1

  There was a storm brewing in the distance and heavy claps of thunder were getting louder and louder. A panoramic lightning display flashed and zigzagged across the horizon. Even with the air conditioning functioning at its maximum cool program the air was extremely hot and humid. The atmosphere was so close and heavy that the boss felt a headache coming on. He decided it was time for him to take a break for some coffee so he called his secretary on their intercom, “Zelda, when you bring the coffee would you find me a headache pill. I think there is one in the first aid kit in the filing cabinet.”

  After a quick glance through the office window to keep an eye on the storm, he switched on his laptop and started to log on when suddenly he lost the screen.

  Dialing his secretary again he enquired, “Zelda my laptop has crashed. Would you check and see if any of the other computers are down or is it just my laptop that has got a gremlin?”

  His secretary soon came into his office with a coffee, some cookies, and a pill saying, “I've found out that there is a total blackout of all the screens, I'm afraid.”

  “Okay Zelda thanks for the coffee and I guess we will just have to wait for a while to see if the computers re-load. If not, perhaps you can get hold of the IT service engineer to find out what the fault is, please?”

  Then he picked up his current document wallet and had just started reading the first paper out of the stack, when loud deafening noises roared through the air, followed by huge explosions. After that there was a hissing sound and the whole room vibrated with tremors. He hung on to his desk for support and steadied himself, but even so he did not have a chance to avoid the piece of ceiling masonry that felled him with such a heavy blow that it knocked him out cold.

  As he began to regain consciousness he realized that whatever it was that had caused the tremors and noise, it had quite obviously been something immensely powerful. Sitting himself up into an upright position, he rubbed his strong hands across his brow. He was still a little disorientated and weak and was also suffering from a humungous headache, but otherwise he was okay and had no broken bones.

  Rising to his feet cautiously, he thought aloud, “Phew! What was that?”

  He found his wristfone and voiced in a name, but it seemed to be completely dead. No response. No signal. Walking back to his normally very tidy desk, which was now in a complete mess, he tried the main ’phone link. Still nothing.

  Zon was starting to get really uneasy at this point and he hurried to the door connecting his office with that of his P.A. and called out, “Zelda, are you okay? Where are you?”

  Zon was very worried about Zelda now. He could not figure out why she had not shouted to him when the explosions had occurred and he tried calling to her again to see if she would answer.

  “Come on girl. I admit that was a pretty nasty bang, whatever it was but we are all right, aren't we? Jeez, Zelda, come on girl, tell me where you are and I'll give a hand if you need it.”

  Then he saw her. She was slumped over her desk, looking wretchedly motionless. Rushing over to help the girl, he stared at the pathetic limp figure lying lifeless. She had been killed instantly, he guessed, apparently by a piece of lighting equipment that had dislodged itself from the wall striking her straight on the head.

  Zon looked sorrowfully at this poor girl and thought to himself, “How horrible, she had been so pretty and intelligent. What a waste of life. Such a dreadful shame that she had been cut down so brutally”.

  He knew he was going to miss her greatly as she had certainly been his right-hand lady in the office. Leaving Zelda, he tried his ’phone again. But, again no reply, nothing, zilch! There were absolutely no signs of his staff, advisers or friends. Not a soul. Nobody! Then he heard a groan, and then a moan, and he suddenly realized that most of his staff were either lying by their computer stations or on the floor in the corridors as they had still not yet recovered from the effect of the tremors.

  Zon himself had managed to pull through quicker than most people due to the fact that he was so amazingly fit and healthy. A strange stillness filled the air now, together with an eeriness that caused Zon
's heart to race with unease. “What the blazes was the problem? What had caused the chaos?”

  So many questions plagued his still half-numb brain. Then Zon recalled the terrible cacophony of noise that he had heard just before he had lost consciousness.

  As Zon strode towards the door of his office, he now heard a very different sound. It was horrible but at the same time somehow awesome. The noise he was now hearing was completely bizarre—it definitely sounded like the incredible rushing force of a steep waterfall. This was weird because he knew for a fact that there were no such falls in the vicinity, but yet there was no mistaking the deafening sound he could hear. Zon moved cautiously towards the area where the sound of the cataract was coming from and the sight that confronted him made him shudder with horror. “Ugh, what the hell!”

  There, cascading down the inside of the perimeter safety wall, were thousands of squirming rats, running, sliding, squeaking and dropping downwards to form a rodent river. The ghastly flow was no apparition. It was for real.

  After the initial shock that held him rooted to the spot for a moment, Zon shivered slightly. He guessed that the rats had found a crack or hole—no doubt created by the same explosions that had knocked him out—in the protective ceiling of the underground city, and he knew they would certainly be heading for the city's main commissaries where bulk amounts of food were stored.

  Zon was by now fully alert and, having regained his composure completely, he quickly assessed that he must go and look for any other survivors. He rapidly headed out of the offices into the mainstream corridor to try and find some mode of transport. There was still enough outside daylight filtering in from the overhead mirrored, reflective lighting to enable Zon to see sufficiently well to run through the dark deserted corridors.

  He swiftly reached the nearest people carrier junction and leapt into the first available vehicle. Panic very nearly took hold of him when, after trying desperately to make the machine connect to the system, he realized that nothing was in fact functioning. No telephone lines. No electricity. No transport. “What should he do? Come on man,” he jibed himself, “You are not the Great Leader of Planet Zero for nothing. Think! Get your brain in gear and find a solution.”

  Fortunately, as if in answer to his predicament, the automatic power standby generators clicked on at that precise moment. He had to find out if his top people were alive and well and, if so, then they must put their heads together and sort out this mess, Zon realized. He decided at this point that it would be better to return to his own office and, stepping out of the people carrier, he headed back.

  Zon was pretty convinced by now that meteorites had hit their planet.

  On reaching his own office he thankfully discovered that the universal contact radio link had also been restored and was now fully operational. He called up the link-zone to see if his right-hand man, Zenith, was okay and would respond to his call. Zon knew that Zenith would be the one most likely to find satisfactory solutions to the problems caused by the massive damage that Planet Zero had suffered after the impacts incurred when the giant meteorite had broken up in their atmosphere.

  Zon recalled the warning that had arrived too late from Planet Uno advising that they were endeavoring to repel a massive meteoroid. Unfortunately, the Unos, by diverting it from themselves, had caused the meteoroid to head straight for Planet Zero.

  Planet Uno had desperately managed to drive away the monstrous meteor out into free space, but unfortunately had not had a strong enough surge of diversionary power to shoot it off course from Planet Zero. In normal circumstances, this would not have been a problem, as this kind of situation happened not infrequently in universal space. Logically, the meteor should have been shredded and pulverized before it impacted with any of the galactic planets. But, in this particular case, the disaster was unavoidable because at exactly the same time as the meteor was heading towards it, Planet Uno suffered a major catastrophic failure in its repellent system.

  Also, fatefully, during this same period of time, Zon and his buddies were selfishly indulging in some serious partying and were not paying sufficient attention to the state of the general universe. Had proper surveillance been carried out, Planet Zero would have been on constant alert and ready to put into action its own defense strategy to protect it from the meteorite bombardment.

  After returning to his office and while waiting for someone, anyone, to answer his calls, Zon, full of frustration, tapped a pen in a frantic rhythm on his glass-topped black desk. It suddenly struck him,“Jeepers, if this desk had not been constructed with the latest security safety glass, I hate to think what horrific injuries I could have sustained.”

  He shuddered to contemplate all that splintered glass and metal flying around his office.

  At last, it was with great relief that Zon finally received an answering buzz from his right-hand man, Zenith. Zenith was one of the few genetically modified people who was permitted to mix freely with the pure race Zelites. These GM people were created from genuine Zelite embryos at a time when the Zelites were still allowed to produce offspring.

  During that period, each family that already had three children was asked to donate any future additional embryos to the GM bank to produce these extraordinary people who had modified faculties and capabilities to allow them to excel in certain fields. However, these genetically modified people were not endowed with the power of longevity and therefore had only a restricted lifespan.

  Eventually, after it was ruled that female Zelites must be completely sterilized and the fetus-developing bank had finally become depleted, a piece of scientific research came up with the correct formula for producing the same GM beings by using female DNA instead of embryos. Regular Zelite male sperm that were still readily available at the stockpiled sperm banks could then fertilize these. It was from one of these organized conceptions that Zenith had been created.

  Finally, Zon received the call he was waiting for. It was from Zenith, who asked him, “Are you okay, Zon? I guess you will be wanting me to find out what the full extent of the damage is and report back to you?”

  “Hi, Zenith, yeh I'm fine, I'm in my Private Office in Santa Barbara and most of my GM staff appear to be stunned, but they are gradually regaining their senses. I'm really sad to say that Zelda has been killed. Could you arrange for her body to be taken care of?” Zon asked, “I am leaving this up to you as I know how fond you were of Zelda.”

  The Great Leader was fully aware that there had been a bit of a liaison going on between Zenith and Zelda, and he knew that Zenith would be extremely upset by Zelda's death. Zon felt that the GM man would appreciate being given the opportunity to arrange Zelda's funeral. Zelda had been an Irish GM girl. The bank of GMs consisted mainly of stock from the North American supplies, but on some occasions, the Irish had been asked to donate as their input had proved to be extremely capable.

  Then he added, “Have you been in touch with my family yet; are they all okay? Find out as much as you possibly can about any major problems encountered in coping with the damage and get back to me straight away. Meanwhile I shall be making my way to Command Center, so call me as soon as you can get the gist of the current situation.”

  The High Leader then detailed the immediate problem of the rodent infestation. “Zenith, I need you to ensure that the entrance, where the rats are managing to penetrate the safety roof, is sealed straight away to keep out any further flow of these horrendous disease-ridden creatures. Then you must make sure that these rodents are eradicated by whatever means possible before they manage to enter any of the city commissaries.”

  Zon was relieved to hear from his right-hand man, soon afterwards, that his family were all safe and well. Zenith also confirmed that laser-activated killing rays had pulverized the rats before they had managed to reach and contaminate any food supplies.

  The GM man mentioned that he had made arrangements for Zelda to be taken to the Crematorium and, as he sounded terribly upset, Zon realized that Zelda's death had
hit him really badly and told Zenith to have some time off to help him get over the shock. “I am really sorry that we have lost such a dear and good friend as Zelda. She will be sadly missed by one and all, and I guess even more especially by you, Zenith.”

  Zenith acknowledged Zon's sympathetic words, but assured the Great Leader that the last thing he wanted to do at the present time was to take time off. “That will only make me dwell on the loss of my dearest friend, Zelda,” he explained.

  The GM man had already explained in detail the horrors that had happened in various other continents, but even so, Zon was still pretty shocked to hear about the actual massive extent of the damage to Planet Zero.

  “Zenith, will you contact my brothers and arrange for them to meet me at the Command Center so that we can discuss what action should be taken to combat the problems.”

  “Okay, boss, I'll get right on to it.”

  When Zon arrived at the Zelite Command Center in Washington, Zenith was already there to meet him and they swiftly ran through the contents of the situation report. His account of the appalling state of affairs made Zon realize that the position was far worse than had been originally visualized.

  It appeared that when the meteoroid had entered Planet Zero's atmosphere, it had fragmented into millions of smaller meteorites, each one causing horrific damage to major parts of the planet. This bombardment had created intense global warming. There were huge craters imploded into the planet's crust. Massive eruptions had broken out and multiple tsunamis had lashed mountainous tidal waves over most of the Australasian Continent, obliterating huge areas of the N.W. territories of Australia and swamping most of Asia.

  It seemed that only North America and Europe appeared to have been left largely unscathed, although also even here some damage had been incurred. A decision was made to let nature take its course in the countries that had suffered the worst damage. Rescue search parties were to be sent to the places where signs of life had been detected through the filter scanners, but otherwise the affected areas were to be left for the natural environment to deal with.