ZOT

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

An Origin Story:

"Thanks for helping me with my project Will, you've been a big help." Sandra Finney's voice came from under the strange circular cage she was working on. "In fact, I think I'm ready to try this."

William Wilfong, known as WW to his friends, looked up from the ancient 80286 computer screen. "Guess so, that's tha last lead babe. These things like, drag you know that? Doesn't your dad have anything better?"

Sandra pulled herself from under the cage, pushing a well used soldering iron away from her. "Yeah, lesse WW. He's got a 586, three 686's and a 786. You know, Pentium 1,2 & 3? But I needed six computers as close to the same abilities as I could find. I'm just glad he had these old military units out back in his shed."

"So instead of speed, we get mud? 'Kay girl, but if something goes wrong its gonna take like, ferever tah fix it."

"Hey, at least it's not Windows 95!" she laughed, putting away her tools. "Then we'd know it'd crash, every five minutes. So you learned to write in Minix, that'll help next week when you start job hunting. Now, how long before I can climb in and be weightless?"

William shrugged. "How longs these junkers gonna take tah boot? Ten minutes? Fifteen?"

"Great. Look, I'm gonna go change, you get this thing running. We're gonna be famous."

"If it works" her companion groused, watching Sandra walk back into her house. William sat quietly, thinking as the struggling computers worked to load his latest effort. Sandra was cute, real cute. He'd met her while they were signing up for Sophomore course's, he'd been in awe. Half Irish, half Japanese Sandra had what it took to make any man whimper... And she was arm in arm with another girl. "Ah te humanity of it" he sighed, still they'd managed a friendship. A tight friendship at that. Rocky sometimes, but more fun than not. Then one day she'd popped in to his dorm room a science magazine in one hand, keys to that wreak she called a car in the other. "Sweden made it, they made a frog float" she'd yelled, scaring him and his current girlfriend. She'd taken one long look at his naked sweetheart and then dragged him out of bed. "Get dressed, we've got work."

That had been two years ago, and a dozen girlfriends he noted. Now her dream sat ready and she'd never keep it. Professor Drinkin had made sure of that. William thought of the money he'd gotten for keeping the Physic's professor up to date, letting him know just when everything would be ready. "Sorry babe, its like.. Money. You know?" he whispered. Ah well, chicks were everywhere and he had written a third of the program himself.

Sandra returned, with another girl. Mary, her SO. The girl she'd been with when William had first met her. Sandra was wearing a skin tight membrane of red latex that had William's heart pumping. "So, How do I look?" she asked.

"Eatable" William admitted. "You know, a Gortex outfit with plastic zipper's would have been just as good. All it had to be is metal free."

"Yeah, but Mary loves seeing me like this, she helped me spray it on. Everything ready?" She turned and gave her SO a kiss. "Got the camera?" Mary held up a disposable, grinning. As Sandra walked to the cage she took a photo, then moved around for a better angle. William just shook his head and turned back to his screens. Number four was off a bit. He entered a correction.

"All ready" he reported, reaching for an archaic knife switch. His nod to the old Frankenstein movies. He watched as Sandra closed her cage, latching it shut then waving to him. He threw the switch, turning his attention back to his screens.

Outside five men waited, one watching everything through a toy periscope while talking into a cell phone. "Three Prof. Yer boy, them girls" he reported. "Ah, boy just tossed a huge switch and.. HEY! Babe in the cage is floating! Tha thing works."

"Very good, you know what to do" a reedy voice ordered through the phone. "No witness's."

Tossing the child's periscope into a nearby bush the man nodded to his companions. "No witness's" he repeated.

Sandra was in heaven, it worked. Her whole idea worked and here she was the first human to experience unrestrained zero g on Earths surface. No huge rockets, no orbiting Earth, no....

William reached for number fours keyboard again, it was drifting. He'd just picked it up when the bullet entered his skull. Mary had time to scream before three bullets turned her ivory silk blouse into a bloody red rag. Sandra spun in her cage, realizing bullets were passing through the cage but she was still unharmed. Her momentum forced her around. Around to see Mary's lifeless body crash into several power leads. Helpless, Sandra waited to die.

Computer number four accepted the new input caused by its keyboard crashing to the floor. It sent the new vectors out, twisting magnetic fields within Sandra's cage. "Dammit, can't you guys hit anything?" Phone-man cursed. Picking up the surplus military chair William had been sitting it he threw it's metal body against the cage. When it slammed into that delicate structure Sandra vanished. Completely, as if she'd never been. Phone man grinned, taking an attaché case from one of the others. "Get tha notes, you've got three minutes. He opened the case, roughly shoving several computers out of his way. Number one computer crashed to the floor, its faltering MFM drive shutting down instantly.

Phone Man had just started setting explosives when Computer One attempted to access its hard drive. For several seconds nothing happened, then the program errored out. As a failsafe when number one crashed, all the computers halted.

Sandra reappeared, still floating. Unseen by the men she tried to escape, but when she touched the cages side pain flashed through her. With a scream of agony she brought attention back to her. "I'll be damned" one of the men laughed. "All dressed up, and nobody to love." Wrenching open the cages door he reached in, yanking her out.

She was still floating. With a curse of hate Sandra swung at her attacker. Though she failed to contact a beam of energy leapt from her fist. When it struck her attacker he... folded in on himself. Collapsing into a tiny ball that slowly vanished. Shocked Sandra was the perfect target. Half a dozen rounds slammed into her almost at the same time. They ripped open her insulation suit, exposing naked flesh below. In mindless rage she struck out as every timer in Phone Man's case suddenly went from five minutes to zero.

That was five years ago. Since then she'd dealt with Ruth's death, had learned her abilities and weakness. Still she hadn't learned why those men had attacked, why they'd carried explosives or exactly how she'd been changed. Not enough of the converted garage had survived to tell her more than every lead in her cage had been fused when Ruth's body had shorted the power lines.