Prologue:

I live in a horrible world.

I'd rather not tell you about it, but you need to know what it was like to understand my story.

This world isn't like your world. It's not like Earth. It's home to a savage race—the Saiyans. They care nothing for anyone but themselves. It's a trait common to all of them. I've never met a Saiyan that cared about anything other than their own selfish desires and ambitions. They killed and raped and pillaged. They wanted money. They wanted power. They wanted women. It was the only thing on their minds. It seemed to me as if they could think of nothing else.

I don't belong to this race, and yet I live among them. You could say I'm a human. Here, I'm known as an Earthling. Earth was my home planet, but my first memories are all here, on this unnamed planet. I don't remember Earth. I must have been too young to have any memories of my short-lived time there.

My family is gone. I don't know if they're dead or if they were made slaves by the Saiyans. It's not uncommon for Earthlings to be made slaves here. It's also not uncommon to be killed. There are no real laws here. If you do something that people don't like, you could be punished for it, but it wouldn't be by an enforcers. It would be by other savages. Maybe because you took their dinner. Maybe because you beat them in a gamble. Maybe because you looked at them the wrong way.

Don't get me wrong, though. Living here was better than not living at all. If you knew how to avoid trouble, life wasn't all that bad. I'd spent most of my childhood learning how to avoid trouble, and now I'm pretty good at it. I know the types of people to stay away from, the buildings I shouldn't go near, and the areas that are off-limits to people who can't protect themselves. I spend my time in a small, run-down town in the middle of nowhere. I've been here for quite a while. Maybe a few years now.

It's a crappy little town, with old buildings with hanging shutters and broken windows. Not many people live here because of the conditions of the buildings, but it's a great place for people like me. There are a few others, and we all look out for each other. The Saiyans don't bother coming all the way out here, but when they do, we all know how to avoid them, and we help each other any way we can.

I even made a friend in this town. Her name is Chichi. She arrived not long ago; maybe a year or two ago. She hasn't really seen the hells that I've seen, but I think I've scared her enough with my stories. She understands the position she's in. I try to help her understand that things aren't always as bad as they seem, and occasionally I'll see her smile.

None of us came here by choice. We were almost wiped off the map on Earth, from what I've heard. There was an epidemic. Some disease was spreading rapidly throughout the entire population. Fortunately, we were into the development of space travel, and many of us could get off Earth and escape before we caught the disease. The bad part: we landed here. Our destination was supposed to be an uninhabited planet where we could start fresh. No one really knows why we ended up here instead. And this is all just from what I've heard. I don't even know if it's true or not.

Before I get into my story, I should explain the system of government on this planet. There is a single ruler, the King. The people don't see him and most of us don't even know his name. There's only one rule on this planet that is absolute, and it is if you can kill the King, you become the new ruler of this planet. Many Saiyans aspire to become the ruler, but none have succeeded, as far as I know. The King remains perched on his throne, unchallenged and unwavering in his position. It's hard to challenge a man when you don't even know who he is, though.

There are a group of people under the King that serve as a sort of government, but it certainly isn't a democracy within that group. Some are there just to be able to have a voice. Some are there for the paycheck. And a select few are there to speak with the King and deliver his orders to the rest of the population. Every member of this government is a Saiyan. It would be stupid to even think that an Earthling would have any power here.

In fact, Earthlings are rare creatures on this planet. We're often sold at high prices for multiple reasons. The women are sold as whores or maids. Or both. The men are sold as workers. The boys, maybe sex toys for some sick perverted old Saiyan with nothing better to do with himself. All I know for sure is that I would rather die than be captured and sold to the highest bidder. Terrible things happen to Earthlings who are taken in by the Saiyans. All of them that I've known have never come back. I never heard from any of them again, even after a good number of years.

Now, if you haven't been scared off yet by what I've told you, I believe my story is worth listening to. I like to say that it's the story of a lost girl who finds something unexpected in a horrible place, and then she's saved. But that wouldn't be entirely accurate. It's more like the story of a girl that could be saved, but chooses not to be, for the sake of free choice. And for someone very important to her. And in the end, she just might be saved anyway.

My name is Bulma Briefs. And this is my story.