CHAPTER 2

As Gerabanzo awoke next morning from uneasy dreams he found himself being scrutinised by a strange woman, as if he had transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Wait. This wasn't his bed. There was a lot more room in this bed than in his pod.

"Good. You're awake," said the alien woman from last night. She was sitting cross-legged at the end of the bed, wearing only a baggy t-shirt. Elbows resting on her knees, she stared down at him over the top of her steepled fingers.

"Mmmpgh," managed Gerabanzo, trying to sit up and failing. How much had he had to drink? And then the crashing melancholia and the knowledge that his homeworld had been destroyed sunk in, and he slumped back down again.

"You know, last night I noticed a few things," she said. He wracked his hungover brain trying to remember her name.

"Mmmmg," he grunted.

"Well, firstly and most importantly, you have a tail. I did consider asking you why exactly you had a tail, but I was having too much fun to stop. So I decided to put off the questions until this morning."

"Ggh."

"Why, precisely, do you have a tail?"

Ah. That, he had an answer for. "I am a saiyan, not a miserable human!" he groaned "On my home planet, everyone has them!"

"I suspected you were an ang… alien - or at least a divergent manifestation of the Li… well, never mind that. Interesting, interesting. You confirm you're not from this world?"

"Of course not!"

"Yet anatomically you're nearly identical to a human, at least externally." She gave a smug little smile. "I made sure to check that. Oh, to think of the convergent evolutionary pressures that would produce someone who seems nearly identical to a human! I wonder what your Blood Type would read as..."

Gerabanzo just stared at her blankly. He was too hungover for this. She was loud and perky and bouncy and… Yui, that was her name! Now he remembered! "What happened last night?" he asked blearily. He vaguely remembered walking back with the woman, but while the memories he had indicated it had been quite enjoyable, they didn't exactly line up in any coherent order.

"Well," Yui said, swinging her legs off the bed and stretching. "After you threw my ex out the window, we hooked up."

"I remember that bit," he said. He pinched his brow and managed on his second try to sit up. "Does your species have any silly rules that means I'm expected to do anything just because of this? Am I supposed to be your slave or something? Because I will destroy you if that's the case."

Yui smiled, perhaps thinking it was a joke. "Well, I'd like to do this again some time," she said. "I had fun, and I just found a real life alien. A handsome one too, without any purely hypothetical bird-like masks or similar. With a handsomely furry tail!"

Temporarily-Gendo blinked. He was hungover and hungry, but her logic didn't seem to be… well, logical. "Huh?" he managed.

Hands on her hips, Yui leaned down at him, glaring. "Ever since I was a little girl, I was sure there were aliens out there!" she informed him. "And I just found my very first alien! And made first contact with him!"

"Is that what you call it?"

"Yes!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. "Now, I'm going to make you breakfast and then you're going to tell me everything you can about your history, biology and technology!"

Holding his head in his hands, he groaned. "How are you so loud and perky, woman?" he moaned. "You were drinking too!"

Yui gave him an arch smile. "If you can't handle your alcohol, that's hardly my fault," she told him archly.

A little past lunchtime, Yui Ikari stepped smartly out of her apartment and headed down to the university. She rode a train into the centre of Tokyo, picking up a local paper along the way. Eyes wide, she noted the third page story about a mysterious explosion which had wiped out a car park in the city - and how police were looking for an American football player.

She was going to have to get more food. Gendo had cleared out her fridge with breakfast. But ah, the data! The notebook she'd filled with information on an alien race! The fact that his 'scouter' was a sophisticated system capable of detection of anomalous energy fields and could apparently communicate with mobile phones so she now could send messages to him!

Yui checked her phone. Apart from a text from Masaaki Takashio, who was in hospital and feeling sorry for himself and apparently wanted her to feel sorry for him, there was nothing. Masaaki wasn't getting any pity from her. She had been wanting to break up with him for a while, and now? Now she had her very own alien.

She laughed to herself. Just a little bit.

Swiping in at the university entrance, she let herself into the biology department. It was the weekend, so it was quiet. She headed up to the third floor. Yui paused, and tugged her neckline down a little, pinching her cheeks to redden them slightly. She then knocked on her tutor's door, and and poked her head in. "Professor Fuyutsuki?"

"Ah, I didn't expect to see you in on a Saturday, Miss Ikari," the older man said. Kozo Fuyutsuki was in his late middle years, with greying hair and a tired expression on his face. "Is something the matter?"

"I was just wondering if anyone had the BT analysis equipment in 32D booked out for this weekend?" Yui asked, stepping in and closing the door behind her. She leant forwards slightly. "I know you're meant to book them a week in advance, but I thought of something last night and realised that I could get ahead of my schedule for my project and so…"

Professor Fuyutsuki frowned, lost in thought. "Hmm. I don't believe it's booked, no," he said, checking a print-out hanging from his wall. He grinned conspiratorially at her. "Tell you what, I'll pencil you in and say you booked ahead of time."

Yui bowed. "Thank you so much! It's just going to be some quick processing of cell samples!"

"Nothing at all for my favourite top student," the older man said.

"Thank you very much." She bowed again. "I promise I'll make sure everything is cleaned up around it while I wait for the processing to finish, okay?"

He nodded. "That'd be good, yes."

After changing into her lab coat and making sure her hair was in a hairnet, Yui entered the lab and locked the door behind her. From an interior pocket, she removed the bag holding the hair and skin samples she'd taken from the sleeping man. Or alien so possibly human concepts of gender and sexuality didn't apply to him. Yui didn't think so, though. She was fairly sure he was a man. She had enjoyed the experience. It was nice to be able to pick her own boyfriends, rather than having them be another selected candidate from Daddy. She'd have to see if she wanted to keep him.

She set up the equipment for the analysis, and while it warmed up she prepared the specimens for processing and recorded the settings she was planning to use in her log book.

"Unknown sample, possible contaminants," she wrote in a clear, flowing hand. "Test processing run #1 - mouth swab."

And then she loaded the sample into the machinery, and set it to running.

Quarter of an hour later, she was pouring over her results, her eyes wide. "Huh," Yui said. And because she was a good scientist, she went and repeated her tests on the hair sample, the skin scraping and the sample which… well, obtaining it had left a rather bad taste in her mouth.

"Huh," she said again, as she compared the synthesised waveform to recorded Blood Types. One of them was contaminated with a human pattern - probably hers - but the others? Well, they certainly weren't H. sapiens.

She tapped her fingers together. It looked like "Gendo" was telling the truth. He was something unique - something that she doubted anyone on Earth had ever seen before. Methodically, Yui replaced her saved files with ones she'd processed earlier, changing the dates, and saved the ones she'd found here to a disc. She didn't want anyone else following her tracks.

"Contamination in the cell samples, sensei, I'm afraid," she told her professor. "It's a shame. I'll have to try again next week, and try to get better purity samples."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. Both of them were entirely too used to how often samples were contaminated or otherwise poorly set up. "Oh well. It's your weekend you wasted."

"I know," she said sadly. "See you on Monday, then."

On the way back, she called up Gendo.

"What is it?" He sounded sullen.

"I was just wondering if you were doing anything this evening," Yui said, her voice innocent. "Did you want to have dinner with me?"

There was a pause. "Yes," Gendo said.

"Meet me outside my place," she told him. "I know a place that does good food."

"The JSDF has released a statement on the explosion, blaming an accident with munitions that were being transported on a train. The disruptions to the rail network are extensive, and it is believed that they will continue through Sunday…" the television blared in the background.

It was just as well that her allowance from Daddy was so generous, Yui thought to herself. Watching Gendo eat was… well, it was a learning experience. It wasn't so much that he ate quickly, though he did - very much so. He ate like a man running a marathon, methodically processing and chowing down with every indication that he was in it for the long run.

For his part, Gerabanzo was taking the chance to eat all he could. Today had not been a good day. A group of soldiers had stolen his pod overnight, and he'd had to spend most of the day tracking it down again. And then they'd started shooting at him and he'd had to blow them all up. And then it'd turned out they weren't even the ones who had his damn ship! No, they'd loaded it up for transport and secured it so well that it couldn't get back to him even when he'd recalled it! So then he'd had to go track that down.

By the time he'd found the train they were moving it on, he had been rather short tempered. Especially since they'd been shooting at him again.

But that was all done now, and he'd hidden his pod in the ocean. If they managed to find it again and steal it, he'd be decidedly irate. He'd probably go find the king of this country, whoever or whatever he was, and punch him so hard his insides became outsides.

And after all that effort to get his damn pod back, the day hadn't improved once he'd got to scanning for signals. Even this far out, he could still get news reports. They were saying that Planet Vegeta had been destroyed by a giant meteor that had come out of nowhere and blown up the entire world, with no survivors.

Was he truly the last saiyan? It was a dark and melancholy thought. He'd blown up worlds before. Well, not personally. It wasn't something he could do. But he'd found new worlds, handed them over to the Galactic Frieza Army, and then the world trade business had decided that they weren't profitable and had demolished them for profit. Or, in one case, to build a new mega space casino from the rubble. But that had been different, for lots of reasons. Most of those reasons were they hadn't been his homeworld.

And Yui just wouldn't stop talking at him. She was going on and on and on about… something or other. She'd hardly eaten anything at all. Only one small plate, and most of that had been vegetables.

"And I'm actually only twenty. Yes, I know I'm in the final year of my degree, but I was born in 1977, if you can believe it. I'm going to going onto my PhD soon - I'm looking at projects right now, but it's almost certainly going to be related to cybernetics, cloning or synthetic cellular lifeforms. I've always been interested in the concept of iterative biological improvement and-"

He blinked.

"Wait," Gerabanzo said eyes narrowing. "Did you say cloning?"

"Yes," Yui said, running a finger down the side of her glass. She seemed somewhat surprised he'd stopped eating.

"You have cloning here?"

"... yes?"

"How good are you at it on this world?"

"It's… a developing field. We've successfully cloned animals, but we're not as far as human cloning - although I entirely expect to see it in my lifetime. Of course, I have some ideas about how to improve the process, but it's still just on paper at the moment. Why do you ask?"

Gerabanzo stared at her, trying to keep the growing, glowing hope within his chest under control. Cloning, he wanted to sing and dance. Cloning, they had cloning! And at a level which might be able to clone a human fairly soon, if she was right.

And if they could clone a human, they might be able to clone a saiyan.

His species didn't have to die! He didn't have to be alone! There could be more saiyans. And there had be be survivors elsewhere, so it wouldn't just be him. All he'd have to do is find a single female saiyan - somewhere, there had to be one, it couldn't just be any scattered men who'd survived! - and then they'd have their future back!

… and then he could build up a giant army of clones and go and wipe out Frieza as revenge, he mentally added. Then would come 'ruling over the universe as its unquestioned emperor'. He liked the sound of that.

"Could you clone me?" he asked.

"What kind of a question is that?" Yui asked. Despite her answer, she leaned forwards, a gleam of interest in her eyes.

He needed her on side. He needed this alien woman to find a way of cloning the saiyan race. And he had to admit, despite the fact that she was all weak and pathetic, she wasn't unattractive. All he'd need to do would be to persuade her to wear a tail…

"After this meal," he said, "I want to show you something."

"Oh my," Yui said, fluttering her lashes. He wasn't sure what that meant. Maybe it was a cultural thing.

"I will have to fly you there."

"You can fly?"

"Yes."

"... that's even better."

The white egg-shaped pod breached the surface of the ocean, shedding water from its flanks. It was late at night, and the moon was a tiny sliver overhead, often obscured by clouds. The orange lights from the streetlamps bled down onto the water in this secluded place just outside Tokyo.

Gerabanzo had flown here carrying her, which had delighted Yui. The spaceship had merely pressed her glee up an extra level.

"Is… is that your spaceship? That's your spaceship! That's a spaceship!" Yui kissed him on the cheek. "I've got to see a real spaceship!" She paused. "Can… can something that small really travel between worlds?"

"Yes," he said, nodding. He had a headache. He was absorbing moonlight, but something felt wrong about it - very wrong indeed. The light coming from overhead felt… dirty.

Of course, Yui noticed nothing about that. "Amazing! How does it go faster-than-light?"

Gerabanzo shrugged. "I don't know. I can keep it working in the field, but I'm not an engineer."

Yui pouted. "Curse it." She shook her head. "So you're saying that you've spent years in that thing, going from world to world?"

"Yes."

"Amazing. Truly, truly amazing. Yui paced up and down along the shore, trying to peer into that. "What advanced technology! It even hovers! Is it bigger on the inside too?"

Gerabanzo looked at her funny. "No, of course not. I wish it was. It's cramped. I think it's built to carry a single warrior in not much comfort to other planets."

"Ah ha." She looked at him, hands in her pockets. She was bouncing up and down on her toes. "And you said that wasn't all?"

He grinned, baring his teeth. "No. It's not." Raising his hand, he pointed his palm at the water. Taking a deep breath, he tried to put the headache he was getting from the moon out of mind, and focussed, gathering his ki. Light formed around his hand, building up into an orb in his hand.

"Heavy Hammer!" he barked.

And the ball rocketed forwards, detonating under the water. A pillar of steam and water erupted from the ocean, twenty metres tall or more, followed shortly after by a hot rain.

Hah, Gerabanzo thought to himself smugly. That'd show her his power. Now that she'd seen that, she'd be scared to betray him and-

"Do it again!" Yui, hair drenched and white top turning translucent from the water, had nonetheless produced a somewhat drier notepad and a pencil, and looked entirely willing to take notes. She stared at him with wide, hungry eyes. "How do you do that? Tell me everything!"

… well. "This is the power of the saiyan race, human," he told her. "The energy of life, ki… we are far more powerful than you!"

"I can see that! This energy… is it linked to the soul? Does it allow you to project energy barriers? Perhaps as a manifestation of your ego?" Her pencil hovered, ready to take more notes.

Gerabanzo considered the most powerful beings he knew of. He had to admit, it did seem that they were all very egotistical. That was the natural way of things. Why wouldn't you believe in yourself if you could singlehandedly blow up a planet?

"No more demands of me," he said, rather than admit that others were massively stronger than him. "Now, time for my demands. You will work for me. My species has been destroyed. I might be the last saiyan alive. I will not let us be destroyed! You will find a way to clone me."

Yui tilted her head. "Hmm. Ah ha, yes! And then comes galactic domination at the head of a legion of clones?"

"I don't have to tell you my plans," Gerabanzo said, sniffing.

"But ruling the galaxy is one of my life goals!" Yui wailed. "Why wouldn't you conquer the galaxy if you had lots of clones?"

He blinked. "... I thought you said your life's goal was meeting an alien."

"I have a lot of life goals. Meeting an alien, ruling the galaxy, immortality…" Yui ticked them off her fingers.

"What?"

"I like to think big. If you're planning to build a cloned army, then I'm on board! I want two things in return, though." She thought. "Wait, no, three."

Gerabanzo got the distinct feeling he had underestimated this alien woman. Were aliens meant to be so gleeful about the prospect of putting the galaxy under saiyan domination? "Go ahead."

"Firstly, will you go out with me? Be my boyfriend, Gendo!"

He considered her. She was an alien, but she was useful, interesting - and yes, looked very good in a soaking wet white t-shirt. "Why not?" he said.

"Excellent! Number two! Teach me everything you know! I want to be able to fire energy blasts from my hands! Or my eyes! And crush metal in my hands - yes, I've noticed you're massively stronger than a human. There's handprints in my bedroom from where you held onto something last night."

"I'll try," he said. "But you're weak and human, not a saiyan. You probably won't be able to even manage what an infant can."

"I don't care! If there's even one percent of a chance, I'll do it!" She took a breath. "And one last thing. Can you show me the world?" Yui asked ingenuously. "Shimmering, shining, splendid?"

Gerabanzo stared at her. "What are you blathering on about?"

"I want to go in an alien spaceship! Let's go flying in it!"

"Then why didn't you ask?"

"I did!"

He considered pointing out that it wasn't very spacious and there wasn't room for two, but he was fairly sure that she'd just volunteer to sit on his lap.

And he was just fine with that. There were worse fates than acquiring a highly intelligent and moderately attractive alien as a girlfriend, especially one who considered galactic domination to be an acceptable life goal. And looked good in a wet white t-shirt.