Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Seven: Small Universe Afterall

Goten stood on the bridge of the Patriot, a little to nervous to sit.

It wasn't nerves over the situation on Earth, at least, not just nerves over the situation on Earth. In fact, at the present moment, the situation on Earth was a minor contributor to the Captain's nerves. What had him itchy and on his feet at the moment was rather, the effect burning pure dhylearium seemed to be having on the ship. It wasn't at all the effect he expected.

Goten thought that pumping the undiluted propellant into the hyperdrive cylinders would cause over-heating. Or maybe Trunks' tampering might cause some leakage and they'd all have to wear breathing masks or be on Fire Alert during the trip. But no. None of those things happened. Instead, the ship was… 'warping' seemed to be the most accurate term he could think of. Random parts, or stretches of corridor randomly shifted, or changed shape. Ripples forming in otherwise smooth metal surfaces, railings twisting, viewports shifting positions in the outer hull. Not large shifts. Not nearly enough to cause significant problems.

At least, no significant problems beyond scaring the crew out of their wits and causing general moral to take a nose-dive.

When asked what exactly was happening, the Prince replied that it was nothing to worry about, just the dhylearium getting over-excited.

The other mechanics, and engineering technicians could provide no better explanations. To be completely honest, to spite the fact that they worked intimately with the ship's engines, none of them really knew much about dhylearium. It was a relatively new fuel source not developed, but rather discovered by the King's human mate, Queen Bulma. That meant that the only people who really knew what it was were the Queen and the Prince. When Goten asked Trunks in private to give a better explanation for why their greatest source of fuel was wreaking havoc with their ship, he gave one of his most confusing answers ever. And for Trunks, that was saying something.

Apparently, dhylearium wasn't an element either natural or artificial -it could not be found on the Periodic Table. Neither was it a compound, or a solution. Instead, the Prince called it the 'flotsam of the cosmos' whatever that meant. But it was what allowed them to travel faster than the speed of light. That then launched Trunks into the second and much scarier half of his lecture. Something about when traveling faster than light, they were actually traveling through both space and time, and the warping of the chip was actually the natural order of the universe augmenting things to avoid a paradox. Apparently, the universe did that -often- fixing itself to avoid paradoxes. In fact, his mother had a theory that it might even go so far as to create an alternate timeline in order to avoid a paradox, thus making the universe a multiverse.

That last bit was not relevant in the least. It was just interesting.

Bottom line: dhylearium was the 'stuff' that existed in the space between electrons, in the pause between the tick and the tock of a clock. When you broke down the universe -or multiverse, he supposed- into its smallest possible pieces, dhylearium was what you were left with. The reason why dhylearium allowed ships to travel faster than the speed of light was because they were actually traveling through time.

So… yeah! No need to worry. Just Trunks playing Mad Scientist with forces beyond mortal understanding.

He tried to push it from his mind for the moment and instead focus on the mission. Get back to Earth, deploy troops, save everyone. "Helm, status?"

"Ten seconds to drop, Sir." Answered the officer at the helm. "Just need confirmation from the Prince that its safe."

Tapping his scouter, Goten called Trunks down in the engine room. "Your Highness, ten seconds to hyperspace drop."

"Okay." His friends voice came back, sounding slightly distorted. 'Temporal shifting' he explained. "Tell 'em to drop now. Don't pay attention to what their dials tell them."

He wanted to ask 'why?' but at the same time, was also pretty sure that he didn't want to know. "Helm, hyperspace drop now."

"Yes, Sir."

The mottled sky of hyperspace shifted back to starlines, light streaking past the viewports, then the starlines shrunk back into stars and they were once again flying through normal space. The Earth hanging large in the main viewport in front of them. They were about eight minutes out from the standard diastase for dropping troop pods.

"Open the Pod Bay doors." He ordered. "Be sure all ground troops are standing by."

"Sir!" The internal comm tech acknowledged.

Goten's scouter pinged with a call from the Prince.

"I'm cutting the engines now." He said. "We'll still maintain the same speed we're at now, but won't get any more acceleration. I'm leaving main steering functional, but tell whoever you got at the helm that if he can use Earth gravity to turn us instead, that would be better. Also, after you deploy the troops, I'm deactivating the internal gravity and opening the airlocks to void the atmosphere. So whoever's still aboard will want to insulate themselves with their ki and strap on an oxygen mask."

That all sounded so very fun. "Why?"

"Need to clear out any residual dhylearium particles still un-contained."

Fine, then. "Command crew, assume standard atmo-void procedures. Helm, minimal steering. Try and utilize the planet's natural gravity well to turn the ship."

A few heads turned back, silent questions painted on their faces. But no one asked.

Goten's scouter pinged again, this time the ID that scrolled across the green glass was Raditz's. Just arrived and already the planet was shouting for aid. "Hey, Uncle Razzy! Niisan? Are you calling from Uncle Razzy's scouter? What happened to yours, the one with the old ID you called me on earlier." The Captain breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad everything's fine. You can tell me how you did it when we land. We're above Earth right now. About four minutes away from Pod distance, we just dropped out of hyperspace. Pumping pure dhylreaium into the cylinders. The Prince assured me everything is fine. Yes, I'll be home for dinner."

He ended the call and glared at those of the bridge crew who turned to glance at him curiously. They turned back to their work without any words needing to be exchanged.

Goten tapped his scouter again, this time to call Trunks back. "Change of plans. We're not launching the troops, we're just bringing the ship in. Do you need to do anything in there so we can change course and head for the Tasien Space Dock?"

"Why? What's going on? " Trunks voice came back confused and slightly worried. "Don't tell me we're still to late! After all this work I did nearly propelling us into an alternate timeline and all."

Whoa, whoa whoa. Alternate time what!? Punch him in the nose and ask about it later. "No. Everything's fine. Apparently, they beat them back without us."

"What? How?"

"Donno. We'll find out once we get down there. So, Tasien?"

"I'll still need to void any residual dhylearium particles not contained. Might as well leave the Bay doors open even if you're not launching troops. As for docking at Tasien, it would be easier for me to put all this back together if I could leave the ship's gravity generator off but still have a normal gravity orientation to work in, so landing on Earth would be better for me."

"You got it." Goten clicked off his scouter. "Prepare for atmo-void. Then, Helm, take us down to the surface."

For the first time since leaving the rest of the Fleet, the Captain sat down in the Captain's Chair, strapping the X-shaped crash harness around himself. One might wonder why a Saiyan ship was equipped with crash harnesses when the impact of simply being thrown against the walls of their own ship couldn't hurt them much, but you would be forgetting that the ship could be damaged by Saiyans banging into it. The crash harnesses were more to protect the walls and consoles from the Saiyans than it was to protect the Saiyans from the walls and consoles.

The bridge was filled with the snapping and clicking of belts and the pulling and tightening of straps. No sooner had the sound died down and silence fallen over the cabin once more than the lights suddenly flicked off, plunging them into total and complete darkness.

The red tinted auxiliary lights came on in their place just as Goten began to feel weightless in his seat, the crossed belts of his harness pressing against his chest, holding him down.

There was a crackle over the Patriot's intercom system then the Prince's voice announced, "Voiding ship in three seconds. Hope everyone's got everything strapped down or else doesn't mind losing it."

Not long after the intercom clicked off the auto lock on the bridge's main doors was overridden and they slid open. Echoing from down the corridors, Goten could hear every main door in the ship sliding open. Through out the ship it was like a while wind, rushing to escape into the backness of space. But it didn't feel like much on the bridge. Just a light gust of air streaming out through the bridge doors, then it got very hard to breath, then he couldn't breath at all. Goten slid open the emergency panel under his seat and withdrew the oxygen mask that was stored there. Using his ki to insulate the rest of his body from the vacuum.

There were a few moments of complete silence. Deafening, total silence.

Sound was how people's ears interpreted oscillation through mater. But with there was no mater to oscillate through, then there was no 'sound' for your ears to detect. No mater how good your hearing was. That's why they said 'In space, no one can hear you scream'. Outside, it was an exhilarating feeling, but within the confines of a spaceship, a place that is supposed to have air and gravity, it was terrifying. Amazing the difference a little context makes.

Then the bridge doors slid closed.

Sound returned as fresh oxygen was pumped in through the ventilation systems. The red-tinted auxiliary lights flicked off and were replaced by the standard LED lights running light. Then, the intercom crackled again. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it." Said the Prince. "A few announcements, someone lost a very nice looking sonic pen. Hope it wasn't important. Who still uses pens in this Empire anyway. To whoever was growing the sparkweed in their bunk, that's gone too I'm afraid. But then, that's probably for the best since, if they were caught with it, it would have been an immediate court martial. That's all. Helm, you can take us in now. And remember, the Patriot was designed for water-landings. I suggest the Pacific."

…

Some time later, Goten landed on the Governor's Palace roof-access. The Prince opted to stay on the Patriot and put the engines back together. Something about spending some 'alone time' with his 'best girl'. Whatever. Putting the ship's engines back together suited the Captain just fine. It was hard enough getting a warship to break a planet's gravity well without the added disadvantage of the engines looking like a small pack of wild Mac Nac Feegles had torn through it.

Two guards greeted him on the roof. His Captain's bars were perfectly visible on his armor's breastplate, but it still wasn't that long after the attack -second attack- which meant they were on the look out for a third wave, which meant the security protocols were increased. Level three by the look of it. That's three out of five, with one being the lowest, everyday security, have a long lunch and chat at the water-cooler, nothing special, and level five being the highest, all able fighters mobilized, full armor, lock up all civilian and non-fighters to ensure maximum preservation on life and prepare for the apocalypse. Level Three was right in the middle. Martial law, mostly. ID checks at all major entrances, intersections, and checkpoints, curfew for all citizens and non-active military, etc.

So, even though his Captain's bars were perfectly visible, he pulled out his military ID as well.

They checked the picture against his face. His rank against his visible bars, swiped his ID card through a data pad and asked him three security questions. Once they were satisfied that he was, in fact, Son Goten, First Class, Third Degree, Captain of the SES Patriot, one of them escorted him to the Governor's office.

Uncle Razzy was sitting at his desk, scowling at his terminal -as he often tended to do when dealing with paperwork he did not want to do (which was all paperwork, all the time). Gohan was there too. Sitting in front of the desk, a datapad in his hands, typing out something of his own. Most likely an incident report, given the circumstances. He was wearing the black leotard and green tunic of his- no… Goten's brain screamed as he processed what his big brother was wearing. No, no, no, no! They got him to retire that ridiculous persona! He thought the costume got burned. Ugh! This was going to be an obnoxious reunion if Goten didn't nip it in the bud.

Gohan turned when the door opened but before he could get even a word in, Goten cut him off.

"Don't get up!" He said, perhaps a bit to forcefully. "No poses. No monologues. I don't need to hear it."

From behind his desk, Uncle Razzy stifled a laugh. "He's got your number, Gohan." Then, shifting his eyes to the guard that had escorted him, "Thank you, Corporal, that will be all."

The guard saluted, his fist over his chest, and left.

Goten waited for the door to shut all the way before he crossed the room and flopped down in the second chair, next to his brother. "Okay, so explain to me now how you managed to fend off three ships of Ascendancy troops without any backup?"

"Well, we didn't exactly not have any back up." Gohan began. "We got some unexpected help from an equally unexpected source."

"Really?" Goten blinked. "From where?" Then, remembering Trunks frightening explanation of the dhylearium fuel propelling ships so fast that they bordered on time travel, he suddenly found himself asking softly, almost cautious of the answer, "Time travelers?"

"No." Gohan blinked at him in confusion. That was a random thing to ask. Then again, it was a strange and magnificent universe out there and Gohan had seen his own share of the bizarre and wonderful during his four years of required service. Perhaps Goten had come across time travel before and was just covering his bases. "Our help was much less unlikely than that. It was the Lunarians, ya know, Moon People."

"Really?" Goten leaned back in his seat, steepling his fingers in front of him.

Uncle Razzy looked up from his report. "You don't look all that surprised."

"Oh, well, we got a bit of help from one of them ourselves back on the Bowman Space Dock." He said. "From their Princess in fact. Nice girl. Reminds me a bit of our own Prince -but much easier on the eyes."

"That's a little strange." Uncle Razzy leaned back from his desk, crossing his arms over his chest in thought. "Lunarians coming to our aid twice in the same week for no apparent reason and with no prompting from us… seems a bit suspicious. They must have an ulterior motive."

"Of course they do." Gohan agreed. "Earth is right next to the Moon. Heck, most of us could just fly there on a whim. They probably don't want the Ice-jin for neighbors anymore than we do."

"They've never shown any interest in combating the Ascendancy before." Raditz pointed out.

"The Ascendancy's never targeted Earth before." Gohan countered.

Goten though back to his interview with the Princess. When he was trying to debrief her on the Patriot after the short scuffle on the Bowman Space Dock. She had been trying to sneak onto Earth illegally. Not to stay there permanently, of course, just to visit. She visited Earth frequently, this one time, she just happened to get caught do to extenuating circumstances. But she would keep coming back to Earth. Goten never asked why. It wasn't exactly relevant to what he was trying to get out of her at the time. But she had volunteered that she was looking for someone. The Moon Kingdom wanted someone from Earth. No. Not the Moon Kingdom, just the Princess. The Princess wanted someone from Earth.

'You see, there was this boy...'

So, he interjected, "The Lunarian Princess is looking for someone. Someone she's sure is on Earth."

Uncle and brother both turned to look at him, the same question on both their lips. "Who?"

They then launched into a volley of questions which Gohan did not know the answers to.

"What does she want with him, or her?" Asked Gohan.

"Is this person supposed to have any special powers?" Asked Uncle Razzy. "Could they be used as a weapon?"

"Are they a native to Earth, or a Lunarian whom might have defected?"

"Do you think they might pose a threat to this planet or the Empire?"

Goten held up both his hands, silently pleading for them to pause long enough for him to explain. "I don't know." He said. "It wasn't relevant at the time, so I didn't ask. All I know is that he's a he, and the Princess is looking for him. The Princess, not the Moon Kingdom. It seemed like a personal matter."

"Oh." Both men were suddenly silenced.

A personal matter. And the Lunarian Princess was a teenaged girl. That meant it was most likely romantic trouble and not anything nefarious or threatening to the Empire. The fact that it happened to cross inter-planetary boarders was just an unfortunate circumstance of her romantic drama. It wasn't anything the Saiyans need worry about, other than the fact that it provided at least a flimsy explanation for the Moon Kingdom's sudden interest in the Earth and protecting it. Guarding Earth from the Ascendancy also meant guarding whoever this fella was that their Princess favored.

"So then, what are you gonna do with them?" Goten asked. "You don't exactly have the authority to enter into a formal treaty with them, Uncle Razzy, and you're already in trouble with the King over not reacting fast enough when the Space Dock was attacked. Now that we're here with the Patriot, are you gonna kick them off?"

Uncle Razzy smiled ironically. "Your brother wants to turn them into his new research project."

"Wait, I thought you were working on that child-development thing on hansaiya from a neural-psychological perspective."

"That was two years ago." Gohan corrected flatly. "It was the second book I published. I sent you a copy!"

Goten thought for a moment. Books were not exactly his favorite thing in the universe. But packages during mail-call were rare, which made them special. Mom usually sent scarves, sweaters, or some version of her cooking packaged to survive the trip though the mail. The last time he had received a book was a while ago. What had he done with it…? Oh. Right. It was currently holding up a desk with a wobbly leg in his suit in the Imperial Palace.

"Oh. Yeah." He said awkwardly. "It was very good."

"You didn't even read past the title, did you."

"No. Not really. Sorry." Goten folded like a house of cards. "But hey! At least I remembered what it was you were researching!"

"Anyway…" Uncle Razzy cut in between the brothers before this conversation could progress into an actual tiff. "Someone needs to collect the datapads we issued to the Lunarians."

"Its below my pay grade." Goten crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head.

"I'll do it!" Gohan volunteered. "Since I can't see their reports without filling out a stack of useless forms, it would be a great opportunity to speak with them personally about their powers."

"You resigned your commission." Goten reminded him. "You're just a civilian." Looking him up and down. "A civilian in a ridiculous costume."

Gohan smiled evilly. "True. But I could still interview them if an officer of a high enough pay grade accompanies me…"

…

Small Lady fiddled with her datapad. She, and the others, had finished their incident reports some time ago and were left in the conference room they'd been locked in with nothing else to do and no word from their Saiyan hosts. Needless to say, they were all getting a bit anxious. And these stupid datapads didn't even have any game apps! What the hell was up with that?

She wondered for a moment if the Prince had left some sort of standing order to give her and anyone associated with her a hard time. It seemed like the kind of thing a jerk like that would do. (Not that she knew him very well to begin with.) It was stupid, and petty, and didn't achieve anything. All it did was succeed in annoying her beyond her wits. Oh! How she hated that man! And Small Lady only met him once. The next time she saw the Saiyan Prince, she was gonna slap him right in his undeniably handsome, spoiled brat face!

Why were the pretty ones always such jerks!?

She would have liked to blame it on him being Saiyan. After all, didn't Saiyans have a reputation of being insufferable jackasses? But that explanation just didn't line-up with her other experiences with Saiyans. The Captain of the Prince's ship had been polite. It was clear that he didn't want her there any more than she wanted to be there, but he was at least civil about it. Then there was the dual-lineaged Saiyan she'd met as a child. He had been nice too. Better than nice. They had been friends.

Maybe this time, since they ad helped save the Earth from an invading enemy, they would let her stay long enough to actually search for him this time. Of course, her previous attempts at finding him were unsuccessful -as evident by the fact that she was still looking. But she if she kept trying, Small Lady was confident that she would meet him again. After all, they had met once before, purely by happenstance. Why shouldn't they meet again, even if just by pure chance?

She tapped the datapad screen again. So, they didn't have any game apps. Maybe there was something else she could amuse herself with on here. Like an e-reader app or a hook-up to a video site. But no. There was just the word program that allowed them to type out their reports. The damn Saiyans probably didn't want them accessing anything they shouldn't, so they would take just about everything but essential programs off the pads before giving them to a foreign group to use. The Empire might be lots of things, but 'stupid' was not one other. 'Trusting' was also a quality they did not have. Neither were they very 'welcoming'.

Jeez. They were like a police state. Always keeping track of everything…

Always keeping track of everything!

Small Lady sat up strait as she had an epiphany. The Empire kept a record of almost everything that happened on any of its sovereign planets. So, it stood to reason, that there should be a record of that dual-lineaged Saiyan rampaging through West City in his giant monkey form. It was something that probably didn't happen every month -she assumed- and another Saiyan in full armor did have to show up to subdue him before he could do to much damage. So, there would have to be a record of the incident.

Did they save documents that old, though? Ten years… Maybe in a backlog or an archive? Where would she start looking? A public library? Oh! Yeah! A public library would have old newspapers. And she knew the exact date. A giant purple monkey tearing through town was sure to have made the papers. It may not help her find him -after all, what were the chances of him still living in the same place ten years later?- but it might, at least, give her his full name. Then, she could just look him up an a directory. Easy as 'make-up'!

Alright. She had a plan. Small Lady was suddenly feeling very good about herself. Very optimistic.

The door to their conference room slid open and all heads turned to see two Saiyans enter.

The Great Saiyaman they recognized from before. He wore a friendly smile. The other, was slightly shorter and younger looking. Wearing full armor with the bars of a Captain, and looking board. Small Lady recognized him instantly as the Captain of the Prince's ship. What was his name again..?

"Ah, Son, what are you doing here?"

But it was the Great Saiyaman who answered. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind explaining a little of your Sailor magic to me. Its different from the magic we have here on Earth and-"

He was elbowed in the ribs by the Captain. "She meant me, Niisan."

No sooner did Small Lady process that little exchange before Valese jumped to her feet, suddenly commanding the attention of everyone in the room. "Ah! Did you just call the Great Saiyaman 'Niisan'? Are you the Saiyaman's brother?" She closed the distance between them. "How cool! And you're totally my age too! Since I'm a superhero too, now, do you think we can hang out? What's your name? Wow, you're totally cute!"

"Uh…" Poor Captain Son. He had absolutely no idea how to respond this enthusiastic onslaught. Guess with the much more handsome and much more famous Prince standing next to him, he didn't really get this much adoring attention from women on a regular basis. "Uh…"

Small Lady felt a rather large drop of sweat roll down the back of her head. Yup. Valese was a Sailor Senshi alright. Suddenly and spontaneously crushing on a cute guy for not other reason than he was cute. Or, in this case, was related to her childhood hero.

"Uh…" He was blushing now. And he had such great composure on the Patriot too.

The Great Saiyaman turned, tipping his shades just enough to look down the bridge of his nose at his little brother. After deciding that there wasn't anything he could (or, perhaps more accurately, nothing he would do) to help his sibling along, he turned back to the Lunarians and said with a smile. "Well, while he's busy figuring out what comes next, I can collect your datapads for you."

The Lunarians all exchanged one unifying awkward glance, before each pick dup their individual pad and passed it to the Saiyaman.

"Goten!" The Captain blurted out, finally. "I mean, uh, my name's Son Goten. And you are?"

She smiled back at him. "I'm Valese. Pleased to meet you, Goten-sama." She was about to shake his hand, but changed her mind at the last second and instead saluted with her fist over her heart. …Then her hand flew to her mouth in sudden alarm. "Oh, shoot! Was I supposed to give you my superhero name instead? I'm Sailor Ceres. Does this mean that now I don't have a secret identity?"

Once again, everyone exchanged a single, unifying, awkward glance.

"You're secret's safe with me." The Captain assured her. Then, "If you don't have to go back to the Moon Kingdom just yet, maybe we could get some ice cream later?"

"Oh! That sounds great! My parents never let me eat ice cream before!"

Small Lady wondered if now was a good time to mention that Valese was actually from Earth and probably wouldn't return with the rest of them to SIlver Millennium. Then, her brain pressed the more subtle implications of the Captain's statement, 'if you don't have to'. Was he saying that they could come and go at their lea sure now? What changed? They couldn't wait to send her back to her own country when she was on the Patriot. Did the Captain have the authority to say they could stay? Or was he just talking out of his ass because Valese caught him off guard and he was suddenly smitten?

"Great!" The Captain smiled back. "I'll fix it with the Prince so you can stay as long as you need."

Small Lady gave a snort of derision. Ha! As if. That pompous ass wasn't likely to do anything that didn't serve his own ends. Not even overturn foreign visitation laws so his bro could get laid. (Assuming, of course, that he could get laid. From Valese's description of her parents thus far, they seemed like the type who wouldn't leave their daughter alone with a man long enough to steal a kiss, never mind get down and dirty.) Of course, that was a moot point since Valese was from Earth originally. But Captain Son didn't know that. She was wearing a Sailor uniform, sequestered in a room full of other Sailor soldiers (and Tuxedo Mask). As far as Son knew, Valese was also a Lunarian.

…

Goten wondered exactly how he was gonna convince Trunks to let the Lunarians stay on Earth a while. Maybe he could sell it as defying his father in a new and creative way. That tended to be the main motivation for much of the way the Prince lived his life. 'What would piss father off?' Grow hair long, check. Use weapon in battle even though don't need one, check. Take apart and put back together engines of King's flagship just to see what would happen, check. And also ow. That had not been a fun weekend. And the Executor had to be retired and scrapped shortly after that. The punishment that had been visited upon both Trunks and Goten for that little stunt was not a cakewalk.

Bottom line: Trunks would do it if it would piss off Vegeta. Especially since he'd already been forbidden from the Moon Kingdom. Looking at it that way, Goten was confident that he wouldn't need to convince Trunks at all. Merely suggest it is all.

He felt rather optimistic as he lead the Lunarians to their temporary lodgings while they waited for the Prince.

Prior to Imperial occupation, most Earthlings like to construct their state buildings so that all public offices, petitioning platforms, or clerk desks were on the lower floors with private offices above them, and then living suits above them all. The thinking behind this was to put the place where you sleep farthest from the noise of paper shuffling and bureaucracy turning. Since the Empire claimed ownership of Earth, that pattern stayed pretty much the same in most Earthling palaces. Monarchs (allowed to continue to rule their small piece of the Earth by the Empire) still kept meetings with petitioners, or conferences with lieutenants to their ground floors, while keeping their private chambers higher up. But for Imperial buildings, that method of organization was turned inside out.

The lower levels of the Governor's Palace were still devoted to civilian affairs. An normal Earthling could walk in off the street -once they showed the proper ID and they entry was logged- and meet with whatever clerk was appropriate for their claim. The majority of Earth's population could not fly, so that stayed pretty much the same for them. But the Saiyans could fly. All of them. In fact, flying was actually easier than walking. So, rooms devoted to the needs of the Empire were placed on the top floors. The conference rooms, title offices, interrogation rooms, holding cells, and of course, the Governor's office, were all on the top six floors.

Sandwiched in the middle were the residential suits.

The term 'residential' was applied loosely. They were really no better than upscale hotel rooms. Except there was no mini-bar -Empire was to cheap to spring for alcohol- and the mini-fridge was much better stocked.

Goten made sure that Valese had his scouter code before he left. Her initial introduction was unexpected and threw him off guard, but he liked her aggressiveness coupled with her apparent naiveté. It was refreshing. The fact that she seemed to think Gohan's 'Great Saiyaman' persona was cool was a bit annoying, but he was willing to look past it for her other good qualities. Plus, she was cute and in a short skirt. How could he say no?

As Goten was leaving, the Princess grabbed him by the arm. Pulling him to the side, away from the others.

"Son," she began, not giving the chance to ask what was the big idea, "you're pretty high up on the Imperial food chain -Captain of the Prince's flagship and all- so, you'd be the person to ask if I wanted to find someone."

Ah. Her mysterious boy. Goten was wondering if she'd mention him again. "That would depend on the person you're looking for and why. Even non-Saiyan citizens are entitled to their own share of privacy."

"The person I'm looking for," she began again, then hesitated. After a pause, she continued, "he's a dual-lineaged Saiyan. About my age. Eh… maybe a bit older, your age, maybe. How would I go about finding him."

Hm. That was interesting. There weren't many half-Saiyans in that age group. According to the Hansaiya Registry, there were only a little over a half-dozen hansaiya between the ages of fifteen and twenty. The Princess' guesstamation would put her mystery boy right smack dab in the middle of that bracket, but of those half-dozen, only about four of them were male, and two of those four were himself and Trunks, leaving only two other options for her. Maybe her hansaiya was undocumented? But that couldn't be. Because of the hansaiya potential for power, the Empire monitored their births very carefully.

Well, even if her frivolous quest had become a little more interesting, he could at least answer her question in part. "If he's my age right now, then you're probably not gonna find him on Earth." Goten explained. "Every citizen with Saiyan blood is required to serve a minimum of four years military service after they come of age. The age of majority for a Saiyan is fourteen. So, if he's seventeen or eighteen right now, then he'd still be serving his term."

"Oh." The Princess' eyes fell. "I didn't know that…"

He patted her on the shoulder, wondering if her thoughts had suddenly turned towards the possibility that her mysterious boy might be dead or permanently maimed. Such things did happen during one's service. Goten considered himself lucky to be three years into his service and still have all his fingers and limbs with just cosmetic scars to make his body interesting. But other warriors were not as lucky.

Then, the Princess perked up, an idea occurring to her. "Hey, if he's in the Navy right now, maybe you might have met him? Like I said, he's closer to your age, um… I haven't seen him in years so I don't know what he'd look like now, but he had purple hair. Like the Prince's hair, only shorter -well, it was shorter back then, I donno what he might have done with it now. And blue eyes. Really friendly blue eyes. Um, what else… ah! He likes cats because his grandfather always had a cat with him. Um… and his favorite food is yakiniku."

Goten suddenly found it hard to breath. He wasn't sure if the difficulty was because he was shocked speechless, was fighting to hard to control sudden hysterical laughter that his lungs forgot how to work, or that he was suddenly to busy trying to process the information he'd just been given to bother with silly things like oxygen. It was Trunks! She just described Trunks. In a nut shell! The hansaiya boy the Princess was looking for was Trunks!

It was true what they say, 'Its a small universe after all.'

Okay, liking yakiniku, sure, that was a common food. Grilled meat. Lots of people liked it. Saiyan, human, and hansaiya. No big deal. Likes cat, again, another general thing that could apply to anyone. But the reason behind it was more specific. Trunks grandfather on his mother's side did always have a black cat with him. It sat on his shoulder as a sort of eccentric companion or possibly muse while he was working in his lab. But lets give it the benefit of the doubt. Other grandfathers out there might also keep a cat as a companion. But the blue eyes and lavender hair… that was not a general characteristic. Of everyone on the Hansaiya Registry to date, only two hansaiya had blue eyes, and only one of them had lavender hair.

Trunks.

Goten might have made a sort of scratchy, croaking sound in the back of his throat as he stubbled to get enough words together to answer the Moon Princess. "That's…" he began, croaked, tried again. "That's a rare coloring. You, uh, wouldn't happen to have a name, would you?"

Because if she already had the name 'Vegeta' then this girl was an idiot.

"He said his name was 'Briefs'." She answered. "I remember because I made fun of him for it."

And she lived to tell the tale. Wow, Trunks must have really liked her when he was eight. 'Briefs' was his grandfather's name -Dr. Briefs. But more importantly, it was the alias he gave when posing as a civilian. Because the name 'Vegeta' drew far to much attention and the name 'Trunks' was supposed to be a secret name only his family and closest friends could know, he used his grandfather's name when the Prince wanted to play the Pauper every now and again.

And then, Goten got the perfect idea for the perfect prank to pull on his friend. Nothing big or complicated, just a little something to get back at him for all the messes he got dragged into because of the Prince. "Actually, Princess, I do know a hansaiya by that name. You wouldn't believe it, but he's on the Patriot right now. I've go him doing some work on our engines."

"Really!?" He face lit up with expectant hope.

"I have to go back there anyway to talk to the Prince. Would you like to join me?" Oh, he was definitely going to enjoy this. Better make sure the photo app on his scouter was up-to-date. Or, maybe he should take a video instead. Oh, he'd figure that out when they got there. Bottom line: he was never gonna let Trunks live this down. His own Moon Kingdom groupie.

"I'd like that very much!" Nodded the Princess. "When can we leave? I'm ready right now."

…