Lapis' eyes trailed after Jasper as he walked into the Mess Hall with his new crew. Chi Chi was with him, and Lapis felt deeply jealous. Some people got everything in life. Chi Chi had a huge palace, fancy clothes, maids who looked after her every whim, a dad who practically worshipped her. Just as things were finally starting to even out between them, she got his brother too. Jasper wouldn't even look in his direction.

He pouted at his oatmeal. Or at least, that's what they said it was. It was really just a gray, tasteless sludge. He moved it around with his spoon.

"Don't play with your food," Bardock snapped. "Eat it. You're not gonna get another chance."

Lapis licked the spoon slowly.

Bardock rolled his eyes. But he had to admit, Lapis had improved substantially since their confrontation. He followed orders, stuck with the group, and was, well, not polite, but at least not overtly rude. Bardock could work with that.

"Hi!" A bright voice came from behind him, a bright voice he recognized, and Bardock turned around slowly.

"Can I sit here?" Goku didn't wait for the response, walking over to the other side of the booth and squeezing in next to Lapis, who was now grinning from ear to ear.

"What are you doing here?" Bardock hissed.

"I thought I'd come over and say hi. I'm so bored with Vegeta, there's nothing to do." His voice carried, and people were starting to turn around to look at him.

Everyone knew who Kakarot was by now. Bardock had been very conscious of a lot of young people watching him in the halls, whispering as he walked past: "that's him, wait, no, no, that's some old guy, must be his dad." He didn't like it one bit.

"You need to go back to your quarters," Bardock said firmly.

"Vegeta's not there," Goku said, "he's at a meeting or something. Is that any good?" he gestured to the food on his father's plate.

"No," Bardock said. "You need-hey, what are you doing?!"

Goku had leaned forward and stuck a finger into the mush on the plate and was licking it off. He made a face. "Yeah, that's awful! We have much better food. How come they feed you this stuff?"

Bardock wrenched the plate away from him. "It's protein and carbs, what we need to do our jobs! And you should go do your job in the royal quarters!"

"I told you, Vegeta's not there, and I don't have anything to do," Goku said. "I thought you'd be happy to see me!"

"I'm happy to see you," Lapis said. If his grin was any wider, his face would split in half.

"Me too!" Spina, too, was all smiles.

Goku smiled back at them. "Thanks, guys!"

"We're all happy to see you," Toma said patiently, "but your dad's right, you can't be here. This isn't how it's done."

"Vegeta doesn't care what I do," Goku said.

"That doesn't mean you can do whatever you want!" Bardock said.

Goku shrugged. "I just thought I'd come by and see you. Nappa said I have to keep track of all the troops, and I've been looking at all the reports and stuff, and I was thinking-"

"Kakarot, that's not your job," Bardock interrupted, rolling his eyes. "I've told you before, Vegeta's just waiting," he lowered his voice and leaned forward, "for a chance to get rid of you!"

"Well," Goku sat up a bit straighter, "that's not what Nappa told me. Anyway, I'm gonna go say hi to Raditz and Krillin." He got up.

"No, you're going back to your quarters!" Bardock insisted.

Goku smiled at him, then turned to Lapis. "Come on," he said, "you can say hi to your sister."

"Kakarot!" Bardock said.

"Aw, come on, it'll only take a minute!"

Bardock looked at Lapis. His mouth was open, eyes widened. For the first time since Bardock had known the kid, he actually looked vulnerable, almost pathetically, desperately hopeful. It caught him off-guard. Bardock had noticed, and carefully ignored, the way he pouted every time Lazuli came into view. He'd assumed Lapis was just trying to wiggle out of work, trying to separate off from the group, and it was Bardock's job to keep him in line and on a very, very short leash. It never occurred to him that the kid actually had real feelings, that he might actually miss his sister.

Bardock clenched his fists. Maybe he was getting soft in his old age, but he felt an unexpected pang of sympathy.

He shut his eyes and let out a sharp exhale. "One minute. Don't make me come get you."

Lapis slid out of his seat with a speed that was impressive even for what Bardock had seen of the kid's abilities. Goku followed him.

If Bardock had kept a closer eye on his son, he'd have caught the quick wink Goku gave Spina. And he would have noticed Goku catching Lapis' arm and leaning forward to say something to him. But Bardock was glaring at his oatmeal.

Raditz knew Goku was coming, mostly because he was loud, and people were all staring at him. But he was surprised to see Lapis ahead of him, and he'd noticed Lazuli inching towards the edge of her seat, obviously wanting to get out to talk to her brother. Like his father, Raditz had steered Lazuli away from talking to her brothers. Off-planet, there was no family but your troop. If you spent your energy worrying about your brother and father and sister on other crews, you'd be distracted and no good to your team. The only way you'd get through this job in one piece was to stay focused on the job and the team.

Tien had suggested that he loosen up on Lazuli a little bit. Twins were together from before they were even born, he'd pointed out, and it must be harder for them to be apart than it was for regular siblings. But Raditz couldn't do that; he couldn't make exceptions for one person when everyone else had to follow the unspoken rules. And even if Raditz was willing to let Lazuli talk to her brother, his father was never going to let Lapis off the leash. Until now, apparently.

"Hey," Lapis said nervously, ostensibly talking to Raditz but actually glancing surreptitiously at his sister. Lazuli was looking at him intently.

"Hi!" Goku said cheerfully, coming right up and motioning to Krillin to scootch in so he could sit next to him. Krillin was grinning widely, while Shorum and Nio, sitting next to Krillin, were watching it all unfold curiously.

Raditz sighed heavily. "Do you two have something to talk about?" he said to Lazuli.

"One minute," Lapis said hurriedly.

"One," Raditz said firmly, and the word was hardly out of his mouth before the twins were huddled in a corner, heads bent in intense conversation.

"So, what's up with you guys?" Goku said cheerfully.

"It's been rough," Krillin said immediately. "We just got back from an awful mission, this planet of two billion people, and we-"

"They were hardly people," Nio said. "Not really, not like us. They were more like insects or something."

"They were still people," Krillin insisted, "and the whole thing was a mess, a bloody mess."

"Nio's right," Raditz said. "They're not like us. And the sooner you get that through your head, the easier this'll be."

Goku looked at his friend. Krillin's face was sunk, and even though he looked happy to see him, there was a sad look in his eyes, a kind of…something he couldn't name, Goku was never really good with words. But this work was hurting Krillin's soul.

He patted Krillin's leg gently under the table, and smiled at him. "Well, I just wanted to say hi." He got up.

"You're leaving already?" Krillin said.

"I'll see you later," Goku said. "I want to talk to some of the other crews too."

As he walked away, Raditz turned to find Lazuli, prepared to drag her back, but she was already walking towards them. She wasn't smiling, exactly, but she seemed lighter, more relaxed as she took her seat next to him.

Good, he thought. Maybe it's not a bad idea for them to talk once in a while.

He turned back to his food and to the conversation Goku had interrupted, about what they could do in the training room tomorrow. Which is why he didn't notice Lazuli carefully watching the crew at Jasper's table, and timing leaving the table and reaching the tray disposal area just as Chi Chi did.

"I'm hungry," Lapis said, sitting up in his bunk. "Can I go get something from Mess?"

"What?" Bardock said, looking up from his reports record to glare at the teen. "No. I told you to eat your food properly."

"Please? I'm starving."

"No."

"Come on," Lapis said. He swung his legs over the bed. "Look, you were right, okay? Next time I promise to eat everything on the plate no matter how crappy it tastes."

"You can't go to Mess by yourself," Bardock said.

"I'll go with him," Spina piped up. "I could use a snack too."

Bardock turned to the two teens. He remembered being that age, hungry all the time. That was one of the perks of joining GFA, especially for a poor kid like him – food, as much as you wanted, whenever you wanted.

Damn, he thought.

"Alright, but don't take too long," he said.

Toma grinned at him as the door slid behind the retreating teens. "You going soft, or what?" he said.

"I just want them out of my face," Bardock said, scowling. "They're annoying."

Parsin had known going in that being captain would be hard work, but he'd thought that with three young, inexperienced girls, he'd have no trouble. Boy, had he been wrong. The girls seemed to have a secret alliance against him and Jasper, and yet each one gave them a hard time in her own way. Princess Chi Chi refused to do anything she thought was beneath her station, which as far as Parsin could tell was pretty much everything; Tourni, the Islander, kept comparing him unfavorably to her sensei on the islands – "that's now how I was taught" was her constant refrain; but the worst one was Ona, from Korin's Land, a Saiyan with short reddish-black hair, who kept trying to put every decision he made to a vote. When he refused to play along, she would write him down as "abstaining," whatever the hell that meant. Thank the gods for Jasper. He was trustworthy, obedient, and expert in the ways of the GFA – Parsin kept reminding himself to thank Raditz for how well he'd obviously trained the human. So that afternoon, when the girls told him they needed to go down to storage to get "girl stuff," he quickly dismissed them and laid down for well-deserved nap.

He woke up to Jasper's face hovering inches from his own. He shot up in shock. "What the hell, man?!"

"I did not want to wake you, but the girls have not returned."

"What?" Parsin rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "What time is it?"

"It has been nearly two hours."

"TWO HOURS?!"

"I am very worried." Anyone who heard Jasper's emotionless tone would be hard-pressed to believe that, but Parsin knew him well enough by now not to pay attention to that kind of thing.

Parsin jumped out of bed and quickly put his armor on. "You should have woken me ages ago! What were you thinking?!"

"I was trying to decide whether to go out alone to find them, and not disturb you."

"For two hours?! You were trying to decide for that long?!"

Jasper shrugged.

"Come on," Parsin gestured at him as he hurried through the sliding door. "Where could they have possibly gone?"

Across the ship, Bardock, Toma, and Borgos were searching through Mess for Lapis and Spina, who had also not returned. But the boys were nowhere to be found.

"Hey, you," Bardock grabbed one of the short alien servers rushing around cleaning tables. "Have you seen two boys here, a Saiyan and a human with black hair and blue eyes?"

The creature shook its head. "There haven't been any Saiyans here since midafternoon when you were all having lunch, sir."

"What do you mean, no Saiyans?" Toma said. "At all?"

The creature shook its head again.

"Are you sure?" Bardock insisted. "What about the boy with black hair?"

"Trust me, we all know when there's a Saiyan in Mess. There haven't been any Saiyans in for at least three or four hours. And I don't think there was anyone like what you're saying, either."

Bardock let him go.

"What the hell does that mean?" Toma said.

Bardock shook his head. "They got jumped."

"No way," Toma said. "Two guys together?"

"Knowing Lapis, if he mouthed off to the wrong person, it wouldn't matter who he was with. Come on," he moved to the door, "if we're lucky, they're in Med Bay."

The three strode down the halls quickly, and as they approached the medical wing, they heard a familiar voice raised in heated argument.

"Fasha?" Bardock exchanged uncertain looks with his teammates. And sure enough, it was Fasha yelling at a medical attendant.

"What do you mean, they're not here?" she demanded. "I sent them here two hours ago!"

"What's going on here?" Bardock said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Come talk to this idiot!" she yelled. "Three of my crew came here two hours ago, and this moron's calling me a liar!"

"I never said you were a liar," the attendant said patiently, "but I haven't had any Saiyans here today at all, and certainly no human with blue hair."

"Well then, where did they go?" she demanded.

"I really couldn't say," said the attendant, crossing his arms firmly.

"Wait a minute," Bardock said. "You haven't had any Saiyans at all?"

"No."

"What about a human boy with black hair and blue eyes?"

He shook his head. "I've been on shift all day long. If anyone matching such descriptions had shown up at any time, I would know."

"Maybe you were at lunch," Toma suggested.

The attendant scowled at him. "My people only eat once a month, for 12 hours straight."

Toma was impressed.

"I want to talk to someone else," Fasha said. "Where's the doctor?"

"He's in his office, but he won't be able to help you. He's been in there all day. He only comes out when we have a patient, and as we haven't had any Saiyan patients, he won't be able to tell you anything more than what I have."

"This is unacceptable!" she yelled at him. "If anything happens to anyone on my crew, I am holding you personally responsible!"

"That's ridiculous!" the attendant said.

"What's going on?" a voice said from behind them, and they turned to find Raditz and Tien standing there, looking confused. "What's all the yelling about?"

Bardock's eyes narrowed. "Why are you here?"

"I-," Raditz blushed. "Well, I was wondering if maybe someone from my crew was here."

"We haven't had any Saiyans, I'm telling you!" the attendant said.

"We heard you," Tien said, glaring at him. "What about humans? Maybe a short, bald kid, or a girl with blonde hair?"

"No!"

"Why are you looking for them?" Bardock said, somehow glaring down at his son despite being a good four or five inches shorter than him.

"Well," Raditz's face was getting redder by the minute, "to be honest, Tien and me were going over mission reports in my room, and when we went back out they were all gone. We waited for a while, but when they didn't show, well, we thought maybe they got jumped or something."

"When was this?" Bardock said.

"About an hour ago."

"But that was when we found them missing," Tien said. "We don't really know how long they've been gone. We were talking for about an hour."

Just as he was saying that, a group of about 20 or 30 Saiyans arrived behind them, including Daiken, Parsin, and Jasper.

Daiken opened his mouth to speak, but Bardock interrupted him before he could even get the words out. "Let me guess," he said, "you're looking for your crew?"

"Yeah, how did you-"

"They've been gone about two hours, and you came here 'cause you're worried they got jumped?"

Daiken's mouth fell open, and a murmur of surprise rippled through the small crowd that was gathering.

"And it is only the new recruits," Jasper said suddenly. "Only they are missing, is that correct?"

"Yes!" Fasha said, and a few more captains nodded. But Daiken shook his head. "I can't find Yamcha or Calie either."

"But they are young," Jasper said. "And many of the new recruits are also young."

"That's right," Bardock said slowly, as realization dawned. "This isn't a coincidence. They're not lost, they're…doing something, together."

"Are you sure?" a Saiyan said skeptically.

"That makes sense," Tien said. "It's either that, or between us about 100 humans and Saiyans have just disappeared."

"Between us?" another Saiyan said, shooting him a dirty look. "This is a matter for captains to discuss, not you."

Tien opened his mouth to retaliate, but Raditz quickly spoke over him. "But where could they have gone?"

"And how did they manage it?" Daiken said. "It's not like we let them talk to each other."

The realization that had been slowly unfolding suddenly hit Bardock like a ton of bricks.

Lapis talked to his sister.

But no, that couldn't be the whole story. Because Lapis would talk to Spina, and Lazuli would talk to her crew, but what about the others? There must be someone else, some other link that tied all the crews together…

Oh no.

"I know where they are," Bardock said. He pushed his way through the other captains, moving fast.

"What is it?" Toma said, the others behind them. "Where did they go?"

"It's Kakarot. That stupid little-"

In Goku's private quarters, space was tight but the energy was high. Snacks had been passed around, Tourni had gotten some music going, and Lapis had dug up some of the prince's more expensive alcohol.

"Don't do it," Krillin said to Shorem as he and Lapis faced off across a small table, two shotglasses in front of them. "I'm telling you, you can't beat him. He can't get drunk!"

Shorem glared across the table at his opponent, who was smiling evilly. "Shut up, Krillin. Just because you can't hold your drink, doesn't mean no one can. I've been drinking grown men under the table since I was 14. This'll be a cakewalk."

"This isn't the same thing!"

"Come on, Krillin," Lapis said, "why can't you just let us have fun?"

"Yeah, Krillin, don't be a downer," Spina piped up from where he was sitting next to his crewmate. Around them, some of the new Vegetan recruits were watching the competition unfold with excitement, while others were dancing to the music.

"He doesn't get drunk!" Krillin insisted. "He's going to sit there and watch you get wasted!"

"Is that true, Chi Chi?" Ona was observing from the top of the couch, her legs crossed over the side. Chi Chi was sitting on the cushion beneath her.

Chi Chi wrinkled her nose in disgust. "How should I know? We're not friends!"

Lapis stuck his tongue out at her.

Shorem poured some of the vodka into his glass and downed it quickly. Then he poured a glass for Lapis. "Your turn," he said.

Krillin threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "Fine! Do whatever you want. I don't know why I bother." He stomped off towards the snack table, where Yamcha was munching on a rice cake.

"Man," he said as Krillin approached him, "the food here is so much better than at Mess."

"I know." Krillin had hit the snack table first thing. "It was nice of Goku to invite us over."

"Yeah. And it's nice to meet some new people too."

Krillin nodded, his mouth now full of some kind of liver pate on a cracker. He'd said hello to Chi Chi and Tourni, who'd introduced him to Ona, and then he'd been approached by some guys who'd seen him at the Tournament. He was surprised they were interested in him, given that he'd lost, but they were actually really friendly, and they'd commiserated a bit about the misery of working on the ship.

It was nice to know he wasn't alone.

Nio came up to him, grinning from ear to ear. "Laz is staring at you."

"What?"

He turned, and caught Lazuli looking at him. She blinked at him, then turned away.

Krillin turned bright red.

"You should ask her out," Nio said.

"I-I don't think so."

"Why not? She's definitely up for it."

"I-It's complicated," Krillin said.

"No, it's not," Nio said. "You like her, she likes you. Go for it."

Krillin paused. "She could do a lot better than me," he said quietly.

"Oh yeah," Nio nodded, catching Krillin off guard. He hadn't expected him to agree so casually! "Definitely. But," Nio continued, "she's obviously into you, for whatever crazy reason. I say go for it before someone else moves in." He patted him on the shoulder before wandering off.

Krillin turned around, facing the snack table. He took a deep breath to steady himself. He'd already embarrassed himself in front of her once. If he tried and she rejected him, how much more embarrassed could he be?

Just as he was about to make his move, there was a loud, insistent banging on the door.

"Kakarot!" Bardock's voice rang out, and he was pissed. "Open this door right now!"

Goku opened the door to Bardock's angry face. Behind him, the other captains were peering into the room curiously. "Hi!" he said.

Bardock pushed past him. "What the hell is going on here?!" he demanded.

"We're having a party," Goku said casually. "Come on in!" He gestured towards the other captains standing outside. "There's plenty of drinks and snacks for everyone."

"What in the-," one began, as they began to filter in.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Bardock said. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm having a party," Goku said, a bit louder this time, as though the problem was Bardock's hearing.

"You can't have a party in here!"

"Why not?" Goku asked. Bardock turned to face his son. His face was completely innocent, and for a minute Bardock thought that maybe he didn't get it, didn't understand the implications of what he was doing.

Then Goku grinned at him.

"You little brat," Bardock whispered at him.

"Alright!" It was Shugesh, stomping into the room. "That's enough fun for you lot. Everyone out."

There was some reluctant shuffling.

"Come on! Get moving!" he yelled.

The shuffling sped up as the new recruits realized the gravity of the situation. Several captains had already muscled their way in and were dragging out their wayward charges. Parsin had grabbed Ona by the forearm and was pushing her ahead of him, while Tourni and Chi Chi reluctantly followed.

"We voted!" she was protesting. "We decided to go to the party together! You can't get object to a free and fair vote!"

"You lied to me! You said you were going to get stuff from storage!"

"We voted to tell you that!"

Toma grabbed his daughter's arm as she filed out sheepishly. "You," he hissed, pulling her towards him, "should know better. We'll talk about this later."

The next day, all anyone could talk about was the party: the captains were furious, the new recruits were swapping stories of what they'd done, the older soldiers were complaining that they hadn't been invited. And of course, rumor was going around that Prince Vegeta had blown a gasket when he'd found out. Apparently, people had heard him screaming all down the hall.

"I hope Goku's not in trouble," Krillin said, as he and his crew mates waited in line for food in the Mess Hall.

"Vegeta brought this on himself," Tien said. "From what I can tell, Goku's basically locked in that room all day. What does Vegeta expect him to do, sit around and twiddle his thumbs?"

"He does do stuff. He trains with the Hotsus," Raditz pointed out.

"All day, every day?" Tien said. "I don't think so."

"I don't see why we can't have parties," Nio complained. "This place is such a downer, at least we got to do one fun thing for a change."

"Yeah," Shorem said. "You want to know what Kakarot does all day? What do we do all day? When we're not on missions we just sit in that room playing tic-tac-toe. There are people in prisons who are having a better time than us."

"I give you plenty to do," Raditz snapped. "We review missions, practice drills, go over strategies-"

"Boring!" Nio interrupted.

Raditz rolled his eyes.

The news had even reached the Hotsus, mainly because Goku had told Tonsa, Lodj, and Amarah all about it when he met them in the training room the next day.

Goku had been training with Tonsa daily since he'd met her, and every now and then she'd be accompanied by Amarah and Lodj. He'd learned a lot from their techniques, and was slowly mastering ki shaping. For now, he could just about form a thin spike that he could use to pierce armor. But he was watching carefully, learning, and improving.

What he didn't quite realize was that Tonsa was watching him very carefully, too.

Amarah pouted at him. "How come I wasn't invited?" she demanded.

"I didn't think you'd want to come," Goku said. "But you can come next time, for sure."

Lodj grinned. "There's going to be a next time?"

"Well, Vegeta's pretty mad now," Goku conceded. "But I think I can convince him to let me have another one."

Lodj and Tonsa exchanged uncertain looks. This kid was weird. He was the only Saiyan who didn't seem the care that Vegeta was a prince, which had quite endeared him to them. But the carefree, happy-go-lucky attitude he had as he bounced around the ship was in sharp contrast to the laser focus he employed in training. He didn't seem to really care about anything other than getting stronger, and he was managing it at much faster pace than they'd expected from observing other Saiyans. In fact, what Goku hadn't yet realized was that Tonsa was deliberately holding back from teaching him the more advanced Hotsu techniques. She was trying to get close to him, groom him. She didn't want him getting too strong for her to handle. They had enough problems with Amarah.

Their little princess had warmed up considerably to Goku, as well. The Hotsus had discussed this at length, debating various implications. They couldn't decide yet whether this was something they should encourage or discourage. On the one hand, it would help them get closer to Goku; on the other, they all felt that Amarah had had more than enough of Saiyan influence.

Lodj, personally, didn't like it. They'd been instructed by Queen Selardi to bring Amarah closely into the fold, to build a relationship with her. As far as he was concerned, Nappa's exit was the perfect opportunity to get her out from under Saiyan influence. A friendship with Goku would put them right back where they started. As a result, he'd found himself tailing the girl near constantly despite the fact that Tonsa was still officially her guardian and technically in charge of the mission.

Like Kezah, Lodj didn't think Tonsa was up to her job. Unlike Kezah, he saw no reason to openly try to sabotage her; that only weakened the group as a unit. But if she refused to do the job as he thought it should be done, then he'd do it for her.

In spite of it all, he couldn't help but like the little Saiyan.

"Thank you all," Goku said as everyone settled into the seats he'd organized in a semi-circle, "for meeting with me."

Most of the captains had been surprised to get the summons from the young Saiyan to meet in his quarters. Bardock could only wonder what the kid was up to this time.

"Please help yourselves to some snacks," Goku said. He profferred a plate of meat patties to one man, who took one and passed it around the group of captains and their seconds-in-command.

"Basically," he continued, sitting down in front of them with his tablet out, "I just wanted to meet you all and talk about your crews and missions. I'm supposed to be writing a report, so I could really use the information. I thought we could just go around in a circle and you could tell me about yourselves."

The captains exchanged uncertain looks. Bardock sunk into his chair in a back row, wondering if he could will himself to disappear.

"All of us?" one man said. There were about 50 people gathered in the room, but only because the other crews were on missions. "Surely we could simply send you this information?"

"But didn't Nappa talk to you about your work?"

"Well, yes," he conceded reluctantly. "But not like this."

"Well, Nappa said I had to write up all these reports," Goku said, "but I need to get you know you first. So," he pulled up his tablet and held the stylus purposefully, "do you want to start?"

The man shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He was Daris, a second-class Saiyan, and he tended to speak to people down his nose. He cast a disdainful look over Goku. In fact, he was pleased to be asked to speak first, but knew that this was more luck than design on Goku's part, so he wasn't particularly warm to the young man.

"Well," he began, clearing his throat, "I am of course Daris, Earl of the Gomel Valley and its outlying mountains. I have been captain these last 30 years and lead a team of five, including my son Kaidi," he gestured to the younger man sitting next to him, "whom you of course know by reputation."

Goku shook his head. "Sorry. I don't really know anybody here. Except my father and brother." He turned to Bardock, who was going pale, and gave him a big smile. "Hi, Father." Then he turned to Raditz. "Hi."

Raditz smiled wanly. Behind him, people were starting to giggle. Even Kaidi was grinning.

Daris, however, was not amused. "My son has an unblemished record on this ship and has been on missions alone. I'm sure if you looked through the records, you would see exactly what his reputation is and how well he earned it."

His voice was sharp with disapproval. If Goku noticed it, he didn't show it. "Okay, I'll do that," he said, scribbling studiously with his stylus. He looked up. "What about the rest of your crew?"

"What?"

"The other people in your crew? Didn't you get some new people?"

"Yes," Daris said. "We were four in my crew, and we were just assigned two humans."

"What are their names?"

"What?"

"The new recruits? What are their names?"

Daris' frown deepened. "Why do you want their names?"

"Oh, just for my notes." Goku's face was perfectly innocent.

"I don't know their names," Daris snapped.

Goku was unfazed. "Maybe I know them. What do they look like?"

People were whispering in the back.

"I-," Daris paused, unsure where the conversation was going or what the point of it was. This was a complete waste of time, but there didn't seem to be a way out of it except through it. He huffed impatiently. "They're both females. One has pink hair. The other one is short." He paused again, picturing the girl. "Very short. And quite small. And she has yellow hair."

"Oh! Kitty," Goku said, nodding. "And the other girl you're talking about must be Rose."

"Yes," Daris said with some relief, feeling that this conversation was coming to a close. "Yes, I believe those are their names."

"How did you know that?" Kaidi said.

"I met them at the party," Goku said.

"About that," another voice said. "That was completely out of line for you to do." Several people voiced their agreement.

"I'm very sorry about that," Goku said contritely, and Bardock might just have been inclined to believe him, had he not seen the mischievous look in his eyes that day. "I really didn't think it would be such a problem. I just wanted to meet people. And it did work. Kitty," he turned back towards Daris and Kaidi, "can do this crazy thing with her tongue, where she rolls it so it splits three ways."

Kaidi's eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah, it was really cool! And you're right," he nodded at Daris, "she is really short. We thought she was like, my age, but it turns out she's a lot older. She's 28!"

"My goodness!" Someone said. "The woman's practically ancient!"

The group burst out laughing.

Goku blushed. Bardock blushed too, but not for the same reason.

It took about three hours, mostly because people kept cracking jokes and asking for more drinks and snacks.

Bardock stood outside the door, waiting for people to leave so he could speak to his son alone. As he marched out, Daris glowered at him.

"Really, Bardock," he said, scowling. "I thought you had a wife at home. It's like the boy's been raised by wolves!"

"I thought he was charming," a woman said as she came up from behind him. "I haven't had this much fun since…well, I don't think I've ever had this much fun off-planet."

"He's adorable," another woman said. She turned to Bardock, and he recognized her vaguely as someone he had dated eons ago. She turned to him and tilted her head thoughtfully. "He reminds me of what a good-looking guy you used to be."

Daris scowled. "Even so. The boy needs to learn manners, understand his place here. He's not Nappa, he's a third-class child."

"I'm sure he'll get the hang of it, Father," Kaidi said, nudging the older man gently away. "He seems…eager."

Daris harrumphed loudly and stomped off.

Bardock sighed heavily as the group filtered out, each one stopping to make some kind of comment to him about the afternoon's events and his son's behavior. When everyone had gone, Bardock reentered the room. Goku was putting away the chairs.

"How are you?"

Goku turned to him, and smiled. "I'm fine. How are you?"

Bardock sighed. "I don't mean how you are in general. I mean how are you here?"

"Oh. I'm fine. Vegeta mostly leaves me here. He's always busy with other stuff."

"I know he's been going on missions. Without you."

"That's fine with me," Goku said. "I don't want to go."

"So, you're going to sit here, throwing parties and having meetings and writing reports?"

Goku turned from where he was stacking chairs by the door; they weren't his, he'd asked someone who worked on the ship for them and he'd have to return them soon. He paused for moment.

"Yes."

"Okay," Bardock said. There was silence. "For any particular reason?"

"Yes."

"Which is?"

"I'm not sure yet."

Bardock felt like his blood vessels were about to pop. He'd managed to stay calm until now, but Goku was pushing him to the brink. "Do you have any idea what you're doing at all?" he demanded.

Goku scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Kinda!"

"You're embarrassing me, you know," Bardock said.

Goku blinked in confusion. "Why?"

Bardock threw his hands up in defeat. "If you can't see why, Kakarot, then there's no point explaining to you. Just," he sighed, "be careful."

"That was really interesting," Parsin said to Jasper as they walked back to their quarters. "You know, it's strange. I've been working on this ship for almost 15 years now, and I'd only ever met a handful of those guys in there. And in a couple hours I met everyone. Pretty cool of Kakarot to organize this, actually. I wonder why Nappa never did."

Jasper had some thoughts about that, but chose not to share them. instead, he said, "They tried to remember the names. Of the new crew members."

"Hmm?"

"The captains. After Goku spoke to the first, Daris, the other captains started trying to remember the new recruits' names. Including the humans."

"Well, really, Daris should have known. It's been months since the new people joined. What kind of captain doesn't know the names of their own crew members? There are only five other people on that crew anyway, how hard can it be?"

"Yes."

"It's a good think Kakarot brought it up, actually," Parsin said. "Make sure people are taking this seriously. Just because Nappa's not around, doesn't mean the whole operation should fall apart because people can't be bothered to do basic things like remember their crewmates' names."

"Yes," Jasper said. A small smile appeared on his face.

As Kaidi and Daris entered their quarters, their crew members sat up from where they were laying on their bunks.

"So, what was that all about?" a Saiyan woman said.

"I'm not sure," Kaidi replied. "It was weird."

"You!" Daris pointed an accusing finger at Kitty, who was sitting in a lower bunk. "Come here."

She stepped out and stood at attention. She was, indeed, short, just coming up to Daris' chest. Daris himself was just over 5'10", while Kaidi was 6'. But her petite frame made her seem even smaller than she really was.

"Yes sir?"

"Did you show that Kakarot boy some strange thing with your tongue?"

"Yes sir."

"Let's see it," Kaidi said.

Sure enough, Kitty folded her tongue over itself so that made three folds. The other crew members gathered to peer curiously at this trick.

"Cool," the woman said.

"Listen very carefully," Daris said abruptly. "I've never said this because I never thought I had cause to, but clearly things have changed around here. Other captains may turn a blind eye to…intimate socializing," he said the phrase like it was a disgusting taste in his mouth, "but I forbid it entirely. It's unprofessional and distracts from the purpose of the missions. I expect all of you to behave accordingly."

Kitty turned uncomprehending blue eyes to Rose.

"He means no fooling around on the ship," the pink-haired girl said bluntly. The Saiyan man snorted.

"Oh," Kitty said, a guilty look spreading across her face.

"Too late?" the man said, grinning.

She held her hands up sheepishly. "We didn't really do anything much."

"Anything much?!" Daris said angrily. "When did this happen?"

"At the party."

"There will be no more partying!" he yelled. "This is a workplace! I expect you to treat it with the seriousness it deserves."

With that, he stomped off to his personal room, muttering to himself.

"You work fast," Kaidi said sharply, as the door closed behind his father. He'd been smiling when he came in; now, his face was angry.

In a second, Kitty's posture changed from rodlike attention to a loose stance, putting a little more weight on one leg so that she bent at the waist, her arms stretched out in front of her and her head tilted to one side. "What can I say, baby?" her tone was light and flirty. "He was cute, and there was a lull. I had to keep myself amused. Anyway, like I said, we didn't get too far."

The Saiyan woman laughed from where she was perched on the upper bunk. "We should introduce her to Daiken," she said to the two Saiyans. Then she turned to Kitty. "You two would get along really well."

"No thanks, baby," Kitty said, as she tucked herself back into her bunk. "I don't fuck Saiyans. I have standards."

The others laughed, but Kaidi, his expression still dark, strode off towards the bathroom.

Kitty watched him walk away. She was fair, and prone to flushing. A pink hue would spread across her nose and cheeks whenever she felt practically any strong emotion: happiness, anger, jealousy, embarrassment.

Her face flushed now.

AN: I genuinely can't believe how long it's been since I updated this story! I really really hope to finish it soon! I have two more chapters planned out, and there's a time jump in the next one, so things will move along. If you're still reading, I really appreciate your interest and patience. Thanks so much!