Disclaimer: DB/DBZ/DBGT belong to Toriyama and other rich Japanese guys, not me.

Chikyuu: Black Hole for Evil

Book One: Into the Rising Sun

Author: Cka3ka

Chapter 16: Perception is Ki?

Amazement rippled through the assembled soldiers as the crew of the Cold Flagship descended into the courtyard. Everyone expected one of the Colds to step out from the hatch behind the disembarking figures. But soon a murmur ran through the crowd as they realized that there wasn't a Cold onboard.

Eighteen and the others could feel the tension in the air. She had not expected to walk into the middle of a war zone, but apparently that was what had happened. Not only was that the problem, but also it was obvious that the combatants had been expecting someone else to get off of the ship.

"I think they were expecting King Cold, or Freeza," chuckled Krillan softy as he realized that they might have mistaken their ship for Cold', "They sure are going to be in for a surprise."

Prince Corfu stood silently trying to assess the situation. None of the people who got off the ship were King Cold, nor did they look like that they even served him. Furthermore, these people had remarkably low ki. The highest belonged to the two Saiya-jin boys that were standing in front of the others. The boy that had a genetic defect in his hair color also had a sword strapped around his back. He and the normal Saiya-jin boy had power levels of nine hundred, while the dwarf with black hair had one of eight hundred. The other two didn't even have ki! Amazingly, the group looked at them all with absolutely no fear. Worse, every one of them except for the big green giant wore scouters that were obviously working. He couldn't help feel that something wasn't right.

While the Galician was pondering the turn of events, Chilla's forces were seething. Captain Playa wasn't sure how these weaklings had gotten a hold of a Cold Flagship but he was going to find out, and if they weren't on a special mission for King Cold there would be hell to pay.

"Who are you and why are you on a Cold Flagship?" demanded the Captain. He was as baffled as the prince at the power level of the occupants of the ship. There was no way that they could have taken the ship by force, so that means they had to have been given leave to use it. How was that possible?

"We have no affiliation with King Cold. We are chasing a demon and had hoped to re-supply here," answered Eighteen truthfully. Looking over the courtyard she could see that the man who had spoken was in charge of the invading force. She didn't want to get involved with any local battles, so she hoped to use diplomacy. Unfortunately, she had chosen the wrong words.

Captain Playa's features screwed up in anger. They had to be scavengers to have picked up the ship then. Something had to have happened to King Cold and these weaklings had somehow ended up on his ship. He really had no idea how right he was, well at least partially.

"How dare you?!" he screamed at them, "You dare insult the Colds?! I'll see you pay for this." He signaled for a group of his soldiers to attack and waited smugly for them to slaughter the trespassers.

Prince Corfu watched in horror as the soldiers rushed the defenseless group. Smirking to himself, he figured that they might as well all die now. He began to signal his troops to resume fighting, but before he could complete the gesture he stopped. Watching the scene unfold before him, he nearly wet himself.

The young lavender haired Saiya-jin casually drew his sword, and with a single stroke sliced the attacking force in half.

"Is that the best you have?" sneered Trunks in a pseudo-Vegeta style voice. Though he could sometimes imitate his father's tone, he still sounded a little forced. Vegeta did it with such natural grace that it could have been considered art.

Not answering, Captain Playa immediately ordered his team and the remaining soldiers to attack. He attacked Trunks personally thinking to wrest the sword from the boy and have a great weapon in his possession. Trunks, however, would have none of that. He simply dodged the captain's first blow, and in mid spin decapitated him.

Before the others could even react, Goten powered up and short-circuited every scouter in the area except for the Bulma modified ones. He then proceeded to knock out Ceedy with a single overhand strike. As for the other members of Team Playa, Atrak's skull was bashed in from a blow from Sixteen, Rekord was killed by Eighteen, and Kaset was dealt with by Krillan. The remaining soldiers immediately ran off. Within moments the entire attacking force that had defeated the Galician army were dead, unconscious, or fleeing for their lives.

Still in shock from the sheer intensity of the onslaught, Prince Corfu slowly gathered his courage and approached the mysterious warriors. Reaching them he fell on his knees before the group from Chikyuu. "We surrender," whispered Corfu, "My people have fought valiantly and have suffered enough, please spare their lives."

"Why would you surrender to us?" asked Trunks," didn't you hear? We only want to buy some supplies and to refuel."

"That's right," added Krillan, "there's no need for you to do this." He helped Corfu up to his feet. "Like Trunks said we only need some supplies and some information if possible."

The prince of Galicia was speechless. This was totally new to him, that such powerful warriors would have a planet at their mercy and simply give it up. It was unheard of in this part of the galaxy. He quickly remembered his manners and said, "Thank you, umm, I, uh please come into the palace where we can sit and speak in comfort. I am the Prince of Galicia, Corfu."

"A pleasure to meet you Corfu," greeted Krillan cordially, "This is Trunks, Goten, Juuroku-gou, and Juuhachi-gou." He quickly introduced the other members of the team as they all followed the prince into the palace.

"I must say that I am most honored to meet warriors of your status, and I thank you for saving my people, Lord Krillan," said the prince as he led them through an archway and took them down a corridor.

"Oh, it was no big deal, we were just defending ourselves. Anyway who were those goons, and its just Krillan by the way, not Lord Krillan," replied Krillan.

"Of course Krillan," smiled Corfu, he couldn't believe how easy going these warriors were. He could see the young saiya-jin looking around curiously, and the other warriors were just as nonchalant about the battle earlier. They must have great power he thought. "Those were an Elite Squad of Chilla's soldiers."

"Chilla," mused Krillan, "He wouldn't happen to be related to King Cold, or Freeza would he?"

"He's their brother, the second of King Cold's three sons. How is it that you have in your possession one of the Cold Family's flagships Krillan?" asked Corfu. He was really curious as to how these warriors got their hands on this ship from the Colds.

Receiving a sharp glance from his wife, Krillan edited his story a little bit. "Well, I think this one use to be King Cold's personal ship. Bulma, that's a friend of ours, just modified it. So I guess we got it from King Cold himself."

"You got it from King Cold himself? But how? Why would he let you have the ship?" came the response from the prince. He was truly confused now. Did these people work for Cold?

"Well I guess he didn't have a choice since he was dead, you see one of the warriors on our planet killed King Cold and Freeza when they arrived, and when Coola came afterwards another warrior, Goku, killed him to," explained Krillan. He didn't want to give away too much information. Vegeta had warned them not to talk about super saiyans.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? You're telling me that Coola, Freeza, and King Cold are dead???" cried Corfu incredulously. He couldn't believe such a thing. That three of the most powerful beings in the Galaxy had been killed was preposterous. Yet, these warriors had no reason to lie and they did arrive on King Cold's flagship. Finally turning into a room, he slumped down in a chair from a little too much shock in one day.

"Can you get us supplies?" inquired Eighteen. She didn't really care about what was going on here and simply wanted to get enough supplies so that they could head towards the Planet Trade Headquarters.

"Of course, mademoiselle," said the prince politely. He hadn't heard her speak before, but after hearing her he looked her over carefully. She was gorgeous he decided, very elegantly dressed, and yet she radiated a cool confidence. "Simply send whatever requests you have to me, and I will see to it that you get it."

Sixteen stood. "I will send you a list of what we require and then oversee the refueling." With that said he strode out of the room back towards the ship.

Before he could reinitiate the conversation with the Chikyuu warriors, a messenger came running up to him.

"Your Highness, Chilla's forces have regrouped and are attacking the countryside," blurted out the messenger.

The prince immediately stood up. "We must prepare a counter attack and finish them off," he declared.

"Why don't you let us help you Corfu," offered Krillan, "we can probably help save the lives of many of your soldiers." He didn't want to see more Galicians die when they didn't need to. After all, at his power level, he could beat all the soldiers by himself.

"Krillan-san can we go with you?" asked Goten and Trunks. They were bored with talk and wanted to see some action.

"Sure guys, lets go," answered Krillan. Turning to Eighteen, "We'll meet up with you later, it'll probably take us until after dinner to finish this up, so we'll see you back at the ship."

Eighteen nodded. "Take care and don't let the boys get into too much trouble."

"I won't, see you later," he said as he and the boys walked out of the room following the messenger leaving her and the prince alone.

"Lady Juuhachi-gou" began the Galician prince carefully, "I would like to ask for your help against Chilla. As your world has fought against the Colds, I'm sure your people know what they are like. We can't possibly fight his forces off in our current condition,. Our infrastructure and arms manufactory have been destroyed. Is there some way we can ask for you to help defend us?"

Eighteen thought about his question for a second. She felt sorry for the people of this planet and especially for the prince. He seemed a decent sort and she knew that Krillan would want her to help him even if she didn't care much herself.

"I'm not sure what we can do, Goku is not available at this moment and we can't stay here long. I think we can help you build weapons, and maybe send a warrior out here but I will have to go back to the ship to make a call home."

"Thank you so much Lady Juuhachi-gou. I can have the plans for some of our weapons to be delivered to you. I can't ask for you to do anything but try." The prince was relieved that they might be willing to help. He knew that there would be more attacks. As soon as Chilla found out that his elite squad had been beaten he would send more troops, he might even come himself. They had to get some help if they even hoped to protect their planet against him.

"Ok, I'll go back to the ship right now. Why don't you send a messenger with what you need and I'll send him back with the list of supplies. I'm sorry but we really need to get going as soon as possible." She ran her hand through her hair in her usual manner, totally unaware of the prince's growing attraction towards her.

"Excellent, we can meet later to discuss the results, perhaps over dinner?" asked the prince smoothly. For some reason the fact that she was married had slipped by and he had no idea that she was Krillan's wife.

Eighteen thought about it for a second. Krillan and the boys won't be back and Sixteen doesn't need to eat. She didn't feel like cooking dinner for herself and then having to clean. Also, Krillan was always telling her that she should meet people and work on her social skills, this might be a good chance. This guy was a prince after all and maybe she could also pump him for information about the black ship.

"Sure," she agreed not seeing any harm in it.

Rising, the prince offered her a hand up. "I'll send a messenger for you at eight, good day Lady Juuhachi-gou." He escorted her out of the room and assigned a guard to show her the way back. As for himself, he quickly went and made preparations for dinner.

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Later that evening…

Eighteen followed a guard to a small restaurant near the palace. It was an elegant place, but was a little dusty at the moment from the fighting earlier. As she entered she saw Prince Corfu waving her over to a table on a veranda. The view was spectacular as it was on the banks of a river that meandered through a lush mountain valley.

"I'm glad you could join me Lady Juuhachi-gou," greeted the prince, "I have good news, all the supplies that Juuroku-gou listed are available and we have already sent them to your ship." Corfu could not take his eyes off her. She truly was lovely in the uniform that she was wearing.

"That is fantastic your highness," she replied, "I also have news for you but it will take a while." She had gone back to the ship and contacted Bulma. After consulting with her it was decided that Chikyuu would try to help as much as possible. Bulma, being Bulma, was fascinated at the beam weapon design and had told Eighteen immediately that it would be possible to produce them.

"Let us eat first then," offered Corfu. Sitting down, the two diners looked over the menu and after a few moments they ordered. The waiters brought out their meal and the two of them chatted amicably about various aspects of the Galician world. She also asked him about the black ship, which unfortunately, he knew nothing about. He did know about the Planet Trade HQ and confirmed their suspicions that it was still deserted.

After finishing the meal, Eighteen quickly began recounting what she and Bulma had discussed. "It is possible for us to manufacture your weapons and ship them to you. We will have to make some new contacts in the arms industry, but all in all it won't be a problem at all," she told him.

"That is good news indeed," said the prince, "we won't be able to manufacture anything here for a while. This will take care of any of Chilla's weaker soldiers that he sends. Dare I ask if you have more good news?"

Eighteen laughed, "Yes, I do indeed. No promises, but I think we are going to ask Mr. Buu to come here to make sure that Chilla doesn't cause any problems. He's at least a thousand times more powerful than Freeza was so I think he can more than handle your problem."

The prince choked on his wine at this news. "A THOUSAND more times?" he gasped as he tried in vain to breathe. Who were these people he thought.

"Most of us that are more powerful than Freeza are engaged in some sort of activity right now, Buu was the only one available that we can send," she explained. The usage of the pronoun us did not go unnoticed by her companion. It was another stunning revelation for him, that the woman he was having dinner with was one of the most powerful beings in the universe. It really was one of those days.

Reaching out and taking a hold of her hands, "Thank you for your help, Lady Juuhachi-gou, I can't ever thank you enough. My people and I are forever in your debt." He kissed her hands and looked longingly into her eyes. "You truly are a lovely woman."

Eighteen had been surprised at his reaction. Of course she was pleased at it, what woman would not be pleased to have a prince, a handsome one at that, flatter her shamelessly. However, she did realize that she may be misleading him.

Giving him a smile, she said, "Prince Corfu, thank you for your comment, and I'm more than happy to help you. You are aware that I am married?" She didn't want to embarrass him, but she did have to stop this before he tried something that he'd regret.

"I..I..'m sorry m'lady. I didn't know. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.." stammered the now utterly embarrassed prince. He had just made a complete fool out of himself.

"Relax Corfu, it's no big deal. I'm sorry to embarrass you, but I didn't want to lead you on," said Eighteen, trying to mollify the prince. Luckily it seemed to have worked and the two of them resumed conversation without any further misunderstandings. It really was unfortunate that Eighteen didn't have better Ki senses.

Completely unaware to her, Krillan had finished mopping up Freeza's goons in a relatively short time. He and the boys had gone back to the ship, and, not finding her, he had set off in search of her. Krillan had found a guard and asked him if he had seen his wife, and the guard had replied affirmatively. Being slightly in awe of Krillan's power, the guard had taken him to the restaurant where Eighteen and Prince Corfu were dining. He had walked in just in time to see the prince holding her hands, and then kissing them. Then she smiled. She had even SMILED back at him. Krillan had been outraged and was about to make a scene. However, he stopped short when he realized that he couldn't embarrass his wife even if he wanted to. He was still under her spell. Nor did this really seem surprising to him. Letting his insecurity drain away his anger he convinced himself that he always knew that she would leave him, and that he should have been happy for the time he had with her. Turning around, he flew back to the ship and threw himself onto his bed, thinking of how to confront his wife.