POLITICS REVISED
***August 24, 23 BC, Planet Plant***
The sun was already disappearing behind the horizon when on a large landings platform, with a radius of almost half a kilometer and lying east of the capital, two fully armed battle groups gathered. They quickly were arranged by their commander in such away, that they stood opposite of each other, forming a corridor from and towards the landings platform. After five minutes of waiting, the Prechosen's shuttle would arrive here, carrying with them the reason why this all was set-up, but that was still five minutes away. An air car came to a stand still at one end of the corridor formed by the two battle groups and a Tsufuru servant stepped out of the car, while holding the door open.
"I present to you General Naanab..."
Before the servant could continue, the footmen in both of the battle groups aimed their rifles, which were still quite similar to their counterparts of a few hundred years earlier, at the sky and fired once. The sound of the firing rifles rolled over the landings platform and only when the echo died down, did the servant continue.
"...And Supreme Minister Leppa."
Again the footmen fired once into the air, followed this time by the appearance of two more Tsufuru, who both stepped out of the air car one at a time. The first to come out of the car was dressed in an elaborate version of the standard uniform, that the footmen wore. The second however was clearly not a member of the military as he did wear a red toga with a silver lining instead of a variation on the standard military uniform. Both began walk side by side through the corridor, followed by the servant, towards the other side where the shuttle would land. The general took the liberty of throwing a quick, nervous glance at the sky. He hated the waiting, but at the same time he was relieved that the light of a full moon didn't yet greet him.
"Nervous for the arrival of Prechosen Ieb'draa and the representatives of the Milky Way Alliance, he brings with him?"
General Naanab turned to look at the Supreme Minister, who walked beside him. When the full moon arrives, vermin could always ruin everything, so from a certain point of view he was nervous for the arrival the Prechosen and the representatives. He answered.
"Something like that."
A short silence settled, during which the Supreme Minister looked at the General for a further explanation. The General however was no longer conscious of everything around him, even though he remained walking. He was, if he had been a sleep earlier, sleepwalking
***
***The General blinked twice with his eyes and looked around. He was in a control room of some sort, where four creatures were performing their tasks. The creatures were bipedal, could even be described as Tsufurunoid as they were of the same height as the General and had the same general physique. Yet they were obviously not Tsufuru, because they lacked hair of any kind and had a pale gray skin, which seemed to be covered with some sort of slime. The General turned away in disgust, earning one of the creatures' attentions in the progress.
[Ah General Bester Naanab, so good of you to join us.]
The General turned back in shock and stared into a pair of large black eyes. Did he just hear a voice speak in his head? The mouth of the creature moved.
[I am sorry. This must come to you as a shock, but I was under the impression that you had encountered telepaths once before.]
The General blinked, sure he had encountered telepaths before, but he had only been a four-year old boy back then. Besides those telepaths had been small, round and fluffy, not some slimy perversion of a Tsufuru. The telepath looked down and the General could mentally slam his head on the nearest desk available. No thought was private when one was near a telepath.
[You don't have to worry about your thoughts, we are used to them by now. I was merely remembering the unfortunate extinction of the Niliversian or small, round and fluffy telepaths as you call them.]
Embarrassment was written on the General's face, he wasn't used to be talked to in this way. Only three others ever talked to him like this and all three didn't have complete access to his mind. Still, he thought as his internal defenses came to live, how could he have possibly remembered the name of the species, when he had only been four at the time.
[There is no need to defend yourself, we haven't come here to attack you in any kind of way. We are here to present you information.]
The General opened his mouth to speak, but then realized his question had already been answered. He formed a new question to ask, hoping that this one wouldn't be answered before he had asked it.
"What information?"
He didn't know if he the creatures could hear, he had only spotted rudimentary ears, but he was sure that they had got his thoughts.
[Information that links one of the members of the Milky Way Alliance with your personal plague, the Saiyans.]
The thought 'sounded' different then the first ones and the General's attention shifted from the first creature, to a second one, who joined the first. The two creatures turned to face each other and the second began to speak.
"[The Tsufuru Supreme Minister is getting suspicious of the General absence. We must return him now.]"
"[We're not done here yet.]"
With some amusement, the General noted that the creatures could speak and therefor could also hear. The rudimentary ears were good for something, after all. He strained himself to understand what they were saying.
"[Continue later, it's vital for the mission that he goes back now.]"
A piece of a puzzle, which he hadn't even been looking for, fell on its place.
*These creatures have the same language as most of the Saiyans have. Can it be that these creatures are connected with the Saiyans? They share the same language, so that seems plausible. Yet if they share the same language, the connection must be deep enough that...*
[Silence!]
The mental command ended his strain of thoughts and he looked up, only to see four pairs of eyes looking at him. He opened his mouth to ask if they truly were connected to the Saiyans, but never got the chance to actually ask the question. A white light emitting out of the creatures' eyes silenced him. A strange haze covered his thoughts about Saiyan language; a haze that got the thicker with every second that passed. The General tried to hang onto the thoughts but found that he couldn't. Slowly the haze filled other parts of his brain, slowly letting every thought disappear. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, with as only effect that the haze was dispersed better. The struggle had been lost and the General surrendered himself.
[Your companions begin to get suspicious, so we have to sent you back now. We will retrieve you later to finish this, but for now you will have to forget that this all has happened.]
The General made a short bow and replied.
"I live to obey."
After the short bow and his reply, the General looked into the light emitted by the aliens. In the light he saw a small black dot that slowly grew in size he was drawn to it. He began to accelerate towards it; he wanted to accelerate towards it. It promised a cure for this hell of forgetfulness. Yet like so many cures, it did have a side effect. He was ripped out of this dream, without the information he had been promised, without any information. This period was now a blank page in his mind, utterly devoid of anything. The dot had been a black hole, which had sucked the last thoughts out of him.***
***
Lokor was like all 2806 other members of his kind a Saiyan and like 208 other Saiyans; he was the leader of a group. A group which was currently flying low under a clouded heaven, towards the nearest gap in the clouds. Today was the first day of Naam Ellov or full moon in English. Lokor looked back over his shoulder towards the thirteen other members of his group. The two elders of the group, Lokor's own parents, flew behind him, hell bend on one last battle, before death took them away. Behind them his woman and the three other couples flew with in there midst the four children of the group. For the children it would be there first full moon period, for the others there second or third. Full moons were after all a rare event on planet Plant. Lokor looked in front of him and spotted the necessary clearing in the distance. They were in luck, the clearing was near one of the city's made by the dwarves. He executed a roll of joy, but stopped midway. His eyes grew wide; something large was breaking through the clouds.
***
The first thing that General Naanab noticed when he came back in the land of the conscious was that the Supreme Minister was talking to him, but couldn't make out yet what he was saying. Everything was still far too fuzzy to make out things like speech. The second thing he noticed was that he stood still, waiting at the end of the corridor for the Prechosen's shuttle to arrive. How he got there he had no idea, as the last thing that he could remember was that he was still walking towards the spot where he now was standing. Somewhere in between was a blank were something should have been. He shook his head, why did he feel like his entire brain had just been pulled apart by black hole?
"...Whatever your problem is, it will have to wait until later, because the Prettiness has arrived."
The General turned to look at his companion in confusion and then looked up. In awe he noticed, that the Supreme Minister was indeed right. The Prettiness' shuttle, a flying disk large enough to fill the entire landings platform with the exception of the area where the awaiting party was standing thanks to a 'cut' in the disk, gracefully finished it's maneuvers through the clouds, leaving a turbulent mass of swirling clouds behind and started it's final decent. The General gulped, no matter how many times he had seen it; he still found it to be one of the most awe-inspiring views. An opinion that was sure to be shared by the hundreds of delegates on board of the shuttle. The shuttle landed and opened it's massive door, while at the same time a equally large gangway was lowered until it hit the ground a meter in front of the General and Supreme Minister. Both the men fell on their left knee, bowed and would remain in this position until told otherwise. Behind them, the servant and the soldiers did the same. A small robed figure, made even smaller by the gigantic door, appeared in the door opening and moved down the gangway followed by a cordon of elite guards. Behind them, a stream of all kinds of aliens followed, some looking around in wonder, most adjusting to the higher gravity and one or two looking, despite their diplomatic smile, bored. The figure that had first appeared stopped at the end of the gangway and gestured with his hands for the General and Supreme Minister to rise. He acknowledged their presence with a nod, which was replied by a short bow from the side that had just risen. Only then did the Prechosen, dressed in a identical robe as the Supreme Minister save for the fact that it had a golden lining instead of silver, step on planet Plant's soil.
"Welcome home, Prechosen. I hope that your trip was productive."
While the Supreme Minister said this, the cordon of elite troops moved past them and took position in front of the battle groups, who all rose to there feet in response.
"Of course, isn't it always."
The Supreme Minister bowed and the Prechosen shifted his attention to the General.
"And General, are the security arrangements ready for this event?"
"Yes Prechosen, all though I must say that my opinion about this matter has not..."
The Prechosen raised his hand, causing the General to shut up. To know what the Prechosen meant was to survive and the General knew this as no one else did, he had been raised with this principal, as he wasn't chosen by the people like the Supreme Minister. Still, he continued to have his doubts about the intelligence behind the move of the Prechosen. Saiyans were dangerous and unpredictable, especially during a period of full moon.
A small earthquake shook the ground and some of the DG helmets of the troops came online. The General knew that this was going to be a frequent event during this period of the moon cycle.
***
Lokor couldn't believe his luck, the Srekam ed were obviously smiling upon him. Less then a minute ago, a large metallic object, which looked like the flying machines of the dwarves, had torn the clouds apart. Ten second after that, Lokor had caught the first glimpses of the full moon. They had landed and separated to give each other room for the transformation. Now the time was there, for the second time in his life Lokor looked at the full moon in all it's glory. He unfolded his tale from his waist and continued to stare at the moon. He realized, with his last sane thoughts, that he wasn't as close to the city as he had originally had planned, but he didn't cared about that. He was washed away in the tidal wave that washed every essence of Lokor away and replaced it with something entirely different, something that was so much simpler, so much deadlier. The body of Lokor looked at the moon and the new essence that occupied it heard it's own heartbeat. Muscles bulged, canines were developed further, and a red filter was placed before his eyes, as the body began to grow into something monstrous. The piece of animal fur that most Saiyans wore, was ripped apart by the growing body and was finally replaced by a fur that was it's own. Finally the bulking body began to grow and develop more monkey-like features, next to the tale, until he stood as high as a small flat. An ear deavening roar was let out by fourteen Oozarus at once as the Saiyans had all finished their transformation. An earthquake was created as the creatures crushed the ground around them, with fists and feet. Ki beams were shot out the mouths as the Oozarus let out a second roar. The nightmare that would hold planet Plant in its grip for the next three years had just started.
***
*I couldn't do anything to prevent this, I couldn't do anything to prevent this, I couldn't...*
This reminder shot through the head of General Naanab as he looked into the eyes of the Prechosen. Eyes that told the General that he was to blame for this.
*I am not to blame for this, this whole event is beyond my control and it is not like I didn't warn him.*
"General Naanab, I want you in my office as soon as this is over. You told me that this wouldn't happen."
*Oh no, no, no, you told me that I should do this and I forced by you to do this.*
The thought never was converted into speech, to openly defy the Prechosen was to sign your own death warrant and the General had already pushed his luck as far as it could possibly go in the eyes of the Prechosen.
"What is going on, what does the General have to do with the earthquake?"
Unnoticed, the current Chairmen of the Milky Way Alliance had joined the three Tsufuru's. All three turned and looked at the Human without a nose, which stood as tall as they did.
"Nothing Chairmen Hazel." The Prechosen assured him.
"Then why..."
The Chairmen stopped as a pressure wave reached the group and turned around in the direction from which the pressure wave came. Explosions and fading energy beams filled the sky, followed by more energy beams, some of which exploded and others just faded away, just as another earthquake reached them.
"A weapons test? Prechosen Ieb'draa, why wasn't I informed of this?"
The Prechosen glared at General Naanab, who gulped and took an step back against his own will, then returned his attention on the Chairmen.
"The testing is still in an early phase and I hadn't expected it to be so..."
A third earthquake shook the ground as the Prechosen searched for a word to describe the 'weapons test'.
"Promising, devastating, dangerous."
The Chairmen gave three options, but none were fitting according to the Prechosen as he found his words.
"...Exactly, it's all three. Promising, because it holds tons of potential. Devastating, because it could lay waste to an entire world and finally dangerous, because we can't yet control the entire process."
"Hmz, it sounds good, but wouldn't it be better if you would take the tests away from your home planet. It would be unfortunate if we would lose such an asset to the Milky Way Alliance."
General Naanab shuddered, the way in which the Chairmen brought the words send chills down his spine. It was almost as if the Chairman was more interested in the weapon then in the Tsufuru. The Prechosen however, didn't seem to care or was a very good actor.
"Yes, that would be good, once that we won't have to worry about safety as much as we have to do now. Could you arrange a planet for us?"
The Chairmen nodded.
"Of course I can do that, now may I suggest that we go inside. The test seems be getting out of control."
As if on cue, a new series of earthquakes almost rocked them of their feet and light shock wave rolled past them.
"Yes of course. Supreme Minister Leppa can you signal the hover buses to pick us up."
The Supreme Minister bowed and tapped with his hand on a device that was hidden behind his left ear.
"Send the hover buses."
A silent answer was returned and the Supreme Minister turned to the Prechosen.
"The Hover buses are send for, they should arrive in the next five minutes."
"Thank you, Supreme Minister. Now let's go."
Both the Chairmen and the Prechosen began to walk towards the edge of the landings platform through the corridor formed by the soldiers. The representatives of the Milky Way Alliance followed them as the three Tsufuru, who had been waiting for them, remained where they were. Two standing and one kneeling.
"I don't like this. We have got ourselves in quite a mess. How are we ever going to be able to match the power of the Saiyans?"
The Supreme Minister shook his head, while he said this.
"It should be possible, we have developed weapons of mass destruction before the time of the Ziener's resurrection."
"Yes, we have, but nothing has ever proven itself to be strong enough to even begin to match the power of the Saiyans, not to mention their ape form and besides even if we would succeed it would have to match the 'show' that the Saiyans presented us."
"We will figure out something, that's what we are best at after all."
The Supreme Minister nodded and both the Tsufuru looked on as the stream of aliens led by the Chairmen and Prechosen walked past them.
"You know, I know a species that has what we need, or at least something similar."
The General's eyes grew slightly in size.
"Which species?"
"The Chairmen's of course, at least in a way. The Earth-bound Humans had similar technology in the past when they relied heavily on machines to do their work. They stopped using it completely though, when an accident lead to a robot revolt that nearly killed two third of their world population in the following war. Nevertheless as proud as most Humans are, they wouldn't waste valuable technology, so they still have it around."
"Can you get it?"
The Supreme Minister shook his head.
"No, the Humans are too much like us, they are hesitant to tell others about their failures."
"Then how do you know all of this."
It remained quiet as the Supreme Minister kept his mouth shut, only to turn towards the servant a minute later.
"You can get up now, we need to leave as it is. I don't intent on seeing Saiyans and I am sure that you don't want to see them either."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it, now let's go."
Both the Supreme Minister and the servant started to move, but stopped when they noted that General Naanab wasn't following them.
"Aren't you coming?"
The General shook his head.
"I have some things to take care of here. I'll join you later on."
"Very well, come servant."
General Naanab watched as the two other Tsufuru moved away from him. He hadn't really had much to do here, except for sending the troops home when this whole thing was over, but it gave him some time to think and for some reason his mind chose the Human race to think about.
*The Humans are too much like us, they are hesitant to tell others about their failures.*
Supreme Minister Leppa's description of the Human attitude entered his mind and he began to wonder what more they had in common with each other. With the space-going Humans it was more or less obvious. Countless partnerships in business between the space-going Humans and Tsufuru had been raised in the time that the two species had been in contact with each other and with each meeting the link was confirmed for him. Yet for the General, the space-going Humans were little more then genetically engineered pieces of filth. He was more interested in the connection between the original Humans and Tsufuru, but there too he reached the same conclusions, even though they were no co-Earth-bound Human and Tsufuru partnerships in existence today and the Earth-bound Humans had physically a more Saiyan-like appearance. The spirit of both the Humans and Tsufuru was similar and that was what mattered to the General and disturbed him at the same time. For didn't he receive a chilled spine, due to the words of the Chairmen. He shook the disturbed feelings off, because he received them often enough thanks to the Prechosen and some scientists of research division and if the Humans possessed the solution for the problem for him at hand, he would gladly ignore any feelings for them at all. Even the frightening ones about their so called connection with Saiyans, which their appearance provoked.
*Genetically engineered pieces of filth.*
The description of the space-going Humans re-entered the mind of the General, when the delegation from Earth walked by and it had to be true. The space-going Humans were after all, only half as tall, more solidly build and certainly a hell of a lot more resilient against the effects of gravity then Earth-bound Humans. Not to mention that the space-going Humans missed a nose, which seemed to be engineered for the sole reason of negotiation with some of the less-pleasant smelling sentient species.
*They must be genetically engineered, there is no way that evolution would've been the reason behind the transformation, certainly given the relatively young age of Humanity.*
[You are right, now take this a step further and remember that on Earth, other species are engineered in such a way that they can play an active and intelligent role in their society.]
The General was overcome by a strange sense of deja vu as he looked around for the source of the voice in his head. There weren't any telepaths in the Milky Way Alliance; at least as far as he could remember, so it couldn't be that one of the beings in the moving stream was the source of it. He closed his eyes for a moment and saw a pale face with large black eyes. He opened his eyes in shock, only to close them again. He left this land of the conscious again to visit his alien 'friends'.
***
***The General was in the control room again and looked around. This whole setting seemed awfully familiar to him, but he couldn't place it just yet.
[Ah General, so good from you to join us once more.]
*Once more? I am sure that I would have remembered if I had encountered them before.*
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw several creatures, with the same face he had seen just moments, before appear. He turned his attention to them.
[In time you will remember our previous meeting, but now we must turn our attention on the reason why we first brought you here, we haven't got much time.]
*They are telepaths, they must be the ones that talked to me before I was brought to where ever I may now be.*
A gulf of fear, harboring a warning within, washed over him. He wouldn't live long if he gave into these telepaths. The gulf however disappeared as quick as it had come and General Naanab shook whatever lingering feelings he had about the gulf of fear away. He returned his attention on the beings before him, which all looked up and were obviously strained by something. The General blinked and looked around for whatever the reason of the strain would be. He could discover none and a minute later the stress, for the part that was readable for the General, vanished.
[General, like I said before, we haven't got much time. If you would come over here, we would like to show you something.]
Hesitating for a moment and thus not fast enough according to the aliens, the General received a strange nudge in his back and stumbled towards the beings. Once he was close to the telepaths, the General couldn't help but feel awed by the sheer power emitting from the aliens. It wasn't a power like any he had felt or seen before, not even like the bodily power that the Saiyans held in them. No, this was more then anything else an intelligent power, a power that felt so complete that one couldn't help but feel tiny and insignificant and the General was no exception to this. He had felt tiny and insignificant before, the first few times that he had encountered a Saiyan, the times that his father had still been around to advise him on matters, his first meeting with the Prechosen and any other higher ranking Tsufuru for that matter and of course the first time that he came across a Zessen, a horned, six legged creature that stood over four meters tall, in a zoo. However all of this fell into nothing in comparison to this experience and slowly but surely his whole world began to crumble and collapse. He closed his eyes and pieced himself together; he was the General of the whole Tsufuru army for crying out loud. In some part of his brain this notion was backed up by other thoughts and slowly he regained his confidence in himself. He opened his eyes and his whole world came crashing down on him once more.
[Welcome to Taapneiz, the planet that was once the home of my people.]
He wasn't in the control room anymore that was for sure, yet the place where he was did remind him of his own planet. The feeling of familiarity could have had something to do with the fact that the sky had the same color as the Plant's sky and the plants and water had the same general color too, but that wasn't it. The General looked up and stared into the eyes of an exact replica of a Saiyan Oozaru except for the fact that this one hadn't had the usual brown color, it was golden.
*What in the name of the Ziener is going on, that thing looks exactly like a golden Oozaru.*
The great ape snapped out of whatever trance it was in and let out a feral roar. Some various chunks of what judging by the amount once were multiple brains landed on the General, which caused the General to look at them and immediately vomit. He had been on battlefields multiple times, but never before had he been covered in brains. Once he was done vomiting he looked up and saw that the golden ape was somewhat subdued again.
*Apparently this thing is more control then his brown counterparts.*
[No, he isn't. Look to your left and you will understand why the Oozaru is as calm as he is now.]
The General looked to his left and saw a group of aliens similar to the ones that he had met in the control room.
"Why do they..."
[They are trying to subdue them with the means of mind control, but they will fail. This Oozaru is far to strong to be mind controlled.]
"...Stand so close to the...Mind controlled Oozaru?"
The last part of the question was more a new question, then a part of the original. Mind controlled Oozarus, possibilities about the use of Oozarus began to raise into the mind of the General, to be shattered again when he saw the brains of the aliens explode out of there skulls and land everywhere, the golden ape was free again.
[As you can see we can't control Oozaru's for very long. Their brains, how simple they may be, are too powerful, besides even if we could control them long enough we would still don't have sufficient numbers to control a sufficient amount of them.]
The golden ape smashed his fist into the ground just as another group of the aliens approached. A giant crater was formed around the fist as everything, excluding the ape, was destroyed in a radius of ten kilometers and for the first time since this all had started did the General actually fear the ape itself. He thought that he was killed and found that he was lifting into the air, flying towards the next dimension. Fear for death began to take over; he hadn't planned to die on some unknown planet.
*Unknown planet, certainly a planet with inhabitants with these skills would be known through out the known galaxy.*
Then another thing hit him, a quote.
*...Even if we could control them long enough we would still don't have sufficient numbers to control a sufficient amount of them.*
Yet Saiyans were never very plentiful on planet Plant, even now with an almost constant growth of their numbers, only around 3000 Saiyans were estimated to live. The General turned to the being he knew was next to him.
[I've said it in the beginning, Taapneiz, the planet that was once the home of my people.]
Shock became the dominant feature written on the General's face.
*Was it really possible for Saiyans to blow up planets and if so why hadn't they yet blown up planet Plant.*
An energy beam, similar to the one Saiyans use, ripped through him, but did no damage. A second later a shock wave came from the other side and once again nothing happened to him. Then everything became for a moment dark as a piece of molten lava, that was rapidly cooling off in space, passed through him.
[No, this Saiyan is the exception; he was an early experiment of their creators. Something that truly surpassed whatever it purpose had been.]
"Why would they want a less powerful version?"
[Look around you planets are blown up like it is nothing at all and in about ten seconds this entire solar system plus some of the neighboring stars and their planets.]
The General thought that he picked up some sort of emotion in the mind voice of the alien, but dismissed it as irrelevant. Alien emotions were difficult to interpret, certainly when you just encountered the species for the first time.
"How?"
[Watch and learn]
The alien indicated his surroundings with gesture of both of his arms and the Tsufuru General looked around. Pieces of lava, that had long since frozen up, floated around them, behind him the source of the lava had become unstable and the core fluctuated wildly, but there weren't any signs visible that this piece of universe was about to be blown up. Then against the background of a darkening, but otherwise still intact planet Taapneiz, a small light spot became visible. It rapidly grew in brilliance and soon after the light was large enough to be picked up by magnetic flows in the upper atmosphere and curved back down towards the surface. Light began to fill the enormous sphere that was formed this way and finally after what seemed like an endless lingering moment, the sphere exploded. On instinct, the General raised his arms in front of his face and closed his eyes, in order to protect himself. It was however a useless gesture, the explosion had engulfed him before he even had reacted. He thought that he heard a light chuckle, but dismissed it as he was far too scared and for the second time in a very short time feared that he had died.
*Second time, I thought that one could only die once.*
[That is correct and you are by no means dead, General.]
The General opened his eyes and looked around, he was back in the control room. It started to become somewhat of a regular occurrence. He turned to the alien from whom he knew that the being was still standing next to him.
"What did just happen?"
[What you just experienced were the last moments of planet Taapneiz in a state that is identical to the one you experience when you are dreaming.]
"This all was then just a dream?"
[No, this was not just all a dream. It all did happen, only 392 years ago and you of course weren't there.]
It all slowly began to become clearer for the General.
"You spoke of the creators of the Saiyans, who are they?"
[Do you remember what I've said to you before you were brought here?]
"That thing about the Human genetic engineering."
[Yes, that thing. Now if you do what I said and take that step and you will find that the Humans are the ones responsible for the Saiyan crisis.]
Silence settled in as General Naanab began to ponder on this. In his mind denial reigned supreme, as Humans couldn't be responsible for the crisis that plagued planet Plant for so long, could they. He remembered his chilled spine triggered by the words of the Chairmen, but he quickly dismissed it. Why would Humans even be interested in the kind of technology if they could create creatures like Saiyans, almost 400 years ago? He remembered his fear of Earth-bound Humans, due to their similarity with the Saiyans. He remembered the other genetic creations of the Humans and the stories of their Great War against Artificial Intelligence, which started 400 years ago and suddenly it all made sense, or did it? Doubt took over again and he was still nowhere.
[We all understand, we too couldn't understand it at first, but look at this.]
The being handed some sort of data pad over to the General.
"What is this?"
[It is a data pad containing the genetic structure of two bipedal creatures, one Human and one Saiyan, to be more precise, an Earth-bound Human and a Plant Saiyan.]
The General stared at the data pad, which depicted two swirling double helixes, one above the other with some written text in a language General Naanab couldn't read with it.
"Which one is the Human and which one the Saiyan, because to me they look exactly the same."
[Precisely, they are the same. Well there is one small difference, highlighted here, but that is the part that lends a Saiyan its power.]
The creature next to the General indicated an enlarged section of some portion of both the helixes, beneath the main picture.
"But...but...how?"
The General was left without most of his vocabulary, while he continued to stare at the picture of the swirling double helixes.
[How did we get it? General Bester Naanab, I thought that of all people on planet Plant you would understand it the most. Waging a war cannot be done successfully without decent information.]
The General nodded; the telepath had been correct in it's assumption about war and for a telepath information would be the least of its problems. Thoughts began to surround a concept that had been in his mind since his father had tried it before him. The integration of telepaths in the military.
"I have a proposition for you and your kind."
[The answer is no. We are with too few to supply the things you want and besides you couldn't possibly supply us with the thing we want.]
Surprised to say the least, the General tried it again, but this time only succeeded in opening his mouth.
[What we want is the complete destruction and guaranteed extinction of the Human race and all of its subspecies and genetic creations and that is something you can not give us given your position in the Milky Way Alliance.]
A bit angered and provoked, the General accepted what he saw as a challenge.
"Wanna bet?"***
***
When the General reopened his eyes, a new sense of purpose was written in them. Determination filled his mind and looked at his troops. It felt good to have such large goal to aim for and even better, knowing that he would finally be able to exact revenge on the ones responsible for the biggest plague ever.
"Uhm General, shouldn't we get out of here, the Saiyans are getting very close now, sir."
The General looked around for the source of the voice and found a private standing next to him, who was slightly nervous.
"Saiyans?"
"Yes sir, there are Saiyans sighted at the horizon on the north side of the landings platform."
"Very well private, give the commander permission to clear the landings platform."
Vaguely the "Yes sir." from the private was received in the subconsciouses of the General's brain. He turned around and began to walk away from the two battle groups. The General was heading towards the north side of landings platform, as he needed inspiration for an idea that would enable him to win the 'bet'.
***
Author's note: I am working on a dictionary for Saiyan terminology, expect a part in the next chapter.
***August 24, 23 BC, Planet Plant***
The sun was already disappearing behind the horizon when on a large landings platform, with a radius of almost half a kilometer and lying east of the capital, two fully armed battle groups gathered. They quickly were arranged by their commander in such away, that they stood opposite of each other, forming a corridor from and towards the landings platform. After five minutes of waiting, the Prechosen's shuttle would arrive here, carrying with them the reason why this all was set-up, but that was still five minutes away. An air car came to a stand still at one end of the corridor formed by the two battle groups and a Tsufuru servant stepped out of the car, while holding the door open.
"I present to you General Naanab..."
Before the servant could continue, the footmen in both of the battle groups aimed their rifles, which were still quite similar to their counterparts of a few hundred years earlier, at the sky and fired once. The sound of the firing rifles rolled over the landings platform and only when the echo died down, did the servant continue.
"...And Supreme Minister Leppa."
Again the footmen fired once into the air, followed this time by the appearance of two more Tsufuru, who both stepped out of the air car one at a time. The first to come out of the car was dressed in an elaborate version of the standard uniform, that the footmen wore. The second however was clearly not a member of the military as he did wear a red toga with a silver lining instead of a variation on the standard military uniform. Both began walk side by side through the corridor, followed by the servant, towards the other side where the shuttle would land. The general took the liberty of throwing a quick, nervous glance at the sky. He hated the waiting, but at the same time he was relieved that the light of a full moon didn't yet greet him.
"Nervous for the arrival of Prechosen Ieb'draa and the representatives of the Milky Way Alliance, he brings with him?"
General Naanab turned to look at the Supreme Minister, who walked beside him. When the full moon arrives, vermin could always ruin everything, so from a certain point of view he was nervous for the arrival the Prechosen and the representatives. He answered.
"Something like that."
A short silence settled, during which the Supreme Minister looked at the General for a further explanation. The General however was no longer conscious of everything around him, even though he remained walking. He was, if he had been a sleep earlier, sleepwalking
***
***The General blinked twice with his eyes and looked around. He was in a control room of some sort, where four creatures were performing their tasks. The creatures were bipedal, could even be described as Tsufurunoid as they were of the same height as the General and had the same general physique. Yet they were obviously not Tsufuru, because they lacked hair of any kind and had a pale gray skin, which seemed to be covered with some sort of slime. The General turned away in disgust, earning one of the creatures' attentions in the progress.
[Ah General Bester Naanab, so good of you to join us.]
The General turned back in shock and stared into a pair of large black eyes. Did he just hear a voice speak in his head? The mouth of the creature moved.
[I am sorry. This must come to you as a shock, but I was under the impression that you had encountered telepaths once before.]
The General blinked, sure he had encountered telepaths before, but he had only been a four-year old boy back then. Besides those telepaths had been small, round and fluffy, not some slimy perversion of a Tsufuru. The telepath looked down and the General could mentally slam his head on the nearest desk available. No thought was private when one was near a telepath.
[You don't have to worry about your thoughts, we are used to them by now. I was merely remembering the unfortunate extinction of the Niliversian or small, round and fluffy telepaths as you call them.]
Embarrassment was written on the General's face, he wasn't used to be talked to in this way. Only three others ever talked to him like this and all three didn't have complete access to his mind. Still, he thought as his internal defenses came to live, how could he have possibly remembered the name of the species, when he had only been four at the time.
[There is no need to defend yourself, we haven't come here to attack you in any kind of way. We are here to present you information.]
The General opened his mouth to speak, but then realized his question had already been answered. He formed a new question to ask, hoping that this one wouldn't be answered before he had asked it.
"What information?"
He didn't know if he the creatures could hear, he had only spotted rudimentary ears, but he was sure that they had got his thoughts.
[Information that links one of the members of the Milky Way Alliance with your personal plague, the Saiyans.]
The thought 'sounded' different then the first ones and the General's attention shifted from the first creature, to a second one, who joined the first. The two creatures turned to face each other and the second began to speak.
"[The Tsufuru Supreme Minister is getting suspicious of the General absence. We must return him now.]"
"[We're not done here yet.]"
With some amusement, the General noted that the creatures could speak and therefor could also hear. The rudimentary ears were good for something, after all. He strained himself to understand what they were saying.
"[Continue later, it's vital for the mission that he goes back now.]"
A piece of a puzzle, which he hadn't even been looking for, fell on its place.
*These creatures have the same language as most of the Saiyans have. Can it be that these creatures are connected with the Saiyans? They share the same language, so that seems plausible. Yet if they share the same language, the connection must be deep enough that...*
[Silence!]
The mental command ended his strain of thoughts and he looked up, only to see four pairs of eyes looking at him. He opened his mouth to ask if they truly were connected to the Saiyans, but never got the chance to actually ask the question. A white light emitting out of the creatures' eyes silenced him. A strange haze covered his thoughts about Saiyan language; a haze that got the thicker with every second that passed. The General tried to hang onto the thoughts but found that he couldn't. Slowly the haze filled other parts of his brain, slowly letting every thought disappear. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, with as only effect that the haze was dispersed better. The struggle had been lost and the General surrendered himself.
[Your companions begin to get suspicious, so we have to sent you back now. We will retrieve you later to finish this, but for now you will have to forget that this all has happened.]
The General made a short bow and replied.
"I live to obey."
After the short bow and his reply, the General looked into the light emitted by the aliens. In the light he saw a small black dot that slowly grew in size he was drawn to it. He began to accelerate towards it; he wanted to accelerate towards it. It promised a cure for this hell of forgetfulness. Yet like so many cures, it did have a side effect. He was ripped out of this dream, without the information he had been promised, without any information. This period was now a blank page in his mind, utterly devoid of anything. The dot had been a black hole, which had sucked the last thoughts out of him.***
***
Lokor was like all 2806 other members of his kind a Saiyan and like 208 other Saiyans; he was the leader of a group. A group which was currently flying low under a clouded heaven, towards the nearest gap in the clouds. Today was the first day of Naam Ellov or full moon in English. Lokor looked back over his shoulder towards the thirteen other members of his group. The two elders of the group, Lokor's own parents, flew behind him, hell bend on one last battle, before death took them away. Behind them his woman and the three other couples flew with in there midst the four children of the group. For the children it would be there first full moon period, for the others there second or third. Full moons were after all a rare event on planet Plant. Lokor looked in front of him and spotted the necessary clearing in the distance. They were in luck, the clearing was near one of the city's made by the dwarves. He executed a roll of joy, but stopped midway. His eyes grew wide; something large was breaking through the clouds.
***
The first thing that General Naanab noticed when he came back in the land of the conscious was that the Supreme Minister was talking to him, but couldn't make out yet what he was saying. Everything was still far too fuzzy to make out things like speech. The second thing he noticed was that he stood still, waiting at the end of the corridor for the Prechosen's shuttle to arrive. How he got there he had no idea, as the last thing that he could remember was that he was still walking towards the spot where he now was standing. Somewhere in between was a blank were something should have been. He shook his head, why did he feel like his entire brain had just been pulled apart by black hole?
"...Whatever your problem is, it will have to wait until later, because the Prettiness has arrived."
The General turned to look at his companion in confusion and then looked up. In awe he noticed, that the Supreme Minister was indeed right. The Prettiness' shuttle, a flying disk large enough to fill the entire landings platform with the exception of the area where the awaiting party was standing thanks to a 'cut' in the disk, gracefully finished it's maneuvers through the clouds, leaving a turbulent mass of swirling clouds behind and started it's final decent. The General gulped, no matter how many times he had seen it; he still found it to be one of the most awe-inspiring views. An opinion that was sure to be shared by the hundreds of delegates on board of the shuttle. The shuttle landed and opened it's massive door, while at the same time a equally large gangway was lowered until it hit the ground a meter in front of the General and Supreme Minister. Both the men fell on their left knee, bowed and would remain in this position until told otherwise. Behind them, the servant and the soldiers did the same. A small robed figure, made even smaller by the gigantic door, appeared in the door opening and moved down the gangway followed by a cordon of elite guards. Behind them, a stream of all kinds of aliens followed, some looking around in wonder, most adjusting to the higher gravity and one or two looking, despite their diplomatic smile, bored. The figure that had first appeared stopped at the end of the gangway and gestured with his hands for the General and Supreme Minister to rise. He acknowledged their presence with a nod, which was replied by a short bow from the side that had just risen. Only then did the Prechosen, dressed in a identical robe as the Supreme Minister save for the fact that it had a golden lining instead of silver, step on planet Plant's soil.
"Welcome home, Prechosen. I hope that your trip was productive."
While the Supreme Minister said this, the cordon of elite troops moved past them and took position in front of the battle groups, who all rose to there feet in response.
"Of course, isn't it always."
The Supreme Minister bowed and the Prechosen shifted his attention to the General.
"And General, are the security arrangements ready for this event?"
"Yes Prechosen, all though I must say that my opinion about this matter has not..."
The Prechosen raised his hand, causing the General to shut up. To know what the Prechosen meant was to survive and the General knew this as no one else did, he had been raised with this principal, as he wasn't chosen by the people like the Supreme Minister. Still, he continued to have his doubts about the intelligence behind the move of the Prechosen. Saiyans were dangerous and unpredictable, especially during a period of full moon.
A small earthquake shook the ground and some of the DG helmets of the troops came online. The General knew that this was going to be a frequent event during this period of the moon cycle.
***
Lokor couldn't believe his luck, the Srekam ed were obviously smiling upon him. Less then a minute ago, a large metallic object, which looked like the flying machines of the dwarves, had torn the clouds apart. Ten second after that, Lokor had caught the first glimpses of the full moon. They had landed and separated to give each other room for the transformation. Now the time was there, for the second time in his life Lokor looked at the full moon in all it's glory. He unfolded his tale from his waist and continued to stare at the moon. He realized, with his last sane thoughts, that he wasn't as close to the city as he had originally had planned, but he didn't cared about that. He was washed away in the tidal wave that washed every essence of Lokor away and replaced it with something entirely different, something that was so much simpler, so much deadlier. The body of Lokor looked at the moon and the new essence that occupied it heard it's own heartbeat. Muscles bulged, canines were developed further, and a red filter was placed before his eyes, as the body began to grow into something monstrous. The piece of animal fur that most Saiyans wore, was ripped apart by the growing body and was finally replaced by a fur that was it's own. Finally the bulking body began to grow and develop more monkey-like features, next to the tale, until he stood as high as a small flat. An ear deavening roar was let out by fourteen Oozarus at once as the Saiyans had all finished their transformation. An earthquake was created as the creatures crushed the ground around them, with fists and feet. Ki beams were shot out the mouths as the Oozarus let out a second roar. The nightmare that would hold planet Plant in its grip for the next three years had just started.
***
*I couldn't do anything to prevent this, I couldn't do anything to prevent this, I couldn't...*
This reminder shot through the head of General Naanab as he looked into the eyes of the Prechosen. Eyes that told the General that he was to blame for this.
*I am not to blame for this, this whole event is beyond my control and it is not like I didn't warn him.*
"General Naanab, I want you in my office as soon as this is over. You told me that this wouldn't happen."
*Oh no, no, no, you told me that I should do this and I forced by you to do this.*
The thought never was converted into speech, to openly defy the Prechosen was to sign your own death warrant and the General had already pushed his luck as far as it could possibly go in the eyes of the Prechosen.
"What is going on, what does the General have to do with the earthquake?"
Unnoticed, the current Chairmen of the Milky Way Alliance had joined the three Tsufuru's. All three turned and looked at the Human without a nose, which stood as tall as they did.
"Nothing Chairmen Hazel." The Prechosen assured him.
"Then why..."
The Chairmen stopped as a pressure wave reached the group and turned around in the direction from which the pressure wave came. Explosions and fading energy beams filled the sky, followed by more energy beams, some of which exploded and others just faded away, just as another earthquake reached them.
"A weapons test? Prechosen Ieb'draa, why wasn't I informed of this?"
The Prechosen glared at General Naanab, who gulped and took an step back against his own will, then returned his attention on the Chairmen.
"The testing is still in an early phase and I hadn't expected it to be so..."
A third earthquake shook the ground as the Prechosen searched for a word to describe the 'weapons test'.
"Promising, devastating, dangerous."
The Chairmen gave three options, but none were fitting according to the Prechosen as he found his words.
"...Exactly, it's all three. Promising, because it holds tons of potential. Devastating, because it could lay waste to an entire world and finally dangerous, because we can't yet control the entire process."
"Hmz, it sounds good, but wouldn't it be better if you would take the tests away from your home planet. It would be unfortunate if we would lose such an asset to the Milky Way Alliance."
General Naanab shuddered, the way in which the Chairmen brought the words send chills down his spine. It was almost as if the Chairman was more interested in the weapon then in the Tsufuru. The Prechosen however, didn't seem to care or was a very good actor.
"Yes, that would be good, once that we won't have to worry about safety as much as we have to do now. Could you arrange a planet for us?"
The Chairmen nodded.
"Of course I can do that, now may I suggest that we go inside. The test seems be getting out of control."
As if on cue, a new series of earthquakes almost rocked them of their feet and light shock wave rolled past them.
"Yes of course. Supreme Minister Leppa can you signal the hover buses to pick us up."
The Supreme Minister bowed and tapped with his hand on a device that was hidden behind his left ear.
"Send the hover buses."
A silent answer was returned and the Supreme Minister turned to the Prechosen.
"The Hover buses are send for, they should arrive in the next five minutes."
"Thank you, Supreme Minister. Now let's go."
Both the Chairmen and the Prechosen began to walk towards the edge of the landings platform through the corridor formed by the soldiers. The representatives of the Milky Way Alliance followed them as the three Tsufuru, who had been waiting for them, remained where they were. Two standing and one kneeling.
"I don't like this. We have got ourselves in quite a mess. How are we ever going to be able to match the power of the Saiyans?"
The Supreme Minister shook his head, while he said this.
"It should be possible, we have developed weapons of mass destruction before the time of the Ziener's resurrection."
"Yes, we have, but nothing has ever proven itself to be strong enough to even begin to match the power of the Saiyans, not to mention their ape form and besides even if we would succeed it would have to match the 'show' that the Saiyans presented us."
"We will figure out something, that's what we are best at after all."
The Supreme Minister nodded and both the Tsufuru looked on as the stream of aliens led by the Chairmen and Prechosen walked past them.
"You know, I know a species that has what we need, or at least something similar."
The General's eyes grew slightly in size.
"Which species?"
"The Chairmen's of course, at least in a way. The Earth-bound Humans had similar technology in the past when they relied heavily on machines to do their work. They stopped using it completely though, when an accident lead to a robot revolt that nearly killed two third of their world population in the following war. Nevertheless as proud as most Humans are, they wouldn't waste valuable technology, so they still have it around."
"Can you get it?"
The Supreme Minister shook his head.
"No, the Humans are too much like us, they are hesitant to tell others about their failures."
"Then how do you know all of this."
It remained quiet as the Supreme Minister kept his mouth shut, only to turn towards the servant a minute later.
"You can get up now, we need to leave as it is. I don't intent on seeing Saiyans and I am sure that you don't want to see them either."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it, now let's go."
Both the Supreme Minister and the servant started to move, but stopped when they noted that General Naanab wasn't following them.
"Aren't you coming?"
The General shook his head.
"I have some things to take care of here. I'll join you later on."
"Very well, come servant."
General Naanab watched as the two other Tsufuru moved away from him. He hadn't really had much to do here, except for sending the troops home when this whole thing was over, but it gave him some time to think and for some reason his mind chose the Human race to think about.
*The Humans are too much like us, they are hesitant to tell others about their failures.*
Supreme Minister Leppa's description of the Human attitude entered his mind and he began to wonder what more they had in common with each other. With the space-going Humans it was more or less obvious. Countless partnerships in business between the space-going Humans and Tsufuru had been raised in the time that the two species had been in contact with each other and with each meeting the link was confirmed for him. Yet for the General, the space-going Humans were little more then genetically engineered pieces of filth. He was more interested in the connection between the original Humans and Tsufuru, but there too he reached the same conclusions, even though they were no co-Earth-bound Human and Tsufuru partnerships in existence today and the Earth-bound Humans had physically a more Saiyan-like appearance. The spirit of both the Humans and Tsufuru was similar and that was what mattered to the General and disturbed him at the same time. For didn't he receive a chilled spine, due to the words of the Chairmen. He shook the disturbed feelings off, because he received them often enough thanks to the Prechosen and some scientists of research division and if the Humans possessed the solution for the problem for him at hand, he would gladly ignore any feelings for them at all. Even the frightening ones about their so called connection with Saiyans, which their appearance provoked.
*Genetically engineered pieces of filth.*
The description of the space-going Humans re-entered the mind of the General, when the delegation from Earth walked by and it had to be true. The space-going Humans were after all, only half as tall, more solidly build and certainly a hell of a lot more resilient against the effects of gravity then Earth-bound Humans. Not to mention that the space-going Humans missed a nose, which seemed to be engineered for the sole reason of negotiation with some of the less-pleasant smelling sentient species.
*They must be genetically engineered, there is no way that evolution would've been the reason behind the transformation, certainly given the relatively young age of Humanity.*
[You are right, now take this a step further and remember that on Earth, other species are engineered in such a way that they can play an active and intelligent role in their society.]
The General was overcome by a strange sense of deja vu as he looked around for the source of the voice in his head. There weren't any telepaths in the Milky Way Alliance; at least as far as he could remember, so it couldn't be that one of the beings in the moving stream was the source of it. He closed his eyes for a moment and saw a pale face with large black eyes. He opened his eyes in shock, only to close them again. He left this land of the conscious again to visit his alien 'friends'.
***
***The General was in the control room again and looked around. This whole setting seemed awfully familiar to him, but he couldn't place it just yet.
[Ah General, so good from you to join us once more.]
*Once more? I am sure that I would have remembered if I had encountered them before.*
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw several creatures, with the same face he had seen just moments, before appear. He turned his attention to them.
[In time you will remember our previous meeting, but now we must turn our attention on the reason why we first brought you here, we haven't got much time.]
*They are telepaths, they must be the ones that talked to me before I was brought to where ever I may now be.*
A gulf of fear, harboring a warning within, washed over him. He wouldn't live long if he gave into these telepaths. The gulf however disappeared as quick as it had come and General Naanab shook whatever lingering feelings he had about the gulf of fear away. He returned his attention on the beings before him, which all looked up and were obviously strained by something. The General blinked and looked around for whatever the reason of the strain would be. He could discover none and a minute later the stress, for the part that was readable for the General, vanished.
[General, like I said before, we haven't got much time. If you would come over here, we would like to show you something.]
Hesitating for a moment and thus not fast enough according to the aliens, the General received a strange nudge in his back and stumbled towards the beings. Once he was close to the telepaths, the General couldn't help but feel awed by the sheer power emitting from the aliens. It wasn't a power like any he had felt or seen before, not even like the bodily power that the Saiyans held in them. No, this was more then anything else an intelligent power, a power that felt so complete that one couldn't help but feel tiny and insignificant and the General was no exception to this. He had felt tiny and insignificant before, the first few times that he had encountered a Saiyan, the times that his father had still been around to advise him on matters, his first meeting with the Prechosen and any other higher ranking Tsufuru for that matter and of course the first time that he came across a Zessen, a horned, six legged creature that stood over four meters tall, in a zoo. However all of this fell into nothing in comparison to this experience and slowly but surely his whole world began to crumble and collapse. He closed his eyes and pieced himself together; he was the General of the whole Tsufuru army for crying out loud. In some part of his brain this notion was backed up by other thoughts and slowly he regained his confidence in himself. He opened his eyes and his whole world came crashing down on him once more.
[Welcome to Taapneiz, the planet that was once the home of my people.]
He wasn't in the control room anymore that was for sure, yet the place where he was did remind him of his own planet. The feeling of familiarity could have had something to do with the fact that the sky had the same color as the Plant's sky and the plants and water had the same general color too, but that wasn't it. The General looked up and stared into the eyes of an exact replica of a Saiyan Oozaru except for the fact that this one hadn't had the usual brown color, it was golden.
*What in the name of the Ziener is going on, that thing looks exactly like a golden Oozaru.*
The great ape snapped out of whatever trance it was in and let out a feral roar. Some various chunks of what judging by the amount once were multiple brains landed on the General, which caused the General to look at them and immediately vomit. He had been on battlefields multiple times, but never before had he been covered in brains. Once he was done vomiting he looked up and saw that the golden ape was somewhat subdued again.
*Apparently this thing is more control then his brown counterparts.*
[No, he isn't. Look to your left and you will understand why the Oozaru is as calm as he is now.]
The General looked to his left and saw a group of aliens similar to the ones that he had met in the control room.
"Why do they..."
[They are trying to subdue them with the means of mind control, but they will fail. This Oozaru is far to strong to be mind controlled.]
"...Stand so close to the...Mind controlled Oozaru?"
The last part of the question was more a new question, then a part of the original. Mind controlled Oozarus, possibilities about the use of Oozarus began to raise into the mind of the General, to be shattered again when he saw the brains of the aliens explode out of there skulls and land everywhere, the golden ape was free again.
[As you can see we can't control Oozaru's for very long. Their brains, how simple they may be, are too powerful, besides even if we could control them long enough we would still don't have sufficient numbers to control a sufficient amount of them.]
The golden ape smashed his fist into the ground just as another group of the aliens approached. A giant crater was formed around the fist as everything, excluding the ape, was destroyed in a radius of ten kilometers and for the first time since this all had started did the General actually fear the ape itself. He thought that he was killed and found that he was lifting into the air, flying towards the next dimension. Fear for death began to take over; he hadn't planned to die on some unknown planet.
*Unknown planet, certainly a planet with inhabitants with these skills would be known through out the known galaxy.*
Then another thing hit him, a quote.
*...Even if we could control them long enough we would still don't have sufficient numbers to control a sufficient amount of them.*
Yet Saiyans were never very plentiful on planet Plant, even now with an almost constant growth of their numbers, only around 3000 Saiyans were estimated to live. The General turned to the being he knew was next to him.
[I've said it in the beginning, Taapneiz, the planet that was once the home of my people.]
Shock became the dominant feature written on the General's face.
*Was it really possible for Saiyans to blow up planets and if so why hadn't they yet blown up planet Plant.*
An energy beam, similar to the one Saiyans use, ripped through him, but did no damage. A second later a shock wave came from the other side and once again nothing happened to him. Then everything became for a moment dark as a piece of molten lava, that was rapidly cooling off in space, passed through him.
[No, this Saiyan is the exception; he was an early experiment of their creators. Something that truly surpassed whatever it purpose had been.]
"Why would they want a less powerful version?"
[Look around you planets are blown up like it is nothing at all and in about ten seconds this entire solar system plus some of the neighboring stars and their planets.]
The General thought that he picked up some sort of emotion in the mind voice of the alien, but dismissed it as irrelevant. Alien emotions were difficult to interpret, certainly when you just encountered the species for the first time.
"How?"
[Watch and learn]
The alien indicated his surroundings with gesture of both of his arms and the Tsufuru General looked around. Pieces of lava, that had long since frozen up, floated around them, behind him the source of the lava had become unstable and the core fluctuated wildly, but there weren't any signs visible that this piece of universe was about to be blown up. Then against the background of a darkening, but otherwise still intact planet Taapneiz, a small light spot became visible. It rapidly grew in brilliance and soon after the light was large enough to be picked up by magnetic flows in the upper atmosphere and curved back down towards the surface. Light began to fill the enormous sphere that was formed this way and finally after what seemed like an endless lingering moment, the sphere exploded. On instinct, the General raised his arms in front of his face and closed his eyes, in order to protect himself. It was however a useless gesture, the explosion had engulfed him before he even had reacted. He thought that he heard a light chuckle, but dismissed it as he was far too scared and for the second time in a very short time feared that he had died.
*Second time, I thought that one could only die once.*
[That is correct and you are by no means dead, General.]
The General opened his eyes and looked around, he was back in the control room. It started to become somewhat of a regular occurrence. He turned to the alien from whom he knew that the being was still standing next to him.
"What did just happen?"
[What you just experienced were the last moments of planet Taapneiz in a state that is identical to the one you experience when you are dreaming.]
"This all was then just a dream?"
[No, this was not just all a dream. It all did happen, only 392 years ago and you of course weren't there.]
It all slowly began to become clearer for the General.
"You spoke of the creators of the Saiyans, who are they?"
[Do you remember what I've said to you before you were brought here?]
"That thing about the Human genetic engineering."
[Yes, that thing. Now if you do what I said and take that step and you will find that the Humans are the ones responsible for the Saiyan crisis.]
Silence settled in as General Naanab began to ponder on this. In his mind denial reigned supreme, as Humans couldn't be responsible for the crisis that plagued planet Plant for so long, could they. He remembered his chilled spine triggered by the words of the Chairmen, but he quickly dismissed it. Why would Humans even be interested in the kind of technology if they could create creatures like Saiyans, almost 400 years ago? He remembered his fear of Earth-bound Humans, due to their similarity with the Saiyans. He remembered the other genetic creations of the Humans and the stories of their Great War against Artificial Intelligence, which started 400 years ago and suddenly it all made sense, or did it? Doubt took over again and he was still nowhere.
[We all understand, we too couldn't understand it at first, but look at this.]
The being handed some sort of data pad over to the General.
"What is this?"
[It is a data pad containing the genetic structure of two bipedal creatures, one Human and one Saiyan, to be more precise, an Earth-bound Human and a Plant Saiyan.]
The General stared at the data pad, which depicted two swirling double helixes, one above the other with some written text in a language General Naanab couldn't read with it.
"Which one is the Human and which one the Saiyan, because to me they look exactly the same."
[Precisely, they are the same. Well there is one small difference, highlighted here, but that is the part that lends a Saiyan its power.]
The creature next to the General indicated an enlarged section of some portion of both the helixes, beneath the main picture.
"But...but...how?"
The General was left without most of his vocabulary, while he continued to stare at the picture of the swirling double helixes.
[How did we get it? General Bester Naanab, I thought that of all people on planet Plant you would understand it the most. Waging a war cannot be done successfully without decent information.]
The General nodded; the telepath had been correct in it's assumption about war and for a telepath information would be the least of its problems. Thoughts began to surround a concept that had been in his mind since his father had tried it before him. The integration of telepaths in the military.
"I have a proposition for you and your kind."
[The answer is no. We are with too few to supply the things you want and besides you couldn't possibly supply us with the thing we want.]
Surprised to say the least, the General tried it again, but this time only succeeded in opening his mouth.
[What we want is the complete destruction and guaranteed extinction of the Human race and all of its subspecies and genetic creations and that is something you can not give us given your position in the Milky Way Alliance.]
A bit angered and provoked, the General accepted what he saw as a challenge.
"Wanna bet?"***
***
When the General reopened his eyes, a new sense of purpose was written in them. Determination filled his mind and looked at his troops. It felt good to have such large goal to aim for and even better, knowing that he would finally be able to exact revenge on the ones responsible for the biggest plague ever.
"Uhm General, shouldn't we get out of here, the Saiyans are getting very close now, sir."
The General looked around for the source of the voice and found a private standing next to him, who was slightly nervous.
"Saiyans?"
"Yes sir, there are Saiyans sighted at the horizon on the north side of the landings platform."
"Very well private, give the commander permission to clear the landings platform."
Vaguely the "Yes sir." from the private was received in the subconsciouses of the General's brain. He turned around and began to walk away from the two battle groups. The General was heading towards the north side of landings platform, as he needed inspiration for an idea that would enable him to win the 'bet'.
***
Author's note: I am working on a dictionary for Saiyan terminology, expect a part in the next chapter.