Chapter Twenty-six - Toma's Arrival

"We're an hour from Earth." Raditz reported. "Should I contact Bardock and inform him of our arrival?"

Toma nodded. Raditz punched a few buttons and the com system whirred to life. It took a moment for the old systems to begin transmitting.

xxx

Earth - Military Base twelve miles north of Orange Star City:

General Tag Serfs leaned back in his chair bored out of his mind. They never got any activity. The base watched the stars, listened for alien transmissions. The post had just been established the previous month to much complaint. There were those who thought they'd never make contact because there was nothing else out there. General Serfs wasn't so sure about that, but he didn't expect contact until much later, probably after he was dead. He was about to get a shock.

"General Serfs! General Serfs!" a private cried running into the room.

"What is it?"

"We've detected an object nearing the planet at high speed, there's a transmission coming from it!"

"You're kidding?" Tag said sitting bolt upright. He followed the private out into the main area of the complex. People where running around everywhere getting a lock on with the transmission. "Can we hear it?"

"Yes sir... it appears to be a two way communication."

"Let's hear it then."

The soldier nodded. He turned up a knob and flipped a few switches. There was a crackle over the speakers that grew louder for a moment before fading a bit. Then a distorted voice came over it. "Bardock, do you read? This is Toma, do you read?"

"Toma! Bout time you got here!" a new voice replied jokingly."

"Hello!" called a new voice.

There was a laugh. "That would be Goku..."

"Goku?" Raditz asked.

"His Earth name. He grew up here, I rather like it."

The General and soldiers looked at each other in confusion. This wasn't the kind of conversation they'd been expecting. It sounded like there were aliens already on the planet, or these weren't aliens. They listened as the conversation continued.

"How do you suggest we make contact?" Toma asked. "You know more about this world than we do, we don't want to cause a panic."

Goku's voice came over again. "Can you locate us?"

"Yeah, we're already locked on."

"Then just come here, the place is called Capsule Corp. They're the most advanced company and they've got a lot of ties with people. They can figure it out from there."

"Understood, we'll be landing in about twenty minutes now. Toma out."

Instantly the room was abuzz with activity. Tag began to prepare a team to head to Capsule Corp. He wasn't sure if this was a prank or what but he needed to find out. "Let's move out!" he ordered.

xxx

Bardock, Goku, Dr. Briefs, and a small crew of staff stood in the center of the central courtyard of the Capsule Corp. Compound. They were expecting Toma and his landing party in a moment. Dr. Briefs turned as a staff member came over to him. "There's a military caravan on it's way here as we speak."

"Military?" Bardock asked.

Dr. Briefs frowned. "The new base, Star Gazer, must have heard our conversation. This makes thing's easier I think." He tuned to the man. "Show them here when they arrive." The man nodded and left. A few moments later he returned with General Serfs and a group of fifty men carrying machine guns. "Those are worthless." Dr. Briefs said to him.

General Serfs glanced at the doctor, then at Goku and the oddly clad Bardock. "Why's that? What's going on here?"

"Nothing that needs guns." Goku said frowning. "They're here for a first contact meeting, and to see about having an embassy here. The Earth's been in danger lately and could use the protection."

"I think we can handle that quite well." Tag said confidently.

Bardock shook his head. "You couldn't hurt a single person on the ship up there." he said. "Your bullets would bounce right off all of them."

Tag looked at him skeptically but said nothing as four blue dots appeared in the evening sky. The four specks of light plunged from the sky and then slowed suddenly. The glows faded as the four pods came to a hovering rest. Four metal legs unfolded from the pods and touched the ground letting the pods settle into place.

"Show offs." Bardock grinned. "I've always wanted one of those pods, much smoother landings."

The doors to the pods hissed and then began to open. The soldiers watched in awe as the four Sai-jins emerged, two males and two females, all wearing armor like that of one of the men who'd already been there. Tag glanced between all five of them. Bardock was wearing black and brown armor. Toma and Tangerie were in black and green armor. Raditz wore black and brown armor. Mango had on black and purple armor, the only one without shoulder pads.

"Toma!" Bardock grinned walking over to his old friend and patting him on the shoulder. "It's been to long my friend, to long."

"Indeed Bardock." He motioned back to Tangerie. "You remember my mate."

Bardock grinned. "Second most beautiful Sai-jin I've ever met."

"Speaking of which, where is Appla?" Mango asked.

"Not here... I can't explain, it's classified."

"That's fine." Toma said looking around. "I can understand that, things have been really tense since the Nappa incident. Not sure of everything but a lot of top secret things have been going on."

Bardock introduced everyone to Goku and Dr. Briefs then he left General Tag Serfs introduce himself and why he was there. Toma sighed and shook his head. "At least you didn't shoot at us." he muttered as Dr. Briefs lead them inside to a conference room.

xxx

Frieza dropped to the ground panting heavily. He'd just finished sparring with his father during one of the meeting breaks. "I still can't seem to catch you." he said in awe.

"Don't worry Frieza, you're gaining."

"Yes... but your only in the second stage. If you had access to the third transformation..."

Cold laughed. "Indeed Frieza, but I still have room for improvement, which means so do you. Your still young after all, give it another fifty to a hundred years. By then I'll be an old man and you'll be quite powerful."

Frieza grinned. He couldn't wait for that. "There's something I've been meaning to discuss with you Father. You know of Razor right?"

"Indeed, he's an interesting being. I just wish I knew where to get one of my own."

Frieza nodded. "He's visions are being blocked out so to say. He's seeing three beings and their auras, nothing more. One of them is me, he thinks the other is Cooler but he says it's not the quite the right shape. The third is even more unknown. It's a person with black hair, in red, and with a yellow aura. You wouldn't have any ideas?"

"Afraid not. This bothers me... I've been having a bad feeling lately, like something's wrong. And just recently I had to execute Boa." He shook his head. "I hate traitors. Wish I knew who all these people worked for, there's even traitors in the Sai-jin empire working for this person. Did you hear the report yesterday?"

"Hmm? No, I've been trying to relax the last few days. These meetings annoy me to no end."

Cold chuckled. "Well, I got a report from an insider at the Sai-jin palace. Turns out your favorite lackey was on this unknown being's payroll."

"Zarbon? You're kidding! I trusted him more than anyone, save for Ginyu."

"Afraid so. Zarbon, Kui, Kuwa, Dodoria, they were all traitors. Even that Vashon creature from... what was it? Shirt?"

"Shirr... and sadly it's been wasted. All the technology's been lost. Though I planed on destroying all traces of those enhancer things." Frieza shivered. "Those Sai-jins are strong enough without help."

"I've got my own problems too." Cold said. "The Yadrins have been causing problems. Seems their greatest warrior, Gredethin-dorablas-zkortisyavi-porque, or something like that, has managed to transform. They thing it's something special, that he's invincible." Cold laughed. "Really, they have no idea of power. He's only at eight million. I plan on crushing him once this meeting is over."

"Eight million is impressive though." Frieza said thoughtfully.

"You're not worried about that ridiculous Super Sai-jin legend are you? It's nothing but hope and arrogance. I mean really, that kind of power from a single transformation? The Oozaru is impressive I admit, King Vegeta could kill any of us after transforming, but that's limited. How many races do you know of that have two different transformations?"

Frieza relaxed a bit. His father was right after all. You either had a transformation or you didn't, there were no races with two different kinds of transformations.

xxx

General Tag shook his head. "You can't expect me to believe that?" he scoffed. "Really, a single being having enough power to destroy entire planets?"

Bardock handed Tag his scouter. "This is a device that reads power levels, also called KI. The higher a being's KI the stronger they are. The average Human power is nine." He nodded at Toma who activated his scouter.

Toma looked at Tag. "Let's see, you're power is... 19. Not to bad. To give you an idea my power is almost five thousand. Mango is over eighty thousand."

Tag shook his head still not believing this. "Proof." he said. "That's what I need."

Bardock and Toma both sighed, it was Raditz who picked up the discussion. "Destroying a planet requires a power of at least ten thousand." he said. "But that would be excessive anyway. Let's see, how about..." he looked about the room. Suddenly he vanished and then reappeared holding a gun in his hands. The soldier he'd taken it from was looking around for where it had went. There was a grinding sound as Raditz bent the gun into a bow without trouble.

As Goku looked at Tag's face he had an idea. "King Piccolo!" he cried. The Sai-jins looked at him curiously while Tag turned his attention to Goku.

"What about him?"

"You remember him right?"

"Yeah. I fought him at the palace."

"And your bullets bounced off, right? They had to have, they didn't hurt me then either and I was to weak to hurt him. And he destroyed the city with a single blast. Then the fights at the Budokais, and the one after last years tournament. Or that fight a few months ago..."

Tag stared at Goku. It was clicking now, he was believing. "Amazing... and you say there's even stronger beings out there? There's even a Human with a lot of strength?"

"That would be Krillin." Goku said smiling. "We grew up together."

"He's at over six thousand." Toma said nodding.

Tag let it soak in for a moment. "Then, you're here to offer us entry into your empire? And protection from these other races?"

Toma nodded. "Yes. Your people have done a great job of protecting one of our own, Goku here, and now it's out turn to return the favor. Your world has already faced a number of threats, you could use our help if more come."

Tag wasn't sure what to make of this...

Goku grinned. "Either way, you've got me. This is my home, Sai-jin or not. I'll always protect it."

xxx

Vegeta laid staring at the ceiling. He'd done intense training everyday and his power was going up but he wasn't sure what to expect on Namek. He'd heard reports that the Ginyu Force was heading there, he was wondering if the rumors about Ginyu's power being over a million was true or not. He doubted it tough. His thoughts were broken when Bulma poked her head into his room. Over the last two weeks they'd gotten to know each other a bit better. They weren't exactly friends but they didn't argue as much now. "Vegeta, food's ready." she said.

He grunted and sat up. Bulma blushed as she stared at his bare chest for a second before ducking out of the room. Shortly after she started eating Vegeta arrived and dug in as well. /He eats more than Goku, how's that possible?/ she wondered. /At least he's got better manners./

Over the last few days she'd managed to get him to open up some, explain himself, tell his story. She was feeling kind of sorry for him. All his life he'd been told he'd be greater than his father, that he'd become a great King. That he could even become the first Super Sai-jin in thousands of years and defeat the Cold Family freeing the Sai-jins from his grasp. "Only another week." she said softly. "Oh yeah, I finished the radar today too."

Vegeta nodded. "I want you to stay on the ship when we land. You'll be no match for any of the Ginyu Force and just get in my way. I don't need distractions."

xxx

Those who'd just been part of the meeting inside Capsule Corp where now standing inside a secure bunker on the Star Gazer base. Bardock was making his way to the center of the room for a demonstration of his new power. After which Goku would do the same. The data would then be set to planet Vegeta and Bardock's personal service record could be updated, and one could be created for Goku.

"Ready?" Toma asked putting on his scouter. Bardock nodded. Toma pushed the button to activate the scouter and two sets of numbers appeared. One was his last recorded power, 18,302. The second was his current reading, 50. Toma grinned. Bardock was getting better and better at suppressing his power.

Suddenly the room came awash with blue deep blue light as Bardock's aura flared brilliantly. The room began to shake slightly at first, then more violently. Shortly the entire base was trembling with power. Toma's scouter began to read the increase as Tag watched in awe. In seconds it had hit three thousand, within thirty seconds he was past 18,000. In less than a minute his power slowed and settled at 35,994. Toma stared on in awe. He couldn't believe how strong Bardock had become already. They'd grown up together, for years their powers had been nearly even. After Turles passed Bardock's power though it had become nearly impossible to keep up. Now it seemed it would be impossible to ever be close to Bardock in strength ever again. He was only about 14,000 thousand away from the Third Class Elite status! At this rate he'd be there by the years end!

"Bardock... that's unbelievable!" Toma managed. Raditz, Mango, and Tangerie all glanced at him. None of them had their scouters on and were awaiting an official reading. "Just under 36,000..."

Raditz couldn't believe it. His father was so strong now. It was mind boggling. Only a just over a year ago he'd only been at barely over 10,000. Now he was nearly a Third Class Elite! He resolved himself to train even harder now. He glanced uncertainly at his younger brother. /Surely he can't be that strong? He was only at 2 when he was born.../

Bardock was still clutching his fists even though he'd relaxed. Finally he looked up at the others grinning. "I'm just getting warmed up." Goku couldn't help but grin as well while the others paled in shock. Suddenly the tremors resumed as a deep roar bellowed up from within Bardock and his blue aura flicked to life for a split second before turning red. Once more the power reading for Bardock began to climb higher and higher.

Toma couldn't believe his eyes. "45,000..." he breathed, still it continued to rise. "70,000 and going up!" The other three Sai-jin looked at Toma like he was crazy for a second before turning back to look at Bardock in pure amazement. "There's no way! 107,982!" he cried as Bardock's power stabilized once more. This new power lasted only a moment before fading away and returning to the rather deceiving 50 it had started at.

"The first power is my natural strength." Bardock said relaxing. "But thanks to a technique I learned while training for Zarbon's arrival I can increase my power, safely, up to three fold. Goku can do it as well, but he's more skilled at it than I am."

"Yeah. My safe limit's five. I used a Kaio Ken times six against Zarbon but it was a bit of an overload. I may be able to do it safely now though, I haven't tried yet."

"Go for it." Bardock said with a nod. Goku walked out into the center of the room and braced himself. Once more the quaking resumed as Goku's power began to build. It only took a few moments to go from 50 to 23,201 where it held steady for a second. Then his blue aura was replaced by a red aura and his power began to climb once more. Toma couldn't believe it, his power was almost even with Bardock's!

"No way! He's surpassed Bardock and still climbing!" Raditz's eyes went wide. This was impossible! How could anyone gain this much power? "120,000 and climbing!" Slowly the aura faded and Goku's power quit building. "139,206!" he said in awe.

xxx

Frieza slid down into his chair and gazed out at his father's palace through the pink porthole before him. It was finally over! Two weeks of utter boredom and monotony. At least it was over a week early. Perhaps the Ginyu Force hadn't been needed after all. Though, if he knew his Empire, there would be the workings of a rebellion on a number of worlds when he got home. But first he had matters to attend to on Namek. "ETA to Planet Namek from here?" he requested.

"Just over three weeks. Just over two if we use the Black Nebula to speed us up."

"Then do it. I want to be on Namek as soon as possible. After hearing of Zarbon's treason I'm not even sure if I trust Ginyu any longer. I want to keep an eye on him."

"Yes sir, Lord Frieza."