A/N: This chapter may seem a bit bland, or dull. Or, if you like being made to wonder, this could be quite interesting to you. It's a personal taste kind of thing. Those waiting for the action, don't worry, it's coming in due time. I'm just setting things up still.
Chapter Two - A piece of the puzzle
Piccolo floated in front of the waterfall near his home in his traditional position. However, he wasn't doing the traditional early morning thing this day. Today he was... babysitting. He growled lightly at himself as he remembered Bardock suddenly knocking on his door asking him to 'watch and train the kids' for a few hours. At first he'd been thrown off by 'kids' having not known of Videl yet, despite that fact it had been a week since the others had met her. It was the first time Piccolo had talked to any of them.
Still, his eyes followed the two half Sai-jins as they semi-played, semi-trained over the stream before him. The girl was powerful, extremely powerful. Had he met her a little over a year and a half ago he'd have been in complete shock that anyone could have that kind of power. Now Gohan was about three times stronger than her, and he was even stronger than that, and Goku... Piccolo shook his head. Things had changed so much... He smirked suddenly as a loud splash reached his ears. "But some things never change." he said seeing Videl's head pop out of the stream and glare up at Gohan playfully.
"All right you two, if you've got that much energy we can apply it to something useful." he said shifting out of his cross legged position and down to the river shore. The two kids flew over to him and looked up wondering what he had in mind. "Follow me." he said turning around.
----------------------------------------------------
"Can't we get anything on this ship?" Appla asked.
"No." Bulma sighed leaning back in her chair and putting her hands on her head. "I've just ran a check through every database in the entire Empire and there's nothing on this ship! How's that possible?"
"Maybe it's not from around here." Krillin thought aloud. "No one's never been beyond our own galaxy."
Appla shook her head. "No, that wouldn't make sense. If it was, then why come to Earth and ignore everything else?"
"Goku?" Krillin suggested. "I mean, you said he's one of the strongest people in the galaxy now, maybe these guys want to meet him?"
"Doubt it." came Bardock's voice from the doorway as he walked in. "I'm not sure just how strong Goku is now but King Cold's up there too. If Goku attracted attention then Cold should have too."
"Unless he did." Krillin said. "And they came here for him first, then Goku came along..."
"I don't think so." Appla said in thought.
"Well, there is one last thing we can do." Bardock said walking over to where Bulma still sat. "There is one database you didn't have access to Bulma. I just finished talking with King Vegeta and he gave permission to access The Archives."
"The Archives?" Krillin wondered.
It was Appla who responded. "Planet Vegeta was visited by a few aliens thousands and thousands of years ago, before we even had a single King. The Archives are the computers of the ships of those Aliens. Even if the ship out there isn't in the Archives it'll still be able to give us a lot of information."
"How so?" Bulma asked. "If it's not in there then what information could it give you?"
"A comparison of all known ships to what we've got coming here." Bardock informed her. "It can tell us if the ship may have originated from this race or that race, or a combination of technology from different races." Bardock motioned for her to stand and he took a seat in front of the computer. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he accessed planet Vegeta's central computer's restricted section and used the username and password King Vegeta had supplied him to get into the archives. A few more button pushes and the computer was running comparison matches. "In a few minutes we should have something."
Krillin lead back in his chair and sighed. "I wish I'd gone with Tien or Yamcha..." he muttered. "Being on Planet Vegeta or Tanaria would be much calmer I think."
Appla chuckled. "What, and miss all this fun?" she asked. "Earth has to be the most entertaining planet to live on."
Krillin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, if you like a new incredibly strong villain crawling out of the wood work every few weeks. Oh wait, I forgot, you're a Sai-jin."
Bardock smirked as the computer suddenly beeped. "Ah! We've got a hit!" he looked down at the screen and cocked an eyebrow in wonder. "Interesting...."
"What is it?" Appla asked walking over.
"It's a cross of four technologies, four different ship designs. Ordian, Sai-jin, Namekian, and Changeling."
"What? How's that possible?"
Bardock shook his head. "Not sure." He punched in a few more commands and brought up the designs of the four original ships. The Sai-jin ship was a typical saucer design, nothing outstanding about it. The Changeling ship was of the War Cruise variety designed to transport thousands of soldiers. The Namek ship wasn't much to look at, but the similarity came from the construction material and a few cosmetic touches. As for the Ordain ship... it was estimated interior systems would match. Looking at the four designs and the large purple ship nearing them he could see the connections quite clearly.
"Hey... wait a minute..." Appla said checking the designs of the original ships. "Didn't we get report from the Ceria system a few years back about something like this? I think I remember Raditz being sent to investigate."
Bardock frowned. He remember Raditz's trip to Ceria but had never inquired about it. Now might be a good time. He tapped a few buttons on the computer and tapped into Raditz's scouter a moment later. "Father?" Raditz asked a bit surprised.
"Do you remember the Ceria mission from a few years back?" Bardock asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"What happened?"
Raditz shook his head. "We got a call from the Ceria system about an unknown vessel entering their system and not responding to transmissions. Something about it being of Sai-jin, Changeling, and Namekian design. After that we lost contact. When I got to the planet it was a barren, frozen, wasteland." Raditz's face scrunched up as he thought back. "I landed to see if anyone was still alive but everything was dead. King Vegeta sent a mining team to the planet to extract the planet's abundant resources but found that there weren't any left..." Bardock sighed and massaged his forehead. "What is this about father? What's going on?"
The older Sai-jin sighed again. "We've got an unknown ship coming toward Earth. The Archives matched it to Ordian, Sai-jin, Namekian, and Changeling technology. What did the reports say about the planet, King Vegeta's a stickler for details."
Raditz tilted his head back and thought. "The resources had been stripped... the planet seemed like it had just gone through an ice age..."
"Any records from the Ceria-jin's about what happened?"
"Only some short video clips of men in full white body armors, soldiers most likely. They never attacked anyone in the videos though... and a mention of someone named... Sail, or Nile, or something. I can't remember, but you could look it up." Raditz lowered his head and looked out through the monitor. "What, do you think it's the same people?"
"Could be..."
"Sounds like Planet Pirates to me." Appla said frowning. "Thanks Raditz, we have a few things we need to check into." Raditz nodded and his face vanished. Appla turned to Bardock. "Can you map the way between here and Ceria? Put it up on the big monitor." Bardock nodded and a moment later one of the large walls lit up with a 3D map of space with a line from Earth off to another location, Ceria. "Overlay the ship." A moment later a purple dot appeared, but it wasn't on the line. The dot was well off to the right side.
"Any other planets on record that have had similar occurrences to that of Ceria?" Bulma asked.
"Let me check..." Bardock said, his fingers flying across the keys at incredible speed. A moment later one of the dots that represented a planet turned red. Then another, and another, and another.
"My word..." Krillin breathed watching even more and more red dots appear. "How many of them are there?!" he cried.
"187." Bardock said as the last one appeared. "Spanning a period of just over five and a half centuries."
"Can you connect them up in chronological order?" Appla asked.
A few more clicks of the keyboard and a white line began to spread from one of the points to the next, to the next, and on. After a few moments the line linked to Ceria, then moved on to one last point. Bardock pushed a few buttons and the line from Ceria to Earth vanished and was replaced by one from Earth to that last dot. It passed right through the ship. "It's a fit." Bardock said at last. "Whoever's on that ship has destroyed 187 worlds over the last 560 some years."
Krillin gulped as he stared at the screen. "And I guess Earth is next on the list then?" he asked tentatively.
"Looks that way." Bardock said. "I have to contact King Vegeta about this, he'll want to know."
"Found him." Bulma said looking up from her own computer now. "That name Raditz gave us, I just checked it out. It's Sanil, and it's listed as being a Namekian name." Bardock and Appla both looked at her in wonder. This was getting stranger and stranger...
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A/N: Plenty of good little tidbits and evidence as to who this new baddy is. :) Don't you just 'love' cliffhangers?
Chapter Two - A piece of the puzzle
Piccolo floated in front of the waterfall near his home in his traditional position. However, he wasn't doing the traditional early morning thing this day. Today he was... babysitting. He growled lightly at himself as he remembered Bardock suddenly knocking on his door asking him to 'watch and train the kids' for a few hours. At first he'd been thrown off by 'kids' having not known of Videl yet, despite that fact it had been a week since the others had met her. It was the first time Piccolo had talked to any of them.
Still, his eyes followed the two half Sai-jins as they semi-played, semi-trained over the stream before him. The girl was powerful, extremely powerful. Had he met her a little over a year and a half ago he'd have been in complete shock that anyone could have that kind of power. Now Gohan was about three times stronger than her, and he was even stronger than that, and Goku... Piccolo shook his head. Things had changed so much... He smirked suddenly as a loud splash reached his ears. "But some things never change." he said seeing Videl's head pop out of the stream and glare up at Gohan playfully.
"All right you two, if you've got that much energy we can apply it to something useful." he said shifting out of his cross legged position and down to the river shore. The two kids flew over to him and looked up wondering what he had in mind. "Follow me." he said turning around.
----------------------------------------------------
"Can't we get anything on this ship?" Appla asked.
"No." Bulma sighed leaning back in her chair and putting her hands on her head. "I've just ran a check through every database in the entire Empire and there's nothing on this ship! How's that possible?"
"Maybe it's not from around here." Krillin thought aloud. "No one's never been beyond our own galaxy."
Appla shook her head. "No, that wouldn't make sense. If it was, then why come to Earth and ignore everything else?"
"Goku?" Krillin suggested. "I mean, you said he's one of the strongest people in the galaxy now, maybe these guys want to meet him?"
"Doubt it." came Bardock's voice from the doorway as he walked in. "I'm not sure just how strong Goku is now but King Cold's up there too. If Goku attracted attention then Cold should have too."
"Unless he did." Krillin said. "And they came here for him first, then Goku came along..."
"I don't think so." Appla said in thought.
"Well, there is one last thing we can do." Bardock said walking over to where Bulma still sat. "There is one database you didn't have access to Bulma. I just finished talking with King Vegeta and he gave permission to access The Archives."
"The Archives?" Krillin wondered.
It was Appla who responded. "Planet Vegeta was visited by a few aliens thousands and thousands of years ago, before we even had a single King. The Archives are the computers of the ships of those Aliens. Even if the ship out there isn't in the Archives it'll still be able to give us a lot of information."
"How so?" Bulma asked. "If it's not in there then what information could it give you?"
"A comparison of all known ships to what we've got coming here." Bardock informed her. "It can tell us if the ship may have originated from this race or that race, or a combination of technology from different races." Bardock motioned for her to stand and he took a seat in front of the computer. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he accessed planet Vegeta's central computer's restricted section and used the username and password King Vegeta had supplied him to get into the archives. A few more button pushes and the computer was running comparison matches. "In a few minutes we should have something."
Krillin lead back in his chair and sighed. "I wish I'd gone with Tien or Yamcha..." he muttered. "Being on Planet Vegeta or Tanaria would be much calmer I think."
Appla chuckled. "What, and miss all this fun?" she asked. "Earth has to be the most entertaining planet to live on."
Krillin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, if you like a new incredibly strong villain crawling out of the wood work every few weeks. Oh wait, I forgot, you're a Sai-jin."
Bardock smirked as the computer suddenly beeped. "Ah! We've got a hit!" he looked down at the screen and cocked an eyebrow in wonder. "Interesting...."
"What is it?" Appla asked walking over.
"It's a cross of four technologies, four different ship designs. Ordian, Sai-jin, Namekian, and Changeling."
"What? How's that possible?"
Bardock shook his head. "Not sure." He punched in a few more commands and brought up the designs of the four original ships. The Sai-jin ship was a typical saucer design, nothing outstanding about it. The Changeling ship was of the War Cruise variety designed to transport thousands of soldiers. The Namek ship wasn't much to look at, but the similarity came from the construction material and a few cosmetic touches. As for the Ordain ship... it was estimated interior systems would match. Looking at the four designs and the large purple ship nearing them he could see the connections quite clearly.
"Hey... wait a minute..." Appla said checking the designs of the original ships. "Didn't we get report from the Ceria system a few years back about something like this? I think I remember Raditz being sent to investigate."
Bardock frowned. He remember Raditz's trip to Ceria but had never inquired about it. Now might be a good time. He tapped a few buttons on the computer and tapped into Raditz's scouter a moment later. "Father?" Raditz asked a bit surprised.
"Do you remember the Ceria mission from a few years back?" Bardock asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"What happened?"
Raditz shook his head. "We got a call from the Ceria system about an unknown vessel entering their system and not responding to transmissions. Something about it being of Sai-jin, Changeling, and Namekian design. After that we lost contact. When I got to the planet it was a barren, frozen, wasteland." Raditz's face scrunched up as he thought back. "I landed to see if anyone was still alive but everything was dead. King Vegeta sent a mining team to the planet to extract the planet's abundant resources but found that there weren't any left..." Bardock sighed and massaged his forehead. "What is this about father? What's going on?"
The older Sai-jin sighed again. "We've got an unknown ship coming toward Earth. The Archives matched it to Ordian, Sai-jin, Namekian, and Changeling technology. What did the reports say about the planet, King Vegeta's a stickler for details."
Raditz tilted his head back and thought. "The resources had been stripped... the planet seemed like it had just gone through an ice age..."
"Any records from the Ceria-jin's about what happened?"
"Only some short video clips of men in full white body armors, soldiers most likely. They never attacked anyone in the videos though... and a mention of someone named... Sail, or Nile, or something. I can't remember, but you could look it up." Raditz lowered his head and looked out through the monitor. "What, do you think it's the same people?"
"Could be..."
"Sounds like Planet Pirates to me." Appla said frowning. "Thanks Raditz, we have a few things we need to check into." Raditz nodded and his face vanished. Appla turned to Bardock. "Can you map the way between here and Ceria? Put it up on the big monitor." Bardock nodded and a moment later one of the large walls lit up with a 3D map of space with a line from Earth off to another location, Ceria. "Overlay the ship." A moment later a purple dot appeared, but it wasn't on the line. The dot was well off to the right side.
"Any other planets on record that have had similar occurrences to that of Ceria?" Bulma asked.
"Let me check..." Bardock said, his fingers flying across the keys at incredible speed. A moment later one of the dots that represented a planet turned red. Then another, and another, and another.
"My word..." Krillin breathed watching even more and more red dots appear. "How many of them are there?!" he cried.
"187." Bardock said as the last one appeared. "Spanning a period of just over five and a half centuries."
"Can you connect them up in chronological order?" Appla asked.
A few more clicks of the keyboard and a white line began to spread from one of the points to the next, to the next, and on. After a few moments the line linked to Ceria, then moved on to one last point. Bardock pushed a few buttons and the line from Ceria to Earth vanished and was replaced by one from Earth to that last dot. It passed right through the ship. "It's a fit." Bardock said at last. "Whoever's on that ship has destroyed 187 worlds over the last 560 some years."
Krillin gulped as he stared at the screen. "And I guess Earth is next on the list then?" he asked tentatively.
"Looks that way." Bardock said. "I have to contact King Vegeta about this, he'll want to know."
"Found him." Bulma said looking up from her own computer now. "That name Raditz gave us, I just checked it out. It's Sanil, and it's listed as being a Namekian name." Bardock and Appla both looked at her in wonder. This was getting stranger and stranger...
--------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Plenty of good little tidbits and evidence as to who this new baddy is. :) Don't you just 'love' cliffhangers?