Author's notes: Thanks to all the reviewers!

Jewlbunny - Bardock will return in the following chapters, as a secondary character. He will have an important role to play though. ^^

greatprinny2 - You will be surprised for sure! XD

Crystal - Thanks! Here's the update. ^^

Obligatory copyright disclaimer: Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and relative characters are intellectual property of their respective owners. I'm using them without permission, but this is only a no-profit Fan fiction.

Edit: My heartfelt thanks to Angel-Rias for Beta-reading the chapter!

Chapter 6, Moonlit drama

"Wait! Nizuki!" Usagi tried to open the door, but there was no knob or lever to push or pull. Ami touched a little square of metal embedded in the wall, and the door opened with a hiss. "Nizuki! Please!" Usagi rushed out, following the woman.

The warrior was absentmindedly flying away from the open balcony at the end of the corridor. She stopped hearing Usagi calling her. "What do you want, crybaby?" She told her, annoyed.

"Y-you told me we'll have to kill someone! I heard right? We can't! You can't give us a mission like this! You must change it!" Usagi was on the verge of tears, while pleading their cause with the Saiyan warrior.

"Stop this." Nizuki landed softly beside her. Usagi was joined by her friends, all of them complaining. "I said... STOP THIS!" They fell silent in front of the angry outburst from the warrior.

"Make no mistake, girls. You are now warriors in the Saiyan Army, and you will follow orders. We work for the PTO, and they ordered us to clear planet Babke of the natives. Tomorrow morning you will board your attack balls and in two weeks you will land there. Then you will kill them all. You must go, otherwise Captain Nappa will personally take the pleasure of killing you all. No useless weaklings stay alive in the Saiyan Army; do I make myself crystal clear?" She told them nearly shouting.

"Yes, you made yourself very clear, thanks Nizuki..." replied Usagi, her eyes downcast.

The warrior took her by the shoulders, gently lifting her chin with a hand. "Usagi, I understand your fear. You think you will not be able to win against an entire world. But you can do this for certain. Have faith in your strength and remember your warrior pride. When you return victorious, we will throw a party and Makoto will cook her delicious treats for all to eat. And you will be respected for your victory. Stand tall warriors! I'll return tomorrow morning to bring you to the spaceport. Now go to sleep!"

She waited for them to return to their bunks, and then closed the door. They heard her footsteps growing faint in the corridor. When she was finally gone, they all started to talk simultaneously.

Minako sat on her bunk, hugging her legs. "This is madness! We must escape from this place!"

Rei was nervously walking circles in the small room. "Blood thirsty killers! They would commit genocide for money!"

Makoto was the most shocked. "T-they were so nice to me... how can they...?"

Usagi sighed. "I can't believe in an entire race made up only of evil killers. There's something strange at work here. Maybe the Void Jean told us of?"

Ami nodded at her. "It is possible. However do I have to remind you of all the numerous acts of senseless slaughter committed by humans on our earth in the past and recently. Minako is right, we must escape from this planet, but if we lose contact with Jean-san we will never return to our universe. We'll have to wait until she finds the Void, unless..."

"Unless? Tell us more Ami-Chan!" Usagi took her hand in her own, hope burning bright in her eyes.

"I think I may be able to return us to our universe even without destroying the Void first. But I need help from Jean-san. If she can open a wormhole with her powers, even a small one, I can stabilize it with a negative-mass-matter stream. I can build a particle accelerator, if we find suitable technological supplies." She said mostly to herself.

"But we do not know where Jean-san is. And tomorrow morning we will be balled to planet Kebab!" Ami sighed at Minako's usual confusion.

"It is planet Babke, and we will use 'attack balls' to get there. I think they are probably some sort of star ships. I will try to take control of these 'balls' and return here in a deserted region, like the one we found in at our arrival here. I can scramble this planet's detectors if I can get a look at them."

"We have no other choices. If we refuse to leave, they will kill us. We are in your hands, Ami-chan" Usagi told her softly.

Makoto took off her armor, boots and gauntlets, lying on her bunk. "Better grab some sleep then. We will need to be alert, tomorrow morning."

"I am not sleepy!" Minako complained, following her example nonetheless. A few minutes later she was sleeping soundly.

"Humph! She's right. It's useless to muse over it. I'll try to sleep too." Rei used her armor as a pillow, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

Ami and Usagi exchanged glances. They knew their chances were few. "You should rest, Ami-chan; don't be nervous. You can do it, no sweat." She encouraged her friend, smiling.

"Thanks, Usagi-chan. Good night."

She replied softly. "Good night, Ami-Chan". After a while all the girls save her were asleep. In her bunk, Usagi was thinking of Captain Maizen.

"How can they be so similar and so different at the same time! And why is he here? On this planet; Why not on this universe earth? Why were we brought here? Chance or destiny? I have to return, or Chibi-usa will never been born! I must! If only I had my brooch... And about that, how could I use the Moon Tiara Action; without transforming and without a... tiara?" She had so many questions, no answers, and a long night to think over them. At last sleep overcame concern.

The following morning they woke up sore and grouchy. "This bed is an instrument of pure evil! It's not possible to sleep comfortably on it!" Rei said, thinking of exorcising her bunk.

"Oh, don't be fussy!" Makoto was used to sleeping anywhere; the martial art training in the mountains accustomed her to inconveniences. "I'll take a shower!" She entered the small washroom. After a while a strange buzzing noise startled them. They heard Makoto giggle. One minute later, she exited out of the shower, completely dry.

"You should try that! There's no water! Only strange tickling sounds and violet light! Yet, I'm totally clean!" She told them amazed.

Ami nodded knowingly. "It must be a sonic shower. It destroys dead skin and bacteria by ultrasonic sound waves and ultraviolet light. It's very advanced technology! I read about a prototype of it in a science magazine."

"It's fun! Try it!" Makoto took Ami by the arm and pushed her in the shower. Seconds later, they heard her giggling too. "Oh, it tickles!"

"Let me try! Let me try!" Minako jumped in the second Ami was out. Rei and Usagi sighed at the same time.

Rei looked at Usagi concerned. "It is always a bad sign when we think the same." She entered the shower, hating it. "All of this technology and no spirituality at all. It creeps me out... And still it feels like I forgot something..."

Usagi was the last one to use the shower, too tired to find it funny. She donned her armor reluctantly, hating what it represented.

Sometime later, the warrior woman marched up to their barracks. Opening the door she found them clean and ready. "OK girls. Follow me!" Without saying anything else, she led them through the labyrinthine fortress to the spaceport landing pads.

On a large balcony there were five huge circular depressions, full of soft impact-dissipating material. The attack balls were nested one for each circle, huge metal capsules resembling baseballs. Alien technicians were working at them or on the numerous computer terminals around the balcony. Nizuki called one of them, a small creature with a bulbous head.

"Hey, are the Attack Balls ready?"

The technician nodded, clearly afraid of the woman. Ami, taking advantage of the situation, asked for information about the ships. "Can you tell me how they work?"

The creature, puzzled by the strange request, at least coming from a Saiyan, looked at Nizuki as if for asking permission. She nodded, having figured out Ami inquisitiveness.

"These beauties have one seat, full life support and stasis equipment. The engines, gravity-based and faster-than-light, are built into the hull. The controls are easy and intuitive, installed both on the inside of the entry door, and in this small hand-held device, for remote control. The ball is preprogrammed for a specific destination and back, having no navigational computers. Mission objectives are stored in the launch pad computers and downloaded into the ball when needed."

Explaining the controls to the girls, he gave the remote to Ami. "Here is the master control. Use it to move unoccupied balls. I've already loaded the data of your mission into your attack balls. You only need to seat yourself, fasten the safety belts and put on the stasis mask." He showed them how to do it.

"It's so easy even I can understand it!" Usagi was amazed at the ball's simple commands. She fidgeted with them, and her ball started to buzz. "Uh oh!" She punched at some buttons, trying to stop the sound.

"Don't touch this!" Nizuki blocked her from self-destroying the ball. "Don't touch anything! Let Ami command your ball! You are worse than me with these things!"

"Humph! You smother my creativity!" Usagi protested to distract Nizuki and the technicians from noticing Ami, busily looking at the computer screens. The girl absorbed quickly most of the information she needed. 'This technology is so advanced; the designs are easy and clear to understand! We may have a chance...' She made an OK signal to her friends.

"Enough! Enter and go forth, to battle and glory! Go, go! What are you waiting for?" Nizuki pushed them inside the capsules, dragging Ami away from the terminals, without noticing anything strange.

Once seated inside the balls, the hatch closed and a low hum emanated from the ship's bulkheads. Nizuki's voice reached them through their scouters.

"Nizuki here. The scouters will monitor your vitals and record the mission. You can communicate with each other and with me once on the planet. The signal will take two days to reach us however, so don't count on any aid once there. During the voyage you will be put in stasis. Time will not pass for you. You will arrive on planet Babke just in time. Good Luck!" She closed the communication.

Usagi stirred in the seat, annoyed by the mask she had to wear. "In time for what? Humph, this mask itches, maybe I can remove it and...whooooa!" The attack ball shoot up in the air at impossible speed, crushing her in her seat. Once out of the atmosphere, they found themselves amidst a sea of stars. "Oh, it's beautiful! I can see planet Vegeta from the porthole!" Wondering how fast the ship was flying, she activated the scouter. "Usagi here! This ship is..."

Her voice was drowned by Makoto's screams of terror! "Kyaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! We will crash somewhere! Kyaaahhhhh!" Ami was trying to make her stop. "Makoto, there is no danger, we are in the void of space! Please calm down, we can't hear each other..." But the tall girl was so terrified of flying she continued to scream until the suspended animation machines activated.

Feelings of drowsiness and a tingling paralysis took hold of their bodies, until finally they drifted in cold sleep, while the ships rocketed in space towards their destination.

Two weeks later...

Usagi's first thought was; 'Hum, I've overslept?' Peeking under her sleepy eyelids she could see a faint orange light, coming from a small round window. 'W-where am I?' Feeling something over her mouth she took her hands on her face, finding the breathing apparatus. She removed it after some fidgeting. Then she remembered. "Oh, yes! I'm in an alien body, in an alien spacecraft, over an alien planet and I have to kill all of its inhabitants! Cool!" She whispered sarcastically to herself. Activating the scouter she tried to contact her friends. "Usagi here! Do you copy?" She tried to sound professional, remembering the movies she used to see with Mamo-chan, on earth... then sadness overcame her.

Before she could start crying, a voice startled her. "Ami here! I can hear you strong and clear. Are you all right?"

"Minako here! All clear! I mean, I don't know where you are or where I am, but I think I am all right, yes? Or no... don't really know. Then I may..."

"Minako, shut up for the sake of sanity! Rei here, I'm fine. Makoto, do you copy?" Rei was worried for her friend, given her previous outburst.

"N-no... I'm scared... I HATE flying... I'm s-sorry... when we took off I was surprised. I'm better now... OH MY GOD! WE WILL CRASH ON THAT MOON!" Makoto screamed once more as their ships almost collided with a large pink moon. The attack balls plummeted at full speed towards a strange planet, half red, half blue.

"Makoto, close your eyes and breathe! You can do it!" Ami shouted back. Her friend followed the advice, calming down once again.

"That planet is strange. It seems half of it is on fire and the other half is not." noticed Usagi.

Ami replied while avidly looking at the beautiful view. "It is probably tide locked with its star. One side always toward the sun is on fire, the other side always away from the sun should be frozen. But look at that. The Moon is tide locked too, to the night side of the planet. The sun's light reflected on it warms the night side, making it habitable. It is a very rare planetary configuration that..."

"Ok, it's beautiful, I got it! No need to go on." Usagi sweat dropped at the complicated explanation.

Rei interrupted them. "Are we going to slow down any time soon?"

"We are going to burn in the atmosphere if we don't slow down, right Ami?" asked Minako, absentmindedly.

At the last comment Makoto's concentration broke down. "We will BURN, then CRASH! Kyaaah!" She resumed her screaming fit.

"Oh no... Minako you air head!" Rei sighed at her friend's lack of judgment.

As the ships hit the atmosphere at breakneck speed, burning plasma enveloped the attack balls, stopping the conversation. A few seconds later five huge impacts shook the ground as their ships collided with the planet's surface. A huge crater, with five smaller indentations, nested the otherwise intact attack balls.

Glumpho Ed'gork Swuphlo, known as Ed by his friends, was happily driving his rotomatic towards the nearest city. He had his van loaded with delicious Vlogga fruits grown in his fields, hoping to offer them at the moon festival buffet. Then his vehicle was staggered by the five blasts and stopped for a while.

"What a pain! I should have replaced the sparkers... And what on Babke was that?" Curious, Ed left his vehicle and walked the short distance to the new crater beside the road.

Looking down he saw five huge white balls. One of them opened up. "It is a vehicle! What a strange design! Maybe they are alien visitors?"

A little figure tried to leave the ball, entangling herself in the seat belts. Then she managed to free herself, only to fall down face first. "Huff! This thing was trying to strangle me to death..." The alien being spoke galactic without any special accent.

'It is a sentient being, probably a female if I recall correctly, mammal sexual dimorphism.' Ed, as a biologist, was very curious. He waved his second pedipalp at her. "Hey you there! Alien being! Welcome to planet Babke!"

The alien looked up at him, then waved back. "Hi! You called me alien? Guess I am... this is your planet after all. Wait a moment please, I must take care of my friends!" The creature, a small mammalian female with twin head tails, opened the other four spheres, helping her companions out of the ships.

In the crater, Usagi was eyeing the strange creature that welcomed her on the planet. In good Japanese! She found it normal for the Saiyans to speak correct Japanese, maybe with a slight Osaka accent. But the bug creature? Giggling at the strangeness of it, she opened the spheres helping her friends out. Makoto had fainted, so she had to physically drag her out, with Minako's aid. Ami immediately started to look at her unconscious friend with the scouter, analyzing her vital signs. "No damage, she only fainted out of fear." They sighed out of relief.

Meanwhile Rei jumped easily up out the high crater wall until she reached the bug man. She bowed to him. "Hello! We come in peace. We are only passing by, to repair our ships. Can you tell us where we can find supplies?"

The creature blinked his six compound eyes at her. "Sure! If you go to the Moon's Festival, in the nearest city, you will find almost anything. The Moon fair is the biggest in our world." He smiled showing her three rows of clicking mandibles, not a pleasant sight. "But where are my manners! My name is Glumpho Ed'gork Swuphlo, Biologist! Nice to meet you!" He bowed back to her.

"Uh, My name is Rei, high school student. Nice to meet you too, Gurumpo Eddoruko Soufflè." She wrestled with the creature's name.

"Ha, ha, ha! Just call me Ed, Rei. Without two additional mandibles you can't speak my name correctly. We don't see much alien traffic here; this is only a small colony. Do you need a ride? I'm going to the festival." He asked her nicely.

"Uh, I must ask my friends. May you wait a minute?"

"Sure! No problem."

Rei jumped down to her friends. She felt wonderfully light. Makoto, having wakened, was staring at the alien bewildered. "Have you heard it?" she whispered to them. "Should we trust him?"

Usagi scoffed at her. "The real question is, should HE trust US? Don't you remember why we are supposed to be here? I say, we take a ride, reach the city, and buy the supplies we need!"

"With what money; we are broke, remember? And they are alien bugs; maybe they use woman blood as money!" Minako whispered looking at Ed.

"Don't be a fool! He's clearly from an advanced species. They know of other beings, this is a colony. Maybe we can work at cleaning dishes or something else, to make money!" Rei chided her.

Ami nodded. "I don't think we have other options. The attack balls are programmed to fly back to Vegeta's landing pads. We have to reprogram them and I cannot do this without tools. So we need to go to the city. Rei tell him we are grateful for his offer. Meanwhile I'll program the ships to wait for us with the remote controller."

After informing Ed of their decision, he showed them the back of his vehicle. A sort of large open-air van with six large flabby rubber wheels. Dozens of crates full of ripe fruits left barely enough space for them to ride in. at the sight of the fruits their stomachs started to grumble.

"Oh, oh, oh! You are hungry I hear! Please eat some fruits, I will offer them at the festival anyway, no need to make you wait!" Ed flashed at them his disturbing alien smile.

Ami immediately scanned the fruits with her scouter. "Wait girls. This scouter cannot detect if they are edible."

"Maybe you should try the old one?" Usagi reminded her.

"Oh yes, why not?" Ami replaced the new scouter with the other one. A flood of data appeared on her visor. "It tells me the fruits are good to eat! It even shows the mineral and vitamin content and is giving me dietary suggestions! This is a scientific scouter it seems, the others must be military ones. Useful!"

Without waiting any longer they helped themselves with the juicy fruits. "Hey Ed! Your fruits are delicious!" Rei told him. Her friends nodded in agreement while munching on.

"I'm happy to hear that. At the festival you will find a lot of other delicious foods! Can't wait to get there." He replied nicely.

Wondering why a biologist was working as a farmer, Ami asked him some questions. "Tell us, Ed. Why your people colonizing this planet. It doesn't seem to be an optimal choice to me. And you told us you are a biologist. Why do you grow fruits for a fair?"

Ed was happy to chat a little. The voyage to the nearest city was a boring one. "We came from planet Meat. On our home planet our population exceeded the capacity to sustain itself. So we are colonizing nearby planets. Most of the inhabitable ones are already taken, so we colonized this one, as no one wanted it." The girls looked at each other. The Planetary Trade Organization wanted it for sure!

"We found out later that this planet has an unusually high percentage of rare metals in its crust. This planet's flora has evolved in strange ways, thanks to that. The food here is way more nourishing than on our planet's. We opened up a few large plantations and a great number of small experimental ones, like mine. I grow these fruits, engineered to be each as nourishing as a normal five course meal. You must have been really hungry to devour five fruits each!" He smiled again.

"Rare metals uh? Are they precious?" asked Minako.

"Yes, they are. But we can't mine them without destroying this planet's ecosystem. Better to understand it and use what we can take without damaging the delicate balance of nature." He replied, somberly this time.

"You are a good being, Ed." Makoto told him. "No one ever cares for the plants, but they are living creatures. They suffer and they love. Surely your plants know you care for them and give you a lot of their fruits willingly." She said with sparkling eyes.

Ed looked at her, puzzled. "Uh sure! As you say... But I gave them a lot of fertilizer just to be sure." He laughed heartily. The girls joined him.

"Anyway, Can you tell us about the festival?" Usagi chimed in. "Are there games, food and music?"

"Sure!" He replied. "The Moon Festival is our main festivity, celebrated once every 100 planetary years, just about 30 standard galactic years. Our moon, Celaeno, rotates very slowly in relation to the sun, while always showing us the same face. When it is finally full, summer comes to the planet, and we celebrate with a 30 day long festival. Everyone gives what he can freely and we drink and play merrily. It will be fun! I missed my first festival being only a little grub in the nest. Now I want to enjoy myself fully!"

"Wait! Are you telling us we may eat and drink for free?" Usagi could not believe it.

"Yes! You may! We will give you the tools you need to repair your ships too. I know a good astromech technician. She will help you for sure."

"Yay! We are good to go then! Thank you Ed!" They all thanked him, grateful for the good news.

Ed's rotomatic took them through the scenic alien landscape. After two hours of gawking at the strange sights, the girl were sure nothing could faze them anymore. They finally reached the city, the vehicle stopped in front of the entrance of a large plaza. There was no Ferris wheel or roller coaster but dozens of strange attractions dotted the fair.

Ed proceeded to unload the vehicle, while two Babkians approached him. They were apparently responsible for culinary attractions. "You'll have to bring your fruits there." One of them told Ed, pointing to a faraway stand.

"We can help you Ed, as you helped us." Usagi volunteered, her friends nodding their agreement.

"Sure, any help would be great!" He replied smiling.

The crates were heavy for him, but the girls barely broke a sweat. "Uh this is easy. They seemed heavy but they aren't." Minako said surprised.

Obviously Ami knew the reason behind their strength. "It's the gravity. This planet is only five times our earth gravity. We have Saiyan bodies, accustomed to ten Gs, so we feel stronger. The mass stays the same though; be careful."

They moved the crates in no time. Helping Ed to display his fruits, he told them to explore by themselves, and to return at sunset. The girls immediately went to enjoy the fair.

Wandering amidst the exotic crowd there were other aliens, of many different species. A group of them, reptilians of Malaka's race, spotted them.

"Saiyans, here? Guys we must return to our ships, now!" One of them told to his friends, terrified. Without a second thought they scurried away.

"Hey! What rudeness!" Usagi looked at her friends. "It seems they dislike us." Annoyed she walked away.

Her friends followed her, all but Rei. "I'll come later. Go on without me." She told them, going after the reptilian aliens.

Trying to reach them, Rei had to run quickly, thus making her presence obvious. "One of them is following us, let's fly!" One of them said as they took flight and vanished in an instant. A minute later a spaceship blasted off the planet, rocketing away in space.

"How come we are the only ones who can't fly? Anyway… I have a bad feeling about this." She thought, returning to Ed's stand.

Sometime later the five girls were eating sweets similar to candy apples. Ed was telling them of the impending full moon. "In a few minutes the moon will be full and the day will be at its brightest. It is a moment of happiness on our planet. You are very lucky to have landed here at this time. When the countdown will go to zero we will toast to a good future and then dinner will begin!"

Usagi and Minako were literally jumping at the idea. "Oh this fair is wonderful, and the Babkians are so nice, even with their strange appearance!" chirped Minako. "Appearances are deceiving. Look at the saiyans, they are human looking and horrible." Usagi replied biting her candy.

"We should warn them about the PTO's plans for their planet, though." Ami sighed at her friend's carefree nature. "We will obviously not complete the mission, so they will send another team."

Rei nodded her agreement. "Right. After the dinner we'll tell everything to Ed. He'll know how to contact the authorities."

The voice of an announcer drew their attention.

"And now, the Moon is nearly full! -10, -9, -8..."

The girls joined in, shouting the numbers of the countdown. Rei, silent, was having a horrible premonition. She felt terrible, without knowing why.

"-3, -2, -1, THE MOON IS FULL!" the announcer shouted, and the crowd started cheering.

The girls looked at the full pink moon. "Oh, it's beautiful... it's..."

Transfixed, they could not avert their eyes.

Then they started growling, and growing...