Chapter Twenty-six - Raid

It was near impossible to tell how long they'd been there. All of the clocks on both ships and on all of their scouters read different times. Some said they'd been on this unusual world for six days, others said they had been here only six hours, some said six weeks, a few six months, at least two of them read six years, and three or four of them were going backwards. The only thing any of them had in common was six so Cold was quite certain that however long they had been here there was a six involved.

The clocks being off wouldn't have been a problem if there had been night on the planet but that was an impossibility, there were far too many stars encircling their massive world. Cold had had his ship go into orbit and run a full scan on their location. There were exactly four hundred and sixteen stars orbiting the world they were on spaced out in such a way that, no matter where you were on the planet, there would be up to twenty of them in the sky, and never any less than three. What's more, they didn't exactly orbit at a steady speed.

Just a few hours ago, as far as he was able to discern, they had all gathered outside and watched as the suns sped through sky so fast they'd seemed blurs. It hadn't lasted long but it had been a spectacular sight, if a bit disorienting. It had also raised concerns about instability in where ever they were but Inferna's techs said that all of their readings were fine. There wasn't even a pocket of space out there weak enough to try and make another Worm Hole to escape through. They, and his own techs, also said that this world was the only thing worth exploring.

The most distant of the suns was about twelve light years away and beyond that was something Inferna's people called a 'Hyper Particle Field'. Apparently the same thing that comprised the walls of a Worm Hole. Contact with such a field would atomize pretty much everything. So this place was just this. This world and its four hundred and sixteen suns. Not that there wasn't plenty to explore on just this world. The palace they'd emerged near alone would take decades to fully explore, at the least, and scans indicated hundreds of other structures, though none nearly as massive, spread out over the five million or so miles that the ships could scan of the world.

Five million square miles made up very very little of this world, a world nearly four light years in diameter. Exploring all of it would certainly take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. Time Cold was more than willing to devote as the world had quickly captivated him. Its nature, its origins, the purpose of the buildings, and their creators. In large part this was due to the writing that filled the walls of the first chamber, the room they'd first entered. The people they had studying the walls were still going over them carefully, comparing notes and ideas with each other, trying to properly translate everything there.

Meanwhile he and Inferna, with Cold's three man elite team as escorts and guards, had taken to exploring what they could of the rest of the place. Directly behind the massive statue of Souzousha they had found a door that lead into a circular hall. The curvature of the hall was so small that it was only discernable if you looked a few hundred feet ahead of where you stood. The pair had decided to turn right and start in that direction figuring, eventually, it would lead back anyway since it was circular.

They'd had to walk nearly five hundred feet before they'd reached another doorway. It had been on the right, what Cold considered the outside wall, and had lead to a huge spiral staircase made of gold that rose up and descended down. They elected to pass it up for now, if they turned at every stairwell they might never find another room, or their way back. Pressing on another hundred feet through the cold marble hall they found another door, this one on the left, or inside, wall and leading into another room.

The sight had brought both Cold and Inferna up short as they looked in the doorway. The room was about eight hundred feet by eight hundred feet by three hundred feet high and right in the center, slowly rotating, were the four galaxies, each one at least a hundred feet across. The two had made their way carefully inside the room to examine these representations of the galaxies and to try and determine what was creating them. But no matter where they walked or floated the spinning galaxies remained unbroken.

Most interesting of all about this room had not been the galaxies themselves, though they had been impressive and, far as Cold could tell, represented in scale. What had been most interesting had been what floated in the exact center where the Eye of the Universe was. A single, solitary, planet, around which orbited four hundred and sixteen stars. Unmistakably the world on which they currently found themselves. And it looked to the two of them as though the four galaxies were slowly orbiting around this central world. Inferna had also pointed out that one star lined up perfectly with the center of each galaxy, even as they orbited around the central planet.

The 'Galaxy Room' had taken up a lot of their time for a while, making several visits to it to examine the galaxies, the central world, and to try and determine if any other secrets resided there. At last deciding that nothing was hidden in the room waiting to be found, or if there were that they would not be finding it any time soon, the two had decided to press on and gone further down the hall leaving the Galaxy Room behind to be examined more closely by their scientists after the translation of the writing in the Grand Hall was further along.

The next door was over a thousand feet from the last and it, too, was on the inside wall. This room was not nearly as massive as the Grand Hall or Galaxy Room, only about two hundred and fifty feet long, a hundred feet wide, and at least four hundred feet tall. But it held its own wonders that had made Cold pull some of his men off the writing to investigate. The room had appeared empty at first glance, though with moving ladders along all four wall. Further examination, however, had revealed objects resting in small nooks set into the walls. Small red stones about the size of a golf ball, evenly spaced six inches apart from each other, stretched from floor to ceiling and corner to corner, with only a few empty nooks here and there.

It was this room that they were currently exploring, ten of Cold's men spread about with various devices scanning the objects and making sure not to touch any of the red spheres. Upon having first found the room Inferna had attempted to pick up one of the orbs but there had been a sudden burst of energy that had flung her back and up into the air. She had slammed into the opposite wall, hitting several more of the things, and subsequently been flung forward and up higher, smashing her head against the ceiling. The blow had knocked her out and Cold had only just caught her before she hit the ground.

"A power source, perhaps?" she had suggested, after coming too. "Maybe even what is currently powering the building."

"Possible." Cold said. "That could explain the charge that hit you. Though I'm not convinced of that. I considered it but the number of these spheres... I would expect the palace's power source to be a more singular item."

"Hmmm, I can see your point." conceded Inferna. "However, as we don't know how these things are made we can't say for certain that they can be made bigger."

"True. There's always that possibility. And thus needing to link up a few thousand in order to run the entire building. This is still assuming they are a power source, though. They could be any number of things. Perhaps some form of weapon, the discharge that hit you was quite powerful. It is possible that they've merely become faulty and unstable after all these years. Or perhaps they're something we could never begin to guess." Which was why the scientists were there, studying them and analyzing them and pouring over them with all of their beeping, flashing, and whirring gadgets.

"Anyway, there's no telling how long this may take." said cold. "Perhaps we should move on. Three rooms explored and three interesting discoveries made, I'm anxious to see what lay in the next room."

Inferna nodded and started walking over to him but stopped after only a few steps. One of the scientists had let out a startled gasp and jumped backward. The orb he'd been examining had popped out of the wall and was now floating in the air, moving slowly foward and up. The tech who had jumped back quickly scurried away from the floating orb and all attention was turned toward it as it began to glow. There was a crackling noise a moment later, like the static of a speaker, and then the sphere pulsed red brightly.

When the glare died those in the room found themselves looking at a figure made of red light. It looked like a man, about seven foot tall and had a tail almost as long as he was tall that started off thick at the base, almost two feet across, and tapered off slowly. His feet were large and bird like, his legs twice the length of normal resulting in a much shorter torso, and yet his arms still barely reached to his waist. His head was long, the face completely flat with flat round eyes, a flat nose that was more just slits in his head than a nose, and a mouth that was barely discernable as he appeared to have no lips. He also had four horns, two small ones on his forehead, not more than three inches long, and two more from the sides of his head that hooked up about a foot.

"How long have we been here?" an old and weary sounding voice asked. "I often find myself pondering this, late in the day as our work winds down. I say late in the day because it is convenient and because old habits die hard. There are no days here, no years, no minutes. How could there be in a place where there is no time? However long we have been here we have learned to work some of the instruments here, some of the facilities, but not all. And many are still dangerous to go near. Just this morning five of our men vanished when a strange red light swept over the room we had entered to explore.

"Some of us think they may still be alive out there but none of us are willing to go looking. This place and its wonders have taught us that not all is as it seems, even in the most obvious of moments. I believe, in time, our lost brothers will find us again, should they still be alive. And should they come back I shall have to ask them how long they were gone. Of course, they will not truly know, but it will be interesting to compare our estimates. Already we have begun to notice large discrepancies between time passage among the furthest parts of our camp."

The old voice sighed and the figure of light moved its short arms from behind its back and raised them to massage its temples with its three over long and thin fingers. "When we stumbled on this world, however long ago that was, we had no idea what we were in for. The bizarre workings of time here have been but our smallest problem. When we first arrived we thought the world empty and all its peoples gone. But sometime afterward we tripped some... mechanism, alerting those who live here of our presence. Our numbers dropped from five thousand to only two thousand in the ensuing onslaught. No one among us could harm these things, they were far more powerful than anything we had ever before seen.

"Those of us who survived only managed so because we escaped from the palace. Whatever the creatures were it seems they can not go beyond its walls as they chased us no further. And once those inside were all dead they retreated again. Someone else alerted them to us more recently and our numbers reduced further, now there are but three hundred of us left. And that is why I have decided to use the recording device we found to make one of these Record Orbs, as my men have called them, to preserve all that we found and learned for anyone else who comes after us, so that our time here, our efforts, our lives and those of our fallen friends, will not have been a waste.

"This orb holds all of the data we have gathered. Perhaps you, who ever you are to have found it, will be able to make use of it. The other orbs in this room I do not know, they were here when we arrived and we have not yet been able to get near them. I am sure there is a treasure trove of data stored in this room, a wealth of knowledge beyond mortal comprehension. I hope you will pick up where we left off and continue to unravel the mysteries of this world. If so, I wish you luck in your work, and shall pray for your safety for this is a most dangerous place." And with that the light figure vanished, the glow of the orb faded, and then it fell to the floor with a soft tink.

There was silence for several moments as both cold and Inferna stared at the orb. At last Cold spoke again. "Fyuu, pull half of my men off the walls in the Grand Hall." he ordered as he picked up the fallen orb. "Bring them in here and have them go over every inch of this room, and find out how to extract the information from this. I want all of the data on this thing copied into our computers as soon as possible."

"At once, sir."

ZZZ

It had been a week, now, since Eve had found Bardock's scouter recording from Tinto in Cooler's network. Each of them had spent the intervening time differently. Xeno had gone over his own intended report to Master Vegeta multiple times, adjusting bits here and there as he went. He had found it... difficult to find feasible explanations for how he had determined the pod to be Bardock's and how he had determined the occupant to be Brolly. The files and resource he'd used had all been sealed, restricted, and he had no desire to tell the Empire that he'd had someone hack into them. Not just to protect his own skin but Eve's as well.

Currently, his plan was to say that one of his team had merely recognized Brolly, despite the age difference, from history books while the pod identification had been done via an old computer database they had lying around, used since the pod had been old itself. So long as no one looked too deeply into the latter point it would be fine. Old databases like that did still exist out there off the network with old information still on them. And Brolly was recognized by appearance, they'd just happened to have an image of his six year old self on hand.

Eve had spent the week digging through more secured computers, hacking into more restricted areas, and attempting to dig up more information. She wasn't having much luck, however. She'd found a handful of classified files that had interested her and the others, most of them pertaining old projects of Dr. Gero's, but had not found any further data on Tinto. At least, nothing as big as before. She had found confirmation that Master Vegeta had been on Tinto, despite historical records saying otherwise, but they all had surmised as much from the scouter recording.

Everfrost had spent most of the time simply lounging around and watching TV with Rain. Neither of them had any real work to do on the ship and Eve had gotten tired of them looking over her shoulder and suggesting files and folders to check. Rain's sister, however, had spent a good part of the past week out of the cargo hold they were staying in. After Storm's fourth departure in two days the others had gotten curious as to what was up and it was Rain who had explained. When Storm had gone hunting for a Sai-jin for information she had found one that had, for lack of a better term, caught her interest. Thus Storm had been spending as much time as possible away from the cargo hold and with said Sai-jin.

However all of them, even Rain, had been caught off guard when, on the third day, after her second trip out of the hold that day, Storm had come back accompanied by the Sai-jin in question. Rain groaned and rolled her eyes as Storm had introduced them all to her. There had been some confusion on the parts of Xeno and Everfrost when Storm had referred to the Sai-jin, Zukina, as her mate, largely due to the near constant scowling and glaring the Sai-jin had been giving the Wathor the entire time. It had been Eve who had spotted their looks of confusion and explained, having dealt with Wathor's and their customs before.

Wathor mating customs were not like those of most other races. Wathor culture was quite similar to Sai-jin culture in a lot of respects, including their love of power, fighting, and control. However, unlike with Sai-jins, this love of power, fighting, and control stretched into mating as well. When a Wathor found someone they wanted to take as a mate they simply did so, assuming they were strong enough to force the other individual to cooperate at least. Effectively speaking, Wathor mates were more like slaves. Which was why Zukina had been scowling then, and had spent the next four days doing so almost constantly.

Xeno hadn't been overly thrilled after being filled in. More for the fact he was worried it would strain relations with the ship's captain and cause them problems than anything else. Storm had explained that it wouldn't, and if it did then the captain would have more trouble than them anyway. Wathor mating customs had been dealt with nearly twelve years ago by the Empire when they had passed a law allowing Wathor's to take mates from other races, including Sai-jins, and even from among Imperial soldiers, so long as they filled out all the required forms, which she had done. So the captain could complain all he wanted, the Masters didn't care, and if he caused problems he'd be violating Imperial law.

It hadn't really cheered Xeno up much (or Zukina, for that matter) but it made the subject a moot point. And he figured that was why Storm had waited until the paper work had cleared before informing them of what she'd done. It was over and done with now, too late to stop it. So Xeno, Eve, and Everfrost had tried to integrate the Sai-jin into their group, staring by filling her in on why they were there in the first place, as well as why they'd needed the translation that had landed her in her current situation, though that had waited until just yesterday, when her scowling stopped looking quite as murderous as it had been upon first arriving in the hold.

Zukina had been shocked, more than any of them, to learn that Brolly was still alive. Hearing the scouter recording had actually cleared the scowl off her face completely. She still glared at Storm, and even Rain on occasion since the two were identical save for their eye colors, but managed to get along amicably well with the other three after that, and joined in on their various debates about what they'd learned while adding in her own Sai-jin perspective. It was one of those debates they were currently in the middle of.

"I just can't see a Sai-jin turning their back on their race in favor of a Changeling." Zukina said. "Working along side a Namek is one thing, but working for a Changeling? It would never happen."

"So how do you explain the scouter recording?" asked Everfrost. "We heard Turles tell Bardock he'd done just that."

"Maybe. But maybe that was for Master Cooler's benefit." replied the Sai-jin.

"What, you think Turles was playing Master Cooler?" asked Eve from within her tub of ice water.

"Exactly. Using him for his own purposes and playing along as having joined him in... whatever was going on."

"It's possible." conceded Xeno. "And possible he's still doing so with Slug. We can't be certain that Turles isn't working for the Masters, or at least someone in the Masters, and just spying on Slug. We really don't have enough information."

"Yeah, but getting into stuff like that really complicates things." said Eve. "I mean, you could what if all kinds of things. Like, what if Master Cooler thinks Turles is spying on Slug for him but is actually spying on both of them for Master Vegeta? Or what if Turles is pretending to spy on Master Cooler and Slug for Master Vegeta, and pretending to spy on Slug for Master Cooler, but actually working with the Namek? Or maybe he's not working with or for any of them and working entirely on his own, pretending to spy on everyone, for his own ends?"

"That sounds more Sai-jin, at least." said Zukina. She reached up and rubbed her temples. "I still can't believe this, though. A conspiracy like this in the Masters? I just find it hard to swallow that it's been over looked by all of them. Or that Master Vegeta would have any need to work with Cooler for anyth...." Zukina's sentence was cut off suddenly by a thundering bang and the violent shaking of the ship. "What the hell was that?" she cried, picking herself up off the floor.

"A power level just flared up above us." said Rain, looking up at the ceiling and frowning. "32,000 and it wasn't there until a quarter of a second ago."

"And there's a second one, 35,000." added Storm. "Almost the same level as the Captain."

Rain nodded. "And clearly not their maximums." she said. "I could accept one power being evenly rounded without it being a suppressed level, but two?"

"Agreed." said Storm. "What do you think, should we check it out? Even if those are their maximums the two of them will tear right through the crew."

Rain sighed. "I suppose we should." she said. "I'd rather not let them rampage around and damage the engines, I don't want be stuck out here waiting for some damned rescue ship for the next three months."

ZZZ

Nail came to a stop at the bottom hatch and waited, eyes on the air lock lights. The red light was currently on and he knew once the docking bridge had been secured in place and filled with the proper amounts of air that it would switch green and the hatch would open. That would be his cue to make his way into the bridge and blast open the hatch of the other ship. It was only a few minutes wait before he felt the minor shudder of the docking clamps locking onto the larger ship's hall, then the red light blinked out and the green came on. With a hiss the hatch swung up revealing the thirty foot long tube leading down to the other ship.

As soon as he dropped through the hatch the Namek felt the sudden and rather odd sensation of true weightlessness. Even during flight on a planet you always had the pull of gravity holding you down. But he was now outside of either ship, the artificial gravity field of a ship always cut off right at the outer edge to conserve power which left the docking bridge weightless. Pushing aside the odd sensation he flew, more than floated, down to the hatch of the cargo ship. Placing his hands against the hatch he fired off four strong blasts of energy, the first one barely denting the door, the second and third causing it to begin to cave, and then the fourth blasting it from its hinges.

As the hatch tore free the motor system for the door shorted and exploded along the right hand side, the explosion blasting out of the hull of the ship. Cursing under his breath Nail exhaled quickly and then launched into the cargo ship even as he felt the air being sucked out. Moving quickly he aimed an arm at the hole in the hull and began firing a steady, low power, stream of energy along its edges. It took a moment and then the wall began to glow bright red. With the metal now almost molten the Namek lowered his arm, moved over to one of the interior walls, ripped off a panel from it, and then slammed it over the hole where it was instantly fused against the near molten metal.

"Impressive patchwork." Tao said as he floated into the ship beside Nail. "Though I doubt it will hold for too long, a single panel like that is not designed to deal with the pressure or temperature differences between the inside and outside of a ship."

"It'll hold long enough for us to get out." said Nail. "With the hatch blown they'll have to seal this area when we leave anyway, to prevent all the air from being sucked out."

"True. Well, let's get started with our search. The rations should be stored in one of the holds." Nail nodded and the two looked around them. The crates in the hold they were currently in had barely moved during the depressurization of the room. One or two had toppled off of tall stacks and broken open spilling machine parts but the majority were still neatly stacked. Considering that all of the boxes here looked the same they both found it unlikely any of them held the rations they were after so they turned toward the nearest door, a large hangar style door, and started for it.

They were still about fifty feet away when they whined and then began to slide open. In seconds a flood of armored soldiers, all of them with spiky black hair, began to spill into the room. The two of them came to a stop as they watched the Sai-jins surround them, a good forty or fifty of them in all. Tao figured a ship this size would have a total guard size of about seventy. "The rest are probably securing the bridge and any Class A cargo." Tao thought, eyeing up the soldiers. On a ship with captain with a power of around 35,000 he didn't much expect any of the soldiers in the room to be over the 30,000 mark. 28,000 at most, probably, and that's about what the strongest of them felt like.

Their numbers were such that they could have been a problem for Nail on his own, even at full power. But at his own full power forty or fifty people in the 28,000 area weren't a real threat. And then two more people floated into the room, clearly not Sai-jin with their orange skin and white hair. They were also the two powers Nail had noted earlier, the ones stronger than the ship's captain. The two of them hung back by the doors, however, and merely watched him and Nail. It was one of the surrounding Sai-jins, the strongest of them and likely the head of Ship Security, who spoke.

"This is an Imperial ship," he began. He and his men all had their arms up, pointed at Nail and Tao, and energy blasts at the ready. "You are in violation of Imperial law and are here-by ordered to surrender and identify yourselves immediately."

"I would recommend lowering your arms and letting us pass." Tao said, placing his arms behind his back. "We don't want trouble. Just let us go about our business and we'll be on our way in no time, and you'll live longer. I'll give you to the count of three. One."

The Sai-jin who had spoken snorted. "You're out numbered." he said. "The two of you may be stronger than us but with this many of us you don't stand a chance."

"Two." Tao said, as though the Sai-jin had not spoken. The Sai-jins around him and Nail fidgeted a bit, including the head of security, but none of them lowered their arms or let their charged ki blasts fade. "Three." Suddenly the two of them vanished and there was a loud crack as they appeared again. Tao had his knee buried into the stomach of the head of security whose eyes bulged for a moment before closing as he passed out. Meanwhile Nail had appeared behind two others and slammed his elbows back into their heads causing them to fall to the floor unconscious. The remaining soldiers hesitated for only a fraction of a second and then turned on the one nearest them and launched their attacks. The Human and the Namek both vanished at the same time, the ki blasts speeding off to slam into the walls and the crates.

"Holy shit." Rain whispered as her scouter flared and beeped, the sisters had chosen to remain behind and observe things when they'd arrived at the cargo hold, wanting to get a better idea of how strong and how skilled their intruders were. The two powers had spiked up to fifty thousand on their initial assault and now had spiked again to near seventy thousand. "Who... do you think they are?" she asked, glancing over to her sister for a second before turning her eyes forward again, not wanting to keep them off two opponents of such power for long.

"I... only know of two Nameks who aren't on their world." Storm said slowly. "Slug and Master Piccolo. I doubt this one is Master Piccolo, why would he attack an Imperial ship? But he doesn't look like Slug, either...."

"Should we... try and help out?" asked Rain. In the ten seconds since her scouter flared the two before them had wiped out nearly two thirds of the guards surrounding them.

"I don't think we'd be much help." Storm muttered. She'd been hoping for a good fight but seeing these two tearing through the guards without even being hit had put a strong damper on that, especially since her scouter was still reading round numbers for both fighters. Neither was yet at full power but still were strong enough to take her out without issue. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Oh shi...."

The rest of her sentence was drowned out by an ear splitting explosion so violent she felt her bones shaking. One of the boxes of Xerudia that she and the others had loaded onto the ship, along with Brolly, had been hit by a stray ki blast, the mineral inside exploding savagely. The first explosion was accompanied by two more a second later as both the box above and below it exploded. "Chain reaction!" Rain cried, flying backward away from the hold as five more boxes erupted. Three of the Sai-jin guards near the boxes were engulfed and incinerated in the continuing and growing series of explosions as, one by one, all fifty-seven boxes detonated.

Storm lowered her arms from in front of her face as the last bone jarring explosion died, though she was sure she could still feel her teeth vibrating in her jaws. Six more of the Sai-jin guards had vanished in the force of the explosion, who knew how many now lay scattered about on the hold floor in dozens of pieces, and a few were laying on the floor screaming, their flesh seared off where exposed to the heat of the blasts. The Namek had been the closer of the two intruders to the explosions and the only one to suffer damage having lost an arm and a leg on the left side of his body, and having the flesh burnt off on that side as well. But as the Wathor watched him grimace in pain new limbs sprouted and skin grew over the burns.

The hold wasn't in any better condition than the people. The floor and wall in that area had been completely blasted apart. Through the new gaping hole, at least a hundred and fifty feet wide, the ship's engines were clearly visible, and clearly damaged. Smoking and sparking, with energy surging along their length. And then the sirens started up followed by the whine of the emergency blast doors closing. The Captain was sealing off the entire rear quarter of the ship and Storm could see why. The exterior wall that was the hold's ceiling was slowly warping up, out of the ship. The heat of the explosions had weakened the hull too much, the pressure difference would tear open a sizable hole within a few minutes. And with the massive hole blasted through into the engine room and the lower hold, the one where Brolly was stored and their companions resided, there was no way to seal off just this hold.

"The bastard's not even waiting for us to evacuate!" Rain growled.

"We'll see about that." Storm said, thumbing her scouter but still watching the two intruders as they floated near the middle of the hold, talking. A second later she'd patched through to the bridge. "What do you think you're doing, sealing off the holds before we're out?" she demanded immediately.

"Who gives a damn about you?" the Captain demanded. "I didn't ask for you to be here."

"No, we're here on orders from Master Gero and Master Vegeta. Re-open the blast doors so...."

"In case you've forgotten I'm the captain of this ship, I'll do whatever the hell I want." the Captain growled. "I don't know when the hull will rupture, but when it does it'll suck out all the air in this ship in about forty seconds. The doors take sixty to close. I'm not opening them again."

"And what the fuck are we supposed to do!?" Rain demanded.

"Hold your breath till we get to Saiya." he said with a laugh as he cut the line.

"BASTARD!" Rain cried, pulling off her scouter and pitching it at the wall where it hit and shattered.

Her cry got the attention of Tao and Nail, who'd both temporarily forgotten them. Turning their way they floated over, the sisters going on their guard as they neared. "We have no interest in fighting you if we don't have to." said Nail as he saw them stiffen. "We are only here for supplies, food rations."

"Who are you?" asked Rain.

"No one important." Tao replied. "Once we have our supplies we'll be on our way."

"Yeah, and what about us?" asked Storm with a nod toward the still warping hull and massive hole in the walls and floor.

Tao shrugged. "You should still have time to get to a safe part of the ship if you go now."

"The blast doors are already closed." Rain nearly growled, scowling at the remains of her scouter and wishing it was the remains of the ship's Captain.

"Take us with you." said Storm. "On your ship."

Nail and Tao glanced at each other for a moment before Tao spoke again. "Just the two of you?"

"No, there's four others. In the hold down below." Storm replied, giving a nod toward the hole in the floor for emphasis.

"My ship isn't large enough for eight people." Tao said. "And the food requirements would be far greater to feed seven than to feed one."

Though Storm scowled at the response it was Rain the spoke. "I don't think you've got the time to find any food without help." she said. "We've already got plenty of food with us for feeding ourselves and know where there are rations in quick access."

Tao sighed. His ship really wasn't large enough for this many people, there was only the one bedroom, the training room, the command room, the small storage room, and his meditation room, and he wasn't keen on the idea of Imperial soldiers traveling with him. Still, he knew the woman had a point. The hull was already starting to groan under the strain as it bent further and further out of the ship. "Very well, in exchange for your help securing our supplies we'll take the six of you out of here with us."

Storm nodded. "This way, it'll be faster." she said, flying off toward the hole and down into the lower hold.

"Storm!" Xeno cried as she and her sister came down. "What's going... who are they?" he asked as Tao and Nail came down.

"Our ticket to not being sucked into space." Storm replied. "Capsulize everything, now. We're leaving. Rain, go over to the next hold with these two and grab whatever rations they need." Rain nodded in reply and lead Tao and Nail to the next hold but Xeno and the others just stared at Storm.

"What do you mean, sucked into space? And what's this about leaving?" Zukina demanded.

"I mean the Xerudia just went off, the hull is about to snap, the Captain's closed the blast doors and is refusing to re-open them, and those two are going to let us leave with them in exchange for helping them get the food they need." Storm said. "Now let's move, start packing."

They didn't need to be told again and quickly set about capsulizing everything they had out. It only took them a moment to get everything put away again and packed back into cases and pockets. Meanwhile Rain, Tao, and Nail returned from the other hold with the boxes of rations they'd gone for. "We've got it, let's go." said Rain, following the other two out and up to the hole.

"Alright. Eve, Xeno, hold on to me. Zukina, carry Everfrost. Going up through the hole is fastest." The Sai-jin scowled at Storm on principle but did as told while the Wathor took a firm hold of Xeno and Eve's hands. They were just floating into the air when there was sudden loud whine followed by a snap, and then the lights went out and the artificial gravity died.

"Power failure!" Zukina called. "The engines must have just died."

"I can't see shit." Storm muttered, trying to spot the hole in the ceiling in the darkness. However, while she could no longer see with the lights out, now that the droning hum of the engines was gone she could hear the groaning and straining of the hull as it tore and knew they didn't have much time left before it ripped open. She felt one of the two people hanging on to her fidget a bit, letting go to hold on with one hand, and then there was a flare of white light. Glancing down she saw Xeno holding up a flash light. Looking back up she saw Zukina pass through the hole in the ceiling and followed after her.

Up in the next hold she spotted the blasted hatch door that the Sai-jin was heading for and followed after once more. She reached the hatch a second after the Sai-jin and trailed her up through into the other ship feeling the comfortable return of gravity as she passed through the door into the ship. "Everyone's in!" Nail called up from where he stood near the sloping walls. As Storm set Eve and Xeno down onto their feet the hatch door hissed and then closed and locked. The ship shook as the docking clamps disengaged and then shuddered as the engines kicked in.

Everyone quickly followed the Namek up the ladder three floors to the command deck of the small ship and watched the monitor as the cargo ship began to shrink, the bulging of the hull clearly visible. It was almost a minute later they saw the hull suddenly tear open and then a great section of it ripped off and flew out into space followed by most of the boxes that were in the hold and, though they couldn't be seen at this distance, the bodies of the Sai-jin guards. All six of those from the ship shuddered at the thought of how close they came to being sucked out with them.

"So, um, where are we going?" asked Everfrost.

"More importantly." interrupted Eve, before either of their rescuers could reply. "Where can we stay, it's too damn hot in here." She had already pulled out the capsule containing her tub and was rolling it between her index finger and thumb.

Tao nodded. "You'll have to all stay in the old training room." he said. "It's the only place where there's space. It's one floor down. Nail can take you and get you settled in."

"Thanks for the rescue." said Xeno, eyes still watching the monitor.

"And that, folks, is why I hate space travel." said Storm, turning away from the monitor to follow after Nail.

ZZZ

Aboard the Talon the Captain smiled as he watched the hull rip open on his own monitor. He'd not liked their 'hitch hikers' since he received the orders to divert and pick them up. The time it took to go out to Geozan 7 and get them would cost him several thousand credits in late fees when he delivered his cargo. It wasn't like he could say no to a direct order from a Master, though, so he'd had no choice. And then the two guards had been stronger than him, too strong to over power, which meant no compensation for his monetary losses, and then the one went and took his head of maintenance, and again there was nothing he could do or say about it.

He had to admit, it had given him a degree of satisfaction to close the blast doors and even more satisfaction to refuse to re-open them when the bitch had called. The smile had come of its own will as he'd watched the hull rip open. Sure, he was out even more money now, all of the cargo formerly in the holds was adrift in space, his communications were spotty, and it'd cost him at least a year's profits to make repairs. But all of that damage, all of that money, the loss of the guards who'd gone down to fend off the intruders, and even the loss of the maintenance head, was all worth it to watch those asses get sucked into space.

He flicked off the screen a moment later and turned to the others on the deck with him. "Alright, time to start making what repairs we can." he said. "I want all maintenance stuff suited up and out there in twenty minutes. We need to repair the hull well enough to restore atmosphere in the holds and engine room, then we can fix the engines and get gravity back. Meanwhile, comms, you keep trying to get through to someone to come and pick us up. It'll probably be a couple of months or so before they can get here, but chances are it'll take us that long to make all the repairs anyway. Alright folks, lets get to work."

Meanwhile, the cargo hold that had, until moments ago, been used as quarters by Xeno and the others now stood almost completely empty. All of the boxes had been sucked out of the room now and all that remained was the pod, firmly anchored to the floor, and the cryostasis chamber that held Brolly, firmly secured to the floor and wall. The only light in the room came from a small green light near the chamber's control panel. But a moment later it went out and a blinking red light came on. The control panel lit up a second later as a notice appeared on its screen.

*ATTENTION*

*PRIMARY POWER SOURCE LOST - BACKUP SYSTEMS ENGAGED*

*BACKUP POWER REAMING - 750 HOURS*

*IF PRIMARY POWER IS NOT RESTORED IN 740 HOURS AUTO THAW SYSTEMS WILL ENGAGE*

ZZZ

North Kai took another long sip of his cherry milkshake as he reclined back on his chair and watched Mitsuki take another hard swing at the speeding Gregory. Enzeru had already hit the little bug a few days ago and Mitsuki, he could see, was getting quite close to doing so as well, and Tien was currently resting from his last attempt at hitting Gregory. Occasionally he would glimpse a blur of brown showing that either Krillin or Yamcha were chasing Bubbles again. The two of them were getting closer and closer to catching him every day, North Kai figured Krillin would have him by tomorrow at the latest, and Yamcha would have him within two weeks. They were all proceeding through the pre-training much faster than he'd expected.

Enzeru, he could sense, was sitting inside his small house meditating at the moment. Until Mitsuki hit Gregory there wasn't much the woman could do. There was too much activity going on right now, with all the chasing and mallet swinging, for her to really do any training. Once Krillin and Yamcha had caught Bubbles it would be far easier to train. They wouldn't have to worry about getting in anyone's way then. And even before that the Kai figured the two women would do some light sparring while they waited.

"North Kai?"

The short Kai jumped and nearly choked on his milkshake at the sudden and unexpected voice in his head, however it went unnoticed by his students. "Geez, give an old man some warning, would you?" he telepathically responded.

"Sorry North Kai. I... I wanted to know... is it true?"

"You've finally heard, then? Yes, it's true. The Earth is gone. They're here now and making excellent progress in the pre-training."

"But they are... still alive, right?"

"They are." North Kai reassured him. "So, I take it you're finally back from your mission. How did it go?"

"As well as can be expected, I suppose." the voice replied. "They held me up and made me wait for months before finally telling me he had no time to see me and that I could give them the Supreme Kai's message and they would pass it along 'as soon as the chance to do so occurs' which, of course, means...."

"Whenever they damn well feel like it. Ingrates." North Kai snorted. "It could be months yet before he even gets the message. Well, at least we know he'll get it. They wont pretend to forget to give it to him, they'll be too scared of what would happen to them if he found out."

"Yeah. I'm just glad to be out of there at last, I just wish I'd been back sooner so I could have seen him before he left." There was a moment of silence as he considered something. "North Kai, do you think, maybe, I could help with their training?"

"Hmmm. I don't see why not." replied the Kai. "In fact, I think that might make things even easier. You have mastered the move where I have not, and better than anyone else has. I think, once we get to that stage of their training, your knowledge would be quite valuable. You should be able to teach it better than I. However, I think waiting until then would be best. I don't want to distract them any more than is necessary right now."

"Ok. Let me know when it's time."

"Sure. " North Kai said as he felt the telepathic link break with his former student. The mental conversation now over he turned his focus back to the training before him and his eyes widened slowly behind his glasses as a brown and orange blur zipped passed him once, twice, three times, and then stopped dead not more than ten feet away. Krillin had just caught Bubbles.