Chapter Forty-two - Convergence

"This is the Imperial cruiser Delta Seven calling the transport Talon, do you read?" the CommsOfficer said into his microphone for the tenth time since the Delta Seven got within sight of the Talon. As before, there was no response from the other ship.

"Give it a rest, they must have lost ComNet ability." the Captain said to the man before turning to another station. "Destiny, are we picking up any power level readings on the ship?" he asked.

"Just two." came the woman's reply. "One of 200 and another of 3,118. The lower reading is on the bridge, the higher one somewhere near the center of the ship."

"200?" the Captain asked, raising an eyebrow. The Talon was a Sai-jin owned and crewed ship. There wasn't a single living Sai-jin in the entire universe with a power that low. There hadn't even been one born with a power that low for decades. "Is the level stable?" he asked.

"Aye, sir." she replied, checking her screen. "Both levels are stable."

The Captain pursed his lips in thought. It was still possible the lower level was an injured person, just one that wasn't in any danger of death. Ki suppression wasn't exactly a common ability among the Sai-jins, they tended to prefer to remain at full strength at all times. Of course, it could be the attacker, or one of them, and if it was then they were most definitely suppressed. "Bring us up along side the Talon, engage the docking clamps, and extend the docking bridge. Have medical standing by just in case. We don't know if one or both of these levels is a threat so send in Strike Team 5 first to secure the ship. We'll make our entry at the bridge air lock."

"Aye, sir." Destiny said, before sending out the orders. Fifteen minutes later the Delta Seven was 'parked' alongside the Talon, secured in place, and had its docking bridge linking the two ships. Strike Team 5 was already half way across the thirty foot expanse of the bridge. Seven men ranging in power from 70,123 to 72,886.

"Strike Team 5 reports that they've just opened the hatch onto the Talon and are now boarding." the CommsOfficer reported.

The Captain nodded and leaned back into his chair. When they'd first gotten their dispatch orders, directly from Dr. Gero himself, to come out and tow the Talon back to Saiya, it had seemed like a fairly easy job. The Talon's constant progress reports on their repairs had made it seem even easier. But then that odd transmission had come two weeks ago. Since then there had been no contact with the ship at all and the easy mission had become a confusing, and possibly dangerous, mess. The Talon hadn't been able to identify her original attackers but the Captain was willing to bet the second attack had been the same people.

'The man from the' was likely 'the man from the last attack', or something to a similar effect. Apparently not satisfied with the Talon's survival they'd returned to finish the ship off. Not unheard of, especially out in the fringes of the galaxy. He didn't like it, though. It put him and his crew in danger. Granted, he was fairly confident they could handle a group of pirates if it came down to it, but he wasn't convinced they could do it without anyone being killed. Hence why he was being so cautious, especially since he found the two remaining power readings to be suspicious.

"Sir!" the CommsOfficer cried, turning to look back. "Strike Team 5 has just made contact with the individual on the bridge and are in the process of retreating, two of the team are dead from a single energy blast."

"Power reading!" the Captain ordered.

"Checking." the woman at the scanner console said. "No reading!" she called in shock. "I'm getting an error message!"

"What? But the Delta Seven's scanners are good up to ten million!" the Captain thought in shock.

"Intruder on the docking bridge!" someone yelled over the ship's ComSystem. "Nothing seems to faze him!"

"Blow the bridge!" the Captain ordered. "Disconnect the docking cla..." the rest of his order was drowned out by a sudden explosion, one far too loud to have been the bridge being blown.

"Intruder on the ship!" came a new cry through the ComSystem.

The Captain slammed his hand down onto the controls on his arm rest. "This is the Captain, all hands abandon ship. I repeat, all hands, abandon ship!" Taking his hand off the controls he turned to another of the bridge crew. "Vyne, arm the self-destruct, set it for five minutes."

"Aye, Captain." the man said.

The Captain turned back to the CommsOfficer then. "Priority alert message, area broadcast, all channels, and direct link it to Saiya. Unknown attacker in the area, Talon lost, Delta Seven detonating. Then cut the area broadcast and feed the direct link in with my scouter's transmitter."

"Aye, Captain." he replied.

With that taken care of the Captain climbed to his feet and made for the exit off the bridge. "Once you've all finished, get to the escape pods and get out of here." he ordered. "I'll see what I can do to stall this guy." And with that he walked out the door and off the bridge. With the scouter direct linked to the priority transmission to Saiya anything he or the intruder said would be included. At the very least it might help stop another ship walking into another trap like this one. As he made his way through the halls toward the sounds of the screaming and explosions he heard the mechanical voice sound over the ComSystem announcing four minutes until self-destruct. He pulled to a stop ten seconds later as, rounding a corner, he saw the intruder making his way toward him. He was covered in blood, as was the hall.

"He's definitely not a pirate." the Captain thought. Pirates were after profit, there was no profit in massacring the entire ship. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Are you the Captain here?"

"I am."

"Take me to Saiya."

The Captain blinked. "He... wants to go to Saiya?" he thought. "Why does he..."

"Take me to Kakkarotto!" he demanded, scowling.

"Ka-Kakkarotto? You want... you want to speak to Master Kakkarotto?"

The man grinned. "No. I want to kill him! Take me!"

The Captain blinked in shock. "Kill him...? A Resistance fighter, maybe? And with a power over ten million he's definitely capable of killing an untransformed Kakkarotto... though Saiya will know he's coming now, assuming he doesn't stay on the ship long enough to be killed in the self-destruct."

"Take me!" he demanded.

"Sorry, I can't do that." the Captain said. The mechanical voice then announced three minutes until self-destruct.

The man looked up at the ceiling, where the voice had come from, and scowled. Suddenly he raised an arm and pointed it toward the Captain. "Then I find someone who will and I don't need you." he said. The last thing the Captain saw was a bright green light filling his vision. Brolly lowered his hand and continued on through the ship. He had to get to the bridge. If no one would take him to Saiya then he'd try and fly this thing himself. He reached the bridge thirty seconds later without encountering a single other person, but on the bridge he found four crewmen still at their posts and grinned.

"Take me to Saiya!" he demanded, drawing their attention to him. "Take me there or I kill you all!" The closest crewman, a man with yellow skin, blue eyes, and pink hair, climbed out of his chair and lunged at him but Brolly just side stepped and then jammed an elbow into his neck, snapping it. "Weaklings!" he growled, kicking the body off the bridge. One of those left got up and started to run but Brolly fired a blast of energy at him and incinerated him. "Now, we go or you die." he said, turning his gaze back to the two left.

The woman swallowed and turned to look at the other person on the bridge. "Vyne..." Destiny began. "Can you... shut off the... self-destruct?"

He nodded, brushed some of his long dark green hair out of his face, then bent over his console. A moment later the warning sirens ceased and the voice, in the midst of announcing one minute remaining until self-destruct, cut off. "Self-destruct off." Vyne said, voice shaking.

Destiny glanced back at their intruder and swallowed again. He didn't seem... entirely stable. But she liked her chances at living through this better doing what he said then not. "Ha-have a seat." she said.

"You taking me to Saiya?" he asked. When she nodded he grinned and then sat down in the command chair. "How long?" he asked.

"About... two and a half months." she replied as she set in a course for Saiya.

XXX

"Sirs, we have an incoming priority alert message." the CommsOfficer on the bridge announced, turning to look back at the three men in charge of the ship and crew.

"Let's hear it." 13 said.

The CommsOfficer nodded and patched the message in through the speakers. "Attention all Imperial ships in the area. This is the Delta Seven on mission to recover the Talon. We are under attack by an unknown assailant. The Delta Seven is considered lost, Captain Salvago has ordered the self-destruct activated. I repeat, this is the..."

"Cut it." ordered 13. The CommsOfficer complied as the Android turned his attention to one of the other ship crew. "We're sure our targets are still on the surface?" he asked.

"Mistress Videl is, at least." the man said.

13 nodded. "Our current mission comes first. Tag the location of the Talon for now. If no one else has dealt with it by the time we leave we'll investigate before returning to Saiya. What's our landing ETA?"

"Landing ETA is twenty-one minutes." someone announced.

15 grinned. "I can't wait." he said, pulling a flask out of his pocket and taking a few swallows. "This is going to be fun." The flask had been one of the things he'd picked up from his quarters on Saiya. Along with several bottles of whisky. 13 felt it had been a pointless thing to do. They had inorganic bodies now, fully mechanical. Alcohol wouldn't have any effect. Their internal systems would just break it all down and convert it into operational power. But 15 said he wouldn't have felt right going into battle without his whisky, and insisted that not only could he still taste it but he could also feel his buzz returning. 13 figured it was all just in his head.

One of the other items the purple Android had taken from his quarters were the sunglasses he now wore. Unlike the alcohol they would actually be useful because they weren't actually sunglasses. While their new bodies came with some nifty visual abilities, like zoom and light correction, the glasses had other abilities. Night vision, infra red, x-ray vision, among some other useful features. 15 said he'd feel as bad going into battle without them as without his whisky and, in this instance, 13 had to admit there was some value to them.

"Just stick to the plan." 13 said, turning his eyes back to the screen again.

XXX

Eve sighed and rubbed her eyes to try and clear them a little. She hadn't found anything more on the Talon in the last six days, nor had she found anything more on Slug, despite constant searches. The message left by Cyclone for Slug was still there. Unchanged and un-removed. So she doubted the Namek had yet received it. Right now, though, her focus was on the Talon again. The rescue ship should be reaching it soon and she was hoping to get more information about it from them.

Zukina had spent the entire night and early morning sitting on the bed behind her and staring at the screen, waiting for any kind of word on the friends she'd left behind on the ship. She was gone, now. Storm had come in and pulled her off to head into the city for a little shopping. Supplies that they and Ferri needed. The Wathor hadn't been her normal forceful self, however. She'd been gentle in getting Zukina to come along with her, so Eve suspected the real purpose was merely to distract the Sai-jin for a while.

She had her fingers crossed, for Zukina's sake, that the Sai-jin's friends were ok. She wasn't holding her breath, though. If that transmission she'd found a week before was any indication, then everyone on the Talon was probably dead. She also felt bad for whoever was going to recover the Talon. She and Zukina had gotten to talking that morning about how much power Brolly could have. He'd been at one and a half million when he was six, 53 years ago. Under normal circumstances, and for any other race in the universe, they'd expect him to still be at one and a half million.

The situation with Brolly was anything but normal, however. Neither she nor Zukina were sure if the Sai-jin's Constant Zenkai would have continued to function while he was in cryostasis or not. Even if it hadn't, for Brolly to have been at one and a half million by the age of six, from a starting level of just over 15,000... Zukina estimated a minimum level of 12,000,000 for Brolly's base by the time he arrived on Geozan 7. A level that had the Sai-jin's mind reeling. Not even Master Gohan had broken the 10,000,000 mark at base, yet. If the Constant Zenkai effect had persisted after he was frozen Zukina said that he could be as strong as 40,000,000.

Eve didn't want to consider that possibility, though. Brolly was also a Super Sai-jin. A base of 40,000,000 would put his Super Sai-jin power up to 2,000,000,000. She wasn't sure how much power Masters Gohan or Kakkarotto had, no one was really since no scanner or scouter could go that high. However, official records that Eve had managed to hack out of Gero's computers on Saiya over the last few days said that Super Sai-jin was fifty times stronger than the Sai-jin's normal state (which was how they'd come to their estimate of Brolly's potential maximum level as a Super Sai-jin), and they also stated that the second level doubled that and the third increased that by another fifty percent.

Word was that Master Kakkarotto had obtained another transformation recently and Gero's records confirmed it, though they made no notations about its power yield. Still, she and Zukina figured his maximum to be somewhere in the one and half to two billion range. If the two of them really were equal in power... Eve didn't want to consider what would happen if Brolly's mind truly had become unstable over the last 53 years and he beat Master Kakkarotto in a fight. That was, of course, assuming he was a threat at all. If he was still following Bardock's orders things wouldn't be as bad. Either way, though, no one on any ship the Empire could send out to recover the Talon would have a chance against him.

She was just about to push her chair back from her desk and computer and head upstairs for a quick bite to eat when the computer beeped at her and a notice flashed up on the screen. A priority alert message had just gone out, area broadcast, and it had triggered a detect with her search parameters. She quickly brought up the transmission and had the computer play it back for her. This was quite possibly what she'd been waiting for.

"Attention all Imperial ships in the area. This is the Delta Seven on mission to recover the Talon. We are under attack by an unknown assailant. The Talon is considered lost, Captain Salvago has ordered the self-destruct activated. I repeat, this is the Delta Seven on mission to recover the Talon. We are under attack by an unknown..."

Eve cut the message off there and dove back into the Imperial Network. In less than two minutes she was inside the Delta Seven's computers and digging through its files. A clock was ticking up in the top left corner of her screen, counting down how much time she had to get what she was after before the ship, and its computers, were blown to kingdom come by the self-destruct. There was still over a minute left when she found what she was after. The sensor logs. Quickly pulling them up she went for the last power readings scanned from the Talon.

"Two levels?" she wondered. The lower one had to have been Brolly because, a moment later, it spiked up out of detection range. She made a quick notation of the other level, 3,118, to show to Zukina later. If it was one of her friends she might recognize the reading. She was just about to log out of the Delta Seven's computers and do some more digging in the network when the clock in the top left corner stopped. A quick check showed that the self-destruct had been terminated. Activating the internal sensors on the bridge she ran a power scan and got back two levels, one of 1,844 and one of 776, as well as an error reading. It could mean only one thing. Brolly had control of the ship.

Eve decided her snack would have to wait and she started checking through the network for any more information she could obtain.

XXX

On board the Talon the owner of the second power the Delta Seven had detected on the ship lay, curled up, hands over her head, and shaking in the darkness. She'd heard the sounds of fighting in the distance, knew that the rescue ship had finally come, but that there would be no rescue. The man had... decimated the entire crew. She doubted anyone on the other ship would be able to fight him. Finally, however, she moved her arms away from her ears and listened. She couldn't hear any more fighting. "Is... is he gone? Did he... take the other ship and leave?" she wondered.

Uncurling as best as she could in the small space she was in she pushed open the cupboard door and slowly slipped out of it again. She'd been hiding in the small space for about two weeks, coming out only to grab food from the stores near-by. When she'd first woken up inside the Regen Tank it had taken her a moment to figure out where she was. Then she'd remembered the bridge and the bad news she'd given to the Captain. After getting out of the tank it had taken her a few minutes to realize something was wrong. There weren't any people around and there was always someone on duty at the tanks.

She'd not gone any further than the hall before discovering just how wrong things were. There were five people dead just in the small expanse of hall she could see. She'd taken the next three hours to slowly, carefully, and systematically search the ship. The escape pods were all gone and the crew was all dead. The only person left had been the man she'd seen on the bridge of the ship, sleeping in the Captain's chair, covered in blood. She'd retreated then, down to the kitchens, and hidden there ever since.

Part of her was ashamed and disgusted with herself. She was a Sai-jin and yet, here she was, cowering in fear. But she wasn't a fighter, never had been. She'd never particularly cared for fighting. Her loves had always been space, mechanical work, and ships, thus why she'd worked so hard to get a maintenance posting on a space ship. So she also felt at least partly justified in hiding. After all, everyone else was already dead and gone by the time she realized anything was up. There really wasn't anything she could have done to help.

She made her way carefully to the bridge and found it empty. At least, of living people. The stench was terrible, worse here than anywhere else. Carefully picking her way through the sticky and bloody mess of the room she walked up to the ComNet terminal and stared at it in despair and horror. There was almost nothing of it left. Without the terminal she wouldn't be able to get a signal out to anyone. She wouldn't be able to call for help, to let anyone know she was still here, still alive. There was food enough on board to last her months. A year at least, she figured. But she didn't want to be trapped on this ship that long and nothing guaranteed that anyone would come looking without knowing she was there.

She shook herself then. "Get a hold of yourself, Luttece." she ordered herself. "It's not over yet. Fixing shit like this is your job, you can do this..." Scrunching up her nose against the smell she knelt down in front of the terminal and started trying to pry open an access hatch. If she was lucky there would still be enough left working inside that repairs would be doable. If she could scrounge up a miracle they wouldn't take too long, either.

XXX

Zukina hadn't really wanted to leave her and Eve's room. She wanted to be there when the Nezorf got any information on the Talon. But, as Storm was still being polite, she decided it best to go with her rather than resume the hostile tension that had been between them before. The Wathor had reduced the range of the restraint system again, down to just twenty feet for now, but merely as a precaution while they were out in the open. She hadn't turned the leash back on since they'd first gotten to Ferri's shop nearly a weak ago and, for that much at least, the Sai-jin was grateful.

"What all do we need to get?" she asked as they walked down one of the, rather busy, streets of the city. "And why us and not Nail? We're a bit more likely to be recognized than him with that image inducer."

"Nail's already out handling something else." Storm answered. "Tao wasn't sure when he'd be back and we're a lot less likely to be recognized by them than he is, plus I'm the strongest other than those two, so I volunteered to go."

"And I have to come along because of the restraint system."

"More or less." Storm replied. "I needed an extra pair of hands to carry some of the stuff anyway, not all of it can be capsulized. And, while you've not been nearly as much trouble as of late as you were originally..."

"Still don't trust me?"

Storm smirked. "Would you?"

"No, I suppose not." the Sai-jin replied. "So, what are we after?"

The Wathor brought up a small handheld computer and looked over the list of things. "We need two turbine coils, a V6LK power cell, five 250 gallon Capsules we can fill with water, a power drive control unit, a flight control computer, a Gravitonic Field Coil, and Tao wants us to see if we can find a decent Regen Tank, too."

"He expects us to find a Regen Tank simply up for sale?" Zukina asked, amused. "Seriously?"

"We're out in the fringes, Zukina. You can find just about anything on these planets on the black market."

"Regen Tanks are Class A restricted material." said Zukina. "The Empire doesn't just let them slip off the back of a truck."

"All scouter technology is Class A restricted as well." Storm said. "But Tao's new ship is coming with a scanner system built in, good up to fifty million, or so Ferri says. Not everyone who transports garbage material, old Regen Tanks, busted scanner systems, etc, to garbage worlds actually takes them all the way there. Some just dump them off on a random empty planet, others sell them to black market traders. Dangerous business, but highly profitable."

"And how do you know all of this?" Zukina asked as a rather large and imposing black haired and gray skinned man nearly ran into them as they crossed the intersection. She turned to glare after him and had to do a quick double take. "Isn't that... nah, she wouldn't be out here, besides, the hair isn't right."

Storm didn't notice any of this, however, as she answered the Sai-jin's question. "My father, the Captain of the Red Thunder, did a lot of black market trading during his day. Everything from Regen Tanks to Capsules to ComNet security by-pass jacks." Storm came to a stop then. "Here we go, Tremo Ship Supplies. Ferri said this is where we can get most of our stuff."

XXX

"I can't believe they were totally sold out of Capsules." Pan moaned, shifting the weight of the paper bag she was holding from her left hand to her right. "Damn, this stuff is heavy with my power down this low."

"I know the feeling." Bra said as she shifted the large bag she held as well. The two of them had bought several Compression Boxes full of food. Compression Boxes were basically bootleg Capsules. A few companies in the galaxy had attempted to replicate Capsule technology but none of them had fully succeeded. During the years where Capsules had been Class A restricted materials, when her father had used the profits from their sales to help fund the Empire, the Compression Boxes had come along. You could squeeze a lot of stuff into a Compression Box but the weight added up.

None of the bootleggers had figured out how Capsules could hold thousands of pounds of weight inside while still weighing only a few ounces themselves. Nor had anyone found a way to fit as much into a single box as a Capsule, or to make the size nearly as small. The two girls could have fit everything they had in both of their bags into one Capsule and not felt any weight from it at all. Groaning, Bra shifted hands again. She and Pan had their powers down to around ten thousand and, at that level, the weight they were carrying was seriously pulling on their arms.

Pan grunted as she suddenly walked into something hard and solid. Peering around the bag she blinked, finding herself staring at someone's abdomen. She tilted her head up, eyes going up over his rather muscular chest to his face. He was scowling down at her and the look unnerved her. "Uh... um, sorry." she said, taking a step back to walk around him. "I didn't mean to run into you, I didn't see you there." As she stepped around him she saw a small purple guy in a very hot looking yellow-green coat and oversized hat standing in front of Bra and smirking up at her. "Let's go..." Pan said, glancing over to Bra. The other girl was just as unnerved by the pair as her and nodded.

"Leaving so soon?" the purple one asked, turning his head a little to look her way. "I thought your parents taught you better manners than that." Bra glanced down at him but didn't say anything as she and Pan started walking away. Suddenly the little guy was standing in front of her again.

"Do you mind?" she asked, scowling. "I don't want any trouble, just let us go."

The little guy grinned. "Sure thing, Princess." he said. Both she and Pan froze then, eyes locked on the little purple man. "Though, how about you tell us where 17 and 18 are hiding, first?"