Chapter 19.
New Tasks.
Among the stars, Garagus felt a chill run over his skin. Anger to the point of feeling sick, and a rush to kill that he hadn't felt in so long.
The Patrol officers were unable to stop him when he began to commandeer their ship, but luckily, the negotiator of their team opted not to try and interfere. So she alone remained conscious to tend to the injured and try to reason with him.
One by one the other officers woke up, but then had to be talked down by their own team member to forgive and forget the criminal's outburst.
Given the news he'd been told, it was somewhat understandable why he was upset.
When the patrollers saw the ship he was flying, they intended to do an investigation to see if he had anything to do with the owner's disappearance or where he bought it from.
Garagus was instructed to stay quiet about the cargo if questioned by the authorities, but the ship's story intrigued him.
The patrollers had no idea what they stumbled into, but it was lucky for them and the suspect that they met when they did.
Piracy used to be a big problem in the neutral zones and was well-known.
However, they evolved their practice.
Repair stations that use drones are very common.
However, some would retire their older drones by having them detect and collide with passing ships.
If the ship shows signs of the crew being in stasis, then they'll be unable to avoid the collision. And the panic such damage brings to them will make them desperate for aid.
Despite the infinite hugeness of space, and the billion-to-one odds of happening to find a repair station so close to your accident, you'll ignore possibility of foul play just to have a place to dock and repair.
"They get people like you to move and sell their illegal goods and take the fall if it goes wrong. In exchange, they'll repair the damage They caused in the first place. If you do get caught, they keep and sell your ship. While the rest of your crew continues to use up all their time in the hotel until they need to increase the debt or pay it off another way. It's a perfect system of getting you to do their high-risk work for free while earning them the high reward."
It was after telling Garagus all this that he decided the best thing to do was steal their ship and bring hell to the station.
After some talking and calming down, he decided to let the Patrollers have a say.
"You are an ass hole!"
Garagus sat quietly and took the abuse.
"We're adding assaulting an officer to the charge, aren't we?"
"No we're not. He's going to help us. We need to signal HQ and advise them of what's going on. For now, he's going to return to his ship while we follow behind. Isn't that right, Yagon?"
Nodding quietly, Garagus stood up and made his way down the tunnel to his ship.
Ironically, with the gravity of the situation weighing down on him so much, the artificial gravity slowly weakened as he walked the tunnel, until finally he was floating around his cabin again.
The ships disconnected and soon he was back to being on his own with the Patrollers on his tail.
The idea was not to let him out of sight, but also not delay him from his job.
The station heads cannot be allowed to get suspicious if he is held back too long.
Garagus lay on his bed. His foot thumped on the wall as he impatiently desired to arrive and pull Rhuba out of there.
This feeling of betrayal, it's not as bad as when Russel kidnapped and assaulted Rhuba. Garagus has no love for the station she's living at and the people there only see him as a chump.
Russel hurt him with his actions, and he used Rhuba as a conduit to do so. Therefore Garagus needed to hurt him back.
A loud clang noise rang in his ears.
He tumbled out of bed, rolling in the cabin before righting himself. He expected that the patrollers had opened fire on his ship, but the pulsing vibrations in his right wrist and the dent in the wall told a different story.
Grumbling to himself, he slipped into the sleeping bag that is strapped to the bed with elastic cable.
Normally, he doesn't mind floating around freely. It's a novelty to him to wake up in a different place and direction from where he fell asleep.
But for now, he just wanted to think in peace.
For one.
He remembered when he and Rhuba were abducted by the Tuffles.
It was frightening for both of them. Nothing in that base made sense to them at the time, they had no frame of reference for anything they saw or what was happening to them.
On top of that, Garagus felt groggy when he woke up there. All he heard was Rhuba screaming for him and saw people he didn't recognise standing threateningly around her.
Everything he did from that point until they got home was pure impulse.
A need to survive and a need to protect.
Just like he feels now.
But he recalled how it ended. They assumed breaking out through the top was the best thing to do, but as soon as they blasted a hole, water started gushing in from the ceiling because they acted without realising there was a canal over the station.
Things spiralled out of control from there, but they knew that every body of water has a surface, they just had to hold their breath and hope for the best.
It was that or drown in the hallway, after all.
If he breaks the wrong component on the space station, there is no surface to breach. There is no air waiting for them.
A power generator, one second of fluctuation is all it takes for the outer shields to falter and suddenly all the docks and ports get depressurised, killing potentially thousands of people just doing their jobs.
If the gravity gives out, anyone not able to grab onto something could simply float beyond the shield and suffocate in space regardless.
Strangely, the air giving out is the least of the issues so long as the gravity and shields stay working as there's probably at least three hours of breathable air within the bubble surrounding the station.
And he knew he could fight for up to ten minutes in a vacuum without air at all.
A smile forced itself on his resting face. Bringing the fight to them is going to be fun.
His eyes opened, staring at the stars above the cabin.
Freeza hurt him and Rhuba more than the scammers, but he's not rushing to bring the fight to him.
The feeling of hatred, the rush to take revenge.
Perhaps it's misplaced.
An Alpha Saiyan…
"a Saiyan Elite…" He grumbled, correcting himself.
A Saiyan Elite rushing in to destroy a repair station is probably the actions of a bully.
Instead, maybe a better plan would be to 'renegotiate' the terms of work, and only start breaking things if they refuse.
After all, had they simply left him and Rhuba alone while they were sleeping, they'd be long gone without ever known the station existed.
They're the lying scam artists, so surrendering a better ship in exchange for no one getting hurt and nothing getting broken is the best deal they can hope for right now.
Garagus planned to let the Patrollers do what they wanted After he takes Rhuba out of sight.
As he slept on the news he'd been given, the Galactic Patrols had issues to deal with on their own ship.
The negotiator had managed to get Garagus to agree to lead them to the station, where coordinates would be shared with HQ so a mass arrest could happen.
However, they were informed that if a GP ship is detected approaching, the drones that hunt for passing ships in stasis will switch from damage to destroy.
The plan of attack on the station needs to be thought out more. In the meantime, they were asked to keep following Garagus's ship and try to learn where the drop-offs happen and who picks them up.
They wanted to disrupt the entire network, not just one station.
Suddenly, while deep in his thoughts. Garagus was wakened by the sound of someone calling him.
Taking a moment to collect himself, he sat down by the monitor and hoped to see the smile of the person he missed more than ever.
Instead, he was greeted by the sight of one of the patrollers.
"So change of plan. We need you to keep working for them."
"Not a change. I thought you were going to arrest them?"
"That's coming."
Crossing his arms, Garagus got ready to hang up. "Make your plans without me, I'm grabbing my partner, taking one of their ships by force if I need to, then getting out of there."
"You're prepared to fight their entire security team by yourself?"
"It won't be by myself. I'll have my wife backing me up…" That thought hadn't occurred to him. Facing off against each other is foreplay. Fighting together against a common foe who kept them apart all this time, that's something else entirely.
"You're not talking me out of this. Do what you want."
"Consider this. There'll be a finder's fee if you help us."
"Not interested."
"On top of that, you'll get to really screw over the ones who scammed you."
Garagus liked that. But to keep working for them would keep him and Rhuba apart. Then again, waiting a bit longer means they'd get Granate's ship back and the finder's fee will help them in the future.
And it'll be nice to work for Freeza's direct enemy for a change.
"I'll think about it. But if it comes to a fight, and I'm not saying I hope it does, you need to let us help."
"We want to arrest them, not kill them."
"Who said kill? Plus it'll be easier to arrest them once they're a drooling mess on the floor."
"gross, and I can't promise you'll even be back during the arrest. Once we get the go order, we're going."
Garagus tutted.
"I'm giving up seeing my wife for another year. That finder's fee better be good."
After the conversation ended, there was a quiet air of regret on the Patroller's ship.
After all, there were things they couldn't tell him.
The hardest part of the plan working was convincing a bureaucracy of bosses and bean counters to sacrifice a small fleet of unmarked ships so a few dozen undercover patrollers can become the latest customers of the station.
It'll be good to have people on the inside both living on the station plus being out doing drop-offs to get more intel.
The hardest pill for the negotiator to swallow was not telling Garagus that the stations that operate the way they do, don't typically let their workers outlive their usefulness.
Back at the station,
It took time for Rhuba to get the hang of Yena's job.
Each day she was taken to a different floor and asked to wear a different uniform or costume depending on the venue.
"The ears are a bit much, but I like the rest of it." Rhuba did some stretching, rolling on her feet side to side to see if her tights and leotard had give. "Fighting in this would be easy."
"We're not fighting, especially in heels," Yena told her.
Rhuba's enthusiasm sank as she found herself walking awkwardly in high heels.
"This is crazy…" Rhuba gritted her teeth as she wobbled.
"She looks good."
"Just needs to get her walk down before tomorrow."
By working with Yena, Rhuba met a few others in the same line of work. Her boss, a man named Sterling. Who was very welcoming of the new girl. However it was explained, and Rhuba has made peace with the fact, that it's unlikely she'll be in a security uniform.
"Just walk back and forth. You'll do fine." Yena encouraged, while Uraal, another colleague was unsure about the outfit Rhu was wearing.
"She'll learn the walk, I can't wrap my head around the skirt, though."
Rhuba's outfit, though matching everyone's in every other respect, did have a short shiny skirt that was unique to her. A last-minute addition she needed Sterling's permission for.
"It's a cultural thing, I can't show my butt off to strangers." Rhuba slapped her hips, making sure the skirt covered at least her upper thigh.
"I don't mind it. Some guests might appreciate leaving the uh, specific shape to their imagination."
"A butt's a butt," Uraal muttered, crossing her arms.
"Agree to disagree." Yena laughed, knowing that her friend's complaints stem from having to overcome embarrassment when she first wore hers. "Besides, Dolla."
Rhuba was lacking context for the joke, but it was explained that Dolla was a girl who had recently afforded to leave the station. But she also worked with them while she stayed.
"Her assets were rather shapely." Uraal laughed.
"That's nasty!" Yena laughed again but used her hands to demonstrate the size so Rhuba got what they were talking about.
Rhuba smiled but didn't laugh out loud. Near all of her focus was on the body mirror.
Truthfully, she couldn't care less if people could make out the shape of her body. The Saiyan armour does that. But under her short skirt was her tail, wrapped around her waist as always but in the skin-tight leotard, there was no way to conceal it.
A lie about her culture was the best she could come up with.
'Then again, me and Garagus Are the Saiyans now. Anything we do, anything we decide is our culture now.'
"Anyway, we should get back out there. We just came to drop off the uniform."
"Thanks, I'll add it to the collection." Rhuba glanced to the hangers on the wall. All of her own clothing were neatly folded out of sight, but her uniforms stayed out in a specific order for each day of the week. Although she isn't on every day, she knew every credit earned would help in the future. After all, the plan is to find a permanent home somewhere.
Once Yena and Uraal left, Rhuba changed into the correct outfit. One that luckily was able to hide her tail much better.
The noisy casino was busier than usual, but hers was an easy job. Orbit a few tables, do NOT react to any hands people may or may not have, and if someone requests a drink, fetch it for them.
"One thing I don't understand, why don't I accept money before getting their order?"
"What do you mean?" Uraal asked as she poured behind the counter.
"What if I go back there and he's pissed all his tokens away?"
Uraal made a pained face as she set the glass on the tray, stating that it does happen.
"If you lose your last token, you're given one of these."
Rhuba inspected the strange white token. It had a symbol of a bottle. Turns out it's given to people as a consolation.
"That's nice of them, I guess."
"It's far from charity. To even sit at the tables we patrol, you need to front so much money that the drink is like salt water to anyone who tastes it. Often the token is thrown back at the dealer. Anyway. Off you pop, love."
Rhuba took the tray and delivered the drink to the person smugly staring at his winnings.
"Here you go," Rhuba was about to leave, but he held her hand.
"Blow me."
"Excuse me?" Rhuba only blinked before something was shoved near her mouth. Her eyes locked on the pair of dice.
People were watching her, smirking at her caught-off-guard expression, finding the new girl cute. "fine…" She blew lightly on his palm, and when he rolled, he got a pair.
"winner."
"Thanks, 'ere you go." He dropped tokens onto her tray, enough for the drink and a tip.
"thank you, sir." Rhuba walked back to the counter with Uraal to deposit the tokens.
"Doing okay?"
"Yeah, just got a big tip from some guy after I blew him."
Uraal was speechless as Rhuba wiped the tray down and left to start her patrol again.