"So if I protect you, you'll make me stronger?" Her voice was quiet, cautious, but her energy was hopeful. I nodded, wincing at the pain in my shoulder. "Why? If you have some way of making me stronger why not use it on yourself?

I tilted my head. I suppose that's a fair question. Saiyans weren't a communal species, they didn't like working together. Unlike humans, their evolotion and survival had no connection to their ability to form groups. Strength had been by far the largest factor in who got to breed, who got to survive, being nice had nothing to do with it. Sharing power was practically a sin to her people.

"I am, but the techniques I can use, the ones that arent exclusive to your people at least, can be dangerous. I can only go so far so fast without killing myself." I gestured to my scarred and hunched frame. "As you can see I've been rushing enough as it is. I need a partner, someone to keep me alive when I'm weakened, someone to watch over me when I'm forced to recover." Someone between me and the danger when the time comes. Goku's enemies were always so kind as to be just strong enough to eventually be overcome. I couldn't expect the same courtesy from the universe.

"With you around I can move forward faster." She was silent for a moment, but I knew I had her. She had no other options left, I had been feeling it practically oozing out of her energy all day. Time for the killing stroke. "How much stronger have you gotten since they kicked you out of Vegeta? Left you to rot on some distant world? Twice as strong? Three times as strong? Her chest puffed put, and she stepped up to me, glaring with whatever remnants of pride she had left.

"More than ten times. The scouter on my attack ball was been clear. I'm much better now." I chuckled, shaking my head. An impressive improvement for someone working on their own, with no knowledge to speak of, but not for a Saiyan, and not for me.

"I arrived here little over two years ago. As an adult far beyond the best years for me to learn I grew into what I am now." I shoved down the surge of my own pride at the thought. Not good enough, not yet. "Now I stand at a hundred and eighty seven, and I can kill those with twice that much with ease."

"Thats fifty times, and in less than a quarter of the time it took you if I'm guessing right. So, what do ya say?" I stuck out an arm, my grin growing just a bit wider. I liked to think I've always been good at talking. It kept me alive this long anyway.

She looked at the offered limb with confusion for a moment, her gaze shifting between it and my eyes, before she reached forward and grabbed my hand.

"Deal. If your not lying." Smarter than I expected her to be. Not that it mattered.

I wasn't lying. It hadn't been long since the last time I "found" a scouter for a short while, and if I hadn't been looking to wound I could have taken Dirge's head off without him even knowing I was there. Problem was I needed a reason for the girl's low power to be ignored, and a death wouldn't be taken kindly by the crew. Conscripts and slaves killing crew members was a rarity, but not an impossibility. All it took was for someone a little stronger than scouters implied, and for someone else to let their guard down. Only time I had ever seen it was a bed slave managing to jam a finger in a crew mates eye deep enough to kill him outright while he slept.

Didn't turn out well for her. When they gave her over to me to feed one of the commanders it had almost been a mercy to cut her throat. It'd be kinder to kill the Saiyan myself than let her take that kind of blame. Someone getting maimed though? No problem, so long as it could be proved that it happened relatively honorably, and that it hadn't damaged the ship. With Dirge stuck between admitting it was me or letting a member of the known universe's most famous warrior race take the blame it was no contest.

Even if he knew it wasn't true the general knowledge around the ship is very simple. The captains orders are taken without question, the conscripts and slaves are free game, and the cook is part of the crew only because he's good at his job, not because he had real power to throw around. If our new captain was smart he'd take the gamble and let the girl fight on a full stomach and with some proper armor. Not like we didn't need the extra hands now anyway.

"Then let's get down to business. We won't be allowed to train properly without becoming official warriors under the captain of this ship. Lucky for us it's a good time. Jernus' is new, and unseasoned, he's desperate for results to prove he's worth the title, and this ship is in dire need of crew members. Enough so that with the right effort the standard requirements for power can be ignored. With my strength, and more importantly my ability I can prove to Jernus my worth easy, but you? You're gonna be a tougher sell. As a conscript you'll see battle easily enough, but you won't be allowed out of your cell, and you won't be approved for enough rations to sustain a Saiyan." I tried to relay my plan as quickly as I could, keeping my tone clear and my reasons easy to see. She nodded along with me as I spoke.

"Lucky for you I already helped you along. When they ask all you need to say is that the Lizard man you fought earlier came back for revenge, and that you beat him half to death, scorching his chest with an energy blast. If he's smart he'll say the same thing. If not I'll play the weak conscript a little longer and deny whatever he says against me. The crew doesn't like me but since I can hide my power, they'll think I'm still weak. They'll figure it's you either way." I cringed at the idea.

The problem with that fall back was what it what it would cost me. Actively moving like this, making a target of myself, was a level of danger I wasn't comfortable with. Especially since I wasn't in top form. At rest and below everyone's radar it wasn't a problem dealing with the injuries I've taken over the years, it was easy to just consider it another part of my training and either ignore it or work around it. But now? Now I'm vulnerable. I need to be promoted to have access to the healing pods, otherwise they'd pick up an unregistered life-form in a restricted area, and i'd be fighting whatever commander happens to be near by before I knew it. It'd be much more manageable for us both to get to that position. The girl spoke up a moment later.

"Lie about a fight?" For a second she looked like she was swallowing a lemon. I shrugged. I already guessed this part of my plan might get some resistance. Saiyans lived for battle, lying about their achievements was the action of a coward. Things would probably stop right here if I wasn't aware of another facet of the Saiyan mindset.

"Their never gonna feed you enough otherwise. Nutrient paste is abundant, but not enough so to waste on a slave who eats enough for a few dozen." Her expression worsened for a moment as she struggled between a proverbial rock and a hard place. "I'm also the cook around here, but conscripts don't get anything but the paste." She looked down, staring at her feet in a manner not unlike a child being told they have to do their chores.

"Fine."

"Great, then we're in agreement. When Jernus gets back with whoever he manages to pick up he'll make you a warrior. After that I'll have a word with him. Until then we don't know each other." I turned around, raising my hand at the wall for it to scan the series of numbers tatooed on my inner wrist. A voice stopped me before I could pass the threshold of the now open wall.

"Apara" I looked back.

"What?"

"My name is Apara."

"...Dennis."

Captain Jernus stepped away from a terminal in a busy docking bay, a cold sweat steadily building on his brow. With the help of the commanders he had managed to pull in over six-hundred new bodies to help with the newest conquest. Not a terrible number in any other circumstance, but given the number of losses the misinformation the Naldinnan's provided it wasn't near enough. The battle on the local planet might have been what made him into the captain, but he still wished the native creatures hadn't killed so many. That was the problem with bug planets.

Most species with low power weren't an issue, but the kind of numbers and determination bugs could bring to bare was always a problem. There was no such thing as slave material on a world like that. Normal worlds had civilain populations, one's that would often surrender or hide when the fighting started, and they almost always made up the majority. Most worlds marked for conquest could only keep around ten to fifteen percent of the population as defenders or soldiers, some of the more peaceful and united ones even fewer. A bug planet had no such standard. Whatever insectoid society established itself was self sacrificing to the extreme and often populated entirely with warriors more than willing to sacrifice themselves by the hundred just for a single kill.

Protocol dictated they wait for support, but Lord Freeza had come to favor this world. He had personally demanded immediate action, and without proper research into the threat described they had been left out to dry against a far more superior foe than expected. The people of Naldinnas claimed a few thousand bugs that hadn't developed into a society lived on the world, eating and sleeping without a care in the universe. Instead the ran face first into a tide of well prepared drones, and it was only the fact that their focus was nearly entirely on the old captain. She hadn't gone down easy, but the damned things had managed to surround her during the call to retreat.

Things were bad, and since immediate results were expected Jernus did the only thing he could. A general call to action for all nearby aid, with the complete surrender of the worlds bounty to be split between those forces who come to help. Most information on worlds was reliable enough for an attack ship of the right class to handle the request, but even still, sometimes they needed help, sometimes other vessels were called along to aid the purge, or in dire situations they called on the warriors who could handle entire planets themselves. In acknowledgement of this their was a protocol for this situation.

The Planet trade was a well oiled machine, and if aid was needed it would come, but they don't like setbacks. If you didn't request proper aid before the mission was underway you immediately forfeit your bounty as punishment. You and your crew weren't paid for services rendered. It was that kind of mistake that got a captain killed, especially a new one. Perhaps they'd see that he was doing all he could, that he was only trying to pull them through the mess the old captain had already made. Or perhaps they'd think the situation was still salvageable, and they'd tear him apart for the mistake.

Jernus growled as he entered the request, watching his money and his crews respect disappear with the press of a button. As the machine lit green with confirmation his fists clenched, before he smashed the terminal into nothing but a pile of sparking electronics.