Our ship had been on Naldinnas for a few hours, though from the rumblings around the crew the negotiation for our winnings had gone magically. The world itself had likely parted with all the decent fighters they had to give, but supply and sale were abundant for PTO ships. Not to mention the recent excursion had elevated us from peacekeeper force to returning crusaders. A generations-long feud with a race of all consuming bugs will do that. Who would have guessed…

I hadn't thought about what that meant while me and Apara had been recovering. It was strange to think about the results of a purge turning out like this.

Freeza Force arrived, probably for the first time on any world, as conquering heroes. A whole planet in celebration and gratitude. From one of the few viewports on the ship I looked on with Apara and most of the other crew members as a parade went on as long as the eye could see. Something close to confetti seemed to rain from the sky, and the cheering crowds below were audible even from the inside of our ship, and the top of a building that stretched so far in the air we were practically in the lower atmosphere.

We hadn't been allowed to leave at first, not when talks were underway. Usually we were kept aboard for safety purposes. Those worlds of tenuous loyalty weren't as likely to attack us as a group, and aboard our ship we wouldn't obliterate a city or go get poisoned by locals. That second part had happened a few times in the past.

Like me, most of the others were at first unsure of what to do with the honest cheer of our welcome. From what the idle chatter told me It had taken nearly an hour to land, the sheer number of people waiting to greet us forced us to hold off or risk harming members of a race considered "valued customers".

The novelty of it was quick to attract most of the crewmen, especially those who hailed from this world in particular. I had a hard time not falling into it tangible adoration, the exaltation, was like seeing a color that didn't exist before. It all tasted like a kind of victory I might have dreamed about as a child.

It was a break against the rule I had lived by for two years, and I could only imagine what it was like for those veterans who had survived with some small sense of common being. When Freeza Force arrived on allied worlds they took what they wanted, extorting or threatening anything of interest into their pockets when credits didn't buy it for them. Sex, baubles, technology. It didn't matter. Gods took what they wanted, and that was the power fantasy the crew exalted in.

Today I wouldn't be surprised if it was all freely given. How couldn't it be? For them the boogy man had been real and numbered in the millions, waiting just across the sky to eat them up.

And we killed them. Every last one. Once the command staff gave the go ahead I started walking out, ignoring the people shoving past me, many already mid flight.

Apara walked with me, pretending she hadn't left only to turn around when I wasn't with her. The glances she was shooting at the environment around us might have been subtle to someone her own age. A particularly stupid someone.

Still…

I tried to give her a smile, though it didn't feel very pretty.

"Make sure your back before the ship leaves. Don't kill anyone unless they try to kill you first."

Apara looked up at me in excitement, her childlike eyes lighting up with wonder as she grinned with a set of too sharp canines. She leaned forward, her face somehow already dirty after the relative cleanliness a healing pod is supposed to provide.

"Make sure you get lots of food!"

The relief of seeing her fly off was almost like what I felt when I was elevated to cook. Something resembling freedom. Something resembling normality.

I took my time walking through the hangar. The adoration was something I took the time to appreciate, the time to get used to. People where watching me and it felt natural to be able to meet their eyes.

The Architecture had an interestingly aquatic feel to it. All soft curves and color palletes in greys and blues. The cool air of the open sky above a cityscape in celebration was a welcome change to the featureless metal of my quarters. The smell of warm bread and soup carried past the smallest hint of smoke and something like coal in the air. It would take me a little while to get my bearings. But a shop or two wouldn't be hard to find, and the credits now associated with my name meant I could really spread my wings and try something new in my kitchen.

I could have taken to the air, but the walk down to the city proper was almost magic. Once or twice I had to step out of the way of over excited children as they ran up to me, the eyes of those who called this planet home never leaving me when I was in view.

The populace of Naldinnas was close enough to human, in look and in feeling. To bring some sense of nostalga about me. Of course, that feeling only grew when I arrived at a place that smelled like sanded wood and alcohol. Music greeted my ears, and for the first time in over two years I deigned to listen.

A woman with a plain white mask over her face froze just as she was about to enter, her eyes meeting mine. To say she was wearing a dress would be half right, in that it was cloth and made to draw some attention to the subtle curve of her breasts, and the not so subtle curve of an ass I hadn't seen the likes of since the captain of our ship got replaced. The difference was it'd be more at home in an adventurous bedroom than a public place where I'd come from.

I smirked at the honest delight I felt from her. I always knew sensing emotion had its rewards.

Jernus leaned heavily into his command chair, holding a piece of cloth to his eye and watching Jell, the gray-skinned Commander sitting across from him at a table usually used to plan attacks out on a virtual battlefield. It also worked marvelously for reports over things that may have happened on the field.

Negotiations with the Naldinnians had been easy, if time consuming. Gratitude was a good way to grease the wheels of a lucrative trade. Of course the local "Baron" wasn't so greatful as to pay the full value of two Freeza Force vessels and the slaves he was willing to part with, but it was close enough even for him to be satisfied.

Jernus looked at Jell, choosing not to speak. The commander was one of eight votes he needed to remain in command if things came to a vote like they had when the old captain died.

Officially every commander had an equal vote, but not every commander was created equal. Some had greater combat power, some had better warriors under his command, some were just more charismatic. All of which tended to pull more votes than the one they were supposed to have.

Unless it was truly important Jernus wouldn't usually have bothered to call in a commander for an explanation, but usually people reported dead by a commander didn't come back to the ship. Granted most of the time a commander bothered making such a report they had been the one to kill the crewmember in question, but that made it even more noteworthy.

Jell shifted in the chair across from his captain, a mixture of relative deference and a completely annoying lack of fear that most of the command staff had for those that didn't tower head and shoulders above them in sheer battle power.

Jernus understood that, but it didn't stop him from hating it. another 200 points and he'd have enough of a lead not to worry about the politics, 500 more than that and the commanders would have chosen him unanimously. With a soft inhale he gestured at Commander Jell, struggling to keep the annoyance from his tone.

"So the cook isn't dead, and he kept that kid alive too. Howd that come about?"

Jell huffed, swiping some blood off of his pauldron as he spoke.

"Well, like I told you on that rock, Dennis ducked away somewhere and we lost sight of him in the middle of a fight that had him heavily outnumbered by enemies within spitting distance of his power level. Figured he was dead the moment he went after the girl- "

"-But he wasn't." Jernus finished for him, watching Jell shrug. He had seen the footage from her scouter feed. The quality was poor without the actual device, but it painted an interesting picture.

"No, popped up a while later, killed some of the new recruits while he was at it, though I didn't get the chance to see it myself. The girl jumped in on my fight, proved a distraction for some commander from the Chilled. By the time I turned around Dennis was alone, and he seemed pleased with himself, the fucker."

Jernus sighed at the news, wiping a hand across his face. He had figured as much. It wasn't the first time a warrior fresh from recruitment killed some comrades to stand out. Dennis had managed it before. The problem was, it was looking like a pattern now.

"Should we do something about him?" He asked, not so much because of the deaths as to alleviate the annoyance the human had generated for him over the past few days. Too much risk, too much unknown.

"No." Jell shook his head- " He more than proved his worth, and the girl might not be up to snuff yet but she'll be something when she gets older, if the rumor mill has any weight to it these days. Besides, He and that Saiyan girl seem to favor working together, he continues keeping her away from an early grave and we might have a new commander among us in a few years."

"And how does Dennis feature in those few years?" The captain asked.

Jernus wasn't a fool. The human hand drive, and a marked talent for survival. He'd be of note, even if his performance didn't hint at him being much stronger than he had shown since he tipped his hand killing that first rectuit.

At this Jell was silent for a moment, the expression across his face something between consternation and annoyance.

"...I don't know why, but the little bastard scares me. I tolerated him when he cooked my meals, and when he was a slave he was subservient, and he knew how to keep himself in check. Never met my eyes, always got what I wanted right-"

Jernus hummed. The cook had made himself indispensable for as long as he could.

"-but that's the problem. Now that I've met the warrior I'm reminded of a snake in the grass. He'll do well, but get him off my squad."

Jernus leaned back. Thinking. Jell was one of the smarter ones, but he relied on instinct and experience like nearly everyone else did. The herbivorous commander couldn't understand why he felt afraid.

Jell didn't recognize it but Jernus did. Those two were anomalies. They both, one by rumor and one by action, escaped the defining factor of the system the whole of the Planet Trade survived on.

To them, power level wasn't a restriction or a badge of honor. It was a line they could skirt past at will.

"I'll hand them over to Belk. He killed his last squad for cowardice anyway."

Jell nodded, standing to leave at a dismissive wave of the captains hand. He stopped at the doorway, Jernus' voice reaching him just as the door was about to close behind him.

"Make sure you gather the fresh meat into something resembling a squad. We'll have a little breather over the next planet or two for recruits, then we blood them all at once."

Jell didn't turn, merely inclining his ear in Jernus' direction.

"A soft target, something we can play with for a while."

A distinctly non-vegetarian smile drew across Jell's face. He chuckled, striding in the direction of the hangar bay.