Chapter 5
Getting Jiggy with Friggy
The next several days of space exploration were much less volatile than the savage battle our heroes just fought. Still, space itself is a volatile dangerous place with hazards everywhere spacefarers need to fear. Supernovas, solar flares, deadly radiation, black holes, and more have led to the end of inexperienced space explorers. The ship is the guardian of the space explorer, protecting him or her from the harshness of space. Most species in the universe, notably humans, are completely unable to survive the vacuum of space. Of course, even these species able to survive the vacuum are vulnerable to the other hazards of space, unless they evolved to be able to survive all the space hazards.
It just so happened that helmsman Sasuke discovered such an amazing site of creatures drifting through space on his viewscreen. These seahorse-like creatures were able to fly freely from planet to planet and practiced bird-like migration patterns. Alongside these seahorse like aliens included a small white alien, looking similar to the pop culture stereotype of an alien, with a small body and big head. This alien seemed to be drifting in space without any control of its trajectory. The possibility of it being trampled seemed high. This incident showed the great contrast known by all space explorers, the majesty and the harshness of outer space. Sasuke asked the computer to scan the lifeforms and the computer explained that the white alien was an infant Chillan, a species of alien that can survive the vacuum of space. This species has a tradition of drifting weak or undesirable offspring into space where they'll eventually die. Sasuke took pity on this alien and beamed it aboard.
Peana came to the bridge to report to the captain how her security sweep went and she saw the baby Chillan and felt disgust. The emperor of the Chillans, Lord Frieza, is the master of the Saiyans and has the Saiyans participate in what is known as the planet trade. This practice involves wealthy socialites buying planets as their own private property and having those planets stripped of life first to ensure that there is enough living space for the client. This disgusting and shameful practice of mass planetary genocide was a past she wanted to leave behind. She wouldn't dare tell her crewmates that she had killed entire planets in service of said planet trade as her past actions were evil incarnate. Actions done partially under coercion from another power, but evil actions nevertheless. Evil actions most Saiyans did without remorse due to the opportunities to fight strong opponents during their "cleansing" of the planet. Peana didn't know how to explain the situation without revealing her dark secret. At the very least, she believed the Chillans to consider this baby unimportant and it that was unlikely that they would have to deal with the Chillan race.
Captain Singh noticed the look on discomfort on Peana's face and asked, "Is anything the matter?"
Peana replied, "We're fine. It's just disgusting what happened to this poor baby."
The baby said, "Friggy!"
Captain Singh asked Ms. Michaels, "Are you able to tell what that word means in its language? Is that just baby talk, or something important?"
Ms. Michaels answered, "I believe that is actually a common Chillan noble family name. The baby at least knows its name."
Despite the fact that the baby was a member of a ruthless race, Peana at least knew that this baby was just another victim to the Chillan empire, more innocent than her own Saiyan race. She had one particular weakness and that weakness was her attraction to cute things. Her urge was impossible to overcome and she gave hugs and cuddles and tickles to the cute little thing. Friggy shouted his name and the crew was endeared to the soft side to the frightening and deadly warrior.
Sasuke then said, "We are being hailed. Computer turn on viewscreen."
The viewscreen showed a purple horned alien being with armor that looked similar to Saiyan armor only this alien was obviously not a Saiyan. Instead of having a human flesh tone, this alien was purple and the alien had an interesting logo on it that only Peana recognized. This alien was Captain Ginyu, the leader of the Ginyu Force, a mercenary corps commonly employed by the Chillans as the Chillans were the wealthiest clients they could ever have as no entity could possibly outbid such a massive empire. Even Lord Slug's wealth paled to the wealth of the mighty Chillan empire.
Captain Ginyu said, "Hello, my name is Captain Ginyu and I am an emissary for the Chillan Empire. We are here for that baby. Lord Frieza wants that baby dead and he's been hunting it for months. Our scanners detect what appears to be the fugitive child's signature."
Captain Singh said, "I was under the impression that Chillan society considered this baby weak as I've heard of the practice of using space as a method of disposing of those with less than ideal genes. Why go through all this effort to hunt down that baby if space is going to do it for you?"
Captain Ginyu replied, "Have you scanned that baby's power level? You will find that what you are looking at is one of the galaxy's most deadly beings. I, being the awesome leader of the elite Ginyu Force am one of the few capable of killing it. If it wanted it could probably kill most of you. Hey, Peana, I recognize you. What are you doing on that ship? Aren't you scheduled to kill planet PRX32 on behalf of Lord Frieza?"
Sasuke turned off the viewscreen and Captain Singh asked, "What is this Captain Frieza talking about?"
Peana felt compelled to confess, "We Saiyans are the slaves of the Chillan Empire and its leader, Lord Frieza. That man has me fight whoever he tells me to fight and sometimes he forces me to do things. Terrible things. I do have a thirst for the blood of strong and mighty enemies, but Frieza made me kill those who I don't want to kill. He made me kill children, the elderly, those who don't give fun fights. I know you guys already only have me onboard because of my capabilities. If I were you, I'd hate me too. Frieza made me evil incarnate. Still, if we are to survive, you still need me and I need to save this crew and this baby to atone for what I am, or what I was. I am a Chillan slave no more."
The big mystery is why would the Chillans send the Ginyu Force to hunt down a Chillan child drifting through space. Captain Ginyu referring to the baby as a "fugitive" implies that Friggy was not at all a victim of a Chillan custom. How did Friggy end up drifting in space. Captain Sighn did remember an Earth story that could explain the situation he saw. He remembered the story of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt and their deliverer Moses. The Pharaoh believed that a child would come that would be a threat to his power and had all children under a certain age killed. His mother hid the baby in a basket and tossed it into the Nile, praying that the baby's fate would end up being better than the fate that awaited him from the Egyptians. It turned out that Moses did indeed become the deliverer of the Hebrews. The Explorer just discovered a baby in a basket that could be the one to free several galaxies of the Chillan Empire.
There was absolutely no way that crew of the Explorer was going to let the baby die. It was just a matter of having another fight when the crew were already recovering from their fight with the Namekians. The ship picked up some interesting readings and Sasuke displayed the surprising events occurring on the viewscreen. A huge space battle was erupting between Namekian and Chillan fighters. Despite the fierce earlier battle with the Namekians, they were not firing on the explorer. A Namekian fighter hailed the Explorer and the crew listened to what the Namekian had to say.
The Namekian said, "It appears that we have a common enemy. We believe that even if we initially got off on the wrong foot, we can make amends and become valuable allies. Both of us have a keen interest in keeping that Chillan child alive as he could have the power to rival Frieza himself. In fact, we believe your Saiyan friend could also be invaluable in the war against the Chillans. Do you know why Frieza enslaved the Saiyans? He fears the prophecy of the Super Saiyan, a being that only shows up once every ten thousand years and has the power to stop him. We believe the combined power of your Saiyan and Chillan crewmates will be able to defeat Lord Frieza and allow for Lord Slug to bring order to the universe without competition."
It became apparent that a great battle between evil and evil had begun. A battle between a ruthless warlord pirate who stole resources from planets and caused death and starvation to billions upon billions and an emperor who completed multiple genocides in order to increase his wealth and power with his vile planet trading business. There was no right choice as to who to side with. It was still obvious that the Chillans were worth fighting against. The Chillan warships bombarded the Explorer's shields and even with the Namekian ships providing covering fire, this was going to be one intense fight.
The Explorer began to fire back at the Chillan warships in an attempt to survive this savage battle. This was the biggest battle the Explorer ever had and it tested the limits of its firepower and evasive maneuvers. The crew were novice fighter pilots and not as skilled as the experienced pilots of the enemy. Thankfully, the Namekians had the bigger numbers and provided the bulk of the battle. The Explorer was so important to the Namekians that many ships got in the line of fire to protect the ship. The battle was a spectacular display of spaceship piloting as all the moves you would find in a Star Wars movie were used here. Barrel rolls and all kinds of flips and spins were used by combatants on both sides. It was a spectacle, but a horrible spectacle of much death and destruction. Not at all fun for any of those involved. The Explorer survived primarily because their former enemy considered them an ally, at least a temporarily useful ally. It was such a shocking turn of events that the enemy the Explorer's mission was to find ended up being the savior of the Explorer.
A Namekian soldier told the crew of the Explorer, "Thank you for your help in defeating our hated enemy. We would like for you to come to Namek for a conference on planning the next battle against the Chillan Empire. As we said, the Chillan child and the Saiyan are the two keys to winning this war."
Captain Sighn saw what could be a great opportunity. It might be possible to arrest the evil criminal mastermind and take advantage of the situation of finally meeting the enemy up close and personal. Still, there was the Chillan situation and the issue of the honor of betraying the honor of the Namekians trust. The ideal goal was to get both of these evil empires to successfully defeat the other. What started as a "defeat the bad guy" mission evolved into something even more complicated. Should the Explorer's crew really become involved in an intergalactic war on such a grand scale? Of course, it seems less like they were volunteered and more that they were drafted. If they were to turn tail back to Earth, the Namekians would probably use force to get them to comply. After all, the Namekians believed that the keys to victory were Peana and Friggy. The Namekians seemed hellbent on conscripting these two warriors. The Explorer's crew had no choice but to take the escort to Planet Namek to meet their dreaded enemy.
It felt like this was the greatest moral loss the Explorer's crew could endure. The mission was to meet allies to help them bring down Lord Slug, to make peaceful first contact with various species across the galaxy and make new allies. Definitely not to fight in a large scale war and becoming soldiers. There was another possibility to get out of this predicament. Maybe a way to negotiate with Lord Slug to get him to not conscript the crew into fighting a war that the crew were unable to survive. The crew might be composed of some of the best human martial artists, scientists, and androids, but the only two crew members most able to survive the war was Peana and Friggy, even if Friggy was just an untrained baby.
During the journey to Namek, Peana was curious about the abilities of Friggy. She used a holodeck program to simulate some Chillan Empire soldiers and Friggy used his ki to effortlessly turn the simulations into chunks. Friggy was already a fierce warrior even if he could only say his name. There was the question of if Friggy could contain or control his power or if the baby knew wrong from right. So far, Friggy had shown a great deal more wisdom and intelligence than is expected of human babies as Chillans' cognitive abilities develop at a faster rate. Still, language seemed to develop fairly slowly as "Friggy" was still the only word in this baby's vocabulary. Friggy did have one holodeck hobby, and that was getting down and funky. Friggy loved to dance and his favorite band was the earth group known as the Bee Gees. Friggy had caught a peak at the R-Rated Earth film Saturday Night Fever, at least a copy that censored the naughty parts, and emulated John Travolta's iconic dance moves. Benwai attempted to join in, but he wasn't really a good dancer. At the very least, there was some fun downtime before the big conference on how deal with the incoming threat and the crew got to shake their groove thing to the beat of Peaches and Herb.
Meanwhile on Namek, Lord Slug was rejoicing at his plan coming together. Friggy and the Explorer was the bait needed for the Namekians to ambush to the Chillan fleet. The Namekians had Friggy in asylum and they made it look like Friggy was sent to space. He was closely monitored, so Friggy was never in real danger. Of course, the Explorer was bugged so they could monitor if the Explorer would take the bait and they did. Lord Slug also knew Peana would love to be be liberated from the oppression of the Chillans. He felt she was most easy to manipulate. Everything was going according to plan and the Explorer was right in the palm of his hand.