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Two days later… “I can’t believe it took us so long to catch this witch!” “Let’s just give her what she deserves, Bali, and get it over with. We still have to find Zarbon and Chestra.” “This is going to be fun!” Frieza told Balair and Dodoria silkily, “You two may do as you wish with her, but do not kill her. I will need her to tell me where Zarbon ran off with my woman.” “She isn’t your woman,” Jaden said, trying to growl, but her voice was so weak now that it emerged as a moan. Frieza flew up and whipped her face with the sharp tip of his pink, scaly tail; Jaden bit her lip to keep from screaming. “She is mine; I have claimed her, and you and Zarbon will both pay dearly for interfering with my plans. But if you tell me where they ran off to, I may spare you. Now, Jadenia, where did they go?” “For the last time, I don’t know! Zarbon probably didn’t even know himself. You won’t get anything useful out of me, I can tell you that,” Jaden groaned; it was so hard for her to speak with her mouth sore and swollen (she had developed an abscessed tooth from an earlier fight). Jaden’s luck had run out much quicker than she had expected. She had managed to steal away into a space pod and flee Frieza’s mother ship, but her pod’s engine had malfunctioned, and she was forced to go to planet Vegeta and land there. Jaden’s luck had turned even worse after that because Frieza had alerted King Vegeta about Jaden, Zarbon, and Chestra escaping and the possibility that they might hide on the Saiyan planet. Frieza had also sweetly told King Vegeta that if King Vegeta or any of King Vegeta’s people were discovered to be hiding Jaden, Chestra or Zarbon or aiding them in any way, Frieza would take Prince Vegeta away from him when the boy heir returned from Astoria, and King Vegeta would never see his son again. A furious King Vegeta (who hated being bossed by anyone, especially some pink and white transforming lizard whom he now deeply regretted forming an alliance with) had cursed Frieza for his nasty threat, but in the end, he gave in. There was no way that King Vegeta was giving up his beloved son, his heir, potential future Super Saiyan, and the Saiyan race’s hope in conquering Frieza and taking over his empire. King Vegeta was forced to put out a worldwide alert and watch for the three escapees from Frieza, and within hours of his doing that, some Saiyans, both Elite and Low-Level had found Jaden near her space pod in the wilderness, trying to repair her spacecraft. The Saiyans told her that Frieza had ordered her arrest, and Jaden had put up a good fight. She managed to defeat the Low-Level Saiyans and turn them into glass, but the Elites had gathered together and overpowered her, some beating her to a bloody pulp. The barely alive Rybanese warrior had been arrested and brought to the Saiyan royal palace, where Dodoria and Balair were waiting for her (they had come to planet Vegeta on Frieza’s orders to see that their liege’s orders were carried out). In the palace throne room, Balair and Dodoria had dealt the almost mortally wounded Jaden two sharp blows to her head, and within a day, they brought her back to Frieza’s mother ship to face Frieza’s wrath. Now Frieza, Balair, and Dodoria were in Frieza’s interrogation room, where Frieza intended to force Jaden to reveal the whereabouts of Zarbon and Chestra before he had her executed. Balair and Dodoria would torture her until she gave Frieza the answers that he wanted. Jaden was still badly injured (Frieza would not allow her to be treated for her wounds), with almost all of her ribs broken, her two tails nearly crushed, one eye swollen shut, and numerous bruises throughout her body that were concealed by her navy-blue scales; her internal bleeding had not completely stopped yet. She had lost five teeth when a Saiyan had rammed his large fist into her jaw, and her collarbone was fractured. Too weak now to put up much of a fight, Jaden was now dangling from a ceiling with her wrists attached to the ceiling with chains of strong titanium steel chains. Dodoria happily landed his ham-sized pink fist into her stomach with the force of a battering ram. Jaden bit her lip to keep from screaming or crying out; she was not about to give these bastards the satisfaction of hearing her cry. Jaden still had her ankles unbound, and she responded to Dodoria with a swift kick to his jaw. “OUCH!” Dodoria screamed, and in retaliation, he head-butted into her backside with his spikes penetrating the armor-like scales through to her vulnerable skin. Jaden used her less injured tail to deal Dodoria a sharp whap to his face. Dodoria growled, as he slammed his fist into her lower back. Jaden once again slapped Dodoria’s face with her healthier tail. Then finally Balair intervened, and his fist collided with Jaden’s jaw while his other fist belted her stomach. Balair and Dodoria both landed repeated blows and kicks on Jaden’s already severely injured body. “Enough for now, boys,” Frieza told Balair and Dodoria casually. Balair and Dodoria grudgingly stopped, and Frieza addressed Jaden again, “Jadenia, make it easier on yourself and tell me where they are hiding. I’ll even let you get off lightly and let you keep your Top Elite position—“--he ignored Balair and Dodoria’s indignant individual protests—“if you tell me where they are at.” “For the last time, I don’t know—“ Jaden tried to snap. Just as Frieza was about to have Balair and Dodoria beat Jaden again, a beep emitted from his scouter. Frieza sighed and answered his scouter. “Yes?” “Lord Frieza, sire, Head Commander Zarbon’s ship has been traced to planet Sime; it is believed that VR Chestra may still be with him.” “Very good, Katon. Are they on the main planet or on one of Sime’s ten moons?” “Main planet, sire; the ship is possibly located on the continent of Mimaki near the Podstrain Caverns. Weather conditions there at the moment involve heavy rain, possibly a thunderstorm.” “Thank you, Katon. Have our pilots set a course for Sime at once.” “Yes, Lord Frieza, sir. Signing off.” Katon’s voice disappeared. Dodoria and Balair and Jaden had heard the entire conversation. “Sire,” Dodoria began finally. “Isn’t Sime that little planet that you were planning to sell to the Unibraugh race next week? Isn’t that the same swamp planet that Raspberry and Blueberry cleared three months ago?” “Yes, Dodoria, it is,” Frieza told him. “The Unibraugh wish to buy that planet as a vacation resort; their people seem to enjoy vacationing in dirty, mucky places such as those dense swamps. The swamps are repugnant, and the life forms that did live there were primitive blue plantlike people with ki levels no higher than a ten on the scouter scales. It took Raspberry and Blueberry no time at all to destroy those weaklings; why it took them less than three hours to clear that planet.” “I don’t understand why the Unibraugh want that planet other than its swamps,” Balair asserted. “Sime has ten moons, but none of those moons are capable of maintaining life; the gases on all of those moons are toxic to even us, except for the moon of Hershon, which has no atmosphere at all. Sime is worth much less than the ridiculously high price that the Unibraugh insist on paying you for.” “True, Balair, very true,” Frieza agreed. “But I am not one to refuse a good price, and if the foolish Unies insist on paying such an exorbitant price for a near-worthless swamp planet, that’s their business. The only thing of value that Sime really has is her beautiful array of caverns, which are rich with minerals that I ‘convinced’ the Unibraugh to allow me to have mined. Those minerals are good for ship fuel. As for the moons, the Unibraugh are immune to the gases there, so they would be able to use those satellites to maintain tourists from their own race. But enough about Sime; I have my woman to retrieve, and Balair, Dodoria, you will accompany me there.” “What do we with Jaden?” Dodoria wanted to know. Frieza looked thoughtfully at Jaden, who was barely clinging to life. He said calmly, “Put her in the rejuvenation tanks, and we will force her to come with us.” “Have her healed?” Dodoria nearly screamed. “She’ll try to kill us as soon as she recovers!” “Sire, no offense meant, but I’m starting to agree with Dr. Katsen that you are long overdue for you biannual head examination,” Balair added. Frieza growled, “I gave an order, and I expect it to be followed! I can still control Jaden; put a ki-restraining collar on her neck before you stick her in the healing tanks. I should have her killed, but unfortunately, as much as it pains me to say it, she’d be too hard to replace. Outside of you, Dodoria, and Zarbon, the subordinate minions respect her the most, and she more than keeps them in line. She can still be restrained, and when she learns to behave herself again, I will have the collar removed. Now do as you are ordered, both of you!” “Yes, sire,” both Dodoria and Balair grumbled, as they went to take Jaden down from the ceiling. Three day later on planet Sime… Zarbon nibbled on the back of Chestra’s white neck, as she purred contentedly, while her left hand slowly stroked his chest. They had consummated their love for each other many more times, and each time had been better than the one before. Each time they made love was special, but Chestra would always remember fondly the night that she had first given herself to Zarbon. Zarbon had been so gentle, so patient, and so tender that it had brought tears to the former slave girl’s eyes. She favored Zarbon with a smile full of pure happiness before she kissed him on his lips. “I wish we could stay here forever,” she sighed happily, after a long kiss with her new mate. “I wish we could too,” Zarbon said wistfully, “but, darling, we can’t. This planet has already been cleared and conquered, with the Unibraugh race buying it next week. We are going to leave here today, love.” “It’s a pity; I really did start to love these caverns, and that flight we took through the swamps was lovely. I’ve never seen so many birds of so many different colors, and that was the first time I ever saw birds with four wings instead of two. There was this one bird with a peach-colored head, red beak and legs, and a turquoise body with pale green butterfly wings. I’ve never seen birds’ bodies with four butterfly wings before. They were so sweet, and one of them even landed on the palm of my hand. I wish that I could take one of them with me.” Zarbon smiled, as he reached into a hand-woven basket with a lid that he had found in one of the deserted huts on Sime. He gently scooped the content of the basket out of the container, and he held the object carefully with his hands cupping it. “Open your hands,” he told her, and Chestra did. Chestra held out her small hands, and Zarbon slowly placed the vibrating object into her hands. She squealed in delight, as she saw a tiny baby bird with a pale green head, red beak and legs, a deep purple body, and four transparent, gauzy aquamarine-tinted butterfly-like wings. She gasped in amazement when the small bird nuzzled her hand. The baby bird was almost old enough to fly, but because he had been orphaned, there had been no mother to teach him, so he hopped around blissfully in Chestra’s cupped hands. “He’s precious!” she cried. “Thank you!” Zarbon laughed softly. “You’re very welcome. The poor thing’s mother had been found dead, and this was the only one living out of her four children. He seemed lively enough, so I figured I find him a new mother.” “Do you think that he would survive wherever we go to next?” Zarbon became somber. “That’s a good point. He might survive wherever we flee to next, but he might not survive when we travel in space. There is a small life form terrarium in my pod that can maintain a life form in a deep sleep for up to a period of six months, and your new friend could survive in that, if you don’t mind him being asleep for a while.” “That should work; he’s such a sweet little guy, thank you again,” Chestra said, as the miniscule bird started to nip at the tender flesh on her snowy palm. “I’ll get the terrarium, love, and then we will have to pack up what few things we had and leave.” “Where will we go to next?” “Planet Omicron for now; my uncle’s family has been living there as part of an alien exchange program. My uncle can hide us there for a short time until we can make plans; be prepared, though, love, we are going to be cat-and-mouse with Frieza and the others for a long time. Frieza is not one to give up easily. We will have to look over our shoulders for weeks, months, maybe years to come.” Chestra trembled at the mention of Frieza’s name. “I don’t want to go back to him, I don’t. I’d be afraid as to what he would do next; I can truly see now why no one dares to defy him. I am surprised that you and Jaden did. Oh, sweet Kami, Zarbon, we forget about Jaden! Jaden distracted Frieza, so that we could flee! Do you think that she could still be alive?” Zarbon sighed sadly, “I wish I could definitely say yes, but seeing as Jaden and Frieza have never been the best of friends, the answer is probably no. Frieza has probably ordered the deaths of both Jaden and I by now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jaden isn’t dead already. Frieza is not one to forgive and forget.” “We can’t just leave her behind!” Zarbon held her close. “We don’t know for sure, if she survived, love, and I can’t contact her on my scouter because Frieza and the Technical officers would pick up on my message. They probably have already traced us here to Sime because of the automatic tracking device inserted in every space pod.” Chestra said nothing; she knew of the tracking mechanism, and Zarbon’s emergency cloaking device that had hidden the pod on Frieza’s radar had stopped working two hours ago, which was why Zarbon was eager to leave Sime as soon as possible. “What about planet Astoria? They say that it is one of the strongest planets in the universe, and not even Frieza has been able to conquer it.” “They won’t welcome us there, love, at least not me. Remember when I told you about the Battle of Chloe during one of our training sessions? I was one of those fighters who led the attack on the Astorians on the royal moon of Chloe. They’d have us blasted before we even entered their atmosphere; Astorians are not a race that forgives and forgets easily. We may have to leave the entire galaxy and go to the Bukata Galaxy or the Milky Way Galaxy to be out of Frieza’s reach.” Chestra took his hand and whispered, “I will go wherever you think it is best for us to be. I just want to get away from that vile man. I pity Jaden though; I wish there was some way that we could help her.” “So do I, but I don’t think that we can. If we go back, you’ll go straight into Frieza’s clutches, and I’ll go straight into my grave. We’ll just have to hope that Jaden’s death, if she did die, was as quick as possible. It’s very unlikely that she’s alive now.” Chestra blinked, and a crystalline tear slid down her pale face. She stifled a sob, for Jaden was one of the few real friends that Chestra had had since she had been taken from planet Ghetti. She would miss her, the gruff, masculine female friend who had risked her own two tails to help Chestra and Zarbon escape. Chestra fervently wished that Jaden had been able to lead a happier life. Just as she was mourning the loss of Jaden, she and Zarbon heard a terrible whirring sound outside of the cave where they were staying in, and the wind began blowing at fifty miles an hour. They had been hearing thunder and seeing lightening for some time now, and the rains had been pouring steadily, but this whirring sound, like the sound of a giant engine, was not part of the storm. And then in the stormy twilight, she and Zarbon noticed a giant shadow, like an eclipse, fall over the outside of the cavern grounds. Both lovers grew pale, and Zarbon ran to the mouth of the cave, and he nearly cried out in horror. “Chestra! We have to flee now! Frieza is here! They’ve found us!” |