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One Month Later. Zarbon was one who believed in hands-on-training. He took Chestra to a small, mostly uninhabited planet known as Planet Frieza Number Seventeen; it was a planet reserved exclusively for training purposes. Chestra was to learn later that Frieza had one hundred planets named after him. Frieza from time to time would send unfortunate captives or animals to Seventeen to use for target practice for his minions. Zarbon was disappointed to learn that Frieza had not sent any powerful creatures to Seventeen this time, but there were enough semi-powerful beings for Chestra to practice on. Chestra’s targets were medium-sized, yellow slug-like animals with large, hollow black eyes and suction-like mouths that could be used to suck carbon monoxide from their victims. Some of these creatures tried to suffocate Chestra, but she practiced her telekinetic powers on them and used her mind to move them up into the air. Then she flawlessly and ruthlessly blasted them to fragments with her tiny mouth lasers. Then her next targets were the new Saibamen that had been genetically cloned and created just for target practice. Saibamen were light-green, plant-like creatures with large pink eyes, specifically designed to have no thoughts or feelings, in order to prevent sentimental, conscience-stricken recruits from feeling sorry for them and trying to spare them. Not that it would have mattered anyway, for the Saibamen’s mentalities were programmed only to kill and destroy in anyway possible. Saibamen came in tiny seeds, and once these seeds touched the dirt, they would sprout. The Saibamen gave Chestra a harder time than the slug-creatures did, but she eventually used her unique power to increase their sensitivity to pain, and she once again blasted them away with her mouth lasers “Very good,” Zarbon praised her. “That’s one of the fastest record I’ve ever seen for killing Saibamen.” “Thank you,” Chestra told him happily. “Let’s eat now, and then we’ll find more Saibamen for you to practice on,” Zarbon told her. He himself quickly zapped an antelope-like creature through its heart. He flew over and picked up the creature, and then he rammed a stick through the body to use as a spit. He set up the spit and turned to Chestra. “Can you cook?” he asked her. Chestra lifted up a tiny index finger and used it to zap the beast. It was cooked to perfection within seconds. Zarbon smiled. “I guess that answers my question.” They broke off pieces of the antelope and ate the pieces with relish. Both had unusually dainty table manners for Frieza’s minions, and they used pieces of the animal’s hide as napkins. “So,” Zarbon told her, “where are you originally from?” Chestra answered quietly, “To tell you the truth, I am not for sure. In fact, I don’t even know what race I am descended from, or even where I was born. The first planet that I remember living on was Mortrose, and I know that couldn’t have been my home planet because I resembled none of their people. I have been a slave since I’ve been a baby, and my earliest memory was being beaten to a bloody pulp for wetting myself in my bed. That was when I was two years old, and under the rule of my first master, Saytin, a tiny, but strong alien, who enjoyed beating women and children. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep myself from wetting my bed, so finally he sold me to a cruel race of aliens that resembled horses with rhino heads on planet Myboo. I was six years old at the time.” “I remember that Jaden and I cleared Myboo three months ago. That race put up quite a good fight, but they were eventually eliminated. They were known to be vicious to anyone that they considered weaker than they were.” Chestra snorted derisively, “But they didn’t dare challenge anyone that they knew were stronger than they were. I’m surprised that they bothered to resist you at all. A year after I was sold to the Mybooians, I had managed to kill some of their noblemen by causing boulders to crash onto them with my mind. Unfortunately, the few Mybooians who were stronger than me were able to restrain me, and then they sold me to a royal family on the planet Ghetti, and during the five years that I spent on Ghetti, my luck changed for the better.” Zarbon decided not to mention just yet that the Saiyan boys, Nappa and Raditz, had cleared Ghetti last year. The Ghettians had been a race of dark purple creatures that resembled cats with pink rabbit ears and sunshine-yellow eyes. He instead asked her, “Were the Ghettians good to you?” “The best masters that I had in my short life,” Chestra said positively. “King Muro and Queen Taba became attached to me and raised me like one of their own children. I didn’t have to fight or worry about being molested then. I was the caretaker for the four royal children, and I loved them all. I love children, although it is unlikely that I will ever have any of my own. I don’t even know which species I would be genetically and reproductively compatible with. A few months, after I was there, the King and Queen adopted me as one of their own. In fact, they even gave me my own small estate and a few servants. They also had tutors teach me to read and write in Standard, and I was a good student. And all I had to do was agree to serve them for the rest of my life, which I would have done gladly. I was like a member of their family. They were the only true parents that I ever had, and King Muro himself taught me how to control my powers and untap the hidden ones that I had. He helped me maximize my abilities. And Queen Taba arranged a marriage for me with one of her nephews, Haven. I was to marry him when I turned thirteen; I don’t know if I loved Haven, but I was fond of him, and I would have done my best to make him a good wife.” “What happened?” Zarbon asked softly. Chestra shut her eyes tight, and Zarbon could see that she was struggling to hold back tears. “It all ended so abruptly, my halcyon years. During a large party that Queen Taba had thrown for me on my twelfth birthday, some rebels, who did not approve of King Muro’s new laws forbidding them to terrorize the weaker races on Ghetti, invaded the castle and murdered the entire royal family. I had managed to kill some of them, but they overpowered me before I could completely succeed in eradicating them. Even my fiancé, Haven, was killed trying to stop them. The rebels captured me, and they took over the entire planet. The new, evil rebel king, Orco, was planning to conquer other worlds for profit the same way that Lord Frieza is doing now.” Zarbon nodded. King Orco’s trying to muscle in on Lord Frieza’s business had been the main reason that Ghetti had been conquered and cleared. Frieza did not like competition. “King Orco sold me to the leaders on planet Boro, so that he could finance his cornering the planet-selling market. The head chief, Kok, tried to rape me, but I used my mind to send a knife through his back before he had a chance. Of course, his people almost beat me to death, and then I was sold to someone else only after six months on Boro. This time, my captivity was on planet Sistra, and one of Sistra’s army generals was my new master. He wanted to rape me, as well, but he was impotent, so he would inject drugs into me and molest me while I was only half-conscious. I was tied to poles while he did this.” Zarbon’s normally handsome face contorted with anger at Chestra’s suffering. He wished that he was allowed to clear Sistra, but that planet was protected under Frieza’s orders as one of his few allies. And one of his comrades, Balair, was from that planet. Zarbon secretly despised Balair and his people, but he could not harm them unless Frieza gave the permission. He kept careful control of his voice, as he asked, “How did you get away from him?” “I managed to get control of the needles that he used to inject his drugs into me, and I used them on him. The drugs that only made me unconscious ended up killing him instantly, and I managed to destroy the poles that I was tied to and escape. I stole a ship and flew off of Sistra.” “After three months, I landed on planet Dijon, and the Dijonese told me to go to planet Astoria, where it was likely that the Superior Gran and Granden would grant me asylum. I knew that the Astorians were among the most powerful people in the Rosetta Galaxy, so I left Dijon for Astoria, but then some slave traders from planet Duffen had captured my ship and me two months after I left Dijon. The Duffenese were only slightly kinder than the Borolings and the Sistrai, in that they didn’t beat me for every little mistake. The Duffenese trained fighters and sold them to various planets for high prices, and they trained me intensively. The more I learned and advanced, the less they beat me. I was not mating compatible with any of the Duffenese, so their men left me alone; they just taught me to fight better. The Duffenese would ‘audition’ us to prospective buyers, and my next home would be on planet Scotch.” “The Scotchan men were drunk most of the time, and some of them tried to force themselves on me instead of using me to fight. I killed many of them with my mouth lasers, and then shortly afterwards, I was sold to the people on planet Ryban, where I was used strictly in the fighting arenas. I was one of the Ryban people’s favorite fighters because I never had lost a match. I fought all of my own opponents to the death and won every time. My Rybanese master even gave me a small share of the prize money that he had won every time I won a match. After a while, he treated me more kindly, and he even wanted me to be his mate, but he did not manhandle me. He was patient, and while I did not love him, I did grow to like him, and I even agreed to marry him. Unfortunately, one of his less trustworthy fighters rose up against him and killed him before I could rescue my master. This rebellious fighter took everything that our master had, and I had no choice but to flee.” “Of course I did not make it far; in fact, I didn’t even make it off of Ryban, for invaders from planet Hycan came and conquered Ryban. I fought against many of the Hycanese and killed a good number of them, but they captured me and used me as a mercenary for them. Under them, I was forced to clear two planets under them. I believe that they were members of Lord Frieza’s Planet Trade. I spent two years on Hycan, and they continued to use me to conquer and destroy people and their planet and others. Then that horrible Triumvirate of Egimari came to visit Hycan, and the Hycanese, who belong to your Lord Frieza’s Planet Trade, sold me to them for a very high price. And then you know what happened after that.” Zarbon was quiet. Yes, he did know what happened after that: he just met one of the bravest, toughest, strongest, and most beautiful women that he had ever known. He sincerely hoped that Chestra would work out as one of Frieza’s fighters. Zarbon had already developed a romantic interest in her, but he had to remain objective while she was still his recruit. Romantic relationships between trainers and current recruits were strictly forbidden, especially since the trainers would have to kill their recruits themselves, if their recruits failed their final evaluation. Zarbon was going to everything that he could to ensure that Chestra would pass, even if it meant her possibly becoming stronger than him. He sat and watched the shadows play off of her white panther face, dancing in the firelight. He just sat and drank in her beauty; there would be plenty of time to send her after Saibamen again later. |