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Two hours later But it would not be Jaden who would reach Chestra first; it would be Balair. The Sistrai warrior quickly found his prey talking to another warrior, a handsome humanoid Low-Level officer named Druce, a Gemstarian warrior. Druce had white hair and deep blue eyes, and Head Commander Zarbon’s newest recruit fascinated him already. He was questioning Chestra about her past and race (which Chestra did not know at all) while trying to flirt with her. Chestra was amused with him, but she did not take him seriously as a potential date. Druce noticed Balair watching them, and Balair spoke quickly before Druce could warn Chestra about him, “LL Officer Druce, I wish to speak to VR Chestra alone. You are needed now to patrol the outer corridors of the mother ship.” “Yes, Commander,” Druce said reluctantly. He knew that there were more than enough LL officers patrolling the outer corridors, but he could not disobey Balair. He pitied Chestra for being left alone with Balair, but Druce knew that he was not strong enough to defy Third Lieutenant Commander Balair, the most vicious of all of Lord Frieza’s Top Elite officers. Druce looked at Chestra sorrowfully and left. Balair grinned devilishly at Chestra, and Chestra instinctively put her mental guard up. She had seen and known too many Sistrai males on planet Sistra not to know what that frightening expression on Balair’s reptilian face meant. Balair had been hoping to get her alone, and he was planning on “courting” her, in the Sistrai manner. Chestra immediately disliked him; she had met too many of his type before, Sistrai and non-Sistrai. He reminded her unpleasantly of some of her masters, particularly that heinous army general on planet Sistra… But Balair was a commanding officer of Frieza’s Top Elite, her superior, so Chestra knew that she had to be polite. To a certain extent, that is. “Hello, Commander Balair,” she told him calmly. She knew by now that VR meant “voluntary recruit” and LL meant “Low-Level”, so she did not question him about those. She had only seen Balair once, but she had heard of him before then and knew that he was Sistrai. “What have you come to see me about?” Balair smiled amiably, as amiably as possible for a vicious Sistrai warrior such as himself. “I have heard good things about you, VR Chestra, and those things have pleased me greatly. Plus, I figured that I would like to get to know you better-“ “In what way?” Chestra asked evenly, careful not to let her nervousness show. Balair was not one to beat around the bush. He said bluntly, “I was hoping maybe as a fellow officer and potential date. Lord Frieza’s mother ship is about to land on Planet Frieza Number Twenty, and it is a great place to go, with amusement parks, parties, and bars. I could be your escort and show you around.” Chestra smiled pleasantly and said kindly, “Thank you, Commander, but I am afraid that I will have to decline your invitation. I am busy training with Zarbon, and my first Recruit Evaluation is coming up, so I will not have time to date or go anywhere.” Before Balair could say anything else, he and Chestra noticed a supernova exploding thousands of light-years away from the mother ship. Chestra watched with fascination, and then she grew a little sad, for the last time that she had seen a supernova was at the Ghetti royal family party for her twelfth birthday, a beautiful explosion, just before her adoptive family had been murdered… Balair glanced now and then at the supernova, but he noticed the wistful expression on his potential conquest’s face. “Why the long face, sweetness?” he asked her, dropping all formalities. Chestra ignored his pet name and replied a bit forlornly, “Just thinking of one of my childhood homes, the best home of my life, the best family that I had ever lived with…” Her voice trailed off then, for she did not really want to share such moments with Balair. She decided to change the subject. “This supernova is beautiful, isn’t it? Lovely, like a thousand stars dancing together at once in a pool of fire…” “It is lovely,” Balair agreed, as his thick, blood red hand ventured to the red side of Chestra’s tresses. He dared to run his muscular fingers through the thick, silky strands, and his fingers lightly danced under her right shoulder flank. Chestra abruptly pushed away from him, and she shot him a deterrent glare, which Balair ignored. He was used to women giving him that look by now. “The supernova is lovely, but not nearly as lovely as you,” Balair crooned, as he advanced on her. His right meaty, muscular arm encircled Chestra’s tiny waist, and she swiftly removed it from her body. She looked directly into his yellow eyes with her jade-green ones, a look telling him to back away. “Keep your hands to yourself, Commander,” she said in a firm voice that was heavy with warning. Balair wasn’t about to give up. He moved closer to Chestra. “Are you sure that you want me to do that, sweetness? I really would like to get to know you better,” he told her salaciously with a leer. Chestra stood tall and firm for her four-feet and seven inches, not about to be intimidated by this man who towered her by a good few feet. “Leave me alone, Commander, and I mean it. I am not interested in you that way, nor will I ever be. Do not touch me again.” Balair lowered his eyes and smiled wickedly, his sharp, pointed teeth lining his mouth like a picket fence on Earth. “You really don’t mean that, do you, sweetness?” he purred, as he stepped so close to her that his chin was brushing against the top of her red and green hair. Chestra tried to move away from him, but Balair swiftly grabbed her with both hands before she could do so. Chestra realized then that she should have fled earlier, but she still wasn’t about to give in to Balair, whether he was her superior or not. He pushed her up against the wall before she could react, pressing his lower half of his body against hers, pinning her between him and the shiny metal wall. His hand dared to stroke her bottom, and he crushed his tooth-encrusted lips against hers. Chestra smelled and tasted vodka and rotting food on his reptile breath and fought down the urge to vomit. She closed her eyes hard, focusing her mind. Balair mistakenly took this as a sign that she was giving in to his advances, and he flicked out his long tongue to lick her neck. A force stronger than Balair’s force looped the tongue around his thick neck like a rope, strangling him. Balair could not control his tongue at all, as his own tongue was strangling him. His body and arms flew backwards away from Chestra against his will. It seemed as if a ghost was controlling his body, shoving him against the wall. Balair could not move or fight the unseen force crushing him against the metal wall. His tongue was still strangling him, and he could not slide it back into his mouth, no matter how hard he tried. Chestra was staring at her tormentor, with her eyes seeming to be staring off into space. Her expression was flat, emotionless, as she expertly used her telekinetic powers to crush Balair’s body against the wall and use his own tongue to strangle him. Her mind pinned her attacker against the wall of the corridor, and Balair could not move at all. Balair struggled vainly against her unknown mind powers, but it was no use. Chestra then used her mind to telekinetically throw Balair up against the wall repeatedly several times. She stood there calmly, focusing her mind fully on attacking the Sistrai commander who had dared to touch her without her consent. Using her mind, she flung Balair against the wall harder and harder each time until some of his ribs cracked. With a blink of her pale green eyes, she threw her tormentor down the corridor where he crashed like a boulder into the floor of the hall. Balair was moaning and groaning now, unable to move without extreme pain. Chestra freed her mind, returning her focus back to normal. She then called to her assailant, “Maybe that will teach you to keep your hands to yourself, you lecherous Sistrai creep!” Balair grumbled and growled, but he was in too much pain now to go after Chestra. He just lay there in shock, and his anger increased when he heard a familiar laugh. Jaden was chuckling at Balair’s misery. She had just come back from having a small lunch at the Elite Lounge and Bar (small to her meant fifteen double bacon cheeseburgers, a bucket of parsnip fries and three mugs of Crystal Blue Persuasion, followed with two chocolate and cherry pies for desert). “What the hell happened to you, Bali?” she asked, with no real concern. “Jaden, you can eat sh-“ Jaden laughed. “Such nice language you have, Balair!” She, however, had no room to talk, for she had the second dirtiest mouth in Top Elite next to her Sistrai archenemy. She then saw Chestra shooting Balair a look of pure disgust, and Jaden guessed that Balair had already tried to make a play for her, from the looks of Chestra’s slightly bruised lips and mussed hair. Jaden left Balair lying there on the floor, and she strolled casually over to Balair’s attacker. “So you did all of this to Balair?” Jaden asked her, amused. “Is this how you normally treat your dates, Chestra?” “Only if they are Sistrai or trying to force themselves on me without my consent, and in this case Balair was both. I already told him that I wasn’t interested,” Chestra told her boldly. But then a small kernel of worry festered in her, for what if Jaden decided to write her up and report her actions to Zarbon and Frieza? Jaden had the authority to do that. “Do you intend to report me for this, Commander Jaden?” Chestra asked her steadily. “I realize that I should have not attacked a commanding officer, but he had no business in touching me without my permission.” “No, he didn’t,” Jaden agreed. “And no, Chestra, you don’t have to worry about me reporting you. Balair might though, but he deserved what you gave him. You were more merciful on him than I would have been.” “Why do you say that?” “I would have killed him on the spot.” Jaden had wanted to leave Balair lying there on the corridor floor for the rest of the evening, but Chestra insisted that they at least call some of the medical staff to assist him. It had been Chestra’s intention to teach Balair a lesson, not kill him. Jaden thought that Chestra should have done the latter, but in the end, she had reluctantly called Medical to come pry Balair off of the floor. After that, Jaden and Chestra went to one of the soldiers’ sitting rooms in the recreation area of Frieza’s mother ship. They had stopped by the Soldier’s Snack Bar and Supply Shop for snacks (a snack to Jaden was four jumbo-sized bags of blue potato chips from planet Tato and a giant can of parsnip dip). Chestra, who had a normal appetite, had opted for two banana and orange fruitcakes and half of one of Jaden’s bags of chips. Jaden had paid for her snacks, for Chestra would be earning no money until she was officially inducted as one of Frieza’s soldiers. Recruits, voluntary and involuntary, worked without pay until after their Final Evaluations, and Frieza paid for their minimum expenses of food and supplies. If recruits wanted any extras, they would have to rely on Elite officers to finance them until after their Final Evaluations. “I appreciate this, Commander,” Chestra told her thankfully, as she ate one of her fruitcakes. “No problem,” Jaden told her gruffly. “I was a recruit myself, so I know how it is to go without anything above bare necessities. You are one of the luckier recruits, do you realize that?” “How come? Because I am voluntary?” “That, and because not all recruits are lucky to have one of the Top Elite officers personally train them. Most recruits, especially involuntary ones, are usually trained by Mid-Elite and Lower-Elite soldiers in groups in the barracks. Most of those recruits will never become anything more than Low-Levels. It is only the recruits, voluntary and involuntary, who are considered potentials for the Elite that are trained personally by Top Elite Officers. In those cases, most Top Elite Officers personally finance their trainees and put them on their accounts. I have heard that Zarbon plans to put you on his account. Don’t refuse him, if he does, for you will find that there are many things that you will need to buy that Lord Frieza does not cover.” “I will keep that in mind, thank you.” “Where are you from, kid?” Jaden asked her. “What race are you from?” Chestra took a deep breath. “I don’t know what or whom I am descended from,” she told her. “I have been a slave almost all of my life.” And in the half-hour that followed, she told Jaden her life story. When she had finished, Jaden was impressed (and saddened, although she did not show it). Jaden was not normally impressed or interested in other people’s recruits, but she found something in this new girl that she did not find in another person every day: a kindred spirit. Like Jaden, Chestra’s life had not been handed to her on a silver platter, and like Jaden, she had been a slave to others all of her life, with the exception of those years on planet Ghetti. Jaden was amazed already by the strange young woman’s maturity and self-confidence, especially after Chestra had kicked around Balair and gave the perverted bastard what he so richly deserved. Jaden already liked Chestra for that alone, for it was not every female that could stand up to Balair, fight back against him, and live to tell the tale. When she finally told Chestra about the bet between Captain Ginyu and Balair, Chestra asked calmly, “Is this Captain like Balair?” “He won’t try to rape you, if that’s what you’re asking,” Jaden told her. “But he’ll have his own seduction methods in mind, including his infamous Dance of Joy and Dance of Love. But you don’t want him either, for he’s stupider than Balair. He is a good warrior, but he made it into Top Elite partially because he is Lord Frieza’s first cousin, and King Cold’s favorite nephew. The fighters in his Force are strong, but no smarter than him. You may find that Jeice or Baata will try to make a move on you sooner or later. You’ve pretty much stroked the libidos of almost all of the males in Top Elite, kid.” There is only one libido that I wish to stroke, and that is Zarbon’s, Chestra thought to herself gleefully, unconsciously mouthing the words. A mischievous smile spread across her cat face, and Jaden noticed. “You like Zarbon, eh?” Jaden asked. Chestra realized too late that she had spoken her thoughts out loud under her breath. She blushed slightly. Jaden laughed. “You know that you can’t have a chance with him until after you pass your Final Evaluation, right? No sexual or romantic relationships between trainers and recruits, that’s the rule, kid.” Chestra nodded, her white cheeks still tinted pink. “How old is he?” she whispered. “He never told me.” “In his sixties, believe it or not,” Jaden told her. “He was in his position as Head Commander when I first came to Frieza. That was a long time ago. He’s old enough to be your granddaddy, but he does look good for someone of his race. His race ages at a very slow rate. He’d be fine as a mate, I suppose, although he’s a dandy, foppish and effeminate. He dresses very well and constantly is mindful of a good appearance.” “I find the effeminate part hard to believe,” Chestra asserted. “He seems very manly to me.” “Yeah, but how many men do you know constantly groom their hair and wear fine jewelry? Think about it, kid.” “Maybe, but I like him anyway. I see him as very masculine.” Jaden rolled her eyes, but said nothing, for after all, Chestra was only eighteen years old. Chestra had much life experience, but Jaden thought that there were still a few things that she could learn. Well, at least that incident with Balair hadn’t permanently scarred her; Jaden had to keep from laughing every time she thought of Chestra taking down Balair the way that she did without lifting a finger. She just hoped that Balair wouldn’t plan on seeking revenge anytime soon. Despite Chestra’s obvious affection for Zarbon, Jaden found herself liking her (genuinely liking someone was rare for the Rybanese warrior). |