Sukuashi pushed open the doors of the castle and was immediately assaulted by the snow. If he was able to feel the cold, it would have stung his face, chilled him to the bone. But instead, he felt nothing but the minor discomfort of being wet, and ignored it as he stared down at Pi, who had summoned him here minutes ago. He had sent her to the flight deck, near the left of the Saiya-jin compound, after they received a distress call. Distress calls were not uncommon, but from the look on Pi’s face, he could tell that this was serious.

Her dark hair was speckled white with snow, and there were light dustings of ice across her eyebrows, which were drawn with concern. She ducked her head to the left, angling it towards the flight deck. “We have a problem.”

“Yes, I gathered that.” Sukuashi retorted sarcastically. “And it better be a good one. You know I hate traveling outside this time of day. The weather is absolutely horrid.” As if to prove his point, the wind suddenly picked up and threw snow into his face, crystals scraping his cheeks.

“We were attacked.” She informed him, and began walking towards the flight deck. Though it was a considerable distance away and the blizzard had narrowed the chances of perfect vision, he could make out several Saiya-jin pilots running around the area in disarray. He also detected a hint of smoke coming from the building, which would lead him to believe that something was burning.

“Attacked?” He asked, probing for more information.

“According to the general, the stationary guard fleet near the left sector was attacked during a routine defensive maneuver.” Pi explained, stepping carefully through the snow. She turned for a moment, her dark eyes meeting his quickly. “He suspicions that they’re Earthlings. Which would make sense, seeing as though you decided to take one home and keep it as a pet….”

He grabbed her roughly by the throat and held tightly, his knuckles turning white. “You will not speak to me in that manner.” He commanded, and glared at her. She glared back, and he detected a hint of insolence in her deep, dark eyes. It was this insolence that worried him. Pi was growing more powerful every day and he knew that there was no understanding or respect in her heart. If Pi wanted to be the leader of Sukuashi, then she would have a very good chance of it. Sukuashi was still stronger, but Pi was much younger than him and nearly as powerful. In a matter of years, she would certainly take the throne. Until then, however, Sukuashi was the leader, and Pi needed to show him complete loyalty and respect --- whether it was fake or not. “I am still the leader of this colony, whether the Saiya-jin Council approves or not. You may be able to speak to your mother or anyone else like that, but I demand respect. Is that clear?”

He released her and she dropped to the ground gracefully, shaking her head and spraying a small blizzard of snow onto Sukuashi’s uniform. She rose her eyebrows haughtily. “Crystal.”

“My liege? If I may interrupt….” A voice asked hesitantly. Sukuashi tore his eyes away from Pi and found the Saiya-jin general standing tall at his side. His mustache was iced over with snow, and his lips, almost blue in color, were drawn into a deep frown. “The defense force was attacked by unknown adversary less than an hour ago in the left sector.”

“So I heard.” Sukuashi said, nodding his head slightly.

“I couldn’t be certain, but the unknown adversary appeared to be of human origin.” The general continued, and his mustache twitched uncertainly. “I’ve also been told by a confident source that you have a human prisoner in your possession?”

Sukuashi’s eyes narrowed. “You misunderstood, general. There is no such prisoner.”

He didn’t believe him, Sukuashi could tell by the sudden way that he averted his dark eyes. “Yes, sir. However, if there was such a prisoner, the Council should be notified of it immediately.”

The general had been held his position for as long as Sukuashi could remember, and he was a fine leader and a fine trainer --- but also fiercely loyal to the Council. The soldiers that he produced were not crude and undignified animals of the former Saiya-jin species, but finely tuned and intelligent warriors; they understood when to attack and when to back away, they understood how important strategy was in a battle, and most importantly: they understood loyalty. The former Saiya-jin race, the poor beings under the leadership of the great King Vejiita, had been more interested in gaining power for themselves than furthering the race. Often battles and wars were lost because of the exceeding amount of independence and selfishness among the soldiers --- which had been taught to them by their elders and by their leaders during Saiya-jin training.

When the Council first began to disapprove of King Vejiita’s leadership tactics, this was one of the first items that brought up. Even King Vejiita himself was more interested in furthering his own power than running a planet. His subjects began to follow his example and suddenly the entire Saiya-jin race was composed of power-hungry, self-seeking mongrels that rushed into battle and carelessly laid out plans. The death rate among the race was astounding, and rising every year with the increase of space travel and battles. The Saiya-jin Council was formed of several intelligent, ambitious Saiya-jins, who considered themselves to be above the other beings on the planet. After the Council had been formed, they went to King Vejiita, to speak of their plans for further development. Their reasoning was that if the Saiya-jins wished to become the most powerful race in the universe, they needed to unify the soldiers and show complete and utter loyalty to their leader. Gaining power for oneself was to be put aside until the Saiya-jins had finally ruled the universe. Then, and only then, could they begin to better themselves, to be invincible in case any other race decided to try and conquer their empire.

They were laughed at. King Vejiita turned them away and had most of the Council thrown in jail, where they most likely stayed until they rotted or were tortured to death. In the King’s eyes, the Council was nothing but an alliance of traitors, and a danger to his rule. The remaining Council members began to plan in secret, plotting their own empire away from the madness of the other blood-thirty, power-hungry Saiya-jins. Several others joined them, not as Council members, but as subjects, and an underground democracy was formed on the planet Vejiita. When they considered themselves too intelligent and too far advanced for the other Saiya-jins, and felt that their influence was ruining them, the Council and it’s subjects fled the planet. They roamed the reaches of outer space, becoming something of a legion of space pirates, until they found the empty, snowy planet that they occupied now. At first the conditions were unbearable, and that year many of the rebel Saiya-jins lost their lives due to the freezing weather and the complete isolation. Things grew better however, as time went on, and eventually, due to the discovery of a Saiya-jin scientist of ‘Nairb’, the cold vanished. Little by little, the new empire was built up, and the Council began to appoint it’s leaders. Sukuashi was elected the first leader of the empire, and in the Saiya-jin tradition, the planet was named “Sukuashi” in his honor. Since the empire was more of a democracy than a monarchy, the Council voted and appointed all of Sukuashi’s underlings, and created the main laws of the planet. They stayed mostly in the background, letting Sukuashi assume his leading role, but still dictated his every move, and served as a severe hindrance to him.

ChiChi’s presence on the planet would no doubt disturb them, and they might even strip him of his leadership because of it. One of the Council’s many laws was that the selection of a mate was completely binding. He had already chosen Koronu as his mate long ago, which left him unavailable to other Saiya-jin females, as well as females of a different race. The only loophole through the law was that if one should happen to die, their mate was free to choose a new partner. Sukuashi frowned. Koronu however, was making it very difficult for him to dispose of her. She had informed the Council almost immediately that Sukuashi was trying to rid himself of her, and he had spent months trying to smooth things over with them. Having ChiChi here could prove to be very difficult indeed. The best way to edge around any sort of complications was to simply keep her locked up and away until after Koronu had been killed. Then he was free to chose whomever he wanted as a mate, and ChiChi would be waiting for him.

“I said there was no prisoner.” Sukuashi informed the general again, crossing his arms and looking threatening. If the general suspected anything, he had to make sure that he kept quiet. He made a mental note to ask Pi to dispose of him later. Several had already been killed to keep ChiChi’s appearance on the planet a secret, and the only ones he trusted the information with were his family. Since he planned to kill both Koronu and Potuto as soon as time would allow, the secret seemed to be safe with them.

“General, what exactly happened?” Pi asked in a disapproving voice. “Almost an entire fleet of airships were destroyed under your command. That does not speak very highly of your leadership abilities.”

“We formed a defensive barrier as always, when we discovered that they were moving into our territory. They seemed to be on course straight for the planet, but were idling along at a very slow pace.” The general exclaimed, and Sukuashi watched the snow form a layer on his broad, decorated shoulders. “In order to see if they were a danger or not, we fired decoy shots near the ship to agitate it. When we received no real response, we began to actually fire light ammunition and to fly closer in order to see the occupants. It was then that the ship suddenly began to take off at a rather rapid pace towards the planet and began firing. Because we were not suspecting such an attack, the fleet was caught off guard and most of our ships were destroyed.”

“How many casualties?” Sukuashi asked, unimpressed by his explanation.

“23 men, according to my last count, Sir.”

“Kuso! That’s almost the entire fleet, baka! How are we supposed to defend Sukuashi with two thirds of our defense deceased?!” Sukuashi raged, glaring at the general. “I expect fully trained soldiers to be out there defending this planet within a day, general. There is far too much at stake to be short on defense.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“What about the rest of your men?” Pi asked, gesturing towards the flight deck, where several soldiers were still running around in chaos.

“We have several critically injured soldiers that need immediate medical attention and others that are mildly injured, but still in need of a doctor. With your permission, my liege, I would like to have the infirmary reserved for the recovering soldiers.”

Normally, Sukuashi wouldn’t have hesitated in the slightest, but he was well aware of the fact that ChiChi was in the infirmary at that very moment, receiving medical attention. He couldn’t send the injured soldiers to the infirmary knowing that an Earthling prisoner would be there. The Council would certainly discover her then.

“Of course, general.” He answered slowly. “Prepare your men to be transported to the infirmary. We will discuss the details of the attack and any retaliation strategies at a later time.”

The general nodded and took off at a brisk pace towards the flight deck. The snow soon blurred him from vision, and for a moment, Sukuashi and Pi stood in silence, the wind whipping ice into their faces. Then Sukuashi turned to face her, a determined look on his face.

“Pi, I trust you can take care of things? I want the Earthling kept from all other Saiya-jins. Please remove her from the Infirmary and place her in my room for safekeeping. Because of the attack, I’m sure the soldiers are going to be wanting those extra rooms, including hers, for board.” Sukuashi paused, and stared at the large form of the castle, covered with layers and layers of snow. “She’ll simply have to stay with me until this is all over.”

Chapter 38
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