Where am I? she wondered. The last thing she remembered was fighting with the warriors of Freeza. Someone had intervened in the fight and rendered her unconscious.
A piercing klaxon rang and voices approached, calling orders and speaking in a rapid, confusing blur. A group of Freeza’s mercenaries rushed by, and she caught a trace of a faintly familiar, musky odor and the sour tang of blood. Painfully, she tried to open her eyes, forcing the bruised lids to open. The group of soldiers was clustered around a member of their party, who seemed to be unconscious and critically wounded. A reptiloid who wore the white cloak of a medical officer ordered the men about, and soon the injured soldier floated in a regeneration tank.
The medical officer came over to Nenais’u’s bed and felt for her pulse on her wrist, then looked up at her face and realized that she was awake.
"You're with us again, eh?" he said, speaking in the standard dialect for terrestrial species. Nenais'u adjusted her thoughts to that language. "How do you feel?"
"Weak," the girl murmured. "My face hurts."
"Hmm…Does it feel sensitized?"
Nenais'u nodded, inadvertently trying to reach her hand up to touch her face and encountering the restraints.
"That's an effect of the medicines we're giving you. Here." He unlocked the hand restraints. "If you're wise, you won't try to escape. Put bluntly, you're here as a specimen of study, since Freeza’s forces have never encountered the Amons before. You'll be treated well, just asked to perform some tests. Behave well and you won't have any difficulties. Misbehave and you'd receive…disciplinary action."
Nenais'u blinked, somewhat taken aback. "Then…I’m to be a lab animal?"
"In the simplest sense, yes. Technically, you've been taken as a prisoner of war, so you're getting off very easily. Don't take that for granted, girl." The doctor turned away to manipulate the console controlling the regen tank.
The girl sighed and closed her eyes again, sinking into a fitful half-sleep fueled by whatever drugs they were giving her.
It was sometime later when she awoke, perhaps a few hours, perhaps a day. Slowly, the Amon girl sat up, hissing slightly as a bruise along her side screamed its presence. She slowly moved her arms around, stretching the muscles out carefully, then cautiously felt her sensitized face. She didn't seem to be injured, aside from the minor cuts and bruises she had received during the fight. How had their invasion fared? The thought of the beautiful architecture of the capital, shattered by Freeza’s men, nearly brought tears to her eyes.
She looked up at the regen tank to take her mind off of that painful subject. A male of the same race as two of her attackers floated in the greenish liquid, with an airmask strapped to his face and various tubes attached to his body. He floated in apparent repose, but the was something dangerous in his unconscious frown and the slight furrowing of his brow. His body was compact, very muscular and apparently very powerful, but somehow still attractive to her in some strange way. Carefully, not knowing quite what to expect, Nenais'u brushed the man's mind with her own.
The whirling black tide of his mind nearly drowned her at the first touch. In the very brief moment of contact, she felt a towering pride, bloodlust, violence, and, above all, a desire—really, a need—to be superior to everything and everyone, in every way. He was a Saiyajin, and his name was Vejiita…
Nenais'u pulled away from his mind delicately, shivering in reflex. What a forceful personality! She looked up at the regen tank again, and saw his eyebrows twitch slightly, as if he were thinking. His eyelids fluttered; he must have been dreaming.
Several of the lights along the regen tank's console began to blink, and the medical officer chased the lights around the board, adjusting knobs and flicking switches as he saw fit.
"Hmm…Vejiita might be ready to walk out later today, at this rate…" He turned to Nenais'u and saw her staring blankly at the man in the regen tank. "If he opens his eyes and sees you staring, girl, he'll kill you when he gets out," he warned her.
Nenais'u blinked in surprise, but realized it was probably true. "He would, wouldn't he...?"
The medic nodded. "His temper--or lack of it--is infamous. Vejiita's an arrogant bastard, but the fact that he's technically the king of the Saiyajin empire protects him."
"King?" The girl's eyes widened.
"Oh, you wouldn't know that, would you?" The medical officer sounded amused. "Yes, he's the king, and an admiral in Freeza's forces. How long that may last, I don't know...he's too insubordinate--and a loner. Freeza won't tolerate his behavior for much longer."
Nenais'u was watching the Saiyajin as the reptiloid spoke, so she immediately saw the slight movement of Vejiita's hand, the fingers suddenly clenching into a fist. "He--he moved!" she said in a tremulous voice.
The doctor spun around, stared, and began to flick switches again. "He's not ready," he murmured, reading a printout from the console. "But he seems to want to come out."
Bravely, Nenais'u reached out with her mind again and lightly touched the edge of Vejiita's consciousness. She suddenly flinched. He was fully conscious now! He just couldn't open his eyes in the regen liquid!
"He's awake! Let him out," she said.
"What? How can you know that? The graphs just now read that! You can't have seen--"
The doctor was interrupted by a sharp thud as Vejiita kicked the side of the tank. He was very obviously awake, and the medical officer had no choice but to let him out--before he destroyed the regen system.
"Let him out!" Nenais'u repeated, fearful and dreadfully curious at the same time.
"It looks as if I must..." With a few clicks and beeps, the greenish liquid began to drain out of the tank. Vejiita floated slowly to the floor of the tank, and with a huge shudder, broke free of the various tubes attached to him. He reached one hand up to pull the oxygen mask away and waited for the walls of the tank to open.
"It's too soon, Vejiita; you're not finished yet..." the medical officer murmured.
"As far as this regeneration unit is concerned, Yasku, I'm done." The Saiyajin opened his eyes as he spoke and looked about the sick bay.
Nenais'u shivered violently as his eyes took her in. There was a low, smoldering fire in his dark eyes, and she found herself locked in his stare.
"The prisoner...?" the prince said slowly. He idly stretched his arms and rubbed at his face.
"Yes," Yasku agreed, handing Vejiita a uniform stationsuit. "She's lab bait for X’erat, as soon as she clears quarantine."
"Mar Amon's been taken then?" Vejiita pulled the clothing on slowly, careless of his nudity. "Was the capital subdued?"
Yasku nodded. "After your injury."
The Saiyajin snorted softly and approached the bed where Nenais'u sat with her legs shackled. "I'm sure you have a name, yes? What are you called?"
"Ne--" the girl swallowed hard, trying not to shiver. "Nenais'u, I am called." She looked down at her long-fingered hands.
"Nenais'u...it runs smoothly off one's tongue, does it not, Yasku? What does it mean in your people's language, child? I know little of the avian dialect."
"It's...it's from the language of our lost ancestors," she replied softly. "It means 'troubled water.'" She resented Vejiita's calling her "child", because he couldn't be more than ten cycles older than herself, but about that, she said nothing.
Vejiita smiled then, a rather sadistic-looking expression on his fine-featured face. "'Troubled water', eh? How very poetic..."
Nenais'u shuddered violently, flexing her clawed fingers in reflex. He was so intense!
"Heh! Did you see these claws on her, Yasku?" The Saiyajin took one of her hands by the wrist and examined her talons, holding them in the light and testing their hardness.
"Yes. We considered cutting them off, too, but they have blood veins in them. We filed down the tips, though."
The girl looked at her hands. Sure enough, the knife-edges of her talons had been neatly filed to dullness. Vejiita laughed at her obvious chagrin. "Claws wouldn't have helped you much anyway, little bird," he told her, rubbing her palm lightly with his thumb. "And isn't that just a shame...?" His eyes were very dark, and they burned into her.
Yasku cleared his throat surreptitiously. "X’erat will want to see you for a debriefing."
"Feh..." Vejiita raised the girl's hand to his lips and kissed it, then released her, mischief glinting in his eyes. "Do you have a restraining collar, Yasku?"
"Of course, but...she's not cleared from quarantine yet..." Even as he spoke, the medical officer rummaged in a metal locker to find what Vejiita had asked for.
"If nothing alarming has appeared yet, I doubt anything will."
"Probably so," Yasku agreed, finding a small plasmetal collar, a remote control, and a length of synthcord. "Here, Vejiita...but be careful! If you injure her, X’erat will have your hide."
"X'erat...ha!" the Saiyajin laughed sourly. He clipped the collar around Nenais’u’s neck and hooked the cord onto it. "Here you are, little bird."
"But, Vejiita, X’erat is much stronger than you are," Yasku protested, even as he flicked the switch to unlock the girl's ankles.
"Check your readings again," Vejiita all but snarled. He was about to say more, but the Amon, seeing her captors distracted, leaped off the bed and darted into the darker recesses of the sick bay, clawing at the obtrusive collar.
Yasku began to fret, but Vejiita only laughed. "I thought you were a bit smarter than that, Nenais'u!" he called. "That device is called a restraining collar for a reason, and I hold the controller!"
That made Nenais’u’s blood run cold. What could that collar do to her? She felt it cautiously with her sensitive fingers. If she could find the power source...
"Come out, girl, or I'll activate this," the Saiyajin warned her.
Nenais'u said nothing, not daring to breathe in her hiding space.
"Fine," Vejiita said indifferently. A tense second passed, and suddenly the girl felt a searing-hot shock around her neck. She struggled not to scream, not to make a sound; unconsciousness loomed ominously over her head. Then the moment passed, and she returned to herself. This collar meant imprisonment--and that went against everything in her Amon heart. Timidly, she felt the collar, and was relieved when nothing happened. Quickly, before Vejiita could shock her again, she felt for the warmth that would indicate a power supply.
There it was! A small segment near the clasp seemed to hold a battery. Fearfully, the girl dug her claws into the small cracks above the compartment and felt for a release spring. Suddenly the hatch-cover flew off, and the battery, a small, flat disk, was bared. She tore it out, and, assured of her powers, threw the cell at Vejiita from her dark corner, hitting him in the face.
The Saiyajin snarled in anger, but bent to retrieve the battery. "Vakri's Bones!" he cursed. "She's pulled out the battery cell!"
"What?!" Yasku cried. "She's loose and unrestrained?!" The reptiloid began to flick red switches, and an alarm began to ring. Large hyperium panels moved to cover the doors, and the darker parts of the sick bay were suddenly bathed in light.
Nenais'u crouched, perched on the top of a stack of boxes. She felt her blood pounding through her veins, from her heart outwards. Would she change to turu? The very thought of that was frightening--those feathery, clawed wings bursting from her back...! She shuddered at the idea, and the memory of the last time she had transformed.
"Come down, girl," Vejiita called up to her. He stood at the foot of the pile of boxes with his arms crossed over his chest. In contrast to the panicking Yasku, Vejiita didn't seem to really care. Either he was so powerful he was not concerned about any threat she presented, or he was just stupid...and Nenais'u highly doubted the latter.
"Nenais'u," the Saiyajin said in a steely tone, "come here, now."
The girl hissed viciously from the top of her little mountain.
"Spirited, eh?" Vejiita smiled thinly. "Fine, I'll come up there for you..." With that, he flew up and hovered in front of her.
"Demons of the Seventh Circle of Hell!" the girl cried shrilly, nearly falling off her box. She had not known all Saiyajin could fly! Among her own people, the power of flight was a rare gift indeed.
The frightening smile reappeared on Vejiita's face as he drew closer. "What was that...?" In the blink of an eye, he was on her, catching her wrists and holding her immobile, his face inches from hers. "We don't all speak that birdy language, you know..."
Nenais’u’s breaths came in short, ragged gasps. "Don't--don't!" She writhed in the Saiyajin’s grip, trying desperately to control her power, which threatened to burst from her.
"Vejiita, stop scaring her that way! You'll make her transform!" Yasku called, a tremor of fear in his voice.
"Hmph." Vejiita looked at the medical officer contemptuously, then turned to glare at Nenais'u. "I'm not going to hurt you, you know. Not that I wouldn't welcome a fight," he added quietly, "but Yasku would go into convulsions if we tried it in here." He grinned. "Come on." Not waiting for a reply, he picked her up around her waist and floated down to the floor.
The girl almost collapsed when her feet hit the floor. What in the world was going on here? She felt as if she had been thrust into the middle of a play without a script, or even an inkling as to what the plot of the play was!
"Tsk. Stand up, girl," Vejiita snapped, still holding her by the waist loosely. "I'm taking you to my debriefing, come along."
Yasku stared in disbelief. "But...she's totally unrestrained! We don't know her powers at all! You can't be serious...!" Even as he spoke, he shut off the alarm systems and reopened the sick bay doors.
"Why would I not be serious? Nenais'u, I think you understand that it's in your best interest to behave well. Pretend that your collar is functioning, and I'll let you have free movement when it's safe for you to do so." Dragging the Amon with him, Vejiita went to retrieve the battery cover from the collar, then clipped it back into place. "I'm going to tell X’erat to turn you over to me."
"Urm...Vejiita, are you sure that's wise?" Yasku hedged nervously.
"You have no concept of my new strength," the Saiyajin
replied pityingly, taking Nenais’u’s leash in hand. "My strength
grows exponentially!" As the medical officer gaped at him, he
turned and led the girl out of the sick bay, into the mazy corridors of
Freeza's headquarters.
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