Time Warriors Chapter 5

"Saiyans," murmured Charline and Olean, looking at each other in wide-eyed fear.

"That - that is a spacecraft from Earth - there is a delegation from that planet, going to the Argus system - and there are Saiyans on it," said Stranna, appalled. "Saiyans!" She whirled to face Yisador, making an effort to keep her voice calm, saying "... do you know what that means?"

A beat passed as Yisador and Stranna locked eyes. "Yes – yes, I do," Yisador said woodenly.

"Then you know who else must be on that ship." Stranna continued her own train of thought, her face chalk white. Yisador swallowed and said nothing.

Charline said, stunned, "I – I thought they were all dead..."

As if no one had spoken, Stranna continued, "…and Theo's going there … and so is he … " She looked at Yisador, wild-eyed, and spoke rapidly. "Okay – here's what you need to do. Call her back. Just call her back. Get her back here now, Yisador. Use the TARDIS recall – it'll bring her back here. We cannot permit her to go –"

"Stranna, we can't stop her," Yisador replied.

Stranna stood up and slapped her hand on the table. "How can you say such a thing? Of COURSE we can stop her – we cannot permit her to go, and that's final! She'll be—"

"Stranna, we can't stop her – she's already on her way there."

Stranna looked at her, nonplused. "Are you serious? So what? I don't care if she's landed on the damned planet -- call her back! Look, send one of us – send me, for Kami's sake, or send someone else, I don't care – I don't care WHAT you do, but DO something, dammit!" Stranna shouted the last part at Yisador, real fear shining out of her eyes.

"No," Yisador said, staring at her friend.

A beat passed as Stranna locked eyes with Yisador again. "You know who it is, Yisa. Who it has to be. You can't do that to her – you can't let her walk into that," Stranna whispered.

"What are you talking about?" Gable asked, confused. "Who's this 'he'?"

Ignoring Gable, Yisador looked at Stranna and said around the tightness in her chest, "I can't do anything, Stranna. Neither can you." Taking a deep breath, she asked, "Could any of you control that temporal energy field that held their spacecraft? And we only held it for a few moments …"

"No," said Stranna heavily. "We were barely able to keep it stable, let alone control it." She shook her head and stared back at Yisador. "What are you suggesting? That the reason we couldn't control the field is due to the Saiyans? That it was their power that –" A horrified expression chased across her face. "If that's true, then than means –" She stopped speaking, clamping her mouth shut.

"What? What? What does it mean?" asked Gable, fully involved.

Meryth swallowed and answered, "Think about it. We couldn't control the ship in the net – that means that it's important in the continuum, which also means we can't touch it or events connected with it. And I'm sorry, Yisa, but I don't think we're strong enough to take on that power – it felt immense."

"Agreed," Olean said fervently. "Even linked, all of us were no match for it. We'd need Theo to moderate –"

"—but Theo can't moderate, because she's in one of those connected streams, isn't she?" Stranna said to Yisador, suppressed anger and alarm in her tone. "This is part of what you saw, isn't it? And we're part of it too, aren't we?"

Yisador inclined her head slightly in acknowledgment, her expression tight and closed.

"I thought we were finished with those beasts!" Stranna burst out, pushing herself up and away from the table. She glared at Yisador and threatened, "I'm going to find a way, Yisa. She will not become linked with that brute again – I will move Heaven and Hell to make sure of it. I won't permit it!" With that, she whirled away from the group and stalked out of the room, banging the door behind her.

Watching her friend leave, Yisador murmured, "I hope you find a way, Stranna. I hope you do, because every other way is closed to me."

The stars looked beautiful. Cold, sparkling light was strewn about space in seemingly random order, as if someone had taken a handful of diamond dust and flung it out toward the heavens. Still and all, order prevailed among the randomness; there were vague outlines of patterns that flowed into each other, describing shadowy trails across the sky. Stars appeared to be arrayed together, as if an invisible thread bound them to each other; they were separate, yet inextricably linked. But the clustering of the stars was only obvious to those who could observe from a safe distance. Those who were too close could feel the force the bodies exerted on each other – yet they had no perspective, no true idea of the overall design being made with the rest of the cosmos.

Vejiita was standing at a window on the observation deck, his upper body partially obscured in shadow. He had opted to keep the lights dimmed in this section because he did not want to be seen, and therefore bothered, by anyone. There was a great deal on the mind of the Saiyan prince, not the least of which was his troubling inability to identify the power that had invaded his ship.

His ship – that was the crux of the matter. This power had come literally out of the void of space and taken over the minds and bodies of the people on his ship, people who were under his protection. A large part of his psyche shook in rage at the audacity of any being that dared touch anything that was his. He longed to seize the creature by the throat and batter it into submission for its insolence in challenging his authority before he blasted it to oblivion.

In contrast, a calmer, more rational part of his mind insisted he identify the power before he destroyed it, and that was where most of his difficulty began. He realized that he recognized the energy signature; in fact, he felt as though he was intimately familiar with it – but its actual identification eluded his reach. Instinctively, Vejiita had known how to overcome the tendrils of power that had gently forced their way into his ship. It was his maddening certainty of how to do it without the understanding of why it was correct that piqued his pride.

"Vejiita? Vejiita, are you here?"

Is there no place where I am safe from prattling fools? he wondered, his eyes closing momentarily in exasperated annoyance. He heard the other man's movements behind him at the door to the observation lounge and groaned."Vejiita?" came the hushed question again.

"Over here, baka," he snapped impatiently, glaring over his shoulder at the shadow of Gokuu. "What do you want?"

Gokuu padded over to Vejiita and stood next to him, facing the stars. "Bulma was looking for you," the larger Saiyan murmured, looking at the vista spread before the observation room window. He was silent as he stared into the blackness of space, his eyes wide and wondering.

"Well?" Vejiita inquired sardonically after a few minutes, arching one eyebrow in Gokuu's direction. "Is that all?"

Gokuu shrugged, his good humor a shield against the smaller Saiyan's sarcasm. "Bulma said that we'll be at Argus VI pretty soon – within the next couple of hours. And," he said, frowning in thought, "she wants us to keep an eye on that short man with the bald head."

Vejiita softly snorted, turning his attention to the stars. The chief negotiator … such a weakling. "Why? Is he going to do something interesting?"

Gokuu grinned. "I dunno," he replied affably. "Bulma said that the other people were … ah … 'twitchy.' And then she said she wants to make sure everything's okay when we land."

The Saiyan prince grunted in reply.

As he stood next to him with his arms folded across his chest, Gokuu surreptitiously looked at Vejiita, trying to gauge the man's mood. He didn't seem to be angry or upset – which was always a plus – but he did appear to be preoccupied, his habitual tight control evident in the set of his shoulders and the squareness of his jaw.

"Well, what else do you want, Kakarotto?" Vejiita slid his gaze over to Gokuu, catching the younger Saiyan watching him. "And stop staring at me."

"Um …," Gokuu started, a light color washing into his cheeks, "I want to know what happened this afternoon."

Vejiita's gaze flickered over Gokuu a moment, considering; as he turned back toward the window, he muttered, "So do I," his eyebrows drawn together in a formidable scowl.

"But Piccolo said you knew that power," Gokuu continued, watching the frown deepen on the other Saiyan's face, "so I was wondering if –"

"The Namekian needs to learn to keep his mouth shut," retorted Vejiita, glowering. "But yes … I've felt it before." He fell silent for a moment, his eyes narrowing to slits.

"You did, Vejiita? Where?" Gokuu asked, curious.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be standing here trying to figure it out, now, would I, baka?" snapped the prince in vexation.

"No, I suppose not," the taller man agreed. A short silence fell between them, punctuated only by the hum of the air scrubbers as they stared through the window.

It was Vejiita who spoke first, startling Gokuu out of his reverie. "At any rate," he mused, "… it's more a question of when than where." A pensive, introspective air had replaced his earlier irritation; his shoulders relaxed imperceptibly as tension slipped away from them.

Gokuu made no response, hoping his silence would encourage Vejiita to keep talking.

It did. The prince gathered his thoughts and started again, turning his head to gaze at the younger man, a distant look in his dark eyes. "Before the destruction of our planet – before Vejiitasei was destroyed by Freeza – I fought with Freeza's planet clearing squads. We prepared planets for their new owners by 'relocating' the old ones." He stopped for a moment, nodding wryly to himself, then continued. "On our way to those planets, our pods were programmed to give us information about the old owners; their level of technology, their society, their military – things like that. We had information about their chi potential, whether or not they could manipulate chi, and whether or not they were psychic. It made a difference, you see, as to how we attacked them."

Pausing for a moment, Vejiita looked at the other man's expression and wondered in cynical bewilderment, why am I telling him this at all? He has no idea what I'm saying … Despite his doubts he plowed on, the urge to describe and share his feelings with a fellow Saiyan a compulsion so strong it was impossible to ignore.

"This power, Kakarotto," he said, clenching his left fist in front of his chest as if he had captured something in it, "this power is familiar to me – very familiar. I know that I met this energy before I became one of Freeza's warriors – before Vejiitasei was destroyed. It has a sense and texture all its own, but I can't – quite – place it!" His frustration and anger was completely obvious, as his face contorted into a snarl and his arm trembled with the intensity of his rage.

"How old were you when this happened, Vejiita?" Gokuu asked, his voice low. He hadn't heard Vejiita speak with such passion for a long while; usually, the prince kept his personal feelings and observations to himself, and hardly ever spoke about his life before he met Gokuu. From the few occasions when he did speak about it, though, the descriptions of what it had been like had been enough for Gokuu's unruly hair to stand on end. And he knew that Vejiita had only revealed what he wanted others to see; to discover anything else, one needed to be observant and watchful, waiting for opportunities like this.

Vejiita shook his head, remembering. "Let's see … I was … five, almost six." An odd gleam surfaced in his eyes, something akin to abhorrence and loathing that was mixed with a strange fire. "I was sent to work for Freeza when I was almost six. I was sent … to … Freeza … some months after that." Vejiita's face lost some of its color as his expression turned hard and flinty; Gokuu could almost feel him pushing other recollections away, pressing them back into the recesses of his memory. "I know I met the beings with this energy signature before I was sent to Freeza. I am certain of that."

Waves of psychic pain were hovering in the air between them, pain that was caused by memories Vejiita would never consciously reveal. The little tyrant had commanded the Saiyan prince for more than twenty years, so it was not surprising that Gokuu would notice some fragments of that ghastly experience surfacing in Vejiita's subconscious occasionally. While his mind could not begin to fathom the depths of depravity the prince had been forced to endure, he felt the intensity of his suffering and wondered how he had survived relatively sane and unscathed.

The urge to comfort his friend was strong; but Gokuu knew that either touching Vejiita or offering him any help would drive him away from the shaky intimacy they now shared. He willed himself silent again.

His expression set, Vejiita turned back to the window and said evenly, "But whatever it is, Kakarotto, it is foolish – it attacked me, my ship, and the people on my ship. THAT will not happen again. Or, if it does – " and he flexed his hand again in front of his chest suggestively, curling his lip as he did, – "that creature will surely regret it."

"But it didn't feel like an evil chi, Vejiita," ventured Gokuu. "It just felt as though it was – exploring. Curious. Not evil at all. And, " he said, cocking his head to one side as he visualized the scene, "once it touched us, it changed. It became – careful. Alert. And when it backed away from us, it seemed –afraid."

Vejiita threw a sharp look in Gokuu's direction as he nodded, "Yes. It recognized us, Kakarotto – it recognized me, and was afraid. That's very good – but," and he snarled, a growl vibrating deep in his throat, a sound that was savage and threatening, "it isn't enough."

Moving so that he could stare comfortably into the taller Saiyan's eyes, Vejiita promised in an icy tone, "I will find this power, Kakarotto. It's not evil, but it made a very large mistake – one I fully intend to correct. I will not allow anything to attack something that I protect." Nor anything that's mine, he thought, returning his arms to their folded position across his chest as he glared at the other Saiyan, silently daring him to contradict his prince.

"I understand, Vejiita," Gokuu said quietly. He met Vejiita's gaze with his own for a few moments, then looked through the observation window again.

"So … let me see if I understand this correctly …"

Theo and Allyssa had been sitting in the TARDIS kitchen for some time as Theo unwound the painful story of her enslavement by the Saiyans. Allyssa had heard some parts before; in fact, when Yisador had approached her about accompanying Theo off planet, she told her some of the things Theo had recounted. Some, but certainly not all – and not in such excruciating detail.

"This channel – this attachment the child made with you is – permanent? Meaning that, if you were to see him today –"

"—he would claim me as 'his' Guardian and I would be bound to him. If, that is, he recognized who I was and remembered what happened between us," Theo finished dully, twirling her empty orange juice glass between her hands. "And knowing him, that's exactly what would happen. He's –" She broke off and clutched the glass in her hands until her fingers turned white.

"Theo," Allyssa said, reaching across the table and taking the glass. "Let go."

Raw pain was in her voice as she continued, "You don't understand, Ally, you just don't understand. I couldn't close my mind to him – I couldn't push him out – and because I taught him coercion, I couldn't refuse him anything." Her face had turned a shade paler, but she resolutely continued, her voice hushed to a whisper. "I didn't leave Homeworld for years because of that. I couldn't bear thinking that one day he'd find me, and I'd end up tied to him – forever – " She looked at Allyssa, a hunted, trapped expression in her eyes, and fell silent.

"Surely not forever," Allyssa said, leaning back in her chair, trying to lighten the mood. "Nothing lives forever, not even Guardians."

"I hope he's dead," Theo muttered bitterly. "The rest of them are, anyway. My mother told me that the entire planet exploded when the TARDIS slipped into the time stream. Some freak asteroid slammed into it, or something like that." She shook her head, exhaling a shaky breath, shivering. "Good riddance. I hated those people, Ally – I absolutely, positively hated them. If the Kaious, in their infinite wisdom, allowed us to make just one change – just one, anywhere in the time continuum – I'd go back and sterilize the damn planet that spawned their genome."

Allyssa looked Theo with a practiced eye and understood what she left unsaid. "Theo. If you're so afraid of this particular Saiyan, then why don't we just move to another timestream – one where he definitely doesn't exist?"

Theo's head drooped as she frowned, wrinkling her nose. "You know why – you're a Gant, you've lived with Time Lords long enough."

Allyssa shook her head in perplexity. Theo sighed.

"I can't do that," Theo replied, dejected. "I mean, we can go into any future or past that we like – but once we're there, we can't truly interact with anyone – we're not permitted. "Look but don't touch" – Time Lord creed and all that."

"But you're not a Time Lord," her companion pointed out.

Allyssa reached across the table and took Theo's hand, tugging gently until Theo looked at her.

"But here, in this timestream, they're all dead," she said quietly, "and that vicious little Prince is probably just as dead." Allyssa lightly squeezed Theo's hand, releasing it. "You shouldn't think about it anymore. Put it out of your mind."

"I wish my subconscious understood that," Theo responded, looking down. "It doesn't believe he's dead. I keep seeing these … these flashes … bits and pieces of things happening … And when I'm asleep, the dreams … these voices … they just won't leave me alone …" A vision of Calipt'dor swam in front of her eyes, indistinct and blurry. "It's awful…," she whispered.

Enough of this – if I don't do something soon, she's going to fall apart, Allyssa realized.

"That's enough," the Gant said roughly, spurred to action. Theo looked up, surprised, as Allyssa abruptly stood and moved around the table, drawing Theo to her feet. "We've talked about this enough – you don't need to feel sorry for yourself, since there's nothing we can really do about it. So for now – just forget it. Put it behind you."

Theo glared at Allyssa, then nodded and swallowed. "I'll try," she promised.

"Good," Allyssa said, looking at her critically. "You need a change of scene, so let's go see what Elyse is doing. We'll be at Argus VI pretty soon, I think."

"Argus VI?" Theo repeated, pushing the seat of her chair under the table and giving herself a mental shake. She's right … just push this stuff aside until later … "Is that where you two decided to go?"

"Well, yes," Allyssa drawled, following Theo to the kitchen doorway. "They have some pretty good 'recreational facilities' there, or so the database said."

"Heh," Theo replied, a broad smile lighting up her face, stopping and looking at Allyssa over her shoulder. "Did you look and see what kind of 'facilities' they have?"

"Didn't have to," her friend replied, grinning back. "Once Elyse told me that you and Stranna had been there before and liked it, well … I knew automatically what was on the planet. And I figured you wouldn't mind going back."

"Are you kidding? – not at all!" Theo walked into the hallway, her mood lightening. "Hey, let's make sure we land near the Alerian Sink. I liked that place." Theo's voice floated back to Allyssa as she briskly strode toward the control room in eager anticipation, her bathrobe firmly knotted around her waist.

Much better, Allyssa thought, nodding her head as she followed Theo. I knew that'd do it.

"Mama, you can't go out looking like that!"

"Why not?" wondered Theo, staring at her daughter with a puzzled look on her face. She was standing at the TARDIS console, bag in hand, ready to leave. She took a quick look down at her clothes. "Isn't this okay?"

"Your clothes are fine, Mama," Elyse said, nodding her red head with exaggerated patience, "but you certainly don't look like the locals. Didn't you say you wanted to blend in? Well, your hair and eye color practically scream that you're not Argarian."

Allyssa appeared in the doorway of the control room, dressed in a soft tunic, pants and boots, her dark hair pulled back into a knot on the back of her head. "She's right, you know," she said, cocking her head to one side, her scar showing faintly, green eyes assessing Theo's appearance. "You'll never pass looking like that."

She turned and looked in the mirror hanging next to the doorway, and sighed. They were right.

"Everybody's a critic," Theo muttered, annoyed. "What do you suggest I do?"

"First off," said Allyssa, an amused grin pulling at the corners of her mouth, "you could dye your hair."

Silence. Theo glared at her, but Allyssa continued, her grin becoming broader as Elyse nodded encouragingly.

"That would work, Mama. It's not that bad, and it's not permanent. We could do something so that it would wash out in about a week."

Theo grit her teeth. "Wonderful. All right – I could do that," she agreed sullenly. "But I can't dye my eyes."

Allyssa considered. "No, but you changed their color once before. How did you do it? ... let me see ... you were with your mother, a couple of days before we left ..."

Theo stared at her, a strange expression on her face. "I have to use power to do that."

Allyssa stared back. "Problem?"

"Well ... no, I suppose not ... it's just that ..."

"I know you don't like to use it," Allyssa said quietly, "but I don't see any other way. Besides, this is harmless."

Elyse looked on with interest. "What do you have to do, Mama?"

"It's - it's sort of weird, honey," Theo said, wrinkling her nose. "Young Time Lords do it when they're choosing their appearance. I have an aunt that has dark brown hair and brown eyes ... and using creation will ... oh, never mind, I'll show you ..."

And she took a deep breath, concentrating, and let the memory of that time with her mother flood through her senses. The feel of the power running through her body and mind, the look of her aunt in the holograph she had been viewing, the slight *twist* she felt in her brain as something happened, and the warm rush of power from the wellspring tingling in her head and behind her eyes ...

"Mama, that's amazing!" Elyse cried. "I even felt that over here!"

Allyssa just smiled.

Theo looked in the mirror again. The reflection that peered out was a woman with shoulder length dark brown hair and brown eyes, fairly nondescript, nothing remarkable in her regular features.

"That's much better," she said with satisfaction. "Now I don't have to dye my hair!"

"How long will it last?" asked Elyse, curious.

"As long as I need it. I suppose, though," Theo said, musing, "that if I lose my concentration somehow, I'll lose it ... but your Aunt Stranna told me that it's almost impossible for me to lose concentration that way."

"Why?" Elyse asked again.

Theo glanced at Allyssa, who shrugged. "Umm ... well ... because I have a grifton, that's why."

Elyse's eyes grew as big as saucers and her mouth dropped open. "No kidding? You have a grifton, Mama? I've only heard stories about people who have them – why didn't you tell me about this before?"

Theo appeared extremely uncomfortable as she replied, "Uh …well … it just never came up. But I really don't want to talk about it now – "

"But, Mama –"

"Not now dear – please!" Theo snapped, disturbed.

Elyse looked back at her with a hurt expression; Theo scowled furiously. "All right … later," she promised, softening a bit. "It's really not a big thing, though."

"Your mom's just cranky," Allyssa said slyly, winking at Elyse. "Don't take it personally."

"She's always cranky," Elyse complained. "And she never wants to talk about anything at all-"

"Yet another sign of advancing age," Allyssa quipped, watching Theo's face turn an inelegant shade of red.

"Are you two finished?" Theo demanded, looking irked again, her arms akimbo and her eyes flashing fire.

Allyssa smirked at Theo. "Probably," she replied as she walked over to Elyse, ignoring Theo's glower. "What do you think, dear?"

Elyse chuckled with Allyssa, her large eyes gray and sparkling. "I suppose so," she said. "But remember, Mama, you promised to tell me about your grifton later."

"Fine, fine – later," Theo repeated, folding her arms and scowling. "Can we go now, please?"

"In a minute, Theo," Allyssa chided, staring at the other woman. "We have to make sure that Elyse knows what she's doing."

Theo lowered her gaze, still scowling: Allyssa grinned.

"So," she said with a smile, turing to Theo's daughter, "What are you going to do?"

"Most of the time I'll be staying with the ship while the two of you are out. I'm also going to check the rec facilities over here." Elyse pointed at a location on the holographic map displayed above the control panel. "I'll use our money and buy us a couple of spots on the beach near the ocean, and we'll let the TARDIS look like one of their little huts on the sand. "

"Perfect, dear," Theo said, looking up again. "And what are you going to do with the TARDIS while we're gone?"

"Hmm. I'm going to let you guys off here - then I'm going to the beach, outside the city -" she said, pointing, "and after several hours, I'll be coming right back to these very coordinates. I'll stay here for a few hours, and then -"

"And then you'll move the TARDIS, because we don't want to get caught by anything unfriendly in this time stream," finished her mother.

"Right," Elyse said, nodding her red head emphatically.

Looking over at Allyssa, Theo asked, "Well? Are we finally ready?"

"I think so," Allyssa replied, looking smug. "We're in the best part of town, anyway."

"Oh?" Theo said, arching her eyebrow. "And what makes this part so special?"

"Look at the readout and see what I mean," Allyssa responded with a sly grin.

Theo leaned over the console and peered at the screen. A broad smile quickly spread across her face, and her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Ah ha! You are right, as always - this is exactly where I want to be." She grabbed her long bag and slung it over her shoulder as she moved away from the console and started digging through it. "Okay, let's see ... keys? Check! Remote? Check! Money? ... umm ... hmm ... we're a little light on money here, Ally. We gave most of it to Elyse ..."

"No worries, dear," Allyssa said cheerfully with a wink. "Our luck is about to change ... and for the better, I think."