Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Barracks ❯ Part 40 ( Chapter 40 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z – it belongs to its respective owners. This fan fiction is not a commercial project, and I am not making any money from writing it.
Warnings: Alternate Universe. Yaoi (male x male). Goten x Trunks and vice versa. Other pairings.
A/N: Starcut’s crew members:

1.Captain
2.Backup Captain
3.Master Sergeant
4.Navigator  - (Adriel)
5.Communications Specialist - (Sildara)
6.Programmer - (Rokunda)
7.Gunnery Sergeant - (Monteira Fawa)
8.Arms Specialist – (Hazel)
9.Arms Specialist – (Mandro)
10.Flight Officer - (Reyn Dueri)
11.Flight Officer - (Jadenas Ealt)
12.Head Engineer - (Nohail Ofura)
13.Maintenance Technician – (Mirun)
14.Maintenance Technician – (Landan)
15.Doctor - (Tamahi)
16.Medic - (Yereli)
17.Head Cook
18.Cook
19.Soldier - (Edesha)
20.Goten

Barracks

by chayron (lttomb@yahoo.com), beta-read by quatreofdoom

Part 40

Goten was surprised that Reyn had believed him about having those strange dreams so readily. It somehow felt too good to be true, somehow fake. Lack of trust made him wary of the older male.

“So what about those boyfriends?” Reyn repeated.

Goten continued watching him silently. Wasn’t it Reyn’s turn now to share one of his secrets?

It took Reyn a few moments to figure out what Goten was expecting of him. It was a sudden departure from what the flight officer had anticipated. It seemed only natural to Reyn to proceed in the manner they had started, but, despite feeling awkward, Goten was resisting. This irritated the flight officer since he felt that Goten was still intending to be secretive and defend whatever relationships he had.

“Alright, so what do you want to know?” Reyn asked, trying not to scowl.

“I’m certain that you know much more about the whole thing than you’ve let on when we talked about it for the first time.” Goten paused to see how Reyn would react. The flight officer agreed with a somber nod. “I was told I belong to some kind of a project,” Goten continued. “I’m positive you know what kind of project it is. Can you explain it to me?”

Reyn reclined in his chair. From the conversation they'd had soon after Goten had embarked the ship, it had been obvious that he knew much more than Goten. It was not as if he knew everything – he hadn’t been keeping up with the latest information – but in comparison to him, Goten was absolutely oblivious. He had chosen to keep quiet back then. He hadn’t trusted Goten. Besides, it was not as if the knowledge could change anything.

“Do you know the story about the Legendary?”

“You mean the legend? Well, yes, of c-”

“No, it’s more than a legend.”

“Um. Is it?” Goten drawled doubtfully. Everyone, from snotty cubs to doddery codgers, knew the story about the Legendary Saiyan who was said to have appeared over a thousand years ago. He was said to have had golden hair and unrivaled power. The legend also wickedly claimed that he had been so powerful that even Vegeta House hadn’t been able to oppose him. The Legendary had wiped the planet clean of the Saiyans’ enemies. Later, he had challenged and defeated the strongest alpha males and united the nation. After that, he had disappeared. How or where, the legend didn’t say; it only prophesied that he was going to appear again.

“There really was a man like that,” Reyn said. “I’m not certain it was the same man, but the so called “Legendary” also appeared less than a hundred years ago, just when we’d made first contact with the Ice-jins.” Goten was giving him a skeptical look. Reyn shrugged. “From what I know, they suddenly showed up armed from head to toe and their policy was clear – we either submit at once or they will make us. It was a grave situation since, even if we were similarly technologically advanced, only our elite warriors could rival their physical power and, even then, some of them were impossible to defeat.”

“I’ve never heard of this.”

The flight officer nodded. “Yes, it was made to look as if they offered us a treaty at once. It wasn’t like that. The offer came only after the Legendary, aided by a few elites, had killed their general and destroyed half of their fleet.”

“Huh.” Goten wondered about this, then came to a conclusion that this could be true since the lizards could be much more useful as a powerful ally than a powerful enemy. And so nobody had informed the masses so as not to provoke a riot or hinder the valuable deal. “What happened later?”

Reyn shrugged. “Nothing, really. He disappeared without a trace again.”

“I see. I’m certain this is more than a history lesson. What does he have to do with the project?”

“I don’t know all the fine details, but after his disappearance, various experiments started, the aim of which were to recreate that magnificent power.”

“You mean that they wanted to clone the Legendary?”

Reyn gave him a measured nod. “Well, that was one of the ways, but it never worked. Well, not exactly, but the thing is that, at the time, it was thought that all experiments failed, including all genetic engineering. I don’t think they ever found out what made the Legendary ‘legendary’, so to speak.”

“Who’s ‘they’?”

“National Security. It’s their project and their money.”

Slowly, the information began siphoning out in Goten’s head and he started suspecting which direction this was taking. “How did they even find any material to experiment on?” he asked.

Reyn shrugged. “I didn’t really think about that but, keeping in mind that he fought with some of the most powerful Ice-jins, wasn’t there bound to be some samples of blood or other body tissues left behind? It must have been easy to extract the necessary DNA from them.”

“I suppose. So how does it all come together?”

“They also needed bodies to experiment on and, because third-classes are the easiest meat around, they started picking them up from children homes. They experimented and waited but, as I said, there were no results. It took fifty years for the enthusiasm to fade out and they finally closed the project. I think it might also have something to do with the lack of original material. I mean, all they had were probably a few droplets of blood and patches of skin; this couldn’t last forever.

“They had released the grown-up patients who were able to function on their own and returned the healthy kids back to children homes. The thing was, some years later, a few individuals started showing the symptoms that the researchers had been so passionately hoping for. The project was opened again, but since there were many fatal accidents involving the patients carrying the gene, the only thing they could do now was observe.”

At this point, Goten had already caught on. However, his brain was squeaking with effort, trying to absorb what seemed to be a madman’s ravings. Yet it all was so familiar. He swallowed loudly. “You mean spontaneous combustion, right? Ki management failures?”

“Yes, mostly. This was one of the reasons why National Security stopped any deliberate experiments – some people, told to manipulate their newly acquired power, tended to explode right in front of their eyes, and they were losing precious samples of successful gene manipulation. Personally, I think the problem is that they weren’t very successful in the first place or/and mutations have taken place.”

Reyn laughed softly at the look on Goten’s face. “Well, yes, it’s not so pleasant to hear, is it? Well, that’s probably how it is.

“The “abnormality” is linear and hereditary but not all children of the same father inherit it. I don’t think they ever experimented on females. If they had, I have no information on that. It’s practically impossible to tell whether the child is born with the gene or not since the gene only comes into effect during adolescence. If there is no sign of any change then, it means it will stay dormant forever.”

Goten wondered why it was Reyn telling him all this but not his father. Had it been so difficult? Well, at least now he knew why he had received the invitation and was turned into a second-class soon after having entered Hataro Officer Training School.

“Why did they turn me into a second-class but not my father?”

“Oh, that. My father is listed as a third-class too. There had been long debates about whether it made more sense to simply turn us into second-classes, so as to make our life less complicated and to arouse less suspicion, or if it was more important to preserve the unshakable tiered society at any cost.”

Goten rolled his eyes. “I suspect that our dads were already too old for the change since they had made many acquaintances all over the universe as third-classes. It would have aroused many more questions than it was worth.”

“Exactly.”

“So how many?”

“Well, there were more of us earlier, but now it comes down to only four. Me, you, my father, and your father. Actually, I always thought that there were five of us, since I met your brother about six years ago, but since he’s dead, that makes the four of us.”

Goten gave him a suspicious look. “You met him? Why?”

“Well, it wasn’t really like that. I mean, I have never talked to him personally or anything like that. It’s just that my father pointed him out at some parade and told me that he was one of us.”

“How did he know? Has he seen his photo? Why is it that you seem to be way too knowledgeable?”

Reyn scratched his cheek thoughtfully. “Actually, I don’t know how much your father knows. Since the project is listed as “failed” and is now observation-only, there’s no actual need to inform the subjects. Nonetheless, we are the only ones who have at least some link to the so-called Legendary. There are some enthusiastic researchers who believe that, one day, one of us, or our offspring, can really become one. My father is very passionate about this project too. He wants to bring the Legendary back, almost fanatically at that, thus he has been granted access to most of the documentation.”

Goten pondered on this. His father knew something, he was sure of that. It wasn’t clear how much he knew but the phone conversation back then when he had still been on the base… There was something in his father’s voice which made him think he knew. “I see,” Goten drawled. “And where’s the actual culprit of this mess himself?”

“Nobody knows. As I said, he’s just disappeared. Maybe he’s no longer alive.”

Somehow, Goten doubted that. Could it be that the two Legendaries had been two different people? If that was true, then the second one should still be alive. A hundred years time wasn’t that long for a Saiyan.

“Hmm…” Goten drawled after a long pause. “And what do you think about this project?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Well, I have the impression that you don’t really get along with your father.”

Reyn scratched his cheek absentmindedly, then shifted in his seat. “Mm… It’s not really that. It’s just that I don’t particularly care about this stupid project. All I want is to be left in peace and do what I’m good at – piloting. I don’t give a damn about his research, tests, blood samples and all that crap. All of it was tested and retested years ago and it’s about time he gave up.”

“Ah. A conflict of interest?”

“A conflict of his interests. I don’t care what he does as long as he leaves me alone. These past years, he has been nagging at me to find a female and present him with a couple of offspring they can carry out their research on. It’s annoying.”

“Aren’t you exaggerating a little? They would be his grandsons after all.”

“Probably a little bit,” Reyn agreed. “But he is crazed about everything concerning the project. He’s been pestering me non-stop, to the point I just want to do the opposite of what he says.”

Goten chuckled. This sounded like a casual rebellion teenagers went into. “Why doesn’t he actually have some more children of his own? Mmm… Not that I think it would be a good thing to experiment on your brothers or anything.”

“As if I would ever allow something like that! But luckily he can’t. He was wounded on the battlefield fifteen years ago. I’m his one and only son. Well, I suppose this is one of the reasons why he’s so obsessed with the thought of making me breed as soon as possible.”

The corners of Goten’s lips quirked up. “I see. But there’s this one thing that’s been bothering me for a while. Does it ever become stable, the power?”

Reyn shook his head. “No, not really. With age, the accidents decrease, but it’s just because people learn their limit.”

“Could it be that the Legendary simply blew himself up and that’s why nobody can find him?”

Reyn burst out laughing. Grinning, he nodded. “Well, yes, it could be. Which would mean that there has never been any stability in the first place. The thing is, however, that no one has ever had the golden hair the Legendary is so famous for. Never ever. He’s the only one to have it.”

“Well that makes him a very easy person to find, doesn’t it?”

“It should be, but, obviously, since nobody has ever found him, it isn’t so.”

“Actually, there’s one more thing I want to ask.”

Reyn chuckled. “Only?”

“For now. How is it that if they want offspring so much, they aren’t forcing us to have them? I mean, we are pretty much left to our own. Well, okay, they have been controlling my life since my very first step in Hataro Officer Training School, and maybe from much earlier, but you get what I mean.”

Reyn grinned at him. “Yeah, I do. But, you see, some forty years ago, there was this guy called Temran who hadn’t been happy with the researchers’ policy. I think he blasted two main National Security buildings along with the staff in them.”

“Oh! I read about that! They said it was terrorists.”

“Well, they hunted him down in the end, but there were so many casualties that even a member of Vegeta House was forced to interfere and help capture him. It was decided not to push it. The thing was that other subjects seemed to be keen on following Temran’s example. It’s not so easy to force a mature male carrying the gene to submit. Our power rivals or sometimes exceeds that of the members from Vegeta House.”

Goten nodded slowly, his memory going back to his and the prince’s spars. So that’s what it was. It was also clear to him now why his father had been allowed to kidnap a female and nobody persecuted him. They had probably even encouraged him. And he and Gohan were some of those desirable babies National Security wanted so much. What a laugh.

Reyn grew a little bit worried when Goten started giggling mindlessly. Had the information been too much? But it wasn’t as if it was vital – it didn’t change anything.

“Do they see us as rivals?”

“Who?” Then Reyn laughed out in unexpectedness as he realized what Goten was asking. “Vegeta House? Are you serious? Of course they don’t. We are only guinea pigs to them.”

“So they are aware of our existence?”

Reyn thought for a moment. “Umm… It was His Majesty who interfered back then when Temran went bonkers, but that was a long time ago. I certainly can’t guarantee that his son knows. The youngest prince wasn’t even born back then. But why do you care?”

“No particular reason, I just want to be ready if they suddenly decide we are an obstruction in their way. It’s just that the members of Vegeta House are usually arrogant, aren’t they?”

The flight officer watched the younger male thoughtfully. He hadn’t known that Goten was so wary of Vegeta House and harbored distaste towards its members. Personally, he didn’t have any opinion on them. They represented the power of the Saiyan race. Somebody had to take the responsibility of keeping everything in order after all. And, since he wouldn’t ever want to be the one to bear that kind of enormous burden of responsibility, he was fine with them.

“Has something happened to make you so mistrustful of them?” he wondered.

“No, not really.”

Reyn waited for Goten to continue, but that was it. The youth kept quiet, seemingly mulling over the newly acquired information. It was best to let Goten digest everything and then let him come with questions. Reyn knew that he would look like an idiot, but he had a question which had been torturing him for nearly a month, and just wanted it to finally be answered.

“Goten, I fulfilled my end of the bargain.”

Goten sighed. Rubbing at his left eye, he stood up and went towards the wardrobe where he retrieved the well-known recipe book. “I don’t have a boyfriend as such, but…” Opening its cover, he returned to sit down on the bed. He lowered the book on Reyn’s lap. “Here. But I’m certain you have already seen this.” Amused, he watched Reyn’s face paint deep red. Goten had intended to keep quiet about it, but his secret love life felt so trivial in comparison to what he had heard.

The flight officer stared at the two paragraphs, then, once the shame passed enough to allow him to read, his eyes flitted over the words. Goten thought he had seen the lines but, actually, he had never laid his eyes on them. He had simply inserted the paper slip with the phone number between the pages and never thought of reading something like a recipe book.

“What’s this?”

“Kyon was my roommate on the base. We lost touch just after I told him I am a third-class. The second one is an officer from the base. He…” Goten faltered. “He…well, he said that…” The third-class couldn’t believe how stupid he felt now. “…That he would find me.”

Reyn raised his head. “And that’s it? These pathetic lines? What are you? A preschooler?”

Goten cleared his throat uncomfortably. With every passing second, his discomfort was growing in geometric progression. Really, was he an idiot? Even while he was saying that the prince would find him, he didn’t believe it. He never did, but now he felt foolish for even allowing himself to harmlessly dream of that.

The younger male’s reaction to his words made Reyn realize that he shouldn’t have said what he had. Goten was still at that age when things were romanticized. He had forgotten how young Goten was. He was aware that he had belittled Goten’s memories and upset him. On the other hand, he didn’t want Goten to be caught up in some idolized past. Everybody knew that, to preserve their beauty, it was best to keep memories in the past. This was exactly what he didn’t want Goten to do – he’d better drag those memories out of their hole, trample them to death, and make Goten forget the past.

“I’m sorry,” Reyn said when the younger male kept quiet. “It’s just that…” he trailed off when Goten continued to stare at his knees stubbornly without making a sound.

“I know. I know perfectly what it sounds like,” the younger male said finally, his voice defiant. He reached for the book. “But whatever you think about this, it doesn’t give you any right to laugh at their or my feelings.”

Silently, the flight officer let him take the cookbook. Goten was being defensive now, not angry, but upset, and Reyn wasn’t certain how he should react. All he knew was that he didn’t want to get into a conflict with Goten. He felt a little stupid, the whole situation was somehow stupid. “It’s not that I’m laughing at you or them,” he explained. “It’s just that… Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve expected something more…tangible, more serious.”

The flight officer thought that now Goten looked like he was pouting. He had closed the cover and was staring now at the varicolored cover depicting a roast chicken encircled with apples. Reyn thought that he would like to try that. The problem was that he didn’t know what to say now. The atmosphere was not right for what he had intended to suggest to Goten.

“You do realize that – with how things are going – you may never meet them again?” Reyn asked cautiously.

Goten’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Well, of course, I do. And what do you propose?”

Reyn shook his head; it was pointless to talk to Goten now, just as he had thought. The youth was daring him, staring at him with those dark eyes of his.

The flight officer stood up. “Cool off a bit. Think over everything. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.”

Wordlessly, Goten watched Reyn go. For a while, he sat on his bed, gazing at the recipe book on his lap, then pushed it aside, letting it slip onto the bed. Really, was he stupid to provoke Reyn like that?

Goten was whirling around in the usual chair he had borrowed from the doctor. Most of the patients were sleeping, except the pirate and Andrew. Andrew was typing something on his laptop with his right hand, his left arm hanging uselessly in a swathe under his neck.

After a few more spins, the third-class felt he was starting to get sick and it was about time to stop torturing the chair. Had he really hoped to be a pilot? Goten snickered softly.

He had rolled the newly acquired information over in his head a few times. There were quite a few questions now he wanted to ask Reyn, but – since there was nothing he could change – mostly he was concerned about the limit he was able to power up to. The news that his inability to control his ki was permanent had been quite a shock to him. He wished he could just go to the training room and test it out. However, it was best not to – there was a great chance that he would end up just the same as back then on the base, and this time three days in a regeneration tank would not cut it.

He was also regretting about having told Reyn about his odd dreams – he had not expected that Reyn or his father would be so closely related to National Security. This was troublesome. If the flight officer started talking… Well, it was a good thing that no one, maybe except his father, would believe him. Still, he should have just kept quiet.

Reyn hadn’t recognized the name in the cookbook. Well, he probably had, but chose not to comment on it. It was very likely that he thought that it had either been a joke or somebody, lacking common sense apparently, had named their child after the prince. That was just as well.

The door let out a soft ping before opening and Goten’s attention went to it. Nohail stepped into the room. He greeted the third-class with a nod, then his eyes slid over the patients. His interest lingered on the pirate, then he concentrated on Andrew’s laptop. After that, he averted his eyes to the still unconscious pirate.

Amused, Goten wondered how long the head engineer was going to keep this on. “See anything you’d like to report to the shaii?” he asked finally.

Nohail’s lips twitched. “Not really. I was just wondering how you were doing.”

Goten rolled his eyes. “Suuure.”

The head engineer gave him a guilty look. “To tell you the truth, I am very curious about the whole thing.”

“I bet you’re. C’mon,” Goten gestured for him to come closer. “I have a few questions of my own.”

Nohail cast a look around the medical room. “Such as…?” he drawled, unsure.

“Don’t worry about them,” Goten said, “even if they do understand, I don’t think there will be anything valuable in our exchange.”

Nohail approached Goten and, waiting, leaned against the desk.

“There’s one question which has been bothering me for quite some time,” the third-class started. “Was it you who spread around my profile?”

The head engineer suddenly appeared to be very interested. “Your profile? Can I read it?”

Not even trying to suppress his groan, Goten slapped himself on his forehead. “Oh, shit.”

Nohail laughed softly. “Well, no, it wasn’t me. But I would like to get my hands on it. I mean, I’m very curious as to what connection you two have.”

The third-class rubbed his face with his hands, then dropped them onto the armrests. He sighed. “Well, I saved his life, so he probably feels like he owes me. That’s all there’s to it.”

The head engineer gave him an astonished look. “You? Saved his life? When was it?”

Goten scratched his head. “I’d rather not talk about it. It was on the base. It was just a coincidence; I was in the right place at the right time.”

“I see,” Nohail said, suspecting that Goten was much too modest. He had to agree that this indeed could make the prince follow Goten’s progress, for, even when he was just a kid, he didn’t like to feel indebted.

“There’s another question I wanted to ask you – what did he actually ask you to do?”

Nohail wavered for several moments, then decided that there was no point in dragging this on. From the reply he had received to his last report, it didn’t seem that the prince minded Goten finding him out that much. He was told to proceed as if nothing had happened.

“Well, I send reports every five or so days. Otherwise I just… What?” he asked, surprised by the shocked look on the younger male’s face.

“Reports? You’re writing reports to him about me?!” Goten exclaimed incredulously. “Every week?”

“Err…yes? But… I thought you knew? Didn’t you just ask me what I would include in my repo-?”

“Reports?!” Goten choked out. “I was kidding, for fuck’s sake!”

“Oh. I thought you were being sarcastic.”

“That bastard!” Goten growled. “That freakin’ bastard! Give me his email! I’ll sooo write a report for him that he won’t know where to hide! That sneaky asshole!”

“Uhhh…” Nohail grunted, astonished by the threats and vehemence the younger male was displaying towards a member of the Royal Family. He moved away from Goten, who had jumped from his chair and now was advancing on him. “I don’t think I’m entitled to distribute it around.”

Goten stopped as an idea occurred to him. He had a thing which was even better than an email address! The phone number. He would call him. He would call the stupid bastard! How dared he! Damn, if only he could go and do that now!

Suspicious, Nohail watched Goten drop back into the chair and whirl around a few times. He was grinning unpleasantly while his face reflected pure frustration. The guy was up to something.

“So, what have you written about to him so far?” Goten asked, suddenly brining his chair to a dead stop.

The head engineer decided to keep his distance and stayed at the other end of the desk, a little more than an arm’s reach from Goten. “Well…” he drawled, “…about everything, really. From your fight with Reyn, when you first set foot on Starcut, to you falling asleep for a few days recently.”

“Does he write back?”

“Yes, he confirms that he has received them.”

“One would think that – with the current situation – he has better things to do than to read some reports on…” the third-class trailed off. Could the prince be forwarding those reports to National Security? He wouldn’t be very surprised. That damn bastard! However, National Security probably also had better things to do. But there should’ve been a reason why he and Reyn were put on the same ship. Maybe it was Reyn who reported to his father and then the information went further?

Goten felt he was developing a headache. He was getting paranoid about conspiracies around him. It was probably just what he first thought it was – the prince didn’t want to relinquish control over him. He had to admit that while it was infuriating, it also felt pleasant, the possessiveness. He wondered whether the prince knew what the project entailed. By this time, he should have already found out. If he had been interested enough to make further inquiries. And he sure as hell looked interested last time they saw each other.

When his shift ended, Goten spent an additional hour in the kitchen helping to prepare dinner, ate, and then finally returned to his cabin. He threw his dead terminal an accusing look. His fervent wish to call the prince had mostly dissipated since he had spent quite some time thinking about what he would tell the man. Actually, he had come to a conclusion that it wasn’t a good idea – to call just to have a row with the prince was kind of…

Scratching the back of his head, Goten went to his bunk and flopped onto it. Edesha was absent – he, Mirun, and Jadenas were checking a Leiador carrier which was passing by, delivering goods to Earth.

Well, maybe a row would be just fine – at least he would hear the prince’s voice. He could hardly remember what it sounded like.

Goten started taking his boots off. There was a hole in his sock, his big toe protruding brazenly. Goten arranged his boots next to his bed then, overtaken by an unexpected impulse, launched one of them at the terminal. Vengefully, the boot rebounded off the screen and flew straight for a half-full mug of tea, making Goten curse. Grasping a handful of tissues, he sprang forward to try and reduce the disaster. He wiped the desk quickly, herding the brownish puddle towards the floor. It didn’t look like the tea got into the keyboard. There was no way to check whether it worked, though. In any case, it was best not to touch it until it got dry anyway.

Should he ask Rokunda to take a look at the computer after all?

Snickering at himself, Goten padded back to his bed. Wasn’t he just like a lovesick puppy? Where the hell was his common sense? It was best not to contact the prince, just allow for whatever attachment there was to dissipate naturally.

How far would he follow him?

That was a natural question, and Goten found himself wishing that the prince wouldn’t give up so fast. Chasing a third-class would be the stupidest thing ever, of course, but his male-pride didn’t want himself to be so easily forgettable. He wasn’t going to be forgetting the prince any time soon after all. So that would be a little unfair.

Goten wriggled his toes. He stood up again and went to the wardrobe to find a new pair of socks. He should ask around if anyone had a needle and some yarn. Usually he wouldn’t bother, but there was no guarantee that he would get new socks. Maybe socks, just like food, clothing, toilet paper and all other mundane things, would become more precious than diamonds or credits. He hoped that this war wouldn’t escalate to that degree.

Frowning, the third-class retrieved the socks and put them on. He wished something good would happen. He felt a little unbalanced, his thoughts and feelings disjointed, confused, the ground swaying under his feet lightly. He wanted stability, but these days it was something no one could afford.

Goten put his boots back on; staying in the cabin was depressing him. His latrine duty was best performed late in the evening when most of the ship occupants went to sleep and stopped using the showers and the toilets so frequently. There was still time and Goten decided to make use of it by having some good exercise in the training room. He was going to lose skill if he trained so rarely.

While he was walking there, it came to him that now he was probably one of the busiest members of the crew. How in the world did this happen? And to think that once Reyn and Adriel had said that Starcut didn’t need an unqualified crew member. Ha!

A red blinking light next to the training room door indicated that the gravity inside had been increased. Goten gave the panel a reproachful look. Now he had to wait till the person or people in the training room would decrease the gravity to be able to open the door. It happened sooner than he had expected, though, two minutes later. The red light died out and Goten went inside. It was Reyn and Monteira. The gunnery sergeant nodded at him while Reyn gave him a searching look. He was obviously thinking that Goten had come looking for him.

“Want a spar?” Goten offered.

Reyn nodded. “Well, sure. Do we power up?”

Goten hesitated with the answer. They had never sparred using their ki before. If partners were not careful and a ki-shield was breached, it often resulted in serious or deadly injuries. Besides, there wasn’t really much point in it, since neither he nor Reyn could use their power to its full extent without the risk of blowing themselves or/and the ship up. Goten wasn’t even certain if the walls lined with ki-absorbing material would be able to soak up all of their power. They wouldn’t be shooting ki-balls, but there was certainly a difference in spars while using one’s ki – it increased the speed, the power of blows, the stamina, everything, in fact. One could slam their opponent right through the metallic walls. If one was powerful enough.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Monteira said, seeing Goten’s reluctance. “The armor we have is old and has certainly seen better times. I don’t think any of you want to end up with blisters.”

Reyn gave the other third-class a questioning look. Goten wondered what had caused him to suggest ki-sparring in the first place.

“Well… Alright,” Goten agreed, “but let it be just about two thousand. And let’s get that armor. Just in case.”

Monteira clicked his tongue disapprovingly, but didn’t repeat his disagreements.

The flight officer laughed. “You certainly sound like someone who has already had an accident or two.”

“Yeah,” Goten nodded, returning to the door, “I blew myself up once. I nearly died.”

“Oh. One of those accidents?”

Goten nodded and Reyn decided not to question him anymore. Nonetheless, he was of the opinion that sparring while keeping their ki under two thousand was ridiculous. Even Edesha could do better than that. Probably. If someone fed him a bag of coffee and kept him on steroids for a month or two, but that would probably just make him drop dead. Edesha, just like anyone else, had speed and reaction times far behind Goten’s. He would have to put up with Goten’s fears for now.

“What is your power level?” Goten asked when they were in the weapon store.

Reyn turned around to make sure Monteira hadn’t followed them inside. “If I’m careful, I can raise it to a bit over two hundred thousand,” he said once he was sure there were only the two of them in the room.

“Oh, gods.”

The armor he had picked up earlier slipped past Goten’s suddenly numb fingers. With a dull thud, it landed half onto the floor half on his boots. He turned his head to stare at Reyn, who was visibly surprised by his reaction.

“What? Isn’t yours about the same?” the flight officer asked, bending over to take the armor Goten had dropped. He held it out for the younger male.

“You can’t be serious…” Goten stuttered. “Two hundred thousand?”

“You mean you don’t know?”

Lightheaded, Goten took the proffered armor, then leaned against a rack of ki-guns. “Know what?”

“What your power level is.”

“I… I think it was…a hundred thousand something last time it was measured.”

Now Reyn was giving him a look which was asking him why the hell he was acting so surprised, then. Goten scratched the back of his head.

“You see, I thought they were fucking around with me. The sergeant and the p- and the shaii.” Absently, he turned the armor over in his hands a few times. His fingers traced the texture without feeling it. “And…could it be that at the time when I blew myself up… Could it be that it reached three hundred thousand?”

Reyn hesitated. “Err… I doubt it. But… Why do you think so?”

“I was told that it was the last number all the scouters had been showing before they went haywire.”

“Huh. Well, I don’t really know. I think the highest ever to be recorded was two hundred fifty. And I think you’re rather too young for that yet. Maybe in five or so years.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. So us powering up to only two thousand is kinda ridiculous, don’t you think so?”

Goten ruffled through his hair. “You either take it or leave it. I’m not going to power up any higher.”

Reyn rolled his eyes. “Fine.” Goten could be unbelievably stubborn and, even if that usually led to them arguing, that was one of the things he liked about the younger male. You could only push Goten around as much as he allowed himself to be pushed around.

“Seriously,” Goten warned, “if you try anything funny…”

“I won’t, I won’t.”

“I spent three days in a regeneration tank and…”

“I said I won’t, Goten. Give it a rest finally. Put that armor on and let’s go.”

TBC
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