Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Little Slave Girl ❯ An Ace Up Her Sleeve ( Chapter 19 )

On the bridge, the royal crew were doing thier best to stay focused amid such a tragedy as lossing Queen Palena and such fine young men in the course of the past few days. A young female ensign, Tel, was taking the events particularily hard. The captain watched her from a distance as she stared at her control panel, seemingly lost as to what to do next. He saw her shove a length of her dark hair out of her eyes and sigh.

They were lucky, for some reason unknown to them the ship that had been attacking had veered off abruptly and disappeared into hyperspace. Tel had paused momentarily when it happened, to wonder what had caused them to suddenly leave off their attack. Then she just thanked the gods it was over...

Captain Belcourt felt sorry for her. She was new and hadn't lost anyone until a few days ago when her fiance had been ordered to try and capture the prisoners once again and had paid for it with his life. She didn't understand that in space, amongst enemies, certain...allowances...had to be made. She turned her head slightly and he caught the niave, innocent look in her dark brown eyes give way to something much more colder...bitterness.

`Atta girl, he silently applauded her, stay tough, it's the only way to survive out here...

Suddenly, the panel in front of her began to blink and Tel wiped an errant tear from her eyes, speaking up, "Sir, we are being hailed!"

"On screen." Captain Belcourt barked, forgetting about the young ensign to focus on the screen in front of him, where a strange being with green skin, a woman with blue hair and pretty matching eyes and a dark-haired young man with a vacant, yet innocent expression appeared.

"This is the Blue Beauty," The woman chimed, "We insist that you hand over the two female...slaves..." Bulma hated to use such an ugly word, but feared there was no help for it. "Now."

"I'd do it, if I were you, sir," The young man said, "You don't want to see her when she's mad..."

"My daughter and her friend better be in one peice if you know what's good for you." Piccolo growled.

"What is this?" Captain Belcourt cried, outraged, "How dare you threaten me! I'll not stand for it!"

"You'd better stand for it, Buster!" Bulma narrowed her eyes. Secretly she thanked the gods for the time she'd been allowed to fiddle around with the ships controls and whatnot while the boys played in the ship's anti-gravity training room. Goku looked at her with a stunned expression, wondering what she was up to. "Give us back the elven girls and maybe we'll let you go without further incident..."

"That's it!" Belcourt cried, his face as red as his uniform, "I will not stand for such insolance in a female! Ensign Tel! Arm the cannons!"

"But, Sir..." Ensign Tel stumbled, "T-the ship c-can't take anymore..."

"NOW!"

At the same moment, Piccolo pulled Bulma aside, panic flashing across his normally sedate features; "What are you doing, Bulma?! Are you crazy?!"

She knew he was thinking what they all were thinking, that her ship; the Blue Beauty, couldn't possibly stand an outright attack at such a short distance from such a large vessel...

"Shh..." Bulma whispered, aside to Piccolo, "I have a few aces up my sleeves, don't worry."

She punched a few buttons on the display pad in front of her, without taking her eyes from the angry face beaming at her from the veiwscreen, a secret half smile across her own features.

Tel didn't know what to do other than to obey the order she'd been given. It was what she'd been trained to do. She hit the lever that would bring the cannons online and closed her eyes briefly, praying that the ship would hold up for just a little longer. They had suffered considerably damage from the recent attack and, as she felt the ship shudder and the lights flicker once more, she wondered if it would soon be the end.

~*~*~

Ryven held the princess up with an arm about her stomach, dragging her along with Ryven's help. For such a little thing, Yarrah seemed to weigh a ton! They paused in the hallway where Ryven dropped the girl against a wall, needing to rest for a moment. She was so tired, mentally as well as physically, and it took all her willpower just to psych herself into standing back up again.

People were screaming all around them, shoving each other out of the way, racing down corridors. All of them were too far caught up into their own panic to notice three small females trying to make their way down the hall. Too much was happening, although Ryven knew that it wouldn't be long before they noticed their little Princess was missing.

Then she felt it. Like a ray of sunshine beaming it's warmth down upon her through the darkness of turbid storm clouds. A flicker across Rowyn's face told her that the younger elf had felt it too. ** They're here! ** She cried inside Rowyn's mind, her releif and happiness overwhelming, ** Papa's here!**

About that moment, Yarrah had begun to stir. Ryven noticed right away and turned to her. Blinking, Yarrah looked around in confusion, she didn't know what was going on. The ship was shaking and lights wouldn't stay on. She felt scared and didn't know what to do. She looked around for someone to help her. There was always someone to do everything for her.

Unbidden, tears began to fill her eyes and drift like sparkling crystals down her cheeks, before either elf could do anything, Yarrah opened her mouth as wide as it would go and wailed; "I want my Mamma!"

Quickly, Ryven jumped down to her and clamped a hand over the child's mouth, stilling her cries. She hissed into the girl's ear, done with any sort of coddling this child may have gotten in the past, there was no time for it, now, "Be quiet! Your mother's dead! If you don't want to join her I'd clam up if I were you!"

Rowyn gasped at Ryven's harsh words, she'd never seen her friend that way before and the look in the blonde elf's eyes frightened her. Ryven knew she was making Rowyn nervous, but nothing, especailly not this spoiled little brat was going to keep her from going home! But, to put her at ease, Ryven smiled at Rowyn breifly before turning back to Yarrah, "Do you understand me, Yarrah?"

"That's Princess Yarrah!" Yarrah sneered, when Ryven let her hand up, Yarrah crossed her arms over her chest and looked at them sideways.

"You can call yourself Queen Oobie-Doobie of the Dancing Leprechauns for all I care," Ryven said, "And you are coming with us to be healed and that is that!"

Without waiting, Ryven and Rowyn each grabbed a hand and pulled the girl along with them, who was not wailing anymore but pouting outright. Ryven secretly wondered if she were doing the right thing. But, if they could have Dende heal her mind and heart and convince her that things like slavery were wrong, perhaps she could go back and, as leader, make a new law...

Her thoughts were interrupted as the lights flickered once more and went out altoghter, casting them into darkness. The stars outside the windows seeemed to glow and twinkle like gems upon velvet. Then she noticed something, in several areas the stars seemed to shimmer, move, like water over glass, it was very subtle and normal, human eyes would not have caught it. Before she could stop herself she gasped.

"Rowyn, look!" She let go of Yarrah's hand to point out of the roundish shaped window, "What do you see?"

"Ships!" Rowyn gasped, as ten or more fighting class vessels seemed to appear out of nowhere around them, "I can't believe it...!"

"They must have been cloaked..." Yarrah said.

"Why didn't we feel anything, Ryven?" Rowyn asked, now trying to reach out mentally towards the new vessels, to see what she could find. Her mind hit a brick wall and seemed to bounce back towards her. She couldn't get through.

"They must have some kind of mentally cloaking device as well," Ryven said, then, as she continued to stare, noticed something else that made her smile; "Hey! I can see the Capsule Corp logo on the nearest ship's hull! They're on our side!"

~*~*~

Goku looked from the vessels appearing outside the ship to Bulma, who was smiling with self-satifaction, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes closed, "How...?"

She opened her eyes and looked at them, "While you guys were...uh...training...I used the time to call in a favor. Having money does have it's perks, you know!"

"What is this outrage?!" Captain Belcourt was screaming, his fists clenched in front of him, Tel was somewhere in the darkness with the rest of the bridge's crew, trying to get the lights back online, "H-how dare...!"

"Oh, knock it off!" Vegeta growled, his patience already wearing thin, "Give us the girls and we might let you go free...!"

"You know," Goku said, sounding alot more friendly than either Vegeta or Piccolo, "You may as well do what they say, you really have no choice..."

The fighters surrounding them were all waiting on orders from the Blue Beauty.

"Damn you!" Belcourt screamed, but lowered his head, he knew when he'd been backed into a corner. Without waiting, Piccolo touched his brow and shimmered out of sight.

** Why didn't you just do that in the first place?!** Nail screamed, making Piccolo wince, ** Baka! **

** Leave him alone, Nail! ** Kami sniffed, ** Can't you see he was under alot of stress, no one thinks straight under those conditions...! **

Ignoring them, Piccolo appeared on the ship's bridge, darkness around. Quickly, he lifted his hand and focused slightly, making a medium-sized ki ball grow from a flickering flame off his fingertips to a glowing orb of light that would illuminate the area around him. Belcourt gasped at the sight of the large, powerful namekian in the flesh but did not try to stop him.

Piccolo brushed passed him, and feeling for his daughter's signature ki, made his way towards her, the orb upon his hand lighting the way.