Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Sing No Songs ❯ The Readers of Dania ( Chapter 14 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 14

Asdef was not good with names. In his service he had encountered many people, many leaders and officials of different planets. He would make the effort of learning their names for the duration of their dealings, but then the names would immediately slip from his mind. This had never really bothered him. After all, what did it matter what people called themselves? The important thing was that sometimes they were reluctant and defiant, but more often they were ready to listen to the Law.

This however, was a different situation entirely.

Asdef straightened his back and looked around at the circle of faces. He had rarely seen such an assorted group of people. There were about thirty of them, all belonging to different species. Even their clothes were mixed, not two shades of the same colour, as if they had each decided to dress in a manner that separated them from everyone else. Except for the hats, that was. They were all wearing the high cylindrical hats of the Readers.

Asdef discretely tugged at the collar of his uniform jacket, conscious of the fact that he had made a grave miscalculation. He had known that the Readers of Node City Dania might eventually call for a meeting, but it had never occurred to him to learn anything about them in advance. He didn't even know their names.

His eyes were drawn to an old woman, head and shoulders taller then anyone else, her large, wrinkled hands poised regally on the ornamented arm-rests of her chair. She had been the one who had greeted him when he had arrived, giving him the impression that she was the leader of the assembly. But, Asdef reminded himself, there were no leaders among the Readers. They all served equally as the eyes, the ears, and the hands of the Galaxy.

He was still a bit disorientated from the ride over the city. Through the window of the small vessel he had seen a myriad of buildings reaching to every horizon, a sight that the close quarters of his ship made all the more impressive. He had instantly noticed the tower, the dark squat building that was the actual Node, dominating the city line like a tree stump in a field of flowers. When the vessel came closer he had realized just how large it really was. Entering its shadow was like entering the dark side of a moon.

It was his first time inside a Node, the first time he had met any of the Readers. It occurred to him, their hats imitated the shape of the building. It was a peculiar detail, one that he knew he would ponder later… and probably ascribe a whole lot of significance.

Asdef shifted in his seat. He was in a strange mood, dark and defensive. It came to him that he was disappointed. Disappointed? That didn't made any sense. He made himself stop fidgeting.

When he had arrived at Dania, the Readers had briefly contacted the ship. As he had assumed, they preferred to let the prisoner remain right where he was. Asdef had made arrangements to receive the visitor groups from the planet, seen to it that his soldiers would escort them to the room where the prisoner was kept.

There had been some disturbance concerning the prisoner, Asdef recalled. Some of the visitors had insisted that the guards should follow them into the room, rather than wait outside. The guards had reported scenes of crying and cursing, but he hadn't seen any reason to change his instructions. It wasn't his business to comfort or reassure the visitors, and they didn't need the guards to protect them. Between the glass and the drug, the room was perfectly safe.

He had also postponed the scheduled visits for four hours every night, to give the prisoner some time to rest. He wondered if the Readers would bring this up. It had seemed like the self-evident thing to do, but now he couldn't help but question his own motives.

“Captain.” The old woman spoke again. Her voice echoed between the towering walls of the chamber. “I've been viewing the recordings from your ship, and I found something that we all should see.” She nodded to the Reader to her left, a slim creature covered in a furry pelt, who got to his feet and dodged behind the line of chairs. Asdef heard him scurrying back there, doing something that involved pulling a long wire across the floor.

“It will only be a moment,” the woman said calmly.

A few seconds passed, the hum of conversation filling the air. Asdef looked to his left, his attention caught by the sound of a huffing sigh. Three chairs away sat a young woman in a white shirt, a bored expression on her face. As if she could feel his gaze, she turned her head and looked back at him. For an instant her eyes were wide and uncertain, and then the same bored look came back to hide whatever she was thinking.

Asdef turned the other direction, and found himself face to face with the person sitting next to him. Brown eyes, outlined in black, contrasted sharply against the chalk-white skin. Dark lips quirked slightly in a smile that Asdef felt himself unable to return. He swallowed, staring. Coincidence or not, this Reader had the looks of Frieza.

“Don't worry.” The Reader leaned closer. He was dressed entirely in a pink robe, and the wide sleeve fell down to his elbow as he lifted a hand to his mouth and whispered conspiratorially. “I get that a lot.” The smile became an outright grin, and the edges of his eyes crinkled deeply. Asdef nodded guardedly.

“It's ready.” The announcement came from the old woman who seemed to be the spokesperson of the meeting. Asdef noted that the furry Reader had resumed his place by her side.

He heard a low mechanical sound and looked up. A contraption that looked like a giant glass spider was slowly being lowered from the ceiling. With an inelegant clank it stopped a few metres above the middle of the circle. Abruptly the air in front of him was bathed in a misty light; only then did he realize what was happening.

Colours moved and rippled, gathering to outline four separate figures that seemed to solidify until they became perfectly lifelike. With a pang he recognized himself, standing on the deck of his own ship. He was lifting his arm in a wide arc, indicating something outside the rage of the light. A map, Asdef thought, he was standing in front of a map of stars. He spoke, the words drifted eerily from every direction.

“This and this and this too belong to the Galaxy.”

His small audience followed the direction he had pointed out, letting their eyes roam over the invisible stars. Two men and a woman. One of the men had correctional lenses in front of his eyes, and the other man, who was slightly shorter, frowned at him under bangs of feathery pale hair. The woman stood between them, her arms crossed and her mouth a thin line. He remembered them well.

The woman spoke, anger evident in her voice. “We're surrounded, is that what you're saying?”

“Yes, that's what I'm saying.” Asdef saw his replica open his mouth as if to say something else, but he closed it again. He glanced back at the chart, at the air where the stars should have been. The three strangers exchanged looks behind his back, apparently unsure about what to do next. The expressions on their faces spoke of restraint and intelligence.

“So what would happen if we were to destroy this ship?” The light-haired man sounded relaxed, as if only mildly curious about the answer.

Asdef remembered being scared, remembered thinking that he might die right then. Strange how the visitors had appeared a lot more hostile the first time he had seen them.

“If we fail here on Earth,” he said slowly. “Others will know, and others will come. The next ship might not stop for negotiations.”

It had been meant to sound like a warning, but Asdef thought it sounded more like an excuse to save his own skin. He felt a burst of indignation, that the Readers were watching him like this.

The dark-haired man had a deeply thoughtful look on his face. “We are far from defenceless,” he said.

“That's right,” the woman added. “Better warn your precious Galaxy to stay away. You're in way over your head here.” She took a step closer.

He was surprised to see that his own face was so calm. “You will solve nothing by resisting. The best thing you can do right now is to cooperate.”

“Cooperate? Hello. You're the one who threatened to blow up the bloody planet!” Her words came hot and fast; they echoed across the chamber.

“You don't understand…”

“No,” she said. “You are the one that doesn't understand. Didn't you hear? We are powerful, more powerful than you or anyone else can imagine.”

He shook his head. “You might be powerful, but that's beside the point. Weapons or power can't shield you from the Law.”

“Some law, that lets you kill billions of innocent people.”

“I… No…” He was literally stuttering. “If you would just cooperate…”

“You want me do demonstrate, is that it?” She lifted her chin, sneering. “Because I could give you a demonstration.”

He remembered her steady gaze. It had chilled him to the bone. And then there had been the gathering of tension. Now he felt it again. The air was too heavy; it pushed against his ribcage, making it hard to breathe. It almost felt like the chamber floor was vibrating, even though he knew that wasn't possible. It had to be the memory of his ship, trembling under his feet. The woman wasn't moving, but her hair was, and her clothes. She was summoning her own personal storm.

“Pan, wait!” The tall man laid a hand on her arm. He talked quietly, insistently, too low for the others to hear. The tension was easing. Her hair grudgingly conquered the wind and fell back around her shoulders. Her body language told him she was backing away, but she kept staring, her eyes hard and unyielding.

The image froze. So intently did he focus, he didn't realize the recording had stopped at first. Then the figures disappeared, abruptly as if someone had pulled a switch. The absence of the misty light made it feel like the temperature had dropped several degrees. Asdef looked around at the circle of Readers. Except for the whirring sound as the glass spider ascended, the silence was total. It was like no one wanted to be the first to comment what they had seen.

---

The white-faced Reader to his right cleared his throat. He waited until Asdef looked at him, and then addressed his words directly to him, although his voice was loud enough for all to hear. “You are very quick to threaten an entire planet.”

“It was a strategy,” Asdef said stiffly. “I thought the threat might make Vegeta come to us. It worked.”

It was hard to tell what the Reader was thinking. His manner was muted, relaxed, and he stared at Asdef without blinking. “You gamble with high stakes.”

“And it worked,” he said again, ill at ease under the enigmatical stare of the Reader.

“Be that as it may,” the spokesperson cut in. “Let's focus on the issue that I presented to you. That woman's power rose from unremarkable to over a hundred thousand. It's possible that she's capable of many times more.”

“Quite possible,” the Reader to her left agreed.

“And the same might be said for her two companions,” a clear voice chimed in. Asdef craned his neck to see who had spoken, and he stared for a moment at the small creature who sat on the edge of the chair, dangling its stubby legs like a child.

“Astute as always, Reader Ollera.” The spokesperson lowered her head in a bow that seemed slightly exaggerated. “Neither do these people deny knowing Vegeta. Isn't that right?” There was a moment of silence.

“Captain? Shipholder?”

Asdef realized that the question had been directed at him. “No…” He cleared his throat. “No, they never denied knowing Vegeta. It fact, it's obvious that they were acquainted, since they lived under the same roof down on Earth.”

“I see.” The spokesperson raised her voice to silence the murmur that greeted this statement. “I have considered the possibility that the three strangers might be Vegeta's disciples… or his offspring.”

An uncomfortable silence settled over the room.

“Why didn't you tell us about this at once?” a man with a white beard asked Asdef.

“It's all in the ship records.” He didn't know what to say. It had never occurred to him that the Readers would be interested in the prisoner's former living arrangements.

“Never mind that.” The spokesperson folded her hands in a controlled manner. “Now, you did report to us about the power reading - even larger than Frieza's - that initially led you to Vegeta. Is it possible that that reading might have come from somebody else?”

“I suppose so,” Asdef said slowly, then added: “My speculation is as good as yours.” He thought he heard a grunt of approval from the Reader to his right.

“Of course it's possible,” Reader Ollera snapped. “For all we know, these three aren't the only ones of Vegeta's children. There might be hundreds! And considering the time he has spent on Earth, the genepool…”

The murmur broke out again.

“Not inconceivable…”

“A whole planet of…”

“It's possible.”

“Oh, shut up.” The Reader in the pink robe met the stares of the other Readers with raised eyebrows and a cheerful smile.

“Speaker, he's doing it again.” The complaint came from Ollera, and his voice was pitched high in an undeniable whine. Asdef discovered that his mouth had fallen open and promptly closed it again.

The spokesperson shook her head. “No voice will be silenced. Reader Ollera will speak, and then Reader Rok, since he obviously has something on his mind.”

“Very well.” The small Reader got to his feet and took a few steps forward. “The thing is, I'm tired of the insolence, the never-ending commentary.” He spun around and pointed an accusatory finger at the still smiling Reader.

“He has no solemnity!”

“On topic, dear,” the spokesperson sighed. Asdef could hear a stifled snicker.

“Yes, Speaker.” The dots on his cheeks might have been a blush, but they were gone as soon as they appeared. “I was merely pointing out the unsuitable behaviour.” He looked around, meeting the eyes of each and every Reader until he stood in a circle of perfect silence. “We all know where this is going. Billions of lives might be at stake.”

“Ollera.” The spokesperson looked slightly troubled. “Don't say that.”

“Yes, we were just speculating!”

“We never…”

“Ollera is right.” The Reader called Rok dropped the words as if they weighed a ton. He was no longer smiling.

Ollera looked at him. He nodded suspiciously and folded his arms over his chest.

“I see there wasn't much protest either,” Rok said. Several Readers greeted the words with faces of stone, while others looked definitely uncomfortable.

“We can't just ignore what we have seen,” Ollera said.

“That any three persons have access to such powers is bad enough. That they might be Vegeta's offspring makes it all the more serious.”

“Power in itself is not a crime against the Law.” Rok stood up, and the pink robe flowed around his legs as he walked across the floor. He stopped a few steps from the shorter Reader.

“Neither is parentage.”

“True,” Ollera said. “But it would be naÃ¯ve to assume that these factors wouldn't have an effect on the judging.”

“You speak as if we have no choice. But you shouldn't confuse strength with threat. That error has been done before.”

“Oh, don't get started on that again!” The anger was instantaneous. “New Namek was a true judging of the Galaxy.”

Reader Rok folded his hands behind his back, speaking lazily. “New Namek was a mistake, one that could easily happen again.”

“Now wait here…”

“It was a true judging!” The outburst came from the young woman in the white shirt. She wasn't the only one raising her voice. “The Galaxy makes no mistakes.”

Rok turned his head and looked at her, his dark lips crooked in a brief half-smile. “Really, Idann? Is this something you want to defend?”

“I…” She sank deeper into her chair. “We have to believe in the larger picture. Have faith…” Her voice trailed off.

“I hear the people of New Namek were very friendly,” Rok said quietly. “They greeted the black ships with hospitality.”

Asdef saw Idann take a deep breath. She didn't say anything, but her face was filled with unspoken emotion.

Rok turned his back to her. “Whatever one might believe,” the word was tinted with a sort of amused contempt. “It always comes down to one thing.” He paused, and Asdef found himself leaning forward to hear what he was going to say. “The output is always determined by the input.”

As if finally reaching some crucial pressure point, the meeting exploded in chaos.

Ollera said something that sounded like a protest, but his words were drowned by an uproar of voices. At least ten other Readers got to their feet, shouting and gesturing. It was ear-shattering. Asdef just sat there, exclamations and pieces of sentences washing over him in a meaningless tangle.

“I've always said…”

“Unprecedented? You fools!”

“We have no right…”

“Right!”

“…another Frieza never again!”

Asdef felt gravely out of place. The disorder made him uneasy, and he didn't understand half of what was going on. He looked at the spokesperson, but she just sat there, apparently preferring to wait it all out.

This was not how he had expected the Readers to behave. He had expected… something like a clergy. Silent chambers and heads bent in obedience. Above all else, the obedience. The Readers passed along the orders of the Galaxy, not much more.

He looked from one shouting Reader to another, his heart sinking in his chest. He had felt it before he even entered the chamber. Here was power. Here was authority.

The disappointment, he though, was caused by the demise of his illusions.

Across the room the furry Reader had climbed up on top of the backrest of his chair, his plumy tail lashing back and forth. His mouth kept opening and closing, adding to the noise his animalistic roars.