Pride Rekindled: Chapter 10

The doors to the med bay swing open with a loud hiss and the moment they did, Sadri was already inside with a massive grin on his face, “Rima! Whatcha up to?”

As Papri followed in behind him, she saw the Visurii once again standing in front of an inhabited healing tank. Her emotionless expression shifted to one of annoyance as she turned their way, “What do you want this time, Sadri? Come to bug me with more inane questions about my biology?”

“Hey, asking if you can taste things through other parts of your body is a perfectly reasonable question and you know it!” Sadri defended himself as the door shut behind them,, “And I'm just here to keep my favorite Visurii company… And also to use your console. The one in the training room still hasn't been fixed.”

Rima sighed, rolling her eyes, “Of course it hasn't.” She pointed off to the side at a console hanging on the wall, “You know where it is. Stay out of my files or I'll make your next physical extremely painful.”

Sadri grinned, making his way over to it, “You're the best, Rima. It'll just take a second. I've got to put in some test results for our friend over here.”

“Right, just remember what I said, Sadri. Extremely painful. You know I can do it too.”

As Rima turned back to the healing tank, Papri walked up behind the woman, taking a look inside of the tank. It was the same one that had been inhabited when she first woke up a few days ago, but the liquid wasn't nearly as thick, allowing her to see the person floating inside.

“Huh, I thought I killed him.” She said, mildly surprised to see the same orange Frutian she had fought on Grinn. Pume, or something.

“You nearly did. Most people don't need more than a day in the hearing tank to recover from most injuries.” Rima replied as she pressed buttons on the console in front of her, “It's been half a week and I'm still not comfortable bringing him out of stasis. He’d probably go into shock the moment his body registers his injuries.

She turned to give Papri a look the Saiyan couldn't identify, “You don't know how to hold back, do you?”

Papri crossed her arms, “Why would I hold back? He was trying to kill me.”

She was confused as Rima just rolled her eyes, saying nothing. “Nevermind. I should have known better than to ask that. Now, what are you two really here for? Sadri could have gone to literally any non-residential room on the ship if he wanted to use a console.”

“I need some med patches for my burns.” Papri responded, moving her collar out of the way to show the angry red skin, “I’ve got a few wounds from the test but nothing I need to fix that badly.”

The Visurii looked over at her, taking in the burns on her neck. She scowled, muttering something under her breath, before pointing to a container off to the side, “They’re in there. Don't take more than you need. We only resupply once a month so this is what we've got till next week. With how fast you heal, you probably only need one or two for those burns.”

As she walked over to the container, Papri asked the woman the question that had been bugging her, “I actually wanted to ask you about that. I'm a mutant, right?”

Rima nodded without looking at her and Papri continued as she opened the box, finding small packaged sheets covered in green gel, “Could you explain what that means exactly? Sadri didn't really do a good job of explaining.

Rima rolled her eyes again, “Of course he didn’t Sadri always preferred to leave the explanation to her. Lazy bastard.”

“You know you love me!”

Rima ignored the Seijin’s shout, twisting a dial on the console a smidge to the right and then pressing a button. The liquid in the healing tank bubbled as the fluid-to-oxygen ratio was adjusted and she eyed Pumm for any signs that he was disturbed by the change, nodding when she saw none.

Satisfied that she wouldn't have to worry about it for now, Rima gave the Saiyan her full attention, “So what did you want to know? I don’t have time to dive into a full explanation of genetics and how they factor into your mutations so please keep it brief.”

Rima’s tone was matter of fact, holding no annoyance or anger towards Papri and the Saiyan was beginning to think this was just how the woman spoke. Compared to everyone else, it was actually somewhat refreshing.

Placing the patches on her face and neck where the burns were the worst, Papri asked the most important question on her mind, “Could you just just explain what a mutant is? What makes me different or stronger? I thought I just had weird eyes and tail.”

Rima hummed thoughtfully, “There are a lot of ways to answer your question so I'll just give you the cliff-notes.

Papri nodded, more than happy with that. She probably wouldn't understand the full explanation anyway.

“Your differences, your eyes, tail, and even your increased strength, can be owed to a mutation within your DNA.” Rima began, “This mutation is extremely rare and in layman's terms, means that you'll be stronger than anyone in the entire history of your race before you reach your majority. If you don't die first of course.”

“But what causes it? Sadri said that Orishi is a mutant, right? How am I anything like him?”

“You aren't.” Rima responded simply, causing Papri to sigh in relief, “Well, apart from your potential for immense power, I mean. Orishi’s species mutates wildly for little reason at all. He was just lucky enough that he happened to come out of it stronger instead of gaining a third cancerous arm or other vestigial limb. Neijin have very unstable DNA. The only reason they haven't died out yet is because they're also one of the most fertile races in the galaxy.”

Papri hadn't known that, but it sort of made sense. Neijin were everywhere, after all, “So then what makes me a mutant? Saiyans don't grow outside of battle or training and definitely not as fast as I am.”

Most Saiyans went their whole lives without seeing Elite levels of power, and Papri had reached that on Grinn where there wasn't a single enemy that could actually cause her harm. That wasn't natural and even she could see that so it must be a part of her mutations.

“It could be a bunch of factors.” Rima responded, “It could be a reaction caused by exposure to unknown energy, literal mutations thanks to radiation and the like, or the perfect blend of genes causing what is basically evolution within the species it occurs in. In your case, your mutations are the latter. They’re linked to your DNA. One of your parents must have mated with a species similar enough to your own that no defects occurred and you were the result instead.”

Papri is shocked and even slightly angered by the information, “What? But both of her parents were paired full-blood Saiyans! They would have never betrayed each other by breeding with another race.”

Rima tilted her head, an interested look on her face as her scientific curiosity was peaked, “Is that so? I was under the impression that Saiyans weren’t a monogamous species.”

“We usually aren’t but there are exceptions.” Papri said, “Sometimes a Saiyan finds a partner that fits them completely and they basically lose any lust they have for other people. They’re called pairs because they never come in sets of more than two.”

It was an extremely rare occurrence and as a matter of fact she had only ever heard of two other pairs like her parents. King Vegeta was paired with his wife, the Queen, and though Papri was young at the time and couldn’t remember much, she somewhat recalled talk about some low-class warrior pairing up with a Saiyan in the meat distribution center before she left. An even rarer occurrence since most warriors didn’t give the civilians a second glance.

“Interesting.” Rima muttered in a voice so low Papri could barely hear her, “Saiyan culture must be much different from what I had heard about. I’ll have to do some research on the subject later.”

Rima shook her head, “Anyway, it’s a moot point. Mutant genes can remain recessive for decades of even centuries if they aren’t inherited by someone with the right cocktail of DNA. My best guess? One of your ancestors took a quick stroll out of the Saiyan gene pool and a few centuries later, you were born and just happened to set off all the correct genetic markers to cause a mutation.”

Papri nodded slowly, taking in everything that she had been told. Saiyans weren’t picky about who they mated with. As long as you were strong and weren’t completely repulsive to look at, you had a good chance of catching their eye. Provided they weren’t trying to kill you because they invaded your planet of course.

She looks down at her hands, clenching her fists and feeling the power within them. If her mutations really were the result of her ancestors breeding with another species, then who were they? Were they still around? Would any children she had be like her as well? Or was this just a one time thing that would die with her? She had so many questions!

Rima, noticing the intensely thoughtful look on the Saiyan’s face, sighed quietly. She stepped away from her and made her way over to one of the lockers lining the wall of the room.

“Here.” Papri looked up just in time to catch the Visurii tossing a rectangular object in her direction. She snatched it out of the air, looking it over in confusion. It looked like a block of metal and plastic but was clearly much more high-tech than that. Small seams ran along the sides and a blue light glowed on the very top of it, blinking on and off periodically.

“What is it?” Papri asked, burning the device over in her hands. Her thumb slid over what felt like a button on the side which she immediately pressed. The box immediately unfolded into a rectangular screen which immediately lowered on, showing the logo of the Planet Trade Organization on its face.

“It's a datapad.” Rima answered as she stared at the screen in surprise, “It's connected to the ship's communications system so that you can monitor your mission status and profile, or receive any emergency alerts that the Vistri sends out. I also took the liberty of transferring the library from your pod onto it as well. All the information that you had access to before is on there.”

Papri blinked, “Wait, seriously? Why am I allowed to have something like this? I'm a slave and Orishi hates me.”

“It's standard procedure. Orishi knows better than to go against it.” Rima smirked, “That's how you get mutinies. Most people around here might not be able to even scratch his armor but they're still a pain in the ass to replace. They need to be a little comfortable or they'd start tearing the ship apart.”

“It also lets them keep track of who's worth keeping around.” Sadri chimed in, making his way back over to them, apparently finished submitting her results, “If you haven't done your allotted missions or Orishi just thinks you're dead weight, you're sent off to a mining planet or something to work as a laborer until you die or break.”

So sort of like how Low-class were treated on Vegeta. Those who couldn't fight or had super low power levels were either sent to die on a mission or put into food services. Papri wasn't sure which was worse.

“So what did you do with my pod? Or what was left of it, I mean?” Papri asked curiously.

“Your pod was scrapped for parts, as well as all of the technology you had in your home.” Rima answered, “The database that was on the pod was uploaded to the library so even if you didn't have that datapad, you'd still be able to access it.

Next time we resupply, that data will also be uploaded to the PTO’s larger databases. It ‘s probably the only remnant of what was left on Planet Vegeta. Super valuable to people trying to keep dead civilizations alive so Orishi might even get some kickback for being the one who ‘found’ it.”

“And I’m guessing I won’t be getting anything for being the one who actually had it?” Papri asked sarcastically.

Sadri gave her a wry look, “I don’t know. If you try asking him for some credits you might get something.”

“A broken jaw, perhaps.” Rima scoffed. “I doubt even Davik will see a bit of those credits even though he was technically the one who brought her back.”

Right. She had expected that. Papri shook her head, folding the pad and putting it away.

She then turned back to Rima, asking the second important question that she had for the woman, “So, Rima. Since you're a Visurii, you have access to a bunch of tech stuff, right? Circuits and motherboards and stuff?”

Rima raised an eyebrow, “I have what is strictly necessary to maintain my repairs.”

Papri's heart sank, “Oh. So if I asked if you had any parts to spare for me to build a housing for an AI…?”

“Not possible.” Rima said immediately, though her tone was slightly apologetic, “I barely have enough to keep myself running in case of emergency repairs. I can't spare anything. Your best bet would be to try to loot some valuables on your next mission and sell them to the fence. Then you might be able to buy something from the commissary that you can scrap for parts.”

Papri tried not to look too disappointed by her words, nodding slowly, “I guess I'll have to wait a little bit longer then…”

Rima’s apologetic look grew slightly and she opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by Papri's datapad suddenly buzzing loudly, startling the Saiyan who just barely managed not to drop it. She stared at it in confusion, watching as a bright yellow icon flashed at the top of the screen.

“Ohh, looks like your results are in!” Sadri said from behind her, causing her to look at him and then the pad in her hands, “Go to your profile. I want to see how you did.”

“My… profile?” Papri asked, staring at the foreign screen in confusion. Though she had managed on Grinn, Papri was the furthest thing from technologically savvy. The most high-tech thing she owned right now was her scouter so trying to navigate something like this was extremely confusing.

Luckily, Sadri was more than happy to help. “Just press that button right there and it will bring up your profile.” He said, pointing at the screen, “It’ll tell you your current status at any given time so the results will be in there.”

Papri followed his instructions, her fingers fiddling slightly with the unfamiliar device before she managed to pull up her profile, the screen lighting up with words and a picture.

Subject Name: Papri
Species: Saiyan
Status: Alive
Age: 14.3 Standard Years
Power Level: 14,782

Below that was a picture of her that she didn’t remember being taken, alongside a small description of her general appearance. Most importantly though, right underneath her profile, in small red letters preceded by a star, was a note that made Papri want to crush the device in her hands.

* This slave fails to meet the minimum power requirements for the removal of their collar.

Despite that rage-inducing sentence, there was another one right below it that caused all of her anger to fizzle out into confusion.

* This slave has been cleared for missions exceeding their current apparent capacity. Authorization for missions requiring a power level of eighty thousand has been given via executive order by Captain Orishi.

Orishi had cleared her for high rated missions? Why would he do that?

“What is it?” Rima asked, noticing the look on her face.

Sadri leaned in, seeing the same thing that she did, “Huh, that’s weird. It says that she’s cleared for the same missions you and I are.”

“What?” Rima looked and sounded different from the monotone she had been speaking in so far, a small amount of anger leaking into her face and artificial voice. What was she mad about?

Papri thought for a moment, trying to figure out what her allotted missions were so high, “Maybe it’s because I can create a Power Ball? That’s the only reason I can think of, really.”

“Power Ball?” Sadri raised an eyebrow, “That some sort of attack? I don’t see how that would really change things.”

Papri shook her head, “Not an attack. It’s a technique that lets me create artificial moonlight. If I use it on a planet without a moon, I’ll be able to transform as long as it isn’t destroyed or disrupted for too long.” She explained, “It doesn’t last forever and it takes a shit-load of energy to even make, so it’s usually a last resort, but I can manage it half the time.”

Rima’s eyes widened in shock, the first emotion the woman had shown besides annoyance, “Your species can artificially induce your transformation? When in the world did you learn how to do that?”

Papri shrugged, “I don't know. Some Low-class realized how stupid it was that we couldn’t take on planets without a moon without a ton of losses, so he did some experimenting until he figured it out.”

“And how did you learn it?” Sadri asked.

“The database on the pod had a list of techniques that might have been useful and the Power Ball was one of them. It took me a while to get the hang of making blutz waves but I figured it out pretty quick after that.” She said, her tail swishing happily behind her as she preened with pride, “Being stuck on Grinn for so long gave me nothing to do but practice so I’m pretty good when it comes to figuring out techniques as long as I have a baseline.”

She suddenly frowned as something occurred to her, “Actually wait, it doesn’t make any sense that the Power Ball would be why I’m allowed to go on more missions. I can’t even control my Oozaru. I’d just attack whoever is near me when I transform.”

“Well it’s only ten times stronger than you are now, right?” Sadri said, “I’d say that a few of us should be able to handle it together. Your tail is a pretty big target when it's not wrapped around your waist. It wouldn’t take much to distract you and cut it off.”

Papri’s tail immediately tightened around her once more at the mention of cutting it off and she gave Sadri a glare, causing him to chuckle, “Relax, it’s just a hypothetical.”

“One that assumes you can even damage her in the first place.” Rima said with a sigh, “She’s a mutant and her tail especially seems to exhibit odd power fluctuations. It’s not out of the question that the original ten times boost that the rest of her species deals with wouldn’t apply to her. It could easily be as large as twenty or even thirty times, at which point you would have trouble even getting through her aura.”

Sadri winced, “Ah, yeah. That would… definitely be a problem.”

“The bigger question is, does Orishi even know about that technique and if he does, then how?” Rima asked, making Papri pause.

“I… don't know.” She said, unable to come up with an answer, “I didn't get the chance to use it when I fought those three on Grinn and I haven't even been off the ship yet…” She tilted her head, “You're right. How could he know?”

Rima frowned deeply, “He probably doesn't.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, he's probably hoping you'll bite off more than you can chew on one of those missions and get yourself killed.” Rima huffed angrily, “He's not allowed to kill you himself, so he's going to just keep sending you on suicide missions until you don't come back.”

Processing Rima's words, Papri looked down at her datapad, staring at her profile, “Huh… So is he stupid or something?”

Rima blinked at her words and even Sadri looked surprised, “What?”

“I asked if he's stupid. He does know that this will do nothing but make me stronger, right? Like, so much stronger than training ever would.”

Both of her companions looked lost, though Rima had an interested gleam in her eyes, “Explain.” The Visurii ordered.

Papri rolled her eyes, “Saiyans thrive in the heat of battle, it's our whole thing, like, literally. There's a reason we're called the greatest warrior race.”

“You guys are the only ones who call yourselves that.” Sadri chimed in, causing her to glare at him.

“Well the rest of the universe should have joined in then.” She said angrily, “Saiyans are literally built on a biological level to get stronger through battle. It's in our blood, our bones, our very beings. If a Saiyan crawls back from the brink of death fighting a strong opponent, their strength skyrockets, putting them at the same level or even above their foe in preparation for the next battle.”

She clenched her fist as the two stared at her in shock, “Leaving a Saiyan alive after defeating them is the worst mistake someone could ever make. Our blood demands that we take back our stolen pride and our muscles give us the strength to do it. If Orishi wants to kill me, he chose the worst possible way to go about it.”

The two of them stared at her after her speech ended, completely stunned. Rima stared at her with an unidentifiable emotion, before suddenly closing her eyes as her face went completely stoic and her body froze, becoming as still as a statue.

Papri eyed the woman, slightly worried about what was happening. Had she overloaded. Could Visurii even do that? “Uhhh, what's she doing?

Sadri noticed where she was looking and followed her gaze, “Oh. Yeah, she does that sometimes when she's trying to figure something out. I think it helps her out more processing power towards whatever she's working on if she shuts down like that. She'll be back in a minute or two.”

He suddenly blinked as something occurred to him, “Hey wait a minute, if you get stronger every time you almost die, then why was your race so weak?” Sadri asked, completely confused, “You guys were conquering more planets than basically the entire PTO by yourselves! You should have had dozens of Saiyans as strong as Cooler by now!”

While Papri wasn't thrilled at anyone calling the Saiyan race weak, she also knew that Sadri hadn't meant anything by it this time. She shrugged, “I guess most Saiyans just didn't know about it. We rarely went to planets without moons and when we transform into Oozaru, there isn't much in the universe that can stop us. We kept wiping out civilizations before they had a chance to fight back so nobody ever really got the boost they'd get from a hard battle. I only learned about it thanks to the database on my pod.”

“Well I'd take advantage of that while I can.” Sadri commented, shaking off his shock, “I doubt Orishi won't notice when you start getting stronger by leaps and bounds every time you come back from a mission. The moment he does, he'll probably cut you off and force you to be a cook or something.”

“Tch. I doubt it. Cooler could never let him bench the only Saiyan in his army. Especially not a mutant one.” Rima said, finally opening her eyes and returning to the living world. “He'll probably just keep raising the mission level higher and higher until something does kill her. Or she becomes strong enough to kill him. Whichever comes first.

The Visurii then looked at Papri, her gaze piercing, “You and I are going to have a long chat one day soon. Your species is one I've never had the chance to study due to your culture and I need to learn more about you. My pride as a scientist would never rest if I let so much untapped knowledge go to waste.”

Papri Emma's slightly taken back by the intensity in the woman's eyes. She was completely serious, “Uh, alright I guess. But I want your help building a housing for Bot in return. It took me months to figure it out on Grinn but I'm sure you could do it in a few days.”

Rima snorted, the intensity in her expression fading, “Try a few hours. And deal. I'll give you a list of things I'll need but it'll be up to you to acquire them.”

“I can work with that.”

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted as the bright fluorescent lights above them shifted into a deep red and began flashing on and off. Papri grimaced, slamming her hand to the ear not covered by her scouter as a loud, wailing siren began to emanate from the speakers hidden in the walls, nearly deafening her.

Rima and Sadri weren't nearly as affected as her, barely even jumping at the sudden change in atmosphere. Rima turned away from the group to head towards her console, while Sadri just looked up at the flashing light with a frown, “Really? Now? We just had one last week!” He said aloud, angry at something that Papri didn't know.

Bringing her hand away from her ear and grimacing slightly, Papri turned to the man, “What's going on?” She yelled, barely heard over the ear-deafening noise filling the ship.

“It's the ship's warning system!” Sadri shouted back, “It either detected an asteroid that could be an issue or an enemy vessel! Either way, it's trouble!”

Despite his words, he didn't look too concerned, merely annoyed, and only a moment later, the siren shut off, leaving a silence in its wake that was just as deafening as the siren had been.

Sighing in relief, Papri rose from her slouched position, happy that her ears were no longer being assaulted with noise. That happiness didn't last long though, as she was then startled by her datapad buzzing with a notification.

Startled and slightly annoyed, she powered it on and blinked as she was met with a glaring red message that took up the entire screen.

Incoming Orders:
Defend the Vistri - By the command of Captain Orishi, you are hereby ordered to assist in the defense of the Vistri from approaching hostile forces. Failure to comply with this order will result in swift punishment via the activation of your collar. Subsequent refusals will be met with the same reprisal until you comply. You have been allotted ten minutes with which to prepare before punishment will be enforced.

Below the orders was a timer that was already counting down, letting her know that she had a little over nine and a half minutes to get ready. The Saiyan stared at it, not really sure whether to feel happy or annoyed that she had been selected for the task ahead.

“Well damn. Got your first mission right off the bat, huh?” Papri looked up to find Sadri peeking over her shoulder at her datapad, “Lucky you, I guess. These battles don’t happen that often but when they do, they’re usually a good time. If you don’t mind the coldness of space, I mean.”

“Won’t I suffocate?” Papri asked as she put her pad away. She’d never been in space without her pod before, and while Saiyans were tough and had an incredible lung capacity, they still couldn’t survive in a vacuum for longer than a few minutes.

“Nah, you don’t have to worry about that. The Vistri has its own false atmosphere for situations just like this. As long as you don’t get pulled too far away from the ship, you’ll be just fine.” He clapped her on the shoulder, “And the best part? Out there, you’re fighting against people who want to invade Lord Cooler’s empire which means you don’t have to hold anything back. You can go as crazy as you want.”

…Well that solved that dilemma.