The docking bay hummed with the low thrum of engines and the sharp shouts of Saiyans loading ships. Kaiyo moved like a shadow behind stacked crates, Cade a silent wraith at his heels. Her dark armor absorbed the harsh hangar lights, the plates hugging her hips and thighs with lethal precision – a detail Kaiyo noted despite the adrenaline screaming through his veins. They edged toward a small, unmarked scout shuttle, its hatch invitingly open. Just ten meters. Five.
A heavy hand clamped Kaiyo's shoulder, spinning him around. A burly Saiyan pilot, scarred and smelling of ozone and cheap ale, glared down. "Low-class runt?" he sneered, power flickering at 1,800. "Where d'you think you're taking that shuttle? Joyride?" His eyes narrowed, darting toward Cade. "And dragging a warrior-class brat into it?"
Kaiyo's heart hammered against his ribs. Charisma Check. He forced a lazy grin, radiating careless arrogance. "Joyride? Please." He leaned in conspiratorially, lowering his voice. "Commander Goran's personal orders." He let the disgraced commander's name hang, heavy with implication. "Post-purge… cleanup." Kaiyo's grin turned sharp, predatory. "Needed something discreet. Fast. You know how Zarbon gets about loose ends." He subtly jerked his chin toward Cade. "She's the muscle. I'm the… specialist."
The pilot's suspicion wavered. Mentioning Zarbon was playing with fire, but Kaiyo's sheer, unflappable confidence sold it. The pilot's gaze flickered over Cade's armored form, her impassive, dangerous stillness selling the "muscle" lie better than any boast. He snorted, a harsh bark of laughter escaping him. "Specialist? You look like you'd faint at a bloodstain, kid!" He clapped Kaiyo's shoulder hard enough to stagger him, chuckling. "Fine! Get gone before the Overseer spots you. And if Goran's ghost complains?" He winked. "Tell him Balkar sent you!" He lumbered off, shaking his head and muttering about reckless youngsters.
Cade didn't waste a breath. She shoved Kaiyo toward the shuttle. "Move!" she hissed. They scrambled inside, the hatch sealing with a pressurized hiss. Kaiyo slammed his palm onto the ignition panel. The engines whined, then roared to life.
"Coordinates locked?" Cade snapped, strapping into the co-pilot's seat, her fingers flying over the nav console.
"Kappa-7. Brute-forced and loaded," Kaiyo confirmed, wrestling the controls as the shuttle lifted unsteadily. Below, Balkar glanced up, frowning slightly as the shuttle veered sharply upward, not toward the planetoid Zeta debris field.
"Hold on!" Kaiyo yelled as alarms blared – unauthorized departure vector. He punched the thrusters. The shuttle shot forward like a bullet, leaving the docking bay and the doomed planet shrinking rapidly behind them. Ahead, only the crushing void and a single, desperate chance.
Inside the cramped cockpit, the tension snapped like an overstretched wire. Kaiyo slumped back in the pilot's seat, letting out a shaky breath that turned into a manic, adrenaline-fueled chuckle. "Stars above, Cade! Did you see Balkar's face? Thought I was gonna piss myself!" He swiveled his chair towards her, a familiar, reckless grin spreading across his face despite the lingering tremor in his hands.
Cade was methodically checking the shuttle's stealth systems, her expression tight. "You gambled our lives on bluffing a drunk pilot," she muttered, not looking up. "Idiot."
"Worked, didn't it?" Kaiyo countered, his gaze drifting appreciatively over her armored form. The plates clung to her curves with brutal efficiency. "Besides," he added, leaning forward conspiratorially, "worth the risk just to see you in that armor. Seriously, did you pick it specifically to make your ass look like a damn gravity well? Because mission accomplished. Distracting as hell. Might crash us just staring."
Cade didn't even flinch. She simply sighed, a long-suffering sound that had become as familiar as his crude remarks. She finally looked up, fixing him with a flat, amber stare devoid of its usual lethal spark. "Is it physically impossible for you to go five minutes without mentioning my ass, Nakamura? Or my tits? Or anything below my neck?" Her voice was weary, almost bored. "We're fleeing planetary genocide, heading towards a year in a box that might kill us, and your brain is still stuck in your pants."
Kaiyo shrugged, the grin never faltering. "Hey, gotta keep morale up! And let's be honest," he gestured vaguely at her, "it's a spectacular morale booster. Like twin moons guiding us through the darkness. Or maybe…"
"Finish that sentence," Cade interrupted, her voice dangerously low, "and I will eject you into hard vacuum without a suit. Right now."
Kaiyo held up his hands in mock surrender. "Fine, fine! No poetic celestial body analogies." He paused, then couldn't resist. "But seriously, the way that plating cups–"
A sharp thwack echoed as Cade's tail whipped out, cracking against the armrest inches from his hand. She didn't look at him, her focus back on the nav console. "Coordinates confirmed. ETA to Kappa-7 orbit: Six hours." Her tone was pure ice. "Try not to combust from sheer hormonal overload before then."
Kaiyo chuckled, turning back to the star-streaked viewport. The terror for his mother, the dread of Zarbon, the impossible task ahead – it all receded slightly under the familiar, grating rhythm of their dynamic. Her exasperation was almost comforting. It meant she hadn't broken. Not yet. And neither had he. He watched the stars streak by, the vastness pressing in. Six hours. Then a year. A year to become strong enough to defy an empire. A year locked in with Cade. His grin widened, edged with desperation and a flicker of something darker. Let the games begin.
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Kappa-7's atmosphere tasted like burnt copper and static. The shuttle shuddered violently as Kaiyo wrestled it through roiling violet clouds, alarms screaming about atmospheric shear. Below stretched a nightmare landscape: jagged obsidian mountains clawing at a bruised sky, rivers of molten rock cutting through valleys choked with crystalline fungi that pulsed with sickly green light. No cities. No structures. Just primordial violence.
Cade scanned the terrain, her armored knuckles pale against the console. "Coordinates dead center. Where's the facility?" Her voice was tight, controlled panic. "This is a volcanic graveyard, Kaiyo. Not a training ground."
Kaiyo's stomach dropped. He pulled up the System's stolen coordinates again. DESTINATION: PLANETOID KAPPA-7 - HYPERBOLIC TIME CHAMBER FACILITY. The text glowed mockingly in his mind's eye. But outside the viewport? Only desolation. "It's… it's gotta be cloaked! Or underground!" He sounded desperate, even to himself. He slammed a fist on the console. "Scan for energy signatures! Structural anomalies! Anything!"