The Royal Technologist's quarters were a universe away from the gritty barracks. It was a suite of spacious, interlocking rooms built into the palace's central spire, with a panoramic window offering a terrifyingly beautiful view of Planet Vegeta's blood-red skies and the sprawling, industrial city below. The air was filtered, temperature-controlled. A dedicated nutrient synthesizer, far more advanced than his previous one, hummed in an alcove. It was opulent, sterile, and felt more like a prison than the barracks ever had.
His "staff" was a group of twelve captured Tuffle engineers. They were silent, hollow-eyed, their will broken by the genocide of their people. They obeyed his commands with a chilling, mechanical precision, but their [Appraisal] revealed a deep, simmering hatred for all Saiyans, himself included. He was their new master, the prodigy of their destroyers.
The King's first order was clear: crack the Tuffle energy shield technology. It was a formidable challenge. The shields were a pinnacle of Tuffle science, a perfect marriage of energy manipulation and quantum field theory. For days, Astra and his unwilling Tuffle staff delved into the core database, a vast digital library of his enemy's greatest achievements.
The Tuffles, perhaps hoping to stall or sabotage, provided the data in a fragmented, overly complex manner. But to Astra, with his [Stellar Forge] and Cognitive Partitions, it was a magnificent puzzle. He didn't just want to replicate the shields; he wanted to understand their very soul. He assigned one Partition to deconstruct the quantum field equations, another to analyze the energy conversion matrices, and a third to cross-reference it all with the Saiyan understanding of Ki.
It was during this deep dive that he found it. Hidden beneath layers of encryption, masked as corrupted system files, was a data packet that didn't belong to the shield technology. Its energy signature was different. Older. And it resonated with the [Stellar Forge] in a way the Tuffle science did not.
He isolated the packet, using the Forge to gently unravel its encryption. It wasn't a weapon or a shield schematic. It was a star chart. But not a chart of any known galaxy. The constellations were alien, the physics of the projected hyperspace lanes defied conventional understanding. And at the center of the chart was a single, pulsing coordinate, labeled with a Tuffle word that translated to: "The Cradle."
A [Stellar Forge] analysis of the coordinate's spatial parameters sent a jolt through his system. The location existed in a pocket of spacetime with incredibly high background energy levels, similar to... the dimensional ripples from the Watchtower alert.
This was no Tuffle secret. This was something they had found. Something they had been studying in secret. The Cradle. The name implied an origin point.
He immediately created a hidden, encrypted partition within his own lab's systems, burying the star chart and all his related analysis deep within mundane power-grid diagnostics. This was not for the King. This was his.
Weeks turned into a month of focused work. The King's patience was not infinite. Astra knew he had to deliver a tangible result. He couldn't give him the true Tuffle shield—it was too advanced, too reliant on a power source Saiyans couldn't replicate. But he could create a hybrid. A Saiyan solution, inspired by Tuffle principles.
He presented his findings to the King in the throne room, using a holographic projector to display his design. "The pure Tuffle shield is incompatible with our warrior physiology, Your Majesty," Astra explained, his mental voice calm and confident. "It requires a stable, constant energy output. A Saiyan's Ki is volatile, explosive."
The hologram shifted to show a new design. "I have designed a Reactive Ki Barrier. It remains dormant until it detects an incoming energy attack above a certain threshold. It then uses a fraction of the warrior's own Ki to create a momentary, hyper-dispersive field that shunts the attack's energy away. It will not stop a sustained barrage, but it will negate the first, decisive blow in a battle."
It was a clever lie wrapped in truth. The science was sound, but the limitation was a deliberate design choice. He was giving the Saiyans a defensive tool, but not the game-changing invincibility of the true Tuffle shields. He was making them tougher, but not untouchable.
King Vegeta studied the hologram, his expression unreadable. "A defensive tool," he mused, a hint of disdain in his voice. "Saiyans attack. We do not cower behind shields."
"It is not a shield to cower behind, Your Majesty," Astra countered smoothly. "It is armor that allows a warrior to survive an enemy's surprise attack to deliver the killing blow. It turns their strength into our opportunity."
The King was silent for a long moment, then gave a curt nod. "Approved. Produce prototypes for the royal guard. You have done... adequately, Technologist."
It was a victory. A carefully measured, controlled victory. He had appeased the King, secured his position, and advanced Saiyan technology without making them invincible.
But as he returned to his gilded lab, his gaze was drawn to the panoramic window, to the stars beyond. The Tuffle star chart burned in his mind. The Cradle. It was a mystery, a potential threat, or a potential treasure trove. It was a thread leading out of the gilded cage, a path that might lead to power beyond what this palace or this planet could offer.
He had secured his place in the Saiyan hierarchy. Now, he needed to find a way to leave it. The King's Technologist had just found a map to his own salvation, hidden in the ashes of a dead civilization. The next step of his journey was calling from the void.