#pflaume

[25 May, 234 Before Age. Planet Pflaume.]

Pflaume City was designed like an giant metal insect hive.   There were levels stacked one on top of the other, each containing streets and buildings and other features of a terrestrial city.  By now, half of these decks had been completely demolished, leaving a large cavity where the upper levels used to be, and the broken levels lying in a pile of wreckage below.  The outer hull of Pflaume City hadn't been breached yet.  Inside, Luffa and Xibuyas continued to fight.   Each of them possessed the power to break the hull, but neither could withstand the freezing, toxic atmosphere outside.  

Luffa knew it was pointless to keep fighting.   She also didn't know what else to do.   So she let Xibuyas get in some free hits while she tried to figure it out.  

"Again!" she shouted as Xibuyas struck her in the face.  

"Shut up!" Xibuyas shouted.   Each time he hit her, she just bounced back and demanded more.  

"Make me!" Luffa shouted back.  "You can hit harder than that, Katem!   I know you can!"

"Stop calling me Katem!" Xibuyas screamed.  

"Never!" Luffa shouted.  "You're my son, and that's the name I gave you."

"You're not my mother, you freak!"

She couldn't help but laugh.   The resemblance between them was unmistakable.  "I'm a freak?" she asked.   "What does that make you, boy?   You're putting off the same yellow aura as I am.  You think that's natural?"

Xibuyas was using some sort of power that resembled her Super Saiyan form, but it wasn't quite the same.  His hair didn't change color, though his eyes had turned blank, and his power level was far greater than any other normal Saiyan Luffa had ever met.  She didn't know if he had inherited this ability from her, or if it was the result of Rehval's alchemical meddling.  Whatever it was, it was impressive, even if he wasn't strong enough to beat her.

He kicked her, and she went flying across the open space.  It took Luffa only a moment to recover from the blow, but she hesitated before applying her ki to take control of her trajectory.   When it suited her, she maneuvered herself to land on the edge of what had once been Level 14 of Pflaume City.  There had been an aquarium here, but half of it had been shorn away when the deck had collapsed.  

"Smell that?" Luffa asked when Xibuyas caught up to her.  They were very close to the outer hull of the city now.   He didn't dare fire another wild ki blast, which meant that he had to come in close if he intended to press his attack.  

"The only thing I smell is your doom, woman!" Xibuyas growled as he alighted on the deck.  

"The fish, Katem, the fish," Luffa said.   "Don't tell me you aren't hungry after all this fighting.   This was an aquarium before we wrecked it."  She pointed at a sign that was still somewhat in tact.  It bore a picture of a large alien sea creature.

"So you've finally gone mad with terror," Xibuyas said haughtily.  "Or is there some point to your babbling?"

He tried to rush Luffa, but she caught his arms, tackled him to the ground, and positioned herself behind him, pinning his left arm under her body while she hooked his right arm with her own.   With a savage snarl, she pulled back on his right arm, applying pressure to his shoulder blade.  

"If I'd been able to raise you, son," she said, "Then I would have shown you how to counter this hold.  I guess I could show you right now, but I've gone 'mad with terror', so I guess I can't."

Xibuyas made a lot of noise and his aura flared and roared as he tried to power his way out of her grip, but he couldn't free himself, at least not without breaking his own shoulder.  

"Rehval had the whole city evacuated," Luffa said.  "He wanted to trap me here in case I refused to become another one of his lap dogs.   Probably thought the city would get destroyed, especially if he sicced you on me.  We've already done a number on this place."

"I'll kill you, you filthy c--!" Xibuyas tried to scream, but his next word was cut off by a sharp cry as Luffa applied more pressure to his shoulder.

"Watch your language, Katem," Luffa said as she clicked her tongue.  "My point is that your precious King didn't just evacuate the people.  He made sure they got the fish out of the aquarium.   There's a scent from where they used to be around, but there's no ki energy here, and I don't see any dead fish around.  Do you?"

At last, Xibuyas summoned his power and directed it at the deck beneath him.  Destroying it freed his left arm, allowing him to slip his right arm out of Luffa's hold.  As his ki blast exploded all around them, Luffa smiled proudly at his ingenuity.   She leaped away and began to skid down the hull, using her ki to keep her boots in contact with its surface.   Xibuyas charged after her again, and she knocked him away with energy bursts as he approached.  As he tumbled through the air, she flew after him and intercepted him near the center of the city.   There, in the open space, they exchanged punches and kicks.  

"Your sovereign put a lot of thought into this plan of his," Luffa continued.  "He manipulated the Saiyans, this city, me, my wife, everybody.   He had it all planned out.  What I want to know is: What was his plan for you?"

"Why!  Won't!  You!  Die!?" Xibuyas shouted.    

Luffa dodged his right fist and elbowed him in the gut, just hard enough to embarrass him.  

"You can't beat me, son," she answered impatiently.   "You're strong, yeah.   Stronger than Rehval by far, but you're no Super Saiyan, and that means you're not in my league.   I'm only humoring you because you're my son, and you deserve a chance to show your mother what you've got."

She dropped her guard, and just as he was about to take advantage, he pulled his punch, and backed away.  

"What's the matter, Katem?" Luffa asked.  "You want me to die so bad, hit me."

"You're toying with me," Xibuyas muttered.   "I don't know what kind of trick this is, but you want me to hit you.   You're leaving yourself open.   Holding back your full  strength.   Why?!"

"You really want the truth?" Luffa asked.  "You think everything I say is a lie, so I don't know if I should bother telling you."

"Answer me!" Xibuyas demanded.  

"All right," Luffa said.  She closed in on Xibuyas and began attacking him, but not so seriously that he couldn't block her strikes.  There was a rythm to their movements, almost soothing to the Saiyan heart.   She didn't know if it comforted him at all, but it almost eased her own inner turmoil.

"The fact is," Luffa said, "I let you have a few free shots because I feel like I deserve them.  At first, I thought I was doing it to make you feel good.   You know, let you get a couple hits on the Legendary Super Mom.  But I don't have to do that.   You already tagged me a couple of times for real."

"Don't patronize me!" Xibuyas shouted.  

"I'm not," Luffa insisted.  "Like I said, I only let you hit me because I think I've got it coming to me.   Only I'm just about invincible, so the only way I can take my lumps is if I let it happen.   Rehval... that bastard.   He took you from me, and he let me think you were dead.  He seduced me, got me to betray my wife's trust."

"You?" Xibuyas said in disbelief.  

"I hate him for all of that, but I hate myself for letting it happen," Luffa said.  She pounded her chest with her fist and shut her eyes tightly.   "I'm the Super Saiyan.  Like Chanisp and Darbock and all the others before me.   A slime like Rehval never should have been able to take advantage of me, but I let it happen."

She ripped off the fingerless glove from her left hand and held it up to Xibuyas so he could see the scars on her palm.   "Time was, I used to hurt myself, and I thought that was an okay way to cope.   But a friend of mine confronted me about it.   I made her worry about me when I'd do this to myself.  Her name was Keda, son.   Remember that name.  She was a braver person than I'll ever be.  Someone should remember that."

Luffa wasn't sure if she was making sense anymore, and Xibuyas seemed genuinely confused by her ramblings.  She wasn't sure if she cared if he understood or not.   "I've worked through some of my problems, but it's easy to backslide, especially in a fight with someone as strong as you.  Especially someone I've failed.  You hate my guts, probably for the wrong reasons, but you've got every right to want to knock me around this place.  You'll never beat me, son, but... I sort of wish you could."

"Then why are you still fighting?" Xibuyas asked.   "If you're such a pathetic wretch, if you're so ashamed at being outmaneuvered by King Rehval, then stand still and let me put you out of your misery!"

Luffa smirked.   "I guess it's not my style," she said.  "I'm trapped here, remember?  You and I can slug it out, or I can step out the nearest airlock and end it all.  It's all the same, so I'd rather spend a little time with my baby boy.   The question is, why are you still fighting?"

"Unlike you," Xibuyas spat, "I don't shirk from my enemies, or waste time on pointless navel-gazing!"

"You may be young, Katem," Luffa said, "and headstrong, and arrogant, but you're no fool.   You know you can't defeat me, and even if you could, that was never your mission.   Rehval brought you here to keep me busy while he escaped the city.   By now he's long gone.   So why stick around?   You should be getting to your own escape route.  If you have one, that is."

"Of course," Xibuyas said after a brief pause.   "That's what you've been up to this whole time.    You thought if you pretended to be my mother, I would take pity on you and help you leave this place."

"That's one idea," Luffa said.  "I was thinking that we could work together.  I'm guessing Rehval abandoned you here along with me, and you're just as trapped here as I am.  We don't have to die as enemies, son.  I've gotten out of tighter spots than this.  Let me help you.   I... I just don't want you to die, and I don't think Rehval cares much one way or the other.  Or am I wrong?"

She half-expected Xibuyas to vigorously defend his lord and king.  Instead, he remained silent.

"Look, if you want to side with him, I can't blame you.  You just met me, and all we've done is beat the crap out of each other.  But I think you don't have anywhere else to go, so if the two of us can survive this mess, maybe you could come with me."

"With you," Xibuyas said skeptically.

"I have friends," Luffa said.  "Not many.  My marriage may be over, but I think my wife would stick with us for a while anyway.  You'd be safe with us."

"And what would you ask of me in return?" Xibuyas replied.  "You want me to call you 'mother' and help you plot against the King?"

"Not unless you wanted to," Luffa said.  "You wouldn't even have to stay with me.  You don't even have to like me.  We can just watch each other's backs for a little while until you figure out what you want to do next.  If you want, I'll drop you off at the next inhabited world."

He seemed to seriously consider this for a moment.  "I've been trying to kill you," he finally said.  "Why would you do this for me?   And don't tell me it's because I'm your son."

"That's not the only reason," she said.  "You act like you'd do anything to see me dead, but you haven't tried to breach the hull.  That tells me you don't want to die, and I don't want to kill you.  So maybe we're not enemies after all."

She could see the conflict on his face as he considered her words.  For a moment, she dared to hope that he might one day accept her as his mother.  But for now, she would settle for his cooperation.  It would be a start.

He powered down, and the yellow aura around his body faded.  His eyes, which had glowed a blank white, returned to normal, and she could see his irses again.  He looked so much like his father, and she could see a little of her parents in his face as well.

"The fact is," he said, "I can't maintain my full power any longer.  I've failed to destroy you.    Perhaps I've failed to cover King Rehval's escape.  We'll never know."

"I can try searching for him," Luffa said, but it would take time, and we need to concentrate on saving ourselves."

"All right.  I guess I have no choice but to trust you," Xibuyas said.  

Luffa smiled.  It was a genuine expression, but she also felt a little awkward about it.  She wanted to comfort the boy, to reassure him, but she also suspected that this might sour their tenuous alliance.

"What do we do first?" he asked.

"You know this place better than I do," Luffa said.  "Is there a section of the city for people to go to during an emergency?  We might find communications equipment there."

"King Rehval did mention a safehouse to me once," Xibuyas said.  "I can open it with a specific ki signature.

He held up his hand and a small globe of yellow light grew from his fingertips.  "I'll need a moment to focus my power."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Luffa asked, stifling the urge to address him as "Katem" or "son."  There would be time for that later.

The energy sphere on Xibuyas' hand glowed brighter, and soon began to crackle with filaments of red, which slithered across the yellow like miniature bolts of lightning.  He closed his eyes tightly and smiled as he worked.

"There is one thing I'll need from you, Luffa," he said.

As soon as she opened her mouth to ask what it was, he detonated the energy sphere in her face.  The two Saiyans were engulfed in glowing yellow smoke, which completely overwhelmed all of Luffa's senses.  When she could see again, she found no sign of Xibuyas.  

It dawned on her that this had been his plan all along.  He knew that he couldn't simply retreat from her without being followed, and if he had tried an attack like this during their fight, she would have been on guard against it.  

So instead, he feigned surrender, and waited for her to confirm that she had no way to track Rehval down.  This meant that she would have no way to find him either, assuming he managed to get out of her sight and suppress his ki.  Her Golden Duster technique would have been able to overcome that problem, but she would need time to use it, during which Xibuyas would find his escape route.

He had deceived her, and she didn't know whether to be proud or angry.  All she could do now was float there in the air, and reflect upon how profoundly alone she now was.

The  she heard the alarms.  Somewhere, a public address system in the ruins below was calling out to anyone who could hear it: "Hull breach imminent.  Evacuate immediately."

******

[25 May 234 Before Age.  Interstellar space.]

In the engine room of Luffa's star-yacht, the Emerald Eye, Zatte stood face to face with Pozet, a non-living doppelganger of herself created by King Rehval III.  Pozet had sabotaged the ship's computer to fool it into flying in circles.  Unwilling to remain stranded in interstellar space with an enemy, Zatte had declared her intention to destroy the entire ship.  Such a suicidal course of action was heresy for Zatte's people, the Dorluns.  To Pozet, who had no life to lose, it should have been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.  

And yet, Pozet had been waiting for her, almost as if desperate to stop Zatte from destroying them both. 

"You're bluffing," Pozet said.

"Am I?" Zatte asked.  

"You won't destroy the ship just to spite me," Pozet insisted.  "Destroying me won't change anything.   My master will still win.   He can have another Pozet created to carry on where I leave off."

"Good for him," Zatte said.  "Stand aside."

"You'd never do anything that would end your own life," Pozet said.   "Your a survivalist.   It's morally wrong for you to sacrifice yourself, especially for nothing."

"Maybe I just don't want to spend the rest of my life trapped here with you," Zatte said.  

"Stop it!" Pozet said.   "You don't fool me for a minute."

"Then why are you here?" Zatte asked.   "If you don't think I'm serious about destroying the ship, why would you wait for me here, where I would have to go to do it?"

"I..." For once, Pozet didn't have an answer.   Zatte smiled.  

"You can help me if you like," Zatte offered.   "The ship isn't designed for auto-destruct, so it'll take some doing to get the matter-antimatter reactor to cooperate.   I'll have to disable some safety features, but I think--"

"I'm telling you to stop this," Pozet said.  

"You're afraid, aren't you?" Zatte asked.  "You say you're not really alive, and that you're expendable, but when it comes down to it, you don't want to be left all alone out here, and you don't want me to end whatever existence you have."

"That's ridiculous," Pozet said.

"I don't think so," Zatte said.  "I think it should be ridiculous for you, and for another homunculus it would be, but you're patterned after Dorlun physiology, aren't you?   Even though you're not really alive, deep down inside, you think of yourself as having something worth preserving."

"It doesn't have to be this way," Pozet said.  "I'm prepared to kill you if it comes down to it.   Same with Luffa.  My master needs to eliminate her as a threat, but if she becomes an ally, well no one else has to die.  That's why I was made for her, you see.  My master doesn't think like the average Saiyan.  He looks for other options besides fighting.  I'm a peace offering."

"Peace offering?" Zatte asked.

Pozet grinned.  "The Saiyans need my master's leadership," Pozet explained.  "But they're so macho about everything that they barely respect him as their king, even though he's stronger than all of them.  In a few generations, his descendants will be secure enough on the throne that it won't be a problem, but a Super Saiyan upsets the whole timetable.  The people could flock to her banner, or she could undermine my master's rule some other way.  But if Luffa could be convinced to join us, then everything's okay.  She could become my Master's queen.  But we knew you might object, so Master created me to replace you."

"Replace me?" Zatte asked.

"Ideally, Master would marry Luffa to secure his regime.  The two strongest Saiyans ruling over all.  But that's a political convenience.  He knew she might not be interested in him personally, so he wanted her to have a consort, and he couldn't risk you turning down the position."

"So he created a cheap copy of me, a walking, talking doll who would play along with his sick little game?"  Zatte asked.  "Luffa and Rehval, I can almost see, but do you honestly think she could love something like you?"

"She doesn't have to," Pozet said.  "Master can find other uses for me.  I'm just a concession in case you aren't available.  But you don't have to go, Zattie.  You can join us too, just like Luffa can."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Zatte shouted.

"Hear me out," Pozet said.  "You're already losing your wife.  Whether my master kills her or seduces her, your marriage as you know it ends here."

"Shut up!"

"You can't give her what she wants!" Pozet shouted.  "Don't you get it?  She's a Saiyan!  Their emotions run hot in their veins like molten lava.  I know what Dorluns are like, and you're a hot-blooded Dorlun, no doubt about it.  It's no wonder you'd fall for a woman like her.  But to a Saiyan, what are you?  At best, you're cold and dispassionate.   At worst, you're a sniveling coward to their kind, always fretting about how to stay alive and making sure the pantry is stocked.  You call her xan-nil'Dor, but she doesn't truly know what it means!"

"You... how could you know about--?"

"I know you think she's a xan-nil'Dor," Pozet said.  "You'd have to think so.  It's obvious that she is one.  All the signs in the Holybook are there."

Zatte didn't know how to take this.   For years, she had wished that another Dorlun could confirm what she had decided about Luffa.  She had also dreaded the possibility that other Dorluns might reject her conclusions.  Was Pozet sincere in her agreement, or was she just echoing Zatte's own intuition?   Or was this just another mindgame?

"You and I can tell she's destined to shape the course of history, but to her, it's just another silly Dorlun word, isn't it, babe?  You can explain it to her," Pozet said,  "but it'll never really sink in, because she's a Saiyan.  And Saiyans don't care about Providence or destiny; they make destiny."

It was in this moment-- far too late to do any good-- that Zatte realized how she had miscalculated.   She had thought it important to reconnect Luffa with her own people.  Her hope had been that Luffa could help the Saiyans the way she had helped so many other species across the galaxy.  But the Saiyans-- Luffa included-- were too proud to see it that way.  It wasn't that they couldn't see that Luffa was a xan-nil'Dor.   On the contrary, they probably saw the signs even more clearly than Zatte did, but they viewed them with resentment instead of hope.   Luffa didn't want the endorsement of Providence, and the other Saiyans would sooner die than accept handouts from a messiah.

"Luffa can never truly understand you, and you'll never truly understand her.  She cares for you, that much is clear, but in the end she'll seek out her own kind.  But you don't have to lose her completely.  You can join us, and become one of her consorts, like me."

"You mean let King Rehval turn me into some cruel parody of life, or whatever it is you are?"

"Of course not!"  Pozet said.  "That would be redundant.  For Luffa's sake, he'd leave you exactly the way you are.  I'll be honest, I'm kind of conflicted about the idea myself, but if it makes Luffa... agreeable, it's worth it."

"You can't seriously expect me to accept that kind of arrangement," Zatte said.

"Why not?" Pozet asked.  "Who would suffer?  Who would die?  You and Luffa would still be together, but you'd just have to share her, and..." she paused to chuckle, "... well frankly, you're sharing her already."

Zatte's teeth were clenched so tightly that it was beginning to hurt.

"It makes sense if you think about it.  Join us, and you'll be safe and loved.  One big happy family.  Refuse, and you'll be alone, and vulnerable.  Not exactly the Dorlun survival ethic, now is it?"

"Luffa would never--"

"I don't know about that, but let's say you're right.  If Luffa refuses my master, he'll kill her.  Trust me, he can do it.  And even if she escapes, he won't rest until he's rid of her once and for all.  How can a xan-nil'Dor fulfill the grand design if she's a fugitive?  But, if you talked her into it, helped us convince her it was in her best interest to join us, the  you'd be saving her, wouldn't you?  You'd be doing what any pious Dorlun would do: supporting a xan-nil'Dor at all costs.  You might not like the changes to your marriage, but that's a small price to pay, isn't it?"

"You honestly think I would help you bring Luffa to your side?" Zatte asked.

"Babe, you're the one who convinced her to come meet my master on Planet Saiya," Pozet said.  "You brought her to our doorstep already.  All I'm asking you to do is carry her the rest of the way in."  

Zatte regarded her skeptically.

"Okay, okay," Pozet said.  "I know I said a lot of mean things to you earlier.  I told you Luffa was fooling around with my master behind your back.  I told you about his plan to trap her on Pflaume City until she comes around and agrees to join forces with him.  I told you I was created as a replacement for you in case Luffa accepted his offer and you refused to go along with it."

"I remember," Zatte said coldly.  "It wasn't that long ago."

"I'm just saying that I pushed you pretty hard, but that's no reason to go and do anything desperate," Pozet said.  "You don't have to destroy the ship.   You don't have to be stuck here with me for the rest of your life."

"That's not what you said before," Zatte replied with a smirk.  

"My job is just to keep you from reaching Pflaume!" Pozet insisted.  "I needed to demoralize you so you wouldn't try to find a way to escape.  If you got the ship back on course, then I'd have to kill you, and--"

"And you can't do it, can you?" Zatte asked.  "The smart play would have been to attack me as soon as you sabotaged the ship."

"I told you," Pozet said.  "It's a misdirection.   Your whole defense is based on the idea that I'd attack you directly, so by not attacking you--"

"All you've done is give me the time to study your weaknesses," Zatte said.  "I think you're afraid to finish me off.   Now that I seem to be doing it for you, you suddenly show yourself."

"Luffa might want you by her side," Pozet said.   "If I can convince you to join us, I can take you back to Pflaume and all of us--"

"You'd really allow me to join you?  Just like that."

Pozet laughed.  "Well, why not? I'm not really alive, so I can afford to take risks like this.  And while you personally disgust me, I'm kind of intrigued about having you serve alongside me as a royal consort.  Maybe we could hunt each other for sport in our spare time, or something weird like that."

"Cute," Zatte said.  "You really think Luffa would go for that?"

"Babe, I'm sure," Pozet said.  She put her hand on her hip and struck a pose.  "Have you looked at yourself in a mirror?  You and I are pretty easy on the eyes, and I'm designed to embody all the qualities you don't.  You're a survivalist, I'm non-living, et cetera, et cetera.  Anything Luffa doesn't like about one of us is made up for by the other.  We're a perfect set!"

Zatte chuckled.  "You honestly think it's that simple?"

Pozet laughed.  "Listen, my creator is a Saiyan.  Trust me, I know what turns their crank.      On your own, you couldn't keep Luffa's affection, but with you, me, and my master together, she'll have everything she could ever want!"

"So what if I accept?" Zatte asked.   "You just need me to contact Luffa and convince her to swear fealty to King Rehval, right?"

"If she hasn't already," Pozet said.  "My master's very persuasive, and from what I hear she's already smitten with him.  She should be at Pflaume City right now, and I'd bet my non-existent life that they're sharing a bottle of Camelian wine to toast their newfound partnership."

"I'll take that bet," Zatte said.  

Before Pozet could react, Zatte grabbed Pozet's hand and swung her face-first into the protective cover of the engine.  The impact stunned Pozet, but she recovered quickly and turned around to face Zatte.  Before she could act, Zatte landed several blows to her face and abdomen.

"Ow!  What are you doing?" Pozet demanded.  She tried to block Zatte's assault, and when she found she couldn't, she simply went limp, and rolled clear once she had landed on the deck.

"You broke my nose!" Pozet whined as she patted the center of her face.  A dark fluid was trickling from her nostrils, which Zatte supposed was some homuncular analogue for blood.  

"You think you know about Saiyans?" Zatte asked.  "You haven't got a clue.  King Rehval might have created you, but only as some kind of tool or weapon.  He might roll on top of you when he's in the mood, but you know about as much about love as a dirty magazine."

Pozet tried to get up, but as she stumbled forward, Zatte slipped behind her and drove the point of her elbow between Pozet's shoulder blades.  

"You may have been created to be Luffa's 'ideal consort'," Zatte said, "but I've known the real thing since I was sixteen!  I've fought for her, burned for her, killed for her, and every time she's always told me how proud of me she was."

Enraged, Pozet drew a knife from her belt, but her slashes were too slow to connect with Zatte.  She grabbed Pozet's wrist, but instead of wresting the knife away, she struck Pozet's face with the butt of her free hand.  

"Yeah, I may not understand Saiyans completely," Zatte said, "and you might be right, I may lose Luffa in the end, but what have you ever done to impress her?  What would a thing like you know about courage, or honor, or pride?"

Pozet tried to back away from Zatte, but she held on to the creature's wrist, and ripped the eyepatch from her face.   When Zatte saw what was underneath, she was disturbed at first, and then she nodded slowly, and smiled.

There were no scars or injuries where Pozet's missing eye would have been.  There wasn't even a place for the eye to have once been.   That entire section of Pozet's face was simply an featureless patch of skin, covering the left orbit of Pozet's skull, and nothing more.  

"I should have known," Zatte said.  "I thought you might have a normal eye under there, but you really are nothing but a cheap imitation of me."

"Is... Is that supposed to upset me?" Pozet asked as she broke free of Zatte's hold on her wrist.   "I know I'm just an object.   I embrace that truth.   I'm you without all the baggage, without all the tragic backstory."

"And that's why you can't bring yourself to kill me," Zatte said.  "Somehow, you've read the Dorlun Holybook, or you carried over my own knowledge of what it says.   You thought its teachings didn't apply to you because you aren't really alive, but now you've met me, and you can see what you've been missing.   If you kill me, you lose the only part of yourself that's ever known what it means to be alive, and you can't handle that."

"You're wrong!" Pozet said.   "I only want--!"

Zatte gathered her energy and launched a ki blast at Pozet.  She dodged, and the blast narrowly missed a control panel and blew a hole in the bulkhead.

"Are you insane?!" Pozet gasped.  "You can't fight like that so close to the engines.  One wrong move would--!"

"Destroy us both?" Zatte finished.  "That is the general idea.   Only you're the one with nothing to lose, so what do you care?"

Pozet hesitated for a moment, then charged after Zatte in a blind rage.   Zatte deflected her blows with ease, then knocked her away with a kick that nearly sent Pozet tumbling out of the hatch to the corridor.  

"How?" Pozet demanded.  "How can you be doing this?!"

"You may know the Dorlun ways, but you'll never understand my people because you don't know what it means to be alive!  You don't know what it's like to fight for a chance to see tomorrow, or to cherish every breath you take!  You fight because you're told to, and you make sloppy mistakes because you think you've got nothing to lose!  Well let me tell you something, 'Pozet'."

Before Pozet could recover, Zatte lifted her own eyepatch and walked over to one of the engineering stations.   She leaned in close to a section of the control panel that was used for handprint identification, nearly pressing her face up against it.  Then she tapped a few buttons on the console, and  waited.  

A few seconds later, the engines, which had been thrumming steadily throughout their battle, became very quiet.

"Sometimes," Zatte said as she looked back at Pozet,  "losing one battle can be the only way to win the next!"

"What... what did you do?" Pozet asked.  

"Simple," Zatte said.  "I disconnected the ship's navigational computer from the rest of its systems."

"You... you can't do that!" Pozet argued.  "I can't do that.  The ship wouldn't let me take navigation offline without some kind of retinal scan, and my eye wouldn't pass, so that means yours wouldn't either!"

"Your precious master copied my body, and apparently my 'essence' or whatever it was you were talking about before, but he couldn't recreate my past!  I suspected as much from the beginning, but once I saw you had nothing under your eyepatch, I knew for sure."

Zatte pointed at her face and grinned.  "As for me, I actually had a right eye once, until it was injured in a battle.  When the Makyans enslaved me, they removed the damaged eye and replaced it with a special prosthesis.  I can't see out of it, but I can channel energy through the lens, and when Luffa set up my user permissions in the ship's computer, I made sure to use my prosthetic for the retinal scan instead of my left eye.   You've got my powers, and you might be able to remove my prosthesis, but you can't know the exact energy signature I used to access the ship's higher functions."

"But that doesn't change anything!" Pozet said.  "You may have stopped the ship from flying in circles, but you still can't get it to where you want to go!"

"Wrong again," Zatte said.  "The automatic pilot won't work, but I can still steer the ship manually.   It'll take longer, and I might have to stop and check the star charts to make sure I'm going the right way--"

"That's suicide!" Pozet said.   "Without the long range sensors tied into the nav system, you could hit an asteroid, or some other uncharted object, and the impact would destroy the ship instantly!"

"I'm willing to take that chance," Zatte said.   "It beats sitting still, and if it worries you so much, you should have thought about that before you sabotaged the ship.   We're going to Planet Pflaume, Pozet, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."

"Fine," Pozet said.   "I didn't want it to come to this, Zatte, but you leave me no choice but to kill you.   It's a shame really.  You make me sick, but you're still a hottie."

Zatte crouched into a defensive stance.   "You've already lost, Pozet," she said.  "But if you want to spend your last moments fighting, come on.  I'll show you what I've learned from the Saiyans."

"We've been over this," Pozet said.  "You can't kill me, and you won't be able to fly the ship if I'm in any position to interfere.   Even if you could defeat me, it wouldn't salvage your relationship with Luffa.  Don't you get it?!  She's lost to you forever!"

"You still don't get it," Zatte said.   "You may be right, and maybe I have lost her for good, but I'm not fighting to make her love me.   I'm fighting because I love her, and even if she doesn't feel the same way, I'll keep fighting for her anyway."

Pozet tried to attack, but Zatte sidestepped her punches with ease, and responded with a knee to Pozet's back.   The homunculus tumbled to the deck, and Zatte could hear an unpleasant crunch that sounded like a broken bone.  

"You wouldn't understand what it means to fight for something bigger than yourself," Zatte said.  "You only do as you're told, and you only enjoy it because you think you're invincible.  Doesn't look like that holds true any longer, though."

Pozet struggled to get back up, and while it wasn't clear to Zatte if the creature was in pain, she could tell that Pozet was having trouble.  

"Y-you think a broken vertebra is going to slow me down?"  Pozet growled.   "I've shrugged off worse than this and... and..."

Zatte grabbed Pozet and broke her neck before she could finish standing.   "Shrug that off," she said.  

Pozet fell to the deck again, and though her head was turned at an awkward angle, she continued to flail her arms and legs as she tried to get up again.  

"What... what happened to me?" she gasped.   "I've recovered from worse injuries before!   I've been shot before, and I still managed to--"

"Oh, I did that to you when you entered the engine room," Zatte said.  She walked to the doorway and bent down, as if picking something up from the floor.  She returned to Pozet and motioned as if showing something to her, but there seemed to be nothing in her arms, until suddenly a small device shimmered into view.  

"I didn't actually know if it would work," Zatte explained, "but I figured you'd enter the engine room sooner or later, so I rigged it to fire an X-ray burst as you passed by, and then I made it invisible."

"X-rays...?" Pozet muttered.

"I used a low setting."  Zatte patted the weapon in her hands.  "This thing is designed to kill humanoid soldiers, but I reduced the power and widened the range, so you probably didn't even feel it.  But I guess it was enough to disrupt whatever it is that animates your body."

"I... won't... let you--!"

"Enough," Zatte said.  "I can't waste anymore time on you."  

With that, she raised the weapon and aimed it at Pozet's head.  

"N-no!" Pozet pleaded.   "The Holybook!  You're not supposed to seek revenge!"

"I can risk you recovering and trying to stop me from helping my wife," Zatte said.  "This isn't revenge; it's self preservation."

She increased the power to the device, and fired.  Pozet's face was twisted with fear, and then she went limp and lay still on the deckplate.   A moment later, her red skin turned black like soot, and her blue hair became a pallid grey.   Finally her body began to wither and disintegrate inside of her clothing.  

Zatte watched the remains carefully for several minutes.   Once she was satisfied that the creature was truly destroyed, she turned her attention to the matter of getting the ship underway.