*Early the next day...*

The door crashed open and Bulma bolted upright in the bed.

A loud voice echoed in the tiny room with accented Japanese, "Rise and shine girl. It is time for breakfast."

"What? Who are--"

"Shut your mouth and eat." Brocco impatiently shoved a plate of Saiyan delicacies toward her.

Bulma glanced down at the plate and immediately felt sick, "What...What the hell is this?"

"Some kind of eggs, lizard tails, and I'm not sure what that gray stuff is."

Bulma's stomach churned and she swallowed the bile that was quickly collecting in her throat. She picked up the utensil that (strangely enough) resembled a fork and took a bite of the eggs before she lost her nerve. Not bad at all, she thought smiling at Brocco, "These eggs are good. Thank you very much. My name's Bulma, what's yours?"

Brocco raised an eyebrow at the girl, "I am the Second Commander, Brocco. You may refer to me as Commander or Second Commander, and for now while you are still not the queen, I will refer to you as whatever I wish."

Bulma ignored the commander's tone and finished the eggs, "So what are we doing today Brocco?"

The commander pushed numbers into the panel with the strange figures on it, "First I am going to get you some clothes. What the hell are you wearing? Some kind of sackcloth?"

Bulma frowned at the woman's words, "Listen, commander, I don't know who you think you are but--"

Brocco held up a hand, "I apologize. I meant no disrespect, I'm just tired."

Bulma smiled at her, "That's okay. It's just that I've been through so much. My hair is filthy and the clothes I have on are all that I have left."

The two women were silent, until a knock surprised them. Brocco shouted something in the SL (Saiyan language) and a slave arrived with clothes, he bowed to Brocco and left. "Here, these will have to do until we can get you measured. Hurry up and shower will you! We don't have all day."

Bulma snatched the clothes and stomped into the bathroom grumbling. Brocco laughed at the earth woman; this may not be as bad as I thought it would be. The woman's got some spunk, which is probably why the king chose her.

*****

"No way! You are NOT going to put that thing in my neck."

"Bulma, be reasonable. This is the only way you can learn the SL in such a short period of time," Brocco sighed.

"But...it'll hurt...won't it?"

"No, I swear there will be little or no pain," the Saiyan female said, trying not to roll her eyes.

"Oh all right," Bulma said, watching the doctor carefully. Brocco talked to him in the SL; the doctor nodded and took the small chip out of the package. He swabbed the back of Bulma's neck with antiseptic and made a small incision. He inserted the chip and stitched the wound closed.

"that wasn't so bad was it Bulma?" Brocco asked her in SL.

"No, I guess you were right. Hey! The chip works! I'm speaking the language!" Bulma beamed at Brocco, her eyes alight with amusement.

Brocco rolled her eyes, "Of course it works, dummy. Now I have to take you to get measured for your joining ceremony." They left the medical wing and walked down the hallway back to Bulma's room.

"Joining ceremony? Don't you mean ‘shokon’?" Bulma frowned as the Japanese word slipped out, "Is there no Saiyan word for that union?"

"I guess not," Brocco shrugged, opening the door with her code, "I have a package to pick up. You stay here. I should be back in a few minutes."

Bulma decided to check out the panel in her room that had the strange figures on it. What in the world could this be? Let's see...it's kind of like a pager; you can write commands or

contact a chef or a cleaning slave, or...hmm...looks like a repair man. Cool! Bulma used the panel to order lunch to be sent to her room two hours later.

Brocco came in her room with a small carton. She dropped it on Bulma's bed, "Well, you can start reading these tomorrow, or after your test. After I order lunch--"

"I already did that," Bulma interrupted, feeling proud of herself, "It should be here in an hour and a half."

The commander nodded, "While we're waiting for lunch, I'm going to teach you some basic etiquette, we'll get you measured later. Pretend that I'm the Queen and you are a slave. How do you acknowledge me?"

"Your Highness?"

Brocco rolled her eyes, "Yes, okay, and how will I greet you?"

"Uh..."

"I don't. Slaves are the lowest life forms. We have a very simple system. It pretty much has four parts. At the bottom are slaves, then is the 3rd class, containing weak soldiers and some of the more privileged slaves, next is 2nd class, containing strong fighters, like myself, specialists, like doctors or chefs, and a few nobles, at the very top is royalty; the King and, soon, you, the Queen of Vegetaseii."

Bulma grinned, "So basically, I came from the bottom of this hierarchy all the way to the top."

Brocco ignored her, "How you greet each person changes depending on what class they are in. The lower three levels bow at the waist if in the presence of someone of higher stature for only a short period of time. Slaves are usually ignored unless an order is to be given, when they see you, they are supposed to get on their knees and put their faces to the ground to show their inferiority. Third class you may acknowledge but usually that is not done; they are too stupid to remember any significant type of formality, so they are supposed to stand at attention until you release them. Second class gets on one knee with the right hand on the heart, you are allowed to speak with them as much as you like, and finally, the king. When you greet him in public, you smile and lower your eyes to show your submission to his will and he is supposed to offer you his arm. I doubt he'll do it though." Brocco stopped to take a breath and Bulma spoke up.

"Why wouldn't he?" she demanded, feeling offended.

"The king has never really been one to do anything that could be mistaken as emotion. The closest thing he has to a friend is the First Commander, which he will deny, of course," Brocco said, laughing bitterly.

"What is the king like? I don't know anything about him and I'm supposed to...join with him in two days."

Brocco sat down, "Well, the King is a very complicated man. While he was just the prince, he was wild. He and Nappa were always off conquering and destroying planets devastating thousands. He's never shown any remorse for what he's done; at least not to any living Saiyan. Nor has he ever shown any type of affection for another person; in all of his 26 years, he has never been told he was loved, nor has he ever loved anyone. Many Saiyans look down upon those who display emotions and feelings; we are only allowed to express ourselves when in private. King Vegeta doesn't ever express any emotion, except for anger."

Bulma sighed, "Great, I get to marry an introverted murderer. Not every girl is as lucky as I must be."

Brocco rolled her eyes, and then turned towards the door as she heard someone approaching.

A slave stumbled over to the two women; she straightened herself and put the tray down before bowing to Brocco jerkily. She stole a glance at the two and then let out a gasp. "You!" she said loudly in English: it was the American woman who stood behind Bulma in line.

Bulma answered her in the same language, glad for a distraction, "Yes, it's me. How are you?"

The redhead laughed, "Well, I'm alive, and that's about all I can say. You look well."

"Thanks...what was your name?"

"Rachel Green, and you're Bulma. Everyone in the slaves' quarters is talking about you."

Bulma shifted uncomfortably. "Oh..."

Brocco cleared her throat and ordered Rachel to leave. "What was that all about?" she asked Bulma after the slave left.

So, Saiyans don't speak English that's definitely something worth remembering.

"Nothing. Let's eat, I'm starving."

*****

Vegeta closed his eyes in annoyance as the tailor jabbed him with a pin for the third time. With his eyes still closed, he sent the unlucky tailor on his way to the next dimension. He was in a terrible mood as of late and he was more than willing to release his anger on anyone who crossed his path.

The preparations for the ceremony were finally done, and had been simple. The only hard thing was mentally preparing Vegetaseii's ruler.

It was well known amongst his people that their king was largely skeptical of any type of feelings, and he simply considered them as weaknesses. After cowardice, tears were his least favorite thing, which is why he only appointed slaves and officials that would not cower in his shadow or cry upon looking into his cold fathomless black eyes.

Vegeta felt no real strong feelings for his future Queen except for admiration. She had shown no fear of him or for her life, and the reproach in those angry blue eyes had almost taken his breath away. There is probably no woman on the entire planet that hates me as much as she does, the king thought in amusement. This joining should be an interesting one...

*****

"You have an hour to finish all 165 pages of this test. It's really long but it gives an accurate assessment of a person's intelligence." The doctor told Bulma, "When, or IF you finish, put your test through this slot and I can let you know how you did in about 15-20 minutes. Here's something to write with and you can get started."

Bulma felt like laughing at the doctor, 'If I finish', that is such a joke. She opened the test and read the first question, This is a little harder than I thought it would be, but if I don't ace it, I'll be suprised.

"Congratulations, you aced the test with a perfect score." the doctor told her in amazement about 40 minutes later.

Bulma smirked, I knew it.

****

"What do you mean she made a perfect score?"

"She didn't miss any of the questions sire, the intelligence assessment official told me that she even elaborated on some of the multiple choice answers," Brocco told the king excitedly.

Who would have guessed? She certainly doesn't look like a genius, yet she has outscored every single person on the planet...even me. Vegeta grimaced as he remembered his own score, a ninety-two. He had been proud of it at the time, because up until then, it was the highest a Saiyan had ever scored on the test, but now this female had easily beaten him, getting all 415 questions right.

"Congratulate her for me, will you Commander? And make sure you remember your assignment."

*****

The next day, Brocco woke Bulma up at the same time, 0700 hours, with breakfast. "The ceremony is tomorrow, we have a lot to cover today."

Bulma groaned and hid her head under her pillow, "Tomorrow? I'm not even close to being ready yet!."

"Time waits for no one, rise and shine or we're going to be off schedule." Brocco demanded yanking the covers off of the bed, "Where's that damn maid? She's supposed to be doing this each morning," she grumbled to herself, as Bulma stumbled out of the bed, grabbed some clothes and got into the shower.

After Bulma finished, Brocco beckoned for her to come closer. "More briefing for today and you’ll have plenty of time to read those books I brought you. You’ll get to retire early tonight so that you will be ready for the ceremony."

Bulma grimaced at the mention of the ceremony, "Whatever you say. I'm just looking forward to outranking you and for the day when you will bow to me."

Brocco grinned at Bulma, "I can't wait either. Anyway you do know what you're to do, right?"

"I'm to have a son for Vegeta so he can have an heir." Bulma answered angrily as she ate her breakfast.

Brocco twisted a strand of her shoulder length black hair nervously, "Yes, that's right. I trust you are experienced in such things, or at least know of them?"

Bulma shook her head, "I was waiting for the right person before I thought of anything like that." And look where that got you Bulma forced into marriage with a murdering alien who kills with out a second thought as to the consequences.

The Second Commander almost fell over in surprise. "Well, that's fine...I guess. The king will deal with that. Let's see...oh yes. I was supposed to go over the ceremony procedures with you. You and the King will share a glass of wine, the shaman will talk to you in the Old Tongue, then he'll repeat it in our current language. You'll repeat what he says in the SL. Then he'll ask another question for both you and King Vegeta to answer, but I don't know what, because the ceremony differs from couple to couple. Everything else will be pretty obvious and I'll be there if you need any assistance."

"Thank you, Brocco," Bulma said, gratefully.

"Remember to call me Commander or Second Commander around others," Brocco chided. "Now come on, we need to check the tailor's to see if they finished your garments for tomorrow."

Bulma followed Brocco out, "But I haven't even been measured yet."

"It'll only take a second."

The two walked down a corridor and finally reached the tailor's room. Brocco entered a code and the door opened. The shop appeared to be empty.

"Do I get a code to open doors also?" Bulma asked eagerly, the prospect of being somehow involved in technology exciting her to some extent.

"No, the day you are joined, the panels throughout Vegetaseii will be programmed to open at the sound of your voice."

A man walked up to them from the shadows of the shop, "Commander Brocco. So nice to see you...and who is this: a gift perhaps? I was just talking about getting a new slave the other day."

Bulma scowled at him and started to reply when Brocco cut her off, "This is the chosen one."

"What a waste. The king could never 'love' her properly," he leered at Bulma.

"I could arrest you now for treason, Toma--"

The tailor waved his hand dismissively at Brocco's threat, "You're here to see the ceremonial outfit I presume?"

"Right."

He reached into a wardrobe behind him, "I need the lady's measurements." He came out with a small computer with long cords with clamps and a bag in his hands; he attached the clamps to the bag, "Hold still so I can properly scan for your size." He moved the computer within a foot of her and slowly moved it from her head to her feet.

Bulma watched in amazement as she saw the lumps in the bag shrink to her size, exactly. Toma tossed her the sack.

"My mate and I will see you tomorrow at the ceremony. You two can see yourselves out I believe." And with that said he retreated into the back of his shop.

Brocco took the bag from Bulma and left the room shaking her head at Toma's attitude. She glanced at a watch on her wrist and as they stopped in front of the door to Bulma's door she held a hand out to halt Bulma.

"Bulma, this will be the last time I will talk to you as your superior. It is exactly 1400 hours. You know how to order lunch, so do so. When you are done, read those books if you have time and try to think about everything I've taught you; I know it wasn't much, but I did my best. Your maid that the king has chosen for you will wake you up at 0700 hours and she will help you with everything. The next time I see you, you will outrank me. You have been a friend and I thank you for that. I will be proud to serve under you," Brocco said sadly.

Bulma felt her eyes water, "Thank you so much Broc--Commander. You have been a good friend to me." She hugged the Saiyan, who was suprised at first, but then hugged her back. Brocco entered the code to open the door and waited for Bulma to get inside before leaving.

*** **** ***

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