A/N – Not much to say at this point . . . I'm now finished with this arc of the story . . . which I will now call the "Retrieval Arc". So now that Gohan has been saved and almost back to normal (he can never really be normal in any sense of the word again after all of this happening to him) he can start making a life for himself amongst his saviors and brethren. Don't be expecting frequent visits from anyone in his past, I won't lock it in place by saying you'll never see/hear them again but then again I wouldn't hold my breath either. Thank you for your reviews, I loved all the attention chapter 9 got : ) and even though it took me a while to get the next chapter up I just wanted to let you guys know that it is very much appreciated . . . . Wow. . . I suppose I'll shut up now and actually write the story neh?

"Spoken Word"

'Thoughts . . . and maybe telepathy if I include it'

"Speakers . . . also anything loud"

Chapter 11 – A Job?

After the meeting, Gohan refused to call it a dream, he began to take an active role in his life. No longer would he merely go through the motions of sparing with the good doctor, instead he would begin thinking of combinations and strategies to pull out a victory . . . something he had still yet to archive even though he was actually participating now . . . but the matches were now almost dead even.

Gratz wiped a hand across his brow, pulling away the drops that threatened to blur his vision, a slightly manic grin on his face as he looked at his opponent. Who could've guessed that even after all that time in the pod, Gohan would recover THIS quickly. He had originally tried to convince Gohan to join him in order to speed up the process of recovery . . . but even with the exercise Gratz had thought it would take close to half a year to recover his full fighting capabilities. Truly, Gohan was quite the amazing child. However, it wasn't so much his strength or form that impressed the doctor, the thing that most impressed him . . . was the potential! In just the past week Gohan had already mastered the basic forms that branched off into the various fighting forms employed by the Royal Guard and was well on his way to integrating it into the forms he already knew. Gohan had explained that the form he was using was one he learned from his father and his father's master . . . though there had been a long period where Gratz had been completely stumped by Gohan's description of a turtle until he had shrugged it off as an unimportant but necessary tid-bit of information. According to Gohan, who was now technically the master of the school, the form concentrated mostly on defense and powerful counters, which he demonstrated perfectly. In exchange for the information on Gohan's school Gratz explained where the style he practiced and was currently teaching Gohan originated.

Gratz cleared his throat briefly before beginning his story. "The first thing you should understand is that our culture was, and still is, almost completely based around combat and martial arts, given our species unique talent for it. That being said, about two hundred years ago the current King Vegeta along with several of his most talented and trusted generals decided that they should take it upon themselves to create a standardized martial art for the Imperial Army to use. Of course, any art they were to design was only to be accepted if it were as close to perfection as possible." At this Gratz gave a little shrug and rolled his eyes at the seeming arrogance of the statement making Gohan crack a smile. With a grin of his own he continued the story. "Well as you can imagine, creating an entirely new school of martial arts was actually quite difficult. It took them nearly thirty years between the six of them to finish. There was a catch though, even though they each were impressive fighters and geniuses in their own right, even they couldn't come up with one style to trump all others. So instead they created three separate styles, each with different advantages and disadvantages that were covered by the other two styles. They were named: The Imperial Hammer, The Royal Shield and The Majestic Glow." Gratz glanced over to see Gohan's face was lit up like a miniature sun.

"Those . . . are the COOLEST NAMES EVER!!" Gohan was fairly vibrating in place with excitement, if the styles themselves were anywhere near as cool as those names then he would have to learn everything he could about each and every single one of them.

"Glad you approve." A wry smile pulling at his lips. "Unfortunately I only know the basic tier, you will have to find someone else to teach you the intermediate level and then choose which of the three you want to learn and find a Sensei for that particular style as well. You'll have plenty of time for that later though, for right now, let's make sure you've mastered this level." That being said they continued their spar.

Gohan was becoming more active in other aspects as well. After he was deemed as having a firm grip on the language for his age he was allowed to move around the ship without an escort. One of his first stops was the library, where he instantly began digging up as much as he could on the new technologies around him.

In-between reading about all the things he had missed in the last four centuries and training his body back into shape as well as learning a new martial arts form, he was fast becoming friends with Sasha (or Spazzy, but only in his head). He learned that she was the oldest of her siblings and was going to turn 21 in about a week. Her younger brother was younger than he was and didn't seem to have much in the way of fighting capabilities, but was happy just the same. His name was Mathis Kiare. Gohan strongly suspected that he was a temporary replacement for Mathis while Sasha was away from home, but then again it didn't seem to be hurting anyone and there wasn't much he could do anyway so he decided not to worry about it too much.

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Sasha's party was completely unexpected, evidently there wasn't too much of a celebration among saiyans when their day of birth rolled around. When there had been only a few days left before the special day Gohan had made his way down to the kitchen and asked to speak with a Chef. The cook he had addressed was slightly confused as to why the child they had picked up (gossip spread like wildfire around the ship about him) was asking to see one of the head chefs. "What do you need to talk to him about, eh?" No need to bother the busy man if it wasn't all that important.

Gohan knew his request would go over well, a gut feeling based off of the entire species fixation on food. "I was wondering if he might like to help me set up a party." His assumption was dead on. The cook grinned and turned off his stove while yelling for someone else to watch and make sure the food didn't burn while he was showing Gohan to the office.

The cook, after bringing him to the door, gave Gohan a light slap on the back and headed back down the stairs while yelling back at him. "Get me invited to this thing too, eh?" Gohan nodded before realizing that not only would he not be able to see the nod, but that he was already out of earshot as well. Shrugging, Gohan pushed a button next to the door and it slid open with a slight whoosh.

The room was small, almost cramped, but adequate for the needs of the type of office it was. The main attraction was, of course, the man sitting at the desk in this small room, the man who before he even looked up, sighed heavily before asking. "What is it NOW?" before looking up and seeing the slightly fidgety Gohan standing in his doorway. "Oh . . . .Goham right?" Before motioning for Gohan to enter the room.

Gohan took a few steps before the door did another one of its whooshes as it closed. "Actually it's Gohan, close though." He used this opportunity to take a better look at the man. "Hey! You're that chef who had all the food when they asked me all those questions!" Gohan exclaimed with a much happier expression on his face. Somehow merely by recognizing the man it had settled any of Gohan's doubts about whether or not this would work.

The man tapped his desk once to save the document he had been reading and looked up at Gohan with a smile. "Yeah, that was me. Name's Chef Narbe, just call me Kuchen though." He gave another grin to lighten the tone of what he said next. "Glad you could visit but unless you need me for something I've still got to plan for dinner tonight . . ." His voice trailed off.

Gohan nodded and got straight to the point. "Sasha . . . Um, Lieutenant Kiare, is turning twenty in a few days and I was wondering if it would be alright to ask of your services to set up a party?" He ended in a nervous questioning tone.

Kuchen looked at him a bit oddly before querying. "Why?" He leaned forward, his urgent paperwork forgotten for the moment in the face of, from his perspective, such an odd request. As an afterthought he gestured for Gohan to take a seat in front of him.

Gohan, starting to feel self-conscious of being the only earthling on the ship, started playing with the armrests of the chair he currently occupied. "Well . . . On Earth . . . whenever someone's birthday came around . . . the family would have a small party to celebrate . . ." he hesitantly explained.

Kuchen sat back in his chair, an odd expression on his face. "You mean . . ." He shook his head a little before continuing. "Families would celebrate the fact that none of them had died?" He raised an eyebrow and continued. "Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing that no one had died that year but doesn't that strike you as just a little bit morbid?" He propped his head up on his elbows and awaited Gohan's response.

Gohan's face was twisted a little bit as he thought about it. "What does Mor . . . Morbid mean?" Gohan stumbled slightly over the unknown word before looking up to Kuchen's mildly surprised face.

"Oh . . . That's right, you've only just learned the language, I apologize. Morbid is an adjective that describes something as . . . being a little too interested in death . . . to the point of having an unhealthy mind . . . No offence, it sounds a little stronger than how I meant it but that's the general idea. It seems like maybe this custom arose because there was so much death going on around them that to have someone survive the year was truly something to celebrate." He looked to Gohan to see if he had understood and also to see if he could confirm his hypothesis.

Gohan had indeed understood the explanation and was rather irritated that such an (in his opinion) awesome reason to party and receive gifts was being questioned. He nodded briefly and stood to leave.

"Hey hey hey! Don't leave yet." Kuchen half-stood in his own seat in his haste to keep Gohan with him. "Just because you won't find many people willing to celebrate "Not Dying" doesn't mean that we can't find another excuse to party . . ." Gohan sat down again and had the beginnings of a grin on his face. Kuchen grinned back as he continued. "Lt. Kiare has helped you out quite a bit right? I'm sure you could have a thank-you party that just happens to fall on her birthday, neh? Sound acceptable?"

"Does this mean we can have the party?" Gohan looked up hopefully.

Kuchen scratched the back of his head. The kid was too damn good at winning people over. ". . . I could probably pull some strings to make it happen . . . Do you think you could do me a favor in return though?" Kuchen's face had settled into the expressionless mask he used when conducting business deals. Gohan's expression seemed to ask him to continue but otherwise he remained silent. "Our ovens, stoves, basically everything that needs power in the kitchen is run by the warriors when they aren't training. There is a small room below the kitchen that serves as a generator where they go and force energy into a machine that converts it to be used by us up here." He gestured around him. "Apoulden, even though he was one evil son-of-a-bitch was still a good battery . . . and now that he's gone we're having some trouble picking up the slack. I want to know if maybe you would like a job. It wouldn't be too time consuming, you would be given a schedule of what meals you would supply energy for and would come in for your shift and push as much energy as you can do without into the converter. Just make sure you're fresh when you come in and everything else pretty much takes care of itself. So what'dya say? You'll get your party and all the food you need to supply it, I won't have to worry about draining the warriors dry of their energy and you'll even get a paycheck that you can use when we get back to Vegeta." Kuchen leaned back, his eyes on Gohan's.

Gohan waited a few moments, turning the deal around in his head and seeing if he could spot any holes. He trusted the Chef but one could never be too careful. After a minute of silent deliberation Gohan decided that the deal was a good one and nodded once. "When can I start?"

A/N – You get a cookie if you can find out what the Chef's name means and what language it's in :) Happy Hunting lol. Oh, and as for why Gohan asked what a word means . . . There isn't a reason for him to know such a word yet. He's only been speaking the language for a month or 2 and I'm tired of always seeing the main character immediately understanding complex words without ever being exposed to them.

Please review guys. 6 on chapter 9 and only 2 on chapter 10?

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