Note: This story takes place in the time of
Chapter One
The structure he looked down on was huge and
bulbous. Moss and other kinds of foliage had overgrown it, threatening
to claim it as part of the forest, but the basic shape remained. He'd never
have known it was there except for the boys that came and told his mom
about it. He'd volunteered to investigate. He ignored the lavender strands
of hair the wind blew across his eyes and flew down to the ground, landing
lightly on his feet.
The outer hull of the ship was metallic reddish
brown with patches of dull rust scattered across it. Trunks wasn't sure
what kind of metal it was, but he was pretty sure it wasn't used on Earth.
It had to have been there for years. There was no other way it could have
been so overgrown.
He moved around it, looking for a way to get inside.
He finally found a gap in the outer hull and squeezed through, then clicked
on the flashlight he'd thought to bring with him. The sudden brightness
of it against the blackness inside made him blink.
The interior was moist, and the scent of rusty,
decaying metal and mold hung in the hair. He winced and decided to make
this a short trip. He wasn't sure how much mold was in the air, but he
did know that too much made it unsafe to even breathe.
A long corridor stretched to one side of him. He
shone the flashlight around into the gloom and found that there were numerous
cells, each with metal bars fixed into the ceiling and floor, but most
of the doors were broken or melted. A prison?
He couldn't find anyone or anything there, so he continued
on, taking another shorter hallway after pushing open a pair of warped
metal doors. Here reddish brown curved plates of varying sizes littered
the floor every few paces. They made a peculiar hollow sound when he dared
to push one with his toe. Trunks continued on, picking his way carefully
through them, trying not to make too much noise.
He entered several smaller rooms along the way,
and noticed some odd looking devices in them. In one were the remnants
of what might have been an arm. That was what the bones looked like, anyway.
He didn't spend long in these rooms, but looked instead for a control room
of some kind, wanting to find out what had happened here.
Less than five minutes later, he was in it. More
of the curved plates littered the floor, more in piles now than before.
Broken glass and metal crunched underfoot, and he understood why a moment
later. What had probably been the main computer was destroyed. It looked
as if it had been burned, or at least that it had happened after the main
destruction, and it had exploded at some point in time. There was no hope
of using it to find out what had happened to the ship. He turned to go
when something caught his eye.
A cylindrical tank stood in one corner of the room,
tilted to an angle. It was coated in dust, but as he stepped closer he
could hear the low hum of a machine. This tank must have had its own power
source, then. Trunks lifted one hand, and after a moment of hesitation,
he brushed some of the dust away from the glassy surface of the tank.
The inside was filled with some kind of greenish
liquid, and seemed to glow slightly. Settled silently in this liquid was
a dark haired girl that looked around his age, if not even a little younger.
His eyes widened in surprise and he stepped back, then turned and ran back
to the place he'd come in. He had to get his mother. He knew his she'd
want to see this.