The Princess

Chapter 10: The Message

By: senzubean

I do not own Dragon Ball Z in any way. I make no profit from this story. I just wrote it for fun.

Bra and Vegeta were descending upon their backyard just as Sala, Letta and Recely were coming out of the house.

Bra ran towards them as soon as she hit the ground.

"Bra, go to your room." Vegeta ordered, halting the exited girl in her tracks. Bra's face fell in disappointment, then she remembered her father stressing the fact that he would ask her grandmother for the training assistance.

"Kay!" She chirped happily and hurried into the house.

Vegeta rolled his eyes.

"So, I guess things worked out between you two." Recely said smiling.

"Yeah, for now." Vegeta grumbled. "I need to talk to you."

Sala grunted loudly in objection to that. She glared at him and planted her hands on her hips impatiently.

"Were you going somewhere?" Vegeta asked.

"Yes, to our ship." Recely answered.

"Why?" Vegeta exclaimed. He blushed , embarrassed at his outburst. He continued in a more hushed voice to his Mother. "Look, I know I've been acting distant but don't leave!"

"Oh don't worry, Dearest. We're going to come back. We just need to check in with our commander and the rest of the family. Plus the ship will be safer if we parked it here instead of in the desert."

Vegeta exhaled a little more deeply than usual, relieved that he hadn't offended her.

"I'll come with you. We can talk on the way since Sala is so opposed to us doing it now." Vegeta said side-glaring at Sala, who glared right back.

"I'd love that." Recely smiled.

"Can I come too!" Bra yelled from the doorway.

"No! Did you think I wouldn't punish your disobedience? Go to your room!" Vegeta snapped.

Bulma pushed past Bra in the doorway.

"You're all leaving?" She asked

"We'll be back shortly." Vegeta replied.

"How much time would it take for one of those assassins to break in here and kill Bra and I?" Bulma glared at Vegeta and folded her arms.

Vegeta hadn't thought of that.

"Let's go brat!" Vegeta ordered his daughter.

Bra giggled then whispered. "Thanks Mom!"

Bulma winked at her with a smile. Vegeta glared at both of them.

"I want to tell them!"

"Too bad, I 'm telling them!"

Vegeta, Recely and Bra entered the ship to find Letta and Sala fighting over the commanders seat and the control panel. Bra gaped at the machinery and ran to inspect the impressive vessel.

"That's not fair, it's my ship!" Letta replied.

"It's our ship!" Corrected Sala.

"I'm older than you. Now do as you're told and get away from the control panel!" Letta ordered, planting her fists on her hips.

"Make me get away from it! Ha! You're not strong enough and that settles it!"

Letta scrunched up her face and folded her arms across her chest.

"Recely..."

"Knock it off the both of you. Honestly, you're acting like a couple of toddlers." Recely scolded.

Sala settled into the chair and then stuck her tongue out at Letta. Letta backhanded her across the face.

"That didn't hurt!" Sala sing songed. "But I aughta break your arm for daring to do that."

Recely groaned quietly, then faked a smile. "Letta, go change the fuel canisters, you're the only one who can do it properly."

"Yeah, that's right. I can properly use all of the equipment on this ship, not just the communication devices." Letta said bitterly to Sala.

Sala opened her mouth to yell something back.

"Letta, just go do it, please." Recely interrupted.

Letta finally left, muttering under her breath about wanting to see Sala change the canisters and all the things that would go wrong if she did.

"They always act like that." Recely explained to Vegeta.

Bra ran back into the helm from wherever she had been. "This ship is great!" She exclaimed. "It's a lot nicer than any of Mom's ships! Don't you think its nicer than any of Mom's, Dad?"

"Yeah, but I don't think we should go telling her that." Vegeta replied. Bra giggled and went to look over Sala's shoulder as she used the communicators.

"Hey, we got a message from home." Sala announced.

Recely walked over to her and crossed her arms over her chest sternly. "Yes, it's probably Tuce, again. You had us all worried sick about you."

Sala laughed.

"It is not funny, Sala! You still had your scouter. You could have informed us that you were all right." Recely continued to scold.

"I already said I was sorry, geeze! Besides, you know how anal Tuce is. He worries about everything. I'm almost tempted to let Letta call him. I still have no idea why I chose him as my mate."

"Y..you two are mates." Vegeta asked.

"Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that." Sala laughed.

Vegeta burst out laughing. "You and Tuce...." He said then continued to laugh. Bra looked over her shoulder at him completely perplexed. She'd never seen him that amused in her entire life.

"What's so funny? It's better than being your mate! Betrothed my ass!"

"Sala, why don't you check that message so that we can reply?" Recely suggested, getting anxious.

"Right." Sala said and started typing. A view screen appeared above the control panel.

Sala put her arms behind her head. "This should be good." She said with a wry smile.

The smile faded when the message began.

A young man appeared before them and he quickly began to speak in Saiyan. His voice was urgent and his eyes were frightened. He was gone as quickly as he appeared, the message was barely fifteen seconds long.

Everyone was silent. Bra looked at the adults, they were all staring at the now blank view screen. Without understanding a word the boy said, she understood that something terrible had happened.

Suddenly Sala lurched forward out of her seat and pressed buttons frantically. The ship trembled beneath them and started to rise.

Letta screamed from the bowels of the ship and flew to the helm.

"What are you doing? I didn't finish changing all the canisters!"

"Is there enough fuel to get us back home ?" Recely demanded shaking off her shock.

Letta blinked in confusion. "Yeah, but why?"

"We just got a message from Potay. Polkrif sent some of his men to our home."

"We just got this message today?" Letta asked dumbfounded. Recely nodded. Letta's face fell into devastation. "But there'd be about a weeks delay on that message this far away from Yuisgro."

Sala moaned mournfully. Then pressed more buttons. The ship lurched forwards throwing everyone who was standing to the floor.

Letta ran to another chair and put on a headset. "I'll contact Command Central. They'll send some soldiers to...."

"To do what? We're the only ones who can contend with Polkrif's men! You'll just be sending another handful of people to be slaughtered if you do that!" Sala disagreed, tears streaming down her face. "Just do me a favor and scan our flight path for enemy ships."

"Right." Letta said and started to do just that.

"Letta, is there any way you can send a message to Bulma and Trunks. We should tell them where we've gone and to warn them to be on alert." Recely said. "I don't think Polkrif will attack them if he knows that Bra is with us but he is very unpredictable."

"Should we risk communicating from space to Earth. How can we be certain that Polkrif knows where we are and that Bra is with us?" Letta asked.

"How could he have known what planet we called home?" Recely replied grimly.

Letta gaped at her, terrified at the fact that Polkrif knew everything about them. She struggled to shake it off and think. "A message to Earth will be tricky. There's no guarantee that Trunks or Bulma would get it since they don't have a receiver."

"There's one in my training capsule." Vegeta replied.

"Yeah, but how often does Mom or Trunks go in there without you in it?" Bra pointed out. " Here's an idea. Trunks' cell phone is on a satellite transmitter. Couldn't we just try to find the satellite it uses and send a message directly?"

"Smart thinking, Bra." Letta said. "I'll get right on that."

Sala slumped over the control panel with her head on her arms. Recely motioned for Vegeta and Bra to follow her into the kitchen and dining area. As soon as the door shut behind them, Recely collapsed onto a chair.

"Potay is Sala and Tuce's son, isn't he?" Vegeta asked.

"Yes. He's Bra's age. He's a fairly decent fighter but I doubt that he'd have a chance against even Polkrif's weakest warriors. His father might, but I'm not sure."

"I suppose Argo has limitations due to old age." Vegeta added.

"He's nearly blind." Recely replied. "But he'd definitely try if it came down to protecting Potay."

"What about Zorn? You haven't mentioned him."

Recely didn't answer him and just stared at him, her eyes filled with intense sadness.

"Zorn was...he died. A long time ago." She said in a soft, broken voice.

"How?" Vegeta asked gently. Zorn had been one of his only friends as a child. The truth was, he'd rather talk to him than to his father and he never forgot that.

Recely looked up at him, her mournful expression changing to one of subdued panic. Her eyes and mouth trembled. She pushed herself up violently, breaking contact with him and walked across the room. Vegeta stared after her, wondering why she was behaving this way. He just wanted to know how Zorn met his death, and who was responsible for it, because Zorn surely died in battle like the true elite warrior he was.

"I must figure out which warriors Polkrif sent to our home." Recely said absentmindedly, completely dismissing Vegeta's question. "If we can figure that out, then we would know how much of a chance Tuce had against them."

"It will do us no good to antagonize over that, Mother. There's no way to determine how many were sent. You know that. We can only prepare ourselves for battle. How long till we get there?" Vegeta said.

"At this speed, about three days. We can only pray that we don't run into any confrontation on the way." Recely returned to the table and rested her head in her hands.

Vegeta and Bra sat down with Recely and they were all silent.

"I'm sorry , Mother." Vegeta eventually said.

Recely looked up at him. "For what, Dearest."

"I'm sorry that everything always turns out wrong for you. None of you deserve this, not after all the good you've done."

Recely managed a very weak smile. "The universe works in mysterious ways. Something good just might come out of all this yet. We can only try to get through the hard times and see."