Episode Sixteen
'Trust the River'
The Defender One hurtled through space just ahead of the Humanity's Hope. The two ships would make the bulk of the journey in close proximity, splitting up once they reached the coordinates of New Namek.
Defender One was a pretty massive spherical ship, at least so far as Cargo could tell. The fact that it had been based off of a Saiyan Battle Pod was astounding to him because it was replicated at such a large scale. While the battle pod Cargo had taken to Earth had been cramped and barely able to fit just him the ship the Earthlings called their Defender One was a dual deck contraption with a lower sleeping deck which had been cut in half so that there would be a recreational area and a sleeping area with the thought process being that one team would train, one team would sleep and a third team would try to . . . well, learn about Earth or something like that.
Bonding as if that were the most important thing for a warrior. A warrior just needed to know how to fight, didn't he?
The first team to train was Rhyce's 'Amazon Brigade' as the human Kodva had called it but only after she'd called his team a 'Sausage Fest'. Apparently it was all good natured though.
Cargo didn't like it. They were going a long way to do a dangerous job and worst of all Trunks wasn't coming. He couldn't believe he was still going if Trunks wasn't, and it weighed on his mind heavily. He'd just have to figure something out . . .
The four members of his team sat together in the lounge, the sounds of training on the deck above them were muffled but Cargo could feel the pressure from the power levels struggling to get used to heavier gravity. The Saiyans, he understood, lived in ten times Earth's gravity but Rhyce had been training in far higher than that. She had said she was going to bring them up slowly with the goal of having them at one hundred times Earth's gravity within two weeks.
"We should be training too." Cargo grumbled.
"There isn't space, this ship was never made with twelve crewmen in mind." Kodva told him patiently. The bald Earthling smiled and asked, "Are you afraid you won't be strong enough for what lies ahead?"
"I'm not afraid of it, I know it." Cargo said. "These guys aren't fooling around you know, they're monsters!"
"Really?" The Saiyan Routz asked with a grin. In a husky almost hungry sounding voice he said, "Tell me more."
Cargo shook his head, "They're brutes, they're easily twice as strong as I am, maybe three or four times! Without Trunks we're all just flying off to our deaths!"
Routz cracked his knuckles and then his neck, he laughed eagerly, "Oh this is sounding fun."
"Just you let me at 'em," Oni the other Saiyan in their squad agreed. He and Routz were both massive muscular specimens, though Routz was taller. Bother were larger than Cargo and they probably thought they were tough, but Cargo knew he was stronger than the both of them combined.
"You don't understand," He tried to explain to them, "what we're headed towards . . . it's just not possible without Trunks."
"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Kodva told him. "It is what it is, we'll just have to accept that."
"But there's no point!" Cargo insisted.
"Of course there's a point, green man!" Oni cried. He'd been stroking his goatee thoughtfully but now he leveled a stern glare at Cargo. "You're a Namek, your kind stop breeding warriors in fifty years?"
"What? No, but I-" Cargo was saying but Oni cut him off.
"Then be a warrior, don't just pretend. You're going into battle against a stronger foe . . . that is the point. To fight a powerful enemy and overcome them? That's the greatest thing there is, Namek, I'm telling you."
"First of all my name is Cargo, not 'Green Man' not 'Namek', understand?" Cargo demanded.
Oni shrugged, holding out a hand. "If you like."
"Second of all I'm not shying away from the challenge, I'm here aren't I?"
"But you don't want to be." Routz told him. "It's obvious."
"Well of course I don't want to be, you haven't seen what it's like, I have! Anyway I'm not saying we should run, I'm saying we should be training. All of us, all the time, maybe then we'd stand the beginnings of a chance."
"Overdo it and you'll stand no chance." Kodva told him. "But I don't want you to feel attacked, your concerns are very valid. This will be a dangerous mission which is why we should devote all of our time to preparing for it."
"So you agree?" Cargo asked. "Even if it means being restrained with the space we should all be training nonstop."
"I didn't say that." Kodva told him. "I said we should all be preparing. I'm preparing right now in my own way."
"And what way is that?" Cargo demanded.
"Internally." Kodva assured him. "A warrior's body must be tempered and strong, and his spirit must be the same. Breathe deep, Cargo, find your inner peace. Focus on yourself, hone both your mind and your body."
"You're just trying to nap." Cargo accused. He turned to the two Saiyans, "Surely you agree with me!"
"That he's trying to nap? No way, he's talking too much." Routz laughed.
"Eh." Oni shrugged. "I don't know much about Earthlings, maybe they sleep by shutting off half their brains at a time, you know like those big fish that used to be in the oceans of Planet Vegeta?"
"You had whales?" Kodva asked.
"Sure?" Oni shrugged. "I mean until we ate them all."
Kodva smiled slightly, "How did the ecology of your planet survive you?"
"It didn't." Routz said with a sort of smug satisfaction that made Cargo feel disgusted.
"How can you be so blasé about failing to live in harmony with nature?" Cargo asked.
"We're predators, we eat prey." Routz said simply.
"But if you eat too much prey there won't be any later." Cargo pointed out.
"All the more reason to enjoy it while it lasts, don't you think?" Oni asked.
"No, I don't!" Cargo snapped.
"Ah well you heard it from him." Routz chuckled and Oni joined in. Cargo growled.
"Cargo," Kodva told him, "your teammates are showing you one very important thing that perhaps you're not noticing."
"Is it that they're brutes?" Cargo asked.
"I'd hope you'd noticed that." Routz said.
"But I am curious," Oni said, "I didn't know I was showing the Na—that is Cargo anything."
Kodva smiled. He closed his eyes and seemed to relax for a moment as he said, "They're showing you that you don't have to spend all your free time being afraid. This trip will be long enough for fear and all too short for preparation but Routz and Oni are eager to train and improve, they know a dangerous fight lies before them and instead of fearing it they're eager for it."
Because they're idiots, Cargo thought, but he said, "I'm not afraid of it."
"You're definitely afraid of something." Oni said.
Cargo glowered but Kodva opened his eyes and said, "Breathe deep, seek peace, Cargo. Look inside yourself and find the warrior."
Cargo kept glowering for a moment before finally putting himself in the same sitting position as Kodva and closing his eyes. He focused as Kodva was telling him and took deep breaths.
"Life is like a flowing river." Kodva told him, "You're in a boat. You can paddle against the current and slow your progress, you can paddle with the current and speed along the way to your destination, or you can use your paddle just to correct your course from time to time and let the river take you where you need to go. Trust the river."
"Trust it? Why? Shouldn't I want to get there sooner?" Cargo asked.
"Yeah, why not paddle with the current?" Routz agreed.
"You can do that." Kodva told them. "You can rush along but you'll deny yourself the full experience of the journey. You'll miss the song of the birds, the colors of the leaves of the trees on the bank."
"You never said there were trees on the bank! That changes everything!" Oni mocked but rather than get upset Kodva laughed.
"Well there are trees on my bank. What you see on yours is up to you, Oni."
"Then I want to see lots of food on my bank." Routz said. "Oh, and girls!"
Cargo would have rolled his eyes if they weren't closed. As it was he made the attempt but found it difficult to pull off. Still he imagined himself in a boat on a river, he imagined his shoreline.
Kodva said to Routz, "You can imagine that. It's your bank. But if there's food and good company don't you think they might distract you? Make you paddle in the wrong direction? Instead of following the course of the river you're banking on the side to eat and spend time with the ladies."
"Well what does my destination matter if I find everything I need along the way?" Routz asked.
"Oh I don't know. What's at your destination? Why were you going there in the first place?" Kodva asked.
"Hmm . . . I don't know." Routz admitted.
"I know what's at the end of my river," Cargo growled, "a fight we can't win."
"Oh yeah!" Routz said, "The fight on New Namek! I can't wait!"
Kodva chuckled, "But if you rush you'll get there too soon. You might be too tired from trying to paddle, or you could have focused too much on the destination so you missed everything along the journey."
"Huh . . ." Routz mumbled. "I think I get what you're saying."
"Yeah right." Cargo scoffed. "The problem with your metaphor is that no matter how much I enjoy the journey before my destination I'm still going to get there, so why shouldn't I prepare?"
"You will." Kodva told him. "You'll prepare every day for the next five weeks. You'll train whenever you're not sleeping. But you can only train your body so much before you overdo it or wear yourself to nothing. Let the current guide you, enjoy the journey to its fullest. Don't just strengthen your arms paddling, enjoy the scenery on the bank, listen to the music. Get to know your fellow fighters, learn their stories and what makes them who they are."
Cargo sighed as he considered it. Perhaps honing his mind wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. He could focus, he could plan, he could think of how he'd handle the fight that was to come, he could listen to his teammates and learn what their strengths were, figure out how he could use them to accomplish his goals.
But his thoughts were interrupted when he heard Oni snore loudly. Again instead of being angry Kodva laughed.
"And sometimes," The Earthling said, "the current can lull you to sleep."
Routz laughed too and Cargo head the sound of the big Saiyan slapping the only slightly smaller Saiyan on the back. "Wake up, Oni!"
"Huh what?" Oni asked, Cargo opened his eyes to see the dark skinned Saiyan looking around in surprise, "I wasn't sleeping!"
Kodva was smiling at all of them, the human said, "Meditation isn't for everyone. But hopefully you'll pick it up. And maybe you can teach me a few things too. After all, that's what Master Trunks wanted us to do with this third shift."
Cargo shook his head. He still wasn't really reassured, but he felt like he understood what the Earthling was trying to tell him, and he'd be thrice cursed if he were going to let those Saiyans figure it out first. He said, "I think I understand, Master. You're saying that the fight lies at the end of this journey and we can't make it come any sooner or later, all we can do is make the most of the time we have."
"Obviously." Oni said, but he was yawning and looking around at the others clearly trying to seem as if he'd been following the whole conversation rather than dozing.
In spite of himself Cargo actually cracked a half smile and shook his head at the Saiyan warrior. "Well since you understand it so well why don't you explain it to us?" Cargo asked.
Oni stroked his goatee thoughtfully, "I could do that," he said as if reassuring Cargo, "but I'd rather let you, you know, to make sure you really got it."
Now Cargo managed a fuller smile in spite of the situation and how bad things were going to be when they arrived without Trunks. He said, "Just breathe deep and seek peace."
Oni rolled his eyes, waved his hands and said, "Well that's what I was doing before you all woke me up."
Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z
Aboard the Humanity's Hope things were less cordial.
"Turn this ship around!" Captain Videl ordered.
"Belay that order, Basil!" Trunks said.
"Belay?" Basil raised an eyebrow at him, "An hour on ship and he's getting all nautical on us."
"Basil couldn't belay that order if she wanted to," Thyme said without looking up from his post, "she's not the pilot, Genora is."
"And I'm not turning around," Genora said, "if we turn back the Defender One will reach the target before us even if we punch up a maximum burn, the plan will be shot."
"Thank you." Trunks said.
"That said I still think what you did was stupid." Genora added.
"Thank you." Trunks said again, a little less sincere this time.
"Did you even think about this before you did it?" Videl demanded.
"I left Cauliflora behind, she'll train a bit and she'll be strong enough to protect Earth until I get back."
"Could be, but you're gambling a lot of lives on that." Videl told him.
"There's no way General Boreal will be there in time, he was at best six months away three months ago. We'll be back in two and if New Namek is only one month away he couldn't possibly have reached it so quickly."
"Let's say that that's true," Mai spoke up, "you're still ignoring the three Arcosian ships that did reach it, the crews aboard those ships that could well be more than miss Cauliflora can handle."
Trunks was surprised to hear Mai scolding him too, Videl's aide seemed so shy and reserved. It occurred to him that his behavior might actually have been truly over the line in that case.
Videl didn't hesitate to add, "Don't forget you left her and her partner to protect the Earth but they're just mercenaries, suppose they decide to cash in on the bounty for human heads instead? You've left literally everyone on Earth at their mercy."
"I just couldn't let my students take this risk alone, New Namek is too important." Trunks told them. "The Dragon Balls are too important, without them how can I make things right?"
"By being you, you big dummy." Basil said, sounding irritated.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Trunks asked.
Basil spun her chair around to face him but she didn't get out of it. She remained strapped in as she explained, "You were doing a perfectly fine job of making things right before this, but now you put the whole world at risk because you don't have faith in any of us. You think you have to do everything and you don't."
She didn't yell at him, but her tone was so devoid of it's usual lightheartedness that she might as well have been screaming. Her serious expression spoke volumes and Trunks felt like he had to defend himself, had to make her understand just why he'd come. "It's not because-" he began but now it was Mai's turn.
"No." She said calmly, but firmly. "She's right you know. Captain Videl and I have experience getting people out of dangerous places without being noticed, the androids were, by all accounts a far greater threat than these aliens we're going to face. The plan we had was a good one and if it were a trap we could have just left knowing at least Earth was safe. But now if this was all an enemy trap you've just given them exactly what they wanted: you."
"And it's not because you had to make sure it all went just right, let's be honest," Videl scolded, "you did it because you think we can't."
"It's not that you can't, it's that you shouldn't have to!" Trunks insisted. "Maybe it was a hasty decision but I am the Defender of Earth, I've seen terrible things, fought beings with power you can't even imagine, I'm not going to ask you all to risk your lives, ask some of you to lose your lives when I can stop it! And it isn't like the PTO can slip past us, if those other PTO ships try to get to earth we'd detect them and we could intercept them, right Basil?"
"Why are you asking her? I'm the one on sensors." Thyme said dryly.
"Okay, fine, right Thyme?" Trunks asked.
"Sure, I guess." Thyme shrugged. Unlike Basil he didn't feel the need to spin around and lecture Trunks, and Trunks appreciated it. He was being ganged up on in a field of combat that he wasn't quite so invincible in.
He hadn't expected this, he'd thought they'd be a little relieved he'd come along. He'd thought they'd understand that his mother had been overreacting, that the word of one Arcosian prisoner wasn't enough to disqualify him from going on this dangerous mission, that he'd done it for them as much as for himself.
As if she could read his mind Genora suddenly said, "For what it's worth I'm glad you're here."
"Great, you're my only friend on this ship." Trunks grunted.
"We're all your friends." Thyme said with a sigh, "We just didn't expect something like this from you. It's . . . out of character. You're not this reckless, at least not as long as I've known you."
"We're not all his friends, I'm not his friend!" Videl almost snarled, advancing on Trunks and fearlessly getting right in his face. "I'm not supposed to be your friend, I'm your liaison, I'm the King's representative! My duty is to my King and to my people, to Earth and you, mister Defender, just left her in the hands of a stranger!"
"Not just a stranger, Cauliflora's been extremely loyal since the moment she surrendered to me and even if Boreal arrives she'll be stronger than him by the time he does. Master Roshi is there, there are . . . others," Trunks said, "I didn't just run off, there's . . . measures in place, okay?"
"Well I hope they're good ones." Basil said with a sigh. "Say Trunks, you've been kind of flailing to guess what my job is on this ship, want to know?"
"Sure, why not." Trunks sighed glad for a change of subject.
"I'm in charge of monitoring communications." Basil said darkly. She held out a cordless rectangular device as if it were a phone. She said, "We've got a transmission from Earth . . . I'm willing to bet it's for you."
Trunks hesitated. He swallowed a lump in his throat and walked over to Basil.
He took the device and pressed a button on it.
He held it to his ear, that was a mistake.
"IS HE WITH YOU?" His mother's voice roared, "IS HE ON THAT SHIP!?"
"Hi, mom . . ." Trunks answered meekly.
He expected more screaming but he was actually met with silence.
"Mother?" He asked, worrying that maybe she'd had a heart attack or something. She wasn't as young as she liked to pretend she was after all.
He felt sick to his stomach. Even he was having trouble now believing what he'd done. Not that he'd done it, he still believed it was the right thing, but not making it clear that he'd do it . . . Thyme was right, it'd been too reckless of him. He'd been dishonest, he'd let them all believe he was going along with their plan all the while knowing he'd do something else.
It wasn't right . . .
But he'd thought they wouldn't understand if he told them why he needed to come along and they were proving that they didn't. They didn't understand . . . they thought they could do this but they were wrong.
"What was any of this for, Trunks?" His mother asked him suddenly after a long silence.
She couldn't have known what he was thinking but the weight of his words along with his own thoughts hit him harder than Cell ever had.
He almost dropped the communications receiver. His mother asked him, "Why did you train new students if you weren't ready to let them take risks? Why did you go back in time to bring back more Saiyans if you planned to do everything yourself anyway?" Bulma asked him.
"I don't plan to do everything myself." Trunks whispered.
"What was that?" His mother demanded sharply.
"I said I don't plan to do everything myself." Trunks said louder, though not raising his voice at his mother.
He thought back to what he'd thought just an hour ago as he'd enacted his plan to sneak aboard the ship; that he was like a teenager sneaking out after curfew.
But I'm not a teenager, I'm an adult. Trunks thought. I'm twenty two and I acted like a spoiled brat trying to get his way . . .
His mother told him, "You disappointed me. But I'm going to believe that you did this because you know something I don't. I'm going to believe you lied to me with the best of intentions."
"I did . . ." Trunks managed to tell her.
"Maybe that'll make it easier for the both of us then." His mother said. She sounded tired. "Be careful sweetie, and when you get back . . ."
"Yeah?" Trunks asked.
"Well I just hope we're still here." Bulma told him.
"You will be. I didn't just leave you defenseless, Master Roshi-" He began but the line went dead.
He handed the receiver back to Basil. Captain Videl said, "Lieutenant, I think Mister Briefs has had enough for one day. Why don't you escort him to his room?"
"Yes ma'am." Mai said quietly.
"Just so we're clear," Videl told him, "if this ship had a brig you'd be going there instead. You are a stowaway after all."
To Be Continued . . .
Next Time on Dragon Ball COED . . . Karuto learns more about Cauliflora's past but he's not happy with the way Tathy is telling the story. Meanwhile King Kai and Gohan continue to train the others, can they make a breakthrough? Find out next time!
