Author's Note: My, how the world has changed since I posted the last chapter less than 2 months ago! Back then my biggest issues were health insurance and immigration! Now, actually they still are, but in the context of a pandemic, and the fact that my company is struggling to stay alive. I still have a job, which amazes me for many reasons, most of which have to do with how paranoid and psychopathic film studios are, but push came to shove and now WFH is a thing for my industry. So lucky to have a job...for now. I know so many people are being far more impacted by this than I am.
I hope this chapter isn't too raw...
Beta-read by Froglady15 once more, and agonised over by me - but I did tell myself I needed to increase the frequency of chapters if I wanted to finish this story in less than 10 years beginning to end. OMG the thought of having spent so long on this gives me the sweats. So here it is, ready or not.
Right, I'm off to bed now, so night-night, and don't let the COVID bite.
WARNING: This story comes with a promise of blood, guts and sex in the description. If this chapter becomes too much for anyone, you can bail at that point and send me a PM, and I will give you a non-dramatised summary of the rest of the chapter.
Bulma had entered a new phase of her research and development. It seemed like she would need to build a particle accelerator herself, and this prompted another round of purchases, auction trawling, and peddling her "Betty" alter ego around various importers and scrapyards. It was on one of these excursions that she was approached by a scrapyard dealer she'd had occasion to buy from in the past. He wandered up to her as she examined a length of curved sectional piping in the warehouse interior where the more valuable scrap was kept. She looked up as he grinned and folded both pairs of his long, leather-brown arms across his wide chest.
'How's that cruiser repair job going?' he asked, surprising her. This particular dealer was not normally into chit chat.
'Oh. Good.'
'Got a buyer yet?'
She hesitated. 'Who said I was selling?'
He shrugged. 'I had a hunch you were doing it up to sell. Am I wrong?'
'Maybe, maybe not. Why?'
'I just know someone who might be interested. There's a collector in town, and they've had one of their crew down here just in a casual way. Seems they're into rare vessels and prototypes.'
'Really?'
'And I thought, well, Crytonian cruisers are pretty damn rare…'
She lost her cool - this was almost too perfect to be true!
'Oh-my-god! Who are they? Can I meet them? How long are they in town for?'
'Hey, slow down there,' he said, raising one of his four hands to quiet her. 'They're my contact. I can find out that information for you, and maybe arrange a viewing. But I don't think they'll want to deal with some weird child from who-knows-where. The fact that someone so young is in the possession of a luxury cruiser does raise some red flags.'
'I'm not as young as I look. And I don't own it alone.'
'Be that as it may, for someone selling a luxury vessel, you don't present a strong image of...legitimacy.'
'But a scrap dealer does?'
'Actually, I do! I sell ships all the time that only need a bit of fixing up, and they're on their way! I can arrange the sale on your behalf, for a fee.'
Bulma crossed her arms, mimicking the stance of the dealer. She should have known he was looking for a way into the hussle.
'What's your fee?'
'Fifty percent of sale price.'
'Get real!'
'Hey, I'll be going out of my way for you, and you'll never manage to sell it without me!'
'That ship is valued at two million credits! You're not getting a million credits for withholding information from me! I've already spent too many thousands at your yard!'
The dealer's swampy-brown eyes lit up. 'I'd settle for twenty five percent.'
'No!'
'Betty, you drive a hard bargain. Twenty percent.'
'Droben, I'm not dropping four hundred thousand credits on you after all my hard work! I'll rather take my chances on the auction sites!'
The light in his eyes went out again. 'Well, then, maybe the price of my parts just went up quite a bit.'
'Fine!' Bulma said, inflamed by the man's greed. 'You're not the only scrap dealer in town!'
She rushed outside to where Tarble was daydreaming and got him to take her back to the ravine. As soon as she was there, she made a listing for the cruiser on every auction site on the planet. Hopefully, whoever this collector was, they also thought to check such places. She set the auction to close two weeks from that day to give herself time to finish the ship and undo what she had done to install the wormhole generator. She was still waiting on the adapter for the external clamps on the freighter so that she could mount it to that ship, but it would arrive before too long.
From then on she split her time between the two projects. In breaks from building her particle accelerator, she had the logs of the campsite replaced by the couches from inside the ship (now in a state not fit for a luxury vessel), and took the cruiser to a bodyshop at Metrophilia's main spaceport to have measurements taken for a replacement panel for the interior wall above the ramp. She didn't like the quote for fixing the hole in the hull, but the cost of the repair would be recouped in the price she would get on the ship, with luck. A non-spaceworthy ship would not get nearly so much.
Now she was taking up the carpets and measuring for new ones. Well, someone was going to take up the carpets, anyhow. She had managed to lift one corner of the lounge carpet up and quickly decided to sub-contract.
'Tarble! Are you still there? I need some help.'
Tarble reappeared at Bulma's deliberately pitious bleating.
'What's wrong?'
'Can you help me lift this carpet?' She gave it another ineffectual tug.
'Of course.'
He got down beside her and began pulling. Bulma gave a cursory effort to keep up, and then stood up.
'You know, I think it might be faster if I left you to it.'
Tarble sighed. 'Okay, leave me to it.'
'Are you sure, Tarble?'
He threw her a dark look at her slightly less than genuine protest. Then he stooped and began rolling up the carpet with ease. Even with his chi-leveller on, it gave him no trouble.
'What should I do with it?'
'Just chuck it outside. Maybe you guys could sleep on it instead of directly on the sand. And can you do the other rooms while you're at it? Those bedroom carpets are in even worse shape than this one.'
While he went about stripping the ship she opened her laptop and checked for messages from the tech import warehouse where she'd gotten the gems from. She was expecting news about a vacuum pump. While she had it open she also jotted down a few more thoughts she'd had about the navigation system.
Tarble dumped the last carpet and returned.
'I'm done helping.'
Bulma blinked and looked up. 'Do I detect a hint of salt?'
He pouted. 'No.'
'What?'
'Nothing.'
'What?'
'You can't really call it helping if I do it all by myself, is it?'
'I was doing other stuff, so yes, it was a help. I'd have only got in your way.'
He continued to pout.
'What should I call it, then? "Come here slave, I have another task for you"?'
He snorted. 'That's more like it!'
'Wow, attitude!' she said, closing the laptop again. 'What happened to my sweet little Tarble?'
'I was joking, Bulma! And I'm not your sweet, little Tarble!'
'Well, I was joking, too, my tiny man.'
He gave her a disgusted look and left the ship. Bulma sprang to her feet and went after him, wondering what was up his ass. He turned at the pile of carpet.
'One day I will hit my growth phase, Bulma, and I'll tower above you.'
'Okay. Well, when the time comes I'll make sure to show the proper obsequience to the mighty, Giant Tarble.' She laughed at her own joke and Tarble sighed again.
'I don't even know what that means. Do you need me for anything else today? Or can I go train?'
'You can go train.' And then, because she felt equally guilty and pissed that Tarble hadn't appreciated her teasing, she said, 'It doesn't always have to be you, you know. Someone else could be my brawn for the day. You don't have to keep volunteering, since you obviously hate it.'
He glanced in the direction of the others and then straightened his narrow back.
'No, I don't hate helping you - I want to do it. Sorry, Bulma, I should have known you weren't being mean.'
Now the guilt won out. 'Well… I guess I shouldn't have called you little, either.'
Instead of cheering him up, the apology seemed to make him more despondent.
'I am little, though. It's not fair - Brolly is younger than me and he's already Raditz's height!'
'Hey, Buddy, I'm sure you'll grow. And height isn't really that important. I couldn't give a rat's ass about how tall Brolly is - I'd much rather have you here than him.'
'I bet.' Tarble looked her in the eye again. 'You know you're not the only one who's nerves he's getting on.'
Bulma was a little perturbed. Putting aside that it wasn't her "nerves" Brolly got on, she had assumed that only she and Vegeta had a problem with him. 'You don't get along with him anymore, either?'
He shook his head. 'Ah, I shouldn't have said anything. That makes it sound worse than it is.'
'What is it, then?'
'Nothing, really. He mopes all the time, and sometimes he cries at night time. I feel sorry for him, but it gets annoying. Like, I get that he's sad, but it's over the top.'
Bulma didn't want to feel the pity towards Brolly that Tarble's words caused. 'Is he crying because of Vegeta?'
'No, because of you.'
Bulma couldn't suppress the cringe that overcame her. 'Oh, god, what? How do you know that?'
'Because now and then he moans your name when he's crying. The rest of us pretend we're asleep and ignore him.'
Bulma grimaced; she couldn't imagine this kind of behaviour going over well with the Saiyans, or even Krillin. She was embarrassed for Brolly. How galling. Now her day was totally ruined.
'Why can't he just let it go?'
Life in the Saiyan-Earthling encampment slowly returned to something like what it had been, except that Vegeta escaped each night to his solitary oasis camp, and returned in time for breakfast each morning. He found that he preferred the solitude and peace to the sounds of other bodies sleeping nearby, and he definitely preferred it to sleeping anywhere near Brolly. Claiming that he needed company to prevent him becoming a recluse, Puar insisted on accompanying him most nights, and he allowed her, though he made it clear it was only to shut her up. Truthfully, he didn't mind her company, and even when they bickered, they could bicker without consequence.
During the day the boys trained, but now not everyone joined in. Brolly refused to take part and no one except Kakarott was inclined to encourage him. Brolly watched from Puar's rock. Puar had procured a second sun lounger so that Brolly wouldn't keep stealing hers. Nappa sometimes watched too, and Vegeta was glad to see that he did so from a good distance from Brolly and Puar. Nappa spent the rest of his time deeper in the desert, where he could be sensed, and sometimes heard, destroying the innocent rock outcroppings and dunes.
Today though, when he noticed that Nappa was gone, he did not sense him far away in the desert, but back at camp.
He paused in his spar with Tarble, and the boy stopped also, looking in the same direction.
'Nappa?'
'He's just going for a dump,' Vegeta guessed.
'I think I'll go see if Bulma needs help with anything,' Tarble said, and took off back to the camp.
Vegeta grunted in surprise at Tarble's initiative. Had the boy read the momentary worry on his face? It was foundless worry - Bulma and Nappa must have been alone at camp on multiple occasions without any incident. He wouldn't have ordered Tarble to go check it out, but he couldn't deny he felt reassured that Tarble had decided to. Or maybe Tarble himself was the one worrying, in which case, good, because then Vegeta wouldn't end up looking foolish when it was inevitably nothing.
There was a knock on her door, and Bulma sprang up, anticipating Vegeta or Tarble, but immediately she knew, whether by the shadow cast on her scoured dining room window or by her own miniscule sense of chi, that it wasn't.
'Who is it?'
'Someone who wants to admit defeat,' came Nappa's voice.
What? Slowly she opened the door, but didn't let him in, wondering where this was going. He was leaning down, head bowed to touch the top of the door lintel, peering under the edge of it. Completely blocking it. She tried not to show concern.
'Admit defeat, huh? That doesn't sound like the "Saiyan" way.'
The dour expression split into a sardonic amusement.
'Ah, well, there seems to be a New Saiyan Way. Hearts worn on sleeves, helpless devotion and all that.'
She regarded him with skepticism, sure he was mocking her.
'In what way did I defeat you?'
'Oh, not you, Princess. It's those brats that have defeated me. I've come to realise that I can't make them into what I think they should be. You've got a Prince and a gods-damned Super Saiyan mooning over you, and nothing I say flies any more. Even Raditz seems to be getting infected with this Earthling way of operating now.'
Why was he being so honest? She kept her grip on the door handle, preparing to slam the door shut, though that would do no good if Nappa really wanted to get inside.
'Nappa, do you mind not blocking my doorway?'
He stood and backed up, laughing like he'd only just noticed. 'It would be easier not to if your door wasn't so small!'
Though it was only a gesture, it did relax her enough to ask him, 'Why are you telling me this?'
'Ah!' He glanced towards the lip of the ravine, took another step back, and to her surprise, sat down in the hot sand.
'I've been thinking, Princess. If I can't change these brats, my only choice left is to change myself.'
'How?'
'I can become...more like an Earthling.'
Bulma gawped at him before remembering that dumbfoundedness was not a good look. Then she put her cynical hat back on.
'I think you might need to take a running jump at that one.'
He laughed again. 'I can't deny that you have quite the wit. I suppose I respect you for that, at least. And your technical ability. I guess there's no denying that, either.'
'So...why are you telling me this?' she asked again.
He didn't answer for a few moments, considering some spot on the lip of the cliff.
'Do you remember our truce?'
Bulma thought back to their early days in the desert. 'You mean our non-aggression pact?'
'Yeah, that.'
'Why do I need reminding? Are you scared I'm going to come after you?'
Nappa grinned. 'If I wanted to get technical over it, I could point out that you never really stopped pushing your luck.'
'I'm not going to be a silent pushover for you, Nappa! And you nearly killed me, not long ago, remember? When you took off in the ship? So I'd say that I've held up my end better than you have yours.'
He held his hands up to stop her tirade. 'That was an accident, and you know it.'
'Somehow I feel like you wouldn't have been too upset if I'd actually died! I'm pretty sure you don't hold any any warm fuzzies for me, even after the pact.'
'Warm fuzzies?' He tilted his head. 'Never heard that one before. But if you mean what I think you mean, then you're right, and I'm sure it was the same for you. Right?'
She didn't grace him with an answer.
'It seems like our acquaintance is dragging on a lot longer than either of us likes, in this state of…'
'Antagonism?'
'Let's go with that. We irritate each other. But it occured to me lately that the faster the terms of the alliance are carried out, the faster we can be free of each other. And I realized that I hadn't been contributing the most towards that aim. Kinda poisoning my own dinner to spite the cook. So, that's going to change now.'
'Okay. Good.'
'So, is there anything I can do to help?'
'What, right now?'
He shrugged, leaning back on his hands with his wide smile.
'I...can't really think of anything. Wouldn't you be better off training with the others?'
He snorted. 'What for? Those brats are too arrogant to take any training from me now, and that tampering they had from the old Namekian...' His eyes suddenly flashed hard and vicious. 'That's where this trouble started. Nothing good came from them letting some filthy alien tamper with the inside of their heads.'
Bulma said nothing, not wanting to divert that anger onto herself. Eventually Nappa heaved a sigh.
'Well, anyway, here we are. What can I do for you, my Lady?'
'Really, there's nothing-'
'I'm serious - I want to help. Anything you need doing around camp, you can call on me. No need to drag Tarble away from where he really wants to be. I'll most likely be here at camp, anyway.'
Oh, no, she thought. Just wonderful.
'We'll still get on each other's nerves,' she said aloud.
'Perhaps. Or maybe once we cooperate, we'll finally learn to get along.'
Or Hell would freeze over.
'I truly can't think of anything that needs doing right now. I'm working on my particle accelerator, and I don't think it involves anything you could do.'
He got to his feet and dusted the sand off his thighs. 'Well, if you need me for anything, just call.'
Urgh.
He had just disappeared around the ship when Tarble dipped over the ravine at speed and landed in front of her.
He straightened, panting a little. 'How is everything?'
'Fine,' she said, almost groaning the word.
'I saw Nappa was talking to you. What did he want?'
She rolled her eyes. 'To be helpful. He wants to put you out of a job, apparently.'
'Oh?'
'He wants to be my new errand boy.'
'Did you say yes?'
'No, but I didn't say no, either. What brings you here, anyway?'
He looked caught off guard. 'Oh. I need to use the bathroom.'
When Vegeta returned for dinner he found Nappa presiding over some fat, well-roasted mammals on the spits. Tarble was assisting by taking care of the vegetable and starch portion of their dinner. It gave Vegeta a moment's pause. Though Nappa still hunted, it had been many years since he had cooked.
Not only that, but Nappa appeared to be in a better mood than he had been lately, joining in with Raditz's and Krillin's joking during dinner. Even more surprising, Nappa's good cheer didn't seem to have come at the expense of anyone else. Both Tarble and Bulma appeared calm and unruffled. Still, as Vegeta stood to leave the group and return to the oasis, he caught Tarble's eye and jerked his head to the side, indicating that he should come with him.
He leapt up to the top of the ravine cliff, Tarble right behind him.
'What is it?' the boy asked.
'What is Nappa's deal?'
'He says he's changed his attitude. He says he's realised he's wasting his time arguing against the alliance, so now he wants to do everything he can to help it along.'
'Let me guess - so it will be over faster?'
Tarble grinned. 'Reading between the lines, yes. He offered Bulma to take over for me as her errand boy so that I can train full-time.'
He frowned. 'Did she accept?'
'I don't think so. And I think I should still look out for her,' he said more soberly. His expression didn't match his words, though.
Vegeta felt Tarble's frustration. The boy was far more Saiyan than he had previously given him credit for - of course he didn't want to miss out on fighting to grow stronger. 'I agree. And I know it is a sacrifice for you to do so.'
Tarble looked up.
'I don't trust Nappa as much as I trust you,' Vegeta continued. 'You may have screwed up in the past, but now I'd go to you before him, every time. You're the better soldier.'
Tarble's mouth sagged open. 'Oh! Thank you, Prince Vegeta.'
'I'm not a prince any more than you are.'
'Well, still, thank you.'
Vegeta grimaced. He was already regretting giving in to the sudden urge to show gratitude. 'Don't thank me when I'm trying to thank you, idiot!'
Tarble grinned. 'No problem!'
At that moment, Puar floated up over the edge of the cliff.
'There you are! Are you trying to sneak away again, Vegeta?'
'Ah, my own personal demon has found me.'
Puar leapt onto his shoulder and took a firm grip. 'You have my permission to return to camp.'
'Ridiculous piece of fluff!'
Bulma was forced to assemble the particle accelerator outside. It was lucky that the galaxy had advanced on the subject of particle accelerators - though it was a hundred feet in circumference, it was still small compared to what she would have built on Earth. It was still too enormous to be built in her house or the cruiser, or even the ledge that the house and ship sat on. She had to assemble it in a different arm of the ravine. This required her to be carted back and forth by Tarble on a regular basis as the trek between the two sites was too long and dangerous on foot to be practical.
She also had a bite on one of her auctions.
'You've set a very high reserve on this piece. I'm interested, but need holographs of the condition of the ship before deciding if it's worth coming to view.'
This was good, but bad. 'Please give me two more days,' she typed in reply. 'I'm having the carpet replaced.' which was true. She chose not to mention the hull repair and panel replacement that would happen at the same time.
Nappa had offered his help a few more times over the last few days, and seemed disappointed when she declined. Did she really have to entertain Nappa's need to be needed on top of all her other tasks? Finally though, she thought of some things he could do that would actually be useful.
'First, we need to move all the food stored on the cruiser over to the freighter.'
'All right.'
'And when we show the ship to the buyers, I'm going to have Puar play the owner. You can play her bodyguard and Captain, if you like.'
'I can do that, too.'
'I'll also need your help to give the cruiser the cleaning of its life when I get it back from the shipyard.'
She expected Nappa to turn that job down. He'd always been adamant that cleaning was far below him.
'No problem.'
'What?'
He smiled. 'Whatever it takes.'
Two days later Bulma, Tarble and Nappa had taken a trip to Metrophilia. Nappa had flown them to the spaceport, insisting on practising his ability to do so, but in return Bulma had tasked him with overseeing the ship while the hull was fixed and the new panel and carpet were fitted. This left herself and Tarble pleasantly Nappa-free while they went shopping for a new lounge suite and linens. They found heavily discounted examples of both in clearance sales. She felt pleased with the results.
'No person is to step foot on that carpet, nor sit on those new sofas!' she told the rest of them at dinnertime.
'What is the point of a sofa if you can't sit on it?' Goku asked.
'They're not for you, they're for the buyer to sit on. You'd probably get dust and grease and blood, and who knows what else on them!'
The more wrecked items of kitchenware also found a home around the campfire. In an effort to keep foot traffic into the ship down, Bulma also broke a set of porta-potties out of the emergency survival capsules, and set them up against the cliff. She gave a guided tour for the benefit of the Saiyans, in case they were unfamiliar with the concept (though it turned out that they were only a novel idea to Goku). Then she made herself very popular by decreeing that the bathrooms on the ship were now out of bounds, as was any entry to the ship that didn't involve preparing it for sale.
'Banned from going inside the ship?' Krillin complained.
'You don't need to go inside any more,' Bulma pointed out. 'You guys only wash in the waterhole anyway, so you don't need the shower any more. And now we've got a bunch of cooking gear outside, we already do ninety percent of the cooking on the campfire, and for anything else, we've got my battery-powered microwave from Earth.'
Krillin made a face.
'What?' Bulma demanded.
'I hate porta-potties.'
'Get over it, Baldie,' Nappa told him. 'You're not even going to have the cruiser soon, so better get your delicate sensibilities used to it.'
Bulma was surprised to hear Nappa defend her decision.
'We could just poop in Bulma's house,' Goku suggested, then froze at the look on Bulma's face. 'What?'
'I'm not having everyone traipse through my house at all times of the day and night to poop!'
'Why not?'
'It's a place of science and delicate engineering! I remind you that entrance remains by invitation only - and all visits must be supervised by the presiding engineer.'
Krillin gave her a flat look, but didn't argue. Behind her, Vegeta chuckled.
'I know,' said Goku to Krillin. 'We'll just dig a hole to poop in.'
'Use the porta-potty!' Bulma commanded. 'We're not having some open air latrine stinking up the place!'
Tarble was busy contemplating something.
'What about the regen tank?' he asked.
'We need to move it into the freighter tomorrow.'
He nodded, then asked, 'Without the ship, where will we sleep if the weather turns?'
'Fat chance of that happening,' said Bulma. 'We haven't had a single day that wasn't scorching and sunny since we got here.'
She ate her words the very next morning. Clouds covered half the sky from the North at dawn, and blanketed the whole sky by mid-morning. The temperature dropped a little, but the humidity came up, and a hot breeze tugged their hair and clothes.
Trying to make a fool of me? Bulma thought as she looked at the sky. It didn't yet look like it would rain, but she decided it would be wise to look up some climate data for the desert later.
She mustered both Nappa and Tarble to the task of cleaning the ship. They began with the flight deck, polishing all the displays and shiny surfaces and wet-vaccing the sofa cushions. Bulma regarded those cushions with some private embarrassment, knowing what had taken place on them. Then they started on the main living deck.
Bulma checked the airlock and rediscovered the blood spray on the wall that had been there since the Saiyans had stolen the ship. She would need to clean the walls with bleach and air the small space out. She sighed.
'Nappa, you can start scrubbing the kitchen down. Tarble can do the parquet floors, and I'll clean up in here.'
'Goku's coming over,' observed Puar, putting her binoculars down.
'I know,' Brolly replied, looking like he was trying to sink through the plastic of the sun lounger.
'I wonder what he wants.'
Brolly said nothing to that, and Puar raised the binoculars again to hide her frown. Talking to Brolly was like trying to wring conversation from a rock at times. If he did talk, he only wanted to know things about Bulma's life back on Earth, or else interrogate Puar on what was so special about Vegeta that she would spend her nights in the desert with him. On the whole, she felt she'd have a better time if Brolly left her alone.
She cast about, trying to get Goku in her sights again, and then yelped as Goku's left eye suddenly filled her entire field of vision. She dropped the binoculars to find Goku had made it all the way to the watchtower rock.
'Hi, guys!'
'Hi, Goku!' Puar chirped. 'How can I help you?'
'Oh, actually I was hoping to get Brolly's help with something.'
'Oh.'
'Is it something to do with turning Super Saiyan?' Brolly asked leadenly.
'Yep!'
Brolly moaned. 'But I don't know anything!'
'Oh, come on, Brolly! Just come and train with us and see what we can find out from you!'
'I don't want to!'
'But why? It's fun!'
'I don't have a chi-leveller any more. I broke the last one; it's not safe.'
'I can lend you mine, or Krillin can, while me and you are sparring.'
'I don't want to train with Vegeta!'
'Then don't! Just spar with me. Vegeta will keep out of it, I'm sure.'
Brolly growled. 'He'll just be watching me.'
'What does that matter? Come on, Brolly, you said you'd help me discover the secret of going Super! You're not doing anything right now - you must be so bored.'
Goku reached out and took Brolly by his wrist. The bigger boy resisted a little, but let himself be dragged to his feet.
'Only if Vegeta doesn't say anything,' he told Goku.
'I'll tell him not to.'
'Okay, then.'
'I can finish the floors, Runt. You can go train with the others - I know you're itching to.'
Tarble paused in his mopping of the rampway. Nappa, he had noticed, had ceased cleaning the kitchen almost as soon as he'd begun, then disappeared into the bedroom for a while. Now he'd reappeared to tempt him to leave his post. Tarble wondered what he was up to.
'No, it's okay.'. He doubted Nappa knew enough about cleaning floors to do a good job, anyway. 'I started, so I'll finish. And Bulma will be pissed if I take off before we've done the bathrooms!' He dipped the mop back in the bucket.
'Suit yourself, then.'
Bulma stepped out of the airlock holding up her rubber glove encased hands, just in time to see a ball of white-hot chi leave Nappa's hand and strike Tarble in the stomach, knocking him down. The energy wave exploded outside, sending a shudder through the ground and a shower of small rocks pinging into the hull and rampway. She jumped with fright, and then got angry.
What are those idiots thinking, switching to training right in the entrance of the ship I'm trying to sell?
She ran to them, seeing the bucket upturned, gushing sudsy water down the rampway and Tarble lying on the ground a short distance away, still holding the mop.
'Nappa, what the hell do you think you're doing?'
Nappa caught her by the arm as she passed, and then jerked her backwards by it, off her feet, to land hard against his chest. His other arm wrapped around her, crushingly tight, pinning her arms to her sides. Her anger turned to shock.
'What are you doing?'
He laughed, letting go of her arm to grab the Velcro band of the transponder around her neck and rip it away. With it went any thought that this was training, or a joke, or rough-housing.
'Let me go!' she screamed, but Nappa only wheeled around and mashed the button to close the rampway. It closed on the view of Tarble, still laying unmoving on the dirt outside, smoke rising from his stomach, a crater in the rock behind him. He was still wearing his chi-leveller. Nappa wasn't.
A switch flipped inside her, and she froze, immobile in his arms as he marched through the ship with her in his arms. What had just happened? What was happening? She was too scared to process it.
Do something! she screamed at herself.
'What have you done to Tarble?' she blurted out.
'Got him out of the fucking way at last, is what.'
As Nappa turned into the bedroom she whimpered. She caught her feet on either side of the doorway and braced them in a vain attempt to stop what she feared was coming, but Nappa only pushed through till her knees buckled and the tops of her feet scraped against the frame. The bedroom was neater than she'd ever seen it, with its brand new, dove-grey carpet and new white linens on the bed.
No, not on the new linens! an insane part of her brain railed.
'Whatever you're gonna do, Nappa, please don't do it!'
'Beg all you like, it's only music to my ears.'
He dumped her on the bed then flipped her over, placing a knee on her chest before she could squirm free. She saw he had two old scarves of Princess Cee-Cee's tied to either side of the bedhead. He grabbed one of her wrists, ripped off the rubber glove and began to bind it with a scarf. She fought with her other hand, scratching at his arms, but she couldn't penetrate his skin at all. He was invulnerable to her. A keening sound of pure terror was escaping from her throat.
'Quit it,' he growled.
She couldn't believe this was happening. They'd had their long truce, he'd made promises, and now the world flipped and she couldn't understand it. She felt half outside her body, reaching for her friends, only a few kilometres away in the desert. How could this happen when they were so close!
'You can't do this, Nappa! Vegeta will kill you!'
'He won't have a chance,' said Nappa, tying her other arm now. She could see his huge head looming over her, a grin of dark glee on his face, though he wasn't looking at her.
'What do you mean?'
'I mean, you and I are going on a looooong journey together, starting right now. And if Vegeta ever wants to see you again he'll have to follow along and waltz all the way into Frieza's lair on Planet Frieza 65. And then old Lizard Lugs is going to kill him once and for all.'
He got to his knees astride her and began tying her other wrist. The scarves were painfully tight. She lay there shaking, trying to get her brain to leapfrog this paralysing terror and start working again. She needed to think! She had to think! Her brain and her words were the only tools she had to save herself!
She repeated what he'd just said in her mind until some meaning started to trickle through. He was going to take her off the planet - she couldn't let that happen!
'Y-You're going to betray Vegeta?'
Nappa's dark smile turned even deadlier, and his voice dropped harsh and low. 'I already have, Love.'
'Don't be a fool, Nappa. Frieza will kill you the second you show up on his doorstep!'
She regretted calling him a fool immediately. His smile disappeared, revealing cold hatred underneath.
'Fool, am I? He won't kill me - I already cut a deal with him.'
'How?' Or maybe the right question was, 'When?'
Nappa climbed off her and opened the bedside drawer. From it he took a small item rolled in a pair of his own, worn underwear, and tossed it on the bed. The underwear flopped open to reveal a scouter.
'I kept a souvenir from our time on Planet Namek,' he said. Then he picked the evil thing up and put it on, screening his left eye behind a pane of red glass. 'Zarbon and Frieza offered me a deal while I was there. If I helped them bring Vegeta in, they would take me back into the PTO with a promotion. I turned them down at the time. More recently I had a change of heart, and when I got back in contact, it turned out that the offer still stood. In fact, there's been an opening for a General ever since I killed dear, old Dodoria.'
Her heart was still racing a mile a minute, but she was beginning to calm down enough to think. He wasn't going to rape her - he was going to kidnap her. But there was still time to change his mind if she could figure out how.
'I know you haven't liked the way things have been going lately, but this is too drastic, Nappa! We can work something out with Vegeta. It's not too late - I won't tell him what you planned if you stop now!'
'I already tried working things out with Vegeta, many times. Got me fucking nowhere.'
'But you can't do this to him! You swore an oath to protect him! You're his second! His most trusted advisor!'
'I was, until you came along!' The look he gave her then was so hateful that she bit her lip, afraid to say anything more lest he hit her. He leaned down, snarling his next words at her.
'I've had as much as I can stand of that utter disappointment. I've spent the best years of my life in service to that piece of shit, and he treats me like dirt. I'm done trying to make him turn out right - he is determined to debase himself, to turn into a Saiyan-shaped waste of jism!'
Then he stood and turned towards the door, but she couldn't let him leave!
'W-Wait, Nappa! W-why would you go back to the PTO? Even if you're angry with Vegeta? I thought you hated it?'
He stopped at the end of the bed.
'What's to hate about the PTO? Life was simple in the Frieza Force! Carry out the orders, blow shit up, kill weaklings and come home for dinner! And then when we were out of Frieza's line of sight, drink, gamble, and whore! And if I'm a General, I expect I'll have quite a few perks besides those basics. I'll be second only to Frieza in the galaxy!'
The gleam of feral delight in his eyes told her he would never be talked out of this, but she had to try, or at least had to stall.
'But what about the others? Would you really leave Raditz and Brolly? What about Brolly? He's the Super Saiyan!'
Nappa rolled his eyes. 'Pfffff! The Super Saiyan! What a joke that is! He's a coward - a mewling idiot! He really is the final straw! He could be the lord of the galaxy, but he won't even think of it! What a pathetic end the race has come to when that is the best hope and Saviour of the Saiyans?'
He was done with them all. What more could she say?
'But you don't need to take me with-'
'Oh, yes, I do! You're the bait! Vegeta has lost his mind over you - he'll follow wherever I take you, which is why I need the faster ship to take you. If I took the freighter he might catch us before we go to Planet Frieza 65.'
'No!'
'Yes!' Nappa mocked in a high pitched voice. 'Besides, Frieza wants you alive - you're part of the deal. If it were up to me I'd just kill you and put you out the airlock on the way, and just let Vegeta think you were still alive, but for Frieza's sake I have to actually keep you alive the whole way there, so get comfy, Princess.'
She felt sick and dizzy; she was hyperventilating - a journey of weeks or months, tied to a bed and tended to only by Nappa. But at least now she knew he wouldn't kill her.
'You're an idiot, Nappa. If you've told Freiza where we are, he'll just show up and take Vegeta and I. He won't give you your reward!'
'There's that charming way you have of underestimating me, again! I didn't tell him anything about where we are, for that exact reason! I came up with the plan and sold it to Lord Frieza. I'll get to Planet 65, get my reward, and then sit back and let Vegeta and Frieza do the rest.'
He sat down on the bed next to her, and she arched away from him..
'As well as those handy capsules you make, Frieza was fascinated to hear about your giant "dragon radar"!'
No! God, no!
He smiled at her dismay.
'Now, I know what you're thinking,' he said. 'You and I don't really get along. And I'm not looking forward to it much, either. So let's just be as accommodating as we can to each other.' His gaze travelled down to her t-shirt and stopped there.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she wanted to scream, but somehow she was frozen in fear. Maybe she'd been wrong about his intentions.
He reached out towards her chest, and she started to cry. She wanted to beg for him not to touch her, and the only thing holding her back was the fear that saying the words would somehow make it happen, make this real.
'Please!' She forced the word out.
'Yes, please?' Nappa teased, hands poised.
'Please, don't!'
'Don't what?'
She couldn't say it. She felt more vulnerable, more exposed, than she ever had in her life. She blinked blinding tears from her eyes, unable to wipe them away.
Nappa mocked her with fake sobs. 'Oh, Nappa, please don't hurt me! Don't rape me! Ha-ha!'
Numbness crept into her face. Please, let me faint, she thought, I don't want to be conscious for this! But consciousness hung stubbornly on.
Nappa loomed over her again, his sick humour giving away to bitterness. 'The idea of putting my dick in your miserable cunt is disgusting to me.' He let her a moment of relief, before adding, 'Then again, it would teach you your place like nothing else. Knock the princess off her high perch.' He took her face in one hand, squeezing her cheeks. 'It might be worth it to hear you scream.'
Bulma's cries reached a crescendo. Yet somewhere in the midst of her fear, a part of her was preparing for this terrible new reality. Whatever was coming was going to be bad - she couldn't change that. Maybe it was going to be weeks of hell, but she wouldn't die. I have to survive this, she told herself. No matter how bad it is, I have to get through it, get free, and get to Namek, even if I have to go alone.
'Unfortunately, we don't have time right now,' Nappa said, getting up off the bed again. 'Got to get this ship airbourne before someone discovers Tarble's body outside.'
'Tarble's dead?' She thought she might vomit.
'I saw daylight through the hole I put in his stomach, so I would think so.' He hesitated, narrowing his eyes as he trailed his eyes down her body. 'I am curious though, just what is it about this package that turned Vegeta and Brolly into simpering pups? I think I have enough time to peek, at least.'
In a swift movement, he took hold of the front of her t-shirt and bra with both hands, then ripped them apart, splitting them down the middle. The band of her bra snapped, underwires scrapped the skin of her breasts, and she yelped. Nappa reached for the waistband of her shorts next, and she curled up to kick at him, stomping his face with the flat soles of her worn sneakers, but he shook it off like she was tickling him with blades of grass. She screamed again as the fabric of her shorts and panties was shredded, burning her skin with friction as he pulled the two halves down her legs. She drew her legs into herself, trying to cover her nakedness. No, this was the most vulnerable and exposed she'd ever felt. She wanted to sink into the bed, to hide amid the foam and padding.
Nappa gave her body a dispassionate once-over.
'Well, I've seen better, for sure. Can't say I see what all the fuss has been about.'
Bulma twisted away as far as the restraints would let her. Nappa took her shoulder and shoved her flat on the mattress again.
'Vegeta!'
They both stilled at the sound of a voice in their earpieces.
'Tarble!' Bulma cried, hope and gladness returning with the swiftness of a lightning strike. Nappa leapt to his feet, facing the door.
'Fuck! Not as dead as I thought he was!'
Tarble was still talking over the comms, his voice gasping and weak, but then Bulma realised she could hear him in her other ear, too - he was on board the ship!
'Nappa has Bulma on the cruiser - I think he's hurting her!'
'How the fuck did he get inside?' Nappa hissed. Bulma knew - the airlock was still open because she'd been ventilating the bleach fumes.
The next instant Tarble staggered into the room, one arm stretched before him with a weak ball of chi in his palm, and then the rest of him, bent over, his other arm clutching his stomach.
'Vegeta!'
Vegeta was shallow-frying in bitterness as he watched Brolly and Kakarott spar, and almost ignored the next words that came to him over comms.
'Nappa has Bulma on the cruiser - I think he's hurting her!'
'What?'
He glanced over at Raditz and Krillin, and saw the shock on their faces. They'd heard it, too.
He leapt into the air.
'Tarble! What's happening?' he said over comms. 'Get in there and help her!'
There was no answer from Tarble, though. He accelerated to his maximum, then realised that the chi-leveller was slowing him down. He ripped the straps open and ditched it.
'Goku, Brolly, something's happening on the ship!' Krillin was shouting over comms. 'Bulma's in trouble!'
Vegeta was nearly at the ravine, and could see Puar's tiny form rushing towards the cliff face when the cruiser blasted upwards, a cloud of sand boiling up in its wake. Puar was thrown backwards, tumbling like a paper ball on the wind. Vegeta felt his heart stop in his chest. He didn't have time to see if Puar was okay when Bulma was going to be out of his reach in seconds.
He changed trajectory, angling up at the retreating disk of the ship as it punctured the dark clouds above them. He hurtled into the wet gloom after it, faster than he'd ever moved before. But it wasn't fast enough.
He felt the breaking wave of chi before he saw it - a streak of burning gold overtaking him. Brolly was gaining on the ship.
He touched his transponder.
'Stop the ship before they leave the atmosphere - if they get that far we'll never catch up!' He gasped - the air burned his lungs with cold.
The golden light of Brolly shrank and disappeared. Vegeta broke through the top of the clouds into blinding, bright cold, and the deep blue of the edge of space, and saw that a miracle had happened - the ship had stopped moving! He was gaining on it again!
The smooth metal of the underbelly with its retracted legs rushed towards him, but how was he to get in? He rose past the edge of the ship, looking in the dome to see Nappa behind the thick glass, and above him the reason that the ship was going nowhere - Brolly spread-eagle on the top of the dome, pushing it back towards the ground.
Nappa didn't look that worried, though. He lifted one hand from the controls to touch his transponder.
'If you ever want to see your bitch of a mate again, Vegeta, come to Planet Frieza 65. I know someone that wants to catch up with you.'
Then he took the controls with both hands and the ship shot forwards, slipping out from under Brolly. The edge of it caught Vegeta in the middle, winding him, and maybe Nappa had done it on purpose, but it was his undoing. Momentarily pinioned to the ship, Vegeta had time to slam a hand into the hull for purchase before he slid off. Then he made another hole further down, and another, and then he was at the hatch of the rampway. The buffeting of the air around him was growing fainter, and much, much colder as he looked at the narrow seam of the opening. He didn't bother trying to draw breath - there was nothing to breathe. Time was up.
He slammed his hand into the joint and grabbed the internal support of the rampway, then then ripped the thing open. There was so little air, it hardly made a sound, and then Vegeta was blasted with a jet of hot air that exploded out of the opening he'd made. Behind him he could feel Brolly coming up like a bonfire at his back.
He pulled himself inside the ship against the current of the air leaving it. He could sense Bulma in the bedroom - she was still alive - though without any air in the ship, maybe not for long. He ran to her, Brolly at his heels, to see her curled on her side, naked other than her socks and shoes, face pressed to her shoulder, arms tied to the bed.
What had Nappa done? What the hell had he done?
He shoved past Brolly, who was no longer burning gold but slack with shock, intending to confront Nappa on the flight deck, and instead was just in time to see Nappa escape out the wrecked rampway hatch.
He threw himself out after him. Nappa flew straight down, past Raditz, Kakarott and Krillin who were still catching up.
'Land the ship!' Vegeta said over comms, using up the last bit of air in his lungs. But he was rapidly warming again, and soon he was able to take another breath. He was gaining on Nappa so quickly it almost seemed as if the older Saiyan wasn't moving at all. Nappa changed directions, swooping and going sideways as he hit the cloud layer in an effort to evade Vegeta, but it was no use. Vegeta caught up to him in the dark, wet mist of the cloud, and while Nappa tried to fend him off, got his hands around the man's throat.
'What did you do?' Vegeta screamed, too full of naked shock and rage to come up with any garnish or insult. But Nappa couldn't answer - his face was turning red, and his neck above Vegeta's hands was bulging. Vegeta threw him away from him again, and then raised his hands, throwing blast after blast of needle-sharp chi at Nappa's body, piercing him a dozen times. Nappa fell away from him, the mist swallowing his limp form. With great effort, he stopped firing and then flew after him. He could still sense Nappa's chi, but if he went on, Nappa wouldn't be able to answer his question, or any question, ever again.
He caught up to him and grabbed him by the front of his smoking training suit, the fabric stretching and seams popping with the strain.
'What did you do to her?' he demanded again.
Nappa's eyes were half lidded with pain, and he struggled to breath, let alone speak. 'Wouldn't you like to know?' he gasped out.
'Why?'
'Because I hate you.'
'You hate me?'
'You. Her. All of you. I'd rather have Frieza over you.' He smiled, showing teeth red with blood. Then he choked, coughing on the blood that was drowning him.
A new emotion rose up to displace Vegeta's rage. Disgust.
He threw Nappa away from him, and followed it with another energy wave. He wasn't sure if it would finish him off, but he didn't care to waste any more time on the traitor when he didn't know if Bulma was all right. He turned around and cast about with his chi-sense, looking for the others and the ship.
Raditz was landing it back at the ravine, on the top of the cliff, not down on the ledge. Vegeta entered through the twisted hatch before it even touched down, and rushed to the bedroom. Krillin and Kakarott crouched at the head of the bed, both ashen, both breathing heavily. Brolly stood on the other side of the bed, weeping and reaching towards Bulma, but not actually daring to touch her. Bulma was no longer bound. The scarves that had tied her had been snapped in two. She was wrapped in a sheet, pressed against the bedhead and writhing like a worm exposed to sunlight, her face pressed into the mattress, crying out the same word over and over again.
'Tarble! Tarble!'
The hairs all over his body stood up as he saw the spray of blood on the white bedsheets. Now there was air in the ship again, it was saturated with the smell of blood. It wasn't Bulma's blood.
He stepped inside, onto blood-soaked carpet. And then he turned to the wall next to the door, fighting against his body, which felt like it was turning to ice.
There was no chi, but there were feet, and then legs, and then a blood-drenched torso slumped against the wall. The tall spikes of black hair, just like his own, fell forward over a face, white with death. Gore decorated the upper chest. It was all very familiar. The throat had been torn out, in the classic end-move taught to countless generations of elite Saiyans. He'd used it himself, too many times to recall.
'Bulma!' he heard Puar cry behind him. Vegeta turned and put his hand up, stopping the cat in mid-air.
'Stay outside, Puar!'
'But is Bulma-'
'Do not come in here!' he roared.
The cat retreated, shaken.
Bulma moaned Tarble's name again, raising her head. Her hand clawed in the mattress, and Kakarott took it.
Vegeta turned back to the body. Even with that smell, that training suit, that hair, he couldn't believe it could be Tarble, sitting there like some ignominious murdered body. Surely not.
He knelt down and gently lifted the head by its hair. Tarble's eyes were dull and half-lidded, and blood coated the purpled lips. It was Tarble's face as he'd never seen it before, but it was certainly him. His stomach flopped unpleasantly.
'Don't look, Bulma!' he heard Kakarott urge her.
Vegeta however, couldn't seem to stop himself staring.
'What happened?' Krillin asked, his voice warbling.
'He was trying to save me, and Nappa killed him!'
Tarble, who had earned his respect and trust, killed by Nappa, who had set respect and trust on fire and pissed on the ashes!
He heard Raditz's cry of shock behind him, and turned to see him fall back against the door of the linen closet in the hall. Vegeta hauled himself up onto rubbery legs and pushed past Raditz, running as the strength came back to him.
Out in the desert he took to the air, looking for the spot where Nappa would have fallen. He searched for his chi, but in the end found him by sight rather than chi. There was still a thread of it there, but Nappa was unconscious, pale and teetering on the edge of death himself.
'Wake up, old man! Wake up and fight me!'
Nappa didn't stir, and Vegeta hauled his upper body off the sand by the remnants of his training suits.
'Get up! Traitor! Murderer!'
The breath gurgled out of Nappa's mouth in one, long, sighing breath. And then he was still. Vegeta held him, waiting for him to breathe in again, but it didn't happen.
Cold washed through him, bringing his anger up short. He felt on the edge of something - something he didn't want to feel, so instead he roared at the corpse.
'How dare you! How dare you cross me and kill- Kill one of your own!'
Nappa's eyes stared sightlessly. Vegeta couldn't stand to see him a moment longer. He snatched up one of Nappa's heavy arms, then spun on the spot, hoisting the huge body into the air and letting it go, swinging it high and wide. Before the body could fall to the ground, Vegeta shot it with a ball of chi. There was a flash of heat and fire, and dark, ugly smoke, and then pieces of Nappa began falling. Vegeta picked them off, one by one, incinerating the evidence that his former second had existed at all.
He didn't stop until there were only ashes on the breeze.
