Chapter 30: Clash of Opinions

It was strange for Talia and Niku to travel to a brand-new world and find themselves trapped in one small location. Granted, the Capsule Corp. compound was quite a large space, but it wasn't what those two explorers were used to. They had visited many worlds in their time, together or otherwise, and this was something very different. Earth was a strange planet, because anything that seemed foreign or different to the average person was perceived as something to fear, a threat.

It didn't help that most strange things the people of Earth had encountered in the past had tried to kill them, or destroy their planet, like Cell and the Saiyans, along with some of the more recent threats, but people like Talia or Niku, who were friendly enough, didn't deserve to be treated any differently.

AIR-3N didn't care because it meant he could work on the ship and make sure everything was up to scratch, everything was clean and spotless, and any improvements that needed to be made could be made. And Surto, well he had never left his home planet, so it was all rather new and strange to him. He just kept quiet and went about his day, although he was intrigued by the fact that another Namekian lived on the planet and hoped to meet them.

Bra and Dom were very intrigued by AIR-3N and spent a lot of their time working with him and doing their best to study his mannerisms. AIR-3N, to them, was a form of Artificial Intelligence. He was a robot that thought for himself and even showcased an ability to understand and, perhaps, mimic emotions. Whether or not he actually felt them was another thing entirely.

There was a lot of discussions about the things that AIR-3N would need, or the things he could do to improve his ship. Dom and Bra were very helpful, providing materials and knowledge where necessary, and at the same time, Dom would be studying the robot and taking notes. It was clear there was a lot they could learn from AIR-3N that would benefit their projects in some way. And there was a lot they could learn from studying the ship the new arrivals had used to get to Earth.

It was new and interesting tech, and it had landed right at Capsule Corp., gifting them with an amazing opportunity to gather and collate as much information and knowledge as possible. It was exciting. Those three were doing everything they could to work on the ships at the same time and make them better, and more efficient for whatever was coming their way.

In the meantime, it was strange, but Pan had found someone she could train with, at least a little bit. Talia had some knowledge of energy, although in a different form, but it allowed for some interesting little spars between the two women. Pan, doing her best to gain complete control of her recently acquired Super Saiyan abilities, and Talia trying to learn as much as she could about utilising her dormant energy. Whether it had come from her harsh upbringing with Yamo Niha, or if it was something to do with the Dark Blades, or even if it was because of her species, Talia knew she had access to a power that she didn't completely understand.

Through some sessions with Pan, Talia was learning how to bring it under her control a little better, even though she made it clear she would prefer to fight with her swords, she made sure never bring them out in the fights with Pan. It just wasn't necessary.

During this time, Noca had continued to work where he could, and Pan also needed to focus on university work and her own part-time job, so it did mean that for the most part, the crew had been left alone with Bra and Dom. It wasn't so bad though. Talia did still get time to reflect and figure some of her own stuff out, at least a little bit. AIR-3N obviously had Bra and Dom, and that was enough for him. Niku was the one who was most restless. He didn't like waiting around for something to happen, which meant that he shared an opinion with Vegeta, but something about that Saiyan really rubbed him the wrong way, and it seemed like Vegeta held something against Niku too. So that was uncomfortable.

At some point, through the assistance of Gohan, Surto did travel to an isolated area, in a wasteland, where he met with Piccolo. This allowed a chance for the two of them bond and understand one another. It also meant that both had suitable company, and Surto began to learn from Piccolo how to calm his mind and meditate, and perhaps come to terms with his own power. Neither of them was the kind to discuss their feelings, or what had happened to them, so it was mainly just silence for the time they were together.

Whenever the group had managed to gather, it was mainly to lay all the information on the table, and this was mainly because of the impatience of Vegeta. He wanted to know why they were just sitting around and what kind of things they could do to make an effort to go out into space and hunt down Kuyato.

However, according to Talia that just wasn't a good option. The only things they truly knew for certain was that Kuyato was coming to Earth with his forces, but they couldn't be sure what kind of size they were to expect. And the only other things they could say for sure were two locations. The first, the planet Haken, where Talia grew up. A planet she knew well, but a planet that was far away. The other location was Kuyato's Sanctuary in the Domain of Bure. But the crew had already been there, and it was nothing, just an abandoned sector of space.

Sure, if both ships were ready, they could blast out into space and send one team to the Sanctuary and one to Haken, but not only would that split them up into smaller, less effective groups, but it would leave the Earth open for an attack, an inevitable attack, since they knew that Kuyato was on his way. He wasn't about to show up with a small group, or weak forces. No, he was coming for a battle.

They could also figure out that Kuyato had been able to send something to Earth for a small attack already, in the form of whatever destroyed the lookout and killed both Dende and Mr. Popo. They also knew how long it would take for a typical spaceship to travel all that way to the Earth. However, based on how long it had taken Talia and crew to travel to Earth, and how long ago Kuyato had departed from Namek, he could be close. He could be looming somewhere in the Solar System as they spoke.

Any quick scan using any of the satellites out and about in the solar system told them that wasn't the case, but it was still something they had to consider. Kuyato's attack could be imminent. That sentiment only provoked more talk of preparation and training from Vegeta, which Noca was on-board with, as was Pan, but it was still a matter of making life fit.

In short, any time the group gathered for discussions it typically ended in arguments, with Vegeta storming out and hiding away in his gravity chamber. In reality, they just had to wait it out. There was nothing more to it. Training and waiting. None of it was ideal, and everyone was feeling uneasy.

Sunday 2nd April Age 798

It was late on Sunday, Bra and Dom were on-board AIR-3N's ship, along with the robot, and they were plugged in with their computers and doing what they could to gain new information from whatever operating system the ship had, and they were trying to attribute that information to their own work and ship. Dom was sitting in the front control seat, with his laptop in front of him, and he was tapping away at his keyboard.

Bra moved over and sat beside him, handing him a mug with a hot drink inside.

"Here, have some coffee," Bra said, offering it up, with a smile on her face. Dom looked up and smiled back but noticed the weakness in Bra's smile and the red in her eyes. He could only assume he looked the same.

"We don't have to keep working tonight," Dom suggested, knowing that he and Bra were both too obsessed with their pursuit to improve the science at their disposal and make a discovery that would put each of them on the map, like how Bulma did.

"No, I'm fine," Bra said. Dom took the coffee from her and frowned, but Bra looked away and sipped from her mug. She glanced behind her to see what AIR-3N was doing. He seemed preoccupied. "This isn't even going to do anything for us."

"What do you mean? You love this coffee," Dom said, taking a sip of his and letting out a pleased sigh. Bra looked to him, frowned, but shook her head and scoffed.

"Not the coffee, I mean the tech, and all this," Bra said, motioning to the control desk in front of them.

"How so?" Dom questioned.

"This tech already exists. It'll help us improve whatever we do with Capsule Corp. stuff going forward, but we're not about to make a breakthrough, we're basically stealing this tech," Bra explained. Dom stopped and put his mug down. He pondered it and realised Bra was right.

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to learn what we can," Dom suggested, "It can still help improve everything we want to do, and isn't that just as exciting?"

"It is," Bra said, but she didn't seem to really believe what she was saying. "Maybe I just wanted something that was mine."

"Hey," Dom said, getting Bra's full attention. He turned to face her and held her hands in his. "We're going to make great scientific advancements together, and so what if we're learning from this alien technology, the fact that we're the only ones who are going to be able to make it work with Earth tech is the most exciting thing I can think of."

Bra nodded, as a smirk appeared on her face a little.

"And the fact that I'm going to be working on all of this stuff alongside the woman I love is the greatest thing in all existence," Dom added, and Bra scoffed and blushed a little bit.

"Oh, stop it," she said, laughing playfully. Dom leaned forward and kissed her but as soon as his lips touched hers there was a beeping sound from the holo-table behind them. The young couple swung around at the same time and stared at it.

"What's going on?" Dom asked.

AIR-3N stepped away from whatever he had been doing and looked over the table, for a second it seemed like the robot didn't care, or didn't know what it was, but then he looked up at Bra and Dom, realised they weren't his crew and ran away. Bra and Dom looked to each other, unsure of what to do as the robot left them and went out into the hangar, to where Talia and Niku had been doing a little bit of light sparring.

They stopped upon seeing AIR-3N running up to them.

"There's a message on the holo-table," AIR-3N stated, and there was almost a sort of exasperation, or excitement in his voice. "It's the private network, and it's Guida's signal."

Both Talia and Niku rushed back on-board the ship, both made it to the control room, where Dom and Bra had waited. Talia rushed forward, over to the table and touched a few buttons.

"Does anyone care to explain what's going on?" Bra asked, getting a little bit frustrated, mainly because she was also very tired.

"It seems we have received a message from our other crew-member, the one who we believe to be with Kuyato," AIR-3N explained.

There was some sort of affirmative beeping as Talia accessed their private network. She pressed a couple more buttons and there was a frequency, a message, it was Guida alright. Talia smiled and looked to Niku. He smiled back, but before she pressed the button Dom had to interject.

"Wait," he said, stalling the alien woman. Talia looked up at him and frowned. "Shouldn't we tell Noca…"

"It can wait," Talia said, and she hit the button.

The message opened… but it was empty. There was nothing. Not a signal sound. A blank message. Talia held her hands up and seemed frustrated.

"Is it damaged?" Niku asked, looking up at the hologram of the blank message.

"No, it's an empty message," Talia said, sighing and leaning forward on the holo-table.

"Maybe he tried to send us something but…" Niku started, but he knew that sentence only had a negative ending. He sighed and looked down. Talia smacked the table. A few more seconds passed by, and the message was still "playing" even though there was nothing to it. AIR-3N just kept staring up at it. Dom was looking too, with his brow furrowed.

"He wasn't sending a message…" Dom muttered. He didn't say it loud enough for anyone else to hear him, although Bra heard it, but didn't understand it. AIR-3N heard it too and he looked right towards Dom. The blond human noticed the robot looking his way and it was a little uncomfortable because you couldn't read him, but Dom knew AIR-3N understood something.

AIR-3N rapidly moved towards the holo-table and punched in some sort of control or direction, while the others just watched on, confused. The hologram shifted to show the Earth, then zoomed out to show the Solar System and then their quadrant of the Milky Way, and that's where it stopped. Earth's location was highlighted by AIR-3N and then they noticed another highlighted area.

"Dom is right," AIR-3N said. He turned to face Talia and Niku. "Guida is not sending us a message."

Niku frowned and then his eyes widened as he had a realisation, but Talia was took caught up with being frustrated that she wasn't piecing any of it together.

"He has sent us his location," AIR-3N revealed, "and it is moving," the robot continued, before finishing, "and one can only assume he is aboard Kuyato's ship and coming towards the Earth."

Talia and Niku looked up at the map again, while Bra took a seat in the chair behind her, sipped some more of her coffee and scoffed.

"Holy shit," she muttered.

Talia turned to Dom.

"Now we should tell Noca."

Monday 3rd April Age 798

The message from Dom came late at night, and Noca had managed to find some time to be asleep, so he missed the message. Dom knew it wasn't something that anyone needed to know imminently, Kuyato wasn't bearing down on them, there was definitely a distance, and it was a safe one as things stood, so Dom allowed Noca to find out in his own time.

Pan was the first one awake, because she had to go into university, and obviously she wasn't going to randomly check her boyfriend's phone, so Pan was unaware of the new information as she went to get ready for her day.

Noca didn't wake up until after Pan had already left, which wasn't normal for the Saiyan man. He typically didn't sleep in, or at all for that matter, but that night he just managed to get a good night's sleep. It was rare, but it was nice. He turned around in the bed and checked his phone, and that's when he saw a message from Dom from the previous night.

It simply read: Call me when you see this.

Noca immediately sat up and dialled his phone.

"It came through last night," Talia said as she showed Noca the information at the holo-table. Noca, arms folded, looked up at the map as it expanded and zoomed out to show their quadrant of the Milky Way, and Guida's distance from them.

"And you're sure that this means Guida is coming with Kuyato?" Noca asked.

"What else could it mean?" Talia questioned, "He wouldn't send a message unless it was important, he wanted us to know that Kuyato was coming, and he wanted to make sure we had an advantage. They may not know Guida even sent this."

Talia motioned to the map as she spoke, and Noca glanced up to it. None of them could deny that it was the best piece of information any of them had acquired. Noca nodded.

"Well, now we need a plan," Niku stated.

Noca looked around the room at the people currently around him, there was Talia, Niku, Vegeta, AIR-3N, Surto, Dom, and Bra. He almost beckoned for one of them to speak up first but without drawing any attention to himself. He didn't want to be the first to speak. But that idea didn't pan out when Talia turned to face Noca, as if asking what he wanted to do. Noca closed his eyes for a second or two and then opened them with a sigh.

As he turned to look at Talia, he could see in his periphery that Vegeta was glaring at him, clearly knowing what the young Saiyan man was thinking.

"I don't know what we should do," Noca said, letting Talia know just how he felt, without really laying it out there. Talia was ready to push further but Vegeta scoffed.

"Are you really willing to lay down and let this happen without standing up for yourself?" Vegeta questioned. Noca snapped to look at the Prince.

"I will not let anything happen, but I think I'm allowed a chance to enjoy my life while I can," Noca said, managing to keep his cool, but he and Vegeta were just glaring at each other. No one else really understood the clear tension between the two, but Noca had already made it clear he just wanted things to stay as they were.

"You need to take action," Vegeta stated.

Noca didn't say anything, he just stared into the middle distance and thought about how much he just wanted to spend time with Pan, enjoying her company, enjoying her love, her body, her touch, everything that made life special, that's all he wanted for the two of them. It was dawning on Noca that something he thought was far in his future was drawing ever nearer, and a panic was washing over him, but he did his best to keep a lid on it.

Vegeta scoffed again and looked away from Noca.

"We should have just kept going with our quest. We have wasted so much time, prancing about in tournaments, battling terrorists in the city, when we should have been out there, training, and doing everything we could to figure this out," Vegeta said, starting to get more and more irate, looking back to Noca again. Noca didn't look at Vegeta. "We should get on a ship and fly out there to meet this threat head on, and attack with everything we have. No more time wasting or dawdling, things need to change."

"That's not a good idea," Talia said, making her sentiment from her first conversation with Vegeta known again. She had knowledge that he didn't, but he was too stubborn to accept that. "We need to prepare and plan. We shouldn't run in blind."

"What do you know?" Vegeta snapped. Talia frowned.

"Kuyato doesn't just have his own power, which is leagues ahead of anything any of us have seen, but he has the army to back him up," Talia explained, hoping Vegeta would see sense. Vegeta made a face that signified disgust.

"She's right," Niku spoke up, defending and backing up Talia. Vegeta scoffed again.

"I didn't ask for the opinion of a Cold Empire soldier," Vegeta said, glaring towards Niku. "If I wanted you to speak, I'd address you."

Niku clenched a fist. Talia looked to Niku. It was the armour he continued to wear, it still resembled that of a Cold Empire soldier, and Vegeta had experience with those.

"As a former member of the Freeza Force yourself, I'm sure you know looks can be deceiving," Niku said, clearly showing that he wasn't intimidated by Vegeta, and he wasn't as dumb as the Prince believed. He was observant, and he recognised Vegeta's armour too. After all, it was adapted from the Freeza armour he used to wear.

Vegeta was clearly intrigued by Niku's confidence to challenge the Prince, even without making it obvious. He stepped towards the larger alien and folded his arms. Niku turned to make sure his whole front was facing Vegeta.

"I'm not one to shy away from a fight, especially against someone with a trail of bodies as long as yours," Niku said. Talia didn't understand what was going and looked between the two. "Tell me, Prince Vegeta, how many innocents have you murdered."

"Don't dare to challenge me unless you know you can back it up, I could wipe you from this world with ease," Vegeta threatened. Niku smirked, but was surprised when a figure stepped towards them, almost trying to get in-between them both.

"I know of your past too," Surto said, glaring at Vegeta. "You murdered a whole village of my people once," Surto added. Vegeta remained ready to fight, but Surto turned to look at Niku. "But I want to fight this threat head-on too. He killed all of my people and I cannot stand idly by and wait for him to hurt anymore innocents."

"Surto, you've seen what he can do, you saw it first-hand," Talia said, stepping up and attempting to plead with Surto, hoping that it could lead to some sort of calm with Vegeta as well. "If we don't prepare properly, we'll all die and then the chances of Kuyato hurting so many more people are greater."

"Let the Namekian make his own decision," Vegeta said, walking over to Talia, with a threatening demeanour. Talia was ready for it and stood strong. She and Vegeta were the same height, so they were glaring directly ahead at each other.

Niku tried to keep them apart by pushing them away from one another, but Vegeta didn't like being touched at all. He whacked Niku's arm away and sent a small pulse of energy in the large alien's chest. Niku stumbled back into the holo-table.

"Lay a hand on me again and I'll remove your head from your body," Vegeta threatened, with his hand still held up, aiming towards the form Cold Empire soldier. Talia threw her right hand to the side and managed to pull a sword out of the air and aimed it towards Vegeta.

"Do it and I'll make sure your head hits the floor at the same time," Talia threatened in return. Vegeta smirked and flashed Super Saiyan in an instant. Surto backed away but held his arms up as if ready to fight. Noca's eyes widened, and he moved over to Vegeta and tried to pull him back, while Niku moved to Talia to try and calm her down too.

"Everyone needs to calm down!" Niku exclaimed. Surto was backing away still, avoiding any conflict, while Talia and Vegeta were clearly wanting to get at each other and fight. Talia was ready with her sword, and Vegeta's aura had just started flaring, but Noca was there trying to talk him down.

"Stop it, Vegeta!" Noca said.

"Killing you would be effortless," Vegeta threatened towards Talia, again. She laughed out loud, sarcastically.

"I'd love to see you try," She teased, hoping to get a chance to cut him.

Standing away from the scene, Dom and Bra were standing together, watching everything unfold. Even AIR-3N had gone over to try and talk to Talia, but he was only making her a little more frustrated as he and Niku held her back. Vegeta just stood his ground with Noca continuing to try and talk him down.

"I have an idea…" Dom muttered.

"Huh?" Bra questioned, turning to her boyfriend.

"I have an idea," he said, louder, looking at Bra. She quickly turned to look at everyone else and stepped forward.

"Hey, everyone, shut up!" she yelled.

Noca and Vegeta immediately looked to Bra and the Saiyan Prince dropped from his powered-up state, back to base level and tried to stay calm. Talia noticed Vegeta's change in demeanour and softened herself, putting the sword away. Niku released a relieved sigh and looked towards the science couple.

"Dom has an idea," Bra said, stepping back and looking at her boyfriend again. Dom smiled weakly and nodded to Bra.

"Thanks, Bra," he said, calmly, and then stepped forward. He cleared his throat. "We should wait."

Vegeta immediately seemed ready to protest.

"Until Kuyato's ship has at least come into range of our Solar System," Dom stated, "There's a certain distance he can get to where our scanners and probes will be able to detect him, without use of the tracker."

"What use will that do?" Vegeta asked. Bra frowned at her father.

"It allows us time to prepare and still catch him off-guard. Instead of arguing about the best plan, why not find a happy medium, this is it," Dom said, finding his confidence in the room and speaking louder. "I'm not the one to think of an actual infiltration tactic, but with a great team and good planning, then maybe we can all figure something out together."

"That's a good idea," Niku said, nodding to Dom. The young scientist nodded back.

"It does give me more time to train," Vegeta said, looking away from the group.

"And it gives you all more time to learn how to work together," Bra said, clearly annoyed with how everything had played out.

"With the improvements we are making to the ships, it has become significantly easier and quicker to travel as far as the edge of this Solar System," AIR-3N explained.

"How long do we have before he gets here?" Noca asked, looking to AIR-3N.

"Right now, it will take approximately fifty of your planet's full rotations for Kuyato's ship to make it within touching distance of this Solar System," AIR-3N explained.

"There," Noca said, looking to Vegeta. "We have plenty of time to prepare and train."

"Fine," Vegeta said, turning away and basically storming out of the ship. Presumably heading right for his GR.

Noca sighed. Bra walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ok?" She asked him. Noca just nodded, but then something crossed his mind and he looked to Bra.

"Do you still have the drone that Vegeta found?" Noca asked. Bra's brow furrowed.

"You mean the one built by King's Systems, the one belonging to the Secret Service?" She asked. Noca nodded. "We should do. Why?"

"We need to think tactics, maybe someone from their team might help," Noca suggested.

"I can always let them know we found some of their tech, and hope that they send someone good to help us?" Bra questioned, shrugging.

"See what you can do, but Bra," Noca said, stopping her before she walked off. She turned back to him, and he looked past her at a yawning Dom. "You two should take a break, for a few days."

"You know, I was thinking the same thing," Bra said, smiling weakly. She turned and took Dom by the arm, walking out of the ship with him.

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