Chapter 2: A Long Journey
Surprisingly for Gohan, it's Trunks who wakes up first. Gohan wouldn't have realized this if Trunks hadn't immediately rushed into the training room. Gohan guesses he can still sense.
"Gohan?" Trunks says.
"Trunks! You're awake!" Gohan rushes over and hugs the preteen. Trunks shoves Gohan away with surprising strength. The first thing that occurs to Gohan is that the programming progressed further than they thought, but he quickly dismisses the thought upon seeing the panic in Trunks' eyes and the rapid rise and fall of the boy's chest. "Trunks?"
Trunks seems to snap back to reality at the sound of Gohan's voice. "D-don't... touch," Trunks chokes out. "Bad... memories."
Concern for Trunks fills Gohan's mind. "Trunks... what did they DO to you...?"
Instead of answering, Trunks turns away, walks into the kitchen, and begins preparing some food. Gohan follows him, still concerned, but is interrupted when Goten's ki starts to stir. Gohan decides that Goten is probably very upset with him, so instead of going to check on him, he begins helping Trunks cook.
However, it doesn't take long for Goten to find them, and the already-high tension is multiplied tenfold. Goten glares at Gohan.
"You left her," he says. Trunks looks at Gohan, unsure of what Goten's referring to. "He left Bulma! She was hurt, and he left her!"
"She was already dead, Goten," Gohan replied sadly. "I had no choice."
"What happened?!" Trunks shouts. Gohan and Goten both remain uncomfortably silent. Trunks flicks his tail around out of stress, causing the brothers' attention to be drawn to it.
"When did THAT happen?" Goten blurts out, pointing at Trunks' tail.
"By accident," Trunks responds. He doesn't elaborate. Neither Goten nor Gohan presses the issue. The three half-Saiyans spend the rest of the day eating and training in silence.
The following morning, Goten fills in Trunks on what he missed in the week he was unconscious. The emotional wreckage that comprises the crew of the CCS Icarus only grows after that. Following Goten's report, Trunks understands Gohan's reasons for leaving Earth. Who knows what would have happened to the three of them if they had stayed? If they weren't welcome, then what was left for them there? Everyone the trio cared about had died.
While Goten worked in the art studio (Gohan had been working on the ship for a LONG TIME), Gohan and Trunks headed to the navigational center, where Gohan had input the coordinates for Namek, which had blown up a long time ago. They were the only interplanetary coordinates Gohan knew, and they'd needed to leave as fast as possible, so he input those instead of searching the multitude of planetary databases Capsule Corp had access to.
Speaking of those databases, Gohan was currently trying to pick one to search. There was Capsule Corp's database, the Galactic Patrol database, the Frieza Force database (Bulma was bored one day and hacked into it), and something called the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Trunks opened a panel on his arm without saying a word, pulled a wire out, and plugged it into the ship's console. A new database popped up. The Red Ribbon Army database.
Before Gohan could react, Trunks' eyes turned a brighter blue than usual, and the computer started scrolling through every database it had access to before coming up with a list of planets. Trunks then unplugged himself from the computer. "Useful, huh?" Trunks smiled. Gohan nodded, speechless.
Trunks is particularly interested in a massive planet, the largest in the universe, simply called the "Physics-Defying Planet." With a diameter of 9 lightdays (AN: seriously, at the end of the Sabody Arc in One Piece, it took Luffy three days traveling at light speed to travel across a third of the planet), by all accounts, it doesn't make sense that this planet exists.
Because of Trunks' curiosity, the planet appeared on the list of worlds with similar conditions to Earth. Being the nearest, the computer sets its autopilot to the Physics-Defying Planet. However, Gohan and Trunks don't notice this because, at that moment, an explosion rocks the ship.
Goten, Gohan, and Trunks all rush to the bridge, where a ship marked with what looks like an upside-down pine tree with a blue circle in the middle is firing at them. Gohan, thinking quickly, opens communications.
A turquoise humanoid alien with short blond hair curled to the left, almost like Trunks' hair, appears on the screen. He stops firing at the sight of Gohan.
"Whaht?! A Saiyan?! Eempahsseeble! Lahrd Coolair's brahthair wiped zem out!" the alien cried.
"Lord Cooler? Who's that?" Goten asked. "And didn't Freezer kill most of the Saiyans?"
"Frieza must hahve meessed sahme, I suppahse. Ahh, well! Eet aht least gives me ahn excuse to fire aht your sheep!" the alien responded.
Gohan decided he was done with this idiotic conversation and accelerated into hyperspeed, which would deliver them to whatever planet the computer had selected in a matter of minutes. They would be there, wherever there was, soon.