The tank hummed away in the lab in Capsule Corp. One small
crew had set about the task of cleaning it up enough so that all the components
could clearly be seen, then Bulma had done some work with it herself. She
even managed to put a translator on it so she could figure out more about
it.
She found that she had been right. It was a suspended
animation tank, and by the information in the tank's logs, the Saiya-jin
female had been in there for a little over 30 years. Bulma wondered if
the girl had ever, even once, woke up and found herself in that liquid
filled tank. . . though from inside, she thought it probably looked more
like a coffin.
You're being morbid, Bulma thought, and turned back
to the regeneration tank.
It stood along one wall, and looked much like a
Saiya-jin regeneration tank, though bigger. There was a panel for controls
to one side, and monitors for everything; heart rate, breathing, oxygen
levels, brain waves, everything she could think of. The front of the actual
tank was made of thick layers of supposedly shatter proof glass (though
it had never been tested against a Saiya-jin), and to either side of the
tank stood metal air tanks. There was a drain in the bottom of the tank,
and a sliding metal disk panel that would slide over to cover it when the
tank was actually in use. Inside was an oxygen mask. . . and restraints.
Trunks was supposed to be there in a minute. He
wanted to be there to help move the girl, and to make sure she didn't wake
up blasting. Bulma fingered the little bottle of fluid she held nervously.
All she had to do was give the girl an injection of it. First, though,
they had to get her out. It didn't seem like a big deal in theory, so why
was it making her so nervous?
Her son walked in a minute later, and looked at
the girl in the tank for a second before asking, "Ready?"
"As ready as I'm going to be," she said, and went
to the controls. She drained the fluid from the tank first, and Trunks
opened the door. The girl didn't stir at all; she slid down a little without
the support of the fluid, and looked quite dead. Bulma carefully removed
the tube from her nose and gave her an injection of the drug that was supposed
to revive her. Then they waited.
The girl finally stirred a little. She gave a little
groan, her eyelids fluttered, and the hole in her middle started to ooze
blood. Nothing else, then. "Let's get her in the other tank," Bulma said.
Trunks nodded and picked the girl up, then carried her over the tank where
Bulma waited to hook her up to the equipment.
Soon the girl was suspended in the fluid filled
tank. She still hadn't opened her eyes or given any real signs of being
conscious, but she was breathing well (or as well as she could with a hole
through her stomach), and her pulse was strong. The regeneration tank hummed
softly as it did its work, but otherwise there was no sound. Bulma and
Trunks stood still, watching it for a moment before Bulma noticed
something.
"Hey. . .What is that?" Bulma took a step closer
to the tank, peering into it. The light sparked and danced on something
on a chain around the girl's neck. A crystal or a gem? It wavered now and
again in the fluid as the girl drew breath, but Bulma could see the basic
shape. It was tapered from the top and pointed on one end, and crystal
clear, but something in the way it caught the light made it shine many
different colors, never the same color twice. It was beautiful, and the
only really fine looking thing the girl wore. Funny, she wouldn't have
thought to find a Saiya-jin wearing something pretty like that. She hadn't
thought it would fit in in the rough and tumble world of the Saiya-jin
race.
"How long do you think it will take?" Trunks asked.
"I don't know. Maybe a few days, maybe a week or
more. I really don't have any way of telling right now." Bulma stepped
back and looked at the girl for a moment. "I just hope she isn't hostile
when she wakes up."
"Me either."
