Sequel to A New Problem
Chapter 25
The fighters waited tensely for the young Sayian to exit the Palace. It had been well over an hour since Ranmata and Kara had entered to use the Regeneration tank to try and heal the bodies so they would accept the souls. So far there had been no movement in the open doorway. For over an hour, the platform had been silent as the Sayains and Androids sat in waiting. Trunks had almost asked Goten if he had a deck of cards but the look on his father's face stopped him. So they sat, the winds the only comfort.
***
Ranmata gasped in exhaustion as he opened the hatch for the last time and caught the body that fell from it. It was a pretty blue haired woman. Her abdomen was now healed without a scar but her face was chalking white with blue lips. He sighed in regret and moved her to the empty bed. It was covered in blood. Everything was covered in blood. The tables, the floor, the tank, him. Kara too. Sometimes the tank broke down in the middle of a job and he had to open the door and get Kara to hold the bleeding body until he fixed it. The worst was when they didn't bled. Some of them had gaping wounds but no more blood to bleed.
Ranmata slumped on the ground next to Kara. She had her knees tucked under her chin and her arms wrapped around her body. She buried her head on her knees as tears streaked down her face, making tracks in the dried blood. Ranmata placed a hand on her shoulder, offering comfort even though he had none to give. She looked up at him with tear filled, brown eyes and smiled gratefully. She wiped her face, the tears re-energising the blood and streaking it across her face.
"Ok, let's get this over with," she said in a dry, horse voice even though she hadn't sobbed once. Ranmata nodded mutely and stood up. He offered a hand but Kara stood on her own. They took one last look at the still and preserved bodies lying one by one on the cold stone tables that served as a bed. Ranmata pulled out the disk he had taken from Tranculus. Kara held up his black bag filled with electronics and he dug through it until he came up with a palm-sized computer.
"One good things about building those robots," Ranmata tried to smile weakly. "Is that I know exactly how to reverse their effects. This will release their souls into this room. In about half an hour we can only hope they find their bodies. It's going to get strange, are you ready?"
Kara nodded and steeled her face determinedly. Ranmata did the same.
Ranmata opened the device and placed the disk inside. He closed it and pressed the only button on the top. Almost immedently the room grew cold dozens of whispering ghosts left the disk through a tunnel. Some immedently left the room, they were old souls, trapped for years inside their cells, fuelling Tranculus for years. Some of stayed and circled the room for a few minutes before leaving as they didn't find their bodies. A few hovered over the still bodies on the bed before moving on to the next, examining it until they found theirs. Here and there, one of the corpses suddenly took a gasp, then fell still again. A soul had decided it wasn't theirs.
One came right up to Kara, it's faceless features looking at her curiously before trying to penetrate her body. She gasped in pain before the ghost left disappointed. Ranmata slowly reached down and held onto the younger girl's hand. She gripped back.
It could have been minutes or it could have been hours, before the room slowly started to warm again, Kara's skin was white and Ranmata's tail was puffed in cold. Ranmata took the first step cautiously and then nothing happened Kara did too. They went over to the nearest bed. Fearfully, Ranmata placed his fingers on the blonde girls' neck. A pulse rang weakly under her skin. Kara's face split into a huge grin. A spirit had rested there.
They went from body to body. Each was breathing and had a pulse. All the bodies had a spirit in them. And it had to be the right one, Ranmata had told Kara. A wrong spirit can't stay very long in the wrong body. Grins wide and heart light, they left to tell the others the good news.
***
On a freighter, bent over a sink and washing a huge greasy pot, a young girl-like woman scrubbed dutifully. A pile of similar dishes stood on either side of her. The dirty pile and much higher then the clean one. The huge, boss cook took another drag from the burning piece of wood before coughing and leaving the rooms. The girl didn't mind. Her long thin braids were tied back with a thin piece of cloth. She was almost to the place where she needed to be.
She added the newly clean pot into the pile of gleaming dishes and moved on to the next one. Her nose wrinkled as she got a smell of this nights dinner. The water was already brown and had bits of fat floating in it but she sunk the pot in any ways. Her pointed ears were bare and the jewels that were around her neck and arms were off and tucked safely under bunk. Her silk clothes were covered with a stained apron. She couldn't wait to be off this skip. But until then, she worked on.
***
Nabukia shifted on his cold chair, making a mental note to get another pillow for his chair. And some decorations. He could wait until he got to Earth. He didn't want to take it over of course, it was his home and he didn't want to hurt his people. They didn't' do anything. They were innocent. Of course he wasn't going to stay either. It may be home but he didn't want to scare everyone. But he couldn't wait to get some real material things. No one could make a cheeseburger quite like Burger King, or copy Bach as well as CDs could. Paintings in space just didn't have the same atmosphere as they did back home. And it would be nice to see a blue sky again. Yes, he thought to himself. I am going to make me some shore leave this time!