Hello all!
Well, here's the next chapter and I still don't own Dragonball Z, and am not making a flat penny off this fanfic! So, don't sue me!! Please read and enjoy, review.
Vegeta yawned and stretched in the pilot's seat when the ship's computer started its pre-flight report. "All systems nominal, Life support and gravity within Earth normal specifications, Fuel temperature within design parameters.." As the computer spat out the rest of it's technical data, Vegeta couldn't help but be a little weirded-out by the fact that the ship's computer "voice" was Bulma's. Of course, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't provoke the computer Bulma into a good argument, Vegeta thought wryly. The computer ended its technical rant by reporting that there was 30 minutes to launch time. About that time Roger poked his head into the cabin.
"Mr. Vegeta?" Roger began.
"Yes Roger?" Vegeta replied
"All of the supplies have been stored. Your toiletries are all in the forward bathroom facility for your convenience. All your food is in the lower floor galley."
The ES-19PX has two main floors, the upper for the evacuees, and the lower for the galley, infirmary, and various other support offices. There are, in total three floors, the lower most was to be used to store plants and animals indigenous to Earth, if that need ever arose. That floor was never fully developed.
"Thank you Roger, you've done a good job and I want you to know that I have it on good authority that President Trunks thinks VERY highly of you"
Once again Roger couldn't help but be taken by surprise by Vegeta's unexpected and certainly uncharacteristic show of courtesy towards him. "Thank you sir!"
"After I leave, I want you to go and see Trunks and tell him I said that you should be in line for a bonus, or promotion, or whatever it is that humans do in such cases." Vegeta said.
(*humans?*) Roger thought. "Thank you sir, I will do that as soon as I return."
"Return? Return from where Roger?" Vegeta asked curiously.
"Why New Namek of course." Roger stated flatly.
"WHAT! NO WAY! Do you have any idea how dangerous this trip could get? I'll NOT have some human getting in the way in case of trouble! Does Trunks know about this!" Vegeta stormed.
"Actually, he was the one that asked me to go, sir." Roger explained.
"WHAT?? WHY??" Vegeta asked reduced to monosyllables.
"He gave two reasons sir, the first was to see to your needs during the trip, cooking, cleaning, the usual stuff."
"And the second?" Vegeta inquired
"Let's see, how should I put this? I'll just quote President Trunks directly. "To make sure that old baka activates the return program and sends that ship back to Capsule Corporation!" He said I would just ride back with the ship after dropping you off on New Namek."
"Didn't he tell you how dangerous it can be travelling in space?" Vegeta asked. "If anyone knows Trunks should", Vegeta thought.
"Yes sir, he did. Which comes to my own personal reasons for wanting to go. As you know sir, I have been going to school and/or working most of my life. I have been planning a vacation or a break of some kind for quite a while. The problem is, I'm not exactly a Disney World, or Cancun kind of guy. I've been looking for something that has the taste of some real adventure!"
Vegeta thought for a long moment. "It sure would be nice to have the cooking and other routine chores done. It would give me more time to train. This should just be a routine flight there and back. Shit, look at this guy looking at me like a hound waiting for a favored bone. How can I say no to that?"
"OK Roger, you can come. With a few conditions." Vegeta finally relented.
"Sure, name them!"
"One, unless it's a dire emergency, never, ever disturb my training! Two, if we get into trouble, and at my judgement, I get to stuff you in an escape pod and jettison you back to Earth with no argument from you!" Which brings me to Three, I am in command, no ifs ands or buts about it. Is all that clearly understood?"
"Yes sir!" Roger returned sharply
"Good!" Vegeta smirked. Vegeta's estimation of Roger went up considerably. It's not every human with the brass required to go off on some possibly wild adventure into what, to them, is a complete unknown. The guy might have made a damned decent Saiyan. "Hmmm.. Maybe I'll give him some time in the Gravity Room." Vegeta chuckled.
"Ok Roger, we have about 10 more minutes before this thing flies. Let's see if we can go through this preflight inspection one more time." Vegeta ordered.
"You got it sir!" Roger replied.
9 minutes later, the inspection complete, Vegeta had the ship raised through the sub-lab hangar roof onto the launch pad with the anti-gravs.
"Launch area enabled, all moorings and umbilicals released, Navigational Systems online, Life Support Online, Communications Online, Hyperdrive on Standby, Plasma Engines Online", Computer-Bulma reported.
"Yes dear!" Vegeta answered wryly.
Roger gave Vegeta a, "What does that mean" look.
"The ships computer is programmed to use my wife's voice." Vegeta smiled. Roger couldn't suppress a grin.
"T -30 seconds and counting", Computer-Bulma reported.
"Ok Roger, strap in to your seat." Vegeta warned.
"Got it!" Roger replied.
Vegeta got that excited flutter in his stomach, one that he hadn't felt in years, one that he used to get every time he went into space, the feeling of something new and different. Of course, the feeling now was for far different reasons than they once were. Once, the feeling was associated with just being able to get away from Frieza, even if it was just a few days. So although Vegeta hated serving Frieza, accepting the planet purging assignments was the only way to have even small amounts of peace. A wave of guilt passes through Vegeta's small frame at the thought of what he had done prior to his new life on Earth. Vegeta had been having short but powerful attacks of guilt for quite some time. Recurring nightmares also plagued him periodically. Sometimes, if one of these attacks were strong, Vegeta would see the faces of his previous victims.
"T -10, 9, 8" Computer-Bulma counted down.
Vegeta shook himself back to the task at hand. "Ok Roger! Here we go!"
"Yahoo!!!" Roger wailed.
"..3, 2, 1, Plasma ignition, launch commencing"
Vegeta and Roger felt their stomachs take a sudden lurch as the great ship lurched into the sky.
People in Satan City turned to look up as the massive vessel caused a mini- eclipse of the evening sun. Some windows shattered in the neighboring blocks due to the tremendous sound of the engines.
Vegeta was once again in his element, and was enjoying every second. Roger, on the other hand, wasn't quite so certain as the g's forced him down into his chair.
Suddenly, the ship reached orbit, and the force driving his spine to the floor stopped, then reversed as he became weightless.
"High orbit obtained." Bulma-Computer reported. "Beginning initial planetary orbit, will begin calculations for hyperdrive travel to New Namek. Calculations will be completed in one Earth Standard Hour.
"Now what?" Roger asked.
"Now we wait for a bit." Vegeta declared.
Approximately 13 minutes later, the ES-19PX had completed one orbit when the entire pilothouse lit up and several klaxton alarms sounded.
"Alert! Alert! Ship is under attack from several sources!" Bulma- Computer reported.
"Wha?!?! We haven't even left orbit yet!!"
Vegeta was busy on the sensor screen. "This is a Ki attack, and it's coming from Earth!"
Roger was in a bit of a panic. "What's going on?"
Vegeta opened the port side window and looked out. There, coming from what appeared to be more than a dozen points on Earth, was various ki blasts, heading directly towards the ship. The blasts came closer, and closer, and Vegeta began to be able to sense the more powerful blasts. That one is Gohan's, one from Trunks Jr., Trunks, Goten, Bra, Pan, Tien, Yamucha, and they were joined by several weaker blasts that Vegeta could only guess at.
"Why the hell are they firing at us?" Vegeta demanded.
"I-I don't know!" Roger stammered. "Who's they?"
As Vegeta watched, all of the small ki blasts joined into one large ki ball, headed right for them.
"Shit! What are they trying to do? I wanted to die in battle, not sitting on a big ass hunk of metal in space! I hope that the hull of this ship is as strong as they said it was!"
When the ki-ball was within five miles of striking the ship, it exploded in a huge golden fire. When the initial glow subsided, there, in letters the size of a medium sized US State, was spelled out.
"Goodbye Prince Vegeta"
Well, here's the next chapter and I still don't own Dragonball Z, and am not making a flat penny off this fanfic! So, don't sue me!! Please read and enjoy, review.
Vegeta yawned and stretched in the pilot's seat when the ship's computer started its pre-flight report. "All systems nominal, Life support and gravity within Earth normal specifications, Fuel temperature within design parameters.." As the computer spat out the rest of it's technical data, Vegeta couldn't help but be a little weirded-out by the fact that the ship's computer "voice" was Bulma's. Of course, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't provoke the computer Bulma into a good argument, Vegeta thought wryly. The computer ended its technical rant by reporting that there was 30 minutes to launch time. About that time Roger poked his head into the cabin.
"Mr. Vegeta?" Roger began.
"Yes Roger?" Vegeta replied
"All of the supplies have been stored. Your toiletries are all in the forward bathroom facility for your convenience. All your food is in the lower floor galley."
The ES-19PX has two main floors, the upper for the evacuees, and the lower for the galley, infirmary, and various other support offices. There are, in total three floors, the lower most was to be used to store plants and animals indigenous to Earth, if that need ever arose. That floor was never fully developed.
"Thank you Roger, you've done a good job and I want you to know that I have it on good authority that President Trunks thinks VERY highly of you"
Once again Roger couldn't help but be taken by surprise by Vegeta's unexpected and certainly uncharacteristic show of courtesy towards him. "Thank you sir!"
"After I leave, I want you to go and see Trunks and tell him I said that you should be in line for a bonus, or promotion, or whatever it is that humans do in such cases." Vegeta said.
(*humans?*) Roger thought. "Thank you sir, I will do that as soon as I return."
"Return? Return from where Roger?" Vegeta asked curiously.
"Why New Namek of course." Roger stated flatly.
"WHAT! NO WAY! Do you have any idea how dangerous this trip could get? I'll NOT have some human getting in the way in case of trouble! Does Trunks know about this!" Vegeta stormed.
"Actually, he was the one that asked me to go, sir." Roger explained.
"WHAT?? WHY??" Vegeta asked reduced to monosyllables.
"He gave two reasons sir, the first was to see to your needs during the trip, cooking, cleaning, the usual stuff."
"And the second?" Vegeta inquired
"Let's see, how should I put this? I'll just quote President Trunks directly. "To make sure that old baka activates the return program and sends that ship back to Capsule Corporation!" He said I would just ride back with the ship after dropping you off on New Namek."
"Didn't he tell you how dangerous it can be travelling in space?" Vegeta asked. "If anyone knows Trunks should", Vegeta thought.
"Yes sir, he did. Which comes to my own personal reasons for wanting to go. As you know sir, I have been going to school and/or working most of my life. I have been planning a vacation or a break of some kind for quite a while. The problem is, I'm not exactly a Disney World, or Cancun kind of guy. I've been looking for something that has the taste of some real adventure!"
Vegeta thought for a long moment. "It sure would be nice to have the cooking and other routine chores done. It would give me more time to train. This should just be a routine flight there and back. Shit, look at this guy looking at me like a hound waiting for a favored bone. How can I say no to that?"
"OK Roger, you can come. With a few conditions." Vegeta finally relented.
"Sure, name them!"
"One, unless it's a dire emergency, never, ever disturb my training! Two, if we get into trouble, and at my judgement, I get to stuff you in an escape pod and jettison you back to Earth with no argument from you!" Which brings me to Three, I am in command, no ifs ands or buts about it. Is all that clearly understood?"
"Yes sir!" Roger returned sharply
"Good!" Vegeta smirked. Vegeta's estimation of Roger went up considerably. It's not every human with the brass required to go off on some possibly wild adventure into what, to them, is a complete unknown. The guy might have made a damned decent Saiyan. "Hmmm.. Maybe I'll give him some time in the Gravity Room." Vegeta chuckled.
"Ok Roger, we have about 10 more minutes before this thing flies. Let's see if we can go through this preflight inspection one more time." Vegeta ordered.
"You got it sir!" Roger replied.
9 minutes later, the inspection complete, Vegeta had the ship raised through the sub-lab hangar roof onto the launch pad with the anti-gravs.
"Launch area enabled, all moorings and umbilicals released, Navigational Systems online, Life Support Online, Communications Online, Hyperdrive on Standby, Plasma Engines Online", Computer-Bulma reported.
"Yes dear!" Vegeta answered wryly.
Roger gave Vegeta a, "What does that mean" look.
"The ships computer is programmed to use my wife's voice." Vegeta smiled. Roger couldn't suppress a grin.
"T -30 seconds and counting", Computer-Bulma reported.
"Ok Roger, strap in to your seat." Vegeta warned.
"Got it!" Roger replied.
Vegeta got that excited flutter in his stomach, one that he hadn't felt in years, one that he used to get every time he went into space, the feeling of something new and different. Of course, the feeling now was for far different reasons than they once were. Once, the feeling was associated with just being able to get away from Frieza, even if it was just a few days. So although Vegeta hated serving Frieza, accepting the planet purging assignments was the only way to have even small amounts of peace. A wave of guilt passes through Vegeta's small frame at the thought of what he had done prior to his new life on Earth. Vegeta had been having short but powerful attacks of guilt for quite some time. Recurring nightmares also plagued him periodically. Sometimes, if one of these attacks were strong, Vegeta would see the faces of his previous victims.
"T -10, 9, 8" Computer-Bulma counted down.
Vegeta shook himself back to the task at hand. "Ok Roger! Here we go!"
"Yahoo!!!" Roger wailed.
"..3, 2, 1, Plasma ignition, launch commencing"
Vegeta and Roger felt their stomachs take a sudden lurch as the great ship lurched into the sky.
People in Satan City turned to look up as the massive vessel caused a mini- eclipse of the evening sun. Some windows shattered in the neighboring blocks due to the tremendous sound of the engines.
Vegeta was once again in his element, and was enjoying every second. Roger, on the other hand, wasn't quite so certain as the g's forced him down into his chair.
Suddenly, the ship reached orbit, and the force driving his spine to the floor stopped, then reversed as he became weightless.
"High orbit obtained." Bulma-Computer reported. "Beginning initial planetary orbit, will begin calculations for hyperdrive travel to New Namek. Calculations will be completed in one Earth Standard Hour.
"Now what?" Roger asked.
"Now we wait for a bit." Vegeta declared.
Approximately 13 minutes later, the ES-19PX had completed one orbit when the entire pilothouse lit up and several klaxton alarms sounded.
"Alert! Alert! Ship is under attack from several sources!" Bulma- Computer reported.
"Wha?!?! We haven't even left orbit yet!!"
Vegeta was busy on the sensor screen. "This is a Ki attack, and it's coming from Earth!"
Roger was in a bit of a panic. "What's going on?"
Vegeta opened the port side window and looked out. There, coming from what appeared to be more than a dozen points on Earth, was various ki blasts, heading directly towards the ship. The blasts came closer, and closer, and Vegeta began to be able to sense the more powerful blasts. That one is Gohan's, one from Trunks Jr., Trunks, Goten, Bra, Pan, Tien, Yamucha, and they were joined by several weaker blasts that Vegeta could only guess at.
"Why the hell are they firing at us?" Vegeta demanded.
"I-I don't know!" Roger stammered. "Who's they?"
As Vegeta watched, all of the small ki blasts joined into one large ki ball, headed right for them.
"Shit! What are they trying to do? I wanted to die in battle, not sitting on a big ass hunk of metal in space! I hope that the hull of this ship is as strong as they said it was!"
When the ki-ball was within five miles of striking the ship, it exploded in a huge golden fire. When the initial glow subsided, there, in letters the size of a medium sized US State, was spelled out.
"Goodbye Prince Vegeta"