Disclaimer-DBZ isn't mine
Auction
"All hands to bridge," a voice said over the intercom. "All passengers, brace for impact."
Celipa opened her eyes. As a habit, she looked down at Kakarot. He was curled in her arms, asleep. He'd adopted this position over the month they'd been in the hold.
A month. It felt like a year. She looked down at herself as well. She was undernourished. All of the food she was given went straight to her son, and what he couldn't or wouldn't eat was hers. Her joints were stiff and aching from lack of movement. She could see the veins in her wrist and her ribs against her chest. Kakarot was a little healthier, thanks to her sacrifice in giving the food to him.
Kakarot stirred and opened his eyes. "Ohayo gozaimasu [Good Morning], Mama," he said sleepily.
"Kakarot, you must start speaking Earthling now," she said. "We're almost on Earth, and they have to understand you."
"All right," he said, in his Saiyan accent. "Good morning, Mama. Can I still call you Mama?"
"Yes, of course, but without our accent. 'Mama' is a word on Earth, too."
(A/N: I marked 'Mama' and 'Papa' as Saiyan words because, if you watch the second Tenchi movie in Japanese, Mayuka refers to her parents as 'Mama' and 'Papa')
"All right-wing passengers, please rise and wait for orders."
"That's your mother and brother," Bardock said from the left-wing hold.
Turles and Radditz looked up at Bardock. They had been playing with Vegeta, who'd come into the hold with his near-dead father. The king had recovered from his outward injuries but his health wasn't what it should be. Bardock had been in the hospital long enough during his soldier days to know a broken rib cage when he saw one.
Turles and Radditz got up and went to their father. Vegeta wasn't much of a playmate. He barely talked to them at all, which infuriated Turles. Radditz spent his time keeping the peace between them.
"Kakarot and Mama?" Radditz said, trying to cover his Saiyan accent. Bardock had already told the two to start speaking Earthling.
"Yes. Most likely, they'll be separated," Bardock said.
"That's…that's my wife, as well," King Vegeta said from the corner.
Bardock looked at the fallen sovereign. The proud king, a symbol of Vegetasei's strength and endurance, was now reduced to the status of the weak and injured.
"Okaasama will escape," Vegeta said proudly, thinking of the tall, stately queen, the pillar of confidence and compassion.
"Stop referring to her as "okaasama"," King Vegeta said, weak but commanding.
"I'll call her "okaasama" if I want to!" Vegeta shouted.
Radditz and Turles were shocked. They'd never show such disrespect to their parents. Bardock would slap them if they ever shouted at him or their mother.
Bardock shook his head. The king and queen were too soft on the prince. The respectful names Vegeta called them were merely traditional. If Vegeta showed such disrespect to his masters, he'd have the bruises to show for it.
"Listen well, boys," he said. "This goes for you too, prince."
Vegeta, Radditz, and Turles all looked to him with curious eyes.
"Always, always respect your masters. Don't talk back to them or disobey them. One day, when you're stronger, you will be able to take revenge on them for what they've done to us. But until then, obey them. Radditz and Turles, respect and obey them as you would me or your mother. Vegeta, respect them more than you do your parents."
Radditz and Turles nodded gravely. Vegeta folded his arms and tried to look uninterested, but he mentally digested what Bardock had said. He'd have to try it out in the field before he obeyed it.
Celipa, her arms aching from holding her son so much, set him down and took his hand as the door to the hold opened and a male Earthling stood before them.
"Form a line in the hall and proceed to the entrance. Follow the orders of the guards as they direct you were to go."
Celipa and Kakarot fell into place behind several other Saiyans, all of them elderly, injured, female, or young. Kakarot stared at them all with wide eyes. In the dark of the hold, he hadn't been able to see them clearly. Now, as the overhead lights blinded them all, he could see their faces, scared but dignified, as they blended together in a line.
"Kakarot, come," Celipa said, giving his hand a tug. He started moving but kept on looking around.
They took a left to the long, narrow hallway they'd come in on. The woman who'd branded them wasn't there. They turned into the entrance room and walked out the door, down the steel plank, and into trucks.
It was dark as they entered, and darker still when the plank was lifted and fitted in the entrance of the truck. A few rectangle-shaped holes from where planks had fallen off let in the sunlight, but other than that, the fluorescent blue of the restraints were the only light.
Celipa knelt down, a difficult task to do with bodies pushing up against her, and took Kakarot's arm. "Listen well, son," she hissed. "You obey anyone who buys you, like you obey me."
"Will it be like at home?"
"N-no," she said, sorrowed that she had to tell the cold, hard truth to her youngest, weakest child. "Papa and I and Radditz and Turles will probably not be there with you. Your master or mistress will not think of you beyond feeding you, if they even care that much. To them, you are a machine made to obey, and you will be hurt if you disobey. They won't believe that you have feelings. If you find a master who thinks of you as anything more than a robot, you've been blessed. And…"
"…don't push a blessing," Kakarot filled in. That was something Bardock had taught him.
"Good boy. This may be the last order I give you, so listen well. You swear it?"
"I swear it," Kakarot said, with the solemn air of a 6-year-old trying to be an adult.
She could've cried. But she wouldn't cry. Never must anyone know she was afraid, especially not her son. He looked up to her. He looked exactly like his father but he acted like her, with the I-only-fight-when-necessary-and-I-don't-forget-my-family attitude.
There was nothing left for her. She would most likely never see her family again. Vegetasei was thousands of miles across the galaxy. Her freedoms were gone, most likely never to be granted to her again. There was nothing.
Nothing except pride.
She patted his head and straightened up. The truck was coming to a halt.
Kakarot held his mother's hand tightly, looking at everything, taking in every sight and smell. He'd never seen so many Earthlings in one place. Only the stiff, rigid soldiers lived on Vegetasei, not inviting their families with them. Toma—an old friend and comrade-in-arms of Bardock and Celipa's—had often said that they wouldn't be half as cruel if they were reminded that they had children of their own to be tended to.
The air reeked of sweat, weighed down by the heat, and it was filled with the shouts and whispers of the Earthlings: "Mama, I want one!", "How much will that one cost there, I wonder? I need a good maid", "The bidding starts in ten minutes". The Saiyans remained silent with their dignity.
"Line up," someone said. Kakarot was too absorbed in listening to everyone else that he barely heard the female guard speak. But he felt it when a crushing blow came to his head by a steel-toed boot.
His head was screaming, and so was he.
"Shut up, kid!" the guard snarled, and shoved him forward. "Line up!"
"Kakarot, hush," Celipa whispered, giving his hand an affectionate but demanding squeeze. "Just obey."
"Yes, Mama," he said quietly, and kept walking forward.
Seeing him punished sent the crowd into an uproar. There were shouts of "That's the way to do it!", "Poor thing, I wonder why his head wasn't bashed in!", "Ha, ha!", and "It's a sin!" either in laughing or deadly serious tones.
There was a bang, and suddenly everyone was quiet.
"The bidding starts now," the auctioneer said. He stood on a platform in front of a podium, and he held a smoking gun raised towards the sky. He lowered the gun, and the first Saiyan, an elderly woman with a wrinkled, resigned face, was pushed forward. "Here is a woman, too old to run away, but not too old to look after young children. The bidding starts at 100. Do I hear 200?"
"200!"
"250!"
"I hear 250, do I hear 350?"
"400!"
"525!"
"I hear 525, do I hear 600?"
"600!"
"675!"
"I hear 675, do I hear 700?"
The crowd quieted down. No one needed an elderly woman worth more than 675 dollars.
"Going once, going twice, sold! For 675!"
The guards took her by the arm and led her towards the winner, and the next one was brought up.
"Do I hear 100?"
And so it went on for hours. The crowd began to thin out, but many stayed to buy more. Having slaves was a sign of quality, of wealth. The more slaves you had, the higher you were on the social status ladder.
Finally, it was Kakarot's turn. The bidding was finishing up for a teenage girl before him.
"This is good-bye," Celipa whispered. She hugged him. She held onto him for a long moment, then let go. Tears were in her eyes as she kissed his forehead, but she refused to cry.
The guard came forward and grabbed his arm. Kakarot looked like a rabbit caught in a trap, and reached out for her.
"Mama, tasukete [Help]!" he yelled, forgetting to use Earthling.
Celipa watched him go forward with a sick look on her face. She wanted to die. She wanted to die. Life wasn't worth this agony.
~Celipa, don't you dare die on me.~
The sudden telepathic message interrupted her thoughts. ~Bardock? Where are you?~
~Not sure. But they dropped us off somewhere and we're waiting to be sold.~
~Oh, God, Bardock. I want to die.~
Don't die. Stay alive, and we'll get revenge on them.~
~I…I'll stay alive.~
Kakarot was on the block now, looking like he was expecting to get shot.
"A strong worker when he grows, easily trained," the auctioneer said. "Do I hear 100?"
"150!"
"225!"
"I hear 225, do I hear 300?"
"300!"
There was a pause.
"300, do I hear 400?"
The silence was deafening. Kakarot looked at the person who had bid 300 dollars. There was an evil look about him that made chills go up and down his spine.
"Going once…"
"400."
An elderly man had called out. He had a wrinkled face, dressed in the garb of ancient China. He looked at Kakarot with a kind smile, and Kakarot shyly smiled back.
The other man bristled. "500."
"550."
"600."
"1000!"
"1050!"
"Going once, going twice…"
"2000."
The auctioneer looked at the first man. He glared angrily, but he was not willing to part with 2000 dollars for a little slave boy who probably didn't know how to work.
"Going once, going twice, sold! For 2000 dollars."
The elderly man approached the side of the platform as Kakarot was led off. A guard punched the old man in the arm. "Sure you can take on a 6-year-old boy, old timer?"
"I'm sure I can," he replied.
"Here ya go, sir. Enjoy." The guard pushed Kakarot over to him.
Kakarot looked up at the man. "H-hi," Kakarot said, checking his instinct to talk in Saiyan. "I'm Kakarot."
"I'm Gohan." Gohan took Kakarot's hand. "Let's go."
"Wait! I wanna…" He looked backwards at Celipa, who was being brought forth. "Can…can you get Mama?" Kakarot asked, not bothering to cover his accent.
Gohan shook his head. "I'm sorry. I spent all my money on you. I didn't expect you to run so high."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Gohan started walking away, reaching into his pocket. "Say, do you have a nickname?"
"Papa called me "Goku"."
"Why?"
"Because the name means "sky", and he said that's where my head was sometimes."
Gohan laughed as his fingers dug in his pockets. "You sure you want that nickname?"
Kakarot nodded fiercely.
"When the last time you saw your father?"
"I don't know. Not since the day we left Vegetasei."
Gohan finally took from his pocket a small capsule. He pressed a button on top, and then tossed it to the ground. There was a hissing sound, and then, in a puff of smoke, it produced a car.
Kakarot jumped back. "What's that?"
"It's a car." Gohan started walking towards it.
"What's a car?"
"It's a machine I use to get around."
"Does it obey every order you give it?"
"Yes." He was perplexed by the boy's questions.
"What if it doesn't obey you?"
"I take it to get fixed. Or I sell it."
"Does that make it your slave?"
Gohan stopped completely. "What do you mean?"
"Mama said that my master would think of me as a machine made to obey, and I'd be hurt if I didn't obey. That's the same as this car thingy, isn't it?" Kakarot tapped the door.
"No, not exactly."
"What's different?"
"The car doesn't know when it's being fixed. It doesn't have feelings."
"Mama said that my master wouldn't think that I'd have feelings."
Gohan stared at Kakarot. "Goku, the ship you came on…what was it like?"
Kakarot made a face. "The food was yucky, but Mama made me eat it. She didn't eat until I did. I couldn't run around. Mama said that she wanted to see me all the time before we landed. I slept on her lap, and she slept on the floor."
"Before you got to the hold, what was it like? How were you captured?"
"Well, this man came into our house and started a fight with Papa. Mama woke me up, and Turles and Radditz, too. And then this really big man came in and put these on us." Kakarot traced his finger around the restraint. "He slapped Mama, too. Then they took us to this big ship, and this man said that Papa and Radditz and Turles couldn't come with Mama and me. Then a lady put something really hot on my arm and made this." Kakarot stuck out his arm to show the "FX27" branded on it. "It hurt a lot. Then Mama took me to the hold and…I told you what happened."
"Who are Radditz and Turles?"
"Radditz is my big brother. And Turles is my twin."
"When did you last see them?"
"On the ship."
Gohan stared at Kakarot. It had to have been a lot worse than this child's limited vocabulary could describe. "Were these Earthlings nice to you at all?"
Kakarot shook his head. "And they didn't say they were sorry, either." To Kakarot, this was the most important thing.
"Good God," Gohan said, taking Kakarot's hand. "What business are these people engaged in?" He directed Kakarot to the passenger side and opened the door. "Get in here."
Kakarot obeyed, and Gohan shut the door. He got in on the driver's side. In a few minutes, they were driving away.
There! Ain't you glad Kakarot got a nice master? I'll tell you one thing, the other Saiyans aren't going to get off so well. It's just that Kakarot always had the devil's luck.
