~~~Chapter 9~~

The Miracle Ship

            "I don't care, Kitten - you can't go out and steal the supplies!"

            "Why not Chief?  I'm too fast for them to see unless I slow down!  There's no reason not to."

            "Shut up Kitten!  It isn't your place to question the Chief - if she says no, it means no!" threw in Sassy, annoyance heavily lacing her tone.

            Gohan blinked a few times as he and Dae entered the cave, only to find the others already gathered and arguing like mad.  He exchanged a glance with the other male, then sidled over to the irate Kitten.  He coughed lightly, trying to draw her attention.  "Kitten-san?"

            "What?!" she snapped, turning her vicious glare to him.

            "I, uh… I wanted to show you my ship - you can't go out stealing if you want to see my ship…" Gohan shifted his weight from side to side, avoiding Kitten's eyes.  He caught Hali's though, and she seemed very relieved at his interruption.

            "An excellent idea Gohan.  Kitten, you go look at his ship while I go buy supplies.  That's an order."

            It was with much grumbling that Kitten followed him back out to open ground, but come she did.  Hali took off with Xe and the Twins towards the nearest village, while the remaining three stood beneath the wavering light of the red sun.  Gohan already had his capsule in his hand, having found no pockets in Dae's pants, and not wanting to leave it with his old gi.

            "Alright, stand back."  He tossed it gently to the ground where it uncapsulized into his ship with a soft 'poi'.  Smiling proudly, he walked up the ramp, turning to look behind him when he reached the door.  The other two, for all that they knew what to expect, looked just a little shell-shocked - they were still standing there, staring up at the ship. 

"Oh come on - I'm sure you've seen more advanced technology than just this little capsule!  It's not that amazing…" He grinned down at them as they shook off their stupor and headed up the ramp to join him at the door.

"Now what?" Kitten asked the boy eagerly. "Will you take us inside?"              

"Sure."  He replied easily, fingers flying over the keypad as he typed in the code.  "You can have a look around, if you'd like.  It's not nearly as big as your ship, but it was plenty big for just me."

He led them into a short hallway, then through a swift tour of the entire ship.  Kitten was amazed at every turn - this ship was… incredible!  It was a blend of technology so advanced, creative, and esoteric that she'd never have thought of it herself, and technology so old that it belonged in a museum.  And yet, the boy assured her, on his home planet this was all cutting edge, though some of the more advanced stuff hadn't hit the markets yet.  His society must be utterly fascinating…

"Ah!" cried the boy, jolting her out of her thoughts. "Here they are.  I was wondering what had happened to them…" He had pulled a small black case out of a drawer filled with sickeningly bright orange gis, and was belting it to his waist with the attached cord.

"What is it?"  Kitten inquired, full of curiosity.

The child grinned at her and patted the black box possessively.  "This is the capsule case that belonged to my father.  It has just about everything that's important to me in it."

            She nodded and returned to looking around the ship, confident that she'd find out more about the contents later.  Walking slowly around the room, she stopped at the huge plasma screen TV.  She touched it lightly with her fingertips, as if terrified it would crumble to dust beneath her fingers.

            "Kais… I haven't seen one of these things since I was researching the wonders of the ancient universe!  This is in such beautiful condition, too…"

            The kid was looking at her funny, as if she'd just grown two heads.  "Seriously?" came the skeptical question as he walked over to join her.  "These things are so new on Chikuu-sei that they cost an arm and a leg to purchase.  They'd hit the market just three weeks before I left…"

            It was Kitten's turn to gaze at the boy dubiously.  "You mean to tell me that these are brand new, but the capsule things have been around for over 20 years?"

            "Yeah."  He shrugged his indifference, watching her to gauge her reaction.

            "Wow!  Hey Kitten!  Get in here!" came an excited and unexpected shout from a room down the hall.  Curious, Kitten rushed towards Dae's voice, a rather anxious Gohan trailing behind.  What could possibly make even Dae excited?  He wasn't into technology as much as she was, but he knew a lot about it anyway…

            "Have you ever seen anything like it?" cried Dae, excitement permeating his entire being.  "The sheer genius of it!  Who would've thought?"

            "…wow… Dear Kais!  This, this is incredible!  My god!"  The sheer ingenuity of the small object stole the teen's breath.  Who ever who'd have thought of something like this?  Awe shining from her face she turned to Gohan and held out the object with reverence.  "Gohan…  What do you call this incredible piece of technology?"

            Gohan had been amused at the way Kitten was exclaiming over the objects in his ship, labeling some of them with altogether different labels than what he would've used.  When Dae had called them into another room, Gohan had been more than a bit worried.  It was just pure luck that nothing had been broken or ruined yet…  What could Dae-san have gotten in to?

            He listened to the whispered, reverent conversation between the two mercs with growing curiosity, and struggled to crane his neck to see around Kitten. 

            "Gohan… what do you call this splitting edge piece of technology?"  The awe-filled Kitten turned towards him, carefully holding out the object toward him as if it were made of glass.

            Gohan sweatdropped heavily and face vaulted.  It took a moment for him to recover… 

"Guys, that's a toaster.  They've been around since before my great grandmother walked the earth."

Lexi: *grins proudly* the toaster idea was mine! LoL – I was going to have Gohan say "since dinosaurs roamed the earth," but this is dbz…

Kat: *laughs* Hope you guys liked this chapter!  I'm sorry they've been so short, but we're hoping that the fairly regular put out date helps… *sweatdrops* 

Lexi: *busily reading through reviews* gah!  So many anti-Videlists out there! @_@ Kitty-chan, they say they wont read our story if we stick Videl in it!

Kat: *gapes* nani?

Lexi: *nods* isn't it terrible?  And we try so hard!

Kat: *sighs* look guys, let's make a deal – it isn't a sure thing that Videl will come into the story since we haven't gotten that far – but I can promise with confidence that there will be at least 20 Videl-free chapters.

Lexi: *is crying in the corner* they hate our story so much that one minor plot device will make them stop reading!  Oh woe is me for agreeing to devote my time to an unappreciated story…

Kat: Unappreciated?  Lexi-chan – we just broke a hundred reviews!

Lexi: *perks up* kewl!  Thanks guys! ^____^