Chapter thirteen - Conspiracy Theory

Otherworld:

They'd been flying non stop for the last fifteen hours. Bardock had taken them a good distance on his own flying for about nine hours, then Goku took over. Now they were resting on one of Snake Way's down slopes wondering just how much farther it would be. "Man, that ogre wasn't kidding, this thing is long." Goku said sitting up and looking off into the distance. He couldn't see anything but gold clouds and Snake Way itself. No sign of King Kai's planet.

"Yeah... sure is. We have to have gone at least seven thousand miles already... just how long is this thing?"

Suddenly they heard a honking sound behind them. Turning they saw a small red machine that seemed to be cleaning Snake Way. "Excuse me sirs, but I need to get through here."

"Who are you?" Goku asked the ogre at the machines controls.

"I'm the caretaker of Snake Way, I see to it that it stays in one piece and that it stays clean."

"Well, um, we were wondering something. Just how long is Snake Way?"

The blue ogre thought for a moment. "Well, let's see.... I do 35 miles an hour.... it takes me about... Hmmm... 425 years, give or take about ten I think..." While the ogre did his mental math Goku and Bardock stared at him in shock.... Over 400 years! "Ah, I'd say just about eleven million miles." the ogre said at last.

"E... Eleven..." Goku stuttered.

"Mil... Million." Stuttered Bardock.

The ogre nodded. "About that. How long have you guys been on Snake Way?"

"About fifteen hours or so." Bardock said calmly, but he was still wondering just how long it would take them to reach the end of Snake Way.

"Fifteen hours?" the ogre asked confused. "You're this far in only fifteen hours? It takes me almost nine days to get this far. You guys are fast."

"So um, how long do you think it'll take us to get to the end?" Goku asked.

The ogre took on a thoughtful expression again. "Let's see... about fifteen hours to cover around seventy five hundred miles... that's about.... Hm... I'd say it should take you just around three months if you don't take to many rests."

"Well..." Bardock began. "Three months isn't to bad. Gives us nine months to train at least."

"Nine months?" the ogre asked. "You planning on going somewhere else in a year?"

"Back to Earth." Goku said with a big smile. "My friends are going to bring us back to life in a year." The ogre just blinked at him a few times. "Well, if it's going to take that long we'd better get going again." Bardock nodded and climbed back onto Goku's back, he still had another three hours of flying before they switched again. In a flash the two were in the air and speeding down Snake Way again.

Planet Vegeta:

Raditz tossed the small computer down on the desk before him. He didn't much like desk jobs and paper pushing but this was one assignment he was fine with. The King had appointed him to run an investigation into what Napa had told him about someone out to bring down all four empires. Raditz rubbed his forehead. The concept wasn't a nice thing to stare in the face, someone like this would have to be strong, strong enough to stand up to one of the rulers in a one on one match at the lest. That's where rumors and legends came into play.

At the moment that's what he was looking at. A fringe planet within Sai-jin space but at the edge of the galaxy had one of these rumors and legends. According to the world's people they'd been met be a being of incredible power and told not to accept a Sai-jin alliance. The descriptions of this being, only twenty years old, were all identical and of a unknown race. Short, about four to four and a half foot tall. Deep blue skin, orange horns on his head, and pink hair. He wasn't sure just how powerful a 'being of incredible power' would be when you considered the planet's populace. The strongest was only a hundred and seven, and he'd been training for over fifty decades.

So far there wasn't much to go on. He wasn't going to complain though, this was an important assignment that gave him a high status among his people. Most didn't know what he was doing, only that it was classified, and that he had the power to order teams out to planets with any orders he deemed necessary. He'd already sent out three teams, only one of them had returned yet, and he'd gone on a short distance trip himself with two other soldiers.

/And that could have gone better./ he thought with a frown. They'd landed on the planet, one within the neutral territory between the Sai-jin empire and Frieza's empire. Scout missions over the last few years had averaged the people at about 12 and the strongest reading had been 762. So, when word came to him of possible information there he felt like going himself to get out of the stuffy office he'd been given.

He picked two Third Class Soldiers at about his same level and they departed. However, when they got there, their Scouters had picked up three powers much higher than expected. One at 1,303 that wouldn't prove a challenge to any of the them. Another at 1,567 that had the potential to cause problems. And finally one at 2,109 that was stronger than one of his soldiers and close to him and the other he had with him.

The battle had been fairly easy against the first two but that second warrior had been relentless. The weakest of the two he'd taken had been killed while he and the other had suffered severe injuries. He'd just come from the regen tank three hours ago, the other man was still healing and would be for another six to seven hours. /Though I can't complain about the power increase./ Raditz thought with a smile replacing his frown. /After all, going from 2,193 to 5,323, which makes me a Second Class Soldier at last, is a pretty good increase./

Raditz leaned forward and picked up the PDA again and scrolled through to the report King Vegeta had given him. According to this the King estimated Nappa as being about as strong as Frieza, which made no sense. The last time Nappa's power had been tested he'd only been at 301,267. An increase that drastic was... unheard of. Of course the general belief among the people varied down three sides. One said that King Vegeta had gone easy on Nappa and let the large man think he was wining. The second said that King Vegeta had grown to complacent and slacked off on his training to much and grown weaker. The third claimed Nappa had been a Super Sai-jin.

King Vegeta had dismissed that idea quickly enough, Nappa looked the same as always, he'd not transformed into anything. Raditz agreed with K. Vegeta on that. Nappa had been the same as always, only far stronger. No, the reason lay elsewhere. Possibly in what Nappa had told the King. Unlimited power. Someone had done something to make him stronger. One possibility had been ruled out, enhancer rings. Those overloaded once you surpassed 100,000. Apparently they couldn't process that much energy. No, this was done somehow else, and it wasn't natural. And now Prince Vegeta had taken a space ship and gone who knows where to vent some of his anger...

He closed his eyes and leaned back. /Wish I knew what had happened on Earth but no one is allowed to go there for now. I just wish we could communicate with someone down there without worrying if Frieza would intercept it and wipe out the planet with our people still on world./ Sighing he looked back down at his PDA and got back to work.

Earth:

Hotaru stood at the edge of the lookout watching the world below. She'd been so lost in thought she'd not sensed Yamcha walk up beside her. For a moment the two just stood there watching the clouds move and the sun begin to rise. "What is your world like?" he asked at last.

Hotaru was quiet for a moment. "I've only ever seen our race's birth world in pictures and movies. I wasn't born there but it was beautiful. We had two brilliant suns that rose and set in unison, an amazing rose colored sky, clear water... it was like a paradise.

"Our new world is much like our old one, and a little like this world. They sky is a light pink except at noon when it turns a brilliant blue, and has only one sun. Our homes are built to be one with the land. Some of our largest cities spread for miles among tree tops. A number of worlds have mistaken us for a primitive civilization but we're far from it, it's just the way we choose to live. It's not our world... but it's home."

Yamcha glanced over at her. He'd not expected her to be so open, he just thought he might try. She hadn't said much the day before, except when arguing with Vadora. He looked behind him and saw Bulma and the others emerge from the palace ready to begin their attempt to take the Dragonball within the old Red Ribbon base. He didn't notice Bulma's glare when she saw him standing beside Hotaru.

Deep Space:

The large saucer ship floated above Planet Rosu carrying only a small number of soldiers. Vegeta hadn't bothered to assemble an army and merely launched into space with the skeleton crew that was always on board. So it was just him and a hundred men, none of which had a power level over two thousand. Planet Rosu, however, was known for strong fighters, including the leader of his fathers private army.

Vegeta slid himself into his space pod and prepared for launch. /Pug may be on Planet Vegeta but I'm sure there's someone else down here worthy of fighting me. I'll find him and work out my frustration... I just need to find an un-aligned planet to blast to rubble.../ A moment later his pod was hurtling toward the planet's surface.