Orphaned Chapter 11
Tedious Disclaimer- if you don't know it by now, you should be whacked solidly in the face with a codfish.
Recap- Kami's trying to save the planet by killing all it's heroes, or at least keeping them off the planet. Piccolo wants to rule the planet, Gohan at his side. Veggie wants Freiza dead, then possibly wants to rules the universe with Gohan at his side. The motley crew- that is to say Bulma, Yamcha, Krillin…oh wait, didn't I kill off a few of them…hang on…right, it's Tien, Bulma and Krillin. Geez it's been a while. Anyway, Tien, Bulma, and Krillin want to bring a buncha people back to life, use Radditz as a stand-in dragonball, and return to Earth, Gohan at their side. Not too much to ask, right? Right.
*****
They passed stars occasionally- really passed them, at close range. At these times, Tien wondered how people could write such romantic drivel about diamonds in the sky; more than once they came close to loosing some very important pieces of the ship to one of these burning monstrosities. He and Krillin trained constantly, while Bulma lounged in the pilot's seat reading magazines, checking the dragon radar every so often. All were tense about finding Radditz and none of them knew what they would do when they did. They had only the dragon radar to rely on as they hurtled through space- a tool that had been fixed by a guardian who had something other than old friends on his mind.
"So Bulma," Said Krillin, with the air of one approaching a bomb that may or may not be a dud. "Where are we going, exactly?" Bulma pointed mutely to the blip on the radar. "Well, yeah, but how do we know where that is? Or how long it'll take us to get there? What if Radditz moves?"
"What are you getting at?"
"Just, if he moves out of range, we'll be out here without a compass."
"And what do you want me to do about it?"
"I…well…I don't know."
"Right. Go away." She dove back into her magazine. Krillin backed away, looking grateful to have sustained no injuries but worried nonetheless. Bulma smirked at the models on the page. Little did Krillin know that she had installed a program similar to the dragon radar on the ship's computer that would serve as a backup in case the hand-held one broke. She hadn't had the chance to test it, but as always, she was quite confident it would work.
*****
Piccolo had turned on a handy little cloaking device he'd found the Namek ship to be equipped with, but he still stayed a goodly distance away from the Earthlings ship in case they had sensors that could detect him. He followed them with ease, locking onto them with the ship itself (it was quite sophisticated for something so old) and with his sixth sense, which told him Krillin and Tien were frantically looking to become stronger before the confrontation with Radditz. Not a bad idea.
*****
"This is a training simulation." Kako informed Gohan three days after Radditz had left. The two had become good friends over this short period of time and went everywhere together, partly, of course, because Radditz had charged him with the child's well being, but more out of a desire to be in each other's company.
"What kind of simulation does it run?" Gohan asked curiously, looking at three soldiers using it to train.
"Well, that depends on what level you set it to. Watch, these three are about to begin." The technician behind the glass spoke over a microphone that could be heard in the plain white room on the other side.
"Ready?" The three soldiers gave the thumbs up. "Setting it to level five." He typed in some commands on the console in front of him and the room on the other side went dark. Then Gohan could plainly see different kinds of creatures attacking from all sides, using the new rocky terrain that hadn't been there a minute ago to enhance their attacks. Two of Prince Vegeta's soldiers used blasters to take care of them, but the third used his own ki. At first it seemed easy enough, but the enemies became tougher, dodging now and darting in for attacks of their own. One of the soldiers took a blow to the back of the head and stumbled forward.
"It's very realistic, isn't it?" Gohan asked, just a little alarmed. Kako nodded.
"You don't need to worry though. The training drones can't take life. They can beat you to within an inch of it, but they can't take it."
"Oh. Well good." Gohan said, not feeling very reassured. He turned his attention back to the current simulation. The three were back to back to back now, surrounded by an overwhelming number of enemies, firing for all they were worth. A few enemies fell, but not enough to make a difference. The three were soon overwhelmed. The technician sighed an ended the program. The lights came back up, revealing three very beaten soldiers lying in the center of the room. A paramedic rushed in to take one of them and the other two struggled to their feet, muttering under their breaths.
"They make the same mistake each time, always with that result." The technician said critically. "They've been working on this level for three weeks."
"Would you like to try it Gohan?" Gohan looked up at Kako, startled.
"I don't know anything about fighting." He said in a small voice. Kako was a little surprised at this shy statement. The kid was a Saiyen; he could smell it on him.
"Sure you do. You were born knowing how to fight." At Gohan's uncertain look, Kako added. "I'll show you a few things, if you really think you need help."
"Um…that's ok…you don't have to." Kako, reading between the lines, easily picked up the 'I don't want to' tone in the boy's voice. Curiouser and curiouser.
"Gohan, you must know why you've been brought here?" He said tentatively. Gohan looked at his feet. He had an inkling, Kako knew, but probably didn't want to admit it to himself. A pacifist Saiyen? Well why not.
"I just don't like fighting all that much."
"Why not?" That was blunt enough. Gohan looked directly into Kako's pupil-less eyes, ready with a perfectly innocent 'because it's wrong', but then rethought. Was fighting always wrong? What about cause? Self-defense was certainly a good cause to fight, was it not?
"I don't know. That's a good question." Gohan said thoughtfully. "I guess I was just taught that it's wrong." Kako nodded sagely, though he was really wondering what kind of backwards planet the boy had grown up on. Who in their right mind would presume themselves wise enough to designate 'right' and 'wrong'?
"You just need to have a good experience with it that's all. Come on, we'll head down to the gym. You can watch some of the soldiers sparring, maybe pick up a few things. I get the feeling the Prince expects you to know a few things about combat when he arrives." This last was said in passing, but Gohan felt a sudden knot in his stomach. He wanted to impress this Prince and make his uncle proud. Pressure.
*****
They had been following Radditz for two days when he suddenly shifted course.
"My God, his ship is fast." Bulma commented as she adjusted the controls to follow him again. "The technology his people must have…" She was nearly drooling.
"How long until we can catch up with him then?" Tien asked.
"That depends on if he stops. At the rate he's traveling, we could never hope to catch him." She twiddled the manual controls to avoid a star. "Especially since he knows where he's going and we don't."
"Well how does that make a difference?" Bulma rolled her eyes.
"His course is already plotted, so his path is probably clear. We, however, have no idea what's out there between him and us. It could be anything."
"Like a planet?"
"Sure. Or an asteroid belt or even a black hole."
"Or a planet."
"Yes, yes, or a planet. Will you drop the planet already?"
"Sure. Just as soon as you get us past it."
"WHAT? Where'd THAT come from??" For those of you who hadn't picked up on this, there was a planet smack in front of them. A very, very large one. Bulma grabbed the manual controls again and steered hard to the side, fingers furiously punching the keyboard at the same time. "Damn it! There's something wrong with the sensors! They should have picked up a body that large! Ok, fine, we're almost past it, just-oof!" The ship lurched sickeningly and all the monitors went blank. There were no windows in the ship. They were flying blind, without the flying part. All within could plainly feel the ship descending rapidly. Bulma pulled herself up from the floor and began trying to start up the ship's computers again. When it didn't work, she rounded on the two fighters, who were watching her, dumbfounded. "What are you waiting for? Grab a pair of suits and get out there!" They obeyed instantly, and as she strapped herself to the chair, opened the door and hopped without hesitation into space.
They were heading at a rather unhealthy speed toward the surface of the planet. Krillin and Tien, acting as one, threw their weight against the ship, attempting to fly it back on course. The planet's atmosphere, however, was wearing away at their space suits, and they weren't making any progress.
"Tien, this isn't working. We have to go back in or we'll be fried!" Krillin shouted through the radio. Tien nodded his agreement, and the two left off their useless struggle, caught the door handle as it whizzed by, and flung themselves into the ship. Bulma was still pulling frantically at the controls.
"It's no good." Tien told her. "We're going to crash." The look in Bulma's eyes told them she had already realized this. She nodded.
"Brace yourselves." Her tone was grave. Krillin and Tien stripped off the damaged space suits and took the two other seats, strapping themselves in carefully. "I've estimated the time until contact." Bulma continued in that same deadly voice. The ship shuddered around them and creaked alarmingly. "I can't access the landing gear. All of the computers are jammed." She took a deep breath. "You guys will probably live through this. The ship has an indestructible black box that contains all of its information. Repair it and continue the search. If you can, wish me back." Krillin started to protest, but Tien simply said
"We will." Bulma nodded gratefully and gripped the armrests.
"Five…four…three…two…one."