accAuthors note: Hey, guys, thanks for the reads, and please feel free to leave a review. I'd love to get your feedback.

Chapter 6

Remote island

Sand was drawn out to sea by large waves crashing on the nearby shore. The wind was still, allowing the smells of ozone and blood to fill the air. Vegeta's body was on the ground, one arm extended towards his pod, head gone.

"Gohan.' Krillin couldn't focus. His mind was going every which direction. He had been dead before, he knew it wasn't easy, but it wasn't horrible either. He wouldn't want to kill, but seeing what Vegeta had done, he appreciated that the Saiyan was dead. 'I should have done it myself.'

Nappa was one thing, but Vegeta wasn't actively fighting. It wasn't urgent, certainly not life or death. Gohan shouldn't have had to do that.

Tien thought back to his time under Master Crane. He had looked up to his master's brother, a ruthless assassin.

'If Tao Pai Pai was here… well, he'd be long dead.' Someone he used to admire for his power was so weak that he is a non-factor.

Looking over Vegeta's corpse. Tien remembered how used to death he was.

'Yamcha didn't have to die.' He looked at Krillin. 'If you had done the multi attack from the start… Well, Yamcha would have lived, but Vegeta and Nappa would have jumped in quicker and Goku would have been too late.'

Averting his eyes, Tien looked at Gohan. 'How much power does this kid have?'

Gohan sat down, nearly touching Vegeta's corpse.

"That… was scary." Chiaotzu cut through the silence as he returned to Tien.

"I don't want you fighting anymore, least not in these kind of battles." Tien was firm in tone, yet his eyes gave away his concern. "You could have helped, but no more than anyone else, and with far too high of cost. Your life is worth more."

"I want to say… I want to say that if I had to, I could sacrifice myself to save everyone. I was close. I don't know though, would that have saved anyone?" Chiaotzu couldn't look Tien in the eye. "I don't want to live in a world without you. If you're putting your life on the line, I want to be there with you. To support you and make sure that if I do outlive you, I can take your killer with me."

Chiaotzu began to cry. "I'm afraid. I don't want to die. But I don't want you to die either."

As Chiaotzu wrapped his arms around half of Tiens wide chest, Tien grabbed his oldest friend.

"Chiaotzu, the last reason I was here was to protect the world, before that I would protect our friends, but before everything, I would protect you. We have been through too much already, and I won't let you die for me. If someone can beat me, I want you to run, get out of there. My body could die, but please, I'm trusting you, don't let my memory die."

'Life used to make sense." Goku looked around at the unusual sights around him. "Piccolo tried to take over the world, I stopped him, and now he's on our side. Tien and Chiaotzu wanted to kill me, they saw the error of their way, and now he's on our side. The Red Ribbon army tried to take over the world, I stopped them, and… Eighter is on our side. He wasn't really against us, but he's on our side either way.'

'This isn't their first time fighting for their lives, is it? What's different?' Goku focused on Tien and Chiaotzu. He then looked at his son. 'Everyone that was here was once against us, except Yajirobe, I think… Vegeta could have joined us. We could have pushed ourselves even higher.'

Looking away from his son Goku heard an airship approaching. A few moments later it had landed, and Chi-Chi was the first one out. She was followed by Bulma who was wearing a scouter, then Master Roshi and Korin.

When Korin exited the jet, Yajirobe left his hiding spot.

"Koren, I'm okay."

"I was watching you. You did good, kid." Korin swung his staff around, clipping Yajirobe on the back of his head.

"What was that for? I'm the one who cut that things tail off!" Yajirobe rubbed the back of his head while Korin studied him.

"You ran and hid when the fighting broke out. I can accept that, you were out of your depth… but the name is Korin, not Koren." Korin hit him again and smiled. 'I'm proud of you, Yajirobe.'

"Do you have any more beans? The guys could really use them."

"No. They're still growing. It'll be at least a week or two."

Surveying the battlefield, Roshi saw Chi-Chi running towards her son.

'So that's one of the Saiyans.' The elder noted as Bulma rushed towards Goku. Tien and Chiaotzu were having a moment, and Roshi went to join them. "You two did good out here."

"Master Roshi." Chiaotzu shouted as he turned around, realizing they weren't alone.

"We were watching the fight. Chiaotzu, Tien, you were incredible." Roshi put a hand on his students shoulders. "You know you surpassed me a long time ago, but today you have proven yourself as true warriors. Not just powerful, but brave and loyal."

Tien and Chiaotzu didn't know what to say, so they nodded a thanks to their first good master, the man who picked up their shattered selves and sculpted them into something they were proud of.

"I don't know what the future holds, I'm not my sister, but I know that between you all it will be in good hands when my tired old bones fill with green dust."

"Thank you, Master." the two spoke in unison.

Bulma was at Goku's side. Pulse, good. Breathe, good. Eye response, good.

'Oh thank god, he's alive.'

"Gohan!" Chi-Chi cried as she saw that her son was in one piece, upright, and alive. She was overcome with emotion as she embraced the stiff boy. "Gohan."

She berried his head in her chest and arms. His hair was too long. And dirty, not washed in ages. Her hair fell around his head, providing a strawberry scented curtain of privacy. He was dirty, bruised, and covered in blood.

"Gohan." Inhaling his scent she looked at him, seeing his reality for the first time. Blood was pasted on his chin, leaking from the corners of his mouth. If he had a mustache, it too would be caked in bodily fluids as well. 'His eyes…'

She froze when her son looked up to her. Unable to fight it she sobbed.

"Gohan." Snot clogged her nose. Trying to gasp in air her breath was caught short, causing a cycle of gasps, snorts, and wales. "Gohan." 'He's alive.' "Gohan." 'He's here.'

Gohan was stressed. He didn't like this. She smelled too strong, everywhere. Her arms held his at his sides. He couldn't hear anything else, his ears were ringing.

Noticing a spot of blue at her feet, Chi-Chi looked at the decapitated corpse of Vegeta.

'Goku, how could you let our son see this.' She berried her sons head back into her chest again. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again. This will never happen again. I won't let anyone take you. I won't let anyone hurt you. Your safe now. I'll protect you."

"Safe." Gohan contemplated the word. He knew what it meant, but he couldn't understand it, he didn't feel it. "You'll, protect me?"

He put his arms in front of him, pushing his mom away. Feeling her energy he pointed his nose towards hers. "You'll, protect me? You?"

He was good. Tired, exhausted, and ready to sleep for a year, but he was good.

"How?" he raised his voice. "How will you protect me?"

He took a step back, now standing on Vegeta's corpse.

"What could you possibly do?" Gohan yelled. "You, both of you, you let that man take me. You were powerless then, and what have you done to get any better? Dad died, he came back to life to save me. But you? You sat at home, you cried, and you did nothing. You knew I was alive, but you didn't come find me. I didn't need you to, but if you'd let that go, if you'd allow Piccolo to train me for a year, the man who tried to take over the world, how can I trust that you'll ever do anything different?"

Snot bubbled from his nose, joining the blood on his upper lip. "Dad would have died again, happily, if it meant keeping us safe. But you, you did nothing. Dad, he would have let Vegeta go. He couldn't finish it. He's stronger than me, but he can't keep me safe either. Neither of you can. If I die, when I die, you will have done as little then as you did today."

Roshi, Tien, and Chiaotzu were now paying attention to the boy.

'Not everyone is a fighter.' Roshi thought.

Chi-Chi was taken aback, not sure what to say, not sure if she could say anything.

"Gohan, that's enough." Goku didn't get up, but he looked at his son and spoke. He wasn't loud enough to force his voice over his son's, yet Gohan listened to him. "No, she can't physically protect you, but the days after a fight are just as important as the moments in it."

Goku took a deep breath.

"Remember why you did what you did today. You kept yourself safe, but you protected your friends and family too. If nothing else, let her be motivation for you to continue being strong. She can't physically force you to new power, but if her life is on the line, let the knowledge… don't forget… you need a reason..." Goku began to ramble on as Bulma put away her medical equipment.

"Okay, guys, we can continue this in the air." Bulma opened her capsule case and popped out a second, much larger, jet. "Goku needs a hospital. And Tien, how are you on your feet? I mean, your arm?"

"It's an arm, how would it stop me from getting back up." Tien smiled at his stub. 'I'm going to be soar in the morning.'

Bulma waved Krillin over.

"Help me get him in the plane." Bulma ordered. "Then, go grab the Saiyans' remains."

"Their remains? What would you need those for?" Krillin protested.

"They are entirely new biology. Who knows what we could learn by studying them."

Nodding, Krillin helped Bulma carry Goku into the jets cargo hold as Tien, Chiaotzu, and Roshi buckled themselves in. Gohan entered next, followed closely by a zombie like Chi-Chi. A minute later, Nappa's pieces, and a majority of Vegeta, were in a pair of freezers in the storage area.

Yajirobe approached as well, but was stopped by Korin.

"We're going back to the tower, and will bring you senzu beans as soon as we can." The cat promised.

Once everyone was prepared, Bulma closed the planes door, and locked her eyes on the Attack Pod as she piloted her craft upward.

"Next stop, the hospital." Bulma declared.

Pushing the yoke forward, they left the battlefield behind.

As they flew, Krillin walked the gang through the fight. He started with him meeting up with Piccolo and Gohan, and ending with Vegeta defeated, calling his pod. He thought it best not to finish the story at that point.

"Goku is Saiyan and Piccolo is Namekian? What's next? Tien is part triclopse?" Bulma looked back at her passengers.

"Well, actually..." Tien started.

"Oh, and good news. It's possible that there are more Dragon Balls on Planet Namek, and using them we could wish Piccolo and Yamcha back to life. Maybe even get a field around our planet so no more aliens can get here?" Krillin was excited. He didn't know what it would take, but it was possible, hope wasn't lost yet.

"Krillin, I don't think you understand how big space is." Bulma hated taking the wind out of his sail, but science was science, and travel like he's hoping for is impossible. "The nearest star to Earth, aside from the sun, is nearly 4.5 light years away. A one-way trip would take thousands of years, in the fastest craft ever made on Earth."

"How about non-Earth space craft?" Tien proposed. "The Saiyans and Piccolo got here somehow, didn't they? Assuming Vegeta and Nappa weren't floating between our star and the next one, they had to be traveling faster than anything made on Earth to make it here in less than a year."

"Point." Bulma acknowledged. "I'll get some scientists to secure the Saiyans' ships. If we can figure them out, and find Namek, then we can consider doing this."

The next day, at the hospital

Goku, Gohan, and Tien shared a hospital room. Goku and Gohan were on either side of the window, beds toe-to-toe. Tien's bed was beside Goku's, and a couch was opposite of his bed, with Chi-Chi and Chiaotzu fast asleep on it.

"I think I can come up with something. So, would you want 10?" Dr. Briefs was standing beside a wrapped Goku, taking notes.

"That would be nice, but if it's possible I would like to go further, 50, or 100, maybe even 500." Goku grinned.

Over the last day, and probably for the next few weeks, that's all he'd be able to do by himself. His arms and legs were wrapped tight, and so was almost every square inch beyond them.

"I don't think I can get 500, not anytime soon, but 100 might be doable. I'll keep working on it and let you know where we're at." Clicking his pen shut and putting it in his pocket Bulma's dad prepared to leave. "If there's anything else I can do to help, please let me or Bulma know."

"Will do. And thank you, Dr. Brief." Goku was barely able to move his chin, let alone give a full nod of appreciation. Thankfully, his smile spoke for him. "With your help, who knows how far we can go."

"Remember, if you can see there, you can get there." Dr. Briefs put his notebook in his briefcase and wished Goku well as he left.

As the door shut, Goku heard Dr. Brief exchange greetings outside his room, followed by Bulma and Krillin entering. Bulma carried a bundle of rolled papers in one arm, and a vase of flowers in the other. Krillin was carrying a large metal briefcase.

"Heya, guys? How's everyone doing?" Krillin's lively energy woke Tien and Gohan, as well as Chi-Chi.

Groggily grumbling, Gohan smiled at Krillin.

'He gets it.' the boy thought.

"Heya, guys! Thanks for visiting." Goku tried to wave, but was reminded by the resistance of the bandages that he wasn't supposed to be moving. "What brings you in?"

"Well, I need to talk to Tien, and I've got an update for everyone." Bulma placed the flowers on a table near the couch. Taking the metal case from Krillin, she set it on the floor next to Tien. "Let's start with something grounded in reality and proven science." she continued.

"So, Tien, do you remember the Red Ribbon army?"

"Yes, Goku stopped them from getting the Dragon Balls back when he was a kid, and I think he pretty much ended the army too, right, Goku?" Tien looked at his roommate.

"Yeah, that's right." Goku agreed.

"Well, after they were dealt with Capsule Corp made a deal with the world government. We went through their scientific records, trying to find anything useful for the betterment of mankind." Bulma opened the papers in her arm and sat beside Tien on the bed.

"They experimented with robotics, exoskeletons, androids, etc." Pulling out one of the papers she held it up for Goku.

"Hey, that's Eighter, I was just thinking about him."

"Right." Bulma handed the paper to Tien. "Eighter, or Android 8, is one of the many attempts at a combat robot made by Dr. Flappe and Dr. Gero."

Flipping through the papers she pulled out another one and held it up.

"We believed that the Red Ribbon army created at least 8 Androids, but we've found plans for 12. None of these robots would be all that good in combat, they all have pretty big downsides here and there, but, and I mean this with the least amount of approval as possible, Dr. Flappe and Gero were geniuses."

Handing the papers to Tien, Bulma got to the floor. Looking through them, Tien understood that these were diagrams of bodies, electrical schematics, and other reference documents, but couldn't understand what robots had to do with him.

Unlatching the case, Bulma opened the lid. Looking over her shoulder, Tien smiled.

Reaching in, Bulma undid some straps, and lifted a large arm out of the case.

"This…" With effort, she held the arm out for Tien's inspection "Is an arm that we made off of what we learned from the Red Ribbon army."

Tien reached out, and Bulma placed it in his open hand. "A prosthetic arm?"

"It's a lot more than a normal prosthetic." Bulma wasn't offended, but she wished Tien would set his expectations more in line with her capabilities. "The army was working on miniaturizing energy sources, and their techniques for manufacturing carbon nanotubes are literally world changing, or they will be. With all the resources at our disposal, it's been hard but possible to duplicate their work. This arm is what we've come up with so far. It has generators built into it, fueled by movement, and the inorganic muscles are, I'd bet, as strong as you, Goku, if not stronger."

Bulma smiled at her childhood friend.

"That's great, Bulma, but there is one issue I foresee." Tien handed the arm back.

"Issue? What issue? Connecting to you will be painful, but once it's on there, it should only be a matter of time until it's an extension of your body." Bulma blinked in confusion. "You can't say there's an issue before you try it."

"I won't use the arm." Tien would have crossed his arms, but only having one at the moment he looked to be hugging himself more than anything.

"Well, if that's how you want to be, fine." Bulma turned her back to him. "Anyway, about the Saiyan ships."

"Sorry, Bulma, I was trying to lighten the mood." Tien chuckled to himself. "I lost my left arm, and that one looks like a right arm to me."

Bulma pondered for a second before turning on Tien.

"It's been a day, literally 24 hours, and you'd think we could have something built for you that quickly? Your nuts!" 'Well, maybe I like it when his expectations were a little lower.' "This is what we made with their research. We, if you want one, will need to make one for you in particular."

"Oh, well, that makes sense. If it's not asking too much, I think I'd love to have one." Tien shrank away from Bulma. He hadn't meant to doubt her, or put too much pressure on her. Well, he didn't quite know what he had done wrong, just that he had done something wrong.

"Of course, we'll get started on it right away. When you see your doctor, have him send your scans to us so we can make sure it fits you perfectly." Bulma smiled before turning away from him again.

"Anyway, we were able to secure Vegeta's ship, and we're working on the other one as we speak. Apparently the world government found it and is trying to keep it for their own scientists to learn off of. Can you believe that?" Bulma scoffed. "So, while the pods look sleek and solid, it was actually child's play to disassemble it. Just as the Red Ribbon Army's technology has had, and will continue to have, major impacts on the scientific community, so will these ships. Well, it did confirm alien life, hostile alien life, to the entire world… and that may not be a good thing… I'm surprised people aren't freaking out about that actually… but the way it moves, both in space and while in atmosphere, is revolutionary. I mean, our jets aren't the most aerodynamic, but it's a literal sphere."

Bulma paused to recollect her thoughts.

"So, Namek?" Chi-Chi tried to get Bulma to focus on the important things.

"We have no idea where it is." Bulma lowered her head. "There are maps in the ship, but it looks like, using what we learned from the scouter, that the planets are just numbered, not named. I'm not sure if it's a code, or what it is." Bulma admitted.

"I think I can help." a voice came from the window.

As everyone else looked and felt to see who the newcomer to the conversation was.

"Mr. Popo, I wasn't expecting you." Krillin jumped out of his skin.

Ignoring Krillin, Mr. Popo continued speaking. "Kami came to Earth from Namek in a ship. I can take you there, if you like."

Bulma's mind was immediately racing. If they could get flight logs, then she could find where Namek was.

"Okay, let's do this."

Mr. Popo extended his hand, inviting Bulma to take it. Bulma put down the robotic arm and walked to the window. Once there she looked around, seeing that Mr. Popo was on a carpet.

"Can that support us both?" Bulma asked nervously.

"Yes."

Bulma took his hand and let him guide her on to the carpet. Once on it, he pulled her to her feet.

As soon as she stood, they were gone and the echo of a surprised yelp entered the room before the whirs of the machinery took over once more.

"Hey, Krillin." Goku looked at his old friend.

"Yeah, buddy?" Krillin began strapping the arm back into the case.

"Got any beans?" The hunger was apparent in Goku's eyes.

"Sorry, Goku, but no. Yajirobe will probably bring them once they're ready. You've still got some time though. Sorry." Krillin shut the lid and picked it up.

"Anyway, I should probably get this back to Capsule Corp for Bulma." Krillin looked at Tien "I'll let Dr. Brief know you're interested, in case Bulma forgets."

Yunzabit Heights

The hospital was gone. The city was gone. Even the warmth was gone. As soon as she stood up, she was gone. Bulma immediately felt ice crystals battering her exposed skin and frozen wind slicing through her clothes and pushing her in all directions. Hugging herself for warmth, she realized it wouldn't do any good.

Wanting to get it over with quickly so she could get somewhere warm, maybe tropical, she started looking for the ship. Icy peaks rose around her, as the ocean was calm below her. Snow was falling and she didn't see anything out of the normal.

Mentally being thrown back, Bulma was amazed to see her surroundings shifting quickly while not feeling movement at all.

"Woah." she grabbed for Mr. Popo, but the keeper of the Lookout avoided her touch.

"We're almost there." Mr. Popo focused on a mountain in front of them. "It's there."

In front of them a smaller mountain had a dent in the side of it. In that dent was some kind of spiky metal structure.

"Is that it?" Bulma asked.

Without answering, Mr. Popo swooped the carpet in low, placing it in the shade of the structure.

Four metal legs, more like spikes, were embedded in the snow. The legs supported a spherical shell, roughly the size of a small house.

"Yeah, this is it." Bulma looked towards a domed window at the front of the craft. "How do we get in?"

"We use the door." Mr. Popo pointed at a small seem around the underside of the pod.

"Great, how do we open it?" Bulma looked around the seams, not seeing any kind of handle, latch, or mechanism.

"I don't know." Mr. Popo shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, if it was Kami's ship, maybe he had a key?" Bulma cupped her chin in one hand. "Did you ever see a fob or something in his quarters?"

"No." Mr. Popo answered shortly.

"Did he ever mention a password or something to you?" Bulma ran her fingers around the metal, surprised by its warmth. 'It's not frozen.'

"No."

"Could Kami have mentioned something to Piccolo? Maybe he had the key?" Warm air blew out of the seam, causing Bulma to stumble back a step. The front of the seam opened from the ship, lowered itself down, and extended out. "I guess it's something I said?"

"Yes." Mr. Popo stepped up behind Bulma. "We may enter."

Walking up the metal entrance Bulma was relieved to feel the warmth of the ship around her. Lights flickered on, air began to circulate, and control panels lit up. "It's still working, I think."

Bulma approached the front of the ship, taking a seat in front of the large domed window, in front of a curved control panel. Reaching out she grabbed the ships controls, and felt out where everything should be. The buttons around her weren't labeled in English, but the diagrams on them made it clear where everything was. "Should, should we try it out? I can't read Namekian, but it looks easy enough."

Mr. Popo glanced at the controls. "Kami taught me some of his native language."

Pushing a series of buttons, the entrance resealed, the ship rumbled a little, and in no time at all they were alone. Seconds passed, then tens of seconds, before a minute was up a large marble filled the dome window, blue and green, with faint, barely visible rings.

"Where are we?" Bulma released the controls, opting instead to latch her hands on to the arm rests of her chairs, and hook her feet under it.

"Welcome to" Mr. Popo opened his arms wide. "Uranus."

"But that's over a billion miles, in, in, in, seconds, or at least less than a minute."

"Just over 47 seconds, I believe." Mr. Popo corrected her.

"We, we just broke the speed of light…" Bulma's eyes went out of focus as she concentrated on her mental math. '1.86 billion miles, 47 seconds, 40,000,000 miles per second, light is under 200,m000 miles per second.' "We, we moved 200 times the speed of light?" Bulma asked herself.

"Just over 209 times, I believe." Mr. Popo corrected her again.

"Okay, the Saiyan pods are impressive, but this, this is so large compared to them… and I think just as quick, or close to it. We need to get to the lab and find the ships travel log. If we can find Namek, if it's not more than… well, half a light year a day in a ship this size, we could probably last a month, or two… 30 light years would be my estimate, for a max range." Bulma continued talking to herself as Mr. Popo pushed a few more buttons, and within a minute they were comfortably touched down in the yard of Capsule Corp. "No impact, such control… do physics not matter anymore?"

Two days later, at Capsule Corp

Inside Capsule Corp Bulma and Dr. Brief sat at opposing ends of a large table with a number of scientists sitting between them along the tables side.

"Okay, Dad, would you like to start?" Bulma threw him a small remote.

"Of course." Dr. Brief stood and clicked a few buttons on the remote. The lights turned down in the room, and a projector screen lit up with three squares, English in the middle, and strange symbols in the other two. "Using the same methods we used to translate the Saiyan language into English, and with some help from an unnamed assistant, we were able to translate Namekian as well. Just like with Saiyan, we can easily read and write it, but speaking it is, it's a little more difficult to master that."

Clicking a button again a star map came up. "We were able to map out and clone the ships computer, and it took some doing, but we have the location of Namek. It is roughly 19.2 light years." Dr. Brief pointed towards the corner of his office "That way."

Several of the scientists mouths dropped open.

"What are there, 100 stars within 20 light years? I know it's a very small sample size, but did we just confirm that up to 2% of stars have intelligent life around them?" One of the scientists asked.

It is way too early to make any kind of assumptions like that, however based on this," Dr. Brief clicked again, revealing a star map with many dozens of labels, "the map we accessed from the Saiyans' ship, we know of at least 450 worlds of note in our part of space. 448 from the Saiyan map, Earth, and Namek."

"Needless to say, this information does not leave this room." Bulma looked at the questioning scientist. "Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am, absolutely." he excitedly nodded.

Bulma stood and joined her father.

"It took some doing from my team as well, but we figured out how Kami's ship works, as well as the Saiyan ships." Dr. Brief clicked the remote, bringing up diagrams of three ships, before passing the remote to his daughter and returning to his seat.

"By our calculation, it should take roughly 35 days, maybe a little less, to reach Namek in Kami's ship. It's a little longer than I'd be comfortable with, as space is limited. Even with capsules, it would be difficult to store and preserve enough supplies. 70 days in transit, plus another 35 for safety sake, plus another 70 as we don't know how much time we will spend on Namek. For one person, that's doable. We would expect to send at least 3 individuals though."

Dr. Brief began pointing at the second diagram of the Saiyan ship as Bulma continued.

"This however is the Saiyans ship. It is only capable of taking a single passenger each and with no room for supplies, as it has the capability to induce a stasis. With it's incredible speed, it would make the trip to Namek in about a week, or so, however again we'd only be able to send 2 people."

"And the third ship?" a scientist questioned.

"This third ship, is a hypothetical bastardization of the two." Clicking the remote the third diagram took up the full screen. "Quarters for 3, storage to provide for 9, in case of hot bunking, stasis chambers in case of supply shortage, and a speed that exceeds Kami's ship. However, it doesn't quite reach the Saiyans ship's incredible speed. We're aiming for a 12-day trip each way, although it's designed to be able to do a 35-day trip. We'd hate to get stranded and starve on the most incredible thing built by humanity, now wouldn't we?"

Agreement filled the air as one of the scientists who had yet to speak raised his hand.

"Yes, doctor?" Bulma pointed at him.

"Not to speak poorly of your design, but doesn't that have quite a bit of wasted space in it? If stasis is an option, is that large of a recreation area required?"

"Well, we don't know what affects long term exposure to stasis would have on a human, all we know is it is harmless enough on Saiyans that they aren't opposed to using it. Although we don't know how frequently it's used, we assume often due to the lack of supply storage in their ships, so we'd rather not use it if we don't need to. As for the large recreation space, I'll ask my dad to answer that one."

Dr. Brief rose once more as his daughter stood to the side of the screen. "The intended passengers for the maiden voyage are unique individuals. Goku, who is a Saiyan by birth, my daughter, and Tien Shinhan, a martial artist."

"That tidbit about Goku doesn't leave this room either." Bulma looked over her employees, who swiftly nodded. It's not often that a job like this opens up, and none of them would give up the ability to work here for any level of fame or fortune.

"Goku learned that the gravity of his home planet is 10 times that of Earth. I can't explain how, but he trained his martial arts under 10 times Earths' gravity to prepare for the recent Saiyan invasion, and saw extreme results. We are working on an artificial gravity chamber in which he can continue his training anywhere from double to 100 times Earth's gravity. That project is coming along swimmingly, and we intend to have the gravity chamber as part of the structure of the ship, for his benefit, as well as Tien's."

"What kind of time frame are we working with?" the quiet scientist asked his second question.

"Well, typically something like this would take decades to get down, however we've got a massive head start with the resources that we have been provided." Dr. Brief nodded at his daughter. "Normally I'd say a year or three, but-"

"We launch in a month." interrupted Bulma. "We have brought you here, because you are all, individually, the most capable minds, and leaders, on the planet. For the next month, all of Capsule Corps resources will be dedicated to this one project. It is of course top secret, otherwise I'd expect it done in half that time, but a month should be doable."

"Why, why the rush? This is completely uncharted territory, shouldn't we take our time and make sure we're doing this the best we can?"

"Due to factors outside of our control, this is time sensitive." Bulma thought back to what she had learned by going through the Saiyans computer, about the Frieza Empire, and how it's leader had a power level of 530,000 that dwarfed anything she'd seen herself or read about. 'If Raditz was listened in on by Vegeta, we need to assume Vegeta was listened in on by the Frieza Empire, and operate under the assumption that they'd be just as interested in the Namekian Dragon Balls as Vegeta was. We can't risk Frieza showing up on planet while we're still there.'

Bulma stood up, making the serious of the situation known.

"You don't need to accept this job if you're not capable, but if you are, and we'll trust your judgment on that, then you can consider it both a personal favor to the Brief family, as well as a chance to earn your full salary in a month as a bonus if we make it happen."

Bulma made eye contact with everyone around the table, getting a nod of approval from her father.

"If you can't do this, now is the time to leave." No one made a move.

"In that case," Bulma passed out informational packets, "Find your job, coordinate with each other as you see fit, and draw upon every resource available to us. Let's make some magic happen here, folks."

The assembled group flipped through their packets, finding their names, and reviewing their tasks.

A few silent moments later, the quiet scientist raised his hand a third time. "Ma'am, question, I don't see the function of a robotic arm in the ship?"

"Correct. You are familiar with the technology we've developed based on the Red Ribbon Army's designs?" the man nodded at Bulma's question. "Well, Tien lost his left arm. We need to rebuild it, as a left arm this time, and ensure the interface is flawless. It's not directly involved with the ship, however it will need to be ready in the same time frame, and made to the same exacting standard as everything else in this project. Since we already have one arm, I assume you should have no issue mirroring it and ensuring complete functionality?"

"Will I have access to the test subject?"

"Tien, not a test subject, and yes. I'm sure he'd be willing to meet with you as often as required to make it work."

"Then yes, I believe this will be the easiest job here."

After a few more questions and answers the group stood in unison and left together.

"I think I may expand my sleeping quarters. After this month I'm going to want to sleep for a year." Bulma fell back into her chair.

"We can rest when we're dead." Dr. Brief sat beside her. "When I was a kid, the thought of designing a superluminal craft was, frankly impossible, and here we are, owners of two of them, designing a third, superior model."

Author's note: Edited by StevenBodner on 4/10/2021.

Authors note 2: Well, there we have it. With an intact Saiyan Attack Ball, Bulma and her father decided to combine their technologies into the design of an entirely new ship, similar to Goku's canon ship, but without the unexplained massive speed boost. Please feel free to leave a review, any and all feedback is welcomed and desired.