It had been six long months since the blue-haired girl had started working in the scientific lab. And he couldnt deny that she was indeed some kind of genius. He watched her intently- both, in disbelief and fascination. What he couldnt understand was how? How did she know so much when all she'd been was a mere slave for most of her life. He could only atrribute such intelligent abilities to her human origin. Humans were indeed an intelligent species. That which they lacked in strength they made up for it in intelligence and intellect. And there was no flaw in that. He'd watched in wonder and amazement as the girl, Celeste, had looked at the pieces of the device he'd scornfully taken apart, challenging her. With speed and agility and a small smile at the corner of her lips, she'd put every piece back together, making the device once again useful. He'd remained speechless that day, but admired her, in a dark light he'd never admit to. This kind of prowess could only exceed his reputation and he didnt want to have it undermined by an ex-slave. No way. But he knew it wouldnt be long until the rest of the lab crew started talking about the blue-haired genius and soon the gossip would reach the king's ears. She was probably not even aware of it, but she could make, fix, create, build, destroy and re-build almost anything she wanted. From a simple electronic device to a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. Why, with a few tools and some curiosity she'd been able to at last, figure out the trick to geth the regeneration tanks going! He shuddered at the thought. He must get rid of her, and fast.
"Dr. Gero," a voice called out.
The aging scientist turned to where the voice called, facing the blue-haired beauty, "Yes?"
"The elite unit is reporting to return. They will be landing in half hour," she said.
The doctor shrugged, "How does that concern me?"
"They are almost out of fuel. They dont have enough for the landing," Bulma said rolling her eyes at the old man.
The scientist narrowed his eyes, trying to find a possible solution to the problem at hand, then shrugged once again, "Nothing we can do about it. They wouldnt be able to recieve any extra fuel we send on a separate pod because there's no time. Let them crash-land. They wont get hurt. Well, not the sayajins on board, at least," he said cynically, knowing that she was fully aware there were humans on board as well.
Bulma clenched her fists at the inconsiderate and cruel man, but played along anyway, "Well, it's not the crew I'm worried about, doctor. I'm more concerned about where they might crash-land. I mean, they could land in some kind of secluded area, but with no fuel, the ship would be impossible to control. And kami forbid that it may crash on a common ground where people are; they could get hurt. The king wouldn be too happy if somethign were to happen to the palace. Again," Bulma emphasized, watching in triumph the expression on the Dr. Gero's face.
The doctor frowned. The little bitch is amused at the fact that I have no idea of what to do. Why, the nerve of her just smirking at me like that! Oh, she'll know...she'll know for sure, he thought with a devious smile.
"Well, seems like you care enough about the ship and the well-being of the planet enough to come up with a plan, dont you?" Dr. Gero asked.
Bulma was taken aback, but composed herself nevertheless. Knowing that he'd somehow use his higher authorities to thrust the situation upon herself. "What do you mean?"
"This will be just another trial testing your ability, Celeste. Figure out a way of stopping that elite ship from crash-landing and you will be promoted to the top-science wing," Dr. Gero ventured to offer, confident that the task was simply and did he dare say...humanly impossible (?) That was quite ironic.
Bulma frowned, but smirked...not wanting him to get the idea she felt defeated or intimidated by the challenge. "Very well, then, doctor."
He nodded and made his way out, "It's late. I should be leaving now. I leave it all in your hands, genius," he called out mockingly.
Bulma gritted her teeth in anger, but shook herself up. She had to get on task...fast. She only had a little less than half an hour to figure out something.
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"Aw, great. Can you believe that shit? Six months working for Frieza, the most evil creature on the universe and we maake it out alive to die on a fucking ship wreck?!" Yamcha almost shouted in disbelief to his friend Tien.
"I know. That sucks. I mean, Sayajins have nothing to worry about. They're strong; they can take an explosion like that. But us? I dont think my body can handle it. Damn, I was looking forward to seeing Launch," Tien said with a sigh.
"You like her that much, huh?" Yamcha asked, recieving a nod from his friend, "yeah...I was also looking forward to seeing B-Celeste. I asked her if we could start some kind of relationship the night before we left. She said yeah, and I havent seen her ever since. And look what's happening now."
"Yeah, it really sucks," Tien said closing his eyes.
"Well, you seem pretty fucking calm," Yamcha said, following suit as hs friend chuckled.
"Hey, you never know when a stupid miracle might happen," Tien said almost in a whisper, visualizing himself with his beloved girlfriend.
Somewhere else in the ship...
"Who the fuck are you?" Vegeta shouted as he stormed into the control wing of the ship.
A medium-sized young man with no hair looked up at him, a bit frightened, "I'm Krillin, your majesty."
"Well, what seems to be the goddamn problem?!"
"Ah, we just informed the scientific lab back home that we're almost out of fuel. I mean, we have enough to keep going for more than half hour, but not enough for the landing. Hopefully, they'll be able to do something about it," Krillin explained, worrying at the expression on the prince's face.
"WHAT?! How come I wasnt informed of this before? You mean to tell me that had I not heard it from some other two soldiers I would have never found out until my head was banged against some hard shit???!" the prince bellowed out, making everybody cringe.
"Hey, hey, come on Vegeta. Calm down. I'm sure they'll figure something out back there. Besides, we're just gonna be crash-landing in any case," Goku said as he entered the scene and tried to appease the roaring prince.
"I dont fucking care about the crash, Kakarot. I care that I'll get bruises all over and my fucking, hideous wedding is in less than two weeks. I dont want my damn face to look like a fucking grater," Vegeta said with a smirk.
Goky laughed, "Since when did you care about what Isa thought of you? I mean, are you trying to make an impression on your wedding night, huh? huh?" Goku taunted jokingly.
Vegeta rolled his eyes, "No. I dotn give two shits about what she thinks. I'm the best she'll ever have and she better be happy with that. But the whole damn world is going to be at that wedding. I have a reputation to keep," Vegeta said, putting his arms over his chest with a stud-smirk.
"Yeah. Prince Vegeta. Best-looking man alive," Goku said nodding.
"That's right, Kakarot," Vegeta said, then turned to Krillin who couldnt believe what he was hearing. Here they were about to die and he was just talking about not getting bruised. He'd feel lucky if he lost just an arm and a leg and still come out alive. But then again, they were sayajins, he was human. "Put me through to the lab," Vegeta ordered.
"Ok," Krillin said, turning on the small satellite that searched for the signal. In less than a minute, a screen popped up, with the face of a beautiful blue-haired girl on it.
"Hey, it's Celeste!" Goku cried delighted.
Vegeta stared at her, once again marvelling at her beauty. It seemed as if everytime he saw her, she became more of a goddess. But then he came back to his senses. What the fuck is she doing at the scientific lab?
"Hello, gentlemen. Dr. Gero found the task of saving your ship far too difficult to figure anything out, so he decided to thrust matters upon me," Bulma said with a bitter smile.
"What are you doing there? Arent you supposed to be doing your goddamn slave work?" the prince asked curiously.
Bulma laughed, "No, my prince. My brain is worth far too much to be wasted on cooking in the palace kitchen to feed the royal mouths such as yours. If you want to know the whole story, then you better hope you make it here consciously and dont give me a hard time, because right now...a lot of it depends on me," she said threateningly.
Vegeta frowned. Just as her beauty had grown so had her mouth annd lack of respect. "Whats your plan, wench?"
"Name's Celeste. And right now, I dont exactly have a plan."
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Come on, Bulma, come on! Think! Think!! Bulma thought furiously, trying to figure out a way to solve the problem at hand. Sure, she had considered the possibility of failing. But now that the prince had seen she was responsible for everything and she was currently working in the lab, she had to prove herself to be worthy of the position. Failing was not an option.
She had weighed her options. Sending a separate pod with extra fuel. Impossible. It would take waay too long for the pod to reach there. And even once it got there, transefering it would be even more difficult. Creating some kind of provisionary pad for the ship to land on was also impossible. First, because it would take too long to create it. and second, because even if they could create it in...25 minutes, they wouldnt know where the ship would land on. So that was out of the question. Changing routes to land on another planet? Too late for that. She'd looked it up only to find that the closest planet next to Vegitasaei was Lord Frieza's. Well over an hour. By the time they changed routes, the ship would already be well on its way down an empty space. At the mercy of gravity.
Gravity...that's it! Oh my gosh! If the ship is directed towards Vegitasei, then the force of gravity surrounding the core would actually force the ship down! Yes!! Well, it's this or nothing, Bulma said, clapping her hands at her new-found resolution. She walked quickly towards the monitor and pressed it on, opening the channel that would connect her throgh the ship. She waited a couple of seconds until a signal came on and a bald young man, with human-like appearance appeared on the screen. The prince was right behind him; so was Kakarot.
"Krillin here," Krillin greeted, "any solution to our small problem?" he asked. Bulma noticed he was actually sweating profusely. Of course, his life and the life of the rest of the humans on board were practically at her mercy. She also noticed the cold glare the prince was giving her.
"Ok, you have twenty minutes until you reach here. That's twenty minutes of fuel. You are already near the planet's orbit, meaning that the ship can already feel the planet's gravity, which is very strong," Bulma explained, though somewhat guessing- hoping that they were somewhere near it.
"No, we're not. It would require us to be at least 15 minutes away in order to feel the planet's gravity," Vegeta said challengingly.
"Oh," Bulma said.
She was unable to say much else as she noticed a small movement within the ship.
"Watch out!" Goku yelled as he bumped against Vegeta.
"What the fuck?!" Vegeta yelled.
"That's the gravitaional pull. Guess she was right," Krillin said.
Vegeta snorted, furious that he'd been proven wrong.
Bulma smiled. "Good. Now, I am going to ask you to shut down the power of the ship."
"W-what? Why? How is that gonna help?!" Krillin asked alarmed.
"You dont know what the hell you're doing, slave," Vegeta said angrily. Shutting down the power was just absurd.
"If you shut down the power, you will have enough fuel for the landing. The ship will not lose its course of direction because gravity will be pulling it down towards the planet itself. Once you've hit the planet's atmosphere you can turn it back on and you will use the saved fuel for a safe landing," Bulma said with a smile.
"Th-that sounds like it might just work," Krillin said nodding.
"If that doesnt work, wench, I swear to you I will crush your skull with my hand!" the prince threatened.
"I'm sure you will, my prince," Bulma said with a sarcastic smile, "Krillin, the sooner the better. Good luck!"
"Here we go then!" Krillin said as he hit the 'main shut down' button and everything went black, "now we wait."
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"What is going on?" The king demanded as he stormed in.
Bulma whirled around, taken by surprise. Very rarely did the king bother to enter the science lab. "Ah, the elite ship had a small problem, but everything has been taken care of," he said nonchalantly.
The king frowned. She didnt even acknowledge his presence, "How did you figure out the landing? They dont have enough fuel," he asked, narrowing his eyes.
How much, exactly, does he know and how? Bulma thought curiously, "We decided to...economize the little fuel they had and use it for the landing. thye should have enough," she said plainly, shutting off a monitor.
The king raised his eyebrows. Dr. Gero had made it sound like she would be incapable of handling the situation. But it looked like she'd kept her cool.
"Your little plan had better work, little woman," the king taunted.
"Oh, it will, little man," Bulma said bitterly with a wink as she turned to shut down the tanks.
The king clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. How a simple human girl could get on everyone's nerves by simply openeing her mouth was beyond him.
Bulma looked at her watch, "Ok, let's see how they did," she said as she turned the power on the monitor back on and searched for the signal. She was a bit worrieed when a couple of minutes passed by and she recieved no feedback.She did, however, let out a sigh of relief when Krillin's face popped up, though, a bit frightened.
"Ok, Krillin again. We just turned the power back on...but I think we're too close for a full landing. I mean, we can already see the castle and we're going full speed!" Krillin said despeartely.
"Ok, then just decelerate. Bring down the speed to almost nothing...and then do the landing. It'll work...trust me," Bulma said calmly, though having no experience whatsoever in landing.
"Ok. Everybody, buckle up!" Krillin shouted as he prepared for the landing.
"Wench, you better be right about this!" the prince's voice was heard in the background. Bulma smirked, not knowing why she was so confident about the whole thing when there was a great possibility that it might just fail. But she couldnt- wouldnt- let it fail. She had to save her fellow humans on board; Yamcha, in particular.
Nevertheless, the landing was perfectly beautiful, and everyone got out unscratched. Except for the prince's scowl on his face, everyone was just more than happy to be back home (well, as close as home could get) and alive.
"Celeste, right?" The king said with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, your majesty," Bulma said, surprised that the king had said her name. Well, her fake name, anyway.
"I am...more than impressed. You have shown great skill...a skill, even, that looks like it might have exceeded Gero's. I want to put you in charge of this whole wing," the king said, nodding as he looked around.
"W-what?" Bulma asked unbelievingly.
The king laughed, "Well, you actually stuttered! Gero's getting clumsier by the minute, and something about him tells me he's got something up his sleeve; I dotn trust that. I'll keep him around here for a while, but I dont want him doing the honors. I'll leave that to you."
"But...he'll hate me!"
The king smirked, "I have a feeling he already does...and besides, since when do you care whether people hate you or not? You've made a point of it that you dont want to be liked."
Bulma raised her eyebrows, "You're right about that, your majesty. I have enough people that dislike me, but I wouldnt want more than my fair share. It could put my life in danger, you know?" she said jokingly.
The king laughed, "Yes, of course. You have a good sense of humor, little one. I actuallt like having you around. Report to me early in the morrow at the palace court. Gero will hand you the master keys. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must receive my elites and my son."
"Very well, your majesty," Bulma said as she made a small bow- the first ever.
"You should attend the welcome banquet we have for the elites. I'm sure they would be most thankful to you," the king said.
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OK PEOPLES! I know I said tehre was going to be a HUGE encounter between Bulma and Vegeta, but I guess that'll have to wait for the next chapter because this one was just longer than I expected. Well, there you go. Little miss Bulma has proven herself to be quite a genius in the simplest of ways and...will she soon obtain the respect of others? or will she still be seen as a mere human slave? Hope not! Anyway, next chapter will be VERY interesting. Bulma was invited to the banquet at the palace...sparks will definitely fly! But between her and Yamcha?...or her and the mighty (gorgeous) Prince?! Read on, people...read on! Dont forget to review!!!!!!!!!!!