Okay, I'm not even going to comment on how long it has been… Just noting it's the same stuff every time, and it isn't making any difference whether I write it or not. So yeah…
But still, sorry for the long wait! Sorry to those of you following me/the story, I'm sure the sight of an update from my side in your inbox might have started thoughts of an incoming apocalypse (okay, I think I've commented enough on how long it's been since last chapter now).
This one's written yesterday with a read-through today before publishing. It is non-betaed and written by a Dane, so I apologize for bad grammar and maybe a weird choice of words sometimes.
Enjoy!
"Uargh!" Bulma grabbed the pillow from the bed and slammed it to the ground. After stomping around for a few minutes she finally sat down and took a few, deep breaths. Five days had passed, and the four Pera chiefs were still questioning her authority even though Vegeta had told them to listen to her several times. The thought of using the shifter against them showing them how easily she could take away their power had grazed her mind, but she had dismissed it. Vegeta's clear display of pain when she had called for him had terrified her. If the use of the shifter left the victim in pain for several days she only wanted to use it as a last resort. She had been pleased to see the healing-feature of the shifter had helped Vegeta - it had minimized her feeling of guilt for putting him through the physical and mental pain outside the temple.
A red flashing light from the shifter drew her attention and she grabbed the pillow from the floor and threw it onto the bed. Just as she left the bedroom she heard the soft knocks at the door and Cucum's low voice asking for entrance. Bulma answered the door with a smile, trying to ignore the nervous twitch the gesture caused in the saiyan woman. "Please do enter Cucum." The woman entered with her gaze firmly at the ground and quickly made her way into the kitchen. A sting of loneliness hit Bulma but she chose to ignore it. She had chosen to leave earth, she had chosen to accept the azkurians' offer and she had chosen to play this role of goddess. No one had forced either of those things on her, and so she felt she could not complain.
While she waited for her dinner Bulma wrote down all she could remember about the astronomy regarding the Pera tribe. She was pleased to see she had remembered everything – correctly on top of that – when she checked with the tables and instructions she had gotten from the azkurians. It had only been out of boredom, since she had gotten everything right since the first time she had tested herself. Her entire life she had always remembered everything she had read, heard or otherwise come to know of, so it wasn't surprising her. Somehow she still got insecure about it, the thought of teaching this knowledge to other while playing the role of an all-knowing goddess made her nervous since she wouldn't be able to tell the saiyans she had made a mistake. Not that she had ever done so when teaching others, but being unable to take one wrong step made her feel like the thin line she was walking was even harder to balance on top of.
"Your dinner is ready, Ms. Bulma." The small voice of Cucum yanked Bulma out of her thoughts and she quickly collected the papers and capsulated them before leaving the bedroom.
"Thank you, Cucum, it looks delicious." A pot of a steaming hot dish, best described as ragout, was filling the room with a sweet yet spicy aroma and made Bulma realize how hungry she actually was. "I'm glad Vegeta assigned such an excellent cook for me," she noted as she smiled at the saiyan woman. Cucum was bowing her head as usual but Bulma could see a small smile forming at the corner of the woman's lips for a brief moment.
"Thank you, please enjoy your meal." A bit less skittish than usual Cucum left the house and Bulma to herself once again.
The food was indeed delicious, and Bulma even had more than she should – she was still not used to the crops of the planet, they somehow caused a greater sense of satiety than earth crops. A portion the size of what she would eat back home made her feel completely stuffed. And today she had taken a bit more than that, which she paid dearly for now as her stomach almost began aching from too much food. She willed herself to set the rest of the food aside and do her dish before going into the bedroom and lying down on the bed. She had only closed her eyes when her shifter suddenly began beeping.
Bulma quickly got up and tried to figure out what to do – she feared if any saiyans were just outside the house they would hear what was going on inside of it. She punched at the blinking button and suddenly a hologram of Niel appeared before her like Qaklu had done when she was on her way to Planet Vegeta.
"Niel," she whispered, still cautious of the possibility of eavesdropping saiyans, "I'm in the center of a village, I can't talk!" He heart was beating so hard her voice almost drowned in the sound of her own pulse. Niel nodded and the hologram disappeared. With a sigh of relief Bulma dropped down onto the bed again, waiting for her heart to calm down.
Naveta let a hand caress one of his braids as he stared out of the window, looking at the setting sun. It was the worst kind of news he could think of he had just received, so he had to think things through. He had called for his chiefs, but it would still take two days before they all would be with him, so he had time to think.
A gathering of the Pera-chiefs. It was something he thought – perhaps even hoped – he would never hear off. Such a hostile tribe with fights among its own villages, for their chiefs to all meet up something was about to happen.
He had lost his two sons to the war and his wife to the lack of will to fight her own wounds after watching their youngest son pass away. His brother was missing an arm and one of his nephews had also lost his life during the dreadful fights more than a decade ago. His tribe had spent years to lick their wounds and get back on their feet when the war stopped. If not a Holy had appeared, and the war had continued, the Kamei tribe might not even be here anymore.
Just because of the false accusation against his tribe.
Had all tribes fought each other it would have been either Pera or Kamei as the last tribe standing. But the focus on his tribe had spared Sarpam and Kebun, since their only casualties by Pera hands had been warriors targeting them to get resources. Sarpam and Kebun had only targeted his own tribe – Pera had seized the opportunity to let their violent nature run loose, trying to get their only actual enemy wiped clean of the planet's surface.
Naveta left his house and walked down the main road of his village, heading towards his brother's house. They had much to discuss: tactics, which kind of weapon to make more of and which to stop producing for now. And most importantly how much more training and instructions his nephew had to get before being able to replace Naveta as chief of the tribe.
It was chilly outside, but Bulma didn't mind. She had fallen asleep after her scare with Niel's call, but it had been so early in the evening she had woken now, in the middle of the night. The thought of why he might have tried to contact her had made it impossible for her to fall asleep again; therefor she had decided to take a walk to get away from the village and try to contact Mallen. The village was quite, a nice change of pace from the normal buzzing. As she reached the edge of the village she was surprised to see two heavily build men guarding the terrain. Bulma decided just to walk past them and only speak to them if they addressed her. The only exchange when she left the city was the men's gazes, but none of them said anything to her. After ten minutes or so Bulma was certain she was far enough away from the city to be out of earshot. The trees in the small cluster she had walked into would also make her harder to spot, should someone look in her direction. She swiftly looked through the menu in her shifter and found what she was looking for.
Niel's face quickly appeared in the form of a hologram. "Hi Niel, I'm sorry for the trouble earlier."
"No, I'm sorry, I should have thought about the risks of contacting you like this. General Mallen is aware of the situation, and it won't happen again." It almost looked like he made a tiny grimace when he mentioned the other soldier's name. Bulma could only imagine the scolding Niel would have gotten when the general realized what had happened. "The reason I contacted you was to forward a message from your parents."
"My parents?" Bulma felt her pulse rise a bit. Her father had been traveling her entire life, attending conferences or doing research all over the globe – something she had done herself when she had reached the age of 13, if her mother had not been too worried about it possibly stressing her she would have done it even earlier. For the first couple of years she had always been accompanied by one of her parents, but from the age of 15 she had traveled alone. The feeling of being homesick had never been present, and she hadn't thought much of home since leaving earth, but at the mention of her parents she suddenly felt a twist in her stomach.
"Yes, they have sent a message. I tried to see if it was possible to send it like text to your shifter, but I couldn't find a way. So if you would like it, I could read it to you?" Bulma nodded slowly, trying to ignore her elevated pulse.
Niel cleared his throat and read out loud: "Dear Bulma. We hope you and your companions are doing great out there. Even though we have been separated for longer periods of time before it feels so very different, knowing you're not even on the planet. We're both doing great; Mom's apple-pie won the farmers market's contest of fruit-pies. Dad has gotten a new project regarding robots building houses in the third world. We look forward to hear from you, but we are in contact with the military and hear there's still reports back home that you're all safe. Love Mom and Dad."
Bulma fought to hold back tears, suddenly overwhelmed with loneliness and homesickness. The last two week with aliens surrounding her, be it glaring angry men or the fearful Cucum, not a single being talking with her in a normal fashion had obviously bothered her more than she had been aware of. "Bulma, are you okay?" Niels somewhat concerned voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she quickly nodded.
"Yes I'm fine, thank you for reading it to me. Would you be so kind and write to them, that I'm doing fine and we've discovered far more than we could ever dream of. Write that I will tell them all about it when I get home, but it would be unwise to tell much via these messages. And that I love them." Niel nodded while looking down, obviously writing down what she said. A tiny diode began flashing at her shifter and even though she wasn't a hundred percent sure of the reason. She quickly ended the conversation with Niel. "I think someone's coming, I gotta go."
Seconds after cutting the line she slowly turned around to look in the direction of the village. If his hair had not been golden she wouldn't have spotted him right away, his figure easily camouflaged by the surrounding trees. Even though she had been alone with him before Bulma somehow felt uncomfortable being isolated in the woods with Vegeta.
"Out for some fresh air?" His seemingly innocent question was hiding an underlying suspicion, which his voice could not hide.
"I could ask you the same thing." She tried to keep her cool but was completely aware of her pulse skyrocketing at the moment. It hadn't settled during the chat with Niel and the vibe she got from Vegeta seemed like one of a predator, much like she had felt the first time she met him. And she was certain he could hear it.
"Who were you talking to?" His stern voice and out-of-the-blue question showed he did not have any intention of playing games. Bulma's throat went dry.
"That is none of your business, Vegeta," she said as calm and collected as she could. "But if you're so curious, I was in contact with my servants. Just know this, another time I won't be so forgiving if you try to meddle too much in my affairs." She knew she was saying too much, talking too harsh and in general close to losing her composure.
"Ice cold the first day, somewhat caring towards Cucum afterwards and now you're losing your temper. I thought an all-mighty goddess would be more calm and collected." He was smirking while mocking her. "Perhaps there's something you're hiding, oh mighty goddess? Is that why your heart is beating so fast?"
"Watch your tongue, Vegeta, or I will leave you in the same fashion I left Nappa when I arrived." Even though she had felt like not using the shifter like that again she could feel she had no problem doing it to him at the moment. Just talking with Niel, another human being, hearing the letter from her parents and suddenly realizing how lonely she was had thrown her feeling into chaos and her common sense the same way.
Vegeta's smirk became stiffer and it seemed he tensed up from the threat of being paralyzed once again. But his gaze somewhat kept its pride-full vibe, and it seemed like he dared her do it with his eyes. For a few moments they stared at each other until Bulma no longer could stand staring into the hard blue eyes. She took her arms behind her back, preparing to power down if it had to be used. The movement made Vegeta's eyes flinch for a moment, before he stared at her once again, this time with something darker lurking in his blue pools.
"Goodnight Vegeta," she said as calmly as she could and moved past him. She had taken a few steps before she felt a pressure like a strong wind hitting the back of her head and the sound of a quick attempt to gain foothold. Bulma turned around and looked at Vegeta for a second before raising her hand, pointing her shifter at him and powering him down.
His roars of pain and anger somehow calmed her down – it was like the feeling of control over another being put her own pain and loneliness at ease. At the same time feelings of horror and disgust filled her while watching him spasm at the ground a few feet away, seeing how his body struggled as the color of his hair switched back and forth from yellow to black until it stayed black. His body became still and the only sound escaping him was low moans of agony.
Not knowing what else to do Bulma turned on her heels, walked out of the forest, got into the air and made her way back to the village, trying to ignore how bad she felt about what she had done.
The following morning Bulma was woken by the roar of Nappa as he barged through the front door: "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE HOLY!?" Frightened by the giant man and panicking by what might have happened when she left Vegeta alone, Bulma got a bit too quickly out of the bed with a look of horror across her face.
She quickly got her facial muscles under control, which could not be said about her panic. "What do you mean, Nappa?" Her voice didn't shake as much as she had feared it would.
"He isn't to be found anywhere and the guards told me he left the village after you but you returned alone. What. Have. You. Done?" He almost spat the last words out – a vein in his forehead was showing so clearly Bulma feared it might burst if he got any angrier.
"He and I had a talk and he had to stay alone for some time to think about our conversation. I believed he would return when he had given it some thought, perhaps he is still contemplating some of the points we discussed." She hoped the brute would be taken a bit back by what she said, but it seemed to almost do the opposite. If she did not know better she would expect his eyes to pop out of the sockets any moment. "Nappa take some men and search just around the city, I will search for him in another way."
The giant man looked at her for some time before nodding reluctantly and leaving the house. With a somewhat heavy heart Bulma sat down at the bed and opened the menu of her shifter. She recollected seeing somewhere in all the shifter's menus and settings something about being able to track energy levels of all lifeforms and even narrowing it down to specific species if the shifter had been calibrated.
A few minutes later she had found what she sought and could see the shifter had been calibrated to a bunch of species, luckily including saiyans. She activated the setting and the screen showed a lot of small red dots all around her. Quickly she left the house and got into the air, having made this one of the quickbuttons of the shifter. She flew towards the small collections of trees she had left Vegeta in, but the small dot at the edge of her shifter only seemed to get a bit bigger but not closer to her. After some time where she flew around trying to get closer to the ever growing dot at the edge of the screen, Bulma suddenly found herself hovering above the grand temple. The dot had started moving closer to the center of the shifter's screen as she flew, and now it was almost perfectly centered. Cautiously she descended to the top step of the stairs and looked into the darkness. The ominous feeling she had gotten the last time hit her as soon as she set foot into the temple. Only a few steps into the temple she suddenly felt a jerk in the shifter and a weird sensation hit her for a second. Qaklu's warning of using the shifter in the temple came to mind, but she dismissed it – it was a way of respecting the saiyans religious belief, and right now no saiyan was in sight. Bulma looked at the shifter but the dot seemed to jump around while changing size, as if Vegeta was jumping here and there while his energy changed. She thought the shifter might have been hit by a malfunction and closed the program quickly, fearing it could stress the device enough for it to shut down completely – leaving her in 10 times earth's gravitational pull with nothing to help her survive it.
Lalun sat at his desk pondering the situation at Planet Vegeta. He hadn't gotten much information from the humans – it seemed the woman was alone on the planet and her companions had only been in contact with her once to read a letter from Earth. He could see what she did with her shifter, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. Her use of the energy-radar had puzzled him, but he could not just contact her and ask her since that would tell her she was being watched.
Qaklu was getting impatient, but Lalun tried to calm down his superior by stating the humans needed more time. They had only been in contact with the saiyans for 15 days, and it was their first time interacting with alien races in the way they did. But actually he was even more impatient and anxious than Qaklu. The older man had a great deal of insight and interest in the saiyan race, after all it was the greatest asset of his quadrant – but he still had to focus on other tasks and other planets, while Lalun only had this one to think about. And at the moment all he had was a lowly human with no idea of the real purpose of the azkurians' help in her quest. They had not yet found an agent fitting the criteria for being sent down on Planet Vegeta. He had even tried to see if he could become humanoid, but it only worked for two hours and then he would need almost seven hours break before he could change again.
Lalun started looking through all the files he had about this project of his. They had been so close to their goal, but then war broke out and the azkurians had to leave the planet, unable to conduct their research. It had been so promising, the saiyans' energylevels had been easily to manipulate but the effect would only be temporary. But still, they had improved along the way, from only lasting a few minutes to an hour – even more depending on the specimen and what tools were used. Manipulating the level of fetuses had proven to be an effective way of getting an everlasting effect, even though caution had to be used. Manipulating too much had led to miscarriage or stillbirth – a few babies had died within their first living week since their bodies had experienced too much stress during the pregnancy-experiments. A few years after beginning those tests Lalun and his team had finally found the right way to manipulate the fetuses – making sure through readings during the hours before and after the procedure that the fetus hadn't taken any harm. They had pushed the boundaries, making greater and greater progress each time until they had gotten hold of the woman named Gine.
She had visited the Kebun village Lalun's agent had been shaman in. Her unborn child had been restless and the agent had taken her to the laboratory in the temple, telling Gine he would help her ask the ancestors to make the child hurt her less than he did at the time. As soon as she was sedated Lalun and his team had started working, checking their readings five times before accepting they were correct. The child's energylevel was almost twice as high as any they had ever seen. All other readings showed the child was healthy and balanced at all parameters. After much discussion Lalun had decided against almost his entire team to try and alter the fetus' energy. He had been careful, he believed he could not have done it differently, but something went wrong. Suddenly all readings of mother and child had skyrocketed just to drop down in the next instance. The azkurians had panicked, none of them had ever seen anything like it – just as they believed Gine had died her readings went up again, this happened so many times Lalun hadn't been able to keep track of it.
Suddenly it had all stopped. All Gine's readings went back to normal but the child's were almost at zero. They had tried to stabilize it, but it only resulted in Gine's readings to alter once again. The last resort was removing the child for further studies – the mother was only saved because her mate was leader of the Sarpam tribe. Lalun had asked the agent to fabricate some kind of believable story, knowing the woman had done so several times with great success. But this time her story had started something even the azkurians had not anticipated. A white lie turned into a horrible truth and a reason for war to take hold of the saiyan race.
Lalun sighed and stretched his limbs one at a time while thinking about what might have happened had he not decided to overrule his team just because of his seniority. Would Gine's child have become a Holy? Would he have been the missing clue to how the saiyans had this immense power? It was impossible to know, but he was certain the war would never had begun had he not done as he did. For such a lowly race it was actually surprising they had not had greater conflicts during the couple of decades he had spent at the planet. After working with other races for so many centuries he knew war was always a part of how civilizations evolved, so he did not feel any guilt or remorse igniting this one. Only disappointment that he had not yet reached his goal…
As he sat pondering one of the surveillance-cams he was monitoring suddenly became activated and he saw the entrance to the Grand Temple. Lalun got out of his seat and was surprised to see the human woman enter the temple alone. He quickly activated all his systems, checking the status of the active parts of the temple. After the incident with Gine the instruments had started acting out and the azkurians had encountered several problems with interferences between their shifters and the temple. Something they had never experienced before, and the high activity of saiyans seeking the ancestors' guidance during wartime had made it almost impossible for them to figure out what was going on. The humans' shifters had been affected by this too, even though they had not been used in any way except camouflage and anti-gravitation inside the temple. He had even seen the temple's instruments acting out as soon as the humans had entered. Minutes passed by with only small alternations of the shifter and instruments' numbers, but suddenly the human's shifter started acting up. He could see it sent several error-messages, covering almost every feature it had, even those she had never used.
Lalun activated his shifter and contacted Qaklu. His superior's face came into sight in an instance. "Sir, I believe you should get down here immediately. The human has entered the temple." Without answering Qaklu cut the line but only moments later he entered Lalun's lab.
"Why has she entered the temple?" Qaklu was looking at the readings of the instruments, everything was acting chaotically.
"I do not know, maybe someone has entered the temple when I wasn't here. Let me just check." As Lalun was about to see when the camera had been activated last and why the live-feed came to live once again.
In silent astonishment the two azkurians watched Vegeta leaving the temple caring an unconscious, non-camouflaged Bulma in his arms.
Da-da-dummmmmm! (My take on suspension-music…) We've almost reached the point I'm looking most forward to write, so if you're lucky there might be an update soon. And I know now why I've told myself not to write when I've been busy. I always get caught up in it and can't put it down – and it's not very clever to sit and write until past midnight when you have to get up and go to lectures at 8 am…. But I hope to find a way to write sometimes, I've really missed it!