I'm on a BulmaxVegeta kick these days so you get to enjoy more frequent updates from me! Yay!

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~Pamgie

Ch 7: A Little Detour

Once the ship had reached it's interplanetary speed and the ride had smoothed out, Bulma freed herself from the harness in her chair, stood up and stretched her legs. She was chuckling a bit watching the two big Saiyans try and bypass her lock out so they could reroute the ship. They honestly reminded her of two lumbering apes just hitting random keys.

"Damn it, that should have worked!" Cursed Nappa as he ran his hand over his face. He looked towards Bulma to see she was also up and about, not seeming to care that they were trying to reroute the ship.

"Hey you! Woman! I demand you turn this ship around right now!" He yelled, a finger pointed in her direction as he came bounding towards her.

Bulma's carefree attitude changed immediately and she quickly took out her ki gun, aiming it at the bald Saiyan. "Sorry no can do."

"Look lady, put the toy gun away and just undo your lock out. I'm only asking this one time. Next time I won't be so nice." He glared at her as he cracked his knuckles.

"Oh, I think I'll hold onto to this 'toy' as you call it. It's not as harmless as you think. Would you like a demonstration?" Bulma pointed the weapon at an empty storage tub near the door to the bridge, aimed and fired.

Nappa saw this as his opportunity to disarm the woman and maybe 'persuade' her to unlock the navigation using his fists, but he halted his steps within a foot of her as he saw the storage tub vaporized before his eyes.

"What the fuck!?"

Bulma just smirked and aimed the gun back at Nappa.

Raditz stopped what he was doing at the navigation console and looked over his shoulder. "What, did I miss something?"

"What the hell kind of weapon is that?" Nappa growled out, slightly apprehensive now but not wanting the woman to know that, he kept his gruff demeanor in place.

Now she had the undivided attention of both Saiyans. She held the weapon in front of her, almost caressing it as she skimmed her hand across the sleek barrel. "Oh I'm so glad you asked! You see, I invented this puppy myself! I replicated the energy that you Saiyans and some of my fellow earthlings can produce, ki, and was able to make it so that it could be produced by a chemical reaction outside of the body. It's self replicating so I don't need ammo of any kind. I just built the housing around the components in charge of the reaction-here" She pointed to what looked like a small orb protruding from the weapon, "built the mechanism that would trigger the chemical reaction, and viola! my very own ki gun!" She beamed at the two, very proud of her accomplishment.

Raditz and Nappa stood there with their mouths agape. Neither had ever heard of such a device, or even that one could ever be made. The only things they knew that could manipulate ki were living beings. But this mere fragile woman had accomplished the seemingly impossible.

Raditz was the first to come out of his daze. "Well, now we know why Frieza wants her alive..."

Nappa snapped his head to the younger Saiyan. "Shut up you idiot!"

Bulma smiled at hearing this again. "You do know your leader or captain, whatever he is already mentioned that don't you? But nevertheless, it's helpful to know."

The two Saiyans looked to each other, at a loss on what to do. They couldn't reroute the ship without access to the navigation system and they couldn't access the navigation system without her access codes which she clearly had no intention of giving them. They also couldn't try brute force unless they wanted to be vaporized into nothing. None of this needed to be said verbally to one another, as they both were seasoned warriors, used to analyzing a situation in a moments notice. However, this situation was unlike any they had come across.

Raditz was the first to act, and he walked closer to the woman, but stopped several feet away leaning against a panel lit up with displays. "So, since we can't access the nav system, mind telling us where we're going?"

Bulma looked up from polishing her ki gun, a slightly surprised look on her face. She was expecting more fight from them. They must realize she has the upper hand in this scenario. They appeared smarter than she thought just a moment ago.

"A planet." Was her only reply as she sat in the captain's chair and resumed polishing her weapon.

"And...? What planet is that?" He continued.

"That's on a need to know basis, and you two don't need to know." She replied.

She heard growling and looked up to see a seriously pissed looking Saiyan.

Nappa nearly had steam coming out of his nostrils. He'd had it with his lady! He knew she wasn't all that strong physically. If he could just get that weapon out of her hands...He just had to be quick about it.

As he was formulating a plan, the ship rocked violently, causing the two men still standing to stumble and crash to the ground. Luckily Bulma was sitting and just braced herself. When the movement subsided, she quickly placed her ki gun in it's harness and made her way to the front console.

"View screen, on!" She commanded, and a second later their view was nothing but giant space rocks left and right, some still hitting the ship.

"Shit!" She cursed as she began typing commands into the nav system and taking a seat at the station. Nappa and Raditz both righted themselves and their eyes went wide at the visual in front of them.

"I'm switching the nav system to manual." Bulma announced, not sure why she was, but she supposed it was just habit. She didn't particularly care in that moment if her two would be captors got jostled around a bit.

Seeing this as an opportunity to gain control of the vessel, Nappa whispered into his scouter. "Vegeta, I think I have my chance, going to get control of this damn ship." He then silenced his scouter so she wouldn't hear the reply. He honestly didn't care what Vegeta had to say, he just wanted to let him know he was still actively trying to do his job. He eased his way over to her by keeping a hand on the control panels as we went. It took some effort to keep his footing with how much the ship was shaking as it was bombarded by small asteroids, but soon, he made it close enough to touch the navigation panel. Raditz was eyeing him skeptically the whole time.

Before he had a chance to make a move, Bulma turned to look in his direction. "Yea, I know you're there. And I wouldn't try it if I were you unless you want all of us to die." She quickly went back to steering the ship between the large hunks of space rock coming right at them.

Nappa looked out the view screen and his eyes widened as he saw the impossibly small spaces she was steering the ship through. Her piloting skills were impressive, though he was loathe to admit it. The more time they spent around this woman, the more he understood how it was that she got so close to Frieza and made it out alive.

"Hey big guy, take a seat already will ya? Let the lady do her thing." Raditz yelled over the sound of bombardments.

Nappa glared at his comrade then slowly made his way to an empty seat, plopping down into it with a thud, though it was barely felt due to their current predicament. He looked over to Raditz, who despite their situation looked almost relaxed with his hands resting behind his head.

"Some Saiyan you are."

"'scuse me? Careful there, those are fighting words." Raditz countered.

"You heard me! We have a job to do, get the girl to Frieza, and here you are letting her take us to who knows where, not even lifting a damn finger!" The ship shuddered violently, pausing their argument.

"Sorry!" Bulma yelled.

Nappa rolled his eyes then looked back over to Raditz, whose face showed he was beyond pissed at the older Saiyan's statement.

"Dude, look around us. There's not much we can do in this scenario. She's got a weapon that can vaporize shit, and we're traveling through an asteroid field. Both are deadly. Not to mention we're in a confined space. If an opportunity shows itself I won't hesitate, but I also don't plan on dying during this mission. "

Nappa sighed in resignation. He knew what Raditz was saying was true, but he didn't like feeling helpless in any situation. "Lazy ass." He muttered for good measure, loud enough for Raditz to hear.

"I heard that. Once we get out of this tin can, your ass is mine old man!" He challenged.

Nappa smirked at that. "Hah! Not likely boy!" He taunted back.

Their banter was cut short by Bulma. "Hey guys-trying to concentrate over here! You two can tease each other all you want once I get us out of this mess!" She quickly pulled up the map for the quadrant they were in, seeing a planet nearby that could sustain life, she altered her course, making a sharp left turn startling the two Saiyans.

"Hey, watch it lady! you're going to get us killed!" Nappa yelled.

"That's enough from the back seat driver, thank you!" Bulma replied. "I found a planet, we're going to be landing as soon as I clear this field."

"Back seat driver?" Raditz repeated.

Nappa shrugged his shoulders.

The shaking and rocking of the ship continued and became worse as Bulma tried her best winding through the maze of space debris. She could see the end in sight though and that brought a smile to her face. "Almost there!" She said more to herself than for the benefit of the other two.

Within a few minutes, they had cleared the field and Bulma heaved a sigh of relief, but that relief didn't last long as now that her attention had shifted from getting them through the field, she noticed all the warning lights flashing around her.

"You have got to be kidding me!" She said to no one in particular. The turbulence had not subsided and both Raditz and Nappa looked to each other in confusion, then looked to the view screen, seeing no asteroids in sight.

"There must be damage to the ship." Nappa commented.

Raditz didn't reply, just had a concerned look on his face as he watched the blue haired woman work at the controls of the ship in a frenzy. She ran her fingers across her scalp in frustration, noticing that her braid was much looser than it was that morning. One of the storage tanks was leaking fuel into space and the engine was damaged. To what extent she wasn't sure, and wouldn't know until she could get out and actually look at it. That was if any of them were going to make it out of this alive.

The planet she had mentioned earlier was now visible on the view screen and they were heading right for it. "Well, it's going to be a very bumpy landing. Hang on."

Vegeta had just gotten Nappa's message.

"Well it's about time!" He snapped. No reply. "Nappa! Nappa Respond!" Nothing but silence greeted him.

"Hopefully he'll do his fucking job and we can be done with all of this." He sighed out. His pod was still tracking their ship and even though it wasn't in visual range at the moment he had their location on his small console in front of him.

He looked up to see he was approaching an asteroid field of some kind and looked back down to see the ship he was tracking was right in the middle of it.

"Of course, leave it to them to fly into an asteroid field." If the woman died, he was sure his own death wouldn't be too far behind. He calculated the size of the field and made adjustments to his course so that he'd fly around it, while still keeping close tabs on the ship.

He noticed that the ship was still intact after several minutes and was curious who was flying the thing. It couldn't be on auto pilot and he knew Nappa and Raditz' skills with spacecraft were basic at best. That left the woman. So, she had more than a few tricks up her sleeve. Interesting. But in the end it wouldn't matter. Vegeta was a selfish man, the only reason he was still alive was due to his strength, intelligence and survival skills. He wasn't going to let this little mission be the end of him. He had plans, for revenge, and redemption of his people. That was his priority. No woman, no matter what his gut was telling him, would get in the way of that.

He looked back down at his console and saw the ship had changed course, it was now traveling horizontally through the field instead of going straight through. What were they thinking? Surely such a sudden change in course would only cause more damage. Yet it was somehow making it through. This change in course allowed his pod to catch up a little and the ship was now in visual range.

It was heading towards a planet nearby. Now that he had them in visual range he magnified his view and noticed smoke was whirling around it and it seemed unsteady in it's path to the planet. He also noticed it wasn't slowing down much either.

He continued following the ship as it entered the planets atmosphere, not too far behind, but just enough so that his pod wouldn't get caught in any aftermath. He watched as it crashed in a deep gorge between two rocky plateaus. it wasn't long until his own pod landed heavily at the edge of one of the said plateaus. He checked the planet's stats and found it had a suitable atmosphere so he began his pod's shutdown sequence.

As he was getting out however, he felt shaking beneath him. He quickly exited the pod but wasn't quick enough to save it from crashing into the gorge below. It appeared the ground he landed on wasn't solid enough. As the pod was descending he flew as quick as he could to try and keep huge boulders of solid rock from damaging his ship and was fairly successful, but not completely. There was too much rock coming down and a medium sized one smashed into the side of it, sending the pod careening into the side of the cliff where it hit hard, then fell to the floor of the gorge with a resounding crash.

He flew through the remaining debris coming down and landed amidst the remains of his pod and plenty of dust. Thankfully it was mostly intact as he walked around it, but who knows how it's internal components fared. There were several dents littering the hull including the rather large one from the boulder that hit it. He ran his gloved hand over them inspecting everything, leaving a fine coating of reddish brown dust on his pristine white gloves. He brushed his hands off on his uniform, got out his scouter, locating the ship only a few yards away with three faint ki levels. Good they were all alive.

As he got closer, the dust dissipated allowing Vegeta to see the damage caused. The ship was spherical in nature, and about a quarter of it was buried into the ground. It was on it's side still smoking. He noticed a strange symbol that he had never seen before, two circles, one on the outside complete and the inside one was only partially complete. He had no idea what it meant, but it piqued his curiosity.

He walked around looking for some kind of entrance to the thing and spotted what appeared to be a door at the top of the craft. He flew up and with little effort opened it and flew inside. It was quite disorienting going through the corridors of a ship that was on it's side. He checked every door he came across and found nothing, but then the corridor ended and there was an entrance into another room, what looked to be the door was crumpled up and to the side. He floated into the room which looked nothing short of disastrous. Wiring was coming out of one of the walls, which was actually the ceiling. Chairs were torn up from the floor and scattered around. He saw two large lumps on the ground that he immediately recognized as his comrades.

Vegeta walked over and nudged Raditz with his leg, getting a response, albeit delayed from the prone Saiyan. "Unnnh...Mmmn."

"Get up you weakling." Vegeta scolded as he walked over to Nappa and did the same. "Hmm...Huh? Veg..Ve-ge-ta?" Nappa moaned out as his eyes took their time focusing on the flame shaped hair of his prince.

"You too. Get your ass up. You've had worse beatings then this." Nappa slowly nodded and began trying to move his very sore body up and off the floor.

After waking up his two idiot team mates, he looked around the space and saw blue hair attached to a very still looking body. He checked his scouter once again and it showed she was still alive, which meant she must be unconscious. As he got closer and had a better look at her, he could see she had a laceration on her forehead that was still bleeding a bit, some of it getting into her uniquely colored hair. He looked her over and noticed one of her wrists looked to be in an awkward position, but otherwise she seemed unharmed. Seeing her lying there, he wouldn't have believed she could be so spirited and loud mouthed with how peaceful she looked in that moment. Her long eye lashes rested gently against her cheekbones, her pink lips pouted ever so slightly. He had never seen such an exotic and fair skinned female before.

He looked back over his shoulder to see Nappa assisting Raditz in getting up. He looked back over to the woman and picked her up quickly so they wouldn't see him staring at the her and made his way towards the exit. It didn't even feel like he was carrying anything, that's how light she was.

"Come on, let's get out of here, the ship is still smoking." He spoke as he flew past the duo and into the corridors. He made it out of the ship and flew a good distance from the crashes further up the gorge. As he held her in his arms he noticed that even her scent was unique, it reminded him of some kind of flower but he couldn't put a name to it. He set her down against a sloping rock and in the daylight could see she was getting a decent bruise around the laceration on her forehead.

It wasn't too long before he saw Nappa and Raditz come out of the ship and slowly make their way over to him. It was then that Vegeta heard the all too familiar sound of a pod entering the atmosphere. The buzzing became louder and louder, causing the ground to vibrate slightly. He looked above the ship and saw the pod crashing into the opposite side of the gorge and become embedded in the rock. It had to be that other Saiyan, though he was surprised he knew how to work a PTO issued pod, he figured he didn't know how to slow it down and start landing procedures.

Raditz and Nappa's heads snapped around to see what the commotion was about.

"It's just the other Saiyan, he must have followed us. There's no way it could be another PTO soldier, we're too far from the territory." Vegeta called to them.

They both nodded and quickened their pace to reach Vegeta and the woman. Who knew what would happen now with the appearance of the other Saiyan.

Vegeta heard another explosion, meaning that he must have destroyed the pod to get out. He kept his scouter trained on where the second pod crashed and saw the Saiyan had already exited and was quickly approaching them. "He's coming." He alerted the other two.

As they came up to Vegeta they both eyed the woman on the ground with what Vegeta swore was sympathy? and even worry? What the hell happened on that ship!?

They faced the direction the Saiyan was coming from and went into their battle stances. Vegeta chuckled and motioned for them to stand down. "You two are in no condition to fight. Keep your eye on the woman, I'll handle this." Stepping between them and towards the Saiyan who was now visible and flying to them rather quickly.

He touched down and began to run for the woman. "Bulma! Are you okay?" He yelled to her as Vegeta blocked him from going any further.

"She's alive, has a head wound and badly sprained wrist." He said plainly.

"Let me see her!" Goku said urgently, but none too gently.

"You can see her just fine from there." He replied.

Goku looked over to the two men standing over Bulma, then to the one right in front of him.

"Not good enough." Goku said as he flashed over to her, behind Nappa and Raditz and knelt down to look her over. She was still unconscious but breathing.

The two looked to Vegeta who was surprised by the man's speed, but nodded, letting them know to relax. He figured since all their ships were out of commission right now there was no where for him to take the woman that he wouldn't be able to track them down.

So they eased up and turned around to take a better look at the woman that saved their asses from destruction and death twice in a very short amount of time.

"Think she'll be alright?" Raditz asked as he came alongside who he was pretty confident was his brother Kakarott.

"I think so, but she might have a concussion." Goku responded moving the woman into his lap.

Nappa also moved closer. "She's such a fragile creature, I'm surprised she's lived this long fighting against the PTO."

"She's a lot tougher than most people give her credit for." Said Goku as he brushed a few stray hairs away from her head wound.

Vegeta watched the display of care his men were showing and it raised his hackles. Was this amateur hour? Why were they fraternizing with their target(s)? They should know better. Plus part of him didn't like the way they seemed so friendly toward the woman, but he quickly rid himself of that trivial thought.

He quickly approached the trio of men. "She'll be fine. Just a head wound and a sprained wrist, I checked her myself." He broke in between Nappa and Raditz, standing as tall as his smaller stature would afford him with his arms across his chest. "The more pressing matter at hand now is repairing the ships and getting supplies. Nappa I want you to search for a water source and collect as much as you can. Raditz? Go find us some food. And you." He pointed to Goku.

"Me?" He looked surprised at being spoken to like one of this guys men.

"Yes, you. Go find us something to start a fire with, wood...anything that's flammable. Who knows what the nights on this planet are like."

Goku looked to Bulma, then back up to the flame haired Saiyan, and shook his head. "I'm not leaving her."

Vegeta stared at the other Saiyan for what seemed to Goku like a very long time before he spoke again. "I won't repeat myself. You have your orders."

"And I don't report to you. I'm staying here." Goku said firmly.

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "You are a Saiyan, and I am your Prince! You will do as I say!"

"Prince?" Goku's brows furrowed in confusion.

With each response, Vegeta's temper and little amount of patience were wearing thin. "Yes. Prince. My Father was King of our people." He spat in anger. He didn't feel the need to educate this third class on the history and destruction of their world.

"Wow! A prince huh? You don't look much like a prince. If you're a prince why are you working for Frieza?"

Vegeta was barely keeping his ki under control at this point. He wanted to pound this guy into the dirt for his stupidity. But he didn't want to harm the woman any further than she already was. He needed her alive. "That. Is none of your business. Now go get something to make a damn fire with!" He shouted.

"I'm not leaving her." Goku replied again like a broken record.

Just then he felt some movement in his arms and looked down to see Bulma struggling to open her eyes. "J-Just go." she breathed out.

"Bulma, you're awake!"

"Goku, just go do what he asks." Bulma weakly pleaded.

"But I can't just leave you here, I won't."

"It'll be alright. I need to talk to him anyway."

Goku shook his head. He didn't like this idea. That guy's goons already captured her once and now they were stranded. He didn't know what he would do if anything happened to her, or how he'd explain it to everyone back at base.

"Trust m-me will ya?" She groaned as she tried to sit up a little. Goku helped her sit on her own with her back against the gorge wall. "We're still alive aren't we?"

Goku sighed, she did have a point. If they wanted them dead they would have killed them already. And didn't their leader say Frieza wanted Bulma alive? The fact he was still breathing had to be a good sign didn't it?

Leave it to Bulma to be so stubborn while dealing with some pretty painful injuries.

"Fine. I'll go, but I'll be as quick as I can." He relented to his friend. "And you, if I see that she's hurt worse than she is now...I will kill you." Goku's kind eyes disappeared and were replaced with those of a fierce warrior, one who meant what he said.

The corner of Vegeta's mouth turned up in a slight smirk. "I'd like to see you try."

Goku glared at him, then turned to Bulma and mouthed 'be careful' before he shot up into the sky to search for kindling for a fire.

I cut this chapter off here since There's a lot of character and relationship building in the next chapter that would have made this one super long. Unless you all like long chapters, then I'll just go crazy and type it out until I'm satisfied lol! Let me know your thoughts. :)

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xoxox

Pamgie