I had originally written this and the next chapter in the same document but decided to split it into two, I thought it had gotten a bit too long.
I haven't written it in the chapter, but it takes place a couple of months after last chapter, just to get some kind of idea of the time.
Hope you'll enjoy!
Bulma heard the door close and counted to twenty before leaping out of bed. She had been working on some training droids for Vegeta, but some nights ago she had discovered her reader, as she called her tablet, suddenly contained a large amount of books and documents on saiyan history and culture. She had only got the time to read when Vegeta wanted a small training session and thereby occupied the GR, but he was becoming more and more impatient thus her time to read had been decreased.
Learning about the history of Goku and Vegeta's race was thrilling and if she could she wouldn't do anything but read until she had read everything Freeza had had on the subject. She hadn't told Vegeta yet about her discovery, unsure what his reaction would be. Perhaps he didn't know how great a collection Freeza had had and the knowledge would anger him. Perhaps he didn't care. She didn't know and therefore she kept it to herself.
Last night Vegeta had wanted half an hour of training before calling it a day and she had of course started reading. She had started reading the books dated to be oldest and then moved forward in time, but her attention had been caught by a title on a document: "Child-purge: Earth". She had only just opened the document when the door opened and she had been forced to quickly close that part of the virtual library and open a random book. Vegeta had looked at the reader as he passed by and asked why she would be reading "The Tale of the Ten Tyrilan" – the religious book on a planet in what Freeza had named Sector Four. She had said something vaguely about just picking something random in order to get to know all kind of alien societies.
Normally she would have left the bed while he was dressing to get her reader and read while waiting for him to get back to eat breakfast. But today she didn't want to show she was reading, afraid he would start asking more about "The Tale of the Ten Tyrilan" as he had not seemed completely convinced by her explanation. Perhaps that had been the worst thing to do as Vegeta had seemed to become even more suspicious by her saying she would like to sleep a little longer and first leave bed when breakfast was served.
She grabbed the reader and got back under the bedcover. She found the list of "Child-purge"-documents and searched for the one containing Earth. After reading about how the saiyans sent out the infants of the lowest classes to planets with a weak population to purge it as Oozaru she had decided to find the list, which was mentioned in the chapter. She finally found it and opened the document before snuggling a bit further under the covers.
Subject: Kakarrot, fourth south-east village, third class
Planet: Earth, priority 02
Take off: 153rd day of year 737
ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival): 225th day of year 737
ETP (Estimated Time of Purging): 3 days
Success: Negative
Missionlog:
302nd day of year 737:
Code 1203-7a (Contact to pod was lost during seventh day offlight)
Code 1204-25a (Contact to pod was reestablished during 25th day of flight)
Code 1355-2 (Subject arrived at planet two days prior to ETA)
Code 1203-0b (Contact to pod lost during or closely after arrival)
Code 1299-4b-00 (Emergencysignal from pod four days after arrival, no reading of subject's vital)
Conclusion: Fatal landing or subject has abandoned pod.
71st day of year 738:
Code 1203-01 (Contact to pod nonexistent)
Code 2100 (Status on planet unknown)
Code 7146-A08-01 (Minor change in purgingteam A08's mission, 0-18 days of delay - started)
Code 7186-A08 (Near-planet travel by purginteam A08)
Conclusion: Unknown possibility of subject being alive. Unknown possibility of planet being purged. Purgingteam A08 will try and establish contact by near-planet travel.
84th day of year 738:
Code 1203-01 (Contact to pod nonexistent)
Code 1203-02-A08-0b (Unsuccessful attempt of contact between pod and purgingteam A08 at arrival of purgingteam)
Code 2149 (Planet unharmed)
Conclusion: Pod was severely damaged during landing and is malfunctioning even when close-contact is attempted. Near to zero possibility of subject being alive. Mission yet not fulfilled.
97th day of year 738:
Code 4000 (Natural full moon registered)
Code 2149 (Planet unharmed)
Code 1203-02-A08-8b (Unsuccessful attempt of contact between pod and purgingteam A08 eight days after arrival of purgingteam)
Code 7146-A08-01 (Minor change in purgingteam A08's mission, 0-18 days of delay - ended)
Code 9998e-A08 (Purgingteam A08 leaving orbit of planet without descending due to low priority of planet)
Code 9999e (Mission dropped due to low priority of planet)
Code 9999g (Mission dropped due to death of subject)
Conclusion: Eight days without contact even though close-contact was attempted. Zero possibility of subject being alive due to no destruction even though a natural full moon was registered. Purgingteam A08 left orbit without purging due to low priority of planet; original mission resumed. Mission unfulfilled.
Bulma put down the reader and looked at the wall opposite of her. They abandoned him. Just like that. And if Earth hadn't been prioritized so low they would have purged it without giving Goku a second thought. She had known for a long time how uncaring saiyans were towards other species, but to see it was that way among themselves were unexpected. She had been told how Vegeta had killed his own comrade, but to just conclude a baby to be dead without searching was... she didn't even know what to say.
Of course the log was written by some kind of commandeer, soldier, scientist 'or whatever they called it', but had his parents cared? Had they been told what had happened or had they just gotten a: "Contact to you son was lost, he's dead"? Bulma rubbed the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. She was a lot more upset than she had thought she would be. She had never given saiyan way of upbringing children a second thought.
She began to think about what she had tried to forget since Planet Kalion: her own child and how Vegeta would have acted if it had been born. He had seemed – no he had been – happy when she told him about her pregnancy. If children had meant nothing to the saiyans other than ways of purging weak planets, they wouldn't have been happy, would they? Perhaps they hadn't been, perhaps only the royal was happy for offspring as it meant an heir was born.
Bulma was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the faint swoosh of the door opening. She opened her eyes and started to scroll through the document once again, but as she was about to start reading it from the top a brown tail locked itself around her wrist. A low gasp escaped her lips by the surprise and she looked up to see Vegeta looking at the screen.
"So this is what you were hiding. How did you find it?" He grabbed the reader and took it from her before his tail let go of her wrist. He scrolled through the document briefly before looking at her again. "I asked you a question, woman."
"I… I… One day I saw all kind of books and documents on saiyans in the new additions-menu." Bulma held his gaze even though she wanted to look away. She was relieved how calm he seemed to be about the situation, but by trying to hide it from him she now felt some kind of guilt after being found out.
"Why would you waste your time on reading something like this?" Her eyes opened wide in surprise. 'A waste of time?' "You already know how Kakarrot ended up at the mudball."
"Yes, but I never knew why he was just abandoned! How could they do that, he was just a baby!" She got out of the bed to get some clothes on but it was mostly to hide from Vegeta how her eyes was about to be filled with tears for her best friend.
"That's how child-purging always worked. If the child was not strong enough to survive through the mission before being picked up, then it was so weak it would not be a loss for the race." His matter-of-factly way of speaking angered her and Bulma turned around and pointed at him.
"Goku was not weak! He saved earth several times, including killing his own brother!" She was about to remind him of how Goku's son had been strong enough to almost kill him, but stopped herself. His face was unmoving but his tail was lashing angrily behind him and his eyes shot fire. "Just, don't call him weak." She shot down her gaze and now she was talking more to herself than to him. "I owe him my life from more than one occasion. He has always got my back and looked out for me, and yet I…"
"Yet you what?" Vegeta said and tried to keep his temper under control. Something about the woman getting so emotional when talking about Kakarrot agitated him more than it should, and he didn't know why.
"I couldn't do a single thing to help him at Namek."
A tense silence filled the room as they both stood unmoving while being deep in thought. Bulma thought about Goku, Gohan and Krillin and how they had been killed by the very person she was now sharing a room with. Vegeta was still trying to control his temper; seeing the woman so emotional about the damned third class warrior he had killed angered him beyond anything else.
"How did you find him?" Bulma could see how her question surprised Vegeta, but he didn't say anything. "Please just tell me, you have no reason not to!"
He looked at her in a few seconds as if he had to consider what to say. "Raditz told how his babybrother had been registered as dead during his child-purge mission but only because of missing contact. We were on a mission close by and he faked a malfunction on his pod to get to Earth while Nappa and I continued the mission to not raise suspicion around us. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try."
"How come Raditz knew that without their parents at least trying to search for Goku?" Bulma couldn't believe it. They had known he was just missing and yet done nothing?
"As I said, if a child could not fulfill its purging mission it was deemed weak and therefore not worth using resources on. Normally the parents were only told the mission had failed, it was a special case for Raditz to know the circumstances." He crossed his arms across his chest and his tail seemed to calm down a fraction.
"Then how did he know?" she asked.
"It was Kakarrot and Raditz' own father who wrote the missionlogs for all southeast villages."
So, how did my missionlog-codes go? I thought it was kind of fun to try and make some kind of vague system, I hope it wasn't too bad!