Chapter Seven - Trapped in an Icy Grave
The wind blew icy and cold biting through the thick clothes of the large gathering of people. The howl of the wind mixed with the roar of motors, the rumble of jackhammers, and the screams of the drills, and the shouts of dozens of people making it hard to hear someone more than four feet away. The people were gathered in an area about a hundred yards in diameter and surrounded by dozens of make-shift trailers.
One of the men in a purple, orange, and white coat moved along the thick ice fighting against the wind and snow. The storm had picked up again and the snow was starting down again. Holding an arm up to shield his eyes he peered down into the ice cave that his people had dug out. They were about a hundred and ninety feet down into the ice now, still a good three hundred feet above the surface of the planet. Then they'd need to go down another good two or three hundred feet to get to the Xerudia deposits they were after.
If reports were right though this would be well worth the work. According to the probes that flew over the frozen wasteland that was Geozan 7 there was about forty nine tons of Xerudia under the ice at this location and another one hundred and nine tons scattered across the planet in hundreds of other deposits. Geozan 7 was a Xerudia gold mine, there was more of the rare mineral on this world alone then in any other entire solar system they'd been too.
His orange eyes scanned the people moving up and down the tunnel as they continued to work. Most of the workers here were Human, most Capsule Corp. were employees for that matter. But Xeno wasn't and his normally blue skin was turning purple from the cold. He was about to head back to his trailer for a cup of coffee when a voiced called up to him from below. "Xeno, Xeno! You're not going to believe this!"
He looked down into the tunnel and saw one of the Humans calling up to him. Rubbing his hands together to restore their warmth he started his way down the tunnel. It took him a good three minutes to reach the other man who then lead him the rest of the way down. "What's going on?" Xeno asked noting the man's name tag read I. C. Everfrost.
"We found something... big." Everfrost said. "You have to see it to believe it."
Xeno glanced at him but said nothing until they'd reached the bottom of the tunnel. The workers were all standing around now, their tools temporarily discarded as they gazed at their find. "What the hell..." Xeno breathed looking through the ice. This deep into it the ice was pretty easy to see through with enough light and there, sitting another fifty feet or so away, was a round white object. It was undoubtedly a space pod. The red window was facing away from them so they couldn't see inside.
"We need to get that thing free, see if there was somone inside... how old is the ice here?" Xeno asked looking over at Everfrost.
"About twenty to thirty years I'd say." the Human replied. "It's hard to tell because of the flash freezing that's occured at several times across the planet. It's possible this person was landing here and got caught in a flash freeze after a Wons Flash from the system star. It's the most active we've ever encountered."
Xeno nodded. "Then whoever is trapped inside there could still be alive and preserved." he said. "But what would a space pod be doing out here? And how would it have gotten here twenty or thirty years ago?"
Everfrost shook his head. "I'm a geology expert, not a history buff." he said. "Though I suppose Capsule Corp. would have records on the matter. And it's possible the pod is still emiting a transponder signal. The new pods use a new frequency, this would be on the old frequency and no one would be scanning it."
"Right, right." Xeno said nodding. He turned to another nearby worker. "Head up to my trailer and get me my scouter, I'm going to see what I can get for a power reading and a transponder signal." The man nodded and took off up the tunnel. Xeno turned back to Everfrost. "I want you to head back to the ship and get me a relay set-up so I can check the Empire's records."
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17 set down on the edge of the palace grounds and saw the medics running toward him already. "Cooler must have sent for them..." he said softly before looking down at Pan in his arms. "Passed out have we?" he asked her unconcious form. "Cooler must have really worked you over, or that pain threshold of yours has dropped off since you started sparring with me and Bra more than your father."
The medics reached him a moment later, a hovering bed between the four of them. 17 laid Pan down onto it carefully. As he'd flown her in he'd found that more than her cheek bone and jaw were cracked. One of her lower ribs had been broken as well and he wanted to make sure it didn't end up poking into something important. And he wanted to cause her as little pain as possible.
Instead of letting the Medics push her to the Regen Bay he lifted a few inches off the ground and pushed her himself as he flew. He was going just fast enough to get to the Regen Bay quickly but slow enough that the sharp turns wouldn't jostle Pan to much. It only took a few moments to reach the tanks and he pulled to a stop and lifted her up gently. As he moved over to an empty tank her eyes opened slowly again.
"Go back to sleep hun." 17 said placing her into the tank and putting the oxygen mask over her face. "You need to rest and heal up."
She managed to smile weakly before she passed out again. 17 closed the tank and activated the system filling it with the healing fluids. He stood watching her as it filled, his hand pressed lightly to the glass. "Never thought I'd be looking in at you in one of these things." he thought. "Not even Gohan ever worked you over this badly." With a sigh he glanced at the estimated time to recover. "Well, guess I've got six hours of peace at least." he said with a grin. Maybe I'll be able to get a little work done. I'll be back when the time's up Pan..."
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Cell Jr. landed on the edge of town and glanced around. Nothing seemed out of place in the general area so he moved into the city slowly. He kept his power supressed as low as he could, the natives had learned to sense energy and the town security had scouters. He didn't want them to find him, or for whatever he may be looking for to know he was there. Nearing the edge of the alley he was in he pressed up against one of the walls and peeked around the corner. Nothing but torchlit dirt streets. A glance the other way showed the same thing.
Narrowing his eyes Cell Jr. spread out his senses to feel for anything out of place. There were several people in the building behind him, a glance back showed that it was a hotel, nothing odd about multiple people there. Suddenly his eyes narrowed a bit further. Now he could feel something that was definitely out of place in the city. It was a small power, he estimated it around 4 or 5 at the most. There was nothing on the planet with a power in that range.
He kept his senses locked on this other power that was also moving through the city slowly. Whatever the source of the KI was it was moving further into the city, toward Cell Jr. Reaching another corner he ducked into the shadows and knelt down behind a small crate. Peeking around the corner it watched for whatever it was that was producing this small power. His best guess was someone trying to hide by supressing their power. Most likely Piccolo had sensed a small lapse in the person's KI suppression skills.
As the owner of the KI came into view Cell Jr.'s eyes widened in shock. In a flash of gold he launched up into the air and started back toward the palace no longer caring if he was seen by this person. It's eyes widdened again as a hand suddenly grabbed his foot. "Ikiki kiyo uki ooka!" he cried turning to fire an attack from his fingers. However he never got the chance, a wave of energy surged up and incinerated him before he saw it coming.
Up on the palace balcony both Piccolo and Cell watched the sudden flash of gold and then the wave of red energy. "What the hell?!" Cell cried. "I barely had the chance to notice that power before it vanished again..."
"Looks like our visitor wants to play hide and seek." Piccolo said.
"Did you recognize the KI?"
"No, it came and went too quickly. But I'll give you three guesses as to who it probably is that has enough power to kill one of your little Cells."
"Slug."
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Vegeta reached his throne room a bit slower than he'd expected, but he was still there in twenty minutes time. Twice as long as normal... He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts that were clogging it. He'd see to it that his son lived or... not even Kakkarotto would be able to hold him back from wiping out the the entire Eawpon homeworld. And that would just be for starters. He grabbed the scouter sitting beside his throne as he sat and put it on thumbing it quickly.
He tried calling 18 first, he was used to her handling most matters, but he couldn't seem to get through to her. Finally he realized she must have gone down to see Trunks, transmissions were blocked from the Regen Bays beacause they interfered with the equipment. With a grunt he thumbed the scouter again and the somewhat Mechanical Voice of 16 came over the line. "What is it Master Vegeta?"
"I want you to head to the Capsule Corp. building here on Saiya and contact their home headquarters. Tell them I want an antidote for the Kiss of Death poison in three days." Vegeta paused for a moment. "Tell them to drop everything else and get me that antidote, they wont like the alternatives."
"Understood."
Vegeta gripped the scouter and yanked it off crushing it in his anger. "Blast it!" he cried pitching it across the room. He sat there a moment longer before getting up again and heading to his chambers. He reached his room in a matter of moments and activated the terminal there and sent out a transmission to Kakkarotto's ship.
A moment later Kakkarotto's grinning face appeared on screen. "Hey, Veggie!" Kakkarotto called at him over his food.
"Just my luck, I had to catch him in a good mood, I hate that name." "Kakkarotto, shut up and stop stuffing your face for ten seconds." Vegeta growled.
"Oh... what's wrong Vegeta?" Gohan asked walking on screen.
"Yeah, what's up Vegeta?" Kakkarotto asked dropping the food back onto his plate.
"It's Trunks and Goten." Vegeta said after relaxing his nerves a bit. "They've been poisoned."
"What?" Gohan asked, eyes going wide. "How?"
"The damn Eawpon woman!" Vegeta roared, his anger boiling again. "She poisioned herself too. The three of them are in the Regen Tanks now but it's only delaying the workings of the poison. They'll be dead in days unless we get an antidote for the poison. There isn't one yet but I've put all of Capsule Corp onto it." The Sai-jin royal noted the darkening eyes of both the other Sai-jins. "We will get an antidote, and then that... bitch will pay."
Both the other Sai-jins nodded but it was Gohan that spoke up. "I think it's also time to talk to Goten and Trunks. It's their own stupidity that allowed this I'd bet. I can imagine why those two would have been close enough to her to get poisoned in the first place."
Vegeta frowned. "You do have a point there..." He nodded. "I'll definately have a 'talk' with Trunks once this is over. How long until you get here?"
"We're still a full day from Planet Cold, shouldn't be more than three days until we're back." Kakkarotto said. "Anything else of intrest happen while we were out?"
Vegeta sat in thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, actually. Nail escaped from Frieza earlier today with the help of Tao. I've decided that the Humans are too dangerous and troublesome to keep around any longer. Frieza is on his way to Earth now to destroy the planet."
"What about the other Humans?" Gohan asked. "There's a good nine or ten million of them on other planets."
Vegeta sighed. "I know. I'm still not certain about them just yet... I may have 16 and 19 go out with a small army and hunt them all down, kill them all off... I have another problem to deal with related to this Human mess too."
"Oh?" Kakkarotto asked.
"It turns out that 18 has a daughter. I don't know all the details but she's the daughter of Krillin. She's not a fighter but... I don't like that parentage."
"Yeah... I can understand that." Gohan said. "That could be a problem later. 18's not going to like it much but I think it would be best just to cut out the threat now and kill her."
Kakkarotto nodded. "Gohan's right. We don't know what effect the cyberntic implants she has may have on children. She may not be a fighter but what about any future kids of her own?"
Vegeta nodded. "That's what I was thinking. I just needed to bounce it off of you two first. I'll handle it myself after this poison business has been dealt with. I'll talk to you when you get back."
"Right. Later Vegeta." Gohan said as the screen went blank.
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18 had stood and stared after Vegeta's retreating form in shocked silence. "There's something wrong with Trunks? But... I was just... he was fine twenty minutes ago... How..." She wanted to follow after the Sai-jin to the Regen Tanks but her legs wouldn't move.
"18, are you okay?" Bulma's voice, soft and gentle, sounded only a few inches from her ear as the woman's hand rested on her shoulder.
"I... I don't...""Come, we'll go together." she said after a moment. 18 barely managed a nod as Bulma led the way out of the room and through the halls to the Regen Tanks.
"He was fine when he left my room... he seemed to be in perfect shape... I... how could something suddenly be wrong with him?" 18 wondered. Suddenly she realized the number of people in the hall and her face went blank quickly. Bulma took notice, she always did, but said nothing. The two travled on in silence until they reached the tank room. As they reached the room Vegeta was on his way out and breezed past them without even noticing they were there.
18 walked over to the tanks and looked in at Trunks. His face was distorted in pain and she could see his muscles spasming. Placing her hand on the glass she glanced over at the other two and saw them in the same condition. "What... happened?" she asked looking over to a tech as Bulma came to a stop beside her.
"As we just explained to Master Vegeta they were infected by a poison. The Kiss of Death. We have no antidote on record but we are trying what we can to save them." the tech replied without looking up from his controls. The room had calmed considerably as the tanks began to slow the work of the poison.
"Tell me the truth." Bulma said slowly, softly. "Will he make it?"
The tech remained silent for a moment as he looked up. "I... do not know." he said. "As things look now... the most we can do is keep them alive for another three or four days. The poison works faster than the tanks do, but even if that was not the case, removing them from the tanks would allow the poison to work at full strength again..."
"So if they come out they'll die?" 18 asked.
The tech sighed. "Within a matter of hours I'd say." He noticed the pain on Bulma's face and in 18's eyes. "Master Vegeta seemed to have something in mind however." he said. "He ordered us to do what we could, to be expected yes, but he had that look in his eyes."
Bulma nodded. She knew what he meant. Whenever Vegeta thought he had a plan his eyes always seemed to fill with a fire. She'd seen that look a number of times over the years. "Bra's going to want to know..." she said after a moment.
"I'll go find her." 18 offered.
"No." Bulma said. "I'll find her. I believe you have someone waiting for you..."
18 turned and looked at Bulma, the surprise evident in her eyes. "How..."
"I'm a mother too 18." she said. "I know what I would have done in your position." She started past the blonde woman but then stopped and looked over to her. "And for the sake of the Empire I hope Vegeta sees things our way. Because if he doesn't... well, like I said, I know what I would do." and with that she walked off.
18 stared after her for a moment. "Sake of the Empire? What she would do?" 18 wondered. But as she stood there wishing she had someone to kill for what was happening to Trunks she knew what Bulma had meant. "For all of our sakes Bulma, I do too."
She turned her eyes back to Trunks for a few moments before leaving. She couldn't stand there watching him suffer any longer. By the time she'd reached her room again her eyes burned from the tears that threatened to ruin the reputation she'd created for herself. But as the door clicked shut behind her she gave in and broke down into tears.
"18?" Marron asked walking over to her. This wasn't the woman she'd seen on television so many times. This wasn't even the woman she'd been talking to all day. She was barely staying on her feet and the cold shell she showed to the world was shattered completely. Standing there looking at the tears rolling down her cheeks was almost too much for her. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"T-Trunks..." 18 managed. "He... he's dying."
"What? But he was fine a half-hour ago..."
18 nodded. "I know... but... a poison... Kiss of Death..."
"Kiss of Death!" Marron gasped in horror. "By the Kais... who? How?"
"I don't know..." 18 choked, she was getting control of her emotions again. "P-probably that Spear woman... she could have gotten close enough to him and Trunks..." 18 walked over to her bed in a daze and fell onto it closing her eyes. She didn't actually need to sleep but she felt worn and tired. By the time her head hit the pillow she was out.
Marron stood there watching her for a moment before moving over to her computer and sitting down. "I can't believe I'm going to try and keep one of the Masters alive, let alone the son of the man that ordered my world to be destroyed... and my father killed. But I have to help 18, if he dies..." She shook her head as her fingers flew over the keyboard and she called up all the information on the Kiss of Death flower.
She read over all the general information on it that she could find and then went digging further. She made use of the high clearance level of 18's computer and began digging through Capsule Corp.'s research files on the plant. They were looking into both an antidote and a way to make use of the plant in some fashion. Marron decided she'd go through both sets of files, look for anything the C.C. people had missed. She knew for a fact that the two teams working on the plant wouldn't be talking to each other about what they knew, seperate projects meant seperate information.
"Hmm... what's this?" she asked softly after a few mintues of work. She scrolled through the file reading over what the one research team had found. A specific compound, normally toxic as well, would break down the poison in the Kiss of Death nectar. Reading through the file she frowned. The resulting breakdown would also produce excess gas, the actual result the researchers had been looking for, but deadly inside a person.
But this was knowledge and knowledge was useful. She took this new knowledge and applied it to the problem. She had a solution to the poison but it created a new problem. "Now, how do you get rid of the gas problem?" she wondered. "Let's see, 2 parts oxygen, 5 parts hydrogen, 2 parts helium... helium? Hmmm... maybe a VoX2 solution?" Quickly she opened up one of C.C.'s simulators and applied the problem. She loaded in the digitial dummies, inserted the KoD poison, and then ran the GeoFf solution the one team had created.
The result was near instant. The poison began to break down and convert into the gas. It only took a matter of seconds before the digital body expanded and exploded. "Oops, that's faster than I'd expected... Alright, we'll mix the GeoFf and VoX2 solutions then." she said applying the mixture. "Name it? Guess no one's mixed these before... Hmm, well, traditional naming conventions haven't applied in years... I'll just call it KoDMA." she said typing it in.
That finished she then ran the test again. Reseting the dummy she infected it with the Kiss of Death poison and then injected the new KoDMA solution. Instantly the poison began to break down into gas but the new addition of the VoX2 solution via the KoDMA mix began to mix with the helium and produce a new compound. It was used for terra forming normally and created inside a machine and carefull regulated. Here she was hoping that since the amount of gas was small at any given moment there wouldn't be a problem.
The new compound began to merge the Oxygen with free Hydrogen atoms creating water. The water then was absorbed into the system and the blood carried the terraforming compound out of the body as waste. With a smile she leaned back in her chair and grinned. "The right hand ignores the left hand and both drop the cup of coffee." she said remembering one of her old professor's favorite lines. "They've had the antidote for nearly three years and didn't have a clue." She cast a glance at the clock and nearly jumped. "That took me six hours?!" she cried.
At the sudden sound 18 stirred and woke up again. She wasn't a very deep sleeper since she didn't actually need the rest. "What is it?" she asked rubbing her eyes and sitting up. "Is something wrong Marron?"
"No... something's right." Marron said grinning.
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Tao awoke instantly, he always did. Sitting up he worked out the kinks in his cold and stiff arms. He wasn't sure how long he'd actually slept, it was hard to track the time when you were unconcious, but the storm outside had let up a little. Not that it would end anytime soon, the rainy season would go on for another month or so. As he stood, the Namek glanced back at him only partially opening an eye to gaze at him with. "Done resting?"
"Yes." Tao said simply as he walked forward. "I've gotten all the sleep I'll need for the day. Where is Zarban now?"
"He's moved off to the east a few dozen miles. Dodarla is up and about again and off to the south about four miles. The problem is with the person about six hundred yards behind us moving west, towards us." Nail replied. "I know that power level rather well, it's Ginyu."
Tao frowned as he expanded his senses and noted that Nail was right. "Ginyu shouldn't be too major of a problem." he said. "His power is lower than mine..."
"He's supressing it." Nail said. "He's twice that strong actually. At least, that's the strongest I've ever felt him."
Tao nodded. "Figures." He turned and moved into the back of the cave motioning for Nail to follow. The two sat down on a pair of rocks and waited in silence as Ginyu's power moved overhead. He was going at a slow pace, about a mile an hour, and it took a while for him to pass by. Both people within the cave focused on keeping their powers down as low as possible for the next hour as they remained still and silent.
"We should be good now." Tao said standing. "Dodarla's moved a little over a mile further from us though Zarban has gotten closer again. It's not important, the three of them should be easy to avoid if we head north. We'll have to cross the mountains but I know a fairly managable trail and the location of a cave that cuts completely through the mountain. It shouldn't take more than a day's walk to reach the otherside."
"Is your ship over there?" Nail asked standing.
"It is. It's a few hours further from the cave but I'd suggest we make camp at the opposite end of the cave though. My supplies are low on the ship, it would be better to use the river that flows through the cave as our drinking water and I can catch a few of the fish in it for myself."
"Alright then, let's get moving." Nail said walking toward the exit. Tao waited for a moment before following after him, hands clasped behind his back.
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Xeno had watched as the workers had begun work on cutting the pod out of the ice while he waited on his scouter and computer. Using tools was slower than letting the stronger workers use their KI but there was less chance of the tunnel caving in this way. It had only taken the one worker about twenty mintues to get his scouter and come back at which point Xeno checked the pod.
He'd picked up a faint power reading of only 1 from inside the pod and had picked up the transponder signal after tinkering with the scouter for a bit. The pod Registration Number flashed on the scouter, AFZ-0187-54A2. Not that it had meant a damned thing to Xeno or any of the others either. Xeno knew that it wouldn't help them any until he could cross reference it with the Empire's records.
It had taken almost six hours for Everfrost to return with the computer and the relay connection. Of course, the Capsule Corp. ship that had brought them to Geozan 7 was a few hours drive away on one of the few parts of the planet that was actual ground and not ice. Not wanting to leave the tunnel incase anything of interest occured Xeno had a pair of thin heated gloves brought to him and a crate to sit down on and he set to work.
"Ah, there, I'm in the registry now. Let's see... Pod Registration Number AFZ-0187-54A2..." he said as he typed. "Hmm... now this is interesting... it's restricted..." He looked up and glanced over around the small collection of individuals with him. Spotting the women he was looking for he smiled. "Eve, come here." he called out.
The woman lowered her chisel and looked back at him with her blue eyes. Her flame red hair seemed out of place in the midst of all the ice but her eyes matched its pale blue color. She could have passed herself off as Human if it wasn't for the deep purple skin color. Dropping her tools to the ground she walked over to Xeno. "What is it?"
"I need you to get me access to the registry files. You're the best hacker we've got."
"I don't know..." she said. "I almost got fired for..."
"Look, I'll take the heat if there's any problems, I'm the one telling you to do this after all. Besides, we need to know who or what's in that ship and who we should contact about having found the thing."
She pursed her lips for a moment and then sighed. "Alright, move aside." she said taking over the crate. Unlike the other races on the project on Geozan 7 Eve's race, the Nezorfs, were perfectly used to freezing cold tempratures. In fact, to her, the current climate was a little warm, hence the shorts and t-shirt while everyone else was bundled up. Xeno wished she hadn't been the only Nezorf assigned to the project, it would have sped it along if he didn't have to worry about people getting frostbite or some such.
Eve spent the first few moments staring at the screen and aquainting herself with the system. Then she set to work. Xeno stood watching over her shoulder but she was soon moving through screens so quickly he barely even noticed they were changing. It took her a good ten mintues before she stopped, a grin on her face. "Done. I'm in." she said simply. She input the Registration Number for the pod again. This time a new screen full of information popped up.
"So, who's is it and why was it restricted?" Xeno asked.
"Let's see..." Eve said as the working paused. The work crew, already excited by the odd find, was intrigued as to what exactly they had found. "It's listed as belonging to a Sai-jin by the name of... this can't be right..."
"What, what is it?" Someone called over.
"According to the file this pod belongs to Bardock..."
"Bardock!?" Xeno asked in shock. "You mean Kakkarotto's father Bardock, that Bardock?!"
"Um..." She moved through a few more screens and then an image came up. "Yeah, that's him all right... what the hell is going on..." she muttered.
"Can you figure out what it was doing out here?" Xeno asked.
"Let me see." Eve replied checking the file. "According to the records the pod was destroyed the day of Bardock's death, fifty three years ago."
Everyone looked at each other in silence. This was definitely something important. Xeno grabbed the computer and hiked his way back out of the tunnel, the others following after him. As he emerged back into the sun light, the storm once more gone, he patched his scouter into the computer and then into the space communications network. Holding the laptop with one hand he typed in the level 2 priority code.
"This is Dr. Gero." A voice said through the scouter's ear piece. "Name, position, and problem." he ordered.
"I'm Xeno Biphoa, Head of the Geozan 7 project. Um... sir... we've found something that I think Master Vegeta and Master Kakkarotto may be interested in..."
"And what would that be? And what makes it such a prioity?" Gero demanded, an edge to his voice now.
"Er.. well... We found a space pod about 200 feet down into the ice here and I... well... I got a faint energy reading from inside... and... the pod... it's... well, it's registered to Bardock."